Brittlestar: Return of the Straight White Man

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  0:02  
The Women of Ill Repute with your hosts, Wendy Mesle and Maureen Holloway.

Maureen Holloway  0:07  
Hey, Wendy.

Wendy Mesley  0:08  
Hey, how are you?

Maureen Holloway  0:09  
I'm good. How are you? More importantly, have you been under the weather?

Wendy Mesley  0:13  
Yeah, no, I still you can still hear it a little bit. I got a voice thing, but that keeps going. keeps going. So anyway, but I'm here. I'm here. How are you? What do you think of it?

Maureen Holloway  0:23  
I'm great. I want to know if you have any thoughts on the patriarchy?

Wendy Mesley  0:26  
A little early. 

Maureen Holloway  0:31  
The patriarchy.

Wendy Mesley  0:32  
 Oh the patriarchy, oh.

Maureen Holloway  0:33  
Yes. The patriarchy. 

Wendy Mesley  0:34  
Oh, you mean like where, you know, men sort of hold all the power and women mostly don't pull much power that that thing? 

Yeah, it's quite seriously it's always lurking under everything that we that we do on the show just by calling ourselves and many of our guests women of ill repute, we're implying that our repute is being made ill by? 

Well, the patriarchy 

Maureen Holloway  0:57  
The patriarchy, 

Of course. Yes. Men, they're mostly white. They're mostly middle aged.

Yeah, those guys.

Wendy Mesley  1:03  
Yeah. But don't we like middle aged guys? I mean, or even love middle aged guy. 

Yeah, well, we married a couple of white middle aged, one each.

Good. You pointed that out. 

Maureen Holloway  1:14  
And I'm the mother of two white guys who will one day be middle aged. Don't they probably don't realize that as I wonder, I wonder if their time has come has come and gone? 

Wendy Mesley  1:25  
Well, I don't know. I kind of wonder about that. And they certainly had their day in the sun held all the power although you know what? I've been saying that there's been this big change for like decades. Now. I'm not I'm not sure.

Maureen Holloway  1:36  
I'm not sure either. No argument. But there's a it has gotten to be challenges and talking about our guests who you can see if you're watching us a seemingly average white middle aged man. It's gotta be hard to be relevant. And to express thoughts that are not that are not dated or elitist. Or or insensitive. 

Wendy Mesley  2:00  
Yeah and he's also kind of funny in a well, he was just flashing his boobs at us. But but for those of you who can see it, we'll bring them on in a second. But go ahead.

Maureen Holloway  2:12  
Yeah, well, if this sounds familiar to you, or interesting, chances are you've heard of Brittlestar.

Wendy Mesley  2:17  
Yeah. So that is known to gare or known to internet or know, know, known online. I don't know what whatever that is. We'll figure out what it means, but yeah.

Maureen Holloway  2:27  
But his real name is Stuart Randall. Yeah. Yeah. Stuart Reynolds is comedian and our he's a writer from Stratford, Ontario. And you may know him from a Facebook campaign for KFC, which became at the time the world's most watched branded video. That's back in 2017. I think

Wendy Mesley  2:45  
Yeah. Okay. I may say, I'm sure. But lately he's he's kind of this biding presence on social media. It's kind of cool. Especially on Twitter. He makes fun sometimes gently. Sometimes pointedly of everybody, men, women. everybody. 

Maureen Holloway  3:08  
He calls himself the internet's favorite dad complete with Dad bod, dad jeans, dad jokes. And yeah, dad jokes. Welcome, Brittlestar, Stewart Reynolds. 

Stewart Reynolds  3:19  
Gosh, you know how to make a guy feel welcome.

Wendy Mesley  3:21  
What does that say behind you really good. Really, really goat? Really? 

Stewart Reynolds  3:29  
It's, it's a daily it's really goats. And but if you squint your eyes this is really great. Which is just my daily affirmation. I come out here I plug in the neon sign and I kneel down in front of it. And I just go maybe today.

Maureen Holloway  3:42  
Maybe today. We put you in a position maybe that you're not comfortable in but you put yourself there is that you, are you call yourself the internet's dad and favorite dad.

Stewart Reynolds  3:55  
It's true. Internet's favorite dad, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I actually stole that kind of from well, that really stole but it's an homage to Alan Thicke. Oh yeah. Because he used to have in his Twitter bio, America's favorite dad but he spelt favorite the Canadian way as like a little bit of a nudge nudge wink, wink. And then when he died, I was like, well, no one else is using it. I'll just steal it make it the internet. They were dead.

Maureen Holloway  4:19  
It's like the the symbol that prints used somebody should take that because it's available.

Wendy Mesley  4:26  
I think you've got to show the thing behind you because it does kind of look like goat. Yeah, no, teah, really great. 

Stewart Reynolds  4:33  
Well, it's cursive and that's the that's the problem with the kids today is that no one's learning cursive.

Maureen Holloway  4:37  
It's really great. Yeah. Okay, let's let's start with that is that one. That is one of the problems. I agree. Nobody can write anymore. Nobody has handwriting.

Stewart Reynolds  4:50  
They taught us cursive in grade two. And I'm like our kids in grade two right and checks. Like, we don't need to know this yet. Do we? Like these kids couldn't even do a proper job. 

Wendy Mesley  4:58  
I was in a store the other day and I well, it was a couple of years ago. But anyway, I was buying stamps because I had to like mail a check to somebody who lives in the woods. But anyway, I was mailing something. I was buying stamps. And this 20 year old said to me, oh my god, is that a stamp? And I'm like, screw you, buddy. Like, yeah, it's a stamp. But but yeah, no one uses stamps, checks.

Stewart Reynolds  5:21  
Oh, my God. Absolutely. Yeah, we've had times with both our boys are 21 and 24 years old now. And they we've had two separate instances, instances where they've had to mail something, and they're like, how do I do this? Like, they've never been taught how to format the address or anything, you know, I but of course, why would they?

Maureen Holloway  5:38  
Well, exactly. There's no need to so my son is just turned 30 got married last year, and they were sending out their wedding invitations. And he literally called me, excuse me and said, How does this work again?

Stewart Reynolds  5:53  
Unbelievable, really, when you think about it, and today, even though the emails are free and stuff there is such, it's unbelievable that you can put something on a piece of paper, and then you can wrap it in another piece of paper, and then put another piece of paper on that and someone will take it. Lick it and some someone will take it and to the other person physically for like a buck. Yeah, crazy.

Wendy Mesley  6:15  
So you've got two sons, are they part of the patriarchy? Are you training them?

Stewart Reynolds  6:22  
Yeah, we That's right. Watch nothing but Andrew Tate videos and yeah, we just share them back and forth in a group chat called No, no. I mean, look at me.

Maureen Holloway  6:39  
Yeah, you would you would look at you. You do look like you do look like what you are. Which is a dad. Funny, rye, white dad and in a colorful? Yeah. wry is good. You are very right. This is the first time I've seen you smile. 

Stewart Reynolds  6:56  
Well I appreciate that.

Wendy Mesley  6:57  
Let's see, Oh.

Stewart Reynolds  7:00  
I know. I don't like to smile very often. But I just had my teeth whitening like two days ago. So I'm okay. Not bad. It's hard to tell him his light.

Wendy Mesley  7:09  
Yeah, well, I've been watching all of these series that go back 100 years, but they all have really super white teeth. They didn't have super white teeth 100 years ago, so.

Stewart Reynolds  7:17  
I don't know. I don't know what maybe it's the 5g is what it is. 

Maureen Holloway  7:21  
Yeah I think the third retouch now for those old guys. I'm mean I think Clark Gable had wooden teeth or was that George Washington? One of those guys, had really bad.

Stewart Reynolds  7:33  
Listener, if you're looking for historical facts, you can change to a different podcast now.

Maureen Holloway  7:39  
I know a lot of stuff. Are you? Are you a it's like a not a trivia. But I mean, that's there's a place in the world and it's called the internet for people who know a lot of stuff that isn't particularly useful in any other area, but becomes very entertaining on on social. Are you one of those?

Stewart Reynolds  7:58  
You've just, you've described my career.

Maureen Holloway  8:02  
Mine too.

Stewart Reynolds  8:03  
I mean, think about it. I've read I started doing social media when I was 43 years old. And the notion that I could make a living out of using my telephone to film videos and post them to people is ridiculous, isn't it? It's just nonsense. But here I am.

Maureen Holloway  8:18  
And yet, it's not the worst. It's not the worst development in this postmodern world that we can all become our own film makers and recording studios, so that we all have that means at our disposal and a way of sharing it with other people. Like, yeah, I'm describing a career. 

Stewart Reynolds  8:35  
No, I think it's, I think it can be very, very wonderful.

Wendy Mesley  8:38  
And yet, you're kind of you market yourself as we'll get into the dad stuff in a minute. But I find it really interesting back to the patriarchy. Well, just the whole idea that that you kind of school people in a nice way, and you say I have opinions, and I'm a middle aged white guy, and it's okay to have opinions. So some opinions, I guess, like how did how did you figure it out? Were you feeling ignored? Or did you feel like there was a gap or what? Like, why? 

Stewart Reynolds  9:02  
I think, not so much ignore it. It's hard to be ignored when you're a white dude. I mean, that's that's the key is that that's one of the benefits of being a white guy is that you can do a lot of things that people who aren't white guys can do. But I think that there was definitely a gap. There was kind of this notion, I could tell. I remember years ago saying to my wife, Shannon, I want to declare my views on things and she was like, you don't necessarily have to declare them you just have to kind of walk the walk, you kind of have to demonstrate them and show other white guys that they don't have to panic and that's kind of been my, my, my MO it's kind of been like everyone's panic, like, they're gonna come take their cargo shorts, and backpacks and it's like, relax, guys. It's fine. You know what transgender people are coming to your bathroom? Nobody. It's fine. Who cares? Move on.

Maureen Holloway  9:51  
And so you've become an onboard borrowing from Lena Dunham here. If not the voice of your generation, you're a voice of your generation. 

Stewart Reynolds  10:02  
The biggest branded video in the world in 2017, which was met with, yeah.

Wendy Mesley  10:08  
Who was that it was a chicken or something.

Maureen Holloway  10:11  
That was you. That was you know.

Stewart Reynolds  10:13  
IP and Nike. I beat Nike by 10 million views Cristiano Ronaldo can suck it he was in their video that year. Take that patriarchy.

Maureen Holloway  10:22  
So you're you've got a this burgeoned? I mean, are you surprised by this? This is exploded. I've been following you for probably about a year. And I don't follow a lot of people. But I'm sure I mean, I'm not alone. You've all you've, you've tapped into a vein. Did this surprise you? This is your full time job. If I'm not mistaken.

Stewart Reynolds  10:42  
It is yeah, I've been doing this full time for the past 10 years. So I've been doing it for a long time. And it's I've seen a lot of changes. But I mean, certainly over the course of like the pandemic and stuff when there was a captive audience. And it suddenly meant that, you know, you'd look at late night talk shows, and they were suddenly filming from their house and stuff. And I was like, I've been doing that for years. So kind of leveled the playing field a little bit and kind of really made social media content and video content, specifically, on par with television, it was kind of like, well, this is how I see the world through my phone, whether it be TV or videos or whatever. And that's been really interesting change. It's happened in the past, like three and a half years. But it's been gradual. Like, I've sort of seen it, you know, it's it's been, it feels like a 10 year overnight success stories was essentially what it's been, like in 2016. I was invited to the White House by the Obamas. It's like, that's seven years ago. Right? I mean, Wendy wouldn't even consider that a thing.

Wendy Mesley  11:41  
I've never been to the whole Well, it used to be they didn't have you used to be able to go up and like knock on the window and go high. And now you're like, you're like five blocks away? It's-

Stewart Reynolds  11:51  
They frown on that. Yeah. Yeah. 

Wendy Mesley  11:54  
Espcially,you know, well, nothing happened when I waved through the window. But I wonder how do you figure out like this sharing gives you advice on how to like, you mentioned the vaccination thing on COVID. Like you actually wrote kind of pointed stuff about vaccinations, like, how do you feel what's, what's the line, like you made fun of people for not getting a vaccination?

Stewart Reynolds  12:14  
As part of that sort of notion of take a deep breath? This is not as complicated as you think it is. This is not some sort of dark arts. This is not like you just have to it's more intuitive than you think. It's like this is happening. Someone said, who has proven right for decades and decades, we should do this, we should probably at least try that. Let's just do that. As opposed to, you know, sort of flying off the deep end and stuff. And it was I think, I think I was able to fortunately speak to the frustrations of a lot of people who were like, I think I'm doing the right thing. But these people are telling me I'm not and it's like no, take a breath, you're doing the right thing. It's fine. Keep let's just just move through this as much as we can. That's it. So I mean, I felt there was times where I got lots of blowback for sure. But at the it's also it's kind of like this is a war effort. This is like everyone just do your bit and shut up.

Wendy Mesley  13:08  
Not too many jokes there, though.

Stewart Reynolds  13:11  
Well, I mean, there isn't a sense, because I mean, I remember I was thinking about, there's this whole stink right now in the anti-vax community about influencers. I'm not an influencer, because I'm not good looking enough. I'm a content creator as such. But there was this. There's this whole story about how, aww thank you, I am pretty good. I'll take it. There's this whole story about how the government had been paying off influencers to like to promote the use of vaccines and stuff. And I've put out numerous things say I didn't get paid. I didn't get paid at all to do any of that stuff. Primarily because, you know, one of the videos I did was a rock song parody of Whitesnake that was called Holy Fuck, Just get your vaccine baby. It's like, Jesus Christ. Just fucking do it. So I mean, that's kind of, yeah, I mean, I'm happy to take that stance anytime because that's that's that's my regular stance in real life as well. It's kind of like just what are we doing? Don't waste my time. And yours.

Maureen Holloway  14:08  
That brings me to a point you are who you are. This is not an act. This is not Brittlestar is your is when he said you're known to internet, which I like, but that you're not you're not a espousing or professing any views that you store it Reynolds do not hold. Or are you?

Stewart Reynolds  14:26  
Yeah, no, no, no, no, I think that's accurate. And I think that's one of the weird things about social media specifically, is that it's a very like to sort of succeed, not absolutely, but largely to succeed on social media. There has to be some sort of authentic connection and genuineness to what you're doing. Because people it's such an intimate medium, like people are holding you in their hands while you're talking to them. And they're in on the bus with headphones or they're in the bathroom of their on the couch or in bed or something. And it's a very intimate medium, and there's a very big trust factor built into that. And I think one of the things when I started doing this was like, I can't portray something that's not going to be me. So when these people meet me in real life, I don't want them to go. Well, you you said this, but you're obviously not doing that. There's like a really weird parasocial relationship people have with social media content. And I try to be aware of that. So part of being aware of that is just kind of like, I don't want to do something I can't continue doing or don't believe in doing essentially. 

Wendy Mesley  15:25  
I probably shouldn't tell you this, because you're on the podcast as we speak. But someone told me the other day that I listened to your podcast when I'm going to sleep at night because it helps put me to sleep. Yeah.

Stewart Reynolds  15:40  
Wake up. Wake up listener. Who your sleep is ruined.

Wendy Mesley  15:46  
I'm sure they meant at the very end when we said goodnight, that that was. Yeah, that must be it.

Stewart Reynolds  15:51  
That's probably it. Yeah. Yeah.

Maureen Holloway  15:54  
Yeah. So no, no, there are people out there making a living doing podcasts that put people to sleep, you know, it's very, very big names are doing that. So let no more power to them. But that that is not what we're about. So other than anti vaxxers. Stuart, what else is turning your crank these days? What else is getting under your skin?

Stewart Reynolds  16:15  
Oh, it's too late for antivaxxers. They don't get under my skin. They're just whatever. It's too. We've moved. We've moved on. You know, I mean, I think it's just, I think one of my reasons for doing what I do is is realizing I have a platform and then again, saying to other I sort of feel like the middle aged white guy whisperer. I feel like I can sort of, say to other middle aged white guys again, this is not a big deal. Like, like, he saw that there was a clip of Kid Rock, using shooting up cases of Buddle Oh, god, yeah, because Bud Light had a trans woman as part of the campaign or something. And it was like, dude, dude, dile it back.

Maureen Holloway  16:55  
It's really not worth it.

Stewart Reynolds  16:56  
What are you upset about? Like this? First of all, if you're drinking Bud Light, you've already crossed the line.

Wendy Mesley  17:03  
There goes that sponsor?

Stewart Reynolds  17:05  
Exactly, but I mean, second to that, like, what's the what's the what's the point is, I suppose I kind of, I think it's there's a, there's a there's room for someone. And for content, not some room for content that says we don't have to get super hyped about this. We don't have to be. I'm not like trying to shove stuff into people's faces. I'd rather just be like, this is a non issue like this is this has little to no impact on me whatsoever. And it makes things better for other people. Okay. Sure. Sounds great to me. And that's kind of been what I like to try to have as a guide for what I'm doing, basically. So there's nothing really gets under my skin as such, it just sort of like they want to calm down.

Wendy Mesley  17:44  
I think it's wonderful that you're speaking out. It's wonderful that you're taking positions on tricky stuff. And it's wonderful that you're doing that while trying to make people laugh. But most importantly, I think it matters that you're saying that older people, middle aged people, even white guys, members of the patriarchy, they deserve to be listened to and that we're still learning, we have thoughts, and we might be learning some stuff. But we also have stuff to add. So I anyway, I just I think it's great. So you can lean over and show your really great thing now. 

Stewart Reynolds  18:14  
Well, thank you.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  18:19  
The Women Of Ill Repute.

Maureen Holloway  18:22  
As the father of boys, men. Yeah. As I said, I have two of my own as well. I think, you know, what I remember when they were born, and everybody was like, Oh, another boy is shit now, but at the time, it's some having boys with some sort of testimony to to a dad who had who, you know, as we know, biologically has nothing to do with the sex, or the gender of the of the child. But as as the parent of to, to, you know, the 50 years ago, they would have had the world by the tail, and I'm not saying they don't, they're tall, well educated white. But if they are up for a job against a person of color, who has the same qualifications, they are not going to get that job. And I'm not whining about this, but it's a reality. And and I wonder how you feel both as what you do and as a parent about that. The fact that the scales are starting to tip in the postmodern world?

Stewart Reynolds  19:21  
Well, I mean, I mean, that's a tough, it's a tough thing to respond to, because it's there's, I think, when in this is a pretty lofty statement. But I think in social justice, that pendulum swings hard in either direction, it goes in, as we've seen over the course of history. I mean, I think sort of, you see that political correctness and it swings really, really hard in the other direction to the exclusion of people that were once previously had the advantage. And the thing is, I don't think it'll stay there. Like it just can't stay there. So I think it'll come back down and hopefully it'll be just an even playing field. So that it becomes less of a case of looking at someone and saying, Oh, this person's you know, I liked this person, I don't know why. And the reason is that they the same color as you. And it will be more a case of like, well, there's a bunch of people. And of course, they're all different colors, because who cares? I'm going to pick the person that I liked the best. And that works the best. And that's that's basically it. But I think you know, what's really interesting, we've been talking about this recently is that myself and Shannon is that I think that the pandemic and not to harp harp too much on that, but the pandemic was such a time of floaty, non binary to sort of steal a term reality, it was kind of like, well, this might be happening, but it might not be happening. And this could be happening because there's a lot of lot of indecision, a lot of cloudiness and vagueness to it. And I think you can sort of see how that has impacted people who are like no panic, like supercharged panic about LGBTQ plus issues, and transgender issues and race issues. And it's like, everybody's wants something concrete and absolute. And especially the detractors from those who are against those those communities. You can see how the the pandemics had that effect on people and really supercharged with emotions. But the the idea is like, again, as it's been said a million times is that, you know, equality doesn't inequity doesn't mean that that someone else has to suffer, it means that everybody comes up, everyone's coming up. Ideally that I mean, that's but it takes a while to get there, because you have to kind of swing hard and then come back up.

Wendy Mesley  21:22  
Yeah, I used to think that there were cycles in life. And now I'm not so sure that there are because I think, as has been said, by so many that things have gone perhaps a little bit too far. But then I remember how things were 20 3040 years ago, and that was completely unacceptable. What was said about so many people who will yeah, so it's just, you know, I think perhaps there has been an extreme reaction in some quarters and but now I'm a middle aged white woman, and it's almost as bad as being a middle aged white man. 

Maureen Holloway  21:53  
Karen.

Stewart Reynolds  21:55  
What was funny is that we know when when you guys had approached me about talking about this, this theme and I was like, pretty lofty for two old white ladies.

Wendy Mesley  22:07  
Lofty.

Maureen Holloway  22:09  
By the way I love. I love how we're stretching the middle age now, because we're gonna live to be 130.

Stewart Reynolds  22:15  
There's a bunch of people who are like 40 going go to hell.

Wendy Mesley  22:20  
Yeah, I  remember a Keith Boag, was a correspondent for CBC for 100 years like me. And he wants I was anchoring the news. And I was wearing fake pearls big huge, like Wilma Flintstone kind of pearls. And he said, Oh, you look a little middle aged and those pearls. And I'm like, I'm 50 If I lived to 100, like that would be great. Who you calling Middle aged? Anyway, yeah, that would be us.

Maureen Holloway  22:45  
What do you call that, elderly? I mean, I, I give Wendy a hard time, but she's two years older than me. So I'm always saying well ask Wendy she's older, she'll know. But it is like, what's the next benchmark? I'm old. I'm starting to embrace old lady and me as soon as I let my hair go. The color that it is, Lisa, Lisa and me. I thought okay, what the hell I am an old about but I'm not an old lady. I'm not an, I let you know what I am actually won't even know who you are.

Stewart Reynolds  23:17  
Yeah, I bet you every generation says this, but it feels like you know, what was old when we were young is no longer that old anymore. I mean, I think you know, if you as long as you have your health, there's a lot you can do until you can't, you can still do it.

Maureen Holloway  23:32  
Well the average age that people died of in the 20s in the 1920s was 61. I just read that. 100 years ago, we'd be dead.

Stewart Reynolds  23:41  
Oh my god. Um, yeah. Like, I remember talking to my talking to my parents. And they'd be like, Oh, my grandparents, like, nobody lived past 63. And it's like, Oh, God like that. And they felt like really old, you know.

Maureen Holloway  23:52  
Whereas our kids will could very well see three digits. They're kind of not counting on it, but kind of dealing with the reality that they're going to be around maybe longer than they want to be.

Stewart Reynolds  24:03  
Well, when our youngest was born in 2002, Gregor, he remember a story came out like that month saying, kids born this year will live to about 150. And it's like, I don't know if that's good, or no.

Maureen Holloway  24:19  
No, no, no, there's not enough room or jobs or money for for everybody to be around.

Stewart Reynolds  24:24  
Yeah, well, listen, we could be on the moon by that and Mars. You never know. Not with Elon, but you know, but somebody else maybe.

Wendy Mesley  24:30  
His clone. But what about your kids? I mean, there's all kinds of, of mommy blogs. You're not exactly a daddy blog. You're kind of I don't know what you are. But have you ever thought of doing a daddy blog where all the kids were, I guess, throughout a diaper? 

Maureen Holloway  24:43  
I hope so. They're in their 20s?

Stewart Reynolds  24:46  
Yes, yeah. It'll come first full circle, maybe eventually, but for now, everyone's out of diapers. But it's yeah, no, I mean, I've gone to a couple of events. I've spoken at a couple events for a conference call. Have dad 2.0 which is really interesting and it's full of like daddy bloggers and all that kind of stuff. 

Wendy Mesley  25:04  
Oh, really? 

Stewart Reynolds  25:05  
Yeah. And it's really great. Like it's it's a super supportive environment. There's like, it's there's, it's a bunch of tough guys who are like talking about being dads and it's like cool. Guys, as is true, it's crazy. You sort of go and you think, oh, yeah, it's like, you're like, Oh, these are gonna be bunch of softies and it's like, oh, no, these are like really hard guys who are like, we're gonna get absolutely ripped tonight in New Orleans, and then tomorrow, we're gonna get up and talk and cry. Yeah, it's just really great. And it's a really great convention conference type thing. It's really fun. But I mean, I remember thinking the last one I went to was kind of like, oh, I don't know, if I necessarily fit into this category more. I think that's probably because when we started doing content for social media, our kids were 11 and 14. And they're, I mean, they're not cute anymore. I mean, they're doing their own thing. It's there's, like, seem to swim kids swim. So it's, I don't, I've been trying to kind of be a little bit of that dad character. And I certainly get a lot of people who connect to me online, who look for that kind of dad and that dad vise type of thing for me, but-

Maureen Holloway  26:08  
But in a good way, you remind me a little bit of Stephen Colbert, or he reminds me a little bit about you, not necessarily as 

Stewart Reynolds  26:14  
I like the latter.

Maureen Holloway  26:16  
Okay, we'll go with that. But that idea that there's, you know, it's men who are not afraid to sound sensitive and intelligent. And that's a fairly new persona. But in fact, I'm gonna take a little further, I was watching a Bob Odinkirk's new show, Lucky Hank. I don't know you can compare it to this led to, to Better Call Saul. This, there's a bleakness that I find in popular culture now, for men that their stories are, we're going to use the word wry again, to sort of undercut with a sense of, of, oh, I'm depressing myself now, you know, a sense of loss almost or a sense of what could have been or, you know, not fulfilling potential or so different from what it was growing up where men were men were very sure who they were and what they were supposed to represent, for better or for worse, now, there seems to be more of more of a search for the proper role to take on.

Wendy Mesley  27:14  
They used to just turn to alcohol, didn't they in the in the old days?

Stewart Reynolds  27:18  
Well, I mean, that's exactly it. Really. I mean, that's, I think, I don't buy into this idea that there was a time when men were men, I sort of feel like, on the on the surface, maybe it looked like that. And I think there was a much easier identity to buy into, that everyone was kind of like, let's just pretend like this is the way things are. And this is everyone's happy. I'm sure there was lots of tremendously unhappy and soul searching dudes back in the 50s. It's kind of like, you know, you think back to I remember my high school girlfriend, her family's from Windsor. And her both of her grandparents were one was jam one was Ford, and they had moved to Windsor to be part of the auto manufacturing industry. And that was like that was baked in, that's what you did. And the whole neighborhoods were springing up around that idea. And then then it just all fell apart. And it was kind of left a bunch of people going, I don't know, I don't know who I am anymore. I've never had to think about it, I've just been able to sort of slot in and track in. I remember, as a side note to that there was I got asked to speak to a bunch of grade eights, one time, this is like really early on. And it's like very early on in 2013, maybe just the beginning 2014. And these kids were getting ready to go into high school and the principal was up before me. And he was like, this is the track you take if you want to do this career, this is the track you take if you want to take this career. And then it was my turn. I was like kids, what I'm doing for a job didn't exist six months ago, six months ago. So keep you know, keep the doors open, learn as much as you can, and just be prepared for anything. Just do you know, try to find something that makes you happy? Because it's it's not the same anymore. It's not the same. We have to kind of reinvent what's happening. We can't just sort of cookie cutter, everybody, because people don't fit like that.

Maureen Holloway  28:58  
What did your kids tell people that you did back when they were kids? And you were just starting out? Um, actor or was it that simple? Or?

Stewart Reynolds  29:08  
I think what was weird was that because we were part of like, we started on an app called Vine, which was 6.4 second looping videos. And it was such a popular app that people just assume we were rich from the get go. They were like, oh, yeah, I know what your dad does, like so everybody kind of knew. And then of course, both of our kids were creating content as well. So they were just I think they they cringed the most people sort of assuming that we were rich and famous. And it's like, no, you should come see your house. You're not rich and famous. We're like living in leftover 1986 Bollywood here. This is not good. I spent it all on the sign.

Maureen Holloway  29:47  
Yeah, well, you know, podcast, right.

Stewart Reynolds  29:50  
Really goat. Yeah. I'm really the greatest of all time.

Wendy Mesley  29:57  
Right because you've got a podcast Find your online. Really goat. We have to let you go soon. And we didn't even get to ask about dad jokes, but I don't think you tell them anymore. I think he's just a little bit humorous. 

Stewart Reynolds  30:13  
I'm more cerebral than that. Now.

Maureen Holloway  30:20  
What are you? What? What's it anything coming up that you need to plug or want to plug? Because-

Stewart Reynolds  30:25  
Yes, yeah, there's a lots of fun stuff happening, which is great. But I think the most exciting thing for me, at least on the horizon is that I have a book coming out in September, in Simon and Schuster on their post Hill press imprint, which I really take great delight in knowing that my fellow you call them labelmates. When you're on a on a publishing company.

Maureen Holloway  30:45  
There isn't a name for it. I don't think it's labeled, but that's record record. But yeah, but your other your your literary colleagues,

Stewart Reynolds  30:52  
Literary colleagues include Lauren Bobert. So that's good.

Wendy Mesley  30:56  
Oh, wow. 

Stewart Reynolds  31:00  
The ghost of Herman Cain. And yeah, it should be should be great. 

Maureen Holloway  31:05  
What's it called? 

Stewart Reynolds  31:05  
Actually, they've been great. It's called Welcome To The Stupidpocalypse: Survival Tips For The Dumb Again.

Maureen Holloway  31:10  
Okay, and it's coming out in the fall?

Stewart Reynolds  31:12  
Yeah. 

Wendy Mesley  31:13  
Can you give us one tip?

Stewart Reynolds  31:15  
Sure. Take a breath and relax. That's probably one. That's one general tip. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it should be fun. The foreword is written by Ryan Reynolds.

Maureen Holloway  31:24  
Are you serious?

Stewart Reynolds  31:25  
The Afterword is written by Colin Mochrie. Afterwards, written by Colin Mochrie. And the Middleword is written by Mary Trump series. I'm excited. 

Maureen Holloway  31:33  
Are you serious?

Stewart Reynolds  31:34  
Totally serious.

Wendy Mesley  31:36  
I love Colin Mochrie. Well, Ryan Reynolds too. But Colin Mochrie is is amazing. So that's, oh, that's so great.

Stewart Reynolds  31:42  
I know. They're all great. Yeah.

Maureen Holloway  31:44  
Yeah. I'm a fan. I like all of them. But yeah, congratulations. We'll have you back on. We'd love to if you'll come back on.

Stewart Reynolds  31:52  
Absolutely. As long as I mean, I expect sort of slightly less. Hard hitting introduction. 

Wendy Mesley  31:58  
You weren't supposed to be listening. 

Stewart Reynolds  32:01  
Oh sorry.

Wendy Mesley  32:06  
You should hear what we say after we say goodbye.

Maureen Holloway  32:10  
Yeah, that's coming up. Stuart Reynolds, also known as Brittlestar, you can follow him.

Wendy Mesley  32:16  
Oh, yeah. Why do you? Why do you call it Battlestar? 

Stewart Reynolds  32:19  
So brittle star was a band name in 2004. And I, I wrote an album, co wrote an album with Steven Duffy, who was the one of the founders of Duran Duran and wrote with Robbie Williams, and the Berkeley ladies and all kind of stuff. And I thought no one's gonna buy a t shirt with Stewart Reynolds on it. So I better find a better name. So our oldest son Owen had a marinelife book, he was three at the time and he loved this section on starfish and one of the starfish are called brittlestars. They could see out of their tentacles and they could and they defecate it out of their mouths. And I was like when I made the switch from rock'n'roll to comedy, I was like, this works.

Maureen Holloway  32:57  
Yeah, I love that see out of their fingers and defecate out of their mouths.

Stewart Reynolds  33:02  
Just like me.

Maureen Holloway  33:04  
Stewart Reynolds, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

Wendy Mesley  33:07  
Thank you so much, so much fun to talk to you. 

Stewart Reynolds  33:09  
Thanks for having me. 

Wendy Mesley  33:10  
Yeah, work on that sign.

Stewart Reynolds  33:12  
Well, I'm just gonna kneel in front of it for a bit after this.

Maureen Holloway  33:16  
Lovely to talk to you. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye, bye. Oh, I love him.

Wendy Mesley  33:25  
Yeah, he's, he's so great. I'm so happy that people like him are able to survive and thrive. He's got a book coming out now. Good we didn't have to read that for the show.

Maureen Holloway  33:35  
I don't think it would have been tough. Maybe we should have. Yeah, this is there are a number of people that we talked to that I feel we should have as regulars. And I'm sure that that our listeners wouldn't disagree that that Stewart would be one of them. Because, you know, he's funny as hell in any wry, dry kind of way. But he's, you know, he thinks about these things. And and he's representing his species finally, I believe.

Wendy Mesley  34:01  
Yeah, well, as I say, middle aged white women are in the same camp as he is now. So there's a lot of women sort of glorifying being women. I hope to God. That's not what we're doing. Maybe, but-

Maureen Holloway  34:12  
I what you mean. I don't want to come across as sort of sanctimonious or holier than thou because I'm some sort of privileged white, middle aged women. Because I've got to live to be 130 by the way. 

Wendy Mesley  34:24  
You're really great. 

Maureen Holloway  34:26  
Oh, yeah. Well, you're really goat. So no, that's fantastic.

Wendy Mesley  34:32  
So I managed to make it through apparently there was a little bit of snorkeling and yeah, oh, well.

Maureen Holloway  34:38  
Oh, my God. You're human.

Wendy Mesley  34:41  
I have a cold. Yeah, you do. Yeah. You can't have laryngitis as an anchor or as a podcaster. Apparently But anyway, he was lovely. He was so nice to talk to you. Yeah. Bye. 

Maureen Holloway  34:51  
Bye.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  34:56  
Women Of Ill Repute was written and produced by Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley with the help from the team at the Sound Off Media Company and producer Jet Belgraver.