0:03

Hello to everybody who doesn't serve

0:06

it wit or without whiz. It's

0:08

Beautiful Anonymous. One hour, one phone call. No

0:10

names, no holds barred. I'd rather go one on one. I think

0:12

it'll be more fun. And I'll

0:18

get to know you and you'll

0:20

get to know me. Hi

0:27

everybody, Chris Gethard here. Welcome

0:30

to Beautiful Anonymous. I like to give these heads up now

0:32

because I've taken the liberty of staying sane by connecting

0:35

with you with bigger intros. Some people

0:37

really, really love them. Other people just

0:39

want the phone calls. And for those people, I

0:42

love you. I appreciate you. I

0:45

understand you're going to want to skip about 12 and

0:47

a half minutes in. That's when the intro

0:49

winds down and the phone call

0:52

begins. Thanks. Enjoy. Hi

0:55

everybody. Welcome to Beautiful Anonymous. My name is

0:57

Chris Gethard and I'm lucky to be your host.

1:01

Lucky to do this. Lucky to be someone

1:03

who has somehow stumbled backwards into

1:05

being the steward of a

1:07

near decade long archive

1:10

of real human conversations. From

1:14

people who have almost nothing to say,

1:16

who just want to chit chat, to people who have lived

1:19

through truly intense circumstances

1:22

and want the tale chronicled somewhere,

1:24

to people who have thoughts on the world and

1:27

politics and

1:29

identity and just

1:31

need to feel heard for one

1:33

hour in their lives. We

1:36

have it all here. And man,

1:39

I'm still perpetually a little confused

1:42

about how this happened, but I'm

1:44

so grateful that it did. And

1:46

I feel so lucky that I get to be

1:48

here and I get to be a part of it. And you know, that's

1:51

the chaos of life. That's the chaos of life.

1:53

That's how life sometimes throws chaos

1:55

at you and you roll with it and you figure it out and

1:57

you don't land where you always expect to do.

1:59

But

2:02

you deal with it. And that's one of the major themes

2:04

of today's call as well. Before I tell

2:06

you about that, I want to just let you know a few things. I

2:08

do go out on the road. I'm doing a

2:11

lot of stand-up in September. There's

2:13

a handful of shows on my New Jersey

2:15

tour that still have tickets left.

2:17

The Late Show in Trenton, our show

2:19

in Sparta, the

2:22

Bergen County show in South Hackensack. That's

2:24

been the slowest selling show of

2:26

the tour, which is eye-opening. That makes

2:28

me want to analyze what's going on in Bergen County,

2:31

my relationship to them and their relationship to entertainment.

2:33

But that being said, I'm not mad at you, Bergen

2:36

County. So if you're in Jersey, you can still grab some tickets

2:38

for the Jersey tour with more dates to be

2:40

announced soon. Also in September,

2:42

I'm doing a show at the Avalon Lounge in Catskill,

2:44

New York. So my Hudson Valley people, I'll see

2:47

you up there. And I'll be at the

2:49

High Plains Comedy Festival in

2:51

Denver

2:52

on the 21st. And I'll

2:54

be at Naropa University on

2:56

the 22nd. I think I

2:58

forgot to say that date in Catskill, New York is the 29th.

3:02

September is going to be a really busy month. That's on top

3:05

of the fact that September

3:08

7th, I'll be in Anaheim, California doing a

3:10

free show

3:11

as part of the Student Mental Wellness

3:13

Conference. This ties into my new day job with

3:15

the great organization Wellness Together, who's

3:18

helping me to launch Laughing Together,

3:20

where I'm organizing artists who want to help

3:22

students have better

3:25

mental health and better access to

3:27

mental health resources. This

3:29

is a free show. If you're in Southern California, I

3:31

barely ever get out to Southern California. And

3:34

this show is me, Aparna Nancherla, Kristi

3:36

Chiello, Eddie Papanton,

3:39

and Nicole Byer. I mean, this is a heavy

3:42

hitting show. I've talked about

3:44

it on the show a lot, but it makes me laugh really hard.

3:48

The show is intended to be for the hardworking

3:50

people in the mental health space, the teachers, the social

3:53

workers, the administrators, the

3:56

people thinking so hard

3:58

about how to give student a

4:01

mentally healthy environment in schools. It's

4:04

entertainment at their conference. But I was

4:06

told that to make the space smaller and hang some

4:08

curtains, it would cost $10,000. I said, nope,

4:10

then we won't have curtains. We'll just flood it with people.

4:12

So I need you to show up. It's a free show, legitimately.

4:15

If you want to donate some money to the cause,

4:17

there'll be QR codes there. You can throw in some cash

4:20

towards student mental wellness. You can also do that at

4:22

laughingtogether.org right

4:24

now. But if you are also

4:26

someone, I think this is a great opportunity. Me,

4:28

Aparna, Kristi, Eddie, and

4:31

Nicole Byer, that's a bill of heavy

4:33

hitters

4:34

that normally will cost you a lot of money

4:36

to see any of those people separately, let

4:39

alone all together in one place. And if you're

4:41

somebody who's like, I don't get to go out much

4:43

anymore because maybe work has been tight

4:45

or babysitters cost too much or

4:47

whatever,

4:49

this is a chance to get out there and I will not

4:51

be mad at you if you don't donate. Come hang

4:53

out. Go to laughingtogether.org to register

4:55

and grab a ticket so we can have a sense of how many people are

4:57

coming. But no

4:59

gimmick, no snake oil, not trying to trick you.

5:02

This is not a pyramid scheme. You can come out and see a great

5:04

show. It's gonna be awesome. So I

5:07

mentioned that life can be chaotic.

5:12

I never expected this show to become what it is.

5:15

I never expected to take almost 400 phone calls from

5:18

random humans all over the globe. And here

5:21

we are approaching number 400. And

5:23

today's call is reflective

5:25

of that chaos. And I have to say, since our

5:28

relaunch, we went independent, I've

5:30

been seeing a lot of feedback from people saying, the

5:33

calls seem looser. The calls

5:35

seem a little bit more like the early days

5:37

where they're unpredictable. A lot of people

5:39

I think do like that. I wanna

5:41

say a few things addressing that. One is

5:44

I think it's pretty clear that I have some

5:46

weight off my shoulders

5:48

and I'm just vibing

5:50

and chilling again in these calls because I'll tell

5:52

you, it's been pretty much since January

5:55

of 2023 that I was very

5:58

stressed about the future.

5:59

of Beautiful Anonymous, which you can

6:02

imagine. I mean, Beautiful Anonymous happened right

6:04

in the middle of that. That was a massive lift as

6:06

well. There was a part of me

6:08

trying to say, man, I need to show the power

6:10

of this fan base to try to get a good contract

6:13

because things are really going downhill. So there was

6:15

stress on my end and on my shoulders,

6:17

there was some weight and I still think the show is very good.

6:19

In fact, I think some of our best episodes may

6:21

have come out of that stretch, but I do think people started

6:24

to sense maybe some tension in my life.

6:26

I think that tension and that stress has been

6:28

lifted in relation to the show.

6:30

There's no way to sit down and host a show and

6:33

be totally loose when you've spent the

6:35

rest of the week

6:37

praying and hoping that the show will survive.

6:39

There's no way to totally shake it. So now that that's gone, I think I'm

6:41

looser. Also want to give a shout out,

6:44

our producer Andrea Quinn,

6:46

who has long been the person who

6:49

does the production on the live episodes,

6:52

which so many of you like, so many

6:54

of you point to as having

6:56

some beautiful chaos.

6:58

I think that there is something about live

7:00

episodes naturally being a little more chaotic. I

7:03

also think that Andrea was the one screening

7:05

those and I do think there is some

7:07

art to

7:08

the screening

7:10

process and how you talk to people and what

7:13

instincts you follow to patch people through. So I want

7:15

to give a big shout out to Andrea for all

7:17

her help. I think episodes

7:20

like Library Boy and

7:22

a lot of the Parade Girl saga,

7:25

Andrea was the one helming

7:28

the calls on those. I do think Andrea's

7:31

instincts are a little chaotic as well. Between

7:34

that and me feeling very loose right

7:36

now, it's leading to some episodes that

7:38

are bouncing around in this way

7:40

that is nice and

7:43

sometimes serious, sometimes fun, but very unpredictable

7:46

in a way I'm enjoying. I hope you're enjoying it as well. Thank

7:49

you for the feedback everybody, especially

7:51

those of you who post

7:54

over at the Beautiful Anonymous

7:56

The Community Facebook group, which has

7:58

over 35,000 members. And it's just I

8:00

have to tell you I have to remind you a

8:03

delightfully chill space in the

8:05

online world

8:07

That's at this point. It runs

8:09

itself. It's drama free people

8:11

throw in their comments bounce back and forth Nobody

8:14

really gets in fights. I Saw

8:17

I will say I was just monitoring a little bit of

8:19

the reaction to our leaving I saw somebody online

8:21

complaining that they got banned from

8:23

the Facebook group

8:25

Saying good. I'm glad I'm glad this guy

8:27

had a tough year, man. He They

8:29

kicked me out of the beautiful honest Facebook group.

8:31

So I don't listen anymore I was I'm sorry if

8:33

you're the person and you're hearing that I'm sorry

8:36

Also, I will say it takes a lot to get kicked

8:38

out of that Facebook group The really

8:40

only rule is just don't be mean

8:43

just don't be aggressive and don't be mean just get

8:45

your opinions out in a way that's discourse

8:47

based and civil and we

8:51

Can disagree with each other and

8:53

bring up things that bother us with

8:55

the episodes in a way? That's nice. So

8:58

if you're out there and you're looking for a space to kill a little

9:00

time during the week maybe you're somebody who's like I need distractions

9:02

during the workday where I just need to click away from

9:05

work and

9:07

you know get five ten minutes of

9:09

of Humanity

9:12

and feeling like I'm part of a community that community

9:14

is Lovely and thanks to everybody

9:16

who helped me build it over there

9:18

all of the mods a lot of the mods

9:20

now joke that they Don't even really have to do anything

9:22

because it runs itself. What a gentle

9:24

lovely place Anyway,

9:26

I've been talking enough I've

9:29

been talking enough Enjoy the chaos

9:31

this episode. What's it about? I

9:33

don't know a lot of it's about Lyme disease. There's also

9:35

stuff about tacos there's

9:38

a lot of discussion of how you might

9:40

be handed a legacy and You

9:43

are put in the position of deciding how much

9:45

you want that legacy to continue or how

9:47

much you're comfortable with it potentially dying

9:49

with you a lot of it may

9:51

be the part that I felt

9:54

myself most

9:56

Exhilarated by not that all

9:58

of it wasn't fascinating and there's other people we're gonna go, oh

10:00

no, dude, I like the other part better.

10:02

I like this. This part was really funny or this part

10:04

made me think there's a lot of talk

10:07

of this caller is

10:09

in a family that has run a small business

10:11

for close to 100 years. And

10:15

I put businesses like that on

10:18

a pedestal in

10:20

a big way. So to hear

10:23

that this caller is someone who will eventually

10:25

be responsible for the fate of some

10:28

small business that's cut from that cloth.

10:32

Really, it

10:33

really means the world. So I will say

10:35

this, I've been I've been saying, let's not just

10:37

discuss the episodes themselves,

10:40

but I also want it in in in that Facebook

10:42

group feedback. And also, even if you

10:44

tweet at me on this one, I'd love to hear,

10:47

you know, this one's anonymous. So

10:49

I don't know. I don't know

10:52

what this business outside of Philly is

10:54

could probably figure out, but I try not to be a Google

10:57

creep when it comes to beautiful anonymous between

11:00

that and the the deadly grilled cheese sandwich

11:02

you're gonna hear about. I bet I could figure it out. But for

11:05

me, I grew up with a place called Jimmy Buffs. Right

11:09

down the block from where I grew up delicious

11:11

taste of home. The Star Tavern for pizza

11:13

was right there. Once I got

11:15

a license, we all started to figure out ruts

11:17

hot over in Clifton and drive

11:20

out to Toby's Cup in Philipsburg and hot

11:22

dog Johnny's out near the Delaware water gap

11:24

and all these lovely greasy spoons

11:26

that helped to find New Jersey start going down the shore

11:28

and you hit up the windmill on the way. So

11:31

all these places, let alone

11:33

all the diners in my state. So I want to know, what

11:36

are those businesses out there for you, especially

11:38

if they're food related? What are the places that are the taste

11:41

of your home? What are the places that are

11:43

on a micro neighborhood

11:45

level, maybe not even the places that get written

11:47

up in the

11:48

in the local newspaper or that

11:51

guy fear he isn't out there shining a spotlight

11:54

on and I actually think he takes a lot of that he takes

11:56

a lot of clowning, but he does he helps

11:58

a lot of small businesses.

12:02

You can read all about it. You know, sometimes actually

12:04

they can't even handle the overwhelming

12:07

amount he helps and it's problematic.

12:10

But

12:10

anyway, why am I rambling about Guy Fieri?

12:12

I want to hear about what the taste of your

12:15

neighborhood is. What's the taste of your home?

12:17

What's the place? There was a place in my old neighborhood closed

12:19

down called Willy's. It was a deli that

12:22

everyone who grew up in my neighborhood while it was

12:24

open still talks about their potato salad.

12:27

Wily's potato salad is this bonding thing

12:29

for people of a certain generation, specifically

12:33

if you grew up near Colgate Park in West Orange, New

12:35

Jersey. So I want to hear about those from you as

12:37

well.

12:38

And in the meantime, stop

12:40

rambling. But that really gets me because

12:42

it's, how would I say it? In the

12:44

same way that this show has been a

12:46

constant reminder to me that I'm part of a larger

12:49

humanity.

12:51

When you step into a neighborhood and you

12:53

bite into a sandwich that everybody there has been

12:55

eating for decades and you've never had, that's

12:59

culture. That's a

13:01

folk tradition

13:03

in the same way that a folk song can

13:05

be

13:06

a folk tradition or folk art can be

13:08

a folk tradition. Food

13:11

can be folk tradition.

13:14

And every time someplace closes after

13:16

many decades,

13:18

a little piece of that culture

13:20

goes away. It's not to put any pressure on our

13:22

caller. People hear that that pressure comes up. But

13:25

what are the places that are the food folk

13:27

traditions

13:29

of your region,

13:31

of your town, of your neighborhood, right

13:34

down to your individual block? I'd

13:36

love to hear about it. I find it fascinating.

13:39

Anyway, enjoy the call, everybody.

13:44

Thank you for calling Beautiful Anonymous.

13:47

A beeping noise will indicate when you are on

13:49

the show with the host. Hello.

13:53

Hi. Hey,

13:55

Chris, how are you? I'm

13:58

doing really good and I gotta say. whatever

14:01

your deal is, I like your energy already. Oh,

14:04

thank you. This will make a lot

14:06

of sense. I'm 1% girl, I call

14:09

the New Year's resolution and I'm like searching

14:12

for a phone charger because I'm at 20% and

14:14

we might not make it if I don't find it.

14:17

Okay, so yeah, let's buckle

14:19

down. You find that charger, we'll

14:21

be here as part of that journey and then you can

14:23

plug in and we can get this hour.

14:26

All right, yeah, I am good. We can

14:28

keep talking but how's your day? It's

14:32

good, it's good. I got a great life. I got no complaints.

14:35

I am having one of those weeks where it's just like,

14:38

you know, one of the nice things

14:41

about being self-employed is

14:45

you get to set your own schedule and then sometimes that also

14:47

means that your schedule just runs around the clock. So

14:50

that's all.

14:51

But I got no complaints, great

14:53

life. I can understand that. Yeah,

14:56

I'm also self-employed. So that's why I'm

14:58

able to take this call right now and I'll push

15:00

back

15:02

the call that I have with my client to whenever

15:04

this is done. So

15:05

it all works out. It's that nice

15:07

thing of being self-employed. We're like, oh, I can take time in

15:09

the day to do a thing. It just might ruin the

15:11

rest of my day but I can make that sacrifice

15:14

and judgment call myself. Okay.

15:18

Yeah, no, exactly.

15:18

So I have actually

15:21

a Google Doc for this

15:23

moment of me getting through, which

15:25

I finally did.

15:26

You've kept a Google

15:29

Doc? So I

15:30

keep Google Docs for just about everything

15:33

in my life. Very useful

15:36

because I forget things.

15:37

Okay. So it

15:39

helps. So

15:43

the first one is I won an international

15:46

grilled cheese competition that sent me to the

15:48

hospital.

15:49

You won an international grilled

15:51

cheese competition that sent you to the hospital?

15:54

National. National, okay, national.

15:56

I will not international. National,

15:58

was this a grilled cheese eating contest? or making

16:01

contests?

16:02

Unfortunately, well I

16:10

know the company. People

16:13

can probably find me if I named the company but that's

16:15

okay. So Trader Joe's had

16:17

a grilled cheese competition. I'm like obsessed

16:21

with everything Trader Joe's.

16:23

I wanted to work there and everything.

16:25

That might not be a reality because this is something I'll

16:28

tell you later. But so I looked

16:33

up previous competitions and

16:36

the person who had won the ice

16:38

cream competition,

16:39

I

16:43

had entered something for like a year prior.

16:45

They made a peanut butter and jelly milkshake.

16:48

So I was like, I make

16:51

something that exists but make

16:53

it into a grilled cheese. I have a good chance

16:55

at this. So I came up with a whole

16:57

bunch of like different concepts

17:01

and I narrowed it down to a Italian

17:04

bacon truffle grilled cheese sandwich.

17:06

So I knew

17:08

I couldn't win the competition going gluten

17:11

free. I can't eat gluten but

17:15

like in order to win this I had to choose

17:17

a very glutenous bread. So I did

17:19

and then instead of

17:22

eating

17:23

just one or just tasting it, I decided to eat

17:25

two sandwiches.

17:28

I

17:29

couple like within the next day or two I started

17:31

developing all this chest pain and ended

17:33

up in the ER only to find out it was the grilled

17:35

cheese sandwich. But

17:38

like maybe two days after that

17:40

I found out that I had won the entire competition

17:43

out of 1,700 people.

17:46

So I think it was worth it. The $200 gift card I got paid to the

17:50

co-pay for the hospital. But you

17:53

know it's

17:53

to sacrifice as you have to

17:55

make. So wait hold on. Do you...

17:57

How did a grilled cheese sandwich

17:59

go? grilled cheese sent you to the hospital. So,

18:03

since

18:04

I'm not supposed to be good,

18:07

it caused so much inflammation in my body

18:09

that it was kind of indicating heart attack symptoms.

18:12

So, I was getting like shooting pain across

18:14

my chest and down my arm.

18:16

So, I ended up having to go to the ER for that.

18:19

And do you then have to- But I can find anything wrong. Do

18:22

you then, do you have to then contact

18:25

Trader Joe's and say like, I

18:29

appreciate that I've won your contest, but before

18:31

you make this or anyone else you know makes

18:34

this,

18:35

I should warn you that it

18:37

did make me feel

18:40

like I was having a heart attack.

18:42

Well, it was my own fault because I should

18:45

have never eaten the bread that I chose.

18:46

So, I mean,

18:48

I did not write a little gluten-free

18:51

disclaimer. I

18:54

didn't want to ruin my chances of winning. So-

18:57

Okay.

18:57

Was it worth it? Yes.

19:01

I still brag about it all the time. It

19:03

happened two years ago and my friends

19:05

still brag about it. So, I think

19:08

it was worth it. Okay.

19:10

Okay. That's fair. All

19:13

right. What else is on that Google doc? So,

19:17

first off, where do you think I'm from? Can

19:19

you like pick where my accent is

19:22

from? I love this. Fairly

19:28

certain from the States, not Canada.

19:31

Is that true? Not Canada. What's

19:34

that? Yes. Yes, not

19:36

Canada. Okay. Not

19:38

Canada. Let's see. There's

19:43

a combination in there. There's some Midwestern

19:45

vibe, but

19:48

a little bit of Valley girl, but I don't think

19:50

you're from California.

19:54

I have a giveaway word, I think.

19:57

Do you want me to say it? Or

20:01

do you want to keep guessing? I want to keep guessing. I

20:03

mean, you're not from the South. You're not

20:05

from Texas. I'm

20:07

going to say Minneapolis. Let's put it

20:09

out there. Is that correct or no? No,

20:12

not even close. Okay. Let's hear

20:15

the giveaway. I'm actually much

20:17

closer to you than you think. Water.

20:22

Oh, you're from Philly or South Jersey. Philly.

20:26

Yeah. Yeah. And

20:30

now it's your time, right? Yeah. That's

20:33

a giveaway word. But the rest of your... Okay.

20:36

Because now this could just become a

20:40

very micro focused semantic thing.

20:43

But I'm surprised because I'm pretty familiar

20:45

with the Philly accent because my brothers lived there forever.

20:47

Our producer Andrea Quinn just typed in

20:49

our shared document, ha ha,

20:51

yes, Wooter gang, because she says Wooter,

20:54

South Jersey. But the rest

20:56

of your accent doesn't scream Philly to me. Oh,

21:00

I'm surprised. I've

21:02

been told I have a very... I

21:05

hear it there with the very... Okay.

21:09

Yeah. I mean, I'm not like super Philly,

21:11

but maybe like living in New York for

21:13

six years, like neutralize things a bit.

21:16

Maybe. I don't know.

21:19

Okay. That's fair. Yeah.

21:21

All right. Yeah. But

21:23

that leads into... This would

21:25

have been a dead giveaway. I

21:28

grew up in my

21:30

grandparents' hokey shop. I'll

21:34

give you like a quick summary and then you can ask

21:36

anything. I grew up with my grandparents'

21:38

hokey shop and then I moved

21:41

to New York, became a girlfriend and decided to move to New York.

21:43

I thought I would never, ever move

21:45

back in a million years instead. I would never work

21:47

there again. But

21:49

I'm currently working there now.

21:51

My mom seated me and I was just like, nope, I'm

21:53

talking to Chris so I cannot help you.

21:58

No, wait, you were saying hoey shop? shop? Oh

22:02

hoagie hoagie sandwich. Hoagie.

22:04

Oh, like a what I would call a sub shop. Wait,

22:07

you live in Philly and you sell hoagies?

22:10

And I'm Italian. Yeah,

22:13

it makes sense.

22:14

This is the most that's the

22:16

most Philly thing you could do is sell

22:18

hoagies. Exactly.

22:21

That's where I asked you where you thought I was from

22:23

before I gave it out away with the

22:25

hoagie shop. And you said including

22:28

cheesesteaks? And

22:30

cheesesteaks, yup, meatballs.

22:33

They pretty much though have had the same menu

22:35

for.

22:35

Roast pork? We got the roast pork? You know the

22:37

90's juniors? No, no

22:40

roast pork. I'm sorry. Well, because

22:42

I'll say too, for people who don't know, even

22:44

I wasn't aware of this until my brother moved there.

22:46

Everybody talks about the Philly cheesesteak,

22:49

but Philly has another Philly sandwich,

22:51

the roast pork sandwich, right?

22:53

Sure. I'm not that well versed in sandwiches

22:57

outside of my shop or grilled cheese sandwiches,

22:59

unfortunately. So

23:01

you sell hoagies in Philly. That

23:04

would be like if I lived in Jersey and I was

23:06

like, I'm a

23:08

mafia don who sits in traffic all day. Like

23:10

it's really odd brand to be a hoagie

23:12

salesman from Philly.

23:14

Salesperson, apologies. Yeah.

23:17

Yeah, no, it

23:19

definitely is. Like I said, I

23:21

say water, I'm Italian and I

23:23

sell hoagies. I can't get more Philly

23:25

than that.

23:26

So you're dealing all day, people

23:28

coming in. Can I get one whiz without?

23:31

What was that? One whiz without.

23:35

Oh no, sorry. We

23:37

don't do whiz. That's one

23:39

staple. We just do American approval loan

23:42

and that's it. We're strictly against whiz.

23:44

I think it would probably kill

23:46

my 90 year old grandparents that

23:49

still work there if

23:51

we put whiz on the sandwiches or

23:54

on the steaks.

23:54

It's a bold step because we should say for anybody

23:57

who's not been to Philly or is not versed with this. Philly

24:01

cheesesteaks, there's a very specific ordering

24:03

process where you pick your type of cheese and you

24:05

say with or without meaning the peppers and onions,

24:07

correct?

24:08

That's not exactly how...

24:10

I have to tell you a little secret.

24:13

I've never had a Philly cheesesteak outside

24:15

of our like Kobe shop, so

24:18

I don't know. That makes me maybe

24:20

a little less Philly.

24:21

This is wild. You

24:24

sell cheesesteaks in Philly without

24:27

Wizz as an option. I am of course for anybody

24:29

listening, you can get a few different types

24:31

of cheeses but usually one is Wizz, cheese

24:33

Wizz and you can say Wizz with or

24:35

Wizz without and the big joke is

24:37

Wizz without

24:39

and the idea that you sell cheesesteaks

24:41

in Philly without a Wizz option, do

24:44

people like your cheesesteaks or are the hoagies the

24:46

more popular option? Because I could see the

24:49

lack of Wizz being a barrier of entry

24:51

to a lot of Philly area residents

24:54

and this is the type of important conversation I've

24:56

always wanted to have on this show.

24:58

Perfect and here I am today. I'm

25:03

pretty pretty

25:03

50-50 split over like

25:06

you know all the 91-92

25:08

years that we have been open.

25:12

It's really a mix between the two of the

25:16

Italian special and the

25:18

Philly cheesesteak. I would

25:21

maybe say the special is a

25:23

touch more popular that

25:25

has been featured in the

25:29

Philadelphia magazine recently so

25:32

I'm gonna probably say like maybe

25:36

60-40 with the Italian

25:39

special.

25:40

Now you mentioned your shop's been around

25:42

for over 90 years? Yes.

25:47

And your grandparents are still running it? Yes.

25:52

They are as much as they can. I mean 185 and 190

25:54

so obviously

25:57

they have their

25:58

limitations but I mean the fact that they

26:00

could still do it, like, that's

26:02

pretty amazing. I don't know. Yeah. And then

26:07

you mentioned it's a multi.

26:09

I'm sorry. No, it's a multi what

26:11

it's a multi what?

26:14

Multigenerational business.

26:17

I think

26:21

the

26:21

original owners, my grandparents, my parents

26:23

and then me and that's all who works in the store.

26:25

Maybe we have like one or two people help. Like

26:28

the main people right now are my grandparents,

26:30

parents, and then I help occasionally

26:33

against my will. But, you know.

26:36

And is the idea your parents

26:39

are, is there already a transition that your parents

26:41

will take over as your grandparents retire

26:43

or pass?

26:46

Yes, they will. And

26:48

then will you someday be taking over from your parents? Because

26:50

you sound resistant. You left for New York for a while,

26:52

which is a real sin in Philadelphia.

26:54

You're saying you will work there against

26:56

your will. But is it

26:58

something that you know in your heart you will keep going

27:01

someday or not? So,

27:05

I don't know. It goes back and forth. I

27:08

don't want to, but then I feel like a lot

27:10

of random things that have happened in my life

27:13

that I didn't want to happen to happen. So,

27:15

I realized that you can never say

27:17

no because I never expected to live

27:20

above the hoagie shop again. But here

27:23

I am. I never expected

27:25

to leave New York. But I also never expected

27:27

to live in New York. So, as

27:30

much as I resist and say if I did

27:32

open a restaurant, I would want to open some bougie,

27:35

gluten-free, allergy friendly

27:37

high-end restaurant, I might as well

27:40

maybe in 10-15 years end up

27:42

here making hoagies for the rest of my

27:44

life until I'm 90.

27:45

Who knows? It's

27:48

interesting because I really romanticize

27:50

places exactly like your place.

27:54

And I have a few places

27:56

in my life that

27:59

there's a place in my

28:02

hometown, my old neighborhood. I'd

28:04

be shocked if I haven't mentioned it in close to 400 episodes.

28:07

Jimmy Buffs

28:08

in West Orange, home of the Italian hot dog.

28:10

Look it up. I've been going there since I was-

28:12

I've heard you mention it before. I've been

28:14

going there since I was born. I grew up right

28:17

down the block. My mom grew up like right around

28:19

the corner. She's been

28:21

going there since it opened.

28:24

It's the taste of home. It's

28:26

a place that I get to return to no matter

28:28

how many strange

28:31

twists my life has taken.

28:34

At my highest moments, I could go there

28:36

and I could feel normal and I could remind myself

28:38

not to get too big for my britches. At

28:40

the times where things feel most stressful, I

28:43

can go there and remember that the world is small

28:46

and that things don't matter as much if I

28:48

don't let them matter as much. It's

28:50

a place that has kept me in check

28:53

in certain areas. It's a place that has picked me up

28:56

in others. If it ever went away,

28:58

it would be like an actual piece

29:00

of me went away. If

29:04

your shop's been around for 90 years, there's

29:06

no way that you don't have people who

29:08

feel that way about you.

29:11

I mean so many people come

29:14

or so many people come and say that they've

29:16

been coming in probably since

29:18

they were born and they remember we

29:21

had another location. We were

29:23

in Chester, Pennsylvania

29:25

before it got like super dangerous. They

29:30

remember coming into that store and that

29:32

was like 1931. I

29:37

believe it was. So like that's

29:39

a long time ago. So I know it's ingrained

29:42

a lot of people, especially

29:44

in this neighborhood. It would

29:46

probably crush them if we did

29:50

ever decide to close.

29:52

I mean I guess not

29:55

we, probably me because

29:58

I'd be the next in line.

29:59

because my sister is not into

30:02

food she actually doesn't even like to touch peppers

30:04

or onions so that does not

30:06

work so it it would be me

30:10

so I feel like you put a lot of pressure on

30:12

me now to keep this open

30:14

and alive.

30:16

Let's

30:19

pause there. I'm

30:21

a big fan of small businesses

30:23

but I'm not trying to force anyone to keep small businesses

30:25

open against their will so let me just take

30:27

a breath lets you take a breath we're

30:29

gonna hear more about that and I promise you so much

30:32

more when we get back. Hey

30:34

everybody Chris Gethard here and you know what I did this morning?

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31:09

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show exist. Now let's get back to the phone call.

33:03

It would be me. So

33:06

I feel like you put a lot of pressure on me now

33:08

to keep this open

33:10

and alive.

33:10

Well, I want to ask you about it.

33:14

We're joking about it, but I do want to ask you,

33:17

you're someone who has dreams. You left for New York

33:19

for a while. You've made a couple,

33:21

I mean, it's very clear you have love for this place.

33:24

You understand it's fascinating, but you've also

33:26

said, this

33:27

is

33:31

not exactly what you were going

33:33

to sign up for, but maybe you will do it. But

33:37

how do you balance that as someone

33:39

who's part of a family lineage small

33:41

business when you have your own dreams? How

33:43

do you balance that feeling of responsibility

33:46

both to your grandparents and parents,

33:48

let alone your customers?

33:50

And also needing to balance that responsibility

33:53

that you have your own desires in life that might

33:55

not always cross over with that.

33:57

That's a real thing.

33:59

So I think I kind of see it through

34:02

my parents. So I don't think

34:04

this is what they want it to do with

34:06

their lives. They're doing it more,

34:09

I think, out of obligation. And they're

34:11

in their 60s now. So it's kind of like

34:14

their job, it's ingrained in them. But

34:17

I feel like they had other dreams and desires.

34:19

I don't necessarily know what those were. But

34:22

I think it got so wrapped up

34:24

into the store that there's

34:26

no way of leaving or living

34:29

life. So when

34:31

my sister and I, we moved to New York together, we

34:34

kind of had this insight. We

34:36

were literally living in this hoagie

34:39

shop. We did live about five minutes away, but for

34:41

a couple years of our lives, we did live here. So it was

34:43

really part of our life every

34:46

single day. And when

34:48

we moved away, we were just like, yeah, it's

34:51

just kind of crazy. It's a lot

34:53

of work. We can tell that

34:56

they're happy, obviously, to some extent. But

34:58

it's not like they're following their

35:01

passion. So when I went

35:03

to New York, I'm a graphic designer, I

35:06

was able to go and follow that passion

35:08

until at 25, I

35:11

got really sick with

35:14

Lyme disease, then

35:17

a concussion, then COVID three times, and then a

35:19

surgery. And that's ultimately

35:21

why I ended up moving back here. And

35:24

so I kind of have to really reevaluate my

35:26

entire life,

35:29

because

35:32

I didn't get the opportunity to fully live

35:35

the life that I wanted in my 20s, due

35:38

to the chronic illness that overtook me. So

35:41

that's kind of why I don't necessarily

35:44

want to continue with this,

35:47

because I was part of those

35:49

years. And as

35:51

I like, I guess continue to realign what

35:54

I want to do in the future, this is

35:57

not necessarily it. Do I want to keep

35:59

in the food? industry? I think

36:01

so, but maybe not this.

36:04

Exactly. Do

36:07

you speak openly about that with your parents and

36:09

your grandparents? Yes.

36:12

It usually turns into a, well,

36:14

no, my parents are okay with it. I never really told

36:16

my grandparents. They're good. They don't need

36:19

to know. My parents do understand

36:22

that and actually they're

36:24

okay with us

36:26

not continuing to

36:28

do that and following what we want to do. I

36:30

think that's mostly because they

36:32

didn't necessarily want to do

36:34

this with our lives. They,

36:39

I guess, want to see better for us. If it's not

36:41

this, I think they're okay with it.

36:44

Yeah. That's a real,

36:50

it's a real easy thing. It's

36:53

real easy for me to romanticize it. And

36:55

there is something so romantic about the fact that your

36:57

grandparents are there, 80s, 90s.

37:00

Your

37:00

parents took over and

37:03

maybe put their own dreams aside for the family

37:05

legacy. And then you're going, I don't know

37:07

that that's going to be

37:09

part of my destiny. There is something so

37:11

romantic about the story, but it's easy for me to sit

37:13

here and go, well,

37:16

that sandwich is clearly special to people.

37:18

They can't go away. It's easy for me when you're going,

37:21

no, no, no.

37:23

I've put in a lot of time and work to be who I am.

37:25

And I've also faced adversity and I've also gotten

37:27

knocked down and I've been sick and I want to

37:30

see the world and do things and I have other ideas.

37:33

It's very real.

37:35

But I do just want to say to the

37:39

places, to my

37:41

knowledge, I've never been, who knows? Maybe by

37:43

some miracle when visiting my brother, I have randomly

37:46

eaten one of your sandwiches. It is possible. I've

37:48

been to Philly dozens of times in my life, but

37:52

I will just say,

37:54

first of all, you're allowed

37:57

to put it to bed if it's time to put it to bed.

38:00

And if people are sad, they're

38:03

sad. It will

38:05

have been around at that point for over a

38:07

hundred years when you take it over, right? Your

38:09

parents are going to be running this place for a while.

38:13

And a hundred years is a great run. Exactly. And

38:15

a hundred years, when your family is put in

38:18

a century, you're

38:20

allowed to put it to bed, even if it breaks some

38:22

people's hearts.

38:24

And that's a choice you can make for yourself. But I do also

38:26

just want to say on my end too, I just want to say like,

38:29

thank you to you and your parents and your grandparents, even

38:31

having not eaten the sandwich, because

38:34

it's just so hard for small

38:39

businesses to survive that long. And

38:42

there's so many bureaucratic hoops to jump

38:44

through and there's so many corporate

38:49

driven places to compete with. And

38:51

there's so many, so many

38:53

ways it can go wrong. But

38:56

at the end of the day, a really

39:01

great sandwich

39:04

can just make you feel

39:06

better if you're having

39:08

a tough time. And

39:10

I just want to say that we live in a world

39:13

right now where it's fame

39:16

and influencers

39:19

and even in the food world, it's like, oh,

39:21

this chef has TikTok videos that are blowing

39:24

up or, you know, so many

39:26

chefs now who can get buzzed

39:28

about restaurants off the ground

39:31

because they go and they compete on

39:33

like these cooking channel shows

39:35

where it's who could beat Bobby

39:38

Flay and who can the Iron Chef

39:40

and Top Chef and

39:42

it's like competitive in this game. But at

39:44

the end of the day, somebody

39:47

in their eighties making

39:51

you a sandwich that

39:53

you had that tasted the same when you

39:55

were 40 and when you were 30 and when

39:57

you were 20 and you were 10 and you were 40.

39:59

There

40:02

is something about that that is truly

40:07

magical and

40:10

also you know that the families

40:13

behind businesses like that are

40:16

not getting they're not flying around on private

40:18

jets they're

40:19

not driving around in Porsches running sandwich

40:21

shops in Philly.

40:23

It's a sacrifice your family's also made for

40:25

the happiness of others so I do just want

40:27

to thank you. Thank

40:31

you. That was yeah

40:33

no very nice. Yeah I think

40:37

one of the interesting things about it you were saying

40:39

you know there's like all these kick-talk influencers

40:41

now and people going like food network to be

40:43

to you know blow up. We

40:45

never blew up like that and we were luckily

40:48

you know able to keep in business almost

40:50

for 100 years at this point. We

40:52

never even advertised anywhere

40:54

by Nana she always

40:57

says

40:58

that the advertisement

41:00

is in the bag so like that sandwich

41:03

that like you know tastes the same

41:05

from that day in 2023 back to 1931 there

41:12

was like you know very little changes in

41:14

it that's what you know keeps the customers

41:16

coming back and the

41:19

word of mouth luckily we were able

41:21

to survive through the pandemic.

41:23

I know a lot of businesses did

41:26

shut down one thing that did happen

41:28

was due

41:30

to staffing shortages and

41:32

just COVID and having you know 90 year

41:34

old grandparents you know

41:36

still working there and this is also

41:38

our house so it's like you know kind

41:40

of live in a Bob's burger world but so

41:43

we actually

41:44

have had to just

41:46

operate with just takeout

41:49

only nowadays which a lot of customers

41:51

are like you know sad about

41:53

because they loved coming in talking to

41:55

my grandparents so many people felt like

41:58

family like one guy who passed away

41:59

recently literally just called

42:02

us his family, would give us Christmas gifts,

42:04

birthday gifts, ever since I was born. So

42:07

there really is like, you know, just something

42:09

beautiful to just the whole way

42:12

it's operated for all these years.

42:17

And also a beautiful chaos, always

42:19

chaos going on. Yeah,

42:22

I mean, and that's saying a

42:24

lot, cause you and I both know when you're in the Philly

42:27

area, people

42:29

have a very high tolerance for what

42:31

the rest of the country considers chaos. So for

42:34

you to say there's a lot of chaos, that's

42:36

a real thing.

42:38

Cause Philly people

42:40

will go hard in a chaotic direction. It's

42:42

part of what's amazing about that town

42:45

and so intimidating about that town.

42:49

It is, you get some, you

42:51

know, very interesting and special

42:53

characters, we'll put it nicely. Indeed.

43:00

Indeed. Yeah.

43:03

I love it. Oh, I have a question. I

43:06

do have a question for you. So I was very

43:08

obsessed with the action

43:11

park documentary. Can you

43:13

tell me like what action,

43:15

I mean, I've heard you talk about it, but

43:18

what was that like? Like going

43:20

there and experiencing it. The only story

43:23

that I have that my parents went with

43:26

one of their friends and they wouldn't allow the friend on the ride.

43:30

I think because he like exceeded the weight

43:32

limit or something and they said it's

43:34

kind of crazy, but they didn't have anything cool

43:36

to tell me. So I'm looking for something cool, Chris.

43:40

I mean, so

43:42

I was in a documentary called class action

43:44

park about a very, very

43:47

unhinged waterslide park

43:50

in Vernon, New Jersey. It's on HBO

43:52

max. You can still watch it.

43:54

Warning, I say the F word way

43:56

too much. When they filmed

43:59

it, it had not been so. to HBO, I

44:01

assumed it was just going to be a thing that lived

44:04

on YouTube somewhere maybe if they even

44:06

got the edit done and instead it blew up. It

44:08

came out during that first COVID year and everyone

44:11

watched it. I had also just moved back to

44:13

Jersey and I could barely walk down the street

44:15

in Jersey without somebody stopping me to

44:17

yell action park at me, which

44:20

was wild, including one time when I was walking

44:22

on a road in the woods by myself

44:24

on a nice walk and a man in a Porsche skidded

44:27

to a halt rolled down the window and screamed action

44:29

park at me. So it was weird. Yeah, action park

44:31

is

44:31

legit. Like it

44:34

was genuinely dangerous. It

44:36

was genuinely a

44:38

water park where when you got there, you realized

44:41

that it did

44:43

not feel like anyone was in charge. It

44:46

felt like you were in charge, but when

44:48

you're a 12 or 13 year old kid, you know you're not

44:51

supposed to be that much in charge and

44:53

people did get hurt a lot.

44:55

People did go there and get like really drunk

44:57

and go on water slides and

45:00

it was wild. It

45:04

deserves its reputation. It's not overhyped.

45:07

It was a dangerous place. It was wild.

45:09

I'm glad I got to go a couple of times

45:11

and I'm also glad that my

45:16

son will not go. That's where it's

45:18

like as a kid, man, did I have

45:20

so much fun there. As a parent, I'd

45:22

be horrified to think of Cal there.

45:25

Like that's the vibe on that place.

45:27

All right.

45:28

Yeah, that

45:30

sounds about where I did see the documentary,

45:33

but I'm just kind of curious on your take

45:35

outside of that. I guess it was

45:38

fun for the time being. I guess whatever you classify

45:40

dangerous fun.

45:41

I don't even know if it was fun. I

45:44

don't even know if it was fun. Did you get injured?

45:48

I didn't get injured too bad.

45:51

I got into an accident on the Alpine slide,

45:54

but I didn't break my neck or my back or anything.

46:00

Yeah, I mean, I did, you know, one

46:02

common injury that most people had there was the whole

46:05

thing was paved, but you weren't allowed to wear

46:07

your flip flops on the rides. So you would

46:10

get to the bottom of the ride.

46:11

You have to walk back up the paved areas barefoot

46:14

to go get your flip flops back on, or your

46:16

water shoes or your water shoes, as

46:18

you would say. And a lot of people

46:21

did due to that pavement, they did get

46:23

chopped meat feet, which is a really bad

46:26

condition to have when the paving

46:28

conditions at Action Park just make you have chopped

46:30

up feet because you have chopped meat feet. A

46:33

phrase coined by my good friend Mike D that

46:35

has made me laugh since I was a teenager.

46:42

Gotta watch out for that. Chopped meat feet. Yeah,

46:46

it sounds pretty terrible. Yeah,

46:49

yeah, pretty bad. So

46:53

I have my Google Docs open and

46:55

I was gonna have you pick

46:57

the next topic. So

47:00

we could talk about fostering 30 cats.

47:04

Talking about what cats? I

47:07

fostered over 30 cats. At

47:09

the same time?

47:11

No, not at the same time, but in my time in New York,

47:14

I do have to tell you, don't know if you've

47:16

ever gotten into the fostering world, but it kind

47:19

of turns into a cult. They

47:21

just keep coming and they don't

47:23

stop. The cats? I

47:26

had the cats. Yeah,

47:28

the cats. The eat

47:30

and the foster, the place that I used to foster

47:32

with would be like, I'm like, no more. My

47:35

doctor said that if I get bit one

47:37

more time, it's gonna be bad. I can't

47:39

get bit. I already have like Lyme

47:41

disease and Cothysian Bartnella. Like I literally

47:44

can't catch any more disease. And she was just one

47:46

more. It's a kitten. And

47:48

then she's a picture of a kitten. And

47:51

I can't say no, but

47:53

then, you know,

47:56

they just keep coming in and it was a wild

47:58

ride. Luckily.

47:59

I only ended up taking

48:02

two if I did not, if I took

48:04

more than two, there's no way. My parents

48:06

would have let me live with them. But

48:09

it was interesting because now I go

48:12

back to New York to cap it.

48:14

Like I literally make special trips there to

48:16

cap it with people that

48:19

I used to work with in that

48:22

foster or the rescue.

48:25

So that's been an interesting life I never

48:27

thought I would get myself into.

48:30

Yeah, that's intense. And

48:32

then so you take care of the cats and then the cats get

48:35

adopted away and you're happy that you've shepherded

48:37

them to a new home. Do you have

48:39

a lot of cats personally or is this just a

48:41

fostering thing?

48:44

Just two. I

48:46

don't do it anymore. It was a very

48:49

New York thing. Minus I do like

48:51

sometimes when I go watch my friend's cat like

48:53

she might have 10 because three of her own

48:55

and seven that she's fostering. So I've got

48:58

fully out of it. But

49:00

at home I only have two.

49:04

Luckily that I didn't get more into that. I

49:06

think being single and

49:08

having more than three cats,

49:10

more than two cats at 30 is a bit

49:13

of a red flag.

49:14

It would be a conversation at the least. It

49:16

would be a conversation at the least if you do plan

49:18

on actively dating. Exactly.

49:22

So

49:23

because of that I don't think

49:26

I can get any more right now. But

49:29

it's okay. Like I said, I

49:31

still go to New York and sometimes watch 10

49:33

at one time. So it's

49:37

quite the journey. I do

49:39

have a funny story I could tell you. I

49:42

was casting for

49:44

a former, it was actually a former professor

49:46

in Jersey City. So go to

49:49

her house, get the keys. Oh,

49:52

sorry. You were, I wasn't sure

49:54

because you have a lot to say. So I'm not sure if you just

49:56

said that you are a former professor

49:58

from Jersey City or if that's who you were casting for.

49:59

for? Oh,

50:02

that's what I was captioning for. Yeah. Got

50:04

it. Okay. Got

50:06

it. So it's captioning for her.

50:08

She's on her way to Italy. I'm

50:10

going from like Harlem,

50:12

traveling from Harlem, the big

50:14

suitcase for the week to Jersey

50:16

City, get there,

50:18

open the front door, open, go to her

50:21

door. It doesn't open. She gives me

50:23

two sets of keys that

50:26

open the front door. But the

50:29

problem is she's in

50:31

midair

50:32

going to Italy. And I'm stuck

50:34

with a big suitcase, two

50:37

unfed kittens that are in the apartment that I can't

50:39

get into and just kind of chilling

50:41

in Jersey City with no way to enter. So

50:45

somehow I'm going to touch with someone that

50:47

gives me access to

50:50

the

50:51

key block thing outside.

50:54

So

50:54

for some reason, they should never give me

50:56

this. They gave me the master key

50:59

to the entire apartment, but

51:01

opened up every single apartment

51:04

in the building. So go

51:06

in there, check on

51:08

the cast,

51:10

leave, everything's fine. Go out

51:12

to get lunch or whatever. Come back.

51:15

The problem is I don't

51:18

know my right from my left. I

51:20

have no idea. If you say right or left at

51:22

any point in time, I will

51:24

probably do the opposite.

51:27

So I go back

51:30

to the apartment and say two to the left, two

51:32

to the left. Two to the left is two

51:35

to my right. See if I don't know the difference. And

51:39

I walk into someone else's apartment.

51:41

They have two casts. And I'm like,

51:43

hey, girl, what's up? Talking to

51:45

the cast. And then I look up

51:47

and there's humans there and it's not my apartment.

51:51

And instead of saying anything, I run away.

51:53

I just run away back into my apartment.

51:56

And

51:58

nope. And then I was like.

51:59

I just walked

52:02

into somebody's apartment. I was like, maybe

52:04

I should do something about that. So I go and knock, and

52:07

I'm like, I'm so sorry. I

52:09

have a master key, and I didn't need to walk

52:12

into your apartment. I'm watching my friend's car

52:14

down the hall. I'm

52:16

so sorry, okay, but I said, well, can

52:19

I come over and see the kittens? And I was like,

52:21

I mean, at that point I couldn't say no. So

52:24

this woman comes and sits with the cat.

52:27

No idea who she is. I don't know if my friend knows

52:29

who she is.

52:31

And we just chill

52:33

there for about 20 minutes until

52:35

she figures it's time to leave. And

52:38

then she's

52:38

like, you know what? I figured, I think,

52:41

I noticed that my

52:43

front door key

52:44

opens my door

52:46

as well. So I was trying to get that checked out. So now

52:49

that you walked into my apartment with

52:51

the master key, I think I should get my key

52:53

checked out as well.

52:55

It was a very odd,

52:57

outstanding situation,

53:00

to say the least. I'm

53:07

really loving what your Google Doc

53:09

is yielding. Just very,

53:13

very consistent stories where I just go, I

53:15

like this. Yeah, there's

53:18

a cat obsession. You

53:21

help run a small business that's been around for

53:23

a hundred years. I do want to ask you more about, not

53:26

to go grim, but I'd be a real jerk if I didn't

53:28

say,

53:29

I've always heard that Lyme disease

53:32

can totally upend someone's

53:34

life. And it does sound like that happened to you. And I just

53:36

wanted to say, I'm really sorry about that.

53:39

Yeah, I don't know how much time do we have left?

53:42

We have 22 minutes left. I

53:47

could fill up 22 minutes of Lyme

53:49

disease. But in my brain, I'll

53:51

probably shift into another direction at some point.

53:54

So we'll

53:54

see where it goes.

54:00

Let's pause. That's a cliffhanger. Will the next 22

54:02

minutes be Lyme disease? Or will we bounce

54:04

from topic to topic? It's the second one. But

54:07

there's a lot of Lyme disease in there. It's interesting

54:09

stuff. We'll hear about that and more

54:11

when we get back.

54:17

Okay,

54:17

thank you to all of our advertisers. Now

54:19

let's finish off the phone call.

54:22

I could fill up 22 minutes

54:25

of Lyme disease. But now in my

54:27

brain, I'll probably shift into another direction

54:29

at some point. So we'll

54:31

see where it goes. So

54:34

basically when I was 16,

54:37

I started experiencing

54:39

these random symptoms. I

54:41

was super nauseous all the time and I had a chronic

54:43

cough. And anybody from

54:45

the age of 16 to 25 knew me as the

54:48

girl who coughs. That was me. And

54:53

no one could quite tell me what it was. But

54:55

you know, I was still able to have these symptoms.

54:58

But I was still able to live like a

55:00

normal life. I traveled. I

55:03

went to Europe a few times. I

55:05

think the year that I turned 25, maybe like 2018,

55:08

whatever it was, I

55:10

took three trips on three

55:13

different vacations and I was doing pretty well. And

55:16

then by 25, I started just

55:18

getting kind of worse and worse. I

55:24

started, I was like a really good student in school.

55:28

Like I graduated like summa cum laude,

55:30

you know, got nominated for

55:32

different design awards. But

55:34

I was at work and I was like, do I have ADHD

55:37

all of a sudden? I'm pretty sure I probably

55:39

had ADHD, but like it never

55:41

affected my work.

55:43

So I'm like,

55:44

why am I getting poor reviews at

55:46

work, severe panic attacks?

55:50

I'm nauseous all the time, coughing

55:52

to the point where I worked at a corporate

55:54

company and totally

55:57

not supposed to do this because it was a healthcare company

55:59

to make matters. worse, my boss

56:01

came to me and was like, Hey, so like

56:03

your cough is bothering people. So if

56:06

you don't mind, you like maybe

56:08

go sit in that room that has like the

56:11

vent running all the time so you don't bother

56:13

them. Um,

56:13

which probably

56:16

should have maybe reported

56:17

that to HR, but I'm not that type

56:19

of person that likes to complain. So I just

56:22

made the best of it and I went to go sit in there and

56:24

nobody was seeing what I was doing anyway. So I could

56:26

kind of chill and relax and work

56:29

at my own pace. But you

56:31

know, I realized that there was something going on.

56:33

So then I started a journey of like

56:35

trying to seek some sort of diagnosis. I

56:38

went to about 10 doctors.

56:42

Um, by the last doctor, she's like, you

56:44

just have acid reflux. And I'm like, I'm pretty

56:47

sure all this stuff is just, it

56:49

can't be just acid reflux. She's like, if you just take

56:51

this medicine, come back in the month, you'll be fine. So like at

56:54

that point I completely lost it. Um,

56:57

my cream function well with all the panic attacks

56:59

I was having. So I like, I texted a friend

57:01

and I was like, do you know a doctor anywhere

57:04

in the country that could help me? She's like, actually, I have

57:06

this integrative doctor. I'm here right now.

57:09

Go see her to have a consultation and maybe

57:12

something will come of it. So

57:15

probably like a couple months later I did

57:17

and she found that have Lyme disease

57:20

and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, like I don't,

57:23

this is, this can't be Lyme disease. Um,

57:27

no way that's causing all these symptoms. You get bit by

57:29

a tick. You have a rash. I

57:31

never had any of that.

57:32

I really did research it because I did

57:35

not think that's what I had,

57:38

but as the months progressed, I like kept getting

57:40

worse. And I was like, I guess I'll just take those

57:43

antibiotics for four

57:45

months that she's saying and just try.

57:47

Cause some things

57:49

gotta give. Um, but I

57:52

guess to go along with that, like I had seek

57:55

other opinions in New York, more like traditional

57:57

settings and the doctors

57:59

really. No, this is not why. That's

58:02

why I didn't believe it, but when no one else had

58:04

any other answer for me, I was like, I need to do something.

58:07

So I did

58:09

this treatment. It took me out

58:11

of work at 25.

58:16

Put me on a medical leave. And

58:19

I got somewhat better

58:21

than the pandemic happened and working

58:23

from home definitely helped

58:25

because I

58:28

didn't have to do all the traveling, back

58:30

and forth to work and just not having to

58:32

deal with other humans in the office is

58:35

also kind of relaxing in a way. Kind

58:37

of you can pace yourself. So it did

58:40

good. I thought I was cured

58:42

from Lyme. I did not know that there

58:44

was a difference between Lyme disease

58:47

and chronic Lyme disease. I did not

58:49

know that world. So

58:53

I'm sorry, I'm recovering from COVID and

58:55

my lungs are still not well. And

59:00

sorry, I lost my turn of thought. Okay, yeah,

59:02

so then I was doing well. Like

59:05

I got, I used to ride like a scooter

59:07

around New York, like not like the electric

59:10

ones, but the other ones probably fitting

59:12

to everything else that I'm telling you. Back

59:15

to riding my scooter and everything was going

59:18

great. Then I got a concussion

59:20

brushing my teeth. If you remember

59:22

me telling you this, maybe like in

59:24

December when I did the,

59:28

sorry,

59:30

the

59:32

New Year's resolution call. I had a concussion

59:34

brushing my teeth. And then that was

59:36

kind of the beginning of the end because it

59:38

reset

59:39

off. The,

59:42

now I realized this chronic

59:44

Lyme disease. And ever since

59:46

then, I had to like

59:48

leave New York, got a leg surgery, COVID

59:51

three times did not help because of my compromised

59:54

immune

59:54

system. And COVID knocks me out for

59:56

at least a month or two.

59:59

I've just been all downhill since then,

1:00:01

but I've made a lot of friends

1:00:04

in the chronic Lyme community. I've

1:00:06

accepted that I have chronic Lyme because

1:00:09

I was not accepting that before. Accepting

1:00:11

is a big part of healing, I've learned. And

1:00:15

I'm just kind of trying to advocate now, even

1:00:18

though it's like, you know, definitely

1:00:21

changed my life. It's changed the course

1:00:23

of plans of how I see things. I'm

1:00:26

trying to make the best of it and trying to help other

1:00:28

people that have chronic Lyme along

1:00:30

the way.

1:00:32

I'm really sorry you're dealing with all that,

1:00:34

that's brutal. Got

1:00:36

a lot of positive energy for somebody who's been put

1:00:38

through all that. Yeah,

1:00:42

I like to always see like the positive

1:00:44

side and everything, I think it helps. That's

1:00:50

really, I'm continually

1:00:52

baffled because I feel like I've heard many

1:00:54

stories of Lyme disease from friends and

1:00:56

through the grapevine

1:00:58

where it's a thing that

1:01:00

often gets missed or misdiagnosed

1:01:03

in the early phases. And

1:01:07

I do find myself continuously

1:01:09

baffled as to why that is, as to why

1:01:12

it seems to be a thing that you

1:01:14

hear it a lot of times that people go, oh, I

1:01:16

had a lot of chronic symptoms going on, somebody couldn't

1:01:18

figure it out, or somebody told me it was X, Y,

1:01:20

and Z. And then finally a doctor

1:01:23

realized it was Lyme and we got to work on it.

1:01:25

I don't really know what's going on. I can tell you why. Yeah,

1:01:28

please, I know you know a lot better

1:01:30

than I do. Yeah,

1:01:32

so there's two, so

1:01:35

like if you catch it, you see the bullseye,

1:01:37

you go to the doctor, you get a treat it or you see a tick

1:01:39

bite.

1:01:40

And that's

1:01:42

kind of one stage of it. So

1:01:47

the second stage of it is

1:01:50

you get it, you kind of get sick for a

1:01:52

couple months and

1:01:57

with a little bit more aggressive treatment, it can

1:01:59

kind of go away. and then

1:02:01

in 10 to 20% of people it becomes

1:02:03

chronic and can last a lifetime.

1:02:06

You can go into remission with

1:02:09

the correct treatment but it

1:02:13

is definitely very difficult to treat

1:02:15

and the big kind of distinction between

1:02:17

the two is kind of how the CDC

1:02:20

and the medical community treat it. So

1:02:23

half the medical community and I've experienced

1:02:25

this when I've gone to

1:02:26

various doctors, they

1:02:28

do not

1:02:29

believe chronic Lyme disease exists.

1:02:31

They just think you get bit by a tick

1:02:33

if you have a bull's-eye rash, you get treated

1:02:35

with two weeks of docicycline

1:02:38

and you'll be good to go and

1:02:39

like I was saying like 10 to 20% of

1:02:42

people that doesn't work.

1:02:45

So you have to seek

1:02:47

specialized care so a

1:02:49

Lyme-liter medical

1:02:52

doctor or another doctor through this organization

1:02:54

called iLabs who are highly trained

1:02:57

to treat Lyme disease and

1:03:00

if people don't know this information

1:03:03

they might not get treated

1:03:06

correctly and the

1:03:08

big like difference between that like you know

1:03:11

acute Lyme versus the chronic is

1:03:13

the chronic can present in over 300 symptoms

1:03:18

so it will become missed and

1:03:20

dismissed by a ton of doctors

1:03:23

who do not know about it. It's such a

1:03:25

complex disease that

1:03:28

I think doctors only learn

1:03:30

about it for like three hours in medical

1:03:32

school and how can you learn about those 300

1:03:35

symptoms in three hours and it also

1:03:38

makes about like 200 different

1:03:41

diseases like Minnic and

1:03:43

S. It could mimic like

1:03:46

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS

1:03:49

and a whole other host of

1:03:51

symptoms and it's just really not known

1:03:54

about in the medical community due

1:03:57

to the split and the CDC.

1:03:59

does not recognize

1:04:02

it. So with the typical testing

1:04:04

through LabCorp and

1:04:07

like Quest, it's not

1:04:09

accurate. So there's a good chance that

1:04:12

it's not going to show up on there. So

1:04:14

that's why people continue to live so

1:04:17

many years without it. You have

1:04:19

to do specialized out-of-talk

1:04:21

testing. If

1:04:23

you want to do like a full panel for

1:04:26

like more than just Lyme disease and a ton of tick-borne

1:04:28

illnesses, it could

1:04:31

cost up to $3,000 out-of-pocket.

1:04:34

And you definitely have a good

1:04:36

chance of it picking up one

1:04:38

of those tick-borne diseases.

1:04:41

And if you do that, you have to work

1:04:44

with a Lyme-literate medical doctor because

1:04:46

a regular doctor is going to just

1:04:49

tell you that this is not

1:04:51

accurate. And

1:04:54

probably if that's all on your head, I've been told

1:04:57

that before. I got sent for psychiatric

1:04:59

testing. It's

1:05:02

crazy. I'm not. I'm sick.

1:05:06

But yeah,

1:05:07

does

1:05:09

that answer your question?

1:05:10

Quite thoroughly. At least for a lot of things.

1:05:13

Quite thoroughly. Yeah? Okay. I think a lot

1:05:15

of people out there probably just heard that one. Oh, I

1:05:17

get this more than I ever have. Thank you for that.

1:05:21

Yeah, I hope so. I'm trying to spread

1:05:24

as much awareness because it affected my life

1:05:26

so much. So like if someone

1:05:28

can learn from me and seek a diagnosis,

1:05:31

it might not be Lyme disease. I'm not saying everything

1:05:33

is Lyme. If you think that it is, definitely

1:05:38

look more into it because

1:05:41

if you're experiencing that many symptoms,

1:05:44

it's not all on your head. No, it could

1:05:46

be because Lyme disease causes a lot

1:05:48

of psychiatric issues actually

1:05:50

after the first time I was treated. The

1:05:52

panic attacks that I had on a very consistent

1:05:55

basis, they went away.

1:05:56

So that

1:05:58

was cool. That is

1:06:01

cool. But with all this stuff going on, it

1:06:03

does make sense that you said, I gotta

1:06:05

go live close to family again.

1:06:08

Hearing that all this stuff added up and that's part

1:06:10

of why you wound up back in Philly. I'm like, yep,

1:06:13

that tracks. I

1:06:16

couldn't afford to continue. I loved

1:06:19

living in Forest Hills more

1:06:21

than anyone will ever know. Oh, you lived in Forest

1:06:23

Hills.

1:06:26

It was amazing. I love

1:06:28

Forest Hills. I lived in Jackson Heights for many years,

1:06:30

which is kind of right next door. It

1:06:33

is. Yeah.

1:06:37

Forest Hills is cool. I didn't spend much time

1:06:39

in

1:06:39

Jackson Heights, but

1:06:41

I know they have a good food scene, right?

1:06:43

Yes, really incredible food

1:06:45

everywhere. And then Forest Hills has

1:06:50

the Cinemark movie theater. Cinemark.

1:06:53

Yes. It was one of my favorite places

1:06:55

and right next door was Eddie's Sweet Shop, which

1:06:57

is an old school ice cream parlor that I was a huge, huge

1:06:59

fan of.

1:07:01

Oh, yeah, I know that. Yeah. I would sometimes

1:07:04

I would walk there on my way to Trader Joe's, walk past there

1:07:07

on my way to Trader Joe's. Yeah. But we'll get back to the beginning

1:07:09

of the call. But

1:07:12

yeah, no Forest Hills was definitely great.

1:07:15

So what were your favorite tacos

1:07:17

in New York? I'm a big taco enthusiast

1:07:20

and I'm always looking to try new tacos.

1:07:22

There was a place in Jackson Heights

1:07:24

on Roosevelt Avenue called Tacos Cozingo,

1:07:27

and I really did greatly enjoy it.

1:07:30

It was it was they were great tacos

1:07:33

on Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson

1:07:35

Heights, Queens. Those are the ones that come to mind right away. And

1:07:38

oh boy, though,

1:07:40

back when I still ate meat, I

1:07:42

used to live on 67th

1:07:44

Street in Woodside, Queens. So just

1:07:46

lower than Jackson Heights. And there was a

1:07:49

taco truck that used to park at the corner

1:07:51

usually of either 67th and Roosevelt or 65th place in Roosevelt. And

1:07:56

they had tacos late night

1:07:58

that were so good.

1:07:59

including this meat

1:08:02

called Campichanos,

1:08:05

which was like, you

1:08:08

know about Campichano? Oh

1:08:11

yeah, uh-huh. Which I think it's a mixture

1:08:13

of beef and pork, and

1:08:15

it was really good. Those

1:08:18

Campichanos tacos from that one truck, really

1:08:21

good.

1:08:24

Have you heard of that? That made me think of

1:08:26

the place that I know that from. Have

1:08:28

you heard of

1:08:29

I think it's called Taka-dia Ramirez?

1:08:33

And

1:08:34

I want to say Greenpoint,

1:08:35

maybe? It's

1:08:38

new, and it's like on the top of like

1:08:40

all the

1:08:41

top tacos in New York right now. They're

1:08:44

amazing. Whenever I'm capsitting, I get

1:08:46

on the bus to go there. And then

1:08:48

I order five and I regret everything

1:08:51

by the time I'm done eating the fifth one,

1:08:53

but it's really good. Haven't

1:08:56

been. I used to live in Greenpoint for a while too. I have

1:08:58

a lot of love for Greenpoint, but miss

1:09:01

tacos Ramirez, unfortunately.

1:09:05

Yeah, no. I definitely,

1:09:07

I know New York doesn't have the best taco

1:09:10

scene, like compared to, you know,

1:09:13

probably Texas and California,

1:09:15

but they have some hidden

1:09:17

gems. Have you been to Los Tacos number one?

1:09:21

No. I love that now

1:09:23

you're just telling me about tacos. This call, you

1:09:25

understand this call has gone in so many directions.

1:09:31

Yeah, that's my brain. It makes sense.

1:09:33

Great. Yeah. Can't

1:09:34

keep telling me about tacos.

1:09:38

Oh, well, they're really good. Like, they're,

1:09:40

I used to just have an location

1:09:43

in Chelsea Market. And

1:09:46

I like went there, I think after I had like an interview

1:09:49

before and, you know, moved, got my job in

1:09:51

New York and moved there. And it

1:09:54

changed my life. Because it

1:09:56

just got me really into like, cooking

1:09:58

Mexican food. And then

1:09:59

seeking out the best taco in New York and besides

1:10:03

Ramirez, most

1:10:05

tacos, number one has been like my

1:10:08

consistent favorite. They

1:10:10

make a really good Adobado taco. I

1:10:15

highly recommend it. They're all over through. They

1:10:18

have a lot of locations. Oh wait, but

1:10:20

you don't eat meat. But they had, do you like no Palis?

1:10:23

No Palis is cactus. Yeah.

1:10:26

Cactus. They have, they have one of those

1:10:29

cause I know you don't eat meat or I'm a cute one.

1:10:32

I don't know if you do that. I don't.

1:10:37

But for you for not cheating. It's

1:10:40

hard to do that. I've learned the hard way

1:10:42

with gluten. I know it's not the same, but yeah. What

1:10:49

do you love more? Tacos or cats? What

1:10:51

do you love more? Tacos or cats? Oh

1:10:55

God. You put me on the, I don't, I don't

1:10:57

know. I think in a perfect,

1:11:00

perfect world, I would just have unlimited amounts

1:11:02

of both.

1:11:05

Yeah.

1:11:09

Sorry. Unlimited tacos, unlimited

1:11:11

cats. That's a fair desire.

1:11:15

Yeah.

1:11:16

And then if I could do that with ice

1:11:18

skating and hockey in the mix, I'd be living

1:11:21

the best bike. I taught myself to ice skate. And

1:11:23

Bryant park when I didn't

1:11:25

have a job for a month.

1:11:28

And ever since that I've been ice

1:11:30

skating and I want to learn how to play hockey when

1:11:32

I stopped being sick

1:11:35

and getting concussions from brushing my teeth and

1:11:39

other random things. So those

1:11:41

three things, I'd be living the best my

1:11:43

best life. I try to incorporate it as much

1:11:46

as possible.

1:11:46

Tacos, cats and ice skating. That's your

1:11:48

best life. Yes,

1:11:51

for sure. Oof.

1:11:58

What's your best life? You can name three things.

1:12:01

My best life, if I'm being honest,

1:12:04

I'm very lucky to say that I went

1:12:07

for it and I think I've lived my best life. I

1:12:10

feel bad that there's been some anxiety and stress

1:12:12

along the way and there remains to be so, but

1:12:14

I got a

1:12:15

real cool kid. I

1:12:17

got a real cool wife. We

1:12:20

live in a nice house and

1:12:22

I think this is the best I could ask for.

1:12:26

Out here enjoying Jersey as

1:12:28

I get a little older, slowing down, taking

1:12:31

a deep breath, trying to figure out how

1:12:33

to enjoy a lot of the things that I worked so hard

1:12:35

to earn. I think I'm living

1:12:37

my best life and I'm happy to say it. That's

1:12:41

awesome. I'm glad to hear that. Yeah,

1:12:44

yeah. Who knows? I'm

1:12:46

sure I'll have more rough stretches, but for right now, I'm

1:12:48

really working on trying to remind myself of

1:12:50

the positives when they come up.

1:12:52

I'm not always the best about that because

1:12:55

there's a whole lot of negatives. Can you do it for me? It helps.

1:13:02

What was that?

1:13:04

Oh, I'm sorry. I said take it from me, staying

1:13:08

or living your life, trying to look at the

1:13:10

positive health.

1:13:12

Do you ever envision a day

1:13:15

where you take over the sandwich shop and

1:13:17

turn it into a hybrid sandwich shop

1:13:19

that retains the most popular elements of the

1:13:22

legacy menu while incorporating

1:13:24

your love of tacos into some

1:13:26

sort of forward thinking fusion?

1:13:29

I mean,

1:13:33

that would be awesome.

1:13:36

I

1:13:38

do think, so one thing I didn't tell you,

1:13:40

I'm not directly in Philly. We're

1:13:43

a little bit in the suburbs, but it's close enough we were in

1:13:45

the Philly magazine. So it counts. There's

1:13:49

a lot of suburbs that are just, I

1:13:52

think Chicago has a similar thing of like, there's

1:13:54

Chicago, there's Chicago suburbs, they're all connected.

1:13:56

Philly has a similar thing. I

1:13:58

know this.

1:14:00

We all say water, so that's all that matters.

1:14:06

But I mean, I never

1:14:08

thought of that, Chris. You might be like opening

1:14:12

my world up.

1:14:12

Well, if you want to

1:14:14

think about it, I would give you some advice. I would

1:14:17

give you some advice. You need

1:14:19

to start cooking the tacos now as

1:14:22

a special item while your grandparents are still

1:14:24

around and your folks are still around so

1:14:26

that you're integrating them into the menu so

1:14:28

that you don't take over someday and go, boom,

1:14:30

this place you love now, it's a taco shop. You've

1:14:33

got to start subtly having tacos. Infiltrate

1:14:35

the menu

1:14:37

ASAP, reinvigorating

1:14:40

your love of this

1:14:42

restaurant by merging the old

1:14:45

with your current obsession, which is tacos.

1:14:48

Who knows, perhaps there's even a way

1:14:50

to figure out how to make

1:14:52

this also a cat shelter because I know

1:14:55

cat cafes have become quite popular. I

1:14:57

wonder if there's a way to

1:14:59

do that. I don't know where

1:15:01

this shop is or if there's any nearby bodies

1:15:03

of water that freeze and can provide ice skating,

1:15:05

but

1:15:06

I think tacos could be ... That's one

1:15:08

of your big three. I think that's an achievable one. Your

1:15:12

family already runs a food serving

1:15:14

location. Yeah.

1:15:17

No, I actually almost ...

1:15:19

I applied to culinary school and almost

1:15:22

went, but the Lyme disease

1:15:24

took over. Andrea

1:15:27

did just point out that I just described

1:15:30

the plot of Hulu's hit series, The Bear,

1:15:32

which I did just watch, but you're

1:15:35

not living a dissimilar life.

1:15:39

I haven't watched it, but people have told me

1:15:41

that I should watch it and I guess I understand

1:15:44

why now. Yeah, you'd like

1:15:46

it, but it might stress you out real bad. There's

1:15:48

a lot of yelling. No,

1:15:51

I mean, all I have to do is go downstairs

1:15:53

into the Hokie shop and I'm basically living

1:15:56

that, so it's fine.

1:15:59

I love it. the one spotted on

1:16:01

TV. Yeah. I want to thank

1:16:03

you. We've got 45 seconds left. I just want

1:16:05

to make sure I say thank you because I mean from Lyme

1:16:07

disease to cats to tacos to

1:16:09

sandwich shops to almost dying

1:16:12

from a grilled cheese contest. You've

1:16:15

packed a lot into this hour. In

1:16:17

the same way that a hoagie packs in

1:16:19

your cured meats,

1:16:21

your peppers, your onions, maybe your lettuce,

1:16:23

tomato and then your vinegar and

1:16:25

oil. You've packed in a lot

1:16:28

to this call. I thank you for it.

1:16:31

Yeah, no,

1:16:33

thank you for being so interested. I'm interested

1:16:35

in it. I felt like you would like

1:16:37

the hoagie topic. I'm

1:16:40

talking Oh, right after my heart.

1:16:43

Right after my heart. We could talk

1:16:45

if you want to talk Northeastern culinary

1:16:48

working class traditions.

1:16:51

We could talk all day about that.

1:16:54

But unfortunately, our time is that finished

1:16:57

the thought finished the thought. If

1:17:00

I come to your live shows, I feel like

1:17:02

I have to just bring you a hoagie when your

1:17:04

live shows in New York. I come to New York often

1:17:07

I always try to come to your live shows.

1:17:08

What are the veggie options? What

1:17:10

are my veggie options? We

1:17:13

have hot sweet peppers, pickles,

1:17:16

tomatoes, onions. So

1:17:18

not too much. No, I'm saying veggie

1:17:20

sandwiches instead of instead

1:17:23

of having the cured meats on there.

1:17:25

That's it. But my mom makes quite

1:17:27

the cheese hoagie. Oh, I would

1:17:29

rock. You know, I'm doing a show

1:17:31

in Haddon Heights, New Jersey coming up soon.

1:17:35

All right, I will have to look at

1:17:37

your schedule

1:17:40

and see if it mixes with my schedule and you will

1:17:42

see me there with the hoagie.

1:17:43

Yeah, I mean, I don't

1:17:45

think I've ever planned to meet up with a caller

1:17:48

on the show. There have been times where I've met callers. But

1:17:51

yeah, I'll be in Haddon Heights in November, November 2.

1:17:53

So if somebody shows up with a dope

1:17:55

ass cheese hoagie, I

1:17:57

will very I will very happily

1:17:59

take it. say hello to you. And I will thank

1:18:01

you again for the call.

1:18:03

And I will touch base with you about the

1:18:06

Lyme disease and the ice skating

1:18:08

and the cats and the tacos and everything else. And

1:18:10

I thank you for the call. All

1:18:13

right. Thanks, Chris.

1:18:20

Caller, thank you so much for

1:18:23

sharing of yourself, for being curious

1:18:25

about my world, for letting us go in so many

1:18:27

different directions, some of them dark, some

1:18:30

of them light. I can't thank you enough. It

1:18:32

really means the world.

1:18:34

I have to thank our producer, Andrea

1:18:37

Quinn. I have to thank Shell Shag for providing

1:18:39

our theme music. If you want to know more about me,

1:18:42

including my live touring dates, chrisgeth.com.

1:18:45

And hey, if you like the show, please

1:18:47

hit that button that says subscribe, favorite,

1:18:50

follow, whatever it is. It helps us so much.

1:18:53

And if you like it, tell your friends. Word of

1:18:55

mouth is the best advertising there is. It's how

1:18:57

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1:19:00

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