Not My Job: Designer Jonathan Adler Gets Quizzed On New Coke

Transcript

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

Now the game where smart people are asked about dumb things. It's called Not My Job. Back when he was a student, Jonathan Adler was told he'd never make it as an artist and he should go be a lawyer or something. But Adler continued to make his pottery, and today his design empire includes 26 stores named for him all over the world. He's the most famous potter now since Harry, and we are delighted to have him with us. Jonathan Adler, welcome to WAIT WAIT DON'T TELL ME.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: For those people who don't know your work, can you describe it in a few words?

JONATHAN ADLER: Yeah, I guess I call my work modern American glamour. And it's about sort of modern design rooted in American optimism and always with a top note of glamour.

SAGAL: Is it true that you were in fact a design student at Rhode Island School of Design - you were taking classes there, and they said give it up, you'll never amount to anything?

ADLER: Totally. I had a very mean pottery teacher. I shouldn't name her on national radio but I'll just...

SAGAL: Name her.

O'ROURKE: Oh, go for it.

SAGAL: Name her.

ADLER: I'll give you - no, I'll just say this. Her name begins with J and ends in Acquelyn Rice.

(LAUGHTER)

ADLER: So any guesses?

SAGAL: What is the point of rising to your position of prominence if you can't be catty?

O'ROURKE: That's right.

SAGAL: Well, go on.

ADLER: I was actually catty before any prominence I may or may not have.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Yeah, so the way I understand the story is you went to New York and you did, in fact, try to take her advice, if you want to call it that. And you tried to work in some non-pottery jobs, and it did not work out.

ADLER: It did not work out, and it's all my fault. I was a terrible employee. I showed up everywhere late. I slept with everybody in the office.

(LAUGHTER)

ADLER: I was surly. And I got fired from about three jobs in a row, and finally, I thought, oh, well. I guess I have no choice but to be a potter. And at the time I - you know, think about a potter. It's like you're stuck in Brattleboro, Vt.

SAGAL: Yes.

ADLER: And typically you're just sort of hocking your wares at a rain-soaked craft fair.

SAGAL: Yes, I've been there.

ADLER: And as an unemployable person, I thought, well, I guess that's how I'm going to roll.

SAGAL: Did you - is that really...

O'ROURKE: How do they even get that horrible blue-brown glaze that all the Potters in Brattleboro - I mean...

ADLER: I think it's mulch man's doing.

SAGAL: Yeah, I know.

O'ROURKE: I think it is, yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So how did you go from there to being the design giant and - that you are today?

ADLER: Oh, well, I realized I was so not that, like, hippie crap dude.

SAGAL: Yeah.

ADLER: I was half Joni Mitchell-listening, Birkenstock-wearing Harry Potter and half, like, New York gay design dude.

SAGAL: I hope you were divided vertically 'cause that would be weird.

ADLER: I - (laughter).

(LAUGHTER)

ADLER: And I...

SAGAL: I'm - there was a joke here about disappointing dates that only your top half was gay, but I won't make it.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I have to ask you this question. We usually ask our various artists about their guilty secrets. So for a furniture and home decor designer, this would be it. Have you now or have you ever had any IKEA furniture in your house?

(LAUGHTER)

BRIAN BABYLON: Thank you. That was my next - that was my question.

ADLER: I'm thinking. I definitely have in the lean years, and now I surround myself with my stuff, so no.

SAGAL: Really? Do couples - 'cause IKEA, as we talked about on the show, is a place where couples fight 'cause they can't decide on what they want. Do - in your stores, do couples come in and fight?

ADLER: All the time. And my philosophy is that just let the wife decide, please.

(APPLAUSE)

ADLER: She knows.

O'ROURKE: It is the secret to a happy marriage.

SAGAL: It truly is.

ADLER: Yeah.

O'ROURKE: There's no doubt about that. Works for me.

SAGAL: And, like, what...

ADLER: Dudes, butt out. When it comes to the gays...

SAGAL: Yes.

ADLER: ...All bets are off.

SAGAL: Really?

ADLER: Things can get - talk about catty. When they start to disagree on something - hoo (ph).

SAGAL: Really? Is there any way of - can you tell which, in a same-sex couple, has the superior design sense?

ADLER: It's all in the shoes.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Really?

ADLER: Absolutely.

SAGAL: So what you do is, like, you check - if they're squabbling - they don't know what to get - this, that - you look down - the shoes...

ADLER: ...And then you choose a side.

(LAUGHTER)

O'ROURKE: My wife's shoes are always a lot better looking than mine so I...

SAGAL: I believe it.

ADLER: (Laughter).

ROXANNE ROBERTS: Well, this is Roxanne. I'm just dying to know. How did you go from a guy who, you know, is the starving artist in - were you in New York or wherever you were - and then did you have some big break - some craft show or something that...

ADLER: I did. I got my first order from Barneys, actually, when I first started. And then I - my other big break was opening a store a few years later.

SAGAL: Speaking of stores, I went into your one in Chicago and looked at all your lovely things. You have this manifesto painted on your wall, which we thought was pretty awesome. Do you know about this?

ADLER: (Laughter). As the author of it, I do.

SAGAL: So it says things - we believe tassels are the earrings of the home. That's good.

ADLER: Right? They add a little intrigue and glamour.

SAGAL: We believe in being underdressed or overdressed always. I could see, you know, having met people like Tim Gunn, being overdressed can be classy - to be the only guy in a suit. When is being underdressed cool and classy?

ADLER: Either way, you just have to be immoderate. Like, dress like a slut or a mogul, but don't dress like a mid-level regional sales manager, ever.

(LAUGHTER)

O'ROURKE: Jonathan, this is P.J. I am a huge fan. I have two of your - two big black lamps of yours from back in the day when one could afford one of your lamps.

ADLER: (Laughter) They're still affordable. Everybody who's listening - race to my website or stores. They're affordable.

O'ROURKE: OK. Good. I am glad to hear that.

SAGAL: If someone had asked me who do you know - who on this earth is a huge fan of Jonathan Adler, I would've gone through every other person on Earth before I got to you. I thought you were all, like, mahogany and leather and gun racks. I didn't realize you were into the fabulous New York design.

O'ROURKE: I like his lamps.

SAGAL: All right.

(LAUGHTER)

O'ROURKE: No, he's really good.

ROBERTS: He's multifaceted.

SAGAL: Apparently.

O'ROURKE: I really like mid-century design, and he was one of the guys who brought it back, and he brought it back of - he does a lot of fluted shapes on the sort of...

BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: P.J., let's see your shoes.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Well, Jonathan Adler, we have invited you here to play a game we're calling...

KURTIS: We Know You Love It, So We're Changing It.

SAGAL: It was exactly 30 years ago this month that the Coca-Cola Company introduced New Coke, which is legendary as the most disastrous and most successful product launches of all time. We're going to ask you three questions about the strange but true saga of New Coke. If you get two right, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners - Carl's voice on their voicemail. Bill, who is Jonathan Adler playing for?

KURTIS: Carlos Tilbury of Overton in Hampshire, England.

SAGAL: Goodness gracious.

ADLER: Woo.

ADLER: Now, Jonathan, your husband Simon Doonan was on the show.

ADLER: Yes.

SAGAL: And how did he do?

ADLER: He did really well, but I'm going to do better than him.

SAGAL: All right. Here we go Jonathan. Here's your first question.

ADLER: OK.

SAGAL: The day New Coke was introduced - that was April 23, 1985 - it quickly became a holiday to whom? A - the American Dental Association, who anticipated lots more work for their members. B - Pepsi, which gave all employees the day off to commemorate their victory over their rival. Or C- the Anti-Defamation League because they knew from now on the date would be remembered for something worse than being Hitler's birthday.

ADLER: (Laughter) This is real? One of them is true.

SAGAL: One of them is true.

ADLER: Whoa.

(LAUGHTER)

ADLER: That is crazy. All right, let me think. You know what? I'm going to go with Pepsi.

SAGAL: Yes, you are right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: It was Pepsi.

ADLER: Woo.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Pepsi saw Coke changing their formula as a sign of their victory in the horrible cola wars that had raged for so long. And they gave all their employees a day off.

O'ROURKE: Those were tough times, Peter.

SAGAL: They were tough times.

ADLER: I mean, we all remember them. It's really sad to be brought back to that period.

O'ROURKE: It is, yeah.

SAGAL: I know. A lot of veterans of the cola wars just don't want to talk about them.

ADLER: No.

SAGAL: No. Coca-Cola - second question - Coca-Cola got a lot of grief for the introduction of the new product, including criticism from whom? A - the queen of England, who said her corgis refused to drink the new formula. B - cocaine users, who mistakenly thought someone had changed their coke recipe. Or C - Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who said New Coke was a sign of American capitalist decadence.

ADLER: Oh, I think - what was the one - the queen?

SAGAL: The queen of England 'cause her corgis...

ADLER: Said one's corgis wouldn't drink it.

SAGAL: She said one's corgis are not amused, presumably.

(LAUGHTER)

ADLER: One's corgis...

SAGAL: Cocaine users who were afraid their coke was being changed or Fidel Castro.

ADLER: Yeah, I got to go with Castro on this one.

SAGAL: Yes, it's Castro.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Castro apparently really likes Coca-Cola, and he really didn't like the new stuff.

ADLER: No, he was team Pepsi. Everyone knows that.

SAGAL: Everyone knows that. Let's see if you can go for perfect. Did Simon get three out of three?

ADLER: No way.

SAGAL: Oh, so if you get this right you will in fact beat him. This is good. After they restored the old formula - reintroducing it, as we all remember, as classic Coke - some people were still angry at Coca-Cola, including whom? A - the woodworking community, who had found that New Coke made a great light-duty adhesive. B - then-President Reagan, who liked paring New Coke with his favorite jellybeans. Or C - Bill Cosby, who said that Coke retreating made him look dishonest.

ADLER: I - I mean - woodwork - what was it? Woodworkers using it as adhesive.

SAGAL: Yeah.

ADLER: I'm a craft person. I don't ever use New Coke as adhesive. I am going to go with Bill Cosby.

SAGAL: You're right - Bill Cosby.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)

KURTIS: Yeah, good.

SAGAL: Bill Cosby had gone on TV - Bill Cosby had gone on TV at the request and payment of Coke, talked about how great New Coke was and when they withdrew the product and went back on their word, he quit being a spokesman 'cause he said it destroyed - he said something like I can't imagine anything that would be a greater blow to my credibility.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did Jonathan Adler do on our quiz?

KURTIS: Jonathan, you got the best record in the last year on this test. Congratulations.

SAGAL: Well done, Jonathan.

KURTIS: Three and 0.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Jonathan Adler is an award-winning designer with over 25 stores around the world. You can check him and his work out at JonathanAdler.com, especially these adorable animal-shaped matches holders, which I thought were just fabulous.

ADLER: Thanks, man.

SAGAL: Jonathan Adler, thank you so much for joining us.

(APPLAUSE)

ADLER: Thank you guys so much.

SAGAL: Take care, Jonathan.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING")

THE NEW SEEKERS: (Singing) I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

SAGAL: In just a minute Bill insists no animals were harmed in the listener limerick challenge. Call 1-888-wait-wait to join us on the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT DON'T TELL ME from NPR.

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.