October 17, 2025 • 47 mins
Back from our summer break...We have guest Greg Goodman, an iHeartMedia Account Executive, who worked at Disneyland as a kid, and tells us all about his experiences and why he got FIRED. Welcome back to "This Could Get Me Fired" podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
After.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I mean, I was gonna call it a summer break,
but we kind of like, you know, we're like in
the middle of the wind. Well, now are we in
the middle of winters?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Weren't fall?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh, weren't fall?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Winter doesn't come until what December.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You know why I said winter is because my ac
is not on anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It's a little it's been raining, it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Raining, and uh, it's it's that time where I'm two
blankets now in the bed to you know, the comforter
and the and the Mexican What.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Is going to go to Mexican?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So in my head it's like, oh, it's winter time. Yeah,
but no, I think it was a much needed summer break.
But it's good to be back a popular thing. Before Oh,
by the way, before we get to the episode, which
is gonna be a fun one, it's one of our
coworkers who worked at Disneyland as a kid, and he
he's just gonna tell us a bunch of insights of
(00:51):
how he got the job.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
The process of going through it, maybe behind the scenes
scene stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So that's coming up in a bit. The thing that
a lot of people always ask about for our podcast
is when we talk about TV streaming recommendations, So I say,
let's just kick it off with that real quick before
we start the episode.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah. I mean, it's been a while since since we've
done this, so I think we're probably gonna forget some
but the ones that that I'm specifically on right now.
I know you're on The Morning Show on Apple.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah. So I was a huge fan of The Morning
Show when it started season one. I think this is
season four, I believe, and then my free Apple subscription.
But now I wanted to watch it, you know, because
I've only heard good things about it. I was a
fan of a show that yeah, I just ended up. Yeah,
let me go get Apple and I'm watching The Morning Show,
(01:46):
which so far, so good. They release an episode every Wednesday,
so I think there were an episode five, I believe.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So Jennifer Andison in it. If you don't know the
premise of the show, it's it's basically like what would
you say that like a good morning in America. Top
of the show and you get the behind the scenes
of this morning show that's on TV and this this
comp this big company, and just all the drama, and
what I like about it is it really mirrors real
life news news. Yeah, so you get things that like
(02:15):
COVID was you know, a couple of years ago. They
actually you know, played into that on the show. So
that's like a really good show that's on Apple. I
know a lot of people don't have Apple, but if
you do, you got to check out the Morning Show.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I think I enjoy it too, because I think we
can relate because of the media part of it, meaning
the behind the scenes of producers and soundboard.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And all that, sales and program directors.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's like our job. So it's cool to watch.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Also, Love is Blind is back. Been on that, Yeah,
we've been.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
We do Love is Blind. And something that I noticed
about us is when, right when we watched a first
couple of episodes, if we don't like, if we don't
kind of like cling onto any characters, we just don't
watch it.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yea yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But this recent season there there's some funny highlights that
we enjoyed. So we're on. Yeah, we're on the new
season of Love is Blind on Netflix.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's still going on right now. I know a lot
of people watched or got into this monster the ed
Gian story. I don't know anything, so okay, so this
is like it's kind of an umbrella of doctor shows
because they had that monster, the Jeffrey Dahmer, then they
had the was those two twins Yeah Meninda, Yeah, so
that was under that monster, and so this is like
(03:31):
another one that's under this monster. The ed Gian story.
I watched one episode. It was was too slow for me.
I couldn't do it. But based off a true story
of this guy. The movie Psycho was kind of based
around him. Other scary movies were kind of based around him.
I know it's like number one right now, but I
stayed away from it just because it was kind of
too slow.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Speaking of Netflix, there was one that you suggested to me.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Oh yeah, the Black Rabbit. Black you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And I'm glad that you brought it up to me
because at that time, which when I said at that time,
I mean a few weeks ago, I wasn't watching anything.
There was nothing good streaming on my calendar, and you said,
have you checked out Black Rabbit? And I watched the
first episode. It was kind of slow, but right after
second episode, third episode, it just picks up and that
(04:20):
was a great watch. So recommend recommend Black Rabbit on Netflix.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, Jason, Bateman Jude Law and it's just a mini series,
so just one season. Yeah, there's got a conclusion in
it that that was a nice little story. Anything. I'll
sit you're on right now.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, you know, speaking of Apple, the reason why I
was like, this will be worth you know, renewing Apple
TV is because not only for the Morning Show, you
recommended the Studio.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Oh yeah, the Studio. Yeah, that just recently got some
Emmy awards. That was a really that's another mini series,
only one season seth Rogan. Uh, I mean kind of
the same in the sense of the Morning Show where
you get the behind the scenes stuff, but this one's
more about beyond the scenes of movies. Movies are made
and with like executive producers, like what they go through
and what studios go through when a green light a
movie or when they turn down a movie, or when
(05:07):
they're at an awards show. You get like all that
in the series of the Studio. That's good.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I'm only on episode two on that one, but yeah,
it looks fun. It looks like it'll be a funny,
funny show, funny show.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It's definitely a good one.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I think that's all I'm on right now. That's on
my rotation.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Nothing crazy right now other than that, Yeah, I think
that's about it. I'm trying to look on my phone
right now, like what am I streaming? But those are
kind of the shows that I'm on right now.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
That that's wild for you because you have all the
streaming platforms. I only have like a few.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I literally have all the It's one of those things
where it's like every time I'm like, I don't need
this one, and then a show will come back around
I'm like, nah, this is why I need this one.
But yeah, man, I mean you only think you're gonna
do like one or two of them, and next thing, no,
I freaking have all of them.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, the ones I added, I have Peacock now, and
I'm kind of glad I did get that because I
guess the NBA is going to be on there.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Okay, Yeah, they spread everything around, you just kind of
have to get all of them.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I'm glad. Well, you know, I'm using my sister's Prime
and Thursday night football is on there.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah exactly, So now you're getting all the sports
on like these these services.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I'm using. Shouts out to Jash. I'm using his HBO Max.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Which by the way they're starting to crack down on
HBO Max. Yeah, man, so you might get that one canceled.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wait, what's happening?
Speaker 3 (06:23):
They just we're sharing yeah damn yeah man.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
But the Dodger baseball games are on their lives.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, I like those live streaming that these platforms are doing.
But again, we were just talking about this a couple
of days ago. How having all.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
This more than cable bro Yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
The streaming services, yeah, is kind of that's why we
got rid of cable. Yeah, and now it's costing.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And now there's there's ads on these streaming services, so
they even defeated that purpose and then you got to
pay extra if you don't want ads. Anyways, should we
get into the podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, but real quick, it's because the he's new, like
these people are gonna pay.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
This could give me for our podcast? What up? I'm
gise That is John Magic and we are back.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's always cool finding some interesting characters, as you could say.
In our building, we have another one of our coworkers.
He's an AE, which stands for account executive. He's in
the sales department, and we're not going to talk about
any of that, any of the.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
We're not talking sales, no, no, none of that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
We you know, we conversate in our workplace and then
you get to find out the past, the history of
our coworkers.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, maybe what they've done before, where they came from.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And then we were just in the halls and he's
telling us about his past jobs.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And we were like, whoa, whoa, we need this on
a podcast.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
This would be a great episode to talk about because
it's interesting. I got questions about it, and he kind
of hinted to us that he has like a bunch
of secrets. So one of our coworkers, Greg Goodman, is
in here.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Hey, Greg, glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I love it you you kind of want to let
him know why he's in here.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, because, uh, because you're fired, because well, actually you
got fired. That's what kind of led to Yeah, and
it's kind of kind of goes with our you know,
our pod our name of our podcast. This could get
me fired, and uh, you were fired from Disney before,
from Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Get a little closer to him or bring closer to you,
whichever one.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. Which I was fired from Disneyland.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Which raised questions because I had no idea that you
worked from Disney Did you worked for Disneyland because you
went to the disney Academy.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Disneyland Academy, graduated from the Disneyland Academy.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Okay, So I guess we could first talk a little
bit about that, because I'm actually not too familiar with
the disney Academy or the Disneyland. Is it Disneyland Academy.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Disneyland Academy?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, Well, let's let's go from the beginning. How old
were you when you said I'm going to apply for
this job.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Seventeen years old, a senior in high school. Yeah, that's
when I started the Disneyland Academy. It's a whole training
program that you got to do even before you're considered
to be even eligible to even work for them. It's
a good a year's long worth of schooling that you
need to do multiple weekends. Took almost the entire senior
year of learning how to be a Disneyland employee.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So you have to go through this if you want
to work at Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
No, like you could go and apply for Disneyland, okay,
but pretty much if you go to the Disneyland Academy
and if you get certified by them. It's pretty much
a shoe in on getting hired at Disney.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
It's more legit.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's you're going to get pat You're going to wait
on the line from the line, you know. Because now
you can put it once you graduate, you can put
it on your resume that you graduated from the Disneyland Academy.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It doesn't automatically get you a job at Disney.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It doesn't automatically get you a job. It's not like
it's a guaranteed shoeing thing.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Okay, is this the same as the Disney College that
I see?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It's a lot. It's merged into that. Again, I'm, you know,
forty six years old right now. I did it twenty
years ago, and they've merged it. It's grown all across
the United States, and they incorporated into the Florida establishment
as well too, And so all the people that work
at Disneyland Florida and Disneyland California all go to the university.
Now it's kind of upgraded from the academy and they've
(10:24):
taken it to a whole other level of Now it's
more like a school.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay, now, okay, so you start at seventeen seventeen, because
you know, I're in high school. I remember when I
was a kid around like my teenage years, you know,
I would go to Universal Studios a lot as a kid.
My that was that was my family's thing. It said Disneyland.
It was Universals.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I went to Universal more too a.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Lot, and I grew up wanting to work at Universals
as a tour guide. That was like as a kid, I.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Remember on the tram, Yeah, that I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Do where to the point where when we were young kids,
we would we would make our own in the backyard
and would I would be pushing the cart of my
sister in there and we would do a tour around. Anyways,
when I got in my eighteen nineteen, I actually applied
for Universe Studios and I got an interview, but I
(11:17):
didn't get it. So at seventeen, what made you, you.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Know, apply or go Did you grow up just loving
Disney Like, what was the reason?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Born in Aheim, California, I grew up three minutes from Disney.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
There it is.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And my next question, that's what I would have. So
you're born in Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I was born in Disneyland. I had a season past
my whole life. Back in the day, a season pass
at Disneyland was like two hundred bucks. And they didn't
and they didn't do like blackout dates. For two hundred dollars,
you go to Disneyland. I that would be my hangout.
That's what everyone in Anaheim did. They didn't go to
the mall. They hung out at Disneyland. I would literally
just go to Disneyland at nighttime to have dinner, ride
(11:57):
a couple of rides, hang out with your friends, and
then go home. And and you wouldn't even care if
you got on rise. It was more about just like
doing all the things other than riding rides at Disneyland. Yeah,
it's going to eat the food, it's going to eat
the show. And my parents, I guess, looked at it like,
you know, that's the day before cell phones and pagers.
(12:19):
They're like, I'm going to drop my kid off at Disneyland,
which is just unheard of nowadays, right, But they knew
because there were security guardens, you're in to save space
instead of me just running around the neighborhood. And so
they would just feel comfortable just drop me off at
school and they would literally come and pick me up
at nighttime. They'd be like, be out here at nine o'clock, right,
(12:40):
But that was the That was when the parking lot
was in front of Disneyland, when there was no California
Picture at that point, everyone used to just park in
the front and and you were able to just kind
of drive up and pick up your kids or guests
or whatnot and just not have to buy parking. You
could just say I'm picking up my kid, and it's
almost like how the Uber system is today, and you'd
be able to just throw and get your kid and
(13:00):
roll out.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
During that time, you were you driving or were you.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Getting dropped off?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, at that time when I had a pass. Then
once I got a job there, then I had my
license at sixteen, and then I was driving myself once
I got a job. But when I was getting dropped
off at thirteen forteen, you're not driving, You're just getting
dropped off. And so that would be the safest thing
to do instead of just roaming the streets.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Okay, so you're going to Disneyland all the time, you're
a fan fan.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
That's what made me want to work.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Okay, so then you go, I need to work here,
I need a job here and then the Disney like,
I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Get paid to go to Disneyland basically.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, so Google didn't exist. None of the Google didn't exist.
How did you find out about application? The process of
they would go to the schools so uh oh so recruiting.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So Disneyland at the time would go and to be
a part of the academy. I grew up in Orange County,
so it'd be the Anaheim School district, and so they
would go to each school and only pick two students
per high school to be able to go to this academy,
and you had to be recommended. You had to show excellence.
And someone knew that I was just a huge Disneyland fan,
(14:08):
and they're like, I'm gonna not. You have to be
nominated just even to go to the academy. And so
it's a process of the Disneyland goes to the recruitment,
then they go to the teachers, and then they recruit
the students and they pick two students that would be
a good fit to represent Disneyland and represent your school
basically and go to the academy and learn all the
(14:30):
ins and outs on how to be a proper Disneyland employee.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Did you know you were going to get nominated or
did you put your like raise your hand, like please
somebody know.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I like I I tried to get on that show,
like I wanted to be a part of that academy.
I raise my voice. I'm like, please nominate me. This
is my dream job. I express that I'm not here
to just I don't want to just go to the academy.
This is the career that I wanted to do. I
wanted to be the guy that retired to Disneyland because
(14:58):
you get little pins every five to ten every year
marker at Disneyland, you get a special pen. The people
that make it to the fifty year level get a
special gold pin. I wanted to retire from Disneyland. That
was going to be my career. Once you retire from Disneyland,
you own the park. Once you work there for fifty years,
(15:19):
because you could sign so many people in per year,
and you get more and more the longer you work there.
Once you make it to fifty there's no limit. You
get no limit at that point. You could sign as
many people in as you want. You get a discount
at the stores. So you're there for ten years, you
get a discount. You're there for twenty years. Once you're
at fifty, stuff's pretty much free. Yeah, it's seventy five.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Per year in front of the line and everything.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
You get invited to special things that only people that
work there for like thirty five years are more get
invited to. Now they have the D twenty three and
they have this all backstage interaction that the world of
how Disneyland expanded. But at that point, if you're a
part of the thirty five your or longer club, you
got invited to special functions and things that didn't exist
(16:04):
for just normal people.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
All right, let's reverse a little bit. So you get nominated,
get nominated. Then what's the process after that? You go
to the school you have school?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, so it's it was on weekends because you're still
a high school student.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Okay, so it's only a weekend pretty.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Much weekends for almost a year, and it's it's it's
your Saturday end Sunday.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
It's at the Disneyland campus. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, over where Disneyland is off a ball road. There's
a big green building right off the fire that's where
they again located. It's that building that kind of looks
metallic that's where the school's held, and that's right behind
Small World yep. And so they purposely do that because
you're learning how to be a disney So you'd go
(16:45):
on normal clothes and you'd walk inside the park and
you take extensive notes, and you're pretty much spine on
Disneyland employees to see how they interact with.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Guests, shadowing them a little bit, shadowing them, not even
really shadowing them, watching them almost like a secret shopper
in a way, because you're in normal clothes and you're
just kind of taking notes and you're just you're looking
at interactions.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You're going to main Street, you're going to restaurants, you're
going to rides. You're seeing how people handle situations. If
there's trauma at the state at Disneyland, or if there's
a fight, or if there's people that just need help,
how they help them.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
No, but but I guess can we I want to
know you're in a classroom and they're telling you today,
this is what we're gonna do. You're gonna walk.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Oh yeah, You're there from like eight o'clock in the
morning to a good four or five o'clock. It's a
long while.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
That's not The only thing is it's a workday.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Classrooms. Yeah, it's classroom. You're learning. You're learning the Walt
Disney way of customer service, of why he wanted his
employees to treat guests a certain way. You're learning the
essence of becoming a Disneyland employee basically.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
So it's some in you know, in the in the building,
it's it's.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
It's inside the park, and there's more like hands on
its hands on. It's a lot of study work. You
watch a lot of videos. You watch a lot of
just good things employees have done, bad things, like Disneyland
has video of everything. Every interaction of this is an
example of a good interaction with a client, there's an
example of a bad interaction what could have been done differently?
(18:20):
In this you're learning situations on how to be a
better employee.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Since these are still a high school Well is it
all high school students?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, it's high school students.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Okay, So since these are all high school students, were
there any moments of classic where teachers are like quiet,
I see, like you know, no, because was everyone just
a good kid? No?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Everyone is a good kid, because if you think about it,
like these are the best of the best. These aren't
These aren't your f students that are and it's and
it's the people that want to do this are dedicated employees.
They don't just send anyone to this school. So it's
not the loser who ditches class all the time and
is failing all his classes. So you're not gonna You're
already getting that riff raff out of the situation in
(19:00):
the sense they're not even in the class to begin with.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Do you have to pay for this?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Really?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Free?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Wow? So you get picked and it's free yeah, oh wow?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And then and then at the end you get Disneyland
tickets and some cool stuff at the end once you graduate.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
How long is the process until you graduate? It was
like hours you put in.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
There was sixty eight months worth of schooling. It's a
long time. Every weekend, every weekend for a good six months.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Wow. Yeah, that's Saturday.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
My senior year, every Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Oh six months.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And at the end of this six months or however
long do you hear right away or they just say.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Hey, there's a graduation ceremony.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Don't don't call us, we'll call you sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
No, no, because now it's it's a big moment. There's
a huge graduation ceremony, and then they let you know
right at that moment you could put this on your resume,
and they almost encourage you. They help you. Then representatives
from kind of each land. If you're eighteen at that point,
you have to be eighteen to do a ride. I
wasn't eighteen yet, so to do a ride you have
to be eighteen. So I wanted to get in at
(20:00):
seventeen and then just start right at that point earning
the system. Becoming an employee. Then that was you start
in like outdoor vending, selling balloons, selling glow sticks for
the parades and stuff. There's only entry level those entry level.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Wait wait, the parking people is not entry level. The
one that just says, I it's jobs.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, that that you could do, like you could work
that back in the day when the parking lot was
in the front, that little kind of not a monorail
system but the trolley system that brings you to the front,
that you could work at under eighteen. But to actually
be a ride person you have to be eighteen years old.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Sow did how did you hear that you got hired?
And what was your first job.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
So then they bring people over from each land and
they help you apply. So they kind of like this
is how you fill out the application, and then you
kind of pick these are things that you could do
based on your age. So then they help you get
a great there's so many people that are applying to
be at Disneyland. Again, like you get put at the
front of the line. Then they give you times, they
set you up, and you could see how fast it is.
(21:01):
It was a quick process from graduating from the academy
to getting hired because you skipped all the like bullshit
of hapened to go through numerous interviews and long wait,
it's not munchy.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
You don't have to do any of that quick.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
It was like weeks versus months. It's super quick.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Is it safe to say that you pretty much get
a fast pass.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
You get a fast You definitely get a fast pass.
And I being good, but I didn't go to the academy.
I want to have been hired at Disneyland for sure.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Wow, Okay, that kind of gave you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
The end because then when the because you go through
multiple stages of hiring managers and they all see it
there O pulls out of your resume and they all
see Disneyland Academy graduate and it's like boom, you're on
to the next step. You already went to the next guy.
You went through like three managers within a week, where
we took other people months. You went through three hiring
managers within a week, and then you were hired like
(21:51):
two weeks later.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Where did they put you first?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I was an outdoor vending. It's a rotation really, and
so you're on main Street you're selling the big balloons
that everyone hold. But the one was cool is they
take care of all your costumes. You go on normal clothes,
and then the backstage lot I have is where all
your costumes are at the wash all your clothes. You're
always wearing clean, brand new looking clothes.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
So you don't come in here.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You don't know what land you're going to work in
until you show up that day. Then everyone's on a list.
They're like, Greg, you're in tomorrow Lands. Then you're wearing
the tomorrow Land costume and you're selling ice cream in
Tomorrow And then if you're in a fantasy land, then
you look like a country person.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
If you're like, did you have a favorite favorite outfit?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I wouldn't say I would when you when you're over.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
There, some of them are bad.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Thunder Mountain, you're dressed kind of like old you know,
classic nineteen twenties that look where you're not a cowboy,
but you're.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Like Face Mountain. They kind of have like a cool outfit.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Space Mountain has a cool outfit. But they're all there.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But you know, that's wild how you're rotating, and you
rotate you have to know how to sell ice cream.
You have to know how to do the ballulloons. Yeah,
they's a.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Long training process because you have to learn almost like
nine jobs.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Wait, so do you get that training in the academy
or do you get it like.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
A little bit And once you get higher, then it's
a long training process because you're learning multiple jobs.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
So my guess is the academy is just more about
the foundation of Disney Walt's vision how you treat customer service.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Customer and then the details come more. Lady, it's the
customer service got fingers. Well, y'all know that one things
that I learned from the Disneyland Academy, it sticks with
you for the rest of life. I've been in sales
pretty much my whole life, and so the things you
learn the Disneyland Walt Disney Way, I took it to
even other jobs that not at Disneyland because it's the
(23:46):
best way to interact with people, to lower temperatures when
there's issues with sales or conflicts. It's so many ways
to just minimize the situation and make things better.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Okay, So with your first position as a seventeen year old,
seventeen year old just doing what is it called again, like.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Outdoor vending consis out ding?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, just give us one two things that you remember
either a wild story or.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Was you know, tell us maybe something else was amazing
the thing before.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
We move on to your next level.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I would say I was working a wild story as
I was working over by the Matterhorn and I was
selling glow sticks for the nighttime parade. And you have
that was before everything's paid by credit card now, but
at that day it was cash and everyone had cash.
So it's it's amazing how much cash you had physically
on you at that point, and so everyone's giving you
(24:36):
twenties and hundreds and you're just seeing flow. I was,
it was nighttime, it was dark, goes over by a
matterhar and I looked down and I saw one hundred
dollars on the ground, and I'm like, okay, did I
drop the.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
One hundred dollars?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
So, as a seventeen year old, you see a hundred
bucks on the ground, a lot of money. You took
that money. I set it off to the side. I'm like,
I'm gonna take this money. I'm just gonna set it
off to the side, and I'm going to keep it.
Because you have two separate pockets. I worked out of
the other pocket the whole day, so I wouldn't blend
the two. Then you have to count your money at
the end of the day, and luckily it wasn't part
of Disneyland's money. And it's someone physically came up.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Because if you were missing a hundre, if you're a
missing while, you're missing one hundred.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
And when you go to count money, it's like you're
at a bank. There's twelve cameras on you count your money.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
It's a stories that you you guys go into like
a certain room and it's just security.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
It's a certain secure room because you have thousands of
dollars worth of money on Yeah, yeah, that's pre Now
everything's credit card. They don't want that. It's all credit card.
Everyone just scans, but back then it was cash.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Okay, all right, so you were sketchy as a seventeen
all right, so you have to wait till your eighteen.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You have to wait to your eighteen to work the rids.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Okay, So do you request that or do.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
They say hey, then you have to go through a
whole nother hiring process, not just really you're eighteen and
you just get shoved off to the matterhorn. You have
to go apply for that position. But then again, you're
already a Disneyland employee. Yeah, it's pretty much a shoe
and it's not like you need to go it's not
as an extensive as a hiring process. But you still
need to apply for a ride operator.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Okay, so you do that and yeah, same thing.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And then as you get older, then you work your
way up to management and it's like you go higher
and hire and hire within the system.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Do you pick a rider? Are you able to do
all of them?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Pick?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
There? You just you apply for a ride operator because
they move you around.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Okay, so you could do multiple rides.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Please don't want you working the same ride over and
over again, because they don't want you getting bored with it.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, they want you all the time, see you all
the time.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
You purposely learn all the rides, you wear all the costumes.
There's people that have like favors, Like there's those that
love working at the say the Haunted Mansion, and so
those people get to work that ride a lot, and
so you're working other rise as well.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
My cousin worked, well, he used to work there. He
he did all the rides in Tomorrowland.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, that's Face Mountain.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah. Is that a thing where I just want to
stay or again they're telling.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
You get you could pick that, you could pick. I
just want to be in Tomorrowland. But they're gonna rotate you. Yeah,
so you're not just always working Space Mountain.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Again, they want it to be fresh. They don't want
you getting bored. They want you acting like you're getting
on the ride for the first time every time too.
They don't want you just I'm calling the same to
how many in your party two and four people? Just
they don't want you to becoming doll.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I get impressed by that, by the way, when people
can count fast and remember like where they left off
in lane two eye line two three, eye lines amazed.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Once you start doing something, you know, ten thousand times
a day, you get pretty pretty damn good.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeahthing, So you got to do all the lands all.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I got to do all the pretty much.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh yeah, not selling. I wasn't eighteen yet, I didn't. No, no,
this is when you're eighteen. I got to do main Street.
I got to do tomorrow Land. You get to work
the pride parades at night and get sell the globe
products of all the people that walk up and down
Main Street and trying to sell you something before the
braid happens, all the like fun little glowing products at night.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Now to play a character, is that a whole different.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I think that's take That is one of the hardest
jobs to get. If you want to be tinker Bell
or if you want to be Bell, it's a certain look.
It's a shame that like certain people can't go be
tinker Bell right. Like it's sad because it's not like
certain jobs where it's an equal opportunity on this one.
(28:31):
Heavy people can't be tinker Bell just you can't do
it right, and so it's a shame. But those people
have the hardest jobs because your hours are really weird.
It's not an eight to five type of job. If
you're tinker Bell, you're literally only working a set time frame.
You're working the night time stuff, or you're going across
(28:52):
the matterhorn, you're flying across for the fireworks. You might
only work one or two hours a day. You get
paid a lot more, but you're only working like two
hours a day your tinker Bell, and that's all you are.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, let's let's go to the ride thing. Because when
I was a kid, when I was you know, even
in my twenties, I always thought it was cool the
people that pressed the button. But then sometimes you look
as an adult, You're like, man, this person hates their job,
Like they just have that look like I'm just pressing
a button. Yeah, did you ever do the pressing the
butt job? No?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Eighteen Yeah, that's even even the button pressers. You have
to be eighteen.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Wait wait, but did you not make it to eighteen?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Did to make it eighteen?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Okay, so that makes sense?
Speaker 1 (29:33):
All right, all right, I gotta let go before you
turned eighteen.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
So this is where the firing came in.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
This is when the firing came in.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Now, we you kind of gave us a star, like yeah,
but before we get to that, I guess you were
telling us about like little you know secrets and give
us some insight of the seventeen year old Greg.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Works, some of the stuff you saw behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Or something you could share.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
It's it's really it's the uniqueness of how quick you
could get. You'll be amazed at when you go to Disneyland,
how big Disneyland looks. But then once you're an employee
and you can start doing the backlots, there's all these
tunnels and different ways to get from Splash Mountain over
all the way to Tomorrowland within ten minutes where you
don't have to cut through the crowd. There's underground tunnels, tunnels,
(30:25):
there's there's back alley routes you could take, that way
you could get from You can get from one land
and the other within ten minutes. And they purposely don't
want employees.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Like excuse me, going through the crowd.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
They don't want you going through the crowd because then
you look stressed out, and then you're going to stress
out the crowd and you might cause like it. They
think it's going to be like a fire or something
because you're trying to get from Country Bear Jamboree to
Space Mountain within ten minutes, and the only way to
do that is to go underground background.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
You know, there's these viral videos now that I see
on TikTok where uh they sneak a camera again when
they're changing the characters that do you see that where
they're taking off the big head and yeah, the character.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Is funny because you'll see like Mickey Mouse, but then
they take a break and the dude takes his head off.
Smoke break, right, and it's Mickey Mouse, you know, but
you'll never see that on the stage. Wall always treated
it like you're on the stage, if you're if you're
interacting with the guests. You always got to act like
you're on the stage, like you're an actor or an actress.
And so it's the things you would do on stage
(31:30):
and backstage is old everything, you know, And it's crazy
when they take.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
A break, because you can't lose the magic.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Can't lose the magic, all right.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
So you so this doesn't stop bad Disneyland because you
tell us that you also work for another seems like
another fun job that we're gonna go next to, which
is medieval Time.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, from Disneyland. I went to Medieval Time.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Okay, So before we get to that, how did you
get fired?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah? How did you get fire? From Disneyland?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
So because his goal was fifty and only, Yeah, I din't
even make it.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
It was eighteen.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I'm telling you. I got fired for a really shitty reason.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Really.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
When I graduated from high school, my parents, I have
an older sister, and so my parents gifts to me
and my sister were we have family in Europe, and
so they're like, we're gonna let you go to Europe
for two weeks and we're gonna give you a trip
and go see family and stuff. And so I knew.
My sister got to go when she graduated. She was
two years ahead of me. And then it was my turn,
and I knew once I graduated in high school, I
(32:29):
was going to go to Europe for two weeks. So
six months before I left, I knew I was going
to go on vacation. So I asked for the time off,
filled out all the paperwork, had it approved six months
and events because I knew when I was going to leave,
and then I just kept reminding him five months, four months,
three months, Hey, just remind her in three months, I'm
gonna be gone for two weeks. Once it got to like, hey,
(32:49):
it's next week, they're like what. I'm like, Yeah, I've
been telling you. I've been telling you for six months.
They're like, oh, it's the summer. You can't leave in
the summer. This is our busiest time. And they fired
me on the spot because they're like, they're like, you
can't you can't leave in the summer. This is our
busiest time, and what are you doing taking What am
(33:09):
I doing taking two weeks off? I asked for the
six months off. How did it approve? And then kept
reminding you. They were like, yeah, we know it's on
the calendar.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
It was good.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Then when it got close to it, then they're like,
you can't leave. Fine, go on your vacation, but you're fired.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Was there a paper trail of it getting approved.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, yeah, all that right, But like the didn't care
because in their head, they'll just fire, They'll just hire
another seventeen year old. They don't care, they'll just hire
someone else Before we move on to them, You're just
kind of a number. At that point, Do you regret it? Yes,
because but then but then you kind of think about it,
(33:50):
my whole life would have been different. Probably would have
never left Anaheim. I wouldn't be here in Fresno doing now.
I'd be at Disneyland. Probably would have had a different wife,
a different kid, a whole different light because you're in
Anaheim and not Fresno.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Before before we move on, the last thing I'll ask
during that time, because I think my first job was
Wiener Snitchel And if I could be wrong, but if
I'm remembering right, I think minimum wage was like eight something,
eight dollars something during that time. Do you remember what
you were getting paid at that.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It was like five twenty five an hour? Minimum wage
was like five bucks. It was when I was seventeen.
That's wild. Yeah, it was like five.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Twenty five and you're working at Disneyland. You're working at
Disneyland and you're thinking fifty years. See that's unlimited rides.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I'll just hire another kid and pay them five dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, all right, so now we move was the next job?
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Medieval times?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
What made you go all right, and I'm gonna do
this next?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I mean kind of in the same city, right, not
too far?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Oh yeah about.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, well, park is like ten to fifteen minutes away
and they actually paid a lot better. Just seemed like
a fun job to do. And I'm like, everyone just
seemed to kind of gravitate. You either worked at Disneyland,
either worked at nuts Berry Farm, you worked at Medieval Times.
You did all the theme park type of if you
(35:21):
lived in that area, that's what you did. And they
would just run commercials like crazy because they were constantly
hiring because they were busy. Medieval Times to do three
shows a day, seven days a week, three hundred and
sixty five days a year. They take a couple of
days off or like Christmas and such. But Medieval Times
was one of the busiest attractions still is today. It's
(35:44):
still packs of house people love seeing nights crashing the
ship up.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Okay, so was this just a regular application.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, that's an academy and type thing. There's no academy
fortiple times. You have to just apply like a normal person.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
But that that Disney Academy probably look good on the resume, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
See, you get to keep that. You get to even
though you got fired from it, you get to keep
it on your resumes moving forward, and shit, I would
I would use it forever I would keep that on
my resumes. I don't use it now. I don't mean,
but when I was around that age, every resume that
I applyed.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Was this a was this a basic interview? And higher?
Because I was telling Jizo.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
About medieval times? Is a basic interview?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Okay? Because I was telling Jizo about years ago when
I was still like nineteen twenty, there was this arcade
at the Ontario Mills called game Works, and I applied
got past the first interview, and the second interview was
like a group class where we had to do skits
and stuff. So and I didn't get it that job.
(36:48):
So that's what I was asking, did you have to do?
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Like, oh do it? No, No, there's certain jobs that
you could get, Like you're not going to be a
night You're not going to be in the show. So
to working at medieval times, You're either going to be
a bar wench that's one of the jobs. You're gonna
be a server that brings you all the food. Either
work the bar, either work the food or in my case,
I was in the photography department. I took all the
(37:13):
pictures of everyone that comes in, takes a picture with
the king and a queen you take a picture with
the king and queen as you come into the castle,
and then you take a group shot at the table.
And then so there was the people that took the
pictures and there's a whole team that sold you the pictures,
and so you rotated between taking pictures and selling pictures.
So it was sales. You needed sales experience because you
(37:34):
had to convince people to buy a twenty dollars picture
of themselves and everyone's just like, shit, I just spent
this to get to it, and then you're trying to
hit them up. But then they're hitting you up with
all the and if they bring their kids, they're gonna
want the sword, they're gonna want this, and the bags,
the flags and all this medieval shit. And then you
get to the table and they're hitting you up for
another twenty dollars picture. There are nobody's going to come
(37:58):
around and it you'd be in sections either the Green
Knight or the Red Knight or the Blue Night. And
so you take these pictures. They bring it out in
this little folder and they're like, this is your picture?
Do you want it? And it's crazy because it's twenty bucks, right,
But if they didn't buy it. You literally just threw
that picture away. It's not like we kept them. Yeah exactly,
you either bought it or you didn't. And then so
(38:20):
have all these people that said no, you just throw
it away. So you take them in bunches, you bring
them back to the sales photography or and you got
to take them all out because you had to reuse
those frames. You didn't just talk. You toss the picture
but not the frame. Then you had to take that
picture out and put the next show's picture in and
just be ready for the next show.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
But they want you to do it that way, right,
because it's like you get to see it in the
frame and it's more enticing it.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Don't just bring the picture, it's ready to go. People
frame and they're right now want this, And they always
go to like the mom or something. You don't go
to one who's to say yes, You're going to go
to the mom who's going to say yes.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Am I mistaken?
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Did you just go recently Medieval Time?
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I've been there a few times, but the one that
I went to recently was the Pirate one, which I forget,
which yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they do the Pirates show,
which I don't think it's as good as Yeah, yeah,
it's not as good as there anymore.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
It might be. It was always struggling. People didn't go
to that show as much as Medieval Time.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Medieval Time it didn't catch on.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
I mean as a kid, you you would just see
Medieval Times when he.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Was in the Jim Carrey movie.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, all times.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I've only been there a couple of times. And the
times i've went, like, I was like pretty impressed, Like
I enjoyed the storyline.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Yeah, it was got into it guy and everything.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
He was like the Green Knight.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
The fun thing about the story dude, the stories changed
every day or is it the same story?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
The storylines the same, but the characters change change. Like
this show, it's the Green Knight.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
This show like the Winner.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Right, the Winner.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Yeah, but the very first time I went, I had
The Winner, which was dope.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So the first time I went Our Blue Knight, it
was the Blue Knight. He lost the first round, like
the game and he loses and our section is like,
but the storyline he comes back and saves the day everybody, Yeah,
he gets he gets the girl.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, it's actually pretty fun. I've went like before with
friends and if you get into it. That makes it
more fun. Everyone's cheering, and.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
The food's good. You get a whole retisserie.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Chicken with your hands and yeah, eat with.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Your hands, and you have it and you're drinking meat.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
But wait, let me stop right there real quick. Did
you have to wear the outfit?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
You had to wear the out I had to wear tights.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That probably wasn't fun.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
You had you had this fluffy shirt and with this
like vest and you had tight blue tights. They were tight.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
We might have to see a picture of head. Yeah, okay,
so yeah, how long did that job last?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I would say I was there like three years? Okay,
and so but then I didn't want I didn't want
to do that for the rest of my life. Now
I'm like eighteen nineteen. At that point, I wanted to
start focusing more on college and getting a career. Like
medieval Times is not going to be my career. It's
a job, and I wanted to like grow up and
get a grow up job, not just being a peasant
(41:24):
for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Now I already know the answer to this because you've
told us this, But for like podcast purposes, I'm going
to pretend like I don't know. Did you ever try
to go back to Disneyland a couple of years later
to apply?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
No, you can't because because once you're fired from Disneyland,
you can never get rehired again. Blacklisted. You could want,
you could, you could quit, but you can't get fired.
You can quit and go back when you can quit
and then have to go through the rehire process again.
But once you're fired for whatever reason, how do you
know failing money?
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (41:57):
They tell you?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Oh, okay, they tell you.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
Does that go for like all the parks?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Everybody? It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter
if you're a riote operator, doesn't matter if you're a manager,
It doesn't matter what you do at Disneyland. If you
get fired from Disneyland, you're black life.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
What could you go to? Like Disney World?
Speaker 1 (42:12):
You're fired from the you couldn't work downtown Disney.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
How about at the mall? Did Disney start the mall?
Because I heard that's connected.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
I would say no, yeah, probably, yeah, because it's the
same company.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
What about Disney affiliates?
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Maybe the affiliate.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
That would never worked the park ever? Again? Okay, you're
a black one.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
What brought you to? What brought you to Fresnel Fresnel State.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
At the time, I was picking a college. I was
dating a girlfriend at the time, and I thought that
was who I was going to be with. I'm not
with that person anymore. And we're both we're both at
college age, and we tried to find something that had
both of our majors. And she wanted to go to
Chico and I wanted to get out of It's like
everyone wants to get out of Orange County for some reason.
(43:00):
Was like, I want to get the hell out of here.
And so I'm like, I don't want to go to
Chico because my family's still in Orange County and I
don't want to be that far. So we're like Fresno
right in the middle. So we kind of compromise, and
it had her major and it had my major, and
so we went to both went to Fresnee State. Now
graduated in Fresleon State in two thousand and five. Nice,
I came here to FRESNOE in two thousand and one,
(43:21):
so I've been here since O one.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Okay, well, let's fast forward, you know till today. Obviously,
what is how do you feel about Disneyland? Now? Do
you do you go back often, you still feel the
same about it, Like I.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Try to go back as much as I can. I
can't afford a pass now because it passes like three
thousand in the city. So I've done a pass. And
so for someone in Fresno, if you have a season pass,
you have to go six times.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
To make it work.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
To make it worth it, you have to go at
least six times, and that's kind of hard to do
when you're in Fresne.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Yeah, not to mention, you got to pay for a
hotel every time.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
For hotel, it's a whole weekend type of thing where
if you're in Orange County you could go all the time,
you know, but if you're in Fresno, think about that.
You got to go almost every other month to Disneyland
to break even, and at that point it was just
hard to do. Like I did it for like a
year or two and I did five trips and it
was hard to get that six trip.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
You're almost like forcing it at that.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Point or you're losing money and it would have been
cheaper just to buy a ticket each time than buying
it all at once.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Well, at least you weren't getting blacklisted.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
There's like your photo and you can't even walk in you.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
But here's a crazy story about this. When I was
like thirteen, fourteen years old, I stole from Disneyland. That
was the thing to do. Everyone stole from things to do, right,
No trust me. It was weird locals. For local locals,
it was the thing to do. You would go steal
a keychain or something. And I got popped. I caught
stealing a keychain at tomorrow Land at like thirteen years old.
(44:53):
And it's weird that I got hired at Disneyland even
though I stole from Disneyland, Like it didn't show up
on your permanent list because you're at thirteen years old.
But when you get arrested at Disneyland, they arrestue and
you go backstage to Disneyland jail and they re in
a holding cell and you're in Disneyland jail. Then your
parent needs to come get you because you're a minor.
(45:14):
And that's the worst fucking feeling when your parent needs
to come bell you out of Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Jail at thirteen. You got you went to fourteen years old,
but you went to Disneyland jail.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Disneyland jail, is it really like a jail cell. It's
not jail wow, it's it's a it's a holding cell
for all the people that fuck up at Disneyland wow
and steal or get in a.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Fight, or those people get blacklisted from Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
I should have. Yeah, they they because you were the
pass and they cut my pass, and because once I
stole and then they cut it for that year. But
you weren't blacklisted to not apply the next year for
a pass. It's just the remaining year you were done
for that year.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
The last thing for me is, you know you talk
about you go back once in a while.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
I love it. I love Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
When you go back, does a feeling of just nostalgia
come back when you used to work there, like.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Or does it feel like it's not the same and
it's just consumerism its feeling.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I'm a big Disney nerd. I'm more of a sports nerd,
but Disney nerd for sure. And there's always a special
place in your heart. I love going back at Christmas times,
one of the best times to go to Disneyland Halloweens.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
But does the memories of the memories, Yeah, the memories everything.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
It's like it almost feels like home when you go there.
I grew up at Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
I would be there every weekend of my life, week
of my life. For almost a good portion of my life,
I lived at Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I mean, man, that was one I wish I worked
at a theme park.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Do you hang out the mall or do you go
hang out at Disneyland. It's like, that's how you got
to look at it good times. All the friends had passes.
It was two hundred bucks. It was two hundred and
fifty bucks for an annual pass at Disneyland.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
Yeah, like if you live in Anaheim or near there,
it's just automatic you go every day of the year.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Well, we appreciate you sharing the stories. Awesome fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
That's interesting. I'm sure it's the Academy is a lot
different now.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
It's more of a universe. It's more structured. It's even
harder to get into now.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, but that was some good information and we appreciate that. Greg.
Until next time, just could get me fire podcasts
After.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I mean, I was gonna call it a summer break,
but we kind of like, you know, we're like in
the middle of the wind. Well, now are we in
the middle of winters?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Weren't fall?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh, weren't fall?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Winter doesn't come until what December.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You know why I said winter is because my ac
is not on anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It's a little it's been raining, it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Raining, and uh, it's it's that time where I'm two
blankets now in the bed to you know, the comforter
and the and the Mexican What.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Is going to go to Mexican?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So in my head it's like, oh, it's winter time. Yeah,
but no, I think it was a much needed summer break.
But it's good to be back a popular thing. Before Oh,
by the way, before we get to the episode, which
is gonna be a fun one, it's one of our
coworkers who worked at Disneyland as a kid, and he
he's just gonna tell us a bunch of insights of
(00:51):
how he got the job.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
The process of going through it, maybe behind the scenes
scene stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So that's coming up in a bit. The thing that
a lot of people always ask about for our podcast
is when we talk about TV streaming recommendations, So I say,
let's just kick it off with that real quick before
we start the episode.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah. I mean, it's been a while since since we've
done this, so I think we're probably gonna forget some
but the ones that that I'm specifically on right now.
I know you're on The Morning Show on Apple.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah. So I was a huge fan of The Morning
Show when it started season one. I think this is
season four, I believe, and then my free Apple subscription.
But now I wanted to watch it, you know, because
I've only heard good things about it. I was a
fan of a show that yeah, I just ended up. Yeah,
let me go get Apple and I'm watching The Morning Show,
(01:46):
which so far, so good. They release an episode every Wednesday,
so I think there were an episode five, I believe.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So Jennifer Andison in it. If you don't know the
premise of the show, it's it's basically like what would
you say that like a good morning in America. Top
of the show and you get the behind the scenes
of this morning show that's on TV and this this
comp this big company, and just all the drama, and
what I like about it is it really mirrors real
life news news. Yeah, so you get things that like
(02:15):
COVID was you know, a couple of years ago. They
actually you know, played into that on the show. So
that's like a really good show that's on Apple. I
know a lot of people don't have Apple, but if
you do, you got to check out the Morning Show.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I think I enjoy it too, because I think we
can relate because of the media part of it, meaning
the behind the scenes of producers and soundboard.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And all that, sales and program directors.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's like our job. So it's cool to watch.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Also, Love is Blind is back. Been on that, Yeah,
we've been.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
We do Love is Blind. And something that I noticed
about us is when, right when we watched a first
couple of episodes, if we don't like, if we don't
kind of like cling onto any characters, we just don't
watch it.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yea yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But this recent season there there's some funny highlights that
we enjoyed. So we're on. Yeah, we're on the new
season of Love is Blind on Netflix.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's still going on right now. I know a lot
of people watched or got into this monster the ed
Gian story. I don't know anything, so okay, so this
is like it's kind of an umbrella of doctor shows
because they had that monster, the Jeffrey Dahmer, then they
had the was those two twins Yeah Meninda, Yeah, so
that was under that monster, and so this is like
(03:31):
another one that's under this monster. The ed Gian story.
I watched one episode. It was was too slow for me.
I couldn't do it. But based off a true story
of this guy. The movie Psycho was kind of based
around him. Other scary movies were kind of based around him.
I know it's like number one right now, but I
stayed away from it just because it was kind of
too slow.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Speaking of Netflix, there was one that you suggested to me.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Oh yeah, the Black Rabbit. Black you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And I'm glad that you brought it up to me
because at that time, which when I said at that time,
I mean a few weeks ago, I wasn't watching anything.
There was nothing good streaming on my calendar, and you said,
have you checked out Black Rabbit? And I watched the
first episode. It was kind of slow, but right after
second episode, third episode, it just picks up and that
(04:20):
was a great watch. So recommend recommend Black Rabbit on Netflix.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, Jason, Bateman Jude Law and it's just a mini series,
so just one season. Yeah, there's got a conclusion in
it that that was a nice little story. Anything. I'll
sit you're on right now.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, you know, speaking of Apple, the reason why I
was like, this will be worth you know, renewing Apple
TV is because not only for the Morning Show, you
recommended the Studio.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Oh yeah, the Studio. Yeah, that just recently got some
Emmy awards. That was a really that's another mini series,
only one season seth Rogan. Uh, I mean kind of
the same in the sense of the Morning Show where
you get the behind the scenes stuff, but this one's
more about beyond the scenes of movies. Movies are made
and with like executive producers, like what they go through
and what studios go through when a green light a
movie or when they turn down a movie, or when
(05:07):
they're at an awards show. You get like all that
in the series of the Studio. That's good.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I'm only on episode two on that one, but yeah,
it looks fun. It looks like it'll be a funny,
funny show, funny show.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It's definitely a good one.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I think that's all I'm on right now. That's on
my rotation.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Nothing crazy right now other than that, Yeah, I think
that's about it. I'm trying to look on my phone
right now, like what am I streaming? But those are
kind of the shows that I'm on right now.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
That that's wild for you because you have all the
streaming platforms. I only have like a few.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I literally have all the It's one of those things
where it's like every time I'm like, I don't need
this one, and then a show will come back around
I'm like, nah, this is why I need this one.
But yeah, man, I mean you only think you're gonna
do like one or two of them, and next thing, no,
I freaking have all of them.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, the ones I added, I have Peacock now, and
I'm kind of glad I did get that because I
guess the NBA is going to be on there.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Okay, Yeah, they spread everything around, you just kind of
have to get all of them.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I'm glad. Well, you know, I'm using my sister's Prime
and Thursday night football is on there.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah exactly, So now you're getting all the sports
on like these these services.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I'm using. Shouts out to Jash. I'm using his HBO Max.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Which by the way they're starting to crack down on
HBO Max. Yeah, man, so you might get that one canceled.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wait, what's happening?
Speaker 3 (06:23):
They just we're sharing yeah damn yeah man.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
But the Dodger baseball games are on their lives.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, I like those live streaming that these platforms are doing.
But again, we were just talking about this a couple
of days ago. How having all.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
This more than cable bro Yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
The streaming services, yeah, is kind of that's why we
got rid of cable. Yeah, and now it's costing.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And now there's there's ads on these streaming services, so
they even defeated that purpose and then you got to
pay extra if you don't want ads. Anyways, should we
get into the podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, but real quick, it's because the he's new, like
these people are gonna pay.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
This could give me for our podcast? What up? I'm
gise That is John Magic and we are back.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's always cool finding some interesting characters, as you could say.
In our building, we have another one of our coworkers.
He's an AE, which stands for account executive. He's in
the sales department, and we're not going to talk about
any of that, any of the.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
We're not talking sales, no, no, none of that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
We you know, we conversate in our workplace and then
you get to find out the past, the history of
our coworkers.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, maybe what they've done before, where they came from.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And then we were just in the halls and he's
telling us about his past jobs.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And we were like, whoa, whoa, we need this on
a podcast.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
This would be a great episode to talk about because
it's interesting. I got questions about it, and he kind
of hinted to us that he has like a bunch
of secrets. So one of our coworkers, Greg Goodman, is
in here.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Hey, Greg, glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I love it you you kind of want to let
him know why he's in here.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, because, uh, because you're fired, because well, actually you
got fired. That's what kind of led to Yeah, and
it's kind of kind of goes with our you know,
our pod our name of our podcast. This could get
me fired, and uh, you were fired from Disney before,
from Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Get a little closer to him or bring closer to you,
whichever one.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. Which I was fired from Disneyland.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Which raised questions because I had no idea that you
worked from Disney Did you worked for Disneyland because you
went to the disney Academy.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Disneyland Academy, graduated from the Disneyland Academy.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Okay, So I guess we could first talk a little
bit about that, because I'm actually not too familiar with
the disney Academy or the Disneyland. Is it Disneyland Academy.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Disneyland Academy?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, Well, let's let's go from the beginning. How old
were you when you said I'm going to apply for
this job.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Seventeen years old, a senior in high school. Yeah, that's
when I started the Disneyland Academy. It's a whole training
program that you got to do even before you're considered
to be even eligible to even work for them. It's
a good a year's long worth of schooling that you
need to do multiple weekends. Took almost the entire senior
year of learning how to be a Disneyland employee.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So you have to go through this if you want
to work at Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
No, like you could go and apply for Disneyland, okay,
but pretty much if you go to the Disneyland Academy
and if you get certified by them. It's pretty much
a shoe in on getting hired at Disney.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
It's more legit.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's you're going to get pat You're going to wait
on the line from the line, you know. Because now
you can put it once you graduate, you can put
it on your resume that you graduated from the Disneyland Academy.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It doesn't automatically get you a job at Disney.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It doesn't automatically get you a job. It's not like
it's a guaranteed shoeing thing.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Okay, is this the same as the Disney College that
I see?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It's a lot. It's merged into that. Again, I'm, you know,
forty six years old right now. I did it twenty
years ago, and they've merged it. It's grown all across
the United States, and they incorporated into the Florida establishment
as well too, And so all the people that work
at Disneyland Florida and Disneyland California all go to the university.
Now it's kind of upgraded from the academy and they've
(10:24):
taken it to a whole other level of Now it's
more like a school.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay, now, okay, so you start at seventeen seventeen, because
you know, I're in high school. I remember when I
was a kid around like my teenage years, you know,
I would go to Universal Studios a lot as a kid.
My that was that was my family's thing. It said Disneyland.
It was Universals.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I went to Universal more too a.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Lot, and I grew up wanting to work at Universals
as a tour guide. That was like as a kid, I.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Remember on the tram, Yeah, that I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Do where to the point where when we were young kids,
we would we would make our own in the backyard
and would I would be pushing the cart of my
sister in there and we would do a tour around. Anyways,
when I got in my eighteen nineteen, I actually applied
for Universe Studios and I got an interview, but I
(11:17):
didn't get it. So at seventeen, what made you, you.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Know, apply or go Did you grow up just loving
Disney Like, what was the reason?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Born in Aheim, California, I grew up three minutes from Disney.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
There it is.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And my next question, that's what I would have. So
you're born in Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I was born in Disneyland. I had a season past
my whole life. Back in the day, a season pass
at Disneyland was like two hundred bucks. And they didn't
and they didn't do like blackout dates. For two hundred dollars,
you go to Disneyland. I that would be my hangout.
That's what everyone in Anaheim did. They didn't go to
the mall. They hung out at Disneyland. I would literally
just go to Disneyland at nighttime to have dinner, ride
(11:57):
a couple of rides, hang out with your friends, and
then go home. And and you wouldn't even care if
you got on rise. It was more about just like
doing all the things other than riding rides at Disneyland. Yeah,
it's going to eat the food, it's going to eat
the show. And my parents, I guess, looked at it like,
you know, that's the day before cell phones and pagers.
(12:19):
They're like, I'm going to drop my kid off at Disneyland,
which is just unheard of nowadays, right, But they knew
because there were security guardens, you're in to save space
instead of me just running around the neighborhood. And so
they would just feel comfortable just drop me off at
school and they would literally come and pick me up
at nighttime. They'd be like, be out here at nine o'clock, right,
(12:40):
But that was the That was when the parking lot
was in front of Disneyland, when there was no California
Picture at that point, everyone used to just park in
the front and and you were able to just kind
of drive up and pick up your kids or guests
or whatnot and just not have to buy parking. You
could just say I'm picking up my kid, and it's
almost like how the Uber system is today, and you'd
be able to just throw and get your kid and
(13:00):
roll out.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
During that time, you were you driving or were you.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Getting dropped off?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, at that time when I had a pass. Then
once I got a job there, then I had my
license at sixteen, and then I was driving myself once
I got a job. But when I was getting dropped
off at thirteen forteen, you're not driving, You're just getting
dropped off. And so that would be the safest thing
to do instead of just roaming the streets.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Okay, so you're going to Disneyland all the time, you're
a fan fan.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
That's what made me want to work.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Okay, so then you go, I need to work here,
I need a job here and then the Disney like,
I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Get paid to go to Disneyland basically.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, so Google didn't exist. None of the Google didn't exist.
How did you find out about application? The process of
they would go to the schools so uh oh so recruiting.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So Disneyland at the time would go and to be
a part of the academy. I grew up in Orange County,
so it'd be the Anaheim School district, and so they
would go to each school and only pick two students
per high school to be able to go to this academy,
and you had to be recommended. You had to show excellence.
And someone knew that I was just a huge Disneyland fan,
(14:08):
and they're like, I'm gonna not. You have to be
nominated just even to go to the academy. And so
it's a process of the Disneyland goes to the recruitment,
then they go to the teachers, and then they recruit
the students and they pick two students that would be
a good fit to represent Disneyland and represent your school
basically and go to the academy and learn all the
(14:30):
ins and outs on how to be a proper Disneyland employee.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Did you know you were going to get nominated or
did you put your like raise your hand, like please
somebody know.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I like I I tried to get on that show,
like I wanted to be a part of that academy.
I raise my voice. I'm like, please nominate me. This
is my dream job. I express that I'm not here
to just I don't want to just go to the academy.
This is the career that I wanted to do. I
wanted to be the guy that retired to Disneyland because
(14:58):
you get little pins every five to ten every year
marker at Disneyland, you get a special pen. The people
that make it to the fifty year level get a
special gold pin. I wanted to retire from Disneyland. That
was going to be my career. Once you retire from Disneyland,
you own the park. Once you work there for fifty years,
(15:19):
because you could sign so many people in per year,
and you get more and more the longer you work there.
Once you make it to fifty there's no limit. You
get no limit at that point. You could sign as
many people in as you want. You get a discount
at the stores. So you're there for ten years, you
get a discount. You're there for twenty years. Once you're
at fifty, stuff's pretty much free. Yeah, it's seventy five.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Per year in front of the line and everything.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
You get invited to special things that only people that
work there for like thirty five years are more get
invited to. Now they have the D twenty three and
they have this all backstage interaction that the world of
how Disneyland expanded. But at that point, if you're a
part of the thirty five your or longer club, you
got invited to special functions and things that didn't exist
(16:04):
for just normal people.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
All right, let's reverse a little bit. So you get nominated,
get nominated. Then what's the process after that? You go
to the school you have school?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, so it's it was on weekends because you're still
a high school student.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Okay, so it's only a weekend pretty.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Much weekends for almost a year, and it's it's it's
your Saturday end Sunday.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
It's at the Disneyland campus. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, over where Disneyland is off a ball road. There's
a big green building right off the fire that's where
they again located. It's that building that kind of looks
metallic that's where the school's held, and that's right behind
Small World yep. And so they purposely do that because
you're learning how to be a disney So you'd go
(16:45):
on normal clothes and you'd walk inside the park and
you take extensive notes, and you're pretty much spine on
Disneyland employees to see how they interact with.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Guests, shadowing them a little bit, shadowing them, not even
really shadowing them, watching them almost like a secret shopper
in a way, because you're in normal clothes and you're
just kind of taking notes and you're just you're looking
at interactions.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You're going to main Street, you're going to restaurants, you're
going to rides. You're seeing how people handle situations. If
there's trauma at the state at Disneyland, or if there's
a fight, or if there's people that just need help,
how they help them.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
No, but but I guess can we I want to
know you're in a classroom and they're telling you today,
this is what we're gonna do. You're gonna walk.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Oh yeah, You're there from like eight o'clock in the
morning to a good four or five o'clock. It's a
long while.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
That's not The only thing is it's a workday.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Classrooms. Yeah, it's classroom. You're learning. You're learning the Walt
Disney way of customer service, of why he wanted his
employees to treat guests a certain way. You're learning the
essence of becoming a Disneyland employee basically.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
So it's some in you know, in the in the building,
it's it's.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
It's inside the park, and there's more like hands on
its hands on. It's a lot of study work. You
watch a lot of videos. You watch a lot of
just good things employees have done, bad things, like Disneyland
has video of everything. Every interaction of this is an
example of a good interaction with a client, there's an
example of a bad interaction what could have been done differently?
(18:20):
In this you're learning situations on how to be a
better employee.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Since these are still a high school Well is it
all high school students?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, it's high school students.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Okay, So since these are all high school students, were
there any moments of classic where teachers are like quiet,
I see, like you know, no, because was everyone just
a good kid? No?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Everyone is a good kid, because if you think about it,
like these are the best of the best. These aren't
These aren't your f students that are and it's and
it's the people that want to do this are dedicated employees.
They don't just send anyone to this school. So it's
not the loser who ditches class all the time and
is failing all his classes. So you're not gonna You're
already getting that riff raff out of the situation in
(19:00):
the sense they're not even in the class to begin with.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Do you have to pay for this?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Really?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Free?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Wow? So you get picked and it's free yeah, oh wow?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And then and then at the end you get Disneyland
tickets and some cool stuff at the end once you graduate.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
How long is the process until you graduate? It was
like hours you put in.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
There was sixty eight months worth of schooling. It's a
long time. Every weekend, every weekend for a good six months.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Wow. Yeah, that's Saturday.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
My senior year, every Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Oh six months.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And at the end of this six months or however
long do you hear right away or they just say.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Hey, there's a graduation ceremony.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Don't don't call us, we'll call you sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
No, no, because now it's it's a big moment. There's
a huge graduation ceremony, and then they let you know
right at that moment you could put this on your resume,
and they almost encourage you. They help you. Then representatives
from kind of each land. If you're eighteen at that point,
you have to be eighteen to do a ride. I
wasn't eighteen yet, so to do a ride you have
to be eighteen. So I wanted to get in at
(20:00):
seventeen and then just start right at that point earning
the system. Becoming an employee. Then that was you start
in like outdoor vending, selling balloons, selling glow sticks for
the parades and stuff. There's only entry level those entry level.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Wait wait, the parking people is not entry level. The
one that just says, I it's jobs.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, that that you could do, like you could work
that back in the day when the parking lot was
in the front, that little kind of not a monorail
system but the trolley system that brings you to the front,
that you could work at under eighteen. But to actually
be a ride person you have to be eighteen years old.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Sow did how did you hear that you got hired?
And what was your first job.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
So then they bring people over from each land and
they help you apply. So they kind of like this
is how you fill out the application, and then you
kind of pick these are things that you could do
based on your age. So then they help you get
a great there's so many people that are applying to
be at Disneyland. Again, like you get put at the
front of the line. Then they give you times, they
set you up, and you could see how fast it is.
(21:01):
It was a quick process from graduating from the academy
to getting hired because you skipped all the like bullshit
of hapened to go through numerous interviews and long wait,
it's not munchy.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
You don't have to do any of that quick.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
It was like weeks versus months. It's super quick.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Is it safe to say that you pretty much get
a fast pass.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
You get a fast You definitely get a fast pass.
And I being good, but I didn't go to the academy.
I want to have been hired at Disneyland for sure.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Wow, Okay, that kind of gave you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
The end because then when the because you go through
multiple stages of hiring managers and they all see it
there O pulls out of your resume and they all
see Disneyland Academy graduate and it's like boom, you're on
to the next step. You already went to the next guy.
You went through like three managers within a week, where
we took other people months. You went through three hiring
managers within a week, and then you were hired like
(21:51):
two weeks later.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Where did they put you first?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I was an outdoor vending. It's a rotation really, and
so you're on main Street you're selling the big balloons
that everyone hold. But the one was cool is they
take care of all your costumes. You go on normal clothes,
and then the backstage lot I have is where all
your costumes are at the wash all your clothes. You're
always wearing clean, brand new looking clothes.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
So you don't come in here.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You don't know what land you're going to work in
until you show up that day. Then everyone's on a list.
They're like, Greg, you're in tomorrow Lands. Then you're wearing
the tomorrow Land costume and you're selling ice cream in
Tomorrow And then if you're in a fantasy land, then
you look like a country person.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
If you're like, did you have a favorite favorite outfit?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I wouldn't say I would when you when you're over.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
There, some of them are bad.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Thunder Mountain, you're dressed kind of like old you know,
classic nineteen twenties that look where you're not a cowboy,
but you're.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Like Face Mountain. They kind of have like a cool outfit.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Space Mountain has a cool outfit. But they're all there.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But you know, that's wild how you're rotating, and you
rotate you have to know how to sell ice cream.
You have to know how to do the ballulloons. Yeah,
they's a.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Long training process because you have to learn almost like
nine jobs.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Wait, so do you get that training in the academy
or do you get it like.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
A little bit And once you get higher, then it's
a long training process because you're learning multiple jobs.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
So my guess is the academy is just more about
the foundation of Disney Walt's vision how you treat customer service.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Customer and then the details come more. Lady, it's the
customer service got fingers. Well, y'all know that one things
that I learned from the Disneyland Academy, it sticks with
you for the rest of life. I've been in sales
pretty much my whole life, and so the things you
learn the Disneyland Walt Disney Way, I took it to
even other jobs that not at Disneyland because it's the
(23:46):
best way to interact with people, to lower temperatures when
there's issues with sales or conflicts. It's so many ways
to just minimize the situation and make things better.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Okay, So with your first position as a seventeen year old,
seventeen year old just doing what is it called again, like.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Outdoor vending consis out ding?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, just give us one two things that you remember
either a wild story or.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Was you know, tell us maybe something else was amazing
the thing before.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
We move on to your next level.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I would say I was working a wild story as
I was working over by the Matterhorn and I was
selling glow sticks for the nighttime parade. And you have
that was before everything's paid by credit card now, but
at that day it was cash and everyone had cash.
So it's it's amazing how much cash you had physically
on you at that point, and so everyone's giving you
(24:36):
twenties and hundreds and you're just seeing flow. I was,
it was nighttime, it was dark, goes over by a
matterhar and I looked down and I saw one hundred
dollars on the ground, and I'm like, okay, did I
drop the.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
One hundred dollars?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
So, as a seventeen year old, you see a hundred
bucks on the ground, a lot of money. You took
that money. I set it off to the side. I'm like,
I'm gonna take this money. I'm just gonna set it
off to the side, and I'm going to keep it.
Because you have two separate pockets. I worked out of
the other pocket the whole day, so I wouldn't blend
the two. Then you have to count your money at
the end of the day, and luckily it wasn't part
of Disneyland's money. And it's someone physically came up.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Because if you were missing a hundre, if you're a
missing while, you're missing one hundred.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
And when you go to count money, it's like you're
at a bank. There's twelve cameras on you count your money.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
It's a stories that you you guys go into like
a certain room and it's just security.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
It's a certain secure room because you have thousands of
dollars worth of money on Yeah, yeah, that's pre Now
everything's credit card. They don't want that. It's all credit card.
Everyone just scans, but back then it was cash.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Okay, all right, so you were sketchy as a seventeen
all right, so you have to wait till your eighteen.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You have to wait to your eighteen to work the rids.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Okay, So do you request that or do.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
They say hey, then you have to go through a
whole nother hiring process, not just really you're eighteen and
you just get shoved off to the matterhorn. You have
to go apply for that position. But then again, you're
already a Disneyland employee. Yeah, it's pretty much a shoe
and it's not like you need to go it's not
as an extensive as a hiring process. But you still
need to apply for a ride operator.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Okay, so you do that and yeah, same thing.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And then as you get older, then you work your
way up to management and it's like you go higher
and hire and hire within the system.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Do you pick a rider? Are you able to do
all of them?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Pick?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
There? You just you apply for a ride operator because
they move you around.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Okay, so you could do multiple rides.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Please don't want you working the same ride over and
over again, because they don't want you getting bored with it.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, they want you all the time, see you all
the time.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
You purposely learn all the rides, you wear all the costumes.
There's people that have like favors, Like there's those that
love working at the say the Haunted Mansion, and so
those people get to work that ride a lot, and
so you're working other rise as well.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
My cousin worked, well, he used to work there. He
he did all the rides in Tomorrowland.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, that's Face Mountain.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah. Is that a thing where I just want to
stay or again they're telling.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
You get you could pick that, you could pick. I
just want to be in Tomorrowland. But they're gonna rotate you. Yeah,
so you're not just always working Space Mountain.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Again, they want it to be fresh. They don't want
you getting bored. They want you acting like you're getting
on the ride for the first time every time too.
They don't want you just I'm calling the same to
how many in your party two and four people? Just
they don't want you to becoming doll.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I get impressed by that, by the way, when people
can count fast and remember like where they left off
in lane two eye line two three, eye lines amazed.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Once you start doing something, you know, ten thousand times
a day, you get pretty pretty damn good.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeahthing, So you got to do all the lands all.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I got to do all the pretty much.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh yeah, not selling. I wasn't eighteen yet, I didn't. No, no,
this is when you're eighteen. I got to do main Street.
I got to do tomorrow Land. You get to work
the pride parades at night and get sell the globe
products of all the people that walk up and down
Main Street and trying to sell you something before the
braid happens, all the like fun little glowing products at night.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Now to play a character, is that a whole different.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I think that's take That is one of the hardest
jobs to get. If you want to be tinker Bell
or if you want to be Bell, it's a certain look.
It's a shame that like certain people can't go be
tinker Bell right. Like it's sad because it's not like
certain jobs where it's an equal opportunity on this one.
(28:31):
Heavy people can't be tinker Bell just you can't do
it right, and so it's a shame. But those people
have the hardest jobs because your hours are really weird.
It's not an eight to five type of job. If
you're tinker Bell, you're literally only working a set time frame.
You're working the night time stuff, or you're going across
(28:52):
the matterhorn, you're flying across for the fireworks. You might
only work one or two hours a day. You get
paid a lot more, but you're only working like two
hours a day your tinker Bell, and that's all you are.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, let's let's go to the ride thing. Because when
I was a kid, when I was you know, even
in my twenties, I always thought it was cool the
people that pressed the button. But then sometimes you look
as an adult, You're like, man, this person hates their job,
Like they just have that look like I'm just pressing
a button. Yeah, did you ever do the pressing the
butt job? No?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Eighteen Yeah, that's even even the button pressers. You have
to be eighteen.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Wait wait, but did you not make it to eighteen?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Did to make it eighteen?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Okay, so that makes sense?
Speaker 1 (29:33):
All right, all right, I gotta let go before you
turned eighteen.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
So this is where the firing came in.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
This is when the firing came in.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Now, we you kind of gave us a star, like yeah,
but before we get to that, I guess you were
telling us about like little you know secrets and give
us some insight of the seventeen year old Greg.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Works, some of the stuff you saw behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Or something you could share.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
It's it's really it's the uniqueness of how quick you
could get. You'll be amazed at when you go to Disneyland,
how big Disneyland looks. But then once you're an employee
and you can start doing the backlots, there's all these
tunnels and different ways to get from Splash Mountain over
all the way to Tomorrowland within ten minutes where you
don't have to cut through the crowd. There's underground tunnels, tunnels,
(30:25):
there's there's back alley routes you could take, that way
you could get from You can get from one land
and the other within ten minutes. And they purposely don't
want employees.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Like excuse me, going through the crowd.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
They don't want you going through the crowd because then
you look stressed out, and then you're going to stress
out the crowd and you might cause like it. They
think it's going to be like a fire or something
because you're trying to get from Country Bear Jamboree to
Space Mountain within ten minutes, and the only way to
do that is to go underground background.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
You know, there's these viral videos now that I see
on TikTok where uh they sneak a camera again when
they're changing the characters that do you see that where
they're taking off the big head and yeah, the character.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Is funny because you'll see like Mickey Mouse, but then
they take a break and the dude takes his head off.
Smoke break, right, and it's Mickey Mouse, you know, but
you'll never see that on the stage. Wall always treated
it like you're on the stage, if you're if you're
interacting with the guests. You always got to act like
you're on the stage, like you're an actor or an actress.
And so it's the things you would do on stage
(31:30):
and backstage is old everything, you know, And it's crazy
when they take.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
A break, because you can't lose the magic.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Can't lose the magic, all right.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
So you so this doesn't stop bad Disneyland because you
tell us that you also work for another seems like
another fun job that we're gonna go next to, which
is medieval Time.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, from Disneyland. I went to Medieval Time.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Okay, So before we get to that, how did you
get fired?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah? How did you get fire? From Disneyland?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
So because his goal was fifty and only, Yeah, I din't
even make it.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
It was eighteen.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I'm telling you. I got fired for a really shitty reason.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Really.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
When I graduated from high school, my parents, I have
an older sister, and so my parents gifts to me
and my sister were we have family in Europe, and
so they're like, we're gonna let you go to Europe
for two weeks and we're gonna give you a trip
and go see family and stuff. And so I knew.
My sister got to go when she graduated. She was
two years ahead of me. And then it was my turn,
and I knew once I graduated in high school, I
(32:29):
was going to go to Europe for two weeks. So
six months before I left, I knew I was going
to go on vacation. So I asked for the time off,
filled out all the paperwork, had it approved six months
and events because I knew when I was going to leave,
and then I just kept reminding him five months, four months,
three months, Hey, just remind her in three months, I'm
gonna be gone for two weeks. Once it got to like, hey,
(32:49):
it's next week, they're like what. I'm like, Yeah, I've
been telling you. I've been telling you for six months.
They're like, oh, it's the summer. You can't leave in
the summer. This is our busiest time. And they fired
me on the spot because they're like, they're like, you
can't you can't leave in the summer. This is our
busiest time, and what are you doing taking What am
(33:09):
I doing taking two weeks off? I asked for the
six months off. How did it approve? And then kept
reminding you. They were like, yeah, we know it's on
the calendar.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
It was good.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Then when it got close to it, then they're like,
you can't leave. Fine, go on your vacation, but you're fired.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Was there a paper trail of it getting approved.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, yeah, all that right, But like the didn't care
because in their head, they'll just fire, They'll just hire
another seventeen year old. They don't care, they'll just hire
someone else Before we move on to them, You're just
kind of a number. At that point, Do you regret it? Yes,
because but then but then you kind of think about it,
(33:50):
my whole life would have been different. Probably would have
never left Anaheim. I wouldn't be here in Fresno doing now.
I'd be at Disneyland. Probably would have had a different wife,
a different kid, a whole different light because you're in
Anaheim and not Fresno.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Before before we move on, the last thing I'll ask
during that time, because I think my first job was
Wiener Snitchel And if I could be wrong, but if
I'm remembering right, I think minimum wage was like eight something,
eight dollars something during that time. Do you remember what
you were getting paid at that.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It was like five twenty five an hour? Minimum wage
was like five bucks. It was when I was seventeen.
That's wild. Yeah, it was like five.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Twenty five and you're working at Disneyland. You're working at
Disneyland and you're thinking fifty years. See that's unlimited rides.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I'll just hire another kid and pay them five dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, all right, so now we move was the next job?
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Medieval times?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
What made you go all right, and I'm gonna do
this next?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I mean kind of in the same city, right, not
too far?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Oh yeah about.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, well, park is like ten to fifteen minutes away
and they actually paid a lot better. Just seemed like
a fun job to do. And I'm like, everyone just
seemed to kind of gravitate. You either worked at Disneyland,
either worked at nuts Berry Farm, you worked at Medieval Times.
You did all the theme park type of if you
(35:21):
lived in that area, that's what you did. And they
would just run commercials like crazy because they were constantly
hiring because they were busy. Medieval Times to do three
shows a day, seven days a week, three hundred and
sixty five days a year. They take a couple of
days off or like Christmas and such. But Medieval Times
was one of the busiest attractions still is today. It's
(35:44):
still packs of house people love seeing nights crashing the
ship up.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Okay, so was this just a regular application.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, that's an academy and type thing. There's no academy
fortiple times. You have to just apply like a normal person.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
But that that Disney Academy probably look good on the resume, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
See, you get to keep that. You get to even
though you got fired from it, you get to keep
it on your resumes moving forward, and shit, I would
I would use it forever I would keep that on
my resumes. I don't use it now. I don't mean,
but when I was around that age, every resume that
I applyed.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Was this a was this a basic interview? And higher?
Because I was telling Jizo.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
About medieval times? Is a basic interview?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Okay? Because I was telling Jizo about years ago when
I was still like nineteen twenty, there was this arcade
at the Ontario Mills called game Works, and I applied
got past the first interview, and the second interview was
like a group class where we had to do skits
and stuff. So and I didn't get it that job.
(36:48):
So that's what I was asking, did you have to do?
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Like, oh do it? No, No, there's certain jobs that
you could get, Like you're not going to be a
night You're not going to be in the show. So
to working at medieval times, You're either going to be
a bar wench that's one of the jobs. You're gonna
be a server that brings you all the food. Either
work the bar, either work the food or in my case,
I was in the photography department. I took all the
(37:13):
pictures of everyone that comes in, takes a picture with
the king and a queen you take a picture with
the king and queen as you come into the castle,
and then you take a group shot at the table.
And then so there was the people that took the
pictures and there's a whole team that sold you the pictures,
and so you rotated between taking pictures and selling pictures.
So it was sales. You needed sales experience because you
(37:34):
had to convince people to buy a twenty dollars picture
of themselves and everyone's just like, shit, I just spent
this to get to it, and then you're trying to
hit them up. But then they're hitting you up with
all the and if they bring their kids, they're gonna
want the sword, they're gonna want this, and the bags,
the flags and all this medieval shit. And then you
get to the table and they're hitting you up for
another twenty dollars picture. There are nobody's going to come
(37:58):
around and it you'd be in sections either the Green
Knight or the Red Knight or the Blue Night. And
so you take these pictures. They bring it out in
this little folder and they're like, this is your picture?
Do you want it? And it's crazy because it's twenty bucks, right,
But if they didn't buy it. You literally just threw
that picture away. It's not like we kept them. Yeah exactly,
you either bought it or you didn't. And then so
(38:20):
have all these people that said no, you just throw
it away. So you take them in bunches, you bring
them back to the sales photography or and you got
to take them all out because you had to reuse
those frames. You didn't just talk. You toss the picture
but not the frame. Then you had to take that
picture out and put the next show's picture in and
just be ready for the next show.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
But they want you to do it that way, right,
because it's like you get to see it in the
frame and it's more enticing it.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Don't just bring the picture, it's ready to go. People
frame and they're right now want this, And they always
go to like the mom or something. You don't go
to one who's to say yes, You're going to go
to the mom who's going to say yes.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Am I mistaken?
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Did you just go recently Medieval Time?
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I've been there a few times, but the one that
I went to recently was the Pirate one, which I forget,
which yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they do the Pirates show,
which I don't think it's as good as Yeah, yeah,
it's not as good as there anymore.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
It might be. It was always struggling. People didn't go
to that show as much as Medieval Time.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Medieval Time it didn't catch on.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
I mean as a kid, you you would just see
Medieval Times when he.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Was in the Jim Carrey movie.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, all times.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I've only been there a couple of times. And the
times i've went, like, I was like pretty impressed, Like
I enjoyed the storyline.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Yeah, it was got into it guy and everything.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
He was like the Green Knight.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
The fun thing about the story dude, the stories changed
every day or is it the same story?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
The storylines the same, but the characters change change. Like
this show, it's the Green Knight.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
This show like the Winner.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Right, the Winner.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Yeah, but the very first time I went, I had
The Winner, which was dope.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So the first time I went Our Blue Knight, it
was the Blue Knight. He lost the first round, like
the game and he loses and our section is like,
but the storyline he comes back and saves the day everybody, Yeah,
he gets he gets the girl.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, it's actually pretty fun. I've went like before with
friends and if you get into it. That makes it
more fun. Everyone's cheering, and.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
The food's good. You get a whole retisserie.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Chicken with your hands and yeah, eat with.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Your hands, and you have it and you're drinking meat.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
But wait, let me stop right there real quick. Did
you have to wear the outfit?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
You had to wear the out I had to wear tights.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That probably wasn't fun.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
You had you had this fluffy shirt and with this
like vest and you had tight blue tights. They were tight.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
We might have to see a picture of head. Yeah, okay,
so yeah, how long did that job last?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I would say I was there like three years? Okay,
and so but then I didn't want I didn't want
to do that for the rest of my life. Now
I'm like eighteen nineteen. At that point, I wanted to
start focusing more on college and getting a career. Like
medieval Times is not going to be my career. It's
a job, and I wanted to like grow up and
get a grow up job, not just being a peasant
(41:24):
for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Now I already know the answer to this because you've
told us this, But for like podcast purposes, I'm going
to pretend like I don't know. Did you ever try
to go back to Disneyland a couple of years later
to apply?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
No, you can't because because once you're fired from Disneyland,
you can never get rehired again. Blacklisted. You could want,
you could, you could quit, but you can't get fired.
You can quit and go back when you can quit
and then have to go through the rehire process again.
But once you're fired for whatever reason, how do you
know failing money?
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (41:57):
They tell you?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Oh, okay, they tell you.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
Does that go for like all the parks?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Everybody? It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter
if you're a riote operator, doesn't matter if you're a manager,
It doesn't matter what you do at Disneyland. If you
get fired from Disneyland, you're black life.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
What could you go to? Like Disney World?
Speaker 1 (42:12):
You're fired from the you couldn't work downtown Disney.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
How about at the mall? Did Disney start the mall?
Because I heard that's connected.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
I would say no, yeah, probably, yeah, because it's the
same company.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
What about Disney affiliates?
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Maybe the affiliate.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
That would never worked the park ever? Again? Okay, you're
a black one.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
What brought you to? What brought you to Fresnel Fresnel State.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
At the time, I was picking a college. I was
dating a girlfriend at the time, and I thought that
was who I was going to be with. I'm not
with that person anymore. And we're both we're both at
college age, and we tried to find something that had
both of our majors. And she wanted to go to
Chico and I wanted to get out of It's like
everyone wants to get out of Orange County for some reason.
(43:00):
Was like, I want to get the hell out of here.
And so I'm like, I don't want to go to
Chico because my family's still in Orange County and I
don't want to be that far. So we're like Fresno
right in the middle. So we kind of compromise, and
it had her major and it had my major, and
so we went to both went to Fresnee State. Now
graduated in Fresleon State in two thousand and five. Nice,
I came here to FRESNOE in two thousand and one,
(43:21):
so I've been here since O one.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Okay, well, let's fast forward, you know till today. Obviously,
what is how do you feel about Disneyland? Now? Do
you do you go back often, you still feel the
same about it, Like I.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Try to go back as much as I can. I
can't afford a pass now because it passes like three
thousand in the city. So I've done a pass. And
so for someone in Fresno, if you have a season pass,
you have to go six times.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
To make it work.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
To make it worth it, you have to go at
least six times, and that's kind of hard to do
when you're in Fresne.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Yeah, not to mention, you got to pay for a
hotel every time.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
For hotel, it's a whole weekend type of thing where
if you're in Orange County you could go all the time,
you know, but if you're in Fresno, think about that.
You got to go almost every other month to Disneyland
to break even, and at that point it was just
hard to do. Like I did it for like a
year or two and I did five trips and it
was hard to get that six trip.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
You're almost like forcing it at that.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Point or you're losing money and it would have been
cheaper just to buy a ticket each time than buying
it all at once.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Well, at least you weren't getting blacklisted.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
There's like your photo and you can't even walk in you.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
But here's a crazy story about this. When I was
like thirteen, fourteen years old, I stole from Disneyland. That
was the thing to do. Everyone stole from things to do, right,
No trust me. It was weird locals. For local locals,
it was the thing to do. You would go steal
a keychain or something. And I got popped. I caught
stealing a keychain at tomorrow Land at like thirteen years old.
(44:53):
And it's weird that I got hired at Disneyland even
though I stole from Disneyland, Like it didn't show up
on your permanent list because you're at thirteen years old.
But when you get arrested at Disneyland, they arrestue and
you go backstage to Disneyland jail and they re in
a holding cell and you're in Disneyland jail. Then your
parent needs to come get you because you're a minor.
(45:14):
And that's the worst fucking feeling when your parent needs
to come bell you out of Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Jail at thirteen. You got you went to fourteen years old,
but you went to Disneyland jail.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Disneyland jail, is it really like a jail cell. It's
not jail wow, it's it's a it's a holding cell
for all the people that fuck up at Disneyland wow
and steal or get in a.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Fight, or those people get blacklisted from Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
I should have. Yeah, they they because you were the
pass and they cut my pass, and because once I
stole and then they cut it for that year. But
you weren't blacklisted to not apply the next year for
a pass. It's just the remaining year you were done
for that year.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
The last thing for me is, you know you talk
about you go back once in a while.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
I love it. I love Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
When you go back, does a feeling of just nostalgia
come back when you used to work there, like.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Or does it feel like it's not the same and
it's just consumerism its feeling.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I'm a big Disney nerd. I'm more of a sports nerd,
but Disney nerd for sure. And there's always a special
place in your heart. I love going back at Christmas times,
one of the best times to go to Disneyland Halloweens.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
But does the memories of the memories, Yeah, the memories everything.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
It's like it almost feels like home when you go there.
I grew up at Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
I would be there every weekend of my life, week
of my life. For almost a good portion of my life,
I lived at Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I mean, man, that was one I wish I worked
at a theme park.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Do you hang out the mall or do you go
hang out at Disneyland. It's like, that's how you got
to look at it good times. All the friends had passes.
It was two hundred bucks. It was two hundred and
fifty bucks for an annual pass at Disneyland.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
Yeah, like if you live in Anaheim or near there,
it's just automatic you go every day of the year.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Well, we appreciate you sharing the stories. Awesome fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
That's interesting. I'm sure it's the Academy is a lot
different now.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
It's more of a universe. It's more structured. It's even
harder to get into now.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, but that was some good information and we appreciate that. Greg.
Until next time, just could get me fire podcasts
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