Kutbooms.
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of the Old Republic, a soul fashion of fairness. He treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the rich pill poppers in the penthouse. Wow to clearing House of hot takes, break free for something Special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
In the air everywhere The Fifth Hour with Me, Ben Mahler and Danny g Radio.
He is away today. He'll be with me over the weekend.
He's scheduled to join me over the weekend anyway, he will be producing this podcast. But you've got me here on this seventh day of February, the friday before Super Bowl Sunday, and we have coming up in a few minutes one of the great characters around the Super Bowl, who you may or may not know. If you've looked at the description of this podcast, you know who's going to be on, but almost Andy Reid. I'm going to tell you more about him coming up in a couple
of minutes. But it is National Bubblegum Day today, so celebrate appropriately. February seventh National Bubblegum Day. I don't know how popular bubble gum is these days. I do love the fact that bubble gum has been around now for almost one hundred and twenty years. I think he's started to watch it's been less than one hundred years. The original bubble gum concept, the first attempt didn't actually work. And I was reading about this because I'm a total loser.
And back in nineteen oh six, guy named Frank Fleer. If you collect sports cards, you might remember Fleer trading cards. But Frank Fleer was the guy that decided to invent the world's for bubblegum in nineteen oh six. But it turned out that the recipe for the bubble gum wasn't that good. It's a little too sticky, and so it didn't work. It was called blibber Blubber, Blibber Blubber bliber Blubber. That was the name of the original bubblegum. So that
was nineteen oh six. It wasn't until nineteen twenty eight, So ninety seven years ago. A guy named Walter Deamer Walter deamerd I. E. M. Er, who was an underling working for the Fleer corporation. Remember Frank Fleer, So this guy was working for the Fleer Corporation and he was able to create the first marketable version of bubblegum that the world had ever seen. So nineteen twenty eight it was branded double Bubble, which is still around.
To this day.
And the part of the story which is pretty funny to me, and it reminds me a lot of the donut thing, the donut box story that we'd like to share on this podcast from time to time, where the reason that baked goods often come in pink boxes and people perceive that for delicious baked goods is because the people behind the donut revolution in America, we're trying to save a couple of bucks, and so they bought the
pink boxes, which were actually misdiye. They were supposed to be red boxes and the dye came back pink, and so they were cheaper.
They made those boxes out of that.
And I'm paraphrasing, but that became synonymous with baked goods, with donuts and all that. I bring that up because double Bubble bubble gum when it was created by this guy, Walter Walter Deemer, he used pink dye in the bubble gum. The reason that he used pink dye is because that's all that he had access to. If he had had blue or green or yellow or whatever other color, any other color in the rainbow, bubble gum would be synonymous with that. But to this day, almost all bubble gum is perceid.
It's pink. Now.
I know there's some other colors of bubble gum, but for the most part, when you think bubble gum, you think pink, right, you do?
The color is synonymous now.
Meanwhile, it is also National Fetichini Alfredo Day today. My favorite go to pasta when I'm at a nice Italian restaurant. I love Fetichini Alfredo. It's wonderful. It's hard to f up Fetichini Alfredo. And since it is National Alfredo Day, I looked it.
Up and went back in the archives and.
The original Alfredo dish actually goes back to they estimate in Italy the fifteenth century, but it was known by a different name. And the person that is credited as the true inventor of the modern day dish.
Of Fenatrini Alfreno.
Is Alfredo d Lilio Alfredo di Lilio.
This guy ran a.
Restaurant, well, his family ran a restaurant, so he was a restauranteur in Italy. And the legend, I don't know whether this is bull crap or whether this is true, but the legend I'll just repeat it anyway. So this guy was trying to get his wife to eat after giving birth to their child in their first child night.
It was like nineteen early nineteen hundred, nineteen eight, I believe was the year, and so his wife didn't want to eat, so he was getting annoyed, and he created a recipe that included all the delicious things that we love from fetcini Alfredo, the noodles, the cheese, the butter, and put it all together and teta abrika dabro wonderful. So fetcini Alfredo was his wife loved it right, and it was so good that Alfredo Delilio added it to the menu.
And his mom's restaurant.
Pizza Rosa was the name of the restaurant, and they sold more feticini than pizza. Became amazing. People like wow, and so that was deemed the birthplace of fetichini.
Alfred Is. That's a fun fact, right, that is a fun fact.
In nineteen fourteen, Alfredo Delilio opened up his own restaurant just called Alfredo, and then he opened up another one with his son in nineteen fifty. But in nineteen seventy seven he opened up a restaurant in America, and that is where things went next level for the Feticini Alfredo. So it kind of began in the fifteenth century, but for our purposes, the modern version of Feticini Alfredo that
came to us more recently. More recently, I say more recently, still been one hundred, one hundred plus years we've had Alfredo in our world. So today is Friday. It is Super Bowl Friday, coming up on TV today. Now it's already aired last night on Thursday. There was some of this. But Benny versus the Penny, the Super Bowl edition, it is proptastic.
We've got all the props.
I will dust off Benny's crystal ball and predict the greatest possible endings that would break the Internet and be wonderful for sports radio and sports media conversation.
But we'll have tons of props. It's gonna be a fun show.
We're gonna go back and forth over all the big props in the game and cannot wait, can not wait for that.
So that'll be coming up today.
If you haven't seen Benny Versus the Penny, it's also on Peacock Me and Looney Tunes breaking it all down for you. I say scientifically, but I don't know how scientifically it is. So that'll be coming up for you all weekend long. And this is not our last episode. We have one episode left in season two of Benny Versus the Penny. That'll be next week, so we'll see
what happens with the TV show. It's been a lot of fun to do with the last couple of years, and it seems to be gaining some traction, which is pretty cool. And you guys have been wonderful, my loyal foot Soldiers and the Malla Militia promoting the show, letting people know about the show, and we've gotten some good promotion by NBC. They've promoted the show during Celtic games and Warriors and Sixers games, and so it's really neat
that they have promoted the show. I don't get much promotion at all for the overnight show, so it's nice when you get a little promotion. So it's good for that, but we definitely need you to spread the word, get people that have Peacock to watch Penny Versus the Penny this weekend and then the final episode next weekend. Now, meanwhile, we pivot, where do we pivot to? We pivot to the big game Soupper Bowl Sunday. Person we're going to
have on here. He goes by the moniker almost Andy read And while you and I are taking part in audio, and I know this is more of a visual thing than an audio thing, but just imagine the twin, the doppelganger of Andy Reid from a different mother. This guy is such a dead ringer that some of the Chiefs players cannot tell whether this is Andy Reid or almost Andy Reid. So it's a fun story. I'm gonna get into it with him. But he he is a lives in the Kansas City area, and he's been doing this
for about seven years. He's the number one preeminent Andy Reid impersonator. He's got the mannerisms down, he's got he looks just like him. If you're blind, trust me, it's the same exact guy. You can't tell the difference. And the fun part of this and I'm gonna I'm gonna get to it at some point here. He actually was a listener before he became Almost Andy Reid. He was an overnight listener. He listened to our overnight show in
Kansas City. We have a mutual friend, Bob Fesco from Fesco in the morning, he does the morning show there, a very popular show in Kansas City. And so, without further ado, just again use your imagination.
It's audio. It's theater of the mind.
Super Bowl fifty nine is coming up on Sunday, and we now present, without further commercial interruption, at least for now, Almost Andy read So, I've wanted to have you on this show, my show, the podcast for a while, Almost Andy Reid.
But let's start right now super Bowl week.
As we said, everything's going on, parties all over the place.
What has this week been like for you?
As the pre eminent Andy Reid in personating, they're kind of walk us through what this week's been like.
Lots of phone calls, lots of emails, lots of interviews, lots of appearances, and lots of plane travel.
Yeah yeah, so you're you're flying all over and you're going to be in New Orleans. You're not there right now, but tonight you're going to.
Yeah, you bet, man, I can't wait to get down there and dry some of that in New Orleans cuisine.
Yes, the beignets, the Kingcake and all that. So is it true?
Now?
I have met you a few times, I think the last three years. We've run into each other at the Super Bowl and I was in your town. You live in the Kansas City area. So is it true that one of my buddies, any mutual radio friend here, Andy almost Andy Ree was started by in some ways by Bob Fesco. Oh yeah, what role did Bob play? He does the morning show in Kansas City, no.
Doubt about it.
I got to tell you, when I first started doing this, I thought, well, hey man, I've been a lifelong cheese fan, but I'm going to go to this event out at Rally House, one of our clothing places here in town. And Bob and his buddy were there doing a radio show, and I show up as coach, and of course.
Bob just he's got lots of energy.
Man.
I'll tell you, I love Bob. He's one of my favorite radio personalities here in town. Of course, man.
But you know, he did an impromptu interview with me, and that kind of was my first interview as almost and it was great. I had a great time. He asked a lot of great questions. And from that point on, I've been friends with Bob. Been out there. You know, we got some chicken fingers here in town. Yeah after you and yeah, you know so great. You know Bob's Bob's a big link here to the sports community, no doubt about it.
Absolutely. So now you did you always?
I mean, you saw any read coaching the Eagles Stuf've had your Chiefs fan, But did you know I kind of looked like that guy?
Like I had.
No clue, absolutely no clue, and I had a beard and a goatee all of my life. For some reason, I needed to go to an event. I shaved off the beard, left the mustache just for fun. I don't know, I was gonna shave it off, but then I noticed, Hey, I look a little bit like Andy Raid.
That's interesting.
And so I went to an event dressed like coach and boy, people loved it, and so that kind of got me inspired right there.
Yeah, so how many how many years did it happen? Like right away? When Andy got there how many how.
Many years you've been doing and Andy's been coaching the Chiefs for a while now.
Yeah, No, I just did it for fun back in twenty eighteen. But hey, we were stuck at home for a pandemic and I didn't know anything about social media. So I said to my kids, Hey, kids, why don't you help me out. Let's get a TikTok page and helped me do some videos. And that's where it all started, was at that point. And then, of course I've always attended games since the mid eighties, and you know, I just started going as coach and I'd walked through the
parking lot. I loved meeting fans from other their teams, you know, saying hi, good luck, I'll give him a little bit of encouragement, and you know, yeah, and it was a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
Yeah.
Yeah, So I have to tell this story. So I think this was was it last year? The Super Bowl in Vegas? Yeah, So we hung out with you a little bit at Radio Row the great almost Andy Reid.
You were a rock star. Everyone loved you.
And then we left and we went to this one. It was my favorite Italian restaurant in Vegas. It's a little like speak easy place. Yes, we're sitting down there and eating some fetichini alfredo, and out of the peripheral vision, I see I see this guy walk in wearing a Chiefs gear and a hat, and there's this murmur in the restaurant and uh, and I'm like, everyone's all buzzing, you know, people getting up from their women are getting up to take photos with this person. And it's you.
You you walked in. We happened to eat at the same restaurant in Vegas. And when you walked in there, like the whole restaurant kind of stopped for a few minutes because everyone was coming over and gravitating you.
How what was that?
Like?
I got when you're when you walk in, you're you know, you're almost Andy Reid, and everyone and wants to need you.
Well, it was kind of a dark atmosphere in there.
But that's kind of an everyday occurrence with me, you know, since my name around down and pictures and commercials and things that I've done.
But yeah, I'm kind of used to it.
But it was a lot of fun, a lot of great food, and of course at the Super Bowl, it's all elevated a little bit, because you know, our brains see what our eyes don't see, and so so people will sometimes get starstruck and fill in all the places on my face that aren't really coach and all. You know, I have a hard time sometimes even convincing them that.
I'm not here.
No, I know, because it was the funniest thing. I was telling my wife, say you were wearing I mean you look, you have the same clothes that Andy Reid wears. You have, I mean you even have like the headset, you have everything.
I mean, you are. You've nailed it.
This is one of the great impersonations. I give you full credit. I mean you've done everything. You look like him, but then you've gone above and beyond. But it's it's fascinat in me that when I was I'll give you the restaurant as an example, because you know, I was eating great Italian food and it is. It was a dark restaurant, you know, not a lot of lighting. But people seem to think that Andy Reid showed up in full uniform to eat pasta.
It was. It's fascinating to me.
It is.
It's a It's an interesting phenomenon because the same thing happens to me at the games. If if I leave at the same time, folks are going to get, you know, food or something at the stadium and they always ask, coach, what are you doing? And I said, you gotta go, you gotta go.
You're going to get some popcorn or something and you're going to have a bathroom.
And they're right, yeah, aren't there bathrooms for you? Coach? That is great? That is that is wonderful.
So you started in twenty eighteen, you've been doing this now it's twenty twenty five.
And I know you've told me in the past.
One I've talked to you at the Super Bowl, stuff that you've met Andy Reid, You've done stuff, kind of business stuff with Andy Reid.
What is his What was his reaction?
I mean, how's he embraced the fact that you are almost exactly his twin from a different book.
Well, I think he has a good time with it. And of course I've always tried to keep really true to his character and his goodness, because when you do meet coach, he's like your best friend. He'll sit there and chat with you. And the first thing he said to me is are you going to sing? For us, which showed me that he's a study of everybody that he meets because I sing opera professionally on the side.
And so we've had a great relationship since I've done three commercials with him now and just been a great time every every opportunity I get.
To meet him, that's great. And yeah, how is this now?
You did tell me you perform in the arts there in Kansas City, So but you have to be in you have to look like Andy Reid. Do they care when you're performing that you kind of look like the chiefs coach when.
You're Yeah, well, I've always worried about that they were going to ask me to shave my muskas, but you know, they used me on their social media, you know, to promote some of their operas, so they've been pretty good with it and accepting of the mustache, and so yes, of course, when I'm on stage sometimes you can probably tell from the audience, what's Andy Reid sing an opera for?
What that is? Aliston, what about some of the guys.
Have you met any of the I'm sure you've met some of the players doing these commercials and whatnot, And yeah, exactly.
Pretty funny story that I just came across today when another station somebody had interviewed several of the Chiefs players down at the New Orleans super Dome or wherever they're having things. And so anyhow, they gave them pictures of me and coach and they were kind of asking them, is this coach or is this is a fake coach? And so Carl Loftus and one of the other young players, they they got confused with if I was coach or if.
He was gone.
So I want to run this by it. And we're hanging out with almost Andy Reid and we'll post some photos on So I know this is audio only, but I'm gonna post some photos and stuff. You'll be able to see see him if you if you don't know, he looks exactly Andy Reid. But I had this idea we shouldn't make a movie, right, I'm gonna write a script here, like you know, if Andy gets like you know, he gets ill or something like that, he is like
an upset stomach. He can't coach the Super Bowl, and they don't want to tell anyone, and they hire you. They bring you in and you walk up and down the sidelines as Andy Reid and nobody notices like I think I'm pretty sure that if you if that. You know, I know it's a movie, you know it's a script. But yeah, I bet you we could pull that off. Like you look so much like him, you could do it.
That'd be great.
You know.
I study his mannerisms and everything, and not in a way where I'm going to have some type of paper said to me to stay three hundred feet away from him. But I do watch tell he watch his gate and everything, and so I've done a pretty good job.
Of copying a lot of that.
And of course I'm a big guy, so I wear Tommy Bahamas all the time, always have. So that's just a natural thing for us big guys to do because.
They're comfortable exactly.
Listen, I'm a big guy. I love the Tommy Bahama stuff. I'm all about it. And as far as the commercials that you've done, are we going to see you in the Super Bowls and there see you out?
Yeah, I'd say keep your eye on the pregame show. You might just see something happening. We'll see nice.
Nice.
And so when you're doing these commercials like what's that's a long day, I would think, right, even though the commercials thirty or sixty seconds.
You're there like, you know, hours an hour. They kind of walk us through what that's like, and yeah.
It's amazing, you know.
Coach said one time, you know, I'm a chubby guy with endless amounts of energy, and it's absolutely true. We go to these shifts and you could be there from seven am till ten pm at night, and this is two or three days in a row, and uh the uh gun. At the first time I went to the shoot, they actually thought I was Andy and they were taking me up to his trailer and I was like, all right, man, I'm going to be living in style, and then they figured.
Out wasn't him. Uh, but yeah, those are long days.
In fact, the commercial that he did where they had a cheeseburger involved, they actually had a cheeseburger artist there on set and this person was sitting out with a jeweler's glass trimming the cheeseburgers and she probably made I don't know, a hundred cheeseburgers that day.
Andy said that he's he ate sixty that day.
But then I believe it because she just kept making them look exactly the same and building them the same way and sending them on in Wow.
That's uh.
And did you did you end up having to eat any that day or were you? Were you free of the cheeseburgers that day?
Yeah?
No, you know I've done that with him, and I did a candy bar commercial with him and I didn't get to eat any of it.
A man, Come on, you're a big guy too, you right, yeah, come on? Now, all right, So you're gonna be in New Orleans this weekend, and uh, you're you have a battle plan here for the for the trip to New Orleans like any the games obviously not till Sunday, but you'll, I think tonight, this being Friday tonight, and then I mean, the parties are gonna be off the hook.
You're gonna be, You're gonna be They're gonna be dragging you everywhere. Oh yeah, and you read right, you're prepared for the Yeah.
In fact, you won't believe this, but I'm going to be there with the Taylor Swift look alike and we're going to be doing the super Bowl up right.
That's great?
And uh And as we've we've seen from human activity here almost and there will be people convinced that before the Super Bowl, Andy Reid and Taylor Swift are out hanging out at some restaurant in New Orleans.
That's right. Who knows, I might beat Travis to the proposal. You know, we never know.
Now that would now, that would break TMZ, that the interweb. That would definitely read the interweb.
But I don't think my wife would like that very much. Probably probably not going to do that.
Yeah, probably probably not a probably not a good What about?
What about? What about Andy's family?
You met Andy? Have you met any of his like, you know, relatives or anything. What do they think of you?
I haven't.
But and he told me that oftentimes he'll get texts from them saying they saw him out someplace and it was actually me.
He says.
It happens all the time that his friends and family will text him and say they saw him somewhere.
Oh that is that is outstanding.
That is that is great and so uh and now you I did want to mention before I, uh, you know, we get me in this here.
You did you.
Are a sports radio guy right back before you became almost Andy Reid, and you did you said, I don't know if you're just being nice, but you used to listen.
You worked late or earlier? Oh yeah, for the overnight show.
Oh no, I used to get to get to work at three o'clock in the morning, and your show. I listened to it every single evening, and then another one would come.
On after it. It was so much entertainment. I absolutely loved it.
I'm so glad they were, like, you know, it was one of those jobs where I could wear headphones, and so that's where I got to know you at for sure.
Nice. Well, I appreciate you listening as the best.
When Bob when I when I met you, and Bob had mentioned you, and I've been on Bob Show for a while. I've known Bob for a long time, Bob Fesco and yeah, I was like, oh, he's a listen. I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.
I mean, it was neat.
It was nice for my my because I saw when you were walking around and Radio Row is a very odd place. I know you've been there a lot now and there's a lot going on. There's a lot of gas bags and blowhards walking around and most of them, you know, most of these radio guys and podcast people, they think they're better than everything. But when you walk in, it's like everyone's I gotta get this I gotta get this guy.
And so it was, Yeah, it was pretty neat to see.
And so you've you've done it right, right, You've made a few bucks, and I know this is a side hustle for you.
But yeah, well, right, the last couple of years, I've been blessed.
There's no doubt about that. And I went all to the soon to be greatest coach in all of NFL history, I think one day.
Yeah, well, when he goes in the in the Hall of Fame, they should have you and him that you could be side by side.
On the podium.
Yeah, that'd be great, top toppleganger for sure. Well thanks for doing I know people if they want you, you're on cameo, right.
People can get a hold. Yeah, yes, How can people reach you?
If you're a big Chiefs fan, maybe you're not familiar with the almost Andy Reider. Maybe they've seen you on commercials and they're like, hey, wait, I can get this guy to do a cameo or something.
How can they How can they find you?
So they can just go to cameo dot com forward slash Almost Andy Reid And of course during this time of the year. I'm one of the top people on cameo this time in August. So also I do a great job with fantasy football. So if you want to book me in August, maybe I'll tell you what. I'll do a great job for you.
All right. And if you're in Kansas City, you perform.
You're a singer, so as you said, so you're right, you might run into Almost Andy Reid on stage. You go out for a nice night out, see the you know the show, and you'll be saying, well, thank you, enjoying New Orleans this weekend. I'll look for you on the pregame show, the commercial and.
And keep doing what you're doing. You're you're amazing. You look just like him, so ibelievable.
Thanks.
Mom's down there, so I'm sure we'll have good chatt and we'll we'll will send you a picture.
Okay, outstanding? Thank you.
There.
It is Almost Andy Reid hanging out with us here on the fifth Hour pod.
Got a murder.
I gotta go