Tuesday, April 15, 2008

An Interview with a Level 10 Underbelly Legend


Yeti and Shelley

Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, and Thomas Edison are all geniuses in their own right, but for this post, I'll tell you about a genius of a different sort. You've heard of some of the most famous callers in talk radio history. Sal the Stockbroker, Ricard Christie, and DJ Egg Nog all turned their calls, bits, and songs into a full time job on the Howard Stern Show and the Kidd Chris Show respectively. One of the greatest callers in Kidd Chris history is Level 10 Underbelly member Stephen known to most of us as simply Yeti. Every single time Kidd Chris answers Yeti's call with a "Yeti, go ahead" you can almost hear the fear and trepidation in his voice thinking about what in the name of God Yeti is going to say next. The genius of Yeti is his pure unpredictability and he's turned that into being one of only two Level 10 Underbelly members along with Slim.
So what is the Underbelly? Well it really can't be described in words. It's a group of Kidd Chris fans which gather at a message board as well as local bars to talk about the show, throw out various insults, make prank phone calls, and just generally have a great time. I've been a member on that board for a while and I mainly read there but rarely ever post. I won't post a link to that board here for fear that the noobs will run away screaming because frankly, some of the most brilliant minds of our time are gathered there and Yeti, along with Slim, Donna, Dub-Ill, BigFatFartInTheFace, Frankmoneyyy, Sulu, Devotchka, Hardcore Mike, and others whom I've forgotten to mention eat noobs for breakfast with their quick wit and snappy comebacks.

For the record and for the purposes of this interview, I will let you know that I have edited none of Yeti's answers. You just can't edit comedic gold and as a journalist turned blogger, I just wouldn't feel right editing it. Let's get onto the interview.



Dave: Just for a bit of back history, tell me a little about yourself. How old you are, etc?
Yeti: Well my real name is Stephen (or Steve), I am 28, I live just outside of Allentown Pennsylvania with my gorgeous mother, handsome step-father, brother, and step-brother. I work in what the chatroom people describe as a "carnival warehouse". I also have a stunningly beautiful girlfriend named Shelley that lives in Manhattan

Dave: How did you first find out about Kidd Chris?
Yeti:I always had the work radio tuned to 94.1 for Howard so i never bothered to switch after he left the air and eventually Chris started up. : I didn't pay much attention to his show for the first few weeks. I just kept it on and heard some of it in the background. Eventually I really started listening and then decided to call in one day to tell Chris about the Colin Farrell sex tape. But when I got on I said the "Colin Quinn" sex tape and didn't realize I fucked up until I went back into the WYSP chat room and got made fun of. I found my niche in the show by being known as someone would would call up and purposely say vulgar things that would get dumped. However I started to shy away from that because Chris started to get a little pissed off. Now I try not to call in unless I know I have something good to say or something to contribute.

Dave: : You're one of only two Level 10 members of the Underbelly which requires a visit to the studio. What's it like to sit in that studio with Kidd Chris? Take someone like me, who'll probably never get to do that and tell me what it's like.
I actually downloaded your first visit into the studio that someone put up on the underbelly board a while back, and I have to say it was a great appearance.

Yeti: Sitting in the studio was a a little nerve-racking the first time because I felt like everything I had to say would have to be funny. Honestly I prefer to sit there in the background and comment when appropriate. I believe that was in the middle of summer. I live about 65 miles north of Philly so by the time i got there i was covered in sweat anyway so nobody could really tell.

Dave:I listened to the first appearance and didn't notice the nervousness at all. It was gold as Brad the Cripple likes to say.

Dave: As a relatively new Kidd Chris listener, it took me little to no time to learn who were the great callers and who the ones were who were less than great. Do you plan out what you're going to say or do you just ad-lib?, because it seems that you're always flying by the seat of your pants and that's one of the great things about your calls to Chris's show.

Yeti: It's a mixture of both. For example, if they have a regular guest on the phone I will listen to some of the call and then try to come up with something good in relation to what is being discussed. Other times somebody on the show may just bring something up that I personally have insight in or were part of and I just call immediately, and other times Chris may have a random girl on the phone and I'll just call up and ask something vulgar but try to do it cleverly to test their dump rules.

Dave:
Let's talk about Shelley for a second if we may. What is it like to have a girlfriend who actually likes Kidd Chris and I'll assume that she likes Stern as well. My soon to be ex-wife absolutely hated Howard Stern and Kidd Chris. How nice is it that she goes to events with you and hangs out and gets along well with both the members of the show as well as members of the Underbelly. Just for the record, I'd love to find someone who loves both Kidd Chris and Howard Stern

Yeti: She's actually from San Antonio so she listened to Kidd Chris before any of us in this area did. She moved to New York and continued listening on the stream since she liked the show so much. I should add that she refuses to be considered a part of the underbelly. She says that is my own little thing and I can keep that separate. However since I'm sticking her I told her that she is automatic level 5 and she refuses to acknowledge that.

Dave: That's gold again man.

Dave: This one kind of touches on what I've asked before, but what do you think attracts so many people to Kidd Chris? He has listeners all over the country who listen in on the stream. I know that for me it's simply like hanging out with old friends as well as the songs, calls, graffiti, and bits. What are some of the major appeals of the show to you?

Yeti: I mainly like the format in which he conducts the show. There are really no ground rules for what listeners can call up and say. If they hate something going on they will get through to voice that opinion. Also, being that people in the philly area are notorious for being pricks, I think having a raunchy and sophomoric type show appeals to them.

Dave: You've made some great prank phone calls in your time on the Kidd Chris show with one of the greatest ones being last week to the shopping show. For those of us who don't have the talent to pull off prank calls that Chris, Thomas, Egg Nog, East Coast Bob, you, and some of the other regular cream teamers do. Give me a bit of a rundown on how Cream-teaming works. In addition, do you pull that stuff off the top of your head or do you have a plan in place for what you're going to ask? The rim job and black helmet lines were among the best lines of any prank calls I've heard in years and I simply cannot believe that the host of that show fell for it. I'm so glad that Chris has played it a few times because the first couple of times I heard it, I lost it and missed part of the call.

Yeti: : Usually Thomas will IM me and say that they are gonna do some cream team calls. A lot of the time I am at work so I have to try to do them quickly. I try to come up with something clever on each of them because it gets a little repetitive just calling up and doing the same basic pranks. The rimjob idea came to me about a week prior at my dart league. I was discussing something about a prank call and a carwash and my friend mentioned rimjobs and right then I knew I had a gold call. I was really caught offguard that she didn't understand the prank. I didn't know how long i could string her along and there is a part of that call that you don't get to hear because she had my volume turned down. After she said that she didn't have Darth Vader's helmet, I said "I really love black helmets" but all you hear is "ove black .

Dave: It was god damned gold that was for sure.

Dave: Did you ever call into Stern?
Yeti: I did call Howard when Chris was in studio and I got on to ask Howard to ask Chris about shitting in his hand while fucking a black chick and about his midget story. Chris was like "oh god i know this guy".

Dave: I'd have loved to have seen the Howard TV episode of that one since I'm sure that Chris squirmed a bit.

Dave: Before you met your lovely girlfriend Shelley, did saying you were "Yeti from the Kidd Chris show" really make women desire the squid so to speak?

Yeti: Hahahhahahha, I never used that line on any of the chicks I messed around with. They were all in the underbelly so they already knew I was Yeti and they knew they were in store for some level 10 action.

Dave: Yet again, Gold!!!!!

Dave: Are the guys on the show really as cool as they seem to be on the radio?

Yeti: I've hung out with almost all of them outside of show events and they all seem like normal guys. There are no real jekyll and hydes that I am aware of. As for Chris, he has that xenophobic trait so I never got to be alone with him. Perhaps one day he'll invite me over for dinner.

And a Kidd Chris Classic for a final question
Dave: So Yeti, umm do you have any questions for me?

Yeti: : Hahahha yes. How big is your cock?

Dave: : Hahahaha big enough to have done the job . How's that for an answer?

Well there you have it. An Interview with a man who's not only a Level 10 Underbelly, but a comedic genius as well. On a personal note, if I make it up to Philly for the Birthday show, I'll buy Yeti and Shelley's first couple of rounds. Thanks for agreeing to the interview Yeti.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeti also enjoys having to take a shit twice in one day.

Anonymous said...

who is sulu?