Episode 18 - Leighton Okus

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Join us as we discuss: Peloton crashes, Pre-mixed cocktails, and the crazy sales number for Crocs joined by Special Guest Leighton Okus!

Hosts:
Matt Fischer @flooredmatt
Justin MacDonald @justintyme44
https://www.justinmacdonald.com

Fact-Checker:
Jesse James @thee_jessejames
https://www.theculturecurators.com

Executive Producer:
Dave Miller @dmiller1023
https://www.mavenphotoandfilm.com/

This episodes official "Person on the Couch":
Leighton Okus @leighton_o

https://www.reillyartscenter.com/

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, movie, balenciaga, watch, thought, ocala, crocs, favorite, actual, beads, good, joker, peloton, peacemaker, malt liquor, jazz, fine, real, amazing, little bit

SPEAKERS

Leighton Okus, Matt Fischer, Justin MacDonald

Leighton Okus 00:01

Leight Okus is here with us, she's a hag

Justin MacDonald 00:06

unintentional your life sort of I don't know what's going on. Let's

Matt Fischer 00:13

try this one more time guys

Justin MacDonald 00:15

it looks like we're live Oh my gosh. Sorry audios up, internet's up. We are alive. It's only 18 minutes into the 18th episode and we're finally starting to clause with the 18th

Matt Fischer 00:32

introduction.

Justin MacDonald 00:34

I'm your host Justin MacDonald here with host magic Matthew Fisher special guest and interim fact checker. Leighton house. Okay, yes. ocus executive producer and our friend Dave Miller broadcasting live out of the workspace collective in beautiful downtown Ocala. Whoo, here we are. You may have heard this you may have not heard this introduction 18 times I don't know if any of them came through. We have a heart out at nine today and I kind of wish I didn't even say those words. So that's gonna get cut up.

Matt Fischer 01:08

So you have a one o'clock I didn't know that yours runs on like a timezone just kind of like happen. Yeah, they seem to

Justin MacDonald 01:15

last for more than four hours.

Matt Fischer 01:18

Like the four hour check. Yeah. My boys an early riser.

Justin MacDonald 01:26

This is what happens. A little goofy. Trying to get the show work. Yeah. Well, so I think ladies, I think we may end up having to do a second episode with you because this has been such a little task getting started. But we're gonna jump right into there we go. There's only thing we can do. I didn't take any notes. Well, neither did I. So it's fine. It's been it's it's been hectic morning. I

Matt Fischer 01:48

think Layton was the only one that showed up with their stuff together. And that's questionable at best. So,

Leighton Okus 01:53

you know, appeared for 10 minutes of talking ish.

Matt Fischer 01:56

Yeah, you had multiple, like facial expressions of like, Oh, crap, like when we're like, Hey, you're gonna actually be on the mic the whole time? Yeah, usually I

Justin MacDonald 02:03

prep people like, Oh, you're gonna be on a hot mic. Sorry. But I guess I just thought, Oh, she knows Jesse's out of town. This'll this will be fine. Yeah, I'd

Matt Fischer 02:11

like I do that, too. I'm like, I'm pretty sure I told them. I think I told them. Yeah. If not, I put the energy out into the universe. So they know.

Justin MacDonald 02:17

Oh, I had a conversation yesterday, where I said, Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I talked to you about that. And they go, No, you didn't. I said, I know. I thought I Yeah. And it's the thought that counts. That's what they said.

Matt Fischer 02:28

I can. I can be real bad about that with with Lauren. Yeah. She's like that you didn't tell me anything. And I'm like, You're right. I just thought about that. And speaking of which, happy birthday, Lauren. It's the wife's birthday. Yeah, yeah, I'm sleeping with the baby. But it's fine. She'll see this later.

Justin MacDonald 02:47

Happy. 36 It must be 30 Yeah. 3029 29 Happy

Matt Fischer 02:51

2929 Yep.

Justin MacDonald 02:57

All right. I'm hopping right into my notes that I did actually take. I don't know

Matt Fischer 02:59

what. Yeah, you've spent all morning like writing is probably why we had all these difficulties and

Justin MacDonald 03:05

a feeling that you were gonna come in with zero anything.

Matt Fischer 03:08

I barely even made it here this morning. Except for a good attitude.

Justin MacDonald 03:11

You had a good attitude.

Matt Fischer 03:13

I was thankful that I didn't die on my trip here.

Justin MacDonald 03:16

Yeah, in your ultimate driving skills.

Matt Fischer 03:19

Yes. Yes. Yes. The worst thing I cut off was an actual like tractor. They

Justin MacDonald 03:23

deserve to be cut off. I know.

Matt Fischer 03:27

If it's rush hour traffic, and you're the dimness, Nimbus, whatever, try not to cuss here, who's driving the same speed as a frickin tractor. You should have your license revoked. Yeah. Yeah, it's seven 730 in the morning on a major road and you're driving the same speed as a farm tractor.

Justin MacDonald 03:47

GTFO like, like, literally doing a Polish roadblock

Matt Fischer 03:51

or bolt polish? Yeah. I can say that. Yeah, cuz you're I can say that also polish. Yeah, my grandfather was born there. So right up 15% I'm pretty sure that's how that works. Like insane if Yeah, yeah, I think so. But yeah, they would just drive next to each other like that enraged me. So I came in with like road rage energy. Anyway, I digress.

Justin MacDonald 04:14

No. He must have got a text. No, no, no, that was just

Matt Fischer 04:25

a lot going on in my life right now. And yeah, I'm just trying to process the events of this morning with all these technical difficulties and you

Justin MacDonald 04:32

know, so quick blurb that's not worth going over too much. I guess, peloton peloton has been going through the wringer recently the bike people the bike people the fix, oh,

Leighton Okus 04:44

well, they're not fake. stationary, can we? We've addressed it

Matt Fischer 04:47

okay. That's like wait, that's like calling one of those cars in front of the supermarket goes up and down. Like that's just a stationary car. No, it's a car. It's not a real car.

Justin MacDonald 04:57

There's a slow because you're not actually driving where you are. pedaling the bike. Anyway, CAT Motion again. We've addressed it live 19 times, but I don't think it made it. Can we just talk about the fact that you blend in perfectly with?

Matt Fischer 05:13

I want my couch camo today? That's a big old floating head. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like I came so amped up. I had a I had a jacket on, and I was just like, Alright, I'm getting hot. So I'm gonna take that off and immediately realize they're my way to look in the Dave screen and I see that I'm just a floating head.

Justin MacDonald 05:29

Floating it's nice. Yeah, so peloton. They had a What's the like, Sex in the City sequel show like, and then there was that sex in the suburbs? Yeah, sex in the suburbs. Anyway, one of the main characters spoiler alert. It's the first episode so Janet, my wife watches that.

Matt Fischer 05:49

But that's a yes. Yeah,

Justin MacDonald 05:52

but this guy dies. Wow. Yeah, I just said it was gonna be like, listen to the beginning of the show. So it's not a big deal. This guy dies on the peloton, right? He has like a heart

Leighton Okus 06:04

attack. Everyone who dies is a big deal. But keep going. You know, his name is

Justin MacDonald 06:07

big. So in the show, wow.

Matt Fischer 06:13

Think defend yourself for a layup.

Leighton Okus 06:17

I actually never watched the show. So

Justin MacDonald 06:20

anyway, so it's a pretty big character that dies right? And so peloton had like a little bit of a dip market wise. Well, now some other like, you know, nursing General Hospital type show or whatever. Also had a large character die. Okay. So and it's just used as this like, trope now that like, all right, you know, someone's trying to get fit and dies with a heart attack on the peloton. And so I think there was like, I think there was I think they were working collaboratively on the first one because then they have like, commercial with him. That's like, cardiovascular fitness is important. So you should do this, but with the second one, they're like, Yo, we didn't approve that. Even though it's fake like it's affecting our numbers you're gonna stop having people die in movies and shows anyway, on peloton on peloton, specifically I heard they're dangerous so they're having a the CEOs having a like company wide meeting and I guess they didn't do like a password protected was like anyone that has the Zoom link or whatever. So like it's a bunch of like x employees hopped on I just completely crashed there. You know, the CEOs Zoom meeting with the entire company and I'm like, they're really, really feeling the effects

Matt Fischer 07:35

of maybe that's why our Facebook kept crashes we had so many viewers trying to log on once at that like eight o'clock time that it just crashed the metro network that's

Justin MacDonald 07:44

honestly got to be it. That's the only thing that makes sense. Another thing that it could be other than us just being we've tested

Matt Fischer 07:51

the hard internet connection here at workspace collective and it is like blazing fast so we know it's not that maybe it is my

Leighton Okus 07:57

fault. It's it's definitely a special guests. Like everyone in Ocala was trying to log in at the same time.

Matt Fischer 08:04

She was a local legend.

Leighton Okus 08:09

A legend So who

Matt Fischer 08:10

was that? Are we gonna call them out?

Justin MacDonald 08:11

i She doesn't know.

Leighton Okus 08:12

I don't know. Oh, I just said please use a photo that makes me look skinny and classy and fun loving. And that's when we can

Justin MacDonald 08:20

we know we're not gonna find

Leighton Okus 08:22

kidding. You never want to look through all my photos. Here's one that Dave took where I fit that description. Yeah,

Matt Fischer 08:27

it's always a good it's always a good choice just to go with the day photo. You know you because you know it's gonna be good.

Justin MacDonald 08:32

It was a Pacific Islander native that said it well not native. He's native to Ocala like rock Karstens a legend he said local legend. He's been nice cheery nice. He may have been a little drunk. I don't know.

Matt Fischer 08:48

He just fallen off a skateboard. So yeah, head wound

Leighton Okus 08:51

generation. Just you know, going with it.

Justin MacDonald 08:54

I definitely alliteration fan. Speak. You said the rock speaking of the rock. I don't think I almost don't even want to bring it up. But Under Armour has him as Under Armour has him as like a spokesperson. And I'm one of their targeted demographics on Facebook. You are under our Yeah, believe it or not reason. Yeah. So anyway, I see their ads all the time. But all of a sudden, within the past like three or four days, they've launched these, you know, Dwayne Johnson ads, and they're just getting blown up with the worst negativity that you can imagine and they keep deleting and restarting the campaigns and they just keep getting breed blown up with people who doesn't like the rock he that's where I don't really want to go down that road. But have you

Leighton Okus 09:42

watched followers He's amazing. Watch ballers

Justin MacDonald 09:45

ballers. Know what I really

Leighton Okus 09:47

don't know what that is. Let's fall Are you kidding me know this like where you made fun of me for watching Vikings? I didn't

Justin MacDonald 09:51

I thought you said your head. You said you lag and then we have lag. So I don't want to bring it up.

Leighton Okus 09:58

Again. I am not a hag and by is an amazing show on HBO.

Justin MacDonald 10:02

No, I definitely have not watched it so well. You should not I'm not even familiar with it. It's I can only watch

Matt Fischer 10:07

one HBO show with an ex professional wrestler. And right now that's John Cena and peacemakers maker.

Justin MacDonald 10:12

peacemaker is such a great show. That's rekindled my love for frickin 70s and 80s. Metal music.

Matt Fischer 10:21

Yeah, but also like I like last time I was watching. I was like John Cena. I was explaining it to my wife. I was like, the guy has more.

Justin MacDonald 10:27

Your mansplaining to your wife.

Matt Fischer 10:29

I was mad. Yes, I was. Because she was just like she meant made a comment about him. You know, I think she knew he was a wrestler. But he made the comment. Like he wasn't famous and it's cool that they got a lot on. My wife

Leighton Okus 10:40

doesn't watch professional wrestling. He's only 29

Justin MacDonald 10:42

Yeah, cuz she couldn't see him.

Matt Fischer 10:45

I think that is the case. And she's just like, well, it's cool that he has this opportunity like opportunity. He's on the show. And I'm like, Lauren,

Justin MacDonald 10:54

I'm like to say that too loud. No Calla. out of the woodworks. Billy

Matt Fischer 10:59

you know if you don't know you don't know. But I like he is massive in professional wrestling. But then I also was like, he has fulfilled more what does it make a wish? Make a Wish Foundation requests and like anyone in history and like that's, I feel like that's like a part time job.

Justin MacDonald 11:11

It speaks Mandarin.

Matt Fischer 11:13

What to get out? Well, you didn't know that.

Leighton Okus 11:15

How do you know so much about John Cena? Well, he did. He did. He apologized to China

Justin MacDonald 11:19

in Mandarin Chinese to China. And that was like one of the wildest things I've ever seen like, American hero John Cena, like, in Mandarin, apologizing for calling Taiwan a country like yeah, as my bad. I really want to make money in your market. Oh, well, it's a big market. That's where we're at right now. We

Matt Fischer 11:38

can't make fun of John Cena too much considering like almost all the big media collaboratives are conglomerates are like doing the same thing. Oh, yeah.

Justin MacDonald 11:47

Yeah, the NBA is like Don't you dare tell us to shut up and dribble unless China Yeah, and you got it? It's like a Disney movie. Be quiet. Yeah, it's like

Matt Fischer 11:55

Disney's I got we have to overlook the you know, the genocide of a certain population of leaguers? Yeah, sure. You know, that's fine. As long as our movies can be released,

Justin MacDonald 12:03

we got just got to have that release. We're gonna do these movies that we we really think everyone once. Shame Gee,

Matt Fischer 12:11

that was just oh my god. But I'm like, you're gonna pull a Marvel character that like is not been relevant, I think for a very long time. But they pulled

Justin MacDonald 12:20

Peacemaker out who's an irrelevance.

Matt Fischer 12:24

I haven't seen it so the movie Yeah,

Justin MacDonald 12:26

it was beautiful. Did you know who it was before that movie? Right. And that's fair. And that the argument? There's gonna be like, Oh, we're doing this for inclusion, which is fine. You should. Yeah, I get it. I want money grab as well. Come on.

Matt Fischer 12:38

Marvel has been so popular. I'm like low key rooting for DC just because it's like they've had an awful go of it. And like a lot of their movies are trash. For trash No, I want them to do better here. Like the Batman movies are good. And like the one cut of Justice League was good. peacemakers been good. The new suicide you know, so just

Justin MacDonald 13:00

like, the latest Suicide Squad was, which is a peacemaker was like launch. Yeah. So it's

Matt Fischer 13:04

like, I don't have like, I'm not a big comic book fan. It's just like, they're the underdog in this story between like the two big like comic book people. So I'm like, I'm like Loki room for him. So I'm like, Yeah, you know, you have some successful stuff. Definitely go the more adult route. I think that's their niche. Yeah, then like, it's, like superior adult. Yeah. And it's working for him. Yeah. So but so it's like with the Batman movies were like super dark and like violent and yeah. And I just think a little bit of that DC just needs to lean into the Hey, our demographic is gonna be the 21 and up and up crowd Yeah, and because Marvel has like definitely has like the younger population. And

Justin MacDonald 13:41

I watch that one joker movie though. Those are straight up trash.

Matt Fischer 13:44

Just called Joker the other one. Oh, I like that one. What? Yeah, I agree with you. What? Yeah,

Leighton Okus 13:50

you guys are insane.

Matt Fischer 13:51

No, no, don't you guys. I like that.

Justin MacDonald 13:53

Oh, I thought you said I'm sorry. I'm looking at me. I just it's try Hardy.

Matt Fischer 14:00

Let me let me tell you he liked

Leighton Okus 14:01

Understand. Yes, too complex for you.

Justin MacDonald 14:06

I think that people that want to act smarter seem smart. Say that they like those movies because they think that it makes them appear smart. But ultimately, it's like it's not that you gonna watch it again. Is it? Look I'm gonna put it I'm actually watching

Matt Fischer 14:19

a couple times a couple times. What's wrong

Justin MacDonald 14:21

in your lives?

Matt Fischer 14:22

Why are you so late? He does a saint where he will take a popular movie that is I think objectively good that people like and Okay, wait doesn't like it? And I'll give you examples. He hates the Joker movie. He hates drive and he hates Mad Max Fury Road. Yeah, like those are some of my favorite movies. They're amazing. And he just like these are garbage person.

Leighton Okus 14:43

So that makes sense.

Justin MacDonald 14:45

Mad Max Fury Road was so I love that movie. It's so good. It's again try Hardy. The way I fell asleep. So thank you. Yeah. Tom Hardy. Yeah. You love Tom Hardy. The same I will say, I do have a tendency if a certain type of person likes. I kind of already don't like it. Not you too. But the Joker to me. It's just one of those like, okay, it's a talk piece like an acting is really great. Like Joaquin Phoenix is really great, but it's like, okay, like he's got

Matt Fischer 15:21

a name like Layton. Okay. It's like I didn't know how to pronounce for a long time,

Leighton Okus 15:24

the complexity of his mental health issues was fascinating. I literally spent the first time I watched it, I spent the entire time trying to diagnose him, I obviously have no clinical background to do so. But the whole time I was like, what does he have? This is amazing.

Justin MacDonald 15:39

I think what annoys me is the people that come out and start like quoting and like sharing memes. And I'm like, Yeah, I already don't like it.

Matt Fischer 15:47

Well, there is that one meme that's like, if you like, idolize these people, you're missing the point. And it was like a picture of like, the Joker, Rick from Rick and Morty. And there's like a couple other characters that are like, terrible, terrible characters with horrible flaws. And they're just horrible people, you know, fictional people, but still, and it's like, I agree with that, because there is a group of people that are like, Oh, they like they, I don't know if they aspire, but they, you know, look at that, like, they're some kind of hero or, you know, something you should like, look up to, and it's like, Nah, dude, they're flawed. They're really messed up.

Justin MacDonald 16:25

And yeah, that's, that's kind of a weird part of it, too. And that's, that's, that goes for a lot of characters and just people in general is like, you're using the wrong thing there. And let me let me clarify. I do think that Joker was a de San movie. Okay. I did not like drive. And I did not like Fury Road at all. At

Matt Fischer 16:46

Corona in the least. That's the first unwanted opinion of this episode.

Justin MacDonald 16:49

Can I can I see where there's decent acting? Sure. Am I tired of Hollywood just constantly patting themselves on the back for how, you know immensely diverse and you know, intelligent. They are like, Yeah, I'm tired of that. Like, have you seen the nominations for this year?

Matt Fischer 17:09

Nominations for what for the Oscars? I don't even know what the Oscars are.

Justin MacDonald 17:13

Don't look up. Yeah,

Matt Fischer 17:14

don't look up cause I wasn't here on that episode was I know it's been a blur but I like don't look up

Leighton Okus 17:20

I like don't look up to I was so clever. It was so entertaining.

Matt Fischer 17:24

It's look look I like us relevant or like dark comedy. Like I like dressed out you are right. Yeah. I like like cable guy is

Justin MacDonald 17:33

fine. And for for liking a movie that's like so obviously a talking point is just annoying. It's topical. And and to have that beat out really? What the movie that did it for me that I was finally like, you know what, I'm out of this. I'm not gonna pay attention on Oscars at all other than to get angry about it. Was la la. Never saw La La Land was literally Hollywood talking about Hollywood. You know, and then parading Hollywood at the Oscars. And it's like, I'm so over it like you're not paying attention to what people are watching at all like Jimmy Fallon of all people that Jimmy Fallon Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel was like really? You're gonna you're gonna deny Spider Man No way home like they're not on there at all. You really don't think that that was like just because it's a feel good movie like that shouldn't be on their action movie

Matt Fischer 18:21

that just follows the action movie gotta be watched it is that the new new one? Yeah, no. Okay. So you're like

Justin MacDonald 18:29

this that wants your crap movies?

Matt Fischer 18:32

I haven't left my house in a month. You've watched it on whatever string I don't think it's streaming. Streaming Yeah, okay.

Justin MacDonald 18:39

I don't theater well that's not Oh, so you haven't seen Spider Man theater but not right

Matt Fischer 18:44

normal theaters Do you watch

Justin MacDonald 18:46

Indian and and and yeah, there's still do indie flicks there cuz you did the villages movie.

Leighton Okus 18:52

I thought you said something else. Yeah, me to criss cross.

Justin MacDonald 18:55

Yeah, I love to say that Bollywood know when that movie was done it was meant for indie theaters. That's what I saw before the devil knows you're dead. Which is a dark movie that I like. Which one Oh, before the devil knows you're dead with Philip Seymour Hoffman. Ethan Hawke Marissa Tomi that could be another movie altogether little thing about but it was it was a really good movie. I

Leighton Okus 19:21

look it up later.

Justin MacDonald 19:22

But when the Marian theater was originally redone the like the first last time yeah that was all supposed to be indie movies and they had a good run there for a little while. It's

Matt Fischer 19:35

got like the NZ on does or did that does that you know I think that's it the NZ on and that's what I've always called the NZ on,

Justin MacDonald 19:41

not Enzian

Leighton Okus 19:42

I don't know how it's the end. Xeon and Xeon.

Justin MacDonald 19:45

I don't even think you're supposed to say the I think you're just supposed to say Enzian but it's

Matt Fischer 19:49

more fancy with the in front of it. Sure.

Leighton Okus 19:52

Whichever way you

Matt Fischer 19:53

choose. That was like the first movie theater I ever went to that had like table and food and beer service in the movie. And I was like, this is pretty cool. But luckily, the chairs weren't too comfortable. So you fall asleep. They were just uncomfortable enough to that kept you away.

Justin MacDonald 20:06

Yeah, those are I fall asleep. I've

Matt Fischer 20:08

seen people go to the movies and posted pictures on Facebook and haven't been in one of those theaters ever yet. And I'm like, I can't go. I'm gonna spend $20 on a ticket, get my assigned seat, sit down in this lazy boy. And I'm gonna wake up an hour and a half later. With no recollection of the movie. Yep. And so I get like, give me a traditional movie theater seat.

Justin MacDonald 20:27

That reminds me of when I went and saw the Hobbit, but I didn't know that they were splitting the hobbit into three movies. I like what Peter Jackson does. But yeah, to me, you took the shortest book of them all made as long as like the series, so I'm watching it. And I'm like, What is this backstory? I don't remember this in the book at all. And then I fall asleep. I'm there with like Janie and a few other people. It's midnight premiere. And I wake up, and I can't remember the part of the movie that it's in, or the book, I should say. And I'm like, we're not even halfway through the book. Like Alright guys, I'm leaving. And they're like, why are you leaving? I'm like, I'm not gonna make this. Yeah. And then Janie's like, hey, you know, it's three movies, right? Like, what? I'm like losing my mind in the middle of the theater. Theater, like, yeah, right. Like, no, what? No, I'm out. I'm not doing this. And I've not watched the second, the third move in bold move. To break it up into the Yeah,

Matt Fischer 21:21

yeah. They said, Oh, he found all this other source material and additional stuff from Tolkein and whatnot, which, you know, I believe you probably had a bunch of crap like that. But

Justin MacDonald 21:28

I'm still like, I'm gonna go back and watch the cartoon because that was more entertaining

Matt Fischer 21:32

cartoon was amazing. I mean, the book was good. Like, I've said it before. I've read The Hobbit. And I enjoyed it. I tried to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it's tedious. And I stopped through the Fellowship of the Ring because he's too verbose.

Justin MacDonald 21:45

I got all the way through, but it was work. Like I didn't enjoy

Matt Fischer 21:49

the whole trilogy. I

Leighton Okus 21:50

read this trilogy, but not the Hobbit.

Matt Fischer 21:53

I read The Hobbit. It's like, oh, man, it's easy. Easy read.

Justin MacDonald 21:57

It's great. Read your copy of something on this desk. Sorry. Yeah. And so it was definitely my favorite bucket. I like I don't know how you can go from Yeah, it just

Matt Fischer 22:08

the writing style was like to me, I was just like, how can you do this book and then all of a sudden, this book is

Justin MacDonald 22:13

perfect for like someone making the movie though. Because he describes everything and yes, oh, my god, including a whole new language.

Matt Fischer 22:21

Yeah, that guy was someone else. Yeah, pretty, pretty impressive. Something else? All right. What were we even talking about lazy cocktails? I'm just gonna say,

Justin MacDonald 22:32

Okay. And so, you know, a few years ago, white cloth took off, right. And it was like the seltzer game was like, totally change. Everyone's putting out seltzers like, almost every single beer participant filters. And now premix cocktails are up 42% Up to now $1.6 billion. Have you had one? I have. I've actually the first one I ever like had that was like a good one was at preview of the right layout center, actually. Because, and you know, talking to Adam about it. And you know, when you have an intermission that's only 1015 minutes long. You have all you know, however many how many people can fit in 700. So 700 People coming out all at once? You know, at least half of those probably want some alcoholic drinks to try to make cocktails in that time frame? Or to deal with people likely what's your favorite drink? Like? What do you suggest? And I don't know why did that voice hurtful? What's your favorite drink? It could be a male or female.

Matt Fischer 23:36

I like a pisco sour, please your White Russian it's like Sir, we don't have cream. And

Justin MacDonald 23:41

so it's like, hey, you've got these, you know, however, four to five options that we're just going to crack open pour over ice, we're still gonna garnish it still gonna look pretty, it's gonna taste amazing. But it's it's really growing in popularity. And that's not just in a situation like that, which that one makes the most sense to me. But it's, you're actually you're gonna start seeing more and more in like ABC lookers and stuff like that.

Matt Fischer 24:02

Have you had the tango re ones? No. They're outrageously expensive, right. 18 bucks for like, I think it's six pack. Yeah. Like they're not Yeah, they're not cheap. You. They're very proud. But it's just like, it is actual gin with like seltzer water and lime juice. You know, I don't think there's really much else in it. So it is true. Because I was skeptical at first, I was like, I was gonna be a budget. It's gonna be like a soda with all these chemicals in it and then like malt liquor, and it's just flavored to taste like gin. And it's like, you know, I started looking at the 10 gray one. I'm like, Oh, this is actually like actual gin and tonic and it's good.

Justin MacDonald 24:39

I think you're gonna start seeing more of that. I personally hate the malt stuff.

Matt Fischer 24:43

The malt like yeah, malt liquor beverages.

Justin MacDonald 24:45

Yeah, we're, you know, it's like, Oh, you like I like margaritas. So I bought like a bunch of these like premix margaritas, and it's all just like wine.

Matt Fischer 24:53

I don't like malt liquor that's got a mask on trying to be something else. If you are straight up like I am. liquor, that's fine. But it's like, almost strawberry daiquiri right with liquor. You know, it's like No, get out of here. Like, that's disgusting.

Justin MacDonald 25:10

Well, that's like that's like the vegetarian food or vegan food. Like just call it like stop calling. Yes. Oh my god. A hamburger. Okay, yeah, just like hey, that's the thing that kinda is like what you got? Yeah,

Matt Fischer 25:23

like that's my biggest gripe about vegetarian food is like subcon it like a chicken nugget? Yeah, I have a reference point of a chicken nugget. And this is not that so I'm immediately gonna hate your drink. Yeah, just call it like a vegetable fried ball.

Justin MacDonald 25:37

food booths. Speaking of vegetable friable octopus balls estimates like takoyaki Shannon at work.

Matt Fischer 25:44

Is that why we need to check back on you?

Justin MacDonald 25:50

There's no Rhino involved.

Matt Fischer 25:52

Know what?

Justin MacDonald 25:54

I'm not gonna go down. I'm not gonna explain any rhino

Matt Fischer 25:57

horn. Yeah. We went straight into Chinese ancient medicine and apparently what were you getting at when we said octopus balls? I think we're on different

Leighton Okus 26:09

okay, you ate octopus yesterday? Yeah,

Justin MacDonald 26:11

it was amazing. It was from the ramen house. I can't speak for the ramen. But those little they taste like soup bead Howard. Yes.

Matt Fischer 26:20

I've had those before fried or fried Yeah, it's like a street food they have like yeah, they they're like muffin tins but they're like little round things and so they have like a wet batter with octopus in it and then they like pour it into these little balls and then they fry up on a great old they're delicious. They're really

Justin MacDonald 26:37

good it's like fish flakes

Matt Fischer 26:38

to like yeah, it's it's like a real popular like Japanese street food when the first time I went to the ramen house I saw it on the menu we got it and it was great yes

Justin MacDonald 26:45

so good. Anyway, I don't even know where the ROM analysis where's

Matt Fischer 26:50

it's on like you know that really crappy intersection on 227 and moody King Starbucks used to be like it's that Plaza you want to go to but you don't because you don't know how to get out of it. It's in that Plaza

Justin MacDonald 27:05

because Starbucks I've gotten there like three I don't even get Starbucks often but I've gotten there like three times and like sat at the window like Trent like my zone take my order like oh they're closed on at like four o'clock in the afternoon? Yeah, so having a hard time staff know the one well I haven't made the one American jail

Leighton Okus 27:24

do cuz I tried to go to the downtown when not to What do

Matt Fischer 27:28

y'all trying to drink coffee after four o'clock for

Justin MacDonald 27:33

me why did you say Starbucks eggs there? Suvi days and delicious. Sushi it is? Yes. What is it?

Leighton Okus 27:42

It's a little bit the process. Boiling water. It's yeah, I did take Culinary Arts at Forest high school. So I recall some of that information. But Culinary

Justin MacDonald 27:53

Arts at Forest High School.

Matt Fischer 27:54

I'm like racking my brain.

Justin MacDonald 27:55

I know all the people that went there. I can't like

Matt Fischer 27:59

I don't remember this spicy. We had a restaurant it was called the House of forests. Actually. I do vaguely remember the restaurant. Yeah, I

Leighton Okus 28:05

spent can eat there. And it was a whole thing.

Justin MacDonald 28:07

Upperclassmen. It was a terrible class. I

Leighton Okus 28:10

won't lie. I hated it. It was an easy A.

Justin MacDonald 28:14

Alright, yeah. So they're crocs like the shoe. Like the shoe. Now the animal

Matt Fischer 28:23

they're making a comeback. Well, they've already made it. Oh,

Justin MacDonald 28:25

yeah, buddy. They're expecting they're the trajectory that they're on. Their sales are going to double within the next five years. And do you know what that would take them to? doubling their sales?

Matt Fischer 28:36

A billion dollars? Wow, really? 1,000,000,005

Justin MacDonald 28:38

billion $20 billion.

Matt Fischer 28:44

Dr. Evil five. I know they're popular though. My 15 year old nephew has a pair. And my mother has a pair and they

Leighton Okus 28:53

and they both of them should wear them and Bumble

Justin MacDonald 28:55

over them. No, no, they Yeah. And so for why

Leighton Okus 28:59

Oh, yeah. I like the ones that came up in my newsfeed that were like Ferragamo, crocs that are like crocs with this like weird looking.

Matt Fischer 29:07

I would. They're called jibbitz.

Justin MacDonald 29:09

I don't know what they are. They're juicy. You add to

Leighton Okus 29:11

them? No, it's like an actual quote designer crock. It's the most hideous thing I've ever seen. Well, I

Matt Fischer 29:16

don't I don't know if you've ever seen a non designer crock but

Leighton Okus 29:22

it takes it like next level. I'll find it and send it like

Matt Fischer 29:25

there was a pair of like camping themed crocs that had like, you know, like puffer jacket had like a puffer jacket like ankle like fabric around the ankle. And then it also had like a extra like reinforced back strap and final pouches on it where the jibbitz go. It was like this off road expedition Croc and it was like a jib it. Just like saying that word. It's on the chart. That's why I like saying because that's one of my favorite words. giblets.

Leighton Okus 29:55

Mm hmm. Interesting.

Matt Fischer 29:58

Yeah, it's I mean

Justin MacDonald 30:00

I believe it's 5 billion let me just just that means that they're already at two and a half billion dollars, which blows my mind.

Matt Fischer 30:06

How is Kanye West's space crocs holding up against actual Croc? How

Justin MacDonald 30:10

is Kanye West holding up?

Matt Fischer 30:13

Good question. I

Leighton Okus 30:15

saw a guy on Tik Tok that looks just like him. Well, my son showed it to me and he really does look exactly like him and he makes all these like ridiculous like tick tock videos being fake Kanye Are you sure?

Justin MacDonald 30:27

Sure sure. It's just not economy. Well, actually, I don't know. I think that like you go down the rabbit

Leighton Okus 30:33

hole or whatever.

Justin MacDonald 30:34

All of his captions are always like all caps. He's just like constantly yelling and you can just hear everything that he's typing.

Matt Fischer 30:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's he but he released those and I'm like I never thought you could make crocs uglier but like he did

Justin MacDonald 30:49

yeah. Well, ugly shoes are on the rise actually.

Matt Fischer 30:53

That's like blows my mind yeah,

Justin MacDonald 30:54

I mean, you look at the Balenciaga 's that are like, hideous so bad.

Matt Fischer 30:58

Yeah, nobody should I said in the group chat and I stand by Balenciaga is look like something you get from Payless or Skechers. Yeah, that's like it no one has like no one has said no, like, no one has ever defend, at least I know, has defended Balenciaga is and then like, no, they're avant garde, they're just like, Yeah, they look like Skechers they're trash. Yeah. Well, but they're like, sweaters are better. Oh Skechers are like 6999 and Balenciaga is are like, $1,200. So yeah, sketches are definitely better. Definitely, you get yummy sketches you can get for the person one Balenciaga how many? No, don't do the math whiz.

Leighton Okus 31:36

I thought you were gonna do it now. Legendary, but it's not for my mask. Yeah,

Justin MacDonald 31:42

so what's new and exciting that I can go into a lot of different I'm trying to save you right now. Save.

Leighton Okus 31:50

New at the Riley Yeah, um, we opened our expansion. So we did a we almost maybe we doubled the size of our building. So it's like a 15,500 square foot expansion. Hell yeah. It's amazing. The highlight like my favorite. Well, I've got a bunch of favorites, but shocking. I know. Let me break that. Let's

Matt Fischer 32:13

go through them.

Leighton Okus 32:14

Well, the new Noma black box is my favorite space because it is just the coolest it can be literally turned into anything. We've got a jazz series that happens monthly that is real jazz. So like, I think a lot of people are like, Oh, love jazz music.

Matt Fischer 32:30

But this is like real jazz, like Kenny G stuff, right? Well,

Leighton Okus 32:34

we did have I know, is he coming? He's coming soon. Yeah, um, but no, like jazz where

Justin MacDonald 32:39

they like take different chords and put them together. But you kind of like it.

Matt Fischer 32:44

So we had. Everyone pretends like they know what they're talking about.

Justin MacDonald 32:48

It's like the drive and Fury Road. You want to feel smarter. You just say like, just listen to the

Leighton Okus 32:56

next one. You're searching for an invite. The last one what they did Coltrane's album, Love Supreme. And it was the coolest thing. And it had we have like Cafe tables and table service. And so it's just a whole different kind of environment.

Matt Fischer 33:13

Are the hors d'oeuvres heavy or like, it depends. Okay, usually light ice first, or Gotcha. Stop touching the microphone.

Justin MacDonald 33:22

Now there's steady static right now. Oh, yeah. You're probably basically everything you've been involved in. has

Matt Fischer 33:32

tried to adjust it. Steady. Next favorite thing about the Riley expansion in

Leighton Okus 33:37

the lobby is really beautiful. Oh, they redid it. Ridiculous. But it's so it's so we have a new lobby. That is the whole like length of the building on the right side. Oh, really? And you can have like a whole party. Yeah, it's

Justin MacDonald 33:52

like, it's super spacious. Looks awesome. It's great. Because when you talk about intermission, you know, when you file back out into the old lobby, you're really crammed in Yeah, and I gotta go out and it's kind of hard to like, oh, how do we make sure that people you know, are here because they're supposed to be here anyway. Now there's

Leighton Okus 34:10

bars everywhere. We can have multiple events happening at one time, like education wing where we'll do surveys,

Justin MacDonald 34:18

can we go back to the black box theater real quick? I don't know how many people are familiar with what a black box theater is you kind of set it but you kind of went pretty quick to Okay. So Black Box Theater is is set up to where it can be set up in any kind of arrangement. You know, you could have

Matt Fischer 34:37

any kind of arrange do whatever you want. Right? Right. The Jazz rooms

Justin MacDonald 34:42

good call rooms,

Leighton Okus 34:44

but start using that in the tour.

Matt Fischer 34:45

By all means the I guess you can use that you can use

Justin MacDonald 34:51

so, but yeah, you can have tables because what I'm excited about is the opportunity to have like roundtable with me. attainment. Right? Does that make sense? Like the old school like 60s 70s? Like we're gonna sit at their table have service but actually like that's yeah, so yeah,

Leighton Okus 35:12

totally Well, that's what that jazz night is. Okay. Oh, cafe tables, they all seat for people, right like if you get the VIP you have like your bottle at the table. Yeah,

Matt Fischer 35:21

I think I'm one of the opinions needs a VIP table. You need to be at this out. Well, I

Leighton Okus 35:25

mean, since you did invite me on to that probably.

Matt Fischer 35:30

Cuz that sounds absolutely amazing. I'm thinking of Anchorman when he goes to play the saxophone and he's like, No, you're like in that like smoky room and

Justin MacDonald 35:37

it's dark and yourselves. Yeah, I was thinking like good fellows. And we're gonna like shoot someone because they didn't laugh at our joke or something. We don't shoot no violence. No, like camera shoot like

Matt Fischer 35:47

my dude like dark.

Justin MacDonald 35:49

Dark. Yeah.

Leighton Okus 35:51

Do you have a really fun masquerade coming up? So we're gonna celebrate Mardi Gras in a really grand fabulous way?

Matt Fischer 35:57

How much our hand grenades

Leighton Okus 35:59

mask? I don't know. I don't know. They will not be premade okay. But if they were they would be delicious. Because of course, the last

Justin MacDonald 36:13

time I had a hand grenade

Matt Fischer 36:15

last time I had one was in New Orleans, so I think those are Yeah, well, I mean, when your plastic cup is shaped like an actual grenade. Yeah. Yes, you're gonna do with it.

Justin MacDonald 36:26

And then I jumped off the second story of the bar.

Matt Fischer 36:30

And you were actively the least wild person? Yes. Because a

Justin MacDonald 36:34

large gentleman did not understand that. No, Matt. No, look, I don't know what else to do. I'm gonna toss the same grenade jump off this ledge. I'll see you guys in a little bit, as well Dickenson to shout out to Willie D. So masquerade masquerade you set a mask? Yes. This kind

Leighton Okus 36:51

of mask not that kind of mask. Okay. And which will be super fun. It's like seven to 11 so a later ish party live music

Justin MacDonald 37:01

like during traditional Mardi Gras time.

Leighton Okus 37:04

You know, I? If we're being honest, what do I think 20/25 is not very cool. Is that during traditional Mardi Gras time?

Justin MacDonald 37:13

I don't know either. Might you ask? I just like, set you up. It's because I thought maybe you knew I don't I just want you to say that there's

Leighton Okus 37:21

a king cake with a baby in it. And so I had to learn all about that. I just

Matt Fischer 37:25

learned about that. Okay, like a year or so ago, weirded out by

Leighton Okus 37:28

there's like there's somebody was like, Is there a baby in the cake? Like? It's like a little toy, baby.

Matt Fischer 37:35

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one that has like, like, learned much later in their life about King Cakes with babies. And um, because I was at someone's house and they said that they're like, it even has a baby in it. And I'm like, What are you talking about? Why is it? Yeah, they they explained it and everyone else was like, Awesome. Cool. Yeah. It's hard to find those now. And it's like, what? You just make them and you so you've known about this? Yeah, Albert's

Leighton Okus 37:55

gonna make it. Ah,

Justin MacDonald 37:58

Chef, Ah, wow. From cellos. Yes. Hell yeah. So that's awesome.

Leighton Okus 38:04

And there's a cool so part of the talking about the blackbox and all the ways that can be used. There's like an elevated VIP area. That's what so I tried to get someone to help me turn it into like a float, but that got kind of down. Oh, that's a great idea, though. It should have been a float maybe next time. Yeah. But there's like and that we'll have sit down dinner.

Justin MacDonald 38:25

Are you providing beads or do we bring our own both? So Okay.

Leighton Okus 38:32

Well, I've gotten it a lot. So you there's a bead stations, you can buy beads. Oh, the most adorned there's a prize for the most adorned and you can give me a nice way of saying it makes your life happy. Adams thing about he like made a post and it was the funniest thing. He's like, see cool dance moves. Give them beads, like their outfit. Give a BS. Okay. Okay, see? They're cool. I just can't wait to see some either cool was

Justin MacDonald 39:00

like here you go.

Leighton Okus 39:03

I'll be emceeing so I'll be totally sober so it'll be fine. Sure. Different kinds of fun Yeah, and or maybe I'll just bail on the emcee I didn't say that for my co workers

Justin MacDonald 39:15

or just do like plenty of people that we know that like I'll be doing D and then like oh we got to get over now we're gonna have to split this because I

Leighton Okus 39:22

don't want to I'm comfortable in front of a crowd with a microphone sober but I am like a total loose cannon after one and a half drinks it's I want to save everything by not showing I can

Matt Fischer 39:37

I can have the MC depends I can understand that because it's sometimes your filter is extremely fickle. I don't know if that's the right word, but it's just like even one beer where it's like a normal situation. I'm seeing like one beard it's like you don't feel it. You don't really it's not like you're buzzed or even remotely drunk off of it. But like that, that that mouth brand of mouth filter like one beard it just was booming. balls over

Leighton Okus 40:00

things that you would say in conversation right? Yeah, microphone you're like juicy those awful dance moves. Yeah. All right, take her beads away. So

Matt Fischer 40:09

here's some sympathy beads. Gross.

Leighton Okus 40:12

Grass. Just kidding beats for everyone. Yeah, everyone,

Matt Fischer 40:16

we're not gonna judge you on your dance moves. Just

Justin MacDonald 40:18

be dancing. Just be dance, right?

Matt Fischer 40:20

We know dance shame.

Justin MacDonald 40:22

So we've got just a few minutes left. I want to shout out because I forgot to do it last week even though I posted about it that we have and I've talked about it already, but we have three US Olympians that ar