Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 872: How One of the WORST Movies Ever Made Became a Cult Classic with Jackey Neyman

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IFH 872: How One of the WORST Movies Ever Made Became a Cult Classic with Jackey Neyman · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the IFH Podcast Network.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork.com.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast, episode number 872.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: You try to do it, and you do it honestly.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: You can't control people's responses, really.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Edgar Wright.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood, it's the Indie
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the film biz. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Welcome, welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari. Today's show is
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: sponsored by Rise of the Filmtrepreneur, how to turn your
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  Speaker 3: independent film into a profitable business. It's harder today than
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• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Enjoy today's episode with guest host, Dave Bullis.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Joining me today is Jackie Naiman. Jackie is an actress
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: and producer known for Manos, the Hands of Fate, Manos,
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: the Rise of Torgo, the upcoming Manos Returns, which is
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: currently on Kickstarter, and also the upcoming book, Growing Up
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: with Manos, the Hands of Fate. Jackie, how are you?
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: I'm great, Dave. Nice to be here.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: Oh, you know, thank you so much for coming by.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: You know, normally the first question I ask anybody is,
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: how did you get into the film business? But for you, Jackie,
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: I actually already know the answer to that. But for
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: those of you who aren't listening, Jackie was in Manos,
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: the Hands of Fate. But you know what, Jackie, if
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: you could, could you just please take us through, you know,
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: how you got into Manos and, you know, and sort
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: of how you how your career progressed from there?
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: Sure. Well, I was a child. I was six years
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: old turning seven when Manos was filmed, and my dad
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: was in community theater, and Hal Warren, who created Manos,
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: approached my dad, and they needed a little girl, and
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: So it's quite convenient for the main actor, the star,
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: the guy who is also doing all the sets, props
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: and costumes for Manos to also provide the child and oh,
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: and the Doberman and the car and a lot of
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: our furniture, too. But I got into it because my
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: dad came home one day and he said, honey, I'm
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: doing a movie and they need a little girl. Would
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: you would you like to be that little girl? And
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: you know, I was very young and shy and, and
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: I was kind of terrified at that thought. But then
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: the next thing he said was, well, it's okay, honey.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: If you, if you don't, we'll just get another little girl. Well,
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: that's not going to fly. So of course I, I
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: had to do it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: So, you know, when you were filming Manos, obviously you
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: were a child. Did you have any fun, fun experiences
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: while filming that or anything that was just so out
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: of the ordinary or, Because, I mean, I imagine, you know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: this was your first, you know, acting role, right? At
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: that point. So, I mean, you know, I'm sure this
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: was an entirely new world for you, even at that
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: young age.
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: Well, it was and it wasn't because my dad had
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: been in theater, community theater, since, you know, since I
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: was a baby. And so... I was very used to
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: him playing different characters and, and I was already very
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: familiar with the theater and backstage and, and I just,
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: I loved it all. And this was a very different experience,
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: but it was particularly, you know, a focus for me
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: that I was the only child on the set. And
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: so for instance, when the manic manner women there, the
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: wives were there, they're all, like 18 to 20 years old.
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: So to them, I was kind of fun, you know,
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: a little girl, it's like a living doll to have around.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: So they kind of fussed over me. And then I
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: remember being well aware that things that were being filmed
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: were the only things being seen by the audience. And
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: so I felt very privileged to be, to know what
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: was going on behind the scenes. I knew that we
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: kept all the costumes in the closet in the bedroom
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: and that there was a little 1940s or 50s round
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: refrigerator in the kitchen where we kept all our bag
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: lunches because we didn't have craft services and things like that.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: It was very cool for me to be able to
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: be there all night. and because most of the filming
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: was at night or on weekends. And so what was
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: all on at night on and on weekends. So, um,
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: you know, it was just really, really great to be
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: just there. I was, uh, a kid that could entertain
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: myself quite well. And so the downtimes, I just, I
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: was at wasn't in the way i just really enjoyed
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: being there and observing i just soaked it all up
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: it was very very special to me because i adored
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: my dad and i had this opportunity to be part
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: of something that he was doing it was remarkable to.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: Me now when you look back on that mystery science
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: theater really took manos and they you know showed it
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: on uh on their on their show and everything And
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: from what I gather, you know, that's where it started
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: to get, you know, sort of re-released back into the
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: zeitgeist because now it became this cult hit again because
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: of MST3K. So, you know, is your dad in Manos Returns?
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: Yes. He just turned 80 years old in November. And,
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: you know, we had done a, started to do a
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: sequel in 2010 or be part of somebody else's sequel
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: that just never happened but my dad's scenes in that
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: one did get filmed and and so that's always been
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: bothered me so much that my dad was never going
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: to get to see himself in you know in something
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: better on film because you know when he was on
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: theater in the 60s and 70s none of that was
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: recorded people didn't have video recorders and cameras and all
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: that stuff so So he never got to see himself.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: So having this opportunity for him was really amazing. And
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: it had to happen now because of his age. And
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: so when he agreed to do this, it just all
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: just came together amazingly. The people, all the resources we needed.
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: So initially we did a t-shirt campaign. That was kind
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: of a twofold thing. One, to get my dad some money.
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: for doing this and to get his scene filmed right
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: away while he was strong and healthy, you know, we
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: didn't want to take any chances. And, um, and just
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: for him to have this opportunity again, um, so for
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: him to get paid and for us to get this done.
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: So we did a t-shirt campaign and, uh, raised in profit, uh,
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: over a thousand dollars. And that's what we gave him,
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: And we set it up and we filmed his scenes.
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: So that's done. We're very, very happy about that. That
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: was critical. If we're going to say the master's going
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: to be in it, he better be in it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: I saw your banners on Facebook and I was like, wow.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: I said, wait a minute. I said, you know, I
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: think her dad's still in this. And I looked it
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: up and, you know, I just wanted to make sure
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: before I asked.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's him. Yeah.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw that and I was like, wow. I said,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: you know, that's great. Now you have two returning cast members. Originally,
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: you know, with Man of Stands of Fate, you know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: the one from 1966, I heard that Hal Warren was
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: a manure salesman who wrote this script in his downtime.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: I don't know if that's true or not, Jackie, but
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: maybe you could comment, because I know sometimes there's like,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: you know, urban legends and stuff that form around movies.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: But was he really a manure salesman?
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: At one point, when he was still in Houston, he
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: did have a job selling chemical fertilizer. So in a sense, yes,
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: but not really. And in fact, you know, and we'll
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: get to this about my book, but there's a whole
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: chapter on Hal Warren. And and I did a tremendous
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: amount of research. I talked to his family members and
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: I found out a whole lot about Hal. And, you know,
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: from from how he got into theater and how he
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: got to that place. And and, you know, he did
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: a lot of writing. We'll be right back.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Back after a word from our sponsor. And now back
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: to the show.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: He wrote a musical. He wrote plays. He wrote books.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: He he has one book that's published about it's about salesmanship.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: Cause he was the eternal salesman. And so he wrote
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: a book about it. But yeah, he was, there's a
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: lot of urban legends about Manos and that's one of
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: the reasons I wrote the book. And that's one of
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: the reasons I became so visible in the first place
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: was that's how it started was me just trying to,
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: straighten a few things out online with people on chat rooms.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: That's how it all started for me.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: When you were done filming the movie and, and, you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: the movie was edited and you had that first showing,
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: you know, what did you think at that time when,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: when you saw the movie?
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: Wow. Uh, well at this point, yeah, the, the premiere, uh,
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: have a whole chapter on that too. It was worthy
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: of a chapter, but the premiere was, um, Cal had, had,
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: so much pageantry around this thing. He really knew how to,
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: how to do it. So he had lights that he
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: borrowed from a car dealership sweeping the sky in front
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: of the theater. He had a red carpet. He had
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: a limousine and, uh, I'll say a limousine and all
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: the cast and crew, um, showed up and, and we
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: were on the other side of the block and the
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: limousine would come around, pick up a few of us,
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: drop us off in front of the theater and, There
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: were so many people there. All the officials from El
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: Paso was there. We had, uh, autograph hounds that Hal
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: had hired, uh, which actually were the street kids. Cause
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: we lived on the border of Mexico and most of
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: these kids didn't, most of them didn't speak any English,
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: but they were still getting our autographs as we stepped
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: from the limo. So we go into the theater and, and, um,
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: you know, uh, the community, the theater and, uh, creative
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: community in El Paso, probably still now today, but at
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: that time was quite tight knit. And so there was
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: a lot of friends and well-wishers. And so we get
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: in there and sit down. My dad wanted to make
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: sure we had a good view. And so we sat
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: about fifth row center, which meant there was no escape.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: And then the lights go down and the music, you know,
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: it starts and There's a couple of shorts before the film,
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: you know, like a nature short. And then the movie starts.
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: And then there's this long driving scene. And it just, wow.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: People got it pretty much right away. And there was
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: some snickers and little whisperings at first. And, you know,
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: my dad and sinking lower in his seat. And then,
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: but for me, all I cared about was me. You know,
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: I'm a kid. I just want to see myself up there.
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: And so the car drives up and my mouth opens
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: and this whatever comes out of my mouth. And I
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: was absolutely horrified. I was just appalled. I felt my
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: face get hot and I just burst into tears. And
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: I just sat through the whole thing in misery, just crying.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: See, I was going to ask because I imagine as
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: a kid, I, part of me thought that you would
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: just be so excited that you would just, you wouldn't see,
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: you know, you would just see all the positives. You
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: know what I mean? Like you would just be so
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: enthralled by this entire experience. Um, but that, that was
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: very interesting that, you know, I, I didn't, I honestly, Jackie,
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: I swear, I didn't think you were going to say that.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: I thought you were going to, I thought you were
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: going to tell me that you were just like, uh,
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: you know, like later on your dad had a talk
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: with you, like about the movie being like, uh, a
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: lot of these movies, you know, like, Something like The Room.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: The reason I like Manos, I like The Room, I
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: like Miami Connection, is I understand they're not... Some people
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: say best of the worst or whatever you want to
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: call it, but what I think is I see a
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: lot of passion in these movies, and I get that.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: I see a lot of... They actually have heart to them,
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: and I know some people are going to look at
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: me kind of cockeyed when I say that, but there is...
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: there's a prime when they're making this film, if you
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: know what I mean. And I'm sure Hal, when he
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: was making Manos, you could see that he actually was
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: trying to make his own version of a horror film.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: He was. And he knew from the start, he let
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: everybody know that he knew he wasn't making a good movie.
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: But he had intended to make the best movie he could.
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: And he had a... Hal had big ideas and Manos
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: was not the end game for him. Manos was just
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: the beginning. And he had really, truly thought that with
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: his connection with Sterling Sillifant and the bet that he
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: had made to get this movie made and the connections
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: that he had in Hollywood, he thought that he was
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: going to, with this film, open the film industry to
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: El Paso and then he would be known for that. And, unfortunately,
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: that actually, well, in a really weird sense, it kind
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: of did happen.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: You're right. I mean, because, you know, right now, you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: I've actually had filmmakers from Texas on here. Granted that,
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: you know, they live in, most of them live in Austin,
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: but there are some from, you know, I know some
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: from Dallas and some from all over Texas. So, and
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: the film industry now has just grown so much that.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Texas is huge. I mean, now it's, it's, you know, it's,
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: it seems to be like the South Southwest in America.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Cause Georgia, Louisiana, some parts of, I think South Carolina
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: might still be up there. I can't remember, but you know,
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: just these areas now that have exploded in filmmaking.
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah. And he was right about, uh, You know, the
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: wild desert beauty, the, you know, sunshine 300 days a year.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: You know, there's wide open spaces. There's a, you know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: it's a beautiful area. It's desert, but it's beautiful. And,
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: you know, it would be, it is a good place
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: to film.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. One movie that I really noticed, that desert location,
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: that I really noticed how cinematic it can be was
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: in the movie No Country for Old Men.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah. That could not have been filmed anywhere else.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: It wouldn't have worked the way it worked.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, especially on that whole Mexican-Texas border, that whole firefight.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: And then when, you know, Luella Moss just running away.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, it just, I was like, wow. I was like,
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: you know, I've never, you know, I've seen a ton
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: of Westerns too, but I've never actually put it together
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: that much. I've noticed that, you know, usually you see like,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: you know, a mountain formation that But then I noticed
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: an old country. I'm like, wow, this is some really
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: beautiful scenery.
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah. And then you get the sense of the culture, too.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: Yes, definitely.
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: And and that's really cool because it is so different
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: than other other places in the in the country.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, very true. Jack, I want to ask you one question, too,
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: is what you know, after Manos came out, you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: were you recognized at all or did you did you start,
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: you know, continuing, you know, continue acting after that?
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: Well, nobody was recognized. I mean, nobody ever wanted to
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: talk about it. You know, as soon as Manos was over,
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: literally everybody went their own ways and tried really hard
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: to pretend it never happened. But I definitely was bit
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: by the acting bug, mostly because of my dad being
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: in the theater. And I remember telling my friends at
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: school that I'd been in a movie, but, you know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: they didn't care at that time when I was young.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: And then, you know, when I got into high school,
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: I continued. I went to acting classes. And I actually
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: did do one other play with my dad in 1971.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: He played, what's his name, Lowther in The Prime and
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: Miss Jean Brody in El Paso. And the director of
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: that had somehow... got Julie Adams, the actress Julie Adams,
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: to come out as a special celebrity to play Jean Brody.
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: And I got to be one of the schoolgirls. What's
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: really cool about that is I went to the Living
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: Dead convention in Portland a few months ago because I
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: heard Julie Adams was there. And I still had the
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: program from 1971. from the play with my dad's name
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: in it and her name and my name. And I
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: approached her and I asked her to sign it. Not
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: only did she sign it, but I bought her book
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: and that play was mentioned in her book. She even
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: talked about it. So I'm like, wow, we're in each
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: other's books, you know, very cool. Yeah.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: It's a small world, right.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: But then I went on and I moved to, my
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: dad moved to Southern California when my parents divorced when
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: I was a young teen and I went with him.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: So I continued acting through high school. And then I
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: made a decision at that point that as a creative
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: person that I had to live creatively, but that I
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: felt I had more opportunity in art than in acting.
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: And so I just kind of swear. I mean, I
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: always had that love of acting and that love of theater.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: And now back to the show.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: And, um, but I became an artist and I had
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: a pretty good career, but then it comes full circle
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: and this whole Manos thing comes up. And honestly, because
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: of Manos and my place in it and history and,
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: and the way that I engage with people has come
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: to this place to give me opportunities to realize pretty
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: much every dream I ever wanted. You know, it's like
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: I get to taste a little bit of everything. So it's, it's,
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: Pretty incredible, really.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: And I noticed on your website, you have some of
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: your artwork up on your website, correct?
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I believe I do. I need to update that
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: because I'm an artist. And so some of those organizational things,
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: especially lately with all the mono stuff building up, sometimes
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: it's hard to find time to promote my art. I mean,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: I'm sitting here in my studio looking at walls that
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: nobody's seen because... I can't seem to get it photographed
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: and posted.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, like we were talking about before, uh,
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: you know, the, the, this episode started, you know, the
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: internet now, you know, which has made everything so easy,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: but you know, now like, you know, we were talking
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: about crowdfunding for instance, you know, um, you know, that
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: whole thing's, you know, started and, you know, even before,
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: but you know, as soon as it starts here, we,
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: people were like, you know, what is crowdfunding? You know
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: what I mean? So, you know, and then, but now,
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: you know, with, with art, And I actually am friends
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: with a... I guess she's kind of like an art dealer,
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: I guess you would call her. What she does now
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: is she actually takes photos and she actually just will
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: put them up on her Instagram or she'll post them
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: on her Facebook or whatever. I mean, they're not professionally
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: done photos, obviously. They're just done with her phone. But
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: it's just stuff that she finds interesting.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, I find when I do post my things regularly, I...
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: I mean, I get people to, you know, I sell art,
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: but if I don't put it out there, obviously I'm
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: not going to sell anything. So it's, it's, it's hard.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: I mean, the internet is amazing. I just can't imagine
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: how to do any of this. I don't know how
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: any of us did anything before. I just can hardly remember.
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: But on the other hand, there's so many different things.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: You think you got something down. I'm just getting Twitter down.
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: And somebody says, well, now you need to do Instagram.
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: And have you done LinkedIn? I'm like, oh, my gosh.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: I can't keep up. What I find with social media
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: is it's like people migrate, almost like people migrate from
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: different countries. First, it was Facebook was the big one.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: And then people sort of got tired of that. They
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: went to Twitter. And Twitter is now falling off. And
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: people are going to Instagram and Snapchat. And, you know,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: I mean, Facebook's still number one, you know, but now it's,
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: you know, a lot of the teenagers and stuff have
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: fallen off and, you know, they use Snapchat now. And
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: that's where I draw the line because I absolutely hate Snapchat.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: I tried it one time and I was like, I'm
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: just going to stick to Twitter and Instagram because I
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: hate Facebook too. But no, I completely understand where you're
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: coming from. It just seems like social media is just
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: ever changing and you know, now, uh, Twitter's, you know,
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: is going through some inner turmoil, and they're trying out
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: new features, and, uh, I hear now they might get
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: rid of the 140 characters and make it, like, yeah, so,
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's just, it's just one of those things,
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: you know, it's just, it's always changing, and, uh, That's
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: why I'm, I, I think it's a good idea to
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: always have your own website. That way you can drive
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: people back to that. And you know, that's not going
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: to change because unless you change it, it's not going
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: to change.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's true. That's true. And it is there, but yeah,
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: I need to update it. That's for sure. And anyway,
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: while we're at that, it's debbiesmonos.com.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: And I'll make sure to link to that in the
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: show notes, everybody. I can, and I'm also make sure
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: to post some, uh, some of your, uh, art Jackie.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: Oh, thank you. I'll, uh, I'll send some to you too. I, Yeah,
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: I'm really liking my new stuff.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Oh, well, thank you. I will hang it on the wall.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: Because I actually have just been cleaning up my office here.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: And I actually have room now. Because I had so
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: much stuff on my walls that I... Literally, I was like,
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: why is this still up here? It's like a poster
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: of a movie. I mean, I personally did years ago.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: And I was like... You know, this never came of anything.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: So I just put it in the closet now. So, yeah,
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean?
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: I do. Yeah. Because you get so used to things.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: You got to switch things up. I did interior faux finish.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: I worked for high end clients and color consultation and
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: work with people in their homes and businesses for like
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: twenty five something years and. And so that's, that's something
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: that was so amazing to people is, uh, we do
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: a wall and then I'd rearrange their art and suddenly
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: they'd be, they'd see this painting in a whole new way.
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: Or we might just move something, get rid of it
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: and put something else up. And it's like, wow, the
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: whole environment changes with one little shift, you know, sometimes.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: But yeah, it's so true to keep things fresh. Cause
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: my philosophy in life is, uh, is the little things are,
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: are microcosms of how you want the whole big thing
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: to work. And, and so I try to live that way.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: You know, when my, when my desk is disorganized, it's
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: just a reflection of my mind.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that, that, that is a good, you know, that
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: is a good analogy. And, uh, You know, like for me,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: you know, when I switch my desk up and now
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: like my room feels like twice as big. I actually
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: I literally used to do the podcast on the opposite
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: side of the room. And I just I bought a
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: new smaller desk and switch that desk over to the
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: other side. And now it feels like, you know, a
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: much bigger office. And and it's just a small change.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: I really I mean, you know, obviously the office didn't
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: get bigger, but.
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: Exactly. People thought they were tuning in to hear about
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Manos and they're hearing about feng shui.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, that's the first time I've discussed that
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: on a podcast.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: See, I always try to get something, uh, something new from,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: from my guests. Um, cause sometimes they're, they're, they're asked
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: the same questions over and over again.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: You know, I'll tell you lately, it's crazy because of
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: this thing, it's just kind of exploding. And, um, And
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: I've had to be a lot better organized to keep
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: track of who I'm talking to on what day and
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: so that I can go back and listen or read.
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: And it's wow. This whole organization thing is it's a
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: whole different thing for me. Yeah.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Well, one of the tips that I usually give to
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: people crowdfunding is is there has to be sort of
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: like the crowdfunding czar or crowdfunding, whatever you want to
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: call that person's title. But basically... they're in charge of
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: the campaign, but they also like help to organize like, okay,
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: I have this actress, she's available for podcasts or whatever.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I have, you know, this person's available and that person
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: sort of facilitates that as well. And that, that is one,
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: one duty that, you know, that person has to be
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: so well organized and, you know, constantly sending calendar invites and,
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: And stuff like that. But if you can get somebody
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: like that, I mean, they're worth their weight in gold.
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: Well, luckily, we do. We're a team here. Doing this
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: Kickstarter thing has pretty much been a full-time job for
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: me the last week and a half or so. But
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: I absolutely couldn't do this alone. There's no way. But
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: Rachel Jackson, who created Mono's Hands of Felt, is... running
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: the Kickstarter. She organized it and she's been working with, uh,
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: Tanya atomic, our director and I, the three of us
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: have just been in constant contact. And, um, but boy,
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: Rachel is amazing. She's gotten the press releases out there. And, um,
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: my job here is to keep myself organized and that's
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: a full-time job, you know, but, uh, wow. Wow. Rachel
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: is amazing. And, uh, the three of us, plus then
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: we have, uh, Joe Sherlock, who is, um, our director
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: of photography for the film. And he's a skull face astronaut.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: He's done, I don't know how many films on his own,
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: but he's doing all our graphics, uh, for the Kickstarter.
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: And then Steve Foley, who is our editor and script
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: writer is, uh, doing all those, uh, The videos, he's
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: edited the videos that we're doing. And, you know, I
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: just can't believe what an incredible team I have. It's
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: so synergetic. Is that a word? I mean, our synergy
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: is amazing. It's this whole monos thing is amazing. It
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: just draws the right people together. And same thing happened
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: with my book and my co-author. It's I don't I
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: don't know how this happens. I understand how. Religions are
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: formed because the will of Manos is, I say, put
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: your hands in the air, you know, your mind. in
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: the air for Manos.
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: You know, I do want to touch upon that. You know,
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: you're Kickstarter right now for Manos. It's currently crowdfunding. Do
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: you know the exact date that's going to end, Jackie?
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah, March 2nd.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, so everyone listening to this.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: And now, back to the show.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: You know, March 2nd, 2016 is the last day to contribute.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: I've contributed because I saw the project and I actually
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: almost clicked off of it. But I started to read
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: and I saw, oh, the girl who was in Manos,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: the original, was in this. I said, okay, so there's
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: some returning cast members. And then I started reading more
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: about it. I was like, oh. this sounds pretty cool
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: because at first, Jackie, I was wondering, I thought, oh,
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: I hope some, you know, random filmmakers not trying to
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: cash in on Manos. You know what I mean? Like,
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, they do that all the time to Night
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: of the Living Dead. I mean, I have seen so
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: many Night of the Living Dead, quote unquote, sequels that
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: have nothing to do with George Romero or Ross Steiner
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: or John A. Russo. And it's just, it's unbelievable. So
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: like when I saw you were behind Manos, Manos Returns,
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: I was like, okay, this is something I want to,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: actually contribute and um now that you're actually crowdfunding it
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: you know what were some of the things that you
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: wanted to you know accomplish with with manos returns uh
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: you know because it actually is the a sequel to
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: manos obviously and you know so what are some of
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: the things that you wanted to accomplish what you know
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: with this film.
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: Well first of all i want to say that yeah
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: it's a sequel but it's very different we get a
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: lot of questions like well how are you going to
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: um keep with mono stylistically or you're going to use
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: the same cameras and different different things like that and
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: uh it's not a remake uh we're not it's kind
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: of a continuation but it's not it's its own story
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: and we're going in a whole different direction because monos
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: just can't be recreated and you said you touched on
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: that earlier about um you didn't use the word but
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: like that earnest intent you know, that somebody like Hal
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: comes at, but without experience. And then, you know, by
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: some magical concoction, they come up with this crazy thing
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: that hits with the public somehow, you know, 27 years later.
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: But it's just, you know, we're making a film that
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: is a nod to Manos. We want to, we're bringing
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: in my dad and myself. And we're also hoping to have, uh,
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: Diane Marie who played my mother. Uh, she's still just beautiful, amazing.
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: She went on to this amazing, uh, career as a
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: top model in Europe, by the way, she's still beautiful.
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: So we're hoping to have her back. And then, um,
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: we're pretty much it for who's still living. Um, and yeah,
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: And for the sheriff, we're actually using the son of
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: William Brian Jennings, the original sheriff. His son will be
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: playing our sheriff. And he looks a lot like his dad.
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: So that's pretty exciting. So what we're accomplishing here is
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: we're giving the originals an opportunity to kind of bask
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: in the Manos love, because like you said, there's so
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: many other projects and Manos has a great number of projects. I,
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: I personally, I celebrate them all. I encourage people. I
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: love to, I love that Manos has inspired so much
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: talent and I've met the most amazing people through this
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: whole thing. I've got a friend in a Facebook friend
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: in New Orleans that is working on a Manos burlesque
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: show that I hope to be able to go see. So,
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: and then Mono's Hands of Felt, there's a stage production.
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: So I think it's all really wonderful. But at the
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: same time, the original people who were involved have never
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: benefited from any of these wonderful things or MST or anything,
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: you know, other than a little notoriety. So this project
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: gives us a chance to, you know, just, To come
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: out and bask a little in that love and and
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: hopefully benefit financially. So one way or the other, we've
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: already given my dad some money for doing his part.
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: We want to pay everybody who's involved in this film,
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: because when you do a creative project like this, so
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: many people volunteer so much time and effort. And we'd
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: like to. We'd like to reward them somehow a little bit.
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: And we also want to make the best film that
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: we can make. And so with our base goal of 24,000,
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: we can make a film. And the people that are
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: on this film have so much experience with no budget
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: and low budget and have won awards and done wonderful
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: things with that. I'm so excited to see what we
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: can actually do with a budget. And then as the
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: budget goes up, you know, as we go above our $ 24, 000,
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: which I hope we can do, is then we're just
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: going to make a better movie. We'll have more budget
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: for costuming. We'll have more budget to bring in more people. Oh,
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: and going back a little, another original is Nicky Mathis,
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: who sang Forgetting You on the original soundtrack. I found
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: her when I was researching my book and she still sings.
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: She's amazing. She's a jazz singer and she's been singing
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: on stage since like 1959. She was on stage with
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: Dave Brubeck seven years before Manos ever happened. So she's
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: going to rerecord Forgetting You for us. That's one of
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: the perks.
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: So So when you actually contacted her, what did she
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: think about that? Because the reason I ask that is
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: they just released a sequel to Samurai Cop. It was
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: Samurai Cop 2, and the filmmakers wanted to get everybody
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: back from the original. And when they called people, they
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: thought it was a joke. I'm sorry, Jackie. I'm kind
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: of like a movie buff. No, no.
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: I know it.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: Okay, good. You know what Samurai Cop... Okay, so Samurai
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Cop 2 then... When they were calling people, they actually
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: were like, is this a joke? Why would they make
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: a sequel to this all these years later? So what
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: was the reaction when you contacted... I'm sorry, what was
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: her name? Nikki. Nikki. So what was the reaction when
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: you contacted Nikki?
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: Well, I initially contacted her for my book when I
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: was researching my book. And I just could not believe that...
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, it was a long, circuitous journey to find her.
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: It was not direct because she was never... None of
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: the musicians were ever credited. So I actually found out
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: who all the musicians were. And I've talked to her
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: and the guitarist, Kurt Warren. So no relation to how,
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: by the way, but, but so she was actually, she's
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: so gracious and kind and what a wonderful lady. We
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: had the best phone conversation and she was very happy to,
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: to interview for my book. And so, we became friends and, uh,
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: it was actually probably we'd been friends for a year before, um,
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: I asked her if she would be willing to rerecord
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: forgetting you. And she did agree. And I'm making it
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: very easy for her. That's the other thing is that she's, uh,
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: I've already contacted a recording studio near her home and, um, and, uh,
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: We have somebody else who's doing our soundtrack or creating
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: the music. So we're putting it all together. And that's
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: the other thing that we can do based on the
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: Internet is we can work with people all over the
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: country and pull this together. You know, we don't all
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: have to be in the same place to do a
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: lot of this stuff.
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, very true. And then you sort of like you
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: were just touching upon, you know, you sort of wonder,
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: how do we do this before the Internet?
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: Oh, we could not have done this. I mean, on
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: another set, you know, back to the book again was
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: the cover of my book. The artwork is amazing. And
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: it was created by an artist friend in Croatia. How
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: would I ever know anybody from Croatia that weren't for
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: social networking? Well, I can tell you I wouldn't because
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: I don't know anybody in Croatia.
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: I did actually want to talk about the book, you know,
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: growing up with Manos. you know, so what was the
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: impetus to actually, you know, write this book?
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, back when MST3K first aired Manos and
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: it came, I mean, my dad and I, it just disappeared.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: I thought I'd never see it again after 1966, even
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: though I looked and looked. And then there it was
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: on television. And then it had this popularity and things kept,
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: people kept talking about it here and there. And And
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: I chime in and my my goal was just to
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: kind of straighten out some of the monos mythology out there.
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: And that was my quest. And that's where it started.
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: And then I think it was 2012 or 2013. actually
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: since 2010 I started thinking about writing a book I
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: thought well you know have a lot of memories I
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: have a lot of stories and my dad's still here
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: and I should interview him and and I just couldn't
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: figure out how to pull it together and then I
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: think it was 2012 I you know, the whole blogging
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: thing got big. And I thought, well, maybe I'll write
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: a blog and start writing some of these things down
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: so I can preserve them on paper, so to speak.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: And we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: And now back to the show.
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: And also to see if anybody's actually interested. Well, as
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: I started writing the blog, I started getting, I started
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: noticing readers all over the world. I mean, for a
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: couple months, most of my readers were actually for two
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: months in a row, had more readers in Latvia than
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: anywhere else, including the United States. So I don't get
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: what that's about. But, but then I started noticing it,
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: the numbers were building and I was getting, you know,
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: about 3000 or so views a month on my blog.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: And a lot of really great comments. So I kind
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: of put the feelers out there knowing, again, I had
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: never written a book. I had no idea how to
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: go about it or find a publisher. So I met
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: a woman online on social media again, Laura Mazuka-Toups, who
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: has 30 years experience in editing. And she's written a
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: couple novels. And she's a Manos fan. And we just
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: hit it off. And she lives in Chicago. So, again,
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: we never actually met face to face until, gosh, when
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: was it? I think it was October. I flew out
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: there so we could get our final edit done and
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: get it to the publisher. But because the deadline for
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: the publisher was December. And then so so I'm writing
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: this book. And at first I thought it was just
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: going to be kind of memoirs and my dad's memories
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: and whatever else I could. find and it just kept growing.
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: And I started realizing that I'm really good at research
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: and I really enjoy research. And I, and it was
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: like this game. And then I kept, I'd uncover, uh, somebody,
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: I actually talked to one of the wives. I found
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: two of them. No, I found three of them, but
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: only one would talk to me. And, uh, I even
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: found a relative of John Reynolds who, um, refused to talk. And,
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: and I respect that because John Reynolds played Torgo and, um,
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: committed suicide. So, you know, I didn't want to stir
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: up or, or bother the family if they didn't want
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: to talk, you know, but in the process, I, I
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: found so many people and I learned so much information
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: and background and, and, and people that were never credited.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: I got the credit straightened out. You wouldn't believe how
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: screwed up the credits are in monostands of fate. I mean,
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: people were credited for things they didn't do, and some
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: people weren't mentioned at all. So it just turned into
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: this epic journey, you know? It took me 16 months
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: from signing my contract with my co-author to getting it
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: to the publisher. But another crazy thing was when we
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: got to the point to go looking for a publisher...
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: She did her research, and she came to me with
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: three names of three different publishers that she thought would
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: be best for my book. And so I looked at
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: the three of them, and I picked one that I
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: thought would be the best, Bear Manor Media. They do
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: a lot of biographies and books on film and such
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: like that. So we wrote them a pitch letter, and within...
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: It was the same day. That was crazy. The same
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: day we get an email back from the publisher saying
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: with capital letter, yes, exclamation point. I would love to
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: see that. I'm a big Manos fan. I know how,
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: you know, like, whoa. So we sent him, you know,
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: the requisite outline and chapters. And within two days, he
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: was back with a contract. And I'm like, that's insane.
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: Who gets that, you know, on their first book? But
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: he loves it. And and then I got this offer
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: from this incredible artist to to do the art for
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: my cover. And it just came together. So I just
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: got the artist or I got the proof for the
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: whole book just a few days ago. So it's it's
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: out very, very soon. Like I said, one of the
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: perks in the Kickstarter is a pre-publication signed book. copy
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: of the manuscript. And I'm working to get those. I mean,
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: the moment this Kickstarter is over, those need to go
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: out so that they actually get them before the book.
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: You know, I think the book's going to be out
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: very soon. It'll be out sometime in March, I believe.
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: I'll have to make sure to pick up a copy
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: because I was actually going to ask you when the
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: release date is. But, you know, as you're telling the story,
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: you know, it just reminded me of what you said earlier,
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: which is, you know, Manos as a religion, the power
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: of Manos.
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: It's so bizarre. I mean, I've been living it for
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: years and, and I've always approached this thing with not
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: what I can get out of it. Cause that's just
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: not who I am. I'm, I'm a greater good kind
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: of person. And I've talked to other people doing other
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: Manos projects from time to time where they seem kind
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: of like startled, you know, when I approached them and
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: they're worried. And then once they realize that I'm not
• 45:39
  Speaker 5: out to get anything out of them, I just, I
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: just want to know what's going on. You know, I
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: just love it. I, I support and celebrate and then,
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: you know, and then we're all friends. And in fact,
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: some of these projects are promoting our Kickstarter now and
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: which is remarkable to me because they've got their own
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: things to do. You know, I think that's just, Great.
• 46:01
  Speaker 5: We're all one big family as far as I'm concerned.
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: But then, you know, there's also a dark side. One
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: of Hal Warren's sons, you know, like like you said,
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: neither living dead. And I mean, I get his position.
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: He's feeling left out. But and his approach is so negative.
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: And and he just comes at everybody with threats. And
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: so he harassed me. for like three years, nasty letters
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: and cease and desist and telling me I can't talk
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: about me and Debbie. And I'm like, this is ridiculous,
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: you know? So, I mean, that whole debacle really kind
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: of crushed me for a while. And I just went
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: silent and dark because my whole thing, if it's not fun,
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: it's just not worth doing. This mono thing is all
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: about fun and having, and, and, and the love of it,
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: you know, the creativity and, And I just don't see
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: room for that negativity. And, you know, there's room for
• 47:05
  Speaker 5: everybody here as far as I'm concerned. So we're just
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: getting we're just putting our, you know, we're putting our
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: hat in the ring.
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: One thing I've learned, too, is, you know, somebody doesn't
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: like what you're doing or maybe thinks that they have
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: a similar idea or something. And they put those stop
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: it at the cease and desist orders. You know, I
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: got one before because. Some guy thought I made a
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: trailer that we made that I produced. He thought it
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: was too close to his idea. And I actually looked
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: at his idea and I said, dude, I said, these
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: things are so far apart. I said, I don't understand,
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: you know, and I think some people just sort of,
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: like you said, left out or maybe they feel like
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: threatened in some weird way and they just lash out
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: Well, he's he. I know that I drive him nuts
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: just by doing what I do, but I'm not trying to.
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: I'm not. It's not about him. You know, it's about me,
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: my life, my dad. And when I was writing my
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: blog stories, you know, I got some comments of him
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: telling me not to talk about this or that or
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: stop telling those stories, you know, tell my story. And
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: I'm like, write your own blog. You know, I can
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: only tell what I know. And so the book was
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: like that too. You know, I worked very, very hard
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: to get the story right. And if I didn't know it,
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: I didn't write it. And there are things that I
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: learned that I didn't write because I don't want to
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: hurt anybody, you know. But I'm trying to tell the
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: truth as best as I possibly can.
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I think that's great, Jackie. Honestly, I saw the
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: Manos returns on Kickstarter. I read the backstory behind it,
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: and I was like, I'm definitely going to donate to
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: this campaign. And again, with your website, you're sharing your
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: artwork and everything else. Jackie, I say keep on going.
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: Well, I can't stop. I mean, really, it's... I'm creative.
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: I'm an artist. I can't tell you how many different
• 49:15
  Speaker 5: businesses I started. Some of them work. Some of them don't.
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: Every time I get knocked down, I just kind of
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: shake it off. I'm like, okay, deep breath. Do it again.
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: I don't beat my head against the wall, but I
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: always find a way if it's something that I really want.
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: And I am absolutely determined this is going to happen
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: because As I said before, my dad is 80. We
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: have filmed his scenes. And that's my motivation here, getting
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: it done, is my dad needs to see this. And
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: we have some very definite dates we're keeping to. You know,
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: this is the 50th anniversary of Manos, the Hands of Fate,
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: this year.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: And now back to the show.
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: From 1966 when it was made and when it premiered.
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: And we're kind of keeping to that. January 30th, we
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: launched our Kickstarter, which was the day that Mystery Science
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: Theater put Monos on television on Comedy Central for the
• 50:29
  Speaker 5: very first time and brought it to the public. And
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: November 15th is the 50th anniversary from when Manos premiered
• 50:40
  Speaker 5: in El Paso in the theater. And we want to
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: do our first screening on that date. So we've got
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: a lot of work to do. But in preparing for
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: this Kickstarter, you know, we want to make sure we
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: can get this movie done and have something that the
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: fans are really going to enjoy. I mean, this is
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: going to be a pretty good movie. We're not making
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: a bad movie. We're making the best movie we can
• 51:06
  Speaker 5: for whatever we end up with, you know, financially. And
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: so I'm very excited about it. It's going to be awesome.
• 51:14
  Speaker 5: And it's going to be fun. It is fun.
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't wait to see it, Jackie. I think
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: it is going to be very well done, because like
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: I said, it's the passion to do it, and that's
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: what really, in a lot of movies, you can see
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: if the filmmaker had passion doing it, or if they're
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: just going through the motions, if you know what I mean.
• 51:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and we're not doing this, you can see movies,
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: they're made just for the, to try to appeal to
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: the masses and make money. And we're not out to
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: do that. We want to make a fan film. We
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: want to make something that that we can be really
• 51:54
  Speaker 5: proud of.
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: Exactly. And, you know, I can definitely tell that just
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: by talking to you. You know, Jackie, you know, we've
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: been talking for about, you know, 50 minutes now. And
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: so I wanted to say, you know, you know, in closing.
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: wanted to say or anything you wanted to maybe just
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: add to sort of put a period at the end
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: of this conversation?
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: I just want to say that we are only $ 38
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: short of getting to 60% of our base funds on
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: the Kickstarters. And that's with 163 backers. That's amazing. I mean,
• 52:30
  Speaker 5: we've got backers all through the whole thing. This is
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: an amazing Kickstarter with so many levels of rewards that
• 52:37
  Speaker 5: appeal to people. And so I just really urge you,
• 52:41
  Speaker 5: even if it's only $ 5, please donate. Help us get
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: this movie made. And if you can't donate anything, just
• 52:50
  Speaker 5: share it. Let people know because Manos fans and MST
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: fans are in every walk of life and around every corner.
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: You just got to get the word out there.
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that is very true. And I heard about Manos
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: through MST3K. And now, you know, obviously years later when
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: I saw this, I thought, wow, this is amazing. And,
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: you know, Jackie, I want to wish you the best
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: of luck, you know, with everything. And oh, and where
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: can we find you online?
• 53:18
  Speaker 5: Oh, Manos Returns for the Kickstarter. It's ManosReturns.com. And for me,
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: everything is under Debbie's Manos. On Facebook, on my website,
• 53:32
  Speaker 5: on my blog, you know, on Blogger. Debbie's Manos. And
• 53:38
  Speaker 5: that's it. If you Google me, I'm right there.
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: And I will link to all of Jackie's social media
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: accounts in the show notes as well. Jackie? I want
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: to wish you the best of luck. And again, I
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: want to say thank you very much for coming on.
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Dave. Pleasure talking to you.
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: Oh, pleasure was all mine. And you know what? I
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: want to have you on again when Madness Returns comes out.
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: That way we can talk about the premiere and everything else.
• 54:06
  Speaker 5: I would love that. I would love that. I've got
• 54:09
  Speaker 5: a note of it right here because organization is key.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: Jackie, I want to say thanks again and take care.
• 54:17
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Dave. Talk to you soon.
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: Bye-bye.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: a great job on this episode.
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: If you want to get links to anything we spoke
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: about in this episode, head over to the show notes.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: At IndieFilmHustle.com forward slash eight.
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: And if you haven't already, please head over to FilmmakingPodcast.com.
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: Subscribe and leave a good review for the show.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: It really helps us out a lot, guys.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: Thank you again so much for listening, guys. As always,
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: keep that hustle going. Keep that dream alive. Stay safe
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at IndieFilmHustle.com.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: That's I-N-D-I-E-F-I-L-M-H-U-S-T-L-E.com.