Latest / Going The Distance: The Rocky Series Podcast / Mike Kunda Interview
Transcript
- 0:01 [Music] 0:06 you ready there Ryan stand by yes welcome to uh Going the Distance 0:14 thank you Ruben welcome here too yeah well welcome Ryan it's good to be here 0:20 it's uh it's great that you're here thank you it's great that you're here there we this is this is while we're off 0:27 the fly start let me just check my notse this just see where where we are here Cube paper 0:33 wrestling okay so this is episode 9 episode 9 episod wow wow wow wow 0:39 [Applause] 0:58 wow we have gone the disiness this is round n how many rounds are there in a boxing uh 1:04 18 or is that is that golf it's is there 18 holes in golf in golf I I suspect so 1:13 yeah there's three holes in a bowling ball there's 18 holes in golf uh there's 1:19 15 rounds in a minor saying in a heavyweight Rocky Apollo fight there's 1:25 15 rounds it can go the max is 15 rounds but other classes of boxing can have less rounds and I'm not going to 1:31 embarrass myself and even pretend to know how many are in each class or welterweight or whatever I'm okay embarrassing myself uh I was at a sports 1:39 bar with I guess a group of guys people were talking about Crosby and so my ears naturally peaked 1:47 because I'm a big fan of Crosby Still's Nash and Young oh yes so I'm thinking David 1:58 Crosby and they love and I'm like all right great we're going to talk music right and so I 2:04 said something about David and like huh what like what are you talking about they're like the kid I'm like the kid what like what are you talking like are 2:11 you being funny and I'm like I I don't know what's going on and then uh Dave 2:17 White he's like don't say anything let's just move past this you're in Canada 2:22 type of thing and I'm like for our American and Italian uh listeners they might they they might not know what 2:27 we're talking about so this might be a weird story but picture Superstar Sports guy oh I I'll tell you any of our Sports 2:33 listeners will know who you're talking about because he plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins and he's in the staning Cup finals okay these things I 2:40 don't know that's fine clearly so I come home and I tell Faith and I'm like okay just just she's like never on the 2:47 internet right like I have to remind her to check her emails and go on Facebook we don't have cable mhm it's not that 2:54 we're above it or anything like that we just don't sure and we recently got a TV after 8 years of marriage nice good job 3:01 uh our brother Jason was moving he's going to take it to the dump and I'm like uh does it work he's like yeah so 3:06 we have it now and I mentioned this to her and she's like yeah Sydney Crosby I'm like hockey she's like yeah like you 3:12 know who that is and she's like yeah everybody does true but to be fair I know who Crosby Stills in N so I'm I'm 3:18 in both parties Ruben I knew what you were referring to and I knew what you're lost on yeah anyways and so yeah Sydney 3:25 if Sydney Crosby saying saying with the Sydney Crosby SS and Ash that might be interesting definitely would add a little bit of Youth to that Trio or 3:31 coret it would it would it would David David Crosby is the opposite of health 3:38 of epitome of what health is did he get uh didn't he donate his sperm sperm to 3:44 Melissa ethd yeah yeah Brad Pit was the other Contender I forget why that didn't go through I I literally just read about 3:51 it in an interview with Australia Studio 10 talk show Melissa Ethridge confessed 3:57 that she and her then partner Julie Cipher had considered Brad Pit as a sperm donor for their children the 4:03 couple wound up choosing Crosby Stills and Nash member David Crosby despite the 4:09 fact that Ethridge was good friends with pit at the time the couple chose Crosby for several reasons particularly because 4:16 he had children of his own already whereas pit did not eth joke that now her teenagers will say I could have had 4:23 Brad Pit as my dad and her son will say I could have been amazingly handsome 4:29 because crossby David Crosby was going to be Victoria recently and I really wanted to see him but then I realized I 4:34 wanted the money more than seeing him has has uh Crosby the singer yes has he 4:40 ever been young yeah I just he seems like he's always been 75 yeah 4:46 uh well I think his twin brother is the oatmeal guy yeah diabetes guy too as 4:52 well oh he has diabetes and oatmeal yeah yeah anyway interesting Yeah well yeah interesting enough oatmeal is supposed 4:58 to lower your risk of Di abetes why are you saying it like that because that's how he says in the commercials diabetes 5:07 diabetes oh I really hope we can find audio file on that because uh oh we will 5:12 okay we will stand by listen one two three I'm Wilfred Brimley and I'd like 5:18 to talk to you for a few minutes about diabetes diabetes now one of the things I've 5:26 learned to do is uh laugh at myself kind of loosen up kind of relax about 5:33 the whole thing diabetes there you have it he said 5:39 diabetes hey you can't beat cancer but you can 5:47 diabetes all right well actually you did be cancer or you a cancer survivor I am a cancer survivor still I better be okay 5:55 well yeah I know it's a joke you're still here we hey we're glad you're here oh thanks guys there probably like some 6:02 listener out there like ah well so episode N9 episode n9ine yeah this is exciting so thank you very much to our 6:07 fans who have gone through every episode and got to episode 9 we do know that 6:13 there are those who jumped midship and that's wonderful I mean as the episodes progress we'll get those people who like 6:20 oh I just want to listen to what they've done so far or the last few weeks we welcome you welcome to the going in the 6:25 distance podcast to those who started since day one We Salute You yeah you can 6:31 just go on iTunes or Google Play and just type in going in the distance podcast and you'll see the US 6:38 photoshopped as Rocky and Drago and click sub subscribe yes please subscribe 6:43 and automatically it will subscribe on your sorry on your device or phone or whatever and don't forgive us don't 6:49 don't forgive us whatever you do don't forgive us don't forget to give us five star review or if we're only worthy of a 6:56 three star we'll take three as well if you want to give us one star actually I would like to hear that too cuz those are kind of fun to read actually yeah 7:03 thanks guys for listening to us so let's talk about why we're here today why are we here Mike kunda Mike kunda kunda 7:12 that's a great name It's a Wonderful Name you know what it sounds like a fighter in this corner we got Mike kunda 7:19 I think it has like you know it has like a tribal type of vibe double digit Mike Tyson Mike kunda yeah yeah Apollo Creed 7:27 you know you got those two syllables two or two or one syllable you had the hard 7:33 consent in there and great name Mike great name Mike and speaking of Mike Mike's a great name too in our family 7:40 from my dad down to his four sons and their son's kids one of us in our family 7:45 each have the middle name Michael so Mike's a great name in our family as well so Mike kunda so hey okay let's 7:53 just uh settle this okay oh sorry yeah my apologies okay so we'll be very quick 7:58 we don't want to bore the sorry we don't want to bore the listeners with our family tree but Ruben go ahead and 8:04 explain that yes everybody okay so my dad's middle name is Michael after his father yes and then our brother mid name 8:12 Michael and then some nephews or uh I guess for you your kids or one of your 8:17 kids right yes so each brother has a son yeah whose middle name is Michael so anyways I don't I don't have any sons M 8:24 but I have daughters mhm any prior to the second daughter being born I was looking at the genealogy and I couldn't 8:31 find our Grandpa's death certificate so I looked at his gravestone picture and it said Mike on it not Michael I'm like 8:37 okay that's interesting right turns out he was never Michael that's awes so everybody has 8:43 been naming their kids Michael after somebody who was Mike that's awesome and 8:48 he wasn't even born Mike he was born Misha cuz he's Russian true yes okay yeah so anyways just a little tidbit 8:56 that's awesome that's actually a part of family history that I was not aware I I was under the uh wrong impression that 9:03 Mike was short for Michael for our grandfather but it turns out that was just his name the English version of 9:08 Misha yeah which which which I named my daughter yes so you're the only one who correctly named their child you know all 9:15 I can do things right I I see my brothers and I see their screw-ups and I just do it right well there you go I'm 9:21 glad that's the benefit of being the youngest I guess you get to not make the mistakes that we made yeah clearly I 9:27 have life you know completely uh by the horns good okay go on so Mike kunda 9:32 sorry we talked about our family there but Mike kunda first of all thanks for 9:38 talking to Ryan yes thank you Mike really appreciate it let me tell you a little history on Mike and how I and how 9:43 I came to come in contact with him when Ruben and I started this podcast again 9:48 we've said it before we're under no Grand Illusion that we're going to reach anybody I find it amazing that anybody 9:55 would even take time out of their day busy schedule that we all have to talk to us somebody who they've never met and 10:02 we don't have any clout whatsoever and so we've had a couple interviews now Mike being the second one last uh last 10:08 episode we had Ben Ben Fior this week we have Mike kunda and these guys have been 10:14 very gracious and kind to say you know what hey I'll talk to you and not only 10:19 have they talked to us but they gave us great insight to their life uh to what Rocky has meant to them and in Mike's 10:25 case in particular he has a fascinating story about what Rocky has basically 10:30 done for him for his whole life and what he does on a daily basis so we'll the interview will explain all that he's got 10:37 an interesting life you're really going to enjoy what you're going to hear here guys enough chibba jabber let's hear it 10:42 no more jibba jabber let me present oh let me just give a preface really quick more jib jabber cut out the jibber 10:48 jabber don't be babbling like a fool say what you got to say that's all then shut your dang poo more you'll hear the 10:55 interview right away that I tell Mike that I had the flu and I really did that morning I woke up I was sick very very 11:02 sick I did not want to lose this interview what type of flu like was it the diarrhea no it wasn't diarrhea 11:08 thankfully but throwing up that type you know it's hard to talk it's hard to sit comfortably cuz you got the stomach 11:13 pains I was like no I've got to have this interview with Mike you got to go the distance I got to go the distance I got to go uh keep moving forward no 11:21 matter how hard this flu hits you got to keep moving forward you're you're an inspiration thank you last week some 11:26 people were probably impressed I'm a cancer survivor you're a cancer but Ruben listen but but this tops it off but go on go on yeah I had the flu the 11:33 get the flu going go on but I just want to say but what I want to say is is that I was nervous about losing this 11:39 opportunity to to get Mike again so we had this time scheduled I didn't want to lose that if it sounds like I'm monotone 11:45 and or maybe I'm just hearing it but I sound like a little bit monotone and disinterested I'm really not it's near 11:51 the end of the interview I'm so exhausted and so ready to puke you're in the 15th round yeah I'm in the 15th 11:57 round but Mike he was p patient he was awesome he was engaging so any kind of anyways people aren't listening for me 12:03 they're listening for M here we go roll the tape stay on the line while your call is completed longdistance charges 12:10 May apply hey there he is hey Mike yo what's 12:18 up yo yo yo how's your day going well if I can be 12:24 honest with you I almost canceled but I don't cancel on uh on Mike you know because I uh I'm coming down with a flu 12:30 or something my body's aching and everything I feel like I just had went 15 rounds with the champ I got to tell 12:36 you something the last two and a half days I've had the flu myself head cold coughing body aches H it's uh it's funny 12:44 it's my wife says it's going around it must be I think for me it's something I ate I could be wrong it's leveling me 12:51 I'm doing the old fighting off the uh vomiting as much as I can I don't want to do that I hate doing that well listen 12:57 I am very uh very if we need to reschedule I I'm more than happy to comply I have no problem buddy 13:04 well you're good man but we're going to we're going to we're going to what's the old saying here we're gonna take uh 13:11 Cowboy Up Cowboy yeah Cowboy Up pull up our skirts there and let's do this all right all right I'm excited I'm excited 13:18 now for the listeners out there Mike how do you pronounce your last name it's uh kunda kunda with 13:25 Force kunda kunda k Mike K I like it so what's 13:32 the background on the on that last name long story short it's a Ukrainian last 13:37 name Slovak Ukrainian my father's what's see he's half Italian and half Ukraine 13:43 well we got something in common besides our love Yeah besides our love of Rocky uh my last name is Ukrainian as well oh 13:51 how about that there you go I knew we had a connection I knew it was something other than just Rocky you know what our 13:57 people probably came over on the boat the same time mine went a little bit north though 14:02 or maybe yours went South I know you guys probably came from the colder part and kind of settled in Canada only 14:08 because you know that's probably where I would have liked to have gone you know had I not seen Rocky at a very young age 14:14 I probably would have move north to like a horse farm on the coast or something it's interesting how life works that way 14:20 the little choices we make and where we end up because of them I know it's truly amazing uh the the influences that go 14:26 over us and put us down path a and then you go down path a and then you take path B off path a and then path C off 14:33 path B it's uh it's quite remarkable it is and Mike I've already explained in 14:39 the that who you are and why we're talking to you and okay yeah so what we'll do is you do the tours right now 14:45 for the rocky locations and what have you but to get there how did you get there how did I get there well that's a 14:52 very long complicated story I'll try to give an abbreviated version of it we got time but yeah I understand I want to say 14:58 and tell me if I'm wrong there Mike you you can actually get the details of the story and your and your life story in a 15:03 book that you've written correct exactly and cu the Rocky music uh was a book that I chose to write in 2008 when I got 15:12 fired from a job with corporate America I was doing very well there but when the 15:18 American economy hit the skids you know those making a little bit better salary 15:24 we're going to be the first to go and when I got fired I wanted to count for something I didn't want to I didn't just 15:31 want to sit back and do nothing so all the times I had with my uh that I SP 15:38 with stom I never really thanked him in a way I felt was appropriate so I 15:44 thought let me write him a letter and then after I I wrote one story after another and another I had a couple of 15:51 chapters and my mother said you ought to write a book and I prly laughed at her 15:56 because I just thought guys like me do not write books we stand on them to get stuff off the top shelf so so let me say 16:04 your your your reading prowess before this was not very high or you didn't read a lot of books no before this I I 16:11 enjoy reading I really do but I was a poor student uh in school I I escaped 16:16 high school with a D minus you know I really was not one to turn a page uh to 16:22 write that that was my whole thing I enjoyed reading but not writing so much so started writing for about two years 16:28 and got the book uh done it eventually made its way to Sylvester Stallone which was very cool that is really cool and in 16:35 fact I was going to ask you first how how did it feel to accomplish that just to accomplish writing a book not everyone can say they've done that well 16:42 you know what you're right and it it really the book itself is basically about practice in timing when you have 16:50 time what do you do with that time do you sit on the couch eating Bon bonss watching Judge Judy or do you put 16:56 yourself to a task do you try to do something that's basically the book is 17:02 told through wanting to become a rocky the eyes of wanting to become a rocky impersonator but not knowing where to 17:08 start but yet for years impersonating Rocky just around the house with friends 17:13 going to school whatever it was building building building and then when you get an opportunity that I had such as a 17:21 national lookalike contest in Philadelphia you you're kind of prepared for it and I show through a bunch of 17:27 short stories how if you just keep trying and you don't run away from the things that you fear 17:36 stick through even though you're gonna Fail You Know You're Gonna fail you know there's no way you're going to accomplish your goal but the important 17:43 thing is to stick with it because if you run after at every hard moment you you 17:49 you're always going to run you know you're always going to be looking in the rear of your mirror of Life saying what if I only tried so that's basically what 17:55 the book is about that's awesome and I do plan on buying it and people can find out on Amazon and I believe it's both in 18:01 soft cover and ebook correct uh yeah yeah it is yeah hard soft and e that's awesome can people get a sign copy from 18:07 you oh yeah absolutely I mean I I I certainly they can always contact me I sell them too I have them at the house 18:13 so if somebody wants to sign copy they can send the money to my PayPal and I'll be happy to sign it put personalize it 18:19 and get it right out to them I got no problems with that that's awesome I guess you can't sign the ebook version 18:24 well I tried electronically to sign it with uh e and it just didn't work out I ended up shutting down the system it was 18:30 a whole I don't know you you went you the system like 18:35 Tron yeah exactly exactly they put me in like a little Italian Stallion motorcycle and I'm going around the lit 18:41 highways like in Tron trying to kind of find a book ins sign it that be that 18:46 would be an awesome video game mixing Tron and Rocky that we we'll get on top of that and talk to some developers yeah 18:52 I'm telling you that could seriously work like have giant boxing gloves and have like Clubber Lang pop out like 18:58 Clubber Lang hel it would be awesome now you uh have an interesting 19:03 experience about the first time you saw Rocky what it what it meant to you the first time you saw or heard of Rocky in 1976 I was like eight years old so I 19:10 never saw Rocky in the theater but I saw it for the first time in television in 1979 you know I like many other kids I 19:17 had problems in the schoolyard with bullies and I wasn't much of a fighter so my father did his best to kind of 19:23 show me how to thr a few de punches you know he said you know Roxy's gonna be on TV it's boxing movie okay you want to 19:30 you know maybe take a look at it and I think yeah okay maybe I'll pick up a few things so I set my recorder up I used to 19:35 record television shows like the three Studios or the $6 million doll man or what have you so I recorded it on the 19:41 audio cassette and I would there then play it back over and over and over mimicking and learning the line so when 19:47 I watched it you know when those big white letters came across the screen and 19:54 Bill K's fan faor for Rocky plays forget about it I mean it just blew me away literally you could I could feel like my 20:01 DNA changing you could feel like the musical Quest notes just kind of cing through my veins from my heart and I 20:08 know that sounds cheesy and corny but that is the best way I can describe of what that meant it was like lightning 20:14 bolts from Frankenstein I mean it was unbelievable how it changed me well you've got an excellent way of words in 20:20 describing and it's not cheesy because I don't think it's as special as it was for you you're not alone I mean that's 20:26 what the rocky franchise that's what the Rocky is done for millions of people well I have to tell you that's exactly 20:32 what I'm finding out by doing my tours you know we get people from around the 20:37 world that come to take my tours in Philly and they tell me the same thing and we have grown men men who are 20:43 Lumberjacks in certain countries we have men who are like uh bodybuilders we have 20:49 just men they're built like mountains and when they come to the Iraqi sites they actually weep they actually get so 20:57 unbelievably emotional like I have this one guy he's he he has a full-time job he's from Chicago he's also a Randy 21:05 Macho Man Savage impersonator and he got he got so emotional when we were on uh 21:12 at the end of Rocky Street 1818 tus colum from the first movie and it was a beautiful thing to see that reaction 21:19 come out in a full-grown man who you know I mean he was there with his family they showed amazing support for him it 21:25 was one of the most beautiful moments that you could experience and if you're an average Rocky fan if anyone's 21:31 listening to this and they really are not they're like oh my God what a bunch of wackos maybe maybe maybe we are a 21:39 little wacky but I'll tell you what these the people I meet have the biggest hearts and they do so much uh with their 21:46 time uh for Charities and whatnot and it's a beautiful thing that that is a 21:51 very interesting thing that you brought up one very good story very touching and I would probably be one of those weeping 21:58 though I'm a lumberjack you would probably look at me say yeah look at that girly boy cry it makes 22:03 sense I but I would definitely be on my uh I would definitely get teared up like you and like many many others uh I've 22:10 grown up with Rocky in my heart my soul and on the screen and it's just it has meant so much to me it it is like a 22:16 religious experience because it touches your heart and it touches your soul and I've cried in every movie there's a moment in every movie that that makes my 22:22 uh makes my eyes well up yeah yeah you're you're everybody does because again for me was at a time that it was 22:30 the building blocks of the my emotional mental Foundation when I was a young boy 22:35 that went into those for of years I have the high emotions that what I saw what 22:42 was put together by not just alone but the director John adson and Talia shy and Bert young and Carl and burgus and 22:48 all and everyone so you know it was definitely a group effort much like Rocky came to be a group effort that's 22:54 how I view life you know none of us are are an island we cannot accompl things on our own we tend to work better 23:02 together as a team and that's that's the thing I mean I I couldn't do any of the things that I do if it wasn't for my 23:08 wife I mean you know Rocky as a rocky appr personator I don't get sick days I don't get benefits my wife gets that and 23:15 she also has a very stable good job that allows me to pick up and go for my gigs and my tourist again it's one thing just 23:23 to hold fast to your dreams but can you make a living at it well that's cool that you get to wake up in the morning 23:28 and do what you love I mean that's when it comes to it I mean there's people who probably sell hot dogs at the corner of 23:34 the street and they wake up happy doing what they love yeah that that's exactly it whatever it is trying to find 23:41 something where you can acquire a paycheck and find peace go to bed put 23:46 your head on the pillow and say I did good today and uh that's that that for me is what it's all about that's awesome 23:52 I have a a family a large family about six kids well about six kids I do have six kids I don't have to round up for me 23:59 my job is just I admit Mike it's just to pay the bills but to do the things I want to do with my family so the job is 24:05 a means to an end to do that which I love which is which is being with the family so that's kind of how I make uh 24:12 what's the word uh make peace with the fact that I'm not doing my dream job but I but I do have to take care of the family yeah of course absolutely and 24:20 what you're doing you're passing on you're giving uh kids and what whatever you're giving everyone a chance to go 24:26 and and go further you know the next generation is always you want them to do better than you did and that's like the 24:32 ultimate Victory and that's one of the things my father always told me you know it's he was a tailor for 47 years and 24:38 his biggest goal was that we all do better than he and my mother did absolutely uh yeah and I think that's I 24:46 think that's a great view for parents to have I really do and we do the same thing with our kids we just tell them 24:51 hey just be better than us and we'll be happy which I guess we probably set the bar pretty low but they should be fine 24:59 so now that we're talking about a touching story about the tour is there any funny or embarrassing stories that 25:04 have happened oh god there there's so many they sometimes they blend together sometimes I forget them I've had a 25:10 couple of guys come out from Long Island one time I know I I the the Rocky Steps 25:16 are are a unique unique set of steps because they are a little bit deeper than you would think they were and in 25:23 the movie theone especially near the top he starts taking them three at a time right and not the easiest thing in the 25:29 world to do I mean if you're in decent shape sure no problem but you know the thing about steps is that they're 25:35 vertical so gravity's involved here and there's 72 steps so I told the guy I 25:41 said listen the steps can be deceiving you've got to watch you I said it's easy to trip these guys are Macho guys and 25:47 they had their girls with them I okay whatever I'm just like calmly walking up on the side because I've run them about 25:53 a billion times and about halfway up or so the guy trips face first right into 25:59 the landing above this death and blushes his nose and I just start I started 26:04 laughing to myself and if he hears this he's probably gonna say you son of a g but I did tell him I did warn him and 26:11 everybody was kind of laughing at him he shook it off and did his little Rocky dance that's kind of 26:16 funny should have told him that his broken nose was an improvement I know 26:22 that's an improvement but see yeah there's always 26:27 I think the most beautiful thing is just watching the the look on their faces when you turn the corner from the Rocky 26:34 statue because we usually go take a picture of the Rocky statue and there's maybe a 60 70 foot walk from the statue 26:40 to the base of the steps and it's blocked out by a bit of it's not a straight on view so as you come around 26:46 the corner you see the steps there laid out and most times you see a 100 or two 26:51 300 people running the steps and they're in their Glory right be before you and you see the look on their face face 26:58 that's incredible it's yeah it is you see it's like a for me right it's like a drug right you know I I can only see 27:06 Rocky for the first time once so I'm always chasing It Through The Eyes of 27:11 others when I bring someone there and they're seeing it for the first time I get that high that I got off of seeing 27:18 Rocky the very first time that's that's another reason why I do it the the the the recharging factor is like times 10 27:26 for me yeah that's a great uh great point I'm the same about Rocky I can only see it once for the first for the 27:32 first time once I always show it to loved ones or friends or family anyone that I feel will accept this gift I'm 27:38 giving them that they haven't seen this movie yet because I I treat it almost like a sacred uh a sacred experience I 27:43 don't like to cast my Pearls Before Swine to give it to anybody that's very very very true I 27:49 agree I agree because you don't want to sit there in a viewing like oh look at that guy you like okay this this is not 27:55 the viewing experience I want to experience you go away yeah uh you know unfortunately you know there are guy 28:00 people who will watch it and they'll poke fun it's Fone and you know I don't know I mean I guess I understand why I 28:05 just I'm not that type of guy like I I just would not I would rather not waste my time with a movie I have no interest 28:11 in right of course and uh so far my success rate for people to to watch this movie with is is pretty high like anyone 28:18 that hasn't seen it I try not to oversell it even though I've been a fan for life I say oh it's a good movie about you know about boxing A Little Bit 28:24 of Love Story a little bit of drama you might you might like it I just showed my 16-year-old niece uh the movie for the 28:31 first time she' never seen it before and I asked her what she knew about the movie all she knew was about a guy who fights and I thought that was great 28:37 because it's in the culture but doesn't mean everyone knows everything about it I ALS I also wanted to see what a 28:42 current 16 year-old teenager of today's day and age would would think of this movie it's 40 years old and lo and 28:48 behold she yeah she loved it well that's good to hear well yeah she gets she's my brother's daughter so she can still stay 28:53 in the family now how old is she 16 you see this is the thing that amazes me the 28:59 last year and a half I've gotten what seems to be a a huge amount of kids 29:05 their families find me online and they say you know my nine-year-old daughter is a massive Rocky one fan I'm like 29:12 excuse me what how why I don't understand that it makes no sense flashy 29:18 one so to speak it's kind of the one that's the heaviest on drama and it's not as flashy as St three and four yeah 29:24 exactly exactly and and it's it's a much slower paced drama so I say you know 29:31 what is it about and they say that they get it they get Rocky's lonely Factor they get that he doesn't have a lot of 29:37 confidence at first but Adrian brings it out like the kids are explaining this to me once we get them on the tour is the 29:44 most amazing thing in the world I I to this I I'm blown away I can home tell my wife about it the kids really blow me 29:51 away every time I I get to M tours I mean they are so they know my details 29:59 like it's not the parents just blowing smoke saying oh my kids a big Rocky fan if these kids are seriously Adept at 30:06 Rocky knowledge that's awesome well quality doesn't diminish over time it might strengthen over time right exactly 30:14 and I suspect Rocky will be talked about on some future podcast 100 years from now well listen let me ask you this no 30:21 secret by now everybody knows thees Stallone did not win the Oscar do you remember the actor's name who beat him 30:27 for it Yeah we actually mentioned this on our first podcast I believe and I now that you're asking me I forget I think 30:32 it was somebody for the network the point is it doesn't matter Mark Mark Reliance was his name I happen to know 30:39 it because I was last one for creed you're talking about for creed yeah yeah 30:45 yeah again I forgot his name I know the movie was Bridge of spies but again yeah he was robbed twice I think oh yeah well 30:50 Peter Finch I think for Network yeah for Rocky one but uh yeah for cre no one is going to remember Mark reliance 30:58 I'm going to remember it because I am a a like a massive sick fan so of course 31:04 I'm going to remember that name to the day I die because still own L an Oscar to it but the average person you give 31:10 them two names who's Mark lions and who's Rocky Bala right excuse me but I think we know the one that's going to be 31:17 remembered for all time all right and shame on the academy for not acknowledging the rocky character that 31:23 has the fact that he was nominated twice for the same role a role that he created I mean who who's done that Mike who has 31:29 created a character that they created and wrote scripts for that have been nominated for an Oscar twice for yeah 31:36 you know that that's that's the thing and and a lot of people pointed out Stallone didn't get the Oscar for Iraqi 31:41 this time because it wasn't in a life achievement thing and so I I understand that I do I get it I mean personally I I 31:49 believe Stallone one he hands down the Oscar I I believe his performance was 31:54 Superior to Mark Rel liances I saw his in bridges pi and it wasn't bad but it 31:59 was extremely brief no one has done what Celesta Salon has done what you just mentioned and the fact that Sylvester s 32:06 has created three basically um franchises film series franchises yeah 32:12 you know you had Rocky Rambo and The Expendables now I know Sylvester did not create Rambo I mean I know David Morell 32:19 did David Morell did an incredible job yeah but you know Sylvester took it to the next level and he he really you know 32:26 recogniz he made it own no one else could have done again with the ramble character yeah great book by the way 32:31 have you have you read the first Blood book uh many many many times I love it it's amazing I mean that first book 32:38 takes place in Kentucky it doesn't take place in in uh hope British Columbia which is something I I found very 32:44 interesting and you know there's a lot of differences in the book we learn more about diesel uh all that stuff yeah he 32:50 dies in the end spoil alert absolutely yeah he dies and and it and again 32:55 poetically it's probably the right end end you know to kill Frankenstein the Frankenstein monster so it's probably 33:02 the more accurate ending but you know we wouldn't have had 37 sequels had he done 33:08 that well I I believe they filmed the ending of him dying and when they tested it for screen audiences and after his 33:13 success in Rocky the could the screen audiences were very sour to see Stallone die on screen well not only that but it 33:19 was a crappy kill scene too it was just lousy it was uh it was it was not filmed 33:25 well and I wonder if if that had more to do it than anything that might have been it too I didn't know about the quality 33:31 of the of the shoot there yeah I I I've watched it over and over and over and it's just not I don't know I I think 33:37 it's a lower quality it's just not Stallone was he didn't seem to be that good acting doing the death scene or 33:43 whatever the scene that we got was Perfection and I I don't mean to pick on Stallone at all I'm just saying you know 33:50 I don't know that it just I think there's a few reasons why that scene it it didn't uh See the Light of the day oh 33:57 fair enough back to uh the tour and your impersonation of Rocky how does one like 34:02 yourself embody the heart and soul of Rocky what what do you do to kind of step into that character and now before 34:08 you answer that question I always want to say to listeners people might think is this guy wacko you know is this guy 34:13 crazy for being a for being a rocking person here then I thought well no there's there's you maybe a little bit 34:19 but there's people on TV uh people that go on Ice capade tours like Disney's on ice and and people dress like people 34:25 dress up and act the character role for audiences all around the world so in its own way excuse me Las Vegas Elvis 34:32 impersonators they make livings off of this of course livings and uh I think Rocky and we know we've already touched 34:38 on it how many lives he has touched and moved and inspired why not Rocky why not have a rocky character uh that can be 34:44 done and done as well as you do so how do you well I believe it's done as well as you do I I yeah before you before you 34:52 answer that question explain the uh the look like contest and then maybe describe how how does one prepare to be 34:57 like well for the look ofik contest I didn't even enter it myself I didn't think I 35:02 looked anything like Rocky that I should compete I was probably 10 or 15 pounds overweight and I had short buzzed 35:09 haircut because I was with corporate America and friends of mine I'd already been on the set of Rocky baloa this was 35:17 in 2006 now are you are you on the DVD extras no no no no no I I I am not I I 35:24 am not I was there during filming I got to watch it and Frank Stallone was actually Frank Stallone was taking a lot 35:31 of video behind the scenes and I got on a lot of that video but a very minute 35:38 portion of that video made it to the behind the scenes of the rocky Bala 35:43 documentaries very when I reached out to you online I feel like I've seen it before on TV or some sort of extra scene 35:50 or something so maybe that's what it was maybe on the wall at the international post office I don't know my friends at 35:57 the victor Cafe there a lovely woman at the time was the manager her name was 36:02 rehea and a friend of mine who was like an a handyman there his name was Steve 36:07 they entered my picture into the rocky lookalike contest that was being sponsored by the the local newspaper 36:14 there and it was pretty big it was about a thousand people that entered I made it all the way through to the top five Rocky lookalikes and the top five Adrian 36:21 lookalikes and there's a park in Center City Philly Called Love Park that's where the event was held we were in the 36:26 basement with four other Rockies as the Adrians were out on stage competing some of us were in the sweat some of us were 36:32 in the gray the the black hat and letter coat and whatnot it was a very bizarre surreal experience my wife was out in 36:39 the crowd filming Stallone was going to be in town the very next day to rededicate the Rocky statue just trying 36:46 to give you an overview of what's going on here right right lot a lot a lot of buzz in the air a lot of buzz in the air 36:51 yes yes there was quite a lot I didn't prepare I there was nothing I really prepared and I just said it it's so 36:58 ridiculous to think of myself I mean I I used to dress like Rocky going to high school I used to walk around my 37:04 neighborhood with the old black hat that my grandfather gave me and and black leather jacket so you know it was a very 37:10 bizarre young life for me so I thought how how am I gonna make it through this contest so they simply asked us a bunch 37:17 of questions most of the guys they didn't think they were Rocky like the one question was asked hey uh Rocky what 37:24 did you have for breakfast this morning so the obvious answer would be five raw 37:29 eggs right right well the guy says no you know I had had some oatmeal and I 37:35 had a glass of orang no no no you're supposed to be Rocky what does rocky have for breakfast and see the guy 37:40 wasn't getting it and then they had us like react scenes from the movie or say 37:45 lines or whatever so you know none of the guys were really getting it and uh but the biggest thing was nobody was 37:52 playing to the audience and so that's what I did I just when they called me up on stage I grabbed the mic and I just 37:58 started making fun of the judges I started talking to the audience I did a comp a compiling of Don Rickles Rocky 38:06 bboa myself and maybe what Rocky might say and I put it into a mental blender 38:11 whatever came out is whatever came out yeah and and and it seemed to work I had to redo the scene the Gazo scene in the 38:18 church Condominiums you know told me I never use them you know we had to do that and I had a there a couple little 38:24 bit of trivia they gave us do you remember any of the trivia what did Rocky uh take home after taxes from the 38:31 first fight and I believe it was 37 Grand right that's right it was crazy 38:36 how lost MoneyWise yeah taxes kill you yeah they murder you but uh but he had buy that 38:45 gold watch in that uh silly in that jacket with the tiger on it I know I know it goes fast when you start 38:53 splurging it it goes It goes very fast but so that that was basically Al the contest the the judges were local 39:00 celebrities Beasley Reese was an ex- New York Giant they had a couple of news personalities there and you know nothing 39:08 nothing worth bragging about but it certainly was a a contest I thought for sure there would have been 10 guys who 39:14 look more like Rocky sounded more like Rocky were built more like Rocky would have entered but you know what if they 39:19 were out there for whatever reasons the guys who should have won this didn't enter I did and the my friends entered 39:26 me won it the prize was in a few months when Rocky baloa had a premier a red 39:32 carpet Premiere in Philadelphia I got to go to the red carpet I got to bring my wife walk the red carpet and I sat with 39:39 Bert young and mil love vilia and Geraldine Hughes uh a lot of the people that were in the movie I got to spend 39:45 more time with Stallone which was great and I mean watching a Rocky movie with all the major players right in front of 39:51 you that's pretty that's pretty big in a rocky Fan's life oh my goodness I mean you're yeah you're you're Prett to the 39:57 choir brother I mean that's gu I mean I the people that you've met and talked to I just I dream about so we uh we salute 40:05 you oh thank you thank you and and really that's that's uh that's how it 40:10 all kind of was incubating for a very long time but before that I I was lucky 40:17 enough to sit literally elbow to Elbow next to cester Stone on his birthday his 40:24 60th birthday at the Victor Cafe he went out to get to mayor and my friend rehea 40:29 who she was the manager at the time she she brought me out and reintroduced me and Stallone and then she left the two 40:35 of us there talking and we had this really great talk for for quite some time that's awesome and oh yeah yeah 40:41 yeah and Stallone was doing his favorite Rocky lines and I'm doing my favorite Rocky lines you know my wife is on the 40:46 other side of the window at our table looking at the two of us like shoulder toosh shoulder mimicking and imitating 40:52 Rocky like it was just so surreal I can imagine did you do better Rocky than he did no the man won it 40:58 hands down I mean I was here here I was concerned with not having any of the white stuff in the corner of my mouth or 41:05 spitting on him while I was talking so you know you know I mean that's what happens when you when you're in 41:10 conversation you know you get the little Flex that fly off I was just like God don't hit him in the corner of the cheek 41:15 or something you know what was one of his favorite lines that you recall you know it was it was interesting because I 41:22 I remember he had said something about you py your sisters with me to that one and uh of course he's like I and I don't 41:29 even know if this was so much a favorite line as much as he was at the particular moment thinking of bukus and he was like 41:35 y butt Goose you know like one of those types of deals you know it was it was a very um back and forth and so my wife 41:44 comes out she takes a picture and she goes back inside so I says he goes goes you know you do look like me uh look 41:50 like me you know 25 years ago or 30 years ago he goes you should do something with that and I said well what 41:55 do you mean like you know Sly you're Rock um not a boxer or anything he goes no he goes get a black hat leather coat 42:01 weddings Bar Mitzvah charge a couple of bucks he goes you know people love that 42:07 and I like oh like L was a personator and he started laughing and then you know we went back in in the whole restaurant saying happy birthday to him 42:13 but the whole time I'm thinking wow this is an interesting thing but you know I 42:18 let it go and then you you missed you missed a great opportunity when he told you to do that you should have said I I 42:24 can't do that I'm just a ham Ander just to him and Egger that's true that's where were you to give me all these 42:30 great lines well I have the luxury of I have the luxury of looking back at the story you were in it I'm sure you were 42:36 just I I can only imagine the fact that you could have a conversation without uh bending at the knees and collapsing to the floor is pretty impressive have you 42:42 ever seen the news footage when the Beatles landed at Chase stadium in 1962 or 63 girls are all fainting yeah okay 42:50 that's what was going on in my mind don't think and don't exactly exactly 42:56 play it cool because that's the one thing I will tell you Stallone hates when people gush and that's the one 43:02 thing really that uh his bodyguard told me Gary he had said he you know if you 43:07 ever get the chance to have a a expanded conversation don't gush don't he hates that you know oh my God I saw you when 43:14 you jumped out that tree and you so up your arm almost that like you know rainbow like don't go crazy just have a 43:21 normal conversation and he'll talk to you forever if time allows I mean his 43:27 people literally were pulling him away from having normal conversations not only with me but with other people I 43:33 dream of the day I could ever have a conversation with them but I'll definitely keep that to heart y you you it's it's the truth so it'll serve you 43:41 well now has every has anyone ever accidentally thought you were special Salone and then if they did you played 43:47 along well yeah it's funny because when I do the tours when I get all dressed up right and uh you know I look really 43:53 accurate and you're up in Kensington and you're out front of the pet shop or out front of Mickey's gym people start 44:00 honking the horns they get out of the car c installers come over the cops come over locals come over and from about 20 44:08 feet away there is a better than average resemblance but as they get closer they 44:14 see ah you ain't him just a guy that kind of whatever resembles him most 44:21 times they're really like man I thought you was him from across the street man 44:27 it's kind of funny and I usually play along I'm like no I'm Rocky's younger brother schlocky and uh so you know you 44:34 just do funny things like that but um really you take a couple pictures it was funny because just about a week ago we 44:41 were driving in front of Rocky's apartment in the first movie five kids they were like ranged from like 10 to 13 44:49 and they were like he's here it's him it's him and they all got dollar bills so I just put Rocky in quote 44:57 and and just said I you know I don't I don't know that they thought I wasone but that you know whatever yeah they uh 45:05 they let well it's the character they get caught up even though I'm an adult and when I'm in Disneyland and I spotted Mickey Mouse I get a picture of Mickey 45:11 Mouse I know there's somebody under there but it's still a magical moment to be next to Mickey exactly exactly you 45:17 know it's it's a lot of fun and I love seeing people's face light up but then they start telling you Rocky related 45:23 stories you know they start telling you because they lived in the neighborhood and they were there when filming was 45:29 happening over 40 years so that's amazing they start telling it's like a time machine you know all because I I'm 45:36 wearing this stupid costume that resembles Rockies people they they come over to you it breaks down the social 45:43 barrier and then they're like you know I was here back in 1978 and when they were 45:49 filming they did this and they did that and he would Mickey poster and so it's it's it's very interesting and then I 45:55 take those stories and I pass those stories on to the people on my tours and 46:00 they can't get these stories from anybody else because nobody goes to the lengths that I do to dress up like Rocky 46:06 to inspire people to start talking to me you know that's incredible the the wealth of stories that you have in your 46:12 head and the experience that's really is incredible you should probably be doing this podcast my gosh listeners G be like 46:17 why don't we have this guy on every day why you why you two bums doing it me and my brother yeah well you guys listen I 46:23 was listening to some of the First on just uh earlier this morning I haven't listened to the whole thing yet but it 46:28 really sounds good and you're having a lot of fun with it and I think people are going to like that oh I appreci you know it's when you're driving and you do 46:35 a lot of driving if you have a particular subject that you like it's nice to hear other people chat about it 46:41 so you know if you can't be interactive about it you can at least listen to people going at it and and and I like 46:47 that you know there's a there's a few podcasts that I I've done that with and uh it's it's very interesting very 46:52 interesting well thanks Mike I do appreciate that plug who have you yet to meet that you would like to from the 46:57 cast or crew such a shame I couldn't meet Burgess meredi that that's a shame I I might be taking a trip out to 47:03 California in a little while and I'm really hoping somehow to run into Talia 47:09 Shire she is such a huge part obviously the rocky phenomenon I I would like to 47:14 sit with her and let her know how she's inspired me as well you know as being just a great role model not only for 47:21 women but just for people who want to be a better human I I think she's a good role model for that she's and and 47:27 through no fault of her own the rocky character sometimes overshadows hers but uh without without Asian we wouldn't 47:33 have rocky if who he is and his character wouldn't be what it is well you see this is exactly what I'm 47:38 thinking what she represented in that movie going back to what I said a little while ago I don't know anyone who does 47:44 it alone who's truly self-made because usually you have some outside help 47:50 somewhere whether it's a a husband or a wife who supports you or friends who who 47:57 will help even if it's emotional support because without that emotional support trust me you're going to go nowhere fast 48:04 I've had more rejection I've had more lost opportunity than I can I can count 48:10 you know I know how much my wife has helped me stay true and focus to what it is I want to accomplish you know that's 48:17 just every bit as important as me driving back and forth an hour and a half to Philadelphia to do my gigs and 48:25 do the St and you know keep putting it all together that's awesome well we're g to close up here soon but before we go 48:33 we we're covering Rocky one in our podcast we're got we're going in order of the movies and we're almost done 48:39 recording the episodes that deal with Rocky one but I want to ask it's a great one to talk about and I want to ask you 48:45 what what's your favorite moment or scene in the movie that when you see it either chokes you up or raises your 48:50 spear more than any other 14th round when Apollo is knocking Rocky around the 48:56 ring and Satan he's he's got nothing he's already tapped his reserve tanks 49:01 and the music going to distance which is a song I know you know is hear my head 49:07 right now exactly it's playing and the crowd's going nuts and you know at this 49:13 point we're so invested in Rocky's future we are so we're just like oh God he's gonna go down but don't go down 49:19 that's all he wanted to do is be th and uh to start the 15th round that's all he wanted and when he goes down and Mickey 49:26 who can no longer take it he cannot take it he does not want to see his fighter in any more pain Rocky's already proven 49:33 he was no bum right Mike uh Mike is yelling in the corner get up get on your 49:39 feet and the music's going and Rocky's climbing the ropes and then he stands up and Apollo can't believe it and Rocky 49:45 waves him in and he crushes his ribs with those uppercuts oh my God there is 49:51 no scene in the world that gets me more motivated than when I play that on it's 49:57 it's incredible and it has nothing to do you know Stallone doesn't have the 3% body fat he doesn't have the muscles 50:03 like he does and all that stuff it's just your average guy saying man if I I 50:09 can't quit now I know I have a quarter of 1% left and if I don't give that I'll 50:14 never be able to live it myself and that's the main lesson I've take taken from Rocky it is not about a hard you 50:21 can hit it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward that's probably one of the best speeches Rocky 50:28 has ever given uh I think that's the best speech in in any any movie 50:33 absolutely it's quoted over and over again online for a reason and I'm with you oh yeah I figured we didn't talk 50:39 about this beforehand but I had a feeling you're gonna pick that one I think any true repeat viewer of Rocky would and I think that scene becomes 50:45 more powerful once you go back in the movie A little bit when he's lying on the bed next to Adrian speaking of Adrian and he's saying I can't do it I 50:53 can't beat this guy and he's like all I wanted to do is go the distance Pro to pro pro to Pro to prove to everybody 50:59 that I'm not just another bum in the neighborhood he's just at the point in his life where he just nothing's working 51:04 nothing is firing for him nothing is he just doesn't want to be another bum another Street Corner another pet shop 51:10 worker another guy on the docks he wants to prove to himself into the world he's just not not another bum from the 51:16 neighborhood so when he hits that canvas in the 14th round he's crawling to the ropes to get up and Mickey's yelling 51:21 stay down stay down he's like no ignoring everything around him in his head at that moment he's like I just 51:26 have to get up on my feet and then he gets up I love that scene too where he mhes Apollo you know I didn't hear no 51:34 Bell yeah I mean that's that's just it there and there's uh there's another scene that comes close to that which is 51:41 in Rocky Vala it was it never made the movie but it was more like it was a a a 51:47 little sneak minute trailer that they had a little promo trailer for Rocky B there we only saw Rocky's eyes at the 51:54 the the the camera had the closeup through the ropes of Rocky's eyes and Rocky's down and he says you can hear 52:02 the crowd in the background and he goes what was it you said to the kid it isn't about how hard you can it's about AR you 52:08 can get hit get up and Rocky's telling himself this yeah he's telling himself 52:13 to get up oh my God talk about chills man this amazing I probably should have 52:19 ended on that no because I have one last question for you as an avid Rocky fan is there is there a scene in Rocky one that 52:26 you wish they would cut out that doesn't work for you I think Rocky one is a perfect movie you passed the test there 52:33 is no scene there is no yeah there is no scene there is no scene to me Rocky one 52:38 is an absolute perfect movie I I I can find no fault with it and I examine that 52:46 movie man I've examined it over and over and over again and I find no fault with 52:51 it and if so facto I just thought I'd bring this up for all the listeners 52:57 someone asked me the other day and I'm not going to mention those names but his name rhymes with diyan he asked me 53:05 what's the first scene Rocky used his rubber ball in oh and I doubt it I doubt 53:10 it myself and I should never doubt myself oh no oh no because the very 53:16 first scene is when he's going by the pet shop right after Spider Rico oh he's got the ball in his hand 53:22 does he he's got the ball in his hand and furthermore this person who will go 53:29 nameless he said he thinks he Rocky picked up the ball off the counter off 53:34 the pet shop and when Rocky walked into the Pet Shop Rocky's got the ball in his 53:40 hand you can see it he's rolling it between his two hands he's walking into the Pet Shop oh so I so if you see a guy 53:47 who whose name rhymes with dying let him know never to doubt Mike C well I I'll 53:56 never make that mistake again and let me tell you Mike we we we've offered that challenge and invitation please please 54:01 we are not social matter experts to any degree the way some others are and we want to hear the mistakes one because we 54:07 know people are listening thank you for correcting that that error no I love it 54:12 I I it's great that you caught that it's great that did you guys talk about the gun in the in between the windows while 54:19 rocki has the the hunting rifle when Rocky walks back and he and Adrian 54:24 they've already gone ice skating and they're in his apartment Rocky is reintroducing Adrien to cuff and Link 54:31 puts them down Rocky moves to that crappy couch so in the the two seconds 54:37 that Rocky takes to walk over we see the two windows with the duct tape on it in 54:42 between the two windows uh is a little spot of wall and there's a gun a hunting 54:47 rifle hanging there for years this aggravated me why is there a hunting rifle and there's no mention in the 54:54 script that Rocky used to go hunting with is bad or anything so it bugged me as we look around Rocky's apartment 55:01 there's bayonets brass knuckles stuck in the crap crevices and cracks here and there I thought okay maybe I guess it 55:08 could kind of fit in here you remember how Bob didn't have enough money he was gonna give him take the coat take the 55:14 coat right yeah as as payment I think someone gave the gun to Rocky as payment 55:20 so he wouldn't break their thumbs and Rocky gives the gun to Gazo and Gazo says Rock what am I going to do with a 55:26 hunting rifle I'll tell you what it's your payment that's what you get paid because you didn't collect the money 55:32 right so a couple of years went by and I I was able to have a correspondence with 55:37 John aalon the director of Rocky and although he could not recall in the mythology of Rocky why the 55:45 gun was there he did know why the gun was there in real life the gun was 55:51 placed there as a prop by Stallone according to John Aon because it was a 55:56 heirloom of sorts and Stallone wanted to pay tribute to whoever the gun meant something to so I thought that was kind 56:02 of interesting that's awesome that's awesome both counts one the real story or the uh the real life story and two 56:08 your theory I think they're both they're both awesome so I will be interested to hear if your listeners have theory that 56:13 makes more sense because this is great stuff and I'm going to be really looking forward to hearing all of your podcasts 56:19 and you know I just wish you guys the best of luck anybody who goes to the length day you guys are going to to keep 56:24 Rocky alive you guys have got to have it going on so best of luck to everything thanks a lot Mike and I hope we have you 56:30 on again because I'm sure we're gonna have to get pick your brain for some subject matter expert uh debates yeah just call me go hey yo come right over 56:38 and talk to you you know might have to yell a little longer though you know from Canada to Pennsylvania but I'll 56:44 hear you that's awesome Mike hey yo we love you brother keep up the good work too on your end right here man I will uh 56:51 be talking to you on Facebook my friend you bet you thanks Ryan all right talk lat Mike all right man byebye byebye now 56:57 okay what a story it is a great story like what a story Mike you're a fascinating individual and I'll tell you 57:03 right off the about for me when I talk to Mike a puts me at ease right away I feel like I'm talking to an old friend I 57:10 can see why his business as a tour guide in Philadelphia through the rocky sites and when you read the reviews and when 57:16 people talk to him on Facebook it's little mystery why people are so enamored by him okay so those are 57:21 listening where can they find them on on Facebook we'll provide the link on our on our Facebook page uh-huh all right so 57:27 this is what you do fellow Rocky fans go to Facebook type in the yo comma Rocky 57:35 film tour there you'll see a glove and his logo and Mike kunda friendly 57:40 inviting face there to check him out so he's got uh reviews there every review is five stars yeah every review if 57:47 you're going to Philly if you're in Philly or nearby check my outat don't be a tomato because he's not Runing the 57:53 soup kitchen ex exactly okay what I find interesting is had he I don't know what 58:02 the job I don't like how he become you you mentioned the interview remember he mentioned in the interview that he had a uh what do you call it uh civvy job but 58:09 it wasn't called he was working for the man type job okay he talks about in the interview of course that he was working for the man that he had that kind of 58:15 suit and tie type job and it just wasn't making him happy and you got to do what makes you happy you do I like that he 58:21 did it it works out it really works out that you do something for the rest your 58:26 life that you're unhappy with how does he look does he look like he's Rocky a little bit yeah he does he does he does he looks like um obviously not identical 58:33 no like when I scroll I'm like hey there's Rock like oh Rock's brother you can catch Mike kunda on a lot of 58:40 Facebook's correction on a lot of YouTube videos he's been on interviews when you hear him talk and when you hear 58:46 him in the interview you can hear he does a few stallon person throughout the interview and it comes naturally to him 58:51 he sounds spot on he has the mannerisms really down he's worked on his walk kind of a Rocky's gate that when he strolls 58:58 down the street Mike has that to a tea I think this is fantastic how Mike will do the the tour as Rocky I think it's just 59:05 fantastic yeah yeah he's not a stone impersonator he's a rocky impersonator though we've said before it's hard to 59:11 tell the difference because they're kind of one and the same no he's he's a rocking impersonator because obviously there is a difference so some of the 59:18 highlights of his interview that St stood out to me he has met Stallone I know I know Mike this sounds totally 59:25 corny this is just much I love Stallone but I'm talking to somebody who's talked to Stallone yeah so that's what one 59:30 degree of separation is that what that is yeah like I remember as a 11 or 12 years old you met the Ultimate Warrior 59:36 the wrestler of the airport yes it well meeting was interesting way of putting it okay well what happened again okay 59:43 yeah sure what happened do you guys remember WWF this is not WWE this is WWF this is when the worldwide Wrestling 59:49 Federation was confused with the worldwide Wildlife Federation it's some the characters 59:54 could have got to either or George The Animal steel could have been part of both organizations Coco beware he 1:00:00 probably got the bird from the other one and took it to the wrestling one no not funny you know an awareness back to our 1:00:08 brand now that brand officially now is World Wrestling Entertainment you can no 1:00:14 longer call yourselves the WWF because of the world wild life fund correct you 1:00:21 say that with a smirk now don't get me hot where are you yes this is would have been 19 1990 at the height of Ultimate Warrior 1:00:29 career may he rest in peace where I was at the Atlanta Georgia Airport flying from Florida to Atlanta back to Seattle 1:00:36 Washington I was with my friend on a trip to Disney World so I'm sitting in the airport Lobby this is of course 1990 1:00:43 all you could do back then was read a book kind of looking around watching people I see 20 ft away from me a large 1:00:49 fella sitting down in his chair in the in the waiting Lobby and my thought was at the time I could see that he was 1:00:55 bigir pulled back in a ponytail of course no makeup so I see a large man I'm a huge wrestling fan but at this 1:01:01 time I've never seen you know when kiss took off their makeup for the first time actually I do yeah yeah so when kiss did 1:01:08 that nobody recognized them yeah in a weird cuz they were very strict about not having their makeup off yeah and or 1:01:14 they be seen with their makeup off but then they did the old their first non makeup tour I've never seen Al this of 1:01:19 course before the internet so there was no pictures in that I could access that had Ultimate Warrior without his makeup 1:01:24 on so my brain thought that this was a football player uhuh a Seattle Seahawks football player I wasn't a football fan 1:01:31 so my brain was operating under the assumption of a he's 20 ft away he's a large man we're flying to Seattle he 1:01:36 must be he must be a football player that's pretty cool cuz a couple people were going up to him I saw him kind of 1:01:42 yeah yeah yeah shoo them away like leave me alone type gestures like okay fair enough he's a football player he doesn't want to be bothered then I kept looking 1:01:48 at him and I saw him looking back at me and I was looking at him I said ah you're the Ultimate Warrior and he said 1:01:54 shut up and I 1:01:59 did shut up oh and I did I'm biting the hand that feeds eh but you know I did 1:02:06 well yeah I'm not you know I'm only 15 yeah this man is large yeah yeah he's a 1:02:12 roid guy every man's heart one day beats its final beat his lungs breathe their 1:02:20 final breath and if what that man did in his life makes the blood p through the 1:02:26 body of others and makes them believe deeper in something than Larger than 1:02:32 Life than his Essence his spirit will be 1:02:37 immortalized by the storytellers by the Loyalty by the 1:02:43 memory of those who honor him and make 1:02:49 the running the man did live forever you you you you you you are the legend 1:03:00 makers of Ultimate Warrior I'm not a celebrity I understand 1:03:05 we look we all have bad days have you ever had a bad day you want to be left alone for all we know he's having a bad day yeah sure I get it I know it was 1:03:11 rude that moment was immortalized in my yearbook when it said that Ryan reul and you know met the Ultimate Warrior it was 1:03:17 a pretty cool experience how did we get there I would say I remember when that happened I'm thinking wow my brother met the Ultimate Warrior remember who mom 1:03:23 met uh Wayne grey mom met Wayne gry now that is a name you should know in hockey everybody yeah yeah I know gry our 1:03:29 mother here uh she would have been oh 35 weird yeah like younger than we are now 1:03:36 cuz when I was a kid that's an old woman yeah it's an old woman at 35 but she would have been in her 30s 1:03:42 it's so cool that Mom did this she bumped into Wayne grassy oh here we go here shows you the little bit difference 1:03:47 of character between a Canadian hockey player and maybe a roid up wrestler 1:03:53 maybe roid oh that's not raw egg yolks in the morning 1:03:59 I'm sure all the Ultimate Warrior all he did was Jog and drink raw eggs so my mother actually bumped into the same 1:04:05 park you know within the same parade as Wayne gresy No Entourage nobody around him and said uh Mr gresy uh do you have 1:04:13 a moment my sons are big hockey fans would you mind signing your name four times for my four Sons sure no problem 1:04:20 Wayne gry 99 yeah yeah so our mother met Wayne gry still have that in our photo ALB yes we do oh she also met Tim Reed 1:04:26 from WKRP in cin oh yeah yeah yeah yeah Tim Reed Mike you had that opportunity and I and I said in the interview and 1:04:33 I'm not even joking Mike gave the advice in the interview that if I were ever to meet Stalone to not gush just to have a 1:04:39 normal conversation with them he was given that advice by his bodyguard which is great advice and Sound Advice sure 1:04:44 does crying in front of a grown man count as gushing well if the tears are gushing out then yes but if they're trickling 1:04:51 down then no and so Mike's talking about that how he was so paranoid about when he was talking to Stallone that he 1:04:57 didn't have any spittle coming out of his mouth you know basically freezing on his face type thing as he's talking and 1:05:02 so the highlight of this whole interview for me personally Salone told Mike hey you know you do kind of look like me 1:05:07 maybe you should do something with that and Mike's like what so solone kind of gave him his Blessing like you know 1:05:13 basically excuse the pun knock yourself out yeah and go do something with that lo and behold here he is doing something 1:05:19 with that he's wrote a book he's now he is writing a second book which he talks about in the interview he's does this 1:05:24 the Rocky film tour so it's just an incredible and the people he's met in the film he's met Milo I I don't know 1:05:29 how to pronounce his last name from Rocky bboa bur young he's had hours of conversations with him Tony burnt before 1:05:35 his passing this is a testament to Rocky the film and how it's affected obviously 1:05:40 has affected Mike K's life kunda and our life cuz we're doing the podcast uh regarding it and oh I I I hate Rocky I'm 1:05:47 only doing this out of it's really like podcast it's just really podcast we just picked Rocky sorry anyways so this kind 1:05:55 of made me think think of art the character Rocky the film it's a work of art that has stood the test of time for 1:06:01 40 years now before we've talked about other movies that have that came out that time like taxi driver so just to 1:06:08 put in perspective of what was going on in 1976 music wise because you I think he's working out he's listening to 1:06:15 [Music] 1:06:21 music the in cincin [Music] 1:06:28 okay so this is what ended in 76 uh Ike and Tina 1:06:36 [Music] Turner how did that end again 1:06:42 handshake a deep [Music] 1:06:48 purple there was a pop no not pop a punk band called Death that ended that year 1:06:55 [Music] but really not a lot of other things that are memorable but what began that 1:07:01 year which would be under the umbrella of Rocky of something you know new was the band You2 formed in 1976 1:07:09 [Music] 1:07:14 wow Tom pen the Heartbreakers a new 45 called anything that's rock and 1:07:24 roll also in 76 which by the way if you're having a bad day Tom Petty 1:07:30 scientifically proven you're going to have a better day yeah or at least the moment you're listen to it uh the b52s 1:07:35 tin roof [Music] 1:07:42 rusted you know do you remember how that song came out yeah we were in junior high yeah that was like just I can hear 1:07:48 this song in my head right now well how can you not can you listen here in your head 1:07:54 [Music] [Applause] 1:08:00 H the band rat remember do you remember that band do I remember Stephen 1:08:07 piery I just remember the I remember seeing the poster I was like a little kid it was at Dion's friend Dell's house 1:08:14 he had the poster rat and I thought that's 1:08:23 dumb well when you name your band rat you have to do two T's yeah you got to 1:08:28 show that you're you're different uh yeah some other bands that kind of came out that have stood the test of time um 1:08:35 BR no uh one band is the gynecologist they they're no longer doing business there's a band called the 1:08:41 gynecologist the gynecologist that came out I'm just on Wikipedia here of bands that came out 1:08:55 use that 1:09:04 no they weren't able to connect with their male fan [Laughter] 1:09:12 base that was that was a band you had to take line 1:09:20 down I wonder if we if we can still take a peek at their catalog 1:09:30 did any of their members pull 1:09:36 out so listeners just picture in your mind we just edited out about five different jokes that we cannot show you 1:09:43 or listen to but I assure you the tears were wiping off our cheeks they were 1:09:48 good they were funny if you want to know the jokes we said the puns that we said regarding the guy in college band send 1:09:54 us a message on Facebook we we'll tell you we'll tell youj the laugh so okay other bands uh the 1:10:00 [Music] 1:10:10 Cure Black 1:10:17 Flag The Blues [Music] Brothers and another band that I don't 1:10:24 think I stood the test of time time but boy they have a great name uh kick ax nice kick ax 1:10:32 [Applause] axe but the reason why I brought up like 1:10:38 you and the other bands 40 years later people are still interested and but the 1:10:43 list of the of the bands that started according to Wikipedia in that year is very long nobody knows who they are you 1:10:50 know anymore uh they probably even forget like they're still alive what 1:10:59 penetration who would name [Music] 1:11:09 that the jokes right themselves so the point is it's easier for music to stand 1:11:14 the test of time no one ever says oh they're releasing their 15th studio album bands are really in a way of just 1:11:21 releasing sequels sure sure cuz as a fan of a band you're sort of expecting the same sound yeah style well with Black 1:11:28 Sabbath they first started as like a Beatles type of band sure and they had a rehearsal Hall across the street from a 1:11:35 movie theater that played horror films yes and then it dawned on them like oh there's a market for that there were 1:11:40 there was a horror movie I believe called Black 1:11:46 Sabbath do you believe in [Music] 1:11:52 ghosts this is the night when fear and horror walk hand in hand this is Black 1:12:03 Sabbath starring the incomparable Boris Carlo the personable Mark Damon and Lush 1:12:11 and lovely women even though one is from the Nether world a vampire a 1:12:18 verdilac Black Sabbath well you know what the name of the band was before it became Black Sabbath I forget go Earth 1:12:25 Earth so yeah they were really into that yeah dark grungy kind of like yeah every Earth Day I always put on Facebook today 1:12:31 on Earth Day I'm listening to Black Sabbath wow and I get enough likes to know people know what I'm talking about 1:12:36 interesting obviously never liked it no with Black Sabbath they decided to make kind of scarier heavier music darker 1:12:43 music find their fan base but with movies it's different it requires time and movies don't always stand the test 1:12:49 of time Rocky has and I think it will forever stand the test of time yeah I can't imagine there'll be time when 1:12:54 someone says oh Rocky that stupid old movie yeah exactly Weir I wonder what 1:13:00 generation would be like enough well I think anybody that watches it and gives it a chance will know it's just a great 1:13:07 great film it's been lots of fun revisiting it and how fun it is for mikunda to kind of stay there I guess 1:13:15 you could say Obviously emotionally he's not there but he gets to visit that that character through his career and that 1:13:22 was one get another highlight of the interview that he talked about how he can never see Rocky again for the first 1:13:27 time can never chase that high like chasing the dragon so to speak but what he gets to do in his job is to see the 1:13:34 excitement of people seeing the stairs for the first time yeah the statue for the first time so he's always witnessing 1:13:40 people's joy every day what a fun job I know no no wonder why he's got such a 1:13:47 infectious way about him yeah he's happy so Mike again we just want to thank you for giving us a chance talking to us I 1:13:54 really hope we get to talk to you again you're a rocky expert which again we've been proven by Kyle our guest co-host 1:14:02 and Mike yeah KY Kyle Patterson Kyle Peterson I know oh I know 1:14:08 so both Kyle and Mike have shown us that Ruben and I have no business talking about Rocky because there's just people out there who are just so knowledgeable 1:14:14 and so even more passionate expressing different ways or else again the world would be a boring place if we did the 1:14:19 same thing the same way so Mike your talents I can't I can't impersonate Rocky as we've heard previous episodes I 1:14:25 should not do voices and I cannot do impersonations the Mike's right where he's supposed to be doing what he's supposed to be doing and I think us 1:14:32 doing the podcast is what we're supposed to be doing at least for tonight at least for tonight you know what I mean I think that's what anybody really should 1:14:37 be doing if you if you have a hobby if you have a passion if you want to give a goal at something go ahead and do it have some fun you don't need to be 1:14:43 perfect at it what's that saying you don't need to be great to start but to be great you have to start I'm sure he's 1:14:49 a better Rock impersonator now than he was when he first started oh probably yeah yeah I guess that's why I Rocky 1:14:54 trained he had to train yeah he had to train he had to get better you got to get sharper and I think that's those kind of parallels is what makes for me 1:15:02 the movie The Character resonate cuz clearly I'm not a boxing fan uh as we 1:15:07 learned earlier for the the real sport and real life is the real sport and real life no I'm not a boxing fan right I don't have anything against it I don't 1:15:13 really have anything for it I don't know who could you couldn't name four boxers I don't know who the heavyweight is I was talking to my wife the other day 1:15:19 with Muhammad Ali passing right and I was talking about the speech that Ali gave before he was going to be fighting 1:15:26 George Foreman right and she said the grill oh gee I'm like what are you 1:15:32 talking about and she's like why would he punch like a grill like I mean George Foreman was a boxer oh was he all right 1:15:39 so what we're going to do is some serious cooking today and one of the first things we want to do George is take a look at this right here on the 1:15:46 cover not only does it say lean mean fat reducing grilling machine what's that it has my name on it and it's very 1:15:53 important when you do something ins sign your name that means you you really believe in something so this machine was 1:16:00 designed with George Foreman and the American people in mind that hey we're going to eat what we want but we're 1:16:05 going to knock the fat out she had no idea so her understanding of George Foreman was the grilled maker yeah he 1:16:11 just thought he was a guy that barbecued meat and he didn't even invent that no 1:16:18 no who was it supposed to go to originally Hulk Hogan that's right Hulk Hogan but Hulk Hogan has since made his 1:16:23 money elsewhere we'll get to that yeah let's let's save it for Save thunder 1:16:29 lips for um Rocky 3 all my love slaves out there thunder 1:16:36 lips is here in the flesh baby Ruben it it's been a pleasure as always it's been 1:16:42 a pleasure what are we do 1:16:49 so so Ruben again thank you for allowing me to to be here today 1:16:57 it's been a good podcast a great podcast Mike you're good sport please you are please forgive us if you've listened 1:17:04 this far please forgive us we're just two brothers with a a sense of humor that maybe we only sense so Reuben de 1:17:22 [Applause] the 1:17:29 [Applause] 1:17:38 [Music]