Sure.

Yeah, I mean, I think I'm really glad that I was there this year specifically because there, you know, there was a lot of discussion at that meeting about the tradition of this race.

It started in 82, I believe.

There was an economic downturn in this in the town of Leadville because of problems with the mine.

Basically, the mine was the major source of jobs and things like that.

And then I believe like overnight there was something like 3000 jobs just disappeared.

So there wasn't a whole lot of economic reason to be there anymore, basically.

the finish line amazing well what did you find out there what did you learn

So, uh, How did you get here and what makes you, John, what makes you think that you're ready for this?

Yeah, great questions.

I first got into the Leadville 100 in 2023, actually.

I moved to San Diego, where I currently live, at the end of 2022.

I signed into a lottery for Leadville.

It's very hard to get in that way.

I did not.

No,

It's a character, though, that has some levity in it, which is fun to play with, in a story that is both light but also dark.

Yes, he's a kind of hopeful man, a much older, obviously, widower who's somewhat lonely, and he decides that he'll make a move for Tevye's eldest daughter, even though she's, I think, 19.

But, you know, we're talking about 1905 here, and he loses out, obviously.

in the storyline, because love triumphs in the end in this story over tradition, and that's part of it.

But Laser Wolf accepts that, and it's just in the misunderstanding initially when he's making his application to marry Tevye's daughter that some humour occurs.

Yes, because I think it wasn't the father.

The milk cow.

But how does that work from a person-to-person, mano-mano kind of sense, creating these

Now, how are you doing?

I'm okay.

I think as you know I've been ill since April and it's been pretty tough going but I'm kind of getting better but I'm not getting better fast enough for my liking and I'm certainly not getting better in the way that I thought I would eventually.

you know, I'd be able to recommence work.

I've been dipping my toe in the water with occasional conversations like this one.

And it's fine, you know, I mean, if I keep them reasonably short about the hour type of thing.

But after that, I get very, very exhausted.

Does Ireland still have its identity to where they could— take it back like the United States I would agree with what he said I mean the United States is so big that like you go to like California or say Ohio where I'm from it's two different worlds completely different worlds but Ireland is you know it's its own country it's not that big that it does it still have its identity well

It's a character, though, that has some levity in it, which is fun to play with, in a story that is both light but also dark.

Yes, he's a kind of hopeful man, a much older, obviously, widower who's somewhat lonely.

And he decides that he'll make a move for Tevye's eldest daughter, Even though she's, I think, 19.

But, you know, we're talking about 1905 here.

And he loses out, obviously.

in the storyline because love triumphs in the end in this story over tradition, and that's part of it.

But Laser Wolf accepts that, and it's just in the misunderstanding initially when he's making his application to marry Tevye's daughter that some humour occurs.

But how does that work from a person-to-person, mano-mano kind of sense? creating these

How has it been for you growing older in the gay community? And what do you think 30-year-olds will never understand about the older gay generations?

The younger people understand me and my films.

That's the thing.

Because they know my films and everything, it's a very different world for me in the gay community because it's not just I'm walking around without my shirt.

I've never done that in my entire life.

Even at the height of when I looked the best, I never was a muscle Mary.

I don't know.

I

Well,

it's funny that I Hate the Supreme Court comes out all the time now online.

I bet.

What's really funny is that Mink has been in all my movies from all, most of them.

She started in Roman Candles, my second movie.

And she always usually played the enemy of Divine.

Divine killed her in so many movies.

When the idea of a musical was broached with you, what was your response?

[upbeat music] Guaranteed Human

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy? Not quite.

On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidell help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform?

And I just-

Well, when Pink Flamingos came out, right away it became a midnight thing, so I could tell then it was working, and that was totally by audiences.

We went to each city at a separate time and did one city at a time.

What is up, man? Where, where-- John, what's your name? Where are you from? Where are you sitting? And, uh, how did you find this thing?

Good morning.

Uh, my name is John, uh, with an H.

And, um, I am coming to you from San Diego, California.

Um, yeah, I've been thinking a bit about how I got to this point, um, and it started a long time ago.

Basically, I started running in my 20s.

I hated it when I was a teenager.

Describe without describing what is temazcal? And, and you know what I'm, you know what I'm saying right now.

How I longed to be with them." Um, talk more about the influence of, like, working-class teen culture on you.

Well, I was so, it was the opposite of me, and I still like to be around people that are the opposites of me.

I'm attracted to people that are the opposites of me.

And so to go to that neighborhood and see, well, to see these kids together, they were like Elvis.

They were like juvenile delinquents that I would read about all the time.

We didn't have juvenile delinquents in, uh, in my school, in my p- preppy g- grade school, but we did have one that lived across the street, and I made friends with the family.

And really, he had a car and looked just like Cry-Baby.

[laughs]

Female Trouble.

And it was Speed at the time, a very, very middle brow critic, and it said, "Who are these people? Where do they come from? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Isn't there a law," or something.

[laughs] That was the ad for...

We put that in the ad for Female Trouble.

But Pink Flamingos had the same thing.

They said, Variety said, "Beyond a doubt, one of the most repulsive films and disgusting films in film history." And last year they apologized and picked it as one of the top 100 comedy films of all times, which included Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers.

So times change, values change, and, uh, Pink Flamingos got named on the National Registry as a great American film.

And John, how do you feel about the fact that, as you kind of alluded to, you've gone from being the, uh, the, the person who was thought to be, you know, bringing society down, to being now one of the most revered and, in your own particular district, beloved, and I mean, you are, you're a national treasure now.

Now, I just wonder, do you think it's kind of now even more scandalous than it was then because we now live in such a PC world? Yes, I think Pink

Flamingos definitely is.

You can't say happy birthday fatso anymore.

There's lines in there.

I always said you can say the F word on American network television, but you can't say fat on public TV.

That we treat.

Things have changed.

Were you surprised by the success of it in that way?

Can you just explain a little bit about the, the challenge that we would have with, with all this assembled firepower to take out that many air defense systems? Can we do that effectively?

It all depends on, like, what the, again, what the objective is and where, you know, hey, is it only focusing objectives, meaning strikes in one specific area, or is it covering, you know, are there strikes that have to occur in all these different areas? So that's- that scale definitely is a factor in applying, well, how many resources do we have? Perspective-wise, when we look at Operation Midnight Hammer and the number of F-16 wild weasels that were involved, um, it's a fraction of what we currently have deployed.

We just had Misawa F-16s arrive in Diego Garcia yesterday or the day before, so we now have upwards of 30 F-16 wild weasels in theater.

Um, again, this is, like, a significant order of magnitude more than what we had for Operation Midnight Hammer.

Maybe that is a indicator of the scope of what this might be, or it is just defense in depth for sustained operations.

Again, those are some assumptions, and we'll just have to see how that plays out.

But when you see that, that threat laydown, that map, obviously it looks like a very dense integrated air defense network.

Can you explain to us from a pilot perspective, uh, what are the capabilities of this, and how do you, how do you destroy these batteries without yourself being destroyed?

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, tonight I'm going to do what every director is forbidden to do, line readings, what actors hate the most, where I play every single part in all my movies.

And I did all six of these on audio recordings, and the sex scenes are really embarrassing.

But all of it's kind of embarrassing.

What was this sort of, For Pink Flamingos, for instance, did you start with a kind of an image or something that would happen in the movie? What was the kind of seed?