Puppets, Pastors & Secret Agents: The Moth Radio Hour
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What does the host introduce at the start of the episode?
This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Meg Bowles, and in this show, we take to the stage at America's Got Talent, go on a mission with a former CIA operative, and stand with a clergy member as he prepares for one of the hardest eulogies of his career. Our first story comes from Brentley Hilbrin. He told it in Austin, Texas, where we partnered with the Paramount Theater. Here's Brentley, live at the Moth.
About a year before I was born, my infant brother Brian passed away of what they used to call crib death. And in the Jewish religion, you often take the first letter of the dead person's name, so I was named after him. And I always felt like I had two lives to live. I put this enormous pressure on myself to succeed because to fail meant I failed not just for one life, but for two.
How did Brentley Heilbron turn a Facebook joke into the emo‑puppet band Fragile Rock?
And in spite of my best intentions, failure just seemed to follow me around. I failed at so many first dates. I wasn't particularly great in school, and then I pursued a career in acting, which is just a series of failures. And I got married in my early 20s, and when my marriage ended up failing, I was at the lowest point I had ever been at. I felt I let down my wife and my kids and the big brother that I never knew. Now, I'm a classic sensitive artist type, so I really tried to write appropriately mopey songs to meet the moment, but my sarcasm always got in the way. And so one day it just manifested itself as a Facebook post that simply said, I'm going to start an emo puppet band called Fragile Rock.
Within minutes, I started getting notification after notification, people wanted in. Now keep in mind, this project did not exist, but here were respected people in the Austin creative community that wanted to be a part of it. And the first person to respond was a guitarist that said, I'll be in that band. And then within the comments, the band fleshes out with bass and drums and an old friend volunteered to make puppets. And then by the end of the post, I was in fact in an emo puppet band called Fragile Rock. So I started to research, like what do these characters look like? And we came up with the like tortured lead singer Milo S with the bangs and the eyeliner and the good natured guitarist that's always auditioning and the Kim Gordon inspired cool of the bassist.
And we made a video for a song called I Am Sad and So Am I. and started playing around town and getting some notoriety, and soon we were asked to play at South by Southwest. Right before the festival, some nerdcore sites like Nerdist and Boing Boing started picking up stories about us, and buzz began to grow, and even NPR ran a piece about us, and that led NPR's Bob Boylan to come to our show and offer us a Tiny Desk concert on the spot. A tiny desk concert for an emo puppet band. And it hit me. Is this what I'm gonna be known for? Like, all those years of serious works produced nothing? Like, I can't be known for my searing portrayal of Laertes in Hamlet or like a pretentious one-person show where I play Lenny Bruce meeting Salvador Dali in heaven?
No. An emo puppet band was the thing. And I felt like I was failing at success. Not long after, I got a message on Facebook that said, Hey, Brintley, I'm a senior producer at America's Got Talent, and we would love Fragile Rock to audition for us. And I'm like, We have performed in front of 100 to 300 people, but this is freaking ABC, and they have 10 million viewers per season. I mean, this is the thing that's going to put us on the national map. There's one catch. We had to mask everything but the puppets, and that's not what we did. It's a very strings and all kind of project. Fragile Rock, you see the band, you see the puppets, the puppeteers, you know, it's very Brechtian, which is my attempt at pretension creeping out again.
But we figure, what's a little change when TV comes a-callin'? So we figured it out, and then we load up in a van, we head to Dallas for the audition, and they have us at the Fairmont Hotel, which is pretty posh. And when you audition for one of these shows, they put you in this room with like every kind of auditioning act imaginable.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does the host introduce at the start of the episode?
0:12–1:13
2
How did Brentley Heilbron turn a Facebook joke into the emo‑puppet band Fragile Rock?
1:13–8:52
3
What happened when Fragile Rock auditioned for America’s Got Talent?
8:52–14:36
4
Why did the AG‑TV performance end in a buzzer and how did the band react?
14:36–18:05
5
What was Jonna Mendez’s role as the CIA’s Chief of Disguise and why did she become visible?
18:05–19:12
6
How did the band reinterpret the judges’ criticism and keep the project alive?
19:12–27:55
7
How did a covert hotel‑lobby operation with a disguised terrorist unfold?
27:55–49:38
8
How does Esau McCauley confront his family name while delivering his father’s eulogy?
49:38–50:10