For the 8 years we’ve been making this show and watching it grow from 2J2BD to 2J3BD, it’s always existed behind the closed doors of the studio. Of course we would have interactions, which made it real: the girl who ran up on Styles in Whole Foods, or the people who stopped Jada in the gym. Sheek’s neighbors, seemingly the only people he talks to. Eric and I talk to people every day who see us out in the wild and love the show, but being that they’re just one or two people at a time, we couldn’t grasp the depth of the community. Not until last Friday when we did our first live show.
An outdoor conversation in the South Bronx on a chilly Friday night, talking about a movie from 26 years ago, without a subway nearby and no guarantee of getting in. A lot of people would not come through for that.
But last Friday, 600 of you did, spilling into the overflow room, raising 480 cans of Uptown Paco’s Pumpkleta (a real product, somehow!) to the sky. Some of you had a few too many Pumpkletas, tbh! But you bought our merch, you asked to take pictures with us. And we are so deeply appreciative.
In August, I cold emailed a local medium-sized brewery trying to explain the idea of Pumpkleta: during a game show, it was asked how to say pumpkin in Spanish. Sheek confidently said “Pumpkleta!” which, wrong, and it wasn’t his turn anyway. Somehow from that Eric created a character, Uptown Paco, and that led to a commercial for Uptown Paco’s Pumpkleta pumpkin ale, and wouldn’t it be great to like, make it a real product?
I didn’t get a response, even after a couple of follow-ups. As I type it out, I see why.
But on Labor Day, I hit up the “biggest brewery in Westchester,” Captain Lawrence. Maybe we’d have better luck there. But again, nothing. Not until a few days later, when I got a strange text out of the blue from a cool guy I knew in passing from his days running the streetwear label Perico LTD.
“Jeff! Hoping this is still your number. It’s Jose of the Bronx Brewery / Captain Lawrence. We got your email regarding Pumpkleta 😆 — let me know when you want to chat.”
Apparently, the Bronx Brewery and Captain Lawrence recently merged, and this guy Jose was now their creative director. Who knew! Probably Jose.
We met up that day, spending an hour in the large, bright, green and honestly fun backyard of the space. He and his coworker Taylor said there was a small window to make this whole thing happen — it was Friday, we had until Tuesday to finalize our shit. All alcoholic beverages need to be approved by the state, even joke beers. I designed a label, with some saucy pumpkins and a bevy of full-figured women because Uncle Paco’s product has to be full-bodied. The man spends his time on catamarans, wearing white linens — he lives a sexy life! (The board removed the words “full-bodied,” but the spirit and silhouettes remain.)
(The Pumpkleta hoodie goes hard, too.)
And then we worked hard to make the live experience special, devising ways to bring what works so well in a studio to life. I don’t want to spoil too much — the episode will be coming out next week — but because it’s already going viral, doing “Is Jadakiss Italian?” as a group experience was magical. We were so shocked to have everyone singing along to the jingle, we ran it back three times. That the segment — from A Bronx Tale, with all three of the guys reading parts — went off so well…it was awesome to have you all part of it.
People have been sending us pictures of them enjoying Pumpkletas at home — watching football, in their backyard and while watching our show. Muy delicioso! Hopefully we can keep expanding the Pumpkleta universe, maybe make it a national campaign.
My favorite text afterwards was from Sheek:
I can’t wait for the next event — we’re looking to do another one in mid-to-late December, we’re checking everyone’s calendars. And I believe it’ll be in Brooklyn. Details to come soon.
Also: there’ll be a pop-up at Styles’ dispensary in Harlem in the coming days, not weeks. More details in the next edition of the newsletter!
Also-also: is anyone going on the Rock the Bells cruise (Oct. 27-31)? The LOX will be on there…
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s a entirely brand new episode to get excited about! We’re talking about Weapons, the 2025 horror-adjacent #1 film suggested by FresshDaily from the Bronx!
A classroom of schoolchildren disappear under mysterious circumstances. Was it the teacher? Was it the one classmate who got picked on, who remained behind? Was it something else? If you haven’t seen it, check it out on YouTube for rental or wait until it hits HBO Max later this year.
Here’s our full episode — make sure to turn your YouTube notifications on:
Next week, we’re posting our live video from the Bronx Brewery — where we watched There’s Something About Mary (available on Hulu and Fubo — for free). And then we’re back to horror movies to close out October with my pick, The Sixth Sense (on Hulu, HBO and - again - Fubo).
As always, you can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram, TikTok and right here, for our weekly newsletter.
Feel free to suggest movies for us to review here! People hit us every day for us to review movies, and the only way for them not to be lost is in the Google form, linked right there.
See you next week!