See there's bruised in bloodied with Rock 108.
It's morning Brian Marshall and it seems like this time of year the question is asked all the time and it seems like more often than not recently, Die Hard.
Is it a Christmas movie?
Joining me right now in the studio, Mirrorbox Theater, we got writer-director of Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
Gaven Holman, welcome to the show.
Thank you, good morning.
And we have.
Oh, this makes me so happy.
The actor who plays Hans Gruber, Adam Burnham.
Welcome.
Thank you for having me.
So die hard.
The question is asked and we won't answer it right at the moment.
But Kavan, I have to know the debate has been there for so long.
Why now die hard as one of your Christmas parodies?
So my wife and I, we just always spend Christmas binging movies as many as possible and as as
untypical, you know, as possible.
So for me, Die Hard, you know, is just part of my Christmas life now and forever.
And so we had so much fun doing Batman Returns Returns last year.
We knew we wanted to do something in that same vein.
And Die Hard, you know, brings me joy.
If it can't bring you joy, it can't bring other people joy, you know?
Adam,
how do you channel the essence of Alan Rickman, but put a little bit of yourself into this?
Gosh, you can't.
He's an unbelievable actor, but from my experience, all I do is kind of mimic whatever I hear.
That's what I've done growing up.
And his character, you're just, it's brooding.
It's really taking over the room.
demanding respect from everybody around, whether he has a gun in his hand or not.
So how do you get ready to play that part?
Do you have to watch?
Do you have to get into a certain mode, listen to certain music?
What gets you going?
I do watch a little, but really, I mean, Kevin's got a little dialogue straight on the movie, and it's nice to kind of fit what I think he's trying to pull across.
or maybe not so much mimic what exactly is happening, but also kind of creating my own little spin here
and there.
I get you.
So, Kevin, on this, you've got to not only put yourself into the writer mode, but director mode, and you're taking what a lot of people look at as a movie that is like...
You can't mess with it, right?
And now you're you're injecting a little bit of a musical into it too So how do you how do you find a way to make this
happen?
So I think that all of the best parodies are Done with love right like Mel Brooks loved westerns and then he made blazing saddles right so so The the mockery you know comes from love and so I think the the thing that I that
that I keep looking for is like, how can we take something that's like a little bit true of this classic thing and explode it into something ridiculous?
And like a great example would be like Carl in the movie, the awesome, you know, henchman with the blonde hair, long flowing blonde hair.
Carl in real life was like one of the world's best ballet dancers.
Really?
Yeah.
And so, but in the musical, that means
that Carl only dances.
So Carl speaks in dance, right?
So it's those kinds of things.
It's figuring out how to take the little kernel of something and explode it into something totally ridiculous.
Speaking of explosions, die hard.
It is a Christmas movie, a new musical parody.
Is that the Mirrorbox Theater?
It opens on December the 7th and runs through the 17th.
Mirrorbox Theater on 1200, Ellis Boulevard Northwest, Cedar Rapids.
How can they get tickets to see Die Hard?
Mirrorbox.
It's
a
Christmas movie.
Yes, we have to say the whole thing, because it is a parody.
But yeah, MirrorboxTheater.com is our website.
And we're on the socials.
We're on Facebook and Instagram too.
So you can find our links there.
And we'd love to see you there.
So we'll talk a little bit more about
the movie.
I need to know about the fall at the end.
Puddle of mud right now with Drift and Die.
Sign of life on The Rock What A Way Morning Show at 820 Brian Marshall.
The question is asked, is Die Hard a Christmas movie according to some debatable holiday movies?
This one right here, 50% say yes, 50% say no.
Well, that seems to split it right down the line, doesn't it, Kavan?
That
is
shocking
to me.
There are some others, there's a list from ScreenRant.com of other debatable Christmas movies.
Gremlins.
Absolutely, I think so.
Yeah, okay.
Mean Girls, Adam?
I haven't seen Mean Girls,
but they do have that, I still see that iconic.
They say it's iconic.
There's a scene where they're all dressed in some kind of Christmas.
I'm saying no, it's a
scene.
I think I
think it's a scene.
Yeah, no, this one should hit the little closer to home Batman Returns.
Obviously.
Yes, obviously.
I've always called
that
a
Christmas.
That's
right.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
See, this is more like a Wizard of Oz type Christmas movie where I say it's a
It is like Christmas viewing, even though I don't know that it's actually a Christmas movie.
All right, Edward Scissorhands.
Oh.
Your eyebrows went straight up on that one.
I like that.
Yeah, I like that idea.
I have to go back and watch it, but I like that idea.
Did your wheel start spinning for next year?
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Iron Man 3.
No.
No.
Yeah, I see some of the other on this list.
They say rent, rent from 2005.
I didn't think of that as a Christmas production.
Rent takes place during Christmas.
It does full wrap around.
It begins on Christmas and it ends on Christmas.
And you did a production of rent, right?
I did a production of rent last year.
I played Benny, the landlord who's trying to kick everybody out.
Yeah, that was a fun time and I was city community theater.
That's
awesome So when you're at the mirror box theater, you're gonna be playing Hans Gruber in diehard is a Christmas movie Would you I hate to ask this but I have to because the audience wants to hear it.
Would you be able to perform a line as?
Hans Gruber for me Adam.
What's the one he says to Carl when they're when they're chasing down John McClain Sheist and Festa You speak German Carl
Shoot the glass.
Yes.
Hey, when you get the chance to get this on the production on the stage at Mirrorbox Theater, it's kind of feel pretty good to be able to do something that you love with like with die
hard.
It feels so good.
This is the fifth musical that I've written that's gotten staged.
And and I I just am having so much fun.
I think that sometimes serious.
is overrated.
And we have just been laughing our way through this whole process.
And it's the right time of year to do that.
I got to ask a production
question.
There's a big fall at the end of the movie.
How do you approach that in a single story building?
So, theatrically and cheaply.
Yes.
You know, so I would say that our Hans falls much longer than Hans and the movie
falls.
Much longer, although not quite the same amount of distance.
OK.
Well,
Stunt,
pay for you,
Adam.
No, no, no stunt pay.
I got
you.
And it is accompanied by one of my favorite.
What one of my favorite song?
Not one of my favorite pair.
I mean, I love them all.
But but one of my favorite songs is that's that's set to radio heads.
No surprises.
What?
Yeah.
So
so so there there's some surprising song choices, I think a mixture of
holiday tunes and, uh, some rock and pop tunes.
So if you ever
thought, Hey, diehard needs to be a musical parody.
You can see it at the mirror box theater.
That's on 1200 Ellis Boulevard Northwest opening up on the seventh and goes through the 17th visit mirror box theater.com.
So you can not only get your tickets, but you can see show times and such and
Did you say you wanted to get a couple of people a chance to go to
opening night?
I would love that.
We'd love to invite people into our space, and we love being here.
So we've got two pairs of tickets available for opening night.
So that's Thursday, December 7th, and Showtime's at 7.30.
Perfect.
Let's do it now.
3, 1, 9, 2, 3,
4, 5, 3, 6, 9, 3, 6, 4, 5, 3, 6, 9.
We'll take the first two to get those fairs and tickets to go see Die Hard is a Christmas movie, the musical parody at the Mirror Box Theater.
Ellis Boulevard Northwest, Cedar Rapids, call now.
Landmines on Rockwell.
Oh, it's Friday, December the first.
And you thought it was cold out there with a winter weather advisory.
The gentleman sitting across from me right now, originally from Fayette, correct, Mike?
Yep.
Born and raised.
Born and raised.
And then for the longest time, and I don't even know how you and I connected.
Maybe it's because when you were there, maybe I saw some of the stuff that you were posting.
But for the longest time, how long?
We're talking months.
Yeah.
You were at the South Pole.
Yep, I'm there for ten months ten months.
All right.
We got to get into this first off What what experience did you have that led up to having the opportunity to be at the South Pole?
So I was in the Iowa Garden here for ten years.
Yeah out of Waterloo aviation unit and When I was my last deployment in Iraq in 2017 I dealt with companies I dealt with shipping and receiving of other goods throughout the theater.
Yeah, and one of them was PAE
I meant them.
So last year I was just looking about jobs, the opportunities go back overseas and I came across Antarctica.
I'm like, what are we doing in Antarctica?
Yeah.
So I was like, okay.
So I started looking into it.
Well, they got supply.
They had opportunities down there for me.
Start watching documentaries and stuff.
I'm like, this seems really cool.
I gotta check it out.
So how do you then take your experience from the military and then apply to go to Antarctica?
I did.
I looked for jobs that I primarily had all my experience in, no matter what, in the military or the private sector, where it was completely applicable.
It wasn't going to be outside my norm.
So I just sprayed my shot on everything there between cargo, supply.
I think even when it was just inventory, computer work, I'm like, I'll do it all.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I just want to do it.
Interesting.
So you have been as a human in the two of the most extreme climates on the planet.
Yep.
You said station in Iraq where it gets to what temperature?
I think we hit 120 there.
Okay.
120.
Positive.
Positive.
And then as we talk about the South Pole, what are we talking about lows?
The actual windshield, it doesn't matter.
Actual temperature, we hit 103 a couple of times.
Got to be kidding.
And 103 below zero.
Yep.
With the windshield, we're talking negative 150.
Yeah.
It's brutal.
And
In your specific line of work, tell me a little bit more about that.
And what do you do at the South Pole?
So I do supply inventory management, where all the stuff that is on the station that needs to be issued out, we keep stocks of it.
So hand warmers, for example, we went through probably 10,000 of them.
What?
If not more.
Really?
Yes.
How many on station?
43 on station with me.
So 43, and you said you went through how many animals?
Maybe about 10,000.
I mean, when we're going outside, like the scientists, they got to walk out a kilometer to their research centers, and they need to bundle up because their work doesn't stop.
It doesn't matter if it's negative 90.
They got to walk out there.
So they're going to load up with hand warmers in their pockets, in their gloves, in their neck, ear to neck, everything.
They're going out.
So at the
South Pole itself, you have the base as it stands.
And tell me what that's called again one more time.
It's the elevated
station.
It's Robinson Scott.
South Pole Station.
And you said 43 individuals based inside the station, a variety of scientists or who's all based inside the station
there?
It's a variety, but it's mostly support staff.
Scientists on the site were about eight.
Okay.
Everybody else was supporting them, supporting the station, make sure it doesn't freeze and survives for
the year.
I'm sure that there's somebody out there going, what are we doing down there?
What is the purpose of being down there at the South Pole?
We got a lot of questions on that.
Yeah.
About
operations and it's for science where they're supported the National Science Foundation and their mission is to help sustain our environment throughout the world.
Interesting.
So is global warming one of those pieces that people ask about or a part of it?
Yeah, it's a big piece because obviously Antarctica has a lot of the fresh water, most of the fresh water on the continent, on the world, excuse me.
But the ozone hole, it's a thing down there.
So like when you're out there in the summer, the ozone's a lot thinner, you can get sunburn.
Real easy.
Yeah,
I did surprisingly, but I did.
But yeah, it's atmospheric.
We do a lot of atmospheric science down there.
Yeah, that's actually what the green laser.
If you saw that shining up off the top of the station, I was going to ask.
Yeah, people.
We got jokes about Independence Day and all these other other laser.
Right,
right, right.
But no, it was great because it actually shoots a pulse up there and it's measuring the density of the atmosphere.
That's what it's
doing.
OK,
not
communicating with anybody else.
We might be,
but not that I know.
Not that I know.
I get that question.
Ten
thousand hand warmers.
Yeah, that's
what I care about.
What other small items like that that we don't think about are down there in things that you work with?
Oh, something simple and simple.
Yeah, like pens
or or
something benign that at least that you think about that up here.
We're like, oh, whatever.
I'll just go to the Dollar Tree.
Well, yeah, exactly pens.
That's
Freeze there's this like specific pens that we get and then sometimes the man in charge of our ordering orders something that's off cuff
Yeah,
doesn't work as soon as it goes out in our pockets like gel pens can't do it like I like gel pens Yeah, you try go outside at all and you're just it's frozen.
You can't use it.
That's you actually have to use the ballpoint
specifically so you can get the pressure and push the ink through it.
It's things that we don't think about when you're sitting at, what are we at right now?
33 and cloudy skies, which is probably hotter than anything down there right now.
Yeah.
I mean, I didn't bring a coat with me.
It's like summer for you right now.
926 more with Mike Post and his adventure to the South Pole that he's been doing.
And I think he's going back, right?
Yep.
Going back in January, savage.
You are a savage.
I promise.
Uh, we'll actually play some ice night kills from Mike next.
Click boom.
I have us.
Click, click, boom with rock, what a way to forecast for the rest of today.
Wintery mix early with rain and snow later today, high of 37 tomorrow, chance for drizzle and flurries, a high of 38.
And then Sunday, chance of rain and snow showers mixing together with a high of 40.
Uh, Mike.
Yes.
No, not you.
You can hang back for just a second.
Mike, I made a pact and I told this to the KCRG team that I used to complain a lot about the cold temperatures and the wintery mix and such.
But after I saw that you were stationed at the South Pole, I have said that this year I will not complain about it for at least a year because you dealt with worse.
You don't pretty good on that.
So far.
So far.
I've said it twice.
I've like, and then I just go, nope.
His arch or say one more did the place that you worked was the arch right arch Yeah,
yeah
calm was the ambient temperature inside the arch was how much probably negative 55 negative 60 Boston Mike.
What do you think about that?
Could you work in a negative 55 environment?
Oh,
yeah, that's thawing and pasties weather for me.
I'm good
So Mike was stationed at the South Pole as a supply technician and he's returning again here within a month or so
Yeah, mid-January.
Okay, going back.
So what's the procedure or what's the process of getting back to Antarctica?
Well, they gotta make sure you're healthy.
Yeah,
that's the biggest key right there.
I'm going through the process of doing all these medical checkups, physicals, dental, because a medevac is expensive and it's not very fast.
I'm pretty sure the plane has to come from Canada to do it.
Oh, because the planes are what?
Canadian
Airlines or something?
Ken Bork Air is the is the contract that does it.
Supports all the Antarctica not just the US, but they support Italians Everybody down.
Yeah, okay, so they they gotta bring a plane cuz you know up down down there.
It's Too cold to keep anything there.
Nothing will start.
Nothing will run
So you got to come back down from Canada, which of course is going to take a while.
Well, according to the Alien versus Predator movies, that's not true.
They can hide totally in the ice down there.
Are you worried about stuff like that?
Like the movie The Thing?
You worried about that coming out of the ice and getting you guys or what?
Every weekend after the last plane leaves.
Sorry, not every weekend.
The first weekend after the last plane leaves, we do a thing marathon.
Do you really?
Yes.
That's awesome.
Watch all three movies.
There's apparently a 19 like 1956 movie.
Yeah.
Yeah, it takes place in the Arctic and It was bad.
I mean, I'm sure at the time it was something but it was bad Yeah, we watched the other ones too and that's all one shot
Mike you're a type of guy that if you just grew out your hair just a little bit more and feathered it You could kind of look like Kurt Russell.
Yeah, you never thought about that I actually did grow my hair out this time down there and I just cut it
Last week it was driving me crazy.
Yeah But I mean I had long hair in high school, so okay try to bring it back
Flamethrowers is that a part of the supply chain down there at all?
I mean, I know that in the thing they were yeah, we've tried Now
there's nothing there's nothing down there like that.
What is coming handy
to the two Boston Mike's point How do you wrap your head around and not go nuts when you're stationed down there as long as you are?
You got to find things to do.
Okay.
Some people are hermits and it works for them You know do your job go back to room watch movies play games.
Mm-hmm Some people had a great time doing that other people not so much.
They got you got to do interactive Things board games.
We did ever Friday night.
So thank God for porn hub
Um, hang on.
No, uh, does it get dark like six months, light six months to do that?
Exactly.
Okay.
So in the bunks with the barracks where you guys are staying, do they have those sun lamps too?
No.
They don't.
No.
Because they know a lot of places they'll put those UVB bulbs up there to kind of give you a simulation of the sun so you don't go nuts in the dark time, blah, blah,
blah.
Yeah.
Well, we had what we call happy lights or these little desktop lights that you can carry on and they do have a little higher UV concentration.
They're smaller.
Happy lights?
Yeah.
That's what we call them.
I don't know.
That's what the scientific name is.
I need that in the
middle of our
smoking circuit.
But yeah, we have those and you're supposed to just like sit off to your side.
And then, uh, just like not look at directly at it because you will go blind and you
know,
well, I mean,
you
know,
it's the same way with looking at the sun.
I get
you.
Yeah.
But I mean, I couldn't do it.
I tried for like two weeks and like, what am I doing here?
I don't know.
Speaking of the sun, Aurora Borealis, they have it good down there or what?
They got the southern version.
Yeah, well, I mean, I'll
show up.
What do you hear skinned when it's playing when it's
going
on
in the southern version?
But no, they are fantastic down there.
No light pollution.
So you can see the stars and no
kid.
You can see where we are in the Milky Way and stuff.
Oh, that's
beautiful.
Fantastic.
That's
cool.
We'll do more.
Mike Post, who's going back to Antarctica, he is up here.
We gave him.
Not only a shirt, but I gave him a sticker.
And you say you're going to bring that down there?
Oh, yeah.
How cool is that?
There's going to be a Rock 108 sticker at the South Pole.
Yeah, it's got to be covered in snow.
Who cares?
He's not going to put it on the outside.
Slashing Miles Kennedy and Corey Taylor coming up.
Ladies from Corey Taylor called Beyond on Rock 108.
Mike Post joining us in the studio who is stationed in Antarctica for, would you say, 10 months?
10 months.
10 months.
The first thing that you see
After you come off the ice, what's the first thing that you wanted to have that you couldn't have when you're at the South Pole?
Taco Bell.
Really?
Taco Bell?
Taco
Bell.
That was it.
Is it
because you can't get, you know, wreck the backside there?
100%.
100%.
Although we had amazing chefs.
They could make us anything we wanted.
I mean, it was all frozen box food.
Yeah.
You wouldn't know this plate of sushi?
Phenomenal.
Really?
It was great.
Wow.
All right.
And our head chef was from Southern Texas.
Brisket was beyond anything I could ever imagine.
It was great brisket at the South Pole.
Yeah, you don't hear that very often No,
no, no, did you guys ever go ice fishing out there?
No, I didn't have a long long enough real for that.
Yeah,
okay Well, I'll think it's the ice out there.
It's about two miles.
No way really two miles thick
So the elevation at the South Pole is what?
9,303 feet that's above the rock Boston like
Oh, I don't know if Dwayne Johnson would agree with that.
No, that's not what I meant.
Nicely done.
What else did you miss?
Grass, for sure.
Really?
I just just seeing anything other than flat white.
Oh, long grass, gotcha.
Even going to McMurdo was, yeah, different grass.
Even going to McMurdo was just fantastic seeing me able to see, you know, the mountains and just rocks.
Because flat white is just, it's cool all for a while, but then...
I mean
some trees alright or no yeah two miles deep oh really so that was just it was just flat
snow all the way through yep
Wow, 100% crazy.
I need to get you on those videos so you can actually see what it looks like down there.
It's crazy.
I mean,
I've seen pictures of those penguins that live down there.
That's about it.
Not
at the South Pole, right?
We didn't have
any ice chickens down there.
There was something that lived down there.
It wasn't polar bears.
I thought it was a South Pole had a certain type of penguin?
No.
This expert could probably tell you.
There is no life at the South Pole other than us.
For real?
Yeah.
Nothing to feed it.
Hmm.
The thing was there.
I was just saying no wonder
the thing was so hungry So this this is the other thing you're going back.
Is there a pull for you to return to the pole?
I think I felt that just when I got to McMurdo after leaving the pole because I get in there and I go in the galley and there's like 50 extra people ah there is like 200 people we got there towards the end of dinner and it was packed
I'm just sitting there at my table, my food, and like, there's too many people here.
What am I doing?
First time you got to the airport, I would assume what, in New Zealand, right?
Yeah.
And you're around all those people.
Did it take you a second to adapt or a couple of days?
Yeah,
no,
that's fine.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You went to New Zealand, too?
Yeah.
Cool.
That's the main, like, point of entry.
Did you see any hobbit holes while
you
were out there?
No.
Come on!
Don't you get a
crap ride.
No, that's something up by...
Auckland, North Island.
So you really, you wanted him to see the Hobbit.
You wanted him to see the thing.
You wanted him to see Independence Day.
I want him to go fishing, all kinds of stuff.
You can fill the Grand Canyon with stuff I'm ignorant about.
Don't give me no crap about it.
Mike, I really appreciate that you had swung in here today, made the drive down and come to talk a little bit more about it.
If somebody else is interested in what you do or if they want to do it themselves, what's the best way for them to get a part of it?
USAP.gov is the US Antarctic program.gov has links to all the all the companies that operate down there.
So anybody that has any experience, a Mentum is who I work for.
They are the main like operational program that handles the physical jobs.
They and they have jobs for everything.
The best way for anybody without experience is just go down there as janitorial steward.
They must pay pretty good though.
It was a pay cut, but you know really when you're not when you're not spending money though it it bounces out Oh, I guess yeah, so yeah, I'm not going to the quick start and go get extra.
Yeah
That's that's fascinating and the fact that that you could do that I did see that there was a communication center So there could be an opening for radio DJ down at day and artwork at some point.
There is a there is a community DJ booth in memory though
They
have a radio station there.
He's got to play foreign as cold as ice on a loop all day long.
There it is.
Speaking of which, this guy is going to be in here next.
Boston, Mike will be taking over here shortly and you will have bad hair Friday.
And before we leave, I wanted to make sure we handed out something.
You mentioned a Mexican a little bit earlier today on the half price deals page at rock108.com, $50 gift cards to lock Cantina barn grill going for just 25 bucks.
I have one of those $50 gift cards.
for free right now caller eight three one nine two three four five three six nine Mike thanks so much for being a part of this today
oh it's fantastic thanks dude it's good to meet you you too Mike
all right let's get that caller eight right now