HTDE: Broadway Musicals And Best In Show

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Speaker 1 Hey guys, it's Peter. Once again, in your Weight Weight feed, I am so pleased to present to you another episode of How to Do Everything by Weight Weight producers Ian and Mike.

Speaker 1 Now, remember, you can only get these episodes of How to Do Everything in our feed for a short while.

Speaker 1 So, if you love the kind of mysteries that Mike and Ian are revealing, make sure you subscribe to How to Do Everything at their own feed.

Speaker 3 Thanks.

Speaker 3 So, I was playing the song Bye-Bye Birdie for my kid. You know the song from the musical Bye-Bye Birdie.
Yeah, I was playing the original cast recording with Anne Margaret.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 4 Bye-bye.

Speaker 3 So my daughter, she got really into it. She wanted to hear it again and again.

Speaker 3 And then I heard her singing it

Speaker 3 to herself.

Speaker 3 And she was singing

Speaker 3 Bye-bye Bur He.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 4 Okay. And I was like, what?

Speaker 3 Why are you, why it's Bye-bye, Birdie. Why are you singing Bye-bye Bur he He? and she's she was like that's what the song says

Speaker 3 and so we listen back listen to this

Speaker 3 The song called Bye-bye Birdie, she sings Bye-bye Bur-Hee for the whole song.

Speaker 4 How has that gotten unnoticed before?

Speaker 4 Is it just the power of the title overwhelms the subconscious? You're like, oh, I guess, yeah, I hear it. That's right.
Birdie.

Speaker 3 I don't get it. I feel like maybe it's like a thing where it's easier to sing that way.

Speaker 3 So,

Speaker 3 really, there's no choice but to call Ann Margaret, who sang the song 60 years ago.

Speaker 5 Hello.

Speaker 4 Hello, Ann Margaret.

Speaker 6 Yes, that's me.

Speaker 4 How are you?

Speaker 6 I feel great. What are you guys up to?

Speaker 6 Your neck?

Speaker 4 That's right. That's about right.

Speaker 3 Well, Anne-Margaret, we wanted to ask you, my daughter discovered that in Bye-Bye Birdie,

Speaker 3 you sing

Speaker 4 Bye-bye Bur He

Speaker 3 instead of Birdie.

Speaker 3 And I was just wondering, where does that come from?

Speaker 7 From me.

Speaker 6 That's interesting that she would get it.

Speaker 3 Yeah, so why that choice? It's interesting.

Speaker 3 Does it make it easier to sing

Speaker 2 or what?

Speaker 8 It's just

Speaker 7 my quirk.

Speaker 6 That's just the way I hear it.

Speaker 4 Oh, funny.

Speaker 3 Did anyone else ever ask you about it?

Speaker 7 No, never.

Speaker 6 After all these years.

Speaker 4 What a mystery we've uncovered and solved all in one conversation.

Speaker 4 I know.

Speaker 4 Birdie.

Speaker 6 Actually, I say the D,

Speaker 6 but I say it with he.

Speaker 4 Birdie.

Speaker 2 With he behind it.

Speaker 4 Anna. Anne-Ray, you still got it.
You still got it. We can hear it right there.

Speaker 5 Good.

Speaker 4 I'm so glad.

Speaker 3 This is How to Do Everything. I'm Ian.
And I'm Mike.

Speaker 4 On today's show, How to Shave Your Chest.

Speaker 3 But first, almost 60,000 people completed the New York City Marathon last weekend. And on the line with us now is one of those runners, Jordan Litz.

Speaker 4 So Jordan, why don't you tell us what you did after the race?

Speaker 8 Well, I ran the New York City Marathon, and then I proceeded to perform Diaro and Wicked on Broadway twice.

Speaker 4 Twice?

Speaker 8 Yes, I finished the race about

Speaker 8 12.50 and then our half hour call for the show was 1.30.

Speaker 8 So I did a little press at the finish line and then walked straight to the theater, got into my shower, tried to loosen up as best I could, and then walked on and did wicked.

Speaker 4 Wow. That is amazing.

Speaker 4 It was wild.

Speaker 3 I have run a marathon and the thing I wanted to do after running a marathon is absolutely nothing. Like I couldn't imagine moving,

Speaker 3 let alone moving in front of people. And you are, I get, you are dancing, right?

Speaker 8 Yeah. I mean, yes, Yuro, his title song is Dancing Through Life.

Speaker 8 So, you know, you're dancing around, you're leading the students and teaching them dance moves and climbing on statues, jumping off the statue.

Speaker 3 What was the point in the either performance where you were most aware of the marathon in your body?

Speaker 8 There are two pretty big moments for me where

Speaker 8 I become hyper-aware of any residual effects from running or just how my body's feeling that day not from running.

Speaker 8 One is kneeling and singing as long as you're mind for five, six minutes. Just

Speaker 8 for some reason, having the compression on your knees and your ankles and your quads for that long and then having to try and stand up

Speaker 8 after you've been kneeling for so long is

Speaker 8 all always a gut check

Speaker 8 that moment was that moment i was like okay am i going to be able to be able to stand up and fortunately it was it was totally fine i didn't even think about it um and then the other one was swinging in on the rope um because that was the only super high impact moment um of the show.

Speaker 8 A lot of, you know, there's a lot of dance steps. There's a lot of running up and down stairs.
There's a lot of jumping and things like that.

Speaker 8 But that one was the one that I was thinking, if I'm going to get injured and I'm going to snap an Achilles tendon right now, it's going to be this moment.

Speaker 4 So,

Speaker 8 you know, I just tried to swing in and land as gently as I could and absorb the landing.

Speaker 8 And I think even the guards were watching me come in and, and hoping and praying that I was going to be just fine. And

Speaker 8 fortunately, it worked out just fine.

Speaker 4 Is it possible, Jordan, that if you if you'd been kneeling for five minutes or whatever and you couldn't get up, that you could have figured out how to make it make sense that your character just sits down on the ground from that point on

Speaker 8 there's no way

Speaker 8 there's absolutely no way because i mean the rest of the scene is me like trying to get alphabet to safety you know i'm telling her like you got to go to my castle in kiyamako you'll be safe there and and then at the end of the scene this cyclone comes and and whips me up um and it goes into a blackout so i mean there's

Speaker 8 I can't even imagine how embarrassing that would be. I don't know what I would do.
There's no way.

Speaker 4 Is it, I can imagine that it's hard to get excited for a Sunday where you're doing two shows, like for a Sunday matinee.

Speaker 4 What's it like then for that second show after you've kind of come off the post-marathon high, then you still have to do a whole nother run?

Speaker 8 Yeah, I mean, I've always said that Sunday matinee is my least favorite show of the week.

Speaker 8 You're just kind of, you're almost at the finish line, but you're not quite there and you're feeling really fatigued. It's the seventh show of the week.
You just did a double the day before.

Speaker 8 So it's already a tough show anyway. And then you throw 26.2 miles on top of that.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 that just makes it really pretty grueling.

Speaker 8 But yeah, you're right. The adrenaline was had completely worn off at that point.
My wife and daughter came to hang out with me in between shows. And we just, you know, chilled in the dressing room.

Speaker 8 I, you know, played with my daughter, put my legs up on the wall, tried to drain the blood out of them to kind of reset the system.

Speaker 8 and then I think maybe because the adrenaline had worn off and I knew that it was the last show of the week and the last little hurdle that I had to get over it was one of the best shows I've had in weeks

Speaker 4 to be honest really

Speaker 8 yeah I was just I was free to

Speaker 8 to just give whatever I had left in the tank.

Speaker 8 I finished dancing through life and I was like, that's a darn good performance. I'm so happy with that.

Speaker 8 So, yeah, I mean, maybe I need to run a marathon before every two-show day.

Speaker 4 There you go, folks.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you got a PR in Wicket.

Speaker 4 Exactly.

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Speaker 3 I feel like your tone there insulted my daughter's childlike curiosity and I don't like it not at all not at all to you and your family I have nothing but respect

Speaker 8 hey Sarah and Jacob what can we help you with so my question is when I'm shaving my chest I've got I'm pretty hairy so I want to make sure I get everything But then I just don't know really when to stop, right?

Speaker 8 You got the abs and the up through the pecs and stuff, but how far do I need to go over my shoulders?

Speaker 8 I'm not going to shave all the way down my arm.

Speaker 5 I mean,

Speaker 8 it was just something I was thinking about.

Speaker 4 Huh.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I guess if someone did have abs and pecs,

Speaker 3 that would be a concern.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so Jacob is very fit. He's very in shape and he worked hard.

Speaker 5 And I think I kind of tactfully suggested to him a few years ago that he might consider shaving his pests to just chest to show off all his hard work and effort.

Speaker 5 But now it's a part of the routine, but he's just not sure. Where do you stop when shaving? Is there a proper protocol?

Speaker 3 I feel that this feels like a very personal question, but

Speaker 3 so

Speaker 3 are we, if you are, Jacob, unshaven, are we talking about a pretty thick coat from over the shoulders and down the back?

Speaker 8 Is it luckily for me? It's not all the way down the back, but definitely my entire front is a thick coat.

Speaker 4 Entire front. Do you have a beard?

Speaker 8 I don't maintain a beard. I try to shave my face and my stomach regularly.

Speaker 4 Chest area.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 4 So if we visualize you now, when you've shaved your chest, shoulders, abs, does it look like you're wearing a flesh-colored sweater?

Speaker 3 A sweater vest.

Speaker 4 Flesh sweater vest. A sweater vest, yeah.

Speaker 8 That is not something that I ever imagined previously.

Speaker 7 But yeah, my arms are still hairy.

Speaker 5 There's also quite a process, too, for the hair cleanup because you can't put it down a drain or a sink. So it has to like flop onto a towel on the floor and then get thrown out.
It's a whole process.

Speaker 8 I just don't think we're doing it correctly.

Speaker 4 Yeah. Sounds like maybe a pet spa would be.

Speaker 4 Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's a great idea.
Like a dog groomer.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they have all the equipment.

Speaker 5 Hi, my name is Crystal Murray, Hyphen 8 Class.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 I am a professional dog handler. And so we go to dog shows every weekend.
And we have the fortunate job of showing beautiful standard poodles. We showed a very exceptional standard poodle named Siba.

Speaker 5 And she won the very prestigious Westminster Kennel Club.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 you groomed Seba for that win, for that performance.

Speaker 4 Absolutely. Yep.
Could you describe, Siba, what Siba looks like? Is Siba a she is or how do we describe?

Speaker 5 Siba is a she, she is a black standard poodle female.

Speaker 3 And this is, if for someone who doesn't, isn't maybe that versed in how

Speaker 3 showing dogs works, this is the sort of poodle that we imagine when we imagine kind of the fancy poodle with the the kind of balls at the feet and the big kind of trumpador.

Speaker 5 Yep, so actually what I used to, what I like to tell people is, so Germany kind of developed the breed, but then the French got them. And that's why we have what we have today.

Speaker 4 Oh, is that right? So wait, what did they look like

Speaker 4 before France got involved?

Speaker 5 A little shaggy,

Speaker 5 a little less pretty, more working, less, you know, pampered pet kind of thing.

Speaker 3 Can I ask, actually, like,

Speaker 3 I just said said the little balls at their feet.

Speaker 3 What is the term for that when you're well you actually know what you're talking about?

Speaker 5 Yeah, so actually I can give you a super quick rundown on it. Those little balls are called their bracelets.

Speaker 5 The ones that they have over their hips are called their hip rosettes.

Speaker 5 And then the tail is usually just a tail pom-pom type thing. So they've got their four bracelets, the hip rosettes, the body we usually call a pack, and then they literally have a top knot.

Speaker 4 A top knot.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so like obviously back in the day, they would have just tied the hair on top of their head into a knot so it didn't get into their eyes.

Speaker 5 And now we do it with elastics and hairspray and it's it's quite quite a deal.

Speaker 3 So as you heard, we got this call from

Speaker 3 Sarah and Jacob.

Speaker 3 Jacob, I think, is to

Speaker 3 men what Siba is to poodles.

Speaker 3 He He is, as we understand, a perfect specimen, but he is

Speaker 3 very hairy, so he's not able to fully show off the definition that he has worked so hard to achieve.

Speaker 3 Using your expertise from the world of poodle grooming, what would your advice for Jacob be?

Speaker 5 Well, there's a couple different things you can do.

Speaker 5 I mean, we, if you really want to see any of like the sculpting, chiseling, contours kind of like that, you would want a really short blade you know we with the poodles we can clipper them at different lengths so you get that different different effect there so wait i if i understand

Speaker 3 you it it could be possible to sort of uh not do a complete uh hair removal but actually use some hair remaining to do a little contouring maybe add some shadow to the abs and and pecs and actually enhance what jacob is working with the with their muscle-wise.

Speaker 5 Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 4 Oh, wait, does Siba have abs?

Speaker 5 Well, not really. She had a litter of puppies, so she's got a mom's body now.

Speaker 4 Good for her.

Speaker 5 So yeah, you can almost create kind of like some shadowing or whatever.

Speaker 3 Can I ask, so

Speaker 3 when you're at a a competition, a show,

Speaker 3 are you like backstage doing it right before they go on? Or is it?

Speaker 5 Yep, yep. There's a whole grooming area for all the different competitors and their dogs.

Speaker 3 Are you nervous back there in that kind of final groom?

Speaker 5 Sometimes. I mean, the regular shows, it's just kind of a routine thing.
For the show, like Westminster that we did, I was a wreck.

Speaker 4 What's it what's the vibe like back there? Is it pretty competitive? Like, do you see all the other dogs?

Speaker 5 It's yeah, you can see all the other dogs.

Speaker 5 It's competitive'cause, you know, you're competing against people from really all over the world and it's nerve-wracking because if you screw up, it's like you have no one to blame but yourself, right?

Speaker 5 Yeah, so it's a lot.

Speaker 4 So, but do you see another dog back there and you're like, oh, that top knot is phenomenal? Oh, absolutely. Really? Yeah,

Speaker 5 we totally do that.

Speaker 4 Really? We're like, oh, did you see?

Speaker 5 We're like, oh, did you see? She must have been really nervous. She just scrimmed all the hair off.

Speaker 4 Oh, no.

Speaker 4 Yeah, okay. So you could tell, like, oh,

Speaker 4 they're not going to make it.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, that does it for this week's show. What'd you learn, Ian?

Speaker 3 It's weird how much Broadway we ended up with in today's show.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. I did.

Speaker 3 I had no intention of this happening, but we started with Anne Margaret and Bye-bye Birdie, one of the classics. Talked to Jordan from, who's currently starring in Wicked on Broadway.

Speaker 4 And Jacob was super hairy, which is like the musical hair.

Speaker 3 I learned that maybe the best way to recover from a marathon

Speaker 3 is to dance for three hours, take a short break, and then dance for another three hours.

Speaker 4 Yeah, in front of people. Not dance like no one's watching.
Dance like people have paid hundreds of dollars to come see you dance.

Speaker 4 I will say, I think we got a satisfying result from the Bye Bye Birdie question.

Speaker 4 Right? Like we went into it not knowing exactly what was going on.

Speaker 4 And talking to Anne Margaret, she basically confirmed that's how she did it.

Speaker 3 What if we listen back to all the great Broadway songs?

Speaker 4 And it turns out

Speaker 3 every D is an H.

Speaker 4 If this is true, do you think Hamilton is actually Damilton?

Speaker 3 How to Do Everything is produced by Skylar Swenson with Hina Srivastova.

Speaker 4 Technical direction from Lorna White. We did use music this week, I believe, from Moby Gratis.

Speaker 3 You can get us your questions at howto at npr.org.

Speaker 4 I'm Ian, and I'm Mike. Thanks.
Thanks.

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