Verdict with Ted CruzSenator Cruz the Movie Buff, Talks about His Favorite Movies
Welcome to Verdict with Ted Cruz. This is Ted Cruz. I hope you're having a wonderful Valentine's Day. I hope you find the love of your life and give them a hug, give them a kiss, and let them know they mean the world to you. Unfortunately, today Ben is sick in bed with a nasty flu. So rather than do our normal pod, what we're going to do is we're going to rebroadcast our Christmas Day pod. And the Christmas Day Pod was one It's one of my favorites. It recounted some of my favorite movies, some of the movies I enjoy watching the most. I am a movie guy. I love movies. I've loved movies my whole life, and so I hope today on Valentine's Day, you listen to the pod, you enjoy it. Maybe go out and watch a movie and take your wife or husband or boyfriend or girlfriend and have a great time at the movies, and we will see you. We'll do our regular week in review tomorrow on Saturday, and Ben and I will both be back. God will into the creek, don't rise on Monday morning. Enjoy.
But I mean, you're a movie theater guy. Just so people know this, I like.
The real theater, so I like the big screen.
I like popcorn and gummy bears, and and you know the experience of being there. And by the way, I'm also rabbit about staying until the very end, till the last moment of the credits play. I will not get up and leave. There's a sense of completeness of appreciating the entirety of of the the movie. And so what we decided we do today is put together just a compilation of movies that that that I love, that I that I recommend to you, and and and hopefully as you're taking some time with your family, maybe you'll go watch one of them and laugh or cry, and it'll touch you and you'll enjoy it. And I think art and storytelling are beautiful, beautiful things.
So that being said, and here in the big shows and the big movies on Center Cruise's list, Merry Christmas. I get asked all the time from many of you guys that are watching or listening right now, what is Ted Cruz like behind the scenes.
So we thought we'd have a little fun.
I'm gonna ask him some questions and you're even gonna find out what his favorite movies are.
Senator, We're gonna have.
A little fun I get asked all the time when I'm all over the country. In half of this last week in New York, so what is Ted Cruz really like.
Behind the scenes?
And I say, I actually, if people got to see the side of you that I know, you're actually really fun to be around. You're also a huge movie buff as well, and so I'm gonna ask some fun questions just to kind of let people know behind the curtain who you really are. So let's start with this. What is the last thing you watched on a plane?
What is the last thing I watched on a plane was Outer Banks?
Okay?
Which is a series. It's a teeny bopper series, and it's phenomenal. I am in the middle of season three. And there's a reason I'm watching a teeny bopper series, which is my youngest daughter, Catherine loves Outer Bank.
She's at camp right now, yep.
And when I dropped her off at camp, she said, Dad, I want you to watch out her Banks, and I want you to write to me in letters and tell me what you think is the season's progressing. And so I've been regularly I write to her about every couple of days and I tell her, Okay, here's where I am. I'm at this point. I'm at this point. This character just my favorite character, JB. Yeah, I too.
So she asked me that I'm a little troubled.
Her favorite character is JJ, who who is kind of a look I guess if you're a thirteen year old girl, he's you know, he's always doing the dumbest thing imaginable, but he's kind of a I like John B.
John B is a good character.
It's such a fun show.
So when you were growing up, what was it that you were watching high school college?
But by the way, spoiler alert, I apologize if you haven't seen it. I'm gonna give a spoiler alert right now, so just fast forward through this if you don't want a spoiler alert. But in season two, when when when Ward is blown blown up, I knew Ward was not blown up, and so I wrote her, I said, yeah, Ward just died. I'm very confident he's alive. And I remembered they keep scuba gear in the boat. He got in the scuba gear and then like sevens.
There you got to.
Figure it out, and you're like, they got to keep this, they gotta keep the series.
So I felt pretty good that I was at least a step ahead of the teeny Bopper series.
I like that.
So what were you watching in high school? Like, what were your favorite shows? What was your favorite movie?
So I love movies.
My parents love movies, like like we would, you know, this is what we do. So so every holiday, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, my family would go out and watch.
Movies that Diehard a Christmas movie.
Of course, it is okay, good, absolutely, yes, there's only one right answer. Diehart is absolutely a Christmas movie. But we would go out and do movies. When I was a kid, when I was like eight nine years old, my dad would drop me off at the theater all Saturday and.
I'd watch like five movies.
I'd go from one theater to the next to the next and just watch everything there.
It's it's we all love movies.
So what I've done done today for this show is I put together a list of twenty five movies. Now this is not exclusive. This is not the only twenty five movies I like. And I don't even know that it's my twenty five favorite, but it's twenty five awesome movies which if you haven't watched, I recommend you watch. You will enjoy them. You will laugh, you will be moved, you will get good things from them. So let's go through the twenty five.
I gotta ask for one more question for you.
Twenty five what movie have you watched the most in your life over and over again?
Well, that actually happens to be number one on the list.
I knew it. I like this.
So my favorite movie of all time is The Princess Bride. Really, I love The Princess Bride, the PRIs I think every character in it is exquisite. Every line from every character is fantastic.
I'll tell you.
In college, we used to play a game called Drinking Princess Bride. And so the way you play Drinking Princess Bride, as you sit down with a bunch of college kids, you put the movie on and you try to say each line immediately before it's said. If you get it right, you point out somebody they have to drink. If you screw it up even slightly, you drink. And if two or more people say the same line at the same time, everybody drinks.
So when you get to the asu wish why you were so sober in college. Now I understand.
Look when you get to the as you wishes, Yeah, everyone can get them. So they're all socials and it is a fun game. My problem is I know just about every line from the movie, but I'll screw them up slightly, so I end up kind of getting myself because I try an awful lot of them. But is an exquisite movie. I probably watched The Princess Bride, I don't know a couple hundred times. No way, it is fantastic. So that's number one on your list, far and away. Number two on my list is The Godfather Saga.
Couldn't agree with you more. One of the best series ever made, period.
And I'm not going to break it down between one, two and three. I even like three, which is a bit of a heretical idea. I think three stands on its own as its own movie. The least that three only makes sense in conjunction with one and two.
Which is when you're in the club.
I kind of like that, Like you can't fake it and go see number three and and think, oh that was incredible.
You have to be in it.
And look, I quote all of them all the time. You know, from three. Every time I get out, they keep pulling me back in. I will say it was a little depressing with with with my team where I turned. You know, senate staffers are all children.
You know your.
Average to put that on a T shirt, Your average senate staffer is like twenty three, twenty four, twenty five. So so things like Godfather quotes they just don't get.
And and so I.
I said something. I said, you know, this is the business we have chosen. And like everyone looked at me confused, and I.
Said, okay.
I had like six staffers there. I said, all right, do any of you have any idea what I'm saying. They're like no, no, no. I said, okay, this is Godfather too. And and this is a conversation between Hym and Roth, who is clearly modeled after myerland Ski, Him and Roth and Michael Corleone, and they're down in Miami and him and Roth goes Michael. I had a friend. I had a friend since childhood, Moe Green was his name, And one day somebody put a bullet in his eye. I did not ask who was responsible. I did not seek retribution. I said, this is the business we have chosen.
None of them had any idea what I was talking about team.
Building night in the Senate. You should totally you should totally bring him in one, two and.
Three nine hours.
Yes, this is what you're gonna do. That's team building.
One won Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday.
A favorite line from any of the Godfather is the best one. Mine's the Canoli.
Leave, leave the gun and take the cannola.
Yeah, no brainer. Number three on your list Scarface? Really?
Oh, I love me some scarfing.
Why I notice Pacino has two spots in my top three here. I like Pacina, Okay, I love crime movies and look Scarface, Stony Montani's Cuban.
I'm Cuban.
It's you know, it is larger than life. I can quote a lot of lines from it. To be honest, I'm not going to because they're pretty off color and I'm going to avoid putting out on the podcast some of the language from it.
But uh, it is, so crime genre is your thing, and I like Pacino.
Yeah, he's amazing.
So my favorite TV show is Criminal Minds. I love Criminal Minds.
I'm actually shocked by that one, because if there was only one box that I can take with me, my whole life.
Like if I was stuck on it as island, it'd be West Wing.
West Wing is fabulous. I've watched every episode of West Wing. I've watched every episode of Criminal Minds. But Criminal Minds is I just find it fascinating. Heidi hates it, by the way, when Criminal Minds is on, She's like, turn that garbage off because you know you've got evil Vicious. I'm like, no, no, they're the bad guys though, it's all about stopping them. But she just doesn't like that. In the house, all right. Number four Fletch never seen it. You've never seen Fletch. Go home tonight and watch Fletch. It may be the funniest movie ever made.
Really.
Chevy Chase plays Irwin Fletcher, an undercover investigative reporter. It is absolutely hysterical. You know you love chevy Chase, so that's It's chevy Chase's best movie. Mut much better than Lampoon's Vacation, much better than and He's Done a ton I love chevy Chase, but Fletch is head and shoulders above them all. You know Grant, who heads up my security detail. Grant and I quote Fletch lines back and forth at each other every week.
Really it is Go and watch the movie. Never seen it.
It is spectacular, all right, fletch, I'm on it all right, number five amazing grace.
Also never seen it.
A lot of people have not seen it, but it is a very good It is the true story of William Wilberforce. Now William Wilberforce was a member of Parliament in the United Kingdom who led the effort to abolish the slave trade.
Very cool, is it? True? Store?
True store?
And Wilberforce So when he started as a young MP, the slave trade was the United Kingdom's single greatest source of revenue. It was their business. And he begins as this young MP arguing we must end the slave trade. It is wrong, it is immoral, and everyone laughs at him. And it would be like if you were in Texas standing up saying we should ban oil and gas.
I mean, it was that absurd of an idea back then.
And he spends fifty years battling for it, and the movie ends with him successfully championing and passing the legislation abolishing the slave trade and shutting down their most lucrative business because it was evil. And by the way, the title amazing grace. You know where it comes from. What So the person who wrote the hymn amazing Grace.
Was a friar.
Who had been the former captain of a slave ship. Really he was the captain of a slave ship. And think of the words of the song, amazing grace, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now and found, was blind, but now I see and imagine the person writing that in that context was the captain of a slave ship. Presumably he had murdered people, he had beaten people, he had whipped people. He mean, I mean you think of the evil entailed in being the captain of a slave ship, and then the amazing grace that God offered redemption even in the face of the horrific evil. It puts a whole different character. The book is by Eric Metaxas, who's a fantastic author, Christian author does great biographies. I highly recommend Amazing Grace number six. Unforgiven, never seen it? Oh, unforgiven?
Is this is why it makes me laugh when we get to do shows like this, because I mean, I will go watch these now.
Okay, so Unforgiven best Western ever Made won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Clint Eastwood is in it.
I could do an age joke. Here was it in black and white?
No?
No, no, no, it was actually laid Eastwood. You were actually out of diapers when it came out.
Okay, gotcha.
Morgan Freeman is in it. Gene Hackman is in it. Gene Hackman is spectacular. What's interesting about Unforgiven that is so powerful is it turns all of the stereotypes of the Western on its head. So, for example, Clint Eastwood plays this this outlaw who had turned over a good leaf and was good and then was going back gets hired. What happens is a woman who is a prostitute is badly cut up by a drunk cowboy, and they put out a reward to kill the cowboy who cut her up. And Clint Eastwood, as this retired outlaw, needs the money and so is coming to collect the reward, and Morgan Freeman, his partner, comes with him. But there's a point where where Clint east Wood, you know, there's there's a young kid who wants to be a gunslinger, and and he's like practicing on shooting fast and like Clint Eastwood says, well, you know, for me, this is about as fast as I can draw my gun, point it, aim at it, pull the trigger, and hit what I'm aiming at. And he said, in most firefights, people are scared out of their mind and they're just terrified. And whoever can kind of calmly engages who wins. And there are scenes where like everyone like, oh crap, and they shoot their foot and they dropped their gun and they're like freaking out and he kind of and he would just get drunk and just sort of systematically banged and it it really did invert many of the conventional wisdom.
Of being a fast draw on everything else. And Gene Hackman's character is hysterical. It is.
He's the sheriff who initially you think might be the hero, but he very quickly becomes an anti hero. So excellent movie number eight, Team America.
I've actually seen it.
Hilarious, okay, and I'm going a little edgy, So Team America, Team America, World Police.
It's a puppet movie.
I remember when it came out, every red was in shock, but I was dying laughing. So Heidi didn't like movies very much. I took Heidi to see it. She almost fell to the.
Floor laughing, so she y'all clicked on that.
It is screamingly funny. Now it makes fun of both sides. It makes fun of Republicans, Democrats, everything. It's the guys who do South Park who did it.
It is puppets.
They are truly equal opportunity offender.
It is now I'm gonna give a warning. Every third word is a profanity. If you're offended by profanity, skip this suggestion.
I will say.
When we were fairly newlyweds, we went on vacation with with Heidie's parents down at Lake Powell, which is fabulous, and and we brought it with us and we sort of like, Heidi and I remember this is really really funny, and I think we didn't quite remember that every third word is a profanity. And I'm sitting there with Heidie's parents as we're listening to the blinkety blink blink blink blink blink. We didn't finish the movie, like ten minutes into it. We just can't believe you brought this in front of your parents. Right, Yeah, it was, but it's still funny, as I'll get it all right, next movie Patten.
Yep, amazing, amazing movie. I've watched Patten probably five six times in my life.
All right, do you know what I did before every Supreme Court argument I ever did? Well, I can figure it out now. You watch Patten the whole thing. Just which scene the opening speech?
Okay, yeah, just.
The opening speech, George C. Scott in front of the gigantic flag, standing up and saying, men, the objective is not to give your life for your country. The objective is to make that other, poor son of a bitch give his life for his country.
I mean I can dig that. I can dig that. It is sound advice.
If you can watch that speech and not be inspired, you're dead.
Yeah, like it is.
See, those are my weakness. Movies.
I love true stories. I love good versus evil movies. I absolutely love sports movies as well, but there's always usually a big speech in those.
By the way, a buddy of mine collects historical military equipment and clothing and uniforms, and he has patents dog tags, no way, And I actually have worn patents dog tags. They have rested on my bare chest and I literally felt like I was ready to pull out a pistol and start shooting in an airplane like it made you You think about that, that that actually rested right above the heart of Paton.
That's incredibly wild. That's a good thing, all right.
Next movie The Sting Classic. Have you seen this? You've never seen The Sting.
I don't even know. It's about.
Oh oh, Benjamin, Benjamin Benjamin the Sting. All time classic. Robert Redford, Paul Newman. They're they're con men.
It is this is this is what I can really mess with. Wait. Newman does something outside of like Sasa.
It is hysterical, it is beautifully done. Go and watch what's it about? It's about conman? Okay, and it's it's worth watching. I probably watched it one hundred times. It's such a good movie.
All right. Next movie Awakenings.
Yes, I've seen that, so Awake. It's only one.
So Awakenings is fabulous. Robert de Niro.
You're a de Niro fan.
I like de Niro a lot. Not a fan of his politics, but a big fan of his acting.
Is a great actor.
Although as much de Niro got all the acclaim, but I actually thought Robin Williams stole the show.
I love Robin Williams, so this is what this is right at my alley.
Robin Williams is one of my all time favorite actors ever. I mean, he's an incredible comedica.
So you're gonna laugh.
I was asked the question if you could have dinner with like any five people who would be at your table, living or alive or dead. I had Robin Williams for years in my list because I think he's just one of the most brilliant actors and genuinely funny human beings.
So when Robin Williams passed, I genuinely cried and I wrote a long statement about Robin Williams on Facebook that I put up and it just I hammered it out of my iPad because he he is so funny. His stand up if you've ever watched his stand.
Up routine on golf, yeah, I've watched.
The one on golf is again profane language, but as funny as anything that has ever been said, like screamingly funny awakenings the portrayal he gives. I actually like Robin Williams even better in dramatic performances than comedy, and he's one of the funniest human beings ever alive, So awake on the list, Yes, fabulous, all right. The next two I view together Braveheart and Gladiator.
Both amazing, no brainers, incredible and.
Mel Gibson Russell Crowe right, yes, back to back, how can you get that wrong?
And both standing and fighting and fighting against oppression and their epic epic movies. Again, if you're not inspired by them, you're dead. I will say, Mike Lee, there's an app where you couldn't can put yourself you speaking into an audio clip. And he and I used to send things back and forth. And you know at the end when when mel Gibson is being executed, he screams freedom. So Mike would send me videos of him screaming to mel Gibson's voice Freedom. It was pretty powerful, all right. Next Beverly Hills Cop.
Hands down one of the funniest movies ever.
Just screamingly funny. Eddie Murphy, you're gonna laugh.
I consider that a Christmas movie because it's like Days Off. I want to watch the classic. I watch that.
It is, every moment of it.
Eddie Murphy remains one of my favorite actors of all times.
I just got a new one coming out, a sequel coming out on Amazon I think it's on Amazon Prime. Did you see that recently? I just saw it this last week. I don't know which one it was, but they.
Were teasing, Yes, they're doing a Beverly Hills Cop.
Too, Okay, is that what it is?
Or A three?
Yeah?
But look, the original Beverly Hills Cop is screamingly funny. And I actually have three Eddie Murphy movies in a row because I love Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, Yes, and Coming to America.
So Coming America is one of the first movies that was like really edgy that I remember, like in my adolescent seeing hilarious.
Again, screamingly funny, and Eddie Murphy in Arcindeo Hall and they play multiple characters and all the different you know in the barbershop. When you have Eddie Murphy in our Senel Hall going back and forth. I mean, it's amazingly And you know what, they probably wouldn't let you make that movie.
Today because it it.
Gets racially edgy in a way that like now you know the woke world.
No, no, you can't laugh about that. No no, no, no, no, you can't. You can't.
You can't have any of that humor. By the way, you want funny humor, go back to Young Eddie Murphy on SNL when he was like nineteen years old, brilliant and just edgy, comedic like brilliance.
I love.
He's by far my favorite character ever on SNL was Young Eddie Murphy because it was just so funny.
I like it. Mine's Farley by the way.
Look he was he was great and he put his hole into it.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I also love that.
Man and a little Jackelie, that man down by the river.
I mean, but I also love like comedy when there's people falling over, and he could do that.
This physical comedy is incredible, all right.
Next on the list, Wall Street, Yep, just all time Gordon Gecko, one of the great all time classics. By the way, a line that I quote frequently. Gordon Gecko is in the locker room getting cleaned up after playing racketball, and he turns to Charlie Sheen and he goes, I'm on the board of the Bronx Zoo. Cost me a million bucks. That's the thing about wasps love animals, hate people.
There's some insight there.
There is some insight there for sure.
Hidden Figures. Yes, wonderful movie. Incredible movie about the African American female mathematicians who were foundational to America going to the Moon. And for me, there are two kind of personal reasons why that movie is significant to me.
Well, it's got to be because of Houston.
Well, when we went to see the movie, I took my mother to the movie. I took Heidi to the movie. I took both my daughters to the movie. And it was interesting my girls. It was the first time they'd seen a movie that had segregation.
Yeah, the bathroom is the most one of the most iconic scenes in that whole.
Movie, and it led to I had a long conversation with both of them and they were like, well, why would people have done that? And to talk about segregation and civil rights and just sort of walk through the history of it. It prompted really good conversations with my girls. But secondly, so my mom. My mom graduated from Rice in nineteen fifty six and she had a math degree and she went to work as a computer programmer at Shell. She subsequently went to work at the Smithsonian. And you remember the movie Hidden Figures begins with Sputnik being launched instead of the space race being beginning. One of my mother's first assignments at the Smithsonian was to help compute the orbits of Sputnik. And so in front of the girls, I asked my mom. I said, Mom, you were doing this, and in fact, you were doing it ten years earlier. You were doing it in the fifties. Hidden Figures is set in the sixties, And I said, how accurate is it? And my mother thought it was very accurate, that it did a really good job of conveying what it was like to be a woman in space and science and in a technical environment. And I commented to her, I said, okay, one of the strange things to a more modern ear is that they referred to the women there as computers. Yeah, and we think of a computer as a piece of metal.
But they were actually called computers because they were actually doing the math.
And my mother started laughing at me, and she said her first job title was computer and when she started at Shell, she had a business card that said eleanor Darra computer No way.
And so.
In response to that, I introduced legislation to rename the street in front of NASA headquarters Hidden Figures Way. And this is actually a really cool story. I introduced that legislation before it could pass, and we would have gotten it passed. But a DC City councilman saw that legislation and said, you know what, that's a great idea. And the DC City councilman introduced it in the DC City council. Guy's a Democrat. Yeah, and he got it passed. So the DC City Council passes it.
That's cool.
So I went to the street signed dedication and that that is the street sign there, and I was there, I spoke at the denawary it it is the headquarters of NASA in Easy and so NASA, the address of NASA is one hidden Figure's way. And so I spoke of the dedication. The DC City councilman spoke, and he's a Democrat. I'm a Republican. And I told the story of my mom, which was really cool to get to tell. And I said, look, at some level, you might say, listen, the street sign's not that big.
A deal, that one is.
But at another level, you know, fifty years from now, one hundred years from now, some little girl, some little boy is going to come visit NASA and they're gonna look up and see the street sign, and they're gonna say.
Hey, what does that mean?
Yeah, and they're going to hear the story of the pioneering African American women who were the mathematicians that got us to the moon. And so it's where movies and stories are powerful.
Did any of the characters of the movie, Did any of them get to come to.
That that they had passed by the time we did that? So no, all right, we just got a few more.
Shindler's list one of the hardest movies to watch. Yes.
The other one is that I can I've only watched it one time because I just can't bring myself to watch it again. Is Lone Survivor. Those two movies to me are must sees. But I just I don't know if it's because I've become a dad and having kids now and watching the kids. I just can't watch them like I used to.
So, as you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was at Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D Day, and wildly enough I got to meet Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, which was really cool, and I had pretty extended conversations with both of them, and they've done look their politics are both left to center, but they've done an amazing job really honoring and telling the stories of the greatest generation, whether saving Private Ryan, whether Band of Brothers, whether the Pacific And so they were talking about that, and I was talking with Spielberg about about Schindler's List and just you know, talking with the heroes, the World War II heroes who almost all say, well, I could have done more. I could have done more, and the real heroes are under those crosses behind us. And I was telling Spielberg, I said, hearing them say that reminds me of the end of Schindler's List, where Oscar Schindler is like, I could have done more, and he looks down at his gold watch and he said, this watch, this watch could have saved three more people. Three more people are dead because I kept my watch. And you think about the heroism of his rescuing Jews from the Nazis and the incredible courage, but at the same time, the like, why didn't I do even more? And that that, to me, is the most beautiful moment of that movie, is the the sort of did I do enough? Yeah, Okay, I'm gonna take a detour, a detour to the world of musicals.
So I like musicals.
Do you like Broadway?
I do. I love Broadway absolutely.
So like you, if you go to New York, you would put it on your list to go see a show.
I love Broadway, and I'm gonna have four musicals on here.
I'm ready.
So number one is my father's favorite movie of all time, which is My Fair Lady. Okay, and My Fair Lady is fantastic.
I've seen it because of my mom and my sister multiple times.
I've never English, I've never watched that.
He's had of children how to speak, Norwegians learn Norwegians. The Greeks are taught their Greek.
See.
This is why I said this show would be entertaining, because I would have never thought you were musical. It is spec favorite Broadway show you've ever been to.
I'm gonna get to that. Okay, go ahead, let me get to that. So the second one there is Oliver. Yep, great, Oliver is spectacular. So so look, I was in high school. I was president the drama club.
I have way too many one liners, but I'll leave that for another show. Keep going.
You were captain of the tennis team. I was president the drama club. Okay, I get that. There's a reason why you would have stuck me in the locker if you if yeah, that.
Would have that would have gotten you a SmackDown for sure.
Yeah.
But so look, I I all politicians are frustrated actors.
It's just it's just part of the the it is high school. Oh yes, a lot. What were you in so I did?
Do we have eight tracks of this or what? What was it? Beta camp?
There?
They may be somewhere. Okay, So let's see. I've done Sound of Music twice.
What'd you play?
So I played?
The first time I played Rolf Yeah, uh you know, and I warbled out you are sixteen going on seventeen, no way. And then the second time I played Max yep. I also, so I did Oliver, and Oliver is.
A fabulous classic.
So Oliver was my senior year and the head of the music department told me, hey, we're doing Oliver next year, and he said, you know, I'd love to have you play Fagan if you can sing it, and and my curse, look, I'm a terrible singer. I cannot carry save in a bucket like like I wish I could.
I have you were not.
It, And so I actually went and for like six months I took voice lessons to try to get be able to sing that Fagan is such a thing.
Did you get any better in the six months?
A little bit?
And so what happened? And the nice thing about Fagan is is Fagan's songs are more spoken than sang. So, for example, the song reviewing the situation, a man's got a hot, hasn't he? Joke a pot, hasn't he? And though I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't a saint, I'm finding it hard to be really as bad.
So you want to see you dad next ti, I'm gonna say, there's six months is worth it?
Now?
Right?
I'm a viewing the situation? Can a fellow be a villain all his life?
All the trials to settle down and get myself a wife?
And you remember.
I will cook and sew for you, and come for you, and go for you, and go for you and nagget you the finger, she will wag at you.
How many tickets they sell for? This is what I really want to know. So I prepared that song was one.
Now it's mostly spoken, it's not release, so I could do it marginally competently after six months practicing. I did that at the trial and then and then afterwards, music director said, hey, Ted, stick around, and he went to the piano and he said sing this, and he went and I went and he did it like three times and he goes, Okay, damn it not happening. So I was cast as Bill Sykes. It's the second male lead with no singing. It's a fun role. You're the villain. You get to like beat up Oliver, twist and like you're but but I wanted.
I wanted to play that.
Role badly, and I did not get it all right. Two more musicals Hamilton, which is utterly exquisite. I've seen it multiple times. It is brilliant, it is beautiful, it is powerful. My girls know the songs. There are few things that make me happier than when my daughters are singing songs from Hamilton. I mean it was there was a period where they were obsessed with it.
You and I were talking about this the other day. My dad I took him to New York for the first time ever for seventieth birthday, and and you said, did you go see a show? And I was like, do you want to see Hamilton. He's like, God, I'd rather go the Yankees game. And then the next night I was like, which is that? I rather have a nice meal. I tried hard, I tried to get him to Hamilton. It just wasn't on the list.
And then my.
Favorite music of all time is limis Really and I love le miss I think, do you.
Get choked up? Be honest, because I'm a sucker for this. I get I get the lump in the.
Rooked up all right? So what song gets you choked up? Oh?
The one, the most famous. I'm terrible with it. It's the one that Anne Hathaway does. It's so good.
Oh and and she won won the Academy Awards for every time it gets me, So that is beautiful. I'll tell you that the two that get me choked.
Up our number one.
When John Valjean is saying let him live, yep, and he's looking down and he and he says, you know, if I die.
That one's to me die, yeah, let him live.
And it's a prayer to God to let him live every time. I have tears every time. Then the other one that gets me is the song Empty Chairs and Empty Tables. At the end when everyone has died, and I will con fest at the end of the presidential campaign in twenty sixteen, as I walked through the empty campaign office and I saw the empty chairs and empty tables, I heard that rephrames of that.
Song, so les Miz is exquisite. All right, by the way, when I was all right.
So nineteen ninety three, I was just finished my first year of law school, and I had a job in New York. I was working in a law firm in New York for the summer, and I decided to fly my mom to New York for the weekend. And so it's nineteen ninety three. So I actually fedexed a plane ticket. And this is back when a plane ticket was a piece of cardboard. Yeah, I fedexed a plane ticket tour with nothing else. It was literally she opened the FedEx package and just a plane ticket to New York fell out. And she called me. She's like, Ted, I assume this is you. I said, yeah, I had no note, no nothing, just a plane ticket and the FedEx thing.
Get on the plane. I'll see you soon, mom.
So I flird in New York and we went out to dinner at Boult, which at the time was the nicest restaurant in New York.
Was fabulous.
And then I took her one night to see Camelot, which was really fun. Yep, and then the next night to see Le miss and did she love it?
She loved it?
And it I that's one of those ironed memories for us a life.
Yeah, I know that. That was just very cool to go do that. All right, So we have a total of three more. I'm gonna say the Magnificent seven incredible, watch it ten times the original one, yes with my dad all right, all right, that's like in my dad's like I grew up on John Wayne and war movies. Yeah, like Magnificence seven and that was like I remember what was the unforgiven Magnificent seven is the greatest Western that's actually originally in a Western.
I'm forgiven.
It was sort of a modern remake format, but Magnificent seven exquisite with you know, Yule Brenner and Charles Bronson.
And that was the Moss Coburn. Oh, when Mom was out of town, that was one of the movies we watched.
Oh, it was so good.
It's it's a fabulous movie. And then I'm gonna end with two, uh, Quentin Tarantino.
Is it? The Inglorious Bastards? Is that where we're going with this?
So I'm gonna start with pulp Fiction, okay, which is fantastic, and then the last one is in Glorious Bastard yep. And I feel bad that I left Reservoir Dogs off because Reservoir Dogs is exquisite too. But the other view may be if you made me pick two, I go with pulp Fiction and in Glorious and Glorius Bastards is a spectacular movie. So that's twenty five movies which, if you've got some downtime, download them, watch them. You will enjoy them. You will laugh, you will be moved, you will be.
And send your critiques on Twitter. We'll take them. And let me ask you one other question. If you can only take one movie and one TV series to a desert island with you, what would you pick? Only one movie and only one TV series? That's all you got to watch.
The Princess Bride and Criminal Minds.
There you go, that's it.
Yeah, I like it. See now we know a little bit more about you.
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