Are you leaving a you wanna way back home? Either way, we want to be there, doesn't matter how much baggage you claim and give us time and a terminol and gay.
We want to send you off in style. Do you wanna welcome you back home? Tell us all about it? We scared? Or was it fine?
Malcorn?
Do you need to ride? Do you need to ride? Do you need to ride? Do you need to ride? Do you need to ride? Do you need to ride?
Ride? Do you need.
With Karen and Chris welcome to Do you need a ride? This is Chris Fairbanks.
And this is Karen Kilgaroff.
Oh, I have so much to report Canada?
Is it about Canada? Mostly?
Did you know that Justin Trudeau has been asking, Oh, I do know a little bit about Candid? Yeah, well, there's a lot there's a lot of right wing folks that are saying this is the virus is meant to exterminate specifically white people because you talk about what you know up in can and he's he asked them. I saw in the news, he asked them to please stop. That's what I know about Canada.
My thing is I saw that there was truckers trying to unite against you know, fear. What it feels like to me fear. But I think deep down there jealous of his just high tight ass. Justin Trudeau has one of the greatest asses in politics.
How have you seen his ass?
Karen friend? It has been made available to me.
Really you got some body shots?
Well, not Bear, but I mean, like, you know, people have commented when he's like, I don't know, makes a speech and then turns around everybody like, am I right you guys behind me?
Sorry, I wasn't listening. I'm trying to google Bear Trudeau butt shot.
It's not I'm not saying.
Yeah, wait a minute. I got put on a government watch list.
A Canadian watch list. That's very nice about it.
Yeah, but yeah, I didn't really have anything to report. I'm glad you came in with that Canada business, Chris.
I'll always support you and then totally derailed. You know that about me?
I know it keeps me on my toes.
Hey, is it time?
It is time? You know we did our get to know each other as hosts get to be acquainted.
After eight years.
Yes, and I'm very excited about our guests today.
I was the feeling I had when I saw his name pop up in the email. Was first of all, let me just say it relief, Yes, because I said no heavy lifting on this one. Giggles abound.
Not that anyone's been difficult, but you do have. Yeah, it's like when you don't know someone at all, we get a little nervous. We admit that. We usually open and by saying we don't know this person, so we're scared.
We're scared. We don't want them to not like us. There's all kinds of junior high elements coming into play.
Not today with Chris Garcia, I know I can't fuck it up.
Hell, yes, lady and gentlemen. He plays couple in colleges all over you. It's Chris Garcia.
Chris Garcia.
Ever, I see nothing for five minutes. Thank you so much, Thanks for having me back. Nice to see y'all.
It's great to see you. Actually, great to see you. You're one of the most recent people I've seen as far as guests go. Yeah, you were. We were a little joy. You had just done one of your one of your shows there and we sat for a minute recently.
That's right. It felt so normal. Yeah, like a late night hang. Yeah, it was one of the one of the few late night hangs. It wasn't even that late. It was probably till eleven or something hangout after a show and we just sat at the bar and talked and talked to some i think random people until like, yeah eleven. It was so nice. I think it was the only time I've done that after a show ye in the last two years, And I'm glad I did it with you because it was so fun.
Yeah.
Can you just go over a couple of the stuff things you talked about, because that sounds like a dream.
Yeah.
What did we talk about.
Sitting and chatting?
We talked a.
Boy, nothing stands out. I'm not saying it wasn't good conversation. It was just onto the next decent topics, so nothing really stood out.
It was an easy conversation and it was fun. I don't remember any of it.
We talked about having the same first name.
You did not we because it's third grade.
Yeah, yeah, I'm like, did you ever get a nickname or were you the one that was always designated as Chris When you're hanging out with four other we have a very common name for our age bracket. You have a lot of Chris friends, Right, Chris, I have.
A lot of Christians. I'm well, we talked about this for at least forty five minutes state. But I'm Christian and you're a Christopher, right, you know it's slightly different, but a lot of Latino Christians, out of Latino followers of Christ. It maybe people who aren't as committed as Heesus will go by Christian. I think that's what it is.
It's one of my favorite things in the world that people actually have the name. And when I as I read it as a white girl from a farm, it's like and you know, Marie and Jesus, and it's just like Jesus is gonna be there. This is amazing. It's amazing.
A lot of pressure, a lot of pressure.
My name altogether, Christopher James Fairbanks often gets cut off on a ticket or something of airplane ticket? Is that what they're called? And I really I feel like I can't I'm not worthy when it gets it's abbreviated to christ I just don't know that I have that quality. But I'm a Christopher, of course, Christopher being the patron saint of I believe the ocean. In Hawaii, I got a little tiny medallion that Saint Christopher on it and
ironically lost it swimming in the ocean. What does that mean?
It mean I'm not going to argue you, right, that's rude. It's a podcast who cares? But as a Catholic forced Catholic, I wouldn't say. The first thing that Saint Christopher is a patron saint of is the ocean first? Only because right, it's ironically patron saint of lost things?
Right?
Or is it driving a car?
Or or is it coincidentally or is it I believe there was a list and I had to google until I finally found Ocean on there.
Oh, you were picking and choosing. You give me a cafeteria about what There's.
The Saint of a lot of negative stuff, and then all of a sudden, the ocean. I'm like, okay, I'll hang with that, but not, you know, the Saint of lies. I think that's one of them. I'm not going to lie. I think a story. But my dad always taught me like, it's okay to lie, it makes the story better. So I became a liar. I lie a lot for a living. I'm lying right now. I never lost a necklace while swimming in the ocean.
Of lies.
I will please.
Saint Christopher helped me think of a good lie right now to get out of work.
Oh please please.
Catholic lies. When I was a kid, my parents lied about where we live and go to this Catholic school. We live Englewood, but there's a Catholic school in Westchester that they wanted me to go to. So we had I had to get baptized, and so they had to bring my I just showed up with my parents to get baptized on a Saturday for this priest, and the priest said, where are your godparents? And then my dad came back with my sister who is eighteen, and our fifty year old mechanic, and.
They were like, yeah, oh my God.
So we lied just so I can go to the school. But that felt like even as a little kid, I mean, Catholic church is creepy and where you get baptized whatever that weird creepy room is. But having my parents lie in that situation, I still feel it. If I if I could, I could picture that room and feel that lie that this this guy named his name was Wachel Jesus.
It was my sister Laura eighteen, maybe tops fifty year old mechanic who had a had he had his his garage was in his actual garage, so he ran. He was like a car mechanic out of his house named Weechol, who was like just came from his mechanic shop.
He was covered in and stuff and he's like okay, and I was like what the hell. Then my parents and my dad's was like, go on, what a fucker for you to have a better education, and uh yeah, that started my descent into Catholicism. It started from there because my parents really weren't Catholic.
So, oh, the whole thing was a sham.
The whole thing was pretty much a sham. So my parents, I mean, I guess they were kind of Catholic in Cuba, but they weren't Catholic in America. They're just like, we want you to go to a school where you're not going to get shot, so we're just going to pretend. And so we did that for a long time.
I think if Jesus knew that that was a good lie, that was like.
Jesus and Chris's dad knew that was a good lie. It was worth it, and it all worked out in the end.
Yeah, yeah, lying for education is okay.
Did the guy I'm going to just call him a superintendent of at school did he seem to was he taken aback by their age gap or was he like it's fine, Hey, I.
Think it was fine.
Remember that.
I remember being like, this is weird. But then I'm sure like they're probably like that's how the Latinos do you know they do it?
You know, they love the mechanic has to be in the family. They love to include the mechanic and all their stuff.
Yeah, so they just, I guess just went along with it. I mean it worked.
I mean technically god parents don't have to be themselves like you know, married or anything, but they are responsible for your basically for your spiritual lifestyle. So you should go back to that mechanic and be like, I've lost my way and you have done nothing to help you.
Yeah, in the the minute he feels guilty about it, that's when you ask for a free break job.
Yeah. Cho what's the name of that.
Just we cho would is like a crazy nickname. My dad also called him fail, which is ugly, which so my dad and my sister. My dad was basically like, yeah, if I die. I mean, this mom specialist is your new spiritual dad. That's good, that's good. We chose got you, We got you. We chose long, we chose probably one hundred years old if he's around, but you're listening.
We chose God bless you. We chose.
Made the ocean bless you. So that was here Inglewood as in Inglewood Lost. And I don't know why I thought you were a Bay Area kid because you just because he lived there once that means you were born.
Yeah, that's where I started comedy and stuff. But I grew up. I grew up down here.
Okay, you weren't born in Kuoite Tower. Okay, I was not born Tower. I just assumed.
That's right. Let's every comic thinks every comic is from the city they started comedy and because that's just what counts most.
Yeah, there are still people that can't get over the fact I don't have a Texas accent.
That's for you, He's from Austin or something. Yea.
And comedy wise, I go along with it, because if you say you're a comedian that started in Montana, no one really takes you seriously.
People just kind of drift off their eyes just kind of flick off to the side and they start thinking about something else.
Yeah, I just assume we're on zoom. I'm not going to take that personally.
Staring off amazing, amazing zoom revelation that thinking you're making eye contact with someone isn't the truth on zoom.
No, No, I'm so weird. You don't know where which square? Like, say, right now, Karen, which square? Am I to you?
Bottom? Left? Baby?
Your bottom right is? Garcy is bottom left?
Baby, he's my bottom right, baby, you're my bottom right.
Yeah.
What we're trying to tell you right now is you're accidentally using a baby filter.
Which one's the baby? I don't understand.
Am I a cat again?
I'm okay. At the moment, yes, that COVID moment or that quarantine moment when the man made himself a cat and couldn't stop being a cat.
We were happy for weeks, the whole country. It was the only time we felt close.
Again, Chris, do you know do you remember that story?
No, there was a guy that just pretended to be a cat.
No, it was on a legal procedure on zoom, and he was right when COVID started and his children. Yeah, he was like he was the judge or the plaintiff or the lawyer, and his children had been using the zoom before him, so there was a cat filter on his face that he couldn't get rid of, and I was apologizing.
You have to look at the video.
It's so brilliant. I don't think people could laugh as hard as they can now, because at the time we were all just so bewildered and freaked out that it was like, ha, ha, what's happening.
It's it's not just like ha, how old people don't get technology. It's that at one point he actually feels like he needs to say it's actually me, I'm not a cat. He actually felt they needed to say that.
Is so great legally, this is for the record court reporter, I'm not a cat. Technically I like this store. Also, there was a lady that went to the bathroom, took her laptop into the bathroom because she didn't think people could see her. Do you remember that one?
Are you thinking of the naked gun?
It was really queen.
And then and then tries to tries to kill Reggie.
Jackson, and then she's saying some opera I think what happened. No Yeah, that was That was one where it was like, yeah, so many great things have happened on Zoom. Let's keep it positive about Yeah.
Yeah, we appreciate you Zozoom. If you're listening and we know you are.
Chris, what's Chris Garcia, Chris Gie, what's the uh? Do you have any favorite Zoom memories of quarantine or being forced to socialize?
Yeah, they can also be terrible, worst or best.
Come on top five back top five good.
I don't have any that I could think of. I don't. I didn't come prepared. I got a whole email about this days in advance, be prepared to talk about zoom in your favorite Zoom moments and pictures. Yeah, I did not. I don't. I can't think of any.
Yeah, but you you have a new baby, well new to me baby. You have a she sunny, a toddler.
She's she turns one on Sunday, so not quite toddling, not quite toddling, still still a baby, almost almost a one year old.
Congratulations, thank you. Yeah, that's so exciting. Do you think that's part of the reason you don't have any Zoom memories?
It's you don't have any memories.
Nothing else matters anymore.
Everything is gone. No, I'm just so exhausted. I have no memories and nothing else matters. No, it's really uh, it's really sweet. And while we're at it, we're all been in home forever, locked in home. It's not like it wasn't the worst time to have a baby. So I just feel lucky to be able to see her all the time.
And yeah, in the beginning when I remember joking about how it was terrible timing, but it yeah, it was the best timing. It turns out.
Yeah, well it turns up at every time is a terrible time, right, it's really whoa wow, what a hard, relentless responsibility it is. But no time is really a good time. But this, I mean, it's it's it's been a fine time. It's she's really sweet and it's nice to spend a lot of time with her. And yeah, she's a real, real, real cookie, cool little kid.
Here's my question. This is amazing follow up, it's going to be great.
Oh, I can't wait.
Did you did your sister Laura? I also have a sister Laura. Did your sister Laura have any kids? Like, do you have any experience with kids? Is this the family's first baby, like what's this, what's sunny status?
Well, as a Latino man, I've been an uncle since I was ten, So I've been an uncle many times over. My grandma's seventeen years old, and so I have a lot of experience with being around kids. My sister has three kids, and I've been an uncle for a long time, and my mom now fourth grand She's like, I don't give a ship the baby just like she holds it just like it's a plastic bag filled with dog food or something random.
Like she doesn't.
I'm like, momm you're holding her on She's like they're fine. She's like she just does not she does not care. She's just all she wants is for her to get her ears pierced, which is so so classic.
Yeah, why is so classic? That's Latina. Latina babies, Yeah, Latina.
Like we brought her home from the hospital and she was like, oh my god, where's her ear rings? And that was like she was just she was like they have a service at the hospital, like they have a whole immigrant wing for this, or you can just go. A lot of Italian and Armenian babies are there. You're out, You're in and out in five minutes. And it's funny. We have an armenian. Uh, like pediatrist is out. They are and pedutrician. I think, yeah, ball of ear rings, all of ear rings.
That you can buy for me?
Is that the doctor?
Why is that? I wonder? That is so curious.
She looks so cute. It looks so cute.
I get, okay.
Because it's no.
I just wondered if she secretly works at Clayer's in the mall. They make a lot of ear rings for babies, and I always thought, what a weird business. But I didn't know there's so many grandmas clamoring for pierced baby ears.
She's really all about it. She bugs me about it every time. And I think part of it is so you could tell that it's a girl. Maybe I think that's important to like, hey, this is a girl, not a boy, because they're all bald for a while. And uh, but then I don't know. She it's very important for my mom for this to be a girly girl. And it's I don't know she's it's not even really her vibe, but who knows. But my mom also bought her baby cologne like a Cuban style baby cologne that's called it's
Violets and Roses, and it's this purple. It's like it looks like it's anti freeze or something, and it's a Cuban baby cologne as if, Like, if you wonder how someone turns into pitbull, it could be because a baby colone. But on the back of the package it says keep out of reach of children, flammable Like.
It's like.
And my mom's like, you have to put baby colone on the baby. It's really crazy.
Also, you know, obviously it's a you know what if it's a tradition or if it's if it's what your family does or whatever. But there are a few things that smell as good as babies, just right, Yeah, why would you want to cover that?
Yeah, it's a whole evolutionary adaptation. It turns out they what babies smell good. They smell like little muff and so you keep them around and you want to care for that. That's when they do that. And my mom is like, fuck that. I want her to smell like she's going out to a club and trying to fuck some chicks. Like that's why my mom wants her to smell. I'm my mom, they smell good already.
She's like na, not as good as vio lettus, as.
Good as let us. We want this kid to attract members of the opposite sex. Whatever, we all.
Get these high heeled juice for babies. Come on, that's good happening.
That's the next step is the high heel I don't know.
I wonder too, because my niece is half Irish, half Mexican, and when she was born she had like a sixty five year old retirees head of hair. It was so funny. We couldn't control it. She my sister had to like slick it down constantly. And I wonder if that's like she came out to the womb with this little cap
of black hair that was so hilarious. And I wonder if that too, is like they immediately have this cute almost like a Louise Brooks bob and little gold earrings are the perfect accessory for that automatic hair, the haircut that they have. So I don't know, I mean, that's I totally support the earring side, even though I know there's lots of people are like, why would you do that to a baby. It's like it only hurts for half an hour and then it's so cute because they're
tiny and they're like it's so perfect. But know what, but cologne is next level, next level, that's next level. Yeah.
The more we're talking about it, the more I'm really on board with babies and ear rings now that I'm thinking, like my my good friend Ross, his baby, the patch of hair that he was born with was in the back, so it was just like a mullet that was there, And wouldn't that look cool with just one ear ring, like a like a George Michael faith Cross just from one ear like the coolest baby ever. And you don't want to put the cologne on that baby because he smokes.
Oh yeah, but also if you give your baby baby cologne, you are probably actively smoking. Like that is just a fire hazard, that is dangerous. Well, Sonny is bald on top, and she has a straight up mullet. She has like a sandy blonde mullet. And now you can't put the earring on that because she'll look like some like nineteen nineties minor league picture hasn't wear underwear, you know, hot rojack, like one of those white trash tired king baseball players
in the nineties. Yeah, just yeah, that's not a good look my daughter.
Now I want them to make jock straps for babies. Yeah, fuck god, I just.
Want It's a whole fascinating world. But I think once parents get into it, like, well, I don't know anything about this, not except for through my sister. Like I know that on my sister's husband's side, they wanted Nora to get earrings really young, and my sister was kind of like, it just seems, you know, like let's hold off or whatever, like she she kind of kept it at bay, but I was like, I don't know, I'm
kind of I'm into it. But that's the only other than that, I wouldn't know anything about any of that stuff. Which I bet it's like if people weren't so exhausted who had babies, they would be they would report be reporting back much more of the insanity because now babies are marketed to in such a crazy way.
Yeah, it's NonStop. It's just like a whole it's it's taken over my algorithm and stuff, like it's no longer comedy clips and stuff. It's like a would if your baby doesn't play with this wooden toy it's gonna, you.
Know, be bad at math.
Yeah, I'd be just like no. It was like really scary, and there's a real pressure to be perfect and stuff. But my wife is like very Midwestern and very like, but she's like, there's no way we're putting any ear rings on her. There's no way, like she says, like, I guess they can grow back. I mean your ear can grow in a weird way, so your ear earring could just be like in a weird, random part of your ear.
Yeah.
And then but I had to explain to her that she had to wear the baby clown when my mom comes open, yeah, and I she was like, she is not wearing that. I mean she she basically uses just like I don't know what kind of like Hippi stuff she puts on her daughter, but it's like all natural stuff. And I was like, we have to, and I put
it on. Yeah, you can't be racist, I was. She's like okay, And so I was like just one sprit from far away and the whole house smelled for like forty eight hours and then my mom didn't even notice, Like she was like I was like waiting. I was like, She's like, oh, she's wearing the beyond that dust and she was like, I didn't even notice it at all. So I'm just we're just not using I'm keeping it like kind of is a prop because it's as it says,
baby clone on it. It's really funny and I'm just going to keep it around.
I love.
Get the baby botox, baby baby Lee press on nails, come on, get them all.
That excites me. I just love, you know, miniatures. I just I like the shoes. I know I'm going to be into the shoes. Once i have a baby kicking around the house.
Well then cool, that's even more meaningful that you. You both you Chris has got to have a hangtime because I bet you don't get to do it as much with a baby in the mix. Chris Garcia, Yeah, not as much.
And it's nice, you know, I like I do, but I do miss going out. I'm such I've been doing saying it for fifteen years or something. Now, like nighttime, it's just our time. It's like that's where we have the most fun. That's where our lives are, That's where we have all these fun thoughts and all this fun. And so I do I love being at home with the baby, and you know, but after she goes to bed, I'm like, I just want to go out and do stand up and tell jokes.
Well, there's not a lot of stand up going on. You're missing out on one show every two weeks or so.
It's so dumb. It's such a comedy mind that to see people doing comedy in other cities during COVID, like risking all this COVID stuff, and me being like, I'm not dedicated enough, Like I'm just not enough. Like it's such a sign about this is such a mental illness, Like I just got to go to New York. I don't know what I'm doing here.
I like, I got to go to New York and immediately come back and be around my baby. How How involved did Sonny with your your podcast? About that? What's the musician say?
Oh yeah, tell us about the podcast please.
Oh yeah. So I'm hosting this podcast called Finding Raffi, which is about the Canadian children singer Raffi, who was really popular in the seventies eight.
I know, I know, you know, I know about Canada.
Yeah, I know, you know everything about Canada.
Raffi, the patron saint of songs for Babies.
Yeah, and uh, they it's a sequel to this one podcast called Finding Fred that was this really great podcast about mister Rogers a couple of years ago. And so this company had, these people had, these producers had reached out to me and like, have you ever heard of Raffi? And I was like, I just heard of Raffi for the first time last week, Like what's when Sunny was two months old? And and you know, val my wife grew up with Raffi and I know a lot of
people that didn't. And so they're like, would you host? And it was really nice because after my podcast Scattered, which is about my dad and taking his ashes back to Cuba, all these producers were like, so, do you want to do a podcast about like the death industrial complex, or like do you want to do a podcast about grief? And I'm like, yeah, no, dude, I'm fucking crying. Yeah, I don't want to talk about my dead dad anymore.
I mean I think about him all the time. But it was kind of a lot, and so it was refreshing that these folks were just like, do you want to And I was like, oh my god, Scattered I did that during this chunk of my life. And this is like a new a different chunk of my life, and I could actually I don't know, it just seemed like a good time for me to talk to this really nice older man about something I love, which is music and like being sweet to kids.
So the whole series is he's involved as well.
Yeah, I didn't know if he was alive. I honestly didn't know any of this stuff. And he's alive, and he was in Western Canada and he's just a sweet, cool little bit of like an old hippie dude. Yeah, and he's I you know, I talked to him probably ten times or something via Zoom just that like had all these conversations with him, and it's so interesting to talk to He's like the Beatles of kids music. He's like a huge deal. And he dedicated the whole podcast
to Sonny. He like he's played songs for her, like they met her zoom and he was like, Sonny, how are you? And he like played little songs and was just so sweet. And so the whole podcast is really about the idea of like respect and respecting children and respecting each other and the earth and all these things,
and it covers a whole bunch of different topics. And I talked to like professors about like music and child development, even like the Armenian Jennis I had with Raffi's Armenian and like just really and I talked to like environmentalists and all these And I talked to Ziggy Marley, who's
like pivoted to like children's music. Oh wow, well, and I talked to Jacques Cousto's grandson, like all these random people about Raffi, who Tony Hale Buster from Arrest of the Fan, Chris Hayes is in it, and just like a lot of random people who really love and know Raffi and his causes and stuff. And it's been really, it's what a cool time. I can't believe that this
just fell on my lap. That I get to have like a baby that absolutely goes bonkers over Raffi and I get to like know the guy at the same time. It's really did.
Anyone explain to you, sorry, did anyone explain like what the magic of Raffi is with kids? Like it's you know, in the same way with mister Rogers where you watch that documentary, Like I tried to watch the Mister Rogers documentary on a plane and I was crying so hard within the first fifteen minutes that I had to turn it off because the man next to me was uncomfortable And I was like, oh, this is this is super
weird me. But what got me so bad was looking at those children looking at him the way they were like in awe, like you are the most magical person in the world, like did did? Was there any kind of background about like what Raffi's hook or like how he got kids to love him so much?
Yeah, I talked to a couple of different people about it, and it's he's just like that, Like he sits in a room full of kids and they can't take their eyes off. And there's many things where like he's he's got some X factors where he's like kind of interesting looking, and he's got like these big, really in like engaging eyes and like a sweet he has a very sweetmeanor
and a very gentle voice. But from talking to like musicologists, I learned that he also since he's kind of a folk singer, he sings within a realm that like a like scales and like modes that kids understand. So it's not like anything that's too complicated, and since he sings a lot of nursery rhymes and things are kind of simple, he's like the exact tone, the exact like he's in
the perfect musical space for kids to enjoy. It's like the melodies are simple, they're pretty happy, they have a good beat, and also he really has a gentle voice. I'll try to play new stuff, Like I was really a snob about this. I seriously was like only eno for my daughter, like maybe some jazz, maybe jazz, like just a straight up music snob. I was like, oh, yeah, you know, maybe you know, maybe I'll play a metal machine music or something, just being like a real music
kind of an asshole about it. And she doesn't want to fucking listen to and you know, like maybe like some of the spacey ambient stuff, but no interest, and it like really playing Raffi for her. She was just like she'd perk up or she was crying, she'd like stop crying, like in the car, if she's crying and I play Banana Phone or Baby Beluga or something like that, she'll just like completely stop and just kind of like listen.
I don't know, I know, I don't know if there's just something really magical about him, and you could kind of hear it when you listen to his voice. There's like a sweetness, there's like a there's a real person in there. One thing that I learned that I was like this is this is recorded really well. Like I was like because I was listening to like just as music, and I was like, the music is good. There's like solid folk musicianship going on. There's even like good solos
and stuff. But the way it's recorded, they'll be just like a pan op of like a kazoo over here and a slide whistlier at the perfect time. And it turns out it was. His first four albums were produced by young Daniel Lennoi who knows yeah, Daniel Lenwell, who produced YouTube's Joshua Tree and Bob Dylan's Time out of Mind. You know Neil young Emilio Harris, like he is the
greatest probably producer of the eighties, right. He was like a kid who was recording in his mom's basement outside of Toronto for ten dollars an hour and Raffi and his friend who is like this guy, this sweet Canadian like justa like this guy Ken Whiteley is like just a sweet Canadian man any instrument, and this sounds like a real bro Like he's just fucking rinse in it. Dude.
You give Ken a washboard and he's like And so RAFFI got this really good guy in Ken Whiteley, who's an amazing musician, and the Lenois Brothers who were like recording in a basement with like you know, the egg crates and all that stuff. And if you listen to those first four albums, you're like, this is recorded so well, like it's really crazy. And then when I found that out, I'm like, I'm not insane, Like I'm not like because
a lot of it. I was like, there's red ribbon that I'm just attaching everywhere and I'm like, Raffy this and this, and I'm like, oh, no, wonder it sounds good. This like genius produced it and it sounds amazing.
I thought that guy was from New Orleans, Daniel Lennoi. I don't maybe it's just because his name has a frenchness to it. I just assumed, yeah, that sounds like it.
Yeah, just a Canadian kid that just was part of the folks scene in Toronto that randomly knew Raffi's friend it was a friend of a friend of Raffi's and he's like, sure, I'll record it, and they just were grown men being like okay, let's take it again, Ken and he's like okay, just like playing the fucking kazoo
in their twenties, but like killing it. And then Raffi also had like he had a girlfriend at the time that became his wife who was like a kindergarten teacher, and they had friends that are kindergarten teachers, and so they all kind of informed like him on like this is what kids like, this is like, this is all
this stuff. And so Raffi was just very thoughtful about making music for kids, and so he decided like kids should be able to listen to good music, and it should be music that parents don't want to kill themselves about, yeah, because you know, most kids' music is just really irritating, and so he just like let that be his guide and be like, I want to make nice music for kids and their parents. And that's like what he did.
And I think that's why we're probably making the podcast is because he did such a good job of it that like.
Yeah, he was like a monster of rock, but a children's music. Yeah, so he truly was like out on his own pre wiggles. Like I think there's probably a whole generation of people listening to this who were just like, I don't know who Raffi is, but like Raffi was kind of like and he wasn't no one's ever. I've never heard anyone be mean about Raffi, but he was kind of a reference joke because he was so famous as a children's music a children's musician.
Yeah, I told like the Simpsons based a character after him named Rufi, you know, like he but he was like part of I guess the cultural zeitgeist is probably because of Baby Beluga. It was like such a big hit. But like he he was just like no, no, like my we I called up my father in law just to see if he had like the tape that Vow listened to when she was a kid, and he just like and he's like a dry Midwestern like Iowan guy,
and he just starts like will would be Wallaby. He just like starts singing the songs all goofy and he probably hasn't thought of Raffi in thirty years or something,
and he just like went right into it. It's really crazy, how it's really really his music has really gotten ingrained in people, and it's been I was completely new to him because I grew up listening to mostly like you know, grew up speaking Spanish and then maybe watching Sesame Street or just listening to what my parents listened to, which is glorious. Define. Yeah, I did not have I did
not know about Rafi at all. So it was really cool to go like all in and now like have like a really insane psycho knowledge of RAVI.
Have you finished that series or is there going to be another season or it's it's.
Going to just be one season. The fourth one came out yesterday, okay, and there's a total of ten episodes and all the guests.
Have been booked because I'm just not that I'm trying to book your podcast. But there's so many bands, like they might be Giants or what was the punk band that became Yo Gaba Gabba? Oh I forgot the Aqua Bats Yeah, oh yeah them, Oh yeah, yeah, they're crazy a band that I've seen in Missoula when I and it was like, you know, we're slamming into each other and they were spitting and then all of a sudden you're seeing there's just a couple of recognizable guys on
that kid's show. But I love the people that transition, uh you know, from mainstream even like pump punk rock, into making music for kids.
I like when they do it when they have kids. It's like them going, Okay, I was about that, and that's fine, but I'm here's my evolution. So now I want my kids to like music, and I can do it, so why wouldn't I do it too? Like that to me is such a lovely kind of like instead of fighting it or like I go got to go back out on the road and party with my buddies or whatever, it's like, now I'm going to do the thing that my kid will like, so that it's all you know,
it's all comprehensive kind of thing. And then I think when you enter that any kind of thing like that with a respectful intention, not to be super Saint Christopher's meddle about it, but I think the little kids can sense that and feel it where it's like there were coming at you with a song we made for you. It's not like cynical, you know, Disney, where like weird little children voices are singing it or whatever.
I think you're right. Kids they are super intelligent, Like right from the moment they're born, they're just like super smart. And so I think they have a good sense of what's bullshit and what's good. And so Raffi comes from being a legit folks singer in the mid seventies in the early seventies, and he loved Pete Seeger and what he Guthrie and just kind of wanted to do that
for kids. And you can hear it. You're like, oh, and then you listen to his guitar and you're like, that was nice fingerpicking, Like he's like not just like being like not to take anything away from Elmo or anything like that, but like it's just it's not and sometimes he's silly and all that stuff, but it really comes from a place of genuine respect and you can
hear it. But I should try to reach out to Yogaba Gabba and some other people that have done that just to talk about themselves and then maybe Raffi and stuff like that, because it is cool when people pivot like that. Even in my own career, Like I think about Sonny and stuff like that, and I was like, I want to do stuff that she's proud of. Yeah, and I watched this documentary about Nickelodeon. I don't know if you've seen it. It's on Hulu. It's about Nickelodeon in the nineties.
I forgot to start watching that.
It's really it's really nice, and I was like, it would be so cool before I'd be like kids Stevie Disney Channel or something. Though, it'd be so cool to work on a show that Sonny loved or like all their friends loved and stuff like that. That was just like, you know, because really funny and talent people work on those, Like Oh, I would be so cool to write on the salute your shorts. You can't do that on television her generation and not just do whatever comedy, do something
cool for kids. Yeah, totally, I am with you.
I've always wanted to have a kid's show, whether it's teaching art or just letting them tell stories. There's there's this Instagram account that I'm addicted to. It's my favorite thing where this guy's just in New York. It's usually in like Central Park, and he just kids open up to him and they're so funny and he's so good at Yes, ding bizarre things that they say that, and they have so much fun talking to him. And yeah, like we were saying, I can't put my finger on
why all these kids like this guy. He's young, he's like in his twenties, but he's so good with kids. And it's I should remember the name of it, you know what, I'm going to look it up because look it up. Yeah, and you guys just talk amongst yourself.
I did job ever in comedy was when I I was going to Berkeley at the time, and I took my first improv class and you know, at the end of it, it was like through the community theater in Albany, just north of Berkeley, and it was like mostly adults taking improv at a community center and we did the like the graduation show, and there was this woman who was the head of the Science Discovery Theater, which was like the Science theater at Lawrence Alloscience, which is like
Berkeley's science museum. Yeah, and she was like, do you want a job doing improv for kids and like writing plays and stuff? And I was like absolutely yeah. And so I didn't tell her that I hadn't graduated college because I was like, fuck college, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go make big bucks doing children's improv. And so my first job ever was doing I went back to college and stuff, but like I did about the human brain and anatomy, and we like traveled to schools and
it was like K through eight and stuff. And then I also like wrote and acted and plays like Ocean Powers Marine Men of Mystery, which is based on Austin Powers, and then it was about overfishing and plankton, and then Trash Bridges Garbage Detective, which was based on Nash Bridges. This was the late early two thousands and that one came out and I came out in like a detective outfit and I had a recycled like A had a snake that was my friend that was made out of
recycled paper. And I'd come out with comforty bogrin and be like Shamfreys a big city with a big problem garbage, and then my kidd be like and it was really a silly job, and uh, but it was so fun and so sweet to get kids to like trick them into loving science and thinking about recycling and stuff. And eventually was like, oh you gotta do stand I gotta drop this and do stand up. But like it was really cool, Like it was very satisfying to do silly you know, silly comedy performances for kids.
Well, and you I don't. I think they're the just like you're saying, they're super intelligent and they know they have great bullshit meters. So that's a tough crowd. You Like, they're not just going to go with whatever, and if they feel uncomfortable, they can't go with you. So you basically taught yourself like crowd work to the nth degree by doing it with kids like that.
Yeah, yeah, because it's really hard. It's like a whole auditorium. Sometimes it could be a whole school, so it was like it could be like two hundred and fifty kids or something. And then I'd ask some sort of open ended question, like I was teaching them about the brains, which is the part of your brain that reminds you to breathe and have your heartbeat so you don't have to think about it, and so I asked him. I was like, what's something you have to do every second
of every day to stay alive? And this kid just stood up on his chair and was like pray to Jesus. Okay, I shouldn't open that. I should ask more specific maybe yes or no questions. I think that would be easier. But yeah, and then those kids, I mean, they're they're kind of wild. So if you watch like a RAFFI to bring it back to RAFFI, if you watch a video of his, he'll be at like Radio City Music Hall and there'd be all sorts of kids and you
could hear a pin drop like it's wild. I don't know how he does it.
It's incredible, the idea of performing for kids, especially as a comic who's mostly told dick jokes. I'm not and I am talking about myself. There's a festival in Calgary where the guy I don't do it any more, but they he would. There was a lot of midday shows like he was willing to. One of the shows was in a literally a moving trolley and you tell jokes to people walking on this promenade. But one of them was a kids party in an old spaghetti factory and I no one wanted to do it, and I didn't.
I don't think I wanted to do it either, but it ended up being one of the funniest shows I've ever done. In the end, I just it just it turned into me, like, who wants me to eat this? In there it was a plate, Put whatever you want on this plate, and they put salad and mustard and and like pizza crust on it, and I would eat it. And they were all cheering, but I've never they were,
so I had their attention. And also I realized I have a bunch of jokes that are for kids, like any pun type joke that has always you know, made other comics roll their eyes, especially when I first started. These kids loved it, and I've always loved the idea I want to do, even if it's adults stand up. I want to do a show for a theater filled with just kids, maybe their parents too, so it's not kind of weird or illegal or whatever. But I think, yeah, I think depending on what you do, they they can
be even more captive. Uh not captive captivated, thank you. Yeah, I'm not saying I want to keep them in a pen during an INTERMA.
How you're telling us the plan of you kidnapping to hear me out hear.
Me out there in their own cages, and I'm giving them hope through comedy that when they all let them out.
Where do you have space like this?
It's it's a it's a it's a warehouse downtown.
I have the keys, but justic old nightmare. Yeah, this crime.
Now we bust them down there. I just check make sure they have a permission. Slip. It's going to work. It's gonna work. It's gonna be great.
My sister is a is a grammar school teacher for she has been for like the over thirty years. She's really good at it. She's really good at it. But one time I went to her classroom to go, like because I was driving up from La so I just went straight to her school or whatever. And I walked in and they were like. My sister goes, Okay, look at that. Who do you think this is? And three of the kids go and they were like first graders,
They go, Madna, why no what? It was just like I was exotic because I came into the room as
a surprise or something. It was just hilarious. But I know, I love, I love, Like We've talked about this, but my favorite is like little kids that get the attention that they want, you know, like get when adults are smart enough to know that if you can have a great conversation with a kid, if you just like the most irritating thing to me off like current parenting habits is when you're trying to talk to someone's kid and they interrupt an answer for the kid, like you're they're
the fucking publicist, or I'm like, I'm not talking to you. I don't give a shit, Like I don't want to hear your version of when you guys went to Disneyland. I want to hear their version of it, like what are you doing?
Why?
Why would you answer for your And then they get all like, you know, detached and like screeny and.
What yeah, yeah, the same thing. But it's usually and I'm not kidding, it sounds like a I do even on an airplane, if a kid's playing peekaboo or whatever, I will engage with that kid and and the parents always like who are you even looking at? Stop looking at him? Kayleb or whatever. It's like, fuck you, I'm not I'm no interest in playing peekaboo with you, sir.
You're my age, I think between and if you want to do that, then you can't have that mustache.
Yeah, isn't it weird. It's like it's I think, yeah, you're probably right.
I mean.
Yeah, And I'm also usually wearing clown makeup.
I just mustache.
That's a no no conover.
Yeah, that white on the hair, Yeah, I just know I put it on. So adults don't talk to me on airplanes. But but I'll talk to the kids any any day.
Well, that's awesome. That podcast truly sounds great. It's such a great idea.
Yeah, thank you.
It's a lot of fun. It's just been it's a really and it's really like whole it just feels like a nice time to talk to them about nice things and just kind of remember that we should all be respectful for each other. That's like at the core of it. And it's just it just for me, it's felt nice on a personal level just to kind of think about these things and.
Oh yeah, it's it's high time. It's it's really it's high time.
And I and that is how these these Instagram these interviews with this guy. I can't this is obviously why people hashtag videos. I follow this guy. I can't think of his name or his accounts handled right now, so I can't find the videos. And I've tried to look up kids interview and then there's a lot of great kids interview bands. I want to I already subscribe to that, but I.
Can't find it. Chris, is it recess therapy?
It is recess therapy? Why you knew this whole time? No therapy.
That's that's our great producer, Casey O'Brien in the chat helping you out. We were just I just noticed that there was a chat message and I figured there. He must have looked it up.
Yes, it is, Thank you, Casey. That's good detective work. I don't know how you did it. Yes, recess therapy follow it. It made it makes me feel great. And uh, you know, sometimes there will be a kid that's a little unhinged, and I, you know, you get a little nervous, but it's in a kind of you just worry about his future, is all. But but yeah, he's it's it would be such a fun gig. And I didn't know that I wanted to do that, but I'm just gonna steal his idea.
You're you'd be good at it. I think you'd be very good at it.
I've gotten messages from people that have said, have you thought about doing this. I don't know what it is about me, but you're right. I just got a shave and get out there wasting what I have. My talent's on an airplane. It's true to go tell jokes to drunk adults. I'm tired of it. Sober children. That's the future comedy.
Chris CHURSSI, do you have any other plugs or any stuff you need to talk about? You know, while you're my lord?
The time flew by?
I know best I went.
I can't believe it's been an hour. No, you know, just finding RAFFI, I think that would be great. I have some dates coming up on the road that I'm pretty excited about's probably find out about him on my Instagram, which is rad Tuna.
Yeah that's its handle. It is right, it really is. Yeah, And do listen to his previous series called Scattered, which I haven't yet, but I'm telling myself, this is me talking to myself.
Well, I feel like and you know, I was on it, so I don't feel like I have to feel bad about this. But it's very difficult for people who have I think you have to be at a very certain point in your Alzheimer's, in your family journey to listen to other people talk about theirs because it's really hard. And when I was on Chris's show, we were crying within like five minutes. It felt like it was one of those things where it's like you can talk about
it to a point, but it really is. I mean, that's I believe that podcast won awards, didn't it, Chris.
It was like when it came out, it was a popular when like Time magazine called it like one of the best podcasts of the year, and a bunch of people like that. I got a lot of thank you. But it is if you're in a space like a I mean, it's very heartfelt, sweet and there's really funny moments. But like I think there was who's the old guy who played Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins had a Dimension movie recently and I was like, I'm sure it's great.
I can't. I can't watch it yet, you know, like I'm not ready for it. Some things I can, but with that, I'm like, I don't need to. It's been five years now, and I'm like, I don't know it.
I'll ever do.
I know for real, you never know when something's gonna get you like whatever. Planet of the Apes movie where James Franco's dad is played by John Lithgow, and that's what he's researching and trying to come up with that makes all those primates go crazy is Alzheimer's treatment. And I was crying. I was the only one in the theater crying. Yes, I went to a theater to watch Plenty of the Apes, Kelly, but John, they nailed that part of it and it was very realistic, and I, yeah,
I was just sobbing openly. You never know when you're gonna cry.
I was tricked into going to see The Notebook in the theater and I did not know what it was about. I just thought it was like a rom com and I'm like, oh, I love Ryan Gosling. This will be great. And by the end of the fucking movie, because it actually kind of like the way it's set up, you don't I didn't see it coming. I was kind of distracted whatever, And when I finally understood what the fuck
was happening, I couldn't stop crying. And when like truly the lights came up in the theater and I was just sitting with my X, like sitting there sobbing into my hands, and I was so embarrassed because it was also I was in it. It was my mom was still alive, so it was like really bad. It was very bad. Yeah. But then when I finally got myself together just to get up and leave, I looked behind me. It was at the arc light and there were like
pockets of people doing the exact same thing. So then I was like, oh shit, this happens to so many people, and like this is so fucking awful. But yeah, I think I'm so mad at the marketing of that movie because it was just like, yeah, there's a little there's a easter egg in here that you're not gonna see coming, and if you're at a bad spot, yeah, like it's going to knock you on your ass.
Yeah. Maybe the safe instruction to give everyone is like, if you have lost a parent or a loved one to dementia and it's been a while, please listen ye.
Part of the lady.
You're not in a theater. Yeah you can cry.
Yeah, sometimes it feels I mean sometimes it's good for you to do it. It's like good for you to process because it's so it's so hard.
Yeah, you gotta let it out. Well, it feels good.
I'm glad all three of us went through that and we just talked about it with none of us crying. Isn't that what we did?
Yeah?
We did us.
Yeah, look at us now.
I mean we went a whole hour without me crying. And I'm not talking about podcasting for just talking.
Yeah.
Yeah, whether I'm cooking or riding a bike, can't make it an hour. Well, thanks, this felt like a real life hangout.
I felt so nice. Thank you for letting me come on here and talk about the podcast and just speak with you. It's always so nice and it's so nice to.
See great to see you too. Thank you so much for doing it. And we got to see your baby real quick through the room.
Yeah, just bid with big belong dangly earrings. I really think for today She's like, I'm going to deal with he's recording and I could smell the direct card from here field.
Let's us left and right through the zoom.
You've been listening to Do you Need a Ride?
D y n Are.
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Produced by Casey O'Brien, mixed by Ryo.
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