Ep. 94: Alabama Theatre Holiday Film Series with Gary W. Jones

Hey y'all, it's me Tara Strong, AKA Miss Minutes for Bama Geeks. I hope you're ready to watch and if you don't, I will have to prune you. Stay on your sacred timeline. And hello, good Sunday evening. Hello, hi. Hello. How are you all doing tonight? We hope you are doing extremely well. As you can see, it's the Mrs. and I and Gary. Gary Jones. Gary W. Jones from the Alabama Theater. I should have just driven to your house and hung out in another room. Yeah, I mean, of course. I'm okay with that. We're totally fine with that. It's not the first time it's been live from downtown Shannon. Oh my goodness. Oh, we thank you all for being with us tonight. Like I said, I hope you're doing well. I'm Brock Parker. That's my wife, Jessica. And of course we've introduced Gary from the Alabama theater. uh kevin is in the right place yeah this is why I could never be a dental hygienist it's like it's opposites don't work no yeah yeah it's a little off looking at that mirror and you stab them in the tongue instead Oh, well, Kevin Gardner is, uh, he's off traipsing, uh, around the world. Yes. We'll tell you about that later, Kevin. Yeah. Um, yeah, Kevin is, uh, we, we sent him on assignment somewhere internationally. So yeah, he, we actually don't have a clue where he is right now. We just know he's not here, but, uh, And Bo Bearden is probably going to be hanging out in the chat tonight a little bit. He is very tired. He has started a new work schedule, which leads me to, you know, we only do the podcast and these live streams about once every other week. And that's honestly because of Bo's work schedule. He has to alternate weekends. Well, he hasn't been working on the weekends for a little while, but now he is. So beginning next week, you know, we're going to do this two weeks in a row. Yeah. You've got us tonight. You've got us next Sunday night because Kevin and Bo might have a little surprise for you on the live stream next Sunday night. Jess and I will not be here. Just like they're not here tonight. We'll be gone. So Bo and Kevin will be with you next week. And then that will start the every other week rotation once again. So all four of us will be together again on December twenty ninth. We'll kind of do a year end review wrap up show with you. So we hope you'll join us next week, Sunday night, same time with Bo and Kevin and whatever surprises they have. And then on the twenty ninth, all four of all four of us will be back. So, yeah, you know, the holidays gets a little wonky. Schedules kind of get a little crazy. So. Well, speaking of the holiday schedules, that's why we have Gary on tonight. We're going to be talking about the Alabama Theater, the holiday film series that is immensely popular. We will be partaking in at least one of those movies because some of them sold out before we could get to them. You have no one that can help you with that. I don't know anybody. I will say this. I will not hear from anyone for eleven and a half months. Right. But all of a sudden, Oh, my best friend, Gary. Oh, I've missed you so much for these eleven and a half months. But I really, I really want to get there to see a movie. Can you help me out? I'd love to see you. Do you think I could see you on the twelfth at seven thirty? Yeah. To that sold out Christmas vacation movie. Vacation. Yeah. Yeah. Well, see, at least we keep in touch with you throughout the year. I have seen more of you and your family in the last six months than I have in the last six years. I mean, that's to my betterment and my benefit. I'm so glad. Oh, man. You know we love having you on and seeing you. Before we jump into the film series, I want to remind everybody about our pretty new website, famageeks.com. Make sure you... go over to that website that's got everything you want to know about this uh this cast of ne'er-do-wells We've got all the audio there, all the video. You can catch the live streams there, blog posts, everything like that. Or if you want to find us on social media, just look up at Bama Geeks. We're everywhere, including blue sky now. So at Bama Geeks. And of course, if you want to join, join us for some bonus content. patreon.com slash bama geeks or hit the join button on the youtube channel that'll get you some bonus materials normally we do like to record some bonus stuff prior to the live stream that didn't happen tonight since it was just myself and jessica we we sit on the couch and talk to each other a lot we really didn't have much this time so uh it's a lot more fun when you have when you have three or four of us on there so No bonus materials this week. We apologize. Next week, I don't know what Bo and Kevin are going to do. I'm anxious to see what they're going to do. Anyway. Something's in the works. Yeah. Something's always in the works, even if we don't know about it. All right. I'm trying to get the screen. There we go. I'll be watching. So, I mean, I'm hoping for onesies and diapers. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll make sure they get your request. Thank you for not requesting that of us tonight. Oh my goodness. Oh, now you see why we love having Gary on. That's what I'm saying. Perfect. Perfect. Uh, for the fill in for the, for the third chair to this tonight. Yeah. absolutely you know I do what I can and sometimes this can be too much so we'll see you do bring a lot to the table always always that's what my mom says So if you're watching live tonight, jump in the chat with us and ask Gary any questions about the Alabama Theater. Or anything. Or anything, yes. I have an answer. Oh, man. Yes, he does. So, yeah, jump in the chat. Ask anything that you'd like tonight. We're kind of a free-for-all during the chat just because, you know, we're Southern and we like to go off on tangents and everything. But, yeah, we're definitely going to be talking about this wonderful holiday film series. You don't even have to point at a rabbit hole and I'll go down it. Just jump right in head first. Jump in head first. Well, all else will follow. We last saw Gary in person at the Phantom of the Opera back at the end of October at the Alabama. Man, what a fantastic time that was. I'm truly not even going to ask you if you had fun because if you didn't, I would think you're fibbing because that is simply the most fun thing and fun show that we do. It's just, it's a treasure. We enjoy doing it. Tom Helms is a master at silent film. Yes. I talked to you about several things to point out to you to kind of watch for and listen for. Right. And I hope you I hope you did. Yes. Just fun stuff. We'll do it again next October. So just go ahead and get your calendar for twenty twenty five. Off we go. Absolutely. If you, this is a show just much like the, uh, with the Christmas stuff we're talking about, this is another, uh, event that I always look forward to around the Halloween time every year. And, uh, it was our first time that Brock's daughter had a chance to, to see it as well. And she, she absolutely loved it. Um, and you know, we, when we talked with you out the lobby, we had two friends with us too. That was their first time to see it as well. So yeah, great everybody enjoyed it loved it and wants to come back again for it so awesome awesome that's that's going to be great and uh if you're a big I'm going to tease everybody for a moment um We were coming up in a couple of years on our one hundredth anniversary, our centennial. And we've talked about doing a couple of different things. We're going to have a whole it's not going to be just one night or one weekend of celebration for the hundredth. It'll be the whole year long. Oh, and and we're going to do lots of different things to celebrate. the whole history of the theater. But as you know, the Alabama was built by Paramount Studios. It was built to show silent films. The Mighty Wurlitzer was put in to accompany those silent films. And so we are looking at doing probably, I know one, if not two, big epic silent film presentations that year. And those will be sponsored by the Alabama chapter of the American Theater Organ Society. And that's just that's going to be I'm looking forward to it. I can't possibly imagine that I could at this point even speculate that we would be showing either Queen Kelly or the general, but I can't speculate. I don't know. OK, so so just stay tuned. Yes. Oh, that sounds amazing. I cannot wait for that. Yeah, those those are going to be fun, fun times, lots of good stuff. Yeah, nineteen twenty seven, correct? Yes, nineteen twenty seven. So twenty seven is rapidly approaching. Yes, it will be. We're definitely already planning and talking and discussing. And, you know, do we want to do this? Yes. Do we want to do that? No. Will you take this and run with it? Yes, I will. Will you take this and go with it? No. So there's a lot of, you know, back and forth and yes and no. Yeah. You know, some things are wonderfully fun and some things are just in this day and age not feasible. Yeah. We're going to have fun. I mean, my motto is if you're not making money or if you're not having fun, it's time to go home. So we like to try to combine the two. Yeah. So how's Big Bertha doing? Let me tell you, Bertha's back. That's right. I just cut a rap song, Bertha's Back. And so here are some things. First of all, she's back. And she was out for several months and got many nice, wonderful upgrades, replacements, things to make her perform better, play better. And I cannot lie to you and tell you everything is wonderfully perfect. Anytime something this major happens, There are bound to be little squirrely little things here and funny little things here and wiggly little things here. But the organ crew has been working so diligently and so hard. And even today, during the two performances of Nutcracker at the Lyric, I know for a fact the organ crew was over there working on Bertha. to get her ready because, you know, Friday is D-Day and here we go. So I think most of the kinks have been worked out. I certainly had a priority list that I requested and said, you know, this don't worry about till after January third. This, if you get to it, love you, thank you. This, this, I'm going to die. This is not working. And I know for a fact that they got all of that taken care of yesterday and today. So I have not played her since they finished today. But I'm confident that and see, here's the thing. We've got three shows this week prior. So I won't get a chance even until maybe Thursday or even Friday morning to touch her. the console again. And so, but we're ready. It's just, if something is amiss, you'll never know. You'll never know. You work around it. It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools. Everything will be fine. But she looks great. She looks great. She does. The paint and the touch-up is really, really nicely done. All the mechanical things that they were working on have made it just so so so much better um I just I can't tell you how exciting it's going to be to show her off during christmas and they spent uh the last couple of weeks decorating uh the tree is up so you know what is that you know it's a ninety foot tree in the lobby it's no it's what is it thirty it's thirty Yeah, absolutely. Beautiful. With with over seven thousand lights on it. That's all done. And that doesn't even count the lights that they put on the banisters and the railings that are around the building and all the other decorations. So the building looks great. And I think that's part of the beauty and the charm is that you're coming down, there are the decorations, people stand in front of the tree and take pictures. The movie is almost secondary. It's the sing-along. uh the merry cherry christmas cocktail and so um it just it is amazing to me uh and we'll talk about this in a minute it is it is truly amazing to me that the movies that we show or the movies that are seen on television right now and and and yet I I have to look at this list over here to see if there's any availability of seats for any movie whatsoever almost everything is completely sold out yeah we were amazing we were looking I'm gonna come to the cartoon matinee yeah I was gonna say there's I think there's still tickets for that come see rudolph I'm gonna bring that oh there you go yeah I didn't do that you did okay I did that yeah I was gonna say I was trying to get some pictures kind of lined up but yeah oh it's beautiful yeah it's just so beautiful Yeah, if you've never been to the Alabama Theater during Christmas, the Christmas season, you are missing a treat. It is Dressed to the Nines. Gorgeous. Yep. Dressed to the Nines. We try to be mindful of so many different things at Christmas. These are movies that you can see anywhere. And you are coming down for a very different reason It is a tradition. And so our house manager, Cindy Mullins, and I like to talk about that patron experience. And it begins when you search and click and buy that ticket. And then it continues when you get in your car, you get down there, you've got to find a parking place, you've got to stand in line, you've got to come in, you've got to get your concessions, you've got to get your seat. Then you've got to enjoy the show and not just the movie, the whole show. And then you've got to leave and get home and hopefully everything went wonderfully well. And we're very concerned about that entire patron experience from ticket purchase to arrival back home and everything that it encompasses. And I can tell you a couple of things. We try to have extra trash cans because There's no amount of dumpster that will hold all the empty popcorn boxes and soda cups. On these big sold out shows, we have concessions on every single level of the building. And this year we've even got an added basement kiosk. oh okay wow it will help you know speed things along so we'll we'll have you know the main floor the mezzanine the balcony uh the upper balcony the dress circle there's so there's bars all the way up and then now added that downstairs wow it's it's a kiosk kind of an express grab-and-go kind of thing okay but it's it's you know it's all the most popular stuff right And, you know, we have a lot of people that just, you know, I just need to get a fill in the blank and they're probably going to have it there. So it just really helps speed things along. We just want to make that again. We want that to make that experience as pleasant as possible and as stress free as possible. Yeah. Looking really looking forward to that. Well, I can say on the on the patron side of things at times, every time that I've been, I've never been disappointed at anything about the experience and being there. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that because trust me, if someone has experienced something that they didn't care for, I have heard about it. Oh, I'm sure you have. There's always somebody, isn't there? Yes, and I listen to everything because sometimes, and I take it to heart, because sometimes somebody might have a good suggestion, but I think sometimes... expectations can be a little unrealistic. And let's just face it, I've got two thousand people coming in in one hour. And so people have said, oh, you should open earlier. Well, we tried that for a couple of years. Instead of opening an hour before, we opened an hour and a half before. And guess what? same thing nobody nobody showed up early no oh no no yeah no no no they just they say they want to but they don't right so so we just reverted back to the normal one hour before and and and that's fine it's you know that's that's part of the the fun is the frenzy of it um and getting everyone in and even on these uh shows that don't have two thousand people although they're many. It's still, you know, it's a challenge to get everybody in. And as my grandfather would say, fed and watered and seated. And so we just, we do the best we can. And we really like to, I point out, we really like to start on time, but every once in a while we might hold just a couple of minutes, but not more than a couple. I really, I just, I don't like to hold the house. I really like to It gets started. And if you're still in line or still trying to find a seat, there's a cartoon and then the organ and the sing-along and then more organ because I'm never going to stop playing. And then we get the film. And that really gives everyone a chance to get settled. I mean, everybody's seen Mickey's Christmas Carol anyway, so it's fine. yeah um and it's like you said it's a lot of this the things that we've seen before these movies like you said they're on tv we've seen them a hundred times but to come and see them with a group of people in the theater it's a different experience it's all about the experience it it is you're really it's the experience of of being there in the theater with you know with when that poor cat chews the Christmas lights. Yes. That's my favorite scene in the whole movie. That's, oh, that is my favorite scene. That and the Jell-O. Yeah, the Jell-O mold. It's lime. I love it. It's leaking, it's lime. That's the banter. But also, I always love, because we're showing, well, let's take Christmas Vacation, for example. We're showing the theatrical version, not the cut for television. So there's a little bit of spicy language in there. It's always like, you know, try to warn a couple of folks that this has not been edited. It is not for broadcast television. This is a theatrical version. If you've got a three-year-old, you just might want to come back for Rudolph. Okay. Just know they may hear some words that, you know, if you're watching it on TV. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, cause you know, Oh fudge, except I didn't say fudge. Right. Over here. The major award. Yes. The major award. Oh, I think, um, one of the things I always love to share about the holiday films is is how it got started okay yeah and uh you know how did this come to be where now it's just crazy and you've got you know people rock them sock them for tickets and and and uh coming down and and I I i revert back and refer back to in nineteen eighty six when the theater was in bankruptcy with the Costa Head organization. They had purchased the theater. They returned it into a rock palace. And the Costa Head organization had had really some nice plans for revitalizing downtown and they bought up a lot of properties. And unfortunately, they ran out of money before they were able to get things rolling and generate income. And so the Alabama wound up in bankruptcy. And the Theater Oregon Society knew that the bankruptcy was going to go through, that they would obviously, assuredly tear that building down because nobody wants A nineteen twenty seven movie palace. Then nobody wants to restore it. Nobody wants to run it. Nobody wants to come downtown. No. So the theater organ society went to the bankruptcy attorney and said, can we buy the organ and remove it? and relocate it to a suitable venue and the bankruptcy attorney said no if you want the oregon you'll have to buy the building and therefore its contents and so that crazy little group of oregon geeks I need to do a podcast oregon geeks dot oregon geeks yeah they're we're giving you a lot of practice at doing these podcasts there there's you know yeah yeah so uh they they thought well What have we got to lose? So we raised the money to pay off the back taxes. I always say pay off the back taxes on Tara. And we assumed operation of the theater, and the Oregon Society formed Birmingham Landmarks, another of the five of one C three, to own and operate the building on a daily basis. And the Landmarks Board was formed. And we had a wonderfully enthusiastic group of people to start. And the late, great Cecil Whitmire really took charge of everything and headed everything up. And then, you know, this is the fall, basically, of nineteen eighty six. And all of a sudden, here we are sitting here with this movie palace. All these bills, at the time, ten thousand dollar a month Alabama power bill. And that doesn't count gas. It doesn't count water. It doesn't count the physical bulbs. Insurance. Yeah. And we were just like, well, now what the hell do we do? We caught the tiger. We got it. And so we we we I don't want to say that we struggled. to to figure out what to do I I don't think that was the case at all I really don't I I think it was a matter of it's you know you can't get people to come downtown there was no lofts. There was no McWane. There was no Pizzitz. There was no, you know, there was nothing. There was no retail. That had all gone. And so Cecil came up with this idea. And it is strictly his baby, his idea, his imagination. And he said, you know what, we'll show And I forget what even the first movie was. I'm going to assume that it was White Christmas. Because that stands logically to reason. He said, we're going to put White Christmas up on the screen. And he went and gave, now at Spire, but at the time it was Alagasco. And he gave Alagasco, uh, five hundred tickets. And he gave Alabama Power five hundred tickets. Regions Bank, five hundred tickets. And who am I missing? Power. Alabama Power, Allagasco. We don't talk about the waterworks. That's true. Let's see. It was Regents and Alabama Power and Allagasco. Oh, and the phone company. Bell South. Bell South. Bell South. Yeah, I was trying to think of the bigs downtown at that time. Yes. Those were the big ones downtown. Yeah. And he gave them five hundred tickets and said, here, you know, give them to your employees. give them to your friends clients customers whatever yeah and that first christmas you know attendance was modest not unsuccessful just nobody knew what to do it's like why would we get in the car and drive downtown Birmingham to watch White Christmas when we can stay at home and watch it on our laser disc. And so the next year, he said, we're going to do it one more time. And now they're calling us going, hey, can we get those five hundred tickets? And after that, after eighty seven, it literally just took off. Yeah. And then every year after that, each year after that, it just it just grew and grew. And we decorated more. We added more everything that we could until we've reached the point of where we are today. And I never, ever, ever want to take anything for granted. Yes. All these sold out shows are a blessing and a curse because I never want to take for granted that someone doesn't have the opportunity to come down and experience the holidays at the Alabama. It's so much fun and I cannot describe the fun I have. people always go, aren't you exhausted by the end? And the answer is, of course I am, I am. But I'm just as happy on that last showing, that last screening, as I am on the first one. And just, I've, throughout the years now, I've watched, I'm now in the grandkids mode. I've seen kids, and then their kids, and now the grandkids are coming, and there, you know, it's just, I have a few dozen people every year. I know they're going to be there and I'm looking, I'm looking for them. Yeah. It becomes a tradition. It's a tradition. It becomes tradition. Absolutely. It is. It's, it's tradition and they're there. And I know I'm going to get a rum cake from the MacArthur's in Tuscaloosa. Ready for that rum cake. But it, it just, it, it, it, It sounds corny, I know, but it really does warm my heart and makes me so happy to see them. And then, of course, on December twenty third, I am a corpse and everybody leaves me alone on the twenty third. And then it gives me a day to recuperate and refine and back to it. I'm going to pop this up real quick. OK, talking of speaking of having fun. There you are. There you are in your. cousin eddie get up at the organ yeah so let me tell you because cousin eddie um has that character has taken on a life of his own and uh he he is uh Nobody knows Gary and nobody knows, you know, this part about me or that part about me. But I still, I mean, I'm out and about and I still get people pointing and going, it's Cousin Eddie, it's Cousin Eddie. And... And so I really appreciate that and the fun that we have in doing that. And of course, if you've been, you know that Cousin Eddie brings the organ up for Christmas vacation. And we generally have a very well presented costume parade. We have had young and old, just individual characters. We've had entire... as every single character from the movie as a group come. And I will tell you, Coca-Cola United has a Cousin Eddie RV replica. And they will be at all three performances and screenings of Christmas Vacation. They'll be on Eighteenth Street under the marquee, under the vertical blade. Right. And they have a whole cast of characters and crew. They're just there for photo ops and to have some fun. Oh, that's great. So fun. We've got those. That'll be new for this year. That's great. great they they have this rv and they go in and all these christmas parades and just just have a ball so we're really looking forward oh that's good coming yeah yeah see something new there yeah people are gonna love that people will love that and I will tell you this um I I typically uh do the cousin eddie routine uh you might see something different this year okay I'm just gonna let that be a surprise and okay we've got some we've got We have got now, through people coming and going, and now we've got a team that I just, I'm going to cry if I start talking about these folks. Our team that puts this production on, our technical director and lighting and audio, they're the most professional group of individuals I have ever worked with in my entire higher life they always want the show to be perfect they always want every and do we miss the mark every once in a while yeah it happens but you know we're only human but I've never seen a group try so hard to make sure that everything is as perfect as it can be certainly they're wanting to try and do new and exciting things different things refresh things I know our ticketing person that does all of our press releasing and announcing and all of the ticket setup and all of that. She is... I don't want to say that she's taken on. I think I dumped this on her. She's redone the sing-alongs, the presentation of the sing-alongs and the trivia so that it looks very, very updated and not so very. So we were using old, what was prior to PowerPoint? Ooh. Yeah, that. Yeah. Yeah. So we were using old, old, old stuff that now we would claim that it's vintage. Yeah. It's dated. And so she's taken that on and brought that up to a nice level. I'm very, very excited about that. I got to run the first one the other night. We had our private office parties, private corporate parties. Yeah. We do those starting the December first. And we always love having those because it's a great way to do a dress rehearsal of the shows and the movies and the cartoons and the craziness involved in all of that. So that's that. And then, of course, I know I'm jumping around a little bit here. I can't quite remember what year. We began, but the Festavia Hills High School Rockettes always open our season. And we always open with White Christmas and we always close with White Christmas. And so for as many years as I can remember, the Rockettes have come and they do their stage presentation, which is a Radio City Music Hall style Rockettes line. I always say it's just not Christmas until the Rockettes have performed on stage at the Alabama. And so we're thrilled. And I have to tell you this too. Those girls are, first of all, they're so incredibly professional. Number two, they're beyond talented. Number three, they are so fun and funny. It is amazing to be around them. And they don't take themselves too seriously. They get it and they're there to have fun. And you can tell, you could just see it on stage. They're having so much fun doing this and performing for that audience. And I sit in the pit because I'm able to watch everything from a unique perspective. And it's so great to open the season with them and have them on stage with us to do They're Rockettes Radio City style opening for us. And I always have to point that out because every year I call or text or email and say, you know, here's the first day. Can we count you in? And they're always like, yes, yes, yes. Because I'm fearful that one year they're going to say, oh, we're not going to be able to do it this year. And somebody's going to put me in a tutu. Yeah. You got to get them legs up. You got to get them kicks. Them legs are coming. We'll tell you what, we'll join you if you need some help. I can't kick high, but I'll try. I think Kevin and Bo and the two of you and maybe a couple of other people, we'll drag them out there. We'll recruit. We'll just hope that never happens. So what else do we want to talk about? I mean, I've got a few things I want to talk about. Well, go ahead. Do we want to jump into the list of movies and see what's happening? Yeah. So I won't do a rundown of each movie. You might, there we go. You might pull them up there. But we always open this year on Friday the thirteenth with Christmas Vacation. And that's always fun. And then on Saturday, we'll have a matinee and an evening performance. And on Sunday, we'll have a matinee and evening performance. And then I believe it's Monday, Tuesday, and those are evening performances. And then starting Wednesday, there's a matinee and an evening performance, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and Sunday. And Sunday, the twenty-second, we will wrap up with the two p m matinee is White Christmas sing-along version. And several years ago, we were screening only the traditional non-sing-along versions, and everybody's just singing along anyway. And so I suggested, I said, why don't we take one of these performances and show, because there's a sing-along version that you can screen. And I said, let's do it and see how everybody feels feels about that and that one was more well attended that year than the traditional non-sing-along version yeah all right so we're like oh well we got a hit here so we we try to always close out with white christmas and we try to close with the the sing-along version and then that evening on the uh we'll do the final show of the season and that's the last christmas vacation But, you know, there's all sorts of fun stuff in between. There's Christmas Story, the Santa Claus, the cartoon matinee, the cartoon trio, which is Rudolph and. Oh, heavens, Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown and Grinch. Yes, yes. So those and that's always fun because. Yeah. There's nothing like half a house of toddlers. Right. Right. And, and we always, you know, try to be mindful that that's our future. Those are, those are our future. So we want our toddlers to have a wonderful experience as well. So I, I say, I say, give your, give all your kids, you know, some Tito's handmade vodka and, and, drop a merry cherry christmas into that bottle or dip the passy whatever it takes and and I do I do really make light of the tito's thing but this is a shameless plug and I don't want to go off in this direction too far but the wonderful friends that we have at tito's have sponsored the holiday film series uh for I can't gosh I can't think how many years now And they have been such, such a treasure and such a wonderful partner. And of course, you know, it doesn't hurt that we buy a million cases of Tito's. And that's just for diehard, right? That's just for diehard. We're going to talk about diehard in a minute. Oh, geez. a Christmas story and, you know, a Christmas story was not available last year. Some of these things are not always available. So we didn't get to show it last year and we'll show it this year. And if you're looking up there on the screen, I think there's still tickets for that one. I know there's still tickets for the cartoon matinee. Yeah. And, and so we, we've tried, you know, other things in the past. We, for several years, we, we showed meet me in St. Louis because, you know, Is it a Christmas movie? Yes. I say yes. Yes. Then, you know, we show It's a Wonderful Life. And then now we're going to start talking, you know, is It's a Wonderful Life a Christmas movie? Yes. And I say no. Oh, you say no. Oh. Oh. I say no. Okay. And why is that? It has a Christmas scene in it. Mm-hmm. true at the end true and it's not even really christmas day it's christmas eve and the whole story revolves around what would happen if you what would happen jessica if you weren't here on planet earth right you know how would everyone else I mean How would everyone else react? How would everyone's life be impacted? And so I think it's become such a traditional Christmas movie because it does have that Christmas element at the end. And St. Louis has that nice, wonderful Christmas element somewhere in there. Yeah. We're not screening it, so I don't even know what I'm talking about. Meet Me in St. Louis. But I do love that scene where Trudy goes out and beats up the snowman and wails in the yard. That's always funny. But we try various things, different things, new things, old things. And so I will go ahead and let's broach this subject because for years I kept... begging for us to try and show Die Hard. And, oh, I just got so poo-pooed. Right. It's not a Christmas movie. And I'm like, oh, yes, it is. You know, it is. It is. So I remember the first year that we showed it, this movie is selling out, and that movie is selling out, and this movie is sold out, and this movie is sold out. And here comes poor little Die Hard. And we've got like, you know, eight hundred and twenty seven tickets sold. And our business manager was like, see, see, I told you no one's ever going to come see this. This is just a disaster. We've wasted a slot and blah, blah, blah. And I hope you're happy now. Mercifully, she's retired now. But what happened that night, that first night, is eight hundred and twenty seven people showed up. But they drank like two thousand. And at the end of the night, we had a bigger bar tab than we did at White Christmas. And I am not the kind of person that enjoys, you know, saying I'm right and you're wrong or I don't really enjoy seeing people eat crow. But I was smug that night. A little bit. I was a little bit smug that night. Yeah. And and so the next day we were doing recaps and and. I presented the numbers and they were like, what? It was a lot. And so all of a sudden it became her idea. I'm so glad I decided that we should show Dyer. I'm so glad I thought of that. And so I just sat there and looked at our house manager and we just, we both kind of chuckled and just let it go because, you know, I am one of those people that as long as I get what I want, I will let you take credit for it because I'm getting what I want. I don't have to have the credit for it. Well, it's come a long way since that first showing. Yeah. Boy, howdy. Yeah. We've been to several of the diehard showings. And we, you know, a year before last when we went, we're like, okay, you know, still quite a few seats open. And so, you know, we showed up. and last year we're like all right we'll get there just a few minutes before the door is open no Yeah, because we decided we were going to go eat at the food hall before. And we were like, we've got plenty of time. And we were making good time. We got our food, sat and ate, and we were walking over there. And it was seven o'clock, and the line was still down the road. I was like, did they not open the doors? Is something going on? And, yeah, we were fighting for seats. We were scrounging for seats. Yeah. I'm leaving work early that day. We're going to try to be there in line when the doors open. Already in line. It doesn't say sold out, but it will sell out. I think it's going to sell out. It will come close. I'm going to glance over here because I have a... quick live link that I can look and see oh oh hey oh hey updates in real time yeah real time yeah well we've already got our tickets so no worries about well you're you're good yeah we'll be there yeah see because uh we we there's still tickets and still availability but that's that's going to be one of those that as we approach the date you'll see a surge yeah And, oh, and speaking of, let me, I do want to put this shameless plug in, and that is, it's less of a plug and more of a cautionary tale. When you're looking for tickets for this series, make sure you are looking at alabamatheater.com or your own personal Ticketmaster account. And don't go to these third party sites that look official and they look real and and it's like there's I I just had someone the other day that said yeah we we got tickets for christmas vacation and they were sixty five dollars a piece oh yeah and I'm like what yeah where did you get those tickets because that's not those that's not legit And so it's perfectly legal to buy tickets and re-market them until the laws are changed and clamped down on. We've done everything we could to subvert that yeah you know the problem is is if uh we limit ticket sales per movie per performance to x then what happens if you've got a group of y people uh you know then it becomes it's it's a no-win situation is is what it basically boils down to and and so we try to caution people um don't use a third party site. We can't guarantee that that is a valid ticket. We can't do anything about it if it's not because you didn't buy it from us. You bought it from some magical place that you found in North Carolina. And I can't caution folks enough to just be extra, extra careful and judicious in making sure that the real legitimate Alabama theater site or their own personal Ticketmaster account Our tickets are all in pricing for the series, which means you pay one price for the ticket. There are no additional fees or taxes or add-ons or anything. There's a very nominal, I think it's something like a dollar, dollar fifty charge per order, not per ticket. That's nice. If you just go and you get, you know, ten tickets or five tickets, it's just that one little charge to process everything. And it's just an all in pricing. It makes it very transparent and clear and, um, I think you'll see most of the nation go that direction in twenty twenty five beginning in twenty twenty five. There's been some legislation passed to to it's really just to be transparent. Right. So that you know, and I know Ticketmaster gets a bad rap. But it's not always Ticketmaster's fault. So this all-in pricing really makes it to where you see where the money's going and how it's being distributed. So we're very happy about that and very proud about that. And I know our ticketing person, who's the person I mentioned who did the revamp of the slides and sing-alongs, the sponsorship trivia and all of that stuff, she's worked very, very hard to get that set up. think it's a big plus for this year for us yeah so when when we were at phantom of the opera a few weeks ago you said you had some thoughts on white christmas oh boy that is yeah right now we're looking at the calendar december thirteenth that's friday seven o'clock success sold out and you got some thoughts on this movie Yes, I want to hear your thoughts. Because I watch White Christmas every Christmas. So I want to know what your thoughts are. Okay. Well, first of all, I have zero respect left for you because you're only watching it once a year. White Christmas is absolutely the silliest, most implausible most completely corn-pwned movie you will ever watch multiple times a year. Okay. All right. So in case you can't tell, I love it. In July, I cranked the air conditioning down to forty eight degrees to get a, you know, nice, warm toddy and bundle up and watch watch it okay um I oh and I will tell you this uh it's also a staff favorite uh this this uh last year in january we decided none of us got to watch it from beginning to end and our tech director and uh a couple of the other staff members were like man I wish I could have just seen white christmas from beginning to end so we decided we just you know got the key to the place. Right. I mean, y'all want to meet up and go down to the theater? So, so we, we, we went, uh, like, you know, on a Thursday night and, and we did the whole thing. How nice. Cartoon, organ show, sing along, white Christmas. Oh. And you, you talk about a reward, uh, that, that was a reward for us because, uh, The movie is just inexplicably implausible. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. White Christmas has It checks all the boxes. It has everything in it that you would want in a movie. Number one, the score, the Irving Berlin score is beyond incredible. Yes. Number two, you have all of those bizarre, and I'll use that word, bizarre, costumes. Mm-hmm. because you've got Edith Head doing everything she can to Vera, Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney. You've got Danny Kaye with a suit with matching dyed socks and shoes. It's just hysterical. And then you've got that foursome, that quartet of main character actors that, that really you can, you can tell that they're having such a good time with one another. Uh, the, the story is, is, is corny and I'm just, I'm just going to do this and just let you know that, geez, every time I cry at the end, I do. It's just, it's just, it touches, it's heartwarming and, and, uh, and I love it. And of course you've got the dance numbers and, we always laugh about certain things. So number one is if you're watching it, get a clipboard, Jessica, okay? And you can do this one of two ways. You can check it or you can make this into a shot game. That is every time, every time someone on screen has a cup of coffee, you have to take a shot. okay oh wow okay and you will not make it to the end of the movie there's so much so much coffee in this movie it's unbelievable you know what I don't think I've ever kind of stopped to really notice that detail but but I will now as a prop coffee is a prop it is it is everywhere uh of course the fabulous mary wick steals every scene that she's in because she's she's the housekeeper at the end And she runs away with every scene. She's amazing. You have those dance numbers, the choreography. and everything that goes on there. And those are all beautifully done and very well executed. And so when I say implausible, you get to all the implausible things. It's like here are the two female characters, Betty and, oh, gosh, her sister's name just ran right, the Vera Ellen character. Judy. Judy, yes, yes, Betty and Judy. And they are climbing out of a hotel. or not a hotel, the nightclub window. And they've got these five hundred costumes and a teeny tiny suitcase. Yeah. Does that all fit perfectly? How did you get all that in there? And then near the end, and I hope I'm not giving away anything for anybody that's never seen it. Spoilers. Spoilers. At the end of the movie, Betty goes off in a huff and immediately is booked into the carousel club. with fully rehearsed, choreographing, costume numbers. Yeah. In a, in a twelve hour period. Right. It's, it's like, if the Carousel Club is that elegant and special, how did they have an opening just for you at this very moment? But, you know, it, it just, it's, it's Hollywood. It's Hollywood. It's movie magic. Pulling it all together. It's movie magic. And, and again, just completely corn-pwned and so wonderful and I I've watched this thing uh five hundred times easily five hundred times yeah and it uh oh oh we did we did uh for the the let's just call it the cast party uh we we did a trivia fill out the form trivia to see if anybody knew all the fun stuff that they could recognize and hardly anybody got all of it a couple people came really close uh but there's just there's there's just so much visually to see and of course uh it's it's in uh beautiful color the coloring and it was it's a paramount studio so it would have shown first run at the alabama Yeah. What was it? Nineteen fifty four. Yeah. So what? Yeah. Yeah. So nineteen fifty four. Yeah. So that that that's kind of a nice tie to it as well. But the one liners and the jokes and. all of that music. We spend twelve months out of the year doing one-liners from White Christmas around the building. If you find our tech director, if you find our tech director, just walk up to him and do this. Okay. In the Mandy number, they're all doing this with their hands. Right. We walk sideways in the building like that. It's just, we're a silly group. That's for sure. That's why I love going to work every day. That's a wonderful problem to have going to work when you enjoy it. I've... I've had lots of good jobs. I've had lots of questionable jobs. I did work for one year in hell for Satan. And so I always say, no matter how bad a job has ever been ever since, I've always said it will never be anything worse than working for Warren White at Diatron. There, I said it. And so everything else is tolerable. But now, the team that we have at the Alabama, I don't First of all, I don't have one person there that I don't just adore, love. And that's a rarity. There's always one. There's not one. We don't have one. We used to have folks there that if I saw them coming down the sidewalk, I would literally cross the street and go on the other side. I don't have time for your drama. I don't have time for your black hole of neediness. I just don't. But now there's not one single person that when they walk through the door, I'm like, ah, so glad to see you. And then I get paid for it too. There's the bonus. There's the bonus. So we're really lucky. We're really lucky. And I keep reiterating, I don't want to take this for granted. I don't want to take that for granted because it could be gone tomorrow and you never know. Absolutely. So every year with the holiday film series, is it roughly the same lineup or does it get changed out once in a while? Well, I mentioned there are the standards, the Christmas Vacation, the It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street. White Christmas. White Christmas. There are the stock standards. But then we do try to maneuver some things in and out. Mm-hmm. I think, especially in the last couple of three years, well, all right, let's just say since COVID, I think because COVID was such a unique time for us in that we couldn't do what we do. We couldn't do what we do best. We can do anything hardly. And so I think especially in those first few years post-COVID, I think we've been just a little bit more cautious in choosing what is going to go basically because we – this is going to sound awful and I don't want it to sound like this. So let me see if I can say this in a different way. I want to make sure that everyone has a good time and I want to make sure that we show things that everybody wants to see. But at the end of the day, we've got to put butts in seats. And so it's hard sometimes to take a gamble. Oh, for example, oh, this is a good example. The Santa Claus. We were really concerned we didn't know how this would fit into our other movies. We'd never shown it. Mercifully, it's been very successful and sold out and blah, blah, blah. But then you reach a point of what's left. If we're showing classic movies, which is our calling card... What else? A couple of things that I think we possibly should broach. maybe a little gremlins one year oh please oh that would be great oh please I hope that works out yeah we can also throw out ghostbusters too because even though it's more in line with uh with new years you know there is a scene where they are running around in santa hats at one point yeah Well, you know, and that makes it at least as good of a Christmas movie as It's a Wonderful Life. Right, yeah. So there's that. And then, you know, everybody wants to suggest this or that. And there are a couple of things that we just simply cannot show or we choose to not show. Holiday Inn is one. Because there's this... Well, and they think, well, you're showing White Christmas, you should show Holiday Inn. But there are some scenes in Holiday Inn which are just not politically correct in this day and age. And so we just have said, we're not going to do that because we try to be inclusive. We try not to be offensive. I think we get away with a lot with Cousin Eddie's language and my heart's language right these are language issues not things that are considered inappropriate anymore right there are a couple things like that I wish you know would be we we did show um what was it christmas in connecticut okay we did we did I mean I I and this is this has been recently like maybe three years ago And we just had so many people say, no, Christmas in Connecticut. Oh, Christmas in Connecticut. Fourteen people showed up. So. Right. Oh, wow. We we can't we can't waste a slot. Exactly. For fourteen people. Yeah. Yeah. And I am I exaggerating a little bit, but not by far. Not much. That one that one was dismal. So we we. We don't just want to keep showing the same old thing. And then, of course, in years past, we've had one person who's no longer with us just go, I just don't see why we just don't show Christmas Vacation every night for fourteen days and be done with it. You're kind of missing the point of a series. Right. Right. So, you know, could we do more? Could we show more? It's a balance. Yeah. And I think that's part of the trouble that we have is creating that balance, not only for our patrons, but for our staff. Because when we come back from Thanksgiving, you know, we don't have another off day until December twenty third. Yeah, it is. Every day. And most of the time, it's both sides of the street. And some of the days, many, many of the days, it's multiple shows on both sides of the street. So we just wrapped this evening six performances of The Nutcracker. So two on Friday, two on Saturday, two on Sunday. And then in the middle of all that, we had a sold-out comedy show at the Alabama crisscrossing. And so... Yeah. At what point, you know, do you say calf rope and say enough, enough? Yeah. There's only so much you can do with so little time to do it in. Yeah, exactly. And so we just try to maximize the screenings and make sure we get everybody in and get at least one of these and one of those. I think as a general rule, I think I think we do a fairly good job of hitting all the bases. I'd say so. I mean, with the exception of most, I mean, looking at the schedule, like you said, everything's pretty much sold out for y'all. Yeah. Yeah. If somebody wants to come to this, and this kicks off this Friday. Golly, what is available for people to come see? Okay, so let me tell you a couple of things. Number one, if a movie says sold out, that means that we have sold, physically sold, every available ticket for that movie. But in the days, especially the day prior and the day of a performance, if you will follow us on social media, especially Facebook, we get a lot of people the day of saying, hey, I have an extra ticket for White Christmas this Friday. And you could do a transfer of that ticket to someone. And because it's general admission, if you could do that a couple of times, then you two have a date. I don't encourage this, what I'm about to say. I don't encourage it. But if you are just flat out desperate, then I would say it's worth a shot to come on down and stand outside and there is generally always someone outside that goes aunt sally couldn't make it tonight I've got one extra ticket and so that that is that is a real thing it is it is it is it is truly something and so I I I don't think if you showed up with a busload of twenty eight people that you're gonna come in right if you know if you can snag one here and snag one there then you know then you you've got it yeah um I'm trying to look here really quickly over here on the side. I've got this. I know that there are tickets available for Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street on Sunday the fifteenth, and It's a Wonderful Life on Sunday evening the fifteenth. um the the cartoon the triple cartoon matinee that has tickets that's a two o'clock on the eighteenth um the matinee showing of elf on the nineteenth has tickets available yeah uh die hard has tickets available on the twentieth and nineteenth sorry nineteenth nineteenth I I I don't have on glasses I have got to do something before Friday before I start performing with this set of contacts. They're just crazy. Don't miss. We will attest to this until we die. Go see Die Hard at the Alabama. Yes. That crowd is fun. Oh, they're zany fun. Yes. Even if you're not watching the movie, you'll have fun with the crowd. Exactly. Big time. Big time. A Christmas story on Saturday, the twenty first that has when I say a handful of tickets, I'm talking like twelve available. And then that's beyond that. Yeah. Beyond that, you're going to have to kind of play the odds, keep an eye out. make sure that you're you know you're getting from a legitimate person a legitimate source and uh there are again uh folks that will broadcast on social media on our social media and our website that they have a ticket or two tickets or whatever and most most of the time I I I have rarely seen anything other than you know face value if if you want these tickets there I'll sell them to you or transfer them to you for face value Sometimes the people outside for a given show that's sold out and they have an extra ticket, they'll give it to you. It's worth a shot. If you're just dead set on coming to a sold out presentation, I'll always say it's worth a shot. It's worth a shot. I'm just so, you know, and seeing that, I'm just so happy for y'all that these events just turn out so well for y'all because y'all need this. The theater needs this. It just, it keeps y'all, I mean, it helps to keep y'all going every year to just keep bringing this stuff back. One of the things I think people are always amazed at about both the Alabama and the Lyric Theater is we are self-sustaining. We're not city funded. We're not county funded. We're not state funded. We're not federally funded. We are self-sustaining. We pay our bills by generating revenue from tickets from butts in seats and from concessions yeah so that's how we make that building thrive uh we took the summer film series this year we took the summer off at the alabama if you recall yeah and we did some huge huge huge major major major projects uh some new hvac some new plumbing some new electrical some new uh a new av stage booth uh new projectors oh yes that's another great thing we've got new projects oh new projectors this year huh yeah gorgeous gorgeous um the um uh we did we did some uh the console of course uh renovation Oh, the dressing rooms have been redone. And they were in very sad, nineteen twenty seven original state. And one of our staff members, when they were fairly new, they came through and they were like this. this looks like cell block e it's just you know it's just some concrete and uh plaster yeah it's not been touched since so now they're a little bit more modern now each dressing room has its own individual hvac control Our house manager, Cindy Mullins, did a wonderful job putting all of that together to decorate and just make it inviting and warm and friendly for our artists who come in and perform, seeing a different side of us now. And we've got some other stuff coming up too, some other surprises. This all goes on behind the scenes. You and I won't appreciate it, but the artists who come in will. And that's how they're treated backstage. And when I say treated, I mean where they can go and where they are, the hospitality, for lack of a better word. So I always think those are great. And we've done all of this. All of this has been done without borrowing a nickel. Everything is paid for. by the revenue that we generate from those rentals and ticket sales and concessions. And so I think that is a giant feather in our general manager's cap for anticipating these revenue streams and anticipating these revenue outlays. and keeping everything in check and uh he's he's not a terrible bean counter but he's very very cautious with you know the reality of what it takes to keep a nineteen twenty-seven building running yeah and and safe and and good good and and seriously good for another hundred years I wish we could be around to enjoy all those. I will. I am. You think this is water, it is not. It's the fountain of youth. I'll see you all in twenty eighty seven. Speaking of, let's talk about this for a second. Have you ever seen any old high school pictures of Beau Bearden? Yes. Yes, we have. Can you tell me how that became this today? Is it the Benjamin Button syndrome of someone as they get older looking better and better? I don't know how he does it. I saw those pictures one time and I was like, So maybe he's got the secret of the Fountain of Youth. He might have. Maybe so. Partnering with Satan or something. Kill a chicken, whatever it takes. Sacrifice a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We tease him because he's letting his beard get thicker. Yukon Cornelius, is that what we call him sometimes? Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. There was a picture somewhere sometime, and it was recent, but he had on a similar hat, and he had, you know, the beard was getting thicker. Yukon. Yeah, Yukon Cornelius there. Yeah. Oh, goodness. Some people just got it like that. You know, I know. I know. You know, I mean, I'm I'm I'm scheduled for medical procedures in January to do something about this. And I'm looking at him jealous. He doesn't look like he's at any work done. Anyway, anyway, you mentioned you mentioned the Fountain of Youth. And there we go. Yep. Yep. Well, I think we're probably going to wrap it up tonight. Gary, do you have anything else that you want folks to know about the holiday film series? Sure. Just always the smart things. Number one, give yourself plenty of time because you've got two thousand people descending upon a place. Everybody's coming in at the same time. Everybody's coming in at the same hour. So give yourself plenty of time. Give yourself a little breathing room so you won't be stressed. Number two, I don't even know if I want to talk about this, but now that I've said it, I will. Around the theater district, you are perfectly safe. And I want people to understand that, that you hear things and you see things, but in our little magic kingdom, we're fine. I, I, I would let my ninety-year-old mother come downtown and walk around outside by herself. Yeah. And she's, it's, it's, you're, you're fine. Just, you know, be cautious, be, be, be aware. CAP is always downtown and always around. Those guys are great. We have plenty of security. For parking, Make sure you're in a legitimate parking area. The McWane deck is generally open. The New Ideal deck is generally open. So there are plenty of good places to park. Give yourself plenty of time to get there and park and get in and get settled. Come and have a good time. Know that there are nineteen hundred and ninety six other people besides your family of four that are trying to do the same thing so just you know be a little yeah patient a little courteous and yeah for for heaven's sake please don't smack the organist around do not smack the organist do not do not smack the organist um and and that that's really that's really it you know just you know behave Yeah, I agree. Be adults, be patient. Right. And come and have fun, enjoy yourself. I mean, we're only there to have fun. We really are. Yeah. And we're sure going to have it. The show, the doors open one hour before. So if it's a seven o'clock show, the doors are going to open at six. You've got an hour to get in and find your seats and get you some concessions and get settled. We start the shows early. really as close to on time as we possibly humanly can. And each of the shows generally entails a cartoon. And then the organ will come up and sing along and then the organ will go down and then the movie goes on screen and then the organ plays at the end too. So you're always welcome to come down front and get pictures of the console. A couple of the shows, a couple of the films have a little bit different itinerary. For example, the opening night, White Christmas, as I mentioned, the Vestavia Hills High School Rockettes will perform that evening. So in lieu of the cartoon, we have the Rockettes. The costume parade for Christmas vacation, so if you're going to come, dress up. Yeah. Bring that cat in the box. On the matinees, we have a fairly tight turnaround. We always encourage folks to grab their excess garbage and help us out there. That's really about it. It's hard to turn around a two thousand seat house in forty five minutes. Right. We've done more miraculous things. We just, you know, we just need everybody to have a good time, have a little common sense. Yeah. And have fun. Absolutely. Well, we will see you down there for Die Hard. I think that's going to be the only date that Jessica and I are able to make this year. I understand, but that's the best one for the two of you. That's going to be great. Love it. We will be there early. I think that's a day, that's right before we wrap up at work. I think we wrap up on the twentieth, so I will I'm going to try to work from home that day. That way it can be right here and scoot. Scoot on down. Yeah. And I know this year's a bit of a challenge for us because it, apparently everyone's school doesn't let out until the, what is the Friday? The. The. Is it the. Yeah. And so that's, that's you know, messing with some schedules I know and, making things a little tougher for folks to get everybody together. But yeah, that's just, you know, Thanksgiving fell odd this year. So Christmas is falling odd. So the schools have fallen odd. And everyone's odd except the three of us. That's right. We're all perfectly sane and normal. We are perfectly fine. Practically perfect. In every way. In every way. You guys, I'll look forward to seeing you at Die Hard. This is always, I enjoy doing this so much. This is always so much fun. We love having you on. I'll be sure and watch Kevin and Bo next week. Yeah. Well, we'll have to catch the replay, unfortunately for us, but yeah. put them all together anyway for the audio form so I have to I have to sit through them anyway so it's all good I'm forced to sit through it that's right wait we love doing this we're coming up on our fourth year in the spring wow yeah time flies we're gonna keep going as long as everybody keeps uh keeps enjoying it so we're good good good And if you want to catch all the audio, you want to catch all the video, you want to catch some blog posts, everything concerning the podcast lives at BamaGeeks.com. BamaGeeks.live will actually take you to our live stream on our YouTube page. So if you ever want to catch any of the past live replays, that's where you can go, BamaGeeks.live. Bama geeks.com. Everything is there. Absolutely everything. And of course, all over social media at Bama geeks. That's where we are. And if you want to join us on Facebook and our little private community, Then look at, just look up the Bama Geeks Front Porch there on Facebook and ask to join. We'll let you in and we'll tell you all about the Southern things. You like pecan pies from Golden Eagle Syrup. That for Thanksgiving was amazing. You still have to eat your last piece, honey. I know. I still got a piece in the fridge. Yeah. Finish that off. I think it's gone bad and you should bring it to me at Die Hard. Okay. Thanks. Maybe we can. You need a little snack that night, right? It'll definitely rejuvenate you. It is sweet. It's great. I bet it coma. Absolutely, yeah. But if you want to support the podcast, you want to support everything that we do, help pay for some server fees, whatever, you don't have to but if you'd like to patreon.com bama geeks five bucks a month uh and if you hit the join button down uh on the youtube channel we've got a couple of options for you there to help financially support us absolutely never necessary just uh we do have some supporters and we appreciate them very much we apologize that you did not get a um a bonus episode this time around, but that's okay. Cause it'll, or we're just having to juggle our schedules and everything a little bit over this month and get into a new rhythm. Yep. But yeah, next week, look for Kevin and Bo. They'll be here for the live stream. They, I, we really don't know what they have planned. No. But, but they will be here. It'll be a surprise. Exactly. Exactly. Jess and I have other obligations next Sunday night, so we will not be able to be here, but then, on the twenty ninth all four of us should be back and we'll do a review of the year close out the year yeah and we'll try to come up with something fun and and uh and all with that but gary thank you so much again for being here thanks for having me oh yeah as always always love doing this thank you and we love you so much we we are thankful for your friendship and and we look forward to seeing you in person at die hard in just less than two weeks yeah Be looking for you. Be looking for us. If you don't see us, believe me, we'll track you down. So again, hit Bama geeks.com for everything for the podcast and Bo and Kevin should catch you guys sometime next week. So for, for Gary and Jessica, I'm Brock. Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday night. We'll catch you next week. Bye.