Latest / Going The Distance: The Rocky Series Podcast / Jim Toscano Interview
Transcript
- 0:00so there we go all right so we're officially recording okay so 00:04 --> 00:16 so 00:16 --> 00:28 so 00:28 --> 00:54 all right welcome everyone to the rocky series podcast go in the distance you know i always say 00:54 --> 00:58 that i can't remember is it go in the distance the rocky series podcast or podcast i don't know 00:58 --> 01:03 well i always forget the order that i put it in today we have an awesome special guest his name 01:03 --> 01:07 is jim toscano tell me where you're from jim i i know you're east coast but where are you from 01:07 --> 01:14 yeah i'm um i'm from we always say uh in this area we're from detroit but i'm from right outside of 01:14 --> 01:19 i live right outside of detroit and our production studio is actually in the city of detroit michigan 01:19 --> 01:23 all right so this is the first time that jim and i have talked in person but we've chit-chatted and 01:23 --> 01:29 talked uh via the interwebs uh throughout the months in fact jim has he contacted me i say you 01:29 --> 01:36 contacted me about six eight months ago saying that you were working on something standby to standby and 01:36 --> 01:41 today we're going to talk about that project that you messaged me on that you wanted to talk about 01:41 --> 01:47 but before we do uh you're from detroit what do you do for work out there so i have a production company 01:47 --> 01:54 within detroit uh we do some documentary film work but mostly we do a lot of commercial work 01:54 --> 02:00 for the automotive industry so oh so you work basically you you work in film like so this is 02:00 --> 02:05 something you kind of do already is you you're behind the camera in production studio type stuff i didn't 02:05 --> 02:12 know that yeah we're uh behind the camera it's called free age it started about four years ago yeah you 02:12 --> 02:17 know we're in detroit there is a ton of you know automakers here right so we do a lot of social 02:17 --> 02:26 media work for chrysler and and ford and chevrolet gm and we do some some smaller documentary work out 02:26 --> 02:32 here okay so you do commercials yeah we do we do some commercials mostly web work a lot of social videos 02:32 --> 02:37 okay yeah i always love the driving commercials where they have the guy and i'll fly through the 02:37 --> 02:43 beach or through the woods in his car and it says this is uh this is not how you're supposed to drive 02:43 --> 02:50 this is a stunt driver right right yeah yeah we hire those stunt drivers okay i just love that whoever 02:50 --> 02:54 goes off the lot thinking hey where's the nearest beach i can drive my car through right although we do 02:54 --> 03:01 a lot of jeep stuff in moab it doesn't get more treacherous than that so oh wow okay yeah yeah so you 03:01 --> 03:07 contacted me now may i ask how did you find me did you find the show before you contacted me or how did 03:07 --> 03:13 that work on your end yeah it was the show and it was from mike kunda you know we were i think when i 03:13 --> 03:21 contacted you i must have been talking to to mike i must have been talking to mike and i think he had an 03:21 --> 03:27 interview with you that night so i tuned into the podcast okay yeah and then and then i reached out 03:27 --> 03:33 okay so that's that's the lead folks so jim here you are friends with mike and mike kunda is who you're 03:33 --> 03:39 referring to mike kunda for probably a lot of our listeners know mike kunda has uh been on a few podcasts 03:39 --> 03:45 already he was on the slycast he's been on our podcast and he's been in the rocky community of course for 03:45 --> 03:51 many years you were friends with him before or how did you meet him i met mike on the set of rocky 03:51 --> 03:56 balboa oh wow so what was that 10 years ago maybe yeah i think it was 2006 already if you can believe 03:56 --> 04:04 it because rambo 4 was 2008 right right yeah so i just i met mike on the street uh on the set of rocky 04:04 --> 04:09 balboa i was working in advertising then i had a down weekend i was in philadelphia working i had a down 04:09 --> 04:15 weekend you know i am a rocky fan so i headed downtown saw all the trucks there was mike you know standing on 04:15 --> 04:22 the corner with a giant painting that he painted uh he looked like sly he sounded like sly and there 04:22 --> 04:27 was a ton of people already gravitating toward him okay so we're gonna get to that okay so before we 04:27 --> 04:32 get to the mic meeting why don't we get into your love of rocky i assume since you went to philly to 04:32 --> 04:38 see the filming or some part of rocky balboa how did you get into rocky what was your first earliest 04:38 --> 04:43 memories or something like that yeah i gotta you know i've been thinking a lot about this because 04:43 --> 04:49 people have been asking me and and i almost can't remember not being a rocky fan but the first 04:49 --> 04:57 memory i do have is watching uh rocky three on probably like the usa network with my older brothers 04:57 --> 05:03 and it was kind of like they were almost like jim meet rocky you know this is uh gonna be a part of 05:03 --> 05:07 your life kind of thing you know it's like right i say it's almost like a religion here for our family 05:07 --> 05:12 but yeah it's a big tradition you know and it's uh it's a genuine tradition in our family and i 05:12 --> 05:17 but that was i think that was my first uh my first memory of it was watching that with my brothers 05:17 --> 05:23 that's awesome yeah yeah it starts with a family and i'm trying to do it with my family my kids 05:23 --> 05:29 uh my before i married my wife she had to watch the rocky series with me right and if she didn't like 05:29 --> 05:35 them i would have uh broken off the engagement simple as that yeah it'd be tough it'd be tough 05:35 --> 05:40 well i've always said jim and i tell me if i'm wrong but people that don't like rocky they're just not 05:40 --> 05:46 my type of people i mean it's true i you know it's it's there's so much that you know you kind of 05:46 --> 05:52 identify with or love about it it's hard to imagine uh somebody that that wouldn't you know you'd you'd 05:52 --> 05:59 second guess well why what's wrong yeah well yeah and people often say oh you're adrian and they always 05:59 --> 06:04 do like anyone that says that's what rocky is doesn't know the films hasn't watched them 06:04 --> 06:09 and i'm always surprised what how many actually how many people actually haven't seen the films i work 06:09 --> 06:13 with a lot of guys in the navy here and i'm actually continuously surprised how many people 06:13 --> 06:19 like males i'm not trying to be sexist here misogynistic but just how many guys uh haven't seen this film 06:19 --> 06:24 it's it's amazing to me no i i agree you know first of all like you said you know everyone's like 06:24 --> 06:30 oh yo adrian what a cheesy thing i just tell them just watch the first movie it's the perfect 06:30 --> 06:34 independent film to me it's a perfect film to me you know i was just telling someone the other day 06:34 --> 06:41 it's got everything it's got a mafia element to it a boxing element gazo it's a love story and to me i 06:41 --> 06:47 always say it's like it's the first independent film to me like it's like the original independent film 06:47 --> 06:51 right uh that's that's how it feels and uh it's a serious movie you know like you said everyone 06:51 --> 06:57 they think of rocky three and four and you know the circus and all that stuff but uh it's a it's a 06:57 --> 07:02 pretty deep movie and i am surprised that people that haven't seen it you know we had you know some 07:02 --> 07:07 people help with the film you know like we had uh you know a guy to do the audio mix and uh you know we 07:07 --> 07:13 had someone doing color color correction for us and color grade they hadn't seen the movie and you 07:13 --> 07:17 know i had like a couple copies of the dvd at the studio and just said like all right you know you 07:17 --> 07:21 got to go home and watch this and you know and then we'll you know we'll make sure your heart's in this 07:21 --> 07:26 no that's interesting uh well i might as well talk about that little part now because i find that a 07:26 --> 07:31 little bit fascinating that somebody would work on a documentary i guess treat it like a job sure but 07:31 --> 07:37 if i was doing a documentary on killer whales but i hated the animal or never knew anything about them 07:37 --> 07:43 i would find it odd to work on a project that you knew nothing about so someone can like a color grader 07:43 --> 07:49 can be a little bit removed from it you could show them you know stills from the original rocky and 07:49 --> 07:53 say like oh you know we kind of want it to look like this you know or give them something to go to 07:53 --> 07:59 and they they could kind of work in a silo and do that and same with sound design to some degree the 07:59 --> 08:04 cool thing was that these couple guys that helped us out they hadn't seen the movie but they loved the 08:04 --> 08:09 doc that we that we were working on and they're like wow this you know this guy this and and now i'm 08:09 --> 08:15 starting to feel like this towards the movie and it was cool to to there's not many people i know that 08:15 --> 08:21 haven't seen rocky so for them to have this fresh eye on it i said okay one guy we said kind of maybe 08:21 --> 08:26 you should hold off and watch the movie when you're done and then tell us if what you think then just to 08:26 --> 08:31 have that like fresh eye on it see it is strange to me like whenever someone says they haven't seen it 08:31 --> 08:37 it's pretty unbelievable but it was cool to get their perspective and and have them kind of digging the 08:37 --> 08:41 documentary even without seeing the movie now did they say what their thoughts were of the film after they 08:41 --> 08:47 watched it oh they loved it they totally everyone's so surprised back to that thing where they think it's 08:47 --> 08:53 it's clever lang and the russian and and right once you you get them to calm down and take the time to just 08:53 --> 08:58 watch the movie one night they love it they can't believe they haven't seen it i almost envy people who get 08:58 --> 09:04 to watch it for the first time as an adult oh i know i know i i want to watch it with them i uh clay is our audio 09:04 --> 09:08 guy and i said man i almost want to go home with you and watch it with you just to you know see it 09:08 --> 09:13 through your eyes a little bit right it's a pretty cool thing to do and that was the experience i had 09:13 --> 09:18 with i have five sons and one daughter my three oldest boys they've all watched the series with me 09:18 --> 09:22 and that's kind of my thing as a father i get to do with them is is to watch these movies through their 09:22 --> 09:28 eyes and if any of them don't like it i just disown them as simple as that just cut off their food supply 09:28 --> 09:32 that's right but they're three for three so far so the three younger ones are too young right now 09:32 --> 09:37 they're six and three-year-old twins but we'll get there about five or six years very cool you have 09:37 --> 09:41 you ever been to philadelphia before because you went there to watch rocky balboa the film being filmed 09:41 --> 09:45 had you been there before or was this a first time trip but no i have been there before and the funny 09:45 --> 09:54 thing is maybe my very first uh out of state road trip me and a buddy of mine dan uh we were 18 and we 09:54 --> 10:01 drove to philly and back within like two days it was like a weekend road trip then we just took off 10:01 --> 10:06 yeah we you know we didn't tell our parents we just went on this little adventure and it was it was to 10:06 --> 10:11 run the rocky step it was like let's go to philly man let's check it out i mean we we stopped in uh 10:11 --> 10:16 atlantic city on the way home and and did a bunch of things but the main objective was to get to 10:16 --> 10:21 philadelphia and run up those steps so that was when i was 18 that was my first oh man what was that like 10:21 --> 10:27 what was that like to run up those steps as an 18 year old it was unbelievable it was like we walked 10:27 --> 10:32 into the movie the film became real it blew me away it was so cool i haven't had a chance my brother 10:32 --> 10:37 ruben oh really my brother ruben has been there he went there he went on a cross-country road trip with 10:37 --> 10:42 his wife 10 years ago when they first got married kind of a honeymoon trip and that was one of their 10:42 --> 10:47 stops yeah to this day i envy and i'm jealous of him and i wouldn't say jealous because jealous would 10:47 --> 10:51 mean i don't want him to have the experience so i want him to have the experience but i want it too 10:51 --> 10:55 so i just haven't had a chance to make my own road trip out there and one day i will even if i'm 90 10:55 --> 11:00 years old i'm gonna you know i don't care if i'm crawling up on my last dying breath in fact i would 11:00 --> 11:07 love to die on the steps go up there and die of a heart attack the best way i'll be so happy 95 year 11:07 --> 11:13 old ryan oh yeah it was cool man it was it was unbelievable and then the next time i went i think 11:13 --> 11:20 actually probably was for the the rocky balboa filming that was even weirder i mean because to see like mixed gym i 11:20 --> 11:29 actually saw stallone dressed as rocky outside of the bar wow uh and i i actually i kind of snuck i was 11:29 --> 11:33 really close on on set and i was standing right there when he'd take breaks and i always tell everybody 11:33 --> 11:38 you know when this happened i was always telling everybody i actually said to him hey sly this is a 11:38 --> 11:43 really really cool you're doing this movie again and reprising the character and he like talked to me as 11:43 --> 11:49 rocky i mean he didn't say much but he did like a little uh oh yeah thank you you know i appreciate that 11:49 --> 11:56 he was dressed in rocky clothes oh in kensington to me and i was like oh my god this is so crazy 11:56 --> 12:03 that's crazy so you you have actually in that moment he was focused on you and you on him yeah yeah for one 12:03 --> 12:09 second one you know he was he he leaned up against the bar to like you know the lucky seven bar yep yeah 12:09 --> 12:15 he leaned up against the bar to just to take a break in between takes and he was bouncing the ball and i just 12:15 --> 12:19 kind of leaned up on the wall by the wall next to him and acted like he was supposed to be there and 12:19 --> 12:24 just said you know hey sly this is really cool yeah so we talked to each other for one minute one you 12:24 --> 12:30 know that's amazing but it was really cool it was funny of course this is crazy the fact that you can 12:30 --> 12:37 you kept your cool enough to even say those words i i don't know i like to think that i would be smart and i 12:37 --> 12:43 know he doesn't want us to be blubbering idiots but i just and i'm sure he gets old type of fans when 12:43 --> 12:49 they run into him but ah i i probably will live and die and never interact with them so the fact that 12:49 --> 12:54 you've done that that's pretty incredible it was pretty cool so this was the same trip that you ran 12:54 --> 13:00 into mike right right yeah okay so let's get into this so you you run into mike you see who he is and we 13:00 --> 13:06 we all know that he's the the impersonal rocky impersonator he does the yo the yo rocky film 13:06 --> 13:11 turn philadelphia so i'll give him a plug for that so you guys are if any of you fans rocky fans are in 13:11 --> 13:17 philadelphia and you just want to see the sites of where rocky was filmed my understanding of course is 13:17 --> 13:23 mike kunda does an amazing job of that in character talks about behind the scenes stuff and you name it so 13:23 --> 13:28 it's quite the interactive and informative tour is my understanding absolutely he's he is the best and 13:28 --> 13:34 that it's funny because i wanted to ask you you know what did you think of him and uh and i think the 13:34 --> 13:38 way you just described him is is perfect i mean that all right good well he was kind enough to come on our 13:38 --> 13:43 show when we were just nine episodes in the fact when we interviewed him probably we probably only had 13:43 --> 13:49 four or five episodes out and he took a leap of faith to give a couple of ham and eggers who have no 13:49 --> 13:53 idea what we're doing and to be fair i still don't know what i'm doing but he he came on the 13:53 --> 13:57 show and was gracious with his time and gave us some incredible stories and shared stories from his 13:57 --> 14:03 novel uh or not his novel sorry his book his account of his life called uh cue the rocky music 14:03 --> 14:09 he's awesome he's just amazing so you ran into him and you did you know who he was before you ran into 14:09 --> 14:15 him no i i had no idea and i don't i don't think he was who we know him to be today back then exactly 14:15 --> 14:20 yeah i ran into him like i said he was standing on the corner people were starting to gravitate toward 14:20 --> 14:26 him and he was just a really nice guy you know so i i started uh a conversation with him and we hung out 14:26 --> 14:31 for a couple hours there on the street and i obviously picked up on his knowledge of the movies 14:31 --> 14:35 and he was a perfect guy to be with there in the streets of philadelphia while they're filming rocky 14:35 --> 14:40 balboa that when i was walking away you know all right good to see you good to meet you he said you 14:40 --> 14:44 know check me out uh i'm on the stallone zone and so i said oh and i thought i thought i'll have to 14:44 --> 14:51 check that out someday but the thing was i i worked in philly the rest of that week and i swear he was 14:51 --> 14:58 on the local news every single night i was in town it was like that you were downtown in kensington 14:58 --> 15:04 pennsylvania with uh rocky superfan mike kunday and it was like every night i thought wow i gotta i gotta 15:04 --> 15:09 keep track of this guy this is really something so when i went home back to detroit every once in a while i 15:09 --> 15:14 maybe once a month or something just kind of check in and oh there he was always checking in and 15:14 --> 15:19 offering some some kind of insight in the rocky films and i thought wow this guy's really really 15:19 --> 15:25 dedicated to it you saw this part of him being a big in the news big in the local area but where is you as 15:25 --> 15:31 a filmmaker or this is your first this success this is your first attempt at a documentary outside of the 15:31 --> 15:37 car industry or yeah okay yeah this is you know i've worked on some other docs that uh part of other docs 15:38 --> 15:44 um and we're working on some things now but no back back then i was just getting into filmmaking and 15:44 --> 15:49 and video production when i went home after after a while i started thinking i want to get into filmmaking 15:49 --> 15:55 and i thought god maybe i'll i'll go down to to philly and interview this guy and do like a little a little 15:55 --> 16:01 five minute piece just to show that you know how to operate a camera that kind of sure your first 16:01 --> 16:07 approach wasn't a full odd documentary was just no yeah absolutely not yeah because i had no idea how to 16:07 --> 16:12 do that what i did was uh i kind of kept in contact with him i kept thinking about this let's go do this 16:12 --> 16:18 five minute thing and then um he wrote the book and i read the book right away and i thought okay this guy 16:18 --> 16:26 is really this is serious you know this is a a serious thing so i uh i bought a camera and i actually drove 16:26 --> 16:32 down there from detroit me and one other guy and the intention was to do like a little five minute film 16:32 --> 16:38 but as soon as i got down there i have to say the first thing that i knew i was in for a lot more was uh 16:38 --> 16:45 interviewing his parents oh wow and yeah i uh you know i actually didn't even interview mike at first we 16:45 --> 16:49 did uh an interview with larry holmes actually the uh heavyweight former heavy heavyweight champ yeah 16:49 --> 16:56 it's awesome when i met his parents and i filmed them they poured their hearts out on camera and you know they were 16:56 --> 17:03 i was you know really impressed with you know how how serious they took it uh how serious they took mike 17:03 --> 17:10 in general how supportive they were also how over the years they were worried about him he mike has truly 17:10 --> 17:17 dedicated his life to Rocky related, to being an impersonator, to working these tours. They poured 17:17 --> 17:23 their hearts out. Eventually so did Mike and so did his wife. I'll tell you, as soon as I was just 17:23 --> 17:28 telling Mike's dad this the other day, when I was leaving his house, they let us spend the night at 17:28 --> 17:31 the house and everything like that. When I was leaving his house, he kind of slapped me on the 17:31 --> 17:37 back and said, this is a great thing you're doing, Jim. We really appreciate this and went on and on. 17:37 --> 17:42 I told him the other day, I said, Mr. Kunda, Mike Sr., I only thought I was doing a five-minute 17:42 --> 17:47 thing. The way you looked at me and the way you thanked me, I knew we were going to be able to 17:47 --> 17:53 just stop with a little five-minute piece. That was the genesis of it. You had more than you bargained 17:53 --> 17:59 for, but you were happy to take that on. Absolutely. What point did you say to yourself, 17:59 --> 18:03 okay, we've got more than a five-minute video here. How do you approach Mike on this? Dude, 18:03 --> 18:08 I came here to give a five-minute fluff piece on your life. It turns out there's more here. 18:09 --> 18:13 How much did you... I guess the question I have, I don't know how to make a documentary, 18:13 --> 18:17 but I've seen them, right? I know there's stuff that people put in documentaries from the past, 18:17 --> 18:21 the future, the present. You were filming the present at this time with his parents and him, 18:22 --> 18:26 but I should also say for full disclosure, I haven't had an opportunity to see the film, 18:26 --> 18:30 and we'll talk about that. I want to see the film, so maybe you can talk at the end how 18:30 --> 18:34 that may or may not occur for people like me. Sure. So I haven't seen the film, but I've seen 18:34 --> 18:39 documentaries, and I know that now you've... How much access does Mike give you? How does this work? 18:40 --> 18:43 Does he say, hey, here's my diary, here's all my home footage? How does this work? 18:43 --> 18:49 The cool thing is, what we kind of did was we interviewed Mike and several members of his family, 18:49 --> 18:54 and they gave us a lot about his past. We talked a lot in past tense. When Mike was nine years old, 18:54 --> 19:01 he did this, so we did that, and at the same time, we were covering the present. We were covering current events that Mike might have a gig, 19:02 --> 19:06 or Mike was going on this... They went to Philadelphia with a big group of people, 19:06 --> 19:11 so Mike would tip us off on... Just keep us updated on things he was doing, 19:11 --> 19:19 and we would kind of go out there when we could, capture those present moments while still picking up whatever interviews we could 19:19 --> 19:24 with people that knew him. Yeah, we were lucky to get a little bit of both, you know, to get Mike's current story, 19:25 --> 19:29 what I've recently been referring to as the hero's origin story. 19:29 --> 19:30 Right. 19:30 --> 19:35 It was a very minimal crew. It was usually me and one or two other people. It was all self-funded. 19:36 --> 19:41 We would just choose times when we thought we can get a... We can go down there for a weekend and get a lot out of it, 19:41 --> 19:42 that kind of thing. 19:42 --> 19:45 And how many days was your principal filming? 19:46 --> 19:55 Well, it was shot over... It was over a span of five years, but we probably... We'd go down there for like a long weekend one year, 19:55 --> 19:57 and then maybe not do anything again for a whole other year. 19:58 --> 19:58 Okay. 19:58 --> 20:05 So I think we made roughly half a dozen trips out to see him for at least a long weekend each time. 20:05 --> 20:11 I was just going to say, when we got a lot out of those long weekends, now that we're finally finished with this thing, 20:11 --> 20:15 we've been talking about it and thinking like, we only went down there X amount of times, 20:15 --> 20:20 but we sure have a lot of footage to work with and to choose from, for sure. 20:20 --> 20:23 Was there ever a point where you're like, this isn't going to happen? 20:23 --> 20:25 Not really. No, not really. 20:25 --> 20:34 But when we made this last stride to finish this thing, I think if we didn't finish it now, 20:34 --> 20:36 then maybe it would get a little bit dicey. 20:36 --> 20:42 But no, there was never... There was too much invested in it time-wise, 20:42 --> 20:44 and everyone knew we were working on it. 20:45 --> 20:49 And Mike and his family, we couldn't let them down. 20:50 --> 20:54 And the other thing that we talk about, Danny Giannino, the editor on this, 20:55 --> 20:57 we talk about is we're both huge Rocky fans, 20:57 --> 21:03 and it would have spoiled Rocky in general if we wouldn't have got this thing done. 21:03 --> 21:04 Yeah, you've got to go to the distance. 21:05 --> 21:05 You have to. 21:06 --> 21:10 It would have been just such a bummer not to finish it. 21:10 --> 21:12 But honestly, we always knew we'd finish it. 21:12 --> 21:13 We had to. 21:13 --> 21:14 That's kind of how I feel like with my podcast, 21:15 --> 21:18 even if I have one listener, by the time I'm done the Rocky series, 21:19 --> 21:19 I've got to go the distance. 21:19 --> 21:22 I can't stop, and I've got to stop at Cree 2 now, you know what I mean? 21:23 --> 21:26 Because we're breaking down the films one by one. 21:26 --> 21:27 We're on Rocky 4 right now. 21:27 --> 21:28 Yeah, I have the same idea. 21:29 --> 21:31 It would be kind of like a bummer just to quit halfway through, 21:31 --> 21:32 like round 7 or something like that. 21:32 --> 21:33 You've got to go all the way. 21:33 --> 21:35 Yeah, that's it. That's it for sure, man. 21:35 --> 21:37 It would have hurt to not finish it. 21:38 --> 21:41 So what was the runtime of your film? 21:41 --> 21:43 It's about 55 minutes. 21:44 --> 21:44 Okay. 21:44 --> 21:47 When you were done, how do you get a distributor? 21:47 --> 21:48 Who do you call? 21:49 --> 21:49 Who do you talk to? 21:49 --> 21:50 How does that work? 21:50 --> 21:51 We were really close to being finished, 21:51 --> 21:56 and we gave ourselves a deadline that was earlier this month. 21:56 --> 21:59 We had this, what we call the special screening here in Detroit, 21:59 --> 22:01 and it was kind of number one to set this deadline. 22:02 --> 22:07 Like, let's get this thing tightened up and ready for people to start seeing. 22:07 --> 22:08 So we had this special screening, 22:08 --> 22:13 and it was a lot of friends and family and local fans and people that helped work on it, 22:13 --> 22:18 and people that we've been telling about the film to for years. 22:18 --> 22:21 It was just to kind of celebrate the finish of it. 22:21 --> 22:23 So now, you asked about distributors. 22:23 --> 22:27 So now what we're going to do is start submitting this to film festivals. 22:27 --> 22:32 And I think like the special screening we had did a lot to give us a little buzz, 22:32 --> 22:34 a little media buzz. 22:34 --> 22:37 We got a lot of great feedback about the film. 22:37 --> 22:41 I think that will help us go into the submissions for the film festivals. 22:41 --> 22:42 Okay. 22:42 --> 22:44 I wanted to ask you how that premiere went. 22:44 --> 22:45 Oh, it was awesome. 22:45 --> 22:46 It was so cool. 22:46 --> 22:49 I mean, everyone really seemed to love it. 22:49 --> 22:51 It exceeded expectations. 22:51 --> 22:53 We were super excited, going into it, a little bit nervous. 22:54 --> 22:54 Sure. 22:54 --> 22:59 I said to myself, you know, and to the other guys, like, man, I hope when we have this Q&A, 22:59 --> 23:03 people are interested in it enough to ask questions. 23:03 --> 23:10 I'm happy to say, like, we basically got kicked out of the theater because people were asking so many questions. 23:10 --> 23:12 I mean, it went for about an hour solid. 23:13 --> 23:14 They had to move us out into the lobby. 23:15 --> 23:20 And then once we got into the lobby, we stood around for another hour talking about the film. 23:21 --> 23:21 That's awesome. 23:21 --> 23:22 Yeah. 23:22 --> 23:23 Was it a good turnout? 23:24 --> 23:24 Yeah. 23:24 --> 23:26 There were about 300 people there. 23:26 --> 23:26 Oh, wow. 23:27 --> 23:27 Yeah. 23:27 --> 23:28 It was great, man. 23:28 --> 23:34 And there were some people there that had been on Mike's tour that drove in to check out the film. 23:34 --> 23:37 We had a local news reporter. 23:37 --> 23:39 We gave him a screener to the film. 23:39 --> 23:41 And so he did a nice piece on it. 23:42 --> 23:44 And local paper did a nice piece on the film. 23:44 --> 23:45 And it was awesome. 23:45 --> 23:49 It was so cool to see and hear people really enjoy the film. 23:49 --> 23:56 One of the best parts about it, the most interesting parts about it is people were getting different things out of it. 23:56 --> 23:59 And this went along with the review process when we were showing it to friends. 24:00 --> 24:05 Some people obviously identified with Mike and what he's doing and how he's followed his dreams. 24:05 --> 24:09 Then people were coming up with their own theme. 24:09 --> 24:10 It's about Mike and his father. 24:10 --> 24:12 They'd come up to us and say, I get it. 24:12 --> 24:12 I get it. 24:12 --> 24:13 It's about Mike and his father. 24:14 --> 24:15 And you're like, oh, it is. 24:16 --> 24:18 And then other people come up and say, you know what? 24:18 --> 24:19 It's about Mike and his wife. 24:19 --> 24:24 It's about having that one person in your life that really supports you no matter what. 24:24 --> 24:29 And so that was really exciting to have people really take away different things from it. 24:29 --> 24:32 That is really cool because that's a sign of a good documentary. 24:32 --> 24:34 It's anything that gets somebody thinking. 24:34 --> 24:38 You know, often the story you start off with isn't necessarily the one that you end with. 24:39 --> 24:39 Right. 24:39 --> 24:39 Right. 24:39 --> 24:40 Yeah. 24:40 --> 24:44 And one of the other things, too, I've talked about this a little bit, is that I've never done this before. 24:44 --> 24:48 And we've done films, short films and other mini documentaries. 24:49 --> 24:57 But to do it on one person and get that deep into their life and into their mind, it's a lot of pressure. 24:57 --> 24:58 It's a lot of responsibility. 24:58 --> 25:01 This is not the most ordinary lifestyle either. 25:01 --> 25:05 The lifestyle of a Rocky fanatic or impersonator. 25:05 --> 25:07 No, it's actually crazy. 25:08 --> 25:08 Yeah. 25:08 --> 25:12 I mean crazy because it's just like I couldn't imagine doing it. 25:12 --> 25:16 I don't have the personality type or the ability. 25:16 --> 25:17 I'm not brave enough. 25:18 --> 25:18 Yeah. 25:18 --> 25:19 I'm not brave enough. 25:19 --> 25:25 I admire Mike for his bravery to put himself out there like that daily and to be so passionate about something. 25:26 --> 25:32 It is really cool because you have no problem speaking in public or hosting a podcast. 25:32 --> 25:33 It's not about the people. 25:33 --> 25:37 It's just to be able to put yourself out there to something that's so unique. 25:37 --> 25:37 Yeah. 25:37 --> 25:40 To say, hey, I impersonated a character. 25:40 --> 25:42 And I liken it to when you go to Disneyland, right? 25:42 --> 25:45 I used to think, you know, how do people get wrapped up in this? 25:45 --> 25:50 Well, it's actually kind of easy because when I go to Disneyland, I get a kick out of Mickey Mouse or Goofy. 25:51 --> 25:52 And I know it's somebody under a suit. 25:53 --> 25:55 But I still get wrapped up in the character. 25:56 --> 25:58 So I think that's what probably happens on his tour. 25:58 --> 26:00 It's like we know it's my Kunda. 26:00 --> 26:05 But if you allow yourself to be part of the Rocky magic, then I think that's what makes it enjoyable. 26:05 --> 26:09 I think that's the kind of joy that he brings to people is this live experience that people have from the film. 26:09 --> 26:11 It comes through in the tour. 26:11 --> 26:12 It would be my understanding. 26:13 --> 26:13 Oh, yeah. 26:13 --> 26:14 Absolutely. 26:14 --> 26:22 That pressure to do this on Mike was like talk to another friend of mine that has directed a couple documentaries. 26:23 --> 26:25 And I said, you know, this is maybe two years ago. 26:25 --> 26:27 But I called him and I said, I'm getting kind of nervous. 26:28 --> 26:31 What if I put this thing out there and people take it the wrong way? 26:31 --> 26:32 People take Mike. 26:32 --> 26:35 They think, you know, we're making fun of him or something. 26:35 --> 26:35 Right. 26:35 --> 26:43 And he told me, Jim, if you have the best intentions and you tell the truth, you can't control what people think. 26:43 --> 26:46 And he related it to like a Rorschach test. 26:47 --> 26:50 And people are going to see what they want to see or what's inside them. 26:50 --> 26:53 And once he told me that, I said, I felt great. 26:54 --> 26:55 I felt like, OK, well, that makes sense. 26:55 --> 26:58 I can't control something I can't control. 26:58 --> 26:59 And he was so right. 26:59 --> 27:06 Early on when we'd show this to people or we're working with client and we'd step into the other room and see we're working on this, the pretender movie. 27:07 --> 27:11 They'd see a clip and it told a lot about them, how they reacted. 27:11 --> 27:15 Some of them would say like, wow, he's really doing what he loves, man. 27:15 --> 27:16 That's great. 27:16 --> 27:21 And then another person might see the exact same clip and come out and say, wow, that is insane. 27:22 --> 27:22 Right. 27:22 --> 27:23 Ha ha ha. 27:23 --> 27:24 How crazy. 27:25 --> 27:28 And it didn't match up with their personality because we knew these people. 27:28 --> 27:31 And it truly is like a Rorschach test. 27:31 --> 27:34 Well, and it's like the film and the character himself. 27:34 --> 27:41 So I know Mike would know this or understand what I'm about to say here, that there's not everyone looks at Rocky the film with a character the same way. 27:42 --> 27:46 And so if you have an impersonator of this character, it's going to be the same the same reaction. 27:46 --> 27:50 You're going to have a spectrum of reactions to living a life that way. 27:50 --> 27:58 And that's what makes, I guess, Mike brave is he's willing to put himself out there into something that's very unique and different, but brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. 27:59 --> 28:03 I've known and talked to people that have gone on the tour and I've heard nothing but good things. 28:03 --> 28:04 It's amazing. 28:04 --> 28:05 The amount of joy he's given to people. 28:06 --> 28:06 It's amazing. 28:07 --> 28:08 Now, how do people see this? 28:08 --> 28:09 I want to see your film. 28:09 --> 28:10 I'm frustrated. 28:10 --> 28:11 I want to watch this thing. 28:11 --> 28:11 How do I do it? 28:12 --> 28:12 Good. 28:13 --> 28:13 Good. 28:14 --> 28:17 Well, see, that's the, we're trying to get it in these festivals. 28:17 --> 28:32 And I think that that is our first, that's our, our first avenue that we want to take is get this thing into the festivals and get, get a good buzz going and hopefully attract a distributor so that everyone can, can see this film. 28:32 --> 28:33 Okay. 28:33 --> 28:35 Let's pretend no distributor happens. 28:36 --> 28:36 How do I see this film? 28:37 --> 28:40 If no distributor ever happens, I don't know what we'll do. 28:40 --> 28:46 We'll, we'll definitely do something in Philly or Scranton around Mike's, Mike's hometown. 28:46 --> 28:53 And then if everything failed and nothing, we get no distribution, no festivals. 28:53 --> 28:58 I think we could put it on iTunes or put it online at least so, so all the fans can see it. 28:59 --> 29:01 One day, definitely there's, the film is done. 29:02 --> 29:04 So people will be able to see it. 29:04 --> 29:04 All right. 29:04 --> 29:11 I'm just asking the question that some of our listeners might be asking, because I want to, I want to see this thing and people are going to want to know how to see this. 29:11 --> 29:13 So we're going to have to stand by to stand by, as they say. 29:13 --> 29:14 Exactly. 29:14 --> 29:15 I know for, for right now. 29:16 --> 29:17 We're super excited. 29:17 --> 29:18 We worked so hard on this thing. 29:18 --> 29:23 I would say Danny and I, there's not a frame in this movie that we don't know about. 29:23 --> 29:26 Every frame was analyzed and thought over. 29:27 --> 29:31 We really want to hit this festival circuit and really just have fun with it. 29:31 --> 29:32 I mean, we, we love the movie. 29:32 --> 29:40 We love Mike and we just want to, we just want to talk about it and travel and, and, and have some fun with fans. 29:40 --> 29:43 That's, that's our main objective here right now. 29:43 --> 29:46 We want to thank you for coming on our show. 29:46 --> 29:50 And I hope the listeners that we have will go to, where can they go? 29:50 --> 29:51 That's the question I said. 29:51 --> 29:57 Where can they go to share this on their Facebook page, bug you in person about getting this film distributed? 29:58 --> 29:59 Yeah, please do. 29:59 --> 30:00 I love being, being bugged about it. 30:00 --> 30:02 I love talking about this thing. 30:02 --> 30:06 But no, people can go to, go to our website, thepretendermovie.com. 30:07 --> 30:08 There's a link to our Facebook page there. 30:08 --> 30:10 There's a link to our Instagram there. 30:10 --> 30:17 We will be continually updating it with screenings and any news that might pop up. 30:17 --> 30:18 Anything that we have. 30:18 --> 30:23 We're kind of, we're kind of, we have a bunch of footage and we want to put up some fun clips that we didn't use. 30:23 --> 30:25 And we'll have a trailer. 30:25 --> 30:27 We're working on a trailer now. 30:27 --> 30:30 It just needs to be kind of smoothed out a little bit. 30:30 --> 30:30 But go there. 30:30 --> 30:32 Go to thepretendermovie.com. 30:32 --> 30:34 And there'll be a link to the Facebook page. 30:34 --> 30:35 Perfect. 30:35 --> 30:37 So yeah, everyone go to thepretendermovie.com. 30:37 --> 30:40 And then from there, they can get all the information they need. 30:40 --> 30:43 Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all that good stuff. 30:43 --> 30:44 Are you on Twitter as well? 30:44 --> 30:46 I'm not, but I'm going to. 30:46 --> 30:48 I was on Twitter personally a long time ago. 30:48 --> 30:49 I stopped. 30:49 --> 30:52 But people have been asking for the film purposes. 30:53 --> 30:55 So I think I'll set up a pretender Twitter. 30:55 --> 30:56 I know people have mixed feelings on Twitter. 30:57 --> 30:58 I recommend it. 30:58 --> 30:58 Put it this way. 30:59 --> 31:01 The more platforms you're on, that's just better. 31:01 --> 31:02 Yeah. 31:02 --> 31:03 Yeah, I agree. 31:03 --> 31:04 I can't wait to see this thing, Jim. 31:04 --> 31:05 I really can't. 31:05 --> 31:05 Cool, man. 31:05 --> 31:08 I know you don't want to give too much away about the film. 31:08 --> 31:12 And I purposely haven't asked too much about what goes on in the film. 31:12 --> 31:14 Because I want people to want to see this thing. 31:14 --> 31:16 I don't want to know what goes on in the film, to be honest with you. 31:17 --> 31:18 Like, I know Mike a little bit. 31:18 --> 31:21 I have interviewed him and been on podcasts with him. 31:21 --> 31:25 And obviously talking to him online through a variety of Rocky material type stuff. 31:25 --> 31:26 But I just don't. 31:26 --> 31:28 I want to see this film raw. 31:28 --> 31:30 I hate trailers in general in some ways. 31:30 --> 31:32 I don't need to see a trailer for me personally. 31:33 --> 31:33 Yeah. 31:33 --> 31:35 Because I hate being spoiled on movies. 31:35 --> 31:38 But if people want to see trailers, of course, you're working on that. 31:38 --> 31:38 That's good. 31:39 --> 31:42 I'm sure you wouldn't mind if people contact you directly on Facebook either. 31:42 --> 31:43 Anytime. 31:43 --> 31:43 Anytime. 31:44 --> 31:45 That's the thing with the trailer. 31:46 --> 31:47 I feel the same way. 31:47 --> 31:49 Like, I don't know what to give away. 31:49 --> 31:50 I don't want to give away anything. 31:50 --> 31:51 Right. 31:51 --> 31:51 Of course. 31:51 --> 31:52 But I know people want to see them. 31:52 --> 31:55 But that's why we're having such a hard time cutting the trailers. 31:55 --> 31:57 We're just like, oh, that's going to give away too much. 31:57 --> 31:58 Yeah. 31:58 --> 31:58 Yeah. 31:58 --> 31:59 You want to entice. 31:59 --> 32:00 I get it. 32:00 --> 32:02 You want to entice without delivering the whole meal. 32:02 --> 32:03 Yeah. 32:03 --> 32:04 And that's why I sent you the news clip. 32:04 --> 32:05 That's perfect. 32:05 --> 32:08 Because I thought there's a couple clips in there and you can kind of see Mike. 32:09 --> 32:11 I think the news clip is actually pretty good. 32:11 --> 32:11 Yeah. 32:12 --> 32:12 For that. 32:12 --> 32:13 It doesn't reveal too much. 32:14 --> 32:18 The last thing I wanted to ask you was who came up with the title, The Pretender? 32:18 --> 32:19 That was me, actually. 32:20 --> 32:25 I thought it was going to be the most fun and simplest part of this was coming up with 32:25 --> 32:26 the title. 32:26 --> 32:31 And I kept telling the editor, Danny, like, oh, there's going to be some line in there that 32:31 --> 32:33 we're just going to love and that's going to be the title. 32:33 --> 32:35 But it took right almost to the end. 32:35 --> 32:37 I mean, maybe six months ago we got it. 32:37 --> 32:41 But we went through a bunch of different titles and none of them were good enough. 32:41 --> 32:44 But I really love the title now, The Pretender. 32:44 --> 32:49 It means a lot because he is pretending, right? 32:49 --> 32:50 He is pretending to be somebody. 32:51 --> 32:55 It's a play on words with The Contender because it is, you know, boxing themed. 32:55 --> 33:01 But when we added The Pretender, the dream is real because it is a real story. 33:02 --> 33:06 And I think once, now that the film is done and it's out there, it's like The Pretender 33:06 --> 33:10 is pretty far from being just a pretender. 33:10 --> 33:12 That's kind of the message. 33:12 --> 33:17 When you get to the end of this movie, you will take, hopefully you'll take no negative 33:17 --> 33:19 from that word, The Pretender. 33:19 --> 33:21 He's the real deal. 33:21 --> 33:22 He's the real deal. 33:23 --> 33:27 That's what I like about the title because, like again, I don't want to get any spoilers 33:27 --> 33:28 about the movie. 33:28 --> 33:28 No, it's okay. 33:28 --> 33:31 It's a great, it's, yeah, it's an interesting title. 33:31 --> 33:33 I was curious why you came up with it. 33:34 --> 33:36 I mean, I know what you're doing and why you came up with it. 33:36 --> 33:40 But it's very catchy, very, draws you in. 33:40 --> 33:41 I like that. 33:41 --> 33:42 Yeah. 33:42 --> 33:45 Because I would imagine, I don't want to spoil the documentary because I haven't seen it, 33:46 --> 33:50 but I would imagine everything about him is authentic and everything about him. 33:50 --> 33:51 That's my guess. 33:51 --> 33:52 No one would want to know about Mike. 33:52 --> 33:56 He's got a heart of gold and everything about him is authentic and that's what makes the 33:56 --> 33:58 title very poignant, I think. 33:59 --> 33:59 Yes. 33:59 --> 34:00 Very well said, Ryan. 34:00 --> 34:02 You hit the nail on the head. 34:02 --> 34:04 Boy, that's pretty good for not seeing the film, eh? 34:04 --> 34:04 I know. 34:05 --> 34:05 I know. 34:06 --> 34:07 Unless you couldn't have showed it to you. 34:07 --> 34:10 We showed Mike a week before the screening. 34:10 --> 34:11 I was so nervous. 34:12 --> 34:18 I was kidding myself, thinking, you know what, Mike and his wife and his parents, they'll fly 34:18 --> 34:22 in and we'll watch the movie with everybody and everyone will love it. 34:23 --> 34:29 And I got so nervous and I finally, I talked to Mike and he said, Jim, I'm okay, but my wife's 34:29 --> 34:30 pretty nervous. 34:30 --> 34:32 And I said, you know what, let's just solve this. 34:32 --> 34:38 And I actually had a, we were shooting something for Ram trucks out in Seattle and I flew 34:38 --> 34:43 from Seattle to Philly to show them the dock and then flew back home to Detroit. 34:43 --> 34:47 And it was the best thing I could have done because we just, the night of the screening, 34:47 --> 34:49 we all, they loved it. 34:49 --> 34:53 So the night of the screening, we're all happy and just having fun rather than nervous. 34:54 --> 34:55 Oh, good. 34:55 --> 34:56 So everyone was happy on their end? 34:57 --> 34:57 Family was happy? 34:57 --> 34:57 Oh, yeah. 34:58 --> 34:58 It was great. 34:58 --> 34:59 Yeah. 34:59 --> 35:03 His, his dad, he showed his parents the night before they came to Detroit and I didn't 35:03 --> 35:04 know that. 35:04 --> 35:05 So we all went to dinner. 35:05 --> 35:06 So I was still a little bit nervous. 35:06 --> 35:09 Like, you know, I got to get his parents to sign off on this thing. 35:09 --> 35:14 And, uh, we sat down for dinner and his, and his dad leaned over the table, very emotional 35:14 --> 35:16 and said, you guys nailed it. 35:16 --> 35:17 You guys nailed it. 35:17 --> 35:18 That's awesome. 35:18 --> 35:19 Wait, you didn't see it. 35:19 --> 35:20 He said, I saw it last night, Jimmy. 35:21 --> 35:21 We love it. 35:21 --> 35:22 Night. 35:22 --> 35:26 So we drank some four roses at dinner at this Italian restaurant. 35:27 --> 35:31 And, uh, and it was a, it was a really great night, a great weekend for sure. 35:31 --> 35:32 Oh, that is so cool. 35:32 --> 35:33 Well, there you go. 35:33 --> 35:38 Well, congratulations to you on doing this just to put a film together and congratulations 35:38 --> 35:40 to Mike to have a life that's worth filming. 35:40 --> 35:43 I mean, so congratulations to you both. 35:43 --> 35:47 And, uh, thank you so much for spending some time with us on the show. 35:47 --> 35:50 And, and I really hope we get this word out and get that film out. 35:50 --> 35:54 And when it does come out, I'm going to, I'm going to plug the crap out of it to get people 35:54 --> 35:56 to buy it and download it wherever they can do that. 35:56 --> 35:57 So awesome. 35:57 --> 35:58 Thanks, Ryan. 35:58 --> 35:59 It's fun to talk to you, man. 35:59 --> 36:00 Yeah, you bet, Jim. 36:00 --> 36:01 And, uh, have a good night. 36:01 --> 36:02 All right. 36:02 --> 36:02 You too. 36:02 --> 36:02 Thank you. 36:02 --> 36:03 We'll talk to you soon. 36:03 --> 36:33 Thank you. 36:33 --> 36:34 Thank you. 36:34 --> 36:35 Thank you. 36:35 --> 36:37 Thank you. 36:37 --> 36:38 Thank you.