ChadKrueger

That's funny, I was about to say "where the hell is Astronomical Cat"?!?! And then I saw they liked your post.

Hi everyone! Happy Hooray Show Wednesday! I know I say this almost every week, but I love this episode. I think it is a good sign that the current episode is always my favorite. I'd like to think that means that we're improving as hosts and I am improving as the producer/editor. I've also improved the way I am editing the shows in order to produce them more quickly and efficiently. One of the advantages to this is that we can keep the show more topical, something we would like to do. One of the drawbacks of this, temporarily, is that you hear a lot more of Horatio breathing into the mic. I used to go through and edit all of that out, a very time consuming process. I've tweeked the way I edit and mix to afford Horatio's (and in fairness, mine) breaths and coughs to be a more natural part of the sound of the room. There is no substitute to learning by doing. For example, I will never use our remote recorder without a windsock again. We recorded the opening car bit yesterday morning because we wanted to discuss the Paul Walker issue directly. If you follow Rog on twitter, you probably saw the blow back we're referencing. We decided to use the car crash callback because Alex told me that was the first episode he listened to (A Better View) and when he heard the crash he was laughing so hard he had to pull over. So I put it in his episode twice (and added the train). You should definitely buy and watch "We Are Young" - impressive - and Alex is definitely on the fast track that I reference in the show. I will now take questions.... (if you have any) Chad

I felt bad booting Hector's theme song (Low Rider) for this show, but how do you have a Latino talking about a white '92 chrysler with red velvet interior and NOT bump Low Rider?!

I didn't take it as criticism. You wouldn't be posting here if you weren't a fan! I'm saying I agree with you.

Be grateful you have never had to endure shitty guacamole.

Happy Hooray Show Wednesday Kidz! Yes, UCB Sunset is wonky. We've addressed that issue on episode 7 "Jes Suis UCB" and elsewhere. If you have never been there, there is what I refer to as a giant moat between the stage and the audience. It's a newish venue and everyone has kind of figured that out at this point, and I trust it will be addressed. Also, the positioning of the audience mic(s) was probably not ideal, but I don't know what the solution is in that space other than setting up 4-8 audience mics to get a better sound. I am pretty proud of the mix on this show in spite of all of that. The recording I was given was a single stereo file with the stage panned hard left and the audience panned hard right, which I then converted to 2 mono channels and mixed. Finding the right balance of bleed from the audience, natural echo and balancing the performers was actually a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I assure you the audience was laughing, although it is very hard to hear the laughs even when you are on stage. Keep in mind that a lot of times the audience is laughing you are not hearing it because Horatio or someone else is laughing directly into a hot mic. Inside baseball for this episode: All of the needledrops you hear were added in post. There was no music in the house during the live recording.

I love that Alt-J being in the show inspired you to listen to their music. I had kind of the opposite story happen to me one time. When I was living in Oshkosh, I was walking from my apartment to a local comedy theater to see their local troupe, I forgot what I was listening to on my earphones, probably WTF or something like that, when this music started to creep in that I recognized, as I started to get closer to this coffee shop, the music was getting louder and I recognized the music coming from the shop rather than the headphones. Turns out, I recognized the music because there in the window were my friends Maggi and Pierce, of Hymn for Her, playing a set. I was in a band with those guys for the better part of a year and we spent about 6 months on the road together. That was cray. They didn't know I lived in Oshkosh, and I didn't know they were playing. It was an amazing way to run into them again. I hope you guys enjoyed the show, and if you want to play along, definitely look up Mac Sabbath on YouTube during that segment. They're playing down in Long Beach this weekend and I'm half tempted... This Tuesday: CINCO DE MAYO!!! @ UCB Sunset. LIVE HOORAY SHOW!!!!

What WOULDN'T you fuck about that?!

I'm impressed by your taste. That's a Kenmore Power Miser 6, because you can't fuck with perfection.

ICYMI - Horatio is doing bits on a bonus Comedy Bang Bang released today. In other news: we just had Dana and Julia (BIATCHES!) and Peter Murietta (Wizards of Waverly Place) in the studio and we had Charna Halpern (iO) on the phone for a minute. Yes I recorded, and I'm barely in the episode so everyone can relax. Good Times. Should be a fun one next week.

That number has doubled since episode one. Woo to the Hoo....

I had my dad pick my DraftKings golfers for this weekend. Bring it...

hahaha... gross...

I tweeted back at Joe at around 3 or 4 am when I heard his rendition. I was taking a break from editing together the interview and said, well... let's listen to the VM's (I do listen to them by the way, leave one anytime) and Joe, for some reason yours stood out to me. I believe I tweeted "Holy Crap!" The number for now is 917-675-1406 in case you guys don't have it. It is literally just an extra cell phone the boss had laying around. Save it in your phones. Share it with friends. Don't post it on the big social media places, not worth it. Keep it tight. You can call anytime, if we're recording, we may answer. If not, leave a message. We will probably move to a more sophisticated phone system sometime soon, but this bong isn't going to smoke itself.

I also want you all to know that Horatio, Joe Show, Kathleen and I went to the Dodgers game last night and waved and blew kisses at Vin Scully during the 7th inning stretch. The Dodgers lost 7-3.

***CRACK**** DEEP TO LEFT FIELD... GOING BACK.... WALK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe! Thank you so much! Huge balls.... 1st level cleared...

Also, something that got cut from this episode: Jerry converting Horatio to join the Jehovah's Witness. It was fascinating. Horatio played along, it was after all a bit, but Jerry was so convincing as the converter that I didn't even want to put it into the universe. There was no humor to it at all. Jerry played the part of the guy knocking on your door and trying to convert you, and Rog played the open and willing convert. As Jerry mentions in the episode, he has an upcoming serial podcast coming up where he is going to tell the whole story. CAN'T WAIT!!! I love Jerry Minor to death. He has always treated me from the moment I met him more than a decade ago as if we have been friends forever, and I have always felt like somehow we have. He is a black man who grew up as a Jehovah's Witness in Flint, MI. Let that sink in. That's some shit you would write a sketch premise about. He has lived it.

One of the subtleties I noticed in the episode, was that Jerry a couple of times tries to make the distinction between religion and a cult. My eventual resigination in this episode, and in life, is "fine... have your Jesus... if that's what you need..." but my condition is, you have to call crazy crazy. And you have to call manipulation manipulation. Conversion and Evangelism is the power of the church, convincing the power of their followers that they are doing the Lord's work by "saving" those in desperate need. We can look at it cynically, as well we should. But the point I try to make is that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So when all you have is the church, or all you have is Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh for that matter, you can not possibly see the world through any other lens. Did you know that it really wasn't until a couple of hundred years ago that we only started using the word "blue" to describe a color that exists so rarely in nature? It's sort of the same argument. If you don't have a word for it, you can't really see it. <----credit: some NPR podcast I listen to regularly.

That is such an amazing observation about seperating the children from the adults and their own siblings. I hadn't noticed that perspective but you are absolutely correct. Obviously it's not always for sexual predator purposes, but it is for control purposes more often than not. Indoctrinate the children. Believe in Santa Claus and shut up..... great post! Not that this is the time or place for it, and I am certain you have your reasons, but I hope sometime in your near future you will be able to say where. Until you do, they are still exerting power over you. i.e. "I dare not speak the name"

Oh! I forgot to tell you your (literal) Easter Egg in this episode! If anyone can figure out what the Morse Code actually says throughout the entire episode, you win a life time supply of Cocoa Butter* *certain restrictions apply (it does actually spell out something)

By the way guys... our Horatio is going to be a "contestant" on @Midnight tonight... also... a contestant/panelist on "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" soon... Forum Exclusive,

I've been playing piano since I was 5. I was hired as the music director for The Second City Touring Company at 19 years old (October, 1992) while studying improvisation at Columbia College Chicago with Martin DeMaat, Norm Holly and Sheldon Patinkin (among others), I met Horatio in 1995 when he, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh were hired into my touring company. Shortly after that I was sent to Detroit by Second City to be the resident MD there. I did a one year contract in Cleveland as well. From 1997-2005, I mostly made my living as a keyboard player most notably in such awesome bands you've never heard of such as "Park: A Rock Band". I was hired back to Chicago in 2005 to be the MD for the Second City etc where I stayed for 3 years and wrote 4 original revues before hanging it up for good. (with the exception of brief tour stops in Laguna Beach for a month and the Norwegian Epic for 18 weeks) While I was living in Chicago, I was a regular at Buddy Guy's Legends and The Kingston Mines. I was this young skinny white kid from Wisconsin and I was getting the chance to tear it up on stage with Buddy, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Brother John and all of the other Chicago Blues giants. I remember the first time I played an actual Hammond B3 on stage. After the first song, Buddy Guy jumped up on stage and grabbed a guitar and said "we're playing [don't remember the song] in E... ONE TWO THREE FOUR!" - I'm 19 years old. Frightened to death. In this bar illegally I will add, and during the song Buddy gives me the nod to take the first solo...... hooked for life... I moved to LA last summer. I pretty much consider myself a retired musician at this point, although, I can still whoop it up on a piano if need be. Last night at the Dodger's game, the Guest Services guy I struck up a conversation with suggested I start hitting up some LA blues jams... we'll see.... I am also a flight simulator junkie, have passed the ground school test to be a pilot and could probably land a 737 in a pinch.

Happy Hooray Show Wednesday everyone! 13 Going Hooray Well, it is obvious what the inspiration for this episode was. What you may not know is that as of Sunday (Easter) we didn't have an episode for this week. We had no guests booked until Thursday (spoilers) and were looking at each other like "well, what do you want to do?" Being Easter, and with all of the talk going on about the scientology documentary "Going Clear" happening (I saw it, and was just as horrified about scientology as I was before I saw it) there was a lot of talk about cults in the bro-bro house. We both have known Jerry for a long time, and as he says in the episode, he is out now as a former cult member, specifically the Jehovah's witnesses. Horatio came up with the idea to convert the audience to the church of Hooray, ala the movie, The Master, and we'd go from there. We opened up the phone lines on Easter Sunday and interviewed Jerry on Monday and I didn't sleep for the next 36 hours. I wound up not using most of the phone calls we took in the show, but we honestly loved every one of them. When Horatio started asking the callers "the questions", the answers and honesty we got were extraordinary. I love people so much. You guys are the best. Always know that if you call in to the show, I will never ever intentionally make you look bad or stupid or vulnerable. Even if we don't use your calls or your voicemails, it is AMAZEBALLS to talk to you and hear from you. Regarding the host page on Earwolf, I can't help you there. Maybe someone from earwolf will see your comment and correct that. I'm meeting with a web guy tonight and we are going to revamp hoorayshow.com in the near future so it doesn't just remap to the earwolf page. We will have our own content and voice. In the mean time though, if you want to get to know me better, just keep listening to the show. Who I am is the slow reveal.... or just ask me questions here. That is why I participate! Shannon. Amazeballs post. Thank you so much for getting it and being a fan. I am very very happy that this show spoke to you on a personal level. Once in a while, we do some good over here.... Chad