0:01

This is a HeadGum Podcast.

0:08

What's up, shitheads? Welcome

0:13

back to another episode of High and

0:15

Mighty. It's me, your

0:17

boy, the number one book

0:19

boy, John Gaber,

0:22

standing six foot two, 299 pounds. That's

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right, folks, below 300 for the first time

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in a while. For those keeping track from

0:31

the South Shore of Nassau County, Long

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Island, it's Johnny Gene.

0:37

All you got to do is trust me. Jackson Maine

0:39

from A Star is Born, abortion is healthcare. More

0:41

topical than you as a character, that's for sure.

0:44

Also joining me in the High and Mighty Studios, Mary Lee Southern Coast, Arthur

0:47

Gabrus. Arthur, give him a shout out. Arthur

0:49

is actually resting in the living room. He is

0:51

on meds currently because he's

0:53

been having some sort of stomach issues, which is

0:55

causing thrice nightly

0:58

diarrheas around the house.

1:00

Sometimes we're up and able to get him out. Sometimes

1:02

we sleep through him trying to wake us up. It's

1:05

been

1:05

a crazy couple of nights over here

1:07

at the apartment. Don't

1:09

know why I'm going into so much detail about my dog's GI

1:11

tract, but also joining me in the High and Mighty Studios. This

1:14

person does not have diarrhea all

1:16

night. Well, I don't want to speak for them, but they

1:18

are on the podcast. We got Misha

1:21

Brown. Hey, how's it going?

1:23

Hi. Welcome.

1:26

Thank you so much for doing this. Wow,

1:29

I'm so excited. What a welcome that

1:31

was. Oh, Misha, anything

1:34

for you, my love.

1:38

I am on very little sleep

1:40

because of dog-related drama.

1:44

I feel that. Three nights in a row.

1:46

I got a little senior dog over here, 14 years

1:48

old. I know dogs are a

1:50

part of your life based on we were pitching back and forth

1:52

some ideas to talk about. It's

1:55

been a rough couple of nights. I

1:58

feel like a new parent.

2:00

just mostly scrubbing rugs

2:02

and floors. You know, I have

2:04

my two dogs, they're not seniors, they're just assholes.

2:07

I feel your pain. Yeah,

2:11

I got a couple of asshole dogs over here.

2:14

Wonderful, I rescued a few assholes. Well,

2:20

Misha, I appreciate you coming on the pod. When

2:23

I threw out, usually, you know, with the guests, he's like, hey,

2:25

you want to talk about that? You threw out world

2:27

travel, and that's something that's

2:29

been on my mind more than ever lately, because I've always

2:31

loved it, but I feel like

2:33

since pandemic and post-pandemic

2:36

into a couple of

2:38

entertainment union strikes, I haven't felt

2:41

comfortable financially or even really

2:43

this, like, state of my

2:45

being traveling. So I'm—and

2:48

I used to host a travel show, and I

2:50

hope to continue to do that at some point. But

2:53

when you said that, I was like, fuck,

2:55

I just want to talk about traveling, which

2:57

is three quarters of the fun

3:00

of traveling. I'm like, oh, have you been

3:02

to so— like, getting to someone else

3:04

who's traveled, and you could just like— like,

3:06

oh, God, I love Paris. Oh, Rutabuchi

3:08

is my favorite street. You know, like, you just go off

3:11

and shit. But what

3:13

made you pitch world travel? Are you a fan?

3:16

Do you travel because of your job? Do you travel

3:18

for fun? Have you been a lot

3:21

of places? Are you just kicking off your travel

3:23

journey? Talk to me a little bit about that. Yeah,

3:26

I have been all over the world.

3:28

It's something I think that's like really shaped me. Like, I'm

3:30

the—I'm the sort of person that's really annoying to watch

3:32

an action flick with, right? Because it'll

3:35

show a place, and I've been like, I've been there. Yeah, I've been there,

3:37

too. It's not actually filmed there. Serbia,

3:40

love it, you know. But

3:43

yeah, I worked on— I worked on cruise ships

3:45

for 10 years. Oh, wow.

3:48

As a singer? As a singer. Oh, that's

3:50

awesome. Yeah, that was pre

3:52

being a podcast host and influencer. Mostly

3:55

pre-pandemic, one— I did one ship after

3:58

they resumed because— the money, as

4:00

you were talking about, like the pandemic just raped

4:03

me when it came to finance, you know, my bank account.

4:05

And so they were like, we're doing another

4:07

ship, well, you wanna do it? And I was like, I don't wanna

4:10

do it, I have to do it. I do

4:12

not wanna be here at all, but also thank you,

4:14

God. Yeah, exactly, it was one of those. But you know, it

4:17

was a pretty cool job. I got to travel to all

4:19

seven continents, over a hundred countries.

4:22

And then like the actual gig was super

4:24

simple, like we're not gonna be singing for people when they're

4:27

off the ship. So I really got to actually explore.

4:29

So I feel like for a decade, I

4:31

got paid to travel. Right, so like,

4:34

I love this because, you know, I'm friends with so many comics

4:37

and some performers, but not really many singers.

4:39

So this is like, you're talking about one, a

4:42

handful of shows per night, nothing during

4:45

the day, because everyone's off the boat or are

4:47

swimming or whatever. So you

4:49

just have kind of like this block

4:52

of responsibility each evening and outside

4:54

of that, you're like, where are we ported

4:56

today? I'll run off and

4:58

do whatever. Like that's so

5:00

rad. No, it was, I mean, literally,

5:03

if it weren't like prison in some ways, it would be

5:05

the most incredible job because

5:08

I mean, there were, I mean, depending on the

5:10

ship, there are sometimes you don't work for five days,

5:13

you know, in a row. And then you have a show, depending

5:15

if it's like a large ship that have lots of like guest

5:17

entertainers and comics and you know,

5:19

ventriloquist coming on to give rooms. So

5:21

you're not necessarily like every night at 7.30 in

5:24

the ballroom, Misha's performing. Oh,

5:27

okay. These are like the big like

5:29

full cast shows. So you do like

5:31

a couple of them per voyage.

5:34

Oh, cool. Yeah. And

5:37

the rest of the time you were just getting blasted with

5:39

like people from all over the world

5:41

that worked in other departments. Now,

5:44

I wanted to talk about the only thing that always, I

5:46

always was afraid of performing on a cruise

5:48

ship because if you like bomb and then like you're

5:50

like getting breakfast with like all

5:52

of the people the next day and they're like, that's

5:55

the comic who fucking slipped up

5:57

and blew his line. You're like, hi. And they're

5:59

like. Hi, like does that you ever

6:02

like is that a weird part of it that

6:04

like the kind of like Captive audience

6:06

that you might see in a bathing suit the next

6:08

day or something like that You know what for a singer?

6:11

It's a it's it's weird because you're kind of like,

6:14

you know, I was like angelina jolie on

6:16

that bitch All right. I was like I was

6:18

super famous on board that ship. Oh,

6:21

that's yes, right And as

6:23

a singer you have like that slight separation

6:25

from the audience too that you don't

6:27

need them You can get up there and just you know Like

6:30

and we just you kind of get you kind of come to terms with

6:32

the fact that most of them just came from dinner Where

6:34

they were just like force-fed wine for

6:36

hours upon hours. So they're just gonna sleep

6:38

in the front row Yeah, and yeah in the ages

6:41

of cruise people and stuff like that

6:43

will lend itself to early eyes

6:46

Closing I got you know, I will say the comics

6:48

I feel like they have it the hardest though Like the

6:50

comedians that come on because you have

6:52

to

6:52

be

6:53

you have to censor yourself, right? Because you you can't

6:55

offend anybody. It's really important that it's like

6:58

you're just making like cruise ship and old

7:00

people jokes you know marriage joke,

7:02

um And and then and

7:04

then you're also like ships are full

7:06

of british people and like half american

7:09

So, you know half of them are going to be like I don't

7:11

like your kind of comedy Right,

7:13

right. You're just bound to offend somebody

7:15

you're bound to offend and you're bound to it

7:18

It's rough, but you know as long that paycheck clears

7:20

because it's a pretty good paycheck, you know But

7:22

music is the universal art form

7:25

like and that's what's powerful like exactly Yeah,

7:27

i've only ever been on one cruise and

7:29

it was a besides like gambling

7:32

boats that left the port I didn't let you like

7:34

off long island, but I've

7:36

only been on one cruise and it was like a small Kind

7:39

of like I I would throw the word

7:41

bougie around. I don't know if that's offensive or something

7:44

But it was like my in-laws like

7:46

do this like small cruise ship like, you know

7:49

300 people thing and it was and they still

7:51

had performers and like A crew

7:53

talent show and like all this weird stuff

7:55

that happens on these cruises and it was a

7:58

it's a little more You know too many of the employees,

8:01

they're like, oh, hello, Mr. John. And you're like,

8:03

hi, I don't want to engage

8:05

with you at breakfast, unfortunately. But

8:08

I would imagine on the bigger ones, you could be a little

8:10

bit more of anonymous

8:13

in a good way. Like if you wanted to be like, I'm

8:15

going to hit the gym while no one's there.

8:17

And then when we get to port, I'll

8:19

run out and go get pasta somewhere or some

8:21

shit like that. Yeah, I mean, like, so I

8:24

when I started, I was on those big ships.

8:27

And then but the smaller the ship, the

8:29

higher your pay. Right. So like those

8:31

little small ships, you know, I worked on a line

8:33

that's considered like the Ritz

8:35

Carlton of cruise ships. And so I was around

8:38

very wealthy people. And like, so the expectations

8:40

are, you know, that service over anything else. But

8:43

you're right, like you just you kind of know everybody

8:46

there's a lot less than

8:49

when you're when you're coming back to the ship

8:51

at 4am. Right, right. Right. Oh,

8:55

good

8:55

is it's the singer, huh?

8:57

That's me. So remember, they that

8:59

Angelina Jolie of the ship and your life

9:02

bags under your eyes partying all night.

9:05

Like, can you get a photo with you? You're like,

9:07

Oh, Christ, oh, Christ. Don't breathe

9:09

on them. Don't. Now,

9:12

you said seven continents before.

9:15

Yeah. So you've

9:17

been to Antarctica? Lots, actually.

9:19

Yeah. Lots. Talk

9:22

to me about this. There are obviously there

9:24

are cruises that go there. Yeah. And

9:27

do you get off the ship in Antarctica?

9:29

Yeah, I mean, the first time I went there, we just kind of

9:31

like it was like a drive by, right? It was a big

9:34

ship. We just kind of like waved at some ice as

9:36

we like sailed back on by. Hello, ice. But

9:39

the smaller ship that I ended up on, yeah, they

9:42

they were all outfitted with, you know,

9:44

like whatever they do to the front of the

9:46

ship to make it safe. And then they bring on

9:48

an expedition staff. And this is like a like

9:51

almost month long cruise for even the guests.

9:54

You're like Doc in either like Santiago,

9:57

Chile or Buenos Aires and Argentina. And

9:59

then you just like spend three and

10:01

a half four weeks going all the way down

10:03

to Antarctica and I mean some of

10:05

my craziest stories are from there actually so

10:09

one of the stories I always tell so they they

10:11

give you all of these like safety

10:13

tips right like don't ever be by yourself

10:15

don't touch the penguins don't do this right

10:18

and the one that really stuck out to me

10:20

was don't ever be by yourself and we went to

10:22

South Georgia Island which is famous

10:25

for having insane amount of

10:27

like sea lions and and and

10:29

stuff and it was an old whaling port

10:31

where they would like you know kill whales for oil

10:34

and so I was getting off

10:36

the ship with my with my cast but there was

10:39

one spot left on a guest tender over

10:41

and so I I had to hop on that and I went

10:43

across I was waiting for my friends way

10:46

I just I'm so proud to know what a tender is

10:48

because I did one cruise you

10:50

did the one for listeners tenders

10:53

are like the little boats that take you from the big

10:55

boat to land because yeah not

10:57

the cruise ship can't pour it everywhere

11:00

yeah especially there so there

11:02

was this little museum and this is the only

11:04

place on this you know itinerary

11:07

once you leave South America that you

11:09

can like see something and buy something

11:11

so I was like I'm just gonna head over there meet my

11:13

friends and I'm walking along taking some photos

11:15

I realized that I'm alone that all

11:17

the old people supposed to be

11:20

but I was like it's okay it's like I can see

11:22

it it's right there and like all the old people are just

11:24

you know shuffling along and all

11:26

of a sudden I hear this noise behind me

11:28

like pretty loud noise and I turn around and a sea lion

11:31

is charging at me whoa wanting

11:33

to eat me it wants to eat my guts and

11:36

so I mean like just snapping my fingers

11:38

I think back to life what

11:40

the training of these expedition step and

11:42

they were like just get really big and really

11:44

loud and so I just like raised my arm straight in

11:46

the air was like and

11:50

this see like skidded like

11:53

right all on these rocks and we were like

11:55

I don't know a couple paces

11:57

away from each other just like at a standoff

11:59

he was just staring at me and snarling, so

12:01

pissed that I exist. And yeah,

12:04

it was like good, like 90 seconds until-

12:06

Jeez, that's awesome. It hurt. Yeah,

12:09

yeah. But finally heard some people

12:11

coming along and it ran off, but then

12:14

my knee started shaking. Yeah, right. The

12:16

adrenaline dump of afterwards. Yeah. Yeah.

12:20

That's funny, because when I think

12:22

cruises, I think obviously like the classic

12:25

tropical islands, oh, we're going to hit the ABC islands,

12:27

or we're going to all the BVI's or whatever, and I

12:29

think of the ones that are like, oh, we're European, we're

12:31

going around Spain and hitting these ports. You

12:34

rarely think like we're going to go

12:36

all the way to... Because it doesn't feel like there's

12:38

much of like stops along the

12:40

way on the way to Antarctica of like, oh, this

12:42

is a classic vacation destination en route,

12:45

we can stop. So

12:49

that's wild the kind of people who are on that

12:51

cruise too. I don't think it's like your normal

12:54

Hawaiian shirt guy from North Carolina

12:56

who's like trying to get sunburned

12:59

and have 100 beers. Yeah. No,

13:01

I mean, the clientele definitely changes. And

13:03

also like what they're expecting, right? They

13:05

don't come to our show. We don't even perform when

13:07

we go down there because they're

13:10

not interested. Also because the sun's always

13:12

up, because you go down there during their summer and

13:14

the sun really never goes down. Oh, man. With

13:16

always daylight. So it's like 1230

13:19

at night and everyone's just staring

13:21

out the windows at like, I mean, the same ice

13:24

that you've been staring at for three weeks. Right.

13:26

And I guess if you're going to pay and spend the time

13:29

to travel to Antarctica, you probably don't want

13:31

to stop looking at it. I was about

13:33

to say, people rarely go more than once, I'm

13:35

assuming, with the exception of course, present company

13:38

who seems to have gone. Lots

13:40

of times. But no, I mean, yeah, it's super, super

13:42

pricey. But like going on that small

13:44

ship though, it's so cool because you actually get to get off and

13:46

go kayaking and go climbing up on the glaciers

13:49

and lots of different things. So

13:52

that's great. So you got

13:54

to pack a little bit different for that cruise. Yeah,

13:56

I mean, the one that you have to pack, because also you start

13:59

in like hot climates. You're like right. Sorry, and it's

14:01

like 90 degrees and then like, you

14:03

know, it's like, you know Freezing, I mean,

14:05

it's not super cold. It's like 32, you know, it's like

14:07

a proper like upstate New York winter Oh

14:10

wow, that's wild That's what

14:12

and what are what are I mean, we'll get some more

14:14

about world travel But what are other people on that

14:17

cruise for it like sightseeing are there

14:19

like? To mention expedition

14:21

team. Is that like some scientists that are hitching

14:23

a ride that are have to go work at Antarctica

14:25

or something like that? I mean, they just give lectures,

14:28

you know, they they teach all the guests

14:30

about all the things like, you know if you see

14:32

like a pot of whales they can like literally

14:35

get over like the Pa system to like

14:37

explain what they're doing and you know like

14:39

they are also in charge of all of the tendering

14:42

and they know all of the international

14:44

laws and Regulations of us being

14:46

there and what we're right are and are

14:49

not allowed to do you know Because are you are

14:51

you like at sea for a while

14:53

in between? Boy, oh, yeah,

14:55

and you go and you go through a place called the drakes passage

14:58

Which is either like glass

15:00

like the water's like glass or you feel

15:02

like you're going to be upside down In the middle

15:05

of the night like it's really crazy And so you'll

15:07

see people just like putting out like throw up

15:09

bags like vomit bags all throughout all

15:11

of the corridors every oh Man,

15:14

yeah, I can imagine down the the cutlery

15:18

Man thinking of that movie triangle of sadness

15:20

right now. Did you happen to see that? No, you have

15:22

not no Oh, no, it came out like last year.

15:24

It was like an oscar contender. I would recommend you check

15:26

it out It's about cruise ship employees and the

15:29

movie just keeps going in directions that you're not

15:31

expecting in a fun way that's

15:34

right because It's not

15:36

like you're just like, okay And then you're at sea

15:39

and normally you would be stopping and being like everyone

15:41

we're going to take like an olive oil Making class

15:43

in town or whatever. But on this it's just like the

15:46

expedition people are that that's

15:49

cool Like I guess I never considered

15:51

that as part as a cruise and

15:53

that is like yeah That makes

15:55

it like the end of week three and you're

15:57

like

15:58

they've run out of everything

16:00

You know right. The chefs are getting

16:02

really creative with like lettuce

16:04

and. Right, because

16:07

you can't re-up food until and like even

16:09

in Artica. It's like great now we can

16:11

hit the farm fresh organic

16:13

food that's being grown here on the side

16:15

of a glacier. And with really rich

16:18

people they're like you don't have the brand

16:20

of caviar that I want. Oh man.

16:22

This is going in my review. They just like shoot

16:24

a whale off the balcony. I'll

16:28

get my beluga myself.

16:30

Yeah.

16:30

Oh cool. So what

16:33

are some other highlights of places you've

16:35

been? Well

16:37

I would say the one cruise I went on this a good place

16:39

to talk about world travel. I'm a big beach

16:41

person and I love island culture and all that.

16:44

I did French Polynesia, Bora

16:46

Bora and Moray and Raya Tia and

16:48

all that. I did that via a

16:50

cruise and that was an absolutely

16:53

wonderful experience. That's like crazy

16:56

for your first cruise. Yeah. I

16:58

know. I had to fly to Tahiti

17:01

before I even did the cruise. My mom

17:03

is an avid cruiser. She

17:05

loves cruising. She's always at

17:07

truck stops picking up. No. She's

17:10

always like a fly in the Florida then we're doing the ABC

17:13

islands Aruba, St. Bart's, blah blah blah. She's got

17:15

all like the shit she's doing and like she's always

17:18

doing Puerto Rico, Dominican, and she loves

17:20

beaches like me. So she's always doing this. And

17:22

I'm like, mom, I'm going on my first cruise. She's like, I thought you're

17:24

gonna do your first cruise with me. I'm like, well, unfortunately,

17:27

my mother-in-law wants to go to French Polynesia.

17:29

So that kind of beats the

17:32

Bahamas, mom. I'm sorry. I've been to the

17:34

Bahamas being a New York kid growing

17:36

up. And that was just an

17:38

absolute and the cruise,

17:41

for me, that was, it was interesting because

17:43

you're shooting around on it for only like overnights

17:46

more or less. So you get like to spend the day

17:48

doing like excursions and stuff. But

17:51

for me, if I'm comparing, not

17:53

that cruising is the only way to see the world, but

17:55

for me where cruising falls short on

17:58

seeing the world is.

18:00

dinner

18:01

Having to have dinner back on the boat,

18:03

which is great and I understand the con like

18:06

my in-laws sold it to me They they said enough

18:08

stuff that For listeners if you haven't

18:10

cruised It's got some pros and cons

18:13

one of the pros is and this is I didn't

18:15

realize how important this is you unpack once

18:18

and you pack like Your

18:20

hotel follows you so you're not like we're

18:22

gonna do Barcelona for three days and we go to Paris

18:25

where you got to like load everything up

18:27

like you just and My in-laws

18:29

love because they like the food on this cruise ship

18:32

They you go back and have dinner, but for me

18:34

and my wife we like to eat

18:37

the local cuisine more So that's fun for lunch,

18:39

but then you're like shit if we were here tonight We

18:42

could check out that place, you know And that

18:44

was the only drawback I had about

18:46

cruising was missing missing that stuff and

18:48

and obviously nightlife that comes with that And

18:51

for me who likes to keep boundaries

18:53

with people I'm gonna be around a bunch They

18:56

kind of go away on a cruise ship where you're

18:58

like, I guess we got wasted with that old

19:00

cattle rancher Now he wants us to sit

19:03

and have dinner with him Like I don't I

19:05

barely want to be I barely want to sit and dinner have

19:07

dinner with myself now I got like three hour

19:09

dinners

19:10

dude

19:10

me my mother-in-law my father-in-law my

19:12

wife and like 420 something's

19:15

that were doing this cruise together I was like

19:17

we had dinner together because they were like my wife

19:19

hit it off with these kids and I'm like We

19:21

don't need I bear like we don't need anyone else

19:24

at this and it's like we're sitting there and there everyone

19:26

You know all all inclusive. Everyone's getting

19:28

fucking blasted and you're like, okay

19:31

When in Rome or when in between

19:33

rioting and more a let's go Yeah,

19:37

I I agree with you on the time thing, you know, like my

19:40

parents came to Sail a few

19:42

different times and my dad always really fun.

19:44

Yeah, that's cool We get some cool perks and you know,

19:46

my dad always said it's like you're kind of just

19:49

Doing like a taste test of places you want to go

19:51

back to That's a really

19:53

good idea. Yeah, it's like you're

19:55

like, okay when we I

19:58

want to go back to Antarctica and real dig

20:00

in with the sea lions. No, but that's

20:02

like my in-laws just did like a 28-day cruise

20:06

like all around Spain and Italy and

20:08

they were like, I'm like, and they were like, well

20:10

we definitely want to go back to this place.

20:12

We definitely want to go back to that place. And I was

20:15

like, oh yeah, that's a great way

20:17

to look at it. It's kind of like a buffet.

20:19

You're like, okay, I

20:22

think if we were to go back, we should revisit

20:24

this section or whatever. And that, because I

20:26

already want to go back to Bora

20:28

Bora, etc. I'm like, I need to get

20:30

back there. That was such a fucking radical

20:33

time. I mean, I don't think you should

20:35

ever go on a cruise again though, because you were

20:37

like at the top. Yeah, I don't think I can beat that.

20:41

Although I hear a lot of people really

20:43

like cruising to Alaska and

20:45

living on the West Coast, I feel like that could

20:47

be something that would be fun to do. But I've

20:49

never been to Alaska either, so

20:52

it would be a way. Because I'm encompassing

20:54

back to world travel, I have this compulsion

20:58

or impulse,

21:01

I call myself a box checker. When I hear

21:03

about something, I really want to try it.

21:05

And I want to be like, yes, I've done that. Scuba diving,

21:08

check. Skydiving, check.

21:10

I want to just... And so travel activates

21:13

that in me when someone's like, have you never been

21:15

to Southeast Asia? I'm like, no. And

21:17

I'm like, no, I have to. It's on

21:19

my head. I'm like, I have to go. And Alaska,

21:22

because I toured as

21:24

an improv comedian for a long time through UCB, I've

21:27

been to 41 or 42

21:28

to 43 states. So I only have a few states

21:31

left

21:34

to visit too. And Alaska is one

21:36

of them, and I'm trying to find a way to get

21:38

my ass there to force something. Yeah,

21:41

you just gotta get that guest ent

21:43

gig on a cruise ship one time just up

21:45

there. Yeah, or I'm ready to start

21:47

booking tours and doing shows for almost

21:49

nobody, just as an excuse to be like, well,

21:52

I did a show for six people in Alaska, but at

21:54

least I'll stay here for three days and snoop

21:58

around a little. Yeah. So

22:00

for me, like having your

22:02

experience, are there any places that

22:04

you, are there any places that surprised

22:08

you with like, oh, I really like, not

22:10

underestimated, but I wasn't expecting this to be

22:13

as impactful and,

22:16

or are there any places that you've got a

22:18

sniff of that you're like, when shit,

22:20

when I, you know, when the bank account, when the papers

22:22

are stacked, I'm definitely going back to

22:24

blank. Even when you go to one place

22:27

once that you like, like I've been to Paris and Barcelona

22:30

and I love them. I've been to Paris three times now. I

22:32

love it so much. And I love Barcelona so much. I'm like,

22:34

I want to go back to Barcelona. And I'm like, but I haven't

22:36

even been to insert these 12

22:38

European countries, South Asian countries. Oh

22:41

my God. And Middle East and like, all these, and like,

22:43

I start getting like overwhelmed and I'm like, how

22:45

can, how dare I go back to Barcelona a second

22:47

time without doing blah, blah, blah, blah. But

22:50

I'm curious. Yeah. I'm curious

22:52

about you. Like, you know, do you have any

22:54

bucket list places? Do you have any places that you haven't

22:56

hit because of the cruise and you're like, it's

22:59

crazy. I've never been blank or whatever. Yeah.

23:01

I feel like there's a lot, like if it's landlocked,

23:04

I, you know, so

23:08

a lot of central European countries are on your

23:10

list. Yeah. But you know,

23:12

like, like some surprising ones though,

23:14

like things that, like when I went there that I wasn't,

23:17

I guess necessarily looking forward to when you're looking

23:19

at an entire itinerary. But like when

23:21

I got there, I was like, wow, this is really cool. It was like

23:24

Belgium. Ooh. Yeah. It's not on

23:26

my list of like, I

23:28

gotta go to Belgium, but I'm assuming

23:30

it's gorgeous and interesting and you

23:32

know, you know. Yeah. And then like Estonia.

23:36

Yeah. I couldn't even pick, I couldn't even find Estonia

23:38

on a map if you asked me. If it was like a

23:40

blank map, it's like find Estonia, I would be

23:42

humbled to not. Yeah. I mean, like

23:44

there's, there's, there's, what's the vibe there? Like what, what

23:47

about it appeal to you? Was it like the look?

23:50

You know, for there, what I really liked, like the,

23:52

anytime I've been to Estonia, the weather is really nice.

23:54

So Tallinn is like the city you most

23:57

likely go to on a ship. But

23:59

like super. Just it's like such a cool city. So,

24:02

you know, I speak Russian and

24:04

it's like half Russian half German half Dutch I

24:07

mean like it's like a mix of all

24:09

these different cultures. So you get a lot of different kinds

24:11

of foods It's very like that old

24:13

Scandinavian or like Baltic kind of

24:16

like, you know cobblestone streets

24:18

and and cool markets And

24:20

it just doesn't feel like you're anywhere like

24:23

America where every city just is the

24:25

same right and even sometimes

24:28

in these big cities outside of the country

24:30

like in Paris or London or

24:33

You know like they they have some

24:36

businesses that overlap, you know You still

24:38

like or there's some like architecture

24:41

modern strip mall type stuff and you're

24:43

like and then when you get to go to someplace Like

24:45

oh, this is like untouched in a way

24:48

or like I don't want to say behind But

24:51

not going in the exact same direction

24:53

as like Americans urban development.

24:56

And when you see something like that, it's like This

24:58

is possible like you can live like this

25:02

And then like randomly for being like a Baltic

25:04

country where you know A lot of people like speak

25:07

Russian and they might be confused

25:09

or you know compared to those kind of countries

25:12

They're really super progressive, you know, like the

25:14

thing of all different kinds of people I think I

25:16

might be wrong. It could be Uruguay or Estonia

25:19

I don't know which one but one of them was like the first to

25:21

legalize gay marriage in the world Oh cool,

25:24

you know, just like what a random like those two

25:26

random countries Yeah, you got to look at like New York

25:28

City and be like what the fuck you doing? Yeah,

25:36

but those places are really cool I mean, there's also been

25:38

a few places that I'm like, I'm good.

25:41

I've seen it once I'm good, you know

25:43

That's that that's the dream of the cruise to

25:45

apply Have you ever been to blank the one

25:47

thing you really should do there is blank and you can like

25:50

do that and then not have To like it's

25:52

you could be off your list of like well Yeah, I

25:55

think I got the gist of it or I would

25:57

need to be sold on this by someone at go

26:00

again or something like that. Yeah,

26:02

is there a big place brewing up? Let's

26:04

just say

26:07

Hollywood calls, they want to strike

26:09

over, they want to develop this episode of my podcast

26:11

into a movie. We got a

26:13

big paycheck. This would

26:15

not happen, don't worry. Don't stress

26:18

too much about this. But you get a big paycheck and it's like,

26:20

let's just blow it on travel. Where

26:22

do you want to go next or

26:25

cost not an option? What for

26:27

you do you want to do? I need

26:30

to get more into Africa. I would love

26:32

to go all around South

26:35

Africa and Madagascar. Yeah,

26:38

I've never done that. I've never been to Africa. Yeah,

26:40

I've been to the northern parts of Africa, but

26:43

never central down. I dated

26:47

someone from South Africa for a long time. I

26:50

know so many people there. I feel like I could

26:52

go and actually we could save some of that money for our

26:54

podcast. Knowing someone in the

26:56

city you're visiting,

27:01

even whether it's domestic or out

27:03

of the country, gives you that whole,

27:06

not only can you save a few bucks, but they

27:09

might take you to a place that they just ... Because

27:11

I know if a friend visits me here, I'm like, I could take

27:13

you to all the places you heard about that rule in LA. But

27:16

here's a couple of places that in the last 10 years I've

27:18

started to like, and I don't think they'd be on a

27:21

list or something like that. And getting

27:23

to have friends like that. When me and my wife

27:26

went to London, we crashed with a couple of friends

27:28

of ours that had moved out there and she

27:30

married a local, like a native. And

27:33

he was like, oh, we should go do ... And

27:35

we went and swam in a fucking freezing

27:38

cold lake or pond that had

27:40

a dock built into it in the middle of a park.

27:43

And he was like, I didn't even know these things existed.

27:45

He's like, yeah, it's weirdly cultural here.

27:48

People love to swim in the cold or something.

27:50

And I'm like, that fucking rules. I'm

27:52

like, this is so ... And I would never have done ... Instead,

27:54

I was just like, the last time I was here I had a

27:56

Vesper Martini at the

27:59

bar where Ian Fentler ... Fleming and wrote

28:01

James Bond. I had a pint of

28:04

Cascale here Like I did all this stupid

28:06

shit and then he's like the highlight

28:08

of my trip is like swimming in a fucking pond I'm

28:10

like all because the locals like let me take you

28:12

to a pond and I was like, yeah. All right I'm sold

28:15

on that Yeah So your South African mates

28:17

can take you around and you can see some see

28:19

some shit that you wouldn't normally like get

28:21

off of a fucking infatuation Instagram

28:24

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32:07

Hey,

32:07

Marty.

32:11

Are you a big food person?

32:13

I know- Absolutely. Yeah.

32:16

That's a big part of my travel is the food, but I know a lot of people

32:18

who are big travel heads that aren't big foodies

32:21

either. I don't understand that. I don't

32:23

understand that either. My aunt was

32:26

a flight attendant for a long time, so

32:28

she's traveled a bunch. She loves

32:30

to travel. She still gets a lot of her perks,

32:33

like buddy passes and riding

32:35

standby, so she still does a ton of travel,

32:38

but she is the most close-minded

32:40

eater ever. She likes

32:42

Hard Rock Cafe. She's always like, I went to

32:45

the Hard Rock Cafe in Taiwan

32:47

or whatever. I'm like, what? Yeah. My

32:50

fiance last year went to Europe

32:52

for the first time ever, went to Germany for work

32:54

for almost two weeks. When he got back, I was

32:56

like, what was your favorite thing? He was like, Burger King. I

33:00

mean, it is really fun to go to International

33:02

Fast Food because they have different items and it's a

33:04

little strange, but that

33:06

feels like maybe it's not your favorite thing when you

33:08

leave, but it was cool that you did it. That

33:13

always blew me away because I'd be like, oh,

33:16

why wouldn't you be ... She's like, I'm not

33:19

really ... You know me, I like burgers

33:21

and salads. I'm like, yeah, I guess

33:23

so. I'm like, then what do you like? Some

33:26

people just like to look at something

33:28

that's beautiful, take a photo of it with their weird

33:30

Samsung and put it on Facebook. There's

33:35

a whole generation of people who the

33:37

big appeal in their life is getting a sort of

33:40

blurry shot of some ... Look,

33:43

the Basilica, and it's just like on

33:46

Facebook and they want Joan

33:48

from work to say, gorgeous, where are you

33:50

going next? If

33:52

that gets people to get out of their comfort zone and go see

33:54

the world, I guess good for them,

33:57

as long as they're good guests

33:59

there.

34:00

But I

34:01

can't imagine not wanting to, like, while

34:03

here, like the when in Rome, that

34:06

attitude, like that expression, do

34:08

as the Romans do, I love that shit so

34:10

much. There's so much stuff that I don't normally

34:12

eat or drink. I'm

34:14

very open-minded about consumption, but

34:17

I'm like, I don't really drink hot coffee,

34:19

but if I'm at a place where that's the thing or

34:22

someone's putting on a pot of hot coffee, you're

34:24

not gonna catch me going like, no, I'm not gonna

34:26

participate. Like, I'm always gonna participate,

34:28

you know?

34:30

And so, like, I feel like

34:32

that's the only way to truly get into

34:34

it, you know, like to really feel it. Let

34:37

me throw out a place, let me know if you've been here, because

34:39

this is like on my bucket list. I really wanna go to

34:41

Vietnam. Have you been? I

34:44

have not. Because I'm a really big,

34:46

as I said, beach guy, and I really like

34:48

street food as well, and apparently

34:50

that's a just, the

34:53

Venn diagram of those two things are big in a

34:55

lot of Southeast Asia, but specifically Vietnam

34:57

too. I've mentioned Southeast Asia like four times. Obviously

35:00

I'm dying to go there. Yeah,

35:02

there's actually, you know, me too. I mean, I've

35:04

been to certain places, but there were two

35:06

times that I was supposed to spend like significant

35:08

amount of time over there, and

35:11

then like last minute my itinerary would change.

35:13

Like they would transmit, you know, switch

35:17

my ship to a different one that was just, you

35:19

know, doing the med again, but, so

35:22

I, you know, there's a lot of places over there. I mean,

35:24

I've done a couple world cruises, you

35:27

know, where the ship just like literally like went around

35:29

the world. How long is

35:31

that ride for anyone who's doing

35:33

the whole thing? Usually around

35:35

three months. Yeah,

35:38

when we booked this cruise through

35:41

the Windstar Company, when we booked that,

35:44

we were looking at like all the, like,

35:47

oh my God, a hundred day cruise. Who

35:49

could go on that? Who can go on that? Plenty

35:52

of people. I mean, but yeah, people really

35:54

can. And I've like seen some

35:57

headlines in passing about

35:59

people who are like, cruising

36:01

the world is like less

36:04

than my mortgage. So I sold my

36:06

house and I like. Less than a retirement home or something.

36:08

Yeah, exactly. And they're like, I

36:10

just cruise like, you know, 200 days

36:13

out of the year. And I'm like, holy

36:16

shit. Honestly, it's pretty like, it's like five star

36:18

service, you know, all your food, everything, you know,

36:20

people. Solid retirement life, yeah. Come

36:23

on, it's actually not that bad. One time I

36:25

did a world cruise

36:27

with all Japanese guests. Whoa.

36:31

That was really different. And you're saying in English, I'm

36:33

assuming. Yeah, yeah. And

36:36

they would just come up to me and just like, give me a thumbs

36:38

up because like they didn't speak English, I don't speak Japanese.

36:41

But you know, that was really different seeing

36:45

how they differed from American

36:47

passengers. Interesting,

36:49

yeah, well that's another thing. You get a lot of swats. Forget

36:53

even all the culture of the people you run into

36:55

when you get off the boat. The cultures

36:57

of the people on the boat are like, it's

37:00

anthropological in its way too. Like

37:02

you're saying, Princeton Americans, or even like Southern

37:05

Americans and Northeastern Americans. And

37:07

then also now just a boat full of Japanese

37:10

tourists is like a whole nother vibe, yeah. Yeah,

37:12

actually on that ship we stopped, we

37:14

were in Japan, that's where we started in Japan.

37:18

And we went to Kobe. And

37:20

I asked one of the guests who was

37:22

walking off the ship with me at the time, I

37:24

said, well, where are you from? And he said, I'm from Kobe.

37:27

I said, oh, that's cool. Is there anywhere that

37:29

you would suggest going to get something for lunch?

37:32

And he was like, oh yeah, just go over here. And

37:35

he pointed me in the right direction. And I went to this Japanese

37:39

steakhouse. And I looked at the menu

37:41

and I was like, I want the most expensive

37:44

piece of steak. I don't know what that is. Like, you know. Yeah,

37:46

when in Kobe. That number looks huge,

37:48

but I don't know what that translates to in dollars and

37:51

I don't care. And I remember it was

37:53

a Kobe beef Chateaubriand.

37:55

And they were like, are you sure? And I was like, yeah.

37:58

And they cooked this thing in front of me. and like

38:00

two slices of beef. They

38:02

don't give me a knife, like, because you can just go through it with a chopstick.

38:06

And I pay, you know, I pay with my credit card

38:08

at the end of it. And I had stopped drinking by

38:10

this time. So I didn't even have like a beer or anything,

38:12

literally just the food. And I

38:15

get a little ding on my phone. And it was

38:17

just like, your credit card's just been charged $842. And

38:20

I was like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

38:23

I'm sorry. Like you're going, I know

38:25

this is gonna be expensive, but I can't

38:27

imagine it. That is more

38:29

than you would want to spend on a couple of bites. But

38:31

fuck it, right? Went in Kobe.

38:34

Exactly, you know? And

38:36

you're coming at that, like not to get

38:38

into the weeds here, but you're

38:41

coming at that as someone who is not paying

38:43

for the cruise, who's actually

38:45

making money on the cruise. So that adds

38:48

a layer to it where it's like, this is a little

38:50

overindulgent, but, and also

38:52

not drinking is gonna save you a shit ton of money

38:54

at that point too. And

38:56

I had just stopped drinking like a few months ago,

38:59

prior to that. So I was like, let me do

39:01

whatever I want. Right, like when

39:03

in Kobe, what are you gonna not get Kobe beef?

39:05

Come on, for fuck's sake. No, I'm gonna hit the

39:07

Mickey D's in Kobe. That

39:10

is so rare. I love, I

39:13

love shit like that. Like that is like my,

39:15

you know what I mean? I am, I wouldn't

39:17

call myself cheap, but I

39:19

am, I'm frugal. I'm

39:22

not gonna blow money until

39:25

the time comes. And

39:27

then I'm like, and frequently vacation is when

39:29

I feel fully authorized to

39:31

spend money. I'm like, in for a penny, in

39:33

for a pound. It costs us two G's to

39:36

round trip flights here. The hotels, another

39:38

G, you know, G, two G's. We're

39:41

in, fuck it. I'm not gonna like save money

39:43

on meals now. Like we're like, I'm

39:45

already, we're gonna, I'm not gonna say no to anything.

39:48

My wife likes to shop when we're abroad.

39:51

And that's the one thing I get a little, I'm like,

39:53

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, let's not buy more

39:55

things to take home. Like

39:57

let's, it's all experiences here. It's

39:59

all.

39:59

experiences here. Do

40:01

you have like a

40:04

system for travel? Because like, not a system. Here's

40:06

what I'll just talk about. Like I ended

40:08

up hosting a travel show,

40:11

which is a dream come true for me because travel

40:14

shows were like my way in to

40:16

travel in a way because I grew up poor and didn't

40:19

really do much. We drove to Florida

40:21

once a year and then that

40:23

was like our big family trip. But

40:27

when I was in my early 20s and broke, I was

40:29

watching Bourdain and even Guy Fieri

40:32

and Andrew Zimmer and eventually

40:34

Action Bronson, Padma Laxmi, all these

40:36

people I became obsessed. And then as

40:39

I got older, you know, my

40:41

wife's family's from Portugal. She's like, we're

40:43

gonna go to Portugal and visit my great uncle. I'm like, Portugal.

40:46

All right, we watched every single

40:48

episode of a travel show that went to Portugal. Somebody

40:51

feed Phil, like whoever, like former

40:53

guest of the podcast Phil Rosenthal, whoever

40:55

went to Portugal, I watched their

40:58

episode, you know, and you're like overlap.

41:00

You're like, okay, well, I don't know if we need to go to this place,

41:02

but I think we need to try this pastry. Like,

41:04

you know, and do you have any, I

41:06

mean, luckily, if you're a cruise

41:09

ship employee, you got some well-traveled

41:11

people kind of working around you too, who

41:13

maybe have done this run a few times and it's

41:16

like, Misha, no, when we get off here, come

41:18

with us. We're going to this dope spot or whatever.

41:20

Like, what's your system for

41:22

finding out like what to do

41:25

or like, you know, are you a researcher

41:27

or are you a seat by your pants kind of person?

41:29

Like, how do you roll? No, I'm definitely just

41:31

fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to that.

41:33

I mean, if I travel somewhere domestically,

41:36

then I'll research. Yeah. Because I

41:38

feel like in America, you have to try to find something

41:41

different than any other city that you can

41:43

go to, right? Right. Because you can actually

41:45

have a corner, yeah, sort of ubiquitous,

41:48

similar. Like, if you're like, you can

41:50

hit eight American cities and eat at the same

41:53

exact restaurant and drink at the same exact

41:55

kind of bar. Like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. But

41:57

when I, I mean, you know, for a lot

41:59

of people,

41:59

A lot of the time I would just, I would get

42:02

my little group of people, the people that I, you know,

42:04

also like to just go out and, you know, explore

42:07

and just kind of see what it would be like to live

42:09

a day in the city and stop wherever we

42:11

could, you know, along the way. I

42:13

mean, there obviously were some things like we really want

42:16

to go walk over

42:18

the Sydney Harbor Bridge, you know. Right,

42:20

right. You know, we really want to jump off the Sky Tower

42:23

in Auckland, New Zealand,

42:25

you know, things like that that are like every,

42:28

you know, people know about them. They're really popular,

42:30

you know. Oh, cool. You jumped off

42:32

the Sky Tower in Auckland? Yeah, did that.

42:35

Skydived in Puerto Vallarta,

42:37

Mexico. Oh, that's awesome. I went

42:39

up to the Sky

42:41

Tower in Auckland. I don't think I, we didn't

42:44

jump off, but we visited.

42:46

I've been to New Zealand twice, Australia zero

42:49

times. One of my best friends in LA

42:51

that I'm friends with since New York is Australian,

42:54

and that really gets his goat. So I think I should

42:56

add Australia to my bucket

42:58

list as well. I got to get back there. And,

43:01

you know, just a hop skipper to jump to South Asia,

43:03

Southeast Asia in there. Sounds like I need to

43:05

save up a shit ton of time in a few months of free

43:08

time. But

43:10

you know, some of the best days that I've

43:12

ever had, though, have been those kind of just like spur

43:14

of the moment things.

43:16

One of the most fun

43:18

times was in Dublin,

43:20

and we were just walking down the street.

43:22

I was going to go and, you know, get a Guinness

43:25

at the, you know, the famous pub to go

43:27

get a Guinness at. And it started

43:29

down pouring rain as it swamped in dust

43:32

over there. And me and my friend

43:34

Rachel, we just like, like literally ran into

43:37

the bar that was to our right, you

43:39

know, it wasn't anything special.

43:43

And we walked in and you know, like

43:45

the red hat ladies, like that club in America,

43:48

we saw some little red hat ladies and I was explaining

43:50

to my friend what they were, you know,

43:53

that like all their Americans and there must be here on a trip.

43:55

And I hear them say the words

43:58

sodas point. And it perked

44:01

my ears because I'm from this

44:03

incredibly tiny little town called

44:05

Sotis. It has one stop

44:08

light, like one traffic light, you know? It's

44:10

like most- Where at one day the Sotis is? New York,

44:13

upstate New York. Yeah, right in between Rochester

44:15

and Syracuse. But this tiny, tiny little

44:17

town on Lake Ontario, and

44:19

I was like, you have got to be kidding. There's

44:22

like 4,000 people in that town. And I walked, so I walked

44:24

over to them and, you know, they clutched their purses

44:27

like I was going to rob them. I was like, man, look at me. You

44:29

look like an Irish street girl. You could beat me up. And

44:32

I was like, did you say Sotis Point? And

44:35

it turns out that's where they were from, my tiny

44:38

little town. Oh, that's wild.

44:40

That reminds me. I went to, similar

44:42

story, there's this awesome like

44:45

three-story seafood restaurant

44:47

in Lisbon that is kind of like people

44:50

recommend you go to it. They have a beer

44:52

tap, a coin-operated beer tap outside

44:54

for people waiting. You can buy wine through

44:57

a window while you wait. And it's

44:59

like walls of aquariums of like all

45:01

the fish that you can order while you're sitting at the table.

45:04

And I was, I got like a little in my bag

45:06

on those waiting beers, had

45:08

some more beers up there, heard someone

45:11

at the other table say Long Island. And

45:13

I just like stood up drunk and was like, I'm

45:16

from Long Island. They were like, oh

45:18

my God. And like my wife's whole family

45:20

who's from New York, but not Long Island, they're like,

45:23

Christ almighty, rolling their eyes at me as

45:25

I'm like, ahh. Of

45:27

course, Long Island people are all instantly like the loudest,

45:30

most obnoxious people even in Lisbon,

45:32

Portugal. Oh my gosh. It's

45:35

so funny. Like that's something you notice when you're

45:37

out of America for a long time and you like either

45:41

faced with Americans for the first time

45:43

in a while or you come back home, you're like, wow, we are loud.

45:45

Yeah, we are. Volume is different. Yeah,

45:48

we are loud. And I am objectively

45:50

part of the problem. I understand that. I am

45:53

a loud, loud boy. I'm not. I

45:57

love that story you just told about dipping in. And

46:00

you run into someone from Solace, you have a Guinness

46:03

Pine Dare, and it's not the famous pub, but now

46:05

you're in a different experience. A

46:07

few times in my life, I've had these moments

46:09

where an example I'll give is,

46:12

we randomly, my wife just picked

46:14

a hotel based on cuteness in

46:16

a neighborhood in Paris, and we ended

46:18

up staying in a little boutique hotel in

46:20

Saint-Germain. And we were like, all

46:22

right, we're going to walk and go to this thing. That's

46:25

another thing I love to do in foreign

46:28

countries and cities, is use

46:30

public transit and travel my foot. Like

46:33

I just love to walk. I

46:35

put miles on my fucking ankles

46:37

when I'm out and about, because it's just like

46:40

easier way to see everything and be with

46:42

around people, especially in walking

46:44

friendly European cities, which is where a

46:46

majority of my travel has been. I mean, I did

46:49

a lot of walking in Auckland too. Well,

46:52

Auckland was a very specific trip for me. My wife was there

46:54

for work and I tagged along, and

46:56

she has like seven days of

46:59

work, and then we're going to have vacation for

47:01

a few days after. So I had like seven

47:03

days of maybe going to

47:05

a team dinner for her, but mostly it's just me

47:08

being free during the day. And I'm not loaded.

47:10

I'm only really going because I'm going to stay in

47:12

my wife's paid for by work hotel.

47:15

So I'm like living like a local. I'm like

47:17

going to a coffee shop with my laptop and

47:20

working and hanging out. And all of a

47:22

sudden I'm like, this has changed. I would

47:24

never travel like this normally.

47:26

Like I'm still like, I would be like, got

47:29

to do this in Auckland, got to do this in Auckland, but the vibe

47:31

shifted because of the length of time and all this. And

47:34

now a few times in my life, so,

47:37

so far of the places I've traveled, my

47:39

favorite city is been

47:41

Barcelona. And there's a lot of

47:43

love it. Because I love, as I've said, I

47:45

love walking. I love food. It's

47:48

very like eat five bites at eight

47:50

restaurants in one night kind of vibe. It's

47:54

got beach proximity. It's

47:56

got beach culture. I speak

47:58

a little Spanish, not much. But I'm

48:00

working on it every day and That

48:04

to me was such and now in my one

48:06

on my bucket list is to go back there for

48:08

like six weeks Yeah, and like live

48:11

and like get to the point where it's like I

48:13

have to just make salad in my apartment

48:16

today Like I like I can't seek out octopus

48:18

and beer again this afternoon It's gonna kill

48:21

me like I gotta go

48:23

for a run You know like I want to like

48:25

live in a place long be visiting a place

48:28

long enough that I become part of the machine

48:30

In some way, you know, like I the

48:32

guy at the coffee shop now knows me like

48:34

that's a good dream. You know what I mean? So

48:37

like there's like those two different ways to travel

48:39

and they both they both appeal to me greatly.

48:41

I don't even remember with Oh

48:44

Staying in Saint-Germain in Paris. Well, I'm so proud

48:46

of myself there Just two

48:48

days off weed and this is the shit you can come up with

48:50

the shit you can remember We

48:53

were going for like, oh we should walk all the way. Oh, yeah,

48:55

we gotta see this neighborhood see this neighborhood and

48:57

on the walk I'm like, oh We're at

49:00

this like I mentioned I threw the name out earlier because

49:02

it always sticks my head We were like, oh the streets

49:04

called rutabuchi and there's like eight little restaurants

49:06

and cafes and it's like well I'm kind of hungry.

49:08

Let's get like a Coffee

49:11

like an espresso or cappuccino and a croissant

49:13

and hang out here And then we kind of did

49:15

just like I'm gonna get a glass of champagne.

49:17

I'm like, oh hell yeah, it's a cafe I'm gonna get a beer

49:19

and then I'm like I kind of can go for another

49:21

cappuccino She's like me too. I'm like, are you getting

49:23

hungry? It's like yeah Let's get sandwiches and we

49:26

sat at this tiny little table

49:28

outside of a cafe For like three

49:30

and a half hours and just like watched

49:33

gorgeous people in black leather jackets

49:35

smoke cigarettes like You know

49:37

as as you as one is to do in Paris It

49:39

seems like and

49:40

we just sat there and I was like it wasn't our plans

49:43

at all But we kind of settled in and the vibes

49:45

were right and all this and we were just like

49:47

We just rolled with it in a way and

49:50

it ended up being like one of my favorite days

49:52

of the trip We had all these things of like so-and-so

49:54

said we got to go here and get this restaurant We got

49:56

to go to this place and try the souffle. We got to do

49:58

this and we did all that and it was all banging,

50:01

but my favorite time was like this accidental

50:03

little cafe. And now we went, when

50:05

we went back to Paris a second time, it's like, we

50:07

got to go to Rude Buchi and have, you know, and like,

50:10

we like now we're planning to have a three hour kind

50:12

of breakfast binge there. And it

50:14

was, it was such an exciting time. You

50:16

know, I love that because that's, I mean, like,

50:18

that's what they do, you know, like, that's

50:21

what they feel like a local in Spain. That's

50:24

what they do. They take time to like, interact

50:28

with each other and like have a coffee

50:30

for a few hours, you know, have a coffee, have a glass

50:32

of wine, have a snack, but like

50:35

interact with each other and just kind of be at a slower

50:37

pace.

50:38

You know, and I think that's something that is

50:40

like the most valuable thing

50:42

about going off and experiencing

50:44

and learning about

50:46

other places is like you get to learn,

50:48

just new

50:50

ways of living. I think it's something that I've taken

50:52

with me because now I'm happy to go

50:55

and just like sit in a coffee shop that's

50:57

not a Starbucks, you know, like a local spot

50:59

here in Austin, you know, and just kind of

51:01

like see the kind of people who come in and just,

51:04

you know, spend some time there and get

51:06

away from work. Be part of the

51:09

community in a way, you know, like,

51:11

and you get it's funny, like, when you travel, you're like, I want

51:13

to be part of the community. And then when you're home, you're like, all

51:16

right, yeah, I'm not gonna be part of this community, even though like

51:18

you live here or whatever. It's like, well, maybe I should try

51:20

to be part of this community. It

51:24

is my community. I rent this apartment, I

51:26

might as well get along and see

51:29

and I like you said something there,

51:31

Misha, that really it tickled

51:33

me and because this is something

51:35

my wife and I like we learned eventually is like my

51:37

wife would do all these things like, oh, when I'm traveling, I

51:39

love to take a bath and like light

51:42

a candle and just have some room,

51:44

have some wine from the room and just chill. And I'm like, and

51:47

I love to just like, walk

51:49

to a pick a coffee shop off of Google

51:51

Maps and be like, oh, it's about a mile

51:53

and a half or a bar and be like, oh, it's about a mile

51:56

and a half, two miles away. And it looks

51:58

like this route takes us along the river or This

52:00

route takes us through a cool neighborhood. I'm

52:02

gonna go there have a coffee or a beer

52:05

Whatever the place is post up for a little and walk

52:07

back and it's like that's what I love to do when

52:09

I travel She's like this right left to do in travel. It's like we

52:12

both realize is like well we could bring

52:14

that energy back to West Hollywood There's

52:17

no reason why we can't why this is only for

52:20

vacation and she's like, oh my

52:22

god Yeah, it's like now she

52:24

has like a bath tray bubble bath

52:27

Shit like candles in the bathtub and a

52:29

eucalyptus plant that hangs off the showerhead and like

52:31

all this stuff to be like Oh, this

52:33

makes

52:34

100% sense

52:35

and now I'm like, oh, there's this

52:37

new coffee shop that opened up. It looks like it's two

52:40

miles away I'm gonna smoke

52:42

a J on the walk and go have a coffee I'll

52:44

be back in three and a half hours

52:46

and it's like yeah just and I'm like bringing

52:48

and that makes me like Being

52:50

a tourist in your own city because sometimes

52:53

you start to take it for granted and you're like I've

52:55

got this favorite place or This is

52:57

the new cool cut Here's a trap that I've been

52:59

getting sucked sucked into lately in LA is like

53:01

they have an abundance of great

53:03

Like new American cuisine restaurants

53:05

where the food is amazing

53:08

but it is always like cornbread in

53:10

a skillet half a chicken

53:12

a Really classy burger

53:14

a pork chop a brown zino like all

53:16

these things that people love and then the restaurant's

53:18

super expensive And it's great cocktails

53:20

with their $23 glasses of wine or 20

53:23

and it's like you're like, this is really fun

53:26

And then I was like got I got so

53:28

tired of it I started like I'm like, I

53:30

should be a tourist in my own own City

53:33

and I was like I've never been to

53:36

Koreatown and ate like one of these

53:38

late-night Tabletop but and

53:40

I'm like that's what I want to do this weekend

53:42

and then it's cheaper more

53:44

delicious a completely different

53:46

vibe than like No offense

53:49

these great restaurants, but like Nora

53:51

and all these like hipster LA

53:53

restaurants They're great. But now I'm

53:55

like

53:56

fuck for like half the price. I

53:58

cooked my own fucking steak

53:59

on a little grill in front of me and I

54:03

drank beers and ate steak here till one in

54:05

the morning. I

54:08

got caught up in the LA of

54:10

it all and not like, what if I was visiting

54:12

here? What would I want to do? And that

54:15

just like bringing that energy into

54:17

your home town or into your life,

54:19

bring that ... And I'll

54:22

go one step further when I travel and it

54:24

sounds like you too. You kind of don't

54:27

need to rock the boat when

54:29

you're out traveling. Go see and

54:31

do whatever you want, but be part

54:33

of the community. Don't be the guy who's like,

54:36

what do you mean you don't have fucking Pepsi as you

54:38

stand in jean shorts and get in an argument

54:40

with the waiter or whatever? You don't want to

54:42

be like that American. And

54:45

then when I come, I'm like, oh, I shouldn't be that American

54:48

here either. And

54:50

that's something that traveling has taught me. You've

54:53

mentioned some takeaways from traveling before we get out of here.

54:56

Do you have any takeaways from traveling, even

54:58

if it's like one specific cultural thing or

55:00

one specific like, oh, now I

55:03

love kimchi or whatever. Have

55:07

you taken anything from travel that you've like, I'm

55:10

going to say like harnessed in your real life, but that seems

55:12

hyperbolic, but you know what I mean. Honestly,

55:14

so I'm sure

55:16

a lot of your listeners don't know who I am, but I've

55:19

made a name for myself on social

55:21

media. And a lot of that is because like, you

55:23

know, I stand up for people and I try, I always try

55:25

to give people the benefit of the doubt, no matter

55:27

what they look like or who they are. And

55:30

I think a really big part of

55:32

that was traveling. And I think it's because, you

55:35

know, we know America

55:37

because we are born and raised here. We've lived our

55:39

whole lives here, but stepping outside of that

55:41

and going especially to, you know,

55:44

countries wildly different than ours that don't speak

55:47

our same language, that don't have the same social

55:49

norms, you know, things like to

55:52

us, or if you go to England, it's very normal

55:54

and very respectful for us to stand in line,

55:57

you know, and wait. They love a queue in

55:59

England. and you go somewhere else

56:01

and you're getting bumped and pushed and

56:04

it's just kind of like a mob and you realize

56:06

at first it was very frustrating. Yeah,

56:09

at first you're like these people are being rude. Yeah,

56:11

how rude. And then once you, the more time you

56:13

spend there, you're

56:16

like, oh wow, they just have a whole different

56:18

point of view than I do and that's totally

56:20

okay. I'm the weird one right now. Yeah,

56:22

I'm the weird one in this situation and I've really

56:25

kind of taken that and applied it to everything. I

56:27

may come across somebody but I'm gonna give them the

56:30

benefit of the doubt that we just have different experiences

56:33

in life and so we don't have to agree, we don't

56:35

have to see it the same way. We'll just

56:37

come at each other with mutual

56:38

respect. That's pretty cool.

56:40

Yeah, off that, Misha, I say travel,

56:43

it sounds arguably corny

56:46

but travel is a great way to

56:50

inject an intense amount of empathy

56:52

into your bones. It's like all of a sudden you're

56:55

able to get in other people's shoes and

56:57

America is a country of immigrants too so

57:00

going to Japan and

57:03

then meeting Japanese Americans, you

57:11

understand something slightly more about the

57:13

world and even more about America by

57:15

getting out of it and seeing how other people

57:17

see it and seeing how other countries do things

57:20

and you're like, fuck, this is so rad

57:22

here. I

57:24

would never think of Amsterdam to be like

57:27

this but I never thought

57:29

of, I never think about a Dutch person ever

57:31

to be honest and so you

57:33

see a character's name like Vonderhoppe or whatever, you're

57:35

like, oh yeah, Dutch. But then you go to

57:37

Amsterdam and you're like, there's a whole fucking world here.

57:40

Obviously it's a whole country. Obviously it's

57:43

so obvious that it exists but until you

57:45

go there, you're like, right, they're doing all

57:47

the shit right over here. They've got their

57:49

own system that's working. They love a bicycle.

57:52

They love a bicycle. I am too

57:54

afraid to ride bikes when I go there but

57:56

I do love how much

57:58

they love bikes. I mean I

58:01

like fucking weed walking and rivers and art

58:03

like they got all that there. It's like coffee. Yeah,

58:05

it's so fucking cool Speaking

58:08

of what you mentioned my listeners might not really know who you are

58:11

Let's fucking tell them now tell them what you're doing

58:13

over me. This is the fucking plug portion,

58:15

baby Let them know

58:26

Yeah, my name is Misha You know,

58:28

I was an actor musical theater actor

58:30

for a really long time But I over the pandemic

58:33

like lots of other Millennials I got on the the

58:35

tick-tock You know

58:37

became a little social media influencer.

58:40

My handle is at don't cross the gay man Yeah,

58:46

I catch you as fuck I'm on board already You

58:49

know try to be everyone's gay best friend, but you know I

58:52

definitely believe that love and it

58:54

doesn't have to be edgeless. So there's a little

58:56

bit of a bite there, you know But

58:59

uh, and that's that's giving me so many cool

59:01

opportunities and you know, I was so excited to come on your

59:03

podcast I've listened to your podcast for a while and

59:05

I was luckily and Humbly

59:09

asked to be the host of a new wondering podcast called

59:11

the big flop. Oh But it

59:13

came out doing pretty well That's

59:16

cool. Yeah, we talked about cultural flops. I have comedians

59:19

on as my guest So hopefully you can be on

59:21

an episode sometime coming up wildly

59:24

available these days So

59:26

listeners whatever you're listening to this Podcast

59:29

on take out your phone whatever app you're using

59:32

search the big flop and subscribe and

59:35

listen and rate and review and do

59:37

all That but at minimum just

59:39

subscribe right now while you're thinking

59:41

about it and then be like, oh, right I've been meaning listen to the big

59:43

flop next time you open your podcast app.

59:45

You'll be like, oh, right. Yeah, let's throw this on So

59:48

do that now and check and follow

59:51

don't cross a gay man on That

59:53

is a fucking great hand good

59:55

work. I'm getting that Thank you. Thank you.

59:58

Is there anything else? By

1:00:00

the way links to both of these will be in the show notes

1:00:03

of the podcast if you've already forgotten

1:00:05

what Misha said Just look in the

1:00:07

thing you're listening to this on. I promise it's that

1:00:09

easy people. It's that fucking easy Anything

1:00:13

else bud No, just

1:00:16

let me know when you book the plane tickets and

1:00:18

I'll get the hotel and well, let's go

1:00:20

baby It's

1:00:26

$425 each to split one of those expensive Kobe shop

1:00:28

Chateau Brion I'm

1:00:31

gonna eat a few more athletic greens edge. You hear

1:00:33

that head gum. Let's keep them coming promo code

1:00:35

mighty As

1:00:38

for me shitheads you can listen to my

1:00:40

paid podcast action boys, but

1:00:42

it's behind the paywall action boys biz There

1:00:45

are free episodes out at free dot action

1:00:48

boys dot biz. So check

1:00:50

them out there and Thank you for

1:00:52

listening.

1:00:53

Bye shitheads

1:01:00

I

1:01:05

Was a hit them put down

1:01:16

We have not watched this since I've rendered

1:01:18

it on VHS in 92 strangers

1:01:21

united by the threat of death We got all

1:01:23

the fucking major players to go

1:01:25

Vladimir Putin is a good man Arnold

1:01:27

your Tom Give it to me. I need you to cream pie

1:01:29

me now I

1:01:43

would fucking love for my wife to like

1:01:45

see me How

1:01:51

you know it's a good movie you have to do almost all

1:01:53

the work yourself to figure it out There's a fantasy

1:01:55

component. There's some sword fighting. There's some lightning

1:02:00

You

1:02:05

wake up after a few years and you

1:02:07

don't even know you are anymore. We're going to be making

1:02:09

Terminator. We're going to make a really great

1:02:11

deal with the genome of the movie. I don't hate him,

1:02:14

but I'll be in the room here. Yes, I understand.

1:02:16

This is now the 20th ending of the movie.

1:02:18

I am darned. I'm your dad. That's

1:02:20

your voice. Voice, really, voice.

1:02:22

Voice, really, voice.

1:02:28

Subscribe here for bonus content

1:02:31

and more free stuff from Behind the Paywall.

1:02:34

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1:02:36

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1:02:39

it! Do it! Come

1:02:40

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