Magic Mike

On this live episode of the Bechdel Cast, Magic Caitlin and Magic Jamie dance very sexy while discussing Magic Mike.

(This episode contains spoilers)

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Follow@BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP on Twitter.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the beck Doll Cast, the questions asked if movies
have women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends
and husbands or do they have individualism the patriarchy? Zef
In best start changing it with the bec Del cast. Hello,
what up? So I'm trying to recapture our electric live energy.

(00:24):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. So the episode that you're about
to hear is an episode that we recorded during a
live show, our first live show back after over two years.
It was a blast. It really was. What you're I mean,
something that you're missing is Yeah, Caitlin gave me a

(00:44):
lap dance. I had cramps that day, so I didn't
do much dancing, but I really I tried to enjoy
the lap dance as best I could. Thank you, I felt,
I felt, I felt great about it. You were. That's
no reflection on your skill. You were incredible. Oh my goodness,
thank you so much. Because the movie was magic Mike,

(01:05):
and you clicked on it, you you know, come on,
and we did this whole funny little bit at the
beginning of the show where you were you came out,
you were like, oh my gosh, where's Caitlin. When's the
show going to start smash cut to Pony by genuine playing.
I come out on stage, I start taking my clothes off,

(01:27):
I give you a lap dance and I'm like, everyone
loved it. I mean, I'm I'm I'm giving who with
my face and my body language, and yeah, it was pretty.
I mean it was it was electric And that's why
this is kind of more for for our matrons. But
that's that's what qualifies us. I think you know, that
kind of energy and talent is what qualifies us to

(01:49):
make a Roku original. Uh, this is what's going to
get us on the slate Roku Original slate because because normally,
I mean, podcasts are an audio medium, you don't really
think of any visual thing that's happening. But when you
come to our live shows, what if the podcasters are hot,

(02:10):
we're hot, and and we can dance and we give
a good visual performance, a visual perform. Yeah, of visual. Um,
it was a really fun show. We hope you enjoy
the episode. Uh, we had. We had a good time
visually performing it for you. Yes, but you know, I

(02:30):
think it will come through on on audio as well,
and we're hoping to do more live shows in in
the near future. This was an experiment that I think
was a huge success, major success. So here's the episode.
Hope you enjoy. Thank you. I think that was exciting.

(02:55):
Usually I get naked, right, I know we're doing kinky switch,
A kinky switch. I'm sorry, emin insult. I don't know
what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm a virgin. I don't know.
We're both virgins. So this movie was really confusing. Welcome
to the back, felt guys, Get up, welcome back. Sorry

(03:20):
for spilling Mike's heart immediately. That's how you know that
we're back, because I can't even manage my MIC's heart.
Um yeah, okay, well, um here we are. Yeah, welcome back,
Welcome back at the Sunday afternoon. Um, how's everybody doing?
Does everyone have a drink? Does everyone have peanut eminem's?
Are we all safe or we all feel like good? Awesome? Awesome?

(03:44):
I thought someone was holding up peanut eminem so I
was like, all right, that's about the energy we're gonna
be bringing to the show. Thanks for coming. My name
is Caitlin Durante. Yeah, my name is Jamie Loftus and uh,
this is our this is our podcast. This time you're
looking at us and we haven't done this in a while.
We even't what was the last show that we did live?

(04:06):
Would have been like Valentine's Day, right, I don't even
remember what it was, Black Swan, New York City. Wow,
you know it feels like ages ago. Uh. I think
really has happened since some times not just sort of
kind of fell off, got pretty lazy. I don't really know.
I feel very out of practice. I'm stressed out about

(04:30):
various articles of my clothes being scattered about the audience.
Everyone they're not gonna steal it. I yeah, we were
really stressing about Okay, So the whole thing here is
that we were really stressing about the opening. We changed
the idea for the opening of this a million times.
We went to the mall last night looking for taraway
pants that did not materialize. We don't exist anymore. Oh

(04:53):
my god. The woman at Dick's Sporting Goods looked at
me like I had four hundred heads. I was like,
at Kayleen, you'd had not come to my rescue at all.
I was like, um, so we're looking for pants that
have the buttons and you can pull them off and
she and she was like what And I was like,
you know, like the and she's like, I know you're
talking about, but this isn't the right store. I thought

(05:17):
I could have been the right store. So then we
just went to the food court and went home and
so and then we figured this out. And then I
had these pants but they don't they don't even work.
They don't work. Before I'm wearing two pairs of underwear
right now. One of them is a song. I feel
so uncomfortable. You were, I mean, Caitlin, you you were like,

(05:39):
maybe I'll wear the song. I was like, I don't
even want to show my arms, but I did. But
I did. I wore my Shrek bra. So there's a
version of this episode where we came out so confident
that Caitlin was wearing a thong and I took my
shirt off and was wearing it. It's two pm. It
wasn't gonna but you know, I was like, everyone's gonna

(06:03):
be sucked up. You're not fucked up. I've had three
steps with my car Harden lemonade, and I'm ready to
pass away. But you know, there's also if anyone at
any point, I brought one can for the audience, So
if anyone's like, you know, like vibing. They're like, wait,
this would be so much better if I felt like
I had a migraine. Um, that's there, got that. I

(06:26):
think that's truly my hero's journey is when this podcast started,
I could drink Mike's hard whatever I want, And now
it makes me feel like I died six weeks ago.
I'm impressed with your character arc. Thank you, thank you.
It is the greatest story of UM, well, welcome, thank
you for being here. We're happy to be back, you know,

(06:48):
and we wanted to let you know that we really
we're gonna do something horny and then we're cowards. Um,
I beg to differently. That was beautiful. That was to fall.
Thank you, And that's what you get if you don't
come to our live shows. And you don't know that
anyone who's listening at home right now, Sorry you missed out.

(07:11):
You're just gonna have to imagine it. But don't send
us any emails about it, because that's it's wild that
you have to say that, but you really do. Well. Okay.
Has anyone ever here ever seen the movie Magical Michael? Really,
that's his Christian stripper name, Magical Michael. I was calling

(07:37):
this movie so many things in my head. I was
calling it magical, Michael, I was calling it himbo, billy elegy,
calling it all sorts of that's the two things. No,
I love it. Has anyone not seen magic? Mike magic Michel? Oh? Wow? Wow?
Everyone did start, Oh I miss bullying. The audience was on,

(08:00):
this is exciting. Um. Has anyone been to a live
Bectel cash show before? Wow? Oh my gosh, welcome back.
Has anyone not been? So many newcomers you get to
see us in the raw, like those little brown sugar packets,

(08:21):
just so you know, I come out and do a
strip tease before every live show. Yeah. She did that
before our Nightmare before Christmas episode, and I was like,
it doesn't seem she did. She did. She grinded on
me for all of What's this? And I was like hell?
And then I was wearing these same pants. The context

(08:44):
made no sense, but everyone was getting pretty fucking horn
I think, and so forth. In my defense, we were
all asking of that performance of mine, what is this?
What's this? And answer us Christmas Town. When Caitlin grinds

(09:06):
on me, which she does all the time, it evokes
Christmas morning? Sorry, where are we? I? Feel sick. I like, don't.
I can't believe I spilled Mike's spirit. I haven't done
that since I was like twenty two. Um, you made

(09:26):
the hilarious joke backstage, Magic Mike's Hard. I think we
should just Mike's Hard movie and then an extremely magical
Michael's Hard movie. Did you? Did you know that there's
a third movie in development as we speak? No? What

(09:49):
is it? Is it an all girl reboot, which would
make magical michaela magical Michelle. I let me check to
see what it's called. Old. It is called Sorry I
am dB dot com scholarly journal. I ever heard of it?
Magic Mike's Last Dance? Does he die? Holy sh it?

(10:17):
That would actually be so amazing if they killed I
have all like they do, like a Season one Throne
Game situation where they're like, we all love Magic Mike,
but what if he just dropped dead on stage? I
have dreams like that sometimes, where you're like, you're having
a heart attack on stage and everyone's like this is

(10:39):
such an abstract bit, and and then you die and
everyone's like, oh, well, I guess I got my eleven
dollars worth. Well, I doubt he's going to die, but
we don't know. Um, should we tell the audience what
the show is? Yeah? Has anyone here ever not listened
to the by steal cast before I have a I

(11:02):
have a harpoon gun with me, But feel free to
let us know if you haven't listened to our little
podcast on more Wow, listeners, no one raised their hands. Wow,
that's exciting. We are so popular, So we have to
tell them. I mean, I guess we do well. The
listeners at home again, the losers who couldn't be bothered

(11:23):
to jack asses who didn't have the time to take
a first class flight to watch me spill Mike's hard
lemonade while Caitlin grinds on me at two pm. So
the show is an examination of movies through an intersectional
feminist lens, using the Bechdel Test as a jumping off point. Jamie,

(11:47):
tell me what it is well. The Bechdel Test is
a media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdels, sometimes
called the Bechtel Wallace Test. Lots of versions of this test.
Our version of the Bechtel test requires that there be
two characters of a marginalized gender with names who speak
to each other about something other than a man for

(12:08):
two lines of dialogue. This movie is complicated in that regarded.
It's not a perfect metric. Um. But you know, I
could have had a second female character, you know, but
you know, you know what, you know what when we
did the live shows, we want to choose fun movies
that we don't have a ton of criticisms of. And

(12:30):
then backstage I was like, but what if we talked
about semiotics? You know? Um, anyways, it's complicated. That's what
the show is is that. Okay, uh, thank you. This
is a hostage situation. So uh, Caitlin, yes, to get
us started. What is your experience with the film Magical

(12:54):
Michael two thousand twelve. My history with Magical Michael is
that it came out the year that I started graduate school,
where I did go to earn a master's degree in
screenwriting from Boston University, which absolutely hate to mention, I
didn't know that you didn't because I'd never talked about it.

(13:15):
But I didn't see movies that entire two year period
in the theaters because I just didn't have time so
busy getting a master's degree. God, what were you you
were doing? What homework? And classes. Yeah, and a job
and job and stand up comedy. That's how we metto

(13:36):
uh love you? Should you like? Okay? Yeah? Are you
a cocker spaniel? Go nuts? So I didn't see the
movie in theaters, which is what all this prelude was.
Is that the right word anyway? Um? So I didn't

(13:57):
see the movie in theaters, but I saw it like
a year after, and I saw the sequel as well.
But I had confused the two and I thought the
scene where Channing Tatum has sex with a work bench
was in the first movie. I was wrong. That was
just a call back to the first movie. It takes
place in the second movie. So I'm all out of sorts.

(14:20):
But the point is, I've your humping cannon is all
fuck up? True truly. But I've seen both movies, but
they weren't really in my rotation. I don't know why.
Because Magic Michael Magical Michael is a good movie. It's
a really good movie. I do understand why it may
not be in anyone's regular rotation. If it is, that's great,

(14:42):
But if it isn't, it's like more of a bummer
than you are thinking it's going to be right, Like
I under because I was like, this is gonna be
a horny fun and I was like, wow, this is
actually a deep interrogation of the financial crisis, you know,
like I get why it's like not a movie that
I would It's interesting because I feel it looks like
a movie you would want to watch every single day,

(15:03):
but it's actually like maybe a once a year kind
of like Wow, yeah, that was a rough point in history.
It's too bad that they don't know it gets so
much worse, right, So uh that and I already I
already had a movie about male strippers in my rotation,
the Full Monty, So I was like, there can only

(15:25):
be one. There can be only one, and you know
that slot had been prejudice against men. But yes, which
is there should be more of We've been criticized for
that before and some really carefully. Where did iTunes reviews? Jamie,

(15:47):
What is your relationship with Magical Michael? I did not
have a relationship with Magical Michael. This movie came out
at some point when I was in college. I didn't
see it, and then I continued to not see it.
I feel like there is uh I was aware of,
like there's like a faction of women comics who regularly

(16:07):
go to see Magic Mike in Vegas. Has anyone ever
seen Magic Mike in Vegas. It's like there's a live
male strip show based on this movie, which is kind
of fucking incredible. It's supposed to be really really fun.
I know, like that it's a very popular pilgrimage I
guess to make um but no, I had never seen

(16:28):
the movie before. I was very excited to see it.
I thought it was going to really like lift my
spirits and make me horny, and it did. But then
immediately after it reminded me that all the Glitters is
not gold and that Channing Tatum did not get that
bank loan and right, so it's I I mean, I

(16:50):
ended up like really loving and appreciating the movie when
I was getting ready for this episode, in like ways
I was not expecting to. I thought I was gonna
be like uplifted by horny fun, which I us, but
then I was immediately taken back down by serious problems
and like I just I really liked this movie. I'm
very excited to talk about it. At the end, I

(17:10):
haven't seen the sequel. Sorry, okay, well we'll I didn't
even rewatch it. For this because I knew, I know
that we're just going to do a separate episode on it.
So did they get Okay, no spoilers, but do they
get hornier or less horny in the second one? I
truly don't remember what's the hump to come ratio in

(17:36):
the two who Who's Who's come? Are you like, audience,
do you say hump to come? Oh? I just been
strictly on screen. I feel like we can't know off
screen anyone could be coming. I don't know, it's not
my business. People come to kind of sucking whatever, you know.
I misunderstood the question. Um like I'm sitting with like

(17:58):
a beaker measure belcome when they watch Magic Mike xxel
I'm a scientist. Um No, I just I just mean
on screen. I again, I only remember the scene where
Channing Tatum, the titular magical Magical Michael has sex with

(18:19):
a workbench too. Does the workbench come? The work bench
obviously comes, and but that scene pales in comparison to
the awesome dance I did earlier today. Wow. And then
for all of your listeners, that's the thing is like
for the listeners, they could be coming right now, and

(18:41):
we wouldn't know true. And again I feel the need
to say, if you are coming, please don't tell us.
Oh okay, So yeah, I don't know who's coming off screen.
I don't want to know who's coming off screen, and
that is a universally a applicable law. I will Okay.

(19:01):
Last thing I'll say before we get into the recap
is Okay, there's a lot of men in this movie,
which normally sounds like an accusation, but there is. But
the two main mikes are Magical Michael and then there's
Magic Michael Jr. Yes, yes, the Magical Michael Jr. A

(19:23):
k Adam which every time someone people can't name characters
Adam anymore because I'm like it was taken by Frankenstein
and the Bible, but mostly I Frankens. Mostly the Bible
was actually adapted from my frankenste Oh god, that parton
I Frankenstein, where the the what is it? Like the

(19:46):
goblin Queen is talking to Aaron at Cart playing horny Frankenstein.
No one knows what I'm talking about. Okay. There. What
I was saying is I wasn't expecting Magical Michael Jr.
To be in my head. The guy from Beastly right,
which if you okay, and then I have to unpack

(20:07):
that now. Beastly was a eleven adaptation of Beauty and
the Beast starring Vanessa Hudgens and This Guy, in which
Vanessa Hudgens plays uh, fourteen year old at age fifty
and uh, this guy who's also five hundred uh plays

(20:29):
the beast. But he's just like a hot topic, like right,
I feel like he just has some like facial scarring
and they're like he's hideous. It's again I party facial
scarring and he's like, don't look at me. And Vanessa
is like okay, Like I don't, okay, I have to
return to something from earlier, the hump to come ratio.

(20:53):
Are you serious? I was confused by the question because
to my knowledge, who even comes in the movie? Well,
the hump toicum ratio can be zero to a hundred.
I don't think. I don't. I don't know if we
see anyone I see. Okay. The other thing is in movies,

(21:14):
I feel like equals come right. I don't think we
actually I mean, and I don't think. I mean, this
is like what a PG thirteen movie. I'm not expecting
to see fucking ejaculate. Well, like, that's caught. But who
even goes I don't think Michael j He goes, that's

(21:39):
that's mail. There's and then there's like, you know, there's
a whole spectrum of sounds you can make. I'm familiar
and there's two. All right, we just we have to

(22:00):
move on. Should I do the recap? Yeah? All right, everyway,
give it up for Caitlin's famous recap. Yeah. Oh, we've
already gone way off the rails. What if I was like,
I don't even remember what happens in this movie because

(22:21):
I was too busy watching Channing Tatum's arms. Oh my god,
then we would be like, there's a funny parallel universe
where this is like this same podcast, but it's really
girl Boss vibes, where we're like, I don't know, I
couldn't pay attention due to the pecks, you know, and
it's like to be I am paying attention to them,
but but academically, yeah, we have to talk about the

(22:46):
female scholarly way. I'm looking at his pecks for my job. Alright,
So here we go. We meet Dallas played by Matthew mcconne. Hey,
who I'll just interrupt myself right now. I hate him
so much. This movie would be like better without Dallas

(23:10):
Ak Matthew McConaughey. Okay, So he is the owner of
a male strip club in Tampa, Florida. Ever heard of it? Uh?
We Dampa as a character in the movie, it is
Do we ever learn the name of the strip club?
I don't think So they keep like panning up to
the someone's nodding, Wait, what's the name of the club? Exquisite? Yes, exquisite?

(23:34):
Sorry we were hitting the emphasis wrong. Thank you so much?
Would you like some Mike's Hard? I love someone's helping
me out and I'm punishing them. Um, if anyone does that?
Does anyone want a small glass of Mike's Hard? I
have a mango? Wait? I have Okay, Caitlin, you keep recapping,
I'm gonna I have to do something. Okay. So he's

(23:57):
going over the ground rules of the club and we
meet Magical Michael. That's Channing Tatum. He has just had
a threesome with Joanna played by Olivia Munn and some
other lady whose name they don't remember. So this movie
was like deliberately like We're not even going to try
to pass the Bechtel test because we hate giving women names. Um.

(24:23):
And just in case you had any shred of doubt
about whether a Channing Tatum character fox he fus uh,
the movie wants you to know that right away. We
learned that Magical Michael makes artisanal furniture that um looks

(24:43):
like shit. Honestly, I'm so ugly, but you know, good
for his artistic vision or whatever. Um. His dream is
to sell his pieces for money and for that to
be his full time job until then he does. He
has a several other jobs, such as a roofing job

(25:04):
where he meets Adam played by Alex Adam Frankenstein a
k a. Magical Michael Jr. A k a. Alex Petty
for the kid from Beastley. He is nineteen years old.
He's kind of a mess. He does not have his
ship together. He's kind of a fun like combination of

(25:29):
Florida man tropes with angry teenager tropes where they're like,
he beat up his football coach here, like okay, yeah,
I think I understand whose character is. Yes, he lives
with his sister Brooke played by Cody Horn, and she
is trying to help him get some steady work. That night,

(25:54):
Adam Frankenstein bumps into Mike, who's outside of a dan club.
Mike brings him into a strip club, where Adam is
surprised to learn that Mike is a male stripper, but
not just a male stripper, the king of the male stripper.

(26:14):
He like the male stripper. It's really it's kind of
an exciting reveal where he's like, I'm Jesus. Like, he's like,
I'm not Batman, I'm the Batman starring. I would say,
I haven't seen it yet? Does he say that? In
the he points out a picture of Christian Bale and

(26:35):
he's like, I'm not Batman. He's like, Michael Katon No, no, no, no, no,
I'm not those Batman's I'm the bad anyway. So, um,
Adam learns that Mike is a male stripper. Dallas gives Adam,
who everyone starts calling the kid, so he gives the
kid a k Adam a job doing props for the night.

(26:58):
At the club, Adam meet the other male strippers, whose
names are Big Dick, Ritchie, Ken, Tito, and Tarzan. So
I feel like that is first of all, in every
friend group, there is one Big Dick Richie, one can,

(27:23):
one Tito, one Tarzan, and which one are well? Which
which are you of that? Oh my gosh, um round
of applause. If you think I'm the big dick Richie
all right, well that's that. That settles it. So I'm
big dick Richie, all right. And one of my I'm

(27:47):
Jamie's obviously Tarzan. Tarzan's Wow, we're kind of like fucking hunks. Yeah,
like a big, hulking, hunky kind of Okay, Well, it's
nice to you know, it's nice to know every once
in a while. This show has been on for a
long time. It's just nice to know, like how we're
perceived by our audience. And so big dick Ritchie Tarzan

(28:11):
it sounds good. Yes. Yeah. There's also Tobias the DJ,
who I guess is are like Aristotle. Don't put him
into the corner. That's not fair. Yeah, I'm kidding obviously. Um,
but there is a Tobias the DJ, played by Gabriel Iglesias,
and they're all goofing with Adam. Mike shows him the ropes.

(28:34):
Then it's time for the show. Okay, So it's pretty exciting.
It's exciting. They dance, they hump, there's a little bit
of and then there's a little bit of I kept
thinking about the chairs in that club and how they

(28:58):
just like probably have to, like I put the foam
off the chairs. Every name is that? How come works? Sorry,
I'm a very yes, understandably, someone from the audience said
foam and they you were right. Um, I'm okay, We're
gonna sidebar after this? Is that not healthy? No, you're

(29:23):
you're You're fine, James, Okay. So the whole the whole
thing is a site to behold, which is what I
wrote in my notes. Um, very very boomer mom of you.
That's a boomer mom at any strip club what a
site to behold. Mike is usually front and center in

(29:48):
all of this, although we do see different dancers individual acts,
and then when it's time for Tarzan's act Jamie's act,
he turns out to be passed out backstage oh so
well that it feels like targeted and aggressive. So Mike

(30:09):
throws Adam on stage to fill the spot, and Adam
sucks at dancing, but Dallas and Mike see his potential,
so they decide to bring him into the group. The
next morning, Mike drives Adam home and Mike meets Adam's sister, Brooke,

(30:30):
and we're like, oh, love interest alert. She's she's doing
this thing that and I really liked her performance and
I like this actor, but she's doing this thing where
it's like very of like I'm awkward, and you're like,
I know, like, but she's kind of she keeps being like, um,
I like you know, you're like, okay, I get I

(30:51):
get it. But she's in like a bikini. She's the
most gorgeous woman I've ever seen in my life, but
she's like, I'm awkward. Like, okay, hey we exist. I'm
kidding in defense of my community. Okay. So Mike has
met Brooke, and Mike reassures Brook that he will take

(31:13):
care of Adam. So then Mike takes Adam shopping for
some stripper apparel, which is also a very boomer mom
way to stripper. Wow. Okay. Um. I was hoping that
we would get a shopping montage from men, because we
always get so many shopping montages from from the gals,

(31:36):
but um, we never get I would have loved to
see the kid from Beastley try on a bunch of
outfits that looked not good. And then Jan channing tatums
there with like thumbs upper right. Meanwhile, like girls just
want to have fun is playing. It's like Lizzie McGuire
s because what I was hoping for. Similarly, I thought
he was going to get a like haircut type makeover too,

(32:00):
because he has like a scruffy scruff. He has like
a haircut that's like a little unkempt. I thought they
were going to like clean him up. But they're like, no,
you're you look perfect actually, and they're in they're in Tampa,
so but yeah, I was the same thing, by the way, um,
but you can have you know, the facial hair is
not an issue in that region. Okay. So Adam now

(32:25):
has all this stripper parel and Brooke discovers it and
she's like, what the hell is this brother, and he's like,
it's for work. Um. We cut to Brooke at the
club where she is watching her brother do a sexy dance,
looking so contemplative. She's looking at him like do I

(32:51):
like this? I'm like, right, it's she is watching very attentively,
and we're like, I I guess there are so many
ways to support your brother, horny dancing and staring at
him really hard, just like doesn't feel like the best
way you can be present without staring at him really hard. Right,

(33:15):
And also so at this point, Adam has gotten much
better at dancing. Then she sticks around for Mike's act.
To be fair, Mike is always popping up around Brooke
me and like, you should stick around, Like that's kind
of is thing, Like he's like pratt food. At one point,
he tells her to stick around her own home. I'm like,
I think she will, like she lives here, I think

(33:39):
she will stick around. Um, But when they're at the club,
he specifically says you should stick around because he knows
he's about to do the sexy worm how I refer
to all the Channing Tatum's dancing. Right, So she watches
him dance to pony By genuine Again, that performance pales

(34:01):
in comparison to the one I did just a half
hour ago. But you know, let's round of applause for her.
Channing Tatum's effort is what you're applauding. But again, it
sucks compared to mine. Star bage. Yeah, yeah, Zoe Kravitt
should be dating you are they dating? And Brooks sees

(34:29):
this and she's like, wow, not as good as Caitlin,
but I'm pretty impressed still. Then we see Mike try
to get a loan from a bank to start his
furniture business, and even though he has cash for a
down payment, he has bad credit, so they won't give
him the loan. Then Mike, Adam, and Brooke all go

(34:51):
to a Fourth of July party. They're becoming such good friends.
I also wrote that also notes that's also Mike bursts
into their home at sunrise and it's like, we're going
to a party, and then you know, she's like it's
seven am, and he's like, do you want to stick around?

(35:12):
Like you just climbed through her fucking window? Dude, Like yeah.
But then she's like, okay, maybe there's something here, you know.
So they test that saying Steve Bushy burst into your house.
I mean, like Steve Bushey broke into my home, I
would let him do anything to me. But I mean

(35:34):
the idea in general, yeah, yeah, fair. So they go
to this Fourth July party and Mike and Brooke are
kind of vibing, but Mike is still he's still fucking
Joanna here and there, but she's kind of aloof, so
that doesn't really seem like it's going anywhere. I and
she also like she's working on her masters, and I

(35:55):
was like, wow, it's Caitlin. It is me. Caitlin's fucking
Channing Tatum and she have it either way. That's where yes, okay.
Dallas then announces that he has bought a club in
Miami and he's moving the whole operation there from Tampa.

(36:16):
He says that Mike will make seven and a half
percent of the profits from this new venture, although Dallas
originally had promised ten percent. So Mike is like, what
the fuck? Yeah, Mike is very Cheryl sandberging on his
own behalf for much of this movie, where he is
and I and and usually when I say Cheryl Sandberg,
I mean it as a pejorative, but in this case,

(36:36):
like he's repeatedly trying to be like, no, I want
the correct amount of money, and no one ever gives
Mike the correct amount of money. What is true partially
why this is kind of a tragic move. Anyways, Well,
we're getting to the part where it gets even sadder, right, So,
things from this point on start to go down hill

(36:56):
for pretty much all the characters, starting with at because
he starts doing drugs which drugs. I don't know, the
ones that come in party packs there. No, he's doing ecstasy.
But then they're also like, oh, I don't know. He
was probably on G, and I was like, what's G? Oh,

(37:17):
you don't know what G is? Everyone play a longer.
Caitlin doesn't even know what G is. Loser, We're all
funked up on G right now. I don't I can't
wake up without a couple of Stevie hot G. Yeah.

(37:39):
They have various units of G lying around and G
units yeah, wow, wow wow, feeling like it's two thousand six. Okay,
so he starts doing drugs. He also starts selling drugs

(38:00):
with tobias. Meanwhile, Mike and Brooke continue to vibe. Every
time you say tobias, I think it's arrested developments tobiasph
and he's yeah. So Mike and Brooke are vibing still more,
and he asks if she wants to go get some

(38:21):
food sometime, and she's like, oh, like on a date
and he's like, no, I don't know. Well, usually she's
also dating tall paul Um who sucks and we get
I thought it was a very fun effective use of dialogue.
How you find out Tall Paul sucks in a single
line of dialogue, like he's just sounding like a fucking door,
Like what does he say? Like he's like he's talking

(38:43):
about whatever the equivalent of crypto is, and you're just like,
all right, I'm asleep, Like break up with Tall Paul, right, Yeah,
he gets dumped. I don't even you know, poor tall Paul.
Maybe he's a great guy, he's not so. Mike and
Adam then do a gig at a sorority. Adam gives

(39:05):
one of the girls an ecstasy pill or maybe it's
like a unit of g you know, and all of
the bros at the sorority are like, oh my god,
did you give my girl ecstasy? And they're like no,
And then there's like this huge fight. It escalates quickly
and Mike and Adam have to like get the funk

(39:25):
out of there, and Adam leaves behind his backpack, which
is full of the units of drugs that he has
been selling with Tobias. Nothing gets between a nineteen year
old boy and his backpack. And that's just a fact.
Anything that's in the backpack, if it's a nineteen year
old boy, is not good. It's not good. True. Yeah,

(39:45):
things continue to spiral out of control, like Mike gets
in an argument with Dallas, Mike learns that Joanna is engaged.
Then one night Mike and Adam get all fucked up,
and then the next morning, Adam is passed out in
his own vomit. Brooke comes in and freaks out and
she's like, what did you do to my brother? You

(40:06):
were supposed to take care of him? And We're like, wow,
she's being so shrill. That's certainly how much everyone hand there,
Like why is she's she's being so ridiculous. I'm like,
her brother is like almost dead, and he's like, chill, Chill.
I'm like, I'm maybe not advocating for magical Michael as
much as the movie wants me to write, Yes, if

(40:28):
my little brother was. I just god, I kept connecting
really hard with Brooke in this movie because I have
a little brother, and I was like, if my brother
was passed out in a pile of his own vomit
and some himbo told me to chill, I would fucking
murder him. I was like, that's my fucking brother. Like
there's okay. So then some dudes come in and trash

(40:52):
Mike's place because they're looking for Adam, who turns out
to have lost way more units of drugs than he
had said. He of what drugs? What is g don't
tell her it's great, it's it's wine. I'll figure it

(41:16):
out by the end. Okay. So Adam owes to Bias
like ten grand, so Mike, yes, Mike pays off Adam's
debt with the money he had been saving for his
furniture business. So we're like, oh no, we can't have

(41:38):
those ugly ass tables made out of bottles washed up
on the shore of the fucking ocean. But good for him,
Good for him. Mike goes to talk to Adam and
he runs into Brook. They have a very tense conversation
and she's like, you know what, Miami is just gonna
be a bigger, batter version of this and I don't

(41:59):
really believe in you. So nothing gets resolved here yet.
Then Adam and Mike kind of reconcile. Adam tells Mike
that he'll pay him back for all of those ten geez.
That scene is I mean, we'll get back to that.
That scene was so frustrating to me because that was like,
Adam is such a I feel I feel for Adam,

(42:21):
but he's such a fucking mess. In that scene where
he's like talking to Mike, he's like, yeah, it's all good.
We're gonna go to Miami and everything's gonna be great.
And you're like, it's not going to be great. You're
so fucked my man. But but like, hang on to
this moment, I guess. And then it's the last show
in Tampa before the big move to Miami, and Mike

(42:44):
ends up bailing on this show and he goes to
Brooke and she's like, wow, I heard what you did
from my brother. And he's like, yeah, I'm not going
to go to Miami after all. She's like, well for
She's like, let's smooch and then we'll get breakfast together
and then he's like oh right, and then they go

(43:09):
and then they go, and then sorry reversion and uh
that's the end of the movies. Oh boy, where do

(43:34):
we want to start with this movie? Do you want
to start by? Should we paletate clean? Should you grind
hip me again? Before we kind of get into it, Yeah,
we should do like a little intermission and then everyone
how is everyone doing with their mikes? Is everyone good?
Is everyone good? That they're the people who I gave

(43:54):
mikes are have passed out, Like I feel sick. Everyone's
good for all, for all the listener. Everyone I gave
mix hard Lemonade too is alive. And where should we
start with the discussion of this movie. I think there's
there's so much more going on in this movie than
I mean this is. I feel like it's an interesting
case of because I went back because I didn't see

(44:16):
this movie when it came out. I was very curious
about how this movie was marketed because I vaguely remembered
how it was marketed, and it is marketed not for
what the movie is. It is not marketed as like,
uh movie that is like eight about the interpersonal struggles
of mail strippers. It's marketed as ninety minutes of mail

(44:39):
strippers dancing, which is kind of I feel like, been
the legacy of the movie because there's the Vegas Show,
there's all this stuff, and that's like neither a good
nor a bad thing. But I just think it's an
interesting case of like it was very much marketed as
like horny, horny, horny, fun, fun fun, where the movie
is like doing doing horny fun but also doing all

(45:00):
this other stuff that wasn't present in the trailer or
the marketing or like the magazine covers or anything like that.
Like you think you're getting ninety minutes of himbos, but
you're getting himbos and pathos, right, which is the formula
for any good movie. Yeah, So, I mean, yeah, I

(45:22):
appreciate the movie for what it is. I think if
it was just like Himbo's you're saying you wouldn't like it.
If it was just Himbo's Get a Grip, It would
have been fun if it was just himbos. But I
liked that it wasn't right. I mean, well, what the
what would the plot have been? I mean, you can
just go to a male strip show if you just
want to see ninety minutes of himbos, which I have,

(45:46):
and it costs a lot more than it does to
see Magic Mike. And that's a good thing because you
if you're going to a strip show, you're not tipping.
Well that's not good. Um okay, So what were we
talking about? Yeah, the marketing, I will say, I think
there's something to be said for so. I know a
lot of men have seen this movie, Brave of you, um,

(46:11):
but I think there is something to be said for
a movie that has almost an entirely like, I guess
straight women fan base, because I don't leave bisexual because
we're a you're absolutely right for it. Sorry, no, no, no,
that was by eraser on my part, and I apologize. Um,

(46:33):
I guess any gender who likes Channing Tatum, which actually
really broadens the right. And now we're back to a
circle any gender and any sexuality who likes Channing Tatum.
This is the target demo for this movie. So um,
but you know, in kind of a narrower scope, it's

(46:56):
like a lot of horny women who are into this movie.
And uh, I think that's cool. The end of my
awesome thought awesome thoughts with Caitlin, No, I I think
I agree. I feel like there's not a lot of
movies that are catered to corny women who want dick
like that. That's great. I I love that, and I

(47:20):
include myself there. Um, brave, thank you so much. You know,
not a lot of I'm kidding, but I really liked um,
I mean magical. Michael himself a complex character. I feel
like there's there's so much going on with him where

(47:42):
you even before you see him strip I liked how
I sort of expected him to be stripping right away
and then it just to be a ninety minute MP
four Channing Tam stripping. But the context for this movie
is it's Channing st Channing Stadium. I was Jason Statham
Channing Tatum. I was making Himbos into one person. Um. No,

(48:06):
Channing Tatum was a stripper in Florida and was trying
to make a movie about that experience and was looking
for a director to shape that with him. He originally
wanted the director from Drive, Nicholas winding Refn, which would
have been like a very different movie with way more

(48:26):
bisexual lighting. Yeah, but ended up like he happened to
be working with Steven Soderberg at the time. Steven Soderberg
was like, I could make a movie about Himbos, and
Channing Tatum, who seems like a very affable person, Like
was like, yeah, make a movie about Himbo's like and
um sort of like built out this world that it

(48:48):
is not like directly autobiographical, because it sounds like the
men who were in this movie got like a lot
of say and who their characters were and like building
out their individual routines and like I guess that the
guys who play the strippers in the movie got to
figure out like what their individual act was, which gives
me a lot of questions about who chose to be

(49:09):
the Kendall Sure. I mean, I have a lot of
questions about Tarzan tar I mean, ask me, but I
like that in that. But most of the movie is
about kind of like magical Michael's struggle outside of sex work. Um,

(49:29):
which is interesting, right, I think this movie does because
we've talked, We've had a number of conversations about sex
work and specifically stripping on the show with various movies
we've covered like Hustlers, Zola, even like Coyote, Ugly and uh,
Full Monty and The Full Monty. Right, So a lot

(49:51):
of these movies focus on women who are doing sex
work and stripping, and I feel like, I mean, the
issues and the scrutiny the sex workers face, I feel
like disproportionately affect women and non binary Uh sex workers,
especially those of color and male sex workers often get

(50:13):
left out of the conversation, but you know, they deserve
to have their lives be represented on screen. To wow,
m R A. I would like to distance myself from
Caitlin at this time as she bravely defends men. But

(50:34):
I will say though that this movie, unlike others that
we've covered on the podcast that focus on women in
sex work, presents the sex work is like far more
glitzy and glamorous in the way that women don't have
that same luxury of being presented their work. If that
makes sense. Yeah, No, I mean, I I mean, we

(50:58):
can't speak on behalf of men, even though we have
many times. But I I do think that the way
that sex work is presented in this movie, it's it's complicated, right,
because it's not presented as like fully, like this is
the answer and like this is an extremely empowering is
presented as a means to an end, which I feel

(51:19):
like has a lot to do with the time period
that this movie was made in and takes place in,
which introduces this like bizarre sub genre that we now have,
which is like recession sex work. Uh. But this, like
this and Hustlers very much belong in that like expanded
universe of like late two thousand's recession um sex work,

(51:41):
like because that's when Magic Mike was developed, and that's
I mean, by the time Hustlers came out. It was
a period piece in that which I hope everyone feels
elderly hearing that. Um. But in any case, I mean,
I think it's really interesting the way that male sex
works are presented in this movie versus women sex workers

(52:05):
strictly because it's like it's not presented as like it's
the exact opposite, but it's just like a separate set
of issues, right, because it's like they are performing masculinity
for an audience that is foaming at the loins for it,
and that's great. They're not. There's a lot of issues
that are shared where it's like the financial issues and like,

(52:28):
I mean you can almost argue like a gig economy
style issue of like they're dependent on tips, um and
other Outside of that, fucking McConaughey has given them fifty
bucks a night, which is ridiculous, Um in any year
for someone supporting your in like making your entire business
is fifty plus tips is just bullshit, right, And so

(52:50):
there's there are some shared issues, and then there's also
issues that kind of separate performers where it doesn't seem
like you don't really get the feeling that the the
magical Michaels this world like, they are not made to
feel unsafe in the way that we see women. Sex
workers and marginalized sex workers in general are generally made

(53:12):
to feel they have problems that are independent of that.
They're like performing masculinity to this wild extent. And I
always thought it was like, I don't know, I like
watch this movie three times to get ready because I
like to be horny and I like to think about
class issues. So this movie is like uniquely tuned to
my interests. UM. But stuff where it's like Channing Tatum

(53:35):
cannot uh, I can't get it out of the danger
field zone here, he can't get no respect when but
like in certain settings where he's like performing manual labor,
which is like when he's roofing, when he's doing construction work,
when he's doing all these other side gigs that he's doing,
which also very much puts him in you know, like

(53:57):
this age and in the recession specifically, um, he is
not compensated correctly. He's always having to advocate for himself
to be compensated well. But when he performs those tasks
on stage, when he performs as a construction worker, like
he gets a ton of money, and it's just I
don't I mean, I don't have a finishing thought. But

(54:18):
you're just like, maybe we should just all strip our
job instead of doing them. Yeah, let's strip podcasting. Podcasting
should be um, eradicated, eradicate should be lal, we do
have the most embarrassing job, hell show to a screeching halt. Um. Well,

(54:42):
that and he's unable to get that bank loan, so
like the man or like you know, the banks and
that whole those like financial institutions don't respect him or
and that that's like true for I think sex workers
across the gender spectrum, where um, he has a stack
of so much money and they're just like, well, um,

(55:06):
your credit score sucks because we rely like what even
is credit? I don't know, but uh, he can't get
any respect because of that because he says like his
businesses deal exclusively in cash and right, and then it's
like he's immediately judged on the hearing of that because
that has like an implication that the bank loan persons

(55:27):
is like, well, you're not going to get alone, which
I feel like the movie plays that off very very well,
Like that scene with the bank employee, I really like
I had to watch it back a couple of times
because it's this combination of like he is being actively
discriminated against for you know, even implying like that he
is a sex worker, and then on the other end,

(55:49):
he also kind of gets like injured by the rejection,
where where the bank loan person is like, well, there's
a program that we can help you out with, and
then I feel like it was like a kind of
a very masculine response to be like I don't need help, No,
it's fine, I'm gonna go, and you're like, no, he
caused her, sweetheart, but your ugly furniture. I like to

(56:12):
think that he like gives her his business plan or whatever,
and she was like maybe considering giving him alone, but
then when she sees his furniture, she's like, um, sorry,
I cannot give you this loan and has nothing to
do with a big bank. It's just I don't want
to support whatever this is. I also, I was like,
imagine someone who is not to keep dunking on Channing

(56:35):
Tatum's fictional furniture, but imagine someone who makes furniture that
looks like that coming into your house and being like
is this true? From Ikea, and it's like, go funk yourself. Man,
you're making a fucking like table out of like a
pane of glass and and five of these, you know,
like five Mike's hard camps. I'm sorry, yes then audio

(56:57):
yeah yeah, so um anyways, im Yeah, she is so
horny for him. At the beginning of that scene though,
she's like, but that's another I feel like that was
another thing though. It's like that is like what magical
Michael Uh kind of reverts to is like I'm very charming,

(57:18):
Like I can pull people into my gravitational Channing Tatum
Field very easily. But even that isn't enough to get
past the discrimination of giving bank loans to someone who
is giving you all the money that is necessary. But
because it's all the money that's necessary as a sex worker,

(57:38):
it's a problem. Right. Yeah. It's also not enough to
reel in Brooke right or way either. A little bit
of pride and prejudice energy going on here. She's got
some prid Do we wanna transition to talking about Brooke?
Let's do it. Okay, here's my first thought. Okay, ready, yeah,

(58:06):
I should get in the receiving position. I'm gonna straddle
you again, are you gonna strab Okay? So, I feel
like a lot of movies do this where there are
a number of female characters. There's one main one, and
then there are a few secondary or tertiary characters, and

(58:27):
most of the female characters in the movie are presented
in a way that's not especially empathetic. So take this movie,
for example, the Olivium one character is you know, aloof
she's standoffish, she's unavailable, and then she turns out to
be deceitful because she didn't let him know that she
was engaged. You have your kind of like quote unquote

(58:50):
did see women like the two year old to like
go to the club at the beginning? You have various women,
but none of them are presented as being like viable
options for our hero except for one. So I feel
like that's like a very like screenwriterie like show don't
tell kind of way of just like flat out saying

(59:12):
she's not like the other girls. She is better because
all these other girls kind of suck, right, And and
that is like, I mean, that fits very cleanly into
like the Steven Soderberg expanded universe. Also, it's i it
is kind of like a writing shortcut for a male
screenwriter that's like, I don't know why this woman is

(59:33):
a character. They're like, oh, what if she like nags
him a little bit at the beginning, and instead of
that playing out as it would in the real world,
which is him not talking to her anymore, it ends
up being romantic. I that's I like Brooke as a character.
I do. I do like her, but there are moments

(59:53):
in the movie where I wasn't totally sure how we
were supposed to feel about her, right and especially because
like Mike mistreats her for different child keeps breaking. I
will say he's like almost every time they meet, he's
like kicking the door down, fucking kool aid Man style,
being like we're going to a party like there, which

(01:00:16):
I know, like I think the in the in the
world of the movie, it's like she needs to get
out of her show a little bit. She's like, seems
like she really isolates herself. It's he calls her uptight.
He's like, she's up to she can't hang She's so
freaking uptight. It's it's weird to me because it's like,
I feel like this movie is like a weird situation

(01:00:36):
where it's like halfway there where like I like Brooklyn,
I feel like I understand why she's doing the things
she's doing, where she's kind of in this bizarre care
like middling caretaker position for a young adult sibling who
she can't technically say no to, but who is still
not mature enough to do fucking anything. The beastly kid

(01:00:59):
can't do ship, you know, and like, so she has
to be his mom, but she can't be his mom
because he can legally do whatever he wants, and she
has to support both of them because she has to.
We don't really know what the situation is with their parents,
but like it seems like she is kind of his
primary caretaker and that he certainly can't take care of himself,
and so you understand like why It's like, yeah, she

(01:01:21):
doesn't have time to go out a lot, like, but
it seems it seems like the movie understands that in
some scenes, and then in other scenes that kind of
like paints her as like a character who is uptight,
where it's like, well, when is she going to find
the fucking time to be a horny little slut? You know,
there's only so many hours in the day if there

(01:01:43):
were more hours in the day, maybe more of us
would be horni or little or sluts. I don't know.
Profound wow, thank you March forth coming. So yeah, he
Mike's flirtation tactic is just to be very pushy. Um.

(01:02:03):
I don't hate all of their interactions, but he is
not being very cool to her a lot of the time,
especially in that scene where we already referenced this, but
Adam is like passed out face first in his own vomit.
A pig is eating and so gross. I was like, Wow,
a woman with a little pig before Ariana Grande, I
didn't know what happened. I thought Ariana Grande invented having

(01:02:27):
a little pig as a personality. But there was this
character in Magic Mike. Yes, uh Nora is that her
name doesn't seem like the name of a young character,
but yes, right anyway, so yeah, and she's another female
character who were like, oh no, she's almost like a
fem fatalel for a Adam because she's giving him g

(01:02:48):
units every day. I can't hear you say gee, and
it's it's so funny. So anyway, Um, there's a scene
where Brooke comes in. She's very reasonably upset, especially after
Mike had promised to take care of her brother, especially
after he had like kind of roped him into this

(01:03:10):
job that she and there's a whole other conversation to
be had about her views on sex work, but um,
the point is Adam is like, maybe oh deed and dead,
and she's upset about it, and he's like, why are
you so upset? Why why don't he say? He tells her,
but he says, calm down, you need to relax, and

(01:03:32):
then he says, you're acting crazy right now. And then
he's also kind of like man handling her throughout this
scene because she's trying to help her brother and he
keeps pulling her off of him. And then there's the
her being like disapproving of his lifestyle a k. She's
not very tolerant of the sex work that he's doing.

(01:03:54):
To the movie's credit, he does, you know, try to explain,
like there are other facets of my person. Uh there, yeah, no, no, no,
I know what you're saying, Like, I mean this this
all feels done for me. It was done pretty self
like in a in a self aware way by the
movie of like this is a like because there are

(01:04:17):
I'm sure, especially you know, ten years ago, like there,
I'm sure we're a lot of people in the audience
who would connect with like, I don't understand sex work
or sex workers, and I'm like, passing this judgment that
is not necessary, and to see a character go from
point A to point Z on that subject may have

(01:04:41):
been helpful because it feels like the movie, at least
going in, is aware of that. And I like, I
caught this movie a lot of slack in that it
was conceived and made as a way of helping people
who do not understand sex work or respect it for
the work that it very much is and should be
respected as to recognize that, and I feel like that

(01:05:03):
is like it feels like kind of the mission of
the movie to humanize sex workers while also like making
it clear that like this is fucking work, you know. Yes.
But the thing with Brooke is that she doesn't agree
to be with him and smooch him until he's like,
I'm actually not going to go to Miami after all,

(01:05:26):
and she's like, so it's not totally clear the extent
of her disapproval, like the extent to which that affects
Mike's decision to not go, but it seems like he
really wants to be with her, especially after she's like, oh,
you're such a loser because you're a thirty year old stripper,

(01:05:48):
and then he's like, oh my god, I don't want
to be a thirty year old stripper. Oh, no, strippers
are like cool. So it feels as though that affects
his decision to not go to Miami and basically not
pursue stripping anymore, because she's like, well, what are you
gonna do then, and she's like, well, I don't know,

(01:06:10):
I'll just go eat some breakfast or something, And well,
I think that that is though that is like complicated
by the other stuff going on in Mike's life, which
is like why this movie is like, it's tricky. You
don't know exactly. It's a combination of factors because I
agree with what you're saying of I don't think that
the trajectory of her understanding and respecting sex work gets

(01:06:32):
where it needs to be, and it feels like dated
in that aspect. And then you also see this like
it feels like this very like recession based issue of
another like there are a couple of different reasons why
Mike leaves the club, and I'm not even convinced, and
if I don't know what happens in the second Magic Mike,

(01:06:53):
I wasn't even convinced that he was going to leave
sex Work entirely. My understanding was, like, he's leaving this
club because Matthew McConaughey is a fucking asshole who won't
pay him what he's worth, and like there's this whole
whatever like mirror aspect where he's looking at the kid
from Beastly and the kid for Beastly as a younger
version of himself. That's kind of like self destructing. And

(01:07:15):
in spite of the fact that I think Brooke naively said,
like this one guy is going to that I don't
really know is going to protect my brother from all
of this ship, all the units of G, every single
G in the world. Like you can't just be like, oh,
I met a hot guy, so my brother is safe forever.

(01:07:36):
Like that's kind of on her for assuming that that
would be true. But there's a number of factors that
gets Mike out of this club specifically, And I guess
I didn't view it as like he was leaving sex
Work forever. I viewed it as like he's leaving this
toxic situation because Matthew McConaughey and his ridiculous fucking hat
won't give him ten percent, and like he's ever going

(01:08:00):
to get the equity he's been promised in the situation
that he's in, and even like his protege is kind
of turning his back on him, and so it's kind
of like, fuck it. I thought it was like empowering
that Mike left that toxic situation, but also that can
be read as he's leaving sex work because he wants
to be with this girl. So it's like it's a

(01:08:22):
it's a I don't know. I feel like there's a
lot of ways too ambiguous on something that needs to
be pretty explicitly clear, especially because like he even says
during one of the scenes at the end, he's like, yeah,
you're right, I don't want to be a forty year
old stripper in Miami, as if like being a four
year old stripper would be pathetic for him. So I

(01:08:42):
think that we're supposed to believe that he's like in
the process of coming around on sex work and he's
going to really make this ugly as furniture, and that's
what Brooke would approve of, so and I um bravely
did some research and found some accounts from real life

(01:09:06):
mail strippers who did criticize the end of this movie
because they interpret it as Mike giving up stripping because
his new girlfriend didn't approve of it. And they were like,
a lot of mail strippers have families, and they do
it well into their forties and later, and it's not

(01:09:26):
shameful for me, or it's not embarrassing. They said that
they do it because they love entertaining and they love
dancing so well. They were not pleased with how this
the end of this movie pans out, because it does
seem to kind of come down on the side of like,
sex work is something that you can do for a
little while while you're young, but it's just sort of

(01:09:50):
a stepping stone to quote unquote more serious work. And
that kind of like gets into another thing that I
think we need to talk about for this movie, which
is that I feel like that issue could have been
more clearly addressed outside of Mike's character if we knew
the other dancers a little better, because I thought it

(01:10:13):
was kind of bizarre where I don't know where I
got this notion from but I sort of came in
with the notion that we were going to get the
entire cast story kind of kind of like in the
full Monty right like it was. It was just like
I thought we were going to kind of get to
know everybody, which the movie kind of vaguely tries to do,
but in a very unsatisfactory way where sometimes you'll learn,

(01:10:35):
like you learn one or two things about every stripper
that isn't Mike or Adam, but it's mostly in passing
lines of dialogue. The strippers are majority white. The strippers
who aren't white, it's repeatedly pointed out that they aren't white,
and and it's like you don't get like, I feel
like there is an opportunity to represent a wider spectrum

(01:10:57):
of male strippers through the six or seven or eight
guys that are on the poster of the movie, but
you really only get to know two of them, and
they fall into this very narrow like I only want
to be a stripper for a certain amount of time,
which is okay, but it's like there is such like
you're saying, like there's such a wide variety of experience

(01:11:18):
in stripping an insects work in general that it's like, well,
you need to show more if you're trying to make
the male stripper movie, which was already done in the
full monty So but but but I mean I I
I was kind of frustrated with how the rest of
the cast was like kind of neglected in the process

(01:11:40):
of how this movie went, because you found out certain
things about them, but they're all very vague. It's like, oh,
this guy's a little spiritual, this guy like sewing, and
it all feels like, oh, this is like sure, like
that's that's fun character stuff. But like do I remember
what their name is? Do I really know anything about them? Like, no,

(01:12:02):
you don't. I think you only the only thing you
learned about Ken is that his wife's breasts, his wife's
his wife's are really cool, which is a fine fact,

(01:12:24):
but maybe not the first and only one to know,
Like that's correct, it's yeah. So I feel like there
was a missed opportunity to represent a wider spectrum of
experience in the cast of the movie that's already there
and like played by like very popular, like well regarded.

(01:12:45):
When I saw some of the actors that were cast
as the other male strippers, I was like, Oh, everyone's
gonna get a story. These are all pretty famous actors,
and like it was just magical Michael. Yeah, if you
if you thought you were gonna get any information about
Joe Mangeliollo, what is his name do Maginello? Oh my god,

(01:13:06):
I know he's in things that is matt. Uh. Someone
isn't watching procedurals, She's or soap operas fifteen years ago.
It's true. Tito is played by Adam Rodriguez. Tarzan is
played by Kevin Nash. Yeah, we really learned nothing about

(01:13:30):
any of those characters. But it would have been a
nice opportunity to for a movie that seems to want
to characterize and humanize sex workers, especially because there's such
a problem with sex workers in media not being humanized.
Uh that this would have been a nice opportunity to
give us information about more than Magical Michael and Magical

(01:13:54):
Michael Jr. But the movie opts not to do that. Yeah,
which side? And it is, like, like you were saying earlier,
centering this very I feel like more marketable view of
stripping in general, but but male strippers and specific of like, well,
this is temporary and I actually want to do something else.

(01:14:14):
Like there's no character that's presented. Is like, this is
my chosen career and I'm very happy doing it, which
should be a perspective that is presented because it, like,
like you're saying, like it, it is very much something
that exists and isn't represented. And speaking of one of

(01:14:35):
my main complaints about the movie is that there's not
enough nudity. Anyone else agree? You have to see butt
entities right away? Yes, however, okay, but I'm an insult.

(01:14:56):
I feel like we see more female nudity in this
be about male strippers, which is confusing. You basically see
a few bare asses of men and you see a silhouette.
Oh no, you do see big Dick Ritchie's penis in
a penis enlarging device. What are those called? I would

(01:15:17):
say that's pretty nude, that's pretty dude. Um, it's kind
of like a disembodied penis. You know. This is a
very specific complaint, but I was just I was kind
of curious about this, and it turns out that the
shows that you see in this movie are closer to

(01:15:39):
male reviews than male strip shows, right. I for one,
did not really know about this distinction until I was
researching this for this episode, I just outed myself as
very much knowing that distinction, but for anyone else who
didn't know. So, Basically, male review shows or male reviews

(01:16:02):
have the more kind of like choreographed dancing than a
mail strip show. There's a lot more like costume changes
like we see in this movie. There's also like a
show that starts at a specific time and then ends
ninety minutes later, much like a live episode of the
Bechtel Cast. We're running out of time, we actually are,
we do need to wrap up soon. But um, there's

(01:16:25):
all these and then also the big thing is that
the lack of right, there's a there's a noticeable lack
of bare pieces. Okay, but that opens a whole Pandora's
box of Like I I don't think we can like
pin this on the movie in particular, because that is

(01:16:46):
the rating system that is like and that's why I
feel like the only way you can see Baar Dick
is if you've got an HBO Max subscription when you're
watching the Kids that eu Fouria high. Why are there
Alblemre's plenty of places see dicks in this world, but
I wouldn't say in a movie aspect, I don't think

(01:17:09):
we can like put that on Magic Mike specifically. I
would hope that they would have showed us dick if
they could have, but because they like you can only
that's like a general issue with movie ratings. It's like
you can show way more of a woman's body than
you can. It's just like a problem that existed for
a very long time. And so that's I feel like

(01:17:32):
why TV has sort of taken taken the lead on
showing dick. Um And that's my that's my s in
this essay, I will tell you why there's so much
more dick on it and at Euphoria High School than
there isn't Magic Mike, because you would think and it
should be the opposite. Uh But but yeah, I mean

(01:17:54):
I think that it's like, even if a major movie
wanted to show dick, there's like not a lot of
ways to do it because of how that very antiquated
structure is made. For sure, yes, so I withdraw my complaint,
But wouldn't it be great to see like the dick

(01:18:15):
cut kind of like the sorry sorry, there had to
have been a better way. Someone's gonna pull that out
of context, and my life's going to be fucking over.
There's so many ways to interpret it too. It's like
we're talking about circumcision. Um yes, and that. Yeah, correct,

(01:18:42):
that's what I was saying. No, but like the the
butthole cut of Cats, the dick cut of Magical, you
wouldn't have been able to release the throbbing butthole cut
of Cats in theaters to general audiences in the same
way that you wouldn't have been able to But but
then there there is a lot of like gendered implications

(01:19:03):
there because there are I mean, and we've had this
talk on the show before, how the rating system is
generally like you can show brutalization towards women the entire
fucking movie and get a PG thirteen rating, but dare
we showed just the tip and and we cannot know. Yeah,

(01:19:25):
so it is like a big systemic movie problem. Yes, Indeed,
the things that I actually have complaints about are these.
Uh so, there are some very like twenty twelve things
that are said or done in the movie that go
completely unchallenged by the movie. I think one of the
most egregious ones is a few moments of like quote

(01:19:48):
unquote no homo where there's a scene where Dallas is
teaching Adam how to dance and he makes a like
no homo comment, using a slur in. He's like, I'm
not trying to fuck you or anything. This is just
what I'm teaching how to dance so you can make money. UM,
I think what's your boss? Should never have to say
to you for anyone listening. He was like, my boss

(01:20:16):
and stuff like that. To me? Is that okay? No?
Probably not right? Um. The thing is that, like, I
believe that character of Dallas would have said something like that,
but again, the movie nor any of the other characters
challenges that attitude. There's another scene where Brooke finds all

(01:20:36):
of Adam's thongs and she very abrasively is like, what
the funk is going on? Get out here, I need
to talk to you. He's in the bathroom. He might
be taking a poo, but she's like, get out here
right now. I have to talk to you about your thongs.
And then she's like stop taking stop that ship right now.
You better cut that log boy because I hate that.

(01:21:05):
And now she's like, you can't do that with your ass.
Though she's like she's like, I don't care what your
preferences are but also get the funk out here, because
it's gross that you I think you might be gay.
And then he's like, no, it's just for work, and
she's like I never followed up. Like that's the thing
where it's like that it's frustrating because it's like, I

(01:21:27):
don't think it's like the worst thing in the world
to present that someone in his life would feel that way.
But you have to come full circle on that narrative
of like she was explicitly wrong to have made that
judgment and bear that out. But instead it's like she
makes the judgment, it's kind of played for laughs, and
then it's like not really referenced explicitly. Again, there's no apology,

(01:21:51):
there's no like, there's no you know, it all becomes
this kind of murky mess. And then at the end
of the movie, she still does not approve of the
work they're doing. And then Mike Michael Magic, Michael Common,
Michael come a magical Uh quits his job basically because
of it. And again, like I imagine that that is

(01:22:14):
like common for like the scrutiny that male strippers and
sex workers and sex workers of all gender's face. But
again the movie doesn't actually really comment on it. Um
there's a quick conversation between Mike and Adam where they're
in the club early on they clock these two young women,

(01:22:35):
one of them is just turned twenty one, and Mike
is like, go talk to that girl, and Adam says,
she doesn't look like she wants to be bothered. And
then Mike is like, look at what she's wearing. She
came here tonight to be bothered. Mike does it like that,
Like there, I know that we're supposed to be like Michael,
he's so magical, but like he does do some misogynist ship.

(01:22:57):
He's bursting into your house like the cool man he's
He's saying like, well, she's wearing a dress, she probably
wants to be harassed. And then and then the way
that the script plays out is like it endorses magical
Michael's p o v of like the women. That was
always kind of frustrating where it seemed like in some

(01:23:19):
areas of the script, Mike's perspective was kind of challenged
and moved forward. But in Whenever, he's like judging a
woman based on what he thinks he's observing from a distance.
In the script, it always bears out that he was right,
with the exception of Brooke, which falls into the not
like the other girls saying you were talking about earlier,

(01:23:40):
where it's like with this girl who's turning, he's like,
oh no, she wants to be harassed. She came here
to be harassed. And then when the kid from Beastly
goes up and it's like, like, like whatever he says
to her, she's like wow, oh my god, Like you know,
like in a way that it's like if someone came
up to me when I was twenty one and said
I was in Beastly, yeah, I would be like, I

(01:24:02):
haven't seen that. Cool. Yeah, I'm not like other girls.
I didn't see Beastly in theaters. Um. The last thing
here is that there's an instance of body shaming where
there's a part of the movie where Big Dick Ritchie

(01:24:23):
me is that how we decided I was, I can't remember, so,
but this behavior does not exemplify anything I would ever do.
He picks up a fuller figured woman and then immediately
his back is injured and he has to walk off stage,
and it's like also played for laughs, and the movie

(01:24:47):
doesn't challenge that in any way. And it just shames
this nameless woman. So yeah, it did come out in
is the conclusion that I would like to draw very much.
Did did you have anything else you wanted to talk about? Um?

(01:25:08):
I think in general, I mean I think, going off
the stuff, it just seems like there were some missed
opportunities in this movie that maybe we're addressed in the sequel.
I don't know, Magic Mike's Last Dance. It might just
be a really long funeral movie. I don't know, or
maybe it's a resurrection story. It starts at Magical Michael's

(01:25:30):
funeral and then he's like whoa, and he's like, I've
last dance. I'm available to direct that. But anyways, it
just felt like this this movie was it. We talked
about this all the time, but like movies of this
era specifically, it feels like a stepping stone towards more inclusive,

(01:25:52):
better movies, where this movie I think does show a
lot of empathy towards its characters in a way that
sex workers in general and and male sex workers are
not generally shown. UM. I wish that there were more
movies about women sex workers and marginalized sex workers. Who
are you know, dealing with ship that is much more

(01:26:13):
immediately dangerous than what Magical Michael is dealing with, which
also is really difficult. Like there's just there's not enough
movies about sex work in general that present sex workers
as people, you know, and this movie I think is
definitely a stepping stone towards that and also doesn't get
into the realm of tragedy porn where I feel like

(01:26:35):
that's another risk that you run um where it's like
it is still a fun movie. It's all I mean,
there's such a horny legacy with this horn what is
that we should enter that into our vocabulary horny legacy, tone, poem,
what else? This movie has a lot of horny death,
horny depths, horny and but then a horny depth can

(01:26:56):
turn into a horny legacy over time. True, it feels
like a step in the right direction, but ultimately, like
we've been talking about, like it does calm down on
this bizarrely conservative end of like, well, only by you know,
giving up sex work was he able to find true
happiness And and also in that way, even like the

(01:27:18):
way that we haven't really talked about how Adam's storyline ends,
but the storyline with Adam ends where he's completely had
his ass saved by Magical Michael, who's given up his
life savings to save his ass, and then responds by
being like thanks Mike, that was really cool, and then
immediately taking Mike's job and then being like, well, I
guess I'm Mike now. Like again, it's like a Santa

(01:27:41):
Claus situation, almost like he killed Magic Mike and now
he's Magic Mike. He right, He like took all of
Magic Mike's money and now he's Magic Mike. I feel
like that way maybe a little undersavened by the story,
but like even even that, I've like the way that
his arc ends ends up kind of depicting his profession

(01:28:03):
in a bad light of like by him staying in
stripping in sex work that makes him a bad person,
where it's like, no, what makes him a shitty person
is that he took all of Magic Mike's money and
then Santa claused him, Like that's the bad thing. But
I don't know how much this movie is interested in
the kind of like making that separation right. I will
say though, that I did appreciate that this movie largely

(01:28:24):
centered a male friendship, even though every movie ever made
is about men, so few of them actually like explore
in an interesting way. Yes, Jamie, I'm just saying it
does kind of fall into the fathers and sons troup
where there's so many father's son but but but in
this movie it does work there. Yeah, I mean we

(01:28:47):
have sort of like a mentor daddy figure. There's so
many daddies in this movie. Come on and like Matthew
McConaughey is Channing Tatum's daddy. But he's a grand bad
dad Daddy. He's a bad daddy. We don't like him.
This daddy has too much money. We gotta get this
daddy out of here. And then Channing Tatum good daddy

(01:29:09):
kid from beastly. We don't not not a daddy yet,
aspiring daddy. He's he's not yet a daddy still a son.
Got a fucking human centipede of daddy's Some good, some bad, uh.

(01:29:32):
For some reason in this movie it worked for me. Generally,
I'm like enough with the daddies, But in this movie
there is a the spectrum of daddy's is on display.
There's good daddies, there's bad daddies, there's morally ambiguous daddies.
The point is I appreciate that this movie explored male
friendship in a way that was fairly nuanced and interesting.

(01:29:54):
I mean, especially because by the end it's like, are
they even going to be friends anymore? I mean, knows
him a bunch of money, but it's gonna be a
weird Thanksgiving because he's dating his sister. But yes, yeah, anyway,
I think that's all I had. Well, then let's get
into the reason that people think they listened to this
show sometimes, which is does it pass the bactest? That

(01:30:19):
is again, we've talked about this so many times, but
it's my favorite way to find out that someone is
lying about listening to the show, where they're like, yeah,
I love finding out if it passed the bacon from
like do you think? We just go through the script
line by line and be like, m does that pass?
I guess not not that one. That would be fun, though,
turn the page. Let's see if this one does this

(01:30:39):
movie past test. I don't think so, because Joanna and
Brooke do talk to each other about swimsuits and tattoos.
But but magical Michael is right there and like interjecting, yeah,
I I saw that as well, and I and and
the whole sub text of that conversation is Joanna is

(01:31:01):
trying to get the vibe of like, is she going
to fuck me and Magical Michael because they're always looking
for a third which I did appreciate that was presented
very matter of factually the movie, where like Joanna and
Mike have been hooking up for a while, they're always
looking for a third and there, and that's just like
who they are. They're very different people. They have the

(01:31:22):
same interest and that's what they want. Magical Michael wants.
He wants to be a wife guy. That's his business whatever.
But I did like that Joanna was presented as like
a fully fleshed out character who just like, this is
something she wants to do. But the subtext of that
whole conversation is that she's like Army and Mike gonna
fuck this girl, and so yeah, I don't think that

(01:31:44):
is Also a third that they could have brought in
is her fiance that she who seems to very much
know what's I was so confused about the fiance scene
because the fiance was sort of like should I get
out of here? I'm like, this guy is so fucking
chip right, what is it? He was like, I'm gonna
go look at he's he literally just like I'm gonna

(01:32:05):
go look in the mirror. So it almost implies that
they are in an open relationship, which makes it weird
that Joanna wouldn't have told Mike that. And I wish
we kind of got a landing place there because I
didn't dislike the Joanna character. I didn't feel like she
was made out to be a villain, except for the
fact that her storyline ended so abruptly that you feel

(01:32:26):
like you didn't get closure with her because it was
clear that like she was conflicted on how she felt
about Mike. It seems like she and Mike wanted different things.
I feel like it was kind of unique and that
you usually see, like in big movies, that the woman
in a heterosexual relationship really wants something more and that
the man doesn't. It was clear in this situation that

(01:32:46):
Mike wanted more than Joanna was willing to give. But
then it was like it just sort of stopped when
it was like this random hot guy was like, I
better get out of here, and then then that was
just kind of that was just kind of the end
of the story for him. Um, but I liked her
story in general. I like to think that there was
a final scene that got cut or something, because it
just felt kind of abrupt. Same. Anyways, it doesn't pass

(01:33:08):
the Bactle test. Sorry, but how about that nipple scale
of oursot it zero to five nipples based on an
examination of the movie through an intersectional feminist lens M.
This movie made me horny. Five nipples and that's our show.

(01:33:31):
Thanks for corret I I would say, like, I don't know.
I guess two and a half. I do appreciate that
this movie attempts to humanize sex work, even though it
is about men boo and uh, predominantly white men. But
I think that there's enough. I don't know, it's it's

(01:33:55):
just one of those like split down the middle things
where it is doing some cool, subversive, interesting things and
is also adhering to some other problematic tropes of the time.
Two and a half nipples. I'll give one two Brooke,
I'll give one. No, actually no, I don't take it

(01:34:18):
back hate women. I don't like that she was all like,
sex work is gross, uh and you can't kiss me
until you quit. I'm gonna give one to the pig
who eats vomit. I'm going to give the other nipple
to the vomit. No, I don't know, two and a
half nipples to the pig the end I'll do I'll

(01:34:40):
do three. I think I like this movie a lot.
It's certainly made me. I didn't even know if it
maybe horny. There's something about like there's I this is
a personal thing, but like there's a threshold when when
someone gets too hot it becomes science to me, where
I'm just like, this is really like I put on
a fucking monocle. I'm like interesting, you know, like at

(01:35:03):
some point when a person gets to like traditionally hot,
it becomes scary to me. But that's said I this
movie is. It's a really horny movie. I like how
it does. I mean, it's like, and we've talked about
this a little bit, but it's like, you know, shows
really macho, masculine stuff, but then it also shows the

(01:35:23):
other side of it, and it shows like the challenges
that are presented by like having to constantly perform this,
and it is I think like it was ahead of
its time at least for showing sex work in an
empathetic way, even though it is certainly not perfect based
on what we've discussed, and and it also you know,
just kind of you know, I don't want to use

(01:35:44):
the phrase interrogates masculinity because it makes me feel like
I'm a fucking loser. But whatever, Jamie, we're podcasters, were
so I'm gonna go walk into traffic. Um, well, anyways,
it interrogates my I'll give it three nipples. It's it's
it's a good movie. Yeah, it's it's not. Uh. My

(01:36:07):
main issues with it are the way that it ends
in a needlessly ambiguous way, given that it seemed like
it was building towards a more decisive conclusion. Um. And
then it's sort of like at the end, I didn't
like how the women in the movie were. It was like,
there's only one female character in the entire movie, and

(01:36:29):
she doesn't really have anyone to talk to, when it
was like it would have been interesting to give her
more people to talk to, and just more women in
general that we're not very background character generalized. Um, it's
a really white movie. And and like, especially because they
specifically grounded in Tampa, that also makes no fucking sense. Um.

(01:36:49):
So it's just like it's Steven Soderberg, you know, that's
a Steven Soderberg problem, I think. Anyways, Uh, three nipples.
I'll give one to Channing Tatum doing the sexy worm.
I'll give one to the chair that everyone's coming all
over with his zabraprint on it. And I'll give my

(01:37:10):
final nipple to the big dick. Okay, the one that
they keep saying swim low that one. Nice. Well, folks,
that's our show. Thank you coming. Uh we don't normally

(01:37:32):
we would have time for questions, but guess what we don't.
We talked about too long, but feel free to will
be out in the lobby in a few minutes. Feel
free to come and say hi. Otherwise, Thank you so
much for coming, coming yourself. That was the episode. Thank

(01:37:53):
you so much for listening. We also want to give
a big thanks to the Illusion Theater in Los Angeles
where we did the show special thanks to Kate and
Mel and Paul at the Allusion three of the greats,
and thank you to everyone who came out. We really
appreciate it. You've made us feel so welcome and loved,

(01:38:16):
and we we love our l a crew and we
hope to see the rest of you soon. Um, but yeah,
you shout out to the allusion. If you're ever in
l A and want to see a great comedy show,
they're happening there almost every damn day time. Oh why
don't you get over there? Um and in regular orders
of of business. You can find us on the internet

(01:38:40):
on you know where we normally live on Twitter and
Instagram at Bechtel Cast. We also have a Patreon, a
gay Matreon where you can get to additional episodes from
just Caitlin and myself every single month with a fun theme.
Obviously we are currently observing Titanic Month, but we're also

(01:39:02):
doing Romeo plus Juliet, so it's actually kind of a
uh DiCaprio youth theater month. I keep forgetting what it's
actually called. It's Leonardo Decape Real Low or Decape really
Low and Stitch not a movie or doing this month,

(01:39:25):
but it's five bucks a month and you get to
bonus episodes a month with over a hundred episodes in
that feed, so what a bar? Get over there, absolutely,
and you can buy our merch which Jamie designed all
of it f y I and that can be found
at t public dot com, slash the Bectel Cast and um, yeah,

(01:39:49):
you know, rate us on the platforms, the podcast platforms,
Give us a like, give us a review, give us
a follow, all the other great stuff. Absolutely um and
until next time. We'll see you at the same time,
same place next week. We love you, thank you for listening,

(01:40:12):
and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye, Maye