The Pat McGann Show

Oz Pearlman: Reading Joe Burrow's Mind & Balboa on Team USA's Brutal Exit | Ep. 46

• Pat McGann • Season 1 • Episode 46

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0:00 | 49:21

Ever wonder what it takes to convince Joe Burrow to let a stranger mess with his head on national television? This week Pat sits down with mentalist Oz Pearlman, the guy with 8.9 million Instagram followers and a knack for melting NFL players' brains on camera. 

Oz breaks down how he talked his way past a hard "no" to get Joe Burrow into one of his most viral clips ever, walks through the harrowing minute he spent diving under a table at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and previews his unprecedented live Netflix special taping at the Brooklyn Paramount. 

Before the interview, Marcelo Balboa returns with his World Cup report, dissecting the USMNT's ugly 4-1 exit and America's pay-to-play youth soccer model. Balboa unpacks the red card controversy that had everyone talking about a phone call from Trump to FIFA, explains why VAR has officially gone too far, and shares feel-good stories like Cape Verde's hero's welcome home. He wraps it up with his final eight picks and some speculation on whether this is the last World Cup for legends like Messi and Ronaldo.

Safe to say, you may be leaving this episode with your mind blown. 

🎧 New episodes every Thursday — filmed at Tiege Hanley Studios in Chicago. 

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🎤 Co-Host: Dwayne Kennedy
Instagram: @dwaynetkennedy

🎤 Guest: Marcelo Balboa
Instagram: @marcelobalboa17

🎤 Guest: Oz Pearlman
Instagram: @ozthementalist

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EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Kelley Thornton
PRODUCER - Paula Thornton
SHOWRUNNER - Tom Bambara
VIDEO AND AUDIO EDITOR - Madeline Curless
AUDIO ENGINEER - Tommy Grant
VIDEO PRODUCER - Eddie Perez
ORGANIC CONTENT MANAGER - George Moster

SPEAKER_02

It's episode 46 of the Pat McGann Show. This week, Pat welcomes mentalist Oz Perlman with a special report on the World Cup from Marcelo Balboa. The Pat McGann Show, as always, is brought to you by Tiege Hanley on complicated skincare for men. And now, here's Pat.

SPEAKER_04

Alright, for the 46th time, we are here in the Tiege Hanley studios on the west side of Chicago. It's hard to believe, but it's the month of July. Man. We started this in September. We are creeping around to a year mark here. And I got Dwayne Kennedy with me. Dwayne, we got a special episode. We're kind of fronting this. I recorded a conversation with our guest and um wanted to put something up in front here as we get away for the holiday. Yeah. So we're uh jumping in. We got Oz Perlman who was gonna join us in studio, had him all lined up. His schedule shifted. Oz is huge. He's got a massive following on Instagram. People have seen him do the you know, he's a mentalist.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

And he's got uh a bunch of viral stuff. Uh you should check him out. I know you had worked with a mentalist recently. This is he's like the top of this game. Okay, undoubtedly. And uh really good dude. I've done some work with him in the past. He agreed to come on, so I'm looking forward to that. And we're gonna have him in person down the road.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'd like to see that, man. Ask him a few questions. Yeah. What am I thinking about? Oh never mind. Keep that to yourself. Help me.

SPEAKER_04

Help me where my where my thoughts are headed. Um so yeah, we were just gonna uh catch up for a minute. I I think that we should be as we're going into I just feel like the podcast is maybe evolving a little bit. I'm starting to hear more from people listening to the show, which I love. Yeah, just hearing uh great feedback.

SPEAKER_03

I was gonna say, what are they saying?

SPEAKER_04

Is your mom still listening? I think so. Yeah?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that was crazy. But I told you that before. That was crazy. You know, I like that podcast that you and Pat do. What?

SPEAKER_04

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03

You watch that? Is your sister? Not yet.

SPEAKER_04

No. I'm trying to get the rest of my family on board. Yeah, me too. I'm trying to get my family starting to get involved. Starting to listen. Um but we're gonna be pitching some new segments to each other.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Alright. Yeah. I got um a lot of people do a top five. Okay, so I'm thinking, maybe we'll do a top five.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, top five. That sounds good. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So now we're gonna do top five numbers between one and five. You have to rank one through five. Top five.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Do you think anyone's listening to this anymore? That would be zero. That'd be number zero. Guys, enjoy the roads out there. Be careful. Have a I hope you had a safe holiday. We're coming back next week. We're gonna be regular form. Alright, Dwayne. Bye-bye, everyone. Enjoy O's! Hey guys, quick question. Are you washing your face with the same soap you wash your car with? Do you shower in the driveway too? It's time to step things up. That's why I like Tiege Hanley. It's a super simple skincare system made for guys. Cleanse, moisturize, exfoliate. It's all laid out so you don't have to think about it. Just a few minutes a day, and your skin actually looks better. Head to Tiege.com slash Pat for 40% off and a free gift. Start taking care of your face like an adult. That's Tiege.com slash Pat. Alright, joining us again. This is becoming I mentioned this last time. I really do look forward to connecting with our guest here, our World Cup expert, our World Cup veteran. He played in three for our nation. Marcelo Belboa is back with us. Marcelo, good to see you.

SPEAKER_00

I was waiting for like a theme music. Where was the theme music?

SPEAKER_04

We gotta add that. We'll add that in post.

SPEAKER_00

What's up, buddy? How are you?

SPEAKER_04

I'm doing well, man. Good. Very well. It's uh been a little bit of a letdown. It's been a couple days now since uh United States lost. I guess we should jump in with that. Kind of a bummer, but um maybe exposed a little bit. Did you think that uh they they were you know what?

SPEAKER_00

There's so many excuses out there, people. I mean, it's amazing how when they were winning, everybody was so positive. And now that we lost, now all our deficiencies come out. You know what? And it's uh I guess we'll have to do the same thing to Brazil. You know what I mean? We'll have to go back and look at a few teams that didn't make it that far either. We'll have to look at their deficiencies too. But uh listen, they had a bad game. It's unfortunate um that they played their probably worst game in the World Cup. Um 2-1, I was okay with. You know what I mean? The the score, you still had a fight, and then Matt Freeze makes a mistake, makes a 3-1. Chris Richards makes a mistake, which is part of the game. But I think I think I think most people are just let down with the effort. They they just felt like they got overwhelmed. They didn't um they didn't have that same energy, they didn't max the energy they had in the previous four games, and uh it just leaves uh like anything, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you lose four to one. And now people are saying that we're not a top, you know, quarterfinal team. We hit a ceiling, and so um it is what it is, man. We had a bad world, we had a bad last game, and uh, we got to build from here and see where we go.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I think that's what everyone's got to keep in mind, right? It is a single elimination when you get to that situation, anything can happen, and it was a little bit of a bummer. Um, there was some controversy beforehand that kind of right after we talked last time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

But the did you want to weigh in on the red card issue?

SPEAKER_00

Are you tired of talking about the the flow thing? Um, and I I'll be very careful because Article 27 and how it's explained is very strange. You can get a red card, it can be rescinded, and you have to serve the suspension later on. And um, because they want the best players in the World Cup, which I think is weird. Uh the red card, we all make mistakes. If the referee didn't see a red card initially, then then VAR from outside, VAR told him to go look at it. So anytime you freeze frame and you go clip by clip by clip by clip, you're gonna find a foul. And yes, he stepped on him, but it wasn't with malice, it wasn't done on purpose. He was, they were both going for the ball. He lunged out, stepped on him. Whatever. Um, every the beauty of our game, it's uh everybody sees it differently. I'll see a game one way, somebody else will see it a different way. Somebody will see a foul here, and somebody won't see a foul. Just like yesterday in the Argentina-Egypt game. The guy stepped on his foot, there was a foul. The Egyptians, 30,000 Egyptians don't think it's a foul. 30,000 Argentinians don't think it's a foul, I mean, think it's a foul. So, you know what I mean? So, with the flow thing, I think where it got a little skewed, where where all of a sudden, 24 hours before the game, FIFA releases that Flow can play under Article 27. Uh, they rescinded the red card, and everybody was just like, wait a minute, what's going on here? You know what I mean? So again, politics got involved a little bit. Um, it didn't really matter. Uh, Flo didn't have a great game. And uh, but I think what leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth is that everybody heard the rumors that Trump called FIFA, and and you're now, you know, I mean, the a president of a country should not be calling FIFA to change a red card, you know. And when you start listening to the explanation, I was watching him the other day, and he's like, he knows sports, I know sports, but then he turns around and said, I had to ask what a red card was. So you're kind of sitting there going, like, okay. I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Haven't you ever played Uno?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Skippo. I got it, I got it, I got it. Reverse, I listen. So it just got it made it a bigger thing than it should have been. Uh FIFA should have just left it. Did he deserve a red card? No, but they gave it to him. Just leave it, let it move on. Uh, and either way, it didn't turn out in anybody's favor. It just put a little cloud over uh FIFA right now and what happened with uh with that game.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was uh too bad that just became a bigger issue, maybe a little bit of a distraction. Yeah, it didn't end up mattering.

SPEAKER_00

No.

SPEAKER_04

Um and I did want to ask you because I'm watching the game, and the the the game's very physical, obviously. Yeah, you know that more than anybody. But do you think it's changed? Because drawing a parallel to the NBAs, watching the NBA finals, and they the way they let you set a screen now and the and the hands-on and the and the shoving, when you see a ball coming in the air, a lot of the times after a goalie kick and they're going up for it, there's some pushing from behind. Yeah, it's yeah, it's normal. Yeah, it is normal. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, listen, there's always going to be it's a physical game. And I'll give credit to the referees. They've allowed in this World Cup, they've allowed the game to be a little bit more physical again. So there are some tackling, there's bumping of shoulders, they're knocking each other down. It's become a bit more physical, I think everything we want. And up until, you know, I mean, uh maybe a few instances where you can say a red card, maybe yellow, you know what I mean? The refereeing's been pretty good, man. It hasn't been bad. But if you go back, we'll go back to VAR. VAR was intended for goal line technology uh to see if the ball's in or if it's not in. It wasn't built and it wasn't made for our game to call an offside by a millimeter. That's not what VAR was intended for. Um, VAR was not intended to go freeze frame every action. Because if you want to listen, if you want a penalty or if you want a foul, go to a corner kick and just freeze frame every shot. Every shot, you'll find a penalty in there every single time because it's a physical game. So there's certain things that are allowed and certain things that aren't allowed. But I think we've gotten to a point now where it's it's var's gone too far. They're they're correcting too many things. And now it's going back to the point of uh of one of those things where they're they're they're affecting the game more than it was built for. So I hope, I hope they they relax a little bit on this. We need to go to VAR every time. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it could it's just like watching the NFL game, you call holding on every play, and there is exactly exactly just like in boxing.

SPEAKER_00

You go back to boxing, and you if you want to watch the round, you have to freeze frame. Did he really hit him full? Did he nick it? You know what I mean? It's like yeah, it's it's the same thing as as football. If you look at football, if you freeze frame every play, there's holding every time somewhere, someone's holding or someone. So it you gotta let the game flow. You know what I mean? And uh and again, people the people that don't understand the game sometimes or don't know all the rules or have never played it, they're they're asking questions. Why was it a foul on the Egyptian player that stepped on the Argentine's player? And then the goal came from that. Well, that action happened. I remember the commentator say, well, the action happened, that's not part of the same action. No, it was the same match, and that guy got the ball. He dribbled down, they got the ball, and they scored. That same action continued all the way through the play. So you go back to the beginning of the play where the foul was and you call the foul there. So they can, you know, I mean, they don't stop it right there, but you can go back to VAR. So, like I said, it's very, it's very confusing sometimes for a lot of people. That's why I think a lot of the uh a lot of the broadcasts do a nice job of putting an ex-official on there to explain the rules when something happened.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it's gotta be hard to be an official in any sport now with the video replay going where. All right, before we move on from uh America, from the United States, I've seen a lot of people talking about it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, but say it right. America. Say it right.

SPEAKER_04

America.

SPEAKER_00

There you go.

SPEAKER_04

I wanted to get your take on because I've heard some people say, what is the issue? Is it the youth sports? Is it how we develop our players? And how do we correct or maybe moving forward become more competitive in the World Cup?

SPEAKER_00

Well, we are competitive. We we got out of the group, we won our stage group. So I don't understand the competitiveness. You know what I mean? That people keep comparing country to other countries. Well, they only have 10 million here. Why are they better than us? Our athletes are this. Listen, when I was a kid, I grew up with a soccer ball at my feet. Okay. Plain and simple. My dad put a ball at my feet. My friends' fathers tried to put a ball in my hand. Okay. They gave me a baseball because they they thought it was a decent asset. They gave me a football, they put a tennis racket in my hand. They did all these things. It was hand high uh hand-eye coordination. Any anywhere else in the world, Argentina, Brazil, South, anywhere in South America and Europe, the first thing they give you is a soccer ball. Okay. We compete with so many different sports here. And it's gonna take generations of time for our kids from there, from my dad's from me to my kids to my kids' kids, you know what I mean, down the road. It's gonna take a little time. So, but listen, we're competitive in this sport. We had a bad game. So when you look at what we do, maybe we need to play better competition sometimes. Maybe we need to go to Europe and play more games, we need to go to South America and play more games. But uh what drives me crazy is as soon as the US loses, everybody goes back to it's the pay-for-play model. That's great. We've known about, you know, this isn't a new revelation, Pat. We've known about this for 30 years. And you know what we keep getting every day? People bitching on getting online, and yeah, this is about you soccer. Our pay-to-play model sucks. Great. Give me a suggestion how to fix it. You know what you hear? You hear crickets, you hear crickets because everybody wants to bitch, but nobody has a solution for it. That's the it's too big of a country to have it under one model. And that's what people understand. And listen, if let me ask you this if you're running a club team, okay, and you're making $200,000 as an executive director, and I come to you and I say, you're gonna have to take half of your salary, and the other half has to go into players andor uh development of players and coaches. What are you gonna say?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, right. We don't have the exactly.

SPEAKER_00

So you tell me how you unify soccer in this country where you're gonna have people take pay cuts to put money back into our sport. It it's difficult. There's it's not a solution.

SPEAKER_04

My son was playing hockey, and that is the same thing. Yeah, the pay to play, and we don't see we're we're very competitive with hockey, and so it's yeah, it doesn't seem to make sense.

SPEAKER_00

People, but we focus on soccer, and I have friends who have football kids who have played football their whole life. I have friends who have had baseball kids, competitive baseball, and it's the same problem in every sport, not just soccer, it is a problem in baseball, it is a problem in basketball, it is a problem in American football. So, and no one has the solution yet, but it's easy to get online and tell us something we've known about for 30 years.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Well, it was a bummer they lost, and now we have um some more great games ahead of us, and we've seen some great games. You mentioned the um um Argentina, Egypt. That was quite a finish. And um of the eight teams, all right. Let's go through the eight teams. What do we have?

SPEAKER_00

We have Norway, Norway, England, you got Argentina, Switzerland, you have Morocco, France, that's gonna be a barn burner, and then you got Spain, Belgium.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

Who are your picks? Who are your picks? I'm gonna ask you who your picks. Morocco, France, who's gonna win?

SPEAKER_04

I'll go um Argentina. Okay Spain. Okay, and then Norway, England. Norway.

SPEAKER_00

You're gonna go with Norway, you're gonna go with the I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_04

I got still got bad feelings about the revolution.

SPEAKER_00

Alright, alright. How about uh Morocco and France? France. Alright. You you know, it's tough because I would love to see an African country win this. I would love to see a different country win this. So Morocco's hosting the next World Cup with Portugal and Spain, so I think they have a chance, but I don't think anybody, the the way the French are playing with all the weapons they have, I don't see it. I can see uh I can see Spain getting through with Yamal. The Norway-England one has me thrown a little bit because Norway with Holland up top, it's it's tough, but I think England in the end will probably pull it through. And then I think Argentina. So we're on the same boat. We're on the same boat. We don't want to, I would, I would, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. The only the only upset, I mean, would be Belgium maybe beating Spain. I think if Norway won, I think people realize how good Norway is. But I think that uh I think you're gonna see what we think. England, Argentina semifinal, and Spain, France semifinal.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, there's been an incredible tournament. And um I know you've been busy and you got some more travel coming up with MLS, right?

SPEAKER_00

I do. I have uh I have here till the 14th, and then from here I'll go on the uh on the 15th of fly to Seattle and I'll do Seattle, Portland. That's the return game for MLS. What they decided to do was uh play games in between the semifinal and the final to highlight MLS, and they've got some cool promotions that if you if you're in that city and you've never gone to a game before, that you're able to apply and get a free ticket to go watch the game. So, you know what? I mean, MLS is we're listening, you gotta do everything you can to highlight our league. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, no doubt. And it's this tournament, the World Cup has got to be bringing in a lot more fans, and hopefully you see that momentum kind of carry into the the league that we have here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, listen, 30 it shows how well how how soccer is. We had in the United States only over 30 million people watch the uh the last game. So that against uh I think it's gonna be over 35, 36 million people watch the Belgium game. So that's that's a pretty good sign of our sport.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that is, it really is. Yeah, I mean that was quite a night. Monday night football. I saw someone tweet about that. It was that was Fox.

SPEAKER_00

That was Fox. They did a Monday night football thing. It was cool, it was cool.

SPEAKER_04

So any um side stories that have been intriguing to you, coaches, players, anything going on that um again, I'm always looking to engage the casual fan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I think when you look at this, you look at uh, you know, Pochettino now. Good story. I mean, his contract's done. What will we do? What will U.S. soccer do? Uh Didier Duchamp, the French coach. Uh his mother passed away early in the tournament. He missed a game, and you can see that they're rallying against uh around his coach and they're fighting for that. So there's been a Cape Verde. I mean, the the heroes welcome they got when they got back, they had uh they showed video of the tarmac uh employees on their knees, basically bowing down to the team for what they did for their country. You know what I mean? And that's that's pretty cool, man. I think they have the population of uh half a million uh people there, and a bunch of people showed up to to welcome them home. So, man, there's been a lot of there's been a lot of good stories when you look at what uh what this World Cup has brought together, the cultures uh uh of different backgrounds and enjoying the World Cup. So it's been, I think when you look at this, it's been a it's been a very positive experience. Even Mexico, Mexico, what they did against England, you know, PAC Stadium, the atmosphere was ridiculous. They lost three to two, but it's not for effort. I mean, they were pushing and pounding and uh just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. So I think when you look at this, you know, a lot of history's been made. Egypt made it out of their group, they won a knockout game. That's historical for them. Canada, the same thing. Mexico came a little short because they uh they always talk about playing in the fifth game, that's a quarterfinal. They didn't reach it. So just like the United States. But I think overall, uh oh, yeah, Germany got rid of their coach. Ecuador got rid of their coach. Yeah, official. Ecuador, Ecuador coach resigned. So he's done. Rumor has it they got rid of the Germany coach already, and Jürgen Klopp is going to be the next announcement for the Germany for their national team for the next four years, getting them ready for the World Cup. So let me this, it's it's drama, it's it's everything. You know what I mean? When you when you talk about you'll see a lot of coaches leaving, and you'll see a lot of new coaches being hired in the next uh six, seven months.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, a lot of new names are you know, yeah. Careers are being made, and then we also have some fairwell stuff going on. Ronaldo, yeah, his final World Cup.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a good story. Well, we had to hold on, hold on. He didn't say that. He didn't say no one no one has said this is my last World Cup. We're assuming that Luke Modric will not play in the next World Cup. We're assuming the next World Cup is in Portugal. So do I see Ronaldo trying to stay fit enough to maybe play in a World Cup at home? Very much so. Very much so. So Neymar, no one said he's retiring yet. No one uh is we're assuming it's his last World Cup because we see him crying after the game. Um, so Mo Salah, no one from Egypt. No one he said, we said we'll see. So we don't know. We're we're speculating that this is their farewell, but uh we'll we'll find out in. Probably the next uh two, three years, see what happens.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's gonna be uh I mean, would you be surprised? Who who would you think out of those players could show up again and um I I'll be honest with you, I think that they've done so much.

SPEAKER_00

All of these players, Salah, I mean Mo Salah, when you're talking uh Luka Motoric, I mean Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, they've done so much for the game. But I think in this World Cup, you could tell Neymar wasn't healthy. He didn't he didn't look great. He took the penalty, took it great, but can he make another World Cup and be and help that team win a World Cup? That's questionable. I think Ronaldo showed his age in in this World Cup a little bit, that this team maybe has passed him by. You know what I mean? And they say, you know, I'm not I'm not a Ronaldo hater. I am I am very thankful that in my lifetime I've been able to see two of the best players in the world battle at each other for years, for almost 20 years. And I think we've all been a little spoiled with that because once they're done, who's gonna take that? Who's gonna take that crown? You know what I mean? So I would think, I would think that Ronaldo's still in the mix because I know he's competitive and he the light at the end of the tunnel sees the World Cup at home. I would think Messi would probably one that'll play a few more years. I don't think you'll see him in the next World Cup. I don't think you'll see Mussalah in the next World Cup. Maluka Mordric, I don't think you'll see him in the next World Cup. But what you will see is when they decide to retire from a national team, you will see a celebration like no other. Messi, they will hold a farewell game for Messi in Argentina with his last game with the with the national team. And it will be emotional, it will be spectacular. Same with Ronaldo, same with Motheric, and the same with Mozolá. So we've got a lot of cool things coming up here in the future.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I'm gonna say that right now. Anyone that leaves the review for our podcast, you're gonna give yourself a chance to go to Messi's farewell game in Argentina. We're gonna take a bunch of our listeners down there. Date to be determined. You in?

SPEAKER_00

Do I get to go?

SPEAKER_04

I'm lying right now, Marcelo. This is all bullshit.

SPEAKER_00

I can tell the sarcasm. It's okay.

SPEAKER_04

Well, listen, I know you're busy, man. You got some more games headed up. Are you uh you probably don't know what day it is. You must be confused.

SPEAKER_00

I thought I woke up and I thought it was Tuesday, bro. So I'm not gonna lie. I'm I'm not my days because you just kind of go to work. It's like groundhog day. You just go to work, you come home. You go to work, you come home. So, but no, today I have uh one more interview, and then I am going to go play some golf, my friend.

SPEAKER_04

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00

I'm going to go play some golf finally.

SPEAKER_04

Enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, my friend.

SPEAKER_04

All right. So um you're gonna go on. Who do you think's gonna win this whole thing?

SPEAKER_00

I think it's gonna come down to God. It's I keep I can't I can't pick up England. So I'm gonna take Argentina reaching the final, and I'm gonna pick France. I mean, I mean I'm I'm playing safe. Even though Argentina didn't play well, but I I see France getting there. And uh I can see it, uh I could see an Argentina, I could see a rematch of the last World Cup, Argentina, France in the final.

SPEAKER_04

All right, well we'll see. That would be cool to see Morocco.

SPEAKER_00

It would be.

SPEAKER_04

Shocksing.

SPEAKER_00

It would be, but then I would have to go against Argentina, so but I I I will say this to watch Morocco play, even though they played awful against Canada, they found a way to win that game. And I still think it's silly. Do you hear what the Canadian coach said, Jesse Marshall? We all know him pretty well. They lost 3-0, and he said, I'd still rather be us than them.

SPEAKER_04

Really?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we were like, we sat there going like, I get you're trying to back your your team, but that's a weird statement, is it not? I'd still rather be us than them. They just beat you and went into the round of 16 quarterfinals.

SPEAKER_04

That sounds like a um, you know, a Bears fan saying, You gotta live in Green Bay. Careful, carefully. You gotta live in Green Bay. Have fun. Well, all right, Marcelo, thank you again for joining us. I hope you um have a good week. Enjoy playing golf, and we'll talk to you next week where we're gonna be down to four or two. Four teams, four teams.

SPEAKER_00

We'll be down to by then, by next two, by next week. The fun, yeah, we'll be down to four. Yep. All right, so all right, brother. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_04

All right, thanks. Marcelo Balboa, everyone, our World Cup expert.

SPEAKER_03

Tease Handley has changed my life.

SPEAKER_00

My skin has been amazing. Uh, we're the number one men's skincare routine in America. When I got here, they go, uh, we're just waiting for the podcast guest. We know you're here for pictures. Oh, you were a model.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you guys, he's glowing. In fact, Ape Burgazzi was like, your skin's awesome. Just like, I look forward to like, oh, I'm washing my face before I go to sleep. I think we haven't had any 40-year-olds on the podcast.

SPEAKER_04

And I said, I'm 50. And everyone goes, What? T Shannley. It's the way we face the day. Real showbiz right there. Who's ironing my shirt? Oh boy, I can't believe all this shit. You're flying southwest. I thought you'd be flying private landing on top of the peninsula.

SPEAKER_01

I know. Tell me about it. Don't even tell this. Let's let's keep the mystique. Whenever I talk to Sebastian, he's like, God, I don't even know how you do it. He's like, You're working too hard. You got five kids. He loves my stories. Oh, that guy's living, he's got a good work-life balance. My wife is like work with stress and occasionally life. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, he seems to balance it well.

SPEAKER_01

Dude, he balances it so well. That guy's uh, I I I I need lessons from him.

SPEAKER_04

All right, we're jumping right in, obviously. Guys, I'm talking to Oz Perlman, the biggest name and show business. I mean, come on, dude. If you have not seen I cannot believe, and by the way, joining virtually, I think this is how I met you the first time.

SPEAKER_01

We I think we met virtually during the blur, during the back in whenever that was 20, 21, who even we were all webcam girls, uh doing my little song and dance uh uh right here. This is how I was making a living. I thought I was gonna go broke, but uh I was doing song and dance through a camera. I was literally always wearing boxers below the equator during that era.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, same, right, right. But it kept us uh kind of afloat, right? Yep, and then I don't know if you remember this. I think we did something in in the villages together in Florida, and I ate it. I a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01

You did it at a shout out to Boca Tone. I won't say which country club. I don't think you ate it as hard as you thought you did, but I'm gonna put it out there McGann versus Pearlman. It was like 98% Jews. This was my people. You were you were bat and zero. Uh, like it was just I was going in there, home field advantage, brother.

SPEAKER_04

Oh my god, I skated. I was like, I am it was one of those that yeah, I had to go take a shower, I gotta get out of here. I knew what I was walking into. But I mean, come on, since this time, and and again, like I mentioned, if you haven't seen O's, you're you might be living under a rock. Every everything that I turn on, you're making an appearance, you're popping in. Obviously, the the ones they're obvious. That the Americans got talent starting out with, but then hitting the tonight show, today show. I mean, have you done GMA? What shows we listen to the shows you haven't done?

SPEAKER_01

I've never done GMA, but knock on wood, I think I'm going to soon, because they did call me. Um, but for a while it was like East East East Side, West Side Turf Battles, where if you do the Today Show, I think I think I did the Today Show, you gotta count, but I think over 20 times in a in a in a few year period. So I was untouchable to ABC, but now I've jumped over because I do a lot of stuff with ESPN. Um what have I not done? This year, in I don't know when this is coming out, but July 16th, I'm filming my first Netflix special. Uh, the first of its kind, it's unprecedented. I'm a mentalism special for Netflix live on stage. So I'm psyched in it. And this is this is uh, I think gonna be the most exciting thing I've ever done.

SPEAKER_04

Where are you shooting this at?

SPEAKER_01

Brooklyn Paramount, which is just a stunning venue. If you've never been there, they renovated it. It is it is beautiful. I've performed at Radio City Music Hall, and I thought that is the pinnacle for me. Obviously, the garden. If somehow I can make that happen one day, manifest that into reality.

SPEAKER_04

But oh, that'll happen.

SPEAKER_01

This this the Paramount, I walked in and I was just blown away. My breath was taken away. I go, there's nothing like this. It's stunning, beautiful, beautiful theater. Um, two sold-out shows. I didn't think they were gonna sell out as quick. They sold out like that. We put them up and it's always a pain to sell tickets, but I e-blasted it to all my clients, and and I think people just want to be there, they want to see history being made and they want to be on TV. I told them, get fired up because I'm doing a show that's the next level of anything I've ever done. I'm pulling out all the stops.

SPEAKER_04

This is gonna be pretty great. Dude, I'm picturing uh David Copperfield making like the Statue of Liberty disappear back when I was growing up, like that that level. Because I mean, you were just with uh the president at the correspondence dinner. You were telling me that you were gonna get guess the nuclear codes.

SPEAKER_01

Man, who knows? Who knows what I'll do? It's being rescheduled, by the way. So it's coming up July 24th. I get uh a second chance.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I want to get it, I want to ask you something about that night. Just like it must have been insane. And and not bad for the not not bad for PR. Not I mean, thank you.

SPEAKER_01

You know, it wasn't the PR I wanted, so it's not really it's like a weird way to get kind of famous, uh, that wasn't necessarily the way I would have liked. Um, but I'm really happy that it turned out in the sense that everybody left safe, that when you look at in the in the grand scheme, uh the the police acted quick, the secret service acted quick heroically, and nobody was hurt, nobody was killed. So it was it was a win in my eyes. It was harrowing and incredibly scary that night. In hindsight, you always look back at it. But in the moment, I would say it was the scariest minute of my life by far.

SPEAKER_04

You seem pretty chill. The footage you seem like the most relaxed in all the footage.

SPEAKER_01

You didn't see me on the ground, like like literally under the table? Diving under the table, thinking we're about to explode. I I don't I dove under the table. I was the second person to get down, I think.

SPEAKER_04

Oh my gosh. Yeah, dude. That's I mean, that's gonna be in the book, right?

SPEAKER_01

I I it's gonna be in my obituary one day. They'll be like, this was the dude who was right next to the president when shots rang out.

SPEAKER_04

No one's surprised when you show up when they're watching something, and then you just pop up. No one's surprised anymore. I've never missed a season. I've never missed a season of hard knocks, and I loved when you popped in because you do this, you go to a team. Yep. And and by the way, I've had some bid nights. I want to encourage everyone to do this. This is a great activity. Go on YouTube and go down an O's Pearlman rabbit hole and just watch it with your kids, watch it with your every generation, and you're blowing everyone's minds. I mean, that's something I want to ask you too. Do you have a favorite reaction? Because you know, comedy, you're like, you have to show you're like, man, oh, I got an applause break, I got uh, you know, this kind of on a roll. Are you like, dude, I got I got 20. What the fucks?

SPEAKER_01

I got you know, there's different texture. It's kind of like you have different laughs. Some are belly laughs, some are, you know, snort laughs. You've got a little bit of the same thing where we Venn diagram overlap. I like when there's diversity of reactions. So you know the classic, no, run out of the room, freak out, lose your mind. Now that's right, you think that's a 10 out of 10, and it is, but sometimes the slow look into the eyes of somebody who looks like they saw a ghost, and it's quiet. It's the opposite of a laugh or uh, and it just like you just wrecked their day, you just liquefied their brain. And in some instances, specifically with football teams, you've seen guys just look at me, pack up their stuff, and walk the F out. That's it. And that just crushes. There was one with the Seattle Seahawks.

SPEAKER_04

When that happens on my shows, it's devastating.

SPEAKER_01

They walk out for a different reason, they demand their money back. They go, What is this Pat McGann guy? I thought he was gonna be great. No, man, you're a killer. You are a killer. I have seen you stone cold, and both of us are clean, which is it it appeals to everyone. So I don't really go blue, neither do you. I don't, I'm not divisive, I'm not gonna say anything political, I'm not gonna say anything with religious overtones. I'm going in there with one language that unifies us all, which is wonder and amazement. And if we can throw in some laughs, that goes down, makes the medicine go down smoother. But I I really believe that I am not there in any instance to voice my opinion, to divide us. I want to have give people a moment of joy and fun that lets you forget about all your problems and all your stress and all your bills and all the other crap that we all have. I want you to have fun and be blown away.

SPEAKER_04

Dude, you should put that in your corporate reel. That's the pitch right there. And that is what you do, man. You bring people together and you do melt minds. Um, some of these moments, I love when you went around uh NBA TNT and that crew, just seeing people that you think you know, see them and they kind of break, they break that wall, they kind of become more more human. Are there some moments that you yourself are like, wow, I I got those people and I can't believe I there's a lot of joyful moments, but there's ones where there's ones where people said there's no way this is going to happen.

SPEAKER_01

Like I'll give you a great example Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Burrow. Joe's a great guy. I've actually performed for him several times now. But when you get to these NFL teams, just so you understand, people always think the level of access. There's no access. You're getting there, you're gonna have uh a very concentrated amount of time. They'll be like you have 38 minutes with the team. 38, not 35, not 40, 38 minutes, right? They're on a schedule, and you get in that room and it's go time. It's just like the game. And so in many of those instances, you have an intermediary between you, a public relations team, a comms team, somebody who tells you, here's what you can do, can't do, here's what you can say, here's what you can't say, right? So they they will let you know, hey, this person might be interested, this person not, this person is a no. So I have been told with certain quarterbacks, and it's not through any fault of their own, I'm not saying that they're some of them are shy, some of them are just asked, do you want to do this? And they're a little scared of me. They're like, I don't know what this guy's gonna do. They're a no. So I was told unequivocally, Joe Burrow is not taking part in the show. I politely say, I understand, but in the back of my head, I go, he's absolutely gonna be in the show. I will find a way. This is a door that is locked, and I have a lock picking kit for your brain. So when I get in that room, what I'm doing is influencing you. That is a huge part of the show, is I am using the levers of entertainment, influence, deception, and peer pressure to get you to eventually say, Yeah, let's do something. And in that room, it took a long time to get Joe, notoriously Joe cool, to loosen up and to get his teammates to be like, all right, get Joe. And Joe's like, all right, let's do it. And so you can see the people in the room that were told he's not in it, looking at me like, I can't believe you got him, and then getting arguably one of the most viral clips of my career. Because when we walked into that room, me, Adam Scheffter, ESPN, everybody in there knew that this wasn't happening. And I told them, yeah little faith, let me work my magic, pun intended. And when we walked out of that room, he was a believer. He was blown away, and the footage speaks for itself because it there's nothing fake. I love when people write comments fake, staged. Dude, that is the biggest compliment you could give me. I don't think you understand that is the biggest compliment I could get. Because if it's that good that you think it was staged or fake, that somebody who has a $300 million contract, you think I paid them off? No, dude, they don't they don't want to help me. A lot of these people, they want me to get it wrong. So it's not staged or fake. Those reactions couldn't be more real or genuine, and that's the juice. That's why the views get you know millions and millions of views because you see the human quotient, the human element uh of getting someone blown away in the moment.

SPEAKER_04

I've seen it, I've seen it um kind of in an intimate setting when you another time we crossed paths, you came in and entertained Sebastian's tour. Yeah, I was awesome through everybody, and we all were in the back there at um was that UBS arena?

SPEAKER_01

That was Long Island, UBS baby Elmont. We came as home for me.

SPEAKER_04

Beautiful new arena, and um you put on a show for for everyone, and and it was very much like right there, and yep, had all the reactions you were just talking about. The holy cows uh looking right through you. I saw a ghost, and then I had uh my girlfriend with me, Kim. You did something, you talked just with her. Yeah. When we were, you know, just the three of us, and I remember thinking, like, oh, you're gonna do the trick with her, not me. Was I blocking? Did you feel like I was impenetrable? She's better looking than you, Pat.

SPEAKER_01

She's better looking than you. No doubt. But so that's what a lot of people, when they see these clips online, they don't realize it's a it's a double-edged sword where they go, do it to more regular people, you know, we don't trust it. But if you do it on video to people that are not famous or that have um, how do I describe it? There's no way that if I do something with the president next month, that anyone says, oh, you know, he got the president to play along. That's impossible. Do you understand? That's literally no one is going to get President Donald Trump to act or play along. Uh, if they could do that, they wouldn't use my, you know, they wouldn't use me for entertainment. It'd be global geopolitical. So you know the authenticity of what I do based on the fact that these people are either very well known, famous, their credibility is impenetrable. And so with famous people, you have that aura of authenticity. But in real life, when you come to my show, buy tickets, come see me, it will be with you, with your grandfather, with your son, with your daughter. And when you see them and you go, they're not on Wikipedia, you can't Google them. How did you do this? And so the same thing applies when I did it with your girlfriend. You know that I couldn't have known she was even gonna be there. Yeah. So when you do something for her, you can't say, Oh, he he looked her up. It's not like that, it's not possible.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, man. It's uh it's so great to see your climb, everything you got going. And uh really excited to see this Netflix special. You're taping in uh Brooklyn, you have uh some new stuff planned, obviously. You fired up about crazy new stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Also, it's a show. So most people that have seen my act until now have seen me in bite-sized portions, right? You get the hyper concentrated version on Instagram or TikTok, or maybe you got something on TV for three or four minutes. This gives it a little more room to breathe. You get to know a little bit more about me as a person. What I think your comedy fans are gonna hopefully, this is fingers crossed, gonna note is that the show's funny. You usually just see me be amazing, but I'm hoping you get some good laughs. You can watch it with the family, and this is the first of its kind. It's unprecedented. I am not only gonna try to read the minds of the thousands of people at the theater, but the millions at home watching through the camera. And that's never been done before. So the people at home are going to be engaged and get it to interact during the show and have their minds blown at home. So trust me, when this comes out later this year, it is going to be unlike anything you've seen before.

SPEAKER_04

Dude, how exciting! Very cool. I can't wait to see it. And I know you're a busy guy. Thank you for jumping in. We were gonna do this in person, and I know your schedule shifted. I can't, how much, how many like I don't even like when I get this question?

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_04

But it is, I'm curious with you. How are you gigging? Like, are you working like three weekends a month? Are you trying to get have some time for yourself? I mean, I know you got you have five kids.

SPEAKER_01

Five kids, my man. So we just actually got back. We had a nice trip to Europe. That was amazing. Brought all five kids on one trip in France. My daughter puked all over me, my one-year-old, she puked all over herself. I became less of a mentalist and more of a can we find somewhere to buy new clothing? And it was like disaster after disaster. They didn't take credit cards, we didn't have any Euros. It was like a it was a national lampoon movie that I was living through that none of us will ever forget. It was a memorable day. Um, but the answer to your question is I'm super busy, but the time that I do have, I try to really be present, have a great time, enjoy the kids, enjoy this moment in their life, but also hopefully set them up for success in the future because when the, you know, you got to strike when the iron is hot and show biz. So right now it's very busy, but it's also moments of balance and enjoying uh the family and and trying to find that balance, which you know can be difficult at times.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, definitely. And you have your running too, which I when I was looking, I thought I knew enough to talk to you about and and with, you know, and then I read the world record running side of you. Insane, dude. You hit my wig.

SPEAKER_01

So claim to fame, folks. Right here, good Midwestern boy, Pat McGann, and I'm from Michigan. So two good Midwestern guys. I ran in Chicago 50 miles on the lakefront, which is not a typo, 50 miles, and I ran it. Faster than anyone ran that year 50 miles, which I will make a testament to the fact that everyone slow ran that year. I got lucky, Pat. It wasn't that I was fast, I got lucky. Um and so I ran I still oh yeah, I'm running the New York City Marathon. I ran a marathon a couple months ago. I gotta stay fit. I have a birthday tradition I'm doing next month. I run my age in miles on my birthday. So I'm turning 44. Hopefully you can't notice yet. I'm aging, but I'm gonna run at least 44 miles that day. Um, or the day before, because it happens to fall in the World Cup final. So I can't miss that. But I'm running 44 miles at least, and I will keep doing that as long as I possibly can.

SPEAKER_04

So till you're what 50?

SPEAKER_01

100, baby. A hundred.

SPEAKER_04

We're at episode 44, just about. And I knew that would happen. You know, we had earlier today, we had a guest who just ran every city block, every street, every corner, every, you know, in in the city of Chicago. He got a ton of ton of press for it. Wow. Really interesting, dude.

SPEAKER_01

There's some dangerous areas. That is no joke.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, there is. You should be running sometimes. But man, I am excited to see the Netflix special. I appreciate you uh taking some time to and and next time you're in Chicago, we'll have you in it together.

SPEAKER_01

We gotta eat some deep dish pizza. I'm gonna take you for a run. We're gonna record you puking at mile 20 when I make you run. That's that's the that's you know, forget all this podcast crap. That's what's gonna go viral. Pat McGann puking over and over and over. I think that's our 20 million view TikTok.

SPEAKER_04

Good content. Good content.

SPEAKER_01

Like forward and backward, the puke going in and out. I have a video. I'm gonna tell you one last thing. If you want to Google this, it's called the Spartaflon. It's the longest I've ever run. I ran 153 miles in Greece, and the first time I did it, I didn't finish. And I was throwing up for eight hours straight while my friend, I don't even know how you call him a friend, videoed me doing this, which I know sounds gross, but it was hysterical. His commentary of me melting down went fully viral online. And then the next year I came back and I finished that race, my friend. I am I am a very determined SOB.

SPEAKER_04

Really? And it's continual running.

SPEAKER_01

There's no I slept for five minutes. So I mean, again, I know that sounds weird. I slept on the side of a mountain for five minutes on a dirt road, and then I woke up and I just kept going. But you could do whatever you want, but it's a very hard cutoff. So if you rest for too much, they kick you out. You don't you won't finish. So um, yeah, I I don't stop. I just keep I even pee while I'm running. I don't mess around. So I, you know, that's a whole nother conversation. But yeah, I just keep going.

SPEAKER_04

You're out of your mind, man. You are. You're a mentalist, and you might be the mentalist.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, just mentalist.

SPEAKER_04

The most mental. The mentalist.

SPEAKER_01

My wife would tell you that.

SPEAKER_04

What about that show the mentalist?

SPEAKER_01

He's Australian, much better looking, much taller, Saul's crime. Uh, he's pretty much winning in every factor. But yeah, so it's very important to note that this is not a superpower. I am not psychic. Uh, people sometimes think that I am, and I want to let them know it's not. This is this is a form of magic. So when you ask me, what do you call these things? You they're tricks. I am performing tricks because that's what I'm doing. There is a method that can be explained, not a psychic or supernatural power. Uh, and so what I've learned is over about 30 years is how to get inside your mind in a certain way, influence you, deceive you, misdirect you. Uh, and and that's the illusion of mind reading. And that's hopefully the joy I bring people is making you think that this ability that's is possible, even though it's truly impossible.

SPEAKER_04

Check it out, guys. Get on. If you have not, if you're not one of the 8.9 million people following Oz on Instagram, start there, go to YouTube, type in Oz Perlman, Joe Burr.

SPEAKER_01

And it's Oz O Z. So everybody, you keep hearing my name. You're like, what is this weird name? It looks like Oz. Blame my parents. It looks like Oz the Mentalist. Ozzy, like the wizard of, but it's unusually pronounced Oz. That is not a stage name. That's the real deal. So it looks like Oz the mentalist.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so tell me now. Ozzy. Put it in there and then follow it. Check out every video after because it's gonna bring up a bunch and you will be entertained. Dude, thanks for your time. Great to see you. You look great, you look ready for the special. You got the haircut for the special.

SPEAKER_01

You oh, you're making fun of the hair, it's way too short. It's gonna grow out nice. It's good. This is good. No, it's gonna be in three weeks. I call it the uh the Jufro. The Jufro comes out. Is that the name of the special? And is it the name of the special is Jufro, magic of the mind. Uh yeah. We're gonna magic of the hair.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. Beautiful, man. Well, good luck with it. Um, looking forward to seeing it. Enjoy the family, enjoy the chaos of the work. You're doing great stuff, man. Thanks for entertaining all of us.

SPEAKER_01

See you next time in the 312 Pat. Take care, buddy.

SPEAKER_04

All right, those.

SPEAKER_02

See you, bud.

SPEAKER_01

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02

The Pat McGann Show is brought to you by the Pat McGann Show team. Producer Paula Thornton. Showrunner Tom Bambera. Audio engineer Tommy Grant. Video production Eddie Perez. Video and audio editor, Madeline Curlis, organic content manager, George Mos. Recorded at Tiege Hanley Studios in Chicago, Illinois.