Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 492: How One of the WORST Movies Ever Made Became a Cult Classic with Jackey Neyman

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BPS 492: How One of the WORST Movies Ever Made Became a Cult Classic with Jackey Neyman · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the IFH Podcast Network.
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• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, episode number 492.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: John Sayles.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Broadcasting from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood, when we
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  Speaker 2: really should be working on that next draft. It's the
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  Speaker 2: Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and business of
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Welcome, welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari.
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  Speaker 3: Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage. Now,
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• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Dave Bullis.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: Joining me today is Jackie Naiman. Jackie is an actress
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: and producer known for Manos, The Hands of Fate, Manos,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: The Rise of Torgo, the upcoming Manos Returns, which is
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: currently on Kickstarter, and also the upcoming book, Growing up
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: with Manos, the Hands of Fate. Jackie, how are you?
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: I'm great, Dave. Nice to be here.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, you know, thank you so much for coming by.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: You know, normally the first question I ask anybody is,
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: how did you get into the film business? But for you, Jackie,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: I actually already know the answer to that.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: But for those of you who aren't listening, Jackie was
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: in Manos, the Hands of Fate. But you know what, Jackie,
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: if you could, could you just please take us through,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: you know, how you got into Manos? and sort of
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: how your career progressed from there.
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: Sure. Well, I was a child. I was six years
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: old turning seven when Manos was filmed, and my dad
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: was in community theater, and Hal Warren, who created Manos,
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: approached my dad, and they needed a little girl, and
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: So it's quite convenient for the main actor, the star,
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: the guy who is also doing all the sets, props,
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: and costumes for Manos to also provide the child and
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: the Doberman and the car. And a lot of our
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: furniture too. But I got into it because my dad
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: came home one day and he said, honey, I'm doing
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: a movie and they need a little girl. Would you
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: like to be that little girl? And you know, I
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: was very young and shy and, and I was kind
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: of terrified at that thought. But then the next thing
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: he said was, well, it's okay, honey. If you, if
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: you don't, we'll just get another little girl. Well, that's
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: not going to fly. So of course I, I had
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: to do it.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: So, you know, when you were filming Manos, obviously you
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: were a child. Did you have any fun, fun experiences
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: while filming that or anything that was just so out
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: of the ordinary or, Cause I mean, I imagine, you know, you, you,
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: this was your first, you know, acting role, right. At the,
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: at that point. So, I mean, you know, I'm sure
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: this was an entirely new world for you, even at
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: that young age.
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: Well, it was, it wasn't because my dad had been
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: in a theater community theater since, you know, since I
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: was a baby. And so I was very used to
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: him playing different characters and, and I was already very
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: familiar with the theater and backstage and, And I just
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: I loved it all. And this was a very different experience.
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: But it was particularly, you know, a focus for me
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: that I was the only child on the set. And so,
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: for instance, when the Manic Manor women there, the wives
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: were there, they're all like, uh, 18 to 20 years old.
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  Speaker 5: So to them, um, I was kind of fun, you know,
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  Speaker 5: a little girl, it's like a living doll to have around.
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: So they kind of fussed over me. And then, uh,
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  Speaker 5: I remember being well aware that things that were being
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: filmed were the only things being seen by the audience.
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: And so I felt very privileged to know what was
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: going on behind the scenes. I knew that we kept
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: all the costumes in the closet, in the bedroom, and
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: that there was a little 19... 40s or 50s round
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: refrigerator in the kitchen where we kept all our bag
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: lunches because, you know, we didn't have craft services and,
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: you know, things like that. It was very cool for
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: me to be able to be there all night and
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: because most of the filming was at night or on weekends.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: And so what was all on at night and on weekends. So,
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: you know, it was just really, really great to be
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: just there. I was a kid that could entertain myself
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: quite well. And so the downtimes, I just, it wasn't
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: in the way. I just really enjoyed being there and observing.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: I just soaked it all up. It was very, very
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: special to me because I adored my dad and I
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: had this opportunity to be part of something that he
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: was doing. It was remarkable to me.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: Now, when you look back on that, Mystery Science Theater,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: really took Manos and they, you know, showed it on, uh,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: on their, on their show and everything. And from what
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: I gather, you know, that's where it started to really get,
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: you know, sort of re-release back into the zeitgeist because
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: now it became this cult hit again because, because of MST3K. So,
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: you know, is your dad in Manos Returns?
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: Yes. Uh, he just turned 80 years old in November. And, um,
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: you know, we had done a, started to do a
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: sequel in 2010 or be part of, uh, somebody else's
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: sequel that just never happened but my dad's scenes in
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: that one did get filmed and and so that's always
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: been bothered me so much that my dad was never
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: going to get to see himself in you know in
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: something better on film because you know when he was
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: in theater in the 60s and 70s none of that
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: was recorded people didn't have video recorders and cameras and
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: all that stuff so So he never got to see himself.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: So having this opportunity for him was really amazing. And
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: it had to happen now because of his age. And
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: so when he agreed to do this, it just all
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: just came together amazingly. The people, all the resources we needed.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: So initially we did a t-shirt campaign. That was kind
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: of a twofold thing. One, to get my dad some money.
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: for doing this and to get his scene filmed right
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: away while he was strong and healthy, you know, we
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: didn't want to take any chances. And, um, and just
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: for him to have this opportunity again, um, so for
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: him to get paid and for us to get this done.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: So we did a t-shirt campaign and, uh, raised in profit, uh,
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: over a thousand dollars. And that's what we gave him,
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: And we set it up and we filmed his scene.
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: So that's done. We're very, very happy about that. That
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: was critical. If we're going to say the master is
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: going to be in it, he better be in it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: I saw your banners on on Facebook and I was like, wow.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: I said, wait a minute. I said, you know, I
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: think her her her dad's still in this. And I
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: looked it up and, you know. I just wanted to
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: make sure before I asked, but.
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's him.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw that, and I was like, wow. I said,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: you know, that's great. Now you have two returning cast members. Originally,
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: you know, with Man of Stands of Fate, you know,
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: the one from 1966, I heard that Hal Warren... was
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: a manure salesman who wrote this script in his downtime.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: I don't know if that's true or not, Jackie, but
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: maybe you could comment, because I know sometimes there's like,
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: you know, urban legends and stuff that form around movies.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: But was he really a manure salesman?
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: At one point, when he was still in Houston, he
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: did have a job selling chemical fertilizer. So, in a sense, yes.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: But not really. And, uh, in fact, you know, and
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: we'll get to this about my book, but there's a
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: whole chapter on how Warren and, um, and, uh, I
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: did a tremendous amount of research. I talked to his
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: family members and, uh, I found out a whole lot
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: about how, and, uh, you know, from, from how he
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: got into theater and how he got to that place and, and, um,
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: You know, he did a lot of writing. He wrote
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: a musical. He wrote plays. He wrote books. He he
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: has one book that's published about it's about salesmanship because
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: he was the eternal salesman. And so he wrote a
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: book about it.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And now back to the show.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: Um, but yeah, he was, uh, There's a lot of
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: urban legends about Manos, and that's one of the reasons
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: I wrote the book. And that's one of the reasons
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: I became so visible in the first place was that's
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: how it started, was me just trying to straighten a
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: few things out online with people on chat rooms. That's
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: how it all started for me.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: When you were done filming the movie and, you know,
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: the movie was edited and you had that first showing,
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: you know, what did you think at that time when
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: you saw the movie? Wow.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: Well, at this point, yeah, the premiere have a whole
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: chapter on that, too. It was worthy of a chapter.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: But the premiere was Cal had had so much pageantry
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: around this thing. He really knew how to how to
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: do it. So he had lights that he borrowed from
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: a car dealership sweeping the sky in front of the theater.
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: He had a red carpet. He had a limousine and
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: I'll say a limousine and all the cast and crew
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: showed up and we were on the other side of
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: the block and the limousine would come around, pick up
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: a few of us, drop us off in front of
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: the theater. And there were so many people there. All
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: the officials from El Paso was there. We had autograph
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: hounds that Hal had hired, which actually were the street
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: kids because we lived on the border of Mexico and
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: Most of these kids didn't, most of them didn't speak
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: any English, but they were still getting our autographs as
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: we stepped from the limo. So we go into the
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: theater and, you know, the community, the theater and creative
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: community in El Paso, probably still now today, but at
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: that time was quite tight knit. And so there was
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: a lot of friends and well-wishers. And so we get
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: in there and sit down. My dad wanted to make
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: sure we had a, a good view. And so we
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: sat about fifth row center, uh, which meant there was
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: no escape. And then, uh, the lights go down and the,
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: and the music, you know, it starts and there's a
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: couple of shorts before the film, you know, like a
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: nature short. And, uh, and then the movie starts and
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: then there's this long driving scene and it just, um, wow. Um,
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: people got it pretty much right away. And there was
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: some snickers and, uh, little whisperings at first. And, um,
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: you know, my dad and sinking lower in his seat.
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: And then, uh, but for me, all I cared about
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: was me, you know, I'm a kid. I just want
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: to see myself up there. And so the car drives
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: up and, uh, my mouth opens and this, whatever comes
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: out of my mouth. And, I was absolutely horrified. I
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: was just appalled. I felt my face get hot and
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: I just burst into tears and I just sat through
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: the whole thing in misery, just crying.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: I see. I was going to ask because I imagine
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: as a kid, I, part of me thought that you
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: would just be so excited that you would just, you
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: wouldn't see, you know, you would just see all the positives.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean? Like you would just be
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: so enthralled by this entire experience. Um, but that, that
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: was very interesting that, you know, I, I didn't, I honestly, Jackie,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: I swear, I didn't think you were going to say that.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: I thought you were going to, I thought you were
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: going to tell me that you were just like, uh,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: you know, like later on your dad had a talk
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: with you, like about the movie being like, uh, a
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: lot of these movies, you know, like, um, so something
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: like the room, you know, the, the reason I like Manos,
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: I like the room. Um, I like Miami connection is,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: you know, I understand they're not, you know, Some people say,
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: you know, best of the worst or whatever you want
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: to call it. But what I think is I see
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: a lot of passion in these movies, and I get that. Like,
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: I see a lot of, they actually have heart to them.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: And I know some people are going to look at
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: me kind of, you know, cockeyed when I say that.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: But there is, you know, there's a pride when they're
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: making this film, if you know what I mean. And
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: I'm sure Hal, when he was making, you know, Manos,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: you could see that he actually was trying to make,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: you know, his own version of a horror film.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: He was, and he knew from the start, he let
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: everybody know that he knew he wasn't making a good movie,
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: but he had intended to make the best movie he could,
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: and Hal had big ideas, and Manos was not the
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: end game for him. Manos was just the beginning, and
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: he had really, truly thought that with his connection with
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: Sterling Sillifant and the bet that he had made to
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: get this movie made and the connections that he had
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: in Hollywood, he thought that he was going to, with
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: this film, open the film industry to El Paso, and
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: then he would be known for that. And unfortunately, that actually, well,
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: in a really weird sense, it kind of did happen, but....
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: You're right. I mean, because, you know, right now, you know,
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: I've actually had filmmakers from Texas on here. Granted that,
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: you know, they live in most of them live in Austin,
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: but there are some from, you know, I know some
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: from Dallas and some from all over Texas. So in
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: the film industry now has just grown so much that.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Texas is huge. I mean, now it's it's you know,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: it seems to be like the south southwest in America
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: because Georgia, Louisiana, some parts of I think South Carolina
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: might still be up there. I can't remember. but just
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: these areas now that have exploded in filmmaking.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and he was right about the wild desert beauty,
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: the sunshine 300 days a year. There's wide open spaces.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: It's a beautiful area. It's desert, but it's beautiful. It
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: is a good place to film.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. One movie that I really noticed, that desert location...
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: that I really noticed how cinematic it can be, was
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: in the movie No Country for Old Men. Oh, yeah.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: That could not have been filmed anywhere else. It wouldn't
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: have worked the way it worked.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, especially on that whole Mexican-Texas border, that whole firefight.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: And then when, you know, Luella Moss just running away.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, it just, I was like, wow. I was like,
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: you know, I've never, you know, I've seen a ton
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: of Westerns too, but I've never actually... put it together
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: that much i've noticed that you know usually you see
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: like you know a mountain formation but then i noticed
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: an old country i'm like wow this is some really
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: beautiful scenery.
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah and then you get the sense of the culture
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: too yes definitely and uh and that's really cool because
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: it is so different than other other places in the
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: in the country.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah very true jack i want to ask you one
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: question too was what you know after manos came out
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: You know, were you recognized at all or did you
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: did you start, you know, continuing, you know, continue acting
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: after that?
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: Well, nobody was recognized. I mean, nobody ever wanted to
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: talk about it. You know, as soon as Manos was over,
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: it literally everybody went their own ways and tried really
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: hard to pretend it never happened. But I definitely was
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: bit by the acting bug, mostly because of my dad
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: being in the theater. And I remember telling my friends
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: at school that I'd been in a movie, but, you know,
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: they didn't care at that time when I was young.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: And then, you know, when I got into high school,
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: I continued. I went to acting classes and I actually
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: did do one other play with my dad in 1971.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: He did. He played. What's his name? Lowther in The
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: Prime and Miss Jean Brody. In El Paso and the
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: director of that had somehow Got Julie Adams the actress
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: Julie Adams to come out as a special celebrity to
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: play Jean Brody And I got to be one of
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: the schoolgirls. What's really cool about that is I went
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: to the living dead convention in Portland a few months
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: ago because I heard Julie Adams was there and I
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: still had the program of from 1971 from the play
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: with my dad's name in it and her name and
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: my name and I approached her and I asked her
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: to sign it not only did she sign it but
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: I bought her book and that play was mentioned in
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: her book she even talked about it so I'm like
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: wow we're in each other's books you know very cool.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: It's a small world, right?
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: But then I went on and I moved to... My
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: dad moved to Southern California when my parents divorced when
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: I was a young teen and I went with him.
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: So I continued acting through high school. And then I
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: made a decision at that point that as a creative
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: person that I had to live creatively, but that I
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: felt I had more opportunity in art than in acting.
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: And so... I just kind of switched. I mean, I
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: always had that love of acting and that love of theater.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: But I became an artist and I had a pretty
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: good career. But then it comes full circle and this
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: whole Manos thing comes up. And honestly, because of Manos
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: and my place in it and history.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And now back to the show.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: And the way that I engage with people has come
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: to this place to give me opportunities to realize pretty
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: much every dream I ever wanted. It's like I get
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: to taste a little bit of everything. So it's pretty incredible, really.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: And I noticed on your website, you have some of
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: your artwork up on your website, correct?
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I believe I do. I need to update that
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: because I'm an artist. And so some of those organizational things...
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: Especially lately with all the mono stuff building up, it's
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: sometimes it's hard to find time to to promote my art.
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: I mean, I'm sitting here in my studio looking at
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: walls that nobody's seen because I can't seem to get
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: it photographed and posted.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, like we were talking about before this
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: episode started, you know, the Internet now has made everything
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: so easy. But, you know, now, like, you know, we
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: were talking about crowdfunding, for instance, you know. You know,
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: that whole thing, you know, started. And, you know, even before,
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: you know, as soon as it starts, people were like,
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: you know, what is crowdfunding? You know what I mean? So,
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: you know, but now, you know, with art, and I
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: actually am friends with a, I guess she's kind of
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: like an art dealer, I guess you would call her.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: What she does now is she actually takes photos and
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: she actually just, like, will put them up on her, like,
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: her Instagram or she'll post them on, like, her Facebook
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: or whatever. And then, you know, I mean, they're not,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: you know, professionally done photos, obviously they're just with their phone,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: but you know, it's just, it's just, you know, stuff that,
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: you know, she finds interesting.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, I find when I do post my things regularly, regularly, I, I,
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: I mean, I get people to, you know, I sell art,
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: but if I don't put it out there, obviously I'm
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: not going to sell anything. So it's, uh, it's, it's hard.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: I mean, the internet is amazing. I just can't imagine
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: how to do any of this. I don't know how
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: any of us did anything before. I just can hardly remember.
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: But on the other hand, there's so many different things.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: You think you got something down. I'm just getting Twitter down.
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: And somebody says, well, now you need to do Instagram.
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: And have you done LinkedIn? I'm like, Oh my gosh.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: What I find with social media is, um, it's like
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: people migrate almost like people migrate from different countries. They,
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: you know, they're, you know, first it was, it was
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Facebook was the big one. And then people sort of
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: got tired of that. They went to Twitter. Um, and
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: you know, Twitter is now falling off and people are
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: going to Instagram and Snapchat and, you know, but I mean,
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Facebook's still number one. Um, you know, but, but now it's, it's,
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: you know, the, the, the, a lot of the teenagers
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: and stuff have fallen off and, you know, they, they're,
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: they use a Snapchat now. And, uh, that's where I
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: draw the line. Cause I absolutely hate Snapchat. I tried
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: it one time and I was like, I'm just going
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: to stick to Twitter and Instagram. Cause I hate Facebook too, but,
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: but no, I completely understand where you're coming from. It
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: just seems like social media is just ever changing. And
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: you know, now Twitter's, you know, is going through some
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: inner turmoil and they're trying out new features. And I
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: hear now they might get rid of the 140 characters
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: and make it like, yeah. So, I mean, it's just,
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: It's just one of those things, you know, it's just
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: it's always changing. And that's why I think it's a
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: good idea to always have your own website. That way
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: you can drive people back to that. And, you know,
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: that's not going to change because unless you change it,
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: it's not going to change.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's true. That's true. And it is there. But yeah,
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: I need to update it. That's for sure. And anyway,
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: while we're at that, it's debbysmonos.com.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: And I'll make sure to link to that in the
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: show notes, everybody. And I'll also make sure to post
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: some of your art, Jackie.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: Oh, thank you. I'll send some to you, too. Yeah,
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: I'm really liking my new stuff.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Oh, well, thank you. I will hang it on the wall.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: Because I actually have just been cleaning up my office here.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: And I actually have, like, room now. of because I
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: just I had so much stuff on my walls that
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: I like literally I was like why is this still
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: up here it's like a poster of a movie I
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: I mean I personally did you know years ago and
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: I was like I you know this never came of
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: anything I so I just put it in the closet
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: now so all the yeah you know what I mean.
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: I do yeah because you get so used to things
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: you got to switch things up I did uh interior
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: uh faux finish I worked for high-end clients and color
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: consultation and worked with people in their homes and businesses
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: for like 25 something years. And, and so that's, that's
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: something that was so amazing to people is, uh, we
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: do a wall and then I'd rearrange their art and
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: suddenly they'd be, they'd see this painting in a whole
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: new way. Or we might just move something, get rid
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: of it and put something else up. And it's like, wow,
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: the whole environment changes with one little shift, you know, sometimes. Yeah.
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: but yeah, so trying to keep things fresh. Cause my
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: philosophy in life is, uh, is the little things are,
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: are microcosms of how you want the whole big thing
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: to work. And, and so I try to live that way.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: You know, when my, when my desk is disorganized, it's
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: just a reflection of my mind.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: That, that, that, that is a good, you know, that
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: is a good analogy. And, uh, You know, like for me,
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: you know, I switched my desk up and now like
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: my room feels like twice as big. I actually I
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: literally used to do the podcast on the opposite side
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: of the room. And I just I bought a new
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: smaller desk and switched that desk over to the other side.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: And now it feels like, you know, a much bigger office.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: And and it's just a small change. I really I mean,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: you know, obviously the office didn't get bigger, but.
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: Exactly. People thought they were tuning in to hear about
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: Manos and they're hearing about Feng Shui.
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know. That's the first time I've discussed
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: that on a podcast.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: See, I always try to get something new from my guests.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: Because sometimes they're asked the same questions over and over again.
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: You know, I'll tell you, lately it's crazy. Because of
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: this thing, it's just kind of exploding. And I've had
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: to be a lot better organized to keep track of
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: who I'm talking to on what day. And so that
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: I can go back and listen or read. And it's, wow.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: This whole organization thing, it's a whole different thing for me. Yeah.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: Well, one of the tips that I usually give to
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: people crowdfunding is, is there has to be sort of
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: like the crowdfunding czar or crowdfunding, whatever you want to
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: call that person's title. But basically... they're in charge of
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: the campaign but they also like help to organize like
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: okay i have this actress she's available for podcasts or
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: whatever i have you know this person's available and that
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: person sort of facilitates that as well and and that
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: that is one one duty that you know that person
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: has to be so well organized and you know constantly
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: sending calendar invites and And stuff like that. But if
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: you could get somebody like that, I mean, they're worth
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: their weight in gold.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: Well, luckily, we do. We're a team here. Doing this
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: Kickstarter thing has pretty much been a full-time job for
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: me the last week and a half or so. But
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: I absolutely couldn't do this alone. There's no way. But
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: Rachel Jackson, who created Mono's Hands of Felt, is... running
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: the Kickstarter. She organized it and she's been working with, uh,
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: Tanya Atomic, our director and I, the three of us
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: have just been in constant contact. And, um, but boy,
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: Rachel is amazing. She's gotten the press releases out there. And, um,
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: my job here is to keep myself organized and that's
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: a full-time job, you know, but, uh, wow. Rachel is amazing.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: And the three of us, plus then we have Joe Sherlock,
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: who is our director of photography for the film. And
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: he's a skull face astronaut. He's done, I don't know
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: how many films on his own, but he's doing all
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: our graphics for the Kickstarter. And then Steve Foley, who
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: is our editor and script writer, is, uh, doing all those, uh,
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: the videos he's edited the videos that we're doing. And, um,
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: you know, I just can't believe what an incredible team
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: I have. It's so synergetic. Is that a word? I mean,
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: our synergy is amazing. It's, um, this whole mono thing
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: is amazing. It just draws the right people together. And
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: same thing happened with my book and my coauthor. It's,
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: I don't know how this happens. I understand how religions
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: are formed because the will of Manos is... I say,
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: put your hands in the air, you know? Put your
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: Manos in the air for Manos.
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: You know, I do want to touch upon that. You're
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: Kickstarter right now for Manos. It's currently crowdfunding. Do you
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: know the exact date that's going to end, Jackie?
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, March 2nd.
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: Okay, so everyone listening to this, March 2nd, 2016 is
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: the last day to contribute. I've contributed because I saw
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: the project and I actually almost clicked off of it,
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: but I started to read and I saw, oh, the
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: girl who was in Manos, the original, was in this.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: I said, okay, so there's some returning cast members.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And now, back to the show.
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: And then I started reading more about it. I was like, oh,
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: this sounds pretty cool. Because at first, Jackie, I was wondering,
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: I thought, oh, I hope some random filmmaker is not
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: trying to cash in on Manos. You know what I mean?
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, they do that all the time to Night
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: of the Living Dead. I mean, I have seen so
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: many Night of the Living Dead movies. quote unquote, sequels
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: that have nothing to do with George Romero or Ross
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: Steiner or John A. Russo. And it's just it's unbelievable.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: So when I saw you were behind Manos Returns, I
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: was like, OK, this is something I want to actually contribute.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: And now that you're actually crowdfunding it, you know, what
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: were some of the things that you wanted to accomplish
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: with Manos Returns? You know, because it actually is a
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: sequel to Manos, obviously. And, you know, so what are
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: some of the things that you wanted to accomplish with,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: you know, with this film?
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: Well, first of all, I want to say that, yeah,
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: it's a sequel, but it's very different. We get a
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: lot of questions like, well, how are you going to
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: keep with Manos stylistically? Are you going to use the
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: same cameras and different, different things like that? And it's
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: not a remake. We're not, it's kind of a continuation,
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: but it's not, it's its own story. And we're going
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: in a whole different direction because Manos just can't be recreated.
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: And you said, you touched on that earlier about, um,
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: you didn't use the word, but like that earnest intent,
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: you know, the, that somebody like how, um, comes at
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: and but with without experience and then you know by
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: some magical concoction they come up with this crazy thing
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: that hits with the public somehow you know 27 years
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: later um but it's just you know we're making a
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: film that is a nod to Manos we want to
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: we're bringing in my dad and myself. And we're also
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: hoping to have, uh, Diane Marie who played my mother. Uh,
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: she's still just beautiful, amazing. She went on to this amazing, uh,
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: career as a top model in Europe, by the way,
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: she's still beautiful. So we're hoping to have her back.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: And then, um, we're pretty much it for who's still living. Um,
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: and yeah, And for the sheriff, we're actually using the
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: son of William Brian Jennings, the original sheriff. His son
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: will be playing our sheriff. And he looks a lot
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: like his dad. So that's pretty exciting. So what we're
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: accomplishing here is we're giving the originals an opportunity to
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: kind of bask in the Manos love, because like you said,
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: there's So many other projects. And Manos has a great
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: number of projects. I personally, I celebrate them all. I
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: encourage people. I love that Manos has inspired so much talent.
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: And I've met the most amazing people through this whole thing.
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: I've got a Facebook friend in New Orleans that is
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: working on a Manos burlesque show that I hope to
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: be able to go see. And then Mono's Hands of Felt,
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: there's a stage production. So I think it's all really wonderful.
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: But at the same time, the original people who were
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: involved have never benefited from any of these wonderful things
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: or MST or anything, you know, other than a little notoriety.
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: So this project gives us a chance to, you know, just...
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: to come out and bask a little in that love
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: and hopefully benefit financially. So one way or the other,
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: we've already given my dad some money for doing his part.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: We want to pay everybody who's involved in this film
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: because when you do a creative project like this, so
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: many people volunteer so much time and effort. And we'd
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: like to... We'd like to reward them somehow a little bit.
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: And we also want to make the best film that
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: we can make. And so with our base goal of 24,000,
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: we can make a film. And the people that are
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: on this film have so much experience with no budget
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: and low budget and have won awards and done wonderful
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: things with that. I'm so excited to see what we
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: can actually do with a budget. And then as the
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: budget goes up, you know, as we go above our $ 24, 000,
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: which I hope we can do, is then we're just
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: going to make a better movie. We'll have more budget
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: for costuming. We'll have more budget to bring in more people. Oh,
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: and going back a little, another original is Nicky Mathis,
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: who sang Forgetting You on the original soundtrack. I found
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: her when I was researching my book, and she still sings.
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: She's amazing. She's a jazz singer, and she's been singing
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: on stage since like 1959. She was on stage with
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: Dave Brubeck seven years before Monos ever happened. So she's
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: going to re-record Forgetting You for us. That's one of
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: the perks.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: So when you actually contacted her, what did she think
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: about that? Because the reason I ask that is they
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: just released a sequel to Samurai Cop. It was Samurai
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: Cop 2, and the filmmakers wanted to get everybody back
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: from the original. And when they called people, they thought
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: it was a joke. I'm sorry, Jackie. I'm kind of
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: like a movie boss. No, no.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: I know it.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: Okay, good. You know what Samurai Cop is. So Samurai
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: Cop 2 then, when they were calling people, they actually
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: were like, is this a joke? You know, why would
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: they make a sequel to this all these years later?
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: So what was the reaction when you contacted, I'm sorry,
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: what was her name? Nikki. Nikki. So what was the
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: reaction when you contacted Nikki?
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: Well, I initially contacted her for my book. when I
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: was researching my book and I just could not believe that,
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: I mean, it was a long circuitous journey to find her.
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: It was not direct because she was never, none of
• 36:43
  Speaker 5: the musicians were ever credited. So I actually found out
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: who all the musicians were and I've talked to her
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: and the guitarist, Kurt Warren. So no relation to how,
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: by the way, but, but so she was actually, she's
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: so gracious and kind and, what a wonderful lady. We
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: had the best phone conversation and she was very happy to, um,
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: to interview for my book. And so we became friends and, uh,
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: it was actually probably we'd been friends for a year before, um,
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: I asked her if she would be willing to rerecord
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: forgetting you. And she did agree. And I'm making it
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: very easy for her. That's the other thing is that she's, um,
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: I've already contacted a recording studio near her home. And
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: we have somebody else who's doing our soundtrack or creating
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: the music. So we're putting it all together. And that's
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: the other thing that we can do based on the
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: Internet is we can work with people all over the
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: country and pull this together. You know, we don't all
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: have to be in the same place to do a
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: lot of this stuff.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, very true. And then you sort of like you
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: were just touching upon, you know, you sort of wonder,
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: how did we do this before the Internet?
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: Oh, we could not have done this. I mean, on
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: another set, you know, back to the book again was
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: the cover of my book. The artwork is amazing. And
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: it was created by an artist friend in Croatia. How
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: would I ever know anybody from Croatia that weren't for
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: social networking? Well, I can tell you I wouldn't because
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: I don't know anybody in Croatia.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: I did actually want to talk about the book, you know,
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: growing up with Manos, you know, so what was the
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: impetus to actually, you know, write this book?
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, back when MST3K first aired Manos and
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: it came, I mean, my dad and I, it just disappeared.
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: I thought I'd never see it again after 1966, even
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: though I looked and looked. And then there it was
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: on television. And then it had this popularity and things kept,
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: People kept talking about it here and there. And I
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: chime in. And my goal was just to kind of
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: straighten out some of the monos mythology out there. And
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: that was my quest. And that's where it started. And
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: then I think it was 2012 or actually since 2010,
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: I started thinking about writing a book. I thought, well,
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: you know, I have a lot of memories. I have
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: a lot of stories. And my dad's still here. interview him.
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: And I just couldn't figure out how to pull it together.
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: And then I think it was 2000 know the whole
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: blogging thing got big and I thought well maybe I'll
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: write a blog and start writing some of these things
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: down so I can preserve them on paper so to
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: speak and and also to see if anybody's actually interested
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: well As I started writing the blog, I started noticing
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: readers all over the world.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: And now, back to the show.
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: I mean, for a couple months, most of my readers
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: were actually for two months in a row, had more
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: readers in Latvia than anywhere else, including the United States.
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: So I don't get what that's about. But, um, but
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: then I started noticing it, the numbers were building and
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: I was getting, you know, about 3000 or so views
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: a month on my blog and a lot of really
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: great comments. So I kind of put the feelers out
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: there knowing, again, I never written a book. I had
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: no idea how to go about it or find a publisher.
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: So I met a woman online. on social media again,
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: Laura Mazuka-Tupes, who has 30 years experience in editing, and
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: she's written a couple novels, and she's a Monos fan,
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: and we just hit it off. So we, and she
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: lives in Chicago. So again, we never actually met face-to-face until, gosh,
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: when was it? I think it was October. I flew
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: out there so we could get our final edit done
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: and get it to the publisher. But because the deadline
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: for the publisher was December. And then so so I'm
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: writing this book. And at first I thought it was
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: just going to be kind of memoirs and my dad's
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: memories and whatever else I could find. And it just
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: kept growing. And I started realizing that I'm really good
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: at research and I really enjoy research. And I, and
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: it was like this game. And then I kept, I'd uncover, uh, somebody.
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: I actually talked to one of the wives. I found
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: two of them. No, I found three of them, but
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: only one would talk to me. And, uh, I even
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: found a relative of John Reynolds who, um, refused to talk.
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: And I respect that because John Reynolds played Torgo and, um,
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: committed suicide. So, you know, I didn't want to stir
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: up or bother the family if they didn't want to talk,
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: you know. But in the process, I found so many
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: people and I learned so much information and background and
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: people that were never credited. I got the credit straightened out.
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: You wouldn't believe how screwed up the credits are in
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: Monostans of Fate. I mean, people were credited for things
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: they didn't do and some people weren't mentioned at all.
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: So it just turned into this epic journey, you know?
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: Took me 16 months from signing my contract with my
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: co-author to getting it to the publisher. But another crazy
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: thing was when we got to the point to go
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: looking for a publisher, she did her research and she
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: came to me with three names of three different publishers
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: that she thought would be best for my book. And
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: so I looked at the three of them and I
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: picked one that I thought would be the best. Bear
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: Manor Media. They do a lot of biographies and film,
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: books on film and such like that. So we wrote
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: them a pitch letter. And within, it was the same day.
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: That was crazy. The same day we get an email
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: back from the publisher saying, saying with capital letter, yes,
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: exclamation point. I would love to see that. I'm a
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: big Manos fan. I know how, you know, like, whoa.
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: So we sent him, you know, the requisite outline and chapters.
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: And within two days, he was back with a contract.
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: And I'm like, that's insane. Who gets that, you know,
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: on their first book? But he loves it. And then
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: I got this offer from this incredible artist to, um,
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: to do the art for my cover and it just
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: came together. So I just got the artist or I
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: got the proof for the whole book just a few
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: days ago. So it's, it's out very, very soon. Um,
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: like I said, one of the perks in the Kickstarter
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: is a pre-publication signed copy of, uh, the manuscript. And, uh,
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: I'm working to get those I mean, the moment this
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: Kickstarter is over, those need to go out so that
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: they actually get them before the book. You know, I
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: think the book's going to be out very soon. It'll
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: be out sometime in March, I believe.
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: I'll have to make sure to pick up a copy
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: because I was actually going to ask you when the
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: release date is. But, you know, as you're telling the story,
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: you know, it just reminded me of what you said earlier,
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: which is, you know, Manos as a religion, the power
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: of Manos.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: It's so bizarre. I mean, I've been living it for
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: years and, and I've always approached this thing with, um,
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: not what I can get out of it. Cause that's
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: just not who I am. I'm, I'm a greater good
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: kind of person. And I've talked to other people doing
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: other Manos projects from time to time where they seem
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: kind of like startled, you know, when I approached them,
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: and they're worried. And then once they realize that I'm
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: not out to get anything out of them, I just,
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: I just want to know what's going on. You know,
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: I just love it. I, I support and celebrate. And then,
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: you know, and then we're all friends. And in fact,
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: some of these projects are promoting our Kickstarter now. And
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: which is remarkable to me, because they've got their own
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: things to do. You know, I think that's just, great.
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: We're all one big family as far as I'm concerned.
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: But then, you know, there's also a dark side. One
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: of Hal Warren's sons, you know, like, like you said,
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: neither living dead. And I mean, I get his position.
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: He's feeling left out, but, and his approach is so
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: negative and, and he just can't comes at everybody with
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: threats and, So he harassed me for like three years,
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: nasty letters and cease and desist and telling me I
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: can't talk about me and Debbie. And I'm like, this
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: is ridiculous, you know? So, I mean, that whole debacle
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: really kind of crushed me for a while. And I
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: just went silent and dark because my whole thing, if
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: it's not fun, it's just not worth doing. This mono
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: thing is all about fun and having and the love
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: of it, you know, the creativity and. And I just
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: don't see room for that negativity. And, you know, there's
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: room for everybody here as far as I'm concerned. So
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: we're just getting we're just putting our, you know, we're
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: putting our hat in the ring.
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: One thing I've learned, too, is, you know, somebody doesn't
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: like what you're doing or maybe thinks that they have
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: a similar idea or something. And they put those stop
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: it at the cease and desist orders. You know, I
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: got one before because. Some guy thought I made a
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: trailer that we made that I produced. He thought it
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: was too close to his idea. And I actually looked
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: at his idea and I said, dude, I said, these
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: things are so far apart. I said, I don't understand,
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: you know, and I think some people just sort of,
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: like you said, left out or maybe they feel like
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: threatened in some weird way and they just lash out
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 47:30
  Speaker 5: Well, all right. He's he. I know that I drive
• 47:34
  Speaker 5: him nuts just by doing what I do, but I'm
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: not trying to. I'm not. It's not about him. You know,
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: it's about me, my life, my dad. And when I
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: was writing my blog stories, you know, I got some
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: comments of him telling me not to talk about this
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: or that or stop telling those stories, you know, tell
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: my story. And I'm like, write your own blog. You know,
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: I can only tell what I know. And so the
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: book was like that too. You know, I worked very,
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: very hard to get the story right. And if I
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: didn't know it, I didn't write it. And there are
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: things that I learned that I didn't write because I
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: don't want to hurt anybody, you know. But I'm trying
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: to tell the truth as best as I possibly can.
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I think that's great, Jackie. Honestly, I saw the
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: Manos returns on Kickstarter. I read the backstory behind it,
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: and I was like, I'm definitely going to donate to
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: this campaign. And again, with your website, you're sharing your
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: artwork and everything else. Jackie, I say keep on going.
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: Well, I can't stop. I mean, really, it's... I'm creative.
• 48:54
  Speaker 5: I'm an artist. I can't tell you how many different
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: businesses I started. Some of them work, some of them don't.
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: Every time I get knocked down, I just kind of
• 49:03
  Speaker 5: shake it off. I'm like, okay, deep breath, do it again.
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: I don't beat my head against the wall, but I
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: always find a way if it's something that I really want.
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: And I am absolutely determined this is going to happen
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: because as i said before my dad is 80 we
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: have filmed his scenes and um and that's my motivation
• 49:28
  Speaker 5: here getting it done is um my dad needs to
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: see this And we have some very definite dates we're
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: keeping to. You know, this is the 50th anniversary of Monos,
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: The Hands of Fate, this year from 1966 when it
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: was made and when it premiered. And we're kind of
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: keeping to that. January 30th, we launched our Kickstarter, which
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: was the day that Mystery Science Theater put Monos on
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: television on Comedy Central for the very first time. and
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: brought it to the public. And November 15th is the
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: 50th anniversary from when Manos premiered in El Paso in
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: the theater. And, uh, we want to do our first
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: screening on that date. So we've got a lot of
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: work to do, but in, uh, preparing for this Kickstarter, uh,
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: You know, we want to make sure we can get
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: this movie done and have something that the fans are
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: really going to enjoy. I mean, this is going to
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: be a pretty good movie. We're not making a bad movie.
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: We're making the best movie we can for whatever we
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: end up with, you know, financially. And so I'm very
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: excited about it. It's going to be awesome. And it's
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: going to be fun. It is fun.
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't wait to see it, Jackie. I think
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: it is going to be very well done, because like
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: I said, it's the passion to do it, and that's
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: what really, in a lot of movies, you can see
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: if the filmmaker had passion doing it, or if they're
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: just going through the motions, if you know what I mean.
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and we're not doing this, you can see movies,
• 51:11
  Speaker 5: they're made just for the, to try to appeal to
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: the masses and make money. And we're not out to
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: do that. We want to make a fan film. We
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: want to make something that that we can be really
• 51:27
  Speaker 5: proud of.
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: Exactly. And, you know, I can definitely tell that just
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: by talking to you. You know, Jackie, you know, we've
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: been talking for about, you know, 50 minutes now. And
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: so I wanted to say, you know, you know, in closing,
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: is there anything sort of that we didn't talk about
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: that you wanted to say or anything you wanted to
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: maybe just add to sort of put a period at
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: the end of this conversation?
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: I just want to say that we are only $ 38
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: short of getting to 60% of our base funds on
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: the Kickstarter. Kickstarter. And that's with 163 backers. That's amazing.
• 52:02
  Speaker 5: I mean, we've got backers all through the whole thing.
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: This is an amazing Kickstarter with so many levels of
• 52:09
  Speaker 5: rewards that appeal to people. And so I just really
• 52:13
  Speaker 5: urge you, even if it's only $ 5, please donate. Help
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: us get this movie made. And if you can't donate anything,
• 52:22
  Speaker 5: just share it. Let people know because Manos fans and
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: MST fans are in every walk of life and around
• 52:30
  Speaker 5: every corner. We just you just got to get the
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: word out there.
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that is very true. And I heard about Manos
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: through MST3K. And now, you know, obviously, years later, when
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: I saw this, I thought, wow, this is amazing. And,
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: you know, Jackie, I want to wish you the best
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: of luck, you know, with everything. And oh, and where
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: can we find you online?
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: Oh, Manos Returns for the Kickstarter. monosreturns.com and uh and
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: for me everything is under debbie's monos on facebook on
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: my website on my blog uh you know on blogger
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: debbie's monos and that's it if you google me uh
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: there's i'm right there.
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: And I will link to all of Jackie's social media
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: accounts in the show notes as well. Jackie, I want
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: to say, you know, I wish you the best of luck.
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: And again, I want to say thank you very much
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: for coming on.
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Dave. Pleasure talking to you.
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: Oh, pleasure was all mine. And you know what? I
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: want to have you on again when Madness Returns comes out.
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: I want to, you know, that way we could talk
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: about the premiere and everything else.
• 53:38
  Speaker 5: I would love that. I would love that. I've got
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: a note of it right here because organization is key.
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: All right, Jackie, I want to say thanks again and
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: take care.
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Dave. Talk to you soon.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: Bye-bye.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: head over to the show notes at bulletproofscreenwriting.com.
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for listening, guys.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: As always, keep on writing, no matter what. I'll talk
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: to you soon.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast at bulletproofscreenwriting.tv.