Latest / Heavyweight / Heavyweight Short: Yasser

Transcript

Heavyweight Short: Yasser · Heavyweight

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Stevie Lane. Hello, So now you have a story I
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: do to tell to share with the nation. Yes, does
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: your grandmother what's your grandmother's name again, Philip, Ruth?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Ruth close?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Has she listened to your stories in the past?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: She has?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Has she listened to my stories?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: No? Not as much, not at all.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Should we call her up on the telephone to tell
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: her that you have a story?
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Who's this?
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Hi, Grandma, it's Stevie. Oh.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Oh, it just said New York. I almost wasn't going.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: To take it.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Okay, fun, how to do it?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I was just calling because I wanted to tell you
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: that I'm hosting today's episode of Heavyweight.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Oh and of course, you know what, I'll hear you
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: better because I just came back from the audeologist. She
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: fixs my hearing aids so I can hear a little better.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: And no, everybody who listens, you know, so I we're
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: hearing age.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, Grandma, I think that most ninety five year olds
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: have hearing aids.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: And right now you're told everyone I'm old.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I am.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: I was going to say I'm only eighty nine, but okay,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I've got to say ninety five.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: No, I was only teasing you, and I don't care.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: I don't know me so well, but they don't know
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I don't look my age. You'd have to tell them that.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So for everyone listening, she does not look
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: her age.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I'm Stevie Lane and this is heavyweight, Today's heavyweight short.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sir, I'm ready to hear it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Now you may right after the break. Hello, Hi is
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: this Yasir? Yes, this is he. Yaser is twenty eight.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: He lives in Saudi Arabia and he's a dentist. I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: love going to the dentist.
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: Actually, oh nice, I see you floss.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Every day and I have a water floss.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: Wow, A plus do it.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I could talk about my oral hygiene all day. Cavities,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: zero gum recession. If anything, my gums are advancing. But
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: we're not here to talk about my superior dental health.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We're here to talk about Yaser and a cartoon he
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: first encountered when he was a kid. Yaser hasn't seen
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: it in twenty years because it's completely vanished. Yasser grew
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: up in a small Saudi town. He loved cartoons. This
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: was back before streaming, so his mom would go to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the video store to buy VHS tapes for him, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: one day, when Yaser was about eight years old, she
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: came home with a cartoon that changed his life.
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: The show is called Little Eliphonteau. It's about a family
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: of elephants living in suburbia.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: The elephant family was called the boom Mills.
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: The father works in a company and he's always worried
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: about his bonus.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: Oh, when is my boss going to give me my bonus?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And the show was dubbed in Arabic. Yasser always assumed
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: it was originally American.
• 3:31
  Speaker 6: You know the fact that they're living in suburbia, that's
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: very American. The father's financial woes also American. Brown nosing
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: with the boss and trying to make him like him,
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: that seems to me very American as well.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I take offense at yas theer's assumption that all Americans
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: are career obsessed sick offense, But I just laughed politely.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: After all, I have an interview to finish, and I
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: want to make my talented and intelligent boss, Jonathan Stuart
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Goldstein proud. Maybe this year I'll finally get that bonus.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: The show quickly became a classic in Yasser's home, He
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: and his brother would watch it every morning before school
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: with a breakfast sandwich and a big cup of Nest Cafe.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: The star of the show was the baby elephant, Filo,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: who was.
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: Very young and still in diapers and has a teddy
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: bear named Hong.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Filo and Hong would go on imaginary adventures together.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Fodo was so magical to me whenever we would go
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: on camping trips or desert outings.
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: Every time we would go, I would try to discover something,
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: a secret door, a treasure like Fido.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, or love the show because like Philo, he was
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: a kid with a big imagination, the kind of kid
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: it would pretend that inanimate objects were alive. He tells
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: me about one time when he was driving down a
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: bumpy road with a friend.
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: I was kind of imagining the car, kind of going, oh,
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: what are you doing to me?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, calm down, slow bloo. But in Yaser's small town,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: he didn't feel like there was a lot of support
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: for kids like him, kids who looked drawing and making
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: up stories.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: And I longed for a place to bring my creativity
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: to light.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Pursuing a creative field didn't feel like an option for Ya, Sir,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And when he got older, he chose a career that
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: was practical and prestigious dentistry. Now a decade later, Yasser
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: admits that he doesn't love it. He's always been this
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: really imaginative person, but in his daily routine, he's not
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: that excited by what he does. He spends his days
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: looking at rows of teeth and checking gums. There's no
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: sense of wonder like there was when he was a
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: kid living in his imaginary world. He's nostalgic for that
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: feeling and sees the cartoon as a sort of portal.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: He knows that watching Philo would bring him right back
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to his childhood. The only problem is Filo is gone.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: I tried to find it everywhere. No one ever recognizes it.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: No one knows this show aside from our family. It's
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: so insane. It almost feels like a like a dream
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: we had as a family.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: It's as though Little Philo has been wiped from existence.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Yaser has poured over media archives, has tried googling Elephant
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: cartoon in every language he can think of. Once, he
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: even heard an actor's voice on TV and recognized him
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: as one of the characters from the show.
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: So I looked up the guy on Facebook, and then
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: I find Hi.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: I tell him about this show. He does not recognize it.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: In a last ditch effort, Yaser made a drawing of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: the characters from memory, the dad and his bowtie, invest
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the mom in her green, ruffled house dress. He bought
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: ads based on Instagram and posted the drawing to see
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: if anyone could identify it. Nothing.
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: I keep thinking there must be like some like cartoon
• 7:24
  Speaker 6: lunatic guy living in a basement that would like instantly
• 7:29
  Speaker 6: pick it up.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: But I just don't know.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I mean lunatic basically cartoon guides.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: So you want to break it down with the maestro?
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Is that what this is about?
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: From Gimblet Media, he's Jonathan Goldstein, post of Most Heavyweight Episodes.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: I tell him about my conversation with Yaser and his
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: beloved TV show about a family of elephants.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Can I stop you and ask a question?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Please?
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: This family of elephants is one of them wearing a crown.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking Babar. I'm thinking Babar.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: I think it's Babar. What's Who's b bar? B Bar
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: is the elephant with a crown? But Yaser sent me
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the drawing he made and it looks nothing like Babar
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: or bab Bar.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, now you're calling him babar. Huh.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to I'm just trying to be agreeable,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Can can you hear this?
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: You're ready? Oh? I think you're right? I mean you
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: were right. I knew I was right.
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: I just didn't.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Let's see one more, one more, hang on, here it comes.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Oh did you hear that?
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you're gonna take the set what sounds like
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: a barely literate child and use that.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Who would know better? Who would know better than a
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: ba bar?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Okay? So let's just say we're both right. Well, Jonathan
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: says he isn't the basement dweller. I seek he does know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: just the guy.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: He has a very quick mind, very quick on his toes,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: fleet of foot and fleet of mouth. It's like everything
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that he says sounds like it could be scored to
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: flight of the bumblebee? Does that make sense?
• 9:09
  Speaker 8: Not really?
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: You'll you'll see what I'm talking about.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Hi, Stev, how are you? This is Howard? And Jonathan
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: was right. Talking to Howard feels like clinging to an
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: electric fence. Like here's what he says when I send
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: him asters drawing.
• 9:26
  Speaker 9: They actually look like elephant seals. Holy shit, they have
• 9:28
  Speaker 9: known known that they are elfan seals. They would have
• 9:30
  Speaker 9: they would have flippers. They're They're definitely most evil animals
• 9:33
  Speaker 9: on the planet. I think male elephant seals. They smother
• 9:36
  Speaker 9: their babies to death. What Dolphins are also not the nicest.
• 9:38
  Speaker 9: I love dolphins so much, but they're really mean. They're
• 9:40
  Speaker 9: mean to sharks.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Howard is a cartoonist himself and has an extensive knowledge
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: of all things animation. I tell him all about the
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: boom Mill family and some of the other characters, like
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the janitor elephant with a cigarette butt hanging out of
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: her mouth.
• 9:54
  Speaker 9: That changes a lot. Then it's most likely not an
• 9:57
  Speaker 9: American or Canadian kid series because they would never put
• 10:01
  Speaker 9: a cigarette in the mouth, especially if it was like
• 10:04
  Speaker 9: late nineties, early two thousands.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Oh that's a good point.
• 10:07
  Speaker 9: I'm going to find this Philo Elefanto little Elephants.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I'm obsessed with this now. I expect to hang up
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: and get a call from Howard in a few days
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: with the answer. Instead, he launches into his investigation right
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: then and there with a dizzying speed. He turns to Wikipedia.
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: And if Philiu camp Plasio, Chico Bombon, Edward and Friends, Elephant,
• 10:30
  Speaker 9: Edward and Friends. That's who that is clearmation Now see
• 10:33
  Speaker 9: Jungle Cubs, Kirian Lou knowing Asanski Wikiyaku jungle junction, as
• 10:37
  Speaker 9: of tay Lulu's islands. Well, I'm searching. We can have
• 10:42
  Speaker 9: all kinds of discussions without other things. It's spaghetti here,
• 10:45
  Speaker 9: Philu are you talking about Tarzan? You're not talking about
• 10:48
  Speaker 9: tet now, I'm sorry, Yo, Nakima Ton Tour, Tonturs elephant
• 10:51
  Speaker 9: mean the Tarzan san any adventures remember that ton Tour
• 10:53
  Speaker 9: Elephant Magic adventures A mumpy now he's sound right. My big,
• 10:58
  Speaker 9: my big big friend. Nelly the elephant arguing the cock
• 11:01
  Speaker 9: coroaches meet Poco yo. What's is poco yo? The one's
• 11:04
  Speaker 9: called Nelfie Nelly, No, sorry, Nelly. The resk in mompfy
• 11:07
  Speaker 9: tesc and moumfy Oh.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: I found it.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: I found it. What are you saying? He's holding a
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: teddy bear. This has got to be him. It's all
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: in Arabic.
• 11:15
  Speaker 9: Is a little baby elephant and he's holding a teddy bear.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: A teddy bear my heart sores and the teddy bear
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: is like a panda and sinks in Yasser's drawing, the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: teddy bear is not a panda. It turns out all
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Howard has found is a book called The Elephant Learns
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: to Share about an angry elephant who keeps everything for himself.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It was never adapted into a TV show, which is
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: probably why the Elephant is so angry. After Howard's failure,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: I lose faith in guy's and basements everywhere. I need
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: a professional, one who dwells above ground. So I call Ramins,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: a heat editor in chief of Animation Magazine, and send
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: him Yaser's drawing. He'll post it to the magazine's Facebook page,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: which has hundreds of thousands of follows. A few days later,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I get an email Stevie exclamation Point. We found it,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: exclamation Point. At the bottom of the email, there's a
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: YouTube link to an animated show about a family of elephants.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Many of the details match up with what Yaser had
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: told me about Filo, right down to the little kid
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: elephant with a teddy bear, and it's an Arabic flo
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Filo Helentie Hula. I don't speak Arabic, but I feel
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: like I can hear them saying Filo. Surely this must
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: be it. I am like ninety percent sure this is
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: not it. This naysayer is my producer, Mona. She speaks Arabic,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: so I ask her to take a look at the clip,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: and she says. There are a number of differences between
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: this show and what Yaser described. For one, the baby
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: elephant isn't named Filo. That's just a way of saying
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: elephant in air. And like this show is extremely boring.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: I would say that's like my strongest reason that I
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: don't think this is it. Yaser described a magical show
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: where Philo went on fantastical adventures. The episode of this
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: show that Mona watched was about watering a neighbor's plants.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Hat in hand, I returned to the Maestro to see
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: if he has any ideas.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Is it not possible or even likely that he is
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Key and his family have conflated a couple different cartoons
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: into one.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Is it? I look at Yaser's drawing again, and this
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: time I noticed that the elephants don't even really look
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: like elephants. Their trunks are scrunched and wrinkled, much more
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: like snouts. They look a bit like alf drawn in
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: the style of Maurice Sendak, and over the next few months,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: my luck in finding Philo doesn't improve. I reach out
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: to the Museum of the Moving Image, the UCLA Film Archive,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: the Pale Media Center. I speak to a professor of
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: animation at Saudi Arabian University. I do a reverse image
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: search on Yaser's drawing. I even wait on hold for
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: three hours on a live Colin radio show Who's prompt
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: that week? As Luckwood have it is for movies and
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: TV shows that people can't quite remember the names of,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: but everyone just says the same thing.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: The only elephants family I can think of is Bar.
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: The elephant was very famous.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'm just confusing it with people are saying bomb
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: al bab Bar. It's pretty close.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Somebody said bi Bar, So.
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: There was something was elephants.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Are you thinking of Bibar?
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, I'm thinking of Okay.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: It's not ba Bar, And I gotta tell you, like, yes, sir.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: At this point, I'm like starting to doubt your memory
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: a little bit.
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: I'm starting to doubt my own memory, are you sometimes?
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Did I actually imagine this show? Or is it a
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: real thing that existed at one point?
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: An answer to that question after the break. Hi, yes, sir, Hello,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: can I play you something?
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 15:19
  Speaker 10: Okay ha ha, Oh my god, No way, that's the intro.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: You recognize it?
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: Oh, that's it.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: You found it. We found it, and here's how we
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: found it. As a last resort, I posted Yaser's drawing
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: from the Heavyweight Twitter account and asked for help. A
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: man named Simon in Germany responded, I found your show,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: he said. I wasn't hopeful. How many times had I
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: already heard those very same words from Howard, from Amen,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: from anyone and everyone who's ever seen Babar. But Simon
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: sent a YouTube link to a German cartoon called Auto's
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Autifantin and the characters looked exactly like the ones in
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Yasser's drawing. And as it turns out, Simon didn't even
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: have to be one of those lunatic basement cartoon guys,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: because in Germany the autifants are famous. They're on lunchboxes
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: and in video games. There's a whole museum dedicated to them.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Simon told me anyone on the street would have recognized
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Yasser's drawing. Then, in my own Wikipedia frenzy, I learned
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: that the characters were created by a famous German comedian
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: named Otto Vodkas. He's sort of like a German Robin Williams.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: If you ever moved to watch the movie ice Age
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: in German. He's the voice of Sid the sloth.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: Hello, this is so.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I called Auto at his home in Fort Lauderdale to
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: find out more about the Odifants, and it was easy
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: to imagine how he made a famous cartoon character, because
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: he's basically a cartoon character himself.
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: I have a studio up in the first floor here
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: with a little diving board. From there, I can jump
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: in my pool. No, yes, I love it.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: If talking to Howard was like clinging to an electric fence,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: talking to Auto was like trying to catch a super
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: bouncy ball in a room full of trampolines. Like when
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I tried to ask him about Yaser's favorite episode, That's
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: my favorite, and then without warning, he suddenly became the Grinch.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: I'm going to steal Christmas.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Before whiping out a guitar.
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: I wonder, like under one ring Star, I wonder if
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: you know it's funny, like you say dog when you
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: said that.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Only when I finally was able to squeeze in a
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: question about the otifans. Otto told me he's been drawing
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: them ever since he was a child. It all started
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: one day in school when Otto was doodling at his desk.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: He tried to draw a self portrait.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: It was so I changed the eyes a little bit,
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: extended the nose, a little bit of the legs, A
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: little elephant.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: They call it fund Ottiphant, a mash up word of
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Auto an elephant. Auto based the boom Mill family on
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: his own. The character Filo, who in Germany is named
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Baby Bruno, was meant to be Otto himself.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: I had my little teddy bear. You know this crystal
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: hug because it was made in Hong Kong. That's why
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: I called him Honk.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Growing up in post war Germany, Otto's family didn't have
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: a lot of money for paint and paper, so he'd
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: make drawings on the backs of wallpaper scraps. I showed
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Otto the drawing Yaser made of his audifence, and Otto
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: was delighted. He asked me to record a message.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: Yes, Sah, when you were here in America, in Fort Lauderdale,
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: you gott to visit me. I have a diving board.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: We can talk about Baby Bruno and we can draw,
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: and I saw your drawing at a really excellent I'm
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: looking forward to meeting you. Holda nity. I can bark
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: that I'd do anything for you. Okay, oh my god.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Back on the phone with Yaser, we debrief about the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: creator of his favorite TV show. He and Otto were
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: similar kids, always drawing, always imagining. They both identified with Philo,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: and yet Otto's life went one way towards a career
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: in the arts, while Yasers one another. That's the thing.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Yasers particularly fixated on how Auto stayed true to his
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: childhood passion followed his dream of being an artist.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: It's all inspiring.
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: I wonder when he made that decision and how did
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: it affect his.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: Life, Like did he have to break up with someone,
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: did he have like trouble in his household?
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: Was it a good decision or did he regret it?
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: It feels like these are questions he answer is asking
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: himself rather than Auto. Maybe questions he's been asking himself
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: for a long time, questions he's still asking.
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: I think that no matter how older you get, no
• 20:43
  Speaker 8: matter what position in life you're in, there's always the
• 20:46
  Speaker 8: question of who.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: Am I and what purpose do I fulfill?
• 20:52
  Speaker 8: I just always kind of like, never really feel sure
• 20:56
  Speaker 8: of what I'm doing, and in my work sometimes I'm like,
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: what do I want out of this?
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: What purpose?
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: I think that we're always in search of our truest self.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: And it turns out there's a reason Yasir is reflecting
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: so much on his life because Yaser tells me he
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: and his wife just found out that they're having a baby.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, sir, I'm so happy for you.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Yeser might still have questions about his truest self, but
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: when it comes to his future child's there's one thing
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: he knows for sure. Yaser wants something different for his
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: kid than what he had. He says that if his
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: kid enjoys making art as much as he did, He's
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: going to encourage that in any way he can.
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: Or even if they're not artistic and just kind of
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: are crazy about.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Math and robotics or whatever.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: I'll try my best to support that.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: A few weeks after we talk, Yasser receives a package
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: from Germany. It's full of Audi fund and swag, sent
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: by Auto to his number one fan in Saudi Arabia.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: There's a hat, a T shirt, a toe bag, and
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: a little stuffed animal otifhant Yasser says he's going to
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: give it to his baby, his own little Felo. This
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Heavyweight short was produced by Mohemi mcgouger and me Stevie Lane,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: along with Phoebe Flanagan. Our executive producer is Jonathan Goldstein.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Khalila Holt. Special thanks to doctor
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Mohammed Gazala, Pia Gadkari, Bobby Lord, and Tom Sharpling over
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: at the Best Show editorial guidance from Emily Condon. Bobby
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Lord makes the episode with original music by Christine Fellows,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: John K. Sampson, Blue Dot Sessions and Bobby Lord. Additional
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: music credits can be found on our website gimlipmedia dot
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: com slash Heavyweight. Our theme song is by The Weaker
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Theands courtesy of Epitaph Records. Heavyweight is a Spotify original podcast.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight, Instagram at Heavyweight Podcast,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: or email us at Heavyweight at gimlipmedia dot com. You
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: can also follow our show on Spotify and tap the
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: bell to receive notifications when new episodes drop and speaking
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: of new episodes, will be back with a brand new
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: one next week