Hi, my name is Mark I. Jacobson and I’m here with my good friend, Ariann Black.
Now, Mark, you’ve had a long career as a writer and I’ve been performing magic all over the world.
I think between the two of us, we have definitely heard it all.
I remember one day we had a conversation about stupid things that people say.
Well, yeah, we did and we realized that there was a whole lot we could talk about because, you know what?
People say a lot of stupid things.
Do a lot of stupid things too.
Let’s talk about some of them.
And so, yeah, I, I’m not saying that other people do stupid shit.
I’m saying I do.
I probably do stupid shit every friggin day.
I mean, I think, I think we all do.
But in that regard, you could be forgiven because you’re also thinking about what you have to do next.
I am. So with magic, you’re several steps ahead of the audience.
And so I’m not just thinking about what’s happening in this moment.
I’m thinking about what’s going to happen a minute from now, 30 seconds from now.
And so, yeah, I am in this time continuum.
And, you know, you got to figure it out.
And so, yeah.
Well, I mean, I understand that because even in my business,
I was the kind of interviewer who I interviewed a lot of people in their most relaxing places in their homes.
Or wherever it was in a place where it was set up and it was formal and there were mics on and stuff like that.
Yeah.
And what I would do is I would research the person I was going to interview for two or three weeks and get it all on my head.
And I didn’t use a pet.
I didn’t have questions written down because I wanted them to be relaxed.
And my job was to try to get them to say things that they say, but to go beyond that.
To not feel like they’re just answering a question.
So basically, I had a little tiny tape recorder, mini tape recorder, and I put it down right in front of us.
And they would forget it’s there, but everything was in my head that I had researched.
So while they’re talking, I’m listening to what they’re saying, but like you,
I’m also thinking about all the stuff that I researched that’s in my head,
some of which relates to that, some of that, which is relating to what the editor wants me to get to.
Right.
Sometimes, like when you’re doing an interview, sometimes somebody will say something that will lead to another question that you have further down the list, but you still.
You need to address that question while it’s been brought up.
Exactly.
Or I’ll give you one example.
I was first interviewed somebody in American give her name, but she was on a very extremely popular television show of the 80s.
And she was well known all over the world.
And I had done all this research on her and it was for an issue that was being done specifically on this television show.
And I was assigned to one of her main characters.
Was Betty White?
Don’t get me started because I would have loved to interview Betty White.
I think we would have had a blast.
But anyway, you know, it was, I’ll give you one hint. It was the television show Dallas.
Okay.
So that was a worldwide.
Yeah.
So my assignment was for some reason they were only sending out the interview women.
I don’t know why I need more women than men.
Interesting.
I don’t know why, but so I’m doing this interview in her home sitting on her couch.
She’s about a foot away from me.
We were sitting on the couch looking at each other.
But he is the point.
I had done all this research on it.
And I pretty much knew how I wanted the article to go because I wrote three or four thousand more profiles.
And right when I’m leaving the office because I stopped in on my way to the interview to just get some last minute to argue with the editor.
Right when I’m leaving the office.
The editor turns to me and says, Oh, and by the way, I want you to ask her about the playboy way out she did about I think it was like 10 years earlier.
Which hadn’t even crossed my mind because this was a consumer magazine.
It wasn’t a, you know, right.
Yeah, hadn’t hadn’t even crossed my mind.
And I looked at him and I said, do you really think we have to go there?
And he goes, Yeah, that’s what I want.
I want you to ask her about that.
So now I go over to her house.
Right.
Yeah.
And we’re sitting on the couch and we’re talking and we’re getting to the point where I know I’m going to have to ask her about this.
And it’s going to destroy because we’re having a conversation.
Yeah, and you built up a rapport.
So you’re getting honest answers.
And I’m getting honest answers.
And now I know I have to throw a slight tumor into it.
And I have no other choice.
And I literally started to check.
Did you tell her that your editor wanted you to ask a question?
I did something I’ve never done.
I started to check.
Okay.
And at one point she was thinking, “Why are you laughing?”
And I said, I’ve got to be honest with you.
I said, I had no plans to ask you this.
I’ve never done this before.
I said, but just when I was leaving, the editor asked me to ask you about this.
And she got very indignant.
And I’m thinking, “Oh great.
Here’s where the interview ends and I get thrown out.”
And she goes, “But I don’t want to talk about that.
I don’t want to talk about that, but I don’t want to talk about that.”
I said, “Okay.”
And we just started talking like we were over four.
Now, I managed to get the rapport going again and slowly steer the conversation.
Within 15 minutes, she was telling me about that and so much more.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, I think for women, we have a lot of regrets about things that we’re asked to do around sexuality.
And I don’t know why specifically.
Well, I do know why.
We’re all hung up on sexuality.
Yeah.
Not only in this country, but in the world.
I mean, some countries more than others, but yeah.
It’s sad because if it’s not harming the other person, and in this case, it wasn’t, she knew what she was doing.
She knew why she was doing.
She didn’t mind doing it.
But all of a sudden it was being made into because of this editor into something that was…
It’s delicious.
Yeah.
And in fact, when the magazine article came out, they had pictures of all the stars of the show on the cover,
with a little line underneath their picture.
And I couldn’t believe it because that section in the interview took maybe…
out of a three or four thousand word interview took maybe five lines, six lines maybe,
and under her picture they put so and so, leaving her playboy past behind her.
Which is such a minute instant in her life.
Yeah.
It was, it was a very minute part of the entire article.
Yeah.
But that’s what they thought, which cell?
And I had no say.
I obviously had no say in how they designed the cover or what they put in.
Well, I hate to say it, but sex cells.
Sex does cell.
And even when I’m streaming, I’ve tried wearing a bikini.
How’s that working for you?
Not very well.
Surprisingly, it didn’t go over very well.
Actually, it could scar you for life.
But yeah, no, but you’re right.
And then we make it seem like it’s something bad.
What did it?
What did it do?
Right.
She was a beautiful woman.
She knew she was a beautiful woman.
She nobody put a gun to her head.
They didn’t say you have to do this.
She wanted to do it.
It came out very nice.
It was playboy, which was for everything that it was in the 60s, when you look at her,
playboy as opposed to things now, playboy was tame.
Right.
You know,
Yeah, also.
What was it a couple of years ago?
The Miss America page apologized to Vanessa Williams.
Really?
I never knew they ever gave her the crown back.
But they made her feel like crap.
So here’s the thing.
I’m not going to say that.
I’m not going to say that.
But they made her feel like crap.
So here’s the thing.
They made her feel like crap.
And she was smart enough to rise above it and have a career, unlike a lot of Miss America’s.
Like an international career because she took the high road, rose above it,
and took the publicity and ran with it.
Yeah. She actually turned it against them.
Yeah.
And it took them how many years, like 20, 25 years to apologize, but they finally did.
But you know, you didn’t know about it.
I didn’t know about it until I was looking for something else and it popped up.
No, because it’s the old story when they take the crown away.
It’s page one when they issue the apology or attraction.
It’s page 21.
Yeah. And she has had such an amazing career and has inspired so many women that I think that society in their quest for, you know, not having anything sexual about even though they sexualize women.
They don’t want anything sexual about it.
And I think that it’s coming back to bite them in the butt.
It is and it should we create problems where no problems exist.
Yeah.
It isn’t a problem, but we make it into a problem.
And then we get upset because we’ve got this problem that we created.
So hey, thanks for listening to stupid things people say.
Now it’s your turn to tell us about the stupid things people say.
And do except that you switched the parts.
I said, I’ll leave it. That was you. Yes. I’m I’m me. You’re you got to remember that again stupid shit that people say.
So I’d like to say thanks for listening to stupid shit people say.
Now it’s your turn to tell us about the stupid things people say to you.
If you have unique and absolutely riveting stories, we get a $10 Amazon gift card and a thank you.
And really the card is more important than thank you. But if you have something to say text us at 702 509 1424.
And don’t forget to keep coming back to our stories, but Mark, I got to run.
I have stupid shit to do.
Well, then you do your stupid shit. I’ll do my stupid shit and we’ll talk later.
See ya.