KCP 201 - Blues Brothers:on a mission of kindness

The KC Crew learned that The Kindness Chronicles was ranked #2 on Feedspot’s “30 Best Kindness Podcasts for 2026,” THANK YOU, listeners! They quickly review the Masonic Children’s Hospital gala that raised about $2.5 million, as an example of kindness through philanthropy. The episode then focuses on an extended discussion of The Blues Brothers, including Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s origin story from Second City, the film’s role in reviving and spotlighting blues musicians and Chicago culture, standout scenes and cast members (Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Carrie Fisher, John Candy, Frank Oz, Steven Spielberg), and themes of redemption, loyalty, friendship, and joyful comedy through music. Check it out. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota kindness that it desperately needs. It is a lovely spring day out here in Matamidi, Minnesota. We got Jeff back there. Hi Jeff. How are you? Steve Brown, how are ya? I'm all right. And KG is uh is doing some uh some family stuff today. And he's recovering from a uh uh it was a tough night last night for the wild, but we're not gonna talk sports. Oh, I've heard from a few people that said, you know, enough with the sports. You don't want me to be intimidated. Intimidated. Yes, that's exactly the word. That's BS. But before we get started with uh our topic for the day, we've got some big news to announce regarding the popularity of the Kynus Chronicles.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

There is a what what I found today before we I came over here, I was uh noticing that our podcast made it on a list. A list, not just any list. This is the Is it a long list? The the uh feed spot podcasts. Oh yeah, feed spot. Not that anyone knows what that is. Oh, but I do. But we there's a they made a list together from twenty f of 2026, all the podcasts about kindness. In that they he calls it they call it the kindness space. We're in the kindness space. As our name would suggest. So 30 best kindness podcasts for 2026. For 2026. This came out May 4th, so this year, from a feed spot podcast. Well, who's number one? Well, hold on. Our kindness podcast list is what you need. You're ranking for kindness podcasts. We've considered this is their their criteria. We've considered you need these glasses for their font for their following, for their engagement, their ratings, reviews, listener counts, freshness, as well as overall influence in the kindness space. So we are number two. What? Yeah. In the in the world, I mean, I think it's in the world. Thank you so much, beat spot. Yeah, bead spot. We're number two. Our little podcast, the number one is Circle Round. I don't know what that is. We are number two. The kindness chronicles, number three is we don't know. Gabby Rossell podcast. That's fine. Read it.

SPEAKER_05 2:39

Yeah. It it tells you something about the fact that there are way too many podcasts out there. I mean, just the fact that they were able to find 30 podcasts in the kindness. Somebody's keeping track. Somebody's keeping track. And we're number two. Yeah. That's not number two.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

It's fantastic. Number two. Yes. It's so cool. I think it's just kind of an honor to it really is.

SPEAKER_05 3:02

Because of our listeners, really. You know, and and we've had some nice reviews. So what do you say, Jeff?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Smash the subscribe on your our YouTube channel. That would be great. We're over 30 subscribers now. Yeah, you know, we're we're just trying to keep it consistent.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

You like it or not, we're gonna keep doing it.

SPEAKER_05 3:21

But all kidding aside, we do have uh several thousand unique listeners that listen to this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yes, and I would suggest not just subscribing to our uh our Facebook page, join us in that, but also subscribe to the YouTube uh channel where you can see all these on video that Jeff's helped us make it look fantastic. But they don't make us look fantastic. Well, I think you guys look good. It makes the video it makes it more compelling and it is the kindness ground. It brings us right down to this cozy little basement, which is cool. Um, but I would ask them also to review us. Give us a review. Only give us reviews.

SPEAKER_05 3:56

If you don't like, just forget about that.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Well, remember that we are number two. So that's true. Yeah, yeah. No, but but that really helps too. Like if if people give us reviews, that helps boost us. And you know, spread the word. Tell us about tell people about us and if ideas for guests, please find us.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Comment. We uh all the comments are open, nothing shut off. So you think it's pretty cool. Provide us feedback, and we've gotten some comments and it's been helpful.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

Yeah, can I just uh get talk a little bit about what I experienced this weekend? Starting on Wednesday, the uh the fine folks at the Masonic Children's Hospital uh put on a uh a gala, uh and it's a series of events, and I was able to attend the uh the kickoff event on Wednesday at a place called Spoon and Stable, I think it's called. Really good. Sounds delicious. It was delicious, and there was a lot of wine being consumed, and um there was this lovely couple that sat across the table from us and we started talking about wines and and the the lady said, Well, d tell us about your wine cellar. And I said, Well, that's our son Ben's bedroom and it's uh in cardboard boxes. Our wine cellar isn't really what you might expect of a wine cellar. But anyway, the point of this is humidity controlled. They raise something like two and a half million dollars through over the course of the weekend. And you know, one way for people to show kindness is through philanthropy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

That's a pretty that's a that's a pretty big it was a it was a big number.

SPEAKER_05 5:28

Um I met the guy who uh who started Unreal, the uh the the apparel company. Yeah. He made he and his wife made a very big donation. Um yeah, it was it was just a a a lovely, lovely event.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Where is that by the way? Uh you know I don't think I've been there. Is it north?

SPEAKER_05 5:48

What do they call that? Um Northeast? No, the downtown? Warehouse uh district. What do they call that? North Loop. North Loop, yeah. North Loopish. A lot of good stuff. No, actually it wasn't North Loop. It was um that was a different event. It was at many events. Wow, yes, you do uh Spoon and Stable is kind of by the the the Federal Reserve.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yes, yes. So kind of origami or whatever it was called over there.

SPEAKER_05 6:13

Well, there's a really good place called Billy Sushi. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Pack up credit card if you go there for the Is it the place that used to be right that is right next to the Federal Reserve building? Because there used to be one that was there forever. Maybe they changed over. I haven't.

SPEAKER_05 6:27

It's the new Federal Reserve building. Apparently, there was an old one. You know what? Let's not talk about this anymore. I used to be in the warehouse district all the time.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Why? Back Orphan Records was there, which is the record company we recorded at. It was you had to find a coffee shop around there. Moose and Moose and Sadies is the only thing around there. It was it was it was warehouse-y, you know, back in the early 90s.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Hey, I was up in uh in St. Cloud and stayed at a hotel that overlooked the red carpet. Yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

You sent me that. That's kind of where all my messages are. Yes, and I got a big announcement. Uh oh, hold on. Do we need to Yeah, we need to uh brace yourself. We are going back to the red carpet. They've asked us back to play a show in October, the third, I believe. It's a Saturday, October 3rd. October 3rd, hold on. In St. Cloud. See if I'm a fancy. That's the birthplace of our band, basically. We'd had a great time last year. We brought a ton of people out there. So we want to get our kindness nation to come out to join the clueless nation. Very good. We'll have a nation building.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Do you have other gigs this summer?

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Yes, we're playing for uh uh a the same festival we played last year, which was the uh at Camping One Hutchinson, yeah. It's a uh Riversong Music Festival in Hutchinson on July 10th, I believe it's Saturday or Friday, the 10th.

SPEAKER_05 7:39

Very nice.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

There's something else maybe in the in Montamidai later on, but yeah, we got a couple shows.

SPEAKER_05 7:44

Very fun. Another announcement, uh big announcement time here. People are interested. Wednesday, May 20th, at the uh Masonic Heritage Center. And that's coming up 11411 Masonic Home Drive in uh Bloomington. Yeah. We are having our uh live scholarship night, and we're gonna be uh visiting with some of our selfless scholar nominators and surprising their nominees. Yeah. So it should be a lovely affair. It's free of charge.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

For the kindness chronicles folks.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

There's gonna be uh heavy hors d'oeuvres. We hope to see Nick Flood again. That's where we were surprised by uh Nick Flood. Uh Nick, I hope you're listening. Uh, he's listening. We'll be very disappointed if you don't show up. The appetizers. KG's gonna be there because I mentioned appetizers, you know, heavy hors d'oeuvres.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Oh man, it'd be great to have KG there. They people would love to see him, though.

SPEAKER_05 8:36

Yeah, yeah. You know, we might put him out in the audience and have him interview people between uh heroes. That's what he does. That's what he does best. Um, we have kind of a fun thing to do tonight for the show. Yeah. You know, we got a lot of good feedback on going through the Rob Reiner movies. Did we? Yeah. Yeah. Do you not get any feedback? As you know, I don't get any. Do you not have any friends? Do people not want to talk to you? Uh just clueless nation, kindness.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

I have quite a bit of friends. Not a whole lot of them listening to this show. What's wrong with those people? I don't know. I don't know either. Um, I have a few, and they come out of the woodwork and like, oh, I had no idea you were listening. So yes, they're out there. I just maybe this old one. I don't get feedback.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

So probably the feedback was you know, it's fun talking about movies because people that have seen those movies can relate to them. Yes. And Jeff, who is also a uh cinema lover. Um a cineist.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Cinephile. A cinophile? A cineist. A cineist. I don't know if that's that that's a word Dan Aykroyd uses when he was talking about John Landis and the uh the guy who did Ghostbusters, they call him cineists.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

I like the how he parlayed that right into the the topic.

SPEAKER_05 9:46

Speaking of John Landis, he did another movie, and why don't you introduce uh our topic for today? Okay, and how it relates to our kindness space in the sinniist movement.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

So I'm a drummer, I I've been playing drums since I was 12 years old, and I don't remember exactly how I got introduced to the blues brothers. I remember fearing Soul Man, that was their number one hit off. It was on the radio, yeah. But I found that cassette and I listened to it, and I just loved the horns and I loved the rhythm section. And by the time I was a senior in high school, we put on a blues brothers performance for the talent show, and then I was in a blues band UMD called Dr. Soul and the Blues Hounds. We named it after the Muppet. Um, do you remember uh Dr. HM, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem? Anyway, we the we had horns, we modeled it right after the Blues Brothers. We put their hats on, and I've just always been intrigued with that band. And I recently found this great audible program called Blues Brothers The Arc of Gratitude by Dan Ackroyd.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

This is a journey through American music centered around the recordings and performances of the Blues Brothers. These stories from myself and my friends and colleagues are told to the best of our recollection.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

And he basically tells the whole story of how he and John Belushi met, the origin story of it, and so I have a little thing here that I wrote out. The roots of the Blues Brothers really began when Dan Aykroyd first met John Belushi at Toronto's Second City in the early 1970s. Belushi burst into the theater one snowy night, already carrying his larger-than-life presence. After the show, everyone gathered at a cast party where blues music was blasting from the turntable. Belushi stopped and asked, What is this? And Akyroyd introduced him to the deep roots of Chicago blues, knowing that John could sing while also telling him he was learning the amplified harmonica and maybe they should form a band.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

The classic initial appearance and meeting, which led to a collision of astral bodies. And for us both, a rewarding and bittersweet, almost decade-long friendship.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Just learning about how he revived careers of all these former blues musicians and revived their careers and got them present again. Aretha Franklin, James Brown. Uh, we'll we'll talk about him throughout the movie. Tab Callaway. Yep. I've got some pictures. We, you know, this was uh they you know, Dan Aykroyd at Second City in Toronto when John came up and met with them.

SPEAKER_05 12:23

You can only see this on our YouTube. So join the 30 watchers. Great visuals on this, on this one.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

So and then they went and subscribe to watch it. And this was the 505 Queen Street where Dan lived, and he had a speakeasy. He basically lived in the basement. But he said at when when one interview he was making more than the Prime Minister of Canada, um because I think just they had the bar open all night long and it was you know illegal, but people walked in and there would be famous people that would frequent that, and then that was where John and he met, and that became the the origin of the story. So anyway, we've got some slides here. When do you guys remember first hearing Soul Man or the Blues Brothers?

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I don't I I think I saw it on TV for the first time. Once it was already in the theaters, the the blues brothers music. I think they the music uh came out even before I think they were so popular on SNL that I think they put on an album with these classic musicians, Donald Duck Dunn, who was a very famous bass player from B uh uh I can't think of the names now, but um Matt Guitar Murphy, all these great players that actually were SNL band people, they were part of the band. So they kind of integrated them into the whole thing. So the act was big on SNL, then they put on an album, and the album was huge. It was on the radio. I remember hearing it all the time in the uh late 70s, like 79, 80.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah, it was around 78, I think. Yeah, because uh Steve Martin had him had them open for him out in the Universal Theater in uh LA or something, and it just became huge. It was like a foreign run.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Totally. I was that was my one of those arrow things that went through.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

No, but I just I loved his silly humor. I loved it. Did you ever buy his comedy albums, a wild and crazy person? Oh, yeah, listen to them. We listened to them over and over.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

So that was my era too. And then the Blues Brothers movie came out. Oh my god, I loved it. And I had a friend of mine, Steve Leonardson, he's a Monty Mudai guy. I've talked about him before. He and I, I don't know, we both really got into that movie and we watched that movie a bunch of times. So, yes, and and then and then I rented it. I watched it a million times after that. It's full of great comedic moments, uh uh physical comedy between these two guys, John Belushi and Dan Eckrid, and the cast is huge. Um as well as the music is so good and fun and intoxicating. And I learned a lot about blues. I I learned a lot, I didn't realize who those people were, but I liked all those characters. As I went through life, I was like, oh, well, that was Ray Charles. I didn't know Frank. So it it became bigger and bigger in my life, and it it stood out uh as a classic movie for me. It's really still really funny and really good.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

And what's to me, what's really interesting about the movie is you know the the celebration of the culture that blues is. Yes, and the fact that you know all of these artists you know, in many respects, we talked earlier about the fact before the the podcast, before we hit record that you know, disco was a big deal. Yeah, and this kind of gave a revival to the careers of many of those people, yeah. And you know, just what uh you know what they were incredible casts, like you didn't realize the first time I saw it, like you, I didn't realize how important that cast was in the music world. Yes, you know, there was a foundational lot.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

There was uh there was Stax Staxvold was a a label. Motown was in Detroit, and Staxvold was Memphis, and what was unique about this band was they they fused New York musicians, the horn players, the Blue Lou Marini, and uh uh Alan Rubin with Donald Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper, who were down in Memphis, and that that had never been done before. It was unique to them, and and it worked really well.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

This is kind of a I I mentioned this before the podcast, too, is that what happened in the 70s was that all these British bands and uh uh some American bands, but they basically took blues music and put it on high octane. Sure. It was hard rock, but it was it was blues music. Right. I mean when you hear the words, that's all it was. They are all they were all motivated, everybody. And and uh there was a story, I don't remember which it was the Rolling Stones, I believe they're in a uh record, they were touring some record place in America. There were like 20-some-year-old age guys, these famous, famous British guys in America, and they saw like Johnny Hooker painting a hallway at Checker Records, and they're like, What is what are you doing? And they they took him out and they said like Johnny Hooker or someone like that who was like a legend, a legend, you know, just trying to make money, trying to do what he could. So this movie is what made blues cool again, and brought it back into like where they get their due and what makes them so unique and so amazing. So it's that is overall that's just a kindness thing that they like he threw some energy towards something that really is well deserved and incredibly entertaining and fun to watch.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

And John Lee Hooker is if that if that's who we're talking about, is playing in front of the Soul Food Cafe during the movie. Exactly. And there was another famous harmonica guy that they put next to him, but very historical, you know, footage right here, just getting him to play.

SPEAKER_05 17:48

Where is the Soul Food Cafe in the real world?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

It is in Chicago, yep, it's in Chicago, and all I know is it's Maxwell Street, and you see a little flash of it, but uh during that Arc of Gratitude audiobook, uh, he talks about the significance of that. Can we talk about the penguin?

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Yes, that's uh that the the scene where they go back to see the penguin after leaving Joliet Correction Center, yeah, and gets out of prison.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Elwood picks him up in the new bluesmobile. Jake is frustrated because he sold the Cadillac and traded it for a microphone, and he's like, What is this? The cigarette lighter doesn't even work, and my own brother picks me up in my cob car from my last day of jail. So but uh I loved it because they hug and then they are off. Um he proves to it to him that the blues mobile's got the cop shocks and all the capabilities. But yeah, they brought him to they brought him to the the orphanage where the two of them grew up.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

What are we doing here? Promised you'd visit the penguin the day you got out. Yeah. So I lied to him. You can't lie to a nun.

SPEAKER_05 18:54

It's one of the greatest women, you know, one of the greatest scenes because they start cussing and she's got they'll go back to their orphanage where they grew up. Yes. Yep. The and and the the the they refer to the nun as the penguin. And uh who is the guy that was the janitor? Boys, you gotta learn not to talk to nuns that way.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Jake! Elwood! Curtis!

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Cab's Curtis. Cab Callaway.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Cab Callaway played for yes, he was a janitor and um took care of him and uh taught him about the blues. Dan Aykroyd wrote sort of the backstory between behind Elwood and Jake, and and they grew up in this orphanage, and they were they had to steal because they didn't have a lot growing up, and they didn't learn, you know, right from wrong a lot of times, but they did the best they could, and that's what makes this scene so funny because they're looking at the crucifix on the way up to see the penguin, and then she comes back and you know chastises them and tells them that uh you know, I'm disappointed with your bad attitudes and filthy mouths, basically.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Having a little fun with the Catholic religion growing up, uh but they they acknowledge that Curtis, you and the penguin are the only family we got. You're the only one that was ever good to us. Singing Elmore James tunes and blowing the harp for us down here. Well, the sister was right. You boys could use a little churching up.

SPEAKER_05 20:20

The penguin and uh Curtis were really the only family that they had. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

So there was a lot of love and taught them a lot of.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

There was a lot of love from that penguin with her uh disciplinary love, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Yes, yeah. I like how she floats out of the room.

SPEAKER_05 20:34

Oh god, it's just it's so well done.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

But ultimately, Curtis said you guys need to go check out the Triple Rock Church and cleanse your soul, basically. You've got some hate in you and you need to get it out.

SPEAKER_05 20:47

And they get filled with the Holy Spirit and the cartwheels uh flips down the middle of the aisle.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

James Brown's going, Do you see the light? And they're like, Yes, yes, I see a million backflips.

SPEAKER_05 21:00

They start doing that dancing thing with the bigger.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

The dance scenes are amazing in this movie. Not just this church dancing, which I was kind of nimble those on the street. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. Oh, the choreography. All the choreography. Yeah, huge huge movie. This movie was huge. In fact, this is a little later on we talk about it, but the record for cop cars wrecked.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

This movie had uh you know some record number of cars that they used smashed up. It's it's to a super comedic uh quantity where it's like, oh my god, they got you know, it's ridiculous. And that's what's so funny about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

It was budgeted for 15 million and ended up spending 27 million, but they wrecked an entire mall. Yeah, they ran through a mall. That's right. The mall was uh shut down, but uh they uh so they could do that. But uh it was what a great yeah, it was such a great scene. It's a huge movie. Dan Aykroyd said it couldn't be made today.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Okay, so they're on their kindness adventure to save their orphanage by based on their their spiritual. Reckoning. And so Dan so Dan, you know, John Belushi's character.

unknown 22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

They got a half-he is born again. Yeah, he's kind of he's ready to just got inspired to raise the money and start the band. Let's get the band back together again.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

That's so then they're on their mission to find the band to get them together, which is not an easy thing.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

Isn't the line we got uh a tank of gas, a half a pack of smokes, it's dark out and we're wearing sunglasses. Yes. That's right. Let's roll. Let's roll. Yeah, it's um and really it's it's just such a joyful movie and hilarious. Yeah, you're rooting. There are them. There are those themes, you know. We talk about the kindness chronicles. There are themes of of redemption and loyalty, and the fact that Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia, you know, this is in between Star Wars and uh The Empire Strikes Back. That's right. Yeah. I mean, she was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. And at the time, there's a story that she was choking on set, and Dan Aykroyd saved her from choking. And that's Wait, I heard you say that, but was Dan she was choking or Dan Aykroyd's. No, she was choking and Dan Aykroyd saved her. Oh my god. And they fell in love and got engaged, and they didn't get married, but they did, they were engaged. They met originally in 78 on SNL.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

When she was on there.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

That was her first.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

She was so great because she's this odd character that keeps coming up to try to kill John Belushi.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Yeah, they have all these enemies along the way. And so she's the mystery girl, I think, in the credits. You never really get to meet her, but they're they're a long time. Their first stop to try to track down the band.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Ma'am, do you have a Thomas Malone or Lewis Marini living here? Do they leave a forwarding address, phone number? No. Did they live quietly? What were their personal habits?

SPEAKER_07 23:57

They were good boys, but they made a lot of racket at night.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

Are you the police? No, ma'am. We're musicians.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

This is Mrs. Tarantino. Dan Aykroyd actually got a criminal justice degree in college. And so he borrowed a lot of you know his knowledge of criminal justice and um all the things he's interested in to kind of piece together the story. He was Catholic educated as a kid, so that brought out when he stayed in Chicago, he heard about Cook County, and someone said, Gosh, the Catholic Church should bail out Cook County. And he's like, Huh, that's an idea. I could, and that's how they structured the whole plot of this thing. But uh anyway, the the I love Murph and the Magic Tones, and it's an empty room, and it reminded when you were talking about playing for an empty room with Johnny Clueless. I thought immediately of this scene.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

Thank you. You're marvelous. You're marvelous, thank you. I'm Murph, and these are the magic tones.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

On the road is what it is.

SPEAKER_05 24:54

And you have to so so didn't you play an empty room uh like in in in Los Angeles?

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Didn't you play like the the Wix whiskey go-go or the We played the Whiskey Go-Go and we played uh um CBGB's in New York and to very minimal amounts of people. But that didn't last long. What yeah, because what you have to do though, what no, what you have to do when you play to an empty room, you have to find someone that you can key into. That you that they are actually listening to. What if there's only one? You can you have to feed off that energy. You have to feed off their energy. And if you can't, then you have to feed off of a bartender or a waitress's energy, where they're like, you have to get their attention and make them go, huh. That's how you get them.

SPEAKER_05 25:33

And then the red pants have anything to do with getting their the red pants. Does that have anything to do with getting their attention? No. Okay. Just wondering.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

No, that's uh, it's a good lesson in life to bring good karma and good energy to whatever you do, and hopefully it feeds off of the rest of the bandmate, my one bandmate themes here.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

There are themes. My one bandmate would look at me, he's like, in a room like this where there's nobody's like, he looked at me, and I'm just pouring pouring it on. He's like, What are you doing?

unknown 26:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Hey, I I have to do this because these people are watching. And I've told you this before. Um, if you make a waiter or waitress or someone that works on staff really if you really turn them on to your music, that's better than any poster, uh any promotion you can do because they're like, Oh, these guys were here last year and no one was here, but they were they tore the roof up. That's what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

It's word of mouth. I love it. Word of mouth advertising.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

So then then they go to this fancy restaurant and get their trumpet player. He kind of was had a negative attitude, probably because he had the highest paying job of all of them. But he's fancy. They then got Matt Guitar Murphy at the Soul Food restaurant along with Blue Lou, who was working in the back, and this is where I was.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

Ma'am, would it make you feel any better if you knew that what we're asking Matt here to do is a holy thing?

SPEAKER_04 26:55

You see, we're on a mission from God.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Adam Carolla said once on a podcast interview, God, I loved how you guys just kind of danced with her like it was part of the deal, and then you went and sat back down in the chair again. There was all these little nuances throughout the movie that make you laugh.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Being there sitting and just turning on the stool and what we just watching, Aretha. And when she started to sing and started to move, she looked so cute. I a combination of amusement and awe just hit my stomach, and I I froze. And John moved, and then I overcame it, and then we we did it. But I was awed by her talent.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Ray's music exchange to me, this is where they played Shake Your Tail Feather. Yes, and I I love this scene, and I have a little story to show, and I got the capture, but you know, it's obviously Ray Charles.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

He's like, There's nothing wrong with this piano.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Now look at the back in the back, and I learned this through that audible. The L train, the L train actually stopped and it wasn't even planned, but the Chicago City knew this was filming, and the the pilot or the captain of the L train stopped and everyone got out and danced. So you can see them back there. It's a couple of shorts. Yeah, you are kidding me. The whole city got involved in this movie, and that's another kindness theme, I think.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

So this is this is you know, Ferris Bueller kind of copied this idea. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

I didn't never thought of that.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yep, yeah. It's a great dance uh sequence, it's so great. All the different dances they're doing. It's like, oh, what is that? Oh, that's uh whatever. So good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:28

I love Ray Charles. So it is a celebration of Chicago, too. It is, it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

What what movie is uh you know, without an enemy or really evil people trying to stop you, and that's these Illinois Nazis, and that they they ducked them off into the water during their protest.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Um I like how Dan Eckert had to say, or I don't know, I don't know which one to say, but he goes, I hate Illinois Nazis, as opposed to other Nazis. He really singles them out as the worst Nazis. Only one of the group of people that were coming at them.

SPEAKER_05 29:00

And how about that right in front of Wrigley Field?

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Isn't that cool? They they kept giving uh like the parole officer, that was their little shtick, they'd give them the address. I think it was something Addison leaded and they'd end up at Wrigley Field. But I loved uh um and then there was other enemies, so they they ended up getting in the Bob's country bunker gig. Um, they were just pulling things out of uh that's mid air to try and make it make it work, but they did, they made that gig an awesome gig because the good old boys was a band that was supposed to play instead, and uh the blues brothers being such great, great musicians, adapted and played rawhide, and that's also what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

I think this was a very memorable scene for me in my life as I went lived as a band guy because you do you have to adapt to the room. Um sometimes there's fights going on, you have to just kind of play behind chicken walls.

SPEAKER_05 29:50

Never had to do that, no. No, I don't think I like the glass flying everywhere. The glass flying, and they just keep playing as class.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

You gotta find songs and things that uh connect to people, and and uh that's what they did.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

And they ended up owing a hundred bucks to the bar after, and so that's where they're it's a lot of beer you boys drink. They escaped. But anyway, they have the then they they they had a sauna with this guy named Maurice Line who could look hook them up. That would be your uh Kevin, what's his last name? Kevin Daly, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

That's Steve Lawrence. Steve Lawrence, yeah. That's right. That's that's that's Kevin Daly, yes, for us helping us get that big gig to to land the big guy. Uh yeah, Cab said, these these Jake, my my friends, Jake and Elwood, they grew up here just like you. He's talking to the orphans, and he got them out plastering posters and spreading the word.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

It was a family affair for sure.

SPEAKER_05 30:54

So and and the scene with the uh the mega phone on top of the uh ladies' night tonight.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Everything they they steal half of everything they did just to make make it make it work, but it worked for them. They'd somehow get away with it.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Side night you guys been to Universal Studios to see the there's a there's a show that goes on. They have they have the blues mobile. There's a roving show that goes around the park and it puts on a whole yeah, it's pretty cool. Oh, and you would you would love it. Yeah, it's right up your ass.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

I I bet it's like uh the chicken and the tail feather thing where they're dancing on the car and just doing street.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Yeah, they just pull up and get out of their car and the music comes on, everybody starts dancing. Flashback.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

You get the Culligan Water play stuff.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

I saw that, yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

U2 girls, remember that? So anyway, they they they put on a great show. It started off rocky, people didn't really know what to expect, but then they started getting really into it, and uh they ended up getting the recording contract by Clarion Records, $10,000 advance. Um everything worked out, they needed their five, and then they paid the rest of the band. And um so pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Also, you know, it's so comedic. John Candy's in it, like so many people are in it. It's so comedic. They're like they're like superheroes because uh Carrie Fisher blows up the building they're in, they climb out of it and they don't even question, they just go, huh. They brush off and just get in their car. I thought that was so funny as a 10-year-old kid. Like, how did they not get hurt? And they got their suits and they just brush off their suits again. And they can serve it. So dirty in the end of this movie, it's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 32:27

And how is it so? Steven Spielberg ends up being the guy that works at the county, he's like the county clerk.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

And Frank Oz is in that.

SPEAKER_05 32:35

Frank Oz is in there, he's the cop. No, he's the cop in trading places.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

The guy that checks them out in the jailhouse.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Yeah, but the board uh Frank Oz is in this as Spielberg is yeah, he's the final guy. Well, yeah, it's star-studded. The absurdity had a great time making this movie.

SPEAKER_05 32:50

They had the absurdity of having like uh the SWAT team and the army and you know, Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

It got so big. Momentous. You know, the Ferris Bueller analogy is pretty good. I think they kind of they kind of took a little from that and made it that that celebration of Chicago, like they did in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Yeah, another fun absurdism thing is just the National Guard and the the entire uh nation is against them, and then they keep cutting back to the elevator with uh the girl from Epanema with the Muse Act playing.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Girl from Epanema, is that what the song is about?

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Yes, that's the song. Oh and they keep going. The movie is long, it's two and a half hours long, but I realize it's because they draw these scenes out, and it's very artistic and tension.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

They built great tension. That's true. That's why Landis knows what he's doing.

SPEAKER_05 33:41

So, ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't picked up on the fact that Jeff and Steve are really into this movie, I they've been begging to have this show for this but the it's a it's a great if this is if you haven't if you're an adult in your 30s, 40s, 50s, you've never seen this movie, and you go, Oh yeah, I've always wanted to see that.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Don't watch the second one. Watch this one. It's a perfect movie, and it's a a delight.

SPEAKER_05 34:09

When you look at when you watch it originally, it's a very comedic movie. Yeah, but there are such themes of warmth and and the loyalty and you know what they will do to save the orphanage is just it's it's really a great show.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

It's pretty cool. It's and it's fun. You'll it'll it put a smile on your face, and then at the very end, they're all arrested, you know. The national guard, but they got the five thousand dollars in.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Look how Spielberg is pointing at them like nobody knows so all the guns are facing him. He's standing there, it's a great visual.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

And then you hear the doom, doom, bop, bob, and then they they cut to this scene and the county jail. Yeah, it's good. It's never too late to mend, I think is what that says in the back. And then I learned from uh Dan Aykroyd that they played a uh a concert at Joliat Prison just before it was gonna close down. It's now shut down, but it was sort of a full circle moment. And Jim Belushi played Brothers E. And is they're still touring to this day. You can see the blues brothers play.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Yeah, yeah. And Aykroyd's really dedicated, you know. I've played at Dan Aykroyd's club in Chicago, uh, one of the what's that? They're called the Blues. House of Blues. House of Blues. Oh, cool. Beautiful venue, and it's it's really nice. Uh it's a nice place. And he's just committed to the blues experience. He just really wants people to get it.

SPEAKER_05 35:31

Well, and you do you remember the the guest that we had on uh a couple of years ago? The uh the the guy Steve Edelman who wrote the book uh Nocturnal Admissions about the uh about the the nightclub business, and he was business partners with Dan Ackro.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_05 35:50

Yeah, they owned a couple of places in Los Angeles and a place in Memphis, and yeah, very interesting. Well, this has been fun. Well, yeah, I hope that's a good one. Talking about the the You know, we like to every once in a while like to go a little bit off a script, but you know, it's a movie that just there's so much more to it than you uh expect. The cast the cast is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Yeah, it is the music phenomenal, the the the card chases, the just the sheer chaos of it and the absurdity is so fun. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Well, that's why as a 10-year-old kid I loved it, and as an adult, I it's it will not let you down. You won't be like, uh, it's so dumb. It's it's not it's silly, but it's great. It's really well done. Yeah, and the music is incredible.

SPEAKER_05 36:37

You know, someday I'd like to do a show on the um and you know, I don't know what this has to do with the kindness chronicles, but all those movies, the Christopher Guest movies, like Best and Show. Oh, those are good Waiting for Guffman. Have you ever seen those?

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Yeah, I know. I own I've owned all of them for many years. They're so good. I've seen them all many times. Seen some most of them in the theater. Yes. They are they are masterpieces in in improvisational acting. Oh my god. The kings of improv. Kings and queens of improv are in there.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

The the the gay couple in Best and Show.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:13

Yeah. Just give me a couple of those meat sticks. I just want to hold them for a while. I mean, my God.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

It's it's so it's well, the world needs laughter. Right? Yes. And so to me, that's that is the that is the point of this.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

And look to the professionals because they are they will not let you down.

SPEAKER_05 37:31

Eugene Levy, in a world of device compared, this is the stuff that can bring us together. We need it. Absolutely. And with that, Jeff, hit it. Nice job. Off we go. We should be doing more movies. Bring us together. Not political.