PAPIO

Talking Transcribed
Recording Image

Talking To Caleb Salyer again about beer, city life, bingo, and tiki bars

Caleb, my good friend and roommate, recently moved back to Columbia from living in Kansas City for 3 years. In this interview, I asked him a lot about life during that time, how he's evolved, and what's next on the plate. Thanks for the interview Caleb!

Recorded on 2019-02-26

Speakers: Caleb Salyer and Joseph Weidinger

All right. All right. Introduced me, Josef. And a a crazy fashion, Please. Alright, it'll be a little crazy. Caleb. Kebab Slayer failure. That's your new nickname. Okay, cool. Ah, you're one of my favorite roommates and fair friends. You spent the last two years and Casey, but you're back in Colombia, and I'm excited to have you back so we can work on music and podcast together. But the first project of all these projects that were going Teo, is this interview.

So And this will be your second here at shakes downtown this time on February twenty six, two thousand nineteen. Yeah, man, I'm twenty nine years and seven days old. Seven days, seven days. Ah, honey, with a man I forgot, actually wait seven days. You came back here one week ago? Yeah, tonight. So this is my one week. Uh uh. What do you call it? A return of er saree? I've never heard that. Yeah, that's totally a thing.

So I won't talk a lot about what you've been up to the last three years, okay? Can I get a brief summary of what you've been up to the last three years? All right, well, it all started three years ago. Yeah, No, I've been working here. It Shakespeare's where we are right now for five years. And I was burnt out and ready to get the hell out of town. And I thought Kansas City was the place to go. Went there for three years, and it was all right.

But it wass the big city, and I kind of learned that I'm not necessarily the kind of guy cut out for the big city. I don't know, necessarily. I could go into million reasons why? But is it really cut out, though, Are you? Cut it. You're not cut out. I don't know. Like I feel like people that didn't grow up in this city. A lot of them, I can't. They have this part of them that's not going to be able to exist in the city for any extended period of time.

Like you can go there and you can do it. And if you find yourself around the right people and everything, it's great. But I don't know. You just get you get locked into that concrete kind of cage that the city is. And eventually you just like I can't see any stars. Everything is expensive here, you know, going in doing anything cost money, and it's not like I don't know, I feel like here in this town like Columbia, for instance, it's just everything is so much cheaper and more easily accessible.

It just seems safer, You know, like the city. You're always kind of looking over your shoulder a little bit. Well, that maybe this is like the small, deep seated, small town Booneville racism built up in me or something like that. But like it's just I lived on kind of the edge of gentrification, and it was just, you know, people constantly asking you for dollars and things and just you can't walk home at one o'clock in the morning without constantly being aware of who's around you and what's going on because you know that someone got jumped on that street two weeks ago or something like that.

So, yeah, I just didn't feel comfortable. Which, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's the way the human's air supposed to be. You know where humans are supposed to be comfortable. It's not supposed to be comfortable like, think about it, like if you were living back in the day like of hunter and gatherer days. You know, you constantly be looking over your shoulder is making sure that something's not coming to kill you or whatever are constantly being aware of where your next meal is going to come from or something like that.

But then I leave in entire city just because I don't want to look over my shoulders whenever I'm walking home at three o'Clock in the morning drunk. So what does that say about it? Says you're not human. That's we have summed up. All right, all right, Cool. So you're a tour guide there. Oh, wait. Yeah. I didn't tell you what I was doing there. Okay? You tell me what your Kansas City I was working at Boulevard Brewing Company.

Um, and I'll try not to breach my non disclosure agreement that I had with them. You'd a nondisclosure when you left. No. Whatever. You start. You signed one. Oh, saying that you're not going to give up any secrets or talk about any of the business practices or recipes are forever. Even though even though I used to give tours and on one of the tours, we would go into the hop cooler, which is where we kept the hops that they were going to be using for the next couple weeks.

And in that in that cooler that walk in cooler, they had literally the recipes just printed out like the extended, you know, detailed recipes for the beers just sitting on a piece of our on a shelf in there. And so I would take two hours in there and I'd be like, Hey, you guys want to see the recipe for the tank seven? Here it is. Had re people like taking pictures of it and stuff. And I'm like, It doesn't matter.

We, you know, posted on the website, too. But okay, I was not in that detail. How many? How many beers does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Just getting how many beers doesn't take the cable? The break is in D A. Did apparently just one tank seven at the scene of that tour. Um, yeah, I was a tour guide there, and I mean, I started out just working in the kitchen and bartending and kind of working in the beer hall, But then I slowly transition into being a tour guide.

And then, you know, by the time I left, I was given those ultra premium tears, you know? So when you started out working in the beer hole, did you want to become a tour guide immediately? No. Did they ask you to come in to work on that? I wanted to be. Actually, I wanted to be a tour guide because whenever I got interviewed to be hired, they asked, like, Where do you see yourself in this company? And I said, Well, I'd really like to be a tour guide, and this was before I ever had any tour guiding experience.

It was like I'd really like to be a tour guide. But I know that my resume kind of shows that I'm or apt to be working in the beer home. So I worked in the beer hall. I think it was once bingo started was whenever I started, also giving tours and, yeah, just all took off from there. Bingo. Because that's something that they started with you. Yeah, I was the only person for the first say that you wanted to do it, and that's why they didn't know.

Just one day I had I was working and one of the events coordinators came up, and she was like, Hey, we want to do bingo. Would you be interested in calling it like, Yeah, share And they ask you where you like the first person there And why did they do that? Because there, why did they ask another guy that would do a lot of events stuff? But he was mostly doing the trivia, And I always I always made it very clear that I wanted to be the voice of Boulevard.

You know, I wanted to be I'd love to talk. And so, like, I would always give last call at the end of the night kind of thing. And I was just really proud of the way I sounded on the microphones. Okay, No. Like, for instance, last calls. So at the end of the night, we would call last call, and it was the beer hall. So we actually closed relatively early eight or nine o'Clock. And so you were disappointing people whenever you would go out there and do last calls, because sometimes it would be busy now, A lot of people, when they would call last call, they would just stand in the little closet where the microphone wass and just call it from back there.

I, on the other hand, would go out on the floor and walk around and call my last call over the microphone as I'm walking as I'm acknowledging people and even, you know, kind of working the crowd because they're goingto obviously Bumi and just be like kind of ah, what? And I would respond to them and, you know, just try to try to make it more personal than just some random voice coming over the microphone being like you go to get one last beer and then you got to be out of here in half an hour.

So I don't know. I I want to make sure that they can see the source of their disappointment, you know? And it it humanizes it rather than them, just like thinking of it as this corporate voice coming over being like you have to leave so I don't know. It's funny because you're actually drinking chocolate ale right now. That's right, and it will eventually. And it was just my least favorite beer from Boulevard of all time, Not because of the flavor.

It does taste good. A lot of people will try and think that it's going to be a stout, so it's going to really dark. A lot of really big multi are Excuse me, big roasted malt character, but instead it's actually a nail. So it's relatively light colored, and it makes that chocolate just really shine right through that Christopher elbow chocolate, which is delicious. But that beer was discontinued about four years ago.

I think right before I started because supposedly Boulevard had an issue with one of the batches of chocolate ale. Is this N d e A territory have Probably, but who cares? You know what that is? Don't worry. I told this story to the countless tours, and it might not even be true, So I don't care. Okay, but that's supposedly what I heard is that there was a There was an issue with one of the batches, and they had to do a recall of the entire batch appear.

And so after that, they lost, like, you know, million dollars or something. And so they were like, We're not going to make this beer for a little while, but every tour, almost someone would be asking, like, when's the chocolate AOL coming out again? And I'd be like, well, whenever they figure out how to prove it properly, apparently. But this was the right after I left and moved back here when they come out with chocolate ale.

Really? Okay. Wow. So I didn't know it was fresh. Yeah, it's fresh. It just came out. I had I had a point of it at the actual brewery. Actually, I only had a eight ounce snifter at the actual berry because they won't sell a full pint of it. Is that because of beer snobbery? It's because of the TV higher alcohol. So it's eight point seven or whatever percent alcohol. Well, I know that people here and also with fears that air like that, usually they'll put him in at least two lips, which I don't think we have two lives here that shakes.

But, yeah, pints. It's mostly based on A. B V, but also like some certain styles of beer. You're going to want to put him in a certain class. Where? Because Was that you telling me that? No, wait, wait. Someone came up to Shakespeare's and complained about the, uh the kind of classes were serving our beer in. They were somehow inconsistent or not What? They should have been through proper beer. Snobbery channels, right.

That's beer snobbery right there. So I'm a firm believer in affected taste. So if any, if it all some glassware is designed such that like, for instance, whenever you go to put your mouth on the with lip, it'll actually like a tulip. It'll actually kind of direct the aroma towards your nose. So you've got your mouth on the beer and the nose is the aroma. And that's like the perfect beer drinking situation.

They're so like snifters air. Good for that. That's why they're called snifters, I think anyway, and two lips are good for that as well. Pints air. Okay. Why would you not want that on every year I will say you do want to know every beer. But there are certain beers like half of ice ins, for instance, which are meant to be poured with a huge head on them. So their glasses really tall. And so it does have a slightly different shape.

But it's still, you know, the bubbles that are popping on that head, as it's known, You know what I'm talking about when I say head, right? The white bubbly stuff. So those bubbles that are popping on that head are going, Tio are going, Tio are going to be, you know that a Roman that's inside of them are going Teo screwed up the glass and go into your nose with the pint glass. It doesn't necessarily work that way.

Like you can see. I'm sorry. I'm holding a pint glass up to my face right now. You can see that there is, you know, on area here, where that you're gonna lose some aroma. But some Some of the classes are made to not lose that aroma. And like I said, a half vice and glass, it's made to let there be a really big head. Everyone Everyone wants there not be any head on their beer whenever you pour it, you know.

But there should be two fingers of head on the top of every beer. I always thought it was you wanted the head because it released the gas is and then you would be less gassy. Well, that's just not that's true. So yeah, so if you because it doesn't seem too. So if you take a can of beer and crack it open and just target or whatever, you're going to injust a lot more CO two, then you would if you actually took that beer imported into a glass, right?

So that's definitely true, but Yeah, I tried out to get too snobby. I definitely own a few two lips to look classes and some snifters. But I'm not gonna I'm not going to be like you poured that pilsner in a pint glass instead of a pilsner glass kind of snob. You know, as long as it's something that just makes it where you can get the full sensory experience, that's all that matters. Did I ever get bored?

Bored with what? Being a tour guide. I mean, eventually, like two years, right? Yeah. And eventually. So this is going to sound kind of counterintuitive, I guess with this question being the way it is, but I my favorite tour to give was the public tour, which was just a tour forty five minute to her. You know exactly what you're going to say. You had to get people through there in about forty five minutes.

Mind were usually about an hour long, but I like those a lot better than, like the smoke stack or the unfiltered tours. Which word? Like the premium tours where you were only taking ten or sixteen people around. But on those tours, I would let them kind of choose their own adventure, you know? Whereas with the public tours, I'm like, I know exactly what I'm going to give you, and I'm going to give it to you the best I can.

So those tourists, I mean, while I had a spiel, you know, like, I could do it with my eyes closed. My favorite day to give tours was Wednesday, which was free to wear day, and people weren't as invested because other days they're paying five dollars for those public tours and for the smokestack and the Filter tours. Twenty five and thirty dollars. But Free Tour Day, it's free tours, and I didn't give a fuck on those days.

You know, like I would try new jokes. I would try new information, just switch things up a bit. It was a day that I felt like I could really kind of expand my craft. And so because of that, I always told him I was like, I have to work on Wednesdays. If I didn't work on Wednesdays, I think that probably got more bored than I did. Yeah, there was definitely a period where you were just going through the motions.

You know, you're just standing there just you think you're like, I don't even know what I said in the last fifteen minutes, but I'm doing my job. There you go. How did giving that many tours change you as a person? I think it's mainly about connection with people, Like with tours, especially, you're going to be with those guys for at least the next forty five minutes. You have to read your crowd. So so the tour's would start in a different building than the actual brewery.

So we'd start over there in the beer hall, and I would give him the safety spiel, telling him, You know, just don't wander off. Don't be a fucking idiot kind of thing. And then we would walk across campus through the parking garage to the actual burry, and during that time, I would definitely, like, feel out the tour, see, like, listened all their conversations their having. If there's someone who wants to talk to me, I would talk to them.

But sometimes I would give him, like a fake tour of the parking garage just to see how they respond to it. Tio kind of judge their humor. A fake tour of the park in a man's like, So we're walking through the parking garage and I say something like, All right, guys, this is our parking garage. It's a fine example of modern brutalised American architecture. Okay? And then just like go on about It has two levels concrete featuring lines on the ground so as to organize cars, trucks and even motorcycles.

If you look to your left here, you'll see our new canning line that we've just opened. Now, I could go through the whole tour if you want to be too right now. But, yeah, you were just, like, try these little things just to see how square your crowd is. You know, Saying is where you mean lame? Lame? Yeah. When I say square, I mean, Lane, like you would get. So at Boulevard, we were one of the top things on the list of at a visit casey dot com.

So especially when the tour's we're free and so people would come first thing they do when they come to Kansas City, you know, they get their hotel, and then they go get some barbecue and then they go to Boulevard. So I was always talking to, like, a bunch of people that would just be in town for the football game or whatever. But but going back to your question, like what? What did it change about me?

I think it's mostly yeah, just being able to read people being able to connect to people on a deeper method, like the best compliment I ever got. What people would be people just saying you kept it interesting. You held my attention, you knew how to connect with people, you know, and that's less super important. Yeah, there's some people that would just go out there, give the spiel, and they didn't give a fuck.

You know what kind of response people had, Teo. So that meant a lot to me. And did you get better, or did you change their feedback, or just is it enough just to go through the motions and kind of improve yourself well without paying me back? One thing is like, you know, it would be like crafting, like a stand up set or something that only you here. It's not going. It'll be funny to you, and it'll be good to you.

But you are not them. And you've got to figure out you know what? You think it's funny. Doesn't matter because you know, I'm not. I don't consider myself a square for instance, like I was saying earlier, and so I've got to make something that they are going to be able to connect Tio as well as me and Yeah, I don't know. It's Ah, OK, So basically, what you're saying is that you need that feedback from the audience to kind of sort out what works with them.

What doesn't? Because it's like when a comedian tries out new joke. They think it's funny, but they're going to trash that joke in a heartbeat if people don't laugh because creating funny things for them is not the point, right? But sometimes it would be fun. Teo, also on the comedian now like it be fun to see, like what doesn't always land with the audience. But then you're like, Okay, what can I just here to maybe make it do so And so It's not necessarily like you're going to just trash things because people aren't responding to it.

You know, like, how could I make this thing? Because this is something I want to deliver to these people, but how can I make it so that they actually respond? Tio. And there's a couple of times when I would do that, like, you know, change little jokes around that I would have or like the way that I would, uh, the way that I would presents certain types of information that we're maybe kind of dry and boring.

I would make it so that, like, even, you know, a six year old kid on the tour would actually be kind of interested in it. But how would you approach it if there's just a bunch of squares, you know, just a bunch of people in there. Bujji, Florida, Mickey Mouse vacation, Slack wearing. So one thing I always tried to dio like I never got too snobby because, like during the history part of my tours, I would ask people what their favorite domestic beer wass like.

I always tell him I'm a Coors banquet man myself. And like John MacDonald, the founder of the Berry, he was big into Bush heavy. There's a lot of pictures of him drinking bush and putting together the parts for the brewery. No but we both should not have taken a bite at the same time. I just realized that's okay. We'll work on it. We'll have a richer about it later, all right? Yeah. Ah! It was really about treading the line between, like, like at Boulevard.

I will give him this. They let us do what they let us have, like the ultimate freedom when it came to actually actually producing your product, that tour that you're giving and what kind of frustrated me sometimes about the job was that there was a lot of people that, Hey, John Medley. There's a lot of people that work there just one day a week on Saturdays, and they would give tours on Saturdays, and that was the only deaf gave tours.

And, uh, I don't want to just, like, put this out on the Internet, but they weren't the best two yards, you know, I'm saying because they didn't have the the daily just grind that comes with, you know, just giving tours day after day and they were good, but they just want the best. Yeah, they were fine. I wouldn't say good. I'd say fine. I mean, I'm trying to be serious here because they were fine. Well, the thing is like those of us that actually did give tours full time, like we knew that we had our tour down to the best they could be like.

There is nothing I would want to change about my tour, and I know it's perfect. I know that. Not perfect, necessarily, but I know it's I'm proud of it, right? And so, yeah, so it would be like, like, for instance, I was I was listening to this guy on YouTube, talk about comedy and how, like, you know, comedians in L. A, for instance, that air trying to come up, they'll do open mikes day after day after day, like there's enough places in L.

A to actually, you know, do comedy every single day of the week. If you want Teo while here, you know, there's only two places essentially like there's that Rose music showcase thing that happens once a month. And then there's the East Side thing. And so here you couldn't ever have that level of practice that you would have necessarily in the city. I get you. You know, it's funny. I went to one of those open mikes in Los Angeles where there are comedians there.

Did you go to the comedy store? No, I this was just some unnamed Venu, like they literally put out an ad on Craigslist and, you know, welcome. All artists and musicians open mic night here. I get there. The only people that are there are the people that are going to be reforming, and we're just all looking around each other going like, Oh, do you come here usually in like, No. I just came here to do this open Mike, and they're like the business was aware that we were the only ones and they're just basically forcing us to buy during some food and just making us feel like shit if we didn't go all out because it's all there.

But that's all the business they have that night, right? And I got up there to play music. I played a piano transcription of John Williams, John Williams score from A II, the movie I and it was just bizarre. I don't know what I was thinking back then, but there were some comedians up there, too, who are all right. But yeah, I know what you mean. There. There's a place you go every night to work on your craft and even professional venues like the comedy store or the I don't know which ones, but I can't pull their names.

But Bill Bird talks about always podcasts all the time, so I know they exist. Speaking of Gilbert, quick, Bill Burr Question Because we're both fans. Wilbur and I had this question for later, but I'm just going to ask it now. Played on me. I feel guilty sometimes for listening to Bill Burr. I don't know why. All right know why? Just because he says some edgy stuff and if you do not understand where he's coming from, it's goingto seem outrageous.

But for some reason, I still feel a little guilty. Anyways, I don't need to help me. Is the horse myself of the guilt? For instance, let's Ah, let's think of a specific bit. How about the one where a boy? I'm scared now. Yeah. Okay. What Caleb going to say. Which is he going to bring up? So you know the one where. I'm debating whether I want to do the one about him getting a black girlfriend and her being her, teaching him about ashy nous or I think it would be better to do the one where it's There's no reason to hit a woman.

Okay, that's better, because it's more famous and it's edgier. I guess so. I don't think so. So, yeah, for anyone who's listening, it isn't aware there's a comedian named Bill Burr, and he does a bit where he's like. There's no reason to hit a woman very serious. And while you should never do it, that's the main premise of his joke is that while you should never do it, there's definitely plenty of reasons that women give him to hit them, that if is things that if a guy would do, he would get his fucking face rock kind of thing.

But and it's It's a very, very edgy joke, but it's performed so wonderfully. I love it. But, yeah, I could see how you could be. Kind of. I feel kind of self conscious about laughing about it, especially in today's environment. I don't feel so conscious about laughing at the jokes. I feel self conscious about, bring it up with, you know, female friends or not that not that bit. But just Bill Burr himself.

Like, I'm always kind of monitoring myself when I'm in the presence of someone you know, who's who might be sensitive, sensitive Tio that I will be like, Do not mention Gilbert Do not build. You know, just because I don't know, maybe I'm just nervous about the way they perceive me. Oh, you're one of those guys who listens, Wilbur, but like, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. It's just it's It's a type of comedy.

And let's see what's crazy about Bill Burr is that he is still considered one of the best comedians of best living comedians. Hands down. Yeah, and there's so many comedians that have I feel like fallen or gotten knocked down or gotten gotten defamed because of a lot less than like some of the shit that he just said on stage, you know? And but the thing about Bill Burr is that you know what he's saying.

It he delivers it. It's it's definitely all about his delivery and the way that he sells it, like, you know, he's being. He's saying these really edgy things in these ridiculous things, but he's not saying it like you're fucking racist Uncle says that, you know, right? He's saying these things and he's like backing it up right after he's always got something to back up every premise that he's carrying.

And there's so many times in his sets you'll notice whenever everyone's just kind of like ah, and hell even acknowledge it on stage, you'll be like, Yeah, you feel intense. It just gotten here kind of thing. But then he breaks it down, and by the end, everyone's fucking laughing, right? It was like, I don't know. There is one thing I like to do on tours So boulevard. Last year they made a beer. It was further Women's Day March thing that happened last year.

And so Boulevard made a beer that was brewed entirely by the ladies of Boulevard. Like they all got together. They brewed a small batch of this beer, and it was delicious. It was some, some stout with a bunch of spices and stuff in it. It was wonderful, but my favorite thing about that beer was talking about it. Tio Tours because I would just be like so Recently we brewed a lady beer, and then everyone just kind of like, What does he say?

Like thinking I'm going to be talking about like some, like, fruity birds, some, you know, chocolatey, silly beer. That doesn't matter. And then, you know, you bring him back, It would be like and by that I don't mean that it was a beer brewed for ladies. It was a pure approved by the ladies of full of art, you know, And then everyone's, like, Okay, he's not affecting asshole sexist. It's It's fun to keep him on that kind of precipice for a minute.

You know where? You don't know. I used to always just want to make people like me. But now I found out there's a lot of there's a lot of power and clout and making people hate you for just a second and then bringing them. That's interesting. When did you When did you discover that? I think it was definitely being a tour guide for sure, just like I and I still do it today, like checking I DS or something like that, like just being a little bit of an asshole just a little bit enough to make them feel like it's special that they get past my whatever I'm doing, like I'm checking their ID like I'll be a little bit of a dick.

And we're, like, all the way from Minnesota, eh? You know, just kind of joke around about their accident or something, and then they're like, Yeah, it puts him on the defensive, and it gives you the power, which is important whenever you're in the industry that we are in. Yeah, but the same time, just as you said that the first thing I was thinking of, like gives this white male the power of, like he needs exactly vassal.

Well, one thing. So one thing I told everybody whenever I would be training them here, it shakes. And I also told them this whenever I was training them at the tiki bar I worked at was that every person that comes in here thinks you're a fucking cool person because you work, it shakes. You work at this institution. It's been around forever. You work a tiki cat, which is, you know, taking one of the top rated Tiki bars, and it's a total, you know.

Speakeasy kind of thing, too, that just people come in here, you know, they probably work at a desk eight hours a day, at least. And then they come in here, and this place is cool as fuck. And you look cool as fuck because you're not them. Like, use that. Use that for leverage, You know, like don't be an asshole to them, but, you know, have a little bit of swagger to your game. Like when they come in, you know?

Don't be. Don't be like a shy little kid. Were you shy, little kid? Oh, yeah, Totally. Until what age? Uh, I would say until I was probably, like, sixteen. What happened at age sixteen, you got a girl from, let's say at age four. Gotta go from print. No. Now, at age fourteen, I moved to public school from private school. Like I went to a, you know, a private Luther in school from grades one through seven. And it was a two room schoolhouse where we had only thirty students grades one through eight.

Two teachers. So I went from that to public school in seventh grade in that shit rocked my world. I fucked me up, but I had this guy Gage Dills, who's still lives here in town. He I was in seventh grade with me. And that dude is totally responsible for the corruption of Caleb Sal. You did He was he with you during the private school years, or, you know? Okay. Yeah, that makes more. Now, I started I started going toe middle school, and he was in my keyboard in class.

And we would just sit around and dick around on the Internet back in those, you know, pre YouTube days back when the Internet was a fucking gold mine of ridiculous shit. It's like before where the Internet was a goldmine of ridiculous shit and before school's new how to implement filters. Yeah, Yeah, exactly. I remember there was this website xxx dot com And I just remember because we were in our science class in like two thousand four and someone was like, I'll go to like triple X, the wrestler dot com or something like that or xxx the movie.

I think there's a movie called that or what? I don't know. But they were just trying to go to that site and then, like, stuff popped up and, uh, it was a total shock. But to me, looking back, it was almost more of a shock that there was no filter whatsoever. Four sites like that. It was certainly the Wild West. No, but think about that's still true today. I That lesson is true today, too, because, you know, we have all these filters on everything but I don't know.

I feel like it's still totally possible to bamboozle somebody into going to some ridiculous website or something like that. I don't know. I get frustrated with the how the Internet's just been deluded down in tow, you know, five websites. In a way. I mean, the vast majority of people don't stray outside. I mean, they don't go to carfax dot coms. Last service shops that they're not going there. Oh, shit. Unless they issue with their car facts in which they're old.

Speaking of old Hey, you called out? Bingo. Yeah. You do crossword puzzles regularly. You know, you would have been best friends with my grandma. That's. I mean, I learned everything I know from my grandma. Alright, this's not going down that direction. Do you want? You get like a job. It lin are Lynn or Woods. Is that what it's called? The retirement community in town? No. Seeps up whenever I was doing bingo. All right, when I first started, I've told you this story before, but right after I first started, I I was calling bingo and it didn't.

People don't really understand that beer hall. Bingo was not necessarily your grandma's being go right. And I would say that at the beginning, I would be like, Yeah, this isn't your grandma's being goes on all the grandma's in the room. Well, see, that's a beginning. At the beginning, there were actual grandma's that would be there. They'd be drinking water at a berry at eleven. In the morning. Yeah, at eleven.

On a Sunday morning, they'd be drinking water, just sitting there waiting with their dauber and on their sheet in hand. I think I'm just like so, you know, don't take this too seriously. We're just here to have fun, Baba ba. And the first couple of times I did it, like I had some old lady's there, and they would be like, you need to go faster are like this shit. I'm just like, Look, I'm trying to just do four rounds and two hours.

We're not here to fucking win prizes. We're here to drink beer and just have a good time kind of thing. And they never came back, which is great, but no, I was What My favorite thing about bingo was I had this group of kids. Well, this family, the Cone family shouts out. Kohn family, They're still out there going to bingo every week, I'm sure, but they would come in every single week. They went to every single bingo I ever called, and I called bingo every week for about a year and a half, they went to every single bingo ever called and their kids, they would bring their kids and every time which were between the ages of like seven and fifteen.

And so they would bring their kids in, and they would put them to work like I would have them go around and pick up all the old bingo sheets and recycle them. And then I would have them give out fresh sheets between the rounds. I used to do it myself. It was a pain in the ass. So I started just like having them do it. And then they, like, made their own T shirts I call them my bingo minions, and they made their own T shirts and they would go around between every single round and, like, help me out.

They made me a birthday cake on my birthday. Wait, they made T shirts that said, Being going and yeah, I've got a picture here. I'll tell you later, but yeah, they loved it. They loved bingo. And that's when I realized that I was, like, actually, like, touching people. You know, like people like this shit like I would I would ask people, you know, how many of you have been here to bingo before, and usually, about thirty percent of the people about a third of them, would always be like, Yeah, we've been here, and I was just like, shit.

This is like church, You know, this is like church, like everyone's coming in every single week. We're just having a good time. Even some food baba blob taking care of each other like it was. So it was such a community building exercise. And that's what I miss most about doing bingo for sure. And I'd like to find a way to do that here somehow in Colombia, because I feel like our generation, especially in the generation behind us.

There's no sense of community, you know, like everything's on the Internet, etcetera, like no one's. No one smiles at each other on the street kind of thing. But isn't the Internet community? It is, but it's not. So the sense of interaction that you have on the Internet is just that it's a it's Ah, it's Ah, it's an image of what interaction should be as opposed to actual interaction. It's, ah, it's a representation of interaction.

You know, it's not like it be like, for instance, so on online relationship. For instance, while it's still like an interaction between two people, it's not, eh? It's not a real relationship, per se, while it can still be, you know, fulfilling to the two people and everything, it's still not the same as a physical, pure relationship. And there's I don't know. It's just I don't like the idea of these representations of ourselves, like what we put out on Facebook, what we put out on Twitter, which is just essentially the best version of ourselves.

I don't think that that whenever you whenever. That's all that's being pushed out into into society. And that's what you see everyone else having these lives that they put out on Facebook or Twitter and all that instagram and everything. And then you hold yourself to like those standards, even though it's just like this curated. Okay, Today I agree with the fact that online representations of of someone r very often curated.

But that's not to say that just because you're in real life virals that somehow everything is authentic. When you get up there in front of a bar, when you go up there from the bar, you can't tell me that like you're giving one hundred percent of Caleb salary to one hundred percent of people and and you know, right? So you're giving them a show. You're giving them a version of your You're Curie ate itself as well, right?

Right? I don't know. I'm not a bartender. I don't know. No. Yeah, you definitely do that. But that's because you have an incentive of just making money. Then with, like, Facebook, for instance, or Twitter. Your incentive is Teo, you want to make yourself look like the version of yourself that you envision yourself being right. Maybe. I mean, you're not sure that there's some people. There's some people. There are some people that get on Facebook and they'll talk about all their problems, but most people don't do that right.

And the same thing happens at the bar. Like, you know, if I'm working behind the bar, I'm not going to tell everyone my problems. I'm just going tio be that guy that girls want to give their phone numbers here, whatever. First day on the job. Jesus. But no. Like it's so going back to, like, the kind of churchy aspect of bingo. Like my favorite thing about that was that and that. And just like going to church in general, too, is like it's a safe space where you can go and you can actually tell people about your problems.

What are you talking about? Bingo. Yeah. Oh, come on. People who's not really not really talking about being a talking, talking about church at this point, okay? Okay. Like, no, that's one of things I liked about going to church. Like I don't consider myself, you know, necessarily a God fearing Christian that believes that there is a god up high and held down below all that shit hole of a lock. But how do you feel?

Like there's a spirit that inhabits assault and that we need There's something that connects us all or whatever, but That's what I like about churches. That you can go there. And regardless of whatever bullshit is troubling you, like you can talk to anybody about it, they're on. No, accept it. And they'll talk to you about it, and you'll be ableto leave. They're feeling a little bit more fulfilled anywhere beforehand just because of it.

And millennials especially, don't have anything like that right now. You know, there's there's nothing where they feel comfortable exposing themselves other than, like, maybe doing some, like, webcam bullshitter. I don't know what the fuck, but Oh, you mean, like, what says that now? You know, I think is what? Don't know what that is. I was thinking more that role chat roulette every way. I did that once I place, you know, Really?

There's a lot of dicks on there. Yeah, About one out of every five is a penis. What Yeah, it's a little weird, but I only did it once, but it's an interesting experience. All right? You know, it's funny, because if we get there, all these questions, the interview to be about three hours off sick. All right, give me another one. All right. Say, mentioned tv. Yeah. How the hell did you come across that job? Like who decides that they're going to just get a job taking.

So I got that job because I got that job because I was keeping my eye open online. So sorry. At some point, you you left boulevard, You weren't happy there. You're tired of it. You just write move on. And you went to some other things. We're going to take a bar, right? But I had a stint of being unemployed and living off of savings, which is a terrible idea. No one ever do that. You will run out of money way faster than he.

Thank you. Course, but yeah, I had done bingo, actually, at Top cat, which is a bar over Kansas City down Westport. And they have a tiki bar underneath. And they had put out a thing on Craigslist or something saying they had a job of him. And so I sent him an email, and I don't get it was it was one of those things where I didn't get any mail right away. Like whenever I started working here. It shakes like I put in my application like, six.

No, it was probably three months before I actually got the job. Wow. Yeah, You went straight to the bottom. I didn't, I guess. I don't know. I need to work on my resume or something. But you need more colors. I've seen resumes before the very colorful, but anyway, so I ended up getting Yeah, that job taking cat, which is the Tiki Bar, the number one tiki bar in the world, According to a website called pretty bar dot com.

Now critique E. Are you kidding me? No, it's critique e dot com as far as I'm aware. What is it really that highly rated? I mean, I don't know the validity of that site, but it's a good tiki bar. Well, the thing that sets it apart is the fact that first of all, it's resin, like on Saturdays. It's reservations only pretty much, you know, like you can't get in there. You can't weigh. Don't pack the bar like some bars.

Well, like bars like here that just want to get as many people as they can in where it's gonna be shoulder to shoulder, you know, when it's busy. But here are at Tiki Cat way. Had a very specific number of people that we will allow in only forty people at a time. And if you didn't have a reservation on Saturday, we wouldn't let you in. So everyone always had a seat. Everyone was chill. It was just, like, really relaxed.

But then also, the drinks were amazing. Like all the juices and everything where hand pressed. And were you parts under there? No. You were just how I was the host, which was awesome, like, But you learned to make some drinks. Probably, uh, no, I drank all the drinks, but all the drinks literally all How many drinks are there? Tiki Bar. It was like I feel like there's a lot. There was, like, thirty drinks on the menu.

Okay, so yeah, it took me about three months to get through the servant. What is tiki even mean? So Tiki is going to be. It's a hard question to answer. So it's been around since, like, the late twenties, early thirties, whenever America started getting involved in those polyphony Zhan Islands. But there's a lot of cultural appropriation from these polyphony. Asian island. So you're going to have a bunch of bamboo, you know, read shacks and shit like that?

Yeah, a lot of those Easter Island type heads, you know? Yeah. Okay, so there's that. But the drinks were all invented, you know, in the last hundred years in California and Florida. Okay, so now the drinks there is what you're saying They're not like them are authentic. Yeah, there knowing Polynesian drinks by any means. Okay. It's just something that was like, some drunk asshole from California came up with.

Okay, I'll take your word for it. I mean, but there must be some influence. Are they? Like we're going to squeeze pineapple juice and everything, because Polynesian Easter Island heads. Right. So there's a lot of pineapple going on. A lot of coconut, Okay, but it's mostly about the aesthetic. I mean, the drinks were important, that they taste good. I mean, it's mostly just you trying to mask as much booze as you can in these drinks with a CZ suite of juices.

You can. What's the booze consist of? Like, What is the backbone of these drinks? Rum. OK, rum, gin and bourbon? No, no vodka, no tequila and is just just, well, liquor orzo. High way use. Nice stuff. So, like the gin we would use in the drinks was Bombay, which is actually pretty nice, Jen. It's four dollars, five dollars a shot here now. And just to give a price comparison like a triple well of the cheap stuff would be like six fifty seven fifty now.

But, I mean, that's the thing about the city, though. Like everything is just so much more expensive. Like here. I can get a shot of Woodford for five bucks, which is a bourbon, and that's a really nice bourbon. If I got that in Kansas City, it would be a least probably nine to ten dollars. Which fucking love, my dear Like this beer, The spear would have been seven dollars easy. It was for should've been three, but, yeah.

Yeah, so I don't know. It's Tiki is more about just making sure that you have it's about an escape, right? Like you're trying to get out of this Midwestern bullshit and just go down to a place that's you don't know that. It's fucking snowing outside, You know? You don't fucking know that. You know, the royals sucked this year kind of thing. Ouch! You just go down there, You drink a bunch of booze, he drinks and he get fucked up.

Dude, we're in Kansas City when the Royals were good. The brief moment time. Oh, you went there right after, Okay? I can't believe it's been that long. I didn't go to the I didn't go to the parade that they had for the world. Siri's went though. Downtown Garrido cool. All right, so next question. Last time you said you were a hipster. Yeah, is hip, sir, there's a couple questions. And, Ro, you don't think it's from all of it?

Is hipster derogatory at this point? The term. And if one meets a proud hipster, does that hipster find joy and knowing that the other person can make assumptions about them? And then do labels like hipster exists to facilitate assumptions And is so, is that necessarily a bad thing? So with the hips, sir, things I think it's one of those things where it's like, if you can own it, just own it. You know, what frustrates me is when people people will try to buck certain categorizations of themselves.

And they'll constantly be like trying to do something different. Teo, keep it from seeming like they are a fucking hipster. You know, fucking bro are the surrounds to Todd or anything like that. I see your face getting all weird. I Well, Mike, the first weirdness is thatyou related. Hipster too, bro. As if they have something in common. I don't know. I mean, it's all it's all I didn't know what the third one even was.

Sarosi Todd. That was a Sam slaw Sour where? Okay, it's what he called sorority girls. Cerasoli tots. I don't I'm too nervous to ask what that means. At this point, it's just, you know, sort of promiscuous sorority girls. Okay? And it's not a good name, necessarily, but surrounds the top every every once in a while, we would have, you know, some sorority girls come into boulevard and one of the girls I worked with Hannah, who is hard of hearing.

One time I was like I said something like, Look at these surrounds to Todd's coming up, and she thought I said three Rochester sauce. So ever since then, we call, you know, blond haired, fake tan girls. Sorry, Raja sauce. Suraj, Suraj is a good look at these scratches. But anyway, no. The hipster thing. Like I'm the kind of guy like I know I'm a fucking hipster. Like I Listen, citadel, the new music blah, blah, blah.

You know, Ward's skinny jeans ten years ago, blah, blah, blah. You did. We can be roommates anymore, but I just don't. I don't. The thing is, like my hipster DM has kind of evolved from being like trying to stand trying to be like a trendsetter kind of thing. Like when I wear my my mandarin collars. Like the shirt I was wearing at the bar last night. It's I don't remember. It's what's known as a mandarin collar, which, instead of having lapels or whatever Ah, it just has.

Yeah. Anyway, Anyway, yeah, like, I still do that shit like I still like fine things. And I'm like, Oh, I want to wear that cause no one else does. That's what being a hipster. That's where those numbers come from. Bay? Yeah, What? But that said, like they're also hipsters who are just like, cloud chasing, right? Like they're just tryingto they're not trying to take the risks. They're not trying to take the risks, man.

They're just, you know, seeing it as a style and wearing it. It's like, whatever. So But do labels exist to facilitate assumptions, and if so, is that necessarily a bad thing? What about that one? So that's something that I've stopped carrying about really, like assumptions are labeled the assumptions part of labels. So, like if you called me a hipster to somebody, they would have an idea of me. Right. But if they met me and actually talk to me for a while, they probably wouldn't necessarily think of me in the same way that they had thought of me before.

Actually meeting me like I don't think that you can just by saying someone's a hipster, for instance, actually know what they're going to be like? Like, I'm a fucking hipster. But, you know, you talk to me for a while, and you're just like, Oh, fuck like this guy is in the NASCAR, which is hipsters. Fuck. But you definitely know what I was expecting. You know, it's not just like I just listen to indie music and fucking him sad all the time.

That's not what hipsters are all that, man. Everyone, I don't know. I try to be an interesting person and not necessarily saying that like, I'm achieving anything like Lenny, lifelong goals or anything like that. But I try, Tio, Whenever people interact with me, I want them to remember their interaction with me, and that's not the reason I'm interacting with them per se. But just every time I interact with someone, I want them to remember interacting with me.

And it's not because I want to, like, make myself famous or anything like that. It's just like, you know, too much of our life is just going from one thing to another. Go to the grocery store dealing with the cashier. It's always just like one of those base interactions that are boring and stupid and you do it and then you're done. But I want every interaction to be interesting and at least like it will be fun, Silly.

I just want the people to have been happy to have interacted with me kind of thing. You know, I don't want to be that guy. That is just like a background extra in their life. And it was it was saying that about you or anything. But why was a background extra for Oh, yeah, that's right. That office, among others no. Cool. Thanks for explained that. So Casey is a good size city. What's one thing? And you kind of mentioned in early how er how its size was a turnoff.

But what's one thing you're going to miss about Casey and unless? All right, so one thing. I remember talking to you about this a long time ago. Remember? It's talking about how if we ever started a business like one of the biggest selling points of a business would be could be smell. Okay, So, like, it's like, whatever you come up ninth Street to Shakespeare's you can smell the pizza once you get close here.

Our bakery, for instance, like you can smell the bread. Once you get kind of close or a coffee shop, you can smell the coffee once yet kind of close. And breweries have that, too. So, like, Boulevard, one thing, I would go there in the morning. And if they'd be brewing, it would just smell like malt just so strong. And I would always tell tours I was like, Yeah, you smell that right now, that's going to be the smell that whenever I come back here in, like, ten years, it's going to the most nostalgic thing.

You know, that smell of that sweet malt? That's one thing also assed faras. The city is concerned. I mean, the resource is there, like the Nelson Atkins Museum. A fine art. It's fucking free. And it has some of the some of the biggest names in art that you've ever seen. You know, they've got a Jackson. They've got all this shit. And so that was always so cool just being around things like that. And I don't know.

I mean, there are so many things where I'm just like it was nice to have so many options of things to dio no in like good bands coming through and everything like that. But then there's so many other things where I was just like, you know, there's so much light pollution I can't see any stars or anything. Like last night I was outside and I just looked up and I'm like, even though we're in the city, I could still see so many more stars than I could whenever I was in Kansas City.

But I don't know. I mean, there's all kinds of things that I'm going to miss about it. Mostly, just like things based on the number of people they're like being able to go toe the like the comedy oven Mike, like actually having, like a significant number of people and people that actually do practice it relatively regularly. Another thing that you can't do here as we were talking about earlier. I don't know.

I got you. I only asked for one thing. So you it sounds like you're going to be missing a lot. It's just there's so much that it was just kind of overwhelming Teo. Really evil overwhelm. Just Yeah, like how did you not feel overwhelmed coming to Colombia? Because, honestly, I went to high school that was as smaller, smaller than yours. And I know totally the type of person that goes to Jeff City, which is significantly smaller than Colombia and feels overwhelmed that they're not in their pickup truck and that they have to go into this building where there's college classes at Lincoln or whatever you know, it's like, How could you be overwhelmed by Lincoln?

How could you be overwhelmed by Columbia or or even can see? I mean, it's not like Paris or New York or Los Angeles, right? But I will say to me, it's kind of all based on how far you can get on a bike. Okay, okay. Like, uh, it would take me thirty minutes to ride from my ex girlfriend's house and Waldo, which was like the southernmost part of my exposure of Kansas City when I didn't have a car to work, which was, you know, about seven miles away.

And there's just so much that it's just overwhelming because there's so much cool shit. But you don't know. It's just like it's so hard to actually like turn that cool shit in actually, things that you d'oh you know, like here. I've got a limited number of things. Options? It's like too many options, You know, in case you had too many opportunity options, right? You know, you just never It was hard to make a decision on what to dio like here.

It's like, you know, but I know which bar I'm probably going to go. Teo, if I go out, it's if it's not here, it's probably gonna be like Ninth Street Public House are something like that. Or like, if I'm going to go out with my parents, you know, I'm going to take him to some restaurant that I know that that like here and it's so much easier to do here that it was because you can like, no, the whole thing as opposed to it was just it was, is intimidating that it was so big that you couldn't ever actually know the whole thing with accusation.

Sounds a little dramatic. No, but it wass like, you know, I had my favorite places and everything but it was always just like what other place could have been my favorite place. You know, if I had actually, like, gone toe at place or not, it had it not been too far away or something. Like, I don't know, I don't know. It's just too big. OK, so basically, because it's too big, you kind of like retreat to the familiar places that you know Boulevard Exactly.

So you actually kind of close up close up because, Yeah, I get that. Whereas here Colombia's feels like a small enough town, the where you can be like, Ooh, I'm going to be adventurous. I'm going to go eat a pizza tree or something like that, you know? And yeah, and just experience the other side of the spectrum. But I don't know, it's just funny because I work with a bunch of people from India. There are awesome, but I always feel like they're slightly this content here because they're used from used to being from giant, enormous cities.

And they're like, Columbia is so small a man, and I'm like, What? There's over one hundred thousand people here like what? What more could you want? And it's just like, Well, there's There may not be that great of, like an international foods market or something here, or as much as they want other things that kind of relate to their culture. But and I get that. But at the same time, it's just like Jesus.

I feel like there's enough here for me that it's like, what I need more restaurants. No, I don't need more restaurants. I don't need more movie theaters. I don't need more our calories. You know, like all I need is a job. And when I got around, yeah, all I need is a job. And you know what I got around me? It's like I don't know. It's That's one thing I noticed about you. People from the city are very different from people that aren't from the city.

Actually, how does that? Because I have another question here related that just in terms of co workers, is there any difference in the way people treated you? Ah, the three years that you were there, who are from the city compared to like, your first three years here, that those differences could be described as being like, Oh, these people are city people, and they treat me differently. What does that even played?

A role? I'm not not too much. OK, but it does exist. Like there'll be so many times whenever I would say something and then someone would give me a response, and I'd just be, like, Damn, you grew up in an entirely different world than I did. Like when I would tell people that I killed a cat one time. Okay, dude, I totally get in trouble for that too. So my grandma never in my grandma's house up in Maysville, Missouri.

She feeds the barn cats. You know, they're just random strays that air around and whatever. And she just, you know, give him food leftovers, mostly. And there was this tomcat that was around just fucking all of them, Like impregnating every kitty on that on that property. Yeah. And if you ever seen if you've ever seen cats Fuck. Hey, if it does not look pleasant for the for the female cat, I don't want that.

Sure, it's pleasant for any of them. It's just it's weird. Either way, Graham did not need, you know, another thirty cats on her property. And so she told me she was like, Caleb, I want you to go out and shoot that tomcat. And so the twenty two out and waited until it came to get some food. It is posted up and go shots, you know, that mother fucker and then threw him in the ditch and the coyotes ate him.

But you tell that story to somebody from Brookside or from Johnson County and God, they're just like, Yeah, and just like no, that's the way it is. A country, you know? Like write. No. Yeah. Circle of life. Shit. Yeah. Sometimes cats can be just like an infestation. But hi, love cats. And I know you're a person, too. In fact, for some reason, I have another question here. Are you a cat or dog person? I think cats are like snakes with fur.

Do you agree with that? I don't know what that means. Where did you Where Did you hear that? I just made it up. And I was trying to think of one for dogs, but and I realize now it doesn't probably make any sense. But so in terms of like, when you put a cat around your neck, you don't know if it's gonna, like, slit your throat with Klaus. You don't know when a snake, you know, You see the people holding snakes, Lissy, and they're just wrapped around their neck like that gets cranked up.

I grew up with a cat that was just super chill, like it went through so much bullshit. Rest in peace, Tiger. The second best kitty of all time. But it went through so much bullshit and just, like, put up with it. And just every he was the best kitty ever. And And he lived the best life ever. Like he was indoor outdoor, You know, he'd leave us, you know, dead baby rabbits on the front porch. Rabbits. Oh, yeah, Nav rats.

Sometimes rats, but rabbit? Yeah, baby, they want your baby mice. But how big were these rabbits? Because the rabbits can be pretty big, like like mice size. Okay, Like there's a little bit like full hairs by any means. But but he would get a hold of the babies somehow and, yeah, kill him and then rip all their entrails out and then just leave it on the front porch. Have you read the book? Watership down?

I've not read it. I've seen clips of the movie on YouTube, but oh, there's a movie about Oh, yeah, yeah. Apparently it's crazy. The scene with the rabbits there are whole books of our habits. What you talking about? I don't know. There's a scene where the rabbits are all It's like getting chased by a fire, something. Well, I just remember reading that book in high school. For some reason, it's like one of the only books ever read.

I'm quite illiterate. And one day I just picked it up and read it in a weekend, which was a once. I've never done that sense. But anyways, the guy who sold me on reading this book, his name was Jeremy Graham Ashe, and he was a reader, You know, the English teacher loved him, um, because he knew how to use commas. And he, for some reason, spoken this English accent or British accent. And itjust, like, made no sense because his parents weren't British.

He never lived in Britain. I don't think he's a cool guy, but I was like, I'm not going to read a book about rabbits, the's onshore, ordinary rabbits or whatever you can do with the accent. But it just sounded funny, but always rabbits could be huge. And so I'm surprised. Long story short that a cat, Khun, you know, wrangle a rabbit in a carrot of that sounds horrible. It was just a baby. So moving along, you had a variety of bosses over the past few years, I'm sure and you'll have one bag.

It shakes, obviously, but you'll also be a boss. A shift manager. The question is what makes a good boss. So the thing. I was always proud of being a manager at both here at Shakespeare's for the short time that I was and then also it boulevard. For a little while, when I first started there, I was just having your employees being uncomfortable, being comfortable enough to complain to you about things. So I always even after I quit Boulevard, like when I would go back there most of my time, I would go around and talk to everybody and say, Hey, you know, like that's that's one big thing, too is like also just making yourself no to your employees.

Like whenever I come into work, I want to say hello to everyone, and I know you're similar. But like at Boulevard, even after I quit, I would go in there and everyone would just start bitching to me about something just being like this manager did this and Baba blah and just like start telling me about everything and that is more important than anything is that they feel comfortable to tell you what is actually troubling them.

Stand like I feel like I just recently got comfortable doing that with, like, Toby, for instance. You mean recently, as in, Since you've been back for one week. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Like, I feel like I could talk to him about anything now, Whereas right before I left, I was kind of just like, you know, holding up some shit, you know, And that's what makes him. Andrew Goode is creating that comfortable quality, right?

Yeah, but yet, so you would. But in this case, it sounds like you're the one who changed. Yeah, definitely. And it's definitely a two way street, you know? OK, it's not just a one way thing, but but one of my things Wass is I always try toe, make sure that everyone understands that I have empathy for their plight. Like I've done what they've done. You know, I understand their struggle. I understand how much it sucks toe.

You know, get the lotto to close the dining room on a Friday night. But I promise that we'll try to make it go smoothly as possible. And I just want people first of all know that I'm on their team, but also that I. I I'm not going to be that corporate idiot that just like, expects them to, you know, just check everything off on their checklist and that's it, you know, I want them to think that they can, You know, we're here just to make sure that everyone has a good time and that the work gets done, and as long as that happens, everything's gonna be fine.

People get too caught up in the details, sometimes of like making sure that every single little thing on the checklist is donor. Baba Bam. I'm like, No, we just want to make sure that everyone has a good time. Everything gets done and everything looks fine at the end of the night, you know? Just not not being so hung up on logistics and certain details is very important to me. A couple more questions here.

One, two, three, four, five, six, six. A couple these days that so, huh? It's a very open time. Your best guess on one thing, that is easier. And one thing there's more difficult about being in your twenties in twenty nineteen compared to forty years ago. All right. Read that one more time. Dude, I tried so hard to read. That's slow, inarticulate. Mostly because got it. But all right, I'll read it again. Your best guess on one thing.

That is easier. And one thing there's more difficult about being in your twenties in twenty nineteen compared to forty years ago. Oh, I would say. Well, one thing that is more difficult now is definitely just the fact that every single thing you do not every single thing you do, but many, many, many things that you do are being posted on a messaging board essentially for your family and friends to see all the time.

What, you mean, like like Facebook? Okay, I see. Okay. Like Facebook. And so I think it's definitely harder to hide things these days. Not necessarily hide things, but Teo Ah. Hi things. So it's more difficult to hide things. Well, that and just being available all the time. You know, back then forty years ago, if you weren't at home next to your phone, people don't freak out, you know, they'd just be like, Okay, I guess he's not home right now.

But if you don't answer your phone today, or text or whatever, everyone's like, what the fuck's wrong with him? Like he should have answered by any kind of thing. So there was this freedom that allowed you, Teo, not necessarily be so tied. It's kind of funny because you you weren't so tied their people as you are now. Even though I was just bitching about how we have a lack of connection these days. But we don't You could.

You could disappear, you know? So that's one thing that's more that's one thing is more difficult about being alive. Now it's it's harder to disappear, harder to disconnect. Yeah, so what's one thing that's easier? Easier compared to more specifically, though capable. I wanted, like, yeah, being in your twenties, being in your twenties, right? Well, I think that was that first answer was something that was definitely more pertinent to people in their twenties because people that are older than their twenties don't necessarily expect people to respond as quickly.

I feel like sometimes so they have the the habits of the previous Yes, exactly. But what's easier being twenties? Well, apparently hooking up tender did. Dude, I haven't I haven't figured this shit out, and I don't I don't I don't use dating app. Sir. Do you have a new cinder? No, neither of I've I've not once. But do you feel like you want to try it every once in a while and like I might get a downloaded the app?

No. Okay, so you haven't gotten very far. I'm an old fashioned guy in that way. You know, like when girls to leave me their number on a So you want to make it harder for yourself? Well, yeah, but that's the thing. Like, does it actually make it easier? It makes it easier to hook up. That doesn't make it easier to actually find a relationship. I don't know. Farmers only dot com, brah. You know, that's funny, though, because I saw the broken eggs.

Yeah, front of the house. And my first thought was Deng like too bad some some person or some woman at Lucky's didn't tell Caleb the punch of broken eggs and that in that twelve Carden, Because I'm going to meet my future wife like he's right, Right. Um but going back to what we were talking about there. What were you talking about? One thing that's easier to do in their twenties are What about being in your twenties?

What I just say though, like earlier, he says, He's your hook up, easier to hook up, right? So tender and I don't know, it's like like I see why it exists. But it just doesn't seem like my style. It doesn't seem like a thing that I would ever do, you know, And you want to be known as someone who never did want who never did that. You know, it's kind of like, Yeah, it gives me that satisfaction. Kind of like not having faith because for the last ten years, you know how people sometimes say Which is ironic, because you do Facebook, sort of.

It's under a different name. All right. It's a big book, that damn hipsters. Anyways, like sometimes people say, Oh, I try everything once or whatever, and maybe they tried tender once and they said that. Then everyone uses again, and that's cool. But you take an extra special pride. Maybe in knowing that I never tried a once. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely agree with that because you fundamentally believe that that's not for you, right?

And I personally believe that it's actually actively whittling away some of the fabric of our society. So I have a shirt. That I have a warrant I haven't worn since I've moved here. But it says this shirt is just a bunch of block all caps, letters. That's a reality based, community, reality based community, and it's It's from a band called The National, which is like the epitome of the hipster band from back in the day.

But I I used to wear that shirt during bingo all the time because that's what made me so proud about bingo. Was that, like in this world where everyone can, you know, play games online or, you know, talk to people on face time or whatever. These people were all coming to a place at eleven o'Clock on a Sunday morning. Just a punch numbers onto a fucking card and just be around other people, and I don't know, like, that's what's important to me.

It's just like being around other people, having actual reality based conversation or just, ah, interaction in general, as opposed to necessarily doing it through Digital means attenders of means to too far as I understand connect exactly exactly two physical. So yet you do connect to them. But the thing is, there is this there's this before you actually get to that is there's a lot of chatting there's there's that that blanket thrown over it of just, you know, digital bullshit where you're essentially just making jokes and names at each other, whatever, until you find a way to.

Find a way to find a way to convince her to actually come out and see you in person without thinking that you're a fucking serial killers. You know, I wonder if Okay, I had an interview. Siri's, where I just interviewed anonymous people on tender and I just like instead of I swiped right and then said, Would you Can I interview? That's not going anywhere. That's not going anywhere. I'm scared. I'm hilarious, actually.

Okay, so a couple more. If you were able to live to the age of ninety. This is a shorter question. If you were able to live to the age of ninety and retain either the mind or body of a thirty year old for the last six years of that life, which would you want? The mind of the body? I think it would go mind just because, dude, fucking Alzheimer's and shit terrifies me. Is that why you somebody crossword puzzles?

No. I mean, you're you're twenty nine, for God's sakes. But no, I do that just because I feel like I do need to keep my mind sharp just because, you know, I used to be. You know, I used to go to engineering school and be really smart. Baba Block. So I do. I do things like crossword puzzles. Just Yeah, I kind of keep the keep the edge on my mind, but, dude, Yeah. I mean, I would rather be in a fucking wheelchair and totally coherent as opposed to being said, but out of your mind, that just terrifies me.

Like if I If I ever got out of my mind like that, I just say put me down, okay? What is the most important important activity in life? Most important. Activity breathing. Okay. Ah, rush into the questions. Ladies and gentlemen, aside for breathing, I would say most important activity in life. Well, that's ah, like, I think it's something like movement based, you know, like like running. Okay. You run. No, I bike, but but I can run.

What? I need thio. Okay. And I think that's important. Like that's right. Running is definitely been a part of the human existence since the beginning of human existence. Right? I had to have been. Isn't running them or walking? I was. I was winding, like walking extremely long distances that But like you, look at those. You look at the those tribes and stuff that can run like over four hundred miles. Consistently.

Ah, but no. Mainly because, you know, while we are mostly a predator, we're definitely pray at some point in our life. Running has always been important. So I'm gonna say running actually was there ever an animal that existed that was not a prey. I mean, I'm no expert here, but I mean, like, I would be at least one, right. Nothing's the very top. Nothing's eating sharks, are they? It's a Circle Islam pyramid.

Nothing's eating sharks. I don't know about that. But how to side sharks had to evolve to be in that position. Ran? Well, yeah, but I don't think nature guarantees that there won't be some animal that is stronger, faster, you know, top of the food chain. Like what's eaten grizzly bears. Maggots and flying. Yeah, yeah, once it dies. But what's eating, girls? I don't know, dude. I'm I don't know what I'm talking about.

Fuck it anyway. All right, So here we go. Two more questions on Stop reading the questions. You're pulling a surprise here. So you're much better small talk, then? I am, uh I was looking I wasn't looking for you to agree with. Yes, justifiably assign. So you're much better small talk, then. I am. So I'm asking you for advice. Okay. You know that sensation of conversation locked down when you, for example, bump into an acquaintance on the street and you almost get stuck in a circular above Hi.

How are you? A good how are you? Good. How are you? And we've already asked that, you know, that sort of thing. And you just like, I don't got nothing. And you have, like, thirty seconds to feel for the term screen, you know, or whatever. Um, what do you do in those situations? Um, okay. I had what happened recently, and it was pretty much just me going. Well, I've had it happen a lot recently since I moved back to Columbia, actually, because I'll see people.

I'm just like, Oh, should haven't seen you in three years. See you later. That's what it is like. Ah, you mean, usually I don't know. I think I always have this, like it depends on where you interact with them. Like if I'm like, for instance, I saw Chris over at the shoe store dryer. Shoe story, uh, the other day, and I walked by. He saw me out the window. I saw him, and I waved when you just poked my head and like, Chris, that's up like, Hey, Slater, what's going on?

And then I just walked away, you know? And I don't know, it depends on what your relationship was like with the person before that. Like, because that's all it was before. Probably Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I don't know. My thing is, like, I'm not afraid to turn away, you know? Okay. I'll say hi and Bubba Block. So you just confidently turn away. That's all I've got. Alright. Just be like, All right, well, see you around.

Make it seem like you might seem in the future. You know, I don't want to just be like, fuck you later. Okay, you know, See you leaving with something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm not above, you know, getting their phone number is something just to make it appear that I will try to interact with them in the future. But that said maybe that's what? That number last night. Now? Yeah, that's totally what I was doing.

She's like, I feel uncomfortable just closing my tab and leaving. I need to leave him with something that Oh, keep hoping. Um, Okay. Last question. All right. What question? Our questions remain unresolved for you. In what regard just came in. I was perfect question. It needed no clarification. Alright, well, questions remain, owners offer you put it in context. All right. Whatever you're thinking about what comes to your mind, I would say I would say.

We're trying to figure out where to go from here. Like after moving back from Kansas City, coming back to my old job, where I've already have already achieved the pinnacle of performance that I possibly could where it's like, Obviously I'm not going to be here forever and I don't want to be here forever. I could be here forever, but I want to be forever. So it's like trying to forge what should be next.

Like one of the big things I've been wanting to try to figure out is how to do a bingo here in Colombia, you know, whether it be here Shakespeares or somewhere on campus or something like that. Ah, also, ah. I know one thing I've been worried about lot lately is like my parents getting older. You ever think about that? Yeah, I do. I was thinking, man, I'm going to buy back my childhood home. Yeah, And I'm going to have my parents live next door in a shack.

You know, take care of him with my wife. And, like, ten kids. I don't know if that's ever going to have him. No, but I got time. But like my mom turned fifty nine this year, My dad's sixty four. Oh, day. Like they're getting old, man. Yeah, but I haven't leased by your dad. He seems in pretty good health. Yeah, they are. I mean, they grew up, you know, good good country upbringing and everything, but no. You know, if you just, like, think about it like quantify it you like, you know, fifteen years that might be all there is for them and like.

Then I gotta figure out what to do with house. Got to figure out you know how to take care of their state like their funeral arrangements. And or should they actually become like I have, like, some debilitating illness. You know, it's just that's the shit that makes you grow up, you know, like living in a college town, working at a fucking pizza place, drinking beer and eating pizza that's not grown up.

But whenever you're fucking with a lawyer trying to resolve your parents of ST That's the shit that scares me. That's the shit that's unresolved in my mind. Everything else I'm fine with, I can figure it out, but it's the rial shit like that. You know, like that's just having to deal with with death and loss at that level or it's not death and loss doesn't really scare me at all. It's just the fact that there's so much bureaucracy around taking care of it.

You know, thousands of years ago, you would just, you know, put them in the hole in the ground and everyone would be sad for a little bit. But now you've got to go through all the tax bullshit. You've got to do all this, do all that, make sure everything is accounted for. I don't. They take care of a fair amount that themselves, though, like there's a will, of course, but they'll do that. So still, the kids are the ones that are in charge of, like, other shit No, no, that that that's it.

That's it. That's what pisses me off about modern society is just like things at one point, while they were harder, they were simpler. You know, whenever you're one hundred hunting and gathering or something like that, well, it was harder. It was simpler. And so now everything's easier. But it's it's It's more complicated, right? And I don't like that complication. I would rather work harder as a post to be more complicated, work harder to survive for a simple life, as opposed to things being easy and I'm trying to free freeze.

It works like a, you know, like so you're saying I'm trying to think of it too? Yeah. Like things air easy these days to Dio like, you know, you just got to go to the store to get fucking food. But that said you also have to have a bank account. You have to have a debit card. You have to have a car to get there. You have to have all of this, all of that. And to me it just kind of proves that it's a zero sum game.

You know, things aren't necessarily just purely getting better. Every every step forward we take there is also. A footprint that we leave a step backwards that, you know, has changed everything for good. And it's not like you're just going Tio. Progress is a word I don't like. I guess, progress. Why do you think that we are getting? There are parts of us that are getting better as human beings in society.

I don't think that there's a net progress that's necessarily been made over the last five hundred years. Two thousand years. Things have changed, but I don't know if it's necessarily progress. Do you think more like the circle of life or not? The bison with that perspective. But life is more cyclical than it is cumulative in that it's just things change. But still the same. Some Yeah, I call it kind of an ecclesiastical standpoint.

Wait, what's he, Clay? Isn't it like a church term? It's I can't even pronounce it. Ecclesiastes is its book of the Bible. Okay, but it's actually my favorite book of the Bible because I quoted it the other night to you. It's got the line. There is nothing new under the sun. And I thought it was and I will strike down. What's that line from full fiction? Never mind. Anyways. Sorry. Keep billing. Remember? Yeah, but it's Ah, yeah, like things like there is nothing new under the sun with much wisdom comes much vexation With much knowledge become comes much sorrow.

I've heard you say that lot with must wisdom comes much vexation. No, I'm a firm believer in that that, like, the more you know, the more you know how fucked up everything Khun B. That there is no inherent, pure, pure like goodness that the earth is tending towards or that the world is tending towards that. I don't know. Everything's kind of flawed. Andi, that's just the way it's gonna be. And once you can accept that No, no, that's whatever.

Like I used to always say, I wanted to be satisfied in life. You know, I wanted have everything figured out. Just feel satisfied, complacent. And I don't think that's possible. And Garrison Keillor once said in one of his news from Lake Woebegone, There is a woman in his story that said, I don't believe in satisfaction. I don't believe in Ah, I don't believe it's there, Just like I don't believe in happiness, I don't believe in satisfaction.

I just believe in cheerfulness that I can just just by being cheerful, which is a choice. Happiness and satisfaction is not a choice, necessarily to me, you know, it's it's just something that is dependent upon your situation. And while the it it might be dependent on the actions you made in the past, it's still dependent on your situation. But cheerfulness is something that you could decide to be like right now, like I'm being very serious.

But, you know, if I want to be cheerful like I'm doing it right now, you know and so cheerfulness like that. That feeling as we've talked about before, just like smile, smiling at people when you walked by them on the street, that kind of thing. Just being being the human being, you'd want to interact with it in the world. No, no. That's all goes back to the boss thing of like being the boss that you know you wanna have.

And you want to feel comfortable about being around and, uh, making an experience worth memory, Remembering something at all can ties together. Yeah, and it's like, you know, I don't think I'll ever be famous or anything like that. But I know that I have had interactions with people that they're going to remember for the rest of their life that, you know, that's going to be my legacy. That is what heaven is.

You know, it's it's It's the impact that you've had on the world that exists after you. Time here, you finished existing, and that's what I try to do. Like those kids at Bingo, man. Like I know that they would go to school every day and just be like, You know what? I did incident. If I went to a beer hall and help the bingo caller pass out stuff and they just loved it. And just those little impacts that you can have on people, you know, just to make their day a little better, be it two smiling on the street or, you know, serving them a pizza that, like a nice person instead of an asshole kind of thing.

Yeah, I don't know. I think that's that's what I'm all about anymore. Like, if you want to get the gist of me, it's just I'm just trying to be happy and cheerful around people as opposed to, like, the kind of sour Prudie sick of the world guy I was before. No. Cool. Good answer, Caleb. And that concludes it, man. All right. For joining me, man. Once again, Yes. Thank you again. I'm sure someday in the future, we'll have another one of these.

I just got it. Go disappear for another three years, and we'll do it again. Okay, man, what number was this, by the way, do you know? You mean out of all the interviews? How many interviews did you have? No idea. Twenty five, baby. Okay, okay. Not that many thought it would be higher than that. Thanks, man. All right, All right. Peace out.