Michael Gene Sullivan - the Talking Mime of San Francisco Mime Troupe

100:00:00,320 --> 00:00:01,350Green Room on Air. 200:00:01,480 --> 00:00:09,990Green Room on Air, the podcast that you, beyond the and into parts of the Intertainment world. 300:00:11,800 --> 00:00:12,550Hello everybody. 400:00:12,570 --> 00:00:17,610You have reached Green Room on Air, and as always, this is Ray Renata, your host. 500:00:18,300 --> 00:00:25,590Hope you're doing well on this beautiful Thursday afternoon when I'm recording this. 600:00:27,015 --> 00:00:34,605I don't know what time it is where you are, but I hope the sun is shining and that God's love is beating upon your beautiful face. 700:00:36,435 --> 00:00:38,295I have no idea where that came from. 800:00:39,135 --> 00:00:43,815It just came out of my mind somewhere in the corners of my mind. 900:00:45,465 --> 00:00:46,005Yeah. 1000:00:46,005 --> 00:00:49,635We have a great guest for you today and I'll get to that in a minute. 1100:00:49,635 --> 00:00:53,415His name is Michael Jean Sullivan of the San Francisco Mime Troop. 1200:00:54,390 --> 00:01:00,750Not the kind of mimes that you're thinking of, not your Marcel Marcel mime. 1300:01:02,220 --> 00:01:08,180They're a different kind of mime, and you'll hear about what they're doing, kind of cool. 1400:01:08,210 --> 00:01:10,480His his company, San Francisco m Troop. 1500:01:12,160 --> 00:01:13,420It's been quite a week. 1600:01:13,450 --> 00:01:16,210What I'm really into right now is the Tour de France. 1700:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,550I love the Tour de France, or as the French said, the. 1800:01:21,500 --> 00:01:25,280And people who also speak French correctly, not me, apparently. 1900:01:26,750 --> 00:01:28,190It's so dramatic. 2000:01:29,990 --> 00:01:32,000I watch it on the television. 2100:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,630The only problem is it's five hours long and I cannot sit there for five hours. 2200:01:35,630 --> 00:01:47,910I do have somewhat of a life, so what I do is I watch pieces at the beginning and in the middle, and then I fast forward to the last 10 kilometers, which is where everything happens. 2300:01:48,915 --> 00:01:51,915And it's some of the best drama you'll see on the television. 2400:01:52,845 --> 00:02:00,800You can watch it on peacock or if you, I think you can get it on a regular NBC Sports channel as well. 2500:02:00,800 --> 00:02:01,340I don't know. 2600:02:01,345 --> 00:02:07,820I, I have peacock and, and then I also record it on my Hulu Live thing. 2700:02:09,380 --> 00:02:10,840TV is complicated now. 2800:02:10,840 --> 00:02:17,120When I was a young whipper snapper boy, there were three or four TV channels. 2900:02:18,050 --> 00:02:21,500And a couple u HF channels that didn't come in very well. 3000:02:21,650 --> 00:02:22,310And that's it. 3100:02:24,020 --> 00:02:35,115And then U HF came later and the cable came later, but you had your channel two, you had your channel four, your, your channel five, and your channel seven. 3200:02:35,355 --> 00:02:41,385And then if you were an intellectual type, you could watch K Q E D on channel nine. 3300:02:41,865 --> 00:02:43,095That was all there was. 3400:02:44,520 --> 00:02:56,010And then I was excited when the U H F came along because then I could watch channel 20 and channel 44 and see ultraman and, and speed racer and stuff like that. 3500:02:58,290 --> 00:03:00,420All right, why don't we get to our guest. 3600:03:01,470 --> 00:03:03,540I'd like you to welcome if you will, Mr. 3700:03:03,540 --> 00:03:05,130Michael Gene Sullivan. 3800:03:05,670 --> 00:03:08,160He's an actor, writer, director, teacher. 3900:03:08,985 --> 00:03:16,845Who's committed to developing theater of social and economic justice of political D, self-determination and musical comedy. 4000:03:17,175 --> 00:03:17,685Woo-hoo. 4100:03:18,075 --> 00:03:27,195Michael is also an alum of the nationally Acclaimed Playwrights Foundation, a Jussi F Center Artist Fellow. 4200:03:28,425 --> 00:03:29,835I looked that up actually. 4300:03:30,345 --> 00:03:32,925It's a, I think it's a grant that's given to. 4400:03:34,215 --> 00:03:38,475Artists and they, and they go, they live up in the Santa Cruz mountains and do their arts. 4500:03:38,475 --> 00:03:39,195It's kind of cool. 4600:03:39,825 --> 00:03:42,975And in 2022 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. 4700:03:43,305 --> 00:03:44,265That's pretty impressive. 4800:03:44,895 --> 00:03:46,185Well, the guy is very impressive. 4900:03:46,190 --> 00:03:53,075He's one of these people, you wonder if they sleep because they must not in order to do all this stuff. 5000:03:53,075 --> 00:03:53,555They do. 5100:03:53,975 --> 00:03:57,905Michael is an accomplished veteran of Bay Area Theater. 5200:03:58,565 --> 00:04:11,375He's also a collective member and resident director of the Tony Annabi Award-winning Obi Award-winning San Francisco Mind Troop, where he has written, acted in and or directed over 30 plays. 5300:04:11,375 --> 00:04:22,175I like to say directed because that's what they say in England, and I went to school there and it makes me feel cool and important to say, directed as a playwright. 5400:04:22,175 --> 00:04:27,305Michael's work has appeared across the United States as well as in Germany. 5500:04:28,055 --> 00:04:43,115Italy, Mexico, Spain, the Netherlands, Argentina, Australia, United Kingdom in Colombia, Hong Kong, Canada, China and Ukraine. 5600:04:43,355 --> 00:04:43,835Wow. 5700:04:44,165 --> 00:04:47,185He's also the writer of the New musical, and this is the ba. 5800:04:47,315 --> 00:04:52,995The main thing that we're promoting here today is his new musical called Breakdown. 5900:04:53,745 --> 00:05:11,055Which will be performed by the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troop from July 1st, which already happened, but you got plenty of time because it runs until September 4th, 2023 at various locations. 6000:05:11,055 --> 00:05:19,035All you have to do is go to the San Francisco Mime Troop website and it's all there and it's all free. 6100:05:20,265 --> 00:05:22,380Isn't that cool? Free theater. 6200:05:22,380 --> 00:05:23,490Hey, they do good stuff. 6300:05:24,090 --> 00:05:25,680I've been going to their shows for years. 6400:05:26,370 --> 00:05:29,160I've auditioned there a lot too, but I've never been cast. 6500:05:29,160 --> 00:05:40,720But I go to their shows and they're always very thoughtful, very funny political and, but not in a way that is off-putting. 6600:05:40,720 --> 00:05:43,390It makes you think and it makes you laugh. 6700:05:43,660 --> 00:05:46,320They're, they're just very creative and very professional. 6800:05:47,340 --> 00:05:48,120And the music's. 6900:05:48,240 --> 00:05:49,290The music's always fun. 7000:05:50,490 --> 00:06:00,750So without any, God, I hate saying this, but because it's such a cliche term without any further ado, but I'm gonna say it anyway. 7100:06:01,080 --> 00:06:08,280Without any further ado, I bring you Michael Gene Sullivan. 7200:06:14,670 --> 00:06:16,470So thanks so much for being here. 7300:06:16,870 --> 00:06:18,245Thank you for having me talking to you. 7400:06:19,045 --> 00:06:22,435You have, you have a new show for the summer as mine. 7500:06:22,440 --> 00:06:22,825True? Yep. 7600:06:22,945 --> 00:06:23,755Always does. 7700:06:23,755 --> 00:06:25,195It's called breakdown. 7800:06:25,405 --> 00:06:25,825Mm-hmm. 7900:06:26,095 --> 00:06:26,305Mm-hmm. 8000:06:26,545 --> 00:06:27,955I, I read all about it. 8100:06:28,105 --> 00:06:33,535What, what inspired you to write this production? Well, we were trying writer. 8200:06:34,045 --> 00:06:34,315Yeah. 8300:06:34,315 --> 00:06:34,645Right. 8400:06:35,350 --> 00:06:46,240We were trying to come up with something I really wanted, I wanted to talk about something that was dealing with the politics in San Francisco right now, but also how the city is being portrayed nationally. 8500:06:46,570 --> 00:06:46,750Mm-hmm. 8600:06:46,995 --> 00:06:56,410You know, and then the co-writer Marie Cartier, who's also a collective member at the M troop, she wanted to do a show about mental health because she is a social worker. 8700:06:56,500 --> 00:06:58,840Her day job is, she's a social worker in San Francisco. 8800:06:59,650 --> 00:07:03,880And so she was a lot that there are a lot of issues around her that she felt people didn't understand. 8900:07:04,060 --> 00:07:08,660People didn't see it as an issue, a political issue enough. 9000:07:09,020 --> 00:07:17,995And so she came to the collective and said, well, can we do a show about mental health and, and the folks living on the streets? And I was like, well, I, yeah. 9100:07:18,025 --> 00:07:20,125But I wanna make it about everything. 9200:07:20,125 --> 00:07:20,215Mm-hmm. 9300:07:20,815 --> 00:07:29,725About that individual's breakdown, but also how our systems are breaking down in terms of our the, how the city takes care of people. 9400:07:29,755 --> 00:07:33,865How the bureaucracy has become something that feeds itself and no longer helps people. 9500:07:34,285 --> 00:07:39,895How the bureaucracy around housing has become about creating bureaucracy and not actually housing people. 9600:07:40,455 --> 00:07:53,135And then the bigger thing about how do you break down a whole country? How do you lead a country to a breakdown by gaslighting them by telling them that the real problem is you know, liberal policies. 9700:07:53,135 --> 00:07:59,795The real problem is progressive policies rather than the real problem being the same old trick, trickle down greed that we've always had to deal with. 9800:08:00,035 --> 00:08:00,305Yeah. 9900:08:00,755 --> 00:08:03,155So there were these three levels of breakdown. 10000:08:03,720 --> 00:08:18,090And then that's been putting those together to make it so that the show is really kind of telling a thick description of what happens to this one woman who's living on the streets, the woman who's trying to take care of her, and the social worker who's trying to take care of her. 10100:08:18,270 --> 00:08:25,080And the Fox News reporter whose job is to portray San Francisco as a failed progressive experiment. 10200:08:27,090 --> 00:08:27,480Great. 10300:08:27,480 --> 00:08:28,110I love it. 10400:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,950It's such, it's such a big issue right now and yeah. 10500:08:32,160 --> 00:08:39,870Now the, one of the things that I find interesting is homeless or unhoused. 10600:08:40,110 --> 00:08:44,070The people are often looked at as animals, I guess. 10700:08:44,640 --> 00:08:44,940Mm-hmm. 10800:08:45,180 --> 00:08:50,640There, there is a, a channel on YouTube called Soft White Underbelly. 10900:08:51,285 --> 00:08:53,025You really might wanna look at this. 11000:08:53,415 --> 00:09:06,255He's a guy down in la He's a, he is a former photographer for Apple and he interviews most pe mostly people on Skid Row in LA and in his studio. 11100:09:06,255 --> 00:09:08,325And it's so incredibly interesting. 11200:09:08,955 --> 00:09:14,295I, these pe most of these people are so amazing. 11300:09:14,385 --> 00:09:17,365They have incredible backgrounds in lives. 11400:09:17,365 --> 00:09:19,585They're, some of them are super smart. 11500:09:20,260 --> 00:09:20,800Yes. 11600:09:21,010 --> 00:09:24,510They all have, almost all of them had horrible childhoods, mm-hmm. 11700:09:25,170 --> 00:09:27,690And then ended up with drugs and mental illness. 11800:09:27,780 --> 00:09:32,190But they're incredible human beings, like amazing stuff. 11900:09:32,190 --> 00:09:32,340Yeah. 12000:09:32,740 --> 00:09:39,010And that's, that's the thing, like you were saying, the dehumanization of your fellow citizens mm-hmm. 12100:09:39,460 --> 00:09:41,170Is the first step. 12200:09:41,695 --> 00:09:47,775Towards being able to dismiss their needs and dismiss your responsibility towards them as fellow citizens. 12300:09:48,245 --> 00:09:56,645Last time I checked about 70, 75% of the people who are homeless in San Francisco used to pay rent in San Francisco. 12400:09:57,065 --> 00:09:57,365Hmm. 12500:09:57,455 --> 00:09:58,325People don't know that. 12600:09:58,325 --> 00:10:03,005They think, oh, where do they think peop the unhoused come from? They, you say 5%. 12700:10:03,650 --> 00:10:04,040Yeah. 12800:10:04,160 --> 00:10:04,490Okay. 12900:10:04,730 --> 00:10:05,060Wow. 13000:10:05,180 --> 00:10:06,110That was the last time I checked. 13100:10:06,110 --> 00:10:07,070It was a few years ago. 13200:10:07,100 --> 00:10:07,220Yeah. 13300:10:07,550 --> 00:10:15,270But that idea that these people spring up like mushrooms on the streets or something, and it's like, no, they paid rent here. 13400:10:15,275 --> 00:10:19,170They lived in San Francisco and they've been either priced out. 13500:10:19,320 --> 00:10:23,160Then the number one reason that people become homeless is medical bills. 13600:10:24,450 --> 00:10:25,260You know? Yeah. 13700:10:25,320 --> 00:10:28,370It's not people think, oh, well there's this or that, and it's like, no, no, no, no, no. 13800:10:28,880 --> 00:10:29,270The. 13900:10:29,750 --> 00:10:38,070Medical bills and our lack of, you know, free universal healthcare in this country has led a lot of people to lose their homes. 14000:10:38,730 --> 00:10:43,590But just because they lose their home doesn't mean that they want to leave the city that they're in. 14100:10:43,590 --> 00:10:45,840That's where their support system is. 14200:10:46,230 --> 00:10:46,290Yeah. 14300:10:46,320 --> 00:10:55,530So if you live in San Francisco and you simply lose your, you, you, you know, like someone might have a situation where their husband or wife needs full-time care. 14400:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,740So they leave their job to take care of this person. 14500:10:58,740 --> 00:10:59,880They're not just gonna dump them. 14600:11:00,510 --> 00:11:00,780Yeah. 14700:11:00,780 --> 00:11:06,210But the, but then the medical bills eat up their savings and then they lose their home. 14800:11:06,660 --> 00:11:08,550The person passes away and now they're homeless. 14900:11:09,030 --> 00:11:21,570And now trying to get back into trying to get a job when you're homeless is extraordinarily difficult, you know? So there are a lot of ways that people can fall through very wide and common cracks. 15000:11:22,215 --> 00:11:25,605To fall into homelessness and are being unhoused. 15100:11:26,175 --> 00:11:34,845And then we, we blame those people if they have human reactions, you know, if they're drinking, if they end up on drugs, if they're struggling emotionally. 15200:11:35,055 --> 00:11:38,325All of those things that are reactions to their desperate situation. 15300:11:38,330 --> 00:11:38,585Yeah. 15400:11:39,135 --> 00:11:49,365Now some people are there because of prior addictions and, and untreated mental illness, and some people are there because of economic problems and frequently it's just both. 15500:11:50,385 --> 00:11:58,715And so when, as long as you see the unhoused as not you, it's easy to distance yourself. 15600:11:58,745 --> 00:12:01,385It's easy to look down on folks. 15700:12:01,535 --> 00:12:08,735It's easy to just see them as there's circumstances, something they did to themselves without realizing how close you are to that. 15800:12:09,215 --> 00:12:09,335Mm-hmm. 15900:12:10,145 --> 00:12:14,755You know, and they talk to how many, Americans being only so many paychecks away from being destitute. 16000:12:15,430 --> 00:12:15,640Right. 16100:12:16,480 --> 00:12:28,510You know, what does that look like? What does it really look like? You know, if you can't move back in with your parents because you're a older person and your parents have passed away, you don't, may not have any children, your children may not be in the area. 16200:12:29,410 --> 00:12:37,930We're re you're really pretty close to being in the Great Depression, where homelessness was huge. 16300:12:38,680 --> 00:12:53,870And so it has been the job of our corporate government to make sure that we do not see taking care of our fellow citizens as kind of a civic responsibility, It's supposed to be individual philanthropists. 16400:12:54,470 --> 00:12:59,780It's, or and if people don't wanna accept that it's their own fault if they're having mental problems, we don't. 16500:12:59,780 --> 00:13:05,630Look back at the sixties, seventies and eighties when we were shutting down institution, mental institutions. 16600:13:06,060 --> 00:13:10,740that was a, an overreaction to a, a previous problem. 16700:13:11,040 --> 00:13:14,550And now we're back to the problem where people, there's not enough care for them. 16800:13:15,540 --> 00:13:25,050It is again, one of those situations where you should judge, you judge a society by how it treats the most vulnerable, and the unhoused are the most vulnerable. 16900:13:25,290 --> 00:13:38,520And so the heartlessness that we are encouraged to have, and the idea that, oh, you're doing something if you, I mean, how many times have any of us heard some civic leader say, well, we're gonna set up a commission. 17000:13:39,555 --> 00:13:50,925To examine something, rather than doing something, you set up a commission and you might spend a million dollars on the commission cuz you're paying those commissioners and then they come up with something and then they go, yeah, we can't afford to do that. 17100:13:51,315 --> 00:14:04,285It looked like you did something, you spent money, but in the end what did you achieve? You know, we need to and it's not like, in San Francisco they'll always say, well, we wanna have affordable housing. 17200:14:04,750 --> 00:14:07,660But even that is a kind of a crap term. 17300:14:08,200 --> 00:14:09,250Everything's affordable. 17400:14:09,250 --> 00:14:19,720If you have enough money, if they want affordable, hou really affordable housing, why don't they peg it to the minimum wage? Right? You know, just it's minimum wage gig. 17500:14:20,050 --> 00:14:23,750But instead they peg it to median income. 17600:14:24,290 --> 00:14:28,190Which in San Francisco means you can make over a hundred thousand dollars. 17700:14:28,190 --> 00:14:34,220Still, I think it's $104,000 for four person thousand and below that you're in poverty. 17800:14:35,000 --> 00:14:35,540Yeah. 17900:14:36,350 --> 00:14:43,550And, and that means that someone who's making $104,000 and they've got a spouse for two kids, they can get housing subsidies. 18000:14:44,410 --> 00:14:48,980But that means that all of the people who are making $40,000, there are less places for them. 18100:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,410There are fewer places for them. 18200:14:51,800 --> 00:15:04,350And what we need to do is stop trying to, when they build, whenever they say they're gonna build affordable housing, it's always gotta take the people who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars into consideration. 18300:15:04,890 --> 00:15:11,850What about them? But if we just build housing for the minimum wage folks, just, that would bring everything down. 18400:15:12,860 --> 00:15:18,560that would bring all the rent down because it would flood the market with stuff with apartments and open up other apartments. 18500:15:19,760 --> 00:15:30,120This idea that to basically divide the workers, it's always about dividing the workers, always making somebody in the working class despise someone else. 18600:15:30,870 --> 00:15:33,960Somebody who's doing not as well as them to distance themselves from them. 18700:15:34,800 --> 00:15:43,000And when it comes to San Francisco right now the city is, you know, I mean, we're openly not run by progressives. 18800:15:43,840 --> 00:15:48,880People, you know, are our mayor and other folks, especially the mayor, are very much like, no, no, no. 18900:15:49,310 --> 00:15:54,030She's at war with progressive, she's a moderate and she's at war with progressives. 19000:15:54,390 --> 00:15:57,360But progressives get blamed for all the problems. 19100:15:58,380 --> 00:15:59,100Yeah, lately. 19200:15:59,610 --> 00:15:59,850Yeah. 19300:15:59,940 --> 00:16:00,390Yeah. 19400:16:00,780 --> 00:16:15,250And so, but that, you know, the national press uses that to say, see, and they don't wanna say, oh, well the, the national economy is down There's people who are struggling to have jobs in Wisconsin and Ohio and all over the country. 19500:16:16,090 --> 00:16:19,270And that's all because of trade policy. 19600:16:19,275 --> 00:16:34,520And, and, George Soros, whatever they wanna blame in all of those situations in in conservative areas, people struggling in conservative areas aren't their, it's not their fault, but if people can struggling in what they see, liberal areas, then it's liberal's fault. 19700:16:34,960 --> 00:16:36,560Yeah, yeah. 19800:16:36,560 --> 00:16:36,810You know? Exactly. 19900:16:38,030 --> 00:16:38,510Hmm. 20000:16:38,840 --> 00:16:54,620So now comedy, what do you think is going on in San Francisco? So, like, I've lived here my whole life and I've seen versions of this type of thing over and over again. 20100:16:55,380 --> 00:17:08,705It seems that the, the form of government with the supervisors and special interests sort of, At play against one another within super supervisors offices. 20200:17:09,155 --> 00:17:11,345It, it leads to nothing being done. 20300:17:11,495 --> 00:17:11,585Yeah. 20400:17:11,765 --> 00:17:16,325Is is that what it is? I mean, it just seems like they could do something. 20500:17:16,325 --> 00:17:16,715They could. 20600:17:17,405 --> 00:17:18,605They could do something. 20700:17:18,605 --> 00:17:20,225It seems like they're doing nothing. 20800:17:20,735 --> 00:17:20,795Yeah. 20900:17:20,795 --> 00:17:27,905Other than creating a larger industry to support the homeless through private groups, right. 21000:17:28,495 --> 00:17:36,715Who then become, which is a way to just become de that, then those people's incomes become dependent on making sure that they're always still are homeless. 21100:17:37,285 --> 00:17:43,375And then you have this endless cycle where nothing's gonna change, is it? Do I have that right? That's what it looks like to me. 21200:17:43,385 --> 00:17:45,115Well, I think, or tell me if I'm wrong. 21300:17:45,205 --> 00:17:46,435I mean No, no, no. 21400:17:46,435 --> 00:17:47,455It's neither right nor wrong. 21500:17:47,460 --> 00:17:50,395It's just, but cause I've just been trying to figure it out here. 21600:17:50,395 --> 00:17:51,865There's so many, there's so many problems. 21700:17:52,195 --> 00:18:00,565I mean, I think that part of it is who runs San Francisco, in my opinion, in my research and the March did a show about this. 21800:18:00,925 --> 00:18:03,265It, we are very much run by contractors. 21900:18:03,710 --> 00:18:04,010Okay. 22000:18:04,280 --> 00:18:07,730That the city is always building stuff, whether we need that stuff or not. 22100:18:08,270 --> 00:18:10,940And they're gonna build the things that they can make the most money off of. 22200:18:11,870 --> 00:18:19,665So we ended up, when all these corporations, they, there's so many empty offices downtown in San Francisco. 22300:18:19,755 --> 00:18:21,405No, but they're still building more. 22400:18:21,975 --> 00:18:25,165Oh really? and they make much more money off of high end. 22500:18:26,080 --> 00:18:29,470Condos and apartments, and they do off of public housing. 22600:18:29,860 --> 00:18:37,990So what contractors will come in and say to the mayor and to the board of supervisors is we promise to build, say 80. 22700:18:38,050 --> 00:18:38,980We're gonna build a hundred units. 22800:18:39,820 --> 00:18:41,380We're gonna build 'em in different places in the city. 22900:18:41,620 --> 00:18:47,350We're gonna build 20 high end units over here and 80 low income or affordable units over here. 23000:18:47,740 --> 00:18:51,790We have to build these first, we have to build the high ones first. 23100:18:51,970 --> 00:18:55,570They build that one first, and then they say, sorry, we went over budget. 23200:18:55,780 --> 00:18:57,010They declare bankruptcy. 23300:18:57,190 --> 00:19:00,550They still sell off and make their money off that, and they never get to the other ones. 23400:19:01,030 --> 00:19:04,480And it happens over and over and over again. 23500:19:05,050 --> 00:19:17,120Or they, and we'll also have situations like the Twitter deal that the previous Mayor Lee made, which was a terrible deal where they, they said Twitter didn't have to pay taxes, city taxes for like, whatever it was, 10, 15 years, something like that. 23600:19:17,120 --> 00:19:26,810Oh, anybody with a modicum of business understanding would know that as soon as that deal sunset, Twitter was gonna say, we are either gonna move. 23700:19:29,450 --> 00:19:30,740That's just what they were gonna do. 23800:19:30,770 --> 00:19:32,300They were always gonna do that. 23900:19:32,720 --> 00:19:33,440And they did it. 24000:19:33,830 --> 00:19:37,160As soon as it came up time, they said, oh, we're gonna leave, or You have to extend the deal. 24100:19:37,580 --> 00:19:43,790And so now we're in this weird limbo, the soup that, that, it was so easy to outsmart everyone with that one. 24200:19:44,600 --> 00:19:55,410But, but what is, that, that when you're in a very profit driven capitalist society, people can't figure out how to make money off of the poor. 24300:19:55,935 --> 00:19:57,075So they wanna ignore them. 24400:19:57,075 --> 00:19:57,135Yeah. 24500:19:57,375 --> 00:20:01,245They can't figure out how to make money off of public housing so they don't build it. 24600:20:01,845 --> 00:20:17,305It's always, well, where do we profit from this? And San Francisco has become gone from being a somewhat progressive having somewhat progressive leadership in city to basically being the libertarian suburb of Silicon Valley. 24700:20:17,935 --> 00:20:18,325I see. 24800:20:19,525 --> 00:20:21,115Cause that's what we are now. 24900:20:21,895 --> 00:20:24,805The city is, you know, we got Ballards in the streets. 25000:20:24,805 --> 00:20:26,815We got, you know, it's, it's like you can't drive here. 25100:20:26,815 --> 00:20:27,745You can't drive there. 25200:20:28,015 --> 00:20:32,005And the city's mentality is very much of a suburb. 25300:20:32,845 --> 00:20:38,345You know, we're people live here, they work elsewhere, and that's not how a city is supposed to function. 25400:20:39,005 --> 00:20:41,645You're supposed to work here and live in the city or somewhere else. 25500:20:42,275 --> 00:20:42,335Yeah. 25600:20:42,335 --> 00:20:45,785So becoming a suburb fight is fighting against. 25700:20:45,785 --> 00:20:49,925And what do you not see in suburbs? Homeless people? Diversity. 25800:20:50,675 --> 00:20:55,565You know, you don't need many buses because it's, it's too difficult to do buses in the suburb. 25900:20:55,805 --> 00:21:01,295All those things that we city dwellers rely on, suburbanites aren't interested in. 26000:21:01,445 --> 00:21:02,975They don't want their tax dollars to go to that. 26100:21:03,845 --> 00:21:04,235All right. 26200:21:04,240 --> 00:21:06,005I think this is a good spot for a break. 26300:21:06,155 --> 00:21:08,345Let's listen to the Mime Troops song. 26400:21:08,350 --> 00:21:11,555Look in the Eye from the show Breakdown. 26500:21:12,230 --> 00:21:13,100Spare change. 26600:21:13,610 --> 00:21:14,510Spare change. 26700:21:15,140 --> 00:21:18,140So I tell her, I said, Margaret, if you don't sign the lease, I will. 26800:21:18,410 --> 00:21:19,130Excuse me. 26900:21:19,220 --> 00:21:26,330What kind of fool let's a two bedroom, two and a half bath and burn height slip through their fingers? Spare change. 27000:21:26,330 --> 00:21:28,820The value was only gonna go up on all the oh, 10. 27100:21:28,820 --> 00:21:29,660It's getting moved out. 27200:21:29,720 --> 00:21:31,190Hey lady, it's up on. 27300:21:31,235 --> 00:21:31,535Balm. 27400:21:32,975 --> 00:21:36,275You see me? I see you see me. 27500:21:36,275 --> 00:21:41,705But you walk on by, I just need a couple bucks near the park. 27600:21:42,335 --> 00:21:48,065You hear me? I know you hear me, but there's no reply. 27700:21:48,245 --> 00:21:49,835I just a couple of quarters. 27800:21:49,925 --> 00:21:51,335Beautiful view of the bay. 27900:21:51,755 --> 00:21:55,985Every day you see me, do you look me in the eye? You could. 28000:21:56,005 --> 00:22:04,555Say hello and let me know you don't want me to die with some change or just a smile or a book or even chat. 28100:22:05,035 --> 00:22:14,815Say, sorry, I can't today, and I see you don't look the other way. 28200:22:19,465 --> 00:22:22,435So we're in a real culture war in the city. 28300:22:23,615 --> 00:22:25,415Which is making it difficult. 28400:22:25,415 --> 00:22:26,495We need to make this. 28500:22:26,645 --> 00:22:30,065What is the purpose of San Francisco? This is an important question. 28600:22:31,205 --> 00:22:32,345Most cities are a port. 28700:22:33,275 --> 00:22:35,705They're a trade center, they're a banking center. 28800:22:36,425 --> 00:22:37,655They, they make something. 28900:22:38,405 --> 00:22:42,065What is San Francisco? We're not a port anymore. 29000:22:42,605 --> 00:22:44,135We're not a banking center anymore. 29100:22:44,795 --> 00:22:48,995What is the purpose of San Francisco now? For me, it should be culture. 29200:22:50,405 --> 00:22:55,385If we can become, we can be a real home of culture. 29300:22:55,385 --> 00:22:59,735People should come all over to see our stuff and, and we should be exporting art. 29400:23:00,215 --> 00:23:17,525But right now we don't have a, a purpose, and I think that's what kind of the death throes in a way and struggles in the city is do we continue to be a city and grow and have a purpose, or do we lose our purpose and remain a suburb? Mm-hmm. 29500:23:19,055 --> 00:23:23,135Well look, I think Covid had a big influence on that especially Yes. 29600:23:23,135 --> 00:23:25,585On these empty buildings in the financial district. 29700:23:26,215 --> 00:23:26,575Yes. 29800:23:26,845 --> 00:23:34,905But they, I mean, we were having problems before that and now cause it's like, I don't know how often you get, have a chance to go to Powell and market quite, quite often. 29900:23:35,925 --> 00:23:36,135Yeah. 30000:23:36,135 --> 00:23:38,265So if you walk up Powell Yeah. 30100:23:38,270 --> 00:23:40,065And all of those empty stores. 30200:23:40,305 --> 00:23:40,605Yeah. 30300:23:41,055 --> 00:23:43,635That was like solid gold real estate before Covid. 30400:23:43,755 --> 00:23:43,845I know. 30500:23:44,835 --> 00:23:47,055And it used to be, and now they're just traffic like crazy. 30600:23:47,055 --> 00:23:48,675Now you can just, yeah, break through. 30700:23:49,695 --> 00:23:50,865Right now it's nothing. 30800:23:50,865 --> 00:23:50,925Yeah. 30900:23:51,195 --> 00:24:00,805Because again, like, you know, if you, if you don't have workers who need to be around then, then there's no reason for them to go to the stores. 31000:24:00,805 --> 00:24:02,245There's no reason for them to shop. 31100:24:02,635 --> 00:24:03,655We lose all of that. 31200:24:03,955 --> 00:24:06,685But the other reason that someone would go downtown is culture. 31300:24:07,735 --> 00:24:12,565You know, you go down to go to the big venues to see a concert, to see a play, to see that singer. 31400:24:12,595 --> 00:24:12,685Mm-hmm. 31500:24:12,955 --> 00:24:15,625When piano fight was allowed to die. 31600:24:16,265 --> 00:24:16,555Yeah. 31700:24:16,855 --> 00:24:23,036But you know, you think about if they had just said Twitter had to pay some tax, that would've paid for piano fight 10 years. 31800:24:23,125 --> 00:24:26,425Piano fight years was a a, yeah, it was a, was a nexus. 31900:24:26,635 --> 00:24:27,835I love that place of artists. 32000:24:27,835 --> 00:24:29,635And it was really rebuilding that area. 32100:24:29,640 --> 00:24:34,675And the city as somebody wrote in an artist in New York, they were like, yeah, that had been New York. 32200:24:34,735 --> 00:24:36,415The city would've stepped in and tried to save them. 32300:24:36,955 --> 00:24:38,065Yeah, they would've, they would've bought the building. 32400:24:38,335 --> 00:24:39,415Yeah, they would've, they would've signed. 32500:24:39,475 --> 00:24:45,325But San Francisco is like, even despite the fact that everybody is always saying, we're so about culture. 32600:24:45,985 --> 00:24:47,905That was not that much money. 32700:24:47,935 --> 00:24:49,765It was a few thousand dollars a month. 32800:24:49,975 --> 00:24:50,155Yeah. 32900:24:50,185 --> 00:24:51,355That they were short nothing. 33000:24:51,355 --> 00:24:56,815But look at the money we throw at, at, at tax breaks that we throw around. 33100:24:57,025 --> 00:24:57,325Yeah. 33200:24:57,375 --> 00:24:58,725To make the rich richer. 33300:25:00,015 --> 00:25:12,375You know, it is so thoughtless and shortsighted that it's, it's kind of astounding that any of the people who are on the board of supervisors, there are a couple supervisors that that seem to see. 33400:25:12,780 --> 00:25:34,650Have a vision of the city that doesn't involve a trickle down economics, but most of, most of the political leaders here really seem to truly believe that if you can just make rich people richer, shine things up and arrest enough people, you will reinvigorate downtown San Francisco. 33500:25:35,580 --> 00:25:40,350But those aren't things that's, no, that's still not a reason to go. 33600:25:40,890 --> 00:25:44,190You know, and give people, provide jobs, you know? Yeah. 33700:25:44,190 --> 00:25:45,420The city used to have factories. 33800:25:45,420 --> 00:25:46,890We have no factories anymore. 33900:25:47,100 --> 00:25:47,280Right. 34000:25:47,430 --> 00:25:48,240You know? Yeah. 34100:25:48,270 --> 00:25:49,470We have no waterfront. 34200:25:49,980 --> 00:25:55,170All of the stuff that made San Francisco, San Francisco in the last 50 years has been cultural. 34300:25:55,230 --> 00:25:58,530What happened to the waterfront and now we're losing that, the waterfront. 34400:25:58,560 --> 00:25:58,950Okay. 34500:25:59,820 --> 00:26:06,570So the Bay Bridge, you know, remember how the other, the part of the Bay Bridge that, that Became structurally slightly unsound. 34600:26:06,570 --> 00:26:10,860And so they decided to replace the entire thing for billions of dollars rather than just fix it. 34700:26:11,190 --> 00:26:11,430Yeah. 34800:26:11,880 --> 00:26:16,710That part always looked like a train bridge because the Bay Bridge was built as a train bridge. 34900:26:16,710 --> 00:26:17,730Yes, I know. 35000:26:18,120 --> 00:26:18,420Yeah. 35100:26:18,480 --> 00:26:18,840Right. 35200:26:19,050 --> 00:26:23,850And when they got rid of the trains off of the Bay Bridge, it killed the Port of San Francisco. 35300:26:24,240 --> 00:26:24,720Hmm. 35400:26:24,780 --> 00:26:29,685Because why would you unload your ship here? You know, you've gotta Oakland put it on trucks. 35500:26:29,895 --> 00:26:30,165Yeah. 35600:26:30,555 --> 00:26:32,715Go to Oakland and then you put it on trains. 35700:26:33,165 --> 00:26:33,375Yeah. 35800:26:33,405 --> 00:26:38,265So once they got rid of that, and, and then it was like 10 years later, they went, oh crap, we need Bart. 35900:26:38,745 --> 00:26:51,105But you know, these little shortsighted things, I mean, that was done by I think it was Ford and Firestone bought the train run lines that were on the Bay Bridge and then tore 'em up and said they were gonna replace them and never did. 36000:26:52,215 --> 00:26:53,655But the city should never have allowed that. 36100:26:53,655 --> 00:26:55,305The city and county should never have allowed that. 36200:26:55,815 --> 00:27:00,585So by losing the port, by not having, there's no reason for ships to be here. 36300:27:01,195 --> 00:27:08,995Climate change has made it so that Fisherman's Wharf has become less and less about fishing, you know, which was an industry. 36400:27:09,235 --> 00:27:09,655Yes. 36500:27:09,985 --> 00:27:13,765We are, we're there's no need for us to be a banking hub anymore. 36600:27:13,770 --> 00:27:17,245I mean, when B of A and Wells Fargo kinda left and. 36700:27:17,855 --> 00:27:22,385You can do that from anywhere now, so you don't need that central tower anymore. 36800:27:22,655 --> 00:27:22,745Mm-hmm. 36900:27:23,045 --> 00:27:26,285But the thing that can't be moved is live performance. 37000:27:26,795 --> 00:27:26,975Yeah. 37100:27:27,155 --> 00:27:29,495The thing that can't be really moved is culture. 37200:27:30,245 --> 00:27:38,765And we could be, like, London is, is shifting, you know, different cities that are shifting to try to be about things that have to happen there. 37300:27:40,370 --> 00:27:46,880But anyway as far as the San Francisco march, it's concerned we're one of those things that have to happen here. 37400:27:46,885 --> 00:27:55,310I mean, we'll tour with this show and we'll go around, maybe around Northern California this year because we still don't wanna get too far a field because of covid. 37500:27:55,640 --> 00:28:01,820You know, we don't wanna be staying with people or, or, you know, if anybody in this show gets sick, that kind of messes us up. 37600:28:03,260 --> 00:28:04,840But but the idea of. 37700:28:05,740 --> 00:28:19,750What is a city? How does it take care of the, the most vulnerable and don't believe the, the conservative and libertarian hype about how to solve these problems are issues for every, every town. 37800:28:20,950 --> 00:28:22,570Yeah, it's not just San Francisco. 37900:28:22,570 --> 00:28:26,490It's it's all over the, the country in, in varying degrees. 38000:28:27,150 --> 00:28:28,560And, you know, Oakland. 38100:28:28,560 --> 00:28:28,680Yeah. 38200:28:28,770 --> 00:28:29,610In, in the Bay Area. 38300:28:29,610 --> 00:28:31,200Oakland has huge problems. 38400:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,780San Jose has really bad problems. 38500:28:33,860 --> 00:28:42,260San Francisco gets most of the attention because it's, you know, San Francisco, but because it's San Francisco and also it is, like I said, it's a, it's an example. 38600:28:42,380 --> 00:28:45,610It it's a, it's the, what San Francisco represents to people. 38700:28:45,610 --> 00:28:47,740The rest of the country is progressivism. 38800:28:48,490 --> 00:28:53,200And so if they can show progressivism failing, then they can go See, we need to be more like Florida. 38900:28:53,890 --> 00:28:55,420Florida has a homeless problem. 39000:28:55,510 --> 00:28:56,440You never hear about it. 39100:28:57,130 --> 00:29:00,460You know, they have, maybe it's only because they have so many other problems. 39200:29:00,970 --> 00:29:03,100You know, they're shooting each other. 39300:29:03,100 --> 00:29:05,440The cu, the whole state is sinking. 39400:29:05,770 --> 00:29:08,820They, they, they, you know I keep trying to restrict who can vote. 39500:29:09,120 --> 00:29:10,050Florida has a lot of problems. 39600:29:10,050 --> 00:29:12,750You don't hear as much about their, the unhoused down there. 39700:29:13,440 --> 00:29:13,660But. 39800:29:14,685 --> 00:29:24,465All of these issues, things that we need to be focusing on in a longer term commitment to make our country a better place. 39900:29:25,695 --> 00:29:39,675And what we're getting right now are short-term solutions that simply take that, that problem out of your eye line, you know, is like, well, if we could just get all the unhoused over there and then you'll have more money to be rich. 40000:29:40,440 --> 00:29:48,420I mean, right now, the, the idea of civic responsibility and fellow citizenship has been thrown out the window by the conservatives. 40100:29:48,480 --> 00:29:49,410Totally, totally. 40200:29:49,530 --> 00:29:55,810It is just, if it is, does not profit you personally, then it is worthless. 40300:29:55,990 --> 00:29:58,570And if you're not rich, you're a loser. 40400:29:58,900 --> 00:29:59,410Exactly. 40500:29:59,470 --> 00:30:04,040There's lot over you allity towards those who are suffering. 40600:30:04,220 --> 00:30:04,880It's really. 40700:30:05,555 --> 00:30:06,665It's really disgusting. 40800:30:07,565 --> 00:30:11,735Yeah, I just got that from, I think people get angry if they feel like they can't do anything sometimes. 40900:30:11,740 --> 00:30:12,205No, I agree. 41000:30:12,245 --> 00:30:16,565I mean, sometimes some people are just sociopaths who are taking advantage of fear and frustration. 41100:30:16,565 --> 00:30:16,725I agree. 41200:30:16,725 --> 00:30:20,225I don't, they might not be even aware that that's what they're doing, you know? Right. 41300:30:20,675 --> 00:30:21,005Yeah. 41400:30:22,010 --> 00:30:25,130I mean, I even have family members who, who do, who react that way. 41500:30:25,130 --> 00:30:28,190And I know they're the, the ni in their heart, they're the nicest people. 41600:30:28,790 --> 00:30:28,970Right. 41700:30:28,970 --> 00:30:31,700I, I think they don't realize that they're afraid. 41800:30:31,700 --> 00:30:33,410They get, they, they feel helpless. 41900:30:33,415 --> 00:30:41,270And so some of the ways that people react if they're not thinking about it, is they blame, they blame, they blame, they blame the person who's suffering. 42000:30:41,270 --> 00:30:41,360Mm-hmm. 42100:30:41,960 --> 00:30:43,760Often the blood, the person who's suffering. 42200:30:44,810 --> 00:30:45,230Yeah. 42300:30:45,380 --> 00:30:50,720And yeah, I think if they really sat down and, and were open to thinking about it, they probably wouldn't do that. 42400:30:50,990 --> 00:30:52,940It's just, it's just like, it's fear. 42500:30:54,020 --> 00:30:54,320Yeah. 42600:30:54,410 --> 00:30:57,350And, and, and if you can't do anything right now, you can't do anything. 42700:30:57,590 --> 00:30:57,890Yeah. 42800:30:57,950 --> 00:30:59,960But don't blame the person who needs the help. 42900:31:00,680 --> 00:31:01,250Yeah. 43000:31:01,340 --> 00:31:01,730Right. 43100:31:02,450 --> 00:31:07,790I'm, I'm curious about the the Marsha Stone character, the FA Fox commentator. 43200:31:08,490 --> 00:31:08,850Yeah. 43300:31:09,990 --> 00:31:25,065Is she like, like personally a quote unquote bad person, or is she more of a, like a cog in this pro who got stuck in this process? Does she have any conscience, I guess is what I'm asking? And I don't want to you to give away anything in the, in the show. 43400:31:26,325 --> 00:31:33,605Well, I think that way I can answer it is You don't wanna make an assumption about what was the thing that made a person the way they are. 43500:31:33,875 --> 00:31:33,965Mm-hmm. 43600:31:34,355 --> 00:31:43,595You know, you can learn stuff no matter how much you disagree with someone, and it doesn't mean that you like them, but you can find out through what they say and the way they act. 43700:31:43,985 --> 00:31:49,115That there might have been something that happened to them in the past, some trigger that turned them into the person they are now. 43800:31:49,565 --> 00:31:49,745Okay. 43900:31:49,955 --> 00:31:57,005And it doesn't mean that they're forgivable, it doesn't mean that they're suddenly nice or should got get a seat at the table with everybody else. 44000:31:57,305 --> 00:32:00,575They still can be a horrible person, but you understand them a little bit better. 44100:32:01,445 --> 00:32:05,255And for me, she represents a certain type mm-hmm. 44200:32:05,555 --> 00:32:11,475Of you know, folk who feel like the only way this is the best way to get ahead is. 44300:32:12,015 --> 00:32:15,225To voice something that seems counterintuitive. 44400:32:16,425 --> 00:32:33,765You know, there are people who are just like, well, the, one of the easiest ways to really get on national attention and get a good regular job is to be a black conservative, because the conservative movement will rush towards you. 44500:32:33,855 --> 00:32:34,395That's true. 44600:32:34,395 --> 00:32:40,065To hire you because they, they want you to be that black guy who always sat behind Trump at every rally. 44700:32:40,575 --> 00:32:41,835When he was running the first time. 44800:32:42,075 --> 00:32:42,135Yeah. 44900:32:42,135 --> 00:32:43,245It was the same guy. 45000:32:43,365 --> 00:32:43,755I know. 45100:32:43,815 --> 00:32:44,805He was the same guy. 45200:32:45,075 --> 00:32:48,275That was that time when he said, where's my black guy? And he turned around, you know? And there he was. 45300:32:48,275 --> 00:32:50,275There, he's there, he's, yeah, there. 45400:32:50,275 --> 00:33:04,075He's, so if you can be, he love, you know be able to, to, to, to mouth the, you know, like, you know, the libertarian neo, not the talking points well enough and you're not white. 45500:33:04,855 --> 00:33:06,265You can get a job. 45600:33:06,730 --> 00:33:08,020Because they will, they will. 45700:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,930Don't you people forget, like the guy who ran the Proud Boys. 45800:33:11,110 --> 00:33:11,320Yeah. 45900:33:11,320 --> 00:33:12,100Who, he's in prison now. 46000:33:13,210 --> 00:33:13,870He's not white. 46100:33:14,470 --> 00:33:14,890I know. 46200:33:14,920 --> 00:33:15,970You know? Yeah. 46300:33:16,480 --> 00:33:17,140And yeah. 46400:33:17,710 --> 00:33:19,630Is he Hispanic or, yeah. 46500:33:19,810 --> 00:33:20,020Yeah. 46600:33:20,025 --> 00:33:23,860He's partly Hispanic, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 46700:33:23,950 --> 00:33:34,810And, and the, there's a guy recently, the guy who was beating pe these people at January 6th, who beat one of the police officers with a fire extinguisher or something, not black. 46800:33:35,245 --> 00:33:36,775You know, I mean, he's not white. 46900:33:36,775 --> 00:33:36,955Sorry. 47000:33:36,955 --> 00:33:37,405He is not white. 47100:33:37,405 --> 00:33:37,465Yeah. 47200:33:37,735 --> 00:33:51,415And so, so there are, you know, you can be celebrated, you know, by and, and be surrounded by people who, under any other circumstance would hate you except for the fact that you're agreeing with them. 47300:33:52,165 --> 00:33:56,335And that can give you prestige and a full-time paying job. 47400:33:56,335 --> 00:34:00,115You can be a, a pundit somewhere, you know, you can get a gig. 47500:34:00,415 --> 00:34:04,255So, Marsha Stone, the, the Fox News commentator, she's a person of color. 47600:34:05,215 --> 00:34:06,055Yes, actress. 47700:34:06,115 --> 00:34:06,385Okay. 47800:34:07,315 --> 00:34:07,555Okay. 47900:34:07,615 --> 00:34:07,885Yeah. 48000:34:08,215 --> 00:34:08,665Interesting. 48100:34:08,665 --> 00:34:18,965And so, yeah, that, that, and we, you know, we've used that in different shows every once in a while, but never quite this blatantly. 48200:34:19,415 --> 00:34:19,715Right. 48300:34:19,775 --> 00:34:23,275You know, sometimes we'll have, you know, we'll have that character who's. 48400:34:24,805 --> 00:34:28,105Kinda like for whatever reason, however they were raised or something that happened to them. 48500:34:28,165 --> 00:34:42,025Like I said, they seem to be working a against their best interests, but at this time it was just like as I was writing and I was like, oh, we normally would come up with some fun name for Fox or fun name for this, or something that sounded, and I was like, you know what, it's Fox. 48600:34:42,175 --> 00:34:49,045I noticed that, you know, that's the first time I can remember you ever doing that, where you, it's like, oh, I know what they're talking about. 48700:34:49,045 --> 00:34:50,305You're, but you're just saying it. 48800:34:50,980 --> 00:34:54,910This time it's Fox and Rupert Murdoch is a character, you know. 48900:34:54,910 --> 00:34:55,090Oh, great. 49000:34:55,330 --> 00:34:56,110In the play. 49100:34:56,740 --> 00:34:56,950Yeah. 49200:34:57,190 --> 00:35:03,820And, and it's not, I mean, those other shows are always fun and it gave us a little more leeway, but this time it's just like, it's just So now Yeah. 49300:35:03,970 --> 00:35:04,360That. 49400:35:04,900 --> 00:35:08,020You know, I don't wanna even give the audience a chance to kind of go, well, it's, it's fun. 49500:35:08,560 --> 00:35:15,760It's not that fun, you know? No, I always get blown away and just amazed and flabbergasted by people like Candace Owens. 49600:35:15,970 --> 00:35:25,840You know? It's like, yeah, where is she coming from? Does she really, really, truly believe this stuff? Or is she just hooked on the attention? And the money. 49700:35:25,870 --> 00:35:31,450I mean, it's could, it's probably a, a se like I said, the path that you find to success. 49800:35:31,780 --> 00:35:31,960Yeah. 49900:35:31,960 --> 00:35:37,245And then, you know, some, sometimes it's like it thinking about what's her name? Megan Kelly, and she left Yeah. 50000:35:37,275 --> 00:35:37,815Fox. 50100:35:37,820 --> 00:35:38,225Mm-hmm. 50200:35:38,355 --> 00:35:53,085And she was saying how sexist it was, and it's like, didn't you watch Fox? You know, How ridiculous is it to have somebody, you know, you left Fox, you went to work for them, and now you're gonna complain that they were sexist. 50300:35:53,745 --> 00:35:58,785I mean, I'm glad you said something, but I can't believe You're shocked, you're surprised. 50400:35:58,790 --> 00:35:59,745You're, oh my goodness. 50500:35:59,865 --> 00:36:23,795You know, I'm shocked, shocked that there's gambling going on here, you know? So the same with all of these, these folk who you know, it's like, do you really think that when you leave the room, When Candace Owens leaves the room, some of the comments are gonna be sexist and a bunch of them are gonna be racist because she's dealing with sexist and racists, but she's being well paid for it. 50600:36:24,125 --> 00:36:30,635And also she might truly, honestly be that blind to really think, this is the world the way I want it to be. 50700:36:30,640 --> 00:36:34,115And it's like, if those people win, you're the first one out the window. 50800:36:34,655 --> 00:36:36,995You know, they're not gonna share power with you. 50900:36:37,355 --> 00:36:37,625No. 51000:36:38,165 --> 00:36:38,855Definitely not. 51100:36:39,305 --> 00:36:39,575Yeah. 51200:36:40,415 --> 00:36:41,495Not in any real way. 51300:36:42,485 --> 00:36:42,875No. 51400:36:43,265 --> 00:36:43,535No. 51500:36:44,195 --> 00:36:44,435Hmm. 51600:36:45,155 --> 00:36:47,345So again, musical comedy. 51700:36:50,225 --> 00:36:53,065Well, you guys always, you still always make things funny. 51800:36:54,755 --> 00:36:59,835Well, yeah, and that's somebody Kodo Carrero, who's a collective member, and she's the costume designer on this show. 51900:37:00,075 --> 00:37:00,165Mm-hmm. 52000:37:00,735 --> 00:37:01,995We were talking about that yesterday. 52100:37:01,995 --> 00:37:08,955She was doing an interview and they were saying, yeah, well how do you make this all so funny? Every year? These, these very serious issues. 52200:37:08,960 --> 00:37:09,555So funny. 52300:37:09,615 --> 00:37:16,945And it's, you know, we don't necessarily, we try not to make fun of the working class victims. 52400:37:17,980 --> 00:37:37,420You know, of these te of these policies, but, and we don't wanna make the, the oppressors objects of fun, but it's really about how people twist and turn themselves to try to fit into an inhuman machine. 52500:37:38,420 --> 00:37:47,390They, you know, the hypocrisy and hyper hyperbolic things that they say and do so that, that they can get to, so that they can try to fit. 52600:37:47,390 --> 00:37:49,760And then sometimes they realize they just shouldn't even be trying that. 52700:37:49,980 --> 00:37:50,400Mm-hmm. 52800:37:50,660 --> 00:37:54,140So the farce is in the attempt? Yeah. 52900:37:54,380 --> 00:37:58,670You know, the farce is in trying to live, trying to act. 53000:37:58,790 --> 00:38:05,150Basically, if you have sane people in an insane situation, they're trying to make themselves insane to fit in. 53100:38:05,720 --> 00:38:05,960Yes. 53200:38:06,140 --> 00:38:09,230And then at some point, hopefully they go, I don't wanna be insane. 53300:38:10,040 --> 00:38:11,090Fitting in isn't the thing. 53400:38:11,300 --> 00:38:27,650That's why, that's why it's funny because I, I, I always feel like there are archetypes that you, that you describe in detail very well, and these people, they're like pegs that somehow by chance or whatever, ended up fitting into those things and they're perpetuating the machine. 53500:38:27,890 --> 00:38:32,930And we all see it and you make it funny and it makes us think, but we don't, we don't like end up. 53600:38:33,935 --> 00:38:36,545Necessarily hating the characters in your play. 53700:38:36,635 --> 00:38:39,435It's, it's more like yeah, I get it. 53800:38:39,440 --> 00:38:39,825I get this. 53900:38:39,825 --> 00:38:40,395Well, it's too easy. 54000:38:40,395 --> 00:38:47,535Situation needs to be fixed because it's like, if it wasn't for those individuals, it would probably be somebody else. 54100:38:48,525 --> 00:38:49,035You know what I mean? Yeah. 54200:38:49,275 --> 00:38:53,495Then it's not that there was a point when When Bush two and Cheney were in office. 54300:38:53,945 --> 00:38:54,125Yeah. 54400:38:54,155 --> 00:38:59,575And and I ended up using Cheney a lot in shows, mainly because they had, Holmes was at the company and he looked like Dick Cheney. 54500:38:59,635 --> 00:38:59,845Yeah. 54600:38:59,845 --> 00:39:00,415And he, and he's great. 54700:39:00,415 --> 00:39:04,856I mean, how could you get any funnier than Dick Cheney? Right, right, right, right. 54800:39:05,545 --> 00:39:11,395But at the same time, I wanted to make sure to always emphasize that it's the system. 54900:39:12,130 --> 00:39:15,400You know, it's not chaining like you were saying somebody else would be there. 55000:39:15,670 --> 00:39:22,870It's the philosophy of profit over humanity, you know, and that and power and propaganda. 55100:39:23,285 --> 00:39:24,485The, the class war there. 55200:39:24,485 --> 00:39:30,495Only one side has been fighting people not seeing that just because they, they have a nice apartment. 55300:39:30,495 --> 00:39:34,605It doesn't mean they're not in the working class cuz they're still workers. 55400:39:34,875 --> 00:39:37,875I got in an argument with the guy on the street cuz that's what I do. 55500:39:38,365 --> 00:39:41,845We were talking about, I was saying, you know you know how, how. 55600:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,995The system has to work for us to benefit to benefit more people. 55700:39:46,475 --> 00:39:54,065And he was saying, well, is you and me? We got together, we could start a YouTube channel and if we got a million viewers, then we'd be like, cap rich capitalists. 55800:39:54,065 --> 00:39:55,235And I didn't stop him. 55900:39:55,240 --> 00:39:55,965I feel bad about this. 56000:39:55,965 --> 00:40:05,615This was like a month ago and I didn't, I argued some other points, but I never stopped him right there and said, if we're working hard on a YouTube channel, we are not capitalists. 56100:40:06,250 --> 00:40:07,720That's not what capitalists do. 56200:40:07,900 --> 00:40:10,660Capitalism is your money working for you. 56300:40:10,780 --> 00:40:13,510The goal of any capitalist is to not work. 56400:40:13,840 --> 00:40:19,480Right? Create as much passive income as possible, right? Your money works for you. 56500:40:19,780 --> 00:40:19,960Yeah. 56600:40:19,990 --> 00:40:26,830If you, but if you are working and you rely on your income to pay your rent, to have food, to take care of stuff, you're in the working class. 56700:40:27,220 --> 00:40:35,020And the great trick that capitalism has done is to make people associate themselves with capitalism, even though they themselves are not capitalists. 56800:40:36,100 --> 00:40:37,240They support capitalism. 56900:40:37,240 --> 00:40:39,790They'll die for capitalism, but they're workers. 57000:40:40,735 --> 00:40:43,705they should be working on socialism, anarchy. 57100:40:43,885 --> 00:40:51,595They should be working on, on systems that benefit the workers first, instead of supporting a system that benefits the capitalists first. 57200:40:51,775 --> 00:40:54,505The capitalists have money because they're underpaying the workers. 57300:40:55,060 --> 00:40:56,230It's so frustrating. 57400:40:56,770 --> 00:40:57,580The billionaires. 57500:40:58,240 --> 00:40:58,450Yeah. 57600:40:58,450 --> 00:41:02,140The billionaires, the Rupert Mur, all these people are, are, yeah. 57700:41:02,140 --> 00:41:02,480El Musk. 57800:41:02,480 --> 00:41:08,680Keeping Musk our consciousness to not understand that because Yeah, they're the ones who are riffing the job. 57900:41:08,680 --> 00:41:09,940We think that they haven't earned that money. 58000:41:10,120 --> 00:41:10,390Yeah. 58100:41:10,600 --> 00:41:22,720That they, they convinced enough people that, that they themselves have earned all of this money and it's like, no, you are just, I mean, a dollar a week, whatever you are underpaying your workers. 58200:41:23,485 --> 00:41:27,235That's where your wealth is coming from is underpaying your workers. 58300:41:27,625 --> 00:41:29,125That is how it's created. 58400:41:29,635 --> 00:41:42,715It is because the, the, the, the thing you actually need that would, you need for that chair is always gonna cost about the same amount of money, shipping it, doing all that stuff, but shaping it into a chair and how much you pay that worker. 58500:41:42,865 --> 00:41:44,275That's the only variable. 58600:41:44,665 --> 00:41:47,785And if you can pay them less, you get to keep more. 58700:41:48,355 --> 00:41:49,615That's capitalism. 58800:41:50,005 --> 00:41:50,125Right. 58900:41:50,125 --> 00:42:11,345You know? And so it's just so these people are rich because, so when we're walking around the world going, wow, why are things so bad? Why are there so many poor people? Why do I feel poorer than I did 10 years ago? And then you look at the front page and you go, Elon Musk is shooting a sports car in a space, or somebody's got a super yacht, they are super rich because we are struggling. 59000:42:11,950 --> 00:42:12,250Yes. 59100:42:12,340 --> 00:42:15,370And we are struggling because they are super rich. 59200:42:15,490 --> 00:42:15,580Right. 59300:42:15,940 --> 00:42:17,500We don't need more billionaires. 59400:42:17,860 --> 00:42:19,450We don't even need more a hundred millionaires. 59500:42:19,450 --> 00:42:21,400We need more a hundred thousandaires. 59600:42:22,180 --> 00:42:22,360Yeah. 59700:42:22,420 --> 00:42:23,260You know? Yeah. 59800:42:23,650 --> 00:42:30,945If we were all making enough to live s and they were making significantly less, The world would be a better place. 59900:42:31,215 --> 00:42:34,965I was just in Europe and I noticed that that's pretty much what's happening there. 60000:42:34,965 --> 00:42:37,625I'm not to say they don't have problems, of course they do, but Oh, they do. 60100:42:37,625 --> 00:42:37,825Yeah. 60200:42:38,025 --> 00:42:40,965But there are restrictions on how much CEOs can make. 60300:42:41,475 --> 00:42:44,655They're yeah, they, they actually do build. 60400:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,790Housing for the poor, and you'll see it in the big cities. 60500:42:49,790 --> 00:42:53,690And I, I'm not saying that they've built it attractively or anything like that. 60600:42:53,780 --> 00:43:00,380We hopefully can do better, but, you know, you know, 20 story really super ugly apartment buildings and they're all over the place. 60700:43:00,560 --> 00:43:03,050But you don't have people living on the street for the most part. 60800:43:03,620 --> 00:43:04,670Well, a few, right. 60900:43:05,180 --> 00:43:06,350But everyone, yeah. 61000:43:06,620 --> 00:43:09,680Who can be housed mostly is housed. 61100:43:10,190 --> 00:43:10,370Yeah. 61200:43:10,370 --> 00:43:12,080Well there's a, there's a full of billionaire. 61300:43:12,350 --> 00:43:13,280No, it's not. 61400:43:13,655 --> 00:43:14,285But that's great. 61500:43:14,285 --> 00:43:14,345Yeah. 61600:43:15,125 --> 00:43:15,305Yeah. 61700:43:15,755 --> 00:43:32,655But there's a, I think there's a fundamental philosophical and psychological issue, which is, especially in Europe, but really most places in the world, not as much China, but especially in Europe there, there's a, a focus on no. 61800:43:32,655 --> 00:43:36,075Even in Eastern Europe, there's a focus on Yeah, definitely the town. 61900:43:36,465 --> 00:43:36,675Yeah. 62000:43:36,705 --> 00:43:39,075You know, there's focus on the town is the town. 62100:43:39,075 --> 00:43:39,555Yes. 62200:43:39,615 --> 00:43:41,115There is no frontier. 62300:43:41,505 --> 00:43:42,465No Yourt. 62400:43:42,495 --> 00:43:43,755This is how big it is. 62500:43:44,175 --> 00:43:45,255Your town is this big. 62600:43:45,255 --> 00:43:48,255It's a city state and then it, it's a country, but that's pretty much it. 62700:43:48,645 --> 00:43:49,995Portugal is really like that. 62800:43:51,495 --> 00:43:51,855Yeah. 62900:43:52,155 --> 00:43:57,165But I So was Spain, even under Franco, Spain was like, we've gotta build more houses. 63000:43:57,170 --> 00:43:57,405Yeah. 63100:43:57,475 --> 00:44:07,645You know, Germany, east Germany, Soviet Union, they were like, these are the towns, you know, England, Scotland, these are the towns and we have to support this town. 63200:44:07,645 --> 00:44:10,225Whereas the United States fundamentally has a. 63300:44:10,835 --> 00:44:14,735A built into our culture is the idea of an endless frontier. 63400:44:15,545 --> 00:44:15,725Yeah. 63500:44:16,115 --> 00:44:18,185You can always go west, young man, you know? Right. 63600:44:18,335 --> 00:44:19,475There's always more space. 63700:44:19,475 --> 00:44:23,315You could always come out west, you could always, you could go to Alaska. 63800:44:23,545 --> 00:44:28,975the end of the American frontier didn't, we didn't, it didn't end until like the fifties. 63900:44:29,800 --> 00:44:35,940When when Alaska became a state, you know, in late forties, early fifties, that's when the frontier finally ended. 64000:44:35,940 --> 00:44:41,430But up until then and built into everything is you can always just pick up and leave and go west. 64100:44:42,510 --> 00:44:53,250And so there was no, so the idea of taking care of people on that kind of like we in this town have to have to reflect on how we treat each other. 64200:44:54,120 --> 00:45:01,710Is not as fundamental as it would be if you lived in a city that had been under siege, you know, literally under siege before. 64300:45:01,830 --> 00:45:01,890Yeah. 64400:45:01,890 --> 00:45:02,670Many times. 64500:45:02,910 --> 00:45:02,970Yeah. 64600:45:02,975 --> 00:45:03,180Right. 64700:45:03,180 --> 00:45:05,700That gets baked into your, your thinking. 64800:45:05,940 --> 00:45:06,150Yeah. 64900:45:06,600 --> 00:45:11,790So I mean that's, that's cuz I'm, you know, I was a history major, so I always think it's like history up to this point. 65000:45:12,060 --> 00:45:12,540Yeah, me too. 65100:45:12,620 --> 00:45:12,910Yeah. 65200:45:12,915 --> 00:45:13,240Yeah. 65300:45:13,540 --> 00:45:18,200Whenever somebody says to me history doesn't make any difference, I just think that's cuz you're trying to cover something up. 65400:45:18,740 --> 00:45:30,945You know, if you say history, that means you're a, you're, you know, you're a holocaust denier or a, a slavery denni you something you parents were, Nazis, something that you're trying to back off of. 65500:45:31,275 --> 00:45:36,765So you need is important for you to say history doesn't matter, but history is the only thing. 65600:45:37,410 --> 00:45:38,880Everything we did is history. 65700:45:38,880 --> 00:45:41,760The future doesn't exist yet and the present doesn't exist. 65800:45:42,060 --> 00:45:43,710As soon as you say something, it's history. 65900:45:44,130 --> 00:45:45,360Everything is history. 66000:45:45,900 --> 00:45:50,700And if you don't study and understand history, you're gonna end up in the same situation. 66100:45:51,030 --> 00:45:54,810And that's why it's so important for them to try to keep us from learning history. 66200:45:55,500 --> 00:45:55,980Yeah. 66300:45:56,100 --> 00:45:59,460Now they're trying to, anyway, ban the book so we learn less about you. 66400:45:59,460 --> 00:45:59,730Yeah. 66500:46:00,615 --> 00:46:01,995And other things. 66600:46:02,335 --> 00:46:10,255So tell us what audiences can expect from breakdown in terms of music, performances, the overall experience. 66700:46:10,255 --> 00:46:14,455How long is the show? Is there an intervention? No, the show's a no. 66800:46:14,515 --> 00:46:14,815Nope. 66900:46:15,145 --> 00:46:15,865We don't, we, yeah. 67000:46:15,865 --> 00:46:16,375It's hard to do it. 67100:46:16,375 --> 00:46:17,755Never have inter Yeah. 67200:46:18,085 --> 00:46:18,325Yeah. 67300:46:18,565 --> 00:46:22,255We've had stretches and this show's about 1 25. 67400:46:22,745 --> 00:46:23,035Okay. 67500:46:23,040 --> 00:46:25,740It's different from some mitro shows in that, you know, we have. 67600:46:26,295 --> 00:46:28,845A pure dance, a couple of pure dance numbers in the show. 67700:46:29,115 --> 00:46:29,355Mm-hmm. 67800:46:30,055 --> 00:46:31,345Which we normally don't do. 67900:46:31,795 --> 00:46:33,085It's also a very different cast. 68000:46:33,085 --> 00:46:36,525People who've seen a lot of mine from shows won't recognize a bunch of, of these people. 68100:46:36,525 --> 00:46:36,925Yeah, I saw that. 68200:46:36,930 --> 00:46:37,975I didn't recognize anyone. 68300:46:38,005 --> 00:46:38,275Yeah. 68400:46:38,515 --> 00:46:38,805Yeah. 68500:46:38,935 --> 00:46:42,625I mean, they're wonderful actors and they're people that we've been wanting to work with for a while. 68600:46:42,955 --> 00:46:43,075Yeah. 68700:46:43,265 --> 00:46:45,475And a couple of them were, were in. 68800:46:46,025 --> 00:46:51,665My show, the Great Con, when it played at SF Playhouse, I really pushed for these two actors cause I wanted to work with them. 68900:46:52,085 --> 00:46:52,205Yeah. 69000:46:52,205 --> 00:47:00,295And then when we came around to this show Jamella across and Keena Cantor, I really wanted to work with them cuz I thought they, they'd fit our style. 69100:47:00,655 --> 00:47:04,135And Jed Presario just hilariously. 69200:47:04,415 --> 00:47:08,085Funny actor good character actor, and Alicia mp. 69300:47:08,145 --> 00:47:15,405Alicia MP Nelson, who has was in the show last year, the Mind Troop Show last year as Zoe the Teenager. 69400:47:15,585 --> 00:47:15,735Oh yeah. 69500:47:15,740 --> 00:47:18,795And this year is Sadia the social worker. 69600:47:19,215 --> 00:47:19,245Okay. 69700:47:19,275 --> 00:47:23,470And then Andrea Morico, who is our, like our most recent collective member at the Mind Troop. 69800:47:24,020 --> 00:47:26,820He plays a bunch of Blink looting Rupert Murdoch. 69900:47:27,510 --> 00:47:38,255So, Yeah, so people will see the shows and they'll, they, it will be like, this is a whole different group of actors, but we do try to always bring in new people. 70000:47:38,555 --> 00:47:38,645Mm-hmm. 70100:47:39,125 --> 00:47:39,935To tell stories. 70200:47:39,935 --> 00:47:45,065You know, you can't just keep pretending like the world is the same place it was when you were doing things. 70300:47:45,740 --> 00:47:50,940You know, saying, you know they're just the show, the characters just get older and older and older with us. 70400:47:51,690 --> 00:47:51,810Yeah. 70500:47:51,810 --> 00:47:55,860It's like, no, there's shows that have to be mainly focused on younger folks too. 70600:47:56,460 --> 00:47:57,330So yeah. 70700:47:57,335 --> 00:48:02,390It's a, it's a comedy But it's a harsh comedy, like most mind TRO shows. 70800:48:02,570 --> 00:48:02,810Yeah. 70900:48:02,900 --> 00:48:15,100And this one is more psychological than some shows in that we're trying to deal with them when he's having mental issues and pt, s d and all of the pressures of living on the street. 71000:48:15,280 --> 00:48:25,550And at the same time trying to, like I said, show their circumstance in a way that is meaningful and not mocking. 71100:48:26,325 --> 00:48:27,555But still be a comedy. 71200:48:27,555 --> 00:48:31,965I mean, that's always the struggle for, for myself and whoever's writing my troop shows. 71300:48:32,355 --> 00:48:32,685Yeah. 71400:48:33,045 --> 00:48:33,405Yeah. 71500:48:34,575 --> 00:48:40,370And and when does, when does it open? July? Well, we open in Berkeley this Saturday. 71600:48:40,460 --> 00:48:41,240Oh, this Saturday. 71700:48:41,270 --> 00:48:41,480Okay. 71800:48:41,480 --> 00:48:43,460On the first, this Saturday. 71900:48:43,465 --> 00:48:47,240So yeah, I've gotta go back outside and we gotta run through starting in a little while. 72000:48:47,260 --> 00:48:47,760Oh, okay. 72100:48:48,290 --> 00:48:50,840And then it runs, Yeah, run through. 72200:48:51,140 --> 00:48:51,440Yeah. 72300:48:51,440 --> 00:49:01,100And then we'll run all summer, we'll do, we'll do Saturday and Sunday, and I think we're in Cedar Rose Park in San Francisco, and then on the 4th of July in San Francisco at Dolores Park. 72400:49:01,610 --> 00:49:01,790Great. 72500:49:01,820 --> 00:49:02,090Sorry. 72600:49:02,090 --> 00:49:02,210Yeah. 72700:49:02,210 --> 00:49:06,980Cedar Rose in Berkeley, the first and second, and Dolores Park in San Francisco on the fourth. 72800:49:06,980 --> 00:49:09,020And then we'll run all the way to Labor Day weekend. 72900:49:09,425 --> 00:49:13,535And if people wanted to find out when we're gonna be in their area, we'll go to Ukiah. 73000:49:13,535 --> 00:49:16,415We'll go down to Santa Cruz, play the East Bay. 73100:49:16,715 --> 00:49:19,717Go to sft.org 73200:49:19,722 --> 00:49:23,765and click the button that says schedule and you'll see when the mine troop will be in your neighborhood. 73300:49:23,825 --> 00:49:27,725That's their website, San Francisco mine troop sft.org. 73400:49:27,935 --> 00:49:28,355Great. 73500:49:28,985 --> 00:49:32,655And I hope, I hope you're gonna be over here at Mitchell Park in Palo Alto again. 73600:49:34,275 --> 00:49:35,625I, I believe so. 73700:49:35,685 --> 00:49:36,645I should look at the schedule. 73800:49:36,650 --> 00:49:43,511It's, it's it's a half mile from my house, so we could be, yeah, we played in that, we played in that semi-circle last year. 73900:49:43,511 --> 00:49:45,551That was different for us, but it worked. 74000:49:45,731 --> 00:49:46,761So we'll probably do that again. 74100:49:46,761 --> 00:49:47,021Yeah, that great. 74200:49:47,021 --> 00:49:47,831I really enjoyed it. 74300:49:47,911 --> 00:49:48,201Yeah. 74400:49:48,206 --> 00:49:49,331Yeah, yeah, yeah. 74500:49:49,601 --> 00:49:50,171All right. 74600:49:50,471 --> 00:49:52,661Well thank you so much for being here again. 74700:49:52,931 --> 00:49:53,501Oh, thanks for having me. 74800:49:53,981 --> 00:49:55,211Well, there you have it. 74900:49:56,111 --> 00:49:57,971My little chat with Michael J. 75000:49:57,971 --> 00:50:00,971Sullivan of the San Francisco Mime Troop. 75100:50:02,501 --> 00:50:04,661I'll be sure to go check out their show breakdown. 75200:50:04,661 --> 00:50:13,631It's going to be playing in venues all over the Bay Area for, gosh, three months, four months through September. 75300:50:13,991 --> 00:50:14,621Check it out. 75400:50:15,191 --> 00:50:17,621As I said, they always do great stuff. 75500:50:19,631 --> 00:50:20,831Hey, thanks so much for listening. 75600:50:20,831 --> 00:50:23,261If you enjoy this show, please tell your friends. 75700:50:23,261 --> 00:50:25,001I'd really, really appreciate it. 75800:50:25,866 --> 00:50:29,346Give me a rating on Apple Podcasts if you could. 75900:50:29,346 --> 00:50:31,686It helps out a lot for me to get more listeners. 76000:50:32,406 --> 00:50:37,326And if you wanna get ahold of me, just send an email to Green Room on air gmail.com. 76100:50:38,586 --> 00:50:39,546Have a great week. 76200:50:39,756 --> 00:50:48,556I'll talk to you soon, and until next time, I'll see you on the boards. 76300:50:50,701 --> 00:50:51,931Take care y'all. 76400:50:53,221 --> 00:51:02,851I'll leave you today with a track from my dear friend Carly Oard, singing Imagine by John Lennon. 76500:51:12,841 --> 00:51:14,331Imagine there's. 76600:51:19,241 --> 00:51:20,051It's easy. 76700:51:39,276 --> 00:51:40,656All the people. 76800:51:57,651 --> 00:52:04,431It isn't to do nothing. 76900:52:17,661 --> 00:52:18,601All the. 77000:52:44,861 --> 00:52:45,761You join us. 77100:53:38,986 --> 00:53:39,206I'm. 77200:53:49,556 --> 00:53:52,976Hope someday you'll join us.