100th Episode with Martha Vicknair: Meet the Mom Behind the Ads

David and Brad mark their 100th episode with a very special guest: David’s mom, the retired teacher turned TV commercial star. Martha opens up about suddenly being recognized around town, her 33-year teaching career in Thibodaux, and how those experiences inspired the firm’s teacher awards and backpack giveaways. Don’t miss the family stories from the kitchen and the crowd-favorite chicken wings that bring everyone together. 

Here’s what we discuss in this episode:

🎉 100 Episodes Strong: The milestone becomes a celebration of relationships and community

📺 Commercial Fame Is Real: Martha shares stories of getting recognized everywhere she goes

🍎 A Teacher’s Legacy: Decades in the classroom created lifelong impact far beyond school

🎒 Community Matters Deeply: Education projects and local involvement remain central to the firm

🍗 Family Ties Run Deep: Food, laughter, and shared stories bring the whole episode together

Injured? Begin the process here: 

Scott Vicknair Injury Lawyers: https://www.scottvicknair.com/

Car Accident Lawyer: https://www.scottvicknair.com/new-orleans/car-accident-lawyer/ 

Truck Accident Lawyer: https://www.scottvicknair.com/new-orleans/truck-accident-lawyer/ 

Motorcycle Accident Lawyer: https://www.scottvicknair.com/new-orleans/motorcycle-accident-lawyer/ 

Probate, Succession and Estate Legal Needs?
Visit Scott Law Group – Estate Counsel: https://www.louisianasuccessionattorney.com/

More Resources

Subscribe to the Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvicknairlaw?sub_confirmation=1

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Scott Wignair, injury attorneys, we fight for the win.

SPEAKER_05 0:06

What's going on everybody? Welcome to the Overruled Podcast brought to you by the Scott Wigner Law Firm. This is your co-host, David Wigner, along with my law partner, Brad Scott. Brad. Hello, everybody. And we are doing, for the first time ever, Brad, we are off site doing an episode of the podcast, celebrating our hundredth podcast episode. Pretty wild. I feel like we started this in a little closet in our old office. And in honor of the hundredth episode, we were trying to figure out who should we interview on the 100th episode, and my great what marketing team at the firm decided and talk with me. Like who else besides my mom? So we're here in the kitchen at my parents' house in Thibodeau, Louisiana, with my mom, who was reluctantly drugging to the podcast. This is true. Thank you, mom, for being here and being our 100th guest.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Happy to be here with you all. Special occasion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01

Um, so mom, tell us a little bit about what it's been like. Obviously, we started the TV commercials a little bit over two years ago now. About and did you ever think that you would go from being a 33-year retired teacher to somebody who gets stopped in public now because you're on TV all the time?

SPEAKER_03 1:21

You'd be amazed. No, I never thought, never imagined that would happen, but you'd be amazed how many people do watch and see those commercials. And even yesterday, someone was yelling at me and saying, Oh, I just love them. They don't they don't say they like them or they okay, they just love them and they keep waiting for the next one. And um, yeah, I never thought that would ever happen. No, I thought we'd do one and that would be it and be done, but it continues. But it's good, no.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

Whatever helps is good. People like you too much. We can't stop and it's kind of been very fun for people who don't know behind the scenes. It's every time we do shoot them, you and uh Jane come to New Orleans and it gives us a chance to have lunch and visit and catch up when we are shooting a commercial. So it's been like kind of an interesting and good surprise, I guess, on the personal side of our relationship that it allows us to spend more time together when we're doing it. I think that's a big benefit to it. For sure. Um, and it's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 2:24

How often do people recognize you in public and give us some feeling for that context?

SPEAKER_03 2:29

I cross the street here to go to my neighbors and bring something to my neighbor, and somebody stops and says, Oh, Hollywood Sloveny, and let me pass right here across the street. Mostly church. I see many people at church that stopped me. And a lady came, hit me on my tap me on my back the other day, in the middle of my ass, and said, Love your commercial.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

So do you wear the big sunglasses and the hats now?

SPEAKER_03 2:55

I might have to start, but I don't do that yet. I'm not that famous. But church and um grocery store and um, like I said, down my street.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

And it sounds like it's been mostly positive feedback you've got.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Everyone, yes. They just want to see more, they say, and I keep saying, well, I think we have enough. They want more, they want more commercials. When's the next one coming out? And we love the ambulance commercial, and uh it's very positive. And um, so if I can do that to help the firm, it's um makes me feel very good.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

We love having you. You become like the unofficial spokesperson for the firm. You're right.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

It's funny because we just had our client dinner, and we have a client dinner twice a year, and mom, you were able to come to that dinner with dad this year in the spring, and it it's like every client dinner finally, because we have this is our fifth one, and we probably have I would say it's like three couples who are state clients, maybe four couples who are state clients, and about five who are injury clients that are like regulars now. Maybe we have more than that. I'm love they've been coming to all of them, and every time they're like, Where is your mom? They all want to meet you. And so it was like nice to finally say she's coming. She is coming, I promise. They must see this mom. It's true. Like, I'm good. I get it. Like, I'm we're boring, we're lawyers. They want to see mom.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

We all are not boring.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

But it's funny too, because it's been like uh a lot of Scott Wigner moments or Scott Wigner stories that mom and I will talk about like once a week. She'll call me like listen to this one. Or I'll be like, listen to this one. I'm like walking to dinner in New Orleans um last week. I think I was telling you about that when the guy stops me and I'm just chatting with him. He says, Make sure you tell your mama hello. And so you come up in almost every conversation, which is fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

I um I was at Sam's the other day, and the same thing happened. This guy who works there came up to me and he said, You recognize me? And I went, maybe. What's your name? And he told me his name. It's I talked to him a long time ago. And he said, I told my wife, look, that's my teacher. She's um on TV.

SPEAKER_06 5:12

Look at her.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

And then another man came around and he said, Are you the are you the lady on the commercial? And I said, Mm-hmm. And he said, I told my wife that. I told her I was gonna come talk to you. They recognized you. Yeah, I told her that was you, and sure enough, it's it happens all the time. But um, it's good for the um law firm, and everybody is positive about it. Something's been fun for you. It's been fun, it's been fun. And uh before you were a movie star, you had a prior career.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

You taught for quite some time.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

I did.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Tell us about that, what schools you taught at and what that experience was.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Well, I taught here in Thibodeau. I taught for 33 years, and I started off at this little school, Thibodeau Elementary, and um I was probably the youngest teacher there at that time. And um then we moved to another elementary school called uh WS LaFogue. And then in about 15 years there, they moved half of us to Thibodeau Elementary, which was a K to school. And um uh that's where I ended my 33 years. Um I was taught self-contained second grade most of the time. And um love teaching, I love the kids. And I have so many kids that come today that um give me such positive feedback how they love their uh second grade year.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

So it's real very rewarding.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

And they remember you, like you said, like the person in Sam's. You probably taught them ages ago. That's true, but they remember.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

They do, they do. And a lot of them I remember the names, but not all of them. I remember faces. It's hard to remember all the names. I taught many people. I remember, David, then you put that in one of your newsletters about uh when people would stop you and say all the time growing up.

SPEAKER_05 6:58

Yeah. So I feel like maybe we've transitioned. When I was a kid, I felt like maybe mom was like a pseudo celebrity as a teacher. Um, and now you're celebrity as a spokesperson or personal injury lumper. We really went full cycle there. Because growing up, we would go to Walmart all the time when I was a kid, and we got stopped. I feel like every trip I was with mom by a former student, whether it was a younger student with their parents who would stop to talk to you, or maybe one who had grown up. And that's kind of what I felt like I was like, gosh, my mom knows everybody because it was but you knew a lot of people in town. Thibodeau is not the biggest town in the world, but um it was really just so many people that you taught and impacted their lives, and some of them were current students.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

That's very rewarding. It is good.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

It shows you what kind of impact teachers have, and oh, they do, they do absolutely the firm does the high season ABCs which you've been part of. Tell us about your experience with that and what you've enjoyed about.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Oh, and that experience is very special. It's so much fun to see a teacher that really deserves it and really um works hard all her life, whatever, however many years, and to get noticed and um appreciated. It's fabulous. David and I, I think we enjoy that so much. Um they come out and they don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

That's fun too. It's a build of school. Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

And when they find out they either cry or they scream, or they, you know, they just both.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yes, on both.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

They just uh a lot of them thought it was a fake thing. True. They didn't think it was real. That was what makes me laugh every day. I'm like, no, you're going on a cruise.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

It's not publisher's clearing house. Right. We're not here to sell you magazines.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

It's like uh you didn't inherit $10 million from a wealthy man in Nigeria or one of those. Those are my cases.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Well, they come out when they call them out their classroom, and then they have the principal there and they have all of us. It's quite an event. And and they walk out and they look at you like what's going on, something's wrong.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

You know, it's so it's mostly they don't even nominate it really. It's just a complete surprise to them.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

It's very heartwarming to see that. That that to me is I think I told mom, I think I told you, mom.

SPEAKER_05 9:07

I think it's the my one of my favorite moments of the year. Like every time, like last year, especially, was kind of uh a small cycle of events being that like St. Charles Elementary School is where the teacher who won't Crystal, right? Miss Crystal Sydney. Sydney. Really missed that one. Uh really miss that one. Um Miss Sydney. Oh gosh. Um, she was just in the podcast to talk about um stuff flying around my head. Um, she was an amazing person, and my mom had relationships with a lot of the teachers at that school because it's right here near Thibodeau. And my dad's mom, my Emma actually um went to school there. It was a K through 12 back then. And she was one of the first graduate.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

She would always brag and say that she was a valedictorian. And I said, Well, mom, how many how many kids were in that class? Four. Top five. She was pretty smart, she was very intelligent. She was very smart. That was extended.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

There's a lot of connections to that school last year for that. And was it one of the was she did she student taught with you or something?

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Oh, there's some teachers there who started. Yes. Yes. Um, Becky.

SPEAKER_05 10:14

Driving away from that that school and then the one the year before, too, though, it's just it's tough to explain the feeling.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

It is that you're in a position that you can really feel have an impact.

SPEAKER_05 10:23

Have an impact.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Yes, and and uh they know they appreciate it, they can see it, and yeah. Uh it's touching.

SPEAKER_05 10:30

And we picked the winner for this year. They don't know yet. I think when are they being announced mouth? Oh, we do have in like two weeks, two or three weeks. Um we have the winner pick. May 18th. May 18. May 18th. We're surprised than the teacher who won this year, and they would never think it's real, but I'm like, you're going on a cruise ship. It's it's real.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

That is a great project.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

It is. It is. And then we also tie it back in with the the backpack thing that we do. So we have a lot of community involvement with the education stuff, which is really inspired by you.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Well, I hope so. That what else what is more important than education?

SPEAKER_05 11:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Think about it.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

Nothing.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

You know, and the kids get excited when they come to get their backpacks and they have everything, they want their colors, and um it's a good way to start school.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

And in a positive way, and uh they have equal standing with everyone. So that that's a great project, too.

SPEAKER_05 11:25

I mean, so talk about what we ate today, Mom. We just finished eating. We have the whole gamut of the stuff I grew up eating because we're just talking about bourgeois meat market here in Thibodeau. Um, one of my favorite things, dad, as you know, and Benton especially, are great cooks.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Yeah, they're the cooks.

SPEAKER_05 11:42

Um you can cook too much. Um not like that. Maybe not like them. They cook a lot and they're like real cooks. Um they're real good. They're like real. We're the fake cooks. Yeah, we're the fake cooks. I can grill and I can cook.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

I can do a few things too.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

I basically have to get the recipe from Benton and have Benton like walk me through it and I'll write it down.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

So that Ben can get something out of the refrigerator and make it fabulous. It's just they just have that touch. That touch. Yeah. You know that knack, some people have it and some don't. I don't. I don't know if Dave, would you have it then?

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Yeah. No. I think you're under selling yourself based on the chicken wings that we just had.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

They're good, but they're just tell us about the chicken wings.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

What's the recipe? What's the technique?

SPEAKER_03 12:25

Well, the um I started the grandkids loved them, and I screwed up.

SPEAKER_05 12:28

Brady can eat like 50 of them.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Yeah, Brady eats like about 20 of them. Like crazy.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

I told Miles I'm here, it's like a human disposal. I've never seen a human eat the big chicken wings.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

You know what to get people together, what's the best thing? Food. Food. So I try to do it every week or every other week. And I mean, they're just it's just chicken wings. I broast them in the oven.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

It's just chicken wings. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

I season them and put them in the um a bag with hot sauce, and I let them sit a little while, and then I put them in the oven and broast them kind of like. And then at the very end I broil them. So I like that little crisp taste.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

So when is the restaurant opening?

SPEAKER_03 13:06

I will not open a restaurant, but I'll be uh uh Bruce May and Benton may, but uh not myself. I'm not the person to cook.

SPEAKER_05 13:15

I think one of the things the simplest thing that dad cooks is whenever he, if we're uh uh grown up at the camp, if he does fresh fish with the um the crawfish boudin from bourgeoisie. On top.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And that's easy.

SPEAKER_05 13:29

It's easy, but it's hard to beat.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

They make like a sausage uh roll with boudin in it. And you open it up and it's cooked. Everything's cooked inside crawfish, and we just pour it on top of our trout that we catch. That's soap fresh. Yeah, uh it's delicious. So if y'all make a um trip there today, y'all can pick up some boudin there.

SPEAKER_05 13:49

I think we're gonna stop for sure. Miles uh Miles is formally requested. Well, thanks for letting us in your kitchen, mom. Anything else you want to say before we get kicked out here?

SPEAKER_03 13:59

No, I just love these dogs. That's all I want to say. Well, thank you. I love them. Yes. Anything I can do to help.

SPEAKER_05 14:06

Thanks for sitting down for our 100th episode. Uh, not in the office, the first. Um I think we should make this a regular thing. I'll try something new for more food. I'll try something new for you. We can publish with the episode your recipe for the chicken wings, too.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

That's good.

SPEAKER_05 14:21

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

That's good.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

All right. Well, thank you all for listening and watching. This has been another great discussion on the Overrule Podcast brought to you by the Scott Wigner Law Firm. Brad and I will see you next time, Mom. Thank you. I love you. Appreciate you for sitting down and chatting with us. Y'all take care.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Scott Vigner, danger eternities, we fight for the wind.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

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