Susan Sarandon makes a great shrimp scampi. Me like boss. Be drag me. Drip me. Get it, get it, get it. Pull. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Cam. James. James. Hi. Nice to meet you. Hey, y'all. Happy Halloween. Yes. That was Murr from Impractical Jokers. I got to sit down with him for 30 minutes in our exclusive interview.
So much fun. He tells some great stories about the state of Indiana, his favorite thing to do in Indianapolis, and a crazy farm story that he, he literally turned his car around on I-70 to stop by a farm. So we're gonna get all into that during our interview with Murr. It's amazing. We're gonna be at Michael A. Carroll Stadium down in downtown Indianapolis for the IHSAA soccer State finals.
Shout out to our Scecina Trojans. But whether you're going to a trunk or treat, or maybe your kids are going out the old fashioned way, I hope they get tons of candy. Have a very safe, fun Halloween weekend. In today's episode, we're starting with our exclusive interview with Murr from Impractical Jokers.
Then on Instagram, I asked a question. I asked you to submit your questions to me and let me know what you wanted to learn about. So we're gonna be answering a few of those in segment two. Then in segment three, we're bringing on Nicole Pence, where we talk about a few brands here in Indiana that are doing some fun and innovative things on social media.
So if you're interested in whether it's your personal social media or maybe you run a business account and you wanna learn some tips, stick around to the end. We're gonna be sharing that there. Also, this is your reminder. We just posted our guide video to South Bend and Mishawaka. So if you've been planning a trip up to South Bend, you're looking for a weekend getaway.
We give you recommendations on where to stay, where to eat, what to do. I was blown away. South Bend does an incredible job of activating the River District. Today's episode is a special one. I hope you enjoy and happy Halloween. My guest today hails from New York City. He may be the funniest guest we've ever had on the show.
He literally travels the world making people laugh. You've definitely seen him on your television as he stars in the hit series Impractical Jokers. His birth certificate says James Stephen Murray, but we all know him better as Murr. Welcome to the show, my friend. What's up, Nate? How are you buddy? Hello, Indy.
It's a pleasure to have you on the show. We're really excited you're coming to town. November 6th, seventh, and eighth, I believe, at Helium downtown. After your stint, while you're coming from St. Louis. Stopping in Indy, then going to Louisville after that. Yeah, every weekend, man. I'm on on tour for the rest of the year.
It's nuts. Well, how long's the tour been? 15 years. Like how often do you spend out? Like every weekend on the road. And then are you at home during the weeks? Yeah, mostly. We finished filming. Season 12 of jokers a few weeks ago. And so now I have a few months off between seasons. So the guy, well, Sal and I in particular, we just all go out, you know, like we, between seasons is really the only time I can tour.
I do tour during filming, but I only do like one week in a month. It's too hard, man. We're filming like three, four days a week, so, so now we finish shooting a few weeks ago. I don't start shooting again until the spring or like February. So I'm like touring, you know? That's like out of the frying pan into the skillet.
You go from like, like filming, you know, you said three, four days a week. Like I'm sure those are long days. okay. Is it more fun to do a live show or is it more fun to do jokers? They're both really fun in very different ways. Like last weekend I was in, uh, or two weekends ago, or I was in Buffalo and we, they had like a.
What, what's fun is not the, the work, the work is fun. The show's like a lot a blast to do, but like, hanging out with the boys is a lot of fun too. Like my, one of the guys who listen to me, my is my cousin. I grew up with him right. And uh, he's in the background right now on his phone trying to find, there's so many videos of me drunk riding scooters in Indianapolis over the years.
'cause I come back all the time. The guys I've been there. A hundred times on tour. I've been there a hundred times on tour. I've been there for Comic-Con multiple times, and you know, it's always my idiot cousin and I from Brooklyn. We, we go to like, uh, uh, St. Elmo's. He screams at me because I love St.
Elmo. It is my favorite restaurant in America. So much so that when we go to the airport in Indy I force him to go again. It could be. Eight o'clock in the morning on a Sunday. We're flying back home finally every week of work. And the airport, uh, St. Elmo is still open, right? And for breakfast, but I make him order the shrimp cocktail no matter what, and he hates it.
And I freaking love it. And to fuck with him, I will personally, I will, uh, I often send him St. Elmo, uh, cocktail sauce. I do, dude, dude, do it all the time for Christmas, for Easter, whatever, whatever the occasion might be. A bottle arrives in the mail of St. Elmo shrimp cocktail sauce. I forgot what we're talking about.
Oh, I love it. No, we can talk. So you grew up in New York, like from the East Coast. When you thought of Indiana, like is St. Elmo what you think about when you think of Indianapolis? Well, I love the city too. The, the people are awesome. The Nightlife's awesome. Good restaurants. I, the city's really pretty too.
The whole air is really pretty. And then St. Elmo no joke is, I've said it on a hundred interviews over the past 15 years is my favorite restaurant in America. That's legit. It, it's one of the only cities. Like, um, touring is hard, right? Like you're traveling all the time. Not so much when you're doing like comedy clubs.
'cause then I, I, I guess you actually enjoy Indianapolis for a weekend. I'm there for three days, right? But most of the time when the guys on, on our tour, it's a different city every single night. And then you're either driving over around on the tour bus or getting up at 6:00 AM fly. It's just hard, man.
It's hard on your body. It's harder than everything. You don't get to see the towns at all. Even though we've been to every town in America a hundred times now, over the past 15 years. So as a result, like my wife will come with me in select cities that she's never been to, that I, I force myself to like, no, we got, you know, you gotta see this, uh, you know, Austin's beautiful Indianapolis.
Indianapolis is one of those cities. She always comes, man, because it's, let's go. It's no joke. 365 days a year. You've been doing this for 15 years. If you had a percentage, how many nights at home? What, where's is home still at New York? I'm, I live in Jersey now. I'm in Jersey with my wife. How many nights in Jersey?
A year. How many nights on the road A year or like filming? I would say I'm home. A hundred nights a year. My wife, my wife and I travel. My wife and I travel a lot too, like, just like, you know, for fun. we, I just love it, man. But we also have, like, a lot of our nights here are just like sitting outside with a fire, with a bottle or two or wine.
We also have a, a, a house five minutes away from our house that we live in. our house is not big. I, my house is 4,600 square feet, which is a, just an average sized house. It's, we've got like a, a nice piece of property, like the backyard. But it's just a regular house, right? but five minutes away, we own a second house that we don't live at, but we were there drunk last night, I was drinking straight bourbon, uh, because, I dunno if you heard this man.
Like, uh, do you know why I, I, I saved one of America's longest running oldest model railroad clubs. Wait, no, what? Crazy story. Six minutes away from my house that I live in, in the next town over Rocky Hill, New Jersey is a train club, a model train club. They're HO gauge trains, which are. Do I have one here?
It's in the other room, but there HO gauge trains. My house that I live in is 4,600 square feet. It's a very sensible home. The house that in Rocky Hill, the train club in the basement is 12,000 square feet of track. Three times the size of the house I live in, right? It's bigger than the house itself. This club has been running.
They started building the trains in 1950, and this club formed in 1964. They're decades old. It's a nonprofit. They donate all their money to fire and EMT, so they've been building a professional model railroad train club in the basement of a home five minutes away for 75 years. Right? And it is, dude, it's incredible.
It's called Pacific Southern Railway. I'm a huge train buff. My house is too small. I have model trains. My trains are in boxes in the basement of my house. 'cause I didn't have the room for 'em, right? I just have an average house. So anyways. The club's been running for 75 years. It's unbelievable. It's bigger than the house itself.
They knocked out a foundation wall and kept going under the lawn. So there's like a deck, a roof on top of the lawn of the grass, and underneath is part of the train layout. It's wild. Like normal people, no offense, not to call you normal. Normal people like build a man cave or like get a beach house or a lake house and you.
Bought a model train club. The owner of the house and the president of the club sadly died from cancer last year. So it hits all the local papers in the Wall Street Journal last December that the widow is forced to sell the house. And anybody who buys this house can be like, okay, you and the train club can't come in eight times a week to my home and go to the basement and open up the house every year to the public for a thousand people to go through to look at the trains during the holidays.
You know that no one's gonna do that, right? So the night before, it went up for public sale, my wife and I bought the house to save the train club. So we were there last night. I was there playing with trains and drinking bourbon last night. Yeah, I mean that sounds like a fun time. Yeah. Talking about being at home a hundred nights on the road, 265 roughly.
And I think that a lot of people think that you and the guys, it's all fun, it's all games. It's all just like, from the viewer's perspective, it looks very fun. But you know, going on tour, doing all this stuff. The other piece is you guys started in 1999. Basically the first big break came in 2007. The guys and I from Jokers have been friends since high school.
We met, I mean, in 1994, day one freshman religion class in an all boys Catholic high school. And then, um, yeah, after college we formed a comedy troupe, did a lot of shit shows for a long time. And then, uh, yeah, maybe 2007 we sold a pilot to, uh, spike tv and then sold an improv comedy show to A&E. Both didn't go to series.
And then eventually our third show we sold was Jokers to truTV back then. And that was, uh, 15 years ago. Man, we've been filming since spring 2010, so 15 and a half years ago we shot 330, 3 40 episodes. So far still going. The show is still a blast. We're having a great time. The Jokers tour, we toured together for a long, long time and I've solo toured, uh, for a long time as well, you know, so it's a, it's a lot of fun.
The show's still. A blast, man. It was a, it's still a blast to do no real world skills. What do I do at this point? I'm stuck. Honestly, no joke. I mean, you had people laugh last week. I go to, um, outside of Jokers, because I write books, you know, like horrors, like thrillers and, uh, I went to Barnes and Noble last Tuesday to do book signing for the paperback of one of my, I don't know if it's here somewhere, but the paperback of my thriller, you Better Watch Out, came out last week in stores.
So we go to Barnes and Noble, like, uh, about an hour away to do a book signing for fans. And, uh, and afterward, my cousin and I, who I've mentioned already, my cousin and I go next door to Applebee's. Dude, I haven't been to Applebee's in like 15 years, right? And it was really good. I said actually pretty good.
The, uh, the food was pretty good. Anyways, so I say to the manager, I was like, um, he's a fan. I was like, dude, can I ask you a serious question? If I apply for a job here, would I get it? He goes, I don't know. He goes, have you ever worked like in, in, you know, uh, in Restauranting before? I said, no. I said, I have on tv, you know, I've been a waiter a hundred times on jokers.
I said, but I can't. I've been a manager on tv. I've been a doctor on tv, a lawyer on tv, whatever. I said, but I'm, I, I'm sure I could do it, but it might cause more of a distraction than anything. And he goes, I don't know if I'd give you a job. He goes, but, and he gave you a legit application because? It starts from here like five minutes away from my house.
They're building a Panera. And I said to my wife, I was like, well, I got a few, I got like a few months off between seasons. Fuck it. I'm gonna apply for a job in Panera. I love Panera. Then I get to eat like broccoli cheddar soup for free, man. But I don't think they'd hire me. He's like not no real world skills except for going on and making people laugh.
Yeah. How long did it take from when you guys started the troupe? Which is The Tenderloins, and we need to talk about the name. But how long did it take from that until like this was your full-time gig? It wasn't my full-time gig until maybe season three. because my, my day job was, I, I, I, I wor, I ran development for the TV company that makes jokers.
So my job was to create and sell TV shows. So, uh, I was still out. Pitching TV shows all the time. I, including jokers, I pitched jokers with the guys and that's how we sold it. You know, I, I ran development for this company and, um, and so I was working on a lot of shows like pitching and selling, pitching, uh, developing, pitching and selling TV shows for many, many years.
I did it for like a decade and then, um, and I still did it during jokers and eventually. Maybe like season three or four. jokers just take up so much time. I took a step back and I would just do it like, uh, development for like, on select projects that I wanted to pitch. Yeah. and then eventually I just left the company.
It was just our careers had just gone in. So much of a different Yeah. You shot three pilots. Yeah. Where in the process of putting out jokers, did you guys know that you had a home run? I don't know if we ever did at the beginning. The, the show's a hidden camera show. You don't know if anybody's watching and truTV was a small network. Right. And now we're on TBS. Of course it's a much larger network, but we didn't know if anybody was gonna find it or watch it. The guys and I were coming out of Penn Station, New York City. We were a few seasons in and we're like, is the show working? Are People watching it? Uh uh. And these two girls come up to, to us with their two boyfriends.
They're like, they got like thick Long Island accents. Right. The four of 'em. And the girl's like, oh my God. Babe. Babe, look who it is. And the guy's like, who the are these guys? And like, you don't know. Those are the impossible pranksters on every Wednesday on Comedy Central. They got every detail wrong.
We're on Thursdays on truTV and it's Impractical Jokers. I was like, we did it boys. We made it. You know? So I, I think, uh, I think what made us feel like the show was working was the tour. Like we started. Touring. We'd like just book comedy clubs and sold out like that. I'm like, oh man. Like I didn't know people were watching the show.
And then very quickly, only in the few months, we then jumped up to theaters and then like a year or two later, we jumped up to larger theaters. And then two, three years later, we were doing arenas, right? Then we sold out Madison Square Garden, then Radio City seven or eight times, and the O2 Arena in London seven times.
Up the Boston Garden and I was like, man. Like it's working. Like people are watching the show, you know that. I think the tour is what made us feel like something was clicking. Where in the world or where in America, in what demographic are you the most famous with? If you're in prison or in a hospital, you're probably watching Impractical Jokers.
I was gonna say, you the number one show of prisons and hospitals between Impractical Jokers and Ridiculousness. Like, I've never been to a hotel that didn't have both of those just rip. We were, we were hanging out with, uh, do you know Eric Andre, the comedian, right? Yeah. He's been a guest, he's a friend of ours for many years.
He's been a guest on jokers a number of times. And uh, I think it was, we were talking to like two years ago, like, oh, have you seen blah, blah, blah episode? He goes, no, I haven't been in, uh, to prison or in a hospital lately, dude. Or like, I would say like Midwest. Like Midwest people loved Impractical Jokers because it's almost like, I, I take it as like, like Midwest people don't have like the, the cojones to like go out there and do some of that stuff.
Yeah. But we like to do it for like, to see it from a distance, you know, like, we like to see Oh, like, wow, those guys are crazy. Indy has always been really good to us and, uh, fans come out all the time. Always. Midwest? Sure, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, uh, Illinois. Just. Home, you know, just, uh, yeah, we tour there all the time in, in those, you know, for a reason.
You know what I mean? How did the idea for doing a hidden camera show in practical jokers with you and your buddies start like, who, where were, what fire were you sitting around drinking bourbon, playing with trains and someone was like, dude, we should just, we should make this a show. There's a picture of the moment.
We were in, uh, my apartment in Manhattan, uh, week. We had no money. Joe was my roommate, I had no money to live alone. I mean, Joe didn't even have electric in his room. He had a, uh, it was like a, a one bedroom with a small home office, like a little closet. And we put a fake wall up there and ran an extension cord into his room, you know, 'cause we didn't have enough money to live apart or not have a roommate.
And, uh, the four of us were hanging out in the, our apartment. And, um, I was working in tv, TV development. And I said to the guys, I was like, I can sell a hidden camera show. they, they were coming back, back then, like 2009. So I was out to drinks with like network execs. And, um, and they're saying they were looking for a hidden camera again, like Punk'd just got greenlit with Justin Bieber as the host in like 2009.
And then other networks were looking for hidden, uh, like, uh, twists on the hidden camera format. So, uh, I said to the guys, I can sell a hidden camera show, uh, if we can come up with our twists on it. And, uh, none of us really wanted to do a, a prank show. We we're not prank guys necessarily. so we, the four of us came up with the idea of.
Twisting it upside down where the joke's on us instead of the public, you know, there's no prank on the public, we're the ones getting fucked with, right? Yeah. And, uh, that spin we're the butt of the joke and not the public. Plus our natural kind of chemistry being friends for. 36 years, uh, was enough to do it.
And then, uh, we pitched it and that's it. That is, I feel like what the part that makes it so like widely beloved is that like no one, no one feels bad for you guys, really. You know, like when people in public get pranked, like there's like the, you know, the Instagram, the YouTube videos and stuff, like people can kind of feel bad for the audience.
Like no one feels bad when you get, we, I literally before this prepped with watching the episode where. Joe has to tell a little girl that she's like, she can be whatever she wants except a baseball player and like president and like foxy boxing and all. And I'm like, oh my God. That's like so brutal. Do you guys sit around and come up with ideas?
Like, do you just like brainstorm or is it like drink a couple beers, like hang out and like, like how do you ideate for the show? Yeah, we spend, uh, like a month, uh, or six weeks at the top of a season, sometimes physically in a room together, but often on Zoom. Now, you know, with, uh, our writers who've been on the show for many, many years, brainstorming ideas, we all always, the, the guys and I each have like secret things.
So like right now we're between seasons and I'm just thinking of big ideas for next year. I worked on one idea for five years, right? So last season. like new episodes are back on TV January 15th and, um, the January 15th episode Sal loses. and it's fricking hysterical, man. It's so funny. but this is an idea we've had for a long time and we finally got to do it.
Sal loses the episode and we make him walk through a haunted house, which he's terrified of. He's such a. He's so neurotic with haunts and scares. We make him go through a haunted house while on a Bluetooth phone call with, um, with Spectrum cable trying to cancel his cable service. It's such a simple idea.
Try to cancel your cable service while walking through a haunted house. It's so fricking funny, but that's something like, you know, we came up with like a year and a half ago and it evolved. It was something else that became that blah, blah, blah. We knew we wanted to put Sal in the situation, we had to cancel his cable.
while being terrified and we just had a, you know, put all the beats together, but that, that'd be like January 15th on tv. That's a lot of the way it works out. It starts with something else. Gain gets warped and twisted. Something falls through. We can't do that location and something else opens up and that's how it goes.
It's just a, uh, it's a constant evolving, creative process. Okay. What's been like. An idea that's been pitched that you thought would be hilarious that you just can't pull off for television? I did last season. I faked my own death, man. Yes. And that, that also, I've been planning it for five years. It's been sh it's been twisted and turned for five years.
Think about that, man. I've been planning this may, maybe longer, maybe 2019. I started, started this it and it got so close so many times and the idea evolved. From, I wanted to fake my own death in front of Sal, and for him truly to believe that I've. Fallen into my death, gotten killed, hurt. But it's all a a, a long con, the whole thing's fake, right?
It started years ago, the network used to have us shoot these, um, like promo commercials for the show and for a brand integration, right? And they would always take us to like a war, blah, blah, blah. So my first idea was, and I tried, and I got very far with this, was for me to us to be like on the edge of a cliff shooting a commercial for the network.
And then I do the old, like Superman two, where the kids, uh, at Niagara Falls, and he, he looses, grew up on the railing. Superman flies down and saves him as he falls. I wanted to fall off the railing shooting a commercial for real, but Sal has no idea. There's an airbag at the bottom of the cliff and I'm falling safely.
Right. But he'd see it from a distance and think I died. I got very close to that one. We're gonna shoot. We knew the police were gonna shoot it, and then insurance and nixed it. So then I twisted the idea, and last year I got so close to doing this one. It got greenlit. We had the junkyard, we had the crane, we had the box car, and then the weather turned and we couldn't pull it off in January and we couldn't pull it off in time for the end of the season, I was going to be in a a a trained box car.
and held up in the air by a magnet, a crane in a junkyard, right? And the junkyard, the crane was gonna be swinging the box car around with me inside it while I was on a zoom call doing press for the show. And no one would have an any, but the boxer is dressed like my living room. Like, here, you have no idea.
I'm gonna train car being swung up in the air, in the junk yard. And eventually the magnet would fail. And so would believe he'd be seeing it. He would believe I would be collapse to the ground and just. Shit, who knows what happened to me when the box car collapses secretly, I had switched outta the box car earlier into a duplicate that was on the ground.
I'm faking it the whole time. We got so close, dude had everything, the crane, the junk guard, the whole thing, and then we just ran outta time. It was last January, and it just, the weather got too bad. It was too risky. It was like a hundred thousand dollars punishment, and if it snowed that day, we're out a hundred grand.
Right? So we. Couldn't do it. Then I twisted it again and last season I finally freaking pulled it off on the second to last day of the season and it still cost a lot of money, but we pulled it off. It was flip of corn, weather would go and we did it and it went perfectly. They, uh, Sal believed I lost the episode.
I didn't. It was all double cross the whole crew news, his punishment Q news, his punishment, and for real. They strapped me to the hood of a race car on a racetrack while I was reading the audio book for my thriller. You Better Watch out, which came out last year. I was, had a helmet on a fire suit. I'm strapped to the windshield of a car as it does a hundred miles an hour on the track, holding a book up in the air, trying to read a chapter of the audio book.
And the crux of it was that the uh, St. Martin's press was for real. Going to put that audio chapter in the book itself, in the audio book right. Well, Sal didn't know, uh, but the whole crew in Q knew. Is that a key moment in the track? Like everyone riding around, scream for 10 minutes trying to read the chapter at a key moment.
The race car was gonna pull around a blind spot in the track. A duplicate car was gonna pull out at speed. Meanwhile, I get ripped off the car, strip off my fire suit and my helmet, and I've got an EMT outfit on underneath and a fake. Wig and hat and the, A duplicate car pulls out with a stunt guy on top dressed just like me, same helmet same book in his hand, and a key moment.
The driver cuts the wheel too tight and the stunt guy flies off the hood of the car and hits the ground and rolls, rolls, rolls. The whole crew had, we had rehearsed it for hours. Screams in unison and goes running across the racetrack, Sal. Takes the bait, screams goes running across the racetrack thinking I got killed, maimed, murdered.
Meanwhile, I jump into an ambulance, I pull around the track, I go run out with other EMTs and I start working on my own body on the ground, right? And Sal comes running over, he's having a full blown heart attack and a key moment. I stood up, took the hat off and said, well, Sal, I was never, uh, I was never hurt.
I'm, I'm, this is actually your punishment. And he just, he just got up. Walked away and just kneeled down. Put his head in his hands. I freaking got him, man. Got him. I saw that one that like, that like took the internet by storm. I feel like it was like the, that might be the ultimate prank. I love it. Dude, it was so good that I'm like, we have to end the show.
What do we do? I faked my death. What, what can I do better than that? Like for real? And that was like, that was six years in the making. It was six years in the making that punishment. And we finally was flawless. And literally like I, I come back, I come back here at my house, right? That night we finished shooting six o'clock.
I had, uh, the crew had worked hard so hard. I had like a, a three hour all you can eat ice cream truck for the whole crew dessert truck. So stuck to the last day shooting. And, uh, so we're all partying, you know, celebrating. We're on such a high, I come back to the house, I'm in the bathroom, brushing my teeth at like 11, 12 o'clock at night with my wife getting ready for bed.
And I finally stopped my heart still and my adrenal. So I, I, I turned to my wife. I, I said, did I go too far? Like me faking my death took three real years off my best friend's life. Dude. I, I love it. We're gonna, we'll put a link to that clip to, for people to watch. 'cause it's phenomenal. Got it. finally, I know we're, we're coming close on time.
I do have to ask, what can we expect for those of us who show up, uh, the first weekend of November, right. It's the. Sixth to seventh and the eighth, there's five shows. what can we expect for from a me live show in Indianapolis? Oh, man. The, uh, my live, uh, standup comedy show is very different from the other guys.
the first half is set up comedy, uh, I'll tell like horribly embarrassing stories from my own life that are really, really fun. and I show something that I'm, I I, that's absolutely batshit crazy. You're gonna love it. but the second half of the show, I truly, I make up as I go. I don't know what's gonna happen.
I need. Volunteers in the audience. We play some games that I, the guys and I play on the tour bus. I need to borrow three people's cell phones. I start texting from on their behalf, from their phone and we watch on screen at what happens. It's so much fun. And then the end of the show, oh God, the end of the show.
We play Impractical Jokers Live. Meaning I choose someone in the audience, I put an earpiece in their ear, I'm gonna send 'em out on the streets of Indianapolis. We're gonna watch on screen the club and live on the spot they've gotta do and say whatever I tell them to. It is. Wild, spontaneous, interactive, hysterical, batshit crazy.
It's so much fun. Every show is different, so it keeps me very kind of creatively engaged. it's a blast, man. It's uh, it really is a blast. I have so much fun on the tour. So if you want, I'll be the Helium, five shows November 6th through eighth. Get your tickets@murrlive.com. It's gonna be so much fun.
And then you'll see me drunk on a scooter afterward, going back to the hotel from St. Elmo. Yeah, I love it. Okay, we wanna wrap up. Talk about some fun, Indianapolis. What's been your favorite memory from visiting Indianapolis a hundred times. Okay. So he couldn't find the scootering video because the scootering video is myself, Joey from Fatone, from nsync, and my cousin riding drunk in the streets of Indianapolis.
But he says, this is not scooting, but it's St. Elmo found the dates, but no video of a scooter. He had found the, okay, so let's say.
That could only be one thing. That's the freaking cocktail sauce. That's the freaking cocktail sauce, man. It's so good and so bad. It feels like your head's gonna explode. I love it. no St. Elmo always. Are there any other spots that you have to stop through when you come and visit Indy? You know, I mean, you'll, you'll see me undoubtedly at, uh, still St.
Elmo is at the, uh, the fricking awesome speakeasy cocktail bar on the second floor is so cool, man. But I'm all over. We we're out all the time in, in Indianapolis. You see me all over the streets after shows. It's so much fun. I love to say you so much. I love it. Okay. Final question for you. Obviously you grew up on the East coast, spent a lot of time out there, New Jersey now a train aficionado, but a as you were coming up in, uh, a lot of times we think Indiana is pretty overlooked.
Not really thought about a ton. What was your perception of Indiana? I've always had a good perception of Indiana, but when you're, you know, a lot of corn. Lot of corn, especially in the state. You know, not so much in Indianapolis, but well all over the state. But we've been there so many times. What was my perception?
I don't know. I don't think anybody has a, is there really a strong perception of Indianapolis or Indiana? Like just good, good people? Oh, you know what's outside Indianapolis that I love. There's, I can't remember the name of it anymore. There's a, uh, maybe, you know, when you're approaching Indianapolis or I don't know what direction, um, there's a great, like.
Theme park. it's not like a rollercoaster theme park. It's like an outdoor theme park with like for kids, like slides to go down and stuff like that. And like, Hey, and I'm sure it's open right now for the fall. Do you know the one I'm talking about? hold on. I bet you can find it well out outdoor theme park for kids.
Oh, I we're gonna have to, I'll have to do my research. I'll figure it out. It's, it's, it's like for the fall, it's like a fall farm, you know? It's a farm. Yeah. All the way into Indy, uh, where they have like the, you get on a thing and slide down the hills and they've got like, um, you know, tractor pulls, all that stuff.
It, um, it's undoubtedly open right now, but most of the years of working farm, it's outside of Indy, maybe like 45 minutes on outside of Indy when you're on the way into the city itself. Lark Ranch in Greenfield. That's it. We went last year. On the last year. I'm on the way to, uh, into Indy and uh, and we were driving by, you know, you're on that fricking whatever, four-lane highway, uh, that it's on.
And you are coming on 70 from probably Columbus, Ohio. Correct. We were in Columbus and then we were driving by and we made a U-turn. I was like, we're fucking going guys. We were like a half hour from India. I was like, fuck it, let's go. We turn and we pull the U-turn and I have videos on my phone and fuck, we spent the whole day there.
It was a blast. I love it, man. it's incredible. Okay. If people wanna buy today, it's November 6th, seventh, and eighth. Five shows@murrlive.com, uh, mer live.com. We get there and I'll be there, uh, in two weeks. Can't wait. See you. Heck yeah, dude. Appreciate you. And uh, we'll, we'll see you at the show. You got it buddy.
Take care. Nice to meet you from one high energy guy to another. That guy brings the juice. Holy. Smokes. really excited about his upcoming show. Check the link in the description to get tickets to that. Now, this next portion of the show is sourced from you all in the audience. This past Monday. I put out something on my Instagram story saying, what questions do you wanna know?
And we got a bunch of questions asked. So I'm gonna go through and answer some of them right now. Oh, Allison asked me, where did you live growing up? I'm from Bourbon, Indiana. It is right between Plymouth and Warsaw and US 30 up about 30 minutes south of South Bend fed into Triton School District. Go Trojans.
So small town, northern Indiana, like 1500 people in the town. One stoplight a pizza, place, a bar, uh, it was an awesome place to grow up. From there, I went to Greencastle. So like over 10,000 people, they had a Walmart, not a small town. I mean, it is a small town, but I grew up in northern Indiana in a small town, and now I live here in Indianapolis.
Next question. What's your favorite Indiana donut? So, this is a hard one. I really like, uh, parlor Donuts. They're like the big fluffy croissant ones. Like they're really, really fire, but they're almost like. Not really a traditional donut. I do think if you're going traditional donuts, 'cause I'm probably more of a cinnamon roll guy than a donut guy.
They've worked with us the last two years for the Indy 500. You cannot go wrong. With Long's Bakery, the original glazed, they are fantastic. I really, really like those. I think it's an iconic piece of the west side of downtown Indianapolis. I think that they are some of, and they're a phenomenal product.
Like anyone who says that they don't like Long's Bakery is crazy. So I would say Parlor is kinda like my fancy donut. And Long's is like my OG Original. Also special shout out to Northern Indiana. Staple you, you gotta love, Rise'n Roll. Actually, our uh. Our editor will, he actually worked at a Rise'n Roll for most of high school.
Good dude. their cinnamon sugar powder stuff is like crazy. Final question that we're gonna answer for the day. Jennifer Magley, she's great. You should follow her. She's on this journey to get on The Pat McAfee Show, like she's on the, she's posted like every day for 365 days trying to get on The Pat McAfee Show.
she's great. Super high energy, great person. She asks, what's your greatest dream for your career? I think when I look back at my career one day. And it's all said and done. I want to have built something that mattered. I believe that what we're doing here with Get INdiana is impactful, fun work that the state needs promoting, whether it's small business or places to visit or just.
Creating this sense of statewide pride in the Hoosier State, I think is really important, and I hope to continue to do it for a long, long time, and that when we look back, when, you know, I don't know, I'm 28, so 60 years from now in 2085, when I look back on this body of work and all of the podcasts and the videos and the newsletters and everything we've built.
I hope we can look back and say the work that Nate, the work that this team did really mattered and moved the needle and made a huge impact for the state of Indiana. I think that would be my goal. That's for my career. Shout out to Jennifer. Seriously, go follow her on Instagram. She's a great follow.
We're gonna continue to sprinkle these out. I have like 20 more questions to ask, but if you have a question, feel free to DM it to me. Feel free to email it to me, nate@natespangle.com. Happy to chat. now I am joined by special guest Nicole Pence, where we talk about a few brands across Indiana that are crushing it.
And social media and what you can do to revamp your social media, uh, for your small one. Okay. We've come to the part of the show. We're gonna be talking all things social media. I'm joined in Studio by Nicole Pence Becker. Nicole, what's up? What's up? I am, I'm pumped. So everyone who knows, uh, we know social media at Gideon and PMG knows social media.
What we're talking about is brands around Indiana, the top three brands that we're seeing. That are doing innovative or fun content that they're putting out on social media. Okay, I'm ready. Seem like a plan. And, and here's the thing about the brands, it's like, yes, people can do social media and they can publish something once or twice.
It's the consistency Yeah. That I really like. So I'm following the companies or the people or the brands that are like constantly thinking. I wanna inform them, give them a resource, or just entertain 'em. Yeah, I, so I got a little list for you. Oh, I, I'm in it so I have some too. So, we'll, we can, like, we can trade some thoughts here on brands that are doing cool things.
who's, who's your we're, we're not gonna put these in any particular order. These are just three brands that are doing cool things on social media that are Indiana based. I think that 3UP Rooftop Lounge. I wanna get that right. So you know downtown it's the only rooftop lounge. I love that. That's what?
That's downtown. Downtown you. Downtown downtown. I'm like downtown for me. Downtown is downtown. I'm talking Hamilton County Saving. You're talking Downtown car. You're Midtown Car. That's downtown. So I'm talking Midtown Car. So 3UP is just, it's cool and the vibe up there is cool. And when I think about.
Summer and going out and getting a babysitter again. I got all the kids I'm going to 3UP, and their vibe on social makes you feel that energy and that enthusiasm and like, I gotta go have a drink with my girlfriends. Oh, it, it's a whole vibe for sure. Like, I mean, there are times I've tried to go up there and like, if you get there too late, it's, it's packed.
Yeah. No, and you're not, and even you. Who, like, you're a pretty cool guy. They're putting you in the line, dude. They're like, Hey, wait in line buddy. Because like gives ride the elevator up. It's a, it's definitely for, uh, for, for like around central Indiana, when I think of rooftops, it's one of the coolest spots.
I agree. And I'm like, not usually like a bougie guy. Carmel is the greatest, like blah, blah, blah. It's a cool spot for sure. It's a cool spot. I will say, uh, a brand that's doing cool things on social media that, that I've seen. Yeah. And I've been following along. Do you know the United State of Indiana? Oh, I have seen that with the t-shirts and all the merch.
Yes. I love. Indiana Merch. Yeah. Obvi, obviously they make the best merch. Okay. And everyone's like, why don't you guys put out merch work? We're gonna work with them to put out a merch line. There you go. But it's like they're the Merch Indiana experts. They have great shirts. They do, but they've been like clipping historical videos.
Like they had one of the Indy 500 from. Maybe it was like 86 or something like that where the car gets like turned over. Mm-hmm. And they're racing to get inside the Indianapolis 500. Oh, I gotta find one. You got like 6 million views. Okay. Can you re-share that for everybody? Yeah, absolutely. You guys, we'll, we'll link it in the show notes too.
It's a crazy, insane video of a news reporter in the eighties talking about the the dash for the North 40 lot or whatever, and United States of Indiana put it out. They gained like. I dunno, 15,000 followers from one video. See? But think about how much more, like they researched it, they took time to create the story around it.
Yeah. And then they did the merch. Like that kind of stories are really cool to me when the actually, they actually brought some history. Yeah. And taught us something like, I love that. That's cool. Oh, we just put out one that was, um. Did you ever see the commercials for Crazy Mickey? Crazy Mickey, the Beeper King.
I sell pages for a buck 19. No. Oh, it was a central Indiana thing. one of my friends has said like, dude, you need to start like putting out vintage commercials and like making, helping people relive their childhood. And this video in one day, it got like 255,000 views. Oh, it's a 90. How did I miss that?
Okay. It's a 52nd commercial that we put out. That like people are just like, this is so funny. Like I, this has free real estate in my head. So it's an interesting way to go, Hey, anything that lives rent free in your head is doing something right. Right. What's, uh, what's another brand that you see that's crushing it on social media?
Okay. I gotta say the keeping up local brands. So I have to say that because I'm a big fan of Chelsea Kopelman and what she's built online and the keeping up local and she's growing it and now she's trying to go to outside of Indiana, others. States and I'm watching the Greenwood area grow, and I like in general, everything on the south side.
I love, I mean, Bargersville is growing. I mean, I'm from Columbus. Yeah. So that's even getting a little bit down there called South side, right? Yeah. But I, I really, I, I'm impressed. I follow all of the Keeping Up accounts as a mom, as a female. They crush. I'm a big fan. Like, uh, we had Chelsea on the podcast and she was talking about like, they have like Albuquerque and somewhere at Rockford.
Michigan. Michigan. And, but now they just put out they want somebody in Lexington, Kentucky, Cincinnati, which I used to live in Lexington, so I sent it like to seven people I thought would be helpful. Yeah. I think Cleveland was on there, so get it. Girl, dude there is, I They're slowly building an empire as she should.
It's awesome. I, I'm a, a good idea. I'm a big. Is a good idea. Oh my gosh. And, and like being able to go and execute that. That's right. Like I think that a lot of people have good ideas, but it all comes down to, we talked about that when I came in. It is, it's like I'm glad that you have a great, a good idea, but are you gonna be a great executor?
Mm. Show me that. Okay. Let me think. Other brands around the state of Indiana that are doing cool things on social. Isaac Plahitko, he's at Eyes of Isaac. And he is like a, a videographer producer. Like he helps make content for people. So like, but he's not like, he's not a, an influencer. He's like holds cameras and edits it.
No, he's a video production guy. Yeah. Video production. He's hired by companies. Yes. I feel like I started following him too. Is he on the south side or down side? Yes, he was. He just moved to Carmel. Yeah, he was a Franklin Central guy. Okay. I need to connect with this guy. Yes. And now he just moved to Carmel.
Okay. He's getting married very soon, but he is like. If I think of like a dynamic duo, it would be like me, like I come on and I just like scream and yell and like blah, blah, blah, blah. And like bring the energy. And like the videos that he creates are just beautiful. Like it's cinematic masterpiece. Like he literally wants to get into, he calls it cinematography, that's what he wants to do.
Love that. And I'm like, oh, like, I'm like, oh, you make videos? He's like, yeah, like a little like. He's like, takes it. It's such an art form. So Isaac, Eyes of Isaac, shout out to him. He makes some of the best videos and he just crushes on social media. So the brands that end up working with him. I got introduced through St.
Elmo. They work a lot with him, and the brands that work with, um, that work with Isaac are just crushing. Okay. I am gonna have to look at him. Yeah, look him up. Oh my gosh. For several reasons. He's maybe, maybe need to hire him. That's awesome. Mm-hmm. Like our client. Yeah. I use him and we can absolutely produce it alongside.
There you go. That's amazing. okay. Who do you got? Final one. You know who I'm, you know who I'm really enjoying following on social media is Conor Daly. Yeah. Indy car driver. Oh, absolutely. You know, he got a new team this season. Okay. You know, that's a huge thing. New team, new car, new everything, new engineer, all the things.
And he's racing some of the best races he's raced ever in his career. And he is sharing really, really authentically and vulnerable. Like if he has a good race, he's like, here's what happened and here's what didn't do. Well, here's where I messed up, here's where the cars slowed down for me, like. I'm loving it.
Yeah. Or like when he pees his pants, he just like talks about that. Right. And that was fun. Like he talks and then he gets signed by, depends. So the 8,500, right. It's incredible. And I'm obsessed with him because he has Type 1 diabetes and I've got, one of my sons has Type 1 diabetes and he was recently at a big conference to support T1D awareness and he wrote all this post and all this literature and he's just.
Such a good advocate. Like there's only one, I think he and one other race car driver in. I think all of the series, like even NASCAR has Type 1 diabetes and so I'm just saying hats off to you Conor, for doing that great job. Conor, he's crushing, he's a previous guest of the pod. People need to go check him out and I think he just hit over like a hundred thousand followers on Instagram.
Oh. So like he, it's I, so I'm saying like it's not only that his content shifted. I think he has a videographer now. Like there's a lot going on there. Like he's put effort into it. Well, a lot of these, yeah, a lot of these like drivers or personalities are like realizing they can have this other income stream and like have, would be more, uh, valuable to teams.
Mm-hmm. If they bring like, hey, like, you know, a p or whoever he's gonna make reels for. Like, that's pretty cool. And I think it's, and it's paying off, right? Yeah. And like here I am watching every single thing and commenting on it. Amen. There we go. I love it. Okay. Those are some brands around Indiana that are crushing it on social media.
Nicole, thanks for stopping by. Always. That's a wrap on this Spooktacular episode of Get IN. I really hope you enjoyed, have the greatest weekend ever. Be safe if you're out there taking your kids to trick or treating. if you're gonna be at the state finals tonight or tomorrow, let us know. Be out there rocking and rolling.
Good luck to all teams participating in sectional for football. For state, for soccer, boys, girls Soccer. The whole nine yards. It's a great time to live in the state of Indiana. It's a great time to be a Hoosier sports fan. The Colts are rocking. The Indiana Hoosiers are rocking Purdue basketball just around the corner.
Great stuff coming up. We have a great lineup of shows coming out for you next week. Make sure you tune in here. Leave us an honest review. It's five stars wherever you listen to your podcast, and we'll see you next Monday.
