April 1, 2025 • 43 mins
Chris is a 4-time international whistling champion who’s whistled for Presidents and 60,000 people. But what makes him an Army member is how he whistles happy birthday to 700 people every year!
Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premium
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now a part two of our conversation
with Chris Holman right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors. My brother in law, who I've been in
(00:36):
my life since he was eight because that's when I
met his sister and subsequently married her, has been in
my life for a long time. Been is third grade level,
probably special needs. My life has been so deeply enriched
by my experience understanding that people are that suffer with
(01:02):
intellectual disabilities have an enormous amount going on inside of
there that they may not can verbalize, but it's just
as real and just as one hundred percent intact in
terms of feelings and emotions as they are and what
we would call normal people. I was so touched by
a story that you told that I read about and
(01:26):
I don't know where it was, about an interaction you
had with a special needs person. Would you tell that story?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, it's a really wonderful friendship with his name's Preston,
same last name Olmen. We call him the one l
Olmens and we're the two l Olmens with U l
m An.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So I was.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Preparing for one of the whistling competitions, and the Washington
Post wrote an article saying Chris is going back to
try to win the fifth prize, which I didn't, but
someone saw that article and then called me up cold and.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Said, I read this article.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
My son loves to whistle, but he is pretty severely
intellectually challenged and.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
The special needs right, yes was he was he ah
with the person suffer from downs.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Not downs, but other kind of cognitive and physical challenges.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Can't speak okay, but he could whistle. And she said,
will you call him.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
On his birthday and whistle for him? And it was
I think a few months down the road, So I said, sure,
I'd be honored to do that. So I called Preston
on his birthday. And it was a challenge for me
at first, because you know, I am a professional communicator.
I communicate by speaking to people and listening, of course,
(02:52):
but that's my primary form of interaction and writing.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
So here I'm on the phone with the mom on.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Speakerphone with her son who can't speak but can whistle.
So I'm trying to think, how do I connect with him?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
How does he connect with me?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And so his mom said Preston, this is Chris, and
he's going to whistle. And I said, Preston, can you
whistle from me? And I just heard his very sweet whistle.
You know, it's still just gives me a shiver, you know,
that initial moment, and so I said, Preston, is so
nice to meet you, and I look forward to getting
(03:32):
to know you. I whistled happy birthday, and it was
just kind of pleasant trees because we really didn't know
each other, said goodbye.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
All right.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
A year goes by, I call them and she's completely
surprised this time because she didn't think I was going
to do it again. And she's like, oh my gosh,
you know, let me get him. So she gets Preston,
and you know, he whistles for me. I whistle happy Birthday.
We say a few more pleasant trees, and then like
midway or like three quarters of the way through the
next year, her name's Kathy. Cathy calls me up and said,
(04:02):
will you come to Preston's, you know, graduation from his
school to school for special needs kids and so we
can meet and you can whistle for him and his friends.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And I said that would be amazing. So it was
like a homecoming.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So I show up.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I've never met these people. His hugs all around.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I whistle some songs and when Preston saw me, and
then when I whistled, he lightens up and it's all excited,
and he whistles some notes.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
From me, you know, And that was I was like
twenty no, what was that was?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
It was twenty two years ago and we've been friends
ever since. His Preston and his parents come to our
house every year. We have a New Year's Eve party
and we're a bona fide friends now, and you know,
and it's really and it helped me like learn, you know,
(05:00):
not everyone's a billionaire and not everyone's like you know,
kind of communicates the way I do, but that doesn't
mean you can't communicate. And it had to test me
and push me out of my comfort zone, and I've
learned a lot. It's a very good and a humbling
experience in a good way. It's not like I'm better
than him, it's just that we're different. But I was
(05:24):
thankfully able to figure out how to connect with each other.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
When if anybody spent a lot of time around people
with intellectual disabilities, you will find out that many of.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Them are not human.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Interaction in touch is somehow oftentimes difficult. And I read
about a time where your hand was held right, Oh
my gosh.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, I haven't thought about this in a while.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
We went, my wife and I went to a fundraiser
for the school and the program that Preston is involved with.
And it was a very big black tie type event
and it's a lot of people all around, and there
was a little reception beforehand. So I show up, I
see his parents, I see Preston. I give him a hug,
(06:09):
and I'm just standing there and suddenly like someone's holding
my hand and it was Preston.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And you know, at first I was like, well, you know,
what's the deal with that?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And I thought and I thought, oh my gosh, well
this is his way of communicating. I mean, it's it's
a way for any human to communicate, is to you know,
human touch, but to show that I'm comfortable with you
and that that touch of flesh on flesh is very special.
And it was a real special bonding moment. And and
(06:39):
then you know, we just stood there for like ten minutes,
just holding hands and little whistles to each other and
watching all the hustle, bustle of people coming.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
And going and the like.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And you know that doesn't happen in fancy billionaire land,
you know, but it should.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You know, I will tell you as it pertains to
an army of normal folks. I don't know Preston, but
I know simply through billing willing to listen, if that
kid reaches out and grabs your hand, you have changed
his life again, a passion and a discipline intersecting an opportunity,
(07:21):
making massive change for another person. You don't have to
have a favoh one C three to do that. You
just have to have a passion and a heart and
you have to in your words, bond your whistle.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, and now you know we my wife and I
have raised money for this organization that Preston's a part of.
And you know it's it's important, I think, to just
be aware of the different communities that are around us.
And the special needs community is very existent, but it's
(07:54):
so easy to avoid people with those types of challenges,
and I think it's it's good for the soul and
it's good for the ego. I'm to keep it in
check to make sure you're not just with your you know,
able fancy, able bodied people, but people of all types
(08:14):
have intrinsic and deep worth. He's as much a child
of God as I am. He just communicates differently.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I'm going to ask you a question that's going to
be obvious, but I think I know what your answer
is going to be. But I think the question and
the obvious answer make a point. You know, you've whistled
for a president, You've whistled on national TV. But I
would say you probably get more out of your relationship
with Preston than any of those.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Absolutely. Yeah, it's a well, whistling for presidents. It's pretty cool.
I'm not going to deny that.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
And it's it's presidents. I met Bill Clinton not long ago.
Can I tell you that real quick?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah? Well, hold on, whistle? Did you whistle for Bill Clinton?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I did a post presidency.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I have some funny thoughts, but I will keep them
to myself. Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
What what was that? Like?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
I was at an event where my client was interviewing him,
and the event's over, and then the President and my
client went to the green room to say goodbye to
each other, and I was there and then an aid
to Clinton looks at me, and he said, hey, you're
that champion whistler.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
You don't want to whistle for the president? I feel
like a monkey. It was like, hey, you call me on,
and I said sure. I introduced myself to the president.
He's like, how did you learn how to whistle? I
whistled for him. He's like, that's amazing, amazing, and then
he walks away and he comes back and said, you
got to do more of that for me. That's just
(09:42):
really good.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So he was very gracious and fun anyways. But in
terms of impact, you know, whether they're a former president
or a current president or you know, just a regular
regular folk, they're all fun to whistle for.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
And but the like that emotional impact is much more.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Powerful because it's just like, I'm a firm believer in
it's important to stay humble and if you get too
big for your bridges as a bad state. If you're
ever in a state where you don't you don't need
anything in life, like say you're financially comfortable, that's that's
(10:27):
a dangerous state to be in because there's a lot
of hurt in the world and a lot of people
do need a lot, and so anything that can keep
me humble is a good thing.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
We'll be right back. So welcomed you to Memphis at
(11:09):
the top of the show. But I understand this is
not your first trip to Memphis and one time you
visited Graceland and found yourself on Bill Street.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
M hm, yes, tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Well, I'm also an opportunistic whistler and so and this
gets to the heart of if you have a gift,
what do you do with it? So, as you noted,
I've whistled with a bunch of symphony orchestras well.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
For the most part, they didn't call me up.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I called them up and said, hey, you want to
have a champion whistler perform with you. Now, most of
them say you're a freak, get away from me. But
some of them say, hey, that's really cool, let's do it.
So there I am. I was preparing for my years
right the nineteen ninety six International Whistling Competition, and I said,
you know, I need to just be with my myself
(12:00):
for a straight week and whistle for five hours a day.
And I said, what's the best way to do that?
I said, I need a trip. So I said, I'm
going to do a Graceland pilgrimage. So I'm in Alexandria, Virginia,
and I say, I'm going to go circumnavigate the state
of Tennessee. I'm going to go there and commune with Elvis.
And I did whistle at his grave, and people around
(12:22):
it thought it was a little weird, but everything about
Graceland is weird. And so I whistle for five hours
every day for a week and then I come back
and I won every prize in the competition that year.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
It was a great year. My lips were on fire.
It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Anyhow, So one of the evenings, so I hear I'm
in Memphis, and I say, oh, I got to go
to I'm a BB King, you know BB King fan.
So I said, I'm just going to go to BB
King's Blues Club and see what's going on.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And so I go.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
There and is a really good house band. It wasn't
BB King himself, but it was a just fantastic band
doing the blue and I thought, you know, I need
to jam with these people. And so at the break
I went up to the it is either the singer
or the guitarist, and I said, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I said, do you ever let people sit in with you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
He looks at me, he's like, what do you play?
I said, I whistle, and he's like, yeah, right, okay, and.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
He just walks away.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
And midway through the next set, I'm standing in the back.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Just I don't drink alcohols.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I was just nursing my glass of water. And then
there's quiet for a moment, and suddenly I hear there's
a whistler in the audience.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Come on up here. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's me.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
And so I went up to the stage and they
but you know, I was three feet away.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
They start playing a song. I get up there.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
They throw me the mic and then you just got
to jump in there and start jamming with a seriously
professional blues.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Ban and a crowd went wild. I mean it was.
It was really an awesome experience.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You've whistled the blues on Historic Bill Street.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I have that.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You know, so much of life is like this is
that you know, as my my late father said many many,
many times when I was grown up, is that this
is not a dress rehearsal one shot, and every day
that passes is in the history books.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
You can't revisit it. At least physically. So what are
you gonna do? What are you gonna do with today?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know, my daily refrain is this is the day
the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.
So every day there's opportunity to touch another heart, to
go whistle with the blues band, to do all these things,
and to revel in the wonderment of our fellow humans.
You know, all the gifts that people have, and are
(14:55):
we discovering them and just learning little tidbits about them
and what you know, what they've done in their lives.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I mean, it's I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I tell my twenty year old children, I said, you
live in an awesome time in American in world human history,
in terms of health care and educational opportunities and generally
strong economy and freedom and freedom of speech and all that.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
And I said, you should be reveling every day in
that gift.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
And when I see people who are kind of young
people who I mentor are just kind.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Of sullen, like, what are you excited about?
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
I do, like, come on, like what a time to
be alive? You know, just get out there and just
be in the game, get your head in the game,
and just revel in the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So the Washington Post asked a question, where have all
the whistlers gone? People don't whistle much anymore. It used
to be so American, so equivalive of our rugged individualism
and independence, of a certain Johnny, happy go luckiness. A
fellow whistled while he worked, whistled a happy tune? Then
(16:06):
what is whistle with the cold one? And whistled at
the girls gone by? Jimmy Cricket whistled seven Dwarfs, Gene Kelly,
Santa Claus, Wouodrow Wilson, Charles Limberg, Albert Einstein. Musical whistling
went with the dancing in the rain and the sauntering
down the street, hands and shoved pockets, hat brim. The
(16:27):
whistled theme of the Andy Griffiths show conjured up small
town coziness that has vanished, if ever existed at all.
Now people march to a different tune, and the street
is a horrible, rocous mess of jackhammers and sirens, and
the beat beat beep of big trucks backing up and
piercing trill or two could sound in protest. Instead, people
(16:48):
lower their voices and mutter into things like cell phones
or silence themselves trudging along. Whistling is too weird, like
poke music, too idiocycronatic, like addressing envelopes on a manual typewriter,
too stubbornly nonconformists, like the mom at the awards banquet
and fry boots and a fringe jacket. Whistling as a
(17:10):
relic from a less technological time when folks had to
amuse themselves.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It's a front porch culture. It's loaner art. He used
to float around the school janitor who pushed a broom
down empty halls. Yet kids still try to whistle, buckering
and huffing to no effect. One day something comes out
and the joy is profound until they are silenced by
modern wars and music videos.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
That's very well written.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, I have.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Wrestled with the why what has happened? I have My
main theory is that we went from a society where
you had to entertain yourself. You didn't have the TV
on all the time, you didn't have transistor radios. You
certainly didn't have iPhones and things like that. So you
(18:07):
were more inclined to either read or do knitting, or
have a craft or have a piano and people sitting
around maybe listening to FDR do his fireside chats. But
it was almost like more collectivist, self initiated way of
entertaining ourselves. And then technology, which has lots of pluses,
(18:30):
I think there are lots of minuses, but technology has
forced us or us into more of a kind of
passive entertainment versus active entertainment. So once we could go
into our own world with a transistor radio with headphones
on it or the walkman, and the way things are
(18:50):
now you're just in your own world rather than feeling
you have to be able to make something happen. And
this really knocked me over the head when I performed
with an orchestra in Minneapolis, and each day I was
either going so I was on the campus of the
University of Minneapolis, and as I go from my hotel
(19:13):
to the performance venue, and I went by hundreds and
hundreds of students, and here.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I am whistling along the way, of course.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
And every kid had headphones in, staring straight straight ahead,
no eye contact, in their own world. I think that's bad.
It's really bad. And I'm not saying I'm perfect at it.
I had headphones in on the plane today, I probably
should have talked to the young lady next to me.
I did say hi, okay, So I think that's part
(19:44):
of it. My secondary theory is that the Cold War
of the fifties, sixties, seventies just almost put it like
a wet blanket over our national personality, and and that
more happy, go lucky feeling kind of got dampened a bit.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
I have no proof for either.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Of these, but as a serious whistler and try to
be observer of human nature, those are kind of my
two theories.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
When you were five, you found your whistle hanging around, Bob.
You wrote a book on finding your whistle, clearly not
encouraging everybody to learn to whistle, but to find their
personal whistle metaphorically their talent.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
What do you say to the.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
To the eighteen, nineteen, twenty five, sixteen, twenty nine year
old who is going through life but hadn't found their whistle,
where's their Bob?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Well, hopefully they're blessed with loving parents who encouraged them
just in whatever area they either have a nascent interest in,
which is what happened with me. You know, I wasn't
good whistler at first, but my parents encouraged it. If
they don't have a bub or you know, a fran
(21:16):
at my mom's name, then look to people around There
are just so many I think encouraging people out there
got to find them. But I think there's also a
great merit in what I call kind of a journey
of discernment that when I meet and I do a
(21:38):
ton of mentoring with like nineteen to twenty three year
olds through this intern program that I'm involved with, and
I've met hundreds and hundreds of students in the past
twenty five years, and I kind of give them a charge.
And the charge is you need to find your gift
and your skill set and what touches your heart art
(22:00):
as well. And sometimes it hits you like a lightning bolt,
maybe like the whistling did, But a lot of times
it doesn't. So then you have to go proactively find it.
And so discernment is a journey. It's not something that
happens over a weekend where you say, oh, I'm going
to go figure out my career and I'm going.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
To do it this weekend. That's not how it works.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
But for a twenty year old, especially if they feel
a bit adrift, I will say to them, remember, your
life is a quarter over already, and they're like stunned
by that because they haven't been thinking along those lines.
And then I say, listen, my life is three quarters over,
so you should consider yourself blessed. And I say, well,
survey what you have done up to that point. Where
(22:44):
did you struggle, where did you thrive? What excites you,
what tickles your heart in your brain as well from
a skill standpoint, and explore and then find things that
interest you you and then go out there and find
people who do those things and you interview them casually,
(23:06):
like have coffees and things like that, and it's a
way to learn about what's out there and then see
how it meshes with what's kind of coming up in
your own heart or brain.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
And it does.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
It's not an accident, like this is a process in
life where you're discerning and you're growing and you're gathering.
Because then that's the whole point of getting being having
your head in the game and learning from the people
around you, is that there's so much wisdom and knowledge
out there and are we going to stay in our
own little bubbles or are we going to engage?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
And it's that engagement.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I think that can they can set the fire and
like turn up the heat on a burgeoning skill or direction.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then when you found that whistle, you can join
the ranks of the army in normal folks and influence
the world.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yes, but you know it takes courage, it does.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
That I think is super super important I tell young
people all the time, is that engagement can be scary
reaching out to people you don't know and sharing your
what's special to you with others. You know, you probably
worry about rejection or something like that, and that's natural.
But the more you do it, the more comfortable you
(24:20):
will be and ultimately more confident as well. So that's
why I say get your head in the game, because
this is not a dress rehearsal.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
We'll be right back. So crazy story.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
A kid learns how to whistle and has an alternate
life outside of his professional life where he makes seven
hundred people a year smile for it for just a bit,
a little bit, and has used this down to write
a book and has had his aha moment where it
is I need to help encourage other people to find
(25:15):
their whistle. What a cool, cool story. I gotta ask you,
what is your favorite thing to whistle.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Let's see if we're.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
If it's for younger people, I tend to do bell
from Beauty and the Beast.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Okay, h h, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Alright, what about older people? You said favor.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Everyone's young at heart older. I love to do a
train by Duke Ellington.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Let's hear a little.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
That's very cool. That's the all right.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
I asked you earlier, and it's just because I love
it and I think it would sound cool whistled.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Can you do free Bird? All right?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I don't think ever whistled this publicly.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh boy, here we go.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
I feel like I'm back in the Oval office here.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
That's I'm trying to figure out if I should do
the guitar sol. No, No, that's that's that's way wild.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
All that goes on.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
That's awesome. That's pretty crazy that you can do it.
All right.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
We Alex, the producer, who is my friend in the
vein of my existence half the time, all the tuff
he's got me doing. We got about ten minutes left
before you got to go off to an interview on
some radio or TV show around Memphis. Because everybody's excited
you're here. I want to thank everybody for showing and
(28:53):
if any of you have any questions or now listen,
the man didn't show up here with the seven thousand
tunes in his head. But are you are you open
to taking a request or two if it's something you
can do.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
If it's something I can do, okay, So.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Does anybody have any questions for Chris? And then if
you have a request, we'll do it. And I do
have a sign off. I have a walk off song
for the end of the show and got ten minutes,
so we got it. Yes, ma'am, have both a.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
Question and a request. The question is have you ever
whistled to.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
Help someone in mourning?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And the now, that's a great question. I wish I
had a thought that you sit here, I'll move over there.
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
The request is amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Grace, I can do both of those. Wow, all right,
So I all right. The first one about in the morning.
So at my wife's aunt funeral, my mother in law
asked me to whistle a song for her, and I
whistled on Eagle's Wings, which was, you know, very very
(30:04):
touching and the beautiful, beautiful song. There's a kind of
a funny twist to it if I may, so, Hey,
I whistle. So that song, And this is the challenge
of being a whistler and not a singer, is that
the song has four verses to it.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
In each verse is different. Now the tune is the same.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
So I whistle the first verse, then I whistle the
second verse, and then I'm I'm up in the choir
loft with the organ, you know. So soone's playing the organ,
I'm whistling, and I see my mother in law on
like the second row, and she turns around as I
was about to whistle the third verse, and.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
She's like, it's like two verses enough, Okay, the eagle
has landed. So yeah, that was very special. I really
love that.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I've whistled at probably twenty weddings, and I've done a
bar mitzvah.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Chris, tell them who you met up at one of
the weddings.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Who saw you whistle?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Oh, this is very this is very funny, And I
will whistle amazing grace. So I was at a friend's wedding,
so I whistled the processional. I whistled Ave Maria and
the recessional at the ceremony. Then we're at the reception,
and Bill Gates is at this wedding and Bill Gates
comes up to me and says, do you have.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
A real job?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
You know what your spots should have been? Yes, sir,
I do what about you?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
All right, anyway, that was that was pretty wild.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I said, I do have a day job, I said,
and and he's like, okay, just walked away. Yeah, he's
a unique kind of guy.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
All right, amazing.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I could listen to that all day long. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Someone back here, I think God a question? Yeah, whoever,
Alex find I was.
Speaker 6 (32:36):
Just wondering in your competition's how with the percentage of
if you could guess of women.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Uh, yeah, there were I would say it was probably
like one third two thirds one third women, two thirds
men or so. And there's there's no best I can tell.
I have no formal data, but I don't see any
physiological reason why one would necessarily be better or worse
(33:05):
than the other. And so there are lots of wonderful
female whistlers. And I think the best whistler today is
a man named Geirt Shatrue who's in the Netherlands. And
he and I competed and he beat me in the
classical division. I beat him in the pop division and
he just edged me out for first. He's should look
(33:26):
him up on YouTube. Geart shut true, he's a fantastic whistler.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
I'm on all over.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
YouTube of whistled the national Anthem at lots of major
league Major league spoorting events, and which is a lot
of fun.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Hoping we can get Curs to come back here and
do the Grizzlies.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, that would be a great honor, Chris.
Speaker 7 (33:44):
My pursuit of excellence is truly amazing. After fifty years
of whistling, What keeps you going and elevates you to
keep working on your craft day in month after month,
year after year, and not just you know, I want
to do something else? What what motivates you to keep going?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Well?
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Uh, I'd say, well, it brings me a lot of joy.
I mean, I enjoy whistling for other people and that
when they're happy, that makes me happy. But I just
love walking down the street. And if I want to
whistle Brahm's Fourth Symphony, I can. If I want to
whistle some a train, I can, And just the creation
of music brings me joy. And then developing kind of
(34:31):
new techniques I I've learned. This is like easily the
freakiest thing. I can whistle with my mouth closed. I
can whistle underwater.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
I tall, they have a spout hole, so that's right.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I tried to get in the Guinness Book World Records
for being the first person to whistle underwater, but they
were uninterested, which I thought was unfortunate.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Can so and then and that I'm fairly competitive person.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
So when I hear gear shut true whistle, I'm saying
that guy's got some techniques I don't know yet. So
you try to then figure out. And the great challenge
with being a whistler versus a violinist, for example, is
that I can't see inside gear It's mouth, so when
he makes a sound, I have to figure out, all right,
I know the mechanics of whistling, so then I have
(35:21):
to kind of deconstruct by experimenting how is he doing that?
But if I were playing the violin, you know, the
instructor would say, oh, your elbow is a little this
way and your wrist is the wrong position.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
But you can't do that with a whistler.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
It's you just see puffing cheeks and puckered lips. So
it takes a fair amount of deconstruction to be able
to learn from another whistler.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
I have taught people how to whistle.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
By telling them explaining the lips, tongue air, and how
the pieces fit together. I do have to deliver bad
news for people who are older who've tried to whistle
their whole lives and can't, and I just have to
say there's no hope for you.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
But that doesn't mean you're not a good person. I
don't know if the mic will pick it up, but
we can try. If you were right next to me,
you could hear it. Oh oh really, oh wow? So
what the way it works.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
The way it works is that it's the tongue whistle,
and since it doesn't require lips, if you shut your
mouth and do the tongue whistle with tiny bursts, that
you can whistle without your mouth open. So I'm a
firm believer in freaky things. And that's at the top
(36:42):
of the list.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
Actually, Chris, the seven hundred people that you reach every
year with your birthday whistle.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Seven hundred and one, and.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
So does that list change every year you add people
to it?
Speaker 4 (37:02):
This is a very controversial question, Very all right, all right.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
So in all these years, I've only taken two people off.
I will not say who they are, but they were
just turned out to be mean, bad people.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
And I just said, so if if you're out there
listening and he used to whistle for you, no, you
are a mean, bad person.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
We're going to put that on the website.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
And then if you die, but for people who I
so I would. There's another thing that makes me tear
up when I talk about it. So I have a
friend whose son had down syndrome and leukemia. I whistled
for him for years, and then he passed away from leukemia.
(37:48):
I did not know he had died, and the friend
and I sort of lost touch. I kept whistling for him,
and then I found out he and I'm whistling for
someone's dead child, and I'm about to cry. But I
felt so bad. Oh my gosh, I felt so bad.
And I then ran into that person and he felt bad.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
And then he said, will you keep whistling for him?
Speaker 4 (38:23):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So I whistle.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I whistled for his birthday every year.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Now it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. Yes, sir, this is great.
Speaker 7 (38:52):
Do you whistle your own compositions. You put a lot
of the issue in the ones you whistle, So do
you have your.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Own, uh compositions that you whistle for?
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, I just cover other people's tunes, so I'm definitely
not a composer.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
I did whistle with a symphony, and I had to.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
For those who know concertos, so Mozart's Obo Concerto has
they have solos in them called cadenzas, and I did
make up my own cadenzas for those. I don't think
they are going to win any awards, but they were fun.
So that's probably in terms of like creating a tune.
I do do lots of you know, improvisational whistling, like
(39:37):
with blues and jazz, and if I'm jamming with the
Grateful Dead Y, I will do that, you know, because
that's just if you can stay in the right key
and you and you can kind of go with the flow,
you can do all sorts of you know, creative things.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Chris, Thank you for being here, Thank you for coming
to Memphis, Thank you for sharing.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know, a kid that learned to whistle from his.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Dad, who has a life and just uses your special
talent to try to touch people in the way you've
touched everybody in this room. You touch people on a
daily basis with your talent, and what a blessing it
is to others, And I know it's a blessing to you.
And I want everybody listening to me, go get the book,
(40:27):
Find your whistle. Simple gifts touch hearts and change lives.
And we don't use the show to plug books or movies,
but oftentimes we have people on that are involved in
different forms of media. But we all need to find
our whistle, and we all need to develop extra whistles,
(40:47):
and we all need to use our talents and our
discipline to plug holes in society where we can, and
we don't have to be part of some big organization
to do it. And Chris, you're walking living proof of
how you can affect lives with some of the simplest
passions and talents you have. And that's the call of
an army of normal folk, millions of us seeing areas
(41:10):
of need, putting our passion and our discipline to work
to simply help someone who maybe has a bad day
or not be as blessed as us. We're going to
end this way. You said something really cool, which as
you mentoring you say, get your head in the game.
Get your head in the game. That's what we got
to do. Find your passion, get your head in the game.
(41:32):
So something that I think puts smiles on everybody's faces
and metaphorically maybe can send us off thinking about today
getting our head in the game.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
How about take us out to the ballgame.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Thank you for the opportunity to be here, and I'm
really blessed by everyone's presence, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Are we supposed to whistle too? Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
And thank you for joining us this week. If Chris
Olman has inspired you in general, or better yet, to
take action by finding your own whistle and using it
more often, by buying his book Find your Whistle, or
something else entirely, please let me know. I'd love to
hear about it. You can write me anytime at Bill
(42:51):
at normalfolks dot us, and I promise you I will respond.
If you enjoyed this episode, share with friends and on social,
subscribe to the podcast and review it. Join the army
at normalfolks dot us consider becoming a premium member. There
all of these things that will help us grow an
army of normal folks I'm Bill COORDINAY until next time,
(43:14):
do what you can
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue now a part two of our conversation
with Chris Holman right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors. My brother in law, who I've been in
(00:36):
my life since he was eight because that's when I
met his sister and subsequently married her, has been in
my life for a long time. Been is third grade level,
probably special needs. My life has been so deeply enriched
by my experience understanding that people are that suffer with
(01:02):
intellectual disabilities have an enormous amount going on inside of
there that they may not can verbalize, but it's just
as real and just as one hundred percent intact in
terms of feelings and emotions as they are and what
we would call normal people. I was so touched by
a story that you told that I read about and
(01:26):
I don't know where it was, about an interaction you
had with a special needs person. Would you tell that story?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, it's a really wonderful friendship with his name's Preston,
same last name Olmen. We call him the one l
Olmens and we're the two l Olmens with U l
m An.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So I was.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Preparing for one of the whistling competitions, and the Washington
Post wrote an article saying Chris is going back to
try to win the fifth prize, which I didn't, but
someone saw that article and then called me up cold and.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Said, I read this article.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
My son loves to whistle, but he is pretty severely
intellectually challenged and.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
The special needs right, yes was he was he ah
with the person suffer from downs.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Not downs, but other kind of cognitive and physical challenges.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Can't speak okay, but he could whistle. And she said,
will you call him.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
On his birthday and whistle for him? And it was
I think a few months down the road, So I said, sure,
I'd be honored to do that. So I called Preston
on his birthday. And it was a challenge for me
at first, because you know, I am a professional communicator.
I communicate by speaking to people and listening, of course,
(02:52):
but that's my primary form of interaction and writing.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
So here I'm on the phone with the mom on.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Speakerphone with her son who can't speak but can whistle.
So I'm trying to think, how do I connect with him?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
How does he connect with me?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And so his mom said Preston, this is Chris, and
he's going to whistle. And I said, Preston, can you
whistle from me? And I just heard his very sweet whistle.
You know, it's still just gives me a shiver, you know,
that initial moment, and so I said, Preston, is so
nice to meet you, and I look forward to getting
(03:32):
to know you. I whistled happy birthday, and it was
just kind of pleasant trees because we really didn't know
each other, said goodbye.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
All right.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
A year goes by, I call them and she's completely
surprised this time because she didn't think I was going
to do it again. And she's like, oh my gosh,
you know, let me get him. So she gets Preston,
and you know, he whistles for me. I whistle happy Birthday.
We say a few more pleasant trees, and then like
midway or like three quarters of the way through the
next year, her name's Kathy. Cathy calls me up and said,
(04:02):
will you come to Preston's, you know, graduation from his
school to school for special needs kids and so we
can meet and you can whistle for him and his friends.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And I said that would be amazing. So it was
like a homecoming.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So I show up.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I've never met these people. His hugs all around.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I whistle some songs and when Preston saw me, and
then when I whistled, he lightens up and it's all excited,
and he whistles some notes.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
From me, you know, And that was I was like
twenty no, what was that was?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
It was twenty two years ago and we've been friends
ever since. His Preston and his parents come to our
house every year. We have a New Year's Eve party
and we're a bona fide friends now, and you know,
and it's really and it helped me like learn, you know,
(05:00):
not everyone's a billionaire and not everyone's like you know,
kind of communicates the way I do, but that doesn't
mean you can't communicate. And it had to test me
and push me out of my comfort zone, and I've
learned a lot. It's a very good and a humbling
experience in a good way. It's not like I'm better
than him, it's just that we're different. But I was
(05:24):
thankfully able to figure out how to connect with each other.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
When if anybody spent a lot of time around people
with intellectual disabilities, you will find out that many of.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Them are not human.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Interaction in touch is somehow oftentimes difficult. And I read
about a time where your hand was held right, Oh
my gosh.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, I haven't thought about this in a while.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
We went, my wife and I went to a fundraiser
for the school and the program that Preston is involved with.
And it was a very big black tie type event
and it's a lot of people all around, and there
was a little reception beforehand. So I show up, I
see his parents, I see Preston. I give him a hug,
(06:09):
and I'm just standing there and suddenly like someone's holding
my hand and it was Preston.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And you know, at first I was like, well, you know,
what's the deal with that?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And I thought and I thought, oh my gosh, well
this is his way of communicating. I mean, it's it's
a way for any human to communicate, is to you know,
human touch, but to show that I'm comfortable with you
and that that touch of flesh on flesh is very special.
And it was a real special bonding moment. And and
(06:39):
then you know, we just stood there for like ten minutes,
just holding hands and little whistles to each other and
watching all the hustle, bustle of people coming.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
And going and the like.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And you know that doesn't happen in fancy billionaire land,
you know, but it should.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You know, I will tell you as it pertains to
an army of normal folks. I don't know Preston, but
I know simply through billing willing to listen, if that
kid reaches out and grabs your hand, you have changed
his life again, a passion and a discipline intersecting an opportunity,
(07:21):
making massive change for another person. You don't have to
have a favoh one C three to do that. You
just have to have a passion and a heart and
you have to in your words, bond your whistle.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, and now you know we my wife and I
have raised money for this organization that Preston's a part of.
And you know it's it's important, I think, to just
be aware of the different communities that are around us.
And the special needs community is very existent, but it's
(07:54):
so easy to avoid people with those types of challenges,
and I think it's it's good for the soul and
it's good for the ego. I'm to keep it in
check to make sure you're not just with your you know,
able fancy, able bodied people, but people of all types
(08:14):
have intrinsic and deep worth. He's as much a child
of God as I am. He just communicates differently.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I'm going to ask you a question that's going to
be obvious, but I think I know what your answer
is going to be. But I think the question and
the obvious answer make a point. You know, you've whistled
for a president, You've whistled on national TV. But I
would say you probably get more out of your relationship
with Preston than any of those.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Absolutely. Yeah, it's a well, whistling for presidents. It's pretty cool.
I'm not going to deny that.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
And it's it's presidents. I met Bill Clinton not long ago.
Can I tell you that real quick?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah? Well, hold on, whistle? Did you whistle for Bill Clinton?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I did a post presidency.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I have some funny thoughts, but I will keep them
to myself. Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
What what was that? Like?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
I was at an event where my client was interviewing him,
and the event's over, and then the President and my
client went to the green room to say goodbye to
each other, and I was there and then an aid
to Clinton looks at me, and he said, hey, you're
that champion whistler.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
You don't want to whistle for the president? I feel
like a monkey. It was like, hey, you call me on,
and I said sure. I introduced myself to the president.
He's like, how did you learn how to whistle? I
whistled for him. He's like, that's amazing, amazing, and then
he walks away and he comes back and said, you
got to do more of that for me. That's just
(09:42):
really good.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So he was very gracious and fun anyways. But in
terms of impact, you know, whether they're a former president
or a current president or you know, just a regular
regular folk, they're all fun to whistle for.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
And but the like that emotional impact is much more.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Powerful because it's just like, I'm a firm believer in
it's important to stay humble and if you get too
big for your bridges as a bad state. If you're
ever in a state where you don't you don't need
anything in life, like say you're financially comfortable, that's that's
(10:27):
a dangerous state to be in because there's a lot
of hurt in the world and a lot of people
do need a lot, and so anything that can keep
me humble is a good thing.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
We'll be right back. So welcomed you to Memphis at
(11:09):
the top of the show. But I understand this is
not your first trip to Memphis and one time you
visited Graceland and found yourself on Bill Street.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
M hm, yes, tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Well, I'm also an opportunistic whistler and so and this
gets to the heart of if you have a gift,
what do you do with it? So, as you noted,
I've whistled with a bunch of symphony orchestras well.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
For the most part, they didn't call me up.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I called them up and said, hey, you want to
have a champion whistler perform with you. Now, most of
them say you're a freak, get away from me. But
some of them say, hey, that's really cool, let's do it.
So there I am. I was preparing for my years
right the nineteen ninety six International Whistling Competition, and I said,
you know, I need to just be with my myself
(12:00):
for a straight week and whistle for five hours a day.
And I said, what's the best way to do that?
I said, I need a trip. So I said, I'm
going to do a Graceland pilgrimage. So I'm in Alexandria, Virginia,
and I say, I'm going to go circumnavigate the state
of Tennessee. I'm going to go there and commune with Elvis.
And I did whistle at his grave, and people around
(12:22):
it thought it was a little weird, but everything about
Graceland is weird. And so I whistle for five hours
every day for a week and then I come back
and I won every prize in the competition that year.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
It was a great year. My lips were on fire.
It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Anyhow, So one of the evenings, so I hear I'm
in Memphis, and I say, oh, I got to go
to I'm a BB King, you know BB King fan.
So I said, I'm just going to go to BB
King's Blues Club and see what's going on.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And so I go.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
There and is a really good house band. It wasn't
BB King himself, but it was a just fantastic band
doing the blue and I thought, you know, I need
to jam with these people. And so at the break
I went up to the it is either the singer
or the guitarist, and I said, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I said, do you ever let people sit in with you.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
He looks at me, he's like, what do you play?
I said, I whistle, and he's like, yeah, right, okay, and.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
He just walks away.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
And midway through the next set, I'm standing in the back.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Just I don't drink alcohols.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I was just nursing my glass of water. And then
there's quiet for a moment, and suddenly I hear there's
a whistler in the audience.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Come on up here. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's me.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
And so I went up to the stage and they
but you know, I was three feet away.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
They start playing a song. I get up there.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
They throw me the mic and then you just got
to jump in there and start jamming with a seriously
professional blues.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Ban and a crowd went wild. I mean it was.
It was really an awesome experience.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
You've whistled the blues on Historic Bill Street.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I have that.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You know, so much of life is like this is
that you know, as my my late father said many many,
many times when I was grown up, is that this
is not a dress rehearsal one shot, and every day
that passes is in the history books.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
You can't revisit it. At least physically. So what are
you gonna do? What are you gonna do with today?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know, my daily refrain is this is the day
the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.
So every day there's opportunity to touch another heart, to
go whistle with the blues band, to do all these things,
and to revel in the wonderment of our fellow humans.
You know, all the gifts that people have, and are
(14:55):
we discovering them and just learning little tidbits about them
and what you know, what they've done in their lives.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I mean, it's I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I tell my twenty year old children, I said, you
live in an awesome time in American in world human history,
in terms of health care and educational opportunities and generally
strong economy and freedom and freedom of speech and all that.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
And I said, you should be reveling every day in
that gift.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
And when I see people who are kind of young
people who I mentor are just kind.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Of sullen, like, what are you excited about?
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
I do, like, come on, like what a time to
be alive? You know, just get out there and just
be in the game, get your head in the game,
and just revel in the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So the Washington Post asked a question, where have all
the whistlers gone? People don't whistle much anymore. It used
to be so American, so equivalive of our rugged individualism
and independence, of a certain Johnny, happy go luckiness. A
fellow whistled while he worked, whistled a happy tune? Then
(16:06):
what is whistle with the cold one? And whistled at
the girls gone by? Jimmy Cricket whistled seven Dwarfs, Gene Kelly,
Santa Claus, Wouodrow Wilson, Charles Limberg, Albert Einstein. Musical whistling
went with the dancing in the rain and the sauntering
down the street, hands and shoved pockets, hat brim. The
(16:27):
whistled theme of the Andy Griffiths show conjured up small
town coziness that has vanished, if ever existed at all.
Now people march to a different tune, and the street
is a horrible, rocous mess of jackhammers and sirens, and
the beat beat beep of big trucks backing up and
piercing trill or two could sound in protest. Instead, people
(16:48):
lower their voices and mutter into things like cell phones
or silence themselves trudging along. Whistling is too weird, like
poke music, too idiocycronatic, like addressing envelopes on a manual typewriter,
too stubbornly nonconformists, like the mom at the awards banquet
and fry boots and a fringe jacket. Whistling as a
(17:10):
relic from a less technological time when folks had to
amuse themselves.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It's a front porch culture. It's loaner art. He used
to float around the school janitor who pushed a broom
down empty halls. Yet kids still try to whistle, buckering
and huffing to no effect. One day something comes out
and the joy is profound until they are silenced by
modern wars and music videos.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
That's very well written.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, I have.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Wrestled with the why what has happened? I have My
main theory is that we went from a society where
you had to entertain yourself. You didn't have the TV
on all the time, you didn't have transistor radios. You
certainly didn't have iPhones and things like that. So you
(18:07):
were more inclined to either read or do knitting, or
have a craft or have a piano and people sitting
around maybe listening to FDR do his fireside chats. But
it was almost like more collectivist, self initiated way of
entertaining ourselves. And then technology, which has lots of pluses,
(18:30):
I think there are lots of minuses, but technology has
forced us or us into more of a kind of
passive entertainment versus active entertainment. So once we could go
into our own world with a transistor radio with headphones
on it or the walkman, and the way things are
(18:50):
now you're just in your own world rather than feeling
you have to be able to make something happen. And
this really knocked me over the head when I performed
with an orchestra in Minneapolis, and each day I was
either going so I was on the campus of the
University of Minneapolis, and as I go from my hotel
(19:13):
to the performance venue, and I went by hundreds and
hundreds of students, and here.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I am whistling along the way, of course.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
And every kid had headphones in, staring straight straight ahead,
no eye contact, in their own world. I think that's bad.
It's really bad. And I'm not saying I'm perfect at it.
I had headphones in on the plane today, I probably
should have talked to the young lady next to me.
I did say hi, okay, So I think that's part
(19:44):
of it. My secondary theory is that the Cold War
of the fifties, sixties, seventies just almost put it like
a wet blanket over our national personality, and and that
more happy, go lucky feeling kind of got dampened a bit.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
I have no proof for either.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Of these, but as a serious whistler and try to
be observer of human nature, those are kind of my
two theories.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
When you were five, you found your whistle hanging around, Bob.
You wrote a book on finding your whistle, clearly not
encouraging everybody to learn to whistle, but to find their
personal whistle metaphorically their talent.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
What do you say to the.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
To the eighteen, nineteen, twenty five, sixteen, twenty nine year
old who is going through life but hadn't found their whistle,
where's their Bob?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Well, hopefully they're blessed with loving parents who encouraged them
just in whatever area they either have a nascent interest in,
which is what happened with me. You know, I wasn't
good whistler at first, but my parents encouraged it. If
they don't have a bub or you know, a fran
(21:16):
at my mom's name, then look to people around There
are just so many I think encouraging people out there
got to find them. But I think there's also a
great merit in what I call kind of a journey
of discernment that when I meet and I do a
(21:38):
ton of mentoring with like nineteen to twenty three year
olds through this intern program that I'm involved with, and
I've met hundreds and hundreds of students in the past
twenty five years, and I kind of give them a charge.
And the charge is you need to find your gift
and your skill set and what touches your heart art
(22:00):
as well. And sometimes it hits you like a lightning bolt,
maybe like the whistling did, But a lot of times
it doesn't. So then you have to go proactively find it.
And so discernment is a journey. It's not something that
happens over a weekend where you say, oh, I'm going
to go figure out my career and I'm going.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
To do it this weekend. That's not how it works.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
But for a twenty year old, especially if they feel
a bit adrift, I will say to them, remember, your
life is a quarter over already, and they're like stunned
by that because they haven't been thinking along those lines.
And then I say, listen, my life is three quarters over,
so you should consider yourself blessed. And I say, well,
survey what you have done up to that point. Where
(22:44):
did you struggle, where did you thrive? What excites you,
what tickles your heart in your brain as well from
a skill standpoint, and explore and then find things that
interest you you and then go out there and find
people who do those things and you interview them casually,
(23:06):
like have coffees and things like that, and it's a
way to learn about what's out there and then see
how it meshes with what's kind of coming up in
your own heart or brain.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
And it does.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
It's not an accident, like this is a process in
life where you're discerning and you're growing and you're gathering.
Because then that's the whole point of getting being having
your head in the game and learning from the people
around you, is that there's so much wisdom and knowledge
out there and are we going to stay in our
own little bubbles or are we going to engage?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
And it's that engagement.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I think that can they can set the fire and
like turn up the heat on a burgeoning skill or direction.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then when you found that whistle, you can join
the ranks of the army in normal folks and influence
the world.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yes, but you know it takes courage, it does.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
That I think is super super important I tell young
people all the time, is that engagement can be scary
reaching out to people you don't know and sharing your
what's special to you with others. You know, you probably
worry about rejection or something like that, and that's natural.
But the more you do it, the more comfortable you
(24:20):
will be and ultimately more confident as well. So that's
why I say get your head in the game, because
this is not a dress rehearsal.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
We'll be right back. So crazy story.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
A kid learns how to whistle and has an alternate
life outside of his professional life where he makes seven
hundred people a year smile for it for just a bit,
a little bit, and has used this down to write
a book and has had his aha moment where it
is I need to help encourage other people to find
(25:15):
their whistle. What a cool, cool story. I gotta ask you,
what is your favorite thing to whistle.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Let's see if we're.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
If it's for younger people, I tend to do bell
from Beauty and the Beast.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Okay, h h, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Alright, what about older people? You said favor.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Everyone's young at heart older. I love to do a
train by Duke Ellington.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Let's hear a little.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
That's very cool. That's the all right.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
I asked you earlier, and it's just because I love
it and I think it would sound cool whistled.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Can you do free Bird? All right?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I don't think ever whistled this publicly.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh boy, here we go.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
I feel like I'm back in the Oval office here.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
That's I'm trying to figure out if I should do
the guitar sol. No, No, that's that's that's way wild.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
All that goes on.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
That's awesome. That's pretty crazy that you can do it.
All right.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
We Alex, the producer, who is my friend in the
vein of my existence half the time, all the tuff
he's got me doing. We got about ten minutes left
before you got to go off to an interview on
some radio or TV show around Memphis. Because everybody's excited
you're here. I want to thank everybody for showing and
(28:53):
if any of you have any questions or now listen,
the man didn't show up here with the seven thousand
tunes in his head. But are you are you open
to taking a request or two if it's something you
can do.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
If it's something I can do, okay, So.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Does anybody have any questions for Chris? And then if
you have a request, we'll do it. And I do
have a sign off. I have a walk off song
for the end of the show and got ten minutes,
so we got it. Yes, ma'am, have both a.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
Question and a request. The question is have you ever
whistled to.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
Help someone in mourning?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And the now, that's a great question. I wish I
had a thought that you sit here, I'll move over there.
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
The request is amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Grace, I can do both of those. Wow, all right,
So I all right. The first one about in the morning.
So at my wife's aunt funeral, my mother in law
asked me to whistle a song for her, and I
whistled on Eagle's Wings, which was, you know, very very
(30:04):
touching and the beautiful, beautiful song. There's a kind of
a funny twist to it if I may, so, Hey,
I whistle. So that song, And this is the challenge
of being a whistler and not a singer, is that
the song has four verses to it.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
In each verse is different. Now the tune is the same.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
So I whistle the first verse, then I whistle the
second verse, and then I'm I'm up in the choir
loft with the organ, you know. So soone's playing the organ,
I'm whistling, and I see my mother in law on
like the second row, and she turns around as I
was about to whistle the third verse, and.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
She's like, it's like two verses enough, Okay, the eagle
has landed. So yeah, that was very special. I really
love that.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I've whistled at probably twenty weddings, and I've done a
bar mitzvah.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Chris, tell them who you met up at one of
the weddings.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Who saw you whistle?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Oh, this is very this is very funny, And I
will whistle amazing grace. So I was at a friend's wedding,
so I whistled the processional. I whistled Ave Maria and
the recessional at the ceremony. Then we're at the reception,
and Bill Gates is at this wedding and Bill Gates
comes up to me and says, do you have.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
A real job?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
You know what your spots should have been? Yes, sir,
I do what about you?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
All right, anyway, that was that was pretty wild.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I said, I do have a day job, I said,
and and he's like, okay, just walked away. Yeah, he's
a unique kind of guy.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
All right, amazing.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I could listen to that all day long. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Someone back here, I think God a question? Yeah, whoever,
Alex find I was.
Speaker 6 (32:36):
Just wondering in your competition's how with the percentage of
if you could guess of women.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Uh, yeah, there were I would say it was probably
like one third two thirds one third women, two thirds
men or so. And there's there's no best I can tell.
I have no formal data, but I don't see any
physiological reason why one would necessarily be better or worse
(33:05):
than the other. And so there are lots of wonderful
female whistlers. And I think the best whistler today is
a man named Geirt Shatrue who's in the Netherlands. And
he and I competed and he beat me in the
classical division. I beat him in the pop division and
he just edged me out for first. He's should look
(33:26):
him up on YouTube. Geart shut true, he's a fantastic whistler.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
I'm on all over.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
YouTube of whistled the national Anthem at lots of major
league Major league spoorting events, and which is a lot
of fun.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Hoping we can get Curs to come back here and
do the Grizzlies.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Yeah, that would be a great honor, Chris.
Speaker 7 (33:44):
My pursuit of excellence is truly amazing. After fifty years
of whistling, What keeps you going and elevates you to
keep working on your craft day in month after month,
year after year, and not just you know, I want
to do something else? What what motivates you to keep going?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Well?
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Uh, I'd say, well, it brings me a lot of joy.
I mean, I enjoy whistling for other people and that
when they're happy, that makes me happy. But I just
love walking down the street. And if I want to
whistle Brahm's Fourth Symphony, I can. If I want to
whistle some a train, I can, And just the creation
of music brings me joy. And then developing kind of
(34:31):
new techniques I I've learned. This is like easily the
freakiest thing. I can whistle with my mouth closed. I
can whistle underwater.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
I tall, they have a spout hole, so that's right.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I tried to get in the Guinness Book World Records
for being the first person to whistle underwater, but they
were uninterested, which I thought was unfortunate.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Can so and then and that I'm fairly competitive person.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
So when I hear gear shut true whistle, I'm saying
that guy's got some techniques I don't know yet. So
you try to then figure out. And the great challenge
with being a whistler versus a violinist, for example, is
that I can't see inside gear It's mouth, so when
he makes a sound, I have to figure out, all right,
I know the mechanics of whistling, so then I have
(35:21):
to kind of deconstruct by experimenting how is he doing that?
But if I were playing the violin, you know, the
instructor would say, oh, your elbow is a little this
way and your wrist is the wrong position.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
But you can't do that with a whistler.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
It's you just see puffing cheeks and puckered lips. So
it takes a fair amount of deconstruction to be able
to learn from another whistler.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
I have taught people how to whistle.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
By telling them explaining the lips, tongue air, and how
the pieces fit together. I do have to deliver bad
news for people who are older who've tried to whistle
their whole lives and can't, and I just have to
say there's no hope for you.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
But that doesn't mean you're not a good person. I
don't know if the mic will pick it up, but
we can try. If you were right next to me,
you could hear it. Oh oh really, oh wow? So
what the way it works.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
The way it works is that it's the tongue whistle,
and since it doesn't require lips, if you shut your
mouth and do the tongue whistle with tiny bursts, that
you can whistle without your mouth open. So I'm a
firm believer in freaky things. And that's at the top
(36:42):
of the list.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
Actually, Chris, the seven hundred people that you reach every
year with your birthday whistle.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Seven hundred and one, and.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
So does that list change every year you add people
to it?
Speaker 4 (37:02):
This is a very controversial question, Very all right, all right.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
So in all these years, I've only taken two people off.
I will not say who they are, but they were
just turned out to be mean, bad people.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
And I just said, so if if you're out there
listening and he used to whistle for you, no, you
are a mean, bad person.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
We're going to put that on the website.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
And then if you die, but for people who I
so I would. There's another thing that makes me tear
up when I talk about it. So I have a
friend whose son had down syndrome and leukemia. I whistled
for him for years, and then he passed away from leukemia.
(37:48):
I did not know he had died, and the friend
and I sort of lost touch. I kept whistling for him,
and then I found out he and I'm whistling for
someone's dead child, and I'm about to cry. But I
felt so bad. Oh my gosh, I felt so bad.
And I then ran into that person and he felt bad.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
And then he said, will you keep whistling for him?
Speaker 4 (38:23):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So I whistle.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I whistled for his birthday every year.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Now it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. Yes, sir, this is great.
Speaker 7 (38:52):
Do you whistle your own compositions. You put a lot
of the issue in the ones you whistle, So do
you have your.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Own, uh compositions that you whistle for?
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, I just cover other people's tunes, so I'm definitely
not a composer.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
I did whistle with a symphony, and I had to.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
For those who know concertos, so Mozart's Obo Concerto has
they have solos in them called cadenzas, and I did
make up my own cadenzas for those. I don't think
they are going to win any awards, but they were fun.
So that's probably in terms of like creating a tune.
I do do lots of you know, improvisational whistling, like
(39:37):
with blues and jazz, and if I'm jamming with the
Grateful Dead Y, I will do that, you know, because
that's just if you can stay in the right key
and you and you can kind of go with the flow,
you can do all sorts of you know, creative things.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Chris, Thank you for being here, Thank you for coming
to Memphis, Thank you for sharing.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know, a kid that learned to whistle from his.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Dad, who has a life and just uses your special
talent to try to touch people in the way you've
touched everybody in this room. You touch people on a
daily basis with your talent, and what a blessing it
is to others, And I know it's a blessing to you.
And I want everybody listening to me, go get the book,
(40:27):
Find your whistle. Simple gifts touch hearts and change lives.
And we don't use the show to plug books or movies,
but oftentimes we have people on that are involved in
different forms of media. But we all need to find
our whistle, and we all need to develop extra whistles,
(40:47):
and we all need to use our talents and our
discipline to plug holes in society where we can, and
we don't have to be part of some big organization
to do it. And Chris, you're walking living proof of
how you can affect lives with some of the simplest
passions and talents you have. And that's the call of
an army of normal folk, millions of us seeing areas
(41:10):
of need, putting our passion and our discipline to work
to simply help someone who maybe has a bad day
or not be as blessed as us. We're going to
end this way. You said something really cool, which as
you mentoring you say, get your head in the game.
Get your head in the game. That's what we got
to do. Find your passion, get your head in the game.
(41:32):
So something that I think puts smiles on everybody's faces
and metaphorically maybe can send us off thinking about today
getting our head in the game.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
How about take us out to the ballgame.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Thank you for the opportunity to be here, and I'm
really blessed by everyone's presence, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Are we supposed to whistle too? Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
And thank you for joining us this week. If Chris
Olman has inspired you in general, or better yet, to
take action by finding your own whistle and using it
more often, by buying his book Find your Whistle, or
something else entirely, please let me know. I'd love to
hear about it. You can write me anytime at Bill
(42:51):
at normalfolks dot us, and I promise you I will respond.
If you enjoyed this episode, share with friends and on social,
subscribe to the podcast and review it. Join the army
at normalfolks dot us consider becoming a premium member. There
all of these things that will help us grow an
army of normal folks I'm Bill COORDINAY until next time,
(43:14):
do what you can
Host
Bill Courtney
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com