Latest / Dos Amigos / REWIND: Fields to Film Sets - Terry Crews's Unexpected Journey

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REWIND: Fields to Film Sets - Terry Crews's Unexpected Journey · Dos Amigos

0:04
Speaker 1: Hey, how you doing? This is Freddy Rodriguez. And I'm
0:06
Speaker 1: Wilmer Valderrama.
0:08
Speaker 2: And the Dos Amigos podcast. We're here with Terry Crews.
0:10
Speaker 2: And we just started this story about a puppet show.
0:13
Speaker 2: I want to hear the story about the puppet show, man.
0:15
Speaker 1: What's this puppet show?
0:16
Speaker 3: It was wild because Wilmer was doing this puppet show,
0:19
Speaker 3: Hollywood puppet show.
0:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.
0:21
Speaker 3: And first of all, I love animation. I love puppets.
0:24
Speaker 3: I love the whole thing. And I said, oh my God,
0:26
Speaker 3: I have to do this. I get the invite. to
0:29
Speaker 3: tell a story, and they basically animate this story using puppets.
0:35
Speaker 3: And it was genius. And they're like marionettes. They were
0:39
Speaker 3: like real, detailed, amazing.
0:42
Speaker 1: But the heads really look like the people you're saying.
0:46
Speaker 1: It was me.
0:46
Speaker 3: I took a picture with it, and I had my
0:48
Speaker 3: suit on and the whole thing, and it was like,
0:50
Speaker 3: oh my God.
0:51
Speaker 1: We got to find out where those puppets are, by
0:53
Speaker 1: the way, because those puppets are around. Did you ever
0:56
Speaker 1: take your puppet?
0:56
Speaker 3: I couldn't take it. No, I didn't take it.
0:59
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll find it. They're in my personal shrine of humans.
1:03
Speaker 3: I didn't want to snatch it. I did.
1:06
Speaker 1: Below the speakeasy. Basically, we built this show. I thought, oh, man,
1:12
Speaker 1: you know what would be really fun? If all of
1:14
Speaker 1: us have this crazy story that we've never told before.
1:18
Speaker 1: And the idea was that we use marionettes to bring
1:22
Speaker 1: that story to life.
1:24
Speaker 3: Right?
1:24
Speaker 1: So we would basically design all these marionettes and every
1:28
Speaker 1: notable friend who came to tell the story, we would
1:31
Speaker 1: do a replica of their face into a puppet. So
1:36
Speaker 1: it was called the Hollywood Puppet Shit Show.
1:39
Speaker 3: It was. And it was so fucking funny.
1:42
Speaker 1: And I had so many friends, like our boy Steve Aoki,
1:45
Speaker 1: you know, like Joe Jonas and Gina Rodriguez. And, like,
1:49
Speaker 1: we had everybody come and tell the story. It was
1:51
Speaker 1: so funny.
1:52
Speaker 3: It was so random.
1:52
Speaker 1: Oh, it was genius.
1:53
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.
1:54
Speaker 1: It was cool.
1:55
Speaker 3: It was a genius idea, man. Because you could, listen,
1:57
Speaker 3: whatever you can't say in real life, you can get
1:59
Speaker 3: away with puppets. Right. You know what I mean? You're forgiven.
2:02
Speaker 3: It can go anywhere.
2:03
Speaker 1: You're forgiven. You're forgiven, brother. It's wild, man.
2:05
Speaker 3: This is how even, you know, when you look at
2:07
Speaker 3: the South Park guys, they got away with that. Yes, right.
2:10
Speaker 3: You put it in puppetry, you're like, oh. Stuff you
2:12
Speaker 3: could never, ever say. So, but even though it was
2:15
Speaker 3: like VH1, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
2:17
Speaker 1: It was VH1 and Fuse. It was like syndicated on
2:19
Speaker 1: all of them. It did really good. People loved this show.
2:21
Speaker 1: It was very cool.
2:22
Speaker 3: And the story.
2:23
Speaker 1: What story did you tell?
2:25
Speaker 3: Okay. The story was so, it was one of the
2:27
Speaker 3: most horrendous periods of my life. Like, I had just
2:30
Speaker 3: moved to LA and What was crazy is that I
2:35
Speaker 3: retired from the NFL, and I wasn't a superstar. See,
2:39
Speaker 3: a lot of people think, you were in the NFL.
2:40
Speaker 3: But I was on the end of the roster. The
2:43
Speaker 3: last 10, 15 guys on the roster, they're holding on, man.
2:48
Speaker 3: We got the NFL minimum. And what happened is I
2:52
Speaker 3: would play one year and then get cut and then
2:54
Speaker 3: sit out. So that money had to last for two years.
2:58
Speaker 3: And then I'd get picked up, and all of a
3:00
Speaker 3: sudden I'd play again, and then get cut again. And
3:03
Speaker 3: so it was a really, really, again, me and my
3:05
Speaker 3: wife were going through all of it. But this was
3:08
Speaker 3: a wonderful part of the story, is that when I
3:11
Speaker 3: met my wife, I'm going to give you a little background.
3:12
Speaker 3: When I met my wife in college back in, it
3:16
Speaker 3: was 19, oh, it had to be 80, probably 89. No, no, 88.
3:23
Speaker 3: And I looked at her, and we were dating, and
3:25
Speaker 3: we were trying to get interested. And I said, look,
3:28
Speaker 3: I said, first of all, one thing I'm going to do,
3:30
Speaker 3: I'm going to play in the NFL, and then I'm
3:32
Speaker 3: going to move to L.A., and we're going to make movies.
3:35
Speaker 4: Oh, even back then.
3:37
Speaker 3: Listen, I called her, and we were outside of a Wendy's.
3:41
Speaker 3: I'll never forget. She was like, I'm down, babe. Let's go.
3:46
Speaker 3: And I was like, cool. There was a point when
3:49
Speaker 3: I come back from a tryout with the 49ers and
3:52
Speaker 3: I broke my finger and I was so like done.
3:56
Speaker 3: Like there was a moment I was like no more.
3:59
Speaker 3: Like football, it's not in me anymore. Like the energy.
4:03
Speaker 3: But I loved entertainment. Yeah. then you have to understand,
4:08
Speaker 3: I didn't want to come out here to act, which
4:10
Speaker 3: is crazy. I was trying to get behind the scenes.
4:13
Speaker 3: I had a movie that I shot with my boys
4:15
Speaker 3: in Detroit that was terrible. And we were getting kicked
4:19
Speaker 3: out of locations. We lost all our money. And I said,
4:22
Speaker 3: this is the best thing in my life. I'm energized
4:27
Speaker 3: by this horrible experience. It's energizing me. I was just working.
4:32
Speaker 3: And I knew that's what I needed to do. But
4:34
Speaker 3: so football was leaving me. And then my wife looked
4:38
Speaker 3: at me. She said, remember when we said, you said
4:40
Speaker 3: we were going to move to LA and make movies? Yeah.
4:42
Speaker 3: She said, let's go. Let's go. I don't know. And
4:46
Speaker 3: when she gave me that green light, bro.
4:48
Speaker 1: You had permission to do it.
4:50
Speaker 3: You understand? When your girl was like, she said, babe.
4:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're rolling.
4:54
Speaker 3: Let's go. Babe, did you say that? And I said, yeah.
4:57
Speaker 3: I'm saying, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
5:00
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
5:01
Speaker 3: Because football hurts you.
5:03
Speaker 1: It hurts.
5:04
Speaker 3: Wake up. Wake up. Put your chin up. Put your
5:06
Speaker 3: chin up. Wipe your face. Let's go. Let's get it.
5:08
Speaker 3: We loaded everything we had. into our Nissan Pathfinder at
5:12
Speaker 3: the time.
5:13
Speaker 4: Nissan Pathfinder.
5:13
Speaker 3: Remember those? Remember those? It was hot until it wasn't, you.
5:19
Speaker 1: Know?
5:20
Speaker 3: But the wheels were falling off that thing. But we
5:22
Speaker 3: loaded our two daughters at the time. They were little
5:25
Speaker 3: baby girls. We have five kids now. Moved out to L.A.
5:29
Speaker 3: and didn't know a soul. But my whole thing was like,
5:32
Speaker 3: I'm going to take this little edit that I had
5:34
Speaker 3: of this little piece of stuff and I'm going to
5:35
Speaker 3: get investors. And I just want to do that whole,
5:38
Speaker 3: you know, Spike Lee, you know, Robert Townsend, work it
5:42
Speaker 3: from the bottom up. You know what I mean? Independent,
5:45
Speaker 3: you know, just that energy. Man, when I hear it,
5:48
Speaker 3: we're broke, like broke, broke, past broke. And what was happening,
5:53
Speaker 3: we got this duplex in Burbank and this lady who
5:56
Speaker 3: we rented it from, she was crazy. And we caught
6:01
Speaker 3: her coming out of our apartment. We had just rented
6:04
Speaker 3: it and we caught her coming out of our apartment.
6:07
Speaker 1: After you were living there?
6:08
Speaker 3: Yeah. Wait, we already moved in. We had been there
6:12
Speaker 3: for like a couple months. And she was, she comes out,
6:14
Speaker 3: she heard our car pulling up and she jumped, run
6:17
Speaker 3: out of the place. It's a terrible little spot. And
6:19
Speaker 3: I'm like, what are you doing? I'm checking on something.
6:23
Speaker 3: Oh my God. And then she's just behaving erratic. She's
6:28
Speaker 3: going nuts. And then my daughter is drawing on the sidewalk.
6:32
Speaker 3: We cut it. Next day, my daughter's drawing on the
6:35
Speaker 3: sidewalk with chalk.
6:38
Speaker 1: Chalk, yeah.
6:38
Speaker 3: And she comes over. You don't do that, daughter. My
6:40
Speaker 3: chalk on my sidewalk. She's going nuts, man. How old
6:45
Speaker 3: is your daughter? I don't know where she's from. It
6:47
Speaker 3: was the weirdest accent of all time. It was like,
6:50
Speaker 3: I don't know if it was Ukrainian.
6:52
Speaker 1: A little kid.
6:53
Speaker 3: Oh, and she's yelling at my little baby, man. And
6:55
Speaker 3: I'm going, okay, okay. Now, I'm doing security now. because
7:01
Speaker 3: it's not working out. I'm just doing security on movie sets.
7:05
Speaker 3: I did security on Friday, next Friday, before I ended
7:09
Speaker 3: up in Friday after next.
7:10
Speaker 1: I didn't know that story. Right.
7:12
Speaker 3: I was doing security.
7:14
Speaker 1: On the original Friday?
7:15
Speaker 3: No, the second Friday. We shot that all the way
7:19
Speaker 3: up in, that was up in Santa Clarita, where they
7:21
Speaker 3: were in the cul-de-sac and the whole thing. And I
7:23
Speaker 3: was standing out there, and I'm Cube would park his car. Now,
7:27
Speaker 3: it wasn't real like, I wasn't like a bodyguard. I
7:29
Speaker 3: was like security. Like, the cars are there. You watch
7:32
Speaker 3: that thing and don't move. You know, 12 hours. And
7:34
Speaker 3: I was just like, but I wanted to be writing
7:36
Speaker 3: my little ideas. I had my little stuff. And sometimes
7:40
Speaker 3: I'd do all these, you know, it was cast security,
7:43
Speaker 3: which was these cast that, you know, they kind of
7:47
Speaker 3: had a stranglehold on the industry. And I became one
7:51
Speaker 3: of their main guys because they were like, people started
7:54
Speaker 3: requesting me. And so I'm coming back from the security
7:58
Speaker 3: gig and I'm finding out they're yelling and the whole thing.
8:01
Speaker 3: So she's yelling at my daughter. I decided to go
8:04
Speaker 3: over to the lady's house. And I said, look, because
8:06
Speaker 3: I already caught her in a couple things. I said, look,
8:09
Speaker 3: don't come over to the house anymore. Like I knocked
8:12
Speaker 3: on the door and that was my job to just
8:14
Speaker 3: tell her that. I said, ma'am, please just don't come
8:18
Speaker 3: over to the house anymore because I can't afford to
8:20
Speaker 3: get out. We have no money. Right. She says, what
8:23
Speaker 3: the hell? Get out of my place. And then she goes, what?
8:27
Speaker 3: Do it. What? No, man. Come on. Spits in my face.
8:34
Speaker 4: Get out of here.
8:35
Speaker 3: Oh.
8:36
Speaker 4: That's crazy.
8:37
Speaker 3: And I'm like.
8:38
Speaker 1: First of all, like what? You understand that the type
8:41
Speaker 1: of individual that you have to be for that to
8:45
Speaker 1: be an instinct, like an instinct in you to be like, oh,
8:49
Speaker 1: this is how I'm going to handle this.
8:50
Speaker 3: It's like.
8:51
Speaker 1: You have to be, I mean, I'm going to spare
8:56
Speaker 1: the names, but you got to be something so, like,
9:00
Speaker 1: just ugly inside for you to go to that. That's
9:04
Speaker 1: just like the craziest sign of disrespect. Like, it doesn't
9:07
Speaker 1: get more disrespectful than that.
9:09
Speaker 3: It doesn't. Like, I'd rather you kick me. Yes. Punch
9:13
Speaker 3: me in the face. That's what I'm saying. Yes. But
9:15
Speaker 3: the spit is like, you spit on the ground. You
9:20
Speaker 3: spit on someone you hate. You spit on someone's grave.
9:24
Speaker 3: You know, like the movie, the name of the movie.
9:26
Speaker 3: But you, to spit in someone's face, you're telling them
9:30
Speaker 3: that you're worse than nothing. Wow. And dude, and this
9:36
Speaker 3: is another thing, because what I was going through at
9:38
Speaker 3: the time, I didn't know we were going to make it.
9:42
Speaker 3: I didn't know what was going to happen.
9:43
Speaker 1: It's the most vulnerable time of your life.
9:45
Speaker 3: Bruh, I had the NFL. It's over. And I'm going, uh-oh.
9:52
Speaker 3: I saw all the big things and bright lights and
9:55
Speaker 3: all of a sudden I'm down in a little duplex
9:57
Speaker 3: in Burbank with my wife and two kids. And we're struggling.
10:01
Speaker 3: And I'm going by the hour, like, oh, my God. Like,
10:04
Speaker 3: will I ever see something again? Like, you know, you
10:08
Speaker 3: get to the point where you don't even want to
10:09
Speaker 3: think about it.
10:10
Speaker 1: You don't want to say it out loud to your lady.
10:12
Speaker 3: You know, and stress. I was having acid reflux. And
10:16
Speaker 3: you're just wondering, like, in L.A., it's hard and cold.
10:20
Speaker 3: because they don't know you and you got to go
10:23
Speaker 3: through at least three four years of bullshit like no
10:28
Speaker 3: like people talking junk and yeah yeah yeah and no
10:31
Speaker 3: meaning no no no right so i'm just and all
10:35
Speaker 3: this and then they get this and i know i
10:38
Speaker 3: can't move i know i can't afford it and i'm
10:42
Speaker 3: like now if i if I beat this woman, the
10:45
Speaker 3: first instinct is to be like, you know what I mean?
10:49
Speaker 3: Now I'm in Burbank, which is a whole nother animal.
10:52
Speaker 3: Everybody know in LA, Burbank police is different than the
10:55
Speaker 3: other police. You know what I mean? They're that old
10:58
Speaker 3: white guy coming in there with that whole 50s attitude,
11:01
Speaker 3: the 50s haircut.
11:03
Speaker 1: Porto's is community outreach for them.
11:06
Speaker 3: You see?
11:08
Speaker 1: Porto's is how they get the community outreach.
11:10
Speaker 3: It's true to Porto's. It is.
11:14
Speaker 1: The potato balls. That's what they think they hang. You
11:17
Speaker 1: can't hang because you have bolillos. Papa rellenas. You think
11:22
Speaker 1: you can hang because you eat papa rellenas?
11:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. Porto's is it. But you know what I'm saying?
11:29
Speaker 3: And dude, I knew they would put me under the jail. Like,
11:33
Speaker 3: there's nothing I could do. So dude, I wiped my face.
11:36
Speaker 3: And you're talking about having to think, think, think, think, like,
11:41
Speaker 3: what am I going to do? What am I going
11:42
Speaker 3: to do? And I went, okay. I remember wiping my face.
11:45
Speaker 3: I didn't say anything. And I just got back in
11:47
Speaker 3: the car and I went home. And I said, babe,
11:50
Speaker 3: and I came home, told my wife, I said, and
11:52
Speaker 3: we called the police. I said, call the police, honey. Mm-hmm.
11:55
Speaker 3: I said, this woman spit in my face. This is crazy. Dude, wait.
12:00
Speaker 3: The police were there in five minutes. And I went, whoa.
12:04
Speaker 3: I said, wow. I said, we just called you. They said, no, no, no, no, no.
12:08
Speaker 3: She called us on you. I went, what? Come on, man.
12:12
Speaker 3: She said you attacked her. Now, man.
12:16
Speaker 1: Now, that guy just three levels, I mean, four octaves
12:19
Speaker 1: even more intense.
12:20
Speaker 3: Bruh. Now, I'm a big black man in Burbank. They
12:26
Speaker 3: came in with their hands on their guns. Because I'm thinking, hey,
12:29
Speaker 3: you're here already. And they're like, hey, yeah, we're here
12:33
Speaker 3: because she called on you. And I went, whoa, what?
12:37
Speaker 3: She said you attacked her. I said, we're here to
12:41
Speaker 3: arrest you. Oh, my God. Huh? Wait. I said, no, no.
12:48
Speaker 3: I said, oh, okay. And man, something just downloaded from,
12:53
Speaker 3: I don't know, from heaven. Like God just saw it download.
12:57
Speaker 3: I said, okay, okay. I said, you can arrest me,
13:02
Speaker 3: but you have to arrest her too. I said, because
13:06
Speaker 3: I have a complaint against her. So let's both go
13:09
Speaker 3: to jail. Are we okay with that? And the cops
13:12
Speaker 3: were looking at each other like, damn, he's got a point. Right.
13:17
Speaker 3: I said, okay, we're not going to arrest you. Dude.
13:22
Speaker 3: This is what I'm saying. Like, if I'd have been like, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:25
Speaker 1: This is the guy.
13:27
Speaker 3: But somehow I thought it's just, like I said, it
13:31
Speaker 3: wasn't me being smart. It was just God saying, listen,
13:34
Speaker 3: tell him this. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like,
13:36
Speaker 3: cause you got family, you got people to take care of.
13:40
Speaker 3: This is over. Like you got, and I see what
13:43
Speaker 3: this woman is doing. So, They said, no, we don't
13:46
Speaker 3: have to do that because they didn't want to arrest me.
13:48
Speaker 3: I said, but she says you got to get out
13:50
Speaker 3: of here and you're being evicted. Right. Oh, my God.
13:55
Speaker 3: Worst story ever, man. But then I went to one
13:58
Speaker 3: of those family law places and they said, okay, since
14:03
Speaker 3: she is trying to evict you, the whole thing, you
14:05
Speaker 3: don't have to pay rent anymore. Right. I went, oh. Yeah,
14:09
Speaker 3: that's right. It's protected. I went, what?
14:10
Speaker 1: It's California law, baby.
14:12
Speaker 3: It's California law. And they said, so you got to
14:14
Speaker 3: wait till they can figure it all out and the
14:17
Speaker 3: whole thing. And we went four months trying to figure
14:22
Speaker 3: this all out. They said, don't pay the rent. They said,
14:24
Speaker 3: don't do it. Right. And now I had it saved up.
14:27
Speaker 4: Wait, wait, because if you would have paid it, then what?
14:30
Speaker 3: Well, it's literally because of her complaint against me and
14:36
Speaker 3: the attempt to evict has now kicked into, and I
14:40
Speaker 3: didn't wanna go, and it wasn't for lack of finances,
14:44
Speaker 3: it was some order thing. You had to let the
14:46
Speaker 3: court settle it out. And you had to wait for
14:49
Speaker 3: the court. So don't move, and nobody could literally move,
14:53
Speaker 3: but it was our advantage. I was like, oh my God,
14:55
Speaker 3: like okay. okay, what's next? And then while we were
14:58
Speaker 3: doing that, my wife was working all these things out
15:01
Speaker 3: and we need to find another place to live, okay?
15:04
Speaker 3: So we had like three, four months to find another
15:06
Speaker 3: place too. We ended up moving across the street.
15:09
Speaker 1: No way.
15:10
Speaker 3: And this man who just knew this lady was crazy,
15:14
Speaker 3: he was like, hey, I'm moving out. I saw what
15:16
Speaker 3: you're going through with her. Hey, I got a new place.
15:19
Speaker 3: It was beautiful. It was gorgeous. And then he said
15:24
Speaker 3: how much it was. And I said, I can't afford that.
15:27
Speaker 3: I can't afford it. I said, damn it. I said,
15:30
Speaker 3: I can't afford it. And he said, what can you afford?
15:35
Speaker 1: Come on, man.
15:35
Speaker 3: Come on, man. Dude, I'm getting choked up. I'm sorry.
15:37
Speaker 3: I'm getting choked up. There, I knew them tissues.
15:42
Speaker 1: Damn it. Yeah, you did it, dude.
15:45
Speaker 3: We opened him. We opened him. We opened him. It's
15:48
Speaker 3: the way you guys looking at me. I'm like, oh.
16:02
Speaker 1: Oh, man, dude.
16:02
Speaker 3: He said, what can you afford? I said, I can
16:06
Speaker 3: afford this. And he said, I'll take it. And man,
16:11
Speaker 3: me and my little girl, my wife and my little girl,
16:13
Speaker 3: she's in the little wagon. We moving our stuff across
16:16
Speaker 3: the street. And that was the story I told was
16:21
Speaker 3: the white puppets.
16:25
Speaker 1: We told that story with puppets.
16:27
Speaker 3: Oh, they told that story with puppets. But we ended
16:30
Speaker 3: up And I look back at those times, man, because
16:35
Speaker 3: moving out here, man, it was so hard because, like
16:40
Speaker 3: I said, I didn't know what was going on. I
16:41
Speaker 3: didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew
16:43
Speaker 3: we were after this dream. Me and my wife was like,
16:46
Speaker 3: we got to make it work. So, we were so broke,
16:48
Speaker 3: there were times when we would have pizza night. Me
16:51
Speaker 3: and my family loved Friday night pizza night. And this
16:53
Speaker 3: is back with Blockbuster and the whole thing. And I
16:56
Speaker 3: used to park outside of Blockbuster and wait for people
16:58
Speaker 3: to bring the movie back. Yeah, yeah.
17:00
Speaker 4: The new release.
17:01
Speaker 3: The new release. You know, hey, man. Oh, I used
17:05
Speaker 3: to cry. Wait, people be... Yeah, yeah.
17:08
Speaker 1: I gotta bring it back. You see somebody bring it
17:10
Speaker 1: in the box. Well, those of you who don't know,
17:13
Speaker 1: a blockbuster is a place where you go and actually
17:15
Speaker 1: rent it, a VHS movie. But sometimes the new releases,
17:18
Speaker 1: they only have two copies. So you got to get
17:21
Speaker 1: there to actually get the movie.
17:23
Speaker 3: Well, my baby girls wanted to see the newest thing,
17:25
Speaker 3: the new Disney thing. So I used to approach people
17:29
Speaker 3: in the cars when they'd be pulling up. Hey, man,
17:30
Speaker 3: you got it? Hey, man, leave me alone. Leave me alone.
17:34
Speaker 3: I'm pulling up. But what would happen is the guy
17:38
Speaker 3: would come out, and you see it in his hand.
17:39
Speaker 3: You're like, hey, man, is that the one?
17:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're intersecting it.
17:41
Speaker 3: And as soon as he put it in, boom, boom, boom,
17:44
Speaker 3: I'd be like, I want that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:46
Speaker 3: I would be parked out for like an hour or
17:47
Speaker 3: two hours to get the hot movie. That's crazy. Then
17:51
Speaker 3: I would take, we literally would take flour, yeast, the
17:56
Speaker 3: whole thing, and I would make the dope. Oh, you
17:58
Speaker 3: make it fresh. Yeah. Because we couldn't afford, listen. Sure.
18:01
Speaker 3: Little Caesars was like $ 4. 99. We couldn't afford that. Mm-hmm.
18:05
Speaker 3: So we make flour dough and I would make a
18:08
Speaker 3: fricking dough.
18:10
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:11
Speaker 3: Then we would put spaghetti sauce and we, we had,
18:15
Speaker 3: we knew we had some cheese and that was it.
18:19
Speaker 1: You're speaking so hard to my heart. First of all,
18:21
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you for, for telling
18:23
Speaker 1: us that story again. It's, uh, it's, it's not just humbling,
18:26
Speaker 1: but it's also kind of reassuring of all of our stories, right?
18:29
Speaker 1: I mean, we, we all have a tiny little bit
18:31
Speaker 1: of a version of your story. Um, and, uh, when
18:35
Speaker 1: we first came to United States, um, same thing, we
18:38
Speaker 1: would go to the 99 cent store for the groceries,
18:40
Speaker 1: you know, you know, and like, even, even though I didn't, I, I,
18:43
Speaker 1: I've told this, this joke before. It's like, we couldn't
18:46
Speaker 1: get Coca-Cola, so we get cola. You know what I mean?
18:49
Speaker 1: We couldn't get Captain Crunch. We just get crunch.
18:51
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
18:52
Speaker 1: You know, but, um, but, uh, the, the point is
18:55
Speaker 1: like somebody was watching this whole time, you know, and
18:59
Speaker 1: somebody was watching, um, knowing that the blessing was going
19:02
Speaker 1: to change your life. It was going to give you
19:04
Speaker 1: the runway you needed to continue to dream on the
19:06
Speaker 1: level you were, you know? And nothing, you know, anything
19:10
Speaker 1: from there will be coming up.
19:12
Speaker 3: But see, this is what's strange. This is what's so strange.
19:17
Speaker 3: And it's strange. Dude, I've been in the most opulent
19:23
Speaker 3: places in the entire world. The biggest hotel, the best
19:27
Speaker 3: of everything. No, no, no. It wasn't as good as
19:30
Speaker 3: that pizza.
19:31
Speaker 4: Oh, my God. And that movie.
19:33
Speaker 1: You're going to make me cry.
19:34
Speaker 3: I know, dude. I'm trying to tell you. The movie
19:37
Speaker 3: and the pizza. And me and my little girls, all
19:40
Speaker 3: of us, me and my wife, my little girl, we
19:42
Speaker 3: all just sitting there. And I'm like, we doing it.
19:45
Speaker 3: We doing it. We gonna make it yeah dude I
19:49
Speaker 3: again we've had everything you know now it's like oh
19:53
Speaker 3: you get a car you get a this and they're
19:56
Speaker 3: like but man when you go back those times were
20:00
Speaker 3: so precious.
20:01
Speaker 1: And so important so important so important to hold up
20:04
Speaker 1: the blessing later you.
20:05
Speaker 3: See what I mean and again it's just It's a precursor.
20:11
Speaker 3: It's the way to these things. The only way out
20:14
Speaker 3: is through. You know what I mean? It's not a
20:16
Speaker 3: magic thing. You just got to earn it. You got
20:19
Speaker 3: to take these little steps and baby step it.
20:23
Speaker 2: But sometimes God puts you through that to prepare you
20:26
Speaker 2: for the big blessings because you're not prepared to handle.
20:30
Speaker 1: You won't be able to hold them.
20:31
Speaker 3: Exactly.
20:32
Speaker 4: He puts you through those storms, man. It's called seasons, right?
20:35
Speaker 3: Yes.
20:36
Speaker 1: He puts you through a season.
20:37
Speaker 2: In order for you to harden you, to strengthen your
20:40
Speaker 2: faith in him.
20:40
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I don't mean to get too spiritual here.
20:42
Speaker 1: No, no, that's it. We're all very spiritual people here.
20:45
Speaker 4: That's kind of how I see it.
20:47
Speaker 3: Well, you're right. You're right, Freddie. Because, dude, one thing
20:50
Speaker 3: I know is that, you know, when you look at
20:54
Speaker 3: when things come too easy, they're just never appreciated. You
20:58
Speaker 3: know what I mean? It's like, you know, it's wild
21:03
Speaker 3: because you kind of have to– The harder the battle,
21:08
Speaker 3: the greater the reward. You know what I mean? That's all.
21:12
Speaker 1: That's why the people always say, man, like when they're
21:14
Speaker 1: going through that small hell, you know, they go, something
21:19
Speaker 1: good's coming.
21:19
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
21:22
Speaker 1: Something is at the end of this road, you know.
21:23
Speaker 1: And speaking of that moment, the other road. What was
21:27
Speaker 1: that one moment where you tasted entertainment and you're like, oh,
21:31
Speaker 1: I'm about to do this.
21:33
Speaker 3: What was that moment? Yeah. Okay. Uh, this is what,
21:37
Speaker 3: what was crazy was, uh, there's several different starts to this,
21:42
Speaker 3: to my acting thing, you know, because I, I, again,
21:46
Speaker 3: I wasn't trying to be an actor. Right. But, uh,
21:48
Speaker 3: but I was, you know, during, after security, I would bounce.
21:52
Speaker 3: So there was a club in Burbank called Timmy Nolan's.
21:56
Speaker 3: Which was right down the street. Timmy Nolan's, I was
21:58
Speaker 3: the bouncer every Friday, Saturday, well actually Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
22:03
Speaker 3: And so I would work 12 hours, get off, go
22:06
Speaker 3: straight to Timmy Nolan's and then work till two in
22:09
Speaker 3: the morning. It's like a little Irish-ish place.
22:13
Speaker 1: It's a little Irish spot. They had a second story, right?
22:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did. They had a second story.
22:17
Speaker 1: And their wings were crazy. Oh, my God. There was
22:19
Speaker 1: a Mexican dude that used to do the wings in
22:21
Speaker 1: the back.
22:22
Speaker 3: Listen, you've got to understand. One reason I worked there
22:24
Speaker 3: is because I could eat. And they would give you
22:27
Speaker 3: this soup. They had this bread basket stew that would
22:30
Speaker 3: be in a bread basket. And you would just, man.
22:34
Speaker 3: Or I would get me a steak. And they were like, here, Terry. And, dude,
22:37
Speaker 3: because I couldn't eat all week.
22:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
22:38
Speaker 3: And I would feel bad. Then they would let me
22:40
Speaker 3: take it home to the kids. Oh, that's so great.
22:42
Speaker 3: That's great. I'm trying to tell you, man. Yeah. Whatever
22:45
Speaker 3: we had to do, I was like, thank you. And
22:46
Speaker 3: I had a little white styrofoam, and I put it
22:48
Speaker 3: in the back of the fire and take it home. Yeah.
22:52
Speaker 3: But I was at Timmy Nola's, and a police officer
22:55
Speaker 3: who was on sets all the time, he said, hey, man.
23:00
Speaker 3: He said, I've been doing some work with Billy Blanks.
23:03
Speaker 3: You know, back in time. And he said, man, they
23:06
Speaker 3: got to audition down in Santa Monica for Warriors. For
23:12
Speaker 3: like this new show. And he said, would you like
23:14
Speaker 3: to do it? And I was like, oh, I'm not
23:17
Speaker 3: an actor, man. I'm not doing that. That's okay. So
23:21
Speaker 3: he said, oh, no problem. No problem. On my day off,
23:25
Speaker 3: I had one day off. And I just decided I'm
23:27
Speaker 3: just going to chill out. I get a call from that.
23:30
Speaker 3: police officer who became a friend because I was always
23:32
Speaker 3: there and he was always coming there. So it was
23:34
Speaker 3: the regulars. And he said, dude, we're having it right now.
23:37
Speaker 3: You have to get here. Like, dude, you could kill this.
23:41
Speaker 3: And I was like, and I look at my wife,
23:44
Speaker 3: I said, You think I should try this stuff?
23:46
Speaker 4: Was it one of those competition shows?
23:49
Speaker 3: It was a show called Battle Dome. Yeah.
23:51
Speaker 4: Battle Dome.
23:52
Speaker 3: Battle Dome. If you look at it.
23:53
Speaker 1: I know Battle Dome, dude.
23:55
Speaker 3: I know Battle Dome. Look on Google. You'll see it.
23:57
Speaker 3: Terry Crews, Battle Dome. It was a show that was
24:00
Speaker 3: American Gladiators steroids.
24:02
Speaker 1: American Gladiators.
24:03
Speaker 3: Okay. I went, tried this thing out, man. And all
24:07
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I went down there. And I'm running
24:10
Speaker 3: circles around these cats, because remember, I'm out in the NFL.
24:13
Speaker 3: A lot of them cats are bodybuilders. And bodybuilders are
24:16
Speaker 3: not athletes. You can hear the hamstrings going.
24:20
Speaker 2: Oh, they just all fell down, like all at once.
24:28
Speaker 1: And you're like, choo!
24:29
Speaker 3: You might get hit with a hamstring because it.
24:31
Speaker 1: Was popping like, oh my God, get out the way.
24:34
Speaker 3: These guys never ran in their life. You know what
24:38
Speaker 3: I mean? They're walking on the treadmill.
24:40
Speaker 1: But they look good.
24:41
Speaker 3: Oh, they look amazing. They were like sprint because they
24:43
Speaker 3: were like, ah! They had a 20 foot rope and
24:49
Speaker 3: these cats couldn't do it. They were stuck in the rope.
24:54
Speaker 3: Nothing worse than watching a gigantic bodybuilder stuck on a rope.
24:58
Speaker 3: He can't get down, he can't get up.
25:00
Speaker 1: It's crazy that their bodies look like they're built to
25:03
Speaker 1: pull and push, but they're not. They can't pull themselves up.
25:07
Speaker 1: It's a really interesting thing.
25:08
Speaker 3: There's a big difference between athletics.
25:11
Speaker 1: Where you had both.
25:12
Speaker 3: I was an athlete. Right. You know what I mean?
25:14
Speaker 3: I wasn't even a bodybuilder at all. But you had
25:17
Speaker 3: the physique. But I was just, damn, I was ready
25:20
Speaker 3: to go. Right. And dude, I'm running circles. I'm going
25:23
Speaker 3: up to the top. I'm out running these cats like,
25:26
Speaker 3: when are they going to show up at the finish line?
25:30
Speaker 3: You were lapping. You were lapping. So the producer and
25:33
Speaker 3: Billy Bright, they were like, dude, this guy, like, And
25:36
Speaker 3: they gave me, they got my number. I did Access Hollywood.
25:40
Speaker 3: At that day, they were like, you're one of the
25:42
Speaker 3: warriors they're looking for. And I was like, yeah, yeah,
25:44
Speaker 3: you know. And I didn't know what was going on.
25:46
Speaker 3: And I went home and I told my wife, like,
25:48
Speaker 3: It went really good.
25:50
Speaker 1: She was like, really?
25:52
Speaker 3: What? How did it go down? I was like, babe.
25:54
Speaker 1: I got interviewed by Access Hollywood.
25:57
Speaker 3: We sat and watched like at 7 o'clock. We waited
26:00
Speaker 3: for it to come on. And right before, you know,
26:02
Speaker 3: the prime time. And it came on. They showed a
26:04
Speaker 3: little clip of me. And I was like, oh. How
26:08
Speaker 3: about this? How about this? And then crickets. Crickets. Oh, what? Six. Six.
26:15
Speaker 3: Months go by and I'm back to security. I'm like,
26:18
Speaker 3: I wonder what ever happened to that.
26:19
Speaker 4: Cause it was just a pilot.
26:20
Speaker 3: Dude, it was, this is what I found out later.
26:24
Speaker 3: That was not for the warriors. They were looking for contestants.
26:30
Speaker 3: They had already picked the warriors.
26:33
Speaker 1: Oh, so if you would have gotten.
26:35
Speaker 3: So the whole thing was they went.
26:37
Speaker 1: Maybe you would've smoked everyone.
26:39
Speaker 3: So wait, this was crazy.
26:41
Speaker 1: He was too good.
26:42
Speaker 3: They said, okay. I got a call six months later.
26:46
Speaker 3: We were freaking out because I was like, oh, man,
26:48
Speaker 3: that was really nice. Like, you know, in your mind, like,
26:51
Speaker 3: I wonder what happened. Months go by. I get a call.
26:54
Speaker 3: They said, we have a callback for that show that
26:56
Speaker 3: you went on. And I was like, a callback? And
26:59
Speaker 3: I was like, it was a casting agent now. So
27:02
Speaker 3: it was past that little, like, bomb thing.
27:04
Speaker 1: The catacomb, yeah.
27:05
Speaker 3: So they're like, we're getting close. We're going to do this.
27:07
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, OK. And I said, what
27:10
Speaker 3: should I do? She said, Terry, be a personality. Just be.
27:14
Speaker 3: Because I didn't know. I said, okay, just be you,
27:19
Speaker 3: but be big. Man, I went to Cinema Secrets up
27:23
Speaker 3: in Burbank, got my face painted like Darth Maul. Had
27:28
Speaker 3: makeup going all up into my bald head because I
27:30
Speaker 3: was still bald back then. I would shave my head
27:32
Speaker 3: every day because it was like Michael Jordan. Yeah, yeah,
27:34
Speaker 3: of course.
27:35
Speaker 1: Aerodynamics, aerodynamics too.
27:38
Speaker 3: Yes, I got it. And then I went and got some,
27:40
Speaker 3: because Burbank was perfect for these little costume spots. and
27:44
Speaker 3: the makeup spots. And then I went and got some
27:46
Speaker 3: space age little strapless, and I was wearing spandex and
27:50
Speaker 3: little goofy, crazy, like space age wrestler outfit. I said,
27:55
Speaker 3: it's not going to be for lack of trying. And
27:59
Speaker 3: I looked at my wife. I said, is this crazy enough?
28:01
Speaker 3: She said, you look ridiculous.
28:04
Speaker 1: I said, thank you.
28:05
Speaker 4: That was the barometer.
28:06
Speaker 3: She said, oh lord. I said, it's working. So I'm
28:20
Speaker 3: sitting here, man, and I drive down to Sony. And
28:25
Speaker 3: this is a Sony show. I'm from Burbank all the
28:28
Speaker 3: way to Culver City. You know that journey. That's the journey.
28:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:31
Speaker 3: My makeup's starting to melt.
28:32
Speaker 4: Oh, in the car.
28:34
Speaker 3: Oh, in the car. It's hot.
28:36
Speaker 1: Boy, look at more fears, though.
28:37
Speaker 3: It's hot. I got the windows rolled down. And this
28:39
Speaker 3: was so bad. My tags were bad. And I was
28:41
Speaker 3: just so scared to get pulled over. Oh, yeah. Oh,
28:45
Speaker 3: you know the tags, man. Think about LA, man. They
28:48
Speaker 3: get you. Oh.
28:49
Speaker 1: It's not cheap to get that tag.
28:51
Speaker 3: Anytime a police officer was anywhere, I'd go to the
28:53
Speaker 3: other side. I'd go on the exit. I'd go on.
28:56
Speaker 1: The exit and come back around.
28:58
Speaker 3: It took me five hours to get down there. Because
29:02
Speaker 3: you're like, I just can't afford to get pulled over.
29:05
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? I had this car pounded
29:08
Speaker 3: or something. So I get there, man. I pull into
29:10
Speaker 3: the gate and the guy just cracks up. He looks
29:13
Speaker 3: at me. I say, hey, man. Come on, man. It's
29:15
Speaker 3: a movie studio. You've seen some crazier stuff. Right. Right.
29:18
Speaker 3: He's like, man, go in there, go in there. He's laughing.
29:22
Speaker 3: I go in there and all these bodybuilder guys are
29:25
Speaker 3: like super cool and everything. And they look at me
29:27
Speaker 3: and they start laughing. They're like, oh.
29:31
Speaker 4: None of them were painted?
29:32
Speaker 3: No, they're like models.
29:33
Speaker 1: They're being cool, yeah.
29:35
Speaker 3: We're too cool. We went casting and everybody had leather
29:39
Speaker 3: jackets and stuff. man I'm walking around with my spandex.
29:42
Speaker 1: And sweaty I'm musty by.
29:44
Speaker 3: Now like you know I know I must I had
29:46
Speaker 3: to be musty because it was hot and I sit
29:48
Speaker 3: in there and I'm like I don't care I'm like
29:51
Speaker 3: This is it. It won't be for lack of trying.
29:56
Speaker 3: We gonna find out today. I got in that audition.
29:59
Speaker 3: I just went all, I was like, they were like, oh, oh, oh,
30:03
Speaker 3: and I'm just yelling and screaming. I'll beat your ass.
30:07
Speaker 3: And I just went big, hooking in. Dude, I got
30:12
Speaker 3: out of there. They're like, great job. Crickets. Crickets.
30:17
Speaker 1: Wait, so how long did it take at all?
30:19
Speaker 3: Another three months go by. Right, right. You got to understand.
30:25
Speaker 3: I'm going, okay, man, maybe I didn't get it. Because
30:29
Speaker 3: to the point where I thought they were like, we're
30:32
Speaker 3: going to do the show. Let's look at them one
30:34
Speaker 3: more time. And we're not going to go. So I said, oh,
30:37
Speaker 3: they just decided they didn't want to do it. And
30:41
Speaker 3: I'm like, man, babe, but I gave it everything I had.
30:44
Speaker 3: I told my wife, we gave it all we had. Yeah. Dude,
30:47
Speaker 3: I told, what was it, three months later, I'm coming
30:50
Speaker 3: back from security. I'm actually on the set of Next Friday. Now,
30:54
Speaker 3: I don't have a cell phone, right? And my wife
30:56
Speaker 3: was like, because they're calling me, like, they called one
30:59
Speaker 3: more time. And my wife was like, oh, I got
31:01
Speaker 3: to wait for him to get home.
31:03
Speaker 4: Calling the house phone?
31:04
Speaker 3: And I'm in Santa Clarita, right?
31:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:06
Speaker 3: And I've been working all with Cube and them, and
31:08
Speaker 3: I mean, just literally watching his car all day, like,
31:11
Speaker 3: and I'm driving home, like, well... We had one car
31:15
Speaker 3: at the time, so my wife couldn't come tell me
31:17
Speaker 3: or whatever. So I'm driving back from Santa Clarita, it
31:21
Speaker 3: takes all day. I get to the barber, she says, oh,
31:24
Speaker 3: she says, babe, they called. They want another meeting with
31:27
Speaker 3: you tomorrow. And I'm like, what?
31:30
Speaker 1: Wait, who?
31:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, wait, who? They want you to go
31:33
Speaker 3: back to Sony again. So I said, so it's another callback?
31:36
Speaker 3: They said, yeah. So I'm freaking out, like, oh, do
31:39
Speaker 3: I have to dress up? No, no, they said, you
31:41
Speaker 3: don't have to do that stuff anymore. They just want
31:43
Speaker 3: to meet with you. Right. I said, okay, okay. And
31:46
Speaker 3: I'm freaking, so I call my supervisor and I'm like,
31:49
Speaker 3: I can't come in tomorrow. Are we okay to get,
31:51
Speaker 3: I'm making sure I got my job, right? Yeah, of course.
31:55
Speaker 3: And they're like, well, okay. And I'm like, oh, bleep, bleep.
31:58
Speaker 3: But I had built up a lot of goodwill. Yeah.
32:01
Speaker 3: So finally I go, take the drive back to Sony.
32:05
Speaker 3: I get in the room. And I'm like, okay, who
32:07
Speaker 3: do I have to meet? Do we have to do
32:08
Speaker 3: an audition again? They said, no, Terry, you are one
32:11
Speaker 3: of our warriors. Oh! With like seven guys. Yeah. And
32:18
Speaker 3: I'm like, it's us? Like, I'm going to be on TV? Yeah.
32:21
Speaker 3: I said, you are. We got a whole plan for you.
32:25
Speaker 3: Your name is going to be T-Money. I love it.
32:27
Speaker 3: You're going to be a badass Battle Dome warrior. You
32:32
Speaker 3: on our show?
32:33
Speaker 4: Did they incorporate any of the thing?
32:35
Speaker 3: None of it.
32:35
Speaker 1: Okay.
32:36
Speaker 3: None of it.
32:37
Speaker 1: But they knew that you could go there. They said,
32:41
Speaker 1: that's what.
32:42
Speaker 3: They told me. They said, when you came dressed like that,
32:46
Speaker 3: we were like, he's our guy.
32:48
Speaker 4: He knows how to create a character.
32:49
Speaker 3: He's our guy.
32:50
Speaker 1: He's an entertainer.
32:51
Speaker 3: He's going to go all out.
32:53
Speaker 2: Right.
32:54
Speaker 3: And I went, man, I need the tissues again. Dude.
32:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
33:00
Speaker 3: I went home to Burbank, and I was like, babe,
33:03
Speaker 3: I got a show. I'm going to be on a
33:05
Speaker 3: TV show. Wait, wait, wait.
33:06
Speaker 1: Don't breeze through that. So you come home. She thinks
33:09
Speaker 1: it's a callback, right?
33:10
Speaker 3: Right. She thinks it's a callback.
33:12
Speaker 1: So you come home, right? Because you can't call her back, right?
33:15
Speaker 3: No.
33:15
Speaker 1: So you come home. You walk through the front door.
33:18
Speaker 1: You look at her in the eyes, and you say what?
33:20
Speaker 3: Wait. She's been looking the whole time. She's just sitting
33:22
Speaker 3: there waiting. At the window. She sees the car pull up.
33:24
Speaker 3: I said, babe, I got it. That's it. She said, no.
33:31
Speaker 3: You know, because it's like, after all these months and
33:35
Speaker 3: all this, she's like, what? I said, I got it.
33:39
Speaker 3: I got it. I said, what in the world? Like,
33:42
Speaker 3: I'm going to be on TV. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Crazy, crazy.
33:47
Speaker 3: My wife is a praying woman, okay? She's a praying woman.
33:50
Speaker 3: She's like, I prayed for this. I prayed for this.
33:52
Speaker 3: I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I
33:54
Speaker 3: knew it. And I said, you know, it was like,
33:58
Speaker 3: Everything changed. Like the day, I remember just laying in
34:00
Speaker 3: the bed like, I'm going to be on TV. I
34:03
Speaker 3: didn't think I'd be in the front. I always thought
34:06
Speaker 3: I'd be behind it.
34:08
Speaker 1: Like everything's getting rewired.
34:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. Like, oh, man, it's a neurological mess right now. Like,
34:13
Speaker 3: because I can't sleep. But I'm like, what is happening? Knowing,
34:18
Speaker 3: just walking around. Like, I'm in this grocery store. Like,
34:21
Speaker 3: one day, like, they're going to know because I'm on TV.
34:24
Speaker 3: I'll be on TV. Yeah. This is different.
34:27
Speaker 4: Did they tell you you were going to get paid?
34:30
Speaker 3: Yes.
34:30
Speaker 4: When you were there?
34:31
Speaker 3: No, not there. No, they told me later. This is
34:34
Speaker 3: when the legal people came in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:36
Speaker 1: Here's the concert.
34:36
Speaker 3: I got $ 2, 500 a show, which is... It was like
34:44
Speaker 3: the most money I had seen.
34:47
Speaker 4: That's what I'm asking.
34:48
Speaker 2: Like, was that a discussion that you had with your wife?
34:50
Speaker 2: And was that mind-blowing?
34:52
Speaker 3: Well, they called and told us, because they said, you're
34:55
Speaker 3: on the show. They didn't want to even discuss money there.
34:57
Speaker 3: But once they called and they said, this is what
34:59
Speaker 3: we're going to give you. It'll be $ 2, 500 a show,
35:02
Speaker 3: and you're going to do four shows a week. So
35:05
Speaker 3: you do two on Tuesday and two on Thursday. So
35:08
Speaker 3: that was $ 10, 000.
35:09
Speaker 4: 10 G's a week.
35:11
Speaker 1: A week.
35:11
Speaker 3: A week. Amen. We made it, Freddie.
35:13
Speaker 1: We made it. I'm coming from $ 12 an hour.
35:17
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? I'm coming from $ 12 an hour, bro. Like,
35:20
Speaker 3: what in the world?
35:21
Speaker 1: I'm like....
35:28
Speaker 3: And I'm, dude, you understand.
35:30
Speaker 1: You hold your babies together. You got them together.
35:33
Speaker 3: Dude, dude, dude. I'm like, dude. That was crazy. Now.
35:37
Speaker 1: We can do Little Caesars now.
35:38
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no. No more making the pizza. I
35:41
Speaker 3: was like, we're going to Pizza Hut. I said, we're
35:44
Speaker 3: going to Pizza Hut. You know where they had the
35:46
Speaker 3: salad in the middle? When they used to let you
35:49
Speaker 3: in the Pizza Hut? Yes, yes, yes. And you used
35:51
Speaker 3: to get the pan pizzas. I was like, yeah, we're
35:53
Speaker 3: going to slur. I read too well. We're going to slur.
35:58
Speaker 3: We splurged it on the fan base. So good. Go
36:01
Speaker 3: to the garden. Go to the salad bar. Get anything
36:04
Speaker 3: you want.
36:05
Speaker 2: Friday night, we're going to Sizzler.
36:09
Speaker 3: Get the extra tomato. Go ahead. I want some extra
36:11
Speaker 3: bacon bits on mine right now.
36:14
Speaker 1: It's so good.
36:15
Speaker 3: It's so good. Dude, what a life.
36:18
Speaker 1: How many episodes did they do at CSAT?
36:20
Speaker 3: We did two years. We did 24 episodes a year. Now,
36:25
Speaker 3: mind you, it was the most physical, most brutal. They
36:30
Speaker 3: put me in a cage, lit the ends on fire,
36:34
Speaker 3: and the cage rotated. And I had to take on
36:37
Speaker 3: three people per show.
36:39
Speaker 1: All trying to go through you.
36:40
Speaker 3: Dude, there was blood. I went home bleeding every night.
36:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
36:45
Speaker 3: But happened.
36:46
Speaker 4: Right, of course.
36:47
Speaker 3: I was like, what the hell? It's easier than the NFL. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
36:50
Speaker 3: One guy choked me out on camera.
36:52
Speaker 1: No way.
36:53
Speaker 3: He was not allowed to do this move, but he
36:55
Speaker 3: put me on the truck, and I was like, oh, oh, oh.
36:57
Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, the world started getting all dark.
36:59
Speaker 1: Night, night.
37:01
Speaker 3: No, no. He literally choked me out. And then I
37:04
Speaker 3: went to the ref. I was like, hey. I woke up.
37:07
Speaker 3: I was like, he's not supposed to do that. Like, ah, sorry.
37:10
Speaker 3: It's good TV. It's good TV. It's good TV. Dude,
37:13
Speaker 3: but all those other warriors were going down like flies.
37:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
37:17
Speaker 3: They were like, oh, my leg. I can't move my leg.
37:20
Speaker 3: And they kept bringing in new guys. But I was
37:22
Speaker 3: always there. Because, again, I was an athlete. I was ready.
37:26
Speaker 3: Team Money. My wife calls me Team Money to this day.
37:29
Speaker 1: That's great.
37:30
Speaker 2: So what was the story behind the character?
37:32
Speaker 4: Because you had to build a character, right?
37:34
Speaker 3: Right. Team Money was this warrior from Detroit. And I
37:37
Speaker 3: had a team of three triplets. It was Troy, Lloyd,
37:41
Speaker 3: and Floyd Weaver. who were Mike Weaver's brothers, the boxers,
37:47
Speaker 3: and they were these three triplets that would come, and
37:49
Speaker 3: I had another guy that would hold my briefcase who
37:52
Speaker 3: had all the money. So it was TV smart.
37:53
Speaker 4: Oh, these are real guys who were with you.
37:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
37:55
Speaker 3: They built a whole entourage.
37:58
Speaker 1: He's the final boss.
37:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a final boss. And we shot in
38:01
Speaker 3: the LA Coliseum, which was right across from the jungle.
38:05
Speaker 3: So we would get gang members showing up. Oh, what's up?
38:07
Speaker 3: No gang signs, please. No gang signs.
38:10
Speaker 1: But they were actors.
38:11
Speaker 4: They weren't athletes. They were actors.
38:13
Speaker 3: Right. Acting with you. My guys were actually, those three
38:17
Speaker 3: guys were real boxers. But they were just interesting. They
38:21
Speaker 3: were triplets. Yeah. And so they said, and then Michael Hearn,
38:25
Speaker 3: who was another guy who's still one of the- Oh,
38:27
Speaker 3: Michael Hearn. Yeah, yeah. He's one of the biggest bodybuilders
38:29
Speaker 3: out right now. Yes. And still, he had three, the
38:33
Speaker 3: Dom triplets, which were Playboy model triplets. And he was
38:38
Speaker 3: like the golden boy.
38:39
Speaker 1: It's all coming back to him. You know what I mean?
38:41
Speaker 4: Right, right.
38:42
Speaker 3: And I was from the street and I had this
38:43
Speaker 3: chain with like a dollar sign on it.
38:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
38:47
Speaker 3: You know? Let me tell you, man. But I would
38:50
Speaker 3: go in. I would go in so far. I would
38:53
Speaker 3: never let the contestants see me, right? All the other
38:57
Speaker 3: warriors were walking around meeting the contestants. I was like, nope,
38:59
Speaker 3: I would hide. And they said, hey man, where's T-Money?
39:01
Speaker 3: I was like, he don't want to see nobody.
39:04
Speaker 1: Right, you stayed in character.
39:07
Speaker 3: My whole thing was to get him scared before. And dude,
39:12
Speaker 3: I was like, it was so masterful because T-Money was
39:16
Speaker 3: He was dangerous. He was a killer.
39:19
Speaker 4: What song did you come out to?
39:20
Speaker 3: Oh, it was, they had an original.
39:23
Speaker 2: And so what, the the two guys the three the
39:26
Speaker 2: three triplets would just come out next to you.
39:28
Speaker 3: They would there was a big gate and it would
39:30
Speaker 3: open up and i would come down the gangplank like
39:32
Speaker 3: what what what like yeah who who's gonna mess with
39:36
Speaker 3: this like and i had my glasses on the whole
39:38
Speaker 3: thing and then i did my peck pop oh yeah
39:41
Speaker 3: you were like And I would hold my hands out
39:43
Speaker 3: and the triplets would take off my jacket, take off
39:47
Speaker 3: my stuff and get me ready for the thing. And
39:48
Speaker 3: it was like, what? And people were like, and the contestant,
39:50
Speaker 3: I would look at the contestant like, you motherfucker. And
39:54
Speaker 3: I would go so far in. We had a game called,
40:03
Speaker 3: it was these bats. They're like padded, right? Yeah, they
40:07
Speaker 3: were padded bats, and they put us on this thing,
40:09
Speaker 3: and I beat this dude down. They were like, T-Money,
40:11
Speaker 3: you really had it. I said, you know what, I'm
40:13
Speaker 3: going to take this stick, I'm going to stick it
40:14
Speaker 3: up their ass, and I'm going to make all day
40:16
Speaker 3: suckers out of every last one of them sons of bitches.
40:19
Speaker 3: They were like, we can't use it.
40:23
Speaker 1: What network was it?
40:24
Speaker 3: It was syndicated. So Sony, at night, it would only
40:29
Speaker 3: come on Saturday nights.
40:31
Speaker 4: On what channel?
40:32
Speaker 3: Oh, just anything like here, KCAL, or it would be
40:36
Speaker 3: on UPN. I see. They played a Weebly, but.
40:39
Speaker 1: Whatever they could sell. Those shows made so much money.
40:43
Speaker 3: They printed money.
40:44
Speaker 1: I remember that. They could sell it to any network
40:47
Speaker 1: in every market in any continent around the world.
40:50
Speaker 4: It wasn't designated.
40:51
Speaker 3: Oh, it was worldwide.
40:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was worldwide.
40:53
Speaker 3: I see. We didn't see any of that money.
40:55
Speaker 1: No, I know. That's what I was about to say.
40:58
Speaker 3: So I would go all off. And what was so great,
41:00
Speaker 3: and this was another thing that let me know that
41:03
Speaker 3: I was on my way. Because it wasn't really acting.
41:06
Speaker 3: It was just grand theater. And that's what wrestling was.
41:10
Speaker 1: But you were playing something.
41:12
Speaker 3: Yes.
41:12
Speaker 1: And you were committing to it. And you created a
41:15
Speaker 1: whole character. And that was your first training.
41:17
Speaker 4: And you stayed in character.
41:19
Speaker 3: All I wanted to do was, I said, what would
41:21
Speaker 3: I like to see? Yeah. What would I, what would
41:24
Speaker 3: make me entertained? And I did that. And my wife
41:27
Speaker 3: came to me after one show and she said, babe,
41:31
Speaker 3: I see it on you. She said, I can't believe this. Like,
41:36
Speaker 3: this is you. This is, you're going to be doing,
41:38
Speaker 3: I saw it. And my wife has always called this.
41:41
Speaker 3: She said, you're going to be doing this for the
41:43
Speaker 3: rest of your life. She said, I see it on you.
41:47
Speaker 1: Amazing.
41:47
Speaker 4: Well, she's a prayer warrior, right?
41:49
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm trying to tell you, like, It's different. Like
41:54
Speaker 3: you thought you were going to be behind the scenes.
41:56
Speaker 3: She said, but you are made for this. And I went, really?
42:00
Speaker 3: And she was like, babe. And you got to say,
42:02
Speaker 3: we were in the bottom of, we're at a connoisseur.
42:04
Speaker 3: We're not at a studio or anything. But it all
42:09
Speaker 3: started to really grow from there.
42:12
Speaker 1: You know, the power of somebody seeing you how you
42:15
Speaker 1: haven't seen yourself yet. You know, somebody, sometimes it only
42:20
Speaker 1: takes one person to be like, you're this. And you're like, uh, what?
42:25
Speaker 1: And then you look at yourself in the mirror and
42:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, that's who I've been this whole time.
42:29
Speaker 4: Especially when it's your wife.
42:30
Speaker 3: Yes. I mean, that's... I mean, it was just us.
42:34
Speaker 3: That's all we had. There were so many people in
42:37
Speaker 3: and out at the time because you didn't know who
42:39
Speaker 3: to trust. L.A. is funny, man. L.A. is really hard
42:43
Speaker 3: to find a real circle.
42:45
Speaker 1: To find your tribe is very difficult.
42:47
Speaker 3: Oh, it was difficult. But what was wild is, you know,
42:51
Speaker 3: as I kept going, I just remember just saying, I'm open.
42:56
Speaker 3: I'm open.
42:58
Speaker 4: Whatever comes next.
42:59
Speaker 3: Whatever comes. I wasn't trained. This is the thing. My
43:03
Speaker 3: whole career is free play. I didn't go to school
43:05
Speaker 3: for this. So I'm an ex-football player. So there's no judge.
43:11
Speaker 3: There's no acting coach who's like, no, we don't do that. Terry,
43:16
Speaker 3: if you really want to be successful. I was like,
43:19
Speaker 3: I'll do it all. Yeah. Whatever. Okay. Whatever you want
43:23
Speaker 3: me to do. All right. All right. And you know,
43:24
Speaker 3: as an actor, we tend to be pleasers. You know
43:27
Speaker 3: what I mean? So it was like, I'll do it.
43:29
Speaker 3: I'll do it. I got it. And I'll go big
43:31
Speaker 3: with it. And all of a sudden, one job turned
43:35
Speaker 3: into two, turned into three, turned into this. And then
43:38
Speaker 3: it just turned into like, because one thing I knew
43:41
Speaker 3: to do was the same thing I did on Battle Dome.
43:45
Speaker 3: Go all out. Don't ever mail anything in.
43:48
Speaker 1: Terry, we're going to hold you right there because we
43:52
Speaker 1: have to now allocate a second episode. It's too good.
43:56
Speaker 1: It's too good. And so stay tuned for part two
44:00
Speaker 1: of here with our brother Terry Cruz and Dos Amigos.
44:06
Speaker 2: Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeart
44:10
Speaker 2: Media's My Cultura Podcast Network, hosted by me, Freddy Rodriguez,
44:15
Speaker 2: and Wilmer Valderrama.
44:16
Speaker 1: Dos Amigos is produced by Aaron Burleson and Sophie Spencer-Zavos.
44:20
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama. Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burleson,
44:25
Speaker 2: and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
44:27
Speaker 1: This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Postes and
44:30
Speaker 1: mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
44:33
Speaker 1: Davenport and Halo Boy.
44:35
Speaker 2: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
44:38
Speaker 2: by Danai Holtzclaw.
44:40
Speaker 1: And thank you for being our third amigo today. Appreciate
44:42
Speaker 1: you guys always listening to Dos Amigos.
44:44
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
44:49
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
44:51
Speaker 1: See you next week.