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SNL Cue Cards: Behind the Scenes With Wally Feresten
Episode 2657th May 2024 • Not Real Art • Crewest Studio
00:00:00 01:07:46

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Wally Feresten, iconic cue card writer for shows like SNL and Late Night with Seth Meyers, Explores his craft's artistry and his journey during the pandemic. He shares how he adapted to the challenges, starting his successful business, Cue Cards by Wally, and the joy of bringing personalized cue cards into people's lives globally. Wally also reflects on his relationships with hosts and performers, stressing the importance of rapport and discussing the unforeseen inventiveness brought about by navigating COVID-19 restrictions. The conversation rounds out with insights into the supportive and creative environment of his work and the significant but often overlooked role of cue cards in live television production.

https://notrealart.com/snl-cue-cards-wally-feresten

Episode Contents

00:00 Wally is a lovable, funny, cue card writer.

07:33 Discussion of various dimensions of sign painting.

12:44 Discussing tradition, design, and obsession in conversation.

21:25 Building trust and relationships for successful collaboration.

24:03 Building trust with SNL hosts every week.

29:50 Grateful for long-lasting job on TV show.

36:33 SNL returns with COVID restrictions, logistical challenges.

39:24 Wife entrepreneur rejects personalized cue card idea.

46:41 Christopher Walken hosts SNL, asks for card.

51:39 Sharpies, Power pilot pens, and old markers.

57:18 Meeting artists and celebrities can be challenging.

01:00:42 Talent, hard work, and kindness matter most.

01:05:13 Endorsement for custom cue cards by Wally.

Topics Discussed

Introduction to Wally Feresten

- Introduction of Wally Feresten as a guest on the Not Real Art Podcast.

- Explanation of Wally's role as a cue card writer for notable TV shows like SNL and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

- Mention of Wally's personal life, including his family and recreational activities.

Cue Cards and Artistry

- Discussion on the artistic aspect of writing cue cards.

- Comparisons made between Wally's work and famous sign painters.

- Reflection on the history and evolution of cue cards in the entertainment industry.

Business Ventures and Adaptations During COVID-19

- Exploration of Wally's business "Cue Cards by Wally" providing personalized cue cards.

- How the pandemic influenced Wally to start the business.

- Transition to remote work and adaptation of the business model during COVID-19.

Operational Details and Employee Management

- Insight into Wally’s operational and billing practices for shows.

- Discussion of employee status transitioning from independent contractors to full-time staff with benefits.

- Wally’s approach to maintaining a good work environment, highlighting the importance of being nice.

Impact of Cue Cards in the Industry

- Highlights of famous cue card writers and their contributions.

- The preference of cue cards over prompters by traditional hosts.

- Story about Wally's mishap during a live show and handling different personalities.

Creative Side Projects and Personal Stories

- Wally’s involvement in creating cards for various personal events and celebrations.

- Mention of his sons’ careers and personal projects.

- Story about Wally’s interaction and relationship with fans and other industry figures.

Reflections and Philosophy

- Wally’s reflections on the stability and changes in the entertainment industry due to strikes and other disruptions.

- His philosophy on work ethic and the advice of being nice as pivotal to success.

- Scott and Wally’s shared experiences and appreciations for behind-the-scenes work.

Conclusion and Further Engagements

- Summary of the episode’s discussion points.

- Promotional mention of Wally's forthcoming book.

- Encouragement for listeners to visit Wally’s business website and explore his offerings.

- Closing remarks thanking Wally for his contributions and a nod to the viewers to stay creative.

Quotables

Longevity in Television Careers: "You're not supposed to work on the same TV show for for 34 years and plus and still going. You know? Like, how lucky is that too?"— Wally 00:30:00
Pursuing Creative Careers: "You need to make a decision. You need to leave cue cards and really focus on writing if you wanna really do that or commit fully to cue cards."— Wally 00:09:54

Wally Feresten Links & Bio

Meet Wally, a seasoned television professional whose career spans various high-profile productions. Wally's primary responsibilities are with two iconic shows, "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers," both of which are conveniently located on the same floor, allowing him to seamlessly manage his duties. In his role, he adeptly coordinates and supervises the integration of these shows' elements, ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Apart from his core commitments, Wally also oversees a small, efficient team dedicated to "The Tonight Show." He describes this team as being on "automatic pilot," attesting to their competence and his trust in their abilities to handle responsibilities with minimal intervention. This allows Wally the freedom to engage with diverse projects beyond his day-to-day tasks.

Adding variety to his career are the special assignments that take him around the country. Over the summer, Wally found himself in Miami for a shoot, and he also traveled to Toronto to work on a commercial featuring none other than Ryan Reynolds. These projects serve as exciting deviations from his routine, infusing his regular schedule with fresh experiences and challenges in the dynamic world of television production. Through it all, Wally remains enthusiastic and passionate, continually embracing the "spice" these opportunities bring to his professional life.

Transcripts

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Warning. The NOT Real Art Podcast is intended for creative

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audiences only. The Not Real Art Podcast celebrates

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creativity and creative culture worldwide. It contains material

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that is fresh, fun and inspiring and is not suitable for boring old

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art snobs. NOT, let's get started and enjoy the show.

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Greetings and salutations, my creative brothers and sisters. Welcome to

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Nottingville Art, the podcast where we talk to the world's most creative people.

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I am your host, faithful, trusty, loyal, tireless, relentless,

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stubborn host, Sourdough, coming at you from Crewest Studio

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in Los Angeles. Man, do we have a fun show for

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you today? We have,

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like, a one of a kind character, complete

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iconoclast. You know, I I like to say we talk

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to the world's most creative people, but then there are creative people behind the creative

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people. Right? And and Wally Feresten is one of those

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people. Wally Feresten, is a legend

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in entertainment, especially late night in comedy. He

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has been doing cue cards for

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the Saturday night live show since 1990. He has

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been doing cue cards, for,

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any number of late night shows, not the least of

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which is the Seth Meyers, for example. And you're gonna hear

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all about it in one second, when we get into this interview

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with Wally, which I so love and I'm gonna talk about in a second. But

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before I do, of course, I wanna thank you for tuning in. We do this

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for you. It's all about you. And so I'm so grateful for

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your loyalty and your support. Thank you so much. I

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want, of course, as always, to encourage you to go to our website, not REAL

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ART dot com, and check out all the good healthy stuff we've got for you

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there. It's all free range organic. No pesticides

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or antibiotics or steroids were used in the making of our content.

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But on our website, you will discover amazing ART and art, that

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will inspire you and, and just really,

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lift your spirits. Of course, check out our monthly online art

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exhibition, 1st Fridays, which drops every month on the 1st

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Friday of the month. So check that out. We have some incredible

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shows of, featuring some incredible art and Crewest. So check it out.

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Also, check out our exclusive video series remote

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with the one and only, Badir Badir McCleary, who takes us on

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a tour of public art in America and tells us what it all

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means, or at least what it means to him, and it is a wonderful,

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series. So check that out remote on our website, ART.

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Okay, people. Without further ado, we have the one and only

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Wally Faerson here with us today. And I REAL you what,

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Wally has been, the head cue ART guy

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on Saturday Night Live for the last 3 years, and he's

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been, playing an offbeat bastard version of

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himself, you know, on TV and film.

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You know, he's been behind the camera, but now he's kind of in front of

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the camera. He's becoming a bit of a character, a bit of a celebrity

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himself. He holds the cards for Seth Meyers,

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and Seth Meyers has had him on the show. And he's you know, over the

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last several years or many years, he's become, just a

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beloved feature and character on these shows. They turn the camera on

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Wally because he's such a, you know, lovable,

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smart, funny, human who does this incredible

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thing. He writes the cue cards,

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that, comics and creatives and artists like Seth

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Meyers read from. And, you

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know, Michael Che from Saturday Night Live, Colin

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Jost, on and on. He's

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he's, holding the cards for these guys. And you've

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probably seen him, on late night or on Saturday night live

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because they turned the camera on him. And I had discovered him,

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in part because, they did a article or there was a

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story on TV about his about his company,

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that and and and I just thought, my god. What a cool I mean, how

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do you get that job? How do you get the job to write the cue

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cards, for a a show? I mean, what you

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know? Because, I mean, there was you know, there's a, you gotta be a good

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your penmanship's gotta be good. What kind of materials do you use? What kind

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of markers? And and and people have gotta be able to read it. And and

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what is there, a an apprenticeship? How do you learn

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this skill? How do you learn this talent? You know, and I was so interested

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to learn, about Wally, and I wanted to have him

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on the show. And then I discovered that he has,

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a a company, whereby you can, you know,

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order, you know, a cue ART,

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from him, for a birthday or for a wedding or, you know,

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a special gift of some kind. And, you know, he has this

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company called, cue cards by Wally. You gotta check

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out cue cards by walley.com. And, you know, for a very

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very affordable price, he will not just write a cue card

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for you, but he will create a video, and you can send it as a

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special gift, what have you. And so and I did that. It was a

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wonderful, service, and, so I definitely

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encourage you to check it out. So without further ado, let's get into this and

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hear from the 1 and only Wally Farris.

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Wally, welcome to the NOT REAL ART podcast. Scott, thank you so much

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for having me. Appreciate it. I am honored. I'm so you

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know, I was trying to remember how I first

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got the idea well, how I just how I came to

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know you or or how I discovered, you know, the the the the the

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the infamous WALL E. And and it must have been, you know, watching a late

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night show or something when, you know, they turn the cameras on you or something.

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And then somehow, some way, I realized that you were doing,

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you know, the custom cards and everything. And and I said, man, I wanna get

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Wally on the podcast because we love talking to what we like to

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say the world's most creative people. But you have such an interesting

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job and an interesting life. And and I know our audience is just gonna love

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hearing from you, and hearing about how Wally became Wally.

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But, I mean, just to to just to level set a little bit, I mean,

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you know, you you you work for SNL. Right. You work for

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Seth Meyers. Correct. What other shows, are you working on right

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now? Well, I have, you know, I have 2 companies. The one you talked about,

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the personal cue cards I started in 2020. We can talk about that later. Yep.

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New York New York City cue cards, which is, the company I'm

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a vendor to these TV shows. So right now, we do

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Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

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Those are the REAL main shows that I have. They're all in the same building.

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They're all within 2 floors of each other. Seth and SNL are on the same

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floor right next to each other, which is great because those are the shows I

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work on. But I have 3 guys that work on the tonight show, and, I

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just kinda supervise them. They're pretty much an automatic pilot, so I don't really have

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to worry about them. And then there's shows that come little one offs that come.

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I was in Miami shooting something over the summer, and then I was in Toronto

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shooting a commercial, with Ryan Reynolds and things like that. Those little

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shows pop up every now and again just to, you know, add some spice to

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the to to the business. That's it. But the main shows are those 3.

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You know, there's so many different dimensions and facets to to to what you

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do, that that, you know, I'd love to try to touch on as many

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as we can because, you know, I'm a I'm a Chicago guy, you know,

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born and raised in the suburbs. And,

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you know, I recently had a guy on the podcast named, Che, Che

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Ches Perry. And Ches is, kind of a

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famous sign painter in Chicago. You know? He he studied,

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sign painting and sign making as an apprentice, you know, 30, 40 years

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ago. And, you know, he's kind of become a bit of a legend,

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you know, there, you know, doing what he does. And, you know, there's such

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an artistry. You know? I think a lot of a lot of artists might or

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a lot of people may not appreciate the artistry. And what I loved about, you

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know, chess's story is that he was, you know, I mean, he he he's a

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master at his craft, and so are you. You are a master of

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your craft. And, you know, and I I I I guess I could've

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guessed, you know, how, you know, a sign painter becomes a

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sign painter. But I I I could never guess how a cue

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card writer becomes a cue card

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writer. I mean, how the hell, Wally? You got a

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PhD in in cue ART? No. I mean, you know, there's there's, you know, guys

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that work for me that it's just a normal story. They're taking the job as

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their first job getting into business, and they wanna do something else.

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I I I didn't even know what cue cards were. I went to school. I

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wanted to be a writer. Ever since the 5th grade, I wanted to write. I

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wanted to write for TV and film. I was brought up in a funny family.

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My brother's a famous writer. He wrote for Seinfeld and for Letterman and stuff. So

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K. We grew up in this family that wanted to do this, and

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I took the job as a KUKA guy to get my foot in the door.

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It's my first job after college. 3 years, I went to Syracuse and went to

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Newhouse and, you know, just wanted to write. So I took the job to

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just make some connections and write. And I started writing jokes for Norm McDonald for

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weekend updates and started doing stuff like that. So I'm like, this is great. I'll

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do this for a little while, then I'll start doing some more writing. And I

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did, and I started getting you know, I wrote a Space Coast Scott to coast

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episode. I started writing some stuff for celebrity death

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match and, all these other little shows, but it was never enough to pay the

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rent. You know? It was never enough to quit the cue cards and

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do that full time. And I started getting better and better at cue

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cards. And my brother who was writing, I think, probably for Seinfeld at the time

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was like, you need to make a decision. You need to leave cue cards and

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really focus on writing if you wanna really do that or commit fully

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to cue cards. And I did leave

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for for through 4 months. I took some time off, and I went to LA,

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and I took meetings. And it it's you know, the we know what

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Hollywood's like in LA. It's like they take meetings and they're like, yeah. Yeah. Those

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are great ideas. Come back and then nothing ever happens. Right. So I just got

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married and went back to doing cue ART. And and, you know, I I was

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basically running running the show 3 years in in 93. I started in

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90. I was running the show, and then I just got really, really good at

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it. There's something about it. Not so much the writing, which is the art you

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talk about. We'll talk about that later. But the the holding and all the other

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things that go with it and the temperament dealing with celebrities and pressure, For

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some reason, that didn't bother me. It was just I looked at it as it

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was pressure, and it was, you know, stressful, but it was fun. It was a

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fun thing to do. And, I just got so good at it that I

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became the person. You know? And, I started my company in

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2004 when the company we were working for, were was

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where they were bouncing our paychecks, and we couldn't order stuff because they weren't paying

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the the suppliers. And, I just basically started out out of

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necessity. I didn't wanna own a company. I knew nothing about it. Thank NOT I

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have a wife that, like like was an entrepreneur and like to start ART,

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so she helped me a lot. And it was just something that, for some reason,

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I don't know why I was really good at it. But my penmanship was

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terrible, It's still not great. I mean, the the

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the the irony of my career, if you look at if I when I tell

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you this, every single report card I got growing up from

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1st grade to when I graduated high school was great

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grades, great kid, worst handwriting we've ever seen. And

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now I make my living with my handwriting.

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Fuck you, missus Smith. That's right. Every teacher I had.

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Well, it by the way, I love the fact that you just told that story

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because I was gonna I had a question here. I was just gonna, you know,

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goofball question. I was gonna say, Wally, does this mean that, you know, in in

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your professional life, your penmanship is perfect, but in your personal life, your penmanship

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is shit. And I guess it's Nope. If I got a letter from you, I

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couldn't read it. But if I get a cue card from you, no problem. Yeah.

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No. You know you know, it's different. You know? That's the thing. You know? I

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I do print when I print when I write with my when I write with

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a pen, I print capital letters like cue cards. Right? So it does look deater.

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But the the pens we use I can show you the the pens we use

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here, these thick pens. Mhmm. You know, you're you're printing. You're not writing. You

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don't use your fingers. You use your hand. You move your hand back and forth

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and up and down and around. So it's different. It's something that can be taught.

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It just needs to practice it. And, you know, I get good at it. I

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get good enough, obviously, that I kept my job, and I was, you know, the

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top person there. So, and then, you know, my my my printing

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is what I taught everybody else. So everybody's printing may look neater, but

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it's basically a copy of what my is. You know? So,

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but but there but but but the cue but the tradition. Right? I mean, you

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know, like like like and I wanna go back to that. I mean, there's so

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many things, you know, because I want, you know, I wanna have a

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conversation about, you know, about all these layers because, obviously, on one hand, this

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connects to, you know, topography design and and and, you know, all that,

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you know, sign ART stuff that we talked about. And and and, you know, there's

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gotta be a type a OCD component, obsessive compulsive

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component to that. You know? Yeah. You know? And I have a buddy of mine's

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son is a phenomenal topography designer and I REAL, but

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he's just like a mad scientist. Right? You know, he's that. Yeah. Yeah. But then,

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you know, so there's so there's the you know, because art Scott, design school

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track. But then, of course, I'm guessing there is the more of a a

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trades trades like journey, of

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apprenticeship and things. But but but, you know, cue cards as I understand. I

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don't know the history. I wanna ask you. I mean, obviously, teleprompters didn't exist.

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Cue cards existed far before teleprompters. So go back. You

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know, help me understand the history of where cue cards started in the

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tradition and the legacy that you're continuing. Yeah. So, yeah, before

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prompters were a thing, before they were invented, you know, TV shows, most a lot

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of TV shows were live. So they used they used cue cards, Bob. Hope

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relied on them. A lot of the shows use cue cards. So they had in

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house cue card ART. You know, that n b all the networks, NBC had

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1, CBS, they all had them because they were shooting these shows live or, you

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know, live to tape, and they didn't have enough they didn't have the time. So

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it was all in house. Then the prompter came along. I'm not sure when.

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And when a prompter came along and simplified that, that they could talk right to

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camera, then they prompt the cue cards went

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out of house to, like, you know, vendors like myself. Mhmm.

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And prompters took over. And then, you know, cue cards slowly

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probably started fading because, you know, prompter was better. But some

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shows still use cue cards. The variety shows use them, and the talk shows use

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them, because it was just something, you know, that they were used to, I think.

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Yeah. And, and plus, if you want if you're gonna do sketches like Johnny Carson

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would do sketches, you know, he would have his monologue on ART, but he could

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do that on a prompter if it had it. But he does, like, you know,

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they did sketches. So they want cards on either side. You know? So it was

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Mhmm. It was just something he was used to, so he used cue cards. And

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I think that's the majority of it. The people that I do cards for now,

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Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, you know, Conan, I did cards

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for him. It's all people that came from Saturday Night Live

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that learned how to do things with cue cards, not a prompter.

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So that's why they kept it. They were they were happy with cue cards. They

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were familiar with it. They liked the rhythm of it, and, they got used to

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it. Yeah. But that's the history that I basically, you know,

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know right now. So yeah. And I'm I guess right now, I'm the biggest coupon

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company in the I I could say the world, but that's pretty that's pretty audacious

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to say that. I say the country. You know? Well but it'd be but, you

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know, perhaps, yes. Maybe you are likely the biggest company in the

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world, but but but I I'm guessing you're probably one of the most famous

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cue card writers to ever exist because, you have such a great

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personality and you're funny and one way or another, they turn the camera on you

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and people you know, you've delighted people. That's amazing. So

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so were there other famous cue card writers and, like, were

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there any, you know, sort of legends of the craft? Sure. Well, Tony

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Mendez do you know Tony Tony Mendez, trained me on SNL

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and then went Power. He was he was David Letterman's cue card guy. Inky, they

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called him. Tony you know? He was he was on camera all the time. He

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had his own he had his own show after the show. It's like a 5

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minute, Internet show that he had. He had a billboard in Times Square. So he

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was pretty big. He was almost like kinda like, oh, I kinda wanna aspire that

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maybe. But, again, that wasn't his choice. It was Dave putting him on

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camera and him, you know, having fun with it. You know?

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There's some other older guys. Barney McNulty is one of the most famous. I think

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he did Bob Hope's cards and stuff, but I don't think he was on camera.

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I don't think they you know, he was just he was just, like, the biggest

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guy back in the sixties in the you know, in in that time. So,

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REAL, I think Tony and and myself, and I can't really think of anybody else.

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Kevin k, who who was whose uncle owned the company when I

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started, he was Letterman's first cue card guy, on the

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show. I forget what his what they what Dave called

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him. Maybe because it's just Kevin the cue card guy. That's I knew him from

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watching the show. Right. But, yeah, he was on as well a little bit too.

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But Yeah. They yeah. It's such it's so fascinating. Such a

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fascinating world. Yeah. And and, you know, I'm

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remind I'm reminded of that music documentary, you know, 10 feet from

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stardom. I don't know if you saw it right by the back. It's like it's

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like, you know, the cue ART, Wally, the, you know, is is NOT

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10 feet for stardom, but you are literally, becoming a star unto

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your own as, unto your own, and and that's just

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amazing. You know?

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Right. So so there's a tradition, a legacy. There were there were legends

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that, you know, you know, made the craft, you know, I guess, what it

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is. Yeah. And and and you're and

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you and you pass down these skills to some of your other employees. I mean,

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how many employees do you have right now that are that are working? I think

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it's right around 14 or 15. 14 or 15. Yeah. They

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work they work on the REAL shows. Right. So so

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so right. So okay. So, I

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REAL, yeah, I guess, I I mean, there must be you must have a an

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army kind of, right, to to to the volume and the the the changes

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in the constant, amendments. Right? Yeah. You you need you

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need it. Like, you know, for for Seth, we have 5 people that work

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on Seth on closer look days because that's so long. We we get it really

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late in the day. So we we had to add a couple people to help

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us print that. It's usually about 25, 30 pages sometimes. So

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we need to print that in, like, a half an hour. And then Fallon has

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3 people full time. And then, on

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Thursday, I've got 3 people working. On Friday, I've got 8 people working. And

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then on Saturday, I've got, 9 plus

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myself, 10 people working on, on Saturday. So and a lot of those people, like,

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that work on Seth will work on SNL, and a lot of people that work

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on Fallon, they work on SNL as well. So everybody's I'm kinda, like, moving moving

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people around where I need them. So and and, you know, tell me to fuck

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off if I'm asking business questions that are confidential. But, like so

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are these employees, are they, like, full time staff employees, or are they, like, independent

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contractors? Is it like a Well, I mean, I like I said, I up up

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until last year, I was a vendor Mhmm. And they were you know,

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some of them were full time and some of them were part time. Yeah. They

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were all w fours. Right. But they unionized

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last year, and I really can't talk about that, but we just came to an

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agreement after a year of negotiations pretty much. Well, not a lot went

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under the strike, but now they're so now all my employees are in, local one

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I Etsy. And, we just have a trip we just I just signed the

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papers today, actually. So, they'll all be union.

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They'll be getting more money. They'll be getting health benefits, which I never had because

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I was a small company and REAL that I couldn't afford that with them.

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Right. I had a 4 zero one k. I had profit sharing. I did, but,

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you know, they wanted more. And, you know, the my company was based on,

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you know, come in, do cards, but, you know, make some money, and then find

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what you wanna do and and leave. You know? Right. Right. Right. People, you know,

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I guess, to my to to as a I guess, it's like, you know, a

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good thing. People like the job, and they they wanted to stay, and they have

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fun doing it, and they like working there. And so, it became more of a,

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like, oh, I need to make more money to survive. So I understand it. Like

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I said, you know, we came to agreement. It was all it was very good

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negotiations. Very nice. And, so now and, again, some of

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there's only I think there's only 6 full time and then the rest are part

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time, just because there's not that many hours, especially s and l's, know, only

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21 weeks out of the year, and they don't shoot the other years, the other

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days. But, yeah, it's a mix of both. Yeah. Well and and thanks for all

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that. I appreciate all that that, information. I mean, you know, because I was gonna

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I wondered, you know, to what extent your your guys or your shop

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was union versus nonunion or whatever. I mean Yeah. We just

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my wife and I couldn't sell our house last year because the writers and the

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actors were striking their all of our buyers. You know?

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So so so I you know, we were we were over the strikes. Let's not

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strike anymore if we can avoid it. So I'm glad you closed your deal.

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That that's great. And then and, again, tell me to fuck off. I'm just curious.

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Like, so how then do you bill the shows? Like, are you billing

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them per card? Are you billing them per I wish. Per

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person, like, hours? Is it, like, a project rate, a show rate, an episode

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rate? Like It's a it's a show it's a show rate. Like, you know, for

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SNOW, I I bill them a certain amount, and then I pay my employees, you

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know, from that, and I pay all the I I buy the supplies and, you

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know, whatever expenses I also have. For Seth and Fallon,

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I bill them, you know, weekly for how many shows we do in in in

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the same kind of thing. But, you know Right. Yeah. That's basically it that I

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pay the I pay the guys. So, I mean, these guys work with you because

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they they they trust you. You're a pro. They like you.

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Maybe they probably didn't have to don't have to like you to work with you.

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But but the fact that they like you, they they you've you've you've you've you've

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known each other for years maybe in many cases. You've worked together. But, I

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mean, how do you have to adjust? So whether you're working for

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Seth or whether you work for SNL or well, not let's not use SNL because

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SNL is, like, slightly different. But, like, I just you know, if you're doing talk

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shows, like, if you're doing late night talk shows, just for example, you

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know, do do do the do the host have different

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idiosyncratic, kinds of needs and wants from you, and

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how do you adjust and manage that? Yeah. Well, I mean so

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I you know, when Seth was on SNL for, I think, 11 years, something like

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that. Mhmm. I held you know, I held most

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of his cue cards. He taught people ask him, you know, why ART use cue

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cards and stuff like that. He and he tells and he's probably right. He's like,

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I probably held up 90% of his cards since he's been on

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TV in 20 years between SNL and and Laine. When he

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started when he took over late NOT, I was only working 3 days

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a week in SNL. I was having a nice cushy job. I was off for

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the summers. You know, I spent it with my boys. We're younger, so it was

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good. I get to see them a lot. And then, he started the boys were

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older, and I could and I I went to them and I said, you guys

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gonna use cue cards? They said yes. I was like, well, I'd like to do

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cards for Seth. I'll be the lead on the show. You know, what do you

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guys think of that? And they they jumped at it. They were so happy.

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Because, Seth, I just wanted them not to worry about cue cards. I didn't

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wanna throw a new person in there that didn't know his rhythm and that didn't

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know Right. And he knows me. I wanted them to be able to focus on

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the writing and all that other stuff that goes into producing a new show. And,

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yeah, I know Seth's rhythms, and he knows my rhythms. If I, you know, if

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he reads too, I we just we have a connection. It's like a dancing partner.

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You guys are REAL dancing. Exactly. Like, if he screws up

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something, I can pull the card back or if he he takes a pause at

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the end of a because when you're pulling a card, I'm pulling the card on,

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like, the 3rd or 4th, the last word of the card because they've already got

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it in their head. Mhmm. But if he takes a pause on that word, and

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he might he might forget those maybe the last sentence. I gotta grab

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it back from the guy I just gave it to in time to Yeah. Get

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it to him sometimes like that. So, yes, we we have each other. We I

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know his it is like a dance. Like, I know his rhythms. He knows my

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rhythms. He knows you know, he he trusts me, and it's all it's all our

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it's a it's it's a REAL, and it's Crewest, really. The trust is the

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thing. Right. It's like, are you gonna catch me when I fall? And and and

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you do. And and that trust is built up over years. And and,

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right, wow. What a what a what a special relationship you have.

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Yeah. And, well, with Seth especially, but, you know, I get to do that every

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week too. You know, I I'm in charge of the host of SNL every week.

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So I meet them on a on a Thursday, and then I work with them

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for 3 days. And I build up this relationship with them because they're fully trusting

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me, and it's all about, again, I'm trying to gain their trust Thursday Friday so

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that they can relax on Saturday. And I I've had made some really, really great

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people and have some really, really I consider them, you know, new friends because of

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that trust that I build with them, especially if they come back and host 2

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or 3 times. You know, they know the they know the process. They can relax.

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We just get to know each other. It's just it's a wonderful job to have.

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It really is. Well, so so I I wasn't gonna mention this till

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later, but it dawned on me as we I was I was thinking about our

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talk today that, indeed, if you are,

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holding the the the cards for the host, and if

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indeed you held the cards for Quinta Brunson when she

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hosted, I was in the room that night. So we we

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literally were in the same room together. Oh, that's awesome. Of

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course. Yeah. That was amazing. Like, I was so blown away

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at seeing that dance. Talk about dancing. You know? This this

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this you know, clearly, everyone in the room, many of those folks. I mean, like,

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the the the cast, you know, is like or the young bucks in the room

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because it feels like everybody behind, you know, you know, behind the camera, so to

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speak, are, like, multiyear veterans who be could do this in their

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sleep. I mean, just the dance that you guys do in that small space,

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it's incredible to watch. Yeah. Yeah. You'll never you'll

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never watch the show the same on TV because you know what's going

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on, like, during that commercial break. You know what's oh, the madness and the moving

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around and and the stuff. Yeah. It's it it is truly amazing, especially I'm glad

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you get to see it because REAL is gives you a whole perspective on what

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the show is. And were you watching us do cue cards as well as

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watching the actors do the sketches? Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I

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mean, little did I know that we would be doing this. You know? Like, but,

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you know, but I was just so amazed at all the the moving parts. Right?

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And Yeah. And, of course, on TV, the studio looks so much bigger than

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it actually is. Right? And then, you know, and then to see this dance,

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but then also to appreciate the fact that wait a minute. You guys go

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from 0 to hero in 6 days. Like, you know, like Oh, yeah. That

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shows that show wraps on that that Saturday night. And then

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on Monday, you start again with a blank sheet of paper, and you build sets,

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and you do all this stuff in the 6 days. Like Yeah. They don't they

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don't start building the sets till till Wednesday night. They don't start building the Scott.

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Wednesday night. You know? The all the creative stuff is that, like, Monday,

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they talk to the they meet the host. Tuesday, they do the writing. Wednesday is

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the read through. Then Wednesday night, they pick the sketches, and then they start building

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the sets. We don't rehearse till Thursday afternoon, like 4 o'clock in the

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afternoon. Crazy.

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What a grind. What a grind. There's there's times on Saturday

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night at, like, 12:45, and we have 50 minutes to go,

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maybe one more sketch Studio, where I just I look at the mirror, and I

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was just like, I don't know how we get here every week. Like, every week,

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like, I'm I'm amazed. And I've worked there for 34 years. I'm still amazed

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that sometimes we put the show on that we put on. It's it's crazy. It's

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it's wild. And and it was so fascinating also to watch

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Lauren kind of walking around as he does, you know, with his

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hands behind his back and his suit. I mean, he's just the Yoda,

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you know, kind of figure. It was it was just amazing to watch.

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Yeah. I was so charmed and delighted and and grateful that I got the opportunity

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to be in the room. That's great. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. So who was

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your was who was your first big,

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show or or celebrity that you worked with? Was it SNL? Is that where you

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got your your first That's that's where I started.

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Yeah. So, I mean, you know, I wasn't running the show for the 1st REAL

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years. I know Tony was running it, and he was just putting me in stuff.

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But, you know, I the thing that I was like I said, I was not

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a good my handwriting was not good. And I think he wanted to get me

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fired, so he put me in really hard sketches to

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start. Like, I would never like, I don't sometimes let somebody hold for

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a year. I like, you know, and especially SNL. You know, I'm not gonna take

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a chance that they're gonna screw up on live TV. You know? He he was

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giving me these hard sketches the 1st week, and and

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I really think he wanted to get me fired. But for some reason, like I

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said before, I was really good at the holding. The the the it's a lot

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of hand eye coordination. I and I played baseball and tennis and golf, you know,

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growing up. Right. So I think maybe that helped me. I don't know. For some

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reason, I took to it. It didn't scare me. I was good at it. And

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he saw, like, oh oh, this guy can be a really big asset to this

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to this department. And, you know, he worked with me on my writing, and we

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got NOT we got that up to speed. And then I'd be you know, I

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was I was like the top holder be be you know, behind him. And then,

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you know, 3 years in, he decided to leave, and, the show

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picked me to run it even though there were, like, REAL guys that were

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had 5 years more experience than me. But because of my,

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calm under pressure, that's why they, you know, they picked me to run it because

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that's what they're looking for. They need something. They can't have somebody that freaks out.

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You know? Turns out you're a ninja. And and in in

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another life, you were either a ninja or special witnesses or

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whatever, and collected,

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under pressure. Right? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I

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and, you know, and that's the thing too. Just that, you know, I mean,

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to to just bring come back to the SNL example. I mean, you

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know, that was one of the things that, you know, again, I so

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appreciated about being there is that, you know, it is,

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you know, it's, there are so many moving ART, and and it is

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there's high pressure and obviously. And but

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to see pros do their job. Right? You know? Yeah. Just, you know,

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get it done and do it with a smile. Have fun doing it. Love the

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pressure. You know, it's it's you're you're part of a

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all star world class group of super athletes on

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a certain level. You're you're absolutely right. It really is the best of

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people were doing their job. And, you know, you're not you know, I start

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I started this job when I was 25 years old. I'm 58 right now. You're

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not supposed to work on the same TV show for for 34 years

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and plus and still going. You know? Like, how lucky is that too? Like, you

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know, I was like, you know, I had friends that were were starting a job.

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They'd have it for 2 years, and the show would go off the air, and

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they have to find another job. And it's like, how lucky I am to be

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in that position where my show just stays on and on and on. It's crazy.

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Right. NOT. SNL's gotta be one of the longest running shows on television right

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now. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Wow. Talk about job security.

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You got job security in, and, in a time when there seems to

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be no job security. I know. It's crazy. It really is

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crazy. Wow. Wow. Well, you know, I was gonna,

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I was gonna ask a stupid question about so who did

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you get your, good handwriting from? Your mom or

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your I don't yet. Since you've already established

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that you had shit handwriting. I can I can tell you who I blame it

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on? My my grandfather was a doctor, so I blame it on his, you know,

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doctor's famous. We have really bad handwriting, so I blame it on him. There you

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go. There you go. I know. I I I I could have been a doctor

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based on my handwriting, but I couldn't have been a doctor based on my grades.

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Yeah. It's just not gonna happen. Yeah. Oh,

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man. So, I mean, what does,

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what does a, cue card writer like

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yourself, Wally I mean, what keeps you up at night, man?

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I mean, like like, it it seems like you have so much fun. I mean,

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I know there's stress. You're you're but you're calm, cool, and collected. I mean,

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you know, it sounds like you you're a family man. You got kit your kids

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are grown. I mean, you well, I it kinda sounds like you have

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an ideal life. Maybe nothing keeps you up at night. I don't know. Yeah. No.

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I mean I mean, this whole the whole the negotiations with the union for

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last year, that was that was stressful, but, you know, and just it's

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it was, you know, it's just it was just more work, you know, and and

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it's I have to just now I have to really be on my game because

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we're doing a whole thing where I have to keep make sure the guys take

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meal breaks at a certain time. So I gotta stay on I gotta kinda get

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more involved in that aspect of the company, which is the stuff that I hate.

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Yeah. Right. I just wanna I wanna write the cards and hold them up and

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get the laughs and have fun. You know what I mean? Right. That's why I

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do it. Yes. Yes. So that maybe this little bit of the stress on that.

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But, yeah, you know, like I said, like I said, my my one son graduated

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from, SCAD down in Atlanta with team Houston major.

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So he's he's right now working on an, SNL 1975

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movie as a production assistant. He got the job. So he hits his

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first job out of college. He's really happy down there. He's living with his buddies.

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My sec my youngest son is graduating from UT Austin in May, and,

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he wants to move out to LA things. So I think he would be, like,

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good maybe TV production, but I think he would be good, like, a movie

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studio executive, something like that. Uh-huh. Right. He's got a good

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business sense and wants to run business. And he's really not sure what he wants

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to do yet. But, so yeah. And then, you know, we just get a dog,

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which we never had before because I was allergic. But for some reason, I grew

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out of it. So my wife and I get a dog. We don't have a

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lot of stress. We have a beach house down in the Jersey Shore that we

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go to in the summer Nice. That we bought during the pandemic because we didn't

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think we'd be traveling a lot. And it's that has been, like, the greatest thing

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we ever did. It has a pool, the backyard. We have the bay across the

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street. That is just instant relaxation. Right. You walk through the door, and it says

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you relax. So NOT a lot of stress.

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Yeah. Well, that view I mean, god bless you, brother. I mean, you know, like,

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let let's keep it that way. Right? And, I know. But but,

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obviously, 2020 for all of us was stressful. My god. What a

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unprecedented crazy year. You know, as I understand

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it, cue cards by WALL E was sort of born during

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the the pandemic. Yeah. I wanna talk about that in in one

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quick second. But, you know, as

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COVID shut down the shows and what have you been, how

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did, how did that really impact impact you in direct ways?

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Did you just have to go home and like everybody else? I mean, were you

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trying because I know they were trying to do some production maybe from remotely.

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I don't know. Like, what happened to the cue card game during So yeah. So

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the show shut down. They didn't know how I mean, I think you remember, like,

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it when it when everything shut down, at first, they thought maybe a couple weeks.

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You know? They weren't really sure. Yeah. So, the shows were

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actually paying us, off this off the

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beginning. They were the NBC was allowing them to still pay the employees because they

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thought it was maybe gonna be a week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks. Then as it

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get to be a month and they saw this isn't gonna end.

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Then NBC said, okay. We're not paying we're not paying you guys. We're not paying

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the employees anymore. Right. So, Seth actually started paying

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people out of his own pocket. Wow. You're kidding me.

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Nope. Nope. So I was still I was still getting,

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I was getting paid, and then I was paying the employees or they were paying

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the employees directly. I forget how it works, but he was paying them out of

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his own pockets. He did that as well during the writers' strike.

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Did the same thing. What an incredible what an incredible gesture

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of of Yep. Humanity and empathy. I did I did

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also you know, like I said, my wife was good at business. I got a

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PPP loan, and I pay was able to run 4 4

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big payrolls for my and for the employees, during that time as well

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Yep. Which which which helped out. And then the show started going

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back remotely. Seth went remotely, Fallon did remotely, but they weren't using cue

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cards. Once in a while, I did cards,

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and they wanted to try it. It actually worked. I did cards over Zoom for

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Seth. Seth Amazing. Seth and Amy were Amy was in

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LA. Seth was in New York, and they were having trouble syncing up the prompter

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that they use. So they said, let's try cards. So the director worked with me.

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I put the cards in front of the camera, and I just had to scroll

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and kinda we figured it out. And they were both able to read them at

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the same time, and it worked out perfectly. So we did that a couple times.

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It was the first time I ever did cards in front of a Zoom camera

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for somebody. Amazing. Amazing.

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Amazing. But, yeah, it was it was only, like, 2 times. So so once he

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started going remote, then we weren't you know, then, you know,

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I wasn't no one was still we still weren't working. You know? It was still,

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like, kinda some of the the writers were working and people were working, but we

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weren't. So it was it was frustrating. It was very frustrating. But then but then

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the shows kinda came back with no audiences. Right? Like, it was just bare bare

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bones. Yeah. Is that, like, maybe

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September ish? Maybe up the end of September. Alright. Yeah. I

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remember yes. And, Seth yeah. That's where I kinda started getting a lot of

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airtime when there was no one in the studio. No. You know, it's just me

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and Seth. You know, they had limited cameraman. They had no band.

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I don't think they had the band. Maybe they did. I don't

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it was just a limited thing. It was a weird time. It would really it

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was weird to do it that way. SNL,

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you know, that's a different, you know, that's a different animal.

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You know? I mean, you know how you saw how many people were working on

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that show. You know? Yep. With all the COVID restrictions, I remember Kenny Amon, the

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producer, called all the studio all the department heads in in August

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to a meeting in in 8 h. And he said, okay. We're coming back

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in October. He was like, we could only have this amount

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of people in the, in the studio, and that's including audience.

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And he was like, there's no way we can do a show with with that

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with with the number of people that we can have work in the show. There's

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no possible way. Right. But we're all of us here, we're gonna figure out

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how we're gonna do it. And it was just like he was like, well, there's

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no way we could do it, but let's talk. Let's figure it out. Let's brainstorm.

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It was really cool. It's really, really neat. And it was just like, oh, man.

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So we just started people just started coming up with ideas, and and eventually, you

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know, they worked it out. And, we put on shows, which

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was, you know, I'm wearing a I'm wearing a face mask, and I'm wearing a

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face shield. Right. That's where the sponge I don't know if you know my sponge

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story. I lick my finger when I pull it. I lick my finger when I

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pull cards For sure. Before COVID because they stick sometimes. You know? We have to

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get a grip on them. Yeah. When COVID hit and I'm wearing a face mask

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and a shield, I can't lick my and plus it's COVID too. I can't lick

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my finger. Right. So I had the props guy get a sponge and glue it

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to my face shield and wet it so I could

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so I could wet my finger. And a whole new

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product was was, was Whole new product. Marketed. Yeah. Yeah.

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We REAL like, I need that for the supermarket. We know when you put the

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open the bags, you couldn't open the bags. We know how you look like your

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finger. You can't do that. But Seth, of course, talked about it. It was a

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whole thing on Seth Show and Amazing. Sponge became really famous.

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Nice. I had it on necessity, but, you know, they made fun of it and

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got comedy out of REAL, which is really fun.

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Now now people with glasses everywhere have a little sponge attached to their glasses in

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case. Right? Oh my god. That's amazing. That's amazing. So

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okay. So so you're figuring it out, and and people are

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collaborating and and problem solving and firefighting and innovating blah

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blah blah blah blah to get the shows made great. Meanwhile,

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though, of course, you know, you're at home. You know, you're thinking about all

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kinds of things. Obviously, you know, making money's gotta be one of

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them. Yeah. And somehow, some way, you decide

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to launch cue cards by Wally Yeah. And,

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custom cue cards for real people like me, which by the way

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Now let's see it. Oh, yes.

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There it is. There it is. There it is. Made it safely.

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Love it. Love it. And it was a lot of words. See, it is. But

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this is the intro to the podcast on our record, and you'll get a kick

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out of it, I hope. But, anyway

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anyway, so so take us back

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to the origin story, the inspirational moment where you REAL this was a thing.

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This is a it's a really good story. Like, I told you, my wife's an

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entrepreneur, and she likes she likes to start businesses that she she's in

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marketing and corporate America, but this is like a little side thing. She ART, you

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know, New York City cue cards, and she started helped her dad's company and her

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brother's company. So a year before COVID, so

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2019, I came up with this idea of cue cards by Huawei where it was

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gonna be personalized cue cards for people. And she was sitting at the dinner

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table, and I said, hey. What do you think of this business idea? You know,

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personalized coupons for people where I, you know, write what message they want on them,

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and I mail them to them. And she she she not even a second, she

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thought. She was like, nope. Nope. And I was like,

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really? She's like, nah. I'm like, alright. So I so

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I let it go. And then COVID hit. And for 2 months, I was sitting

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on a couch while she was working from home, doing nothing, gaining weight, not working

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out, kind of depressed because I wasn't able to work. Of course. And she said

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she said she said she said, I think I wanna start another company. I was

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like, how about cue cards by Wally? And she was like, yes.

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Now is the time to do it because people don't have gifts to give their

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friends. They can't go to weddings. They can't go to birthdays. They can't go to

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anniversaries. She's like, yes. Let's do it. So we we talked. We

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kind of planned, and I was like, I just wanna do it really easy. I

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don't wanna do a big business plan. I don't wanna have to do this. She

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was like, okay. We'll do a minimal viable

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product. Have you ever heard of that? MVP. MVP, minimal viable product. I had never

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heard of it. I had never heard of it. She was like, we'll we'll start

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an Instagram account and a Venmo account, and that's what I did. And then I

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did a couple SNL podcasts, and I launched, and I started

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getting orders. And, New

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York, local New York news, did a story on me. They saw they

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saw they saw it somewhere, and they did it, like, a little story on me.

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And that and that helped with that. But it was I was getting, like, maybe

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5 or 10 orders a day, something like that, which is good. It was keeping

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me busy. So NBC, the local NBC does a story on a Monday

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night. Tuesday night, my wife wakes me at, like, 9 in the morning. She was

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like, you better get up. And I'm like, why? She said, you have 350 emails.

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And I'm like, what? I go,

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what happened? So I find out I did I used to do cue cards for

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Carson Daly when he was on last call for Carson Daly when the first REAL

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or 4 years. He saw the story at NBC and decided

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he wanted to do 3 32nd ads for my company,

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basically. 8, 8:30, and 9 or 7. Like, every on the Power,

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every half hour, REAL times, he talked about my company, what I was offering,

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and it just freaking blew up. It was blew up. It was I was

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like, oh, no. Because I was doing all myself. I was answering emails. I was

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writing. I was like, oh, no. What am I gonna do? And then I

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started then interview interview. I was gonna be on Access Hollywood. I was gonna be

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this. I was everybody was, like, wanted to talk to me. And, I started

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doing some interviews, and then Lauren Lauren was like, okay. You

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know, we're letting you do this. Let's not have too much WALL E camera time.

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You know? Like, let's not go crazy. So I I didn't do any which which

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was good. If I had done more interviews, I would've got I would've get inundated.

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I wouldn't been able to, you know, fulfill the orders, which would've been a bad

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with bad business. Yes. Yes. That really just kept me going for, like, the next

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couple months, then we started working again. But it just the

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the feedback, from the

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customers was what really got me through COVID because, you

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know, I I was talking to my wife about this. It's like, I don't know

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about other companies, but, like, since we launched, we're over 3 years now.

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I haven't had one person say, you know what? This isn't what I really thought

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it was gonna be. Can I have my money back? NOT one person. So a

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100%, you know, likability. Like, they love the product. You

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know? And, yeah, people are like, oh, I couldn't go to my cousin's wedding, and

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this really this they flipped out over this. And, you know, they this is the

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best gift I've ever given, and I'm gonna give a I'm gonna order again. I'm

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gonna order again. It was just so nice. It It was just so so nice.

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And then the videos I do, you know, I did a video for you as

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well. Yes. You know, those are really fun. That way I can I can have

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fun with the with the customer? I can I can riff and I can joke

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around Yeah? And they really love people really love those. So too.

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So it's just been a joy to me to see the joy that I brought

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other people, and it really helped during COVID. It helped them, and it really helped

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me as well. It's such a beautiful story, man. I mean,

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you know, it it really is. And it it it's it's because it's

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such a well, at its core, it's a it's a human story. There's so many

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layers to this. Yeah. And, you know, and that's

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what resonates. And, yes, I love my video, by the way. And when I post

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this episode podcast episode on the website,

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in the show notes that I'm gonna have, the video that you made me

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Right. With the photo and you know? I, you know, I I I hope, you

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know, I hope, people, hear this and and and

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throw orders your way. So on average, I mean, like like,

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because you're right. I mean, the best parties are the ones you can't get into.

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Right? So the idea that you have a limit in terms of what what you

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can do and how you could do it. Like, how many are you doing now,

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like, on a on an average month? NOT. It it it it it varies. You

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know? It it I what I notice is when SNL is off, like, we're off

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for these next 2 weekends, I don't get a ton of orders. Mhmm. But as

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soon as the show comes back on, I I'll get, like, maybe, you know, 4

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or 5, you know Sure. 6 a week, which is fine. It just

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keeps me busy. Right. It's just people watching the show

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and, like, oh, yeah. I wanna get that card. Or, oh, oh, there's Wally. Oh,

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great. I wanted to get that card ART my friend. You know, that kind of

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thing. And, I mean, I get a lot of repeat business. I get a lot

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of it's just it's just, like, you know, I think I've sent cards

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to 15 different countries and maybe every state now in the

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in the in United States I've sent cards to. It's just really

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cool. You just see where the SNL fans are, the late night fans are. Yeah.

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It's really, really neat. It's really, really fun. Well, in in in that,

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I have to ask. I mean, is there an it's like a secondary aftermarket

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for the the the used cards that you write for Seth or

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SNL? Like, do they what are they what happens to the cards after they're done?

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No. That's a good question. Like, years ago, I had that you know, I think

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and I wasn't the first person, and people keep on pitching it to me. Oh,

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you should sell them and give the money to charity kinda thing. You know? Because

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people would want these, and they do want them.

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But, you know, I didn't you know, I think I you think I know a

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little bit about the businesses that I already have. Charity business is a whole different

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thing and all these different rate rules and regulations you have to follow. And, you

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know, someone said to me, there's a lot that goes with that before you wanna

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pitch be able to take that on. So, I was

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advised not to not do it. But, you know, once I write NBC's words on

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that, it's not my property anymore. It's Oh, right. There's that. Yeah. It's NBC's

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property. Once they once they're when they're blank, they're buying. When I write MB a

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script, you know, joke on there, it's NBC's. So some of the

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writers come and get ART. We give cards out to, like, staff people that are

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leaving or, you know, when the host hosts, I'll ask them if they want souvenirs,

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and most of the time they do. So I'll give them their whole monologue in

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on the cue cards. Nice. And then, like, 3 or 4 cards from every sketch

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they were in, they love and they love that. But for the most part, they

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get put in a big pile back in the studio, and the scenic ART use

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them to catch paint when they're painting the sets the next week. So

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one week, they're comedy gold, and the next week, they just catch paint on the

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floor. That's amazing. And and by the way, like, it's

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it's at that point that I would love to get one and frame it and

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call it art because of the journey, you know, from The paint with

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the paint with the paint specs on it? Yes. Yes. Yes. I have a great

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story I have a great Studio, and it's gonna put you you're gonna be really

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excited that you said that. Well, let's hear it. Alright. So

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Christopher Walken is hosting, and it's, like, maybe his 5th time hosting. Okay? That

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would and probably 4 with me or 3 with me. And we're walking

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out to a set, and he sees he looks down, and he sees cards on

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the floor with paint speckles on him from the and he's like, what's that what's

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that card from? I'm not gonna do a walk in right now because my voice

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is a little bit crooked. And I said, well, that's from a sketch we

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had last week. And he's look you can he's, like, looking NOT it and he's

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eyeing up and down. He's like, can I have that? And I was like,

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yeah. You can have it. So he didn't pick it up. He went I thought

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he was, like, fucking with me. Right. REAL. Really? Because it's Christopher Walken. He has

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that kinda wrist position. Yeah. So so we we

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rehearsed a sketch. He's still talking to somebody. I leave, run

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back to my area, and I tell my guys, guys, look down this

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hallway because he's gonna be walking down there. If Christopher Walken NOT holding a

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cue card, I've got a great story for you. And he walks by and he's

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holding the cue card with the thing on it. And they're like,

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what? So I told him that story. So I see

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him at the ART, and we're talking and he's thanking

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me. And he I was like, so I go, did you get that cue card?

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He was like, I did. He was like, I just hope you know. I hope

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you get to keep some too. I go, he's like, what you're doing is art.

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And I saw that card with the last week's jokes and the speckles of

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paint. He's like, and that is art. He's like, I'm gonna frame that and put

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that in my apartment because I hope you get to do that too. Because it's

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it's art that you do, and I hope you can appreciate that. And I was

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blown away by it. That's exactly what you just said. Or you think

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like Christopher Walken, which I don't know a big or a bad thing.

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It's a real thing. That's all. How about that? How about that first story? Is

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that pretty cool? That's amazing. That is so great.

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And, yeah, it it's it's because it's yeah. I mean, there's just, again, so

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many layers to it. I mean, the the the humanity and the hands and the

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craft and the creativity and the ingenuity and the and

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just the evolution and the, you know, I you know, but the the the

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creative destruction dies and, you know, re reborn again. And I don't know, man. That's

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that's so cool.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great story. I've got probably, a

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thousand of story stories like that that I can't we can't we can't tell you.

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They're gonna be in the book. You have to buy the book, Scott, to read

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the other ones. Oh my god. When is the book coming out? Let's plug it

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in. When I get when SNL goes off the air. Right. Right. Right.

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Right. But I'm I'm writing these down ART retelling them enough so that I'll remember

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them. Got yes. Right. Okay. Good. Good. Good. Good. Well, Yeah.

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Because there's a good there's a good I'll tell you the ending of that story.

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There's a good ending to that story too. That's on top of that. So he's

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talking to me and talking to me, and his wife taps him on the shoulder.

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And she said, Steve wants to say goodbye. And he looks,

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sees that it's Steve Martin. I look and see that Studio ART, and he

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goes, tell him to hold on a second. And he continues talking to me, and

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I'm like, oh, now I'm scared because, oh, no. Steve Martin is waiting to talk

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to him, and he's talking to me. I'm like, oh, go talk to Steve. He's

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like, no. No. Wait a second. I wanna say one more thing.

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And I was like, okay. I gotta go. It was so great seeing you again.

Speaker:

I was like, oh my god. He put Steve ART on hold to finish talking

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to me, which was like Oh, that's pretty that. Oh, I love that.

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That is cool, man. Cool. Wow. You

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must you must, have to pinch yourself sometimes. I I

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really do. I mean, it's just I'm very, very fortunate to to for what I

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do and and, the people I get to work with. It's really nice. Well

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and it's just you know? And, again, one of the reasons why I wanted to

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to have you on the show and talk is just because it's there are so

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many jobs, vital jobs,

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that exist in the world, let alone in the arts or in entertainment,

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whatever, that most people

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don't know about. Yeah. Right? And an unsung hero,

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so to speak. Right? The you know? And and and that's what one of the

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things that I love doing and why I REAL the podcast is to create a

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space where we can honor, you know, those creative professionals who are

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who are who are making it all work. You know? Yep.

Speaker:

Yep. Yep. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of hard

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work, but it's it's worthwhile. And you see a product at the end of the

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day, you see the you hear the laughter, and it's just so

Speaker:

it's just it's just it's just so great to see the these young cast members,

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you know, grow up in front of the camera right in front of you, and

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you're helping them out. You're helping, you know, a a celebrity out every

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week. Help them make hopefully, make them look good and have fun. It's

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just a great job. It's really, really fun. So I have a weird question for

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you. So, obviously, tools of the trade, you know, paper and

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marker. Okay. Fine. But, clearly, like any artist or

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professional, you must have tools that, you know, your preferred

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toolbox and preferred set of tools. Are there specific

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kinds of paper specific that that that that that work better

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than others? What kind of markers do you like to use? It feels like

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this would be a great marketing opportunity for a Sharpie marker

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to spot for you and and pay you We use we we do use

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Sharpies to to label the cards and stuff like that. But the main the main

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thing we use Power pilot pens. And, actually, when the when

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Carson did that story on me on the Today Show,

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they saw me using a pilot pen and then tweeted out

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to me, we see you all using our product, and we like it. We said

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he they sent me some gifts. They sent me free pens and sent me some

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some stuff. And I, you know, I I was like, hey. I'll do an endorsement

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deal if you guys want, but they never get back to me on that. But

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we used to use these old metal markers, ART 99 markers,

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that were leaky. Your hands were all you you always get ink

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on your hands. They were hard to use. And, one of my

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workers that went to California and came back they came back with these pilots. So

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there's 2 sizes. There's a there's a thin one, which I like. Mhmm. And there's

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a stick one, which everybody else uses. I've started using this a

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little bit. And they don't REAL, and they don't smell as much as the other,

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you know, markers. And they're you can still refill them. But when the tip you

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know, when this tip runs out, see how it's getting worn down a little bit

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there? Yeah. Right. Right. When it gets worn down, you know, you throw it out

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and you open up, but you get another one. So, you get another you get

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another, head. Yeah. No. You just get a new marker. You just throw them whole

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marker away and you you get it because they're disposable. They're disposable. As long as

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you can, and then you throw the other one. Got you. And that's why they

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don't leak because they're not rechargeable or REAL refillable. NOT. You can refill them. You

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can refill them, but it's just it's just not there. It's not it's a bigger

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it's a it's just easier. It's easier less less you get less ink on it.

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You still get ink on it once in a while when you're filling them, but,

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it just made things so much easier and and streamline things. And then

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the cards, we used to use, white cards on the

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front. They're they're, and then, like, a gray on the back,

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like a real cardboard color kind of thing. Mhmm. But we could

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never control the quality. Like, you know, I would my supplier could

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never get it from the same batch of now they were recycled,

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but sometimes they would be they would be too thick and they would bend they

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would as you're holding them, they're bending backwards. Sometimes they'd be too thin, and they'd

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be wobbling a little bit. That it just it was it was annoying. Just never

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knew what you were gonna get. And then, like, I don't know. Like, maybe 5

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or 6 years ago, I was like, how can we get, like, the same card

Speaker:

every week so that I'm happy that I know? Because that's a really big part

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of it, holding these cards. Yeah. And he was like, well, you could do the

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double white, the white on the back that you can't write on the other side,

Speaker:

but, I I could get that same stock every single time. So I was like,

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great. Send me some samples. He sent them to me. He's like, they're more expensive.

Speaker:

And I was like, I don't care. I want that I want that, you know,

Speaker:

the sameness every week. Yeah. And, they they ended up being great. I've been using

Speaker:

those for 6 years, and it's just it's revolutionized. I don't have to every time

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I get a stat stock of 10,000, I don't have to look at them and

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say, I can't use these. They're too thin, and they're wobbly. Right. I know they're

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gonna be the same cut every single time I get them, and, I can just

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start using them. I don't have to check them. So that has been a really

Speaker:

big, change in things. And, but, yeah, that's it. We use

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tape, we use pens, and we use the cards, and that's pretty much it. So

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are the cards is is the writing surface, is it coated, or is it

Speaker:

uncoated? It's coated. Yeah. It's just yeah. It's coated that we write on. Yeah. Because

Speaker:

if it wasn't, you know, the the ink would seep into the card and,

Speaker:

and eventually would REAL, really fade. And you only write on the one side. You

Speaker:

don't write on both sides. Correct. Right. Correct. There's only the one side is

Speaker:

coded. Correct. There's some there there are

Speaker:

double coded cards that's, you know, they're they're twice as expensive or maybe, you know,

Speaker:

like, half of expensive. Yeah. But you could write on both sides. But with

Speaker:

SNL, you don't wanna be holding a card, you know, with writing on the other

Speaker:

side. You know, it just would get way too confusing. And, you know, like, you

Speaker:

know, sometimes they use a side and they would put a big x on it.

Speaker:

Like, no. Okay. We already did that side. We use the other side. My employees

Speaker:

are not gonna do that. They're gonna end up throwing it out. It it's just

Speaker:

gonna be a waste. So the one side is good enough. Yeah. It would seem

Speaker:

yeah. It would seem way too risky to try to be juggling, you

Speaker:

know, multiple sided cards and Yep. I know. Oh my

Speaker:

god. Where'd the punch line go? Exactly. Exactly. Like, oh,

Speaker:

shit. What is the worst thing that's ever happened to you when it comes

Speaker:

to, you know, to to you know, being, your co cue

Speaker:

ART, people? You know, ART, I've never dropped a card in 34

Speaker:

years of a during a during a show, so I'm very proud of that moment.

Speaker:

I have you know, you pull slow and then, you know, it ruins the joke

Speaker:

or you pull too fast and it ruins the joke or a card sticks. You

Speaker:

know, we tape we tape over lines when we're doing changes. So if you don't

Speaker:

if you tape over the over the edge of the card, it could stick to

Speaker:

the next card. So that happened that happened with,

Speaker:

I was holding, a a joke for Norm Macdonald when he was doing weekend update,

Speaker:

and the card stuck. And I went to go pull it, and I couldn't pull

Speaker:

it. I completely ruined the joke. Completely ruined it. So you read the read the

Speaker:

setup, never read the punchline. It was just it was just

Speaker:

awful. And this is Norm McDonald. Yeah. I don't know if you know a lot

Speaker:

about Norm. No. He does not. Yeah. He would he doesn't care.

Speaker:

Right. REAL, I I mouth yeah. I'm sorry. Like that, I

Speaker:

mouth to him like that. This is the live show. And he goes, it's okay,

Speaker:

Wally. Don't worry about it. On live TV.

Speaker:

And I'm just like, oh, you just made things 10 times for us. NOT. But

Speaker:

thanks. He didn't care. He didn't care. You know? And if I and if I

Speaker:

screw up on Seth, Seth makes a joke of it as well. You know? Like,

Speaker:

he instead of why get mad, turn it into comedy. Turn it like, Wally, what

Speaker:

happened there? What what's going on? You know? Totally. So, it turns into a fun

Speaker:

thing. So yeah. Well and that says a lot about him. Right? And and, you

Speaker:

know, and and For sure. The the the Canadian

Speaker:

part of him maybe as well. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Because, you

Speaker:

know, the egos are REAL, and I'm guessing that depending

Speaker:

on who it might be, you you might have it might have ended differently.

Speaker:

Right. Yes. You're you're you're not wrong. You're not wrong. You're not wrong.

Speaker:

Yeah. You're not wrong. Nope. Oh, man.

Speaker:

That must be quite interesting too, right, to sort of meet be

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so up and up close and and personal with with not just artists,

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these performers, these comics, and we we all love them, but we also know

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that, you know, many of them are, you know, damaged human

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beings at some level, and I mean that in the best way. Yeah.

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But but then, you know, a list celebrities coming through and, you know,

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the egos that come through and, you know, knowing how to tap dance around

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that. And and it must just be like a breath of fresh air when you

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have, like, the Christopher Walken story or whatever when you meet somebody who's just, like,

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really cool and human and down to earth and just fun to Oh, right. NOT.

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Yeah. It's it's it is. Yeah. That I mean, I think that's why

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I've lasted so long on this job, because of my

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personality and because, yeah, I I I'm

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not nothing if someone's gonna get get, you know, be mean to me or not

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mean to me, but just, like, you know, being in there. NOT nice. Right. You

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know, when I'm there helping them out, that's fine. My job is to help them

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out whether they're nice to me or not. You know? Right. You know, 99% of

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them are nice, so it's not a it's not a problem. But you get somebody

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like Quinta Brunson, the show you saw. Yeah. I walk in to say hi to

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her on Wednesday to see what her how her eyesight was. That's the first thing

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I talked about how the how her eyesight is. And, I was like, hey. I'm

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and she's like, I know who you are. You're Wally. And she was like she

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was like she's like, ask me how I know who you are. I was like,

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how do you know who I am? She's like, my my 95 year old

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grandmother sent me an article that was written about you last week. Said I had

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to read this. This is the person you're gonna be working with in in in,

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on SNL. So, I mean, she was just a joy.

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I was like, REAL, we're gonna have to get her a cue card. She was

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like, really? I was like, yeah. Of course, we're gonna get her a cue card.

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She's a fan of mine. You know? So we got her a cue card. I

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wrote I autographed it for her, And she just every time she comes back, she

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was like, my grandmother loves you. She says to say hello. She comes

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it's it's just so nice. You know? Like, like, you get to you meet these

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people and you see how they are. And she, yeah, she just came back and,

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was I think she was here for the IO IO, at a bio

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show. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I think I was on her show, right,

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once. Right. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I'm I'm getting changed after the show. I'm

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tired. I don't I was trying to decide whether to go to the party or

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not, I think. And I hear she I REAL, wowie. Wowie. I was like, who's

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yelling for me? And it was Quinta Brunson yelling for me. Like, I wanna say

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hello. I ART a picture with you to show my grandmother. I was like, I

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mean, how nice is that? That's amazing. How nice is that?

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Wow. Yeah. So I get a 1,000 stories like that that are just

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so nice. You know? Really, really nice.

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Boy. Oh, boy. No wonder you smile all the time. You NOT a guy, mate.

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You're a lucky lucky human. And and by the way but it

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takes 2. Right? Like, clearly, you purse your personality,

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your temperament, your mentality, your mentality, your your your your outlook on life,

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you you know, is is is half of is at least half of it. Right?

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If not more, because, I mean, it takes 22 to tango. And if you were

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a jerk, you know, it wouldn't matter. You probably wouldn't even survive if you were

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a jerk. Because you are who you are, not only you're

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surviving, you're like the guy. Yeah. Yeah. It's

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great. Yeah. I mean I mean, Seth talks about it a lot.

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You know, when kids kids ask, you know, what do we have? I just graduated

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from college. I wanna get an engineering business. What what what advice do you have

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for me? And he was like, be nice. He was like, be nice

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because you have to be so, so, so talented if you're an asshole to

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be hired in this in this business. Mhmm. And there are assholes in the

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business. We all, you know, we all know that. But you have to be so

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talented. If you're nice and you work hard, you're gonna get a job and you're

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gonna do fine. That's those are the people that they wanna hire. It's like, we

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had the we they they had the the he's like, they the best thing they

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had when they started the show was they get to pick who they wanted to

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work with Yeah. And and set the environment. And they set the greatest it's the

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greatest, most fun show to work with. We just celebrated 10 years.

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And every day I go NOT work there, I don't I don't I'm looking forward

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to it. I I know everyone's gonna be nice to me. Everyone's gonna be nice

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to each other. It's just a pleasure to be there. You know? And that's the

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cool thing about it. You know? And that's the way it should be. Be nice,

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and you'll do well. These guys are proving it. It's so true. It's so true.

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I mean, I've I've hired a lot of artists, over the years for

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various jobs or projects and things. And and, you

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know, and I've I've had ART, very talented ART, ask me, well, why didn't I

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get the gig? You know? Because I you know? And I was like, well, honestly,

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you didn't get the gig because your attitude isn't Yep. NOT.

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Or or you you know, you you know, I high I hired somebody who was

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equally talented, but they were nice. Yeah. No NOT ego, you

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know, or whatever. Right? And, and it's true. It's true. What

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what how much of our life is work? And, you know, why why would we

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wanna work with assholes? No. You wanna work with people that, of course, make you

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feel good. Of course. You don't wanna run into somebody like, you NOT, you like

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like, you wanna run into somebody in the hallway. You wanna be able to say

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hello to them. You wanna be like, oh, no. This guy. You know? You're responsible

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for hiring them. You know? Well and especially when you're in an industry and let's

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face it. I mean, there's a lot of glitz and glamour around TV and film,

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but at the end of the day, it's pretty small business. Yeah. I mean, you

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know, we're we're, you know, word travels. Your reputation is is is gonna,

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you know, people are gonna know whether or not you're a asshole or a good

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person or whatever. All it gets Scott. People know. People talk.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Wally, man, I could I talk to you for another

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hour. I mean, it's 11 o'clock on the East Coast, 8 o'clock here. This has

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been a gift. I'm so grateful for you, man. And I've got so

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many things on my mind. I'm gonna circle back with you and and Yeah. Let's

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do it again. We'll do it we'll do it on the road again. I love

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it. I love it. And, I'll let you know when the episode's

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gonna drop so you can have a listen and, you know, but

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it's it's such an honor having you here, man. Thanks for classing up the joint.

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Keep doing what you're doing. If I ever get a chance to, be

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in, in the studio again at SNL, I will, I

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will heckle you from the, bleach receipt. NOT. Let me know. Did you did you

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get to go to the cash party when you came to the 1st party? I

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did. Yeah. It was it was, it was pretty cool. It was funny because we

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were, we were there, and, and,

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if, you know, I I saw I was like I was like, why ART why

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is like, there's a couple, like, kind of, like, really serious

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dudes, like, in suits, like, standing around. And then

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I realized, oh,

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of, oh, the Obama daughter was there that night. Oh, right.

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Right. Yeah. What's her name? Not Malia. Was it Malia? It was

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Malia Obama. It was the older one, I think. Older one. Yeah. And I'm

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Sasha Whoever the older one is. Whoever the older one is. The

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youngest one. But yeah. Anyway, I was like Yeah. You don't know.

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You don't know. I was like, oh. Know who's gonna show up at this party.

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And and, you know, she was like, of course, she was at Lauren's table. But

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you know? Of course. So alright. So you you're tied into somebody at

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the show or NBC. So you're if you went to the show and the party,

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then you're tied in, Scott. You're My my, to be to be just

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really specific, my my, wife works with Quintin.

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And Oh, okay. So when she was, when she was gonna be

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host of the show, we got invited to to to to come and, you know,

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jumped at the opportunity. Yeah. She was the best. I loved her so much. And

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it's usually like, I don't watch Abbott Elementary. I heard it's great. I think I'm

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gonna start watching it. I REAL it's the host that I don't know a lot

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about sometimes Yes. That I have the best experiences with because I'm just

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meeting them fresh. I don't know their I don't know their their track record. And

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I go in there, and they it's always the ones that I love the most.

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You know? I don't I'm not expecting anything, and they're always the like, so great.

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And so La Quinta was just so nice. I love her so much. She's such

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a sweetheart. Her and her husband, Paul, they're just great REAL people. I have Paul's

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number. He's we keep in touch. He when he every award she wins, I send

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him a little text. I'll quit. I say congratulations. Nice. They're great.

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They're really good. That's great. Well, I'll tell you what, Wally. You're great too, man.

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And I tell you what, thank you so much for this. You know,

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we'll we'll be in touch and, thank you for coming through. Thank you for all

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you do, and just keep keep on trucking, brother. My pleasure. If

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anybody wants a cue card, cue cards by wally.com. Exactly. So let's

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let's pause there for a second because I will absolutely promote it

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even before, but you're a 100% right. Guys,

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check this out. So so Wally does custom cue cards

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for for special gifts, occasions, you know, friends, family,

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whatever it is. I just love it. I actually bought one because

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I wanted to have him write up the intro to this

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podcast, an Outworld Power, and how I kind of open every

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episode with my greetings and salutations, my creative brothers and sisters.

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And I jumped at the chance to to get one of these custom cards by

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Wally, and I love it. He made me a video to go with the card

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as he's signing it. He's he's he's teasing me. He's talking to me in the

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video. It's just great. I get this card delivered to me. It was

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it was completely safe. Not I mean, it it arrived intact. I

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couldn't believe it. And Me too. And, in the

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Studio, and it's just such a fantastic gift for for for

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anyone special in your life or special occasion. Wally, the website

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is cue cards by wally.com. Right? Correct. Correct.

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Yes. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. And, any

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anything you wanna add to that? What did I miss? No. That's it. You know,

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lately, I've been doing a lot of, wedding proposals. People ART like they're having a

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wedding, but the guy's gonna, you know, write what he's gonna say to his to

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his to his, you know, to his girlfriend to propose to her. Love that. And

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then I'm doing I'm doing weddings where they hold the card and pose with all

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the wedding party. It's fantastic. It's such a cool thing. So

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any fans of SNL or late night or even, you know, late night tonight show

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with Jimmy Fallon. You know, anything like that? You wanna, you know, propose to your

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girlfriend, or you wanna put it in your wedding, or you wanna just give it

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as a gift. It's great. Oh, man. I'm happy to do it for you. Fun.

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How fun is that? That's great, man. Really fun.

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Well, Wally, you're the best, dude. Thanks so much for this.

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Go, it's Miller time for you or whiskey time for you. I don't even know

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what you do at 11 o'clock. Go grab a drink. Sleep well, my friend.

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Appreciate it, Wally. Thank you.

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Thanks for listening to the NOT art podcast. Please make sure to like this

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episode, write a review, and share with your friends on social.

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Also, remember to subscribe so you get all of our new episodes.

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Not REAL Art is produced by Crewest West Studios in Los Angeles. Our

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theme music was created by Ricky Peugeot and Desi DeLauro from the band

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Parlor Social. Not REAL Art is created by We Edit Podcast and

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hosted by Captivate. Thanks again for listening to Not Real

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Art. We'll be back soon with another inspiring episode

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celebrating creative culture and the artists who make it.

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