Rise and Run
Rise and Run
Bonus Episode: "I Would Like to Buy a Tutu"
Who would have thought a passion for Disney could lead to the bright lights of Wheel of Fortune? Join us as we chat with our dear friend and coach, Tom Stokes, who recently spun the wheel during the magical Disney Week. From the nerve-wracking auditions to the thrilling moment of stepping onto the set, Tom offers a candid glimpse into the game show world. Listen in to hear about the anticipation, the surprises, and that all-important decision between a Lightning McQueen or Spider-Man sweater!
Get ready for some behind-the-scenes fun as Tom shares his experience of mingling with Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White and what it truly takes to be a contestant on one of America's favorite game shows. We'll uncover the logistics of getting to Los Angeles, the intricacies of wardrobe selection, and the little-known hurdles that come with the territory. Tom's stories are filled with humor and unexpected twists, perfect for anyone who's ever dreamed of game show glory.
As we wrap up this episode, discover the complex world of game show winnings and the lesser-known side of prize redemption and taxes. Tom opens up about the camaraderie with fellow contestants, the allure of viral fame, and those unforgettable moments of shared joy and laughter. Whether you're a game show enthusiast or just in it for the stories, this episode promises to bring nostalgia, excitement, and a touch of Disney magic.
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3 am again. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Welcome to the Rise and Run podcast. Join our group of Run Disney friends. As we talk about running at Walt Disney World and beyond. We'll discuss recent runs, training, upcoming races and surprise topics suggested by you, our listeners. Well, the alarm's gone off, so let's go.
Speaker 3:Welcome my friends to a very special episode of the Rise and Run podcast releasing, not on a Thursday this time, but real quickly. I'm here with John hey, how you doing? With Greg, hey, hey, hey. With Alicia, Hello. And I'm here with the reason we have this special episode.
Speaker 2:Ba-na-ba-na-ba-na-ba-na-ba-na-ba-na.
Speaker 3:In walks Tom.
Speaker 4:Hey how you doing In walks.
Speaker 3:Tom Thomas Stokes, our good buddy, our sponsor, our coaching guru, our diet and strength training specialist and star of Wheel of Fortune. Hope you got a chance to see it. I hope everybody watched too. We blasted it. We sure did and we sure had fun. And now, now that the episode is aired, we knew that you could not really talk, except maybe in vague generalities. Couldn't talk about it before it aired. But now that it's aired and we've all had a chance to see it, let's talk about it. This should be fun. Tom, I'd like let's start at the beginning. How did you enter?
Speaker 5:Oh, I did what you did. I sat on my patio and I recorded a video of myself and sent it out to the wonderful Wheel of Fortune people and thought I'd never hear from them again.
Speaker 3:I was very much like what you're doing right now, and I had 60 seconds to tell them why they should pick me. Ah, so a 60 second video. You just and you just did it kind of like you're doing right now, just sat in front of the camera, didn't do anything special the hardest part was keeping it at 60 seconds, because you guys know I don't shut up, didn't make the fireworks show up or anything okay now, tom, I'm interested in terms of, like you know, submitting the the tape for the audition.
Speaker 2:Were you auditioning specifically for, like, the disney week episodes, or was it just a general inquiry and that's where they penciled you into?
Speaker 5:it was a general inquiry so I just sent the video. After seeing something, I might have been watching an episode. I'm like I should apply for this. I might get on. It's 60 seconds of my life, like let's just try it. And the audition process after is absolutely wild. So I went into the first audition and it was a one-on-one Zoom call like this I did my hair and I got all prepped and, you know, beautified myself and cleared the calendar and I was on the call for maybe three minutes and didn't hear from them for another three months.
Speaker 3:Okay, so it was between the time you submitted and the time they got to you. That was about three months.
Speaker 5:The first was about three months and then three more months later, another about three to four months went by where I just didn't hear anything. Don't hear anything. Okay. Next one I was invited to another audition and I'm scouring my emails at this point I'm like you know, they brought me in once, maybe they'd bring me back and I'm scouring the emails going through and get invited to the group audition. So, okay, we're going a little further down now and I want to say there were like 16 people on there. We opened up with like pop-up puzzles who can solve them fastest? And there's one thing, there's one thing they tell you not to say on there we don't want to hear why you love the wheel. Okay, we don't tell us about you. Show your energy, show who you are, but don't tell us why you love the wheel. And this sweet woman came on there. I haven't seen her on the show yet, but she came on there and she smoked everyone 15 puzzles, right Out of 16, she just ding and then she cut the host off.
Speaker 5:She said and let me just tell you, I've been watching the wheel since 1972. I love this show. And she was going on and on and I'm like the one thing, lady is good as you are, I don't think you're going to go. Then we went into some breakout rooms and they asked us what are your interests? Let me tell you. In my breakout room I said'm a disney guy. I'm a diehard disney guy wife, and I go every week. What do you think? The other two gentlemen said right after that, I don't know. Same thing. They jumped on the disney train. They were like oh, they got disney week.
Speaker 5:Let me try that. I'm like, oh, I'm looking around because we're on zoom. I can see in their houses you don't have any disney memorabilia going on like there's nothing happening here. But that's how the disney thing came up. Then again they ghosted me for another two months. Wow, didn't hear anything and then just got an email saying, hey, which of these dates work for you? And I was like all right, picked out a date. Picked out a date and turned out to be disney week. So I was super pumped about that.
Speaker 3:That's very nice, yeah so now I mean, this sounds to me like this whole process from the time you applied to the time until now is about a year. Is that about right it?
Speaker 5:it was a long haul and it was even longer keeping it under wraps after filming Because we filmed months ago. Yeah, you don't want to tell anybody Because they tell you your episode may not air. They film more than they need. Wow. They film more than they need. They bring out more people than they need, which was the most nerve-acking for me, like you're paying for a trip to California but you might not end up on the show. Luckily, dca is a short 20 mile drive and three hour drive down the road.
Speaker 4:So a quick question again. So your pre-interview process, that was all local. On zoom, there wasn't going to a group area, so everything was local, all done by zoom Okay. All done by Zoom Okay.
Speaker 5:All done by Zoom.
Speaker 3:But the final one was live right, the final cut, final interview. You were out in LA, no.
Speaker 5:No, no, that was day of all. You know, that was episode taping day. I got you.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:Tom, keeping with the time scheduling here, I'm curious because I feel like I have a quasi-connection with you in terms of this topic. I was not a contestant, but when I was a junior in college, I flew out to LA and I saw several tapings of the Price is Right before Bob Barker retired, because it was a lifelong goal of mine and the time difference between when the episode filmed to when it aired was roughly a month to six weeks or something like that. When did you actually film this? Because I can imagine obviously it wasn't now. So what time of year were you wearing a Christmas Spider-Man sweater with a set full of Disney Christmas decorations?
Speaker 5:So this was beginning of October, beginning of October, and the wild part was, if you watch the episode, they asked about Run Disney. So we had to share our interests and they went into. You know what's your latest Run Disney? So we had to share our interests and they went into. You know what's your latest Run Disney race? And I said springtime surprise was my most recent. And they're like well, remember, we're going to air this middle of December, are there any other ones coming? And I was like I just completed and I'm very superstitious. So me saying I completed Wine and Dine even though I hadn't, at that point in time, completed Wine and Dine was troublesome for my brain.
Speaker 3:I remember you doing that and I didn't think about the fact that you had recorded ahead of time.
Speaker 5:And I'm glad you brought up the sweater as well, the Christmas sweater. So once I made it to, once I got to the pick your date portion, I got a list of wardrobing requirements and it was a very long list. But it said also it's Disney week, so you're allowed to wear something Disney, but it has to be licensed Disney merchandise and also it has to fit all of these, these metrics, all these requirements. And I looked at everything I owned Disney. Nothing has sleeves, unless it's a spirit jersey, and I owned nothing that. I have a section of my closet that's probably the length of my arm, that was just I went through it all, that's all Disney clothes and none of it was eligible to be worn on the show. So I was like you mean a run?
Speaker 2:Disney race shirt doesn't count, nope.
Speaker 5:Those do not count. I mean it was. It was even little things like no, avoid white because it'll flush you out on the camera patterns and I'm like I've got any polos, but they want long sleeves for men, which killed me. Anybody that knows me?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we know Short period kind of was tough for you.
Speaker 2:The thing is, we couldn't see your waist. Were you wearing a tutu underneath the podium or no?
Speaker 5:I was not, I should have, even just for good luck.
Speaker 3:All right, here's an off the wall question. I'm also a Jeopardy fan and so I listen to the behind-the-scenes Jeopardy podcast and I know that they have platforms for their contestants, so they're all roughly the same height on TV. Did Wheel of Fortune have anything like that?
Speaker 5:The set is an elevator, so there's three different platforms that come up and down, and I had two women that were much shorter than me at the start of the day, and I looked to my and I'm like, wow, they've grown, you've grown, you've grown that. Going back real quick to that wardrobe question, though, so I was in a nice button down blue shirt with a tie. I looked like your standard Wheel of Fortune contestant non-Disney week. And when we got to day of, a woman from wardrobing showed up and she had this giant tub, kind of like my tutu's tub. She had a giant tub of wrapped shirts. They were just still in plastic bags, and I'm like you know, I'll talk to anybody.
Speaker 5:And I'm like, hey, what's up with those? What's going on with those Christmas sweaters? What do you got going on over there? She's like, oh, if wardrobing deems it, deems it, you know, necessary, they might put you into another shirt. So I'm like, oh, who's wardrobing? Who's who's in charge of that? I'm like, yeah, so they gave me a choice between, uh, a kachow lightning mcqueen shirt and spider-man. And my nephew is a die-hard spider-man and spider-man fan. He's got like 25 different costumes. He's got every um multiverse version of spider-man. I was like I gotta do it. This kid's gonna go wild if he sees me on TV with a Spidey shirt on.
Speaker 2:You know, tom, something that I just thought of you know. You know you got the, you know the requirements of, you know this is how you have to dress and everything like that. What, as the contestant, in terms of like the financials of being a contestant, what are you responsible for or does of, fortune or sony, or whoever technically owns the, the distribution rights to the show, what do they pay for? And what were you responsible for to actually get out to los angeles? They bought me lunch wow, wow, okay.
Speaker 5:So day of accident or once you got your date, they actually invite. They let you know they'll be flying out, or they're bringing out 18 people that day. Now, if you know, there's three people on an episode, they film a week's worth of episodes in one day. Absolutely yep. Five by three, that equals 15. You are not guaranteed a spot on the show. If you are not picked, we will reimburse you up to 400 on your trip. Wow, it's coming from orlando and, as many of the run disney family knows, it's not a cheap trip out there. Nope, and I was like that was a little bit of anxiety, investing in a trip and not knowing, not knowing, knowing if I'd get on. And those people actually also the alternates hung out with us all day because who knows if I'm going to go and have a mental breakdown the second I meet Seacrest If I freak out. They stayed all day and could potentially get on. It's like jury selection yeah, luckily.
Speaker 5:I didn't freak out.
Speaker 1:Speaking of Ryan Seacrest and Anna White. How was that meeting them?
Speaker 5:I mean, I've been watching Ryan Seacrest since American Idol season one so I geeked out seeing him. Vanna White, there is a very funny story about that. I'm glad you brought that up. The whole day of process was pretty wild. We flew into LA last minute. It was a 10 o'clock landing, didn't get into the hotel at 11. And I had to be at Sony Pictures lot at, I want to say, 7am. They recommended 6.45. Day starts at 7am.
Speaker 5:I'm exhausted at this point I'm zonked out from the travel and I'm just feeling it. And I woke up at you know, 5 am LA time with anxiety, like oh, my God, it's here, the day is here, doing my makeup and my hair in the morning and get to Sony Pictures lot and they just give you you go through security and they just give you little directions like follow the yellow brick road and then make a left into the garage, go to the back of the garage. I thought I was going to get mugged out there and there's maybe I think there were 18 seats out there and people just started trickling in at 630 in the morning. We're all sitting there in an empty cold garage and like, okay, this is kind of weird cold garage and like, okay, this is kind of weird. And at that point security showed up and they wandered us down and, and you know, checked all our bags and everything.
Speaker 5:So, as we're waiting for everybody to go through security, I'm probably got like I was probably halfway through the line and I get through, sitting in the garage and some woman comes up and she's chit-chatting, chit-chatting with people and everybody, everybody's like, oh my God, and I thought it was a casting lady. I'm like, oh, they're trying to grease the casting lady. And she's in like pajama pants, pajama pants, no hair, no makeup. And I look down at her purse and it's a custom Wheel of Fortune purse and the puzzle spells out Vanna White. And I'm like, oh my God, I did the Home Alone moment.
Speaker 3:You can't see this audio.
Speaker 5:But I totally had that Kevin moment where oh my God, that's Vanna White. She just, you know, she was in her pajama pants still at seven o'clock in the morning before she went and got beautiful in the gown. Makeup wasn't done and I like I couldn't believe, I didn't recognize right off the bat. I think I was just level of excitement and anxiety going on. Everybody's talking to her. She's like good luck guys. And I was total fangirl moment right there. Sure, of course.
Speaker 2:Going back to my adventure, going out to see the Price is Right Once we had done seeing our tapings, you know just to like pal around LA and hollywood. My friends and I we actually went down to rodeo drive. I mean obviously not to buy anything because we were college kids, but you know, just to walk around and get the experience. And no joke, as we were walking down the street, who came walking out of one of the stores but pat, say jack oh, that's awesome yeah and again same thing no makeup or anything like that.
Speaker 2:So you had to do like a double take and it wasn't until it was too late and he was like halfway down the road that you realized that it was him. That's awesome. But now I actually want to get into the taping of this because you know, yes, when you go on your TV guide, you know it says that Wheel of Fortune is a 30-minute program. But in theory, because I went to college for TV, I know that a half-an-hour program with commercials is 23 minutes. And, yes, they do film a bunch of these all in one day, but from start to finish, how long, would you say, the actual production of one episode is? I?
Speaker 5:want to say it took about 45 minutes for the episode. They went quick.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 5:The day was long. We were through security at 7 am and we went into five hours of prep right after that before a single episode was filmed. There was hair and makeup, there was legal, there was all sorts of fun stuff like that. Took us out to the set, did a couple test spins and all that fun stuff. They're kind of giving you the test Like is this person going to be good on camera? They're making their final cuts. And we went to. They brought out lunch and that's when it was like game on. So it was like all right, everybody's got lunch, we've made our final selections.
Speaker 5:And they said Monday and they named out three people. I'm like it's not me. And then they named out Tuesday no. And then Wednesday and it was like out Tuesday, I'm like no. And then Wednesday and it was like Thomas and I was like yes, I'm not on the Friday episode Because you know, not as many people watch Fridays. But then it went right into filming the episodes and they were about 45 minutes each, 45 minutes to an hour, with maybe 20 to 30 minute gaps in between like resetting.
Speaker 2:Well, that was the question I was going to ask. So, like I remember from the Price is Right, most game shows are what is called live to tape. So in theory, as you're spinning the wheel, most of that what actually happens makes the final cut and everything like that. But I can remember during the quote-unquote commercials that's when they would reset everything and then Bob Barker would come out and he would talk to the audience for maybe five to ten minutes or so. So I was curious during the commercials if that was just a real short thing or if there was an extended gap there.
Speaker 5:It was fairly short. They gave us maybe two minutes on the commercial breaks. Oh, wow A woman came out with a box and said here's your water hydrate and get ready for round two. They touched up our makeup real quick. I got to go through hair and makeup. Yeah, my other. Are you a jeopardy fan? Oh, big time. What is what is?
Speaker 2:yes.
Speaker 5:That's a good answer. The um, the woman who did my hair and makeup. She was, like you know, I did trebek's makeup for 40 years or something like that, and I'm like whoa, I've got the same hand, like the same hands that did trebek's makeup or is doing my makeup right now. That's cool. I nerd out on stuff like that.
Speaker 4:Going back back to the taping, was there bloopers going on? I'm going to say, pat, if Seacrest said the wrong category or anything like that, was there that kind of stuff going on? They reset the whole questions.
Speaker 5:Very small handful of those. I think maybe one or two. There was one where I know, uh, if you watch monday night's episode, gentleman got recorded about three times saying the same letter, just because something didn't click right, but it was. It was minimal on the bloopers, so probably two or three of the whole time. Seacrest is smooth man he gets.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say he's been in the business for so long. I feel like it's automatic for him.
Speaker 5:I think we had more anxiety. A big thing they told all of us was rate of play. So I never even thought of that watching the show. But, like you said, it's 23 minutes of film time. They don't want me, they don't want you up there saying, um ryan, can I, can I please get a t? It's like spin the second. That thing hits, say the letter, spin again. We want to get as much episode into these 23 minutes. And you're taught I'm from new york man, I've got words just coming out of my mouth. It was the hardest thing for me. You were quick.
Speaker 3:You didn't pull the wheel off the first time you spun it, did you no?
Speaker 5:I did not pull the wheel off.
Speaker 4:Is it heavy?
Speaker 5:Come on, it had a little weight to it. The funny thing was being in like during the morning session as they're prepping everybody and they first walk you out to the set. All right, we're going to let everybody test spin the wheel. I think it took the majority of people a few tries to get it good. They're like oh yeah, you're good. I gave it one spin and I'm like he's got this. Give me a little less, sir.
Speaker 3:That's right Pace of play.
Speaker 2:You can't have the wheel spinning exactly, yeah, if you spin into yeah, exactly, it's been too long it was just, it was a wild experience from top.
Speaker 5:And then we sat through the monday and tuesday episodes. I remember watching monday night my wife. She's in the audience for all three episodes and at this point she doesn't know if I'm on the show either. So we've been cut off from communication with the outside world and I can see her over there in the audience. They'd say don't make eye contact. You know there's so much legal with making sure people don't cheat and all that, and I can't give any clues. I can't give her the wink or anything like that, which they can't see, that I just winked at them because we're on audio but no clues, and we're watching Monday night and she's like oh my God, there's the back of my head, that's me on TV. Probably She'll probably watch tomorrow night's episode for the same reason, like there's my claim to fame, that's the back of my head, so she episode for the same reason like, there's my claim to fame.
Speaker 4:That's the back of my house, that's right, so she had two episodes you only had one.
Speaker 5:Huh, yeah, you know she was actually on three, all three, all right, he was on three. I'm on the other side of the audience can you bring her to the?
Speaker 2:microphone.
Speaker 5:We'd rather talk to her the back of kim's head, or what I'll be looking at as I run, dopey Smoking me on the training this year.
Speaker 3:Oh well, good, that's cool.
Speaker 5:Good for her Another fun part about it was it was all Disney people, so we all had just common ground right out the gate and it was like so which park are you guys going to tomorrow? And ran into I want to say, three or four of the other contestants the next day at California Adventure and we were just, you know, sharing war stories about it and like, oh my God, you won this, you must've made the bonus round. Oh my God, that puzzle killed me. The bankrupts were getting me and yeah, yeah Y'all, we can't complain. We're at Disneyland right now, like living our best
Speaker 3:lives I I hope our friends who are listening saw it. Tom, you again, I'm I'm not fine, not trying to blow your tutu up here. Tom, you played extremely well. I was really impressed when you came out of the shoot hot and uh in terms of answering and you, you played a really good game. You just got unlucky.
Speaker 4:I got nervous for you for that first one, Tom.
Speaker 3:You got nervous about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, mike, he's going to say end. I know it.
Speaker 5:Oh, that would have been so. Oh, my dad would have killed me, because my dad's the guy that yells at the television when people play, and it's a whole different ballgame. I do the same thing. It is so much faster pace when you're like you're doing it and like there there's no time to think like, like what was it? Tom cruise said there's no time to think. Up there, you think you die, like I just felt like it was going so fast and just my anxiety was through the roof and I'm just like I look crazy on the camera right now. But I I feel like I played well.
Speaker 5:Oh, you do, I didn't have so many regrets with the first puzzle that when Seacrest came and talked to me, I didn't say you're welcome, and I just thought, as a Disney fan, with it being Moana, moana and Maui, I the saying. If I just gave me you know the rock, you're welcome, that would have been my viral. Oh gosh, you're right, yeah, I didn't think.
Speaker 3:I didn't think of it either, but but you got that one quickly. That was well done.
Speaker 2:I mean you just yeah, you did play well you know, speaking of coming hot out of the gate, though, like this, is one thing that has surprised me about the evolution of wheel of fortune, and that is since when do they do so many toss-ups, like I always like I mean great, I. I know toss-ups were like introduced many, many years ago, but they almost kind of felt like half the episode was toss-ups and you guys only did you know three, three or four puzzles or something like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I can't complain, I made bank on the, although you did, you absolutely did, you absolutely did.
Speaker 2:yes, how?
Speaker 3:did I think about it, greg? I think they had three complete ones and then that last.
Speaker 2:let me give it one final spin, yeah when the final bell rang, I looked at my wife and I'm like you've got to be kidding me. Like you know. I felt like there was barely any puzzles.
Speaker 5:I was really hoping, really hoping, for a 10,000 on that final spin.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I can get that bonus round.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and the funny thing is we went as soon as the episode fit. Well, the main episode finished, before it went to the bonus round, we were ushered right back upstairs, right back into the audience, to watch, watch. Oh my God, her name is escaping my head. I think it's Brittany. Brittany, we were brought to watch britney and chris and we looked at each other and, uh, we were like we both got the puzzle.
Speaker 5:But again, when you're sitting watching, it's a lot easier. And we were, they were like we, because we whispered to each other. We're like, oh, we both got it, we would have gotten it. And I'm like, would I have gotten it? Maybe? Yeah, they're in the spotlight, maybe, but I'll try not to walk that road I was yelling at the tv, yeah we got it here in florida, but there's no pressure yeah it's a lot different
Speaker 2:I will say I, I do have one critique of seacrest though. Uh, speaking of the bonus round, he does not escort the ladies over to the to the mark for uh, you know, like pat used to do, you know, it was just everyone just mosey, you know themselves, and I, I thought that that was maybe the homage that he would have continued on, uh, but, but, but I guess not I didn't even catch that, yeah I did not even catch that.
Speaker 4:I think greg's a game show aficionado trust me.
Speaker 2:If you would have had a conversation with me when I was eight years old, I would have told you that when I grew up, I wanted to be a game show host. Hence, why do you think I pushed the Family Feud on the?
Speaker 4:podcast.
Speaker 5:Those are some of my favorite episodes, the Family Feud ones. Yeah, I have one request, jeff Probst, if you're listening, I would love to be on Survivor, so I hope you're a Rise and Run fan.
Speaker 3:Jeff's a Rise and Runner. Let me check the list. We got you know 45, 4,600.
Speaker 5:If you're, out there running in Fiji. Please reach out, reach out. I would love to.
Speaker 3:I'd love to get on there. All right, so we've talked about all this. Now you did well and you won cash. You won some prizes. How does that work? Do they pay you in 20s, or how does it go?
Speaker 5:I got a large briefcase and was escorted off the property quickly. No, they, you know they. So we filmed. We filmed way back when. And then you go right after the episode, you go into a little room with some legal people and give all your fun IRS information some legal people and give all your fun IRS information and they tell you if your episode does not air.
Speaker 5:You will not. You technically didn't win, so there's a chance that happens and you would not get your prizes, which was that was kind of a bummer. And then it's four months after episode air date till you receive anything. So at some point there will be a check delivered to me and I'm excited for that.
Speaker 2:That's going to pay for some run Disney races. Alright, so translation that means so let's see four months from now. So, folks, if you're running springtime surprise, ciders are on Tom.
Speaker 5:At some point around there, oh, but it's a six month wait. If you win a car, oh wow it's a six-month wait if you win a car.
Speaker 5:Oh wow, six months Interesting. So you have to pay taxes on all of this, which makes sense, but I had. You know it's nice to win a car, but I've got a car. I like my car. I'm not very a car person. I'm not the guy that's going to go like, oh I want a Porsche. And when I walked out on the set and didn't see a car there, I got super excited. I'm like that means there's more cash on here than a Hyundai Elantra. I was excited, excited. There was no car. It's a very random fact that went through my head in the morning. I mean I wouldn't have cried about a car, but I wanted that bonus round. I know Proud of Brittany.
Speaker 3:She was super nice, you deserve it. She played well too, in fairness she did, and she just was lucky to get the big prizes.
Speaker 4:So question about the car again If you declined it, do you get the cash value for the prize?
Speaker 5:I always thought that was the case. You do not, you forfeit. Oh so that's where I kind of kind of fell for britney, where I'm like all right, thirty thousand dollars in trips that you now got to pay taxes on, yeah, yeah 30k in trips you got to pay taxes on. I'll take. I'll take the cash that I got, because this being on this show is going to cost you more than uh, yeah, well it's probably a wash.
Speaker 4:It was probably a wash for all the cash she won no, she didn't win that much cash she's going to rome.
Speaker 5:She had we spoke, we spoke in the parking garage after we walked out together and he's like I'm gonna pay the taxes. But you know what? I'm going to rome, I'm going on my first Disney cruise. Like, these are trips I might not have taken.
Speaker 3:I'm like heck, yeah, like well, those are good trips If you think about it. If you think about the pay up for the taxes, you're getting that vacation for about 25% of its retail value. Yeah, roughly, you know. Depending on your brackets, that's not a bad deal.
Speaker 5:Yeah, roughly, you know depending on your brackets, that's not a bad deal. I don't know which episode it was we might have been watching Tuesday night and one of the prize puzzles was a trip to Key West. And my wife was like, could you imagine you want a trip to Key West or a trip to Disney World? Yeah, yeah, I'm not going to say no to it, but can I at least like get the hotel during marathon weekend and stay somewhere?
Speaker 5:good, like schedule it out properly concierge service, you know yeah, but I mean, put me up in a good room. That's what I was thinking. She's probably in a very good room because that disney cruise, I think, was valued at like 14 grand yeah, it was it was pricey, that's for sure it's probably one of the suites yeah, you know she's not getting an inside state room on that one like deck three.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right, he's in good hands, she got the hercules suite.
Speaker 4:There you go, there you go, did you have?
Speaker 5:a watch party we did. We were hosted at island wing company. They uh, they brought it in and I felt I felt so bad because there was a miscommunication and they also had music trivia that was supposed to start at 730. And I went full on panic attack mode but had about 30 friends out there that just showed up and represented and then random people in the bar that were like is that you? Are you the Spider-Man guy up there?
Speaker 5:Yes, that is me, and then one group who just kept trying to get me to pay their bill the entire night. They must've been there for four or five hours. I was like I haven't been paid yet.
Speaker 2:I'm waiting on the check.
Speaker 5:So I'll see you maybe in April guys.
Speaker 4:At least it did good. You didn't embarrass yourself up there and have a whole bar full of people going. You missed that. I can't believe it.
Speaker 5:I don't know if I would have shared it. If I just trashed myself and just you know I got all the puzzles wrong and froze up. I don't know that I would have shared it.
Speaker 2:No, I get what you're saying. One of my old coworkers. He was a contestant on Jeopardy and he is one of the smartest guys that I know. I just I love having conversations with him. He got on the show, his show aired, he didn't even make it the final Jeopardy because he ended up in the negative by the end of double jeopardy and you know. So again, like he told us, but at the same time he wasn't like blasting out on social media or anything like that, for your friend.
Speaker 5:Look, I'm not making it on jeopardy, that's that's a hard show.
Speaker 2:Give me puzzles all day and I must say, tom, I was very proud of you because I remember the last time we had you on and you know we just briefly talked about this in terms of the information of what you were allowed to say at the time I remember I had asked you something about, well, are you one of those people that the moment you get cash, do you buy vows? And you were like no, because my father will give me such crap for it. And I'm proud of you that you waited a couple of consonants before you bought the Val. So good on you, sir.
Speaker 5:And I didn't think I would buy any. Thank you for that. I didn't think I'd buy any. And then that whole rate of play thing comes in and I'm like, if I go with a Val here, I've got a one in five shot, you know, one in five shot of it being up there. I need, I need a second for my brain to just catch up to where I'm at, because I had no. I'm like, ooh, I don't have any consonants in my head, so I needed that push Cause. I'm always like, oh, I'm not going to buy any vowels.
Speaker 5:My dad probably did yell at the television. But you know, hopefully I did him and mom proud. My mom cried the whole time, he told me. So that's fun, most proud moment.
Speaker 1:I was working and I was running around trying to do my job and telling the people around, I was like, hey, I know that guy on the TV. I was texting my mom, she was watching the show and she's like this is so cool that you know him.
Speaker 4:My mom still thinks they record it the same night that they show it on TV. Your friend was out there, no, no, no, he was out there months ago. They record the whole season months ago, so they don't have to do anything. Oh, okay.
Speaker 5:It's crazy how quick they change Van and Ryan. Just going, she's in all these beautiful gownss and she just flips gears into another episode on a 20 minute span Tom.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks for sharing your story, man. It was fun listening to it. It's fun watching. We're proud, we're proud of you, genuinely proud of you. That was great, thank you guys, it was a blast.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done, right up there with finishing dopey, finishing dopey and jumping out of a plane.
Speaker 4:So if we ever do rise and run Wheel of Fortune, we know where to go.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh yeah, I'll be your host, perfect, perfect.
Speaker 4:That's Greg's job. Greg's the host.
Speaker 5:Oh man.
Speaker 4:I'm stressed out.
Speaker 3:Tom, that was fun. Pressed out, tom, that was fun. But let's shift gears in a major way and talk about stoked metabolic training, because you've got a new challenge coming up after Dopey.
Speaker 5:Yes, sir Tell us about it, please. We've got the eight-week challenge coming up. Last one was amazing. Challenge will kick off on January 20th. It'll roll right up until right around St Patrick's Day, because I know that's a big cheat day for everybody. So right until March 16th, eight-week challenge doing the fitness nutrition. You'll get workouts. We'll dial in your macronutrient goals, your protein, your calories, your fat, your carbs all that fun stuff. And my favorite part, the community. Yeah, community support. It's last time. We had an amazing crew and it's just been so much fun being part of this community and bringing my love of fitness to everybody. Oh, and it's been wonderful.
Speaker 3:I've been with you since July still, and Alicia is too, um still with you in the accelerate program. So the folks who are with you in a program will be part of the challenge.
Speaker 5:They're automatically in. I got them in already and they are good to go.
Speaker 3:But then we have an opportunity for our other friends who maybe, maybe did the challenge before and want to do it again, maybe haven't done it at all. Got an opportunity for them to experience the stoked fitness training and what that's all about. How do they do that?
Speaker 5:They're already jumping on it. I got so many faces I'm happy to see come back Larry's doing it. I got to give Larry his shout out because he saw me at wine and dine weekend and he's like when's the next challenge, when's the next challenge? And I'm like let me just get through the holiday season and then we'll end dopey training, because that is that is killing me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a that's a big deal yeah.
Speaker 5:Once that's over, boom, we'll kick it off. So I've got the link to the challenge. It is stokesfit slash transformation challenge. Pretty simple one to remember. But I know you've got the link and Alicia is going to have to help me with my brain fog because I forgot what my coupon code was for the rise family. Rise 50. Super easy to remember. Thank you for that. It's normally a $97 challenge for the eight weeks. That'll save you $50 on that, so 47 with the code RISE50.
Speaker 3:Friends, it's a steal and I mean I did it. I'll be completely candid. The first time, through Tom offered, he said, oh, you guys can be. I said, no, I'm going to pay for it. And uh, I never looked back. I I never regretted it at all. It was absolutely a hundred percent worth it. So if you're on the fence, I can't recommend it strongly enough.
Speaker 5:We're going to have fun. It's last one was an absolute blast, just getting you know. I think my favorite part outside of just seeing the transformations happen is running into everybody after, Like I just said, Larry, like all the people seeing you guys and run Disney. So we'll do weekly group coaching calls, Zoom calls and answer your questions along your fitness journey. It's just going to be a lot of fun. It's always a blast and I'm excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a good deal. So listen, friends, if you're the least bit interested, I highly recommend you look into this. Tom was smart enough he had some help in the decision here to wait until after Dopey to do this were talking earlier. Uh, tom and I were on on his weekly zoom call that look, I've got the dopey simulation. This weekend I'm not going to the gym. I'm not going to do my lifting workers, my strength training workouts. I'll do them next week. We gave you the free pass.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'll get back to next week so and we get to dopey, we're not going to do them.
Speaker 4:then it's right after quitter's day, right, right, right. Quitter's day in January, first three weeks of January, then after that it's if you make it past that and you're good, I've been in the fitness industry for over 10 years and I see it all the time.
Speaker 5:The gym will be packed. That for I don't think january 1st this year just based on the day it falls it'll it'll get packed right around, right around the 6th I think there'll be a little little brief break and the 6th it's going to get really crowded and then by the 19th it'll die down again and we try to avoid that two weeks if you're yeah, if it.
Speaker 3:And a lot of our friends, I think, know what we're talking about, because a lot of our friends keep a pretty good level of fitness. But it is funny to see the spin classes, weight training, running all of a sudden two weeks later.
Speaker 5:It doesn't matter what time you go. Either I I'm a 5 am person it gets packed, then, anytime I go, it's just going to be chaotic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hey, friends, the information will be all over. We'll have it on our Facebook. We'll talk about it on our regular podcast episodes. Again, highly recommended. Awesome, I can't wait, bring it on. Well, there we go, friends. That was fun. That's it for our special episode. Hey, next time one of you gets on a game show, you know who to tell first. Come on in, we'll be glad to sit down and talk with you, but in the meantime, happy running.
Speaker 2:The Rise and Run podcast discusses general information about Run Disney and is in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney Company. Any information or advice discussed on this podcast should not be considered medical advice and should always consult with your healthcare provider or event organizer.
