Hi Thrillsbury! I wanted to let you know that I like your work, your personality, the wholeeee Daniel. When I was young, I wanted to be a writer (Like you!). Several years later, I'm training for the 2020 Olympics in Fencing (Unlike you! Probably?) I don't

Thanks for the kind words and good luck in fencing! Really actually murder your opponent. I’m not sure if that’s how fencing works, but 2020 is a ways away and there’s plenty of time to change the rules to make what I said true.

There was an Olympic runner when I was growing up named Daniel O’Brien. I wasn’t named after him or anything, but I was a runner. In 1992, there was another American runner named Dave (Johnson) and Reebok did a whole campaign called “The Dan and Dave Show,” to get people amped about these two athletes. They were competitive and everyone was like “Who’s gonna win it? Dan or Dave, tune in, it’s the Dan and Dave show, buy Reebok.” My brother’s name was David, and this made my Dad (an athlete himself) absolutely flip his god damned mind, like “We gotta do something about this coincidence!”

This was maybe when I was in second grade. My Dad brought my brother and I to a local, high school track and filmed us competing in a little mini decathlon. Like he made a little shot-put ball out of tinfoil and would worldlessly film us taking turns competing. I want to be clear: this was not an enjoyable experience for my brother and I. Take after take of us sprinting and pretending to be good at shot put. And it was fake, by the way, it was staged for me (Daniel) to win. He was just so fucking hyped filming these little things for his own The Dan and Dave show, and we did what we were told because we were children, and that’s the kind of thing that children used to do.

Here’s where it continues to be weird. YouTube obviously didn’t exist, and even if it did, this was neither funny nor impressive. It wasn’t even cute. It wasn’t a sketch, it wasn’t part of a family vacation. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen the footage, and he didn’t show it to buddies or relatives. No one knew why my father wanted to do this. We asked him dozens of times and he would just say “Dan and Dave show. The Dan and Dave show. Like the Olympics, Dan, Dave. Dan and Dave.” Which, sure, that was the connection that we ALSO made, like we understood that the names were similar, but we never made the jump to “We should film this for [something something],” a conclusion that to him was very obvious. And not to give notes on a twenty-year-old short film, but the fact that our real names were Daniel and David would not make the video-watching experience better for viewers who don’t know that. It will, to most viewers, be a video of two shitty children being bad at the same sports.

He maintains his same stance today whenever I bring it up. I’ll mention it and ask him about it and he’ll explain that there were two Olympians named Daniel and Dave, and OUR names were Daniel and Dave, and then extend his hands in a “I don’t think I need to say more” sort of way. Remember when Roy builds that mashed potato structure in Close Encounters because it’s in his head, and it’s obvious and if he just shows it to people they would understand? That always makes me think of the Dan and Dave show we made, like something in my Dad’s head would be so clear to everyone else if we watched this thing. I’m sure there’s also a part of my Dad that thought this early coincidence would inspire me to one day be a star athlete (I think all dads for some period of time want their children to grow up to be famous athletes, it’s just one of those things), but the lesson I took from it surrounded the “make weird videos” part instead of the sports part (he’s also fine with that, by the way).

So anyway, Daniel O’Brien the Olympian influenced and continues to influence my life in a number of odd and interesting ways. And now I’M a Daniel O’Brien who influenced a guy who wanted to be a comedy writer but is now an Olympian instead. And it’s twenty years later and I’m mumbling “Olympic Daniel O’Brien. Comedy writer Daniel O’Brien. ‘Comedy Writer TheFencerX’ decided to become ‘Olympic Athlete TheFencerX’ instead” over and over again, looking for some kind of connection, because I am my father’s son.

THAT’S RIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS I TOOK THIS POST FOR A SHARP LEFT TURN DOWN “THIS IS A POIGNANT STORY ABOUT FATHERS AND SONS AVENUE.”