Benny Mailman's Podcast 42
Benny Mailman's Podcast 42
Episode 9! Audio Book Update, Nick Oxford Reminder, Julie Beyer, Bench Press Near Death Experience, Bike Taxi Crazy stories!
In this awesome episode I tell a bike taxi story my friend Nick Oxford reminded me about. I tell a Marine Corps story from when I met the Commandant of the Marine Corps in South Korea! Book and audio book updates on Finding 42! Amazon author page! There is even a hilarious story about my mom thinking I was on drugs! Ha ha ha My friend Julie Beyer is in this one too. Much Love and Peace to All!
For the Record: On the transcript, I do not fully go through it. My mind has already melted from the editing, so I hope I have more listeners than reader. LOL
Wow, just captivating. Sort of like my podcast that's coming up, is captivating. Wow. Some crazy notes there. Like some crazy stories, a mother trying to make sure that her son is not on drugs. Interesting story. And then there's a couple of bike taxi stories. One I was reminded by my great friend Nick Oxford photographer extraordinare often appears in The New York Times Nick Oxford great buddy Love him reminded me of a interesting bike taxi story. Hey, listen. That is some interesting stuff. Is there like one string? I could play that instrument? One string? I'm in on that. What else do we have today? We have a weightlifting story. It was probably the last. It was the only competition I was ever in and nearly died. not even kidding. Join in for that story that happened in 1998 in the Saloon weightlifting competition somewhere in Minnesota. Check it out, folks. This is a good one. Wow. Wow. Hello, everybody. Wow, you are so cool. Thanks for being here. I think I straighten things out with my apple podcasts. So people on the apple, that Apple thing they can listen to now. So that's cool. Enjoy my friends enjoy captivating. Hello Super cool, awesome, magnificent, super duper wonderful humans of Earth. This is Benny Mailman Podcast 42, and I am your host the one the only I think the only maybe there's 10 of me out there. I don't know Benny Mailman coming to you live from Siem Reap, Cambodia on August 1 2021. Wow. August is here. That seems a little strange. I don't know why this year is flying by last year. In March. They closed the school march of 2020. Because of COVID. And I will tell you march was the longest month I have ever experienced in my life not knowing what was coming. That is the thing that crushes us, folks. Let's be honest, not knowing and the other thing that crushes us Knowing. knowing the truth about other people in the past that we've trusted, and then they betrayed our trust. That does not do well with our psyche. And the other thing not knowing what is coming in the future. Will I be successful? Will I survive? Will I be happy? Well folks, the only person that can make you happy is you that has to be a choice for reazle what I have never said that before in my life. But I'm going to leave that in there for reazle. That's my new... I guess some people say for rizzle Some people say for shizzle. I say for reazle. I always tell my students I feel that I am a good teacher or they're better teachers than me. Oh, yeah. But I am a great motivator. And I believe strongly in teaching my students about the real world idioms and what they mean in the United States. My Cambodian students, if I say something to them, that was something that was added I did not plan on going down this road but that's me. I am the rabbit hole jumper. Benny Mailman rabbit Hole we're in it let's go. Let's see what happens. We are explorers we are experiencers you are with me now. Let's go for let's go for an EXploration when I first st rted teaching, which is al ost four years ago now here in cm, reap Cambodia at p you se university, I have never mi sed a day of class. I have ne er been late except for one da when I was riding my scooter th ough water that was up to al ost to my knees. So I was am zed that I even could get to sc ool rabbit hole jumping. Now th y have put in a lot of gu ters and systems where that wi l not happen again. So that is nice. anyone of us? I di ress. Neil deGrasse Tyson, wh t if that was his name? The gu that knows so much, but his na e is digress. That would be such a sweet irony. Anyway. Wow. I am all over the place. It is Sunday morning, August 1. I have told you that never missed a day a class never been late. Other than that extreme amount of water that I had to drive through day where I arrived in class half of my class was there rain seems to keep students away for some reason. But half of my class was there and I arrived looking like a rabbit that had just gone through the supercycle in a washing machine. I was pretty so but one of the things I quickly discovered when I was talking to my students was how many idioms we use in the United States. Simple things like wow, you just hit a home run. What is a home run? They don't know what baseball is. They may have heard of it in myth and lore. But they do not know anything about baseball. Actually, the only sport here that is, as you may guess, soccer, right and around the world. It's called football. And then I tell everybody Well, I know American football. So we call it soccer in the us because we have American football. Let me tell all my listeners out there which are not many at this point. But working on it getting better small strides. Once you leave the United States. Once you are on a plane and you get over that border line in any direction, American football, the NFL is dead. Nobody cares about it. Nobody knows about it. But in a country of 330 million NFL does have a strong market and I just always found it hilarious than when I was traveling on my big journey which for my book finding 42 is about do you think anybody in Lao knows what American football is all about? Or even could name a single team? No basketball actually has an outside chance people do you know Michael Jordan, LeBron James may be Kevin Durant's. Steph Curry, I think I saw a jersey and China that Steph Curry but because they're wearing the jersey does not mean that they know who that person is. I am in the rabbit hole. Now I am I am going way off what I was going to talk about before the podcast, I'm like, I'm going to set something up. So I actually have a reference. And then I realized I don't really need a reference. You just sent me in a direction and we're going what's your rabbit hole we're going in and then we're coming out maybe there's a rabbit hole in the rabbit hole we're going in, we're going to keep going we might come back around to what I was talking about. And we might not so idioms with my students, they have no idea what they mean. So I feel that if I can come across an idiom that is very useful that they may hear again, I want them to know about it. Like you nailed it. Sounds simple, right? You nailed it. Obviously, everybody must know what that means, as they say in the combine language all day. All day means no, they're hitting the nail on the head. You nailed it, same thing, but I had to explain it and what it means how about sayings like a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, have to explain it one of my favorites. One of my favorite sayings a split second, I actually have a vision of one second being like a hair and then getting split top of the hour. What is top of the hour, bottom of the hour. What are these things mean? So when I teach my students, I tell them this will not be on your exam, but this is something you want to know this is something that will help you out. When you are in a conversation and you hear somebody say this you will have a basic idea of what it means context, context context. The other thing I do with my students is I explained context and I explain when something is a verb when something is a noun. And when something is an adjective what it means pollute verb pollution, i o n now pollutive adjective iv pollutive folks, that is not a word. For those of you who may actually be taking notes, polluted, it's not a word. What I wanted to talk about at the beginning is my buck up day what is going on with finding 40 to cut the rope a souls awakening that is the new title that I put in for the updated version a souls awakening, it is coming out on audio it has been published to audio but it takes about 30 days they said for it to load up to all the local and international platforms. So I am waiting for that I will be getting emails on that. I have already a promotional video made that is really cool. You will be able to see it bend Zen 42 calm bands and b ENZE n 42. Calm which will take you to my website, which also has the IP address of Benny Mailman 40 two.com they are the same a website then Zen 40 two.com was my old website and I wanted to make sure that if I had anybody going to that website that they could get to Benjamin Mailman 40 two.com apparently the wizards in computer internet land were able to have Ben's n 42 comm link up with Benny Mailman. 40 two.com amazing. I don't know how they did it smoke and mirrors magic some crazy stuff. So anyway, the audio narrated by my good friend Adam Trump who is currently as I speak to you here on the microphone with a sock on it with my wooden blue cat from Bali staring at me he is in Adam Trump is in Poland proposed to his Polish girlfriend who is now I am happy to report his fiance very happy for them very young couple compared to anybody that's my age 51 they are in their early 20s when I believe they met in college and I am very excited for them. He sent me some photos him and I have developed a strong bond and communication network very happy for him in Poland sent me pictures of the mountains my heritage my family heritage is on my mother's side polish and on my biological father's side it is Russian and last man I just have so many rabbit holes I want to jump into I'm going to leave that one for right now. So book update sticking with a book up date audio book is out. I have a new author page on Amazon and you can get there by just putting in for the search my name Benny Mailman, b e and y m a i l m and Benny Mailman. It will take you to my podcast it will take you to my book and eventually it will take you to my audio and you can see both books actually. And I think that if you still want to buy one of my old books, the old cover which is the same as the new book except for the cover, it is also I think they still have some available but once they run out that will be it website benzon 40 two.com where you can get to my podcast you can get to see a lot of cool videos that I put up spent a lot of time on that you will enjoy it. My new author bio and page on amazon.com very excited about that. Let's get to some stories. Let's talk about weightlifting man. I used to be a gym rat. I had a friend I met at 10th Marines kambli June North Carolina my friend Mike Robinson, we arrived on the same day to 10th Marines regiment and everybody was out in the field and so they stuck about 15 of us 15 brand new recruits boots they called us right they were called boots when you first arrived and we went out to the field and we set up tent after tent after tent. While there's a lot of funny stories here too. But Mike and I met on we are walking on patrol together a patrol against I guess squirrels and maybe some birds with ill intent. But we are walking around and patrolling and talking and he went to Parris Island I actually went to San Diego, California mcrd Marine Corps. Recruit Depot San Diego, California, but we both had the same platoon number we were both 1075. And I remember my drill instructor gave us a chance. 1075 the meanest, the baddest, the best in the Corps. The more we sweat and peace, the less we bleed in war. I still remember that that was 1988 and that sticks in my head. Wow, I just want to keep going down rabbit holes. Let me stick with this one. Mike and I are great friends and mike got me into lifting and he was incredibly stronger than I was I had never lifted and he would put me through the wringer. I mean, I could not move after I left the gym at all. But Mike set into motion, my lifting career, which would be for about 10 years, 11 years, all of my Marine Corps career and then once I got into college at the University of Wisconsin lacrosse, I also kept lifting at the flex house gym. Julie buyer, my great friend to this day, I love her so much. She was the manager of that gym and just always there. I don't remember a time that she wasn't there. And she ran that place that was home that Jim flex house, Jim, the people that were there, the people that you met the superstrong, the Saluzzi brothers that were incredibly strong, incredibly beautiful family, his daughters would come there, which would be there are brothers there. So one of them for his age group set the I think the world record for his age group in the benchpress. One day, I'm at the gym, and I saw this guy's name is Dave, pretty small guy in stature. His heart was big, but he was not that tall. But man he could bench and he was benching more than I was mentioning. And I said, How do you do that? I want to be able to bench as well as you. And he said come in every Sunday, and I will show you the techniques. So that was the first time I learned a technique for lifting. And sure enough, after about two or three months, he said there's a there's a special groove you hit on the benchpress because you touch the bar just below your chest and you have like a backward see. And he said if you hit that groove just right, exactly right. The weight will feel like nothing, it'll just go up. You can do hundreds of those maybe even 1000s but when you hit that groove that is the sweet moment when you are lifting 350 pounds and it goes up like you're only lifting the bar. Amazing. I got very strong on the bench cut to a weightlifting competition. I mean, I used to go to in the summer when we wouldn't go to the gym that much, man, all my compadres, me amigos during the summer, we didn't go that much. So I would go into the gym during the summer, I would stop off go in and warm up and make sure that I could still benchpress 350 I did not want to go below 350. And usually a stuck around 380. And that sounds like a lot and it is if I tried to do that right now my arms would fall off I am pretty sure my arms would fall off. And I would be in the hospital for a while cut to the one competition I did which was in Minnesota and I went with one of the Saluzzi brothers and a guy named Mike who had been in the Marines and I cannot remember his last name, but they picked me up. I had been out drinking the night before I don't drink now. But back then I I was known to tip a few 1000 a night went up with them had a hangover. And there's this competition in a white horse saloon or Black Stallion saloon, something like that something with a horse name. And they set up a bench press I think was bench press and maybe something else maybe dead left but bench press was the big thing. So I went in there and there are some big guys and you get three lifts. And my first left I did three I think 325 because I know I can get 325 so I did 325 Easy, easy, no problem. And then I decided that I was going to go straight to my the lift that I wanted to get which was 425 pounds. So I put 425 pounds on and the guys talked me I had never used a weightlifting shirt before it's very anyone. Anyone that anyone that has ever lifted and seen somebody in one of these it looks like Godzilla trying to get into a five year olds t shirt. It's beyond sausage. Like it's it's so tight, you can't move and it's designed to make sure that you can get a good pop off the bottom. And I had never used one I shouldn't I should have just said no but I said yeah okay, I'll I'll put that on. And it was difficult and it takes guys to wrap it and pull it down on you like two or three guys. yanking and pulling in this thing is like you're an extra layer of skin on you at this And I got under for the for 25. And Mike is spotting me from the back. And there's two per the competition rules or two guys I didn't know, on the sides so that if something really bad happened, they could both grab it and help Mike out with it because it was a lot of weight for one person if something went wrong. And ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you something went wrong. I was about halfway up 425 pounds lifting up and something happened with my elbows and they slipped. I don't even know how to explain it. But 425 pounds instantly came back to my neck. How close was it to my neck, I had a scrape on my chin from the bar scraping my chin Mike and the two guys on the side grabbed it before it sent me into the next life. It was that close. And you can hear the collective gasp from everybody that was watching. I felt super embarrassed. I came back a little bit later. And everyone's like shake it off. Don't worry about the last one. Number one, I should worry about the last one because it almost killed me. But number two, I'm really embarrassed. And now I want to prove that I can do 425 the most I had ever done on my own was 430 pounds. And I thought today was the day I could hit 450 Well, I wasn't going to be able to get to 450 because I scratched on the second one. So I couldn't go higher. I had to stick with the 425 I brought it down and you can't just bounce it you bring it down in there say up and then you push up why it was heavy, it was so heavy. And if a fly would have landed on that bar, I would not have gotten one of the main rules is you bar cannot it has to go in one direction. If it starts to come back, you lose the left then all the judges look after the left they agree or disagree on whether it was a good left, I had that 425 pounds all the way up. All I had to do was lock my elbows. And they weren't locking, but it wasn't coming back down. And I still to this day felt like I used my brain power to pull in my elbows. They call that a good lift. And that went in the record books as my highest lift ever 425 pounds. I never came close to that again. That was the end of my college career that was 1998. That was also pretty much the end of my lifting kept off about 10 years of lifting heavy, heavy heavy. I remember throwing 245 pound plates, 90 pounds, each end of a curl bar people would come over and watch me curl that and it felt like every fiber of muscle in my bicep was going to burst and blow out. We used to do pull ups with a belt around our waist and we had weights on there like 245 pound plates and we would do pull ups. I cannot believe that at one time in my life. I was so strong and now maybe one pull up. That is drastic truth and realization. They are folks. How about a story from my youth. One day when I was in junior high school, I came home and my mom was sitting on the steps inside the house. I went inside there's my mom and she had this look of a very concerned parent. And my mom said we need to have a talk and my mom was convinced that my brother my sister and I were on drugs. And the hilarious thing is we were probably some of the only kids that weren't on drugs. No marijuana. Maybe we had a beer or two here and there but no drugs. My mom said I am very concerned. I was putting your clothes away today. And I noticed a bag of pills in your drawer. So I took them and I feel very depressed. not normal parenting folks. Hey, I found some pills. So I took them to see what they would do. Now, that would also make you a drug person, a drug taker, or whatever you call people who do drugs. My mom said, I felt very depressed. She goes you need to tell me what those pills were. I said mom have no worries. Those are my dog. deworming pills. I laughed hysterically. They were the pills to de worm. My dogs. I had two dogs at that time. And I said the good thing Mom, you don't have to worry about worms call me in two months and we'll see how you're doing. I always love that story. very concerned mother willing to take the drug that her child is taking which was actually the drug. My dogs were taking a very hilarious and funny story from my youth. I always want to do Marine Corps stories. I think of Marine Corps boot camp a lot. I also think Have a time when I was in Korea, we were in the mountains of South Korea and we were doing maneuvers for Team Spirit was the name of us this would have been in 1990 or 1991. Somewhere in there one of those two years. It was pretty chilly. It was pretty cool. Well, anyway, the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps was coming in by helicopter NEMA general al gray. Does that sound right? Well, how would you know if you don't know the Marines? Anyway, gray, what's coming in, I'm pretty sure its name was gray. And everyone was talking about meritorious masked, which means he has the ability because of his rank. And his stature is the number one person in the United States Marine Corps who oversees everything. He has that power to promote you instantly. No matter what your rank is. Now you are this and that is the command and well of the Marine Corps. You get promoted. So everybody's like, I hope I get meritoriously promoted. Well, we were serving under fourth Marines and Colonel brown Colonel Brown, full Colonel Colonel Brown was in charge and he was so cool for a colonel he was he got the job done, but he was also really cool to the troop. So when you saw him he would smile and say hello, and you would salute and say Hello, sir. Good morning, sir. Whatever, and do the proper Marine Corps etiquette. They wanted everything to look perfect for general gray as a wireman. They told me go up and make sure all the wires are tied down for the communication wires that were on the ground. Usually, we ran them through the trees, but for a one, we did things very quickly. They were often just ran along the ground. I was tying them off, and I saw his helicopter fly in So you knew he was there. So I'm tying the wires down. I know that gray is in the area, because his chopper flew when I see Colonel Brown, I'm trying to work. I'm on the ground. And I see this group walked by and there is Colonel Brown, and he smiles and he must have been leading the group. And he says, Good morning, marine. And I said Good morning, sir. Like I should then thinking that anyone who follows is just a minion. I don't really pay attention to who's behind him. I make sure I do my proper etiquette with the colonel. And then I continue to tie down the wires. Well, General Gray was right behind him. And he said good morning marine. So to the top ranking Marine Corps General of my career, I looked at him and said, Hey, good morning, sir. To the colonel and to the top dog. I said, Hey, and he gave me a look what he was gonna eat my heart for lunch. And I quickly realized who he was. And I said, Sure. Think about five seconds, a five second delay on the search no meritorious mast for me no getting promoted on the spot from the general for me after saying, Hey, are you kidding me? To this day? I can as I'm telling the story, I cannot believe I said that sums up my my life. That doesn't sum up my life. It sums up my Marine Corps career I was I did my time and got out honorably. Love the experience, didn't want to do it anymore. But always top respect for the Marines. Top, Top top for the Marines. How about my top one of my top bike taxi stories, Denver, Colorado is about 230 in the morning, which means I am probably not getting any more rides. I had come up from LA where I was doing comedy to make some money in Denver on the bike taxi so that I could keep my dream alive of doing comedy. And pursuing that on my second night back. So I haven't been doing the bike taxi for a while I'm not really in bite taxi shape. No motors at this time. Let me stress that no motors that was really a game changer. But no motors. I ran into a couple and I was on my way back to the garage, put the bike away. And they said, No, we're going to wait for a taxi. And then the lady looks at her boyfriend and says, No, this would be awesome. What a story if he took us all the way home and I said Where do you live? So right now we're at about market and lair our market and Larimer. They don't cross market and 18th right or on their market in 18. They're going to Kentucky and wodsworth which is anyone from Denver listening to this. It's going no way that you gave somebody a ride that far. I actually looked it up on my phone and I said Wow, that's really far and they're like, Well, can you do it? I'm like, uh, well, I think I can do it. He goes, I'll give you $300 get in. I don't care where it is. This is my last ride of the night. If you're going to Give me $300 were going and he handed me three $100 bills on the spot. So I meant at this point I'm like l gay. It's in my wallet. We're going it took me I think two hours to get them there. We went along the river for a while the river path. And then it just got to a point where everything was uphill, and it was destroying me. It was the end of the night. I had just come in from LA. So I didn't have my bike, taxi strength legs or lungs. It was a little chilly. I remember they passed out about a half hour into the ride. So I have to sleeping. People just paid me $300 in the back of the bike, I got them back to where they were going. And then I had to come all the way back to I forgot about that ride $300 but I felt like I earned it. I really felt like I earned that. I got back to the garage to put my bike away at 535 5:40am in the morning. And Saturday was a big day and I just had no power left for Saturday. I worked it but I didn't do that. Well, but that was always that was a big ride. That may have been my biggest ride in Denver. And then I'll do one more ride. My friend Nick Oxford, great, great friend of mine, man. I love him. He is a he is a great guy. Photographer has a lot of stuff that ends up in some of the major newspapers, New York Times things like this. Love him. Just a great guy. He said, how about that story? Because why don't you tell that story about the time you drove the Mercedes. I said, Wow, I totally forgot about that. So it was a Sunday. And it wasn't Denver. It wasn't during the bronco season or they weren't in in town. So it was a Sunday. And the only reason I came out because there was a convention and I thought okay, I could make like 50 to $100 extra money today at this convention. So I'm on my way to the convention center and I come down. I forget the road now, but it's the one the Hilton I forget what it is. But there's a hotel. I think it's the Hilton right by the convention center. I drive up on the sidewalk because you're going against traffic. What is there on the other side, the Bubba Gump shrimp if that still there was on the my right hand side and I'm on the sidewalk, driving up so that I'm not going to get to traffic or against the train. The train comes through there. As I'm approaching the convention center. out of the door comes this man and this woman and they jump right in my bike. It couldn't have been planned better. As I was moving. He grabbed the bike and they jumped in and he said take us to Red Square. And it turns out that they were old high school friends like they had dated in high school. They got in and they were having a blast together. And they were probably in their 30s I would guess mid 30s I got them to Red Square and he gives me $100 he says Why don't you stay with us? I say okay, I'll I'll stay with you. Then after that after they did shots at Red Square and drink some beer. He's like, take me to my block. And I said, I don't know where your block is. You're here on the block. Some taco place. God I forget. It's been a long time, some taco place on market between 15th and 16th Street and he said, Okay, now you're going to drive my car. And that's what are you talking about? I have my bike because we'll go put that away and come back. So I put my bike away. I came back so it has this brand new black Mercedes. Sorry, I am not into cars. I'm not that dude. I don't know what series it was what year it was, but it was brand new. And it looked really good. I drive them to a restaurant out towards Fiddler's green, and it's an Italian restaurant and they have me sit at the bar and they feed me and he's at he's with this woman and this group of guys. They get done. I get done eating and I take them to her house which looks more like a public building. It's so huge. It was a very big brick building. I sat out in the car while they went inside for quite a while and I'm texting a friend of mine telling them what's happening. I'm like, this is so crazy. So he comes back out and he says I'm going to stay here, take my car back and put the keys in the mail slot and he goes Yes, here I am gives me another $100 so now I have $200 and I'm driving a brand new Mercedes by myself. So I went by the convention center. Of course I have to do this. I go by the convention center where my friends are all on their bikes. say I've made $200 already and they're all looking at this car they go What the heck and you know they they rads me a little bit and they were jealous is what it is. They were jealous that I had gotten this crazy ride and then I drove around for a little bit and the Mercedes took it back to the building and dropped the keys in the mail slot and That guy actually got back to me wanted to be his drive me to be his driver for a while, but he was very condescending in that he will never fly with me that will never fly with him. He said, Well, I'll give you this money, but kind of like he was gonna pay me a lot of money to drive him around. But he was going to treat me like a dog. And I said, huh, and not like something like why treat dogs really good. So I guess I should use a different analogy. Wanted to treat me not well. Let's say that. Let's say that most of the people I know. My sister Jen Forman treat dogs be like kings and queens like they should be and that's really cool. So that story has always I forgot about that one. Nick Oxford reminded me of that. That was I said, Wow, neck, I forgot about that one. I don't know how you could forget about that one. But it was quite a ride. So there's a couple bike taxi stories from Denver, Colorado, my mom taking pills. My weightlifting story where the bar came back and scraped my chin 425 pounds folks on record. Let me tell you I am nowhere near that right now. Probably not even half of that. But I do have the memory as Metallica says the memory remains What do I have coming up this week? Well, we will see when my AUDIO BOOK hits the markets. I'm very excited for that. And you can go again once again Ben Zen 40 two.com. You will see my new video. Go up once the audio is available that will go up because at the end of that video it says audio available and I don't want to put that up and then people say where's the audio? So I have to wait for the audio obviously so this is Benny Mailman on a Sunday morning live from cm Reba Cambodia saying much love to you all have a wonderful week and I plan on getting one of these out every Sunday or Monday at least one a week. one a week. Take care much love you. Awesome. Fantastic, beautiful humans of Earth. Oh, and go pack go. Aaron Rodgers is back.