Latest / The Ben Maller Show / The Fifth Hour: Proof of Life

Transcript

The Fifth Hour: Proof of Life · The Ben Maller Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Kutbooms.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: of the old republic, a sol fashion of fairness. He
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: rich pill poppers in the penthouse. Wow to the Clearinghouse
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: of hot takes, break free for something special. The Fifth
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: In the air everywhere.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: The Fifth Hour with Me, Ben Maler and Dany g Radio,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: A Happy Friday to you. We have slid into the
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: twenty ninth day, the final Friday of the month of August,
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: and big college football weekend got underway last night and
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: I am looking forward to, as you probably are as well,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the big game tomorrow.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Texas and Ohio State.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: The arch manning Camp Pain underway, and then the weekend
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: wraps up on Monday. Bill Belichick back in the spotlight,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: North Carolina and TCUs has some good games to watch
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: this weekend in college football.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: But this is not about that.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: As you know the Fifth Hour podcasts, it's more than just.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: About the games.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: In fact, it's often not about the games. It's often
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: not about the games. But on this podcast we have
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Pigeon Power and the whistle Stop. Pigeon Power and the
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: whistle Stop, and will begin with this. We look back
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: before we look ahead, we go back to Lost Wages, Nevada,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: a wacky weekend of what we like to call malor
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: magic in old Viva las Vegas. Now we have said
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: on the Fifth Hour podcast so many times Viva las
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Vegas that I believe it's practically a radio family crest.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Now the Neon de Conival and the weekend was a
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: reminder that Vegas is less of a city. It's actually
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Paradise Nevada where all the hotels are. But Vegas is
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the term. It's the colloquial term. Vegas is less of
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: a city and more of a mirage. It's got the plumbing.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: It's a town built on oxygen tanks and hope and despair.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: And you see a lot of people that are down
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the luck. There's some people that are very wealthy and
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: they mix and mingle. And now before the meet and greet,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: we will get to that. We'd like to alert all
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: the podcast affiliates down the line.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: We will get to the malord meet and greet.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Before the handshakes the selfies, the inevitable guy who wants
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: to take his shirt off and show you the obscure
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: sports tattoo he got when he was drunk in college
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: because he lost a bet. We had a radio show
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: to do. The real reason for the trip was the
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: meet and greet. We decided to get there a little
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: early the Circus Act, before the Circus Act, if you will,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: under the Big Time up broadcasting from Las Vegas Thursday
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: into Friday on the overnight, one night only, one night only,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: a fast turnaround, white.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Knuckle style racist.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Now, me and the wife packed up the Malowmobile and
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: we headed east from southern California. I'm at the point
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: of my life where I have done the drive so
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: many times. It's like reading a music sheet. Like I
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: don't even need to read the music sheet, you know
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: what I mean.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: You just know the music.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: So out of LA you get through the traffic in
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles, you get out, you gotta go through his Spare,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: you go up a hill, you go through Hysperia and
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Apple Valley is out that way, and then you go
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: to Barstow. They've got a famous Del Taco which is
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: a fast food restaurant. They started in Barstow, they have
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: a special menu. You keep going, keep going. There's some
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: outlet stores in Barstow. You keep going, you get out.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: There's there's a little stop on the way to Baker
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: where they have Eddie World, And there's a couple of restaurants,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Peggy SU's Diner in your mo and so you can
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: stop at Eddie's Diner, get some gas, good bathrooms, and
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: some overpriced candy.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Get back in the car. Keep going, keep going, keep going.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: You get to Baker, they've got the Mad Greek Restaurant
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: and a bunch of fast food places and the eternal
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: thermometer stabbing into the desert sky. Now eventually you cross
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: the crossover. Now, on our way in to Vegas, we
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: went through Death Valley, which is kind of near Baker.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: One hundred and seventeen degrees on the thermometer on the car,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: one hundred and seventeen, one hundred and seventeen, So keep drawing.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: It's about another hour outside of Baker. You get to
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  Speaker 3: the state line, prim which is very depressing. It used
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: to be the bread basket, the appetizer to the entree.
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  Speaker 3: Now technically it's still there. Mostly a ghost town, mostly
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a ghost town. Now the famous hotels, Buffalo Bills, and
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Whiskey Pets are gone. There's a gas station with a
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: donut shop and Starbucks, and there's.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: One hotel left.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: I went in there to put some bets down later
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: on on my way back to la and it was very,
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: very depressing. There was this great mall which is pretty
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: much all gone. Anyway, The last time I did a
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: show in Vegas was pre pandemic, and I went to
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: what I call the Old iHeart Building. Now that doesn't
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: mean much to you. That doesn't mean much to you
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: because you don't know where the Old iHeart Building is.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna try to paint a picture for you.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: So the Old iHeart Building, where I broadcast many shows
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: from in Vegas, was a warehouse across the interstate that
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: looked like a place where accountants go to retire and
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: just you know, just generic. You don't really pay an attention,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: you don't look twice, there's nothing special about it. The
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: setting outside of the building were homeless encampments, flickering street lights,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: the scent of broken dreams in the air.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And it was.
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  Speaker 3: Such a juxtaposition because you have this dump and then
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: you can see off in the distance, the strip with
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: all the neon and all the lights and all that stuff.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: But the iHeart Building, the old iHeart Building was that
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: scene in old Westerns where the outlaw rides into a
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: ghost town and there's just a tumbleweed, which also is,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: by the way, what it's like now in prim Nevada.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: But I digress.
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  Speaker 3: So anyway, that was the neighborhood where the old iHeart
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  Speaker 3: Building was. It was surrounded by tens cardboard cities, the
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: forgotten souls and the people that are hanging out on
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: the hard scrabble streets. They were all there. All of
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: them were there. And it was a place where doing
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: radio in a city like Las Vegas, well this is Vegas.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: This is an entertainment capital. It's wonderful. But doing radio
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: at that building felt less glamorous than if you were
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: cleaning toilets at a truck stop on the Jersey Turnpike.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: It just you could not feel less glamorous. And so
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: when the Fox bosses, my bosses at Fox Sports Radio
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: sent me a new address, I braced for another warehouse.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: I said, well, this is not the old place. This
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: is probably just going to be as bad. It'll just
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: be a different location instead, much to my amazement and
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: very rarely at this point in.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: My life, I am amazed by anything.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I witnessed the taj Mahal, now, not the actual taj
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Mahal obviously not that. However, in terms of comparing what
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: I had been in the last building to this.
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  Speaker 1: Wow wow wow wow wow wow.
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  Speaker 3: And they're sitting right there in the heart of Fremont
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Street in downtown Vegas. To me, that's the real Vegas.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: The neon reflected off the glass of the radio station.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: There was a white castle next door, not a water burger,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: a white castle. You know, those little square grease bombs
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: that taste like nostalgia and regret once you've eaten them,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: and you feel a white castle when you eat it,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: and then you feel it for the next three days
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: because you can't just.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Eat one or two.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: You got to eat like a whole pack of them.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: And that's how they do it. And there was a
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: police station right next to the iHeart Fremont Street studios,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: which is very important, very important for obvious Fremont reasons,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: which you really do appreciate. If you've been to Vegas
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: and been to Fremont Street, you appreciate it. Once you've
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: seen what's out and about the critters, the creatures, the
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: goblins that are called street performers on Fremont Street at
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: around two in the morning, it's not pretty. Fremont after
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: midnight is less sirkd through Solet and more sirk through Sketchy.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: The legendary DJ. She's a DJ in Vegas. Dj Ice.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: She let me in.
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  Speaker 3: She was our contact at the radio station, and she's
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: kind of like the bouncer at the door of Oz.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: And they even put my Ben Mallor show logo up
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: in the remote studio in Vegas. How cool is that?
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  Speaker 3: My logo the equivalent of someone hanging your kid's macaroni
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: art at the louver.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It felt like that. But there I was.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: I was surrounded by all these different monitors. They had
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: my logo on. I was like, wow, this is kind
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: of cool.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: This is neat, you know. I got that vibe.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: They don't do that at the main studio I'm at
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: in La So the show ran smoothly. There were a
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: few bumps, but smooth. Loraina stopped by. My wife was
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: with me during the broadcast. She wanted to come hang out.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: They had gatorade and some other drinks that they provided.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: They provided me with snacks and drinks. How cool is that?
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: I didn't eat the snatches. I don't eat at night.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: I do that fugazy fasting. But they did provide me
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: some drinks, and so there I was, and it's like Vegas.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Wanted to remind me of the balance. Right after the show.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: I'd done the show, I turned the mic off, unplugged
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  Speaker 3: my headphones, put everything.
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  Speaker 1: Away, and I walk out.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: By this time, you know, the show ends on the
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: West Coast at three in the morning, so it's about
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: three thirty in the morning, and you're literally on Freemont Street.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: So I walk out, and I've got my wife Ice.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: There was another gentleman there, and I walk out and
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: immediately saw a homeless man, barefoot, no shirt, chasing a
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: pigeon with the focus of a defensive back trying to
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: slow down Tyreek Hill back in his Kansas City days.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Looking this person for pigeon power. The whole bow was
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: looking for pigeon power. Now, unfortunately, I wish this was
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: a happy story. I don't know whether or not he
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: caught thee the pigeon, but what I do know is
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: he wasn't trying to keep it as a pet.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: If you know what I mean.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: I think he was looking for a little late night snack,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: late night munchie with the pigeon. But Vegas is always
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: both sides of the coin. It's the glitz inside, and
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that was just pure desperation outside. So then I went
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: back to the hotel, which was just down Fremont Street.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: More neon buzzs, a lot of cigarettes, smoke. I never
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: see people smoking cigarettes in Los Angeles is banned.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Everywhere you go to Vegas.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Everyone's smoke, which is fine if you don't have to
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: do a talk show, and it messes with your throat
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: if you do.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Anyway.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: So the end of the overnight show, I'd gotten a
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: message from r P one and the Twin Cities guy
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: named Corey. He said, Hey, you gotta say hello to
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: the boys on Kfan. They're literally right across from you,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: he said. One of the guys from the Power Trip
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: crew was across the street over at circum So I
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: was debating and I was like, listen, it's the middle
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: of the night here. I just got done doing four
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: hours of talk radio.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I drove all day. I'm tired, I got no sleep.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: I should just go and kind of chill out a
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: little bit, go to bed, and then we had Friday
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: to kind of futs around, and then the big event
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: on Saturday. And then I was like, you know what,
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: this guy Corey wants me to go see these guys.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Some other listeners started to say you should go see
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: the Power Trip guys, and boom, I'd said, you know what,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: the hell Minnesota Morning Radio Royalty.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: So I walked across Fremont Street into the.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Circa the Sportsbook Cathedral And if you've never been to Circuit,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: it's an adults only hotel.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: They actually card you.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: You have to give your idea to get in there,
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: which means they're the riff raft does not get in there, right,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: the riff raft does not get in there. And this
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: is a glowing temple of excess for sports and it's
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: just magical and wonderful.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: They've got an amazing pool.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: And I'm sure I'll talk a lot more about Circus
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: we go forward.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Anyway.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Chris Hawkkey aka of a Hawk, was the person that
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: was broadcasting from Vegas and he works on the Vikings
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: radio broadcast and whatnot, but he was the star there.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: He treated me like an equal, which was pretty cool.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm just the nocturnal creature, the critter at
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: night who works in the hours when most people are
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: drooling on their pillows. And they were very polite, they
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: very kind. The guys on the show said they listened.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: They said they actually.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Enjoyed the show. I actually wanted to believe them, and
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: I think I did. I think I did believe that
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: they listened. Meat Sauce was cool and Corey back in Minnesota.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: They do the show on the internet, so I was
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: on camera. They put me on the air for about
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: about ten minutes, give or take about ten minutes, regardless,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: though even those ten minutes popped online louder than anything
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I've posted in many, many months.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: That's the power trip that must be by their name.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: The power trip like plugging your old guitar into someone
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: else's amp and then suddenly you're Hendrix, right, you know,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: it's an ego trip. Sure now, I floated out of there,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: out of the circa, could have moon walked back across
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Fremont and all that Fremont Street, and then I was
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: overwhelmed with kindness. Minnesota people are just different. I learned
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: that when I went to Minnesota. They say nice Minnesota nice.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: It's it isn't just a trait. It maybe it's like
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: a survival mechanism when you live in a place where
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: it's just Siberia, the winter lasts longer than a lot
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: of the Hollywood marriages take place. They were very kind, welcoming, generous.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: It flattered me, It humbled me a bit. It reminded
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: me of why you attend these these things, why you
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: want to meet other people in the business, and you
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: want to hang out and meet listeners whatever. So Vegas
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: was the backdrop, but this was this was that day
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: was about connections. I love talking to people that are
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: love radio, that are radio lifers. I enjoy hanging out
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: with listeners. Some of you have become my friends over
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: the years. And those moments that you didn't plan but
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: end up replaying your head like highlights. That really is
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: the jackpot. And that's one of those moments. That would
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: be one of those moments. And now to the main event,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: the main event. So there is a bit of nervousness.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: Nervousness if the man could speak to this, there always is.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: I've pointed out, we promote, we promote, we promote, but
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: we're not getting bankrolled by corporate. A lot of the
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: other shows go out, they have budgets, they have sponsors.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: This is.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Not that where the Overnight Show. They don't allow us
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: any of that. They don't promote the show out at
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: these things, they don't book it. For years, I've asked management.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: I said, listen, we can go out, we can do
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: a tour and go around the country and it could
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: be sponsored.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And they said, well, we're.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Trying, but it never works out. So in this case,
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: you think you're just going to a bar in Las Vegas, right,
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: just a bar. We've been promoting it for a couple
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: of weeks. You think you're just going to sit with
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: some people who listen to you drone on and on
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: and talk into the microphone on the radio in the
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: dead of the night.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: And then you realize this is actually a referendum.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: It is a referendum on whether or not you actually matter,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: whether or not the many many hours that we do
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: not talk about but spend preparing the malor monologues and
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: the other nonsense that we do on the show, and
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: then you go into the studio somewhere yammering and hemming
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: and hahn about sports. But it's really about life, and
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: it's about goofy stuff and your moonlighting about nonsense. And
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: you have to cut through the static, right, you gotta
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: cut through the static enough that a group of mostly
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: strangers will leave their homes and spend their money. I'm
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: not paying, and these people to be here and stand
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: in the Nevada heat just to look at your fat
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: ass and the eye and say, hey, I listen, and
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: that that's what that's about. This was the twenty twenty
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: five Las Vegas Mallard Meat and greet, and I will
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: tell you it felt like a campaign whistle stop more
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: than a fan gathering. My wife calls it that. She says,
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: this is the whistle stop tour. It's a political tour.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: And she's right.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Like these things, they do have the texture of politics,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: because much like politics, you never know if you're running
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: unopposed or if the crowd will simply not turn out,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: which is very embarrassing.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And I've been lucky.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: The smallest crowd we got was in Wisconsin, but that
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: was really because it was last minute. It was an appleton,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: it was at a Mexican restaurant. But other than that,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: it's mostly been it's mostly been great. There's always an
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: anxiety that there'll be an empty room and there's the dread.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: You see all the chairs and the tables are unoccupied,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: and you're like, oh my god, I am such a loser.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing. Radio, as you know, is a
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: very lonely medium.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: It's one of the great things about radio is it's
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: a one on one thing, even though you're not in
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: the same room.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: But radio is a lonely medium.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: You talk in a dark room into a microphone, you
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: throw your words into the abyss, into the a.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Void, and then you're on a wing and a prayer.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: You're praying that someone on the other side catches those
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: words and that they like them enough to keep listening
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: and maybe that too. And then when they do, and
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: then when they actually show up in the flesh, it's hallelujah.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: It is career validation unlike any kind of ratings or
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: podcast download numbers can.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Ever ever provide.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And they show up, and they come from all over,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: from far out in the wild, blue yonder, everywhere in between,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: near and far. The cast of characters in the Malad Militia,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: there's no audience quite like this. There's no group of
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: people that can match it. Take Carnival parade, and each
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: more distinct than the last. Some and I'm gonna forget
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: some names. I'm telling you right now. I'm trying to
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: remember this as much as I can off the top
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: of my head. I did write a few notes down,
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I was very busy. I didn't have time. And so
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Queen Roxanne, we'll start with the Queen flew in from Denver,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: got to meet Coop again and met Loraina for the
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: first time. So Queen Roxanne flew in from Denver, a
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: reunion almost ten years in the making, so happy. She's
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: got a really good job and was just glowing with
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: goodness and big smile on Queen Roxanne's face. It was
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: great to see her. She had the right Bronco head on.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: She had the old school eighties style Brocco cap, which
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: is the only acceptable Bronco cap. So that was great,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: really cool seeing Queen Roxanne. Surfer Todd, the comedian by
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: trade Wink Wink, a fashion adventurer by preference. He arrived
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: with his wife Deborah in the standard technic color garb
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: that made Fremont Street look underdressed.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I just made a look underdressed.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Jay Dot drove all the way, lives north of Salt
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Lake City, lives in Ogden, Utah.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Drove all the way from Ogden down to Vegas.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: No small feat from a man Jay Dot, And especially
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: when the thermometer is staging a rebellion against the laws
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: of mother nature, It's like, oh, what are you doing?
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: No Stradinis, I did not know.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: No Stradenas was going to be their a profit of
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: all things absurd flew in from Seattle with his vegan
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: wife in tow because no matter how eccentric the character,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: someone at home is keeping them honest about kale. Now know,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Studinis did point out that while his wife is wonderful
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: and lovely and all that, she is of course not
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: perfect because she does not eat meat. Now, tiger Man,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: that was a surprise. Tiger Man he arrived. I love
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: this guy. Good dude, Hey, it's tiger reminds me of
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: me when I was a little younger. Tiger Man arrived
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: all the way from Missouri Warri's now living, and he
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: might as well have had stripes of Lsu purple practically
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: painted across his face.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: There certainly across his spirit.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: There was a young guy, I don't remember his name,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: guy from French Lick, Indiana, famous town, Larry Bird, the
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: hick from French Lick, guy from French Lick, Indiana, who
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: was in Vegas. The town of course, as you mentioned,
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: no for Larry Bird and not much else. He intercepted
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: me when I first arrived and the proceedings were just beginning,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: and he was waving his phone like a campaign aid,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: insisting someone very important was on the line.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Well, this must be like.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: The President of the United States, or it's Elon Musk,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: or it's that guy from Facebook, the red haired guy,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: a Zuckerberg. And so he puts me on a zoom,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: not a zoom, but like a Facebook call, and there
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: he is. Can't close the deal, Neil the legend, can't
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: close the deal. Neil who could not make the event.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: He was on FaceTime, could not make the event, but
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: it was important enough for him to force I think
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: it was his cousin. I think, I'm not sure, maybe
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: not some relative, very nice gentleman I forget his name, though,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: but encouraged him to go to the event and be
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: part of it. He wanted to be part of it,
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: so that was great. We had Kathy and Madison, who
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: was not there, but she did a virtual concert while
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: it was going on, and so that's how it went,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: you know, with Vegas magic in its purest, most uncut form.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Big Lou came up from LB because he's on number two.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Somebody actually asked me, is that the Big Lou from
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: the commercial?
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I said, yes, it is.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: That's the Big Lou from the commercials, unless it's not
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Big Lou. Larger than life as always Supermarcus Steve. He
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: was there with his lovely wife and the legend behind
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: the world's most famous Tierra Massou. You had Dante, a
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: Georgia transplant now living in Las Vegas, and young guy.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: He shook my hand. He was very excited to meet me,
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: which made me feel good. He whispered about his dream.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: He told me he's got big plans. He's working at
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: a gas station right now, but he told me he
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: says his plans from Georgia. And when you're from Georgia
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: and you love a certain restaurant, you're in Vegas, they
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: don't have that restaurant. You got to bring that restaurant
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: to Vegas. And he said, listen, I want to open.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: Dante told me, I want to open the first waffle
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: house in Sin City. I told him that's not a dream,
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: I said, Dante, that's essentially a civic duty. And Las
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Vegas does not need another show. It needs hash brown scattered,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: smothered and covered at three in the morning. That's what
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: it needs. There was Big Balls Bob, the Great Big
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Balls Bob Breakout Star of our Karaoke contest, which did
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: turn a small stage.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: He did.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: He turned this little small stage into his own personal
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden really just like the Hollywood Bowl, just
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: nailing it. And karaoke did get a little heated. There
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: were some temperatures that were raised. It was heated in
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: the way only karaoke can. Right your half delusional, half competitive.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: There's the haze of booze, the alcohol softening the edges
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: a little bit. So that was going on the Boston
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Cabby great character, he told me. He said, a little
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: slow in Vegas with the tourism, but I'm making a
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: lot of money on kickbacks. He's directing people to houses
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: of ill reproach or you know you know what I mean.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, you know the rub and tug places that
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Robert Krafti likes and some other places that get contraband
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: David from Vegas David from Vegas. He resurfaced like an
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: old sitcom character popping back up for a cameo. It
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: was great to see him and bonded with Snooker, who's
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: become a caller now and his wife. Snooker a Vietnam
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: vett who's lived lived his life lifetime in the Air Force,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: A real great character from Chicago. But he's a Yankee fan,
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: loud and proud. And of course there was Slug and
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: his partner in crime, the logistical geniuses that were able
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: to secure us the venue, the stakeout Barn Grill near UNLV,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: a joint with the kind of sticky floors and stiff
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: drinks that make you feel like you're you're in the
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: right place, like you stumbled into the set of every
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: good Vegas movie. That isn't the Hangover.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: It wasn't one of those all.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Perfect places in the strip. It was on the strip.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: It was it was different as a near a college,
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: and it was cool and Slug was able to book
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: the place. It was booked for two hours. The event
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: was from three o'clock till five. We ended up staying.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: I think by the time I got back to the
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: hotel was seven. It was nearly four hours. And that's
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: how it goes. Do you think you're going to shake
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: some hands, pose for some pictures, say some thank you
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: and all that, and instead these things In this case,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: it became like a church.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Not the kind with the pews.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: And the stained glass and the you know, the Bibles
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: all over, but the kind where the congregation is a
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: bunch of strangers who found you.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Late at night. You know, people lonely.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Maybe they were in a bad place in their life,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: they went through a breakup, they lost a relative, maybe
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: they were sick, battling some creeping crud or something worse,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: and it just needed a voice and background noise, and
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: for some reason they settled on you, and they kept
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: going and.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Then just like that, it was over. That's all she wrote.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: We spilled out into the one hundred and twelve degree
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: Nevada heat on that late late Saturday afternoon.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: It was one hundred degrees at one in the morning
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: in Vegas.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: It's the kind of heat that makes you feel like
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: you've opened up the oven door and forgotten, forgotten to
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: pull back.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like, what are we doing?
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: Everyone scattered into the neon afternoon back. Some people went
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: to the airport to catch flights. People were going back
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: to the Strip. Some people were going out to Fremont Street,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Quiet Corners of tim Buck Too, somewhere out in Springfield
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: or Sheboygan or Rancho Cucamonga.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: And that was great.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: I mean everyone from you know, we said most of
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: the name of the giant fan I mentioned.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I mentioned him, he his wife
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: or there it was. It was just it was pretty cool.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: It was pretty cool.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: And if I did not say your name, I'm a schmuck.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: There was a big construction.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Dude, big mogul guy there. It makes a ton of
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: money's loaded. Good for him. And it wasn't just an event.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: It was proof of life, proof that the words that
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: we just throw out there do not evaporate into the ether.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: Proof that the tribe known as the Malard Militia is real.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Baby.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: And I'm gonna tell you this, a Malard meeting. Maybe
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: you'll never go to one. You probably won't. Most people
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: don't go to these things. We don't do them that often.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: But a Malard meeting, especially in Vegas, it's not about Vegas.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: It's about it's not about it's about radio. It's about community.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: It's about a weird family of strangers, characters that you
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: grow to love. It's about finding that somewhere out there
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: in that endless haze of static or bad way I
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: FI where you're listening on the stream, somebody heard you, right,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: and so I do want to thank you. If you attended,
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: I want to thank you. If you thought about attending
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: but didn't attend, I want to thank you if you're
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: planning on attending a future event. We plan on being
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: back in Vegas sometime in August of twenty twenty six.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: As for Boston and Ohio, Mike in.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: New Hampshire and the Leprechaun have both been very kind.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: We're efforting some dates on that, so we'll let you know. Ohio,
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: we want to do Ohio.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: We need a.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Venue in the Cincinnati area, and it's a bit of
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: a race against time. We don't want to go to
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Cincinnati when the weather's really nasty. Don't want to do
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: that obviously, So if we don't get it done soon here,
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: we're going to have to push it back to the
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: spring of twenty twenty six. Now, I did have a
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: listener full disclosure, I think I mentioned this in a
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: previous podcast or radio show, but it all is a big,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: big fog. So I had a listener that reached out
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: and offered a place, a mom and pop business that
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: I thought would have been perfect for the Malor meet
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: and greet, and we were going back and forth, back
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: and forth, and then they ghosted me. Now it's possible
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: that they're out of town. It's possible that you know,
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: their email got hacked or something like that. But if
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: you know, you know who you are, reach reach out
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: to me. Because it's been it's been a minute and
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking this, you changed your mind, or your your dad,
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: who kind of runs the place or owns the place,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: change their mind. Anyway, I'm not going to go unless
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: I can get a place to host us and do
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: this right.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I want to do it right. The Ohio event is
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: going to be big.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: I don't want to do half ass, and I want
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: to meet at some random restaurant and some weird part of.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Town, you know, an odd hour, and I don't want
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: any part of that. So we are effitting that and
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the Boston thing.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: And there isn't a southern California meet and greet that
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: we're planning on doing as well. So if you're interested
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: in helping us out again, we have no budget.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: This is all grassroots. As of now, I.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: Will be the only one that goes to Ohio, unless,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: for example, somebody wants to step up and cover some
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: of the costs for our travel.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I will go out of pocket.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: But the Rain and Coop I do not believe we'll
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: be We'll be doing that anyway.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: We'll have new podcasts. Dani will join me at some
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: point this weekend. We'll have a new pot on Saturday
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: and Sunday and have a wonderful, glorious arrest of your
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: Friday and later skater asta pasta.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how it goes. Did I do it right? Danny?
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Now you're nodding your head. I see you over there
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: behind the glass. You're no in your head.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Now, got a murder?
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: I gotta go.