We are BACK HOME from the Rolling Bones tour and we wanna tell you all about it! We’re doing a fantasy draft to pick the standout moments, feelings, and themes from 7 cities in 8 days. Thank you to everyone who saw us, laughed out our jokes, said hello, and made this experience so incredible!
If you would like the VODs a little bit faster, you can email multicrew@multitude.productions with screenshots of your ticket receipts and we can send you the links to them. But you don't have to: they are ready to be sent as soon as the venues give us your emails.
Sponsors
- Betterhelp, where you can get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty
Find Us Online
- website: https://jointhepartypod.com
- patreon: https://patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- twitter: https://twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: https://jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- facebook: https://facebook.com/jointhepartypod
- merch & music: http://jointhepartypod.com/merch
Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer: Julia Schifini
- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): Wow, it's 1952 again and we're reporting on what the boys are doing over here. Remember me? I'm the guy from the One Shot Derby and I'm coming back. Eric's dead.
Brandon: I thought that guy— didn't—
Julia: Died in the war.
Brandon: Didn't that guy die?
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): No.
Amanda: He did.
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): I came back and my son died in the war, and I was dealing with it, but now, I'm here to report after we saw— saw five minutes of a strange cartoon. Now, I'm reporting Eric died overseas.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Whoops.
Brandon: I don't love that. I feel like that sort of throws off our whole business.
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): Don't worry, he died doing what he loved, eating too many noodles.
Julia: Same, bro, same.
Amanda: At no time during this tour, did you eat too many noodles?
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): No. He went overseas after the tour and ate too many noodles.
Amanda: Damn it.
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): He was saving himself for his international tour.
Julia: Got 'em.
Brandon: Saving himself for noodles.
Eric: You gotta save yourself for noodles. Just kidding, it's Eric. I've been here the whole time.
Brandon: Oh, thank God.
Julia: Whoa.
Amanda: Hello.
Eric: Hello. Man, I— it's weird, because I just saw all these people in person.
Julia: It's true.
Eric: Wow.
Brandon: We live inside your computer again, Eric. It's warm in here.
Julia: Hmm. I'm just a concept now.
Eric: I establish—
Amanda: Scoott McGarry is the name of the character, everybody.
Julia: That is it. Good job, Amanda.
Amanda: Don't worry, I have the One Shot Derby notes on my phone.
Julia: Proud of you.
Amanda: Jeremy McGarry son, Scoots survived, Jeremy died in the war.
Eric: Oh, sorry, my lord.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: At one point, someone asked me what the sports teams of the SUNY Lake Town City and Morrow University was, and I'm like, "I know I've already made this up, so I'm going to cede it to the— to history.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Anyway, Scoott, thanks so much for that update. I did not tune into the last 30 seconds of what you said, because I was so desperately searching my notes for— at first the word, Charles, but then the word Derby, where I found your name.
Eric: Oh, Charles Derby is another good name. I like that.
Amanda: That would have been a good name, yeah.
Julia: Wouldn't it?
Eric: I was gonna say, on the tour, I identified what Brandon's improv style is, is because it— it is not no, he definitely says yes, all the time. But I'm realizing it's yes, banana, where Brandon says something nonsensical next, and you're like, "Alright, here we go."
Julia: Found it.
Brandon: Yes, banana for scale. See, it's like that.
Eric: Yes, and banana for scale. Yeah, just like that, Brandon?
Amanda: It's good. It's great. It's really something to play off of. It's not a door shut in your face, but it sure is a curveball.
Eric: Right.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It's like instead of opening a door, someone punches you in the chest.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: But like in a loving way.
Amanda: Not wrong, not wrong.
Julia: When— when God closes a door, Brandon says banana.
Brandon: Julia, that was pretty good.
Julia: Thanks.
Eric: Julia— Julia, here's a joken. Here's a joken.
Julia: Thank you.
Eric: There it is. Yeah.
Amanda: Oh, there it is.
Eric: Oh, wow!
Amanda: Oh!
Eric: Oh! We're back to doing internet tricks again.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Instead of real-life stage magic. But truly, we're— we're here. This is like three days after we last saw each other, as we parted ways in Washington, DC. And now, we're— we're back to it, folks, because we are doing a fantasy draft of our favorite moments from The Rolling Bones Tour.
Julia: Woo! Woo!
Brandon: Yo.
Eric: Woo!
Amanda: Statistically, less than, like, 2% of you actually were able to participate in the tour, and maybe down the line, that'll change. But for now, we got to be sure everybody knows about the honestly years' worth of content that we got out of the last 12 days that we spent within sort of like three cubic yards of a series of Chrysler Pacificas.
Eric: No. No saying picks, Amanda. No saying picks.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: Do not say picks. But first, before we get into it, don't worry, if— if you went to The Rolling Bones Tour, you didn't go, there will not be spoilers for the content of the actual show. We want y'all to enjoy it, either in the VODs that you purchased or going to the tour in person, what you got with your tickets or the VODs that we will sell later on, maybe, but probably, wink, wink, wink, wink, wink. But only after all the people who bought tickets get to enjoy it and be like, "Oh, my God, I did it." And make you all feel like you have FOMO. But first, before we talk about what a fantasy draft is, I want to say something quickly about that. So the thing about living in 20— in 2008, while everyone's living in 2000 and late—
Amanda: It's true.
Eric: —as Fergie once said.
Amanda: I can't wait 'till 2028 when we can just make that our whole thing.
Eric: That would be good.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That would be really good. Is that we are doing the VODs and we're waiting on emails for all of you, because that's how we're gonna send you the links. Seattle has given us those, and DC were able to do ourselves because we take it in ourselves. But the other venues are like, "What do you want? What? Why do you want emails? It's been a week since your tour. Why— why are you asking for emails?" So they don't really understand why we need the emails and we're trying to get them from them, ASAP. So— and then as soon as you have them, we've already uploaded them, and we've processed them, they looked great, they sound great. Shout-out to Amanda and Brandon for— for doing that. It's— it's really incredible.
Julia: Good jorb.
Eric: And shout-out to like the little monkey hand tripods that we have.
Amanda: GorillaPod.
Eric: GorillaPod.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: I loved it.
Eric: Monkey hand, it was my alternate, it's my Hydrox to Oreos, sorry.
Amanda: That was the plot of the eighth unperformed live show that you performed, that you've prepared but did not do.
Eric: Oh, the Monkey hand, yes.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, the Monkey hand.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Secret of the Monkey hand—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —of course. So they look great, they're on YouTube already, we just need to send you the unlisted links. So we're ready to do that as soon as we have the emails, we will send them to you ASAP. If you want to email us and— because you want them immediately, take a screenshot of your receipts and email multicrew@multitude.productions, we will send it to you, over to people who already bought four tickets, and who sent it to us already because y'all— y'all are crazy and we're sending you signed posters because you're incredible. Or folks who are already MultiCrew members, we have your emails and you already have those things, but if you are not one of those things, and you bought the tickets and you want the VODS and don't want to wait for us to do it without you having to do anything, email us multicrew@multitude.productions.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: We gotcha. We're so excited.
Julia: We are. We are, indeed.
Eric: Wonderful. Alright, folks, you want a fantasy draft?
Julia: Fantasy draft.
Amanda: Yes, please.
Brandon: This is a reality draft, Eric?
Eric: No, Brandon. I'm drafting the Nuckaleevee first. The Boston Nuckaleevees that's me.
Julia: It's a spoiler for one of the shows.
Eric: Oh, but who knows what to say? Who can say or who can even say? Alright. So if—
Julia: Who can say which city that's for.
Eric: Who knows? Maybe it's just a random. When we— when we played Dover, or we played Tuckahoe, or we played Burlington, or we played Bangor, Maine, it could be for anyone in the New England area.
Brandon: Any of them.
Eric: Yeah. Okay. So a fantasy draft, for those of you who don't know, is that "everyone has a team," quote-unquote. And you're basically going around and picking from a group of things to put them on your team. So for example, if we were drafting like favorite breakfast foods, I would— and I'm the first pick, I would say omelets, and then I would grab that and put that on my team. And then we go to Amanda and she would say—
Amanda: I would say breakfast sausage.
Eric: Breakfast sausage. And then we go to Julia, who would say—
Julia: Bacon.
Eric: Bacon. And then we would go to Brandon, who would say—
Brandon: Pancakes.
Eric: Pancakes. And then so we're putting that stuff on our team, and then we're gonna go around. And we're also going to do a serpentine draft style, so it's gonna go 1, 2, 3, 4, and then 4, 3, 2, 1. So everyone has an equal chance to go first and last, depending on when they draft. So we are drafting moments from the tour, notable moments from The Rolling Bones Tour. So much happened that wasn't on stage that I wanted to share with everyone. I wanted all of us to give us the chance to talk about this stuff, because we had a lot of fun hanging out with each other and seeing each other in person.
Amanda: For the first time in 7 years.
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: That— that's not true. We saw everybody several times, however—
Brandon: It was 8— it was 8 years.
Amanda: —however, I forgot when both of you were came to/in my wedding, and so I was like, "Man, Brandon, haven't see you for 3 three years." He's like, "I saw you 4 months ago."
Julia: My favorite part was when I saw one of Amanda's friends, who I hadn't seen since the wedding, in DC, and I was like, "Hey, it's so good to see you, it's been a minute." And he's like, "I know exactly how much time it was, because we have a fixed date in which"— I was like, "You know, you got me there. Yvonne, You got me there."
Amanda: That's true. Exactly.
Eric: That's true. Shout-out Yvonne. I— it's really funny when a guy who knows 12 languages is selling your merch. That's really funny.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: That's true.
Eric: Shout-out to Washington, DC.
Amanda: He could have sold you merch in Romanian sign language, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and many others.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: But instead did it all in English, wow.
Brandon: Wow.
Julia: Wow.
Eric: He said, "Sorry, I didn't have CashApp in Bengali." That was so crazy.
Amanda: Impressive. Impressive.
Eric: It was really crazy. So yeah, we were just talking about it. First, I want to say, this— and maybe this is just for us because I think we have one more date let— laid out. So we went to Los Angeles first so that we can hang out with Mischa and, like, get that good sunshine. And then we went— so we went to LA, Seattle, Minneapolis for two days. We did the show and then we had a day-off. Chicago, Boston, New York, Philly, DC in, like— that was, like, 10 days, that's— that was wild.
Brandon: Yeah, you— let's say, you got to DC— or you got to Burbank in, what, the 19th?
Julia: Whatever that Sunday was.
Amanda: The 17th, St. Patrick's Day.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: 17th. 17th and then we got back on the 29th.
Amanda: And to my— to my dissatisfaction, Brandon, the plane wasn't green.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: It was the regular color.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: And there were not shots on the plane.
Brandon: Did you ask for a refund or did you pitch the plane?
Amanda: And I was like, "What the hell?" But then we got there and senior audio editor Mischa's partner, Erin, had made us corned beef and cabbage, so that was good.
Eric: That was pretty good. Yeah, we showed up and Aaron gave us soup. It was awesome.
Amanda: He was in the car to pick us up.
Eric: It was great.
Amanda: It was great.
Brandon: He was in the car?
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: Yeah. So it was a whirlwind, and now we're just like sitting here back in our recording studio. It was absolutely terrible.
Amanda: 2 weeks Later.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Alright, folks. So, are we ready to draft? Are we ready to do this?
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: But, Eric, how on earth are we going to determine who can go first?
Eric: Oh, well, if only we had a 20-sided die of some sort for us to figure out who rolls highest and lowest. Alright, let's all roll.
Amanda: Alright.
Brandon: [dice roll] Oh, this is a light die.
Julia: 14.
Eric: I also got a 14.
Julia: Damn.
Amanda: 4.
Brandon: 9.
Eric: 9?
Julia: Rolling off then, Eric?
Eric: Rolling off.
Julia: [dice roll] 6.
Eric: I got an 11.
Julia: You beat me.
Eric: Oh, no. See, I didn't even rig it at all. And now, everyone saw I don't rig dice rolls. I do it— I do it for realsies.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: True.
Brandon: I don't know. You rolled like dogshit on the tour, Eric, so like, I— I don't know, I'm suspicious.
Eric: It's because you— you breathed all over my dice.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. So it's Eric, Julia, Ama— me, Amanda.
Eric: Okay, great. And then we're going to reverse it, so then it's gonna go Amanda, Brandon, Julia, Eric on— on round two. We're gonna do four—
Brandon: Reverse, reverse.
Eric: We're shooting for four picks, but if we have more on the board that we want to do, we'll do another fifth one. And you, in the future, are gonna look at our timestamps, and figure out how long this episode is, and you'll be like, "LOL." This is a— this is a present for you guys.
Brandon: Eric, before we start, it was, like, he told us, "Oh, yeah, I prepared 16 picks." And I was like, "Holy shit, 16?" And then in the past two minutes, I've been taking notes for my picks, and I think I have, like, 15.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: So, I think it's gonna be easy.
Eric: It's— it's gonna be fine. And I only— I did 16 because Amanda and I debriefed at our favorite diner, Three Decker, over the weekend, so I already had a list to— to pull from.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: But then I refined it a little bit more for this. Again, we're gonna— no spoilers for the live shows, specifically. Hopefully, it's more like themes or ideas and stuff, and then we're going to be able— we're going to cover it from there.
Brandon: Cool.
Eric: Alright.
Amanda: Hell yeah, man.
Eric: Cool. Okay. The first pick in The Rolling Bones draft, the Eric Silver cheddar cheese sandwiches, selects Amanda girl bossing.
Julia: Yep, that was a good one.
Amanda: Pick number one?
Eric: Pick number one.
Julia: Pick number one.
Amanda: Honey, we're already married, you don't have to, like—
Julia: Like, flirt with her that much.
Amanda: —like, you don't have to go that far.
Eric: Well, this is a subtle pick that like I'm— it was fun being a wife guy in person.
Amanda: Thanks, honey.
Eric: It's a lot less precarious on— it's a lot more precarious on the internet, because on the internet, you say something and then it's like—
Amanda: People can take it any which way.
Eric: I'm gonna— like maybe they'll try guy me. Like, I'm worried. Like, you're— you're just waiting. There's a gun on you at all times, but in—
Amanda: I'm sorry, Eric. From the moment we got engaged, you walked around saying, "I am a wife guy. I am a wife guy now, treat me as a wife guy."
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: No, I know. No, I know that I did it, but—what I'm saying is on the internet, it's like I'm waiting to explode, but in person—
Amanda: Got it.
Eric: —I'm just like, "I love my wife, who's doing an incredible job organizing this tour and doing hilarious things. "
Amanda: Thank you, sweetheart.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Is that ok— is that okay if I do this broad category?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I think it's good, yeah.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: But you have to share some anecdotes.
Eric: Oh, of course. I do have them— I do have them written down. The first one, I think, is the funniest that kind of set the tone, was that one of the managers of one of the places that we went to really did not do a good job of enumerating everything that was— we were supposed to be paid out with. And Amanda sat next to that manager while we were wa—
Amanda: I stood next to her to emphasize the height difference.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: While— while Brandon, Julia, and I were outside talking to people, Amanda was standing there, looking over every single— every single mathematical ticket thing that was possible and was like, "Oh, what's that charge?" And— and she was just like, "Oh, no"— the manager was just like, "Oh, no, I— that shouldn't be there."
Amanda: I was watching her make the invoice in QuickBooks, a thing I do every day and saying, "What's that for?" And she go, "Never mind," and just delete it. It was truly astonishing.
Eric: And the best part—
Julia: And also she kept vaping halfway through the—
Eric: The best part was that she was vaping the whole time.
Julia: Yep, yep, yep, yep.
Brandon: Incredible.
Amanda: I will say about starting about halfway through when she realized I wasn't just gonna say, "Don't worry about it," and walked away, she began vaping.
Julia: It was a stress vape.
Brandon: I will say there were more related. I think there were at least two times where I walked up to Amanda during loading and said, "Amanda, I fucked up the relationship between me and this— this buyer. Can you please handle the settle?"
Amanda: It was— it was a good cop, bad cop situation, where in Brandon said, "Where are the things you promised me?" They said, "Uh-oh." And then later, I got to say, "So where's our money?"
Julia: Where's our money, though?
Eric: The two other ones that I have specifically because gen— one is more general, so I'm going to leave that off. But the other two, they're specifically the— the— when we were in Minneapolis, we were so hungry, we just got off the plane from Seattle, and that also had the time difference as well. So we were, like, all messed up. It was two hours' time difference, so we were all messed up. And we got Vietnamese food, which was incredible. This place was absolutely incredible.
Julia: It was very good.
Eric: The DoorDash guy only showed up with the drinks, and then Amanda had to call, and then the guy who owned the Vietnamese place, not DoorDash, because DoorDash has no scruples, but the guy from the Vietnamese place drove our food over in his car.
Amanda: There were many times during the phone call when they were waiting for me to say, "You know what? Don't worry about it." Or, "You know what? I'll just come over." And I simply didn't. And then at the end of the day, I was like, "Listen, I don't want you to waste this food. I don't want to, like, report you as a problem on DoorDash. Like, that sucks for everybody. I'm not gonna, like, call the cops on you re: DoorDash."
Eric: And it wasn't his fault. It was Door— it was a 100% the DoorDash driver guy's fault.
Amanda: Oh, no, it was the delivery guy, which again, he's got a hard job. Like, whatever, who cares? I just want the shit.
Brandon: It was just a mistake. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. And so I was like, "Listen, I'm traveling, I don't have a car. You're over two miles away, I can't walk to you in time."
Eric: That was so funny from being on that side of the phone call, was like— at one point, Amanda's like, "No, I don't have a car." It's like you knew that everyone kept asking her to drive over and get it herself.
Amanda: Yeah. But you know what? Then the manager brought it over, it took 5 minutes, and we had some— some great food.
Eric: It was so good.
Julia: We did. They were really good.
Eric: It was so good.
Amanda: Thanks, babe.
Eric: Not only, Amanda, did you do an incredible job organizing the tour, but having you there on the ground, doing what you're doing, you really— I see it all the time, but I think that other people saw it for the first time and—
Amanda: Thank you.
Eric: —it was just, like, wow.
Amanda: Thanks, babe.
Eric: Brandon, did you say— I don't want to say this on behalf, but did you say at one point that Laur— that, like, Lauren— Lauren used to go like, "How did that happen?"
Brandon: Oh, yeah. Oh, it's not just Lauren. Like it's anyone I describe Amanda's superpower, which is to get what she wants. And I like— I— I say it to Lauren, I'm like— because, like, you know, I'll come down after work one day and be like, "Oh, yeah, Amanda did this cool thing, and we got this XYZ thing as a result." And she's like, "How the fuck did she do that?" I was like, "Look, I don't know how to describe to you the, like, sheer force of will Amanda has on a telephone call but, like, you just have to view it.
Amanda: Thank you.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Thank you.
Eric: I'm glad you could all view it and it was— there were some four notable things happened, but I can only do two because I think that there might be picks later.
Julia: Hmm, hmm.
Eric: But happy to have Amanda girl boss like on the Eric Silver cheddar cheeses.
Amanda: Thank you very much. And— and just to make sure I don't steal any valor here, I will call myself our travel planner for the tour, of the you know, transpo places we stayed and usually coordinating the food, but Brandon gets full credit for putting together the itinerary and negotiating with venues, which again, may or may not come up later.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: We call that the one-two punch.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: We call that I pushed you hard in an email. Amanda, please fix it for me. Great. Which I do all the time. Brandon, I do it all the time.
Brandon: I— I hate— this is like I'm gonna remember there— this 'till I die. There was one moment where no one draft this, but at— at one of the venues, I— I fucked up and I didn't— I— I just made a mistake. I didn't send the comp list, the guest list ahead of time or something happened. Or I did it and I— I sent it to the wrong person or something. And I was trying to get out of it, and the person at the door, who was checking tickets, was like, "Oh, I don't have a list. Can you like please give me a list? Like, I'm panicking here." And I was like, "Oh, yeah, I'm so sorry. I must have sent it to this person's name." And she was like, "That's my name." And I said, "Fuck."
Amanda: Yeah, that's what Brandon said, you're gonna have to settle up.
Eric: Man, we learned so many people's names in such a short amount of time, and they all sound like people who work at bars/music venues.
Brandon: Oh, I gotta get that one in there, hold on.
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Eric: You can have that one, you can have that one. But yeah, Amanda girl boss like on the Eric Silver cheddar cheeses.
Amanda: Thank you, babe.
Julia: Very nice.
Brandon: I like your team name, Eric.
Julia: That means it's my turn, right?
Eric: It's— it's Ghoulia's turn.
Julia: I don't know if this counts as a show spoiler because— what's up?
Brandon: Ghoulia, first, what is your team name?
Julia: The Julia Schifini Fighting Owls.
Eric: Nice.
Amanda: Excellent.
Eric: Good one. Good one.
Julia: Uh-hmm. So this was— I don't know if this is a spoiler because it technically continued to happen for the rest of the tour.
Amanda: You're allowed, Julia. You're allowed.
Eric: This count— I knew— this one counts. I know what you're going to draft.
Amanda: Faith gave you this pick, take it boldly.
Julia: Tote-Road Shagamaw. Tote-Road Shagamaw.
Amanda: Tote-Road Shagamaw.
Eric: Tote-Road Shagamaw. Here we go.
Amanda: Everybody now.
Eric: Tote-Road Shagamaw. Tote-Road Shagamaw.
Amanda: Tote-Road Shagamaw. Woo.
Julia: Tote— so it was from the Minneapolis show, and it was just a thing that we said in the middle of the show and it completely dissolved into us just quietly sitting in an Airbnb and then one of us would go, "Tote-Road Shagamaw, Tote-Road Shagamaw." And it would just continue to happen and happen. It was a delight. It was truly a delight the entire— entire tour.
Brandon: I don't toot my own horn very often, but I'm pretty sure that was me.
Julia: Great.
Brandon: A Brando joke.
Julia: I love it.
Amanda: It is recorded and we— we can and should, you know, reach back and just sort of, like, gold plate for the annals of Multitude history.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: If I— if I am wrong and it was not my joke, then I will give you each of you $50.
Amanda: You have never once taken credit for a thing that is not yours, Brandon. I think you're safe.
Eric: I do want to check it because I— I do think it was me.
Amanda: Oh, alright. Alright.
Brandon: Ooh. Slow down.
Eric: I just want to check that, I want to check that.
Julia: Here, listen, in general, I completely forget all the podcast episodes we recorded immediately after we record them.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Same is true of the live shows for 95% of it, I would say. So—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —Tote-Road Shagamaw, I'm glad we all remembered it. It's fantastic.
Eric: You can't see, but Julia's eyes roll back to the back of her head—
Amanda: She's channeling the spirits.
Eric: —throughout— it's really— it's really wild seeing it on stage.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: To give any— a little bit of context, Julia, can you explain what the Tote-Road Shagamaw is?
Julia: Yeah. So let me explain what the game was for Minneapolis for Spirits. It was called a fearsome critter or a real bird.
Amanda: Yup.
Julia: In which they had to guess whether or not the creature I was describing was a creature from like lumberjack folklore, or if it was a real bird that really exists.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: And the Tote Road Shagamaw is a fearsome critter that, like, walks on one set of legs for 440 steps and then walks on another set of legs for 440 steps.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, it's good.
Julia: And it just looks silly, like they all do.
Brandon: Like, they all do.
Julia: But it just has such a great name, so you're like Tote Road Shagamaw, Tote Road Shagamaw.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: With the feet, it was like— the— the thing that came to me or I'm— or to Brandon and then Brandon secreted it in my brain.
Brandon: Or maybe, Eric, at the same time, simultaneously.
Amanda: It's possible.
Eric: It's honestly possible.
Amanda: Honestly possible.
Eric: Because it was like— it was a '70s funk beat.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: The thing that I was responding to was like it sounds like— for those of you who've seen— who've listened to, like, the beginnings of hip hop, like with DJ Kool Herc and with the Sugar Hill Gang.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Where it's like [funk beat] and they only rap—
Amanda: Rapping to the beat.
Eric: And they only rap just like this, exactly on the beat. And they only talk about the streets in 1972. It was like the beat of that was so funny, which got in our heads.
Amanda: And if I may, the audience picked up on it immediately. They were joining us by, like, repetition to of the song. We had callbacks to it throughout the show. And like, I— I found myself wanting to reference it in every show after Minneapolis, which is five of the seven and then being like, "Shit, they don't know." Again, if you were not here for this moment and did not already purchase a ticket to Minneapolis, to be able to see the VOD. You'll have a chance, but, like, I gotta leave you stewing in the suspense because Tote Road Shagamaw, I'm just gonna say it, it's the new Santa baby.
Eric: It is.
Julia: And I only Santa babied you guys one time in the tour, so that was a win.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: That's true.
Eric: We're just like— we're looking for our viral hit. We're looking for the next Santa baby.
Amanda: Exactly. Exactly. I love it.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: I love it.
Brandon: Okay. Sorry, I took a second because I wanted to remember what the Tote Road Shagamaw looked like.
Amanda: Yep.
Julia: Uh-hmm.You Googled it.
Brandon: And it's perfect.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's good shit.
Brandon: Oh, fuck. What do I choose? I don't want to take this one from Eric, but I think I might have.
Eric: You— Brandon, there's a draft—
Amanda: Do it, Brandon, do it.
Eric: —you gotta.
Brandon: I know.
Julia: You got this, bro.
Eric: I got the first— I got the first pick. I gotta wait, that's how we do.
Brandon: Yeah, you love your wife too much, so you fucked up.
Eric: Yeah. Fuck me, I guess.
Julia: Classic.
Amanda: Classic wife guy.
Brandon: I think— I think the thing that I always love most about every trip—
Eric: Oh, Brandon, wai— wait, what's your team name? What's your team name?
Brandon: Oh, my team name. That's going to be the Fighting Shenanigans.
Amanda: Oh, Brandon—
Julia: That should've been mine.
Amanda: —you could have said the Satanic Solvents.
Brandon: Oh, the Satanic Solvents is also good.
Julia: Hmm. You could say that for yourself, Amanda.
Amanda: As we were going to the airport in Seattle, I was like, "I should have— I should have, like, gotten some nail polish before we left." And Brandon was so genuinely like, "Amanda, I have so many solvents. Why didn't you ask?"
Julia: Damn. Damn.
Brandon: Would you like some acetone?
Amanda: No, no!
Eric: Oh, why is it so close to you?
Amanda: In arm's reach.
Eric: It's like one of the crows dropped it in your hand like a stage manager.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Or some 99% isopropyl alcohol?
Amanda: That'll do. That'll do.
Julia: Why?
Eric: Brandon, you can't do this. They're gonna think—
Brandon: I also have some Goo Gone!
Julia: A third one??
Eric: No! Brandon, they're gonna think you're making a bomb. Stop.
Amanda: That's the— that's the biggest Goo Gone I've ever seen. But you do want a spray bottle, the— the liquid gets a mess.
Eric: Oh, you do need the spray bottle, a 100%.
Julia: Smart.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: You need solvents. You need different solvents for different things, Eric.
Eric: Brandon, make your pick.
Brandon: Oh, right. Okay. My pick is going to be local foods that ripped.
Amanda: Ah.
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: So like— like—
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: —what might be like tourist trap foods but are— but actually are fucking great.
Amanda: Yep. You're right.
Brandon: So, like, I'm thinking, like, the first one we got was in Minneapol— Mini— how do you say it, Eric? Minneapolis.
Eric: Minneapolis.
Brandon: Minneapolis is the Juicy Lucy at Matt's.
Julia: It was good.
Amanda: Guys—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: —so good.
Brandon: It fucking ruled. It's one of those places where you— where you walk in— it's like a— sort of like shitty dive bar situation.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Or like maybe just like an old bar, you know? And when— you have to wait in line, because obviously there's always a line. And it's like one of those places that they have so many people that they've invented processes to make sure everything flows alright.
Amanda: Yep.
Brandon: And so, yeah, we sat down and ordered a bunch of food and got Juicy Lucy's that fucking ruled. I don't— I don't know what else to say, but they're so good.
Julia: I love that you could tell how serious they were by the sternness of the waitress that was like seating us.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Like, there was no cutting, there was no getting around. There was no like, "Oh, can you please? No, no, no. It was like every seat, you had to wait in line for. The line was ruthlessly managed. You— there was no, like, looking a little antsy to get more attention. Like, it was— it was nothing. And you know what? Like, fine, it was worth it.
Eric: It was—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: —so good.
Brandon: I mean, we got there— I think we got there at a good time, but even without that— like we didn't wait that long.
Amanda: No.
Julia: No.
Eric: No.
Brandon: So—
Amanda: We waited like 20 minutes probably, and it was fine.
Brandon: —well done, you know?
Eric: There was like an 8-person li— there was an 8-person table behi— ahead of us, that was the issue.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then after that, we're like, "We're at the front of the line. We'd love to sit it in the booth that has the guy from Pawn Stars." The photo of him on the wall. That would be great.
Julia: The one that's not in jail.
Eric: Yeah. This is a really good pick, Brandon. I wrote this down because I said regional food that lived up to the hype.
Brandon: Thank you. That's what— yeah, that's what you would call it.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Another one— oh, Amanda, were you gonna say something?
Amanda: Nope. I was burping.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Great.
Brandon: Sorry to highlight it. Another one that trucking rolled was cheese sticks in Philadelphia.
Eric: Yes.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I— I mean, like a cheese stick is kind of a cheese stick. Like, I don't know how— how much better you can make it or worse you can— you can make it worse, but like, I don't know how good you can make it, but I love cheese sticks just in general. And the one in Philly we got was like top tier cheese stick I've ever had, you know? And we got old ba— I got Old Bay fries with it, which just fucking ruled. And then I got a peanut butter strawberry shake, that also ruled.
Eric: That was so good, Brandon. I wanted it so bad. I was coverting— I was coveting my neighbor's shake.
Brandon: I know. I know. I'm sorry, I had to finish it. It was so good.
Eric: The— the Chee— I was out on Cheez Whiz. I know that that's what everyone says, all Philly people say, but I'm like, "I'm not gonna get that to go. I'm not gonna get that delivered." But Julia got it in a cup, and it was absolutely incredible. Because it's like I got American on it, but dude, it was just— it was— it was so good.
Amanda: And that was Joe's Steaks and Soda Shop in—
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: —Fishtown Philly.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I know you were down on the American, but I like American as well, so—
Eric: It was the— it was the sauce of it. It really was not overflowing. And Julia, you getting it as a side, I think was incredibly clutch.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: They offered it with the fries that I ordered, and I was like, "Yes, I would."
Amanda: You're right.
Brandon: Yeah, I got— I got it to dip to, yeah.
Amanda: You're right.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: It was so good. I would love to add to that, Brandon. I'd love to shout-out Portillo's in Chicago.
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Chicago.
Eric: Specifically the chocolate— the chocolate cake shake.
Brandon: Don't— don't tell my brother, but Portillo's was fine.
Amanda: It was— it was fine, but the cake shake was like, oh, yeah, no, I would— I would come here for this. This is great.
Brandon: Yeah. I've had like— any of you— I don't know if Shake Shack still does this, but originally Shake Shack did, like, pie in the shake.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: And they would be like, "We take a piece of pie and put it in the shake." And they either, like, didn't add very much pie or it blended it really hard, so like you couldn't ever really tell if there was pie in there.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: This was like you took an entire chunk of cake and mixed it sort of like haphazardly and not very well.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: And it was like really just like you— you took a plate and dumped ice cream, and cake in it, and went, "Brrrr."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: The texture was good, though.
Brandon: It was awesome.
Julia: I think I preferred—
Brandon: Yeah, no, it was great.
Julia: —the texture because of that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It had frosty texture, which is my favorite texture of ice cream drink.
Julia: Yeah. Like a gritty shake is how I would describe it.
Brandon: I will— this is not technically on the list, but shout-out to my hometown of Seattle, or shout-out Bongos for the Caribbean sandwiches.
Amanda: That counts!
Julia: Oh, Bongo's was good.
Eric: Caribbean sandwiches, though.
Amanda: That counts.
Eric: The sandwich innovation happening in the PNW is top tier.
Amanda: Top tier. Top tier.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And I want to add the Banh Mis from Minneapolis, because there is a sizable Vietnamese population in Minneapolis. There were so many good choices of Southeast Asian food, but specifically Vietnamese food to order from. And the Banh Mis we got, like I think Julia pointed this out, the— the baguettes were like clearly homemade.
Brandon: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: They were clearly so good. And our food had been like sitting around for 45 minutes as we figured out how to do the delivery and it was still perfect. It was so good.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: It was good.
Eric: Moving away from that, we also all got Anthony & Son sandwiches when we are in New York City, hometown heroes.
Brandon: Oh, God. So good.
Eric: I think I've talked about this on 10 different podcasts in— at this point, but Anthony & Son is the god in— I— I convinced notable skeptic, Brandon Grugle, that is actually good.
Brandon: I know. I've got on the phone with Lauren that night as I was going to bed and I was like, "Lauren, I don't think— I— I thought it's gonna be a good sandwich, but like how good is the sandwich?" And then I had the sandwich and I was like, "This is a god-tier sandwich where I'm hanging out, listening in my hammock."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Like in the hammock listening to a god-tier pod, absolutely. Alright, Amanda, are you ready?
Amanda: Yeah, I'm ready.
Eric: Alright. First, your team name.
Amanda: My team name, of course, The Fighting Irish, which you may say, "Amanda, that's already a team name." But what I'm instead going to tell you is that my team name is The Fighting (Vegan shamrock shake) closed parenthesis. Because it doesn't make my list, but I had a number of extraordinary vegan beverages on this— on this tour.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: Hell yeah. Yeah.
Amanda: So that's— that's where we're coming from.
Eric: That I—
Julia: Including one from that Philly place.
Eric: From that Philly place, yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. That I got a malt vegan milkshake, it was the best of all time. It was so good. I would drive to Philly for that milkshake.
Julia: Damn.
Amanda: Alright. So my first pick is going to be Eric's presentations hyping up the crowd.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: That's my pick number one. It was very cute that we didn't— that we didn't plan to do this for each other, but I— like, before the tour, I was like, "Yeah, I'm thinking about, you know, should we have like, you know, a third act that something like— you know, mixed up? Should we do like something before or after intermission that sort of like neither Spirits nor Join the Party?" And he's like, "Yeah, yeah. You know, if I have time, I'll— I'll do some kind of opening, you know, presentation gambit." There's one he had in mind, and he— he was like, "Yeah, if I think of others, I'll do others." Of course, he ends up making six fantastic presentations and not seven only because another person did the— the final presentation of the tour. But they were so fun, they were so interesting. You do such a great job, Eric, of like having the visual— like, because we're in a visual medium, you really use it to your advantage. You allow the slide to, like, segue into and, like, lead the audience to the next joke. And for me too, like I'm— you know, my heart rate's up a little bit getting ready to go on stage, but the first thing I need to do is, like, sit there for 15 minutes and enjoy your hilarious presentation before getting into Spirits. And it was just— it was so fun and interesting. I got to look forward to it every single night. And I think it really got the crowd stoked and ready to take in everything we had to offer.
Brandon: It was a good warm-up. Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Thank you. That's very nice of you to say.
Amanda: You're welcome.
Eric: Thanks. I mean, listen, we've been trying to do stuff like this since like— I mean, when we would do Multitude lives like in 2017, 2018, 2019. It's always fun to have something that isn't just like the podcast, when— a podcast live show, you're doing something else because they're going to do it. And yeah, I just had a really good time doing it. I— it was fun. I love slideshows. I think slideshows are really funny. I know that it add some real like Dimitri Barton-esque 20— 2011 humor, but I just think it's so funny.
Brandon: Live shows are never not funny, yeah.
Julia: No, I dig it.
Brandon: I agree.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Do you guys have like one— ones you liked? Because, like, I have my favorites.
Brandon: We can't spoil it!
Amanda: We can't spoil it.
Eric: We can say the premise of them, if we want to.
Amanda: No, that's a spoiler.
Eric: We don't want to?
Brandon: No, spoiler.
Amanda: No, yeah.
Eric: Okay, fine.
Brandon: Yeah, spoiler.
Julia: You can say the city then what was your favorite.
Amanda: Seattle is my favorite.
Brandon: Yeah, I think Seattle is my favorite, too.
Julia: I really liked the New York one.
Eric: Sure, yeah.
Amanda: Nice. It was nice.
Eric: Seattle, Minneapolis, and New York were my favorite, but I also— there— the Chicago one, I also really, really liked. That one like emerge—
Julia: That one was very fun.
Eric: That one and the Minneapolis like emerged later on and I'm like, "Oh, okay. I got it, I got it. "
Amanda: Nice.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And the Boston one has a place in my heart, even if the Boston audience was like, "What are you talking about?"
Amanda: But you know what? You got them along for the ride, and that's what counts.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Alright, folks, it'll be my second pick, and the beginning of the second round of our draft.
Eric: It's like a snake, it's like a snake. It's a serpent-y draft. It's like a snake.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brandon: It's like a snake. It's like a snake, oh.
Amanda: It's when— it's like when you count a cat's little beans and you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. How many toes does a cat have, five? And then you go 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Just like that.
Eric: If a cat had five toes and then how would you count? You got a weird one that's on his elbow.
Brandon: I think they do.
Amanda: That's what I'm guessing, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: Okay. Yeah.
Amanda: Do they have four toes?
Julia: I think the pad counts as a toe bean. That's my hot take.
Brandon: It has four and then the pad, yeah.
Amanda: Four and then the pad. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: It's like a hand but not, because if they had opposable thumbs, they'd be unstoppable. Anyway—
Eric: Oh, I didn't know the pad was a toe or what we’re talking about.
Amanda: That was what I'm thinking.
Eric: It's fine. Okay. Yeah.
Amanda: In any case, going to go grab us a quick refresh of our snacks over in the kitchen and then I'll be right back.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: Get some— get some Lucys, and juices, and— and shakes and steaks.
Julia: Lucy Juicys.
Amanda: Genuinely, Brandon, I think a Juicy Lucy slider is a biological weapon with the amount of hot cheese that you could sling at somebody.
Brandon: That's true.
Julia: True.
[theme]
Amanda: Hello, it is me Amanda, back in our studio, recording another mid-roll. I'm so glad to be here with you all. And I'm especially glad that Ben, Mandy, Matthew, Oscar, Emily, and Krista have joined the Patreon in the last couple of weeks. We are so grateful that you did and that you have carved out some money from your monthly or annual budget to support podcasts that you presumably really like on the internet. We so, so appreciate it. And it was so incredible to meet so many of you, patrons, out on the road, out on the tour, and to see of those familiar names and emails come into our inbox for ticket sales. We so appreciate it. I— I don't know what else to say. We say some schmoopy stuff at the end of this Afterparty, and honestly, it's— it's just part of it, because you literally make it possible for this to be our jobs, and for us to make a show that being able to like revisit old characters on the road. It just— it astonishes me how much we have grown and changed, and I love that I get to do this. So if you want to support the show, and to show us with your dollars, what the show means to you in your heart, you can do so at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. As a thank you, you get things like our patron-only Discord, ad-free episodes and an additional biweekly podcast we may call Party Planning or even at the very top tier, we can play a custom One Shot with you. Those have been so much fun that when we've done them in the past and you can do them now. At this week at Multitude, lots going on, and if you wish you had more Multitude shows to catch up on, if you've run out of Big Game Hunger, Exolore, Spirits, Tell Me About It, Pale Blue Pod, Games and Feelings, next up all the shows that we make, I have good news. Because you can become a member of the MultiCrew, where not only can you listen to the last several years of our weekly show Head Heart Gut, which, spoiler, we did a little Head Heart Gut inspired thing on the road. That was maybe my favorite segment of Spirits that we did. God, it was so much fun. We also have an additional monthly podcast that Julia hosts called the Multi-Crew Review, where someone at Multitude sits down with Julia to talk about stuff that they love. I think that you will, too. So join the MultiCrew, go to multicrew.club and join the MultiCrew today. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Now, I often think about what I would do if I had more time in the day. Probably, the answer is get ahead on stuff for tomorrow, but recently, I have been like, "Man, how nice it'd be to just kind of sit outside and think about nothing, and like watch the birds, and spend some time in the sun." And that would be incredibly nice. But I— I think the thing that teaches me is that I need to carve out more time to do things that aren't productive. For me, that's really the trap, if I feel like I'm not doing something productive. Even if it's like productive rest, where I'm like, "Oh, well, if I take a bath, I'll feel more energized and then I'll be able to, like, clean tonight." That's not the point. And that's one of the things that I talk about with my therapist every week, and I find it really, really helpful that I get to do that. Because therapy has helped me become better acquainted with myself and develop better coping tools. So all that frustration, and anger, and exhaust-ness— exhaustiveness doesn't catch up with me all at the same time. So if you're thinking of starting therapy and you would like a convenient, flexible, online version to get started with, consider BetterHelp. All you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. So learn to make time for what makes you happy with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/jointheparty today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, .com/jointheparty. And finally, we are sponsored this week by Volante Designs. Now, I saw at least one leather jacket from Volante Designs out on The Rolling Bones tour. And if you, like that stylish person, are looking for a gear that makes you feel like a badass main character, video game character in real life, Volante Design is your go-to. They make high quality handmade jackets and other items that honestly you're going to have for so many years to come. Whether you want a licensed item from something like Star Trek, or Assassin's Creed, or some of their incredible, beautiful, original collections, you got to check them out. Just go to volantedesign.us, and use the code that they very kindly made for us, Join the Party, to get 10% off your entire order. That's Join the Party, all one word, for 10% off Volante Designs. Incredible, ethically sourced, and manufactured pieces that will last you for years. And now, let's get back to the show.
[theme]
Amanda: Alright, we're back, folks. Are you enjoying the sliders? I did a sampling of Banh Mi, Juicy Lucy, and a third thing.
Eric: And the great—
Amanda: A Philly Cheesesteak, yeah.
Eric: And— and the great services and products from Wildgrain.
Amanda: Exactly.
Eric: I didn't say, but shout-out to All Fantasy Everything, which is the fantasy draft show that I love for do— for giving me the idea here. I'm— I'm gonna— I ran a One Shot for them. It's gonna come out at some point, hopefully. Who can say?
Amanda: Tweet to them.
Eric: Who knows?
Julia: Who can say?
Amanda: Tweet them, All Fantasy Everything, and be like, "Hey, where's the— where's the D&D?"
Eric: Hey, you're playing Dungeons & Dragons on your show. That'd be great. Eric so good at it, where is it? Let him know."
Amanda: Alright, folks. So to begin the second round of the draft, I spoiled it earlier, so I'm just going to go ahead and fall on my own sword and saying it's the Chrysler Pacifica. I am— I am taking the 2023, probably, Chrysler Pacifica as my bet. I hilariously said— because we all— you know, we were all going to share driving responsibilities. It's like, "Hey, is everyone comfortable driving a minivan?" Because for trunk space, which we did need and four people which we did have. We needed a bigger— a bigger car and they had better gas mileage and therefore, costs than— you know, like SUV. And everyone said, "Yeah, sure." But I was not prepared for how much minivan technology has progressed since the last time I was in a minivan, which is probably 2004.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: There were USB outlets in every seat. The seat and steering wheel were heated. The trunk space, incredible. The way the back row just like— just, like, folded down seamlessly to be the bottom of the trunk, extraordinary. And they had— you know, easy to drive. Like, I have no complaints about Pacifica.
Brandon: Push button start, keyless start with the gearshift being a knob, which is the bane of my existence, but also very fancy.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: It had —a it had a pretty decent mix of, like, buttons to touchscreen because you don't want a car, in my opinion, that's all iPad, that's not what I'm here for.
Eric: No. No.
Amanda: But you do need the nav—
Julia: Not about that.
Amanda: —screen to show the directions and you know what? It worked great.
Brandon: I like a— I like a gearshift. I like a—
Amanda: I like a gear shift, yeah.
Brandon: I like a shift or a shift.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I need to emphasize, though, that there were plugs in the backs of the— of the front seats and then the plugs behind that, like you were on a plane but not bad.
Amanda: USB seat outlets, both USB A and USB C, because we are in a terrible time when you need three kinds of USB cords in order to, like, charge your phone, your AirPods and, like, your camera.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: It's pretty bad, yeah.
Eric: U— what about USB B?
Amanda: I haven't considered that.
Eric: USB B, did we pass USB B?
Amanda: Right? I guess they didn't say that because it'd be confusing to say.
Brandon: That's actually a good question.
Eric: What about USBB8? What about that kind? What if Disney owns it?
Julia: Well, he's a ball.
Amanda: You know if— if there exists a BB8 USB hub, I will buy it.
Brandon: There is a USB B, but I guess it's just not very used.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: Oh, it's only for NASA, only NASA uses it.
Brandon: Only for NASA.
Amanda: But yeah, no, the Pacific was amazing. We ended up through some, you know, quirks and travails, having three of them, only one of which we had planned for. And you know what? The— the joy of coming back into the welcoming arms of my Chrysler Pacifica was great every time. And genuinely we had so much shit to move and we, at different points, had, like, people in the back as we, like, drove from the venue to the Airbnb, whatever. It was exactly what we needed, and shout-out to that Pacifica.
Julia: Nice.
Brandon: I don't— I don't want to steal this story from you, but we got— so we— the first Chrysler Pacifica we got was we were going from Minneapolis to Chicago, and there was a storm. So we decided to— instead of flying, instead of risking a flight delay that would fuck up the timetable, we wanted to drive. It's only 6 hours, great. So Amanda came with the Chrysler Pacifica, like the giant minivan, we were like, "Cool. This is great. This is awesome." And then we had a flight for the next leg, and then we had the pre-planned rental, which Amanda showed up with, the Chrysler Pacifica.
Amanda: I said, "Great news. it's a Chrysler Pacifica."
Eric: And for— is anyone gonna take this, this third— the third one?
Amanda: I'm—
Julia: I don't think that's one of my highlights.
Amanda: No, it's not one of my highlights.
Brandon: I think this is got to be part of the Chrysler Pacifica.
Eric: Alright, this will be part of it, yeah, you're right, you're right. So you get this.
Brandon: So— so we were— I was driving from Boston to something.
Eric: To New— yeah, Boston to New York.
Brandon: And, like, 30 minutes outside of Boston, like in Fra— Framingham or Framingham, or however the fuck you say it, we got to fly, we hit something, and there's a big, ol' hole in the tire. And so we had to stop, but it was— it was surprisingly quick to get around everything. But Amanda went to swap out the rental car and came back in a Chrysler Pacifica.
Amanda: A third Chrysler Pacifica, which they had just happened to have because that rental car place I went to was a commercial one for, like, moving trucks and, like, 10 pass vans.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: Oh.
Julia: Oh.
Amanda: And they had— that's why when the guy came on the phone, he was like, "It's your lucky day," because they had had a singular Chrysler Pacifica, was the only passenger car at that rental place.
Brandon: That's so funny.
Julia: I don't think I realized that. Wild.
Brandon: I thought you chose it on purpose.
Amanda: Well, I didn't say it because I didn't want to worry anybody, but now I can.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Yes.
Eric: Well, now, I would love to fill in more of my pick here, which is another title, Amanda girl boss, which is where she— she stared down a— a— a Boston customer service representative from a rental car company—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —and— and came out unscathed.
Julia: Yep.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I came out on top with that Pacifica.
Julia: Damn right.
Brandon: And then we also saw another Pacifica, like all the— we saw— we were— it's like the— the Baader-Meinhof effect or whatever it's called, where you—
Amanda: Exactly.
Brandon: Yeah. Where you see the Pacifica and then suddenly, there's Pacificas everywhere, man.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Brandon's— Brandon's final, like, Uber that Brandon took from our DC Airbnb to the airport, because we weren't gonna be passing by it was almost a Pacifica. It— like I saw and I was like, "It's a P— fuck." And then it was just like an SUV, some other model. I was— I really wanted that fourth one to, like, cap out your journey.
Brandon: Yeah, that would have been hilarious.
Eric: Four would have been too many. Three of a kind is enough. I feel like we—
Amanda: Perfect.
Eric: —were staring gift horses in the Pacifica mouth.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Rule of three, gang. Rule of three.
Eric: My favorite thing about the Chrysler Pacifica, in general, because this was— two out of three of them was like they were not hybrids, but they had like— it— you could charge them electronically.
Amanda: It's like E-vehicle.
Eric: An E-vehicle, where it had like a battery and a gas, and then you could also charge electrically. And none of them were charged at all.
Brandon: Oh, yeah, because they want to make money on you. That's— yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I know, because— because, like, "You couldn't charge it, but don't do it. Only if you know how." And I thought that was so funny.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah. That was fucked, man. Fuck— hey, guys, fuck rental car places.
Eric: I know, right?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: True.
Eric: Truly.
Amanda: Seriously, that's— that's all the rental carring I want to be doing for the next couple years.
Brandon: Okay. What is my next pick? I think— I think I gotta go— so I have a funny one and a— and a sincere one. I think I gotta go sincere first. I think the— my second pick is going to be the fan gifts—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: —that we all got.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Not to shout-out anyone over anyone else because they're all wonderful, but I was pulling out all my stuff to get unpacked when I got home and showing Lauren all the cool stuff. You can't really see it on ca— yeah, yeah, I think that you can see it on the camera here, but on my left side, I got all my fan shit. And you know, we got crocheted animal friends. I got crocheted bombs and a crocheted Bartlett.
Amanda: From Jess, shout-out.
Brandon: We got— yeah, from Jess. We got little toys from the D&D movie. We got friendship bracelets. We got little, like, D 20 cages keychain things, which was fun.
Eric: Oh, that was so good.
Brandon: We got handmade notebooks, these were amazing.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I have them all— I have them all written down. We got the crocheted animals.
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: We got the macarons in Seattle.
Brandon: Macarons, yeah.
Julia: Ooh, I love macarons.
Amanda: The first thing that happened to us at our first meet and greet was a— a fan walking in, saying, "Here you go." And then there are eight incredible Chad macaron made with raspberry and mint from their garden. They were so good.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: The friendship bracelets, we got art of the hold from— from Ginger.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Ginger, yeah.
Eric: Which was great.
Brandon: Ginger, yeah.
Eric: The koozies were awesome. We got those in Boston. We got— we got breakfast at Forge Baking Company left to us by a gift— as a gift card, which was incredible. And then, of course, the journals, which had the— the flags of each of the four countries of Verda Stello on them.
Amanda: Oh, yeah. And some stickers and some notes. Someone gave me a plant. Yeah, it was— it was stunning.
Brandon: Yeah. Everything we got was absolutely wonderful. There was a lot of it. And it's like— I think it's such a unique thing that podcasting does.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: And I'm sure lots of people get lots of gifts, but like I think it's like sort of baked into this podcasting, because it's so like such an intimate medium that you want to, like, share, express the affection through gift-giving, which is really sweet and I think is really fun. And— and not— it's— it's not better than making money on a tour.
Amanda: It's as good.
Eric: It's— it's different and good.
Brandon: But never as good.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Because it feels more personal.
Amanda: Like, the tour—
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Amanda: —as a whole— right? It's like making— making an intangible thing real. And at least for me, like with very little in the way of, like, fine art or artistic skills, it is— it is like so incredible, that somebody has an idea and then makes a reality out of it.
Julia: Amanda, your Pistons hat. I forgot about the Pistons hat.
Eric: Oh, yes.
Brandon: Pistons hat.
Amanda: Right. My Pistons hat, yeah, which I wore throughout the end of the DC show.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Amanda: So good.
Julia: Love it.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Julia: It's so cute. At one point, I sent Jake a photo of the Nonny that just made, and he said, "Wow, you are so loved." And I was like, "That's adorable, and such a Jake big to say."
Brandon: So cute.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Julia, what's your next pick?
Julia: I think my next one is kind of folded— or— or rather intertwines with the—the Chrysler Pacifica choice, Amanda, and that is the drive from Minneapolis to Chicago.
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: And in particular, Wizard Quest.
Eric: Oh, it's not—
Brandon: Oh, God.
Eric: It's Wizard Quest. It's Wizard Quest.
Julia: No. Like, genuinely, I think that whole trip was really fascinating. Brandon and I counting the— the terrible—
Brandon: The billboards?
Julia: —sign by that one attorney.
Eric: Oh, the billboard.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Julia: It was great. Eric doing a fantastic job of literally out running a storm was amazing.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: But Wizard Quest is near and dear to my heart forever. And if we don't go, I'll die.
Amanda: Say more, Julia. So— so from my perspective, co-piloting the van, you gasped and said, "Wizard Quest." Tell me more.
Julia: Right. So I— at the beginning of that trip, I said, "Will it be annoying if I read out signs as we go by them?" And everyone said, "No, I'm subscribing to that. That would be great." And I asked three times just to make sure. But we passed a sign when we were getting close to the Wisconsin Dells that said Wizard Quest, and I was like, "I need to find out what that is. I don't know what Wizard Quest is." And so I searched it on my phone. It had, like, 3,000 reviews, four and a half stars. And it was like a weird kind of like escape room /teambuilding exercise—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: —that you could do, that was run by a man called Wizard Steve and his wife.
Amanda: That's right.
Julia: And I— it ju— honestly, I don't know if you guys really looked at the photos—
Amanda: No.
Julia: —but it looked fantastic.
Brandon: Wizard Steve is so funny to me.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: It is really funny.
Julia: And then when we got to Chicago, we were telling our friend Megan about that, and Megan was like, "Oh, yeah, Wizard Quest and Wizard Steve. That's a great place to go." And I was like— [gasps]
Eric: Megan was saying that while we were setting up, but I'm like, "Megan, you've just kicked this off for Julia. That was confirmation, it's real."
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: I can't emphasize enough too, how from the back of the van, Julia's like, "Please, please go— go to Wizard Quest." While we were— while we were literally out running a storm to make it to Chicago in time.
Julia: Just an hour— just an hour out of the way to go to Wizard Quest.
Eric: We were out running a storm and it's like either we eat or go to Wizard Quest, we make a choice.
Amanda: Can't be both.
Eric: The thing about the Wisconsin Dells, which I think is a very Midwestern thing, but like the Wisconsin Dells, if— imagine anywhere or— or wherever you guys live, you go to a city and then you drive, like, 90 minutes away, and it's like the country, and you go there for the summer. There's like lakes and there's a lot of, like, vacation— things that only happen in the summertime, I think, or it's like things that only happen for families who have nothing to do or— or corporations, I think—
Amanda: Like a local getaway.
Eric: —or for corporations or working— working places, I— I guess. And Wizard Quest just seems to be one of these things that has incredibly popped off. It's wild.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. I mean, like, I think the best retirement plan that we can all have is to retire in a small area like that and make something just absolutely buck wild, and so everyone will must go to it, you know?
Amanda: Yeah. Or, again, why wait? You can tweet. Julia, what's their Twitter, please?
Julia: Oh, I'll find out where— right now, one second.
Amanda: Thank you. Please hold for the name, but you can tweet to Wizard Quest and say, "Hi, would you please book Join the Party for a residency?" Because I for one would love to spend a couple of weeks in the Wisconsin Dells.
Eric: I was driving and Amanda was like, "Alright, Eric, you run a One Shot and the three of us will hang out." And I'm like, No!"
Amanda: We'll be there. Yeah. I'll run a One Shot for Wizard Quest. I— I'll figure it out.
Eric: I know. I want to create an escape room/teambuilding exercise for Wizard— Wizard Quest.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I will be evil wizard Brandon.
Julia: I don't think they have a Twitter, but what they do have is an Instagram and it's wizard_quest.
Amanda: There it is people.
Brandon: Fuck yeah, man.
Amanda: You know what to do.
Eric: DM Wizard Quest.
Julia: Yep, yep. Do it up. Also, guys, it's probably for the best that we did not go, because they did post on the day that we were going to their Instagram, "We are closed today due to lots of snow," and it's a picture of Gandalf in the snow.
Brandon: Oh, thank God. We didn't waste our time. Jesus.
Amanda: There we go. We could have been— fuck, we could have been snowed in at Wizard Quest.
Julia: Guys, if we zoomed into the Chicago live show from Wizard Quest, what do you think?
Eric: That would have been crazy, actually.
Amanda: That would have been crazy, yeah.
Eric: That would have been great.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Snowed in at Wizard Quest sounds like a Monster of the Week episode, truly.
Amanda: Yeah, it does.
Brandon: It sounds like a quest that we're doing at Wizard Quest.
Julia: It does. Yes, it does.
Eric: Alright, I'm gonna keep that in my pocket. I'm gonna keep Wizard Quest in my pocket.
Amanda: Alright, Eric—
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: —so it's time for your second pick, the end of the second round, but also your third pick, the beginning of the third round.
Eric: Whoa. It's like snake, it goes round.
Brandon: Whoa.
Julia: Whoa.
Amanda: Crazy.
Eric: Alright, my— my second pick is going to be the feeling as if you were a rock star: seeing your name written on— on things that other people see.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Specifically, I want to shout out the marquees at— in Minneapolis, in Boston. That was tight, just seeing Rolling Bones, Join the Party, Spirits on those things.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: But it was also other smaller things in Seattle. There was just like a— a little piece of paper that said Join— that this was happening. I was like, "Look, it's us." And in Philadelphia, the person who had touched the stage four days before, the last person that touched the stage before us is one of my favorite drag queens from RuPaul's Drag Race, Ginger Minj, who came with, like, her body singing brunch show. So I'm like, "Well—"
Amanda: And, like, both of our names were on the poster in the bathroom.
Eric: They were next to each other—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —on the poster in the bathroom. So yeah, I mean, there's very— again, like, it's a— we're doing a podcast live show. It's not— it's— it is, like, obviously important and we put a lot of time and effort into doing it, but it's not the see— same as seeing like, I don't know, The Rolling Stones play music somewhere. Like, we're not a rock band, and we don't have like crazy writers or anything. But having feeling like talent for a second, especially how so much of our jobs are usually like the job portion of content creation, and, you know, running a business and stuff. It's like, "Oh, I felt like it—like, felt, like, the talent portion of the tour for one of the first times," which I thought was really great.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: A 100%.
Brandon: Does that include like getting, like, cheese boards and drinks and stuff like that, drink tickets?
Julia: Yeah. It was pretty nice.
Eric: The drink tickets definitely felt— was more regular, because, like, you know, I did some touring for slam poetry before. And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, you, like, go to a college, and they give you a beer for free, and then you perform." But like having— getting fed also includes that. Like—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —when— you know, in Philadelphia specifically, because we were at a City Winery, they really did a good job of that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: And because of course, they're like, "Would you like the wine pairing with your cheese plate?" And I'm like, "I would." Me—
Amanda: I would.
Eric: —and Keith Richards, we're the same. And that— that was great. So anytime we got food as well. Like in Chicago, when we were like— I was like eating a salad they gave me before we went up, like as fast as possible. I'm like—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: —"This is the life, baby. It's touring life."
Brandon: You got the chicken tendies in Seattle as well.
Eric: Oh, yeah, they— they left that.
Amanda: Those were great.
Eric: And I was like, "Just leave them in the greenroom and I'll eat it afterwards."
Amanda: And I pre-ordered this for intermission.
Eric: Pre— just drop it here, and I showed up, and there were tendies. And I'm like, "Ooh, ooh."
Amanda: It was great. It was great.
Eric: "Ooh. Ooh. Ooh.""
Brandon: "Ooh. Ooh."
Eric: Yeah, I felt like a special little baby.
Amanda: And then, Eric, your pick number three.
Eric: Well, did you— hey, do you guys like seeing your— your name in lights?
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I do.
Julia: It was dope.
Brandon: Yeah. I— I do.
Julia: The first time, we were like— I think the Minneapolis live show marquee was the one that—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: —really did it for me and that—
Amanda: Just like an old style, like, beautiful theater. It looks like an old—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —you know, timey, like, movie theater or something.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Down the street, I think there was another theater that had another marquee, like Hoobastank was playing. And I was like, "Dang, also Hoobastank, the same."
Julia: Uh-hmm
Amanda: Yeah. No, it's— it's really cool and so, like, that's the kind of picture I sent to my mom, you know, where I'm like, "Hey, look, legitimate success." And again, like anyone can rent it, anyone can play anything if you have Brandon on your team, but it just— something about it really feels representative of a whole.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: So hard. I gotta pick my next one. I'm gonna go with my third pick for the Eric Silver cheddar cheeses. It's a solid pick. You need someone, you need some flash. You need weapons, you know? You need someone who can do something you can't see do anywhere else. You got to put numbers on the board. And this coming out of college, coming out of Grambling State is— is underrated, but I think provides a lot of firepower. It's bonding with people over terrible podcast ads.
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: It's good, it's good.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Podcasting is such a independent, singular— singular experience. You do it when you're doing something else. When you're like going— when you're washing dishes, when you're going to the gym. So talking to other people about podcast stuff, in general, is great, which is why I care so much about making the content incredibly good. The creative part of these live show is important, because people are stepping out of their usual routine to come to the live show. But also, talking to other podcast listeners about podcasts in— is incredible, and that includes all the absolute piles of garbage that we get served to us as ads. Shout-out to my— my main man, Chumba Casino. I've never seen more people go, "Yo," when I mention Chamba Casino.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And Zigazoo.
Eric: Oh, Chumba Casino and Zigazoo.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Thank you to iHeart for being the worst company in the history of this planet.
Amanda: Yeah. I'm like— I— I don't mind naming it. iHeart, their ads are hot garbo.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Hot summer garbo where the smell travels.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Especially, we were listening— this is— like the audience— yes, we talked to the audience a lot about podcast ads, but even when we were listening to podcasts in the car, we were like, "Oh, man, getting the same Verizon commercial again with 30 seconds of absolute hot, stinky dog water, that's 10 DBs too loud than the rest of the— rest of the stuff." It was the worst.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: We almost like— we almost stopped on it a little bit. I'm like, "Hey, do you guys know this ad? Do you— do you know ad?
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Like, I'll— I listen to other podcasters host reads, A, for opposition research as to what sponsors we should be getting and B, because I'm like, "I'm interested in the craft. Like, who does a good job? What do people do in these days?"
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Amanda: And those like— those radio style ads, iHeart— if I know it's an iHeart pod, like we're— we're creating custom settings in Pocket Casts, so I skip the first three minutes and the final four minutes of the— of the episode.
Julia: Correct.
Brandon: Yeah. I mean, you know that they're— I think they probably are like crossover radio ads from iHeart—
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: —because they just— they bundle the podcast and the radio at the same time—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: —where it just doesn't work.
Julia: They just don't give a fuck, yeah.
Eric: I didn't get a chance to share this yet, but I— I took a screenshot of a podcast I listen to, which isn't iHeart, but I feel that they use similar ad serving. And between their own ad promoting their own Patreon, which is pre-roll for like 90 seconds, plus ads. I haven't— have— I have one where it took 6 minutes—
Brandon: Whoa.
Eric: —to get to the beginning of the podcast.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: That's too long.
Amanda: That's a lot.
Eric: 5:56 is what I'm looking at.
Amanda: Dang, dude.
Brandon: That's long.
Eric: It's terrible. And it was like they— they did— it was 90 seconds of their own—plugging their own Patreon, a bunch of pre-roll ads, and then another one plugging something else for their own show. I'm like, "This sucks, guys. This is so bad."
Amanda: Tough.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Rough.
Julia: We value your time here on Join the Party.
Eric: Shout-out to Zigazoo.
Brandon: Shout-out.
Eric: I never felt closer to Brandon asking— asking you about the child social media app that we kept getting recommended to us.
Brandon: Well, it— it's so funny because I don't— I've never gotten a Chumba Casino one because it must be local, like a regional one.
Amanda: It must be northeast.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. But the Zigazoo is a national, so—
Julia: My next one for the Fighting Owls, that was my name, yes—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —is kind of a shout-out to Brandon, but like one of the things that I loved the most about the tour was the variety of the venues.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Like, no venue was like the other one and it was always like a really cool pleasant surprise to walk in and be like, "Huh. This isn't like the last one at all." And I really like— I just really like that. I liked the like kind of variety and therefore, like, refreshing-ness of walking into a new place and being like, "Alright, let's figure this out."
Amanda: Yeah, take us through some of the— the genres.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. Like, so for example, I think the— the first Seattle one was very, like, kind of classic theater-y, though the seats were very, like, movie theater-esque—
Eric: So cool.
Julia: —which I thought was interesting and fun.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: And then Minneapolis, I kept singing Phantom of the Opera because it felt like a real Phantom of the Opera vibe just in there, in general.
Brandon: It was beautiful.
Julia: And there were stars on the ceiling, it was wild.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: The whole time, I was like, "Someone has their wedding here and we're doing a podcast for the show. This is wild."
Brandon: Oh, there was a wedding video, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Yeah, a 100%, 100%. Next one would be— I did go through the tour in my head. Chicago was like so kind of like punk club comedy-esque.
Eric: So funny.
Julia: At one point, I went to the bathroom, and then I came back out, and I was like, "Amanda, can you watch the door for me? Because none of the bathrooms have stalls doors."
Amanda: And I said—
Julia: And Amanda said—
Amanda: "—Yeah, sure."
Julia: And then Boston was— what was the Boston one? Oh, Boston was very like traditional kind of like small theater, like, you know, one act play kind of vibes, which was in the basement and had a cute marquee.
Brandon: Had a black box. Yeah.
Julia: Love that. New York City was very, like I've seen every comedy show/podcast venue—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —in a place like that. It was awesome.
Eric: New York City, for some reason, has like three venues that everyone does their podcast live shows at, and we're like, "Here's one of them. Here it is."
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah. Philly was at a City Winery, which felt very corporate, but was also the most like— we were treated like rock stars.
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Like Eric mentioned. It was very, very cool. And then finally, DC was, like, a brewery and that wa— end of statement. And it was like— it was wild. It was so cool to just go from place to place and be like, I don't know what to expect next, and I'm excited about."
Amanda: It's not like you wake up at a Marriott for, like, the 20— the 20th night on the road, and you're like, "It's the same Marriott, whatever." Like, each of them had their own unique feel, and the staff were all different, and it was— it was so fun.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I don't think anyone's gonna pick this, but shout-out to DC and the small electrical fire we almost started.
Amanda: Yes, that's true.
Julia: I walked away and then I came back and you guys said that. I'm like, "Are we kidding?" And you're like, "No."
Eric: No.
Amanda: No.
Eric: No, no, no.
Julia: Cool, cool.
Eric: My favorite thing about it was that Amanda did it and then Brandon's like, "What?" And then he did the same thing and he left her.
Brandon: I've explained this. It was because I thought I caused it.
Amanda: He was trying to test—
Eric: No, I'm not saying—
Amanda: He had— he made sense.
Eric: I'm not saying that it didn't make sense, and Brandon, as tour manager, didn't do it intentionally. It was just so funny watching Amanda do it, and then Brandon recreating it like a scientist.
Amanda: It's like, "Oh, that's— that's conclusive."
Eric: You're right. We reproduced the problem.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: That— that's it, that's it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: There was— there was clearly—
Julia: That's what science says.
Brandon: —a— a break in the cable itself.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: And I thought I had accidentally pulled— tugged on the electric cable when Amanda was going to plug it in. So I thought I had, like, shorted the outlet. And so Amanda walked away and I was like, "Oh, fuck, I'm so sorry. Like, let me go— let me go do it, so I don't"— yeah, blah, blah, blah.
Eric: I'm not saying you were wrong. I just love seeing the scientific method work out in person.
Brandon: Yeah, I know, I know.
Amanda: It's fair, it's fair.
Eric: So pretty good.
Amanda: But no, It was great and hopefully, the audience had a great time, and each and every venue, each one had their own flavor. It was— it was great.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Brampton.
Brandon: Okay, folks. What should be my next one? I have so many, I have so many. I— I don't want to choose one that is like about the thing I did again, but— or—
Amanda: You should.
Brandon: —for the— I— but like—
Julia: You should. Hype yourself up, bro.
Brandon: I just think it's fun. Like, I— one of my favorite things— I'm gonna choose, like, set dressing, like—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: —vibe, because it's just one of my favorite things to like— to enjoy about other live shows and to, like, do for a specific tour. Like, we got the— like Eric's— it was Eric's suggestion to— to call it The Rolling Bones Tour. And then we had the great art from Shay that kind of gave it this sort of like psychic, palm— palmistry vibes. And then so I got to, like, play off that and come up with, like, various, like, set— set dressing things. We did like a sort of like palm reader tapestry on the tables, and we had some, like, palmistry hands. And so I love all that. And then I also can't forget to say that we had inflatable dice that took— no joke, I think probably 20-30 minutes—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —to inflate.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: And— for two of them, and that's two people doing it. And then at least 20 minutes to deflate.
Amanda: Which was the surprising part.
Julia: Yeah, the same amount of time to deflate.
Amanda: Yeah. So those didn't make it out in Seattle.
Brandon: And then at the end of the—
Amanda: But they we're great that we had them.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: We had them in Seattle, luckily, which is where I live, so with the end of thing, I was like, "We're not gonna take this for the rest of the tour.”
Julia: Smart. Good call, good call.
Amanda: Yeah, it was very effective and, you know, all the venues had their own, like, lighting situations, their own backdrops, so you did a great job on that. And then Eric also, kind of last-minute, put together some slides for being the background.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Both pre-show, during Spirits, and then during Join the Party when there wasn't like visual cues, which were really fun.
Brandon: Yeah. And they were great, yeah.
Amanda: My— my pick number three, end of the third round, is going to be having food delivered to us after all the places kitchens closed in various cities. This is a 100% on me for living in New York City and having done so for the last 14 years.
Brandon: I have the same problem. Yeah.
Amanda: The idea that a place is open but does not serve food after, let's say, 8:00 PM, staggering.
Eric: 10— 10:00 PM, guys.
Amanda: 10:00 PM on a Friday night—
Eric: —on a weekend, on a weekend.
Amanda: —at a bar— at a bar. Like, give me— give me 'till 11:00, minimum. So several times, but most notably in Minneapolis, I ordered 5 minutes before delivery cut-off, a pizza place that ended up being like sublime, and not just because Eric bought us shots.
Julia: It was wild.
Amanda: That's the place we went after the show. But it was— it was so incredible. And getting food delivered when it was otherwise, like— I don't do a lot of delivery in my daily life. I— I— typically, like, Eric will pick up—you know, takeout food for us or we'd like cook at home. And so just to, like, have a person show up with, like, the meal I most need at that moment. Particularly, when we leave a venue, go back to the Airbnb, it's like 11:30, we're supposed to be up the next morning at 7:00 to fly, but we do need dinner. Absolutely clutch.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: It's great.
Julia: Facts.
Eric: That pizza was crazy. We got pizza and empanadas.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: What a combo.
Amanda: And like churro donuts.
Julia: What a combo.
Amanda: So good.
Brandon: It was also interesting to see, like, each city specific closing time and how they specifically did their, like, dining scene. Because like, yeah, like even here— even here in Seattle, like if a place close at 11:00 or 10:00, I'd be like, "What the fuck? Like, what is happening?"
Amanda: Yeah. If you're a dinner or nighttime place, it's like a night life place.
Brandon: Right, yeah. And like—
Amanda: Just very surprising.
Brandon: And I think— example, what I've learned here is like, ple— a ton of restaurants here close Monday and Tuesday—
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: —because they stay open late on the weekends. And, like, that was weird for me, too. So, yeah, it's just interesting to see everyone's little quirks.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: True.
Amanda: And then finally, at the end of the serpentine draft, my fourth pick. I really tried to balance out my team here, and so I think— I think the last thing that I'm going to have to say is our friends showing up for us was incredibly satisfying, and humbling, and great. Like, my older cousin who has two little kids, like, got childcare and came to our Seattle show. Shout-out Lena, I love you. Ivan, who I met on YouTube in 2008 when we were both Vlogbrothers reply guys, came out with his wife Emma to work the—the merch table. Leslie, who I met at pretty much the same time also to DC. Our friend Megan in— in Chicago. Like, colleagues we have in the podcasting world, like, came and saw our shows, and just like it— it means so much—
Brandon: Moderators from Discord.
Amanda: Yeah. Zach and Shawn, but— and came— and Courtney came to the Chicago show. So just like seeing so many, you know, people we know, but also— I don't want to take, like, people showing up as my entire pick, but like, it's the feeling of you put your plans on hold, you, like, got here, you drove or took a train or a bus or an Uber, and like decided to spend this evening with us. Both the people that we know and love who did not have to show up. Like, friends in New York City I haven't seen since— before the pandemic came.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And it was just— it was just really lovely and meaningful. And when they, you know, like my posts on Instagram or like send me birthday texts, like that's amazing. But maybe for me as a person who loves being home, being not at your house on a weekday night is sort of like the— the biggest compliment that I could pay somebody and having it paid to us is kind of astonishing.
Brandon: Truth.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Shout out— for me, shout-out Jeffrey Cranor, who— every time I see him, I'm like, "Does he remember who I am?" And then every time I say hello, I gotta shake his hand, because I'm unsure and he's like, "What the fuck are you doing? Give me a hug."
Amanda: Doesn't need to be like that, and he is.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Such a sweetie.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Seeing the mods in person was— was absolutely wild.
Amanda: I know. It was great.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: It was so fun.
Eric: Learning about Courtney's job also.
Julia: That was so cool.
Amanda: A scientist.
Eric: That gets rolled up in it, yeah. She creates sodas. Absolutely wild.
Brandon: And it was the first time in like— I think since their second child was born, where they were able to have a night out—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: —so—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: —they chose it to spend with us.
Julia: They chose us.
Amanda: They did. And again, like people drove like 5 hours to see us in the Midwest. People— like someone drove from New York to Philly because the Philly show was 18 plus and the New York one was 21 plus, like just astonishing.
Brandon: Yeah. Someone flew in from Canada, I think.
Eric: Yeah, to the Minneapolis show. Yeah.
Amanda: Yes. To the Minneapolis. Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: With their mom who ended up buying a flask, and I was like, "Go mom."
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Great.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Eric: I liked— I liked her because she was wearing, like, less clothing than everyone else and she's like, "Yeah. No, I'm used to this temperature." She was wearing like a dress and I'm like, "Hell yeah, dawg."
Amanda: It was, like, slightly below freezing and she's like, "Oh, this is great."
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: So that's my take, is people but especially our friends showing up for us.
Eric: Nice.
Brandon: Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Shout-out to everyone and anyone who helps us on the merch table, especially.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Incredible.
Eric: I— I was saying this before, but shout-out to Aristotle and Aristotle's partner, I don't remember her name.
Brandon: Morgan.
Eric: Morgan?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Where I was like— I'm so glad that the first one— the first show we had, we had the most help because Lauren was there, and Aristotle and Morgan was there. And Morgan is so tattooed, and I was just like, "Yeah, let's have tattooed merch girls every single time. Like that's gonna do it.
Amanda: Parenthesis, appreciative. Like, this is great.
Eric: Appreciative. Like, that's going— that's gonna move stuff.
Amanda: Yeah. You can tell Roux—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —has worked conventions because they were just like an— an incredible salesperson at the Philly merch table.
Eric: Oh, Roux was so good.
Amanda: And, like, pinched hit last minute. Like, it was— it was so good.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: It was great.
Brandon: Aristotle is also tattooed up and down. You just can't tell because he wears long sleeves.
Eric: Well, yeah, Morgan was not long sleeves. Morgan was—
Amanda: No. Morgan looked like— looked like a—
Eric: — was accessorizing with her tattoos.
Amanda: Morgan looked like a punk or a rock band, like roadie.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: And all of our listeners were like, "Hello, may I have a poster?"
Brandon: I love it.
Amanda: Alright, so circling back for the final pass, Brandon, then Julia, then Eric.
Brandon: Okay. I think I have to— I have to choose— I don't— I don't want to choose this one because it is a slightly spoiler, but I am going to say one of my options was penis counts, to figure out what that means.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: That's good, though. That was good.
Brandon: Go get the VODs. I think I just got to go with the fashions and the groomings.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: You know? Of us specifically, but also of the crowd.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I thought it was a baller— just like a baller move to have all of our best outfits at every stop of every tour. It was really fun.
Amanda: Yeah. It felt nice.
Brandon: Yeah. And, like, I got a beard trim before, which was, you know, luxurious. Yeah. I don't know. I just— I enjoyed that, you know? I don't get dressed that much, so—
Amanda: Yeah. Also, we would all just like pile into the van, drive for 6 hours and then, like, in 30 minutes in the Airbnb, be show ready. And it's like, "Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is what we look like composed."
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: I wore 5 different sets of sneakers throughout the tour.
Brandon: I was about to say, yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Which I— I packed for, and it was wild. I'm just so happy that I was able to get all that. Yeah, packing was hard. Packing was very hard.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Yeah. I wo— I wore 6 different jumpsuits, I think, the entire tour.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Damn.
Julia: That was pretty fun.
Amanda: And I—
Brandon: Damn.
Amanda: —I low-key themed my outfits to the Join the Party character I was playing that night. So another little—
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: —thing you can look for in the VODs.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hell yeah. My final thing is— my final thing is the amount of perverts out there that really wanted Brandon's stank dice.
Amanda: Nice. Explain, baby.
Julia: Re— so we had three different raffles at every single show, and it was—it's very fun to, like, be able to put together, like, cool, little basically, like, fan care packages for all y'all. But in particular, we also raffled off my blessed dice and Brandon's cursed dice. And the amount of times where I went to go call the raffle, and I was like, "What do we want to start with?" And people were just so horny for Brandon's cursed dice.
Amanda: They screamed stank.
Julia: Just would scream for the stank. And I— U got to call them a little perverts every time and it was a delight for me.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Also, you could see in the raffle cups how many more entries the Brandon stank dice got in some cities than the blessed dies and it made me— made me smile.
Brandon: Yeah. Well, that's what—
Julia: And I was like, "Wow."
Brandon: That's what was interesting, because the first stop in Seattle, at the end of it, I was asking— talking to Aristotle and I was asking about that. And I think Julia's had nine more than I did. And I was—
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: —like, "Oh, shit. Is it gonna go this way the entire tour?"
Amanda: No, no.
Brandon: No, no, no.
Amanda: No, no.
Eric: No.
Julia: No.
Eric: Hopefully not. I— I'm on the side of the pervert audience. I lo— I love it, because the blessed dice, yeah, I want Julia's— Julia has brought these dice to the finishing school. She puts them up on the highest numbers the whole time.
Julia: I trained them.
Amanda: Yup.
Eric: It's— and you do it for one thing. I want my dice to roll well, absolutely. Think about all of the uses of Brandon stanky dice.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: You use it as a DM. You can try to gift it to someone else, like poison in a— in a cup of porridge.
Amanda: Yep.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: You get married to it. It becomes your life partner.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. There's so many uses for Brandon's stank.
Amanda: I know. They really are.
Eric: Let's use all the parts of the Brandon buffalo.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: The Brandalo.
Amanda: It's very important. It's very important.
Julia: I also want to shout-out the person who got Brandon's stank dice in the final show in DC, and then immediately message us, saying, "The first roll I got was a Nat 20." And I was like—
Amanda: They're gonna keep you guessing.
Julia: "—Damn." Yeah.
Eric: It's a liar, it's a liar.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's a lie.
Amanda: And then Eric closing out not just a fourth round of the draft, but the draft overall. What are you gonna finish with?
Eric: After this, we can throw out our remaining picks, right?
Amanda: Yeah, we'll do—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: We'll just name things left on the board.
Eric: We'll just name— name what's on the board. Because there is one I wanted to shout-out, which was probably one of my favorite moments, but I'm going to sit on that for a second. I'm going to say, because I'm the last pick of this draft, this tour was successful. Golly, makes me want to do more, doesn't it?
Amanda: Yay.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: It's mine, because it's like— you know, we're in our 30s, my friends. I— like I said, I did slam poetry in— in college. We toured a little bit. I slept on floors. I slept in ter— with, like, 6 people in one hotel room. I've slept in— in so many different venues like that, and I can't do that anymore, because I'm 30— I'm nearly 33. And my back would break and I would get no sleep. And then I would hate all of you.
Brandon: Same.
Eric: But the fact that we were able to do this, it went incredibly well. Y'all showed up. And we also got, like, nice Airbnbs and hotel rooms when we need to. Yeah. We stayed in Brandon's house and in our house in New York, right? But still, we— and we got Chrysler Pacificas for God's sakes.
Amanda: We didn't make Brandon and Julia share the single full bunk bed that was present in many of my Airbnb choices, because we were able to get places with at least three distinct sleeping rooms.
Brandon: We had private rooms in every—
Julia: Amanda, thank you.
Amanda: You're welcome.
Brandon: —in every place.
Amanda: You're welcome.
Eric: Yeah. No— the only people who had to share were the people directly married to each other. And even then, we took the master bed— we took the masters, so we also had space.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It— so it was like— it was nice and we were able to do it. We even— we had a free day in Minneapolis and we were able— we had a nice dinner, all of us together on the tour. That was just like we— it was successful, and it wasn't just bare bones. Like we weren't just sleeping in a van.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: We rolled the bones, Eric.
Eric: And that— with the bone— the bones rolled.
Amanda: We just didn't rattle them, we rolled them.
Eric: We shake, rattled, and rolled the bones?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And I think it's exciting for other places we want to go in the future. I like stringing these together. I think it's something— another thing that I realized.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: It's like, yeah, I like doing individual live shows and everything, but doing— blocking out 10 days and doing live shows was really fun for me.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: And it makes me want to do more in the future.
Brandon: And you get better at it night after night, too. So—
Amanda: You get better at it. And I mean, we meant it when we said, like in the process of selling tickets like, "Hey, listen, if we, like, lose money on this and this, like, doesn't sell as we hoped it would, if it's like a tough experience, then, you know, we can't necessarily justify doing it again or more." But the fact that you did show up, you bought the VODs, like you're— you know, you're coming for the cities, you found out, you shared with your friends, you bought people. The average person bought like one in a— 1.4 tickets, so like more people— you know, many people like brought a friend, so it— it just makes us incredibly proud.
Brandon: Yeah. And especially, especially shout-out to everyone who bought merch that was the clutch—
Eric: Yes.
Brandon: —move to make it.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Not even— not just break even, but slightly—
Amanda: Modest profitable.
Brandon: —slightly above.
Eric: Modest one.
Amanda: But you know what?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I'll take it.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It makes you want to do more merch too, and more interesting merch, knowing—
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: —we can tour with it and then bring it places. Because it's like we've been optimizing for online stuff, which is like stickers, hats—
Brandon: Pins.
Amanda: Pins, yeah.
Eric: —digital stuff. But then if we do weirder things, that's something you can sell in person. It makes a lot more sense.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: I think it's something that we realized hats did so well in person. It's something you need to see and not even try on, but like, "Oh, I want a hat," makes so much more sense when— when you see it in front of you.
Brandon: They just look better, yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It's the thing that's the most different from seeing a photo of it to seeing it in person, so that went really, really well. So yeah, my pick is let's do more— let's do more of this because this tour went really well.
Amanda: Yay.
Brandon: It's a good pick.
Julia: Nice.
Eric: Hell yeah. Alright. Do we have any other picks? Does anyone have any—anything else they wrote down or thought of?
Julia: I wrote down boot drugs.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Julia's boot drugs is a good— is a good one.
Amanda: Julia's sleep gummies were in her boots and a different boot every night.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: And every time she put on her shoes, she was like, "Oh, yeah, I forgot my drugs were in here. "
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, I got shots of Malort in Chicago.
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: To the stage, that was great.
Eric: To the stage.
Brandon: I liked driving from whatever De— whatever goes into Delaware and whatever goes out to Delaware by going into Delaware. It was like shitty roads and then we hit Delaware, and it was like, "Oh, these roads are perfect."
Eric: It was Massachusetts into Delaware, yeah.
Amanda: No, Eric, those states don't touch.
Eric: No?
Amanda: No.
Julia: No.
Eric: Well, Ma— well, the only reason that Massachusetts has also like garbage roads, because it broke our car. That's why I was so fixated on it.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, infrastructure, I have a lot of opinions about the highways in Minnea— in Minnesota and Wisconsin now.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: I loved all the like prep we did to meet our human needs. Like, we had, you know, coffee in the morning and, like, jerky snacks. And when we, again, like did the, you know, delivery and stuff. Everyone was able to get exactly what they wanted. All of that was really great. And yeah, all of the— all of the Airbnbs we're in were memorable, but especially shout-out to the Minneapolis one.
Eric: Oh, God.
Julia: Yeah, it was beautiful.
Amanda: Which is like the craftsman home of a lovely pair of retirees who are like hanging out in South America while their daughter Airbnb's their house, and it was just like this is a beautiful home, and it was so pretty.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Speaking of Airbnbs, one of my picks was my cave in Philadelphia.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: They had a finished basement.
Amanda: I was like, "Okay, guys." So like going into each one, I'd, like, give them the lay of the land. I was like, "Okay, great. This one has, you know, the—the primary suite on the, like, third floor, the middle floor has two rooms and one bathroom. And then, like, FYI, but I don't think anyone's going to use this, there's also a pull-out couch in the basement with its own bathroom." And Brandon's like, "I'll see you later." And I was like, "What?"
Brandon: And then I— I squelched down there. I was like, "Yeah, my cave."
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: When you— when you were talking about the troll, did you mean you? You meant you?
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Got it. Got it. Let's see.
Amanda: There's some notable showers in those Airbnbs. There were some mobile kitchens, yeah.
Eric: We have incredible airplane luck, but I didn't want to bring it up.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Knowing— I don't want— didn't want to turn anyone's luck going forward to actually drafting that.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah, but—
Eric: Oh, the— the one guy who had an Outback Steakhouse shirt that we all signed in DC.
Amanda: Yes, in DC.
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: Oh, my God. That was awesome. Yeah.
Amanda: Shout-out that guy. Also, that bar, Atlas Brewing, had like three bar dogs and they were so sweet.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Julia: They were very nice.
Brandon: The— the naps that we all took, that was good.
Amanda: Naps were great.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Solid naps.
Amanda: Eric and I were away for two episodes of Top Chef, we watched both on different Airbnb— YouTube TVs. That was fun.
Eric: Oh, I want to shout-out Em in Seattle who hyped me up before we recorded. I was like, "I hope these people meet me where I am," and she came in and she's like, "You are the best— you are the best DM in podcasting. Griffin McElroy can eat it." And I'm like, "Let's go!"
Brandon: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Truly, turned it all around.
Eric: Oh, that was so good.
Amanda: Yeah. Alyssa, who had— who had a child while in part— listening to Join the Party during an extended labor, who we met, and saw updated photos of just a full grown human, that is that baby.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That is the baby.
Brandon: Yeah, shout-out Kat as well for having tattoos of both Join the Party and Spirits logos.
Amanda: Yeah, we took pictures.
Eric: Seeing that in person, yeah.
Julia: We got a great picture with that.
Amanda: Incredible. This was pre-tour, but our Airbnb in LA had like a little courtyard, and I had therapy like outside in the sun, and I was like, "Oh, no, my depression is fixed." Like this is—
Eric: Oh, this is why everyone writes an album about this. Oh, no.
Julia: The two Tiki bars that I gotta go to because Brandon and Lauren took me to them before you guys got into town.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Try staying in LA during a pandemic and see if your depression gets fixed.
Amanda: I bet it doesn't, Brandon. I bet it doesn't.
Eric: I'm drafting Brandon moving to LA in January 2020 and teaching us how—and teaching us how to record for ourselves.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: March 2020--
Eric: Oh, I was trying to be nice and not— I was trying to be nice and not sniped.
Brandon: Or February, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: It was March 1, 2020, Eric.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: It's the day after we all left Texas.
Brandon: It was like two days before the lockdown started.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: I didn't want to snipe you that hard, Brandon, but—
Amanda: It wa— no, it was.
Eric: —please— yeah, no, I think that's— I think that was everything for me.
Brandon: Oh, I got— I— I think this always happens when we were together, but I love it when— one of my favorite things that always happens is our language coalesces. So we just start saying the same shit.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Like, snipped, or sniped, or Tote Road Shagamaw, or whatever. So—
Eric: Oh, snipped. I should have drafted snipped.
Amanda: Tote Road Shagamaw.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Tote Road Shagamaw.
Brandon: Yeah, there's a million of them, but I always think that's fun.
Amanda: It is really fun. And it's— it was very fun spending time together. Not hating any of you, even after 10 days in very close proximity and remembering that this is very fun, and we can trust each other. And we can show up to, again, just not going to name names, but a venue where Brandon walked in and said, "Amazing. Great to be here. Can you just point me toward the lights, sound, and chairs?" And they said, 'We don't have any of that, sir." And he was like, "I'm sorry?" And so in, you know, 75 minutes, like put together an entire setup for the tour. And we all know how to do this, and we're all professionals, and you're all extremely freaking funny. And something Eric's mom said, it's like, "Each of you has, like, your own take on the humor," and like I— I can never predict what any one person will say, but like you all very much complement each other well. And it's because we've been doing this together for a very long time. And doing it in front of people who laughed in the moment when we said things. I thought for sure someone was going to take that in the draft. Like, they—we're curating the best, like, standup audience of all time. Like y'all all showed up, I mean, plus your plus ones, I guess, because you like what we do, and so it was like on easy mode for me as a performer, saying a joke that I know you're gonna laugh at, because you know me. But it was— it was so good. It's like being the center of attention at a party, but it's all four of us and it's for two hours.
Brandon: 100%. Yeah. Especially shout-out to the folks who were dragged there by their significant other and then came to me afterwards or came to any of us, and was like, "Yeah, I didn't know what the fuck this was, but it was fucking awesome."
Julia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Eric: I'll take that.
Julia: Shout-out.
Eric: I'll take that. All the new Join the Party listeners we have, who only listen to Spirits and now think Join the Party is good, I'm gonna— I'm gonna shout-out to them.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Very cute. Cool people met us at PAX Unplugged last year—
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: —and then bought VIP tickets this year. And I was like, "I recognize you from Eric beating you in blackjack probably several times in a row."
Brandon: Oh, I don't want to— I don't want to— I don't want to end this, but I think the last thing we do need to end on is—
Amanda: Oh, sure.
Brandon: —a very important man that we met, who's— goes in Discord by Tattooed-N-Tall.
Amanda: Yeah. No. Jeff—Jeff—
Julia: Oh, my God.
Amanda: —Jeff is kind of the—
Brandon: The coolest man alive?
Amanda: —the coolest man alive, just like— again, meeting so many of you, like I would walk around at some point and be like, "Oh, I bet you're here for Join the Party, or we bet you're here for Spirits," just so I could identify y'all. Like, your outfits are great. Two people who knew each other from camp, but didn't know each other was going to be there, saw each other in DC and I watched that happened.
Brandon: Uh-huh.
Amanda: That was so cute.
Julia: That's wild.
Amanda: Many people were like, "Oh, I'm this in Discord." But yeah, Tattooed-N-Tall, specifically Jeff is like a full grown man, has a kid, a firefighter, teaches musical theater, tech, right? Or like directing musical theater.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: And just like an interesting, and lovely, and very fun person. We're like, "Wait, you— you want to spend time with us?" Like it was— it was great.
Brandon: I just love it when people are just like, "Yeah, I am what I am, and I ain't afraid to show it." It's great.
Eric: So good.
Amanda: So nice.
Julia: I remember walking in and he's like, "Oh, I'm Jeff. I'm Tattooed-N-Tall." I'm like, "You are both of those things."
Amanda: You are.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: You are.
Eric: Jeff, not to take someone else's personality and, like, make it as a reflection of you, but I did think that he was like a Tulpa that all four of us collectively dreamed, where like he had every single one of his interests, was one of our interests.
Amanda: Yes.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It was wild. And I'm like, "You— I'm gonna keep making sports jokes for you. I'm gonna keep talking about 684 for you, Jeff."
Amanda: Yeah. Because again, like the queer librarians will email. The queer librarians will tag us in their posts, but like the Jeffs of the world, they don't say anything, and then they show up, and you're like, "Oh." It's great.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It was so good.
Brandon: I love it.
Eric: Yeah. I have some other— some— some final small ones. I mean, shout-out— we had a photographer in New York City.
Amanda: Ursula.
Eric: So we gotta shout-out to Ursula.
Amanda: Love it.
Eric: Making content on the road was good. I'm so glad we had those microphones and we had so many XLR cords, which we needed, which we needed.
Amanda: Which we needed, yeah.
Eric: We definitely needed.
Amanda: And a projector, I thought it was gonna be the size of like, you know, your palm, but we use that projector in every single venue, including the one where nobody was prepared, and it like saved the day. It was great.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Well, we were prepared.
Amanda: Yeah. We were prepared.
Eric: And I also have Brandon seeing our apartment and immediately lusting after the glass rinser that he then bought.
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: Hmm. Nice.
Brandon: It's downstairs, I'm going to install it today.
Eric: Yay.
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: Yay.
Amanda: Send us a video.
Brandon: I don't know if anyone listening doesn't know, but like at a bar, they'll— usually, they'll take the— the glass, flip it upside down, and rinse it, because soap residue in a glass can make the— the head of a beer less— like, it'll deflate faster. And so they rinse all the soap residue out. And I was like, "That's the thing that only bars can have." And then I went to Eric and Amanda's, and I was like, Eric, "What the fuck is this?"
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Like, I like it using the cool rinse-y thing where you go, "Pshhh."
Amanda: And our friend who has a baby installed it, because they have it for their bottles.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: But, yeah, no, if you have like a— as long as you have a second waterline, if you have like one of those, like, spray hoses or something, or like a hot water tap, you just put it right in there.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric(as Scoott McGarry): Alright. That's the end of the draft, everybody. It's 1952 once again.
Amanda: Oh. Oh, thanks, Scoott.
Eric (as Scoott McGarry): Or it's '41. I forgot what the year was when I made this joke.
Julia: Scoott.
Amanda: Scoott, may your dad Jeremy rest in peace.
Eric: God, I got to— the lore— the lore is so good. Well, folks, everyone, please take a— keep a lookout for all the stuff. The VODs, if you bought tickets, are coming to you very soon, as soon as you get the emails. But if you want to email us, you may. We are going to put VODs— because the— the camera quality and the microphone quality is so good.
Amanda: Better than I expected, yeah.
Eric: So if you didn't get tickets, you can buy them at some point. We're gonna put these onli— online, or we're gonna figure out what we're going to do with— we're gonna put the audio in the feed or on the Patreon feed. We're gonna figure something out. But we have so many of them and they're— they're absolutely incredible. And coming up in the future, we are going to do a live show survey about where we should go next, so please keep your eyes and ears out for it, because we want you to tell us where you're from, especially from size B or size C cities, you all came the fuck out. So we're like Nashville? Portland? Toronto?
Brandon: Madison.
Amanda: Denver.
Eric: Denver, Columbus?
Brandon: Denver?
Amanda: Pittsburgh?
Eric: Pittsburgh would be fun. Now, I— there are more live— there are also other podcasts I know that are going on live show, so I ca— I'm just like, "I wanted to go to this venue, and this venue, and this venue." So—
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Dallas, my mom will be so happy.
Amanda: We can pet those dogs.
Brandon: Pet the dogs.
Amanda: So we'll be— we'll be sending out more info soon, but like Eric said, keep an eye out. Thank you again to every single person who— who shared, who came out, who bought tickets, who told their friends to buy tickets. And who said next time, "You're in X city, you will see me first." We want to make it happen.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I have a— guys, I have one Iast thing to say.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Okay. So imagine you're at the top of a hill, right?
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And maybe like you just raced Koopa the Quick up at the top in Mario 64—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —and you— you know— you know— you know what I'm talking about.
Brandon: I've never done that.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I never got to do it.
Eric: Okay, that's fine. But like imagine you're Mario— you're Mario from Mario 64, and then there's a skeleton up at the top.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then the skeleton is like, "Oh, what if I race you down?" And then the skeleton trips and falls down the hill. What would you say that skeleton is doing?
Brandon: Oh, I think we would say that it's—
All: Rolling them bones!
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