Taste, Taxes, and Talent

Taste:  A sheepish clarification about yesterday's show everyone hated.
Taxes:  A push for the EPIC Tax.
Talent: Omaha native Kevyn Morrow leaves the stage and screen for a moment to join us in the studio.

We also talk road construction, streetcars, Little River Band, and more!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Scott Vordies, there were several angryemails yesterday for a segment that you gratefully
were not part of. And Isaid, at the onset of the conversation,
I said, at the backside ofthe conversation, and I said,
somewhere in the middle of the conversation. I fully admit, nor am I

(00:20):
standing behind most of this, becauseit comes across as so terribly insensitive for
the woman who died kinda and thenshe didn't, and then she did in
Lincoln, and I said, look, we're not We're not making fun of

(00:40):
her. We're not really making funof anything. I was only putting myselves
myself. I was only putting myselfin the shoes of the various people involved,
Those who made the initial determination thatturned out two hours later to be
found to be wrong, those whoreceived the phone call that mom had died

(01:06):
and then two hours later got anotherphone call that they weren't expecting. And
uh, okay, So maybe weplayed a few segments from Monty Python on
the Holy Grail and the Princess Bride, but you were thinking them anyway.
I mean, so, yeah,I admit, not exactly the most sensitive
or tasteful segment of radio. Andthat's why when people emailed me like that

(01:32):
was tasteless. Yes, I know, and I'm not even saying like,
yeah, you know, how doyou like I'm not supporting it? You
know, it was there, ithappened, we discussed, I told you
this is this is terrible and uh, and then we try and move on

(01:52):
with our lives. That's that's howand that's why I I get people.
You owe people an apology, LikeI know, I was apologizing yesterday.
Why didn't you just come and getme. What was I supposed to do
now I was in the building.Was I not supposed to talk about it?
No? I don't know what wassaid because I was as I was

(02:14):
in the building, I was doingsomething else that I had to get done.
But I posted it on the podcast. Okay, the heading is bring
out your Dad. Well, soyou just doubled down what that was.
For that conversation I knew would beappreciated by those with a very dark sense

(02:35):
of humor who realized we're not makingfun of these poor people who have gone
through that. And I included theworkers in hospice. You know, they
didn't look at it and go oh, I messed up. Sorry, you
know they this is this is terrible. Do we have any more information coming
out about this? The subsequent investigationor looking into this at all not a

(02:59):
fit. I've talked with those whowork in this world about how this could
have happened and basically, why isn'tanybody talking about that? Well, I
talked about it yesterday, but Ialso interspersed it with clips from Monty Python,
so you could see where some ofthe more serious questions we delved into

(03:21):
might have been obcuscated by a guywho says, I want to go for
a walk. I don't want togo in the cart. You know,
so I yes, I know,but don't say in my defense. In
my defense, that's pretty much howwe treat every subject brought up on this
show. Just about every single subjectis brought up with a hint of all

(03:45):
right. We have to be ableto treat this seriously. But if we
can't laugh it's maybe even some ofthe more dark themes involved here, then
then that means you get into heavenand I don't. All right. So
that's basically the assessment of several peoplewho emailed to say that was tasteless.
Yes I know, and we don'tdo that every single day. Yes,

(04:12):
I I again apologize. There's somethingabout this story that does not sit right
with me. Well, of coursenot no, But what I mean is
that it's that it should not havebeen, of course a story. No,
no, no, I don't know. It shouldn't have been a story.
It should not have been a story. I think that is a good

(04:32):
question. Is you know who whocontacted the media about this? Who who
flushed that one out? It camefrom the sheriff's office in would that just
be Lancaster County, Waverley and Lincoln, Well, Lincoln's so Lancaster County Sheriff's
Department. But I don't, Idon't, I don't know. Here's what

(04:58):
I want to talk about today.I just wanted to People say you should
start the show with an apology.Well, I thought you said you were
never going to listen to this showagain, so why would I now just
a clarification. People said it wastasteless. People are right, have you
met me? Yeah? And Iand you know, here's the other thing.
The people are like, well,how would you feel if this happened

(05:20):
in your family? I probably wouldhave treated it even with less sensitivity.
Had it happen in my family thanI did yesterday. I Mean, the
only reason I maybe pulled a fewcomments and themes and so forth was just
because, like, I don't knowthis family's particular sensitivities. And you know,

(05:42):
for a lot of people, it'syou know, the difference between something
we can laugh at and something thatshouldn't ever be treated that way is time.
For some people, there isn't anamount of time. I know.
I don't know this family. Ijust know yesterday and in the last couple
of days they were dealing with somethingthat none of us have ever had a
deal with. Almost I did getan email from someone that said I have

(06:05):
been there. We got a callthat said the person's gone. And then
like twenty minutes later, wait,but wait, there's more. You know,
we're in overtime here, you know. So I and that is why
I wonder why this is a story, because this is not unprecedented. True.
What is unprecedented possibly is that ifthe if the if the woman,

(06:29):
I'm not going to say, ifthe woman was picked up from hospice,
I'm assuming also a DNR do notresuscitate because you're in hospice. So if
she was picked up from the nursinghome and taken to the funeral home,
and I'm not clear on that,but if that is what happened, that's
what happened. Okay, So shegets to the funeral home and then she

(06:53):
starts to breathe. Someone noticed thatshe wasn't as gone as previously suggested.
Who put her in the will begentle? The transport, yes, way
of transporting? Yes? Who pickedher up and put her in there?
Because if she was alive at thattime, she would Well, here's I

(07:16):
just don't think that this should havebeen a story. But here's the next
part of it. And I don'tI don't know. This will be up
to the family. And this iswhere I take that truly excuse me,
the truly tasteless hat that I didn'tbring it into the studio, but it's
been sitting in here for decades.If you've listened to this radio station,
sometimes it ends up on my head. This is where I take it off

(07:42):
because of the timeline that exists herewhere she's pronounced, she's taken, and
then she's de pronounced, and thenat some point she ends up in the
hospital, which is very unusual inthese circumstances, especially when you have someone
in hospice but for whatever reason,and she then ends up in the hospital,
she dies at the hospital. Well, now that triggers a whole new

(08:05):
certain set of circumstances, including potentialfor things like an autopsy, which would
never be the case had she just, you know, had the timeline existed
the way you traditionally think it wouldin a hospice like situation. And then

(08:26):
if there's an autopsy involved, thenthere is reasonable to assume someone I don't
know who, and I don't knowif it's going to go down this road,
but someone is either leaning on someoneelse or talking about this or thinking
about any potential for a lawsuit,which then we have an argument over like,

(08:50):
well, she but she didn't needto die like that, you know.
So it's h horrible, right,horrible. It is all horrible.
And I will say one more thingon this unless you want to keep talking
about it. No, one morething is great. One more thing on
this, and nobody can deny this. Nobody can. If this had happened

(09:13):
in Alaska or in Brazil, everythingyou did yesterday, the clips you played,
would have been one acceptable. Mypoint is because right because it Yeah,
I know, I know it becauseit happened here. I know,
I know, and I know.I I just want to come on here

(09:37):
and spend like thirty seconds and saypeople said, yesterday's show is tasteless.
People are right times up there.Here's the issue I have in Omaha.
Different issue. And every almost everysingle day, i'd say probably four days
a week, I literally run intothis construction. Here's the stupid thought I

(10:11):
have four days a week. I'mdriving somewhere. I can see up ahead,
there's a bit of a delay.I'm going to go a different route.
Having grown up in Omaha, Ihave, and having grown up in
Omaha as a cis gender male.Despite plenty of comments and potential evidence to

(10:33):
the contrary from some of my friends, I am a male who still identifies
as a male, and so Imean this shirt. I'm wearing a very
bright pink pink shirt today. Iunderstand there is evidence of the contrary.
But as a guy and growing uphere in Omaha, that means that I
will drive by way if I'm goingfrom my home in northwest Omaha to downtown

(11:00):
Omaha. But I know there's someconstruction or some tie ups on the way.
I will drive through Billings, Montanaif I have to, just so
I don't get stuck in traffic andhave to wait for a couple of minutes
for a bottleneck to unbottleneck itself.That's just being a guy. I'll keep
I'll drive all the way around everythingand add hours or years to my travel

(11:22):
time as long as it means Idon't get stuck somewhere. But also but
here, being here in Omaha,I know my way around town. I
can get off on I don't meanto brag here. I can get off
on any street or exit in thistown and start squeezing through neighborhoods or in
the case of that person who droveacross Benson Golf Course the other day,

(11:43):
I'll drive right across a fair wayif I have to fart it playing through,
and drive right through in order toget where I need to go.
At no point am I going tobe driving around town and end up lost.
So driving like, oh this looksbad ahead, I'm gonna get off
here, I'm gonna come over here. Everywhere I go, I get blocked

(12:09):
by construction, and the construction looksat me like de Kembi Matumbo and starts
wagging his finger at me after,like it blocked my shot in this instance.
Uh ah, you know, no, no, no, And everywhere
I go, and it's places whereI swear I was just here, like
either earlier in the day or yesterdayor last week, and there wasn't any

(12:31):
construction barrels up. It's all overthe place. And sometimes, and these
are the worst times, they're like, all right, we're squeezing three lanes
of traffic on Dodge or an interstatedown to one lane of traffic. And
then you come up and you realize, well, there's nothing even going on
over here in terms of construction.They're just moving barrels around. Or especially

(12:52):
an I eighty east bound in eightyfourth, this is the worst stretch of
road that has ever happened when theystarted reconfiguring things. And so I don't
know what happens. And you think, well, I'm stuck here. Surely
there's an accident up there. Andyou come finally through it, there's no
accident, and everyone like past seventyseconds, just flying right along and you
look back and go, why waseveryone stopped forever? But then you think

(13:16):
I'll get off on eighty fourth andI'll come over here and do that and
I'll get back in their stated seventysecond. Hell you will. That's all
shut down. Then where you gottago? I gotta go down to L
Street and I come over here.Maybe I'll take it up to forty second.
Nope, yesterday it was Pacific atwhere was I one hundred and twenty

(13:37):
one hundred and thirty seconds somewhere onPacific? That's all blocked down there?
What is going on where? Whydon't we just put a sign out front
of Omaha? So sorry, ohMAHA's closed? What is going on around
here? This is the worst I'veever seen? Well, I don't think
it's the worst you've ever seen.I think that you've got a lot of

(14:00):
major thoroughfares. Who are that aregetting work done? And just as a
side note, you can always checkkfab dot com get a whole list of
current construction. Just run through thatbefore you leave. Where's that that's under
extras or something like that. Wedon't have anything on our website called extras.
Well whatever, whatever it's called,I just update it. But at

(14:24):
the end of each line of construction, there will be where small number or
a number in brackets that is theend date that it is allegedly supposed to
be done. So that kind ofgives you an idea. Now, having
said that, there is lots andlots and lots of construction that just pops
up for a day, I don'tknow anything about it, and so it's

(14:48):
not on there. Where is it? Kfab dot com? And then the
dropdown menu under news news traffic reportsfrom a one United Heating and Air and
I update that every every weekday withthe information that I have. Now,
when I say the information that Ihave again the stuff that pops up,
I might not get that, butI also don't get and there isn't it's

(15:09):
not listed in any place like Omahadoes a great job with this, but
it's not listed in any place likein Sarpye County. So when you don't
see stuff for Bellevue or for Papillion, it's because I'm not getting that information.
You listening, Rusty Hike, Whydon't you tell us what's going on
in Bellevue occasionally? I do?You know? You know why we have

(15:30):
all this construction around town? MayorStothard is doing it on purpose so we'll
be forced to drive to drive streetcars. No I think you've got a
lot of broken water mains, sothose can't be planned. And when you
mentioned that, you drive up andthen there's nobody working. I think that
sometimes that is something that you canget very upset about. But sometimes you
have to think about They could justbe the concrete or the cement. I

(15:52):
don't know which is which I getyelled at every time I say it concrete,
cement, pavement. It could bedrying. They could be waiting for
something else another part. Now,if it was drying, there'd be kids
over there writing nasty words in theconcrete. And as far as the worst
intersection you talk about ID at eightyfourth, yes, not even close to

(16:15):
the worst. The worst worst designI have ever seen in any city I've
ever been in is the ramp fromsix eighty to to the Dodge Expressway westbound.
That is the worst design idea you'reever seen. Whether you're going six'
eighty north or south, you're gettingoff on westbound dodgely north is worse.

(16:37):
Yeah, And that that's why sometimesI'll just cut do See. This is
why I say I will cut aroundit. I'll go down until lower Dodge
and you can usually come out youcan zip right past the lights on old
Mill. Sometimes you got to stopfor a second one hundred and fourteenth,
one hundred and twentieth, but itdoesn't. It's fine. You know,
you zip right through there and youcan come out on the other side of

(17:00):
it and you're like, see yousuckers later, and I'll breeze right through.
I'll just go lower Dodge. Nowwhen you do that, do you
go on the rail on the bigI'll go on lower Whacker Drive, Chicago.
Your eighties movie reference for this segmentof the radio program forty eight Hours
Lose Brothers Blues Brothers. Do yougo up on that curve, that ridiculous

(17:22):
giant ramp curve and then go downunderneath because you can get off on Pacific?
Because this is what I do sometimes. That's what I did yesterday.
I get off on the Pacific.But then I got trapped. Yeah you
can't. Then I got trapped.I got trapped. I off like West
in twentieth ryes and I didn't knowabout that yesterday. I do know about
it today. It is on thatlist you're looking at. I tried to

(17:44):
outsmart it yesterday and it's like andit's you ever see the movie The Truman
Show, Absolute perfect movie. JimCarrey. I love that movie. And
the premise is that he is theonly person on the giant set of this
TV show who doesn't know he's ona te TV show, and so they
got to keep him within his town. And so like anytime he tries to
drive outside of town, suddenly theystart moving construction right in his path,

(18:08):
like, oh sorry, bridges out. And I swear sometimes I'm looking around
looking for a light, yes,waiting for Ed Harris to suddenly have that
voice from the sky to tell meI'm on a TV show. I swear
that's happening. Mayor st Dot jumpsout of the bushes with a bunch of
traffic cones. Gotcha it is.It is pretty uh pretty crazy right now?

(18:33):
You can't go anywhere. Oh andthe other thing, when you have
a situation like what cass and dodgeboth of those intersections at seventy second both
intersections. Seriously, So when youhave a situation like that at peak hours,
why are there not officers directing trafficbecause those lights this is backed up

(18:56):
fifty five Yeah, but when you'vegot traffic backed up for a mile,
and I've seen it on casts.You know what I like what You're going
through a construction zone and all theseguys on the crew are working really hard.
This is not to say anything aboutthe guys who are out there working
real hard. And then you gotthe one guy just standing there holding a

(19:17):
sign slow, Like, I'm like, how did Who's who's daddy? You
know who's his daddy on this one? Like, all right, you guys
are gonna be out there toilet andworking real hard, not Seth. Seth
is only gonna be holding the sign. Like how come Seth gets to hold
the sign because he's getting a tan? Yeah, And I wonder, like
does it switch out sometimes? Likeall right, you, it's time for

(19:41):
you to take a break, goover there and hold the sign, and
then you come back here and youhit it hard and all that. That's
that's what I wonder sometimes. Ordoes he always he like privileged enough to
where he always just gets to standthere and hold the sign. And if
that's the case, does he gethis butt kicked at the end of every
shift? It's like, all right, you got to hold the sign,
but now watch what I'm gonna dowith the sign. Wow, you are

(20:03):
awful. Thank you Scotties News Radioeleven KFAB. Right now, I welcome
back to news radio eleven ten Kfabthe president of the Consumption Tax Consumption Tax
Institute, Inc. Which is thatpromoting the epic tax online at epic option

(20:26):
dot org. Rob Roorbo, pronounceyour last name for me again, Roar
Boscott. Okay, Sorry, it'sbeen a long time since we've had a
chat at a chance to chat onthe radio. Yes, Rob Rorba,
that's right, yes, because Ihad it in my head as roor Berg,
and I looked at it and said, that's not how it's pronounced,

(20:47):
and I forgot to ask you beforewe went on. That's the kind of
professionalism you're dealing with here. Yes, morning, a long recognize. I
promise not to do eighties movie referencesonly in nineteen forty six. We celebrate
any decade of film. I generallylive in the eighties and nineties, so
if you do reference a film,I do have the ding ready to go

(21:08):
for you. And thank you forlistening. We've had a lot of conversation
about this epic tax, so beforewe start talking about what it is,
is this even something that we're goingto have a chance to vote on?
Here. How is everything coming interms of this push. We have met
our requirements for five percent of thevoters in thirty eight counties. We're well

(21:30):
beyond that, so we are ontrack. We intend and plan to have
our ballots turned in by July third, which is the last practical day to
tournament. So you're already there.Now you're just trying to get some gravy
on top of there in case someonesaid, yes, I'm a registered voter,

(21:52):
but turns out they weren't. Theyput a fake name, or it
was someone with some border foundation thatdoesn't like the idea of this town and
they're trying to sabotage you. Right, Yes, we want to ensure we
have enough signatures. EPIC is anacronym. It stands for Eliminate property,
income and corporate taxes. Income includesinheritance, so you can put a double

(22:15):
eye in there. Basically, thiswhole idea is is you eliminate so many
taxes on things that you pay,and then we just have what you refer
to as a consumption tax, andwe it's just a flat seven point five
percent tax on a lot of noteverything. So tell me why this is

(22:36):
a great idea for Nebraskans. It'sa great idea for Nebraskans because it gives
them their property rights back. Thetaxes we eliminate are what a famous radio
talk show host used to call confiscatorytaxes in others, taxes that take force
you to pay to keep your ownproperty. I don't remember saying that.

(22:57):
What is what famous this radio talkshow host where you were ferring to Okay,
well, I don't want to gettoo political, but his initials are
Rush Limbo. Yes I've heard ofhim, yeah and miss him terribly.
But yes, there are some peoplethat say, all right, if you
eliminate a lot of what we payin taxes, and there's a even a

(23:18):
calculator on your website epic option dotorg where you can figure out what your
own personal savings might be. Andthen you look at this goal right now,
I'm paying this. If we areable to fully implement this and it
works out there, it'll only bepaying this while that works great, And
then someone might think, but butwho's going to be paying for everything in
this state here? How do wetake in so much less money and continue

(23:40):
the type of government that we've createdhere in Nebraska? People look and go
taxes are too high. I can'tbelieve all this. This didn't happen by
you know, magic dragon. Wedid this, well, our legislature did
this, and I suppose the peopletacitly approved of it because we haven't risen
up since Night teen sixty seven.We vote these people in office, and

(24:03):
we either keep them there or wefind someone else that goes in there and
doesn't manage to get some of thethings done that perhaps we thought. Well,
I would never accuse a politician ofalways delivering on their campaign professes.
Well, sometimes when you're one offorty nine, you can only do so
much. But if people say,oh, Nebraska is a conservative state,
and then you look at that whichour legislature has done to us over the

(24:26):
years and go, well, whyare we paying so much in taxes?
Here's the thing, Scott. Youknow, asking the legislators to restrain their
own spending is a little bit likeasking the fox to guard the henhouse.
There's only one group in Nebraska thathas the motivation to truly put a restraint

(24:47):
on government spending, and that's thetaxpayer. Our proposal, because we eliminate
the shell game, right, weeliminate two out of the three shells being
property taxes, income taxes in thethird shell being what we now implement as
sales taxes. We will replace thesales tax with a consumption tax. What's
the difference. The difference is thatwith a consumption tax, you only tax

(25:12):
an item wants. Example of thatis new versus used cars. When you
buy a new car, you paythe tax. Why, because you're consuming
a new item. Right when youbuy a used car, you're recycling a
used item, and we don't taxrecycling. We tax consumption. So when

(25:32):
you buy a used car, youdon't have to pay the tax. That
gives people of limited means a wayto avoid taxes. Legitimately, those who
let's just look at this issue,new versus used were the two biggest items
we end up buying, which wouldbe for most people houses and cars.
I mean, for me, it'sprivate jets and yachts, but for commoners

(25:55):
I'm sticking with you, Ki,Yes, I know I'm a big spender,
so for most people, it's ahigh in a car. When it
comes to the car, the argumentagainst this is is that, yes,
pre owned automobiles will be a lotmore cost effective, which would be great
for everybody. Involved here. I'vegot two teenage kids. I'm definitely looking
for a pre owned automobile that isaffordable and decent. But then the incentive

(26:18):
will be, well, you endup paying more on the new car,
which means people in Nebraska will justgo buy a new car in Iowa or
South Dakota or Kansas, Missouri andthen come back here and say, he's
my new car. And I saveda bunch of money by going down.
I went down to Watson, Missouri, got a new car and a bunch
of illegal fireworks, and brought themback to Nebraska. Here's the fallacy with
that number one. You're already payingthose hidden taxes in the price of your

(26:47):
goods you buy, the new goodsyou buy, They're already there. You
think about it from a business perspective, I have to pay property tanks.
How am I going to pay forthat property tax? Am I going to
give up my profits? Or amI going to fund that property tax through
the revenues that I make when Isell the goods. That's what I'm doing,
and that's what in Rush, ourbeloved Rush Limbaugh, That's what he

(27:10):
talked about when he talked about hiddentaxes and good to commuty. I think
doctor Goss would say the same thing. Those taxes are already there. What
we do is to make them visible. Here's why we'll be more competitive than
Council Bluffs car dealerships. Because wetake those tax those tax costs, and

(27:32):
remove them from business. What happens, our margin is wider. We can
more easily lower our prices to becompetitive. So the car dealership in Nebraska
will have the benefit of lower taxesbecause they benefit from this as well.
Therefore, they can lower the costof that car to be more competitive with
their friends across the river. Thereis another dirty little secret about cars.

(27:53):
Where do you register the car youregister in Nebraska? Where do you pay
your sales tax in Nebraska? Itdoesn't matter matter whether you bought it in
Nebraska or Isle. What about newhome construction? The argument is that if
we tax new homes that people willbe then not as excited to go and
get new home construction because it's goingto cost so much more than buying a

(28:15):
pre owned home. Well, thesame thing. You eliminate business taxes,
the margin increases. And let's dojust a quick comparison with business taxes versus
property tax with the consumption tax owna new home. Let's say it's a
four hundred thousand dollars home, andwhat's the tax going to be? I

(28:38):
can't remember two percent, so maybean eight thousand dollars right, or paying
eight thousand dollars? All right,Well, let's compare that to property tax.
I used to own a four hundredthousand dollars home. My tax is
about eight hundred thousand dollars. SoI pay that every apartment eight thousand,

(29:03):
eight thous we pay. So Ipay that every year for the life of
the home. And what happens tothat eight thousand dollars It goes up?
Well, if you price your homewent up, valuation went up twenty percent,
Well, guess what you pay commensuratelymore and that never stops. The
annual cost of the sales tax ona four hundred thousand dollars home is going

(29:27):
to be about eight eight thousand dollarsa year for five years. And if
you advertise it that way, guesswhat you don't have to pay to stand
your own home after five years.So it's actually cheaper than property taxes.
You can learn more about this atepicoption dot org. We're talking here with

(29:51):
Rob Roorba, president of the ConsumptionTax Institute Inankees, promoting this epic tax
that stands for Eliminate Property income andcorporate taxes. There is a group called
tax Foundation dot org that says thatwhen you guys say that all this is
going to go to a seven anda half percent tax on a lot of
different things, that you're making someassumptions there, and this is a conservative

(30:15):
group, they say, we lookat it more like it's going to have
to be twenty one point six percentor more to be able to cover some
things. We'll get your response tothis here next Scott goes rubber Orba,
the president of the Consumption Tax Institute. They're promoting this epic tax, epic

(30:36):
Eliminate Property income and Inheritance and corporatetaxes. Details at epicoption dot org.
And Rob shared with us that youguys feel like you have the necessary signatures
to put this on the ballot,but you still got another month of collecting
and you're trying to do a littlegravy here. John and Freemont email says,
where can we sign this petition?Go to epic option dot org and

(31:03):
click on where to sign. Thereis a link and you go there.
There's a map of the state inNebraska, and you just click where you
live and it'll pop up the placesto sign. Your website is a tremendous
resource in determining what you say.Is you know, this is a great
tax option for Nebraskans. This wouldbe absolutely wonderful. Look at the money,

(31:26):
you would say. Then there's awebsite called tax Foundation dot org,
which has been described by a lotof media outlets as a right center officially
nonpartisan, but a right center thinktank when it comes to tax issues,
and they've said things like that,you know, if a seven point five

(31:47):
percent rate on this tax base,as included in the legislation, could really
replace all of these other taxes,it would be a remarkably good deal that
Nebraskans would be well advised to adopt. But then they also said that you
get to the seven point five percentstatewide consumption tax based on a lot of
assumptions that they can't see coming true. Based on their assessment, their calculation

(32:13):
says that would require a state wideconsumption tax rate not of seven point five
percent, but of twenty one pointsix percent or more. We're now doing
math on the Radio Trust try andhave this conversation while keeping people coherently alive.
Okay, Well, I will pointout that the Consumption Tax Institute is

(32:36):
the research and education arm. Wedon't do the promotion. The organization called
epic Option does the promotion for thepetitions. So I supervised the studies done
by the Beacon Hill Institute of Medway, Massachusetts. We actually had four studies.
We've been at this for four years. Our latest iteration with the current

(33:00):
assumptions that we made, which doctorErnie Goss says are reasonable, were that
study was done in early twenty three, late twenty two or early twenty three.
It assumes a much broader tax base, and we can justify that.

(33:22):
I find it strange the Tax Institutewrote that article after previously writing an article
in October of twenty twenty two praisingconsumption taxation as the most helpful for a
typical family. So they kind ofreverse course. And I don't know exactly

(33:42):
where they got the information. Letme jump in here. We only got
a couple minutes left. Okay,So when I tried about us this,
I think that all these assumptions arebased on current spending levels of Nebraska which
everyone except for those who do thespending in Lincoln say, is too high.
We're spending too much money and thisdoesn't do anything to address that.
Okay, well, well let mesee if I can take this. I'm
not sure how many seconds we havehere, but the only way you can

(34:06):
get to a twenty two percent rate, or even a nineteen point five percent
rate, is by assuming that thetax base doesn't change from our current sales
tax, which projected to January one, twenty twenty six, is sixty billion
dollars. If you reduce that,and I don't know why they would reduce
it, but that's the only wayyou can get to twenty two percent the

(34:30):
tax base. In fact, wehave more exemptions than we have tax base.
We exempt seventy five billion dollars ingoods and services, and we also
know that people will spend more whenthey have more not paying property taxes.
So our projected tax base is onehundred and sixty two billion dollars. Simple

(34:50):
math. Divide that into the elevenpoints seven billion dollars projected revenue needs funded
by the three legged stool, thatis seven point two to three percent.
That's what Beacon Hill actually came upwith we legislated. We propose legislation for
seven and a half because we wantto give ourselves a little room for error.
You've got one state Senator, SteveErdman, very vocal and promoting this.

(35:10):
Do you have others in the legislature. There's six co sponsors in twenty
two or three. Here you're tryingto do something that no other state has
ever done. That's true, butthere are six other states working on the
same thing. Wyoming had legislation.Are they all doing it? Is some
legislation or is it a petition drive? Michigan, there's a young lady that

(35:35):
is doing a petition drive to protectthe elderly in her state. Well,
you can learn more at epic optiondot org. Get the rest of your
signatures, get this on the ballotin November. We'll have a lot more
conversations, all right, Sir RobRoorbach and President of the Consumption Tax Institute.
You can learn more about the EPICtax at epic option dot org.
I've got in the Zonker's custom woodsinbox an email here from Brian related to

(36:00):
the streetcar conversation that dominated so muchof kfab's morning news. We talked about
this yesterday on this program, StateSenator Mike McDonnell wrote a letter to the
mayor and the council and said,I think we need to have more transparency
in the streetcar business and you shouldput this on the November ballot. And

(36:20):
he came on the morning show andtalked about that. He said, I
haven't heard back from the mayor yet. Well, the mayor came on and
unloaded all twenty seven barrels. She'sgot twenty seven barrels at her disposal.
She unloaded all of them and said, we've made this very transparent. We've
had a number of meetings and anyonecan show up to all these council meetings
and do this. We've had townhalls on the subject, and there's no

(36:42):
public money being used for the streetcar. And so I'll give him a response.
He's going to get a letter back. And she was on with Gary
and Jim as well. We'll haveall of that posted as one podcast link
a little bit later this morning onthe podcast link for kfab's Morning News at
kfab dot com. And Brian's beenlistening to all of this and he sent

(37:05):
this email via the Zonker's custom woodsinbox Scott atkfab dot com, he says,
here are the truths that I knoware self evident which explain why the
streetcar should not happen. Number One, government lies. Two, studies are
always wrong. Three public projects comein over budget, and if they don't,

(37:30):
the budgets were inflated on purpose.Four Downtown Omaha has no need for
a streetcar. You can get aroundjust find using existing sidewalks and streets.
Five nothing is ever as good asadvertised. Six there are no guarantees that

(37:51):
tax dollars won't be needed in thefuture to save this project. When writership
tanks after the first shooting takes placeagain, he is posting these as truths
that are self evident related to thestreet car. When he also throws out
seven, Gene Stothart has the shouldersof a linebacker, and I have voted

(38:14):
for her twice strong safety. MaybeI shouldn't have the shoulders of a line
maybe a weak side rush linebacker.But well, maybe he's just speaking metaphorically.
Well, I mean, whether it'smetaphorically or literally, I believe he

(38:35):
means this as a compliment, suggesting, Yeah, she's got big shoulders,
he can handle it. Well,she's suggesting. I think he's saying that
she's she's an imposing figure. Shewill cut you. Did you hear her
on the morning show today? Firingback on all this the shoulders of a
linebacker and number eight property tax isNebraska are so high. No one is

(39:01):
relocating here because of a streetcar.Brian sums up and says, Omaha is
not special. We will follow thesame patterns that other municipalities do. The
stakes are so high, we shouldwait until an unbiased study is conducted by
an organization that does not have avested interest in seeing a street car built.

(39:22):
That's the assessment from Brian, sentvia the Zonkers Custom woods Inbox Scott
atkfab dot com out to Menden,Iowa for this next story. Mendon has
had an active severe weather season.Every five hours they get pounded by storms.

(39:44):
It's been and so when much ofthe town was destroyed by a tornado
and then another tornado and wind eventand storm and hail came through there and
said is there anything left? Andthey tried to take out the rest of
the town. Almost everyone in thatcommunity has either been individually hit by storm

(40:08):
damage or of course affected. Whenyou have so many in your community.
Let's say let's say you're the barbershop in Mendon, Iowa, and so
much of the town has just beendestroyed by a storm. Of people are
like, well, I can't livein this property. I got to move
to someplace else for a while.I got to find someplace else to live.

(40:29):
And there's not that many options herein Mendon, So I'll go live
in Harlan. Well that works outwell for the barber and Harlan, not
so much for the barber and Menden. So, I mean, you're certainly
dealing with all of this ripple effect. And then it's been five weeks since
Mendon was devastated by the tornado.This story from KMTV three News Now,

(40:52):
and they talked to the fire chiefup there, Jake Nelson, who says
some residents are irritated. Well,here's an example of why. On one
hand, the Small Business Administration isright there in Mendon, saying, look,
if you're a business owner or evena homeowner or a renter and you

(41:12):
need a very low interest loan ora wide range of services, we are
here to provide them for you.The SBA is here. We can if
you want to be able to rebuildor pay your employees or any of the
rest of this stuff. We're goingto give you a very low interest loan
from your government to be able tohelp you out with this. And they're

(41:36):
like, great, what do Ineed? Well, you need you need
to have FEMA come through there anddeclare the area of the business a total
loss. Okay, well they're here. Have they done that? No?
Or in some cases FEMA has gonethrough there, They've looked at a house

(41:58):
that's been destroyed, but for reason, they denied the homeowner or the business
owner in saying that this home wasdestroyed. FEMA's like, a it looks
good to me. Now. Rememberthese are the people that come and hand
out trailers to people to live inin the wake of a hurricane, so
their idea of what you can existin might be a little different than yours.

(42:22):
But the spokesperson for FEMA says,well, don't give up. It's
not a final decision. And shesays, I know that people see that
and it says denied, and peoplegive up, And we want to encourage
people to read through the entire letter. Sometimes FEMA just needs more information before
moving forward with a claim. Andthe people are like I've been going round

(42:44):
and round with FEMA. I don'tknow what's taken. Look, does FEMA
understand these people don't even have mailboxes, don't have a roof on my house?
What do you mean denied? Andthey said that basically everything there for
the people of Mendon is quoting ahomeowner as well as a business owner in
that town. They're moving at thespeed of government, which is not a

(43:07):
compliment. And so the SBA sayswill help, Like what do you need,
Well, you need a letter fromFEMA, say, saying that you've
been declared a loss. And thenwell we got a letter from FEMA that
says we're fine. Well keep trying. That's when you have the spokesperson for
FEMA saying, sorry, we deniedyou, but maybe we won't next time.

(43:29):
Like it's been five weeks and somepeople have been still dealing with this.
What a literal and figurative mess here. I did enjoy though in this
story, and this is this justmade me proud. Someone took the time

(43:52):
to spray paint on the side ofwhat I presume to be their own home,
which has been just about completely leveled, roof mostly gone. Looks like
one of the walls mostly gone,just completely destroyed, holes all over the
place. And someone went up onthe side of their home and in really

(44:15):
big letters with spray with red spraypaint wrote on their house, we got
the spider. We got him.Now that's funny. If you can't laugh
at all of this, then whatdo we have. We have a measure

(44:37):
of decorum that more people need.Okay, well that's that's a good point.
I'd rather just maniacally laugh, maybea little too hard at the situation,
like the kind of a laugh thatgoes on too long and people go,
oh, he's cracked. That's whatI'm really looking for. Humanity.

(44:57):
Stay bendy, I'll tell you,yeah, you gotta stay bendy. Here
are some people here in the areawho are not laughing. We talked a
while back with a guy named Joe, and he lives in this area near
Levi Carter Park on the river wherethere's this port authority that wants to come
in there and do this new businesspark. And the people live in there.

(45:17):
In some cases they do live inmobile homes, or they live in
homes that they've had there for generationsof their family. And they're like I
looked at your map for this businesspark, and it seems like you're going
to put a big business here onthe site of my home. Maybe you
didn't know that I live here rightnow, and they're like, yeah,

(45:38):
you do right now. They're like, well, what do we need to
do? Well, you should move? Do we have to probably? What
you haven't offered me anything from myhouse? No, not yet? Do
you have eminent domain to take thisproperty? Nah? And well what are
we supposed to do? And that'swhat this guy of this East Omaha Neighborhood

(46:01):
Association, Joe, who will bewith us again on the program early next
week, has been saying, likeeverything's vague, we don't know what we're
doing. And then yesterday Mayor Stothardappointed nine board members to the Inland Port
Authority Board and they are approved bythe city council yesterday. But there were

(46:22):
a lot of homeowners, property ownersdown there in this part of town who
went to the council yesterday and said, I don't know why you're appointing board
members to this board to do abusiness park that can't exist as long as
we live here, And no one'stelling us are we supposed to leave?

(46:43):
Do we have a chance to defendourselves. Our homes are town here,
and the mayor said, well,I don't want to see eminent domain be
used to get you out of yourhome. And then the homeowners say,
great, because we're not leaving.Well, then you're gonna have to use
eminent domain, which they said wedon't want to use. But of course
the implication is but we will.But they haven't been given the opportunity to

(47:07):
do that. So I mean,are these people supposed to move? And
if so, I mean some ofthese people live and that which could be
charitably described as lean tos and shanties. And you know this is not regency
down there, but it's theirs.They like it down there, They like
their homes, and they weren't lookingto move. But now they come along

(47:30):
and say, you guys should move. We move. Where where am I
going to find comparably priced housing?Not today? I'd have to in order
to find something that's comparably priced that'ssimilar to what I have and for a
similar price, I'd have to moveto Cambodia. So where am I supposed

(47:50):
to go? I don't know ifyou've seen the cost of living around here,
for either buying or renting. It'sgone up. It's it's skyrocketed in
the last three and a half years. What happened in the last three and
a half years. Oh, someoneelse lives in the White House. Now,
don't worry about it. It's allgoing great. So that's They've seen

(48:10):
this happen in different forms across thecountry forever, and it is so frightening.
And here it is right at ourback door. And I understand they're
not forcing it yet, they're notsaying emminent domain, but you know what
you just said. You know,that's where it's going. I know this,
and in each instance they're I mean, sometimes things like this happened.

(48:35):
I mean, that's how we getcontroversial projects that most people agree like,
yeah, this was the right thingto do. I just hate that someone
was living there when they decided tomove these people and put down this highway,
this interstate, this school. Thiskind of thing happens, of course,
but when it does, they haveto be compensated. Fully, sure

(49:00):
fully, I know, did thewhatever the assessor has put on their property
right and give them that amount.But I certainly empathize with those that say,
yes, my home, you know, in your eyes, maybe isn't
worth very much. Yes, ittends to flood every other Tuesday. Yeah,

(49:21):
it's it's not It's not fantastic,but it's mine. And this is
where my dad lived, and thisis where his dad lived and his dad
before him. In fact, they'reall still sitting right here is where the
Methuselah family, and we're all stillhere, and uh, you know,
we don't want to leave, soyou know, what do you do then?

(49:45):
And we're still we're putting together plansand everything to try and create something
in a place where people are livingright now, Lucy, who's this making
us pancakes? I made you pancakes. That is Way Nelson of Little Riverband.
You talked with him in your capacityas Rockin' soccing DJ, spinning the

(50:09):
hits on Hey, everybody, Goboha'sgreatest HiT's ninety nine point nine KGr.
We got some Little River Band comingup here twenty four minutes past the hour,
thirty sixth minutes at the top ofthe hour, seventy degrees in downtown
Gaza, and we're spending your favoritehits over here on gage gr. That's
what Lucy does. Did you reallyever do that? Afternoons one time I

(50:31):
was in Kansas City and they werestarting a brand new radio station in town
and they were looking for a morningshow host and someone said you should get
this guy, Scott. And sothis guy came in from out of town
and he's talking to me and he'sshowing me around. He says, here,
check out this new studio we builtin this great microphone we have here.
Go on, put your headphones on, talking to the microphone. And

(50:52):
I started doing that, and hehad a look in his face like,
oh no, And I said,I'm joking. That's not my radio style.
And I didn't get that job,which I didn't want it anyway,
and they they just called and Iwas like, yeah, I'll have a
conversation. But so, yeah,I see the only time I do that
as a joke, okay. Andthen I realized that I could have been

(51:15):
that guy who does that voice inYouTube videos where he's doing play by play
for a sports meat loaf, Yeah, the Paradise by the Dish. No,
that's that's a real baseball announcer.But no, there's a guy who
does fake sports play by play andYouTube videos, usually with a lot of

(51:35):
foul language, and he does thatvoice and it's a riot and he gets
a bazillion views and makes a bunchof money, and I realize, oh,
I could be doing that. Youjust have to learn how to swear.
I've heard about these words, andsometimes I go and ask my mom,
like, what does this word mean? She's like, you're forty seven

(51:58):
years old, how do you notknow? Anyway, I talked to Wayne
Nelson of Little Riverband and that willbe up on a podcast on kg O
r kgore dot com. Okay soontoday, Okay, excellent, and they'll
be in concert on Saturday. Hesaid, happy anniversary. I made you
pancakes. Who's heavy anniversary? Baby? Yeah? Happy anivers baby. I'm

(52:21):
a little You know that song?I don't, Yes, you do?
If I if I played it foryou'd say, oh, yeah, I've
heard that every time anybody's ever hadan anniversary or yeah. It's just it's
a It's played a lot, isn't. Yeah, Are you gonna play it?
I don't think it well, itdoes, It's not in our system.
I'm familiar with a lot of theLittle River. Cool Change is a

(52:43):
great song, Lonesome Loser, Thenight owls a little bit of a deep
cut, but that's a good tune, good groove on that one. But
Cool Change is the song that mademe absolutely fall in love with Little Riverband.
Love them. Yeah, I'm holdingout to talk with the lead singer
of the Big River Band. Thisis a show for We don't do anything

(53:04):
little on you. This show isa little bigger. You're right, we
want the Big River Band. That'swhy we don't talk to Ezra on this
show. We only talked to betterthan Ezra, and we had had Kevin
from Better than Ezra on the show. All right, No good way to
segue to this one. The familyof a thirteen year old who two years

(53:25):
ago was murdered by fellow thirteen yearolds is stop me if you've heard this
one. They're upset saying that thatwhich has happened to the thirteen year olds
arrested for murder. But you can'tbe arrested in charge with murder in Nebraska
if you're only thirteen, because you'rejust kids. You're just a little tykes,
little scamps. They don't know whatthey're doing. They didn't mean to

(53:45):
do it. They didn't know whatthey were doing when they showed up at
Hanscombe Park with guns ready to killsomebody, and so now they're in like
some sort of halfway house thing andthey're hanging out with their family and nothing's
really happening. And the family tellsWWT six news quote, Nebraska doesn't have
an actual plan to rehabilitate miners whomurder. It's a failed system. To

(54:06):
us, the victims' families, somany people got to walk away when they
all should have been charged with LennyRodriguez's death. He should be fifteen years
old right now, but he wastaken from us. Cute little guy.
Why was he there because someone inthe neighborhood said, Hey, there's going
to be a big fight at HanscombePark. What thirteen year old's not like,
let's go watch and ended up gettingshot. He wasn't in the fight.

(54:31):
And then Near York deputies were calledI eighty I think this happened this
morning for a report of a stolenvehicle. I think this is overnight,
and they thought, well, theboys parents called nine one one and said
our son has been reported as missingand was possibly in a stolen vehicle.

(54:57):
And you think, oh my gosh, you know he was kidnapped. No,
he stole the car. He's goteight active warrants for his arrest.
I don't know how old he is. He's only described in the story from
k l N as a boy eightfrom last night, or he had some
pride before this. He had eightactive warrants for his arrest. He's been

(55:20):
turned over to juvenile probation to tryand figure out what to do with this
little scamp. He'll be home soon. Well, I don't know if the
parents want him home soon. Lethim drive to Carney and hang out there
in that facility. All right,Speaking of those who do great job,
do a great job with the kids. Omaha native, very successful actor on
stage and screen, and he alsois in town not just with Mulin Rouge,

(55:45):
but also the National High School TheaterAcademy. We will talk with Kevin
Morrow next, Scott Vories News Radioeleven ten KFAB. One of the most
successful actors who have come out ofthis community is right here in the studio
with us. An Omaha native whohas had a very good career on stage

(56:07):
as well as screen. Kevin Morrowjoins us here on news radio eleven ten
KFA. B Kevin, welcome backto Omaha. Thank you very much,
Scot. All right, let's dothe Omaha conversation, which is where'd you
go to high school? When didyou graduate? Do you know so and
so? A right? Do youget that a lot constantly? I went
to Northwest High School. Prior tothat would be Nathan Hale, and then

(56:28):
Hartman for a year for my fifthgrade year, and prior to that would
be Druid Hill. As for theyear I graduated, let's say it was
nineteen from the time yeah, okay, all right, it wasn't that.
It was in the nineteen hundred.It was, yes, in the twentieth
century. Kevin got his diploma asa Northwest Husky. All right, Well,
so what was your first role?Even as a little kid, like

(56:52):
we're going to have you be thejuniper tree or something in this production.
My first role would have been singing. I was in fifth grade at Hartman
saying I'm getting nothing for Christmas,Mommy and Daddy, I'm a boy they
mad. That would be my firsttime doing that. Of course, I'd
already sung in church and all thatstuff prior to that. But my first

(57:13):
role role in terms of character wouldhave been as and I do tell this
and it's still embarrassing, I wasthe witch in hansling Gretel because I had
a great, wicked laugh and myvoice hadn't changed yet. Any chance you
could do No, never gonna knowand get that hiding, all right.
We in sixth grade did the Wizardof Oz. That was a big thing,

(57:35):
and I'm sure you heard about.My role was not just one of
the winged monkeys. I was theking of the winged monkeys. You know,
I can see that in you.Yeah, and you know it,
Roy. It's a formative role whenyou get that first big part. Like
I studied and went to the zoo, looked a both the birds and the
monkeys, tried to get it alldown here to carry a tribe. Man,
Yeah, you cried on demand.You know. They say, like,

(57:57):
the role doesn't call for that,but I did it anyway. Was
that the left eye of the righteye? Which one dropped the tier first
left eye? Yeah? Good man, the line is hard, like Lisa
Lopez, Yeah, I always gowith Meryl Streep. Yeah. So,
but you were in school here inOmaha. You're a little kid, and
somehow you ended up with John Travolta. Stay Alive, Stay Alive, the

(58:19):
ill fated sequel to Saturday Night.Yeah. Wait, Okay, so you're
eleven years old. You're on theset of this movie eleven did you realize
as a fifth grader or whatever atthe time, like, oh, this
is a terrible idea. We shouldn'tbe doing this movie at all. No
soundtrack, But no, I was. I was just too happy to be
getting my sag card on that becauseI start off that film as an extra.

(58:44):
One of the extra dancers on thefilm and slides of Vester Loane was
going down the line of when thedances being cut, and he looked at
me and he gave me a line. And I can't say the line because
it was actually cut from the moviebecause they wanted to get a PG rating.
They gave you a curse word tosay, gave me a curse word.
And the only person that was cursingin that movie was the woman that
plays the grandmother when she referred toJohn as he's nothing but a and we're

(59:06):
gonna skip that too. Yes,So that's the only time someone's cursing that
movie, because the first movie hadso much cussing inn at any rate,
I didn't care that cut my line. I got my sad card. My
name rolled across with credits. Sothere you go. Nice job. So
that's you know, when you're thrustinto something like that at such a young
age and you probably thought like,oh, this is easy. Everyone can

(59:27):
just grow up in Omaha and endup being in a John Travolta movie.
You know, when was your nexttaste of being in a situation like this,
like we're like a movie a TVshow. Well, prior to Stay
Alive, I had I had starteddoing a chorse line. I left college

(59:47):
to do a course line and Iwas nineteen then, I think, yeah,
nineteen. However, I did finishmy degree on tour for the next
two years, which was really reallydifficult. It was your mom telling you
you had to do that. Ohand dad. Yeah, they were not
happy about that at all and said, oh really, so you're grown now,
You're not going to make a livingdoing this. And they have supported

(01:00:10):
me. I will say they didcome into my corner and they were very,
very supportive when they saw that Ireally could make career out of this,
the work that I discovered while beingon tour and also getting that movie
with John Travolda when, as yousay, I was eleven and lord knows,
I was nowhere near that, Irealized that this was not going to
be an easy path, but Ihad the passion. It was the only

(01:00:30):
thing I could think of myself doing. As my dad said once, he
said, well, I was callinghome to cry about Well I audition for
this, I didn't get this,or just for that, didn't get that,
or I came close and he goes, so you want to talk to
your mama? Say yep, andhe goes, no, no, no,
no, no no, Look,you want to pump gas, You
want to go work at at McDonald'sbur king something like that. What else
can you do? This is yourjob, right, man up and do
your job. So hung up thephone. And that's what I've tried to

(01:00:50):
doing since then. And you havetaken that what you have learned from that
conversation, and you're applying that tothe next generation of little Kevin's growing up
right here in Omaha that also wantto be on stage, be on screen.
Tell me about your work with theNational High School Theater Academy, because
it's here in Omaha, Nebraska HighSchool Theater Academy, Army the Nebraska Yeah,

(01:01:15):
the Nebraska High School Theater Academy.I came to town a few years
back with the show, and theyknew that I was from Omaha, and
they asked me if I would teacha masterclass, and I said, of
course I would. I would loveto do that and did it and realize
that I enjoyed trying to impart whateverinformation I could to these kids that may
have had an interest in this.It took me back to when I was

(01:01:35):
in high school and there was onewoman I can never remember her name,
I've tried over and over and overthat was visiting town with the opera and
she happened to come to Northwest anddo a masterclass with us. The information
that I was able to get fromher by asking her what's it like in
this industry in general, even thoughit was opera and that was not my
calling, I found to be invaluableand gave me hope that I could actually

(01:01:57):
do this. I didn't know anyother Nebrada actors or actresses that had come
out, and she had not beenfrom Nebraska, but she happened to come
out to the school to talk tous. But it gave me the hope.
I thought, later on, ifI can impart any of the kids
with that idea that you do nothave to come from a big town,
a big city. You can comefrom say Omaha, which is not a
small town, but it's not abig town either. It's not like say

(01:02:20):
a Chicago or a Philadelphia or youknow, Los Angeles or something that you
can't actually get out and do it. That would be great and give them
the opportunity to ask me anything theywanted to ask me about the business.
You people don't just come out ofOmaha and end up doing all this stuff,
at least that's what a lot ofpeople think, like I have to
be in New York, I haveto be in Los Angeles. I can't

(01:02:43):
be in Omaha and do this.And we've talked with a number of your
contemporaries who have been able to havesome success. But I mean, for
there are a lot of people.And I just got an email from Mike
who says, say hi to Kevin. I was in ragtime with him at
the Omaha Community Playhouse. I meanfor guys like Mike, like that's their
Broadway. But for you, youmade Broadway your Broadway. I mean you've

(01:03:06):
been You're here in Omaha hanging outwith Mulan Ruge. You want to explain
how that works here. You're wemight see you on stage, we might
not for this one. You don'tnecessarily need to do this. You've done
so much with this show and others, But what are you doing with Mulan
Ruze. Well, I started offwith Mulan Rouge at the original workshop back
in twenty eighteen. I believe itwas in New York. We were working

(01:03:29):
down in the East Village. Wedidn't open Broadway, and I'm sorry that
was twenty seventeen. Sorry. Weopened Boston in twenty eighteen and then opened
Broadway in twenty nineteen and then hadto shut down in twenty March twelfth or
twenty. I did not. Ileft the show at that point because then
I've started doing Hadestown, which manyof of your listeners may know, started
doing Hadestown on tour for a year. So three and a half years later

(01:03:52):
they called and said listen. Iwas originally on Mulan Rouge. I was
the principal standby for Zieler, theTrek and the Duke. They said,
we need somebody. Can you comeout? And I went I would happen
to be in London at the timeon a holiday. I went, okay,
for how long. They said tenweeks, and I went, okay,
I can do it. So Idid that. So what it is
is I come out and when theyneed me to go on for one of

(01:04:13):
those roles, I'm there to dothat. So you're just hanging out backstage,
you got like a croissant in yourmouth, and you're like, hey,
you're the duke right now. You'relike, okay, pretty much,
you can't be the duke. You'retoo good looking. Oh, I appreciate
that duke's supposed to be a littlebit like undesirable in both the look and
attitude. I appreciate what you're saying, but should know what. I don't
think I'm that good looking, butI appreciate it. All right. Well,

(01:04:36):
there's a group of ladies out herein the hallway think differently here.
But by the way, I shouldsay that Mulan Rouge is still on stage
at the Orpheum. Here. Yougot just a few more performances through this
weekend. To see this ticket Omahadot com for information to get the tickets
to see Mulan Rouge, which Ihad a chance to see last week.
And it's just so ostentatious. Itis just like all right, it's a

(01:04:59):
lot. Here's here is just funand rowdy and loud in one production and
we call it Mulan Rouge and it'son stage. So just you know,
strap yourself in and just be preparedto have a great time with this had
We had a wonderful time with thatshow. Good, good, good,
go on the ride. It's ait's an exciting show. Chances are they'll
be at least one song, ifnot more, that you will recognize because

(01:05:19):
it is an idea of a Jukebuckmusical and it's based on the film that
everybody knows. Absolutely. It's abig Elton John fan. I appreciate your
song having such a great role inthat show here. But we've seen here,
Kevin Morrow's in the studio with ushere, we've seen you not just
in like Mulan Rouge, but alsoyou mentioned Hadestown, but also TV show

(01:05:41):
A Judge in Law and Order thatwould be my most recent TV yeah.
Yeah, and you've also you hada spot in one of my favorite TV
shows of all time, the TVshow ed with Tom Cavanaugh. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, that was fun. I had a great gosh,
I haven't thought about that in along time. That was a lot of
fun. Julie Bowen, Yes,just to Joy and so is Top Kevin
ought to work with on that.Loved that show. Yeah, yeah,

(01:06:03):
yeah. We had a great courtcase that I was a part of on
that one. That's uh, thatwas just a fantastic show. I'm glad
you had a chance to have agreat time doing that. Here, I'm
looking over your your your TV andfilm credits. You were in barbershop with
the you know cube and the restof those guys here. But you know,
I look at your TV credits,it's like you were this character for
one episode. Sometimes it's two,three, one time four. And when

(01:06:27):
you go into a TV show,is there always the hey, this was
great, we want you back herefor a potential reoccurring character, or do
you know, like I'm just gonnago do this for one day. I'm
gonna be Juror number three and thenI'm gonna go back to Usually ahead of
time, you'll know if the characteris going to be recurring. There have
been occasions where you are brought backsurprisingly so in the case of all of

(01:06:48):
my roles, I've known what it'sgoing to be recurring, Like the judge
on Law and order. I willbe back on that point, back on
that show at some point East NewYork, which we did get canceled after
one season, that was supposed tobe recurring the path. I knew that
was recurring when I was a reverendLord. I can't remember my name,
pastor Lord can't remember name, AndI was sue that I was a little

(01:07:10):
bit souther than on that one.I know, you generally know ahead of
time, ahead of time. It'sgreat to have you back here in Omaha.
Thank you. These kids are theNebraska High School Theater Academy, which
you you're you're kind of in townfor a few days and you're you're back
and so forth. So you know, welcome back to town. What is
the one Omaha thing you got todo while you're back here. It used
to be going to get myself someskeets barbecue, but they no longer exist,

(01:07:33):
Yeah, which really is depressing.Skill You should get some of that.
Go to Peenie Park, you know, Moby Dick water slides, you
know all the other things that aren'there anymore. I was gonna say,
looking, Peenie Park still here,I thought they're gone. I do like
a Valentino's Pizza gone. Really no, I'm kidding. It is stronger than
ever, al right. It alsoused to be the good Rich Vanilla good

(01:07:57):
Rich Dairy. The vanilla milkshake,you know that's still yeah, vanilla milkshake,
vanilla bass with a little chocolate maltin there. For you or for
me. Yeah, that's that's howit should be done. Just a vanilla
milkshake, Just a vanilla milkshake.Like I'll have a whitebread sandwich and a
vanilla milk. Can I put somemayonnaise on that white bread? Sands?
It's your house here, right,so I'm be cool with it. Thank

(01:08:19):
you. You know what, yourfirst guests are recognized the power I wheeled
here, Kevin. Great to talkto you. Thanks a lot for coming
to hang out, for having meagain, welcome back to town. Thank
you much. Scott Boys Mornings nineto eleven, Our News Radio eleven ten KFAB