Sylvester Stallone and His Friends' Films Podcast | Rambo: First Blood Part II - (Episode 8) | Rampage Breakdown – Mud, Arrows & Explosions

Ryan sits down with **Robert Bruzio**, screenwriter of the underdog baseball drama **Bottom of the Ninth** starring Joe Manganiello. They discuss the film's journey, Rocky connections (John G. Avildsen, Bert Young, Sly Stallone), working on the set of Rocky Balboa, and the passion behind telling redemption stories.

Robert shares incredible stories about cold-calling legends, Italian-American themes, and what it’s like to see your words come to life on screen.


0:00 – Intro & Robert Bruzio welcome  
2:55 – Bottom of the Ninth background & Joe Manganiello  
9:12 – Rocky connections & John Avildsen  
13:12 – Meeting Sly Stallone on Rocky Balboa set  
18:14 – Writing process & underdog themes  
23:32 – Rambo First Blood Part 2 discussion  
29:48 – Final thoughts & upcoming projects  

Creators and Guests

Host

Ryan Rebalkin

Guest

Robert Bruzio

What is Sylvester Stallone and His Friends' Films Podcast ?

Welcome to the *Sylvester Stallone and Friends* podcast, your go-to show for fans of Sylvester Stallone’s action-packed legacy, hosted by Ryan and a variety of other passionate hosts! This podcast dives deep into Stallone’s standalone films and those of his action-hero contemporaries, with special episodes dedicated to Frank Stallone. Please note that *Rocky* and *Rambo* are covered exclusively on our sister podcasts, *One More Round: The Rocky Series Podcast* and *It’s a Long Road: The Rambo Series Podcast*. Join us for engaging discussions, behind-the-scenes insights, and a nostalgic celebration of the films that defined a genre. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to the scene, subscribe to the *Sylvester Stallone and Friends* feed for action-packed episodes you won’t want to miss!

0:00
Come to planet and everything is all right.
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4 seconds
Welcome. This is a new format that we're piloting sort of. We've done this before where I've done solo stuff. This is a
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11 seconds
little bit different because we've made these more customizable. Not only do people get to pick the time slot that we
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do this for them, they get to pick the style that we approach this. They get to pick, you know, the audience that watches this. the person that requested
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this and I want to make sure I got the name right. The name that was put down was Mary. So, I'm going to go with that name. And the song is County Building
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Blues. Now, what Mary chose as the way to present this was listeners choice.
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So, what that means is I get to pick how I respond to this. Um, and I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to start
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with the the full description here. Hey, it is Mary. Awesome. Sup, Mary? Glad you're here.
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55 seconds
I'm going to read the description first.
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57 seconds
Normally, we don't do normally jump into the the reaction right away and then read the description later, but I really want to read this. I did read it ahead of time because I like to to do that.
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1 minute, 7 seconds
And uh a lot of context. So, um here's what Mary had to say. This isn't one of Kendrick's best songs. It isn't in my
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top 100 in my Kendrick favorites playlist, but it is an introduction to cartoons and serial that we'll be reacting to with the group later
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1 minute, 22 seconds
tonight. That's true. Tonight the group, all three of us were going to do cartoons and serial. Um, in my opinion,
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as a visitor in the space of hiphop, as I consider myself as well, so take it as such. The power in Kendrick's music is
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1 minute, 37 seconds
the story. So it best is appre appreciated chronologically. While there are other tracks that represent Kendrick from his earlier career that are helpful
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in understanding the story, these two, County Building Blues and Cartoons and Serial are from the child Kendrick that
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1 minute, 53 seconds
is on the cover of the regular Good Kid Mad City album. The rest of the album is about teenage Kendrick and the van that is on the deluxe album cover. The people
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on the image of the original album cover, child Kendrick and his relatives, is a great image for grounding these two first two songs. If you aren't familiar
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with the Rodney King's riots, I am familiar with those. Can't remember how old I was, but I remember hearing about them. This is long before the internet.
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A light familiarity will give a lot of extra context. I am a guest in the space of hiphop and the experience of growing up as a black man in the US. However,
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childhood trauma and not remembering a time when you ever felt safe is something that I relate to on a very personal level. Okay. Well, thank you. I
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like that kind of context, Mary. that gives me loads of understanding. I mean, it doesn't spoil the song at all. I'm
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really excited for the song. And I will say, as a very new person to not not hip-hop, I listened to versions of
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hip-hop as a teenager, but as a very new to Kendrick Lamar, uh easily one of my favorite artists that I've been
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introduced to. And I and every time I get something more, I'm always just like, "Oh, that's so good." He just I want to go and just listen to it all.
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because we do this channel, I have to like restrain myself. Thank you so much for that context. I do have the lyrics up. I'm going to follow along. I'm ready to go though. I pulled this one from
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YouTube because I can't do Spotify streams straight through here. So, I did the YouTube version here. It is the picture of the van from the album cover, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. Here we go.
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Greetings, boys and girls. Boys and girls, my name is PDP. My name is PP Kendrick's childhood imaginary friend.
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That's right. That's right. That's right. I am your neighbor. I am your neighbor and I like to welcome you to Good Kid Mad City. Mad City. So, grab
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your cartoons and cereal and see your pop guns and fireworks and sing along.
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When we going to go and get us some spin it all in front of the county
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like training like training along sing
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it all in front of the county like training like train you remember that one time when we were I've been waiting on this day since Dr.
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Andre and Pac was on those CR and that Burger stand at 95. People staring at them and amaze me. Reservations at the
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days and we was living out a hotel at the time. Breakfast, lunch and dinner from Kentucky. Fried. Mama babysitting
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section. They thought just a move with nothing else to lose but a burger flipping drive. Close my eyes to swap meat and imagine it's a legend. Gold
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ballroom AK-47 dancing. Howling at the moon was a pack of hungry babies. Hope you feed us soon. Bite your back. You
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die your rabies. Every day we pray to eat at the table. Her sisless but never made that visit. And better days was on this way. Then they made the decision to
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make the wrong turn. So for now we heat the skillet so this can fool can burn.
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Oh yeah, I remember that. It was the ravioli with the hot sauce in it. Right.
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When we going to go and get us, am I right?
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Spin it all in front of the county building. Blow it like Train. Blow it like Train. Yeah. Don't forget to sing along by the way. Sing along.
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When we go up, we going to go and get us a million. Spin it all in front of the county building. Blow it like
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all the children in the world say that's my all boys say that's my all girls say
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that's my go. When we grow up, when we grow up, children in the world say that's my go. All I get a boy say that's
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my car. All they get girls say that's my car. When we grow up when we grow up
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[ __ ] you remember the smoke and the burning booties and [ __ ]
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Couple stolen TVs and a seat belt for my safety. Paid the passenger. I think it's 5 years after 80. Do the math. 92. Don't you be lazy. Looking out the window.
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Notice all the essentials of a black party that stopped for a second. Then it rekindled like a flame from a trick candle. Everybody got dental insurance
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cuz we about to floss. You get that couch I sent you. I heard that from a block away. Probably had credentials of a scholar but you're not today. Them dating folks was his to take.
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Refrigerators, barbecue pits and Jordan kicks. They did invasions where helicopters recorded it. Hello Mr. Mey.
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I want wolf say that you got me. If not I'm digging your girl for it. The spot was the boy like choruses. Murder was
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the melody. You should know what the chorus is. Papa, you really telling me we can just get some more of it if we run out. He said, "Little [ __ ] today
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the poor is rich. Don't tell your mom that you seen a model bomb." And she just know you have to lie, son. Don't forget [ __ ] ain't [ __ ] Hoes ain't
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neither. [ __ ] going to snitch watch the company you keeping. And one day you'll put money in the ghetto when you got it. Rather than having to hustle off these Rodney King rides.
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Yeah, that's right. The [ __ ] Rodney King. You put your daddy on. We going to go and get us a million.
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That's crazy. SP like training like train. Yeah.
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Don't forget still sing along. Still sing along.
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Please like.
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Wow. I have a ton of questions which is good because I want to maybe I'll do this. I'll start with my response to the
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song because so that I can give kind of my my instant reaction to it and and like you said, I think you said that this is early on. It's not like the
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beginning, but it's it's early on and it's kind of him reliving childhood a little bit there. I did notice the the line there from the song we're going to do tonight, the cartoons and cereal. My
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instant reaction is like Kendrick is doing stuff with rap again that I don't think everyone thought that this is how rap would evolve. And I and I'm one of
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those people. I remember distinctly in the 90s going like, "This is good. I like this sound." And then as it kind of got later into the 90s, it felt like the
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sound kept getting repeated and that you kept hearing the same thing over and over again, but in different versions.
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Um, I'm really glad that we did the Jay-Z journey right now because that's another artist that I didn't really know much about, who's another one of my favorites, by the way, and seeing how
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Jay-Z took it on and changed it. Um, we we're in the middle of the Fade to Black documentary and you can you can see he's
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kind of surrounded by a lot of artists, great artists. He's the one that's changing things. So, hearing Kendrick take the music and do even more here.
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He's he's doing an interesting thing with the beat where he's just like d and like rhythmically. And that's again
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that's his signature is he's good at not not that specific cadence but the the way that he uses or or sings the song he
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he kind of picks something and then that that becomes the song is the rhythm is is part of the song musically the the way that this one sounds I love all that
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that innovation on the content side of that that's where this gets interesting because obviously this dives into some deep stuff like the blow it like cold
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train and I don't know the reference specific I know who John Cold Train is a jazz musician But I don't know what like Cold Train means. Did he like do that
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kind of a thing where he'd go around and spend his money and everyone was like, "Yeah, be like Cold Train. He spends money." I don't know that specific uh reference here. Let me just make sure
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I'm not missing anything in the comments. Okay, because I'm reading the lyrics as we go along. So, yeah, I don't totally understand the exact reference there, but I I assume that's what it is.
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It's like, "Go out and get us a million and blow it like cold train." that dream of of finding, you know, money like to go go to the restaurant
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and enjoy a good meal. Even just going to Kentucky Fried. So, for now, we heat this skillet so this canned food food
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can burn. Was that ravioli with a hot sauce in it? Like that's kind of the reality for so many people. Everyone
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sees the car and was like, "That's my car." You know, because they, you know, see expensive car or I think that's the reference. And there was a reference
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later on down here that I I wanted to get into because okay, so the the reference to the Rodney King riots. So I know about them. I'm not like a I'm
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certainly not like some kind of you know guru about this. I just I know and that some of the conditions for what happened and why those Rodney King riots occurred
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when they did is kind of one of the first times actually in my life when I f when I started to be more aware of the
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extent to which people were um being abused. Up until that point I just thought like oh yeah cops just treat everybody the same. I'm so ignorant right back then. That's me in the '9s.
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But I wanted to understand this reference a little better. And one day you're going to put that money in the ghetto when you got it rather than having to hustle off these Rodney King
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riots. I I want to know what that means cuz I know what happened in the riots, but to hustle off the riots. Yeah, that that's where I'm I'm a little bit lost
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on that reference. So Mary, if you got context for me, let me know. I'd be curious to know what you make of that.
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My if I had to guess, I don't want to just guess at it. I want to just have a little bit more understanding there. I assume it's like like people became
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aware of the riots and so you you're hustling off the riots, meaning you're uh almost like using that as a way to try and remember those riots. That's
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what happens when you don't, you know, treat people uh fairly. When cops treat people who are black differently than white people interview, I think he was with his dad when he took some tires.
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His uncles were also involved. Interesting. Okay. As a five-year-old.
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Okay. Wow. And the Molotov bomb is reference is a clue. Oh, okay. Well, thanks for that context.
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Like, it's not that every reference is lost on me, but I definitely get that feeling like there's a lot more going on in under the surface here with this. You
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know what this Oh, I I know that the comparison isn't the same, but there is an artist that I I really enjoyed even
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throughout the the mid uh you know, 2010s and and it's Canadian artist. His name is Chaos. just a K and then OS. If
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you know the guy, I I found his style just to be refreshing. It found felt very like different from a lot of the other rap that I or hip-hop that I listen to. Um really enjoyed his style.
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Kendrick's style isn't the same, but I hear similar things happening and I wonder if there's any influence whatsoever between the two. But more
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more importantly, um, a chaos would kind of do the same storytelling where he'd tell about his, you know, what he's done
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and who he is and where he grew up from and and I know rap generally has that trend already in it where you're tell you're telling stories, but Oh, looting.
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Okay, there you go. That's why now I've just Thank you for piecing it together for me because I'm not smart enough to figure it out on my own. Yeah, that
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that's what you're talking about with the hustling off of the Rodney King riots. Oh, that's so sad when you think about that. That here are these riots
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that are gaining people's attention about what why it's so bad to treat people and that it's like, oh well, here's our opportunity. We we don't get
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to eat or be like everyone else. These riots are going to be where we finally get some of the things that we want because there's no other way we could do this or pull this off. Oh, that is sad.
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It's a lightly depressing song. I get I see why Mary why this isn't like oh it's one of my favorites. It but it's still
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very contextually relevant. So I fully get it. I get why you chose this one. It makes total sense. I'll tell you what. I
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really enjoy this format. Hang on before I I'm going to read here this. Uh I remember one of my pops and bulls were looking out the window and seeing these mfers just running. He says I can see
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smoke. We stop. My pop goes in auto zone comes out rolling four tires. No, he didn't buy them. I'm like, "What's going on?" We were all taking stuff. That's
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the way it was in the riots. Go to the house. My uncles are like, "We're taking stuff. That's way we go to the house, the market." My uncles are like, "We fixing to get this. We fixing to get
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that. We're fixing to get all this shit." And I'm thinking there's they're robbing. There's some real mayhem going on in LA. Then it's time progress. I'm watching the news. Said to my mom, "So
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the police bleed?" And now everybody's mad. Okay, I get it now.
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I mean, it's so so complex for people to understand this kind of stuff, but as I've aged, I know a lot of people get
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more conservative as they age. I get more liberal as I age. I know that that's not I'm not trying to make this political, but I just mean it in the sense of liberal in the sense I I I have
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more understanding for people and I can hold more space for their struggles and it makes more sense to me. Um, when you
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get the full context of what's actually happening in people's lives, that sounds super complex for some people. They're just like, I can't understand. Here they
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are. Here they are looting while they should be celebrating. But it there's you don't understand the desperation
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that people are pushed into or the the situations that people feel like watching everybody else get stuff. That's kind of what the song the Yeah.
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the song goes into. Everyone else gets what is the Mr. Miyagi reference? the or the Jordan kicks refrigerators, the Dayton spokes, the Kenwood woofers.
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Everyone else seems to be able to get these things. Oh, there. Poppy, you really telling me we can just get some more of it if we run out today. The poor is rich. Uh, I see. I see. All right.
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Well, that's going to give lots of context for tonight's uh session. So, I'll tell you this. If you're somebody who is considering doing the same and
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getting in on some of these solo sessions, boy, I love the opportunity to slow things down. I know we we go kind of mock 10 sometimes with our regular
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requests because everybody's got to say something and everyone's got to get a a thing in, but I like I like slowing things down so that I get get
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everything. So, yeah, I really appreciate this, Mary. Thank you for requesting this. I like to be able to understand things from different perspectives. So, it was awesome. And
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yeah, if you're watching this later and you're kind of like, "Yeah, I want to be on on this." There's a a link at the time that this gets on to YouTube, uh,
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that you can click on that'll take you to our not just our request portal anymore. We now have the the whole, um,
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solo session. So, you can book us one-on-one like this or you can book like larger groups or whatever. It's very customized, very good, blah blah blah. Go check it out. We'll see you in the next one.
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I come from planet. I come from planet wealth.
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I come from planet wealth.
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