Speaker 1: Hey, folks, this is Lyle. So this is a little
Speaker 1: bonus episode that was originally made as a video for
Speaker 1: my YouTube channel because I'm trying to get more into
Speaker 1: like documentary travelogue kind of content, but I also wanted
Speaker 1: to share it on here with my podcast listeners. However,
Speaker 1: if you're hearing this right now, it means that you're
Speaker 1: listening on a platform that isn't Spotify that I can't
Speaker 1: upload the video version on. So I highly highly suggest
Speaker 1: that you either go watch on Spotify video or go
Speaker 1: into the description of this episode and click the link
Speaker 1: to watch the video on YouTube. But if you can't
Speaker 1: do that, or if you just don't fucking feel like it,
Speaker 1: I have tried my best to make edits to the
Speaker 1: original version of this so that it can somewhat function
Speaker 1: as an audio episode.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 1: So with that disclaimer in mind, let's get into it.
Speaker 1: I went to mex to dance, battle a stranger and
Speaker 1: also use their bathroom. I host a podcast called Therapy Gecko,
Speaker 1: where I dress up like a gecko and talk to
Speaker 1: strangers on the phone about their lives. One day, I
Speaker 1: got this call from a breakdancer in Mexico named Diego.
Speaker 2: I am a bee boy in Tijuana, and I promote dancing,
Speaker 2: but my style is barely just one year old, and
Speaker 2: so it's been tough.
Speaker 1: After our call, Diego DMed me and invited me to
Speaker 1: come down to Tijuana to attend one of his breakdance events,
Speaker 1: and I told him I'd love to do that someday.
Speaker 1: But after I sent that message, I realized that someday
Speaker 1: is based on the false premise of a future that
Speaker 1: never comes and is simply the present in disguise. So
Speaker 1: I decided to go to Tijuana, meet this complete stranger
Speaker 1: and make a video about whatever happens. I told Diego
Speaker 1: I was coming down to Mexico, and in response, he
Speaker 1: put together a gek dance event where I would be
Speaker 1: a special guest alongside eight other dance battlers. I asked
Speaker 1: if I could formally battle anyone at the event, and
Speaker 1: so Diego planned an exhibition battle between him and I.
Speaker 1: It was going to be crazy. I took a plane
Speaker 1: to Tijuana, and after six hours of playing Grand Theft
Speaker 1: Auto San Andreas, I finally landed. I thought it was
Speaker 1: pretty funny that I actually came here, but it also
Speaker 1: made me feel very empowered and good. I got into
Speaker 1: a taxi and the song Como Lafleur by Selena was playing.
Speaker 1: I remembered having to study the lyrics to this when
Speaker 1: I was in middle school Spanish class, and that one
Speaker 1: kid was so moved by the song that he started
Speaker 1: to cry in the middle of class. In this moment,
Speaker 1: I may be feeling a bit of what he felt.
Speaker 1: I also saw that they have a new flavor of
Speaker 1: Doctor Pepper here. It is amazing to travel and experience
Speaker 1: new cultures. In the past, I'd done most of my
Speaker 1: adventuring alone, but this time my friend Kevin came down
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles to help me film stuff, and we
Speaker 1: took a cab over to Diego's house to meet him
Speaker 1: in person for the first time.
Speaker 3: What's up, man, How you doing good?
Speaker 4: Little fifty lineup?
Speaker 2: Bro?
Speaker 3: How's it going?
Speaker 1: I love the I love the Ninja Hurdles shirt in
Speaker 1: the back.
Speaker 3: That looks awesome. I re listened to our podcast. I
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, maybe one day I'll come.
Speaker 1: And then and now in this moment, we are actually here,
Speaker 1: We're gonna do. I also met his wife and child.
Speaker 5: I was getting home when I heard him on the phone.
Speaker 5: Then he hang up and like, what think you told me,
Speaker 5: like you know, Gecko, and I.
Speaker 2: Was like, oh yeah, sure, Like Alma was.
Speaker 3: Talking to him, how's the family life going.
Speaker 4: We're learning every single day and like to be patient,
Speaker 4: like to be doing our stuff and still like taking
Speaker 4: care of him. I think it was the hard part bro.
Speaker 1: On our phone call, right, I remember we were talking
Speaker 1: about like like the balance between like like family life
Speaker 1: and life doing doing your own life you have, you guys,
Speaker 1: feel like you've been able to strike a nice balance
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 5: But I think that's the main thing, like when you
Speaker 5: prioritize not losing yourself while also being emparas.
Speaker 1: Diego really wanted to show me this view from the
Speaker 1: top of his steps.
Speaker 4: This is like my pelv. Every single time I come home,
Speaker 4: I just stare.
Speaker 2: I love it here. I'm like fuck ground blast.
Speaker 1: Like just by this point it was really nice to
Speaker 1: talk to someone who loved their life this much. In
Speaker 1: anticipation of our dance battle later that day, Diego tried
Speaker 1: to show me some moves.
Speaker 4: Had on the other side.
Speaker 6: There you go.
Speaker 2: All right or out of the front.
Speaker 1: Even though Diego was at a slightly higher skill level
Speaker 1: than me, I assured him I did not want him
Speaker 1: to hold back in our battle, Like, you don't hit
Speaker 1: people right if you're in the moment and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a great move, but it requires
Speaker 1: me to punch Lyle in the face. You can do
Speaker 1: that if you want. We had some time to kill
Speaker 1: before the Gek Dance event, so we walked around the
Speaker 1: neighborhood and chatted a bit. What are your favorite kinds
Speaker 1: of sodis Doctor Pepper? Definitely?
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I was in a cab on the way over here
Speaker 1: and I saw they have a new flavor of Doctor Pepper.
Speaker 3: They have a blow blue fuck. I forgot what it's called,
Speaker 3: but it was like a blue raspberry something.
Speaker 4: Maybe they've been doing a lot of flavors lately, but
Speaker 4: I don't know if I were like any other Doctor
Speaker 4: Pepper flavor rather than the original.
Speaker 1: So today you and me are going to be doing
Speaker 1: an exhibition battle. Is there any danger that I should
Speaker 1: be like cognizant of or aware of? They could anything
Speaker 1: horrible happen?
Speaker 2: Well, if if you win against me in my in
Speaker 2: my exhibition battle, I'm gonna knock you out. Now. I'm
Speaker 2: just kidding, Brom, I'm just kidding. I'm just so kidd
Speaker 2: um no that I think of. The floor is not slippery.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, while Diego was showing us around, the sky went
Speaker 1: gray and it started to pour down rain. This was
Speaker 1: concerning because it meant that we might have to cancel
Speaker 1: the gek dance that I flew all the way out
Speaker 1: here for.
Speaker 2: Let me just call my guy real quick.
Speaker 1: We went back to Diego's house and he put on
Speaker 1: some lo fi hip hop with rain sounds while we
Speaker 1: waited out the actual rain. I asked if I could
Speaker 1: use his bathroom, and he told me a funny joke
Speaker 1: that is local to the region.
Speaker 2: Whenever you're like, hey, dude, I'm sorry of a kind
Speaker 2: iss your bathroom, They're like, yeah, but just something that
Speaker 2: has pretty coming out here.
Speaker 3: I don't know why, but.
Speaker 1: While I was on the toilet, I journaled on my
Speaker 1: phone for a bit. I was a little worried that
Speaker 1: the event might get rained out and I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to reschedule it before I leave. But I also
Speaker 1: did tell myself that this video would just be about
Speaker 1: whatever happened as a result of me coming here. So
Speaker 1: if the title of this video ends up being I
Speaker 1: went to Tijuana to use the bathroom, that would be
Speaker 1: fine too, not everything has to be perfect. When I
Speaker 1: got out of the bathroom, Diego showed me his anime collection.
Speaker 2: I got many main things I cherish. I got freaking
Speaker 2: Neon Genesis, Evangelium, full modal alchemists, like all this years
Speaker 2: that you can think of. I loved him.
Speaker 1: He also showed me this award that he got from
Speaker 1: a break dance competition. So this is one of the
Speaker 1: prizes from the.
Speaker 2: Prices that I got for a second place here in
Speaker 2: TJ Open style battle the first. But he's got the
Speaker 2: one in cold, so I think it's even better. But hey,
Speaker 2: silver is good.
Speaker 1: After a while of waiting, we were able to confirm
Speaker 1: that the rain had stopped for good and the Gek
Speaker 1: dance event was back on, so I painted my face
Speaker 1: and got suited up to go. One thing I forgot
Speaker 1: to mention is that before I left for Mexico, Diego
Speaker 1: asked me if he could also be dressed as a
Speaker 1: gecko for our battle. So I told him I would
Speaker 1: bring an extra suit. It would be a Gecko versus
Speaker 1: Gecko dance off.
Speaker 3: You put on over or under your clothes over okay.
Speaker 1: So I helped Diego finish transforming and we called a
Speaker 1: cab to the main event.
Speaker 2: The ulverdriver is gonna be pug.
Speaker 1: It's true, he did, ask Lizard Lardica. Yes, I said,
Speaker 1: it was very, very important to understand that I am
Speaker 1: not a frog. Hey, I'm recording some extra lines for
Speaker 1: this audio version here. So when we got to the event,
Speaker 1: it was this big circle of dancers all hanging out
Speaker 1: around this park, and I started to interview a few
Speaker 1: of them. What do you think is the meaning of life? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to read this out because she answered in Spanish,
Speaker 1: but she said that to her, the meaning of life
Speaker 1: is to live in the moment, enjoy it, and.
Speaker 3: Be with the people you love.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like dancing is a good way to
Speaker 1: be in the moment? See you said it's therapy. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like you sometimes work out life issues on
Speaker 1: the dance floor? Koka, I think that one of my
Speaker 1: main problems is anxiety. But when I'm dancing, all of
Speaker 1: my thoughts are simply in the present moment. If you're
Speaker 1: not doing anything, you start getting anxious and you start
Speaker 1: going crazy, and so you and when you're dancing, all
Speaker 1: you're thinking about is the body, is the moves, and
Speaker 1: so you're not You're not like going You're not going
Speaker 1: crazy when you're dancing and stuff. I took to the
Speaker 1: circle and started dancing a bit myself.
Speaker 3: Where do you think we go when we die?
Speaker 6: That's a good christ I don't know, to the ground.
Speaker 6: I don't know, Like I believe in something else, Like
Speaker 6: you do love, you receive love. If you hate, you
Speaker 6: have hate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna be doing an exhibition match later with
Speaker 1: the other Gecko.
Speaker 3: Do you do you have any like advice for me?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Just like let the music guy?
Speaker 3: Do you get personal? What is that? What does that mean?
Speaker 3: Get personal?
Speaker 6: Look him in the ice, try to intimidate him.
Speaker 2: Other than that, it's just frets out, Like whatever comes out,
Speaker 2: just express it. We have a special guest for the
Speaker 2: exhibition battle, Lile.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was time for me and Diego to finally battle.
Speaker 1: I was up first, and I had forgotten virtually everything
Speaker 1: that Diego taught me this morning, so I just started
Speaker 1: going crazy. So again, this part of the video is
Speaker 1: very video heavy, but just imagine that I'm flailing my
Speaker 1: arms around, jumping like a frog, and doing push ups.
Speaker 1: The crowd seemed to enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Also.
Speaker 1: It may not look like it in this footage, but
Speaker 1: after like five seconds of that, I was absolutely on
Speaker 1: the brink of passing out. Diego was up next, and
Speaker 1: he was pretty good okay in this part. Just imagine
Speaker 1: another guy in a gecko suit spinning on his head
Speaker 1: doing the work I like really good and just generally
Speaker 1: being like really good at break dancing. We went back
Speaker 1: and forth a few more times, and at this point
Speaker 1: I was almost ready to die. By now I had
Speaker 1: run out of ideas for how to move my body,
Speaker 1: so I just started running around in circles. And I
Speaker 1: also did this thing with my finger that I know
Speaker 1: how to do. Another note for the audio listeners, I
Speaker 1: can't really describe this finger thing, but it is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: You should watch the video version at some point to
Speaker 1: see it. I think it's pretty cool. After our dance
Speaker 1: battle was over, Diego handed me the microphone for me
Speaker 1: to give some sort of message to the folks at
Speaker 1: the park, and I tried to speak in my shitty Spanish.
Speaker 1: Grass pair had poor.
Speaker 3: For having me in Tijuana.
Speaker 1: Tijuana, esta mucho bien? How did you think I did
Speaker 1: really good?
Speaker 3: You don't have to just say that if you know me.
Speaker 1: You didn't even look tired. I was really tired. I
Speaker 1: was about to pass out halfway. Were you being facetious
Speaker 1: just now? Did you think I looked tired? You didn't
Speaker 1: look You're being serious?
Speaker 3: Serious?
Speaker 1: Who do you think one between me and the other guys?
Speaker 3: I think it was a tie? Do you really believe that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I think are you being serious? He does? He does
Speaker 3: have some training.
Speaker 1: So after our battle, I gave out awards to the
Speaker 1: winners of the main tournament. Congratulations on being a finalist.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for so you saw our our battle?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Who do you think one between him and me?
Speaker 3: Was you are? Are you being serious?
Speaker 1: Because I don't want I really don't want you to
Speaker 1: lie to me, like if you if you think I'm
Speaker 1: like no, if if you think he won, I want
Speaker 1: you to tell me if I think it's It almost
Speaker 1: hurts my feelings a little more when people you know
Speaker 1: tell me congratulations on the big win. Did you happen
Speaker 1: to catch me and his battle between us? As an expert?
Speaker 1: Who do you think one?
Speaker 3: Well, I will say this, get go, but I really could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, diego, And I found a quiet spot
Speaker 1: to reflect and decompress from the action.
Speaker 3: That was awesome. That was great.
Speaker 1: Thank you, dude, Thank you so much for a fucking
Speaker 1: having this.
Speaker 3: This went great.
Speaker 1: I went in this being like, uh, fuck it, I'll
Speaker 1: just fly to Tijuana, and I have no idea what
Speaker 1: this is going to be.
Speaker 3: But this went. This was really fun.
Speaker 2: This is great now that it's over. It was it
Speaker 2: like a little bit of what you were expecting.
Speaker 1: I actually did have some expectations before I came here
Speaker 1: that I haven't really talked about yet. Before I came here,
Speaker 1: I knew that Tijuana had a reputation as one of
Speaker 1: the most violent cities in the world, and when I
Speaker 1: went to look it up, I saw that Tijuana and
Speaker 1: the entire state of Baja California had a Level three
Speaker 1: reconsider travel advisory from the US government. Granted, I only
Speaker 1: got to see very little of the city, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to be reductive, but despite what I saw online,
Speaker 1: I do think it's worth something that at least in
Speaker 1: this fifty foot radius, there are people dancing and chilling
Speaker 1: and a guy who loves Doctor Pepper and anime and
Speaker 1: tries his best to be a good father and live
Speaker 1: a good life. And that's what's happening down here, just
Speaker 1: as much as anything else. Is happening down here. So
Speaker 1: next time someone says I heard it's pretty crazy down
Speaker 1: in Tijuana, I can be like, yeah, it is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: There's a guy spinning on his head. The only evil
Speaker 1: person I did meet down here was this guy.
Speaker 3: Have you ever flown a Spirit?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love Spirit Airline.
Speaker 6: I used to be customer service for a Spirit for
Speaker 6: like two years.
Speaker 3: Really. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If people were like, hey, you guys fucked up, can
Speaker 1: I get my money back? Would you be like, yeah, no.
Speaker 3: Of course not.
Speaker 6: I've had to see the reasons why their flight fucked up.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna be a homie about it.
Speaker 1: No. That was a fun part of that job that
Speaker 1: I wasn't like cool was That was the fun part. Yeah,
Speaker 1: other than him, everyone else I talked to was pretty cool. Hey,
Speaker 1: thank you guys very much for listening to this. I
Speaker 1: hope it sounded okay as an audio log. And again,
Speaker 1: if you want to watch the actual video this was
Speaker 1: meant to be watched as a video, you can go
Speaker 1: into the description of this episode to find the YouTube link.
Speaker 1: And if you really enjoyed it and you want to
Speaker 1: help support my ability to make more of these highly
Speaker 1: produced adventures in the future, I have put a full
Speaker 1: hour and forty five minutes of uncut interviews from this trip,
Speaker 1: plus the entire Gecko dance battle, on patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash lyle forever. You can find the link in the
Speaker 1: episode description and on this Patreon, I will be putting
Speaker 1: all of the uncut interviews from any long form adventure
Speaker 1: videos that I make in the future. I've already got
Speaker 1: one queued up where I'm going to be interviewing people
Speaker 1: about whether they would rather be a human or a
Speaker 1: lizard at a lizard zoo. And if you're already a
Speaker 1: member of the Supercast for this podcast that I am
Speaker 1: not gonna charge you twice, you can find a code
Speaker 1: on the supercast page that gives you a free membership
Speaker 1: to this Patreon for a year. Anyway, that's it. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this little bone because I have a
Speaker 1: lot more of these that I want to make. Gak
Speaker 1: bless see you with a regular episode again on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.