Ep. 118: Christmas Movie Magic at the Alabama Theatre w/ Gary W. Jones

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Hey, y'all. It's me, Tara Strong, aka Miss Minutes for Bama Geeks. I hope you're ready to watch, and if you don't, I will have to prune you. Stay on your sacred timeline. And hello. Happy Sunday. Happy November. We are sad that Halloween is over, but we are thrilled to be back. with everybody and we are all together once again for the first time in a month. so we had we brought somebody with us yes we did we brought this guy in tonight that's right so if we're playing hollywood squares jess you need to go this way oh yeah that's right it's reversed Oh, well, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Brock Parker, way over on the other side of the screen. That's my wife, Jess. And down below is Kevin Gardner and, of course, Bo Bearden. And yes, in that center square, there is Gary W. Jones, the legendary house organist and all kinds of different roles at the Alabama and Lyric Theaters. Here in Birmingham. Honorary Bama geek. That's right. The best part. He is legendary of legend. That's right. I'm just glad they have me out on release right now. That's why we grab you. We know you're out on release. Get him quick. Jess has my parole officer on speed dial. Yes, we have Gary. Can we have him? Is there an ankle monitor involved? We'll give him back. Just let us borrow him for a little bit. Just a few minutes, please. Part of my community service hours. That's right. And bless you. This is a community service. Thank you. This is your work release program. We're sorry. I need someone to sign this document when we're done. I got you. Thanks, Jess. I got you. Well, we know Halloween just ended. And as I said, we're all very sad about that. Um, it's our favorite time of the year. One of our favorite times of the year for sure. Uh, yeah. Absolutely. But we still got Thanksgiving to go this month. But after that, it's the Christmas season. We've got the holiday film series that's going to be coming up at the Alabama Theater. We had to make sure to grab Gary early before he got just chin deep in everything. Yeah. So we're going to do a preview of that series for you. So from Thanksgiving, oh, I'm sorry. I was just going to say from Thanksgiving forward, my life is just nothing but Tito's and B-Twelve shots. In no particular order. Oh my goodness. You don't stop partying as you get older. You just change how you do it. Absolutely. Better life through chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Absolutely. So, well, we knew Gary was going to be very busy, so we wanted to get him on here. There are several of the movies for the film series that has sold out. So we want to make sure that we can try and help the rest of those shows sell out because you guys are going to have a blast when it kicks off in December. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So before we, before we get onto that, go ahead and do the shameless plugs, head on over to Bama geeks.com. That's where you can find out all about the podcast, all about us. You can also check us out on social media at Bama geeks area where, and if you're on the book of face, just do a quick search for Bama geeks front porch and ask to join that community. And we'll let you in there and, And of course, if you head over to VamaGeeks.com, you can find out how to become a supporter. And we always appreciate our, our wonderful Patreon supporters. We've got Jamie and Mike and Darnay and Jack. They have been with us for golly, almost, we're getting close to five years. Wow. Yeah. We've been doing that for a while. Yeah. It's been that long that we've been planning our rear ends on these chairs for all that time. So, Yeah. Well, we're going to jump into what we're here for. We're here for Gary. We're here for the Alabama theater holiday film series. And yes, my wife. I have a question before we, before we go into the holiday series, I do want to just maybe some updates. I know that there was renovations going on during the summer. And also how did Phantom go this year? Because unfortunately we were not able to attend and we're so disappointed, but You were traveling the country at that time, were you not? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, my son had a, my son was, had a cool play the exact same time. And, you know, Or the kid who's going to help me when I get older. So that's so funny. I had brunch with my nephew, his wife, and three kids today. And we were chatting because the kids are about to be eleven, seven, and three. And the eleven-year-old is... She is Regina George. Oh, boy. And the three year old is the funniest person I have met in the last decade. He is hysterical. But neither of them have the stomach for what's going to happen when Uncle Gary gets old. And so the seven-year-old, I was talking to my niece and I was like, you know, I'm really counting on her to, when I reach that stage in my life where it's time for this to be over, that she's going to be the one that will grab the pillow and just do this. And we both agreed she would do it. She will do it. So I'm set. So you've at least got a son that you can count on. I'm spinning the wheel of fortune wheel here with three great nieces and nephews. Who's going to drive Uncle Gary around? Oh, well, um, over on Twitch, Jose Lusky. Yeah. Yeah. Hello. Hola. Welcome into the stream. We're glad that you joined us. You were in for a treat when Gary's here. Yes. Sure. You came on a good night. Yeah, you did. So, so Jess, uh, so let me, let me tell you, uh, phantom was phenomenally successful. It was awesome. Uh, I, you know, we, we've done this, what? Forty seven times. Forty seventh time. Um, And Tom Helms always does such a phenomenal job. And Tom Helms always does the best job ever. But I don't know. And I hate to tell you this since you weren't here. I do not know what was going on that day in that man's head. But he just outdid himself. It was the best performance I've heard in at least twenty years. He just it's like every cue was nailed. Every note was perfect. Yeah. you know, I'm standing there with a clipboard going, and I could not find a bobble anywhere. It was just perfect. Wow. So audience. Great. We had a large number of folks that had never been before. Large number. Awesome. Never seen it before. So that's always a giant plus, uh, for us and, and for Tom. Um, It was a great show, and it's one of those shows that it's like, I wish we did it more than once, but we'll see. Well, good. I'm glad to hear that. I do want to put a shameless plug. He's not aware of it. Tom Helms, if you're watching this, you're not aware of this yet, but we're talking about doing next year The General. if you're familiar with the Buster Keaton silent comedy. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I'm working on that now. That would be cool. There's a lot of pieces and parts to make that one happen. But... We haven't shown that in a minute, and I think we had a big discussion about that before and after Phantom, and I really think that's going to happen. So we'll talk about that next year. Oh, okay. That's awesome. That's a good segue for my next visit. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. So, yeah, Phantom went great. We immediately have launched into – November and everything gearing up. And here's the thing about December at the Alabama. It starts and you are just behind a giant boulder rolling down a hill for the month of December. And now this year we have a private corporate party that's going to be in November. And they're just like... We need to do two shows. So our December actually starts at the end of November doing that corporate two-show party. And again, that's just so much fun. Two shows for one corporate? Wow. Yeah, they're that big. It's crazy. Offline will tell and talk who. Because now I know you're curious. I was curious. More importantly, we're thrilled to book two shows on a day where maybe not doing anything that certainly... Absolutely. It's like dance competition. They just keep backing up. We can't do December. Can we do November twenty ninth? Can we do November twenty eight? Yeah. All of a sudden we've got stuff booked on November sixteenth. And I'm like, well, you want to have a Christmas party on November sixteenth because it's the only day we have. And that's OK. That's OK. It's a good place for us to be in. And we God never take it for granted. We're absolutely so lucky, lucky to, to have folks that, you know, just want to come and spend their holiday with us. Exactly. And that's like, like we were saying, this is why we got to get you on tonight because you're fixing to. Yeah. Yeah. You were fixing to be a busy man. Yeah. I asked him if he was, if he had November thirtieth free and he goes, Oh no, we don't have the sixteenth. Yeah. Yeah, and we didn't have the sixteenth free, and so we're like, this was yesterday, like, what are we doing tomorrow night? He's like, I'm on. I was like, okay, good. You know, drive like a bat to get out of the event that we had tonight. We had a great event tonight at the Lyric, and they drank every bit of Maker's Mark that I had. Yeah. Which was a considerable amount. We did not run out, but oh, it was like sweat in those last twenty minutes. It was crazy, crazy. That's awesome. Well, before we get into it, you can see Jess and I are twinsies tonight. Yeah, you are. We're representing properly. Yeah, I didn't get the memo. It was a last minute. This was what I was wearing at the Lyric. Yeah, I literally just came in doing this. That's the shirt that Brock bought the night we came to see Grease because we were soaked to the bone. Thank you for the towels, by the way. Thank you very much for the towels. That was the weirdest night because it was like we were all ready and standing there and all of a sudden, downpour. And everybody outside were like, let him in, let him in. Yeah. Yeah, we were walking around the corner from dinner and it's like, oh, this is a great night. And then two seconds later, it just out of nowhere dropped. Yeah, we didn't have umbrellas with us. That's how it happened in Back to the Future, right? It is. And then they struck the clock tower and then he went to Back to the Future. And then he went. And then if anybody's a young Frankenstein fan, I am. Oh, I am. Remember the graveyard scene? He said, oh, it could be worse. It could be raining. Yes. And then it rains. Yep. Oh, well, as we're talking tonight, if you're joining us live, hop in the chat, ask Gary some questions to let us know if you're going to be attending any of the holiday film series movies. I know Jess and I, we're going to we're going to be going to four of them this year. Finally. Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah. We got multiple ones. And. uh we'll we will divulge what screenings we're going to yeah i want to know yeah i'm gonna be off that night oh come on i'm not gonna not off after november You laugh, but there won't be anybody there to sign your parole release, okay? No. That's right. This is true. You were not documented. I was going to say, there is a... I should pull up a schedule. Yeah. Oh, boy. Yeah. Gary's got it. He literally has a schedule right there. Oh, he's got it printed out, too. Of course he does. Aren't these fun? Can you see this? Those are great. Those are so cute. I have got to find out who did this. But that is the best poster that we've ever, ever, ever had. And I have to acknowledge our new general manager, whatever you want to call her, C.O., She really has embraced this new concept of we need, you know, a media package to be able to tie everything together and make everything just look nice. And so they designed this as the schedule card. Gotta get my camera there, the schedule card. And then this goes on all the posters. And I just, I love that vintage, I saw that's on your Facebook page. Yeah, there it is. Look at that. That's just phenomenal. And I've got to find out who did that because I want to buy the Tito's handmade cocktail drink. It's beautiful. It really is. It is great. So let's see. I'm going to pull mine up now. Share the screen. Oh, Hey, Hey. Oh, okay. What, what? Is everything all right? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we're good. What? What happened? You had me and I'm going to pull mine up. Oh, Lord, it's going to be one of those nights. I haven't even started drinking yet. Okay, I have. Yeah, you have. Yes, you have. Yes, you have. No, no more than I normally do. Who are you fooling? All right, here we go. All right. So you've seen this and this is, this is all pre sold out notifications. Uh, the images that I pulled up, this is when you guys were initially, um, announcing them to go on sale. But here's the first list, right? Yep. That was the first list. But let me tell you, all the Christmas vacations are sold out. Okay. Of course. This is the one thing I wanted to do before we went live was to pull up what had sold out. I'm sure Elf is sold out. One of them is, isn't it? One of the Elf showings is sold out, I think. See, the opening night White Christmas is so close to selling out, it's not even funny. The first Elf on the Saturday, the thirteenth, that's sold out. Home Alone, good heavens, is sold out. The second elf on the seventeenth, that one is pushing over ninety percent. Believe it or not, the Saturday matinee of elf on the twentieth is sold out. And then the home alone on the twenty first is sold out and all the Christmas vacations are sold out. And it's just insane. Yeah. That's awesome, though. That's what I was going to say. It's not unusual for us to sell almost everything out. What has been unusual this year is the day they went on sale within twenty four hours. Well, let me say in thirty six hours, all three of the Christmas vacations sold out. and we're just like going what the yeah you know people have gotten smart and savvy and know that you cannot wait until november to buy your tickets you just yeah that was brock and i's game plan this year yes yes as soon as as soon as the time hit jess and i uh we had we had all four of our movies purchased clickety click bang and get those tickets yeah So, yeah, White Christmas on the twelfth. That's the one we're going to, right, Jess? We're going to that one. We're going to that White Christmas. Let me tell you why that's the best one to come to. The Vestavia Hills High School Rockettes open the holiday film series and perform. And those ladies are amazing. they're they're everything they're they're they're smart they're funny they're professional they're the most professional group we work with they they come and open us up every year uh and we we just it's like it's not christmas until the rockets have performed they're the the best thing is is is they they enjoy what they're doing they don't how can i put this it's going to sound right they get it. In other words, they're very they're not full of themselves. They're just they're just hysterically fun and funny. They're just a delight. And so having them open us up for White Christmas is is an annual tradition since I've I've been doing this. We've always had. And and we're we're really hoping what I want to do is one day soon is have a Rockettes reunion. Oh, yeah. So we can have all the ladies who have been in the Rockettes come back and do something. I think that would be a lot of fun. And maybe we can do that, you know, because our hundredth anniversary is coming up. Maybe we can. See? Write that down. Yeah. Rockettes reunion. One hundred. Yeah. Got it. Okay, good. You're laughing. I wrote it down, really. That's a great idea. I just came up with that. yeah no but no but they're just they're so funny and fun and i love them and they're a delight and of course we know all of them because they're all in uh dance competition and dance studios here so from january to june when we're in dance season competition and recital season i see all these these these girls and yeah uh They, you know, they they've known Uncle Gary all their lives. And it just it's so humbling. It really is, you know, just to have them there. And that group, I just can't oversell it. They're they're fabulous. Good. I'm glad we get to see that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. I think we probably revealed at one point in time, I have never seen White Christmas, so I'm looking forward to experiencing this. Wait, what? Yeah. Don't, Gary, you can't be surprised about this stuff. Apparently Brock was very sheltered at this point in time. Yeah, because usually I'm up early on Christmas morning before everyone else, and I always pop in White Christmas while everybody else is sleeping. So the thing is... White Christmas is one of the few movies... Let me start all over. White Christmas is one of the few... Let me do it again. White Christmas is one of the few Christmas movies that I really actually literally watch in the middle of July. It's absolutely stupid and corn-pwned and... hysterically funny. And I literally watch that thing about four times a year, definitely in the middle of July. We play games with it. So anytime there's coffee on the screen, you have to take a shot. Oh, OK. And Brock, once you've seen this movie, you will understand completely. There's there's so many scenes that I don't we don't know why either involve coffee as a prop. And it's just let's become a drinking game for us. Of course, the musical numbers, the Irving Berlin score is glorious. And then the schmaltz and the schtick is just wonderful. I, again, cannot oversell this movie. It's one of my all time. It's in my top. immovable favorite movies. It's just because at the end of the day, happy ending, lovely, everything. Of course, Mary Wick. The incredible Mary Wick steals every scene that she's in. I'm not giving anything away here, Brock. You'll have to come prepared. All right. I plan on it. I was very happy that we could secure our tickets to that one. Yes, yes. But you've got also on Saturday, December thirteenth, you've got two movies, The Polar Express and Elf. Yeah, Polar Express is a joint effort with Kid One Transport. If you're familiar with Kid One, they provide transportation for kids who need medical transportation to treatments, chemo treatments, doctor's appointments, things like that. And that's a great benefit for them. Those tickets are priced a little bit higher, but all of that money goes to Kid One. And then, of course, that evening is ELF. And sorry, Brock, to jump in on that one. You keep going. I'll just sit here. No, you're good. You're good. You're good. And that's one that that that elf showing is already sold out. Correct. Saturday, the thirteenth, the thirteenth. Right. Yeah, I believe so. I can confirm that for you. Yeah, it is. All right. So go see Polar Express that day if you don't have a ticket and need something to do on that Saturday. Yeah. For a great cause. For a great cause. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. A lot of people show up for that one in their pajamas, correct? The kids. Yes. I've seen pictures of people I know that have attended the Polar Express screening. Yeah. They will come in in pajamas and have, of course... Here in the last couple of years, people just showing up at any movie in pajamas. It's like going to Nikki's West, no curlers. They do have that posted, by the way. Yes. You know, I'm oh so tempted, but I'm afraid I would get thrown out and banished from ever going back there again. And we're going to get liver and onions. Exactly. You just can't. You cannot be banned from Nikki's. It's just not. No, I don't want to do that to yourself. Don't do it. It's not worth it. Oh, me. Well, the next day, you guys also have another double feature. You've got a Christmas story and it's a wonderful life. Mm hmm. There's one heck of a combo. That's a great day. Unfortunately, it never ceases to fail. There is a commitment that Brock and I have that whatever weekend y'all end up doing It's a Wonderful Life, the commitment that we have every year falls in the same weekend. It's rehab, isn't it? You figured it out. We have to report to rehab that weekend. It's a wonderful AA meeting. So I'm always, I'm always sad that it never works out that I can see it's a wonderful life at the Alabama theater. Maybe one day, maybe, maybe one day. So yeah, because so, okay. I'm going to say this. A lot of people, and I know we're going to get to die hard in a few minutes, but you know, a lot of people say die hard is not a Christmas movie. Oh, It is a Christmas movie. For the same reason, technically, if you want to get technical about this, and it's nothing against It's a Wonderful Life because it's one of my favorite movies, but it's not a Christmas movie. It is not. It is not. It's like Die Hard. It takes... The climatic scene for It's a Wonderful Life takes place, yes, on Christmas. But it's not a Christmas movie, much like Die Hard. Die Hard takes place on Christmas. So they're Christmas movies, okay? They are Christmas movies. They are. And so I could argue that Die Hard is more of a Christmas movie than It's a Wonderful Life, which just happens to have a scene in it that is Christmas. Right. Gremlins is more of a Christmas movie than It's a Wonderful Life. Yes, Gremlins is also a Christmas movie. I would whisper. i would love if we could show gremlins oh my gosh i would be there like yeah i know freaking bells on i would literally put bells on i'd be fine with it that's like it's the batman returns you know there we go batman returns i mean gremlins you know i i would serve things blown up in microwave ovens just just because But I just want to bring that up that, you know, everybody's like associates It's a Wonderful Life with Christmas. And I understand why. And it's a good movie for Christmas. I love the movie. It's one of my favorite movies. But also, you know, Die Hard's not a Christmas movie. Yes, it is. It's a Christmas movie, just like It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas movie. Yes. There are people. It's a Christmas movie. There are people that will argue that and they will die on that hill. I've talked to people like, there's not a Christmas movie. I'm like, have you ever watched it? It is a freaking Christmas movie. When people want to die on that hill, I say let them. They will die hard on that hill. Die hard on that hill. Die hard on that hill. There you go. All right. Keep going. Keep going. Speaking of Christmas movies. Yeah. One that is no doubt a Christmas movie. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which sold out. Sold out. Sold out. This Home Alone on Tuesday. Is it sold? Is this the one that sold? Sold out. Sold out. Likely. If not, it should be close. Yeah, that first Home Alone is sold out. Okay. Then we got Elf on Wednesday, December seventeenth. That is close to selling out. Hey guys, speaking of Home Alone, did you guys see what Macaulay Culkin did for Halloween? Yes. It was a toilet. It was a toilet. Sorry. I love it. Oh, the Thursday, December eighteenth, you've got the Santa Claus, which is always a great movie. You know, and that that is a movie we've we've only added in the last couple of three years. And I just I think that is such a surprisingly wonderful movie. It is. And. I enjoy it for a lot of different reasons, but it is cute. That movie doesn't have any business being as good as it is, honestly. It really doesn't. There we go. There it is right there. That movie doesn't have any business being as good as it is. There you set it right there. Yep. Yep. Yep. And then, of course, Friday, December, December, December, December, December, December, die hard. Die hard. This is when the movie series peaks, okay? Well, it is for me. It's definitely when alcohol levels and your blood alcohol levels peak at the theater. Our lead bartender at the Alabama's Valerie, Valerie Penley. And she's like, I know I don't need to ask you this question, but I'm just going to ask it anyway. Do we have enough alcohol for Die Hard? say no more say no more no it's like i've got enough alcohol for two diehards so that's right we'll be we'll be fully stocked yes you are prepared we are prepared It might disappear within one showing of Die Hard. I mean, it's going to be colder. People need to be warm when they go outside. Brock, you know as well as I do, this is the South. It may be ninety degrees when we have it. Could be, but I'm hopeful. You never know. I'm always hopeful. Don't all of you, don't you have a Christmas tale where on Christmas Day it was twelve degrees and then the next Christmas you were walking around in shorts and flip-flops? Or tornadoes. Or tornadoes. I have that same Halloween thing. We went trick-or-treating bundled like bears or we were trick-or-treating in Hawaiian shirts and shorts. It's the South. It's the South. And I'm also going to say this about Die Hard. This is the only time of the year that I watch Die Hard at the Alabama. You don't really go... I mean, you go to watch the movie, yes. But... the atmosphere. The theater, the audience in the theater that night is the best part about getting to watch this movie. I could not agree with you more. That interaction, that energy that that audience brings, it's on a whole other level. It's on a whole other planet. It's like Rocky Horror a little bit. Just the participation and just the feel of it. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's like, could you get that shadow cast up in front of the screen and somebody's falling like Hans Gruber from the story. Somebody trying to recreate Hans falling at the end of the movie. That's hilarious. But I love it because everybody, you've got those parts that you know is coming up that everybody's going to shout the line at the screen. So it's just the atmosphere is so awesome on the night of Die Hard. It's one of the biggest draws. It's not really... I love the movie. It's not really the movie that keeps me coming back. It's what we experience that night when we go. We could not agree more. And I've told you on this podcast before, the very first year that we did that, we were really up against a lot of our staff not wanting to do that. until they got the end-of-day sales totals at concessions. Then, of course, it was their idea then to do that. It's kind of very against the whole idea of the rest of the lineup you have because it's an R-rated movie. It's very opposite of everything else you guys show. It's the, it's the big, like this is the big adult movie. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that's important to have because, you know, we, we often say we cannot be all things to all people, but we can try to be as much to most people or to the majority of people. And this, this definitely, definitely brings in a completely different demographic of, for that film that is just equal to none. I will say, Gary, as long as you guys never show Bad Santa, I think we're going to be good to go. Gary's even noticed himself over the last couple years or have been kids in attendance And Gary does have a disclaimer for the audience prior to the movie. It's just R-rated, guys. The first year, it was like all adults. Yeah. And then the next year, it was like, well, there's some teens here. And then like last year, there were toddlers. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's like, bring me your three-year-olds and I'll give them a new vocabulary. Yippee-ki-yay. Yippee-ki-yay. Yippee-ki-yay three-year-olds. Mommy, what does yippee-ki-yay mean? Ask your father. Honey, we don't know. Ask your father. Oh, that's awesome. All right. December. Twentieth. Both. You see. You see. Elf is not sold out on the twentieth. Right. He's looking for live numbers. No, it is. I am looking at live numbers. Okay. So. Yeah. So it's Saturday the twentieth. If you don't have your tickets for either one of these shows. You ain't getting in. You ain't getting in the theater that day. So. Yeah. There is one way. Give him some tequila. No, no. This is the time of year. You know me. I'm fairly easygoing. I love everybody. But this is the time of year where I get that once a year phone call from people that don't talk to the other three hundred and sixty four days of the year. Yeah, but they want you at this time of year. Oh, at this time. Yes, they do. And I'm always like, oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, I'm so sorry. You know, unless you're Jessica Parker. No. Thank you. Yes. That's right. We talked to Gary year round. That's right. That's our trip. Yeah, I know. Gary's a friend. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, absolutely. And not a fair weather. Fair weather, yes. That's right. You only call me when you need something. Wait, wait. What? What? Or if we need to sign your parole release. I mean, we've already talked about that. That's true. New phone, who did? As much as you need me, yes. But these are the other two movies that Jess and I were able to get tickets to were for Elf and for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We are bringing the kids to both of them. My kids. What are you going to do in between? We're going to go eat somewhere and just hang around downtown. Yeah. Yeah. We're not going to venture far off. No, no. Yeah, we just decided we really weren't even sure about the kids' holiday schedules at the time. But again, we were like, if we're going to do it, we need to get the tickets now and figure it out later. Yeah. Here's the thing. If the kids can't, you've got friends that can. Yeah. Hey, then we're going to have to find somebody to go along. The kids are definitely coming. My daughter is flying in from seeing her boyfriend in the Midwest on the nineteenth. So she'll be back that evening. And she and my son have both said, oh, we're ready to go. Let's have fun. Awesome. So this will be the first time that we've seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at the Alabama. Mm hmm. So that's a freak. Yeah. This is the first, the only movies that we have seen in the holiday series tend to be, well, die hard and elf. Yeah. Yeah, we've never been to any of the other film series. So first time to see White Christmas, and then the first time for us to see National Lampoon Series. He's almost like, I'm offended. No, I'm not. Let me tell you. I'm going to tell you why this is so exciting. Because you already know White Christmas is my pinnacle favorite. Right. Last year, for the first time, we had a group – of employees from Coca-Cola. And it is this really wonderful, fun group. One of them bought, went out and bought cousin Eddie's RV replica. And they, they showed up, I think for one of the Christmas vacations, but it's like a group of like seven of them. And they have the dog. Wow. Snots. And snots. Snots. And, and the chair, the recliner. Oh yes. And, Brock's favorite scenes. I love that. This RV is all decorated up. They're all in costume. It's incredible. And so they had such a great time last year doing this that like on January third, they were calling going, can we do this again? And I'm like, only if you do all of them. Okay, good. And they're like, well, we were going to talk to you about that because we wanted to do all of them. Nice. Yeah. so they are coming they're going to go back on eighteenth street come and get your picture made uh come and interact with them they are hysterical they're so much fun and that rv is oh my god it's unsightly it is just perfect perfect it's authentic yeah there we go authentic who said that yeah kevin did yeah kevin of course kevin no it is authentic it is it is just Wonderful. Now, they're coming to all three. They are going to come in on the night of the fifteenth and enjoy the movie. Okay. They'll be part... We do costume parade for Christmas Vacation. Okay. Because there's so many people that dress up for Christmas Vacation. All right. Hold the phone. I just came up with a dad joke. It's Christmas cannon. The RV is Christmas cannon. Like cannon. Okay. This is the second time I'm about to close my laptop. Just a second. These are rookie numbers. So we're thrilled to have them come and do that. Again, we're back to it's just part of the audience interaction and the pre-show and being able to get your picture made. If you want to know the actual truth, they started decorating yesterday. Oh, wow. Nice. Because it takes us this long to get everything done. done right and and part of the part of the decor part of the decoration is the lining of all the iron railing with lights and and we've got nutcracker ballet coming up middle of the month and our ceo wanted that done prior to that and then immediately after that show they will start just the week before thanksgiving putting up the tree which takes three days oh that beautiful tree that tree is gary i will be there at the nutcracker valley Oh, really? Great. Good, good, good. Awesome. Awesome. That the tree is is it takes stagehands to assemble it. And then our team goes in and decorates. There's seven thousand lights on it. Wow. it's just it's insane yeah so they're like that is an amazing tree though i have to get my picture with it every time of course of course of course and they have that down to such a precise science of getting that tree up they know exactly what's going to happen on day one on day two on day three and then poof it's done so and i i trust me when i tell you i stay the hell away from that That is vigorously cleaning the ice machine. Vigorously ice machine cleaning time. It's just, it's work. And I don't want to get involved into that much work. So I'll go clean an ice machine. Awesome. We're definitely looking forward to seeing the, the RV and everything. The kids will love that. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It'll be on eighteenth street in front of the stage door. So, you know, know that as part of your routine and yeah. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. Gotcha. All right. Well, the very next day on the twenty first, you've got the cartoon matinee triple feature. Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph and the Grinch. So the thing about that cartoon matinee is it is almost sold out. Okay. Is that where you sell the second most alcohol drinks? I'm going to tell you what we sell there. You will see all of these grandmothers walking around with coffee. It ain't coffee. We sell so much Chardonnay in a coffee cup at that kid's matinee. It's unbelievable. Oh, that's funny. Yeah. I don't want my kids, two syllables, to see me drinking. And I'm like, oh, honey, I got you covered. Here's your stealth cup of Pinot Grigio. Please enjoy. I brought my thermos. Come on. Fill me up. Fill me up. Thermos it is. I got you. I got you. Oh, awesome. Uh, you've also got home alone. Yeah. On the tree first that's sold out. Yeah. But then Monday, Monday is when Gary can breathe at night. No, no. So the, the white Christmas sing along edition is the matinee on Monday, the. And. This was several years ago, maybe five years ago, five, four, five, six, somewhere in there. What we noticed is that when we're screening Christmas Vacation, when we're screening White Christmas, that everybody's just singing along. And you ain't going to stop them. Don't even try. Don't even try. And at the time, our house manager, who's now the CEO, she was just like, maybe we should screen one that's the best. It's a long version. And I'm like, please. So we do. And you just thought that was a terrible idea. No, we just can't do that. No, I said, oh God, please do that. Because then you're giving them permission to sing. You have never had so much fun as to see that film when when two thousand people are singing sisters yes and and every other song that's in there it's it's just it's glory it's chilling it's it's glorious and and i love doing that i i'm excited that that's going to come around us out we always try to show uh white christmas to open and white christmas on closing day and so we pick it up on that friday night with the rockets and then on monday with the single one version so yeah i'm super thrilled about that and i was looking to see that that one is not sold out but we're at more than half a house so on for a for a monday matinee that's the week of christmas i think that's great yeah yeah that's awesome And closing it out is another. Closing it out. The last and final Christmas vacation. Sold out. Sold out. People love the Christmas vacation movie. Well, we have laughed and joked and teased. Not really, though. You know, what if we just showed it fourteen times? It would probably sell out all fourteen times. It probably could. There's only so many days and only so many screenings we can get in. And I just think it's amazing that that one film sells out every single time, every single show. Yeah. Maybe for the last showing next year, you can give away, I don't know, Jelly of the Month Club description. Merry Christmas. Just don't set a live squirrel loose in the audience. Or do. Or do. Bethany's Jell-O cat food mold. Yeah, the Jell-O cat food mold. Oh, my God. So not last year, but the year before, we had this little teeny tiny girl. She's probably about six or seven. And she came dressed as Aunt Bethany. Oh, nice. And she had the box. She walked around the theater doing this. And right before they did the costume parade, she came out. They had put a little syringe of green jello in it. I thought I was going, I couldn't compose myself. I was laughing so hard because she was A, so adorable and B, complete. Completely in character the whole time. She had the motion down. How cute. Oh, goodness. And see, that's what makes it all worthwhile. It thrills your heart. I know it's cliche and corny, but that last show is as exciting for us, as exhausted as we are as the first show. We have a ball doing this. We just have so much fun. And it shows, it always shows the anytime. And I've, I've said this, I think every time we've had you on the podcast and I will repeat it every single time, the, what y'all do for the experience of the people that, that come into the theater. It, it, I mean, if you don't take notice of that, I mean, there's something wrong with you. But y'all are so good at what y'all do for the people who come into the theater, who spend money to come there and to see these movies. The atmosphere, the environment. It's genuine. Yeah, it is. We love it. We love doing it. And like I've said this before, we never take it for granted because in this world, in this day and age today, things can turn on a dime. And we just, we're always mindful. We're just not just throwing this movie up on screen. You had to, buy the tickets you have to drive downtown you have to find parking you have to stand in line then you have to go inside and stand in line for concessions and go inside and find a seat and they're general admission seats so everybody's clamoring to get that favorite southern baptist seat that they always love that's right my aisle my seat You were in my seat. I'm a little packed. Leave me alone. And so to come and watch a movie that's being screened four hundred times in the month of December. And so we appreciate the effort that everyone does. And I've said this before. I'm just repeating myself constantly tonight. The Alabama and the Lyric Theaters are self-supporting, self-sustaining, meaning that we don't have any city governmental funding, no state, no federal funding. That's not how we make our money. We make our money by putting butts in seats. Mm-hmm. and that's how we are able to do all the projects that we do that you mentioned earlier the the summer project where we took september and wrapped up that electrical stuff right we'll come back we can come back and talk about that because it's super exciting uh you you want to see you know you want to see me geek out geez louise Let's talk about that downstairs under stage. Nineteen twenty seven Frankenstein knife switch board that just got replaced. It's now safe. No more cancer risk. No. So, you know, I've often said if I pushed you into that panel, you would never know it because you would be gone like that in an instant. And so that's been done. But we pay for that. We don't take out loans. We don't go begging. We pay for that with the revenue that's generated with tickets and Tito's. And tickets and Tito's. And that's, that's how we make all of this happen. And it just, we never take that for granted because if people didn't come, we couldn't do what we do. We wouldn't be sitting here talking about all this fun holiday stuff. I want to officially, I mean, I know we were talking about like the theater in general, but I want to officially petition that we get gremlins. Okay. I know we mentioned it, that you guys talk about it and talk to the other theaters that you got your network of other theaters that try this stuff and see if they've been able to make gremlins work. Okay. They do. I think so too. They do. And they have, and I think it'd be a great fun addition to, yeah to do i would be first in freaking line to see that i i love it the the biggest problem is of course you know what are you going to pull off of the schedule to show gremlins in its place yeah that's that can't be that hard No, no, no. Yeah. So I think y'all have found, you know, you found what works for that season. And like you said, we've talked about the things like, oh, you should show this or you should show this. And I think y'all you've said you've tried. Y'all tried at one point other things. And it's like, yeah, we didn't. As much as we appreciate it, it's not getting what we need is butts in the seat. We did Christmas in Connecticut one year. We had so many people, and I don't think it was so many people. I think it was the same three people over and over again asking for Christmas in Connecticut, Christmas in Connecticut. So we pulled something, put Christmas in Connecticut in, and I think we had, you know, a hundred and eighty people show up. yeah oh wow that hurts you know i would think you would have a lot more than that for gremlins honestly i i really do think you know i agree with that i do i do i think so for that one for sure but yeah that's that's a lot of nostalgia pull too for a lot i mean that's like generation x right i mean it's just like yeah that's core memory stuff there yes I'll see if I can't work on that. Good deal. Awesome. Well, Gary, you sent me some pictures earlier. What are we going to be looking at here? Oh, my goodness. Okay. So everybody enjoys Christmas, but everybody loves to come and Big Bertha is definitely the star of the show. I'm just there to make her look good. We do the sing-along, which is always super fun. And of course, Bertha's there to entertain and get everybody in their seats. And we've spent so much time and energy and money in the last two years doing some major, major stuff with Bertha to get her back to, well, she's ninety eight years old. So, you know, we do some big stuff every once in a while because we're coming up on our centennial. And people always talk about the different things about Bertha. And for those who are just joining in who don't know who Bertha is, who I'm talking about, she is our mighty Wurlitzer theater pipe organ that was designed and built for the Alabama, installed in in and designed to accompany silent films. And then when the films began to talk, her role reverted to exactly what we're using her for during the holiday film series. And that is she, you know, ushers people in and get them in their seat. We do the community sing along and then, you know, play it out and that gets everybody calm down and ready. And then at the end, after the movie is over, it kind of plays everybody out of the building. But there are some things in Bertha that I enjoy talking about I didn't send you a console shot, but some of the interior shots of the chambers. Bertha is a pipe organ, so everything is wind driven. It's all very Rube Goldberg, nineteen twenty seven technology. It still operates perfectly today. And in fact, I say nineteen twenty seven that that technology was around before, you know, pre nineteen hundred. And it's just, it's electro pneumatically driven and everything operates on air. Everything is the real instrument. And the favorite thing for me is you get to that one time a year, pull out the tuned sleigh bells, which is a twenty five note set of tuned sleigh bells. And there's one for every key. They're tuned. Is that it? That's it. All right. So look, so there's twenty five notes. So that first one is just a single note, but it's a it's a big bell. And then as you go up in scale, as you're moving across up in scale, each each of those bells gets higher in pitch. So they're tuned to the note that you're correspondingly playing. And I always laugh and tease because I can I can only imagine in nineteen twenty seven the little old ladies at the Wurlitzer factory going through boxes and boxes of pills, holding one up, going, shaking it. Oh, that's a C sharp. That's an F. That's a D. And they are tunable. I don't know if you can see, but there's a little round hole on each side if you if you kind of bore that a little bit it'll make it go sharp and then across the top lip if you bore that a little bit it'll make it go flat so they are fine tunable but you know once they're set they're brass so once they're set they never they never have to do but you i mean come on you can't you can't do jingle bells without Slay bells. Without bells. Exactly. Exactly. It just doesn't work. Nope. And that gets used. And I love that because we go through in the next coming weeks, our team will go through and make sure every single one of those, those are leather straps that they're attached to. When you play the note, the pneumatic expands and then it just shakes the bells. So you get that nice tone. I'm super thrilled that over the next couple of weeks, the Oregon crew will go through and just make sure every one of those is perfectly shaking to our delight. And that's just so crazy that Wurlitzer took the time because there's so many things in Bertha that make different sounds other than the pipes. If you've got another one, Brock, there. Okay, so those are the pipes. That's actually the lower solo chest on auditorium right, stage left. That is behind the curtain on stage right there. Everybody goes, oh, we sat in those. Oh, yeah, we sat in those. No, no, you have not. Bertha sits there, okay? Bertha sits there. Bertha sits there. And so that first rank all the way to the left is the English post horn. And then you've got the brass trumpet. And those wooden pipes are tibia, tibia clausa pipes. And then the one next to that is a tuba mirabilis. And that's just, there's another set down in there in the middle. There's a rank of, it's a solo string. And so those, you know, there are thousands of pipes. Each note has a corresponding pipe that plays for that note on both sides of the house. But then you get into the fun stuff, like we said, the sleigh bells. And if you want to pull up, I don't remember which order I sent these in. I know that you get one for percussion down there, I see. Yeah. Drop, drop me one in for percussion because, uh, okay. So the, yeah. Okay, great. Um, that is a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, all the way up, all the way to the right toward the house, not the stage, and speaks very clearly through those swell shades. So you can get to hear that. There's a snare drum up there, a wood block, a Chinese block. tambourine, castanets, all that good fun stuff. And they're all kind of centered around in that area. And if you want to grab the next one, that's the glockenspiel, the tuned glockenspiel. And it's just an orchestral glockenspiel laid out so that each one of, there's thirty-seven notes, each one of those hammers will talk that glockenspiel. You can make them reiterate But again, how are you going to play the weather outside is frightful without a nice little glockenspiel telling you? Oh, yeah. that that's going on. Y'all, this is so corny, but this is what I do. This is what makes it so fun and funny. This is amazing. If you're ever up there, one of our stagehands is always in the wings there making sure everything's okay. He's like, I watch you and it's such a joy to watch you play because you laugh when you're playing. This is so much fun. It's fun and funny. I really... enjoy doing it. I think the last one is the piano, maybe. Yeah. So that's a nineteen twenty seven Wurlitzer upright piano. It's in the solo chamber kind of midway. It's above that five rank chest that we said and below the drums and everything. And it's designed to get out into the room better. There's also a mirror of that over on the other side in the string chamber. There's another Wurlitzer upright over there and you can play them. One, the other, or both, or independently, however you want to do it. It's configurable very easily. But the amazing thing about Bertha is she is the orchestra. Wurlitzer never called them theater organs. They called them unit orchestras. And it was designed to replicate all of the sounds of the orchestra. take the place of an orchestra, accompany a silent film and score and cue a silent film. And so she does an amazing job of it. And even with two thousand people, she ain't sweating anything to get over the volume of it. Oh, no, not at all. No, no. She's very powerful. And I think, is that the last one? That is. I mean, that theater's designed for her. Yeah. Well, the thing is, is, you know, the... the organ is the pieces and parts, but the room is what makes it sound and come together. And so, and funny thing, it's designed to go and project into the audience. So it comes out of the chambers, fires into the audience, hits the back wall and comes back to me that way. So I'm hearing it a few milliseconds. later. And if you've ever worked with anything with sound, just a handful of milliseconds is an eternity. And so you have to be very, very confident when you launch that you charge ahead because if you're waiting for the sound to catch up with you, it never will. And so you have to, you go and don't stop. Those chambers, there are zero, no parallel walls in those chambers so that there are no standing notes or standing waves. And so the sound pushes. Is this from Phantom? It is. That looks like it's from Phantom. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It is. I can see Tom Helms' score up there. No, it really is. No, but so the sound is designed, you know, to get out and into the room. That room makes or breaks any organ. A room makes or breaks any organ. You can have a fabulous organ in a crappy room and it's going to sound like. Yeah. Yippee-ki-yay. Yeah, I mean, by comparison, I've heard, you know, some large like church organs, like in Catholic churches and like large, like vaulted church that the organ looks amazing. But like when you compare just the acoustics of it versus like something where it's designed for that, you know, you can very much tell that they put that there because it looks amazing. And sure, it sounds great. But it doesn't sound amazing. It sounds like it's just it's just there to just to play the sound, not necessarily, you know, to make you feel it as much. And then when you go to a theater like the Alabama where it was designed to hit you from all sides, you know, in concert. Yeah, I had I had a conversation a while back with a dear, dear friend in Detroit. And we were talking about a specific organ that was a really crappy organ. Awful. But golly, the room that it was in made it sound. And he said, that organ sounds better than it ought to. So the acoustics of the room really can make or break you. You put a crappy organ in a fabulous room and it'll sound pretty good. But you get a good organ in a great room, it's gold. That's why you come to the Alabama Theater. That's right. Yes, that and the popcorn. The popcorn's amazing. hands down if you guys ever need to do an advertisement to advertise like it like a like a you know just a blurb or just like a little little short video just just to just to say hey your popcorn's amazing call jess okay that's right she is a popcorn aficionado so she can tell you let me tell you um and this is you know this is so weird because there are maybe When you go to buy raw corn, there are maybe seven different levels and grades of popcorn that you can get. And so a lot of theaters and theater chains will opt for the very least expensive thing they can get because it saves money. We get that number one best quality top tier corn. And then there's about four different oils, levels of oils, blends of oils that you can get. And Once again, we choose that top tier of oil and it's our calling card. And so we want that to, I want that to be the best. We want that to be the best. And could I cut a corner? Yeah. Am I going to save a nickel? Maybe. But I'm not. I'm not. We're just not going to do that. We're not going to do that. That's one of the most memorable things about coming to that theater is just how good the popcorn is. And let me tell you, so I have a team There are four of them and they're all high school kids. And they come in and they start popping after school and they're popping continuously. I call them the children of the corn. And they pop. That's good. They pop continuously starting the day before because the bagged corn that goes up into the upper balcony bars, can be popped and once it's bagged, it'll keep up to two weeks. But we can't, we never have anything left over like from a day to day basis. It's just, it's fast and as much as we can pop. We have one machine that runs year round and then we have a second backup machine that gets called into service in the middle of December to, you know, pick up the slack. And I think it's great that those kids love to come and enjoy. And even though they never get to see a whole lot of things that are going on, they're stuck in the back popping forever. Oh, what a terrible job. It's a terrible job. That's just awful. With a terrible boss. Real tyrant, you know. Get that corn popped. Corn production must be bigger. Yeah. Oh, goodness. Those kids are amazing. I love them. If you were to ever hire Jess to do something like that, she would eat your profits. Yeah. You know, you say that, but trust me, there's really only so much you can eat before you're just like, The terms of your challenge is acceptable. Honestly, I would like to test that theory. Challenge accepted. Jess is like, challenge accepted. We could probably launch a sister YouTube channel and just have her trying to do different popcorn challenges. She'd probably win every one of them. That's right. Yes. Well, the so here's a bit of trivia for you, Jess, for popcorn trivia. OK. At the main bar and up in the balcony, the loft bar up there at the very top, we have the bins that are storage areas for the corn, the popcorn, the boxes. And you turn those on and they run and people mistakenly call them popcorn. the popcorn warmer and it's not a warmer tech. Technically it is a crisper. Okay. And what happens is, is if you pop corn and take it out and sit it on the table, freshly popcorn for twenty minutes, it will taste like it's three weeks old because it absorbs the moisture in the air. And what the crisper does is it removes that moisture and Technically, you could take two week old corn, put it in the crisper for about twenty minutes, and it would taste like you just popped it. And what it's doing is pulling that moisture, that humidity and moisture out of the corn. Because corn with humidity is tough and it tastes old. People go, oh, it tastes old. No, it doesn't. No, it's just not warm. That makes sense. It's not been dehumidified. Right. I would have never even known that. Thank you. So, yes. I try to make sure all my bartenders call it a crisper. OK, crisper. That's right. So in our next house. Well, if you've got to order parts, you know, you call Gold Medal and say, hey, I need a blah, blah, blah from a popcorn warmer. They're going to be like, what? A what? You're a popcorn warmer. Warmer? Where are you from, Des Moines? It's a crisper. So that's the only little sticky point there. I always try to preach the gospel of the corn. This is the first lesson that we tell the children of the corn. We teach them about the crisper. The crisper. Yes, and why you can't pop and leave it out. You've got to pop it and bag it or pop it and box it immediately. It's got to be done. There's a way. There's a way to do it. Well, y'all have it down to perfection. I have yet to get a bad box of popcorn at the Alabama Theater. I just knocked on the wooden table I'm sitting at and I hope that never happens. I hope that never happens to anybody because I would take it as a personal embarrassment. You know, we want... a good quality product. We want to move people through the line as quickly as we possibly can. For all these sold out shows, you know, we have the main and the mezzanine and the balcony and the loft and now the downstairs kiosk. Yeah. Which is the grabbing, kind of grab and go limited menu. The one that is not right beside the bathroom. Yeah, exactly. There we go. We'll get you started on that one. That's right. It's in the common lounge. That's right. Separated by the lounge and then separated by the bathroom. So three rooms removed. Fair enough. There is a communal area right there. Oh, my goodness. That little kiosk downstairs will yank as much. money and people as, as any of the main bar stuff. I mean, you just empty the tank. I mean, you gotta get your stuff to fill it back up. Right. I mean, that's right there. Yeah. You know, it's right there at convenience. well you know that that kiosk was born not for christmas it's just it's evolved into that it was born for concerts uh because uh before we added all the the extra ladies restrooms there are you know twenty two additional stalls of of ladies restroom and before that the the ladies line would back all the way up into the auditorium upstairs yeah and so My idea was, you know, let's let's say Brock and Jess, you go downstairs and it's going to take Jess a good bit longer in line because just the line is so long. And the fact that, you know, anatomically, Brock, you're going to go in, do your business super quick, come back out. You can't leave, though. That's right. You got to wait for Jess. So my goal then was while you're waiting. go ahead hey mr martini how about a glass of wine hey mr martini how about some wine that's from it's a wonderful yes that's right and uh and it was like well you know you can't leave so let's get you something to drink and you know why don't you go ahead and get her one too and then the thing is is it's taken her so long that you've drank both And then she comes back out and I've got to go right back in. That was, that was my original evil plan, which has now turned into. A brilliant idea. I just need, I just need to get a lot of folks are just like, I just need to get a bottle of water or I just need to get this one thing. And I don't want to wait up there for that. So, and just, you, you talked about, um, some of the other, the food things that we have during the holiday film series. And we're talking about attempting, and I don't know how this is going to go. So I'm just, I'm spitballing here. Not the word to use around food. What I'd like to do is create another kiosk on a different level and have our hot dogs and the fruit and cheese and the chicken salad croissants and things like that that are so very difficult to maneuver through the rest of the building. Just have one place for that quote unquote extra food. And I think I'm really going to have to try it this year. That one, I think that would be great. If you can pull it off, I think it'd be a great idea. Well, it's like I got I was like when we were trying to like, OK, we need to get something to eat before we get there. But if there's something to eat that's there, that's like makes it better. That that's the reason we do that, especially at Christmas, because, you know, if if the doors are at six and the movies at seven, you probably didn't get off till five. Yeah. It's a challenge to get everybody together or get home and get back. Yeah. you know you're gonna meet so we try to go a little food heavy other than you know snickers and chardonnay and and again i've got i've got just i've got one person that's back there and that's all she's doing all day is is food prep for that next performance and we do that at sidewalk uh yeah the sidewalk film festival right here are we amp up the food and then of course it rotors right into dance competition season in january and dance recital season two and we amp up that because those kids are trapped you know they're right they're there all day and it's like you don't trying to get out and maneuver downtown sometimes it's just not yeah got bad weather or you know and i mean i can i can only work them so hard those little kids so Not with that attitude. Yeah, right. The popcorn king demands. And Brock and I sometimes are the common mindset of like, it's what's most convenient. We're here. We don't have to venture out too far. Oh, look, we can grab a bite here. This is where we need to be. I'm a massive creature of convenience. Is it fine dining? No. But is it good? Is it good? Yes. Is it good quality? Yes. And that's that's really I preach. Gosh, I preach this all the time. It's just like we've got to be doing the best quality. that we can do. And I tell them, if you've got something in your hand that you're about to serve and it's questionable, don't serve it. Call me, get something, go do something different, get something different. Don't do that. I mean, you've got the Chardonnay in the coffee cups, right? So we're first class. Look, we do what it takes to accommodate and appease. Yeah. If we didn't do that, they wouldn't buy it. That's right. Jess, was that the chicken question you were going to ask earlier? Yes. Yeah. It's so funny that you asked that because we just were talking about that this afternoon. Because much like going to see White Christmas, I probably will have to work. I don't get off work until five. And it's already, okay, we've got to get home. We've got to get the car together. We've got to get downtown. We need to eat something, you know. I've seen Jessie get pissed on popcorn. Many days. Yeah, I mean, I've done that. You know, popcorn and a peanut butter cracker go a long way, but if you had something a little bit nicer, a little bit more substantial. I love chicken salad. I love fruit and cheese. So yeah, it's good fruit and cheese. That's right. And then I have popcorn. Then I'll have popcorn and box of popcorn. I'll just keep swiping that card at the Alabama. Just give me more. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Yes. Use your Apple watch, whatever it takes. Um, No, and I mean, that's kind of the whole thing is, you know, you can have a little something more substantial, better quality. And then, of course, enjoy your corn during the movie itself. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, for the shows that have not sold out for the holiday film series, how can people get tickets? I don't know. I mean. Just Google it, right? Two ways. No, don't Google it. Don't. Don't. Don't. Two ways. You can go to alabamatheater.com slash events, and that will link you to our Ticketmaster website. Or you can go to ticketmaster.com. We're all in pricing, so it doesn't matter if you buy it at the theater or online or in advance or whatever. You're going to pay the same price regardless. It's all in. We have issues with resellers. things that uh i'm not going to name any names but my niece's mom a couple of years ago said oh i got my tickets for white christmas and i only paid a hundred sixty five dollars for them and i'm like what you'd yeah i'm sorry what was that if you are seeing a ticket price other than our advertised ticket price then It is a third party reseller. It could be a false, unverifiable ticket. Just don't do it. Go to your Ticketmaster account or alabamatheater.com and it will link you to the proper site. And you've got to be careful there. You can't Google us. You need to really go to... alabamatheater.com t-h-e-a-t-r-e dot com and we are we're constantly combating third-party resellers sellers i'm sure um it's it's just it and it's not just us it's it's every single solitary theater in the country yeah has this problem where they get so and which we try to to to be very gracious about it but if you bought a ticket from a third party there's nothing really you know about it you know gary that's the sad thing is is um you know um i like to call that a stupid text okay because i can't say that i know i know officially you can i get it but at the same time it's like like if you you know if you were dumb enough to buy it from one of those uh you know sites and pay, you know, sixteen times more than what you would pay. They look legitimate and they look real and they look like us. And in a lot of cases, they will use, you know, public photographs of the theater and kind of fool people. And I just think it's really sad. I don't like it. We don't like it. It certainly doesn't do any benefit for us to have to tell someone, I am so sorry you bought this from some sleazy alley vendor who took your money. AlabamaTheater.com slash events is your best possible bet. Yeah, Gary's not going to be outside the theater scalping them. How bad do you want to see Christmas vacation? And here's, here's another thing I always tell folks is, um, uh, there are generally folks who legitimately cannot attend a performance that they've selected and paid for it. So you might be able to find that person and transfer the ticket from their Ticketmaster account to your Ticketmaster account. And that is a perfectly legal and legitimate way to get a ticket from someone else. So, you know, There are ways, but don't pay a bunch of money for tickets because that's not us. Right. Yep. Yeah, definitely buy them from the Alabama Theater, support them, and you will have a blast during the Holiday Film Series this year. You'll try. Bo, you have been excruciatingly quiet this evening. I am just listening. Unfortunately, it never fails. All the shows I want to attend are work weekends for me. So that's why I am very quiet. I feel bad. I am more the summer film series because that more works into my repertoire of, I guess, time. I understand. I do. You've got to quit your job. Yeah, because, you know, hey. because like you they were talking about like you know the atmosphere and enjoyment because like all my good memories of like that has always been the summer film series like of course probably my favorite viewings of some of my favorite movies big lebowski ghostbusters and oh gosh yes and of course star trek to the wrath of khan that has been probably my favorite viewings have all been at the alabama theater yes they had the khan off it's one of my favorite memories yes so that's that's you know i i know i'm off topic it is of the alabama theater but you know No, it's just true. At some point, though, you're going to have to give up your jelly career. I was about to say, his job is pretty sweet. I don't know why you couldn't maneuver through someone at your office and let's get a jelly of the month club. It's a thought. I know some people in the office. We'll see what happens. And then you can go down and do the promotional pitches at the theater and you can be there for the movies. That's right. There's that. What if you could say Christmas Vacation presented by... I am just a lowly small man in that big cog of a company. We'll see. I can do my part. We'll see how it goes from there. Come on, Bo. You know what would be pretty sweet? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. I like it. I like it. I'm sitting here going, there's a way to do this. There's a way. I'll see what I can tell you. He's got a note. He's like, make it more sweet in Gremlins. Okay. Where do you get this? Those are notes. There you go. Yeah. Well, Gary, thank you so much for being on with us. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed this so much. It's always great to be with you guys. We always love having you on. And if you want to check out some past episodes with Gary, you can look him up on BamaGeeks.com. You can go under Guest and see Gary's picture there, and it'll take you to all the episodes he's been on. And we have had a lot of great conversations about the Alabama Theater and the Lyric. Wait, what? What? And I look forward to having a lot more conversations. But just head over to BamaGeeks.com. That's where you can find all the info. On our social media channels, you can follow us at Bama Geeks. If you're on Facebook, just search out the Bama Geeks Front Porch, and we'll let you into that little community. And always, as always, thank you to Jamie and Mike and Darnay and Jack who have been with us getting close to five years as part of our top members. Five years of Bama Geeks. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. And if you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you like and subscribe and tell your friends, tell your mama and them, do you take mama to the Alabama theater for the holiday film series? That's what you got to do. Get them, find them. Maybe that's not sold out. Take her there. I mean, come see die hard with us, please. Yeah, man. No coffee cups needed. You got your regular cups. Bring your grandma to die hard. I love it. That's right. Yippee-ki-yay, granny. Come on. It's R-rated. No shame. You can even just have it straight out. R-rated. Granny can get in. Don't worry. She's of age. Also, if you're watching this after the live stream, leave a comment below. Tell us your favorite Christmas movie or any comments you have about this episode. Absolutely. And if you're listening to the audio version, please leave a five-star rating and leave a comment on iTunes and Spotify, wherever you want to. We'd appreciate it. But we thank you so much again for being with us, Gary. And thank you so much for watching and being a part of the Bama Geeks family. We love you all. For Bo and Kevin and Jess and Gary, I'm Brock with the Bama Geeks. Have an absolutely wonderful week. Audio version drops on Wednesday. Make sure you check it out. And again, tell your granny. It's safe. Sounds great. All right. Bye, y'all. Bye.