• New Year, New Studio Fees.
• YouTube now available on Peloton devices.
• Peloton drops a new commercial.
• Peloton has an IG video for Tread+.
• Chase Sapphire has extra perks for Tread+ purchases.
• Lanebreak gets new features.
• Ross Rayburn announces his book launch event.
• Robin Arzon is Good Morning America’s newest fitness contributor.
• Jess Sims expands her role at ESPN.
• Ben Alldis “pops the question” to Jon Hosking.
• Callie Gullickson is a Lululemon ambassador.
• DJ John Michael shows off Peloton’s new DJ booth.
• The latest artist series features Zach Bryan.
• Ludacris kicked off 2024 on a Peloton…on a boat.
• Vanna White loves her Peloton.
• Top 10 listener favorite classes.
• This Week At Peloton.
• The Top 50 Song Series is back.
• Helper Bee Tina reviews Callie’s Soundtrack Strength Series.
• Birthdays – Adrian Williams (1/9), Hannah Frankson (1/11)

All this plus our interview with Vin Kridakorn!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

New Year, New Studio Fees Plus Our Interview With Vin Kridakorn!

We are back.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. far so good.

I mean I was hit by a car.

That’s true, but it’s not February yet.

February 5th. Coming up on the anniversary.

I was going to say I won’t be in town that day, but I leave the next day. On a brighter note, not that you getting hit by a car is a bright note. Just to be clear, but reminiscing about you getting hit by a car, that is not what I meant.

It’s weird how much it’s it’s on my mind lately.

Before we dig into the show proper, we should start by saying that the next book club is just around the corner.

It’s January 9th, Tuesday. Just look at your calendar. I don’t even know what year it is. This is still the January book. We’re finishing up Book Lovers. The next book that we are going to start is Turning Inward by Ross Rayburn. I am super excited to read that. For those of you who pre-ordered, it will be out on January 9th and there are still tickets available for the big book launch in New York City. If you get to go to that, first of all, I am so jelly. Second of all let us know about that if you get to go. That will be the next book and I can’t wait to read that. I can’t wait to discuss Book Lovers. This has been a fun read. I know you didn’t read this one, Tom, but it was an interesting one. I enjoyed it. I thought it was a good story. I can’t wait to hear everybody’s thoughts on it.

We should also say that you might recall last year, we launched the Peloton timeline. Since 2023 has just concluded, we have added to the timeline and it is now live and on our website if you want to go check it out. I thought you had more to say about the time.

I was looking at the timeline earlier. That might be what got me thinking about the accident, getting hit by a car. I was thinking about how weird this past year was because it was full of these big highs and low lows. I’m not sorry to see 2023 go, not as much as I wanted 2020 out of here, but 2023 was not the best year. I’m hoping 2024 is going to go better.

Fingers crossed. Did you getting hit by the car make the timeline?

No, it didn’t it did not. Diana is no longer in charge.

Is that why?

No, she was like, “I don’t feel like I want to spend my time on this anymore.” It’s a lot of work.

She did ten years of it.

That’s amazing. We are so grateful for all the time that she put in, but we will still be continuing the timeline. It will be just a little different process going forward.

Finally, we should hit the fact that we’re launching Bingo. You’ll call out an instructor each week to let them know which one they should do so they can get through all of them in the year to complete their Bingo card. This week, in order to keep us on track, brace yourself, there are three instructors. We’re going to call one out now. We’re going to call one out later, and we’re going to call one out in this week’s Patreon bonus episode. Before you pause this episode and write us a tersely worded email, we won’t do this every time, but this week, we are going to make the bonus episode free and available to everyone who’s a Patreon member.

If you join Patreon at the free level, all free-level members will have access to the bonus episode this week. We actually decided this before we decided to call out one of the Bingo names in the episode, but it is so jam-packed in the bonus episode this week that we were like, “Maybe we should make this one free so everybody can hear it because it feels like we’re leaving things out.” If you’re wondering if the bonus episode is worth your time, energy, and money, here’s a good way to find out. It won’t show up in your feed. You’ll have to go over the Patreon episode and listen to it on your desktop because you won’t have the RSS feed to have it show up in your magic podcast box.

You can subscribe.

It’ll live over there so you can go check it out. If you like it and you want to subscribe, great. If not, you got this one for free. There you go. There’s all that. Let’s give them the first name. Drumroll, please.

The first instructor on the bingo card is Christine, CDE.

Christine D’Ercole.

You just go to your card and you can bring it up on your favorite picture editor on your phone, like Instagram and your X.

Where can they get this card?

They can get this card anywhere on all of our social. You’re going to be able to get it on Facebook. You’re going to be able to get it in Patreon. I believe we’re going to post it on Instagram as well. I don’t think we’re going to post it every week though. You need to go grab it and then save it. The idea is that you blackout the whole board by the end of the timeline. We are not going to say what the prize is, but you will be able to get a special prize. I’m not going to check your answer. This is for you and it’s for fun, so go take a freaking class with Christine if you’re going to mark it.

Don’t be a douche. Words to live by. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk about the new studio fees because that’s fascinating. I’m super fascinated by that. We’re also going to talk about the new commercial that’s dropping, new features that are dropping, and some extra perks for the Chase Sapphire group. There are also a lot of new instructors. There’s news for the instructors. Lots of that, and there are going to be discussions about the artist series. We have celebrity sightings. We have content and all kinds of things. As Tom said, you’re going to be able to access the bonus episode. A lot of stuff that I have not mentioned here is going to be over in the bonus episode as well. We’re going to cover some top ten and some favorite things that happened in 2023. We’re going to talk about even more instructor news. A lot got moved over there. There’s a lot.

Before we get to all that, shameless plug. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, TuneIn, YouTube. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. It’s super helpful. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group.

Don’t forget, you can also join our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. What that gets you is ad-free episodes. If we get them early, you get them early, and it gets you bonus content. This week’s episode, as we mentioned earlier, will be available to all Patreon subscribers at all levels even the free level. If you’ve been wanting to check it out and see what they are, but you didn’t want to spend money to find out, here you go. Here’s your chance. Also, don’t forget, you can sign up for our newsletter which goes out mostly weekly at TheClipOut.com. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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Last week it was quietly, I won’t even say, announced. It just happened. We now have new fees for attending the studio in different capacities.

It’s interesting because there are always opinions about anything. You know how it is. I thought people’s reactions to this were super fascinating. Let’s start with if you want to go to the studio by yourself, in the US, it’s going to cost $35. I think it’s £25 when you go to the studio in London. It’s a  little bit different pricing, but pretty much the same. That’s for you in a class by yourself. If you want a group of people, then you have to pay a fee. A fee is different, depending on which studio you’re in, how many people you have, and it also depends on what kind of class you are taking. Yoga, for example, is a very different price than the cycling studio. That makes sense because the yoga studio only fits seven people versus the cycling studio which fits 40 people. I think it’s 36 to be exact, but it’s a big difference.

You would think there would be more demand for the bike studio than the yoga studio.

I have no doubt, and the price would show it. The bike studio in the US is $1,000 if you want everybody.

That’s buying out all the bikes, but that’s just the fee for the right to buy out the bikes, like a PSL.

Don’t say PSL because they’ll think you’re talking about London.

Sorry, it’s football. The one time I make a sports reference. It’s like an NFL PSL where you spend $1,000. Now you have the right to buy out the studio, but you still have to pay $35 a bike.

Yes.

I just want to make that clear.

The reason that you would want to pay that fee is that it would be impossible to get 35 of your closest friends into the bike studio or join the class. It’s impossible, but you could certainly do it this way by reaching out to Peloton and having them book it for you, and now you pay a fee. I think it’s fair and a lot of people feel like it was fair because they’re like, “I would do whatever it takes to get into the studio. I don’t care.” You have a whole bunch of other people that are like, “Peloton is money-grabbing and they’re awful. All they care about is money.” To that, I say it’s funny how companies like to make money.

A thousand dollars to access the cycling studio is not insubstantial, but I would think that most people who are probably trying to do something like that are probably corporations and organizations. Most people aren’t trying to buy out the studio as a private person, one wouldn’t think.

I’m laughing because I happen to know that that has happened before but, to your point, oftentimes, it will be a group. There are so many communities and subcommunities within the Peloton community where it’s like  I don’t know the the Peloton foodie group all wants to go in and ride together.

Here’s another way to look at it. If there are 36 bikes in there. That’s about $28 a person extra. If you want to ride with your Peloton foodie group, then now you’re going to pay $55.

It’s totally reasonable. It’s not that crazy of an increase. The interesting thing I thought about it was that there were very different prices. If you wanted to do yoga or strength, it was close to $300. I forgot to mention too that if you only wanted to have a small group, you don’t have to buy out all the bikes. You could only buy out five bikes, and you would still have to pay a fee.

It’s prorated in some capacity.

I think it was like 5 through 14, and then it was like 15 through 36. Don’t quote me on that. Read the article because it’s right in there. It’s not that complicated. The point that I was going to make is that if you want to do a small group or you want to do the tread studio, that’s around you’re $300 per person. If you want to do let’s say yoga, this is interesting to me. Yoga had only a $100 concierge fee for 4 to 5 people and if you wanted to buy out the whole thing. I thought that was interesting.

There’s less demand.

Also, it’s so small.

If it’s smaller, you would think would make the price go up because there’s less supply, but I think there’s less demand.

I don’t remember that the cycling studio in London felt that much smaller. They’re only charging £200 for a fee.

I feel like some of that is because they’re not as popular in London as they are in America.

That is absolutely true. It’s not even up for debate, but I thought it was interesting that there’s such a difference between $1,000 and £200. Nobody has called that out. I would say that’s probably because the people who are benefiting from that are like, “Yay.” Those who are not benefiting from it aren’t going to pay attention because they’re not paying attention to what the London prices are. They’re just paying attention to what the price is in New York.

In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t going to generate a lot of revenue for Peloton. For the people who are like, “It’s a cash grab,” this is not what’s going to turn the company around. I think this ultimately is a nuisance fee. The next time people call like, “I want to rent out the whole studio.” “Okay, it’s $1,000.”

I totally agree with you, but it does raise some interesting things. First of all, when I was in accounting and I was at a business where I was heavily involved in accounting, we would often look at it like, “How can we pay for this person’s salary?” I could see that there is one person dedicated to this or maybe it’s two people but it’s half-time or whatever. You’re paying for their salary because that’s all they’re going to be doing. Where it gets interesting is you have to send to form in and you have to do it no sooner than I want to say six weeks out. It has to be before they’ve released the next schedule. Maybe it was ten weeks out.

You have to file this form to be able to be like, “My favorite instructor is this or that. These are my choices.” You do all that, but the crazy part is how many people are going to be signing up for that one thing. How do you choose which group gets it? That is the part that people are mad about. How do we know if it was first come first serve? How do we know that it’s not the same people that are in the studio now and they make such a huge deal out of being there?

How do we know that they’re not calling up their buddy and saying, “Give me the studio because I like you.” People do that all the time. Some people irritate me with their snottiness about how they like to lord it over everybody else and how they’re there. That is what people are upset about. They don’t feel like this helps them. You’re not able to see it. They feel like some groups get ignored and they feel like some groups get favorited.

I guess we shall see. What will be interesting is if you start to see situations where they start charging you different amounts for different instructions.

I wouldn’t doubt that either.

It also makes sense. It’s supply and demand. Some people are willing to pay a lot more for Cody or Robin than some of the other instructors. Not to be a dick. I don’t want to call anybody out by name. What is Instagram? It’s a popularity contest. You can go and look and see which instructors are more popular.

Come on, they all have different fees for doing a speech or for an appearance. How would this be any different? I think this is the precursor for more to come. I don’t think we’re done seeing fees. We’re going to see more. We were joking around in the last episode about all the different packages that we would love to see before they announce this. I think it’s coming.

We should say before we move on or I will point it out so you don’t have to, you’ve been predicting this for quite some time.

Thank you. There are a lot of people out there who like to pat me on the head and say, “You’re a girl. You don’t know anything. We know better.”

You were right once again. Moving along, we had one final official collaboration sneak in before the end of 2023. You can now access YouTube on your Peloton equipment.

I want to be clear about this because it’s going to be confusing to people. It was already on your bike. It was already there. The difference is Peloton inks a deal with them. It was still in beta, and now it’s not in beta anymore. A lot of people were confused by that.

I get that you’ve already seen it on your bike. It’s already there. It’s like they were testing it out. It could go away in a moment.

This is the first of many to come because we already see all the others being tested.

Peloton dropped a new commercial.

This is cool because this is an honest-to-God Peloton user Shanta May. She’s been part of the community for a long time and she’s been working on coming back like using the Peloton to move, to be better, to be healthy, and to be able to move her muscles. The whole point of this commercial is that’s different than, “I’m trying to be an athlete, I’m trying to take my athletic skills to the next level and go try out for the Olympics,” or something like that. She’s just trying to be healthy. She has a  story. I don’t want to share her story because it’s not my place to, but there’s a whole thing there.

I did like the spot in that I know Peloton still has a reputation in some circles. It’s like, “It’s the thing where they yell at you so you try harder.” That’s not what Peloton is. They’ve never done that. I feel like this sends the message that elite athletes can use it, but it’s not just for them. Don’t let that scare you away.

I agree. I also thought it was cool that they showed other people rehabbing injuries. I’m not clear if those folks are part of the Peloton community. They were “just actors” for a commercial. I couldn’t tell, but I like the spot. Also, people have asked, “Will we see this on TV?” I’m hopeful we’re going to see it. They used to do ads on the Super Bowl. That’s coming up in January, right?

I think in February.

Maybe we’ll see it there. I don’t know. Time will tell.

We also had a new video on Instagram for Tread Talks.

It’s interesting. People are asking a lot of questions like, “Are we going to start seeing these Tread Talks all the time?” I think what they’re trying to do is get people to understand why the Tread and the Tread+ are different than your traditional treadmill, especially the Tread+. It is a giant piece of equipment and some people don’t realize why it’s worth the extra money. I think this is a commercial, but not a true commercial or what I would call a social media commercial. I think that’s it. I don’t think we’re going to see a whole series of these being a true talking point. It’s not like Fitness Flip was or something. People have asked me that question.

It doesn’t seem like it’s designed to be that. It’s like, “Here’s what makes Tread+ different from the tread.”

That’s how I took it. I agree.

Peloton and Chase Sapphire have teamed up again. You now get extra perks for purchasing a Tread+.

You can earn a total of max 1650 in travel rewards if you buy the Tread+. I know we’ve talked about this before, but just be careful and watch your dates because you have to match the dates that are on Chase Sapphires’ website. If it says, “Has to be delivered by” or “Has to be purchased by,” make sure you get all that checked out.

There were some issues with a promotion like this a year or so ago where Peloton pushed it out and the dates didn’t match what Chase Sapphire had set.

It’s by a matter of 24 hours. This was not like weeks different.

It was real and Chase Sapphire were real dicks about it. They were like, “That’s outside the window. Suck it.” It got ugly for some people, so be careful.

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Lanebreak has some new features since we last recorded.

It’s been a while now that Lanebreak has been available on the tread, not the Tread+ yet, but it is available on the tread. People have made a lot of commentary and feedback to Peloton that it’s difficult to go that fast.

We’re not all CJ Albertson.

When you’re trying to switch, you have to move. You have to be running fast for a long time or speed up to do a sprint. For that reason and for the reason that some people don’t want to run all the time, they have added walking to Lanebreak on the tread. In any of the classes you take, you can use the walking feature as the target speed when you’re choosing your difficulty. That’s super helpful for people who are more focused on their walking rather than running.

The other cool part is that they added a bunch of new shapes and colors. I love what they have done because if you do a class and then you do another class right after it, you will notice that they have two very different color schemes, and the shapes that are in the background are like pulsing with light. They pulse at the exact perfect moment with the bass, like with the rhythm of the music. It feels very immersive. It’s not like it was super off before, but it’s on the beat now.

Especially when you’re doing a class where there is an intense beat, it is very fun in my opinion because of the difference. You feel more immersed in it. In addition to all of that, you can now stack the classes for Lanebreak. That’s super exciting as well. I haven’t been doing any biking classes other than Lanebreak lately and I have been loving it. I can’t wait till Lanebreak makes it over to the Tread+. I’m very excited about that. I’ll probably be walking too.

You’ll call it running but they’ll probably classify it as walking. That’s because of how you say you run. Coming up after this, we have instructors in the news. We’re going to talk about what’s going on with Robin, Jess Sims, and Ross Rayburn. Stick around.

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Ross Rayburn has announced his official book launch event.

It is January 9th as I mentioned at the top of the show. There are still tickets as of this recording. If you want to be there, you need to get your tickets ASAP. Also, I am super jelly, and let us know how it goes.

Also, don’t forget, he is the next item up for bid in The Clip Out book club.

He’s going to be the February book read. We are going to be doing our book club for that book on February 13th. You have plenty of time to get your book and read it before then.

Robin Arzon is the newest fitness contributor for Good Morning America.

She sure is and she was very excited about it. I loved her little pop of color with her tights and her outfit. I heard through the grapevine. This is a complete rumor. She had been pushing Ally to help her get in there. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I thought it was interesting.

I have connections in there. You’re going to leverage them. It makes total sense. Congrats to her. That’s cool. Speaking of Peloton’s instructors on your TV, Jess Sims has expanded her role at ESPN.

She is now going to be the Saturday Prime Time sideline reporter for men’s college basketball. It also could potentially mean that she’s going to have less time teaching at Peloton. I’m not saying she’s going anywhere. Please do not turn that into a panic. It was not meant to be one. We did have the tarot card reader on, Erica McLean. She had mentioned that at least one instructor would be pushing back and doing some other things, not leaving Peloton, but maybe not teaching as much. Who knows, maybe Sims is that person? It could certainly be.

We had another proposal at Peloton of sorts.

This is like the sweetest video. My eyes teared up when I saw this. This was adorable because Leanne was filming and Ben Alldis gave Jon Hosking a present to open. He opened it and it said, “Best man?” Jon Hosking started crying. That’s when I lost it. I was like, “Oh my God.” It was so real and sweet. It was so genuine. Leanne was in the background filming and you could hear her say, “You’ve been there so much for us in the last couple of years.

You think about what Leanne has gone through with her cancer diagnosis and they had to keep that to themselves. They had wanted to get married before the cancer diagnosis, and then that put the kibosh on that, and then Leanne’s friend passed away. It’s been a tumultuous time for these two. He had been such a good friend to them and it showed. I thought it was a sweet moment. They also said in their post that it’s going to be a spring wedding. We will be seeing that wedding pop up very soon. It’s going to be in the spring of 2024.

Callie Gullickson is the newest ambassador for Lululemon.

That’s very exciting for her. I’m so glad to see it. I know she’s been wanting a partnership for a while now and she loves Lululemon. It is exciting to see her get to be their brand ambassador. Congrats to Callie.

Finally, DJ John Michael showed off the new DJ booth in the studios.

It is brand new. It has all new lighting, colors, and a new shape to it. That was fun. Great way to start off the New Year’s Eve class that Jess King and DJ John Michael did. We will talk about this more in the bonus episode. Jess King’s Brittany Allen outfit is amazing. I am not one to get that excited about clothes.

We have a closet full of leggings that say otherwise but go on.

I love to watch something and be excited about it. What was cool about it is that Jess King was dressed up when she got there in a tuxedo and then it had snaps on it. Brittany Allen had designed it so they had snaps on it and she ripped it off and then it turned into a disco ball for New Year’s Eve. How amazing. It was so cool. Brittany Allen posted this whole post about how she made the outfit. It was 44 hours of hands-on labor that went into this. It was insane. I thought that Brittany Allen deserved a little mention there since we’re talking about New Year’s Eve.

They can hear more about that in the bonus episode, which is open to everyone this week. Coming up after this, we’re going to tell you about the latest artist series. We’re going to talk about which celebrities were spotted on their Peloton. I think we got a couple of new ones, so stick around.

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The latest artists series features Zach Bryan.

Do you know what stood out to me? I don’t know who this guy is. I thought it was funny that his name is Zach and Brian shoved together.

I don’t know why they didn’t click for me. I have two sons, Zach and Bryan.

Bryan spells his name that way, but Zach does not. I thought it was funny. I saw that and I was like, “What?”

That explains why whenever I hear this guy’s name, I feel like I’ve heard of him even though I’ve never heard of him. I can’t believe I’ve never connected the dots that it’s because of my children.

That’s okay. If it makes you feel any better, I guarantee you, I would pay money that you would show this to your son Bryan and he would have no idea.

No clue at all and none whatsoever.

Even after we explained it, I’m not sure he would get it.

The scary thing is I never made that connection and I’m still the one they gave custody to. That’s how bad it is on the other side. Anyway, Zach Bryan is your latest starting series. I wonder if he’s country, but with a name like that, it sounds country.

He’s holding the guitar. He’s got to be, and the shirt looks country.

He has no hat so it’s hard to tell. The hat would be like, “That’s for sure country.”

I do agree, but I’m going to go with country. I’ve never heard of him.

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Ludacris kicked off 2024 on a Peloton on a boat.

It’s a little more than a boat. That’s a freaking yacht.

You can’t put a Peloton on a pontoon.

I thought that was pretty cool. I thought that was a neat video.

Also, we learned that Vanna White digs Peloton as well.

I thought that was cool. Is she still doing the turning of the letters?

Yes. Either they’re getting a new host. It was Ryan Seacrest that they hired, but I believe they inked a deal to keep her around. People thought maybe they’d reboot the whole thing, but they didn’t. I think they ink a deal to keep her around for a bit of time too.

That’s pretty cool.

You’re paid to be a model and turn letters on a TV show. Look at The Price Is Right. That role is designed to be flipped out for the next 22-year-old, and here we are 40 years later and she’s still doing it. Hat tip for holding on to that gig because in that line of work, that is unheard of.

She looks amazing, not amazing for her age. She looks amazing, period, end of sentence.

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I guess let’s begin this segment by giving them their next Bingo name.

That sounds like a great idea. We have instructor number two, Marcel Maurer. You have Christine and Marcel.

If you want to know who the third one is, there won’t be three every week. Don’t worry, but we figured in January, everybody is like, “I got to get back to it,” and over-performing. This is the week to give you three. If you want to hear the third one, it’ll be in this week’s bonus episode, which you can access for free over at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. The free level, you will get it this week. You have to sign up but we don’t need your credit card or anything like that. It’ll be over there for free waiting for you. We have This Week at Peloton.

There was some interesting stuff that got added this week. First of all, there was a new Denis Reset which everybody enjoys those classes, but I thought it was also interesting that Peloton was featuring a Merengue Walk with Camila. That was interesting. There’s also a new German collection. It’s going to be a 10-by-10 strength class with Erik Jäger. I thought that was interesting as well. By the time you hear this, those classes will be out. I just want to make sure that we highlight all the fun stuff that dropped this week.

Normally in this space, we give you the TCO Top Five of the week. This week, we’re going to pull the top Ten of 2023.

We have a lot of fun flashbacks and you’re going to hear more about that over in the bonus episode. We did a Top Ten of all of the different Top Fives. From July 2023 was a 30-minute Christina Aguilera Hike with Rebecca Kennedy. People loved it. It came in as one of Rebecca Kennedy’s favorite or best hikes, and the playlist was phenomenal for anyone who grew up listening to Christina Aguilera. Also on July 27, a 30-minute Mötley Crüe Ride with Sam Yo. Sam Yo shows up a lot as a favorite class, but this came from Helper Bee Nikki, “Sam’s Mötley Crüe Ride was masterful. He let the music shine, completely committed to the beat in the character, and created a solid workout with the Mötley Crüe sprinkled in versus giving a full Wiki rundown of the band’s history.” I love that man.

July was a big month. Coming out also in July was the 30-minute Barbie Ride with Olivia Amato. This one was raved about. This came from Kelly Quirk, “It was so fun. The soundtrack was great. The message was on point and unlike her usual rides, it wasn’t entirely the 103 cadence for 30 minutes. I could manage.” I agree with that. I’m not a huge Olivia classtaker. That class was amazing and so fun. The next one is three classes. It’s a little bit of a cheat but that is because in September we had Salt and Peppa, three classes that people loved. There was the Dance Cardio with King. There was a 15-minute ride with Ally Love and a 15-minute walk with Jess Sims. All three, people loved it.

This is a picture of Helper Bee Lindsey getting her Dance Cardio on. People loved the playlists on all three of the classes and how much fun they were. It brought everything back for people. Coming in at number six. This was from October. There was a 5-minute core strength with Robin, and people loved it. Stephanie Latto said that Robin’s 5-minute core strength was awesome and it was her new go-to 5-minute core. She took it four times the first week it came out.

Also, October was an emotional month. That was when Jenn Sherman did a pop ride. It was 45 minutes on October 13th. She had a tough week and she was talking about the latest Israel-Hamas war. She’s Jewish proudly so, and she talked about her feelings about that. It touched a lot of people, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. I wanted to make sure that we talked about that one as well. What a powerful playlist for that moment.

Also in October, it was Matty’s Halloween Walk. It was 30 minutes. This was an amazing class. This was a walk from 10/29. He dressed up as an alien and it was one of my favorite classes that Matty has ever done. He did alien or not alien for all of these different celebrities or famous people. It was hilarious and he was in character the whole time. It was so good. Also in October, a 120-minute Power Zone Endurance Ride with Matt Wilpers. We have to remember that was the first two-hour Power Zone Endurance class ever and people loved it.

They went crazy for that.

Lots of love for that one, and of course, Matt Wilpers. In November, we had 1989 Taylor’s Version. It was a 30-minute class with Selena and it was fantastic. It had all of the best songs on it from 1989. People said that it had a nice long warm-up and a cool-down, and it had wonderful intervals throughout. Just a great class. Coming in at number one was the epic sing-along. It was a 30-minute one in November. You have to realize this was a very special class because it was all celebrating Jenn Sherman’s ten years of teaching at Peloton. I get chills talking about that. People loved it. If you didn’t get to take any of those classes, make sure you check them out at TheClipOut.com. It’s a great way to make sure you get some epic classes.

The Top 50 song series is back.

It was an interesting one. I like the way they’ve done it this year. They very carefully spelled it out, and I think they’ve done this in years past, where you have the countdown of songs, but then they repeat those songs over all of the different modalities. If you take 50 through 41, for example, you might have a walk plus run, but then if you go over and take the bike class 50 through 41, you’re going to have the exact same tracks. You just have a different instructor. It was a lot of fun. I took the walk-and-run that

Rebecca Kennedy did, which happened to be the 50 to 41. It was amazing. I learned a new song. This was the one that had an F, the Hope song I sent you. It’s so freaking good. I listen to it like ten times. Sydney was like, “We get it.” There were a lot of favorites throughout.

She was like, “Do you know how many times you made me watch Frozen? You’re going to sit here and listen to the song every damn time I play it, and not say a word.”

What I love about the 50-song series is it’s not just what was new and hot this year. It’s what the instructors played and people hearted all year long from all different genres and all different decades. There’s stuff on here that’s old. There’s stuff on here that’s brand new that I’d never heard of. I love that about it, I love learning new things, and I love seeing what everybody else is enjoying.

Finally, we had a nice review from Helper Bee Tina talking about Callie’s soundtrack strength series.

I always knew I’d get around to these but Tina made me go do it immediately because she spoke about it so glowingly. There are all these favorite movies like The Princess Diaries or Legally Blonde. Callie took these classes and she did a whole theme around it. She dressed up in a way that the characters would have dressed up. She did the songs from it. It’s a whole thing. It’s an experience. Each one of these is an experience and Callie is just fun. If you haven’t gotten a chance to take these, I highly recommend that you do.

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We have two birthdays. Coming up on January 9th, it is the birthday of Adrian Williams.

Happy birthday, Adrian.

On January 11th, Hannah Frankson.

Happy birthday to Hannah Frankson.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Vin Kridakorn. He’s an actor in New York. He talked to Sam Yo about being on in The King and I. He also talks about a fascinating way that he makes money as an actor that is very new and non-traditional. I think you’re going to dig it. Stick around.

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Joining us is Vin Kridakorn. How’s it going?

Good. How are you?

That is a fun name to say.

That’s great because it’s also my stage name. I’m glad that that works out. It’s something catchy. That is my actual name.

I was going to do this in a different order, but now that you said stage name, let’s get into what you do for your day job. Tell us a little bit about what you mean by stage name and what your day job is.

I said stage name because I’m an actor in New York City. I primarily do theatre, some TV, and some other add-on things. As an actor survival job, it’s like whatever it takes. I’ve worked in restaurants. I’ve done catering and serving, hosting, and all hospitality stuff. I’m working at home in this company. It’s called Mursion. We do digital puppeteering of avatars to facilitate learning experiences for companies. It’s like if you imagine metaverse and you’re basically in a simulation. I’m an avatar. I’m digital puppeteering an avatar with a learner. We’re pretending a scenario that helps them learn a certain type of training that their company provides.

 

Let me turn this into something that my brain can handle. At Disney World, they have Turtle Time with Crush where you go in and you look at Crush. He comes out. It’s live. It’s happening in front of you. He can interact with you. He’ll call out kids in the audience like, “One in the red shirt,” or whatever, and talk back and forth with them. It looks like Pixar Animation of Crush, but clearly, there’s a guy in the background controlling it somehow. Is that digital puppeteering?

That’s such a great reference because it’s pretty much exactly what it is. I’m going to steal that from now. You get it right away. That’s basically what it is. Instead of what Disney World does where it’s in the sea, for us, it depends on what the client needs in terms of a very specific type of training that they want their employees to learn. We Implement that training in a scenario for them.

Why does digital puppetry help with that as opposed to a training film or a video Zoom call?

I picture it’s because they’re teaching them things like how to be a spy. That’s what I’m picturing.

This is the difference between boys and girls.

It’s probably more boring than you think. It’s a very specific type of training like diversity training say or, if you’re a manager, how to talk to your employees in a way that’s safe. We create a scenario around that in a safe space for them to Implement their training. It’s not just about watching. It’s about doing and implementing the training so they can use it in their work environment.

I like that. I never was a fan of when you went into a room at work and then they would be like, “Let’s pretend. Let’s do some scenarios.” I hated being in a group of people in a roleplay. It’s my worst nightmare. As an actor, you probably have to do that thing all the time. For me, that’s my worst nightmare.

In this case, I don’t know if they are role-playing per se. It’s like a typical scenario that they’ll find in their work environment and then they have to implement a certain type of training to facilitate whatever it is in the scenario provides. It’s something that no one else will see. We create a safe space for them because, a lot of the time, they might not know what to do. They might go about in the way that perhaps might be, I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer to go about it, but they might go in a way that might be a little bit more detrimental to your co-worker. We want to keep it in a space that is safe for them to try things out.

That makes sense. You need a place to fail.

Failing is learning. The majority of employees are actors because they need people who are good with improv. It’s the same as the turtle.

Failing is actually learning. Click To Tweet

I’ve seen it multiple times and they do a version of it on the Disney cruise, and it’s always different. It’s never the same thing.

I’m such a nerd. I’m always surprised he’s talking to you. I don’t know why. I’m like, “It’s really there.”

Some of the things that he comes up with are hilarious. For every question, there’s an answer. Animation feels like it’s happening, which I don’t know how they do that, but it’s pretty incredible.

That’s the Disney magic. Do you like doing that as an actor? Does it feel like acting? Does it use the same muscles?

Yes. There are a lot of actors in the company because there are a lot of similarities like improving and being in the moment. Also, we are a bunch of empaths. If you feel like you’re helping the learner, personally, I think it’s better than being a server which I’ve also done. I would do this job in a heartbeat over hospitality stuff that I’ve done before.

Actors are a bunch of empaths. Click To Tweet

If you have to go somewhere for your “real job,” you can still probably knock this out during the day if you need to.

I roll out of bed and do it. They see an avatar. They don’t see us. It doesn’t matter where I work.

You could just roll out of your bed and not have done your hair. It doesn’t matter.

I’ll do a quick warm-up and I’m ready to go.

You can’t go into too much detail like if you ever had a moment where you’re going through this training and you’re like, “You can’t say that.”

I haven’t done anything to that extreme, but a lot of learners make mistakes. The clients that I’m with, these learners, some of them want to learn. When they make a mistake, sometimes they feel like they failed, or if they did something right, it could get pretty emotional sometimes. It’s up to me to guide them through it. It’s not particularly about feeling better per se, but it’s a learning experience. If you can change the perspective that failing is learning and we’re doing it in a space where you can make those mistakes versus when you go out into the actual real world, you probably might not want to do some of these things, but if no one reflects that to you, you’ll never know.

That’s this whole thing that we had no clue existed.

It is so niche.

I’m fascinated by it.

As they say, “Riches are in the niches.” I don’t have the rich part.

It’s a very niche part.

 

Going back to what I usually start with, how did you originally find Peloton? It’s weird that these worlds have all intersected in my head.

I find it so random how this all came about. I live in a building that has a Peloton bike. That was donated by another resident who was in the building. They decided to donate their Peloton bike to the gym. We now all have a Peloton bike to use, which is great. I’m like, “Thank you so much.” I don’t know what the situation is, but maybe they wanted in in their small apartment. They donate it to the building. It’s been lovely.

How long has it been there? I know that, for a while, Peloton was very much like, “No bikes in public gyms.”

I think our building wanted to but couldn’t because of some of those reasons. That might be another reason why we had someone who donated the bike. This was a few years ago.

Have you been using it for the whole two years?

Pretty much. Because it’s the gym that’s in the building, it’s pretty much available whenever, which is nice because, on some days, you don’t have time to go out to the gym somewhere. I’m taking the elevator in a couple of levels and getting a good workout in.

Does everyone log in on their own membership or do you log in when you’re done?

Yes, that’s one thing, but that’s fine.

I was just curious how that’s working.

Being an actor, you have to be in a certain shape. Do you have to do cardio and weights? Do you just do cardio? What do you do to make sure that you’re ready for anything with your job?

I don’t know if being an actor means that you have to be fit, but being healthy is important, and being able to quickly adapt to whatever the job might entail. For example, I have a show coming up in January 2024 where there’s going to be some fight choreography happening. I’m thinking, “I want to at least be able and fit and prepare for whatever they throw at me. Whatever pose or whatever move they want me to do, I want to be able to do it.” I do a combination of cardio and strength training. I feel like a balance is important. Eating healthy is also good. It’s all about balance.

You seem on the younger side, I’m making assumptions, being that you live in New York and are an actor. It’s probably in my head because my stepson, Tompson, is in New York. He is in Connecticut trying to be an actor. I know that it’s tough so I have a young person in my head. When you say, “Eat healthy,” I’m like, “That’s a lot of work, especially for one person in New York.”

I like to cook. It started out back in high school. I lived with a guardian at the time when I was in high school and my particular guardian did not cook at all. I had to start cooking for myself. When I went to college, in my second year, I was in residential housing on campus with another friend. We had two friends that came over every day. We all made a deal that me and my roommate would cook every day and the other two friends would clean. I could cook whatever I wanted, and they’d clean up. We divided the bill at the end of the year. For the entire year, I was experimenting and cooking things that I wanted to cook. That was a good basis for now. I enjoyed cooking. It’s calming. Some people find it stressful, but it’s a nice way to be a little bit creative. Also, it’s expensive to eat out now. It’s very crazy.

Especially there, it’s so crazy. We live in the West. When we go there, it’s always like, “That costs $50.”

New York is insane. It’s crazy. That way of eating saves money as well, but I enjoy it, so it’s fine.

How did you break into acting? That’s a tough world.

I got into grad school. I did an MFA in Acting because that’s my door into it. That was three years of training and then that got me into acting, but I started much earlier. I went to Michigan. I have a Music Education degree. That was when I started to do a little theater shows on the side, musicals, and things like that, and then decided that I wanted to pursue it and was lucky enough to get into the MFA program at The Actors Studio here in New York. This was many years ago.

It was still a big deal then.

That’s an amazing accomplishment. It’s very cool.

Have you been in anything we might be familiar with? I know that there are many different ways to act.

Where do you act? Do you act on Broadway or shows?

The majority of my theater career is regional. I’ve done an Off-Broadway show. Most of my family lives in Thailand. I’ve done theater there as well in local theater there and some TV shows here in the city.

Do you speak Thai?

I do.

When you’re acting there, is that the language you’re acting in?

I’ve done shows in English there as well and in Thai.

Does that affect your acting style and choices when you toggle into a different language?

Thai is harder for me because I grew up in the States, but I have been for a good couple of years over there. I can speak the language, but I don’t dream in Thai. I dream in English. It takes an extra step and a little longer to get to that point where it fits in my mouth in a way that feels good, but that’s an interesting question because it’s like when you speak a different language, you have to act in that language. You have to do it in a way that makes it sound like you are native to that language.

When you speak a different language, you have to act in that language and do it in a way that makes it sound like you are native to that language. Click To Tweet

Do you have an accent that Thai speakers would be like, “That’s not how we say things?”

It’s subtle. They’ll say, “You didn’t go to school here.” It sounds fine, but it sounds like I was educated abroad.

With acting, it is very important to stay in the moment. I would feel like if I had to speak in a different language, I have absolutely no other language skills. I’m projecting to somewhat probably, but it would be difficult to stay in the moment if I was constantly in my head having to be like, “Do this in a different language.”

I speak just enough Spanish to be able to go to the bathroom if I go to Mexico. I didn’t understand Spanish. Every time we go somewhere where I can practice, I never feel comfortable. I never trust the words coming out of my mouth. I can’t imagine acting in another language because I always second-guess myself and I go too slow.

If you had time to practice, like if the show is one month from now and you have the script already, you have to speak the words that are on the page, that, I can do. That gives me enough time. I can speak and read it fine, but getting it to fit in my mouth and act will take a bit more time. It was a little bit of a process. Also, if the director spoke English as well. During the rehearsal process, I could speak both if something like a word that couldn’t think of in Thai, I could say in English. That’s how I went about it. What people see on stage is like, “He speaks Thai. It’s fine.” It’s magic.

I was thinking about your day job if you were doing digital puppetry in time. That might be hard.

That would be scary. Funny enough, when I applied for this job, they needed people who spoke Thai. That’s how I got hired. I’m trying to do some of the scenarios in Thai because they had some Thai clients. I was training for it. I was dreading it. It was a little scary. It’s corporate language. It’s not conversational.

There are a lot of subtleties when you’re like, “I’m speaking like a professional.” If you’re on a job interview, you’re going to comport yourself in a different manner and have to level up a language that’s not necessarily your native tongue even if you’re fluent in it.

There are many buzzwords in business and corporate.

They’ll probably adapt it. I had another friend who was more comfortable with it and I asked her like, “How do we say this?” It’s a whole different thing when you’re entering the corporate world. It’s like a different language. Now I have to speak it in Thai. I don’t even know how many hoops to go through there.

There are probably cultural subtleties that if you didn’t grow up there, you might not always grasp.

Every year I go back, I have to relearn it because there’s new slang. That’s the same anywhere. It’ll take me a good couple of days. I need to watch some news and see what the young people are talking or saying. I recalibrate a little bit and get my brain back into gear, and then I’ll be okay. It’s new every time I go back.

On the Peloton side of things, since they have the bike in the gym and you also lift weights, do you ever use any of the other Peloton content? Have you tried the new gym feature or anything like that?

I’ve never tried it. I’m going after this. I will definitely check it out.

There’s a little tab on your app. It’s called Gym. You can follow along with the instructors and they’ll be like, “Do five bicep curls.” You can follow along with that. You can still have some programming built in that you don’t have to think it through but it’s all in front of you. That might be something to try.

What’s great about the Peloton bike and the programs is that you don’t have to think about what you’re saying. You don’t have to think about anything. It’s wonderful because some days I don’t. I’m like, “I’m too tired. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Talking about the programs, the instructors are great motivators. There’s a lot of fun and great music. A lot of time, I’m going into the mindset of like, “Push me. I’ll do it. Tell me what to do. I’ll turn the knob.” It’s great that way.

What's really great about the Peloton bike and the programs is that you don't have to think about anything. Click To Tweet

Since you live in New York, have you gone into the studio to take a class?

I have never gone. I just go downstairs.

It’s like when we were in Saint Louis. I didn’t go up in the arch while I was nineteen. It’s right there.

I love the live classes where there are other bikes in there because it makes me feel like I’m not alone. I enjoyed doing those.

You could do that in the studio.

I’m going to go to the studio.

If you ever want to go, let me know. I will help you do the process.

I would love to.

What is your leaderboard name?

RideOrDieNYC1983.

Do you have a preferred instructor?

I have a couple. I love Cody. He’s always fun. He does the live DJs, which is also fun. I love his music as well. Erik from Germany. He does house and techno music, which I love.

 

Do you speak German?

I don’t. I just listen to him. He has done classes in New York where he speaks English. I’ve done this class at the Peloton bike. He does house and techno music, which I enjoy. Sometimes riding the bike and listening to that gets you going. Sam also for some Broadway Flair. I like Dennis as well.

If you like the music, you should try Lanebreak.

You’re looking at the bike when you first log on, they have at the bottom that says, “More rides.” If you go there, they have another interface called Lanebreak. It’s a game that you play and you use the resistance knob to go up and down on the resistance when you go across the board. It’s like you follow along.

It’s like Guitar Hero but on your bike.

They have all these music pieces already put together. There would be a house techno that you would do for 30 minutes while you’re in the zone. It’s amazing. I love Lanebreak for that reason. One of my favorites is Alanis Morissette. Listening to Alanis Morissette while doing that is amazing. I don’t know if you take any classes with Ben Alldis. He does a lot of house music as well. He’s more EDM.

I love EDM too. It’s something about it that the music of it keeps you going. It has that rhythmic repetitiveness. That puts you in a zone or almost like a meditation somehow. Sometimes with Eric, because he’s speaking German that I don’t understand anyway, I’ll watch him and then put on the volume. I’ll put on more music. It’s him in the background and just do it that way. Every time I go to the bike, I search, “What I’m in the mood for doing 30, 15, or 45 minutes?” Also, what music and who’s the instructor? It’s nice that you can be like, “What do I feel like doing today?” It’s nice that you have that option. I enjoy that because there’s so much to do. There are so many options on the program that you can do whatever you want.

There are so many options on the Peloton program that you can just do whatever you want. Click To Tweet

It is any kind of music and instructor if you want to have something this little more upbeat or chill.

“What’s your mood today? What do you want to listen to?” Sometimes it is EDM. Sometimes it is Broadway. There’s a show on Broadway called Here Lies Love. It’s not EDM, but it has a techno flair to it.

I haven’t checked that.

I haven’t either. I have to check that out.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. We appreciate. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you assuming you would like to be found.

My Instagram is the best place probably. My name is @VinKridakorn. If you’re in the city in February 2024, I’m doing a show called Warrior Sisters of Wu by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Come and check me out.

That’s awesome. Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Vin.

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I guess that brings this episode to a close. Until next week, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can also find me on all socials and the leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. Also, don’t forget there are tons of more stuff in the book in this week’s bonus episode. If you’ve always wondered what a bonus episode entails and you weren’t sure if you wanted to spend the money to find out, it is free for you this week. Go over to Patreon.com/TheClipOut and sign up at the free level. We don’t take your credit card or anything like that. You can listen to this one for free on your computer. We’d love to have you. Thanks for tuning in and until next time, keep pedaling and running and rowing.

 

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