433: Magic Mike Food Pr0n

Magic Mike Food Pr0n

Introduction and Catching Up

[00:00:00]

Christina: Welcome back. You’re listening to Overtired. I’m Christina Warren, joined as always by Brett Terpstra. Jeff Severns. Guntzel could not be with us today. Uh, we miss you, Jeff. Hope you’re having fun with the family. Um, so it’s a, it’s just a classic OG Overtired for once.

Brett: Yeah. Are you tired?

Sleep Struggles and Medication

Christina: Um, I was a little bit, so I went to bed.

So we are recording this right now at 11:00 AM um, uh, Pacific. Um, so a little bit later than we usually record, but I went to bed around 4:00 AM Pacific. So I woke up originally I did actually set an alarm. We were going to record at 10 and I set an alarm for nine 30 and I woke up and I sat, I hit snooze and I was about to text you and be like, I could really use another 30 minutes.

And you had texted me literally that second, asking for like 30 minutes or an hour, and I was like, perfect. And then I think I slept maybe 20 more minutes. Um, and then, and then I woke up and um, and, and

Brett: So yeah, you’re tired.

Christina: Yeah, I mean,

Brett: be tired.

Christina: well, I should be, but I got like, you know, uh, six, six [00:01:00] hours or so, so that’s, that’s pretty good.

Brett: I got nine hours of sleep last night and I’m still dragging, but I think it’s because for like two weeks now I’ve gotten six hours of sleep every night and that kinda racks up over time. And then the night that you do sleep well, then all the sleep deprivation like hits you the next day. I could barely get out of bed this morning.

Christina: No, totally, totally. Um, yeah, I have, I, I don’t know if it’s because of like medication switch or what, like, and it’s a weird thing because I, I, the amount of dray I’m taking right now, I feel like is probably the right amount, but I don’t know if I need to like, but this is what the hard thing is.

Like I’m, I’m taking 15 milligrams. I probably need to maybe take it like. Twice a day, um, like in terms of like maybe half, one, half the day, but half the other, I, I, I don’t know. But, but the 15 milligram will last me the whole day. The problem is it’ll also like, basically last me the whole night too. And so I am, [00:02:00] I’m at like,

Brett: I thought, I thought that’s what you, I thought it had a shorter half life,

Christina: I don’t know, it may be something in my biochemistry has changed, so, which is possible because like technically I could be taking 15 twice a day, but if I did that, I would not be sleeping. I might be more productive, but I wouldn’t, I, and actually I’m not even sure if I would be, but, but I would not be sleeping.

So I’m, I’m kind of at like the weird place where I’m getting, you know, five or six hours a night, like pretty consistently. So, um, but yeah. And, and it’s, it, I, I need something to help me sleep, but it,

Mental Health Corner

Brett: I feel like this segues nicely into a mental health corner.

Christina: I was gonna say, we were, we immediately went into mental health corner without even doing any chitchat.

So.

Brett: that’s why, that’s how Mental Health Corner became the first, first thing on the show is we just always naturally, we’re like, so here’s what’s wrong with me

Christina: what’s wrong with me this week. This, this, this is the, it was like Doctor Corner, and then we, like colloquial called it like mental health corner and then it became a thing. [00:03:00] Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. We’ve been doing this show for so long now. I mean, like intermittently, but, but, but we’ve been doing it for so long that like, yeah, this is how this happened.

Um, do you wanna go first? Do you want me to just finish mine? ’cause I don’t have a lot.

Brett: Oh, go for it. Yeah.

Christina: O Okay. So yeah.

Cleaning and Organization Challenges

Christina: Um, I haven’t been sleeping super well, but I ha it hasn’t been bad either. I just need to kind of figure stuff out. I’ve been trying to clean my office that has actually, like, that’s a massive like, mental health stressor because I have a bunch of boxes and stuff that I need to go through and I need to whatnot and, and we have like a storage unit and, and I’m, we can put stuff in.

My problem with that is, is that I’m like, okay, if I put this in the storage unit, I’m never gonna see it again. And there is some stuff in here I would like to potentially use, but.

Brett: are you currently in the same room you usually podcast from?

Christina: Yes.

Brett: Because from where I’m sitting, you’re, you’re sitting in an empty white room like John Oliver during the pandemic, so I would say you’re making progress on

Christina: Oh [00:04:00] yeah, totally. Yeah. Well, without a doubt, I got rid of my shoe rack and, and put shoes that I will be using, like in kind of like a, an area and then put some that are in boxes that I haven’t worn that I might sell, that I might do, you know, potentially to go into storage. And then I, I threw a bunch out, but like, there’s a whole half of the room that you can’t see that is just like boxes and stuff that I need to go through.

And, and the easiest thing to do would be to just like pack it all up and put it in storage. But if I do that, I know I’m not gonna go through it. And so it’s just, I don’t know, it’s, it’s a really stressful thing of being like, okay, how do I get enough time to like, basically have to kind of sift through and go through every single thing I have, be like, you know, keep storage, whatnot.

Um.

Brett: Do you have, do you have enough room to temper? Oh, you must. ’cause it was there to begin with. So I’ll tell you what I do and you can take it or leave it, but I like to put everything that I’m not currently using, everything that I don’t have an immediate use for into a big pile of boxes.

Christina: Right?

Brett: And [00:05:00] then over the next month, if I do need something, I go dig it out of the box and it becomes like a stay thing.

If I, if there’s anything left in that box at the end of the month, I move it into a longer term storage. And basically anything I don’t use in a year, I give away or sell if possible. But like, just like putting it all in storage and then pulling out what you actually like because you can’t make that decision in the moment.

Christina: no, but the problem is, and and you’re right, that is the right thing to do. The problem is, I don’t know exactly what I have. And so if I just put it in storage, then it, it, then that doesn’t solve anything. And then like, the problem is, is that there are things, I know I have, I don’t know where they are.

I might rebuy them. Like that’s the problem. So, so you’re right, like the way that you’re talking about approaching things is correct, but like, I don’t know what all I have.

Brett: I do have that problem of like forgetting that I already own something and buying it again because I can’t keep track.

Christina: right. Well, I mean, I ran into that. I couldn’t [00:06:00] find a certain cable for something, and so I spent $70 on a freaking AC adapter for a thunderbolt dock. And then, and this is like the shittiest thing, I found the newer version of the Thunderbolt dock.

Brett: UN unboxed,

Christina: UN uh,

Brett: I mean no. Still boxed.

Christina: Still box. Yeah. Completely unopened. So like. So I’m like, okay, well then why the fuck did I just spend $70 on the safety? Alright, whatever. But like, uh, you know, but there’s shit like that, right? Like, I couldn’t find a certain, a c cable for my camera that I needed to plug in, so I bought another one, and then I literally found that when I was going through, so I was a motherfucker, right?

So there’s, there’s stuff like that that I just, it’s gonna take me, it’s just gonna take forever to go through and, and that’s just emotionally really taxing to even think about. And so, um, and then if I have to like, use my office for, for work related things, like, then that is another complication. Like, how the hell do I, like, find the time and the space, like do this and still have like a, a cleanish working [00:07:00] environment.

So it, it, it is what it is. But, um, but other, other than my hoarding and, and you know, like organizational and executive function, uh, deficits, um, I’m doing pretty well.

Brett: All right. Um, yeah, I would say, uh, that leads me to a whole conversation about Facebook marketplace. But, um, l is currently applying for additional part-time jobs and, um, does not have the emotional. Capacity right now to deal with that and like working around the house and working in the garden and organizing a room.

And yeah, I get that there are limits to like, everything takes emotional energy. Like whether you realize it or not, you’re investing emotion into everything. And things like cleaning are intense.

Christina: they are.

Brett: Like even [00:08:00] just, even just like straightening up the house is an emotional journey for both EL and me.

Selling on Facebook Marketplace

Brett: Um, but so are, do you sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace?

Christina: but I should, um, because, um. I mean, I think that would probably be better than than eBay or other places.

Brett: Yeah, I’m not sure, uh, ’cause I haven’t, Facebook marketplace has always just been so convenient to get into that. I haven’t, I haven’t sold anything on eBay in a decade. Um, but so Facebook marketplace, if, if you’re post gets no traction in the first week, it expires your listing. So I have stuff like, I have this pep link.

Router that you can plug in two different cable modem or at two, any two ethernet sources, um, from different ISPs into one router. And it does load balancing between the two ISPs, which is [00:09:00] if you’re running a business and you want a hundred percent uptime, you get two different ISPs and you plug it into this and it’s for people who need it.

It’s a perfect solution and I, it is not the kind of thing that Facebook marketplace excels at selling. Um, uh, since I lost my job, I have been doing a better job of, of putting my huge pile of leftover shit on to, uh, Facebook marketplace for sale and. So like I, I put up a pair of echo dots, like current generation, uh, unopened, uh, for $40 for the pair and they retail it, I think 30 bucks a piece.

Uh, so it wasn’t a huge deal, but

Christina: It’s a good one.

Brett: yeah. So it you 20 bucks and those did not sell as a pair. People picked them up individually. I sold them 20 bucks a piece [00:10:00] and those sold in like a day. But I have an echo show

Christina: Mm-hmm.

Brett: also unopened that I got during a prime day when I was feeling impulsive. And it has, it gets no interest.

I marked it to like half, half of retail value, completely on open brand new current version. And I cannot get even a single person interested in it.

Christina: Yeah.

Brett: have a. I have a bike. Uh, Al has a bike that we’re trying to sell and its tires need to be replaced. Like they won’t inflate anymore, but we don’t have a bike rack that can get it to the bike shop.

Um, and I’m, I’m gonna have to actually buy the tools to replace a tire on my own. ’cause I haven’t owned any of those since I used to raise mountain bikes. So nobody will buy it without being able to ride it, even though it’s, it’s a $750 bike [00:11:00] that we’re offering for $250 barely used. And still people are like, well, I really need to see what it feels like.

Christina: Yeah. Yeah. There’s, there’s, there’s, I mean, the thing is, I mean, it’s convenient and, and I, I’ve never bought anything off a Facebook marketplace, I don’t think, but I know people who have and, and, um, and I, that’s probably what I’ll use to try to sell some of my stuff, assuming, you know, um, uh, it’ll be the sort of stuff people will want.

Um, just because eBay’s such a fucking pain and, and they take so much of, and I don’t even care about how much they take, like, at, at a certain point, but it’s just like, if it’s such a pain, then, then it’s gonna be like more effort than it’s worth, than at that point I’m kind of like, well, then I’m just gonna fucking, you know, donate it or, or throw it away or, or give it to Goodwill or whatever.

You know what I mean?

Brett: And that also is an emotional expense. Like putting it up for sale is an expense dealing with people who wanna buy it. It’s like when you have a garage sale and people try to haggle on something that does have some sentimental value to you, or like you value it in a way that they don’t. And you have to like, [00:12:00] um, uh, concede to their, their preferences in order to make the sale.

And again, it’s all emotional energy. Selling stuff is hard.

Christina: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and, and that’s why usually I don’t even fuck with it. I’m just like, fine, just get rid of it. Just take it,

Brett: I, I give so much away. I like, I always, before I put anything up for sale, I ask my friends because if a friend can use something I have and save me the emotional journey of dealing with buyers and actually transactions and all of that, and they’ll just take it, that actually gives me like an emotional surplus.

Like I feel like I’ve done a good thing. I’ve helped somebody out. Something I owned was helpful to somebody else. I feel good about that, that that’s, that’s, that’s good. Selling stuff is a negative though.

Christina: Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then, um, I, I, I, I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure that it was fake, but, but there’s, I saw this very funny, um, uh, [00:13:00] comedian bit, um, about Facebook marketplace. This reminded me of it. I’ll see if I can find a clip of it. It was, it’s like, I think she was Australian. She might have been British, uh, but she was like talking about like the most unhinged Facebook marketplace story where some, she was trying to sell like a bed and, uh, like a bed frame.

Brett: Yeah, I’ve seen

Christina: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brett: who it was,

Christina: Yeah. It, and it’s, and, um, something

Brett: actually, I believe it. I think it, I think it could have been real.

Christina: maybe, I mean, I, I,

Brett: seemed believable.

Christina: of it seemed believable until the, the end story where going into like the, the, the, the, the wrong apartment. That, that was the part that, like, that, that didn’t seem, um, that, that I was like, okay, now, now I’m not actually sure about this.

Brett: all right. Well, we’re, we’re gonna find it and we’re gonna share it, but we do not, we do not take responsibility for its veracity.

Christina: But it is very funny. I don’t actually care if it’s true or not. It, it’s funny enough, and the song is, is funny enough that I’m like, this is good. Like, I don’t, I don’t actually care. Um, all right. How, [00:14:00] how, how are you doing? How’s, how’s your mental health?

Brett: All right. Well, I am.

Job Hunt and Unemployment Fears

Brett: My, my severance runs out this week. Um, I’m not broke by any means yet, but, uh, once my severance runs out, then I should be eligible for unemployment. But I have this major, like emotional blockade, to applying for unemployment. Like part of me is just dreading finding out I can’t get unemployment.

Um, like I already have contingency plans. I know what I’m doing, um, next, but it’s still like, uh, it’s a fear of rejection

Christina: Right.

Brett: keeping me from doing it.

Christina: And I understand that I, I would like point out like you as much as it would suck, like if it will be, you know, ’cause I don’t know how much Minnesota gives, but I, I think they, they offer a, a pretty decent

Brett: be like four to 600 a week.

Christina: Right. That I [00:15:00] think if you can like, frame it in your head that like, that, that is worth like, the risk of finding out if they’ve rejected it or not.

Did you talk, did you, did, did you talk to a lawyer before? Um, all this and, and, and they didn’t have an answer for you?

Brett: No,

Christina: No.

Brett: no. So Shopify said they were going with a more qualified candidate. I. And if I wanted any feedback, they were available next week, and this is last week. And I said, sure.

I would, I would be interested in feedback so I can, you know, better myself for future applications. Uh, they never replied to that email. And then two days later, the job I applied for showed back up on LinkedIn, um, which leads me to have all kinds of dark thoughts about, they must have contacted Oracle.

And Oracle did something to disqualify me. And like if it weren’t for that, I would’ve had the job because they had no other

Christina: [00:16:00] Right.

Brett: Um, so I emailed them about, I was just like, Hey, I saw this job come back up. Is it the one I’ve already been passed over for or is it something else I can apply for?

And I never got a reply to that either. So I, I have fears, I have, I’m worried about what that means for my. Um, higher ability in other places, which makes me completely, um, reticent to continue with the job hunt. I’m still sending out resumes ’cause that’s easy to do. Um, don’t know if I want to go through another like four hour interview process and not get a job.

And like my independent coding is going really well. And I really think, I really think, um, there’s a lot of potential for just being independent at this point. And I figured out how to have like 401k and [00:17:00] health insurance and all of this as an independent developer. And the only thing keeping me from wholeheartedly pursuing that is that it, it scares Elle and those conversations are.

Difficult, they’re very emotionally charged and I get very defensive very quickly.

Christina: Right, right. I mean, and, and, and I, and I can, I can see both sides of that. I can see your side obviously, and that, like you, you’re like, I think this is viable. This is going to, you know, help me. I’m, I’ll be happier, I’ll be more productive. I can potentially make more money or, or as much, you know, doing this.

Um, and, but I also see their perspective, which is, you know, we need reliable income and, and, you know, and they remember potentially like what things were like before. Uh, and, and, and, and in that case, you know, it, it wasn’t always. Reliable, um, in, in some ways. And so I, I, I can see both of those perspectives.

I, I feel [00:18:00] like I will, I will just give you, from what I’ve observed from my friends who’ve gone through job hunts and, and just even myself going through interview processes at places where I, I didn’t ultimately end up taking jobs. Um, unfortunately, the, the, if you’re going to go with like a, a, even smaller places at this point, like bigger places, the, the process is going to be the same process you went through, uh, at Shopify.

It, it’s not going to, I mean, period. Like even if you have an in, even if it’s, feels like it’s a guarantee thing, it’s a slog. And, and I have friends who are going, who are actively seeking jobs right now, and it does become almost a full-time job to apply for other jobs, right? Like, that’s like, it becomes a, a whole thing and it’s shitty and it’s, and it’s bad.

But like that’s, you know, like ideally, I think what a lot of people like try to like. You know, optimize their, their, um, either, you know, when they’re being paid for unemployment or if they have severance, you know, from another place or whatever. They try to optimize their time for that, you know, for, for interview prep and for, you know, leak coding [00:19:00] exercises depending on what they’re doing.

And for, you know, outreach and, and that thing. Um, so I, I think that like the, the loop thing and, and, and then multiple rounds is unfortunately going to be, at least at bigger places, is just gonna be a reality. Smaller places might be different in terms of whether or not Oracle has blacklisted you or something. would, I would, my, my gut says that Shopify would not be able to get that information unless, until they were going to extend you an offer and, and so. Um, I don’t think that that happened in this case. If, if after the formal round, like usually they would, they would extend you a, a, a verbal offer and that’s when the background check process would start, where they would contact your former employer to verify employment and maybe to verify other things.

They’re not supposed to be able to ask about anything else. Like that’s not supposed to be a thing that’s allowed. Um, and now if people know people places and they ask questions, that’s different obviously, but like. You know, that’s not supposed to be a, a thing that happens, especially if you [00:20:00] weren’t like hired for, if you weren’t like, um, you know, fired for, um, like committing a crime or something.

And you know, like, and even then, I’m not even sure if that is information that they’re allowed to share, to be honest with you. Um, and so, um, but like, like if you’ve emb embezzled or something, right? Like I, I feel like if that would come up maybe on a criminal, um, uh, background check, but usually I, I don’t even know if they would be able to, if employers would be able to, like past employers would be able to share that sort of information.

So I don’t know why they pulled the job and then re-listed it. It’s possible that they found out that from the, the, the candidates they got, they just didn’t find people that they wanted for whatever reason. And then they re-listed in hopes of getting different candidates set. I have no idea. Um, but I, I, I feel like the only way that, that you had, you would just, it makes you feel any better that would.

Have, have them be like, oh, we blacklisted Brett would be, if they just happened to know someone who knew the details. Um, and, and [00:21:00] that

Brett: the thing though.

Christina: and that that

Brett: only. If

Christina: right and that feels

Brett: people at Oracle who would say anything bad about me,

Christina: Right. And so that makes me think that that’s not what happened.

Brett: yeah, I wish they would just like tran be transparent and tell me what was up. Like, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna sue anybody. Um, unless they, unless they had some protected reason that they admitted to,

Christina: right?

Brett: um, we didn’t hire you because we found out you’re pansexual, then yeah, that’d be a problem.

But I, I imagine that’s not the reason. Um, so yeah. Anyway, anyway. Can I tell you about Rhubarb’s salsa also?

Christina: Yeah, absolutely. Should we, uh, should we do our sponsor read first?

Brett: Should we, what time is

Christina: It’s, it’s 24 minutes in.

Brett: Okay? Yeah. Perfect time. Would you like to do the read?

Christina: I absolutely

Brett: for it.

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Brett: Yeah. Thank you.

Rhubarb Salsa and Cooking Adventures

Brett: Um, okay, so rhubarb salsa, my, we, we, we got a bunch of rhubarb. We ultimately, we’re probably gonna grow our own rhubarb, but right now we get a CSA. And one of the things that we’re getting in that, do you know what A CSA is?

Christina: I don’t.

Brett: Um, I can’t remember what it stands for, but it’s basically you pay a farm.

Or a farmer, um, a set price, and they give you a. Bundle of whatever’s in season that week and every week you get a big bag full of greens and root [00:24:00] vegetables and eggs and just like everything that a farm produces. Um, and it’s, you don’t always know what you’re gonna get, the one we’re doing right now.

You can go in at the beginning of the week and, uh, there’s like a checkbox you can like, choose. Here’s what’s available. You choose what you want. One of the things we’ve been getting is rhubarb. And I love a good like rhubarb strawberry crumble. It’s one of my favorite desserts. But we needed something else to do with the rhubarb.

So l made rhubarb salsa, which involves rhubarb and jalapenos and green peppers, and I’m not even sure what else. But then you ferment it for like a week and you get this kind of fizzy, spicy, sweet salsa out of it. And it, like the first bite I had of it, I like my brain just lit up. I was like, oh my God.

[00:25:00] Um, the last time that happened to me was when we made, um, soy, uh, what was it? It was a, it was like a white fish, uh, sauteed in a soy sauce, like maple syrup mixture in orange juice. And then with a wasabi mayo and a mango salsa topper in corn tortillas. So it was like a taco. And the first bite I had, I was manic at the time.

I had that, so I was already, like, my brain was lighting up like crazy and then I had a bite of that and it was like fucking doing cocaine. It was just. Insane. So now I’m stable and I had a bite of this salsa and immediately my brain was like, yes, this is it. So last night we had, uh, Chipotle black bean tacos with mango, with like a lime cre, and then this [00:26:00] rhubarb salsa on top of it.

And oh my God, it was so good. I, I had, I would never have thought, you know what we should do with this rhubarb is make a spicy taco salsa. And it worked out so well. I was amazed.

Christina: That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Brett: Do you, do you do much cooking?

Christina: No, no, but I, I, I, I mean, I, I, I, I aspire to maybe one day be in the place where I, no, I, I actually, I don’t know. I, no, I don’t. Um,

Brett: That’s just not, that’s not you.

Christina: yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s not, um, but, uh, um, yeah, I, uh. It’s not me, but I, I like people who do, like, I like, it’s weird ’cause I like to like watch like cooking shows and hear about people who cook stuff, but like, I have zero interest in actually doing it myself.

Um, uh, the the like, the things that I am interested in and like the time that I have to do stuff is just like, there are too many other things that I’ve [00:27:00] prioritized more, but I, but I enjoy like, watching people who are really into it, I’m like, oh, that seems, that’s really cool. Like, it’s not my thing, but like, that’s really cool for others.

Brett: I love cooking shows. I have an, a subscription that I got as a birthday present to Cook’s Illustrated, which I read like it’s so fucking hustler and it’s, it’s food porn. It’s all food porn. I watch multiple, I have multiple YouTube subscriptions to chefs. And even when I am at a phase of my life where I’m a practicing vegan, I still like watching like cooking shows that deal with more of an omnivore diet.

And even if I’m not going to eat the stuff, I love watching the techniques and I love watching food be transformed into dishes. Um, our corn, uh, we’re growing corn, it’s like eight inches tall now. And [00:28:00] the, the. Farmers Almanac saying is always Kneehigh by the 4th of July, and I think we might make it, um, and our squash, I right.

So behind me in this room, I don’t think you could, right there, can you see that little sprout right there?

Christina: Uh, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brett: Yeah. It’s blurry, but, uh, we’re, we’re sprouting squash plants in my office. Um, that will be transplanted probably today out into the garden. Uh, I have, I, I think I’ve talked about the three sisters planting method on this show before, but, so basically you have, you have corn and then you plant beans and the beans grow up the corn, and then you plant squash.

And the squash protects the roots from the sun. The big leaves of the squash plant do, so like the three, they’re, the three different plants are kind of synergistic in their growth cycle. Um, so we’re doing that [00:29:00] in a, in a. Four by six raised bed. Um, I’m pretty excited about it, just like seeing it all come together.

Um, but yeah, so I’m gonna be doing a lot of cooking with, and we have so many tomato plants and I don’t really like tomatoes, but when I grow things myself, I like them better. So I’m, look, I’ve had a elsman sauteing up some cherry tomatoes that have been just good enough to like, just eat, just pop in your mouth and just eat, um, sweet and acidic at the same time.

Anyway. Okay. Sorry, I went off on a, I went off on a rant.

Magic Mike Trilogy Discussion

Brett: I did want to talk to you about Magic Mike. Uh, you, you mentioned to me last week when I was on my kick of like, stick it and, and uh, bring it on and, um, pitch perfect and all of that. You, you mentioned Magic Mike, uh, and Step Up, all the Step Up movies, uh, and, and I was like, I hadn’t.[00:30:00]

I had seen Magic Mike. I think I had seen XXL. I had never seen the last dance, so I, and we also talked about movie bundles last week. So when I went looking on iTunes, ‘cause I couldn’t find it on any of my friends’ plexes, um, I went on iTunes and there was sure enough a bundle for the Magic Bike trilogy.

So I just bought it and I watched them all and the first one has a ton of heart and like I was it, not only was it just a amazing dance moves, it was like dramatic and I had an emotional response to it. XXL and the last dance were good in so far as they had great dance moves, great choreography. I. Great acting, but they didn’t have the heart for me that the first one had.

Um, and [00:31:00] before the show, you were talking about how you saw, I think you were talking about XXL,

Christina: Yeah.

Brett: second one. You saw it in a theater with a bunch of people who were really into it.

Christina: Yes.

Brett: me about that.

Christina: Okay. So, gosh, I guess this was a decade ago and, um, whenever it came out and I, I saw it, it wasn’t even the first week that it was out. I think it had already been out. And this is what was impressive. ’cause it did really well at the box office, you know, especially for a sequel and, and a fairly, you know, not like a super high budget thing either.

Like the first movie was a big surprise hit because it was kind of like this dumb, you know, like. Like concept. And you’re like, what do you mean? Like, it’s about this guy who’s like a male stripper and, and you know, you know, doing the dancing thing. Like, what do you mean we’re doing this? And it’s like loosely based off of like Sha Tibs own experiences.

And then you’re like, and it’s Steven Soderberg, and you’re like, why in the hell is Steven Soderberg making a movie like this? Right? Like, like this, this is like, you know, the Ocean’s 11 guy and like the, you know, like the out of sight guy. Like this is like a, a big time, like, [00:32:00] you know, respected like artistic director.

Like what the, what the fuck is he doing? And then to your point, it’s great, it has heart. Like the, the dancing was awesome. Like, it was just like this complete surprise. Um, and then the sequel, I, I loved, I didn’t like it more than the original, but I really, really liked it. It’s, it’s essentially the same movie as Pitch Perfect Two, but I prefer it to, to pitch Perfect two.

A ton. Um, and I think part of it, when I look back on it was, I was telling you this before we started recording, I saw it in New York City, like at a theater in Chelsea and like a, a Wednesday or a Thursday afternoon, like I said, it wasn’t even release week. And I went with my, my coworker, um, Heidi, and the theater was, was pretty full and it was almost all women.

And everybody was like so into it, like, into it, into it. Like they were, you know, they were, we were all cheering and we were just having like the best time. And it was one of those movie experiences. Like I look back on, I’m like, man, that was really cool because you don’t expect, I dunno, I didn’t expect, especially like in New York City, like, it wasn’t even like a, a [00:33:00] suburban like kind of theater.

It was like. It was just like a, a local kind of neighborhood theater, and it was just like a, an afternoon like show. It was like six o’clock. It was like, you know, we went directly after work. It wasn’t one of those things that you would expect there to be a lot of people there. Um, even back then, like now, you definitely wouldn’t expect a lot of people, um, the movie theater, but, but even back then, I was like surprised, like so many people were, were in the theater.

And then the audience though, we just had like the time of our lives. Like we just with, with all the, the, you know, dance sequences and when they’re, they’re, you know, going to the, the various parties, you know, at the, um, you know, like fraternities and stuff. Like, it was just, it was freaking, it was just really, really fun.

And so. Don’t know for me, like that heightened that experience so much that I was like, man, I, and I don’t even know if I’ve watched it since then to be honest with you, but I, I bought the, I also bought the iTunes bundle, um, but I was just like, man, this was a great movie. I had a great time watching this.

And, and I, I had, I think, seen some of the dance sequences again. Um, but I was like, man, I just had like, [00:34:00] the time of my life. Um, the third one, it was good, it wasn’t the same, but I also didn’t see it in the theater. And at that point, you know, so much time had passed between like the second and the third one that I, I, I feel like,

Brett: The third one really tried to have heart.

Christina: it did and sort of where it came back for that

Brett: be dramatic, and it just, it didn’t hit me the way the first one

Christina: No. And that, that’s hard, right? Like you almost never do. Right. Like, I mean, in all honesty, the fact that we’re talking about, like genuinely saying that there are three Magic Mike movies and that the first one is really good and I really like the second one as well. But the third one, like none of them are bad.

Brett: Hmm

Christina: Is actually hysterically. Like that’s, uh, that’s, this should not be an actual conversation that we’re genuinely having where we’re like, no, you can actually watch all three of these movies. And they’re pretty good. Right? Because usually how these sorts of things would work historically would be you have one that’s really good and then you maybe have a sequel that’s okay.

And then the, [00:35:00] the by, by the time you get to the end, we’re at like direct to to, to video. It’s a cash grab and it’s terrible. Right? And like, it wouldn’t even be a thing where you’d be like, yeah, it’s, it’s worth your time. And this is one where I would be like, no. I mean, it’s not gonna be the greatest thing you’ll ever see, but it’s got some hard, and it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a solid ending.

You know, they also at that point, like they were doing like the Vegas, um, show and, and things like that, right? So it, it became this franchise, which is wild again, because I remember when that movie came out in like 2011, I think it was 20 11, 20 12, and, um, like. We were a shocked that Soderberg was making this movie, and then B, you know, that it was this hit.

And then C like when I look at it, I’m like, this, like launched this whole fucking franchise of other things. And you’re like, okay, you know, who would’ve thought like this movie that like, was kind of a punchline, you know, for, for like film snap types, like became like an actual franchise.

Brett: right.

Audience Participation and Movie Experiences

Brett: So let’s talk about the difference that [00:36:00] audience, we’ll say audience participation makes. Um, so like if you were, if Kid Today and someone said, you should see Rock Rocky Horror Picture Show, and you loaded it up on Netflix or wherever it is, and you watched it in a room on your own, you’d be like, all right, it’s kind of kitschy, it’s kind of funny.

Uh, I, okay, I don’t understand the, but if you see it at like a small theater with a crowd that knows all the songs and participates, holy shit, you walk out of there going, oh my God, this might be the greatest movie ever made. I saw. I saw the Blair Witch Project at a small theater in Minneapolis as a pre-release.

It hadn’t come out yet. Nobody knew. Nobody knew it was fake yet.

Christina: Oh man.

Brett: I’m in there with a crowd of people who are, they’re movie lovers, and they’re there to see a movie [00:37:00] and the like. There was a, a woman next to me, like the scary part. She was like grabbing my knee, like without thinking about it. Just like so scared, like just freaking out.

And the whole audience like audible gasps, like people, like, just like freaking out through the movie. And it changed it. Like it was like when I first saw it, I was like, oh my God, this might be like the best horror movie I’ve ever seen. And then I watched it years later alone in a room. And it was, it was okay.

Christina: Yeah. But but that

Brett: audience participation when you’re in a, when you’re in a theater, it’s same with going to a Star Trek movie or a Star Wars movie in the theater versus watching it at home on Netflix.

Christina: No, totally. I.

Brett: Or on Disney Plus, whatever. A huge difference.

Christina: no. Totally, totally. And it’s, it’s interesting you say that about Blair Witch, because I remember when that came out. They ran, they ran this, I don’t know if it was on Sci-fi [00:38:00] network, it was on something they ran on cable this, and it turned out that it was like a, a, you know, a whole