#17: John Tieng - IRL Fall Guy, Learning to Fight, and Sharing Knowledge to Grow - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of 1000 Gurus.
Today's guest is John Tieng.
John is a filmmaker, stuntperformer, action designer,
dancer and movement artist Atthe age of 29,.
He made his first feature filmdebut during Christmas with the
movie the Mean One.
He was also featured in the TVminiseries Bloodline of the Grid
.
As of this recording, he has 17plus productions under his belt

(00:22):
.
John has also taught actors,dancers and movers how to
functionally fight and do actionfor a film and teaches weekly
at Swordplay LA.
Before evolving into a stuntperformer, he danced for 12
years.
John also studies boxing,taekwondo and weaponry.
In this episode, John and I goover his background in dance and
eventually the transition intofilm school and then doing

(00:43):
stunts and fight choreography.
We fanboy a bit over ourchildhood martial arts heroes
like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, andthen we take an inside look of
what it's like being a stuntmanlike the IRL Ryan Gosling in the
movie the Fall Guy.
And then we end on theimportance of helping each other
out within our communities andsharing knowledge that lifts
everyone up.
It was a very fun episode torecord and hopefully you guys

(01:07):
will enjoy it too.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoy this episode with John
Tieng.
Hello everyone and welcome backto 1000 Gurus.
Today's guest is John Tieng.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, thanks for being here,man, I really appreciate it.
So let me just go into how Iknow you.
So we met several years backback at Seaside Sessions, the

(01:30):
freestyle dance sessions inNewport Beach, through our
mutuals, Annie and Christy, andI think for me personally, I
think your freestyles werealways super crazy to me because
I guess for the audience Iwould describe it as like very
controlled, clean pictures,isolations and a lot of
musicality.
And then, since then, I've beenfollowing your career journey
on social media, which is reallycool you learning different

(01:50):
martial arts and then gettinginto stunt work and some
tricking and you were promotingsome of the different like
features that you were in.
And then, like most guests onthe show, like I really admire
and respect that like you areputting yourself out there to do
and pursue what you'repassionate about and I feel like
the audience would learn a lotfrom you.
So I really appreciate youbeing here.
Yeah, thank you for having me.

John (02:09):
It's nice to have a fellow Filipino.
Yes, you know, to just grabpeople that are interesting.
I wouldn't say I'm crazyinteresting, but I think I have
an interesting story.

J.R. (02:20):
Yeah, definitely.
We'll leave that up to theaudience to decide.
I think you're reallyinteresting, so I want to start
off with a few videos of yours.
So the first one is your 2024stunt reel.
So let's get into that realquick frame yes, nice, let's
just show a few seconds of this.
But he does some crazy stuffhere.
You know who doesn't like beingattacked by several people at

(02:43):
once exactly plus.
This is all real.
So this is all real.
Yeah, you know who doesn't likebeing attacked by several
people at once Right, exactly,Plus this is all real, so this
is all real, yeah.
It all hurts.
That's what they say about, youknow, like wrestling.
They're like wrestling isscripted, but it's real, it's
not fake, yeah, 100% real, yeah,glass on the face, legit, thank

(03:11):
you.
So that was crazy.
Like I said, mad respect foryou still doing all that stuff,
thank you.
So I mentioned, likechoreography and freestyle.
So you were big intochoreography and freestyle, at
least when I met you, or likebefore then.
We have a couple of videos forthat too, okay, so this next one
is this one's just fun thisone's.

John (03:27):
I just wanted to show it the highlight of my life in my
dance career.

J.R. (03:37):
See, he's a dancer, guys this is the highlight.

John (03:40):
I think we just need to show this one.
Yeah, that's it, that's, that'sit, that's it, that's fun.
I love that.

J.R. (03:46):
It's funny because there are some choreographies that I'm
in where I'm just likefurniture.
Where I'm like lifting someoneup or just sitting there and I'm
like I've been training allthese years just to do this yeah
, yeah.

John (03:59):
I think, it was funny because that performance I had
different variations of thatmoment.
I'm like I think on that day,right before I stepped out, I
was like I'm just going to walkout and stand there.

J.R. (04:08):
And I just want to do nothing Like whatever, I'm going
to walk off.

John (04:11):
What were the variations?
There was one where I took aselfie because the lyrics is
your boyfriend is such adouchebag.
Yeah, yeah.
So how do I make myself looklike that?
I'm like one was like just onmy phone, one was like just on
my phone, one was like justtaking a selfie, and I was like
different things.
I was like I'm just going towalk out, do nothing.

J.R. (04:30):
Yeah.

John (04:30):
Yeah, and then that's it.

J.R. (04:31):
I think it worked.

John (04:32):
Yeah, it's actually just the little shrug and the little
look and then just in that thananything else.

J.R. (04:42):
That's how it is, that's, yeah, that's how it is all right
.
Third video this is your actualchoreography, or more more
sophisticated.
Like I said, what I like aboutyour choreography is your

(05:08):
musicality is really good, butthe movements also make a lot of
sense.
Yeah, as a you know, as achoreographer myself, you can do
moves, but I don't know.
I think I can appreciate itwhen it's like that move makes
sense for that musicality.

John (05:20):
Yeah, I think the way I was choreographing at the time
was like very storytelling yeah.

J.R. (05:25):
That makes sense Nice.
Okay.
I think we can move on to thelast one now.
So the last one's yourfreestyle, so we'll show a
little bit of this, but this isthe first.

John (05:34):
This is the first time I did Seaside Session.
Oh really, yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay, gotcha, it's thefirst time I ever freestyle.
Okay, man, so this was my firstnight with you guys and I was

(05:55):
like okay, and I had no ideawhat this song was.

J.R. (05:59):
Oh yeah, no idea.
That's what I loved about thefreestyle sessions.
It's like, all right, we'regoing to play a song, just go
for it, because that's whatfreestyle is.
That's what I loved about thefreestyle sessions is like all
right, we're gonna play a song,just go for it, because that's
what freestyle is.
That's what it was.
Yeah, let's go making us lookbad man making all of us look
bad good times all right, allright, thanks, solomon nice.

(06:23):
so that is the john ting that Iknow, but yeah, so you've been
doing all this other cool stuff,so we'll get into it.
So first question is normal iswhat is your origin story Like?
Where'd you grow up, what wereyour main influences and what
were your aspirations like as akid growing up to now?

John (06:46):
don't think a lot of people know with you and you,
I'm actually born in philippines, but I was raised in la pretty
much my entire life, because I'mactually adopted from the
philippines.
Oh okay, yeah, there's a bigstory there.
I didn't know that you know wecan get into later on, but yeah,
so I grew up in la, in alhambraspecifically, and then I
started dancing.
My movement life started when Iwas like in third grade,
started when I was watching andlistening to in sync backstreet

(07:07):
boys, bernie spears, christinaaguilera, all our 90s hit groups
, you know, learningchoreography just through their
music videos or theirperformances.
So my choreography mind startedgoing.
So learning through a camera,learning, learning by watching,
and then, getting into highschool, I joined my all-male

(07:27):
dance team, then Did that forall my high school life and then
after that I got into collegeand joined Barcada Modern and a
bunch of teams after that andthen, yeah, I did a good maybe
five, six years of collegiatecompetitive dancing and that's
kind of how we kind of know eachother.

J.R. (07:44):
Yeah, five, six years of collegiate competitive dancing
and that's kind of how we kindof know each other.
Yeah, so you were dancing sinceyou were little and inspired by
those sort of like 90s hitgroups and stuff like that, was
it like okay, as a Filipino, youknow, stereotypically we dance
out of the room we sing all thisother stuff, yeah.
So then how did that come into?
Was it like you just naturallythought that?
Or was it like people aroundyou or influences that are like,
yeah, you should try dancing?
What was that Inherence?

(08:05):
Is it nurture nature?

John (08:06):
I think it just growing up .
I loved music and seeing peopledance to music was just like.
It just felt good.
It felt like it looked veryfreeing, very therapeutic.
I think as a kid that justlooks fun.
I just want to do it.
They look like they're havingfun.
I, yeah, you know, I just wantto do it yeah, they look like
they're having fun.
I want to do what they're doingand then, as inspiration
growing up, my cousin, genevieve, was a also a dancer, so I

(08:30):
think she had a lot ofinspiration for me.

J.R. (08:33):
I see, I see so then.
But did you?
Did you go to school, somewherelike college or anything?

John (08:38):
so I did a lot of community college at the time,
right right after high school.
Again, I didn't really knowwhat I wanted to do because my
my I wasn't big on school, so Iwas more into the arts gotcha I
just want to do what likeartistic stuff yeah, which so I
I ended up going to film schooland I did my three years, got my

(08:59):
bachelor's and that's how Ihave my whole film production
side yeah, I was gonna ask aboutthat.

J.R. (09:02):
So then, did you know?
So it seems like you're sayingyou enjoyed the arts, you
enjoyed dancing and music andall that stuff, and then you
eventually went to film school.
Did you inherently know thatthat's the path you wanted to do
?
Or, as you kind of dug deeperand you're like oh, this is a
lot of fun.
And then you're like, okay,let's do film school.

John (09:31):
Yeah, I think didn't happen right away.
Um, as I did college, kind oflike, just kind of just roaming
around a little bit, I wasthinking about I was like I love
films and I've been watchingfilms my entire life and I was
like I think I just want to dothis and because during dance we
were filming dances yeah,excuse me, we were filming
dances and that kind of bledinto what became my love for
film.
You know, I was like I had, Iknew what to do with the camera.
I was like I want to go shotmovies.
I mean, growing up, I thinkacting was also another thing

(09:51):
that I enjoyed, because as kidswe always played pretend.
So playing pretend was a bigtalent of a kid.
Now I just get to do it as anadult.
So I was like okay, film, Iknow how to use a camera,
there's acting.
Why don't I just get to do itas an adult?
So I was like okay, film, Iknow how to use a camera,
there's acting.
Why don't you get into film,you know?
So that's kind of like thestart of it.

J.R. (10:11):
So then, after film school , what was like the?
I don't know if you had like acareer trajectory or like, uh,
okay, I want to eventually getto this or do that.
But could you walk us throughmaybe like your thought process,
as you are?
You you know, going to school,community college and then film
school.
What were your aspirations atthat point?

John (10:28):
So that kind of also bleeds into my stunt career.
Well, for my film career Iwanted to be an editor, because
I started as an editor beforefilm school and then I was like,
ok, I want to go to film schoolto learn more about editing.
When I got into film school Iwas like, ok, well, I learned a
lot about the production sidehow to use a camera, how to use

(10:48):
lights, how to use the soundsystem and that kind of led me
into directing.
And at the time of all my filmproduction schooling, that's
when I got into fighting as well, so my fight career started at
the same time.
So it was funny because duringwhile I was in school at the osa
, class would start at nine.

(11:09):
I would already be in the gymat seven training.
So my day started very earlyevery day and then went to
school.
So that's kind of how my careerin film and stunts kind of
started.
Yeah, I see, I see.
But going back to your question, goals wise, I wanted to be an
editor, I wanted to edit movies,so that was like my goal goal.

J.R. (11:29):
So it was like your goal at that time was to be behind
the computer, you know editing,but then you found yourself like
being hands-on, you're filming,directing, and then you got
into like stunt work.
So how did that?
Well, I guess that kind ofanswers the question right Like.
Well, I guess that kind ofanswers the question right Like
you just started doing stuff.
Yeah, how did you like get intothe position where now you're
like in front of the camera,like being shot?
Was it just that process ofbeing in film school that you

(11:51):
naturally found yourself infront of the camera?

John (11:53):
I think being behind the camera was nice.
But then as a dancer growing up, we're like we love being in
front of the camera, we loveperforming.
So that kind of bled into why Iwanted to be a stunt performer.
And when I started fighting Istarted meeting a lot of stunt

(12:15):
people who taught me everythingI know now.
So that led me to being infront of the camera and my love
for film even more, because that, what I learned in school,
helped me be a better performer,you know.
So.
I understand camera, Iunderstand lighting, I
understand sounds, I understandwhere things are and how
everything works on set.
So now when I perform peopledon't really need to give me too

(12:36):
many notes because I understandwhat's happening.

J.R. (12:39):
Right, like the technical stuff behind the entire
production, not just kind oflike your area of your acting or
performing whatever.
But it's okay.
You need to consider yourblocking the lights, the sound,
the camera and everything itmakes a lot of sense.
So then my next question is howdo you connect the dots between
you know, this passion, thispursuit of dancing?

(13:00):
You know you're doing this forforever and then you're going to
film school, like how do youconnect the dots there of, like,
how did that transition intofight, fighting?
And before we recorded this, Itold you how my background is
kind of like the opposite ofyours.
Like my family, we all didmartial arts growing up.
Yeah, so I did martial artsbefore I started dancing, so
that was kind of like my lens,but then you were kind of you

(13:20):
dance for forever and then youstart getting into fighting.
So could you connect the dotswith how you made that
transition from you know dancingto sure film and then fighting?

John (13:30):
so my dancing.
I did it for a good 12 years ofmy life, and then, when I
transitioned to martial arts, itwas actually very easy.
But there is a funny story ofwhy I started fighting After I
stopped dancing for a while.
After my 12 years of dancing,actually, my knee was not good.

(13:52):
You know, I have dancer knees.
I guess you can say and myright knee specifically.
My patella was overstretchedright.
All the knee drops, all theback flips, whatever right
You're saying, that's not goodfor your body, definitely not
yeah, yeah.
So then you go to the not, yeah,yeah, but yet I do it now, yeah
, yeah.
So I got knee surgery right andthen I got addicted to the

(14:13):
healing process.
So in my recovery which wassupposed to be six months, right
, I did it in three and I gotaddicted to healing and I was
thought about, I was like I did12 years of dance.
I really like this healingprocess right now.
How far can I push my body?
That's when the fighting, theitch for fighting, started.
Yeah, which is really weird.
Yeah, I was like yeah, youshould fight, you shouldn't mess

(14:36):
up your body more.
I'm like well, I think I saw itas you know, knowing getting to
understand your body even moreso that's why I started fighting
.
So that's my, to connect thedots a little more, as a dancer,
learning how to fight waslearning a new style.
Yeah, that's all it was.
So it was a good exploration tofind the love for movement

(14:57):
again I like that.

J.R. (14:58):
I also like how it's a combination of your different.
So dancing or fighting is likea different dance style, yeah,
but now you have this experiencein like production, producing
these films and then so now it'slike kind of a marriage of
those things.
So it must have been like acrazy experience that you're in
it now and you're like, wow,this is like everything that I
enjoy.

(15:18):
So it's nice to have that sortof feeling.
So then at that point in time,so you know, you transition from
dancing to fighting and thenyou're addicted to the healing
process, like you said, seeinghow far you can push your body.
Were there any like influencesthat other influences that got

(15:39):
you into specifically?

John (15:40):
fighting.
I mean, I don't know, maybe Ican make an assumption.
You also like martial artsfilms, right?
Yeah, yeah, so there's that.
There's a little guy namedjackie chan, who not really well
known yeah, yeah, he's kind ofa nobody, but jackie chan was a
big inspiration, you know, notonly for me but for a lot of the
stunt community, because heactually created what we call
wrecks, our falls.
He created a staple for peopleto learn how to fall.

J.R. (16:01):
Oh, I see.

John (16:01):
These are the falls, and he created this whole dictionary
of it.
So everything, all the fallsthat you see on film, everything
is Jackie Chan created, whichis really cool, but Jackie Chan
was definitely one of them as akid I was very into power
rangers, very into, you know,teenage mutant ninja turtles for
film wise three ninjas was abig thing.

(16:22):
Yeah, I mean, there's a bunch ofmartial arts film that I grew
up, especially chinese martialarts that I watched, that I
don't even know the names ofanymore and they're like on vhs,
you know.
So a lot of it was inspired,honestly, by my dad, who showed
me these films, like thesemovies, these Chinese movies
specifically, and I just fell inlove with it.

J.R. (16:43):
Yeah, so growing up there was a lot of like influences
there, I see, I see, yeah, forme it was a lot of Jackie Chan
also, but also a lot of Jet Lifilms.
Jet Li definitely A huge Jet Lifilms.
Jet Li definitely huge Jet Lifilm.
Oh yeah, I always watched.
We had a lot of his tapes aswell or DVDs and stuff, yeah.

John (16:57):
So it was super crazy.
If you could name one of JetLi's films, that off the top of
your head, what would it be?

J.R. (17:01):
okay.
So there's the.
He had the Once Upon a Time inChina films, but there's also
was it Double Dragon orsomething like that or something
else that I used to watch a lot.
It might have been like TwinDragons or Double Dragons.
One of those two, I think it'sTwin Dragons, twin Dragons Okay,
it's one of those.
And then and also his Americanones like Kiss of the Dragon,
and the One, the One, I wasgoing to say the One.

(17:22):
I played all those movies everysingle, like nonstop.
Yeah, the One is crazy, theOne's crazy.

John (17:39):
yes, also because my sister, my mom, were like huge
alia fans I mean myself as well.
So it's cool to see him inhollywood films, because we'd
watch all of his like chinesefilms.
Yeah, and then seeing him inromeo must die.
I think romeo must die was hisfirst american film okay, yeah,
yes, jet li, yeah, jelly's a guy.

J.R. (17:46):
Yeah, and jackie chen.
You know that movie, that wherethey were both in, that came
out like maybe 2010 or somethinglike that.

John (17:52):
um, yeah, I know you're you're talking about.
You know what I'm talking about, right, where it's like the kid
goes into this world, yeah.

J.R. (17:56):
And then, of course, jackie Chan's like the drunk guy
.
Yeah, jet Li is another oldsage dude.
That was pretty funny.
I was like man, my two martialarts heroes are in this movie.
That's the first film they werein together on the topic of
stunt work and I know we'regoing to get into, like, the
dangers of action work, but werethere any specific
opportunities or connections orstories that you can, I guess,

(18:21):
walk us through that got you towhere you are today?
I know a lot of.
I can make an assumption.
So, like film industry it's youknow connections and who you
know and who can refer you tothese different roles.
But when transitioning to okay,I kind of just do this on my
own for fun were there any sortof like connections,
opportunities that you got togot through someone else that
got you more into the industry?

John (18:40):
yes, a lot of it has to deal with training.
It also depends on where youtrain.
Obviously, there's a lot of,there's a lot of martial arts
studios out there, some specificgyms that are catering to stunt
performers would be joining ourmovement.
There's tempest, free runningnow, and one that I work at

(19:02):
which is called swordplay la.
There's again.
There's many othersspecifically, but like they're,
these are some of the gyms thatcater to building stunt
performers.
Oh, I see so.
So training at those locationsyou meet a lot of performers,
from acting to circus, to stuntsand to even dancing.

(19:23):
So it's like the people youmeet and that's kind of what the
whole industry is.
Whoever you meet, pretty muchyou become friends and then you
train, you train, you trainnonstop and you build trust
around that with people aroundyou and they're like hey, I like
the way you move, I trust you.
We fought together before.
Can you be in this project?

(19:43):
Yeah, that's kind of how it ismakes sense.

J.R. (19:46):
I imagine that's kind of like people who want to get into
being in the dance, likeindustry, right where it's.
They take classes, they meetpeople, they put out works and
then they build theseconnections and they're like,
hey, I have this thing with thisartist coming up.
Do you want to be in it?
Because I've seen what you'vedone.

John (19:59):
That's exactly the same.
So it's just like that.
Yeah, exactly the same.

J.R. (20:02):
Yeah, because I was going to ask.
The next question is like forthe audience who are listening
to this how do I get into that?
And maybe what are some piecesof advice or insights that you
could pass along, I think if youever want to get into film
fighting learn how to actuallyfight.

John (20:21):
Yeah, because in actual like martial arts, actual
martial arts.
One thing that I like to referto because I am also a teacher
in film fighting.
I teach functional filmfighting at Sorbet, la, and then
I recommend people to takeboxing classes if they want to
learn how to kick, taketaekwondo classes if they want
to learn like more special stuff.

(20:41):
Then you know muay thai.
Just, I think the more you know, the better of a performer you
are and it's like kind of wecall it an arsenal.
Right, you have a, you have yourarsenal of different skill sets
, and the more you know, themore you get hired for pretty
much.
So for me specifically, Itrained in boxing, taekwondo,

(21:03):
jinkendo, and I also learnedlike a bunch of weapon stuff.

J.R. (21:07):
So that has gotten me a lot of jobs and as a not only as
a stunt performer, just as aregular performer and it's kind
of crazy because I would imaginelike fighting as like a boxer
or like a jujitsu or like withlike guns, or you know, is it
gunplay, is that?
Yeah right, we could call itgunfu gun, yeah, yeah is like it
does look like a differentstyle of martial arts, but also,

(21:29):
you know, from a dancingcontext it is kind of like we.

John (21:31):
We always, whenever we teach or whenever we like I have
choreography.
We're just like dancing yeah,you know we're dancing with a
partner, you know, so we.
One of the styles we alsorecommend is like doing tango a
lot of partner work partner work.
You build connection betweentwo people and you learn
distancing.
You learn how to move with eachother.
It's exactly how choreographyis, so anything that you see on

(21:52):
film that's between two fightersor more than one fighter,
they're just dancing with eachother.

J.R. (21:57):
That's all.
It is Nice.
Is there something about stuntwork or performing stunt work
that people might not know about?
I know that's probably a big,open-ended question, but
something like an insight intoyour world that people might not
know.

John (22:12):
Yeah, if you watch the film film fall guy, which is a
actual stunt film, yeah, oh,with ryan gosling, yeah, yeah,
that's that was catered to likestunts performers.
One thing that they mentionedthat's very, that's very clear
is that it all hurts.
It all hurts it all hurts, itall hurts, it is we, and that

(22:34):
when if hurts, it all hurts, itis real If you watch the film.
He does this a lot.
He gives a thumbs up.

J.R. (22:39):
Oh, right, right, she's hate that thumbs up.

John (22:41):
Yeah, I hate that thumbs up, but that's actually what we
do.
That's 100% what we do, becausewhat people don't know is that
when we have a wreck or a fall,that we do.
We can't really show painbecause in the industry, time is
money and we want to keepworking.
Yeah, you know, if we get hurt,we don't get paid for the next

(23:02):
day.
We don't get paid for the nextday, we have to leave.
They replace us right away,which sucks.
That's just how the industry is.
You know, time is money.
So what we do, we give thethumbs up even if we're in so
much pain.
Yeah, we try to pull throughall the way to the end.
There's things calledadjustments that we get If
they're doing something specialthat's very dangerous for us and

(23:23):
, for example, we get hurt.
They give us an adjustment,which is a good amount of money
on top of what we usually get,but we always try not to get
hurt.
That's the main thing.
Safety is always number one andwe make sure not only we are
safe, our actors are safe thatwe're working with and everyone

(23:44):
around us is safe.

J.R. (23:44):
That's like the main thing right, makes sense, yeah, but
yes, it all hurts, guys.
It hurts real, yes, for real.
Yeah, were there any favoritesor most memorable moments that
you've had doing stunt work thusfar?
That come to mind?

John (23:56):
My favorite moment in my career as a stunt performer was
actually working on an 88 Risingproject with Akina Jing.
That was my first time workingwith 88 Rising, really great
crew.
I got to work with Andy Cheng.
Andy Cheng is one of thechoreographies, choreographers

(24:16):
and stunt coordinators for shangchi.
He and my buddy, joseph lee,were both coordinators and
choreographers for shang chi, sothe fact that I got to work
with them was very cool and it'slike I'm working with andy
ching right, oh my.
So it was like my little fangirlmoment and I think, besides
that, the whole crew was reallynice.

(24:38):
I got to something that peopledon't know about this music
video is that I got to wire rigand help with the pulling,
because Akina Jing is on wiresand I get to help pull her in
the air while she's on the wireharness.
So that was my other job asbesides being a stunt performer,
but on top of that, on the dayof set, my buddy joseph because

(25:00):
he was the dp, he was thedirector of photography.
He was on camera.
He was like hey, john, can youhop on camera b right now,
because I trust you, yeah,because he knows that I shoot as
well.
Yeah, it's like I was like sure.
So he had me hop on camera.
And it's funny because on themusic and during the music video
I was like I know what shotsare mine.
I'm like, oh, that's my shotyeah, it's really cool.

(25:23):
So that's something that wasn'tyou know.
People won't know which is, butfor me it's like a very special
moment, like having thedirector understand my skill
sets and trusting me to dosomething such a, to have such a
big responsibility in thismusic video nice yeah, that's
the important of having a widearsenal and your repertoire to

(25:43):
be able to do differentpositions exactly that's why I
was like I recommend people weall do it now like to not only
be a performer, but be afilmmaker, so learn about
cameras learn about lighting.
Learn about editing, because Ithink now, in this day and age,
like that's what they're lookingfor.
You know, people are lookingfor people who have a very wide
skill set, and that's those arethe people that get hired every

(26:05):
time.

J.R. (26:06):
Makes a lot of sense.
One of the other things youmentioned was like how does high
impact work, like stunt work,affect our bodies and what is
required to either mitigate thedamage or what is the recovery,
recuperation process like?
So any aspect of that you wantto touch on yeah.

John (26:20):
So before getting to the recovery process, because that's
obviously a must, but we haveto prepare ourselves so much
before we get into a shoot.
So if I know I'm going to betaking like 20 falls on in this
production, I have to practicethose 20 falls at least over 100
times.
So that means I go to the gym,I work out, get my body prepared

(26:43):
, I make sure it's good enoughto perform and then I work on
those specific falls where Iknow I can land it safely,
obviously showing very highimpact.
But being able to do it 20times, you know, because a lot
of times on set you're not goingto do one fall once.
It's very unlikely when you doit's gold.

(27:05):
Yeah, yeah, I'm like I get todo this fall once.
Oh, thank God, that means I cansave my body for the next one.
Yeah, yeah.
So we prepare our bodiesbeforehand to get into
situations like those.
If there's ever a moment where,like, something goes wrong and
we do hurt ourselves, what welike to do is obviously take a
break, you know, from moving fora while, but you know getting

(27:26):
massages, you know acupunctureis a thing, cupping is a thing.
There's many different recoverythings that you can do to heal
the body and for us, I like todo it every two weeks, even if
I'm not performing Right,because training will always
stay high intensity, no matterwhat, because you never know
when you get the job.
You know We'd be training fivedays straight.

(27:49):
I get a call or an email hey,can you come in tomorrow?
We need you for this doublinggig.
I'm like okay well.
I'm ready to go.
So that's kind of what we haveto be every time.

J.R. (27:59):
So just like staying ready , keeping your body ready
Absolutely, and then also, likeyou said, taking care of
yourself after that wholeprocess is like a must, because
your body is like your vehicleright, like your investment.
So I know we probably alreadytouched upon this, but we talked
about the dangers of action,work, and I know it's a very
risky, high-impact sort of job,but also advice to those who

(28:24):
want to get into what you'redoing.
If you could give your youngerself some sort of words of
wisdom before you're gettinginto this field.
Are there any?

John (28:31):
thoughts on those.
One thing I wish that I didback then was stay in martial
arts.
Obviously, my movement careerwent to dancing more.
But I mean again, I don'tregret it, but to do what I do
today, I wish I had the skillsets of many different martial
arts, starting at a young age.
Obviously, as a younger kidyour brain kind of absorbs more

(28:57):
obviously.
So what I would tell my youngerself was to stick to martial
arts and let your body adapt.
Anything that kind of goes yourway Makes sense.

J.R. (29:07):
Most martial arts is one of those things where it's good
for you, it's healthy for you,but also functionally it's good
to know martial arts.

John (29:13):
Yes, I think it's also good for an's, good for an
everyday you know thing.
You know it's.
It's all about discipline, it'sall about, you know,
understanding your body.
And I think people who,honestly, I think people who do
martial arts are scary.
Yeah, they're scary peoplebecause they're the most calmest
in situation and they're, likeI said, they're the most
dangerous person in the room.
You know, it's a, it's funnybecause, you know, when we were

(29:35):
meeting before this, you know,we were grabbing a coffee, right
.

J.R. (29:38):
I was like sometimes I think to myself, yeah, I can't
think I'm the most dangerousperson I don't doubt that yeah
so it's a funny thought, butit's, you know, it's true yeah,
on that note, it's likeconfidence, right, because I
think I told a story before.
But I did martial arts when Iwas younger like eight, nine,
ten and then in high school Ikind of got into a fight not
really.

(29:59):
But then later on I had a dreamthat I got into a fight and I
couldn't defend myself because Iwas out of practice, I wasn't
really training in a style.
So the next day I told my mom Iwas like can you sign me up for
something like taekwondo orsomething?
Because I was also learning howto trick, but I also wanted to
know how to fight again.
And so I did that.
And then I think mysubconscious was telling me you
don't feel confident right nowBecause if you were in an actual

(30:19):
fight you wouldn't feelprepared.
And so after relearning martialarts, then I'm like okay, my
confidence came back.
And now, as someone who knowsmartial arts, that confidence is
something that is really goodfor you and very valuable to
have.

John (30:32):
Yeah, confidence is a very big thing that.
That comes with the learning ofmartial arts for sure.
It's also gives you thesituational awareness of what's
happening around you, of course.

J.R. (30:43):
Last question on stunt work is have you ever had an
issue with a stunt because youfelt like it wasn't safe?

John (30:49):
100, yeah, all the time that happens with a lot of low
budget films just fall off ofthis.
Yeah, yeah, that's how it works, you know that's well for me
because I've been in it for awhile now.
Before, when I was starting mycareer, I was like I'll just say
yes to anything kind of whatyou have to do to build your
portfolio, you know.
But now it's like whenever myquestions before I get into the

(31:11):
actual shoot is like what are we?
Doing, doing.
What is what you're looking for?
And do we have mats, do we havesafety, do we have all these
precautions beforehand?
And if there's a red flag thatgoes up, then I'm like, okay,
well, we can't do that becausethat's dangerous.
So it's something that you haveto clock in before the actual

(31:31):
shoot day, because, if, butagain, I've been in situations
where I've had to say no or I'vehad to leave set because it was
just too dangerous, not onlyfor me but for your actors,
right, you know I was like andthen a lot of those jobs are
again low budget films where thedirector wants something very
ambitious but they don'tunderstand how it works.

(31:53):
So I again, I for me, my job isto explain it to them.
This is what you need to dothis safely.
And if they don't want to payfor it, I'm like, okay, well,
you, you could find someonethat'll give you free mats.
Yeah, free safety.
Please find them and tell meabout it.
I would love that you know.
But, yeah, those are very bigthings that that you need to

(32:15):
watch out for you you know whenyou get into this business.
Safety is number one.
If you don't feel safe, justsay so.

J.R. (32:21):
All right, so like maybe a slight pivot, but you mentioned
like supporting each other inour communities as one of the
things you wanted to talk about,and I know you've worked with
so many different people invarious fields and, like you
train as well, like you trainother people, would you want to?

John (32:38):
elaborate on this idea of supporting each other in our
communities, yeah you know,coming from dance, like what I
loved about dance at the timewas the love for it, right, the
love for dance.
And everything was sharedequally.
I was shared in knowledge ofhow to become a dance, how to
fall in love with dance.
I think this goes the samething with stunts Like how do we
love the movement, you know?

(32:59):
How do we love to fight?
How do we love to do falls?
You know, that's kind of aweird saying hey, I love to fall
, but honestly I love to fallbecause I know how you know.
I think how we support eachother is by sharing that
knowledge.
You know knowledge.
You know not trying to keepinformation when we're all

(33:19):
trying to do the same thing.
You know, I think there's a lotof times where I've seen people
kind of gatekeep this whole.
You know industry, and it's avery big thing, it's a very it's
an issue honestly, and me as ateacher, I want to share
knowledge as much as I canbecause I think your journey is
no different than mine.
I think that sure we're.
I may be a few years ahead, butI want to get you there too.

(33:41):
You know we're all trying to dothe same thing, we're all
trying to share, we're trying todo art.
So I think we need to share theknowledge, anything we need to
share the time and opportunitiesfor people to.
You know, grow and I think thatthe main thing.
So I think as a community, weshould just be able to again
share knowledge but have fundoing it.
It shouldn't feel like a job.

(34:04):
I don't think any job shouldfeel like a job.
If we want to grow, then weneed to make it fun.
We need to make itunderstandable for people to
really just grow with each otherso yeah, I love the sentiment
like how does that manifest inactuality?

J.R. (34:21):
are there any sort of things that people should
consider, in whatever fieldthey're in, of giving back or
helping share to lift that youknow the tide that that lifts
all ships, sort of thing likeare there some actionable things
people can do?

John (34:33):
I think one of the main things is just being nice, Be
kind guys.
Be, kind, be kind guys.
But yeah, I mean, I think whatI learned from teaching is that
we all learn differently.
We all learn at differentspeeds, we all learn in
different creative ways.
So if you can understand thatwe are all different and knowing

(34:54):
how to teach people, how toshare information in a certain
way, then I think that's whathelps people grow.
If I were to teach you how tofight, obviously you know how to
fight, but if you didn't knowhow to fight, I would teach you
very differently than I wouldteach someone that doesn't know
how to fight.
Right, obviously you know howto fight, but if you didn't know
how to fight, I would teach youvery differently than I would
teach you know someone thatdoesn't know how to fight or
move.
You know, but there's differentspeeds at what people, how
people learn.
But again, I think the mainthing is just being kind, you

(35:16):
know, not being aggressive inthe way you teach or not being
like, not getting upset thatpeople learn slower or, you know
, don't be in, don't beimpatient, you know, yeah, just
be patient with everyone andjust understand that, hey, like
we're all trying to do the samething again, you were at one

(35:38):
point the same as them.
You know you weren't at such agood performer until you.
Someone taught you know, sothey gave you the same thing.
So I think we need to continuethat, yeah.

J.R. (35:47):
I like that.
I think one part of it, too, isas you were talking.
One thing that came to mind was, if I want to grow as a person
and in my artistry, my craft,teaching others is one of the
best ways to learn yourselfAbsolutely, because it
solidifies what you know andhelps you translate that to
someone else, translate that tosomeone else.
But on top of that, if you canteach someone else and they can
now grow, you have someone elselike a partner who you can learn

(36:08):
from, and I have a belief thatwhatever you put out into the
universe comes back to you.
So if you're building thiscommunity, if you're helping
people learn and grow,eventually their growth will
come back to you because maybethey'll help you out with
something else, and now it is arising tide that lifts off ships
, so it's like you're benefitingyourself from helping other
people instead of this sort ofgatekeeping mindset of okay,

(36:30):
well, I just need to focus onmyself.
And I get it in certainindustries.
It's very cutthroat.
It's very like dog-eat-dog,it's a zero sum.
But I think people discount theidea of giving back and
contributing and how much thathas an effect on their
longer-term career as a personwho people rely on because
they're so generous with theirknowledge and they're constantly
learning, because they're alsoconstantly teaching.

(36:52):
So I totally like that.
Are there any?
I know we might have talkedabout this, but are there any
habits, mindsets or behaviorsthat you think are important to
cultivating community and aresupporting others?
Maybe we talked about thisalready, but specific mindsets
or behaviors?
Or to cultivating community andare supporting others.
Maybe we talked about thisalready, but specific mindsets
or behaviors are I think one one, one habit that's good to have
is to be adaptable.

John (37:14):
Learn to how, learn how to grow in different areas you
know, like, for example, on afilm set you know, not
everything is going to goplanned.
So learning how to be adaptablein any situation will keep the
production moving.
You know so as a fighter.
A lot of the times I mean, okay, let's, let's connect it to a

(37:35):
dance scenario.
Right, we are performing onstage, I'm on the right wing,
you're on the left wing, you'renot there.
They tell me hey, john, you gotto learn the left side.
I'm like oh, okay, yeah, thatmeans I have to flip the
choreography.
But that's the same thing asfilm and film fighting.
Like sometimes, when I'mfighting my partner, who I've
been training with constantlyfor the month straight, right,

(37:55):
he's sick for the production.
I'm like okay, director comesto me hey, john, you got to
learn the other side.
Okay, great, I know.
Okay, great, I know the otherside.
Yeah, yeah, I've been doing it,you know, with my partner.
So learning how to be adaptablein any situation especially
what cameras around you, withlights around you, a bunch of
you know production people,right, and then learning how to

(38:16):
adapt to that situation isalways the key thing, you know.

J.R. (38:19):
So a good habit to have is to learn how to be adaptable,
also from your example too.
Is being prepared and beingready for those opportunities
right?
Because if you have thisarsenal that you've been
training and keeping your bodyin top shape, you're able to be
more adaptable than someone whogets caught off guard and it's
oh, I didn't prepare for this atall.
Yeah, exactly last question onthis topic are there any good

(38:40):
stories that you would like toshare on this topic of building
community, or insights thatpeople you feel like take away
from it?

John (38:48):
I think one insight that I have is to find people who love
what they do.

J.R. (38:54):
That's the main thing.

John (38:55):
Because, like I said before, I teach at Swordplay LA
as a functional film fightingteacher, so everything I teach
is functional.
I can use what I teach in reallife.
My students can as well.
So we just adapt it to more ofa film aspect how to fight for
film.
But I think, find a communitythat doesn't prevent you from

(39:19):
growing and good people who havethe same mindset as you.
I think that's the main thing.
Yeah, because one thing that Itry to enforce when I teach is
that A I am no better than youand then, even though I'm the
teacher, we are here to do art,we're here to move.

(39:40):
Let's create something together, even though you don't know how
to fight, but I do, but that'sokay.
Let's just find a happy mediumwhere we both can perform
together.
I like that.

J.R. (39:55):
All right, you ready for rapid fire?
Okay.

John (39:58):
I'm ready.

J.R. (39:58):
That's the best part, all right.
So this is the billboardquestion.
It is, if you could put up asign for millions of people to
see, what would it say?

John (40:07):
I could put up a billboard for a million people to see
that's a good question.
I would say laugh more.
Why is that?
I mean, laughing is contagious,right?
So I think that just makespeople smile.
I think we need more.
I think we need more smiles inthis world.
You know there's a lot, there'stoo much going on.
You know there's too much onthe road, even every day.

(40:27):
You know there's too muchtraffic, you know.
But if I were in traffic and Isee a billboard, I just smile
more.
I'm like that just makes mesmile automatically.
You know what I mean.
I'm like okay, cool.
All right, I just need thatlittle thing my billboard.

J.R. (40:45):
Nice, yeah, all right, next one, what is?

John (40:47):
one of the hardest challenges you faced in your
life and what did you learn fromit?
The hardest challenge I facedin my life was a little I'll go
a little more personal on thisone, but is you know facing
depression on while living inthis world of trying to perform.
I think that was one of thehardest thing that I'm currently
still going through, but I'mgetting better at you know, but

(41:10):
again we're there's not.
it's not just me, there's manyother people that go through
this in many different forms,but for me personally, like
getting through a day notfeeling low, learning how to
just have fun and smile moreright, learning how to you know,
share good energy.
No matter what, I think that'swhat I've been kind of getting

(41:34):
over.

J.R. (41:34):
So all right.
Next one is calledself-inflicted wound.
Do you have a story aboutsomething that's gone wrong in
your life?
That was your own fault and youhave no one else to blame but
yourself?

John (41:45):
yeah, I think my back when I right after high school again
not knowing what I wanted to doin life, I did waste a lot of
time in my community collegeyears and not knowing and kind
of just being lazy.
So that was like my like hiccupin life.
Like I just wasted so manyyears just not knowing where I
wanted to go until I found, likewhat was in front.
Like I just wasted so manyyears just not knowing where I

(42:05):
wanted to go until I found, likewhat was in front of me, which
was my love for film, my lovefor dance, love for moving in
general and art, you know.
So I was like why didn't I go tofilm school earlier?
Yeah why?
Why was that?
Why was I so late?
And I feel as a performer, evenfor fighting as well, I feel
like I was a really late bloomerbecause I only started when I
was 27 years old, 26.

(42:27):
So that's like pretty late inthe game already.
So I wish I started earlier.
Even if I was a kid, I wouldstart right away, but right
after college would have beennice.
That kind of is okay.

J.R. (42:39):
Maybe there's a different answer, Maybe it's the same, but
if you could redo one thing,what would you do differently?

John (42:44):
If I could redo one thing, I would probably stay in dance
Stay in dance.

J.R. (42:48):
Yeah, stay in dance, but still do what you do now.
Yeah.
Okay.

John (42:52):
I think there is a good balance for both.
I do have friends who are stillin the dance community, who are
also in stunts.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, one of which is so funny,but I did again.
I have many other friends whoare dancers.
They have a career in dancealso.
They have a career in stunts,which is really nice.
So I wish I I stuck to dancemore or continued it back then

(43:14):
and but still fell in love withstunts and fighting at the same
time, because I think, I mean, Iagain, I just love movement, so
it's, I would love to do it allyeah.

J.R. (43:23):
Do you feel like there's a future where you would get back
into dance in some capacity?

John (43:27):
I think so yeah, yeah, I think so if I had the time.
So it's like a it's like a timething.
It is a time thing.
Yeah, I think my life right nowis very jam-packed, which is a
good problem to have.
But yeah, I do, I again, I wishI had more time to do more yeah
, ambitious guys like yourselfalways want to do more so I

(43:47):
respect that yeah, if you couldgive your younger self advice,
what would it be?

J.R. (43:51):
any age, any time period, don't be lazy.

John (43:53):
I was so lazy as a kid I mean again that's.
I think well, besides beinglazy, try harder.
Yeah, there's a lot of momentsin my life where I was like I
just didn't try too hard.
Yeah, that kind of stopped mefrom doing more.
I guess you can say so, if Ispecifically in high school, if

(44:14):
I tried harder in high school, Ithink I would have done more,
so question on that topic though.

J.R. (44:17):
So I can relate to people who, like, maybe are lazy
because they don't have maybethe self-awareness or they don't
know what they want to do.
So it's hard to be motivated if, okay, I really don't have
maybe the self-awareness or theydon't know what they want to do
, so it's hard to be motivatedif, okay, I really don't know
who I am or what I want to do.
Was it that sort of place whereit's like you kind of just
didn't really know yet andthat's why you're lazy, or did
you have an idea that was likegnawing at you, but you just
chose laziness?

John (44:38):
I think I just didn't know what I want to do.
That was a big thing for me.
Again, I was dancing throughoutmy whole high school career and
like I, that's kind of what Iwanted.
That's all I did, you know, wasdance.
That's all I focused on becauseI know I was good at it.
I think every but looking backnow, like looking at what we
learned in high school, likefrom history, math, you know
english, whatever I was likethat stuff was really easy you

(45:02):
know now that I look back at ityeah, I mean it's all in the
textbooks yeah well, nottextbooks.
Now they're on freaking laptopsyeah right, but back then we had
books.
Okay, we had books, we, it wasall there.
You know now to think about it,all the answers were there but
I was like I just didn't haveinterested interest in learning
it it's like I just didn't wantto do it.

(45:22):
So I wish I was like just do it.
You try harder to just do it,Get it out of the way so you can
move on to the next thing.
Move on to the next thing Makessense.

J.R. (45:31):
In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or
habit has improved your life?

John (45:35):
I think my biggest thing that has improved is my patience
.
It's the biggest thing.
Yeah, at first, in my earlycareer of filmmaking, I was very
impatient and the fact that Iwas looking for jobs non-stop.
I would say yes to everythingand then I didn't know how to
say no.
Good and bad thing, you know.

(45:56):
Because obviously as an earlyexcuse me obviously as an early
performer, you want to say yesto build your reel to build your
portfolio.
But now I've learned thepatience and saying no, and
learning the patience ofunderstanding what's good for me
in a job and what's not goodfor me, you know.
So there's been many timeswhere I've recently I've had to

(46:18):
say no, which is okay.
I think that's another skillset, like just saying no.
You know, a lot of times for usas a artist, we want to keep
going, want to keep going andsay yes.

J.R. (46:28):
A lot of things that kind of kind of weird you know, but
it's okay to say no yeah, thatdiscernment and that judgment is
invaluable.
Right, just keep you on trackor what you want to do.
Yeah, who would you callsuccessful and how do you define
success?

John (46:51):
Let me think about that question it could be anyone.

J.R. (46:54):
People you know people you don't know people you look up
to celebrities, not celebritiesdead alive, whatever Successful
huh?

John (47:02):
Can I change that question a little bit?
I think success there's's.
No, I don't think anyone isreally successful.
You know, I think, as an artist, like we're all we're looking
for success, but there's no endto it how do you define success
then?

J.R. (47:17):
that no one is.
What is the definition ofsuccess?

John (47:19):
I think for me, success is to continuously grow, gotcha,
and to continuously grow and towant to grow and to share that
with people who want to grow.
I think for me, that's success.
To continue the next generationto do what you've been doing,
because I've had to teach kidswho want to learn exactly what

(47:42):
we do yeah, I mean, I can do it,you can too.
I think that's success.
To continue what the, tocontinue what the art is and
what makes people happy andenjoyable, to keep joy and
happiness to to flowcontinuously, you know that's
successful.

J.R. (48:00):
I don't think there's a point where, oh, now I'm
successful so it's a process,not necessarily a destination
yeah, it's a process, for sureso then at that case, either
everyone's successful or noone's successful okay, I vibe
with that, by the way, I agree,I think it's a process, because
I think for me, I don't thinkI've hit my success yet.

John (48:19):
I see myself in that growing stage.
You know, even you know, at ourage we're like not even in our
primes yet.
You know, as in in film, a lotof people that get hired look
older, right, they're the onesthat get hired constantly.
You know, um, for me, I, youknow, I have asian genes, so I
look very young, nice, yeah,exactly.

(48:39):
And then if I shade my face, Ilook even younger, which is
great.
So I could play younger, whichis nice.
And uh, people want thegreediness of that kind of old
age a little bit.
So you kind of have to grow alittle more.
So I think once I hit like my40s or 45s, I'm like, okay, yeah
, let's hire him.
He looks older now, yeah, youknow so, but I'm glad to have
the skill sets I have now sowhen I hit 45, I'm like, oh yeah

(49:02):
, he's ready go.

J.R. (49:04):
If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you be doing
now?

John (49:07):
Ooh, if I knew I couldn't fail, what would I be doing?
Win the lottery, I don't know.
Buy lottery tickets.
If I knew I couldn't fail, I'dprobably I mean, I'd love to
start my own business, you know.
In that sense, this is kind ofrandom.

J.R. (49:31):
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, but I want to
start stickers like randomstickers, like troll stickers
troll stickers.

John (49:34):
Yeah, like a sticker shop, like an etsy shop or what do
you mean?
Yeah, kind of like an etsy shop, but like to create my own
stickers.
I've been having every time I'mon set I'm like thinking about
like things that we say yeah,which is really funny, and like
just how to make those stickers.
You know, okay, for example,everyday life, right like you
you're walking, like what'ssomething that we do every day.
That's like funny.
You know, like I missed thelast step and screamed.

(49:54):
You know, like when you missthat last step, you go like that
well, it's like random stuff,like that.
You know, I don't know liketroll stickers that's kind of
what?

J.R. (50:03):
oh I see, I see.
Yeah, troll stickers oh I see,I see.

John (50:04):
Yeah, troll stickers If I could.
I mean, I think, starting anybusiness really, yeah, I would
love to start a business.

J.R. (50:11):
What do you like about the idea of starting a business,
just creating something Kind oflike you are a creator, my own
thing, okay makes sense, andI've always dreamed of having my
own shop.

John (50:19):
Yeah, I think my end goal for my whole career is to have a
warehouse, empty warehouse, andfor people to, for companies,
production companies to be ableto rent it out for a good year.
All I gotta pay for is rent andgas and water, electricity.
Right then they pay.
What?
A thousand dollars for a dayyou?

(50:40):
Know, stuff like that to buildsets for a year.
I was like it.
That's a lot of money.
But a creative space for peopleto grow.
Again, another thing aboutgrowing, right, but having a
creative space for people tomake their work and their art
and to just use it to give backto the community, kind of sense.
Yeah, business, I'd love tostart a business.

J.R. (51:02):
I like that what is one of the best or most worthwhile
investments you've ever made,either in time, money, energy or
anything else?

John (51:10):
I think the best investment, I think the best
investments that I've given, isto myself, giving myself the
opportunity to train constantlyand to understand what my body
needs.
Yeah, I think self-care is themost important thing for anybody
.
I think that's what we all needto do.

(51:30):
More of is self-care.
I think we all kind of get lostin the sauce.
I guess you can say when we getlost in work, we get lost in
our jobs, we get lost in ourjobs, we get lost in life, we
get lost in, sometimes, family.
But we forget that we need tocare for ourselves and I think
for me that I've given myself alot of opportunities lately to

(51:50):
really just care for myself,understand what I need
specifically second to last onewhat is a favorite recent
purchase that you've made withinthe 50 to 100 range?

J.R. (52:00):
could be more, could be less, but favorite recent okay
so I recently moved into my ownapartment.

John (52:06):
Yeah, and it's been a slow process to build and living out
of boxes for a while, but Irecently got my own computer
desk that's movable oh nice onwheels.
So it's, I think for me that'slike my workspace.
You know, it's like my owntable I can do my work on, I can
build stuff on as a kid,because growing up I was very

(52:27):
into legos, I was very into likebuilding in general you know
building gundams, whatever right.
So it was like I built I didn't.
Well, I technically built mytable and now I can build stuff
on the table ah yeah, you builda thing, you can build stuff
yeah, exactly so it's like myown, like little workspace,
which is really nice.
It's nice to call that in mind.
But also I bought my's like myown, like little workspace,
which is really nice.
It's nice to call that mine.
But also I bought my.
I got my own apartment.

J.R. (52:48):
That's like another thing.
Yeah, that's like the thing.
The table in the apartment Inthe apartment.

John (52:52):
Yeah, exactly.
So that would be like my funadult purchase.
It wasn't in the $50 or ahundred range.
I wish it was.
Oh yeah, really expensive.

J.R. (53:01):
Well, department, that's the department.
What about the table was?

John (53:04):
actually 60 bucks.
Oh, that's great yeah yeah, notbad good good, all right.

J.R. (53:08):
Last question favorite books, movies, videos, articles
or media in general that yourecommend or share the most I
would say my favorite moviewould be a silent film the kid
okay by charlie chaplin.

John (53:23):
I think that I always go back to that movie because one
there's no talking, all of it isstraight acting.
There's great stunt work in itbecause it's Charlie Chaplin and
it's all real.
No CGI Again, there is littlecamera tricks here and there,
but again he is doing everything, which is amazing, but he's
storytelling in a way that youhave to just watch and

(53:47):
understand what they're doingand it's hard to do that because
there's no words.
Yeah, you know again.
But we understand that asdancers, right, I think as
dancers, we're greatstorytellers.
Right, we have to storytellwhat the music is through our
bodies, you know people can hearit, but when they see it, they
see the words on our bodies.
It's like a whole nother thing,you know.

(54:08):
So my favorite movie of alltime is the kid.
But I try each other nice Ilike it cool all right.

J.R. (54:14):
Well, that is it for rapid fire questions.
We made it to the end.
It was a lot of fun, all right.
So wrapping it up, gratitudeshout out to my mom, so I
learned it from.
So what is john?
What is something you'regrateful for?
One or multiple things?

John (54:27):
I am grateful for my friends who I've been training
with recently.
They're the reason why I do alot of what I do now.
They keep me going, they keepme sane, and also a shout out to
the students that have beencoming to my class.
You guys are like the reasonswhy I keep going.
Nice.
Also a shout out to thestudents that have been coming
to my class.

J.R. (54:45):
You guys are like the reasons why I keep going.
Nice, I like it All right.
Last thing is do you have anyfinal, last ask from the
audience or final takeaways thatyou would like them to have
from this conversation?

John (54:55):
Yeah, I think the main thing I want to say is that if
we can just smile more, you know, share what you know, share
what everyone should know.
You know when it comes to notonly like for me specifically
fighting, but like share justgood knowledge with people, and
I think that goes a long way.

(55:15):
Nice, I love it a lot.

J.R. (55:18):
All right.
Well, john, thank you so muchfor being here.
I really appreciate it.
I learned a lot from ourconversation.
I hope.
Hopefully, the audience willhave gotten some insights from
it too.
I think they can.
You know, really like whatyou're doing.
Oh yeah, where can people findyou?

John (55:30):
sorry last thing yeah, I mean people can find me on my
instagram.
Handle john Tieng first andlast name easy and also my
website, Tieng.
There you go.

J.R. (55:38):
Yeah, and we'll link to it in the description show notes.
All right, so my final sign off.
Thank you guys for tuning inand listening.
Hope you guys really enjoyedthis episode.
Just a reminder to always bekind to other people, especially
yourself, and you can alwayslearn something from someone if
you just take the time to listen.
So thank you guys for beinghere.

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#17: John Tieng - IRL Fall Guy, Learning to Fight, and Sharing Knowledge to Grow

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#17: John Tieng - IRL Fall Guy, Learning to Fight, and Sharing Knowledge to Grow