November 16, 2022 • 42 mins
Controversial playboy billionaire Omari Broadwater built a multi-media news empire on baseless claims and wild conjecture. Now, as one of the world’s most influential figures, the reckless (once laughable) headlines of the Omari Accurate News network seem to be a part of Omari’s master plan to amass the kingmaking power he currently wields, but is it? What does Omari mean when he says words? To find out, journalist Connor Wabash looks into Omari’s beginnings to dig into the psyche of this huge dumbass. (Featuring Patrick McDonald)
ABOUT RAPHAEL CHESTANG:
You can see host Raphael Vargas Chestang live, hosting the standup comedy show "DEFinitely Comedy Jam" at UCB, or on Netflix in "The G Word with Adam Conover" streaming now. Make sure to follow him on Instagram @rchestang and Twitter @ChestangRaphael. Check out this month "DEFinitely Comedy Jam" on TUES 11/29 and purchase tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/definitely-comedy-jam-tickets-444774441327?aff=ALLEVENTS
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Him. Sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm just I just was
Eyes of Tammy Fay just ended. Oh my god, Jessica
the nomination. I'm I'm crying because sorry, because of Jessica,
(00:22):
because of Andrew Garfield. I was just so moved by
the film. Hi, Hi, Sorry, Sorry, I'm like, Oh, is
everything all right? Yeah? I was just finishing Tammy. Have
you seen it? Have I seen it? I've lived it,
lived it, lived it. And I was a gaffer. Oh
you gaff the film? I how do you work with
(00:43):
all those chords and wires and that stuff? You know what?
It's so difficult because I learned it on the job,
and then by the time I do the next movie,
I've already flown out of mind. I hate that I
am not production friendly. And it has to be hard
to to ga a story you lived, you lived, you
lived that story. Hey, uh, did you ask me to
(01:06):
sell my life? Right? No? I guess I'll work on
the electricity of the sad. It's so crazy to that
started Jessica. That started Jessica, Well, that's actually the correct pronunciation.
Everyone miss pronounces it. But she stopped correcting people. She stopped.
(01:26):
It's that thing where she even forgot out of her.
Oh so you know the actress whatever, the actress Jessica
chess Stain. What else has she been in? Mrs Sloan
that it was a big hit, Mrs Sloan, I think
she was. Was she in the House of card Oh,
I'm sorry, I didn't need to bring you should have.
That was Kevin Kevin what you don't talk about Bruno
(01:50):
type situation, We don't talk about him. Kevin is persona
on garratta, which in Latin is what means get the
hell out of here. Yeah, get the head out of
dodge person and on grata is translated to don't don't talk.
We don't talk. We don't talk about her, We don't
talk about her. Will we have our performance review ready
(02:11):
for you? Yeah? Listen, Okay, grab a shuger readable because
you're gonna want it. You're gonna want to You're gonna
want to chill out for a second. See, Okay, this
is perfect because there's already so much progress being made.
He didn't have to like get the can from me.
I think he might have been, like he's getting big
for his bridge yourself from the mini fridge in the
corner of Matt's office. So I think that is a
(02:33):
step in the right direction. Matt might think it's step
in the wrong direction because you're going into his fridge
just saying we're halfway through the series now and it's
been a huge success. So I'm just saying, stay hungry
and thirsty as it were. So I took the city
bus into work today, Okay, like I always do this guy,
eight out of the nine people on the bus recognized you.
(02:58):
We get it. I want to get photo with me. Yeah, yeah, okay,
and did you how did you treat him? It was great?
But the other eight guys, eight out of the nine
people brought up clown parade to me. Really yes, in
a positive way? Oh I think I mean four out
of the eight positive, super positive. Well, it's saying the
(03:22):
other four and then two out of the remaining four,
you know, I wouldn't recommend it to a friend, but
enjoyed it. Other two no, they didn't like it, did
not like it. But you know what, it's good that
they have a strong opinion. That makes our C rating high,
that makes the Q rating high. But it also you know,
the mean average, yes, reception is not going great. Yeah,
(03:47):
the media response within a standard deviation of the positive
points of feedback. We'll then integrate into something that could
suggest that we're not doing as well as we should
and therefore you are not doing as well in your
performance review as you should. So what that's I guess
(04:07):
why this long walk is to say, our big note
for you is great job, stay hungry. We're thirsty as
it were, thirsty as it were. Now we're going into
our sixth now, sixth person. I think that I think
I have I think my performance evaluation will will pick
up slightly. Well, that's not for you to decide, you're right.
(04:31):
I'm just I'm hopeful. Okay, Okay. Why is Matt always
like he just watched this movie, just watched Tammy faye.
I'm on edge, I'm emotion but I know that some
people like you want to get yelled at by some
people who truly love you. That's what this is. Hey, yeah,
I love you now pitch Okay, Okay. So, after much deliberation,
(05:01):
scouring for young new talent all over the country in
parts of Canada, I've landed on someone that I think
you guys absolutely will flip for. Raphael Ing. Oh my god,
we love I'm in a real chest stain place chess
sang and what I was alluding to earlier, What is
(05:27):
he got for us? Well, he's here's a character, Omari Broadwater,
an eccentric billionaire. He believes he's being recorded for a
documentary about the success of his fake news empire, but
he's in for something way more. The truth libelous confessions
(05:48):
of a fake news writer is what we have matched
on the docket. So this is us sort of going intomorrow.
Hard news, hard news, heart fake news, Yes, yes, succession,
um um succession, Kevin Spacey yes, actually okay, yes, House
(06:09):
of Cards Cards Yes. And Raphael I mean he's been
writing and performing sketch comedy all over Los Angeles. We
we landed another. I had a lozenge and so because
you had lost lost these l A theaters, Uh, he's
(06:38):
in all of them. You should be the Second City,
the Second City, Hollywood and the pack did joined the
cast of College Humor in ten, left, only return in
twenty nineteen, only to leave again the back end of
to return during Some People Can't Get Enough. Other acting
(07:04):
credits include Adam Ruins Everything food fact or fiction. I
think foods fake. Yeah, that's actually, that's that's a big topic.
But I think this is perfect because Rafael is dealing
with fake news, dealing with fake news with his character Broadwater. Okay,
will this might be and so I just put it
(07:27):
out there. Well, let's talk about you guys think great.
Shall we take a listen. Let's put it out there
for the listener. This is libelous confessions of a fake
news writer. Fake news doesn't have to be just one thing.
(07:55):
I don't have to stick to just one thing. I'm
a once in a genner raction, creative genius. Who wrote
the headline Joe Biden only eats the great part of
the Sammons? Huh? Who whoo? Who wrote that? Who? I
wouldn't know who that was? Me? I'm the one who
where I'm Steve Jobs. I'm not Disney, Benjamin Franklin. That
(08:18):
motherfucker invented electricity. Before that, nobody had nowhere to plug
the ship hit it. I'm all of them. I'm saying,
if it wasn't for Benjamin Franklin, we'd all just be
walking around with cell phones. You buy them and as
soon as the battery dies, you just gotta throw that
ship away. You want to live in that kind of
like I'm the person. What are you doing? What are
(08:39):
you doing? Are you on your laptop right now? Are
you fact checking me? Right now? Are you fact checking?
Ain't no fact checking happening, and this motherfucker because this
is a fake news motherfucker. No fact checking going on
in here. That's the only thing that won't be happening.
But we're gonna do a whole lot of ship, Okay,
a whole lot of ship because I and the Kanye
(09:01):
West of fake news writing. So you can't tell me
to just stick to just one thing. Everybody else does
just one thing that is basic. That's basic ship. That
ship is for mere motherfucking mortals. But I'm trying to
take Yoto to supreme thing. I'm trying to take you
higher on the old other motherfucking love. That's just the truth, man,
(09:22):
that's just the truth. I'm all about the truth, except
when I'm when I'm writing the fake news, which is
what I do all the time because I'm the greatest status.
But when I'm not doing that all the time, the
other part is, look, man, I don't have to do
just one thing. Look at yama alright. Yamaha is a
multi hyping it company it's an electronics slash musical instruments
(09:47):
slash motor company. Yo man, I like my Yamaha piano.
Why the funk would that make them think that you
start building motorcycles cycles accurate as her party? Biden doesn't. White,
the Christian psychologist from Maria Cristins claims and reason increase
in earthquake is being directly caused by an increase of
rock and roll he was at eleven. In a new
(10:09):
interview with o'mriac your news, Dr Fauci refuses to take
responsibility for nine eleven. He says it's because he had
nothing to do with it. Will let you decide. Uh. Hello,
I'm radio journalist Connor Walbatch, and for the past year
and a half or so, I've been following the world's
(10:31):
first billionaire fake newswriter, Amar Broadwater. I had been trying
to get just an interview with a mari for years,
but he always turned me down. Then one day, out
of the blue, he called me up to do a
full documentary series, and I jumped at the chance. The
(10:53):
reason I had pursued him for so long is because,
at just thirty six years old, this truly self made
billionaire has constructed a multi media empire off the back
of headlines like have you lost your remote control? Question mark,
Ten ways it could have been stolen by Joe Biden
(11:13):
and this all time classic Barack kills Osama bin laden
dot dot dot to cover up BFF relationship question mark.
While many would disagree, Omari insists that what he does
is art, arguing that fake news is just his form
of expression. But when I asked what about the readers
(11:37):
who believe his articles, Amari seemed to reject that premise altogether.
Why would anyone believe it? I mean, it's fake news.
I'd like to note that when Amari refers to his
work as fake news, he doesn't mean it as satirical
like the Onion. No, No, it's just fake. But seeing
(12:00):
is how there are undeniably people who believe Amari's articles,
I had to question whether Amari was in fact an
effective communicator, despite connecting with millions of readers on a
deep level. What even is an effective communicator? And it's
truly accurate communication even possible? How do you know for
(12:25):
sure that the words that you're trying to get across
our landing exactly as they should. People have different points
of views and different perspectives and can interpret things in
different ways. All right here I am. We are in
the car now we are driving up two Amari's estate
(12:49):
and so be our first time here. I'm just gonna describe.
So right now we're on a bumpy, bumpy gravelly road.
We are now entering the gates. We're on a of
the private property. This is a very a very large
expansive a state. I'd say at least fifty fifty acres
that you can see a house, uh, very large mansion
(13:12):
in in in the distance we're gaining us. It seems
to be the exact replica of the White House. Oh
oh wow, oh look at these fountains and we have
we have uh we're passing under a two water uh
spouting uh statue. Oh my, oh my. They no, they're
not statues at all. These are real people spitting out
(13:36):
water into the I should note that this, uh well
that was well we're passing it now, but the scene
behind me was pretty remarkable. Uh. I should note that this, uh,
the working conditions are are different on this estate as
(13:57):
uh Omari actually bought uh this p pretty from the
government to be its own nation state UH called o Marty. Uh,
not to be confused with oh Merita, which I am
definitely not saying out loud for the first time. But uh,
you know, O Merita, which I'm sure I'm pronouncing correctly,
(14:20):
is a mob thing or something, as we all know.
But this is a totally different thing. Oh oh, here
we go. Okay, all right, we are at the house
and let me just get out here. And oh oh no,
oh no, oh these are big dogs. Okay, okay, Oh
that's a friendly Oh yeah, well okay, that's okay. You
(14:43):
like to nip, you really like the nip. You are
too big, too big for that. But that's okay, okay, okay,
if someone could just someone's gotta be Fazo Faso. Stop
sniffing the reporters. Put hey, quiet, Eln, it's get get
over here, Get over here, Elon down down, Ellen, Bazos
(15:05):
back off. H thank you. You're Your dogs names are
Bezos and and Elen. Yeah I named him after my heroes. Yeah.
Ellen just took a huge ship on the carpet. That
must have scared the camera guys away. It's safe to
bring him out. Now, come on, camera crew, camera crew,
make up, everybody, lights, everybody, come on out, Come on.
(15:27):
It's okay, the dogs are fine now now that uh,
there's there's actually there's no film. Curl here. This is
a documentary podcast. It's a it's a podcast, but it's
a it's a documentary, right, yeah, right, it's a it's
a documentary. So just tell the camera people and come
on out now. Now I'm I'm a radio reporter, so
(15:50):
I don't have a camera. I know you don't have
a camera. I'm saying, look, man, whosever job it is
to hold the camera, Come on it out. We're ready
to shoot. Now, we're ready for you the dog to
find you know what. Uh, I'll just shoot it on
my phone. How about that? Okay, all right, it's cheaper.
(16:14):
Let's overhead, bigger, private margins. No. I like that. Yeah,
I like that a lot. So you're just gonna fire
your staff like that, just on the spot like that.
God damn, I'm inspired. I'm I'm so I might find
somebody today because of you. No, I don't don't do that.
Already dialing hey, Cheryl, Yeah you're fired, Yep, pick up
(16:38):
your stuff. I don't care I do. Hey, do what
you gotta do, Cheryl, Do what you gotta do, just
as long as you're out of the office by the
end of the day. How how did that go? Very bad?
Very bad. She's gonna sue for wrongful termination and uh yeah,
I think she's got a case. All right, let's go bowl. Okay, Well, uh,
(17:03):
I guess the first question I have is, I know
you don't think anyone believes the headlines you produced, but
let's just imagine if someone did. How would you feel
about that? Why would anyone believe it? There's obviously no
secondary sources. It's it's it's not an API and Reuters.
(17:25):
That's all I read you. Uh, you only get your
news from APN writers. Yeah, I'm not a genius. Semi. No, No,
you're not. Um. Also, those are interesting. Um. Those aren't
bowling balls, are they? Nah? They're in the end of
thal skulls. Yeah. The eyes and nose holes are way
(17:49):
better fit for my fingers. I think I was like
a warrior some ship in another life. What did you
start out wanting to be an international human rights advocate? Yeah?
I went to school to study law and how it
relates to refugees and asylum seekers. But I had a
professor tell me to work on my public speaking, yeah,
(18:11):
and that improv class might be helpful with that, which,
of course I didn't want to do it first, like
I wasn't really into it. But man, when I finally
went yo, I loved that ship almost instantly. I fell
in love with that ship. And why was that? Why
was it that she felt such a connection you think?
Uh so early on? Two words, yes and no matter
(18:36):
what I said, my scene partner has gotta believe that ship.
Imri Improv class allowed students to record their improv classes. First,
we were able to contact one of them, Ari's former
classmates for a recording. Can I get two people to
start a scene where one of you initiates and the
(18:58):
other one yes as the initiation? Thank you? Yeah? Yeah?
Okay you you kid? All right, we're gonna do it.
We're gonna do a scene together. Awesome, okay, col you're
me alright, alright, okay, okay, okay. So I'm gonna initiate, okay, right,
yeah it sounds good, and then I'll receive yeah. Yeah.
So so I'll be the one and then you say
(19:19):
you say yes day okay, yeah, yeah, totally alright, I
can inotiate if you everybody else sit down. Actually, everybody
else sit down, We're gonna do this scene. Okay, all right, okay,
So here's me initiating, totally improvised, straight off the dome.
Sorry what I was I was gonna say spell you
(19:40):
were taking a second. I have an initiation. If you
want me to you can go. Sorry. No, okay, I
definitely don't want you to go. I'm okay, thank you. Yeah,
I am the most brilliant artist of all time. Yes,
and that's right. Uh. You are a millionaire yeah, yes,
(20:05):
And I turned my millions into billions of dollars. And
I'm also the greatest at basketball. Yes, you're very good
at basketball. And I am a baker. Know what. We're
(20:29):
sticking with me. Hold on, we're sticking with me. Okay.
So you are a baker for me because of how
great I am, and you baked for me for free, yes, yes.
And and I live in your mansion. That's yes, you
(20:51):
live in one of the many rooms in my mansion
that has so many rooms where I make love to
so many women, and the lovemaking is so great that
it makes dolphins cry. Yes, and everyone loves you in
the whole world. Ah man, that was great. That was
(21:13):
a very good saing, can I can I ask a question? So? Um, so,
when you're doing a scene with someone and they don't
kind of give you anything, what are you supposed to do? Um? Yeah,
let's talk about kind of two handed, like two way
street kind of stuff. A Maori, how does that sound
to two way streets? You know, like he yes, ended you,
(21:34):
so why don't you yes? Hand him a little bit? Yeah,
what you said, I was initiating and then they yes,
And so that's where you know, that's what I'm getting.
That's what I'm getting confused here. I mean, Mary is
supposed to be initiating. I initiate, then the yes and
it comes from the other side. So they say, you
know exactly what I say, except more of it. Okay, yeah,
(21:57):
well let's let's so let's try that again. And Kevin,
if you want to just initiate, you know, support omar
fully um, because it sounded like he that's what he wants. Yeah. Yeah,
it sounds like you sucked up all right, Well I
don't know. Okay, well you get another chance. It was okay,
thank you so much. I yes, I am the creator
of the whole universe. Yes, And and you gotta go
(22:23):
bigger you gotta go bigger with that. I'm trying to
get there. Yes, and you created multiple universes. Hey, that's good.
That was good heightening. All right, so you're getting better
at it, all right? Thanks? Okay, Yes, I created multiple
universes and everything within them, and they all everything that
(22:44):
I created loves me and recognizes my greatness. Yes, and
you are God. Yeah, I am got Now. That was
a twist. I didn't see that coming. I I hadn't
even thought of that. That wasn't even something I thought
of you. Yeah, I like you. I like you. I
think we should I think we should improvide more together.
Oh it's a seat over okay, yeah cool, Yeah, I
(23:09):
guess yeah, sure, yeah. I've been trying to get on
practice groups, but everybody says that I'm just just yeah, practice,
you know, practice makes perfect. I have a practice group
that I'm actually running right now over at my my
house in Silver Lake. If you want to come by it.
We have a really cool coach on Tuesday's at six pm.
(23:30):
Oh hell yeah, it's hell motherfucking yeah. Because I know
you need me. I know you need amor. I like
your confidence. It's fun to be around someone who's confident.
Not a lot of us are confident. So yeah that's me.
If I got one thing, it's confident. Yeah that's awesome. Yeah,
(23:50):
I mean a state in college after that. But yo,
I was pretty much just living in the dorms, you
know what I mean, Like I stopped going to classes
and it was just basically just pursuing improv full time.
They get more of a full perspective on Amari. Uh.
We spoke to a mental health expert, Dr Lance kill
(24:12):
Bassa for his analysis. Ah, Doctor kill Basa, thank you
so much. First of all for joining us. I know
you have a busy schedule and we, uh, we're very
grateful to have you here with us. Thank you for
having me having to make good time. Um. First, I
just want to ask, have you encountered anyone like Omari
(24:36):
before in your practice? Well? I have not. Omari is
a singular figure in my study, because when I have
worked with other people, I've been able to pinpoint their
personality disorders. Every time I tried to figure out what
exactly made Omari tick, what it was that caused him
to see an altered reality that everybody else, I always
(25:00):
found a hiccup. There is no personality disorder. In any
cluster of personality disorder groups that fits Omari, he always
kind of jumps his way around it. He can't be
histrionic because he seems to have empathy. He can't be
anti social because he seems to command a room. Long
story short, I don't think there's anything mentally wrong with Omari.
(25:21):
I think he's just well, kind of an asshole. And
so that's your that's your diagnosis. Yeah, I'm gonna say asshole. Um,
he's putting something on. He's choosing to be who he is.
And there's no therapy, there's no medicine, there's no treatment
I can prescribe to that. He knows what he's doing
(25:44):
is wrong and he likes it interesting. So there's nothing
that you could prescribe or there's nothing at all interesting.
And I had O Maria one of my retreats in
the Sonoran Desert. I take a couple of my patients,
some people that I liked to study, some people that
i've been working with out for thirty days to work
with other people to see if we can make breakthroughs.
(26:08):
By the end of the retreat, Omari had had everyone
so scared of what he was going to post about
them online that uh, no one spoke to him, but
at the end of the retreat everyone still wanted his
phone number. People love him, people fear him, people hate
(26:28):
him interesting, and people want to be him. It's confounding.
And what what about the um So for a different subject,
you might call his uh grandiose proclamations, uh delusions of grandeur?
What what exactly when he says things like he's the
(26:50):
greatest of all time, that's just him being an asshole.
You said it yourself, It's it's deaf. Only is the
delusion of grandeur. It definitely is him looking for an
alternate reality than what exists. But I can't quite pin
down if it isn't a mental fixation, if it is
(27:13):
an obsession, if it is any sort of neurological dissonance
with what we have in the world, or if he
just kind of wants to go this way. There is
a lot of debate in the mental health community upon
when you can decide to call someone an asshole. It's
(27:36):
a hard place to settle on and I get a
lot of flak for it, and I've never called one
of my clients an asshole. The thing about it is
that he's never been one of my clients. He calls
me on the phone. He talks to me for a
long time. I say, hey, you want to come, and
he says, no, I'm all better. I need to hand
He hangs up. And then I see him quote me
(27:58):
as a mental health expert in some sort of article
talking about how Miley Cyrus is you know, uh, split
personality disorder. You know, I see him quoting me. Yeah,
Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus are two different people. Uh
(28:19):
it is uh, you know, Disney Channel started Hannah Montana
to uh to cover up her dissociative identity disorder. That
article obviously millions of clicks, and it gets me clients
to this day. What I can say is that I
don't want to call Himri an asshole, but calling him
(28:42):
any sort of mentally ill is insulting to anyone who
is mentally ill. It's not fair to the people who
are actually suffering. Okay, it's not right, And there you
have it. I also tracked down Kevin Amri saying partner
from that earlier recording, Yeah, um, Kevin, hey, can you
(29:08):
are you able to first of all, thank you so
much for being here with us, of course, happy, happy
to make the time, Yeah, happy to um. Can you
kind of describe for us what the what it was
like meeting Amri for the first time. From from your perspective, Yeah,
I met Omar and inprov one oh one, I was
(29:29):
taking it with a bunch of my friends because I,
you know, came out to l A wanting to be
the next I don't know, Fred Armison or somebody fun
like that. And uh, I met Omar and I never
never felt an energy quite like that, you know. I
I grew up in a place where, you know, an
(29:52):
Irish Catholic family, where I was always told to minimize myself,
be smaller. You know, you're you're nothing, You're nothing. You know.
I grew up in a very very critical household. So
to be around someone who is so so unabashedly aware
that they are one of the greatest people in the world,
(30:13):
it was intoxicating. It was nice to be around that.
It was it was It was fun for me because
I was like, wow, you know, if if he's giving
me attention, that makes me feel like I might not
be some worthless sack of potato ship, you know what
I mean, Like it makes me feel like I could
be something else. So it was really fun to be
(30:33):
his friend and to have him around because when we
would go to restaurants, he would only order the nicest things.
He's that for I. He's being with them. Mari was
the first time I ever had verve click, a really
nice champagn I'd only had Brute before that, you know,
I'd only had Andre. He lived nice, he lived good,
(30:54):
he lived fun um, and then then I started feeling invisible.
That's kind of slowly when I started realizing like, oh,
I could be anyone. You know, it was a copy
paste because I started seeing him talk to other people
and then they'd be excited, and then he started slowly
forgetting my name, and that kind of made me feel bad.
(31:16):
That was the other side where I was like, oh,
I was just kind of a dumping ground for his
ego for a little bit. If And that's the stuff
I've been kind of dealing with for the past five
ten years in therapy and just being like what happened,
you know, like I felt like I got thrown into
an office chair and spun around fifty times and then
pushed out. It's really kind of what I'm dealing with
(31:38):
for myself. What happened? What was what was that? Right? Yeah?
But he's fun? Man? Is he listening to this? He's
not gonna listen. Is he involved? He's I'm trying to
give him. I love him, but he not listening right now.
And if he were to come around, I would be
(32:00):
so happy to see him. And but sure, it's just hard.
It's just I see his stuff. I see his stuff. Um,
I don't I don't love it. I'm scared of him.
It's taken a long time for me to say that,
but I'm sure I'm scared of what he'll do to
me if he gets close to me again. And how
(32:23):
how so do you mean physically or just through his power?
He has a way of making you forget everything you
know is right. He has a way of making you
realize the way you've been thinking is wrong, and the
way he sees something is true even if the facts
aren't there. He Um, he's a bit of a magician
(32:47):
and he's a bit of a world shower. He opens
the curtain to what something could be. And that's intoxicating,
that's exciting, but it's also wrong. I would go home
to Thanksgiving dinners and I would say some of this
stuff that he said to me, and I would get
laughed off the table. You know. He would say, did
you hear that New Gingridge owns a firm in New
Hampshire where he makes human fall grot, where he forces
(33:10):
people to eat things and make fatty livers and then
he serves human human livered people, And um, my family
wouldn't like that, you know. And it wasn't a conservative
liberal thing. It was a this is just the kind
of thing that doesn't make sense and it's upsetting you
believed it. And I think he kind of used me
as a kind of training ground to figure out the
(33:34):
lies that people would be susceptible to. Yeah, and I
feel used. Yeah, exactly interesting. Yeah, it's okay, Well, I'm
very sorry. It's okay, I'm very sorry. It's okay. I'm
I'm I'm good. Now. If he asks, I'm good, I'm
really good. Okay, I did ask. He did ask. That's awesome.
(33:58):
And he said Kevin, he said my name. He did
not remember your name, but but he he remembered the
guy that he had to lift up in uh in
improv scenes, lift up metaphorically. Yeah, because yeah, that's yeah,
because he didn't physically lift me up. We had this
thing where I would always try to do kind of
physical scene work and he'd stopped this. He need to
(34:20):
do not touch me. So when you said lift up,
I was like, that doesn't sound like Omari. But yes, yeah,
he he did always kind of actively tell me I
was the dead weight. And that took a lot to
unpack too. That took a lot for me to deal
with as well. Yes, I'm good now though, I'm I'm
(34:40):
I'm a business owner, so I'm good. That's wonderful. What
and what what business is this that you're running. I
run a natty shop where I write office quotes on
old pieces of driftwood from the ocean. So if you
you can go to uh, Kevin's Chili Pot. It's a
little office on because my name is Kevin and there's
(35:01):
a chili pot in an episode of the Office. You
go there and there's all sorts of you know, just
really nice quotes from all your favorite seasons on Jeff Wood.
Because I live in a I live in a beautiful,
beautiful ocean home in ox Nerd, California. So okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(35:23):
we call it ox Nerd. We call it oxrd locals
do locals call it ox nerd um and you can
tell Omari that if you want but beautiful than beautiful,
we will we will do, we will do just there. Awesome. Thanks,
thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Now, no,
thank you. Honestly, if you use I'll go to go
(35:45):
to my anti shop. You can get ten percent off
if you if you use the code um Angela, just
a character from the office. We will absolutely let the
listeners know. Thanks. We learned that um am I eventually
got himself kicked out of his improv group for steam
(36:09):
rolling scenes um, which maybe no surprise to anyone who's
been listening this long, but uh, we also have audio
from one of their shows that the team was allowed
to record for a small fate. Alright, ladies and gentlemen,
(36:30):
this is the Omari players. And uh, I know that
wasn't on the flyers, but I improvised that the name
up right now, that team name. Uh, that's how good
I am an improv. Anyway, We're just gonna need one
word suggestion from anybody in the audience, just one word.
Shout it out, carrot. No, can I get a funny suggestion? Uh,
(36:57):
something that's funny so that we could do some comedy here. Okay,
one word but what what was it? What? But? But? But?
But very funny word? All right, Now we're gonna improvise
off of the word but. Hey, Kevin, get out here.
(37:20):
We're gonna improvise right now. No, everybody else get back, No, no,
get back, Stacy get back on the alright, this is
gonna be arsting. We're gonna do the first scene, then
Stacy does the second scene. Then ron h you could
do the fourth scene with you know whoever you want.
But okay, all right, I got the nicest butt in
(37:41):
the world. Yes, you do have the nicest butt in
the world, thank you. And your but won't quit. Yeah,
my but won't quit. But but won't quit. And it's
it's hardest, the hardest working but in show business. Way
better than your butt. Yes, your butt is way much
better than my butt. And we're we're at the pants store.
(38:04):
Way better. We're at to wear Yeah, way better. Well,
we're at the shoe store now because yeah, we're at
the shoe store because the pants store we couldn't find
no pants that was good enough in my butt. So
now we're making Now we're going to the shoe store
because you know, sometimes they got shoes where the way
that it makes your foot and an angle, it will
make your butt look bigger because it like exercises the
(38:26):
muscles in the butt. So that's what we're gonna do now,
because I also have the prettiest feet in the world. Okay, yeah,
you have the prettiest feet in the world. And your
feet are amazing. Yeah, well I wouldn't say amazing. I
would say that they're like glorious. Okay again then, uh
well you have your feet are glorious, yeah my feet? Yeah,
all right, go ahead, yeah, yeah, yeah glorious. Whoa are
(38:50):
those feet made of gold? No? They actually made Wow,
those feet are made of rubies. And there's someone here
to try to steal your feet still, uh no, this
guy is actually here. That's actually that's not a man.
That's my mother. So sorry that you called, so you
should apologize for calling them a man. And they're not
(39:10):
stealing my feet. They're actually coming in to clean my feet.
They're cleming in to clean my feet up. Okay, And
I'm gonna leave, but you can stay here. Yeah, yeah,
you get out. I'm gonna stay. Yeah, I mean, uh,
you know, looking back on it, I can get why
they didn't want to play with me, but at the
time getting kicked off the team wasn't something I was
willing to accept. Yeah, man, I mean my girlfriend at
(39:33):
the time was was writing for the school paper and
let me publish a story about how the group was
actually a sex goal. So that was your first fake
news story? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wrote. I wrote that,
you know, the improv group was actually a sex call.
This kind of like blackmail, Like, you know, if you
(39:53):
let me back on the team, I'll tell everybody this
was a lie. But that didn't work because they didn't
want anything to do with me, you know what I mean,
and uh neither did any other team. But uh, you
know what the article, The article did mad numbers. I mean,
people loved it. They ate it up. They knew it
(40:16):
was a lie. That's why the blackmail part didn't work,
but they ate it up. So I said, Yo, I'm
sticking at this ship man. That article reached a way
bigger audience than any improv show, So that was it.
I was hooked. I figured if I could get this
much attention for something I wrote about this little improv
indie group, and I could get way more attention for
(40:39):
writing bigger stories with wider interests about different ships. So
I started writing up fake ship about the president, and
then you know fucking Will and Grace and and it
really roused people up. I'm talking about like i'd even
write I didn't even write fake news stories about celebrities,
then tweeted at them and you know, tweeted at them
(41:00):
from different accounts. So so I'd be like, hey, I
saw this thing, Uh, it's true, And I tweeted as
so many celebrities and politicians that they started responding to it,
like going out in public and denying the ship. So
then that brought more eyeballs to it, made that ship
(41:21):
go viral, That brought more people to the site. Now
you've got cable news picking it up. I mean we
was everywhere. We were everywhere off of that ship, Russia, Turkey, Nigeria,
We're all over the place. I mean, it was huge.
It was fucking huge, you understand me. It was like
(41:42):
it was the wait, why are you opening up about
your story now? Because I'm gonna us as documentary helped
me win a Peabody, and here's some luck at what
happens next time? What the fuck yo. The onion just
want to be body. The onion just want to be
(42:04):
body cool on man. I sat down with Amari News
Corpse lawyer to begin with, how did you get here?
Do you know what student loans are? Student loans they
charge you for going to school, lots of money that
you can't pay. You pay them back late. What is
your relationship exactly to Mr broad Water? Uh? Yeah, well,
(42:27):
uh I'm his right hand man kind of like brutus man.
They can't they can't do this to us man,
Him. Sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm just I just was
Eyes of Tammy Fay just ended. Oh my god, Jessica
the nomination. I'm I'm crying because sorry, because of Jessica,
(00:22):
because of Andrew Garfield. I was just so moved by
the film. Hi, Hi, Sorry, Sorry, I'm like, Oh, is
everything all right? Yeah? I was just finishing Tammy. Have
you seen it? Have I seen it? I've lived it,
lived it, lived it. And I was a gaffer. Oh
you gaff the film? I how do you work with
(00:43):
all those chords and wires and that stuff? You know what?
It's so difficult because I learned it on the job,
and then by the time I do the next movie,
I've already flown out of mind. I hate that I
am not production friendly. And it has to be hard
to to ga a story you lived, you lived, you
lived that story. Hey, uh, did you ask me to
(01:06):
sell my life? Right? No? I guess I'll work on
the electricity of the sad. It's so crazy to that
started Jessica. That started Jessica, Well, that's actually the correct pronunciation.
Everyone miss pronounces it. But she stopped correcting people. She stopped.
(01:26):
It's that thing where she even forgot out of her.
Oh so you know the actress whatever, the actress Jessica
chess Stain. What else has she been in? Mrs Sloan
that it was a big hit, Mrs Sloan, I think
she was. Was she in the House of card Oh,
I'm sorry, I didn't need to bring you should have.
That was Kevin Kevin what you don't talk about Bruno
(01:50):
type situation, We don't talk about him. Kevin is persona
on garratta, which in Latin is what means get the
hell out of here. Yeah, get the head out of
dodge person and on grata is translated to don't don't talk.
We don't talk. We don't talk about her, We don't
talk about her. Will we have our performance review ready
(02:11):
for you? Yeah? Listen, Okay, grab a shuger readable because
you're gonna want it. You're gonna want to You're gonna
want to chill out for a second. See, Okay, this
is perfect because there's already so much progress being made.
He didn't have to like get the can from me.
I think he might have been, like he's getting big
for his bridge yourself from the mini fridge in the
corner of Matt's office. So I think that is a
(02:33):
step in the right direction. Matt might think it's step
in the wrong direction because you're going into his fridge
just saying we're halfway through the series now and it's
been a huge success. So I'm just saying, stay hungry
and thirsty as it were. So I took the city
bus into work today, Okay, like I always do this guy,
eight out of the nine people on the bus recognized you.
(02:58):
We get it. I want to get photo with me. Yeah, yeah, okay,
and did you how did you treat him? It was great?
But the other eight guys, eight out of the nine
people brought up clown parade to me. Really yes, in
a positive way? Oh I think I mean four out
of the eight positive, super positive. Well, it's saying the
(03:22):
other four and then two out of the remaining four,
you know, I wouldn't recommend it to a friend, but
enjoyed it. Other two no, they didn't like it, did
not like it. But you know what, it's good that
they have a strong opinion. That makes our C rating high,
that makes the Q rating high. But it also you know,
the mean average, yes, reception is not going great. Yeah,
(03:47):
the media response within a standard deviation of the positive
points of feedback. We'll then integrate into something that could
suggest that we're not doing as well as we should
and therefore you are not doing as well in your
performance review as you should. So what that's I guess
(04:07):
why this long walk is to say, our big note
for you is great job, stay hungry. We're thirsty as
it were, thirsty as it were. Now we're going into
our sixth now, sixth person. I think that I think
I have I think my performance evaluation will will pick
up slightly. Well, that's not for you to decide, you're right.
(04:31):
I'm just I'm hopeful. Okay, Okay. Why is Matt always
like he just watched this movie, just watched Tammy faye.
I'm on edge, I'm emotion but I know that some
people like you want to get yelled at by some
people who truly love you. That's what this is. Hey, yeah,
I love you now pitch Okay, Okay. So, after much deliberation,
(05:01):
scouring for young new talent all over the country in
parts of Canada, I've landed on someone that I think
you guys absolutely will flip for. Raphael Ing. Oh my god,
we love I'm in a real chest stain place chess
sang and what I was alluding to earlier, What is
(05:27):
he got for us? Well, he's here's a character, Omari Broadwater,
an eccentric billionaire. He believes he's being recorded for a
documentary about the success of his fake news empire, but
he's in for something way more. The truth libelous confessions
(05:48):
of a fake news writer is what we have matched
on the docket. So this is us sort of going intomorrow.
Hard news, hard news, heart fake news, Yes, yes, succession,
um um succession, Kevin Spacey yes, actually okay, yes, House
(06:09):
of Cards Cards Yes. And Raphael I mean he's been
writing and performing sketch comedy all over Los Angeles. We
we landed another. I had a lozenge and so because
you had lost lost these l A theaters, Uh, he's
(06:38):
in all of them. You should be the Second City,
the Second City, Hollywood and the pack did joined the
cast of College Humor in ten, left, only return in
twenty nineteen, only to leave again the back end of
to return during Some People Can't Get Enough. Other acting
(07:04):
credits include Adam Ruins Everything food fact or fiction. I
think foods fake. Yeah, that's actually, that's that's a big topic.
But I think this is perfect because Rafael is dealing
with fake news, dealing with fake news with his character Broadwater. Okay,
will this might be and so I just put it
(07:27):
out there. Well, let's talk about you guys think great.
Shall we take a listen. Let's put it out there
for the listener. This is libelous confessions of a fake
news writer. Fake news doesn't have to be just one thing.
(07:55):
I don't have to stick to just one thing. I'm
a once in a genner raction, creative genius. Who wrote
the headline Joe Biden only eats the great part of
the Sammons? Huh? Who whoo? Who wrote that? Who? I
wouldn't know who that was? Me? I'm the one who
where I'm Steve Jobs. I'm not Disney, Benjamin Franklin. That
(08:18):
motherfucker invented electricity. Before that, nobody had nowhere to plug
the ship hit it. I'm all of them. I'm saying,
if it wasn't for Benjamin Franklin, we'd all just be
walking around with cell phones. You buy them and as
soon as the battery dies, you just gotta throw that
ship away. You want to live in that kind of
like I'm the person. What are you doing? What are
(08:39):
you doing? Are you on your laptop right now? Are
you fact checking me? Right now? Are you fact checking?
Ain't no fact checking happening, and this motherfucker because this
is a fake news motherfucker. No fact checking going on
in here. That's the only thing that won't be happening.
But we're gonna do a whole lot of ship, Okay,
a whole lot of ship because I and the Kanye
(09:01):
West of fake news writing. So you can't tell me
to just stick to just one thing. Everybody else does
just one thing that is basic. That's basic ship. That
ship is for mere motherfucking mortals. But I'm trying to
take Yoto to supreme thing. I'm trying to take you
higher on the old other motherfucking love. That's just the truth, man,
(09:22):
that's just the truth. I'm all about the truth, except
when I'm when I'm writing the fake news, which is
what I do all the time because I'm the greatest status.
But when I'm not doing that all the time, the
other part is, look, man, I don't have to do
just one thing. Look at yama alright. Yamaha is a
multi hyping it company it's an electronics slash musical instruments
(09:47):
slash motor company. Yo man, I like my Yamaha piano.
Why the funk would that make them think that you
start building motorcycles cycles accurate as her party? Biden doesn't. White,
the Christian psychologist from Maria Cristins claims and reason increase
in earthquake is being directly caused by an increase of
rock and roll he was at eleven. In a new
(10:09):
interview with o'mriac your news, Dr Fauci refuses to take
responsibility for nine eleven. He says it's because he had
nothing to do with it. Will let you decide. Uh. Hello,
I'm radio journalist Connor Walbatch, and for the past year
and a half or so, I've been following the world's
(10:31):
first billionaire fake newswriter, Amar Broadwater. I had been trying
to get just an interview with a mari for years,
but he always turned me down. Then one day, out
of the blue, he called me up to do a
full documentary series, and I jumped at the chance. The
(10:53):
reason I had pursued him for so long is because,
at just thirty six years old, this truly self made
billionaire has constructed a multi media empire off the back
of headlines like have you lost your remote control? Question mark,
Ten ways it could have been stolen by Joe Biden
(11:13):
and this all time classic Barack kills Osama bin laden
dot dot dot to cover up BFF relationship question mark.
While many would disagree, Omari insists that what he does
is art, arguing that fake news is just his form
of expression. But when I asked what about the readers
(11:37):
who believe his articles, Amari seemed to reject that premise altogether.
Why would anyone believe it? I mean, it's fake news.
I'd like to note that when Amari refers to his
work as fake news, he doesn't mean it as satirical
like the Onion. No, No, it's just fake. But seeing
(12:00):
is how there are undeniably people who believe Amari's articles,
I had to question whether Amari was in fact an
effective communicator, despite connecting with millions of readers on a
deep level. What even is an effective communicator? And it's
truly accurate communication even possible? How do you know for
(12:25):
sure that the words that you're trying to get across
our landing exactly as they should. People have different points
of views and different perspectives and can interpret things in
different ways. All right here I am. We are in
the car now we are driving up two Amari's estate
(12:49):
and so be our first time here. I'm just gonna describe.
So right now we're on a bumpy, bumpy gravelly road.
We are now entering the gates. We're on a of
the private property. This is a very a very large
expansive a state. I'd say at least fifty fifty acres
that you can see a house, uh, very large mansion
(13:12):
in in in the distance we're gaining us. It seems
to be the exact replica of the White House. Oh
oh wow, oh look at these fountains and we have
we have uh we're passing under a two water uh
spouting uh statue. Oh my, oh my. They no, they're
not statues at all. These are real people spitting out
(13:36):
water into the I should note that this, uh well
that was well we're passing it now, but the scene
behind me was pretty remarkable. Uh. I should note that this, uh,
the working conditions are are different on this estate as
(13:57):
uh Omari actually bought uh this p pretty from the
government to be its own nation state UH called o Marty. Uh,
not to be confused with oh Merita, which I am
definitely not saying out loud for the first time. But uh,
you know, O Merita, which I'm sure I'm pronouncing correctly,
(14:20):
is a mob thing or something, as we all know.
But this is a totally different thing. Oh oh, here
we go. Okay, all right, we are at the house
and let me just get out here. And oh oh no,
oh no, oh these are big dogs. Okay, okay, Oh
that's a friendly Oh yeah, well okay, that's okay. You
(14:43):
like to nip, you really like the nip. You are
too big, too big for that. But that's okay, okay, okay,
if someone could just someone's gotta be Fazo Faso. Stop
sniffing the reporters. Put hey, quiet, Eln, it's get get
over here, Get over here, Elon down down, Ellen, Bazos
(15:05):
back off. H thank you. You're Your dogs names are
Bezos and and Elen. Yeah I named him after my heroes. Yeah.
Ellen just took a huge ship on the carpet. That
must have scared the camera guys away. It's safe to
bring him out. Now, come on, camera crew, camera crew,
make up, everybody, lights, everybody, come on out, Come on.
(15:27):
It's okay, the dogs are fine now now that uh,
there's there's actually there's no film. Curl here. This is
a documentary podcast. It's a it's a podcast, but it's
a it's a documentary, right, yeah, right, it's a it's
a documentary. So just tell the camera people and come
on out now. Now I'm I'm a radio reporter, so
(15:50):
I don't have a camera. I know you don't have
a camera. I'm saying, look, man, whosever job it is
to hold the camera, Come on it out. We're ready
to shoot. Now, we're ready for you the dog to
find you know what. Uh, I'll just shoot it on
my phone. How about that? Okay, all right, it's cheaper.
(16:14):
Let's overhead, bigger, private margins. No. I like that. Yeah,
I like that a lot. So you're just gonna fire
your staff like that, just on the spot like that.
God damn, I'm inspired. I'm I'm so I might find
somebody today because of you. No, I don't don't do that.
Already dialing hey, Cheryl, Yeah you're fired, Yep, pick up
(16:38):
your stuff. I don't care I do. Hey, do what
you gotta do, Cheryl, Do what you gotta do, just
as long as you're out of the office by the
end of the day. How how did that go? Very bad?
Very bad. She's gonna sue for wrongful termination and uh yeah,
I think she's got a case. All right, let's go bowl. Okay, Well, uh,
(17:03):
I guess the first question I have is, I know
you don't think anyone believes the headlines you produced, but
let's just imagine if someone did. How would you feel
about that? Why would anyone believe it? There's obviously no
secondary sources. It's it's it's not an API and Reuters.
(17:25):
That's all I read you. Uh, you only get your
news from APN writers. Yeah, I'm not a genius. Semi. No, No,
you're not. Um. Also, those are interesting. Um. Those aren't
bowling balls, are they? Nah? They're in the end of
thal skulls. Yeah. The eyes and nose holes are way
(17:49):
better fit for my fingers. I think I was like
a warrior some ship in another life. What did you
start out wanting to be an international human rights advocate? Yeah?
I went to school to study law and how it
relates to refugees and asylum seekers. But I had a
professor tell me to work on my public speaking, yeah,
(18:11):
and that improv class might be helpful with that, which,
of course I didn't want to do it first, like
I wasn't really into it. But man, when I finally
went yo, I loved that ship almost instantly. I fell
in love with that ship. And why was that? Why
was it that she felt such a connection you think?
Uh so early on? Two words, yes and no matter
(18:36):
what I said, my scene partner has gotta believe that ship.
Imri Improv class allowed students to record their improv classes. First,
we were able to contact one of them, Ari's former
classmates for a recording. Can I get two people to
start a scene where one of you initiates and the
(18:58):
other one yes as the initiation? Thank you? Yeah? Yeah?
Okay you you kid? All right, we're gonna do it.
We're gonna do a scene together. Awesome, okay, col you're
me alright, alright, okay, okay, okay. So I'm gonna initiate, okay, right,
yeah it sounds good, and then I'll receive yeah. Yeah.
So so I'll be the one and then you say
(19:19):
you say yes day okay, yeah, yeah, totally alright, I
can inotiate if you everybody else sit down. Actually, everybody
else sit down, We're gonna do this scene. Okay, all right, okay,
So here's me initiating, totally improvised, straight off the dome.
Sorry what I was I was gonna say spell you
(19:40):
were taking a second. I have an initiation. If you
want me to you can go. Sorry. No, okay, I
definitely don't want you to go. I'm okay, thank you. Yeah,
I am the most brilliant artist of all time. Yes,
and that's right. Uh. You are a millionaire yeah, yes,
(20:05):
And I turned my millions into billions of dollars. And
I'm also the greatest at basketball. Yes, you're very good
at basketball. And I am a baker. Know what. We're
(20:29):
sticking with me. Hold on, we're sticking with me. Okay.
So you are a baker for me because of how
great I am, and you baked for me for free, yes, yes.
And and I live in your mansion. That's yes, you
(20:51):
live in one of the many rooms in my mansion
that has so many rooms where I make love to
so many women, and the lovemaking is so great that
it makes dolphins cry. Yes, and everyone loves you in
the whole world. Ah man, that was great. That was
(21:13):
a very good saing, can I can I ask a question? So? Um, so,
when you're doing a scene with someone and they don't
kind of give you anything, what are you supposed to do? Um? Yeah,
let's talk about kind of two handed, like two way
street kind of stuff. A Maori, how does that sound
to two way streets? You know, like he yes, ended you,
(21:34):
so why don't you yes? Hand him a little bit? Yeah,
what you said, I was initiating and then they yes,
And so that's where you know, that's what I'm getting.
That's what I'm getting confused here. I mean, Mary is
supposed to be initiating. I initiate, then the yes and
it comes from the other side. So they say, you
know exactly what I say, except more of it. Okay, yeah,
(21:57):
well let's let's so let's try that again. And Kevin,
if you want to just initiate, you know, support omar
fully um, because it sounded like he that's what he wants. Yeah. Yeah,
it sounds like you sucked up all right, Well I
don't know. Okay, well you get another chance. It was okay,
thank you so much. I yes, I am the creator
of the whole universe. Yes, And and you gotta go
(22:23):
bigger you gotta go bigger with that. I'm trying to
get there. Yes, and you created multiple universes. Hey, that's good.
That was good heightening. All right, so you're getting better
at it, all right? Thanks? Okay, Yes, I created multiple
universes and everything within them, and they all everything that
(22:44):
I created loves me and recognizes my greatness. Yes, and
you are God. Yeah, I am got Now. That was
a twist. I didn't see that coming. I I hadn't
even thought of that. That wasn't even something I thought
of you. Yeah, I like you. I like you. I
think we should I think we should improvide more together.
Oh it's a seat over okay, yeah cool, Yeah, I
(23:09):
guess yeah, sure, yeah. I've been trying to get on
practice groups, but everybody says that I'm just just yeah, practice,
you know, practice makes perfect. I have a practice group
that I'm actually running right now over at my my
house in Silver Lake. If you want to come by it.
We have a really cool coach on Tuesday's at six pm.
(23:30):
Oh hell yeah, it's hell motherfucking yeah. Because I know
you need me. I know you need amor. I like
your confidence. It's fun to be around someone who's confident.
Not a lot of us are confident. So yeah that's me.
If I got one thing, it's confident. Yeah that's awesome. Yeah,
(23:50):
I mean a state in college after that. But yo,
I was pretty much just living in the dorms, you
know what I mean, Like I stopped going to classes
and it was just basically just pursuing improv full time.
They get more of a full perspective on Amari. Uh.
We spoke to a mental health expert, Dr Lance kill
(24:12):
Bassa for his analysis. Ah, Doctor kill Basa, thank you
so much. First of all for joining us. I know
you have a busy schedule and we, uh, we're very
grateful to have you here with us. Thank you for
having me having to make good time. Um. First, I
just want to ask, have you encountered anyone like Omari
(24:36):
before in your practice? Well? I have not. Omari is
a singular figure in my study, because when I have
worked with other people, I've been able to pinpoint their
personality disorders. Every time I tried to figure out what
exactly made Omari tick, what it was that caused him
to see an altered reality that everybody else, I always
(25:00):
found a hiccup. There is no personality disorder. In any
cluster of personality disorder groups that fits Omari, he always
kind of jumps his way around it. He can't be
histrionic because he seems to have empathy. He can't be
anti social because he seems to command a room. Long
story short, I don't think there's anything mentally wrong with Omari.
(25:21):
I think he's just well, kind of an asshole. And
so that's your that's your diagnosis. Yeah, I'm gonna say asshole. Um,
he's putting something on. He's choosing to be who he is.
And there's no therapy, there's no medicine, there's no treatment
I can prescribe to that. He knows what he's doing
(25:44):
is wrong and he likes it interesting. So there's nothing
that you could prescribe or there's nothing at all interesting.
And I had O Maria one of my retreats in
the Sonoran Desert. I take a couple of my patients,
some people that I liked to study, some people that
i've been working with out for thirty days to work
with other people to see if we can make breakthroughs.
(26:08):
By the end of the retreat, Omari had had everyone
so scared of what he was going to post about
them online that uh, no one spoke to him, but
at the end of the retreat everyone still wanted his
phone number. People love him, people fear him, people hate
(26:28):
him interesting, and people want to be him. It's confounding.
And what what about the um So for a different subject,
you might call his uh grandiose proclamations, uh delusions of grandeur?
What what exactly when he says things like he's the
(26:50):
greatest of all time, that's just him being an asshole.
You said it yourself, It's it's deaf. Only is the
delusion of grandeur. It definitely is him looking for an
alternate reality than what exists. But I can't quite pin
down if it isn't a mental fixation, if it is
(27:13):
an obsession, if it is any sort of neurological dissonance
with what we have in the world, or if he
just kind of wants to go this way. There is
a lot of debate in the mental health community upon
when you can decide to call someone an asshole. It's
(27:36):
a hard place to settle on and I get a
lot of flak for it, and I've never called one
of my clients an asshole. The thing about it is
that he's never been one of my clients. He calls
me on the phone. He talks to me for a
long time. I say, hey, you want to come, and
he says, no, I'm all better. I need to hand
He hangs up. And then I see him quote me
(27:58):
as a mental health expert in some sort of article
talking about how Miley Cyrus is you know, uh, split
personality disorder. You know, I see him quoting me. Yeah,
Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus are two different people. Uh
(28:19):
it is uh, you know, Disney Channel started Hannah Montana
to uh to cover up her dissociative identity disorder. That
article obviously millions of clicks, and it gets me clients
to this day. What I can say is that I
don't want to call Himri an asshole, but calling him
(28:42):
any sort of mentally ill is insulting to anyone who
is mentally ill. It's not fair to the people who
are actually suffering. Okay, it's not right, And there you
have it. I also tracked down Kevin Amri saying partner
from that earlier recording, Yeah, um, Kevin, hey, can you
(29:08):
are you able to first of all, thank you so
much for being here with us, of course, happy, happy
to make the time, Yeah, happy to um. Can you
kind of describe for us what the what it was
like meeting Amri for the first time. From from your perspective, Yeah,
I met Omar and inprov one oh one, I was
(29:29):
taking it with a bunch of my friends because I,
you know, came out to l A wanting to be
the next I don't know, Fred Armison or somebody fun
like that. And uh, I met Omar and I never
never felt an energy quite like that, you know. I
I grew up in a place where, you know, an
(29:52):
Irish Catholic family, where I was always told to minimize myself,
be smaller. You know, you're you're nothing, You're nothing. You know.
I grew up in a very very critical household. So
to be around someone who is so so unabashedly aware
that they are one of the greatest people in the world,
(30:13):
it was intoxicating. It was nice to be around that.
It was it was It was fun for me because
I was like, wow, you know, if if he's giving
me attention, that makes me feel like I might not
be some worthless sack of potato ship, you know what
I mean, Like it makes me feel like I could
be something else. So it was really fun to be
(30:33):
his friend and to have him around because when we
would go to restaurants, he would only order the nicest things.
He's that for I. He's being with them. Mari was
the first time I ever had verve click, a really
nice champagn I'd only had Brute before that, you know,
I'd only had Andre. He lived nice, he lived good,
(30:54):
he lived fun um, and then then I started feeling invisible.
That's kind of slowly when I started realizing like, oh,
I could be anyone. You know, it was a copy
paste because I started seeing him talk to other people
and then they'd be excited, and then he started slowly
forgetting my name, and that kind of made me feel bad.
(31:16):
That was the other side where I was like, oh,
I was just kind of a dumping ground for his
ego for a little bit. If And that's the stuff
I've been kind of dealing with for the past five
ten years in therapy and just being like what happened,
you know, like I felt like I got thrown into
an office chair and spun around fifty times and then
pushed out. It's really kind of what I'm dealing with
(31:38):
for myself. What happened? What was what was that? Right? Yeah?
But he's fun? Man? Is he listening to this? He's
not gonna listen. Is he involved? He's I'm trying to
give him. I love him, but he not listening right now.
And if he were to come around, I would be
(32:00):
so happy to see him. And but sure, it's just hard.
It's just I see his stuff. I see his stuff. Um,
I don't I don't love it. I'm scared of him.
It's taken a long time for me to say that,
but I'm sure I'm scared of what he'll do to
me if he gets close to me again. And how
(32:23):
how so do you mean physically or just through his power?
He has a way of making you forget everything you
know is right. He has a way of making you
realize the way you've been thinking is wrong, and the
way he sees something is true even if the facts
aren't there. He Um, he's a bit of a magician
(32:47):
and he's a bit of a world shower. He opens
the curtain to what something could be. And that's intoxicating,
that's exciting, but it's also wrong. I would go home
to Thanksgiving dinners and I would say some of this
stuff that he said to me, and I would get
laughed off the table. You know. He would say, did
you hear that New Gingridge owns a firm in New
Hampshire where he makes human fall grot, where he forces
(33:10):
people to eat things and make fatty livers and then
he serves human human livered people, And um, my family
wouldn't like that, you know. And it wasn't a conservative
liberal thing. It was a this is just the kind
of thing that doesn't make sense and it's upsetting you
believed it. And I think he kind of used me
as a kind of training ground to figure out the
(33:34):
lies that people would be susceptible to. Yeah, and I
feel used. Yeah, exactly interesting. Yeah, it's okay, Well, I'm
very sorry. It's okay, I'm very sorry. It's okay. I'm
I'm I'm good. Now. If he asks, I'm good, I'm
really good. Okay, I did ask. He did ask. That's awesome.
(33:58):
And he said Kevin, he said my name. He did
not remember your name, but but he he remembered the
guy that he had to lift up in uh in
improv scenes, lift up metaphorically. Yeah, because yeah, that's yeah,
because he didn't physically lift me up. We had this
thing where I would always try to do kind of
physical scene work and he'd stopped this. He need to
(34:20):
do not touch me. So when you said lift up,
I was like, that doesn't sound like Omari. But yes, yeah,
he he did always kind of actively tell me I
was the dead weight. And that took a lot to
unpack too. That took a lot for me to deal
with as well. Yes, I'm good now though, I'm I'm
(34:40):
I'm a business owner, so I'm good. That's wonderful. What
and what what business is this that you're running. I
run a natty shop where I write office quotes on
old pieces of driftwood from the ocean. So if you
you can go to uh, Kevin's Chili Pot. It's a
little office on because my name is Kevin and there's
(35:01):
a chili pot in an episode of the Office. You
go there and there's all sorts of you know, just
really nice quotes from all your favorite seasons on Jeff Wood.
Because I live in a I live in a beautiful,
beautiful ocean home in ox Nerd, California. So okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(35:23):
we call it ox Nerd. We call it oxrd locals
do locals call it ox nerd um and you can
tell Omari that if you want but beautiful than beautiful,
we will we will do, we will do just there. Awesome. Thanks,
thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Now, no,
thank you. Honestly, if you use I'll go to go
(35:45):
to my anti shop. You can get ten percent off
if you if you use the code um Angela, just
a character from the office. We will absolutely let the
listeners know. Thanks. We learned that um am I eventually
got himself kicked out of his improv group for steam
(36:09):
rolling scenes um, which maybe no surprise to anyone who's
been listening this long, but uh, we also have audio
from one of their shows that the team was allowed
to record for a small fate. Alright, ladies and gentlemen,
(36:30):
this is the Omari players. And uh, I know that
wasn't on the flyers, but I improvised that the name
up right now, that team name. Uh, that's how good
I am an improv. Anyway, We're just gonna need one
word suggestion from anybody in the audience, just one word.
Shout it out, carrot. No, can I get a funny suggestion? Uh,
(36:57):
something that's funny so that we could do some comedy here. Okay,
one word but what what was it? What? But? But? But?
But very funny word? All right, Now we're gonna improvise
off of the word but. Hey, Kevin, get out here.
(37:20):
We're gonna improvise right now. No, everybody else get back, No, no,
get back, Stacy get back on the alright, this is
gonna be arsting. We're gonna do the first scene, then
Stacy does the second scene. Then ron h you could
do the fourth scene with you know whoever you want.
But okay, all right, I got the nicest butt in
(37:41):
the world. Yes, you do have the nicest butt in
the world, thank you. And your but won't quit. Yeah,
my but won't quit. But but won't quit. And it's
it's hardest, the hardest working but in show business. Way
better than your butt. Yes, your butt is way much
better than my butt. And we're we're at the pants store.
(38:04):
Way better. We're at to wear Yeah, way better. Well,
we're at the shoe store now because yeah, we're at
the shoe store because the pants store we couldn't find
no pants that was good enough in my butt. So
now we're making Now we're going to the shoe store
because you know, sometimes they got shoes where the way
that it makes your foot and an angle, it will
make your butt look bigger because it like exercises the
(38:26):
muscles in the butt. So that's what we're gonna do now,
because I also have the prettiest feet in the world. Okay, yeah,
you have the prettiest feet in the world. And your
feet are amazing. Yeah, well I wouldn't say amazing. I
would say that they're like glorious. Okay again then, uh
well you have your feet are glorious, yeah my feet? Yeah,
all right, go ahead, yeah, yeah, yeah glorious. Whoa are
(38:50):
those feet made of gold? No? They actually made Wow,
those feet are made of rubies. And there's someone here
to try to steal your feet still, uh no, this
guy is actually here. That's actually that's not a man.
That's my mother. So sorry that you called, so you
should apologize for calling them a man. And they're not
(39:10):
stealing my feet. They're actually coming in to clean my feet.
They're cleming in to clean my feet up. Okay, And
I'm gonna leave, but you can stay here. Yeah, yeah,
you get out. I'm gonna stay. Yeah, I mean, uh,
you know, looking back on it, I can get why
they didn't want to play with me, but at the
time getting kicked off the team wasn't something I was
willing to accept. Yeah, man, I mean my girlfriend at
(39:33):
the time was was writing for the school paper and
let me publish a story about how the group was
actually a sex goal. So that was your first fake
news story? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wrote. I wrote that,
you know, the improv group was actually a sex call.
This kind of like blackmail, Like, you know, if you
(39:53):
let me back on the team, I'll tell everybody this
was a lie. But that didn't work because they didn't
want anything to do with me, you know what I mean,
and uh neither did any other team. But uh, you
know what the article, The article did mad numbers. I mean,
people loved it. They ate it up. They knew it
(40:16):
was a lie. That's why the blackmail part didn't work,
but they ate it up. So I said, Yo, I'm
sticking at this ship man. That article reached a way
bigger audience than any improv show, So that was it.
I was hooked. I figured if I could get this
much attention for something I wrote about this little improv
indie group, and I could get way more attention for
(40:39):
writing bigger stories with wider interests about different ships. So
I started writing up fake ship about the president, and
then you know fucking Will and Grace and and it
really roused people up. I'm talking about like i'd even
write I didn't even write fake news stories about celebrities,
then tweeted at them and you know, tweeted at them
(41:00):
from different accounts. So so I'd be like, hey, I
saw this thing, Uh, it's true, And I tweeted as
so many celebrities and politicians that they started responding to it,
like going out in public and denying the ship. So
then that brought more eyeballs to it, made that ship
(41:21):
go viral, That brought more people to the site. Now
you've got cable news picking it up. I mean we
was everywhere. We were everywhere off of that ship, Russia, Turkey, Nigeria,
We're all over the place. I mean, it was huge.
It was fucking huge, you understand me. It was like
(41:42):
it was the wait, why are you opening up about
your story now? Because I'm gonna us as documentary helped
me win a Peabody, and here's some luck at what
happens next time? What the fuck yo. The onion just
want to be body. The onion just want to be
(42:04):
body cool on man. I sat down with Amari News
Corpse lawyer to begin with, how did you get here?
Do you know what student loans are? Student loans they
charge you for going to school, lots of money that
you can't pay. You pay them back late. What is
your relationship exactly to Mr broad Water? Uh? Yeah, well,
(42:27):
uh I'm his right hand man kind of like brutus man.
They can't they can't do this to us man,
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