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October 17, 2024 • 16 mins
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone. Welcome to the public Affairs show of
your favorite iHeartRadio public Affairs show in Seattle. I'milee Callahan,
and I'm delighted to have two really great gentlemen on
the phone who are going to be talking about assisting
the arts and hot tubs all the same time. From
the Seattle Men's and Women's Chorus, I've got the artistic director,

(00:24):
Paul Caldwell.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hi, Paul, Hello, Lee, It's so great to be here.
I mean, the arts and hot tubs two great things
that go great together.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Right.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
And on the other line, I have from Olympic Hot Tubs,
the president of this great Olympic hot Tub company, Don Riling.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hi, Don Preachings, Lee, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I'm really good. Every October you do a Founder's Day
event where you pick not for profit that you would
like to help with your money raised at Olympic Hot Tubs.
So tell me how you go about finding who your
beneficiary is going to be.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, normally what happens is the agency that does my
marketing with me for our company will bring forth a
few candidates to consider, and in October the Founder's event
is normally the charity that we're choosing is normally in
the arena of either helping with fighting hunger or any homelessness,

(01:29):
or the arts, which were the passions of our previous
owners that I bought the company from. So this is
our way to honor them this particular year because I
have been a member of the Seattlemen's Cours for my God,
I'm going to show you how old I am now.
It's going to be thirty eight years in January.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
The people do they let people join the course when
they're just six months old?

Speaker 3 (01:55):
No, but they definitely did. They definitely let them join
when they know how to pull somebody's leg anyway. So
but anyway, you know, I mean, I've been doing this
founder's event for eight years since I purchased the company,
and I have never chosen the men's course and the
women's course has beneficiary, and I just felt it was
high time. So I didn't need any help this time

(02:15):
selecting the charity. It was a no brainer for me.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Great, and on the phone, I've got Paul Caldwell, the
artistic director for both the men and women's courses Seattle
men and Women's Chorus, And Paul, you know Don for
a long time. How long have you been the artistic
director of the chorus.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I've been here for eight years and I've known Don
the whole time. I mean he predates me by a
month or two. But a lot of people who who
know Don as the hot tub guy might not necessarily
know that Don has a beautiful voice. I mean, heart
stoppingly beautiful. I'm really as a conductor, I'm really lucky

(02:57):
to have him in the group. Or so, the ongoing
sponsorship and support that Olympic hot Tubs has provided to
the courses over the years has really been transformational. And
this is the first time that we have been the
beneficiary of this particular event, and we are incredibly humbled

(03:19):
and grateful that Don shares so much with us and
with the entire community. It's an honor great.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
So, Don, I want you just to break down the
I mean, how does it work for people who want
to support the courses and of course go shopping for
a hot tub? How the two work?

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Okay, So during the month of October, we take a
portion of the sale of every hot tub that we sell,
every swim spot that we sell, and we also have
this really cool product called a Covanna Automated gazebo that
you can use on a hot tub or swim spot.
That is another item that we take a portion of

(04:00):
the sale of those and put it into a pot.
And at the end of the month, the goal is
to have a minimum of at least eighteen thousand dollars
that we raise that we would donate to the choruses.
But I am optimistic and hopeful that we will do
much more than that. I mean, I guess I can
share this because a lot of times when we talk
about our founders about we're doing it right at the
beginning of the month. But since it's already the eighth

(04:23):
I would like to share that we've already raised sixty
two hundred dollars, so we were off to a great start,
and I'm very optimistic that we'll have a good month.
So if we stay on this tear, we'll definitely have
a good donation by the end.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
I love it all right, I'm going to ask each
one of you this, why right now? Well, always courses
are important, but why right now are the men and
women's courses of Seattle so important to support?

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Well? I think from my point of view, there there
are kind of two reasons that I think jumped to
the front. The first is that Sattle was really the
first city severely impacted by COVID nineteen. In some ways,
I'm proud to say that the men's chorus and the
women's chorus shut down really before anyone else did, but

(05:14):
only because we got some really good advice. But that
was a long hiatus, and our city has been because
we were so I think we were all sort of
traumatized by that. Our city has been slower to come
back to live performance than many of our counterparts across

(05:34):
the country. I mean, audiences are still are still not
there in the numbers that they were before COVID, and
you know, the arts survival on ticket sales, so that
makes it creates a gap that needs to be filled.
And in this case, you can help fill the gap
and get a new hot tub. So that's really great.
But the other thing that I think is just most

(05:56):
important to remember, I mean, for over forty years, this
chorus has just made people happy year in and year out,
and that does not change. I mean, our singers are
happy when they perform, but our whole community is happy.
I mean, you don't say the name of the chorus

(06:17):
anywhere in town without immediately getting a smile and an
expression of Oh, I love them. Oh my mother took
me and now I take my children. I mean, it's
the story everywhere you go, whether you're in the grocery
store or the beauty salon. You know, and we're still here,
and we're still sowing seeds of happiness. And you know,

(06:42):
hot tubs make people very happy as well, So why
not do both at the same time.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Very good. Paul Caldwell just spoken. He is the artistic
director of the Seattle Men's and Women's Courses. Don Riling.
Why is it so important to support the courses at
this time?

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Well, you know, I mean I speak from personal, you know, experience,
and you know, I think that one of the things
that's so vital about the courses is that they give,
you know, the gay and lesbian community a voice, and
they give us an opportunity to stand on stage and

(07:21):
to share the gift of music with everybody, but also
kind of bridge the gap between the people that are
in our city and let them understand that we're all
the same, we all love the same, we all want
the same things in our lives. We all have our
own hopes and dreams that are very similar, and you know,

(07:43):
we go through these ebbs and flows of you know,
periods in our lives when our rights are okay and
other times when they're not. And I think when we're
in the times that we're in right now, I think
more it's more important than ever for the Chorus to
be up there singing and making people feel that it's

(08:05):
okay for everybody to be who they are in the
world and be accepted. And I think that that's one
of the really great things that the Chorus does for
me personally and for a lot of the people that
I know. I do want to share a story that's
kind of ironic because I just had a new salesperson
that started with their company and I make great pains
to meet every employee that I have that comes to

(08:27):
work for me. And he came over this morning and
I mentioned that I was in the course and he's like,
oh my god, I love the Chorus and I saw
you guys like you perform with Diane, sir, And I'm like,
that was twenty five, thirty year that was a long
time ago, and I was in the show that he
was talking about, So even a memory from thirty years ago,

(08:48):
this guy still remembers seeing the chorus and it still
had a great memory for him. So that's part of
why you do it too, you know, just people remember
what a great time they had exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
And that is Don Rylan, president of Olympic Hot Tub.
And you know, Seattle, we're lucky to be in this
sort of bubble where we live amongst people who are
gay friendly or supportive of the LGBT community. But it's
not that way all around the world. And recently, you
guys had a show and now, of course I can't

(09:21):
remember her name. That's a drag queen that was came on.
Nina West. Wonderful Nina West. And you know there's a
big drag queen controversy, and I think that helped to
dispel some people's fears. What kind of feedback did you
get about that show?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Oh, how could anyone have done anything excepted Dori It.
I mean, she was so beautiful and she's such a
great performer. And really, you know, I've said it more
than once, Nina West and the men's chorus was really
lightning in a bottle. I mean, it was a match
made in heaven. And we're so we were so thrilled

(10:01):
to be able to present that work. But you know,
we're still doing it. The holiday show is the Hoe
Ho Ho Men's Chorn Holiday Show is coming up in December,
and we hope that everyone will come out at that event.
You might even have an opportunity to win a hot top.
I don't know what, but maybe let's go shopping for

(10:24):
one in October.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Oh, that's so exciting. Okay. So Ho Ho Ho is
the name of the the show coming up, and coincidentally,
there's three hos right here. I'm so glad you can
be yourself, sister. I know, I'm so awful. Okay, Next,
tell me when and where, how many days? All the

(10:48):
good stuff, all the details about the upcoming holiday show.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
It opens on December first at Benroy Hall. That's the
first performance, and then there are performance scat performances scattered
throughout the month of December here in Seattle and in Tacoma, and.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Oh wow, where are you going to be? In Tacoma?

Speaker 2 (11:10):
The pantagious, beautiful place, sweet and the Short Theater gorgeously restored.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
And Everett.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, oh, in Everett, we're at the Civic Auditorium.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Wow, that's beautiful. That's beautiful and where do people get tickets?

Speaker 2 (11:26):
You can get tickets for every single show, all at
the same place at Seattlemen's Chorus dot o.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
RG, Seattlemen's Course dot o RG. And I will edit this,
but I is there a women's show coming up to
there is?

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Indeed, it's the collection of music from the Great American Songbook,
and that is going to be in February at the
Beneroya Recital Hall, and tickets for that event are available
at Seattle Women's Chorus dorg. It's going to be a
great show, beautiful music.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
What is the Great American Songbook.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Stuff a period of time between the twenties and before
nineteen seventy that produced a lot of what we think
of as classics. You know, Tony Bennett sang the Great
American Songbook. All of those artist Doorius Day, Julie Andrews,

(12:26):
a lot of those people were famous exponents of that
collection of music. It's kind of a period thing, but
it's Moon River, It's Flimy to the Moon, it's singing
in the rain, it's you know, all of those things
that we remember and love and have loved them for
so long. We don't necessarily know when we heard them

(12:47):
the first time.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yep. And let's get back to the men's show coming
up in December in Seattle and Tacoma and in Everett.
How many men are in the chorus? How many people
in the chorus?

Speaker 2 (13:00):
We have about two hundred now, Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Wow? And tell me, like how festive a holiday show
really gets at Benner Royo. What's it look like?

Speaker 2 (13:13):
It gets pretty raucous with the hilarity and merriment. I
have to tell you. I mean, it's a lot of
great music, it's you know, hundreds and hundreds of very
happy people. There's a lot of costumes, a lot of glitter,
a lot of garland. And the garland this year, by
the way, is all going to be here at Destined,

(13:34):
so it'll be very reflective and again happy looking.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Did you give Don a solo?

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Don didn't this time, but Don will have a pink boa. Okay?

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Is there something going on about winning a hot tub
at these shows?

Speaker 2 (13:54):
There is?

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Actually, you know, we're we're donating a hot tub for
the annual hall raffle that the courses conduct during the
holiday show. You know, it's one of the biggest fundraising
events for the course. So that's a really important event,
and there's there's other great prizes. Paul could probably tell
you more about that than I can, but we're one

(14:16):
of the one of the hot tub that we sell
will be given away during that lovely raffle.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
That's tremendous.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
However, I want to point out that your chances of
winning the hot tub in the raffle are about one
in twenty thousand. Your chance of getting a hot tub
during the October Founders sale is much much greater, right Gon,
Absolutely of course it is.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
And just check out what they have and all the
locations across the Great Northwest at o Limpbig hoot tub
dot com. Gentlemen, is there anything else you would like
to add to our co conversation?

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, Don for doing this, I mean really through his
generosity here. It's a lot of fun and everybody wins,
but really his sense of philanthropy is really humbling, and
I just want to thank him for that and thank
you for having us here to talk today.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Oh of course I wouldn't miss this, all right, Well, thanks.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Thanks for that, Paul. Hey, the only thing that I
want to say, Lee and I you know, I try
to make sure that I say this when we do
these events. You know, obviously I'd love everybody to come
in here and buy a hots up and swim spot
and it will benefit the courses during this month when
we wrap things up. But if anybody out there is
listening and they want to support the organization on their own,

(15:45):
definitely go to Seattle Courses dot org. Donate directly, buy
tickets and come and see the shows. You know, that's
the that's the most important thing that you can do,
is to give and to show up and be part
of the audience and be part of the experience.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Great, thank you so much, Thank you so much, both
of you. I look forward to the shows and everybody
just go to Seattlemen's Chorus dot org. Did I get
that right?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
You did?

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Okay, you don't hear your voice always too.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
You're the best, both of you.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Speculator.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Bye bye
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