104: Tiger King XXL

gonna tell you well. First of all, um, if you heard our last episode, our most recent episode, I would like to apologize. There were technical issues and those were the fault of I want to say, not really me, but the infrastructure of my home situation. Like it's nothing really that I could do. Um, but I was in my garage. What Yeah, it's spectrum. Definitely spectrum fault. Oh my god. People are happy to blame spectrum. Let's blame

spectrum right now. So I had to think of something else, and I realized I always saw like my house was like the perfect size, But in the past week I've realized it is not the perfect size at all. So long story short him in my closet, which is, as I pointed out, not a walk in closet, like I can fit myself kind of, but I'm all smushed into a little ball um and it's it's a perfect perfect for you. Well, it's perfect for me. It's perfect for sound. Yeah,

it's great for a sound. And over the hangout we're getting the video of view of it, and it really looks like you're just taking shelter in place, like seriously, like I'm sheltering in place. I'm safer at home. You were wearing the hat that we brought you from the Area fifty one and Nuclear Testing Museum. I was where and had a bunch of dioramas of bunker's. Yeah, this is my bunker. No, it's horribly uncomfortable, but at least I can see and hear you guys, which is nice.

On Wednesday, after we recorded, I had a good long sit with my feelings of just it's I'm finding it very difficult to use my brain as like an adult woman and also as a mom and have no wall at all, Like, no, there's no separate zone for those things and it's making me feel like I'm losing my mind and I hate it. Least now you have your she shed, Yes, she should. You're very cozy. She should.

I think that a lot of people are in a similar boat as you right now, that like there is social distancing, but then there's getting extremely close with the people who happened to be in the home with you. Yeah, and it's like it's great to an extent. I love being able to spend a lot of time with my family, and you know, I'm kind of unschooling after having failed at home schooling. I'm like, no, funk this. We're just going to hang out and do stuff, which is great.

But then when it comes time to like be a normal individual human, You're like, no, I'm just I'm part of this like living organism of the family unit, and then you feel like you're losing your brain. I've been doing a lot of Betty Draper jokes. Yes, it's definitely got that energy. It does feel like no matter how big the space or small the space you live in is it's like there's something about by yourself versus being with other people where it's just very different and we're

all in different situations right now. But there's upsides and downsides to both one many pros and cons to every situation. Yes, I just keep thinking, like, if I were by myself, how many days would I like, what would I enjoy like three days in a row? Would I make it four days without being without losing it? Because like with my family, I made it really a solid like six days before I thought, oh, oh maybe we're going to fight, and we have. But anyway, it's good to see you

guys from my shed. Hello. Hello, We yeah, we wanted to just sort of check it in general and the opening of the show and and and talk about our different quarantine slash self isolation. Um. I guess experiences also like I feel like new little hiccups or or like, oh I didn't realize this is going to be a

thing about it comes up every day. I've learned so much from Doomsday Preppers, which is funny because they keep saying things on the show to be like, don't worry, this won't happen, but then a lot of the things they refer to already are happening now. The shows from a few years ago, there's one guy who's like, well, if something bad happened everywhere at once. They wouldn't be able to send FEMA everywhere and every man would just

be for himself. I was like, huh, interesting again, like it's like there's a little too excited about that prospect, and now they're very excited about it. But it also made me realize that, um there their main reason for having a lot of kids, so you can form them into a militia. You got to get a kid army going on. What could go wrong? I can't believe if

they can show it on the show. They just show all these like parents teaching their you know, ten year olds to shoot a gun, and I'm just like, wow, you can show this on television. I guess have you checked in with any of the preppers from the show to see if they're like weighing in on this pandemic because years ago, Yeah, you got to look them up.

There was one episode that was two Jewish Preppers and that was a very good one that I would like to know more about what the the Zionist Jewish preppers who said the exodus was a bugout are are doing. Now. Where did they live? They lived in the South, but there are preppers everywhere. There was an episode that took place in New York called Escape from New York. That was to like a young guy, an old guy, and

a woman. And the woman was the most interesting because she had actually lived through Hurricane Katrina in her car. So I was like, this person is not a prepper, They're just practical and have PTSD. Like Hurricane Sandy just made her be like, well, if something like Katrina happened in New York, like what the funk would I do?

I need to have a plan. Uh. And then the episode is her like fourteen mile trek out of New York and the things that could go wrong Sure makes you think, guys, going on a road trip right now seems stressful, Yes, but but a road trip in a movie. Because today we're going to talk about Don't worry, it won't be all pandemic talk. Today. We're also going to talk about Netflix's Tiger King docuseries and the movie Magic Mike XXL. It could be argued is just a different

kind of pandemic and the other is a soothing bomb. Uh. Well, but I wanted to talk to you guys today about something that I was tweeting about last night because I think it really it's continued to be something I've noticed on social media, UM, yes, particularly on Twitter, which is the the the quarantine shame tweet, um yes, which I saw your tweets about this. I'm so glad we're talking

about this. Yeah. So um. Obviously, I think all three of us here and I think most of our listeners are smart enough to know to take all of this stuff seriously. If you have a shelter in place order, and even if you don't, just trying to minimize your time outside, um, you know, making sure to clean your

hands and disinfect stuff that's coming in from outside. Um. But there are seemed to be there are a lot of specifics in that that I think have not been really gone over by any kind of greater authority, state or federal because our country is a disaster right now, um, and so a lot of people have just kind of been filling in the blanks outside of like the very murky term social distancing, like what does that actually mean

in practice? What do you do should you have to go out into the world and get groceries or something, And the kinds of reactions that I see and like here on podcasts and stuff about um, how people are just living their lives. Day today is really striking because it's just like there's no there isn't a rule book, and I feel like and and I'm not saying like therefore it's totally okay that somebody went out on a hike with fifteen people, Like I'm guessing that's not great.

But you know when people are yelling at people on Twitter for going out on a walk or something so low um or not assuming that they are taking the proper precautions to keep a distance from other people out there. I don't know. It's just been interesting to watch because it's like everybody's making up their own rules for this, and if you don't follow another person's rules, then you're

going to hear about it. I don't know, Yeah, I mean I think it's it's interesting because like, so I have a dog, and obviously if you have a dog, you have to walk the dog. In our neighborhood, there are a lot of people with dogs and with kids, and so like, sometimes people will congregate on someone's lawn and literally our neighbors have a measuring tape and if someone gets too close, they'll whip out the measuring tape

and make sure everyone stays six ft apart. So I was chatting with my neighbors were all pretty I mean I was like across the street, we're all really spread out. And someone drove by and was like bad idea. And then I was like is it? But we're I'm standing super far away. There were like six people and I was just you know, walking my dog. But all of a sudden, I realized, like people are interpreting the rules

so differently. If you have to go to the grocery store, you know, I mean, Emily, I think you mentioned like um on Twitter that the Insta cart workers are going to strike or gonna is that what it was? Yeah? And it's like great because they're being exploited, Like I I don't you just have but you have to get groceries,

like what are you gonna do? You? And there are all of these different ways to figure out how to, you know, get a restaurant that is closed and turned into kind of an ad hoc market and you can

do contact list pickup. But then I started thinking of all my neighbors who were like maybe in their eighties and aren't on Facebook, like looking at the list of all the neighborhood places that do it and they're going they're wearing gloves, they're going to you know, the supermarket, UM as quickly as they can, staying out of people's way. But is that wrong? You know? I mean it's just nobody knows somebody I just don't think like I in

my mind. And again not a public health official, our our our public health scientists who was on the podcast can maybe call in and weigh in on this. But like if I think about, like when I did my one, one, first and last instant card order UM that I felt really bad about. UM when that kid came to my door. First of all, he came to my door and was like holding the bags there. I had to take the bags out of his hands. He was definitely less than

six ft away from me. And this kid has been shopping for people all day and been out at the store all day picking up And it's just like I would rather just go myself, take all the precautions that I take every time I go out and outside, which is at least gloves on, UM, always have a little

spray hand sanitizer and a mask. If I think I'm if there's a high likelihood that I'm going to be close to people, um, and I do that every every time I go out, and I would rather do that one trip, taking all those precautions, coming home, cleaning all my clothes and everything. Um. Then like put somebody else in this position where they're basically being like I'm sending somebody out into like toxic sludge to do my dirty

work for me. I hate it. It's problem is it's all like company by company, and as we've seen, just a lot of these companies are like fuck it, like we're not going to change anything. So Trader Joe's also its workers are trying to unionize because they're not getting I mean, for they were already trying to unionize, but they're not getting hazard pay, they're not getting provided gloves. So the people that are working, like on the front lines of this, who are grocery store workers, are not

being protected, which means they can't protect other people. And the instacart thing is especially insane because we're also in this time where everybody is getting laid off and losing their job and the only job you can get right now is to be like an Amazon surf who brings rich people their food. But again, I think you're right.

I do feel like It's like me leaving the house once every couple of weeks to get groceries feels like a more manageable risk than just getting them from somebody who's been shopping all day in proximity with a bunch of other vulnerable, desperate people that need money. And I so I think if you go so when we go to the when I go to the grocery store, either

me or my husband goes in. I think we've had to go three times, um since the you know, schools closed, so in the past, like maybe maybe twice um, but one of us goes in. We're like fully suited up. If you are very if you're super cautious, and you're doing it only if you really need food, then it

just seems so much more logical. Also, when you have someone go with instacart, you have to be in constant contact with them because so much of the food isn't available, and then you're asking someone to make choices for you

that like it's time consuming for them, it heightens their risk. Um. There's also the question of getting take out from restaurants, which I feel like is necessary for sanity every so often and also makes you helps you be able to support businesses in your neighborhood that are like small businesses

that are really suffering. But then somebody was going on about the like you know, along it lives on cardboard, and despite a lot of people saying reassuring things like you know, just use common sense, take it out of the container it came in, nuke it if you can heat it above a hundred and seventy degrees, like it's fine, people are still so nervous about that too. Even occasionally.

I think also that I'd read like an actually sort of comforting article from somebody about the half life stuff that made it had some actual information about the post article that you linked to. Yeah, it's it's about how long how it does live less long on actual food than on surfaces, and so the half life of it is, don't quote me. I think it's in the article something

like five and a half hours. So if you do, like get your your groceries that are fruits and vegetables at least and leave them out on the counter for a few days, it will actually not be on it anymore, allegedly, And also the fridge speeds up the process and cooking. I don't know if it kills it necessarily. But it seems like most people are saying it is okay to get take out, that you need to just reheat it yourself. Yeah, but you know I wouldn't. Maybe I don't know. I

think nobody knows. I think that's the thing. But it's also like there are some risks you have to take that are like risks in order to be alive right now. And I think people are just assuming that people are doing the stupidest thing, because the stuff that goes around

and goes viral is people doing the stupidest thing. But like you know, as I have said multiple times on this podcast, I am moving in the middle of all of this, and I do have to go out into the world and get stuff more than I would have to if I was just if I wasn't doing all this.

So I've I've had to, you know, I've I've very carefully weighed, like what stuff I want to do delivery versus what stuff I just need to go out into the world and get, um picking up stuff on Craigslist, which might sound insane, but it's like I go out with like a Lisol sprague, like great people with a Lisol spray, like us psycho. But the virus, the virus is not airborne. You have to be relatively close to

somebody to get it, you know, in person. And I have these our staging area now in my living room where everything that I bring in sits for like two full days, and people trade air out or whatever. But you know, it's also oh, sorry, you go ahead. Only I'm just gonna say people are super afraid, and they're super online because they're at home all the time. So there's also a lot of panic and anxious energy that people are putting into Twitter and message boards or whatever

more than ever because nobody knows. And it's also I mean, there was so much misinformation, or it wasn't really even misinformation, but just the most um kind of scary interpretation of how this was transmitted was circulating a out a week ago. And at some point I read something that clearly wasn't true about it being able to live in suspended in

air for like four hours. And I had just gotten back from walking around the block, which I now do less and less, because you know, I mean, I walk my dog just as much as I need to walk my dog, but then I come right in. But at that point I had just walked my kids. She was like in a little push car, and we went on a mile and a half long just stroll, staying far away from people. And then I got home and read that and was like, you know, so terrified. And now

it's been pretty much debunked. Not that I'm going to take another long walk, but it's like the waves of horrible panic. I don't think there's a reason for you not to take a long walk if you're not in contact with anybody. Well, there's also that I don't want to like do anything that even could possibly increase anyone's risk, But I I don't think I can go two months

without taking a long walk. Also, we are in Los Angeles, which, as we've said, like the marriage of your marriage story says there's a lot of space, So I think also the directives it's become like a state's rights issue where some people are putting a super intense clamp down and other places aren't at all. But also even in l A, where they did put out a shelter at home order, people still were like I can go to a hike in a group of people and we'll all just stay

far apart. But like Obviously that doesn't work in practice at big hiking places like running in so they did shut it down. Yeah, yeah, I mean I think also the thing that I've tried to remember is that a lot of the people that I follow on social media are living in New York, and well, I think it's very different. Walk in New York has different implications that

for a walk in Los Angeles. And so this is more to our New York listeners, just like understand that not everybody lives, you know, in a place that dense. Darcy Darcy Wilder, friend of the pod, also did something amazing because she was feeling very cooped up. She lives in Manhattan, uh, and she was like, should I go for a walk, and everybody on Twitter was like yeah. She was like should I go to Times Square and

they were like sure. And then she went to Times Square and she put up the link to Earthcam to the Times Square feed that I keep talking about where you can see people in Times Square, and you could see her being the only person in Times Square like Vanilla Sky. Um, she was totally suited up. She was like not near anyone. Um, it was really cool and weird. I was like, the most fun I had in a week. You know, I was like, that's my friend. She's outside. I can see her. I was like waving at the

screen even though she couldn't see me. But you know, I think, yeah, if you are being smart about it. The problem is like if everyone thinks they're being smart about it and they actually aren't, or people who are just being dumb about it, like the spring break kids who were just like yollo, yeah. I mean, like I went. I had the idea one day, like I had to go pick up lunch from somewhere and and then I was like, oh, it's nice out, I'm gonna go sit

in Griffith Park and eat this. And then I got up to like Ferndell and there was just a line of cars going down this filas and I've never seen it like that, like not even on a regular weekend. And then I was like, okay, I'm not going, like why be in that line, Like you're going into something that obviously there's going to be a high density, Like that's the stuff where I'm just like, okay, just use common sense. But yeah, I also think though that sometimes this.

I have a friend who was trying to go to the beach and she was like, figuring nobody would be at the beach. This was a week ago, and she was driving to the beach and she was looking out her window and she was like, everyone had the same idea. She thought it would be the opposite that she would be like the only person who wanted to do that. But they ended up having to drive really far north. I guess um like past where they normally went to

find in the place it wasn't densely populated. So it's also one of those things where you're trying to guess how cautious people are gonna be. Our friend, one of my friend went to the beach um and then they shut them down the next day because I think they realized that most people were going. They probably should have shut them down in the first place. But there are places like Florida where like individual cities still aren't shutting

them down necessarily. So I mean it's scary too, because then the way stuff like that is enforced is scary and militarized. Just the idea of like we literally can't be out in the streets right now, because there's also a lot of other bad stuff going on in the government where it's like, oh, we like can't protest because we can't go outside. Like that feels very fucked up. Two, But I don't know anytime I hear about some sort of jerk con I in seeming measure being taken by

any government, state or local or otherwise. Like my friend in Berlin just said she saw people police officers and the plots outside of her house like um getting people to move from who we're sitting on benches Like yeah, I mean people sit there. And I was like even in Germany, in Berlin, I was just like that sounds good.

I'm jealous of that. I think in Europe too, it's like maybe they do feel you know, people were still going out into the public space there too, And I don't think this is just an American problem, like they're having an issue in Japan that people were going out to see the cherry blossoms because they were like coming back out too quickly. That wasn't an issue in Japan, though they have no regulations right now for what people are allowed to do and not. My friend in Tokyo

is still being sent to work every day. They're just like denial over in Japan. That's like there, it's not that people were like rebellion against any kind of government or right. They just don't have an ordinance. They have zero. It's crazy. Well, they did postponed the Olympics, y'all. Yes, although they put out the worst statement that was like, we're just going to call them the Olympics still in which is like, yes, everyone will be one want to

be reminded of everybody. Let's take a break real quick, and then we'll come back with one of the things we might remember fondly about. Tiger King. Welcome back to night Call. We're going to talk about Tiger King. Emily is on the screen and she is nodding her head. No, head, Yes, I'm still shaking my head at you, saying it's one of the things we'll enjoy remembering about. And you know why, uh, nobody will remember this outside because it is a Netflix

docuseries and nobody remembers those. Okay, but you need to consumed and forgotten. But you have to admit the time was perfect for like a big bag of Doritos for your brain. Yes, called Tiger King, a big bag of cool ranch flavor. There's it's a spicy there's a spiciness to this. You're not capturing. I think it's a flame and Hot Cheeto Chet's Spicy show. Should we talk about what we liked first? Or should we should we give it to uh give it to the dum Debbie dum,

Let's give it to the Dumur. No, you guys. You guys explained the premise more because I think you guys have both also watched more of it than I have. But I know vaguely what goes down, but you can, okay. Tiger King is a documentary about the world of big cat They're not trainers, they're just sort of exploiters of large,

beautiful cats. Um centering around Joe Exotic, who owns a place where you can come take a photo of a baby tiger and the most interesting man in the world, and his rivals, including Carol Baskin, who runs a big cat sanctuary in Florida. Joe Exotic is in Oklahoma, I believe, yeah, or Ohio. It starts it's in Oklahoma. It starts with talking about there are some states that have crazy loose,

uh wild animal restrictions. I know this because my friends from Ohio say that in Ohio you can own a tiger apparently, and a lot of people own a tiger. I think this has gone over in this series. You can own a tiger anywhere in the US, or, at least at the time that this story starts, you could. I don't know if anymore LEGISLAI think that's true. I don't think you can own a tiger in California. You cannot sell them. It's state law. Then in California federal law.

There's no federal law against owning an exotic animal. You know who else owns an exotic animal? Justin Bieber, Oh yeah, but also Louisiana State University. Well so justin Bieber though owning what does he own? He had a monkey, servils and a monkey. Yeah, well he does. He still love them monkey. No, No, he wasn't allowed to. They confiscated it in Australia. It was a big but he has some big cats now that have some baby big hats. He has some servils and they are not they're not

like real wildcats. They're the kind you can have other rich people have them. I'm just saying, yea, it's okay if rich people did it, it's okay. Well they're really they're really cute, Okay, just saying they're extremely cute cats. So you're also you're forgetting one of my favorite characters, Boga von Doc Rental. Yeah, I forget where his his park is the ship. I mean myrtle little beach, isn't it? I think so let me in South Carolina. He and

Joe Exotic are like they're not rivals. They like respect each other from a distance, but they work in the same business. Yeah, I mean Joe Exotic like he looks like David Spade kind of. I was like casting this, I think everyone who's more casting My friend Maxilabster and I both were like, Nick Krawl will win. We'll win a golden globe for playing this. I also saw maybe

a young Joe Pantoliano. I well, I was. I was got really hooked on Doc antl being John c Riley at some point, also because I just watched Stepbrothers and this has like a stepbrother's energy too. It has a real stepbrother's energy to where you're just not sure if you should feel bad. You know, you should feel kind of bad for enjoying it, but you can't really help it. I mean, I'm did you watch did you ever watch cat Dancers? Did we do that? We watched on the

pod I can't remember. Okay, well, I just feel like this is in the extended Cat Dancers universe. People Cat Dancers was produced before Netflix, and oh yeah, I feel yeah. I think Cat Dancers is less trying to to to sell itself on the wacky personalities where you want to stunt cast it, like, obviously that's a part of it, but it's less like it's a real life Christopher Guest movie or whatever. No, it's a it's a real life Danny McBride, Walton Goggin's Nady Patterson show that is who

should play all the roles. But whatever one may think about, the more the morality of such a show existing much like a circus, it's also pretty entertaining well, because turns you watch one episode and you believe you know who the villain is, and then you watch the second episode you're like, oops, I was wrong, it's this other person. And then by the third episode you realize that the true villain was the unlikeliest of all. And then later on I'm just gonna say, like, the show does have morals.

It's made by a conservationist, Like the point is that these places shouldn't exist. Yes, it's definitely not in favor of places where people go take pictures with baby animals. It's just like documenting them but also totally shows what's wrong with them. And there's a very moving part at the end where it shifts the focus to larger conservation issues and talks about like the folly of trying to keep big cats as pets in any type of way. So I think you makes Yeah, I'm less concerned with

the animals um in the movie go On. I think I think the humans are all uh, they are all of abuse victims in different ways, and many people are being actively abused that are on camera, and it is being framed as a goofy romp that it's being framed as a goofy roump, though I think it's it's like it's like several cults operating at once. It's very similar to Finding Neverland in some ways because it also, you know, Michael Jackson obviously also used having exotic animals as a

way to lure people in. It sort of just shows the extent to which people can be lured in by exotic animals to a place you didn't know they wanted to go. Um. When you get into the I guess, like the thing for me is that, like, I think it does a decent job of of getting into how these sort of outside basically cult leaders they are, like, you know, it gets into how each of them basically are operating cult like operations or just outright could I would say, in the case of uh doc doc doc

antle um. But I think then then it becomes a thing that's sort of just like this, this this moral dilemma that we I feel like, have been grappling with since the election, which is just like, Okay, this person is like doing active harm and uh wants you know, wants things that are actively bad for other people and animals in this case, and but like we can also

still laugh at them. I guess that's sort of the That's sort of the thing I was unable to kind of just latch onto, Like this doesn't feel like Doritos to me. Every aspect of it is so dark, Like even I like it, I just because I do think that the show is is conscious of the dilemma around the animals, but I I don't feel I feel like it's treatment of the people is just especially because the context of the framing of it being a Netflix documentary

and the degree to which is just disposable. It's just like, okay, so we're just being given these people as like grist for the nill of content. I don't know, and I don't know if I think that though I feel like you're kind of latching onto the fact that this is a Netflix joint and and bringing a lot of like you know, feeling as though it's just meant to be consumed and forgotten. But I actually I don't feel that

way necessarily about this one. Yeah, to me, this is something It's not even like The Jinks where the guy is like clearly evil the whole time and you're just like waiting for him to admit it. To me, it's more like The Staircase, where you're like, even though these people are all narcissistic sociopaths, there's like a depth and a humanity to them anyway. And Joe Exotic as just like a super out, openly gay guy sort of opera reading in this like deep South rednecks space and being

just out. It's very weirdly transgressive, just like his community of people that like they do. It's it's interesting, It's just fucking interesting. It's like you understand that he's like learning people in by being like, here's a space for outsiders and people who don't belong, and here's all these like big cats and weird this weird family, this weird commune. And then you're like, oh, actually this is super toxic and bad and all about him, But you understand why

people want that. Sure, Yeah, I mean I think that I would not say that Joe Exotic is unsympathetic. It's not that he's just a monster. It's that he is like a profoundly damaged person who I do think, like when he is showing love to one of his many husbands or to his animals, I believe it, and I think that he is a person who is capable of love.

But like obviously, like America has just done a fucking number on him via his parents who were abusive, um, via just like capitalism and probably like uh gun culture and everything else. Like I think, like it's just sad to me. It's like it's just sad his his whole case is sad to me because I don't think that he is unsympathetic. Um. But yeah, I'm just so obsessed with Carol. Guys. Carol was the one I really latched onto here. Um, I think that, Carol, I'm again. I

finished the third episode. I'm really excited to dive back in. I don't know, I mean, I see, I see what Emily saying. I think my thing though, is that, like, these are all people who are damaged in ways that I feel like I'm enjoying kind of exploring, like why they all kind of got drawn into a very specific racket. I think a lot of animal rights people too, are like they hate humans, yes, yes, a hundred percent, or like tapped into like human pain and suffering to the

degree that they're tapped into like animals. Well, like Brigitte Bardot is the famous one because she's like, is a super racist but loves animals. And yes, no, totally, totally, there's a lot of them. For soprano for it, well, he he's he's like a Joe Exotic to me. Joe

Exotic is a tony soprano figure to total. Just like he built an empire in this niche world where people are super passionate about this thing that's insane and you have to be insane to do it, and he like came from nothing and made this empire and then he loses it. It's very novelistic. Yeah, but I understand, I understand.

I mean, Carol is is interesting as well, though, like I didn't get through that third episode you get to the twy about who like her husband, the mysterious death of her husband that her detractors uh seem to think she has murdered. I don't know if that actually ends up being the case or not. But would you like to spoil shady? So I wouldn't put it past her, But do you think do you think Carol fed her

husband to the tigers? And I'll tell you what. I'll tell you why I was watching it, so she has not to sound too under the silver lake here, but she has this like expression that she she maintains the

whole time you know her. And then when um, when she has asked about the allegations that she killed her husband and fed him, put him through a meat grinder and fed him to tigers, she her eyes like pop and she makes this the expression that if you are if you're used to like knowing that someone's lying when you're talking to them, for instance, if this one this thing that people do when they're hot, and they do it with their eyes and they go like, pop and she does it, and I was my husband and I

were both like, uh, there it is. She fucking did it. She fed She fed him right to the tigers, so she's confident. She's also wearing a flower crown for much of it. Yeah, she's midsummer, we now know signifies that you are down to do some ritual sacrifice. She for sure did it. And it's also like then you're like, oh, well, is she worse for being a horrible person who presents herself as a saint than Joe Exotic who's like a psycho but everybody knows he's a psycho. They're like, oh,

our lovable psycho friend. I just figured that Carol was a really big Lana fan, which I like completely by Well, there's something anybody who's like, I contame a giant a wild cat. It's like grizzly man. It's like the hubrisk of humans to think that you can contain nature. Like the end of it is very annihilation because it is just like this isn't gonna work ever, and like these

animals don't deserve to be in cages. Yeah, um yeah, I think like very early on, it starts showing people who have kind of uh, you know, had the had the various animals lash out against the lost limbs, lost legs and stuff like that. Um, well, Staff, who's the worker at the place that it's a zoo, I'll call it a zoo? Staff is um, he identifies this male, he's the one who lost his arm to a tiger. But the guy who lost his legs that was a zip line. That was a zip line, accent was a

zip line. But but like the whole thing about the rush of having the proximity to this animal that could kill you. I mean, it was interesting also to see the overlap in the timeline of Joe Exotics popularity and the tiger photo phenomenon on tinder Um, because I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that when that was like the joke that everybody's posing with tigers on um. But yeah, I was like, oh yeah, this was a thing for a while and

probably still is in many circles. I think it's like also acknowledging that like Joe Exotic is just like a talented Mr Ripley, you know, like as we've seen with Mayor Pete, but like somebody can be queer and also a sociopath who like, you know, I'm not gonna I'm not going to say he's a sociopath. I don't think Mayor Pete is a sociopath. I will be the voice of dissent with this. I don't think he would have made a very good president, but I don't think he's

a sociopath. It's okay if they're watching you in your closet right now and you don't, I don't. I you know, I feel like I I need to sometimes things go get a little like off the wall in here, not in the closet, but on the pod. But I do want to say, like, I would not have wanted to vote for Mayor Pete, but I'm not. I don't know him well enough to say he's a sociate. Okay, I'm just saying if I found out he fed someone to

tigers to sorrow, I would not be super surprised. That's my personal Why don't we take a break, Yeah, okay, and then we'll come back with something everyone likes magic Mike XXL welcome back tonight. Call here. We are still on spring break. It's still March. How why um we're spring break? Ever? For for real spring break? But a fun spring break for Night Call that we're going to wrap up with I'm not going to go that far. Um.

We had to keep that. We had to keep the party going for one more week while it's still March. We're trying to provide escapism as well as information infotainment. UM, Magic Mike xx al a road trip. Okay, can I can I mention I've not seen Magic Mike still at this moment, have not seen it. So I jumped into the sequel and was and and panicked at first because I was like, oh shit, it's one of those sequels where you really really have to have seen the first one,

like many sequels in that way. But I just I really couldn't figure out how to make the time for this happen. So I watched just the sequel and I loved it. I don't think you need to watch the first Magic Mike to appreciate Magic Mike. There was a lot of like referring to these like things that that I could have probably done the bare minimum of research and been able to fill in the gap. Now it's

going to be tho. Is that like Mike left because he was going to like start his carpentry business, which is like very easily picked up early on in the film, and that Matthew McConaughey hasn't there anymore because whatever, they couldn't get him for this, He wasn't in the budget. But also what about the fiance? Was the fiance and the original one the fiance he ended up with a first one. Um, she's no, she's she's like a nepotism star. She's like the daughter of a w B XEC or something.

I think she's good because she kind of I think Amber Heard sucks in this one, by the way, I mean whatever. I have really strong opinions about the acting of Amber Heard that I try and like camp down sometimes, but yeah, she's doing She's doing the kind of performance that people used to like bash Kristen Stewart for doing. But Kristen is actually a much much better actress than that. But I feel like Amber Heard is still doing that performance.

Stick up for Amber Heard's acting here. I thought she was fine. Oh God, I hate her. I'm so allergic to her. I'm so incredibly every everything she does with her hair, the way she eats cake, I'm like, oh, I can't I dand this can't the way that somebody who has never eaten cake. It's like when when Rooney Murry eats the pie and a Ghost Story, It's like, that's never eating a pie exactly. You know that. I watched the entire Playboy Club show. I'm sure you're starring

Amber heard one of them. Okay, I watched half of that. See she was so terrible in that. How can you be? How can you stand? That was a bad show? I think. I think there's one connecting element between Magic Mike XXL and Tiger King, which is that it portrays southern and Midwestern type of culture in a way that like, I don't feel as condescending to it. That's why I feel like Tiger King is okay too, is because I don't

think it's like sneering in New York media at these people. Um. And that is what I loved, other than the general shock about the fact that somebody could be gay in Oklahoma. But it's not it's not just that he's gay, it's that he has two husbands. It's the polygamy. The polygamy is the shock when they're both straight until they met him. Yeah, two straight husbands. It's a lot of straight husband be

shocking in any state. I'm just gonna say it's true. Um, well, Magic Mike XXL is like, um, it's sort of an interesting sequel in many ways, I think because it's not directed by Soderberg, so it's a different like which is just kind of common for sequels. But it also doesn't feel like it was not burdened by being a necessary sequel. There's nothing in the first Magic Mike that's like, Oh, I can't wait to see what the gang gets up

to next. It has a fair amount of closure to it, and it's really about like it's based on Channing Tatum's life, and it's basically about him like getting out of the male stripper business and like chasing his own dreams and like, you know, it ends in a nice way. So I think think they planned for it to be a hit either at all. It's definitely like, yeah, it's basically Saturday Night Fever. It is right Saturday Night Fever in the world of strippers, And so I was like, oh, this

is the staying Alive. Yeah. Mostly like like Channing Tatum's character in it is not really the protagonist, Like it's the kid played by Alex Pettifer, who's sort of the newcomer into the world who like rises up through the ranks and then it hits rock bottom, you know, all that kind of classic type stuff. So and Mike is more just sort of this like he's sort of the the old the old salt at the He's got the oldest salt at the club. That's McConaughey. It's just like lifers,

like male stripping lifers. It's like he's like the pro that everybody looks up to, but he wants to get out, and this new kid is like, why would you want to get out? This is amazing? Um. But like anything said in a niche world, which again, it's also what I like Tiger King, right, it's a very niche world. It's very Florida, as many of the things that we've

watched this month have been. But I think that the nice thing about Magic Mike XXL like kind of is the exception that proves the rule about sequels is that, like it is a totally unnecessary sequel, and I feel like it's totally liberated by the fact that it is so unnecessary perfect. It's a musical. It's just a musical. It's tracted by Gregory Jacobs, who's like a Soderberg protege. Yeah, he's been like an a d I think on a

bunch of Soderberg movies. And it features some of the people that were in Magic, Mike Channing Tatum, Matt Boehmer, Kevin Nash, and Joe Manchinello. Joe Man just so good. Well, that's the thing. It's like, it's not even Channing Tatum's movie. It's literally a group movie. Now. It's an ensemble movie for real, And it's just like, I think a lot of it was improvised maybe or just like lightly scripted.

A lot of little stuff where they go to um, where they go to the house that Um that Jada Pinkett Smith runs Romes Frome's house, Like that feels very kind of like, let's just have a party. Phil. I was so excited to see So You Think you Can Dance? His twitch boss, my favorite contestant ever on So You Think You Can Dance. I was so excited to see him. They're so awesome. In sequence with him is so incredible. Yeah. So the format of the movie, it is like a

road musical. It's like, let's put on a show in several different locations ending in a big show at the end, Little Beach, Yeah, the Striper Convention, Yeah, Stripper Convention. They like they've all disbanded because Matthew McConaughey's character, who is sort of the impresario at the strip club um in the first film, he's ditched them and like run off

with their money. So they're all kind of adrift. And then they reunite, uh to go to head to Myrtle Beach and like have their one last shot of glory, but also like job, Yeah, like ditch all the all the kind of sort of worn out tropes and stuff that that Matthew McConaughey had pushed on them, like the firefighter stuff and everything, and they're like, no, we're just going to find ourselves strippers, our personal artistic representation. Yeah. And again, what makes the First Magic Mike so good

is like it takes male stripping super seriously. It takes female arousal very seriously. And you know, I just feel like Soderberg has always been good at like sexualizing the male body as much as the female, and that's like all this movie is about. It's just like sexualizing men. The gaze of like super hot men who are just doing whatever like regular women want all the time. It's just it's like if the world was was inverted, it's just like, oh yeah, I actually think business movie even

more so than the first movie. Like I think the first movie is probably like a more functional movie as far as like, but it's like a Godfather one Godfather

too things. You're both perfect and they don't. They're not even in competition with each other, right, Well, the second one, I think like just does the thing that you're talking about though, which is just the like, let's just make a story like basically a an episodic tale of musical like a musical review that's just about women's pleasure and like and women the women women's gaze and like the best part of the first movie, which I will spoil for you because it's sort of spoil it when he

starts dancing to Pony in this movie, that is when he rediscovers but like the whole thing is that the girl he's he's courting in the first movie, like comes to see him at the club and like this, and that's the first time you really see him dance, and he like comes out and does this routine to Pony and everyone in the audience including the girl's jaws just dropped because you know, what's expecting it to be like hot, you know, so it's like you're just grappling with it.

Like wait, Like I didn't even like Chanting Tatum going into Magic Mike that much. I was like this just you're like, oh my god, this guy is the greatest dancer in the world. That is so hot when somebody is a good dancer, like legitimately and seven Soderberg is the only person who's been smart enough to put him in a musical, you know, in the Cohens did too, but yeah, and the step happens. I mean, he's he's

so good in this person I know. But I'm just like, how have we not gotten like, like, why isn't there Channing Tatum guys and dolls, Like he's been famous for like a decade now, why what haven't we just like put him in every classic musical we have. He's looking amazing. Yeah, this is a problem. This is a fucking problem with

Hollywood is that, like, clearly this works very well. This guy should be and I think everybody was expecting him to be a huge, huge, A list George Clooney esque star, and the material just isn't there because Hollywood is not tailoring itself around Uh, you know, we don't have those triple threats anymore. Yeah, we don't have a triple threat anymore. Maybe he's a diva, you guys, we don't know. No,

I don't think he is. He's supposedly very like down to earth and nice and like is a real southern ask dude who I think is very close to his character in this movie, like he his life story really is, you know, I don't. I think he's a was a humble enough person to be a male stripper. So and I think he doesn't take himself super seriously, is what I gather. So he doesn't have that super um careerist type drive that would make somebody maybe be in five

movies a year, like Great Jump Street. He's great in those movies. Forgot, He's great in a tiny part in Uh, Side Effects, another super great Soderberg movie that people don't talk about enough. Soderberg is just so good. He's like he's good at too many things. It's so funny that everybody's like appreciating him for Contagion right now, because it's

just like, yeah, he's always making good movies. In different genres, and this, you know, is Gregory Jacobs, but it's very much in the Soderbergh house style, which is kind of like flowy and improvisational feeling, not super actorly. I think that Soderberg treats feature filmmaking like blogging. He's really really good at it, and so he has like a really

high hit rate. But like that kind of casual nous and low stakes approach to doing something like this ends up making things feel revelatory because it's not like it needs a bunch of pomp and circumstance. It's just like, no, we're gonna have a dance musical about male strippers and it's going to be great, and you've never seen this before, but we're not going to make a big deal about how you've never seen it before. We're gonna act like

the most natural thing to do a movie about. Because I've been watching I've been watching a ton of musicals just because like that is my comfort food. Film is just MGM musicals and depression Eira musicals. So I was watching It's Always fair Weather, which I've never seen before, which is like a cow in Green musical from ninety

five with Gene Kelly. That was like a it's it's like Magic Mike XXL, and that it was supposed to be a sequel to On the Town but they couldn't get all the same people, so it's like Gene Kelly and two other guys, but it just has these like insane dance numbers in it. And then I watched Magic Mike XXL right after it. I was just like, right, like, this is how we bring back the musical. It's not fucking La La Land. It's like a movie where the

musical numbers happen organically. They're like part of the story. They're not like taking but they do take you out of your brain just completely well, and people are really dancing in that. I mean like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are not like real professional I mean yes, like Ryan Gosling was on Mickey Mouse Clip, but like he's not a real Like we were supposed to be charmed by the shittiness of their dancing, but I was like, I'm not that charmed actually at all. No, Like I

want to see I can't dance for ship. I want to see people who could really fucking dance. It makes me so happy. I used to be such a fan of America's Best Dance Crew That was I watched that more than so you think you can dance, And like, every single time it would be on, I would just feel like the dopamine just rushed into my brain just watching people who are really good at like working together and doing these amazing physical feats. Um It's like but

with less fascism. We like the Jabberwocks I love. We almost went to go see Jabbiwaukee's for my bachelorette and then we saw Magic Mike uh instead, right, because I wanted to the options for that or the boss Lerman sir, and I was like, we're going to your bachelorette party with like all film critics, we have to go to like the Exotic Mail Dance review based on Steven Sarbur

It's so great. So we talked about it on the podcast already, but just to reiterate, when this is all over, if you get to take a Vegas vacation, highly command the Magic Mic Show. It's so good. Yeah. I thought all the little performances in this movie are so good too.

I did like the other cameos. I liked Elizabeth Banks and McDowell and and I know also that like one of Sarderberg's things about Andy mcdowan's sex lies and videotape was he was like, everybody was so mean about her Southern accent, and I was just and he's like from New Orleans or Louisiana. He was just like, I just thought she like sounded like people I knew, you know.

So again, just to see like Southern ladies of a certain age played like not camp, it's like you never get to see that, you know, just like all of this stuff could have been played so camp and it's not. It's like, but it is a spectacle. I have to say Andy McDowell and Jada Pinketsbeth both feel like they're having the best time. Jada Pinkett Smith is fucking um so good. I think there was like a small campaign

to try to get her best supporting this year. He was great because she's playing the McConaughey role basically, and you're like, who could top McConaughey, Like, turns out to think it's Smith. I Oh, it's so good, just great mood lift. I'm happy just thinking about it right now. Yeah, no, totally. Let's talk about Joe Manchinello, just for one second, is it okay to call him the Armenian Stallion? Maybe it barely rhymes, but yeah, maybe, Well he's so amazing. Um

he does a routine to a Backstreet Boys song. I believe it as I want it that way. It is. Indeed, I in a seven eleven. I think I like teared up the first time I saw it because it's like they're trying to get the lady at the register to smile because she just seems like really dour or something. I think that's it. And so they're like taking bets and who can get her a smile by like sexy dancing in the middle of the seven eleven And it's

so cute. It's so it's like overly sexual but completely non threatening, which is like this weirdly really specific balance just that the movie strikes in general, but especially also his character is on ecstasy and has like has kind of forgotten. I think it's this is this is following a pep talk where it's like you don't want to be a fireman, like you're afraid of fire. You don't want to like wear the stupid outfit, just connect with

like what you want, like make her like happy. That's what you want when they're just like rolling their faces off in like the middle of the day, all sweaty on the bus. It's so funny. Also, Gabrielle Iglesias shout out he is also in this and and just a lot of random people. Donald Glover briefly gives like one

of the best monologues of the entire movie. Yeah, and he does like the whole um like he makes up a song for a girl that those those are the worst strippers at the Magic Mike xfl show were the ones who also sang. And the reason is because it impedes their dancing, you know, right, just focus on one thing. It's a great movie to send us off at the end of Spring Break March a very weird spring Break March.

But um, I think this has like the best vibes of anything that we definitely total feel good or like just remember what it feels like to feel good. Night call recommend was that Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL And next up in April, it's Plastic Surgery Month. Will be night call whole month about plastic surgery and anything related to it. Give us a night call at to four oh four six six four four eight. That's to

four oh for six. Night America may not be resurrected in time for Easter, but we're going to celebrate transformation and rebirth with plastic surgery April. Um. I'm gonna have to be biting my tongue throughout all of April. I have such strong opinions about plastic surgery. I'm excited to hear what you guys have to offer. We wouldn't be doing this if we all didn't have strong feelings about it one way or the other. Um. And it's not limited to surgery. Um. You know, we're down to talk

about injectibles, bow talk, microdorm abrasion. I'm going to do the movie face off. Yeah, yes, that count becomes her. We're going to stay on. This is a Meca's train, so um so yeah, looking forward to that. Just more stuff to keep your mind off of, keep your mind on other bodily horrors of the particular ones we're all dealing with right now. Yeah. We'll be back next week with more Nightcall and you can follow us on social media. We are on Twitter, at Nightcall pod, Instagram, at Facebook

at Nightcall Podcasts. Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave us a rating, or wherever you listen to podcasts and support us on Patreon. We just posted a bonus episode from our Patreon feed, our first ever movie Club episode, which we'll be doing every month on the Patreon feed. So if you go to patreon dot com slash Nightcall and support us at the five dollar level, you'll get all of our bonus episodes and it'll be super fun. So check that out and we'll see you all next week.

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