How Did We Get Weird with Vanessa Bayer and Jonah BayerRemember Rolling Down a Hill in a Barrel? (with Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar)
On this week's episode the Bayer siblings are thrilled to welcome siblings Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar!! You might know them as bestselling authors or have seen Amber on The Amber Ruffin Show, but did you know that as kids they used to roll down a hill in a barrel? We talk about that adventure plus all the other dangerous things we did as kids like sliding down stairs on a pillow or the time Lacey got stuck in the laundry chute. Plus, Vanessa recalls her Chicago days of being lovingly bullied while understudying in Amber's Second City show, and the Bayer's are captivated to hear about all of the delicious treats that Amber and Lacey's dad used to bring home from his job at Duncan Hines (incidentally, that's also where the aforementioned barrel came from.) The fun continues as Amber and Lacey perform some of the original music they created as kids, and Vanessa does the same with a song she wrote with her cousin and recently learned was a Whodini rip-off. Finally, in a CHANGE.ORG first, Amber and Vanessa realize they actually KNOW the author of one of the petitions! AND Lacey and Amber think they might know the school that is part of another petition! But despite these ties, in the end everyone agrees that their favorite petition is the one demanding that Amber to host the Oscars. So check out this incredible sibling-filled episode of HDWGW and be sure to also listen to Amber and Lacey on their podcast "The Amber & Lacey, Lacey & Amber Show"!
Hi.
I'm Vanessa Beyor and this is my brother Jonah.
We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood in nostalgia and how shaped us into the people we are.
Today, who like our guests today, our famous siblings.
If I do say so myself.
Welcome to How Did We Get Weird?
Jonah.
I know that we're both very excited about our guests today. We've been lucky enough to get to do their incredible podcast, Wow and Wow. I met one of our guests today when and now I'm not sure exactly. I think she was in the show at Second City called No Country for Old White Men. She was in the main stage cast of the show, and I came into understudy, and I have the most fond memories of that of understudying her show, because although I believe she was pretty nice to me in general, those casts would really bully me quite a bit in a loving way. Like they would bully me, like the way that sort of when people meet me and they they kind of get me right away, they just go straight into sort of light bully mode. Because that's my role, you know what I mean, Jonah, I'm the one you bully sort of in a loving way, because you know that I am nice and I won't give you anything back.
Does that? Yeah, I'm a enjoyed listening to this because you're trying not to say the guest's name but also talk about her, and that's always tough.
It's always a.
Bit of a threading a needle when we're excited to introduce our guests today, but then we also don't want to give away their names, even though their names are very clearly written on the show information and.
Everyone listening to this knows who the guests are, but we ask everyone listening is big surprise.
Yeah, everyone listening knows exactly what is going on.
Yeah, well, let's just maybe introduce them and get into it. I think our guests.
Today are New York Times bestselling authors who co wrote the book You'll Never Believe What Happened, A Lacey Crazy Story about Racism, and the second book, The World Record Book of Racist Stories. Plus they host the podcast The Amber and Lacey Lacy and Amber Show. Please welcome, host of The Amber Ruffin Show and her sister, otherwise known as Everyone's favorite middle child, The talented and hilarious siblings Amber Ruffin and Lacey lamar Hi thanks for having us say thank you so much for being here.
We're excited, excited to be here. Now, Who the fuck was bullied you? Well, because Amber and I will find them today. I'll fight them tonight.
The you know, I used to I used to understudy Emily Wilson and Shelley Gosman a lot, and either one of them would sort of bully when the other one was up, but like lovingly, and like then as the cast sort of changed up, it would be Brad Morris bullying me, Mike O'Brien bully me, you know what I mean, Like it just sort of and everybody kind of everybody just kind of had fun.
I will say, say the people's names, I'm like, Emily bullying you, Probably not.
They're they're the sweetest people, so they're so I'm using the term bullying almost too liberally, like it's showing that they accepted me.
Yeah, yeah, teasing, a little teasing, teasing me, teasing because there's a better word. We'll find it.
There's a better word than bully. I mean, it sounds like the wedding.
The four people whose names I just mentioned are like the most talented, sweet, amazing, hilarious people and it sounds like I'm like outing.
Them to be like they like me, ever hetting them for bullying me. They really couldn't have been sweeter to me. And I still look up to all four of them so much.
But also I think it was the most fun I ever had doing a show in Chicago.
Maybe, And don't tell my improv team Revolver that.
Oh remember Revolver, didn't you guys? Have? Am I?
Am I making this up? You might be Okay, who am I thinking of? You might be confusing us with the reckoning?
That's right, yeah, Revolver, Because I was gonna say I think Revolver was not cool yet when you were on main stage, but we got cool, okay, and that's what matters.
Amber. Were you on any improv teams? And Lacy, have you ever entered this world of improving up?
I think Lacey's offended that you would even ask.
I'm believing.
Say because Jonah took an improv class once you did.
I took a couple of improv classes at UCP a very long time ago. Yeah.
I don't even know you anymore.
I know you know. It was like it was kind of that period where like UCB was getting more popular, and it was like half the people seemed in the comedy and half for like trying to sort of like make it in the industry or something, and it was it was just like a strange kind of vibe. Although my first ever improv teacher was Anthony Taminak, who was an amazing.
Oh yeah that was great.
Yeah, it just wasn't really. It was fun for me, but I wasn't. It wasn't my It wasn't exactly my thing. You were doing it to help with your writing, right, I was doing time with my writing, and to be honest, now, I work as a therapist, and I think a lot of those skills you know, can be good just for any sort of therapeutic conversation, a journalistic conversation. I think just the yes ending, agreeing with people, like trying to get more. I think those are good just communication skills in general.
Oh so does that kind of make you feel differently?
Lacey, Lacey, Lacy buddy and you say yes, and this whole podcast now pretty good? You do.
The thing I had the most problems with for me was like the body language stuff where it's like I'm going to pretend I'm making a cake and like I have to do like with my arms, and it's like I can't.
I can't. I don't want to do that. I want there to be a real cake. Yes exactly. I'm like she brought a real cake.
We did a whole episode about improv with Sam Richardson maybe a few months ago. It came out, and I think Sam and I both decided afterwards we can never do improv again.
See where you're coming from, Maybe we can.
Lacy, did you ever go to any of Amber's shows or Oh I've been to.
Yes. I love going to see amberschall love them, love them. And then I said that's not anything. Yeah, oh I get it, I get it. Yeah, I love to watch it, love all of that. Couldn't do it, and Amber knows. I can't memorize anything. We've had to do some things where we've had to like have this script, but normally they give us like cue card. If that's not a cue card, I won't remember a line. I don't have it in me. And my daughter loves musical theater and she can do all that. I envy people that can memorize the script. I could never, yes, never, I don't have that skill. So I envy people that can do that.
I think you get better at it if you have to do it a lot.
Like I remember when I used to understudy those main stage shows at Second City. The understudying got me really good at it because they'd be like, you're doing a show tomorrow, and I'd had to memorize like an entire Yeah.
You only can't memorize anything because you have another option. But if your options are memorize it or look like a fucking asshole, yeah, you will remember it happens, You'll remember it guaranteed.
It's crazy. What the mind does You just learn how to do it.
Yeah, you don't want to be embarrassed, and that drives you.
It really really drives you. And by the way, I wasn't meaning to bad mouth improv. It's just you have to be so vulnerable in a way that I just don't know that I can.
I don't know if I have it in me ston.
I think it's silly. You have to look like a silly butt. Yeah, yeah, can you. I don't know. Not everybody can do that. I'll look like an asshole all day. I'll give root.
And the thing that Jonah you were talking about is I feel like in certain improv classes, certain teachers. Yeah, you'd have to just walk right up to the front of the stage and start making a coffee and doing dishes and cleaning.
You just have to be like doing. And I was always like, I don't think I can make up stuff to talk about and do all these motions at the same time.
Yeah, there's yeah, there's that. And then like the games you have to play at the beginning, like quote unquote loosen up where it's like everyone going in the middle and like dance or something. It's like, oh yeah, like I gotta I gotta go.
Yeah, oh my god, the warmups for your team.
Yeah, it is odd. It doesn't make any sense. If you were to describe improv to someone who had never heard of it, they'd be like, you're improvising what improv is? Because it makes no sense.
Yes, I just had this memory of one time my team at IOW or maybe it was my class was.
Doing a show.
Anyways, we decided a great thing for us to do is to like share each person's share like something that they thought no one knew about them. And some of the stuff that people shared was like pretty dark, and then it was like, okay, let's go do a show. It was like, why did we do this to warm up? And to your point, Amber, there's like no rules. It's like this counts as a warm up.
I can remember two separate times where someone said something unhinged in that shit. It was like, oh no, we can never do this again. Then the second time happened, I was like, oh no, no, oh no, and then it happened again. Guys, be careful, be careful, don't be careful, be careful.
That's right, that's right.
Lazy, what was your did you have sort of like a did you play an instrument or have like a creative outlet? Like what was your kind of thing when you were younger now or whenever?
It's funny we did, and I don't think Amber was a part of this, but we always acted out plays. My sister Crystal would write these weird ass plays and then we would go do it. They actually let us perform a play that my sister wrote in elementary school and we got to go to class to class and perform it in front of the class. About yes, because Crystal would write all the time and write these things. So I loved her oldest sister drama. Yeah, we have an older sister and this is so funny. Could not tell you. I can't remember what the play was, but we could corporate it, don't I can't believe Amber was not a part of this. The song Dancing Queen in it and we sung it and we danced at the end of the play. What was it? A second, this seems right up ably know what the play was about. But I remember going, ooh, can we put Dancing Queen in there? And they're like yeah, and so we sent We sang Dancing Queen at the end of the play. There was no reason for us to do it. Can you imagine? Ye, guys, And that's how she got weird. The podcast is over. Were weird? We were weird weird people. Yeah. We would do little bits in the house though, Amber, because remember I was I'm a Jeane Thudpucker and I loved that. Do you remember Imma Jane thought Pucker. We would do weird bits all the time, Like all of a sudden, We're like, okay, we were going and I was like a business lady and I was put on these big thick glasses and maybe like a wig, and I'd be like m Jeane Thudpucker and we would just do these weird bits all the time. There were also songs that wrote a million songle don't know, and I was very young, and they would have all these songs that they had made up. Wow. And then I got out into the world. I was like, you know, the song about fish heads and they were like, that's not a song. I was like, oh, oh, I guess, I guess the pony Climb up the tree that was a big hit. It was it a real song? Yeah?
Not real Joana. Did you write songs as a kid.
Yeah, I think so. I mean I wrote I was you know, I was playing in bands when I was like fifteen, you know.
So before that, before that, yeah, I feel.
Like I would kind of write songs in a notebook or something. Yeah, a little bit, A little bit, I think little did you.
Well, Mia and I, you know, wrote songs. Our cousin me and I wrote songs, and she's since told me one of them in particularly, was like a rip off of a song.
Then since he's like, I didn't write that, what stole a song?
I can't remember.
Well.
First of all, before I sing, you guys have to sing one of yours. Do you remember one of the greats or like a compilation of a.
Field Fireman and I saw the pony climb up the tree. Let's do the fireman the pony climb up the tree. We can't, No one will ever I'm the fire man. Well that's actually that's from Sesame Street. But the rap we added the rap. Okay, okay, I'm the fireman. I'm ready to go. I'm the fire man. I'm the fire man and ready to go. A bright red hat and a rubber hose. I put out the fire at your crib. I never got a metal for what?
Whoa wow?
Wait? Can I hear the fish one? Fish heads?
Or fish Head's a real song too?
Fish Heads is a real song. I was gonna say, yeah.
But we also put a rap in there, but I don't remember. Yeah, fish heads, fish heads? You know? Yeah, yeah, they're fish heads. They're not bones, but you can't eat them the bone. They bounce on the words as you can't see. So everybody come and say along with me fish heads? Who so you yeah? Songs?
That's incredible.
That was a really good remix though, because if you think about look at it, because the song goes fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish sheds, fish sheds fish, but Crystal made it fish heads bony.
Fish so cool too. Wait, Jonah you know fish heads?
Yeah, used to spend MTV and stuff like. It's like an eighties or like late said.
Okay, so it's not like a Raffi song. It's not like Baby Beluga.
It's a lot of a comedy song, but not like really for kids. I don't think I see.
Yeah, Okay, well, I guess I'll sing a little bit from the song that me and I wrote.
Yay, thank you so much.
It goes like this, I know everyone had forgotten.
Everyone had forgotten, but thank you for bringing us back to when you can perform.
It goes I need it.
So her name's me and mine Vanessa, as you know. Okay, here, so that'll just make the beginning.
That makes sense. It goes, Hi, we're MV and we like to chill you. We know a little girl called Emma Cavilia. She has a lot of friends. There's Julie. There's Julie and Jennie and Hilary too. But I'm not sure I should say it to you. She's got them, she's got them friends. Friends are really nice nice the friends really nice or even nice son, and then Mia goes, hey, Vy, why don't you pump up the beat for me? And then I go, she's got them, She's gone, she's gone them, she's got him friends. I think there's one more verse, but I won't.
I won't.
You guys kind of have we get the idea?
Yeah?
Wait, what's it? What's the name?
She says that the stolen song?
You know, I should find out. I bet I get text her. I should find out. She later told me that song is taken from something and like bye later but later, I mean like two years ago and we wrote this song.
Were her soul?
She's like, my song is over thirty years old, so it's sim.
Wait, so it's about how someone else has a lot of friends?
Is it from an R and B song? Because I felt a little hip hop might be okay, how many of us have friends? I'm like, before we go any further, let's be friends.
I'm just gonna send her a quick text and see what were her?
I mean, she's gonna go. Don't tell anyone, certainly don't put it on the podcast. But I love how Rember. Isn't it funny? How you can remember it is?
It's you can remember song.
From back in the day. I will definitely write a song and then be like, oh, that song already exists. That certainly happened to me before.
Yeah. What I'm impressed, you know musically with you two is that when we were on your podcast, you're able to like play live samples and stuff on the fly. That's that to me is really bro. We've never done that. That all gets added later for us.
We now we edit later. Okay, we do the theme song and then we make up the theme song, but the rest of them shits. Man, I can't be pressed on all these buttons.
I get it.
No, no, no, no, I was.
I know.
I was impressed you were doing that. It's like, you gotta focus.
Look, do you mean things?
You're a song right, you.
Two are New York Times bestselling authors, your song writers and performers. You're Look, you've toured around many many classrooms, doing.
A whole elementary school tour.
Yeah, and now you've got to trigger sound effects while you're working.
Yeah above all of that now, Yeah, absolutely well.
Speaking of being I sometimes I try and come up with segues where I don't know what I was going to say, but we are going to take a quick commercial break.
You gonna say it being above something?
I was, yeah, I was gonna say, like speaking of being above something. We're between a commercial break, Like it's all prepositions.
Right right, I see it. Yeah, you just got to be.
Can you remember and do you remember how you learn prepositions in like middle school? It was like it's you use a box like above the box, below the box.
You got to take a quick break, be right back with han for and Lazy and we're back. Wow, breaking news, breaking news.
During that commercial break, I was able to find out the source of our of Mia and my quote unquote our song friends, and the song is erase Key by Houdini.
Friends. Isn't that friends? How many of us have? Yeah, it is hilarious. That's hilarious. Yeah, that's what we said. You call it lazy, good job?
Oh no, oh no, wait a second. She said erase key. She meant erase the word key. So so sorry, So it's the Friends song.
By Yes, yes, I didn't know what erase key meant, but I know who.
She wrote he Houdini key, erase key. And then I thought the name of the song was erase key, but it was.
I love it so.
Yeah, you got it. Well, she sent me a link to it, and she's clarified the spelling.
Is who deany who deny who.
Yeah, which same pronunciation, I guess. But I'm impressed that you got it right away.
Lacy.
Yeah, yeah, it was a good song.
It's a hot so it is.
And when I sang you are song, did it sort of? You said it sort of seemed like it might have been a little hip hoppy going on hip hoppy song.
That's true, it was a rap. And then if you do the math of when songs mentioned friends and when you were a baby.
She just actually texted me and said, I don't remember listening to this song as a kid, but we had to have ripped.
It off you did.
That's really funny.
We're very excited because.
Amber and Lacey, we asked you to bring in a topic today to talk about it, and one of your topics really thrilled us, and we just we have so many questions. But to start, I'm just going to introduce what the topic is. You suggested rolling down a hill in a barrel. Now take us through what your experience with that is.
Okay, So, our father used to work at Duncan Hines and Duncan Hines is like, you know they make cakes, brownies, all that, desserts, and so he would bring us these huge barrels because that's how they would store the chocolate chips.
So there would be oh my god, they have chocolate chips, so did they smell?
There would still be tons of chocolate chips in this barrel. Oh my god, dream and eat all these chocolate chips. Oh my. And he would bring them and desserts all the time. But I loved the chocolate chip barrel more than anything. And I thought it was a barrel. It was a barrel big enough to put a human being in. So we would take the bag out the chips. Then we had a huge yard. We had over an acre, so we would end that and it was it was on a slop. It sloped down.
Wait, I have a question about the barrel. One more question. So it's a big it's lined with a big bag that's full of chocolate chips. Yes, and your parents were like, you can just go go for all of us.
No, by the time the barrel, oh, it's just us. It has been. It's been because probably some type of machine a ton of chocolate there. Yeah, it's not like I see, I'm sorry. My dad did not steal from the No, no, no, no.
I would have thought that they'd say, like, here, go ahead.
How did you get into it?
Like did you?
Would you tip the barrel on the side.
Or you just pulled pull the bag out and then we would eat eat all the leftover leftover chocolate chips, which was a lot. Then you roll the barrel up up the hill and then one of us would get inside the barrel and they'd push you down. Now did you enjoy this? Loved it freakin loved it exhilarating. I hated ten out of ten.
I'm sorry I interrupted you when you were telling us about the barrel because I had so many questions about the chips.
Now that I understand the chips, will you re explain the barrel? I mean sorry. The hill was in front yard, backyard, backyard, backyard, and it's what does it lead to the bottom? And how steep we talk in.
It's steep enough so that we also would use a toboggan and go down the hill super fast. So I it's you pick up speed, You pick up speed. You can't control it. You can't control it. You're going to feel.
It, and is it just into a field or is it like, are there trees at the bottom there that you're going to hit.
There's a gate at the bottom, so if you w it's like very very steep hill and then it levels out for a while, so you can't stop before you hit the fence. Sometimes sometimes, but if you really got good speed, I mean, that's the goal, right, you want to get that fence. And this is one of the reasons why I am extremely claustrophobic. I never enjoyed it. One times, my sister shoved me in there, and in the middle of that role, I decided I wanted to get out, and I never did this again. I put my hands on the outside of the barrel. Oh no, And from then on I was terrified to get inside that barrel. Amber's a little thrill seeker. She loved that. I hated it, but I love to watch them do it. I was like, that looks fun. I don't have it in me to do that anymore. I've Amber how old when I was born? How old was I born? I was born a sixty two year old woman. I didn't enjoy that year old, Like I've always been an old lady didn't enjoy it at all.
Okay, So and what's the lid? What are the lids like on these Oh there was a lid, but we'd never put the lid on. You wouldn't put the lid on.
No, no, no, you would do it lidless. And then lots of times, your instinct is to hold onto something. Yes, the only thing you can hold on to is the edge of the barrel, and that's gonna roll and it's gonna crush all of your fingeries. So you have to so like, if you were a thrill seeker like me, you're just flopping around in that mug. You don't want to hold on anything. But if you were a cautious child, you would hold on to the outside rim and you would crush all your little Never do it again, you do it once.
Yeah.
And one time one of our friends got stuck in that barrel. No you remember, we called him Charlie Brown. He was just Michael Charlie. Don't say names name.
I always say.
Vanessa always is like, oh do you mean this person? Here's their full last name, And I'm like, they.
Got stuck in the barrel, And that was really sad. We had to pull them out, wasn't okay, fine, he's just so little and he was probably too big to be in that ural by that.
Now, speaking of which I just wanted to say, did any of you ever get injured? Any you or any of your siblings going down the barrels?
This is my fingers.
Yeah, such a classic, Like you know, there's all these articles about like stuff that we did when we were kids that, like now would be looked at as being so dangerous. Yeah, okay, so you went down, So you went down the barrel? Was there ever a snow element to it?
Like? Was it was there ever a weather?
No? Never, Yes, the barrel was for good weather, but for snow. We had a ski bike, which is a bike that has skis where the wheels are.
Oh my god, so scary.
Yeah.
What is the point of a ski bike? Just so that like if you fall, there's a bunch of metal in front of you.
Oh that's all right, that's truly the worst idea.
No, I don't know where to turn.
Just the barrel a barrel down a hill and no one ever really got gravely injured. Now, did you ever a move that we pulled that was sort of similar? Well, I have two stories. One is involves our cousin Mia again when we were kids, the songwriter from Hodini the Who Slash. Yes, we had stairs in our house and that was an endless source of fun and yeah, carpeted stairs and so we've talked about this on here before too, but we used to often take a pillow and sort of sled down the stairs right into a door that was at the bottom, right into a closet at the bottom of the stairs. That's why I was asking what was at the bottom, because you know, we didn't have much of a landing at the bottom of the stairs, so that was that was tough.
But one time Mia, I can't remember who did it.
First.
I think Mia rolled down the stairs as if she was in a barrel, but with no barrel, the carpet of the stairs being the barrel, sort of serving the same purpose as the in terms of quote unquote protecting her. And then Jonah, I think you saw Mia roll down the stairs and you thought that it looked so fun that then you rolled.
Down the stairs.
Yeah, it sounds possible, and then you sort of hurt yourself because the stairs there was there was about a two foot clearance and then a closet door, so you go down and then it was.
But I think if you hit yourself, you hurt yourself, just even on that rolled down.
Oh, because it has so much of a better memory than I do that I think we had completely different childhoods because I can't remember any of the stuff messas like you. Maybe, yeah, I probably did. If you say that, it probably did. It probably hurt. Sounds like it would have hurt.
They'd feel good.
But did you guys ever do anything like that inside the house?
You ever rolled a barrel down your stairs?
In our house, we had a clothes shoot. Oh God, upstairs you would put your clothes down the chute. So sometimes children would go down the chute. I never did it, Lacy, did you go down the show? Now? You know when it all stopped? H Because I had two older sisters, I got experimented on by Crystal and Angelo all the time, and one time they would always shove me down the chute. I against my will, and they shoved me down the chute one time and I got stuck and my dad had to come home from work and pull me out. And we never did it again. Wow, And I again another reason why I'm claustrophobic. I didn't want to go down that chute, but they would make me do these things. And I can you imagine being hung upside down and you can't get you can't go.
You were upside down? Yeah, face we went face I went face first.
No, so my dad had to rush home and snatched me out. Oh yeah, they did, That's what we did. That's horrible.
It's almost better that you got stuck though, right like oday. Well, because then you're going face first down this like shoot like you know, at least you're you're.
Not at all. No, I never wanted to wait a second.
Before then had you successfully gone down the shoot before?
Oh?
Okay, okay, got it?
Okay, Yeah, Jonah was where you were? Jonah? You were thinking there was no padding at the bottom.
Yeah, I was thinking, okay because we had a laundry shoe grown up, but we never went down it.
I was going to say, Jonah, this was Jonah knows exceptly what I'm going to say, which is, I used to have this recurring dream that I would jump down the stairs from the top stair to the bottom stairs, and then I tried to do it once while I was awake. Because you know, sometimes when you're a kid, you're like, I don't know, and it literally physically couldn't do it because of the physics of it, like because the ceiling followed at the same angle as the ground, so it's like I wouldn't have been able to get the angle required to jump to the And I remember standing at the top of the stairs and being like so disappointed that it was just something I had dreamt about. But the other thing that I think I maybe dreamt about was going down that chute, but I don't think we ever did. No, our shit was pretty tiny too. It was pretty small.
And you know what, I thought it was cool that older houses used to have were inner cons Did you guys have an intercom at your house?
No, we didn't, but I had friends the know. Yeah, cool seventies INNERCN system. Oh my god, it's hilarious, you guys. I live in a house that's built in the seventies, and what we have is a thing I've never seen in a house of my recire life. There is a thing in the wall, and it's in every room where you open up a little flat, you know, like the things that cover the outlets, that's exactly where it is and the size of it, and if you open it then there's a big hole and the hole start sucking. You have instead of a regular vacuum cleaner, is just a big ass hose and you take it with a vacuum, you know, clean the end, and you take the hose from room to room. And that's how you clean your house. The house itself is a vacuum.
It's a vacuum.
Never heard of it, never seen it in.
My entire Where does it go? Where does it empty out to?
That was about to say, have you ever emptied it? Never emptied? Amber, It's I've never emptied it. I couldn't tell you where it is. It's it's time to empty. Fine.
It reminds me of a certain sci fi show that I've only seen one season of where but we won't say the name of it because.
It's right, But it feels very like where did all the stuff you vacuumed go?
Yeah, we need to find that out Amber. It could be going into a whole alternate universe. And I need to know. This not my business, it's not our business. And they're getting upset every time she does from Fine.
You know, vacuuming is something I've gotten so into as an adult something like the where it's like I always want an excuse and if I see something where there's like a bunch of like stuff and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's like, so, yeah, what is it about that when you hit a certain adric, I just want to vacuum everything.
I just haven't hit that age yet, and I don't know I quite well.
I love sweeping and vacuuming.
Yeah, I'm almost the opposite to the point where I don't even see stuff that needs to be swept or back.
Are you adding things onto the floor?
You're just like I just drop this sort of him, just like that's what floor looks like.
No, no floor should look like stuff.
Vanessa, any other adventures inside or outside the house. I'm so glad you're okay, Lacy. That is so scary that you were stuck. I thought I was never going to be play the piano. You know how long you stuck upside down for?
Oh, I was thinking the barrel thing. It was enough for me to be crying them calling my dad and my dad coming home from work. That's a long time, dude.
So do you think it was like Lacey because of all this stuff kind of you went through. But Amber by the time you were growing up, like your parents had instilled like you can't, you can't do this stuff, or you're get in trouble or no.
No, because Lacey was my older sibling, like the two older siblings older than Lacey were too old to be concerned with me at all. I just had Lacey, and Lacey's too nice to do that, okay, because she was tortured, So that was tortured. They experimented on.
Anyone has any reason to be claustrophobic, I think someone who has been both stuck in a laundry shoot and a barrel.
And amber the red oven. We had a red oven. It was a toy evident and the doors only opened out, so my sisters would stick me in the red oven and put it upside down. Can't get out of that, Christal, come on terrible. When someone coming rescue, you'd be like ove in the backyard, be rocking back and forth. The dad come out and rescue. So you want to talk about being claustrophobic. These are the reasons why people ask me why, and I get but the red oven really did it to me? Cannot be in closed spaces.
Nice, It's amazing your dad got aning Worke done at Duncan high Is. Wanted you to come home every other day to rescue you.
There. Do not like small spaces.
He was always bringing home barrels of the chips. Wanted you to feel better.
Yeah, did you get stuck at anything to day? Here? Go ahead and know this time with chips. Yeah.
Wow, I'm speechless. I'm just speechless. I guess we're going to take another commercial break, which is a good time to do. It is when you're speechless, is how they say in the world of podcasts. But we'll be right back with Amber and Lacy.
And we're back.
How's everyone feeling after? I'm feeling ready to roll down a hill?
So everybody, would you find any chocolate chips kind of bouncing around when you're rolling out?
It's that suckers cleaned out.
Well.
You had taken the plastic bags as a plastic bag and like a cardboard ish barrel with like metal ledges.
Before we get to our game, can I just ask do you find that you have such good self control around desserts as adults because you grew up with.
Them all over? Like I if we had one bag of chocolate chips in our house growing up, we like would have to eat it, like it would just be we couldn't handle it.
And I still am like that, Like I still any desserts in my house. I'm like, I have to eat all of this right now. Do you feel like it gave you a special self control?
No? Quite the opposite. Wow, I can't not eat all of any trash trash food that's in the house. I got to eat all of it, and it's got to be instantly. Yeah, but I wasn't. I'm because I'm the youngest of five. They were tired of telling me to clean my plate, so I didn't get used to that. So I only eat four things and they're all fucking trash. Amber's terrible. She's like a toddler. She's never grown.
Things. That's that.
I was kind of wondering. Chicken in almost any way, taco stuff okay, and green bean okay, and mac and cheese, you know, like desserts. She does like dessert that's about it. Yeah, you have to choose your restaurant carefully because ams like, there's nothing I can eat there.
I know, I'll go with you.
There's no on the menu, so you can't take her. It's nothing. She's going to a kid's place. She's she's gay. Fancy seafood restaurant, she's not going to go there. It's who needs it.
Well, I think those are a good four things. They sort of allow a lot of freedom of other things. You know, they're very general, so but all delicious. Yeah, so I think that's great.
Bad. Well, are you ready to play a pretty fun game?
You two? We are ready?
Yay?
Okay.
This game is called change dot Door. Change dot Door.
Otherwise known as let's make fun of people who don't know how to use change dot Org. In this game, we'll bring up three different nostalgic petitions that people have made on change dot org and we'll each vote for our favorite.
Are you ready to play?
We are ready?
Yeah? Sorry, keep asking if you're ready. It's because I'm nervous for this first one.
This first one came out about a year ago, and it's called hire Amber Ruffin to host Oscars twenty twenty three. And the petition says Amber Ruffin should host the Academy Awards in twenty twenty three.
Sign this petition if you agree.
Is that a joke?
Well, look it has eight signatures. Am I there? I don't remember somebody?
What? Hell?
Lay? Somebody put it on here?
And what? Yeah, I think I'm gonna get to host.
You're gonna get now. I know you've hosted other shows, like I know you've hosted other award shows, but this is the Academy Awards with many would say is the biggest of the big and this woman, Brandy started it. I won't give her last name.
Okay, but yeah, I know. I'm like, do we know Brandy? Ever?
What do you think? Oscars come to you, they say we're looking for a host. What do you think? Are you into it? What's your what's your ten toes?
Down a billion percent?
You know what?
The funnest thing is is writing. I love writing for award shows because I write on Late Night Seth. So then he's hosted you know, the Oscars and the Golden Globes, I want to say, But then I also wrote for the Tonys, oh wow. And then the Emmys. Oh, Seth hosted the Emmy's not the Oscars. Maybe did host the askers? I don't know, yeah, but all kinds of stuff and they are so fun. And then I hosted the Writers Guild Awards and maybe something else. But uh, it's always fun because you know exactly the target you got to hit, and it's so neat and you get you know, you write a thousand jokes, but you can't say but four, and then you tell those four jokes and you go, man, I should have faked the other dukes. It's always fun. It's super fun. Okay, I love to find that poti. I gotta sign it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get twelve if we all sign it. But now that I hate everybody, Yeah, there's an awareness of it now. Okay, so Lacy, you're on board too, I'm on board, yes, yes, yeah, I.
Put some fake names on there where Yeah? Did I say that out loud? Muriel Higginbottom, Lacy, what was that name? I can't even think. I can't think of the name. Emmagene thought pucker.
And kind of along the same lines, I said in an earlier podcast a few weeks ago that that that I could go into our podcast reviews and give five stars every day and it would count.
And I found out from doing simple math and just trying to start again that you you, Jonah, you are right.
You can only give yourself five stars once.
Yeah, yeah, apples. Apples probably got that technology figured out. But uh yeah, thank you.
So that's why I thought I'm going to give you five starts.
Thank you so much, you and we'll give you five stars.
Yay yay.
Now, so it sounds like we're all on board for this. Jonah, what if you came out you said, no, No.
I'm definitely on board. Okay. So the next petition is called make show choir have pe credits. Yes, I'm sorry, this one's made out to the Millard's school Board. It's very long. We'll just give a quick recap. We all know how hard a show choir kids work. We have vocal boot camp, choreography boot camp, and hours and hours of practice. Not only do we dance, but we also sing well dancing, which requires a lot of hard work. According to dictionary dot com, the basic definition of a sport is an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess, and often of a competitive nature. Show choir is so physically demanding and it requires more activity than some sports, for example, but basketball. So anyways, this whole thing is about how they should get PE credits for being a show choir because it's basically like a sport and it's very difficult. What do you two think about this petition Millard Omaha. That's a good question.
Because I was about to say when you said, Millard, that's a thing, is.
That an Omaha thing?
Omaha, Nebraska could be I mean, Millard could be anything that's hilarious.
Millard, I don't know. It could be. I don't know, they don't don't. My only thing for Omaha's Saddle Creek, So that's my only reference.
Yeah, my daughter was in show choir. I wholeheartedly agree with this.
Really, I had to.
Sit through all those show choir performances. I know Amber was in show choir, but yeah, my daughter was in show choir and they did a lot of jumping around and it was very, very trying. So I'm gonna say, yes, it should be considered oh sport. I was in show choir. I went to show choir camp. It was the shit. It was the only camp I ever went to, and it was the most fun I've ever had, easily, And uh, I have to say this. If this is Millard in Millard Omaha and they're saying their showchoir is physically taxing, that's true. But if it's any other place on her. It is not buddy a step touch and jazz hands upright down left, up left down right, that's not it's not. It was not physically taxing. But there were some they have where they would be like throwing each other around. Yeah wow, and Millard I remember had red dresses back when I was a kid, and they were really fitting up in each other around in that mug and like you're singing and singing is physical, yes, sure, whatever, it's true, but they really were like, it ain't no basketball, so please stop that. But it is. It's physically quite something, not basketball, but something. Jonah, what do you think about this?
I think it's a well written petition. I think I think I'm okay with Maybe we can end this trend of everyone labeling things as boot camp, vocal boot camp, choreography, boot camp. Okay, like we get it, like something difficult, we did, now we I guess we just call it boot camp. I don't know, but I like the dictionary definition. I think this person makes a compelling argument. I don't know a lot about show choir never involved, but yeah, I mean sure it seems I'm sure it's Yeah, why not give them credit? I mean why not encourage people to be artistic, you know, especially if they're not good athletes, maybe they're talented at this. Yeah, why not? I support this? What about you, Vanessa?
Well, yes, I support this, And in fact, someone wrote in one of the comments of it, my kids compete in show choir in many programs already successfully do this, so this isn't out of the realm of possibility. But we've come across many a petition that people, you know, kids often want Jim to be our pe class to be optional, and that's a very common petition on here, and I think show choir it does seem like it's a maybe a better compromise because okay, because I think a lot of the people who probably want Jim to be optional are in show choir.
That's right right now, So I think I understand.
I am from the world of I'd rather be tapping my toes and singing a song than you know, kicking a ball because I'm bad at sports and I get out of breath easily.
So I would say I like this petition. I think this person makes a good argument.
All right, in agreement. Yet again, now that's true.
Something that's crazy.
I want to say is for the first time in the history of us playing this game on this podcast. Our next petition in this in something that was a little crazy was that you guys think you might know the school that we were just talking about for the show Choir petition. Something else that's crazy is I think I might know the author of this next petition that I randomly found.
And Amber you might know him too.
This next petition is called make Comedy Sports an Olympic sport.
And I'll read a little bit of it. And it's made by Myers, It's.
Made by Oh my god, can you imagine? Although, okay, let me read a little bit of it. For too long, theater kids have never gotten to enjoy the cheers of crowds, the thrill of the win, or the glory of a championship.
Until now. Comedy Sports is the country's first and only comedy show played as a sport. A two teams. We know how this works.
We need to petition the IOC to recognize comedy sports as a legitimate competitive Olympic sport. In twenty twenty four, I am Jason Geis, and I'm the artistic director of Comedy Sports Chicago and as a theater kid my whole life. I finally found my competitive side as I've watched other nonsport people find their competitive side, and it's just as intense as our more traditional sports friends.
We practice every week blah blah blah blah blah.
It's real and other theater kids need to see themselves represented in the greatest showcase of sport in the world.
I can't tell if that's Jason doing a bit or if he's serious. I think you're serious.
I mean, look, he put it on change shot or Vanessa. How did you find this petition?
I was trying to look up comedy related petitions and this came up. And you know, obviously we had a comedy sports in Chicago that was very popular.
Er, did you ever do comedy sports?
No, because I auditioned and I did not get picked. But I did do Jason Geis had a comedy theater called pH and I did that. Yes, that's right.
I looked him up because I was like, how do I know this guy? And I either I think I did you do pH?
I did for sure.
I think I almost auditioned for it, and then I didn't want to do Wasn't it a huge time commitment?
It probably was, okay, I feel like and it was so fucking fun. It was like lorientne Olbrish, Kevin Siretta, you know, yes, like Rebecca Krasny.
Yes, my friend Alex Fox was in pH and I and I'm still really good friends with her, and I remember, yeah, they had the best time. But I recognized this name and I thought, I think I know this guy, and then I looked it up and I had emails from him pH related emails, comedy sports related emails.
And this is a first. This is there's so many petitions unchanged dot org and to have a petition that was written by someone you know, and it was written in twenty nineteen and it has sixty four signatures so we could all still sign it. And someone wrote the comment make the phrase comedy gold really means something. And someone wrote the comment comedy is a sport. And I'm not really sure why I read you either of those comments.
But I also feel like you two are talking about comedy sports, like it's like this thing that I have no idea what you're talking about.
Oh, what is comedy sports?
Okay, comedy sports is when people play short form games like what's wyin Brady's show is called Whose Line is it Anyway? No?
Yeah, whose line is it anyway?
That's right. So it's like a live whose line is it Anyway? Where you get suggestions and you play, you know, games based on those suggestions more so than you get a suggestion, and then you just improvise loosely for a half an hour or whatever.
Right, and then there's a referee because there's a referee because there's two teams.
What what I'm laughing.
About is my friend.
I had a friend and I will not name this person who I used to be on a team with in Chicago, who was once refereeing at Comedy Sports a game because again there's two teams of people and the audience votes on which team wins the different games. But he fully shit his pants as referee and had to like keep it coming on stage and refereeing and had to just stay facing forward, you know, everybody, but fully.
Say their first name right now, say their name, freend Williams. Who wasn't will you tell me and then have them bleep it out?
It was? I think it's how you pronounced his name. He was a good friend of mine, Okay, but he fully shited his pants and and had to keep sorry.
Say, why was he ill? Did he eat a lot of cheese?
I think he must have.
He was living in I think he was living in like.
I think he was living in North Carolina at the time, and I think there's a lot of really rich food, like whenever we would we have visited that comedy for it, but I think he was used to it because he lived there. But when we visited there, you know, sometimes Southern.
Food it can be rich.
I mean, are you there?
No, I wasn't there, But I.
Still think it's one of the funniest stories I've ever heard about.
You, Barrel. I have so many questions because if you're wearing depends, how do you No one noticed.
I think this was not a regular thing for him.
I think he just he must have eaten something that disagreed with him and he was on stage. And you know those comedies sports, how long would you say they are? Amber like the whole show because it's a competition, probably at least an hour long.
No one I just wanted no one was like that dude up there.
Just almost feel like we need to do an episode where we interview him about this and just get his needs to answer.
But I think he was able to somehow hide it.
Now, I will say this, I don't think it happened at the very beginning, so maybe he only had to hide it for you know, a half hour of.
Pretty five minutes. Okay, oh god, but can you imagine having to come out and be like, okay, and that was hips ups up and if you're like the blue team, give him a bote I like the team, and then just slowly backing towards the wall.
Oh yeah, you'll be like, that was a brown paper bag foul. This this let's say vanilla ice fowl. It was off bag all right? Next up and to do run run terrible. I love comedy sports.
Going back to the petition making comedy sports and Olympics sports.
I think we can go back to the petition.
Yeah we went off the rails. Done? Yeah, crash the does everyone? Everyone?
Well, let's each vote on our favorite, and I think I know what our favorite is. But also I think this group seems like they would sign multiple of these petitions. But so Amber and Lacy, what do you each think of the petitions? Hire Amber rough In to host Oscars twenty twenty three, Make Show Choir have pe credits and make comedy sports and Olympic sport.
Of course, I'm for Amber and the show Choir, but not for the Olympic sport. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I think they should make comedy sports and Olympic sport because how hilarious would that should be? My god, I'm for it because I like chaos, and that would be the freaking best. Man, just some random money is being like yay and that besides whether or not you get it, Okay, man, I guess yeah, that's crazy. But I do think I should host everything all the time. Yeah, yes, that's my favorite. Jonah, what about you?
Yeah, comedy sports I never witnessed. It doesn't seem I think I might rather be stuffed in a laundry shoes.
Whoa.
It's fun when you're fun going in, but then.
Someone's going to pull you out, maybe for like five minutes.
But but no.
In all seriousness, yeah, I wish I'm good luck with that petition. I don't know if it's really right for the Olympics, but you know, maybe it could be a thing. But I think, yeah, Amber hosting, obviously it's going to be my pick. I totally support that.
Yva, what about you same? I look, the comedy sports is an Olympic sport.
My only issue with it is just I feel like there would be some perhaps language barrier issues where sure.
It might be you know and I I don't know. I feel split on it.
I sort of like Amber's reasoning of just the chaos of it, I think would be really interesting and we want to we want to support our friend in Chicago.
But so I say, I'm sort of fifty to fifty.
But obviously, if I had to pick one, it would be Amber to host Oscars twenty twenty three. Now I think that it would maybe have to be twenty twenty four given the current But but I think people are signing knowing that.
I think everyone needs to go to change dot org, dot net, yes, and then sign this petition that someone I know has to have done.
Okay, do you want her? Her full name is, I will give it to you her.
We'll put in the show notes. We'll put the petition in the show notes.
For sure, put the petition in the show notes. Her name is Randy Bigley. I think she I think she's just a fan. I think she's just Oh that's nice, isn't that so nice. It's my favorite, very nice. So thank you, Brandy, You win, Brandy. Okay, okay, well, I guess it's time to draw this exhilarating podcast to a close. Thank you both so much for being here. Where can people find you too?
I'm pretty sure I'm at Amber ruffing on everything. Maybe I'm at Amber em Ruffin. Look you don't try it and see who you who you get? I think I'm Lacey Lamart. That's what was meant, Lacy Lamar Lamar, and we have a podcast.
Yay ye yes, yay.
Well, everybody'd be sure to sure to check that out. Joonah and I got to be guests and we had a lot of fun and and they're and they're adding in their sound effects right now because.
You know. Okay.
Thank you so much to Amber and Lacy for joining us, and to everyone for listening. If you enjoyed this, please subscribe to the podcast and keep an eye up for next week's episode of How Did We Get Weird, where we will discuss more stories from our childhood and culture touchstones like sliding down a hill in a barrel
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