Episode 613
with Courtenay Hameister, Charley Crockett, Moshow The Cat Rapper
In this 20th Anniversary Special, Live Wire celebrates some of its most memorable moments in the past two decades. Host Luke Burbank gets interviewed by former host Courtenay Hameister about taking the reins of the show and how the embarrassment he felt as a child led to his "openness" onstage; Americana singer-songwriter Charley Crockett chats about busking and train-hopping, before performing "I Wanna Cry" from his album Lonesome as a Shadow; and Moshow the Cat Rapper lives his truth with a rollicking rap "Don't Declaw Your Cat."
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Luke Burbank: Hey there. Elena.
Elena Passarello: Hey, Luke. Happy anniversary.
Luke Burbank: You as well. What do we get for the 20th? Is that what?
Elena Passarello: Is that silver? I don't think we get anything because neither of us have been here for 20 years so.
Luke Burbank: I know what it is. [Elena: What is it?] It's a station location identification anniversary. At 20 years, you ask your co-host to try to figure out a place in the country where Live Wire's on the radio with some hints. Are you ready to play? [Elena: Yes.] All right. This city is one of only four American cities to have an extinct volcano within its city limits.
Elena Passarello: An extinct volcano. Well, that could be anywhere.
Luke Burbank: Well, it could be one of four American cities, I believe. Technically.
Elena Passarello: City. Okay, so it's a city, so it's pretty big.
Luke Burbank: All right, how about this? This city is a very charming place. You've even been here, Elena. The city. And they have a lot of obscure laws on the books, including, apparently, a law that says it's unlawful to have your shoes untied while walking on the street.
Elena Passarello: Well, I hope I hope that's not true, because I think every city I've been in, my shoes have been tied at least once. Is it Seattle?
Luke Burbank: South of Seattle, north of San Francisco. A place where we are often doing the radio show.
Elena Passarello: Is it the home base of Live Wire? Portland, Oregon?
Luke Burbank: That's right. Portland, Oregon, where we are available on Oregon Public Broadcasting. I didn't know this. They were flipping a coin to come up with the name of Portland. It was either going to be Boston or Portland. [Elena: Or Birmingham.] It was a three sided coin.
Elena Passarello: Yeah, they wanted to name it after a city that was already successful.
Luke Burbank: All right, Elena, you're ready to do the show?
Elena Passarello: Let's do it.
Luke Burbank: All right. Take it away from it.
Elena Passarello: This week, humorist and former Live Wire host Courtenay Hameister.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Have you ever walked off stage and been like, and that was too much. That was too much.
Elena Passarello: With music from Charley Crockett.
Charley Crockett: If I could get a few Susan B Anthony dollars, you know, seven, $8 worth, you know that I wouldn't be stealing from the grocery store. You know.
Elena Passarello: Moshow the Cat Rapper.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: I knew I loved cat ladies, I knew I represented peace and positivity, and I also knew that I love cats. So I figured, why not rap about the things that I actually live?
Elena Passarello: I'm your announcer. Elena Passarello and now the current host of Live Wire Luke Burbank.
Luke Burbank: Thank you so much, Elena Passarello. Thanks to everyone tuning in from all over the country. We are celebrating 20 years of Live Wire, meaning we're going to celebrate by breaking our normal format and doing things a little bit differently on the show this week, we have some incredible guests that we want to bring you and some great memories of 20 years of doing this program. That's a lot of shows, Elena. I was talking to our executive producer, Laura Hadden, about some of the most memorable moments from the show, and there are a lot to pick from.
Elena Passarello: Yeah, yeah, we're lucky that we work at such a memorable place.
Luke Burbank: I'll tell you, I never know how the interviews are going to go. I think that's the one takeaway I have from doing this. For as many years. I've been here like about ten of the years or so, and it's like I always go into an interview with some sort of an idea of how it's going to go, and it never goes exactly the way that I expect it to go, which you think I would have figured out by now.
Elena Passarello: How do you navigate that? Do you just always leave space for surprise in what you've planned?
Luke Burbank: I'm often confused on stage is really what it comes down to, but that keeps it fun, right? Like, how lucky are we that we get to have this job where we get to talk to all of these interesting people, and we meet folks at all different phases of their careers, like this guy that we're about to hear from Charley Crockett. It's kind of an amazing story. He has become this country music phenomenon. But we met him kind of earlier on in his career. At least he was still not so famous that he wouldn't come on Live Wire. He's a singer songwriter from Texas. He started his career actually jumping trains and singing on the streets of New Orleans. He busked in New York City on the subway. Eventually, he was picked up by Sony Records. He's now got 14 studio albums to his name, including his latest, It's $10 Cowboy. This is an interview that we did with Charley Crockett, and this was a moment in all the 20 years of doing live where this was a truly unique show. Here's what happened. Okay. We were at a public radio conference in Austin, Texas, and what we had learned over the years of going to these public radio conferences and doing the show is that sometimes it was hard to get the like, bosses of these public radio stations to get on a bus and go to a theater somewhere and watch us do the show. So we figured this year we'll just bring the show to them. So we rented out the largest hotel room they had at the Westin, I believe, in Austin, Texas, and we just had a show. And our house band for this particular episode was Charley Crockett and his band, and we had to move a chandelier because it was blocking everyone's view. We did not get permission anyway. So this is Charley Crockett, the now famous Charley Crockett, recorded at a hotel room in Austin, Texas. Take a listen.
Charley Crockett: Thank you very much, brother.
Luke Burbank: Charley, is this the weirdest place that you've ever played a show?
Charley Crockett: Oh, no, not by a long way, man.
Luke Burbank: What's the weirdest place you've ever played a show?
Charley Crockett: Well, I mean, I did it on street corners for a long time. That can be pretty weird.
Luke Burbank: Because you kind of got your start busking. And I believe in, like, down in Louisiana, among other places. Do you play in New Orleans?
Charley Crockett: Yeah, in New Orleans. Really? Where it all kind of started for me. I'm from South Texas. I was born down in the valley in a town called San Benito. We lived up in Dallas for a time when I was younger. And then I started living in New Orleans with my uncle. And that's when I started hanging out around, street performers in the French Quarter there, you know?
Luke Burbank: What do you looking for in a good corner if you're looking to busk?
Charley Crockett: Well, when I first started out of home, be honest, I was afraid so I was playing in a park, you know, where I wasn't bothering people. Just, just so I could play. And—
Luke Burbank: That's why we do this show in a hotel room. We wanted as off the radar as possible.
Charley Crockett: My man, that's good. I was looking for a place that I could be that nobody was going to bother me to play. Okay, really, that's what I was doing. And then, somebody, you know, threw some coins in my case, and I thought, okay, you know, I'm getting paid to practice. And now I remember I moved onto this bridge and the bridge was sending out the amplification further, and I started making a little bit more money. If I could get a few Susan B Anthony dollars, you know, 7 or $8 worth, you know, that I wouldn't be stealing from the grocery store, you know. So I figured that was all right.
Luke Burbank: Every time, every time I get a Susan B Anthony, it's like, it's like the best part of my day, I feel like. It should be a more popular like thing than it is.
Elena Passarello: It should be a slang term too. Like all about the Benjamins.
Luke Burbank: Should be All about the Anthonys.
Elena Passarello: Yeah.
Charley Crockett: We used to call them, you know, they have Sacajawea on there, and that golden, those golden dollars that was like it was coveted, you know, to get those tips.
Luke Burbank: Did you have any moments when you were kind of coming up, particularly when you're just playing out, you know, in a park or something where you thought, this is not working out?
Charley Crockett: Yeah, I do. I wasn't, you know, I wanted to get in front of more people. So I remember when I was up there and in New York City, for example, I was playing in Central Park and Washington Square and all that. But the cops started messing with me, and I realized that you really can't legally play above ground almost anywhere where there's residence. And so I started playing on the subway platforms, and at first I was on an empty platforms. And as I got more confident, I started moving the ones that were busier, you know, and I figured out real quick if I could reach 100 unique people at the same club 30 nights in a row. I mean, every night of the week, get 100 people ask me about myself and 100 different people every night. That's 3000 people. Man, I was reaching that many people in an hour on the Metropolitan stop on the G train, you know, and I had never gotten a real gig. You know, I didn't have no gear. Right?
Luke Burbank: Well, now you have a real gig, and you guys have been playing all over and in Europe and all around the U.S., and lots of people showing up for your shows. When did you sort of have that moment? I mean, other than right now in this hotel room, obviously. When did you have that moment of realizing like, oh, wow, this is really starting to happen. This is coming together?
Charley Crockett: Well, I mean, there's a lot of times, I mean, I bummed around and and hitchhiked for a long time and rode trains and stuff like that. And, we've been running around in vans and RVs and stuff this last couple of years. But we just recently over in Europe, we, like, got dropped off in a van to go over there. And we came back that was from Chicago, and we came back two weeks later, landed in L.A. and got picked up by a bus. And that that really that really hit me hard because.
Luke Burbank: Like a tour bus. A legit tour bus.
Charley Crockett: Yeah, it's an old tour bus. And believe me, it got some problems, you know? But.
Luke Burbank: Well, is it true? One of you guys mentioned when we were sound checking that, you know, these busses are even if they're an old one, they're fairly modern and that they don't want the driver being, too tired and therefore unsafe. So it's got a system where it doesn't let the driver drive more than a certain amount every day. You guys rolled up here with ten minutes on the driver.
Charley Crockett: Yeah. That's right. So it was hoping, that you could talk to the hotel about letting us stay overnight. Yeah.
Luke Burbank: Well, we we got this whole room that it's going to be empty here in about 30 more minutes. So, I like to. Of the hotel. We're ten minutes further away. You guys wouldn't have been able to make it, but. And you're in. Play a song for us now. Charley, what are you guys going to play?
Charley Crockett: I figure the first one we do here is, is the leadoff track to my brand new album that we put out on April called Lonesome as a Shadow. This number here is I want to cry. You ready, boys?
Luke Burbank: All right, this is Charley Crockett on Live Wire.
[Charley Crockett plays I Want to Cry]
Luke Burbank: This is Live Wire from PRX. I'm Luke Burbank. We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of our show this week by listening back to a conversation with now country superstar Charley Crockett. We got to take a very quick break, but when we come back, we're going to hear from someone who's usually doing the question asking on this show me. I'm going to be interviewed by the former host of this show. Looking back on the 20 years of doing this in a moment here on Live Wire. Welcome back to Live Wire. I'm your host, Luke Burbank, here with my friend Elena Passarello. We are celebrating 20 years of the program on this week's show by highlighting some of our most memorable moments from our very own archives. And it turns out they are vast. You do this for 20 years. You really build up a catalog of programs. And our next guest was a big part of the early part of this show. Her name is Courtenay Hameister. She was the host and head writer of this program for many years before leaving to become a beloved author. By the way, her book, okay, fine, Whatever was a semifinalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, which is a very big deal. A little backstory on this interview. Now you know the story well, Elena, but some people may not, so humor me. Long ago, I was scheduled to be a guest on Live Wire, so I was going to come down to Portland, and I was just going to be on the show to be entertaining for 5 to 10 minutes. And on the day that I was supposed to be a guest, it turns out Courtenay, the real host, was under the weather. And so they asked me if I could fill in and actually guest host the show. And I just kind of never stopped. What that means is Courtenay never got to do the interview with me that was planned for that episode of the show, so we figured it would be kind of fun to take things full circle and actually do that interview. That never was as a way of celebrating our 20th anniversary. So take a listen to this. It's me being interviewed by the former host of the show, Courtenay Hameister, at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Welcome to the show, Luke.
Luke Burbank: This is the most nervous that I've been on the show, without a doubt.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Really? Are you? Are you serious?
Luke Burbank: I'm very serious.
Courtenay Hamesiter: So I actually I want to paint the picture of Luke's first show briefly. For those of you who don't know it. So he was supposed to be a guest on the show? He was living in Seattle. So he's driving to Portland from Seattle, and he is massively hungover, and, and he sees he has a million missed calls from Robyn Tenenbaum, who's our producer. And, and he ends up saying yes to hosting two shows that night. We used to do two shows in one night, including writing two opening monologues. And, I just want to play. And I don't know if you've listened to this, but I want to play you a clip of Luke's very first moments on Live Wire. 11 years ago.
Luke Burbank: As you may have already noticed, I am not Courtenay Hameister, I am Luke Burbank. I'm sort of a last minute fill in, which is bad news for you guys, but kind of great news for me, because one of the items on my bucket list is to see an entire theater of people look disappointed simultaneously. To scratch that right off the list. Pinch hitting can be a little challenging, so I figured I'd turn to the wisdom of the best pinch hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, which it turns out is a guy named William Gates Brown. He played for the Detroit Tigers back in the 1960s and 70s. He was actually doing time for burglary in 1959, and he joined the prison baseball team. And he was so good that the coach of the prison team called the Detroit Tigers, and they got him paroled one year early so that he could play baseball.
Courtenay Hamesiter: So. So I don't know if you remember this Luke and I had never listened to the show. I just listened to the first show, like last week, and I was blown away. That monologue that you just started was poignant. You brought it all together. So it was first about pinch hitting baseball, and then it was about having a family and having a kid, you know, young and, you you had this great analogy. Do you remember the analogy of, children being a Ponzi scheme? Where you put all of this love into them, thinking you're going to get it back and you get one call from college when they need money?
Luke Burbank: Oh, yeah, I did have I, I had a phase where I was describing children as emotional Ponzi schemes, until my daughter asked me to stop doing that on the radio.
Courtenay Hamesiter: No, I completely get that. But I have to say, like, I actually asked Robin Tenenbaum, who was the producer at the time. Like, had it been me, I would have just been like, yeah, I mean, this guy, let's just keep this guy, you know? I mean, I ended up stepping down, but I mean, you were extraordinary on that show. You listen to it and you just know this. This is a natural. And what was interesting was the man that you were talking about, this pinch hitter ended up being the greatest pinch hitter in baseball history. And I find it really interesting, right, that ten years later, you know, you have done this exceptional job, you know.
Luke Burbank: Well, thank you, thank you.
Courtenay Hamesiter: But I, I do. I want to talk about your headspace on that day. Yeah. Like, I mean, obviously I'm more terrified than you are, but but were you just apoplectic, like?
Luke Burbank: This sounds like I'm being glib. I think the hangover helped, because if you've ever been like what I would describe as a fighting for your life hangover, yeah, it really clarifies things like you just just staying upright, making sounds into the microphone felt like a win. Yeah, yeah, I got that. And I really mean that. I think if I would have had more time to prepare, if I would have had a whole week, if, you know, if I would have had like, what would have been a reasonable amount of time to read the books and, and, and sort of get prepared for this in the proper way, I probably would have felt a lot more nervous, but I it was actually a very, very lucky thing for me because I was able to just say to the audience, but I wasn't supposed to be here as the host and, I'm going to do my best, but just let's all try to get through this. And the bar was so low in terms of their expectation, for what I could do, that it was almost impossible for me to not succeed. And so I benefited from that. And I have been working for the last 11 years to get the bar back down there. Because as it creeps up, I then continue to underwhelm. That was the that was the sweet spot for me.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah. So how how did I miss that you were raised at Lighthouse Ranch, which is an evangelical Christian commune in Humboldt County. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Luke Burbank: I'm that's one of my four stories. And I'm shocked that in all of our knowing of each other, it didn't just come out at some point. Yeah, my mom and dad met at this, evangelical Christian commune in Eureka, California, called Gospel Outreach Christian Fellowship. And they had there was this old, it had been a Coast Guard station that was out in Table Bluff, which is out kind of on the ocean, and that had been turned into something called the Lighthouse Ranch. And the brothers, as they were called, would go and work for the U.S. Forest Service and do tree thinning and tree planting, and all the money would go back to the church, and then the sisters would take care of the commune and, you know, just grow food and do different things. And my mom and my dad met there. Now my mom already had me. She got pregnant with me in Philly, realized that that was not a good idea to be out there, and came out to this commune with me in the oven. I didn't realize til I was probably 4 or 5 that my dad wasn't my biological father. It just it just hadn't come up. It wasn't a secret. But one day I was looking at their wedding album and I saw photos of myself at the wedding. Which from a timeline standpoint. Yeah. Was not lining up.
Courtenay Hamesiter: If you've taken a math class.
Luke Burbank: Yes. But my mom and dad met there and and fell in love and, and we lived there until I was, I don't know, maybe 5 or 6. And then they moved up to Seattle to this church was very much about spreading the, the gospel. And so we ended up in Seattle and, and stayed in that religious movement, which was which has been a I think I'm only realizing in kind of like this phase of my life, really what an impact it had on me. Yeah, I think I there were two things that I used to really sort of be proud of. One was that I didn't I wasn't concerned about the fact that I never met my biological father, and I think I thought I was kind of proud of that. I was like, I'm totally not affected by that detail of my life. Yeah. And the other was, I'm fine with the fact that every night that I went to bed, I thought the moon was going to turn into blood, and all of the Christians were going to be raptured up, and I was probably going to be left behind because I stole money out of the lunch box at Daniel Bagley Elementary School. And I have not admitted this yet. Yeah, I grew up in a very literal interpretation of the Bible, and it was I was talking to my mom about this the other day, and and she my mom texted me out of the blue a couple weeks ago to say, I'm sorry that I didn't let you watch Scooby Doo when you were a kid. I was I was recently watching it, and it's pretty funny. This was two weeks ago. And so I called her and we talked about it, and I said, mom, I promise you, Scooby Doo was the least of my worries at that point. You probably shouldn't have told a young, impressionable child that we were in the end times and that the lake that we were about to go through, a tribulation like that was looming much larger in my mind than whether or not I could watch The Mystery Machine do its thing.
Courtenay Hamesiter: It does. It was a little satanic. I mean, there were ghosts, and.
Luke Burbank: That was exactly why I wasn't allowed. Yeah, it turned out because the ghosts were considered to be occult or satanic.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah. Do you, I mean, you reveal a lot about yourself. Have you ever walked off stage, and I say this as a person who has done this and been likee, and that was too much? That was too much. That was too much. I crossed the line. They're not with me anymore.
Luke Burbank: If what I overshare to got a good reaction, I'm fine with it. Right. And if it got a bad reaction, then I'm not fine with it, right? Like that's how deep. Still my kind of need for approval. That's how deep that well is, is like if if I were to, you know, say something that would be embarrassing or maybe sharing too much. And the place fell apart. Everybody loved it. I would be like, did it again Burbank. I would have no thought about was that appropriate or not, but if it bombed then I would be like, that was probably a bad idea.
Courtenay Hamesiter: I mean, it's interesting because I think there are there like, I know a lot of comics and their some of their family members are never talk about me and other families are if it gets a laugh, say whatever you want, like say I'm a prostitute. It doesn't matter. Like, I just want you to get a laugh, you know? Yeah. But, yeah, not all family does that.
Luke Burbank: My mom, who is a prostitute, has asked me to never talk about her on the show again, but see, it got a laugh, right? So, I mean, here's the thing. I grew up a very, very embarrassed, self-conscious kid. I think it was because of the religious thing. And we would like be at the Burger Master at Northgate Mall, praying before, like dinner and holding hands and like I never had the right clothes. I've told this story many times, but we got all our close second hand, and I got these jeans in seventh grade that I thought were pretty dope. And I didn't realize that, like, stirrup jeans were not at that time gendered for boys. And I rolled into North Seattle Christian in the stirrup jeans. Yeah. And became the guy who wore stirrup jeans for like, six more years. I grew up with a kind of a deep sense of of embarrassment, and all I could do with that at some point was either start talking about it. Or I just, I sort of couldn't contain it. And what I learned when I started sharing my, you know, my embarrassment and the things that I've done that have, you know, not turned out great, etc., is that people seem to relate to that. And I got very lucky that Live Wire is a show that is okay with that and was a do you know, I don't know if you remember this part. The first show that I ever hosted when I filled in for you. And this, by the way, is a classic Live Wire move. I still had to do the interview with myself. Yes, absolutely.
Courtenay Hamesiter: I thought that was something you pitched as, like, a bit. No?
Luke Burbank: It was like we need seven more minutes of show. Do you remember when, like, a deranged Clint Eastwood brought a chair out at the Oscars? Literally. That was the segment I interviewed myself. I think there literally might have been two chairs out there. But I have been so fortunate, working on Live Wire that there is a place for you. And I were talking about this before the show, but the idea of of using the personal to connect to the universal, right. Like the things that happen to all of us in our lives that feel very like we're the only person dealing with this, or we're the only person who's had this thought, or we're the only person who's messed up a relationship in this particular way. I think when we share those things with each other, we realize how universal the human experiences, and this is a show that gets to explore that. And I feel really grateful that I've gotten to be here doing that.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah, well, the audience is too. So we want to actually play a game with you. You always play games with the guest. So, we wanted to do a game. Okay. So in the 11 years that you've hosted the program, people have said lots of wild stuff, right? But do you know who said most of the while things Luke?
Luke Burbank: Me.
Courtenay Hamesiter: You have. So we thought we'd do a quiz. And it's this game we're calling: What Did You Say That For? So we're going to play a piece of audio of you on Live Wire and you're going to have to describe it to us, what was happening on stage that made you say, say it. Okay. Okay. So let's play clip number one.
Luke Burbank: Why are you so handsome? What's going on with that? I feel like I just got lost in your eyes for a minute, which is not what this is necessarily supposed to be about.
Luke Burbank: That's my pep talk I give myself before every show.
Courtenay Hamesiter: That is a much better answer than the right answer.
Luke Burbank: As I'm rolling my stirrup jeans on. Is that John Craigie?
Courtenay Hamesiter: It is John Craigie.
Luke Burbank: Yes. The musician John Craigie, who's a great musician. And, also, I don't know if we talk about things these ways, but, a very, very handsome fella as well.
Courtenay Hamesiter: He really. I mean, it's funny, I listen to his voice, and I imagined, like an old prospector. Yeah, but, yeah, he looks, like a soap opera actor.
Luke Burbank: Yes.
Courtenay Hamesiter: All right, let's play clip two.
Luke Burbank: I think I have torsion inside my suit in my privs.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Don't remember why you used the term privs.
Luke Burbank: Torsion in my privates. That aired on public radio stations around the country?
Courtenay Hamesiter: I think it did.
Luke Burbank: Oh. Was. Was I on an exercise bike?
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yes. You were.
Luke Burbank: That was that was a show where, for some reason, an episode where we had the guests riding exercise bikes on the stage, maybe this very stage.
Courtenay Hamesiter: In fact, I think it was it was Rob Huebel, Paul Sheer, and you. And you had to take a quiz while writing on exercise bikes. And apparently you were very sick that night. It's not funny. You were sick.
Luke Burbank: Those seats are not, very comfortable to be on. But I also think privsis actually a pretty good way to describe that. Yeah, you kind of as the listener, you know what I'm talking about. But also it's, you know, totally not like overly crude.
Courtenay Hamesiter: And also abbrevs are sweeping the nash.
Luke Burbank: They sure are.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah. That's not my line. Okay, let's play number three.
Luke Burbank: And if you want love, we'll make it swim in a deep sea of blankets. Take all your big plans and break them. This is bound to be a while.
Luke Burbank: That was when I was writing Your body is a Wonderland with John Mayer.
Courtenay Hamesiter: That was actually, it was Mayor versus Mayor on Mayer. We had the mayors of Saint Paul and Minneapolis face off in a quiz testing their knowledge about John Mayer.
Luke Burbank: That was such—
Courtenay Hamesiter: That was a Jason Rouse quiz. It had to have been right?
Luke Burbank: It was and it was such a good bit. It worked. We were at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and who knew that the mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul were such hams? They loved it. Yeah, they played along. And that was. Yeah. Mayor versus Mayor on Mayer. Yes. A segment you would literally only hear on Live Wire.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yup. Yeah. We also did Franks with Frank and Frank, which was Barney Frank eating Franks with another Frank.
Luke Burbank: I don't know if we've had a guest who seemed less pleased when they realized what show they'd actually signed up to be on then then Congressman Barney Frank.
Courtenay Hamesiter: I would agree with that. I would agree with that. Yeah. All right, let's play clip number four.
Luke Burbank: Did you guys just [expletive] fall in love?
Luke Burbank: Yes. Okay. This is a great moment in Live Wire history. And, Courtenay, this was really your brainchild. Why don't you describe what the New York Times thing was that set this up?
Courtenay Hamesiter: So in the New York Times, I think that it was in 2015, maybe. Mandy Lynn Catron wrote an article called 36 Questions to Make You Fall in Love With Anyone. And it was a doctor who had found these questions with increasing intimacy that would make anyone fall in love with another person. It took about three hours to do the questions. So we had two people come to the show. We started them off doing the questions. You spoke to them at the beginning, you spoke to them at the end and—
Luke Burbank: I think we actually even checked in in the middle. [Courtenay: Did we?] So it was like it was Jed and Katie and they were they really were single and they really did the exercise. I believe you were single at the time, and this was living right near the tip of your brain. This whole time—
Courtenay Hamesiter: I was obsessed with it. I was obsessed with it.
Luke Burbank: And it was such a genius idea, because we we had them, you know, sort of do some part of the process. And then they came out and they said how it was going, and then they went back in, and then they got to the part where they stare into each other's eyes for four minutes.
Courtenay Hamesiter: That's part of the process.
Luke Burbank: And when they came out of that back room, they were legitimately falling in love.
Courtenay Hamesiter: It was so obvious to everyone in the theater.
Luke Burbank: It was like a cartoon where like a scandalous skunk is putting a potion on a cat to make her fall in love with him. It was. I mean, it was palpable on stage, the feeling of, like, these two. And they dated for, like, two years.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah, they lived together. Yeah, yeah. They're married to other people now, but they're very good friends.
Luke Burbank: You could have left that part out. Yeah, but they're friends. That's the thing, right?
Courtenay Hamesiter: All right, let's do, number five.
Luke Burbank: Man emoji. Question mark emoji. Man emoji. Equal sign emoji. Plus sign emoji. Astronaut emoji. Police emoji. Groom emoji. Lightning bolt emoji.
Salman Rushdie: You know, I don't know what you.
Luke Burbank: I have the answer, and I'm confused. Yeah, I.
Luke Burbank: So, wait. I'm I'm listing I don't I don't you. That sounds like a thing you'd remember doing at your job. Well, but I don't actually remember that.
Courtenay Hamesiter: I think you blocked it out because evidently it was a huge failure.
Luke Burbank: Oh, okay. I usually remember those.
Courtenay Hamesiter: You had decided to translate lines of Salman Rushdie's books into emojis and have him guess what they were? That was that was in 2017.
Luke Burbank: That was Man Booker Prize, award winning, international treasure Salman Rushdie listening to me read like eggplant emoji. Eggplant emoji. Peach. Peach.
Courtenay Hamesiter: That is how you debased him. Yes.
Luke Burbank: Oh, no.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Super classy. One more. We've just got one more. And I think this one's pretty easy. Let's play number six.
Luke Burbank: AHHHHHHHHHHHH
Luke Burbank: I Am shocked they are letting me host this show. I don't know what that is, but that person sounds unhinged.
Courtenay Hamesiter: But you had a good reason. Does that help you remember what it was? You were in pain.
Luke Burbank: I was in pain. So we were doing some sort of physical thing on on stage. I was in emotional pain. [Courtenay: No, I mean, that's just a constant.] That's a low frequency situation for me.
Courtenay Hamesiter: It's just a low buzz. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. It was in Phoenix in 2016.
Luke Burbank: Oh, yes. Yes, yes, we did the show at a public radio conference, and that happened to be in, in Phoenix. And we were trying to think of something to connect with the local, I don't know, culture. And we thought, that's a lot of spicy pepper eating down here. Yeah. And we got a guy to bring us like the hottest by Scoville unit peppers that even exist. Have you noticed, by the way, that and thankfully this was not quite the case when we did this. If you look at the hot sauce section now, the names are ridiculous. It's always like Clem's Butt Pucker Grab Your Junk sauce.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Did you just come with that?
Luke Burbank: Yeah.
Courtenay Hamesiter: See, this is why.
Luke Burbank: But you know what I mean.
Courtenay Hamesiter: This is why you host this.
Luke Burbank: You know what I mean?
Courtenay Hamesiter: Clam's Butt Pucker.
Luke Burbank: It's a real. It's a real race to the bottom in terms, so to speak.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Luke. Honestly. Like—.
Luke Burbank: Of those things. But we ate. What happened was I ate this really hot, spicy pepper. But a couple of them. I think that the problem was this was at the beginning of the program, and there was a lot of hosting to be done after I had ingested this. And it's the kind of thing that seems like in the writer's meeting, and it seems like a fun idea until you're on stage. Yeah. You know, starting to sort of hemorrhage from various parts of your body.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah. Well, you did, I think pretty poorly on the quiz. I wasn't keeping track.
Luke Burbank: No, that was awful.
Courtenay Hamesiter: I think you did pretty poorly. But I will say you've done exceptionally well on the show for the last 11 years, and I, I honestly, I cannot imagine a better person to have taken the reins of this show. I'm and I'm grateful and honored that you brought me back. And I'm and I'm grateful to have you as a friend. And thank you.
Luke Burbank: I feel the same way.
Courtenay Hamesiter: Yeah. Luke Burbank, everybody.
Luke Burbank: Courtenay Hameister, everyone. That was my pal and the long time Live Wire host, before I got the gig. Courtenay Hameister. Courtenay is, of course, the writer of so many amazing things, including the book okay, fine, whatever, which is available now. And I just want to mention we would not be here celebrating 20 years of Live Wire without Courtenay's contribution. So thanks so much, Cort. This is Live Wire from PRX. I'm Luke Burbank, current host of the program here with Elena Passarello. We've got to take a very quick break, but don't go anywhere. We are celebrating 20 years of Live Wire this week. When we come back, we've got the musical stylings of, I would say, the best cat rapper in the business, hands down. Moshow.
Elena Passarello: I mean, I'm going to try to give him a run for his money one day when I can think of more than four things to rhyme with cat, but.
Luke Burbank: Words that rhyme with tabby. All right, most show the cat rapper coming up in a moment here on Live Wire. Welcome back to Live Wire from PRX. I'm Luke Burbank here with Elena Passarello. We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Live Wire this week on the show by highlighting some of our favorite moments that have occurred. Now a paper in Portland, the Willamette Week, asked me to list some of the most memorable moments in Live Wire's history, at least during the period that I was around. And I have to say, Moshow the Cat rapper jumped right to the top of my mind. He is somebody who loves cats. He loves rapping about them. And like, this is the kind of radio show where if you are a cat rapper, we have a place for you.
Elena Passarello: Yeah. That's right. I remember when I first saw him on the scene, he was taking a bath with his cat, DJ Ravioli, and I didn't even know that he lived in Portland. And I thought, gosh, wouldn't that be amazing one day to actually be able to meet this wonderful cat rapper? And lo and behold, he lives in Portland and we got to have him on the show.
Luke Burbank: Really, it's a collaboration, Elena, between Moshowand his cats over the years. He's been involved in animal advocacy projects and has written several children's books, including A New Attitude An Illustrated Guide to Getting Through Tough Times. Take a listen to Most Show the Cat rapper, also known as Dwayne Malik, who joined us on stage back in 2018 to perform his song entitled Don't Declaw Your Cat.
Luke Burbank: Dwayne, welcome to Live Wire.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Yeah. What up?
Luke Burbank: Hey, man. So you have like, 200,000 followers on Instagram? Yes. You're a rapper here in Portland? Yes. And you rap primarily about cats.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: My love for cat. Ladies and cats, yes I do.
Luke Burbank: We have a cat lady who loves you on the staff. Elena Passarello, our announcer. When the when the email went around that you were going to be on the show, Moshow, Elena was ecstatic.
Elena Passarello: Yeah, there are a lot of exclamation points.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: We understand each other. Yeah, right. Yeah.
Luke Burbank: How did you start rapping about cats?
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Well, for me, it was always about, living my truth. I did know that, I've never been, like, a hardcore guy. I've always been, like, a lover and stuff like that. So I knew two things. I knew I loved cat ladies, I knew I represented peace and positivity, and I also knew that I love cats. So I figured, why not rap about the things that I actually live?
Luke Burbank: You live in Portland now. But you? I grew up in Baltimore, if I understand. Did you have cats around as a kid?
Moshow the Cat Rapper: No, I did not grow up with any animals. So I never knew what I was missing. So, long story short, when I went to college, I met a very cool cat lady who was into the same music I was into. And from there we started hanging out. I started, going to her house on the weekends to study, and she had a black cat named Queenie, who would watch me study. And as as the months went on, she would get closer and closer. And then one thing I know, she was in my lab at month three and cat fever just took over.
Luke Burbank: You have five cats now?
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Yes, I do, I got five cats. DJ Ravioli, Queen sushi, the Mighty Mega man, Black Savage, and Tally the Lover.
Luke Burbank: Did those names just. Did they just appear to you when you saw the cats like it? Just like that was what they should be named.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Yeah. It's just the way my brain works. I just. I see it and I'm like, that's what it is.
Elena Passarello: Yeah. You said when you saw DJ ravioli when you were. Where did you get him? From a shelter?
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Yeah, we got, we, we adopted him and—
Luke Burbank: They got him from an Olive garden.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Yeah, we got it.
Luke Burbank: Shoutout to his sister Unlimited and a brother breadsticks.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: We adopted him from a shelter in, in Arizona. And when I got the picture of him, I was like, that's ravioli. He's a DJ.
Elena Passarello: And when you look at him, I can't imagine any other name that cat have. And it's not like he looks like a ravioli, but he looks like a DJ, right?
Moshow the Cat Rapper: He's. Yeah. He handles all the beats. And, you know, he's my hype man. Yeah.
Luke Burbank: What is life like with five cats? That's a lot of cats.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: It is always something going on. It's like a circus is always someone fighting. Or is someone wanting to be pet? Someone wants to be left alone. But then you need to pet me here. Okay? Now you're done with him. Now I need you to pet me over here. Come over here, dad. Let's do that and then fight, fight, fight. When you go to sleep, let me play with your feet. So it's just constant. Yeah.
Luke Burbank: Yeah. We are talking to Moshow the cat rapper. Now the rap game is, you know, it's a place where image means a lot and a lot of cases being, you know, tough is an important thing. Being, intimidating, being feared. Do you get any grief from other rappers about rapping songs like Love Your Cats?
Moshow the Cat Rapper: No. I think they just kind of just ignore me. But, you know, at the end of the day, again, I can look myself in the mirror and I know for sure I'm 100% living my truth. So cat people, cat ladies, I love you.
Luke Burbank: You're going to perform a song for us. What are you going to do? Yeah.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: I'm going to perform a song for you is called Don't Declaw Your Cat. And, the reason why I created this, I had, you know, a lot of my. I don't like to say fans. So a lot of my cat family, they like to send me messages. And one time they, you know, they sent me a message of this cat who had just been declawed. And pretty much when you declawed cat, you're cutting off half of the fingertips. And he was swinging in the cage, and you could tell by every time he just went to lean on his front paws, he was like screaming in pain. And it really just, got me riled up, and it just destroyed me. And that's why I created, don't to claw your cats, to educate people. Because when you don't do claw your cats, the claws help them balance the claws, help them stretch the claws, help them mentally and physically. The best. So I wanted to explain to people that, is it really worth saving? You know, your new furniture just because you want to, you know, the claw, your cat. I mean, they shred all of my furniture. I don't really care. I just care about the safety of my cat. So I want to educate people on that decline.
Luke Burbank: All right. This is Moshow, the Cat rapper. So, our new fascinating friend on Live Wire.
Moshow the Cat Rapper: Yeah. So check this out, everybody. You going to turn up in here? We need the audience participation. So check this out.
[Moshow plays Don’t Claw Your Cats]
Luke Burbank: That was the one, the only Moshow the Cat rapper right here on Live Wire. I feel confident, Elena. We're the only public radio show in the game who can say that we have a like a resident cat rapper?
Elena Passarello: We are the Ed Sullivan of cat rap shows like we we break the mold.
Luke Burbank: Really big show. I want to apologize for that terrible Ed Sullivan impersonation.
Elena Passarello: It's okay, only people over the age of 65 are going to get it, so that's fine.
Luke Burbank: That's right. That's going to do it for this week's episode of Live Wire. A very big thanks to our guests, Charley Crockett, Courtenay Hameister, and of course, Moshow the Cat Rapper.
Elena Passarello: Laura Hadden is our executive producer, Heather De Michelle is our executive director and our producer and editor is Melanie Sevencenko. Eben Hoffer and Molly Pettit are our technical directors, and our house sound is by Neil N. Blake. Tre Hester is our assistant editor. Rosa Garcia is our operations associate, Jackie Ibarra is our production fellow, and Becky Phillips is our intern. Our house band is Ethan Fox Tucker, Sam Tucker, Ayal Alves, and A Walker spring who also composes our music. This episode was mixed by Molly Pettit and Tree Hester.
Luke Burbank: Additional funding provided by the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the state of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts. Live Wire was created by Robyn Tenenbaum and Kate Sokoloff. This week, we'd like to thank member Christopher Hardiman of Portland, Oregon for more information about our show or how you can listen to our podcast. Head on over to Live Wire Radio dot org. I'm Luke Burbank for Elena Passarello and the whole Live Wire crew. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week.
— PRX —
