AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Each week, a well-known guest draws a card from our Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. This week, we hear from comedian and actor Rob Delaney. Delaney is currently starring in the summer blockbuster "Deadpool & Wolverine," as well as the new TV show "Bad Monkey." Here he is talking with Wild Card host Rachel Martin.
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RACHEL MARTIN: One, two or three?
ROB DELANEY: Two, please.
MARTIN: What's a moment when a stranger made you feel loved?
DELANEY: Oh, my gosh. You've really - I don't - I want to be honest with you now. But, you know, I have some memories that I've never told people before - not ever, anyone. And it's not that they're so intense, but they're just sort of, like, these touchstone things that I can revisit when I'm, like, sad or angry to think about people's goodness. And one is so strange. It's a snowy day. I'm in elementary school, maybe fourth grade. And I remember I was in a hallway at my school. I don't know if I'd gone to the bathroom or something. And an adult woman who didn't work at the school - I don't know who she was - but came in and, like, snow came in with her and was, you know, swirling around her.
And it was like a couple - it was maybe the last day of school before Christmas. And I remember she looked at me, and she just said, I hope you have a merry Christmas. And she made eye contact with me, and I'd never seen her before. And it just felt so nice to have an adult stranger look at me, a stranger boy, and just say something, you know, just nothing remarkable, but just a sweet thing. And that's, like, one of the larger memories of my crazy life, where you would think I would have more - but I just remember this woman doing that. And it just oddly touched me. I think she might have been an angel. I think she might not have been a human woman. But...
MARTIN: Do you actually think that?
DELANEY: ...That's always - yeah, because why did it stick with me for so many years?
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
DELANEY: So it's one of those things where, like, there was something deeper happening in that moment than just the words and just the eye contact. So yeah, I think she was a special person who visited me. And I also feel nervous that I told you about it 'cause that's, like, one of my sort of special memories. So please anyone listening, forget you heard this, or alternately, please treasure it like I do.
MARTIN: I think what I love about this question is that I think that's a particular kind of love. Like that, for me...
DELANEY: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Like, when strangers do stuff, it just...
DELANEY: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Like, kills me when someone who - they could just move on with their day, but when they choose to, like, look at you, recognize you and say something in a moment that - it just destroys me. It opens me up in a way that...
DELANEY: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...If someone, my best friend or my partner or a kid - if anyone else did the same thing, it wouldn't have nearly the impact as a stranger seeing you in that moment. And I love those experiences. They're the best. Yeah.
DELANEY: They really are. They really are.
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