Help find a story about a kid who gets called "The Machine" by the Russian Mafia

August 11, 2010 12:39 PM

Help me find a story about a kid who goes on a tour with his school to Russia, gets involved with some guys from the mafia, and ends up with the nickname "The Machine"

I remember reading this story somewhere on the internet about 8 to 12 years ago.

I believe it was a non-fiction account.

posted by farmersckn to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I am almost positive that was from the radio show Loveline some years back.
posted by bunji at 12:47 PM on August 11, 2010

Sounds like the movie "Gotcha".
posted by Doohickie at 3:01 PM on August 11, 2010

I will second that it was on Loveline. I remember listening to it a few years ago. I'm pretty sure it was a guest that told the story, not one of the cohosts.
posted by lilac girl at 3:44 PM on August 11, 2010

The more I thought about it, the more I'm sure of these things: 1) the storyteller had a deep voice and didn't have any major accent normally but did a hilarious Russian one, 2) he was with a group of guys and not a solo guest, and 3) it was sometime when Stryker was the cohost between 2006-2009. I searched for all-male bands in the Loveline guest archives and listened to the voices in the videos and I think I've narrowed it down to the shows with Flogging Molly on 4/17/08, Goldfinger on 4/7/08, or Ludo on 6/24/08 (longshot, but I didn't want to rule them out without being sure). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any copies of those episodes online so I can't find out if I'm right.

That being said, my memory is usually not the greatest. So, uh, grain of salt and everything.
posted by lilac girl at 9:40 PM on August 11, 2010

It's really been bothering me that I can't pin this down because I have a very distinct memory of listening to this story and I hate unsolved mysteries. I googled around today on a whim and I found it!! Here's the episode from 2006 with Bert Kreischer as the guest. The story starts around 28:10. It appears he was on the show twice because there's a shorter version as well.
posted by lilac girl at 6:33 PM on January 3, 2011