Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "Pizza and Que, we might talk our rock bands too"- with Matt Frampton of Urban Slicer

Transcript

"Pizza and Que, we might talk our rock bands too"- with Matt Frampton of Urban Slicer · Caught on the Mike...

0:02
SPEAKER_01: Warning due to some language and subject matter, listener discretion is advised.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: There is an anonymous quote that says, Find three hobbies you love.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: One to make you money, one to keep you in shape, and one to be creative.
0:29
SPEAKER_01: My next guest has figured out a way to capitalize on these things, culminating in what might have been some accidental entrepreneurialism.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: You may have seen him on season two of TLC's Barbecue Pitmasters reality show, appearing with his cleverly named grill team, Hot Grill on Grill Action.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: Be careful about Googling that one, folks.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: His latest endeavor is called Urban Slicer Pizza Works, where he's bringing the pizza kitchen to your backyards.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk some pizza, some Q.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: We might even talk about our old rock bands too.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: My friend Matt Frampton is joining me on the show today, and I couldn't be any more excited.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Pizza and Q, pizza and Q.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: We might talk some rock bands too.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: Matt Frampton, how the hell are you, man?
1:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing awesome, Mike.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: What's going on, brother?
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh you know, just kind of trying to live that semi-COVID life.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Tell me about it.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: This has definitely been an interesting year, but it's awesome that we can catch up for sure.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: We were just talking offline about how awesome it's been for our business.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Despite navigating the public health crisis, it's uh it's been good for our uh our day jobs and some of our uh our other extracurricular activities, if you will.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: So we're not gonna waste any time.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: This is my famous line.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: My name is Matt Frampton from Omaha, Nebraska.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: I own a company called Urban Slicer Pizza Works, and we are a at-home cooking product to just add water pizza dough, and I have a sauce that just came out.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: It's a new company recently launched this past June.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: But I have been cooking competitively for about 15 years now in barbecue steak and pizza.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: This was just kind of a cool evolution.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh, love the ties that you and I have from music days back in the day to you know the barbecue space, and now this we're connecting, it's just awesome.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: It's funny because uh, you know, this is only episode seven of the podcast, but you are the second friend that I've had on that I knew from the music days that little did a little dabbling and some reality TV action, you know, you know, so why don't you tell everybody a little bit about that?
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, man.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we started competing in barbecue in 2005 and we did well, but really we just have a funny name.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Our our barbecue team name is Hot Grill on Grill Action.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Yes! Yeah, so uh it's a play on words.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Um anyway, so we pitched uh an audition video to TLC.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: It was TLC at the time, it became Destination America, and they loved it.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: We just were really stupid funny on it.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we showed our cooking ability and everything, but loved our sort of personalities and chose us to be on season two of Barbecue Pitmasters, and that kind of started everything.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it led to some awesome sponsorships and partnerships with different businesses and some exposure that we probably would have never gotten without that show.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and and you guys can find hot grill on grill action on Grill Hub.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: Just type in grillhub.com.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kidding.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: That's a play on words, too.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but goes in the no, no.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, little known fact, I think in 2013 or 14 we were featured, our name was featured in a Playboy magazine.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: They were talking about stupid barbecue names that you know are sort of have innuendos in them, and our team name was the number one chosen name.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: That's that's great, man.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you kind of touched on it.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: You and I know each other from playing music together.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: Ranch Bowl, man.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: Ranch Bowl days.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: Actually, you know what I remember playing with you guys the most was Howard Street.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh, dude.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Howard Street, my that's where my wife and I like that's where our relationship bloomed, and I miss that place more than any spot.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: I think that was the coolest venue in town.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's lots of Ranch Bowl and everything, and all these other places were amazing.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, but Howard Street's something special.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it gets enough love, man.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't think people talk about it enough.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: And because some of those nights were pretty damn magical.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: They were magical, and there were some historic shows there.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: If you look back into the in the in the 90s, you know, before you and I were kind of playing out, maybe too young to even be in the bar scene.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Right, right, right.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, yeah, that was that was fantastic.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: I remember, you know, actually the first time you and I actually interacted together, you were booking shows for the Funplex here in town.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: I I actually booked the first uh all well, all the shows at Funplex before they stopped happening.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, with uh with Scott there who who managed it.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: And we did our uh CD release parties there.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: We started indoors, we moved it outdoors, and right, right, yeah.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Some after hours parties at the water slides.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: You I you guys actually, you know, and in all due respect and praise be to the all-holy ranch bull, but uh you guys actually were starting to give them a little run for their money that certain bands were getting blacklisted.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: We were the first one.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I remember you remember handing out those little tickets to get paid, the cardboard cutouts or whatever, you know.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, then every one of those that got turned in, you got a dollar or something.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: And we had a show, and it was obviously we we drew the most people.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: They unfortunately left after we played, but then we didn't get paid because of that.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: So that was uh that was when I when I went and found Funplex.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: But you know, I remember one of the Funplex shows that I thought was a pivotal moment for that.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: You guys got Blue October book there at one point in time.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know because I was I wasn't even there for the Blue October show.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: I was there with an ex-girlfriend at the time, just hanging out in the water park, and I actually had a brief run-in with the Furstenfeld brothers from opening for them in the past.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and I just so happened to see them there, and I'm like, what are you guys doing here?
6:32
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Oh, we're playing here tonight.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: Like, what?
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that was a cool show.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: We we built that stage not too long before that show.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: Changing course here, you got into competitive grilling shortly after getting out of music, or was it while you were involved in music?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: It was shortly after I got out.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh I actually, so I I my last band I had to quit because I took a new job that had me traveling all over the country.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: A good friend of mine that I grew up with, his name's Ryan Amos.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: He's on my barbecue team still to this day.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were next door neighbors growing up.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: He moved away, he came back and he said, Let's enter a barbecue contest.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: My dad's been doing it for a long time, see what happens.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: And we did really well.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Like we won the chicken category, and we thought we were hot shot barbecue dudes.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And so that uh just is what kind of started that whole life of cooking for me.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: But it was about a about a year after I stopped playing that I entered that contest.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: So there really was no overlap, but not much of a gap.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: Right.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of it's kind of weird because talking with guys of our age group that kind of were in the music thing and then got out of it, almost everybody kind of found something different.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: They found a different niche.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, someplace an artistic niche, a lot of people.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: They just found it found an artistic niche, and like you found grilling, you know.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: I believe it or not, I didn't look like it while I was playing in bands, but you know, I kind of found fitness and yeah, yeah, you know, and and I it's it's it's really weird.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a cool construct to uh to be a part of.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: What year was it that you did the uh barbecue pit master show?
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh 2011.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: 2011, okay.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so six years into our cooking.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: So did you do a lot of local stuff then or before that?
8:19
SPEAKER_00: We were actually traveling quite a bit.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a really big business now, and uh it's when we first started, a contest would cost you between three and six hundred dollars, and that included your travel money.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Now it's a grand before you blink.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of these, if you're gonna run the right like Snake River Farms is a brisket supplier out of Utah, uh brisket from them is 250 bucks.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're not cooking one of those, you're already you've already lost the brisket category.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: So you're you're looking at a thousand to fifteen hundred depending on what you're towing and how far you're towing, expense per contest.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: We were doing between eight and twelve a year, and a lot of guys now to win the points chase, and they're doing 35 to 40 a year.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they're all over the country.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: There are hundreds of events every year.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: They go through the Kansas City Barbecue Society, which is this organization that sanctions all of them.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: It's like NASCAR.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: There's a points chase and uh and and all that, and it's any, it's it's actually worldwide, not just in the country.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: We would usually would stick within a five to seven mile drive for our stuff.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so how much trial and error did it take to build that confidence to actually compete?
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh I s I still find myself doubting myself.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: So lots of trial and error.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: But oh yeah, probably ruined more barbecue uh than I would care to admit before we got really good at it.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Take some time, and and you gotta learn from people.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes it's not what you enjoy, or you know, from the very beginning, we were making barbecue that our friends and family said, Oh, it's the best thing I've ever had.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: But the judges wouldn't necessarily agree, and it depends on what region you're in.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: So you have to really go with what is scoring well, flavor-wise, um, choice of cut-wise, in terms of what you're turning in, not necessarily what your own personal tastes are.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Let's say you have just some regular hobbyist and they want to get into it.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: If you had five immediate tips that you would offer up, what would they be?
10:20
SPEAKER_00: I would buy a book or a class to learn about uh what a barbecue contest is, the sorts of equipment that you need.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: So I'd start with that.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: There are lots of classes that teach you the basics and some recipes.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: I would practice, I would practice would be the third one, practice would be the fourth one, and then ultimately enter the contest.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Right.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you're cooking on.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I've seen guys running$25,000 awesome pits, and I've seen people cooking on trash can looking barrels.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Right.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: They all win.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: The key is knowing your pit.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Right.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: So whether you're running a Traeger or a Green Mountain or a Jambo or a Yoder or one of these other you know grills that are out there.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, with the barbecue stuff, the only thing you can't really do is run propane or electricity.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: But uh why would you want to?
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: When you first started competing, what was your grill of choice?
11:16
SPEAKER_00: When we first started, we were running nothing but Weber Smoky Mountain cookers.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: So the bullets.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Are they even making those anymore?
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they are.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: We ran uh our first contest, we ran three 18-inch Weber bullets and a Weber kettle for the chicken.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: So we did ribs on one, brisket on one, pork on one, and then did our chicken on the kettle.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nice.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: We did that for years.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's weird.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh Weber's Weber's product line and their product breadth is getting a little bit bigger and they're starting to dabble in the pellet cookers.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: I saw some interesting reviews of the first couple versions.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, they've already they've already recalled the first run of the smoke fire and they've completely remanufactured those.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of predictable.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: They have that open flame with whenever you got air and combustion going around.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like you can you could tell when you looked at them and you looked at the construction of them that they had just rushed those to market.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: So there's big competition in the pellet space, right?
12:13
SPEAKER_01: So 2011, you did the Pitmasters show, and how did you guys fare in that?
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, we did really well.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: So it was um, there were two categories.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know what it was gonna be when we got there.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: We were given a really long list.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: It could have been armadillo.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was just these random meats.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh they first drew catfish, which was cool.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, we had a guy on our team that's a really big fisherman, so you had to actually fillet it yourself, skin it, and we grilled it and we did really well in that category.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, went and after that, one team was eliminated.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: We went to the next round and we lost by a point to uh Mo Kayson out of Des Moines.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh our pork actually scored perfect 10 out of 10, and then he beat us by a point in the coleslaw side dish thing, which uh was just infuriating.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: So we're about to shift gears into your next endeavor and the next chapter of that story, but what is your favorite thing to cook just as a as a pit master?
13:15
SPEAKER_00: As a pit master is ribs.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Ribs?
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm a I I brisket is my arch nemesis.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: I love cooking it for competition though.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a guy on our team, his name's Logan, he's really good at it, and so that's kind of his baby.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: The ribs uh the and the chicken uh are I have a lot of oversight on, but I love cooking ribs.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: I could do it, go out and do it right now with pork ribs, yep.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Pork ribs spares personally, yeah.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: Short of short of grilling up some steaks.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: I for some reason can manage to fuck up beef no matter what, but but I could like I could do pork, I could do pork butt, I could do pork ribs all day long and like be awesome.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: It's much more forgiving.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: Your story now, you're doing pizzas.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: I know, man.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: You are the pizza man, you are the urban slicer.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: How the hell did you get into that?
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh it may seem like it is very recent, but it's about 10 years in the making.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: So after the TV show, we got some sponsorships, and I became a brand ambassador for this company called the Kettle Pizza.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: They make an insert for the Weber Kettle, and I fell in love with making pizza in the backyard, especially that super high, like 900-degree cooks in 90 seconds pizza thing.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: So wrote a recipe, shared it online.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: I was part of all these pizza groups, and my recipe got a lot of traction and sort of took off, and I was getting a lot of DMs, like uh dozens a week, and which turned into hundreds of a week after a while.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to answer everybody, and um eventually I just fell in love with it so much that I decided I need to figure out a way to make this a business that I want to do.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Restaurant was not something that I'm really interested in.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Um I I know that uh a lot of people have wanted me to open a restaurant.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: I get asked it maybe daily when you open in a spot, and I'll never say never, but it's not on my like dream list of things to do.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: So just decided to take the dough recipe and put it in a bag and see what happens.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, did some research.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: There really wasn't a premium pizza dough recipe out there, and uh and so for about three years I worked on that formula with the food scientist out of Kansas City.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: We developed a yeast that yeast in its dry form will die next to salt in a bag.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: So we developed a yeast that has a coating around it, proprietary, um, where it dissolves once the water hits it, so you could actually put everything in the bag at one time.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of the first of its kind uh out onto the shelves, and the reception's been awesome.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: It's been cool.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, awesome.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: So you basically carved a niche for yourself out of something that was previously a hobby, you know, yeah, and now you've made it like a labor of love.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh as it turns out, that's exactly what happened.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: I won't say that was my mission to begin with.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: I was it just kind of that's exactly what happened.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: So it's funny, I was listening to I was listening to another podcast you were on on the drive to Omaha.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: There was a story that made me kind of chuckle, and it was it was about a grill competition in Valley, Nebraska, and it sounds like you were like dishing out pizzas like you were the canteen in the middle of the desert dispensing water.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what was happening for a number of years because we were cooking on those kettle pizzas to help bring them some awareness, right?
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And it got out of control for a while.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: I found myself bringing like a hundred dough balls to a pizza contest, and we're slanging pizzas all night long, and then I had to solicit help, and yeah, yeah, that's kind of how it all started to be going.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: You didn't reach out to Guinness to see if you can get in the world record book for it.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: Probably should have done that, yeah.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Probably should have done that, man.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: So you've created this dough mixture and you've turned this into a hustle for yourself, which is very, very, very impressive.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: I like following your social media because I was once a fat kid and I'm I will always be a fat kid at heart.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: I will always be a fat kid at heart.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: And um, man, I look at that food and it's just oh yeah, it's it's fantastic.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: So are you teaching classes then now?
17:21
SPEAKER_00: I am, yeah.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: So my my pizza dough product is just a pantry alternative, but I actually teach how to do everything from scratch.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: I have a multi-day dough recipe if people want to use it.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: I have a sourdough starter that's like a pet.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Her name's Karen.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I have to feed her regularly.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: I've had her in my house for eight years, and yeah, I teach barbecue grilling and pizza classes.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Pizza are the highest demand ones.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: Not to tread back too much to the grill topic, but do you find that people in your world are like musicians and they're kind of like gear snobs to a certain degree?
17:56
SPEAKER_01: Oh, totally.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Very passionate about what they're doing, you know.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what what they're doing, what they're doing it on, and and so as a pizza chef, what is your preferred method to cook and prepare pizza?
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Man, this is like picking my favorite band or movie.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm really bad at this.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm super.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: So it depends on the day.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you, probably my number one favorite is cooking a Neapolitan style pizza, which is a 900-degree cooks in 90 to 100 seconds kind of thing.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've that's where it was all those are my roots in pizza cooking.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh they're quick and easy for entertaining, right?
18:37
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people love them.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Really getting into deep dish though.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: So nice.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: And it's Detroit style deep dish, right?
18:44
SPEAKER_00: It is, although our so our package says Detroit Deep Dish, you can do other deep dishes with it.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: You can make a Chicago, you can make what's called a grandma, you can make a Sicilian pizza out of it.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: What the hell's a grandma?
18:57
SPEAKER_00: A grandma, uh, so if you're in Omaha, think like Orsi's.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: It's a not quite as thick, a little different version, but La Casa would kind of be along those same lines.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: So in order to get up to that 900 degrees, you're you're pretty much cooking on open fire then.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: You have to have fire, yeah.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: If you run just coals, you're 500 tops, probably more like four or seven.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: So what what vessel do you do that in?
19:22
SPEAKER_00: So I'll I use uh several different ones.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh the kettle pizza is one.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: So you run coals in the back and then you feed it sticks, and that's actual fire that burns back there.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh I have I use my pizza insert for the Green Mountain Grills, which is about 900 degrees.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: I have an Uuni, which is a propane cooker.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so that's not actual wood, but you have uh the high the high heat.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: And then I have a wood-fired oven that's nice, nice, fantastic.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: One thing that's been really interesting to see online, and I even shared it from my social media page, is that you are a part of a yeah, the Chef's Giving?
20:00
SPEAKER_00: The Chef's Giving.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: That's what it is.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: That's what it is.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: That's what it is.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: Chef's giving.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: The Chef's Giving thing is one of the coolest projects I've ever done.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Um I, you know, I'm I probably don't belong, but uh, it's like Andrew Zimmer and um Yan can cook, Martin Yan, Sammy Hagar did a video.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's 30 chefs in all that each did a video, uh, Urban Slicer included.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And we submitted them, and 100% of the proceeds go to the first responders for the California wildfires.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And if you go out to chefsgiving.org, you can see it.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a donation of your choice.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: You get all 30 recipe, uh, video recipes and written recipes.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: A lot of these guys are like five-star Michelin chefs in New York and all over the country.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, there's some awesome beef wellington, there's some couple different ways to do turkey, some hams.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: And you can see the bass player of Normandy Circle.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: And the bass player of Normandy Circle cooking a Thanksgiving pizza.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Who would have thunk it?
21:03
SPEAKER_01: So, Thanksgiving pizza.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: Does that involve having turkey and gravy on the on the crust?
21:08
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I did.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Are you serious?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: I was joking.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: That is my it's my holiday leftovers pizza.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: It's a deep dish.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: It's got all of the holiday fixings on it.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's awesome.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's really good.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: It sounds so weird.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: That's really, really good.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I bet it would be.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you think about think about combinations that you would never think were amazing.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: Like the KFC's famous bowl.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just everything thrown in there.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: It's everything, all that shit thrown together and it tastes delicious.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, oh man, that's so damn good.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask this, because I've seen online a couple of times, have so if you've done the Lincoln half marathon, yeah.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: So six times.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: Do you find that your diet is easier to manage because you're preparing all this fresh food for yourself?
21:56
SPEAKER_01: Or do you find that that's still a slippery slope?
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, no, I've I've actually Actually, so I for me, exercise is the great equalizer.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: If I didn't, I'd be 350 pounds.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: So I love making fresh food.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Even the pizza, I you know, when I teach classes, I tell people pizza is not junk food.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: It can be junk food.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: You can go to a little Caesars or Pizza Hut and buy some really terrible pizza for you.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Or you can use fresh ingredients and make good stuff and make it the right way.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: And just like any other meal, and then it's up to calories, you know, how much are you gonna eat?
22:27
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: And I was just gonna say that that I think anybody that's ever watched their calories, they have that oh shit moment when they see that, oh, I can have pizza.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: It's this other crap that's that's killing me.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: It is, yeah you know, it's it's actually sometimes it's the actual chef salad with all the salad dressing and additives on it that's killing me.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: It's not the pizza.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: 400 calories and ranch.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean how did you get into that?
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Have you always been a runner?
22:52
SPEAKER_00: No.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, I got when my right after my son was born, who will be 11 here in December, I found myself pretty much in the worst shape of my life.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: I just decided I started with P90X and insanity, and then I started cycling, and then I just decided to start running.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: My first race ever was the Omaha Marathon, the full.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh I did not know what I was getting into, but I trained up to it, and uh since then, that's the only sanction full I've done, but I've run three actually just in training.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: There's something about really pushing my mind, yes, and just to sheer exhaustion.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: I'll regularly go for 13 to 15 mile runs and I'll be worthless for a day or two afterward, but they feel great while I'm doing them.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: Man, that is so relatable because I'm sitting here just nodding at you in awe because um that's kind of the same thing that happened with me.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: It's like so my daughter's 13, my son's 11.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: Actually, our kids are the same exact.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Daughter, daughter and son, yes, daughter older and yep, yep, yep.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: It's it's so such a parallel.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, coincidentally enough, folks, Matt's daughter and my daughter were part of the same baptism class when they were babies, or we were a part of the same baptism class when they were.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: We were kind of the same church.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: So, but when when my ex-wife was pregnant with uh with my daughter, I put on the sympathy weight like tenfold.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: Happens easy, and then and then I ended up starting a band that ended up being the most successful band I was a part of.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: So it was kind of a weird because here I am kind of chunky in my most most popular band I've ever done.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like in it's such an image-driven business, anyways.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: I lost it all, then she got pregnant with my son, and I put it all back on, then I lost it all again, and then and so what's been your choice?
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Like for me, running is really running running.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Really is my thing too.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a combination.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Have you done the Lincoln?
24:49
SPEAKER_01: What's that?
24:50
SPEAKER_01: No, I've not.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: I've been living in Lincoln for five years now, and my wife has tried to pitch it to me every year.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: It's the the so the Lincoln Marathon's great.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: The Good Life Haves is actually more fun, and you finish in the hay market, so where there's beer and everything.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's it, that's just like a carrot in front of you.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: But I I'm a horrible terrestrial runner.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Like I can I can run all day long on a treadmill and I can run 10-15 miles, but I am horrible about controlling my pace.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: So a typical workout for me is half hour, 45 minutes to an hour of cardio, and then half hour of lifting weights.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: And I would be in phenomenal shape if I could get my diet right, bringing this full circle.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: It's diet that kicks my ass.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: Diet is huge, man.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I pretty much eat whatever I want, but I know that when I'm over, you know, two, three thousand calories, I have to really just shut it down for the day, you know, no matter what I've been eating.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Over time, you get good at kind of just gauging that.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: It's not an exact size.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: So do you follow anybody that I I don't want to say like motivational speakers, but are there any certain motivational figures that you follow that kind of get you going, that motivate you to be such a strong runner?
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh so well, my barbecue partner Logan Hendrickson is uh in incredible shape.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: So, and a lot of times we're doing interviews or we're all end up on the news, or you know, or like you said with the band, you know.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to be standing next to him looking completely out of place.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: So that is a motivator, and then I have a really good friend in Kansas City named Aaron Becker who he was a giant lineman.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, never like uh super out of shape, but he was a D2 lineman that was you know 300 plus pounds.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: He cut it all down, he won a bunch of weightlifting contests and like bodybuilder stuff, and he's been a really big inspiration to watch just to know you can you know go from that to what he is now and keep it in check for a really long time.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: It's weird we come to these conclusions after those banned moments in life where things are so much about image, and you know, you're young, you're in the bars constantly, and you know, you're trying to pull tail or whatever it is, and it it's like, oh, I don't give a shit.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna drink freaking case and a half of beer tonight.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And when the we bounced back so much better back then.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we were 23 years old, we drink it till three in the morning, wake up at 7:30 like Superman.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: Right, absolutely.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: But now it's like now it's uh it's one of those things where you kind of need those figures in your life, you need those people, the the iron sharpening iron kind of thing.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a big nerd, and I of course I don't want to sound like I'm coping Joe Rogan's nuts here, but I love following guys like David Goggins.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: Totally.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Goggins is a huge story is one of the most unbelievable stories in the history of human.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh when I listened to his book, I went from running on average three miles at a time to like two to three weeks later, here I am running 10 miles and I'm not even breaking a sweat.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, he'll make you feel lazy real quick.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: So he did, oh yeah.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: So it's so it's guys like him that kind of get me going, but it's it's also maintaining those people in your social circle, people that you kind of like keep close because you're like, okay, this guy's gonna push me because I don't want to be, you know, dad in the backyard wearing his jorts, his white new balance shoes, absolutely, you know, his Sunday best, the Callaway Bush Monte guy.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:28
unknown: Yeah.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, and the same could be said, so there's the fitness side, and then there's just the general being a good person, the circle, you know, who you show me your friends, and I'll show you your future.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of Damon Benning's favorite lines, and I've I've used it for years, stole it from him, but it's really true.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: I you saw when you pulled up to my house, there's a bunch of bunch of construction going on.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had a guy that we've known for a really long time start the job, and um it it he went to jail.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so um the some people just have too many comeback stories they don't learn, right?
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Or they're not surrounding themselves with the right people.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: You just it's very important.
29:07
SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: My dad's line for that was, and I still use it to this day, um, was if you run through a barnyard full of shit, you're gonna get some on you.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's absolutely true.
29:18
unknown: I love that.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: And so, like, sometimes I've been the whole barnyard, sometimes I've set up a tent in the barnyard and lived in it, but you know.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, we all love a good comeback story whenever somebody actually makes it through and and does good things.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: What's in the future for Urban Slicer?
29:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so uh right now I'm trying to continue growing our mom and pop outlets.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are in 47 stores now in 20 different states.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: I've got a store in Australia, just um just finally agreed to uh deal with this with a distributor in Canada, so I just finished French packaging.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: And uh today I got a confirmation that a German distributor wants to take us, so I gotta do some German packaging.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna continue ramping up that volume.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: I added the sauce uh two weeks ago.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: I have two seasonings coming.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna just continue building that product line and and eventually it'll be more than just pizza dough.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: The pizza dough will always be the root, you know, the its mission, uh so to speak.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: But it'll I want the brand to grow.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: We will be in uh big grocery at some point.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just waiting for that because it is.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm in IT by trade, and I had knew nothing about retail.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And I have a very good friend that um is one of my partners, and he's been in this for a really long time, and I'd be lost without him.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: It is, as you know, you know, it is a crazy business, and you're competing with so many different products to try and get on the shelves and the placement fees and everything involved if like a grow uh Kroger W Hive or Walmart, it's insane.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, and it's weird because you you look at the retail model and how much of it is going strictly online unless you have a good niche market, which which is something that you have, yeah, you know, um, and and grilling in general or any kind of outdoorsy products, because sometimes some of those items are instant gratification items.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: Like people aren't like come necessarily coming in to shop for that, but if they see it, they're like, Okay, I gotta have that.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I gotta have that.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes you just gotta build that base and and grow up from there.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: So have you thought about at any point in time, you know, you said that people nudge you to be a restaurant tour at some point.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought about doing like a take and bake type model?
31:46
SPEAKER_00: It's funny you ask.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I just ordered a bunch of uh pans to do some testing for that today.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm Nostradamus.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's crazy.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: I literally ordered them today.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: There's a company called Lloyd Pans, and I love their their stuff, that's what I've been doing all my deep dish in.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: I just ordered a bunch to do some testing to see if I could stage things, and then I ordered some disposable uh pans that they can go in and get shrink wrapped in.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it where it'll go.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: You're sitting in the test kitchen, sure, so it'll get tested.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh yeah, it's something I'm considering or frozen, right?
32:24
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: And it's just the thing is is you know you never know until you try.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: You gotta will this shit into existence, right?
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, did you think back in 2011 when you're grilling on TV that you would be uh distributing a pizza dough or a pizza sauce today?
32:40
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even sure in March of this year.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: I don't think any of us were sure of what was gonna happen in March of this year, bro.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that is no doubt, man.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: It has been a crazy time.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: So, how have you been dealing with COVID-19 and the year that has been 2020?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, so um, probably much like a lot of people, uh, a lot of uncertainty.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got two young kids in school.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: We went through a long period where they had to learn remotely.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Very blessed to have two super responsible kids that are really good.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: And um, they took initiative, and and my wife and I both are working here, and we did not have a bunch of overhead.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I cannot imagine having a kindergartner or first grader through this.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it would just be a whole different thing.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: They don't know what a plus sign is, or you know, the little basics were they can't even self-start school, right?
33:35
SPEAKER_00: So, in that regard, um, you know, it's been challenging, but I'm I'm definitely one of the lucky ones.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: My uh 25-year career in banking IT had me traveling all over the the country um 75% of the time.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: On March 12th, I got called back.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: I haven't traveled since, and so for that, it's been a blessing for me.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, I am getting more family time than I've had in a long time.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a perfect opportunity for me to launch this new company and lots of family dinners.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, I have had lots of personal uh situations with it.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Both my parents have gotten it who are older.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: My great grandmother or my grandmother, who's 87 years old, got it.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: A lot of my immediate family has had it, and you know, luckily it's been pretty minor in terms of symptoms, which is just kind of the story of this thing.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Some people it affects really in a really, really bad way, uh, you know, and kills them.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: And then there's uh the other side where I spent all of January, February, March in Manhattan going to dinners and shaking hands and you know, not really understanding how stupid that was.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: But with many other people that didn't understand how stupid that was, and and I never even saw a symptom.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: So it has been uh uh lots of downside, of course, but I'm always a glass half full kind of person, and um I can find the positives in it, and we're just trying to eat up the family time.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh for me on the business side of things, which it sounds like much the same for you, it has been I'm super lucky.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say it, you know, there's some restaurants and some smaller shops that are going out of business and uh I'm thriving, you know.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Right.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's very out of balance.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's a good way to describe it.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: And and first, first and foremost, before I I respond to any of that, I'm gonna commend you because one thing that I've always tried to steer, you know, whether it be on the podcast and in my personal life, is finding the silver lining in this.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: It's like because we we're all dealing with the downer days, we all get those days.
35:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes, like some of us, some of those days last for weeks.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: But if you're able to find the silver lining and say, okay, this is this is where the real value lies here, you know, yeah, this is proof that we're gonna come out of this better than we probably went into.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be a while.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it'll definitely be a long while.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: We gotta buckle down, and it it might I hate to say this, and I said this on a social media post the other day.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: Inevitability is that it's probably gonna get worse before it gets better.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: I would agree.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: But but it is gonna get better.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it seems, yeah, inevitably is the right word.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: It it there's no way around it, I think, at this point.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: Right.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's weird because you talk about that March 12th.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: I was in I was in Colorado on a little mini vacation that same week, the week that everything shut down.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it was right before everything shut down.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Did you fly into town?
36:43
SPEAKER_01: No, we drove.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: We were uh we were in uh Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs, and it was just one of those things where it was nice, like there wasn't a whole lot of people around, but I'm coming, we were driving back and I'm getting text messages from my day job that so-and-so quit, so-and-so had to go home because the university closed, and I like I lost four people right away because the college closed down, and get home, and the kids were like, Well, we were on spring break and now we're not going back to school.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exactly what happened, yeah.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: And so so it was it was a weird, it was a weird time, and it was really scary, but I think the strength in all of us is learning how to manage living with it while we turn that corner, yeah.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: And well, I mean, and I'm glad we see eye to eye on that.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're constantly focused on the downside, you're gonna be miserable.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and it and the pandemic, it's it's not that's not a new concept because of the pandemic, you know.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of think if you came into this situation as one of those people, you probably are more miserable than you were to begin with.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: But you were probably miserable before.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I yeah, I'm I'm like you, man.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: You gotta find you gotta find the positives in everything.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Right.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: We'll lose our sanity, man.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: And and some of us already are, and so and some of society already is losing its sanity.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: And and it's just there's there's not enough people that kind of want to look at things more subjectively.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was such a quick reflex to make this public health issue a political issue when it's always been a public health issue.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: It's it doesn't matter which side of the fence you sit on.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: Totally agree.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: Like, like it doesn't matter.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: Like, there's merits on both sides of the fence when it comes to the the issue of the pandemic, but it's just we have ultimately we have a choice of how we're going to react to it.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: We do.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: That's that's an amazing way to put it.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: So, what's next for Matt Frampton?
38:46
SPEAKER_01: I asked what's next for the Urban Slicer, but what's next for Matt Frampton, the man?
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, so I'm hoping that the pandemic is over as quickly as possible because just like playing and a lot of the musicians that we've talked about, yeah, I'm not teaching right now.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Right.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Which is a big part of what I do, and I'm looking forward to resuming that.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: So we've got the pizza thing, obviously.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna start competing more in 2021.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, this year I competed three times two state contests and one barbecue contest, which is just crazy.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: I never de-winterized my trailer.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: So I think I'm gonna do that the second everything thaws out in the new year and uh and hit it hard pretty next year and compete.
39:27
SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna you're gonna will all the goodness into the world and then.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do my best.
39:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping that by mid-year next year, because that's honestly how long I think it's gonna take.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: By mid-year next year, we're starting to see the glimmers of normalcy starting to be able to do that.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: We need to vaccine to hit, and then uh you know that should be the beginning of probably a long uh ending.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: But yeah.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: Well, um, I can't thank you enough.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's actually good to sit across from you and have this conversation and talk about uh where we've become these old men that we are now.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: Dude, it's crazy, man.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just crazy how, and just like this year, the days kind of fly by and the years just fly by.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: And it's been probably 20 years since we played our first show together.
40:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know, and that's hard to think about.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: There, I saw a meme online uh that said something along the lines of next year is 2021, and I'm still thinking that 2008 was five years ago.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh absolutely, oh man.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: And that describes it perfectly.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it sure does, man.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: Well, Matt, you're a good man.
40:37
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you doing the podcast, and uh maybe we'll do this again sometime.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, brother.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Man, I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have had Matt Frampton on the podcast today.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: Such a good time reliving those old memories and talking about where our life's journey has gone.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we didn't even touch the surface of where Matt can be found online.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: You can find him on YouTube, you can find him on Facebook under Pitmaster Matt or Urban Slicer, you can find him at barbecuerevolution.com, that's bbqrevolution.com.
41:13
SPEAKER_01: He's not that hard to find, he's all over the place.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: And I'm super grateful that you got to find him here today.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: Gratitude is a really good theme this week since it is Thanksgiving week.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: And I would be grateful if you could leave a five-star review on the Apple Podcast app or on my Caught on the Mic Facebook page.
41:35
SPEAKER_01: This would also probably be a good time to mention that we do have a channel on YouTube, and that would be a real easy way to turn on your friends to this podcast.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.