(dramatic beat)
(Door slams)
- [Man] Yeah you know why we're here.
- [Man] This is it.
- [Woman] Tommy Edison.
- [Man] So if you've any
doubt or reservations.
Now is the time to say so.
- [Man] I'm sorry I didn't get the name.
- [Man] The Tommy Edison Experience.
- [Man] Hello.
- [Woman] Tommy Edison's been blind.
- [Tommy] I'm a blind man,
I've been blind since birth.
- [Woman] Since birth.
- [Man] Tommy Edison Edison Experience.
- [Woman] How does it operate?
- [Man] Very simply.
- [Man] He describes what blind is like.
- [Man] That's right.
- [Man] If you've got a problem.
- [Man] What's your name?
- [Man] You bring it to him.
- [Woman] Tommy Edison.
- [Man] He'll solve it.
- [Man] That's what you want.
- [Man] The truth.
- [Man] You just might get it.
- [Man] Oh yeah.
- [Man] Okay.
- [Man] It's the only way of life.
- [Man] Buckle your
seat belt in, get ready.
- [Man] Alright.
- [Man] Now.
- [Man] You're ready chief?
- [Man] Oh here it is.
- [Man] In Hollywood.
- [Man] Give me your hand.
- [Man] It's already fun, isn't it?
- [Man] Yes.
- [Man] Repeat after me.
- [Man] Tommy Edison.
- [Man] The Tommy Edison Experience.
(Jazz instrumental music)
- And off we go.
- [Ben] Nice.
- To episode number 3.
And I just did one of my
favorite radio cruches
and that is starting a sentence with and.
(Ben laughs)
- Right, people come up.
They will though come
out and stuff and go,
"And we're back."
and I was like, "Wooh
don't you just start"
There you you go, there's a
little radio cruch for you.
Thanks so much for come to pop in
and check out the podcast and stuff.
My name is Tommy Edison.
- [Man Speaker] If you put me within.
- Oops (laughs).
- [Ben] I don't know what that was.
- (laughs) It's okay, wow.
That's Ben Churchill right there.
- [Ben] That was an accident.
- That's okay, listen we love
accidents on the podcast here,
why not right?
It's sounds, we love all of
the sounds, it's terrific.
So what we're gonna do here,
is to answer your questions.
You guys are so curious
and you wanna know stuff all the time.
Loads and loads of questions
come in all the time,
so we figure we get
together every now and then,
and start to answer 'em.
And, there's all kinds of ways
that you can ask questions.
We don't have Super Chat today,
we're sorry but soon we hope.
- [Ben] That's right.
- But in the mean time, you can always,
if you have something you like to try
and throw at us right now,
@TommyEdisonXP on Twitter.
And if you don't feel like
doing anything on social,
we have an email address.
So you can just send a note
if you have a question,
just to podcast@tommyedison.com.
- [Ben] Ooh new email.
- New email kids, brand new, brand new.
- [Ben] That come directly here.
- Right directly here.
- Podcast.
- Podcast@tommyedison.com.
And there we go, so I think
we're doing pretty well here.
I think we're about to get started.
- [Ben] You're ready sir?
- I'm ready sir, I'm ready.
- [Ben] How's life been?
Anything happen exciting
since the last episode?
- There's a new favorite thing I like,
that happens to me on the street.
It just happened a couple times
in the past couple of weeks,
it just, it makes me nuts.
And it's, I'm walking down the street
and somebody would be
behind me going, "Left.
"Okay, alright careful.
"Watch out."
And then I'll just sort of
pull over and let them pass,
'cause I guess it's hard to watch me walk.
I don't know for some people it must be,
so I just say, "Well you
know, you go on ahead.
"Don't you worry about me, I'll
be fine thank you very much,
"I appreciate your help."
And off you go.
- [Ben] And what are they doing?
- They're just trying to help out,
so that I don't--
- [Ben] So it's like they're a navigation.
- Yeah, it's like they're
protecting the stick more than me,
'cause the cane hits everything right,
that's you know. (laughs)
- [Ben] You call it the stick?
- I do call it my stick,
I got yelled at once by,
"That's not a stick it's a cane."
Oh please it's my stick, it's fine.
- [Ben] Why do you, it's
supposed to be called a cane.
- It is but--
- [Ben] But why did you
start calling it a stick?
- I just wanna make it
cool, you know what I mean.
I just try to be cool about it,
I mean as a kid I didn't
like to have to use it.
But then there was a Quincy Jones song,
from the I'm called The Dude,
and there was a line that said,
don't you go messing
with his walking stick,
he's the dude no one...
Yeah I liked that so, I
just call it my stick.
- [Ben] Was that sort of a way for you to,
'cause you didn't really like--
- I didn't like to say cane, yep.
- [Ben] As a teenager?
- Yep, having a stick was
cooler than having a cane.
- [Ben] And now you say it,
and you passed it on to me.
I said once out loud
in front of some people
and they called me out.
And I was like, "I'm just
so used to hearing it."
- Yep it's Tommy's
fault what you gonna do?
- [Ben] Yeah right.
(Tommy laughs)
- But that's a new thing, so I don't know,
it's so nice but I'm gonna...
And it doesn't happen terribly much
but it's just been one of those things
that just happened to me in
the past couple of times,
the past couple of weeks.
It's been wow, okay it's
a good one, I like it.
- [Ben] Well aside from having
somebody saying stuff to you,
this was a question recently,
how do you know if
someone is following you?
What are the signs for you?
- That's great, I suppose I
can hear somebody walking,
you know behind me.
Yeah when I hear somebody
behind me I just,
and I walk fairly quickly,
unless sort of a higher traffic area
and then I slowed way
down, you know what I mean.
If like, if there's tables
and chairs on the sidewalk
and things I'm nice and slow through that,
just nice and gentle.
But when it opens up, I start
to sort of cook a little bit.
So but I just keep on walking fast,
and I don't know, listen behind me
and see if there still with
me and like that I don't know.
Knock wood, I have...
I'm knocking the headphone
but I haven't really been...
I don't think I've been
followed, so knock wood.
- [Ben] Yeah where else would they be?
- Yeah I mean, it would just
be the walking behind me,
and I suppose if somebody really close,
I'd hear that a lot more,
you know what I mean?
But if they're a half a block away,
I might just notice somebody back there.
- [Ben] Flying by in the Chat Room,
the paranormal.
- The paranormal.
- [Ben] Do you believe in it,
and have you ever had any experiences?
- Well no, you guys always used to say,
you and Cosby right.
Always said that, there
were ghosts in my house.
- [Ben] Oh we thought
your house was haunted?
- Yeah you always thought
my house is haunted,
I was like, "Come on."
And we talked about it in a video one time
and I've never been in a room
and experienced the chill,
you know what I mean
that people talk about.
I feel like most of the
stuff is sort of optical,
you see things and they're
mainly optical illusions.
I'll tell you the closest thing
I've had to the paranormal
is that dream I talked about
a couple of podcasts ago.
Where I had a dream that
my mom faked her own death.
- [Ben] And that crossed
over to that kinda.
- That crossed over to that yeah.
'Cause I was like, "Woo man."
But when you lose a parent,
I gotta think that more people
have strange dreams about
them, like almost like a visit.
- [Ben] Or someone that you love right?
- Somebody that you love, yes.
- Deeply.
- Someone special to you.
- [Ben] Yeah when they
visit you in the dream,
it's like, "Was that something."
You think is more than a dream basically.
- Yeah were they just coming
to visit me or what was that?
- [Ben] I don't remember by the way,
saying your house was haunted.
What did we say, why, what was the reason?
- There was a light that would
flicker on and off sometimes.
- [Ben] Oh above the addition.
- Yes, yep in the new part.
Yep (laughs) and he always, he's like,
"No your house is."
I'm like, "No it isn't."
And the two of you guys (laughs).
- [Ben] So you're not sure right?
- Yeah I'm not really sure.
So far, I haven't really
experienced a paranormal.
There are some people who
are really into it and stuff.
As a kid we played, like
Ouija board and stuff,
but I don't know you can
never tell with that either,
if it's somebody moving and stuff.
- [Ben] That was June Bug,
Thanks for the question.
- Thanks June Bug.
- [Ben] Cuteness.
- Cuteness.
- [Ben] What do blind people find cute?
- That's interesting, so the
first thing I think of is,
of course like women right?
And you know it's, maybe not her
but the way that she is, is sorta cute.
Is more of a way than even an attitude.
It's just people have this
thing about them that says,
"Cute, adobs."
Like children or kids just
make me smile all the time.
Their little voices and stuff,
and just the things that they say.
You know the real little
ones like two, three, four.
I always find they're cute
and I'm just like "Ncooh."
I don't know why but I
love hear little kids,
like that young, speak
another language than mine.
I don't know why but
it just, I'm like wow,
it's very cute.
There's a little Mexican kid,
I guess in the apartment
next door and he's teeny.
But it just cracks me up,
to hear him just talking to his parents
in Spanish and stuff.
And he's very happy and
always with a big giant smile.
That's some of the thing that I find cute.
- [Ben] But what are their
characteristics besides,
what the voice?
- Yeah, it's the voice, it's
the way they might say a thing
or the the words that they
might use to describe something
or to yeah just the way that they talk,
their choice of words can be cute.
- [Ben] Do you find things
that are traditionally cute,
like a kitten or a baby, cute?
Because they don't, well not a baby okay,
then they don't talk.
- No they're little ones they don't...
- [Ben] Or a kitten, do
you find those things cute?
- Not really, no kittens
I mean the other neat,
they're so little and stuff.
And then they get to
be a little bit bigger,
all they do is want to play with you
and they'll scratch you
all up and everything.
That's not terribly cute.
- So as a kitten, you're
not picking their cute vibe?
- No I don't think so.
- [Ben] So here's a list of things,
'cause I saw this question
and I wanna sort of dig into to it.
- Okay.
- [Ben] Things that are known to be cute.
- Okay.
- [Ben] Obviously, a kitten, a puppy.
- Puppies yes.
- [Ben] A red panda.
- No.
I wouldn't know, I never got to touch one.
- [Ben] A hedgehog which is
sort of can go different ways,
'cause they kinda...
- Again, you see I wouldn't
a hedgehog would be something
that would be,
'cause all I think of is groundhog
and they're similar right?
- I don't know.
- I don't know.
- [Ben] So I looked it up,
apparently there's these
characteristics that,
just to help you understand
from the sighted perspective.
- Okay.
- [Ben] If you even care (laughs).
- (laughs) I do, come on.
- [Ben] 'Cause you're blind.
(Tommy laughs)
But there are things
that make things cute.
There was this guy
Konrad Lorenz, who said.
This is giving him the
credit, he figured this out.
Things like a big head
relative to body size,
larger forehead, large eyes.
- Really?
- [Ben] Round cheeks,
small chin, small nose.
These are things that help
make something look cute.
- Wow.
- [Ben] So like a kid might
have like a bigger head--
- Or big eyes or something
or cute little nose
or something like that.
Yep I get that.
- [Ben] Yeah the nose is a big one.
- The nose is giant right?
- [Ben] And they put that on to cartoons.
- Ah okay, like Bambi right,
Bambi was cute wasn't it?
- Yeah.
- I don't know.
I don't know what Bambi was but.
- [Ben] Sure.
- It was a little deer, was cute.
- [Ben] Thumper, Thumper was there.
- Thumper, Thumper was
a bunny rabbit, right?
- [Ben] Yeah.
- Yeah, I guess Bambi...
- [Ben] Other things, everything baby,
Penguins, raccoons.
They're cute, raccoons are really cute.
- Really?
- When they're babies.
- Ever hear a raccoon fight?
- [Ben] I have yeah.
- (laughs) Not so good.
- [Ben] Lion cubs.
- See that--
- [Ben] 'Cause it big paws.
- Yep.
- [Ben] Oversize, they
kinda fall over, right.
You kinda get the vibe?
- Yep, yeah I do and I
actually got to hear,
little teeny lions play.
An old girlfriend of mine was in Africa
and had little stereo
walkman back in the 90s.
And she recorded a ton of sound
and that was one of the sounds.
And I was like, "That is
wonderful, that's very cool."
I got offered to go on
that trip and I was scared,
I didn't wanna do it (laughs).
I was like sleeping outside, I don't know,
with all these animals things,
lions and stuff, I'm good.
- [Ben] Yeah, well 'cause
you can't see it coming.
- Yeah, that's that whole nature thing
that I always talk about.
I love the sound of nature, I
love the sound of the birds,
the bugs at night, the crickets
and all that kind of stuff.
But it scares me when
any of it touches me.
I don't know, it's just the unknown.
- [Ben] Attacked but you don't know.
- I don't know, I don't see it coming so.
- [Ben] Well I compare it
to, if I'm laying in bed
or something and the lights or whatever,
you might feel something all
of a sudden crawl on your neck
and you flip out.
It could just be a pillowcase
falling on your neck.
- Your hair.
- [Ben] I can't imagine
what you experience.
Cause you can't even check.
I can at least jump up and look,
"What was that, spider or."
- Yeah fortunately, I've really
not notice that too much so.
You know the one thing,
you get those times where
you're almost asleep
and then your whole body just
goes (blows a raspberry),
it's like a little jolt and
it's like (blows a rasberry)
right back awake again.
That happens from time to time.
- [Ben] We were talking
about cartoons before
and how they use things for cute.
Just in general cartoons,
animation are you a fan?
- I love it, listen I've loved
animation since I was a kid.
And I didn't even realize
that it was animated
but you look back now, like a show,
like for example the Flintstones,
or like any of that Hanna-Barbera stuff.
Even those little short ones,
like Orgy Doggy and whatever.
- [Ben] Way back.
- These are really old old
cartoons, like the 60s seriously.
But the medium television
was still fairly new,
and they didn't quite
know what they were doing,
so a lot of those cartoons,
were just glorified radio programs really.
I mean the Flintstones was,
you didn't really need to
see it in order to know,
'cause the sound effects were so good
and the story was well told and stuff.
And animation characters,
they can do things that humans can't do.
And the jokes are good, the voices,
I've always been a voice
person, I love voices.
So some of the people that work on,
for example The Simpsons.
With Seth MacFarlane Show,
I mean he does a bunch of voices for it
and works with some great
people too, his shows.
Yeah there's all sorts of type of people.
- [Ben] So what do you like?
You appreciate the--
- I like the voices.
- [Ben] The talent of the voices right?
- Yeah and the music
and you know 'cause you
can really tell the story
with all that stuff.
'Cause it's animated, it's
all sound and sound design
and all that kind of good stuff yeah.
- [Ben] Good sound
effects, little music cues.
- Yep mhm all of it, all of it
and again they can just
sort of bang out the jokes.
And somehow when a
cartoon character says it,
is better than when a human says it.
You know what I mean but it's true.
Like on the radio an old
partner of mine always used to.
He would sometimes write
lines and have a caller,
"Say this for me."
And he'll edit it together
and it'd be hysterical.
And he always said, "I let the
caller say the wild stuff."
Just let the callers do it.
- [Ben] Partner, radio partner?
- Yep, my old radio partner,
it's a guys named John Harper,
an absolute legend, unbelievable.
Great guy.
- [Ben] Yeah great, super talented.
- Very talented.
- [Ben] So let's talk about
your old radio days sometime.
- Listen I got so many stories.
- [Ben] I know it's so good.
- (laughs) Just real quick though,
you and I work together for
what, like a year and a half.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- Unbelievable.
- [Ben] Yeah I was kinda part
time throughout those years.
- For a long time, he was part time.
- [Ben] Anyways yeah since the late 90s.
- Another time, the good old--
- [Ben] So in terms of
animation or cartoons,
what about visually do you have any sense
of what that's about?
- No I really don't, I mean I know that...
Just because the things that I've heard,
so for example I've heard
that the Flintstones,
the scenery it's the same tree and rock.
That they just, when they're running,
they just keep running
about the same things.
But I've heard that spoken
about in interviews and stuff,
and that was the way they could do it,
sort of on the cheap.
And where as the Warner Bros stuff,
like the Bugs Bunny and the Daffy Duck
and all that kind of stuff, was very...
I think they did the music
first and then sort of drew 'em
to the music if I'm not mistaken.
A guy by the name is Carl
Stalling did a lot of the music
for those and he wow, what a...
But those cartoons are
fun too but you know,
and then they sort of
start to do it cheaper
and now South Park can
make a cartoon in a week.
You know it just poop get one right up
and be topical and stuff.
So I don't imagine
that cartoon really
need to look that good.
I mean cause what, Homer
Simpson's yellow right
or are there some weird color?
- [Ben] Yeah, they're
yellow and different shades.
- So it sorta doesn't make
sense to me but like I get it.
But you know it's, not a lot
of side gags in cartoons.
- [Ben] Color is a whole nother thing.
The idea that the same thing
could be different colors.
- Yeah see I don't even know,
I don't even think like that.
- [Ben] Exactly.
- It doesn't even cross my mind.
- [Ben] It's hard to understand
from my point of view.
(Tommy laughs)
So you're talking about
voices, liking voices.
Somebody asked, Nicole I
think asked in the Chat Room.
Is there anybody's voice
that you're drawn to?
That you like?
- Oh man well.
- [Ben] Just in general,
not just cartoons.
- Yeah I'm trying to think,
well for example there's
like singers right.
Like there's a jazz singer
called Blossom Dearie,
she just makes me smile, 'cause she,
again back to cute, she has a cute sound.
There's a song she does called the,
Rhode Island is famous for you.
And it's very cute and puny
and all that kind of stuff.
- [Ben] What about
speaking voice not singing.
- Speaking voices, yeah well.
What's his name, the guy
Shawshank the narrator.
- [Ben] Morgan Freeman.
- Morgan Freeman
tremendous, what a talent,
what an absolute talent.
- [Ben] Would you like that personally?
- Yeah, yep but see I
like announcer voices.
Like there's a guy named Jerry Bishop,
who you don't know but he's
the announcer on Judge Judy,
as well as many other movie trailers
and things like that, Tuesday.
But I love his voice.
And he was an old disc jockey
and now he's still doing voice work.
So that's one of my favorite voices.
Guys when I came here,
there was another older
guy that used to do,
a lot of the Broadway stuff in New York,
who had a wonderful voice.
And I don't even know the
man's name but he was great,
we both liked him you.
- [Ben] You like
different types of voices,
do you remember Joey Diaz,
I played it at the clip from his podcast?
- Oh yeah.
- [Ben] He was on Joe Rogan I think.
- On Joe Rogan.
- [Ben] He was a deep, real deep voice,
really down here.
- Oh yeah I like that.
And I like people like Tom Wait, right.
Who has a very distinctive
voice and it's different,
and so I do, I love like.
- [Ben] Because it has character.
- It's got character and it just,
it's not something you hear everyday.
Sometimes somebody's accent
might jump out at me,
around here there's tons
of different accents,
loads I mean you hear 'em
all day long it's wonderful.
(bell rings)
Oh oh.
- You know what that sound is.
- Does that sound mean,
it's time to open the can of question?
- [Ben] There we go.
- Our trademarked can,
it's not trademarked
but you see filled with your questions.
'Cause it has to be,
'cause only questions
could make that noise.
So these are all
questions that you sent in
and there's some of these
maybe more esoteric ones,
the head scratcher, some
of that kinda stuff.
So I just pulled one of these out
and handed over to Mister Ben Churchill
and he is going to ask
me this question now.
- [Ben] Fresh from the question.
- Fresh from the can of questions,
- [Ben] When you cry or
when blind people cry,
do your eyes develop tears?
- Oh certainly, absolutely sure.
My tear duct still work.
So yeah I cry like crazy and I just ooh.
And so, we did video talking about that
and one of the things that I
wondered in that video was,
if you cry while you drive for example,
can you see through your own tears?
And I guess you can but it's
probably not advisable, right?
You shouldn't really cry
and drive at the same time?
- [Ben] There's a lot of things coming on,
yeah you probably shouldn't.
- Yeah your emotions are off, so.
- [Ben] No it does, it blurs your vision.
- So yeah of course I do, I have tears
and my nose gets runny and stuff.
I'll tell you one of the
things that I've noticed,
you ready for this?
Acting.
So I used to watch a soaps,
I watched All My Children
for a very long time,
back in the day.
And one of the things I noticed
was when it was time to cry,
and you know what a give away
is for a really good crier.
When they go like (sniffs),
when they sniffle in
and you hear it's wet.
That means they're crying real tears
and if you hears somebody
sniff and it is (sniffs),
like that, then they're really crying,
it don sound right.
And listen for that now
and you'll see what I mean I promise.
- [Ben] That's good
point, so in movies or TV.
- Yep.
- [Ben] When someone's gonna cry.
- Listen very carefully--
- [Ben] How do you pick up on that?
Yeah, just because real life versus--
- Just because in real life.
And I noticed it especially
when the guys would have to cry,
on like All My Children,
they never had it.
Some of the women could do it,
but the guys not so much.
- [Ben] Really? I'm surprised,
those guys are actually great actors.
- I know like David Canary the legend,
but he is sort of a tough
guy, you know what I mean.
So he sort of had a different kinda cry,
he wasn't all sloppy like that.
- [Ben] Hot off Twitter @TommyEdisonXP.
- Yes please.
- [Ben] So you talked
about in past episodes,
that you've gotten better,
yeah you did you've got in
better shape because of running.
- Yes.
- How does that work for
you, when you're blind?
Do you use a treadmill or
actually run or jog outdoors?
And the other part of that is,
another question I've seen is.
How is it keeping your
balance, 'cause you cant's see?
- Yeah that's a great question.
Thank you for that one too it's awesome.
- [Ben] The first part was from Mason.
- Okay, nice Mason thank you very much.
So yes I run on a treadmill,
as a point of interest I run barefoot.
I can just feel where I
am better and I like it.
So I run barefoot on the treadmill.
And what I do is, I hold on,
because there's two handles
and so I just left and right hand,
just hold on to the bars and start to run.
Now the interesting thing
about my run is this (laughs).
So what I do, is I turn it up,
I get on a warm up for a few
minutes and just sort of walk,
and you know get comfortable.
And then I just started
gradually bring it up
and bring it up and bring it up,
to a spot right feel pretty comfortable
and then I kick it a
couple more times higher
and then I sort of keep
that pace for an hour
and maybe bump it every 15
minutes one or two pops.
And then when I get done, I
take my phone out of my pocket,
open the Health app and look at the steps,
and the miles and stuff
and that's how I know what I'm doing.
So when I'm actually doing it,
I have no idea if I'm running faster
or slower than my average or whatever.
I don't find out till afterwards.
And I think it's kinda cool that way,
because there's no pressure,
I just run as I feel comfortable.
Like last week I had a crummy week,
I wasn't feeling it, my feet
were hurting me a little bit.
But then Friday I had a nice
one, I did 10K on Friday
and I was like woo I'm
back, this is great.
And I just, I love it.
It's one of those things that,
I used to goof on people when,
"I did my eight miles today."
I'm like, "Good for you."
But it's incredible, I love
it and it makes me feel good,
and it makes you feel
like I can do anything.
When I get off the treadmill
after an hour, I'm like,
"Wow that was great, I could
do just about anything now."
So it's grounding for me, I
get really centered from that,
I really enjoy it.
I never thought I would.
(Ben laughs)
(laughs) I didn't, I never...
Like my mom always had one
and I would just sort of walk and stuff.
And I was like, "This is really cool."
And so I got one for Christmas one year.
- [Ben] Beautiful.
Looking on Twitter here @TommyEdisonXP.
Do you think that as
artificial intelligence grows,
improves, it will make life
for blind people easier?
That's from Susan at Warbird.
- Oh wow from the Showgram,
what's up there bird?
I imagine it would, I would think.
See AI is a funny thing
because AI learns from itself.
So AI is eventually going to
become smarter than humans,
which is scary.
But there are, I haven't
messed with that Google app,
the new sort of AI one that
they have for the blind.
I've not played with that one 'cause,
I don't know I just, I'm
just wildly independent.
I talked about last
time how I broke a glass
and there are sites like
Be My Eyes and others.
Be My Eyes is place where, it's very cool
and if you want to help out,
you can volunteer to be a sighted person.
So what what happened is, it's
sort of like a FaceTime call,
and a blind person or
somebody with low vision,
can talk to you and you
can answer the question.
For example when I broke that glass,
I didn't even think to
use one of those apps,
never even occurred to me.
'Cause I just figure I
gotta do this by myself,
and that's what I did, 'cause
that's what I've always done.
I mean those things are great
but I just I really do my best
to try and get it all done
alone, like I always have.
- [Ben] Haircuts, people
are always wondering.
How do haircuts work for blind people?
I'll get more specific,
how do you figure out
a style that you like,
and keep it consistent?
- That comes with staying with
the same person for a while.
So there was this one
woman in Connecticut,
who always cut my hair for a long time.
Well actually it was her brother first,
and then she did.
And then I would have her teach me.
How do I do this?
What am I supposed to do with it?
Show me when I'm done, how
to fix it so I can do that.
And then I just try and imitate it,
so that's how I sort of
come with the hairstyle
and everything, and I just go
home and try and imitate it.
And I asked what products should I use,
"Well use this one, this would be great."
Okay, and so that's what it is,
it's just imitation.
And people like, "Oh nice hair."
Oh so I'm thinking, "Okay
I'll go back there again."
(laughs)
You know what I mean?
- [Ben] Yeah.
- That's pretty much how it works.
- [Ben] What's your
understanding of hair loss
and what it looks like, 'cause
you do not have that problem.
- I know I knock on wood, knock
wood as I knock on my head.
Yeah I can't imagine what it must be like,
I mean I know the joke like
somebody else's five head.
Because it's preceded so far back,
it's the longer four its five,
but I don't really know.
It would have to be frustrating and stuff
to be losing your hair all the time.
- [Ben] No I know but
in terms of visually,
what does that look like physically,
person loses their hair up there?
- I don't really know ,
'cause like I don't really
think about somebody's hair.
I'm thinking about more their personality
and what they have to say to do,
rather than thinking about details,
like what their hair would look like.
So I don't think about
somebody losing their hair,
I just don't.
I'm always surprised to find
things out about people.
This weird thing but it's so true,
I'm always surprised to find
out that someone's tall,
their small, you know what I mean?
I was at an event one time,
in this Adopt a Dog event
and Judge Judy was there,
Judy Sheindlin was there.
And I happened to touch the
top of her head and went,
"Wow you are so little your honor."
'Cause I couldn't believe it,
she's just big giant voice
on TV and she's four foot 10.
- [Ben] Right.
- So I've always surprised to
find out little bits and bobs
about people like that.
'Cause I never consider any of
that, when I think about you.
Like I don't think about you as tall,
I just think about you as the doctor.
You know you're Ben Churchill,
those sort of details don't matter to me.
- [Ben] But I am tall.
- I know but that's not what
the first thing I think about.
I think about your sense of humor,
I think about your production,
you know all kinds of different things.
- [Ben] Yeah and so other people,
they probably see first is the height.
- Yep, so yeah it's a funny
thing but I just don't,
there's so many details about people
that you guys look at all the time,
that never even occur to me (laughs).
But it's 100% true.
- [Ben] Question off the
email, podcast@tommyedison.com.
- Stop that wow that's lovely thank you.
[Ben] Hand full of them we
can only get to so many.
- Okay wow.
- [Ben] Dating another blind person,
how do you feel about it?
Have you ever done it?
Have you ever did another blind person?
- No I dated somebody who was
partially sighted one time,
for like a summer.
But I've never dated somebody
who's been 100% blind.
I have, a bunch of years
ago we were in Australia,
and we met a friend there name Tony,
who is from Perth.
And he's lost his sight,
and we did a bunch of sighted guide,
where just it was like a
little train we had going,
it was great.
- [Ben] Which means what?
You were just got each other?
- Yeah right, we were just
guiding each other, yep.
And that's how it was working.
But yeah I suppose it'd be
fun to date a blind woman,
I don't know, I've never done it.
I mean it'd be cool, 'cause
we have a lot in common,
we'd have a lot to talk about.
We'd understand each
other in different things,
that sighted people would not understand.
But there'd be other limitations like,
'cause I've always dated
mainly sighted people.
So, you've a car and stuff
and we're able to do things like that.
We'd travel a bit easier.
- [Ben] What do you imagine
would be challenging,
without getting into details?
- Yeah I don't really...
What would be challenging?
Getting around I suppose.
I wonder if we walk
together like sighted guide,
and one person would navigate,
or if we just both use our sticks?
That's an interesting query,
I suppose I'd want a, "I'll
drive, oh I got this."
Here we go, don't worry I can
ask for directions (laughs)
- [Ben] Or are you going to restaurants
or somewhere where you
gonna be for a while
and you get your own spot.
- Yeah.
- [Ben] Challenging but not impossible,
that's what's important.
- No not impossible at all,
especially in our days.
I mean because, I mean
there are things that I do,
like looking for house
cleaners and things like that,
'cause I'm not a great cleaner.
So I like for somebody else to do it.
So, back in the day,
it would've been a lot harder,
it would've been a lot more difficult.
But technology has made it, really easy.
- [Ben] Next topic.
(man shouts)
(Tommy laughs)
Foreign films.
How do you watch films or
videos in another language?
- I don't.
- [Ben] If there isn't English, right?
- Yeah if there's
English I watch that one,
but if not I can't 'cause,
I mean I saw a film when
I was in high school.
I just got Ragga music
when I was about 11,
and so in high school I
saw The Harder They Come,
which is on the Patois but
I listed so much Ragga,
that I could pretty
much followed the story.
But that was about it, there's a--
- [Ben] Yeah have you tried that right,
where you can actually
kind of follow the story,
even if it's in a foreign language.
- I've not tried it,
like I'm supposed in Spanish I'd be able
to follow the story a bit.
But like French or German or some others
that I don't I'm not terribly good at,
I think I'd be lost, I think.
- [Ben] Give it a shot,
'cause a lot of times it
really just comes down
to the simple storytelling.
- Yeah okay.
- [Ben] Certain beats,
if there's only a hand of four characters.
- Yeah.
- [Ben] Yeah sometimes you can really,
kinda figure out what's
happening in a scene.
Somebody's angry at somebody else,
'cause something just happened.
- Sure, sure.
- [Ben] It's that it comes to right.
- Yeah, well as we always said,
do a blind film critic.
It's all about how the story is told,
it's all about the way it's told.
It's so much in the verbal
part of that if you will.
- [Ben] Fabrics, touch.
What is your favorite fabric texture
or one of your favorites?
- I like silk is so nice,
just so soft and just so...
Velvet another one, I
like that so soft stuff.
Glass is a cool thing to touch.
- [Ben] What?
- Glass, you know what I mean?
Like sea glass and stuff like that,
that's been all beat down.
- [Ben] So you feel like the roughness.
- Yes.
- [Ben] The coarseness, right?
- Yep.
So I love all that soft stuff,
it's so nice and yeah.
Those soft things even like a kitten,
like a kitty cat you know or a dog
or any of that, yeah.
- [Ben] Weather.
How do you know, when it's foggy out?
Can you feel it, is there something,
things that you can pick up on?
- The fog no, not really.
Sometimes the air just
feels a bit thick and heavy,
but could not just be humidity too.
But, no I don't really
think I pick up much on fog.
- [Ben] What about snow,
when it's snowing out?
Besides what's happening on the ground,
can you feel when it's snowing?
- Oh yeah sure, I mean 'cause I'm walking
and it's just stuff falling
out of the sky on me.
- [Ben] And what do you feel?
Can you describe that a little bit.
- Yeah I just feel like
this icy cold water
or these bits of snow,
'cause it melts as soon
as it hit you, right.
So it's just icy cold
and the snow is really...
I'll take you funny story,
there was a time where it snowed overnight
and I was smoking at this time,
and I run out of cigarettes
on Saturday night before bedtime.
And I figured I'll just
get some in the morning,
in the meantime it has
snowed like eight inches.
So I had to walk and go try and
go to the little stationary,
the convenient store and go buy smoke.
It was a teeny little walk,
it took me like 45 minutes.
'Cause I was so careful in
getting a face full of snow
from going into trees and
stuff, it was horrible,
it was just awful.
And like I knew I had a problem,
I was like, "Woo this crazy."
And that was one of the things that,
sort of got me towards quitting,
was that little incident.
- [Ben] Yeah, question off
Twitter @TommyEdisonXP.
- Yes, please.
- [Ben] Are there any plans stereotypes
your listeners can be aware of?
That might be an issue,
'cause there's a lot, right?
But are there any that bother you?
- I don't know I mean,
are there stereotypes or
misconceptions I'm not really sure.
I mean like for example,
everybody thinks that my
senses are so much better
than everybody else's.
And I don't necessarily think that's true
as I've discussed before.
I think that we all
generally have the same
and when you need them they'll
step up for you use them.
But that's for me, I use my other four,
I don't have one so I use
the other four to compensate
for the one I'm missing.
So that one, people always
want to sort of push and pull.
They much rather have me in front,
that's why when I walk sighted guide,
I like to be behind somebody.
So that I can feel their body move in turn
and go up and down steps.
If I'm in front, I don't
know what's coming, right.
So sometimes people wanna just
push me across the street,
just be behind me, "Right this way."
Just sort of, can I just
grab onto your arm please.
I don't know how--
- [Ben] The thing I've
always heard you say.
- Huh?
- [Ben] The thing I've
always heard you say,
which stands out, kinda covers everything.
- Aha.
- [Ben] Is, I might be
blind but I'm not stupid.
- Yeah that's true, it's exactly right.
'Cause I'm not I mean,
I just do things a little
bit differently than you do
but we're so similar, you
can't even believe it.
- [Ben] And that's because of how people,
maybe in a restaurant
the server doesn't know,
well actually ask you what you want,
they'll ask the other person your with.
- So many times I've been out
with Ben and others as well,
and, "What is he gonna have?"
And I always say, "You could ask him."
So that's one of the things too,
that there are people
even afraid to talk to me.
It's crazy, it's funny.
- [Ben] So that's where that
stupid line comes into play
or dumb whatever it is.
- Yep exactly.
- [Ben] Because it's like
well, you can still understand.
- I can still understand
you, it's all good.
Yeah I can't see you but I
could certainly hear you.
- [Ben] So one of the most
popular questions ever,
about blindness (Tommy laughs), is what?
- Is how do I know when to
stop wiping in the bathroom?
- [Ben] Right.
- It's always asked,
it's asked all the time,
and maybe some people are
joking around about it
and maybe sometimes
people, it's sort of a joke
but I'm kind of curious at the same time.
- [Ben] And you've answered this.
- I've answered, we did
a video all about it,
which is fascinating.
- [Ben] Right, so how do
blind people know when
to stop wiping?
Is what it's called.
- Yep.
- [Ben] But what's the history with that?
When was it the first time
you ever heard that question?
- Okay, are you ready?
The first time until, I have
to set this up just a tiny bit.
Questions on YouTube
are completely different
than anything, anyone in my personal life,
has ever asked me before, ever.
I said ever twice, that was
horrible syntax forgive me.
Every English teacher
in the house just went,
"Way to F for Tommy, F for
you. Nice going doofus."
No but I've never had that
question asked before.
The first time ever that question,
was listening to the Howard Stern Program
and Artie Lange mentioned that,
there was a bit by a
comedian named Bob Schimmel,
who wanted to know that
question, and he wanted to know.
And thought about it, and
I didn't have an answer.
Honestly I didn't know,
'cause it's one of those
things I've always done,
and I've always sort of known
and could tell when I was done.
Why would I ever have to think about that?
But I'll tell you what,
when I so I appeared on the
Howard Stern Show in 2004.
- [Ben] Mhm a few months after
you heard the reference said.
- A few months after I
heard the reference yeah,
'cause it was probably in,
might've been early in 2004 in fact.
And I appeared on the show
and I knew it was coming
and I was completely unprepared.
- [Ben] That's interesting,
your entire life up to that point.
- No one had ever asked, no one.
- [Ben] They asked your age in that show.
- They sure did.
- [Ben] Yeah it really puts
things into perspective.
- Yeah and I sorta didn't
care in those days,
I mean now I'd pssh.
- [Ben] It was great, yeah
it's an interesting clip.
I'm sorry, getting sidetracked.
This is when it was actually
the first time ever asked,
to you right directly?
- Yep, yes.
- [Arty] I wouldn't want
a blind guy feel my face,
'cause after a blind guy
wipes does he clean properly.
- [Woman] Yes Arty.
- [Man] Probably not.
- [Arty] Probably not.
(Tommy laughs)
- [Ben] And you're.
- And now I'm starting to get nervous,
now my heart's pounding I'm like,
"Oh phenobla I got nothing,
this question's coming
"and I don't know how to answer it."
Because it was, it's 2004,
Howard Stern just gotten a lot of static,
after the whole Janet
Jackson Super Bowl thing
and everything and they just cracked out
on Howard like crazy.
So I was afraid to speak,
I didn't quite know how to explain this,
without getting dumped.
- [Ben] And also it's a personal topic.
- It's very personal.
- [Ben] Howard it kept going.
- [Howard] You can't check
the tissue paper back there,
what happens when you go to the bathroom?
- [Tommy] You know, I knew you
were gonna ask this question.
- [Man] How do you
check your tissue paper?
- [Ben] So you really knew?
- Yeah I knew, I knew
that question was coming.
Now I'm gonna stop you right there,
how many of you actually look?
Do you really bring it close to your face,
so you can look and have...
Come on you don't, do you?
- [Ben] I'd say probably yeah.
- You do?
- [Ben] Look to see what is going?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- You can see, wow.
- [Ben] I'm not gonna speak
for every sighted person
in the world.
- No I'm not speaking
for every blind person
in the world either.
- [Ben] There you go.
- [Tommy] I just get new
and you can sort of feel
if there's--
- [Howard] You feel the tissue paper?
- [Tommy] No no no.
- [Man] Oh for crying out loud.
- [Woman] Oh Arty's right, don't feel.
- [Tommy] No no.
- [Ben] An they just piling on.
- And I'm going, "Oh I am so
screwed, this is not good."
- [Ben] When you look back on that,
how do you feel about that?
- So that was my first
major appearance anywhere.
I've been on a game show before,
that was on The Oxygen
Network that nobody saw.
Hosted by Chris Rock's little
brother (laughs) it's true.
I just knew it was coming, I had nothing.
I'm going, "I'm such a
loser, just go ahead,
"just kick me, go ahead.
"I got nothing."
- [Ben] So you never
heard the Robert Schimmel?
- No I've never heard
the Robert Schimmel bit.
- [Ben] Well here it is.
This is the first guy
that we know back in 1988,
did this joke.
- Stop.
- [Ben] And on Rodney Dangerfield special.
- Really?
- [Ben] Here it is, I had to sensor it,
just to cover ourselves.
- Okay.
- [Robert] How do blind people know
when their done wiping their (beep).
(audience laughs)
- [Ben] That's the first time.
- Wow.
- [Ben] That the history of that question.
And then again remember this,
somebody asked you this on
TV, years later in 2012.
- [Man] How do you know
when to stop wiping?
- [Tommy] How do I know
when to stop wiping,
well tell you what, you
familiar with like Redwood trees
and Sequoia and that?
- [Man] Yes.
- [Tommy] That's how
much toilet paper I use.
(people laugh)
Wow what a good answer.
- [Ben] Good answer.
- What a great answer that was, wow.
See 'cause I was prepared you see,
'cause I was never gonna
be in that situation again,
like I was on the Stern
show, I wasn't prepared.
And you go do something like
that, oh boy was I nervous.
I mean like I was on
the radio with my hero,
you know what I mean?
- [Ben] Do you remember
why you were on that show
by the way?
- I certainly do.
(funny noises)
- [Ben] Oh oh.
(Tommy laughs)
Alright Tommy.
- That's it.
- [Ben] I think that wraps it up.
- Holy smokes, this blew by fast.
Wow well listen thank you so much
for coming to check it out.
Having to listen, and
asking great questions.
Wow their so nice, such nice stuff
and keep 'em coming.
Just send whenever you think of something,
podcast@tommyedison.com or you
can leave it at the comments
for this video.
Where else there doctor,
where else can they leave?
- [Ben] What did you say
the email and Twitter?
- Yep The email and
Twitter, @TommyEdisonXP.
You pop over there and
ask anything you like,
and we'll take care of
'em on upcoming episodes.
And they're great, you guys
are getting really insightful.
So thank you for that and
thanks for checking us out.
- [Ben] I think that's it Tommy,
nice show, man nice show.
- It's so much fun,
it's just like having
a little conversation,
just hanging out so.
- [Ben] And where's the podcast available?
- The podcast is available
anywhere podcast are sold.
You just go to Spotify
there, your Apple podcast,
anything in there all free.
I'm just kidding about where they're sold.
It's all free, so pop over there
and the audio version,
or of course the video versions right here
on the Youtubes for you to enjoy
in perpetuity my friends.
- [Ben] Well thank you Tommy.
- Thank you Ben Churchill.
Thank you everybody, appreciate it.
(jazz instrumental music)
- [Man] There ain't
nobody, everybody's gone.
