February 27, 2024 • 36 mins
Ellie and Scott are joined by critically acclaimed actress, Maura Tierney. Maura shares her love of teaching stilt walking. We learn all about the trips that introduced Maura to stilts, the importance of rhythm and how joyous learning a new skill can be. Plus, Ellie shares with Scott her love of nest sleeping.
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 (00:06):
No no, no, no, no no no boy to Scott.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ellie, it's us.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's our podcast, Born to Love. Welcome to the show, everybody.
I'm Ellie Kemper.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm Scott Eckerd And this.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Is a show where we have guests on to talk
about what they love. It can be a song, it
can be an animal.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It could be a circus trick.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Anything in the world, Scott, that they love. That's what
we talk about on Born to Love. And today we
have an iconic guest, Maura Tierney, critically acclaimed actress, will
be joining us on the show, and I can't wait
to talk to her about her love.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Of stilt walking.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The circus trick wasn't random, listeners, I said circus trick
because Maura is going to talk to us about still walking,
which I will confess I know absolutely nothing about. I
guess that that stilts make you tall.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
To be clear, we're talking about walking on stilts, stilt walking.
I'm only clarifying or pronouncing it really clearly because it's
not a term that people usually throw around stilt walking.
So I truly clear we all know what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Did it sound like something else, No.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It sounded exactly like still walking. Honestly, I read it
the first time I heard it, so I could see
it's stilt walking. But I mean it doesn't come up
in conversation very much still walking, you know. So I
just wanted to clarify for everybody talking about stilt walking.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I think we're going to spend a good ninety to
one hundred and twenty minutes talking about stilt walking. But
before we get to that, was there anything this week
that you love?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
DELI, yeah, Scott, I've been having an amazing week. I
don't know why I laughed, because I feel like every
week we're like, I've had the best week. No, I've
had a normal week. But there is something that has
stuck out as a particular love, and it is actually
quite the opposite of walking on stilts. It is sleeping
(02:16):
in a nest. Let me explain.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Let me another phrase. You don't hear every day, sleeping
in the nest.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Next sleeping, next sleeping.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So before everyone thinks I'm just a horrible parent, I
beg to differ. I don't pretend to know what I'm doing.
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm hoping for the best.
But in the meantime, I'm sleeping in a nest in
my kids. Let me explain. My husband has been out
of town for work. I have two sons, ages four
and seven. They share a room. Over the Christmas holidays,
(02:51):
we were visiting my family in Saint Louis, and we
were sleeping in one room together, and it was easier
to just sleep on the floor, to set up a
little nest for myself on the floor, because I wanted
my kids to have beds. I'm a martyr. I'm just selfless,
beyond compared, and I right, you've known me a while.
I'd care about no one less than myself, right, I
(03:12):
just want to help others. No, I'm very selfish and
self centered. But I took the cushions off the couch
that were in this room that we were all sharing,
and I just set up a little nest on the floor,
and it was so cozy. You think, ooh, how uncomfortable, Ellie.
It wasn't at all. If you've ever built a nest
(03:33):
for yourself, by the way, throwing a round.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Nest is it's just a pile of cushions, is what
you're saying.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And blankets.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I think you might be using the word nest to
suggest something cozy. It is instead, at least suggesting to
me something really gross, something made of trash. An animal
collected a bunch of trash and fashioned a nest. That's
what I'm imagining. It sounds not so different from your
Saint Louis nest.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
But am I correct?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Am I following is that you did this out of
necessity over the holiday, and now you're doing it by choice.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Scott, You've hit the nail on the head, because that's
exactly the case a lot of relatives in town spaces
at a premium. I get it, you're gonna build a nest.
Now I'm back home where I do have a bedroom
that I share with my husband. It's my bedroom, but
with my husband out of town and my kids sleeping
in the same room, what happens is sometimes they get
(04:34):
up in the middle of the night. They need water,
they're scared of the dark. They think they hurt a
sound because the radiator in the room is really loud.
I thought, rather than have them get up, wake me
up and cause all sorts of disruptions, why not just
put me in the room. There's a loud sound, They say, Mom,
is that a monster? I say, oh, it's just the radiator,
(04:55):
and we all go back to sleep, and that's it,
you know what I'm saying. I don't know why Michael
being gone me to do this, but it did. Because
there's no backup. It's just me. So I have been
sleeping in a nest fashion from pillows and cushions and
blankets on the floor, and Scott, I will be damn
if it is not the coziest sleep I've had in years.
It is so warm on that little floor. I am
(05:17):
just in a little bundle of pillows. I feel like
I'm four years old again. I am having a renaissance. No,
it's not the right word. I am having a return
to youth such as I've never seen. And I love
how cozy it is. It's like, oh, that's what it is.
It's a return to the womb.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow. I'm very impressed, Ellie.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I'm not gonna yuck your young man, Okay, I am
gonna ask because you've admitted to yourself it's interesting that
your husband being away precipitated this nesting choice, right, Is
it because you're a little lonely? Maybe you just like
companionship while you sleep.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Oh my gosh, Scott. This whole time, I've been thinking, Oh,
I'm doing this for them so that we're all in
the same room and I'm protecting them, when in fact,
maybe it's little Mommy Ellie who needs the womb, the companions.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
The womb is you want to be close to the
ones you.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Love, Scott. Okay, if being a podcast host doesn't pan
out for you, you should go into psychology, because you just
really opened up some new ways of thinking for me.
I think that you're really onto something with that. And
all I know is that there's a lot of love
in that bedroom, and it's all cozy and wholesome love,
(06:34):
and it's nest love. Do you see how radiant I am.
I have slept this well.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
In months, behaving radiant leave. Okay, you positively glowing, ready
to talk about stilts. Yeah, I'm a little envious before
we get to still walking. Yeah, because if presented with
the same situation you're in, namely, my spouse is away
and you know the kids are asleep, I'm gonna take
(07:01):
full advantage of that empty bed. I know I'm gonna
be eaten in the bed. I'm going to be watching
Marvel's The Avengers in the bed. I'm gonna be a
triple screening it my phone, my iPad, the TV. That's
my nest, my nest, the bed itself, my normal bed
becomes my nest. But you know what, Yeah, different people,
different strokes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Different people, different styles.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
As you say, I was trying to come up. I
think it's different strokes for different folks.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It is different strokes for different folks. But then did
you say different people, different stilts.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I should have I should have.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Listen, Scott. Your nest is your bed. My nest is
a heap of pillows on the floor. It doesn't matter
what your nest is. Find your nest.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Find your nest.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Speaking of nests, speaking of or at least someone who
I'm sure is an expert nest maker, because she's got
many many skills. That's more a Tierney. She's a critically
acclaimed Golden Globe Award winning actress. You probably remember her
for hit TV shows such as News Radio Er and
The Affair. More currently stars in American Rust Broken Justice
(08:07):
with Jeff Daniels, which is on Amazon Prime. She will
also appear in the new movie Twisters. If you saw
the Super Bowl, there was a commercial for it. I'm excited.
It's Tornado movie. It comes out this summer on July nineteenth,
which is my birthday, so I'm probably going to be
seeing Moura in Twisters as my birthday celebration. She is
(08:30):
here today to talk to us about her love of
stilt walking.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Scott, I can't wait. I am so excited to learn
about stilts and we're going to do just that when
we come back. Okay, everybody, we are bad as promised.
We are here with the lovely Maura Tyranny, Hi, Mura, Hi,
thank you so much for being on our show. We're
(08:57):
huge fans. We're very excited to talk to you, and
I think we should waste no time and just get
right into it. MOREA tell me everything. Okay, So I've
never walked on stilts. I need to be very clear.
I've never done it, Scott.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Have you.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
No, I have not, but I now know who I'll
go to if I need to learn.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I am the go to.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
How did it happen? Also, I want to know the
distinction between the activity of still walking and teaching it,
because you like teaching it.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yes, Okay, what happened was I got involved in twenty
eighteen with a group called Campfire Project Okay, which was
started by my very good friend Jessica Hect who's an actress,
and she was putting together this project that's a drama
based wellness organization. So in twenty eighteen, the first trip
(09:46):
we were taking is we were going to Greece to
a Syrian refugee camp and the crisis was just ebbing
off of.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Its peak at that time.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And so the organization we do movement, find our music, singing, storytelling,
all these ways to sort of incorporate people that are
living in sort of traumatized situations.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
So one of the things was stilt walking.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
And a gentleman named Orlando Pabatoy, who is right now
the head of Movement at Juilliard. He teaches stilt and
still was going to be part of this original trip
that we were taking. So he said, everybody in the
group has to learn how to walk on stilts before
we go. So we all spent three days learning to
walk on stilts, which is very scary because you are
(10:35):
up there, you are that high. We're about three feet
and it's it's an amazing thing to do because you
get up there and it's very scary.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
And the short of it is.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
You are up there and struggling and afraid and sure
you can't do it, and positive you're going to fall,
and then all of a sudden, you just something happens
and you fall into this rhythm and you are walking
by yourself on stilts and it is so.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
It's really elating. It's like, holy, look at me.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
And to varying degrees of ability, we all had sort
of a profound experience doing that. So I yes, it's
like you doing something that fifteen minutes.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Ago you thought was impossible, right, exactly right, Yeah, so
there's this shift in your brain.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
So I became part of the still teaching group and
there's currently three of us in the group.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
That's the crew.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
My friend's name is Katie Fla Hive and David Hugo
and myself and we're this stilt group. So we went
to Greece four times to that camp. We've been to
Moldova twice to work with the Ukrainian population, and then
our last trip was in Uganda. But the concept of
stilt walking is it's to give kind of a brief
(11:54):
momentary joy that hopefully we'll have a subtle shift in
your way of thinking and it's sort of a way
to give people back control, even if it's a minute
amount of control. For one moment, you are in control
of the situation and the outside factors of your world
disappear momentarily and you're only.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Focused on this thing.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
And it's also incredibly fun. So the way a teaching
module is set up is the three member team. One
(12:35):
person is the instructor. That's the only person who will
speak for the whole session. There are two spotters which
stand on each side of the stilt walker and their
hand is always up connected to the stilt walker's hand
in the beginning, and the idea is to we kind
(12:56):
of I don't want to say strap in the stilts,
but we connect the stilts safely to the person's body,
we stand them up, and the whole concept is about
trust building trust in us, trust in their own bodies.
And it's about also three people have their total, undivided
(13:16):
focused attention on the student.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
So the basic premise is a very rhythmic nature to it.
So once the student gets up on the stilts and
the instructor starts a rhythm and you have to move
your feet to this rhythm, and the secret is still says,
you can't stop moving. If you feel like you're going
to fall, your instinct is stop moving. That is when
(13:40):
you will fall.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So you cannot stop moving.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
So the minute you're feeling off balance or anxious, you
just have to keep on moving.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I love that because you can extend that to life exactly.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
You just have to go and almost not think, you know,
just think about the task at hand, which is to
keep your feet moving at a certain pace. And so
we will start with them in place, and then slowly
you teach the stilt walker. And we work mostly with
teens and young adults. I prefer working with that population
(14:11):
because there's not a lot of programming for kids that
age out of school. In our young adults, so a
session will probably last at five to ten minutes, but
there's usually a lot of people. So the idea being
that once the student understands the rhythm, slowly, they will
let go of the hands of the spotter and understand
(14:33):
that they can do it themselves. No matter how long
this takes, we'll have a session until somebody is at
least able to just take their hands away Momentarily. Many
many people just get it. It's like once you understand
you've got to keep moving. And it's also about posture
and standing up straight, looking out straight, don't look down.
(14:55):
And when you see someone get it, it is really
very exciting and joyous. Yes, it's a moment that every
single time it happens, it's no less celebratory because you
can see someone's face switch and be like, oh, this
is it, And it is I think profound for kids
(15:19):
to realize they can do it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Right.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
You're literally elevated and you can like touch the leaves
in the trees, right, so you have a visual different perspective.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
So, like I said, it's.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
A momentary piece of joy or respite from whatever you're
dealing with and the rest of your life that hopefully
will provide a shift, you know, moving on.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Absolutely. I so relate to the sensation and the feeling
a focus that you're describing. First of all, it sounds
in a way meditative. Meditative, yes, because of that singular
focus on the task at hand. And also I always
feel like I sound like a very simple person when
I describe this. I talk about running on the show
(16:04):
a lot because it's my like one joy. It's what
I do to meditate to reflect whatever it is. The
running itself is a break, but you hope that the
point of that is to extend into the other corners
of your life, right, And it sounds like a very
similar thing with still Walking, but especially that sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah, and again, it's also really fun. It's really fun
to teach, it's really fun to do.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
You know.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
As we've gotten better at this, it almost feels like
still group is in a band.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
You know. We have our bags, we've.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Got the stilts, and we usually will you know, because
there's many activities going on at once. There's people are
singing over here and people are dancing over here. So
we'll tape off an area of the camp we're working
in and we do a demonstration, which stilts is a
big draw, I have to say in our group, which
sometimes other members are like still to be people, like
(16:59):
we need people to I'm over to storytelling.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
But stilts always beat storytelling.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
It just does. I'm not saying storytelling it not very effective.
It's just more visual.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
And we'll sort of cordon off an area and people
sign up and the people who are waiting to take
their lesson watch the other people.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
So it's like a show as well.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
It's very entertaining, and it's usually good natured. You know,
if someone's wobbling, the crowd is like whoa, you know,
it's really but they shout on encouragement and if someone
gets it and is walking around like there's a lot
of applause. It's almost like going to a sports event.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
There's a built in audience to it too that just
brings a little bit of the community together.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
And it's just something that.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
I never get tired of. Every single person that gets
up there just feels great.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I don't know, we've done quite a few of these.
I can't recall one where my opinion about the topic
has shifted so dramatically so quickly. Yeah, because I was
imagining like Barnuman Bailey's like a guy with goofy striped pants,
and I was like, Aha, this is gonna be funny.
And in fact, you are doing humanitarian work for people
(18:19):
who need it, and you're describing a sort of catharsis
that I immediately like, It's like, I want to be
a giant. I want to feel that thrill of not stopping.
I didn't expect that I would ever want to go
still walking, and now I think I want to go
still walking right, So how long did it take for you?
I mean, I'm sitting here in this chair and it
(18:40):
took me, you know, the two minutes it took you
to describe it was your conversion that fast. What was
it like the first time you got on the stilts.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
It is very scary. I mean, you know, not terrifying,
but it's scary. And we're in front of our group,
so there was that sort of little bit of pressure,
and I think I went first because I was like,
I'm getting this over with. And it's funny because the
rhythm really does help. And the other thing is there's
an intimacy with the teaching, so the person who's acting
(19:12):
as instructor, we all switch off and no one falls.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
That's another rule. No one can fall, no one has.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
No one and that's because the spotters catch them. They're
like catchers basically, or how does that work?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Yeah, we get ahead of it.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
But our teacher, Orlando is like, here's the think guy's
no one falls, and then that's on you too, and
no one has which is you know, weird, but I know.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I mean, if you're just learning, it seems like of
course you'll fall. But I know you have the spotters.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yes, we have the spotters, and depending on our side,
like if there's a larger person, you know, Dave's a
bigger guy, he'll be a spotter. We had one guy
he did not fall, but when we were in Africa,
the ground was softer than we thought, and this larger
gentleman he was one of the aid workers, got up
on stilts and stilts immediately sunk four inches into the
(20:03):
ground and they were like, literally, it's like a flagpole.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
So we had to get him out. But that's the
closest we had.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
But for my experience, it's very funny to watch people
because often people sing when they do it, which is
really weird. Like when they're watching, they'll be like, oh,
don't know what I'm doing, but here I go, or
they'll sing a song that thing damn thing.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yes, is that a coping strategy you encourage or does
it happen spontaneously?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
It happened spontaneously, but yeah, it's just anything to keep
your mind on the beat and off the fear and
really goofy things will come out of people's mouth and
I think probably I did the same thing. But then
when you're up, you're up. So then you feel like.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
I do it. Yes, for me, I also thought stilts.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Right right, Yes, that to me, that's a reasonable reaction.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah, And why do I have to do it?
But once that you do it, you're like, oh, I
get this.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I think you might have mentioned this more. But how
tall are the stilts?
Speaker 5 (21:16):
They're about three feet, so it's not you know, it's
not like the major like you said Barnum and Bailey still,
but they're high enough, like I said, to change a
visual perspective, high enough that it's challenging for you to balance.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
It's a mind body thing.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
It's about focusing your mind and then letting your mind
go and then letting your body take over.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
So about three feet.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
This is probably an obvious question, but maybe not. This
is just a logistics question or an engineering question. I
guess how do you how do you get on and
off them?
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Well, that's a good question. I mean, you have to
be very advanced to get up on your own, like
from the ground. There's a whole way to get up
from the ground, but you.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Do that, No, can not do that.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
But you have to sit on say a table, so
your feet don't touch the ground and they can just
they then stand up and two people are each holding
their hand, so that you have to start from a
seated position. That's not a chair, that's elevated from a chair,
and that's how you have to sit down as well.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I see, Yes, I guess that makes sense. I was thinking,
I don't know. I guess I was thinking the stilter
is lying down and you like raise them up. But
I guess that makes no sense.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Well, it does make sense sense.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
I'm sure it's been done, but you just need to
be a little more advanced to do.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, yes, I see. So prior to twenty eighteen, right,
you had never been up on stilts before?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
No, no, Now.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Do you do it ever when you're not on these trips,
Like do you do it as a hobby or it's
really the teaching that you enjoy.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
It's really the teaching that I enjoy.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Yeah, but before every trip we'll get together just to
brush up, and then on those days we kind of
surround and challenge ourselves and do sort of goofy your
things and dance a little bit, or like I don't
walk around my neighborhood on still for.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Some Yeah, it's weird that you have you ever taught
stilts not on a trip like.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Like, did you ever throw a still party for your friends?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
No, but that's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I was just gonna say that traveling around the world
to communities in need teaching stilt walking, it's an adventurous pursuit.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I admire.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
That in you, because I don't think that I would
have the courage to do something like that. Is this
sort of singular in your life or like if we
went through the rolodexter you also like doing pogo for
charity or is this one of many outlandish talents that
you have or or is it really the focus?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
This is really the focus? I yeah, I'll come. I'm thinking, Oh,
you're so boring. You only teach stilts That's where I go.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's where you go.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Do something else? What else weird can I do?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Have you ever taught skydiving or no? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I mean I need the teacher.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
I need that person I hatched to my back with
two parachutes and in charge of everything.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
You just like danger and being high? Yea, yeah, skydiving
in the stilting.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
High I am sure.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So maybe that has something to do with it too.
And when we say, oh, is there anything else that
you teach, and you say, oh, no, this is the
only thing that I teach. Yeah, it's one more thing
than I teach. I don't teach anything, and especially something
that it has to be satisfying for you because you
must be able to see it on their faces, just
like lighting up.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And literally light up. It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Yeah, And even the more students like this, when they
just smile you in a tiny bit, you're like.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Ahha, you got it.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
I got you, we got you, and the team is
very invested in that.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You may have answered this, but I don't. Have you
ever taught someone who just didn't get it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (25:18):
Yes, but you have to respect and understand people's limitations.
Some people just once they'd stand up when we were
holding on to them. They're very afraid, and so when
that happens, it's spottable and you don't want to continue
the lesson and make them feel bad like you can
when someone is that fearful, immediately we just make them
(25:41):
stand up, and especially if they're younger, everyone applause that
they stood up. And if they can't get it, that's
okay too. It's not for everybody. Yeah, but you know,
one time on this last trip, which this is you
know about me kind of but in terms of teaching
and who can do it and who can't. There was
this young man and a lot of it is about communication, right,
(26:03):
It's about the communication between the instructor and the student.
There's a lot of eye contact and they have to
listen to me so.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
They don't fall down.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
And this boy came up, he was probably about fifteen,
and one of the workers that was on the ground
there said, this young man is deaf, and I was like, oh, like,
there's so much instruction involved, yeah, you know, and my
instinct inside was like, we can't.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
What if we can't, he won't be able to comput me.
We can't do it. It'll be dangerous.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
And his teacher in the settlement probably she said, I
can sign. And this kid got up and she wasn't
doing any kind of formal sign language, but she was
interpreting my words to him in a way that he understood.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
And this kid just.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
Got up and did it, and he was really good
at it. And I thought to myself, see, why are
you putting limitations on any buddy to do this? You
have to keep your mind open. And that was a
huge lesson in terms of teaching that there's ways to
get around things, and this kid was also fearless. But
you can't just say no because I'm afraid they won't
(27:14):
be able to do it right.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Right, Maura, Just when I didn't think still walking could
get more inspired, I know, I know you managed to
top yourself. There's no way we can possibly top that.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I know.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Me and my friend Katie, who were teaching the kid,
was walking and we both like, really maintain ourselves because
there's a lot you see there and it was so moving.
She was like, don't look at me, don't look at me.
If we had looked at each other, we would have
started to cry, and there's no crying stilts, so we
avoid each other's eye because it was very.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Very moving.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
That's just it. Yeah, you thought, oh, I can't hussly
get any more inspiring, Well, I mean done. Conversation was
so different. I thought it was going to be about
the big top in circuses, which also would have been great,
but this, dare I say, was even greater. Laura, thank you.
And also I have to ask, if you have a minute,
can you stick around to play a game that we'd
(28:13):
like to play with all of our guests called love
It or Loathe It?
Speaker 6 (28:17):
Yes, okay, we're back, everybody.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
We're here with Laura Tierney. We are going to play
a game called love It or Loathe It. In this
game more, we're going to list some items and you
have to tell us whether you love that thing or
you loathe that thing. You can't feel me about any
of them.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Is there a time constraint?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It's not rapid fire. We want your explanations, but there's
no gray area. Okay. Our first topic, love It or
Loathe It? Camping?
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Oh, I guess that answers the question.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I guess we just haven't. We thought, oh, camp fire project,
but what about actual camping?
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, different?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Nah?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Yeah, I'm an urban person.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
Yeah yeah, I don't like you know, bugs, no nature?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah no, I used to think, Oh I really like nature,
and I do, but I want to sleep in a bed.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
I should point out more that before you came on, Mike,
Ellie was talking about how she loves to sleep on
just a pile of cushions.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But that's different.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
That's called you like indoor nesting.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Well, they have those giant like dog beds for people.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Now have you seen those? You could get what it's
like a human sized dog bed.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
How much you've just come to Yeah, I thought I'm
writing down dogbed because I was just talking about what
Scott said. I love sleeping on the floor on cushions,
dog bag. It seems like it was made for me. Yeah,
but you don't like camping. I understand that. Have you
ever been camping?
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Yeah, I mean we used to go camping when I
was a kid a lot. But oh that's probably also
because it was also was like what we could afford.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It's a cheap sort of vacation. But I don't need
to do that again.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
No, done, all right, it's in the past. Couldn't agree
more more. A love it or loathed for a thrill
seeker like you. Meditation, Oh love it?
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Well, when I'm good at it, I do transcendental meditation,
So I when I'm in a groove with.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
That, I love it. It's not easy. You got to
stick to it, but it is hard.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Right, I'm comforted to hear you say that, Like, I've
undertaken it twice and it required so much more. Sounds stupid,
but it requires so much more focus that I thought,
and I sort of abandoned it.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
And time it's hard to carve the time out of
your day. Did you try TM specifically?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Yeah, I tried years ago. I mean I really did
not give it a fair chance because if I approach
it now, I would approach it much more seriously. And
I always thought during that time, I thought, well, if
I'm going to take the time to do this, I
would rather just rest because I feel like my body
needs rest.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
It's similar it is.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It can be RESTful, I guess. But yes, yeah, Scott meditate.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
No, I've not tried it.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
My only association with TM is that I have two
friends that are they're a couple, married couple, and they
both do it. But I guess there are different disciplines
or something. And the only time I've ever seen them
really fight, like be mean to each other marital fight
is about meditation, and I've seen it happen more than once.
(31:45):
Denied comment about how the other meditates and the other
is like, the way you do it is wrong. Nothing
seems less associated with transcendental meditation than fighting about it.
But that's really my only association.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So I don't know, Okay, Maura love it or loathe it?
Reality TV?
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Oh no, Gray Area, Do I watch it sometimes?
Speaker 4 (32:09):
I don't know. This is a little gray. Yeah, yes,
but do I loathe it?
Speaker 5 (32:13):
I know, yes, I know, yeah, I would have to
say I loathe it philosophically.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I know.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I don't really watch reality TV, and then when I do,
I just you see why it's so successful.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
It's very addictive, very addictive, exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
So, and not in a way that helps me be
a better person.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
But anyway, speaking of something that I'm addicted to, Maura,
and I'm curious to get your take on love it
or loathe it?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Baseball?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Hmm, I love baseball, you do, I do well.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
I grew up in Boston, so I was a Boston
fan and I was married and I got divorced a
long time ago, but I was married.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
For a while.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
We went to games all the time, and he was
a Yankee fan, and plus it was like, you know,
when did the.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Red Steps fan like two two thousand and four, when they.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Really came back that that was such an exciting gay
watched all the game. I knew the whole team. And
then I sort of lost baseball in the divorce.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
I don't know how that happens. I think our friends
go to baseball games with him, not me. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
It's okay, but I love baseball. I love going to
baseball games. I just don't follow it the way you
used to.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, I'm from Saint Louis, and when the Cardinals are
doing well, I'm all in. But other than that, I don't.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
I don't watch the other teams.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, okay, love it or loathe it? Coin laundry, love it,
talk to us about it. Love I do you love
it so much?
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Well, m how much time do you have? Let's go
for a long time.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
I did not have a washroom drawer, and I felt
like going to the laundromat is like very meditative. First
of all, you can read or it's good people watching time. Yeah,
it's very you don't do anything, and you feel very
productive at the end because all of your clothes points.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
That's another feeling.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
And I've also used them kind of around the world,
and it's fun to just go to a laundromat, like
I've been to one in Japan Kyoto. That was like
fun figuring out a Japanese watching machine.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Oh that sounds fun is.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Its own thing. And I did one, and I think
beirute we went to one.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
It's just to peek into sort of the community and yeah,
it smells good and I just really enjoy I haven't been.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
In a long time, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I completely understand that because and it's sort of like,
I won't compare it to still walking, but it is
a thing where it's the focus. You have to stay
there by you're clothes and nobody steals them. Yeah, and
you just read whatever people watch.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Yeah, and it's just very calming.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I find Yep, yep, you won the game.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Yeah that was it. You won. Yeah, we were Yes,
I'm a winner.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
You're a winner. You ace leve a of it. Thank
you so much for taking the time to talk with
I learned so much about teaching still walking and the
joy that it can bring people. And we want to
ask if there's any projects or anything that you want
to promote.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
I think I should really promote the Campfire project.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yes, Campfire Project.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
And I didn't come on to push that, Oh sure,
but that's probably something i'd rather mention.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That is a project absolutely worth mentioning, and I'm glad
that you brought it to my attention and the Scott's attention.
It sounds like a holy worthwhile organization. And thank you
for doing it because it brings people I think a
lot of joy. So speaking of bringing people a lot
of joy, thank you for talking with us.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
You brought us of joy today.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
I've never talked about this at all in any public way,
so thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Oh yeah, well we couldn't be working. We're happy to
hear that, so thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll be back
next week with brand new things that we love.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
We want to hear from you. Leave us a review
in Apple Podcasts and tell us what you love. We
might even ask one of our guests in an upcoming
love it or Load It.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Born to Love is hosted and created by Ellie Kemper
and Scott Ecker.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Our executive producer is Aaron Coffman. Our producers are Sheena
Ozaki and Zoe Danklab.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money
Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to
Hans Sonny.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Rachel Kaplan and Adrianna Cassiano
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Michael Fails, Alex Kral and Baheed Frazier.
No no, no, no, no no no boy to Scott.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ellie, it's us.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's our podcast, Born to Love. Welcome to the show, everybody.
I'm Ellie Kemper.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm Scott Eckerd And this.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Is a show where we have guests on to talk
about what they love. It can be a song, it
can be an animal.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It could be a circus trick.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Anything in the world, Scott, that they love. That's what
we talk about on Born to Love. And today we
have an iconic guest, Maura Tierney, critically acclaimed actress, will
be joining us on the show, and I can't wait
to talk to her about her love.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Of stilt walking.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The circus trick wasn't random, listeners, I said circus trick
because Maura is going to talk to us about still walking,
which I will confess I know absolutely nothing about. I
guess that that stilts make you tall.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
To be clear, we're talking about walking on stilts, stilt walking.
I'm only clarifying or pronouncing it really clearly because it's
not a term that people usually throw around stilt walking.
So I truly clear we all know what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Did it sound like something else, No.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It sounded exactly like still walking. Honestly, I read it
the first time I heard it, so I could see
it's stilt walking. But I mean it doesn't come up
in conversation very much still walking, you know. So I
just wanted to clarify for everybody talking about stilt walking.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I think we're going to spend a good ninety to
one hundred and twenty minutes talking about stilt walking. But
before we get to that, was there anything this week
that you love?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
DELI, yeah, Scott, I've been having an amazing week. I
don't know why I laughed, because I feel like every
week we're like, I've had the best week. No, I've
had a normal week. But there is something that has
stuck out as a particular love, and it is actually
quite the opposite of walking on stilts. It is sleeping
(02:16):
in a nest. Let me explain.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Let me another phrase. You don't hear every day, sleeping
in the nest.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Next sleeping, next sleeping.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So before everyone thinks I'm just a horrible parent, I
beg to differ. I don't pretend to know what I'm doing.
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm hoping for the best.
But in the meantime, I'm sleeping in a nest in
my kids. Let me explain. My husband has been out
of town for work. I have two sons, ages four
and seven. They share a room. Over the Christmas holidays,
(02:51):
we were visiting my family in Saint Louis, and we
were sleeping in one room together, and it was easier
to just sleep on the floor, to set up a
little nest for myself on the floor, because I wanted
my kids to have beds. I'm a martyr. I'm just selfless,
beyond compared, and I right, you've known me a while.
I'd care about no one less than myself, right, I
(03:12):
just want to help others. No, I'm very selfish and
self centered. But I took the cushions off the couch
that were in this room that we were all sharing,
and I just set up a little nest on the floor,
and it was so cozy. You think, ooh, how uncomfortable, Ellie.
It wasn't at all. If you've ever built a nest
(03:33):
for yourself, by the way, throwing a round.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Nest is it's just a pile of cushions, is what
you're saying.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And blankets.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I think you might be using the word nest to
suggest something cozy. It is instead, at least suggesting to
me something really gross, something made of trash. An animal
collected a bunch of trash and fashioned a nest. That's
what I'm imagining. It sounds not so different from your
Saint Louis nest.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
But am I correct?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Am I following is that you did this out of
necessity over the holiday, and now you're doing it by choice.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Scott, You've hit the nail on the head, because that's
exactly the case a lot of relatives in town spaces
at a premium. I get it, you're gonna build a nest.
Now I'm back home where I do have a bedroom
that I share with my husband. It's my bedroom, but
with my husband out of town and my kids sleeping
in the same room, what happens is sometimes they get
(04:34):
up in the middle of the night. They need water,
they're scared of the dark. They think they hurt a
sound because the radiator in the room is really loud.
I thought, rather than have them get up, wake me
up and cause all sorts of disruptions, why not just
put me in the room. There's a loud sound, They say, Mom,
is that a monster? I say, oh, it's just the radiator,
(04:55):
and we all go back to sleep, and that's it,
you know what I'm saying. I don't know why Michael
being gone me to do this, but it did. Because
there's no backup. It's just me. So I have been
sleeping in a nest fashion from pillows and cushions and
blankets on the floor, and Scott, I will be damn
if it is not the coziest sleep I've had in years.
It is so warm on that little floor. I am
(05:17):
just in a little bundle of pillows. I feel like
I'm four years old again. I am having a renaissance. No,
it's not the right word. I am having a return
to youth such as I've never seen. And I love
how cozy it is. It's like, oh, that's what it is.
It's a return to the womb.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow. I'm very impressed, Ellie.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I'm not gonna yuck your young man, Okay, I am
gonna ask because you've admitted to yourself it's interesting that
your husband being away precipitated this nesting choice, right, Is
it because you're a little lonely? Maybe you just like
companionship while you sleep.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Oh my gosh, Scott. This whole time, I've been thinking, Oh,
I'm doing this for them so that we're all in
the same room and I'm protecting them, when in fact,
maybe it's little Mommy Ellie who needs the womb, the companions.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
The womb is you want to be close to the
ones you.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Love, Scott. Okay, if being a podcast host doesn't pan
out for you, you should go into psychology, because you just
really opened up some new ways of thinking for me.
I think that you're really onto something with that. And
all I know is that there's a lot of love
in that bedroom, and it's all cozy and wholesome love,
(06:34):
and it's nest love. Do you see how radiant I am.
I have slept this well.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
In months, behaving radiant leave. Okay, you positively glowing, ready
to talk about stilts. Yeah, I'm a little envious before
we get to still walking. Yeah, because if presented with
the same situation you're in, namely, my spouse is away
and you know the kids are asleep, I'm gonna take
(07:01):
full advantage of that empty bed. I know I'm gonna
be eaten in the bed. I'm going to be watching
Marvel's The Avengers in the bed. I'm gonna be a
triple screening it my phone, my iPad, the TV. That's
my nest, my nest, the bed itself, my normal bed
becomes my nest. But you know what, Yeah, different people,
different strokes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Different people, different styles.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
As you say, I was trying to come up. I
think it's different strokes for different folks.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It is different strokes for different folks. But then did
you say different people, different stilts.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I should have I should have.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Listen, Scott. Your nest is your bed. My nest is
a heap of pillows on the floor. It doesn't matter
what your nest is. Find your nest.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Find your nest.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Speaking of nests, speaking of or at least someone who
I'm sure is an expert nest maker, because she's got
many many skills. That's more a Tierney. She's a critically
acclaimed Golden Globe Award winning actress. You probably remember her
for hit TV shows such as News Radio Er and
The Affair. More currently stars in American Rust Broken Justice
(08:07):
with Jeff Daniels, which is on Amazon Prime. She will
also appear in the new movie Twisters. If you saw
the Super Bowl, there was a commercial for it. I'm excited.
It's Tornado movie. It comes out this summer on July nineteenth,
which is my birthday, so I'm probably going to be
seeing Moura in Twisters as my birthday celebration. She is
(08:30):
here today to talk to us about her love of
stilt walking.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Scott, I can't wait. I am so excited to learn
about stilts and we're going to do just that when
we come back. Okay, everybody, we are bad as promised.
We are here with the lovely Maura Tyranny, Hi, Mura, Hi,
thank you so much for being on our show. We're
(08:57):
huge fans. We're very excited to talk to you, and
I think we should waste no time and just get
right into it. MOREA tell me everything. Okay, So I've
never walked on stilts. I need to be very clear.
I've never done it, Scott.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Have you.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
No, I have not, but I now know who I'll
go to if I need to learn.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
I am the go to.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
How did it happen? Also, I want to know the
distinction between the activity of still walking and teaching it,
because you like teaching it.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yes, Okay, what happened was I got involved in twenty
eighteen with a group called Campfire Project Okay, which was
started by my very good friend Jessica Hect who's an actress,
and she was putting together this project that's a drama
based wellness organization. So in twenty eighteen, the first trip
(09:46):
we were taking is we were going to Greece to
a Syrian refugee camp and the crisis was just ebbing
off of.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Its peak at that time.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And so the organization we do movement, find our music, singing, storytelling,
all these ways to sort of incorporate people that are
living in sort of traumatized situations.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
So one of the things was stilt walking.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
And a gentleman named Orlando Pabatoy, who is right now
the head of Movement at Juilliard. He teaches stilt and
still was going to be part of this original trip
that we were taking. So he said, everybody in the
group has to learn how to walk on stilts before
we go. So we all spent three days learning to
walk on stilts, which is very scary because you are
(10:35):
up there, you are that high. We're about three feet
and it's it's an amazing thing to do because you
get up there and it's very scary.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
And the short of it is.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
You are up there and struggling and afraid and sure
you can't do it, and positive you're going to fall,
and then all of a sudden, you just something happens
and you fall into this rhythm and you are walking
by yourself on stilts and it is so.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
It's really elating. It's like, holy, look at me.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
And to varying degrees of ability, we all had sort
of a profound experience doing that. So I yes, it's
like you doing something that fifteen minutes.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Ago you thought was impossible, right, exactly right, Yeah, so
there's this shift in your brain.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
So I became part of the still teaching group and
there's currently three of us in the group.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
That's the crew.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
My friend's name is Katie Fla Hive and David Hugo
and myself and we're this stilt group. So we went
to Greece four times to that camp. We've been to
Moldova twice to work with the Ukrainian population, and then
our last trip was in Uganda. But the concept of
stilt walking is it's to give kind of a brief
(11:54):
momentary joy that hopefully we'll have a subtle shift in
your way of thinking and it's sort of a way
to give people back control, even if it's a minute
amount of control. For one moment, you are in control
of the situation and the outside factors of your world
disappear momentarily and you're only.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Focused on this thing.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
And it's also incredibly fun. So the way a teaching
module is set up is the three member team. One
(12:35):
person is the instructor. That's the only person who will
speak for the whole session. There are two spotters which
stand on each side of the stilt walker and their
hand is always up connected to the stilt walker's hand
in the beginning, and the idea is to we kind
(12:56):
of I don't want to say strap in the stilts,
but we connect the stilts safely to the person's body,
we stand them up, and the whole concept is about
trust building trust in us, trust in their own bodies.
And it's about also three people have their total, undivided
(13:16):
focused attention on the student.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
So the basic premise is a very rhythmic nature to it.
So once the student gets up on the stilts and
the instructor starts a rhythm and you have to move
your feet to this rhythm, and the secret is still says,
you can't stop moving. If you feel like you're going
to fall, your instinct is stop moving. That is when
(13:40):
you will fall.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So you cannot stop moving.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
So the minute you're feeling off balance or anxious, you
just have to keep on moving.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I love that because you can extend that to life exactly.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
You just have to go and almost not think, you know,
just think about the task at hand, which is to
keep your feet moving at a certain pace. And so
we will start with them in place, and then slowly
you teach the stilt walker. And we work mostly with
teens and young adults. I prefer working with that population
(14:11):
because there's not a lot of programming for kids that
age out of school. In our young adults, so a
session will probably last at five to ten minutes, but
there's usually a lot of people. So the idea being
that once the student understands the rhythm, slowly, they will
let go of the hands of the spotter and understand
(14:33):
that they can do it themselves. No matter how long
this takes, we'll have a session until somebody is at
least able to just take their hands away Momentarily. Many
many people just get it. It's like once you understand
you've got to keep moving. And it's also about posture
and standing up straight, looking out straight, don't look down.
(14:55):
And when you see someone get it, it is really
very exciting and joyous. Yes, it's a moment that every
single time it happens, it's no less celebratory because you
can see someone's face switch and be like, oh, this
is it, And it is I think profound for kids
(15:19):
to realize they can do it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Right.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
You're literally elevated and you can like touch the leaves
in the trees, right, so you have a visual different perspective.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
So, like I said, it's.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
A momentary piece of joy or respite from whatever you're
dealing with and the rest of your life that hopefully
will provide a shift, you know, moving on.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Absolutely. I so relate to the sensation and the feeling
a focus that you're describing. First of all, it sounds
in a way meditative. Meditative, yes, because of that singular
focus on the task at hand. And also I always
feel like I sound like a very simple person when
I describe this. I talk about running on the show
(16:04):
a lot because it's my like one joy. It's what
I do to meditate to reflect whatever it is. The
running itself is a break, but you hope that the
point of that is to extend into the other corners
of your life, right, And it sounds like a very
similar thing with still Walking, but especially that sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah, and again, it's also really fun. It's really fun
to teach, it's really fun to do.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
You know.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
As we've gotten better at this, it almost feels like
still group is in a band.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
You know. We have our bags, we've.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Got the stilts, and we usually will you know, because
there's many activities going on at once. There's people are
singing over here and people are dancing over here. So
we'll tape off an area of the camp we're working
in and we do a demonstration, which stilts is a
big draw, I have to say in our group, which
sometimes other members are like still to be people, like
(16:59):
we need people to I'm over to storytelling.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
But stilts always beat storytelling.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
It just does. I'm not saying storytelling it not very effective.
It's just more visual.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
And we'll sort of cordon off an area and people
sign up and the people who are waiting to take
their lesson watch the other people.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
So it's like a show as well.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
It's very entertaining, and it's usually good natured. You know,
if someone's wobbling, the crowd is like whoa, you know,
it's really but they shout on encouragement and if someone
gets it and is walking around like there's a lot
of applause. It's almost like going to a sports event.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
There's a built in audience to it too that just
brings a little bit of the community together.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
And it's just something that.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
I never get tired of. Every single person that gets
up there just feels great.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I don't know, we've done quite a few of these.
I can't recall one where my opinion about the topic
has shifted so dramatically so quickly. Yeah, because I was
imagining like Barnuman Bailey's like a guy with goofy striped pants,
and I was like, Aha, this is gonna be funny.
And in fact, you are doing humanitarian work for people
(18:19):
who need it, and you're describing a sort of catharsis
that I immediately like, It's like, I want to be
a giant. I want to feel that thrill of not stopping.
I didn't expect that I would ever want to go
still walking, and now I think I want to go
still walking right, So how long did it take for you?
I mean, I'm sitting here in this chair and it
(18:40):
took me, you know, the two minutes it took you
to describe it was your conversion that fast. What was
it like the first time you got on the stilts.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
It is very scary. I mean, you know, not terrifying,
but it's scary. And we're in front of our group,
so there was that sort of little bit of pressure,
and I think I went first because I was like,
I'm getting this over with. And it's funny because the
rhythm really does help. And the other thing is there's
an intimacy with the teaching, so the person who's acting
(19:12):
as instructor, we all switch off and no one falls.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
That's another rule. No one can fall, no one has.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
No one and that's because the spotters catch them. They're
like catchers basically, or how does that work?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Yeah, we get ahead of it.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
But our teacher, Orlando is like, here's the think guy's
no one falls, and then that's on you too, and
no one has which is you know, weird, but I know.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I mean, if you're just learning, it seems like of
course you'll fall. But I know you have the spotters.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yes, we have the spotters, and depending on our side,
like if there's a larger person, you know, Dave's a
bigger guy, he'll be a spotter. We had one guy
he did not fall, but when we were in Africa,
the ground was softer than we thought, and this larger
gentleman he was one of the aid workers, got up
on stilts and stilts immediately sunk four inches into the
(20:03):
ground and they were like, literally, it's like a flagpole.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
So we had to get him out. But that's the
closest we had.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
But for my experience, it's very funny to watch people
because often people sing when they do it, which is
really weird. Like when they're watching, they'll be like, oh,
don't know what I'm doing, but here I go, or
they'll sing a song that thing damn thing.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yes, is that a coping strategy you encourage or does
it happen spontaneously?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
It happened spontaneously, but yeah, it's just anything to keep
your mind on the beat and off the fear and
really goofy things will come out of people's mouth and
I think probably I did the same thing. But then
when you're up, you're up. So then you feel like.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
I do it. Yes, for me, I also thought stilts.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Right right, Yes, that to me, that's a reasonable reaction.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah, And why do I have to do it?
But once that you do it, you're like, oh, I
get this.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I think you might have mentioned this more. But how
tall are the stilts?
Speaker 5 (21:16):
They're about three feet, so it's not you know, it's
not like the major like you said Barnum and Bailey still,
but they're high enough, like I said, to change a
visual perspective, high enough that it's challenging for you to balance.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
It's a mind body thing.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
It's about focusing your mind and then letting your mind
go and then letting your body take over.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
So about three feet.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
This is probably an obvious question, but maybe not. This
is just a logistics question or an engineering question. I
guess how do you how do you get on and
off them?
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Well, that's a good question. I mean, you have to
be very advanced to get up on your own, like
from the ground. There's a whole way to get up
from the ground, but you.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Do that, No, can not do that.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
But you have to sit on say a table, so
your feet don't touch the ground and they can just
they then stand up and two people are each holding
their hand, so that you have to start from a
seated position. That's not a chair, that's elevated from a chair,
and that's how you have to sit down as well.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I see, Yes, I guess that makes sense. I was thinking,
I don't know. I guess I was thinking the stilter
is lying down and you like raise them up. But
I guess that makes no sense.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Well, it does make sense sense.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
I'm sure it's been done, but you just need to
be a little more advanced to do.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, yes, I see. So prior to twenty eighteen, right,
you had never been up on stilts before?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
No, no, Now.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Do you do it ever when you're not on these trips,
Like do you do it as a hobby or it's
really the teaching that you enjoy.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
It's really the teaching that I enjoy.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Yeah, but before every trip we'll get together just to
brush up, and then on those days we kind of
surround and challenge ourselves and do sort of goofy your
things and dance a little bit, or like I don't
walk around my neighborhood on still for.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Some Yeah, it's weird that you have you ever taught
stilts not on a trip like.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Like, did you ever throw a still party for your friends?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
No, but that's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I was just gonna say that traveling around the world
to communities in need teaching stilt walking, it's an adventurous pursuit.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I admire.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
That in you, because I don't think that I would
have the courage to do something like that. Is this
sort of singular in your life or like if we
went through the rolodexter you also like doing pogo for
charity or is this one of many outlandish talents that
you have or or is it really the focus?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
This is really the focus? I yeah, I'll come. I'm thinking, Oh,
you're so boring. You only teach stilts That's where I go.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's where you go.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Do something else? What else weird can I do?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Have you ever taught skydiving or no? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I mean I need the teacher.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
I need that person I hatched to my back with
two parachutes and in charge of everything.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
You just like danger and being high? Yea, yeah, skydiving
in the stilting.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
High I am sure.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So maybe that has something to do with it too.
And when we say, oh, is there anything else that
you teach, and you say, oh, no, this is the
only thing that I teach. Yeah, it's one more thing
than I teach. I don't teach anything, and especially something
that it has to be satisfying for you because you
must be able to see it on their faces, just
like lighting up.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And literally light up. It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Yeah, And even the more students like this, when they
just smile you in a tiny bit, you're like.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Ahha, you got it.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
I got you, we got you, and the team is
very invested in that.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You may have answered this, but I don't. Have you
ever taught someone who just didn't get it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (25:18):
Yes, but you have to respect and understand people's limitations.
Some people just once they'd stand up when we were
holding on to them. They're very afraid, and so when
that happens, it's spottable and you don't want to continue
the lesson and make them feel bad like you can
when someone is that fearful, immediately we just make them
(25:41):
stand up, and especially if they're younger, everyone applause that
they stood up. And if they can't get it, that's
okay too. It's not for everybody. Yeah, but you know,
one time on this last trip, which this is you
know about me kind of but in terms of teaching
and who can do it and who can't. There was
this young man and a lot of it is about communication, right,
(26:03):
It's about the communication between the instructor and the student.
There's a lot of eye contact and they have to
listen to me so.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
They don't fall down.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
And this boy came up, he was probably about fifteen,
and one of the workers that was on the ground
there said, this young man is deaf, and I was like, oh, like,
there's so much instruction involved, yeah, you know, and my
instinct inside was like, we can't.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
What if we can't, he won't be able to comput me.
We can't do it. It'll be dangerous.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
And his teacher in the settlement probably she said, I
can sign. And this kid got up and she wasn't
doing any kind of formal sign language, but she was
interpreting my words to him in a way that he understood.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
And this kid just.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
Got up and did it, and he was really good
at it. And I thought to myself, see, why are
you putting limitations on any buddy to do this? You
have to keep your mind open. And that was a
huge lesson in terms of teaching that there's ways to
get around things, and this kid was also fearless. But
you can't just say no because I'm afraid they won't
(27:14):
be able to do it right.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Right, Maura, Just when I didn't think still walking could
get more inspired, I know, I know you managed to
top yourself. There's no way we can possibly top that.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I know.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Me and my friend Katie, who were teaching the kid,
was walking and we both like, really maintain ourselves because
there's a lot you see there and it was so moving.
She was like, don't look at me, don't look at me.
If we had looked at each other, we would have
started to cry, and there's no crying stilts, so we
avoid each other's eye because it was very.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Very moving.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
That's just it. Yeah, you thought, oh, I can't hussly
get any more inspiring, Well, I mean done. Conversation was
so different. I thought it was going to be about
the big top in circuses, which also would have been great,
but this, dare I say, was even greater. Laura, thank you.
And also I have to ask, if you have a minute,
can you stick around to play a game that we'd
(28:13):
like to play with all of our guests called love
It or Loathe It?
Speaker 6 (28:17):
Yes, okay, we're back, everybody.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
We're here with Laura Tierney. We are going to play
a game called love It or Loathe It. In this
game more, we're going to list some items and you
have to tell us whether you love that thing or
you loathe that thing. You can't feel me about any
of them.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Is there a time constraint?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It's not rapid fire. We want your explanations, but there's
no gray area. Okay. Our first topic, love It or
Loathe It? Camping?
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Oh, I guess that answers the question.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I guess we just haven't. We thought, oh, camp fire project,
but what about actual camping?
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, different?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Nah?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Yeah, I'm an urban person.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
Yeah yeah, I don't like you know, bugs, no nature?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah no, I used to think, Oh I really like nature,
and I do, but I want to sleep in a bed.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
I should point out more that before you came on, Mike,
Ellie was talking about how she loves to sleep on
just a pile of cushions.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But that's different.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
That's called you like indoor nesting.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Well, they have those giant like dog beds for people.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Now have you seen those? You could get what it's
like a human sized dog bed.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
How much you've just come to Yeah, I thought I'm
writing down dogbed because I was just talking about what
Scott said. I love sleeping on the floor on cushions,
dog bag. It seems like it was made for me. Yeah,
but you don't like camping. I understand that. Have you
ever been camping?
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Yeah, I mean we used to go camping when I
was a kid a lot. But oh that's probably also
because it was also was like what we could afford.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
It's a cheap sort of vacation. But I don't need
to do that again.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
No, done, all right, it's in the past. Couldn't agree
more more. A love it or loathed for a thrill
seeker like you. Meditation, Oh love it?
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Well, when I'm good at it, I do transcendental meditation,
So I when I'm in a groove with.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
That, I love it. It's not easy. You got to
stick to it, but it is hard.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Right, I'm comforted to hear you say that, Like, I've
undertaken it twice and it required so much more. Sounds stupid,
but it requires so much more focus that I thought,
and I sort of abandoned it.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
And time it's hard to carve the time out of
your day. Did you try TM specifically?
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Yeah, I tried years ago. I mean I really did
not give it a fair chance because if I approach
it now, I would approach it much more seriously. And
I always thought during that time, I thought, well, if
I'm going to take the time to do this, I
would rather just rest because I feel like my body
needs rest.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
It's similar it is.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It can be RESTful, I guess. But yes, yeah, Scott meditate.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
No, I've not tried it.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
My only association with TM is that I have two
friends that are they're a couple, married couple, and they
both do it. But I guess there are different disciplines
or something. And the only time I've ever seen them
really fight, like be mean to each other marital fight
is about meditation, and I've seen it happen more than once.
(31:45):
Denied comment about how the other meditates and the other
is like, the way you do it is wrong. Nothing
seems less associated with transcendental meditation than fighting about it.
But that's really my only association.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So I don't know, Okay, Maura love it or loathe it?
Reality TV?
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Oh no, Gray Area, Do I watch it sometimes?
Speaker 4 (32:09):
I don't know. This is a little gray. Yeah, yes,
but do I loathe it?
Speaker 5 (32:13):
I know, yes, I know, yeah, I would have to
say I loathe it philosophically.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I know.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I don't really watch reality TV, and then when I do,
I just you see why it's so successful.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
It's very addictive, very addictive, exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
So, and not in a way that helps me be
a better person.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
But anyway, speaking of something that I'm addicted to, Maura,
and I'm curious to get your take on love it
or loathe it?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Baseball?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Hmm, I love baseball, you do, I do well.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
I grew up in Boston, so I was a Boston
fan and I was married and I got divorced a
long time ago, but I was married.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
For a while.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
We went to games all the time, and he was
a Yankee fan, and plus it was like, you know,
when did the.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Red Steps fan like two two thousand and four, when they.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Really came back that that was such an exciting gay
watched all the game. I knew the whole team. And
then I sort of lost baseball in the divorce.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
I don't know how that happens. I think our friends
go to baseball games with him, not me. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
It's okay, but I love baseball. I love going to
baseball games. I just don't follow it the way you
used to.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, I'm from Saint Louis, and when the Cardinals are
doing well, I'm all in. But other than that, I don't.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
I don't watch the other teams.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, okay, love it or loathe it? Coin laundry, love it,
talk to us about it. Love I do you love
it so much?
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Well, m how much time do you have? Let's go
for a long time.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
I did not have a washroom drawer, and I felt
like going to the laundromat is like very meditative. First
of all, you can read or it's good people watching time. Yeah,
it's very you don't do anything, and you feel very
productive at the end because all of your clothes points.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
That's another feeling.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
And I've also used them kind of around the world,
and it's fun to just go to a laundromat, like
I've been to one in Japan Kyoto. That was like
fun figuring out a Japanese watching machine.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Oh that sounds fun is.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Its own thing. And I did one, and I think
beirute we went to one.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
It's just to peek into sort of the community and yeah,
it smells good and I just really enjoy I haven't been.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
In a long time, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I completely understand that because and it's sort of like,
I won't compare it to still walking, but it is
a thing where it's the focus. You have to stay
there by you're clothes and nobody steals them. Yeah, and
you just read whatever people watch.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Yeah, and it's just very calming.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I find Yep, yep, you won the game.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Yeah that was it. You won. Yeah, we were Yes,
I'm a winner.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
You're a winner. You ace leve a of it. Thank
you so much for taking the time to talk with
I learned so much about teaching still walking and the
joy that it can bring people. And we want to
ask if there's any projects or anything that you want
to promote.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
I think I should really promote the Campfire project.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yes, Campfire Project.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
And I didn't come on to push that, Oh sure,
but that's probably something i'd rather mention.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That is a project absolutely worth mentioning, and I'm glad
that you brought it to my attention and the Scott's attention.
It sounds like a holy worthwhile organization. And thank you
for doing it because it brings people I think a
lot of joy. So speaking of bringing people a lot
of joy, thank you for talking with us.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
You brought us of joy today.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
I've never talked about this at all in any public way,
so thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Oh yeah, well we couldn't be working. We're happy to
hear that, so thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll be back
next week with brand new things that we love.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
We want to hear from you. Leave us a review
in Apple Podcasts and tell us what you love. We
might even ask one of our guests in an upcoming
love it or Load It.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Born to Love is hosted and created by Ellie Kemper
and Scott Ecker.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Our executive producer is Aaron Coffman. Our producers are Sheena
Ozaki and Zoe Danklab.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money
Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to
Hans Sonny.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Rachel Kaplan and Adrianna Cassiano
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Michael Fails, Alex Kral and Baheed Frazier.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
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.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.