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Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
This episode of the Dan Levitard Show with Stu Gatz is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Chapter 2: Why is being tall considered both a blessing and a curse?
Many years ago, I was talking with Kevin Durant about being tall as a child. And he said that as a fifth grader, he used to pray that every evening that he could be shorter because kids, you know, want to fit in. And he was being gawked at because... He was tall, and it felt awkward for him.
About a year ago, we talked about a Florida player, a player who had decided to go to Florida, Olivier Roux, who was 7'9", but wasn't one of the top 50 prospects in America, even though he was 7'9". He ended up going to Florida. Florida, obviously. is good enough to win the tournament this year, a very deep team.
He's not playing for that team, but he was cutting the net the other day, and there's video of him cutting the net without having to get on the ladder, where he just reaches up there and cuts the net. There's also video of him on the team plane, a team plane filled with ostensibly other very large people, and he just looks very much bigger than... than everyone else.
And sports is a great confidence builder for a number of people, success in sports. But when I see someone of this height and think of all the things that are problematic, including just trying to take a shower in a hotel room, just any hotel room in America, that person cannot take a shower. And when, or sleep in a bed, I imagine.
I imagine a normal bed is not something that a seven foot nine person could sleep in. So when you add the combination of he's seven nine and he's obviously a basketball player and anyone who talks to him or sees him is going to see him as a basketball player, but he's not a good basketball player because he can't move around very well at that height.
I remember the stories about Andre the Giant and the pain that he was in. When I see someone of that height, it generally fills me with a sadness about the unknown because I imagine that person to be in a great deal of pain.
Yeah, because that's not just tall. That's freakishly tall, right? Like if you're 6'6 or 6'7, you're really tall. You stand out, but it's sort of normal tall. When I see somebody 7'9, I feel bad for them, and I thank the stars that I'm 5'9, to be honest with you. The stars you're thanking for that. Yeah. You know what I did the other day?
Christopher, I think I've told you that I do this occasionally. There's a step stool in my garage. It's two steps, so it's like this tall. Occasionally, I stand on the step stool just to imagine how it would be to be seven feet tall. And it is so weird. Because your whole perspective changes. You are a different person. If you have a stepstool, stand on it.
Put yourself in a seven-footer's shoes for just a minute.
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Chapter 3: What are some alternative careers for tall people besides basketball?
Or maybe what else being tall would be helpful with?
Fixing lights. Yeah, electrician maybe because then you can fix lights while still standing up and not needing a stepstool.
A stock person at a store, at a grocery store. I can stock that top aisle now. Don't need the little stepstool. See, there's other jobs they can do. It's not just basketball.
I think it's interesting, though, because when you're growing up extra tall, you're made fun of. Not always, obviously, but it's a common bullying technique if you're freakishly tall.
I feel like as someone who grew up, you know, red hair, freckles, I dealt with some... That's the child's play of the being. If you're being mocked for being tall, that's the best case scenario of all the things you could be picked on for. I feel like being tall... Yeah, I feel like Chris... Yeah, they deserve it.
I feel like this is Chris's expertise. Yes, I know bullying. As a ginger kid.
Okay, but I've talked to Ron McGill about how he was bullied for being taller than everybody else growing up. Your mother grew very quickly. She was like 5'8 at age 13. It was terrible for her. And my mom's a ginger. Man, that must have been tough growing up for my mom. You should talk to her about that sometime. Seriously.
OK, so Billy is informing me that as part of our March Sadness tournament that involves the fans of this show, that we have someone who's very tall, that he can't figure out whether that person is standing on a chair or not. So do we have rankings and seedings for these people who are in our tournament?
We do. And they have been informed via email today that they have made the tournament and they've gotten the next prompt. So should they should the fans vote for them to make it to the next round? They have a deadline that has been set. They need to send their follow up video. And then if they moved on, we will have their video so that they can move forward.
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Chapter 4: Why is there controversy around the West Virginia basketball tournament?
That's true.
He doesn't deserve to be in our tournament. Well, he was a 16 seed.
Let's be real. He's going to be bouncing the first round because the number one seed against him is a monster.
Wait, did Greg see the video of the guy, the cameo that Greg was in? Because that should be a one seed. So if that guy is against a really tall guy, the one seed obviously is going to be a blowout.
We will get that in a moment and we will play that again for the audience that wasn't listening on Sunday night because Greg Cody enjoys nothing more than people who reference Greg Cody. So we will get to that in a second as soon as the video team gets to it. But Greg was wearing me out during the break because he was saying, hey, Dan, the West Virginia attorney general is now involved.
They're formally investigating everything that's happening with this North Carolina being allowed into the term.
This is so much work and ways for them to get bounced in one game.
Yeah. Also, James Comey was 6'8", and people used to say he should have hooped, too. Wow. Lee and I will walk up and down with our dog up and down the trail and be like, wow, that person was – when we see a tall person, we always say he should have hooped, and it's like a reference to that. And now, you know, if you guys were there, you wouldn't even understand it. But now you will.
Do you think that tall people that are bad at basketball feel worse?
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Chapter 5: How is the streaming age affecting independent filmmakers?
He's taller than that.
Big guy.
He's taller than that.
The internet says 6'5". Christopher Lee, also 6'5".
I was dwarfed standing next to him. I felt small. I don't feel small around a whole lot of people. I was surprised by how tall he is. Jeff Goldblum, 6'4". Nicholas Braun is 6'7". I think you can do this on both ends. You can shock us right now.
You can shock the listening audience on both the high end and the low end by telling them some actors who are impossibly small and some who are larger than you think they are.
Tom Cruise plays roles that are 6'6". He's 5'6".
When you Google tallest actors, half of them are NBA players that have been in movies like Shaq and LeBron James. But then you also get a Ted Cassidy, who I believe Greg knows. Right, Greg?
No.
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Chapter 6: Which actors are surprisingly tall or short?
Wow.
They'll often find get actors who are similarly small to make them appear larger. There are any number. I think that Emilio Estevez is stunningly small. I think that you can find a number of actors that you will surprise the audience because they look on the screen like they're big. How tall is Tom Cruise? Is he? He's. He's about 5'6", is he not?
The internet says 5'7", but I don't quite believe that. I've stood next to Tom Cruise one time at Blizzard Beach in Orlando, and I towered over him.
Wait, Tom Cruise was at Blizzard Beach?
Yeah, this was right after the divorce or as the divorce was being finalized. So he brought his daughter who was like a little kid at the time to Blizzard Beach and was walking through. I was there with the camp that I'm volunteering for. I was talking to one of the counselors and he looked right past me as if he had seen a ghost. So I turned to my right and I was like, who's this short guy?
It doesn't matter. I turned back. And then I looked and it's Tom Cruise. And then all of a sudden, because he realized that we noticed him, he starts speeding up and he's dragging his daughter along. And then I realized there's a security detail behind him. And they all ran up and we tried to throw a Camp Fiesta bracelet at him and tell him, hey, there's this camp and it's really cool.
And then we lied to everybody at the camp and told them that we actually talked to Tom Cruise. But we only told one person. And then by the time we got back to the base where everybody was hanging out at camp, all 80 people at the camp thought that we had met Tom Cruise. We kept that lie going for like five years. It was really awesome.
You lied to kids with cancer?
I lied to the counselors who used to have cancer. Danny Trejo, 5'6". Big difference. Vern Troyer, 2'8". They lied to the kids with cancer.
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