Latest / Drawn of History / The Amazing Acro-Cats _ This Past Weekend w_ Theo Von _539(M4A_128K)

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The Amazing Acro-Cats _ This Past Weekend w_ Theo Von _539(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We have some upcoming tour dates there in Colorado Springs
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: in Colorado, Casper, Wyoming, Billings, Montana, and Missoula, Montana, Bloomington, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio, Champaign, Illinois,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: over there in the Fighting Illini area, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Lafayette, Louisiana,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and Beaumont, Texas. You can get all your tickets at theovon.com
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: slash T-O-U-R And thank you so much for the support.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Today's guest is a cat advocate, a performer, and a trainer.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: For almost 20 years, she's been touring with her performance
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: crew of cats called the Acro Cats, where they perform routines, tricks,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and much more. She's also started the only all-cat band
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: in the world, Tuna and the Rock Cats. No one
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: loves anything as much as Samantha loves cats. Today's guest
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is Samantha Martin and the Acro Cats.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Shine that light on me.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I'll sit and tell you my stories. Shine on me.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: And I will find a song.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I've been singing this for years.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So I want to learn all about, um, acro cats
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and I want to learn all about the traveling cat
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: universe and everything that there is to know about it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Cause it really is just fascinating to think about them
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: cats and, and everything that they're doing and, um, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: just how involved with it you are, you know, um,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: just to start, I guess, what are some, like, what
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: is a cat? I guess, basically, how would you even,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: what is like a, like, I mean, I know it's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: kind of an easy question, but what do you, some
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: people probably don't aren't even that aren't big pets. like
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: connoisseurs or whatever. How do you put that in a, um,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: is there a certain size of it or like how
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: tall is a cat?
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: How tall? Oh, boy, that's, You're open with a question
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: I don't even know the answer to. They really vary
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: in size. Some of the cats are more petite. We
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: do a lot of bottle babies, so they tend to
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: be a little bit on the smaller side. Females a
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: little bit on the smaller side. But cats are really
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: kind of misunderstood. Everybody thinks that cats are aloof and
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: that they can't be trained, that they don't really need
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: socialization or kind of the same kind of things that
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: dogs need. A lot of people get cats... you know,
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: thinking that's not going to be any work at all.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: I just have to scoop a litter box or get
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: an auto scooping litter box and throw out some food
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: and be done with it. Or, you know, a dog
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: is so much more work. But in actuality, a cat
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: is just as much work as a dog. And people
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: should invest that time because cats are brilliant. People don't
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: realize just how brilliant cats are. Yeah.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I've seen some cats. They have all types
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of cats. Yeah, they even had one cat went to space,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I think, even.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: I know a cat went down Niagara Falls.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: You know a cat that went to Niagara Falls?
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: That went down Niagara Falls.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, went down it?
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: The first person that survived a barrel trip down the falls,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: she took a cat with her.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: No way.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: For good luck or just for?
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Just, who knows? I mean, I wasn't around during that
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: time to ask her afterwards, what made you bring a
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: cat down the falls with you? But she and the
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: cat survived.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: So a cat like, and a cat can be, you
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: said almost any size.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. I mean, there's huge cats. There's Maine Coon
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: cats that are giant. Our cats are a little bit
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: on the– none of our cats are purebred cats because
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: they're all rescue cats. But the Maine Coon cats are giant.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, I've seen– like they're almost dog size. Oh, wow.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: And then there's the real small ones, the munchkins that
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: have the short legs. And, you know, it's not really
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: good to breed– You know, it just seems uncomfortable for
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: some of the cats to have like short legs and
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: difficulty for them to get around. But yeah, they come
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: in all different sizes and shapes and larger, smaller. Some
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: cats are hairless. Some cats are completely, you know, furry.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: So a cat can basically be almost any.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Like how tall are the cats you work with? Because
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the cats I've seen are probably a lot of them
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: are about this tall. Well, I guess that's if they're
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: just sitting up. If they're walking.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of there's a typical cat size,
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  Speaker 4: but the Maine Coons are the ones that are the giant.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, a Maine Coon.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: The Maine Coons are the giant ones. You know, see
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: people like with the record Maine Coon and they're holding
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: it and it takes. two arms and it's still hanging
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: over their arms.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: It's like a play in the base kind of. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And do you, do you employ any Maine Coons?
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: No, because they really, we need small, agile cats to
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: be acro cats.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Okay. So for acro cats, we're talking a smaller cat.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: We're talking, what's the premier size kind of like a,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: for an acro cat?
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: Oh, the runts, the orphans, the runts, the strays, the
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: ones with the, with the, especially the ones with the attitude,
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: the troublemakers.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Oh really?
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: Those make the best acro cats.
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  Speaker 3: They do.
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  Speaker 4: Those little, Because they've got like short cat syndrome. So
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: they already have like a little chip on their shoulder.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: So they've got attitude and they're like, you know, don't
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: mess with me.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I'll show them.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: I'm going to show you. So, yeah, those are the
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: best acro cats. And they're a little bit on the
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: smaller side so they can do a lot more. They
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: can climb higher. They can jump further. Yeah, it's just
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: they're more agile. So, yeah, we tend to employ strictly
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: acro cats. rescue cats. Okay. No purebreds.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, really? So you guys, so acro cats is a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: lot of rescues then.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: Oh yes.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: They're all former orphans, rescues and strays. Man.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It's almost like the bad news bears in a way, huh?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: You know, that movie.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. I've seen it. It's been a long time. Yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: So I kind of don't really remember the premise.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it was just some of the, some
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of them were kind of like, um, yes, some of
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the kids were kind of like having a tough time,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you know, it was like those type of kids. So
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: how did you get started with AcroCats? And what is AcroCats,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: first of all?
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: So the amazing AcroCats, they're a troop of former orphan
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: rescues and strays that have come into my life over
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: the years. And I've trained them to do awesome things
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: to show people that not only can cats be trained,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: but they should be trained. So They travel around the country.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: We now tour in a large bus. We initially started
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: out in a small ambulance and then slowly built up
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: to this giant money pit of a bus.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, busing is expensive.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Oh, so expensive.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: So you guys were in an ambulance.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: At one point, I started my career with an ambulance
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: back in the days when I was doing rats and
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: wildlife education and all of that. So I've been working
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: with animals since I was 10. Okay.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: So you've been working with animals since you was a child, really.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: You was really just a child animal worker. And so
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: you get started, you said, with rats first?
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  Speaker 4: I knew I wanted to be an animal trainer since
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  Speaker 4: I was seven.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so you knew out of the gate you wanted
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  Speaker 1: to be out there with them animals.
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  Speaker 5: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: And how did you know? You'd be at a zoo
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: or something would flare up in you when you would
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: see an animal? Or how did you know that you
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: loved them?
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  Speaker 4: Well, my parents did like a letter every year, like
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: those annoying Christmas letters that people send out detailing their
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: whole life. Their whole year. Oh, yeah. Like Patty got
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: her menstrual cycle or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Danny's playing volleyball or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. So my parents did one every year.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We got those in our neighborhood. Some of them were
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  Speaker 1: too much.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One year they sent it. It was like Ron left
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  Speaker 1: us if anybody's seen or whatever, call us. And we're like,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: this is for Christmas? Like it was just. But some
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: of them got a little invasive. But okay, sorry, I
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: interrupted you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, but so looking back through all those Christmas letters,
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: it talked about how I talked about wanting a cat,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: wanting a cat. As soon as I was able to talk,
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: I wanted a cat. And then I found a book
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: that was like a book about me that I had
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: filled out when I was seven. And it said, when
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: I grow up, I want to be, and I put on,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: I filled in animal trainer or Indian. Oh, that's good.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And that's kind of the same thing, almost because the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Indians were so close to nature, really, you know?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it really is kind of similar path, I guess,
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  Speaker 4: spiritual connection with animals.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So you wanted to be really dialed in out
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  Speaker 1: of the gate.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, I knew what I wanted to do right
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: from the get-go. My parents, they had a different plan
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: for me.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: What did they think they wanted?
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, they wanted the traditional, I mean, they sent
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: me to college to get my MRS. They didn't care
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: what I majored in.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Wanted to be a wife?
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: As long as I came home with a husband that
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: had a good degree in the future.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: That's what they wanted.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: They did not anticipate me being an entrepreneur. I'm going
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: to start a business with rats. And that's kind of
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: how it all started right after college. I moved to
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: Chicago and I was like, I'm going to start a
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: business with rats.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And what made you– did you see something? Did you–
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: were you at a live event? Did you– were you
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: at a christening or a– were you at like– you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a performance of Phantom of the Opera or like what
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: set made you think, okay, I'm going to start doing
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: a live performance at animals. Cause that's a real, the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: only people that's ever done that is Noah, probably Noah's
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Ark and God probably.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Did you see, yeah.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Did you see a performance? Did you see something that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: was like. Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Yes. Actually I watched a a documentary on Modus Esso,
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: who was the rat trainer for the original Ben and
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: Willard movies.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, bring him up, Modus Esso.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: You spell it?
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: Moe DeCesso.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Moe DeCesso.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, he was one of the original Hollywood animal trainers.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: He was my mentor. I mean, I saw this documentary
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: that he did on the Discovery Channel back when they
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: showed stuff like real things on Discovery Channel. Yeah. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: it was like behind-the-scenes training of the rats for this movie.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: And I was like, yes, this is what I want
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: to do with my life. I want to train animals
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: for film and television. And I ended up getting to
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: meet him.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Animal trainer Mo DeCesso, who trained such notable animal stars
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: as Ben the Rat and Annie's dog Sandy, died July
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: 2nd in Newhall, California. He was 83. He trained over
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: 600 rats for the two rodent horror hits, winning a
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Patsy Award for directing Ben the Rat in Willard. And
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: another sequel for Ben.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: So he could really conduct a rat.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Oh, he could train any animal. He was just amazing.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: I was so thrilled because I ended up getting stranded
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: in California. I was working on a rat documentary and
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: part of it was filmed in Los Angeles in the summer.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: And I got stuck there because of a heat embargo.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: So I couldn't get my rats back to Chicago.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So you're there. You're working on a rat documentary.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Called?
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: It was called Rat.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, right.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Mark Lewis. Mark Lewis kind of gave me my
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: big break as far as working on documentaries and getting
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: my first really big break as far as training rats.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: So it was so serendipitous how everything happened, really. My whole,
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: you know, the whole life story from... you know, the,
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: the rats to the cats, but, but I was out,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: I was working on the documentary for the other part
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: of the documentary. We'd film the first part and, uh,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: in New York, and then we finished it in Los Angeles.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: There's a heat, you know, during the summer, you cannot
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: fly animals in cargo. So my rats and I were
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: stuck in California. So I looked up Mo DeCesso and
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: I drove out to his ranch. No. And I introduced
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: myself and they welcomed me into their home. I stayed
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: with them for about three weeks or so. I cleaned
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: every inch of his place, his training room. I organized
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: his training room. I just worked every day. They'd have
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: to drag me in for meals. And then he worked
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: with me every day with training. I learned so much
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: from him. And, you know, when I left, he cried
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: when I left. I was like the daughter that he'd
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: always wanted. And in a way, he was like the
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: father that I wished I'd had because my parents, you know,
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: they liked animals, but they weren't like true animal lovers.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't love them like you did.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I loved them right from the beginning.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, it just was– I was drawn to them.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: It was my life calling.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: So you leave out of there. The documentary gets finished.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And now you're a rat trainer.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm a rat trainer, and then I ended
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: up being a chicken trainer after that because Mark Lewis
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: did a film called The Natural History of Chickens. He
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: hired me again for that to train the chickens, and
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: I didn't know anything about chickens when I took that job.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, who could?
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was, I mean, back then the Internet, there
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: was just some Yahoo groups, and so, I mean, and
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: he was a tough guy to work for too. I mean,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: if you did, if things did not go right, I mean,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: he would just yell at you like two inches from
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: your face. I mean, just... He was intense, huh? Oh,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: he was so intense. And I mean, I saw it.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: There were nights when I worked on the rat film
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: that I cried every night. But he was, you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: he was so good. I mean, he really knew.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: What he wanted.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Like, what are you saying? Like, damn it, get these
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: rats to do it or whatever. Yeah, it was just,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: he was very hardcore. And, you know, very few people
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: survived working for a Mark Lewis film. But his film was,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: you know, won awards, so... And when he asked me
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: back to do the chicken, I didn't get yelled at
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: the entire shoot. I mean, nobody could have a conversation
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: with me during the chicken training portion because I was
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: learning about chickens. There were so many things that could
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: go wrong with this chicken training thing. I'm sure. Yeah.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Even just the term chicken training.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Sounds like it's not going to work out.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: I had to have a white silky hen go broody,
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: which means they lay on eggs, right? Yeah. And then
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: once the chicken, once I found a chicken that actually
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: laid eggs because this broodiness has been bred out of
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: them over the years because most people want them for
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: food or just eggs. Yeah, they want them to lay
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: them every day. Yeah, they don't want them to lay
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: on them. So I had all these white silky chickens,
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: found one that laid eggs and sat on them. So
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: then I had to take the eggs and replace them
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: with golf balls, keep the eggs safe, then transport that
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: chicken to somewhere in the south. I was somewhere out
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: in the country working on these chickens. So I had
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: to get them on the flight, get them to the location,
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: and then put the eggs in an incubator. And on
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: the exact day that he needed to shoot these chickens hatching,
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: they had to hatch. Yeah. So there were so many
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: things that could have gone wrong. Yeah. So many things.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: We were playing God at that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Point, in a way. Oh, yeah. It was so, so stressful.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: I had to train a rooster to crow on cue. So,
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: and I had no, I mean, I was really, you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: I was self-taught. This is pre-internet. This is before you
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: could look up all the things and just find answers.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: I mean, I was.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: And what do you do? Do you tickle him or whatever?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: What do you do to get a rooster to crow?
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Well, you would find you find out what make that
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: would make them crow naturally. So they actually they kind
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: of trained me. So I'd have a rooster in the
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: downstairs with a baby monitor. So I'd be upstairs. And
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: anytime I heard that rooster crow, I'd go running downstairs
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: and then I'd wave an American flag. And click and
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: treat and give the– because I knew about clicker training
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: at that point. So I would click and treat and
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: give the rooster a reward for crowing. But I also
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: knew that I needed to put it on a cue
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: so that it couldn't just– we couldn't be waiting around
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: for it to crow. I needed to signal for it
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: to crow.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: So that's what the flag was for?
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: The flag would be like I'm waving the flag. It's
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: still crowing. I'm waving the flag. I'm clicking and treating.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: And not really knowing what I'm doing, just hoping it's
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: going to work.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Create a pattern.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, yes. And people would be trying to talk
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: to me, and I'd be like, what if I taught
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: the chicken to follow a ribbon? And we could put
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: that ribbon on the camera, and then the chicken would
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: follow that camera everywhere because we need those camera, like,
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: right in the camera shots. I mean, nobody could talk
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: to me about anything because I was so hyper-focused on
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: making these chickens perfect for this film. And, I mean,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: it was– It turned out beautifully. I mean, I couldn't
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: believe how all my hard work paid off.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah. It's pretty remarkable.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, it really, considering I didn't really know anything
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: about chickens when I took the job.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And it seems like an insane job to take
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: and do. Oh, yeah. Yes.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And then to pull it off.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: Yes. And to pull it off and not get screamed
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: at once that entire shoot.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: That was amazing.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow, so you got the rooster crowing, you got,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: you're working with the chickens. So how do you then
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: turn it over into acro rats you started with?
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Well, I started with the rats. The rats were first.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: So I had, after I met Moda Sesso, I had
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: an idea that when I moved to Chicago, at this point,
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: I've had rats since I was 16. Okay. So you've
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: been a rat owner. You've had them, yeah. I knew
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: how smart they were. I knew how just, Just one
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: of the most trainable, smart animals ever. And they're also misunderstood.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: So I've always been drawn to those kind of social
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: rejects of the animal world.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: The rats.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: The underdogs.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: The underdogs.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: The underdogs. So I started putting– I was like, I
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: bet you I could put a little show together. I'm
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: going to teach these rats to do tricks. And I'm
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: going to put a little show together that will get
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: some attention to these rats. And then maybe I'll get
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: that big break that I want to– So I was
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: working at a pet shop at the time. And where,
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: in Chicago? Yeah, in Chicago. Okay. It was Newtown Aquarium.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: And the owner was a monster. Really? Oh, yeah. He
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: was just the worst human ever.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Why was he even in the game? Why was he
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: even in the— The money.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: The money.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: In the pet money?
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: Well, there was other things he was doing. He was
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: getting fish, you know, in from other countries. And there
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: was more in with the fish industry. Like renaming them,
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: not selling appropriate?
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: No, no.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: There were, you know, the fish that he was getting
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: shipped in, there's white styrofoam on the bottom, right?
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, those other things getting shipped in as well?
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: Those other things he was shipping in under the fish.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: So it was probably a front.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was a front. But he also was,
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: his idea was like, if I get 100 of these,
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: I get a huge discount. If I get 100 of
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: these anolis, if I get 100 of these Burmese pythons,
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: And if they all die and I sell just one,
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: I'll still make a profit. And so he didn't care
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: about the animals. So I came in and I, of course,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: cared about the animals. I'm working overtime. I'm taking the
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: animals home and separating all the snakes and feeding them
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: so they don't eat each other. And, you know, so
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: I'm going to the library and researching on how to
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: take care of these animals. So I was in charge
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: of the rodents and the reptile section.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And they're arch nemesises, aren't they?
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, yeah. They are not friends. So, you know,
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: the rodents were downstairs and then the reptiles were upstairs.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: And so I'm learning about them, you know, having to
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: go to the library and creating these cage cards so
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: that when people came in, I could educate them on, like, Okay,
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: you're interested in buying this particular lizard. Well, this is
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: what you need to take care of it. And it's
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: going to need a heat, you know, a heating light
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: and a rock and all these various things. And so,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: so I did all my research and, and I was really,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, I did love the job, but he was
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: just a monster.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: And at that point I had my little rat show
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: trained up. Oh, perfect.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: So you got the rats performing now.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah. They're performing in nightclubs and things like that. Okay.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Now, so that sounds like, yeah, I would love to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: see that. And it's, something that's important. The rats are
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: performing in nightclubs with you as the trainer.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: They're not. Okay.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So with you as the trainer, the rats are
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: performing in nightclubs and you guys are, how many rats
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: are in the show?
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: There's probably, oh, maybe six, six, six or seven rats.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: And they climb up ladders. They jump through hoops. They'd
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: even bull. And the best trick was they would run,
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: they'd drive up into an ambulance and then they would
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: go up a fire truck. into a burning little kid's
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: house with fake flames, of course. And there'd be a
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: doll in the house. So the rats would go up
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: the ladder, rescue the doll, come back down, and put
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: it into the ambulance.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: No way.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: Yes. So they were so much fun to teach and
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: work with. And people were just amazed that these rats
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: are doing these amazing tricks. So they're the amazing acro rats.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: And I had little business cards made up that said,
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: the rat company trained acro rats for all occasions. Film, television,
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: live shows. And I told everybody at work that someday
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: somebody's going to walk in that door and they're going
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: to need a rat for a movie and I'm going
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: to be ready for it, right?
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: So that was a lot of your ambition. So you'd
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: seen Mo DeCesso have this. You'd seen that documentary and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: then it had an effect on you. And then next
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: year you end up out there. You end up getting
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: to work with him. So now you really feel like
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you're on the right path.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you have the rat show going in Chicago.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yes.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: And you're performing where? You're performing after hours in the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: pet shop?
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, I'm not in the pet store, but I'm
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: like after hours in nightclubs. Okay. I was taking the
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: rats and, you know, they'd hire me to bring the
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: rats in. Actually, not the rats. You know, I don't
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: even know if I got really hired or so. Maybe
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: it was just kind of a pass the hat kind
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: of thing. Cause you know, any opportunity I had to
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: train these rats.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: But how do you even approach that? Cause in the beginning,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: if you say, Hey, I'm going to come in later,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I'm going to bring in a couple of rats. I
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: think people are going to be like, I don't know,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: you know, or people are like, how do you have
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that initial conversation with some of the performance venues and stuff?
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: Well, it was Chicago. Chicago's was very, you know, kind
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: of open-minded. They, you know, they, They liked anything, you know,
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: interesting and different.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: And I had– my roommate had connections with certain nightclubs
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: at that point. So, you know, she hooked me up
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: with some of the nightclub people. And then word spread that,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: you know, there's Rat Lady.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: But who comes to the show? Is it just people
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that are at the nightclub that it's already staged performance
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: at the nightclub? And it's like now we're going to
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: have the Acro Rats.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, now the Acro Rats are going to perform. We're
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: going to do a couple shows and– You know, it
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: was just, it was just fun. It was basically, I'm
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: just trying to get attention to these rats, hoping that
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: I'm going to get this break at some point so
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: that I can get to the next level. Okay.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: And so how does that start to happen? How does,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: do you get a break?
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: That's, well, the big break came in when I was
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: in the pet, when I was working at the pet store. Okay.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: Waiting with my little business card, you know, the rat company,
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: I named my company, the rat company.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Trained rats for all occasions, film, television, live shows.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: Waiting for that moment, that big break, and these two
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: guys walk into the pet store, and they're like, we
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: need a rat. We need a couple rats for the film.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, I got your rats. They can even
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: answer a toy telephone. I'll do it for free just
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: for the movie credit. So I got the job because
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: my price was great. And because my boss was kind
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: of a dream squasher. And with the movie industry, they
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: don't give you a lot of notice. They call me
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: on a Friday. They say, okay, your day's on Monday.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: That's showbiz, yeah.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: Yep. So I asked for the day off. And they said, nope, sorry.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: And so then I quit my job. I quit my
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: full-time job for a one-day non-paying film shoot with rats.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: And it was my big break. It was.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, everything happened after that. WGN showed up.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, so hold on. So you get the break. You
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: go to the set. You do the shoot with the rats.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: And how do they pull it off?
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, I mean, the rats did perfectly. I went out
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: to the– I mean, I went out there the day before.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: You practiced with them and everything? I rehearsed them, so
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: I kind of knew what the– you know, so they
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: were patterned.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And do you talk them on the way in? Like, look, guys,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: this is it. Like, do you feel like you have that,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you know, that– you can create that ambiance with them
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that you guys are partners in crime?
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, yeah. We're just, I mean, there's, like, it's
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: really hard to.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Like that Phil Jackson kind of with them, you know?
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: It's, there's just like, it's like a, almost like a,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: an electric field. So, especially when you're working on a
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: set with an animal and you can't be right next
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: to them. So you've done your training, you've done your
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: prep with the rat or any animal, right? And now
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: you're off camera and you have to send in the
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: rat or whatever animal it is to do what you've
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: trained them to do. And you are not, you can't
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: be next to them. So there, if there's this like
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: electric feel, like a communication going where, you know, like God,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: you just like, you know, you've got this, you've got this,
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: you've got this, do this, do that, you know? And, and,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: and it, when it, when it comes together and it's
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: such a magical moment when, and they just pull it off.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: And I mean, the whole space, Crew applauds. I mean,
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: everybody was just amazed that this happened. And then a
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: film crew showed up, a news crew, because they heard
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: that there was going to be a rat lady on
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: the movie set. So they coined me the Rat Lady
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: of Chicago.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, God.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Beautiful.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So then CNN picked it up and broadcast this
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: all over the country. And next thing you know, I'm
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: flying to Italy to be on this show, the Mino
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: D'Amato show. on Christmas Eve with my trained rats. And
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: it just snowballed from there.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: So you flew over there for Christmas Eve to be
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: on an Italian television show.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And how many rats do you have with you?
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: I had about six rats with me.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: And do you remember any of the names? Do you
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: remember any of the?
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: Oh, probably Jasper and Ramsey and Cicero. And I started
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: to name them after streets in Chicago. So I had
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: Cicero and Harlem and Jasper and Ramsey came later on. But, yeah,
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: so a lot of them were Chicago streets.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Gunshot would be one of them. Gunshot's a cute name, actually. Wow,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: so you have these rats and you guys are over there.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Do you remember that? Was it Christmas Eve? What was it?
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was Christmas Eve and it was a show
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: called The Meaner Tomato Show. And they didn't give me
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: an earpiece for translation. So the guy's like, and I'm like.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Don't know what you're saying. You're just sitting there and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the guy is speaking what?
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm in Italy, so.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: He's speaking Italian.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he's speaking Italian. Wow. I don't know any Italian.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: I'm like, I don't know what you're saying. But he
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: realized that I didn't know, I didn't know what he,
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: I didn't have my earpiece. So then he translated, luckily
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: he knew, he knew Italian and English. So then he
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: would repeat the question in English and then I would
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: answer and then he would translate it back.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: So it was saved, but there was a deer in
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: the headlights moment of like, oh, no.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Because you're also a very attractive woman. And was there
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: ever any of these guys trying to like hit on you?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Was there like a lot of love interest going on?
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: Surprisingly, I did really well. And, you know, in spite
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: of being the rat lady and having rats crawling all
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: over me, much better than the cat thing, where the
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: cat thing was a real game killer. But as the
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: rat lady, I mean, I did get, you know, I
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: did have a lot. I mean, I had stalkers.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, really?
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was crazy. I had a guy show up
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: in a limo outside my house.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: A rich stalker?
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. He was very young, and, yeah, apparently he
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: had money, and he, you know, like just had kind
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: of an adoring fan and wanted to take me for
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: a limo ride. And I'm like, well, I don't really
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: know you.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: But you got to.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: Go, huh?
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: Well, I sat and had a drink with him in
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: the limo. So I'm like, I'm going to let you
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: drive off with me in this limo. But I'll sit
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: down here with you for a bit. Because I mean,
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: after the whole, you know, WGN, Chicago Very Young, Rat Lady,
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: and then CNN, and then flying out to Italy, then
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: things just like snowballed. I was like on all the
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: big talk shows and Geraldo and Pauly, sure, he had
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: that series back then. Yeah.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Oh, Pauly's World?
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a two-part episode where I locked him
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: in the room overnight with all the rats.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and was Pauly flirting with you? He likes the ladies.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: You know, if he was, I wasn't picking up on
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: it because I really wasn't even familiar with him. I
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: didn't even know who this guy was. I'm like, what's
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: this weasel thing he keeps talking about? Yeah, because the
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: weasel and the rats, that's really... Yeah, just.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: That's the same marsupials, I think.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: They're weasels. Rodentia. Yeah. I don't think weasels are rodents.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Weasels are more like the ferret group and rats are rodents.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: So I don't think the weasels and rats are really related,
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: but they might be enemies per se. Yeah.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see that. So things really start going.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: The rat game is good. You're out there and you're,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: and like, what's the show? How long is the show
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: with the rats?
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: Oh, it shows like maybe 10, 12, 15 minutes or so.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Oh my God.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: So you're crushing it. And are people paying you good money?
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: to come and perform?
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: No, not really. I mean, it was just perfect. I mean,
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: it was decent money then. I mean, it also was
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: a nightclub. I got free drinks. Yeah. So, and then
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: whatever tips I might get, they might pay me a
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: nominal fee. Because I also, at that point, I had,
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: you know, other animals. I had, you know, snakes. So,
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: they would hire me sometimes to walk around with a
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: snake at a club and such. So, you know, it
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: was kind of, you know, it was back in the 90s. Yeah.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: you got paid a nominal amount and then free drinks.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: So it was like fun. And you're getting to meet
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: all these interesting people and kind of get paid a
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: little bit to do it and have fun and just
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: kind of build a name and get known. I mean,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: I became, I was like the rat lady of Chicago.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: And it all stemmed from this whole idea that I had.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: And then the guys walking in that pet store, what
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: are the chances of that happening? I'm there. I get
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: the movie job. I quit my job without hesitation. And bam,
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: it just snowballs into all of these things. Yeah.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Look, if anybody knows the rat world, I know it
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and love it. You know? I know it and love it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I'm a rat and I'm a rat at heart. I've
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: got the heart of a large rat probably. And that's normal,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: If you're selling something online, well, it can be hectic.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I remember when we first started our online store, we
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: were piecemealing it. We were trying to figure it out
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: all ourselves, and it was a nightmare. But things changed
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: with Shopify. That's right. A lot of times, success with
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: selling online comes... by having a successful sales platform helping you.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: That's where Shopify comes in. Nobody does selling better than Shopify,
• 31:42
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• 32:15
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• 32:22
  Speaker 1: your selling today. Shopify.com slash Theo. And how do you
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: get into, because now, I mean, what you've been most
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: known for now would be.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: The acro cats. Yeah, now I'm known for the acro cats.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: But how do you get to that? How do you
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: get from, I mean, from rats to cats? I mean,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: one could say it'd be easy to see how you
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: would get there.
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: Well, cats are notoriously difficult to work with. I had
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: I experimented putting a cat in one of my shows
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: early on.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, with the rats.
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, with the rats. No. I had it, like, it
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: was supposed to pull a sled, and the rats had
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: little Santa hats on it. Of course. And the cat was,
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: you know, going to wear, like, antlers and pull the sled.
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: It worked perfectly in rehearsal at home. Everything was great.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: And then I tried it, you know, in a live atmosphere,
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: and the cat was like, forget this, just zips across
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: the stage, and the rats are like. popping out of
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: the sleigh, you know, they're all fine.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: They're just like, what's going on? You know, things have changed.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: Somebody called it audible.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: They're doing lines for Macbeth up there and shit.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: The cat abandons the sled, the rats crawl back in
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: the sled and just sit there waiting for the, you know,
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: what's next. The cat was crazy. So, so I was like,
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: so I didn't work with cats for a long time,
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: but Years later, I had been working as a wildlife
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: educator because at one point I discovered I couldn't make
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: a living on just rats. So I kind of expanded
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: and I was working pretty steadily teaching kids, you know,
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: schools and libraries all about.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Wildlife and So at that point, you kind of given
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: up on the rat.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: It's still the rat thing.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Are you still doing it?
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: I'm still doing the rats. I'm still getting all the
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: rat work. I was getting any music videos, any horror movies,
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: anything that came into town that needed a trained rat.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Any rat work.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: Any rat work. I'm getting the rat work.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: You're the baby.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: So I am the one to come to for the rats. Yeah.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: God, that's so good. And then what about, so you're
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: getting the rat work. You're also realizing, but you start
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: to realize that it's not enough income.
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yes. Yeah.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: And where are the rats living? Do the rats live
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: with you?
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, always.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: All the animals always live with me all the time.
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: Like it's never been a separation of me and the animals.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: And would you all sleep in separate rooms or what's
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that like?
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: I had a rat room at one point. I was
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: a landlord's worst nightmare, really. I mean, I just, those
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: rats were, I mean, I had a whole room full
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: of them just dedicated to the rats.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: And would they get out sometimes?
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, they chewed a hole in the screen. of
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: the apartment I was in. Like I said, it would
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: move every like three to six months. Shawshank Redemption.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: That's a horrible play on words.
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: And I'm on a sidewalk and I'm looking up, you know,
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: at my second floor apartment and I see rats on
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: the ledge. And I was like, what's going on? Why
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: are the rats out on the ledge? And I go
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: upstairs and I'm like, oh, they chewed a hole through
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: the screen and they were climbing across the ledge and
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: then hopping in the window to the rest of my house.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, oh. Well, so, you know, I had
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: to do some patchwork and such. But, yeah.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Now, do you think that they didn't want to be
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: a part of the show anymore? Oh, no.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: They were just being rats. I mean, they had a
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: whole room. I wanted them to have freedom. Oh, yeah, baby.
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: And have, you know, because there were ropes and ladders
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: and all sorts of toys in there for them. But
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: they're also rats. They're going to do what rats do.
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: They're rodents. They're going to chew.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Rats want to do rat shit.
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. And, yeah. And there was a lot of
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: them because– You know, also, especially for Halloween, you know,
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: that was a big hiring time for me with the
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: rats and, you know, I don't have the rat lady
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: in a haunted house and such. But, yeah, you know,
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: the rats and all the animals, I raised all my
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: animals from babies and they were part of my daily life.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: I took them everywhere with me. And, you know, I'm
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: their mom. You know, you have to, especially if you're
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: working with any animal in any kind of public setting,
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: You know, you need to acclimate them to that early on.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: And that's, you know, it's a lot of work and
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: dedication to be carting around. You know, I'd be walking
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: down the street. I'd be pushing a stroller or carrying
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: a carrier.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: Full of rats.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: You know, people would be like, they'd have this look
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: on their face like, oh, I can't wait to see
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: what's in the carrier. And then I'd just see their
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: face drop when they'd see that it was rats. They're like.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: The collar drains out of their face.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: They can't handle it.
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. They're like, oh. Because rats are just misunderstood,
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: but they're such wonderful pets. And I turned so many
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: people into rat lovers. I convinced parents to get your
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: child a rat, not a hamster. They're just misunderstood. It's
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: just the name. But they're the best. They won't ever
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: bite your child. You can teach them names. You can
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: teach them tricks. They are affectionate. They're the best pet
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: that you can buy for a child. But, you know,
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: it was– So I turned a lot of people into
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: rat lovers.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Well, one of my first jobs was selling hamsters when
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I was growing up. We used to sell them outside
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: of raves and concerts. And I grew up in a
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: hamster breeding area. And so you'd see a lot of rodentia,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: small rodentia, small ground game. The Roborovskis were the ones
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: that were sold then. I don't know if you're familiar
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: with that strand of them. But that was kind of
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the popular strand of ham that was going on in
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: our area. Bring it up, the Roborovskis, if you can there, Ben.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: If you don't mind.
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: This is the dwarf hamsters. These are a lot of
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: what we were peddling back in the day.
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. I had hamsters growing up, too. Beautiful.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: And a lot of that market went to Russia eventually.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: They started getting these Russian imported hamsters. And for a while,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: that killed a lot of the, like, they started getting
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: more like the red-eyed, the small white red-eyed hamsters. Still cute,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: but not what a lot of kids were looking for, really.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: And that really, I think a lot had to do
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: with like a lot of that Stephen King kind of
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: when he, you know, when that kind of stuff took off.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: But so you really were like a mother to a
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: lot of these rats.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, I, you know, hand raised them all.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Do you ever get any issues with the actual mother
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: of the rats? Was there ever any moments where you
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: had to be like, let them know that they it
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: was a shared territory or that you were just there
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: to help?
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, I didn't, like, take the rats away from
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: their mother prematurely, but as soon as they were weaned,
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, the mom rat isn't really like, these are
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: my children. I want to take care of them.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, she's not.
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, they're like, go. I'm tired of you all. So,
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: you know, once they're weaned, you know, then I would
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: start to, you know, I'd carry them around in my
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: pocket or, you know, on my shoulder, maybe in my hair,
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: you know, just carry them around everywhere.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: That's beautiful, yeah.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: So that they were— You know, they were like, you know, part,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: you know, part of me and they were very comfortable
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: to be held and to be on me. They'd be
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: on my shoulder. They'd go to someone else's shoulder, back
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: to my shoulder. You know, very personal. They've got such
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: great personalities. They're just misunderstood.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: So you say or you say that misunderstood.
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: And look, baby girl, I think it's beautiful that you
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: love these animals so much. I think it's just important
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: to find something to love, you know. And yeah, what's
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: so misunderstood about them, do you feel like?
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: Well, they just have a bad reputation.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: How did they get it, though?
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: They started it.
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they did. But, I mean, well, the whole plague.
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: I love them.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Right, the plague didn't help.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: The plague, yeah, that didn't help. And then, of course,
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: they always play villains in the movies. So, you know.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: You know, the Willard, the Ben and the Willard movies. Yeah.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Chuck E. Cheese, they tried to bring them back and
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: give them a little bit. That was kind of some
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: good PR, I feel like.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, but it's still like, you know, it's just
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: that we're rat. Ratatouille helped some. Yeah, that definitely did
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: help some. And people are definitely, I mean, now there's
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: rat fanciers. There's a lot of people. There's a lot
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: of rat ladies out there now.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm a damn rat king. I mean, our tour
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: is Return of the Rat Tour.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: That's our stand-up comedy tour is the Return of the
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Rat Tour. And so I certainly get that some people
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: don't understand the value of a rat.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. It's just, you know, the name rat. So
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: sometimes I tell people it was a– African gerbil or
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: a Honduran hamster, Honduran long-tailed hamster.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: And that changes their attitude.
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: And then they're like, oh, okay, it's kind of cute.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: And then like two months later, I'd be like, it's
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: actually a wrap. Then they're in love. They're already in love, yeah.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Or one of these Jamaican branch kittens or whatever, and
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: you trick them or whatever. And it's just, yeah, it's just,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, it's just your buddy. It's your buddy
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Marvin or whatever, or whatever.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: And if I had to ship them, if I had
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: to transport them, because I was flying out, you know,
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: being flown to places. you know, Los Angeles to do things.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: And so I'd have to bring, you know, get the rat,
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: take the rats on the flight. And I'd have the
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: health certificate say, you know, Honduran long-tailed hamster, because if
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: you got the wrong person and they saw rats, they
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: don't want rats on their plane. So I just put
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: it on the, you.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Know, the health certificate.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: And they'd be like, they look a lot like rats.
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, yeah, don't they? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: It's very, it's a very exotic hamster that does look
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: a bit like rats. Yeah.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: And what was your life like personally at the time? Like,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: what was your, were you married? Were you single?
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: Never married.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Never married?
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: No, no. When you know what you want to do
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: and you're seven years old, and it was my life dream,
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: you can't, like, I mean, marriage is a job. I mean,
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: it's all fun and romance in the beginning. But if
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: you actually sign the paper and you have a partnership
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: with somebody, now your actions affect them. And I wanted
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: to be able to hop on a flight and take
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: a job anywhere because I knew what I wanted to
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: do at such a young age. And then my life
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: decisions would be affecting another person if I– I got married.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: And that's too much.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And I wanted my freedom. I wanted freedom to
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: pursue my passion, my dream, what I wanted to do
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: since I was seven. So it was just not my parents.
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: They were married for 54 years. Wonderful marriage, like literally like, honey.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: I'm home.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: There was no arguing in the house. It was it
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: was just like I was like out of the out
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: of a movie was like Pleasantville. I always tell people
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: I came from Pleasantville. But it seemed a little, you know,
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: boring and stifling. And I wanted to adventure and excitement
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: and go places and do things and train, you know,
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: train animals for film and television. And, you know, I
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: loved horror movies. So, obviously, rats were the way to go. And, yeah,
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: it's just– so I never– yeah, I did not go
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: take the marriage– Route. Yeah, I did not do that.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Was there love at some point? And it was just–
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: did you ever date a man and they just couldn't
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: accept the animalia that was in your life?
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: I mean, I– I've had great romances. I mean, I've
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: had boyfriends throughout the years and wonderful love affairs and
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: relationships that a lot of times I'd kind of have
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: to break up with them in the spring because it
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: was baby season. So when baby season came around and
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: I'm bottle feeding animals, it's really hard to maintain the
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: romantic relationship. Yeah.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: It's hard to breastfeed a man if you're bottle.
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: Feeding an animal. It's like I'm bottle feeding, you know,
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, it's all right. I mean, I got
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: to bottle feed these, you know, animals like, like round
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: the clock.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: But that's an excuse. I think you hear a lot
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: from women. They're like, oh, I have to wash my hair.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: I have to bottle feed these animals. I think that's
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: something that sometimes you would hear a lot. Like I've
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: definitely heard that from girls before. I have to bottle
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: feed these animals.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Um, we have to redo the stairs at my
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: dad's house, whatever. I'm like, it's another excuse. Yeah.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely. I'm getting my teeth remodeled or whatever.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you're lying to me. I think you don't
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: like me.
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: I could show you the baby animals I'm bottle feeding.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: And there were some, there were some that actually wanted
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: to participate. And, and, you know, so, I mean, I've
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: had boyfriends and relationships, uh, throughout the years. It's, But
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: I just never wanted to, you know, I've even had
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: the marriage proposals. Really? Yeah, they wanted to marry me
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: because I'm actually a really great girlfriend. I bet you are.
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: I'm loyal and driven and creative and, you know, but
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: I still have a fun side. And I'm smart. You know,
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: I'm just like there's a lot of. a lot of things,
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: but I'm not, I don't want to do dishes and,
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: and I don't want to do that whole housewife stuff. Right.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: You don't want to be a housewife.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: I don't want to be a housewife.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: And so many, you know, I just.
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: Want to have, yeah, I don't want to, but so many,
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: that's the end game is just like, it's got to
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: lead somewhere. So it's not going to lead to marriage
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: and you doing my laundry.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: Or, Right.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: I want to be able to have my own freedom.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I want to do I want to live my life
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the way I want to live it. No, I certainly
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: understand that. I mean, I understand that 100 percent. I
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: didn't for years. I didn't when people were married. I
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: was like, what do you even mean you're married? That
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: seems crazy to me. But like it took me a
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: long time to even consider being married one day for
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: so long. I was just so again. Not against it,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: but I just wanted to live. I wanted to be
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: free and see who I was or who I wasn't
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: without also affecting somebody else too heavily. But then even
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: in relationships, I haven't done the best job of being
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: a relationship man. I want to get into the cats.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that you talked about the rats because rats
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: are near and dear to my heart in the sense
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: of Being that underdog, being that animal that doesn't get
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: looked at twice sometimes, you know, or people would rather
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: look at it almost disapprovingly before they even get a
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: chance to look at it, even just with a look
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: of possibility.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Rats don't really get that very much. Now, how do
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: you get to the cats? How do you start catting around?
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: And just so we know, so we're talking a regular-sized cat.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: How tall is it again?
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: If we had one of them in here, you'd be
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: able to see it.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: How tall is a cat? Can you look that up?
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: How tall is a regular cat?
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, it would be about... Oh, 9.1 to 9.8 inches. Wow.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, about 10-inch cat. Yeah, yeah. So, 10 inches
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: in height.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: How do you get into cats? How do we get
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: to acro cats? How do we get to, cause I'll
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: tell you what happened for me was, um, my ex-girlfriend
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: loved cats and she had two cats and, and I didn't,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: I was always, I've always been skeptical of cats to
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: be honest with you. I've been skeptical of a lot
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: of stuff and cats was one of those things. And, um, Yeah,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: my stepdad would always even say stuff. Like he would
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: call the cats names sometimes, like even in the neighborhood.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Or he'd call them like homosexuals or whatever. Just say,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: you know, just stuff you say to cats or whatever.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: And so I was always like, oh man, I don't
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: know if cats are okay or not. And then Mike's
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: girlfriend had two cats. She loved them. And she has
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: been to your show before.
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: And she loved it. And so she was telling me
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: about it one time and it just blew my mind.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: I was like, there's somebody just carting cats around and
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: just do, and they're, the cats are doing shows and
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: performing and putting on shows. And it just, I mean,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: it just shook me to my, the core of my curiosity.
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Where'd she see the show?
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I want to say she saw it in Portland, Oregon.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. We've not been able to make it back out.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: This was years ago.
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah. We've post COVID it's, you know, we've had been
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: a lot of struggles getting, getting things back, but we
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: have not been able to get all the way back
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: out to Oregon. But we always did love going to
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: the West Coast before everything fell apart.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: What fell apart?
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: There was a series of things. Well, I got diagnosed
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: with cancer.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, you did.
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I'm very sorry to hear that. But I was cured.
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: I went through treatment and was cured. Oh, I'm happy
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: to hear that. So I took one year off to
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: get my health back. And then the next year I
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: was immediately back out on tour, did a nine-month tour.
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: With the cats.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: With the cats. Okay. And right, you know, at the
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: end of that tour, a driver that we had had
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: for four or five years scammed me and tried to
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: basically steal the bus. So it just wiped us out financially.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: And just as we were trying to explore the options
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: of trying to bring justice to what has happened, COVID hits. So,
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: you know, we... it was just bam, bam, bam. Man.
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: So and then because the bus sat for two years
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: without being able to tour, when we finally got it
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: back and then we had to undo all the damage
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: that this guy had done because he was supposed to
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: be converting another bus first because he said this bus
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: is no good. It's dangerous to drive. We'll find a shell.
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: of a bus and then I'll transfer everything over to the,
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: you know, that's usable. And he lied. He was all,
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: it was all a lie. It was all a lie.
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: In the meantime, he was just retrofitting my bus that
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: was actually perfectly fine. There's issues with it, but it
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: was not a death trap like he said it was. Yeah.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: And he stripped the wrap off of it because it was,
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: you know, covered with cats. It was gorgeous wrap. Stripped
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: the wrap off of it. He tore out the interior,
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: took out all the cat, you know, catification, the kitten
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: city area he just demolished. And he was putting a
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: bedroom in the back.
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: God, why?
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, he just, I guess he was going to
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: flip it. And I don't know how his end game
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: was going to work because I still had the title.
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, I just paid the thing off. And we
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: raised it. It's not like I bought, we got it
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: through a Kickstarter. So the fans donated money to get
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: this bus. It's not like I can go out and
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: buy another bus.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: And why did he do this so much? Was he
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: just a driver?
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: He was kind of a pathological liar, and he was young,
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: which made prosecution really difficult because small town, the sheriff,
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: family has a sheriff in the pocket.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: What do you mean Ricky did that?
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it seems like a he said, she said kind
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: of thing. I mean, that sheriff just questioned me like
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: I was the bad one and pretty much because he
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: doesn't have assets. No lawyer is going to take the case. Yeah.
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: It's like– I mean it's not about the money. It's
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: about justice. He committed a felony.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: What a piece of shit.
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: I mean he just decimated me to my core. I
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: mean I'll never– I mean I had dreams of doing
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: so much more as far as like good work. I
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: mean I could be one of– I could have been
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: one of those people out in crisis situations like Katrina
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: rescuing animals because we were in a really good place
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: at that point before– before the scam happened and that setback.
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: And then we've just had to put so much money
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: into the bus to get it back to its original shape.
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: And then everything's dry rot, having to sit for so
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: long while COVID was going on because we couldn't travel.
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: And we're still sinking right now. It's sitting in a
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: shop in Iowa. And they were supposed to be fixing
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: this light out. And they're like– they decided, well, we're
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: not going to be able to get to it. We
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: thought it was going to be this– that this would
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: fix it, but it didn't. And now we have other
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: jobs that are more important than you. So we basically
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: get the bus back and it's not fixed. And it's
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: all– Iowa is the only place that can fix this issue.
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: So once again, it just hit again, hit hard with
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: nothing– With it not being repaired. Bad luck. And having
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: to spend, you know, this money.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Bad luck and bad actors.
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: Bad actors that aren't helping you.
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: Bad people that just are not being helpful. And it's, especially,
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: you know, as a female too, it's a struggle to get,
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: you know, respect as a woman. Oh, totally. To get
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: things done as a woman. I resort to having a
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: guy make that call. Yeah. Because I can't get anything done. Yeah. So.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: It's unfortunate.
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I'm sorry that that happens. Yeah.
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: So it was. Definitely rough times, and we're just finally
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: kind of getting things rolling again, and it's just hard
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: to find help post-COVID. Nobody wants to work. Nobody wants
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: to travel. It's hard to find girls whose boyfriends will
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: let them go on the road.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: It's bizarre.
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: There's that double standard. Guys can tour. Girls can't.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we need more women out there entertaining everybody.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: It's important. Um, so how do we get from rats
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: to cats? Take me on some of that journey.
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: So, so I was, uh, you know, the rats I
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: had to, I had to, uh, I realized I couldn't
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: make a living on just rats. So I became the
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: rat company and friends. And then I ended up changing
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: the name to amazing animals. And I was doing the
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: wildlife shows. So I was doing those for many years.
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: And was that a traveling show as well? No, no. Well,
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: it was kind of traveling. Like we were going to schools.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Schools and stuff like that. But it wasn't like the tour.
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: It wasn't touring yet. So I fell in love with
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: touring like way later on. And that's kind of when
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: the cats came into play. So I was doing the
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: wildlife shows and libraries and schools, educating kids. But my
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: heart and soul was I still wanted to train animals
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: for film and television. So I realized. You wanted to
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: show animals.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: You wanted, yeah.
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. I just was like, always what I wanted
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: to do is I see my, you know, and see
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: my cats in a commercial or see my animals in
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: a commercial. Yeah. So there's, you know, there's not so
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: much rat work out there. There's not a whole lot.
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: So I thought, well, maybe I should, you know, there's
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: a lot of dog trainers out there. The rats, you know,
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: have kind of met their limit. You know, let's revisit
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: the cat. I know we had that one experience where
• 54:25
  Speaker 4: there was, I was like, there's got to be a
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: way to work these cats.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: So you still want to do animals for film and television.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: And you decide you're going to give cats another shot.
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's give cats another shot because I've always loved cats.
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: But I know they are difficult to work with. They're small,
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: so there's a lot of predators out there. So they're
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: a little bit like, what could get me? What could
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: get me? And they're insane. I had no idea like,
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: I needed to figure out how to make this work.
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: And so I thought, what if I did what I
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: did all those years ago with the rats and try
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: that with the cats, put a little show together and
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: start taking it around to like low key, no pressure,
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: not charging money, just passing the hat. I started in
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: art galleries. So I basically like I'm going to let
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: the cats Teach me how to teach them. So. Okay.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: And so do you set up something kind of at home?
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Do you audition some cats? Like, how do you.
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: So I had this cat tuna that had come into
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: my life. That was brilliant. I mean, she was very focused,
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: wanted to learn. I had learned clicker training a lot
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: more about clicker training at this point. So I was
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: actually started with Tuna. Tuna was the inspiration behind the
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: whole thing. I was taking her to pet expos, just
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: kind of showing off what she could do, you know,
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: and have her ring a bell and tap a tip
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: jar at a rescue table. And then I donate, you know,
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: donate whatever she got into the rescue. And so I
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: was just taking her everywhere. I was taking her to
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: the film festivals and having her play a guitar, ring
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: a bell and do some things, trying to get her
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: some work there. And I thought, well, let's, you know,
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: try putting a show together. And so I found an
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: art gallery that was looking for some kind of entertainment.
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: And the band I had put together already at that point.
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: And that was pretty solid.
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: The band?
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: What do you mean? The Rock Cats. So we had
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: a guitar, drums, and piano.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: And these are cats performing?
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So the band actually came first.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: And what cats were in it? Tunas in it?
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: Tuna played the cowbell, but that came later. Okay. So
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: she was the donation collector for the band. Okay.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: So she's really, yeah.
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: She's out there earning the bucks.
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah. She's the one, you know, like, hey, better put
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: some money in this tip jar kind of thing.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: You got to have that.
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: And the band had a curtain, so the Rockettes, they
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: had their own table. They had their instruments, had their
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: scent on it.
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: So they, the cat, the band, the cat band seemed
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: to work. Now the rest of the act, I mean,
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: I went to Home Depot. I got a couple of
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: ladders and big rope. And then, you know, some, I
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: tied weights to the ladders to keep them from folding in.
• 57:07
  Speaker 4: And I found some stools at Ikea. My initial setup
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: was very crude, just whatever it could, you know, a
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: lot of like dog agility props, small dog agility props.
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: So then I find an art gallery, I'd set everything
• 57:20
  Speaker 4: up and the cats, I mean, it was just, The
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: cats would come out. They'd like look around and stretch,
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: groom a little bit. And, you know, it was kind
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: of just an utter fail. I mean, there was a
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: lot of fails, right?
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: They wouldn't perform? Was it stage fright or was it anger?
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: Do they hate?
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: They didn't.
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: This is all, this is new to them. This is
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: new to me.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't even know that they're a show cat yet.
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm like. trying to figure out, okay, what
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: do you need to make you comfortable? So I started
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: bringing my own floor, like a roll-out floor. So I
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: brought a floor that had their scent on it, and
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: I realized that they're always doing this. Like, okay, I go, okay,
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: they don't like knowing what's behind, not what, you know,
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: what is behind them. They need to know what's behind them.
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: So then I put up a backdrop behind them. So
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: now they have a solid back wall behind them. They
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: have a floor that they're familiar with the scent, and
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: I've been working them at home. And now, I'm bringing
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: them into this new environment. Tuna's pretty solid. She'll do
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: her trick. She'll ring her bell. She'll do the various things.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: She's your go-to.
• 58:25
  Speaker 4: She's the go-to. Now, the other cats are a little
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: bit hesitant. They're a little slow, but they're doing it.
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: They're doing it, but they're doing it at their own pace.
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: So then I would just have to come up with
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: funny things to say while we're waiting for the cats
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: to maybe do something or maybe not do something.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: So you had to be the performer at that point.
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. I mean I've consistently had to be the
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: performer because those cats are mixing it up every show.
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: I never know what's going to happen or not happen.
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: And because it's– I have a– Well, because they're damn cats. Well,
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: also because I have a personal relationship with the cats.
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: They're not just kenneled with– where they just come out
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: during training and then they're back to the kennels. I
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: mean I watch television with these cats. I sleep with
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: these cats, you know. like it's been i take them
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: on road trips you know.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: We're so cats would sometimes sleep in your bed oh.
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah of course i mean especially if it's a
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: little cold you know pile on more cats i mean
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: yeah so it's just oh unlimited yeah yeah exactly they
• 59:23
  Speaker 4: purr is so comforting i mean just i love i
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: love them So they're my babies. I've raised some of
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: them from two days old, you know, bottle feed. So,
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: you know, I've saved hundreds of kittens with bottle feeding
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: because that's like one of my, turned out to be
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: one of my superpowers is to be able to save
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: little babies. And so like little by little, the cats
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: taught me what they needed to feel comfortable, you know,
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: on stage. And So they started to, you know, the applause,
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: there's something called like a secondary reinforcer. So there's a
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: primary reinforcer, which is the food. Click equals treat. Here's
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: a click, they get a treat. So then the applause
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 4: actually starts, and laughter also becomes a secondary reinforcer. So
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: they're like, oh, if we hear applause or laughter, that
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: means we're doing good, we're going to get a treat. Right.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: And so, of course, they'll take advantage of and do
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: things just to get that laughter, which ends up kind
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 4: of paying off in the show because people just find
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 4: it hysterical as Cat comes out. Sometimes they just leave
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: the stage and sit out in the crowd the whole time.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: Come back, sit on us.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: It's like Kodak Black or something.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they decide what they want to do, when they
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: want to do it, if they want to do it.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: And I just kind of follow helplessly along and come
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: up with some witty banner to cover their, their slowness
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: and their fail moments. And, you know, it's kind of
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: like my story as well and how each of these
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: cats came into my life, their story, how they came in,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: you know, how they came to be, what their special
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 4: skills are, what just, you know.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: I see. So a lot of it is not as much, there's, there's,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: there's certainly some training of the actual cats, but there's
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: also you training yourself just to understand that these are
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: cats and I need to, um, try and just make
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: it as comfortable environment for them to be here. And
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: then I need to train myself how to react if
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: they don't react or, or how to react to whatever
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: they're doing.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And, and they're all interesting. So they, it's almost
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: like improv. Oh, it is improv. It's totally improv. Yes.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 4: And they come out, we have carriers that they're in
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: and they, when they come out of their carrier, their,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: the doors are, of the carriers are open. The carriers are,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: there's are a safe place for them. It's, it's like a,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: like a, uh, It's like a green room. Yeah, yeah. So,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: you know, like they know that that's a safe place.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: All of my cats are whistle trained to go to
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: a carrier, which is great for emergency situations. If you
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 4: need to call your cats quickly and get them out
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: of the house because there's a fire or some disaster. Oh, yeah.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 4: The fact that you can blow a whistle and the
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: cats come running. They go in the carriers. They're used
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: to traveling. So if they're not feeling it or they're
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: having an uncomfortable moment and they're not liking the person
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: in the front row that has big hair. which I'm
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 4: always picking up on. I'm always watching the cats. I'm
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: watching the audience. I'm watching like just constantly reading and
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: communicating with these cats while doing the show and, and
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 4: making mental notes about, okay, you know, Wiki does not
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: like people with big hair in the front row. They
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: do not like wheels rolling by. That's, you know, that's
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: babies crying. Everything stops when the babies cry. So it's, yeah, it's,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of challenges, but if they don't feel
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: like coming, or if they have a moment, they're like,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: I need to, I'm going to, I'm going to go
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 4: back to the carrier. They can do that. So they're, they,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: that is their safe. That's their safe. You know, it's
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: like a portable base camp for them. So when I,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 4: when I take them out for like outings or camping,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: you know, I have a harness on them and then
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: I also have a backpack.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: So wait, camping, is that part of the show?
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 4: Is that? No, that's just for fun.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: You guys will go camping?
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah. Because when I, when I'm raising new kittens
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: and to, to, Do a field trip or something. Yeah,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: to adopt out or to be in the show. You know,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 4: I want to bomb-proof them so that they're comfortable in
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: any atmosphere. Because, you know, the way the world is today,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: disaster could be around any corner. And these cats need
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: to be able to be comfortable being transferred to other areas.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: You know, loud noises. So I always, you know, I
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: have clicker. So clicker, anytime they're freaked out by something,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: especially there's a window of time with kittens where– They
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 4: adapt really quickly. Like they may hear thunder and be like, right?
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: And then I click and treat during that moment, and
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: I turn that bad experience into a good experience.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: Now, the next time it thunders, they're like, oh, well,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: that's nothing.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: Everything's okay.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: Where's my treat? Yeah. So even fireworks and such. I mean,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: I click and treat during– my cats are not bothered
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: by fireworks because they've all– I've been, you know, whenever
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: fireworks have been around, I had the clicker and the
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: treats out and click and treat and click and treat.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: So anything that they found distressing, and I've learned more
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: and more over the years since I've been doing this, I,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: you know, over the years I've gotten better at reading
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 4: the cats and knowing what they need. I don't need
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: the floor anymore for them. We still have the back,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 4: we still have a, like a solid back wall, but they're, they're,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 4: they're just, you know, it's gotten better.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, are cats trustworthy? That's what I, I mean,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: are cats trustworthy?
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: Oh no, my goodness. I mean, we have these treats
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: and we have cups of treats and various cats have
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: their favorite treats. Some cats have allergies, so we have
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: to have turkey for the cats that have allergies. We
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: have to have the primo treats for cats like Osti,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: who's a seasoned pro and is, you know, is literally
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 4: we negotiate when it comes to her pole climb and
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: jump to my back trick. Like there's a negotiation that
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: happens every time. She's like, what do you got?
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, she's like the OBJ of cats. There are some
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: things in life that are okay to be a total crapshoot,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: you know, like trying a new milk in your coffee or,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: hugging a stranger at a mall or in a parking lot.
• 1:05:17
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  Speaker 1: That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash Theo. ZocDoc.com slash Theo. Yeah, who's in
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: the show? What are some of the big, like Tuna
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: was obviously, is Tuna still on the show?
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: Well, the original Tuna passed away to cancer.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: And how did you guys do that? Did you guys
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: have a ceremony or anything like that? Well, I mean,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: by then, because I've, you know, I've been traveling. Were
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: you all on the road when it happened?
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 4: It happened during, you know, like right after, right after tour.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 4: So I had like one last, round of shows with her.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: And then I knew that it was going to be time.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 4: So it was after our show and every year we
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 4: go to new Orleans for Christmas. So that was kind
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: of her last time. And so I got to, you know,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: so we had January, February off. So I got to
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 4: spend time with her and, and, you know, and a fan,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: you know, I had to let the fans know that,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 4: that this was going on. And because these people have
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 4: supported us through years, through all the, all the disasters,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 4: all the crises, you know, the fans have been helping
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: us through. And so they're, they know the cats, It's
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 4: not like the days of Lassie where bring in another Lassie.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 4: I couldn't just be like, bring in another Tuna. But
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 4: I did, you know, I brought the, I let the
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: fans know that Tuna's passing. And we, I had five
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 4: white cats that came in to audition to take her place.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 4: And Tuna helped train, you know, the training process kind
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 4: of helped, you know, pick. You know, the protégés. And,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 4: of course, nobody could top. Tuna was just brilliant. So
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: now we have two tunas that took the place of
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 4: the original tuna. And one of them is ahi tuna
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: and one is albacore tuna.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. So you still have some tunas, but it's
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: different now.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: And the original tuna helped choose these ones?
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 4: Yes. So there's pictures of, you know, the original tuna
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: next to ahi tuna and albacore. You know, they're both
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 4: ringing bells. So it kind of, you know, made sense.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 4: everybody part of the process and everyone, you know, everyone
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: grieved together for the, you know, the loss and embrace
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 4: the new tuna. So, you know, I, I keep people,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 4: you know, involved. Yeah.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: People love, I mean, my ex-girlfriend is a cat lover.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: She loved her cats, you know, she loved them. She
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: was a good cat mom and she loved them. And she,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: I was amazed. It was one thing that even just
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: showed me how good she was at loving people was
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: just You know, how much she could love a cat
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: and really, you know, think about a cat. Did you
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: guys bury Tuna anywhere special or how did that go down?
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 4: We pre-married. her. So I have like a whole little
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 4: glass area with the various, you know, Pinky was the
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 4: first to go. She was my guitar player.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: She was a guitar player.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: She was my best guitar player ever. And then Tuna,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: you know, when we lost Tuna, you know, the pandemic
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 4: was really tough on the cats because they're used to,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: that's so much stimulus. They, they, they love working. I mean,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 4: if the cats aren't working, their, their health, you just
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 4: like with people, if you, if a person quits, no purpose,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: you know, no purpose, if they lose their purpose in life,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 4: then they kind of, their health and mental health is affected. So,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 4: you know, we lost a couple of cats during that
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: COVID time. And I just lost two 17 year old
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 4: cats that had been from the beginning. They were my,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 4: From the very beginning, when I first started training cats,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: they were there with me. And then to lose them
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: within four months of each other.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: And who were their names?
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: It was Oz and Newey. And Oz, is that Middle Eastern? Well,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: I was watching Oz, that series Oz, with the Oswald
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: State Penitentiary.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 4: So I was bottle feeding Itty and Oz, and it
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: would take one episode– Per kitten, per feeding. So I
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: chewed through that entire series. And so that's how Oz
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: got his name from, you know, from Oz. And he
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 4: had a little bit of a, every once in a while,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: he would just go get crazy and beat up an
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: orange cat for, you know, just out of nowhere.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Very prison-like behavior almost.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's because, you know, he was listening
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 4: to all that violence in the background. I should have
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 4: chosen some more. friendly programming for him to listen to
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 4: because he definitely had a temper, right? I was just like, Oz,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: you're the sweetest cat we have. What's going on? Why
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 4: are you acting out like this?
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: He's got a dark side.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he had a very dark side, but everybody loved Oz.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: I mean, he didn't do much. He was not the
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: brightest one, but everybody loved him so much. We came
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 4: up with tricks that he could do There were kind
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: of fake tricks in the show. And, you know, like
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: he jumped through a tissue paper hoop, but, you know,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 4: it was only this far. And he'd basically tear open
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 4: the tissue paper and walk through to the other side.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: And it was just so endearing. People loved that.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: How magical.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: God dang, I love seeing cats do something if it's good.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. I mean, Newey was number one in the end.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: Towards the end, she was brilliant. She could do a lot.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: She was one of my best film cats, too. But
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 4: she would, at the end, she was like, I'm going
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: to raise my, I'm going to do the one thing.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 4: Who's number one? Raise my paw. And then I'm going
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: to play the piano and that's it. That's all I'm
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 4: going to do. And I was like, all right.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: A lot of seniors get like that. They got one,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: you know, they do their last trick or they'll, you know,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: you know, and then they'll just want to have a
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: little bit of dessert and go to bed early or whatever.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah. She was such a cranky cat. She used
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: to lay on my chest and growl and purr at
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: the same time. I mean, That was so tough losing
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: her because she was my baby. And Oz loved everybody
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: but knew he loved me. And so it was really
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: rough when you have to make that decision to let
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: him go. And so now I have the youngest cat
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: right now is two years. But we're auditioning because we
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: just had to retire two of our other seniors. So
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 4: we're auditioning. new cats for the show okay so we
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 4: have two potentials we actually brought two of them two
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: two that were that we think are are good acro
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 4: cat potential yeah one's named crush because uh she was
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: the only survivor in a salvage lot and a car
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 4: that was about to be crushed oh so we got
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 4: to her in the nick of time yeah it really
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: is a you know great name and she's she is
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: just uh so i mean One training session, she's already
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 4: hopping on the skateboard like I'm ready to do this.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: And can you tell cats that want to be in
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: the show and cats that don't?
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 3: Is that something?
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: Well, it's hard to know. Females generally work better. Like
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: all the females have had a better work ethic than
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 4: the males. The males are a little bit more like,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: why don't we just, you know, hang out and watch TV? Yeah.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: Like Alva Cortuna is, you know, he's like, he plays
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 4: the cowbell and he'll like hit it once. And I'm like,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 4: come on. How about three? And he's like, one, two, three. So,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, they do understand.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: Well, a lot of people don't want to work anymore.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's a problem that we've had across the
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: animal kingdom and the human kingdom.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: That a lot of the work ethic is disappearing. How
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: did the touring start?
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 4: So I had just come back from a thing called
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 4: a Festival of Cultures where I was doing a wildlife program,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 4: but it was touring. So we were touring with five
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 4: other groups. There were Polynesian Paradise. Africa, the European where
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 4: they did sword fighting.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: Are these all animal shows or just different variety shows?
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: So they were, it was an educational tour. So they
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 4: basically were educating people about this culture. Got it. So the,
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 4: and some of it was more fun, you know, like Europe,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 4: they did sword fighting and Native America was, that was
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 4: a little bit more educational. And then I represented wildlife
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 4: of the world. So my little segment would be, bringing
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: out various animals and doing my little wildlife presentation to,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 4: you know, teach people like, you know, these various animals
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 4: from these parts of the, of the world. And that's
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 4: when I fell in love with touring. I mean, and
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 4: that's when I was driving and traveling in an ambulance
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 4: at that, you know, initially.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: And you guys got an old ambulance and turned it
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: into the AcroCats.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 4: Well, I turned it, that was for the wildlife of
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 4: the world. And then I got a small RV after that.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 4: So that last year I had the band together and
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 4: I set it up on the kitchen table in this
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 4: RV that we had. And so people would be walking
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 4: by the RV and I'd be like, hey, you want
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 4: to see something cool? And I'd open up the RV
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 4: doors and the band would play. You know, the cat
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 4: band would play and they're like, what?
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: Because usually it's something perverted.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you want to see something really, you know, like,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 4: you know, I don't know.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 4: You want to see something short? Yeah. So that's when
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: I knew that maybe I could do something with these cats.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 4: So when I got back and I knew that wildlife,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 4: they weren't going to be including us in the next
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 4: round of tours. And at this point, I would have
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: fallen in love with touring and traveling.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: And seeing things. What did you like about it? Oh,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: just seeing things?
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: Just to get to see, you know, because we try
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 4: to stay in places for, you know, we don't tour
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 4: like a band does where you're just one-off, one-off, one-off.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: What fun is that? But if we stay in a
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 4: place for like three weeks to get to know people.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, we go to New Orleans for like almost
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 4: a month every December. So I have friends there. I mean,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 4: I get to enjoy that. I get to enjoy that city,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 4: you know, I get San Diego, beautiful weather, right by
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: the oceans, the sea lions, all the things that you
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: can see in these other cities that are awesome. We're
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 4: going to the East Coast this year. So, you know, Portland, Maine,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 4: absolutely love it right there. But we're performing so close
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 4: to the ocean and you get to meet, you know,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 4: you get to meet people and get to know people and,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 4: you know, just see. You know, I love roadside attractions.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm a sucker for, like, biggest ball of twine,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 4: next exit, pull off now. Yes, I'm totally seeing that.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a carnival worker in, and his great-grandfather
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: had three legs. And he was in one of the original, like,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: dime show, like one of the side shows, like back in, like,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: vaudeville days, almost right there.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 4: Frank Lentini, that's him. And he had three legs, and
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 4: we had his great-grandson in.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: It was a car.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I saw his segment. I watched because I
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 4: was like– Pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. He seemed interesting because
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 4: I've always– I always loved carnivals when I was– that
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 4: whole lifestyle since I was young. When I read the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 4: book The Boxcar Children, I'd stare at those freight trains
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 4: and I just wanted so badly to hop on one
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 4: and just go. Because, I mean, my parents– I was
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 4: their girl. I was their daughter. They kept me on
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 4: a pretty short leash.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 4: So I was not allowed to roam the country.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: Or even outside the neighborhood. You wanted to get off
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: leash fully.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 4: I wanted to get off leash fully. Exactly. And just
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 4: see things and experience life. You know, all the oh
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: no's and all the oh yay's. So because it's– there's
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 4: been a lot of– I mean I've learned so much
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 4: on the road. Like they gave me no instructions when
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 4: I bought my first RV. They just handed me the keys,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 4: drove off the lot, and I popped all the tires
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 4: within the first six months because it was stored outside. Oh,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 4: the tires will rot. Yeah, they had no instructions at all.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 4: So then good Sam dumped me. So I didn't have
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 4: that kind of, you know, roadside assistance anymore.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: And so this is when you're on the, so you
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: start the tour.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: You start the tour. You started in an RV.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 4: So yeah, we started, we got, we had an RV and.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: And is it Acro Cats? That's the name of the time?
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. There was an amazing Acro Cats. And we
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 4: did our first, you know, we did our first like
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 4: real show was like in 2006 at a, at a
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 4: little place called the Reversible Eye. And that was actually
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 4: one of the more successful shows at that point. I
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 4: was like, okay, I'm, Finally doing, I've got enough put
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 4: together that I can pull off a show.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: Where was this?
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 4: It was in Chicago. Okay.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: And do you have all the cats you want? How
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: many cats are in the show?
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 4: At this point, I think there was maybe six, seven
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 4: cats in the show.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: Okay. Was there ever a cat you wanted to get,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: you just couldn't get the contract writer or the deal
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: writer with them or whatever?
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 4: Well, 2009 is kind of when things really shifted from,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 4: you know, because my initial goal was to get the
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: cat's attention.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 4: For film and television work.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Like, that was my goal. Yeah, you still, like, Yeah, I'm.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 4: Still trying to get them film and television work, right?
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 4: That's crazy. Jesus Christ. And it was working. I mean,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 4: my cat Bowie is on a Blue Buffalo Tastefuls commercial.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 4: He rocks it. Really? Oh, yeah. He nails every shot.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 3: He's perfect.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 4: Looks in the camera. He's fantastic. I mean, he's a
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 4: poster child. He's on the stores. You know, when I
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 4: go down in the pet store, I'm like, there he
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 4: is on all the food packages.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: And You crushed it, huh?
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 4: That's my boy. It was like, yeah, he's killing it.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 4: He's so great. And he swaggers. He's got such a swagger.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 4: But initially, I started it to do that. But then
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 4: 2009 is when things shifted because I wanted to add
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 4: another cat to the show. Okay.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: And at this point, why? Is the show faltering or
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: are you just not?
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 4: Well, a lot of the cats, they start out strong.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 4: They're doing eight tricks. And the second they're going middle
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 4: of the season, first year you know between the year
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 4: one and two they're like yeah so we're only going
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 4: to do these tricks these two tricks i'm just gonna
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 4: i just want to do these two tricks so they
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 4: get an ego so yeah so they're so they renegotiate
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 4: their contract and i'm like i'm only going to do
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 4: these two tricks i'm like well i was going to
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 4: do these tricks they're not my problem they don't care
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 4: not my problem so so then i'm like well i
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 4: need to add another cat to the show we need
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 4: someone you know and i don't i'm like well i
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 4: really wanted to be a rescue cat but i don't
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: want to just pick one and be like, what if
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 4: it's not like the right one? And I can't just
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 4: return it because, well, this one's dumb. I can't do that.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 4: So I thought, well, why don't I foster a litter?
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 4: And then I'll train them all, pick the best one,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 4: and then find the rest of them home. So that
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 4: was my plan. And then I found a rescue that,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 4: you know, were desperate for fosters. So they snatched me
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 4: up immediately because there was a dire need for fosters.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 4: And they sent me into the trenches. I mean, I
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 4: had no No knowledge. I had no idea what I
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 4: was getting into. So they send me to a shelter
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 4: that's basically an intake facility. Not open to the public.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 4: People dump off animals there. They send me to the
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 4: kitten room and they say, So whoever you don't pick
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 4: from this room today is going to be euthanized. No.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 4: There's 12 kittens in that room.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: And this is a Japanese game show? No.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 4: It was a— Yeah, I was just joking. Yeah, I know.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 4: But no, that's— It could be a Japanese game show.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 4: Very much so. It probably is a Japanese game show. Actually,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 4: with Squid Game out there and whatnot, I could see that.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: So you walk into a.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 4: Room— I walk into a room. They're like, wherever you
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 4: don't pick, we're going to euthanize.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 3: I'm like, what?
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 4: So I was like, I'll take them all, give them all.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: So you left out of there that day with how
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: many cats?
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 4: With 12 kittens. I take them home. They have respiratory. Sorry,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 4: I didn't mean to make that sound. They all have
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 4: respiratory issues. I didn't know. Of course. All my cats
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 4: get sick. And I'm medicating like, you know, 20 some cats, right?
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 4: I get everybody healthy. I trained everybody up and that
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 4: was a really, like you know that there's a pet
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: overpopulation problem. You know that there's a problem. But until
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 4: you're thrown into a situation like that where you're actually
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 4: told these kittens are gonna die today because there's no
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: home for them. You see people dumping off their cats
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 4: on a regular basis, just leaving them behind. They're not
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 4: part of the family. They're just left behind like garbage.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: Well, cats act like they wanna leave all the time too.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: Some of it is their fault. I'm not gonna say
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: that it should happen. But some of the cats are like, ew.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 4: Well, that's because the person has not invested the time
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: in the cat.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: That could very well be true.
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 4: And that is part of what, that's where the change happened.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 4: So I got these 12 kittens. I've ended up finding
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 4: homes for all of them. And I realized that, and
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 4: I went in and I got more.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: I bet nobody wanted to talk to you because if
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: you even talk to somebody, they're going to be like,
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: this lady's going to try to give me a cat.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 4: Oh, no, we're very picky about who adopts.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, they have to fill out an application, all
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 4: the things. So, I mean, this was just really eye-opening
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 4: for me. And I also realized that part of the,
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 4: not only were just kittens being dumped off, but people
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 4: were leaving their adult cats behind. And that's because they
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 4: felt like their cat didn't care. They didn't have a
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 4: relationship with their cat. And that's why I thought, well,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: I can make a difference here. So part of my
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 4: show is like an educational– to inspire people to, you know, like, hey,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 4: not only can cats do tricks, you can teach your cat,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 4: look at the relationship. My cats act like dogs. They
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 4: follow me around the house. I mean, the little kittens
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 4: that I just started training, they follow me around like puppies.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 4: They're like, what are we going to work? What are
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 4: we going to work? Let's do something. Let's do something.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 4: And I realized that I can make a difference here.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 4: I can help save lives. So not only have I saved,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 4: you know, actual lives, but I've fostered and found homes
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 4: for 350, 40 cats and kittens since 2009. Wow. And I,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 4: you know, through my show, I foster a bunch, take
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 4: them on the road with me, teach them tricks, put
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 4: them in the show, and then find homes for them.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: Well, right after the show, people can't even adopt them.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 4: Well, because we stay in a place for a while.
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 4: They have to fill out. They fill out the application.
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 4: We check the references. And if they, you know, get approved,
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 4: they get the training kit. All the kittens are trained
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 4: to go to a carrier at the sound of a whistle.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 4: They're all trained. They're all comfortable traveling in a car,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 4: which is a big thing. And they're all trained to
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 4: do a parlor trick. So like a high five, a
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 4: sit pretty, a spin, maybe even playing the piano. And
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 4: who's going to leave a cat behind that high fives
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 4: you when you come in from work that day and
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 4: they give you a high five after your bad day?
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 4: You're not going to leave that cat behind. So my
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 4: mission is like no cat gets left behind when disaster
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 4: strikes or you move. That cat's part of your family
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 4: because I've given the cat a good start. by training
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 4: them to do the basics, and they're all clicker trained.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: No cat left behind. It's like the Marines almost.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no cat left behind.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: It's like Semper Feline.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 4: Yes, you know, this cat is going to be a
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 4: permanent part of your life. I've already pre-trained it. Okay, okay. Yeah,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 4: it already knows that, you know, all you have to
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 4: do is give him the cue, and he's going to
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 4: sit pretty for you. And here's the whistle to call
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 4: him for mealtime.
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: So that's part of this. So part of the show
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: also is that not only are the cats performing well,
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: But there's this underbelly. There's this positive underbelly of you
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: shelling out cats to people and getting cats in the homes.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah. OK. Well, good homes.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: Good homes.
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 4: We don't just like hand them out on the corner.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 4: I mean, yeah.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah. That's the thing about a cat. People
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: are always like, dude, do you want a cat? And
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: you'd be like, just just if you leave your door open,
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: like a cat will come in. That's that was always
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: the thing about cats. Like you don't like one of
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: my friends was like, dude, I think I'm going to
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: buy this cat. I'm like, dude, you don't buy a cat.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: You just, just be somewhere and just get a cat.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 4: They choose you. They'll appear in your life. Like they will.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 4: Like just, you.
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: Know, they let you know. They're like little whispers from
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: God or whatever.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Just, you know, I mean, we've had so many
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 4: instances of, You know, on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, one
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 4: day a bus pulls up, door opens, a cat comes out.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 4: A little kitten comes out, steps out of the bus
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 4: and walks up to our front door. It's just like, hey,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 4: I heard this is a place to go. I need
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 4: to be here. And I'm like, what just happened here?
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 4: This bus door just opened, this kitten came out and
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 4: is sitting at my front door. I witnessed it happen.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of cats have that fast pass or whatever,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: I know. Um, with the tour, what's, what was one
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: of the tougher times that you had? You ever have
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: a time where just the show barely got off the
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: ground or it just didn't, something just happened?
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, there's been so many, especially with the bus.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 4: We had this Texas fiasco where we finally got back
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 4: on the road and we had a fan clutch issue. The, the, uh,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 4: bus broke down, uh, A couple of guys tried to
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 4: fix it. They made it worse. We were stuck in
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 4: a bar in the middle of nowhere for like three days.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 4: We had to cancel our show in Dallas. And I've
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 4: probably canceled maybe a half dozen shows in my lifetime.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 4: I am one of those, the show must go on.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 4: If there's a way to get there, I will get
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 4: there and do this show. I mean, even when I
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 4: was going through cancer treatment, I had a broken foot.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 4: At the same time, I was still doing the show.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 4: The show must go on. People are excited about these cats.
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 4: They're like, can't wait to see the cats again. We
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 4: have repeat people that see the show every time we
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 4: come to town. Oh, cat people are absolutely insane. They
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 4: have their favorite cats. All my cats have their own merch.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 4: I don't want to let down the people that are
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 4: so excited about the cats. Yeah. You know, but we
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 4: were grounded. We were not able to get, you know,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 4: to that destination. So we finally, you know, end up
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 4: getting towed to a proper repair place. And it doesn't
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 4: get fixed in time. So we're having to rent U-Hauls
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 4: and live in the theater during the show, during the
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 4: show run. So then we get to, and this was
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 4: like March a couple years ago. in Texas and when
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 4: they had that freak snowstorm in Texas. So, so we,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 4: the show was canceled. Then it wasn't, then it was canceled.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 4: Then it wasn't because of the snowstorm. So we're living
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 4: in the venue, you know, with everything set up, ready
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 4: to go in case we can do the show. And
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 4: then the bus that was supposed to be ready for Houston,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 4: the broke down 20 minutes out of the shop. So
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 4: we did not, you know, we didn't have the bus
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 4: yet again. So we had to get another U-Haul, get
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 4: transfer all the, the, the cats and get a, you know,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 4: get a rental car. Get all the cats to the
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 4: next venue. And luckily, the venues were amazing. So they
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 4: let us move in and sleep in the venue. We
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 4: were sleeping on couches. We got some air mattresses.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: And also, when you go on tour, how many people
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: are on the tour bus with you or in the RV?
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 4: Well, there's myself. And then I usually have two, at
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 4: least two assistants. And at one point we had a
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 4: driver that traveled with us, but post COVID drivers are
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 4: really hard to come by. You just, you know, there's
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 4: a shortage of drivers and they, they generally want an
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 4: obscene amount of money and they want a hotel room
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 4: That's crazy expensive. Like we can't afford that. I want
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 4: to keep the ticket prices somewhat reasonable. I mean, we've
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 4: had to raise the prices pretty intensely as it is,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 4: but we always try to keep a level of seats
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 4: that are affordable. Because, you know, between the fuel and— Oh,
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 4: it's expensive. It's so expensive. And I've learned how to
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 4: drive the bus since because I'm like, I cannot be
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 4: at the mercy of drivers anymore like this.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: Did you have to get a commercial driver's license or no?
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 4: Well, it's because it's a private-owned coach, so I own it.
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 4: And just because I've been driving big vehicles, I started
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 4: out with the ambulance, and then it was a 23-foot RV,
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 4: then a 27-foot RV, then it was a 35-foot bus,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 4: and now it's a 45-foot bus. Sure.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: So I've just you're driving an actual tour bus yeah I'm.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 4: Driving an actual tour bus wow and full of cats
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 4: full of cats and assistants yeah so and then we
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 4: hire someone to drive the longer like if it's a
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 4: long drive because it's it's just tough on me to
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 4: do yeah it's a lot to drive so we'll hire
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 4: someone to do the long drive and then I'll I'll
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 4: drive like the short drives like when we go to
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 4: the east coast I'll drive to from Boston to Portland
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 4: and then we're going to stay in Portland for almost
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 4: a month oh good and so so we get to
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 4: you know settle in a campground and go back and
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 4: forth with to the venue and be fine. And yeah. So,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 4: I mean, I just, I love that part of it
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 4: where you get to see, you know, you know, I
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 4: get to see people I haven't seen in a couple
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 4: of years or we go like some places we go
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 4: every year, we go to Texas every year, New Orleans
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 4: every year.
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had issues with performers? Like have you
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: ever had an issue? Like a performer didn't make it
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: to the show or like, what's that kind of like?
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 4: Oh, I had last, the last time we were in Portland, um,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 4: My assistant was supposed to fly in. Her daughter got COVID,
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 4: so she got COVID. And then the assistant that was
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 4: with me, she got COVID. So I had to do
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 4: the entire show myself. And even our merch person who
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 4: usually ran the merch also got COVID. So luckily, I
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 4: had a mega fan and the sound guy who had
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 4: been helping us with the show forever. He, you know,
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 4: they chipped in and, you know, they helped me, you know,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 4: I'd box the cats. They'd help. You know, reset the stage,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 4: take the cats in. I would run in. I would, like, have, like,
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 4: kind of half makeup on. I'd set the merch thing up,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 4: and I'd, you know, start the selling of the merch,
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 4: and I'd instruct whoever volunteer was there, okay, this is
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 4: what you need to do. And then I would go
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 4: back out and get dressed for the show, and then
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 4: I'd run back out on stage, and I'd do the
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 4: opening announcements, right? And then I'd sell the cat ears
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 4: because we'd walk around with a tray. Cat ears, get
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 4: your cat ears. Cat ears, get your cat ears. So
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 4: then I'd sell the cat ears, do the opening announcements,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, take the cat ears back. And
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 4: then I had a friend that was kind of with
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 4: me who, she didn't, she was just there as like
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 4: more of a friend. She didn't really know how the
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 4: show went. She hadn't done any rehearsals. So basically she
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 4: was kind of at least another body on stage.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, help out.
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was just pretty much me up there, you know, like, okay,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 4: let this cat out now, let this cat out now
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 4: and grabbing the props when I need them and, And
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 4: explaining to the audience, like, it's just me up here. And,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 4: you know, I've never done this part before. So I'm like,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at this long script. I'm going, I'm not
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 4: going to say all that. I'm just going to wing it.
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 4: So this is a situation. So I don't know what's
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 4: going to happen, but we're just going to, you know,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 4: enjoy the cats. And I had, and I learned, I mean,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 4: I learned a lot after that experience. I changed a
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 4: lot of our, you know, the way we sell merch.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 4: I was like, this is insane. So it's like we're
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 4: going to make part of this self-serve and, you know,
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 4: just only the, you know, important things do people have to,
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 4: you know, dig for to give to the– so, you know,
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 4: I just– I learned how– learned where some of the–
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 4: where improvements need to be made.
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes certain things force you in a certain moment
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: and then that's where you learn the most, which is
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: kind of wild.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 4: And the show– but the show must– the show must
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 4: go on. I am one of those like literally the
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 4: show must go on. You don't– just decide oh you
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 4: know i'm not i'm not feeling it today or i
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 4: mean i've done like i've had full-on sick where i
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 4: could have to talk in a whisper you know like
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 4: i'm doing i've got tea on stage whispering into the
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 4: microphone because i can barely because i barely have a
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 4: voice but i'm still doing the best i can and
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 4: then immediately going and sleeping and and resting it's a
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 4: lot yeah.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah managing yourself and getting all that kind of
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: stuff done is is a lot um And then having to.
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 4: Drive the bus too. I can't even imagine. And still
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 4: train the cats and raise the babies, the kittens. We
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 4: have portable incubators. So there's a lot of times we
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 4: have bottle babies with us.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: And have you ever gotten stopped by the police and
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: they're like, what's going on here?
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 4: Very rarely. It's– I think that it's– Like animals bring
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 4: out the best in people for the most part. So
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 4: we've run into so many great people out on the
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 4: road that have been so helpful and have come to
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 4: our rescue.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: Well, like, is there ever been a, like a cat
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: that had it all, like a cat that kind of
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: had it all. And then just for some reason, things
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: just kind of fell apart. Like the kind of like
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: the Chris Brown of like cats kind of.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 4: Well, they, I think we've only had one cat that
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 4: we were after like a year of trying. I was like,
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 4: this cat is just not going to be AcroCat material.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 4: So we moved him to another. Because I also still
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 4: train cats and other animals for film and television. So
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 4: I'm like, well, this guy, he's got model qualities. He's
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 4: a Siamese. He's got the Siamese coloring. So he could
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 4: get commercial work. And so he was transferred to another department.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's fair then.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 4: But a lot of the cats, if when they get
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 4: to that, you know, they decide like, okay, I'm not,
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 4: do that. Or when they get older and, and some,
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 4: if they get joint pain.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 4: And so then I, I scale back on the tricks
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 4: that I have them do because I certainly don't want
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 4: them to experience pain. Of course not.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: Was there ever a trick that you tried to get
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: cats to do? And finally you decided to be like,
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: we can't make this trick work.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 4: There it's, there's been some that I've tried because there's, there's, yeah,
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 4: there's some Russian cat circuses out there that, that have,
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 4: they're different kind of, I mean, they're, they're, they're sharp. Like,
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, my cats come out and stretch and groom
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 4: and just start, it's like hiring family. They're not professional,
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 4: but they, you know, I've seen some pretty impressive things
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 4: with these Russian cat circuses where they really high up
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 4: in the air or they do this army crawl in the,
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 4: And at one point I was like, I really want
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 4: to teach this army crawl. But then I looked at
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 4: it and I was like, how can that possibly be
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 4: comfortable for the cat? It just doesn't seem like it's comfortable.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 4: You know, I ended up abandoning attempting that trick because
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 4: I looked at it and I thought it doesn't seem right.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 3: It doesn't.
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 4: How can that? It's not natural. It's not a natural
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 4: skill at all. Like balancing on a ball, on a barrel,
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 4: climbing a rope, jumping down to my back. I mean,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 4: those are all cat agility type things. And they've got
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 4: great balance. You know, none of the props are super
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 4: high up with, you know, Oste, the one that jumps
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 4: to my back. I mean, that's an eight foot high pole. Yeah.
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 4: I mean, and she cheats. She crawls down two, three
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 4: feet and then jumps to my back. I didn't even
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 4: know until I saw a video clip that she's been
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 4: cheating the whole time. She's not even doing the true jump.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: Like Leah Thomas or whatever.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 4: I'm like, have you seen these Russian cats jumping 20
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 4: feet up in the air down to a pillow?
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: Look, it's the same as like when those Russian hamsters
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: came in. It kind of changed the game of. Hamster
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: sales in our area, I remember that. The Russians are
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: very severe about the dictatorship over animals.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: It's a different energy. Has there ever been a time where, like,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: you come back at halftime and the cats are all, like,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: just bummed out or they're smoking or whatever, or they're
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: just like.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 4: Like that catnip, they get in the catnip, they get
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 4: over to that merch table and roll around in the catnip.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 4: I'm just like, oh, no.
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: Will they?
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 4: And they'll go into the audience and... And if somebody's
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 4: bought a catnip toy, they'll dig it right out of
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 4: the purse. They'll just take it.
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 4: I mean, and they'll drink their beer. I mean, like,
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 4: Jax loves beer. So, I mean, everybody's like, hold on
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 4: to your drinks. Do not give this cat beer. She
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 4: loves beer. Don't let her drink the beer. Yeah.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: She might be a single mother, too.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just, you know, just because the cats are always,
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 4: they're opportunists. You know, they're going to do, you know,
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 4: they're going to be like, I'm just going to go
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 4: catnip out there. See ya. And I'm left like. What
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 4: am I supposed to do here? Because Albacore, just like
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 4: he's supposed to be the star, he's supposed to have
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 4: this moment where we do a solo in the middle
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 4: of the show. Of course. And it's his highlight. And
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 4: he's like, they got popcorn out there and PBR. I'm
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 4: just going to go. And I'm like, what do you
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 4: mean you're going to go? And he's like, yeah, I'm
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 4: just going to go. And I'm like, yeah, but this
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 4: is your moment. He's like, yeah, I'm just going to go.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 4: And I'm standing there. The music is starting. I don't
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 4: have my solo cat. He's just gone to the bar
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 4: to get a PBR and some popcorn. And I'm like,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 4: send out Dixie. So Dixie comes out and does all
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 4: the tricks because she had been doing them, you know,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 4: was just bam, bam, bam, did the tricks better than
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 4: he did, honestly.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: So she saved the day.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 4: So she saved the day. And he comes racing up
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 4: on stage to try to take over because, hey, I
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 4: don't want this other cat doing my job. And he's
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 4: just failing because Dixie's just leaping higher and faster and
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 4: doing like he's like three feet behind everything. So at
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 4: that point, that's when that portion of the show turned
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 4: into a competition. So I had to change that portion
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 4: because of that incident. So I'm constantly having to change
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 4: and evolve based on, like, we had a cat that
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 4: got sick, you know, and then something was off. Like,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 4: the first show we did, I was like, something's wrong
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 4: with Bowie. So, you know, I'd whisper to my, you know, like,
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 4: skip this trick, skip that trick. So then Bowie went
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 4: to the vet. And I had to, like, rearrange the
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 4: show and bring out, you know, this cat to cover
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 4: for this trick for Bowie. And, you know, Osti, you're
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 4: going to be drumming, you know, for both shows. And,
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 4: you know, Osti's the one that's like, what? You know,
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 4: the one that's always like, what do you, she's like,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 4: what do you got? When I, you know, she has
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 4: to climb up the pole.
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let me see what you got here.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the eight foot pole and leap to my shoulder
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 4: where she walks three feet down and then leaps to it.
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 4: She literally is like, if I don't have tuna or
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 4: salmon and a good piece, she'll be like, not doing it.
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 4: So then I have to go back and get something
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 4: better and go, how about now? And then she'll do it. Yeah.
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: Did you ever have any issues where the show couldn't
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: go on or just issues with some of your performers
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: that made it tough? What has been some of that?
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 4: Well, we had an incident where the star, the original
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 4: tuna- disappeared to like three hours before the show. The
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 4: driver had left a little window open and Tuna was
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 4: nowhere to be found. I mean, I had posters up
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 4: in 10 minutes. I mean, I'm walking up and down
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 4: the street, calling, you know, whistling all the things, you know,
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 4: and you know, Tuna's like nowhere to be found. Now
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 4: it's two hours before showtime. Now it's an hour before showtime.
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm like, what am I going to do?
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 4: She's the star of my show. Like she is like,
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 4: this is, like tuna. I mean, she, like any of
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 4: the other cats I can cover for, but I mean,
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 4: I have to have tuna. And then I noticed that
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 4: there's this white cat right next door to the venue
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 4: we're performing at. And he's behind this wrought iron fence.
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 4: And I was like, tuna? You know, and the cat
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 4: just looks at me like, I don't know who you're talking,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 4: I don't know any tuna. And I was like, And
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 4: then I asked the guy, I go, is this your cat?
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 4: He goes, no. And I'm like, Tuna? And still like nothing, right?
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 4: So then I went and I got the bell and
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 4: I put the bell right inside the fence and rang it.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 4: And which, of course, Tuna couldn't resist. That was like, oh,
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 4: that's my trick. It just, you know, can't help it.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 4: Like there's one cat that if I hit a piano note,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 4: she comes running. So I hit that bell in the cat.
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 4: That kept saying, no, I'm not too. And I came
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 4: right over and rang the bell. And I was like,
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 4: you've been here this whole time. You've seen me running
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 4: up and down the street panicking. And you're just sitting
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 4: here acting like you're this guy's pet when we have
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 4: a show in like an hour now. And you've just
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 4: been watching me panic. And you've been here this whole time.
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 4: And she's like, yeah.
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 3: Didn't care.
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 4: Didn't care. Like, yeah, whatever.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: Actors are so hard to deal with.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's- That's most of what I've heard, you know?
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a lot of what I heard. Do
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: the cats do like a halftime at the show or anything?
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: Or is there like a little break? You guys all
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: go back in the locker room or anything like that?
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: Or it's just one full, the show is.
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 4: Well, it's like an hour and a half show. Okay.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 4: And then we do a meet and greet. Okay. So
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 4: it's expanded over the years. Now it's a nine, we
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 4: now have a nine-piece band. It started out as a
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 4: three-piece band. Wow. We added cowbell, and then we added chimes,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 4: and we added a chicken on cymbal and tambourine. And
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 4: then we added a horn section. So now we have trumpet, saxophone,
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 4: and clarinet.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's beautiful.
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 4: So we have this nine-piece band going.
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: Of course, you got to have.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, people are more demanding now, too. People want
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: to see it all.
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 4: And it's so much fun. I mean, I just love
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 4: the whole band playing together.
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's beautiful.
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 4: And then we do the meet and greet. So people
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 4: get to come up, and depending on the size of
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 4: the venue— If it's up to 150 people can come
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 4: up and do the meet and greet where they see
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 4: the cats up close. They can take photos with the band.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 4: And also that way they can see that. Because the
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 4: cats could leave, literally. If they're not comfortable or they're
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 4: freaked out, they could just go. I mean, it's a
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 4: big theater. There's a curtain they could go. And their cats, dude. Yeah,
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 4: they could go in their carrier. They could hide.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: They could go back to outer space also.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 4: The fact that they're sitting there posing for a picture
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 4: and just comfortable with the stampede of people coming up
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 4: to get photos with them.
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: That's a lot.
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 4: Shows people also that this is a whole new level
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 4: of cats. And if she can do it, and because
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 4: my cats do fail, I mean, they come out and
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 4: they groom. Yeah, have you ever had a cat's fight
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 4: on stage? After the show, there's been some issues where
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 4: there's some animosity that I have to keep certain cats
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 4: separate for sure.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: It's like strippers.
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 4: But yeah, there's been some moments where I have to
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 4: keep certain ones away.
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: And have you ever had a cat jump into the
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: crowd and go after somebody or anything?
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Luckily, it was after the show. So there was
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 4: a little incident afterwards, and we got them separated. That happens.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 4: If we see the one cat, everybody knows who doesn't
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 4: get along with somebody. So now we have spotters in
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 4: the audience that it's like most of the cats are
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 4: allowed to go out and wander and do their thing.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 4: But if this cat leaves, It's because he's, you know.
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: He's starting something.
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he wants to start something. So bring, you know,
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 4: make sure this cat comes back. But the others, they're
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 4: free to wander. And, you know, like I said, it
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 4: kind of keeps it fun because I never know what
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 4: they're going to do. I'm constantly having to shift things
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 4: around and just make it work.
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: Work on the fly.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: Are people allowed to bring cats to the show?
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 4: I prefer that they don't. I mean we've had somebody
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 4: occasionally sneak one in. But they– and sometimes the service
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 4: dogs that have to be admitted, they have to be
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 4: at least four rows back so that they don't upset
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 4: the cats.
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: Right, upset the show, yeah.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah. But yeah. That's fair.
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Is there, after the show, you ever celebrate everything,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: give the cats a little bit of champagne or anything
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: to kind of enjoy the evening kind of?
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, I mean, well, you know, catnip parties for sure.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 4: They get their, you know, catnip parties and they get
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 4: the leftover snacks. I mean, we cook fresh chicken, salmon, tuna, turkey,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 4: chicken liver. Like they eat better than we do. Like
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 4: I'm eating Pringles out of a can.
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like the name McCormick and Schmicks they're at
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: or whatever.
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 4: And they're dining on fresh sushi, like sushi-grade tuna that's
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 4: lightly seared on both sides, rare in the middle. That's
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 4: how they like it. And I'm like eating Pringles. I'm like, oh, man, this.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: Smells so good. It's baffling to me. Is there a
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: lot of competition in the market today? I've seen like
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: there's like Meow Good Death. I'm trying to think of
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: some of the– or like Scratchbox 20 I've seen. There's
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: like some different band, like cat bands that I've seen online.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: But is there a lot of competition in the market?
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned there's some Russian shows.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm really like the only touring act of this
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 4: nature that's this– and, you know, full on. I mean
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 4: there's Gregory Popovich who's based out of Vegas, and he
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 4: does tour around. I think once a year or so
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 4: he hits in various places. So he's kind of the
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 4: only cat, you know, like regularly touring show. And then
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 4: there is a couple of Russian.
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: And that's a cat show also?
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 4: It's cats, dogs, birds, and some other things.
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's multi-animal.
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, multi-animals. So he's pretty well known for his cats.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 4: And he started it in Branson and then got that
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 4: Vegas job. So, you know, he's definitely well known for
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 4: the cats. For the cats. And then there's the– I
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 4: think there's some Russian– two women that do like a
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 4: cat act. I think maybe they have like five cats
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 4: or such. And they do a lot of the– they
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 4: do some of the venues that I can't because my
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 4: cats are– If I'm in a hall where there's other
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 4: things like booths and people always want me to come
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 4: to these expos and whatnot, I'm like, you guys have
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 4: booths and serving food. It's too hard. Yeah, my cats
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 4: are going to be like, there's hot dogs over there.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 4: I'm just going to go get a hot dog and
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 4: why would I see you? But there's definitely a couple.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 4: Their cats are a lot more precise because– the relationship
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 4: they have more of a professional.
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: Relationship that Bella Caroli type of energy.
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah it's just you know they go to their carrier
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 4: they come out they work they go to their carrier
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 4: they're not hanging out and watching television at night with
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 4: the animals.
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: Right it's a very it's almost like being like Russian
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: almost yeah very Russian people you know in Russia some
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: of the children even have dolls that are made out
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: of stone and you would see kids with like a
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: three or four pound doll like that's crazy but it
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: also at the same it's like it teaches you that
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: there's a weight of taking care of someone.
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 4: So it's just, I mean, I had to make a
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 4: choice at one point. Either I can have a slick
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 4: show or I can enjoy being with the animals.
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 4: And I'm happy with the choice that I made because
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 4: people seem to really love that. fact that those cats
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 4: sometimes do it and sometimes don't and it actually is
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 4: more encouraging because we sell training kits after the show
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 4: so people can train.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: Their cats oh people can do it at home yeah.
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 4: So they they're inspired to go home and train their
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 4: own cats I love that and and it has made it's.
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: Made such a difference honey.
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah that People– I'll get letters from people and videos.
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 4: Look what I trained my cat to do. And seeing
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 4: your show changed my life. And this relationship that I
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 4: have with this cat has completely changed. And the behavioral
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 4: problems have stopped because I started paying attention and training
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 4: my cat. So there's so many benefits. There's health benefits.
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 4: Because a lot of people just think cats are fucking crazy. Yeah.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 4: They're just– they have all this energy. And if you're
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 4: keeping them inside because you need to because it's dangerous
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 4: out there. You need to give them something to do
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 4: with their brain and their body.
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: Because some people say they're even from outer space. Do
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: you ever feel anything like that?
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 4: No. I mean, I think that they're just very independent, intelligent.
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, smarter than dogs in a way because dogs
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 4: are just like, I'll do whatever. Cats are grudge holders
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 4: and very stubborn. You really have to work within the cats.
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 4: You have to make it fun for the cat for sure.
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 4: You have to find out what the cat likes to do.
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, I spend a lot of time just hanging
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 4: out with the cats, watching them, especially like the group
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 4: of kittens we have. You know, they're all running around.
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 4: I'm seeing who's climbing, who's perching, who's using their paw. Like,
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 4: what is this cat? What can this cat do? What
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 4: should I focus on? So, you know, just by hanging
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 4: out with the cats and watching what they do, that's
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 4: how I'm inspired to come up with a trick. coordinate what,
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 4: you know, what they can do. Wow.
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: If you had to pick like a Mount Rushmore of
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: like your best performing cats and you had to put
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: four of them on it, obviously tuna, the original tuna.
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 4: Is on there.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: Who else is on there?
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 4: Boy, the, I mean, Osti is very solid, but slow, slowly.
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 4: I mean, just hysterically solid, slow. Bowie is, is pretty,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 4: is pretty good. Albacore tuna is solid. But, you know,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 4: it's kind of riding the coattails of, you know, like
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 4: the original Tuna. Like he doesn't really feel like he
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 4: has to prove himself, you know. He's like, I'll do
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 4: the minimum. Where Tuna had a really, original Tuna had
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 4: a really great work ethic.
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: That's what's nice.
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: Having that is very nice.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 4: And then I have Newt is my youngest, and she
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 4: is just crazy. I mean, I was quarantined with, I
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 4: had COVID for the first time ever. I was in
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 4: New Orleans, so it was just her and I. And
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 4: I had this time, so I actually was able to
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 4: do shaping. So a lot of times, because I'm training fast.
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: And shaping is what?
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 4: Shaping is when you just sit with clicker and treats
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 4: and you wait for the cat to do something. And
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 4: then the cat has to figure out what it is
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 4: you want to do without.
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: Any clue from you. I see, so you let them
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: learn it.
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 4: I let them learn it.
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: Teach themselves. That's really the best way.
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so then they're like, oh, I heard the click. So, okay,
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 4: you just see the light come on. In their eyes,
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 4: once they, you know, that light bulb moment where they
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 4: get it, they're like, oh, I think I get it.
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 4: You know, because at first they're just like, what is
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 4: it that you want? You know, like, I just don't
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 4: get it. And then they hear the click and they're like, okay,
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 4: something to do with the paw.
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 4: Something to do with this paw. Something to do with
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 4: this keyboard. Oh, I think it's the keyboard. Like, oh, okay. And,
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 4: you know, you just sit and you just wait.
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: Then they're playing damn Stairway to Heaven.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 4: And then, yeah, you're just.
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: And eating lamb.
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's.
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 4: And then when you see that light come on and
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 4: they're just, they get it. I mean, so they basically,
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 4: they learn to learn and then they get creative too.
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 4: And they'll come up with their own tricks or, you know,
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 4: you'll start training them to do one thing and they'll
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 4: be like, no, I want to do this instead. And
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 4: I love that about them, the creativity that cats have
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 4: and the fact that they're negotiators too. Because I mean,
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 4: once I'm on stage, I'm like in front of an audience,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 4: I can't, I can't like reset and be like, okay,
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 4: we're going to redo this here and I'm not going
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 4: to move on with the show until we get this right.
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 4: I have to just go with the flow. And they
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 4: know that I'm a little stuck. So they'll be like,
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to do this, but I'll do this instead.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, I see.
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, okay, I'll see how it is.
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: That's the most cat thing I've heard all day.
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll do this instead.
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll do this instead.
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but I'll do this instead.
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: We had a corner on, he said that cats would
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: eat people if they passed away. Have you ever heard that?
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, I totally believe it.
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: I mean– Yeah, this guy said a cat could even
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: eat your face within like 30-something hours or something if
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: they wanted to. Oh, yeah.
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 4: I mean I respect that about cats. A dog will
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 4: die right along beside you. A cat is going to
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 4: be like, has she taken her last breath? Maybe I'll
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 4: start early. But I respect that. I respect that cats
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 4: are grudge holders too. Like you do something that they
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 4: don't like. They like write it in their little book
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 4: and like I'm going to remember this. You just did
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 4: this and that. So, yeah, and I really do respect
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 4: that about cats because they are not as forgiving, which
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 4: is why, you know, you have to really, you know,
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 4: make it, you know, it can never be forced. It's
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 4: got to be fun, you know, for the cat. And, like,
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 4: if the cat's not enjoying it.
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: Right, if they're going to perform, they really are, they
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: mean it.
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 4: Because you're not going to get anything for free out
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 4: of a cat. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, but if
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 4: it's a high level. You know, reward, like if it's
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 4: a salmon, I mean, it's like, okay, I'm going to
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 4: drum a little bit more for the salmon than I
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 4: will for the chicken.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 4: You know, with the youngsters, the kittens are like, chicken,
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 4: that's great. We'll do everything.
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: They don't know.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't know.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 4: But the seasoned ones, they're like, yeah, let's see what
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 4: you got here. That salmon looks a little dry. You
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 4: got anything better?
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 4: Just, yeah. So, and I've had the cats, that same cat,
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 4: go up that pole four times in a show and
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 4: just wait up there. And I have to stop the show.
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 4: You know, because I'm at this part of the show
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 4: and then Oxy's back up on that pole because she
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 4: left instead of going back to her carrier, went back
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 4: up the pole because she liked the particular cooking that day.
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 4: The cooking was good that day. So she's like, I
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 4: want more.
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: So now the show's changed a little. We're going to keep,
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: we're going to do maybe some different things that we
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: might not have done.
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 4: Yes. And I got to go back over there, assume
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 4: the position where I'm like leaning over. She does the
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 4: jump to my back and then sometimes leaves again and
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 4: then ends up back on that pole. And people are
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 4: like pointing and I'm like, oh, again.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: So a lot of it's just watching you work with cats.
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: It's like just the reality is that it's almost impossible
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: what we're going to do our best.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 4: I'm just standing there with my arm flung out at
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 4: this cat grooming. Because I had probably one of the
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 4: worst experiences I ever did early on in my career.
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 4: I got a week-long gig in Branson because Popovich abandoned
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 4: Branson for the gig in Vegas. So they had no
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 4: cat acting. They had billboards. People were traveling miles to
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 4: see his cats and everything. So they hired this guy
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 4: to put together another act to take the place of this.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 4: So he hired a dog act, a bird act, and
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 4: then a cat act. And he had a couple Russian
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 4: people coming in with cats, but he had one week
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 4: where they weren't available. So he brought me in on
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 4: the advice of somebody who had never seen my show. And,
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 4: you know, people are expecting this, you know, these amazing.
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: And this is a big opportunity because you're coming into Branson.
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Full theater. I mean, Tuna ran off stage the
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 4: very first rehearsal. Oh, it was just, I mean, you know,
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 4: the guy, he was like, listen, you know, your act
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 4: is just, I'm not, you're supposed to be the headliner,
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 4: but you can't be. So I'm going to have to
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 4: bury you in the middle. And. And then in the meantime,
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 4: you know, the dog people hated us because we weren't organized.
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 4: The bird people hated us because the cats wanted to
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 4: eat the birds. Yeah. So and I'm just mortified because
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 4: the cats aren't doing anything. And the cats are super sensitive.
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 4: So they're feeling the hate from the audience. Right. You know,
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 4: because people are expecting awesome cats and they're getting Samantha's
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 4: not so amazing agro cats. And. You know, and I,
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, I just wanted to slither out of town
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the night and not even collect
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 4: my fee and go back home.
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: Did you have to.
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 4: End the show early? Well, no, I was, I fulfilled
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 4: my week. And during that time period, the guy that,
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 4: that hired me, he gave me all sorts of tips
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 4: and got help, got me organized and showed me how
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 4: to play off. You know, like when, you know, when
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 4: a cat did something, you just commit to it. Like,
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 4: look at that. The cat's doing nothing, but isn't that great?
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 4: You know, and, and just, really exaggerate the moves, you know,
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 4: you know, not do no teapot arms. You had to just,
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 4: you know, bring that excitement, even though the cat isn't
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 4: doing anything, you just play it off as that's what
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 4: it's supposed to do. Look at this amazing cat. Look
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 4: at that. Yeah. Go, you know? So we just did
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 4: the best we could. And then, you know, it was
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 4: a very long, quiet drive home of like, do I,
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 4: should I even continue this hot mess? Because I, it
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 4: was an epic fail, epic fail. until, you know, I
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 4: thought that was the worst until I bombed on Colbert.
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I saw that.
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 4: Oh, that was the worst. Oh, and as soon as,
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 4: and Newey, as soon as they opened up the carrier,
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 4: Newey was like, didn't come out to skateboard. And I
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 4: was like, oh, and she's like, what'd you think was
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 4: going to happen? And I was like, you jerks, you know,
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 4: this is our big opportunity for us. We're starting our
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 4: Kickstarter campaign and you guys are going to do this now, really?
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 4: And they're like, oh, yeah, they got me good on that.
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 4: I was just like, But luckily, he was a good
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 4: sport about it.
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 3: I just, yeah.
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw he came out and kind of walked
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: on the ball like that.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he had cat ears on. He kept those cat ears.
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 4: He put them on occasionally.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's cool. He was really great. That was awesome.
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, but only like four tricks out of
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 4: ten happened.
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: Do you think you really have any control over the cats,
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: do you think?
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 4: It's, I mean, a little bit, but it's really, and
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 4: I think what went wrong there is that there were
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 4: two cats It's because they pick up on nervous energy.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 4: So if I'm nervous, they're nervous. And then I had
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 4: all these extra assistants that were like, we want to
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 4: be on the show. So we had too many people involved,
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 4: too much energy. And they felt it. And they felt
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 4: all that nervous energy. So they were like, oh, we can't.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 4: We're not going to do it. We just can't do this.
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 4: So just like we really can't do when people want
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 4: to hire us for an event. And it's a mixed
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 4: bag of people. Like some are cat lovers, some aren't.
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 4: Like my cats feel that energy more. they, they're like, we're,
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 4: we don't feel the love. Yeah. So that's why we
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 4: do the, we, we rent out a theater, you know, we're,
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 4: we're not really for hire. Right.
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: It's more, we want cat lovers to come.
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 4: So it's a self-produced show. So I rent out the theater,
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 4: we do the advertising, we do marketing, we do, you know,
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 4: do everything from the beginning to the end. And, you know,
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 4: and it's hard to find venues that'll even let, you know,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 4: that'll let us rent. Oh, for sure.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, well, it's hard to find humans that will
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: believe in what you're doing. I mean, I think it's,
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: A lot of people think it's absolutely insane to drive
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: around in a van with 11 cats or something.
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 4: They think it's insane. Yeah.
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: It's something that you see of like a hoarder or
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: somebody that's some freelance Noah's Ark-y type of human. But
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: I think when you see that you love it so
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: much and that your goal or a lot of your
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: goal is something to get these cats into like, big
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: time programming and get them fun opportunities if they want,
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: if they want it. And also to kind of meet
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: the cats where they are. It's like, if they're not,
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: if some of them don't have it, they don't have it.
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: You don't have to tell them that really. You just
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: work with where they are willing to work.
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 4: Exactly. Work within their parameters and then, and, you know,
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 4: inspiring people to, to train their own cats. And, and
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 4: I know I've had, I've saved, like I've saved some
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 4: of my own cats lives just because Because of the
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 4: training routine, I would have band practice. Anytime I cooked,
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 4: because the band is set up in the kitchen, the
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 4: band comes running and they take their place on their
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 4: instruments and they start playing because they want treats. What
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 4: song will they play? It's all freeform jazz. It's like
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 4: their own music. Not a lot of them are big hits,
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 4: I would say, but it's their own thing.
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: I used to live in Alphabet City in New York
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: for a little bit and you would hear a lot
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: of some of that at certain nights or whatever.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 4: But yeah, the one cat, like my guitar player, she
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 4: was solid. My best guitar player ever. She didn't show
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 4: up for band practice. She always showed up for band practice.
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 4: And I found, I went looking for her and she
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 4: was like sitting in front of the fireplace. And I
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 4: even offered her a freebie, like here, how about take this?
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 4: And she was like not interested. I was like, something's
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 4: wrong with Pinky. So I took her to the vet
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 4: and she had a fever. And I might not have
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 4: noticed anything was wrong for several days to the point
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 4: of where it was too late. But because I had
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 4: a routine established and because I have a routine established,
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 4: With these cats, you know, even blowing the whistle for
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 4: feeding time, you can tell within five minutes if something's
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 4: wrong with somebody. They might have a limp. They might
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 4: be favoring one side of their mouth when they chew.
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 4: You know, like something's wrong. You know, I can tell
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 4: just because I've established a routine. And it doesn't, you know,
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 4: you don't have to put together a huge act like
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 4: I have. You can just, one simple trick, you know,
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 4: even just the whistle to the carrier will give you
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 4: all the information you need to know whether or not
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 4: your cat needs to go to the vet. And now
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 4: you can take your cat to the vet because it's
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 4: already oriented to a carrier because when we do fostering
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 4: and we adopt them out, they're already all used to traveling.
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like they are the performers or that
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: you are the performer?
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 4: I think that it's a combination. We're both– we play
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 4: off each other. So whatever is happening with them and
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 4: we'll– causes my, you know, so it's both. So we're
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 4: both performers. But I definitely, the improv thing, it's, I mean,
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 4: I have to be like, just be on and also,
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 4: but not nervous either. So I have to be like, okay,
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 4: it's going to be fine. You know, I always tell people,
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 4: especially new people that are, you know, get a little
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 4: stage fright that, And I also suffer from stage fright,
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 4: which really sucks to suffer from stage fright.
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: Well, it's normal.
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm like, ah.
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: It's very normal.
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 4: You know, I've got to shove myself out there because
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 4: there's the part of me that there's the nurturer, the
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 4: bottle raiser, you know, the shy girl. Because, I mean,
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 4: I was the shy outcast growing up. So there's still
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 4: that shy little outcast in me that's a nurturer. But
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 4: then there's, you know, Samantha, the show person, right? And
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 4: I don't even know where she is. She's probably drinking
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 4: at the bar. I don't know. But I'm like, where
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 4: is she? Is she going to show up? Do I
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 4: have to go out there? I don't even know if
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 4: she's going to show up. You know, and then I
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 4: get out there and then, bam, the cats start. And
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 4: then there's that part of my personality that can pull
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 4: it off. And I'm like, oh, thank God you showed up.
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't know where you were. She's like, I was
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 4: at the bar. You know I'd show up.
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: Will you have a cocktail for you going on stage usually?
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll have a little bit of, I'll have a
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 4: glass of wine.
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, you got to have fun.
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. Well, it's just mainly to just, you know,
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 4: so I'm relaxed. And then the cat, you know, so
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 4: the cats are relaxed.
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, there's videos of cats even drinking wine. But
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: do cats care if you use profanity or drink around them?
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 4: No, they, I mean. they use profanity and, you know,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 4: in their own little world, they drink and smoke and
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 4: do all the things. I mean, Asti's always seems as
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 4: high as a kite on weed, you know, like a
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 4: puff of smoke comes out of her carrier. You know,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 4: we all kind of see it because, you know, just
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 4: like Albacore with the popcorn and the PBR, of course,
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 4: he was not really holding a PBR and chugging it
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 4: and popcorn and his other, I mean, they don't have
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 4: opposable thumbs. They can't really do that. But You know,
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 4: I painted a picture, and we all saw that. Like,
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 4: we all saw him walking down the aisle with popcorn
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 4: and a PBR because he's got terrible taste in beer.
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 4: You know, we all knew that he would chug that PBR,
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 4: you know, before coming up on stage to try to
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 4: take back what Dixie stole. And everybody that's on the road,
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 4: because we're in this 45-foot by 5-foot space with these cats,
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 4: and we're days on end. Just us, it's kind of
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 4: like Tom Hanks and Castaway with Wilson. We have whole backstories.
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 4: We know what school they went to, what they majored in,
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 4: what their job was. They all worked at the mall
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 4: at one point.
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: No, I think it's fascinating. It's important. It's important to
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: build a world for whatever your world is that you
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: live in. It's important to.
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: Add characteristics to things and make them– bring them more alive.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: I think that's really interesting.
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 4: And personalize them because we do a calendar every year
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 4: with their likes and dislikes and their fun facts.
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: And is there ever any sex between the animals or
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: do you ever engage– do you ever see any stuff
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: like that?
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 4: I mean all of our cats are spayed and neutered
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 4: because it would be really irresponsible, especially once I got
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 4: involved in rescue to– They don't.
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: Did they decapitate the weaner? No, it's the testicles. Oh,
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: they take the testicles off.
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the testicles. It's a less invasive surgery than the spay.
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 4: The spay, they actually have to cut open. Oh, God. Yeah,
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 4: but it's so important. There's so many. And we lost
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 4: so much ground with COVID as far as the TNR programs.
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 4: Because I have a lot of friends that are involved
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 4: with TNR, which is really fast. What's TNR? Trap New
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 4: to Return. Trap New to Return. So, you know, if
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 4: you want to have an interesting guest on, this guy,
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 4: Sterling the Trap King, he does TNR. And, I mean,
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 4: they go out there. They set these traps because there's
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 4: cats that are not going to be indoor cats. They've
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 4: been living outside. They're street cats. But they're also reproducing.
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 4: And then now you're going to.
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: Have hundreds of cats. Oh, yeah, they're out there smashing, dude.
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: If you leave the windows open, you can hear it.
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 4: It's just on and on. And so something has to
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 4: be done. So guys like, you know, Sterling, they come in.
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 4: With traps, they get permission from the complex or the owner,
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 4: and they come in, they set the traps up. And
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 4: they can't just leave. They can't just set the trap
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 4: and leave. Because otherwise, when the cat gets trapped, if
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 4: the sun, inclement weather.
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: Right, so they've got to mill around.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 4: They've got to mill around and wait to see, to
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 4: catch this cat. And then they have to get it
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 4: over to the place that's going to do the surgery
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 4: at 6 in the morning. I mean, it's a huge dedication.
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: Trap new to return. I've got to look into that.
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had PETA come out and say anything
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: about your show? Have you ever had any issues like
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: that or no?
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 4: We had one person come in California, one picketer. So ridiculous.
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 4: And then they left two hours before the show even started.
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 4: And any time somebody has attacked me on social media—
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 4: I have like a thousand people that come back with,
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 4: have you ever seen her show? If you saw her show,
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 4: you would see that these cats are her family, that
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 4: they're loved, that they are not abused, they're not being forced,
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 4: that they literally are doing what they want to do.
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 4: They're free to leave. I mean, their carriers are open.
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 4: There's a whole theater for them to explore. Some of
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 4: them do. Sometimes people will start laughing. I'm like, what's
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 4: going on? They've gone up to the second level and
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 4: they're doing, stuff off with the props up there and
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 4: just exploring. I'm like, there's a show. Yeah, there's a
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 4: show going on. Guys, there's a show going on. I
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 4: was like, yeah, but there's a piano up here. You know,
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 4: there's a piano up here? And I'm like, yeah, I
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 4: saw the piano earlier, but we're doing a show right
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 4: now on YouTube. And I mean, so I'll have these
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 4: conversations with the cats, and most of the time, the
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 4: audience doesn't hear. But every once in a while, they'll
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 4: hear my part of it, where I'll just be like,
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 4: I'm just, you know, like, I am, this stops now.
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 4: Because it was like Albacore, we had been practicing his
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 4: opening thing. He comes out, he turns on a light
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 4: that starts the show. We rehearsed it. We did it
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 4: every day for weeks. He knows what to do. Showtime
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 4: comes along. And he's like, ah, I just, and so
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 4: I'd have to turn it on for him. And then
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 4: the day came, he comes out, and he's just like, ah.
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh, no, you don't. Enough. You know
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 4: how to do this. You have been doing this trick
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 4: for weeks on end. You know what to do. And
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 4: he's like, what are you doing? Of course, they don't
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 4: hear that part. He's like, what are you doing? And
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 4: I go, ah. He's like, you're embarrassing me. Oh, I'm
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 4: embarrassing you? You're the one embarrassing me. I'm the one
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 4: looking like a crazy person talking to herself up here
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 4: when you know very well how to turn on this light.
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 4: And he's like, okay, all right, fine. Just stop.
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 3: I'll do it.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 4: So he went and he turned on the light. And
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 4: after that, we didn't have a problem.
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: That was it.
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 4: You know, we had that little moment of like, okay,
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 4: we're going to talk about this right now. You know
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 4: how to do this. You're going to do it. I'm
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 4: not going to keep doing it for you. No. And
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 4: every once in a while he goes back and now
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 4: he has this whole weird little routine where he comes out,
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 4: he does a little dolphin thing. Because when he comes up,
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 4: you'll see he likes to dolphin. So he's like, oh,
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 4: I need a little extra, you know, let me just
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 4: dolphin a couple times. And he goes out and he
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 4: almost hits it and he thinks he's gotten it. And
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 4: I'm like, you didn't get it. He's like, oh, I
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 4: totally did.
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 3: I go, no, you didn't.
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 4: It's like it's still it's not on. And he's like,
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 4: are you sure? I'm like, yeah, I'm really sure. And
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 4: he'll go back out there and, you know, and he'll finally,
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 4: you know, he'll get it. But it has to be
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 4: just right. If it's too hard to turn on, he
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 4: won't do it. Right. And if it's too easy, he'll
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 4: just breathe on it or he'll use his chin. And
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, you cheater. You cheater. You just, you know,
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 4: but people still love it. Like I said, yeah.
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's somebody being, it's just seeing somebody being around
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: cats is, you know. Because there's a level of insanity
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: to it for some people because they can't imagine it.
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: But the fact that you love it, I think, is
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: what makes it so important. And the fact also that
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: you guys are helping getting cats in homes. You know,
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't even believe in cats. I remember at first
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: somebody told me about a cat or something. I was like,
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: what the fuck are you talking about? When I was
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: a kid, you know, I was like.
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: What are you even fucking talking about?
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 4: The cats are so amazing. I just I mean, I
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 4: love them so much. And it's so. I mean, because
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 4: I'll have the worst show. I'll feel like I just
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 4: had the worst show ever and people come up and like,
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 4: this is the best show I've ever seen. And the
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 4: joy that people have, you know, they're like, I haven't smiled.
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 4: You know, I was going through cancer and I haven't
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 4: smiled in three years and this is the first time
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 4: I've smiled. You know, I get letters from You know,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 4: like my, you know, divorced couples. It's like I brought
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 4: my daughter to see your show in the very week.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 4: We got your training kit the next week. I went
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 4: over to the house and I paid for I paid
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 4: my admission price. And my daughter had set up a
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 4: whole little cat circus in the basement.
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 3: It's like I.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 4: Still hate Stanley, but I love those cats. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah,
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 4: it's a joy. It's look, it's fascinating. I think it's fascinating.
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's fascinating to get to sit here with you,
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: Samantha Martin. And to learn about AcroCats. You guys are
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: going on tour, right? We'll put the links to where
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: they can find you guys' tour.
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 4: Where is it?
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: Website?
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 4: RockCatsRescue.org.
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: RockCatsRescue.org. You can find the tour for Samantha and the
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: amazing AcroCats. And we're going to get a couple cats
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: up here.
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 4: We've got some cats and some kittens, some foster kittens, too.
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 4: Two that are possibly going to be joining the team.
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 4: And right now we have 10 foster kittens, which is
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 4: a lot. Yes.
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: The portal is open.
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So I, I mean, I have them all stationing.
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 4: I have all these little like stools and, and things.
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 4: So they're all trained to go and, you know, it's called,
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 4: I call it the lion pyramid of kittens. So, you know, the,
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 4: I have, they'll all just come racing in and then assemble,
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 4: you know, on their various platform. And then we'll have
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 4: it assigned. This is adopt us that, that, you know,
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 4: we put behind them and, and it's, and it's just,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 4: It's just chaos initially. And then eventually they all find
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 4: their place and they sit and they sit pretty and
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 4: they do their thing. So it is, you know, like
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 4: I said, and it's just, I love training and watching
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 4: them learn. Oh, 100%.
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: Seeing that light.
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 4: Come on and just, it's such a, it's a completely
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 4: different cat than the cat that's never paid attention to
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 4: or just, you know, bowl of food is left out
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 4: 24-7 and I know that when cats are capable of
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 4: so much more, I just, you know, just spend 10
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 4: minutes a day with your cat. All it takes is,
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 4: you know, this is your family member and 10 minutes
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 4: a day. Isn't too much to ask just to, you know, and.
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: It really enriches. Yeah, it's definitely fair. Some people think
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: cats are, they don't know, they don't know what they are,
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: even if they have them, but you're saying that there's
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: a lot more to cats that people aren't seeing and
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: investigating and that they can spend a little bit more
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: time and do that.
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. And then less of them be left behind when,
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 4: You know, well, I got to move and the place
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 4: isn't a lot. Well, you find a place.
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: Cats will stay though too. Cats will, I'm not moving
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: and they'll stay. So sometimes people do leave their cats.
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: Sometimes cats leave the people too.
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 4: Well, that, that is, you know, but if a person
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 4: developed that relationship, then that cat is going to want
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 4: to go wherever, wherever you go like that. Like my,
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 4: is that true?
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely. If you, and if you just invest a
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 4: little bit of time in your cat, then they're definitely
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 4: going to want to stay with you. I mean, they,
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 4: You know, when, you know, when tour time comes around
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 4: and I mean, they definitely, I don't want to be
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 4: left behind. I want to be left behind. Something's happening.
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 4: Something's happening. And they, they really, I mean, they want
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 4: to go. They want to go. They'll love the attention.
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 4: They love, you know, they, I mean, they had the
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 4: back third of the bus is all decked out for
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 4: the cats. So they have the life.
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: Well, to add in some pictures.
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, some cats are performers. Some cats are, who knows,
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: you know, I think there's a lot to know about
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: cats and I don't know a lot of it, but.
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: I'm grateful to just sit here and hear about it
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: today and to know what's going on, that there's cats
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: out there. There's something about knowing there's cats out there
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: traveling the globe, performing at night that kind of keeps
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: me going. Let's get a couple cats up here and see.
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: Let's see what we can see.
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 5: So there's a lot of work that goes into training
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 5: an animal.
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fascinating.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 5: Especially cats because you have to acclimate them to.
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 4: So many different things. Yeah, most people think a cat
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 4: is just crazy. But it can be more than that.
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 3: What?
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: Wow. Dude, that's great.
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 3: Tuna.
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 4: Tuna.
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: Hey. Oh, my God.
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 4: You can do it. How about the bell? It's a
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 4: little tight. You can do it, Tuna.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 4: That's sexy. All right. Try the small one.
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 3: It's really.
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 4: Tuna, tuna.
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: Whoa.
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 4: Gosh, she's bad.
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 5: He really gets a good hype on this one. All right, tuna.
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 4: There you go. Oh, that's a party cat.
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 4: It's clean.
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: That cat's clean, huh? What do y'all clean it with?
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 4: Oh, wow.
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, that one, oh. They could work at AutoZone, dude.
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 1: That's unbelievable.
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, we did.
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 5: A car commercial really early on. It was hysterical with
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 5: the cats.
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 4: Tuna, Tuna, Tuna.
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 5: I think you were late on that treat.
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 4: I'm out of here.
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 5: We can bring out the kittens.
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the chicken's here.
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: Wow, this is neat. I didn't know that an animal
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: could do something like that.
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 4: Oh, she could be a night manager at a motel. Okay.
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 4: It was nice for you not to beat up the kitten.
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 4: Let's try it again. Get a running start.
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 3: Get a running start.
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 4: Get a running start. Get a running start.
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 5: You're kind of cheating there.
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 4: So the goal is we would click once he clears
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 4: it without stepping on it. Oh, I see.
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: So he wants to.
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 4: The click reinforces the exact.
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 3: Movement that you want.
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: So he's cheating or he's just taking it easy?
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 4: Well, he hasn't quite gotten it yet. He's still in
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 4: the training. I just started working on.
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 5: This two days ago.
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 4: I'll have to send the clip of the skateboarding that
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 4: we've been working on. Because it was one day of
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 4: training with the skateboard.
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, these cats are really chilling out here now.
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: Damn, it's like a dang strip club in here.
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: This is the most cats we've ever had at one's time. Anywhere.
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: That's the best. That's good. Wow, they're beautiful.
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 4: They're all available for adoption. Well, except we are... Well,
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 4: crush and twigs are kind of on the... They may
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 4: be hired.
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: If they don't go on tour, they're available for adoption.
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 4: Well, they'll go be on tour regardless. So when we
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 4: go out on tour, we bring them all out. It'll
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 4: be kind of like a test time to see who
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 4: loves it. Some cats are just born to be on stage.
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 4: I want this job. I want to do this. Other
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 4: cats are like, I don't want this job. I want
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 4: to be a house pet, but I'll still do some tricks.
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 4: So those are the ones that we adopt out. And
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 4: just because we had retired two of our cats recently
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 4: is why we're hiring.
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the stage isn't for everybody.
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's definitely not for everyone.
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: But it's for the acro cats, though.
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 4: It is for the acro cats. I think. And you
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 4: start out with, like, you know, simple. This is like, oh,
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 4: this is easy. We hear the click. We get this treat.
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 4: They're letting you sit pretty.
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm just glad you're not giving them opioids or
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: anything like that.
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 4: I know people ask, do you drug your cats or
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 4: do you defly your cats? I'm like, they're acro cats.
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: Well, the Japanese are drugging those dogs that are on Instagram,
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: but that's a different conversation. The AcroCats, Samantha Martin, thank
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: you so much for spending time with me and just
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: for letting me learn about these cats. And yeah, they
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: really are beautiful today. And I look forward to seeing
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: a show sometime.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we're trying to book in Nashville if we can
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 4: get the theater to call us back.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we'll see if we can help. But this
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: is really awesome. And I appreciate you guys coming and
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: spending time with us today.
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 2: I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 2: falling like these leaves.
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 3: I must be cornerstone.
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 2: peace of mind I found.
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 3: I can feel it in my bones.