Cowboys Collapse Again, Troy & Joe’s Breakup & Disco Moves | Tony Smith | Ep 271

Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Rhyner, sports talk. Baseball.

Baseball. Baseball. Baseball.

Baseball. With the big mic. Oh, okay.

Alright. Yeah. Okay.

Now I get it. We had a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego?

We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright.

Here's a tip for all these Americano late teams. Don't... Wait.

You said tip. Yeah. Tip.

Okay. With a p. I would Keep jamming.

The the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off set. Is this a cool night or what?

I know somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Start it over.

Come on. Come on. Start it over.

Stop it. Wow. Ash.

God. What's going on here? Shit every week.

Couple times a week. Yeah. We're not even ten seconds in, and I'm already pissed.

Unbelievable. And you know what? You should be, shoopy.

I know. I feel right at outrage? After many remotes when he wasn't happy, I feel right at home.

I was always happy at remotes. Oh my. Wasn't difficult at remote, was I?

No, but you were just mad at the world sometimes when you came to work. Just a little upset about, I don't know, life. My, how things have changed.

I was? A little cranky some days, Crankier than... Like Glenn Goodman on Dancing with the Stars.

He had his cranky days, but normally it was great. But yeah, get his cranky days. I always thought I walked in there with my head right, ready to go.

Strawberries and everything smelled great. Yeah. He did always smell good.

Yeah. I don't know why I thought about it. He would he would come in, you know, the days of remotes even and still swing by the studio, come in for a hug.

I'd be always like, Shoopy. Nice. You smell wonderful.

Yeah. And then when we're at the Freak, he would come in and he smelled like Christmas because he switched to, like, a different cologne or something for for a couple months. I've never worn cologne in the last But something.

Not since I was in high school. Okay. Well, something smelled on you smelled really good.

Well, yeah, I know I've got some in there, but I never wore it. Oh. Better definition of Christmas.

It's funny how we all remember things a little differently than him. Kinda minty. Yes.

Yeah. It's his... I think it's shampoo.

I think every shower has mint in it. Okay. Okay, Shoopy.

It does? Yes. Yeah.

Yes. You're a minty guy. I think everything in your shower has mint.

I believe it. We're talking about things that he's What? Really?

Yeah. Okay. Flueless.

Well, I mean, love it. If I didn't like the stuff in my shower, it wouldn't be in there. So I guess I'm okay with it.

Kinda winds up there every few months, I guess. Yeah. Gets replenished somehow.

Yeah. I guess I'm okay with that. Yeah.

I mean, he has to ship some in. He has to go to North Park to buy stuff. Oh my gosh.

I mean, hey. That's a Big deal. That's a very well put together 76 year old, so he's doing something right.

Is he still a big breakfast cereal guy? Oh. No.

He was once, weren't you? Yeah, I was once. I had some old ticket audio where someone was complaining about how anal he was or whatever about breakfast cereal.

Yeah. I I used to eat Wheaties. Ah.

Wow. Okay. I love your Wheaties.

Making a note of that? Mhmm. No.

Don't don't make a note. Were they frosted Wheaties or just regular? Regular.

Okay. Straight up Wheaties. Old school.

Yeah. Did that for a few years. Eating.

I'll be eating Fruit Loops, and he says, eating cereal. It's almost like coffee. Yeah.

Now that he's changed his ways, he expects everyone else to. Well, yeah. Wow.

Of course. Because you're clearly doing everything correct, and everyone else is doing it wrong. That's right.

I get it. They're behind the times. I respect it.

Yeah. Oh, I feel so comfortable listening to I'm a pacesetter. Yeah.

They're so So familiar. So 2000 late. They're so 2000 late.

Yeah. As Fergie would once say. Oh, gosh.

Yeah. Who said that? Fergie and the black eyed peas.

Yes. Boom Boom Pow, I believe. Oh, okay.

London Bridge. Oh, it is? I'm sorry.

London Bridge. I'm gonna have to specify. Did she do a little party too?

Probably. That's one of my favorite songs from Dancing With the Stars. Wow.

Was like, I think it was Fergie. Season 17 open if you wanna look it up. I I think it was Fergie.

Good. Okay. I know.

I want everybody to like the show like me. It's like, no. Okay.

No. Your your passion makes me want to like it. I just am bad about sitting down and watching things.

We are barely three minutes into episode number two hundred seventy one Five minutes. Of Your Dark Companion on this, the November 2. Mhmm.

Indeed. The optional month of October is over. It's true.

It is time for warm weather gear, kids. Mm-mm. No cold better get with the program.

Yeah. Cold weather gear. Yeah.

Very warm. I'm gonna be putting a hoodie over my shorts. That's right.

You should put a hoodie over your shorts and your jorts. I don't wear jorts. I never wore jorts.

You did. Yes. Yes.

I did. Yep. I was a proud jorts wearer.

You you rocked them. Yes. Yeah.

And I bring them back. And I didn't care who knew it, saw it, or what they thought about it. I think we should get them in board shorts.

What's your board shorts? What's that? Surfer shorts.

But the Oh, hell yeah. Longer one. Yeah.

He can pull that off. Can people even hear her? Nope.

No. It's it's a whole thing. Oh, it's off mic?

Yeah. Alright. She's off mic.

Look bad because we have two women on our program, and neither of them talking to the mic. So it seems like we're just all patriarchy and stuff because we don't want women making their voices heard. We want them on the mic, but they never talk.

You said never talk into the way it is? Us. I do not.

They can't even hear you saying that I silence you, ironically. They've heard that. Yeah.

Well, they probably did. Do you see who we have here today, Shoopey? I know.

I've seen him. Are we on air now? Technically, yes.

Oh my gosh. Okay. That's how it goes.

It's Glad I was It's a new... It's a thing we've been doing for a while. Or so.

Oh my goodness. About half a year ago about half a year ago, Shoopy kind of started freaking out before shows being like, no. I don't wanna do this.

Oh god. And Oh, no. Yeah.

And we would just make him still do the show anyway. Okay. You know, this is...

That was me just getting that last bit of of angst out of my system. Right. Once it started, then...

What was that? I was laughing at you. He's zipped tight a little.

You don't get nervous still, do you? Here? Yeah.

No. Okay, so it was just angst, there wasn't nervousness. Yeah, it was just angst.

There's a difference. There is a difference. The only person he hasn't done to is Troy Aiken.

Yeah. That is true. I tightened up around him.

Yeah. Troy Troy's butt was where your butt is now. He was here.

Oh my gosh. I'm touch in this chair all over. Yeah.

That's a wow. What's gonna happen with him next year? Did he get any insight when he was here?

We don't know anything. Oh. Like, he's...

At the time, he made it sound like he was all good. Yeah. At the time, that story hadn't...

And I I probably should address this because a lot of people have come at me. Say, man, why don't you ask about this stuff when you were on the show? Well, mainly, because at that time, it wasn't that much of a story yet.

Yeah. Everything seemed to be status quo. He and Joe were gonna call the Super Bowl this year, and there's no reason to think that they wouldn't continue on his on air partners for forever.

Now in subsequent weeks and subsequent months, subsequent days Mhmm. We've seen that, there's a very good chance that Super Bowl will be their last fandango. Yeah.

And now everybody's trying to examine every single broadcast they do now, and every single moment is their tension. Is there not any interaction he has with anyone on the sidelines? Does it mean that he is gonna be the GM of the Cowboys next year because he talked to Jerry Jones about stuff?

Or what's gonna happen with Troy? Yeah. I promise you that won't happen.

That's pretty safe to assume. Yeah. I don't know where he'll be.

I don't know what he'll be doing, but he... It won't be GM and the Cowboys. I'd bet anything on that.

Yeah. But do you think Jerry has considered the idea of firing Jerry the GM? So you're telling me that you think what should happen is Jerry, the owner, should fire Jerry, the general manager?

That's my theory that I just came up with. Boy, that's a concept. Yeah.

That is a solid concept. I'm also wondering, should P Rose be in the Hall of Fame or Well, how about Barry versus Emmett? Yeah.

I mean, kinda wanna know I hadn't even thought about that. But Yeah. Which one Yeah.

Who you like there? Who would you rather have on your sports team? Wow.

Deal. Callback. Classic.

Yep. Yeah. So what do you think about it, Shoopy, about Troy and Joe Buck and their whole mess?

I think it's, well, one thing that's really a drag about it is that now we're starting to see a good bit of dirty laundry getting drug out in the public forum. And I don't know. It's just a bummer that they can't make it work anymore.

But Yeah. Don't know what it means for Troy. I will tell you this.

And I don't know where I got this, but the whole time we had him on the air and then subsequent, I was starting to think, man, bet this guy is gonna be doing something else next year. I I don't know where he's gonna be, but I don't think he's gonna be broadcasting. That was just that was just a hunch I got, just a vibe Okay.

I got that he is gonna be out of the game and maybe, you know, deeper into football somewhere. Interesting. And...

But that's just a hunch. It's not something I know. It's just something I've I've kind of vibed onto.

Oh, you generally have a pretty good feel for those things. Well, sometimes I do. I will say it is a bummer if they do wind up breaking up, but maybe there's hope for...

Think that's a foregone conclusion. Well, but maybe there's hope for about seventeen years or so they can reunite on a podcast together. Yeah.

Stranger things than that have happened. Yeah. Maybe they can find a a sports grill to do a show from.

Yeah. Maybe they can. Yeah.

That'd be good. Seems like a novel idea. Yeah.

Yeah. Two partners that kind of had a falling out and then come back together. Yeah.

Does that happen anymore? No, that doesn't happen. Tune into the OG every second Thursday at Dudley's, 05:00PM.

That's all I got. Okay. I thought that would be a funny bit.

It it worked better in my head. I liked it. Thank you.

I liked it too. I liked it too. It just kinda ran out of shit.

Well, that's how I roll. Yeah. That happens.

That happens at this game. Everybody does every now and then. And when you do, you better have a good answer because if you don't, then that'll happen.

Right. Well, we have Tony Oh, yeah. Of dancing with the stars fame.

Tony, the engineer, the Yay. The longtime ticket personality. Mike's like, what are we doing?

I gotta tell you. Of all the people down there who were just just one of my favorite guys just because he was what he was, that's not a long list, but you were at the top of it. Well, makes Tony was always Tony.

Day. Yes. Tony was always Tony.

Gotta be you. You know? To roll.

He was always ready to help you out any way he could. Mhmm. He was always good humored.

He never had a bad day. He was always just glad to be there. And that's the kind of guy you wanna be around.

Absolutely. It was always a pleasure whenever he'd call into the station and try to... And start setting up a remote, and I'd hear, hey, Gruber.

It's Tony. I was like, hell yeah. It's gonna be a good show.

Wish the Cowboys had more guys like that. You know? That would be nice.

Yeah. They gave a damn. Yeah.

Sorry. I didn't mean to go there. No.

Hey. What do you what do you think about the Cowboys? Oh my gosh.

Well, I gave up on them. Remember a guy named Quincy Carter? I've heard of him.

I gave up on them then. Wasn't he not that great in college even? And Jerry was like, I gotta have this guy.

And he tried forever to make him the starting quarterback. And right then, I don't even know if that was the early aughts or when that was. That was early aughts, yeah.

I was done with them then. Because I knew they were having trouble even back then and I'm like, okay, this is a big moment here. And I said, okay, I'm out.

So I've been out for twenty years, so I'm good, but you still want them to do well, I guess. But are you still at least aware of like, you know, how the season has gone, how yesterday went? Yeah.

I'll still God. What an insanely stupid ass game. You wanna hear my cowboy thing of the day?

Yes. The thing I've been thinking of? Which was worse, yesterday or Tampa Bay?

I mean, I thought that Tampa Bay was one of the worst games I've ever seen a cowboy team play. Mhmm. And yesterday was just as bad, but it was a different kind of bad.

You know? At least gave you hope for a while. Yeah.

I mean, they had that game seemingly under some level of control for a while. Now, of course, it got away in the end the way it always does, but God. You know, Tampa Bay, they they were just gotten they they were just gotten drummed Mhmm.

From the start by a team that did not have their quarterback who was also their best player, the one they have most gotta have. And in his place, there was an unknown, undrafted rookie. Yep.

And that unknown, undrafted rookie killed him. They didn't have an answer for him. Mm-mm.

And this is the Dallas football cowboys we're talking about. With their amazing defensive coordinator Christian Parker just Yes. Ready to come in and kick ass.

Come in here from Philadelphia. He's gonna do all these new things, and he comes in here with this vibe of, okay. I'll show you how it's done.

I got this. Yeah. Yeah.

Sure you do. And now everybody is putting out the theory that he's some sort of a double agent coming from the Eagles. Have you seen that?

No. I haven't seen that. I don't believe it, but it's funny.

It's it's entertaining, but it's very far fetched. But not out of the realm of possibility, Shupee. Well, what is out of the realm of possibility?

Everything's going on a lot more than we think it is out there. Sure is. It sure is.

Mhmm. But this yesterday... Oh my god.

This was against the cardinals. Mhmm. The cardinals, for whatever reason, are a franchise that have given...

Has given the cowboys a really, really high level of difficulty. It's really weird. It is weird.

Because the cardinals, are they undefeated at Jerry World? Is that those stats? Think they're five and o.

F. Yeah. Yeah.

The cardinals. And, you know, compared to the the rest of the NFL, they're now in a very ordinary year. They're gonna struggle to make the playoffs.

And in that division, they probably won't. But they come in here, and as is the case with so many others, they they found what the Cowboys could not do, but they found it late. That was a massive, massive late comeback by then, which makes this whole thing even worse.

And because of that, I don't know. You you might could talk me into the the idea that this is worse than Tampa Bay. Yeah.

I mean, you know, them coming back all the way to a tie, and the only thing stopping them was a last second extra point miss. A tie of thirty thirty. Right.

Tie to 30. WTF, Shoopee. I don't know what to tell you, Shoopee, except this team sucks.

There's no doubt about it. There is no question about it. I don't care what happens here on in, and we are in very early November.

Mhmm. Yesterday's game was on the November 1, so there are weeks to go, but I don't care what happens. There will be no playoffs for this team this year.

There will be none. None whatsoever. And this is in a a division that's that's really not that strong.

It's the AL West of football. Yeah. It kinda is.

Yeah. No one wants to win it. I don't know.

The New York football giants might. They're trying to. They're trying to.

But, man. But I don't know if they know how to. Right.

You know? But as for that team they played yesterday, the dreaded and feared Philadelphia Eagles, both of those teams are just huge, huge messes. And those were the two teams who, along with the Dallas football cowboys, were expected to contend in in the NFC West.

Mhmm. And... Or the NFC East.

I'm sorry. And that is not happening. I don't know who's gonna win it.

I know who's not. So I'm through. Anybody got any...

Boy, he got rattled out there, didn't he? He did. That was a Mike Rhyner master class.

Unplugged at the moment. Yeah, and his signature. How's Dancing with the Stars going this year?

Yeah. Good season, nice segue. I don't do segues.

Nope. It was good. I just barge on in the door.

You Next topic. Yes. It's going great.

We're down to eight now. This week starts double dances each week, which is I can't imagine. Can't imagine learning one dance in five days, let alone two.

How long does it take you to generally learn a dance? Well, I've never really had lessons. Well, I take that back.

I've had lessons two different times and both lasted two sessions. Because both of them are or were group lessons. It's too expensive to do private.

But in both those cases in the second week, they made you get up there and perform in front of everybody in the second week. I'm like, just learned something last week and it's been a whole week. And then they give you something new and then they want you out there and I couldn't take it.

Old heart couldn't take it. Was... What did just get up there and start flopping around or It was bad.

You just, you kind of remember what they taught you last week and you do it, you look awful then you kind of just give up. Oh, it was horrible. It was traumatic.

That's why I never went back. Have you been much of a dancer before all that? No, on the horse.

Fair enough. Oh, I still dance. Nice.

You do the worm? Well, no. Oh, okay.

Yep. Do wanna see me? Just come down to the Sahara Lounge in Austin, third Friday of every month.

Oh. I'll be there. Now what happens there?

I dance. Nice. Addictive.

Or just what do mean? You you dance. Like, get out there and jump around and groove to the music, you know, like with a bunch of people out there, like a Oh, a bar or something like that.

It's not like a performance. It's a bar. Oh, yeah.

No. It's a bar. It's just a club or a bar.

You said that like it was a performance. Yeah. I consider it a performance.

I still have to like drink ahead of time because it's like very nerve wracking to go out there. How long have been doing that? Gosh, four years?

Nice. Yeah, I've probably been down there a couple dozen times. Going back this Friday, if anybody's out there, wants to see yeah, this is where now?

It's called the Sahara Lounge in East Austin. I don't know much about Austin but it's like what I've read, it's kind of like old school Austin, like from the 60s and 70s, it's been there forever, fifty years. It's a neighborhood club.

Oh really? You know what it reminded me a little of is that place you used to perform at in Fort Worth in a kind of a neighborhood area. Keys lounge.

Yes. I love that place when I came and saw you there. Well, that's the vibe I get from this place.

It's welcoming. You get all kinds, you get good looking people, you get not good looking people, you get people dressed up, some even in like six or disco garb, know, 70s. You got people in shorts and wife beaters, you just got a little everything.

And it's all welcoming, you don't feel like, when they're laughing, I don't think they're laughing at me. They're laughing with me is the way I look at it. Alright.

Now, Tony, I wanna learn how to dance. Like ballroom? No.

I just wanna learn how to dance. If I wanna take dance lessons, what's it gonna cost me? Oh man, I haven't looked in a long time.

I only took group lessons, the last time I did it was probably fifteen years ago because I had given up, especially if you have to perform in front of the other students after one session, are you kidding me? When they were like doing moves, here's what you need to do then they go okay let's go on to this I'm like wait a minute we only spent like five minutes on this and you have to build on each of them you know. Hours, hour classes?

Yeah, I think it was two hour classes or something but it was a big group of And then you're dancing with a stranger too and if she's good and you're stepping on her feet and she's like God almighty they just went over that. I'm like yeah I know I'm a dunce. So it would have to be personal lessons and I can't imagine what they would cost.

I'm sure. Yeah, I'm saying like 20 to $30 a class for drop in group classes. Where?

Dallas. Private instruction ranges from 95 to a $135 an hour. Oh, that's not as bad as I thought.

Yeah. Shoope, you can easily afford that. Last private ballroom I saw was over $300 for an hour.

Yeah. I was gonna say most of the ones I've heard were much higher than 95 or 100 an hour. Well Though that may be...

Is that the Murray dance? I I don't know. It just...

That's what Google turned up. Well, did. They Yeah.

Did a good job. Well, I just want somebody who can teach me how to make sense of moving to music because I don't know. You mean...

So just a club you... Club scene then. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you just kinda jump around and move your arms. You know?

It looks bad, but like I said, no one cares about that. But when I do it, I'm out there thinking, okay. I should be making a lot more sense with this stuff than I am, you know.

And Well... I and I I just don't know what to do. You can do the pogo.

See I have a routine. I have a routine when I go to Austin. I get to the hotel and I always go straight to YouTube and I look up the twenty nine disco moves guy and he's a trucker from Australia but he shows you 29 disco moves.

29 disco moves? Yeah, and I try to learn these it's taken me From a trucker from Australia. Yeah, he's a fun guy man.

Oh he looks fun. He is, he even has lighted shoes sometimes. I like lights and music, I'm a simpleton.

I wonder if he has ever worn shoes with live goldfish in the heels. I've seen lights in them, but not goldfish. But anyways, I try to learn his moves, and he gives you disco moves that you can employ at that club.

It's like I still have have the wavy arms thing? Yeah, does a lot of things. He does the old silly things too, lawn mower, you know that stuff.

The sprinkler. Yeah, but it's The shopping cart. Yes, the shopping cart, yeah, you know all these, the driver, you got the wheelchairs I was gonna say, yeah, in the you got to drive the car.

Yeah, and so he makes it like a kind of a dumb down level that a regular person should be able to do. Oh, haven't seen that, I don't think he's done that one, I haven't seen that one. But yeah, go to YouTube, you'll find a lot of help there.

And then you can practice in the comfort of your own home so you don't have to worry about looking goofy. When we get done with this that will teach you exactly what to do. We can put it on social media.

And you like it, pass it on to me. I need any help I can get. I don't know, I think you're way ahead of me on this slide.

Let me give you another secret. I don't know if you still do, do you still drink the Moscow Mule? You've been through a lot of drinks the time I've known you.

You did a 77 for a while, the Moscow Mule, then you had a couple other drinks that were your drink of the day or choice of the time. Oh, the Greyhound, he definitely is. Whatever your drink of choice is now, just have three or four of them before you go out there and you don't care as much.

Really, and it's still fun, you still feel good about it. And like I say, you laugh with people than worry about them laughing at you. Man, it's been a long time since I've had three or four of anything.

He generally just drinks his water or his tea now. Oh, man. Yeah.

He's... Hey, I'm an old guy. You need to take him out and just give him a couple drinks.

Occasionally, you have the Moscow Mule still. Still occasionally, okay. Yeah.

What would it take, a couple of them to get him happy? Oh, I know. It helps when you're a little happy.

Yeah, you just kinda go out there. Maybe we can find out this weekend. Let's take him out on the town.

In one of those clips they say about, I think Donovan and Corby were talking about it, one beer turned into three and then I had the Wile E. Coyote outline go under the dance floor. You just kinda lose your inhibitions when you have a couple, whatever, confidence drinks or something.

A That's my two choices for you. Video of me and Cooperstein dancing at a petty theft show, So maybe Really? Yeah.

For your birthday party. A higher authority? Yeah.

Wow. He's got some moves. He does.

He does? Yeah. Does he dance?

Okay. Well, I'm I'm not surprised by that. He tends to be good at whatever he wants to do.

Yeah. You wouldn't think that... It's a fairly limited scope of what he wants to do, but those things he is very good at.

Yeah. I respect it. So that's my tips.

Couple drinks and the Australian trucker guy. Yeah. Watch him and you'll be good.

Alright. This is our friend Tony the engineer. We used to call you that.

Yeah. Do you like to go by your full name? I still use Tony, the engineer on my podcast, the ballroom blitz, by the way.

Oh. I have a little pod Oh, you got your own. Yes.

Six years now. It's my sixth year. Woah.

Remember our old buddy TC? He helps me along because I didn't know anything about any of this. We got it down to a science now, we go in there and pop it out and I do it from home now.

Used to have to go to his place, so kind of like this setup, you got your own place, it's nice, you know? I think he's turned against me. Uh-oh.

Oh, did not know that. But I'm not sure, maybe He I don't tends to think everybody's turned against I think that's interesting, you think he did, but I'm not sure. He was convinced that Jared Sandler was against him at one point.

I'm really not sure who is and who's not. Well, I know Jared Jared Sandler has. I mentioned it to him.

He's like, what the hell is Mike talking about? Know. It's like, love him.

I wanna make sure Jared Sandler sees this portion. Yeah. Well, I mean, I I brought it up with him at one point during a rangers game last year.

He was like, what? It's like, love him. Like, I've never had any reason not to.

Well, hope you never say that about me. You got one guy in the wilderness that you never have to doubt. You won't lose me or turn on you or whatever.

Yep. Knock me up there, brother. Blow you up.

That was a good dap. I always told That's you dap. Even though I was just your lowly engineer or whatever, said if I had to call somebody at two in the morning, I'd call you for help.

Then he'd call someone else for you. Okay, well that daddy told me he would answer but maybe Here, you're right call this person. Forward that call at two in the morning.

Call is one call. I'd call the chief engineer, whoever that might be at the time. Call Chickering?

No, I'm not for if I was out to help, not at a radio station. He would call his one phone call for you. Yes, there you go.

Would call his one If I was at Lounge Stair, that's still place still around? I don't know. I always heard that name Lounge Stair people would end up at Friday or Saturday night.

It's very much still around. They give me a call, I'm calling you. So be ready.

It ain't going anywhere for a long time. Mm-mm. Alright.

This is our pal, Tony the engineer, here with us today. We're just goofing around. Yeah.

Hell yeah. This is one of those that has no direction. It has no purpose.

It has no substance. It's just kind of a big gray blob It's perfect. Rolling down the road.

For me. Yeah. I'm ready.

Yeah. Which makes it perfect, some would say. We'll we'll be back with more with Tony in just a bit.

And you can chill out over there for a while. Alright. Yeah.

Just calm down. You got stuff to drink there? Yes.

In my my little mug. I don't know if you've seen it. Alright.

Got this last beverage. Well, enjoy that because right now it's time for the dreaded and feared mid show read. Wow.

It's been a half hour already. Alright. Let's see.

What do we got here today? Okay. Don't DIY your football watching party.

There is a better place for this sort of thing, and we call it Dudley's Sports Grill. That is your football watching headquarters because there are TVs all over the place up there. You can't walk three feet in Dudley's without getting hit by TV.

If you're tall. Yeah. If you're tall.

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We did mention football at Dudley's. This is what they do. This is what they're about.

If there is a game going on, they're on it. There's a game that you wanna watch, but for whatever reason, it's not on, tell them. They'll find it for you.

Get to Dudley's in Dallas. They're at 2927 North Henderson. That is just Southeast of Central Expressway, that fabled Knox Henderson exit.

Or if you're out there in Rockwall, watching us in Rockwall, Dudley's in Rockwall is at 2975 Highway 66 out there. Make it your football watching headquarters because food this week you really like. That's right.

I did try new food this week that I really like. Flat bread? That...

The flat brisket. Oh, yes. Woah.

Oh, yes. Outstanding food units at Dudley's. So try those for sure.

Oh my. And check out Dudley's, a cool, comfortable place. Shupi and I both go there a lot.

We dig it. We bet you will too. Damn right.

Alright. Now every Tuesday, 05:30 to seven, Tuesday is tomorrow. And you can Thank you.

Yeah. Minus tomorrow. Do not have one this week, the third.

Oh, we don't? No. They got...

They have a private party. So we have to move to next week. Alright.

Don't do it tomorrow, but a week from tomorrow. Tenth. On the tenth.

On the tenth, join the Sunset Lounge at Scout in the Statler. Be one of the first five people to give the bartender the password. Password is football.

Football. Give them that, and you get a free drink or free valet service. And stick around after for Ziggy and Beer thirty Sports O'clock.

Half price valet available for everyone. That's Tuesdays, 05:30. Scout is the place.

And, yes, we will be there. We will be there. We do it every Tuesday.

A crew of three of us from our little podcast venture is, there. So come see us there at Scout at the Stettler. Yeah.

We don't have it tomorrow, but on the tenth, Norm, Grego, and Mac Engel. Oh. And they'll have basically two weeks of Cowboys opinions installed bottled up and ready to fart out.

Norm is gonna go let loose. Oh, yes. He's been ramping up the last couple shows I've done with him.

Like, he's great no matter what, but as the Cowboys have gotten worse, he's gotten better. It's it's really fun to watch. Just watch part of that.

It's funny how that works. Yeah. That that probably applies to just about everybody in the media.

Yeah. Get a nice mat on as you like to call it. Yeah.

Gosh. And, of course, when you throw the Engel Angle in there with everything Oh, boy. Then who knows where it might go?

Well, in Grego. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot that's possibly gonna happen there.

Things could happen for sure. Alright. Are we through?

Do we have anything else? We we nailed it. Oh, Wake up, Tony.

Yeah. Yeah. So you work with Norm, too?

Yeah. I've done a couple of the three wide shows with him, yeah. Is that a podcast he has?

It's a podcast that we all do, like every Tuesday, that's the thing If he joins in. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's kinda like a round robin of all our hosts in our network. So it's pretty awesome. Yeah.

It's kinda like, you know, when we did guys night out, we'd start mixing and matching the old... Yeah. Round table.

Nice round table. That kind of thing. Yeah.

Fantastic. It's been a lot of fun. Yeah, cool story.

Is. Because it got awful quiet there. So when are you going to Dancing with the Stars again?

I don't think it's happening this year, they have gone to a lottery system for giving out tickets and virtually impossible. I was out there last week I mean not even for you, you're one of their staunch fans. Well, they got a lot of fans, like last week almost 7,000,000 people Yeah, but they don't have you.

Mean, made you in Dancing With The Stars just like this. They recognize that. Yeah.

Bringing fans. I probably need to be more assertive and go out there, do you know who I am? Yeah, something like that, yeah, that's what I need to be doing.

There's nothing wrong with asking the question, can I tell you who I am? Oh my gosh, they did interview me one time when I was out there, they have a rah rah guy that gets you going, gets the crowd all excited and everything, and there's very few men out there, and I happened to be a little taller than some of the men, and so I could've kind of stood out I guess and he came up and interviewed me and told him about the podcast and all that stuff, so that was fun. But yeah, it hasn't led to any super inside connection or anything.

But yeah, the lottery system, it's almost impossible now. They said last week they had 5,000 requests for tickets for the little people, not the VIPs. And there's only two fifty seats for the regular people, so that's what, 5%?

And you don't even know about it unless you get an email back. So if 5,000 people send in an email request, they're probably only sending out 500 to fill up those two fifty seats. So 10% of them is always just getting even getting the email, let alone getting in there to get tickets.

So it's sad now. The show's changed quite a bit and... It always does, man.

Yeah, I mean it's good still, the ratings are incredible, especially in the young demographic. This used to be a long Yeah know but stuff always changes, you know? I know, I know.

I wish we could keep it the same. Shit always changes in this world Well for no part of the reason, yeah things happen, unfortunately our head judge passed away the show's been on a long time. And Oh, nice guy.

Yeah, yeah. Lynn Goodman, yeah. Gosh, been four years ago now?

Four years ago, yeah. And he was a big part, if there was a Mount Rushmore of Dancing with the Stars, he would be on it. He brought a legitimacy to the show, a gravitas, a...

He was a ballroom legend. Well, didn't he start with Ballast on Strictly Dancing? Yes, the English version of the show, Strictly Come Dancing.

He was the head judge there. He did double duty for almost ten years, or more than that I think. Strictly Come Dancing?

That's the British version of Dancing With The Stars. Talk differently over there than we do. Yes.

Was it still like celebrities and stuff on it or? English celebrities. Okay.

Yeah, I mean you never know, like we've had, I think they've had US people on there before, you know we've had like Australian people on our show and Australia has their own version, almost every country has their version. But anyways, yeah, things What's the Australian version, Dancing with Mike? To die, Mike?

I just don't know about that. That was great. That that was stupid.

Shoopy. That was stupid. You just earned yourself another Davie award.

Another what? A Davie award. Yeah.

Oh. Oh, we did? Hell, yeah.

What's that? Award winner. Oh, what's that?

A podcast award. Jiminy Critics. Is that it?

I read it. No. That's last year.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's the Webby.

Last year. Yeah. We had two of them.

Yeah. But we got another award this year, the Davey Award. Yeah.

Well we may not have much else but we got Davey. Damn right! You're great and you don't even probably know will be for life.

Yeah, so back to your question, no, I'm probably not going the rest of this year, no. Plus I'm a busy guy, I got a lot going on. I travel a lot, I work a lot, I play softball a lot, so yeah.

What position? I am right center field, it's old man softball, so you get two extra fielders because Oh, you're a rover? Kind of, they have rover for the infield and then rover for the outfield I guess.

Yeah. We just play four straight up outfielders, left, left center, right center, right. Fair enough.

And it's a lot of fun, but it's sad too because you can't do anything like you once did. If I wasn't in it, it's hard not to laugh at some of the stuff that happens. Guys going for a pop up that's behind their head, they start getting those happy feet and the next thing you know they kind of fall over like a little of Teletubbies or whatever those things are.

Wibble wobbles. It's funny but it's heartbreaking because you know you're pretty much that way too. Yeah, I get it.

But it's a little social environment and you get a little exercise. Yeah, it's not super competitive, people aren't Although I almost got into it with a guy this year. I actually said something I shouldn't have said.

What'd you say Tony? Tony, what did you say? There's ladies here.

Oh hell yeah, now we gotta know. You're more likely to offend us I just than we need to grow a set. Nice.

Because he was whining about it, a love tap, and it just was going on and on and on. But I guess a love tap to a 70 year old can be pretty hard. It could be fatal.

Anyways, yes. We're gonna take those well. Don't know how we got off onto that.

I don't know. Probably not going back to the show, no. Not this year.

Hopefully next year. Because I do give away a trip every year on my podcast to see the show live and in person, free of charge. People do win on my podcast.

People do win, but not on YDC. No. People don't win.

So, I think I can get that done, the days that were going four or five times a year, they're over. Used to go four or five times a year and that's a lot of time and money to go out there to do that, but I loved it. I don't know if I'd be doing five anymore, but I still would go three or four times if I could, but I just don't think the tickets are going to happen for me anymore.

That's unfortunate. It's free, there's no charge for it, yeah. But you said it's like a lottery All this, you come out of this with no inside connect, no inside hookup?

I have a tenuous one. So it's a friend of a of a contact. Sounds ominous.

Yes. Sounds flimsy too. It was.

Last year I tried and tried and tried and the contact did not reply, and then this year I was gonna try one more time, just one more time and I'll be darned if they didn't reply. And so I got to go this year and take my last year's winner for the podcast, thank God, And I hope that that's gonna be okay going forward because nobody leaves this show. It's like nobody left the station for a long time, nobody leaves this show.

She's been there since season four, think she said, my contact and the show runner was there at the beginning, the talent coordinator was there from the beginning. And it's in show in year what now? It'd be year twenty one, season thirty five.

Wow. Pretty good. Yeah, it's amazing and the guy who built the show with an older audience, he actually left after season eighteen to go work on another show, and his disciples ran it for, gosh, seven more seasons, and then I think I mentioned this last time, they brought in basically a consultant.

Yes. Know what they do. Yes.

I know what they do. What would that be, Shoopy? I never forgot that or what he's...

Yeah. I'll let... The floor is yours.

Consultants fly in, shit all over everything and fly out. They're like pigeons. It's perfect.

Exactly the description. It was so bad and you know, actually wrote a letter to ABC. Woah.

I know it's ridiculous, but I was so frustrated. In that letter, did you tell them that your consultant is like a pigeon? Didn't think I should upset them.

I thought I was just saying, here's what's wrong and here's how we can fix it. I'm part of this, folks, here's how we can fix it. So I wrote Carrie Burke, the president of ABC Entertainment, and I didn't hear back from him.

Did you like handwrite it or ransom note it or No, it was on the computer, but it was four pages long, they might not have read it all, it's like a resume, aren't you supposed to make it brief until the point Ideally, yeah, or at least do like a cliff notes or something. I don't know, I was going into detail. Did you just tear off a little corner piece of paper and write it in the left hand You'll or never find me, but I have some thoughts.

I wanted to be found, man, I gave him phone number and everything, I said, Call me, I'll fix this thing for you. But they brought the original showrunner back, and he has rebuilt the show with a totally different audience. I'm so impressed with him.

He's a genius in two different audiences, two different demographics. He's an older guy, so how he has a pulse on what the young people want, I don't know. I mean it's possible.

Hello? Yeah. It's possible for older guys to have a pulse on younger people.

Yeah. How do you do fellow I actually saw him last year and no one knows him because he's behind the camera, you know, but I know Conrad Green. He came up to talk to somebody who was next to me and I'm sure I got the look in my face and he kind of looked over as he's walking up and kind of gave me a sheepish grin.

I go, you're Conrad Green. He goes, yeah, hi. I go, can I have a picture with you?

I was just freaked out because he would be on the Mount Rushmore of dancing with his father's he and, and, Len and Tom Bergeron and Derek is my, it's my Mount Rushmore. But, anyways, I got a picture with him and he's a doppelganger of Dan McDowell Uh-oh. And he walks like Dan too.

Just, it's so funny because I feel like I know him and he looks just like Dan. Anyways, it was a blast. So, but he's a genius man.

He built the show again in a different way now with a different audience. And he still kept a lot of the old content to keep us old people engaged. The judges are there from day one.

That doesn't happen on other shows, you That is a slippery slope to master. It really is. And that obviously, that other guy couldn't, and not only couldn't, he drew...

Did it the other way. So when it was banished to Disney plus in season thirty one, everybody thought this is it. They took it off ABC for a year.

And that's the core audience, or at least it was. But then they brought this guy back and slowly but surely they've made changes. There's still a lot of issues with the show, but I really can't complain now because it's doing so well.

They wanna hear anything, not that they wanted to hear anything back then but yeah, I feel vested in the dang thing even though I'm not. I know a few people who are more vested in anything than you are in that. Yeah, I wish I could have been a little higher up at the show because maybe my vesting would have helped things go better so we didn't lose all the talent they lost.

But that two year period, they lost 10 long term employees. Shouldn't keep bringing that up, but I'm still sad about that. That happens, know?

I know, I know. But I'm listening to you and looking at you and I'm like, you just look like you did at the station, it's like you haven't lost anything. Still got the fastball I think.

And you still smell good. Yeah. No?

You still smoking? Smell good. Smell good.

Oh yeah. Smells nice. Tony.

Okay. He hasn't smoked in No. Oh, yeah.

I do say. I do. He quit smoking, like, fifty years ago because he saw himself in the mirror when he was playing a gig or something and......

Douchebag. Yeah. And then......

Watching TV. Yeah. I'm already...

I'm trying to test for good. He's he's told that a couple times. Shoopee Yeah.

Can you tell the smoking story of the day you quit smoking? I used to smoke cigarettes. What kind?

Oh, I wouldn't tell. Like, really long ones or like... No.

I'm just... I believe my brand of choice was Salem. I was a menthol guy.

You know? But but it was say, he loves mint. If somebody if somebody handed me a Marlboro or something like that, sure.

I'd torch that up. Anyway, so I'm at this joint, this hotel lounge or something like that in one of my truly truly low periods and dark periods of playing music. I wound up in this band that played a lot of those places.

It was terrible. Just awful. But nevertheless, need to make a buck so I did it for a while.

And I think it was in the... Might have been in the Playboy Club in Saint Louis. And there are a lot of mirrors all over the place.

So I'm sitting there before the show or before it's supposed to start, and there is nobody in there or anything like that. I mean, there there might have been a couple or three people in the help and all that, but I'm sitting there, and I'm sitting there smoking a cigarette. And I look up, and I started looking across the room at the mirror, and I thought, god.

Look at that fucking douchebag. Sitting there smoking a cigarette. That word too.

Wow. He meant it. Yep.

He did. Yeah. Look at that guy smoking...

Look at that idiot smoking a cigarette. And then I realized it was me. And that was the last day you smoked cigarettes.

Cigarette out, and that was it. No. He doesn't get addicted to things.

I don't don't get a crazy self control. I don't get addicted Yes. To things.

Except for Jack in the Box tacos. And even those, you're able to stop at a certain point. Whopper juniors.

Yeah. He just offers Whopper juniors to people. Yeah.

I just offer Whopper juniors. I I don't ever get those myself. All the places.

Whopper juniors He just... He consider... It's a comfort juniors funny.

Yeah. Oh, here's a sandwich from Arby's. Yeah.

It's just... It's a nice way to help comfort someone in a trying time. Offerable Whopper Junior.

Yeah. It's better than nothing. Beats a kick in the rear.

It is. I mean, I would love for him to, like, when he fires people, hand them whopper junior. Whopper junior?

I'm so... Here's a lot. Yeah.

So if we walk in here and see a Burger King bag Yeah. We know the end has come. In there.

You'll know the the jig's up. We have reached the end times. Now he's gonna do it.

Wait a minute. Yeah. Uh-oh.

You can't fire me. You watch me. You have to buy me out.

Gosh. Yeah. He's gonna fire her.

My my bag better be full of cash. Yeah. There's levels to this.

There is levels to this. Yes. Get bags...

We get a bag of Whopper juniors. She gets a bag of cash. What if we actually walk out with her bag?

Just a switcheroo? Accidentally, confuse them all. I...

Yeah. I don't think that paper bag would hold that much cash very well. You know There'll only be $25 in it.

We're house owners now. Yeah. Well, Tony, you got any other stories you need to Oh.

To tell us with? Yes. I did see that there was a suspension recently for a contestant.

I wonder if the answer is Val Chimroszewski. Chimroszewski, yeah. Yeah.

I do want a couple minutes at the end though to ask you something. Oh, making a note. Okay.

But yes, he made a little offhanded comment to one of the judges, not directly to her, that it referenced the Will Smith slap of Chris Rock. And it was a woman judge, so right away they got a little... And she actually, I think, did file a complaint with HR of the show saying we don't need that kind of joking around here.

And so she went ahead and suspended him for a week. That family is the Cherkofsky brothers. His brother was on before Max.

He was known as the bad boy of the ballroom. Oh, they have a streak in them. There's something in their DNA that They're Russian.

Ukrainian. Well that explains everything. Boy, they're great dancers and they look good looking guys, but yeah, there's some hot headedness.

They're actually good looking Russians. Well, guess Ukrainians used to be Russians, weren't they? Yeah, Max I always liked because he's taller too.

You don't see too many tall ballroom male dancers. And I'm not gay or anything but I just like the taller guy dancing, and he looked very impressive I thought. Okay.

Because the lankier and the taller you get, it's harder to look fluid. Right. It really is.

That's why I'm so fluid. Compact to the ground. Are there any tall Russians?

What? Andrei Karolinko or whatever? Yes.

There's gotta be some Russian basketball players. Stolen wasn't sure. Oh.

I mean, the average spare Russian, is he tall or not? Yes. Let me see.

Average? Average height of a Are man in you getting on chat GPT for this? Just the Google.

Russian men average five foot nine and a half. Okay. So they're about like me.

Right. You could be Russian. Because I'm a little taller.

I'm an inch taller. Yeah. I used to be an inch and a half but I've shrunk.

Aw. Man. You got the osteoporosis?

Something. Is that the right term? That's what you have to say it like the famous, osteoporosis, you have to leak into your mouth.

I'll work on that. Everything compresses as you get older and starts to round. It's horrible.

Yeah. It's just awful. It is.

You'll find out. Yep. I don't need to shrink anymore.

It's the worst. I'm already playing from behind. Uh-oh.

Well thank you for doing this. Oh, yeah, he's got a thing. We need to get to know Mike a little bit here.

I know him a little bit, but it's real quick, two things, you just pick which one you like. Top 10 list here, early bird or night owl? Definitely a night owl.

Let me mark these down for research. Wrigley Field or Fenway Park? Fenway.

Nice. You ever been to Wrigley? Yeah.

Been to Wrigley. What's it to you? I was just going to draw from you.

Wow. You feel really shaky. I know.

Anita Walker Junior? Ted Williams, Johnny Unitas. Oh.

Williams. Oh, wow. Dang.

That was a What? That's an upset. No.

No. Baseball definitely It is baseball. Mhmm.

And that's the only reason. Okay. I was gonna say I would've thought Unitas.

Yeah. I thought that would be a good one for you. Yeah.

Mountains and beaches. Oh. Mountains.

Probably because they look like Here's a fun one. Triceratops or a pterodactyl? Please make a pterodactyl on the way down the stairs.

Wow. Look at him taking over. That's that's tough.

You can almost hear it. Yeah. What a way it was.

You do like birds. Oh. Are post pterodactyls.

Alright. Probably probably pterodactyl. Yep.

Mhmm. I don't know if I can. Try it.

That's pretty good. That's... I like that.

I think that's a fist bump. That was great. No head in it.

Lord. Oh my gosh. Boy, it was not that funny.

The light of the night it looks like over there. We didn't know if you were gonna do it, and then you did it and it was the weirdest thing ever. I can't.

Boy. I don't wanna sell Triceratops short though. Alright.

Because he was a badass. I had trinodactyl though in my But he he was a little bit too land bound. Oh.

Yeah. Okay. Gotta finish this up here.

Sounds like he identifies as a periodactyl. Do you have to be... Have you a heart out?

No. Oh, you can do what we want. Oh my gosh.

Okay. Heart out my ass. Alright.

I'll just relax then. Okay. Let's go.

Here we go. Dave Parker, Jim Rice. Oh, god.

I love them both, but I gotta go with the cobra. Yep. Okay.

Dave Parker. Black olives, green olives. Man, he could throw Just move it along here.

Throw. I know. What a throw.

Yeah. All star game throw. Know.

Yep. But they were both studs, boy. Black olives, green olives.

Green. What? I knew it.

Pancakes waffles? Waffles. Okay.

Couple more here. I don't even know if this is really a legitimate one here. The ticket hypester or the fish?

The fish. Okay. Yep.

I did my own picking beforehand and I picked the fish too because I wrote him once. Oh really? Twenty five years ago, I said is the ticket hypestar a real person?

And boy, he wrote back. He let me know he was, so I'm like okay, that's got to be the fish even though I don't think he's a huge fan of that. Okay, two more, 70s cowboys, 90s cowboys.

Gotta go with 70s. And then this one may be a little unfair, but what the heck. Buick six or the nerds?

You know way too much. His cover bands. You need to know about your leaders, most of this is just confirming things, but I just wanted to...

Buick six. Okay. Nice.

Well, that's it. Thank you for your answer, sir. Yay.

And thank you for your answers. Thank you for being here. Mainly, thank you for being you.

Well, I appreciate you. It's so great. You are a very unusual, unique personality.

Said that very kindly. I've... No.

No. No. I'm not being kind.

I'm just being honest. Well, thanks. You know...

You're not like everybody else and I appreciate that. Appreciate you, I hope this doesn't again lower your viewership, but it's just so fun to come see you guys once in a while and talk, man, it's a blast. We love you.

Yeah, we love you too. Thanks. Oh jeez.

Uh-oh. Anything you know... What is that?

What's that say Norm said when that happened? What? Do any of you know what the hell I do for a living?

Here they are calling me. This time, good God. I got a life, you know.

Alright. He is the great Tony Smith. He is she is Ashley.

She is Becca. We are your dark companion. What we want from you is for you to share us on your social media.

Get us out there. Spread us around like a fungus. Make us be the fungus among us.

Alright. Thank you for watching. No matter when you may be watching, maybe tonight, maybe right now live, maybe tomorrow, maybe sometime next week, regardless of when it is, we thank you for your patronage and for watching Your Dark Companion.

Till next time. Bye. Bye.

Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. Your Dark Companion is a Stolen Water Media presentation.