A Day-Glo orange splatter of paint. A geyser of green slime. A seductive forearm tattoo named Petunia. If this doesn't conjure up some serious nostalgia, you either weren't a kid in the 90s, or your mom banned you from watching Nickelodeon. We invited Nick veteran and new dad Danny Tamberelli to the podcast to chat about growing up in the spotlight and how fatherhood is treating him 19 months into his journey. Tune in to find out whether Danny and Adam have actually been cosmically linked ever since one fateful day in 1997 at Universal Studios. Also, Marc exclaims profanities as he is doused with bodily fluids.
A Day-Glo orange splatter of paint. A geyser of green slime. A seductive forearm tattoo named Petunia. If this doesn't conjure up some serious nostalgia, you either weren't a kid in the 90s, or your mom banned you from watching Nickelodeon. We invited Nick veteran and new dad Danny Tamberelli to the podcast to chat about growing up in the spotlight and how fatherhood is treating him 19 months into his journey. Tune in to find out whether Danny and Adam have actually been cosmically linked ever since one fateful day in 1997 at Universal Studios. Also, Marc exclaims profanities as he is doused with bodily fluids.
Episode 35 of Modern Dadhood opens with a brief conversation about milk, and speculation on why Adam's daughters both decided that they no longer care for it. The guys briefly address their guest selection process before introducing Danny Tamberelli into the conversation. Danny is best known for playing little Pete on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete and Pete in the 90s, though he continued with the network for over a decade, appearing in seasons of All That and the game show Figure It Out. Additionally, Danny appeared in films such as Igby Goes Down and The Mighty Ducks, acting alongside former Nickelodeon pal Kenan Thompson, and has voiced many animated characters for television and video games. Danny discusses the events that led to him landing prominent acting roles as a child, as well as his own experience as a new dad to 19 month old Alfie. Topics include:
• The joy of being the fun uncle
• An examination of Sandra Boynton's catalog
• Old fashioned names coming back into style
• Being a child actor
• Weezer's Blue album
• How creativity can evolve when you become a father
The episode culminates with a rather "shitty" installment of Did I Just Say That Out Loud?
LINKS:
Danny Tamberelli (official website)
Tuesdays With Alfie (Instagram)
The Adventures of Danny and Mike
Jounce
Nostalgia Personified
Man Boobs Comedy
The Undone Sweaters
The Adventures of Pete And Pete (YouTube)
Sandra Boynton Books
Red Vault Audio
Caspar Babypants
Spencer Albee
Adam:
Okay!
Marc:
Welcome back.
Adam:
Good evening, Marc.
Marc:
Adam. Fantastic to be with you again, sir. It's a good feeling.
Adam:
I like seeing you.
Marc:
I don't know. I didn't say I like seeing you.
Adam:
I like seeing you.
Marc:
Oh, okay. You were just bringing something a little extra to the table. That's nice. I appreciate that.
Adam:
I don't just parrot back to you everything that you say to me.
Marc:
Yeah. And I don't just parrot back to you everything that you say to me.
Adam:
I'm done with this game.
Marc:
I'm done with it. Let's introduce the show.
Adam:
Do it.
Marc:
Oh. Oh, well, welcome back, everyone. This is Modern Dadhood, an ongoing conversation about the joys, challenges, and general insanity of being a dad in this moment. My name is Marc Checket, and I am a dad to twin boy toddlers almost three years of age.
Adam:
My name's Adam Flaherty. I'm a dad of two daughters, one of whom is about to turn seven, holy smokes, and the other one's about to turn four. Winter birthdays. Do you know what I was thinking about? I was sort of playing your name back in my head earlier and I thought of something that I'd never thought of before, but you must have heard before.
Marc:
Uh-oh.
Adam:
Marc Checket?
Marc:
Yeah.
Adam:
Check Market.
Marc:
I mean, I think I've heard that. I've heard of several variations on the theme.
Adam:
Check Marc.
Marc:
Check Marc. Yeah.
Adam:
Yeah.
Marc:
Yeah, I've heard that. Lot of people have said Checket out.
Adam:
That's your podcast, Check It Out with Marc Checket.
Marc:
That's right. Check Marc. Yeah. Yeah. When I think about your name.
Adam:
Here it comes.
Marc:
I think Adam Flaherty, what a hilarity. That's what I think.
Adam:
I thought you were going to say, "What a prick."
Marc:
That would have been better. Oh, boy-oh-boy, look at this. Only minutes in and we're just so far off the rails.
Adam:
Well, we're just a couple of dads. We want everybody to know that we are not experts.
Marc:
Yeah, I don't know if we say that enough, that we're not experts.
Adam:
We're just a couple of dingalings.
Marc:
Uh-huh. But yeah, we're not experts. We're just a couple of guys trying to figure it out, which I think are the shoes that most parents really are in when they begin their adventure. You know?
Adam:
I thought you were going to connect the phrase “figure it out” to the game show that our guest was on in the late '90s on Nickelodeon.
Marc:
If only I was that smart, Adam.
Adam:
Here, I thought you were making a clever segue, and you failed. But I'll pick it up for you and we'll continue on.
Marc:
Damn. Just take it. Here, this is me handing that off to you.
Adam:
Okay, here goes. Today's guest is Danny Tamberelli, and dads listening will probably remember him from Nickelodeon, best known for playing Little Pete on The Adventures of Pete & Pete, but also in a game show called Figure It Out. We are very excited to talk to Danny shortly.
Marc:
Let me ask you this question. What is going on with you, my friend? What's new in your world?
Adam:
Well, aside from the chaos that's happening in the country right now, which I'm hesitant to get into in any way because I think we could probably take a whole episode or two worth of time talking about it, my kids pretty much cut out milk from their diet, cold turkey.
Marc:
What?
Adam:
It's sort of weird, huh?
Marc:
Was that their decision?
Adam:
Yeah. I don't know if it's just a fad. I don't know if in the future it leads to something like vegetarianism or veganism. That's not entirely true. They love the shit out of chocolate milk.
Marc:
Oh, okay. But regular milk, white milk, they're not into it?
Adam:
They both grew up on it. They loved it. They were milk addicts.
Marc:
Isn't that weird?
Adam:
Then this happened. Our neighbor directly next door, one day I was going out, packing up the car, loading the girls in, and I saw a milkman's truck at the neighbor's house, like a legit kind of like old-timey kind of milkman. I walked across my lawn into my neighbor's lawn, we're friends, and I introduced myself and said, "Could I have a price list?" Because I like this idea of having a milkman. I think that's kind of cool. It's a little bit of a throwback. The idea of getting fresh milk from the local farm. We became customers of Jimmy the Milkman. So now Jimmy the Milkman brings our milk, and something about this particular milk turned them off to milk.
Marc:
I mean, I can sort of understand it a little bit. But then, of course, I'm coming at this from my perspective, which is that milk is gross.
Adam:
I mean, if you think too much about it, it is. I love a good glass of milk once in a while.
Marc:
I mean, we are a bit of a rarity in that we continue to drink milk into the adult years. Also, we drink another mammal's milk, which is rare.
Adam:
That's right. I grew up drinking milk. Did you drink milk at the dinner table with your family?
Marc:
Yes. Yes. That was like, dinner time was always a big, full glass of milk. But I could not tell you the last time I just put milk into a glass with the sole purpose of drinking it.
Adam:
It's just odd that they both just dropped it so quickly. I mean, they used to be milk fiends.
Marc:
So that just took them off of it.
Adam:
I just thought it was interesting.
Marc:
It is interesting.
Adam:
So it's been brought to my attention through a listener emailing us that we have a tendency to bring in a lot of creative people as guests.
Marc:
What are they trying to say?
Adam:
His name is Michael DeVasto, and we actually had quite a bit of an exchange back and forth. He's a really interesting guy. But he was one of the people that suggested that we maybe do something on the STEM topic, which really inspired me to book Winston Scott a few episodes back. But it did sort of get me thinking about all the creative people we have on.
Marc:
We're in that sphere. I think it's fair to say that creative people tend to be a little bit restless. I guess I'm speaking in terms of like their brains, you know? I think they're kind of constantly going. Which I guess, first of all, makes for, sometimes anyway, interesting conversation.
Adam:
Entertainment.
Marc:
Entertainment, yeah, but also, I think, sometimes thoughtful conversation, and conversation that goes maybe in unexpected directions. You know? Am I making sense?
Adam:
Yeah. I totally agree with you. Another big part of our show, obviously, is nostalgia. This sort of '80s/90's nostalgia that we have when thinking about our lives and growing up. Today's guest actually lands squarely in both of those boxes. He's a very creative individual, but he also really fits well with the nostalgia thing. Both that he himself is nostalgic for a lot of people our age, Marc, but he also appreciates nostalgia and loves sharing that with people. So Danny began appearing on Nickelodeon really at the time that many of us, ourselves, Marc, and our listeners, started watching it. He stayed with Nickelodeon for over a decade and he appeared on several TV shows across the network, including The Adventures of Pete & Pete and all that, which had some amazing musical guests for that time period, and also the game show, Figure It Out. He is a professional musician, a voice actor for animated series and video games, and on top of that, as if he has room to do anything more, he's also a dad, if you can believe it.
Marc:
As luck would have it.
Adam:
We are very excited to welcome Danny Tamberelli onto the podcast. Thanks for being here, man!
Danny:
My goodness. Look, I'm going to give you 20 bucks to write my Wikipedia page.
Adam:
You got it.
Danny:
Because, gosh, you did, I mean, whew, gangbusters.
Marc:
That's quite a rap sheet.
Adam:
You gotta do your research!
Danny:
Thank you.
Adam:
Thank you.
Danny:
Yeah, thanks for having me!
Adam:
It's our pleasure.
Danny:
I like the way that you were like, "Someone told me you should get more people, and like more interesting people." Then you got in touch and it just happened to, you know?
Marc:
Adam's a sleuth.
Danny:
That's it.
Marc:
He's an internet sleuth.
Danny:
See what happens, guys? This is what happens in a pandemic. People will just start contacting you. We're so bored. I can't wait for your episode with The Rock. I just can't wait.
Marc:
We call him Dwayne.
Danny:
You call him Dwayne.
Adam:
He made me call him Mr. Rock. I thought that was really weird.
Danny:
That's very strange. Very odd.
Marc:
Tell us about your family. Tell us about your wife and son.
Danny:
What the hell do you want to know about them for?
Adam:
So you're a dad, right?
Danny:
Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm not just an uncle that has a nephew that I parade around as my son.
Adam:
Oh, good.
Danny:
My sister, my little sister, I have two little sisters. My middle little sister had the first child in the family. I'm his godfather. So in the very beginning, that was like my first, that was like my baby with training wheels. It's kind of like, oh, cool. Whoa, like you're learning stuff. Like, wow, this is very cool. Oh, he's a little crazy, Sis. You can have him back now.
Marc:
Hand it back.
Danny:
Right. I was the hand it back Uncle. That was just what I did, and now I have a child I can't give to anybody because we're in a pandemic. I can't even pawn him off to my mom and dad or my wife's mom and dad. It's just like, oh, I guess we'll just figure it out.
Adam:
Yeah, the best part of having a niece or nephew is like getting them all wired up and then taking off.
Danny:
Oh, the best. Oh yeah, you guys have got a 45 minute car ride home and he's upset now because I gave him too much chocolate? Well, see you later.
Marc:
Sorry.
Danny:
Good to see ya-- I've gotta get back to the Brooklyn. I've got to pay the 25 bucks in tolls to get from Jersey back to New York.
Adam:
So Alfie-- Alfie is Alfred?
Danny:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Alfred.
Adam:
Great name! Super unique.
Danny:
It's my grandfather's name. Yeah, my dad's dad was Alfred.
Adam:
I feel like a lot of people are bringing back family names, and I think that is a pretty cool thing. When Alfie's old, though, he's going to be like an 80, 90 year old Alfred, but like all of his buddies are going to be like Kaden and Grayson.
Danny:
Yeah. My best friend Gala, middle name, Kappa. All right, Alfie. Cool, man. It's weird to see, like my wife's brother has two kids and one just turned one years old. A one year old. One years old, it's like saying happy New Years. “Happy New Years to yas!” He's just a different. We did like a Zoom birthday thing, and Alfie, his birthday is June 14th. He turned a year old and he started walking. The next day he was like prancing. Then the third day he was like running faster than I could catch up with him. It was just like, phew.
Marc:
Yeah.
Danny:
He had a first birthday cake and going crazy. Just two days ago we just did the same thing for Jack, who just turned one. It's like, he's just way more subdued. It's just a weird thing to think about like how the placement is so different, but they all turn out the same.
Danny:
I was like, "Yeah, okay." Well, we didn't get a chance to be like, "Oh gosh, is he not going to walk?" Instead, it went right to, "Oh shit." You know those things that everyone says to put the back of the dresser so things don't pull off?
Marc:
Yeah.
Danny:
It's like, I've never stuck anything to the wall before. We don't need it. Now I'm like, oh my God.
Adam:
Now you're thinking like he can't open a door yet, can he?
Danny:
Yeah. No. Yeah, and then he opens the doors.
Marc:
Oh my God! But you're right, though. It's like suddenly, because we're, I guess, maybe just a little bit ahead of you in that stage. My kids are going to turn three next month.
Danny:
Do you have twins?
Marc:
Yeah, I've got twins.
Danny:
Oh, man. All right.
Marc:
Yeah. Pretty lucky!
Danny:
It's very lucky.
Marc:
Some would say lucky. Yeah, but like all of a sudden one day it's like they find their hands and they realize that they can go after everything. Yeah, there's that moment of panic for us, too, that was like everything from like, oh, when we're done cooking we can't leave the cutting board with a gigantic knife on it anywhere near the edge of a table, because that shit is just going to come flying down at some point.
Adam:
So he's at about a year and a half. What's he up to? It's new things sort of week to week it feels like at that age.
Danny:
Yeah, everything. I mean, he's saying like new words. He's not full sentences yet, but it's like every day is a new word. Like today was “boat.” I'm like, "Oh, okay."
Marc:
That's a big one.
Danny:
He's got a little boat. He's got a boat in his bath time. He has a couple of boats and books that we read, and now he's like sort of getting it. I'm like, "Boat," and he says, "Boat.”
Marc:
You're going to be a captain. It's clear.
Danny:
We're a Sandra Boynton house. Are you familiar with Sandra Boynton?
Marc:
Yes. Yes. Big fan.
Danny:
Look, so my wife, she's also a literary agent, so she sells books. Children's books, picture books, adult books, YA books. She's like, Sandra Boynton would not fly now. Like there's no direction. Like these books are so weird and like abstract and they just end. There's a Pookie book. He's obsessed with Pookie, which is the Sandra Boynton pig. Yeah. There's Merry Christmas, Little Pookie, I Love You, Little Pookie, Spooky Pookie.
Marc:
Do you have a favorite Sandra Boynton book? Like, do you have a favorite?
Danny:
Oh, do I have? I mean, I love 'em. Hippos Go Berserk, I think, is the one, though.
Marc:
That's a good one.
Danny:
We've been reading it, I don't know, since he was like three or four months old. It's like it's always a nap time book. He used to laugh at different versions, like different like sections. I always read it like this. He's an English guy. So it's one hippo, all alone, calls two hippos on the phone. Three hippos at the door, bring along another four. Then this one is the one that every time he fucking cackles! I just go “five hippos come over dressed,” and he just loses his shit.
Marc:
Loses his mind?
Danny:
He loses it. It's always great. Then I like try to amp up the next one. It's” six hippos show up with a guest,” and nothing.
Marc:
Five is your best material, Dad.
Danny:
Five is your best material. Six, Dad, I'm looking at you like can you just wrap it up because I want to go.
Adam:
Can we get to seven, because-
Danny:
He likes Pout-Pout Fish too, and I have to explain to him when he's old enough that like, hey, it's not consensual to just go up and kiss someone like that.
Marc:
That book drives me a little bit insane because I love it so much until it gets to that end bit.
Danny:
Yeah, me too. Me too.
Marc:
I'm like, this just gets weird.
Danny:
Yeah.
Marc:
I actually think, I mean, I don't know who wrote that book, but it also just feels really lazy. Because it's got some very funny rhymes, some of the weird little side characters are funny. I've given them all voices. They're fun to read.
Danny:
Yeah. That is my favorite part. Yeah, yeah. The squid who is slightly impolite is the best one. “She is squirmy, she is squelchy, she is slightly impolite.” She says “kaleidoscope of mope.”
Marc:
Yeah, kaleidoscope of mope. That's great!
Danny:
That's great. That's great. That sounds like an emo band that used to open for Sunny Day Real Estate. “Kaleidoscope of Mope opening for Sunny Day Real Estate!” It's perfect.
Adam:
It's so good. So one of the things that I wanted to explore with this conversation is how you got into acting at such a young age. You were four years old, is that right, when you did your first soap opera?
Danny:
Six.
Marc:
You were six, okay.
Danny:
Six. Yeah. I mean, I had done some work as a baby. I did like one commercial and the director yelled at me, and my mom was like, "This is bullshit," and like, "I'm out of here."
Marc:
Oh my God.
Danny:
I had met someone in a mall that happened to be like a manager and I was talking to her. I was talking at a young age. My mom said I started talking at seven months, and then I had a kid and I was like, "Mom, you are off."
Adam:
Yeah, your memory is gone.
Danny:
You are way off. She's like, "No, the first thing you said, it was a sentence. You said, good morning, daddy." I was like, "You say I said good morning, daddy, at seven months old?" She said, "yeah, you did. You were so smart." I'm like, "Look, let's be real here." I just had a kid, and when he was seven months old, he wasn't saying any more than blah.
Marc:
Yeah, exactly.
Danny:
Don't make me to be this prodigy and now I'm like, "Oh my God, my son is not talking at seven months."
Marc:
Something's wrong with him.
Danny:
Something's wrong with him.
Marc:
Where are his sentences?
Danny:
Yeah.
Adam:
The bar has been set high.
Danny:
He's 19 months old, maybe he has a vocabulary of like 20 words and can understand a bunch of stuff. I'm like, that's pretty good.
Marc:
That's right on the money. Yeah, that's awesome.
Danny:
I'm like, yeah, he knows what's going on.
Adam:
Did your parents sort of like nudge you in that direction? Did they see like a talent in you and encourage that?
Danny:
Well, I used to recite commercials and all that stuff. Like I said, she had met someone who said that I should do this. I don't know. I just kept saying like I could do that. I could be on TV. I could be that kid. My mom is like, "Fine, I'll go back out and I'll call this woman again in shame." First audition, I booked some commercial, and then it just like snowballed. A year later, Pete & Pete started, and then I just kind of like rolled with Nickelodeon for 11 years, I guess.
Adam:
I've got a quick story about Figure It Out. I was down, I don't know. What year was that? That was in the late '90s? That was at '96, '97?
Danny:
Mm-hmm, yeah. Like '96 to '98, or something like that.
Adam:
So I was in Orlando doing like the Universal Studios thing. We went to Nickelodeon Studios and you do a tour of the place and stuff like that.
Danny:
You did the Nick Tour. Yeah, yeah.
Adam:
When we were in the Nickelodeon Studios part of the park, a group of people walked by my family and you were there. You were in this group of people, and I swear to God, man, you looked directly at me and you whispered, "Figure It Out." I don't know why. I don't know why you would have said that, but that was my memory.
Marc:
No way.
Adam:
I was like, holy shit, that was the coolest thing. I remember so clearly going back to the hotel, probably a Best Western in Kissimmee or something, and writing it down on a piece of paper so that I wouldn't forget it.
Marc:
That's ridiculous.
Adam:
Figure It Out.
Danny:
I must confess.
Adam:
You remember it too?
Danny:
I remember.
Marc:
This is why you accepted this invite.
Danny:
This is why I accepted the invite. I knew it was you. Your email, you forget that Gmail gives me this tiny little thumbnail of you, and I screenshotted it and then I blew it up.
Marc:
Enhance.
Danny:
I kept looking at it and I kept looking at it. It was like, I know this guy from somewhere.
Marc:
It's that kid.
Danny:
I would say that is definitely something I would have said to someone. If they made eye contact with me and it seemed like you knew who I was, maybe I would have said that. Figure it out, bro.
Marc:
Figure it out. You were probably tossing out like the figure it outs to any kid that walked by that looked roughly your age.
Danny:
Hey, do I know you? Figure it out.
Adam:
Figure it out.
Adam:
So thinking about how you got into acting at a young age, I wonder can you see yourself pointing Alfie in a direction like that when he is four or five, six years old, and if he were to express interest in it?
Danny:
I would let him do what he wants to do, really. My parents didn't have the advantage that I have, knowing how everything works, and I feel like I would be good at making sure that he gets the same kind of. My parents did a good job. I mean, I don't have an E! True Hollywood Story. I mean, I wish I did. If only everyone had camera phones when I was in college, everything would be so different.
Adam:
You mentioned college, is that around the time that you got into playing music?
Danny:
I've been playing bass, yeah, since I was in fifth grade, since I was 11 years old.
Adam:
Wow.
Danny:
My band, we've been playing together. Jounce. Jounce.org, if you're paying attention. Or Bandcamp. Jounce.bandcamp.com, that's the best way to support your local artist. But we've been a band since 2000. Jounce maybe does like 70, 75 shows a year. Nothing crazy, but like that's still a decent amount. We do like a couple, two weeks in a row, and a bunch of weekend warrior stuff.
Marc:
Do you travel around for shows? Like travel around the country?
Danny:
Yeah, I’ve played all over the country. Then I do a show called “Nostalgia Personified,” which is like a really fun, interactive visual show that I do with either Michael C. Maronna, who is the other Pete from Pete & Pete, and the other one is Lori Beth from All That. So we'll show like old Pete & Pete clips or All That clips, and we just sort of like bullshit and make fun of each other for an hour. It's very fun. The last two years we've done, I don't know, probably close to 100 shows between the two of us.
Marc:
When I think back to Pete & Pete, I mean, I do remember it as being like that was a pretty wacky show, but I haven't seen episode. I mean, it's been solidified in my mind and it just feels like very '90s and it feels like its own little weird thing. But when I went back and watched like a bunch of episodes recently, I was like, shit, man, that was a different time. Like I forget sometimes how different it was back then.
Danny:
Yeah. You're like, this should never have been on Nickelodeon. This is not necessarily a children's show in any way.
Adam:
You also do a nostalgia themed cover project, right?
Danny:
I play in a band called the Undone Sweaters, which is a Weezer cover band. But we only play the Blue Album, because Weezer doesn't exist after that. It's just the vibe that you're looking for. That vibe is solely sits in 1994.
Adam:
Exactly. It was Matt Sharp that brought that vibe, right?
Danny:
Yes. Which is also a very funny thing because the reason I joined the band is because they wanted to have a joke where they've been playing as the Undone Sweaters without a bass player because they were so afraid that the bass player was going to leave and screw up the band. They made these like videos, and so the one video was like the one venue being like, "You have to have a bass player. You're contractually obligated to have one." So I was the contractually obligated bass player that played the show with them.
Marc:
Yeah, I was just thinking about this whole idea of like creative juice is like one of those things that sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not there. You bring money into the picture, and those people who are bringing the money, not that they're never creative people, but often they're not and they don't get the creative process. I don't know. It’s funny, I just was thinking about that earlier today. I mean, I'm a creative individual for my job. I am an art director at a marketing agency, you know? So it's like I'm surrounded by money people, who they're just like, "Draw your pictures, picture guy." But I was just thinking as you were talking, for me the advent of having children was one of those things that suddenly like the creative juices were way more present and flowing a whole lot more for me. I mean, some of it's like this. Some of it comes out in like this podcast. I know for Adam, it like kind of led him to the idea of this podcast. Some of it leads me to like, I play music, and it's like something that I love to do. It's like a passionate thing that I love doing. It's like there's like this inspiration to constantly be writing like silly songs and stuff that's just all from watching my kids. I don't even really know where it comes from. But do you find that, too? Have you found like a new life for creative ideas since Alfie came into the picture?
Danny:
For sure. For sure. I think that that definitely is something that happened. I've spoken to a lot of dads and moms who are creative people that have that similar thing. I don't know when it kicks in. It's like instinct. Like, oh, shit, I've got to do something. I've got to figure it out. The only difference for me is that in the first nine months of his life, it was a little bit easier. The Nostalgia Personified thing was happening basically right before my wife got pregnant. So we're like just starting to do that and then she got pregnant, and then I ended up booking like a shit-ton of... I was like, "Oh no, we're pregnant? Okay, well, I guess I'm going to be doing more of these shows." What I will say is that in the creative space, writing music has been really easy for me since he's been born, but writing lyrics has been very difficult. I don't know why that is. It has been very difficult. So that has been a complete reflection of him. It's just been like, oh, cool.
Marc:
Did that surprise you? Did that surprise you that type of content was coming out of you in forms like that?
Danny:
Yeah, very much so, considering the fact that I came from writing these like adolescent dick and fart sketch shows. I just moved them to poop. It's just like the fart and poop jokes, you know? You take the dick out and you add the poop.
Marc:
It's a dick-adjacent topic.
Danny:
Yeah, dick-adjacent topics. Exactly.
Adam:
Oh God. Okay, so sticking with the theme of content creation, you also on your Instagram account post these awesome little videos of Alfie that you tag with the hashtag #TuesdaysWithAlfie. So where did the inspiration come from for that?
Danny:
Since my family doesn't really get to see him, and my friends in California, and I've got family down South, I take a minute video of like whatever he's doing. It's just a little like slice of life of him. I was like, yeah, we'll call it #TuesdaysWithAlfie. My Instagram is just turned into this like I have a child.
Adam:
Yeah, I know. That's what happens.
Danny:
Do you want to see my kid? Isn't he doing funny stuff? But I don't mean to do it that way. I'm just like trying to do it because I know that people, it's just a nice like distraction in my feed from like everything else that's going on.
Adam:
It is nice. What's frustrating for me, though, is that I'm trying to share stuff about creative projects that I'm doing. You know, I want to promote an episode of the podcast like this one. It gets some likes and a bunch of people listen to it, but then I post a picture of my two girls, who are almost seven, almost four, and it gets like 10 times the likes. They only want to see the kids. They don't give a shit about stuff that actually is like... Not like a picture of my girls, they're beautiful…
Danny:
All you have to do is add a link. Just post these pictures of your cute girls and then just a link. You don't even have to lie to anybody. You just go, do you want more? Then you just click on that and it goes right to the podcast and you're good!
Adam:
Alright, dads, check out all the things that Danny Tamberelli's up to, including his band Jounce and other musical endeavors, his Pete & Pete podcast with Michael C. Maronna, called The Adventures of Danny & Mike, and after we've all been poked in our arms and it's safe to enter the public again and be with other people, get out to see his show Nostalgia Personified. It sounds like a lot of fun. Danny, this has been awesome. Thank you so much, man.
Danny:
Hey, my pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you guys for having me! Fun to talk a little dad shop.
Marc:
Thanks, man.
Adam:
Hope to stay in touch. Now another segment of... Wait. Now with another installment of our hit recurring segment…
Marc:
“Did I Just Say That Out Loud?”
Adam:
I turn it over to Check Market.
Marc:
Okay, here's what I said, and then as per semi-usual I'm going to see if maybe you can guess the scenario at play here.
Adam:
I love it.
Marc:
I did yell this sort of across the house.
Adam:
So it was inside. That's good to know. There's a clue.
Marc:
Yeah. I'm going to just speak it, but in your mind I'm yelling this across the house to my wife. Okay? “I just have to wash the shit-water off my hand.”
Adam:
Mm. I don't know that it has to do with the boys at all. I think this has to do with Rigby.
Marc:
Oh, okay. I thought you were going to say it was me.
Adam:
Yeah. I think you ran out of toilet paper and had to use your hand, which you never have to do because you can always just get in the shower, right?
Marc:
Yeah, or just drag your ass across the floor on the carpet.
Adam:
Yeah. Which feels good and cleans your butt.
Marc:
Yes, that's right.
Adam:
No, I think that this is a dog thing.
Marc:
Okay.
Adam:
“Shit-water off my hand.” Oh-- I know what it is. One of the boys shit in the bathtub.
Marc:
Ooh, now that's a good guess. It's wrong, but it's a good guess. As you know, we're on the downhill side of the potty training mountain. We still have these like little floor potties.
Adam:
Yeah, then you can pull the basin out and you just dump it in the ol' potty hole.
Marc:
Right, right. Right, and sometimes what your dumping out doesn't cooperate...
Adam:
It's a little bit lodged.
Marc:
Yeah.
Adam:
It just depends on the consistency of the poo.
Marc:
Yeah. I'm making a lot of hand motions, but no one can see that.
Adam:
I think you need to make accompanying sound effects.
Marc:
You know, it gets a little…. *squish sounds*
Adam:
Okay, so you were kind of really shaking it, weren't you?
Marc:
Yeah, I was like banging it against the inside of the toilet bowl, trying to get it out, and it wasn't. But I also had to like finish that task and then go deal with kids. So I just brought it up to the sink, dumped a bunch of water in it, and then sort of instinctually and also stupidly did like a very vigorous swish with my hand once this thing was like half full of water.
Adam:
Oh my God! Why?!
Marc:
I don't know. I don't know. Thinking like, here, I'll just dislodge it real quick with a little swish. But I just like swished so hard and just a bunch of shitty water just tidal waved out of it all over my hand and wrist.
Marc:
But I was also still kind of like trying to finish the task and get out of the bathroom and go on to the next thing. So I did that and I put the insert back and I'm just like super pissed at myself. I leave the bathroom to go someplace, and on the way, Jamie, she just starts talking to me. I'm listening to her, but like not really at all. I was just looking at her as she was talking, because in my head I'm still just like pissed at myself for getting shit-water all over my hand, and kind of shook off what she was saying and then walked away. I was like, "I'm sorry." I got back to like where I needed to go to wash my hand and yelled out, "I just have to wash the shit water off my hand." Yeah. That was also kind of my apology, like I just have to wash the shit-water off my hand.
Adam:
I'm sure she didn't appreciate being brushed off like that.
Marc:
No. You know what? I don't think anybody in the moment was appreciative of really anything that was going on.
Adam:
At least it didn't go in your mouth.
Marc:
Not that I know of, yeah. No.
Adam:
So the thing that you said out loud, again, was…
Marc:
“I just have to wash the shit-water off my hand.”
Adam:
Beautiful. Dads, you can find us at moderndadhood.com. You can find the podcast on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon, Overcast, Pocket Casts.
Marc:
Pocket Casts.
Adam:
Wherever you like to listen, please subscribe.
Marc:
Castmaster.
Adam:
Are you done?
Marc:
Oh, and on Master Caster. Mm-hmm .
Adam:
Please subscribe and leave us a quick rating and review. It means so much to us. Also, word of mouth is so important, so please tell your friends if you are liking what we're doing on Modern Dadhood and you're enjoying the conversation.
Marc:
Hey, also, if you can't get enough of Modern Dadhood, do you know who you should check out? Quick Hits on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Have you ever seen those, Adam? Have you ever seen the Quick Hits?
Adam:
I've made all of the Quick Hits.
Marc:
You make them?
Adam:
I know them intimately.
Marc:
Oh, well this is embarrassing. I didn't realize. What else we got going on?
Adam:
We'd love for you to grab a Modern Dadhood t-shirt or a very comfortable, soft dadhoodie from our website.
Marc:
Do you mind if I ramble off a couple of thank yous, Adam?
Adam:
Do it.
Marc:
Thank you to Caspar Babypants and Spencer Albee for our Modern Dadhood music, and to Pete Morse at Red Vault Audio for making us sound pretty good. Also, thanks to Danny Tamberelli for being on the show.
Adam:
I'm going to take your last bullet here, because I want to do it this time.
Marc:
Take it from me. Take it from me.
Adam:
Thank you for listening.
Marc:
For listening.
Adam:
Don't steal my thunder, man!
Marc:
Thank you for thanking.
Adam:
Thank you for listening.
Marc:
Nailed it.