High Low Brow
We’re carving out space in the airwaves for deep dives and thoughtful convos about our beloved pop culture that is often overlooked, laughed at, trashed, and brushed aside. Join us (and some of our internet pals!) for hot, juicy, maybe controversh opinions and a few rounds of games inspired by the stuff you watched when you were home sick with an anxiety-induced stomachache in your formative years.
High Low Brow
The Magical World of Fantasmas & Ren Faire, a doc about the Texas Renaissance Fair
In this episode, we celebrate the quirky genius of Julio Torres latest show, "Fantasmas" with its star-studded cast featuring Steve Buscemi, Aidy Bryant, Kim Petras, Princess Nokia, and Paul Dano. From designing clothes for toilets to a gerbil's gay club, the show's vignettes blend humor and heart in delightful ways while being super queer.
Next, we discuss our viewing of the documentary, "Ren Faire." This three-episode series introduces us to George Coulam, the 84-year-old founder of the Texas Renaissance Fair, and his quest to find a worthy successor. The New York Times dubbed it Succession with Kettle Corn which isn't far off.
Take a listen to this week's episode for a long list of hilarious moments and a chance to learn about FartBuckleTok. Until next week!
Welcome to High Low Brow, the show with highbrow takes on lowbrow culture. I'm your one host, Amanda Scriver.
Speaker 2:And I'm long. Amanda Scriver River Gilbert.
Speaker 1:You're just appropriating it now.
Speaker 2:I mean we always say same person.
Speaker 1:This is true.
Speaker 2:And I am considerably longer than you are.
Speaker 1:I feel like you're going to have to give the listeners a little background into what brought this on.
Speaker 2:In this most recent season of Canada vs the World, fiercealicious is on it, and on the most recent season of All Stars, georges was on it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I made the mistake of calling Fierce Georges. And then Amma was like you mean Long Georges? And then I just looked at her and I was like that's the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard in my entire life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like I didn't even make it up, I can't, I can't take credit for that one. The Drag Race fandom on Twitter there's like a whole Geororges trilogy yeah, yeah, yeah, the georges, yeah, yeah, type list yeah, there's fierce is long georges. I think le grand dame is fashion georges something like that like, there's all these different the georges variants.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, and that just made me laugh so hard.
Speaker 1:Oh, we need that right now. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey, emma, what's making you bring over?
Speaker 1:Honestly, I think right now the thing that's making is all of the JD Vance couch and dolphin memes. The internet moves so fast.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And we went from. You just fell out of a coconut tree.
Speaker 2:I think they're overdoing it a little bit.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah. But, here's the thing the whole like coconut tree thing and brat, and what have you and CNN having a 60-year-old on to explain Gen Z culture?
Speaker 2:Our Gen Z correspondence?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the 60-year-old woman, old woman 60 year old white woman. Yeah, like is definitely a karen, for sure, um no, she's so brat she's so julia amma we'll go back to the jd bands me but like here's the thing. They took something that was like neat I don't want to say niche, but but, like you know, if you know, you know it was super popular and now it's just like if you say you're brat, that's kind of cringe, it is.
Speaker 2:It is very. It's a new show I listened to was like if brat has made its way to us, you know that it's dead, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like it's hit the mainstream.
Speaker 2:We're done, brat is over. Brat is over. Yeah, rip brat. But now we're really into JD Vance fucking couches.
Speaker 1:Honestly.
Speaker 2:JG Wentworth fucking couches.
Speaker 1:JD Wentworthworth. Isn't it jd as well, or is it jg, jg?
Speaker 2:oh I know which makes the the trump mishap? Uh, all the funnier.
Speaker 1:That is very funny yeah, the memes are on point. Incredible. I people are saying that this sort of section there was a section in hillbilly elegy about his proclivities with coaches which is untrue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been debunked by the news yeah, but but we don't care. It's so fucking funny yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't care. And also, the dolphin thing is because he retweeted something to do with the dolphin and said maybe the internet is a bad idea, and everybody was like I guess you could see his search bar and search bar was a dolphin and woman or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyways that man definitely has a bad dragon I would not be surprised.
Speaker 1:Literally like it's, and it's probably dolphin shaped I mean they have an orc one.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know if they have a dolphin one I really someone should go.
Speaker 1:I know that would be a lot of money, but someone should buy that and send it to him. Yeah, you can get smaller ones yeah, I literally. Just before we started recording, I read on the internet of all places that apparently, go figure, gen z is taking tins of cat food and leaving them outside of the trump and vance offices to attract stray cats yeah that's so fucking funny.
Speaker 2:That is the most harmless like trolling I've ever heard of. That's like the time that all the k-pop stands bought up, all like, confirmed the attendance for that big trump rally and no one showed up.
Speaker 1:Yes, literally it's diabolical, but so good it's really good, yeah, not that we advocate for doing this kind of harmless fun.
Speaker 2:But it is harmless fun, I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm going to advocate for it. Go on, Be your bad self. What's making your brain go brr Okay.
Speaker 2:Emma, I'm going gonna take you on a deep dive because I really want to talk about this and I need to catch you up on a lot of like base level information to info dump this. Okay, cool uh. Are you on fart?
Speaker 1:buckle talk no, you asked me this and I was like what the fuck is a fart buckle? I mean, you did play for me the other day. Uh, this pizza hut is trans and I was like I don't know like what is?
Speaker 2:that has nothing to do with fart buckle I I understand that, but we're on two different sides of tiktok yeah, or like our.
Speaker 1:Our algorithms are like similarly aligned, but you get some very weird shit yeah, I will let you continue.
Speaker 2:So the first thing I need to introduce you to is the concept of adopting an npc in dungeons and dragons yeah, I, I had to learn all about that from my old boss. Oh, you did okay yeah, yeah, sometimes you just like much the chagrin of the dungeon master. They're like they introduce this like nothing character who's supposed to be a one off, and the player characters fall in love with them and they insist on bringing them along, which is affectionately known as adopting an NPC. So have you heard the new Childish Gambino single Lithonia?
Speaker 2:I mean probably, but I it's the one that goes like nobody gives a fuck yeah, I've heard that. Yeah so enter. Fartbuckle Okay, fartbuckle was an adopted NPC for this party and the party is like getting really pissed off because they're about to lose and all of a sudden Fartbuckle essentially jumps on a grenade for them and saves them and says fart buckle, save friends. Fart buckle is happy and then dies um okay and it is so wonderful and so emotional. And it's this stupid little goblin named fartbuckle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love fartbuckle okay, I mean, I don't think it's my kind of content no, but like every other video has been fartbuckle content and I looked at the sound for lithonia and there's like 400 videos and I'm like, oh okay, so this is what this one's, just forever, uh-oh, oops.
Speaker 1:I'm pushing a meme, guys, you should be on Fartbuckle Talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we should all be like Fartbuckle. We should all save our friends and be happy.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not. I totally am here for that.
Speaker 2:We are spiritually Fartbuckle.
Speaker 1:What are we talking?
Speaker 2:about this week.
Speaker 1:Well, we are talking about some new shows that we watched. We watched Phantasmas, which is Julio Torres' new show, yes, which is on HBO Max, whatever it's called now.
Speaker 2:People need to stop rebranding. I just got used to calling it HBO Max and now it's just Max.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like who is this for the shareholders, elon? And then we watched this documentary. I had seen a trailer of it.
Speaker 2:I had too. Oh, okay, I've been hearing a lot about it. I think we are late to the party.
Speaker 1:We are late to the party. It's called Ren Faire. With an E Yep. Late to the party. We are late to the party. It's called ren fair. It's an e yep.
Speaker 2:It documents sort of this man who runs the texas renaissance, the texas renaissance fair.
Speaker 1:So he's yeah, we'll talk about it yeah, yeah, where would you like let's start with phantasmus.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's start with, because like we talked about it briefly last week with melf.
Speaker 1:Yes, Melf.
Speaker 2:Good old Melf. Oh my god, I love Melf, Like.
Speaker 1:I think I sent you a Melf meme.
Speaker 2:You did, you did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, spaghetti and cookies.
Speaker 2:Spaghetti and cookies.
Speaker 1:What I really enjoyed about the show, first and foremost, is one it's so weird, it's.
Speaker 2:a foremost is one it's so weird, it's a comedy but it's so all over the place and so wonderful yeah, it's so to to catch you up on it, it's the through line, is? It's this story about julio, who is getting evicted from his apartment, so he needs to find a new place to live, but he doesn't have this thing called a proof of existence card, which is this universe's like passport, all-in-one yeah you exist. Situation. So it's about him not wanting to get a proof of existence card and instead wanting to get an exception card yes so then the storytelling is all done through vignettes yes
Speaker 1:and I think there was six episodes six episodes yeah, six, very quick, they're all 30 minutes yeah, and I think the thing with it being vignettes and the thing like there's some main characters, that we see all the time, julio being one of them vanessa, his uh or vanessia yeah, his like manager. Yes, who's?
Speaker 2:a performance artist who's?
Speaker 1:pretending to be a manager yeah, chester, yes, yes, yes, yes, chester cars and bibo.
Speaker 2:Can't forget about bibo can't forget about bibo.
Speaker 1:But the the great thing is because it's done in vignettes, so many of the episodes have like a pretty impressive cast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Steve Buscemi is in an episode, aidy.
Speaker 1:Bryant was in an episode.
Speaker 2:Kim.
Speaker 1:Petras, yep, princess, nokia, yeah like it's a stacked cast list.
Speaker 2:Oh, Paul Dano.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it was. Emma Stone is the one who plays the Lisa Renna like a real housewife.
Speaker 2:I think you're right.
Speaker 1:There's like a ton of people.
Speaker 2:It is stacked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's not like you know when you watch some shows, and I'm going to use this just as an example I'm not saying whatever, but in the Bear, when they had their dinner episode and there was, john Mulaney was in it, and who else?
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, you mean the Seven Fishes with Bob Odenkirk and Jamie Lee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Sometimes it's like look at all these famous people we have here it does feel a little walk-on-y. But this is. It feels like they're a part of the show.
Speaker 2:They have their own, like, their whole story being able to be told like and like. It is weird and wonderful, like the first sort of clip is julio pitching crayola, the concept of a clear crayon yes and they're like what would you call it? And he was like phantasmus and he's like it's uh, it means ghosts yeah and the guy was like shouldn't it just be phantasma, because it's singular. He's like, yeah, but I prefer it with the s yeah, and that's why the show is called phantasmus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have to talk about the scenery yeah. Like all, the sets are very stage play.
Speaker 1:They are and they also have like a green screen. It could be something else but a green screen and it's basically like a like repeating sort of New York background. I think it's actually my thought.
Speaker 2:I think it's actually like the old timey, like when you're showing on a stage play that people are going in a place where they actually have a looping background where they pull. We'll have to look it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think it adds this sort of like weird, like spacey kind of fairy core vibe, I think, in one of the episodes. Oh no, that was too hard to handle. It's gonna be like the bisexual lighting, but there is bisexual lighting there is some like very good lighting.
Speaker 2:That was done my, my favorite part of it and we won't spoil it, but they actually tie in everything to the ending like there's a whole reason that everything looks the way it looks, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 1:I also love the little. Is it gerbil? The little gerbil or mouse when they have their own gay club?
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, yeah, no, it was like there's so many moments that you can point to and be like that was my favorite part and everyone will be like yeah, that was a great part. It's. It's such a lovely show. It will run you less time than dune 2 and I think it's better time spent like it's.
Speaker 1:It's everybody that I uh follow online has been saying it's like one of the best queer shows everyone in the cast is queer yeah, it's, it's great. I'm also doing my next nail set inspired by it.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, you didn't tell me that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really fun, it is very fun. So I'm very excited If that gives you any indication of like sort of the vibe, the aesthetic, that you should be expecting. Oh, also, I just thought about the episode where Aidy Bryant plays the woman who will design your toilet.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, it wasn't even just the toilet, it's clothes for your toilet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, clothes for your toilet and like I don't know. You know can't give you a price until she speaks to your toilet. It is.
Speaker 2:It's so weird and wonderful. I will rewatch that many times. Like fantastic show. Please go watch it yeah you have to go watch it because we said so. Yeah, I mean, you know, unless you hate fun. Also, bebo is the robot personal assistant. Yeah, who wants to actually be an actor?
Speaker 1:It's so sweet, it's very sweet.
Speaker 2:It's very funny. It's not just like a R2-D2 moment. He has a whole story arc.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think most people in every episode they have some type of story. Yeah, they have a place.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's not just for the show. Oh god, I forgot, z-way was in an episode.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, that's right, yeah, no it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's it's fun, it's weird, it's it feels random. Without trying to be like lol, I'm so random. Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, definitely go give it a watch yeah, should we talk about renfrew?
Speaker 1:I feel like we have to talk about renfrew, because I feel like there's a lot to talk about with renfrew yeah, do you want to do you want to describe the film?
Speaker 2:yeah, well, it was three episodes. They're each in about an hour long, give or take. And so, as we said, it's about this guy, george George, who started the Texas Renaissance Fair, based on the San Francisco Renaissance Fair, and he just started. He was like I read Walt Disney's book and then did everything he did, and so he bought up a bunch of land, he incorporated. He's got something like 32 businesses that are operating on it. He made his own town. Yep, he sees 300, 30,000 people per day. The books are like I think it's like 13 million in profit per year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, it's, it's wild, so, but he's 84. He's 84, so he's getting up there in the years and they're talking about who's going to succeed him. So the two options that we are introduced to are jeffrey, the general manager, who used to be the creative director.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the entertainment director entertainment thank you.
Speaker 2:So he's been working there for 40 plus years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's been there for a minute.
Speaker 2:And Reid, like a year ago, became the general manager. Or Louis, who is the?
Speaker 1:they call him the Lord of corn Lord of corn.
Speaker 2:He started with a kettle corn business and then he owns like 16 of the businesses on the Renfrew grounds. Also, bear in mind that this is a temporary endeavor. This is like the CNE or Stampede kind of deal where it's like this. This happens for maybe two months of the year, maybe three months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and $13 million.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bananas, bananas money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. George did say that a majority of that money comes from the value of the land no, this is profit.
Speaker 2:This is profit per year. Got it like the total valuation? Yes, a majority of that is coming from the value of the land, but the actual fair, the fair itself, brings in 13 million dollars per year all right.
Speaker 1:Well, so jeff and louis are two main characters. At the beginning I when they sort of introduced louis as like a possible person who wants to take over the festival he wants to buy it yeah, and he is like. I think as soon as he came on the screen I was like this man looks like he goes to burning oh, a hundred.
Speaker 2:As soon as you said, I was like absolutely, he feels the burn yeah, he feels the burn also.
Speaker 1:He like was just talking about how this was a money play for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, he said that his family comes from like he's, comes from family money and like all of his family's entrepreneurs. So that just screams to me. He's like oh, you're old money and your parents give you money to keep you out of trouble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And so I think the thing with Louis throughout the, every single time we saw him on screen, he was basically chugging a Red Bull single time we saw him on screen, he was basically chugging a red bull.
Speaker 2:Yes, he, we learned that he stopped drinking alcohol and has replaced it with red bull I'm like this man's heart is going to explode. This is going to be like the fucking panera lemonade all over again. Yeah, on screen on screen.
Speaker 1:Then we have jeffrey, who's the general manager, and this man is so in over his head that it's, it's, it's almost sad to watch.
Speaker 2:Well, he, he was an actor, and then he was he played shrek.
Speaker 2:He played shrek in the shrek musical. He, like we said he was the entertainment director, so he was. He's an actor first and foremost yeah, so. But because he's been there for so long, he gets promoted to general manager. Yeah, so, generally speaking, it's lovely to promote people who are passionate and driven and like working with you and you like them. But if they don't have any business sense and there's no sort of onboarding to get them to where you need them to be, it's a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, generally speaking, I think you said while we were watching, it feels like the position of general manager is just a fall guy for George.
Speaker 2:So we need to talk about George.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So going in I was like, oh so this is like clearly just an eccentric man who's ready to retire yeah he.
Speaker 1:He talks about how originally he was an artist. He lived in san francisco. He, he was like I saw a fair out there and I was like I bet you I could do that differently better, and then he launched the Texas Renaissance Fair.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in the first episode we're introduced to the Royal Scroller, who is a what seems to be a teenage boy who he's in his 20s for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, he's not.
Speaker 2:A young man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like comparatively to George. Yes, he is young, he's okay.
Speaker 2:I put him on like 16 to 18 so no, he were no, okay, so he what he does for george is he scrolls on the sugar daddy sites and looks for sugar babies for george yeah so that's literally his job. That is his job.
Speaker 1:Imagine that was your full-time job.
Speaker 2:I would kill myself.
Speaker 1:Teach their own.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah, Nice work, if you can get it.
Speaker 1:I guess I mean, it seems like a pretty chill job.
Speaker 2:I feel like you'd be paid nothing. Who?
Speaker 1:knows, I don't know man.
Speaker 2:Anyways. So we find out that George has a sugar baby habit. Yes, which you know, whatever.
Speaker 1:We're not yucking your yum. Hey, when you got 13 million, you got money.
Speaker 2:Per year? Yeah, burning a hole in your pocket?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure you want to like give some of that yeah To others, sure so we're.
Speaker 2:That was the first like, oh, okay, yeah, that's fine. So then he starts talking about his preferences and he's like they have to be between 30 and 50. I'm like, okay, that's very young, that's almost a third of your age, and he's like and they have to be skinny with huge tits.
Speaker 1:And they have to be natural.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, okay's, that's a little all right, sure man. And later on in episode three we see him actually sitting down with with someone he's met on the site, because they always meet at like a fucking denny's or something.
Speaker 1:No, they meet at olive garden. Is it olive garden? Yeah, oh my god, it's the same one.
Speaker 2:They always get the same booth, yeah, and he's like are those real? And she's like I got breast augmentation a couple years ago and he's like, all right, we're done here. And gets up and leaves just straight up, just fucking bounces and it's like, oh, and he's always complaining about how he can never find female companionship I wonder why and it's just like okay.
Speaker 1:He's also a bit, like he seems to his employees quite abusive.
Speaker 2:Well, I was going to say that was the first sort of like I don't think this man is necessarily a good person.
Speaker 1:No, you don't think so he continues.
Speaker 1:So we have to talk about okay sorry we have to talk about his situation with louis yes because one he can't spell, louis that was at the end, but yes, but also this man that he's known for at least 16 years yeah and this man owns 16 businesses well, I mean, I think what that scene was trying to paint is this is a man who should not be running any business they are, they're, they're bidening out yeah, visionary good, not, so he you gotta know when to fold them gotta know when to fold them and george is just kind of like no, I'm vibing, so he keeps moving the goalposts for louis.
Speaker 2:Louis says, hey, I want to buy this. I don't have a hundred percent of the cash right now, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put you put it together an agreement for you. I'm gonna give you like 10 million dollars up front. I'm gonna give you like $10 million upfront. I'm gonna give you percentage of sales every year and it's like, well, it's gonna have to be at least 2 million a year and it's like that's fine. He's like I just need to bring in my family to show them the situation, because I don't have the cash personally. But what I can get is I can get their cash, I'll get a loan. This will be great, yeah, meanwhile, jeffrey is freaking out because he's like I want him to give me the business, and which is Delusional at best.
Speaker 2:Shock. It's like, well, I'm going to maintain the vision. It's like, okay, you're going to maintain the vision and get $13 million in profit per year. Okay, yeah, okay, sure what.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in profit per year. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, sure what? Yeah, I like Jeff seemed like a very Competent artistic director. Yeah, 100% that. But you know he, he also acted from a place of like. He had a scarcity mindset, if you will. Because also, like george comes up to jeff one time because jeffrey has replaced his role as the entertainment director with his wife and his wife is now and george says that's a conflict of interest, you're gonna have to fire her and, to be fair, she was.
Speaker 2:She met jeffrey as the assistant artistic director. Yeah, so she, she was qualified to do this job. Yeah, and is there an epitome there? Yes, is there a weird power dynamic and I'm not sure how ethical their marriage in the first place probably was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean every single time. Like Jeff, just sort of like trauma dumped all the time on his wife and you could tell she was just like I'm going to need you to shut the fuck up, move on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like this man was just just like so set on it becoming his that he sort of like lost like perspective of everything else. I think when we were online like sort of reading about this, I brought up a new york times article that called it the succession of yeah, the succession renfrew succession, but with castles or something like that.
Speaker 2:It was a good headline, it was a great headline. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think honestly that is. That's kind of what it feels like.
Speaker 2:For sure. So we have to talk about Darla.
Speaker 1:Darla, she was the vendor coordinator. She was the vendor.
Speaker 2:Was she the vendor coordinator? Yeah, I thought she became the co she did, but she was the vendor coordinator.
Speaker 1:Okay, I see, I see, I see.
Speaker 2:So George was unhappy with something that Jeffrey does, so it says you need additional oversight. So he's like I'm going to appoint Darla as the co-general manager. Darla is big in with Louis because obviously he's one of the primary vendors. Yeah, so jeffrey sees this as a political move and undermining his authority, and so meanwhile darla's like yeah, I mean whatever man, I buy elephants yeah, I.
Speaker 1:what I got from Darla because she, george, really starts to rely on her versus Jeffrey, and what I got from her all of our interviews with her in the first little bit, was that she knows how to manipulate people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:She even talks about how like it's just like when you're purchasing elephants, you just have to like da-da-da-da-da. It's like, oh, she doesn't give a shit. Like she. Once again, this is a money play for her. It is nothing Like, I think, the only person in all of this that is like I'm doing it for the heart and love it's Jeffrey. It's Jeffrey.
Speaker 2:Delusional though.
Speaker 1:Delusional though delusional with that amount of money.
Speaker 2:That's delusion so we fast forward, get through that season of the run. Fair jeffrey gets fired yeah, it's so funny.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean I shouldn't say it's funny, it's actually kind of sad. But he sort of they show this shot of him driving in his car and he's like we got through another festival season. I, it was really I made george a lot of money yeah, I you know it was really difficult at times because, spoiler alert it was found out that their well water was like not okay it was a false report, apparently yes, apparently it was a false report, but I'm sure that contributed yeah, and also like hurt their attendance yeah, for sure anyways, it shows him and he's like it was a difficult season but we got through it and I feel really happy with what I did not.
Speaker 1:I think not even a week later he gets fired yes, yeah, so darla's a new gm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the way that ge George treats Darla is abusive at best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the book thing.
Speaker 2:He criticizes her for not reading enough. He says, like that's the reason you're stuck where you are, because you don't read and you don't have any kind of planning Like it's.
Speaker 1:it's gross it's also a mirror image of how he treated jeffrey.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, yeah, that was the confirmation of oh, this is straight up. Just the fall guy this is george has an idea about how it wants he wants it to be done, but doesn't communicate that, and he just assumes that the gm should act in the way that he would act absolutely.
Speaker 1:And darla sort of goes to george and says you know, here's the thing. Like I said, darla's in it for darla, darla's not in it for the love of the, the show she convinces him to sell. Yes, so they go. I think they spent, was it three or four months going through that entire process yeah, looking for they, find the other major vendor, uh, on the ren fair.
Speaker 2:they call them the greeks and they're like yep, they're reliable, I don't have to worry about their business, they're always on time with payments and they have the cash up front. And we're like, uh-oh.
Speaker 1:I was like, hmm, I wonder what the Greeks are doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we, they work out a deal with George, and then that falls through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and literally there's this great scene with Darla, where I think it's her and the accountant or the bookkeeper, something. They're kind of having this conversation and saying it's six days until close. George has been in a good mood, but that can change in a dime. I think you were like George sounds like he has some mental health problems.
Speaker 2:Clearly. Like this is not a yeah, no, not someone that you want to work with. Not somebody wants.
Speaker 1:You have a fucking multi-million dollar business deal reliant on yeah, so as such he moves the goalposts yeah, and the deal falls through and at this around the same time as this is all happening. Jeffrey emails, george oh, jeffrey.
Speaker 2:Jeffrey and his wife have both gotten weight loss surgery at this point and they're just. He emails george and begs for his job as the artistic director back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like and as they were writing this email, I was just it was. It was like bud, do you know what you should do? Go to therapy Like I don't know it's. It's like those people who get kidnapped and they're beholden to their captors even after they're released. It was giving that.
Speaker 2:Very Stockholm Syndrome.
Speaker 1:Yes, Thank you for no. I know what you meant.
Speaker 2:So he emails George begging, literally says the word I beg you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a cuck yeah.
Speaker 2:His wife is like are you sure?
Speaker 1:you sure?
Speaker 2:like maybe take that out. And he's like, no, I'm saying it specifically because he loves that, which is cringe, so they are still looking for a buyer. Louie comes back and says I have the money, just sell it to me. I will buy this from you. You want out, I want your business, let's do this, yeah. And that's where we end the movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we get, we get an update A post-credit like an Animal House.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where are they now? Situation Yep, George has fired Darla and appointed himself as the general manager, as one does. As one does as an 85-year-old eccentric shithead. Yep, jeffrey is back as the entertainment director. Yep, and the deal with Louis has fallen through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I remember in this last sort of Louis ditch effort of like sell it to me, I was like if I was this man after this, I would basically tell this old fucker to go kick rocks.
Speaker 2:I mean it's tough because he's he's a business partner. He has 16 businesses, he has a whole host of people who are reliant on him.
Speaker 1:I I understand that, but, but, but yeah, it is for sure.
Speaker 2:Like like at that point, do you, do you sue for damages? Like what happens, do you? Because then your fucking permits get revoked or your contracts get revoked like well, and also they have their own like police force and they have their.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Anyways, oh it was in terms of as we were also doing some reading for this, there was something on Reddit that was like this is the most staged documentary, and I mean Well, the one Reddit post that I saw was somebody saying this is actually a very gentle portrait of how George actually is, because he is a terrible person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a nightmare of a person. Yeah, yeah, I, I think it was a. I liked it in the same way that I liked Tiger King in like a holy shit what, yeah?
Speaker 1:I mean, we all need to watch some trash sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's definitely what this was. Yeah, six and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little better than Long Legs. That's our metric.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was gonna give it a seven, but like, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:What would you give Fantasmas?
Speaker 1:Probably an eight or a nine.
Speaker 2:I would give it a 10. Okay, I think it's perfect. Yeah, I have no- 10 out of 10.
Speaker 1:No notes no notes.
Speaker 2:Zero notes. It was, I think, the best thing on TV this year, and it's only July, Well that's lovely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, tell the people where they can find us. Okay. Well, if you would like to find us and interact with us more, which I don't know why you would do that, why would? You want to do that to yourself. You can follow us on threads. You can follow us on TikTok and Instagram. It's at highlowbrowpod. That's H-I-G-H brow, b-r-o-w pod.
Speaker 2:Oh highlowbrow B-R-O-W. Pod oh hi-low-brow pod.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, see, I fucked it up.
Speaker 2:H-I-G-H-L-O-W-B-R-O-W P-O-D.
Speaker 1:That one, that one.
Speaker 2:Do you remember POD the Christian?
Speaker 1:rock band. No, that's all you, baby. I'm very unchristian, thank you.
Speaker 2:They had the hit song Youth of the Nation and boom.
Speaker 1:Wait, was it? We Are, we Are, yeah, that, oh wow, I can't believe.
Speaker 2:I pulled that one, that was it. Yeah, I know, hey, man, I know their hits.
Speaker 1:You can also visit us at our website, at hyla row podcom also, if you want to leave us a voicemail, if you want to send us a text message, if you want to send us an email, if you want to send us, uh, a show review you should tell us whether you preferred pod, when they had truby as the lead guitarist, or marcos.
Speaker 2:yeah, I, I'm a Marcos girl, I'm a.
Speaker 1:Marcos girly. All right, is that the show? That is the show. Okay, bye, bye.
