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The Van Jones Show
Bull Fighting. Aired 9:00-10p ET
Aired April 09, 2015 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:03] MIKE ROWE, SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT HOST: I'm Mike Rowe, and I'm on the mission to find people on a mission. Boom. On a scale 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 get it.
ROWE: I dare you to turn the champ.
Tonight's episode, we'll be a bunch of real cowboys who make a career out of getting bucked. And I'll face down an animal that's not taking any bull.
And what happens when a couple of quirky carpenters get obsess with building the perfect chocolate bar.
The smell of the gym sock now it banes.
Well it gets a little weird.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know where a gum is as kid?
ROWE: No, man did anybody. And sometimes the career is in your DNA especially when you look like this guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must listen through all ourselves.
ROWE: You really rocking it men.
Giddy up. Today, we've come to Chicago where the outdoor temperature is absolute zero, inside this decidedly warmer on account of bulls and the sweaty man bouncing up and bend on him. (inaudible), of course you are.
Bull riding, no question, it's exciting. No doubts, it's dangerous. And its no wonder people love to watch it. But what can I tell about at really. Not much, I know you need bulls, I know you need guys to ride the bulls and I know you need an audience and apparently the soundtrack to feel in your growing (ph).
That's what I do know. What I don't know could fill this arena. Like for instance, who are these bull fighters I've heard so much about.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here are the bull fighters you will be working with today.
ROWE: Hey guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
ROWE: Mike.
CODY WEBSTER: Cody Webster.
ROWE: Mike Rowe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice to meet you, Mike.
ROWE: Likewise.
JESSE BYRNE: I am Jesse...
ROWE: Jesse, how are you? Cody, Jesse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frank (ph).
ROWE: Frank (ph). So this is a bull fighters?
BYRNE: Yes sir.
ROWE: When I hear a bull fighter, I think like matador and...
BYRNE: No cape here. Basically we're just there for cowboy protection, so the guys get on bull riders they rely on us to distract the bull once them come off so.
ROWE: Didn't they use to them like rodeo clowns?
BYRNE: They sure did. Exact same job, it's just ...
ROWE: A better name.
BYRNE: Yeah, exactly. It's kind of a bull really.
ROWE: So you're saving the lives of the riders after they fly off the bull.
BYRNE: Yes.
ROWE: It's a dangerous job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can be.
ROWE: Dangerous, yeah. That's Cody going airborne after close encounter with the bull. There's no makeup?
BYRNE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
ROWE: Would it be a hat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not sure on that.
ROWE: With this, I don't think that I look like a golfer out there or a -- well should we suit up then?
BYRNE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
ROWE: Now, I don't know many job in the world where you voluntarily put yourself in a harms ways, risking life and limb just for the sake of entertaining a crowd. And no, I'm not talking about their job. I'm talking about mine.
How many times typically in a course of an evening are you getting at hit?
BYRNE: There's usually is solid chance to that one of us is going to take a shot probably over the course of a weekend. It seems to go on streaks too (inaudible).
ROWE: You get hit once, you know you're going to get hit again?
BYRNE: Rack after rack.
ROWE: All right show me what you wear.
BYRNE: This is the (inaudible) that I wear, get traction and some ankle support. Other thing that I wear is knee braces and the main life saver really is the vest.
WEBSTER: It's got a hard plastic shells if the bull's horn hit you or steps on you, they'll kind of deflect it..
ROWE: Yeah.
WEBSTER: And I was going to really high-tech piece of foam that's in here too, that takes away the blow.
ROWE: As long as it's high-tech foam, I feel pretty good.
WEBSTER: Yeah.
ROWE: The idea that if you use of high-tech foam might be all that stands between me getting gourds to the solar flexes, it is not as comforting as it sounds. Am I actually doing this? Am I going to be running with the bulls?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be fun like it's (inaudible).
ROWE: You don't have to sell me. I'm just curious, you know, I decide and I'm just curious. Why did they call the longest eight seconds on sports or some like that?
BYRNE: And you going be surprise, you know, on the course of a bull running at you. How many thoughts and how long it takes when a bull actually get to you when he's coming full steam, you know.
ROWE: I believe you're describing the phenomena of ones life passing before one guy, right?
[21:05:00] With all the protection of a minor league umpire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Geared up ready to do it.
ROWE: Just as God made me.
I guess I just ready as I'll never be to take the bull by the preverbal horns.
BYRNE: It's very crazy, you know, there's people that, you know, their whole career kind of make -- once you're about to do, it must be pretty neat the first time...
ROWE: Are you kidding? Everyday is a new experience and pain and humiliation. But -- So look, I joke around a lot but I'm (inaudible) kidding aside. What level are we at?
NEWSOM: The top. The very top. This is the pinnacle of the sport right here. We usually take three days, you know, 18 hours a day to teach a guy to fight bulls, so we got an hour with you, don't no worry about it.
ROWE: All right.
NEWSOM: We'll take care of you.
WEBSTER: Your part of the team, men, (inaudible).
ROWE: I appreciate it.
NEWSOM: Let's go in the arena.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take it out.
ROWE: Let's go to arena.
If I look nervous it's only because I'm a highly trained actor. The truth, I'm terrified and right now I've only got to fight half a bicycle.
BYRNE: The simulation of the bull with this, it really is true with their angles. And they shouldn't be able to turn like us.
ROWE: Yeah.
BYRNE: So if you're in tight there, they make that real tight corner like we can and that's kind of our safe spot.
ROWE: That's the only thing you got.
BYRNE: Exactly.
ROWE: Do you ever just turn it run?
BYRNE: You don't -- that's a no, no. It doesn't matter how scary it gets, you don't want to run straight...
ROWE: Yeah. You...
BYRNE: That bull is faster than you and he's going to get you.
ROWE: Far be it for me to foreshadow anything, but I do hope that piece of advice won't come back to hunt me.
BYRNE: You don't want run a straight.
ROWE: OK.
NEWSOM: So just as soon as you see me, come in.
ROWE: Yeah.
NEWSOM: Right there. There you go.
ROWE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. He's already got the step. Sweet. Did you feel that, Mike, that hole in there that's...
ROWE: I feel it. But that things not snore and look at with his red eyes, throwing me back in his head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It don't matter. We're going to do the same thing.
ROWE: And I'm thinking ahead, I would've deliberately stuck in this part so they think twice about letting me do this with actual live animal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now go that way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go, step in (inaudible).
ROWE: So they chase me and I chase them and in the end, well I wish I could tell you what build some confidence, all it really did was exhaust me. And that's how we die, right there. That's how it ends.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See how hard your work though, just... ROWE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... kind of relaxing just the make that circle.
ROWE: I can't believe at the shape I am, it's so terrible, so terrible.
Perfect, I'm worn out before star terror has been introduced it to mix.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All you need is (inaudible) today is just getting his attention...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and start in your circle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. We'll do the rest. If you can you do that, you know, you'll be are.
ROWE: Now, I'm going to watch you guys do one for real or am I just right in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can be with us, stay out here in the storm.
ROWE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
ROWE: No I didn't. I didn't buy no ticket. Sit on those seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike, well we made it through the training and we talk the talk and looks like your ready. So your official graduation present, a cowboy hat. I want you to strap down, we'll go to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There we go. Cool, that's good.
ROWE: See that? Am I really doing this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah
ROWE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a real deal. So...
ROWE: I get it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) whatever (inaudible), don't panic.
ROWE: All right, don't panic, don't run.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. ROWE: And if we're going down let's just this die like men, you know, it's like double dignity.
All right like I think it sounds completely all advice, let's try it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on Mike, come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on Mike, hassle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good, good, good. Come on.
ROWE: I don't know what it looks like, but it's very freaking exciting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: is your heart pounding?
ROWE: My heart's pounding, my (inaudible) doing a very unpredictable thing. I mean that wasn't ever close, nothing happens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
ROWE: So why the (inaudible)?
Every once in a while in life you got a piece of advice that's utterly brain bustingly (ph), crazy like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try to touch him, you know, try to get your hand on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that sounds crazy, but the closer you are, the safer we are.
WEBSTER: If he did some top of you and, you know, trying to (inaudible) you around maybe just curl up and scream for mama or something like that.
ROWE: Now, that advice I can probably follow. And since I survive the first round why not try again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to get rest now.
ROWE: I mean, really what could possibly go wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's getting ready. He's about to go on. Get ready, he's too (inaudible), get ready.
ROWE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go over there, Mike. Go over there, Mike. Go over there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: I'm at the PBR Chicago invitational, training with the best and bravest professional bull fighters on the planet. There is but one rule in bull fighting and I'm about to break it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get over there, Mike. Get over there, Mike. Get over there, Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, Mike. Come on, Mike. Come on, Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You run straight though.
ROWE: I run straight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
ROWE: Rookie mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Mike made a moment.
ROWE: I run straight. I run straight. I panic. I run straight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you got in there man (inaudible)?
ROWE: Yeah. I got near and then I decided I wanted to live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job bro.
ROWE: I was terrified. Come on man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your though, as a real man.
WEBSTER: What was you saying. I heard you. Were you (inaudible) or what? What were you saying when speak to get you.
ROWE: That was my, what you call my sprinter. Just, you know, complete total, (inaudible) failure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since you kind of got through the training and then you got after the live animal. Now, we're going to let go over with Jerome and J.B. and get the top on one of this creatures.
ROWE: Jesse, Cody, that sounds fantastic. Well that is been wonderful knowing all of you.
The next man to up the terror (inaudible), PBR logistics coordinator, Jerome Robinson, who has his own story history as a professional bull rider. I'm sure Jerome will be patient and the bull will be gentle.
[21:15:03] JEROME ROBINSON, PBR LOGISTICS COORDINATOR: OK. Now, first thing to do is your knees.
ROWE: Knees.
ROBINSON: Yeah. Knees, put your knees in it.
ROWE: It's almost as though he didn't like it.
ROBINSON: OK. Now, use your -- not to shove your feet forward.
ROWE: Yeah.
ROBINSON: There you go.
ROWE: So I'm on the bull.
ROBINSON: You're on the bull.
ROWE: What's this thing called?
ROBINSON: That's called the hump. Their hump is a hump.
ROWE: All right. Got you.
ROBINSON: And you can actually -- you put your feet in a slap, you can actually move him all over.
ROWE: Down there in the slap?
ROBINSON: Now, you can push on it. You can move him all over. Not with your hand, with two legs.
ROWE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock
ROBINSON: Yeah, lock in.
ROWE: Oh, I see.
ROBINSON: Yeah, so you got to put him wherever you want him.
ROWE: was that you riding before?
J.B. MAUNEY, 2013 PBR WORLD CHAMPION: Here?
ROWE: Yeah.
ROBINSON: No.
ROWE: Who was that?
ROBINSON: He's a world champion and Mike Rowe.
ROWE: So you got the world...
MAUNEY: 2013.
ROWE: Congratulations.
MAUNEY: Pretty sure. Thank you.
ROWE: This is fun?
MAUNEY: I don't like working, so I ride bulls.
ROWE: How long have you been riding? MAUNEY: Professionally, it is to be my 10th year.
ROWE: What's it like?
MAUNEY: When I goes good, I feel like sitting in a rocking chair. When it goes bad, it feels like tied to a freight train.
ROWE: How bad has it gone?
MAUNEY: It's been bad.
ROWE: Yeah.
MAUNEY: (inaudible) is way longer than the accomplishments.
ROWE: How many bones you break?
MAUNEY: Heck I don't know. You can -- anytime you nod your head, it can be last time when everybody knows that but you got to be willing to pay the price for what you love doing. and you know like Lexi (ph), my wife, I can get on the meanest bull alive as long as Frank is out there, she's fine with it.
ROWE: Really?
MAUNEY: Oh yeah.
ROWE: So there is that much -- I mean when you look out, you want to see Frank, you want to see guys, you know...
MAUNEY: You want to see them (inaudible) out there.
ROWE: That's the A team?
MAUNEY: That's the A team. Because if you're going to get in the rack and you're going to get run over, they are going to get run over with you.
ROBINSON: Ready to get off?
ROWE: I probably am. I mean I got a feeling and my legs anymore, so all right.
ROBINSON: OK, you got bull to be pin.
ROWE: Now that I have the taste of what goes on inside the ring. It's time to go behind the shoots to see how it all comes together. First order of business, unload the bulls.
ROBINSON: OK. This where all the bulls are staged, like a stage area. They are going to be bringing a bull to us. I'm going to be running these two gates, deciding which way do he need the bull.
ROWE: Yeah.
ROBINSON: But when the bull comes by, so it doesn't get back. You get on this gate. You come around and shut the bull in. And then slam it hard so it will...
ROWE: Got it. When the actual event starts, the riders know which bull they have to be on because the bulls are ranks just as the riders are rank, so it's imperative the ride bull be in the right pen. Now, you got 65 of these things coming in with this many different pens
You got one of the out of order the whole show stops. Everything goes off the rails. So this is a critical part of the day.
ROBINSON: Very critical part of the day.
ROWE: At a glance, it just looks like a lot of gates and that's because really, there is a lot of gates.
How hard can sorting bulls be compare to riding one or fighting one?
ROBINSON: So this is the last one (inaudible), take him, Mike.
ROWE: Yeah.
ROBINSON: This is the last one (inaudible). OK. Got shut it on. There we go. Good job. Slam it. Next. Slam it on him. OK. Mike you put just following, close the gates when it comes by
ROWE: It's up there, Jerome.
ROBINSON: OK. Following.
ROWE: But of course just because their job is not hard, it doesn't mean you can get hurt.
ROBINSON: Hang on at the gate because if you let this go -- sorry about that.
ROWE: It's a pinky.
ROBINSON: That hurts too.
ROWE: Yeah. It hurts. That really hurts. Yeah. So if you're playing alone at home and you're doing this and your hand is there, right? Don't do that. Just don't do that.
Its classic really. The bull missed me, the gate got me. It really does take an army to make this whole operation work. From the guys who play in the bull craft off the pen walls.
This also in basic hygiene regarding feces in an open wound.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's (inaudible) sterile.
ROWE: Yeah. Good. That's a great one.
To the guys who spread and fluff the dirt to give the riders a nice comfy landing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess they should put the student driver signing out.
ROWE: I would have.
And you wouldn't want to forget a key player in Flint Rasmussen who is known as the PBR entertainer and now as a rodeo clown.
FLINT RASMUSSEN PBR ENTERNTAINER: In the traditional world of rodeo, the rodeo clown was the guy that did a brave stuff and he also was a good (inaudible). It's separated itself a couple of decades ago. The way I separate myself from them, I mean besides the obvious (inaudible).
Sorry. It is I wore make up. I wore the clown make up so it shows that guy is here to do something good.
ROWE: Right.
RASMUSSEN: When people say you put your game face on, I literally...
ROWE: You put it on?
RASMUSSEN: ... put my game face on. The whole time I am in the arena with the bulls.
[21:25:01] If I turn my back I mean, it's funny games.
ROWE: Yeah. So it's (inaudible).
Flint has sense in me a fellow hand and invited me to be a part of today's festivities as long as it only requires nine working fingers, I'm in.
RASMUSSEN: Take care of your finger.
ROWE: Let's do it like this.
RASMUSSEN: I know. I've...
ROWE: Really.
RASMUSSEN: .. really careful.
ROWE: Yeah. They'll wore off right on the verge of...
RASMUSSEN: If you spend the day with us in and that's it, you're OK.
ROWE: The day is not over yet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: Professional bull riding is more than on the watch. It's big, big business. My P.R. (inaudible) Jordan made absolutely sure I was up speed with the particulars.
The sports growing by leaps and bounce, regularly breaking, attendance records have been use since Cowboy Stadium in Texas, Madison Square Garden to this sold out show here in Chicago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please welcome at the top bull fighters in the world.
ROWE: People love bulls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, (inaudible) east bull fighters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now to sing our national anthem, this is Mike Rowe, the host of CNN Somebody's Gotta Do It.
ROWE: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light. What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Did I know I was going to be singing the national anthem when I woke up this morning? No. But hey, its bull riding, anything can happen. Let's just go and skip to the end. You guys know how it goes.
And the home of the brave.
Well, I didn't forget the words but really nothing else matters. Not it's time to slip into something a little more ridiculous. I'm a clown that's made from statues (ph) like. What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) I don't know if that's you, Chicago but I'm ready to rides some bulls. What do you say, fans?
ROWE: That's Flint. So, there's my guy Cody. There's Jesse. Frank's over there on the left. Look at those guys. That guy is really good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think about it?
ROWE: God, it's freaking awesome. Now, you make it look easy?
Cody, 22 years old, he fights bulls.
See this? This is exactly what we've been talking about. The rider goes down. The boys get in there. Jesse slaps the bull to distract him. Frank steps in risking life and limbs to save Jesse and he takes the hit and he's up on his feet like it's nothing and that is what Frank does first day job.
No. No. Hey, now. I take that very personal.
So, what did I learn today? Well, let's review. I learned to take some bull (inaudible) of fearless man to run a show this big and this wild just smoothly.
One, two, three...
I learned that if you break your finger here, there's absolutely no one to cling to. And I learned that what some guys do everyday. I'm glad I only ever have to do once.
Yeah. I remember you. I remember you. I remember you. I totally remember you. I ain't scare of him, as long as this is here.
I'm stopping in for a cup of coffee and some bagels. And to chat with some locals. And in the air, the faint yet unmistakable smell of something that was illegal for a very long time, it ain't bagels.
For the uninitiated, this are is known as one of America's leading cannabis production centers but in addition to premium (inaudible), Humboldt County also grows a lot of new businesses. One example is a pair of former carpenters named Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor return their love of tinkering into a thriving craft chocolate business.
I'm here to meet up with the guys and the owner of this bagel place who just happens to have been their first backer. That I'm going to go make and eat some of their award-winning chocolate.
Is there a coffee?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is.
ROWE: The largest cup you have. Fantastic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
ROWE: This is biggest cup of coffee I've ever had.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There. Good. Good.
ROWE: Dustin, Adam, Dennis.
DENNIS RAEL, OWNER, LOS BAGELS: That's correct. Do you want to sit down?
ADAM DICK: Yeah. Let's go have a sit back here.
ROWE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have as large as the cup of coffee.
ROWE: Listen. It's not the size of your cup. The size of your hand as you move (inaudible).
Dennis is the proprietor of Los Bagels and he has been a supporter of Adam and Dustin's business since before it was a business.
RAEL: I initially met these guys when they were about entrepreneurs. I needed a window -- a costume made window made for the small cabin I have and good friends have recommended that we go, you know, get in touch with them. I went to his house, look go into the plants and he goes, you know, I know you're really into food.
[21:30: 03] Come into my kitchen. Look on top of my refrigerator. I'm starting to do chocolates.
ROWE: My favorite word in that sentence, a verb is do.
RAEL: Yeah.
ROWE: Not make chocolates. I'm starting to do chocolates.
DICK: Yeah. We are the very fist (inaudible) to bar chocolate makers in Humboldt County and one of just a handful even in the U.S. that start with, you know, fermented and dried Coco beans. So it's a little kind of a unique and growing segment of like the chocolate industry.
ROWE: And now we're off to the chocolate factory, in what I believe is a car.
What century are we talking?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 66.
ROWE: 19?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 19.
ROWE Were going to your around town and...
DICK: And travel (inaudible).
ROWE: That speeds approaching eight miles an hour. Coffee OK on the road?
TAYLOR: And you typically have to adjust the tightness of the seatbelt based on the position of the sit.
DICK: You might not want a seatbelt on for this ride.
ROWE: It's not that I don't want to wear seatbelt, it's just I don't know how. Volvo, drive safeish (ph).
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: So I'm up here in Northern California's arts and craft (inaudible) Humboldt County, on my way to make some (inaudible) to bar a chocolate, a Dick-Taylor craft chocolate.
[21:35:02] It's the creation of Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor, a pair of brainy former carpenters. That seems to know a little bit about a lot of things.
What kind of bird are these? You know?
TAYLOR,: Those I am not sure. They might be (inaudible), but I'm -- my knowledge of birds is lacking.
ROWE: Here's a thing in T.V. Adam, if you speak with certainty, your credibility will go through the roof. No one will question you. You can say cormorants.
DICK: Well, they're no cormorants. I know that.
ROWE: But you could have said that.
And why you ask are we talking about birds on the way to a chocolate shop? Because we're driving through a bird sanctuary that also happens to be a sewage treatment facility. This being Humboldt County, it's been given a title, interpretive marsh. Yeah. We're going to talk about chocolate at a sewage factory.
This is the most beautiful factory I've ever seen.
DICK: It is pretty nice. There just a series of ponds like, you know, a bunch of them and I'm, you know, not an expert on it. I guess I should...
ROWE: Pretend to be one?
DICK: Yes.
ROWE: OK.
DICK: There's a series of ponds...
ROWE: That's good.
DICK: ... to treat the sewage engine then eventually goes out in the bay.
ROWE: Let me give you an example to what I'm talking about. Here is the Arcata Marsh bird sanctuary sewage treatment facility. You'll find the series of man-made ponds. Essentially, it's an interpretive marsh program that was created by (inaudible).
Why? Because an absence of chemicals simply means a preponderance of lifestyle. Something like that.
DICK: That was good. So it's brilliant.
ROWE: OK. Then, let's go make some chocolate.
DICK: Let's hit it.
TAYLOR: Let's hit it.
ROWE: In a location that makes perfect sense to these woodworkers turned really Almquist Lumber Company.
Adam and Dustin were regulars here back when they were carpenters when they needed a place to make some chocolate, the yard offered them some space.
DICK: Welcome.
ROWE: Thank you. Fantastic. So, this is the place to get your wood?
DICK: Yeah.
ROWE: Like this. DICK: Have a little bit of everything here at Almquist Lumber. So you smell chocolate.
ROWE: I do.
DICK: Here we go, this is our stop.
ROWE: How old is this machine?
DICK: This is probably from the 50s and all this stuff.
ROWE: I mean, it looks like a famous set.
DICK: Because we didn't have a lot of money. We had to buy second hand machines, tear them all apart, clean them all up and put them back into service.
ROWE: So the Volvo is not a car. It's a metaphor.
DICK: Yeah. We're stuck in a certain time period, mentally, I guess.
ROWE: What is this?
TAYLOR: The cocoa pod. Has all the beans inside of that.
ROWE: The beans are in the pad. This is a fact similarly or an actual real...
DICK: That's an actual dehydrated. Once -- so they're fresh, you know, they're much more vibrantly colored and they're. You know?
ROWE: I didn't know it either.
DICK: Education is step one.
ROWE: Education is key, all right?
DICK: Step two is a Dick Taylor hat. Since we're making food, we are to keep your hair in line. Yes. So we'll head back to where we do the first stages of processing and we'll be (inaudible).
ROWE: You'll follow him, I'll follow you. You follow me.
DICK: This is where store our raw ingredients. We're unique and the chocolate-making industry that we started with just -- our two ingredients are cocoa beans and cane sugar.
ROWE: So, there's your cocoa beans. It came right out of the cocoa pod.
DICK: And they've been fermented and then, dried. So, you can smell that fermentation in a gym sock smell.
ROWE: Listen, from a marketing standpoint where it's like gym sock...
DICK: I know (inaudible). I mean, it's... ROWE: And I'm not an expert but I don't think you would have dared them to try your product here.
DICK: But we will not encourage anybody to eat it raw like that.
ROWE: No? So, what happens here so sort of sorting thing? I mean...
TAYLOR: Yeah. The first thing, well, let me do is we're going to fill up some buckets with beans. And these specific beans came from (inaudible) cacao from the Toledo region of Belize.
And this bean actually, we ran...
ROWE: From Toledo?
TAYLOR: Yeah. It's a very specific bean.
ROWE: It so weird again. It's just another one of those names. I think it (inaudible) like Spanish, right? (inaudible).
DICK: I don't know. I'm not sure.
TAYLOR: Say it like I mean it.
DICK: Yeah. Make it up and you mean it. Go.
ROWE: The etymology of the word Toledo. You might not know this but it hearkens all the way back to Barcelona and it prefers to steel that was manufacture in that part of the city and times gone by.
DICK: Perfect.
ROWE: Yeah, I know that's (inaudible). Can I just dump the bag in?
DICK: Sure it get (inaudible).
TAYLOR: Stop it up.
ROWE: Crap.
DICK: We don't typically put the cocoa beans on the floor though.
ROWE: From a marketing standpoint, the secret ingredient. It has such a unique earthly odor.
TAYLOR: So, and this is our home grown press order. (inaudible) we found in the beans from the past.
ROWE: The chocolate taste funny.
[21:40:01] DICK: For us, this is just like a really (inaudible) task, typically if that's would be like 18 buckets.
ROWE: Yeah.
DICK: So, a lot of sorting. ROWE: That's a lot of sorting.
DICK: But it's that hands-on part of the process that's, you know, becoming intimately knowledgeable with the product or in which is why we feel the strength of our process and our method.
ROWE: Suppose that (vein) in it?
DICK: Yeah, that's just as they dry the husk shrinks.
ROWE: Dick Taylor chocolate. The smell of the gym sock, now with (veins).
TAYLOR: OK. So try this. This is a de-husk.
ROWE: Try like lick it, chew it.
DICK: Yeah, you chew it.
TAYLOR: Chew it.
DICK: It tastes like almost vegetal. There is lots of kind of floral or flower...
ROWE: Vegetal. Don't use that either
TAYLOR: That's what is...
ROWE: Gym sock, vegetal, beany and veiny.
TAYLOR: That's why we're working with this...
DICK: Why we're going to end with this word like delicious, fruity, wonderful. We have to start out low so we can really, you know...
ROWE: Your managing expectations in the phenomenal way.
TAYLOR: So this is our roaster.
DICK: It's a early 1900 royal number five coffee roaster.
ROWE: It's very similar to a coffee.
DICK: Yes.
ROWE: I mean...
DICK: All of the wonderful things of the Maillard reaction et cetera, et cetera.
ROWE: No, no. I don't know that. What is the Maillard reaction?
DICK: The Maillard reaction is what they call it the browning reaction, it's the same thing that happens when you like brown a stake but it's what physically changes the molecular structure and develops flavor in foods. ROWE: I didn't know that. Who is Maillard?
DICK: Maillard. He was a French physicist from the 1700 that observes the change in amino acids when it was applied to them.
ROWE: Not bad.
DICK: I bet you might want to check that.
ROWE: It's not bad. You might look at in Google. Maillard, would you like to see my yard?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:45:34] ROWE: Adam Dick and Justin Taylor are couple of very hands-on guys who are teaching me how they make chocolate bars that people are going to spend eight and a half bucks for it. At the moments, we're at the roasting phase.
DICK: These are going to go from about 27 minutes.
ROWE: Yeah.
DICK: The main thing we're doing here was roasting if there was a sum up in one step is we're developing the flavor by roasting to get rid of that vegetal flavor that we talked about.
ROWE: Yes.
DICK: And we're going to develop a more roasted chocolatety base (inaudible).
ROWE: So no more vegetal like no more (inaudible).
DICK: Right.
ROWE: No more veininess.
TAYLOR: No more veiny.
ROWE: And no more beany.
DICK: Right. Now we're going to have chocolate.
ROWE: Yes. Now, do you think we're going to stand out here 27 minutes marking progress every three.
TAYLOR: No.
ROWE: I don't think we are either.
TAYLOR: No. I don't think so.
ROWE: Around 27 minutes later, we have roasted beans which we grind into a paste using this appropriately named machine.
Would you take me to...
TAYLOR: Coco town.
ROWE: Excuse me but the smell is a lot more like chocolate.
TAYLOR: Yeah. We're getting there. Exactly.
ROWE: Can I taste this?
TAYLOR: Yeah.
ROWE: It's bitter.
TAYLOR: It's very bitter. It's not your usual chocolate.
ROWE: You really host me. You really got me. It bitter were people, this could be China.
TAYLOR: This next step will be like (inaudible), we're just going to pour both of these buckets of sugar in and we'll turn the machine on and let her go.
ROWE: This would be most transformative part of the process because now you're turning into something that I want to put in my mouth.
TAYLOR: Yeah, but it's really (inaudible) because that sugar has (inaudible) to it.
ROWE: It doesn't matter.
TAYLOR: OK.
ROWE: It doesn't matter because I had the other stuff.
TAYLOR: Yes. This has sugar added to it. It's very transformative.
ROWE: All right. We will now, we move to the molding station. Here at the molding station.
TAYLOR: This is a donut depositor.
ROWE: A donut depositor?
DICK: Donut depositor. That we got of eBay and we had a three paste motor to it and in frequency drives so we can control the speed of it. We use it for filling our molds.
ROWE: It's not the intended purpose but...
DICK: But it works like amazingly well. And we get a really, really accurate dough with some chocolate in each mold. You know, we want everything to be two ounces.
So what's going to happen is you're going to want a time it just right. We want the chocolate in the mold and not on the edge of the mold. ROWE: Fairly batch it.
DICK: Not bad. Not bad. OK. Then bring it over here at the table and try to get it all in all four corner. And you can be a kind of aggressive, tilt it a little bit bang it. (inaudible) enough chocolate is a non-Newtonian in the solution.
ROWE: No, I know what that means.
DICK: It means that it behaves differently when energy is applied to it. That's how it's vibrated. So it's more like of a flow like concrete when it's vibrated, I can get it over.
ROWE: Non-Newtonian that is. This is a fluid that has no respect for Newton's second law. OK. We've come at that point in the process where it's time to put the gloves on which means we're going to be touching fudge.
DICK: You got it. Tip this mold over and damp the chocolate bars out. There we go. So now, what we're going to do is we're going to foil them, which is a process that takes a little bit of a skill but we'll work on it together. Did you do origami as a kid.
ROWE: No. Man, did anybody? I mean did any -- has anybody? You did Pete (ph)?
DICK: I did a bit of origami too, I'm sorry.
ROWE: So you (inaudible), you don't count. But Pete (ph), it's very disappointing. What are you doing for advertising, marketing?
TAYLOR: Really, the best marketing if someone who likes your chocolate, they're going to speak very highly of your chocolate and so over the last fours years now, we're providing a lot of school spot. We're doing about 2,400 pounds of chocolate a month out of this little spot.
ROWE: That's amazing.
TAYLOR: It is. It's just a great chaotic...
ROWE: That is nuts.
DICK: That's a lot of chocolate. So we have to leave one at least unfoiled, so we have something to eat. You ready to eat chocolate?
ROWE: Of course some ready chocolate.
TAYLOR: Pop into it. Notice that nice time tamper snap? Hot.
ROWE: Let's have a nice snap to it.
TAYLOR: Yap.
ROWE: The chocolate is great. It's a nice mouth feel. So I think for the very first time in the history of the world, a chocolate shop is collided with lumber yard and brought us altogether in a way that can only be properly expressed in a song.
[21:50: 11] Somebody have the opportunity give us the big old G Ford. We'll commence to sing it.
Somebody's got to do it, somebody's to do it. I found a place where people laugh and put their hearts into it. And it ain't the job and it ain't the pain, no matter how you do it, a little work, little place, somebody's got to do it.
ROWE: I would have thought Abe Lincoln would have pick a piece of trash rather step over, what's going on with that.
LANCE MACK, IMPERSONATOR: Working here in, you know.
ROWE: So we're just walking down the street and I run in a guys that looks a lot like Abraham Lincoln, he has agreed for a impromptu chat down here in the gazebo we're apparently there's a concert tonight.
You don't expect to meet the great emancipator here in Iowa, but that's where Lance V. Mack lives. How did he become honest Abe? I aim to find out.
Now, I'm not sure it's a play, I think he's just a guy who likes to dress up like Abe Lincoln.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:55:08] ROWE: I was in the middle of Iowa minding my own business when I ran into a man name Lance V. Mack who looks like very much like certain other man who is one of the most famous American presidents ever. I have questions.
Lance V. Mack is Abraham Lincoln according to the brochure and at first glance who might argue, I got to say you seem to be channeling my favorite president.
MACK: Well thank you. Thank you very much.
ROWE: Your welcome and that was little Elvis, very hippy with though.
MACK: Wasn't intentional I think I knew who that was.
ROWE: I'll think anybody's is ever combined Elvis and Lincoln before.
MACK: (inaudible), I love this.
ROWE: Why are you dress as Abraham Lincoln?
MACK: Well I've been portraying Lincoln for almost 25 years now and I've always believe that to now 21st century America really needs to hear from Abraham Lincoln about what kind of a nation we are or kind of nation we should be and what our responsibilities to our citizens. And I love the last paragraph in the second inaugural address its advice to America of 1865 that it just as good for American nearly 150 years later.
ROWE: Lay it on me.
MACK: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, and do all can to achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
ROWE: Talk about re enactors, they're all in, they'd love what they do.
MACK: There are about 50 of us Lincoln's in the country.
ROWE: You guys all have ever get together the same place?
MACK: There is an annual convention of Lincoln presenters.
ROWE: Really? And everybody is right there dress up.
MACK: Yeah, they're dress and there are (inaudible).
ROWE: Where do you fall into that hierarchy you think?
MACK: I like to think that I bear one of the most striking resemblances to Mr. Lincoln of any of the fellows that do it.
ROWE: But the stunning physical resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, 6'5 in height weighed of 180 pounds naturally black beard.
MACK: Well not anymore now natural black beard, it's thanks to (inaudible).
ROWE: Just for presidents. What did Lincoln sound like?
MACK: Mr. Chairman, I would like to address the Chair.
ROWE: After a few years at the presenter game, Lance went all in. He ditched this job as a professor of German to make a full time career of it. Now he performs Abe Lincoln's greatest hits at schools, reenactment's and the occasional outdoor concert.
The audiences have they responded well to you?
MACK: Yes, they have, they have
ROWE: Mr. Mack made me believe I really have met Abraham Lincoln, high school senior South Dakota.
A stirring endorsement to be sure but don't take high seniors word for it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lance taught my entire year's civics course I less than an hour. Fifth grade teacher, Michigan.
MACK: My friends and fellow Americans we can succeed only by conduct. It is not can any of us imagine better but can we all do better?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw Lance perform on the first day of the weekend and we had to bring our grandchildren back to see him the next day. Iowa Grandparents.
MACK: The darkness of the quiet (inaudible) are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficult and we must rise with the occasion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible) San Jose Costa Rica.
MACK: We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save the country and God must forever bless.
ROWE: God we must disenthrall ourselves. Thank you so much.
MACK: Young fellow, thank you, my pleasure.
ROWE: It was great.
MACK: My pleasure. Now I can see that you are of legal voting age and I do hope that you will vote for me, come to the next election.
ROWE: I'll do it.
Ever, the politician. I wonder if I have little Lincoln in me.
Men I wonder if this will make me smarter, more eloquent. You are really rocking it men. You're selling the ball cap.
[22:00:03] This will conclude whatever this was.
