This is a small taste of the show overall, the bits and bobs that I found interesting and funny, insightful and relevant. To hear everything that happened, check out the podcast version of the show. If you want a quick read along with random self inserts and my personal thoughts, you've come to the right place.
Call in Point:
(This is the broadstroke canvas on which I base my call, obviously these notes are going to be longer and more detailed.)
So, let's pretend that the pandemic will go away at some point. Ok, ok, stop laughing and I'll rephrase that to get back to my point. Let's assume we could go and pause the pandemic for a few minutes and in doing that, you would get tossed back into your childhood. The question is, would you do it if this was something that wasn't just whimsical fantasy? 55% of people would be all for jumping into it. For people like Abe, he had a pretty good childhood. He was with his mother and his grandmother and both were great. He used to walk with his brother and friends and would go get basketball cards with a dollar. Basketball was also his obsession outside of collecting and he had a rim that hung up above the garage roof. This was with the whole old collective gang including his brother Sam and of course, Joe Gaska. As we all know, Abe has a killer hookshot but poor Sam, he has a weird shot. Moving away from Abe's happy normal life, let's look at the age range. The dip back into childhood's happy place is apparently between 7 and 10. What they are seeking most in that would be done within the time frame is a varied list. They wouldn't have to worry about money, they would get summer breaks from school. A detour came here because Angi talked about how the last day of school was the best and going back was the worst. Well, not the first day at least because that was the time you got to show off your new clothes and shoes. Christmas was definitely more fun as a kid, you didn't have to pay bills, you had endless energy (dear god, I remember energy) and of course, you actually would get excited and care about your birthday. Angi, not one to let Abe outdo her by showcasing his happy life, decided to showcase her horrible one. You know what she misses, waiting on the steps for her dad to show up and then he didn't. The government cheese and food stamps were a real treat. Living with 4 people in a 1 bedroom apartment, that was a treat. Designer impostor fake jeans that were from Sears. All the guys that her mom would randomly bring home as well. I'm with her, not in the same circumstance but my childhood was a hellscape of garbage and going back, no thank you. However, no one wants our sob stories so let's turn to the roadies. Ann misses Friday and Saturday night roadside parties. She lived out in the sticks and so she would go out to these end of a literal road parties on Friday and Saturday nights. They would drink Bartels and James, beers and make out with boys. Angi also dug Bartel's and James and she decided we should have an Angi Taylor Show roadside party (to hear more about that, check out my call in on the podcast.) Christian misses his parents being young enough to play games with him. Angel was run over by a taxicab minivan when he was a kid and he couldn't afford rehab. However he had someone who would set small goals and have him walk the curb to learn to rehabilitate himself. Head Roadie Dave missed his old school days of break dancing. Apparently, he was a break dancer from 1982 until 2002 but he stopped when he got into an accident. Funny enough, Jay the Straight once auditioned forStar Searchwith his breakdance crew back in the day. Leslie misses back when there were no cell phones and you could live in the moment. Ah yes, when your friends would come over and ask if you could come out to play or a boy was dealing with Angi's mom. Yeah, no thanks for any of that, I'd rather go back 5 years than 30.
All the Rest:
In what I'd like to refer to as a twofer (other stations stole the concept, why can't I?,) Abe is my subject of duality this morning. It began with him complaining which in turn led to a shocking revelation. It seems that a new policy has been put into place in the parking garage that has been hell for our favorite duo. Hanging out this morning was a new sign that said "All Cars Subject to Random Searches." Abe began to freak out as one would expect because this felt like something akin to the holocaust from the way he was reacting. He wanted to know how it would occur and why. Like, do they intend to just break into his car while he is up at work? Will they stop him on the way in and send the drug sniffing dogs into his car? Maybe they'll tackle him on the way out, grab his keys and just steal his car. Who knows what conspiracy type stuff they are up to but Abe is not thrilled about it regardless. That said, Angi was a little confused as well, saying she hasn't seen a sign like that in 10 years. It turns out though that Abe doesn't have much to worry about if they do search his car. The straight edge superstar only keeps a basketball in his trunk along with a little Jim McMahon doll. Correct, little Jim McMahon action figure. This is an especially sentimental piece of plastic toy as once Abe's car was broken into and they stole everything. His CD player, the wheels, the engine but they threw that piece of junk right back into the car because who would want that? Angi said that this new garage policy is just a ploy and what they're doing is plotting to finally steal the figure from Abe.
Anyway, moving on to the second part of this Abe double feature, he made a quick remark about one of Angi's former conquests named Rocky aka the male stripper. Turns out that Rocky was gay and Angi was the beard queen at the time (god only knows how many more closeted men she probably dated and definitely worked with.) Abe began his rant by explaining how everyone is mad when your boyfriend is secretly gay but would be happy if he left you $30 million dollars. This was brought on by Freddie Mercury being played and Abe immediately seeing an exploitable scheme. Angi, for the record, does not want Rocky's money because she's better than that or something. You know how righteous Angi gets when it comes to turning down cash. Abe though, he doesn't care in the slightest and would kill to have a chance at all that delicious cash. So with this idea firmly in place, Abe made a proclamation this morning. He is officially open to becoming a beard for rich lesbians. He's tall, already has a beard and will be your big burly fake daddy to a variety of different occasions. He will go out and get himself a nice suit for wherever you drag him to. He'll let you take him out to dinner, just don't expect to see him for a good 45 minutes of that dinner. He is also willing to go and hang out with your dad. He'll go out to the shed with him and drink beers. He'll clean your dad's gun collection with him. He'll take him fishing. All the stuff that straight dudes do, he'll do that with your pops.
Finally, in continuing the show's uncanny ability to pull in interesting guests, comedian Annie Lederman called in this morning. Even though it's hella early, she put on makeup for Angi which was super nice of her. She has two upcoming shows here in Chicago on Sept 7th and 8th. Personally, she has been dying to come to Chicago and she already knows that these shows are going to be absolutely wild. For example, she intends to meet up with her ayahuasca shaman when she comes to town. For the most part we detoured off comedy for the rest of the interview so Angi could understand what it was like to do "spiritual" drugs. It's something she is personally dying to try but she's terrified of drugs that make her hallucinate. Same boat on my end as Angi, I don't like getting high personally because I hate losing the sensation of control (thanks messy childhood!) Annie has all intentions of dipping back into the mental pool however and will be doing it with her shaman while in town. This will be her fourth foray into the mental landscape of the unknown. Angi thinks if she was to do it, she would end up believing that she's an orange and would start begging people to peel her. Annie went on to explain that doing it makes you come to realize that you're not anything special. It also gives you a deeper perception of how beautiful and hideous everything really is. Her first trip came forth because of a guy she had been spinning out about and it was a doozy. Mother Ayahuasca apparently appeared to her and spoke with her. There were stories and a light that really opened her up. There was a processing of her father's own mortality as well because even as a kid, she was worried about the future. During one of her visits to the mental landscape, she actually killed her father and his hand went inside her. Honestly, it was a lot of crazy to process this early and when the interview finished, I wondered if I was the one on drugs. Speaking of drugs, Annie called in to tell a weed gummy story. She apparently took so many the first time that she did them, she was high for two days. It was all good until she had to be a reader for her daughter's first grade class and she had this feeling that the entire class and teacher knew that she was out of her mind reading Dr. Seuss.
Request Wars 2.0:
Champion: Abe (Streak: 1)
Angi's (repping Jane Doe) Song Choice: "Shout at the Devil"
Abe's (repping Katie) Song Choice: "No One Knows"
Observation: Angi can't remember her players name, no shock there. In turn, a roadieless Abe laughed at Angi the whole time. He strongly suggested that he should win on the fact that Angi losing would make her 6 - 9 and honestly, that kind of makes sense.
Winner: Angi
10 o' Clock Toast:
Monica Lewinsky. She's helping produceAmerican Crime Story: Impeachmentand was adamant about leaving a thong showing scene in the show.
Show Quotes and Tidbits:
Duo Quote:
"This is going to be a really bad take, Aaron Hernandez was hot." - Angi
"Harvey Weinstein could get it too." - Abe