‘Bachelor Happy Hour’ x ‘Almost Famous’ Crossover Round 2

00:00:01
Speaker 1: What's up everyone. We are back with Bechler Happy Hour.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: I am Joe and I am Serena and this is a special crossover episode with almost famous Ben and Ashley.

00:00:13
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that they are here. You guys, you've been doing this for seven years. I thought I'd been in the franchise for a long time. But seven years. How do we feel.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: The podcast has been seven years? Yeah, we've been part of it for more than that. So it's been almost nine years for Mason's filming.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: No way, Ben, how about you?

00:00:37
Speaker 4: Probably eight then?

00:00:39
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:00:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit last year a year after Ashley was when I I guess was the Bachelor, but the Bachelorette season happened right after Ashley's season.

00:00:48
Speaker 1: You know, it's.

00:00:49
Speaker 4: Funny as you announced this, Joe, I just thought, yes, it's been a while, it still feels fresh. Part of that is because I think many of us were pretty young when we were on the show, and so a lot of people you know now are even older than I am today and they're just now going on the show. But it's it's interesting that we're we're still the ones talking about it like this is like we're still the ones engaged in it that like that kind of new blood hasn't came through and taken over our jobs, which I'm so happy about, so thankful for Well.

00:01:21
Speaker 1: You your season of The Bachelor. I specifically remember you, Ben because you were like the first, like you were like the first young guy that became a lead.

00:01:34
Speaker 5: How old were you?

00:01:35
Speaker 4: Well, when I was on, uh, the Bachelor, I had just turned twenty five and then so I was twenty five during the Bachelor, I believe, so I was pretty young. I was the same young to Jesse Palmer who was like a month younger than me when he was the Bachelor. So yeah, I was a young lead.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: Yes, Ben, you were. You were a young lead. But let's just kind of go back and Ashley, you could jump in on this. Were you guys the first Bachelor podcast?

00:02:08
Speaker 5: We were?

00:02:09
Speaker 4: Yes, we were now Jason Mesnik had one with his wife three years right, and it did great. Yeah, but it was it was kind of we were the first Bachelor podcast. Once podcasts had a revenue stream and had a model around it, it was still the wild West in a lot of ways, but they became like ad platforms and the ability to edit better kind of right when we launched and so they did it still with recordings, but it was very raw, but people were still listening. It was kind of like AM re am radio compared to FM radio, and then you know, you expand and evolved into what we have today, which are good pieces of content. So I would say we were the first to do that in this kind of new era podcast, and then a lot of them followed, Yeah.

00:02:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could. You could also for our listeners, as you could catch the first half of this at almost famous this conversation because I did mention. I did mention it. But I remember recording with you guys, and Ben saying like he asked me a question that I think might have been inappropriate, and he's like, no one listens to this, and then the producer chimed in and is like, we have like an insane amount of listeners, Ben, what do you What are you talking about?

00:03:23
Speaker 5: Was the question.

00:03:24
Speaker 3: I remember, for some reason, you were in the studio alone with me and Ben was over his FaceTime or whatever it was.

00:03:32
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, So I.

00:03:34
Speaker 3: Remember just being like sitting next to you and you being so nervous and shy and being like this guy we got I get him become more comfortable?

00:03:40
Speaker 5: Does he need to drink.

00:03:42
Speaker 1: You could, you could truly, I think you could truly like feel my anxiety and my negative energy.

00:03:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:03:50
Speaker 4: I just probably threw one at you to say this guy has no chance.

00:03:55
Speaker 1: It's like this guy with him, asshole? Do you got a personality?

00:04:00
Speaker 5: I can say, listen this guy up.

00:04:04
Speaker 3: How would we ever think that you would become such a staple in the best of French it's really such an icon.

00:04:09
Speaker 1: Here I am, but almost famous? How did you two? How did you two become YouTube?

00:04:16
Speaker 5: You know, just being us?

00:04:19
Speaker 1: Was it? But like, how did you decide to do Almost Famous together? Was it after Winter Game?

00:04:23
Speaker 3: Oh? No, no, we were paired together via our producer Amy Sugarman. She was like, actually, you're kind of like the kooky one who's like very emotional, definitely like a side character, and then like he's definitely leading man, and it'd be interesting to put the two.

00:04:35
Speaker 5: Of you together.

00:04:36
Speaker 3: And then we ended up doing Window Games together about six months after we started recording the podcast. So it was just really easy to go into that show when you had somebody who was such a true friend. Yeah.

00:04:49
Speaker 2: It was probably also good for just like your podcasting relationship to get to spend so much time together in person, like filming a show together, like you probably came out of that even stronger hosts.

00:04:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and it's it's interesting. So the show's original idea was they didn't really know who was going to host it, but you know, our producer Amy had an idea that she wanted to have a bachelor's show. She's been involved in the Bachelor franchise for a while. I kind of thrown some different hosts out there, and you know, I was coming fresh off of my season as the Bachelor, so it's kind of the name that, you know, was lucky enough to hit that timing. We used to record this on our cell phone, so I would call into a line, Ashley would call into a line we would record via cell phone. Obviously today we don't, but the thing that worked for Ashley and I, and I think people nowadays see it more than they did at the beginning. Ashley and I have always been more similar than we are different. You know, we have different ways of expressing our emotions, obviously, and kind of different interests in life. She loves boy bands and pop culture and I care less about any of it.

00:05:52
Speaker 1: But the way we.

00:05:53
Speaker 4: See the world and the way we you know, we wanted to have a podcast where this wasn't like the one that bashed on everybody all the time. We love to bash, we love to judge, we love to critique, but.

00:06:02
Speaker 5: We don't really wish we could do it more, you know.

00:06:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, but we don't want to ruin anybody's life through this show. So we both like held that value strong to us. And then when people ask me how we work as hosts, I always explained it as Ashley is the one that's always in tune with everything going. Like she typically knows the headline, she knows the people, she knows the statuses. She like has really good ideas of what's going on in the franchise. I know nothing half the time.

00:06:27
Speaker 6: No, No.

00:06:27
Speaker 5: Ben then knows like the morality of people. Then he like knows the big things in life.

00:06:32
Speaker 6: And I'm like, really because he wore stupid earrings and then he's like, but what.

00:06:36
Speaker 5: Do the earrings mean?

00:06:38
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:06:39
Speaker 4: And so I'm like the dad that gets to like be out of touch and just sitting here and be entertained, and Ashley gets to keep us moving and grooving, and I just keep this on time of it and not off topic by you know, wide margins all the time. So it's been fun and the chemistry has just grown I think over seven years.

00:06:56
Speaker 2: I feel like that's great. It sounds like you guys like really balance each other out. Both bring different things to the table, and like that's why you mash well as hosts. And and you mentioned like you guys have different you have different like roles in the podcast. We talked a little bit on part one of this episode about having disagreements on the podcast. Would you have any like major memorable disagreements from your time hosting together, because you know, you talked a lot about the good stuff, like give us the ugly well, I mean like.

00:07:26
Speaker 5: Big fights, no, no real fights.

00:07:29
Speaker 3: But right now he doesn't understand why I could defend Braiden at all.

00:07:32
Speaker 5: I say that I play Devil's advocate a lot just because.

00:07:36
Speaker 2: Like I can see why Charity's swooned immediately by him, Like it's not gonna last long, but like I get it as a girl. Yeah, I've actually said the same thing, And I feel like that's the good thing too about having like a guy hiring is like Joe, I can be like I get it as a girl. Why she likes these things. You know, it's a fade. So you guys obviously have strong pains on Braiden this season. How else are you feeling about charity season or yeah, any other disagreements, something else who disagreed about?

00:08:05
Speaker 4: I mean, I think, I think the behind the scenes has always been interesting. When we were in person more most of our disagreements existed around our own personal lives, and sometimes they'd be hashed out on the show. So like, for a bit in Ashley's story, I remember vividly when she was kind of like into Jared but dating other people and trying to figure out what life looked like, and she was super sad, and like, those would always be really frustrating moments. I have moments on my phone of videotaping her being like, Ashley, snap out of it, like you know what you want, you know what you need, figure this out quicker, you know quickly. The same stuff would happen with me, right. So this podcast launched a week after Laura and I broke up publicly on timing for real, Yeah, it was perfect timing for the launch of a podcast for everybody but me. But you know, behind the scenes, it's not always been pretty with me. I mean, I don't know if it's ever been pretty, but there's been a lot of like really emotional moments where I was like, I don't want to record a day, or I don't want to talk about this, or hey, I'm you know, dating this person and I don't know how to get out of it, and I don't think it's right, but I'm kind of in this. I'm stuck in it, and it feels good because now I'm mass lonely and Ashley's been there for that and sometimes those things used to more than now get expressed on the show, and uh, and it was good to have that person with me, Like Ashley very quickly stepped into a confidante in my life and as somebody that I kind of bounced ideas off of knowing because she was the one person from the show that I could speak with so often. She knew enough about what my experience is like as the lead on this show to say, Okay, you know, where are you at? What's going on? Like, snap out of it. You can't be doing this stupid stuff. So that's those maybe are disagreements, but there's just been some ugly moments behind the scenes, and and some like good friendship battles.

00:09:44
Speaker 5: Now, Jared's not into you when I'm like thing he is. I think, I think, I think I.

00:09:52
Speaker 4: Think I got him.

00:09:53
Speaker 5: He doesn't. You did force him, if that was your plan. It wasn't forced, guys, your woman's intuition was right.

00:10:02
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you, you got him. But you know, uh, it's been a really fun journey. And I think if you listen back at the beginning, you know, we were both single and trying to figure it out. And then you know, at the same time, I was thinking about going back on the show. Nobody really knows that, but I was at some moment in my life, like when I was single again, going should I go back to be the Bachelor?

00:10:21
Speaker 3: Like their podcast not ours?

00:10:25
Speaker 5: Did they ask you about this on.

00:10:26
Speaker 4: Our podcast before?

00:10:27
Speaker 3: Remember they asked you to do it back to back seasons or not skip a season?

00:10:32
Speaker 5: Skip a season?

00:10:34
Speaker 1: It was it.

00:10:34
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was ever an official asked, but it was a hey, are you interested? Would you ever consider it?

00:10:39
Speaker 5: And okay, okay. So it wasn't like you were in the room about there was.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: There wasn't a contract yet, but there was yeah, what are you go ahead?

00:10:48
Speaker 4: So there's those moments like and those are things that maybe you don't talk about the show, but you talked about what somebody that's been on the show, and that's what our podcast.

00:10:54
Speaker 1: Get Ben being being a former lead and Ashley knowing everything about everything. What are your thoughts on charity?

00:11:11
Speaker 3: Me?

00:11:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well I want Ben's from a lead perspective, but I want yours Ashley from an Ashley eye perspective, because.

00:11:20
Speaker 3: That's very I mean, she's very likable and then when like you talk to her personally, like, she's even more likable. And then I just don't know about her cat like, I just don't feel like super salooned by her castive men overall. But I think what's important is that there's definitely someone she's gonna end up with, you know what I mean.

00:11:42
Speaker 2: Like, in my head, you just need one yeah exactly. I feel like, guys, you just see one of them to make a connection.

00:11:50
Speaker 3: Yes, So if you guys were to pick one guy now, who would it be? And my choice is only after episode three, not after any like the other two episodes.

00:12:00
Speaker 5: I thought like, oh, I like him, but I don't know how she feels.

00:12:03
Speaker 3: I will release my pick after Lost of I will I'll talk about my pick after you guys say who you think I'm referring to.

00:12:14
Speaker 2: Let Joe answer, because for the both of us here, because we have the same opinion on this, my.

00:12:19
Speaker 1: Pick right now is done. I feel like they have have the most comfortable chemistry, I guess.

00:12:27
Speaker 2: I literally feel like they could be soulmates. Like they have an incredible connection, it's unbelievable.

00:12:33
Speaker 6: But oh yeah, we have one ino one and two, one and two, but it was definitely three that really cemented it for us.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: Right when she brought him up to his bedroom or her bedroom that conversation, Joe wrote in his notes, she gets lost in his eyes like she He wrote that down in his notes for our recaps, truly, like if they don't end up together, like we have talked so much about how we want them to up to other so like you know, I we we we really hope that's how it works out. And no shade if that's not who she's with right now or I know we so far we're loving him.

00:13:11
Speaker 1: I feel like Joey's Joey's a close second. But Charity is Charity is going out of her way to give Dotton private time, Like did you go out of your way to give anyone. We don't have to really talk about the women on your season if you don't want to, but like, did you.

00:13:27
Speaker 4: I don't mind, Yeah, Like did you go out of did you go out of your did you go out of your way as a lead?

00:13:32
Speaker 1: Like telling production like I want private time with with this person.

00:13:36
Speaker 4: No, And there's one good reason for that. It's not that I like them. It's because I'm such an introvert and I had so little private time and like alone time in general, I wasn't giving up any of my own alone time to spend time with anybody else. So I uh, I definitely took took my time just to be alone. It was more fun for me and healthier. So I never did. I never remember putting in a special request being like, hey you got get away. I didn't really even know I could, and not that I had want to.

00:14:05
Speaker 2: Were there things that you would do for the women that you had a stronger connection with to kind of go a little above and beyond for them, Like Charity has mentioned that she's giving Dowton like a lot of special private one on one time during the cocktail parties, like pulling him away into private areas so they can like really connect and like not have to worry about the other guys. Like, were there things like that that you did for your kind of favorite.

00:14:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, but that was later on. So she So the interesting part about this conversation to me is we're having this conversation after episode three and you guys feel so strongly about this, and if it goes well and you know there's no big like speed bumps and no big issues, this to go down as one of the most beloved couples and that we could remember because they've both been beloved since the beginning, you know, and they both had this connection since the beginning. But typically we don't have these conversations week three, and if we do, there's usually a big issue that arises because the show doesn't like to, you know, give us this much this early on to where we're like, yeah, it has to be here. That's why one, oh my sneaky pick is Xavier. Like I still think Xavier has kind of been there and been solid and hasn't been shown a lot. I feel like that storyline has to increase at some point because when we do see him where like this guy's great and he's been been solid, so I just feel like there's something that's gonna happen, uh that's going to really like either tear her hearts out or make us celebrate them more. I think Charity is awesome. You know, she's just very likable. She was a great choice as the lead. I think she encompasses what a great lead is. I'm not yet. I'm still not convinced that her her picker is perfect because there's some people around that I would have said goodbye to week one. After a family member goes, hey, you should probably say goodbye to them, So I'm intrigued by that. But it's not a big mark on her. I mean, at the end, she has to just pick one right and and everybody's happy.

00:15:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, take on Xavier. I do agree.

00:16:01
Speaker 2: I think he could be a sleeper that we start seeing into like maybe week four, week five, like really come out of the shadows. This also feels like a really fast season. I think we're already at like ten guys after episode.

00:16:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's to begin with.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: Not to have a disagreement. Not to have a disagreement here, but I'm pretty sure you disagreed when I chose Xavier because Xavier is in my top four.

00:16:25
Speaker 2: Well, okay, we picked after episode one and no, I did not put Xavier in my top four. But now after three episodes, I do agree he is. I didn't think he I didn't say he wasn't a catch. I just after the first episode didn't put him in my prediction.

00:16:39
Speaker 3: You guys, she really threw us off last week's we had journey in the podcast and she said that amongst her top four was Warwick and she didn't put Dotton into it. So I was like, okay, so I feel like she's excluding dot for a reason to throw us off a little bit. And then Warwick, did you think that do we legitimately think that she had high expectations for him him?

00:17:01
Speaker 5: No?

00:17:02
Speaker 1: Maybe, though, I mean it's yeah, she's cute. It's really odd.

00:17:06
Speaker 2: I think that she thought maybe one on one he'll come out of his shell more. But like he seems to be like just who he is. Like, I don't think he's just like a shy guy who needed to open up. I think Warwick is genuinely just like a quieter dude who was like not interested in leaning into the process at all.

00:17:28
Speaker 1: I know he wasn't even interested in going on the show. I don't know why she wasn't.

00:17:31
Speaker 5: Looking for a relationship.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: He basically said it, I don't really jump into relationships because you know.

00:17:38
Speaker 5: What did he say was his reasoning for that?

00:17:40
Speaker 4: Are the statement on the Bachelor, Like what like if there's one, if there's like a top three statements to never say publicly while you're on the show, that would be number one, Like, Hey, I'm not really into relations Like.

00:17:54
Speaker 5: I'm a very good communicator. That's why she's like, what are you know? What show you're on?

00:17:59
Speaker 1: Right?

00:18:00
Speaker 5: Like they explain to you why you're here and how this works.

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Well, it's so crazy, like this show has been around for so long, how people don't do just like just a touch of research. You don't have to spend you don't even have to spend the whole day, just an hour, just an hour if you're potentially going on the show. Before we let you you guys go, Ashley, I do want to ask you one question. Any of the guys from this season give you successful paradise vibes?

00:18:27
Speaker 5: Success? What paradise is? Yes? Successful as and leads to marriage?

00:18:32
Speaker 1: Yes? Yeah, I'm not so like we all we all.

00:18:35
Speaker 5: Good character because watching the wrestling guy.

00:18:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like we watch a Braiden and we're like, okay, he's if he doesn't end up with Charity, he's going to be in paradise. But is there anyone You're like, I can see paradise working for this one person.

00:18:52
Speaker 3: You do just say, like Joey is okay?

00:18:57
Speaker 5: So this is this is why Joey's not screwing out of my mouth right now.

00:19:01
Speaker 3: I don't think he's gonna be there because I think he'll be top three in consideration for the Bachelor.

00:19:12
Speaker 4: Take the mathematics out of it.

00:19:14
Speaker 1: Of who could then.

00:19:15
Speaker 5: Definitely Joe anybody else I shouldn't even think of anymore.

00:19:22
Speaker 1: I mean I think Aaron Bay.

00:19:24
Speaker 5: You have to be sure. I thought about Xaber for a second, but probably Aaron Ba.

00:19:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:19:31
Speaker 4: I mean I think there's a lot of peer I mean, I think the one thing about this cast, yes, Ashley has not been swinged over by them, and I'm not like most seasons actually, and I go into the Bachelor Bachelor saying, Okay, the Bachelor or Bachelor, it's great, like we think they're a good choice or we think they're going to be super boring, but that doesn't really matter because the cast is the show they entertain. They're the most of the content this year. I think Charity is, you know, the main reason why we're watching to see her go through this journey. In the cast, Hash is kind of plane, you know, is in second place. They're running behind at her and she and I think as a result, though we're not seeing that the cast really does want to find love, Like there are people here that are really interested in doing this well and not here for the celebrity of it all, which I think is a great change. And I think that makes good Paradise people. I think it makes good characters in Paradise. I just don't think it makes a great cast because they aren't the big personalities that stand out to us and that lead this ship. Which is fine. I'm happy to watch she Herdy.

00:20:33
Speaker 5: I absolutely agree with that.

00:20:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and hopefully I'm assuming though as the season goes on, you know, there's less and less guys, we see more and more of them, and then they really start to shine and we see their personalities. But we've been running a little too late. We got to let you guys go because I know you're very very busy. Thank you, Ben, and thank you Ashley. For being here, and thank you so much to our listeners for tuning in.

00:20:57
Speaker 5: And don't forget.

00:20:58
Speaker 2: New episodes of The Bobster air every Monday at nineteenth Central on ABC and then stream the next day on Hullo.

00:21:05
Speaker 1: Yes, and make sure to tune in to new episodes of Bachelor Happy Hour every week. We are going to have some great guests now. We've got all kinds of exclusive interviews coming up, so don't forget the hit that subscribe button.

00:21:17
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening, Thanks Ben and Ashley again, and we'll see everyone next week.

00:21:22
Speaker 5: Bye, thank you, bye,