December 17, 2025 • 15 mins
EITM interviews Christian Finnegan
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Belly.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:03):
I am great man, how are you? I am? Time
to speak?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I know it has been a little bit. I was
just trying to figure that out. Although I will say
I'm very excited you're coming to the Improv.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Yes, yes, Thursday through Saturday.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I will be there with bells on. It'll be awkward
me wearing bells on stage. I kind of like it. Hey,
correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I feel like you have always said you enjoy playing
the Improv.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Oh, it's my probably my favorite club in the country.
I've recorded two albums there. That's how much I love
the Improv.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And why.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Well, I think that a couple things.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
One, the club staff is great.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
You know, you always know when you go to a
club and they have the same staff year after year
that it must be a good club because usually turnover
is pretty high. But generally it's the audiences that in DC,
everybody is smart and nobody is cool, and it's it's
not entirely untrue.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, you know, it's like.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Everybody's got like an advanced degree, but nobody knows how to,
you know, put on a pair of clothes, you know,
a set of clothes that doesn't look darky.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Alright, take that listen. If it works for you, it's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
It's a bunch of kids in your school who started
the can drive.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
That is the ideal comedy audience in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Also, before we get too far into it, I was
reading through one of your newsletters.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Dude, Yeah, your dog just turned fifteen.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Indeed, fifteen years old, and I was smart. I invested
in one of those immortal dogs so he will never
die and that that is that is a good good sign. Yeah,
now fifteen fifteen years old, he's uh, he's going on strong.
He does wear a diaper a good amount of time
around the house.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's very stylish.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
He he's he's kind of become a difficult pooper in
his advanced years, which is you know, means the walks
tend to be a longer, a little slower.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Right, you know, yeah, doing he's a you know, he's.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
A good dude.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I mean, I I always feel like, you know, people
think that you get a dog so that they will
show you affection.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I always feel like it's the opposite. We get dogs.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Because they let us show them affection, right, you know,
like there's no they're just.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You know, they're they're, they're, they're.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
They just accept love and you don't have to feel
embarrassed about it. You don't have to worry that if
you love your dog too much, he's gonna think you're
a cuck or whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
But wait, is this is this the only dog you've
had as an adults, Like, for example, I have I
have two now, and I've had a bunch before, but
I've never had a dog live past I think seven
years is the longest by far.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
I feel like I'm immediately calling Animal Protective Services on you.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They die young, they die young, Christian, they die lot
of dogs, are you getting I had an American bulldog
that died of cancer. I had a Great Dane that
diet of cancer. A lot of my dogs die of cancer.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, well that's because you literally blow cigarettes smoke in
your face from their from their birth. No, I mean,
I mean Great Dane, big dogs. Bulldogs tend to die early.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Like I go. You know, I live in New York City,
so I go for the little, tiny guys. You know.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I got a Shitsu Pug whatever mix, and some other
dude who's like, I don't know what, he's eight thousand
different dogs.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
He's part Iguana, I think right. But but yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I mean, the small dogs are the way to go
in my opinion, they last longer, they have fewer health issues.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But yeah, I mean, if.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I if I could afford a big, if I had
the room for a big goofy dog, that would be
nice for these seven years until it inevitably died of cancer.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Like you're hey, by the way, you mentioned you live
in New York, did you just move again?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I moved within New York. We moved to a different neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
We live in a neighborhood in New York City called
in Queens called Jackson Heights. It's very It's apparently the
most densely populated ethnic neighborhood in America in the sense
that like there's like something like forty languages spoken in
my neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Is there is there still a diner called the Jackson
Diner Best Indian Food, Jill every Oh.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I'm yes, Jackson Diner. I know the place you're talking about. Yes,
that is a little further from me. Oh, it's a
place called Jack's Diner, Jax, which is next to me.
But then Jackson Diner, Yes, that is an Indian restaurant.
I haven't heard great things, but I've not been there yet.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
All right, very good, All right, let's get back into
a couple of other things I mentioned. You'll be in
town this weekend at the improv that I mentioned. I
saw in the in the newsletter about the dog dude
your newsletter.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Not only do I obviously you.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Keep doing it, and it keeps going New Music for Old,
But I feel like it just it keeps, it keeps building,
it keeps building, and it keeps building.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah, it's pretty nice considering I do next to no
promotion for it.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I'm I'm the world's worst self promoter, which is why
I'm very thankful for you having me on because I
am essentially hopeless. Like I'm barely on Instagram, I don't
do TikTok. I left Twitter a lot on Blue Sky,
which means I have a reach of about nine people.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
But but yeah, so I write.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
This newsletter called the New Music for Olds, and uh,
it's it's it's gone.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
It's kind of slowly built.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
There was a one of one of the guys who
reads the newsletter happens to write for Spin magazine, and
so he did a piece on it about six weeks ago,
and that helped a lot. And uh, I don't really
try to make a ton of money from it. I
probably should, but it's mostly just my way to justify
how many hours a week I spend listening to music.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
How do you? How do you?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
First of all, I like what you were saying because
I read that Spin article that you.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Were talking about or you mentioned.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And I do like where you mentioned that we live
in an endless food court of music.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Which I thought was great. I thought that was.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
A perfect way to describe of just going online and
just clicking around and clicking around and clicking around. It
really is just an endless supply of whatever you want
it to be.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah, I mean, and the algorithms will will trap you.
They they will they will get you listening to the
same nine albums you listened to when you were twenty two,
and if you if you allow it to, you know,
the streaming services will basically keep you an eternal college student,
you know, in terms of your your taste.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And so it's one of the there's so many awful.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Things about the way art in music is consumed now,
but one of the nice things is that it's just
it's all available to you.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
At any moment. So if you have any interest in music,
is never gonna.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Hit I'm fifty two, A new song, as much as
I love it, is never going to hit me as
hard as it would have when I was sixteen.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right, you know, you're just not you know, when you're.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Sixteen, you're just full of hormones and you're just an
open vessel. When you're fifty two year I'm a jaded
nub of human beings. So it takes a little harder
to break through the ice. But you can give your
you can make your week ten percent better at any
time by finding there's there's always a new song out
there that's going to give your life that sort of
(07:00):
new car smell for a few days, and and so yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So Christian, let me ask you this, then, if the
if the algorithm is traps us and corners us, and
it's the it's it's the same stuff that we already like,
how do and maybe yours has already changed just because
of how all over the road you are? How does
how does a normal person break the algorithm?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I think just just.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Literally curiosity, I mean, I mean, just first of all,
an easy way is to like click on a genre
that you're not familiar with, you know, like I've never
heard Scandinavian hip hop. Let's hear that for thirty seconds.
Like you don't have to like any of it.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
I I am been trying to listen to more jazz,
which is feels more like a homework assignment.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
But uh I, I've been trying to just reach.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Out just just literal idle curiosity, the same way that
if you were going through like a flea market or
like a like a vintage store that you are, you know,
like when you.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Go to the right question, Christian, how many how many
vintage stores do you?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Me?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
How many vintage stores have I been in?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well?
Speaker 4 (08:03):
I mean those there's if there is a vintage store
devoted strictly to weightlifting pants, you might and that is
not a slam on you personally, more a slam on
the radio disc jockey uniform.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
I have seen disc jockeys wear outfits that would uncurl
your pubes. It is there so many weird facial hair
combinations and but no, but there's stuff out there, you know.
I'm sure that there's probably vintage hockey jerseys that you'd
be on the lookout for.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Okay, all right, very good, I'll give you that. I'll
give you that true or fault.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It is not Christmas for you or the Christmas season
for you until you hear do they know it's Christmas?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, that's when you know. Everybody has their one song.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And for me, that's when it sort of clicks into
plays like do they know it's Christmas? Is sort of like,
all right, I guess we're we're actually doing this, but yeah,
I am I that is the one. It's it's kind
of a weird song when you think of it now,
because it's like, of course they don't know it's Christmas
because they live in Africa, they don't do Christmas, or
at least a lot of it's a very condescending, you
(09:28):
know tonight, Thank god it's them instead of you.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
It's like, all right, well that's a that's a pretty
dark way of thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But in the in the newsletter, you do point out
that that's how you know it's it's Christmas time. But
then you start breaking down and getting into all of
the charity Christmas songs that kind of came in its wake.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Yeah, not just not just the Christmas songs, but all
the charity songs in general, like like of course we
are the world and then Canada had tears are not
enough and which ordinarily I would want to make fun of,
but I feel like these days America really can't really
be taking shots of Canada.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
It feels like Canada's doing a little better than we are.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
But you know, then then there's there's a heavy metal
one that I was a fan of in the eighties, uh,
by a band called here in Aid Get It, I
got It, I got it? Yeah, yeah, and it's it
was all the cheese metal dudes that I loved in
the eighties. It's it's probably an eight minute song, six
minutes of which is just guitar wanking, and uh, that's
(10:26):
a classic one. There's the one that, of course I
highlighted in the newsletter, which I love so much, is
the Swedish metal aid song give a Help in Hand,
which was organized by Joey Tempest of europe Final Countdown Fame.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Right, your breakdown of it is fantastic.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Yeah, I I I highly recommend anyone who is a
connoisseur of Swedish metal and or charity uh goes and
checks that out. But yeah, if you're if you're really bored,
do yourself favor. Just go on YouTube and google Swedish
metal aid and you will have yourself chuckle because it
is a beat scene.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Hey before not not not Christmas song, but still charity related.
Did you when you were when you were a kid,
did you do hands across America?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
You know, I know it existed, but I think my
I'm from Massachusetts and people don't like physical contact there,
so I think the idea of holding hands with people
was was just anathema.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
To my to my community. I never did hands across America.
I I barely. I I don't. We don't touch people.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Back to Christmas?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Are you a good Christmas dude?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Not really? I mean we don't have kids, you know
that we know? Not really, I don't.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I don't. You know.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It's like I always feel a lot of pressure.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
My wife gets super into buying presents, and then she
it's really excited about what she imagines my response to
her presence are gonna be, you.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Know, like, oh, You're gonna love what I got you, and.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
It never really lives up, and so I have to
fake it, you know, I have to. I put on
my sort of fake Christmas reactions, which you know, it's
I feel like Christmas gift reactions are for husbands what
orgasms are for women, Like like, sometimes we mean it,
but sometimes it's just we appreciate the effort and let's
(12:29):
just not make this weird.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So you and Cambrien are doing anything special?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Not really. I'm actually going to be on the road
and she's going to be working, So we're actually not
even going to be together for Christmas. You have to
remember we have been married for four hundred and nine years,
and so the idea like we'll do Christmas in February
when we have time, we don't really, you know, it's
(12:53):
it's one of the things that I love about my wife,
and there's many things I love about my wife, is
that neither of us is super like dependent on like
the holiday has to be on this day.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We will do fourth of July in October.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh god, hey, did I learn something new about Cambri?
And you know, I love your wife, But did I
did I learn something new?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Did?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
She? Is she a figure skater.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
She has become a figure skater in her fifties. She
she started skating during the pandemic as kind of like
a hobby and now.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
She is obsessed, is she really? Yeah? One she actually
you know, she owned a comedy club for eleven years.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah right, and she sold that in the spring and
then now just because she needed a job, she's now
working at an ice skating rink.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Shut up, are you serious?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah, she that's her job. Like she she had to
be an elf. She had to be like Santa's helper
on the ice yesterday.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That is awesome. I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
I love that, I will say though, that's like I
I've never been an ice skating fan in general. And
her wardrobe choices since she started figure skating have really
gone out the window. Like there is a way too
many sequins in her closet now.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
But dude, that is like figure skating, figure skating number one,
very hard, number two hard. The later you wait, the
harder that is to pick up skating in general.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
But dude, give her credit for just picking that up.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
No, she she absolutely adores it, you know, and she
she had not to really bring things down. She had
had breast cancer a bunch of years ago, and the
medicine she tooks, they like have a they tell you
to do like weight bearing, exercises to like help bone
density and stuff like that, and so that's one of
the reasons she took it up. And it's like completely
(14:56):
changed her life. Like she comes home from ice skating,
she goes to the Central Park in the mornings and
skates at Woolman Rink there, and then she goes to
you know, she's literally skates like five days a week
and she's just completely obsessed.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I love it, And you don't skate? Do you even
have a hobby.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Wishing doom on my enemies?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I sit around and I think of elaborate schemes in
which people who have wronged me will face the ultimate press.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So, yes, you do very good.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I'm very active in my hobby.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Excellent, all right.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Christian Finnegan will be at the Improv Thursday through Saturday.
What's Show Thursday, two shows, Friday, two shows Saturday, Dcimprov
dot Com for your tickets.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Christian, dude, it is good to talk to you again.
Please tell Cambry we said hello.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
I will indeed thank you so much having me Elia.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Hey, you got a brother. We'll talk soon.
Belly.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:03):
I am great man, how are you? I am? Time
to speak?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I know it has been a little bit. I was
just trying to figure that out. Although I will say
I'm very excited you're coming to the Improv.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Yes, yes, Thursday through Saturday.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I will be there with bells on. It'll be awkward
me wearing bells on stage. I kind of like it. Hey,
correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I feel like you have always said you enjoy playing
the Improv.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Oh, it's my probably my favorite club in the country.
I've recorded two albums there. That's how much I love
the Improv.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And why.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Well, I think that a couple things.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
One, the club staff is great.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
You know, you always know when you go to a
club and they have the same staff year after year
that it must be a good club because usually turnover
is pretty high. But generally it's the audiences that in DC,
everybody is smart and nobody is cool, and it's it's
not entirely untrue.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, you know, it's like.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Everybody's got like an advanced degree, but nobody knows how to,
you know, put on a pair of clothes, you know,
a set of clothes that doesn't look darky.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Alright, take that listen. If it works for you, it's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
It's a bunch of kids in your school who started
the can drive.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
That is the ideal comedy audience in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Also, before we get too far into it, I was
reading through one of your newsletters.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Dude, Yeah, your dog just turned fifteen.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Indeed, fifteen years old, and I was smart. I invested
in one of those immortal dogs so he will never
die and that that is that is a good good sign. Yeah,
now fifteen fifteen years old, he's uh, he's going on strong.
He does wear a diaper a good amount of time
around the house.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's very stylish.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
He he's he's kind of become a difficult pooper in
his advanced years, which is you know, means the walks
tend to be a longer, a little slower.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Right, you know, yeah, doing he's a you know, he's.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
A good dude.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I mean, I I always feel like, you know, people
think that you get a dog so that they will
show you affection.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I always feel like it's the opposite. We get dogs.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Because they let us show them affection, right, you know,
like there's no they're just.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You know, they're they're, they're, they're.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
They just accept love and you don't have to feel
embarrassed about it. You don't have to worry that if
you love your dog too much, he's gonna think you're
a cuck or whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
But wait, is this is this the only dog you've
had as an adults, Like, for example, I have I
have two now, and I've had a bunch before, but
I've never had a dog live past I think seven
years is the longest by far.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
I feel like I'm immediately calling Animal Protective Services on you.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They die young, they die young, Christian, they die lot
of dogs, are you getting I had an American bulldog
that died of cancer. I had a Great Dane that
diet of cancer. A lot of my dogs die of cancer.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, well that's because you literally blow cigarettes smoke in
your face from their from their birth. No, I mean,
I mean Great Dane, big dogs. Bulldogs tend to die early.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Like I go. You know, I live in New York City,
so I go for the little, tiny guys. You know.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I got a Shitsu Pug whatever mix, and some other
dude who's like, I don't know what, he's eight thousand
different dogs.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
He's part Iguana, I think right. But but yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I mean, the small dogs are the way to go
in my opinion, they last longer, they have fewer health issues.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But yeah, I mean, if.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I if I could afford a big, if I had
the room for a big goofy dog, that would be
nice for these seven years until it inevitably died of cancer.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Like you're hey, by the way, you mentioned you live
in New York, did you just move again?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I moved within New York. We moved to a different neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
We live in a neighborhood in New York City called
in Queens called Jackson Heights. It's very It's apparently the
most densely populated ethnic neighborhood in America in the sense
that like there's like something like forty languages spoken in
my neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Is there is there still a diner called the Jackson
Diner Best Indian Food, Jill every Oh.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I'm yes, Jackson Diner. I know the place you're talking about. Yes,
that is a little further from me. Oh, it's a
place called Jack's Diner, Jax, which is next to me.
But then Jackson Diner, Yes, that is an Indian restaurant.
I haven't heard great things, but I've not been there yet.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
All right, very good, All right, let's get back into
a couple of other things I mentioned. You'll be in
town this weekend at the improv that I mentioned. I
saw in the in the newsletter about the dog dude
your newsletter.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Not only do I obviously you.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Keep doing it, and it keeps going New Music for Old,
But I feel like it just it keeps, it keeps building,
it keeps building, and it keeps building.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah, it's pretty nice considering I do next to no
promotion for it.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I'm I'm the world's worst self promoter, which is why
I'm very thankful for you having me on because I
am essentially hopeless. Like I'm barely on Instagram, I don't
do TikTok. I left Twitter a lot on Blue Sky,
which means I have a reach of about nine people.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
But but yeah, so I write.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
This newsletter called the New Music for Olds, and uh,
it's it's it's gone.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
It's kind of slowly built.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
There was a one of one of the guys who
reads the newsletter happens to write for Spin magazine, and
so he did a piece on it about six weeks ago,
and that helped a lot. And uh, I don't really
try to make a ton of money from it. I
probably should, but it's mostly just my way to justify
how many hours a week I spend listening to music.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
How do you? How do you?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
First of all, I like what you were saying because
I read that Spin article that you.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Were talking about or you mentioned.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And I do like where you mentioned that we live
in an endless food court of music.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Which I thought was great. I thought that was.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
A perfect way to describe of just going online and
just clicking around and clicking around and clicking around. It
really is just an endless supply of whatever you want
it to be.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yeah, I mean, and the algorithms will will trap you.
They they will they will get you listening to the
same nine albums you listened to when you were twenty two,
and if you if you allow it to, you know,
the streaming services will basically keep you an eternal college student,
you know, in terms of your your taste.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And so it's one of the there's so many awful.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Things about the way art in music is consumed now,
but one of the nice things is that it's just
it's all available to you.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
At any moment. So if you have any interest in music,
is never gonna.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Hit I'm fifty two, A new song, as much as
I love it, is never going to hit me as
hard as it would have when I was sixteen.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right, you know, you're just not you know, when you're.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Sixteen, you're just full of hormones and you're just an
open vessel. When you're fifty two year I'm a jaded
nub of human beings. So it takes a little harder
to break through the ice. But you can give your
you can make your week ten percent better at any
time by finding there's there's always a new song out
there that's going to give your life that sort of
(07:00):
new car smell for a few days, and and so yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So Christian, let me ask you this, then, if the
if the algorithm is traps us and corners us, and
it's the it's it's the same stuff that we already like,
how do and maybe yours has already changed just because
of how all over the road you are? How does
how does a normal person break the algorithm?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I think just just.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Literally curiosity, I mean, I mean, just first of all,
an easy way is to like click on a genre
that you're not familiar with, you know, like I've never
heard Scandinavian hip hop. Let's hear that for thirty seconds.
Like you don't have to like any of it.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
I I am been trying to listen to more jazz,
which is feels more like a homework assignment.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
But uh I, I've been trying to just reach.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Out just just literal idle curiosity, the same way that
if you were going through like a flea market or
like a like a vintage store that you are, you know,
like when you.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Go to the right question, Christian, how many how many
vintage stores do you?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Me?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
How many vintage stores have I been in?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well?
Speaker 4 (08:03):
I mean those there's if there is a vintage store
devoted strictly to weightlifting pants, you might and that is
not a slam on you personally, more a slam on
the radio disc jockey uniform.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
I have seen disc jockeys wear outfits that would uncurl
your pubes. It is there so many weird facial hair
combinations and but no, but there's stuff out there, you know.
I'm sure that there's probably vintage hockey jerseys that you'd
be on the lookout for.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Okay, all right, very good, I'll give you that. I'll
give you that true or fault.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It is not Christmas for you or the Christmas season
for you until you hear do they know it's Christmas?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, that's when you know. Everybody has their one song.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And for me, that's when it sort of clicks into
plays like do they know it's Christmas? Is sort of like,
all right, I guess we're we're actually doing this, but yeah,
I am I that is the one. It's it's kind
of a weird song when you think of it now,
because it's like, of course they don't know it's Christmas
because they live in Africa, they don't do Christmas, or
at least a lot of it's a very condescending, you
(09:28):
know tonight, Thank god it's them instead of you.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
It's like, all right, well that's a that's a pretty
dark way of thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But in the in the newsletter, you do point out
that that's how you know it's it's Christmas time. But
then you start breaking down and getting into all of
the charity Christmas songs that kind of came in its wake.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Yeah, not just not just the Christmas songs, but all
the charity songs in general, like like of course we
are the world and then Canada had tears are not
enough and which ordinarily I would want to make fun of,
but I feel like these days America really can't really
be taking shots of Canada.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
It feels like Canada's doing a little better than we are.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
But you know, then then there's there's a heavy metal
one that I was a fan of in the eighties, uh,
by a band called here in Aid Get It, I
got It, I got it? Yeah, yeah, and it's it
was all the cheese metal dudes that I loved in
the eighties. It's it's probably an eight minute song, six
minutes of which is just guitar wanking, and uh, that's
(10:26):
a classic one. There's the one that, of course I
highlighted in the newsletter, which I love so much, is
the Swedish metal aid song give a Help in Hand,
which was organized by Joey Tempest of europe Final Countdown Fame.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Right, your breakdown of it is fantastic.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Yeah, I I I highly recommend anyone who is a
connoisseur of Swedish metal and or charity uh goes and
checks that out. But yeah, if you're if you're really bored,
do yourself favor. Just go on YouTube and google Swedish
metal aid and you will have yourself chuckle because it
is a beat scene.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Hey before not not not Christmas song, but still charity related.
Did you when you were when you were a kid,
did you do hands across America?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
You know, I know it existed, but I think my
I'm from Massachusetts and people don't like physical contact there,
so I think the idea of holding hands with people
was was just anathema.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
To my to my community. I never did hands across America.
I I barely. I I don't. We don't touch people.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Back to Christmas?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Are you a good Christmas dude?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Not really? I mean we don't have kids, you know
that we know? Not really, I don't.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I don't. You know.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It's like I always feel a lot of pressure.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
My wife gets super into buying presents, and then she
it's really excited about what she imagines my response to
her presence are gonna be, you.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Know, like, oh, You're gonna love what I got you, and.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
It never really lives up, and so I have to
fake it, you know, I have to. I put on
my sort of fake Christmas reactions, which you know, it's
I feel like Christmas gift reactions are for husbands what
orgasms are for women, Like like, sometimes we mean it,
but sometimes it's just we appreciate the effort and let's
(12:29):
just not make this weird.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So you and Cambrien are doing anything special?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Not really. I'm actually going to be on the road
and she's going to be working, So we're actually not
even going to be together for Christmas. You have to
remember we have been married for four hundred and nine years,
and so the idea like we'll do Christmas in February
when we have time, we don't really, you know, it's
(12:53):
it's one of the things that I love about my wife,
and there's many things I love about my wife, is
that neither of us is super like dependent on like
the holiday has to be on this day.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We will do fourth of July in October.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh god, hey, did I learn something new about Cambri?
And you know, I love your wife, But did I
did I learn something new?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Did?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
She? Is she a figure skater.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
She has become a figure skater in her fifties. She
she started skating during the pandemic as kind of like
a hobby and now.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
She is obsessed, is she really? Yeah? One she actually
you know, she owned a comedy club for eleven years.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah right, and she sold that in the spring and
then now just because she needed a job, she's now
working at an ice skating rink.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Shut up, are you serious?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah, she that's her job. Like she she had to
be an elf. She had to be like Santa's helper
on the ice yesterday.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That is awesome. I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
I love that, I will say though, that's like I
I've never been an ice skating fan in general. And
her wardrobe choices since she started figure skating have really
gone out the window. Like there is a way too
many sequins in her closet now.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
But dude, that is like figure skating, figure skating number one,
very hard, number two hard. The later you wait, the
harder that is to pick up skating in general.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
But dude, give her credit for just picking that up.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
No, she she absolutely adores it, you know, and she
she had not to really bring things down. She had
had breast cancer a bunch of years ago, and the
medicine she tooks, they like have a they tell you
to do like weight bearing, exercises to like help bone
density and stuff like that, and so that's one of
the reasons she took it up. And it's like completely
(14:56):
changed her life. Like she comes home from ice skating,
she goes to the Central Park in the mornings and
skates at Woolman Rink there, and then she goes to
you know, she's literally skates like five days a week
and she's just completely obsessed.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I love it, And you don't skate? Do you even
have a hobby.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Wishing doom on my enemies?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I sit around and I think of elaborate schemes in
which people who have wronged me will face the ultimate press.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So, yes, you do very good.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I'm very active in my hobby.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Excellent, all right.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Christian Finnegan will be at the Improv Thursday through Saturday.
What's Show Thursday, two shows, Friday, two shows Saturday, Dcimprov
dot Com for your tickets.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Christian, dude, it is good to talk to you again.
Please tell Cambry we said hello.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
I will indeed thank you so much having me Elia.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Hey, you got a brother. We'll talk soon.
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