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The Van Jones Show
People on a Mission. Aired 9-10:00p ET.
Aired April 23, 2015 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MIKE ROWE, SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT HOST: I'm Mike Rowe. And I'm on a mission to find people on a mission.
Boom, from a scale of one to 10, how much do you like what you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 25.
ROWE: Here we go.
What are they doing?
Freaking out.
How are they doing it? And why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love to make things that make people smile.
ROWE: It's very freaking exciting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on Mike, we got to do it.
ROWE: I dare you to turn the channel.
On this episode, when Mexican mask wrestling mingles with (inaudible) dancing, you got yourself an eye popping night and head splitting fun. But will I learn the right moves to survive the night?
How crazy is it going to get?
RITA D'ALBERT, CO-FOUNDER, LUCHA VAVOOM: It's going to get crazy.
ROWE: Then can my natural broom handling skills get me into the Olympics? Probably not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Way to go. Nice shot, Mike. Atta boy.
Rowe: And later, I set the glass making world on fire. (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Further more.
ROWE: Something dangerous and kind of sexy has been going on in a darken theater somewhere in downtown Los Angeles. Someone is smashed together, zany antics of Mexican mask wrestling, with the body visuals of (inaudible), to create a show called Lucha VaVoom. Who is responsible for this entertaining feast for the eyes? And more importantly, how do I like to keep myself from getting dragged into the ring?
But before anybody gets body slammed, I need a very special item. This story starts in South Central L.A., a neighborhood where the sights, sounds and flavors of Mexico coexist with the urban miasma of Southern California and where a legendary mask maker Manuel Quiroz makes his own.
Lucha VaVoom, we're going to have a translator and everything. Manuel.
MANUEL QUIROS, MASK MAKER: Hey, Mike.
ROWE: How are you doing?
QUIROZ: Welcome.
ROWE: Thank you.
QUIROZ: Thank you to my (inaudible)...
ROWE: Thank you.
QUIROZ: ... to my big space.
ROWE: This is quite the space you have here.
QUIROZ: Yeah. Just watch everyone because everything here is dangerous.
ROWE: Everything is dangerous.
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: This is your home.
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: And your work space.
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: How long have you been here?
QUIROZ: I told you, everything is dangerous.
ROWE: She just knocks -- our translator just knock the cane down. Is that what happen? Seriously?
PAULA CARVAJAL, INTERPRETER, PRODUCER: It's Taylor.
ROWE: Yeah, sorry. All right, so your job is to make wrestling masks.
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: And you're going to make one... QUIROZ: Mask and beards.
ROWE: The whole thing.
QUIROZ: Everything, yeah.
ROWE: Are you in here everyday working?
QUIROZ: Yeah, yeah. 15 hours a day.
ROWE: 15? So what are we going to do today?
QUIROZ: You like a mask man?
ROWE: I'm all -- yes, yes.
QUIROZ: You like this?
ROWE: This?
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: It's all right.
QUIROZ: You just put it on.
ROWE: OK.
QUIROZ: Slowly.
ROWE: OK. This has to come down on my eyes.
QUIROZ: Yeah. All right. Nice eyes.
ROWE: Thank you.
QUIROZ: You're bigger.
ROWE: I have a big head. Grande...
QUIROZ: No problem.
ROWE: I'm frightening. That looks frightening.
QUIROZ: You look like a American hero.
ROWE: It takes longer to make a mask than we have time for this segment. So to pass the time, why don't I put my translator skills to the test?
To be or not to be.
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
QUIROZ: That is the question.
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
ROWE: Where it is noble or in the mind.
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
ROWE: To suffer the slings and arrow.
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
ROWE: About radius fortune.
CARVAJAL: Really, it's so many letters about how I (inaudible) and Spanish.
ROWE: But the question is, are they going to write in English or Spanish?
CARVAJAL: That is the question.
ROWE: That is the question.
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
QUIROZ: Your mask is finished.
ROWE: Really.
QUIROZ: Now, it's perfect. Put it in.
ROWE: I think the color really brings out my eyes.
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: Changes your whole look.
QUIROZ: When you use mask, the life is changed.
ROWE: The life is changed. How?
QUIROZ: Because when you put the mask on, you feel like bigger.
ROWE: So what you do, making the mask, making the costumes, is making the luchador bigger and more powerful and more real.
[21:05:00] QUIROZ: Yup.
ROWE: I like it.
Manuel's home is a shrine to Lucha Libre. As we talked, I learn that Mexican wrestling is been around for nearly 100 years. But it wasn't until the 1940s that the mask was first introduced. Then I learn that Manuel has been holding back on me.
Who is this? This is you.
QUIROZ: Yeah. Its 25 years ago. ROWE: Yeah.
QUIROZ: I broken my back, way here.
ROWE: No.
QUIROZ: So no Lucha (inaudible) anymore.
ROWE: And that was that.
QUIROZ: Three months in the hospital. And that...
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
ROWE: He was a champion.
I thought that I come to this neighborhood to meet a simple mask maker. Learning Manuel's history is one of the very wrestlers, he lovingly crafts those masks for, puts his chosen life's work in a whole new light.
Why didn't you tell me you're a champion? Yes, this is for you, we want you -- I want to.
QUIROZ: No, not like that.
ROWE: Come on. Tell us. We...
QUIROZ: No, no, no.
ROWE: This is your life.
QUIROZ: No, this is...
ROWE: No, I'm looking -- I see a man...
QUIROZ: It is 40 years ago.
ROWE: It's today. I look around your casa and I see so much love for what you do. And I see -- how do you say passion?
CARVAJAL: (Foreign Language).
QUIROZ: Yeah, it's my passion.
ROWE: Yes, yes. God, he's going to make me cry.
QUIROZ: And then this is for you. Look, put in the keys.
ROWE: For me?
QUIROZ: Yeah.
ROWE: Tell me the -- who -- is this you?
QUIROZ: It's my professional mask. ROWE: I have no gifts for you.
QUIROZ: No, you don't need.
ROWE: I have no -- you know what? Troy, give him your camera.
QUIROZ: You are my gift.
ROWE: Give him the camera. Give him -- pick the camera.
QUIROZ: No, not this.
ROWE: Well take it. Take it. Just take it, that's good.
QUIROZ: OK.
ROWE: Now, look, so that you shoot them. That's perfect, like that.
QUIROZ: Is it working?
ROWE: That's perfect. Good.
QUIROZ: This one?
ROWE: All everybody, wave goodbye. All right.
QUIROZ: OK. I'm the camera man.
ROWE: Who knew a former Luchador and his loving wife were living in a shrine and workshop, devoted to this very sport. It would be rude to have my own mask made and not visit the ring, which brings me to a theater in downtown L.A. And Rita D'Albert, co-founder of Lucha VaVoom. No, Rita is not a Latina, she's a nice Jewish gal from Queens, New York.
Mike.
D'ALBERT: Great to meet you. Rita D'Albert.
ROWE: How crazy is it going to get?
D'ALBERT: It's going to get crazy.
ROWE: So there's an element of flap stick.
D'ALBERT: Yeah, really fun.
ROWE: (inaudible) pill. And obviously you've fought (inaudible) to it.
D'ALBERT: We threw the girls into the show and the comedians, because people we're going to Lucha Libres.
ROWE: Right.
D'ALBERT: So in order to get people coming, how about girls? Not usually -- it works.
ROWE: It's a kind of time honored universal coin of the realm.
D'ALBERT: And it's so funny when you go to something so simple, beautifully it works.
ROWE: Down stairs, I meet Liz, the show's co-creator. Liz is a bit under the weather, not up for all these T.V. shenanigans. I also meet Magno. Magno looks like he might be up for pretty much anything. And I'm about to learn in having my very own Luchador mask is all well and good.
But there's a bit more to it than that.
D'ALBERT: Expander.
ROWE: Really?
D'ALBERT: You can't move in those jeans.
ROWE: I'm not going to be doing a lot of -- am I going to do a lot of moving?
MAGNO: Yeah.
ROWE: I'm just going to step in here and slip into this thing.
D'ALBERT: All right.
ROWE: Well you guys talk amongst yourselves.
D'ALBERT: OK. Yeah.
ROWE: Lucha (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
ROWE: Just because I've got what it takes to parade around and form hugging orange pants, doesn't mean I've got what it takes to get into the ring with the real deal. So of course, I'm getting in the ring.
Oh dear. That is humbling.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: I'm in downtown Los Angeles, trying to get my head around something called Lucha VaVoom. And since I'm not likely to put this VaVoom into the show, I might as well learn the ropes of the whole Lucha thing.
Come on.
MAGNO: So this is what we call (inaudible), like you take your left arm, it's going to wrap around neck and your right arm is going to around me.
ROWE: Like this?
MAGNO: Yeah. Are you ready? I can break like this.
ROWE: Awkward, embracing in the ring.
D'ALBERT: They don't pull any punches.
ROWE: Very steady. OK, I got it, I got it. That's good. That was the sound of my jaw.
D'ALBERT: Oh my god.
ROWE: Come on, Santa Maria. I mean if you are here, what you're going to do? I got to tap it. I mean, aside from that?
MAGNO: Aside from that. Go hear.
ROWE: Right, right.
D'ALBERT: He did mention his ankles.
ROWE: That's -- I don't feel anything from my whist down.
D'ALBERT: OK, well -- OK.
ROWE: I mean I can do this all night, but I know you got work to do and I don't want to, you know.
D'ALBERT: If you want to do some more round...
ROWE: No, no, no, I want him to rest up. I want him to be in good shape.
That will be enough abuse for one afternoon.
Thank you.
Now, it's time for something a little more my speed. Hula hoops.
You got a hula hoop girl. Hello, I'm Mike.
MARAWA WAMP, HULA HOOP DANCER: How are you? Marawa.
ROWE: Lucha VaVoom employees a variety of inspiring novelty acts, to keep the crowds fully aroused. Tonight, Marawa Wamp will who off her hip waggling skills with a hula hoop or a 20.
Where are you from?
WAMP: Australia.
ROWE: I want to see what you do. You're some of Guinness?
WAMP: Yeah.
ROWE: You hold records? WAMP: Yeah.
ROWE: And what do is the official records?
WAMP: The official record is more to (inaudible) by an individual. It's not funny.
[21:15:01] ROWE: And how many? Is this the world record?
WAMP: It is, but no way. 160.
ROWE: Come on.
WAMP: Yeah.
ROWE: Contemporaneously?
WAMP: Yes, 15 kilo --it's heavy. It weighs like 15 kilos.
ROWE: In order to better comprehend how Marawa could possibly spin 160 of these at one time, I will not attempt to spin 28 of them for one revolution.
What's ridiculous. This is ridiculous, let's switch places.
WAMP: You have to spin right, push them into the...
ROWE: So just so we're clear, 28. The world record is 5 times that.
WAMP: Yeah, it's heavy.
ROWE: Would you -- I mean, use it all around your whist or you do it on your arms or...
WAMP: There's a video in YouTube, you can see my arms are like out like this, because I can't hardly...
ROWE: Oh my god.
WAMP: Yeah.
ROWE: Can we roll that video on YouTube real quick? Let's just have a look at the world record. Look at that, amazing. Unbelievable, unbelievable. I'm going to feel like a jackass if we're not rolling that footage on YouTube right now. But if we are, this is going to be seamless.
Look, at that. Oh my -- I've never seen anything like that. All right, we're back. Here it is with just a fifth of that. No, way. Oh the (inaudible), at least you (inaudible). That is unbelievable. You can do this for how long?
WAMP: I don't know. Just tell me when.
ROWE: Let's find out. We're going to take a quick Commercial break. When we come back -- you know what? Nobody likes a quitter. I'm prepped and I'm ready. I've learn everything I can possibly learn about this wild and crazy spectacle in a half hour segment for television. And not it's show time. Rita has changed into something more comfortable and I'm about as comfortable as I'm going to get.
I spend a fair amount of time in my professional career, making decisions and then questioning them. This is another one of those times.
I'm not sure how to behave.
I've stuffed a lot of things in my life. I've stuffed Thanks Giving turkeys, I've stuffed wild bikinis, but a human pinata, yeah, that's a first.
This is going to be one build to the rim pinata.
The show begins very formal, like a British show on TBS, but this is no, (inaudible). And just like that, we come to the part of the show where most viewers say, "This is CNN?" Check out the black bars on here. It's practically (inaudible) censorship.
Once the wrestling begins, I quickly get the idea, that Lucha Libre makes the WWE look like a girls scout (inaudible). There's the clown, the chupacabra, the chickens I met backstage, were actually pretty impressive athletes. And there's a guy called Dirty Sanchez, who has got to be seen in person to truly be appreciated. Because we show can show to you here.
The show also employees, hipster L.A. comedians, who M.C. the goings on. While I'm waiting to join Magno in the right, comic Jeff Davis cheerfully offers a soothing bromide.
JEFF DAVIS, COMEDIAN: A friend of mine who did a room show for this first time.
ROWE: Yeah.
DAVIS: And the wrestlers brought him on stage. They brought him in the ring.
ROWE: Yeah.
DAVIS: And they proceeded to rip him into pieces. He's a great guy.
ROWE: Yeah, he can take it.
DAVIS: They don't go easy on you. They really go at you. My advise to you is to get the hell out of here.
ROWE: That was Jeff. I'm nervous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's Mike Rowe, everybody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROWE: I'm somewhere in the mysterious entertainment underground of Los Angeles, getting ready to take part in Lucha VaVoom, where the girls are beautiful, the wrestlers, psychotic. And this T.V. host wrapped with second thoughts.
It's getting real man, it's getting real.
As I near the ring, the words of comedian Jeff Davis ring in my head.
DAVIS: They brought him in the right.
ROWE: Yeah.
DAVIS: And they proceeded to rip him to pieces.
ROWE: I've already had a painful lesson at masked wrestling. I'm not sure I'm ready to be completely humiliated in front of a crowd, not that I mind a bit of pain. It's the months of recovery that worry me. I was going to do it, even with the wrestlers in the right smelling fresh blood, I was going to climb the ropes and give them what for. But then the ring announcer Ignacio (ph) had second thoughts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my god, man, it's Mike Rowe, everybody.
ROWE: Now, with my truth identity revealed, well there's no way I can break years of Lucha tradition by entering the ring. That would be impolite. Clearly, I am devastated.
It's time I go in. It's time I go in. I go in next time.
Time to retreat to the safety of the announcer's boot.
[21:25:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Rowe.
[ROWE: Where skills I actually posses can be put to the test.
That's good.
Now, as I watch Magno's brutal protracted destruction of the hand of his powerful opponents, it occurs to me that going into that ring would have quite possibly been the last thing I ever did.
DAVIS: Your friend have (inaudible).
ROWE: So Magno didn't win. But hey, are there really any losers in Lucha? I don't want to put words in Magno's mouth, but yes. Lucha Libre is a hot mess. No doubt about it. But it's hard to forget the power of the mask. We all wear them, from the former wrestling champ, turned unassuming tailor. To the (inaudible) acrobat, transformed into a gyrating day glow temptress. To the nice Jewish girl from Queens, who is somehow, redefining a time honored Mexican tradition.
Even your humble host, who, like most of us will occasionally set aside common sense and good judgment to slip into whatever the job calls for.
OK, so to sum up...
D'ALBERT: Yes.
ROWE: ... this is your life. And you love it.
D'ALBERT: I love it.
ROWE: Was it a good show?
D'ALBERT: Yeah. Yeah, I really loved it. That was a great match, though.
ROWE: Yeah, it's a good match.
D'ALBERT: I though, (inaudible) I've never seen the thing about the show.
ROWE: I saw some things too, you know.
D'ALBERT: Yeah, me neither, some first (inaudible) tonight.
ROWE: I saw some things. I don't know where I put my pants.
D'ALBERT: I haven't seen your pants.
ROWE: So the crew and I were driving to a very chilly Madison, Wisconsin, wondering what one might do for fun in the cold months up here. And then we see a sign.
Why not.
Why not, indeed, when you stumbled upon what turns out to be the country's largest curling supply store.
Hey there. Mike.
STEVE BROWN, STEVE'S CURLING SUPPLIES: Steve.
ROWE: Craig.
CRAIG BROWN: Yeah. Nice to meet you.
ROWE: A place ran by the first family of this odd Olympic sport. Well curling is always been a popular winder past time for our neighbors up north. It didn't become the Olympic sport we've all come to love until 1998. I'm hoping I can learn it's weird ways and see just how challenging am it might be.
There'll be no better trainers than these guys. Steve Brown is an Olympic coach, and his son Craig, an Olympic competitor.
Everything a fellow could ever conceivably want to know about curling, I assume is logged away up there in your combined father and son brain.
S. BROWN: Absolutely. This is all we have done our entire life. In just one hour, we're going to try and teach you how to play this sport and that's going to be impossible but we're going to try.
ROWE: Great.
S. BROWN: And then we're going to have a little game. I got some of my curl Olympic athletes coming down. And then you'll get to see the best slide in the country, probably of my son Craig. So we got it covered from all angles.
ROWE: Steve, you whip me into a (inaudible) frenzy. Let's go ahead and find the cloths that I need.
S. BROWN: OK. So you got a slider and you got a gripper. Slider is the part that's really, really slippery, once you kind of do that gliding motion.
C. BROWN: This is called the gripper.
S. BROWN: The gripper is what going to hopefully make it, so you don't fall on you butt constantly.
ROWE: Who invented curling?
S. BROWN: Scottish.
ROWE: The Scots.
S. BROWN: They that in a frozen ponds out in the (inaudible) of Scotland, so it started many, many centuries ago. You can't golf during the winter, so you got to have something else to do.
ROWE: That is slick, yeah. I'm...
C. BROWN: Yeah. And this is just carpet. Wait till you get on ice. And now you need a broom, bush.
ROWE: Is there a difference?
C. BROWN: Between the terms, broom and brush?
ROWE: Right.
C. BROWN: No.
ROWE: Are they aligned, so you don't freeze out there?
C. BROWN: Those are pretty warm.
ROWE: Warm fitting.
C. BROWN: Yeah.
ROWE: (inaudible) the positive, you know. You know what I'm saying?
C. BROWN: I know, exactly.
ROWE: So not I'm all suited up. I guess there's only one thing left to do.
To the ice. To the ice?
S. BROWN: To ice.
C. BROWN: To the ice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: Up in winter Wisconsin, professional curlers Steve and Craig Brown are about to teach me the finer points of the Scottish born sports. As we approach the Madison Curling Club, I can almost hear the cries of ancient Scots battling it out in the ice. Turns out to just modern Wisconsinites, but still just as thrilling. Makes a guy want it take out his broom and charge the ice. Shall we?
S. BROWN: Let's do it are we ready?
C. BROWN: Let's curl.
S. BROWN: This is going to be slippery. All right so what you want to do is take a step and kind of slide, step and slide.
ROWE: That's no different in ice skate.
S. BROWN: It really isn't.
ROWE: Nope. Sorry. Oh yeah I've gone down like a cheap cart table. Jesus yeah. God. I'll put my rubbers back on.
S. BROWN: These are hacks (ph), kind of like a starter block and track. So just putting the ball of his foot right there.
ROWE: Yeah.
S. BROWN: And he using his brush for a balance point.
ROWE: Yeah.
C. BROWN: And then I'm just going to push out.
S. BROWN: Smooth and silk and looks so easy right.
ROWE: It really does. It's not is it?
S. BROWN: Let her go let her go. One, two, three, four, head down. Let her go there you go back in your feet buddy.
ROWE: It's so freaky humbling, men. It's hard to look good down here unless your really sex it up.
S. BROWN: The object of the game is you're simply trying to get your stones closer to you the center of the other team.
ROWE: All of them?
S. BROWN: Well as many as you can.
ROWE: So its basically (inaudible) on ice, the shooter has to release the stone before he slides pass the first black line players put a little English on the stone which causes it to curl as it travels down the length, hence the name curling.
[21:35:12] But to be in play, the stone has to travel pass the far black line.
S. BROWN: So right now yellow would have three but if the red team came down with one shot all the sudden ignores two yellow ones in there the red is closer to the center, so it's how many of your color are closer to the center than the other team.
Curling stones all come from the isle of Ailsa Craig, just off the coast of Scotland. This is the only granite they can find basically in the entire that has a right ferocity and everything so won't break.
ROWE: The right what?
S. BROWN: I don't know if I got the right word or not, maybe I'm making of it up. Ferocity, the density of the stone. So they are quite expensive though. The stones that they use in athletics are about $700 a piece, but the good news is they last forever and ever and ever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yup, yup.
ROWE: Now that I know that I throw the rock and keeps score. I'd like to know why people are frantically trying to clean the ice in front of the rock as it slides down the lane.
C. BROWN: The speed is all of determine by the sweepers. They judge comparing speed and line...
ROWE: Yeah.
C. BROWN: ... to make sure it stops in the right spot.
ROWE: Why does it work? I mean physically what's happening?
C. BROWN: You're just warming up the ice. Basically the change in temperature helps make the rock go farther....
ROWE: Yeah.
C. BROWN: ... and straighter. So basically try to run...
ROWE: Run.
C. BROWN: ... while sweeping. Well -- yeah, there you go. Very good all right. You can have to go faster sometimes. There you go you got it now.
ROWE: I got it.
C. BROWN: Piece of cake.
ROWE: Men I have been sweeping all my life. I want to hear about how the world just became your whole life.
S. BROWN: I can say they're up with the sport accidentally but I was in the town of a thousand people....
ROWE: Yeah.
S. BROWN: ... and if I took three steps from backyard I can reach and I can open the door, there are little (inaudible) curling club. Basically we would sneak in that curling club, we get all kinds of trouble with the ice maker but we didn't care we were having fun.
ROWE: Right.
S. BROWN: My parents just say, "Did you do anything wrong?" And we would say, "no." And they say, "OK, you go ahead and sneak it again tomorrow." I was like six, seven-years old. And we were in there on daily basis.
ROWE: Steve's love for the sports spread to his whole family, not only is Craig an Olympic curler, his daughter Erica (ph) move to curling craze Canada because she loves the sport so much. Steve continues to foster the passion in others by coaching the U.S. Paralympic team.
S. BROWN: This is Patrick McDonald, skip for the Paralympic team that's in Sochi.
ROWE: How are you?
S. BROWN: Tim Kelly (ph) one of our former world championship players.
ROWE: When is the very first time you pick up a curling stone, you remember?
MCDONALD: It was in 08, it was in summer. I'm summer athlete.
ROWE: Yeah.
MCDONALD: And I just -- if golf was a paralympic sport, that's what I'd be doing and I get the goal every time.
ROWE: Yeah.
MCDONALD: I can crash it.
ROWE: How you been in a chair?
MCDONALD: 24 years.
ROWE: What happen?
MCDONALD: I was patrolling the in DMZ in Korea. ROWE: Yeah.
MCDONALD: We rode our vehicle and we roll it crash I broke C45, G4301.
ROWE: Are all delivery stick custom?
MCDONALD: Only mine.
ROWE: You know I can help but notice, you do have a certain flare go on.
MCDONALD: Living the dream.
ROWE: You know what I'm saying?
MCDONALD: The interesting about life is, you get the play it everyday.
ROWE: But all this Olympic athletes around, I can feel the challenge in the air. I'm going to take a few more practices runs.
S. BROWN: Hey let her go let her go. It's actually getting go too far.
ROWE: Really?
S. BROWN: That's good, push. There you go.
S. BROWN: There you go. And he's going to push it. Not bad, go for a sweep. All around a couple times tell him I'm on up sweep it, sweep that thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't lose focus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh it's so close he might make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's on a triple.
ROWE: Oh it's on. All right.
C. BROWN: Obviously, you got to work on going to right direction and throw into right speed but you got the basic fundamental down as far as getting from point A to point B.
ROWE: I didn't fall down.
C. BROWN: You haven't really...
S. BROWN: You spoke too soon, perfect timing.
ROWE: After an hour of training, I'm about as good as I'm going to get. So naturally the next step is a match.
MCDONALD: Mike, this is daughter Andy.
ROWE: Hey Andy. How you doing?
MCDONLD: She's an outstanding young curler.
ROWE: Are you. What are you? Do you like 11?
ANDY MCDONALD, CURLER: 12.
S. BROWN: We're going to put you against Craig, the Olympian athlete because we don't want you to have any feelings of the scheme is easy and we're going to get couple my paralympic athletes, I think to help you also on your team
C. BROWN: Now you won't get beat by a 12 year old girl.
A. BROWN: Because I can assure you I would beat you.
ROWE: You can assure me?
[21:40:00] You know what? I don't like her attitude I think she's she should be on the other team, just to see if she can beat me.
C. BROWN: Andy, I'm glad let you beat him with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. BROWN: Hey, let her go. Let her go. Nice shot, Mike. Atta boy.
ROWE: I'm in Wisconsin learning to curl with the best of them.
S. BROWN: He's going to push it.
ROWE: I'm being taught by U.S. Olympic coach Steve Brown and his son, Olympic curler, Craig Brown. They've just challenge me to a match.
S. BROWN: We're going to put you against Craig, the Olympian athlete.
ROWE: We divided the team so they are relatively equal for the combination of Olympians, Paraolympians, amateurs and one supremely confident 12-year-old girl.
A. MCDONALD: I can assure you.
ROWE: You can assure me?
S. BROWN: So the big tradition of the games.
ROWE: Yeah.
S. BROWN: All eight players. You shake hands and to say, "Good curling. Have a great day."
ROWE: Good curling. Have a great day. Have a great day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good curling.
ROWE: Good curling Andy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good curling.
ROWE: Tim (ph), good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy.
ROWE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good curling Andy.
ROWE: Good curling. What about saying team, have a super good curling. Craig, good curling. Nobody likes a showoff.
The polite greetings are done. The teams are set. My pride is one the line. It's time to curl.
All right, here we go.
[21:45:00] S. BROWN: His first (inaudible) in competition. This is good. Let her go. Looks pretty good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on Steve, yep, yep, yep.
ROWE: Take me home Steve. Take me home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're got a winner right at the back. Nice Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that. Excellent.
ROWE: Piece of cake.
S. BROWN: OK. Now, Tim (ph) is going to try and take away your nice shot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Line looks good.
S. BROWN: These gals are -- they are very good sweepers.
ROWE: Oh yeah.
S. BROWN: Line is perfect, wait only. They're putting as much of their body weight pressure into the brush as they can.
Oh, you almost sweep it. No, you get to throw on another one.
You're on a nice push.
ROWE: A typical girl in match takes about 75 minutes to play.
All right, Steve, (inaudible) to make your worst, throw to make youe worst.
We don't have that kind of time. Well, just give me the highlights?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's close.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you're going to win.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's close.
ROWE: Let's get in there. Get in there son of gun, get in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice shot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good line.
ROWE: (inaudible) got a lot of keeps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Curl, curl, curl, curl, curl. Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's sweep it.
ROWE: It's been a hard fought battle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice sweeping ladies.
ROWE: Great performances on both sides.
For a minute but what is going to win. But on the last stone, the ladies sweep up one more point to tie the match two to two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sweeping can do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: :So now, we're tied up. Tie ball game.
ROWE: Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you want to just call a draw?
ROWE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to do sudden death?
C. BROWN: You against our 12-year-old girl. There you go, whoever gets closest to the center, win.
One rookie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One rookie.
ROWE: Yes. Yes. One rook.
So it all comes down to this. The 12-year-old, master and the 52- year-old, apprentice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I go get look what she's got to do, what she got to do here.
ROWE: No way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's in play.
ROWE: Andy's stone is in play but it's stop short to the house. All I have to do to win is get my rock closest to the center than hers.
As I put my feet into the hacks, the fate of the team resting squarely on my shoulders. I get it. I can see how a person could fall in love with the supporter.
I know it's weird, that's kind of the point. The girl in the community gets together to encourage, discourage and throw some rocks but go to any dark club or bowling alley, where meeting the circle and you'll find to same type of people bringing the same level of passion to the thing they love.
It's just a chillier out here on the ice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be close. Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you did it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy, come and give him a hug.
ROWE: I'm sorry but I really kick your ass. Good curling. How did you feel today when I kicked your but out there? Was it deeply humiliating or just marginally sad?
Do you think your love will get over?
A. MCDONALD: Yeah.
ROWE: You're over it already, aren't you?
A. MCDONALD: Yeah.
ROWE: What are your hopes for the future with curling?
A. MCDONALD: I want to go to the Olympics just like my dad.
ROWE: You think I'm funny?
A. MCDONALD: Yeah.
ROWE: You find me amusing? Some people think I'm funny. Other people think -- they kind of sicken me, I'll be honest with you. We took some surveys before the show started.
Andy, explain to the folks what makes me so (inaudible) on funny?
We'll be after this.
It's pretty good. Yup, the beer is really good. But this is not a story about making beer. This is a story about making a glass. And here at Fire and Light, they've turned glassware into an art form. Making each piece is hard sweaty work and they wanted me to experience all that.
What exactly are we going to be doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have you pour some glass and see how that goes.
ROWE: I can tell you how it's going to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) I'm worried about.
ROWE: I didn't really want to do this, but that's kind of the point. John and Natali McClurg didn't really want to own this difficult business but they put in years of hard work and they made it a success. I wanted to find out why. But first...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to make a big mold, a vase or a drinking glass, pint glass. Pint glass?
ROWE: Just make a glass.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just make a glass.
[21:49:59] ROWE: Let's make something that might hold a frosty beverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: I'm in Arcadia, California with John and Natali McClurg, owners of Fire and Light. I want to know why these two people, the CPA and a nurse who never dreamed of making stunningly, beautiful glassware by doing that very thing.
That's heavy.
JOHN MCCLURG, OWNER FIRE AND LIGHT: That is.
ROWE: What was it made of originally?
J. MCCLURG: Spaghetti sauce jars. You name it, some whiskey bottles. Clear bottles of jars. ROWE: This place exists only because this region was insanely good at recycling glass. So other consortium of residence thought they'd create a way to use that glass locally.
J. MCCLURG: This is where it starts. Bottles of jars into the recycling center.
ROWE: It's empty.
But making stuff like these is not easy. It takes a lot of work before you even get to the hard part. The glass first, has to be sorted, crushed, color tinted, then melted in the 2,400 degree furnace before it's ready to be poured, and then, pressed into a mold.
Then, you got to be fast because the glass cools and hardens almost immediately.
Jessie (ph) here is demonstrating how to make the pint glass that will enhance my beer drinking experience.
It goes in, then, scoop it, pull it out, you run, you pour it, you put it down, you push it in, you press it, it happened, you pull it out, and then you're done.
[21:55:08] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to watch one more or you got it?
ROWE: I'll never get it. It doesn't matter how many I watch. And I can tell you this glass is going to come out look and like a jacked up ashtray.
Nice. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Right over the center of the mold.
ROWE: Right at the center of the mold.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Roll it. Faster. Faster. Faster. And roll the other way. Hold it there. Pull it away. You can turn it over and lay it right here.
ROWE: Where is this go? Anywhere?
J. MCCURG: Just put it down. I'll take it.
ROWE: You got it? All right. I might be a little warm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, push it in there and press it. Pull a handle. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. Pull it. OK. Not enough glass.
ROWE: Really.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. And pull back out. Have a look inside there. See, what do you see?
ROWE: It's perfect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It might have a slight crack. You want to make another one.
All right. Right in the center. Hey. Pour it. Pour it. Roll it back. Roll it back. OK. Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow. Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.
ROWE: All right. That was right in the box.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tap it while you're pulling on it. Here we go.
ROWE: I put my hand on fire. See its a little (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all you, put her away. OK. Move fast.
ROWE: Yeah, that sucks. All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice job.
ROWE: It's very, very difficult. It's very, very skills.
J. MCCLURG: Yeah.
ROWE: I mean, really skills. I mean, it's not a joke.
J. MCCLURG: Would you pick up one of those glasses? Have you drink something out of it? You know each one was made by one of these guys.
ROWE: Right.
J. MCCLURG: Handmade. And there's just something that feel special about that.
ROWE: Which brings us back to the question of why these two people are running this business? Well, John's first mistake was being the CPA in the land of noble ideas.
J. MCCLURG: Actually one of the 30 original founders of Fire and Light came into my office on another issue and was telling me about this cool company.
They were going to create local jobs. They were going to make something out of it, but they run our money in two months. And so, I volunteered to help them do some strategic planning and kind of figure out maybe how they could do it.
ROWE: John helped get the business of the ground, then plan to step back into accounting. The business had other ideas.
J. MCCLURG: Couple of years later, we were skiing in Colorado, and we get this phone call. They were going to shut it down. And they said, do you guys wanted to do something of there. We know your hearts in it.
ROWE: What did you say? NATALI MCCLURG, OWNER, FIRE AND LIGHT: I don't know but there is a martini in where toasting.
ROWE: I don't know what I said but there was a martini involved. I didn't expect. I know we're making (inaudible) glass.
Back then, the McClurg's probably couldn't have told you why they went out of a limb to save this very difficult enterprise but for the last few years, it made up pretty clear.
J. MCCLURG: The recession was tough. I mean, you know, it was tough all over to the country. I mean, we had to do some temporary layoffs and people got move around from one job to another, and Jessie (ph), who has worked from us right out of high school, he got moved from day shift to night shift. And I came out here out of the shop like 9:30 one night, just to thank him.
He looked to me and he says, no, thank you for the job. I went home and told her, that's why we're going to make this work. It's only 16 jobs but it means a lot to all of us and it means something.
ROWE: It was a long way to go for this cold beer, but those 16 jobs, that's something to drink to, no matter where you are.
Thanks for having us now.
N. MCCLURG: Thank you.
ROWE: Thanks for letting me play around with the forge and thanks for, you know, what you do.
J. MCCLURG: OK.
ROWE: I appreciate it.
J. MCCLURG: Thanks for coming up.
