Martial Momma, Potato People, and More with Dawn Brodey

Episode 15 • 7th November 2024 • 5 Random Questions • Danny Brown

Dawn Brody: 00:00:00

You know, I talk about improv and roleplay and it's almost always for comedy. But for a while I did it as a hostage role player. So I would.

I would play meth heads and suicide jumpers, all sorts of really horrible scenarios to train law enforcement on how to approach and handle these individuals. And it prepared me beautifully for encounters with law enforcement in the future, which I gratefully haven't had too many.

But I am really good at verbally de essence escalating a very tense and even violent situation.

Danny Brown: 00:00:36

Hi and welcome to Five Random Questions, the show where every question is an adventure. I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests five questions created by a random question generator.

The guest has no idea what the questions are and neither do I, which means this could go either way. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode. Today's guest is Dawn Brody.

Dawn is a standup comedian and historian who appears regularly on History Channel.

She's also the host of the top rated history podcast, HILF, where history is a party and everybody's coming, so you can probably guess what HILF stands for. She's also a freelance writer for Netflix and Paramount and can be seen as a street improviser at Universal Studios Hollywood.

So, Dawn, welcome to Five Random Questions.

Dawn Brody: 00:01:20

Hi, Danny. Thank you for having me. That introduction made me sound so cool.

Danny Brown: 00:01:26

Well, you are. I mean, look at your background. You've got a bunch of amazing stuff going on there.

Dawn Brody: 00:01:30

Oh, well, thank you very much. Thanks so much. This is so cool. I'm a fan of your podcast. You are frequently in my ears in this LA traffic.

Danny Brown: 00:01:41

Well, thank you for that and I'll take that as a big compliment, knowing that some of the stuff you could be listening to as well. So I appreciate that. Thank you. And I mentioned you're a street improviser. I get a kind of feeling what that might be.

But is that similar to, say, a flash mob but a lesser, Like a reduced scale for people wise, not a lesser scale? Let me get that correct. I don't want to make you sound lesser and with maybe less planning or something. What's a street improviser?

Dawn Brody: 00:02:08

There's a few different kinds of street improvisers at Universal. They have similar jobs at Disney where you do a show for the general public that is primarily improvised based on a character.

So, like, we have some of them are licensed characters like the Scooby Doo Gang, walks around the park and poses for pictures and chats with you and Marilyn Monroe and Shrek and all this kind of stuff. But the character I play is a non licensed character. She's not from a movie. We're the New York windows.

So if you go to Universal Studios Hollywood, there's a point in the theme park where there's a yellow taxi cab and you know, brownstone exteriors and it, and it feels for a block or so like you're in New York. And every fifteen-ish minutes we open up the windows on the second floor, our hair and rollers, we're putting out the laundry, we lean out.

Oh my, look at you, Danny, look at you. I haven't seen you since your mother got out of prison. Honey, how are you?

Danny Brown: 00:03:09

Blah, blah, blah.

Dawn Brody: 00:03:10

And we chat and we have a partner that we improvise with and then we're also improvising with the people that we see down below. And it's great. It's just one of the best jobs on earth. I love it so much.

Danny Brown: 00:03:20

And yeah, and I love the New York accent there, by the way. Kudos. Have you ever had you mentioned that you obviously improvise and interact with the attendees at Universal Studios?

Have you ever had anyone or anybody that. Who are you? And sort of came back at you in a not nice way or has everybody been really nice?

Dawn Brody: 00:03:39

You know? No, no one's ever been unkind. People are inappropriate sometimes, but I always count those generally as errors of enthusiasm.

You know, these folks aren't, they're not wasted, they're trying to be jerks.

They just are playing differently, you know, it's like when you see a puppy play with a big dog, you know, and they want to come at you with the language they would use in the bar after 10 o'clock. Even though it's still playful and light hearted. You're like, ah, you can't yell that in the middle of Universal Studios, you know what I mean?

But rarely really. I mean there's a real kindness, there's a real sort of understanding to people in large crowds.

I've found I'm from the middle of nowhere and I've lived in big cities since I've been 18. So I feel like I've kind of noticed the difference, you know, and I always feared crowds, you know, because it thought, I thought, Jesus, chaos.

Fucking people. Excuse my language. I swear so much. I will do my best to self regulate.

There's, you know, you think these are chaos, these are animals, people are nuts. And so surely when you're in a huge group of people, it's gotta feel nuts.

And I'm always kind of impressed when huge groups of people seem to just in a way link arms and get like, nobody's trying to make anybody's day harder. We're all just trying to move without spilling this beer on my shirt.

Danny Brown: 00:05:01

And I'm sure, because obviously you've got the standup background. You could pretty much easily handle anybody that comes at you. You've got heckling experience, I would imagine, and stuff like that.

Dawn Brody: 00:05:09

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's a bit of tai chi, Right.

You want to sort of deflect and put a stop to it in a way that doesn't alienate the aud or villainize anybody and keeps the party going, but also lets the person in the back who might be thinking of the same thing know that doesn't look like any fun what happened to that person. Yeah. But you know, it is, it is amazing that outside, before I started comedy, I worried about heckling.

I thought about stuff like that and really the reality is similar. It is really rare that someone just wants to disrupt. It's usually something that's happening because they're, they just are doing it wrong.

They're trying to get in there and they don't know how, you know, I know.

Danny Brown: 00:05:52

I watch. One of my favorite comedians is Jeff Arcuri, who's like a New York Italian comedian. And I like how he improvises with the crowd.

His crowd work is amazing. And to your point about, you know, when people do try heckle, he does it in a really kind.

When he comes back to them, he does it in a really kind way that brings them back on side. So to your point, I feel like most people who go to something to be entertained, you've paid money for that.

You don't want to have idiots in the bar, you know, spoiling it for a. The performer on stage and the rest of the audience.

Dawn Brody: 00:06:25

Yeah. And heckling means you're listening usually. Right.

It's sort of like, I mean, I'm a mom, I have a six year old daughter and I think sometimes that it is a bit like being a good teacher. You know what I mean? You have a really disruptive student who's asking too many questions or who's talking over someone else.

It's like, that's so frustrating. But like, that kid's in your class, man, they're listening to you.

Do you know how hard it is to just get people to listen to you and to want to react, to feel a desire to. And this is excluding the hecklers who aren't just like spilling beer on someone and screaming penis. Because they think their buddy will like it.

That's different. You know, they should be sent to the. To the proverbial principal's office no matter what, you know, no matter what. But.

Danny Brown: 00:07:05

Well, I feel when you have kids, we've got two kids, they're a bit older than yours now. They're fourteen and twelve. But when they were your daughter's age, no filters.

So, you know, it's a good training ground for adults to how to handle, you know, people coming towards you with no filters.

Dawn Brody: 00:07:20

I gotta tell you, I literally thought for your podcast, Five Random Questions. I was like, no chance they get more random than the questions that are coming at me these days.

You know, like, how does electricity come out of a sake? And I'm like, you know, that's great. Wow, that's a great question. I don't know. I don't know exactly. How comes that I don't know?

Danny Brown: 00:07:42

No, and I still can't. I mean, you know, I'm in my fifties now, and I still can't get my head around how pictures appear on a TV screen through a wire.

It's like people were there live at the time doing a sporting event or music event, and the crowd at the event is seeing at the same time as you, but you're only seeing it through a while. It just. Yeah, blows my mind.

Dawn Brody: 00:08:00

Yeah, me too. I've experienced. I said, there's bowls in outer space.

I said, we're shooting information into the bowls in outer space, and then they reflect off the bowls and shoot it back down. I'm like, that's all I got, kid. That's like, you're. The depth of my understanding is now imparted to you. Good luck.

Danny Brown: 00:08:17

That's good enough. I feel that's good enough.

Dawn Brody: 00:08:19

Yeah, I agree.

Danny Brown: 00:08:20

Well, speaking of random questions, Dawn, I feel it's time to bring up the five random questions for you this week. So are you ready for this?

Dawn Brody: 00:08:27

Can't wait.

Danny Brown: 00:08:28

Awesome. I'm just going to bring up the random question generator so we can see that and we'll take it from there. Okay. A nice easy one to start, I feel.

Okay, Dawn, question number one. What sound do you love?

Dawn Brody: 00:08:43

I love the sound of an idle boat gurgling.

Just, you know, when you've pulled any size boat up to a dock and before you shut the engine off or before you untie and push off, there's a real, like, low, like, blah, blah, blah, blah, gurgle. That is. Oh, I love that sound. Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:09:09

So where do you think that came from? Do you think that's like, I mean, did you used to like, you know, like making these sounds in a bath, for example?

Dawn Brody: 00:09:16

Well, I, I mean, I did. I grew up in the middle of nowhere on a pond. My eighty five acres of farmland in Wisconsin.

And we had a pond that my dad had dug to be from like a natural, like stream. So we always were on the water and playing in the. But I think more influentially, I lived aboard a houseboat on the Mississippi river in St.

Paul, Minnesota for about nine years and took at one point a huge trip down the Mississippi, the entire length of the river. And it was just some of the best years of my life. And I. And it's so funny because if you had asked, what sound do you love? You know, I don't know.

You know, at first I'm like, laugh at my daughter. But I heard because I haven't been on my boat in a long time and I recently heard a boat gurgling an idol.

And I, I mean, it hit me like a sledgehammer, you know, I kind of put my hands over my heart like, like I was smelling grandma's bread, you know, so that's kind of cool.

Danny Brown: 00:10:18

So is that like a family tradition or how did that come about? Because that's, that's unusual to hear. I mean, it may be a more regular thing in, in Mississippi, for example, but it's unusual for me to hear.

Dawn Brody: 00:10:28

It is unusual for where I did it to. I did in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Danny Brown: 00:10:31

Minnesota.

Dawn Brody: 00:10:32

Yeah. No, that's okay. Among the reasons why it was sort of an unusual thing to do there is because our winters are brutal.

I mean, you're in Canada, you understand brutal winters. But yeah, really, really cold. And I lived aboard year round for nine years.

So living on a boat on the Mississippi river in Saint Paul in the winter is a whole like, whew, that was. That was. And I made it. I mean, there's only about four or five of us that really did it.

So there's no website, there's no TikTok, even though those websites didn't even really exist at the time I was doing it anyway. But even so, even with. With the further reach of information, it was just sort of figuring it out. But I wanted to.

The real bottom line, Danny, is that I had just always thought that living on a boat sounded like the coolest thing in the world. So when I was twenty seven, I graduated from college and I was in a kind of unique life situation. Broke as a joke. And living on a boat happened to be cheap.

It was like, it was a mortgage, because it's a house. And I.

And it was like a couple hundred dollars a month and I could live by myself and I could try this cool thing and I thought maybe I'd do it for a few years and then I could sell the boat and that, say I had done it. But once I was aboard, I couldn't leave.

Danny Brown: 00:11:49

Yeah. And so nine years later. So what happened? Did you then meet someone and decide to move inland, so to speak?

Dawn Brody: 00:11:56

I know, right? Yeah. Really? I'm married now to a dude who I met. A dude, he's my dude.

I had lived aboard alone for about three years and then he was a lubber, a land lubber and he. But he came aboard, so to speak, and we joined together into.

Moved into a bigger boat and then took my boat that I had lived on alone on that big trip down the Mississippi river and sort of an adventure. And then after that we moved into an RV and drove to LA.

And so after nine years on the river, we thought, let's be, let's get a land boat and see what's going over there in the deep end of the pool, you know.

Danny Brown: 00:12:41

That's very cool. I mean, that's a really interesting background for living arrangements to go from.

You know, obviously you had your houseboat, then a co-joined houseboat if you like, and then the RV going across the US, the LA, etc. Do you have plans to do any more adventure now that your daughter's a bit older or are you settled now or.

Dawn Brody: 00:13:00

I don't. Yeah, for sure.

As a matter of fact, she's pretty good at going on adventures, you know, and I guess I had sort of presumed that comparatively my life would be settled down a little bit. I live in a boring old house, doesn't go anywhere, you know, it's got bathrooms and all sorts of boring stuff, walls and.

But then, you know, Covid hit and Covid was like, hey, you can do whatever you want. Kind of, you know, like for all the barriers there are, there's also some wide open spaces. And so we got a pop up camper.

We had been out of the RV for a while, living in condos and such with the kiddo. And so I thought, oh my God, this is the first time I'm in a house and I feel so stuck. And so the pop up camper was great.

We went to Yosemite and she loves a road trip. She camps, she sleeps, you know, in a camper, no problem.

And we took her to Italy for a trip with, with some family and boy, she chow regazied her way right around. No problem. You know, you think more. I have more of an eye to safety, but safety doesn't ruin every adventure.

You know, put some water wings on and still jump pretty high.

Danny Brown: 00:14:19

So that's very cool. I'm very jealous. I know. I did a bit of backpacking for six months in Australia years and years ago, but that's the level of my adventure.

And so very jealous.

Maybe the wife and I can do some of that once the kids are maybe on their own, get college or whatever they're going to do when they're a little bit older.

Dawn Brody: 00:14:37

Yeah, yeah, because you take them now, they're just going to call you names, right? Twelve and fourteen, is that right?

Danny Brown: 00:14:43

Yeah, they do that now. So why would they be different abroad?

Dawn Brody: 00:14:46

Let them do it in the Grand Canyon.

Danny Brown: 00:14:49

Exactly, exactly. Well, speaking. And thanks for that. Speaking of adventures, I think it's a time to adventure on into question number two. Let's see what pops up.

Hmm, interesting. So question two. Dawm. What's a common thing that you think about when you're alone?

Dawn Brody: 00:15:06

Oh, a common thing that you think about when you're alone? Oh, I think probably, boy, I'm alone most of the time these days because I work from home alone. I guess most of the time I'm thinking about history.

I mean. Oh, that's not a very good answer. But yeah, I'm pro. I'm probably thinking about history or I'm making up dialogue and I'm actually talking out loud.

When I'm alone, I'm often still talking. It's probably not hard for you to believe that I never shut up.

And sometimes I just sort of am thinking about alternate scenarios, whether from big history or from my own personal history. And I'm often sort of walking down a path of either known events or potential events and playing them out. That sounds.

That's really such a good question.

Danny Brown: 00:16:11

No, but I mean, if that's your passion, and obviously, you know, with the show about your podcast and also your degree and everything, that's, you know, if that's your passion, it makes sense that when you've got time to think, you know, you're thinking about that you'd mentioned about what ifs and our alternate realities, you know, based on history. So just to follow up on that, then this is still question two. It's a lot of bonus addition.

Dawn Brody: 00:16:34

I love it.

Danny Brown: 00:16:34

If you could insert yourself into an alternative part of history because of your insertion, what would that be? And maybe why that one?

Dawn Brody: 00:16:44

Ooh, an alternate history. You mean like an Inglorious Bastards sort of deal?

Danny Brown: 00:16:52

Yeah, kind of. Yeah, yeah.

Or even, you know, if you could see like, kind of like the NineElevenTwentyThree book by Stephen King where, you know, they talk about the alternative, you know, history there, for example.

Dawn Brody: 00:17:06

Oh boy. Well, first of all, I would sit down with three bottles of Jack Daniels, unless this was like, you have to decide, right?

And then I, you know, but I would have to sit down and really chew on stuff because I have seen Back to the Future a lot and I, and I just have always had a sense of the significant ripple a small pebble can make and in the short and long range of history. And I would be just so afraid that I would somehow, you know, hurt Michelle Obama by, you know, putting a stop to some horrible event.

You know what I mean? So provided that I had all of the historical disclaimers sufficient to know that I wasn't truly effing up another really great track of history.

Oh, this is kind of morbid, dude.

Danny Brown: 00:17:57

Okay, this is why we're here.

Dawn Brody: 00:18:00

I think I would go to medieval Europe right before the first wave of the plague.

So the good news is if I get to run the time machine, I can enter the appropriate coordinates and that means that I would go to like Genoa in thirteen forty and I'd feel nice and safe from the plague. I'd be super sure not to get pregnant. And then I would experience some of the like pre plague Europe.

And I would also maybe try to prepare the humans on Earth for what is about to be the greatest horror show in human history, which I wouldn't be able to necessarily prevent, but could maybe get some of our knowledge documented, some of the, some of the wisdom that we had accumulated that was lost into somebody's really great clay jar.

Danny Brown: 00:19:00

You know, I wonder if you'd be like seeing. That's a really cool one by the way.

I mean obviously I'm from the UK originally, so I've got, you know, European history is like something I really we got taught a lot of at school.

But I'm wondering, you would maybe be seen as a witch because you're coming with all this, these like crazy theories that they, you know, the thirteenth century people or fourteenth century, you know, people would be looking at saying, you're talking crazy language. What is evenness that you're talking about?

Dawn Brody: 00:19:28

Hmm, yeah, I'd have to watch my ass. That's a very good point.

But you know, I have had a lot of weird jobs and one of them was as a, you know, I talk about improv and role play and it's almost always for comedy, but for a while I did it as a hostage role player.

So I, I would play meth heads and suicide jumpers, all sorts of really horrible scenarios to train law enforcement on how to approach and handle these individuals. And it prepared me beautifully for encounters with law enforcement in the future, which I gratefully haven't had too many.

But I am really good at verbally de escalating a very tense and even violent situation. I like to think that something similar might be in my back pocket if I found myself accused of witchcraft in the Middle Ages, you know what I mean?

I am so. I'm super literate. Like, that alone will give me a lot of protection from a lot of people.

I'd make sure to carry at least three or four Bic lighters and like laser pointer pens with me just to really blow their hair back in a bind, you know what I mean? So. But no, I think, you know, three big guys at the club corner, me in my cottage, I'm. I'm toast. I'm.

Danny Brown: 00:20:46

Well, you could always introduce them to JD, right? Have some JD, JD and coke on rocks or something and introduce them to that and maybe they'll be a bit more, you know, friendlier.

Dawn Brody: 00:20:55

Exactly. That's a good point. That's a good point. Be like, everybody relax. I got some spirits that I think you guys are going to be very interested in.

We've really refined some things. What about you? I'm curious to know what you think about when you're alone.

Danny Brown: 00:21:09

You know what? It's weird because I don't really get a lot, especially at the moment anyway.

I don't get a lot of time along because we had a flood a few months back in the summer actually, in our basement and because of the insurance company screwed us over. I'm dealing with that at the moment and doing all the repairs myself.

So finish work in the day, do repairs in the evening, weekends, same kind of thing and what have you.

Try to build a basement back up, but I guess maybe I'm starting to think more about mortality because, you know, I'm well into the second half or second stage of my life, if you like, or second, third, third, third, whatever, who cares? Well into it anyway, so probably because I've got two younger kids.

I had kids when I was older and my wife's a little bit younger than me, so she's more, I'm not going to say age appropriate because that makes me sound a bit pervy, but it's not very Nice at all. But there's like a thirteen year difference between us.

And so because of that, she's more the age of what a parent would be with teenage kids, for example, whereas I'm an older dad. So I guess maybe I think about, will I be here to see them into adulthood? Hopefully I will, because it's not that far away.

So maybe something like that to continue the morbid theme.

Dawn Brody: 00:22:22

Yeah, right. There we go. Well, and similar. I'm forty six and my husband's like seven, almost eight years younger than me.

And I don't really seem like an old mom unless I rush out the door and it's really bright sunlight and I look in the rearview mirror and I'm like, who. Who is this crypt keeper driving your young baby around?

Danny Brown: 00:22:44

Yuck. I like that when I put my glasses on, I have these glasses for, like, I'm farsighted, which means I struggle with small print.

I think that's the right term. But I'm fine. I can, like, look outside, drive a car or whatever without them.

But when I put them on, that's when I'm in the bathroom, for example, and I go, oh, my God, who are you who just came into the bathroom with me? I hear you there.

Dawn Brody: 00:23:05

Yeah, exactly.

Danny Brown: 00:23:07

I need an adult. Oh, I'm the adult in the room. Oh, no.

Dawn Brody: 00:23:09

Oh, no.

Danny Brown: 00:23:11

All right, well, that was a nice. I like the more particular. But I like also the fact that you're doing it to save the world and to help the world. So that's a nice.

A nice alternate history there, for sure. So let's see what we have for question number three. Well, I guess this is kind of the flip side of what we. What your answer was just now.

So question number three. Darn. What are you most looking forward to in the next ten years?

Dawn Brody: 00:23:39

Oh, this is a good. Yeah. As a. As a history lover, I rarely dance into the future. This is kind of fun. Ten years into the future. You know, this is gonna.

Oh, this is gonna be a romantic answer. I have been married to a wonderful guy for nine years, and we are just doing great. He's awesome. We're bud. We've.

We were friends for years before we started smooching. And I gotta believe that. Like, I don't think it's the answer for everybody, but boy howdy, I met a lot of slick guys in bars that were a lot of fun.

But I love you. I love you, too. This is so great. Was not great long term. And we've just been having this awesome life together. I gotta be Honest, it's been great.

And he is presently approaching what seems to be something like a pinnacle of his professional life. You know, like he's getting exciting jobs and projects, he's working on very cool things that curl toes all over the place.

And I'm similar, really loving what I am doing professionally, what I'm getting to do with my kid.

And I think in the next ten years will see something like the possible fullness of that, you know, the, I mean, I guess if we're shooting arrows into the future that ten years from now is kind of where we're aiming. So I, the, the next ten years, I look forward to walking that path.

And that also having lived a life with a lot of unexpected, excuse me, twists and turns, also knowing that the ten year, those will continue to happen in the next ten years, I'm also okay with that.

Danny Brown: 00:25:30

And can you see yourself still where you are now or would you maybe be put in. I mean I'm guessing your daughter will be like a mid teen, then a high school.

So would you see yourself maybe pulling her out of high school and doing a bit of traveling or waiting till that's done and retraveling or anything on that horizon, you think?

Dawn Brody: 00:25:50

Unforeseen circumstances could make that a very cool thing to do and I would be very open to doing that presently. Perhaps because of our sort of nomadic journey up until this point.

I think the plan is to stay in this house and to stay in this school system until she graduates. I'm in the LAUSD baby Los Angeles Unified School District and we really like, we really like it. It's our public assigned school.

I'm not paying out the nose as some of my other families are, you know, and both my husband and I had that. Our parents, we didn't move around a lot, my parents divorced, but I got to stay in the same town and stuff.

And we both believe and have seen and can empathize that for many of the people we know and love, some of the most devastating elements were a lot of moving in these years, having to restart and make new friends and start over. So I wouldn't put that in there unless you know, it came up. But in fifteen years, girl when she's eighteen, bye. You know what I mean?

Like I love you and everything and I'm going to follow you very closely and you can always come home and I will take care of you and give you the blood out of my veins until the day you die. But bye bye, your father and I will be rescuing you from wherever We've ended up and I don't know where that is.

I suspect that once she's untethered, he and I will probably return to something of a Lord of the Rings, sort, of Hobbiton.

Danny Brown: 00:27:21

Get over to New Zealand, live the life there. Yeah. Well, I do like the fact that you mentioned as well that your husband and you were friends, long time friends beforehand.

I feel that removes a lot of the weirdness where sometimes especially when you're younger as well less so as you get older and you start to think less about that.

But when you're younger where you're trying to impress the person you're interested in so you might come out and embellish some stuff about you that's not a lie, but maybe not quite true either. But that causes problems down the line. Whereas you're a friend with someone, they see your worst.

They see all your bad sides along with your good sides. They know what to expect. That negates all these issues down the line that could sort of pop up afterwards.

Dawn Brody: 00:28:09

Yeah, I agree with that entirely because I think that when you are, I can speak for myself in your twenties and single and out in the various places where you're meeting people, you are definitely pitching and selling the absolute best version of you.

And you know there's the joke about like you don't want to fart or poop at his house and you all these things that you're doing to sort of bolster this illusion.

And the idea is that there is some imaginary date in the future and it might be our wedding day that I can fucking like let my gut out and shave my armpits in the shower while you're brushing your teeth and that this will be like totally fine and like nobody loses it. But I in my experience have not found that to be true.

And one of the things I had with my husband Andrew is that we were buddies so long that like I didn't. I was never the guarded like that around him. So he knew about my booty call and that just like dumb idiot guy that I keep going out with.

And he knew the way I spoke about my family, which is I love them. I always speak highly my family, you know what I mean? Like versus that impulse.

You might have to be like my mom, she's such a against because you want to put on some sort of tough guy thing. It's like I, you know, that kind of thing and same with him and yeah. How did you meet your wife? How did you get cradle robber?

How'd you get your thirteen years younger bride there, Danny.

Danny Brown: 00:29:36

No, it was. It's a. It's a long system going to keep it really abridged.

But essentially both of us are huge fans of the band Dashboard Confessional, you know, so we were on their official website, stroke fan forum kind of thing, way back two thousand five, I'm going to say. Yeah, two thousand five. It was actually two thousand five. And I'm. Because I've got a Scottish background, I dropped some recommendations for Scottish punk music.

The, Chris, the lead singer of Dashboard, had said it influenced him when he was growing up.

So Jaclyn, my wife, her granddad, although she's Canadian, her granddad was from Glasgow in Scotland, so she's got that Scottish background background. And she thought, oh, Scottish music, I've got Scottish background. Interested. So I started reading it and we got talking and chat.

And she liked the way I wrote stuff or what have you. And then I was just innocent for like six months or so. And then something just weirdly clicked online.

So she came over for a visit to the UK in October that year. We got like a house on fire.

I came to Canada in December of that year for a visit meant to go back in January after the Christmas period, stayed here and eighteen later, eighteen years later, here we are, two kids, preferable doghouse, you know, blah, blah.

Dawn Brody: 00:30:43

Oh, ding, ding. You got a Hallmark movie coming.

Danny Brown: 00:30:47

Yeah, well, I think we'd have to do an R rated Hallmark movie.

Dawn Brody: 00:30:52

We'll spell Hallmarks with three X's at the end.

Danny Brown: 00:30:57

Love it, Love it. So that's question number three.

We're doing really well and I'm loving your answers here, Dawn, so thank you for being so open, which I know you would be anyway.

Dawn Brody: 00:31:33

Well, thanks for having me. I'm honored.

Danny Brown: 00:31:35

So let's have a look at what we can see for question number four. All right. Would you rather look like a potato or feel like a potato?

Dawn Brody: 00:31:49

Oh, wow. Well, that's not fair to potatoes, man. Well, let me. I feel like if we're being negative, if the.

If the thing is, we'd rather look like kind of a big, round, fat, lazy bum if that's the intention of. Or feel like a foam. I would say I would rave one hundred percent every time. Look like a fat, lazy bum.

I have felt like a fat, lazy bum and looked amazing at the time and didn't have any more fun in my life or accomplish anything great. So. And I have been potatoesque and I know potatoesque people who rocket and have great lives. So if that is the implication.

But if we're Talking to, like, literal potatoes. Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:32:36

So you got, like, really dry, flaky. Well, not flaky skin. You got your skin that's just peeling off in strips.

You got a lot of beardy stuff going on and sprouts coming out like cordyceps sticking at the top of your head.

Dawn Brody: 00:32:46

Well, then I would rather feel like a potato, because what potential. You can be french fries. You can be scalloped. You can be baked. You can. I mean, I feel like a potato. Metaphorically. Feels like opportunity. Yeah.

What about you?

Danny Brown: 00:33:04

No, I mean, that's a really random question, though.

Dawn Brody: 00:33:06

It's random, girl. But I. I answered it twice, so I don't know what that says about me.

Danny Brown: 00:33:12

Yeah, I. I don't know, because, like you said, I mean, it's. It's such a weird one, you know? Is it about the vegetable? Is it, you know, metaphorical? As in.

I don't even know how metaphorical you'd be. As you say, maybe like, size or shape or something. But again, you've got so many different kinds of potatoes. Right. And are you going to be red?

Are you going to be yellow? Are you going to be, you know, russet? Are you going to be.

Dawn Brody: 00:33:30

Yeah, those little golden ones. They're adorable. Who wouldn't want to be one of those adorable little yellow potatoes?

Danny Brown: 00:33:37

Exactly. Right. And then you could, like. You could become your potato. You could bring that as a next street improvisation thing. Okay.

It's potato clan coming out. And then just get people to sort of. I don't know, I'll leave that to your crazy mind there to come up with something for that. But, yeah, that's.

I don't know. I feel I'd probably want to be. You know, I'd like to be a mashed potato, maybe.

Dawn Brody: 00:33:59

Oh, smooth. A smooth, creamy guy.

Danny Brown: 00:34:05

Yeah. You gotta mash it down properly. Don't be leaving these lumpy chunks in there. Cause now you're just talking turnips or whatever.

Dawn Brody: 00:34:10

Yeah. Then I may as well have stayed a potato. Why'd I even bother getting mashed if you're gonna leave all these lumps?

I think we've really examined this one. I think that question didn't know how much we were gonna think about.

Danny Brown: 00:34:21

Well, no, I think so. So there you go, folks.

If you want to be a potato, you have to really think about it and go down the whole rabbit hole of mashed, boiled, baked, roasted, all kinds of stuff. And if you want some advice on the best potato approach, get in touch with Don.

Dawn Brody: 00:34:36

I have a lot of ideas.

Danny Brown: 00:34:38

A lot of Ideas. So let's have a look and seeing what question number five is. All right, this is a good one to finish on, I feel.

And I feel you've got probably some good examples here. What was the last experience? So question number five. What was the last experience that made you a stronger person?

Dawn Brody: 00:34:59

Oh, well, I'll tell you. There's one actually, very recent front of mind because I took a kickboxing class. My daughter has just started doing martial arts. And.

And she loves it, and I love that she loves it. And I have worked out and I've had sort of like a physical workout life that's been pretty consistent forever.

I, in my younger years, ran marathons, but I would never, even then have considered myself. Excuse me, really? An athlete. I would never have considered myself an athlete because, you know, I'm not.

I smoke a lot of dope and I drink Jack Daniels, and I. I don't necessarily identify with some of the healthier versions. All of that being said for this reason.

I've never been great at, like, a Pilates class or a running group or like a committed person assignment reoccurring thing. That is part of my fitness. But when I signed my daughter up for martial arts at this dojo, they give the parents a month free, right?

And I had thought, oh, theoretically, isn't this great? Because it's right between her school and our house.

And if I look love kickboxing all of a sudden, then this is great because I drop off at school, I'll go to kickboxing for an hour, and then I get groceries and then I go home and look at you, mother of the year with a tight bud. This is going to be great. But I think the three and a half weeks go by and I'm not doing that for the same reason.

I hadn't done it prior to the distance. I'm asking me because I don't want to do that, because I don't like people yelling at me. I don't like being.

I don't like being surrounded by mirrors while I'm trying something new. I don't, you know, there's a lot of stuff. But my husband and I said that we were gonna do it, and I said I was gonna do it.

And here's me, of course, saying literally to my daughter, literally in this space. I know it's scary, but you gotta try something new. Don't be afraid about looking dumb. Everybody's gonna be nice to you, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm just like, in my ear, like, come on, come on, Come on, you know. And so we did it. On Monday morning we dropped her off and I said the whole time I was like, oh God, we got to do this dumb, oh Jesus guy.

Can't believe I said I was going to do this. And then we got in there and it was awesome. And it was just sort of this one on one deal. And the guy was great, the sensei was great.

And there were not a lot of people there, no other people there. So we got kind of one on one attention.

And my body is so sore still because it was a great workout and my hip hurts and my arms are sore and it was a really good workout. Now of course I think I'm going to try to go every Monday.

And so that one was one of those few experiences that in the moment I was like, I don't want to do this. And then told myself to do it because it's good for you. And then did it anyway and came learned lesson.

I am giving the right advice to my daughter and it happens to be good advice even when it's coming back at me. This is, this is encouraging, this is.

Danny Brown: 00:37:50

Good, you know, so extra bonus points there.

Then you get the, you've got your daughter involved and something that's amazing, obviously because of the, a, the self defense part, but just the confidence as well. Like I find a lot of martial art instills confidence in a person. Right. It's not always.

Well, it's not about fighting, it's to protect yourself and protect others.

But the conference side, especially for, you know, a young kid to get that conference in case, you know, you meet not nice people, you know, at school or whatever.

Dawn Brody: 00:38:19

Yeah.

And even just being able to yell, like there's a real element of it that says that you punch harder when you go, you know, And I think that kids in elementary school maybe especially girls are told to keep quiet, don't make, don't be loud, don't disrupt.

And so I like that for, you know, forty five minutes a day, a couple days a week, she's told, louder, get louder, be heard, make noise, punch that guy, you know, it's okay. All things in moderation means all things. And I like that.

Danny Brown: 00:38:53

So would you find that's more like.

Or sorry, not more, but that's less prevalent now where, like you said, and I know certainly when I was younger at school and even when I was a teen, we were in a very traditional Scottish household where my mum did all the menial work, she'd like do all the dishes and the laundry and the Vacuum and all that. And thankfully it has changed. But you've still got that aspect where girls are told something different than boys.

And do you think that's changing in the education system for the better or do you think that's still an issue in places?

Dawn Brody: 00:39:25

I feel like this is such an interesting thing to chase because, yes, it's still around, but it's not imposed in the same way that I suspect it has been in decades past. You know, there doesn't seem to be a big line between boys and girls.

And my husband and I have in our family and in our circle of friends, a real diaspora of types of relationships from single moms to the, you know, stepdads to two moms and two dads and married. You know, she knows this is in her life, right? And I'm shocked at what a like, like anti feminist homophobe she is and just her like default.

I'm, I'm joking, of course, but I mean, she says two boys can't get married. Like, she's my grandfather. And I look at her and I go, what do you. And she goes, that's just, I don't understand that.

And you're like, oh my God, what do you mean? And it's because there is, I think, a certain element that is put on in her.

Her fiction has not caught up with her real life and her fiction is pretty uniformly girls and bo you know, there's a real. And division of labor.

Like there's a princess on the Disney Channel that I'm gonna forget her name and probably couldn't say anyway because of the I, you know, the mouse will show up at my door immediately. But. And it's very cool because she's like a stepdaughter and she wasn't born into royalty and she's just like figuring out how to be a princess.

And it's in Spain, I think, somewhere.

Anyway, she's great, but like, she's still beautiful and wears exclusively princess dresses and all of her friends are beautiful and we're exclusively princess dresses and all of the boys are princess.

So there's still, I think, a lot of like, what she feels she can do as a girl that has permeated her brain beyond what we're telling her and showing her and what her teachers are telling her and showing her that. My hope is though, that it's superficial.

That perhaps the difference is that back in the day it was like we had the same assumptions, but they were deeply ingrained because they were reinforced in all of these places versus a real superficial Belief that will be, you know, vacated soon. There's not a lot of girls, I'll tell you the truth. There's not a lot of girls in her karate class, but there's enough. She's not the only one.

And that maybe that's progress, you know?

Danny Brown: 00:42:05

No, for sure. And I know exactly what you mean. We watched when the kids were a bit younger, we watched. So Big Hero Six is a movie that we love. It's a Disney movie.

Yes. And the story behind that is just amazing. But they also did like a Baymax show on his own.

Not the weirdly animated one, one that followed the, the CGI style of the, the movie. And it was just six little mini episodes, maybe five minutes each episode, something like that.

And what I loved about that was they talked about really adult things or coming of age things, but made it really simple for kids to understand. So we were watching it and they were talking about your first period. They were talking about same sex attraction and everything.

And it was so cool to see that on a kids show. They explained it really easily so kids can understand.

So like you say, I feel Dawn, they're still obviously Disney princesses and Disney heroes, you know, like the big strong heroes with the chisel jaw and everything like that.

But I do feel that it's like you say, it's getting better and the more realism that's around, you know, your daughter and other kids where it's natural to have same sex uncles or, you know, aunties or parents or whatever and all, everything that comes into that, it can all be better from when I was your daughter's age, for example.

Dawn Brody: 00:43:18

Yeah, I think so.

And I think another way that we can sometimes mitigate some of these factors is by looking more at who's telling her that she is free to find representation wherever she wants. Like, I remember as a kid, like, I had no problem seeing myself as Huckleberry Finn. I had no problem seeing myself as Jack Sparrow.

You know what I mean? And there was no confusion, confusion at all.

It was just like every other person who feels pulled into a character's story and can see themselves in that character. And I don't think that we need to make it more complicated than that. Just don't feel confined by whatever someone tells you you are.

You can feel yourself in lots of places, even if it doesn't look like you. And that way you don't have to necessarily tell someone else you shouldn't be that. Because it makes me feel like I'm being reflected badly.

It's like, hey, you can stay out of other people's business with this and just find yourself, you know, reciprocating from these places.

Danny Brown: 00:44:23

Wise words. Indeed. And I think I'm going to use that actually as a little side adjunct now for reciprocation.

You've been very kind to be open with your five answers for the five random questions.

So it's the stage of the show, a stage of the episode, but it's only fair to allow you to throw over to you to ping a random question back my way to take the pressure off you now from. For what I've put you through for the last thirty, forty minutes or so.

Dawn Brody: 00:44:49

Oh, I'm so glad.

Okay, well, my question for you is if you could have the dinner party with three people, living or dead, real or fictional, who do you invite and why?

Danny Brown: 00:45:07

That's. See, I've always wondered about this because you see them on Facebook and stuff like that all the time, right?

The little what if, what if of who do you invite? And I'm glad you mentioned fictional there, because normally it's like, who would you invite, living or dead? And that's it.

So I'm going to go with a mix, I think fictional. I'm going to have Gollum, because you get two for one there, and I think he would just be so entertaining, but also cause shit.

Dawn Brody: 00:45:34

And you don't have to worry about the menu. You don't have to be too particular about what you prepare.

Danny Brown: 00:45:38

Exactly. So I think he covers a lot of basic. And he takes the pressure off you as a host at that. So I'm going to Gollum. I'm going to go.

Yeah, I think, I think I'm going to go Rosa Parks, but younger, really younger Rosa Parks to see what, like, obviously, you know, what made her another person she was and, you know, what she stood for and what that resulted in. But what really, like the early years, what really shaped, you know, what did she go through?

What, what, what lessons can she teach, you know, future generations that are still going through what she's gone, you know, she went through because of all the good and all the. The activism that resulted because of what happened, you know, with Rosa Parks.

We still have issues across the world, you know, with bigotry, racism, hate and everything. And it feels like as much as many lessons were learned, some weren't and continue not to be.

So how can we take some of our earlier lessons and make that so? I feel that'd be a good. She'd be an amazing person. And then I think probably I'm gonna Go for another fictional one.

And I'm gonna go with probably Star Lord from the Galaxy. Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. I don't know. I feel. I mean, that could have gone either way. It could have been Star Lord.

It could be Chris Pratt, obviously, the actor that plays.

Dawn Brody: 00:47:02

Sure.

Danny Brown: 00:47:03

Who I feel is a funny guy. Same with Ryan Reynolds. I mean, I might have to switch out with Ryan Reynolds. Who knows?

Cause, I mean, I've got a massive man crush on him as well, so that could be. Maybe I shouldn't invite him because my wife might not approve of him.

Dawn Brody: 00:47:16

And you'd be so embarrassed when Gollum made a scene. You'd be like, I'm so sorry, Ryan. I don't know why I invited him.

Danny Brown: 00:47:22

Exactly. So maybe not. But yeah, I feel Star Lord, I think that character is just funny. But he's also dumb. Right, but he's dumb in a. A naive.

Because he was, like, taken from Earth as a kid, so he's always got that kid mindset, which is amazing. That's the. The kind of mindset I feel you should have for a. A cynical world. Right. So have a really kind, childlike mindset.

And I feel his naivety and his wise cracking would counter off of Gollum and whatever crap he comes out with. And then Rosa would be sitting there saying, who did this person and why did he invite me to come eat with these two idiots?

So I feel that might be, like, an interesting table, but thank you for that. An interesting question that you've actually made me think about it properly for, you know, for a change, so.

Dawn Brody: 00:48:09

Good. Good. Well, I can't wait to see the velvet, you know, dogs playing poker version of your dinner party. It would be quite a piece of art.

Danny Brown: 00:48:20

I almost wonder if AI, you know, like, some generative AI, could do something around that.

Dawn Brody: 00:48:24

Oh, give it that chance. Give it that chance and just see.

Danny Brown: 00:48:29

What it comes up with. I shall. If it comes up, I'll be. You'll be the first to know. Don't worry about that.

So, Dawn, as I mentioned, I mean, I really enjoy chatting with you and I feel, you know, I'm gonna invite you on for a future. Five random questions down the line somewhere. I think that's gonna be a new rule that's just come up.

Never thought about it before, but I really enjoyed chatting with you. So thank you for today.

For anybody that wants to learn more about your podcast, learn more about your stand up in the area, or find out if you do any, you know, outside your local area, et cetera, and just find out more about your, you know, what you do at Universal, etc. Where's the best place to find out, listen to your show, find you online, etc.

Dawn Brody: 00:49:06

Well, thank you so much for having me. This was great and I really enjoyed it. And folks can find the HILF Podcast, HILF, anywhere you listen. Apple and Spotify and YouTube.

There's no video, but it's a place where you can also stream it if you have a hard time. And you can follow me on Instagram, HILF Podcast. And I not only post episode clips, but also like, you know, fun photos from the most recent episode.

And then you can find me Dawn Brody and it's B R O D E Y on Instagram or my website, dawnbrodey.com and that will show you everything that's happening.

Coming up, we have in November, if you're in and around Los Angeles, I'm going to be hosting an open mic at the RV park where I moved when I first lived here, and it's called the Trailer Trash Talent Review. And it's wild and fun and kind of the closest thing you'll ever get to like a real life Muppet Show.

And in December in the Valley here in Los Angeles, I'm going to be doing HILF Live. So it's going to be in a comedy club.

I'm going to have some comedians come in and face off against audience members to see who knows the most about various history. And you can find all that stuff in the sites I mentioned earlier.

Danny Brown: 00:50:31

That sounds very cool. I actually know a few people. Not a few, two. Two people. That's not a few. I know two people in la, so I'll let them know where you're.

Send them over your site. You got the details because they like a really good laugh. So I'm sure they'll be all up for that.

And that, that sound, that live HILF show sounds quite, quite adventurous and fun there.

Dawn Brody: 00:50:48

Thank you. It's going to be a blast.

Danny Brown: 00:50:50

Welcome. And I'll also obviously, as always, I'll leave all these links in the Show Notes.

So whatever podcast app you're listening on, make sure to check out the show notes and they'll be linking straight through to Dawn's social profiles, a podcast website and all the cool places just mentioned. So again, Dawn, thanks so much for appearing on Five Random Questions.

Dawn Brody: 00:51:07

Thank you.

Danny Brown: 00:51:09

Thanks for listening to Five Random Questions. If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to follow for free on the app.

You're currently listening on or online at fiverandomquestions.com and if you feel like leaving a review?

Well, that would make me happier than when I went on a trip to discover the history of my name and found out that our family was actually descended from well regarded storytellers from the Highlands. Which seems kind of apt for a podcaster. But seriously, if you want to leave a review it'd make my day. Until the next time, keep asking those questions.

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