Wonderful! - Wonderful! 329: I Would Win the Turing Test

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Griffin's favorite adult pastoral piece of theater! Rachel's favorite musical artist with something for everyone!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya Equality Florida: https://www.eqfl.org/

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Music Playing! And Music Playing! And Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Thanks for listening to

Wonderful. It's a show where we talk about things we like that's good that we're into. It is the dog days of summer. And I don't know about you, but I'm feeling my summer vibe so right. I don't actually even know if it's officially summer yet. It's officially summer.

Okay. It's so hot outside. The beaches are- How hot is it? Like 84 degrees, not actually that bad. But The beaches are bumping. How hot is it? Like 84 degrees, not actually that bad, but the beaches are bumping. The babes are going to the beach and all the bros are playing volleyball on the beach also. We got suds and buds by the poolside with big watermelon.

Sometimes I worry that you're AI. You're not, right? You'd have to tell me if you were. I watched this video just before we started recording and it's this game that somebody built, it's my small wonder. And it's like a Turing test in reverse where, and it's in VR.

And so it's four AIs, different AIs sitting on a train and this one guy who's a human and they're impersonating different historical figures and all the AIs have to guess who the human is. I think I would beat ass at this game. I think I would absolutely smoke those fucking robots. Where is this game? It's like this one dude made it.

It's not a thing that people can play. But how do you enjoy the game? You watch a guy play it on YouTube. Okay. Yeah, I don't think it's available for everyone, but it was like Aristotle and Cleopatra and he was Genghis Khan. And the second he opened his mouth,

it was like, that's a human right there. Wow, look at you. Well, it was from his perspective. So it wasn't that hard for me to tell, but all the robots clocked him. Not me though. I feel like, you know, a decade of listening to Munch Squad press releases has embodied within me

an ability to speak at length without saying much of anything at all. Yeah, it's true. What's your small wonder? Is it how the beaches are bumping and the babes are going to the beach and the bros are all playing volleyball? Surfing the Foam that reminds me of like the house that Jack built like the way that you're phrasing that I don't know what that is

that's like The cat that swallowed the mouse that swallowed the cheese that lived in the house that Jack built No, I don't know that one. Anyway, it was like the- Is that your small wonder? The beach and- This old-ass notion of mine? No, no.

No, my small wonder, of course, is- We got this inflatable pool bouncy thing last summer. H2O Go is what it's called. I would recommend it to anybody with children. It kicks ass. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's one of those things that you attach a big fan to in order to keep it inflated. Yeah.

And it's definitely for small children. Yeah, absolutely. Like Henry is already approaching the like way too big age and size, but it's got a little bouncy platform, a little tiny slide, and it's- A little bouncy platform, a little tiny slide and it's- A little sprayer. You just fill it with water, yeah.

And whenever you buy those things and then put them away for the winter, fall, spring, you worry that you're gonna unroll it and it's going to be a monster. Yeah. Like be a fuzzy black mold monster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But ours held up pretty well and we've been using it. going to be a monster, like be a fuzzy black mold monster. But ours held up pretty well.

And we've been using it. I will say when I dragged it from our storage container to the place in the yard where we usually inflate it, a little mouse came out. I saw a little tiny mouse hop out and scamper off. And it was gross, but it was also like really cute because he was like a little guy. I hope the other stuff in the little storage thing is-

Oh, I didn't even think about that. Yeah, our cremice tree is probably- Eaten. All by this one little irascible mouse. Anyway, it's come in real handy because again, small sun, tremendous amount of energy, and it's really saved our weekends just filling that thing up and having another location and tremendous amount of energy. And it's really saved our weekends,

just filling that thing up and having another location to let him bump around. It's so slick. I go first this week. I'm going to talk about something that's not gonna be much of a surprise to you. I've been talking about it all week, and I feel like you come to expect that when I focus,

when I fixate on a thing, usually it's gonna be my thing for a wonderful that week. This week, I would like to talk about the musical called Pippin. It's about Scottie Pippin and his incredible career. It's unlikely, that would be good. Why isn't there a whole musical about the 1996 like Chicago Bulls? There's just like a sad like,

I'm Larry Bird. Yeah. I'm Larry Bird. Why would he be sad? Do you think Larry Bird was like a sad like, I'm Larry Bird. Yeah. I'm Larry Bird. Why would he be sad? Do you think Larry Bird was famously a sad man? I think he was, I mean, from what I understand, and granted a lot of my knowledge

is centered around Michael Jordan. Yeah. But as I understand, he was a very good basketball player that got largely overshadowed by a lot of- Sure, but he also talked mad shit. Oh, did he? He was a huge shit talker Larry Bird was, yeah, absolutely. No, I'm talking about Pippin the musical,

which was a groundbreaking piece of theater for a young Griffin McElroy, for reasons I'm going to discuss later. Pippin, if you're not familiar, it is a fucking weird show. It is about Pippin, the son of King Charlemagne, who was a real guy, but basically everything about this is fictionalized. And Pippin goes on sort of this lifelong journey

to find meaning and purpose in life through a series of wrongheaded pursuits, basically. that's the synopsis of the entire musical, is him bouncing around between these different pursuits that he thinks are going to make him feel satisfied or that he is living this exceptional life. And, spoiler alert, none of them really pay out for him. This journey is presented as this constantly fourth wall breaking production from a theater troupe,

led by a character called The Leading Player, who is sort of the other main lead of the show. He or she in the more recent Broadway revival is just this really charismatic sort of omniscient entity that is there to help him along his journey until all of a sudden he becomes a kind of terrifying, very manipulative figure towards the end of the show. The music and lyrics for Pippin

were written by Steven Schwartz, who also did Godspell and Children of Eden and Wicked, as well as a shit ton of music from a bunch of different Disney movies. But when it arrived on Broadway, it was directed by Bob Fosse, who took the book and the music and was like, what if it was a million times hornier? And so that is sort of the way that it went. All of a sudden this theater troupe that serves as kind of the, you know, Greek chorus sort of set setting

of the whole thing. There's so much bumping and grinding in this show. It's fucking outrageous. And a lot of like the little reaching hand twist, that Bob Fosse, a lot of Fosse, a lot of jazz hands out to the side, slow steps. My high school put this on, this is what I was telling Griffin,

like my experience with it, I think I was maybe a freshman in high school, and this was the like fall musical they put on. And I remember like sitting down being like, okay, you know, high school, it's gonna be, there's gonna be a love interest, there's gonna be some buds singing a song together. And I was like, as the musical went on,

I just remember being like, wait, what, what? This is, what? I remember the opening song is called We've Got Magic to Do, And it's like the true setting up what this show is going to be, like what you're about to see. And one of the lines in it is sex presented pastorally. And sure enough, there's like a thing in the first act

where Pippin's like, I'm just gonna get laid a lot and see if that is the thing that does it for me. But ultimately, of course it doesn't. But yeah, it gets wet and wild. It felt very experimental watching it. Like it almost feels like you need to read like a little disclaimer at the top. Like, hey, like put away your dad's musical.

Like this one. I think that's what we've got magic to do kind of does. So Piven is this sort of directionless college grad at the beginning of the show. And throughout the course of the musical, he dabbles in, he goes to war and he has a lot of sex and he leads a revolution against his own father and he falls in love and all of these things

that he's doing is trying to live this extraordinary life that he believes that he is owed. And that makes him an incredibly, at times insufferable, self-centered, idealistic character. And that's really an interesting way to feel about the protagonist of the show. It's like, man, this guy fucking sucks, kind of. But you kind of very quickly learn what he's all about. He's introduced with what is, I think, probably the musical's most famous song, which is Corner of the Sky, which is,

here's a little bit of that. ["Corners of the Sky"] Rivers belong where they can ramble. Eagles belong where they can fly. I've got to be where my spirit can run free. Gotta find my corner of the sky. Every man has his daydreams, every man has his goal. So the other main character is the leading player who was played by Ben Verene in the original Broadway run.

Yeah. It was fucking incredible. Uh, leading player was played by Patina Miller in the 2013 revival, uh, which looked wild. I really wish I had been able to see it. It only was up for a couple of years. She also played the witch in the 2022 revival of Into the Woods, which I bet was real, real good. She was-

You know what I'm thinking of a lot right now, as you said, Ben Vereen, who of course played a very similar role in Zubali Zoo. Yeah. Well, I don't know if in Zubali Zoo- The way you're describing this character, like this charismatic, like, narrator, I mean, that's Zubili Zoo all over it.

That's kind of Zubili Zoo. Eventually, at the end of the show, you realize that this whole story, this whole production, right, that is happening around Pippin has been a means of manipulating Pippin to literally destroy himself, climb in a box and emulate in order to achieve one perfect moment of artistic glory.

And it is a genuinely chilling moment where you go like, oh, holy shit, this whole thing, this person who you thought is like this guiding light to Pippin has actually kind of been trying to funnel him towards this one terrible, terrible moment. Well, did you see the last episode of Zubili Zoo? Wow, I spiked both our microphones with that laugh, baby. That was a really good one.

I'm just saying, Bill the Beaver, it does not end well for him. No, I guess not. The music in the show just slaps ass. I think Stephen Schwartz has done incredible work, obviously, I think this is his best stuff. There is a song, my favorite song from the show is right at the end of Act 1,

where Pippin has kind of been manipulated into assassinating his dad, King Charlemagne. At which point, like, the company turns on its heels, and all of a sudden everybody's like so excited that Charlemagne is dead and this new era has arrived with Pippin as the new king, and they sing a song called, uh, Morning Glow, that I'm gonna play a bit of now. Morning glow, fill the earth Come and shine for all your worth We'll be present at the birth Of old faith looking new Morning glow is long past due.

So, I think this show is unique and fantastic, but I'm also biased because it was the first piece of adult theater I was ever exposed to because I was in the show in 1997 when Marshall University put it on. I was 10 years old. There's a character in the show who is the son, his name's Theo, he's the son of like the main love interest that Pippin kind of in kindles this romance with in Act Two. And I got cast as Theo and I was the only kid in the cast.

Everybody else was college students, right? And so like that was a major escalation for me, going from, I'd done like quite a bit of like community theater stuff at that point, but it all had been in sort of the like Rogers and Hammerstein sort of vein. Yeah, of course. And so this was not a show about,

you know, Country Bumpkin falls in love with another Country Bumpkin country bumpkin falls in love with another country bumpkin, or princess falls in love with prince, or country bumpkin falls in love with sophisticated woman from the city, or any mix of those different kinds of ideas. This is like, this is a grown fucking show, filled with grown folks as the actors, right?

And it left this indelible impression on me because not only was I watching this show that really genuinely blew my mind, blew me away, I was getting this portal into the future where I was seeing these are grown up theater kids and they're a fucking mess. And I guess that's, no, it was great. Like I genuinely, the cast was all super, super sweet to me. The guy who played Pippin was a guy named Jeremy

who I like thought hung the moon. He was like the coolest and real, real, just so nice to me and everybody was great to me. It was it, and I came back from that show like, what's up? I was like, I had gone and done a semester in Paris. Well, in the theater. You see, when the grownups do it,

I just, I have a lot of very fond memories from that show and I think that contributes to it. But I honestly haven't thought about this show in a long time. And then I just started listening to it again this past week and it's just both the original and the 2013 revival. It's so good, it's so good.

And I don't think one of the like more well-known major musicals, and so if you've never really gotten into it, it's great. The Jackson Five did a bunch of covers of songs from the show, which are fantastic. So that's Pippin. Check it out. Yeah. Can I sit you away?

Yes. Okay. Okay. What? Hello, sleepy heads. Sleeping with Celebrities is your podcast pillow pal. We talk to remarkable people about unremarkable topics, all to help you slow down your brain and drift off to sleep.

For instance, we have the remarkable Neil Gaiman. I'd always had a vague interest in life culture, food preparation. Sleeping with Celebrities, hosted by me, John Moe, on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Night night. You can't really know if your own show is any good. So I asked my kids about ours. Is Jordan and Jesse go a good show?

No, definitely not. It's really bad. I would say out of 10, maybe like a four out of 10. It's just really boring. Yeah, zero. Subscribe to Jordan and Jesse Go, a comedy show for grownups. All right, can I tell you about my thing this week? I would be so thrilled.

It has been ages since I have brought a musical artist. And that is largely because for me to get in touch with current music, I have to do some research. Right. So usually what I'll do is I'll just look at like, what has come out recently? Do I happen to have any context for this artist that like would give me an advantage

on like entry into their work. That's all Rachel's all about. It's trying to, she's always on her grind, in her grind set, and she's always trying to get an advantage. What's my angle here? Right. This one was easy though.

Oh great. The artist I am bringing this week is Brittany Howard. Fantastic. And listeners and me and you may remember Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes. Yeah. Remember? Yeah, sure.

They're the one that had that like super popular song called Hold On actually ended up winning awards, I believe, although I didn't do a lot of research on the Alabama Shakes. Oh yeah. But Brittany Howard really kind of, I mean, everybody in that band was very talented, but she really stood out.

She's just a very powerful voice and like this kind of tremendous wisdom in like her performance. So Alabama Shakes formed in 2009 in Athens, Alabama. All these members like met each other in school. Like as kids. Athens, Alabama? Yeah. I didn't know there's an Athens, Alabama.

There is an Athens, Alabama. Yeah, I didn't know that either. I don't know anything about Alabama, if I'm being honest. Sorry, people who live there. Actually I've been to Birmingham, I think once. Anyway. Okay. So their first album came out in 2012

called Boys and Girls. They had another album out in 2015 called Sound and Color. They opened for Jack White, they performed at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. That song I mentioned Hold On was dubbed the best song of the year by Rolling Stone. Hell yeah. So yeah, and then just nominated for tons of Grammy awards,

huge, huge band. And then in 2018, they went on hiatus. Brittany Howard, when she gives interviews, doesn't suggest that they have broken up or that she has decided to go solo. I don't think bands break up anymore, unless they're Oasis. I don't think bands, I think they always, I think it's just always kind of leaving,

leaving the options. I mean, there are some things that end pretty inhospitably as I understand. Yeah, like Oasis. Yeah, there has to be a more recent example though. Okay. I feel like it has probably happened since, you know, Oasis.

The 90s or whatever. So her first solo album was 2019's Jamie. And the song that came from that, that was very popular was Stay High. Did you listen to that song? Yeah, yeah. That one is very, very good. You sent these to me earlier today and I was bumping them.

Yeah, I wanna play just a little bit of Stay High because it will give you kind of a nice introduction to Brittany Howard if you're not familiar. I already feel like doing it again Cause once you know, then you know And you don't wanna go Back to wherever it is that you come from, yeah

I just want to stay high with you. The music video is fantastic. It's literally just Terry Crews coming home from his job at the factory, lip syncing to the song in a car. It's very, very straightforward and simple. Yeah, apparently it was filmed in Alabama. She like cast a lot of people that she like knew

from the town she grew up in. That's so good. And it really kind of presents her. It's not too much of a departure from Alabama Shakes, you know, and that it's like a kind of like a soulful, like almost feels like from a different era kind of music. I listened to that song and I was like, okay, I know what vibe song, I know what kind of music she makes.

I've got her pegged. And then you sent another song that was not like that at all. And so her new album is called What Now? And it came out in 2024, the title track, which is the one I sent to you, came out in 2023 as a single. And that is actually the same year that Rolling Stone named her as one of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time.

But I wanna play a little bit of that song too. ["I Surrender Let Me Go"] I surrender, let me go I don't have love to give you more You're throwing up my energy I told the truth so set me free If you want someone to hate then blame it on me Blame it on me Blame it on me, girl Blame it on me If you want someone to hate then blame it on me So fucking fresh. The music video for this one is like Blade. It's like they just did, they made Blade.

Yeah, I also sent Griffin a live performance because I was like this, the presentation is so like futuristic, but in a very specific time period. It's future goth matrix blade sword fighting. It's crazy. I had to watch the live performance just to kind of get my bearings in the like, I know this woman, this is different from her. Her voice is a little bit disguised by the effects they put on it.

But it was funky as hell. I loved that song. Yeah, so she has this great story. So unsurprisingly, she's very influenced by artists like Prince, which you can hear a lot in that song. And she actually got to meet Prince in 2015 when she was still with Alabama Shakes.

And I read this interview where she tells this great story and I'm just gonna read it verbatim. She's talking about going with her band to potentially play on stage with Prince at Paisley Park. And she said, we walk into Paisley Park, this big warehouse, and they're showing the film Madagascar projected on the walls. We're like, hmm, okay.

There were also some rules, no meat, no cussing, no video. It was all a little strange. We did a sound check, then his assistant said, Prince would like to meet you. And I said, come on, y'all, because I'm not going by myself. There were 15 of us sitting in this little studio, Prince is in there wearing all linen.

We all smoosh ourselves onto the couch and he was so nice and really funny and he said I'd like to play Gimme All Your Love with you tonight. So later we're on stage playing our set and we get to the song and Prince is not showing up. And she said, I'm like, did he change his mind? Are we not doing a good job?

We just kept repeating the bridge. It's getting a little awkward. All of a sudden, this guy in a green crushed velvet suit with an Afro, sunglasses, and a green guitar jumps onto the stage from below. And the stage is at least six feet tall. She's like, he's right there and just starts shredding. And I'm looking at him in utter disbelief.

The crowd's going crazy. And then we were double soloing in harmony. We go for like five minutes, finish, he kisses me on the cheek, and he leaps into the darkness, and I never saw him again. She says literally he just disappeared like a fairy would. I just-

Every story about Prince is like that. I am, of all things, I realize this is such a like, even in his time, such an unattainable dream. And of all things, I realize this is such a like, even in his time, such an unattainable dream. I think people who have Prince stories are the luckiest people in the world. I feel like having a Prince story is the most powerful anecdote available. Because they're always like that.

There's always some like magical occurrence. Some magical supernatural element to it. Yeah, but I would really recommend checking out What Now. There's all sorts of genres represented. It's like soul, jazz, rock, R&B. There's some house music kind of present. She's doing just tons of things.

And also, Brittany Howard, as I was doing research, Thelma the Unicorn, which is a movie or show, I'm not sure which, that just came out on Netflix about a mini pony who longs to be a star and her dream comes true when she disguises herself as a unicorn. Brittany Howard was just giving interviews about that last month because she voices

Thelma the Unicorn. Oh, that's great. So yeah, she's tremendously ambitious and creative and every song she performs is a little bit different and it's just, man, there's something for everyone. Yeah, I love that. So yeah, I would really recommend. It's just two albums at this point,

as I mentioned, Jamie and then this new one called What Now? So I'd recommend everyone check it out. Hell yeah, what a musical episode this has been. Yeah, I guess so. Let's check in with our friends at home. Micah says, I recently started biking again after several years of not being able to do regular cardio exercise for various reasons.

That's pretty great in and of itself, but the really wonderful thing is coming in, hot and sweaty after a five mile ride through the park, opening the fridge and having a couple slices of delicious cold watermelon. It's the most refreshing thing in the world. Watermelon as refreshment always fucking hits for me. It's so funny, watermelon is one of those things that I forget about.

I'm like, do I like watermelon? And every time I'm like, oh my God, I love watermelon. For me, if I see it on a platter, like at a continental breakfast hotel bar or out on a table at somebody's graduation party, I'm not interested in it. But if somebody brings out a whole ass watermelon by the poolside, it's all I think about

until I get that in me. Yeah, I kind of learned that trick because I was buying it pre-sliced and the boys were kind of get that in me. Yeah, I kind of learned that trick because I was buying it like pre-sliced and the boys were kind of somewhat interested in. And then I started like buying slices, like wedges and like cutting them into little like long. Oh yeah. What's the word I'm looking for?

Spears. Yeah. Watermelon spears. Yeah, they almost look like a big watermelon french fries. Yeah. And the boys went crazy for them. It's great. This one didn't have a name attached to it,

but I really liked it. My small wonder is the post-sports game meal. My volleyball team sometimes goes out to eat after games, and the rowdy, hungry post-game energy shared between good friends makes for some of the best meals I've ever had. I bet that's so good. I bet that's nice too.

Kicking it with the gang at the Alamo Freeze after a big game against our division rivals. I was never a member of a sports team where this happened. Nor I. Well, I was. Like when I played sports as a very young child, it was like somebody brought snack in a cooler. It wasn't like y'all pile into cars and go.

Yeah, for me it was, baseball was the game I played the most of. I think I did two seasons of baseball. Is that what they call them? Seasons of baseball? Seasons of baseball. And there was a concession stand there. So like if you wanted to buy some stuff.

I will say when I was in marching band, we did go out after the games a little bit. So I guess in a way I've had this experience. I mean, don't get me wrong. I've been to dozens of cast parties, which is a rambunctious energy, not from a physical place. We weren't doing stomp, you know? We weren't like physically acting very hard.

So I think you get a little bit of extra from like this, like I'm exhausted from all this physical exertion and the spirit of competition, getting the adrenaline pumped up. You don't get as much of that in a cast party. You do get some of it though. You know what I think about anytime anyone mentions a cast party is Lin-Manuel Miranda's performance

of Crucible Cast Party on when he was on Saturday Night Live. Oh, yeah, Jesus Christ. Oh my God, I have to watch that again. It was so good. I was thinking of Pin 15. Oh, no. I mean, that's good too. The whole like theater, high school theater arc

of Pin 15 is the most blood curdling, just bone chilling television I've ever watched. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks to Bowen and Augustus for these rhythm song, Money Won't Pay. Find a link to that in the episode description. Hey, if you live in beautiful St. Louis, Missouri, or what's it called also, the city where?

Oh, Chesterfield? Chesterfield. Or Kansas City. Or Kansas City, but we're not doing wonderful at Kansas City. I was specifically plugging. It's St. Louis, Chesterfield, Missouri. We're gonna be doing wonderful, opening up Mbim Bam.

And that show is this Saturday. This week, yeah. So come out and see us. There's probably still tickets available. If you go to bit.ly slash McElroy Tours, you can find links, but also Kansas City. We're coming to you on Friday doing Mbim Bam. And then Tyson's Virginia,

just outside of the beautiful Washington, D.C. We're gonna be doing Mbim Bam there too on Sunday. So come out and see us. And then next week we'll probably put up that live wonderful show. Well, don't say that. Well, I don't know when else we're gonna record. I know, I'm just saying like,

we need people to feel like if they don't go to the show. Oh, I mean, don't get me wrong. When you're there in person, it's a totally different energy. The energy is electric. The energy is, it'll fuck you up. And that's a threat. First five rows get wet.

First five rows may get drenched. They will get wet. That's a guarantee. And you'll never guess with what. We say, what's your small wonder? And then we fire hoses into the crowd. We shoot big hoses into the crowd. Yeah, Rachel's like, my small wonder,

I love Mellow Yellow, and then she has like a whole two liter Mellow Yellow, and she sprays it all over. So come see our show and get sprayed with Mellow Yellow. Working on, money won't pay. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

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