Ira Glass Stops By Rookie To Make Balloon Animals, Give Dating Advice

Ira Glass‘ calming voice has been the soundtrack to many a long car ride thanks to his long-running radio program, This American Life. It turns out, however, that Glass has abilities that go far beyond his storytelling savvy. Glass appeared in a recent video on Rookie, an online magazine for teenage girls, where he teaches viewers how to make balloon animals while answering questions from love-struck youths.

It turns out, as stated by Rookie Mag, that teenage Ira Glass had enough magic and balloon animal skills to become a performer at kids’ birthday parties under the name ‘Magical Mystifier‘. While that is a dopey moniker, Glass is an undeniably skilled balloon animal creator, teaching viewers how to create a French poodle or Snoopy (pictured above). I’d never seen a balloon-Snoopy before, but Glass’ final product is a shockingly perfect replica of the Peanuts dog’s famous pose on top of his doghouse/Sopwith Camel.

In addition to twisting balloons into cute dog shapes, Glass uses the video to answer some questions from readers, all of which have to do with dating, sex, and boys. That section is an installment of the magazine’s Ask a Grown Man series, which has previously featured Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd, and BJ Novak (but, unfortunately, not the President). Here, Glass’ superior oratorical skills make him a great person to answer any and all life questions. When one girl asked if guys liked nerdy girls, I could just see his face light up. ‘Oh boy,’ it seemed to say, ‘you have no idea the untold riches that you are about to discover.’