Just Show Up
It was a beautiful early October Saturday afternoon when I sat down with Charli new on the turf outside of our Hyde Park Shop. There was a pleasant breeze in the air and a six pack of chilly brews in a bucket. What more could you want?
I’ll tell you what more! A witty, insightful, and beautifully heartfelt discussion with someone who I am now determined to become close good lifelong friends with. Read the transcript of the rollicking conversation I had with them and I am certain that you too will want to be chummy with Charli.
We’ve got three Summer athletes and I’m interviewing all three of you separately, so I’ve been trying to pick a theme to frame each of the interviews. Instead of imposing a theme on you, I thought I might ask if you had an idea of how best to frame a discussion about you and fitness and god-knows what else we might get into.
If you were going to pick a theme, I have a long history with food- being a foodie. That is something that very few people know about me.
I think that is a great place to start. In fact Robert, your co-Manor athlete also described himself as a foodie. He actually showed up to our interview with homemade crackers! I’m not sure if he was trying to bribe me so that I make him come off better in the interview transcript, but they were delicious.
Wow! That is badass.
I always like to have a little biography. So let’s talk about Charli New, where you came from and how you got here, through the lens of food.
Okay. I was born and raised in Edmond Oklahoma; this suburb off of OKC that no one would ever need to stop at or drive through. It is not my personal favorite place for a myriad of reasons. I lived there until I went to college at OU. I went there for film which I had very lofty goals for.
To be the next Wes Anderson?
Oh I was one of those kids that going into college I had my hobbies and passions and wasn’t very practical so I just thought I’d turn that into my career. And my parents were the opposite of many parents and impressed on me that I should do what I want and not worry about money. So I went into film… at the University of Oklahoma. Fucking terrible idea. I thought I’d be an editor- that was what I was really into. So I graduated right when the economy crashed and I had a brilliant idea: I’ll move to Los Angeles in the middle of all of this. A great idea- I’ll take all the money that I’ve saved and I will move to California with my best friend and we will work in the film industry… which is exactly what did not happen. We were unpaid interns the whole year.
Good on you for sacking up and trying!
Yeah, I lived in a youth hostel for like three months in a bunk bed. I would walk around with my resume from place to place just trying to get a job. It is impressively hard to get a job in Los Angeles because everyone is so hot that they will hire you based on your looks- places would ask for a headshot just to get hired as a waiter-
I have to interject because I had a similar life course, but I moved to Chicago to pursue acting. I ended up getting a fair amount of roles as a leading man type based on how I looked. People would ask, have you thought about going out to LA? I was like, “I’m not getting these roles in California- I’m getting cast as the chubby best friend”. “Midwest hot” as a qualifier is a real thing.
That is amazing- I could go on an entire rant about that. So, that didn’t last too long because I ran out of money. Like a Lifetime movie, on the day my mom came to pick me up, because I had to have her come out, I had just enough money to pick her up at the airport, but I didn’t have enough money to buy gas to get back so I had to ask her to buy. So I came back and ended up getting a job at a cheese shop- this is where the food part comes in to play- and I was pretty aimless at this point. So I was back in Oklahoma and I just fell in love with cheese and just nerded out on it really hard. I jumped ship from that cheese shop to work at Whole Foods and I have worked at Whole Foods for ten years! I applied to get this certification that doesn’t have a sexy name like “sommelier”, it is just “Certified Cheese Professional”, but I studied like crazy- it was the hardest test I’d ever taking in my life-
So “piece of cake” means easy and “piece of cheese” means difficult.
Exactly. At the time I was one of only three people in Texas who had the certification. From that point on I just kept climbing that Whole Foods ladder. Right around the time that I decided I didn’t want to work in retail, a job opened up at the corporate office and I got it. It is going to sound like the most obnoxiously long title, because it is: The Exclusive Brands Category Merchant for Salty Snacks, Candy, and Dips-
WHAT? That is pretty fucking prestigious.
Long story short, what that means is I get to launch new products in those categories and I work with different suppliers and manufacturers throughout the country to come up with crazy concepts and bring them to shelf. I feel very lucky- I stumbled out of my unused college degree and was sure I’d become an insurance salesman or something but I stumbled into something else that I really love. It is a little bit of creativity, a little bit of food science, and some business vernacular. I get to make some weird foods; if you find smokey cheddar and maple caramel popcorn on the shelf at Whole Foods it is me.
So you are really giving back to the community?
*laughing* I’m trying! Needless to say, my job requires me to eat so much food- bringing it full circle- that I have to workout all the time!
That is perfect! I was going to push you into a segue and you just preempted it! I was curious if there is a linear connection between being someone who is a foodie and someone who is super regular at a gym?
Yes. I had always wanted to be a very fit person. That has come and gone to different degrees, mostly because I have focused on becoming “fit” and less on finding fitness I enjoyed. When I started my job in the office-
Your full job title one more time for the readers?
The *pauses*- see even I stumble over it! The Exclusive Brands Category Merchant For Salty Snacks, Candy, and Dips. So I started in the office and I went from walking like 15,000 steps a day and hardly taking a break to eat to sitting at a desk and being paid to eat an inordinate amount of food. It just was not sustainable. For a blip, I was the most unhealthy I had ever been. I made jokes about letting myself get to rock bottom and then once I got there I am going to climb right back out.
That is bold!
And that is what I did actually! The thing that brought me (to The Shop) was I had these lifelong fantasies of becoming this extremely strong person, but I was daunted by the idea of going to a “Crossfit Gym” because I thought- I don’t know how to say this without sounding like an asshole-
Go ahead and be an asshole. If it is too much I’ll sand off the edges in the transcript.
I’ll just say what I mean then; I was afraid of being around a large amount of “bros”- mean bros. People who are judging me-
Charli, I’m going to stop you right there, that isn’t be an asshole that is being a realist.
And how do I say this? From what I can tell (those gyms) aren’t super welcoming of people who are outside the norm of what fits for that brand. I don’t see a lot of “LGBTQ? Come on in!”. On top of that, if you have let yourself get as unhealthy as you can, you are not particularly excited to work out next to someone who is like 6’2″ and can like lift his feet over his head 25 times while hanging- I couldn’t even just hang.
But side note and detour- you can now do a pull-up right?
I can! Yes and a lot of other things actually! So my sister came (to The Shop) and this was the first time in her life that she ever found exercise she liked and kept up with it. She was so in love with it that she told me to come and said I would love it. So I signed up and met with John-
How long did that tour take by the way?
It was a minute! *laughing* but he sold me- I was in.
I bust his chops, but he is fucking good.
I was like, I immediately trust you for some reason. He asked me what my goal was and I remember exactly what I told him. I said, “I want to get freaky strong”. And he told me he had a plan for me. So I was in the midst of being the least healthy I had ever been. I had never found a way to exercise that I liked. I was kind of blown away by the experience I had here.
Did you have any particular moments that stood out?
Oh, so many! It is hard to say if there was a moment per se, but it is more of a vibe. So I told you that I was from a shit town in Oklahoma right?
Sorry Edmond!
Oh, you can put that in the transcript! You can always tell, without words being exchanged, when you are welcome and normalized- when you can walk into a room and there is nothing unusual about your presence here and when there is. Sometimes you just have to push through that and declare that you are allowed to be somewhere. Right away walking into (The Shop) I was prepared to have to do that, but from day one I was like “Holy shit!”. I had found the gym where all kinds of people get to work out together and be really kind to one another. There are varying degrees of all sorts of things- people being in the most amazing shape and people who are on the beginning of their fitness journey, there are Black people here and White people here, there are people with accents, there are so many gay people here, varying degrees of gender nonconformity. I was shocked. I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked because we live in Austin.
The gym ecosystem is different. There is more of a martial feel to it.
One hundred percent. So once I had that experience I was like, “might as well sign my name in blood- I’m in”. The other piece that clicked for me was the coaches. I did not know the value of having people speak to you in a way that was encouraging but also helping you improve.
Constructive, but not critical?
Yes, because you walk into a place and you think you are going to be the only asshole who can’t do a power clean or something like that.
We’ve got lots of assholes who can’t do power cleans!
Instead it feels completely different than that. As cheesy as it sounds it feels very engaging and loving in a way, which is a rare currency right now. This place is like heaven to me. I look forward to coming here every day and I used to dread exercise; it was a thing I had to do. But now this is my hobby. I can confidently say that as long as I live in Austin, I will be a member indefinitely-
Well that is legally binding now that I have it on tape. That is great to hear! So I alluded to the fact that you can now do a pull-up and I think that is a tremendous accomplishment any time someone gets their first pull-up.
I had convinced myself that it was physically impossible for me to do- that it was a hallmark characteristic of the fittest people. Like only super fit people can do a pull-up, that I’d never be able to do a pull-up.
How did you get to this point? To what do you ascribe your considerable success at The Shop?
That is a good one. So, without sounding like a self help book, because maybe this is particular to me, but I used to be a person who was so obsessed with doing the very best at everything and if you can’t do it right then don’t bother. You could call it perfectionism, but I don’t think that is what it is. It stopped me from doing a lot of things and made me push myself too hard. It made it challenging to be consistent when you expect yourself to be at 200% every time, when you aren’t, you berate yourself and then you quit. I had done this to myself so many times through my journey in fitness that I just decided that I would just show up every time. That was it. That was my expectation for myself; that if I did the shittiest workout it didn’t matter just as long as I showed up. I have maintained that mantra the whole time. I tried to commit to five classes and that is what I did-
Five classes a week right from the jump? That is impressive.
Yeah and then to my shock that worked! I thought you had to be dialed in all the time to get results, but once I started to see that just showing up was the key- that changed everything for me. It also made it fun! When you can just say “I’m just going to work out with my friends and have a good time”.
How about that initial goal of “becoming freaky strong”. Do you feel like you’ve gotten there?
Not yet, but I do feel stronger than I’ve ever been and for the first time ever I know that I will be freaky strong. I am 100% certain that if you talk to me this time next year October 3rd 2021, I bet you I will be mother fucking strong.
Mother fucking strong is even stronger than freaky strong-
When I was a kid I was obsessed with American Gladiators. I wanted to be an American Gladiator which seemed unattainable. I don’t know that I’ll do that, but I do have high aspirations for myself. Like- I’m just going to put this out there- I would like my bench press max by the end of next year to be something in the range of 150-160lbs. I’m at like 110lbs now. Prior to starting here I had never done a full proper push-up, so going from that to being able to bench press 150lbs is an outrageous amount of (growth) in two years.
It isn’t outrageous, but it is impressive. That level of commitment to showing up is why it isn’t outrageous.
Once I have accomplished that, I will print myself a t-shirt that says “I’m freaky strong”.
I love that. Okay, so I want to hop in to some random questions. The first one I want to ask you, as a film person, is to think of a biopic being made of Charli the freaky strong person and think about either who would play you in the film, who would direct the film, and what genre the film would be. You can answer any of those elements you like.
Oh this is hard. P.T. Anderson is one of my faves, but I can’t see him directing the film of my life so I am going to think about that one. The genre wouldn’t make it to most theaters- it would be like at The Violet Crown or something. So there is this movie with Cate Blanchett called “Carol” that is really good. Todd Haynes is the director, so I’ll go with that.
Alright, so let’s imagine that you are an American Gladiator, what is your name and what is your gimmick?
I have so many nicknames- oh, well it is Carlitos! *dear readers, I am blushing at this point because that is my nickname for Charli* So my shtick would be that I’d be able to lift those extremely large and heavy wheels of cheese. People would be shocked at how heavy some of those wheels are! But man, that movie question is a tough one. Maybe this shouldn’t be in the transcript, but when you are in the LGBTQ community, you have very little representation of your options (of actors who could play you); if you grew up in the eighties you have almost none. So what you do is pluck from bits of people. As your world expands, you realize it was not the fit. If you aren’t in that community, it is presented to you in the very beginning of your life- that you can be any of those things.
There weren’t any androgynous Gladiators-
Not at all! So you reinvent yourself many times until you finally find who you really are. And we’re living in a world where that is possible now.
I really like that. Pending your approval, most of that is probably actually going to go in the transcript. I’m not talking much because I’m really fascinated by your perspective. I don’t know much about your musical tastes, but another question I ask people is if you were to give yourself a theme song that played when you walked into a room, what would it be?
*laughing* This is one of my favorite questions! My answer is, not for the lyrics but for the vibe, there is a Martin Gaye song called “Got to Give it Up”.
That is a good one! One I always ask people during an election year is if you were to nominate someone from the DBS community to be POTUS, who would it be?
It might be Beth- Canadian Beth.
You are not the first person to answer that; Beth has received some well deserved traction there.
I think she is tough but has this unusually perfect balance of being able to take a lot and knows what she believes in but is also very warm. She feels extremely sincere- that she cares about everyone who crosses her path. And you would be the Vice President.
Really? I would be honored to be her VEEP.
The only reason I wouldn’t pick you for president is I don’t think you’d like it as much-
And if we’re being real, I probably have way more skeletons in my closet than Beth. There was a moment leading up to the shutdown in March when we knew the virus was coming and Beth told us during a manager meeting that she was actively chiding members for not washing their hands. And I told her Beth, you can pull that off- not all of us are capable of telling another grown human to wash their hands. Now, I think it is normal-
Yeah, at the time I think someone would think that was really aggressive.
But yeah, of course she said that and it worked. She’s Beth. So one more random question! When I interviewed Erika Bsumek earlier in the week she amended my classic question which is: if you could have dinner or spend the evening with one person from history, who would it be? She suggested that I change it to “if you could work out for an hour with one person in history who would it be?”. I absolutely love the tweak, so that is what I am asking you.
So I have my dinner party already planned out-
Well let’s go with that answer then!
I do want to answer your question! Okay, honestly- Rupaul. I want to work out with Rupaul. That person has been an extraordinary influence on me in a way that is odd for someone I don’t know. I’m not the only one, but I think there is something profound about Rupaul in that they carved their own way decades ago. It was probably absolutely terrifying but now they have this career and legacy as a consequence of that and have impacted so many people’s lives.
And I bet Rupaul could sling some weight around too!
Oh I’m sure! Rupaul has to exercise because they are like un-aging.
That is very cool. The last thing that I tie things up with is any thoughts you’d like to share or reflections? I do these interviews as late as possible in the athlete’s term because I want them to have that time to think about it. Any decrees or words of wisdom?
I don’t have any words of wisdom, I have a lot of appreciations. First of all, I thought it was a mistake or typo when I received that message (that they were Athlete of the Season). When it was clear you weren’t fucking with me I was like HOLY SHIT. It is an appreciation for the entire group of people who work out here and run this place. In the current state of affairs, without being too gloom and doom, this is a rare microcosm of culture that doesn’t exist often; where people are extremely kind to each other and I think that is super special. So I guess I would say thank you to everyone who works out here.
I love that you led with the members- the people who work out here. That is what it is all about.
So many people who work out here- just the simple act of introducing themselves. Okay, so there is this guy and I don’t even know his name, but I will tell him thank you some time… I remember my first partner workout and I was horrified when John laid it out because I was like “I am absolutely going to ruin this person’s hour” because it was a speed game where you have to do something as fast as you can to alleviate what your partner is going through, so I am about to put this person through hell. I felt like when you pick teammates and I would be the last person you would want- this was in the early days for me. And this guy, the whole time- every time I finished a set, he told me what a great job I did and had a smile on his face the entire time. And we finished first! I don’t know how we did it because I didn’t cheat! That kind of shit goes so far now. Always really, but particularly now. The fact that I still think about that is meaningful.
I want to know who this is! The next time you see him point him out.
I absolutely will!
I think that is a lovely note to end on.
