BONUS: Finding Mr. Christmas: Episode 7 Reactions! (Feat. Alonso Duralde & Dave White)

[00:00:04] Hi everybody, it's Alonso Duralde and Dave White here with more of the Deck The Hallmark recap of Hallmark Plus' Finding Mr. Christmas. We're up to Episode 7, The Christmas Waltz. It's the final four.

[00:00:19] This is very exciting.

[00:00:24] Who will become Mr. Christmas?

[00:00:27] I don't care.

[00:00:28] Yeah, you do, because you're the one who's got a recap, or you've got a review.

[00:00:34] I would like to ask you a question.

[00:00:35] Happy Holidays with Deck The Hallmark.

[00:00:37] I have a question for you.

[00:00:37] Shoot.

[00:00:38] Why do you think it matters to me who stars in the films with the doggies?

[00:00:42] I never remember the people.

[00:00:44] That's fair.

[00:00:45] They don't matter.

[00:00:46] I'm not saying that these guys on this show don't matter.

[00:00:48] I'm saying that the Hallmark movies don't matter.

[00:00:51] And that this particular one that I'm going to be watching, I chose because it has little doggies in it.

[00:00:59] Okay, now you have like nicknames for all the Hallmark people that aren't their actual names.

[00:01:04] Don't you go outing me about this.

[00:01:05] No, but what will the winner of this show be known as forever?

[00:01:09] I don't know.

[00:01:10] Okay.

[00:01:10] I haven't decided yet.

[00:01:11] Okay.

[00:01:12] Depends on who wins, I guess.

[00:01:14] So we're down to Elijah.

[00:01:16] If you were watching this and you've been in a Hallmark movie, we aren't talking about you.

[00:01:21] No.

[00:01:22] No.

[00:01:22] No.

[00:01:23] The other ones.

[00:01:24] I'm very respectful all the time.

[00:01:27] At home and in public.

[00:01:29] These aren't disparaging nicknames necessarily.

[00:01:32] They're just-

[00:01:33] A couple of them are.

[00:01:34] Okay.

[00:01:34] Yeah.

[00:01:35] Anyway, so we're down to Elijah, Hayden, Ezra, and Blake.

[00:01:41] Yes.

[00:01:42] So first is the little artsy crafty competition where they are in teams of two and two of them

[00:01:51] have to put blindfolds on and then the other two guide them to find all the pieces of their

[00:01:56] styrofoam snowman to put together.

[00:01:59] This eats up a good chunk of program time without being particularly interesting.

[00:02:05] There's nothing interesting about it.

[00:02:07] Yeah.

[00:02:08] There's-

[00:02:09] But in real life, this does not happen.

[00:02:14] No.

[00:02:15] And so-

[00:02:17] But it's about, you know, how do you take direction, which is important for an actor to know.

[00:02:24] Okay.

[00:02:25] Yes, that's true.

[00:02:26] It is important for an actor to know how to take direction, but they will never be asked

[00:02:31] on set by a director to decorate a snowman blindfolded.

[00:02:37] You don't know.

[00:02:38] Direction on a film set or television set is about movement and, you know, emotion and,

[00:02:46] you know, human things.

[00:02:48] Well, look, I would not put it past Hallmark to make a movie where somebody has to assemble

[00:02:53] a snowman while blinds.

[00:02:55] I'm saying that that might actually have to happen in a Hallmark movie.

[00:02:58] Fair enough.

[00:02:58] Because there's always like, what was the thing?

[00:03:01] A strudel competition?

[00:03:03] A strudel fest.

[00:03:04] A strudel festival.

[00:03:05] Like you have to put one of those on.

[00:03:08] But here's the thing.

[00:03:09] The actors are not actually doing any of it.

[00:03:12] This is true.

[00:03:13] It's acting.

[00:03:14] You see.

[00:03:14] They could probably even actually see what's going on, even with their blindfold on.

[00:03:18] Right.

[00:03:19] Anyway, so that part passes through and then we get to the meat of this episode, which

[00:03:24] is dancing a waltz to Oh Holy Night, which they will be called upon to do in almost any

[00:03:33] Hallmark movie that they happen to be in.

[00:03:35] Someone always has to waltz to a Christmas Carol at the end of a movie.

[00:03:39] I've seen enough of a little clips while he's watching them to know that people have to do

[00:03:47] a little waltzy dance to something completely inappropriate that again, in real life would

[00:03:52] never happen.

[00:03:53] Somebody I know who worked on one of these movies was so thrilled that Hallmark let them

[00:03:57] use the Christmas waltz so that the people didn't have to waltz to Silent Night or whatever.

[00:04:04] But yeah, shockingly, they don't make them waltz to a sacred carol of yore instead.

[00:04:11] It's a jazzy thing.

[00:04:13] Yeah.

[00:04:13] So they all get to do the ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah kind of moves.

[00:04:16] Hubba, hubba Christmas on a Saturday night.

[00:04:18] Hubba, hubba, the same with the song is hubba, hubba Christmas on a Saturday night.

[00:04:24] And a lady from Dancing with the Stars, did you write her name down?

[00:04:29] No.

[00:04:31] She's an Emmy-winning choreographer according to-

[00:04:33] Oh, she has an Emmy?

[00:04:34] According to Jonathan Bailey's introduction, yes.

[00:04:36] Good job.

[00:04:37] Well done.

[00:04:38] Lady from Dancing with the Stars.

[00:04:39] So she comes on and coaches-

[00:04:40] I'm sorry I don't know your name.

[00:04:41] I know.

[00:04:42] I do not saw shoot television.

[00:04:43] She coaches the quartet in this dance, which they all have to do.

[00:04:47] But first, they're all surprised with the appearances of their sisters or, in the case of Elijah, pregnant wives.

[00:04:55] And it's very moving and they're all, you know-

[00:04:57] They're all happy.

[00:04:58] They're all very happy about that.

[00:04:59] I was very happy.

[00:04:59] Then they dance.

[00:05:00] And they dance.

[00:05:01] And nobody bites it.

[00:05:05] Like there are varying degrees of how comfortable and slick they are on the floor, but-

[00:05:10] Blake is not a comfortable person in the dance.

[00:05:13] Fair enough.

[00:05:14] But like he doesn't like really-

[00:05:16] Hayden is a little more comfortable.

[00:05:18] Yeah.

[00:05:19] Ezra is very tall.

[00:05:21] So like he gets away with whatever.

[00:05:24] Elijah is the best dancer.

[00:05:25] Yeah.

[00:05:26] Elijah has a career of being a singer who moves.

[00:05:29] So even though these are different, you know, he says, you know, I'm slow at really learning choreography, but you know, he gets it.

[00:05:35] And he's very, he's very, he's very calm about it after he says, you know, it's in God's hands.

[00:05:40] Like who's really paying attention to the outcome of this show.

[00:05:44] I bet God is busy.

[00:05:47] Maybe.

[00:05:48] Well, but.

[00:05:48] Doing something else besides thinking about who's going to win finding Mr. Christmas.

[00:05:54] Melissa Peterson makes a point about Ezra that's actually true, which is that he's a lot looser-limbed than you would imagine for a tall guy.

[00:06:03] Sure.

[00:06:03] You know, he's, he, he has kind of a dexterity on the floor that kind of brings to mind when you watch like old clips of like when Buddy Ebsen was a dancer.

[00:06:13] You know, he was the original Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz before the makeup got.

[00:06:16] If you're watching this right now, you need to understand who Buddy Ebsen was.

[00:06:20] He tap danced with Shirley Temple.

[00:06:23] Yes.

[00:06:23] In films of the 1930s.

[00:06:24] He was supposed to be the Tin Man of The Wizard of Oz, but he was allergic to the makeup.

[00:06:27] So then he became.

[00:06:29] Jed Clampett.

[00:06:30] Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies.

[00:06:31] And then Barnaby Jones.

[00:06:32] And then he became Barnaby Jones on television of the 1970s.

[00:06:35] Yes.

[00:06:36] So anyway.

[00:06:37] So now you know.

[00:06:37] I'm getting, I'm getting a little bit of.

[00:06:39] But it also throws out cultural references that are most, most likely, most usually known by people of the greatest generation.

[00:06:52] Anyway, it's a compliment, Ezra.

[00:06:55] Yeah.

[00:06:56] Um, and, and, you know, you, you, you pointed out and it's absolutely true.

[00:07:01] Like if, if you were looking at, if you weren't listening to these guys talk or watching them dance or watching them act and you just saw their stills, their headshots.

[00:07:09] But like Ezra has that.

[00:07:11] He looks like a guy.

[00:07:13] He looks like a guy.

[00:07:13] Handsome Hallmark guy thing going on.

[00:07:15] Yeah.

[00:07:16] Uh, but we're pretty sure we're going to double down on predicting.

[00:07:21] We think Elijah.

[00:07:21] Elijah's going to win this thing.

[00:07:24] Elijah.

[00:07:24] Elijah.

[00:07:25] Do a little.

[00:07:26] Elijah.

[00:07:27] Yes.

[00:07:27] Should.

[00:07:28] Yes.

[00:07:28] Win.

[00:07:40] If he doesn't.

[00:07:41] Therefore, is the one to be.

[00:07:43] If Elijah doesn't win, obviously he's got lots of other opportunities before him.

[00:07:48] And, um, you know, the other guys I think could all maybe get an acting coach and, you know, develop what they've already got.

[00:07:56] Cause they've all.

[00:07:56] You can learn what you don't already have.

[00:07:58] They're all bringing something to the table at this point.

[00:08:00] So, you know.

[00:08:01] I'll tell you what I would like no one to bring ever anywhere.

[00:08:04] What's that?

[00:08:05] The shiny jackets.

[00:08:08] Yeah.

[00:08:08] Every, they, obviously wardrobe did this to all of them, but all four of them in the dancing moment had on either like, like shiny suits or a shiny like jacket or a shiny tuxedo kind of jacket.

[00:08:22] Mm-hmm .

[00:08:23] Those kind of clothes are like dazzled camouflage.

[00:08:29] Yes.

[00:08:29] Like you take your face away from, from paying attention to what they're doing and you're actually just sort of looking at the clothes.

[00:08:35] The fabric.

[00:08:35] But the shiny suit is, is a particular, uh, uh, vexation for me because I can't stop staring at the way the light is like bouncing off with.

[00:08:46] It's like when a car is driving in your direction at night and they got those big halogen lights on, but it's like right at your level of your face.

[00:08:55] Uh, because it's an SUV and you're blinded and you can't see anymore and you crash your car and you wind up in the hospital.

[00:09:03] That's what these suits are.

[00:09:04] That's what these suits are.

[00:09:05] I mean, we'll look, we should at least be thankful.

[00:09:07] They didn't go full dancing with the stars, you know, Tina sparkles at the pan Pacifics, like, you know, with the rhinestones and the, and the, that would have been funny though.

[00:09:16] Well, maybe, but yeah, look, these are supposed to just be fancy.

[00:09:19] Fred Astaire never needed that action.

[00:09:21] Go back and look at Danny Kaye in White Christmas.

[00:09:23] When he's dancing with Vera Ellen, he is wearing a gray suit and the, and the shoes are dyed exactly the color of the suit.

[00:09:30] Yeah.

[00:09:30] Like he is not, he just wants you to watch the actual dance.

[00:09:34] And every other time you watch White Christmas, you'll just watch Vera Ellen dance.

[00:09:36] True, yeah.

[00:09:37] Circles around every human being alive in 1954.

[00:09:41] Yeah, no question.

[00:09:42] Um, so that's where we are.

[00:09:44] Uh, we wrap it up with one more episode.

[00:09:46] The final three.

[00:09:47] Oh, we didn't say Blake goes home.

[00:09:49] You said Buddy Epsitt earlier.

[00:09:49] I said Vera Ellen today.

[00:09:51] We are a pair.

[00:09:53] Hello.

[00:09:53] Yeah.

[00:09:54] Uh, welcome to old.

[00:09:56] Um, so yeah, Blake got sent home, but had a very good attitude about it.

[00:10:00] So we are down to Elijah, Hayden and Ezra as our Finding Mr. Christmas finalists.

[00:10:07] Yeah.

[00:10:07] This Thursday, we'll find out and, um, we'll try and get a recap to you, you know, sooner

[00:10:12] than usual.

[00:10:13] Cause obviously everyone's going to be dying to know about our thoughts about the whole process.

[00:10:18] Um, so anyway, thanks for watching and Merry Christmas.

[00:10:22] Bye.

[00:10:29] You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio.

[00:10:35] Thanks for listening or don't listen.

[00:10:37] It's really up to you at this point.

[00:10:39] It's at the end of the show.

[00:10:41] I mean, you're listening to me.

[00:10:42] Hi, but here they come.

[00:10:44] Um, I promise they're coming.

[00:10:45] Yep.

[00:10:46] Here they are.

[00:10:47] Happy day.