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Speaker 1: So we somehow went from obscurity to being one of

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Speaker 1: the biggest stars in the nineteen eighties and into the nineties.

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Speaker 1: And thankfully one of his family members has told his story.

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Speaker 1: So kenl and Casey show, I'm Rob, Casey's out today.

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Speaker 1: Ethan Hatcher's here. Joining us now in the WIBC hotline

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Speaker 1: is Justin Lloyd. He is the author of the book

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Speaker 1: now available in audiobook, The Importance of Being Ernest, The

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Speaker 1: Life of actor Jim Varney.

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Speaker 2: Of course, Jim Varney, best known for playing Ernest p.

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Speaker 1: Worrel on the big screen, went from sort of an

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Speaker 1: obscure character actor and commercials to a mega start the

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Speaker 1: box office. Justin you were his nephew. You were on

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Speaker 1: the scene with him for many of his movies and

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Speaker 1: acting endeavors. Tell us about this guy who people loved,

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Speaker 1: but not too many people knew all that much about.

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Speaker 3: Good morning.

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Speaker 2: It was great.

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Speaker 3: It was quite surreal at times, you know, to see

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Speaker 3: him coming on our TV. You know, this is back

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Speaker 3: in the early eighties when you couldn't yet everything on demand, right,

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Speaker 3: and so we would be watching a program and then

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Speaker 3: up pops convenient food Mark commercial and hey, there's Jim

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Speaker 3: and everybody would rush into the room and try to

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Speaker 3: seem real quick, and you know, the commercials almost halfway

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Speaker 3: over by the time we ever got everybody in the room.

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Speaker 3: But it was exciting, you know, those kinds of things,

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Speaker 3: and then to see him show up on the big

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Speaker 3: screen and all that, it was quite exciting to say

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Speaker 3: the least.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so do you remember, because a lot of people

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Speaker 1: don't know that he was an advertising star. The Ernest

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Speaker 1: character played by Jim Mordy was an advertising star. And

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Speaker 1: then I think Ernest Goes to Camp was the first movie.

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Speaker 1: And these movies just explode. There's like a five year

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Speaker 1: window where kids love these movies. Even adults love these movies.

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Speaker 1: Do a Christmas movies. Do you remember when you found

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Speaker 1: out he's going to the big screen?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit.

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Speaker 3: You know, when he would come and visit, he would

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Speaker 3: talk about his latest things that are that were going on,

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Speaker 3: and yeah, we were quite excited to hear, you know,

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Speaker 3: when a movie was being made about Ernest. You know,

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Speaker 3: we had been fans of the commercials, like you said,

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Speaker 3: for many years. I mean, he was you could argue,

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Speaker 3: as much a commercial phenomenon as he ever was a

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Speaker 3: movie star. A lot of people don't realize that just

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Speaker 3: what an advertising phenomenon he was in the early to

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Speaker 3: mid eighties.

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Speaker 1: There, all right, So Justin Justin Lloyd is our guest.

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Speaker 1: He's the author of the book The Importance of Being Ernest,

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Speaker 1: The Life of actor Jim Varney. It's now out on audiobook.

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Speaker 1: We'll get to that in just a second. But Ernest

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Speaker 1: is fascinating to me. As a child of the eighties

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Speaker 1: and nineties, I grew up loving the Earnest movies. But like,

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Speaker 1: there were certain guys like Jim Varney was one as Ernest,

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Speaker 1: Paul Rubens's Peewee Herman, where you almost didn't know that

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Speaker 1: they weren't actually that. Like it was shocking to remember

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Speaker 1: the first time I ever saw Jim Varney in something

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Speaker 1: not Earnest, and it was like, oh my gosh, he's

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Speaker 1: not actually Earnest.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, it's when I think it's it's great

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Speaker 3: when somebody is so convincing as that character. Like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: like you said, Paul Rubins was with morc you know Rob,

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Paul Rubins was with Pee Wee Herman, Pee

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Speaker 3: Wee Herman. I'm sorry. And I was also thinking of

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Speaker 3: Robin Williams with more at one time, right, all of

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Speaker 3: a sudden, you mean, yeah, you can't envision them as

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Speaker 3: anybody else because they were so convincing that they've almost

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Speaker 3: just become a real person. Like you're just thinking, Ernest

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Speaker 3: just seems like that's almost like a real person, right,

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Speaker 3: And it's like, no, it's actually just a character. So

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Speaker 3: I get that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell us about the Jim Varney the person

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Speaker 1: and his reaction to these movies going to the big screen.

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Speaker 1: How did he handle himself and what was did his

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Speaker 1: life change at all, at least from a family perspective,

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Speaker 1: You were his nephew. Once he starts, you know, hitting

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Speaker 1: it big with these movies.

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Speaker 3: I think he really was pretty much the same person

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Speaker 3: he had always been, pretty much stay true to himself.

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Speaker 3: He lived just north of Nashvilleville and pretty a small

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Speaker 3: town called White House, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, and

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Speaker 3: remained in the same house that he had bought in

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Speaker 3: the early eighties when he first was making money as

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Speaker 3: Ernest lived there his whole life, so he was still

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Speaker 3: very much grounded and I think probably to some extent,

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Speaker 3: I would say maybe he almost maybe expected at some

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Speaker 3: point that he would find fame doing something I don't

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Speaker 3: know how much of how I don't know how how excited.

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Speaker 3: You know, it made him perhaps in the scheme of things,

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Speaker 3: but I mean I think it's always something he maybe

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Speaker 3: kind of expected his whole life. It was just it

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Speaker 3: was just a matter of when it was going to happen.

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Speaker 1: As the so you know, he's big in the eighties,

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Speaker 1: the Jim Varney, the Earnest movies, they go into the nineties,

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Speaker 1: they're still popular. By the mid nineties, the thing had

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Speaker 1: kind of run its course. I think they went to

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Speaker 1: end up being they weren't in theaters, they were like

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Speaker 1: direct to video movies. What was his reaction to that?

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Speaker 1: You have this meteoric rise, you're kind of known for

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Speaker 1: this one thing, this thing is run its course. How

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Speaker 1: did he handle that and what did he how did

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Speaker 1: he pivot out of kind of the Earnest character.

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean, he was always wanting a dramatic role.

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Speaker 3: He was always for a long time kind of trying

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Speaker 3: to do other things. You know, in the early nineties

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Speaker 3: you had the Beverly Hillbillies movie where he was had

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Speaker 3: clamphit and that's when the Earnest movies. Yeah, with Disney

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Speaker 3: was starting to kind of run its course. And of

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Speaker 3: course he then was getting into the animation with the

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Speaker 3: Toy Store movie, which I don't think he had any

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Speaker 3: idea just you know, the impact that that was going

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Speaker 3: to have. And so he was already kind of pivoting

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Speaker 3: into the voice work doing some other characters. He did

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Speaker 3: like a cameo kind of carearacter on The Simpsons playing

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Speaker 3: this Carney character, and so he was really kind of

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Speaker 3: pivoting into voice work there from Toy Story on onward.

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Speaker 3: He was also good friends with Billy Bob Thornton, and

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Speaker 3: he was telling us about the movie sling Blade before

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Speaker 3: it ever came out, and you know, wasn't in sling Blade,

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Speaker 3: but then ended up in a Billy Bob Thornton movie

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Speaker 3: later on towards the very end of his life, called

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Speaker 3: Daddy and Them. So, yeah, he had a lot of

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Speaker 3: other other things going on that he had been working

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Speaker 3: on through throughout the nineties. For sure.

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Speaker 1: Justinlloyd is our guest. Couple of minutes left with him.

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Speaker 1: He's got a new audio book out. The book has

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Speaker 1: been out in paperback for years. The book is called

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Speaker 1: the Importance of Being Ernest the life of actor Jim Varney. Okay,

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Speaker 1: and we'll get to the book here in just a second,

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Speaker 1: but later in his life, Like, I'm forty years old

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Speaker 1: now and I saw you were, you know, doing interviews.

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Speaker 1: This is out in audiobook at that What a cool thing,

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Speaker 1: because I loved Ernest, and like, did he have an

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Speaker 1: appreciation for how much that character was loved?

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Speaker 2: And do you think he would have?

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Speaker 1: I mean, he's been gone a long time now, but

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Speaker 1: he would have understood the staying power that that character

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Speaker 1: was gonna have. The grown people like me still think

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Speaker 1: of it in such high regard.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I do. I think so at the time, and

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Speaker 3: it is it is so bittersweet because he isn't around

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Speaker 3: now to hear people talk about when they were younger

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Speaker 3: and what it meant to them, right a bit. I

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Speaker 3: think at the time though, he understood that. You know,

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Speaker 3: he had his own heroes growing up. He watched on

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Speaker 3: TV from Hopolon, Cassidy and on all that on TV.

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Speaker 3: So he understood what these characters could mean the kids

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Speaker 3: as I did. I mean, I grew up in with

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Speaker 3: Superman and Star Wars, and so I understood that completely.

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Speaker 3: As I wrote the book and wanting to write something

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Speaker 3: really for the Earnest fans that would give them something

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Speaker 3: comprehensive about Jim that really wasn't out there anywhere.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's get you here with us.

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Speaker 1: Tell us about the book The Importance of Being Earnest

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Speaker 1: the Life of Actor Jim Varney, which is now available

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Speaker 1: in audiobook as well.

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Speaker 3: Well, it started about, you know, about eight years after

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Speaker 3: Jim had passed in two thousand and eight. I realized,

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Speaker 3: you know, goodness, there's nothing about Jim, and you know,

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Speaker 3: something needs to be written, and it well, maybe I'm

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Speaker 3: the person to do it. And it took me almost

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Speaker 3: six years writing and researching, and the paperback came out

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Speaker 3: in twenty thirteen. And then recently I was thinking, you know,

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Speaker 3: I should probably do an audiobook and to really give

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Speaker 3: the listeners, you know, the fans, and even more kind

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Speaker 3: of intimate and immersive experience hopefully with that and hopeful,

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Speaker 3: hopefully that's what I've done, and was even able to

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Speaker 3: add some kind of some bonus footage as well, a

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Speaker 3: speech from John Cherry, the director of the longtime director

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Speaker 3: and creator of Ernest at Jim's memorial and some other things.

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Speaker 3: So really wanted to make it a real treat for

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Speaker 3: Jim Barney and Ernest fans.

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Speaker 2: Where where can people get the audiobook?

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Speaker 3: Really just about anywhere on of course audible Apple books,

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Speaker 3: just about anywhere, and also in the libraries, it's going

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Speaker 3: to be it's all over the libraries, networks and stuff.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, really really excited to have this for for

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Speaker 3: all the fans to enjoy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what a cool thing. I'm so glad you did it.

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Speaker 1: An incredible character of the nineteen eighties and nineties and

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Speaker 1: really before you, like you said, before you did this book,

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Speaker 1: not a not a lot was known about the guy

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Speaker 1: outside of what he did with the movie. Is the

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Speaker 1: importance of being Ernest the life factor. Jim Varney, Justin Lloyd, thank.

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Speaker 3: You, thank you, appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gonna do it for us today. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much, Ethan for filling in for Casey doing an

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Speaker 1: outstanding job. Kevin, great job as always, and most Martley,

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Speaker 1: thank you to you the listener. Without you, there is

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Speaker 1: no stick around. Tony Katz coming up next, Kettle and

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Speaker 1: Casey Show ninety three w IBC