I dance battled a stranger in mexico

Hey, folks, this is Lyle. So this is a little bonus episode that was originally made as a video for my YouTube channel because I'm trying to get more into like documentary travelogue kind of content, but I also wanted to share it on here with my podcast listeners. However, if you're hearing this right now, it means that you're listening on a platform that isn't Spotify that I can't

Two.

So with that disclaimer in mind, let's get into it. I went to mex to dance, battle a stranger and also use their bathroom. I host a podcast called Therapy Gecko, where I dress up like a gecko and talk to strangers on the phone about their lives. One day, I got this call from a breakdancer in Mexico named Diego.

I am a bee boy in Tijuana, and I promote dancing, but my style is barely just one year old, and so it's been tough.

After our call, Diego DMed me and invited me to come down to Tijuana to attend one of his breakdance events, and I told him I'd love to do that someday. But after I sent that message, I realized that someday is based on the false premise of a future that never comes and is simply the present in disguise. So I decided to go to Tijuana, meet this complete stranger

What's up, man, How you doing good?

Little fifty lineup?

Bro?

How's it going?

I love the I love the Ninja Hurdles shirt in the back.

That looks awesome. I re listened to our podcast. I was like, yeah, maybe one day I'll come.

And then and now in this moment, we are actually here, We're gonna do. I also met his wife and child.

I was getting home when I heard him on the phone. Then he hang up and like, what think you told me, like you know, Gecko, and I.

Was like, oh yeah, sure, Like Alma was.

Talking to him, how's the family life going.

We're learning every single day and like to be patient, like to be doing our stuff and still like taking care of him. I think it was the hard part bro.

On our phone call, right, I remember we were talking about like like the balance between like like family life and life doing doing your own life you have, you guys, feel like you've been able to strike a nice balance with that.

But I think that's the main thing, like when you prioritize not losing yourself while also being emparas.

Diego really wanted to show me this view from the top of his steps.

This is like my pelv. Every single time I come home, I just stare.

I love it here. I'm like fuck ground blast.

Like just by this point it was really nice to talk to someone who loved their life this much. In anticipation of our dance battle later that day, Diego tried to show me some moves.

Had on the other side.

There you go.

All right or out of the front.

Even though Diego was at a slightly higher skill level than me, I assured him I did not want him to hold back in our battle, Like, you don't hit people right if you're in the moment and you're like, this is gonna be a great move, but it requires me to punch Lyle in the face. You can do that if you want. We had some time to kill before the Gek Dance event, so we walked around the neighborhood and chatted a bit. What are your favorite kinds of sodis Doctor Pepper? Definitely?

I was.

I was in a cab on the way over here and I saw they have a new flavor of Doctor Pepper.

They have a blow blue fuck. I forgot what it's called, but it was like a blue raspberry something.

Maybe they've been doing a lot of flavors lately, but I don't know if I were like any other Doctor Pepper flavor rather than the original.

So today you and me are going to be doing an exhibition battle. Is there any danger that I should be like cognizant of or aware of? They could anything horrible happen?

Well, if if you win against me in my in my exhibition battle, I'm gonna knock you out. Now. I'm just kidding, Brom, I'm just kidding. I'm just so kidd um no that I think of. The floor is not slippery.

Unfortunately, while Diego was showing us around, the sky went gray and it started to pour down rain. This was concerning because it meant that we might have to cancel the gek dance that I flew all the way out here for.

Let me just call my guy real quick.

We went back to Diego's house and he put on some lo fi hip hop with rain sounds while we waited out the actual rain. I asked if I could use his bathroom, and he told me a funny joke that is local to the region.

Whenever you're like, hey, dude, I'm sorry of a kind iss your bathroom, They're like, yeah, but just something that has pretty coming out here.

I don't know why, but.

While I was on the toilet, I journaled on my phone for a bit. I was a little worried that the event might get rained out and I wouldn't be able to reschedule it before I leave. But I also did tell myself that this video would just be about whatever happened as a result of me coming here. So if the title of this video ends up being I went to Tijuana to use the bathroom, that would be fine too, not everything has to be perfect. When I got out of the bathroom, Diego showed me his anime collection.

I got many main things I cherish. I got freaking Neon Genesis, Evangelium, full modal alchemists, like all this years that you can think of. I loved him.

He also showed me this award that he got from a break dance competition. So this is one of the prizes from the.

Prices that I got for a second place here in TJ Open style battle the first. But he's got the one in cold, so I think it's even better. But hey, silver is good.

After a while of waiting, we were able to confirm that the rain had stopped for good and the Gek dance event was back on, so I painted my face and got suited up to go. One thing I forgot to mention is that before I left for Mexico, Diego asked me if he could also be dressed as a gecko for our battle. So I told him I would bring an extra suit. It would be a Gecko versus Gecko dance off.

You put on over or under your clothes over okay.

So I helped Diego finish transforming and we called a cab to the main event.

The ulverdriver is gonna be pug.

It's true, he did, ask Lizard Lardica. Yes, I said, it was very, very important to understand that I am not a frog. Hey, I'm recording some extra lines for this audio version here. So when we got to the event, it was this big circle of dancers all hanging out around this park, and I started to interview a few

Be with the people you love.

Do you feel like dancing is a good way to be in the moment? See you said it's therapy. Do you feel like you sometimes work out life issues on the dance floor? Koka, I think that one of my main problems is anxiety. But when I'm dancing, all of

Where do you think we go when we die?

That's a good christ I don't know, to the ground. I don't know, Like I believe in something else, Like you do love, you receive love. If you hate, you have hate.

Yeah, I'm gonna be doing an exhibition match later with the other Gecko.

Do you do you have any like advice for me?

Yeah?

Just like let the music guy?

Do you get personal? What is that? What does that mean? Get personal?

Look him in the ice, try to intimidate him.

Other than that, it's just frets out, Like whatever comes out, just express it. We have a special guest for the exhibition battle, Lile.

Yes, it was time for me and Diego to finally battle. I was up first, and I had forgotten virtually everything that Diego taught me this morning, so I just started going crazy. So again, this part of the video is very video heavy, but just imagine that I'm flailing my arms around, jumping like a frog, and doing push ups. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Also.

It may not look like it in this footage, but after like five seconds of that, I was absolutely on the brink of passing out. Diego was up next, and he was pretty good okay in this part. Just imagine another guy in a gecko suit spinning on his head doing the work I like really good and just generally being like really good at break dancing. We went back and forth a few more times, and at this point I was almost ready to die. By now I had run out of ideas for how to move my body,

For having me in Tijuana.

Tijuana, esta mucho bien? How did you think I did really good?

You don't have to just say that if you know me.

You didn't even look tired. I was really tired. I was about to pass out halfway. Were you being facetious just now? Did you think I looked tired? You didn't look You're being serious?

Serious?

Who do you think one between me and the other guys?

I think it was a tie? Do you really believe that?

No?

I think are you being serious? He does? He does have some training.

So after our battle, I gave out awards to the winners of the main tournament. Congratulations on being a finalist.

Hey, thanks for so you saw our our battle?

Right?

Who do you think one between him and me?

Was you are? Are you being serious?

Because I don't want I really don't want you to lie to me, like if you if you think I'm like no, if if you think he won, I want you to tell me if I think it's It almost hurts my feelings a little more when people you know tell me congratulations on the big win. Did you happen to catch me and his battle between us? As an expert? Who do you think one?

Well, I will say this, get go, but I really could.

Yeah, thank you, diego, And I found a quiet spot to reflect and decompress from the action.

That was awesome. That was great.

Thank you, dude, Thank you so much for a fucking having this.

This went great.

I went in this being like, uh, fuck it, I'll just fly to Tijuana, and I have no idea what this is going to be.

But this went. This was really fun.

This is great now that it's over. It was it like a little bit of what you were expecting.

I actually did have some expectations before I came here that I haven't really talked about yet. Before I came here, I knew that Tijuana had a reputation as one of the most violent cities in the world, and when I went to look it up, I saw that Tijuana and the entire state of Baja California had a Level three

Have you ever flown a Spirit?

Oh?

Yeah, I love Spirit Airline.

I used to be customer service for a Spirit for like two years.

Really. Yeah.

If people were like, hey, you guys fucked up, can I get my money back? Would you be like, yeah, no.

Of course not.

I've had to see the reasons why their flight fucked up.

You're not gonna be a homie about it.

No. That was a fun part of that job that I wasn't like cool was That was the fun part. Yeah, other than him, everyone else I talked to was pretty cool. Hey, thank you guys very much for listening to this. I hope it sounded okay as an audio log. And again, if you want to watch the actual video this was meant to be watched as a video, you can go into the description of this episode to find the YouTube link.