Speaker 1: And what's up. Guys.
Speaker 2: Welcome to a special bonus episode of Dinner with the Healers.
My name is Eric and if this is your first
time listening to us, we are normally an episode by
episode Blue podcast, where we watch an episode of Blue
and then talk about it and the lessons we learned.
In this special bonus episode, I sat down and talked
with Christopher Menino, the author of Making It Up, a
Revolutionary way to bond.
Speaker 3: With kids through Play.
Speaker 2: We had a really fun time talking about a book
and the ideas behind it and how it relates to Blue,
and I think that you guys are really going.
Speaker 3: To enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Christopher, thank you so much for being here today. We're
glad to have you.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for having me tell us a little
bit about your book. So Making It Up. This is
a book and a course. They're both out there now,
and the reason I'm on this podcast right now is
because they are a direct response to Blue. About three
years ago, there was a woman who made all of
the Blue fangroups go mad. I was in more than
one of them, and this woman, stay at home mom,
went onto a magazine and was basically saying that she
hated Blue. Because all of a sudden her kids had
unrealistic expectations about parenting. That was kind of the title
of her article, that the healers made parenting unrealistic. And
so I was kind of joking about this with my wife.
We were just laughing, and my wife just looks at
me very you know, my wife is very very I'm,
you know, kind of straightforward at times, wonderful person. But
my wife, Rachel, she looks at me. She's just like, well,
you're a writer, and you know what's going on. You
know that there's a lot of improv here. Joe Brumm
and the team are creating these based on all these
theater skills that are what you parent like, but most
people don't. You're a writer, write a book. That's literally
what she said to me, And so that's how the
book starts. It starts as a response to this angry
woman is like, this is impossible, and my wife is like, well,
no it's not. And the truth is is very bluey adjacent.
It's perfect for those fans. And the other thing that
really kind of inspired my method I realized as I
was digging into the editing and the writing of it
is I realized a lot of my parenting sort of
took shape in the pandemic actually, because all of a
sudden kids were at home. You know, you can't do anything.
The world is closed. We all remember that. Yes, fun
times with fun in quotes. And my background was in
theater too. This is me. I was a theater teacher
as a theater coach, and so I was doing all
this theater stuff with my kids. I was using all
these theater techniques on myself and it was like, wow,
this kind of method was born. That yeah, pass forward
to today and that's where making it up really evolves.
Speaker 2: That's interesting that you say that, because I remember very
specifically when that rant hit the internet and in the
Bluey fandom the ripples through it, and I questioned myself, said,
I feel like I parent quite a bit like Bandit.
One of the things we joke about on dinner with
the Healers is that he and I could be brothers
because we're very similar with slowing things down and really
listening to what the kids have to say and that
sort of thing. And I was shocked at this person's
revelation about it. But interestingly, when I talked to my dad,
he was watching it with his wife's grandkids, and he's like,
that's show Blewie boy. Those kids think they can get
away with anything now. And I said, well, I guess
maybe that's like a certain slice of life that maybe
does view it like that. So that was interesting to me.
But COVID is something that really forced a lot of
changes in people and a lot of introspection. So it's
interesting how that came about for you. Tell us about
your theater background.
Speaker 4: Sure, I mean, my degree is in theater education. I'm
for about twenty years I was involved directly in theater.
I'm actually just getting back into it. I just had
a callback audition this Week's my first audition on this
side of the stage in a long time since having kids.
But I've been the director of the playwright and the
theater teacher. Mostly the teacher I taught young kids. I'm
for a couple of years, and I taught young kids
in the summers. I kept going this is mostly in
the Washington, DC area, and then I was running a
wonderful high school theater program, like sort of my dream job.
I six classes a theater. I'm over four levels. We
did a lot of shows. We had a separate improfitruy,
but really a dream program. The downside was when we
had my son on nine years ago. You know, he
was in daycare and I was working twelve hours a day,
five sometimes six days a week. I was always the
first one to school, the last one to leave, and
I was making half of what my wife was making.
Speaker 3: So we had a.
Speaker 4: Long talk and we you know, I became a stay
at home dad after that, and I it was one
of the best decisions I ever made. So my background
was in teaching and in theater and that all pivoted
with my my son. And then you know, you talk
about the where does this method come from? Like I
didn't really realize it until the pandemic a few years later,
but suddenly I'm drawing on that theater experience. I'm drawing
on like how can I not feel so isolated? And
as a dad especially I'm not sure where you are,
but where I was in Maryland, Man, every library group,
every playground, there was one dad and it was me
and all the other kids are there with their moms.
And it feels, you know, a little weird. It can be,
and you know, and I had trouble, like, you know,
I wanted to talk to them, but I don't want
them to be scared of me because I I'm male,
and you know, it's it's all those dynamics rolled up
in the one and then the pandemic comes crashing down.
It's like, oh God, what do we do? And so
for me, what I ended up digging into was in
theater method acting, what most people are familiar with, that
is all about using memories to create emotion. You did
this on stage. This is how any screen or stage
actor does it. And I realized I was actually doing
that just to make it through the day, just to
go to these playdates, just to connect with my kids.
And so when I came to editing the book and stuff,
I was like, wait a sec, I got to talk
about that too, because Bluie is great and it's all
improv and fun. That was sort of the first half
of the book. But there's also this other half where
it's like, I want to talk about using memories. So
I call that the anchor technique, and that's what that is.
It's using kind of method acting style memories, these recent
memories to get you through tough moments. Actually, I'm going
to give you an example because that ties perfectly into example,
right before this interview, my son added tantrum and I
don't even remember what it was about. I was about nothing.
It's like pustantrums are right, and in if you know,
rewind a few years, I would get to the point
where things like that would fluster me, or or the
library times and I'm the one Dad would fluster me.
And now it's like I don't even now, I'm the
bandit or chili now. And how do they get to
that level? How do they get to that level where
they're dancing in the street and they're not even faced?
And for me, what works is this anchor technique. I
instantly think of something recent, less than a month ago
that brought me intense joy. And it doesn't have to
be kid rely, it can be, it doesn't have to be.
And so like for me, we just had I live
in Malta. Now we just had Carnival, which is this
five day party before Lent and it's huge, and my
wife and I were at a masquerade. I mean, I
have never been at anything like this. If you've ever
seen Fridgerton, we were in Ridgerton for a night in masks,
doing the dancing. I mean, they're playing the Bridgerton music
and everything with with a live protect and so the
second he goes in that tantrum, I'm like, well, I'm
just gonna think about that mass breed. I'm happy again.
That's like I'm not even phased. And I think that
really helps. I think that really helps bring you up
to that healer level parenting that that mom can say
is impossible and it's not is very doable.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting that you talk about being the only dad.
I during COVID especially, I have a job where I
had the unique opportunity where I could be at home
with the kids, and my wife, Amanda, had a job
where it was considered an essential and so she was
at work all the time, and I spent a ton
of time with my kids and I enjoyed it. I
loved it, and a lot of times like after that,
I would be the only dad at things, for example,
a field trip at the kids' school. I could take
off work and go, and so it would be a
bunch of moms and me, and even if there were
other dads, the other dads a lot of times would
group together and talk about work, and I would spend
time with the moms talking about the kids and what
they're up to, and that is such a unique perspective.
I'm glad you brought that up, because it really does
present a challenge. And once you realize that it's completely normal,
it's it's our own trepidation that makes it seem not normal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then the idea.
Speaker 2: That being free to be yourself is such an important thing.
And I talked to my kids about that a lot.
I remember being young and I was the kid who
was too cool to do things. And I look at Amanda,
my wife, and she is like this free spirit. She'll
dance in the grocery store and embarrass the kids and stuff.
And I told Stella and Henry, the way your mom
is is an enviable thing, and you should feel comfortable
doing that and being that way, because you're not going
to look back later and regret being free. You're going
to look back later and regret putting these confines on yourself.
Speaker 4: I completely agree. There's literally an example in the book,
one of the first examples, I want to say, chapter
one or two, and it's this is a real thing
that happened my daughter. I was shopping with her at
Trader Joe's I'm this is in Delaware and she was
three at the time, and you can picture that three
major phase where she was like on the cusp of
a meltdown. I'm sure any of my everyone has been there, yep.
And I mean she was there and you could see
all the warning sun, the steam blown out of her ears,
basically like she was right there and we're in the
middle of the grocery store, and I just went full bandit.
I mean, this is one of the things I loved
about Louie right away is it's so dad centered too.
And the dad's not an idiot. This is not Pep
the Pig's dad. This is not Homer Simpson. God, how
many cartoon dads have been like the buffoon right He's
you know, he's goofy, but he's also a great dad.
And so I went full bandit, and I you know,
I brought out my freezer ray and I was using
it and I handed it to her, and then I
was doing all these things, and then she had to
melt me in the right there in the supermarket. And
one of the reasons that that memory stood out and
made it into the book is at the end of
us playing around and she was laughing, and then we
had fun and she started helping me shop. This random
stranger came up to me a mother and it's like,
you are such a good dad.
Speaker 5: I was like thanks, but you know, it felt kind
of nice and it was like, okay, you know, just
getting out of your comfort zone, just as he said,
dancing in front of people, being able to take those risks,
because I think, ultimately, you know, you matter, and the
kid matters.
Speaker 4: You know, that bond, that connection matters. Ultimately, does anybody
else really matter in that situation? Do those other shoppers?
You know, does it really matter if you look like
a full Not?
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 2: That's a great way to look at it, because a
lot of times we as humans in society are convinced
that everybody around us is analyzing our every move.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, they're all looking at me. And when
you think.
Speaker 2: About the realities of that, everybody's thinking that, so they're
not looking at anybody else because they're so inward focused
and not in a narcissistic way. But that's just the
tendency because people are so self conscious about things. But
those are the kind of activities that kids will remember forever.
And my stepmom told me that my dad had told
her once after visiting us that I wish I had
been a dad like Eric is, And that blew my
mind because he grew up in an era where he
did better than his dad did, but he was a
lot more stoic and way less demonstrative with his emotions
and that sort of thing. And to know that he
said that about my parenting style, it blessed my soul
and it made me so happy to know that, because
that is something I have consciously made an effort to do,
is be there for my kids in a way that
relates to them.
Speaker 3: I can't talk to them like they're adults. They're not adults.
Speaker 2: They will understand certain things and remember certain things, and
I know from my perspective there are things that my
kids will probably remember forever because I decided to step
out of that comfort zone.
Speaker 4: Honestly, that's the method. In a nutshell, that's what I'm
going for, is you talk about it. I'm going to
borrow the phrase from inside out that you're creating these
core memories and a lot of those memories with your kids.
When I was first staying at home as a stay
at home dad, I started looking up resources eventually, and
I came across a guy who's now my friend. I'm
Shandon Carpenter, just an internet friend. We've never met, but
he had a book out for stay at home dads,
and I had never come across one of those, and
he was encouraging these dad ventures. And I still do
it five years after reading that book. This is becoming.
I just took my last one last week. I make
sure I get one on one time where we will
take some sort of trip, something fun, just one on
one with each kid, and you talk about the core
memories though that you're building, and it doesn't have to
be an adventure, a dad venture, you know. One of
the examples I gave, ironically, and that was honestly really
fundamental to the method, to the book and to me
as a parent, is the first day of homes school,
the first day during lockdown to go back to COVID.
And I remember that day so well, for all the
good and the bad. I'm sure a lot of people
have similar memories. And that day I went like nuts,
like we did. My daughter was born, but she was,
you know, breastfeeding infants, so I didn't really have much
time with her. My son and I was. I was like, well,
we're gonna do this, We're gonna do this, We're gonna
do it. I mean, we had it. And so the
next day I could barely move because I was so exhausted.
I blew it that way. But one of the things
we did is we went and explored the solar system.
I mean we literally built an entire rocket, got in
it and went to like all the different planets. And
this is what improv is all about. That's this is
what you're seeing in blue is you're seeing improvisation. You're
seeing Blui or Bingo come up with an idea, and
we call these bricks in theater and idea. Any type
of unit of information is a brick. This is a
rocket is a brick. To think about, Bluie, We're in
a bus. That's a brick. I'm Janet. That's a brick.
You're the driver. Every single one of those is a brick,
and you go build a wall. That's how you think
of it. An improv is you say yes to their
brick and you put a brick on top of it.
This is what I was doing with my son. We
built a rocktep. He's like, oh, mill engines are busted.
I was like, that's why we're landing here on Venus.
We're looking for engines going We're doing the whole thing.
But I gotta tell you something, Eric, we still sing
the song we wrote a song because I really was
overdoing it as a teacher, and we still sing the
song though it's been years. He's only nine now, and
it's like around those song we have fun. It's the
stupidest little song, like the Order of the Planets, but
it's such a core memory that it's like, you know
this this work, peopill remember this just at our basement
with pillows on the first day of lockdown, Like I
don't know. That's what it's about in my head. Creating
those core memories, creating those bombs.
Speaker 3: That's so cool.
Speaker 2: My kids, we get a lot of that's the same
way because my wife would be the same way with
the kids, and there's a song that she made up
whenever they would brush their teeth and they still remember
it even though they're much older now and they're like, oh,
how embarrassing, but they remember it because it meant something
to them, And what a cool approach. That's so neat.
I'm so glad that you shared that with me. I'm curious,
how did you discover Bluie Oh ma'n.
Speaker 4: I am not sure. I think I saw it recommended
on a dad's group. I'm pretty sure you. I'm pretty
sure some people were talking about it. I want to
stay on Facebook. I was in a number of dad's
groups because I was feeling isolated. I was already a
stann out and it kind of feel isolating. I eventually
met one other step dad. I'm he was like in
a gay couple.
Speaker 3: I'm so.
Speaker 4: He stayed at home law his husband worked. I had
never met until him, and he ended up being a neighbor.
I had never met another stand up dad in person.
I wanted to do the round there. So I went
on the internet and I was like, come on, there
must be other dads and I'm Kip, just be me,
I'm and I yeah, definitely a lot of the dads
were talking about this show. It's like, you got to
check this out, and so I remember checking it out
and one of the first episodes I saw was was
Magic Xylophone, and I was instantly like, wait a second,
because magic Xylophone is freeze is what we call it
in improv, and it is the introductory lesson. So I
used to teach improv, as I said, theater teacher, improv coach,
and when you teach improv, that's the first unit is
that episode.
Speaker 3: And this is one of.
Speaker 4: The first shows I'm seeing a Blue. I'm like, wait
a second, they're just doing freeze and he's turned into show.
And then the more I watched, the more I realized
that and this is true. Ninety eight percent of Blue
that is actually true is improvisation. That's how it works.
Almost every episode, Joe is going to take a different
scenario and he's going to have them improvise together. One
of my favorite episodes when it came out that really
blew my mind was Octopus because that was the first
time you take it away from the healers and I
have been like, gosh, this feels like improv. This feels
like improv. And then I really felt like Joe was
acknowledging it to the audience because there's this moment when
clothing her dad. This is the one where Chloe wants
to to parent like Louie's dad and stop and she
wants her dad to and he's struggling, and so they
discover what's the is there saying no, They need to
say yes, which is the foundation of improv need to
build off each others. It's like I I felt like
that was for those of us who know theater, that
was the let's break the fourth wall and acknowledge what's
happening behind the scenes episode. I don't know if that
was its intent or not, but that's how it how
it's to me. But yeah, once I discovered it, I
was hooked. And it's a great show and I've I've
loved it ever since.
Speaker 2: It is amazing. I was shocked at how much I
connected to it. I am a big Star Wars fan
and a lot of my Star Wars friends are from Australia,
and because culturally Australians, they travel and so whenever we
would have the big Star Wars conventions, that's how I
met them. And they kept telling me, You've got to
check out this show, Bluie. You would love it, I'm
telling you. And that was right when it was coming
on Disney Plus and I was floored. I was hooked
immediately because I identified with bandit so much and just watching
the style of play, watching the respect he showed the
kids and their thought process while still pointing them in
the right direction, not being afraid to have fun, all
of that stuff. It really spoke to me on a
big level. And it's interesting that you talk about that
episode Octopus, because it felt very familiar to me. I
do a lot of things that are theater adjacent, and
I have a friend who's big in improv and he
talks about it. It's always yes and yes, and and
I'm like, man, that feels exactly like what he talks about.
Speaker 3: So that's how cool is that.
Speaker 2: Starting the podcast was just like a random thing, one
of those you know what we should do in moments,
and it just grew from there.
Speaker 3: Who is the target audience for your book?
Speaker 4: I would say, I mean, for sure, I'm kids. Blui's
age and Blue fans are big target audience, but it's
parents of kids about three to seven are the super target.
But it definitely applies to kids older and there's a
whole section in there, you know, up through middle school.
I'm new parents as well. Honestly, anybody wants to connect
with kids. It does connect to teachers too, and my
background obviously isn't teaching. So if you're a daycare worker,
you're you're elementary teacher something like that. But the primary,
the mediast I'm group and the reason I say three
to seven most of all, and and it'll you'll definitely
get stuff out of this with older ore kids, but
it's that age and we all remember around the time
they hit three, especially when you're in the why phase.
Not only are they constantly saying why, why, why?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 4: Why? Not only are they constantly doing that, but they're
also becoming what I like to refer to as a
brick factory, because neurologically their brain is at the point
where they're trying to figure out what is the world?
I think born yesterday? In Bluie, I love that they
you know, let's do a role reversal. Let's have him
experience everything from the first time, and you know, just
like band, just like, well, what is this?
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 4: Why? He's basically in the why phase, like he's also
dropping ideas NonStop. They actually really did that very cleverly,
And this is the kind of golden moment for this
method and for what Joe's doing in Bluey for saying
yes and for taking these ideas, for building on them,
and for using that as a way to connect with kids.
That would be the definitely the core group.
Speaker 2: One of the things I find so endearing about Blue is,
especially with Bandit because I relate to him as a dad,
is the way he'll slow down and look at things
from a child's perspective. Because if you want to be
reminded of how magic the world is, look at it
like a child would. And that episode when he's filled
with wonderment at things because he's slow down and took
a minute to put all of the problems aside and
really look at things through a brand new lens, and man,
that is an exercise that people should get involved in
more often.
Speaker 4: It's it's not just the looking at it through their eyes.
The empathies is huge. But what you said just now
putting it, putting everything else aside, and that what I
was mentioning with the anchor is trying to touch on
in the second that's the whole kind of second pillar
of the method. I think that is key. Is he
every episode or chilling what they are pros at, what
they succeed in our models at is they can take
whatever is going on and they put it aside and
they are fully in. They are in the playtime, they
are in the game, whatever, crazy game. It is honestly,
even Pat, I'm in the middle of doing my warning. Okay,
that's out the way to Alien, let's go. You know,
it's that ability to put it all. You know, it's
because we all have other stuff, you know where right,
you know, our spouses or our jobs or the news
or whatever. You know, we all have as adults, other
stuff and to be able to take just you know,
ten minutes a day or so and set that all aside,
being like, you know, it's still there, It'll be there
in ten minutes. I'm going to put it aside. And
for these ten minutes, I'm just dad or I'm just mom, whatever,
and you're just in that moment that I think is
the truest key to it all and to Bluie too.
I think that's why they are such great parents. It's
because they really do. They set it aside and they
are all in.
Speaker 2: That's awesome, and that is one of the things I
love so much about the show. In our segment did
we learn Anything Today, we talk about what was the
overarching lesson of this episode and we just started to
rewatch because we reach the end of the episodes where
we still love Blue. Let's go back to the top
and talk about how we feel about it now three
or like really almost four years after we first watched
the episodes and talked about them, and the change in
perspective is really cool. But when we get in some
of the early episodes, there might not be a very
specific lesson. Did we learn anything today? But we were
just talking about the episode Hotel where Bandit is supposed
to be cleaning the bedroom up, Chili gets in the shower,
and the kids they want to play, and I mentioned
that specifically.
Speaker 3: I don't think.
Speaker 2: There's a particular lesson, but one thing that you could
take away from it is Bandit new those chores are
going to be there fifteen minutes from now. I can
put that aside and do this right now. Because for
parents out there, if you're a new parent or not
a parent yet, the amount of time that your kids
will want to have all of your attention goes away
in what feels like a blink of an eye. They
grow up and they move forward as they should. That's
how people develop, is they find their own sense of self.
But do not miss that window of opportunity when your
kids desire and crave your time because it will mean
the world to them, and that is what you're going
to think about later. And honestly, and I'm saying this
a little jokingly, once your kids get a little older
and a little more angsty, you need those memories to
remember why you love them. But yeah, it makes such
a difference to just put it aside. And it's a joke.
If you remember the movie What About Bob Bill Murray
was and his doctor told him to take a vacation
from your problems. They'll still be there when you get back,
but just for right now, let's set them. And that
is the same kind of thing. It's so neat to
look at it like that.
Speaker 4: When you were talking about that, I was actually reminded
of there's a line in on Daddy drop Off when
you know they're later and later and later. This is
the one where Bandit has to bring them to school
and Bingo forgets her jacket and all this other stuff,
and they do the wind up Bingo at the end,
and Bingo's has some and I'm paraphrasing terribly, but Bingo
is like, well, why were we still late? Would we
have been less late? And band It's like, yeah, we
would have been less late. Why did you do this?
And he says something like, well, it wouldn't have been
as fun if we did something like that, And again
I'm paraphrasing, but it's the same exact idea. It's like, yeah,
this matters. You know, Okay, you're a couple minutes late
to school today. You know, don't do that every day necessarily,
but take those memories when you can get them. And
you know, to go back to your question about the
core group, you know, I have to say my my
kids are now seven and ten, so they're older than
this now I was saying three to seven, but I
still this way with both of my kids, even my
older son, and you know, he's at the edge. I mean,
we play chess and we do all the fancy old
stuff and he's you know, on Minecraft building, you know
whatever that he does. But you know, so he's into
all of that too. But we still use this imaginative
play that we still go hunt dragons, we still go
exploring for fairies and magic, like, we still use that
type of play together and that's still a cornerstone that
keeps us close and I'm really proud of that.
Speaker 2: Honestly, Henry and I have bonded over our mutual love
of Star Wars and Lego and those sorts of things,
and I've found that I enjoy playing with the toys
just as much as he does. As a matter of fact,
I probably want Star Wars sort of made a resurgence.
I probably spent what most would call an irresponsible amount
of money on collectibles.
Speaker 3: But it is. It's one of those things that it's
still fun.
Speaker 2: And when as kids get a little bit older, if
they can hang that up for a little bit none
of your friends are around, don't worry, just be yourself.
We took the kids to Disneyland a few years ago,
and I remember telling them, listen, there's nobody here that
knows you don't be afraid to be a kid. If
you see Mickey Mouse and it makes you just want
to cry, cry, it's normal.
Speaker 3: Embrace this for what it is.
Speaker 2: Don't let other people's perception of it get in your way.
Speaker 3: And I think they really took that to heart.
Speaker 2: It really does make a huge difference to approach life
with a bit of abandon It's really healthy and it
makes life fun. And those are the things.
Speaker 3: That you're going to remember over time.
Speaker 4: They pick up on our cues too, Like if we're
out there having fun, whether it's in Disney or in
the super bar, but if we're singing in the supermarket,
for singing in main Street, USA or wherever, you know,
they are picking up on that and they're internalizing that, Oh,
this is okay, this is healthy. And I think that's good.
I think that's a good thing for them to pick
up on.
Speaker 3: Personally, I agree. I agree.
Speaker 2: What is your favorite episode of Blue if you had
to pick one, or can you even pick one?
Speaker 4: I mean, the Sign stands out because it's, you know,
the long episode and it's special. I'm I don't know
if you can even count that because it's so different,
and I know I'm gonna love the movie when it comes.
But if I had to pick a non the Sign episode, ah, man,
I have a bunch of favorites. Well, off the top
of my head. I really do love Daddy drop Off,
I love I'm, I love bus bus Is sib of Fun.
I like Puppets, the second Unicorn episode of Unicorse episod. Sorry,
I'm yeah, those are some of the ones that come
to mind, quick guest, I think those are all. Oh,
and then the one where they narry I think it's
called stories and it keeps changing perspective. That was a
really interesting one too, the one with Lin Manuel as
the horse at the Aba. Yeah yeah, yeah, that was
a fun one too.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, there's a lot of wonderful ones, but those would
be a few of my top ones.
Speaker 3: How about you?
Speaker 4: What would your favorite pay It's so tough.
Speaker 2: I love Bandit and I love Pat. When you mentioned Pat,
he's one of my favorites. The guy's a legend. His
ability to just be like, Okay, let's we'll go along
with this, we'll do the thing. And the fact that
for the longest time they called him Lucky's dad as
a parent, you that is exactly what happens. Hey, Henry's dad,
Can you come over and blah blah blah. But one
of the things that really sticks out to me, it's
from a I think the first season is Bumpy and
the Wise Old Wolfhound because in the hospital and they
never say why, but Bingo's in the hospital and they
make this little home movie and Muffin is so cute
in it, and they show a lot of things that
as like as a podcast, we can relate to where
they have to keep doing a take over and over
and over again, a Bandit says, we can.
Speaker 3: Edit that bid out right. It's it hits so close
to home.
Speaker 2: But I love that style and the whole reason they
did it at the end was to let Bingo know
that everybody gets sick sometimes and not to worry. It
was such a cute thing and the amount of effort
they went into as a family, it was so excellent
to see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I will, I will say in terms of
the method, and it really honestly goes with any single
Blue episode in them in general. But one thing that
I do, one episode that I mentioned in the book
specifically because it's such an easy parallel is the episod Work,
because it's one of the only episodes so you talk
about im property and yes and work, which is the
one where they end up he's making drain pipes and
end up dancing at the end. They're kind of giving
Bandit and Chili jobs. Well Bandit is getting jobs. Chili
comes in as the dancer at the end. But it's
one of the only episodes where you see no a
few times, and the way it's handled from a theater
point of view is masterful from Bandit because band It
is like, I'm doing this, and Blui is like, no,
you're not. You're doing this. He takes an idea and
crushes it. And in the framework of the imagination and
the improv, that would be breaking the rules, so to speak.
That would be kind of getting off the track of
the game. But band It just goes right with it.
And not only that, so the earliest suggestion that Bluie
says no to is I want to be a dancer,
and Louie says, no, no, you don't, you want to
do this, blah blah blah, And he says, Okay, I'm
gonna accept your idea of Louis, I'm gonna I'm gonna
go with it, and then he brings it back later
that is, and we do this, we call these heralds
and long form improps. That's exactly what you're supposed to do.
If there's an error, you tuck it away for later
and you bring it back so the break is not destroyed.
This is why I'm like, gosh, this is like masterful
improv stuff, and nobody's not necessarily recognizing this. And this
is exactly when when I taught high school improv, I
ran a troop we had this one I'm improv a
steady improvisation that ran on for I remember it went
on for just over two hours and the number of
things that would come back, the number of things that
come back. It reminded me of that moment. I was like,
this is beautiful and band is doing that. So from
from a theater point of view, that episode always stands
out for me as God that is masterful the way
band and it just handles that.
Speaker 3: That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to go back and watch that
today through that lens.
Speaker 4: See it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: One thing that I think makes Bluey so unique is
the way the music ties into everything.
Speaker 3: There's very little He's a genius. I would love to
work with him.
Speaker 2: And like people might not realize this, but something as
simple as the theme. The theme of the show is
it's like like freeze where what's the word I'm looking for,
kind of almost like musical chairs where it stops and
everybody has to stand still, and it feels very random.
There's a weird pause before the music starts up again,
and when to say the names seems very random, but
it's perfectly musically timed. And this is a very nerdy thing,
but it's if for for people who speak in music terms,
it's measures of four and then a measure of five,
and they say the name one quarter note earlier each time,
so it's don da dun da da da da da
da da da dada one and two three four five Dad,
and the next time it's one two three four momb
and it moves up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it moves up one day's time.
Speaker 2: So it feels very random and very rushed, but it's
perfectly aligned to a grid because Joff is a genius.
Speaker 4: He totally I fully agree with that. Job's amazing, and
I think the music and the incorporation of classical themes, yes,
I'm throughout is you know. It's honestly even kind of
education too for the little kids watching. But it's it's
just so masterfullet done, and it's it's it's a beautiful
part of the show. I have nothing but admiration for
the music.
Speaker 2: I suspect if I were to work in an environment
like that, my process would probably be to watch as
close to a finished cut of the show that I
could get my hands on, with a little bit of
musical direction, and just play along with it and see
what popped out to me and then go back and
refine it into certain ideas, so that there's this level
of improvisation where you're drawing on things that you know
to fill in that emotion that you're feeling right then.
And the takes on the classical themes that they'll do
like oh to Joy pops up a lot and those
sorts of things, but the way they'll reinterpret the instrumentation
of it and the vibe of it. And for a
man of a certain age, that's the way we learned
about a lot of classical music is from classic cartoons.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, the number of Buds Bunny Ones music, yea.
Speaker 3: Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2: Well, Christopher, thank you so much for spending this time
with me today. This has been super, super awesome. I
appreciate it so much. Thanks so much for having Eric.
This has been a joy.
Speaker 4: I love talking Bluie and I and it is a
great book and method. I encourage people to check it out.
You can look up my name Christopher Menino, M A
N N I N O, but it's also wherever books
are sold, and then the course is up on my website,
which is just my name Christophermanino dot com.
Speaker 3: Awesome.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you, Thank you guys so
much for listening, and I hope that you pick up
Christopher's book, Making it Up a revolutionary way to bond
with kids through play. Thank you for being awesome, and
until next time, we are out of here.