Gilded Trash
Ride shotgun with Comedian Scott Reed and Creator Crystal Reed as they travel the country in search of ...what? When they figure it out, you'll be the first to know!
Gilded Trash
Have Yinz Seen This Guy?
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We sit down with Mask Reviews to talk about how a masked food reviewer can push real support toward family-owned restaurants in Johnstown. Along the way, we get into content strategy, small-town culture, and why community solutions matter more than corporate convenience.
• how Mask Reviews starts and why the character works
• creating immersive food experiences and making life more fun on purpose
• building comedy scenes, venues, and spaces people actually want to gather
• dreaming up youth centers, mentorship paths, and local action that scales
• cooking at home, Johnstown traditions, and the power of food memory
• fast food vs family-owned restaurants and the real cost to the local economy
• how to review honestly without trashing people
• expanding to nearby towns, travel plans, and new video formats
• merch, shows, and what we have coming up
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Go out to guilded trash.com, check out what’s new there, and if nobody’s told you bitches this week, stay stay trash.
Check out Masked Reviews on social media @eatnonymous
Check out the form on gildedtrash.com to enter the contest after you've downloaded one of your favorite episodes!
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Setting The Scene In Johnstown
SPEAKER_02Lanterns, flicker, thunder roll. Scott and Crystal on patrol. Back road twist, the moon hangs low. Sasquatch tracks where the rivers flow.
SPEAKER_00Alright. We're back.
SPEAKER_04Yep, we sure are. Right here in the wonderful.
SPEAKER_00As Frank George calls it, Jingletown. Jingletown.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's where I was going and I couldn't remember. For some reason, it was not coming to me.
SPEAKER_00So we have a guest this week.
SPEAKER_04We do.
SPEAKER_00Normally I tease the guests, but it was a surprise.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, this one was a definite surprise. We have the one and only mass reviews. Welcome. Welcome.
SPEAKER_00But reviewing food is only one little square on this guy's resume, right? So from what our research tells us, he's made some music performed behind the same mask in that music, right?
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_00Worked in film.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Has a mysterious connection to a to be movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And clearly understands how to build a character that people are remembering.
SPEAKER_05Yep, yeah. I get social media a little bit, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And wait, do you know Young Gravy? Oh, yep, yep. I was like, did I hear that correctly? Because he was like, I'm gonna be hanging out with Young Gravy. And I was like, and I was like, looked, and I was like, he is eerie. And I was like, I heard it correctly. I was like, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00So is that the kid that was doing like book talk for a while, reading Smut?
SPEAKER_05I don't know if he did book talk. I never saw him. He made a bunch of songs about MILFs. Yeah, you you've definitely I know who he is.
SPEAKER_00I've definitely because I'm I'm I'm on Messy Talk. That's my that's my personal brand. He's a comic. My personal brand is messy talk. I like it. I like the drama. But anyways, so we are gonna talk a little bit about the food, but we really want to know what the hell you're actually building on.
SPEAKER_04Okay, but first, I think I want to ask, I think the question that's been on everybody's minds how do you view the current trade policy of the current administration, and what do you think that's affects our on global socioeconomics?
SPEAKER_01Oh God.
SPEAKER_05Uh uh, I don't know, we have time to go all my fucking mortgage scenarios 6.9%. That's what I want.
SPEAKER_04No, I just wanted to be stupid, but no, where did we begin? Because so I wanted to take into consideration because like you've been on the you were on the Case O Day thing recently, and you were also on the what was is it the what's the name of the podcast? I know it's just the Hexon Podcast. Hexen podcast, okay. For that was cool, yeah. I think that's a good one. Yeah, that was that was really good. Yeah, so but yeah, so we wanted the kind of deep diver, deep deep diver. Jesus, deep dive into some other things. But let's sort of start. You've sort of told the story of how you got to Johnstown, but I've also heard you mention, like you said you lived in Colorado, North Carolina, and I know that I think there was even a couple other places that you threw out there. So, but where does the story of mass reviews begin?
Where Mask Reviews Begins
SPEAKER_05So, really, the first master views videos were started in North Carolina, and I had maybe recorded like six of them and posted them, and then life lifed. Yeah, and I was doing a bunch of other things, taking all my time, and I've always juggled social media, a normal job, and being a dad, so it's it's pretty much three full-time jobs. Yeah, oh yeah, dude. And I just fell off from it, and then when I came to Johnstown, I I've been really on adult mode and dad mode for like the last two years, and I was just really missing like creating and stuff. And it's funny because with this new endeavor, I'm still in front of a camera, but the older that I get, the less I want to be the guy on stage or the guy in front of a camera. I want to be like behind a camera, you know. Like it's just it's just I'm just getting older, you know. Yeah, and I think that's where like your creative vision probably is just taking you because it's like then you have like more control, I think, like over the entire like less less need for me, less like you know, if I go do shows now, typically like I'm doing shows with people, and at the end of the show they're like, let's go party, and I'm like, let's go to bed, because they're like 22 and I'm not.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, dude, trust and believe, I'm 43, and I got into comedy three years ago. Now, mind you, I wanted to be a comedian forever, but because of life, yeah, you know, and being a fucking idiot, and you know, just you know, it took me a long time to get to that point. Yeah. But now I'm out at these places and like I'm at a you know, comedy shows. I got, I'm gonna do a shameless plug here. This weekend I'm actually headlining my first oh awesome. So headlining for the first time, it's at the Houtsdale Moose. So if you're a Moose member out near Phillipsburg, Houtdale, any of those places, definitely go check it out. But no, these shows and stuff or whatever, a lot of you know, most of the comedians are young. Yeah, you know what I mean? They're like, and they part like we did so we did a comedy show here at our house. Oh, cool. Last October. We had you'll have to check it out then. We'll show it to you. But we had it all set up. You could fit like 45-50 people in there.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's crazy, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And but I brought some comedian friends of mine out from Pittsburgh and stuff, and like it was, I mean, I was first off, well, I was really fucked up. I'm at my house, you know what I mean? So it was like it, you know, so we felt comfortable, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, we love to entertain, and it's like the perfect storm because he's a good cook. I'm a goodish cook when it comes to like catering type foods. I love to make like fancy drink setups and do like a bar or whatever with cool, you know, whatever. So we're creative, and part of that creative outlet is entertaining people and and like it's not like the decoration, we don't do that kind of shit. You know what I mean? Like, we're not doing red, white, and blue for 4th of July, although I might do jello shots like that. But it's really ultimately about how do people experience the food and like the vibe of the people that we hang out with, right? Absolutely like that's a creation. We like to curate like a whole like pack of people to be around each other and be like, these people should meet, these people should meet.
SPEAKER_05I like immersive experiences. I play a lot of tabletop games, Dungeons and Dragons and stuff. And if I'm watching a movie, if I could eat food that I know is gonna be in the movie for some reason, that's a thing for me. If whenever I'm watching Naked and Afraid, I always cook like fish and eat shrimp. I I it just makes you feel like we tend to do that. I I do that.
SPEAKER_04I've been doing that since I was a teenager. I would eat cheese pizza when I watched film alone. Yeah, it's like that's where it started for me. And then so, like, and then it just carried forth. And I'm like, ooh, I'm watching this, I'm eating this, yeah, I'm watching this.
SPEAKER_05It's it's a sensory, more immersive.
Food As An Immersive Hobby
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. Anybody listening, watch naked and afraid and eat some like real primitive food. I'm gonna try it now. Yeah, I'm gonna try it. Fish and shrimp, you know.
SPEAKER_04That's a great idea. It's great. I love it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I like it.
SPEAKER_00Well, we do like talk about immersive. We love podcasts about like true crime, right?
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_00So we do what's called murder tourism. And when we're traveling, we try to find a case that's there, and we'll, if we have time, we'll try to hit up and look around and like while we're on vacation, we'll spend half of our vacation like listening to the pod, then we'll go there.
SPEAKER_04You know, we're like hanging out at the bar they're talking about on the podcast. It makes it that much more engaging. It's like you said, it just it's an immersive experience.
SPEAKER_05I think it's it's almost like work too, because y'all can make content out of it and stuff like that. Right, absolutely. I do the same thing. I have episodes in like, you know, Philly. I went to Philly for the first time. My friend was doing a show out there, and I grabbed a couple things. A couple, if I go to Erie this week and I plan, I think it's Friday, I'm going, but I probably will find a couple moms and pops places and just if you're there, you might as well converge one stone. Right. Exactly. So grab those and then a rainy day or something like that. I got them in the vault. I can drop them, you know, boom. I don't know about oh, I don't know how it is with y'all like with posting on social media, but I like to stay like two, three weeks ahead so that I always know I have something to post because life happens, life life, you know.
SPEAKER_04Well, as far as the clips go, she tries to stay ahead on the clips. Yeah, yeah. With the episodes, we try to stay kind of current just because we like to talk about stuff that's like going on or whatever. So we try to stay, you know, pretty, you know, close to when we're, you know, like leading up to the release for two different worlds podcast and and just creating content. Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so he doesn't create content.
SPEAKER_04I'm terrible. Absolutely not. I wish that I was better at it.
SPEAKER_05Hey, that's like part of being a comedian, bro. You gotta get up.
SPEAKER_04I know that I do, and it's terrible because every comedian that I know it is terrible at it, right? And it's like it's a real problem amongst comedians.
SPEAKER_00If everybody pays me and I get to quit my full-time job, then I would create content for all my comic friends. Yeah. Because I love to do it. Like, I love to do it, but I'm just not like one of us has to stay in corporate America. And right now, like I want his thing to succeed, right? So I'm not as worried about it. I'll stay in corporate America if he gets the chance to like go forward with comedy, right? But I'm really, really good at promoting shit.
SPEAKER_04Which I have had some really cool things happening, you know what I mean? Like leading up, like I got some cool shows coming up, like you know, some different spots that are some good opportunities. But regardless of any of that, I'm terrible at creating content, yeah, and I need to be better. And literally, this is a conversation I have every time I go to an open mic, it's like everybody's talking about that. They're like, we we all know we suck at it, but yet we in true comic fashion do nothing about it. Yeah, it's terrible yourself. Oh, yeah, I have every single one that I've ever done. Okay, I was like, that's like I don't not every single one do I have video, but I have video for 90% and audio for the rest.
SPEAKER_05That seems to be an easy way to do content for comedians, though, because I know they're like crowd work or just clips of like banging jokes or a big pop or big on like TikTok and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I know, I know. All the successful comedians use it. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, but also a lot of the successful comedians also have other people doing it for them.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's true. They have editors and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I get it though. I get it.
SPEAKER_00But so, and I would be happy to do it for him, but I have to run it all by him first. He doesn't give me carte blanche, so like I'm not doing that. I'm a boss at work, I'm a boss here. Yeah, like I'm a boss on the podcast, so why would I do that?
SPEAKER_05So he just needs to give you creative control.
SPEAKER_04Here's the problem. Here's the problem, though. I'm not gonna say that I none of my stuff is like edgy by any uh meaning of the word. Do you know what I mean? Like I'm not like pushing racial boundaries or something, you know.
SPEAKER_00Like it's but I mean like obvious, but some of it's I don't know what the word is, but but taken out of context, it could be Yeah, taken out of context.
SPEAKER_04Well, I think yeah, any it's there's some of it that could be really bad. That's fine.
SPEAKER_00And while I understand that completely, I have a tendency to like to push the onwards.
SPEAKER_06So get those cliches.
SPEAKER_00So that's why I I don't get full creative control.
SPEAKER_05I feel that. Just to throw a question at you, I don't know if this is cliche to ask because you're in the comedy world. Yeah. Do you do you watch Kill Tony? Is that like a thing in here? Oh, yeah, I love that. Me and my wife watch it every time. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I love it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So Al Toona has a great little comedy scene. Okay, I didn't know that. And it's mainly because of a guy named Ridge Hirschberger who used to live in Austin. And he now, but his roommate was, do you know Christina Mariani?
SPEAKER_05I'm better with faces than names, I'm gonna be completely honest.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so I'll show it to you later on Kill Tony. She's been exactly she's not only been so she's been on Kill Tony, but she's been on the panel. Okay. She's been yeah, if you show me your face. She works at the mothership of the phone. Or she did. I don't think she does anymore. No, no, no. Not that you'll know. Yeah, but you'll know her as soon as oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05She she reminds me of Dax a lot. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They have a lot of the same manner stuff. Yeah, I could see. I think that they'd be a funny pair top of each other. Yeah, better with name or better with faces.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Ridge is really good friends with her. Oh, okay. And he I mean, he tours all over. He went to Saudi Arabia to that comedy fest with her. He went to like he gets all kinds of opportunities, like touring with her and stuff. But anyway, he's originally from like the out like uh close to Altoona. Okay. And he basically, when he moved back from Austin, and but he like sort of started this comedy scene there, yeah. And it's built up into this really great thing where there's multiple open mics, there's people doing shows all over the place. And we've done an open mic here in Johnstown. I mean like a comedy-only open mic when I say an open mic, because there's also a lot of mixed mics around. But regardless, there's like a loose, you know, kind of Kiltony connection to that just because of you know, Rage doing that. And so there's been several like Kill Tony golden ticket winners been on shows like an Altoona and stuff. They bring them in and stuff, yeah. Just because a lot of those guys, like I said, because of the mention the Altoona zine without McGarvey's bar, though. Oh yeah, absolutely. They've really changed the game in terms of like he's bringing in all kinds of people, which is like this bar up there that does like music. They do something every night. And I wish to God that it was like in Johnstown because what they do there is like they bring in every variety of music. You know what I mean? It'll be like hip-hop one night, punk the next night.
SPEAKER_06Well, they do that country hip hop night.
SPEAKER_04They did a country hip-hop night the other night. They do like karaoke things, they do comedy, but they've really given us like a good space up there
Comedy, Content, And Local Venues
SPEAKER_04to really, you know what I mean, like push the getting the scene bigger.
SPEAKER_05So it's it's uh it's very cool. But I want to open a venue here. There's that one venue by the giant eagle downtown that's like old. I don't remember what it's called, the Rosemary or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Roseland.
SPEAKER_05The Roseland. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to buy something like that and open and do the same thing. Do comedy some nights, do punk shows, rap shows. There needs to be more to do in Giantstown. I called about that Toys are Us. They're not trying to sell it, they only want to lease it. Because I was gonna try to find investors, buy it, and turn it into a trampoline park because there needs to be more for kids to do out here. You don't should have to drive an hour to go do stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_00So we have talked about like like business-wise investing. Like we're kind of we teeter and totter every week at something new, whether we want to invest here or just throw in a towel and go somewhere else.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like if if I could like figure out, like I have I write business plans at work, so I know how to write a business plan. Like, that's like my niche or whatever. But like we've talked about opening like a kid's, so you're you're not originally from here, so I don't know if you can appreciate this. And I do want to circle back and talk about you.
SPEAKER_05Oh, no, no, I mean yeah, you're going on and on here about the goals. I'm enjoying I'm enjoying the the conversing and the batteries.
SPEAKER_00Right behind the Stony Creek police station going up Bedford Street, back in there, there used to be a place called Grand Slam.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00And like it was batting cages, they had a basketball court, they had like little small like vendor shops the whole way around. They had a food kiosk in the middle, like just like a whatever, like a hot dog hamburgers.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. A snack bar.
SPEAKER_00That thing. There you go. So, long story short, like that was where everybody went. They had under 21 dances on the weekends, they had basketball like league there. Everything you could do, any they had a magic shop there. They could just go buy like fucking shit to do magic. Yeah, it was great. What's up, Faux Shea?
SPEAKER_05We need more stuff like that. Community, there's a church right now for sale for 170, and I thought about trying to cop it and turn it into a youth center sale. Is it really?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right. I think it'd be so cool.
SPEAKER_05Just open like a youth center, an after-school program, something like that's what we want to do. Government funded, yeah, you know, a non-profit that I can get, because I work one week on, one week off. On my off weeks, I could give back to the community. And really, for me, like the biggest impact, even when I was big into music and that, I just want to help the youth and troubled youth that are lost and feeling lost and feeling like they don't belong. And you know, like, I don't know. I want to be the guidance that I never had as a kid. Because not to sound egotistic, but I could have really fucking helped myself. So I don't know if we're supposed to cuss. Yeah, I could have really fucking helped myself out if I had a me back in the day. Right.
SPEAKER_00That's exactly it. And so I've been working on like a design and how I could pitch it, but then I'll like walk away from it, but it has everything you're talking about. So, first of all, for be it's fully for the youth, but they also learn, like as they grow into it, it can also be where they work, where they mentor, where they because the one that I'm working on the design for has stations. Like if you're in media and music, like this is your area. If you're in sports, this is your area. And just like kind of for the whole community, I even went as far as designing, rerouting the buses to make sure that all the communities could all get to the place.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and then once you have it set up, you can even reach out to different mom and pop places and get mentorships going for like electricians, welding, exactly.
SPEAKER_00And that's where that's a good call out because that's where like we're heading is back into that sector of blue collar.
SPEAKER_04We talk about this all the time, that regardless of what you think politically or whatever, we need more action at the community level. Yeah, the federal government is never gonna solve your problem.
SPEAKER_06Right. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05Well, and at the end of the day, I try not to get too far into political, but like it's really like without sounding very cliche, it's very, it's very much corporation versus little man. It's very much rich versus poor. That's exactly what I'm saying. And all they try to do is put left and right against each other so that so
Youth Centers And Community Fixes
SPEAKER_05that they can continue class warfare.
SPEAKER_04It's two sides of the same coin, man.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's two shades, it's two two wolves in sheep's clothing, and all they're really trying to do is stay rich. Right. And they don't give a shit about any of us, and neither of them do, because you can see the way that minimum wage hasn't went up in 15 years, and there's been left leaders, right leaders, all of them, with minimum wage hasn't increased under any of them.
SPEAKER_04It's like anything, it's like any other grift. Yeah. You have to there always has to be something being promised on the horizon. Yeah. And if you solve the problems, there's nothing left to promise. They're not in the business of solving problems.
SPEAKER_05It's very rare. And if you start solving problems, you get called a or they socialist, or yeah, yeah, or they either kill you or try to call you a communist or something.
SPEAKER_00It's you know, it's I'm known as a disruptor for that very reason. Well, we work in healthcare and we see it from that from the inner workings of healthcare, and I can't speak on it because I work there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I won't even, it's not even just there. I'm not talking about the there that I work, I'm talking about the broader American healthcare system. And it's like I can see it from the inside. I know I could fix it. I could fix it all.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I know how to fix it, but they don't want it fucking fixed.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's why politics aren't even based off of things that get fixed anymore. Right. I never even hear people discussing. Interest rates or or or or capping APRs or even healthcare or this or that. Good point. Yeah, healthcare, none of that gets brought up anymore. Now it's all about things that shouldn't even be brought into politics in the first place. Right. And I don't want to get too deep into that.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no.
SPEAKER_05But yeah, but it's a distraction from APR. Absolutely straight. Really? I make $300 extra dollars a month. They kicked me off Medicaid. Me and my me and my oldest daughter. I went and got quoted because I'm not, I have to wait two months for to get it through my job. So I went and got quoted. Hey, how much would it cost for me to pay for healthcare for just me and my nine-year-old? $850 fucking dollars a month. And there's still deductibles and premiums. I was like, yo, I should have stayed $300 poorer. Where does that money come from? That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04That's the problem too with the way the whole thing. Again, now we're getting way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00What is the booth that keeps you down unless you get like a come up? There's no more middle class. It's a track.
SPEAKER_05You're either poor or you're very right. Yeah. And your middle class gets gets shoved to the side, and now there's no you can't get ahead. I'm still paycheck to paycheck off the extra $300 a month. Right. It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_04And that's exactly right because wages have not nearly increased with the rate of inflation.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_04So it's like even so it's wiped out an entire group of people that were like doing okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Are now all at the edge of people are transplanting, like me not being well, that's exactly what we stay in North Carolina and do what I'm doing here because houses are starting at $450,000 for mortgage. I don't want to live with roommates. I'm a grown man. Right. You know, like I got kids.
SPEAKER_04I guess the question though is where in the hell are all these people working?
SPEAKER_05You know what I mean? They're buying these average is $35 an hour. Where the hell is the average pay $35 an hour?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_05Like I don't, I don't when I see those numbers, I'm like, I've never lived anywhere where the average pay was $35 an hour.
SPEAKER_00No. Like unless you're living like down in Franklin, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_04Like a real rich suburb outside of the city, maybe. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, like maybe Arlington, Virginia. I remember in $35 an hour in Arlington's probably low. Fire.
SPEAKER_05Well, when I was living in California, I got offered $75,000 a year for a job that would have been the coolest job ever to work. But $75,000 a year in California is shit. Right here. That would have been fire.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05You're doing shit. But in Cali, I was like, what am I going to get? A fucking cardboard box to fill my kids and things. Right, exactly. Yeah. I remember in college one time, groceries. I went there, I went there and I bought it was like $300, and I filled two grocery carts all the way up. I had so much damn food I had to call my homie and have him meet me at the grocery store and help bring groceries home because I couldn't fit the shit in my car. And now you go spend $300 on groceries and it's half a cart.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_05And I don't buy bullshit. I don't buy any pre-packaged foods. I'm not buying fucking hot pockets and shit. I'm buying
Cooking At Home And Local Traditions
SPEAKER_05meat, veggies, fruit.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_04So this brings up an interesting point because I know that everybody, you know, obviously everybody all the time wants to know what you're eating out. Yeah. What are you eating on the nights when you're not eating out? Who's cooking you? Oh, I love cooking. I cook all the time. Okay.
SPEAKER_05My wife will cook when she's able to, but she's got a 16-month baby and she's chasing around. I chase her around as well. I I don't really um, I'm not really trying to conform to gender role. You know, and I I try to be a I didn't really have the uh an example of a dad, so I I go above and beyond. And yeah, you know, I'm changing diapers, I'm cooking, I'm washing dishes. No, totally. But I love cooking. I've always loved cooking. I love the fact that it's cheaper for one, because it is expensive to eat out. I love that I know that it was maintained healthly, and I I can make good food, so it always turns out well, you know. That's how I grew up. My mom was a single mom, and she would leave groceries in the house and a recipe list.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_05All right, I'm working three jobs, yeah, the groceries are here, here's the fucking list, figure it out. And that's how I learned to cook. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04No, I mean that's uh yeah, that's pretty much how because we both do a lot of cooking. And so, but with the baby now, it's like we don't cook nearly as much. Well, because we be like pretty elaborate with it sometimes, I'll be honest with you. And what could I go overboard? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And her family, I don't know if you and Yeah, I don't know if you've had sorry.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if you've had the pleasure of meeting a Johnstown family that forces food on you yet.
SPEAKER_05No, I did experience a cookie table, though. That was pretty fucking. Oh, well, they just for let me tell you what I think. They forced a lot of cookies on me. Every time the cookie table got empty, I'd like to do something with my kids and turn around, and that shit was fully. Where these cookies were coming from, I have no idea. But I left with like a shoebox pretty much. They were just like, take them all, take the cookies. I'm like, all right. I love that.
SPEAKER_04They refill automatically. One of our next big things we'll have to have you, and you can experience where people will try to give you eight different versions of the same dish. I'm not even lying. Halushki. Have you had this? I don't know. That sounds Polish or something. It is. So it's cabbage, it's like fried cabbage and noodles.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, yeah. I have had that. There's also some weird ass dishes here in Johnston. Oh, absolutely. Same place with the cookie table. I don't remember what it was, but it was something. It was like like almost like a casserole, but it had like frosted flakes on top. But not the like, not the like sugary kind, the like just corn flakes. Just corn flakes. Just cereal on top of it. But it was like like actual food. I don't know. The shit caught me off guard. I was like, oh, this is one of those foods from like TikTok where you see it.
SPEAKER_04Well, Johnstown is in a food enclave, and I say this all the time because like I just I told you I grew up two hours just east of here. Yeah. In the medieval place. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so it's very so it's very different than here.
SPEAKER_04And I never had all this like ethnic food, you know, all these different Polish and Eastern European dishes till I started coming out here with her. So it was like this was that's almost kind of one of the reasons I fell in love with Johnstown. Yeah. Is because it was like a different experience. And I loved going to these family events where they're pushing food on you, and they have nine different kinds of hallucinates, and then no work.
SPEAKER_00I just had an epiphany though. People are gonna start reaching out to you and being like, bro, you have to come review my family's football party.
SPEAKER_05So I dropped some episodes of Big Back Side Quest, and that's oh, absolutely. I was gonna bring the tagline is you know, I'm going to street vendors, food trucks, Facebook Marketplace, and possibly grabbing a plate from your grandma. I meant that shit. I'll pull up and eat it. Somebody's reference out. Right. I I also like about Johnstown too that there are there are actual cultures of like Caucasian races out here that aren't just like, oh, I'm American or this or that. It's like Polish, Russian. People are are like there's a lot of like traditional stuff to their roots here. Because I think that that's part of a problem that people have faced in in our country is being separated from their actual roots and then being re-conglogated as American because it's like my family, I'm Italian and German, but they don't really practice much of that. You know what I mean? Oh, absolutely. So like traditions have been lost. But here in Johnstown, people are really stuck to those traditions. Because even when you think ethnic, you don't think of a lot of I mean, most people don't think of white ethnic groups. Right. They don't when you say ethnic food, I ought to even myself as a white guy, I think Dominican, Eastern African, or Middle Eastern, which year, it's like there are actual like you know, Polish, Russian people stuck to their to their roots, which doesn't seem to be a thing a lot of places. Well, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04That's a great point that you bring up because and that's one of the things that I wanted to talk about is Johnstown has a very unique food scene. Yeah. And I don't mean that just in restaurants, I mean in the communities as well. Yeah. And it's you're right, it's very different than other places in the sense of like like you say, which is interesting that all those other foods that you name, like you know, like you can get Caribbean food, you can get like Thai food, you can get that stuff anywhere. Yeah. But it's weird that this enclave of like Western Pennsylvania has these other foods that you don't really see. No, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Why you don't see like Polish restaurants or or or things of that nature, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I never knew what all the words were.
SPEAKER_05Zieglers or something in Windborough, I guess. Ziggler's yeah, I got a lot of recommendations to go there, and I think that they're a German place. Chicken Z Deutz, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Listen to this thing. Funny story about Zieglers. So we Guten Abend. Before, so they recently, in the last couple of years, like redid that whole place. But that place has been there for like a hundred years. Okay. And it used to be they used to call it the dollar store. That was its nickname because every beer was a buck and every shot was like a dollar fifty.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And it was that's funny.
SPEAKER_04They didn't have seats.
SPEAKER_01Oh shit.
SPEAKER_04They had like the old spit troughs still like lying in the box. You people didn't use them, but they were still like there. Yeah. And it was, but they completely redid it, and now they have food, you know, and the whole gambit. But but yeah, it's interesting a lot of the places too that have like reinvented themselves here. Yeah. Like, because a lot of these places, like that place, have been here for a long time, and then they become stagnant because this is a super competitive market.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because it is sort of isolated, so it's not like you have a bunch of outsiders coming to eat here.
SPEAKER_05No, there's and the population is only 17,000 people, right? So, you know, it's not as crazy as most places, right? So it's like the everybody's fighting for the same dollars, you know what I mean? And you're fighting against these corporations who aren't fighting for the dollars. Because I see a line at McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's every fucking day. Right. And every time you grab food from them, it's ass. Just remember that. You're eating, you're eating like horseback and shit like that. And it's bad for you, and they don't care about you. And if your cousin died serving you that burger, they'd move them to the left and keeping putting burgers out the window. They don't care about their employees. Yeah, they don't. They're not gonna pay you well. Like, I argued with a guy at the at the Wendy C first time I went there when we first moved here before we had the house set up and stuff. And I was like, I'm never going back to this fucking place. I'm like, I'm over it, I'm over it. And then I started finding all these good places, and I was like, Yeah, I'm just gonna eat family-owned, or I'm just gonna cook at home. Fucking why would I give McDonald's my money? I haven't I probably haven't eaten McDonald's in eight years, to be honest. I would still hit every once in a while Wendy's and Burger King, if I'm being completely honest. I like the two for five chicken sandwiches because at one point I was building car lips. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do like those. So they're like just a fucking salt mine. But when I was building car lifts, I was driving two hours, building the lift, driving two hours back. So, you know, sometimes I fell victim to just grabbing quick, quick bullshit for five bucks. But now I I yeah, I haven't ate at a McDonald's eight years. I haven't eaten at a Taco Bell or KFC probably 15. I just don't fuck with that stuff. Right.
SPEAKER_04It's just it's not good for you. Well, it's not good for you, it's not good for the economy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and now it's even more expensive than eating anywhere, anywhere, and it shits on mom and pop's places, you know. I eat them all. I wish there was more family-owned grocery stores. Fuck Walmart, you know, but I gotta go there. So it's right, right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and especially, well, we talk about that all the time, your grocery options. And
Why Corporations Win The Food Dollar
SPEAKER_04like I was hopeful when I first heard about the sale of Giant Eagle to Kroger. Yeah. I was like, oh my god, we're getting a Kroger. Yeah. I was like, I'm so happy about that.
SPEAKER_05It's like a southern thing.
SPEAKER_04And oh yeah, I love Kroger. Yeah, well, we lived in we lived in Myrtle Beach for a while. Oh, okay, okay. So far off from that. We uh Yeah, we were we we were down that way for a couple years, but but regardless, and I was like, well, that's not really gonna help anything because your grocery excuse me, grocery selection, and I love a lot of the independent groceries. I love that there is independent grocers here. Are there? Well, Bilo.
SPEAKER_05Okay, okay. I didn't know if that's just a b see, because I'm new here, I thought Bilo was just the food lion of fucking Pennsylvania. No, so they have just like a corporate Pennsylvania place.
SPEAKER_04So there's two like brothers and they each own a couple of stores. Okay, that's better then. But like I think brandy's there's other like two or three, but then market basket up in some.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I like market baskets good right after the roundabout, right? That's the spot I'm thinking about.
SPEAKER_00Alan's ideal.
SPEAKER_05Ideal. Ideal, okay. Ideal there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It seemed like the smaller spot. So I like the one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and then so market baskets a little farther up by where you get on 219, like where the sheets and giant eagle and stuff is.
SPEAKER_05And I and I want to clarify, I'm not trying to be classes either, because I understand it's cheaper shopping at these fast food places in some instances if you're getting like a $5 biggie bag or some shit. Or if you're going to Walmart groceries, so I don't think there's anything wrong with doing it. I just wish that it wasn't even a fucking option. Well, that's exactly right. I hate the system that created that. Yeah, to make it where it's easier to go to fucking Walmart than to go to Bilo because it's probably a little more expensive there, or this or that. So I understand everybody can't afford to do that. But if you can afford to do that, fucking do it.
SPEAKER_04Well, and especially now where the difference between eating at McDonald's and eating at you know Joe Schmoe's tavern, whatever, there's really it's honestly probably cheaper.
SPEAKER_05Right to go, yeah, like I said, unless you're grabbing a bullshit deal like we said, the two or five. Right, exactly. Which is but yeah, if you're grabbing meals, a fucking what a a Big Mac at at at or I that's how you know I don't even go there. Wendy's what is the bacon nature's like 16 bucks. Right. Johnstown Inn's got a burger for $8.50 with fries. I say it all the time. You know, yeah, they put a little season on there, but it's a good burger.
SPEAKER_04I say it all the time. Like it just the numbers don't add up. Yeah, you're just paying for all the ads that they have to run, all the bullshit that they have to do to run their like machine. You know what I mean? Like you're not the food cost is minimal because you're getting shit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's not like it's and run them out the city. Just stop going and they'll fucking uproot. If you just stop going, they'll leave. You know, it's like everybody's so hype about a Chick-fil-a coming here.
SPEAKER_00Well, I know.
SPEAKER_05Motherfucker's gonna be bent around the block for an hour and a half for a mediocre chicken sandwich. Yeah, I said it. The best thing there is their lemonade, and it's goddamn $15 a gallon.
SPEAKER_00I don't like Chick-fil-A. I don't like it. I don't like it. I know a lot of people do, and it has nothing to do with it. It's at the bottom.
SPEAKER_05I would never that's how I feel about Chipotle. I hate that place.
SPEAKER_00I don't like that place. Well, I'm gonna go back to salon charter. Like, I'm one of the people that it tastes like soap. It tastes like soap to me too, but I still need it.
SPEAKER_04It takes away, like you said, from the focus from what should be helping the community because those are the kind of jobs and stuff that really give back to the community in terms of like its economic impact.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. Because most of the business owners we know around here do charitable events.
SPEAKER_05Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream. I'm doing shit all the time. I love that spot. They're so nice. They're always for kids and this and that. That's so ideal to have a house with a job underneath it.
SPEAKER_00Well, they don't live there. Oh, really? Yeah, I don't believe. I'm not sure who maybe one of their kids lives there. Somebody lives there. I I mean, maybe there's definitely an apartment upstairs, but I'm not sure if it's in the family, if somebody in the family lives there.
SPEAKER_05You know that closed down island spot? It's like island cuisine spot right up. I always thought that that would be a dope house to own. Just something cool, like where you can just go downstairs and cook food for people. They're remodeling it right now, so somebody bought it. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, because like so. When I was growing up, like in the 80s, I again I grew up in this neighborhood. And so those were the two spots that my dad frequented. So ice cream was a bar.
SPEAKER_05Oh, sweet.
SPEAKER_00And the Caribbean spot was a bar.
SPEAKER_05Okay, that's sweet. I like the the house shop combination. Oh, I when I first lived here, I was in Brownstown, and there's a house at the end of the block, and it's a really nice house, and the and it's right on the corner, and the bottom brick part, the bottom brick part looks like a store. I'm like, dude, this would be the perfect corner store. Like in the winter, you don't want to drive to Walmart. You could go here, get toilet paper cigarettes, a little milk or whatever.
SPEAKER_04There's a place right down here on Central Avenue, the old lottery store. And like they used to have like a little lottery shop in the like front, but then there's like an and I mean it's totally like run down or whatever now. But like I think about the same thing. It's for sale right now, I think. Yeah, it is. I could just looked at it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's looking at it. Because it's like that's like a dream of mine, too. It's just here's the thing is I would love to own, I would love to run like a restaurant bar. I've cooked in a lot of places, like before, you know what I mean. I had the job, and I've even worked part-time at some of the places around here. You talked about the orchard's wings. I've worked at the orchard for a while. They were fire, huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, they're good.
SPEAKER_00But this house, we work there.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I haven't been there yet. It gets recommendations.
SPEAKER_04So it so yeah, so it changed owners. We I have been there since it's got the new owners. It was very good. It's very good. And I know the one cook, he's a great guy. Shout out, Steve.
SPEAKER_00What up, Steve? Come work for us. We need a producer.
SPEAKER_04No, it was funny because we used to joke around about him. He was like, we worked there right about the time that we were like starting the podcast, and I was getting into comedy, and he's just a cool dude, very supportive, you know what I mean? So we just and we've kept in touch with him and stuff. So we always joked around that he's like our you know how Joe Rogan has the guy, Jamie. Yeah. We always joke around. Google, the Google guy. Yeah, so like we always joked around that. So we would say stuff like, look that up, Steve, even though there's nobody there.
SPEAKER_00There's no Steve. That's fine. I bring it up.
SPEAKER_04But um, but no, it's it's uh the John Sound food scene, back to the that very unique thing. One of the things that I wanted to talk to you about was I've known people that have wanted to do food reviews here,
Staying Honest In Small-Town Reviews
SPEAKER_04but they're afraid of the backlash because people do get defensive, yeah, and the community is very defensive as well of the spots that they love. Yeah, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05So it's like value to them, nostalgia, memory.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. So I and I even know of one in particular that was like, I will not do any even though he's from here, he's like, I'll review anywhere else, but I will not review in Johnstown. Good thing I put on a mask.
SPEAKER_05No, no, no, no, people recognize me every day, so it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_04Right. Right, absolutely. So I guess my question is is like w how do you navigate those waters? Because I know you've talked about you know, like you try to even if something may not be your you know cup of tea, you still encourage people to go there. Do you know, because it's like I food's a lot like comedy, it's subjective. Yeah, you know, you what you find tasty, I may hate.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, people eat tomatoes or this or that, mushrooms, I'll eat mushrooms, I'll eat uh, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_04Right, exactly. So and I guess so. How do you try to stay sort of not I neutral's the wrong word that I'm looking for, but because it is sort of like sort of a unique food scene, like how do you sort of navigate that and not piss people off, I guess is what it is.
SPEAKER_05Well, I guess I don't always navigate it greatly and not piss people off because some people get upset. But but everybody's been kind of like fun and jestful about it. Honestly, I think it's just about like I think that it's about intention. I think that people can watch my videos and see that my intention is still pure, even if I don't necessarily love something. You know, because there's a way to still shout places out and and and still give them love if they're not my cup of tea. And as I said in the video that I made, and it wasn't even just about one place, it was about comments that I've gotten about different places, this or that. I'm sure you've seen all kinds of stuff. Yeah, yeah. It's just um everywhere can't be my favorite spot, or else it wouldn't be authentic. You know what I mean? And and I think that it's just about remaining respectful, which I try to do, and I still try to, you have to be entertaining, but I'm not gonna deliberately go out of my way to talk down on somebody or demean somebody or spit food out and say it's the the wall, this is dog meat or the worst shit I better. Right. You know, if it's not for me, I just try to be respectful about it. And then um, at the end of the day, another thing that I've learned over my many years of social media is that uh I'm not gonna please everybody no matter what. People are gonna find a reason to hate me. It's the same thing that I deal with with talking to my daughter in school. She's worried about getting bullied for this. So, baby, listen, just do whatever you want. Be true to yourself because at the end of the day, the people who want to bully you will find something to bully you about. You care these shoes, those shoes, that shirt, that shirt, they're gonna find something to pick and try about. So anybody that's gonna pick at me is probably without sounding egotistical just not too happy with themselves. Right. And the old cliche saying a misery loves company, you know. And also ain't nothing they're gonna say gonna bother me at the end of the day. Right to type up a whole hate speech to me, and my life is pretty damn great. So I'm gonna just keep doing what I'm doing. You know, and and like I do think it's intention, though. I think people know that I'm not here trying to just shit on people. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Well, what did you think there is contrast too because there like I was turned off by another creator around here who was looking to do food reviews and I'm not asking you to comment, I'm just throwing it out there because I blocked them on social media because their intent just didn't come via like it was it just didn't sound right to me.
SPEAKER_04It felt like it came from the right place from the wrong place to begin with. You know what I mean? Like they were starting on the wrong foot.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_05Whoa to the person made a video about me. I don't know if you saw it.
SPEAKER_00No, I blocked them. Matter of fact, I went and looked today to see if I still had them blocked, and I do.
SPEAKER_05At first, it honestly seemed like she was coming at me. I thought she was upset with me about something, but then I think that it was more directed towards people commenting stuff on our page, so I didn't take it as much to heart. Because I watch people were tagging me and I watched, I was like, damn, what did I do? You know, I get the hell. Like, I didn't even, you know, I didn't even know anything about it.
SPEAKER_04Like what would you like to see ultimately be the like end result of your experience of making these videos?
SPEAKER_05I want y'all when you're at the fucking drive-thru at McDonald's and Wendy's and shit to think mass reviewer would be disappointed in me right now. And I want you to go to a fucking family-owned spot and put the money in the people that you grew up around. Johnstown, a lot of these people have been here their whole lives. I know y'all all know each other. You know, it's a small town. It's the only town you can wear a fucking ski mask. I know everybody still gets stopped five times a damn day at Walmart. So, you know, so so spend the money with the people you grew up with, support the people around you, support your community, and then stop supporting these corporations who don't give a shit about you. That's the main goal. Push my audience to eat family-owned. That's and then I'm also working on ways to help out other family-owned businesses that that aren't restaurants because I want it to spread the love as much as I can. The main goal, uplift the community, save family restaurants, help them get a booming business, and then if I could get monetized and take this shit on the road on my off weeks, I'll save family restaurants all over the country, you know, all over the world if I can. I don't care. Yeah, down with the man. Just like Gordon Rams. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But but no, for real. Uh, yeah, I'm not sure. No, but I totally respect people that family owned.
SPEAKER_04That's an awesome goal. Well, and that was kind of leading into my next question was I know you're a guy, I can already tell you're thinking seven, eight steps ahead.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so, like, there's a finite amount of restaurants in Johnstown. So, do you already have a plan of like what you're gonna do next? Yeah, I think Windburg's probably next. Maybe.
SPEAKER_05Oh, so you're gonna branch out. That's that was my question closer. But like I said earlier, I also grab videos. If I'm in
Scaling Beyond Johnstown
SPEAKER_05Pittsburgh catching a flight, I'll grab a bite to eat there. I'm going to Thailand in November, taking the mask with me. We're gonna crazy critters out there. Yeah, that's gonna be a good thing. You know, yeah, yeah. So, really, just to take it everywhere. But yeah, I'll just start voting. Maybe I'll put a post up and say, here's four cities, whichever one gets the most fucking votes, that's where I'm hitting next. Yeah, no, I love that. I think I'm halfway there in Johnstown. I think there's only like 110 restaurants, and right now I'm at like 40. Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, yeah, you're cranking out the content. So I knew you had to be getting I knew you had to be thinking about it already.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, because I try to post every two days. I'm two to three weeks out on content, which I try to remind people all the time because they're like, you're ignoring my comment. First of all, I'm getting a hundred comments, and this is not my only social media. Right. My personal account has a hundred thousand followers. I'm dealing with that, I'm dealing with this. I'm a dad, I work a full-time job, you know. So I am trying to reply to everybody. I love you all so freaking much. I promise you, nobody's being ignored. I'm trying to help out whoever I can, you know, things like that. But uh, but yeah, there's people that have been commenting for 30 days before I get to their restaurant, and it's nothing personal. Right, sure. I mean it's a bunch of places. I'm going where it's convenient for me with my work day and this and that, right? Right, you know, and then sometimes, you know, it's up to my wife and kids what they want to eat. We go where they want, you know. So but everywhere we'll get done. If it's and also, just to put it out there without naming any places specifically, some of these places ain't open when they say they're open. And if I've been there twice and that shit won't open, it gets moved to the back of the list. Yeah, so it is just I'm not gonna keep pulling up to a place trying to get something, it's not open. Uh you know, gas expensive, yeah. Which actually I don't, I in 1000% honesty, my mom just made fun of me for this because she came here and when she was like two hours out, she was like, How much is gas in Johnstown in case I need to fill up here? And I was like, I don't know. And she was like, What do you mean? And I was like, I haven't looked at the gas in 10 years because I know that I need the shit regardless. So I literally just put it in, put my card in there, pay for it, and walk away. I don't want my soul to be hurt. I know that it's expensive as shit. I know my tank used to be 40, it's probably 80 now. Right. You know, it's like I try not to pay attention to it because I can't let shit like that bother me. I gotta do a problem. I mean, it's out of your need gas. I'm not gonna buy a horse. You know what I mean? Right, exactly. Maybe I fucking need you. But yeah, I'm not, you know, so yeah, fucking, yeah, I don't even look. That's a weird thing about me. Things like that, I don't look. I have all my bills on auto pay. I don't look at that. I don't care, bro. You know, electric and shit. What am I gonna unplug my toaster to save three cents? It's all fucked. You're exactly right. You're exactly right. I mean, it you're fucked either way. Yeah, yeah. My mom really made fun of it. She was like, You really have no idea. I was like, probably four bucks. I have no idea. I literally don't glance. I just pay. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00He does all that. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I just put gas in the car and drive where the hell I need to go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I do look but only because I'm obsessed with I have a like a price thing. Okay. Like I know, like when we're shopping.
SPEAKER_00Either price savant or something. Yeah, or something.
SPEAKER_04It's like something, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00He knows the total of our cart, like when we get there, pretty much down to like a dollar or two.
SPEAKER_05I've I've gotten that way with work because I shop for my clients and they get a budget a week. Right. So I can go in and buy a hundred dollars of grocery without even thinking. And no, it's like right there. Right, right. Right. But yeah, yeah, it's so funny.
SPEAKER_00The only thing that you've been talking about all week is his damn Grateful Dead shirts that he wears.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, I always said that. I I forgot about that because I was like, are you a Grateful Dead fan?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Now, this is something I will forewarn you because this is like a thing that I've dealt with my whole life, right? Right. I've been listening to things like Slipknot, System of a Down, and I actually just talked about this with my wife today, uh, Portugal the man. I could not name one fucking song from any of them. I could not name any of the band members. I've been listening to these people just. I was gonna say, I feel I noticed about myself. Some people listen to bands and they know everything about them, or this or that. I will listen to an artist for my entire life and not know their fucking name. Like, I don't know why I don't have that intrigue that other people I have cartoons that I love to death, couldn't tell you certain things about it, or video games. Final Fantasy is like the best video game franchise of all time. I could probably name three characters, you know. Right. My brain does not retain shit. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I like to, you know, especially back in college, I get high listen to a bunch of grateful dads. Right. Well, I just fucking ripped that shirt though. Oh shit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's why I started ones rep. They're thin.
SPEAKER_05They're thin. Yeah, and my wife's making the big Backtivist shirts now, so I want to have awesome. But what people don't realize is I I gotta talk to another car content creator. How the fuck are they doing this? Because I can't run the AC because then my car is on and it sounds loud. And I'm in there, maybe it's the mask putting me on, and I'm wearing long sleeves and gloves. It gets hot as shit in there. The other day I filmed a video and I go to pull the fucking shirt off my back, and it's so stuck to my body that I just ripped the whole back of the shirt off. And you can't see it from the front, so I could still film it. But I was like, damn, I done wear my super suit, I done fucked it up. Like, um, so I'm gonna start wearing the big Backtivist shirts, but I really like it's it's a beautiful shirt as well. I like the color contrast. Well, that's the purple mask with it. Yeah, I think it stands out. I specifically after using those regular doctor gloves I had, I I bought purple gloves to go with the mask, trying to acquire some kind of image. So, you know, you gotta that's something too, you gotta stay consistent with people want to see the same thing a million times in a different way for sure. Right, right, absolutely comforting all the purple mask, that's my guy. Right, okay, right.
SPEAKER_00Because I worry about that, so like I don't have a niche on my content because I'll panic. So when you talk about being three weeks ahead, I don't go three weeks ahead because I'm reaction to most of what I do, but I do on the weeks that I don't feel like doing it, like I lean into AI production. So I'll just produce some like AI generated bullshit that has a message behind it or whatever, yeah, just to keep people coming back and checking my page or whatever. It shifts though, because like Mama Tot, I don't know if you know who that is, but she was like this whole she's a southern personality. It was a whole thing, and you wanted more of Mama Tot, and now you're like, here comes Mama Tot again. So, like that's where I'm afraid like our.
SPEAKER_04Do you worry about that it'll be that the mat people will get burnt out on that?
SPEAKER_05Yes, and no. That's why I try to only post every two days so that I'm not just pushing myself into the face too much. Right. Also, with the events, I'd like to space it out every couple months, usually like um, or one a month or something. I don't want to be too forced on people. But also with the with my content, I think it's only similar in the attire because every video is gonna be different as far as the meal.
SPEAKER_04I was just gonna say, while yours is like, it's that really has nothing to do with what's going on.
SPEAKER_00No, not compared to what you're about to say.
SPEAKER_05Right, exactly. It's not like I'm doing like sketches where I'm doing the same sketches. Exactly. Exactly. The same song every time I got these that do that. And it works for them, you know, right? Right. But yeah, I could see it like dying on you like, damn, I can watch this dude dance to this a thousand times or this or that. Right. But I I don't think that I'll have that same issue to the same extent. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree, yeah, absolutely. And I'm looking at new content too. I'm gonna start doing over-under videos where I go buy a burger from Johnstown Inn and say, I wonder if I could eat this in over or under two bites, and I try to eat the whole shit in two bites. Just little things that I know that's cool. I mean, that's I want to start interviewing that like I was saying about helping other. I was thinking about doing something called eating with owners, where an owner tells me their favorite place to eat. We go get the food and then we eat and talk about their business. Oh, I love that. Like Mr. Mufflers or something. I love that. Hey, what got you started? Oh, you inherited this from your dad. Right. Oh, that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_04Something like that, just to help more than just food and well, that would that was kind of yeah, where that well, that was kind of uh part two of the question that I had asked you about where do you see like this going, yeah, was like you had because you had mentioned you know other businesses besides just like food. But I even like that you have the idea of sort of tying that back to food, yeah. Because like I think, and especially like conversations had over food, yeah. You know, and breaking breadless people is important, it absolutely is, and one of my favorite like shows of all time was Anthony Bourdain. Okay, do you know what that is? So he's this guy, he was this chef, he wrote some books, and then he had this show for like 10 years on CNN where he would just travel to different places and eat food and stuff with almost like Sonny Sal or whatever it is. Sure, yeah, like but with the what made his show different is like he just had like a mind and a perspective that was like you didn't even you didn't even watch the show for the food, you watched the show for the connection that he was making to other people. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And he did that with he understood that food did that for him. Brings people together. So it didn't matter if he was in Tanzania or if he was in Queens. Yeah. You know what I mean? Food brings people together.
SPEAKER_05All hobbits, bro, not to nerd out again, but yeah, we all got a little hobbit in us, you know. Right, absolutely, and I think it's in our genes too, because like at the end of the day, even though we've been desensitized to a bunch of stuff, food is still survival. And I don't, even though you don't think about that on the daily, because we're food is so readily available available to most of us that it's not survival. I know that's not how it is for everybody, and that's unfortunate, and I hate that, but but we are desensitized to the fact that we you if for this food we're eating right now, we would have had to go hunt this or we would have to go do this or grow it for fucking seven months before we eat it, but now it's just too doo doot doot do right. So I I I think that that's like you know a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it it definitely is nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's what like we want our kid to grow up like with the fundamentals, right? Not just like walking, I'm very much attached to the digital world because of what I do at work, and like
Tech Anxiety And The Lost Village
SPEAKER_00AI is here, yeah, right, and we don't know how that is all gonna shake out, so you still have to have the fundamentals, yeah. Like, we're into all that. I mean, every day I'm like, eh, do I want to be a homesteader today? Don't I?
SPEAKER_05I walk a very thin line of uh of technology because it's dope, or living in the jungle naked. And I I tease my family all the time that if I didn't have them before I moved here, I had like four acres in North Carolina and I sold it to help get my house here. But before I move, if I didn't have my family, I would have just bought a camper, put it on that land, and never been bothered with a bill again. Right. You know, and and even though I love Johnstown, I really do. I'm not gonna live here forever.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_05I can't be safety dealing with this fucking snow. So when I'm 60, my kids are growing up, I'm going somewhere tropical. You can catch me walking around naked in the jungle. That's just what it is. Right, right, right. No, I'm right there with you. Give me the old man in a loincloth.
SPEAKER_04I don't know, and and I think that's the hard part. I mean, that's really the existential crisis like of our time. Yeah, is we I think that most reasonable people realize that we've become too modern.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, exactly. We've been disconnected from what it takes to be a human, and they killed us when they broke the village mentality. I even remember growing up in the 90s how neighborly it was. One time our power was out because we missed a bill. When I first moved out, I moved out young. Moved out at 16. I got a trailer literally in the hoods. If water was brown, the toilet bottle bowl water would freeze when it got cold. It was a shit neighborhood. It was $400 a month. And when I moved in, the landlord was like, Are you 18? I said, I have three months' rent. He said, It does all right. And you know, I I I fucking missed an electric bill and went out, and the neighbors would come wake me up for work and shit like that. Come bring me plates for that shit is over. What's that? They've just destroyed that. We don't get to be human anymore. Yeah, we're all trying to make money and stay part of this cognitive gear. We've turned into ants over humans.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_05Like a human, I should, and I would almost it's hard because we're so used to this, it's hard to give it up. It's hard to give up Netflix and Hulu and fucking PlayStation. I love all that shit. I'm playing Crimson Desert right now. It's dope as fuck. But if I could get to the point where I could just go live in the woods with my kids, I think that would be a better life.
SPEAKER_00Right. It almost feels like you hear the silence, it's like all shuts off, and you're like, okay.
SPEAKER_05Sure, the older I get, the more I realize I don't need all this shit.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_04I feel like we're just now getting the conversation started, which is why we're gonna have to have you back another time. Because now I like want to go down so many rabbit holes, but I know that I'm not gonna touch any of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because now you got me like, I'm like, now we're because like that's I love thinking about stuff like that. Yeah, we're yeah, exactly, and introduce you to people a little bit, just talk about some bullshit and kind of you know.
SPEAKER_05I have the gift of gab. I like podcasts a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I hope we're easy to talk to if we do a podcast. Yeah, I guess that's true.
SPEAKER_05Well, you'd be surprised, shit.
SPEAKER_04But no, I but I love talking about those things, you know, just sort of like throwing those things out there, these sort of like questions about you know life life and the because we are living in a unique time. Like I know that everybody and I get that everybody says that, you know, like throughout history, yeah. Yeah, I get that. But we really are at a unique time because of the technological advancements that we made. We're getting ready to cross a a threshold of humanity, yeah. You know, like a big turning point, just in the same way, like when people first started writing stuff down, that was a huge transition to a new world, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then like the industrial revolution was probably the next technology has boomed.
SPEAKER_05It's funny too, because I like I don't want to sound like I'm hating on silent science because like 100, 200 years ago, like the biggest cause of death was like diarrhea and fevers. Okay. So, you know, medicine and science is dope. I'm so glad we got ibuprofen and shit like that. But I I I want that, but to be separated. Yeah, you know, I think that I could live anywhere if I just had Wi-Fi. Like, stick me out in the woods. I could tap in with reality every once in a while, still watch the movies, but spend most of my time just like farming and hunting. That would be so dope.
SPEAKER_04I want to exist separate from society. I still want this society to be going on so I can take all the benefits of the art and stuff that it's creating without being totally outside of its system, so I'm not like that.
SPEAKER_05When I lived in Colorado in that town of 150 people, the closest Walmart was two hours away. Right. So it's like I much would rather live in the middle of nowhere and tap into what's going on if I can. You know, hey, people want to go visit the no go vacation in the middle of nowhere. I'd rather vacation in a city. Right. Let me check this shit out and get overstimulated and then go the fuck home. Right.
SPEAKER_04That's exactly right. Everything, and this is the problem too, is like when we travel, it's like we and you we do do that. Like we'll go to a city and it's like, I need to get out of here. Like after you're like, I forgot traffic existed. I've experienced this, I don't want to do it anymore. I want to like, yeah.
unknownThat's so funny.
SPEAKER_00But all right, so let's wrap it up. What do you got to promote? What do you got coming up? What are you really excited about coming up over the next couple months?
SPEAKER_05Yep. Um
Upcoming Events And Creative Projects
SPEAKER_05I got Hexon Fest coming up October 31st. I'll have a booth there. I'm gonna be dropping merch as soon as my youngest daughter gives my wife a little time to get these images created and stuff. There is a piano. Oh, I just had the date somewhere. There's a piano off coming up soon, and it is a benefit for veterans. It's benefiting the veteran park. It's gonna be September 12th. It's called Dueling Pianos. I'm pretty excited about that. I think I'm gonna put it in the middle. Where's that at? It will be uh uh Dunlo PA Fire Hall. Uh 180 Pitcairn Av Dunlo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know where Dunlo is.
SPEAKER_05Do I?
SPEAKER_00It's between Sidman and Wilmore.
SPEAKER_05That's yeah, I've never been there, but I know where Sidman is. Yeah, I've never been there, but any charity event that I can help influence, I'm sorry. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Well, definitely. I'll keep that in mind too, for because like a lot of the comedy stuff that we do, it's like charity originally. Oh, yeah, let me know. Yeah, and I mean, even you could even do like a you could just be a goof for like five minutes or something and whatever.
SPEAKER_05I just I got I got some I got actually a little set in here to try it out. I probably got like a good 60 seconds, minute and a half. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I'm a I'm a as I put it, and it's probably my biggest fucking flaw, is I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. You know, you're looking at that guy right now. I love writing. I got um actually, oh, I might have an extra copy. I've got a couple tabletop books, like uh coffee books that I've wrote. I got a children's book out. Oh shit. Yeah, I've actually I can't even say it because it says my name on there, but uh I'll tell you all about it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I I love doing stuff with film work, you know, writing, whatever. I I like doing it all. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. I like uh just creating whatever I can.
SPEAKER_04I love people like that. Like it I say this all the time. That like when you meet somebody that is like a w I wouldn't I I know the phrase you used was you know, Jack of all trades, master of none. Yeah. But I look at it as like a real like renaissance man. Yeah. Like you want to have your fingers in a little bit of like the music pot, a little bit in this pot, a little this you know, you know what I mean? Like whatever. Just sort of like calls me.
SPEAKER_05And a lot of people have one thing call them, and they're like so passionate about it, and there's so much in there, but I am so fucking ADHD written, I think, that many things call me, and I find love and interest in many I paint and stuff. I'll have some paintings for sale at the Hex Fest thing. Like, you know, I I just do whatever I feel like doing in the moment, I want to do. And as I've said, I I think I've said it, I've made a post about it. I've lost siblings and stuff. I I'm living for me and my kids, and I'm gonna live to be true to myself. And if I feel like painting one day, I'm gonna paint. If I feel like writing a book, I'm gonna fucking sit down and write that book. You know, I'm not gonna confine myself to anything. Yeah, and I I I just have a lot of fun creating, and I just wanna keep doing it. Yeah, that's Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Do you do you find yourself hyperfixating when you log in on something that you want to try or do?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and then I fall off. And I I was worried about that with this. Like, damn, how long am I gonna stick to master before I'm like, meh, because I kind of get over stuff and I move to the next thing and stuff like that. But honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with this, and it's not even I think what's gonna keep me pushing for this is it's genuinely not about me. I don't give a fuck. I don't care about any recognition. If I can get monetized and make extra money off this, I'm a I'm a regular dude with kids. I would love to make some fucking money off. Of course. Pay my light bill or something, you know, or even just pay for the food that I'm eating to continue the thing. Right. But at the end of the day, the main target is helping these businesses out. So I don't think I'll get bored with it. And I don't matter. If I mattered, I wouldn't have a mask on. Y'all are looking at me, I'm unique. You know, I can't sit out, you know. I get recognized for a reason when I ain't got this mask on, you know. Like, but but yeah, I I I'm just having a lot of fun helping people and getting comments from these businesses where they hit me up and they're like, dude, did you drop that video? New people were here. Somebody drove from Altunity here. Somebody did this, and they're telling me that they saw your video. I'm like, this is fucking dope.
SPEAKER_04I've seen I mention, you know, like I'm a foodie, like I love, I follow a lot of stuff about food on you know social media, and I've watched different groups, specifically uh hoagies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And you know, people are very protective, even of the word hoagie, yeah, in Pennsylvania. And they, or as they say, hoagie, I'm gonna go down there and get me a couple of hoagies. But the I've seen places like got so busy they opened second locations, yeah, you know what I mean, stuff like that. Like people were making pilgrimages to these places because they just got such good reviews from everybody, exactly.
SPEAKER_05And it's like without sounding egotistical, I'm sure, and I think I said it on a hexide, I'm sure that I've given some of these places more advertisement that they have at I mean, Johnstown Inn's at 100,000 views. Orchard, and that's just on one platform. So if you on both platforms are probably at 140. Right. Right. The orchard's at 100,000 between both of my platforms. So it's like, I'm not, I know it's not life altering. I'm not saving or changing for them, but that's a that's more people than live in Johnstown that have seen it. Well, you know, absolutely by like five times. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_04So it's getting out there, and not only that, but like it this is totally like off topic, but a lot of these small businesses depend on the skill machine money that they're making. Oh, yep, yep. And that could all be going away here soon, depending like on how the legislation goes and stuff. I saw it. So it's even more important now, you know what I mean? Like, it's not their whole income, but they depend on that money to pay bills. Yeah, it allows them to be above you know the line and keep going. And especially like some of the clubs and stuff like that, you know what I mean? And yeah, so people need to be more supportive of the like you know, stuff like that, places like that that are gonna need more than ever your support. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, family owned, family owned, family owned. Main goal, go there. And it's crazy too. Like, you bring up the orchard. I mean, that place has literally been there, what is it, 120 years, something like that. It's not the same building, it's been, but that building's been there since like the 50s or so.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the orchard has always been the orchard, I believe. Big dogs was the lobster trap in the 80s and 90s. Yeah, there's a lot of places around here that just they persist. I mean, or they've been turned over, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04But people have forgotten about so many of them or don't know because let's there's a lot of people living in Johnstown. Take it, I'm not saying this in a negative or positive way, but there's in their routine, they go to the same place. Well, that's exactly right. They want the same, that's why so many places you could get a hundred different pizza and wings here. Yeah, you know what I mean? Because it's on every menu, it doesn't matter what it is or whatever.
SPEAKER_05You know, a lot of places do have the same things with their own twist. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Right, exactly. That's exactly right. And it's because like people are sort of not stuck in their ways, but they have a routine, like you said.
SPEAKER_05I've had six-year-olds hit me up, like, I didn't even know this place existed.
SPEAKER_04I've done it. Exactly. Because they don't leave their you know what I mean? They're like they only eat from places that they see going to and from work or something. You know what I mean? They don't like it's the same way when you go to the Chinese place.
SPEAKER_05Everybody always orders the same thing. That's exactly right. That's why you gotta get the same thing and something extra. Just try it out. You know, like what do I do? Be a little big. What do I do? I get sesame chicken and some random shit every time. I'll say I'll take sesame chicken.
SPEAKER_04I get General Sozin something else.
SPEAKER_05I say, I'll take sesame chicken and whatever you fuck with. Let me get that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do that a lot. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's funny.
SPEAKER_00So, rapid fire. Do you have a favorite pizza in Johnstown that you will say out loud?
SPEAKER_05All right, so there's unreleased videos right now, but top three, just off top of my mind. Big dogs is is an honorable up there. It's top three, especially because they do the $9 one topping larges, and I'm fucking obsessed with that. It's on Tuesdays. Okay. Every Tuesday they do nine dollar one topping larges. It might be an extra dollar to take it to go or something like that. Check that out. But when my daughter fuck that shit up like once or twice a month, you know. I call them by their names up there. I know I know Eric in them, but but I like that the Napoli's pizza in in the mall is actually really good. And surprisingly, better than their pizza is like their Alfredo and stuff. I would not expect the homie in there to be whipping up crazy Alfredo. That shit hits. Their video is dropping soon. And then I just did a video, I think it it will be dropped by the time that this comes out. Oh, wait, I don't know if y'all mentioned that. Yeah, September 1st. Okay, okay. I didn't know if y'all know I didn't want to out you if it's uh but uh punkies. I just got punky's and they were fired. It's like the 60s, and then he just came back and reopened it, and it's the sun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I had a really good talk with Scott. He's a cool guy. Well, and I don't know if you were here in time back with so the back before it switched, they were like selling, like they attempted to be like a they would sell the shelves commercially.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just showed me a whole commercial thing that he had going on. He had this big plant at one point that somebody passed away, all kinds of shit happened. Right. And uh, but yeah, I I saw that that he was supplying things to like Scots by the Dam. And I think that his family even owned Scots by the Dam at some point. I don't I think so. If unless I'm misconstruing what he was saying, but his name Scott, right, maybe his dad's sure. Oh but I don't remember, but I know he said something about he was supplying uh shelves to a lot of places around here.
SPEAKER_00Scots by Dam still has really good tacos, regardless, even if they can't get punkies anymore at their good taco place. But the orchard was carrying punkies, taco shells, like there was a lot of really good.
SPEAKER_04You know, back when they were selling that where everybody in town was still was selling the shelves because you could just buy them, you know.
SPEAKER_05I will put it out there without sounding rude or disrespectful to anybody or any cultures. The tacos here have been good, but it's like the extreme weird tacos that are good, like the weird fish tacos and stuff at Scots were good. But the regular taco was all right, right? You know, it's it's like without sounding funny, and I can say this because I'm white and we're pushing little comedy envelope, but it's like a white people tackle. There's a lot of white people. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's not a lot of people. I like like real Hispanic, like hit me with that. Right. Um, so you know, yeah, yeah. Right. Absolutely. Well, that's when you gotta hit up my friends who happen to be Mexican American, and they I didn't, I uh without sounding funny, pushing another envelope. I have not seen uh I come from North Carolina, Spanish people are everywhere. I have not seen a lot of Spanish people. There's no shots that I literally have not seen a lot.
SPEAKER_00Maybe force well, there's there's for sure a Puerto Rican family here, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because they had eat sleep Cuban sandwiches. Oh, I don't know if they were Cuban or Puerto Rican, but they had that eat, sleep, Cuban sandwiches spot off scalp. I know that they're Hispanic and I fucking love their empanadas. I'd go up there. I wish they were still open. I I wish they were still open so I could do a video for they closed down. Exactly. But I'd go up there and get big ass trays of their empanadas and they were fucking bombed. And now I gotta find out if you're out if you see this, I'll come buy plates from you still because those empanadas were so good.
SPEAKER_00That's what we need to do is a street plate of like a Facebook marketplace stuff. I'll hit a plate tour.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, so I guess so. My so if I was gonna throw some other ones in the ring there for the pizza, it would be Sal Salvatore's there on the roundabout.
SPEAKER_05Okay. See it on the roundabout though.
SPEAKER_04You know whose pizza I love? And you were there, but I don't think you got the pizza, it was JR's sports style. No, I didn't get the pizza. Their pizza is really good.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they're the problem I face because I never get apparently what I should get at places. So instead of commenting places, they should tell me people should be commenting. Telling me what to get. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And then and I do love punkies, but I'm not gonna put that on my list because you just said it, but I was gonna throw the Johnstown Inns pizza's really good.
SPEAKER_05Okay, yeah, I didn't get their pizza. Yeah, yeah, their pizza. But I'm gonna double back. That's of course. Another thing I'll do too is like when I run out of when I hit everywhere in Johnstown, I'll just go back to some of the same places, get shit I've never got for off days. The big double back. You know, there's always right. That's what I was gonna say. That's perfect. That's there's more items. That really works. I'll end up doing wing-offs where I get wings from three different places.
SPEAKER_04I saw that's a really good idea because I saw you mention your three about the wings, so that would be good to see the comparison. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00All right. I don't, I'm not trying to be a good one. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_05I know we keep going. It's second day of school. I gotta help get the kids in bed.
SPEAKER_00That's exactly right. Exactly. We don't want them to cut you off and say you can't come back down. No, I'm not we appreciate mask reviews for hanging out with us tonight.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Go catch them on Facebook, TikTok, yep, YouTube and stuff will be coming soon.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I don't have much posted on YouTube or Insta, but I have the pages created. Yep. I I made a Twitch, yeah. I try to hit everywhere so that people can't take my shit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And we'll definitely, definitely have the link up again on some stuff. I'm totally down.
SPEAKER_05And I'm down to come and talk about shit that has nothing to do with food as well.
SPEAKER_04I see, that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00That's what we want to get.
SPEAKER_04That's why when we started talking about the other stuff, I was like, oh yeah, I want to have a deeper conversation about nothing that has anything to do with food whatsoever. Well, that was quite the interview. We recorded that Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And that was it was action-packed.
Host Debrief And Giveaway Details
SPEAKER_04I I definitely want to have him back because I there's a thousand things I want to talk to him about. None of it food related.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_04Just all kinds of bullshit that I'd love to deep dive just because you know I love to talk to people about crazy things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I feel like you guys know a lot about us already. Like, you know our backstory. I feel like we want to get a little bit deeper the next round and just find out a little bit more. I mean, he definitely has an amazing story. Right. And this first episode was just introducing you guys to him here in Johnstown.
SPEAKER_04Well, and it was just us trying to get to know him a little bit in the sense of him getting to know us. You know what I mean? It's like you meet somebody and you record a podcast. It's you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00It's Right, right. Ours is more conversational, and I didn't want it to feel like some crazy interview, but at the end of the day, there's still a whole lot that we didn't get to touch on.
SPEAKER_04Right, exactly. It was just too much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so more to come on that. And since we had to circle back to record the last part of the show, some pretty effing awesome things have happened.
SPEAKER_04Well, that was the show last night, Houtsdale News, great show. Thanks for having us. Thank you to Scott Davidson for putting that whole thing together. I mean, but what a time. And thanks to everybody that came out, thanks to the other people involved. It was so much fun. It was just a great setup, it was a great lineup. They came ready to laugh. It was just a it's a perfect show. Yeah, and like you can't ask for anything more.
SPEAKER_00We've probably said this before, but like I fall in love with Pennsylvania every single time you do a show in one of these rural areas because the people there are just amazing. Like they're fun, they're funny, they're right.
SPEAKER_04They always embrace you. Yeah, you know what I mean? In the sense of like they talk to you, welcome you, yeah, want to get to know you. You know what I mean? It's always a fun time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I really felt like we were part of the family.
SPEAKER_04It always feels that way. That's what that's exactly what you're talking about. You always feel like you're a part of whatever club that they have going on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and shout out to uh Bernie, maybe the MC for the night. Yeah, he was hilarious.
SPEAKER_04Oh, he was it was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think he needs to work on putting a set together.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, come on out to an open mic. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So that was fun, and who knows? I met some really cool ladies there, and maybe we have some new friends, new listeners. We'll see. So I going through the recycle bin right now and trying to like bring back old clips that you know, we have new listeners, we have people just newly engaging, so I can recycle some of that stuff, they're fun, but I want to refresh them somehow, and I've been going through and some of them are like they're not timeless, right? There's there's stuff that we talk about that's very in the moment very often. So, one of the ones that I was going to bring back was the Arby's steak nuggets, and I was like, oh, they don't even have those anymore, and then what?
SPEAKER_04Guess what? They're bringing them back, and we still don't want you to get them. Don't go to Arby's, don't support them, they're terrible, and those things are even more wretched.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and unless they somehow miraculously change the formula, I highly doubt that they're gonna be able to.
SPEAKER_04I don't even I can't even believe they would bring them back. They were that bad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they were bad. But anyway, so only calling that out because now I can resurrect that clip and make you guys laugh. Before I get into it, what do you have coming up?
SPEAKER_04We have the roast battle this Thursday at McGarvey's Altoona versus State College. Come on out. You can find it on all the socials. McGarvey's Bar, any of the comedians, me, John Saxon, Ridge Hirschberger, Scott Davidson, Seth Queen. I mean, there's just a ton of them. Go check it out. If you search McGarvey's Bar, Roast Battle, yeah, just it'll come up.
SPEAKER_00And there's a lot of fun promos playing. Check that out.
SPEAKER_04It'll you find it. There's a lot of ways to find it.
SPEAKER_00It's not well, and not only that, but the guys are releasing clips to kind of promo stuff, yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's been fun, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's been really fun. All right. So last thing I want to talk about, but I am so excited about, and I'm so excited because by the time that sometime next week, some of the merch will be here.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00We got merch.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's gonna be awesome. Yeah, we talked about it a little bit already. You might have seen the promo. But yeah, no, go check it out. I'm excited about stuff with my jokes. Pennsylvania Sober. Oh, I wasn't supposed to say that, but there it is.
SPEAKER_00There it is, folks. Pennsylvania Sober is the first one of Scott's drops, and we ordered samples so that you did not have to be disappointed when you get yours. You can wait. I mean, actually, this is probably gonna be attached to a clip of us wearing them so you can see how sexy they are. We got beer koozies, I ordered some mugs, so we've got all kinds of fun stuff out there. I'm super excited about that. But I'm excited for you guys because we asked you to get us two a thousand episode downloads, and you are surpassing that. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_04Yep, thank you very much. We couldn't ask for anything more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so now I want to see if we can push that a little bit, but we know you trash pandas aren't going to do a whole lot for free. So, what's in it for you?
SPEAKER_04Merch gift cards.
SPEAKER_00Merch gift cards. So here's how we're doing it. This promotion is gonna run from now until December 31st. You can go out, you can read all the rules on gilded trash.com, but we're running it in two tiers. So the minute that we hit 2,500 downloads, then we are giving away two $50 gift cards for the website. Nice. The minute. So $2,500 downloads, two $50 gift cards. We're gonna pull those names at random, we'll use a randomizer and we're gonna video it so nobody thinks we're doing anything shady. Right. Then those two names stay in the running because the grand prize is if we hit 5,000 downloads before just 11:59 p.m. Eastern on December 31st, we're giving away five $100 gift cards. And on our website, anything over $75 is free shipping, which means that you can go out and have a shopping spree. Five random winners are gonna win $100 worth of guild trash merch.
SPEAKER_04To quote Ghostbusters, have we all gone mad?
SPEAKER_00We have, and not only that, the only thing that you have to do to enter is go to the website, find the form, fill it out, tell us which episode you've listened to, which episode you downloaded, which episode you liked. You don't have to purchase anything, the episodes are free, and you know what else?
SPEAKER_04What?
SPEAKER_00I added a button at the very top of our webpage. So when you go to guildtrash.com, you can just click the listen button and it takes you right on in to listen to all the episodes.
SPEAKER_04It doesn't get any easier than that, folks.
SPEAKER_00I've taken on listener feedback.
SPEAKER_04That's fantastic. That is so check it out. I mean, it's looking forward to it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or you could go out to YouTube and listen. But the YouTube numbers are not going to count for the contest. They have to be downloads through the streaming apps because that's how they're calculated on Buzz Sprout. They're calculated weird on YouTube. I don't know how they gather there. So you have to go out to either Buzz But still check out the YouTube. Yeah, the YouTube is cool. There's other stuff. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna be loading up some more comedy clips here soon.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and full disclosure, this episode was with mask reviews. It did run a little long and not long in a bad way. There was a lot of Scott and I filling in some backstories. So we are thinking about releasing the full episode unedited later this year. If you guys are so interested to hear everything, we didn't cut anything out that he was talking about, we just cut out a bunch of the shenanigans.
SPEAKER_04Us running our fucking jibs like because we can't shut up. We just talk incessantly.
SPEAKER_00We just keep going.
SPEAKER_04Yep. So it's endless.
SPEAKER_00In that case, we want to let you guys go and leave you with the impression of mask reviews because that was the highlight of this episode. So we're not adding anything else to it. We just wanted to give you those things. Go out to guilded trash.com, check out what's new there, and if nobody's told you bitches this week, stay stay trash.
SPEAKER_02Mike
Final Reminder And Sign-Off
SPEAKER_02in hand left it. UFO flash without a care. Gilded trash where the last things go. Comedy legends, we bring it home.
