Toruk: The First Flight with Rachel Lang

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David

[00:00:05] Blank Check with Griffin and David

[00:00:15] It's Toruk the first podcast!

[00:00:17] That's right.

[00:00:18] There are no lines.

[00:00:19] Not really.

[00:00:20] Yeah.

[00:00:21] Hi everybody, my name is Griffin Ewan.

[00:00:23] My name is David Sims.

[00:00:24] This is a podcast called Blank Check with Griffin and David.

[00:00:27] That's right.

[00:00:28] We are hashtag the two friends.

[00:00:29] That's right.

[00:00:30] We do mini series.

[00:00:31] That's right.

[00:00:32] About directors who early on had massive success.

[00:00:36] And then get a series of, I don't know what, Blank Checks one might say?

[00:00:41] One might?

[00:00:42] I was feeling a little saucy that day.

[00:00:44] Yeah, to do their own creative project.

[00:00:47] Sometimes those checks bounce.

[00:00:50] And sometimes those checks deposit.

[00:00:53] Slow it down.

[00:00:54] Trying to get saucy now.

[00:00:58] This is a mini series called Podinator colon judgment cast.

[00:01:02] That's the name of the mini series.

[00:01:03] It is a mini series about James Cameron.

[00:01:05] We have been talking about James Cameron.

[00:01:07] Yes.

[00:01:08] Now you and I have only been talking about him for two episodes.

[00:01:10] We're doing this a little early.

[00:01:12] This is our bonus episode.

[00:01:13] It's going to come at the end.

[00:01:15] But we had to get on Mike right away.

[00:01:17] Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures.

[00:01:20] Yeah.

[00:01:21] Okay?

[00:01:22] And on September 11th, 2016, never forget, something came up.

[00:01:30] Something came up.

[00:01:31] At that time we had only recorded.

[00:01:33] We talked about the terminator.

[00:01:36] Right.

[00:01:37] And usually we like to save the bonus for the end so that we can come up with our final thoughts,

[00:01:41] our information about the filmmaker.

[00:01:43] Oh my God.

[00:01:44] But something flew into New York City.

[00:01:46] Yep.

[00:01:47] On orange wings.

[00:01:49] It wasn't a plane, thank God.

[00:01:51] No, Jesus.

[00:01:52] Come on.

[00:01:53] It would have been too soon.

[00:01:54] No, come on.

[00:01:55] It would have been too soon.

[00:01:56] I don't endorse that joke.

[00:01:57] It would have been.

[00:01:58] I'm not joking.

[00:01:59] It would have been too soon for that to happen.

[00:02:00] I don't think it's funny.

[00:02:01] Move on.

[00:02:02] I'm not a filmmaker.

[00:02:03] A dragon flew into New York City.

[00:02:05] That is right.

[00:02:06] A dragon by the name of Taruk and it was his first one.

[00:02:08] Taruk.

[00:02:09] Taruk.

[00:02:10] I keep on getting confused with Taruk, the dinosaur hunter who is an N64 computer

[00:02:14] game hero.

[00:02:15] Yeah.

[00:02:16] Taruk is a big orange dragon thing.

[00:02:20] Hero, villain or both?

[00:02:22] Both.

[00:02:23] That's what the show questions.

[00:02:25] Cirque du Soleil inspired show that functions.

[00:02:28] It's an Avatar inspired show.

[00:02:29] It is a Cirque du Soleil show.

[00:02:31] I mean, I assume they inspire themselves regularly.

[00:02:34] Yeah, well I think that's part of the creative process for them.

[00:02:37] And also, I'll say this felt a little more like a Cirque du Soleil inspired show than a Cirque

[00:02:40] du Soleil show.

[00:02:41] It felt like a show inspired thing.

[00:02:43] Like I wouldn't go as far as to call it a show in some respect.

[00:02:46] It was definitely inspired by entertainment.

[00:02:49] Yeah.

[00:02:50] It was brushing up against entertainment.

[00:02:52] You know, it was coming up to the border of something entertaining.

[00:02:55] Yes.

[00:02:56] And then just stopping and turning around.

[00:02:59] So maybe sitting down.

[00:03:00] I felt like this was an old man.

[00:03:02] Well, okay, so I should say a few weeks back, a friend of the pod, Esther Zuckerman, who

[00:03:08] talked Aloha with us a while back.

[00:03:11] She I Am Me in the morning and said, David, the Cirque du Soleil has a show.

[00:03:16] It's based on Avatar.

[00:03:18] It's called Taruk the First Flight and it's going to be at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn

[00:03:22] in September.

[00:03:23] What perfect timing.

[00:03:24] We're doing a James Cameron mini-show.

[00:03:25] You should go.

[00:03:26] What perfect timing.

[00:03:27] You should go.

[00:03:28] Yeah.

[00:03:29] You don't want to.

[00:03:30] I don't want to do that.

[00:03:31] No, to Esther.

[00:03:33] And she said, okay, great.

[00:03:34] I'm going to tell Griffin right away.

[00:03:36] But she did.

[00:03:37] He's going to make you do it.

[00:03:38] But she did.

[00:03:39] And she knew.

[00:03:40] And she knew you would.

[00:03:41] Yeah.

[00:03:42] And she knew that once you knew I didn't want to do it, you would only be more

[00:03:44] resolute than we had to do it.

[00:03:45] Well, that's what we call a griff bit.

[00:03:47] Exactly.

[00:03:48] Yeah.

[00:03:49] My friends have long called it a griff bit when there's something that I find very

[00:03:51] amusing that only angers everyone else.

[00:03:53] Right.

[00:03:54] And then maybe.

[00:03:55] And then it has to happen.

[00:03:56] And then maybe months down the line people laugh at it in retrospect.

[00:03:57] You know, it's pretty funny that you did that.

[00:03:59] But in the moment no one likes it.

[00:04:01] No.

[00:04:02] I was pretty unhappy about it.

[00:04:03] I did not want to go to the Barclays Center.

[00:04:05] Certainly not on September 11th, 2016.

[00:04:07] Well, it was a little too soon.

[00:04:09] It was just because we were early in our mini series.

[00:04:12] It's a little too soon because we usually record the bonus after.

[00:04:15] But I'll tell you what.

[00:04:16] I publicly shamed you.

[00:04:17] You publicly shamed me.

[00:04:18] But here's what happened really.

[00:04:20] Yeah.

[00:04:21] Something big happened.

[00:04:22] Well, a lot of things happen.

[00:04:23] We'll get to that.

[00:04:24] But no, it's more like, you know, I was like, well, why don't we even go?

[00:04:27] You know, James Cameron didn't even direct it.

[00:04:29] No, well, I'll introduce her.

[00:04:30] I'll introduce her.

[00:04:31] Okay.

[00:04:32] Because I'm going to do a segue.

[00:04:33] Okay.

[00:04:34] Well, you know, James Cameron didn't even direct it.

[00:04:35] And you were like, the bonus episodes are never about something that the person directed.

[00:04:38] And a matrix.

[00:04:39] And a matrix.

[00:04:40] Very secret of M Night Shyamalan.

[00:04:42] And I was like, fuck he's right.

[00:04:43] Rody's Cameron only directed half the season.

[00:04:46] Well, yeah, that was kind of a boss plan or whatever.

[00:04:48] Anyway, so we went.

[00:04:51] All right.

[00:04:52] What's your segue?

[00:04:53] And then there was something else that got you excited.

[00:04:55] There actually was something else that got me really excited.

[00:04:57] One of the greatest friends of this podcast.

[00:04:59] Absolutely.

[00:05:00] The first guest we ever had.

[00:05:02] Is that true?

[00:05:03] That is true.

[00:05:04] Really?

[00:05:05] Is that true?

[00:05:06] Oh, no, no, no.

[00:05:07] I'm sorry.

[00:05:08] We had Conor Aleph on season one.

[00:05:09] We had Conor Aleph.

[00:05:10] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:05:11] But you were the second guest we ever had.

[00:05:12] One of our earliest guests.

[00:05:13] Good company.

[00:05:14] And best buds.

[00:05:15] Yes.

[00:05:16] Yeah, one of my absolute favorite people in the world.

[00:05:17] Old trivia cohort of ours.

[00:05:18] And part of a two-time champion.

[00:05:19] Anakin Padme Ultra Shipper.

[00:05:21] Yes.

[00:05:22] Yeah.

[00:05:23] Yeah.

[00:05:24] And big James Cameron fan.

[00:05:26] Sure.

[00:05:27] Huge James Cameron fan.

[00:05:28] Huge Aliens fan.

[00:05:29] Yeah.

[00:05:30] Huge Sigourney Weaver.

[00:05:31] Sigourney.

[00:05:32] Sigourney.

[00:05:33] Sigourney, I hit her name weird.

[00:05:34] Sigourney Weaver.

[00:05:35] Sigourney Weaver fan.

[00:05:36] Yeah.

[00:05:37] Yeah.

[00:05:38] Normally Susan Weaver as you all probably know.

[00:05:39] Absolutely.

[00:05:40] I mean what a good choice.

[00:05:41] Yeah.

[00:05:42] The great, the amazing, the FFS and Rachel Lang is here.

[00:05:46] She is here.

[00:05:47] And she was here at the Barclay Center with us.

[00:05:51] Because when we...

[00:05:52] And a couple other folks.

[00:05:53] And they publicly argued about this on Twitter.

[00:05:54] She said, oh my God I would go with you guys when you're going I'll buy tickets.

[00:05:57] And then I didn't buy tickets.

[00:05:59] I didn't.

[00:06:00] I thought I would buy David a ticket and then I didn't.

[00:06:01] You were in there.

[00:06:02] Well look, I got a Venmo U50 box.

[00:06:04] Yes, you did.

[00:06:05] Yes.

[00:06:06] We all went along with the wonderful Alex Pitts.

[00:06:09] Of course.

[00:06:10] Absolutely.

[00:06:11] And Ramona Head.

[00:06:12] True.

[00:06:13] Who was also part of our winning trivia team.

[00:06:14] That's right.

[00:06:15] And somebody else.

[00:06:16] Someone else, huh?

[00:06:17] I'm gonna tap my chin.

[00:06:19] Huh.

[00:06:20] You know what it's funny.

[00:06:21] I can remember the face because I remember looking and seeing someone leaning forward on the edge

[00:06:27] of their seat.

[00:06:28] Oh man, what a great picture.

[00:06:29] I have it in my phone.

[00:06:30] And on their chin.

[00:06:31] We'll tweet it out from the account once this episode comes out.

[00:06:33] We should save it until then.

[00:06:34] I'll remember to tweet it out 11 weeks from now or whatever.

[00:06:37] Great.

[00:06:38] Great.

[00:06:39] It just wrapped eyes open like a child transported into a greater world for once he wasn't

[00:06:46] working because we all know him as one of the hardest workers in the business,

[00:06:49] right?

[00:06:50] Absolutely.

[00:06:51] For once he was enjoying the art himself rather than creating the art.

[00:06:54] And for once he wasn't, you know, as he constantly is watching a movie because he's our finest

[00:06:58] film critic.

[00:06:59] He is our finest film critic.

[00:07:00] Is he our finest circus critic?

[00:07:02] We'll find out.

[00:07:03] He might be.

[00:07:04] Like a good circus.

[00:07:06] He is the producer of the show.

[00:07:09] Some call him producer Ben, some call him producer Ben, some call her the band

[00:07:12] dooser, some call him...

[00:07:14] Her the band dooser.

[00:07:15] Some call her the...

[00:07:16] Look, gender is fluid.

[00:07:17] Some call him Mr.

[00:07:19] Positive, some call him the tiebreaker, some call him birthday Benny, some call him

[00:07:22] the fuck master.

[00:07:23] They do not call him Professor Crispy.

[00:07:25] Nope.

[00:07:26] They do call him the poet laureate.

[00:07:27] Sometimes.

[00:07:28] They do call him White Hop Benny which is a new one that we're sort of trying out.

[00:07:32] Yeah, we're thinking about it.

[00:07:33] What do you feel about that one?

[00:07:35] White Hop Benny.

[00:07:36] It feels a little racial to me.

[00:07:39] Interesting.

[00:07:40] Didn't even put that together but now that you say it I can't unthink it.

[00:07:43] So there's that.

[00:07:44] That's my problem.

[00:07:45] I thought of it and now I can't.

[00:07:46] It feels a little charged to me but we're living extraordinary times.

[00:07:49] Sensitive times.

[00:07:50] Yeah.

[00:07:51] Very sensitive times.

[00:07:52] Of course, you know he has graduated to certain titles over various miniseries.

[00:07:56] That is true.

[00:07:57] Such as Kylo Ben, producer Ben Kenobi.

[00:07:59] Kenobi.

[00:08:00] Kenobi.

[00:08:01] Ben, Nai Chan Lan, Ben Tsai.

[00:08:04] He's gonna have, oh and Benny Lane.

[00:08:07] He's gonna have a camera in name but we are not even close to figuring out that yet.

[00:08:10] No, we'll do that one episode before the episode you're listening to.

[00:08:13] Probably.

[00:08:14] Also, you know there is a vocal contingent that is arguing for a recount and they want it to

[00:08:19] be say Benny thing instead so you know keep that flame.

[00:08:22] Yeah I mean if I get enough tweets about it then I might care.

[00:08:26] Yeah.

[00:08:27] Yeah.

[00:08:28] Producer Ben.

[00:08:29] Hey guys.

[00:08:30] Wish him a hearty hello Fennel.

[00:08:32] Please do.

[00:08:33] You can always say hello to me on the streets.

[00:08:35] So.

[00:08:36] But I was there and-

[00:08:37] You were there.

[00:08:38] Me and Ben hung out in the Oculus.

[00:08:40] Oh yes.

[00:08:41] Which is the front of the Barclays Center and Rachel for a good 45 minutes while

[00:08:44] Griffin did not was late because the five train was being weird or something.

[00:08:48] Correct.

[00:08:49] Yeah.

[00:08:50] I didn't oversleep that day.

[00:08:51] I was wide awake.

[00:08:52] You were wide awake.

[00:08:53] In the words of M. Night Shyamalan.

[00:08:54] In the words of M. Night.

[00:08:56] But we went to see the show.

[00:08:57] And then we went to see Teruk, the first flight, a Cirque du Soleil jam, a Turing

[00:09:05] production.

[00:09:06] It's a Turing production.

[00:09:07] At the Barclays Center inspired by the film Avatar but set a good 3000 years.

[00:09:13] Inspired by James Cameron's.

[00:09:15] That's very true.

[00:09:16] Film Avatar.

[00:09:17] James Cameron's Avatar.

[00:09:18] Yes.

[00:09:19] You're talking about the actual, yeah here.

[00:09:21] The full title of the show is Teruk, the first flight inspired by James Cameron's Avatar.

[00:09:25] All right well you know good for them.

[00:09:26] A Cirque du Soleil experience.

[00:09:27] You are so excited to be looking things up on your computer right now.

[00:09:30] Oh my god.

[00:09:31] So guys I have wired internet today.

[00:09:33] Wired through a wire.

[00:09:35] We're not complaining about Wi-Fi anymore because-

[00:09:36] No way baby.

[00:09:37] David's got a dongle.

[00:09:38] And I probably will again bring that up many episodes earlier but whatever.

[00:09:42] This is the first time it's actually happening.

[00:09:44] Now let's talk about the most important element of the show.

[00:09:47] Steven the ticket taker.

[00:09:49] So Steven's a big deal.

[00:09:50] For one I actually want to say, all right I've been to the Barclays Center many times because

[00:09:54] I go to a lot of basketball games and it's cheap.

[00:09:56] I'm not a Nets fan but it's cheap and it's near where I live.

[00:09:59] I don't think any of you guys have ever been to the Barclays Center before.

[00:10:02] I have seen, I saw a Yeah Yeah Yeah concert there.

[00:10:04] Okay cool.

[00:10:05] Wow they can fill an arena.

[00:10:07] Good for them.

[00:10:08] Yeah.

[00:10:09] Yeah cool.

[00:10:10] Yeah it was pretty cool.

[00:10:11] Yeah yeah it was a sacrilege tour.

[00:10:12] I went with my sister around.

[00:10:13] I have a Yeah Yeah Yeah T-shirt that now is kind of a sleeping shirt.

[00:10:18] It's been so long.

[00:10:19] Rachel you have to say it two more times now?

[00:10:20] Yeah.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:22] Yeah yeah yeah.

[00:10:23] And now Beetlejuice has been summoned.

[00:10:24] Great.

[00:10:25] Beetlejuice is going to be our guest on the Terminator episode.

[00:10:28] No okay so-

[00:10:29] A salad of VistaVeity.

[00:10:32] I've always, I've always been totally impressed with their service at the Barclays

[00:10:37] Center.

[00:10:38] It's a well run place but I gotta say, Steven second to none.

[00:10:42] Unbelievable.

[00:10:43] So we go, we hear the show is starting.

[00:10:46] Oh we hear the show is starting because Griffin is super late.

[00:10:49] Correct.

[00:10:50] And as we walk into the arena where it's like-

[00:10:52] Shrieking and drums.

[00:10:54] Yeah.

[00:10:55] I asked everyone to get their 45 minutes before the show so we could record our-

[00:10:58] And we did!

[00:10:59] Which of course meant that I got there 45 minutes after I said I was going to be

[00:11:03] there right as the show was starting.

[00:11:04] Exactly.

[00:11:06] We, there's a very long will call line.

[00:11:09] Yeah that's true so you had to get in the will call line because you had booked

[00:11:12] online.

[00:11:13] Right and it's like oh fuck I hear the show is starting I got my tickets okay

[00:11:16] everyone come in you go through security we go to Steven the ticket taker

[00:11:19] and he goes I'm sorry these seats no longer exist you have to get your

[00:11:23] seats exchanged.

[00:11:24] Right and we're like oh Jesus Christ we just need to get in there.

[00:11:26] Fucking Steven are you fucking kidding me?

[00:11:27] No it wasn't Steven who said- oh no it was Steven it was Steven yeah yeah yeah yeah.

[00:11:31] Fucking Steven I gave him a little sass because at this point I was

[00:11:33] stressed out because I was hearing-

[00:11:34] You didn't say fucking Steven though.

[00:11:36] No but I was like I just picked these tickets up and he was like I know

[00:11:39] I'm sorry you got to go back, right and I'm hearing like

[00:11:42] Da da da do do do do do do do do do do do do.

[00:11:45] Right.

[00:11:46] Behind the black curtains right like they had like screamed off the stage

[00:11:49] Daa da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da,

[00:11:53] Except they didn't do that.

[00:11:54] They didn't do the James Horner score I don't think they could

[00:11:55] have got a license to it.

[00:11:56] Like it was like the survivor theme.

[00:11:58] Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm like oh god go back to the counter

[00:12:02] We're gonna miss it and we're not we're gonna be lost yeah, we're gonna we're gonna miss the story to be fair

[00:12:08] We did miss the beginning and we were

[00:12:15] We did miss like the first five minutes of the show they don't even have coming attractions no which was really weird

[00:12:20] Yeah, they could they should have had some coming they should have had some trailers

[00:12:24] You know for Dr. Strange

[00:12:27] They

[00:12:29] I'm like this even even know what he's talking about I just piss pick these tickets up

[00:12:33] How could they be exchange if the person just hands me off the computer right sure sure I go and I'm like walk over to the ticket desk

[00:12:40] And we're like I wear guys. We're in section

[00:12:44] 222 we got the cheapest tickets possibly which is a nosebleed seat no right up at the top the very top three decks up

[00:12:50] The tippy top yeah, and I go like he said I need to exchange my tickets

[00:12:54] I don't know what this fucking guy's talking about right she was like okay

[00:12:57] Yeah, and what clearly happened was we closed that section the show under sold so they oh yeah

[00:13:03] They dated under sell they took everyone in the nosebleeds and pushed them into one section and 90% of the nosebleeds were completely vacant

[00:13:09] Yeah, and there was one section that everyone was crammed into and they were like you know overflow of the nosebleeds now that

[00:13:15] We don't want staff roaming the rest of it right here your new tickets row nine. Yeah. Yeah court side

[00:13:22] We're suddenly fucking court side. Yeah, yeah, we have like $1,500 tickets and I went up and I was like Steven

[00:13:29] Thank you Steven was like see them much better

[00:13:31] But Steven before even said that he went whoa

[00:13:34] Yeah, he was impressed because he thought we were gonna get upgraded to like second tier right right at best

[00:13:39] He was overjoyed for us

[00:13:41] I've never felt like someone else was happier for like our fortune than I did there with Steven

[00:13:45] No, and I've never felt happier to have someone in my life than I did to have Steven at that moment right

[00:13:51] So we now sit down we sit down row nine the show is underway

[00:13:59] Ramona is lit she somehow has already like consumed a couple gin and tonics

[00:14:04] Yeah, our friend Ramona is very drunk at this point. I'm just wearing a sweater Rachel and Alex you guys are having a good time

[00:14:08] I was odd. I was I was sitting in between. Yeah, you were odd. Yeah, not odd

[00:14:13] Yeah, I'm odd, but I was also odd so we walk in and it was pretty

[00:14:20] It was also because again there were black curtains around the stage

[00:14:23] Yeah

[00:14:23] So like at a basketball game when you walk in you can see this the court, you know like it's like everything's open

[00:14:29] But they had it blacked it all out. And so we walk in it's like we're being transported into another world

[00:14:35] Yeah, world of Pandora Lang would you like to sort of describe?

[00:14:39] What we see when we walk in in a general sense what the show looks like

[00:14:43] Yeah

[00:14:44] I mean you're going through those black curtains and then it's totally black in the stands as well

[00:14:49] And someone is ushering you down and you turn toward the stage and it's a full basketball court covered in like

[00:14:56] like paper mache

[00:14:59] Projected lights lots of projected scenery

[00:15:01] You could tell that they didn't really want to like paint or build too many things and instead use lights

[00:15:07] Yes to make those colors and effect which worked for me

[00:15:11] Quite a lot. They had a giant tree which was not the tree of life or no spirits or

[00:15:19] Home tree it was a home, right?

[00:15:20] You know the big tree and that tree and there's also the what's it called the soul tree the mother tree

[00:15:26] Jesus how do we already not remember?

[00:15:30] It was house yeah

[00:15:31] But the like the tree is sort of like almost functions as the curtain like it opens up when they need like scene changes

[00:15:37] And then there's like a couple sculptural pieces that can transform sure there's a lot of like there's a ring

[00:15:44] Yes of wood hanging from the ceiling. It's like a wooden. Yeah, it's like a wooden crown

[00:15:48] There's like a center pillar that everyone sort of dances on at some point in every yes. Yes. Yeah, that is true

[00:15:54] There's one other thing we're leaving out

[00:15:57] Which is a cast of?

[00:15:59] Tens of Cirque de Soleil's finest

[00:16:01] Dressed as the mighty Navi dressed as either the mighty Navi or dressed in black

[00:16:08] So that they can do puppeteering of animals and yep even the black costumes also had tails

[00:16:13] Yeah, so the black cost that they were like silent like invisible sort of like

[00:16:19] Whatever and they all black no definition no color but tails and their and the ears

[00:16:27] And the pony tail you know the the braids as if we would be so taken out by the appearance of a non-navi figure

[00:16:34] On the stage were shadow Navi right well the show asked if nothing else it asked to

[00:16:40] Transport us to another world. It's a may I transport you to another world absolutely

[00:16:44] It said may yes, and I think ideally you know

[00:16:48] They would love if every audience member had horse blinders on so they couldn't look at their friends sitting in the seats next to them

[00:16:53] Because they would love it if it was completely a murder and this well

[00:16:56] They were trying to be immersive because this was an experience where you could download an app

[00:17:01] What was it called?

[00:17:02] Taruk the app. I mean this is I

[00:17:05] This is Lang's territory because laying laying discovered the app. Yeah

[00:17:09] I was just doing a lot of googling about the show beforehand. I really wanted to get a primer

[00:17:15] So that I was you know familiar with the material and could honor the story in the experience

[00:17:20] Appropriately that's always your priority is honoring the story. I love research and I love story

[00:17:24] I would say you may have honored the story better than the Cirque du Soleil did yeah, that's our you did a great job at this show

[00:17:32] So this app yeah

[00:17:35] We kind of do nothing sure no it's it's not really an app

[00:17:39] It's like a flashlight on your phone. Yes looks like lights that looks like eyes. Sorry sometimes

[00:17:44] Yeah, it could it would just sort of rumble once in a while and be like point your screen at the stage

[00:17:49] But so I thought that it was going to I thought that the light from your phone was gonna be a signal

[00:17:55] to some sort of

[00:17:57] camera or puppeteer in the show who would then like

[00:18:00] Drift like fireflies from the show toward you or like interact with you interacting and no

[00:18:07] It was just a beacon or some sort of activator. It was like a lighter

[00:18:11] Right it was just basically a yeah to telling you to hold up a light

[00:18:15] Yeah, it was cool

[00:18:16] It was effective at parts in the show where it was supposed to make it seem like there was a bunch of those creatures in the audience and the

[00:18:22] Eyes would all be glowing throughout the stadium like that was really cool. Yeah, I'll say it was like more

[00:18:28] Exciting to watch other people do it than it was to do it yourself

[00:18:32] Especially because people you would hold it and then you'd still like look at your phone like you still going okay

[00:18:36] My phone was slower than everybody else's phone

[00:18:38] So like Griffin and Ramona have their like beautiful scary

[00:18:42] Viper wolf eyes pointing out at the audience and I'm still trying to load the app. Yeah, I didn't even download the app

[00:18:47] I had a pretty low battery. It was the end of the day

[00:18:50] I did too, but I wore my battery out running the app

[00:18:53] My phone died in the second. Yeah, it seemed like one of those apps that had run your battery. Yeah

[00:18:58] So got my password

[00:19:00] Yeah, yeah, no Ben could had forgotten his iTunes password

[00:19:04] So you couldn't download the app it was sad. Yeah, so so I mean clearly you can tell we were really into the show by the

[00:19:10] I don't we've discussed it yet

[00:19:11] I just want to explain a little more detail what this app does

[00:19:13] So there's like there's like a tab that says like further explore the world of Pandora and you're like

[00:19:18] Oh cool

[00:19:18] It's gonna have like a glossary or whatever and you hit that tab and it just sends you on a link to the

[00:19:23] Turrach website sure so there's nothing in app that like tells you anything further about the show right and then

[00:19:29] There's a check-in

[00:19:30] So you like tell them where you're sitting and you're like oh is this going to this feels like this would activate things coming

[00:19:35] Towards your seat or whatever the fuck it is nope never comes into play

[00:19:38] But you tell them you're at the show and it sort of linked up to the the show

[00:19:41] And so at certain times when there's a moment in the show it says like you know

[00:19:46] The vibro wolves are coming right and it says like turn your phone your screen towards the stage in 30 seconds

[00:19:53] And then I think the fullest of things that happened were there was like

[00:19:57] When there's sort of the flying sort of glowing sprites in the avatar world

[00:20:02] It would be like the audience would hold those up and it would look like a lot of soul like lone lights in the audience

[00:20:07] But also just felt like well

[00:20:08] So there's one part where there was a thunderstorm and it activated the flashlight on the back of your phone

[00:20:13] So it looked like lightning sure yeah

[00:20:15] There was the viper wolves part where it was like the two green

[00:20:18] Eyes held it up. It looked like a sea of eyes in the shadows

[00:20:22] And then there were some parts where it was just like flashing colors although

[00:20:26] Ben I remember Ben being very excited by I think it was the finale and the lights were changing colors and flashing in time with

[00:20:34] The music yes. Yeah, that was that was so cool. That was pretty chill

[00:20:38] But it was kind of as you said just like a digital lighter. Yeah

[00:20:43] Yeah, I mean right I kept getting alerts that I had missed all of the alerts

[00:20:48] So it really sucked for me. I would say I had 25 notifications from the to rock app

[00:20:53] Like and some of them were just like visit the merchandise stand which we'll get to that

[00:20:58] There's definitely a merchandise spotlight here. Oh Jesus Christ. Yeah, I forgot all right, okay, okay

[00:21:03] Taruk the first fight so when we walk in we're in media res I guess by default because I was we were late

[00:21:09] But we were only like five minutes. Yes, the show had barely started

[00:21:13] Yeah, right

[00:21:13] I think we thought we had missed more and then realizes the show went on like oh this doesn't really have a there's not more

[00:21:19] There's not more right so we enter to a bunch of people as Navi like going up and down ropes and

[00:21:26] Jumping around and going like and speaking Navi and doing some trampolining. Yeah, this shows a prequel great

[00:21:34] Alright, so I did some I did some looking on the other side a long time set in the

[00:21:39] 7th century BC it's set in the 800s 800 BC's or does it go backwards?

[00:21:46] Look, I don't know. Yeah, look it's set in 873

[00:21:49] Avatar they believe in Jesus Christ. Yes, they believe in Jesus Christ. Of course. They accept to miss it

[00:21:53] Well, no, no, BC stands for before Cameron

[00:21:56] No, but like Cameron's the Jesus figure if I actually want to look this up

[00:22:01] If avatar the movie take it takes place in like the late

[00:22:04] 2000s right like yeah 21

[00:22:07] Just loaded the last airbender wiki this that's a problem

[00:22:10] Here we go. I was like 21 and change. I'm gonna guess 21 39. Oh

[00:22:16] Okay, let me let me actually let me can confirm that for you

[00:22:22] 2154 hey pretty close and a lot of years yeah in avatar as I'm sure we discussed in our episode

[00:22:31] The character of Jake sully mounts. Yeah, he's a great one of everyone's favorite lead character

[00:22:37] Mounts to Rook and becomes to Rook Mactoe. Yeah, and that's what impresses everyone and then anyone's impressed with them the biggest

[00:22:45] Fucking

[00:22:46] Leonopterix or whatever they're called that there is right he mounts it and he's the guy to mount okay fit

[00:22:52] Yeah, but it's not it's not a thing that happens every day not a thing that happens every day

[00:22:58] I'm looking it up. Okay

[00:23:00] No, he's the sixth

[00:23:01] I think he's this he's the six and it happened five times before what this show is about is the first time

[00:23:06] So in a nutshell this shows about the first time that someone wrote a big s dragon correct in the world of Pandora

[00:23:12] Yes among the Navi yeah and according to the avatar wikia, which is James hyphen Camerons hyphen avatar dot wikia

[00:23:20] Dot com because they have to distinguish themselves from the cartoon

[00:23:23] Which is so insane

[00:23:26] That happened in 837 BC 837 BC okay, so basically

[00:23:33] 3000 years ago. Yeah, this show takes place thousands of years earlier than the movie now

[00:23:37] Can I just ask cuz I've never seen avatar yet?

[00:23:40] Yeah, by the time oh, that's true. Yeah, that's weird

[00:23:43] But yeah, at the time we're recording this you haven't seen the film avatar

[00:23:45] So does their world have anything to do with the music streaming?

[00:23:51] Does their world have anything to do with music?

[00:23:53] I don't know what this is but no it doesn't then why Pandora Pandora

[00:24:00] Oh, I get you I gotta say out my girlfriend was there and she was looking over my shoulder at the app

[00:24:05] And it said like jump into Pandora and she was like oh like is there a playlist?

[00:24:09] She thought that like there was

[00:24:13] That's such an obvious Pandora was a thing yeah, I don't know if it's enough of a thing anymore. Well people still do it

[00:24:20] Okay, I'm sorry. I only know that because my friend tweeted about refusing to date people who use Pandora

[00:24:27] So sure yeah, so also title is taken over should mention should mention

[00:24:32] That Alex and and and you had seen avatar

[00:24:42] Then and Ramona had not had never seen the movie right but wait was it you I had seen it maybe twice

[00:24:48] No, but Alex like only seen it but like thought it was the cartoon

[00:24:52] Yeah, my girlfriend had gone to see it was invited by her friend in

[00:24:56] 2009 2009 right. Yes. She told this story

[00:24:58] This is a great story that she told me before we went into the show

[00:25:01] I think you missed the script

[00:25:03] 2009 the great Alex Pitz is invited to see avatar and she's all excited he gets to the theater and this weird movie starts up with like a

[00:25:10] spaceship and like

[00:25:11] People flying on it and another planet and she goes wow this is kind of a long trailer. Yeah, she was like

[00:25:19] Cartoon man

[00:25:24] Yeah, it was a big disappointment for her it is crazy those two movies came out of then a year each other

[00:25:28] Yeah, yeah. Yeah like within six months even

[00:25:33] Okay, so

[00:25:34] This show takes place thousands of years earlier. I think that is because

[00:25:38] As we know James Cameron has now threatened to throw four avatar sequels at us. He has and

[00:25:46] Promise not threatened promised. He's broken his promises before yeah, and he

[00:25:52] I

[00:25:53] Keeps on pushing the back and the scope keeps on getting bigger and bigger without him really disclosing

[00:25:59] What's happening in the other films?

[00:26:00] But I think like Cirque du Soleil in making an avatar inspired show had to keep like

[00:26:07] Give him a lot of space because it's like he's doing for more movies. I get you

[00:26:12] They can't fuck with the current avatar world at all right, right?

[00:26:15] But also even like maybe not even a prequel right even with prequel elements like across four films

[00:26:20] Who knows how many directions he's gonna go into and I read an interview

[00:26:23] He did with a vulture and they said like the incubation of the show they immediately came to the question of like well

[00:26:30] It has to take place before

[00:26:34] Humans make any contact

[00:26:36] With Pandora sure because the scale issue will become too huge right well

[00:26:41] They're supposed to be bigger than if you're big they are big

[00:26:45] But in this show they're person-sized right because they don't have anyone to compare themselves to any humans to compare themselves

[00:26:51] But but he said like you know if the if you have Cirque du Soleil performers playing the Navi, which is what you obviously want to do

[00:26:57] I don't know maybe they shouldn't maybe they should only had basketball players. I mean they were at the Barclay Center

[00:27:02] Minupole is

[00:27:05] Go on go on they

[00:27:07] Minupole is kind of built like a Navi. He's got the long

[00:27:10] Spindling

[00:27:12] Camerons said they even at a certain point looked into projecting the humans at three feet tall so that they could have I would have loved that

[00:27:19] I wish

[00:27:21] Like they were like we project them could we do holograms like what can we light?

[00:27:25] I've got the perfect fix just use all the props and stuff and make them like hobbit

[00:27:30] Like you know like trick like that visual trick like make them real small

[00:27:34] You can't do that when there's people at all

[00:27:37] You would need an avian a human standing next to everyone to be sitting in the same seat somehow

[00:27:43] All right. Well, I tried

[00:27:46] So they they were like let's set it thousands of years before and tell a story that one could argue has no impact on the avatar

[00:27:54] films whatsoever

[00:27:56] So is that why this show took fucking seven goddamn years to like be on stage like just when the right moment when nobody cares about

[00:28:05] Avatar anymore. It's like here it is

[00:28:07] It is the weirdest moments to possibly do this show because we're what I mean, what's Cameron saying?

[00:28:13] 2019 we're getting avatar to I think maybe

[00:28:21] Love looking things up on this internet

[00:28:25] Apparently maybe 2018 2018 is her it's listed on IMDB. Okay, so I would say it's gonna come out before 2030 maybe

[00:28:32] Yeah, right right right because he's doing as someone tweeted and I forget who but it was a great show

[00:28:38] He's doing the breakfast club thing where it's like

[00:28:41] principal verning like threatening Bender with more and more

[00:28:47] Detention every time he speaks up. We're gonna make it two weeks. It's three now

[00:28:51] Four weeks, you know every year he goes like hey, I'm sorry avatar to has been pushed back a little bit

[00:28:57] But good news another movie like it started out as avatar to and then became an avatar trilogy

[00:29:02] And then it was he's gonna make four movies and now it's five feel like we're gonna talk about this on the avatar episode

[00:29:08] This is also maybe the space to talk about might be waiting for it

[00:29:11] So this is now the first new piece of our content released since 2009

[00:29:16] It's been a while

[00:29:17] so like avatar isn't at its peak in the public consciousness despite being

[00:29:21] Still the number one highest grossing film of all time worldwide

[00:29:24] Mm-hmm, and one would think if they held on to the show for another two years and sort of released as part of the

[00:29:29] You know pre avatar to

[00:29:34] Torque the second right to yeah, we're gonna have to go if they do yeah

[00:29:40] Just kidding. We don't have but this is a weird moment

[00:29:42] The show has sort of no impact on the larger narrative of James Cameron's avatar universe

[00:29:47] And it's just telling you like I think that happened in the history of the Navi sure, but we should mention this

[00:29:54] The main of the in the show do not speak in English they speak Navi

[00:29:59] Yeah, the constructed language that was created for the film avatar

[00:30:02] There's only one now has almost over 2,000 words. That's insane. Yep

[00:30:06] There was only one English speaking character in the entire show. Yes, and his name is the narrator

[00:30:11] His name is the story tell the story teller

[00:30:14] He's a man the story in sort of red robes and he's speaking in this like very very like

[00:30:22] Crisp yes, you know mid-atlantic and he's walking around the stage and you'll always hear him talking

[00:30:29] You know kind of like scanning up there is he'll be like in a corner of the stage like he was over by us a lot

[00:30:33] Or in the audience he was like me or in the audience

[00:30:36] I'm really confusing for me because he every time he would appear

[00:30:39] You know

[00:30:39] I would start to get ready for it

[00:30:41] And then I would like see a guy coming down the stairs with two popcorns for his family and I was like

[00:30:46] No, not him. Yes, this was a big problem

[00:30:48] This was a really big problem is that the stage the audience was lit so dramatically

[00:30:53] So that people because at points that are planting Navi in the audience

[00:30:56] The storyteller was always popping up that like there was a part where I thought a guy was making entrance and he was a dude

[00:31:08] The storyteller was I when we walked in he was

[00:31:13] Describing the like daily habits of the Navi right yeah, like he's planted

[00:31:17] I basically just seeing yeah like the sort of hunting and gathering rituals

[00:31:21] It was like David Attenborough. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, and I was like this is an interesting take on the show

[00:31:25] It's like a live dance based Navi nature documentary

[00:31:31] But then the storyteller like kind of like pieces out he like bones out for a while

[00:31:36] Yeah, he's around but he doesn't do much

[00:31:38] He was good like narrate the whole thing because it was like well search you so late

[00:31:41] It's not dialogue based getting to the fact that after he leaves. It's just Navi

[00:31:45] Yeah, it's a little like the Star Wars holiday special right where you're just yeah

[00:31:48] It's like Chewbacca and the wookies

[00:31:50] Yeah, yeah, and you're just sort of watching should happen and then he would come by and give you like go ahead

[00:31:54] One or two senses at a time explaining like what's going on and then leave me for like ten minutes

[00:31:58] Yeah, I mean it's acrobatic

[00:32:01] Yes, but they tried to force this story on it. They did still don't really know

[00:32:06] I looked it up after the fact to and I

[00:32:10] I've looked it up after the fact as well. I

[00:32:13] So like apparently there were two main characters maybe

[00:32:17] At least two maybe three, but there's there's Ralu

[00:32:23] Who I think was mohawk?

[00:32:26] No, I don't know what they look like. I mean they're all

[00:32:28] The mohawks were all just the one tribe. Yeah, the mohawks were the one tribe right

[00:32:34] The basic crux of this show is there are two male characters Ralu and N2

[00:32:39] One of them rides to Rukh at the end of the show spoiler alert, but I actually don't know which yeah, and then there's a girl

[00:32:46] Know it's just y'all. Yeah one so the way it goes down

[00:32:50] Well, don't spoil the ending no spoil the ending the way it goes down is what it's like we're

[00:32:54] Start out with one tribe and it's these two

[00:32:57] Characters you just mentioned kind of like almost rivals in the sense

[00:33:01] They're trying to like, you know move on to manhood or like warrior hood and there is the one male character who?

[00:33:11] He's defeated and he runs off and he's the one at the end the defeated

[00:33:16] Navi who rides to Rukh okay, right cuz oh yes

[00:33:19] He rises to the occasion

[00:33:21] There was like a test at the beginning of the show where they made this show was very like dangle based like it's a lot

[00:33:28] Yeah, it was basically like and now the trials begin they have to dangle

[00:33:32] Yeah, and now they have to get the thing this artifact

[00:33:35] They have to dangle on a rope because like Cirque du Soleil in addition to sort of like body contortion

[00:33:40] Sort of stuff is also known for like a lot of like aerial kind of like beauty and majesty

[00:33:45] Yeah, and this was like there was an answer to trapeze for sure called the first flight

[00:33:50] I was ready for more wire work. There's no double dare

[00:33:52] Do they was like double there? They'd like drop a rope from the ceiling and then they do some dangling

[00:33:57] Isn't that their thing like I never seen Cirque du Soleil before?

[00:34:00] There was like a lot more like I mean, I've never seen Cirque du Soleil

[00:34:03] I thought there was like gonna be I'll say I thought there was gonna be a lot more flipping

[00:34:06] Uh-huh, it was not much flip. There was hardly any flipping. There was a lot of tumbling which I really like

[00:34:12] I loved the tumbles

[00:34:14] And yeah, there was a lot of like spinning on a single-handed like twisty rope

[00:34:20] Yeah, just like sort of a spin on a dangle. It's not quite a dangle. It's

[00:34:27] They're in Queens

[00:34:33] Circus, yeah, like no animal

[00:34:37] Viper wolves I'm looking at your horses. There are a puppet animals. They're a puppet animals

[00:34:42] Yes done through reverse puppetry. Yeah, which is puppetry from the ground up, but but there was

[00:34:49] There was a lot of like yeah

[00:34:51] I mean it was like they'd like get on a thing and then they'd like hold onto it

[00:34:54] And they do some climbing and then they'd like let go and they'd be holding on with their legs

[00:34:58] And they'd like flash you like all of their like inner organs. Yeah

[00:35:02] Yeah, you and their bones you got a good sense of their skeletons. Yeah, I saw a lot of pelvic floors

[00:35:07] Yeah, definitely. Yeah, but yeah, we should they're in their clad and head to toe body stockings with like abs painted on

[00:35:14] Yeah, sort of and like Navi

[00:35:17] You know the blue sort of like little Tatooie kind of like the markings

[00:35:25] So and you could tell these people were they are fit athletes

[00:35:29] That's the circus performance

[00:35:31] They look like perfect bodies, but you you're almost not even seeing them because there are these kind of lame stockings

[00:35:36] I guess that's sort of how it goes

[00:35:38] David and I were talking about how like I think we would have preferred for everybody to be like nude nude painted painted blue

[00:35:45] Painted nude. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was a weird because they were like body socks

[00:35:48] I mean they were like very thin material

[00:35:51] But if not thin enough. Yeah, cuz it just felt it felt like not thin enough

[00:35:57] Yeah, we should say there was no nudity in the show

[00:35:59] No, it's a family friendly show there were a lot of kids in the audience

[00:36:02] They were aggressively shushed once by somebody with a couple kids who was as far as I could tell filming the entire show on her phone

[00:36:12] Like filming the whole she was like at road three. Yeah, and I don't I mean, you know, you got to be there

[00:36:18] Yeah, you know, you can't really experience to Rook unless you're there

[00:36:20] No, I mean there we get but here we go fucking circus delay and James Cameron a hold hands

[00:36:25] Try and transport you to the world of Pandora and you're hiding behind your fucking phone

[00:36:29] Yeah, if that's not what avatars about I don't know what it is. It's about getting back in touch with nature

[00:36:34] It's about fucking becoming yourself. No, it's about like finding five specific items

[00:36:40] Oh, sure, okay, so early on the show there's some dangling test where they're above a fire

[00:36:45] They have to dangle above a fire, which is kind of cool

[00:36:47] Right and they got a dangle and one of them dangles really well

[00:36:49] And then the other one slips in the dangle and falls can I just say and then breaks his bow right

[00:36:54] From out of rate. Yeah

[00:36:56] I thought it was kind of an odd choice to base a show about

[00:37:02] Acrobatics and about using your body well around a character who is bad at that. Yes

[00:37:09] I

[00:37:10] Just wanted to put that out there. I think that's a very good point

[00:37:13] I also will say at the moment he fell from the dangle

[00:37:16] I thought we were watching some spider-man's around the dark shit

[00:37:19] Oh, you thought like things have gone wrong one moment until everyone reacted very theatrically

[00:37:24] One moment. I was like oh fuck so it was convincing bad dangling

[00:37:30] Yeah, but but like okay, so the test goes they break the bow they run off and then there's this sort of like

[00:37:35] Ralu and into it's two boys on the brink of adulthood

[00:37:38] Who decide to take matters into their own hands when they dream that an earthquake is going to hurt the soul tree or

[00:37:46] Whatever the fuck it's called right

[00:37:49] And they have to get five artifacts to just stop that well

[00:37:52] They're elder and does some sort of mystical like looks into the thing and then conjure some thing

[00:37:58] Yeah, there's this elder lady who sings. Yes, she sounds like Bjork. She's sort of the cch pounder type character

[00:38:05] I guess she's the mystic

[00:38:07] She's got a Bjork a Bjork voice and she's wearing this dress of like

[00:38:12] I don't know those of the Jewish faith could relate her to a canter canter

[00:38:17] Yes, she sort of reminded me of the canter at my local shul. Sure. Yeah, that's what I remember because she pissed me off I

[00:38:25] Got bad vibes from both this character and the canter at my local shul and

[00:38:31] She sort of like throws out like suddenly like the plot's cooking right it felt like after like 20 minutes of a lot

[00:38:37] Of dangling and like a lot of sort of like movement work

[00:38:39] She like throws down the gauntlet and you know like five artifacts, right? And you were like okay here

[00:38:45] She said in order to stop the earthquake you're gonna have to unite the five tribes it won't be easy

[00:38:49] There are five artifacts you got to collect and it's like great. They got to go to different places

[00:38:53] They got to talk to

[00:38:55] Hostile tribes and from each tribe they got to collect a relic easy

[00:39:00] The stakes are so clear in a nonverbal show

[00:39:03] I'll understand exactly what's going on and then what proceeds happen is about an hour and ten minutes of more dangling dangling dangling

[00:39:08] Dangling it'll be like they will go on Rachel

[00:39:11] And I was I thought that it was just scavenger hunt

[00:39:14] But then I realized that the and I when I say I realize I mean I read it online after the show

[00:39:20] That the artifacts are not necessarily to unite the tribe they are to summon to root and then

[00:39:27] Ride to root. Yeah, but just clearing that up. They don't talk about yeah much

[00:39:32] He his shadow is seen before the end of the first act

[00:39:37] Remember briefly prophesies that he's the only one you can stop the earth and we'll get to how he quote-unquote stops the earthquake

[00:39:46] But so they have to go to various tribes. Yeah, and each time they have to do a

[00:39:52] New kind of dangling together

[00:39:54] So at one point they go up to the big wooden ring and they get like a tulip bulb out of it or something

[00:39:59] Yeah, but did you notice this recurring pattern if every time they met a new tribe the tribe would just laugh at them

[00:40:05] Yes, and then they would have to prove themselves by rope dancing. Yeah, yes, correct

[00:40:09] Yeah, the new tribes were the tribes were hard to distinguish because it's all blue people

[00:40:14] Yeah, like maybe they have like a yellow hat or something but like it's pretty subtle, right?

[00:40:19] Yeah, some of them had like tangerine ninja turtle armor

[00:40:21] Sure, yeah, some armor that's some shells the tribe with the Mohawks. Yeah, but I'm gonna have like a yarn skirt

[00:40:27] Yeah

[00:40:28] So but like there's one where they go to the crown and they get the tulip bulb

[00:40:32] Uh-huh another where they build a skeleton seesaw. I thought it was a telescope

[00:40:37] Rachel leaned over to me and said they're building a skeleton telescope. She got really excited. The narrator the narrator had said

[00:40:44] Here this tribe like they see the stars and they like predict it and whatever and I was like

[00:40:49] Oh my god, they need a skeleton telescope out of bones. No

[00:40:52] It was just a seesaw and they like got on either side of the seesaw and it went up and down

[00:40:56] But it's a seesaw in the shape of a skeleton of a fanator

[00:41:00] I guess so a mighty fanator from the world of James Cameron's avatar

[00:41:05] Correct, then there was some other I already forgot some of the other tasks. Do you remember any of them?

[00:41:10] I remember water. Yeah, there was some water shi- there was a raging river and there was the turtle

[00:41:15] Oh, yeah, that's right. There was like a turtle

[00:41:18] But like a sort of a turtle peed that was like skating around this floor and the floor were like they projected water onto the floor

[00:41:25] Which I liked was cool

[00:41:26] And they had like a canoe and the canoe is moving around and we were like how's that moving around and then we look closer

[00:41:31] And had wheels right so that that shattered the illusion

[00:41:34] But whatever like wild rapids you said that the turtle peed looked like a room bot which it did

[00:41:38] It was just sort of a motorized big thing that kept on going around. I loved it here

[00:41:42] I mean, here's the thing so they start to sell a has done

[00:41:46] Has adapted the works of musicians before the Beatles they did Beatles so they did an Elvis show

[00:41:52] And I think there's one other one I'm forgetting but they've done three music theme shows

[00:41:56] They have never adapted like a

[00:41:59] Dramatic property before right? I don't think so

[00:42:03] I know this for a fact because James Cameron was bragging about it in this Voltra interview

[00:42:07] It did a Michael Jackson show that was the third one was Michael Jackson Elvis and the Beatles the sort of three like

[00:42:12] You know cornerstones of popular music and then other than that they they've always done original shows and they are

[00:42:20] sensibly non-narrative pieces right there they're based on like

[00:42:24] Delirium or like party or you know, I'll ox, right? Yes clocks

[00:42:29] Which you can now see in Vegas. It's at the blush. I swear to God that's in Queens right now. They're a big

[00:42:34] I mean, maybe just steamed punk. No, I did get the flyer

[00:42:40] And they have had a Chris Angel show there

[00:42:42] There's para more right now on Broadway, which is like the magic of movies themed

[00:42:47] But it's sort of about like the the it's about the magic of movies

[00:42:50] Narrative, you know there was Zarkana which was like a magic of stage like stage magic one

[00:42:57] They are like a lot of them the crux of it is I think they've run out. Yeah like stuff

[00:43:01] They've done a ton of shit is like, you know if you go to Vegas

[00:43:05] There are like ten simultaneous running Cirque du Soleil shows and I asked my friend when I went to Vegas my friend Samargal

[00:43:12] I

[00:43:13] Was like

[00:43:15] Every fucking casino have like their own Cirque du Soleil show and he's like that's the standard by which casinos judge themselves

[00:43:21] There are six current running Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas alone

[00:43:26] Yeah, he was like if you don't have a Cirque show your second tier like that's the thing is people fight to become legitimate

[00:43:31] I have to get a Cirque show

[00:43:33] Okay, so how many people were in the audience? I think like five thousand maybe maybe like it's a Barclay seats 20

[00:43:38] Yeah

[00:43:39] I don't know I mean fourth out like not a lot of people were there

[00:43:42] People jazzed about this show didn't seem like it the people who were there seemed jazzed about it

[00:43:47] I mean

[00:43:50] I

[00:43:53] Know but I tried to clap very vigorously anytime anyone

[00:43:56] We were staring and I we were like at like reaching distance between the performers and us so it was really awkward

[00:44:03] Feel like you know like a real atmosphere in the crowd of like oh shit, you know

[00:44:09] But let's say this also see sauce. I don't know this is kind of point

[00:44:13] I was building up to it was a surprisingly austere show

[00:44:17] Like it was very invested in sort of like the self serious

[00:44:22] Pagrity that like James Cameron has invested his world of avatar with right no joy. Yeah, yes

[00:44:28] Yes, and also like okay

[00:44:30] So if Cirque du Soleil is doing like a steampunk show or like a history of the movies or fucking Elvis

[00:44:35] It can just sort of like explore the feelings of a thing and then just go wild in terms of physical movement and just like

[00:44:41] Fucking convey that however they want but this show has like one fourth of a plot

[00:44:47] Yeah, which means that they sort of have to abide by this thing that like creates confines of how much crazy physical shit

[00:44:53] They can do right and and and it cuts both ways because it's like well

[00:44:57] The show is less like physically, you know

[00:45:00] Like aerobatically stunning and Cirque du Soleil

[00:45:02] I think can be because they're trying to tell this thing

[00:45:05] But also the narrative doesn't really work because the narrative is like trying to like have some propulsion behind it and be like

[00:45:11] There are stakes the earthquake is coming. They have to unite the five tribes

[00:45:15] But in order for Cirque du Soleil to do the things that they do best things have to slow down to a crawl

[00:45:19] So it's like characters are dangling and tumbling when it's like they're like time crunch

[00:45:24] This seems like the least efficient way to get across this river

[00:45:26] Right is for them to just keep dangling for a while dangle dangle like at the show was like very slow

[00:45:32] It was excruciatingly slow. Yeah

[00:45:35] Yeah, I I would say it was short. Yeah

[00:45:38] We now have 20 minute intermission. Yeah about an hour and also made me think of medieval times

[00:45:44] Yeah, it did have that kind of vibe to it. Yeah, but they didn't have any audience participation

[00:45:50] They have the app

[00:45:51] That yes, but I wanted to get in the ring with them do a thing

[00:45:55] Ramona kept on leaning over to me and saying that she wanted to quit her job and join Cirque du Soleil

[00:46:00] Yeah, but she was again lit very lit. I think she would have been wonderful in this show. She would have been great

[00:46:06] That's not in question

[00:46:08] She also claimed that she was

[00:46:11] Physically capable as everyone in the show. All right anytime they did something she'd want I could do that

[00:46:15] Well, I mean the most impressive part for me was on the bone seesaw it felt like

[00:46:21] The

[00:46:24] You ain't going nowhere

[00:46:28] Yeah

[00:46:30] Bones on a graph all right

[00:46:32] It felt like the Olympics because they were just on like what is that the beam the

[00:46:38] Is it called long beam? What does it call? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, okay?

[00:46:43] Yeah, whatever. Yeah, I believe it's a bone saw

[00:46:48] McGraw

[00:46:52] And that was cool, and I was like, okay

[00:46:53] This is moving up and down and you're doing the shit that I just saw

[00:46:56] Like mode vials do and I'm very impressed and I love it you more of this

[00:46:59] And then it was just tumbling and also like

[00:47:02] They did like a lot of throwing spears and catching them

[00:47:06] But like not throwing them at anything just like throwing them up in the air like okay

[00:47:09] We're ready to go on this hunting mission and I caught my spear and then they would walk away with it

[00:47:15] So with that's this like weird thing. I've only seen one

[00:47:19] Soleil show prior to this in my life and it was probably like 15 years ago

[00:47:22] And I don't remember it that well right but I just remember you have seen one

[00:47:26] I've seen one before I saw one probably like when I was hot

[00:47:29] Yeah, it was the cool new thing in the like late 90. Yeah, I think I saw one

[00:47:32] I think I probably saw one like 2001 right

[00:47:35] and I just remember being like this sort of like there was so much

[00:47:42] Stimuli, you know there was just like so many things happening simultaneously

[00:47:45] Whereas this felt kind of like as you said like an Olympic event where it's like I all eyes on this one person's gonna do one thing

[00:47:52] And they're also limited to like what the characters would be capable of doing in a way

[00:47:56] That's almost the problem with setting it in another universe, right?

[00:48:00] Yeah, and also like having like characters with a thing to accomplish you get I can see so barely like they saw like the

[00:48:07] Early cut of avatar before it even came out like some Cirque de Sleut

[00:48:10] You can see why they'd be like oh this is right up our alley and it has sort of a

[00:48:15] spindly like they jump around and

[00:48:18] Music and the aesthetics of avatar feel kind of Cirque de Soleil adjacent, right?

[00:48:23] Yeah, it felt like world music. Yes world music concert kind of right

[00:48:28] Yeah, yeah

[00:48:30] banging on some

[00:48:32] Skeleton bones, you know like mournful whale singing

[00:48:37] Just like kneeling and kind of like faux spiritual is um, you know this earthy like yeah

[00:48:42] I always make like any war movie, you know like any modern war movie

[00:48:46] Yeah, or any real any really any Hollywood movie that has seen set in the Middle East

[00:48:51] There's always that thing where like it'll like cut to

[00:48:57] Just they're just like let's let's get look come on

[00:49:01] Let's get someone in here from you know do some world music yelling over the soundtrack like no effort is made

[00:49:06] Which avatar does too? It does but I mean avatar is playing in that pool of like

[00:49:11] That's what the Navi and are there this sort of like catch all native folk

[00:49:21] Lady yeah, my favorite part of the show is when David took a video and said this is gonna make a great

[00:49:26] Many find it motherfucker. I find that shit

[00:49:29] The lady in front of us was literally started recording at the beginning of the show finish recording at the end of the show

[00:49:34] Just record the whole show. Yes, that is only stopped at one point to shush you guys

[00:49:38] Yeah, but she didn't stop the recording. No, Ben was quiet quiet quiet just watching the show

[00:49:44] Yeah, I loved watching him watch this house taking it all in

[00:49:47] I've never seen Ben look so intensely focused. I you know when I get put into a circumstance where I have no idea

[00:49:55] What's going on? I really try to figure it out

[00:49:58] Hey, can I tell you guys what my favorite part of the show please?

[00:50:02] You know how they had plants that came out of compartments. Yeah, dude. That shit's cool

[00:50:08] Yeah, it's cool. You were really into that though

[00:50:11] I was really into it. What was it Ben or you?

[00:50:13] It was sort of being like I want my life to have like plants that come out of that was been

[00:50:17] And I like wasn't quite grasping what Ben was saying. I don't know

[00:50:21] I also ate a mac and cheeseburger, but I think I talked about that we should cut to yeah

[00:50:25] Okay

[00:50:26] So we've recorded a lot of audio at intermission

[00:50:30] So just to catch you up by intermission. I think they had gotten three of the five relics, right?

[00:50:36] Artifacts right yeah, and then this is the audio like I think we knew they got into and then they were like and now they have three

[00:50:42] Artifacts, we're like

[00:50:44] The third one's inside them

[00:50:46] Was a doll that looked like Toruk

[00:50:51] It was a sort of merchandise spotlight within the show. Yeah, okay anyway, go on this artifact is available for

[00:50:57] $65 at Toruk the first merchandise stand

[00:51:01] So yeah, so in the middle of the show Ben brought a microphone into the into the Barclay Center

[00:51:07] Snucket pastic here and we did a little little recapping of our insta thoughts right? Yeah, right

[00:51:13] So this these are our halftime thoughts of Toruk the first flight. So

[00:51:18] Here we are blank check

[00:51:21] Half time for the Toruk Toruk first flight. This is me Dave Sims. Oh, yeah, and this is this is producer Ben

[00:51:29] We've just taken in I would say the first the first hour or so

[00:51:32] Yep, and we're in the intermission. So we're just now eating some Paisano burgers

[00:51:37] Yeah, we got some Paisano burgers. I got the the what's it with Mac? Mac attack Mac attack burger

[00:51:43] So it's a hamburger

[00:51:44] With mac and cheese on top, which is a classic Italian American dish

[00:51:48] That Paisano replicates faithfully at the Barclay Center

[00:51:52] You know so all right, I'm gonna give you some thoughts and then I want to hear your thoughts of course of course

[00:51:57] So going into this I would say my feelings were I was nervous and I was upset

[00:52:01] And I was a little hot sure hot today

[00:52:04] We had to stand outside for a while because Griffin was really late

[00:52:07] And then we were supposed to sit in section 222, right?

[00:52:11] but then they moved us to section five and

[00:52:14] Just that's like it's a lot closer. Yeah

[00:52:17] Oh, we're like we are very close and we're in section 9 row 5, right?

[00:52:22] So we're basically I mean I think if you're in a basketball game these seats cost like $1,500

[00:52:27] Like you know, we're court side essentially

[00:52:30] But we're not courtside for an NBA game. We're courtside for Turuk the first flight for rope dancing rope dancing a lot of rope dancing so

[00:52:38] There's a lot of it seems to be a lot of Pandora and marginalia. You know like

[00:52:43] Everyone looks like a Navi they're talking in Navi

[00:52:45] There's a lot of Navi animals Pandora animals but um they are speaking in like the

[00:52:51] Yeah, yeah, they are so did did they come put out like a whole like a dictionary maybe yeah

[00:52:57] Maybe they did I mean I've they built the whole language out for the movie. Okay, so that's great really happy

[00:53:01] They're respecting the tradition of the Navi with that but no my my biggest thought is

[00:53:06] Here I have to give Ramona another fried

[00:53:09] She doesn't want the fried pickles. All right

[00:53:11] My biggest thought is it's mostly rope dancing

[00:53:14] Yeah, you know like with all that window dressing, but it's really just rope dancing

[00:53:19] Well, I think great butts

[00:53:22] I want to start there muscular

[00:53:25] Athletic, but oh man. Everyone's got a great great, but um I love

[00:53:30] the design of it like that like the set design

[00:53:35] One really cool thing is they keep having plants come out of compartments and then shrink back in that's really cool

[00:53:42] I'd like to incorporate that into like my daily life or like that

[00:53:46] Maybe

[00:53:48] I mean yeah, we could do that

[00:53:50] We can have a plant that comes out of the table that you record at I'm thinking more though

[00:53:54] I like that as a design element that I'd like to incorporate into my daily life

[00:53:57] Like I want there to be tables where you push a button something comes out of them. That would be cool

[00:54:01] Yeah, and then another point there was a flame

[00:54:05] It was pretty cool in the center of the stage. Yeah

[00:54:08] Oh gosh. All right. Hold on. I gotta hand this off to Griffin

[00:54:13] All right

[00:54:14] All right, this is David. I have the microphone right now

[00:54:16] We're being told to download the first flight app which has been part of our second screen experience now

[00:54:21] I'm gonna talk to Griffin Newman co-host of blank check Griffin and David. Hi everybody

[00:54:26] This is Griffin Newman a co-host of the podcast blank check with Griffin and David Griffin

[00:54:31] We're friend Ramona she's drinking gin and tonic

[00:54:36] I'm drinking I'm on my first gin and gin drill

[00:54:39] I should mention that Ramona has never seen the movie Avatar before that is true. That is true neither has been

[00:54:44] So Griffin yes, I act one. I think it's just a cracker jack show

[00:54:51] We talked about butts already your butt so I'm gonna give some unqualified praise

[00:54:55] Oh, there are a lot of good butts in this show if you like well-formed but I mean obviously look they

[00:54:59] The sample of quality from Cirque du Soleil's we know we're gonna see well-toned

[00:55:04] Just want to remind you there are tons of children sitting within your shot of you very clean in the way

[00:55:08] I say this you're seeing people in peak physical condition who have honed their their bodies

[00:55:15] With precision like the blade of a knife. It is sharp. It is precise and it is designed

[00:55:21] It's super hot is designed to do one task and that is

[00:55:25] To us the story of torook the first flight. No, no, no the correct answer is to go up and down ribbons

[00:55:31] Okay, there are a lot of ribbons in this show and we're going up and down them

[00:55:34] I said this is a very dangle heavy shell

[00:55:37] Most of the stunts are connected to dangling

[00:55:40] To Rook the first flight we know that true has flown at least once before this in the film avatar in the film

[00:55:46] I'm a people a prior to the person with the red mohawk family. Well. Do you want spoilers?

[00:55:52] This is the first flight. No, I think someone is gonna all right

[00:55:56] This is conjecture speculation

[00:55:59] My guess is by the end of the show someone's gonna mount to Rook and fly on him to Rook FYI

[00:56:04] Ramona's real buzz. All right to Rook FYI is

[00:56:07] The big orange

[00:56:10] Thing

[00:56:16] And it's also it's pronounced Navi bro, so guys just just to just I'm talking in my mouthful

[00:56:22] That conversation you just overheard should it should give you an idea of just how incomprehensible the show is

[00:56:28] This show is great. It's it's nice clean economic plotting the show moves like a freight train

[00:56:33] There's no fat on it right. It's like the service from ribbons seen to ribbons seen and

[00:56:39] And here's the thing that everyone else has been saying this show is

[00:56:42] Really funny. It has a razor sharp wit just my two notes to that one

[00:56:47] No one's saying anything about to Rook the first flight to it's not funny

[00:56:51] It's very funny

[00:56:53] It's got a dry subtle wit and you have to get on its wavelength

[00:56:56] You might not notice the laughs if you're not looking for them because it's really kind of a test of intelligence

[00:57:02] But the show is very it's very funny. All right, so like

[00:57:06] This is driven just doing a stupid bit. It's not funny. It's also

[00:57:11] I mean, I mean it's like it's got it's got different given look the razor sharp barbs of a New Yorker

[00:57:16] Look, maybe you're not gales of laughter heard, but you're clearly laughing to yourself

[00:57:20] I'll give you that of course it does have it has a barbed wit. That's true

[00:57:24] But it this is it, you know

[00:57:26] We do our podcasts for fun, but you know, we're serious critics very serious Ramona. What are you about to say?

[00:57:32] I'm gonna keep leaning in very threateningly. Ramona is very drunk

[00:57:36] Did you mention the seat upgrade that I mentioned the seat upgrade?

[00:57:40] I've given our listeners the full story of the seat upgrade

[00:57:43] Who just up with the seat upgrade Steven who works at the Barclay Center?

[00:57:47] We'll talk about him on the rest of the pod

[00:57:50] But I just want to say the service at the Barclay Center has been extraordinary

[00:57:55] It's a great arena and I support its staff especially this is definitely the best $13 ginger ale I ever got my God

[00:58:02] $13 I spent $12 on my Mac attack Mac and cheese burger. All right, Ben. Do you want the oh, you're just

[00:58:09] Likewise all right, Ben. I'm gonna hand you over

[00:58:12] So you can talk to my are you still eating?

[00:58:14] No, I'm done. You can have the last these no no no you eat the fruit. Oh, no, yeah, Ramona can have the fries

[00:58:19] Okay, wow she Ramona dough for those fries like to Rook diving for the families of the Navi that he has slaughtered

[00:58:27] Maybe I don't know does he actually kill people? It's hard to tell all right then if you want to ask a couple questions

[00:58:33] From our other seat mates, please go ahead. Oh sure. All right, so um

[00:58:38] Okay. Yeah, hey hi there

[00:58:42] Previous guests on the podcast

[00:58:44] Rachel

[00:58:46] Thank you. How are you doing?

[00:58:48] Okay, so I wanted to talk to you about how you like the show so far and please introduce your your friend

[00:58:55] Who's joining us today for the show sure sure this is my girlfriend Alex Alex Pitt. Hi. Hello

[00:59:01] Yeah

[00:59:04] And English major wow unique we uniquely qualified actually to

[00:59:10] Review this show. I okay so from a literary standpoint

[00:59:14] How do you feel the story?

[00:59:16] Is unfolding is it is it? Oh, can you follow it in any way? Yeah?

[00:59:21] I feel like Joseph Campbell would be proud of this show. There's a real heroes journey happening a quest that is being fulfilled

[00:59:28] So yeah, I'm happy. I mean, I don't know what's happening

[00:59:32] I haven't seen the movie either, but I don't think that matters. I think it's just not

[00:59:38] There's not much of a story. It's just like you know rope

[00:59:41] Stuff it's what's it called a scavenger hunt is this guy under hunt and I

[00:59:46] We're here in our mission a lot of tricks and I can't tell if it's been completed or if there's more

[00:59:54] Or like two or three more talismans. Okay great. So that answers that the English majors on it. She's got it

[01:00:01] Yeah still going on

[01:00:04] Now all right, this was a thought I had while I was watching it

[01:00:07] I think that they're doing some really great stuff with like the set dressing and the costumes

[01:00:14] There is those fan costumes. Yeah, that was cool

[01:00:18] I really like the sound the ambient sound of water in a stadium any thoughts

[01:00:25] Love it love it and I love projected stars on the floor because I feel like it's different

[01:00:30] Like you'd expect the stars to be like on the ceiling or on the walls for example, and oh, I think it's starting

[01:00:35] Okay, great. Yeah, thank you for being on that

[01:00:39] A few comments are it lights are darkening beds

[01:00:42] Then smells of cigarette smoke dry ice is wafting onto the stage

[01:00:47] The Navi are coming down the stairs. Everybody's apps are going haywire

[01:00:52] Guys, this is insane. I don't know if we're gonna survive this

[01:00:55] It's been wonderful talking to you. It's the David Sims with Mike check

[01:01:01] And then great those were our thoughts right on siruk the first flight now in case you couldn't tell I

[01:01:07] Was having a laugh about the show being funny

[01:01:10] Yeah, you were doing this whole annoying bit where you were like this was a really subtle like went

[01:01:16] barbed funny show

[01:01:18] I think everyone who listened to it will agree that my bit killed

[01:01:24] Rachel didn't get the chance to talk about something that happened whilst we were

[01:01:32] Well that didn't happen to me no, I know it's related to I miss I miss both of these things

[01:01:36] I'm not these two go to the merch stand in the intermission or where did I did I did a cursory source scanning

[01:01:42] I was waiting till the end the show and then I went and got drinks and but I was not online for food with you

[01:01:47] We went to get food me and Ben and Rachel we I got a mac cheese burger as previously mentioned

[01:01:52] I spent $15 on Budweiser and water

[01:01:57] Really good about that still I did $26 on two gin and tonics Wow, that's better value

[01:02:05] And then Ben and David and Alex and I sort of all made eye contact at once

[01:02:11] And and then we made eye contact with the cashiers and it was as though a cloud had sort of come over all of us waiting in line for food

[01:02:21] Because you had said I can taste the fart in my mouth. I

[01:02:25] Think that's the quote. I remember something to that effect very strong. It was dense like fog

[01:02:32] We were wading through it. Yeah, it was like oh, okay brief tangent

[01:02:37] My grandpa is from this small town in Pennsylvania that is known for the denora fog which

[01:02:44] Which swept over the town

[01:02:48] One night a fluoride fog it killed like 20 people and made like hundred six thousands

[01:02:55] Thousand people were injured by the denora that's that's where my grandpa's from and I felt his

[01:03:01] Air pollution disasters in the history of the United States is a real thing that happened in the real world

[01:03:07] Like a plot point from avatar for like a fog that can kill people

[01:03:11] Yeah, so until until this moment in line for my ten dollar Budweiser not since the denora fog

[01:03:18] as an airborne

[01:03:20] attack

[01:03:21] So all the cashiers were pretty startled. What was really funny?

[01:03:25] Was that chefs were coming out from behind to smell it and then some I heard someone be like

[01:03:32] So it'd be like you nasty. Come on. What do you want to smell a fart for?

[01:03:36] Okay, I have some questions asked since I wasn't there sure

[01:03:39] What was there any sort of theory as to who had laid it like was there a scanning around to see who looked guilty?

[01:03:45] I was thinking is either an old person or a kid

[01:03:47] But there wasn't like a person you could see

[01:03:50] Who looks like something there's no way it was a kid happened a person moved on and it was that's I was gonna ask

[01:03:55] Do you think it was a crop dust? I have a theory now?

[01:03:57] I didn't see this man at the time in line, but that doesn't mean he wasn't there

[01:04:01] Okay, I saw him later. He was an older gentleman

[01:04:03] I would say late 60s early 70s and he had a

[01:04:09] Button-up shirt that was like not the material that those ever are it was like the material

[01:04:14] It was like a stretchy button-up shirt

[01:04:17] That was

[01:04:19] Completely skin tight over his whole top half kind of he's the purpose of buttons

[01:04:23] Yeah, and he kept sort of walking around all weird around the the merchandise stand and when I saw him later. I thought

[01:04:33] This guy could be a phantom farther. Yeah, he's a farting guy other than that no idea. Okay interesting

[01:04:39] Any other ideas?

[01:04:41] Yeah, I I saw an old lady

[01:04:44] Online with us and I felt like you know you get older you start taking medications and it's just like sometimes you let things you know slide out

[01:04:52] Great Ben Hosley fart detective

[01:04:56] Can I throw out a theory sure and I wasn't there no and hindsight's 2020

[01:05:01] It did and I'm certainly not telling you know the three of you are through the people

[01:05:05] I respect most in this world absolutely, and I will I'm not saying you should have been doing anything differently because you know

[01:05:10] Well, you please say your theory

[01:05:13] You were looking on the ground. Uh-huh. We should have looked in the sky I

[01:05:18] Mean to Rook might have farted and he would have been able to get away from it really quickly

[01:05:22] He is a huge dragon. We don't know what's in the last shadow. Yes

[01:05:26] Yeah, if there was a fart unlike anything you had ever smelled before then perhaps it came from a creature

[01:05:33] Unlike anything you've ever seen before do you know what I'm saying? Of course, I know you're saying

[01:05:38] Terrestrial it's a logical theory, and I'm glad that we've aired it on this podcast

[01:05:42] I mean it's a good thing to talk about to Rook the first part. Can you tell the second story? What sauce okay, so me and

[01:05:48] Ben

[01:05:49] Me and Ben were we're getting food and Ben was telling me how much he likes condiment stands

[01:05:54] I do I love if you've got a like if you go to a place

[01:05:57] They've got like a really fancy condiment stand. I'm like which I've got at the Barclay center

[01:06:02] They've got okay condiments. Uh-huh. It's not many options, you know, it's it and I told him when we were getting our food

[01:06:07] I was like, I don't know if you're gonna love the condiment stand because I've been there enough times

[01:06:11] I know you know it's you got your ketchup. Yeah, you got your mustard. Yeah, they got some sourcrout

[01:06:15] Yeah, and they got the kind of like hot chili you can put on a hot dog. Oh, that's pretty good

[01:06:20] That's not every place will have that banana peppers. Yeah, but it was all air, you know

[01:06:25] It's just hanging out. Okay. I don't I don't feel good about so so me and Benny collect our food

[01:06:30] we walk over to the condiment stand and

[01:06:33] I was sort of saying it's not great and Ben kind of looks over at me and he's like and then he sort of stops himself

[01:06:39] He's like, I will talk about it later

[01:06:41] And so I'm like, oh, okay

[01:06:43] And so we move on we go back to our seats and then Benny you want to take from here?

[01:06:46] That's right

[01:06:47] So I there is a gentleman who worked at the Barclay Center who was sort of like manning the station by manning

[01:06:53] We mean

[01:06:55] standing standing by

[01:06:57] Station arms at his side sort of just wiping things down

[01:07:00] Guess and I didn't want to talk bad about you know what he does

[01:07:04] Okay, I did refer to him as a sauce boy

[01:07:08] Well you wanted to refer to him as a sauce boy, but you didn't do it in front of him

[01:07:11] No, no, so that's what you think you're about to say like sauce going to be like

[01:07:14] Yeah, the sauce boy isn't holding up his weight here. You know something to that effect

[01:07:19] But then I corrected myself whilst telling this to David and I said he's more of a condiment man condiment man

[01:07:24] It was how you put it right, but I just like sauce boy

[01:07:27] So that's the sauce boy story. He joins the ranks of bad zoo boy. Yep. Yeah, bad zoo boy

[01:07:33] Ben's bad boy team

[01:07:36] So Ben's bad boys one day we'll do a whole episode just with them

[01:07:41] That would be like blank check the movie is Ben has to unite the bad boys, right?

[01:07:47] What are we in blank check the movie or is it just been

[01:07:49] We're blank check the narrator. Yeah. Yeah

[01:07:52] Yeah, well and Lauren Lawrence will let good ways segue to park to okay second act two more relics

[01:07:58] One of the relics is in the floating mountains and they sort of pulled some mountains up and they looked cool

[01:08:04] Okay

[01:08:06] You're giving me a real like they looked cool. Okay. Yeah, and they meet the clan that like jumps around on the mountains

[01:08:12] Once again time is of the essence and they're taking a really long time to get around ever because they got tumbling and dangling today

[01:08:18] Ribbons yes, and then Taruk shows up. Oh well first they come out with kites and they're all sort of

[01:08:24] That was really cool. It was

[01:08:27] Sweeping the kites over the seats. That was kind of cool small dragon kites and the kites were pretty

[01:08:32] They're pretty kites and that was like the regular

[01:08:36] What the fuck are they called Leanna Pritz? Yeah, what a league? You know the dragon things that they all fly

[01:08:40] there were like four kinds of kites and

[01:08:43] There was like a parasailing thing. Yeah, and there was the one that felt like

[01:08:47] Like you know those cat toys that look like little fishing rods and you just like

[01:08:52] Like that was exactly what one of the ones that yeah, and they just kept like I was impressed by

[01:08:58] How in think everybody was I know that's their job

[01:09:00] Yeah, but when twisting something in the wind

[01:09:03] And walking you could sort of see the fear in their eyes, but that was when the show felt like the most real

[01:09:10] To me and then Taruk shows up. Yeah

[01:09:12] Well, I'm just you know we haven't we've mentioned this but I just want to point out the creature puppet work was really good

[01:09:17] I mean you sort of derisively said like well

[01:09:20] This is just the Lion King now like you were like they're just taking Julie Tame Wars thing

[01:09:24] No, I said that like early into the first act. It was literally they ripped off the Julie Tame War animal puppets

[01:09:29] Yeah, yeah, but it was that kind of style where it would be like someone was like behind legs and they're dressed in black and then they're

[01:09:34] You know they're operating

[01:09:37] But but it was all really good

[01:09:39] I mean all the puppets look really cool and we're well

[01:09:41] Mostly look good Ben had problem. Yeah, there was the the horse the horse guys dire horse

[01:09:47] The dire horse because it was two people in it right and then the person who was the back half

[01:09:53] He controlled the a third set of legs

[01:09:57] Legged horses. Yeah, and the one guy was terrible. It was he was like just not selling the kakalop

[01:10:04] Kind of things so just to clarify there were on stage

[01:10:08] I'd say four dire horses think that's right each our horse was operated by two people

[01:10:12] That's right and Ben specifically took umbridge with one of the eight people performing

[01:10:17] Yeah, it was sort of it was a left shark situation. Yes, hey Rachel saw it too

[01:10:21] I did I'm team Ben on this one. I saw it and we and he was just everybody else had like a rhythm to like

[01:10:30] And it was all going and this guy was just stomping stomping stomping and then anytime he wasn't moving

[01:10:36] He was still sort of like aimlessly wiggle them and it just didn't it didn't work

[01:10:41] He was showboatin. Yeah, no he hadn't showed up to her

[01:10:44] It took me out of it

[01:10:45] I felt like I was immersed in the blue world and then I just got pulled right out

[01:10:50] Ben has not seen avatar at this point. So

[01:10:54] There are two more artifacts they get to the dragon people and then to a really shows up

[01:10:58] He flaps around for a while now

[01:11:00] Let me say two things that might sound contradictory to Rook looked amazing look pretty cool

[01:11:06] It was pretty it was big puppet

[01:11:08] Way up in the sky operated by a few guys underneath eight guys

[01:11:12] I believe I think we all had the same complaint at the same time which was thought he'd be a little bigger

[01:11:17] Wasn't that big it wasn't huge and especially when the show is just building up like we're at like fucking minute like 78

[01:11:24] Yeah, we're like alright. Well, you know, we're in the final act here. Come on

[01:11:26] Right, it was like the size of the big like flower nipple that was dangling out one of the artifacts earlier on

[01:11:33] It was the same size. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay

[01:11:35] Like it was big enough to probably you could imagine like maybe two of these guys riding them

[01:11:41] Right, I kind of look like the size of a regular dragon. That's what I was gonna say

[01:11:45] Cuz in avatar they give us a sense of scale when you see the regular dragon riders

[01:11:48] But then when the big Turok ask dragon comes in it was like humongous

[01:11:53] like Jake Sully looked tiny on his back and this looked like one of the normal sized dragon

[01:11:57] but it was pretty beautiful looking and it's flying around from the CLA and

[01:12:02] They're all sort of I guess simultaneously like

[01:12:06] Terrified and entranced sure

[01:12:09] I mean they crouched in there was like so many times there was some story element where he had like killed the family of one of the

[01:12:17] Characters right but that was sort of vague

[01:12:19] Oh, and at some point they like

[01:12:22] At some point these two main characters the one who failed the test and the one who succeeded

[01:12:27] Like collect a third person at some point it became three people guys. No one cares about this

[01:12:32] Being like she's a princess she was a princess

[01:12:34] Yeah, she was a princess of one of the tribes and they were like just take her look anyway someone

[01:12:39] We get through this someone tries to ride to Rook it doesn't work out

[01:12:44] Then there's an earthquake okay then a volcano melts all over the stage

[01:12:48] It was lava and then once again the lava is projected on the floor which is cool

[01:12:51] The production was cool and you've got the soul tree thing

[01:12:54] They're like big USB hub right they all plug their brains into yeah

[01:12:58] And that's under threat from the lava then they open a waterfall

[01:13:02] And it kind of kills the lava, but it doesn't as well like it was hard to pick up what was happening

[01:13:08] Like like they were like

[01:13:09] It worked but then there's still a fire

[01:13:11] The tree was still on fire

[01:13:12] They like broke open a mountain yeah to create a waterfall right which I think David and I were theorizing like it

[01:13:20] Stopped the lava from continuing to like be lava

[01:13:24] Yes, but then there was a resulting fire still like it was still too hot right the

[01:13:30] Lava on the ground had stopped so people could walk on the ground because at first there was like a river of lava underneath their feet

[01:13:35] And that stopped but the lava had already hit like the base of the tree and the tree was on fire

[01:13:39] And the tree is like not like wilting but like collapsing into the the stage

[01:13:45] At the Berkeley Center like it was sort of just like like crumbling up right?

[01:13:50] It's like getting shorter and then our our main

[01:13:54] Character had sort of like disappeared like it seemed like maybe he had died yeah, and to Rook had sort of disappeared

[01:14:00] And then they like re-enter like he's on to Rook's back and it's like oh he's the first rider

[01:14:04] He is tame to Rook. He's the two Rook McCall in the mech toe mech toe

[01:14:08] Ryder fell out of shadow

[01:14:09] And then so he flaps around for a bit then to Rook like keeps touching the lava like he like touches it with his wing

[01:14:17] And he touches it with his tail

[01:14:20] And then he dies but then he kills the lava?

[01:14:25] The torque comes out and it's clear like okay

[01:14:27] This is this is Chekov's gun like you know the first act they set up to Rook right now the trees on fire

[01:14:33] Obviously Torak's got started and then when he came out you and I turned to each other and we were like

[01:14:37] How's he gonna stop it like what does he have water breath like what's I thought he was gonna like flap his wings and blow

[01:14:42] It out like a big candle

[01:14:44] Instead they like lowered him very close to the floor and then the like wings were just sort of like tap the fire a little bit

[01:14:50] Okay, I just got to talk about his legs for a second because they were like they were like big long frog legs

[01:14:56] But they were like sort of stuck together like a Barbie leg or something and they just kept sort of like

[01:15:02] Gainfully like

[01:15:03] Hopping down and hitting things and I thought it was so cute

[01:15:07] It was so annoying

[01:15:09] Like

[01:15:12] Ferocious growl that is actually good sound design

[01:15:17] Yeah, the sound was pretty good

[01:15:18] It was sort of a quakey sound like you could really feel it when it was loud. I had commented

[01:15:22] I love the sound of dripping water

[01:15:25] Like I love it and I loved hearing it in a stadium even more so this and the sound system was really good

[01:15:31] I mean bark this entire top notch

[01:15:33] tax-backs but

[01:15:35] They yeah, it's a rucks sort of past the fire a little bit and then at some point just dies

[01:15:41] He dies but that kills the fire

[01:15:43] I guess the idea is he's like blowing it out with his wings

[01:15:45] But we do not see that and I feel like they could have accomplished that now like visually

[01:15:50] Like it was possible

[01:15:51] Yeah, but it felt like the only thing they designed the puppet to do was flap up and down so they

[01:15:57] It was a huge puppet

[01:16:01] Now

[01:16:06] The trees there all the fiber optic cables are lit up and as we know in the motion picture avatar no spoilers for Benny

[01:16:15] but

[01:16:17] It has been seen to have the ability to perhaps

[01:16:20] Recessitate one or at least transfer them into a new body, right?

[01:16:24] There is revival you can like plug your consciousness into it as a byproduct of the tree

[01:16:28] So you're like well, they're gonna save to Rook because obviously, but he was now like a brain

[01:16:33] And then they just work just dies next to the dead

[01:16:35] They like stretch the cables out like that was the part was like they had the cables

[01:16:39] And then you thought you know all the cables and the more cables came out and they got really long and

[01:16:43] Then it was just sort of like they're lying there next to like a dead dragon

[01:16:47] Where did the Navi like how does the Navi?

[01:16:50] Plug into the dragon. I know he doesn't have a braid, but they plug into each other

[01:16:55] He has something yeah, he has like a port got a port. Oh, it's a bottle

[01:16:59] It's not it was the bottle. No, it's like a port

[01:17:04] Yeah, yeah, but a butthole is a port to the toilet. Oh boy. All right, so it's been too long

[01:17:10] I've seen a potty. That's what it's named after. Yeah. Yeah port authority

[01:17:14] They call that because it's like a little it's like New York City's butthole. It's near it does

[01:17:18] It really does a real action that way. Yeah, um, it's into New Jersey. Yeah, it's you out of New York City into New Jersey

[01:17:24] slowly

[01:17:25] so

[01:17:26] That's the first fight let's never speak of it again. Okay, so I have some more things to say about

[01:17:32] The dragon just dies they're all there with the thing and we kind of tend to each other because we were like

[01:17:37] Well, so we thought that the the

[01:17:40] when

[01:17:42] Jake Sully becomes the Turok

[01:17:44] Makamata, what's a turk? Mecto. Mecto

[01:17:46] We assumed it was the same dragon that we were seeing in this show right but this dragon conclusively dies

[01:17:51] We were like they have to bring him back to life cuz he's in the movie

[01:17:53] No, but I think it's just his ancestor. So here's the fucking thing doesn't live for 3,000 years

[01:17:57] so my question is is that like

[01:18:00] Turuk the fifth is that like James Turuk the fifth the biggest in the film

[01:18:04] I'm James Turuk the fifth. Yes. How do they make more of these dragons the biggest one are there dragons bang

[01:18:11] That's how it works. So is Turuk not as proper name. Is it a title? Yeah, it's a Rook means last shadow right?

[01:18:16] He's a V right. Yes. He's like the English title for him is Turuk of the United States exactly

[01:18:21] He's told us yeah, English title is a giant

[01:18:25] Leopter Leopteryx and you know all of this have the avatar with and and they're super fast in it

[01:18:31] There can be only one is it sort of like whoever is the biggest dragon at that time right?

[01:18:36] So that you get the title when you're the biggest one I guess so so it's not necessarily like a family lineage thing

[01:18:41] It's like when one dies. They're like, okay

[01:18:43] Who's the next biggest?

[01:18:45] And then one gets bigger than what do you get called if someone's like

[01:18:49] Proceeds you a great question and see this is laying

[01:18:52] This is why we have you on the show because you're not afraid to ask the tough questions. Thank you. No answer no answer

[01:18:58] I mean Jimmy come on flesh out this world give us those that's 12 more avatar movies

[01:19:03] We got unanswered questions

[01:19:05] Maybe it's like mr. President like you still get called like mr. Turuk

[01:19:09] You've always if you were a Turuk you always will be a Turuk

[01:19:13] Even if you're not the Turuk you know what you know what you know guys, you know what though

[01:19:18] It doesn't matter nobody cares, but here's what does matter we we've left something out

[01:19:22] Oh, which is the show had a huge twist. Oh shit. I forgot about the twist

[01:19:27] Okay guys so Turuk saves the day they're all sort of morning

[01:19:33] The tree and then the narrator comes out the storyteller

[01:19:35] Yeah, that's right

[01:19:36] And it's like that is the story of the first fight to Rook

[01:19:40] Forget my toe

[01:19:43] Right and he gave his life to save our tree and keep our people alive to be clear

[01:19:48] Yeah, he was the first Turuk mech toe, but he wouldn't be the last

[01:19:52] How do I know that because that Turuk mech toe was me and this was my story blackout

[01:20:02] And I turns out it was a memory play and I went like this like this sort of

[01:20:08] mind-blown face

[01:20:10] Gesture and one of the I saw one of the performers looking at me as I did this yeah

[01:20:16] And with like a big grin on my face

[01:20:17] I'm really close to the stage and so I felt doubly happy because I think he genuinely is like yeah

[01:20:22] We got him got him. Bam, but it's like in a show that didn't have much of a narrative

[01:20:25] They'd like do this like a rug pull at the end that was like you thought I was just an impartial narrator

[01:20:30] Nah, bro. This was my story boom and I can speak English and I've been speaking Navi this whole

[01:20:37] Inner show when did he learn English? Well, that's I hopefully what the sequel is

[01:20:41] I mean we've joked about Turuk flight to but that's that's hopefully what the sequel is never gonna do it

[01:20:46] I hope they do five more. I hope they announced that they're gonna do five though

[01:20:50] So that was we did it was pretty good. What do you think verdict?

[01:20:53] I mean look I had a great time watching it

[01:20:55] Yeah, but I was with some my favorite exactly

[01:20:57] We had we were all we were all good having a good time

[01:21:00] We were having a great time and we were sitting close to stage if I've been seeing in those nosebleed seats

[01:21:04] Especially because we saw yeah, like poor 30 people who were like stuck up there

[01:21:08] We would have been miserable

[01:21:09] I would have been very unhappy a lot of our enjoyment came from the fact that we were like

[01:21:12] 30 feet away from everyone if we were as early as we were supposed to be

[01:21:19] True you are welcome. Yeah, thanks. Thank you five train and not Griffin

[01:21:24] Yeah

[01:21:26] Stephen big ups a whole Barclay Center crew who clearly did not give one shit about Turuk the first flight

[01:21:34] Who is not sitting with us totally just walked on to the like walk down to our section and sat next to us

[01:21:41] Nobody cared because they had put Ramona in she had bought tickets. We I bought

[01:21:46] Once and they were like you're over there. I bought tickets to the five us and Ramona bought her on ticket independently

[01:21:50] So she was not reassigned. She was put into that one shitty nosebleed section

[01:21:54] And she just walked down five sections with no trouble

[01:21:58] I think everyone who worked at the Barclay Center was a little embarrassed to be working

[01:22:02] They're used to you know pretty sold out Nets games. Yeah, and you know Jay-Z concerts and what have you

[01:22:10] Yeah, yeah, I don't know what it is today an avatar

[01:22:13] And it was September 11th which added this weird heir to the whole there was and they had two shows

[01:22:17] This was their second show of the day. So that's pretty impressive

[01:22:20] There I think there's six show in total six shows in Brooklyn

[01:22:23] And they're I can tell you want you want to know where they're going next the Prudential Center, New Jersey

[01:22:27] I believe is next I think you're right in the purve

[01:22:29] I keep getting ads for it after searching it and my computer keeps trying to get me to go to the Prudential Center

[01:22:33] I get a lot of ads for it in like Facebook or whatever now that you targeted advertising for Cirque du Soleil

[01:22:39] Also for the steampunk one

[01:22:42] Now merchandise spotlight they had a merch table

[01:22:44] They had a lot of stuff a lot of stuff with stuff

[01:22:46] You're supposed to like use while watching the show like light up sort of shit and

[01:22:51] Fucking whizma do's flower crown flower crown that lit up

[01:22:55] The flower crowns were on these busts that were like they were sort of like mannequin bust

[01:23:00] But they had been painted with the face paint of the Navin they looked great

[01:23:03] And I turned to bed and I was like if they had that for sale

[01:23:05] I would buy that like I would just buy a mannequin head of a

[01:23:10] And then they had like a lot of turruck stuff like a plush truck

[01:23:13] They had turrachite did the soundtrack for sale

[01:23:15] They had like a program and then they had like a lot of shit that just said to rock on it like a mug a magnet

[01:23:21] It's you know, they had a shot glass but like like that was like a big one

[01:23:24] It was like a big shot like I had like you could get like three shots out of it

[01:23:28] But like all this stuff was just sort of like

[01:23:32] Solid color and then just said to rock the first flight inspired by James Cameron's average

[01:23:36] I like it wasn't like super cool looking right, but there was one item there that caught my eye

[01:23:40] And I said what sizes do you have that in and they said only children's sizes?

[01:23:44] And I said can I try one on they said the biggest we have is 12 and I put it on and it was snug

[01:23:48] But kind of a perfect fit and as Ben himself said it

[01:23:52] Kind of wouldn't have been worth owning if it was any less tight than it was

[01:23:57] Yeah, I mean it fits the it fits the the way that we just you know

[01:24:01] Like the way that everyone looked at the show svelte very svelte lean

[01:24:06] terse

[01:24:08] sinewy

[01:24:10] It was a child's

[01:24:12] Navee

[01:24:13] Costume hoodie I tweeted a pic

[01:24:16] Maybe September 11th Memorial in the background. Yep, the lights are lit behind me

[01:24:21] Representing the two towers that fell on that day much as to Rook fell on that day and

[01:24:28] We

[01:24:29] The hoodie was made to look like Navi scan

[01:24:32] It was the blue with the lighter tummy and the stripes and the dogs

[01:24:35] But it also had ears and and a little tail a little tail not a big tail

[01:24:40] No, but it was a great item and no pockets either. Yeah, that was a little bit of a bummer

[01:24:45] But but I'll give them props for like accuracy like Navi don't have pockets in their tummy

[01:24:51] No, they don't well no, I don't think so my only complaint about it was that a pouch like people

[01:24:56] No, they're not my only complaint about it was that it wasn't

[01:24:59] Like like a full-body onesie like the only thing that could have made it better for me is if I had the bottom

[01:25:04] I'm sure you could get such a thing just by the bottom half of it to be no just a jump sweat pants. Yeah, yeah

[01:25:11] But it was great. I loved it

[01:25:13] Get you a hoodie that can do both

[01:25:15] Absolutely this kept me warm once there was a chill 9-11 breeze coming through but it also helped me

[01:25:22] You know we're look if we know anything

[01:25:24] It's that people have a hard time leaving the world a pandor right why the motion picture made 700

[01:25:31] Some odd million dollars domestic because people had to go back and now I can feel like I'm always back in Pandora with just the flick of a hood

[01:25:39] Atop my head. Yeah, I don't know I detected no real enthusiasm for the world of Pandora

[01:25:44] I feel like I'm worried about avatar too, but like the enthusiasm might be gone enthusiasm for my hoodie

[01:25:49] And your hoodies sure yeah now here's the biggest takeaway. I had from

[01:25:53] Direct the first flight right based on this was the biggest thing it did for me. Okay

[01:25:59] It was one of the greatest

[01:26:02] sort of

[01:26:04] explanations sure of

[01:26:05] It's the singer not the song I've ever seen okay because like watching this show

[01:26:11] That is not directed by James Cameron and is set within the world of avatar. You're like this is pretty dumb

[01:26:17] Yes, this is like not that cool

[01:26:20] Boy, and it isn't like it makes Pandora and the Navi you seem real stupid

[01:26:24] Right, you're just like and everyone makes fun of avatar

[01:26:27] It's easy to make fun of avatar because it's pretty primal and it's pretty like broad, you know

[01:26:31] Absolutely, but it was always like dude just knows how to fucking sing it right and you look at like, you know

[01:26:37] Like avatar the movie for me and we'll have discussed this at length in the previous episode

[01:26:41] So it's not going to crazy but I have a child the movie for me is like is like Aretha Franklin singing happy birthday

[01:26:46] You know I see it's like basic fucking song. And who is this?

[01:26:49] No, it's had a belt. This is like me singing happy birthday. She's been going like happy birthday

[01:26:54] You know yeah, and it was like and then you like forget a verse. Yeah. Yeah, and that's not to like, you know like

[01:27:01] you know

[01:27:03] Criticize the wonderful performance circus like because they all did their job very well

[01:27:06] But it's just like the inherent material of avatar is not that interesting

[01:27:10] The only thing I'm interested in is James Cameron

[01:27:12] And James Cameron wants to tell stories that take place in Pandora then I'm on board cuz I'm interested in James Cameron's

[01:27:17] Wonderful directing of action and like grasp of space and

[01:27:22] Jimmy Kramer is the mother to me Kramer and Jimmy Kramer is the mother tree

[01:27:26] And I want to plug into his vision, you know

[01:27:27] But if you're like oh, there's also another mother tree like off a rest stop in like New Jersey

[01:27:32] And that's like to rock the first honor. It's at the first flight. I'm like, I don't really need to like do that

[01:27:37] So it's like you said like enthusiasm was waning it definitely felt like we're at a low point in terms of cultural excitement over avatar

[01:27:44] Right, right perhaps as these films get closer the excitement will ramp up

[01:27:48] We're very likely people go into the mean like this is gonna fucking suck

[01:27:51] Which also is what happened before the release of avatar and what happened before the release of Titanic and almost every James

[01:27:56] Karen movie people are like he's gonna fucking fail

[01:27:58] Yeah, but then every time he just dropped some fucking like November surprise on we are gonna talk about this a lot on the

[01:28:04] Avatar episode that people have already listened to I know

[01:28:06] But I'm just saying like it definitely felt like excitement had waned watching this

[01:28:10] But I kind of like I feel like Slippy Jim is gonna like slip another one past us, you know who I think

[01:28:16] Had a great time at to Rukh. Oh

[01:28:19] I was just looking on Getty images and I came across

[01:28:23] some pics of

[01:28:24] Sigourney Weaver

[01:28:26] S Dubya

[01:28:27] S Dubya

[01:28:28] S Dubya holding up a little cardboard thing hashtag

[01:28:33] Toruk and the premiere I believe yeah, and I tweeted it at blink check podcast

[01:28:39] We will retweet it. So just check it out. She looks happy to be there. Looks great, and yeah

[01:28:44] I'm happy for her

[01:28:46] Sigourney as we'll probably say in the last week's you know in the avatar episode she loves avatar

[01:28:50] She loves you love Jim you bring me back. I don't care how like I want to be an avatar

[01:28:55] So on board and she like she threw a lot of shade of hurt locker for winning best picture like she's like

[01:29:01] Avatar yeah, like she kept I mean like but like avatar though avatar though

[01:29:06] Yeah, so Torek did not like I would say it lived up to my expectations

[01:29:11] Which were look yeah

[01:29:13] They were low it didn't like stoke the flames of my excitement for the avatar sequels

[01:29:17] But it also made me like appreciate James Cameron even more. That's a good call. Yeah

[01:29:20] Yeah, I thought it was gonna be a I

[01:29:24] Would say that it did not meet my expectations. I

[01:29:27] I'm not gonna say that I thought it would be amazing

[01:29:29] Probably the most hyped of us all because I love a silly fun

[01:29:35] It was like in the the

[01:29:38] Overlap of the Lang like van diagram of everything you'd like. Yeah. Yeah silly costumes jumping you love sci-fi

[01:29:45] I love sci-fi. I love love anything related to James Cameron, right? I love world music

[01:29:52] So went into this and I felt like sort of the same way

[01:29:57] When I think I was in ninth grade and my French teacher took us to see an all-french 4d production of the Tempest which I had never read

[01:30:06] And so like I just for yeah, I still don't know it was like it was mostly just projections and maybe like a hologram

[01:30:13] There were no smells. I was looking forward to smells and I did you get sprayed with water? No

[01:30:19] Nothing, I just got like yeah, it was just it was just a projection so but anyway, yeah, that's what this felt like

[01:30:27] Pretty underwhelmed right

[01:30:29] Let's also say that the music was not done by James Horner who has died

[01:30:33] RIP James, but they also like didn't reuse his themes

[01:30:38] Music is good. Avatar. This music is not good

[01:30:41] This music was like pretty because I had the soundtrack for sale now

[01:30:43] It's like it just feels like stuff they would play while you were getting a massage

[01:30:46] Right, like it doesn't really have any like real kind of emotional waves or like hooks to it

[01:30:50] Like it was just kind of like ambient like, you know like elevator music, right?

[01:30:55] But there was one track they played like on repeat after the show ended when we were like take

[01:30:59] Like it was hard to get out of the theater because there were a lot of people, right?

[01:31:02] And they just kept on playing a loop this thing that was like

[01:31:06] Yeah

[01:31:13] Da-wah da-ta and it was just that like just cycling over and over again

[01:31:18] But it was really catchy and I haven't been able to get it on my head

[01:31:20] Okay, and then there was a notification the second we walked out of the Barclays Center being like hey download an exclusive track

[01:31:25] On the Turuk app. A lot of you had already deleted the app. Yeah, I deleted that before I got out of the building

[01:31:32] All right, we're done done so that was Turuk the first flight. Yeah, this has been the final episode of

[01:31:37] Oh, I didn't get to share my final thoughts. Oh Ben final thoughts. Go ahead Ben. Well

[01:31:42] All right, so they used to do these kinds of shows on ice

[01:31:46] Yes, and now they're doing like tumbling and stuff. Yeah

[01:31:50] What's the next thing?

[01:31:52] This guy

[01:31:53] Exactly this was a show about this guy

[01:31:55] I mean this was starting to get into like tipping our hat to the future

[01:31:58] Which is like make it airborne, maybe because you know we had Turuk flying

[01:32:02] But like a lot of it was was literally grounded, you know, right? Yeah

[01:32:07] I'll say this if you know they had hired me

[01:32:11] To

[01:32:12] conceptualize an avatar inspired Cirque de Soleil show I

[01:32:17] Would have gone like fucking like don't even try to do a narrative sure this isn't your strong suit

[01:32:23] You're going to be reigned in by what you can and cannot do within the confines of what Cameron is trying to plan out for the future of

[01:32:28] This franchise do a fucking like walk in with dinosaurs

[01:32:32] Experiential thing like when we walked in and the storyteller was like explaining the rituals that we were seeing and it was just like

[01:32:38] Navi doing Navi shit

[01:32:39] I was like if you do this but you do it to the nines and you make it really dramatic and you just have like

[01:32:44] Here's a fucking hunting scene. Here's like their food

[01:32:47] Here's like there this the prayer and you just show me like hyper visual physical things for like 82 minutes

[01:32:54] I would have like been more down than this where it felt like at times

[01:32:58] They had to like pay service to the story which was already so like secondary that was like

[01:33:04] You know moving along yeah

[01:33:07] But I still give it a gentleman six right

[01:33:10] Give it a f-mine

[01:33:13] This is this has been

[01:33:16] Yeah, it can be a letter or number

[01:33:21] Great

[01:33:23] Experientially it was great that we had a great time. I think it was a nice little evening. It definitely was yep

[01:33:29] This has been a city bike tone

[01:33:31] Podnator judgment cows this has been podnator judgment. What are we doing next?

[01:33:34] I don't know and we have no final thoughts because we haven't seen the other movies

[01:33:38] So we don't like well

[01:33:39] We've seen the other movies well, but I'm saying you know we go on this journey and by the end of watching all these movies

[01:33:43] They're short period time. We have some sort of summation thoughts. We'll have those in our avatar. Let's predict the election results

[01:33:49] No, oh Jesus will this drop after the election? I think so. Yeah. Oh fuck

[01:33:53] I don't even want to talk about it during this show. Okay. I had my phone last thing. Yeah

[01:33:58] I had my phone out

[01:34:01] To use the app and I got a New York Times alert that Hillary Clinton had pneumonia

[01:34:05] And I would say that it colored the second act of the show for me

[01:34:08] This was the morning the day of the fainting in the car

[01:34:14] Never forget so I don't even want to talk about it. My heart's actually like

[01:34:19] Thinking about I hope that I'm gonna listen back to this episode and laugh and be like oh god

[01:34:23] We were so worried but things turned out okay, but maybe I won't maybe I'll be in a very bleak world

[01:34:29] I mean the question is will the earthquake?

[01:34:32] You know metaphorically

[01:34:34] Open up the volcano and create a lava world in which we can no longer live or

[01:34:39] Will metaphorically a Torah come down from the sky and pat it gently and you know if not ultimately resolve everything just allow

[01:34:46] Things to maintain a status quo tap its wing into the slide. I'm actually really alarmed

[01:34:51] I don't like it and I'm excited for whatever filmmaker we decide to talk about next I guess

[01:34:57] Yeah, look, I mean we have a couple people we talked about

[01:35:00] We'll do a Twitter poll between the time that we record this and when the thing will happen and hopefully the episode before this one

[01:35:07] We will announce something and you'll be annoyed that you're listening to this part where we don't know or hopefully it just is the apocalypse

[01:35:13] So yeah, then we you know they'll save us a lot of work

[01:35:16] We won't have to record episodes if the world has ended. Yeah, there won't be any

[01:35:22] Face all right bad note to end on good note James Cameron's great medium note Cirque du Soleil is whatever right great

[01:35:29] Yes tune in next week for the first episode of pod dogs are many series about the films of Walt Becker

[01:35:34] Absolutely not no next week will be Ben's choice Ben's

[01:35:38] Or I mean there's some other one-off ideas we talked about okay

[01:35:43] I mean, I'll just throw this out. We have talked about I do want to at some point

[01:35:48] do episodes devoted to THX 1138 and

[01:35:52] American graffiti because

[01:35:54] Lucas is the only filmmaker that we haven't covered in totality because we just were doing the Star Wars movies

[01:35:58] And I'd love to do is to Star Wars movies something well, maybe we will maybe we will I don't know

[01:36:03] I love you folks so much

[01:36:05] Love I love my blankies

[01:36:09] You know there's a reddit group

[01:36:11] What so my bank check someone create a blank check reddit group and there's one post in it

[01:36:15] And it hasn't been responded to at all

[01:36:17] So I just want to start directing people to the blank check reddit reddit group. What is it?

[01:36:22] Maybe all it's r slash blank check pod

[01:36:25] Didn't work

[01:36:27] Is it all about living in the blank?

[01:36:29] Universe and never leaving yeah, that's the goal

[01:36:33] There is a blank check reddit, but it's about the film blank there is one for our podcast it might be slash blankies

[01:36:40] I got it. It's reddit.com

[01:36:42] Slash r slash blank. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty good grab. Yeah

[01:36:49] Great everyone go to reddit

[01:36:52] Keep supporting us. We appreciate a lot

[01:36:55] And hopefully exciting stuff coming in the future including the mini series new power cleansers who knows skies the limit

[01:37:01] We're like to rock

[01:37:03] flying up up into the Sun

[01:37:08] Thank you, thank you for listening and as always yes

[01:37:14] Really really hope Donald Trump was a great present agreed

[01:37:19] We just heard that the ninth floor of the UCB is gonna conduct a fire drill. So that's good

[01:37:24] We don't have to great. Okay, cool. So we're going to not do that

[01:37:29] But leave that in it's gonna go off so

[01:37:32] Cool, how's that gonna be for us?

[01:37:39] Then you can put this at the end

[01:37:46] So this

[01:37:48] This is a rare morning occur of recording for us

[01:37:51] I

[01:37:52] Overselept in that I woke up a minute after we were supposed to start recording

[01:37:56] Got here almost an hour late and then now there's a fire drill, you know these things happen

[01:38:00] It's how it works. Yeah Manhattan office buildings and that's that's that's you know

[01:38:05] That's the thing and that's how it goes. I will say that is the shortest fire drill. It was pretty short

[01:38:10] They did one Blair. All right, we should be let's get back into the thing

[01:38:16] This has been a UCB comedy production check out our other shows on the

[01:38:20] UCB comedy podcast network