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