TCO 209 | Internet Personality

209: Exclusive Details on Peloton’s new “Tiger” Device plus our interview with Ben Ptashinsky-Skinner

Last Updated: April 30, 2023By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 209 | Internet Personality

 

John MIlls joins us to discuss Jill Woodworth’s recent talk with JP Morgan.

The Peloton Prophet has details on the new Tiger device.

Bob Treemore has details on another apparent Peloton acquisition.

Peloton now has different classes for different moods.

There’s a new Yoga challenge.

There are more classes featuring mini-bands.

Dr. Jenn – When the people in your life won’t acknowledge your changing goals.

Peloton announces their first U.S. factory.

WellAndGood.com talks about Peloton’s soft-relaunch of Yoga.

Jezebel “investigates” who is Joe Biden’s favorite instructor.

Angelo joins us to talk about how to add protein to your diet.

Irene Scholz is no longer with Peloton.

Kendall was featured on The Today Show.

Matty, Jess King, and Anna Greenberg teamed up with the Mental Health Coalition.

Pop Sugar sat down with Ally Love.

Shape.com talks with Jess King about her love of pilates.

The latest Artist series features Silk Sonic.

Jess King has a birthday on May 29.

Adrian Williams celebrates one year with Peloton.

All this plus our interview with Ben Ptashinsky-Skinner!

—

Listen to the podcast here

Exclusive Details on Peloton’s new “Tiger” Device plus our interview with Ben Ptashinsky-Skinner

This is another day where we haven’t talked to each other. We literally sat down to record this and we haven’t spoken.

I’m not a big fan of these days because it usually means there’s chaos.

Yes, we both had chaos.

It’s bad when both of us have chaos. It’s bad enough when one of us has chaos.

I deal with artist’s egos today. It’s one thing when you’re dealing with artist’s egos who are currently popular, but when you’re dealing with artist’s egos who haven’t been popular for 35 years, that’s a little different. I don’t have a whole lot of patience for that.

By the way, I have to tell everybody. I’m going to do it. Tom hit 1 million pounds on Tonal. That means he’s lifted a million pounds on Tonal.

It means I’ve been using it for a million days. It’s 1 pound a day. I go down and do 1 pound and I’m done and I say I Tonaled.

It’s a huge accomplishment and you should be proud.

I don’t do well with those sorts of accomplishments.

Too bad. We all are proud of you. We’re going to be proud, Tom. There’s nothing you can do about it.

What do you get in store for people in this episode?

We’re going to talk about new products. I don’t know where you stacked it in here and how you addressed it but technically, we had a visit from the Peloton Prophets. I don’t know how you listed that. We’ve got new classes, but we’ve got Peloton in the news. We’ve got a visit from Dr. Jenn. She’s going to talk about when people in your life won’t acknowledge your changing goals. We have a visit from Angelo from MetPro. We talk about how to get protein in your diet and how to know when you need to add protein to your diet. Also, we’ll talk about the new artists series. We’ll hit some birthdays and celebrations. Were all over the place.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. We’ll be there. While you’re there, you should leave a review. We have a new review.

New reviews cheer me up these days. It’s a good thing

This is from Xtina Sabatini.

That’s fun to say.

If you want to lose weight, you have to do more than just ride a bike. Share on X

Her leaderboard name is Tini Dancers. It says, “Better than True Crime.” That’s the hottest genre in podcasting. That’s quite the compliment. “I don’t know why it has taken me so long to listen to The Clip Out. Probably because I get sucked into True Crime, but I am so glad I finally tuned in. I am binge listening now because there is so much great info in each episode. Also, they’re fun to listen to. They’re so well-spoken, kept my attention for the entire show, and they happen to interview some pretty cool people. Also, I have to say Crystal’s laugh is the best. It’s so genuine and contagious over the airwaves. Keep the episodes coming, Clip Out.” We found a fan, Tini Dancers. Thank you.

By the way, Tini Dancers. Not everyone agrees with you on my laugh.

For every twenty, we get one that doesn’t like joy. What are you going to do? We also have a Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. If you’re hearing stuff on the show, but articles, news, pictures, links, you want to find them, but you don’t know where to go to find them, I have an easy solution for you. You swing on by theclipout.com. You sign up for the newsletter and you will get a weekly email that provides all that to you in one fell swoop. If you want to watch the episodes, you can do that at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s another way to check us out. If you want to see when we interview someone famous, you want to see the words coming out of their face.

When John Mills says something especially funny or you want to check out his new grandpa shark shirt, there are all kinds of reasons.

You want to see what nerd shirt I have on this week, you can swing on by there. Anyway, there’s all that, let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

—

Joining us is John Mills. Hello, John.

How’s it going? What’s happening?

It’s great.

We all had shitty days at work, so we’re all trying to pretend to be friendly.

I try to go extra, meet in the middle of something. I don’t know.

You are already extra every day. I don’t know if we can contain you on our screen if you go anymore extra. You’re doing great.

You posted in your group, Run, Lift, Live about Peloton CFO, Jill Woodworth get to talk with JP Morgan.

John, tell us what was super notable about what she had to say.

Whenever I see an investor at OnePeloton.com that there’s going to be an event that includes Jill Woodworth speaking. I tend to throw that in my calendar because Jill tends to exude confidence relative to the company. From an investor perspective, it always makes you feel good listening to her speak. She always drops a little tidbit here and there. Not a big divulge but it should always something where you go, “That’s interesting. That’s cool.” I drop it on my calendar. The prop came up and said, “Jill’s talking right now,” but I missed it. It had been going on for ten minutes so I’m scrambling to get on. By the time I got on, I guess I got on a good time, she was talking about the Tread+ in the commercial space.

The question was around whether or not there’s interest in Peloton products from a commercial perspective. She was specifically talking about there was an interest from a precore in a commercial space perspective in the Tread+. She also went to say that when they had bikes in hotels, I don’t know if they still do, from every one bike they place, they would get seven bike sales. All of that was interesting to me. It was as if we’re going potentially back to this space of having the product in hotels and gyms. The idea that there’s interest in Tread+ in the commercial space, in gyms and hotels was interesting to hear.

It was cool hearing that. Also, we heard about the POF, the Peloton Output Facility. In that announcement, they talked about that facility making a bike, a Bike+ and a tread, but they didn’t say anything about a Tread+, but then you’re thinking, “What happened to the Tread+?” Listening to Jill talk in those terms, she was very definitive. Their path is, “We’re continuing this Tread+ combined deal.” That was all comforting, informational and interesting.

One of the things she talks about is the strength items. She did comment that you might see multiple different strength products. I thought that was interesting because that matches what I’ve heard.

That was an interesting little tidbit that I caught in what she was trying to relay there. That’s why I posted about that. I don’t know if that means whether or not they’re completely different disciplines or the same discipline but different products in that common discipline. Does it mean different components that make up a common product for the discipline? I don’t know what that means.

When we get to the Peloton Prophet, we’ll dig into that a little bit more from a different direction. How about that?

I thought it was cool listening to Jill. That’s always fun for me.

You also found from Seeking Alpha, which I can’t look at.

Are you Seeking Alpha?

I still think it sounds like a hookup site. Since I can’t see it, all I can do is judge from the URL what it’s about and apparently, 370033-Peloton. This is interesting stuff. It’s fascinating. I’m riveted.

It had to do with the fact that they’re still calling Peloton strong and a good pick. I’m starting to see more analysts say that. Would you agree that that’s the gist of it, John?

From the presence of John Foley’s statement during the earnings call to the announcements that came after that, and the realization of how quickly it looks like they’ll be able to resolve the issues, to this announcement of this new facility. All these things that keep dropping sound like business as usual and continued growth. Because of that, you’re hearing the analysts consistently come out and going, “We’re on board. We were always on board.”

TCO 209 | Internet Personality

 

“Don’t look at us. There weren’t that bad day, bad few weeks. Nothing to see here.”

JPM in this scenario put out a list of their top picks and Peloton is on that list. At one point, my thought was maybe that’s reasoning around the 10% gain. I looked at Nautilus and they’re up 7%. I’m sure there are many other factors. I don’t know if that aligns or not.

That’s a good point. It might be a lot of things because we know there are new products on the way that got leaked. We know that the entire market is up, as you said, Nautilus. Other things are up too. It’s maybe combined with those confident statements from John Foley and seeing all the signals that it’s business as usual. It could be the people are spending money and it’s a holiday coming up and they’re feeling good.

I don’t know but it was a good day. Aftermarket, I looked and they are up another 1.5% or something.

That’s great.

—

That gets everybody’s attention when you hear the Peloton Prophet has made an arrival.

I have some information. We all know that the New York Post leaked that there’s this new gadget coming. I have heard some things. I have heard that this is the strength item that I had talked about that was coming in the fall of 2021. As far as timing goes, it’s going to be strengths. It’s going to be in the fall of 2021. John, I got pictures of this device. I’m not allowed to post them.

She can describe them like old-timey radio.

Here we go. I don’t know if you ever saw a connected device that sat on an X-Box back in the old days.

I have one of them.

Picture an oval. It’s about this big. It’s going to be able to sit on the television. It has a camera on it. It has the ability to plug in what looks to be an HDMI type of cord and another plug that I can’t identify. It has a microphone on it as well. Here are some predictions. I believe it’s going to have a remote that is not shown. I believe it’s going to sit on top of your television using a clamper stand. It might even be able to magnetically detached from the bottom.

We only see one camera. We don’t see multiple.

There’s one camera. I believe it’s going to track your form and movement with that camera and you will be able to stream content to your TV. I also think that they’re going to have this type of mode where you’re going to be able to see yourself next to the trainer so you can compare your form. I also think that there are other things that are coming down the road that are going to connect wirelessly to this doodad. I’m calling it that now.

This has sounded like an all in one, not just for computer vision. It sounds like in this little pod thing, it is the device that is connected to the internet and is taking in content, which is why it has the HDMI output and/or streaming capability. It’s what that sounds like. It’s not just its own component. It is all-inclusive.

It’s going to change the way you can do strength. I think this is phase one, talking back to what you were saying earlier about Jill Woodworth’s comment that they might have it in different ways. This is phase one and you’re going to be able to do the type of free weight workouts that Peloton has out there. You’re going to be able to check your forum on things like Pilates and barre because they consider those strengths. I also think that there’s going to be things down the road, maybe boxing that you might be able to hook up wirelessly. You’ll be able to use this for that as well.

Also, I want to say that I saw a little bit of a back and forth in your group, John, about Caesar as opposed to Tiger. This device that we’re talking about, we know that’s Tiger. We know that the other one was the rower. Here’s the thing, when it got leaked that it’s out there, they changed it to Caesar. That and Caesar are both the rower. There you go.

You saved me the next six months of trying to figure out what something was that I already knew what it was. Thank you.

You’re welcome.

Now that Echelon knows that the rower is called Caesar they’re changing theirs to Brutus.

I’m glad you told me that too because I was about to put a post in my group before this call and I was going to be like, “We don’t know what Caesar is. I want all wrong answers.”

You can still post it. It might be fun. It’ll be a couple of days until this is out. Let them guess and then you can be like, “Listen to The Clip Out.”

That sounds like making their own salad dressing.

I liked the computer vision-based device. The all-encompassing idea of it, lightweight, small, go in any room, contents.

It all makes sense because we’ve talked about how he said, “We don’t want another screen. We don’t want to have this.”

It also aligns with the future. You could stick with free weights or you can add another device. You’re still in that world. I like it. That’s slick. There are some smart people over there. They got some ideas.

Until next time, John, where can we find you?

You can find me on my Run, Lift & Live group or page on Facebook. They can find me on Instagram @RunLiftAndLive or at RunLiftAndLive.com.

—

This is not the Peloton Prophet but another person who likes to throw out predictions is Bob Treemore.

Bob Treemore has been watching LinkedIn again and he is convinced that another engineering firm has been acquired by Peloton. This one was called Latitude 32. It looks like they’ve received $150,000 in funding back in May of 2020. They are a private firm that was founded in 2013 and it looks like their revenue is about $46 million, with 20 to 35 employees. Several of them moved over to the Peloton website. I believe it was seventeen different employees, including the president, vice-president, CTO, etc. Let’s see. When you go to their webpage, it doesn’t work anymore. There’s only a front page. The corporate Facebook page is empty. These are all indicators that it’s already happened. It appears that this has occurred and we’ll be hearing about it in a few months when it becomes real.

Watch this space.

—

You can now select classes based on your mood.

Isn’t that interesting?

Do they have one for laziness?

They don’t. I’m pretty sure that’s a restorative logo. They do have one for calm, heated, which means mad, sad. They have confident and happy. It’s a pretty wide variety of moods and it appears to be across several modalities. It’s not just the bike, it’s going to be like yoga but it’s also weights. It’s across everything. Gayle Fine made a comment when I posted about this. She’s spot on. She was saying that you see a lot of this in Spotify now with these mood playlists. She thinks that Peloton is following suit and I 100% agree. Also, I love the idea of it because lately, I have had some mood swings. Seriously, I’ve had trouble finding a class that fits where I’m at in my head. I am looking forward to these. I’m hoping that they are effective.

There’s a new challenge here and a yoga.

You get to take two Unity Yoga challenges. It’s happening between May 24th and May 30th. You take two of these workouts in seven days and you get a new badge. I’ve noticed that they’ve been doing this. They’re switching through how they relaunched yoga. They have different kinds of yoga, like your foundational type of thing. They’ve been doing these challenges for each one to encourage people to try them. It’s very effective when they do these little challenges. I like how it’s a reasonable amount like two in seven days. It’s not a crazy amount.

It’s not taking over your life. Becs Gentry had a class using mini bands.

You can use just one band and it’s fun too. They have these classes that are using bands anyway like exercise bands, resistance bands, but these are specific to the mini bands and it’s starting to pop up. Rebecca Kennedy had one too. They’re starting to incorporate these and I’m thinking if you can’t find them already in the Peloton store, you will be soon because they’re smaller than your typical exercise band. They’re like 6 inches across versus 12 or 18 inches across. I don’t know how far this is. That’s why I’m seeing such a large number. Instead of this, it’s like this.

For people reading, it does no good.

I know that’s why I tried to give numbers but they’re terrible numbers. We’re going to see more of these in the future as well.

—

Joining us is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn or her long-running radio show The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four bestselling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn, Hello.

It’s good to be here with you guys.

After months of reading that I was like, why is it couples therapy plural, but family therapy single. That’s where my head’s at.

I have to say, even though I’m an executive producer, I didn’t get to pick whether there was an apostrophe or not. It always bothered me grammatically that it should be couple’s therapy with an apostrophe, but it’s couples therapy, no apostrophe.

I’m Irish. You don’t get to sell me on an apostrophe.

Punctuation aside, we have more pressing questions for you.

I love The Clip Out with Crystal’s community and the questions. You know how obsessed I am with Peloton. I’m very excited to hear these questions.

This one is from Stephanie Ward. She says that she has been part of the Peloton community for a year. Within that timeframe, she’s become a new person inside and outside. She’s conquered multiple races. She’s training for a half marathon. She’s lost weight. She’s completely changed her attitude toward life. However, she has some friends and family that have reacted negatively to her being vocal about her accomplishments. These are people that she was extremely close with prior to her Peloton journey. It hurts her feelings. They can’t be happy for her. Her question is, how does she deal with people she was once close to and have to see on a regular basis when they’re blatantly ignoring these huge changes in her life. She knows that their negativity doesn’t have anything to do with her but it’s definitely very disheartening. Any advice would be much appreciated.

When you make great healthy changes in your life, inside and out, it can trigger a lot of things in other people. Sometimes what it triggers in other people is, “I should be working out as much as Stephanie. How come my thighs looked like this and Stephanie’s looks so awesome. When I talked to Stephanie, I feel bad about myself because I was supposed to workout this morning and I didn’t, but Stephanie’s already run 12 miles.” Understanding that this occurs on a lot of levels. The first is their own feelings of whatever it is in their life that they may not be doing for their own health and wellbeing that they “should” be doing.

The other thing is that sometimes there is jealousy, “I wish I looked like Stephanie did. I wish that I had accomplished these things that she had.” The third thing is that we tend to pick people who are in a similar place in their lives as we are in terms of mental health and wellbeing. We pick people who are at our level. We are unhappy and we are unmotivated. We tend to gravitate towards people like that because we can complain together. We feel better about ourselves. If we have friends who are accomplishing great things, while we are not in a great place, it can make us feel bad.

Sometimes what happens is you take that leap into good physical and emotional health and the people who you hung with are still where you were before, they are not always thrilled for you. As much as they may love you or care about you, it may trigger a lot of things for them. Change is good and even if change is good, not everyone feels comfortable with change. I have a friend who when she first started, she’s making boundaries with her friends. She had two camps of people. One camp said, “This is amazing. Thank God you’re doing this. We’ve been waiting. This is so good for you. We’re so happy for you.” Another camp was like, “Now you’re turning me down for things. Now you’re not there for me. I don’t like this.”

I also suspect that she’s probably less available for some of her friends because she’s training for a half marathon and these other things. They may feel neglected. They may feel bad. They may feel she’s less available. They may be upset. It’s important for her to talk to her friends about this and to be able to say, “I’ve made these positive changes in my life. I felt like you haven’t been very supportive. What’s going on for you that you’re not able to support me? We’ve been close friends for a long time and I’m making these positive changes. Does this make you question things in your own life? Is it making you feel neglected in our friendship?”

If you can pinpoint what it is that’s being triggered at them, you may be able to salvage the friendship. You may be able to say, “This is not the person for me. This is not someone who is moving forward in their own mental health and physical journey.” The Peloton community is so filled with people who are doing that and who are like-minded that you may develop new friendships that ultimately replaced those friends who aren’t moving forward in the same way.

I don’t know if you’ve got an opportunity to see the movie, Brittany Runs a Marathon. Did you get to see that?

No, but I’ve heard good things.

You have to choose family over your job. It is the most important thing, it's the end all be all. Share on X

You would love that movie. When you talked through that, I remember the main character and without giving too much away, her name was definitely Brittany and she was training to run a marathon if you can believe that. The character struggles with maintaining her friendships and how they view her. I feel like that would be a good movie for her to watch because it talks through what you said. It makes the character walk through those things.

I’m putting it on my to-watch movie list.

You’ll dig it. It was one of my favorite movies.

The next time I do laundry, I will be watching Brittany Runs a Marathon.

This is why it’s so important to have a licensed therapist. I heard that question and I was like, “It’s easy. Tell them to go screw themselves.”

Sometimes that is my answer but there are some things to explore before you do that.

You might want to do the more median approach.

Get to the bottom of it first, then if it turns out it’s someone you just can’t get on board, can’t support you, is not happy for you, is not willing to look at their own stuff, then you may need to tell her to screw herself.

Perfect. That is great advice.

Also, I should throw out there, Brittany Runs a Marathon is available for streaming on Prime Video. If anybody’s looking to watch it and you have Amazon Prime, it’s already sitting there waiting for you. Thank you so much for all of that and for having an actual grownup piece of advice instead of what I would say. Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on social media, especially Instagram @DrJennMann. I always post on my Instagram stories my day-to-day workouts on Peloton. You can also find me in InStyle magazine. I have a weekly column that is all about relationships and sex.

—

We referenced this earlier in the episode, Peloton announced an Output Park.

This is pretty cool. There is going to be the very first Peloton factory build in the United States. They’ve been using some US factories to get some stuff out, but this is the first one they’re going to build from scratch. It’ll be ready in 2023 is what it said. It’s in Troy Township. This is great because it’s going to use renewable energy sources. Also, it’s going to add 2,000 jobs to the region. Because it’s Peloton, you know it’s going to have the best brand new technology in building things. You’re going to be able to take tours of this thing.

We’re going to be going on vacation to Ohio.

They have that one park there that we’ve always wanted to go to. This would be a great reason and it’s Ohio. That’s where they have the rock and roll hall of fame. I’m pretty sure Cleveland’s way over on the right. This is way over on the left but we can make it happen, don’t worry.

We’ve gone on longer trips. Well And Good has an article about Peloton relaunching their yoga.

This is old news. It’s a soft relaunch of yoga and they wanted to make sure it includes Spanish and German. It has some background about why they made the decisions they’ve made, the timing, and why they made the change of the breakdown of the different types of yoga. I definitely recommend that you go check it out. It’s a very good article. They interviewed Ross Rayburn. One of our favorite instructors here. He has the best voice, as Dr. Jenn would say.

Jezebel had an interesting little article about who is Joe Biden’s favorite Peloton instructor.

Did you get a chance to read this one?

No, I did not.

Me either so I wonder who it was. I don’t think that they know.

I’m sure it’s all conjecture.

It says that they investigated but how would they know if they don’t know who he is on the leaderboard?

It’s just like they’re saying, “We know Joe Biden likes this and we know that he likes this other thing so maybe he likes this.”

They think it’s Jess Sims or Cody Rigsby. There you go.

If you want to read the whole thing, you can get a link to it if you sign up for the newsletter at theclipout.com.

—

Joining us once again here to answer all of your nutrition questions is Angelo from MetPro. Hello.

I’m back.

We’re so glad that you were back. We have another question from The Clip Out community. This one is from Megan Pace. She says, “A lot of people need ways to incorporate more protein, e.g. adding hemp seeds to a salad and things like that, especially when many are wanting to build muscle.” What can she do? What are some suggestions?

Everything that we do at MetPro is all about identifying your metabolic profile to determine what you do need more of. I will take one step back and say, Megan, we want to determine the right amount of protein because it is not a given that more is better. Generally speaking and I’m reading between the lines here, hemp seeds and salad, that this is somebody who prefers more of a vegetarian vegan plant-based meal plan. In those, typically they’re looking for convenient ways to get extra protein. That can be done fairly easily, especially nowadays, there are more options.

Some of the things that are sometimes mentioned as a challenge are that in many of the vegetarian protein sources, you’re also getting other macronutrients, also known as carbohydrates, which is not a bad thing unless you’re trying to cherry-pick and blend multiple modalities like, “I want to do low carb, and I want to do high protein, and I want to do vegan, and I want to do keto.” That gets a little tough. You have to make some choices. A great way is to your veggies or to your salad, you can add things like nuts and seeds and others. If you’re the type of person who prefers plant-based but you will do dairy, yes, cottage cheese, yogurt and things like that.

There are also great options nowadays of protein powders that are plant-based. My wife and I do that in the morning. We do a plant-based protein powder. I liked the way it tastes. It does have a few grams of carbs. Sometimes people think protein powder needs to be straight protein and no carbs. That may be true if you’re trying to add just protein and no carbs. For example, at breakfast, I’m planning to add some carbohydrates. I modify my carb intake around the amount that I got in my plant-based protein.

There are other protein powders out there that are straight protein. Sometimes they’re a little light and the taste department but some of the hardcore can tolerate it and push forward. That’s a great addition to your lineup of foods, legumes, beans. Going with those options as your carbohydrate options will by default give you those extra grams of protein throughout the day. The combination of that, nuts seeds, nut butters is a great way to get a few grams of protein. It’s easy to increase your overall protein intake, which is sometimes missed by people.

There are so many different questions that come up to that, like if she is trying to eat just a high protein diet, what is the right amount of protein for a different person? It seems like it’s a little bit different. You can assume these people are highly active because they’re riding the bike. Should they be trying to go for a certain number of grams per day or does it depend?

It does depend but what I can do is I can list what it depends on. Here’s the biggest thing that it depends on. What is your goal? That’s the biggest thing that it depends on. If your goal is to add lean muscle, then you’re going to place an exponentially higher priority on finding little ways to increase your protein throughout the day. I have a lot of people say, “I need more protein. I need to have protein.” I’m like, “How’s your energy?” “Great.” I said, “Are you trying to build more muscle?” They said no. I said, “Why do you need to add more protein?” It depends on what your goal is. Assuming that someone’s goal is faster recovery, improve performance, add lean muscle and we want to increase protein intake, that’s the principal thing we’re looking at.

From there, we’re now looking at genetic predisposition or body type. What is your body type? Do you have a body type that holds or adds muscle easily? Is your body type struggle to maintain your muscle? Identify which you are? If you’re an ectomorph where you tend to have slender legs, slender arms, you do gain any bodyweight that tends to go to your midsection, increased protein can help because it’s going to make the muscle you put on your arms and legs a lot more sticky than if you’re not getting enough protein. Protein spread throughout the day is going to be the biggest help.

If you’re a meso or endomorph, if you feel like you’re the type of person who if you walk through the gym and you see someone doing bicep curls, you get bigger muscles, you probably don’t need to go out of your way to exponentially increase your protein. You may recover a little better with some quality carbohydrates, etc. What’s your goal and then what’s your body type. That can help you determine how much you want to increase. Also, I don’t know if we’re talking about Megan here. I have this picture in my mind of this little petite person who’s doing spin classes, maybe 6’1” and taller than me. I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask Megan. We want a headshot, Megan. That’s a great question. All of those things need to be factored in.

It’s also nice of you to confront your cultural biases. That’s always important as well.

It’s a healing show. We have a lot of topics here.

Thank you so much for joining us. Until next time, remind everybody where they can find MetPro.

MetPro.co/tco.

Just a reminder, through the month of June, you can win six free months of MetPro by going to MetPro.co/tco and either signing up for a consult or downloading the app. If you’ve already done that in the past before we started all this, you were automatically entered into that contest. You have not been forgotten or left out. Swing on by at MetPro.co/tco for all the information and your chance to win.

—

We have someone exiting the world of Peloton.

Irene Scholz from Germany is no longer at Peloton. She announced it. Every time an instructor leaves, there are a lot of questions about why. I don’t know why but what I do know is that we only get pieces of information. Don’t make any assumptions. Don’t assume anything either way because things usually aren’t what they seem. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

In that case, moving right along, Kendall was on the Today Show.

She talked about her story of the mental illness that she’s been diagnosed with. She also shared some things about how she has struggled and gave the impression that she also had suicidal thoughts. It’s been a tough road and she’s glad that she never gave up. I know that seems obvious being where she is now but not necessarily.

There are lots of people who are very successful that still have suicidal thoughts. Anyone who likes Nirvana can tell you that. They don’t go hand in hand.

Just because you get the things that you want or work for doesn’t mean that you’re automatically happy and everything’s hunky-dory. I’m glad that she’s being open about it. I think it’s important.

Peloton has very much been supporting mental health awareness month. Matty, Jess King and Anna Greenberg have their own series going on.

They joined the Mental Health Coalition online. They went live and the conversation was a one to one. It was like going back and forth. They all were working together talking through mental health awareness. I don’t know if you can go online and see the actual conversation. If you can do that, it would probably be through Mental Health Coalition’s Instagram live. They might have it posted out there or perhaps Matty has it in his link as well. Matty or Jess King or Anna Greenberg might have it there as well, but it was cool.

Completing our mental health trifecta, Pop Sugar sat down with Ally Love to talk about how she stays positive and grounded and deals with her anxiety.

It’s nice that Peloton had a way for all of these different instructors to have their presence known and tell their stories through mental health awareness month. I do think it’s important for people to hear. When you’re sitting at home and you think that you’re the only one going through something like that, it’s incredibly powerful to see people at this level struggling with the same things that you are.

Shape magazine talked to Jess King about why everyone should be doing Pilates.

She talks about how Pilates is helpful for her in so many ways. Even though she’s a dancer, she’s strong, she’s come from this background of athleticism and moved into bikes and running, you would think that she’s already super strong. Adding Pilates has changed how she does her routine and that it’s made her stronger and more aware and set in her body than she ever felt before. She also felt like Pilates addressed anything you ever needed. Having a bad day? Pilates. Need to do a workout, but you don’t want to go hard? Pilates. That was her take on it. It’s good for everything.

—

We have a new artist collaboration this time with Silk Sonic, which is a supergroup with Bruno Mars.

I didn’t know who they are. I knew he looked familiar.

He’s grown his hair out and he’s got a mustache and not a goatee, but like what Shaggy from Scooby-Doo has grown, whatever that name is.

I didn’t notice who that was, but people are super excited about it and they called it a Funk Super Duo. I have been hearing great things about it. I haven’t had a chance to take it. I’ll get around to it. I like finding all these new artists this way.

Also, as this is dropping, there will be an apparel sale.

The apparel sale will be from May 28 through May 30th. You better shop fast. I don’t know what time it’s starting. I don’t know what time it’s going to be over. It’s not the Pride sale and I don’t know when the Pride will be dropping. What I do know is this sale goes fast. If you want something, you have 30 seconds to go get it. It should be better than before, but it’s still not going to last the whole time. Don’t assume that you’re still going to have stuff on the 30th. You need to be up at 7:00 AM looking at it on the 28th.

It’s like trying to get on the Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood studios.

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When this stuff gets marked down, it goes crazy fast.

—

We get to say happy birthday to Jess King.

May 29th is her birthday. Make sure and drop her a note.

While we’re talking about birthdays. We can also talk about anniversaries, Adrian Williams.

He posted this and he recorded this video the day he found out he was going to be working at Peloton. It blew his mind to check it out a year later. He was clearly very excited. Congrats to Adrian Williams and a happy anniversary.

—

Joining us is Ben Ptashinsky-Skinner. Ben, how’s it going?

How are you, guys?

We are good. We have been doing this show for a few years now and I always start the same way. I like to know where people originally found Peloton, and then how they decided to make the jump, go ahead, and come into the Peloton Kool-Aid water with the rest of us.

Not only am I a homosexual but I’m also a homosexual parent. You see all these chubby gay dads lose their tummies and you’re like, “How did they do it?” In the gay world, there’s some cream or potion and it’s never fitness. Several of my gay dad friends got Pelotons and lost tummies. I used to be about 400 pounds and I lost all the weight. I have been trying my darndest to keep it off. I joined a gym, worked hard, and still have this tummy. Finally, at Thanksgiving, we were like, “Just do it.” We did and we fell in love with it. It is amazing.

Is Thanksgiving when you bought it or when it arrived and you started?

We bought it a few months before Thanksgiving, but my hubby got one of those texts and left the job to go make sure we could get an earlier arrival date.

I started a diet on Thanksgiving.

It’s a true story.

Why?

Because here’s my thought process. Every time, I’m like, “I want to take a cheat day and have pizza.” I’ll be like, “You gave up Thanksgiving dinner.”

“You’ve got to make this count.”

“You can’t get through a random Friday without pizza? You gave up Thanksgiving dinner.” I went a year straight without a cheat day.

I have to admit. We did it on Black Friday. We got the bike and I’ve done it every single day. I skipped Thanksgiving, but then I skipped Christmas because we spent Christmas at my in-laws and they didn’t have a bike. On Easter, we show up and there’s a bike.

It’s contagious.

They’re the fit old people. I can call them old. They’re retired.

They’re the B-roll in a Boniva commercial.

I would have said Viagra.

It’ll be nice. I don’t know if they still do it.

I don’t want to know.

I assure you.

Good for them. It gives me hope.

Beating their numbers is truly all that I care about. I’m sure that some of your readers 100% do this. I find it an interesting trait if you’re a Pelotoner and you do the scenic rides, that’s a specific crowd and my father-in-law is one of them.

Now, we have to take a detour.

That seems fitting. You’re talking about scenic rides.

I don’t know if you are into Peloton enough to know about homecoming.

You would have to have given up completely a week riding to not know about homecoming.

That’s fair. The reason I ask is that they dropped a new version of scenic rides and they got rid of all of the other ones. How was your father-in-law taking that? How’s it going?

I haven’t spoken to him about it because they’re my in-laws. It’s not like, “Good morning, mom. Good morning, dad.” It’s never going to happen. We have a great relationship. I get it. They’re working, but they got a free vacation to go to Maui and film. Matt was like, “I fell and it was so sad.” I’m like, “Fell? You were in Hawaii. You can throw me into a volcano for a free trip to Hawaii.” I find it interesting how these perfect people that I idolize, kvetch about certain things.

I’m curious how that goes over because in the land of Pelotonia, it’s not gone well.

I can imagine and here’s probably why it doesn’t go well. People that do those kinds of routines are specific.

Change is scary.

Can you imagine being in the ‘80s when they change the recipe for Coke?

I was there. It was a mess. It was crazy.

These are the type of people that I imagine freaking out over the change of a scenic ride.

You get it then.

Here’s the thing. If you’ve never had new Coke, it tastes like Pepsi. I was like, “I could just drink a Pepsi. I don’t need a new Coke.”

I love the exec that got fired from Pepsi and got hired at Coke. I was like, “I have a great idea.”

He was undercover.

Not to trash talk Peloton because we did the whole nine yards. We got the bike, shoes, and water bottles. I’m wearing shorts right now. I’m screwing through. We did all the research. I’ve never in my entire life owned a pair of AirPods and I bought them because the headphones that come with the bike are trash. I did the whole thing. My mom is your typical Jewish mother and she says, “I need a bike.” I said, “Please use my code. It gets you $100 off.” What does she do? She gets the Costco brand and duct-taped her iPad to the Costco version and uses my login. She’s like, “You’ll never guess what Cody said.”

He said, “Buy the bike.”

Thank God, she’s doing it. Peloton does change lives. She couldn’t do fifteen to start and now she’s up to 30. It’s amazing. Also, it’s not a real bike.

I love Costco.

He’s a real Costco fan.

No offense. You’re only a few years younger than my parents, but you would love them. It sounds to me so far that you’re a lovely man, Tom, but it sounds to me like you guys would click.

We probably would. I talk about Costco the way other people talk about Jesus. I’m like, “Do you have a personal relationship with Costco? Have you heard the good news? You should come in. You should come and visit my Costco.”

What’s crazy about my parents and this has nothing to do with riding Peloton. They’ll be at my house and notice an item that they sell at Costco and the next time I see them, I get 100 of them and it’s like, “I don’t need 100 boxes of macaroni and cheese powder.”

It doesn’t go bad. It’s macaroni and cheese.

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That’s going to last you forever.

You have a kid and she’s going to want mac and cheese.

This is crazy. I don’t use the mac and cheese powder for mac and cheese. I have figured out a recipe for fat-free queso. It’s like the nacho cheese you would get at a movie theater. I use fat-free Greek yogurt and one tablespoon of mac and cheese powder. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s at one point on WeightWatchers and I’m obsessed.

You need to send us all your unused packets because our kids will double up on that. They’ll snort it.

It’s like, “Are you going to Costco? Can I get some more mac and cheese?” Every time I turn around, he’s wanting mac and cheese and ramen noodles. It’s all the child eats.

I am a professional stand-up comedian and my parents sell concessions at all my shows. I have a residency in town and we rent the space from the town. We provide all the snacks, which is amazing because my parents go to Costco and buy everything for $0.45 and I sell it for $3.

Those cookies are good.

It’s amazing.

I love Costco, but that bike was janky. I saw the bike.

She got the Echelon. I have a real problem with Echelon not because I don’t care for the bike but because I don’t care for the company. They copy off of everything Peloton does. I’ve gone on some major rants about Echelon.

I’m sure I am on your side when it comes to that. I will not be caught dead on the bike. My father is more excited about the deal he got than the actual bike. Honestly, I don’t see my mother ever, even if she had the Peloton, using it to its full potential. To be frank, when I first got on the bike, I thought that was going to be me, too, and here I am. I don’t want to get emotional because that’s uber gay, but there we go. I’m doing things now that I never thought I’d be able to do.

Like what?

I am obsessed with the Power Zone Rides to death and I didn’t think zone four would ever be for me. I did one of Matt’s Power Zone Rides and he was like, “We’re going to get into zone five today for two minutes one on each end.” I was like, “There’s no way.” I did it. I saw all of the numbers and that new score that they have specifically for zones. It felt good to me because it felt like they designed it for me. I bawled my eyes out. I felt so free and new. My husband has hidden the scale. I have no idea if I’ve lost any weight, but I feel like a different person.

Are your clothes fitting differently?

Yeah, they are.

There you go.

Unless you’re sneaking into your closet and changing clothes.

That’s a lot of commitment though to mess with your head, so I would hope not.

Gay men don’t typically sneak back into a closet.

We do sneak buy clothes though, so it’s a double-edged sword.

Tom is straight and he does that. You sneak buy clothes, too.

I’m not sneaking. They get delivered to the door.

You are. You’ll be like, “There was a sale.”

I might have bought 35 nerd shirts.

In one day.

I’m obsessed with this Peloton code because I have no problem and I am not ashamed of being obsessed with Peloton. My fans will use my code, so I’ve gotten hundreds of dollars worth of Peloton shorts for free but the problem is, and this is no dig on Peloton, I don’t like some of the shorts that they have. When I find a pair that I like, I get multiple pairs of them. Some of those brands only have one color, so it looks like I only wear one pair of shorts every day, but I have multiple pairs of shorts on rotation. They are so comfortable. I’m obsessed with them and I can’t stop buying them, so if any of your readers need them.

They use my code. You have no idea. I’ve been doing this for a few years. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I’ve spent on Peloton clothes?

I absolutely believe you. Again, no dig on Peloton. It’s probably going to be the 7,000th time I’ve said this. Never in my right mind would I ever spend $65 on a pair of shorts but when a fan buys a bike, I’m buying a $65 pair of shorts.

I totally get it. That’s awesome. You said you lost quite a bit of weight. That sounds like that was before Peloton, given your timeline.

You didn’t exercise. That was all just through diet?

I didn’t exercise, but walking and stuff and all the little things. Your body gets to a point after losing weight. I lost the weight in 2018 and I’ve kept it off since. In 2019 was the year where I was watching the scale month by month, pound by pound slowly go up. In 2020, I had put on about 20 pounds. During the pandemic, I took it off. I was doing at-home workouts and the pandemic never ended. We’re still in it. We’re still doing it. We started putting it back on once we got that Peloton. My husband has hidden the scale and I’ve looked everywhere. I imagine it’s in the car because I can’t figure out where it is.

He threw it away. It’s gone.

Honestly, good because those numbers, like the numbers on the bike, all mess with your head, so I’m glad that it’s gone and I’m focusing on doing what I’m supposed to do. Anyway, it’s come off and I feel good. I feel like one day, I might be able to get rid of this gut but everybody tells me, “You got to do more than ride a bike to get rid of the gut.”

That’s true. It’s hard. I’m no expert. I’m still working on getting where I want to get but I do know it’s a lot of diet stuff.

I’m not giving up that cheese powder.

I understand. Everybody has their limits. You have your boundaries.

What if you’re snorting it?

I don’t care how it gets into me as long as it gets into me.

Backing up, you mentioned briefly there that you used to work at Disney. What did you do at Disney?

I was in several shows at Disney. I have written and created shows all in comedic aspects. I did that for fifteen years starting in 2005. I was in a show called Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue.

Here’s the thing. I am a huge Disney nerd and I had never gone to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue because I thought it sounded stupid, but people raved about it. We finally went and it was a blast. The food is amazing. What makes the show so great, in my opinion, is the performers. They play it in a way that works on both levels. They’re winking at you. They know that this is cheesy. If you don’t have a sense of irony, you can enjoy it for warmed-over hee-haw, but if you do have a sense of irony, they’re in on it and it worked great.

With that show specifically, there were many different crowd types that would attend and it hit on so many different levels. We would get college program kids that would come to get drunk, but once you’re drunk, the show’s great. The show’s great if you’re a kid. The show’s great if you’re a dad. It’s full of dad jokes. This was great for everybody because there’s Americana. It’s old school. I had been a cast member at that show the entire time I worked at Walt Disney World. Towards the end, you started realizing where we are now versus what was accepted when that show was written in 1974. Things were changing.

Did they change the actual show?

I don’t work at Disney anymore. I can tell you whatever you want. This is a crazy story. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get this on TikTok in under a minute. I worked at the Hoop-Dee-Doo the year that the man who wrote the actual song, the Hokey Pokey, came to the show. He also happened to write the song, the Hoop-Dee-Doo, sung by Perry Como in the ‘50s.

This guy has to be loaded. He wrote the Hokey Pokey. I assumed that was a song that had been handed down for 300 years.

The man sold all of that to Frank Loesser, who wrote big musicals like Guys and Dolls. He comes to the show at 97 or 98 years old. Picture a man who’s 97 or 98 years old. Disney wines and dines in the whole nine yards because he’s a celebrity.

He’s royalty in that world.

The girls come and sit on his lap. We all do the whole thing. The next day, Disney got sued. They’re using music that he wrote. He doesn’t own but he wrote and they’re using it on license. Disney has to pay the Loesser Foundation millions of dollars and they rewrote the whole show.

He would have been using it every day two times a day.

Eight times a day since 1974. Songs we didn’t even realize. What’s crazy is, do you know what got kept in the show because Disney owns it? The Hokey Pokey. He’s not using that one.

He saw the show and ratted him out or it’s just a coincidence?

If it was a coincidence, that’s a crazy coincidence. I suppose, Tom, that is a possibility, but if that is what happened, that is wild.

They serve the chicken in a bucket. At 97, I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere near a bucket. It feels like you’re tempting fate.

You make that joke, but so does the Hoop-Dee-Doo. That’s the end of Hoop-Dee-Doo. I can’t imagine this show still going to be able to happen, but Davy Crockett dies and when he dies, he kicks a bucket. That’s the show that Hoop-Dee-Doo is.

It works. You were in the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue?

I was.

From when to when?

To 2011.

There’s a chance.

No. That was later than that.

I was also in the show part-time. What happens when you leave is that you become an understudy, so I still did the show from 2011 to 2020. I don’t know what happens now because I’m gone.

There’s a chance that you two have met.

That’s crazy.

She got pulled up on stage and did the cancan thing.

The bear was 400 pounds. It was me.

I’m going to pull those pictures out.

That was the cool thing about that show. One of the big reasons they never got rid of me is because they always say when they get rid of you, “We need your costume for somebody else.” “What are you going to do with the circus tent? I was 400 pounds. You couldn’t repurpose my costume,” and they didn’t, so I always had a costume there. I lost all that weight and then I started getting nervous that they were going to cut me. Pandemic happened and I was like, “Hoop-Dee-Doo is the least of my worries.”

I was reading up on what you had over there on Instagram and it sounded like, from what I understood, you left Disney during the pandemic. They put everybody on hold and they had a furlough, but you decided not to go back, right?

Yes, exactly. They furloughed all of the actors at Walt Disney World, and then they fired almost every actor. When they went to bring me back, I had been out for nine months and I had already made the decision that I wasn’t going to go back because I had been making a living doing virtual entertainment the whole time. My thought process is, “As long as I can make that money a month and hit some financial goal a month doing that, I can be a stay-at-home dad.” Family is the most important thing. Disney was great and I’m thankful for it, but family is the end-all-be-all so I made that decision.

It’s nice that it ended up being the impetus to figure out like, “This side hustle can just be a thing.”

As a Jew, I have immense guilt because that didn’t happen for a lot of my friends. A lot of people lost human beings, family and money. For me, life has been hard because it’s a pandemic, but also, it puts everything in perspective. I decided to become a stay-at-home dad and with my parents, we have dinner four times a week now. I do a cooking show and they’re on my cooking show twice a week trying my food, which is super fun.

Are they there just to try the food that you make?

That way, I can write off my grocery bill. They have become hugely popular with my fan base, so that’s why I keep having them on camera for that reason. We come and sit and break bread. That’s the important thing, but also then I get paid, too.

I’ve been trying to have a segment on the show every week where Crystal stands up and shows her butt so we can write off the leggings. She won’t go for it.

I don’t know if you want me to tell this story, but I have a funny story. My mom is a CPA. She’s an accountant and she’s never had a full-time job, but she’s always done people’s taxes. She’s working part-time a couple of hours a week for a landscaping company to keep her brain going. Anyway, she’s amazing when it comes to taxes. In 2020, I thought I was going to be totally screwed because everything I made was not taxed and all this stuff. She says, “Give me your PayPal login and I’ll go through all of the things and write down who you paid.” That’s how I pay people. I pay my tax and I pay my illustrator and my PR guy through PayPal. I forgot I bought a sex toy through PayPal. My mom is like, “What’s this?” I said, “It’s a sex toy.” She goes, “Did you use it in the show?”

You’re like, “Kind of. I don’t like to brag.”

“We kept the drapes open if that’s what you’re asking.” My mom was so cool about it. “I’ll do a recount. Give me your login and I’ll go through everything for you.” She got us back $5,000. I thought I was going to owe money. She’s amazing.

You can buy a lot of sex toys for $5,000. I don’t know.

One good one.

You can get the molded glass thing.

Can I get a 3D printed Cody? I have tagged him. Not to brag. I have a small following on Instagram but a large following on TikTok. I have about 220,000 followers, which is substantially more than Cody. It doesn’t matter how many times I tagged him. He will not follow me. I’m like, “Please, Cody. I love you.”

That’s funny. I wonder what’s up with that.

He’s hugely popular. When it comes to Peloton, I’m sure he’s not the most popular but when it comes to the gay community and the married housewife community, he’s who everybody follows. He has a huge following.

He’s one of the most popular.

We’ve been joking about he must have gotten a new PR person because suddenly, he’s in every article.

Every week, there’s a new article about Cody. We’re like, “Who did you hire? Can we afford them?”

It’s been great. It’s been so funny. Just Peloton little facts, he’s good friends with Matty Maggiacomo.

I had no idea. That’s wild.

They were friends before Peloton. He brought Matty into the fold. They’re super close.

That makes sense. It has to be a close, tight-knit community. Even here in town, local gyms are the same thing. I would notice when I was going to the gym, my trainers all knew each other before they would bring each other in. They’re not celebrities, but the same thing.

They know each other and then they’ll introduce each other. It’s a networking thing. I’m sure it’s the same in the comedian world. You have the cooking show. What else have you been working on though? You’re a content creator, so I know there’s more content.

For a year, I did a show called Ben Time Stories where every night, 8:00 PM live, I would read a children’s book to kids. That was a full year and in the end, I wrote a book. I can’t believe it happened, but I got it published. It’s called GoodyBen Makes Lemonade!. It’s a children’s book that teaches kids, “You’re going to have a bad day and that is okay.”

They all need to know that. That is for sure.

I was reading all of these books and these books are great and super fun. I read 365 books, but that was a topic that never came up and I decided, “I have to write this book.” Writing the book was easy. Getting it published was hard, but it’s done. I made my investment back. I sold tons of copies and I’m super proud of the book and like any other personality, I’m on to the next thing.

Which is?

I started a new show. It’s a daily show called @EquityBen’s Joke Of The Day. I post a daily joke essentially for kids on my page every day at 10:00 AM as well as my cooking show twice a week. I also have written several parody episodes of The Golden Girls, where I play Dorothy, who is the Bea Arthur role.

I know. I watched it when it was new.

So did I.

I was an eighteen-year-old kid watching The Golden Girls.

TCO 209 | Internet Personality

 

I watched that. If you were eighteen, I was ten. I love that show.

My babysitter would put it on and we would watch it, and then when that was over, I would go to bed. I remember one time, I snuck back downstairs and she had gotten into one of my father’s dirty videos. She was watching it and I was like, “What?” I remember this so vividly. At six, I was like, “What was that?” At ten, when I went back to the box that she pulled it from, I was like, “Aah.”

It’s all making sense. That’s the ‘90s version of her giving you her PayPal login.

Those have been super fun. I hired a technical director. He makes everything look like a real Golden Girls episode. In this sense, I use StreamYard. I edit all the videos, so there are scene changes and commercials and the whole nine yards, but there’s no drag. We’re just men and somebody who doesn’t have preferred pronouns like they and them. I don’t know how to describe them. I’m moving on before I get canceled. Anyway, it’s a great cast and super fun. I wrote an episode where we all went to Walt Disney World. I wrote a Halloween episode where we were auditioning to be in the Hocus Pocus live show and a Christmas episode where we were all after a sexy hot black Santa Claus. One of my episodes will be a Labor Day episode where the girls have gotten vaccinated and they take a road trip to Mount Rushmore.

That’s amazing.

These aren’t like parodies as much. It almost sounds like advanced fan fiction. You’re treating it like it’s a real episode of The Golden Girls.

I call it a parody, so I don’t get sued.

That’s fair. It sounds exactly like a parody. I don’t know much from the Midwest. We don’t have entertainment out there.

If I were to answer your question, I would say you sound right but I would still call it a parody. Disney is good at getting things taken down, so I’m very careful.

Is that who owns the rights to that?

Does Disney own the rights to Golden Girls? I had no idea.

Did they produce it originally?

I don’t know if they film some of it. The Golden Girls house was at Hollywood Studios back in the ‘80s.

The goal was for that to be an actual production studio. This isn’t like Wisteria Lane back there.

Sometimes being weight conscious can mess with your head, they’re just numbers in a scale, don’t worry about it too much. Share on X

There was a lot down there. Long story short, stuff was being filmed here and unions got greedy. I won’t say what unions. Producers were like, “If it’s going to cost us more, we’re just going to go film somewhere else.” They all went to Atlanta and then it became a ghost town theme park, and then it was all offices and now, it’s all Star Wars land.

That had a happy ending.

If you’re an actor, it’s not a great ending.

If you’re a tourist, it’s a happy ending.

One of my friends was on The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. You’re going to be like, “What’s that?” It was a hugely popular sitcom on Nickelodeon and he was the lead actor. They moved location and wrote him out of the show.

They didn’t even offer him the chance?

No. They just gave it to an actor in LA. They moved Shelby Woo, the title character with the show. When you watch it back, the first couple seasons are all Orlando theme park actors and it’s cool. I’m like, “There’s and that’s and here’s.”

Now I feel sad. Is that what you consider next or do you have something else in the pipeline that you’re also working on?

My stand-up shows are what I’m excited to get back to because I produce everything myself. I can’t wait until somebody does a show in town where they can fill a house and I can feel comfortable doing the same thing. I’m not going to be first. That’s too much pressure. What if somebody got sick at one of my shows and all that? I’m waiting for the right time to do it, but that’s what’s next. Also, some of my TikTok stuff has blown up to the point where I have sold videos. I have sold a video to MTV and I sold a video to the History Channel. I know that sounds silly, but my thought process is if I’m going to continue making money creating content, I’m just going to keep creating the content until I need to drive Uber.

You want to be Uber Gay. It comes full circle.

I put the rainbow on my cover and call myself Uber Gay.

That’s amazing.

I could dress up like Josh Groban and I could do, “You raise me up.”

What did the History Channel want from TikTok?

I’m curious about that, too.

I’m assuming MTV was Ridiculousness.

It was. By the way, I don’t know what I side, so I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about anything. I probably should have. I probably gave him my kid. “Is that funny?” The producers there come at you uber low and I was like, no pun intended, “This is ridiculous.” They don’t realize that I do this for a living.

They probably get a lot of people. It’s just a dumb kid and they’re like, “Here’s $300.”

No offense, but I booked a commercial that paid me $4,000. I would rather own the rights to this video. Anyway, you can license things to them non-exclusively and then you’re able to sell your video out to other people as well, which is what I ended up doing and it was a good price. The History Channel, for some reason, is doing a show about unknown explosions or unexplained loud booms or something, which is totally one of my viral videos. They asked if they can and I was like, “Sure.”

Is that the video with your daughter and you’re like, “Go inside.”

Yes, that’s it. My thought process is my ring camera is never going to go away. My cell phone’s never going to go away. That’s not true. I was doing a stand-up show on my computer and I laughed so hard at one of my jokes that I spit water at the computer and it died.

Did you kill your computer?

It’s like a spit take.

You’re the Danny Thomas of your generation.

In Zoom stand-up shows, you can have as many people as you want, but the people that were at that stand-up show still talk about it. This is an awful story but it’s very funny. I was telling you a story about how my husband hid the scale and I couldn’t find the scale. My father told me, “If you want to figure out how much your husband weighs, have him sit on your face.” My father said that to me.

You’re like, “So mom told you about the PayPal thing?” She cannot keep a secret.

I lost the computer, so I had to buy a new computer, but it’s a complete write-off. One of my actors for my Golden Girls couldn’t get their computer to work at all, so I bought them a computer.

I want to be on your show.

My computer is acting funny. This could be reused.

Can I play the Don Cheadle character? That’s Golden Palace technically. For The Golden Girls nerds, that’s the sequel series where they had Betty White.

Bea Arthur was like, “I’m too good for this. I’m leaving.” She left the show but they continued to film for almost two seasons. Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White bought a failing hotel, which, by the way, is the most expensive hotel in Miami, the actual building that they use. They continued to show the same exact premise. Also, Cheech Marin was on the show.

Didn’t Quentin Tarantino write a script or two for that show?

I know that Quentin Tarantino got one of his films funded by playing an Elvis impersonator to the show, The Golden Girls.

I knew he was connected to the show somehow.

This is blowing my mind. This is crazy.

He was also a script doctor on It’s Pat.

Really? That awful movie based on the Saturday Night Live sketch?

Yes. Speaking of something that has not aged well.

Of course not. I don’t even want to talk about it.

We shouldn’t. I’m sure we can all see funny things, but it would just go bad.

Take a dark turn.

Back to Peloton, who’s your favorite instructor?

This is totally not the answer you’re expecting. I only rode Cody for the first month, and then I was like, “Let me try a couple of other people.” I have an emotional soul connection with Christine because she and Matt are the queen and king of the Power Zone Rides. Christine does this thing. She’ll be writing and then she’ll go quiet. You’re into your soul. For a while, I was like, “That’s so stupid,” and now I’m like, “She totally gets me.” I will be a 50-year-old divorcee in the middle of Iowa riding this bike and going through all of my emotions. I don’t know where it all comes from, but she gets me to do things that I never thought I could do. I’m like, “I am. I will. I can. I do.”

Have you taken any of her non-Power Zone classes?

I have. They’re good, too. I haven’t ridden a ride on the Peloton that I haven’t gotten into. My husband has, but I have at least found some positive takeaway out of every single ride.

You sounded not sure though. You sounded a little hesitant with that answer.

There definitely are rides that are boring, right?

Yeah, there are.

I am obsessed with the idea of longevity, so these 60-minute, 75-minute, 90-minute rides are the highest calorie burn you’re going to get. Even if you work your hardest at a 30-minute, you’re never going to get that. For me, I would rather work a little less for a couple of more minutes longer. Let’s be honest, by the time you’ve stretched, done your warmup, your cooldown, and all that stuff, you might as well have added a few minutes onto your ride and done a longer ride. I want to walk away feeling something from that and I don’t necessarily feel like I do with a 30-minute.

The reason I was asking is because a lot of her classes aren’t Power Zone classes. I’ve noticed this on the longer format. I don’t know about the shorter ones. I tend to not take those often, but she has that same mentality. She still takes you through a similar setup as Power Zone. I was curious if you enjoyed them in the same way.

For me, honestly, it’s music. I’m not a huge fan of her music.

You might be too young.

It’s the new waves. I love her though and I’m willing to go on that ride with her. I don’t know why that would affect a 30-minute versus a 60-minute but that’s the feeling I get.

Maybe she sets up her playlist differently. That’s the cool thing about Peloton though. That doesn’t work for you, but then something else does, so that’s okay. There are lots of people that love those classes. There are lots of people that only do Power Zone. There are lots of people that don’t do Power Zone at all.

I’m at that point where I have to do other rides because I’ve done every Power Zone Ride. There’s nothing left. There’s only so many times you can say, “I am. I will. I can. I do.” I’ve heard you say it. There was this one point where I promised myself I would do it every day and there was this one-point Cody had a Christmas ride that was so easy.

It’s his Christmas present to you.

The shorts he was wearing were my Christmas present. I did that ride four times, specifically because I promised myself I would do it and I knew it was easy. My calorie burn was awful. My output was awful. Everything was awful, but I did it, so that’s all I cared about. I’m on a few days in a row of 1,000 calories burned a day and I’m doing it. One time, I couldn’t hit it in a 60 but I was only 70 calories short so I added a five-minute cooldown. There are days I have to add a fifteen-minute cooldown. There are days that I have to add a twenty-minute ride at the end of the night, which I’ve done. For me, that’s my goal. I’m on the 75-day stretch of attempting 1,000 calories a day.

That’s a whole lot. What is your leaderboard name?

My leaderboard name is EquityBen.

Consistent branding.

Do you have any advice for people who are just finding Peloton?

If you’re not in shape, it might be daunting. I’m not selling you Peloton. I’m not getting your money. The beautiful thing about Peloton, legit, there is a starting point. You can do slow easy rides, and then all of a sudden, you’ll find yourself going, “That was too easy.” You’ll try the next thing and that’ll be a little more difficult. You move on and you progress. All of a sudden, you’re doing 1,000 calories a day in six months and you didn’t think you’d be able to do it.

That’s fabulous advice.

I can’t quite remember who I was talking to but we were talking about biking outdoors. They said, “It’s so much different. I don’t think you’d be able to do it.” I was like, “I don’t know.” I haven’t tried it, but I’m doing my resistance in zone five at an 80.

Whoever said that to you is wrong because I’m not a huge outdoor rider and I can ride outside. I have the worst sense of balance in the world. I’m not a fast outdoor rider, but I can ride outside. You’d be fine.

Not to be cocky and I’m not cocky. Of course, I’ll struggle with stuff but I’ll be able to do it. I’m not Christine. I’m not Matt. I’m not Cody. I don’t think I could keep up with them. It was my nanny. I’m like, “What would my nanny do?”

There’s a big difference between outdoor bike riding and trail riding. Trail riding can be super dangerous because it’s little tiny trails and you have to keep your balance over a river. If that’s what she was talking about, I take it back. Everything else, you could totally do.

I feel dumb because I’m sure that’s what she’s talking about.

At least you don’t have to be mad at her anymore.

Now you can let it go.

There’s a thing about me though that’s like, “Don’t tell me I can’t do it.” Was that stupid?

No. I do the same thing. I have tried riding a bike where there’s this park near here and it has these wooden slats that you have to ride over a fricking ravine. I can’t do it. If you lose your balance, you’re going to fall into a gully. I cannot go across it.

There’s a difference between life and death and telling me I can’t do twenty miles outside.

You can do twenty miles outside. I guarantee you can do that because I can do that easily. I can do 30 miles and I’ve done 40 miles outside. You can totally do twenty miles outside.

Let me ask because I’ve never done it. When you do a longer ride 30 miles outside, I’m assuming you give yourself more time than an hour.

Yeah. Personally, when I’ve done it, it’s been leisurely. Doing 30 miles is like three hours, so I’m tooling along and going at my own pace.

I know that sounds corny, but this is a Peloton podcast. Where I’m at, that sounds delightful.

It’s nice. Especially if the weather is great outside and you can see lots of different things. It is nice to do and to go with friends. There are people that ride locally here and they’ve taken me on some rides. One of the things that they wanted to try to teach me was to ride with the clipless pedals, which means that you clip in and clip out as you do on your Peloton bike. That sounds not a big deal because you’ve done it on your Peloton. When you’re doing it when you’re moving is a whole other thing because if you don’t move them out at the right place, you’re going to fall. That’s the only thing that I struggled with once I got moving on the bike. Yes, you’re going to have hills and you might go slower than people you’re with, but besides that, it’s just riding.

The clipping in, now is like clip, clip. The bike is not in our bedroom, but it’s connected to our bedroom. If my husband is riding when I’m napping, he won’t unclip. He will take your shoes off and leave them on the bike clipped in, so he doesn’t wake me up. That’s so sweet. At 7:30 the other morning, I was like clip, clip. I don’t care.

Rise and shine.

An hour is a long time out of your day. It’s also nothing in comparison to feeling good every day, so I’ve made that conscious decision. To get the things I need to get done sometimes in a day, I have to wake up at 6:00 and do it. I hate waking up, but then three minutes onto the bike is so worth it already. I never thought in a million years I would be able to say, “I get that adrenaline rush that people talk about when it comes to exercise,” but also, I don’t feel like I’m exercising.

That’s the best part about Peloton. You don’t feel like you’re exercising. You keep coming back. Lots of people are like, “It’s so expensive.” I’m like, “No, it’s not because I’ve never done any other workout where I felt like it’s not exercise and I keep coming back consistently.” That’s priceless to me.

When we went to buy the Peloton, the cost per month if we were to finance it was what we were paying to be in our gym a month anyway. We didn’t finance. We paid cash. You mean to tell me that for $40 a month, I could do whatever I want on this bike. After a year, we would have already spent that money in the gym and now we have that bike for however long it lasts.

People like to talk about that it’s the super expensive thing but you can map out the value compared to a gym membership.

Especially when you have two people in your home.

My mom, too.

Hopefully, Peloton doesn’t read that part.

Like Netflix, you can have seven people. We’re not breaking the rules for Peloton. People have said, “What are you? Rich?” I was like, “No. Trump and Biden, with the stimulus checks, bought my bike. I was not expecting that money.”

I’m glad that you got one.

Thank you for joining us. Before we go, tell everybody where they can find you on the internet.

It’s easy. I’m on Instagram @EquityBen. I am on TikTok @EquityBen and of course, my leaderboard name is @EquityBen. I ride every single day roughly between the window of 6:30 AM Eastern Standard Time and 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. I’m on there every single day. I can’t even miss holidays because my dumdum in-laws have one, too.

Thank you.

—

That was a fun interview. A little button on that story. We talked in the interview about how he was the host of the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. You were called up on stage during the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. In a jaw-dropping coincidence, if you’re watching on the YouTube channel, you will see the photo, there is Crystal and our guest in the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue.

We’re together in 2009 and this is during the time period that he was not a regular host. He told me that the chances were 2% that this would occur. It was meant to be and this is before he lost all his weight.

Also, before you had a Peloton.

Peloton didn’t even exist whenever this picture was taken. How insane is that?

It’s mind-blowing the people you could run across.

I just said 2009, that is not true. It was 2013 so Peloton did exist but it was not existing in my life yet.

It barely existed. It was a twinkle in John Foley’s eye. I thought that was fascinating the odds that we interview him almost a decade later.

It’s crazy. I love it. He was stunned and loved it too. He was so happy to see this.

I guess that’s it for this episode. What pray tell do you have in store next?

We’re going to talk to Candy Simone. She is going to be joining us and she has quite a story to share with us. Make sure that you tune in.

Until then, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on Twitter, Instagram, the bike and the tread @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter@RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. Find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. You can see all the episodes on YouTube.Com/TheClipOut. You can watch them in video glory and that’s fun. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

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