Johnny Margiotta

00:01 Scott Johnson: This week on The Mack Talks, we have John Margiotta coming on to talk all things Waterbury, his favorite businesses, his favorite restaurants, and his favorite bars. We’re also doing Mack Move or Wack Move. Let’s go.

[music]

00:15 SJ: Chase, tell the people what The Mack Talks are.

00:17 Chase Hutchison: If you’re an entrepreneur, impactful leader or business owner, The Mack Talks are that vehicle that brings you the stories that you need to hear.

00:24 SJ: That’s right, real stories from real leaders. Check us out every Thursday.

00:34 SJ: That’s right, everybody. Episode 46. I kinda said that kinda weird, episode.

00:40 CH: Episode.

00:40 SJ: Episode 46 of The Mack Talks, Chase Hutchison.

00:46 CH: What’s up, guys?

00:49 SJ: Today, we have on my boy that we grew up with, the one and only Johnny Margiotta. Johnny, say, “what up?”

00:55 Johnny Margiotta: How are we doing today?

00:57 SJ: Come up on that mic a little bit there fella, yup, alright, nice. So today, we got our boy on, Johnny. So I grew up in Southbury. That’s where I grew up, and I started working washing dishes. Basically, this story is about how you grow up in one town and then you meet other people from other towns, right? You know how that goes, right?

01:20 CH: Yeah.

01:20 SJ: That’s kind of really where you kind of branch out.

01:22 CH: Dude, all my friends are from other towns now.

01:23 SJ: That’s how you branch out in life, right?

01:25 CH: Yeah.

01:26 SJ: So my boy, who was… His brother’s boys worked at East Hill Woods so we all washed dishes there. So then we started hanging out with these characters from Waterbury, Cappy, freaking Dave, super dad.

01:41 JM: The buzz.

01:42 SJ: All of them.

01:43 CH: They show you the ropes.

01:44 JM: Leo.

01:44 SJ: Leo, Lenmar, his brother in the basement, hang out, these guys go hard in the basement.

01:50 JM: A bunch of characters, for sure.

01:51 SJ: Yeah.

01:52 CH: Basement gang.

01:53 SJ: Always always super, super fun to be around these guys. So I figure why not have Johnny come on and talk some Waterbury history, talk some Waterbury business history, right, John?

02:05 JM: Look forward to it. I was honored and as, when you mentioned to me that you wanted me to come on, I said, “Jeez, I’d love to do that, Johnson.” As you know we’ve been trying to put something together for a while so I’m here and I’m ready to roll.

02:20 SJ: Yeah, man, yeah, ready to roll. So yeah, let’s just jump right into it ’cause I know Chase has some sales call, right? You got a call after this?

02:29 CH: Yeah, I got time though.

02:30 SJ: Yeah, you got time?

02:31 CH: Yeah, we got some time.

02:32 SJ: Okay, alright. So we’re gonna run through a couple of topics here with Johnny. He’s gonna run through some fun and exciting things that happen in the business world with inside of Waterbury. Some places that were fun to hang out. We’re gonna cover some entertainment spots that were fun. We’re gonna cover retail, we’re gonna cover food, and of course, we’re gonna cover some bars. So John, turn over to you here, let’s talk about Waterbury. You grew up in Waterbury, born and raised in Waterbury, first of all, tell us about some of the entertainment things that have happened over the years in Waterbury.

03:02 JM: Sure. Sure. Yeah, I grew up in a little section called Town Plot, Waterbury.

03:07 SJ: Some Italians live out there right, couple?

03:09 JM: Well, so they say but per square capita, we’re right up there with the best. So having said that one of my favorite entertainments businesses was a place called Crazy 8’s. And if you’re from Waterbury, you damn sure know where Crazy 8’s is all about and it started off getting a ride down there by a friend of mine’s cousin, Steve Mancini’s cousin, his name was Gino Pata. And Gino drove a little Buick Regal and on the bottom of the Regal it had, “Just cooling.”

03:47 SJ: Yeah, baby.

03:49 JM: So we go down there for our fun and entertainment. I looked forward to it. It was more…

03:53 SJ: It’s a arcade, right?

03:54 JM: Basic arcade, Pole Position, a Tyson Punch-Out, Centipede, pool tables, Skee-Ball. Who didn’t like that back in the day?

04:04 SJ: Yeah, and you got the tickets?

04:06 JM: Of course.

04:07 SJ: You got a stockpile of tickets of course right?

04:09 JM: Of course.

04:11 SJ: So you used to go there what Friday nights?

04:13 JM: We went every Friday and Saturday night.

04:15 SJ: Yeah and this is a what, 13-year-old Johnny, 14?

04:18 JM: I would say I was about 14, 15 years old at the time, couldn’t wait to get in the car and you know the whole plaza would be jumping, cars be going cruising through the plaza back in the day.

04:29 SJ: Nice.

04:30 JM: You’d have, off-limits was one of the cars that comes to my mind, it’s just a happening place.

04:37 SJ: Crazy 8’s. And where was that located?

04:38 JM: That’s down in downtown, down in the Colonial Plaza of Waterbury.

04:43 SJ: Nice, nice. Crazy 8’s. Anybody remember Crazy 8’s, put it in the comments. If you actually ran with Johnny at Crazy 8’s, which I know a lot of people watching this when you share it are going to, get some of them JM stories down there in the comments.

05:00 JM: For sure. For sure.

05:00 CH: Definitely, for sure.

05:00 SJ: Alright cool. So then as far as any other places entertainment-wise that you loved to go to? I know the mall was over there, right?

05:09 JM: Yeah, the old mall. That was a fun and happening time as well. We looked forward to getting a ride over to the mall, the old mall off of Wolcott Road, and one of my favorite retail stores was Chess King. And if you remember Chess King, they were known for their Z Cavariccis and their pinstripe jeans.

05:30 SJ: Oh, I remember them very, very well. I used to rock that attire.

05:33 JM: Of course, you did, who…

05:34 SJ: This young boy, he doesn’t… You don’t know what that life was about.

05:36 CH: Is this Brass, Brass Mill Center?

05:39 JM: Nope.

05:39 SJ: No.

05:40 CH: This is a different… Different place?

05:40 JM: This is the old Naugatuck Valley Mall.

05:43 CH: Okay.

05:43 SJ: Yeah.

05:44 CH: I have no idea what that whole pinstripe jean is. I’m actually kinda scared to find out.

05:48 JM: Well, if you didn’t have pinstripe jeans on with your shell-toe Adidas and the fat laces…

05:53 SJ: You just… They wouldn’t let you into Crazy 8’s, let’s just put it that way. They wouldn’t let you into Crazy 8’s.

05:56 JM: You weren’t getting in. No doubt.

06:00 SJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that mall. That mall was a very strange… They knocked it down, didn’t they?

06:04 JM: They sure did, yeah.

06:05 SJ: What else did they have in that mall? So they got the…

06:08 JM: One of my other favorite stores was Jean Country, of course.

06:11 SJ: Yeah, Jean Country’s a classic.

06:11 JM: And Jean Country always had all the great jeans and of course, their Champion gear, can’t forget. Who wouldn’t wear their Champion sweatshirts and…

06:21 SJ: Dude. Good topic though, Champion made a comeback, right? You see Champion?

06:24 JM: Yes, they did.

06:25 SJ: Everybody loves Champion. Back in the day for us, it was just that little sweatshirt with a little C, remember that?

06:30 JM: Oh, yeah.

06:30 SJ: You were the shit if you had that.

06:31 JM: Bunch of different colors?

06:32 SJ: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

06:34 CH: That shit’s cool. It’s like throwback now kinda. I mean, if you have some old Champion gear, like if you can rock that now it’s… You get some clout.

06:41 SJ: It’s good internet arbitrage.

06:42 CH: We call that clout nowadays. We call it clout.

06:44 SJ: We call that internet arbitrage, you can take your old, if you still have it in a bag, you could resell it.

06:48 CH: If you got all these flyest gear like that’s called drip. That’s your drip.

[laughter]

06:52 JM: Oh, okay. Alright.

[laughter]

06:53 CH: And if you’ve got it all together and you’ve got a popping Instagram, then you have what’s called clout.

07:00 JM: Okay.

07:01 SJ: Nice!

07:01 JM: Okay. Look at this guy, educating the old boys here.

07:03 CH: So, just letting you know.

07:04 JM: What we used to call that kinda stuff, it was phat, it was tight.

07:08 SJ: Yeah, yeah. Yup, yup.

07:10 CH: P-H phat, not regular fat.

07:12 SJ: Yeah, yeah. Alright. So then now let’s move into… So we hit some of the retail spots, now let’s talk about the favorite, what Johnny is known for. Everybody who knows Johnny, that knows JM, knows that he loves to review food. Loves to review food, and some might say there could be some talks happening about Johnny maybe having a segment that could be a food review segment here on The Mack Talks. I don’t know, we’re in contract negotiations, we’re talking, we’re trying to figure it out, maybe…

07:44 CH: Lot of money on the line.

07:45 SJ: Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. I think it would be an awesome thing to do. Johnny, what do you think? What you think about doing some food reviews for us?

07:51 JM: I would love to.

07:52 SJ: Wouldn’t it be awesome?

07:53 JM: Yeah, it would be awesome. I didn’t realize what a following I actually had on social media when I started going out and doing my thing, checking out different Italian restaurants, ’cause I’m full Italian, of course, so I always gotta get…

08:05 SJ: Get outta here, you?

08:06 JM: The favorite Italian restaurants and posting up them pictures and next thing I know people are commenting. And I got a little upset with social media for a little while and people were hitting me with private messages. Instant Messenger said, “Johnny, where you been? Haven’t seen you, haven’t posted anything? What’s going on out there?”

08:24 SJ: Yeah, so you had to come back and hit them with a review.

08:26 JM: So I did and I came back and there’s a lot of great restaurants, Italian restaurants, in Waterbury, Connecticut.

08:32 SJ: Yeah, a lot of Italian. Yeah.

08:33 JM: And that’s what many people actually come to Waterbury is for good Italian food.

08:39 CH: Yeah, hell yeah.

08:39 SJ: That and the drugs, but anyway… So…

[chuckle]

08:41 CH: Pizza and heroin.

08:43 SJ: So tell us…

08:43 CH: Nah, that’s okay.

08:45 SJ: We don’t wanna go that hard, Jesus bro.

08:48 CH: Crazy combo.

08:48 SJ: You don’t gotta go straight to heroin.

08:48 JM: Yeah, right?

08:49 SJ: So anyway, tell us about some of your favorite pizza joints, I know the one… Or some of your favorite places to eat. I know that one pizza joint you literally grew up in. Every once in a while I see you popping in over there, it’s so funny. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about some of your favorite spots and…

09:06 JM: Yeah, yeah. We’ll start with the old pizzerias and then we could get into the Italian restaurants. But of course, you have to go to Domenick & Pia’s in Downtown Waterbury. You get a couple slices of cheese and a meatball and cheese and many people don’t realize how good, how very good, their meatball and cheese is. They’re known for their cheese pizza. Pia’s always in there saying hello.

09:31 SJ: That’s awesome.

09:32 JM: They’re so friendly. They’ve been over there for 40 plus, maybe 50 years. One of my favorites is Domenick & Pia’s.

09:38 SJ: And what road is that on?

09:39 JM: That’s on Brook Street.

09:41 SJ: Brook Street, Domenick & Pia’s.

09:43 JM: Yes.

09:44 SJ: So Pia is the wife?

09:46 JM: Pia is the wife and Domenick’s…

09:47 SJ: And Domenick’s the husband?

09:48 JM: Correct.

09:49 SJ: They’re both still running it?

09:50 JM: Correct. They still are.

09:50 SJ: That’s amazing. A shout-out to them.

09:53 JM: Yeah, they’re up in their probably late 70s.

09:55 SJ: That’s unbelievable.

09:56 JM: And if Dave from Barstool is actually listening in on this at some point…

10:00 SJ: Yeah, get over there.

10:01 JM: We highly recommend Domenick & Pia’s and go check that place out.

10:04 SJ: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

10:05 CH: What kind of pies they make, Neapolitan or just traditional?

10:09 JM: Your traditional, nice thin, crispy, a little oily but always good.

10:15 CH: Delicious.

10:16 JM: Always consistently good.

10:17 SJ: Nice.

10:17 CH: Oh, that’s my favorite, man. That’s awesome.

10:19 JM: For sure, for sure. And then getting into a few of the other pizzerias which comes to my mind is actually John’s Apizza, been a fan favorite of John’s for many, many years. We started eating slices of cheese at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grammar School, Catholic school, up in Town Plot section again. And we just grew to love it and still like it to this day.

10:44 JM: That’s awesome.

10:45 S4: Yes, yes!

10:45 JM: Another great pizzeria that comes to my mind is Anthony’s Pizzeria. Once again, started in the Town Plot section of Waterbury and now they’re in Oakville. So, and one…

10:54 SJ: Yep. What do you with when you go there to get the slices, what’s your go-to? You get meatball? I know you mentioned meatball before?

11:01 JM: Down at Domenick & Pia’s, I’m always gonna get the slice of cheese, the slices of cheese. The classic.

11:05 CH: That’s the gold medal pizza right there.

11:07 JM: Right there.

11:07 CH: You got a good cheese slice, you’ll be in business forever.

11:09 JM: 100%.

11:10 SJ: What about the other spot?

11:11 JM: Anthony’s…

11:11 SJ: It’s your grinder spot?

[chuckle]

11:14 JM: Yeah, we could get into the whole, the delis and things. But in terms of Anthony’s, for example, I love their white chicken and spinach, thin and crispy. They got a great sausage and cherry peppers.

11:26 SJ: Nice.

11:27 JM: Yeah, they do a real nice job over there as well. Yeah.

11:30 SJ: Awesome. That’s cool, man, that’s cool. So does that cover the food places, John? Does that cover your favorite food places? What have you got, you got a couple more?

11:38 JM: I’ve got some restaurants I’d love to talk about, a great Italian restaurant.

11:41 SJ: Go ahead, go ahead.

11:42 JM: What really comes to my mind first is the Four Seasons, which is now the San Marino Room. They started down in the Colonial Plaza where Crazy 8’s actually started in the Four Seasons, now San Marino is still in business today, and they’re still going very strong.

11:57 SJ: Do they have another location too?

12:00 JM: Yes, they…

12:00 SJ: Were they in Woodbury at one point? Or no?

12:01 JM: No, but they also have what they call Nino’s Trattoria up in the East End.

12:02 SJ: No. Carmen Anthony’s is Woodbury, I think. What exactly is a trattoria?

12:09 JM: That’s your traditional Italian restaurant.

12:12 SJ: What does the words mean? What does it mean in Italian?

12:15 CH: Yeah, well, I don’t know. Trattoria…

12:17 SJ: I don’t know.

12:18 CH: I don’t know. I see it everywhere though.

12:19 JM: Yeah. I’m gonna take it to elegance, you’re a…

12:23 SJ: Mangia Mangia.

12:24 JM: Ah, you wanna eat.

[laughter]

12:28 JM: Some other really good restaurants to talk about are, we can never forget about D’Amelio’s, they’ve been in business for…

12:37 SJ: Classic Town Plot, right?

12:38 JM: 30 plus years.

12:38 SJ: Waterbury, yup.

12:38 JM: Town Plot classic, absolutely. And a hidden secret that’s now closed was Aldo’s of Italy. And everybody loved Aldo’s. That was behind the old mall, the old Naugatuck Valley Mall. I don’t know if you have ever been there.

12:52 SJ: Yeah, yeah, I have been. Not to the restaurant but to the old mall.

12:52 JM: Okay, yeah. Aldo’s. And then to the new trend today, La Tavola. La Tavola is a great Italian restaurant, again right up there in the Town Plot section, in the heart, doing well. So.

13:16 SJ: Yeah, I know you said you had your party that’s coming up there and that you guys have the party there every year and stuff like that…

13:21 JM: Yes, we do.

13:21 SJ: It’s one of your spots. So.

13:22 JM: Yes, we do. The old annual Christmas party.

13:24 SJ: Yep.

13:25 JM: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

13:25 SJ: That’s awesome.

13:26 CH: Great place to take a date, right? That’s how I remember it.

13:29 JM: Absolutely.

13:29 CH: Yeah, great place to take a date. I went there with my parents years and years ago but, and I remember it was bomb. Really good. Yeah.

13:34 JM: Yeah, nice ambiance, good atmosphere, for sure.

13:40 CH: Yeah.

13:40 SJ: Awesome. So is that it on your restaurants, bro?

13:43 JM: Well, I could touch on some delis.

13:45 SJ: Go ahead. What do you got? What do you got for delis?

13:47 JM: It started way back…

13:48 SJ: What’s the place you just mentioned it before?

13:50 JM: D’Amelio’s.

13:50 SJ: The place that is next to the church, down the road from Len’s house.

13:54 JM: Now, okay.

13:54 SJ: Your house too.

13:55 JM: Okay, used to be called Cavallo’s back in the day.

13:57 SJ: Cavallo’s.

13:57 JM: Then it became Avventura and now it’s Noochie’s which is a family of D’Amelio’s. It’s the son. His name is, they call him Noochie.

14:07 SJ: Really?

14:08 JM: Yeah.

14:08 SJ: That’s funny. That’s great. That place is unbelievable. They had like a sauce, like some kind of like sausage bread or something that was just unbelievable. I mean, that stuff was just, it was really good.

14:19 JM: And you remembered it.

14:20 SJ: And I remembered it. I do. And I just remember it being on this little side street where a church was. It’s like, why is there a deli here? It was weird.

14:27 CH: Those are the best ones though.

14:29 SJ: Yeah. No, it was unbelievable though.

14:30 JM: For sure. Still going.

14:31 SJ: Yeah, and they’re doing a good job over there.

14:33 JM: They are. They are.

14:34 SJ: So next time you need to bring in some of that shit on your way in. You know what I’m saying? On your way back.

[laughter]

14:38 JM: Yeah, absolutely. One other deli to touch on.

14:39 SJ: Go ahead.

14:40 JM: Ann’s Deli, Baldwin Street, been around, family-owned and operated many years as well. They’re still there. They were across the street. They moved just maybe 500 feet across the street, excuse me, and they are known for their cellophane saran wrap. They wrap everything in saran wrap today.

15:00 SJ: Everything.

15:00 JM: Back in the day, that’s how it started.

15:01 SJ: That’s so funny.

[laughter]

15:04 JM: Yeah. Sandwiches, even their soups, they come… You get a little cup of soup…

15:06 SJ: They put the saran wrap on top of it?

15:07 CH: And then they saran wrap it. Yeah.

15:09 JM: Exactly.

15:09 CH: Yeah, that’s old school.

15:10 JM: Old school.

15:11 CH: You can’t even find that.

15:12 SJ: They’d be charging 10 cents per on that nowadays. They better be careful with that, the state is gonna come down on them for that. You know what I mean?

15:17 JM: No kidding.

15:18 CH: Those are the best places though, men. Those little corner stores, you know?

15:21 JM: For sure.

15:21 SJ: And now, you’re going to tell us about the best bars, right?

15:26 JM: Absolutely.

15:26 SJ: Right? So tell us about some of the bars in Waterbury. I know that you frequent a lot of them. I know that your brother, he throws the… He toes the line, plays some darts. Are you a dart guy too or no?

15:37 JM: I never became a dart guy.

15:38 SJ: You just hang out with them when they go play, right?

15:40 JM: Yeah. Yeah. Like to become their entertainment at times, as you know. I was a big baseball player, played Division II college baseball down at the University of Bridgeport. Big shout-out to UB.

15:51 SJ: Shout-out to Bridgeport baby. UB.

15:52 JM: Yes, sir.

15:53 SJ: Nice.

15:54 JM: Yeah, so getting back to the bars, White Parrot was the place to go back in the late ’70s, early ’80s which then became as you remember, Boppers.

16:05 SJ: Yep, I remember Boppers. We used to sneak into that place quite often. Waterbury is kind of known for the place… When you lived outside of Waterbury and you couldn’t get into any bars, you’d go to Waterbury and you’d get into some bars.

16:15 JM: Oh, for sure.

16:16 SJ: You know what I mean?

16:16 JM: Polo’s was known that you could get into their bar. You can’t forget about Polo’s downtown.

16:21 SJ: Chase gets carded everywhere we go ’cause he looks like a young lad. And let me just tell you, they’re not asking for your ID in Waterbury, bro. You don’t gotta worry about that problem.

16:29 CH: Just so you guys know, that tradition has kept up to this day. So when I was in high school, we used to drive to Waterbury to get booze.

16:37 SJ: Oh, wow. See that?

16:37 CH: Because in Newtown, it’s like what? No, get out of here.

16:40 SJ: Yeah, Newtown you’re screwed.

16:42 CH: If you don’t look like you’re 30, they’re gonna…

16:43 SJ: And Danbury’s just not…

16:46 CH: No, Danbury is not good either.

16:47 SJ: It’s not. Because there’s no like…

16:48 CH: You got to go to Waterbury. So we used to drive to this little bodega over by Shock ‘N’ Awe which is like a head shop over in… You know off exit…

16:55 JM: Huntington Avenue.

16:56 CH: What is that exit?

16:57 SJ: 30.

16:57 JM: Exit 30?

16:58 S?: Yeah, Route 8.

17:00 CH: Yeah so we used to go…

17:00 JM: Huntington Ave, yeah. For sure.

17:00 CH: We used to go all the way down there and get our Four Lokos…

17:02 SJ: For sure. Four Lokos.

17:04 CH: Take them on the train to the city and go watch some hockey or something. Those were the days. The tradition continues.

17:11 SJ: Field hockey or… Ice hockey or field hockey?

17:14 CH: Ice hockey, Rangers. Go watch…

[overlapping conversation]

17:15 SJ: Oh, okay. I thought maybe ice hockey… I mean field hockey ’cause you’re into that.

17:18 CH: I love field hockey.

17:19 JM: Chase, we talked about nicknames in Waterbury and we forgot to mention the all-time, AKA, Sin City.

17:28 CH: Sin City.

17:29 SJ: True.

17:30 JM: How could we forget the Sin City? The Brass City we know, but what about the Sin City?

17:36 SJ: Or that there’s the Dirty Water.

17:39 JM: The Dirties.

17:39 SJ: What else you got?

17:40 CH: I don’t know. I heard like H2O.

17:42 SJ: The dirty H2O?

17:44 CH: Yeah, the H2O or something.

17:45 JM: Yes, sir.

17:46 CH: Waterscary.

17:47 SJ: One that John… Yeah, Waterscary.

17:48 CH: Waterscary.

17:49 SJ: Well, John never heard about that one before. That one’s a little… It’s a little aggressive towards the locals.

17:54 CH: I read it in the reviews of a restaurant I think one time…

17:57 SJ: Like the locals don’t like Waterscary.

17:58 CH: I was like Waterscary? I was like, damn.

18:00 JM: I have nothing, no regrets, I have nothing bad to say about Waterbury. Still living, currently living in greater Waterbury and I still have a lot of family, good family and friends from Waterbury, so I only have great things to say and a big shoutout to the Brass City.

18:16 SJ: Well bro, let me just tell you something, I’m from Delaware, bro. Alright? And let me just tell you real quick, Delaware is just a big Waterbury. That’s all it is. Tell me… Just with lower taxes. That’s all it is, bro.

18:28 CH: Oh, he’s looking at the camera now. That’s when you know he’s serious.

18:30 SJ: I’m talking to you right there. I’m telling everybody in Delaware, come to Waterbury.

18:32 JM: I’m talking to you.

18:35 SJ: Yeah.

18:35 CH: No, I’ll say the same thing, man. They got great food there. The people are nice. I go down to Waterbury, get some nice Italian dinner. I love it.

18:43 SJ: Listen, I’m going to tell you it’s a different land…

18:43 CH: It’s different.

18:45 SJ: But I like it. It’s definitely different. I got some good people that’s out there. I always like to say this, right, you always like to say Waterbury, at least it’s not in Naugatuck, that’s always what I like to say.

[laughter]

18:55 CH: I’m just kidding.

18:55 JM: Naugatuck.

18:56 CH: The people from Waterbury rep it hard too.

19:00 SJ: Yeah.

19:00 JM: We don’t.

19:00 CH: The people from Waterbury are like, “Yo, I’m from Waterbury.”

19:03 SJ: Yeah. Alright, what other bars you got? You got Brass City, our boy Chad used to…

19:03 CH: Oh, the Brass Horse.

19:07 SJ: The Brass Horse. The Brass Horse.

19:08 JM: A staple in Downtown Waterbury across the street is the Brass Horse, if you remember, and a lot of great fun times over there as well. And today Spartan’s is the place where people go today, they got a good little thing going on.

19:27 SJ: Spartan’s been around forever. They moved since where they originally were, right?

19:31 JM: Yes, they did that, they moved across the street.

19:31 SJ: ‘Cause I remember I used to go there with some people that I knew back in the day, it was always a fun spot to go.

19:39 JM: It is. They got the games on, you got a nice bar setup, good food, whatever you like, a late night menu.

19:46 SJ: Yeah.

19:46 JM: They do their thing.

19:47 SJ: They do their thing, that’s right. Alright, what else you got for bars, John? Some of your favorites.

19:54 S?: Tell us something shady that used to happen. Oh, what about Boru’s, bro?

19:56 JM: Boru’s, I don’t frequent as often, however, we go there… I go there once a year for our end-of-the-year fantasy football party.

20:06 SJ: Yes.

20:07 JM: ‘Cause a bunch of the guys in my league like doing that. And by the way, we created and invented fantasy football, this league. 30-plus years, still going.

20:15 SJ: Wow.

20:15 JM: Oh by the way.

20:17 SJ: 30… Tommy, this dude’s been doing fantasy football longer than you been livin’, he’s been doing fantasy football longer than you been livin’. Do you know… What if I told these young guys this little story? Did you know that back in the day you weren’t able to adjust your team through your goddamn phone? Did you know that? You don’t gotta call nobody, you gotta sit there and write everything down. You gotta call this dude, you gotta put that dude in, you gotta…

20:39 JM: We wrote everything down on paper, and then we’d watch Primetime to get our stats at 7 or 8 o’clock, whenever it came on, Berman and Tommy Jackson. And…

20:48 SJ: These kids, they don’t know how easy they have it for fantasy.

20:52 JM: I’m telling you…

20:52 SJ: You wouldn’t be able to play in three or four fantasy leagues back then.

20:55 JM: No, never.

20:55 SJ: You just wouldn’t be able to do it.

20:56 JM: Never. And if you couldn’t get the stats on Primetime…

21:00 SJ: The paper.

21:00 JM: I’d pick up the phone, I call the Waterbury Republican the next day…

21:03 SJ: And it runs through it, yeah.

21:05 JM: And get the stats from different players.

[laughter]

21:08 CH: That’s awesome. I mean that’s straight up, you gotta earn that win…

21:10 SJ: And now the masses can do fantasy, but back in the day it wasn’t the masses that did fantasy. You know what I mean?

21:17 JM: Not even close.

21:18 CH: Yeah, that’s awesome.

21:19 SJ: Alright, so we’re gonna get ready to start our… Chase’s favorite part of the program, Mack Move or Wack Move. Right? Johnny, you’re gonna stick around and join us for this or what?

21:28 JM: Absolutely, run it.

21:31 SJ: Alright.

21:31 CH: So basically Mack Move or Wack Move, I’m gonna pitch a topic from the news to you guys, we’re all gonna give our take. It’s pretty self-explanatory, Mack Move or Wack Move, tell us why.

21:40 JM: Okay.

21:41 CH: Alright.

[music]

21:44 CH: Are we ready? We’re jumping right in.

21:46 SJ: We are jumping right in.

21:50 CH: Let’s do it guys.

[music]

21:55 SJ: That means it’s time for Mack Move, Wack Move.

[chuckle]

22:00 CH: Alright, on that note, topic number one guys.

[music]

22:04 CH: Coca-Cola is launching a $10 a month subscription service. Now, what does this get you? Exclusive insider beverages like coffee-flavored Coke and Coke Energy, some of their off-brand flavors like AHA which is their flavored sparkling water, and it comes in a really cool box and they also can get some merch along with it. So if you’re a big Coca-Cola fan, you drink a lot of soft drinks, or if you’re just nostalgic, you love vintage stuff, and you like new stuff, you pay 10 bucks a month, it’s not that expensive, you get a bunch of stuff mailed to you directly from Coke. Only a thousand people can join, start up right now.

22:43 SJ: I’ll go first and I’ll go Wack Move. I don’t think you need to pay a monthly subscription to get diabetes. That’s what I’m gonna go with. ‘Cause I mean, that’s a little ridiculous. We wanna know why America’s fat and this could be one of the reasons, I could say. So that’s how I feel.

23:00 CH: Also, riding on the coattails of other subscription services which have been very popular in the past couple of years, with Netflix and Hulu, and that’s television, there’s also ThreadBeast where you can pay 50 bucks a month and they send you clothes every month, brand new clothes.

23:15 SJ: Yeah, see, all that stuff I’m cool with. But like high fructose corn syrup…

23:16 CH: But now they’re testing, they’re piloting that model and, yeah, we’ll see where it goes.

23:21 SJ: I give them credit for doing it. I give them credit for doing it. I mean, what… Hold on a second though. If it’s only gonna be 1,000 people…

23:28 CH: They’re testing, it’s a pilot thing.

23:30 SJ: Oh okay. Alright. ‘Cause I was gonna say, “Does Coke really need 10 grand a month?” [chuckle]

23:34 CH: One more thing, I guess Uber is also doing this where you can pay 30 bucks a month or something if you use Uber all the time, which a lot of people do in the city anyway. It’s really designed for them to where you could get free rides, you get free… In the city you use bike or scooter, you get free ones of those, and then free delivery of food.

23:56 SJ: Listen to this. You can actually get four free episodes of The Mack Talks for nothing.

24:02 CH: Right now.

24:02 SJ: You don’t even have to pay.

24:03 CH: Actually right now, today.

24:04 SJ: You don’t even have to pay. Today and today only, you can listen to The Mack Talks for free.

24:08 CH: You get 45 free episodes.

24:09 SJ: Yeah. So what are you going with?

24:11 JM: I’m gonna agree with Johnson. I’m gonna go Wack Move.

24:15 SJ: Tell it to the camera, bro.

24:16 JM: I’m gonna go Wack Move. I’m not a big soft drink, Coca-Cola kind of guy anyway.

24:22 SJ: And if you did, you would drink them out of the bottle…

24:24 JM: For sure.

24:25 SJ: At the pizza… I like drinking those every once in a while ’cause they’re a little smaller too.

24:30 CH: And they’re real. They’re real.

24:32 SJ: Yeah.

24:32 JM: Wack Move for me.

24:33 SJ: Yep.

24:34 CH: I’m going Mack Move. I’m a millennial, I love this, I eat this up.

24:37 SJ: What’s so funny is I’ve never even seen this dude drink Coke before. Like we go out and if he’s not drinking a Peroni, this guy loves him some Peronis…

24:44 JM: He’s got his rum and Cokes, so you didn’t even know about it.

[overlapping conversation]

24:45 CH: You know I love Coke. Peroni, Italian beer… No, I don’t drink rum and Coke. I drink Peroni beer.

24:50 SJ: You order a Sprite. Every time we go out…

24:53 JM: A Sprite, you get a Sprite.

24:54 CH: No, no, no, I… It’s funny because for lunch, at Jersey Mike’s, I got a Pepsi. They don’t have Coke there. But I would’ve gotten a Coke if they had Coke, just so you guys know.

25:03 SJ: I don’t even believe that ’cause I don’t even see it. Oh yeah, you had a…

25:06 CH: [25:06] ____ true that. True that.

25:07 SJ: Yeah, I saw that, I saw that.

25:08 CH: Yeah, you did see it. Alright, I’m going Mack Move.

25:09 SJ: Alright.

25:09 CH: That’s it, guys.

25:12 SJ: He’s going Mack Move. Next one.

25:12 CH: Topic number two.

[music]

25:16 CH: We’re calling this one “The Case Against Ugly Christmas Sweaters”.

25:20 SJ: Oh boy.

25:21 CH: So it used to be just like your grandma knitted you a sweater, it was super ugly, you’re afraid to wear it, your parents made you wear it, it was embarrassing, whatever. That was the tradition. But now it’s taken on this whole new thing where people are putting Will Smith in there. They’re putting… Santa’s doing… He’s hitting the stripper pole on this sweater. He’s got… I got a Coors Light one. It’s a trend now.

25:42 SJ: Beer-slinging snowman, Taylor Swift’s face.

25:44 JM: What about the little kitten that talks back?

25:47 CH: Yes, they got that. They got that as well. But now… So what the problem with this is it’s fast fashion. So it’s becoming trendy. Offices are throwing these parties. 40% of people say that they only wear this Christmas sweater once, then they throw it away. This contributes to an average American throws away 81 pounds of clothing in their lifetime. And also the people who are generating this clothing, poor wages, they’re from Bangladesh and Columbia, low wages, terrible work environment and conditions, and so on and so forth. So our little trends over here in America translate to misery for some other people, and also to our environmental issues which we’re experiencing.

26:29 SJ: So what’s the Mack Move or Wack Move?

26:31 CH: So the Mack Move or Wack Move is, do you still stand with the ugly Christmas sweater? Is it a Mack Move or Wack Move?

26:37 SJ: I’m gonna say that it’s a Mack Move. I’m gonna stand with it because, honestly, you can take any industry and say those things to it. Like Nike in general, I think, does worse for those people in those countries than the ugly sweater thing, alright? I get the fact that it’s not good for the environment because it’s dye-sub, so it’s a dye-sublimation process. Well god damn it, look at all these softball players out there. What, are we’re gonna get on them too? We gonna get on Dougie Digital? We gonna get on Lenmar? We gonna get on Johnny and the Slammers? Are we gonna get on them? You guys don’t have dye-sub shirts. Who am I kidding? You got a one color screen printed front on your shit, boy.

[laughter]

27:15 SJ: Anyway, I’m just saying like I don’t know. Let people have some fun, you know what I mean? Let’s have a little bit of god damn fun. If you wanna wear a sweater that’s got fricking Taylor Swift’s face or in my case, Will Smith’s face with cassette tapes and old phones in the background, that’s my ugly sweater, then you should be able to do it. I don’t have a problem with it, I think it’s a festive thing. I think it’s a good thing. I have no issues with it. So I’m gonna…

27:40 CH: Mack Move, Scott’s going Mack Move.

27:41 SJ: I’m going Mack Move.

27:42 CH: Mack Move on the sweaters. Go ahead, John.

27:44 JM: Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree with Johnson and…

27:46 SJ: Yeah.

27:46 JM: I’m gonna go Mack Move as well. I thought I was gonna disagree…

27:50 SJ: Everybody’s got a problem with everything, man.

27:52 JM: They do, but I like the whole ugly sweater Christmas parties.

27:56 SJ: Yeah.

27:57 JM: I’m a big party kinda guy. I love going to entertaining type of things and…

28:01 SJ: He’s a fun guy.

28:03 JM: And I once won a couple of years ago, true story…

28:07 CH: I’m a fun guy.

28:07 JM: An ugly sweater contest…

28:11 SJ: Yeah.

28:12 JM: With just the basic sweater on.

28:14 SJ: You didn’t even go ugly? You just went basic sweater?

28:16 JM: Exactly, and still won.

28:18 CH: I’m a fun guy.

28:19 SJ: Wow bro, that’s the shit!

28:20 CH: Wow.

28:21 JM: Mack Move.

28:22 CH: Yeah, yeah, you gotta go Mack Move.

28:24 SJ: That is the shit. What do you got?

28:25 CH: Alright, we are gonna have a consensus…

28:25 SJ: Dude wins ugly sweater contests without even putting an ugly sweater on! [chuckle]

28:28 CH: That’s pretty amazing.

28:29 SJ: Uh-oh. You know what means, Chase?

[music]

28:34 SJ: When everybody goes all around, that’s what we do, a little Jeremy Renner in there boy. What’s up?

28:38 CH: I don’t know, man. Some of this might be true, but honestly. If it wasn’t ugly sweaters, it would be something else.

28:44 SJ: Yeah.

28:44 CH: And then it would be something else.

28:46 SJ: Exactly.

28:46 CH: And if it wasn’t that, it would be something else.

28:48 SJ: How about it’s good for the environment? I mean, how about it’s good for the economy?

28:49 CH: That’s what I’m saying, I think that there’s people making money off of this.

28:51 SJ: And if you’re throwing your ugly sweater away…

28:53 CH: And that’s good.

28:53 SJ: Why are throwing it away? Wear it next year. What the hell is wrong with you?

28:56 JM: Absolutely.

28:57 SJ: Why are you throwing it away? That’s not very cost effective. You’re a jerk. Wack Move on anybody that throws away an ugly sweater. Recycle that shit, seriously.

29:04 CH: Long live the ugly Christmas sweater.

29:05 SJ: Alright, what are we moving on to? Topic number three?

29:07 CH: Topic numero tres.

[music]

29:13 CH: Okay. A little Spanish for you.

29:15 SJ: This is funny.

29:16 CH: I’m cultured like that. We got Goldfish releasing vegetable flavored crackers. This is obviously to appeal to children to make healthier choices and stuff like that. Some of the flavors include sweet carrot and cheesy tomato. So I don’t know if you guys have ever had those veggie chips or the veggie straws.

29:36 SJ: I have. I have.

29:36 CH: I really like that stuff. And the fact that there might be one aspect to it that is good for you or healthy to you just makes me even more excited. So I’m gonna start us off actually on this one. I’m gonna say Mack Move, Goldfish. I actually wanna try this cheesy tomato.

29:51 SJ: Alright, a couple questions, a little bit confused. Goldfish weren’t meat flavored before?

30:00 CH: Pizza. No, no, no. No, they just want…

30:00 SJ: They weren’t fish.

30:03 CH: No bro, who said meat?

30:04 SJ: Why do they have to be veggies? Like they’re comparing it to this, they’re saying that they’re doing this because of the fact that there’s been so much, the other plant-based food products like the Impossible Burger, Beyond Burger, oat milk. I get all that, but they’re still crackers. They’re just crackers.

30:26 CH: Yeah.

30:27 SJ: It’s like part of me is like I get what they’re doing here marketing-wise, but it’s really a crock of shit, kind of.

30:32 JM: I’m gonna go Mack Move.

30:33 SJ: Are you? You’re gonna go Mack Move on it, Johnny?

30:35 JM: I always was a fan favorite of those little cheddar cheese…

30:40 SJ: Those little sons of bitches.

30:41 JM: And the pizza ones…

30:42 SJ: You get one tugging on your line, you just reel them in!

30:45 JM: And I like what they’re still doing today. So Mack Move for me right there.

30:49 SJ: You know what? I’m gonna go with my boys just so I can hit number two on the sound board, which is…

[music]

31:00 SJ: So let’s see the…

[chuckle]

31:02 CH: Alright.

31:03 SJ: We’ll go with that. Personally though, I’m a little on the fence.

31:06 CH: Sounded like you were in a Mack… Sounds like you got bullied into Mack Move a little bit.

31:09 SJ: I did. I got bullied. I got bullied.

31:10 CH: Maybe not bullied, but you got influenced for sure.

31:12 SJ: I’m definitely questioning it though. It’s not…

31:13 CH: I think you were gonna go Wack Move until me and JD…

31:17 SJ: JD? It’s JM, bro.

31:19 CH: JM.

31:20 SJ: It’s JM.

31:20 CH: JM.

31:21 SJ: Alright, so that’s number three? Number four is what, Chase [31:27] ____?

31:27 CH: Topic number four.

[music]

31:32 CH: You might have heard about this, it’s in the news, Hallmark same-sex ad. So Hallmark released an ad for its wedding planning site, Zola, which showed two, or a lesbian couple kissing, and they ran that, but then they got bullied by conservative media outlets and journalists to take it down, so then they took it down, and then they got bullied by the left-leaning journalists and pretty much regular people.

32:01 SJ: Literally, 2019 in a nutshell. This is what happenes.

32:02 CH: “Well what do you want me to do? Just tell me what to do.” [chuckle]

32:05 JM: Problem is everybody’s got something to say about everybody else instead of worrying about what they’re doing.

32:09 SJ: True. But if you’re going to agree… If you say you’re going to do it, then do it. You made the commercial, you went to do it, stick behind your fricking guns. You know what I mean?

32:24 CH: Yeah, have some cajones.

32:24 SJ: Seriously…

32:25 JM: Yeah.

32:26 SJ: Stick behind your guns. You decided to do it. And you didn’t think that when you took it down, you weren’t gonna get backlash and then you’re like, “Well now we’ll cave to that backlash.” I would give anything, anything to be in one of these board meetings where these idiots are discussing this. The shit that they must say, you know what I mean? They’re just a bunch of flip-floppers, these guys are, and these gentlemen and ladies in these meetings.

32:50 JM: Yeah. What could they really be possibly talking about over there?

32:53 SJ: I can only imagine though the shit that they’re saying and they’re like, “Oh no, we can’t do it for this… But we could it for that… ” And then when they tell you they’re like, “I told you that was gonna happen. I told you.” And then they go back the other way and they keep going back and forth. It’s ridiculous.

33:08 JM: Oh yeah, Monday morning quarterback. Yeah.

33:10 SJ: It’s ridiculous! So I’m going to say that it’s a Wack Move that they took it down in the first place. I mean stick to your frickin’ guns, Hallmark.

33:19 CH: Yeah, Wack Move [33:20] ____.

33:21 SJ: And honestly you’re…

33:22 JM: Definitely a Wack Move.

33:23 CH: Yeah, yeah.

33:25 SJ: A Hallmark…

33:25 JM: Definitely, bang, bang…

33:25 SJ: Hallmark is frickin’ ridiculous.

33:28 CH: My thing about this is is that when you make a commercial like that from day one, you’re like “We’re gonna put a lesbian couple in it,” so you know, you’re like, this is gonna get backlash or this is gonna… People are gonna comment on this. So you gotta know going into that that that’s the decision you’re making and that’s the angle you’re taking, so you gotta stick to it. This is the worst possible thing they could have done. But also, shoutout to Hallmark. My mom’s been an employee of Hallmark for probably about four years now. She gets benefits. They pay her well there. It’s a great work environment.

33:57 SJ: Yo, do me a favor, do me a favor, tell your mom when she’s at work, if she sees a lesbian or a gay couple, to just walk up and just apologize on behalf of Hallmark for taking down those ads.

34:07 CH: No, won’t do that. But…

34:09 SJ: Why not?

34:11 CH: Shoutout to Hallmark. I think it’s a good company. I just think they’re trying to please too many, too many people here. That’s what happens. That’s what happens.

34:18 JM: Fair enough.

34:19 CH: What about you, John?

[overlapping conversation]

34:22 CH: Oh Wack Move, yeah, yeah… Wack Move.

34:24 SJ: Alright, he went bang, bang, Wack Move, is what you…

34:27 S?: Yeah.

34:27 CH: Wack Move by Walmart, or Hallmark. Walmart. [chuckle] Hallmark.

34:32 S?: Walmart. [chuckle]

34:32 CH: Walmart has Hallmark in their store.

34:34 SJ: Honestly though, if they really, really wanted to go for it, they could have put two men in that commercial. That would have been really going for it. Yeah.

34:42 JM: They just put their toe in the water ’cause they had a lesbian.

34:47 CH: Even more reason to just double down on it ’cause it’s like, who cares?

34:51 SJ: Yeah exactly. A couple of big burly dudes next time. Alright, let’s go.

34:54 CH: Can you imagine living your life like that when somebody says something to you about something, you just, whatever they say you just go along with? You can’t run a… You can’t run your life like that, let alone your own business. You know what I mean?

35:05 SJ: True that.

35:05 JM: True, man.

35:07 SJ: True.

35:07 CH: Just whatever someone thinks, you just go by.

35:08 SJ: Fuck ’em.

35:09 CH: Alright, are we ready? Last one?

35:10 SJ: We’re ready. Last one.

35:11 CH: Alright, this one is…

35:13 JM: It’s a local one.

35:14 SJ: It’s a local one. We’re going local.

35:16 CH: We don’t do a ton of local stuff on here, so this is kind of like our local Mack Talks Episode 46, local…

35:24 SJ: Low-key.

35:25 CH: Exposure.

35:26 SJ: This is called our local low-key moment of the day.

[chuckle]

35:28 CH: Alright. Anyway, I’ll get to it.

[music]

35:32 CH: Don’t know if you heard of Santa Con, but Mayor Mark of Danbury was on a radio show recently where he was pitched the idea of having Santa Con come to Danbury. If you don’t know already, Santa Con is an absolute… It started as a nice thing, raise money for charity, people come show up dressed like a Santa…

35:54 SJ: But just like everything…

35:54 CH: But just like everything, the bros in the… Yeah, the college bros, the partiers got a hold of it and turned it into an absolute shit show. There’s guaranteed to have 10 fights, two arrests…

36:08 SJ: People have been stabbed…

36:09 CH: People stabbed…

36:10 SJ: For some reason when you put on a…

36:12 CH: Everyone’s wasted…

36:13 SJ: Santa outfit, you can just… You think that you’re not being seen…

36:14 CH: Do whatever you wanna do.

36:15 SJ: And that you think you can act like a complete dick. But I will tell you though, that’s mainly in the big cities.

36:23 CH: Yeah.

36:24 SJ: I think that the Santa Cons that go off, the one that just went off in Milford, that our boy Jules…

36:30 CH: Our boy Julian.

36:31 SJ: Yeah, our boy Julian.

36:33 CH: Shoutout to Julian.

36:33 SJ: Shoutout to Julian from Fingers Bowls.

36:34 CH: Fingers Bowl.

36:36 SJ: That’s my boy, and he set up Santa Con in Milford and it went off without a hitch. I know they did it in Bethel. So I get it like these small little towns that goes… It’s when it’s in the big city, that’s when you just get a bunch of psycho Santas just running down, running around town, just destroying shit, acting like fricking monsters.

36:56 CH: I like it ’cause it’s entrepreneurial, right? ‘Cause some of these guys come in, they’re like, “I’m gonna plan… Everybody’s gonna have a good time, we’re gonna raise some money for charity, what’s better than that?” You know what I mean? “We’re gonna have some drinks and… ”

[overlapping conversation]

37:05 SJ: That’s more philanthropy.

37:05 CH: Yeah, but our boy Julian, I respect that he comes in, we raised like how much?

37:13 SJ: He’s an entrepreneur.

37:14 CH: Like $20,000 or even if it was $2000, I don’t care.

37:17 SJ: Yeah.

37:17 CH: You come in, you put that together…

37:18 SJ: I’m gonna be honest with you, I’m not sure that Julian was raising any money for his…

37:22 CH: He said it in his post, yeah.

37:24 SJ: Oh he did? Oh good. Yo that’s my boy Julian. We met at an Eagles game… We met at an Eagles game, me and Julian did, years ago.

37:29 CH: Yeah the only reason I’m saying that is ’cause he posted it. He was like “Raise money for charity.”

37:32 JM: I respect any entrepreneurial aspect or venture of a business, getting started from ground up.

37:41 SJ: Yeah, I hear you.

37:42 JM: For sure.

37:43 SJ: I’m gonna go that it’s a Mack Move… You wanna know why it’s a Mack Move? ‘Cause Mayor Boughton’s gonna keep it under control. ‘Cause that’s my guy. Let me just tell you something John, I don’t like a lot of politicians. I don’t like a lot of politicians.

37:54 JM: They’re all good at one thing.

37:56 SJ: Yeah.

37:56 JM: Lying.

37:56 SJ: Yes.

[chuckle]

38:00 SJ: But my boy, Mark Boughton used to be a business owner before. He was also a school teacher. I feel as though he wore enough hats that he’s well-versed to represent us, and he’s done an awesome job. How many terms? 10?

38:13 CH: Yeah, he’s in 10 terms, man.

38:13 SJ: 10-term mayor.

38:15 CH: Wow.

38:16 SJ: Do you know the most thriving city in Connecticut?

38:19 CH: It’s 20 years.

38:19 SJ: Do you know?

38:21 JM: Stanford?

38:21 SJ: Nope. We’re beating them.

38:22 JM: Danbury.

38:22 SJ: We’re beating them. We’re on a higher trajectory than them.

38:25 JM: Wow.

38:26 SJ: Dude, we’re booming. What’s the…

38:28 CH: Over 1,000 businesses opened up in 2019 in Danbury, and I think over 90 people are leaving Connecticut on a daily basis, but then I think 10 people are moving into Danbury.

38:39 SJ: Yeah.

38:39 JM: Wow.

38:39 SJ: They’re getting ready to connect the train, the Danbury train to the, what is it, south, northeast? What’s it called? Southeast? What’s it called?

38:46 CH: Yeah, I don’t know. [chuckle]

38:47 SJ: You know the Brewster Train Station?

38:48 JM: Yeah.

38:49 SJ: They’re gonna connect it to there.

38:50 JM: Okay.

38:50 SJ: Big things happening in Danbury.

38:52 JM: So you pick ’em up on 684…

38:54 SJ: I know you were thinking of maybe moving to Florida, maybe you’ll move to Danbury. You know what I mean? I don’t know.

38:55 JM: I don’t know about all that.

[laughter]

38:56 JM: What’s Danbury’s… Waterbury’s the Brass City. What’s Danbury’s?

39:00 SJ: Hat City, bro.

39:02 JM: The Hat City.

39:03 CH: Hat City.

39:04 SJ: Yeah, because we used to… You know what happened though is that Kennedy, he didn’t wear a top hat in his inaugural speech or whatever.

39:12 CH: Yeah.

39:12 SJ: Right? He didn’t wear his top hat and that put the hat industry out of business a long…

39:16 CH: It was… Every president wore a top hat and then he didn’t.

39:19 JM: Wow. Wow.

39:19 SJ: So the thing that’s funny…

39:21 CH: So it ruined it.

39:21 SJ: Is that, I guess the way they made those hats, there was some sort of chemical that was in there and…

39:26 CH: Mercury.

39:27 SJ: Yeah, and everybody used to be in these factories. So that actually used to be this thing known to people that worked a lot of hours, they would be walking around, they were called the Danbury shakes. [chuckle] People would be like…

[vocalization]

[laughter]

39:36 SJ: ‘Cause they were inhaling all those chemicals.

39:36 CH: Well you know why they called them the Mad Hatter, the Mad Hatter…

39:37 JM: The Mad Hatter? I could see that.

39:39 CH: Is because he’s insane from like mercury in the hats.

39:42 S?: Yeah.

39:42 SJ: So maybe, I don’t know, Kennedy did Danbury a favor. Maybe.

39:47 CH: Hey, I haven’t thought of it that way.

39:49 SJ: See that?

39:49 JM: I always thought he bankrupted Danbury.

39:51 SJ: Yeah well he bankrupted Danbury, but Mayor Boughton’s bringing Santa Con. I’m gonna make this full circle. So what do you got?

39:56 CH: Yeah, I got Mack Move. I think they should do it in the downtown area because that’s really the part of town that has a lot of potential that just that we’ve not been able to capitalize on.

40:07 SJ: But stay safe, Danbury.

40:08 CH: Yeah, stay safe.

40:08 SJ: Be safe…

40:10 CH: Have cops around.

40:10 SJ: Follow all the rules, raise a lot of money, do some good shit. Don’t be one of these…

40:18 CH: But can I be honest with you?

40:19 SJ: What? You wanna see Santa fight?

40:19 CH: Mack Move, but I’m not going. I’m not going.

40:23 SJ: No? Why not?

40:23 CH: Because I don’t like this type of stuff.

40:25 SJ: Okay.

40:25 CH: I don’t like the Santa Con… Everybody dresses up as Santa, they’re gonna be obnoxious, it’s gonna be… For me, this is… Unless we’re going to go get some content, then I’ll go.

40:36 SJ: Oh. We’re always gonna get content.

40:36 CH: But I don’t wanna go out and party in the streets of Danbury.

40:39 SJ: Is that camera guy ready yet though? That guy over there, that’s our camera guy. Is he ready?

40:41 CH: Yeah.

40:42 S?: Tommy?

40:42 SJ: You’re ready to do that, Tommy? Alright.

40:44 CH: He looks ready.

40:45 SJ: John, what do you got on the Santa Con, bro?

40:47 JM: I’m gonna go Mack Talk. I’m gonna agree with you guys.

40:49 SJ: Mack Move, John.

40:49 CH: Mack Move.

[chuckle]

[music]

40:53 CH: The Mack Talk Mack Move.

40:54 SJ: He just wanted to hear that.

40:55 JM: The Mack Move.

[music]

41:00 CH: Like Mack Moves.

41:00 SJ: Alright, cool, man. Well that concludes it. Doesn’t it, Chase?

41:02 CH: Yeah, it does.

41:02 SJ: That concludes Mack Move or Wack Move. [laughter] Special shoutout to our guy, Mayor Mark Boughton who gave the, what was it called, the address…

41:13 CH: State of the city.

41:13 SJ: State of the city, last week. We’re gonna be going out to lunch with that guy. We like that guy, Mayor Mark Boughton.

41:21 CH: Yeah, we like him a lot.

41:22 SJ: We don’t like politicians, but we like him.

41:25 JM: Good.

41:25 SJ: We like him. And honestly, let me just tell you something, he should be the governor of Connecticut. He should have been the governor of Connecticut.

41:31 CH: Yeah, he was running, but he lost, unfortunately to…

41:33 SJ: He couldn’t get out of the…

41:34 CH: Was it Lewandowski or…

41:36 SJ: No, he won… He lost to what’s his face, the guy that ended up running against Lamont.

41:40 CH: Yeah I know. Was it Lewandowski who was…

41:41 SJ: No bro, it’s the guy from GE, Stefanowski.

41:44 CH: Stef… [chuckle] Alright, sorry, bro. My Polish names… Sorry, bro. I know Italian, Spanish and English, but I don’t know Polish.

41:50 SJ: Monica Lewinsky, bro? Okay.

41:53 CH: My B.

41:54 SJ: You’re allowed to do that. You went to a Jesuit school, so you know Jesuits, that’s for sure, this guy.

[laughter]

42:00 SJ: This dude almost lost his wife…

42:00 CH: Anything else you guys wanna talk about? We’ll roll the red carpet out.

42:02 SJ: Yeah, we got any other house cleaning, house cleaning items?

42:05 CH: Housekeeping topics.

42:06 SJ: Tomorrow’s our ugly sweater party. We’re getting Amigo’s food delivered. Should be pretty fun.

42:11 CH: Yeah.

42:12 SJ: I’m gonna show you my ugly sweaters when we get out of this.

42:14 CH: Ugly sweater office holiday party. I’m excited for it. I love Amigo’s.

42:19 SJ: Oh, you know what I wanna talk about real quick with John? Because John’s been in sales. John knows. You’ve done sales most of your life.

42:27 JM: 20 years.

42:27 SJ: Yeah. So, isn’t it awesome when you’re doing like within sales where you get an account that you’ve just chipped at, and you’ve chipped at, and you’ve chipped at, and you thought you were gonna close it, but then you didn’t close it, and then eight or nine months later it’s back on the table, and then it doesn’t get closed, and then a year later, it’s back on the table? We’ve had this project for three years, and Chase finally closed it. It’s been through three separate hands, they were finally ready to move forward, and Chase finally closed it. So what I like to refer to an account like that as, I like to refer to it as Chase, Andy Dufresne that shit. You know Andy Dufresne? Shawshank Redemption.

43:06 JM: Yeah, that’s the one.

43:08 SJ: Alright. You understand how we make the… We consider that like a sales process, right? ‘Cause you gotta chip, chip, chip, chip, chip away at that wall.

43:17 JM: There’s plenty of sales over the years that I never gave up on. Most people they’re saying you go at it a couple of times and then you quit or whatever. I’ve been known to just keep coming up, showing up, keep showing up, and finally, the tides turn and they turn your way.

43:35 SJ: Yeah.

43:35 JM: So like Jimmy Valvano, may he rest in peace, God bless his soul…

43:39 SJ: Yes.

43:39 JM: “Never give up, don’t you ever give up.”

43:41 SJ: No, it’s true. But this specific phrase that we’ve created is actually when you’re working with a client for so long and then you finally close it, it’s the Andy Dufresne.

43:53 CH: Yeah and then the one thing I wanna say is that in sales, it’s all about the customer’s success. And if it’s the right time for them, it’s the right time, and if it’s not the right time, then I’m not gonna push. I’m gonna make the ask, you gotta ask to get what you want in life, but also you gotta understand that there’s a right time for the client and you have to do it accordingly.

44:17 JM: 100%.

44:18 CH: So just making sure that they achieve the best success as a company is what’s number one in my mind, but it is also that aspect of, “I’ve worked so hard and so long on this.” The amount of hours that you put in answering questions, sending over reports, sending over analytics, case studies, this and that, it’s a lot of work, and definitely feels good when you close it, but at the end of the day…

44:25 SJ: And all that work and all those things he was talking about is the reason why he ended up getting the account. Because I was like, “I’m sick of this shit. I’m not dealing with this.”

44:25 JM: Yeah, right. It’s rewarding.

44:25 SJ: I’m just joking. I’m totally kidding. That’s a joke.

44:25 JM: It’s very rewarding like Chase said.

44:25 SJ: Yeah, yeah. So it’s good, but… Alright, well that is going to wrap us up here. So why don’t you go ahead and give us our close out here?

44:25 CH: Ladies and gentlemen, that about concludes episode number 46 of The Mack Talks. Thanks so much for listening.

44:25 S?: I have these notes.

44:25 CH: If you would be so kind as to leave a review for us on iTunes, just know that that is the most helpful thing that you can do to support the show. Other than that, make sure you are subscribed to us on YouTube. You like us on Facebook, you follow us on Instagram. Facebook, you can see all of our little clips, and Instagram you can see all of our little clips and teasers from the episode, if you only have a couple of minutes, watch that. Go to www.themacktalks.com or on SoundCloud, Spotify, just search The Mack Talks.

45:40 SJ: John, give us your handles, bro. What do you got? John Margiotta on Facebook.

45:45 JM: I just wanna say thank you. Oh, okay, yeah.

45:48 SJ: John Margiotta on Facebook. What’s your Instagram? You on Instagram?

45:50 JM: I’m on the IG.

45:51 SJ: Okay, alright.

45:54 JM: Yeah, two… What am I? Marg2007, the old 007.

46:00 SJ: Yeah, boy.

46:01 JM: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I’m on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, you can find me on all of those. I’m doing my thing.

46:10 SJ: Yeah. So John, we’re gonna continue the negotiations, we’re gonna continue talking, we’re gonna see if we can lock this dude down to get him a segment on the show and continue to kinda have fun. John, thank you so much for coming in. I know that it was a treacherous ride in this morning, a lot of ice out there.

46:27 JM: Yeah brutal.

46:28 SJ: You come from a city called Dirty Water, obviously when it’s freezing and it’s ice freezing rain, it becomes dirty ice, and you slid on down the fricking highway here and made it to see us.

[laughter]

46:38 CH: Love it. Love it.

46:39 JM: Yes sir, and I couldn’t wait and I look forward to the next time around. And you guys, one last thing I’d like to say is have a nice Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope to be back for the new year, 2020.

46:52 CH: Yes, yes.

46:52 SJ: Thank you so much, John. Awesome. Well that’s a wrap guys, see you next time.

46:55 CH: Thanks.

[music]