August 12, 2024 • 29 mins
Welcome to Merman Mondays EPISODE NINE, the podcast where The Little Mermen, the premier Disney tribute band, share behind-the-scenes tour stories, discuss popular Disney content, and celebrate Disney's musical legacy. Hosted by Alexis Babini and Andrew Grau, this episode dives into the highlights and challenges of their recent tour.
From the Iowa State Fair to the enchanted Springboro, Ohio, the band recounts magical moments, fan interactions, and an unexpected backstage incident involving some mischievous TikTok teens. They also honor standout venues and accommodations with the Golden Trident, Golden Fin, and Golden Spatula awards.
Additionally, the hosts react to the latest Disney news, including the live-action Stitch teaser trailer and the new Snow White movie. They also discuss the upcoming Star Wars series, Skeleton Crew, and its connection to The Mandalorian era.
Join The Little Mermen as they reflect on their adventures, share fun facts, and look ahead to future performances. Don't miss out on this entertaining and insightful episode filled with Disney magic and indie rock charm.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
Welcome to Merman Mondays, the podcast where the Little Mermen share behind-the-scenes
tour stories, discuss popular Disney content, and celebrate Disney's musical legacy.
I'm your host, Alexis Babini, founder of The Little Merman, and joining me is
our co-host, Andrew Grau. Wow. Thanks, Alexis.
(00:31):
Whether you're a longtime fan or first-time dreamer, The Little Merman is the
country's premier Disney tribute band, bringing the magic of Disney music to
life with live performances across the U.S. and the world.
Our mission with this podcast is to connect with our fans on a deeper level,
give a behind-the-scenes glimpse at touring in an indie rock band,
and share in the joy that is Disney content and culture.
(00:55):
We had such fun on our first tour debrief.
As for you loyal listeners, we made a rule that three days of gigs in a row constitutes a debrief.
So even though it was only three shows, five days, so much happened.
We want to show you our highlights, our magic moments, the staying power of
Spaghetti Man, plus our awards at the end with a golden trident for a venue
(01:17):
slash show and a golden fin for accommodation and the golden spatula for an excellent meal.
Neil, stay tuned to find out where you can connect with us and get deeper into band lore.
Well, before we go the distance, we are still a touring band with some shows
coming up, so let's get down to business.
Hello, Murpham. You're kindly editing growl here to update you with some upcoming shows.
(01:42):
Thursday, August 15th, Hilde Performing Arts Center, Plymouth, Minnesota.
Saturday, August 17th, Epstein Family Amphitheater, San Diego, California.
Saturday, August 24th, Field of Dreams Family Fun Day, Salem, New Hampshire.
Tuesday, August 27th, The Seashell Stage, Hampton, New Hampshire.
Wednesday, August 28th, Eric's Church, Wyndham, Maine. Saturday,
(02:05):
August 28th, The Seashell Stage, Hampton, New Hampshire.
Music.
8th Laura Center for the Arts, Hanover, Massachusetts. Yeah,
so just listeners, we wanted to let you know what we've been up to.
We just played the Iowa State Fair, headlined on one of their main stages called the Riley Stage.
(02:26):
We played on the same night as Foreigner and Melissa Etheridge.
And today we just played the Elgin Candyland End of Summer Bash just outside of Chicago.
And we shared the stage with the Taylor Swift tribute called Lover and a fun 80s band called Stash.
Actually, I don't think there's Chicago They're all Dallas-based. Cool.
(02:47):
Bro, we're going all the way back to late July, right? And our first stop is
a little town that we've now played three years in a row called Van Wert, Ohio.
Van Wert's always a really special place for us. Nice big outdoor venue.
Music.
Lots of people. It's a good vibe.
Um, yeah. Yeah, man. Ryan, do you have any fun facts about playing Van Wert?
(03:12):
We got our homie Ryan Slatko here stopping by the podcast.
Also, from last episode. What up, what up?
Yeah, Van Wurg, what to say? Just a lovely little town. They always treat us great there.
Very warm, receptive audience. Yeah, I pointed out that thing I always remember,
the kids standing in a line. Yep. Oh, yeah.
That's a good highlight, right? They just like come right up to the stage and
(03:33):
they just like want to be like.
Right in it. Yeah, right in it. Yeah. Yeah, that's a fun little highlight.
Staring at you, eyes aglow.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's like it's it's it's the best version of a
room of kids staring at you. The best version of that.
So, Van Wert, we love it there. Thank you again for another fantastic year.
(03:56):
Now, Springboro, Ohio is the next stop. And Springboro, I think the most amount of things happened.
But let's talk a little bit about Springboro because this was our fourth year in a row.
So that means that we played this venue, Springboro, Ohio.
It's this park in the north side of the park. There's this huge amphitheater.
(04:16):
And again, it's another one of these Ohio towns that has a great city budget.
So they get to have these really great acts come in and they do all sorts of
stuff like almost every night of the week and then theater in the park.
And we played there during the pandemic, like the height of 2020.
And that was like the only gig that I had past March of that year.
So Springboro has been kind of in our pocket as one of our big shows every summer.
(04:41):
And I think the first summer, it was something like 1,000 people showed up.
And this summer, Alexis, what was the count that we got?
It looks like we got over 2,500 people coming out to see us at Spring Grill.
So yeah, Spring Grill's a real treat.
For me, the big highlight is they film our show, and it goes on the public TV channel.
So we got all these cameras on us, all these camera folks.
(05:04):
And it's sort of like they post their shows on YouTube. so you guys might be
able to pop over on YouTube and grab some of the highlights from our shows that
we do in Springboro. It's really cool.
Yeah, Ryguy, do you think it makes a difference when you know you're being recorded
as opposed to someone just recording you on your phone?
Oh, wow. I mean, I guess if you know about it.
(05:25):
Shout out to Mr. Mike Kunz. And thank you so much for taking care of us with
our sound. We've got some great sound teams here.
And fun fact about Springboro, my first ever gig was at Springboro. 2021. 2021.
That's huge. Yeah. I mean, if you search the recordings, you can find literally
my first ever gig with the Merman. I'm still reading.
(05:46):
I'm up there just trying to make it happen.
Dude, isn't that the first time that you coined the term child mosh pit? Oh, my God.
That's a right off the bat original. Goodness. So.
Spring Borough has grown every year steadily, and it was kind of cool to see in the pandemic.
(06:09):
Obviously, just like a bunch of young families that wanted a place that was
kind of outside city limits, but still have a lot of stuff going on.
And to kind of see how that's grown.
And, you know, I recognize just like, you know, families or whatever,
because they've been coming for four years.
And just to see how they've all grown is just like really wonderful.
However, this was the one place that we could say had the most amount of drama.
(06:32):
Alexis, why don't you kind of start the story a little bit with an incident
that happened in Springboro?
I got this. Yeah, so we're going to give you guys a peek behind the curtain
to some of the ins and outs.
And being, you know, being backstage, being in this, you know,
fantastic cover band with the audiences of like thousands of people.
(06:52):
So it's sort of like a type of thing where like we have our costumes, we have our whole setup.
Up and we're starting to get to the point now where i think we might need a security detail
to take care of us which is sort of like it's almost
like a humble brag moment you know we're getting to this level of
just like our shows are starting to get a little bigger we're coming
back to these towns and more and more people come so the
(07:13):
way that the spring rural stage is set up is we have kind of this like
backstage area behind the stage and
this is our like kind of costume area and yeah we
had sort of like i guess we could say we had a security issue man
i'm so glad i'm so glad that ryan's here because ryan was the
first person that alerted me to it so you know we're doing our vocal warm-ups
we're getting ready for the show and then ryan comes backstage from being you
(07:37):
know just outside and was like yeah there's a there's some tiktok kids that
want to talk to you so so ryan do you want to take it from here how like what
had happened yeah so these These teenagers just showed up.
They were moving very aggressively, kind of right towards the door.
Yeah. I saw it and I'm just like, nope, I'm not doing that. Yeah.
And I'm just kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys. A little space.
(08:01):
Back up, please. This is the talent. The talent is here. You need to step back.
They're like, oh, no, no, no. We're just doing a podcast. Can we interview you?
I'm like, I'm going to see if Alexis wants to deal with this.
And if he doesn't, great. great you know you know let them let them be on their
way but i told alexis and then you could i guess take it from here right yes
(08:23):
so so ryan tells me there's some tiktok teenagers outside,
and the way you told it to me it was like oh these teens they seem like troublemakers.
But the the second i heard that i had sort of like stars in my eyes i was like
finally gen z is showing up checking out how cool our band is i just think that
we all sound like a bunch of,
(08:45):
I'm just putting that out there. We just get off your lawn a bunch of teenagers.
Call them TikTok teenagers.
First of all, I just want to say that we are on TikTok. The Little Merman is
on TikTok, but we're just on TikTok as Little Merman because the Little Merman
got taken by a group of fifth graders in a production of Beauty and the Beast.
Wow. But there's no mermaids in Beauty and the Beast. Do these kids even know canon?
(09:11):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because sometimes we're the little mermen and
we're all just like the Miles Club.
So it's a whole, you know, what are words anymore? It's not just ways to make magic.
We're all on TikTok. We're all TikTok teenagers. All right. Anyways, back to the story.
So, okay. So I go outside and there's a group of kids there.
One of them has a camera phone and the other one has just like,
(09:32):
you know, just like they're using their cell phone as a microphone.
And so I'm like, hey, guys, like, how are you doing? And again,
like I see these kids and I'm like, oh, wow, these teenagers,
they really want to talk to us.
And, you know, they're just like, yeah, like they're asking us questions about
the show. They're asking us like about what's going on.
And I'm like, you know what? Good for you guys. Like you guys are starting your
own TikTok channel and you got a whole group of friends here.
(09:54):
So I'm talking to these kids and I'm just sort of like, you know,
all right, guys, we got to get back. We're changing.
And I got time for maybe like five questions. And so they asked me like one
quick like, OK, well, what songs are you going to play? And I was like,
great. I answered a couple of questions.
And then I'm like, you know, best of luck with your channel.
Again, I'm being charming. I'm being polite. I shake each other's hands.
(10:15):
I'm like, all right, guys, thanks so much. We'll see you later.
So then fast forward to like maybe 10 minutes later.
And it comes to my attention that these kids are still kind of like outside
our backstage area. They hadn't left.
Yeah. And so that was it wasn't quite a red flag, but it definitely was a raised
eyebrow. It was to the point where we usually leave the garage door open because
(10:36):
it's all enclosed with a garage door and we closed it most of the way because
they were just there and there's people changing.
We kind of need our space, you know.
Yeah. So, yeah. And again, the way this backstage area was there.
Yeah. It was sort of like a garage that comes down. Yeah. And that's our private.
And there's a whole walking path behind it, too, which like usually people like,
(10:58):
oh, something's going on. I'm not going to walk back there.
Ryan, do you want to take the story from here? Yes.
So next thing we know, projectiles are coming into our little garage changing
area. Sticks, hand stones.
They're throwing stuff at us. They're literally throwing sticks and stones under
like the half closed backstage area.
I think they're just being troublemaker teens. But yeah, there's like sticks
(11:21):
from the woods hitting our feet at this outdoor stage backstage private area.
And this is when we kind of realize, OK, what do we do? Yeah,
I think this is a problem. So I'm getting on the phone with our venue contact.
OK, so shout out to Maureen for really taking care of us this night in Springboro
when all this stuff happened.
And I started texting her like immediately. I'm like, Maureen,
(11:42):
you know, there's we kind of have a security issue back here.
Is it possible to get some people from the park?
And then I think the police got involved. There's some security.
Security so so what happened was we closed the door fully
and those kids didn't like it so
they ran up and kicked the door oh right yeah like
drop kicked the door yeah so then chelsea went to go haha surprised them and
(12:05):
of course they ran away but because it's a garage door the very back panel went
off the tracks and it clocked me full on the right side of my head so to recap
we got at troublemaker teens throwing stuff under our backstage area.
Backstage area barrier is a garage door that comes down. We close the garage door.
They kick it. They damage the door. Then we open the door back up.
(12:28):
The back of it falls off. Hits Grout in the head. In the head.
So now we've called Maureen. She's sending help.
Yep. And we also have to talk to the medics because now it's turning into a bigger issue.
So there's a little bit more that happened. Essentially, they were like, oh my God.
Sorry about Ben Wirtz. Sorry about Ben Wirtz. Sorry about Springboro.
(12:53):
Sorry about interrupting the cast. We have been interrupted by some other members
of the band, Chelsea Zeno, Quinn Marshall, and Katie Miller,
who's never been on the podcast before.
So we're telling the tale of the angsty teenagers.
We're going to call it the incident. The Springboro incident.
(13:13):
The incident. And so it's this
whole like this whole thing is starting to snowball into this crazy thing.
So then do you want to take it from here? Yeah. So they send one of like the facilities guy back.
He's like, I've got to put out other fires, but call this guy and this guy.
You stay here. So they had one of the people stay here with us and make sure
no one else was bothering us. I, you know.
(13:33):
I have to I have to also say, like, I was hit. I immediately ran outside,
just kind of like took a few deep breaths. I didn't lose consciousness.
I didn't see stars. I wasn't dizzy.
I didn't have any nausea. And other than just like, I didn't have any temporary
like loss of hearing or anything.
So. but it must have hurt it hurt it
hurt incredibly much and they
were like okay well we have to get the police involved immediately so the police
(13:55):
came over and had to talk to the police and tell them what happened and then
i wasn't able to get to a medic until after intermission so i did a full first
set after just like sustaining a head injury and killed monomena which is my feature
and then like to come through man it was it was
it was yeah the boy but that's our
(14:18):
boy i will say grab grab grab
grab grab grab i will say the emts that did check me out on break were great
i feel so bad that we had to take such a long intermission but they were like
we have to get you checked out and they came over and i told them what happened
and did all the tests and they're they were like and i was like i've had concussions
(14:38):
before i know what that kind
of feels like, but I think it's just all kind of clearing up.
It's just like, you know, so, and then we, you know, we slayed the show.
They were super sweet, but you know what? It happens. And it's like,
honestly, like Springboro.
And I, they said, they apologized so much and they kept saying like,
oh, I hope this isn't sorry your experience. And it's like, listen.
I still want to, I would go back if, if there was a Springbro tomorrow,
(15:00):
I'd be like, yes, go play Springbro.
Like that's how I've always felt about Springbro. It's a, it's a real class
act of a place and we always have a really great time.
And again, shout out to Mike Kunz and his crew. Man, we, I think we're just
starting to get to the level where we need a security detail.
It sounds crazy to say it. Yeah. But yeah, you know, we're, we're doing a big
show here and you know, we're, we're growing as a band.
(15:22):
So, you know, I hope, I hope those teens got Got some good TikTok content out
of it. They definitely got thrown out of the show. Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's the other thing, too. They got thrown out of the show,
and then they tried to pretend that they didn't do it, and then they finally
fessed up, and they were just like, what are you doing?
This is a Disney show. What are you guys doing?
So, Springboro, memorable. It was a lot.
(15:45):
Crazy. And then Munster. You know, Munster, Indiana ended up,
you know, this is the second time that we've ended at a theater in Indiana on
a tour run. It was a very different stage for us, but very beautiful.
I liked that stage a lot, actually. Yeah, it was cool. I did enjoy that theater.
Let's talk about that stage, because, yeah, the stage in Monster,
Indiana, at the theater, at the center, I think they were having a showing of
(16:09):
Beauty and the Beast to play or something.
There was an enchanted forest. Never heard of that. What is that?
What is that movie? What was that story? Is that for readers?
For people that like to read? It is a round stage.
Yeah, it was very round. round stage with like an enchanted tree over the whole
the way the branches like reached out to it was just I'd never seen a stage
(16:32):
like that at all very unique I feel like in their show like whatever was.
In there prior to us like those must light up they
look like they did very very much a midsummer's night
just dream vibe um there's
one other thing i want to talk about in monster indiana because it's a big highlight
for me sure and you know we got the show i think one of the gentlemen there
(16:55):
who is booker also is involved in like local news so this guy this guy wrote
about us in like the a newspaper in Indiana,
and I guess also works at the theater at the center. I think the link is down.
But it was so funny because it was like sort of, if you could imagine like a
(17:15):
journalist writing a description of a show on the website, it had said something
like, check out this Disney tribute band. It started by this guy, Alexis.
And Alexis learned that he can market this band. It's a great market.
And it was just like a lot about the marketing of the show. So I
just thought it was kind of funny we were just joking around just like i mean
you know like come to our marketing seminar so yeah
(17:37):
another big so this i think the most interesting thing about
the theater at the center is that the center is a center for a lot of things
they have like the banquet halls they're like a full kitchen and staff we actually
got to meet the head chef yeah monster ended up being a really fun way to end
it and and then yeah it was just like another huge long day of of Of driving. Yay.
(17:59):
All right. The Golden Trident Award goes to a venue that stole our hearts and
made our dreams come true.
I am pleased to award the Golden Trident to...
It's going to go to Springboro. Yay. Because they did such a great job.
Maureen and her staff did such a great job figuring out this issue.
(18:22):
We'd never had that before.
So they handled it well. And we can't wait to go back to Springboro.
Hands off to Maureen for doing the best she could alright now time for the Golden
Fin Award okay Golden Fin Award is a prestigious honor that we award to accommodations
that went above and beyond,
Oh, we love all our hotels. We love all our Airbnbs. I am pleased to award the Golden Finn Award to...
(18:51):
Music.
I think there was a hot tub in our Airbnb in Pittsburgh, I want to say.
So that was pretty cool. We had like a hot tub party. That was the resident Golden Yelp elite.
I have the honor of presenting the Golden Spatula Award. and that one goes to who is it going to go to?
(19:14):
Federal Taphouse State College PA.
So right now while we've been on tour Disney is
having their huge fan event called D23 and over the years many fans have been
like you guys got to play D23 and it's so crazy because we're so busy in the
summer and we're always like we were just playing the Iowa State Fair literally
(19:37):
our largest show of the year So that's so cool.
But also Disney has announced all their new movies and all their new trailers.
So while we still have the Little Merman here, I'd like to just get some reactions on this news here.
So they don't know about this. This all came out like literally today.
Well, guys, what do we think? We just saw the live action Stitch teaser trailer.
(19:58):
Any thoughts and feelings? Do we like how he looks? Does he look cute? Is it all CGI?
Are we doing a live action CGI cross?
Is that what this is? I think this is just going to go in line with the new Disney remix.
Black people will be peeped. I don't know if they've released any casting information.
So we don't have a lot of information yet. I think they have some casting.
(20:19):
Okay, so we have Zach Galifianakis.
We have Zach Galifianakis as president.
No, I don't know. I don't think he's playing Stitch. Isn't he like the head
guy, the actual villain?
Well, in the movie, it was sort of like Bubbles was the guy who was trying to
remove Lilo from her family.
Because she was like this, it was just her living with her sister.
(20:42):
And so we got this guy, Courtney B. Vance, as that character who's trying to
be like, you can't take care of your daughter.
And Courtney B. Vance, if you guys
remember, he was in The Hunt for Red October. He was in Space Cowboys.
So, yeah, I mean, all we have is sort of this cast, and we have this brief look.
Lilo and Stitch coming next summer. Anything else before we move on to the next
(21:04):
bit of news that just came out today?
You know, I never noticed that Stitch had a notch in his ear.
Yeah, right? It's like a notch or like a rip. Do they explain that in the movie?
I mean, he got made in a lab, but I've actually never noticed that either.
Maybe they added this. One of his right ear, yeah. This could be an interesting thing.
Does animated Stitch have a notch in his ear?
(21:26):
And there's a reason that I noticed that. He always has. So he has one on one
side up and the other side is down. Wow, I've never noticed that either.
Wow. So yeah, my initial reaction is just like, yeah, very faithfully done.
It looks good. The CGI looks amazing. It's exactly how I imagined Stitch would
look in that environment. Yeah.
Cool. All right. So let's check out this Snow White trailer that also literally just dropped.
(21:51):
So let's pause it. Well, I'll go first. Yeah. So what do you think of this new
Snow White trailer, Grav?
Well, a lot of movies now use that sound cue. There's that like sound direction
where they do very slow cover, like slow minor covers of songs.
It's like I had that. I learned that at a conference for like music publishers.
And I was like, I can never watch trailers the same.
(22:13):
Yeah. So, okay. So we have Gal Gadot, the Wonder Woman actress.
She's playing the evil queen.
Oh, that's why. I think Gal Gadot. It's a Snow White movie.
I thought it was Gal Gadot. I think it's Gadot. G-O-D-O-T. Yeah, I think it's Gadot.
However, she's fine.
She's fine for sure. Gal Gadot. How pronounced? We're going to figure this out on the podcast.
(22:36):
I want this to be on it. How to pronounce Gal Gadot. Let's see. There's going to be a...
Gadot. Yes. Anyways. Okay. And then we have Rachel Zegler, who was Maria in
the West Side Story movie.
Wait. Actually, I want to talk more about this. So you were at a music conference
and you learned that they're using slowed down famous songs for trailers.
(22:56):
Like, why is that? Why does that grab? It's just hitting right now. It's just a moment.
Yeah, it's just like if you notice it like pretty much. And there's always that
little ping like bing and then slow music.
That's like such a thing that I'm now conditioned to listen for.
Just changing the musical content of it to have it do that can actually,
(23:17):
you know, reinvent the whole, like, interest in that song.
And it's a very interesting technique.
And yeah, it's like I can't watch anything without hearing that.
Trailers can be so formulaic that's very fascinating how
there's been a number of different formulas over the
years like 90s trailers have their own vibe yeah
and i'm sure you're playing familiar with the marvel thing of like the pop cover
(23:40):
it's always so it's a slow pop cover that's so interesting why that works for
trailers because for and that's kind of the opposite of what we're doing as
a band because we're taking some slow songs and we're rocking them out so wow
we're really dissecting this okay yeah so let's watch I watched a new Star Wars
thing. Glad you knew about this one.
Yeah, the skeleton crew. I can, okay.
I think I, Ryguy and I literally talked about this today as I was driving.
(24:04):
Really? We talked about how what makes Andor one of the best shows I've just
ever seen, but the best Star Wars show by far, is that it's in the Star Wars
universe, but it's not about a Skywalker.
It's not the same old story that you've heard. It's just like,
you don't have to know anything about Star Wars to just watch it.
And it's just made for people to be able to watch it. And you don't have to
(24:26):
know anything about the movies.
What is this new series? It's Skeleton Crew. It's like the people that are sent out to, yeah.
So there's a group of young little kids who are longing for adventure and it
kind of follows a template of these movies like E.T.
Following those two kids and they run into an alien. The Goonies following that
group of kids and they run into a treasure map.
(24:48):
Yeah, it looks so good. Stranger Things.
It's in the same like kids longing for that sense
of adventure and i think it's such a cool way to see that happen in
the star wars universe and have a connection to like another
movie or this is just like it's no i think it's just like i mean it probably
does it probably will tie in but it's like one of those things that i i can't
(25:10):
i can't really put my my nose on it but like when it's a the main character
is like a jedi that i don't think the show's as good,
Whereas Andor, really freaking amazing.
Mando, you don't see a Skywalker for until like season two.
Like you literally have two almost encapsulated perfect seasons.
(25:32):
I'm actually doing a Mando rewatch right now.
They're kind of adjacent, but it's when they're the main character,
it kind of isn't as good of a show.
So I'd love to see that they're embracing, that they can do so much other stories within the universe.
It's so cool. And I love that it's live action. and not a cartoon.
But if I found out it was a cartoon, I'd fucking watch it. Oh,
(25:54):
sorry. That was a big swear.
No, it's fine. I mean, I think we can keep some Fs. Like, we gotta go by the
template. Do you have a delete button? Do you have, like, a soundbite?
When they had Aunt Hamilton on Disney+, there was two F words.
So we can do that, two of those. And then they just gotta get out.
So speaking of The Mandalorian, this show, the skeleton crew,
takes place in the time frame of The Mandalorian.
(26:14):
So that was after Return of the Jedi. Yeah, the Empire has fallen.
Yeah before they see and they got the new order yeah so the show was created
by john watts who did the three recent spider-man films oh nice nice nice and
the and including the one with spider-man all the spider-mans are in oops all
spider-mans oops all spider-mans that's just like actually,
(26:36):
could is it confirmed today did we see spider-man because we always see spider-man
whenever there's always a spider-man somewhere he's always in the shadows he's
always lurking in the shadows As a touring Disney tribute band,
there are often Marvel characters in the audience and there's usually a little
boy wearing a Spider-Man costume. But sometimes it's actual Spider-Man is there.
That's happened with like, there was a guy doing flips during one of our movies. Oh my God. Yeah.
(26:57):
He was swinging from like one of the buildings. Remember when we met Batman? Wow.
You met Batman? Oh, we also met Tusken Raiders at the egg. That's true. Yeah.
I had a mustache on. I'm so mad. I looked like such a dork. See, that's the thing.
I love that we started as a tour briefs and then end as an unintentional Star Wars episode.
(27:19):
We just let it go where it may. Star Wars?
Oh, Star Wars. We've had a lot. Now that Star Wars is Disney,
we've had a lot of Star Wars ruins.
Including going to Star Wars land when we did the Orlando shows.
We saw Taylor Swift today. We saw the Dallas Taylor Swift tribute called Lover.
And I got sunburned to heck.
(27:40):
And I ran into a drummer friend of mine I haven't seen in years.
Shout out to Connor Kent. Oh my gosh. Crushing on the drums with Lover.
Yeah. And how did you know Connor when you guys were in New York?
We were both on the New York jazz scene for a hot second.
Wow. It was cool seeing you guys catch up today. Like they all had their Taylor Swift shirts.
A lot of us have. Well, a couple of us had our Disney shirts on.
So it was sort of just like, you know. Us versus them.
(28:02):
Sharks, Jets. It's been. Yeah.
Hardest French horn book, like, in the world. Yeah.
Listen this is this should not turn into a great
episode but we should actually get towards the end because it is 11 we got an
(28:24):
early call time tomorrow join us on our patreon for exclusive content bonus
episodes behind the scene insights and more visit patreon.com slash a little
to become part of our merfam enjoy all the extra perks we have to offer if you are not already ready.
Please follow the podcast at MermanMondaysPod.
Follow the subject of the podcast, The Little Merman, at TheLittleMerman on IG.
(28:48):
You can find Alexis at Alexis Babini, and you can find me at Grau underscore music.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Merman Mondays. We hope you've enjoyed
our stories and discussions.
Please don't forget to subscribe and follow us on all those platforms.
We'd love to hear your feedback back on patreon that's patreon.com slash the
(29:08):
little merman and that brings you to little merman behind the magic so please
leave a comment or send us a message and until next time remember to dream believe
and achieve see you next monday.
Music.
(00:10):
Welcome to Merman Mondays, the podcast where the Little Mermen share behind-the-scenes
tour stories, discuss popular Disney content, and celebrate Disney's musical legacy.
I'm your host, Alexis Babini, founder of The Little Merman, and joining me is
our co-host, Andrew Grau. Wow. Thanks, Alexis.
(00:31):
Whether you're a longtime fan or first-time dreamer, The Little Merman is the
country's premier Disney tribute band, bringing the magic of Disney music to
life with live performances across the U.S. and the world.
Our mission with this podcast is to connect with our fans on a deeper level,
give a behind-the-scenes glimpse at touring in an indie rock band,
and share in the joy that is Disney content and culture.
(00:55):
We had such fun on our first tour debrief.
As for you loyal listeners, we made a rule that three days of gigs in a row constitutes a debrief.
So even though it was only three shows, five days, so much happened.
We want to show you our highlights, our magic moments, the staying power of
Spaghetti Man, plus our awards at the end with a golden trident for a venue
(01:17):
slash show and a golden fin for accommodation and the golden spatula for an excellent meal.
Neil, stay tuned to find out where you can connect with us and get deeper into band lore.
Well, before we go the distance, we are still a touring band with some shows
coming up, so let's get down to business.
Hello, Murpham. You're kindly editing growl here to update you with some upcoming shows.
(01:42):
Thursday, August 15th, Hilde Performing Arts Center, Plymouth, Minnesota.
Saturday, August 17th, Epstein Family Amphitheater, San Diego, California.
Saturday, August 24th, Field of Dreams Family Fun Day, Salem, New Hampshire.
Tuesday, August 27th, The Seashell Stage, Hampton, New Hampshire.
Wednesday, August 28th, Eric's Church, Wyndham, Maine. Saturday,
(02:05):
August 28th, The Seashell Stage, Hampton, New Hampshire.
Music.
8th Laura Center for the Arts, Hanover, Massachusetts. Yeah,
so just listeners, we wanted to let you know what we've been up to.
We just played the Iowa State Fair, headlined on one of their main stages called the Riley Stage.
(02:26):
We played on the same night as Foreigner and Melissa Etheridge.
And today we just played the Elgin Candyland End of Summer Bash just outside of Chicago.
And we shared the stage with the Taylor Swift tribute called Lover and a fun 80s band called Stash.
Actually, I don't think there's Chicago They're all Dallas-based. Cool.
(02:47):
Bro, we're going all the way back to late July, right? And our first stop is
a little town that we've now played three years in a row called Van Wert, Ohio.
Van Wert's always a really special place for us. Nice big outdoor venue.
Music.
Lots of people. It's a good vibe.
Um, yeah. Yeah, man. Ryan, do you have any fun facts about playing Van Wert?
(03:12):
We got our homie Ryan Slatko here stopping by the podcast.
Also, from last episode. What up, what up?
Yeah, Van Wurg, what to say? Just a lovely little town. They always treat us great there.
Very warm, receptive audience. Yeah, I pointed out that thing I always remember,
the kids standing in a line. Yep. Oh, yeah.
That's a good highlight, right? They just like come right up to the stage and
(03:33):
they just like want to be like.
Right in it. Yeah, right in it. Yeah. Yeah, that's a fun little highlight.
Staring at you, eyes aglow.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's like it's it's it's the best version of a
room of kids staring at you. The best version of that.
So, Van Wert, we love it there. Thank you again for another fantastic year.
(03:56):
Now, Springboro, Ohio is the next stop. And Springboro, I think the most amount of things happened.
But let's talk a little bit about Springboro because this was our fourth year in a row.
So that means that we played this venue, Springboro, Ohio.
It's this park in the north side of the park. There's this huge amphitheater.
(04:16):
And again, it's another one of these Ohio towns that has a great city budget.
So they get to have these really great acts come in and they do all sorts of
stuff like almost every night of the week and then theater in the park.
And we played there during the pandemic, like the height of 2020.
And that was like the only gig that I had past March of that year.
So Springboro has been kind of in our pocket as one of our big shows every summer.
(04:41):
And I think the first summer, it was something like 1,000 people showed up.
And this summer, Alexis, what was the count that we got?
It looks like we got over 2,500 people coming out to see us at Spring Grill.
So yeah, Spring Grill's a real treat.
For me, the big highlight is they film our show, and it goes on the public TV channel.
So we got all these cameras on us, all these camera folks.
(05:04):
And it's sort of like they post their shows on YouTube. so you guys might be
able to pop over on YouTube and grab some of the highlights from our shows that
we do in Springboro. It's really cool.
Yeah, Ryguy, do you think it makes a difference when you know you're being recorded
as opposed to someone just recording you on your phone?
Oh, wow. I mean, I guess if you know about it.
(05:25):
Shout out to Mr. Mike Kunz. And thank you so much for taking care of us with
our sound. We've got some great sound teams here.
And fun fact about Springboro, my first ever gig was at Springboro. 2021. 2021.
That's huge. Yeah. I mean, if you search the recordings, you can find literally
my first ever gig with the Merman. I'm still reading.
(05:46):
I'm up there just trying to make it happen.
Dude, isn't that the first time that you coined the term child mosh pit? Oh, my God.
That's a right off the bat original. Goodness. So.
Spring Borough has grown every year steadily, and it was kind of cool to see in the pandemic.
(06:09):
Obviously, just like a bunch of young families that wanted a place that was
kind of outside city limits, but still have a lot of stuff going on.
And to kind of see how that's grown.
And, you know, I recognize just like, you know, families or whatever,
because they've been coming for four years.
And just to see how they've all grown is just like really wonderful.
However, this was the one place that we could say had the most amount of drama.
(06:32):
Alexis, why don't you kind of start the story a little bit with an incident
that happened in Springboro?
I got this. Yeah, so we're going to give you guys a peek behind the curtain
to some of the ins and outs.
And being, you know, being backstage, being in this, you know,
fantastic cover band with the audiences of like thousands of people.
(06:52):
So it's sort of like a type of thing where like we have our costumes, we have our whole setup.
Up and we're starting to get to the point now where i think we might need a security detail
to take care of us which is sort of like it's almost
like a humble brag moment you know we're getting to this level of
just like our shows are starting to get a little bigger we're coming
back to these towns and more and more people come so the
(07:13):
way that the spring rural stage is set up is we have kind of this like
backstage area behind the stage and
this is our like kind of costume area and yeah we
had sort of like i guess we could say we had a security issue man
i'm so glad i'm so glad that ryan's here because ryan was the
first person that alerted me to it so you know we're doing our vocal warm-ups
we're getting ready for the show and then ryan comes backstage from being you
(07:37):
know just outside and was like yeah there's a there's some tiktok kids that
want to talk to you so so ryan do you want to take it from here how like what
had happened yeah so these These teenagers just showed up.
They were moving very aggressively, kind of right towards the door.
Yeah. I saw it and I'm just like, nope, I'm not doing that. Yeah.
And I'm just kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys. A little space.
(08:01):
Back up, please. This is the talent. The talent is here. You need to step back.
They're like, oh, no, no, no. We're just doing a podcast. Can we interview you?
I'm like, I'm going to see if Alexis wants to deal with this.
And if he doesn't, great. great you know you know let them let them be on their
way but i told alexis and then you could i guess take it from here right yes
(08:23):
so so ryan tells me there's some tiktok teenagers outside,
and the way you told it to me it was like oh these teens they seem like troublemakers.
But the the second i heard that i had sort of like stars in my eyes i was like
finally gen z is showing up checking out how cool our band is i just think that
we all sound like a bunch of,
(08:45):
I'm just putting that out there. We just get off your lawn a bunch of teenagers.
Call them TikTok teenagers.
First of all, I just want to say that we are on TikTok. The Little Merman is
on TikTok, but we're just on TikTok as Little Merman because the Little Merman
got taken by a group of fifth graders in a production of Beauty and the Beast.
Wow. But there's no mermaids in Beauty and the Beast. Do these kids even know canon?
(09:11):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because sometimes we're the little mermen and
we're all just like the Miles Club.
So it's a whole, you know, what are words anymore? It's not just ways to make magic.
We're all on TikTok. We're all TikTok teenagers. All right. Anyways, back to the story.
So, okay. So I go outside and there's a group of kids there.
One of them has a camera phone and the other one has just like,
(09:32):
you know, just like they're using their cell phone as a microphone.
And so I'm like, hey, guys, like, how are you doing? And again,
like I see these kids and I'm like, oh, wow, these teenagers,
they really want to talk to us.
And, you know, they're just like, yeah, like they're asking us questions about
the show. They're asking us like about what's going on.
And I'm like, you know what? Good for you guys. Like you guys are starting your
own TikTok channel and you got a whole group of friends here.
(09:54):
So I'm talking to these kids and I'm just sort of like, you know,
all right, guys, we got to get back. We're changing.
And I got time for maybe like five questions. And so they asked me like one
quick like, OK, well, what songs are you going to play? And I was like,
great. I answered a couple of questions.
And then I'm like, you know, best of luck with your channel.
Again, I'm being charming. I'm being polite. I shake each other's hands.
(10:15):
I'm like, all right, guys, thanks so much. We'll see you later.
So then fast forward to like maybe 10 minutes later.
And it comes to my attention that these kids are still kind of like outside
our backstage area. They hadn't left.
Yeah. And so that was it wasn't quite a red flag, but it definitely was a raised
eyebrow. It was to the point where we usually leave the garage door open because
(10:36):
it's all enclosed with a garage door and we closed it most of the way because
they were just there and there's people changing.
We kind of need our space, you know.
Yeah. So, yeah. And again, the way this backstage area was there.
Yeah. It was sort of like a garage that comes down. Yeah. And that's our private.
And there's a whole walking path behind it, too, which like usually people like,
(10:58):
oh, something's going on. I'm not going to walk back there.
Ryan, do you want to take the story from here? Yes.
So next thing we know, projectiles are coming into our little garage changing
area. Sticks, hand stones.
They're throwing stuff at us. They're literally throwing sticks and stones under
like the half closed backstage area.
I think they're just being troublemaker teens. But yeah, there's like sticks
(11:21):
from the woods hitting our feet at this outdoor stage backstage private area.
And this is when we kind of realize, OK, what do we do? Yeah,
I think this is a problem. So I'm getting on the phone with our venue contact.
OK, so shout out to Maureen for really taking care of us this night in Springboro
when all this stuff happened.
And I started texting her like immediately. I'm like, Maureen,
(11:42):
you know, there's we kind of have a security issue back here.
Is it possible to get some people from the park?
And then I think the police got involved. There's some security.
Security so so what happened was we closed the door fully
and those kids didn't like it so
they ran up and kicked the door oh right yeah like
drop kicked the door yeah so then chelsea went to go haha surprised them and
(12:05):
of course they ran away but because it's a garage door the very back panel went
off the tracks and it clocked me full on the right side of my head so to recap
we got at troublemaker teens throwing stuff under our backstage area.
Backstage area barrier is a garage door that comes down. We close the garage door.
They kick it. They damage the door. Then we open the door back up.
(12:28):
The back of it falls off. Hits Grout in the head. In the head.
So now we've called Maureen. She's sending help.
Yep. And we also have to talk to the medics because now it's turning into a bigger issue.
So there's a little bit more that happened. Essentially, they were like, oh my God.
Sorry about Ben Wirtz. Sorry about Ben Wirtz. Sorry about Springboro.
(12:53):
Sorry about interrupting the cast. We have been interrupted by some other members
of the band, Chelsea Zeno, Quinn Marshall, and Katie Miller,
who's never been on the podcast before.
So we're telling the tale of the angsty teenagers.
We're going to call it the incident. The Springboro incident.
(13:13):
The incident. And so it's this
whole like this whole thing is starting to snowball into this crazy thing.
So then do you want to take it from here? Yeah. So they send one of like the facilities guy back.
He's like, I've got to put out other fires, but call this guy and this guy.
You stay here. So they had one of the people stay here with us and make sure
no one else was bothering us. I, you know.
(13:33):
I have to I have to also say, like, I was hit. I immediately ran outside,
just kind of like took a few deep breaths. I didn't lose consciousness.
I didn't see stars. I wasn't dizzy.
I didn't have any nausea. And other than just like, I didn't have any temporary
like loss of hearing or anything.
So. but it must have hurt it hurt it
hurt incredibly much and they
were like okay well we have to get the police involved immediately so the police
(13:55):
came over and had to talk to the police and tell them what happened and then
i wasn't able to get to a medic until after intermission so i did a full first
set after just like sustaining a head injury and killed monomena which is my feature
and then like to come through man it was it was
it was yeah the boy but that's our
(14:18):
boy i will say grab grab grab
grab grab grab i will say the emts that did check me out on break were great
i feel so bad that we had to take such a long intermission but they were like
we have to get you checked out and they came over and i told them what happened
and did all the tests and they're they were like and i was like i've had concussions
(14:38):
before i know what that kind
of feels like, but I think it's just all kind of clearing up.
It's just like, you know, so, and then we, you know, we slayed the show.
They were super sweet, but you know what? It happens. And it's like,
honestly, like Springboro.
And I, they said, they apologized so much and they kept saying like,
oh, I hope this isn't sorry your experience. And it's like, listen.
I still want to, I would go back if, if there was a Springbro tomorrow,
(15:00):
I'd be like, yes, go play Springbro.
Like that's how I've always felt about Springbro. It's a, it's a real class
act of a place and we always have a really great time.
And again, shout out to Mike Kunz and his crew. Man, we, I think we're just
starting to get to the level where we need a security detail.
It sounds crazy to say it. Yeah. But yeah, you know, we're, we're doing a big
show here and you know, we're, we're growing as a band.
(15:22):
So, you know, I hope, I hope those teens got Got some good TikTok content out
of it. They definitely got thrown out of the show. Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's the other thing, too. They got thrown out of the show,
and then they tried to pretend that they didn't do it, and then they finally
fessed up, and they were just like, what are you doing?
This is a Disney show. What are you guys doing?
So, Springboro, memorable. It was a lot.
(15:45):
Crazy. And then Munster. You know, Munster, Indiana ended up,
you know, this is the second time that we've ended at a theater in Indiana on
a tour run. It was a very different stage for us, but very beautiful.
I liked that stage a lot, actually. Yeah, it was cool. I did enjoy that theater.
Let's talk about that stage, because, yeah, the stage in Monster,
Indiana, at the theater, at the center, I think they were having a showing of
(16:09):
Beauty and the Beast to play or something.
There was an enchanted forest. Never heard of that. What is that?
What is that movie? What was that story? Is that for readers?
For people that like to read? It is a round stage.
Yeah, it was very round. round stage with like an enchanted tree over the whole
the way the branches like reached out to it was just I'd never seen a stage
(16:32):
like that at all very unique I feel like in their show like whatever was.
In there prior to us like those must light up they
look like they did very very much a midsummer's night
just dream vibe um there's
one other thing i want to talk about in monster indiana because it's a big highlight
for me sure and you know we got the show i think one of the gentlemen there
(16:55):
who is booker also is involved in like local news so this guy this guy wrote
about us in like the a newspaper in Indiana,
and I guess also works at the theater at the center. I think the link is down.
But it was so funny because it was like sort of, if you could imagine like a
(17:15):
journalist writing a description of a show on the website, it had said something
like, check out this Disney tribute band. It started by this guy, Alexis.
And Alexis learned that he can market this band. It's a great market.
And it was just like a lot about the marketing of the show. So I
just thought it was kind of funny we were just joking around just like i mean
you know like come to our marketing seminar so yeah
(17:37):
another big so this i think the most interesting thing about
the theater at the center is that the center is a center for a lot of things
they have like the banquet halls they're like a full kitchen and staff we actually
got to meet the head chef yeah monster ended up being a really fun way to end
it and and then yeah it was just like another huge long day of of Of driving. Yay.
(17:59):
All right. The Golden Trident Award goes to a venue that stole our hearts and
made our dreams come true.
I am pleased to award the Golden Trident to...
It's going to go to Springboro. Yay. Because they did such a great job.
Maureen and her staff did such a great job figuring out this issue.
(18:22):
We'd never had that before.
So they handled it well. And we can't wait to go back to Springboro.
Hands off to Maureen for doing the best she could alright now time for the Golden
Fin Award okay Golden Fin Award is a prestigious honor that we award to accommodations
that went above and beyond,
Oh, we love all our hotels. We love all our Airbnbs. I am pleased to award the Golden Finn Award to...
(18:51):
Music.
I think there was a hot tub in our Airbnb in Pittsburgh, I want to say.
So that was pretty cool. We had like a hot tub party. That was the resident Golden Yelp elite.
I have the honor of presenting the Golden Spatula Award. and that one goes to who is it going to go to?
(19:14):
Federal Taphouse State College PA.
So right now while we've been on tour Disney is
having their huge fan event called D23 and over the years many fans have been
like you guys got to play D23 and it's so crazy because we're so busy in the
summer and we're always like we were just playing the Iowa State Fair literally
(19:37):
our largest show of the year So that's so cool.
But also Disney has announced all their new movies and all their new trailers.
So while we still have the Little Merman here, I'd like to just get some reactions on this news here.
So they don't know about this. This all came out like literally today.
Well, guys, what do we think? We just saw the live action Stitch teaser trailer.
(19:58):
Any thoughts and feelings? Do we like how he looks? Does he look cute? Is it all CGI?
Are we doing a live action CGI cross?
Is that what this is? I think this is just going to go in line with the new Disney remix.
Black people will be peeped. I don't know if they've released any casting information.
So we don't have a lot of information yet. I think they have some casting.
(20:19):
Okay, so we have Zach Galifianakis.
We have Zach Galifianakis as president.
No, I don't know. I don't think he's playing Stitch. Isn't he like the head
guy, the actual villain?
Well, in the movie, it was sort of like Bubbles was the guy who was trying to
remove Lilo from her family.
Because she was like this, it was just her living with her sister.
(20:42):
And so we got this guy, Courtney B. Vance, as that character who's trying to
be like, you can't take care of your daughter.
And Courtney B. Vance, if you guys
remember, he was in The Hunt for Red October. He was in Space Cowboys.
So, yeah, I mean, all we have is sort of this cast, and we have this brief look.
Lilo and Stitch coming next summer. Anything else before we move on to the next
(21:04):
bit of news that just came out today?
You know, I never noticed that Stitch had a notch in his ear.
Yeah, right? It's like a notch or like a rip. Do they explain that in the movie?
I mean, he got made in a lab, but I've actually never noticed that either.
Maybe they added this. One of his right ear, yeah. This could be an interesting thing.
Does animated Stitch have a notch in his ear?
(21:26):
And there's a reason that I noticed that. He always has. So he has one on one
side up and the other side is down. Wow, I've never noticed that either.
Wow. So yeah, my initial reaction is just like, yeah, very faithfully done.
It looks good. The CGI looks amazing. It's exactly how I imagined Stitch would
look in that environment. Yeah.
Cool. All right. So let's check out this Snow White trailer that also literally just dropped.
(21:51):
So let's pause it. Well, I'll go first. Yeah. So what do you think of this new
Snow White trailer, Grav?
Well, a lot of movies now use that sound cue. There's that like sound direction
where they do very slow cover, like slow minor covers of songs.
It's like I had that. I learned that at a conference for like music publishers.
And I was like, I can never watch trailers the same.
(22:13):
Yeah. So, okay. So we have Gal Gadot, the Wonder Woman actress.
She's playing the evil queen.
Oh, that's why. I think Gal Gadot. It's a Snow White movie.
I thought it was Gal Gadot. I think it's Gadot. G-O-D-O-T. Yeah, I think it's Gadot.
However, she's fine.
She's fine for sure. Gal Gadot. How pronounced? We're going to figure this out on the podcast.
(22:36):
I want this to be on it. How to pronounce Gal Gadot. Let's see. There's going to be a...
Gadot. Yes. Anyways. Okay. And then we have Rachel Zegler, who was Maria in
the West Side Story movie.
Wait. Actually, I want to talk more about this. So you were at a music conference
and you learned that they're using slowed down famous songs for trailers.
(22:56):
Like, why is that? Why does that grab? It's just hitting right now. It's just a moment.
Yeah, it's just like if you notice it like pretty much. And there's always that
little ping like bing and then slow music.
That's like such a thing that I'm now conditioned to listen for.
Just changing the musical content of it to have it do that can actually,
(23:17):
you know, reinvent the whole, like, interest in that song.
And it's a very interesting technique.
And yeah, it's like I can't watch anything without hearing that.
Trailers can be so formulaic that's very fascinating how
there's been a number of different formulas over the
years like 90s trailers have their own vibe yeah
and i'm sure you're playing familiar with the marvel thing of like the pop cover
(23:40):
it's always so it's a slow pop cover that's so interesting why that works for
trailers because for and that's kind of the opposite of what we're doing as
a band because we're taking some slow songs and we're rocking them out so wow
we're really dissecting this okay yeah so let's watch I watched a new Star Wars
thing. Glad you knew about this one.
Yeah, the skeleton crew. I can, okay.
I think I, Ryguy and I literally talked about this today as I was driving.
(24:04):
Really? We talked about how what makes Andor one of the best shows I've just
ever seen, but the best Star Wars show by far, is that it's in the Star Wars
universe, but it's not about a Skywalker.
It's not the same old story that you've heard. It's just like,
you don't have to know anything about Star Wars to just watch it.
And it's just made for people to be able to watch it. And you don't have to
(24:26):
know anything about the movies.
What is this new series? It's Skeleton Crew. It's like the people that are sent out to, yeah.
So there's a group of young little kids who are longing for adventure and it
kind of follows a template of these movies like E.T.
Following those two kids and they run into an alien. The Goonies following that
group of kids and they run into a treasure map.
(24:48):
Yeah, it looks so good. Stranger Things.
It's in the same like kids longing for that sense
of adventure and i think it's such a cool way to see that happen in
the star wars universe and have a connection to like another
movie or this is just like it's no i think it's just like i mean it probably
does it probably will tie in but it's like one of those things that i i can't
(25:10):
i can't really put my my nose on it but like when it's a the main character
is like a jedi that i don't think the show's as good,
Whereas Andor, really freaking amazing.
Mando, you don't see a Skywalker for until like season two.
Like you literally have two almost encapsulated perfect seasons.
(25:32):
I'm actually doing a Mando rewatch right now.
They're kind of adjacent, but it's when they're the main character,
it kind of isn't as good of a show.
So I'd love to see that they're embracing, that they can do so much other stories within the universe.
It's so cool. And I love that it's live action. and not a cartoon.
But if I found out it was a cartoon, I'd fucking watch it. Oh,
(25:54):
sorry. That was a big swear.
No, it's fine. I mean, I think we can keep some Fs. Like, we gotta go by the
template. Do you have a delete button? Do you have, like, a soundbite?
When they had Aunt Hamilton on Disney+, there was two F words.
So we can do that, two of those. And then they just gotta get out.
So speaking of The Mandalorian, this show, the skeleton crew,
takes place in the time frame of The Mandalorian.
(26:14):
So that was after Return of the Jedi. Yeah, the Empire has fallen.
Yeah before they see and they got the new order yeah so the show was created
by john watts who did the three recent spider-man films oh nice nice nice and
the and including the one with spider-man all the spider-mans are in oops all
spider-mans oops all spider-mans that's just like actually,
(26:36):
could is it confirmed today did we see spider-man because we always see spider-man
whenever there's always a spider-man somewhere he's always in the shadows he's
always lurking in the shadows As a touring Disney tribute band,
there are often Marvel characters in the audience and there's usually a little
boy wearing a Spider-Man costume. But sometimes it's actual Spider-Man is there.
That's happened with like, there was a guy doing flips during one of our movies. Oh my God. Yeah.
(26:57):
He was swinging from like one of the buildings. Remember when we met Batman? Wow.
You met Batman? Oh, we also met Tusken Raiders at the egg. That's true. Yeah.
I had a mustache on. I'm so mad. I looked like such a dork. See, that's the thing.
I love that we started as a tour briefs and then end as an unintentional Star Wars episode.
(27:19):
We just let it go where it may. Star Wars?
Oh, Star Wars. We've had a lot. Now that Star Wars is Disney,
we've had a lot of Star Wars ruins.
Including going to Star Wars land when we did the Orlando shows.
We saw Taylor Swift today. We saw the Dallas Taylor Swift tribute called Lover.
And I got sunburned to heck.
(27:40):
And I ran into a drummer friend of mine I haven't seen in years.
Shout out to Connor Kent. Oh my gosh. Crushing on the drums with Lover.
Yeah. And how did you know Connor when you guys were in New York?
We were both on the New York jazz scene for a hot second.
Wow. It was cool seeing you guys catch up today. Like they all had their Taylor Swift shirts.
A lot of us have. Well, a couple of us had our Disney shirts on.
So it was sort of just like, you know. Us versus them.
(28:02):
Sharks, Jets. It's been. Yeah.
Hardest French horn book, like, in the world. Yeah.
Listen this is this should not turn into a great
episode but we should actually get towards the end because it is 11 we got an
(28:24):
early call time tomorrow join us on our patreon for exclusive content bonus
episodes behind the scene insights and more visit patreon.com slash a little
to become part of our merfam enjoy all the extra perks we have to offer if you are not already ready.
Please follow the podcast at MermanMondaysPod.
Follow the subject of the podcast, The Little Merman, at TheLittleMerman on IG.
(28:48):
You can find Alexis at Alexis Babini, and you can find me at Grau underscore music.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Merman Mondays. We hope you've enjoyed
our stories and discussions.
Please don't forget to subscribe and follow us on all those platforms.
We'd love to hear your feedback back on patreon that's patreon.com slash the
(29:08):
little merman and that brings you to little merman behind the magic so please
leave a comment or send us a message and until next time remember to dream believe
and achieve see you next monday.
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