See Ya Later Alligator!

1h 9m
Episode #739:

Bryan and Krissy are back with another jam-packed episode filled with gators, grifters, and giggles. Bryan recounts a harrowing—and hilarious—trip to a Florida gator farm, where the alligator Lucy may or may not be plotting a full-blown escape. Meanwhile, Jake Paul buys 5,600 acres in the swampy backwoods of Georgia (what could go wrong?), and Billy McFarland continues his delusional Fire Fest 2 journey, which now involves theater productions, ad-supported TV, and possibly marshmallow-fed reptiles.

Also on the docket

The Everglades: great for airboat rides, not great for your blood pressure

Fire Fest: now accepting offers via Craigslist (probably)

Mempho Festival 2025 lineup revealed—hello, Widespread Panic

Vintage TCB stickers and the finger-dip Molly days

A shoutout to Wendy the gator—official mascot of chaos

TCBit: Andy Dandy has a report on which terms the kids are using online.

Watch EP #737 on YouTube!

Text us or leave us a voicemail: +1 (212) 433-3TCB

FOLLOW US:

Instagram:  ⁠@thecommercialbreak⁠

Youtube: ⁠youtube.com/thecommercialbreak⁠

TikTok: ⁠@tcbpodcast⁠

Website: ⁠www.tcbpodcast.com⁠

CREDITS:

Hosts: ⁠Bryan Green⁠ &⁠ Krissy Hoadley⁠

Executive Producer: Bryan Green

Producer: Astrid B. Green

Voice Over: Rachel McGrath

TCBits Written, Voiced and Produced by Bryan Green

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Press play and read along

Runtime: 1h 9m

Transcript

Speaker 1 This episode is sponsored by Jack Archer. Do you hate shopping for pants? You're not alone.
Jack Archer's Jet Setter tech pants are basically the answer to every guy's closet struggles.

Speaker 1 With their customizable fit, wrinkle-free fabric sourced from Japan, and all-day comfort, these pants can take you from work to the weekend without missing a beat.

Speaker 1 Seriously, these might be the only pants you'll ever need. Style them with the Jet Setter tee, legacy button-down shirt, or the buttery legacy polo sweater.

Speaker 1 And you've got timeless staples to meet your everyday wardrobe needs. Jack Archer is just better for a limited time.
Get 15% off using the code getjack at jackarcher.com.

Speaker 1 Again, that's promo code getjack at jackarcher.com for 15% off your entire order. And thanks to JackArcher for being a sponsor of the commercial break.

Speaker 1 This episode is sponsored by 5-Hour Energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade with what they call tasty caffeine, 17 bold flavors that actually taste good.

Speaker 1 You know that midday moment when your brain just stalls out, but you still have a full list of things to do? Well, that's when I reach for a five-hour energy shot.

Speaker 1 Each tiny two-ounce shot has about as much caffeine as a 12-ounce premium cup of coffee, but with zero sugar and zero crash.

Speaker 1 It's big flavor, packed into the smallest, easiest bottle, perfect for tossing in your bag, in your car, really anywhere.

Speaker 1 And since it's still fall, they've brought back the ultimate seasonal favorite, pumpkin spice. Ah, yes, pumpkin spice.

Speaker 1 A little cinnamon, a little swagger, sweet, rich, and totally cozy without being heavy.

Speaker 1 Fuel your day with tasty caffeine, available in store and online at 5hourenergy.com or get it delivered by Amazon. Give yourself a caffeine flavor upgrade with 5-Hour Energy Shots.

Speaker 1 Get yours in store and online, 5Hourenergy.com or on Amazon today.

Speaker 1 And welcome back to WSHIT. It's 8:02 on the studio clock.
I'm Andy Dandy, your man on the streets.

Speaker 1 In a continuing effort to keep parents in the loop about teenage behaviors and the age of the internet, WSHIT continues its series on teenage verbiage.

Speaker 1 You never know what those teenagers might be talking about in their AOL chat rooms or through their Yahoo email accounts.

Speaker 1 Our reporter Jim Swagger got to the bottom of some of the more notable phrases being used by the teens today. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 Here are some other phrases you want to know if you want to be sure to sound hip.

Speaker 1 Yo, a greeting.

Speaker 2 Yo, Curb, what's up? Clutch the pearls.

Speaker 3 Said in amazement or disbelief.

Speaker 4 Well, you know he's married.

Speaker 3 Clutch the pearls?

Speaker 3 Bucked.

Speaker 2 I don't know how many I had, but boy did I get fucked. I sure felt that the next morning that was really the worst thing I'd ever done.

Speaker 3 I hope he didn't drive home.

Speaker 2 No way. MacGyver, as in the TV show where the impossible is often accomplished.

Speaker 2 I can't believe you got off that speeding ticket.

Speaker 3 What a MacGyver.

Speaker 2 Norville, to secretly undermine. What?

Speaker 3 I can't believe she saw your job. You've really been narville.

Speaker 2 Black and decker, or a real tough assignment. You get the analogy, right?

Speaker 3 This job is a real grind.

Speaker 4 It's just a black and decker.

Speaker 2 Some phrases may be around forever.

Speaker 1 Highly informative piece turned in by Jim there. It's the year 2025, and technology's moving faster than ever.
I know I came away just a little bit more informed and possibly a little bit more hip.

Speaker 1 As a matter of fact, I'm MacGyver my way out of the bar last night because I was bucked. And man, was it a black and decker to get a taxi home? We'll be back after this commercial break.

Speaker 3 On this episode of the Commercial Break.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, we got a crocodile farm, you know, alligator farm. We done raised them from the babies, and then we make them into meat and clothing and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 We sell them all and we're like, oh, and then Bob's like, yeah, see, that's Lucy. And Lucy caught trouble all kind of time.
You see, one time it done left the place unlocked.

Speaker 3 And Lucy done crawled up, used her paw, and opened up the door. And I

Speaker 3 closed the door behind her. And then we came in one morning, and Lucy stuck, and I opened the door, and there's Lucy.
At two hours, we tried to get Lucy out of there.

Speaker 3 Finally, I had to go get a chicken, a live chicken down the road to crack its neck and get lucy out with the chicken

Speaker 3 so now we got a different door doorknob because lucy knew how to open the other one

Speaker 3 where the fuck are we

Speaker 3 the next episode of the commercial break starts now

Speaker 3 boy oh yeah cats and kittens welcome back to the commercial break i'm brian green this is my dear friend and the co-host of this show chris and joyoly best to you chris and

Speaker 3 best of you out there in the podcast universe Thanks for joining us. Jake Paul is going to be our neighbor.
I'm just reading. You're in Georgia.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, not technically our neighbor.

Speaker 3 He's going to be way down South Georgia. That's near

Speaker 3 Lake Seminole. You know where Lake Seminole is? Lake Seminole.
Like Seminole Fluids. Lake Seminole.

Speaker 3 He just bought 5,600 acres for $42 million

Speaker 3 overlooking Lake Seminole, which is in the far southernwest corner, southwest corner of Georgia. Wow.

Speaker 3 Now, I happen to know Lake Seminole because I visited there for a couple of real estate-related deals that, of course, I did not follow through on. It actually went south.
I actually, it went south.

Speaker 3 It never even went anywhere. And so now Jake has bought all this land that probably was the land I was looking at.
Probably. Yes.
So again, I've failed to make any money off anything.

Speaker 3 5,600 acres. That's one big spread.
That is a huge spread. But that's where you find that kind of land, way down in southwest Georgia.
That's true, close to Florida.

Speaker 3 Yeah, right there, right there, Nick.

Speaker 3 You're probably 35, 45 minute drive away.

Speaker 3 I mean, as the crow flies, and the crow doesn't fly here anywhere in South Georgia because there's no roads going anywhere.

Speaker 3 But as the crow flies, 30, 45 minutes right to the armpit of the

Speaker 3 Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker 3 Mexico. Do you notice any of his show?

Speaker 3 Don't they have a show on Max?

Speaker 3 They have a show on Max where they've tried to normalize their behaviors.

Speaker 3 Yes, they have.

Speaker 3 Listen, there's part of me that really dislikes the Paul brothers, kind of what they stand for in the world. But there was part of me that disliked Jerry Springer too.

Speaker 3 And there was part of me that disliked Judge Judy. And part of me that disliked Dr.
Phil, and part of me.

Speaker 3 But then...

Speaker 3 Once you kind of pull back the obnoxiousness a little bit, you find out that they're just human. And in some ways, they have done,

Speaker 3 like, I don't, I'm not saying they've done a bunch of good for the earth. That's not what I'm saying.
Like, I don't think they're Jesus Christ superstar or anything like that.

Speaker 3 But they are human beings who have made their own way in the world. And they have, they found a talent that people attach themselves to and really struck a chord at the right time.

Speaker 3 They were at the right place at the right time. They made a lot of money.
Yeah, I said this the other day on the show when I was on some kind of rant that, you know, fortune favors the bold.

Speaker 3 It doesn't. Luck favors the bold, but they were bold at the right time, in the right place.
And they rode that YouTube wave all the way to billionaires, essentially.

Speaker 3 And so you can't fault them for that. No.
You can't. And while I think they've made some really dumb moves in their career, I think that they've harmed some people along the way.

Speaker 3 I don't think you get that rich unless you harm people along the way. That's how you know Brian and Chrissy are not.

Speaker 3 millionaires or billionaires because we have harmed nobody because nobody is paying attention. It's hard to harm anybody when there's nobody around.

Speaker 3 Just the snake that got on your house. Yeah, Yeah, just that snake that got in my house.
But that would have been there regardless if the commercial break was around.

Speaker 3 And the bird that I killed by slamming the door too hard.

Speaker 3 But that's okay. Well, you didn't know there were eggs in there.
I had no idea. Now they're in the pool house.
And

Speaker 3 the house finches are in the pool house. They've nested in there.
Yeah, we were, me and my daughters were watching them fly all around and grab food. And the papa bird was protecting the nest.
And

Speaker 3 she dive-bombed blue. Or the male one did, because I think it's the male that actually protects the nest and sits on the eggs and all that.
Dive bomb blue.

Speaker 3 Blue, I let blue out the back, and blue went walking over there, and she dive bomb blue. And blue's like,

Speaker 3 it's kind of funny, actually. But listen, the Paul brothers are who they are, and they've done what they've done, and they've made a killing doing that.

Speaker 3 If I had to pick one, I would say Jake is probably the one that I like a little bit better than the other one. What's his name?

Speaker 3 The one that just did the fight with the one that just did the fight with Mike Tyson. Because at least

Speaker 3 Jake and Aaron? Jake and Aaron. Because at least it seems like Jake is like at a little bit self-aware.
Well, he did that ayahuasca.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you do ayahuasca, and he did it a lot. And I mean, I think it's different to do ayahuasca when you don't have to worry about what's in your bank account.
Do you know what I'm saying? Yes.

Speaker 3 Like, I think that there's so much.

Speaker 3 stress and strife and emotional drama in life that comes from struggling financially and watching every watching other people succeed financially that just causes a lot of this drama internally in our egos.

Speaker 3 And so when you go down in ayahuasca, all that stuff melts away. But the

Speaker 3 fakeness of it, the falseness of it, the appearance of it, it's all there, you can see causing a lot of drama in your ego.

Speaker 3 But it must be different to have a billion dollars in your bank account, never go to sleep worrying about how you're going to pay a bill, if you have to work hard the next day, if your children are going to eat, survive, succeed, whatever.

Speaker 3 It must feel different to do ayahuasca. You know,

Speaker 3 a vision came to him that he was going to fight Mike Tyson. A vision came to me that my car wouldn't get repoed.
You know what I'm saying? Like, this is just two different things.

Speaker 3 It's just two different things.

Speaker 3 But anyway, Jake just bought 5,600 acres down in South Georgia. And so welcome to Georgia.
Welcome to Georgia, Jake. Yeah, welcome to Georgia.
Invite us down anytime.

Speaker 3 We'd love to come down there and hang out at Lake Seminole. I mean, Lake Seminol is like a, more like a swampy lake because it's so far south.
Definitely Gators living in that lake.

Speaker 3 Definitely Gators living in that lake. This is not like one of those North Georgia mountain lakes.

Speaker 3 Those are so pretty.

Speaker 3 They're beautiful because they're all man-made and they're really well taken care of by Georgia Power, the Tennessee Valley Authority, depending on where you are, which lake it is, or Duke Energy is another one that has a couple up here.

Speaker 3 But, you know, those lakes down in Florida that are not man-made, they're just swampy swamps. That's what they are.

Speaker 3 Those are the kind you get yourself in trouble because there's pythons and anacondas and gators. And those pythons and anacondas aren't native to that part of the country.

Speaker 3 People just bought them as pets and then dumped them there when they got too big. Bunch of shitheads.
Don't get a snake or a dog or a cat or anything that you can't take care of. Please, please.

Speaker 3 Because then

Speaker 3 Jake Paul is going to have to deal with it.

Speaker 3 If you don't care about Mother Earth or the actual creature, think about Jake Paul and how terrible it must be to have billions of dollars in your bank account and have to deal with pythons.

Speaker 3 Well, yeah, and where, like, because the Okeefenokee swamp is down

Speaker 3 is down what in it's South Georgia, but on the east. South Georgia, right in the center, actually.
Right there in the center, right on 75. Boom.
When you go down there.

Speaker 3 Well, yeah, a little more east. You're right.
A little more east. A little more going toward the east.
But that Oakfinoke swamp is pretty big. It's got a lot of stuff.
It's big. It's a big one.

Speaker 3 Not as big as the one down near Miami, which is the.

Speaker 3 Exactly, Brian. What is that? What is that big one?

Speaker 3 I don't know.

Speaker 3 Now I'm going to sound like a dumbass. I'm so sorry, everybody.
I'm so sorry. I'm so stupid, everybody.
Let me apologize in advance. But it's bigger than the Okie Finoki.

Speaker 3 Way bigger than the Okie Finoki. It's like the biggest national park there is.

Speaker 3 Let me see here. Hold on.
And I'll get it right. I've driven through it a million times, and now just for some reason, I can't remember what it is.
It is

Speaker 3 the

Speaker 3 uh it's big cypress but what is the swamp called the big cypress national preserve is the

Speaker 3 what is the oh fuck i don't know okay all right once again

Speaker 3 brian can't remember what it's called uh the everglades national forest the everglades the everglades yeah The Everglades and the national and big cypress, they kind of butt up against each other.

Speaker 3 That is huge. And that is where some people say is the most, like the survival people say is the most dangerous place in the world to try and survive is down in that.
I've heard that.

Speaker 3 I've seen like little nature documentaries about it. Because no shit, Florida Panthers.
And those panthers are huge and they will eat people and they will attack people.

Speaker 3 And then you've got the gators and then you've got the snakes and then you got every kind of like, you know, fish in the world that can kill you, like the snaggle tooth. Snaggle tooth.

Speaker 3 The snaggle tooth catfish. catfish, yeah, the snaggle-tooth catfish.

Speaker 3 You got all kinds of shit down there that could kill you. You don't want any part of that.
We went, I think I, maybe I told this story. We went to Naples

Speaker 3 back before the podcast wasn't making any money. Um, we went to Naples.
Maybe this is before the actual podcast started, or was it 2022? Didn't you honeymoon there? I, I, we honeymooned in Naples.

Speaker 3 We've been to Naples a number of times. Yeah, me too.
I like it down there. Oh, no.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I think this was 2019.

Speaker 3 We go down to Naples and we rent a house for a week and we go with my in-laws and I think Gustavo was there with us too. So it's Gustavo.
Gustavo. Gustavo.

Speaker 3 Who's coming back? Love you. Come on.
Come on, Gustavo. Come on down.
Maybe he'll do another episode with us. Yes.

Speaker 3 Gustavo and LA. My in-laws, we rent this place a block and a half from the beach, beautiful place with a pool out back.
Lovely. My kid is, my first kid is about a year old.

Speaker 3 And we decide, Astrid and I decide, let's go do something cool like a Gator run. Let's go take one of those airboats

Speaker 3 and go on a Gator run.

Speaker 3 And we had, on our honeymoon, we had driven past one, but we thought this would be a really cool thing to do with the in-laws and everybody. And then, can we take the kid? Can we take a one-year-old?

Speaker 3 We call them. They say, yes, of course.
We'll figure it out. And I'm thinking to myself, kid on an airboat, one years old.

Speaker 3 In the Everglades. I don't know.
But okay, let's go. And if we don't think it's safe, we just, one of us won't go.

Speaker 3 We drove 45 minutes.

Speaker 3 There was nothing, a dead straight road, middle of the Everglades, dead straight road, nothing but mangroves and swamp. That's it.
And this goes all the way. over to Miami.
That's fine. From Naples.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's one road. It's like called Big Seminole Highway, I think.
Something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And we get to the middle, basically, and there are a couple of these along the way, but we get to the middle, and there is this whatever,

Speaker 3 you know, Bob's Gator shack or whatever it is. Bob's Gator and written on the thumbnail.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yes. Best Gator

Speaker 3 seeing in all of the Gator country. I don't know, something like that.
And you're like, okay, so we go, we park. The ride is at 10 a.m.
They told us to get there a few minutes early.

Speaker 3 We were there like a half hour, 40 minutes early. We just got there early.
We get out of the car, and just imagine

Speaker 3 we're in this dusty parking lot. There's a little shack, like a house.
I can imagine it. Okay.
And then they have this like deck that's built out onto the little clearing in the swamp.

Speaker 3 So like a little lake or a pond. And then that deck goes back to where the boats are.
And then the shack is like the place where you check in and you buy merch or whatever. Get your bait.
Exactly.

Speaker 3 Get your bait. Your bait is you.
The bait is you.

Speaker 3 So we are there early. There's a couple other stragglers are like standing out in the parking lot.
And I decide to go walk up on this deck where the house is. And then I'm just going to go take my boy

Speaker 3 in his stroller over up and down this little boardwalk and see what there is to see.

Speaker 3 And I go walking down that boardwalk. And what do I see?

Speaker 3 A 15-foot fucking alligator. I'm sure.
On

Speaker 3 the boardwalk. Oh, on the deck.
With its mouth wide open. Oh, my God.
Ready to take my son into its clutchy hands and take it down for a swim. And

Speaker 3 this wouldn't be the first time a child in Florida has been eaten by an alligator. It happened at fucking Disney World, which is a terrible thing.
I mean, a terrible, crazy thing to happen.

Speaker 3 But they've always had gators there, and they always knew they had gators there. And it just was a wrong place, wrong time, terrible, terrible thing.

Speaker 3 This gator was so fucking big. I've never seen anything so big and so intimidating in my life.
And here I am 20 feet from it. So I back up.

Speaker 3 Right? Turn around. It doesn't move.
Yeah, it doesn't move. And they're not particularly fast on land.
You can probably outrun one if you, unless it's coming out of the water, right?

Speaker 3 Unless it's like jumping out of the water. Unless it can use its tail to propel itself, it's probably not going to be faster than you, but still, you don't want to try.

Speaker 3 Like you're not looking to get in a run. You know, this isn't a race.
You don't want to do the Boston marathon with a bunch of gators

Speaker 3 chasing you.

Speaker 3 So I back up and I get out and I'm like, holy shit. And then here's Ranger Bob or whatever his name is, you know, coming in with the keys.
And he's like, hey, hey, yo, how you doing? Oh, that's Lucy.

Speaker 3 Get away, Lucy.

Speaker 3 He grabs a stick i swear to god he grabs a stick that's sitting next to the door and he goes and he whap whap app whap app and that that gator's like

Speaker 3 and like slithers away oh my god and he's get away lucy no chain no chicken for you lucy what scaring the kids

Speaker 3 scaring the kids Scaring me. I'm rethinking my life.
I'm like, what are we doing here? Let's get the fuck out. I didn't realize we'd be here here.

Speaker 3 I thought we'd have to go out there and then they'd like some kind of safety rail that keeps us and Bob the Ranger wouldn't have a stick to keep the gators away we'd just be away from them we'd see them but we wouldn't be near them you know it's like those yeah it's like those African safaris that always look safe until you see the video of the elephant overturning the car and eating the people or whatever it doesn't work like that it's wild animals and I'm like holy shit so he opens it and then you know Betty Lou's there and Jimmy John and I don't know a bunch of people with two names.

Speaker 3 And they're all, and I mean, they are country. They live in the fucking swamp.
They're like something out of water boy, that movie. Yes.
But that's Louisiana swamp. This is Florida swamp.

Speaker 3 But you get the point. Same thing.

Speaker 3 And they're like, oh, yeah, that's Lucy. Lucy's a troublemaker of the group.
She probably the biggest. She's been around here, I guess.
When do we raise her? And I'm like, raise her?

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, we've got a crocodile farm, you know, alligator farm. We done raised them from the babies, and then we make them into meat and clothing and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 We sell them all, and we're like, oh, and then Bob's like, yeah, see, that's Lucy, and Lucy called trouble all kinds of time.

Speaker 3 You see, one time I done left the place unlocked, and Lucy done crawled up, used her paw, and opened up the door, and I and then closed the door behind her.

Speaker 3 And then we came in one morning, and Lucy stuck, and I opened the door, and there's Lucy. I had two hours.
We tried to get Lucy out of there. Finally, I had to go get a chicken,

Speaker 3 a live chicken down the road, crack its neck, and get Lucy out with the chicken.

Speaker 3 So now we got a different door, doorknob, because Lucy knew how to open the other one. I'm like, oh my gosh, where the fuck are we?

Speaker 3 Ask Astrid. This is all true.
And we're all like, oh, my God. Whoa.

Speaker 3 And then, you know, Billy Bob Sarton or whatever his name is, this guy's son is going to take us on this boat ride.

Speaker 3 And, you know, so we all put life jackets on or whatever it is and in this shack in the back. And I'm just, all I can do is turn around and turn around because I'm just thinking, they are

Speaker 3 on a first-name basis with the alligator.

Speaker 3 I am not on a first-name basis with the alligator, and neither is my one-year-old, who probably looks much like that chicken did

Speaker 3 to a gator with bad, to a dinosaur with bad eyesight and huge teeth.

Speaker 3 So, we get on that damn airboat. I'm really nervous about my kid on this airboat because there are no gardens

Speaker 3 and they want us sitting sitting right up front. And you know, that guy's slinging that airboat around at 100 miles per hour

Speaker 3 through the mangroves. And those mangroves are inches from your head.
Yeah. But he's driving it blind.
He knows exactly where he's going in and out and in and out and in and out of these mangroves.

Speaker 3 You know, it looks like you're in a tunnel. That's what it looks like in those mangroves.
It looks like you're in a tunnel until you get to a little clearing. And then we get to the clearing.

Speaker 3 And he's like,

Speaker 3 Wendy.

Speaker 3 Wendy,

Speaker 3 and I'm like, what the fuck? Is he asking for a cheeseburger? Who's he calling? What's going on here?

Speaker 3 And I'm like, oh my god, what's going on here? We're going to get eaten by a crocodile. Keep moving, keep moving.
He's got the boat off now. And I'm like, go, go, go, go.

Speaker 3 If we're moving, they can't get us. But if we're there, it's going to like crawl up.
And we're on the bottom row. It's like four rows tall.
Oh, really? And then he's sitting on the very top.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's one, two, three, four. And he's sitting on the very top with a stick driving this thing like a fucking Nintendo from outer space.
I don't know, at 100 miles per hour.

Speaker 3 And now he's getting on the front of the boat. And he's like, Now, about 10 years ago, Florida Department of Natural Resources decided to try and clamp down on our family business.

Speaker 3 Told us we could not feed the gators no more.

Speaker 3 But if you

Speaker 3 allow me a point of privilege, and I'm like, wow, that was pretty fancy for you, I think. Or maybe you're educated, I just don't know.

Speaker 3 If you allow me a moment of privilege, I done got some marshmallows in my pocket. And oops, I accidentally threw one out there.
And he reaches in his pocket, and a marshmallow goes flying out.

Speaker 3 And all of a sudden,

Speaker 3 right there. Wendy.
Wendy. That's Wendy.
Wait, Wendy, what you doing, girl? And she's like,

Speaker 3 and here he's got that stick. Wabap! Wabap! He's just like, wabapping her.
And I'm like, oh my God, what in the good

Speaker 3 fantasy fuck is going on here?

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 so the ride continued. That's the way it went.
We'd drive for five minutes in this crazy way where my son was flinging all. There's no seatbelts either.

Speaker 3 It's like, we're all sliding across these things. I'm trying to keep.
And he's, my, my kid is a lovely human, but since the day that he was born, he's not the kind of kid who likes to sit still.

Speaker 3 He wants to jump all around. He has no interest in the alligators.
He has interest in

Speaker 3 what's happening. And the boat and what's happening, and who, you know, telephone, like, who's got a cell phone he can watch.
I mean, for God's sakes. And this went on for like an hour.

Speaker 3 And when we got back, it was like more stories about the gators they raised. They have a whole, it's like they have a little family of gators.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Probably been there for years and years, generationally. And then we got to actually go and look at the Gator farm where they raise them.
You know, they hatch them. They raise them.

Speaker 3 And we got to touch a couple of Gators and

Speaker 3 we got to hold a couple of baby Gators that had their like mouths taped shots. I mean, because even the baby gators will bite your finger off.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they have like, even as babies, they got really, really strong jaws and they'll snap, you know, they can really guard you. They're all razor teeth.
They do, yeah.

Speaker 3 And one guy I think was holding a little bit, you know, you could feel his teeth. It was like, quite frankly, it was cruel, but at that moment, you're just fascinated by everything.

Speaker 3 And then there's another guy who gets in the pit with all the alligators and throws raw meat at him. And you know, like, I've been training gators my entire, he's only got one arm.

Speaker 3 I've been training gators my entire life.

Speaker 3 This is Susie Lou. Susie Lou has my arm.
We're waiting for her to shit it out so I can reattach it. And you're like, oh, okay.
Great.

Speaker 3 The tips are welcome. I'm sure they are.
I'm sure they are.

Speaker 3 Well, here's a tip. Don't feed Susie Lou.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Here's a tip. Get Wendy out of your front yard.
There's a tip. It's not a friendly, it's not a friendly welcome.
That gator, I've never seen anything like that in my entire life.

Speaker 3 I have on the golf course. I was going to say, the golf course, I've seen videos.
Yeah, I've got on one of my little brother's bachelor parties, we went golfing.

Speaker 3 Well, the first part was Temptation Island, right? Yeah,

Speaker 3 Temptation Resort. Temptation Resort.
Then we went golfing. That's That's right.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 when we went golfing, we were down in Amelia Island and we were like on one of the courses, like one of the public courses where it says clearly, be careful, gators, snakes, all kinds of animals, you know, killer bees, everything that could kill you is down here.

Speaker 3 And no shit, we got to, whatever it was, the fourth or the fifth green, and there, or the fourth of the fifth T, and there was a gator probably about 20 feet off the tea box.

Speaker 3 It was, it was not a 15-foot gator, but it was a seven or eight-foot gator. And he was sunning himself, or she was sunning herself, or whatever it was.

Speaker 3 And we all just decided to go ahead and tee off and get over real quick. And she didn't move, not an inch.
But we have all of us have pictures.

Speaker 3 Somebody else took a picture of us with the gator right behind us, not right behind us, but you know, 20 feet is not far away when you're staring down the eyes of a killer dinosaur.

Speaker 3 It was, it was a lot.

Speaker 3 Oh, speaking of killer dinosaurs,

Speaker 3 in the one day since we talked about Billy McFarland and Firefest.

Speaker 3 Speaking of killer dinosaurs. Speaking of killer dinosaurs,

Speaker 3 back to Billy and Chris Hansen and all the other scam artists who are pumping money into this pump and dump scheme. He licenses IP out to become a streaming music service.

Speaker 3 Well, it gets curiouser and curiouser as just an hour after we recorded that episode last Friday, Billy put out a big announcement. And I'd like to read it to you and tell you what's going on now.

Speaker 3 I mean,

Speaker 3 he is just, he's good at generating press. I'll give him that.

Speaker 3 Good at generating interest with Brian, at least. That's for sure.
All right, let's take a break and we'll get back.

Speaker 3 The commercial break, which is now the fire break, because we talk about this so much. Well, it is fascinating.
It is fascinating. And it gets more fascinating by the minute.
We'll talk about it.

Speaker 3 We get back.

Speaker 6 Let me do something Brian has never done.

Speaker 3 Be brief.

Speaker 6 Follow us on Instagram at the Commercial Break. Text or call us 212-433-3TCB.
That's 212-433-3822. Visit our website, tcbpodcast.com, for all the audio, video, and your free sticker.

Speaker 6 Then watch all the videos at youtube.com/slash the commercial break. And finally, share the show.
It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters.

Speaker 3 See, Brian, that really wasn't that difficult now, was it?

Speaker 6 You're welcome.

Speaker 1 This episode is sponsored in part by Rula. You know, there was a time when I really needed therapy, but I could not find a therapist who took my insurance.

Speaker 1 I can remember feeling so stuck like I had to choose between getting help and staying on budget. That's why I think what Rula is doing is so very important.

Speaker 1 Rula makes therapy accessible and affordable by partnering with over 100 insurance plans. The average copay is around $15 per session, and depending on your benefits, it could even be less.

Speaker 1 They also take the time to find the right therapist for you, someone who understands your goals, your preferences, and your background. There's no waiting weeks or months for an appointment.

Speaker 1 You can start as soon as tomorrow, and Rula stays with you along the way, checking in, supporting your progress, and helping you feel seen and cared for.

Speaker 1 Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com/slash commercial to get started.

Speaker 1 And after you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support the commercial break and let them know we sent you.
That's rula.com/slash commercial.

Speaker 1 You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget.

Speaker 5 This is Free Range with Von Miller, the podcast where I step outside the lines and I take you with me.

Speaker 5 Each week, we're talking everything from the biggest stories around the league to the biggest stories off the field. This isn't your average sports podcast.

Speaker 3 This is game meets culture, locker room meets living room, and no topic is off limits.

Speaker 5 So if you're into good conversations that ruffle a few feathers, join me every Wednesday and follow Free Range with Von Miller everywhere you get your podcast.

Speaker 1 This episode is sponsored by our longtime sponsor, Squarespace. I am working on a new project, Information TBD.
It's very secretive.

Speaker 1 It's very hush-hush around here because, you know, podcast secrets are a thing. Anywho.

Speaker 1 There is only one all-in-one website tool that's designed to help my new project stand out and be successful, and that one one tool is Squarespace.

Speaker 1 Squarespace can help me through every step of the process. The launch, the scaling, the branding, and the growth.

Speaker 1 No matter what part of the journey I am on, Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform, so it'll cater to my needs every step of the way.

Speaker 1 There are so many benefits, services, and tools built into Squarespace, I would need a 10-minute commercial to name them all.

Speaker 1 Cutting-edge design, search engine optimization tools, domain management, analytics, email campaigns, the ability to host videos, and most importantly, the ability to get paid.

Speaker 1 So if you've been thinking about building or upgrading your website, now's the time to head to squarespace.com slash commercial for a free trial.

Speaker 1 And when you're ready to launch, make sure to use the offer code commercial to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. That's squarespace.com slash commercial.

Speaker 1 Then be sure to use the code commercial when you're ready to launch. Squarespace has been with the commercial break for a long time, and and we have been with Squarespace for even longer.

Speaker 1 This is a company we trust. It's a product we use, and there's one overarching reason why.
It makes my life easier. Go build yourself a beautiful website, squarespace.com slash commercial.

Speaker 1 And thank you to Squarespace for being a sponsor of the commercial break.

Speaker 3 All right, I won't go through all the twists and turns about Firefest 2. If you've been listening to the commercial break, then you've been paying attention to what's been going on with Firefest 2.

Speaker 3 It's not happening. It's been indefinitely postponed.
A couple of days after Firefest inevitably fell apart, which was last,

Speaker 3 well, on last Friday's episode, it was actually last week. On last Friday's episode, we learned that Billy had sold or licensed the IP.
What IP this guy owns, I don't know.

Speaker 3 I guess the Firefest logo and name, I don't know what that could possibly be worth. I mean, even it's got a lot of PR.
It's a defunct.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's a defunct name. It's like, I don't know, buying Enron.
I mean, what could it possibly be worth, right?

Speaker 3 But somebody, a guy named Rausch, somebody Roush, Craig Roush, somebody like that, and Chris Hansen, formerly of Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator, who's now doing some like cheap knockoff version of that online, they have an app, a true crime app where they run terrible old true crime shows and Chris Hansen's new bullshit to catch a predator bullshit.

Speaker 3 Anyway, whatever, you get it. For $3.99 a month, you can be bored.
So they licensed his IP so that they could add music and streaming, on-demand music services to that app. Why? I don't.

Speaker 3 So they could pump and dump that too, probably, likely, so that they could inflate the numbers, get someone else to buy them, and then it all falls apart after this, after somebody dumps an inevitable, stupid amount of money into it.

Speaker 3 I can take a few guesses as to who that might be. There's lots of dumb-dumbs right now with a lot of money.
So,

Speaker 3 but anyway,

Speaker 3 not but an hour hour after we got done talking about this, Chrissy, another development in this story takes a left-hand turn at Albuquerque. It just doesn't stop.
It doesn't stop. Albuquerque.

Speaker 3 It was just an expression. Oh.
One that I made up.

Speaker 3 Byline, Firefest, Billy McFarland, for immediate press release.

Speaker 3 Supposed to wait a couple hours to talk about it. I mean, I guess they have those kind too.

Speaker 3 When my team and I launched Fire Festival 2, it was about two things: finishing what I started and making things right.

Speaker 3 Both of which you accomplished. Yeah, making money.
That's right. Number three, making money.
Number four, getting me laid.

Speaker 3 Over the past two years, we've poured everything, bringing fire back with honesty, transparency, relentless effort, and creativity. It sure is creative to rent out a shitty beach club

Speaker 3 in Mexico. So you can.
I call it a festival. Dead Mouse 5 played 100 people.

Speaker 3 We've taken the long road to rebuilding trust. We rebuilt momentum and we proved one thing without a doubt.
Fire is the most powerful attention engine in the world.

Speaker 3 Fuck you.

Speaker 3 Shithead. Since 2017, fire has dominated headlines, documentaries, and conversations as one of the world's most talked about music festivals for all the wrong reasons.

Speaker 3 Yes. You are so blind, Billy.
But I know that this is just the game you're playing. You're trolling everybody, and I get it.
I understand. I'm in on the joke here.

Speaker 3 We knew that fire was big, but we didn't realize just how massive the wave would become. You didn't? You didn't.
You mean after two documentaries were made? About the disaster? That was Fire Fest?

Speaker 3 That Fire Fest 2, the inevitable failure, wouldn't be paid attention to by everybody to watch you fall directly on your ass. That's exactly why we're all watching.
Don't get it twisted, Billy.

Speaker 3 None of us are hoping that you have a comeback here. Not the way you did it anyway.
You could have done it a different way. Maybe some people would have rooted for you.

Speaker 3 That wave has brought us here to a point where we know it's time to call for assistance. Maybe you should have done that before you announced the festival, you cock knocker.

Speaker 3 The brand is bigger than any one person and bigger than what I'm able to lead on my own. You don't say.

Speaker 6 Especially from probation.

Speaker 3 I'm calling it a sentence.

Speaker 3 My name isn't Billy McFarland. Woo-hoo!

Speaker 3 It's a movement and it deserves a team with scale, experience,

Speaker 3 and the infrastructure to realize its potential.

Speaker 3 See how many buzzwords you can fit in a sentence.

Speaker 3 We've decided the best way to accomplish our goals is to sell the Fire Festival brand, including its trademarks, IP, digital assets, media reach, and cultural capital. Digital assets.

Speaker 3 Cultural capital. I have never heard so much bullshit ever.

Speaker 3 To operate to an operator that can fully realize its vision. What's who its vision? Like Fire has its own thinking.
It's its own human. It's its own entity living and breathing.
Tip shit.

Speaker 3 There is a clear path for operators and entrepreneurs with strong domain expertise to build FHIR into a global force in entertainment, media, fashion, CPG, and more.

Speaker 3 CPG. You're getting into consumer packaged goods now? You are? What are we going to do? Fire Festival the cookie?

Speaker 3 For example. In the two years since we relaunched Fire Festival, Hollywood and entertainment executives have already licensed the brand.
Because they wanted to be able to see the downfall of it again.

Speaker 3 That's right, dude. They desperately wanted wanted to be in on the action and the documentary is coming.
I know it is.

Speaker 3 There's a reason why Billy hasn't been posting on Instagram like he probably would have otherwise. It's because he has already licensed this content,

Speaker 3 this moment in time, to probably at least one, if not two, different film companies who are making a movie about this. And trust me, it will be here soon enough.
Because the ending is already here.

Speaker 3 It's already ended.

Speaker 3 Some people thought we'd at least get through May, but nope, you're you're an idiot. So it didn't.

Speaker 3 Hollywood and Entertainment Executives have already licensed the brand to develop properties specifically in theater, music streaming, and

Speaker 3 free ad-supported TV.

Speaker 3 Free ad-supported TV.

Speaker 3 Think about that one. Do the math on that one, guys.
Okay, here's how it works. All of these companies who have these free TV apps, Pluto.

Speaker 3 Freevy. Freevy.

Speaker 3 We can think of a million more. Let's just take Pluto, for example, which I like.
I like Pluto, by the way, because Pluto has,

Speaker 3 you know, the hills running 24 hours a day.

Speaker 3 They take old brands, they license them, and they stick ads in them to make their money back. But there's another way that they do this.

Speaker 3 And I told you this was going to happen, and it's happening. It's just a cable network.
That's all it is. But they have a different way of making money.

Speaker 3 Cable networks charge money to the television channels like ABC. They charge them a carrier fee, and then they take a cut of the revenue that they make on ads.
That's how it works.

Speaker 3 And in some cases... And they charge you for the service.
And they charge you for the service. They make money two ways, right?

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 Pluto makes money by making you watch the advertisements. So it's free to you.
You can download it. It's free.
You can on-demand content, all this. They put in advertisements.

Speaker 3 That's how they make money. But there's another type of channel.
There's the type of content that they license or they produce themselves, even though Pluto doesn't do a lot of original programming.

Speaker 3 It does some. But you can find some of the most terrible movies, home movies, basically.
Movies made at people's houses, basically, on demand on Pluto. Well, why?

Speaker 3 Why would you be able to just like take your home movie and put it up there? Because if you can sell advertising and Pluto can get a cut of it, they're happy to put your content on their platform.

Speaker 3 Even if only two people watch it. If they're getting a cut of the revenue revenue from that, they're okay doing that.

Speaker 3 And that's why, in some cases, people who do like video game streaming, they have their own channels on Pluto now where they're streaming live because they're selling advertisements into that live channel.

Speaker 3 And Pluto, or whoever is doing this, I don't think, I don't know if Pluto is doing this yet, but I think Freevy or some of them are doing it. It's called OTT or Fast,

Speaker 3 ad-supported television. But the thing is, is that the person creating the content, like let's say the commercial break, has to sell the advertisement in order to get carriage on Pluto.

Speaker 3 So Billy makes it sound like he's on like some big TV network has come to him and put him on, you know, AE or Bravo or some shit.

Speaker 3 No, he's got some shitty channel on fucking Pluto, on Chris Hansen's application where he's selling boner pill ads. That's what's going on.

Speaker 3 In addition, following the challenges we faced in Mexico, we were approached by several quote-unquote challenges. Challenges, meaning you lied?

Speaker 3 You didn't tell anyone you were coming?

Speaker 3 Several Caribbean destinations are eager to host Fire Fest 2. Oh, I bet they are.
There's 172 different nations in the Caribbean. I'm sure one of them is willing to host you.

Speaker 3 We dove into the process, meeting with national officials and conducting site visits. You didn't, but somebody else did.

Speaker 3 And we're confident we found the ideal location for the festival why didn't you do that like

Speaker 3 two years ago yeah while i'm incredibly excited i can't risk a repeat of what happened in playa del carmen where support

Speaker 3 three pete

Speaker 3 that's right you're going for the three pete who are you michael jordan of bad festival planning

Speaker 3 yes

Speaker 3 uh i can't risk a repeat of what happened where support quickly turned into public distancing once media attention intensified. You didn't do the right thing, Billy.

Speaker 3 They didn't distance themselves for any other reason except for you didn't follow the pro the proper protocols to get this done.

Speaker 3 It's clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently.

Speaker 3 Bringing the vision to life on this incredible island, which incredible island. You're not going to tell us that because you never do.

Speaker 3 I've stood by my team, our partners, and my fans since day one of Fire Festival 2. And shackles.

Speaker 3 That's right. With an ankle muzzle.

Speaker 3 Giving control of the brand to a new group is the most responsible way to follow through on what we set out to do.

Speaker 3 Build a global entertainment brand, host a safe and legendary event, and continue to pay restitution to those that are owed from the first festival.

Speaker 3 Well, okay, give you credit for at least mentioning that. Yeah, you do owe money to all of those people for the first time.
Yeah, by some estimates, $47

Speaker 3 million.

Speaker 3 No one's buying Firefest for $47 million. That's not happening.
To the supporters, believers, and builders who stuck with my team, thank you.

Speaker 3 We will pick the new group based on their ability to execute. We'll pick.
You mean

Speaker 3 they'll pick? Yeah.

Speaker 3 Wait a minute. Well, also, too, thanks for everybody standing by me.
Now we're picking a whole new group of people. Yeah.
Now we're picking a whole nother group.

Speaker 3 Thanks for standing by me, but the next group is ready to come in and pay me more money. So fuck you.

Speaker 3 We'll pick the new group. He's acting acting as if a bunch of people are going to jump in.

Speaker 3 Yeah. You know who's going to jump in on this? Grant Cardone.

Speaker 3 Yes. I guarantee.
I guarantee. That's what's going to happen.
One of these wonky real estate seminar weekend warrior dudes is going to come in and try and do this.

Speaker 3 We'll pick the new group based on their ability to execute the vision of fire in a transparent, grand, and expeditious manner.

Speaker 3 The next chapter of fire will be bigger, better, and built to last without me at the helm.

Speaker 3 Well, that's the best sentence in this entire film. Yeah, exactly.
Without me at the helm. So then he goes on to add a bunch of things about what you'll get.

Speaker 3 Fire Festival has been the most talked about U.S.-based music festival in the world since 2017. Because of bad,

Speaker 3 that's right.

Speaker 3 An ideal Caribbean location.

Speaker 3 You act as if like you bought the land and it's ready for these people to just set up and go. The Caribbean location will be there.
They don't have to use the Firefest name.

Speaker 3 No one wants to be associated with Firefest 3. I guarantee.

Speaker 3 Deal disclosure. The Fire brand is currently licensed to third parties specifically for developing

Speaker 3 TV projects, theater,

Speaker 3 music streaming, and free ad-supported television.

Speaker 3 Theater.

Speaker 3 Firefest, the music?

Speaker 3 I was thinking the same thing. Like, you're going to go to the Fox.

Speaker 3 I've got a bit of cheesy bread I can't eat. Where's my moon? Where's my camp? I can't find it.
Where's Wink 182?

Speaker 3 They don't come to you.

Speaker 3 Mama, Mia, Mama, Mia. Fire Fest never happened.

Speaker 3 109. I got a, oh, but that guy who almost got a blowjob for water, they got to put him in the music.
Oh, that's right. Remember? Oh, I love him.
I wish he would, he should buy it.

Speaker 3 If he was the one running this, I would have, I might have even thought about buying tickets.

Speaker 3 40, 422,000 unique visitors to firefest in the firefest.fire.mx in the last 60 days. Yes, because everybody was trying to get there and see.
Is it happening? Is it happening? Is it happening?

Speaker 3 Nope, it's not. You dumb shit.
Oh, and here, make us an offer. What's your name? What company do you resist in?

Speaker 3 What's your offer? What's you?

Speaker 3 Should we?

Speaker 3 Should we?

Speaker 3 That's a good one. Brian and Chrissy.

Speaker 3 What company do you represent? The commercial break.

Speaker 3 TCB Live. Wait, what was it? TCB plus minus.

Speaker 3 TCB minus. TCB minus.
What is your offer? $1 trillion.

Speaker 3 I'm going to put, let me put. Take Diner's Club.
Yeah, here, let's do this. Okay.
What's your name?

Speaker 3 Wendy, the elegator. What company do you represent?

Speaker 3 Need to know only on a need to know basis. Need to know basis.

Speaker 3 And then I'm going to put in quotations. It's a secret for now.

Speaker 3 It's a secret.

Speaker 3 What's your offer? $1 trillion billion dollars.

Speaker 3 And then I'm going to put, it says, what do you want to use the complete brand or license for a specific use case? Cookies. Say, I don't understand the question.

Speaker 3 I don't understand.

Speaker 3 And then put also, I will only pay if I can borrow the money.

Speaker 3 What is your email address? Wouldn't you like to know?

Speaker 3 Wouldn't you like to know? Let me see here. I'm doing this for real, by the way.
Wouldn't you like to know? What's your phone number?

Speaker 3 555. 5555555.

Speaker 3 One extra five in there. Oh, I'll put a six in there just for a good.
Okay. Submit.
Done.

Speaker 3 All right, let's see what happens. If they get back to us, guys, I will let you know, and we will be on top of this every step of the way.

Speaker 3 Because if there's one thing that we want here at the commercial break, it's Billy to get Firefest sold immediately so he can realize the vision of a global entertainment brand with CPG,

Speaker 3 consumer packaged goods. And the musical.
And the musical.

Speaker 3 We're doing good in this world. We'll own Firefest by the end of the day.
I promise.

Speaker 3 When?

Speaker 3 Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 3 All right, we'll be back.

Speaker 6 Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCB. It's pretty simple.
Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute.

Speaker 6 Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid too?

Speaker 3 You know you do.

Speaker 6 Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822.
You can be on the show too. Mm-hmm.
Just call and say something.

Speaker 3 Anything.

Speaker 6 Or text us and we'll text you right back. Promise.
Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker and we must abide.
You get the point.

Speaker 6 Follow us on Instagram at thecommercial break and watch all the episodes on video at youtube.com slash thecommercial break.

Speaker 3 Best to you and Astrid, especially Astrid.

Speaker 7 Ready to level up?

Speaker 8 Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun.

Speaker 10 It's free to play with no purchase necessary.

Speaker 11 Enjoy hundreds of online social games like Blackjack, Slots, and Solitaire anytime, anywhere, with fresh releases every week.

Speaker 13 Whether you're at home or on the go, let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you.

Speaker 15 Plus, get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus.

Speaker 8 Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.

Speaker 4 Play Play Chumba Casino today.

Speaker 7 No purchase necessary VGW Group Voidwear Prohibited by Law 21 Plus.

Speaker 16 TNCs apply.

Speaker 7 Ready to level up?

Speaker 8 Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun.

Speaker 10 It's free to play with no purchase necessary.

Speaker 11 Enjoy hundreds of online social games like Blackjack, Slots, and Solitaire anytime, anywhere, with fresh releases every week, whether you are at home or on the go.

Speaker 14 Let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you.

Speaker 15 Plus, get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus.

Speaker 8 Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.

Speaker 4 Play Chumba Casino today.

Speaker 10 No purchase necessary.

Speaker 7 VGW group void were prohibited by law 21 plus.

Speaker 16 TNCs apply.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, you do got to give the guy credit. He's got some gumption.
He at least keeps going. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 I feel like that was that game that you can play at different arcades where the whack-a-mole

Speaker 3 pops. Yeah, that's what it's called.

Speaker 3 It's a gallon one thing and it pops up over here. That's right.
It's, yeah. Hey, listen, I don't argue anybody's ability to get a second chance in life.

Speaker 3 I think that that's the greatest thing about life is that you get a lot of

Speaker 3 if you're lucky, you get a lot of second chances. You know, we all fuck up a lot.
I fucked up a lot in my life, a lot, a lot. I've made some mistakes.

Speaker 3 I've done people wrong, song, the whole nine yards. And I'm not always proud of what I've done.
And I regret, you know, I don't regret anything because I always tend to learn a lesson from it.

Speaker 3 It may take me seven times, but I'll learn a lesson eventually. So I wouldn't call it regret, but I definitely sometimes am embarrassed about my past actions.

Speaker 3 And luckily, people have given me a second chance. But the thing is that despite all indications

Speaker 3 that this is clearly, you're clearly out of your league. You're not doing the right thing.
You have no intention of following through with honesty and transparency, as has been said.

Speaker 3 It just makes you seem like a really big dum-dum who just doesn't get it. Like you're not getting it, Billy.
But I do agree with two things.

Speaker 3 Number one, you should, if you're going to, if the Firefest brand is going to live on in any way, you should be no part of it. Number one.

Speaker 3 And number two is you should try your best to make some restitution to the people who did find themselves in a shitty and compromising situation. Yeah.

Speaker 3 So, okay. So anyway, bad festival.
Good festival. Mempho.

Speaker 3 Bad festival. Bad festival.
Good festival. Mempho.
I did want to have a chance to talk about this. We do talk about this every year.
It comes around. Menfo has announced their lineup for 2025.

Speaker 3 And I know I'm throwing this on you. October

Speaker 3 the first of October.

Speaker 3 The first of October?

Speaker 3 The first weekend or the first? The first weekend, which is like the second. Let's see.

Speaker 3 I think I had an open rate here.

Speaker 3 That's got a lot going on, so I always have to.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 3 Mempho Fest. Here we go.

Speaker 3 That's Riverbea. October 3rd, 4th, and 5th.
There you go. Okay.

Speaker 3 So, big announcement. Drum roll, please.

Speaker 3 The third,

Speaker 3 headlining the third, Friday, October 3rd, will be widespread panic. Yes, it will.

Speaker 3 With Father John Misty, Leftover Salmon, Galactic, Kevin Kinney, and Bloodkin all doing a stretch before Widespread Panic does their big closeout for the night.

Speaker 3 And then on Saturday, October 4th, drum roll, please.

Speaker 3 Widespread Panic plays two nights in a row with the flaming lips, Lucas Nelson, Mavis Staples, the Ferriside. The far side.
The far side, excuse me. Puddles Pity Party, which is crazy.

Speaker 3 If you've never seen Puddles Pity Party, that might be worth the price of admission alone. It's a clown that sings and dances and does a lot of different stuff.
Comedian, satirist. Puddles is crazy.

Speaker 3 And if you've never seen it, again, it might be worth the price of admission alone. And High Fade, all opening.
These are just the people who are announced.

Speaker 3 I'm sure there'll be more to come down the road, I imagine. And then on Sunday the 5th, Tyler Childers with Sierra Pharrell, Charlie Crockett, Lucero, John Miller, Annie and the Caldwells,

Speaker 3 Amy LeVere,

Speaker 3 and Gioa Welch.

Speaker 3 Trio. So there you go.
Widespread panic two nights.

Speaker 3 Tyler Childers on night number three. Widespread panic for two nights.
That's sure to get the crowd going. Oh, yeah.
For sure. If you're a spread

Speaker 3 tickets. This is it.
And drink beer. Yeah.
Spread doesn't they don't do tours too much anymore, do they? They do more like festivals. Yeah, targeted.
They actually don't do festivals really anymore.

Speaker 3 So this is that's special that they do this festival. But yeah, they do targeted weekends throughout the year.
Okay. So and a cruise.
And I think

Speaker 3 whatever they call it. Dominican Republic.
Don't you do that whole beach thing somewhere down in Mexico?

Speaker 3 yeah Dominican Republic or something like that yeah and of course then they do the big new year they do New Year's Eve they do yeah they do a big New Year's Eve they used to do it here at the Fox yeah yeah and then they did it

Speaker 3 oh they do at the Fox they didn't do it this past year because one of the members was sick but all right so

Speaker 3 widespread panic uh I know so many people that are into widespread panic not my favorite band in the world but I have no hate for them I have no hate it's just not my favorite band in the world but I have seen them more times than a lot of of the bands that I really, really like.

Speaker 3 That's just, if you live in Georgia and you grew up in the 90s, 2000s, you've seen widespread people. They're all from Georgia, from Athens.

Speaker 3 And they are a legendary jam band who has been around for a very long time. Huge,

Speaker 3 very loyal crew of human beings that either follow them around or go see them when they can. Yeah, good people.
And

Speaker 3 if you're up for two nights of fantastic jam banding, and then Tyler Childers, who I don't, I don't think I've heard much of him. What kind of music does he have?

Speaker 3 It's got a little bit more of a country flair on that. Okay.
All right. So there you go.
Well, that ties in nicely then. Because, you know, widespread gets a little twangy on occasion, too.

Speaker 3 They're jam bandy, but they can get a little twangy on occasion. They can, yeah.
So widespread panic the third and the fourth, Tyler Childers on the fifth, menfofest.com.

Speaker 3 To get your tickets now available. If you're going to be there, shout out.
Chrissy will say hello to you. Maybe Brian will even show up.
I'm sure some of my brothers are going to be there.

Speaker 3 I'm sure at least one of my brothers is going to be there. He's a spreadhead.
He's a spreadhead of epic proportions. He loves widespread panic.
I do too.

Speaker 3 I mean, back in my college days, I would go on tour. I would go as much as I could, you know, going to school and that kind of thing.
But yeah, you go out for the specialty, go out for the summers.

Speaker 3 Yes. Go out for a week, two, maybe even kind of travel to just different cities.
Yes. I went and saw widespread panic back in,

Speaker 3 well, I just had first met Astrid. So this has been 2015.
In 2015, I went and saw widespread panic here in Atlanta. My brother, my twin brother, has had a friend forever and ever.
Amen.

Speaker 3 Her name is Nicole. Nicole and Chrissy, I don't know that they know each other, but I've certainly never met through this circle of people.
And I go to Nicole's house for a pre-spread party. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Which is the finger dip night. Finger dip, finger dip, finger dip, finger dip.

Speaker 3 someone's running around with a tin of pure molly saying finger dip finger dip finger dip everyone is so fucked up i mean and just getting twisted as you as you might be inclined to do before a widespread panic show not keeping my head on my shoulders i had a few bud lights and and whatnot but i'm in her kitchen and she's got a wall of photographs 92 of which are not her family or her children.

Speaker 3 It is her at widespread panic concerts. Her and her husband at widespread panic concert.
And I'm staring at all these photographs and looking at them and thinking, oh, that's fun.

Speaker 3 And they'll look at that. And that's interesting.
And who are those people? And in one of those photographs, my eyes are scanning.

Speaker 3 And it's like a crowd of people behind Nicole, like taking a picture together as one group. You can see.

Speaker 3 And I look and then I do a double take and then a triple take and then I stare really closely and I go, that's Chrissy Hoadley.

Speaker 3 It's Chrissy fucking Hoadley.

Speaker 3 And Chrissy was on this wall, and I couldn't believe it. So I had to grab Nicole and I said, do you know that girl? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 I can't remember her name, but I see her a bunch at the concerts, and we know each other. And we've all

Speaker 3 she's part of the group, and blah blah blah. And I'm like, that's my best friend.
That's Chrissy. No way.

Speaker 3 Everybody knows everybody.

Speaker 3 Widespread panic.

Speaker 3 You don't need to know. anything about widespread panic to be welcome into the widespread family.

Speaker 3 If you can do a giggle or a wiggle, and if you can do a little jiggle, if you can do the white man's shuffle, then you can show up at a widespread panic concert and have fun too. So, Mempho

Speaker 3 pulling big names out of the hat to bring widespread panic for not one, but two nights. Is this harken back to one of the old memphos? Wasn't there widespread panic play at the first mempho?

Speaker 3 Well, no, it was the first one that came back after the pandemic. Okay, okay.
So 2021.

Speaker 3 And they played two nights then, too, didn't they? I believe they did. I think they did.
I remember. I want to feel, I feel like they did.

Speaker 3 Because I was there. I was away.

Speaker 3 Oh, no, they didn't play two nights. They played one night.
Yeah. On Saturday night, they played.
Yeah, they played two sets. They played two sets.
Yeah, like two. Yeah.

Speaker 3 I don't remember. I was so fucked up.
I don't remember. I don't remember any of it.
But yeah, that's good. I'm proud of Jeff.
He's pulled another

Speaker 3 grab it out of his hat there. And I'm sure they're expecting good crowds and

Speaker 3 a lot of excitement. They've already sold a lot of tickets.
I'm sure, right? Once you say widespread panic, I'm sure the phone starts ringing off the hook. And does Jeff take those orders himself?

Speaker 3 They also do a blind sale. They've been doing that for the past.
That's really nice because blind people need to see music. Right, right.
Exactly. Their hearing is more advanced, actually.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it probably is.

Speaker 3 No, they do it where you don't know who's playing. And you do a discount.
You do a discount

Speaker 3 and sell tickets. And they sell a lot that way, too, because they've come to expect Mempho is a great festival.
Yeah, well, that's good.

Speaker 3 Yeah, and there's a lot of festivals that are been around for a while that do do it that way.

Speaker 3 Not like Billy McFarlane selling blind tickets two days before the festival is supposed to happen and still no names have been announced.

Speaker 3 This is the eighth year. Does Jeff take those ticket orders himself? No.
He answers the phone? No? Okay. I thought maybe you could call and talk to Jeff.
It's the eighth year.

Speaker 3 That's amazing.

Speaker 3 Wow. He's been doing this just a little bit longer than we've been doing this stupid show.
I will still never forget when Jeff, when it kind of like all came together, Green Light Go, funded, ready.

Speaker 3 Like they were, they had the money and they were like, okay, we're going to go do this now. And we went out to eat probably, maybe that same day.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 Maybe the same day he got that information. And we went out to eat with one of the guys that was early in on the whole situation.
But

Speaker 3 we went out to eat. I never forget, Jeff and I were outside and I was like, yeah, I can help.
I'll help. I'll do some stuff.
And he was like, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, I can definitely get you tickets.

Speaker 3 I was like, okay all right

Speaker 3 he goes well with your investment track record i'd probably want to keep you on the like

Speaker 3 on the pocket on the crowd side of things keeping you in his pocket yeah he's keeping me in his pocket he's gonna pull me out right right as the when he needs the festival to blow up he'll go let's bring that commercial break guy in and just brought to you by jamland productions brought to you by jamland productions one year brought part brought to you in part by the commercial break

Speaker 3 which I still have hours of audio from that mempho fest but there's two problems with the audio number one is we didn't think so smart on our feet that was our first year as a podcast we didn't think so smart on our feet we never got releases from those people not that that would be that big of a deal if you're talking into a microphone expect it's going to go somewhere right i'm not too worried about that part But the other part that didn't work out so well is that we were directly in front of one of the stages and it was so loud that all you can hear is that.

Speaker 3 But some of two listeners that we met at that show

Speaker 3 still listen to this day,

Speaker 3 still contact us to this day, still say hello to this day. Two people that we met, we gave away hundreds of stickers.
Oh, yeah. Most of them ended up on the floor of Mempho.

Speaker 3 I'm sure when cleanup time came, it was like all commercial break bumper stickers.

Speaker 3 Then there were those little ones with the guitar and stuff. I remember the guitar pick.
I still have a few Mempho guitar pick stickers.

Speaker 3 If you're interested in that, let me know and maybe Astrid can send you one. I don't have a ton, but I still have those.
Those are all fit. Those are the first official commercial breaks.

Speaker 3 Those are vintage stickers. Those are vintage.
Five years old now. And they have a little Mempho, they have a little mempho thing on there.
And it's just the commercial break.

Speaker 3 That was fun. We had a good time.
That was fun. You know, I'd do it differently next time in the sense that I wouldn't actually go as a podcaster to Mempho.
I would just go to Menfo.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's hard at a festival.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's not to get like live crowd stuff that I have to like go in the back or do something in the back and interview people or something because, yeah, the music's constantly going.

Speaker 3 That's what I had kind of hoped would happen that first year, but it didn't really work out like that.

Speaker 3 It didn't really work out in our favor. Maybe now we would have a little bit more luck getting someone on the horn.
But, you know, widespread panic.

Speaker 3 I don't think they're interested in talking to the comforts of it. Maybe schools would.
Maybe schools would.

Speaker 3 He's the one who does a lot of the interviews. I did see that the brothers played five, four, or five sold-out nights in Madison Square Garden.
The old Almond Brothers reincarnation. Yeah, the thing.

Speaker 3 Like anybody who was kind of in that universe, I saw Chuck. Your friend Chuck Lavelle was there.

Speaker 3 So was Warren Haynes. Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks.
I mean,

Speaker 3 Derek Trucks? Yeah, Derek Trucks was there.

Speaker 3 And a couple of the

Speaker 3 old drummer from Allman Brothers. There was like 16 people on stage.
I mean, it was like a huge yeah, it was a big deal. Everybody's been talking about how great it was.

Speaker 3 What really surprised me was not only

Speaker 3 the

Speaker 3 amount of people that showed up, I mean, that sold out. Oh, sold out every night.
Sold out every night. But then how many people streamed it?

Speaker 3 Like half a million people over the course of five nights streamed it. And that may not sound like a lot, but think about half a million people.
That's a lot of human beings.

Speaker 3 But then the amazing light show, and I listened to a couple of the songs, and really the

Speaker 3 music was fantastic. Yeah, it really was.
I've seen the Allman Brothers a lot because, again, you're here in Georgia, you grew up in a certain time.

Speaker 3 The Allman Brothers would come and play the Fox for like 10 nights in a row, right? And you would go. And I saw the Almond Brothers many times.

Speaker 3 And some, and it was a hit or miss kind of band. Sometimes you would get it on a really good night.
There was always professional.

Speaker 3 It always sounded okay, but sometimes they really flew and sometimes it's kind of an average night. But those, whatever I saw online over the weekend was so fantastic.
So good. So good.
So rocking.

Speaker 3 It was just great to see them all. I would love to see that.
Where is Butch Trucks?

Speaker 3 Where is Butch Trucks? Yeah. Is he the one that? He's the guitarist, but I don't think he died.
Did he die? Yeah, somebody just died. Sorry, I got to feel bad.
I don't know. Yeah.
Me too.

Speaker 3 Oh, butch trucks did die.

Speaker 3 Oh, not

Speaker 3 Betts. You're dying.
Bets. Dickie Betts.

Speaker 3 I'm not Dickie.

Speaker 3 Dickie Betts just died. That's right.
Was playing with them. Okay.
Okay. That's what it is.
Dickie Betts

Speaker 3 was, in my opinion,

Speaker 3 I mean, I've liked all the guitarists, including Dwayne Allman. But Dickie Betts took it to another level.
That guy was so fucking good. Warren Haynes is incredible, too.

Speaker 3 But Dickie Betts, the way that he played guitar, just like a little old country boy just playing that guitar like nothing. And

Speaker 3 yeah, their story, their origin story is really amazing and tragic. Tragic.

Speaker 3 The Almond Brothers story is one you got to look up if you've never heard it. The Allman Brothers are one of the great rock and roll bands of all time.

Speaker 3 Yeah, his book, well,

Speaker 3 not Dwayne, because he died back in the

Speaker 3 60s. But yeah, Greg had an autobiography, and I've actually read it twice.
It was so fascinating to me. Yeah.
It's called My Cross to Bear.

Speaker 3 Interesting. Highly recommend it.
Yeah. He was good.
He was married to Cher for a while. He was.
Yeah. I told that story about him up at the bar one night.

Speaker 3 We just told that story like a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.
He was fantastic. All those guys really good.
So if you get a chance, I think a lot of that is online. A lot of those songs are online.

Speaker 3 And then I think you can go to nugs.net and buy the entire

Speaker 3 run if you want to. I think they have like a special on the run.
They're not sponsoring the show or anything like that. No, I'm just saying if you're into that.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 We got on widespread panic, and I thought about the Almond Brothers and the Brothers band because it's in that country.

Speaker 3 You know, JM Leon Productions was really tuned into a lot of that stuff back in the day.

Speaker 3 A lot of those people I have met in person, I've been in the same room with, and they will never remember me or do business with me again. So I thought I'd just mention it.

Speaker 3 Well, if they never, if they don't remember you, they might do business with you again.

Speaker 3 I think they have no need for me. No need for me.
That's what I'm finding out in life.

Speaker 3 Sometimes you think, well, clearly they'll want to buddy up and then they're like, they don't have any need for me. It's like a lot of our guests.
Why would they come on the commercial break?

Speaker 3 Why would that?

Speaker 3 On your way up or on your way down? One of the two. There you go.

Speaker 3 Speaking of guests, six, maybe seven, possibly eight celebrity guests.

Speaker 3 Listen, we put it out there and all of a sudden now people want to be a part of it. And I couldn't be more happy and excited about that.
And so if we have a couple extra hours of TCB, it's good.

Speaker 3 And we'll tell you about the minutiae. Don't worry.
We'll be okay. We're not actually going to.

Speaker 3 We won't actually be here two extra hours. I'll explain when the time comes.
The 12 hours of TCB.

Speaker 3 At least 12 episodes on that Saturday, May 31st, celebrating five years of the commercial break, six seasons, and Mental Health Awareness Month, which is May.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we're super excited about it. And so just mark your calendars, tune on in.
We're also going to be doing live video on that day through YouTube and Twitch. So that'll be exciting.

Speaker 3 We can tune that out. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yes. I was actually playing with it the other day.
I figured out how to do this and that. But I'm calling in a professional.
Don't worry. I've got him.
There's a guy. There's a guy I know.

Speaker 3 I know a guy. I got a guy.
Yeah. I know a guy like I knew a bunch of guys in the real estate business.
Probably going to make us fall flat on our. Grant Cardone.
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 I'm calling him Grant Cardone. 10X.
10X it.

Speaker 3 So that's May 31st. Also, America's next top mediocre comedy podcaster.

Speaker 3 If you want to be a part of that contest that we'll be running here at the commercial break, an offshoot of a joke that now I think is a good idea.

Speaker 3 If you want to have your own mediocre comedy podcast, if you've always aspired to that, let us know. Tell us your idea briefly, why you want to do it.
Give us your name and information. 212-433-3TCB.

Speaker 3 212-433-3822. At the commercial break on Instagram, TCB Podcast on TikTok, and youtube.com slash the commercial break for all the episodes on video the same day they air here on the audio.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, tcvpodcast.com. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for now.
I think so. I'll tell you that I love you.
I love you. Best of you.

Speaker 3 Best of you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say.
We do say and we must say. Goodbye.

Speaker 7 Ready to level up?

Speaker 8 Chumba Casino is your playbook to fun.

Speaker 10 It's free to play with no purchase necessary.

Speaker 11 Enjoy hundreds of online social games like Blackjack, Slots, and Solitaire, anytime, anywhere, with fresh releases every week.

Speaker 13 Whether you're at home or on the go, let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you.

Speaker 15 Plus, get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus.

Speaker 8 Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.

Speaker 4 Play Chumba Casino today.

Speaker 7 No purchase necessary, VGW Group, Voidbore prohibited by law 21 plus.

Speaker 16 TNCs apply.

Speaker 3 Next up is a little song from CarMax CarMax about selling a car your way.

Speaker 17 Wanna take a sec to think about it. Or like a month.
Wanna keep tabs on that instant offer. With OfferWatch.
Wanna have CarMax pick it up from the driveway.

Speaker 1 So, want to drive?

Speaker 3 CarMax.

Speaker 5 Pickup not available everywhere. Restrictions and fee may apply.

Speaker 18 The second half of the basketball season is here, and the race to the playoffs continues on Prize Picks, the best daily fantasy sports app to cash in on your favorite sports.

Speaker 18 The app is simple: pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to a thousand times your cash.

Speaker 18 Download the Prize Picks app today and use code FIELD and get $50 instantly when you play $5. That's code FIELD on PrizePicks.
You get $50 instantly when you play $5.

Speaker 18 Win or lose, you'll get $50 for just playing. Guaranteed.
PrizePicks. Run your game.
Must be present in certain states. Visit PrizePicks.com for restrictions and details.