11-25-24 Morning Rush - Taylor Swift Wraps Up Eras Tour & Wicked Dominates Box Office & A Bachelor (re)Proposal & Hard Launch!

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Welcome to the rush hour, your daily dose of pop culture for your rush hour ride. Buckle up and enjoy the drive with your host standup comedian, Dave Neal. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday to you, November 25th, 2024. Here's what we're going to get into today. The Kelsey's are expecting a third daughter and we'll have that story.

Plus Matt Gates joins Cameo after pulling out from the attorney general gig. Plus, I've got more Christmas movie reviews and more celebrities supporting Chapel Roan as she pushes back against toxic culture. And Box Office was wicked good for, well, wicked. Could this be the biggest movie of the Christmas season?

And why they're saying you shouldn't sing along. Also, Taylor Swift wraps up the ERA's tour in Toronto with a tearful message. And another Bachelor lead re proposes to his already fiancée. Happy for them regardless. I love that story. And also another big name in bachelor nation, hard launches their relationship.

And we've got the submissions opening up for our single parent Christmas wishlist. All those stories and more coming up next on the rush. Well, Christmas season is inching up here at the rush hour podcast empire. And if you're new, we do a single mom's Christmas wishlist. It's single parent. If you're a single dad out there and you need a hand, we can help you too.

We try to pick 12 members of our community, share your Amazon wishlist, and we get to those that have abundance to donate and try to help your kids have. Presence to open this Christmas season. We're doing things a little differently this year for 12 days of Christmas. Uh, or should we call it 12 Daves of Christmas?

We're going to have a voicemail line wide open for those that are submitting. I want to hear your story. Uh, and I want our audience to hear it too, so we can know who we're donating to. So to get the link for submitting to be on the. Single parent Christmas wishlist. I always confuse it with the teacher wishlist.

We do that in the fall, the single parent Christmas wishlist wishlist. I'll have that link in the description below, and I'll also be posting it on this morning's, uh, on my Instagram story. So, uh, we're only going to have submissions open for like a day or two. So don't, you know, have resistance. Don't think about the perfect thing to say, just get on the voicemail line.

Uh, again, all the details will be in that link and leave me a heartfelt message about how we can help you out. We're looking forward to it. And in other Christmas news, boy, I'm all about these Christmas movies. I'm watching them. I got a vintage Christmas. It's on Hulu. Uh, it's called the vintage Christmas.

And it's about, you know, there's always a, it's always the same story, right? A developer versus a town historian. Oh, what's this? The developer is going to have to knock down the town historian's favorite post office. Well, I tell you what, I give it a green light. We have a green light, yellow light, red light situation.

I give a yellow light. If I, if I get tearful at all, if the, if the movie's able to make me even get watery eyes, I give it a yellow light. If it sucks a red light. Well, this is a green light. It was good. You know why? Because the leads were sexy. And I tell you what, I can't, I can't sink my teeth into a Christmas movie.

If I'm not attracted to the leads. Regardless of sexual identity. You know what I mean? I don't care. I don't care who they're going after. I got to be into you. You know what I mean? And, uh, they, they were pretty good. It's a pretty good looking bunch. Again, that's called a vintage Christmas and I give it a full green light.

You'll enjoy it. It's on Hulu. And speaking of Christmas movies over the weekend, we had, we had Susie on. Did you, uh, did you listen to it? Susie Abramite. She is a. Uh, she's an actress amongst other things. She was a top rated tennis player as well. And she had a four picture deal, uh, and she's made plenty of Christmas movies.

And we talked about what it was like to make those Christmas movies and all the other projects she's got going on. If you want to hear the behind the scenes, not everybody. Probably listens to the weekend episodes, you know, a little bit longer form, different sort of than what we do here on the weekday.

But I'm telling you right now, go give that a listen. You're going to really pick up some gems from Susie as she talked about, you know, taking a lot of the painful aspects of life in alchemizing it, turning it into positivity. And, um, I think she's got the right idea. I think her and I are now best friends.

I'm gonna actually be doing her podcast today. Uh, she's got a new podcast called great ones. So, um, do I feel great? No, I don't. I've got, uh, I've got, uh, what, what's that called? Uh, that belief, not lack of belief in myself, whatever, you know, but Hey, I think that's, I think that's a driving force, right? So just not believing yourself as long as you keep going after things, right?

All right. I'm going after a lot of, uh, stories we have to get into. Let's do it. Let's start with this one. Matt Gates. He's got to make some money. He's no longer got a job. He's not going back to the house of reps in Florida. And he was, uh, he pulled out. No, no pun intended. there from, uh, being the attorney general.

Uh, so he's joining cameo. Uh, that's right. He's got a pretty busy week here. And, uh, now without a job, I guess you can hire him, I think for what? 500 bucks. Um, he's served in Congress and Trump nominated to be attorney general. That didn't work out once I fired the house speaker, he said, and they joined cameo on November 22nd.

So yeah, 525. He'll make a personal video for you. That's how it works, folks. I guess he actually posted, um, Like an intro, I guess you have to make an intro videos just so people know what they're going to get. Here's, uh, here's I guess what he had to say. Let's have a listen. Hey Fritz, this is Matt Gaetz. I hear you're doing well after a triple bypass surgery.

I just wanted to extend well wishes, a happy Thanksgiving. And you know, some people say maybe I had to step aside just to not trigger a heart attack for you. Uh, but thanks for being a fan of the president of mine. I guess that was a personal cameo. I guess, I guess when you join Cameo, you can see some sort of personal, I'm not on Cameo.

Here's my pledge to you. If anyone out there is a fan of mine, I will. Give you a video for free. That's what I like to do. I've had people reach out to me. I've even roast people on their wedding day. I'll, I'll help you out as, as you know, if you're, if you're here and supporting my channel, I don't want your money.

Um, Jason Kelsey is having another baby, uh, with Kylie, his wife. Um, so I guess this'll be, yeah. Could Taylor Swift become the, the, uh, uh, what's it called? Uh, God, godmother. I don't know how it works. Taylor Swift and mama Donna Kelsey both reacted to the news on social media that the retired. NFL player turned ESPN broadcaster has another baby on the way.

Yeah. Could you imagine that you having a kid and you're like, Oh boy, Taylor Swift liked it. You know what I mean? It's like, can you just, can anyone even contextualize what it must be like to be Taylor Swift on her own Instagram? It just must be crazy. She can literally change the sort of trajectory of a brand by just liking their photo while we're happy for Jason.

I mean, it's so funny though. Right. You know, Jason's this macho man and he's got three girls. I guess I've, no, excuse me, a fourth on the way. He's got a fourth girl on the way. So unbelievable stuff. And it looks like most of his children are happy. Uh, but, uh, there's one girl that's a little upset. The, the young one, you know, it's, it's gotta be tough being the youngest child and then they have a new one.

And you're like, come on, this was my time. Well, it's been Taylor Swift's time. She's been on tour for gosh, how many years now? It's just been amazing. Uh, the heiress tour winds down after more than a year pop star shedding some tears during her Saturday night show in Canada. She's only got a few of these left, so she's getting sentimental.

Here's what she had to say. So she

starts breaking down and everyone's cheering. She's got, who knows, 70, 80, a hundred thousand people watching her. Is she Jesus? Is Taylor Swift are Jesus. People are coming from all over Zach. I was as the key S is in the tree. Do I have my biblical references, right? The key is, I don't know. He was a wee little man.

Okay. Anyhow, folks who cares? Uh, no blasphemy here. Uh, Taylor Swift, she can be whoever the hell she wants. Even Jesus can't get tickets to her show. So she polished off over 150 concerts over five continents with just three gigs left. Our final three performances will be in Vancouver now. Look, I'm not a huge, I'm a, I'm like a Taylor fan, but I'm not a Swifty.

Like I would go, but I'm not going to go to the lengths to, you know, to, to what has to be done to get tickets. You know what I mean? If one of you guys was like, Dave, I want to give a Taylor Swift tickets to you and your wife. I mean, that'd be fantastic. I'll get the bejeweled denim out and all that. But like, I'm not, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not going to blow in five grand and waiting in line and stuff like that.

Not on my watch folks. But if anyone has a suite for me, uh, we'll skim me up to a Vancouver and check that out. All right. I got a couple of bachelor stories. We'll get to, uh, there's new love in the air. We'll have that for you next. As you know, it's my first year in Nashville, Tennessee, and first year owning a home for Christmas season.

I'm, I'm trying to do things right. I ordered the, uh, wifi smart outlets. Again, this sounds like a sponsorship. It's not, but how it works is whatever you plug into that outlet. You can set a time that it'll go on and off and you can control it from your phone. Uh, they have these for bulbs too. They're surprisingly not expensive.

I think it costs like seven bucks an outlet. So when I bought a pack of 40 or maybe eight bucks, there were like 28, 30, whatever it was, but I'm going to have all of the Christmas lights at every window hooked up to these wifi connections. So at the exact same time, every day, the lights will turn on. I don't know.

I don't know. No, I don't think anybody in my neighborhood is going to care that I'm doing this, And I wish I could give out my address to you guys, but I'm telling you at 5 PM at the Neil household, my lights are going to be lit. Okay. It's going to be quite the show. Uh, for anybody who cares that whoever's walking their dog by my house at 5 PM, uh, put your sunglasses on.

Cause, uh, we're going to be racking up the electric bill. I'd love to know what your plans are for the Christmas season. Are you guys, has anyone ever. Any advice out there on buying a, uh, and I hate to say this, an artificial Christmas tree. It just seems like the right thing to do. You know, every year we, we schlep a tree home and it's got a squirrel in it and it's a whole thing.

And, you know, I'm thinking, you know, maybe just buy one and we use that same one every year, but we tried to go to Costco and they were sold out. And my wife's very upset. She's very upset when, when she misses the window on a Costco deal. And I, you know, cause here's what will happen. We'll go to Costco.

She'll be like, Oh, we got to buy that tree. Oh my gosh. It's perfect. And I'm like, honey, chill out. It's October. You know what I mean? Like relax. And then we go back a few weeks later and the tree sold out. And she's like, you see Dave, you see, we should've got the tree. Now it's sold to any, I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's a whole thing.

So anyway, help me save Christmas. What do I do? Um, anyhow, let's get into the bachelor stories. We have a new engagement by Zach shell cross. I know what you're thinking. Isn't he engaged to Katie bigger? Yes, but he did a re engagement, which by the way, this is the right way to do it. You know why? Because an engagement.

In the proposal, in the ring, it's all about showing somebody, somebody, how much you love them. It's, it's a scam. Diamond rings, the DeBeer industry, they created a scam, you know, make it, make it two decades of your income goes into the ring. You know, they used to say like two months and then it became like two quarters, whatever, either way.

The point is though, it's true. You can't just. Get some free ring from, uh, you know, what's a leather, leather bag over there. And Neil Lane, you can't just get some free ring and then think that that's all you got to do. No, that's, that's like the placeholder and I'm, I'm told, and I don't know, maybe, maybe I don't want to get sued by Neil Lane.

Maybe the Neil Lane rings are good, but I'm told the rings from, uh, love is Blind are actually terrible. They have a lot of flaws in them. You know, when you buy a ring, you can't tell from the naked eye what the color is. My wife's ring is, I got her a rock. I mean, it's a good size diamond, but it's not like, um, the, the color is slightly like champagne color, like to the naked eye.

You can't tell the difference, but when someone explains to you the difference between an X amount of rain versus a 50, 000 ring, you can kind of see it's like, uh, you know, it's, but again, it's all, it's all. Bye. I think they're ripping us off guys. I know, I don't know. I have more women in the audience than men.

So I don't want anyone to boycott me. They're ripping us off these ring companies. But once I found out that you could get the ring insured, I was like, look, I don't even care if I got ripped off. It's insured for X amount of money. So if this thing goes missing in the lake or your hand gets cut off in a You know, weird, I don't know, uh, bowling accident, whatever.

We're going to be okay. Uh, that was, that got really dark. Okay. So either way, congratulations. Oh, I'm digressing. Congratulations to Katie and Zach on the second engagement. She said, yes, she said yes. In another bachelor news, B Mack Jones is hard launching his relationship. He's got a non bachelor lady.

That's always good. When you can get out of the bachelor world, of course. Course he was engaged to serene, but does it even count? And again, she accused him of cheating and the information he posted in the last few months kind of refuted that. So, you know, basically waited a long time to share his side of the story.

Uh, it was a, but it was a wild, it was a wild story nonetheless, but happy he's moving on. He said, she's truly something to let the world know about since the show dating has been tough. Finding, you know, what's tough is finding punctuation in this post, but I digress. Finding someone who genuinely cared for me and who cared to know me rather than details displayed on the TV screen.

She's been there for me through thick and thin through ups and downs, through rumors and through each and every battle, we focused on privacy, keeping our relationship away from social media and growing with each other without a camera lens. But I've realized F that this woman is truly something to let the world know about.

I love you, miss Anna Rapetto. So congratulations to them. I mean, regardless of how, you know, someone's edit was on the TV screen or what happened, I, I, I would wish love on my worst enemies. I want everyone to feel a little love in their world. All right. Well, uh, we have our updates here for the, for the, uh, the wicked movie.

That's right. It's, uh, it's taking over the world. And now on Variety, they say Wicked opens to record setting 114 million box office. Gladiator 2 starts strong with 55 million. If you care to find Wicked, look to the top of box office charts. Universal's adaptation of Act 1, with some padding, of the popular Broadway musical was No.

1 in North America with 114 million. Those dazzling ticket sales rank as the third biggest domestic debut of the year behind Deadpool and Wolverine in Inside Out 2. Can you believe that? I can't believe these Pixar movies are that good. Uh, they are, Hey, you know, I got a kid now. I'm, I'm sure I'll be going to them.

Uh, when you, when you want a kid to shut up, you take them to a Pixar movie, I guess. So either way, huge opening weekend and I'm, my TikTok is littered with wicked stories. I mean, everything about it. I don't know much about it. Um, but I hear it's dazzling. Wicked collected an additional 50 million at the international box office, bringing its global tally to 164 million.

You know, the, uh, I mean, uh, the, the, the original Wizard of Oz didn't have the book, I guess, didn't have, um, the Ruby red slippers, right? They were some sort of like diamond or whatever. They were different, but, uh, boy, uh, you know, Judy Garland, her, her, uh, you know, filming, what was that film in the late thirties?

I'm sorry if I'm getting this wrong, that was cursed. So some people are wondering if the wicked film would be cursed because the last one of course was cursed so bad. I mean, the tin man got aluminum poisoning. Uh, I think the, uh, scarecrow got a scar on his face from the mask. She was, they, they would feed her like she, you know, she was like a young, you know, woman or a child.

I don't know. They'd feed her like something like dozens of cigarettes a day to keep her from gaining weight. I mean, just crazy stuff out there. Crazy stuff. Indeed. That's why we have the screen actors guild because, uh, you know, they were, they weren't taking care of, uh, their own back in the day. Well, now they're telling you this.

When you come to wicked shut the hell up and enjoy the movie, but ANC theaters, fans to let the stars do the singing. I'm sure your voice is lovely, but we all know how hard it is to. Hit those high notes, that's a particularly tough song. The Theatre Chain is going to play a 30 second clip before the movie, reminding people that silence is golden.

But if you really want to belt out your favorite tunes, and I always encourage that, Well, you have just a month to wait because a singalong showing will start on Christmas day, about a thousand theaters across the country will bring you that privilege. Oh, you theater nerds. I love a theater nerd. You know, I wasn't big into theater, uh, but I did live in the theater.

I live where all the theater people lived in New York city, which was, I was in Hamilton Heights, 140th and Broadway. But then if you go farther North. The, the, the residence gets cheaper up until Washington Heights. And that's where all the theater brats live. I'm looking at you, you am the dancers. I know who you guys all are.

Um, you know, Oh, I went to Juilliard. It's like, listen, just serve me my lunch. You know what I mean? They're singing theater at the, uh, the diner in times square. And everybody's talented in the theater world. And I'm not kidding. Just the, the amazing people that are out there. The problem. Is not everyone's talented who goes to the theater.

Okay. Those that are on stage, leave it to them. You know what I mean? But of course, yeah, no, this is a, this is very smart that they're telling you not to sing in that way that you can buy a second ticket to go sing on Christmas day. Uh, you won't catch me singing publicly as much as I wish. Uh, I would love, you know, one of my new year's resolutions is to sing more.

I would love to get vocal lessons. I mean, I am not known to have a good voice every once in a while. I'll accidentally stumble on the right note. So I know, I know it's in there. Right. I know I got it in there. I just don't know if I'm always listening to the note I'm saying. And I think part of it is I'll sing a song.

Are you guys like this? I'll sing a song without knowing the lyrics to that song. And then my brain will kind of make them up. And I think what's happening, I could be wrong. I think what's happening is when I'm singing a song that I don't know the lyrics to, rather than. Think about the quality of the note.

I should be hitting. I'm thinking about how does sweet Caroline end. Do you know what I mean? Does any of that make sense? Well, anyhow, uh, the dudes from pod save America, uh, were wanting to make sure, you know, people understood not to sing. I know we got the PSA already, but this is a love it from love it or leave it.

Some fans at early screenings of the Wicked movie have been singing along in the theater to the frustration of other theatergoers. This is what one person told the New York Times, a self described theater kid, who said, People who are judgmental in that way, please wait to stream it. Don't go the first day and yell at people for singing, for sharing that kind of joy, when we've been waiting so long in anticipation for this movie.

I want everyone here to know this, and I mean this. I am seeing this movie on Saturday. The last couple of weeks have been so stressful and sad. I have a reservoir of frustration and rage in my soul, and if people start singing in my theater, I promise you, they will stop, or I will make an extraordinary scene that will take them to the moon.

All the way the fuck out of the experience. I'm not kidding. I'll ruin it for them, I'll ruin it for everybody. Because if you think I'm gonna sit there in silence and watch Cynthia Erivo sing Defying Gravity in concert with you, because we have collectively abandoned all manners and common courtesy, think again.

So if you care to find me, look to the AMC Burbank. As someone told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to watch a movie in a theater without listening to rude, Self centered internet addled freaks forgetting that they are not the center of the universe. How does Trump happen? We let the little thing slide and then we let the big thing slide.

I will go to jail. There it is. I mean, tell us how you really feel. You know, I feel like this might be our best morning episode ever. I'm just feeling loose. I'm feeling limber. I don't know if it was the hot cocoa I just drank to get me going. Either way, still more stories to come. Stick around. We'll have those next.

Well, I love a good pop star beef. Katy Perry wins a trademark appeal against an Australian fashion designer named Katy Perry. Uh, both women put blood, sweat and tears in developing their businesses. The November 22nd ruling read. What's interesting is this has been going on for a long time. I think since 2009, in 2009, Katy Perry's attorney sent.

Taylor, who's Katy Perry Taylor, a cease and desist letter before suggesting they come to a coexistence agreement. Their response was, unfortunately, it's no longer possible to return to the time of peaceful coexistence. Alright, so I guess there's bad blood out there between the two. Uh, but because Katy Perry's been around for so long, they ruled that she's got an international brand name.

I mean, they don't even spell it the same way. So what are we even talking about? I don't know. Well, Daniel Craig, uh, AKA James Bond praising Chapel Rones. Pushback against toxic fans says, I really admire the guts. I'm the same way. You know, I feel like a lot of fans go, no, we built her, we can do this. We can do that.

But like, she's doing what she needs to do to stay within her own boundaries. And I have to say, I haven't heard much news about chapel run lately. So maybe she just realized that she just shouldn't even talk to her fans, which is so sad, but I think that's how it gets. She was able to, for a certain amount of time, deal with her audience.

And negotiate those conversations. And now I was realizing she can't, I'm seeing that with Jason Kelsey, as he's getting more famous and more famous that he's trying to sign autographs and people are yelling at him and people are calling him, you know, slurs and he's spiking iPhones. And I think what you realize is you, you, you kind of need like a bodyguard with you.

I think, I think that's the only solution is to like have a handler there to deal with things because any amount of you being provoked gives them what they want, whether it's good or whether it's bad. Well, Well, I tell you what, speaking of bad, there is a crisis happening, a manufactured crisis. And this is why I'm so against so many of the culture wars.

And I've said this on the left and I've said this on the right. So don't, this isn't even political. This might sound political, but it's not, it's apolitical. It's about manufacturing crisis and it's happening out there. Uh, we've covered the story of the trans McBride. She's a Democrat in Delaware. And she's.

Uh, claiming a manufactured crisis with all the new restrictions going on in the bathrooms in Capitol Hill. She says, I wasn't even going to use those bathrooms rather than talk to me. Uh, Nancy Grace and all these other people are, you know, are making this whole trans debate. She just wanted to show up this trans woman and do her job.

Here's what she had to say. I would like my grace to contrast with the grandstanding that we're seeing right now. I would like my approach of respecting everyone to contrast with the disrespect that we are seeing right now. I'd like to see, I'd like people to see my competence in governing contrast with their chaos.

Do you follow this rule? Do you adhere to it? I have, I have already said that, I, I will not use multi stall women's restrooms in the Capitol. So, so as we find out every person, every, every representative has their own bathroom already. It's a fake crisis that involves nobody. And this past election, there was a lot of conversation about issues that are that really Don't exist out there.

Like the president doesn't decide what a sport does as far as the inclusivity for biological female versus trans females or things like that. That's, that's something that like the NCAA will take up. That's something that like, whatever leagues will take up this specific issue is. Uh, is, is all being talked about because one trans person won an election.

So it's not a big deal. And I really love that she, uh, here, uh, Sarah McBride is coming at this with Grace saying, I'm not going to fight whatever fight they want me to fight. I'm just going to go there and Delawareans. Um, but again, that is my choice here. I always knew that there would be an effort. to politicize my use of a restroom.

And if anyone had thought to ask me about what I was planning on doing, I would have been happy to tell them. But again, this is not an issue and this has never been an issue in this complex. Everything was fine until some members of the small Republican conference majority Decided to and to manufacture a crisis.

Well, we took the bait because it became one. So there's your update to that. I just love a good story where someone fights back and says, I'm not, I'm not entering the mud pit. I'm not fighting the fight you're fighting. And that's how I feel about so many of these. Quote unquote, culture war issues. It's like, let's just worry about making, you know, food and housing affordable to everyday Americans.

And let's stop leading with such fear, right? That's what we're going to do on my podcast. No fear here, nothing but love. So, uh, don't forget if you're a single mom or single dad out there, or Hey, maybe you're not even. A single mom or dad, maybe you are married, but you guys have struggled and had tough times.

We want to hear from you too. We want to help as many people as possible during this Christmas season. And, uh, the link is in the description below and you can submit your Amazon wishlist, uh, whatever toys you're hoping that we can help. Purchase so that Santa can provide for a bunch of, uh, very special kids this Christmas season.

That's what we're trying to do. All right, folks. Well, we got a good one today. So, uh, stick around, uh, have fun at work. We'll have some live streaming on Patreon, patreon. com slash Dave Neal, and then we'll be back this afternoon. We'll see you then for another episode of the rush. The rush hour is a twice daily pop culture and entertainment news podcast hosted by standup comedian, Dave Neal live.

Too short for a boring ride. So join Dave as he covers the top news stories of the day. Don't be caught clueless at the water cooler. The rush hour with Dave Neal features all the viral TikToks and podcast clips you need to hear. Plus feel good stories and some motivational stuff too. A perfect compliment for your commute featured in time magazine, Washington post and us weekly, get your rush hour on today.