MAHD House Bar Talk
Voted #1 in Funny comedy Podcast in Ohio by feedspot!
Voted #2 Cleveland podcast all time by good pod!
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Jimmy and Gito just talking about things going around at MAHD House Bar & Grille In Elyria, Ohio. Jimmy Is the owner of MAHD House and Gito is his close friend that helps out around the bar. Listen in while they dissect the daily dealings of the bar.
YouTube @MAHDHouseBarTalk
MAHD House Bar Talk
Creative Challenges and Community Stories with Bron Theron
Join us on a whirlwind journey with the multifaceted Bron Theron as we peel back the layers of his life and adventures from Northern to Southern California. Hear how his unique experiences, including a stint as an extra in adult films, paint a vivid picture of the cultural contrasts within the Golden State. Bron's tales are laced with humor and warmth as he navigates his father's eccentric hippie lifestyle, his daughter's Hollywood escapades, and the ever-present tension between age and appearances. Prepare for a conversation that oscillates between the quirky and the profound, offering a fresh perspective on the vibrant arts and entertainment scene.
As we venture further into Bron's narrative, we explore his creative projects, from independent filmmaking to mural painting, and the technical ins and outs of podcasting. Bron candidly shares the journey of running a bar during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the resilience required and the ongoing challenges faced by local businesses. Our conversation takes a detour into small-town politics in Ohio, where Bron's controversial short film "MAGA" becomes a touchstone for debating political humor and satire. Bron doesn't shy away from tackling complex topics, including government influence, systemic structures, and the intricacies of gun ownership, all while weaving in his personal beliefs and experiences.
Finally, Bron delves into the world of non-union filmmaking and the unique challenges of different filming locations, offering insights into his future film distribution plans with palpable excitement for the release of "The Pancake Man." We wrap up with a friendly invitation to immerse yourself in Long Beach's local scene, underscoring the city's appeal as an affordable coastal haven. This episode is not just a conversation; it’s an open invitation to explore the intersections of creativity, culture, and community with Bron Theron as your guide.
We want everyone to enjoy the show and really appreciate your feed back
we're number one. Jimmy isn't being a cheap ass. You know I'm like damn.
Speaker 2:You heard it here first right, right, we're the best you know. They say people that cuss are more honest, so I'm honest, put the fish away, reggie.
Speaker 1:It don't even hurt to get through that, not for me. Nothing to it. Okay, let's do it, come on, I'm not ready, I'm ready. I let's do it, come on, I'm ready, I'm ready, I want to do it. I wear a phone. I got what I'm right now. You want to do it, jimmy? And Geek Madhouse Bar Talks. Baby, that is a bunch of shit. If you ask me, that man makes no sense. That's my dad coming in there on the end of that one.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:A little mix. Yeah Well, I did an interview with my dad. My dad's a pretty interesting guy. He's a nut, he's an old hippie that acts a fool. So he lived down by you for a little while when he was being a hippie. Yeah, so you're Bron Theron Theron right Theron yep but you. You know, if it's a porno name, it would be the ron bron the ron would be bron the ron porn.
Speaker 2:You ever did porn uh, you know, honestly, I, I I've been an extra in a few porns no, get out of here, yeah yeah, when I first moved to uh down here to Southern California I had a really kind of a strange agent and he got me on some vivid movies and a couple other big porno company movies Just acting, nothing, no penetration, but it was an adventure for sure.
Speaker 1:I just expected. No, I just expected no.
Speaker 2:I've been there. I've been there, I've seen it, I've seen it get done.
Speaker 1:That's pretty wild, and you've been in California most of your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm born and raised in California Santa Cruz, california but I moved to the Northwest for a while. I went to college in Seattle and Portland and then I moved back down to Southern California. So that was a trip coming to.
Speaker 1:Southern.
Speaker 2:California is very different than Northern California, so Southern California is why, why?
Speaker 1:what do you think that is? Well the dirty and grimy, or what is it?
Speaker 2:Um, I feel like there's a lot of competition of art and entertainment down where I live, you know, in the la area. So everybody's kind of like you know a con man of sorts or a con woman of sorts. They want to manipulate and get things and because they're on the come up, you know, whereas north, northern cal, northern California, is a little bit more ease back, um, you know, obviously a lot of weed smoking, chilling, I don't know. It's just a different vibe in Southern California than Northern California, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never been. Oh, my daughter, my daughter was there. My daughter lived down there for a couple years when she first graduated high school. She went down there, she was, uh, went down with a boyfriend, uh, you might even know who know him. I think his name's lewis snyder. He's an actor, he does some smaller stuff, but she went down there with him and then she came back and then she ended up going back down there with another kid that does audio. I think his name is zach or something like that. I know he was working with uh, um, what the hell is the one that did that? Why him? What's his name?
Speaker 2:why him?
Speaker 1:yeah, what's? Yeah, what the hell's his name? You know who it is. He's a big, big star. Okay, james, something I forget. I can't think of his name right off the top of my head. He did the movie. Why him? I could probably look it up and tell you in two seconds james marzadin, james franco franco, I think is it okay, james franco.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm familiar with that right, why him?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think that's who it is. Yeah, james Franco. Yeah, so he did audio with him, he was friends with him and he did a couple little scenes, even with him a little bit. And my daughter was down there with that guy and you know, quite frankly, I'll be honest, I was glad when she came home and found her a redneck, that you know is that what I just?
Speaker 1:I just man, we're from ohio. I relate like these guys would come down in their hollywood guy couldn't have conversations with them for the most part. You know they're artsy and that's just not my. I'm not. I own a bar, I run a construction company and I do the podcast out of fun. I love to talk to anybody and learn about them, but not when they're dating my daughter, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. How old is she?
Speaker 1:Now she's 30. Yeah, she's 30 this year. I'm an old man and evidently you are too. I was shocked when I seen, because when I first saw, like you know, you sent it over, I looked into it, I'm checking it out and because the reason you were sending out is you have a movie that just come out.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I have a movie that was shown in theaters. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. So I kind of looked at it a little bit, before I even contacted you, and I thought, boy, that's a young kid doing movies and stuff, you know, wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 2:And stuff. You know, wow, that's impressive and the more I got into it's not a young kid I go man, this guy looks good for what did you say he was? 46 or something like that, or yeah, I just, I actually just turned 47 this month, so my mistake last month. So yeah, I'm 47. I'm getting pretty old, uh, but I feel like a kid yeah, you look good.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you for 47. You look great, I'll tell you for 47,. You look great, I'm 51, so I was impressed, so I'm going to go ahead. You want to play the trailer real quick? We could do that. If you want to play that real quick, we'll put it out there so everybody can see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd love to play the trailer.
Speaker 1:And this is the trailer for the movie that Bron is doing with his White Ninja production, and it's at theaters right now with his White Ninja production and it's at theaters right now.
Speaker 2:Right, we're doing the festival run and renting out theaters ourselves, so it's small right now, but we are submitting to bigger theaters to do an actual theater run, so hopefully we'll be in the AMCs soon.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would be awesome. Yeah, I know, I watched. Last night I watched on my way to bed. I watched Half Dead on Amazon Prime. I went, I watched half dead on Amazon prime.
Speaker 2:Half dead.
Speaker 1:I was impressed. Yeah, I was impressed, I was impressed, definitely.
Speaker 2:Thanks, did you see the end Did?
Speaker 1:you see? No, I was sleeping the movie is the end.
Speaker 2:Just remember that it's like six cents. Where it's like six cents. Did you see six cents? Where it's like six cents, or did you see six cents? Sorry, yeah, I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so you know how the the reveal at the end is the movie. It's like oh yeah, oh yeah, that he was. He was dead the whole time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, that's kind of what half dead fred is like.
Speaker 1:It is the movie, so please make it to the end if you can well, I put it on at one o'clock in the morning as I was sleeping, so I was getting ready to sleep. All right, let me play this trailer so everybody can see what it is. Here we go, yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't hear it. Can you hear it New?
Speaker 1:York. All right, that's hilarious.
Speaker 2:The pancakes are good here here, but they're not that good yeah, I couldn't hear it on my end, so I I assume you my end gets shut off, right?
Speaker 1:I hope so. I don't know. I guess that's what it is. I hope that's what it is. I've done and done a whole lot with the riverside. I'm just learning it. I know every time I have done it we have, we've had some luck with it, with everything we've done, and I I believe that it's going to record just fine. And when it went out, hopefully I pray that's what happened. But now you got me nervous.
Speaker 2:I don't know I'm not familiar with riverside, uh, but you know what's funny is, when I tried to log in, we had, you know our technical difficulties. I guess it said that I already had an account. You know what I mean. So I guess I've been here before. Uh, you know a lot of podcasts. Uh, they do different systems. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like I was talking to you last night, audacity, audacity, odyssey, odyssey, whatever that is yeah, that's the audio version, yeah right, I do that one a little bit more often, a couple other ones ones, but anyway, apparently I've been to Riverside before.
Speaker 1:Couldn't get it to work on my main computer but we're on the laptop, so oh, okay, yeah, I know we were trying to figure it out, couldn't figure it out and I'm going. I don't understand, cause I've sent it to everybody and I've had before you and everybody just seemed to log on. It seemed the simplest. That's why I keep using it, because it just kind of gets gets the job done real simple and I was having too many issues with any of the other ones, like trying to use it with obs and every, because I use obs to be able to look at what I'm seeing and I just I'm set in my ways. What am I gonna?
Speaker 2:Yeah, how long have you had this bar?
Speaker 1:I've had the bar about seven years.
Speaker 2:Okay so you made it through COVID.
Speaker 1:I did. Covid was rough, although I'm still feeling the effects of it. It was a when COVID for me was and most people. I don't want to bore people, everybody listens to my show knows how it went down. But we got a lot of support from the community. We opened up. It's a bar and restaurant and we're known for having really good food here. So when we shut down we did to-go's and I sold more actually into go food than I did business when I was open. I actually did better during COVID.
Speaker 1:But the effects afterwards of people not coming out, people not wanting to come out, the cost of utilities, the cost of food, like those effects I'm still feeling they're. They're, they're rough. I mean it's been. It's in fact there's three other bars right on the same. I'm on a pretty busy four lane road here and I'm the only one left the rest of all closed. So I've managed to keep it but I'm only by the skin of my teeth. You know it's. It wasn't for the construction I would be gone, basically. But I mean it is what it is. But you make a living just doing artwork and movies and all the different things.
Speaker 2:I have several jobs. I don't only make my money from movies. Well, I edit, so that comes in handy for other people's projects, but I also do murals. I'm like a professional graffiti artist, if, if you will, um. I do more of that for large amounts of money than I do um filmmaking I do a lot of filmmaking, but the revenue that you get from filmmaking and independent film is kind of small. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It all kind of trickles in, it's like having stocks and they all kind of like do something different, but yeah I'm watching these movies you're making, though you're definitely not doing them on an iphone, so there's gotta be some cost to them, right yeah, yeah, there's cost to them.
Speaker 2:But you know what it's funny?
Speaker 1:you mentioned iphone, because the next movie I'm doing is going to be on entirely iphone I've thought about that, like they keep saying there's other people that have done that and the quality of the video on iPhones are is amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, some of pancake man we shot on a iPhone 15 pro max and we shot it with black magic app on there. Uh, yeah, it shoots 4k and it has amazing you know quality and footage. So, yeah, we, we shot some of it on there and then we shot some of it on a red camera, which is obviously a more fancy camera, and then we matched them. It's not impossible. So I think the next one yeah, we're, we're looking at just doing full iPhone movie.
Speaker 1:Why not that's cool, but they want to save the cost right For sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's still a cost. Even if you shoot it on an iPhone, there's still cost. You know you got to feed people, pay people, you know lighting locations. There's a million reasons to spend money. But if you can try to do your best and use your resources, you can spend the least amount of money. You know what I mean. So you can try to get a return on your investment.
Speaker 1:Have you made profit off a movie yet per se.
Speaker 2:I would say the biggest profit. I'm consistently making money off some projects, but the biggest profit that I've made from movie making is when I made graffiti documentaries in late 2000s, from 2006 to 2008, 2005, 2008. What happened was is I got a job doing live painting for rap groups and R&B and rap groups, so I would travel all around with these bands and when I traveled I would shoot. I'd shoot like these little documentary segments and put them together and make little movies and I made these movies called graph life and then I would distribute them through certain art stores and certain companies and DVDs. This is back in DVD world right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You can't do that anymore because the DVD world is nothing right. But there was a big thing that happened in 2008 that kind of crushed that scheme 2008,. We had a big financial crisis number one and in 2008, YouTube just kind of like blew up right. So like everything that you're trying to sell, hard copy wise, could just be grabbed and put on youtube, sure long story short.
Speaker 2:I think, based on what I, the money I put in and the money I got out, that was the most money that I that I've made because it costs so much to hire actors to do narrative. You know what I mean? Sure that for doc, documentary stuff usually has the higher return on the investment because you spend so little on the actual production. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:yeah, and I'm, I, I watch a lot of documentaries on youtube actually. I mean I do a lot of. I like, I like, uh, I don't know, I like not graffiti, but I mean like more like old house walkthroughs or abandoned property walkthroughs or things like that, and for some reason that gets me excited and I like it.
Speaker 2:but I would, I would think that that would be cheaper because you really, like you say no actors, just you and a camera, maybe one helper, maybe, like you say, no actors, just you and a camera, maybe one helper, maybe Right, right, yeah, when you shoot something like half dead, fred, you know you are flying people to Flint Michigan and you are, you know, obviously having a big catering set up and multiple days, and you know it gets costly.
Speaker 1:Uh, people don't realize how expensive filmmaking yeah, and you got to send in bottled water. You got a lot of bottled water you gotta bring in we do. We did have bottled water there, yeah yeah, so when you say confetti or I'm sorry, graffiti, uh are you talking spray cans, like spray painting them, or like actual, like art art, like painting a mural, or it's just like spray paint or murals?
Speaker 2:um, both, it's both spray paint and, uh, you know, bucket paint or acrylic um, it's both murals. I come from the graffiti side heavy, which is lettering. Um, and graffiti, by definition, is illegal, but that stuff has kind of transitioned into a lot of things nowadays. You know what I mean. That's like out of that, uh, criminal zone to commercial zone. Um, so I make a lot more money. You know doing big jobs for architects and, uh, you know companies like Google or Facebook and I mean I've worked for all the horrible corporations, but you know it's. I know, yeah, when you think of graffiti, you're probably just thinking of like a tag on the side. I mean being in the little city in Ohio and in Ohio in general, there's probably not a crazy amount of graffiti graffiti, but when you see it it's probably shitty, and so you probably have a bad image of what that word means.
Speaker 1:you know what I mean well, the reason I bring it up is we have a local superstar over here by the name of mike seclitor. Okay, he's amazing, um, but he doesn't do like canned spray, can like lettering, but he does some amazing, amazing imagery. In fact I could probably pull up some of his stuff. It's the only reason I brought it up. He gets commissioned to paint, you know, a lot of like veteran stuff. Or he recently just went down to Key West and there was an old factory down there where he had here it is right here. Actually I can show it to you. Let me see how I can right frame, right screen Jimmy Woodway, there we go right there. So this is Mike's page here. But see, he did this building here with the. You know we can probably get these pictures a little bigger and.
Speaker 1:I mean he's a rock star. I mean some of the stuff he's done is absolutely beautiful. It's amazing. And he comes into the bar here with his dad. His dad's a real regular here. He comes, his dad likes our ribs and Thursday and things like that. But he's got on here a lot of like this one here, know, and it's not really like. That's why I was wondering like, do you do that type of mural type stuff or just you?
Speaker 2:know, I do.
Speaker 1:I do that as well um see like that there, I mean that's just, it's beautiful. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:it's yeah yeah, I paint birds. I paint birds like that. That looks like it's acrylic. It's brush, acrylic. It looks like, yeah, he's got a brush and little. Yeah, that looks like acrylic. Yep.
Speaker 1:One of the big ones he did over here was in the Veterans Park and he did the murals there. It's kind veterans park and he did the murals there. It's kind of neat Like he made it. He did an Iwo Jima where the flag is actually. There's an actual flag sticking out of the artwork, you know. So it's like the flag is actually a real flag but it goes right down into the artwork itself.
Speaker 1:Let me see if I can find it. That's the only one and I'll stop with showing you his stuff. But I was curious if you did this kind of stuff or if you just did the graffiti type I do both.
Speaker 2:I like the graffiti more, but I do plenty of mural stuff. We just painted a squirrel in michigan, uh, me and my lady my lady's a good artist too so we kind of like do them together sometimes.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Who's better, you or her?
Speaker 2:Oh, she's far better.
Speaker 1:You better say she is. You don't have a choice.
Speaker 2:It's different, we do different things, but she's a far better artist. Oh, that's cool. Oh, you know what? I think I've seen that. Have you. Artist. Oh that's cool. Oh, you know what?
Speaker 1:I think I've seen that, have you, I think I've seen that and the end is the actual flag, right, yep, yep, that's the actual.
Speaker 2:I don't really see a corner of it, but I I know what it is.
Speaker 1:I I'm pretty sure I've seen that yeah, mike is he's, he's a, he's a rock star. He's really good at what he does for sure no question, in your town that one.
Speaker 1:It's right next to us in Amherst. Yeah, it's in Lorain County. We're a small town. Amherst is where it's just an upper-scale neighborhood. You know what I mean. Type that's more like where I'm from is where the poor people are. I mean not now, I grew up in the poor people. My bar is more like where we're poor. But Amherst was always like we always thought that was the yuppie kids over there. You know, growing up, the smallest town.
Speaker 2:I've been to in Ohio is Akron. I think I've been to Akron.
Speaker 1:Akron is not a small town per se, that's a medium-sized town.
Speaker 2:It was small to me Because I've been to Cleveland, cincinnati's in ohio, right, I've been to cleveland, cincinnati, and when I went to akron I was like, oh, this is tiny by comparison to cleveland and cincinnati.
Speaker 1:I I mean, actually cincinnati might be the same size as akron. Maybe, I don't know, population wise, akron might be not as full, but Cincinnati is a cool town. That is a really cool town. We're right by Cleveland so I can be in Cleveland in 20 minutes. So we're just west of there. The city I grew up in is a cool city. It was a steel mill-type town. They had Ford Plant and they had the beach. We had Lakefront. We have Lakefront. The whole city has lakefront. Like we have lakefront, the whole city has lakefront. So we have some beautiful beaches, parks. We got a river that comes into beautiful riverfront. I mean it's a wonderful city but once you know the mills and stuff kind of disappeared. The money's just not there anymore, you know. But it is still a beautiful town, a beautiful city and I love it. I'd love to see it get better, but you know, I don't know who knows. We'll see, we'll see what happens. I was looking. You got a movie named MAGA. Maga I do. You guys assassinated Trump in the movie, right?
Speaker 2:You've seen it.
Speaker 1:I just kind of heard about it and I'm like is this like how did that like go over after they actually tried to kill Trump? Well, OK, first of all, we don't show any killing of any president in the movie, Just to be clear. There's no live TV. You don't know.
Speaker 2:Now there's no killing. There's no killing of any any presidents there is. There is insinuation and that movie we made before the, a long time ago that movie came out.
Speaker 2:It was just a short like five years ago, right five years, yeah it came out when uh trump was running, I believe, or when he just got in office, something like that, that. And it's a comedy and what it is. It's a dark comedy, obviously, but it's a comedy. And what it is is it's two hitmen, and one's an extreme Republican, one's extreme Democrat, and they're arguing about issues the whole movie, and they get this next job and they don't know who it is. But da, da, da, dah, dah. And then at the end they find out it's, you know, the president. He's in a tanning bed and, um, you know, obviously the Republican needs to make his decision of whether he's going to complete his job or not, but it's really great booth, right?
Speaker 1:I mean that orange coloring from a tanning. But that's gotta be a spray tan, right? Um, it's got to be a spray tan. It should have been a spray tan booth, not a regular tan event I can't remember, so you've seen it no, I'm just saying it should be.
Speaker 2:I'm just wondering you said are you talking about on real trump?
Speaker 1:um, yeah, I'm talking about the real trump, yeah he's that's got to be like. There's girls that work here that won't use tanning beds, but they do the spray tan and it's like it. It looks a little ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It's orange every time it's super orange on that man yes, um and I just can't remember what we did to our actor, because we have a, you know, impersonator. Um, I think it was just makeup, but he might have done a spray tan. I can't remember, this was a while ago, um, but that movie's probably going to be re-released. Uh, it was on Amazon for a while, um, you can see it on Amazon now, but it's not available. Do you know what I mean? Like, so it once was on Amazon and it's just a short film. I hope. Like, people told me not to make that movie, um, but I just did it anyway. It's, it's a total joke. It's not necessarily, you know, implying that you should do those things. It's, it's obviously a comedy.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, but did you worry once he, once they actually tried to assassinate him Like oh shit.
Speaker 2:Um, I don't know about worry I, I don't know you get put on these lists, in, in, maybe I'm on the list for it. I mean I, I, I acted in it, but I technically didn't direct that. Uh, someone else directed it, so maybe he would be put on the list. Hopefully, no, just kidding, I don't know. I mean it is what it is, I, it's it's, but it is comedy, so it's not a very serious thing. I mean it is what it is, but it is comedy, so it's not a very serious thing.
Speaker 2:I mean I think they make worse movies. I think there's worse movies on Netflix right now about Trump and his kids and stuff like that. And just to be fair with everybody, you know, because I don't really talk too many politics in my world, right, because you never know who you're talking to but I don't trust any politics. I don don't trust any politics. I don't trust the democrats, I don't trust the republicans. I'm not on either side. Do you know what I mean? Um, if anything, I'm more on the side of why do we only have two, just two choices? You know what I mean. I'm on the side of like the government is my enemy, no matter what kind of side I know, and I've thought about that we talk about my partner, that I do the podcast with Guido.
Speaker 1:We talk about that. He doesn't like that. There's only two parties. The problem I have with that is if there was, say, five people running you know what I mean that we had to vote for they might only have to win, 30% to win, and that's like. I don't like that either.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean I still kind of like that more of the country likes one than the other. You know what I mean. Well, here's the other thing that I believe. Number one we have an electoral college that makes the supposedly. We have an electoral college, which means a small group of people are making these decisions, no matter what your state thinks, no matter what your state votes. But I don't even believe that those votes are going towards the outcome. I believe that there's a secret society made up of, like the Rothschilds, the JP Morgans, the Kennedys, the elite, very wealthy people that run things for the last few hundred years in our country.
Speaker 2:I think they make the decision and I don't think it's based on votes. Now, if I'm wrong could be wrong, I don't know, but if I'm wrong and it is based on votes, then the other argument I have is well, there's a lot of room for human error in voting. In voting, you know what I mean In computer errors, in human, just human errors, just not doing something or doing something more than so. I'm very skeptical of our system, the way that it is, and you know, I don't know if it ever was. Maybe it started out like a good plan, but somewhere along the line I think the line's blurred and I don't. I don't think we're in control as much as we like to think that. That's just my opinion. I could be wrong. Have you ever read the book chaos?
Speaker 1:No, That'll change your mind about everything, that's for sure. If you had any faith in the system, chaos will destroy you.
Speaker 2:I don't have much faith in the system, so well, it's a chaos is about.
Speaker 1:it's about Manson and it's about um, the, the, the government basically created Manson and the government basically created Manson. And it's not even like they're stating facts. It's like this is stuff that went in front of our congressional hearings, that after the fact, and it's like holy shit, like they really did create Manson, that's great, and it goes on and on. But there's like that MKUltra. I'm sure you've heard of that right.
Speaker 1:MK ultra program. That's all part of that in that chaos book and chaos as a program also. And you start looking and you go, man, and that was in the sixties and they seem like they're way shadier now. That's in my opinion. I don't know, but they have more eyes on them now. They're probably just, they're probably just as shady back then.
Speaker 2:but yeah, I'm with you, I don't trust any of them yeah, I, I think humans you know by nature and it's hard to think like this. If you're just like a regular person, just trying to have a good life, you know what I mean and you know you were born, and then all of a sudden you're put in a system, no matter what system that is. You're put in a system we're in like a capitalist system and we have to do a, b and c in america to, to do this or whatever, and it could be a lot worse.
Speaker 2:I could be born in thailand, where my life's not worth much. You know what I mean to people. But whatever system you're born in, it's a system that is created already that you have to kind of conform to. So if you ever wonder like, why is there? Wonder like why is there so many homeless? Why is there so many people that have problems with their brains, have issues with mental health? Well, maybe their minds or their bodies can't handle the system. You know what I mean. It doesn't like the system and I don't blame them. You know what I mean, because this system is forced upon us, right? We don't have a say in it. You know, if you want to take a shower and live in a nice house with a clean bed, you got to figure out a way to learn capitalism, right? You have to learn the capitalist system and learn it to you.
Speaker 1:They're just giving you the barely the minimum, right? They're not giving you anything extra, right? I mean, I'm a conservative, that's my stance, I mean, and I stick by it. You know, I know a lot of people don't. I've lost, you know, customers that come into the bar from it, but not very many. But I'm kind of a blue collar bar and restaurant so it works out all right. They're okay with it. But at my soul I'm a conservative. I believe in everybody should work hard, and I think you'd have a lot less depression if you were just working at getting ahead and not sitting around. It seems like the mental issues are always with people that are sitting around hanging out, and you know they have too much free time, like you ever heard idle time, idle out. And you know, don't they have so too much free time like you ever heard idle time, idle mind.
Speaker 2:You know, that's what I think is the biggest problem I agree, I I think you should work, but that's just not how everybody's mind thinks. You know, um, and you know, at the end of the day, I mean, I don't know who should make these decisions, but I think the government makes a lot of bad decisions and when they make these decisions to try to fix problems, usually somebody down the line just siphons the money and takes it. You know, yeah, that's a fact. You know, if you want to talk about homeless stuff, like you know, where I live, there's a lot of homelessness and a lot of it is mental health, but some of it is not. And I want them to, I want everyone to work.
Speaker 2:I think you know I'm a big fan of, like Atlas Shrugged and you know, things of that nature and to be put into perspective, and I don't think everybody should get a handout. But I do think this, I do think this we have billionaires that will never be able to spend all that money right. They'll never be able to spend that money. Some of that money, I think could be used to help humankind out a little bit more in a little bit different direction. That's it, that's all I believe. I don't believe just giving it away to people, but figuring out a better way to help people is what being a human should be about.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean it's part of the problem is too right, like in California, you can go get a job in California and not afford a place to live. A decent job, a decent job and still not afford a place to live. It's so expensive. I have a friend down there and I mean he does well though. He's a comedian, he grew up with me, went to high school with me, Sean Natt, and he lives down there. He seems to be doing okay with it. His wife's an attorney and he's a comedian and I mean he works his ass off, she works their ass off.
Speaker 1:It's not like they're living, you know, high on the hog. You know that for the same kind of money you could live in Ohio or, even better, myrtle beach. Like my sister lives in Myrtle beach and she, I mean we like here to build a new house. You're talking 150 to 200 a square foot. You know my sister, where she built her house. It's like 90 in Myrtle Beach, I mean, and you're in Myrtle Beach compared to Ohio. So I mean that's you know, and maybe it went up a little bit since she built hers a couple years ago. But still, I mean you know what I'm saying. It just doesn't make sense why it's so damn expensive, and especially with everybody. There's a lot of people leaving California. You would think that the prices would come down with everybody leaving, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
Speaker 2:It's very expensive, but is it snowing where you live right now? Is it cold?
Speaker 1:It is cold. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, that's one reason why I live here, because I don't want to be in the cold, I want to be in.
Speaker 1:Florida and have the same. You could have a lot more freedoms in Florida than you can in California.
Speaker 2:I don't like Florida.
Speaker 1:No, you don't like it at all.
Speaker 2:No, I don't like Florida at all.
Speaker 1:A lot of them are moving to Texas. You know Austin. What Joe Rogan's got going on in Austin now is insane.
Speaker 2:He's got so many people moved down there now it's wild. I actually like Austin a lot and I like Texas. Property value is cheaper. Property taxes is higher than California, actually, I believe, but it's really hot there. The weather there is crazy.
Speaker 1:Crazy hot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:See, I'm different. I like the snow. I grew up in it. But I like the snow. I grew up in it, but I like no, I think it's, I think it's beautiful when it snows outside. I love it. It's cold, it's beautiful, I love it. Cold, I don't care for to. Snow is amazing, I love it. But our summers are, I mean, magical. I mean our summers you got. I mean I, I've got a boat, we've got lake erie. I can go anywhere I want on my boat, my jet skis, and I mean I, we love it, we got our. We keep our boat docked down at the marina and we can just get out and just, it's just. We got the islands you ever heard of put-in bay no it's a, it's an island.
Speaker 1:There's like three islands over there. It's like, uh, kelly's island, put-in bay is South Bass Island and then there's another one called Middle Bass Island. That are in the United States side. There's another one, perry Island, which that's on the Canadian side. But these islands are awesome. You can jump in my boat and like in 40 minutes I'm on an island with like 10 swim up bars. You know, wild party. No, like kids anywhere, you're just kicking and having a good time. It's fun, it's just a blast.
Speaker 1:Put-in-bay is one of the coolest places, one of the best kept secrets, I think, in the in the U S. You know it's, it's pretty wild. Have some good times there and it's so. I mean our summers are pretty cool. Yeah, you got to close the boat down in a summer, winter, and you've got to close your pool in the winter and all that stuff. But then you get to enjoy the snow and Christmas trees and I like it personally. I love it myself. I really do. That's one of my. You know, when you were down in Flint it must've been summertime, huh.
Speaker 2:We shot. Well, I go to Flint quite a bit because I do murals there with the Flint Public Art Project. So I've been there quite a few times and that's why we shot there, because I knew a guy with a house that looks like a haunted house, you know.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It looks like it's haunted, so we shot that in October and October is supposed to be a good month. You know october, and october is supposed to be a good month, you know, um, but we same thing. If you watch the movie as the movie's playing, like you could see sun reappearing and disappearing and that's all in the shot. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like so uh, and then it would rain and we actually had to add something in the movie about rain, you know what I mean, because it would rain and then it would stop and it would rain, you know. So it rained in october, um. But yeah, I, I, I have a. I have a place of my heart for flint, because I've been going there a long time and it's kind of like what you were saying, you know, with the mills leaving and stuff like that in Ohio. Obviously that's similar to Michigan in general, with the car industry, and you know they've had some tough times.
Speaker 2:Flint in particular, I mean as well as Michigan, but Flint and then the water thing that you briefly discussed too. So, yeah, they're the underdogs, you know, and I have some really good friends there and so hopefully I can go back and do another movie. Um, we were talking about doing a zombie movie there, so maybe, maybe that'll happen one day, but I, I have some good friends there. My assistant director lives there, meaning I, I bring him here, uh, to shoot because he's so good um.
Speaker 2:Um so, yeah, I, I like, I like Flint. I actually like Ohio too. I like, uh, uh, cleveland. I like a lot. Um, my buddy lives in Cleveland and I like any uh area that is by bodies of water. Do you know what I mean? Like it's just yeah and that's kind of how we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lorraine is, we're just West of Cleveland, so we're right on the lake, just like they are. We're the bigger mistake on the lake. But yeah, I mean it's cool, it's a cool town. I love it personally. I like the snow, I like the summers, I enjoy the summers I mean obviously the most but you really only enjoy them about four months a year or something to that effect, where, yeah, I get it, you're doing the sunny California thing. But I've never been there. So I can't say I wouldn't like California. I might would love it, who knows, but I've never been there.
Speaker 1:I certainly know I didn't like my daughter being there and it was expensive and it was like I think I was like seven of them had to put together to afford an apartment or something back then. You know it's pretty crazy and I think Nat, when he was there, when he first got there there was like something like he had like a flop house he was staying in with like 10 comedians or something you know. So it was. It's expensive to live there. That part I don't like. I know that I like to live as cheap as I possibly can. That way I can have freedom To me, the cheaper you can live, the more freedom you have. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Usually that equates correctly. I just don't know where else I'd move. I've lived up and down the West Coast, which I like the best, but me and my wife talk about it like, well, where else would we go? I don't know, because we're so accustomed to this. You know we're we're weak when it comes to weather. Like you know, I like looking at snow. I don't like shoveling it, you know I that's why you buy four by four trucks.
Speaker 1:You just I. My theory is God put it there, let him pick it up, and I'll buy a four by four, you know? Yeah, that's how I do it. You know, I just draw through it with four by four trucks. We just use trucks, but a lot of people like to get out there with their blower and have it neat. I'm not doing that. That is not happening. I got time for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the only thing that we could come up with is maybe somewhere in Europe or something uh, maybe Spain or Rome or somewhere like that, maybe to live or retire or I don't know just something. What did she do? What's that?
Speaker 1:What's your wife do?
Speaker 2:She's an artist too. Right now she's on a set. She's assisting, she's PA-ing really, but she's assisting for a music video. Today she's actually in the SAG union too, which is the actors union union actors guild. She's not an actor at all, but that was like her backup plan, um, and I actually met her on a set. I met her on that, that old tv show called uh boston public, if you remember okay yeah, I do remember that yeah, boston public.
Speaker 2:so that's how I met. We were both extras on it, just working, and that was her backup plan to just be an extra. But she's way more talented of an artist to waste her time doing that, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, so I guess we'll get back on this movie you got. You said you're going around doing a circuit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're doing the film festival circuit, the, so the film. So when you make a movie and you want to play it in festivals because you want to get awards, right, you want to show that it's got awards. People like that, you get more response from distributors and people want to see it more. Um, so we just actually played at the Chinese theater here in Hollywood and we won best horror film from the Silicon beach film festival, which was great, and then we played I went to Flint Michigan and played a half dead Fred, that movie, a double feature.
Speaker 2:I did that movie. And pancake man at the university and the university has a double feature. I did that movie. And Pancake man at the university and the university has a great theater. It's probably one of the best theaters I've shown any of my movies at. So, anyway, yeah, we're just trying to do that. The festival circuit usually takes about a year because these festivals are spread out all over, and I'm actually going to shoot a music video for it, for the end credit song, kind of like they did in the 90s, you know, and all the movies had like a music video with the actors in them and stuff like that. Sure, sure, I kind of like doing that. We did that for Half Dead Fred and that turned out good. You just kind of interweave your storyline with your musician, with the movie. It's kind of like another trailer for the movie in a weird way.
Speaker 1:You know, like hey, watch this that's kind of what you have, and I heard Half-Dead Fred, I heard too, you have like a drinking game attached to it.
Speaker 2:We do. We have a drinking game that goes with Half-Dead Fred. So in the movie our lead detective his name is freddie nash and he's played by corin nemick um, the drinking game goes like this you split the room up into two groups, group one and two. Group one drinks every time freddie nash drinks. So freddie nash is an alcoholic and he drinks from a flask quite a bit. Group one drinks when he drinks and group two drinks every time they hear the word Mr Yamasaki. And Mr Yamasaki is kind of like his assistant, his Watson, to Sherlock Holmes, if you will.
Speaker 1:He was like his driver right, his driver.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you got to watch it closely. Driver yeah, he's, but uh, you got to watch it closely. Like that's one of those movies where you kind of have to watch it all very closely because what you're seeing isn't exactly what it is, because it's all told from his perspective.
Speaker 1:So see, we should do that. If you're ever, if you're ever in the cleveland area in the summertime drinking, reach out to me and what we'll do is we'll set it up. I've got a 20 foot blow up screen and I'll put it out. I got an outdoor patio. I'll put it on the outdoor patio and we'll we'll put it on the 20 foot blow up screen and we'll have all the bar, you know, play the drinking game with it. That would be funny.
Speaker 2:That would be fun.
Speaker 1:If you ever come up. That would be cool. We'll do that. That would be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, when you hit me up yesterday I looked into your bar and I'm like, oh, this little town right here, and I like zoomed it in. You know what I mean. I'm like looking at it, I'm like, hmm, when will I be up there next? You know? Because ironically now it's been maybe two years, but I shot a movie in Indianapolis, in indianapolis, and what. I guess it was just easier for me to fly to cleveland you know what I mean and drive over there. I did this drive or whatever, and I'm all man if they do a screening of that movie. When I go out there for the premiere I should go visit this guy, james, over here. I was like thinking in my head, like that's kind of like how my brain works. I kind of go into overdrive and think about oh, it would be fun.
Speaker 1:Everybody here, all the local, all the regulars here, they'd love it. They would think that was hilarious. I look any any excuse to drink. I mean any of my friends or any of my patrons. They just if they got an excuse to drink, they're going to do it and They'll love it for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, drinking games are good. We have one for the new movie too. It's cause my new movie, this pancake man movie, you know, our lead guy is stabbing people with a fork, right, okay, and so that's like one of the things. If you same thing, you do two groups and every time we've only played this once, by the way, and the people that were in group one that got stabbed or whatever with a fork, they drink every time a fork stabs somebody. They couldn't do it there's too many times. And then the other one, I think, is anytime somebody mentions a dog. I think that was it, I don't know. I got to go look at my drinking when did this pancake man even come from.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great question. So I was on set with this buddy of mine and we were all just kind of joking around and he, he is a vegan and this is the lead in the movie Pancake man. He is a vegan, his name is Michael De La Pia and he's a vegan, but he loves pancakes. He eats pancakes a lot. Right, it's just a thing. This was a couple years ago. A few years ago, we're on set in a studio and we're joking around.
Speaker 2:I was with a couple other actors that we all know each other from different movies, that we all know each other from different movies, and I forget who said like well, who would he be if he was a killer? And I started saying Pancake man. I started calling him Pancake man. So it started like a joke, right, in which a lot of movies do start like this. They start as jokes, so it's kind of a joke. And then what had happened was is he was in the works of a slasher movie. He was trying. He was trying to make a. I think it was a slasher movie, it was a horror movie with him being the lead, and the script wasn't working out. I read the script. It was by somebody else it wasn't working out and I was like you know what I what? I think I can write something. I think I can write a slasher, which I don't even like slashers, to be honest.
Speaker 2:If you watch my movies, they're not like really horror movies. Like even half dead fred it fits in the horror category but it's not. It's a film noir. It's a mystery, it's a whodunit, it's who killed this person. Then it's a buddy film. It's him and this guy. So I don't necessarily really enjoy, uh, horror, horror movies. And the reason why is the script usually sucks to me. You know what I mean. Like I just don't like the storyline. Like having somebody just walk around killing people is not enough for me.
Speaker 1:It's really not I don't know though, because scream, that was quite amazing scream had more of a story there was more to me. I was the only horror movie I really cared for also it was a comedy yeah, I do like I'm a funny I like comedy, for sure I mean I love evil dead 2 and army of darkness.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. I love those movies, but you know I don't like movies like uh, have you seen midsomer? No, okay, don't, because I hate that movie. You know what I mean. Anyway, I'm not a scary movie guy.
Speaker 1:I've never been into the scary movies at all.
Speaker 2:It's never been my thing well, I'm not into, you know, I'm into good stories. If it's scary, fine, fine, you know what I mean, I'll take it If it's a good story, if it's an original story, you know that's what I hold first. Then I look at the you know acting and the you know all the other things. I look at story first. So back to Pancake man. I just read this script and I'm all. I think I can write a better slasher. So I started writing it and I'd send him 15 pages. Send him 20 pages.
Speaker 1:Well, what do you think?
Speaker 2:you know, should I keep going, should I stop, whatever? And he liked it and we just kind of it kind of built from there, started as a joke, um, and it's heavily influenced by, like, guy Ritchie movies. Have you seen the movie Falling Down? Have you seen that movie? It's influenced by that movie, falling Down, where a guy gets pushed to the edge and then he just goes on a rampage and it's just a little bit more severe because this guy is actually killing people.
Speaker 2:But the way I do it is kind of like Reservoir Dogs, so I show a killing scene and then I show a flashback of why he would kill those people. Slumdog Millionaire did that a lot too, like he gets the answer correct and then they show why he got the answer correct. I kind of did that format. But I say Guy Ritchie movie because a lot of Guy Ritchie movies are failed criminals and that's has a lot to do with this movie. But it's like different stories and they all meet at the end and a Mexican standoff, very Pulp Fiction-y, you know what's another, have you seen Snatch? Snatch is like that. That's a Guy Ritchie movie.
Speaker 1:I think I have seen that. Actually it's been a while, though. I love Snatch. Snatch is like that. That's a Guy Ritchie movie.
Speaker 2:I think I have seen that actually it's been a while, though I love Snatch. Yeah, I just take influence from my favorite Does your wife know that I love Snatch oh, she knows, I love Snatch and then Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a very good movie. So anyway, yeah, I kind of combine all my favorite stuff and then I.
Speaker 1:What I try to do is focus on the scenes and write good scenes and develop the character. How do you come up with the money to do it, though? If you're just basically like working to live and do your thing, you're not like really making money off the projects, where do you end up with the money? Well, I think.
Speaker 2:I mean, we made a lot of money off the projects. Where do you end up with the money? Um, well, I, I think we'll. I mean, we made a lot of money off the uh premiere we made. We made money off the premiere. Listen, there's money to be made. It's just you got to figure out how to do it right.
Speaker 2:Just because at this moment I've made the most in the dvd world doesn't mean that's not going to be surpassed. You know what I mean. It's a, it's a long game. So, uh, I consistently make money on half dead Fred, just not the money that you'd want. You know what I mean. Like, uh, I think our first two weeks we made a couple thousand and then if we made a couple thousand every two weeks, that would work out great. You know what I mean. But it doesn't work. Work like that. It goes in like these spurts, because your distribution gets different deals all the time. So it's like it's just like little things come in. You know what I mean. It's like little gigs. You know it goes up and down, up and down, up and down uh, do you edit the video to yourself?
Speaker 2:I edit. I added these two movies. Yeah, I, I save a lot of money by doing a lot of jobs. Um, to answer your question, we did an Indiegogo for Half Dead Fred and we did an Indiegogo for Pancake man, two for each.
Speaker 1:What's an Indiegogo? What does that mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, indiegogo is a website that you can raise money for projects, for films and other type of projects, and Indiegogo has a huge film community that all uh well, most of them support each other and it's a small little world. You run into a lot of the same people, um, and you donate money to make films happen, really. And so we raised, I believe half Half Dead Fred, I think, got 17 grand, and then we made a follow-up for five grand. I think it made a little over 20 towards that one, and then Pancake man made double that. So will it finance the whole movie? Probably not, but it's good for marketing and it's good to get some of your budget for having these projects made. But if you do these and people donate, or people know about it or people see it, um, they're already rooting for you before you even make the movie. Do you know what I?
Speaker 1:mean sure, yeah, that makes sense, yeah so it's a good business model.
Speaker 2:Uh, there's a lot of little chinks in the armor. There's a lot of you know things you got to go through you know a little red tape here and there to make the best project possible. But I do think it's a good um thing to do if you're an independent filmmaker and you don't know somebody that's rich. When the first movies I made, I just borrowed the money from drug dealers. You know what I mean Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When I made my what does White Ninja mean?
Speaker 1:Are you trying to say? Is that like code for wigger?
Speaker 2:No, not necessarily.
Speaker 1:Not necessarily is a yes for sure, it has to be.
Speaker 2:Right, not necessarily, or is it like it?
Speaker 1:has to be, not necessarily.
Speaker 2:It stemmed more from my graffiti-related stuff than that I think. Just because I'm white, maybe you think that, but it's more for.
Speaker 1:I've seen you did some kind of hip-hop stuff too. You were doing a lot with some. What was that?
Speaker 2:It's like you did some kind of rap thing or something. Right, I've done comedy raps myself and I know a ton of people in the music industry that I do graphic design for and music videos for, and you know all kinds of stuff, if you, if you watch our music video for half dead fred, uh, it's a rap song and it's the end credit song. Maybe I'll send that to you later.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I have a big. I love hip hop. You know what I mean. I've definitely been on tour with. I've been on tour with the Roots, ll Cool J Tribe Called Quest De La Soul A lot of big rap groups in my time. So I'm a fan of rap music.
Speaker 1:Yeah I am, oh that's. I grew up on rap music, for sure I'm a little older than you. I was like more like utfo and roxanne, roxanne type stuff a little bit before. You know, I mean not that I I love dre and snoop and all that when they came out, but I mean my younger years was too short and houdini and utfo and you know and all that when they came out, but I mean my younger years was Too Short and Houdini and UTFO, and you know that was my young years. I never really liked anything else. And then as I got older I got into rock a little bit more and country and stuff like that. But as a kid I was all rap, all hip-hop.
Speaker 2:I love rap and I think I loved it more when I was a kid. You know I have an older cousin who made me mixtapes and he introduced me to like NWA Too Short Ice-T, sir Mix-A-Lot, you know he had all these things and it's like it's like gold back then. Do you know what I mean? Because before the internet it was a different game of distribution. You know. I mean a different game of how you know things. How do you find out things? You know?
Speaker 1:so because a lot of those guys weren't on the radio, a lot of that music wasn't on the radio, so you had to yeah, you had to get it through a tape or whatever you want to call it. You had to get it. Do you listen to any other kind of music at all?
Speaker 2:I listen to a lot of punk rock music, um, and I'm pretty heavily involved in that as well, uh as, far as you know who the spud monsters are spud monsters no like don foosie I do not john joseph.
Speaker 1:You know, john joseph is no chromags in new york theMags are.
Speaker 2:I painted a mural with a Cro-Mags poster on it here in Long Beach.
Speaker 1:Oh, really. Yeah, John Joseph is actually supposed to be on the podcast in, I think, february. He's going to come up and do the podcast. He's going to do some book signings here and stuff like that. He's got that book. I forget all the different books, I know the one's funny. It's called Meat is for Pussies. He's a vegan. John Joseph, he's got one called Meat is for Pussies. And then Don Fousey was on just recently, which is Don Fousey is the one that he's also a vegan. But he was the lead singer of the Spud Monsters, which they're big in germany and europe. They're still played in mtv there and he's actually in a group called uh one life all in right now and that's a he's with a bunch of french guys and uh, pretty good music I mean really good music, if you like, punk music, that's, that's what they do I do like punk music?
Speaker 2:um, I've been in a few punk rock uh music videos as well. Um, I'll send you those later, uh. But uh, what's the movie that's coming out or just came out with? I think it's like the drummer, the guy that was a kid drummer, and then he, like I think he was in the crow mags, right yeah, there's something coming out.
Speaker 1:I saw about that yeah I kind of want to see that through him, that through don foos. Don foos is from cleveland. Spud monsters were from cleveland. They were. They were intertwined with mushroom head. You know, mushroom head is no no, really, wow, okay, all right, I don't know what music is in the west coast must be different, yeah, yeah, well, I don't know if it's different the West Coast, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if it's different, but I'm not going to know local bands in Cleveland. I used to live next to SST Records, so that's like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Mushroomhead and Bud Monsters is, I mean geez Don Foose has traveled to 23 countries. I mean he's on MTV, he's a big deal. You what I mean? Or was at one time.
Speaker 2:You know I grew up with like bad religion and pennywise and no effects and um. You know those kind of bands, uh, descendants yeah, I think that's about predating him.
Speaker 1:I think he's more after that. You probably that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're predating him for sure yeah, those are the groups that I, you know, kind of like loved when I was a kid and I still listen to a lot of them. I just I, and I know a lot of these people now. I, like a buddy of mine was the drummer in the vandals, uh, the drummer in no effects, eric, I, I know, um, as well as fat Mike. Fat Mike married me. I got married at the punk rock museum.
Speaker 1:Uh yeah.
Speaker 2:And fat Mike was my officiant, so he was drinking tequila. So, yeah, I mean I obviously don't know every punk band, but, um, I got some friends in punk bands. Uh, I was in a few music videos from Fat Records and just too many to name really. I'll send them to you later at another time, but I do like punk music. I'm not going to know every band, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's not really my thing. I've never been into it. I listen to it just because of Fousey and John Joseph. I listen to those specifically to hear their music. Now Fousey's music that he has One Life All In now. They are more for me Like that's more my style, it's a little better than. But I mean these guys are older guys. They're freaking vegans. They're flying on stage, jumping and crazy. It's like makes you want to change your diet, that's for sure. You know what I mean. I could see, like I could see, changing my diet for that reason. They look like they're living a lot healthier life than me. My joints are hurting. I got gout, I got. You know I'm eating too much meat and drinking too much beer, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you get older man, you gotta like uh, you know, take care more I. I just had an MRI the other day, just to you know, just for precautions, and uh seems like.
Speaker 1:I'm saying MRI, you just got a precautionary MRI.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted to see if I had like cancer. I'm diabetic, so I I shoot up insulin, you know, and uh, I just want to make sure that I don't have pancreatic cancer or any other cancer, uh, but yeah, I just yeah, man, I just uh want to be safe, you know yeah, I never heard of anybody doing that, just for fun well, actually it was fun, uh, because I watched seinfeld the whole time.
Speaker 2:it only took like 30 minutes and I watched an episode of Seinfeld when I was in that thing, so it was actually not bad.
Speaker 1:I'm a big Seinfeld fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I was in high school we had Seinfeld parties. People would come over and we'd just watch Seinfeld and I just miss those kind of days, you know, when you had to actually get together to do something.
Speaker 1:And wait for the episode. You know all that. It's coming out. I forget what seinfeld was wednesday night. I don't, I can't remember, but I know we would have to like get that. You were waiting for that day. You know that was when it was no different than you know compared to now it's. You know you would wait and wait, hoping for that episode to come out or whatever. That that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, sometimes they do that. Uh, I watched the show called only murders in the building on Hulu and they did that where it's like it's coming out on Tuesdays. So it kind of reminded me of that nostalgia where you had to wait till the next week, you know? Um, if you haven't seen that, I recommend at least the first two or three seasons. It's with Steve Martin and Martin Short.
Speaker 1:How is this changing you, you think, and your future, like your plans moving forward? Have you had to rethink? You know what I mean, how you were thinking 15 years ago? I mean because it's just so different now. It's not like there's not, NBC is nothing. Now you don't even want to contract with NBC, You'd rather have it with Netflix or Hulu. You know what I mean. It's like so weird now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know the whole business model, when you're talking about business side, is very skewed. I mean it's probably better to go the OnlyFans route, where you just create your own business and run it. You know, kind of like what you're doing with your podcast. Um, I think some of the most successful people are doing that. Like, look at joe rogan, you know like he's getting signed for millions of dollars. I think that's the same thing in the entertainment world in general.
Speaker 2:Ai is affecting things. Um, technology is affecting things. Like 15 years ago I couldn't make a movie on my phone. Right now I can. So it's gonna do two things it's gonna saturate the market and it's also going to just take the pay rates. I think are just gonna adjust because there's not enough money for you. Just don't get a return. You can't sell dvds anymore. Um, most of the time you'll lose money at a theater release. You know those two things are huge. So streaming is, you know, the future. But streaming is also not a viable way of collecting money for the actual filmmaker. It might be a viable way for the company. You know Netflix probably is doing good their stock's okay but I don't think it's good for the filmmaker.
Speaker 1:And that could change, though that's the problem. It's so fluid right now. You don't know what the next step is, where it's really going to be profitable, to who and how, how the system that it's going to be. That's going to be profitable Cause it's. It's so open to air. There's so many different platforms and processes and it's just so different.
Speaker 1:Now it's unbelievable to me that what it is and these, like, like the, you know honestly. You know what movies I watch. I I'll be honest with you. This is something that and it is hopefully maybe it'll help you. But you know what movies I end up watching. It's the movies that I end up catching a three minute reel or tiktok of a scene and I watch and I think, oh, wow, and then you can't see what it is. You got to go to the comments to figure out what movie it is or whatever, and then I ended up going and buying it on voodoo and I mean that's, that's, that's how I end up. That's the movies I end up picking. I mean that's a weird way to advertise and it don't cost nothing, but I mean it's there, that's an option, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the same thing as watching a trailer or making a trailer. It's just the places that you put the trailer are different and normally the time is much shorter that you want to put out, because younger people don't have the attention span to watch longer than you know 20 seconds or so. But you know, like the trailer that we made for Pancake man, like that's what you saw right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like a content is king kind of mentality, I think, and it, but it is the same thing as playing a trailer and that trailer should get you to want to watch the whole thing, right. But in the future it's like I think what will happen is ai will be such a tool that whoever makes the most content will end up getting more views and then they market it. Marketing is key to any of these things we're discussing. You know any, anything you want to do, art wise or or business wise or anything, falls back on how many eyes are on it, because so many different humans have different perspectives of life that you get things in the viewing point of a right human, you can go really far.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, sure. I just was wondering how it affected you. Is there anything that you've used to do any screen like any scenes in a movie at all through AI?
Speaker 2:Not, not AI. The only thing AI that I've used is I've made songs for that trailer that you saw. I made that song through AI. I wrote the lyrics and then I did all these plugins to make it sound like an ACDC slash, whatever you know and it came out pretty goddamn good. I'm actually really surprised how good music I can make just by saying a few words. That's the only AI stuff that I've implemented so far, but the stuff that I've seen that people are doing is scary, so it's going to rely.
Speaker 1:We've done a couple of things where we've messed with it, videos that we've made with it and it's actually good. It's wild what it can do. I mean, I could see where you could snip it and put it into a scene and save yourself all kinds of time, energy and actors. You know what I mean? Yeah, I can see it and that's amazing to me actually.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's going to happen Because one of the biggest problems on any set, on any movie, on any large project or whatever entertainment wise, is humans. All the producers are going to do that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So Well, you get rid of the cost, you get rid of the attitude, you get rid of everything. I mean you get rid of the food you get rid of. I mean there's so much you get rid of Insurance.
Speaker 2:I don't have to you know we're human beings like Tom Cruise and those people.
Speaker 1:There's more in the insurance for cruise film, for tom cruise not breaking his leg, probably than the whole budget of my movie.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, even more if he's working with alex baldwin. Yeah, alec baldwin, yeah, yeah, alec baldwin, uh is not looking good. I mean I don't want to laugh about it because, but yeah, that's pretty brutal, it's that's. I don't use any real guns. Uh, I don't do anything like that. I do fake guns when they're shooting plastics, plastic little guns yeah, why would they use real guns?
Speaker 1:I mean why? I don't understand like. I mean, I guess to make it look more realistic well, I mean, you can see probably in the trailer.
Speaker 2:I think my guns look realistic enough for me.
Speaker 1:I think they look fine yeah, right, right, right, yeah, are you do? You need it do you own guns or no?
Speaker 2:uh, technically I do. Um, I learned how to use guns at a young age, so, but rifles mainly, not handguns. But I don't have those guns or any real gun on me. They're all at my parents' house, far away.
Speaker 1:No, okay, you can't carry in California right.
Speaker 2:You can. There's a lot of little loopholes you got to jump through for a concealed carry or an open carry. It's just tougher in California, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wondered. I didn't know. I don't know how the laws work over there exactly. I know that's something for me. I got to have guns with me everywhere I go. I got a gun on my hip right now as we're talking.
Speaker 2:I know really oh, yeah, always what do you think you need this gun for?
Speaker 1:because you never know when something could happen from another person with a gun yeah or anything. I mean, maybe as a knife, I don't know. Maybe you know, maybe there's six of them and they want to take something I have or hurt my family.
Speaker 2:Huh, is it that dangerous in Ohio?
Speaker 1:It's never that dangerous anywhere that that stuff happens Every time. You see it. They're always saying in a neighborhood like mine, can you believe it? I mean that's the way I see it. And I mean owning a bar. I leave out of here with some cash sometimes. You know what I mean, I do. You know owning a bar. I do leave with some cash on occasion. And yeah, I mean I work construction in Cleveland in some pretty rough areas on occasion. You know what I mean. But yeah, I just I don't know. I just, yeah, a gun isn't, it's not there for offense, it's there for defense and it's to me at any given time.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be stuck in a situation where I mean where something could happen that could you know that somebody has an upper hand because he has a gun. You know what I mean? Or it just doesn't seem, I don't. And I just yeah, I'm gonna always try and level the playing field. Now, granted, I'll tell you, I'll be the first one to tell you I don't want to shoot somebody. Or it just doesn't seem. I just yeah, I'm going to always try and level the playing field. Now, granted, I'll tell you, I'll be the first one to tell you. I don't want to shoot somebody. That's not. That would be. I don't want to do that even a little bit. You'll never see me on the news shooting somebody in the back when they're running away.
Speaker 1:Once they ran away, I'll be happy with that. I'm not that person, I'm not, but I'm not. But I definitely want to be able to feel safe. I want my family to feel safe. I want everybody to feel safe. Yeah, absolutely. The guns aren't there for a planned situation, they're there for the unplanned. That's, to me, is my biggest thing with a gun. You know they're there for unplanned situations. In Ohio, everybody's allowed to walk with a gun everywhere. They don't even have to have a concealed carry permit or anything.
Speaker 2:You just get a gun and walk around with it in your pocket, so you never know who has it, you know? Yeah, I guess I would feel more worried because I've just had a bunch of. I've had in my life when I was a kid. I had a bunch of brushings with the law over graffiti related stuff and I feel paranoid if I had a gun on me. I think I'd be more worried about the police fucking with me than another human well, I'm a law-abiding citizen, so I wouldn't break a law with the gun right right.
Speaker 1:I mean I, I only do what's legal. So I mean I'm not gonna go break a law and have a gun on me. I mean that's not like I'm not gonna. You're not gonna catch me drinking and driving with a gun on my hip. That's not going to happen. Oh, you're not going to catch me drinking and driving anyways, but I mean definitely not with a gun on my hip.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just saying that it probably come from. I just come from a paranoid space. You know what I mean. I think my whole life has been a little paranoid about that and I feel like if I have a gun on my hip it's inviting problems. But I mean, I've been robbed at. Let's see, I used to work at a movie theater a long time ago here, when I first moved here. I got a gun stuck to my head at the movie theater and obviously I wouldn't be able to have a gun on my hip at a movie theater. But I'm just saying, uh, I have been robbed with a gun and uh, I don't even know his gun actually. Uh, because he was so close to me, you know what I mean. Uh, just like, what are you doing? I was like trying to clean something and I was like what are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm you know, anyway, um, and so I know it's possible, I guess, to you know, be in situations that you don't want to be in, where there's a somebody with a gun. Well, typically somebody in a bad neighborhood, that's what everybody's argument is always like is your neighborhood that bad?
Speaker 1:typically, somebody in a bad neighborhood that's what everybody's argument is always like is your neighborhood that bad? I grew up in a bad neighbor. I grew up in the projects. I grew up in project housing and I promise you we weren't robbing each other. I mean, there was nothing to steal in our neighborhood. You had to go somewhere else to steal and rob people.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean so so I mean, being in a better neighborhood doesn't help you a whole lot, unless it's gated or you know, and you got security guard, which that's a whole another level that I'm not on. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm definitely pro-gun, I think you know. I think everybody should have them. You know what you know.
Speaker 2:It levels the playing field, you know well, you know, the only thing about that is not everybody has the mindset of what you just said. Oh yeah, if he runs away I'm not going to shoot him in the back. You know, there's plenty of people that I think in the world that have a different mentality of what having a gun is and what they want to do with it. So if everybody had one, I wouldn't like that. If everybody had one, I would have to have one. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:But you have to assume everybody does already. At least the criminals do. So there's where I sit with you. I'm agreeing with you. I just assume they have them, just in case. I just assume they're there and out.
Speaker 1:I'm in a bar. I've seen it enough I've had. I seen we had a fight breakout in the, in the, in the field behind the bar the one time and as this fight breaks out, a guy pulls a gun out of his pocket. He'd been sitting there drinking all night, look like a young kid nice enough kid and he's got sweatpants on. He's got a pistol in his pocket, pulls it out. I'm like'm like, what the hell? This isn't pistol worthy. Get out of here. You know what I mean. But yeah, you never know who has it. You just don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, you're right, you don't know, right.
Speaker 1:And that's that's why I have to have it. That's my wife. My wife has a carry. I mean, that's just how, that's how I am. I'm that, I'm that guy. You know a hundred percent. I feel safety is an issue, and before she was 21, she had a taser.
Speaker 2:So I have a taser for our movie, but I got one of those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're fun. We got them here at the bar. We got everybody. There was a bunch of guys drunk tasing each other one night. It was pretty funny. They're tasing each other and nuts in the side, all kinds of stuff, and who can handle it, that's funny yeah, there are a bunch of bunch of characters down here in this bar for sure. So what's you got another? What's this project you want to do with the cell phone? Do you know already?
Speaker 2:yeah, I do, um, we're casting for it now. Uh, this movie is called um fear anonymous, which kind of fits under the same. You know genres of stuff I've been doing, um, but it's uh, it's a pretty simple concept. Uh, the concept is there's a group, um kind of like an alcoholics anonymous meeting, but they discuss their traumas and their fears you know what they're uh afraid of and a stranger comes in the group and, uh, it kind of goes into like an anthology where everybody tells their own story and then the stranger at the end kind of tells his story and then the stranger kind of like walks through and does a little bit better than the moderator to help people solve their issues, and then it, and then it kind of comes back to the stranger and his story of his quote unquote roommate, which is a hypothetical character, is really about himself and he is a murderer and he kills everybody in the room at the end of this film. So there's, there's the reveal.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I read all my slasher movies.
Speaker 2:Right, um, and yeah, flasher movies right. Well, I, like I said I'm into the story. Do you know what I mean? If I can make the good story something that is more original you know, you try to be as original as possible, um and is captivating, is watching every, every scene. Scene is important. Character development, caring about this character. I don't like this character. I do like this character. I want this one to live, I want this one to die. All those things are way more important to me than saying it's a slasher or a horror or a ghost movie. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Is it harder to make a movie in California than it is to like in Michigan? As far as you, harder to make a movie in California than it is to like in Michigan, as far as you know, like they have the screen actors guild, so there's kind of like the unions there to kind of mess with you a little bit when you're making a movie and you know, I I've done union films and I've done non-union films.
Speaker 2:And for me it's easier to do a non-union film, uh, because the sag unions very backed up and they don't accordingly, they don't like handle your movie accordingly Like they should like, meaning they don't approve actors on time. Uh, communication is difficult, so I try to not make union movies, um, or hire somebody that just deals with that. You know what I mean. Hire a producer that just deals with the union, because I don't want to deal with them um.
Speaker 1:So if you make a non-union movie in california, they're not harassing you and bothering you about it?
Speaker 2:no, absolutely not really wow yeah, absolutely not.
Speaker 2:You just um a lot of times you can't get bigger actors, you know what I mean. Mean You're going to have to get a smaller known actor because most big actors are in the union and they just have to join the union. Like, I've been eligible to join the union for years but I've never wanted to join the union because it doesn't benefit me. They don't benefit me, they don't get me jobs. You know what I mean. They don't get me work at all. So I kind of stay clear of that, unless one day I get an offer that I have to join the union to take the offer, then I would consider it.
Speaker 2:It's also quite expensive to pay union dues. So, yeah, so I try not to do union. But to answer your question, it's just as easy to shoot here as in michigan or ohio or anywhere where you want to go. A lot of times people go off tax incentives, whatever the state has to give you for tax incentives. But wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, just go to the place that you have the most resources. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I just had a lot of resources in flint michigan so we did it in flint mich, Michigan, and the architecture looks good there and you know it's just a different vibe. I don't think this movie would be the same if we had the setting in California, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I just, I just I guess, assumed I guess I cause I'm from the Cleveland area, so I and I'm a union carpenter is what I was my whole life. So I mean, I just think of what goes on with union work and non-union work as a carpenter in construction and I just thought that you know maybe that I guess I assume that they were out there fighting you guys when you tried to make a movie, non-union it would make sense in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Uh man, so first of all, the union. People are concerned about money, right? So if I had like 10 million dollars and I wanted to make a non-union film, maybe somebody would care. But the only reason they could care is if I had union actors on the project. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:yeah, I guess I mean they could still care like we have. We have non-union carpenters working on projects. They'll still put a big blow-up rat and pick at our job. You know what I mean? Why, that's because they don't want you doing work in their city without it being union.
Speaker 2:But cleveland's a strong why, though, why, why, why would you have to join a union to do work?
Speaker 1:that's ridiculous protecting their work is what it is. That's the whole. The unions are there supposedly protecting your work.
Speaker 2:That's what they're supposed to be there for but that's why would you, why would you have to join a club to work? Why?
Speaker 1:Um, I I don't know the answer to that. I mean you get the, you get the. It's a wonderful way to do it. Honestly, if I'm being honest, I mean the thing that's nice about being as a carpenter. I mean I'm not talking about, I don't know nothing about acting but the nice thing about being a carpenter is I can work for a guy for 10 years and leave and nothing changes.
Speaker 1:I go to work for the next company and he's a union shop and my benefits are still there, my pension is still there. I mean it just moves with me and that's a plus. I mean especially cause contractors go out of business and things like that, things of that nature. Um, so yeah, I mean especially because contractors go out of business and things like that, things of that nature. So yeah, I mean to me it's always been the benefit. You make the most money and get the most benefits that way. So yeah, I would work that way. I have both a non-union company and I've worked in the union. I've done both. I'm not saying I haven't done both. In fact, they've had to rat at my job sites when I had my company at one time. So but yeah, I mean Do they pick it.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? Oh okay, so union people come out and they say they're non-union people working here and we want the work.
Speaker 1:Correct they want it to be. They want, yeah, we want the work Correct, they want it to be. They want yeah, this is a non-union company that pays unfair wages and labor practices and this and that. But the problem is that nowadays the problem is is that the like, especially with the carpenters and you know acting? I have no clue Again, I don't know anything about it, but with the carpenters they have such a legacy cost at this point where and the numbers aren't there you know the numbers never increased in the carpenters union, so you had a lot more union carpenters in the 60s than you do today.
Speaker 1:So the legacy cost is so outrageous that a non-union company can come out and actually pay you more money, give you more benefits because they're not paying all these old pensions and things like that that are, you know, set back and you know, have all those huge legacy costs. So there are companies out there now that will actually pay you better and you can have a better career with them. The problem is you can't take it with you, you're with that company and whatever is going on there, your time served and stuff doesn't count where it does in the union, you know, going on there, your time served and stuff doesn't count where it does in the union.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, I guess I've just never really been involved in a union because for sure, the sag uh, which they, they're not even a union. In fact the name stands for screen actors guild, because they I don't think legally they can call themselves a union, because they're not fighting for anybody's jobs. Do you know what I mean? They're not trying to-.
Speaker 1:Oh see, that's where I'm screwed up. I thought they were. I assume they were. That's when I hear union. That's what I just. That's what their job's supposed to be.
Speaker 2:Nope, they don't fight for anybody to get work. What they're fighting for is, if the actors are in the guild, then they want to get a piece of the money that that actor is getting paid, uh, in dues. You know, um, if it's a union set and rules are not being followed which there's a ton of rules on union sets, like meaning, like break times have to be here for lunches have to be, you know, made, or whatever, bathrooms have to be available. You know, there's all these little rules. If, if they go to a union set and those rules aren't being uh followed, then they can cause you problems. But there's no way the sag union can come to my movie set that's a non-union project and tell me anything uh, but they could pick at you.
Speaker 1:They could pick at you and through the power of social media, they could say hey, don't, don't go watch this guy's movie, don't give him any money. He, he's people, non-union, using unfair labor practices. That's what they could do. And if they were a good union, that's what they would be doing.
Speaker 2:I've never seen. I've never seen the SAG union pick it Any. I don't. I don't have enough money for them to care. If I was like I said, if I was making at least like $10 million movies, maybe they'd care. But who would pick it? Other actors? That's a fast way to get blackballed in the casting world. You know what I mean If you're like out there picketing movies. I've never seen that happen.
Speaker 1:I never, never yeah, I'm just curious. I don't know how it works. That's. That's why I wondered like, when you recorded in flint, I thought maybe he did that to avoid dealing with sag, or whatever. You know, I thought maybe that was the case. Uh, you know, obviously it doesn't sound like that's the case at all. I I just didn't realize that. I I just assumed for some reason that that was how it would work no, most people don't, don't care.
Speaker 2:Michigan doesn't give a shit. I tried to reach out to their film offices and their tax incentives and stuff like that and nobody ever got back to me.
Speaker 2:I think I got one response that said hey, we got your message and we're looking into it, and just nothing. So Michigan actually isn't people's favorite place to go film at this moment. If they bring back the tax incentives, uh, maybe one day it will, because I think at one time it did have some um, but right now, uh, what's really big? Like atlanta was big for a while, I think new mexico is really big right now. Giving tax incentives, that's where usually filmmakers go. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where they get the tax incentives. I think I heard that they were going to start doing that in Ohio, but I don't know if they actually ever did. But I do remember seeing an article that said that they were going to do Because Ohio has some pretty, there's some pretty good roots for actors and musicians. In Ohio, like in Clevelandveland, there's a big acting school that's there. If I remember, was it. Tom hanks went there, I think.
Speaker 1:I think he lived in lakewood and went there and then cincinnati was their arts district in cincinnati is you know, it's pretty impressive actually, like they've got a high-end music school there that people come to just for you know their music school, that they have. They travel the world, you know what I mean. So they have some, and then, like artsy-wise, like we have Oberlin College. Which have you ever heard of Oberlin College?
Speaker 2:I haven't.
Speaker 1:It's about 20 minutes from my house, about 15 minutes 20 minutes from my house, but it's the first college to ever allow women to go to college. They're the first ones that accept women and they're very liberal arts college, for sure.
Speaker 1:I mean and it's like I, chelsea Clinton's boyfriend was there, danny DeVito's kids were there, like so I mean there's some, there's some some good roots in this area, um, and I'd like to see them do more of it around here. I mean, we did do a couple. I know cleveland did that. What was the one that they were doing down there? Was it marvel? I think it was marvel was doing a movie in cleveland oh they took road signs and stuff down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was marvel. Yeah, that would that did it. So there's been big ones.
Speaker 2:That's a big movie, that that brings a lot of money to the area. You know what? What I mean.
Speaker 1:A Marvel movie. Oh yeah, they came in and redid the signs on the buildings on the roads. They had to put them back. But I mean, yeah, they were basically turning downtown Cleveland into Metropolis. You know what I mean. So it was pretty neat. We all loved watching it. Go on.
Speaker 2:Which is surprising that they did that. Practical, because nowadays, like we were talking about AI, you can just do that or CGI. Actually, you can just do that with CGI change a street sign and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:It's a lot easier. You got that skill.
Speaker 1:Now you got that skill.
Speaker 2:I've changed signs not moving. But I mean I do Photoshop and Illustrator and I worked on a project where I just change signs around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's easy. I need to learn how to edit more with my podcast. I'd like to do a lot more editing with it. There's a guy named ed timeko that's I've talked, reached out to, that wants me to send him the videos and then he'll edit them and put them out there, and we haven't heard about price yet, but that's a recent conversation we've had.
Speaker 1:But I I would like to get somebody to edit the podcast for me when they go out, because I I usually record it. However, I record it and it just goes out. I mean, that's just how I do it. I don't, I don't cut it or edit it, or it'd be nice to get it. It'd be nice to do like, especially with this, like while we're doing right now. It'd be nice if it was edited to the fact where, like, when I'm talking it's only me and when you're talking it's only you, or oh, you know what I mean. I think it would be nice to have. I can do a little bit of that with obs when you're in studio, but riverside I don't have as much freedom with that.
Speaker 2:So and where do you get most of your audience?
Speaker 1:do you notice like which platforms most of my audience comes through facebook. Right now I get a lot of views on, like, say, tiktok and youtube shorts and things like that, but most of what I get is on facebook because, like my bar has like 9 000 followers at my bar that follow my bar and the bar talk page only has like maybe six or 700 or something. On Facebook and YouTube I don't have a whole lot of followers yet, but we get typically when we go out on the Facebook we typically get about 1100 to 1200 views on a podcast, which is pretty good for for that. And then the audio versions. They don't do what they used to since I started doing video. They might get 30 or 40 out of the audio versions, but you know that's because everybody goes and watches the video format of it. So, yeah, but I, I, I, I wanted to go bigger, I wanted to do better.
Speaker 1:There's some talk with. I'm actually supposed to meet with somebody this coming up week. There's a. There's an internet television company that's in Cleveland called 13 news and there it's an internet T, you know, but they're actually getting better numbers than like the actual TV stations are now. Yeah, because that's how people are watching things now.
Speaker 2:I mean it's just so.
Speaker 1:They're looking for a studio and they want to do some stuff and they they a lot of what they have is podcasters that do their stuff. They have sports podcasters that do their sports show or they have, you know, women that do like little women, podcasts that do their like, you know, cultural stuff or whatever. So it's kind of a neat thing. I want to see what they have to talk about this week coming up, you know, and see how that goes. But I like this is my favorite. I like just sitting and talking with somebody, getting to know them.
Speaker 1:I think it's neat, you know. I mean it's impressive that you've, you know, done everything you've done. You know people. You know it's one thing that you know people look at go oh well, he's not. You know whatever say I don't know Cameron or whatever. You know what I mean. It's not like he's this, but when you're out there making a living doing something that you like and you're not a slave to clocking in every day, I mean that's enjoyable. That's like my buddy Sean that's out there. You know Sean Nat, he makes his job Like he's done a lot of commercials and stuff like that you know he does. You know comedy shows and he does commercials. He did a couple airline commercials and some TurboTax commercials and all state commercials and I mean he's paying his bills and he's you know what. I mean. It's gets to travel, do his comedy thing and he's loving what he does, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'm extremely lucky and I thank you for that compliment. I'm extremely lucky. I have many jobs. You know what I mean. It's not just me making independent movies and making so much money. But you're right, you're not a slave to certain things when you're making independent versus large commercial movies and I'm not james cameron, but, uh, you know I'm I feel like I'm exactly where I supposed to be. You know what I mean, where I should be, um, and obviously you always want more. You know I I'm lucky, but I also work a lot. I work pretty hard on trying to get these movies out and get them to be good. You know, and that's what my concern is. That's what my main focus is as an artist. I'm trying to make this product that's good. I'm not looking at like the payday for this. You know what I mean. Payday will come, payday will come.
Speaker 1:When's the what's the biggest thing that is out in one of your movies that after the fact you're like I should have cut that or I should have done it this way. What's the biggest one that gets you? Oh, the biggest, I know it's got to be out there.
Speaker 2:You know you're watching Half Dead Fred right now. I don't know if this is the biggest one, it's just something that comes to mind. Right, You're watching Half-Dead Fred and there's two lines in this movie and the line is she's been in and out of rehab most of her life and then it says something else. Two people say that line. You know what I mean. Like, so sister says that line about her sister and then when they interview the sister, she says that about herself. I just wish I didn't have that, because when you're writing, you want to write things from that character's mindset and when you write the same lines like that, it seems like it's the same person. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:So it's like redundant.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, it is redundant because it's the same line, but it's the same line from two different perspectives. Well perspectives too. Now I let it pass, I let it go because they're sisters, so maybe they would both talk similar, but in in retrospect, and you're probably not even going to think twice about this kind of thing. But me, as an editor, I look at it all the time, I think about it all the time and I wish that I just adjusted that line. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh no, I get it. I know that it happened. That's why I asked the question. I know it's out there. I know there's things that you know that they have to. You know what I mean. They have to be.
Speaker 2:Well, you know too that I would like we did a lot of fight scenes in the last movie, right, and I wish like maybe some angles were just a little bit over here, or maybe if the guy actually hit him I'd like it better. You know what I mean. Like it's just these big little things here and there. Again, you're not really gonna notice that in the edit, because the edit fixes those issues for the most part sound and and angles and quick cuts. But me, as an editor and a writer for the film, I know what it should look like when I write it and it's always just slightly different when you shoot it most most of the time sometimes it's exactly.
Speaker 1:You do have a vision. You have a vision when you're writing it, like how, how you want this set to see.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I, I, I see it, then I write it down, and then I, I think about it, I rewrite it, but I, I always know what I want to see.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, I didn't see. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's interesting. I I've never considered writing a movie, so I I would. I have no thought process on it. I guess I mean, uh, uh, maybe I should try. Maybe I should try writing a movie. You should try writing it about a bar. Yeah, right, uh, bar, though, there's enough. That's how I started a podcast. I go there's enough, like there's enough content in this place, every day to do a podcast just like crazy stuff that can go on in a bar is absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1:I mean it's. It's you wouldn't even believe it's like and some of it, a lot of it, is like seinfeld episodes. It really is like the same things just spinning back around and watching the whole thing unfold. You know it's just like. I'll give you an example real quick and then I'll let you go. I know you said you got to get to the theater today. I do.
Speaker 1:When I first bought the bar, a friend of mine. He owns a car dealership down the road and he he has a house that he doesn't live in but he keeps the house where he keeps some property or some vehicles there and he keeps his goats there. He's from Egypt, so he keeps goats and he's. You know, the one day he had me go stop over there to feed the goats and I, you know he's like he was out on the water, he took his boat out and he's like, can you feed the goats? You're coming right by there. So me and my wife we stopped. My wife, she loves it, she sees animals, she wants to feed the goats anyway. So we stopped to feed the goats and this German shepherd comes over and like from the neighbor and it scared the shit out of me. I run back in a truck. I mean this thing was tall as me. I mean mean looking thing, you know, I'm like holy shit, you know.
Speaker 1:But I did get the goats fed by then and I leave and fast forward, maybe about a week before I bought the bar and he calls me up and says he thinks that somebody shot his goat. And I go, what? He goes, his, his whole jaw's like just blown out, like it just looks like somebody shot him. He goes I don't know what it was, and I got the bar in September, I think of 17. So I don't know why it was summertime and stuff and all this is going on and he's almost crying. I mean he's an older guy, he's like 60 years old. He's upset about his goat. And I didn't think much of it, I just thought that's odd, that's upset about his goat, you know. And uh, I didn't. I didn't think much of it, I just thought that's odd, you know, that's really odd. But his goat died. His goat was dead, one of his. He had four goats but one was dead and I didn't think much of it, you know.
Speaker 1:And then we opened a bar, my wife's bartending, and a guy comes in and he says oh yeah, you know. He tells us he has the mechanic shop right next to where my buddy's goats are, you know. And I and my wife goes you're the one with the shepherds over there and he goes oh yeah, he goes. Those damn things, they've bit so many people already. And then he goes actually it killed my neighbor's goat, but man, he'll freak out if he knows that's what did it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So it's like that whole Seinffeld thing where it's all coming back around, you know, and it's just like I mean it's just shit, like that goes on all the time and you don't know what to. You know what to do with that information. I mean I don't want to go tell my buddy, I mean he's over it. By that point. This is six months later, you know, by the time we heard it. And you know I just don't want to start a big war with him and his neighbor and everything else. But at the same time, you know what you know, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, they might know now if they watch your podcast.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think that. I think it all came out in the wash already. I think, that all came out. Yeah, that's all been come out now at this point, but I mean it's just yeah, it's. It's just the kind of little stupid things like that. It's like Seinfeld-ish you know that I watch go on in the bar. It's pretty wild.
Speaker 2:Or like Cheers, remember Cheers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Cheers is. We're not the Cheers type of bar.
Speaker 2:No, not really. No, not. You don't have a guy sitting there every day.
Speaker 1:We did. His name was Hal. He passed away right before we reopened up from COVID. His name was Hal. He passed away right before we reopened up from COVID. He was here every day, open to close. Great guy. I mean, everybody here loved him. In fact we were 10 times busier just because people came to see Hal. I mean he would go take everybody and smoke weed with them in his truck or whatever, and you know what I mean. And everybody just like he was an old retired guy, just. But that dude could drink, like you wouldn't believe. There was a short time we had breakfast. You know I would do breakfast and he would literally be here with the bar girl till she closed, leave at three 30 and literally go for a walk, and when the cooks came in at four 30, he'd go sit back at the bar and start drinking again. Never stop.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a lot of drinking.
Speaker 1:And he did that for days on end. But it was literally the Sunday, mother's Day, which would have been two days before we were allowed to reopen from the COVID. We actually were allowed to open earlier because we had an outdoor patio, so the inside wasn't allowed but the outside was, and two days before we could open he actually had a heart attack while driving, and that was that. That was Hal. That was my son's best friend too. That guy played, he sat in During the shutdown. He came and sat in the bar while we were working and played darts with my son and stuff the whole shutdown. So yeah, it was pretty upsetting in our house. But yeah, we have some that are here, but they're not like Al. Al was here all day, every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is it a big sports bar? Do you like watch the games there and stuff?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we watch games and stuff. I mean, yeah, it's a sports bar, I guess to some degree. I mean it's a local bar. It's a local bar. It's a local bar with good food. Basically, before I owned it it was called the Gin Mill and it was popular around here for Friday fish fries. That was their thing. Everybody would come here for fish fries. You'd have lines out the door for Friday fish fries. So that was kind of its roots was more restaurant. They had a very small bar hidden that they didn't really have a lot of people at. But I opened it all up, made it a bigger bar and I focused more on the bar than the food myself. But we still have a great kitchen and good food. It does pretty good. It's pretty neat.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll have to make it out there when I visit Indianapolis, hopefully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you do do that, if you come in through Cleveland, we're right off the highway, it's real easy to get to when you're coming and you'd have to pass us anyways heading there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be cool. That would be neat to set it up. I would like to set it up and have somebody play the drinking game. That would be cool.
Speaker 2:That would be really neat to do the drinking game with it. I would definitely like it. I don't think anybody will watch the movie, but they might even just watch the movie just to play the drinking game. Do you know what I mean? Like I don't care about the movie, I just want to get the drinking cues so I can drink well, we, I've had a lot of people because we did a pig roast a few years ago.
Speaker 1:Well, we do them most of the time, but the one year we did one and I, I set up the screen and I watched movies all night while I did the pig roast. And everybody keeps bugging me. They want to do a movie night, you know like whether it's rocky horror picture show or something. So this would be right in in line. I think it would fit. Well, um, is there? By the way, is there anywhere we can go to stream right now? Go to stream the Pancake man, is that?
Speaker 2:No, it's not released yet. You can only see the trailer right now. Okay, and you know, once we figure out, I'm hoping, like I was mentioning, I'm hoping that AMC picks it up for an actual theater run. That's kind of what we're gearing towards, um, but right now we got it on festival schedule. So, uh, you know, right now it's just theater, but eventually it will be, you know, everywhere, just kind of like half dead fred. It'll be on a bunch of different platforms oh okay, awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's cool. I'll let you get to what you're doing. Keep in touch. If you ever need anything from us or ever want to go on a podcast to talk about something else, just let me know.
Speaker 2:Um, I enjoyed it today I appreciate you, uh, appreciate you having me on um and thanks for reaching out. I I appreciate it and I will definitely try to stop by the bar uh in the future and if I ever make it out to californ I'm going to get ahold of you.
Speaker 1:You can show me what the town's like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm in long beach. So yeah, I. This is the cheapest beach town you can get to, so if you come out, hit me up.
Speaker 1:All right, sounds good All right, all right.
Speaker 2:Thanks a lot. Peace, see ya.
