Interview with Kevin McGill, Actor, Disc Jockey, Entrepreneur

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Every filmmaker's journey begins somewhere unexpected. For Kevin McGill, it started with an 8mm reel, a quarter entry fee, and neighborhood kids gathering to watch homemade movies. This episode uncovers the fascinating evolution of a true media maverick whose path wound through New York Film Academy, Tisch School of the Arts, and ultimately the gritty world of guerrilla filmmaking.

Kevin's storytelling takes us from childhood entrepreneurship—where he and his brother transformed their home into a neighborhood cinema complete with popcorn and red Kool-Aid—to professional film sets where authenticity reigned supreme. With raw honesty and plenty of humor, he recounts lying in freezing garbage for hours during winter shoots, pulling guns for scripted scenes that felt all too real, and creating films so compelling that locals still ask about them years later.

The conversation reveals the unique filmmaking philosophy that Kevin and host Drew developed: having actors essentially play heightened versions of themselves, bringing their real-life experiences to fictionalized scenarios. "Everybody brought their A-game of our own lives and putting it into film," Kevin explains, highlighting how this approach created an authenticity that conventional productions often lack. We also get glimpses into Kevin's connections to hip-hop history through his work with DMX's original DJ and the challenges of releasing archival footage.

Beyond the entertaining anecdotes lies a powerful message about pursuing passion over paychecks. Kevin's current ventures—from his "Off the Deep End" podcast to his thriving videography business capturing everything from parades to Sweet 16s—demonstrate his commitment to creating a career rather than holding a job. As he puts it: "Journey of the broke" versus waking up loving what you do. Visit kevstervision.com to explore Kevin's diverse portfolio and connect with this multifaceted creative whose stories behind the camera prove just as compelling as those he captures through his lens.

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Produced and Directed by: Drew Glick

Hosted by: Drew Glick

Co-Host: Sam Ailewi

Edited and Arranged by: Drew Glick

Studio Intern: Elisa Hernandez

Intro+Outro created by: Music Radio Creative

Ambient Music Provided by: Envato and Music Radio Creative

Drops and Jingles Created by: Music Radio Creative

Cover Art and Episode Graphics Designed by: www.getcovers.com

Copyright 2025, 2026 by Iervasi Media Partners

Episode Transcript

Sabra (00:21):
Welcome to Outlaw Wisdom.

Drew Glick (00:23):
Let's begin shall we All righty?
Ladies and gentlemen, let'swelcome Kevin McGill to Outlaw
Wisdom.
Kevin, how are you today?
I'm fine, Drew.
How are you?
I'm tired and I'm hot.

Kevin McGill (00:38):
You know we just came back from sunny Negril,
Jamaica.
You know 91, 92, every day I'mback in New York, but it's
pleasant out here.

Drew Glick (00:46):
So, Kevin, let's talk to the listeners, Tell them
who you are, where you comefrom and what you do.

Kevin McGill (00:56):
My name is Kevin McGill.
I have a background in film,radio and television, as you
probably can hear from mywonderful voice.
I graduated from New York FilmAcademy.
I went to school at Tisch.
I did, you know, a couple ofsemesters at Tisch, Always used
to love film man, you know, Iwas always this shaky, insecure
little kid.
I always wanted to be likeSuperman, Batman, the Lone
Ranger, Anybody with a storybetter than mine.
You know what I mean.

Sabra (01:14):
You've been listening to Outlaw Wisdom.
Outlaw Wisdom the outlaws arehere to stay.

Kevin McGill (01:23):
We used to put skits together, me and my
friends right, we used to havethese 8mm reels and we used to
put them in the drugstore.
They used to cost $3 at thetime, drew, and so we would all
chip in a quarter piece, youknow, put it in the drugstore on
Wednesday, we would get it onFriday, and Friday we would go
to the house, you know, set upthe screen, set up the projector
.
You know we would have somepotato chips, popcorn, you know,
kool-aid, red, of course.

(01:45):
You know, I don't know why theysaid that's a black thing.

Drew Glick (01:49):
You said it, not me, I know.

Kevin McGill (01:53):
So, you know, we, we were started showing these
movies.
So the light went off.
I said you know what?
I can start charging these guysto come into the house.
So now it costs a quarter toget the film developed and it
costs a quarter for you to getin.
You know, this went on for alittle while and we eventually
graduated, you know, because wemade enough money, me and my

(02:16):
brother God rest his soul to buya Super 8 movie projector,
right?
So now we had a movie projectorand we had these movies that
when you see the little X, theyhad a record that came with it.
You see the little X and youhit the the record.
And now you had synchronizedsound.
So now we were showing soundmovies in the house.
Right, we were making so muchmoney.
My grandmother thought we wereselling dope, and that was my
introduction to media production.

Sabra (02:33):
You've been listening to Outlaw Wisdom.
Outlaw Wisdom the outlaws arehere to stay.

Kevin McGill (02:42):
When I was 18, my brother was 19,.
You know, a guy poisoned mybrother.
My brother's friends found outwho poisoned my brother, my
sister, my mother and I aresitting in the living room one
day and the door rings and itwas one of my brother's friends
and these guys were crazy, sortof like you I could see you
doing some crap like this, right.
So he came to the door and mymother let him in and he says we

(03:03):
have avenged our brother'sdeath.
He pulled out this bag.
It had this guy's head in it.

Drew Glick (03:07):
You're saying you could see me doing some shit
like that Really.

Kevin McGill (03:11):
Our listeners are going to be deathly afraid of me
now, and they should be man,they should be, because
listeners, I want you to knowall the stuff he writes about is
based on actual stuff.

Sabra (03:22):
The podcast is only the beginning.
That's right.
Outlaw Wisdom is coming soon tointernet shelves everywhere.
Join the official Outlaw WisdomPatreon and reserve your free
copy of the upcoming book, theGreater Book of Outlaw Wisdom.
Visit wwwoutlawwisdomcom tolearn more.

(03:43):
Visit wwwoutlawwisdomcom tolearn more.

Drew Glick (03:49):
What did Drew make you do the first time you won a
camera?

Kevin McGill (03:51):
My very first time , Drew had me in a pile of
stinking garbage.

Drew Glick (03:57):
Now, did we take the actual garbage out, or was this
real garbage?

Kevin McGill (04:00):
Real stinking behind the Y where I worked
garbage.
I smelled like garbage.
I went home, I tried milk baths, I tried everything.
I mean it was like garbageflies buzzing all in my face.

Drew Glick (04:11):
I still remember to this day.
I said oh, kevin, it's onlygonna be a couple of minutes.
What was it like five hourslater?

Kevin McGill (04:15):
Listen, the black guy always dies in the first
five minutes of the movie.
I died in the first 30 secondsof the trailer.
I think it was even shorterthan that, kevin.

Drew Glick (04:23):
Yeah, it was like seven seconds.

Kevin McGill (04:25):
They showed our friend who was my brother in the
movie he was looking up andthen he looked you know, because
you could tell from thesuspense on how you cut it that
something happened.
He was looking at it forwhoever did whatever they did.
And then they show what theydid and there I go with a bloody
face on top of like thisstinking garbage.

Drew Glick (04:43):
You know we got to also tell people we were in the
dead of winter back then, rightand behind the wine.
Yeah, so not only are youlaying in the garbage for five
hours, but you're freezing coldright.

Kevin McGill (04:52):
And with a t-shirt on smelling like garbage, with
fake blood on my face, and Ithink that's what was attracting
the flies and I call themgarbage bees, those yellow
jackets.
I don't know what it was madeof.

Drew Glick (05:01):
I'm sorry, it could have been syrup or something.

Kevin McGill (05:03):
I didn't try smelling it, tasting it or
nothing like that.
But I mean it looked realisticthough.

Drew Glick (05:07):
It really was.
It did it sold pretty good.

Kevin McGill (05:18):
I don't know if we could talk about this.
You came to California orSuperior, who was DMX's original
DJ.
He has so much unreleasedfootage because he was with DMX
when DMX first got his startRight.
So him and Superior met and youknow, superior was the number
one DJ in Yonkers.
Everybody used to come toSuperior's house because it was

(05:40):
called the House of Hits and hehas hundreds of hours of footage
and we're trying to get somestuff out but we have to wait
until we can get certainreleases.
You know, because a lot of themusic that they use behind the
lyrics were copyrighted.

Drew Glick (05:52):
So, going back a little bit, when we first met
and we shot the film, that showRemain Nameless.
Let people find that on theirown, if they still can.
I don't know yeah, they can, so,so so I got we did that as a
screener, as they call itnowadays, like a proof of
concept.
Right, I tell this story to alot of people you know and they
they don't believe me that tothis day, like what, 11 years
later, people are asking whenthat movie's coming out correct.

(06:15):
Absolutely, isn't it true thatour mutual friend goes up there
to the licks drawing yonkers andthey still ask him are you in
that karate movie?

Kevin McGill (06:21):
Yeah, they ask me all the time.
They said when is this moviecoming out?
We were on a micro budget backthen.
Oh wait, I'm glad we went backto that, because when I was
thinking about what was thefirst thing, you had me do you
also had me pull a gun onsomebody.

Drew Glick (06:39):
Oh for the film or something.
You're like, let's go get somemoney.

Kevin McGill (06:41):
I was like you want me to do what?
That's the beauty of listenersworking with Drew right, Even
though everything was scripted.
If Drew saw us improv and he'dsay, go with it, Because I think
that was some of the best ofthe best that we did.

Drew Glick (06:55):
How long did you say it took us?

Kevin McGill (06:56):
to film that Like yeah, because we went through a
couple of seasons, yeah.
We never had permits, you knowno it was all guerrilla, it was
all guerrilla, we guerrilla thewhole thing.

Drew Glick (07:04):
We did let Scorsese on.
Black Swan.
Went at the subway, told usBowman just shot it and didn't
give a shit.

Kevin McGill (07:09):
I mean it was some incredible stuff.
I mean I learned a lot aboutguerrilla shooting.

Drew Glick (07:15):
Everybody brought their A-game of our own lives
and putting it into film.
Yeah, and we like we werefictionalizing it and then
putting it on camera.
So I think it made it feel morereal for people.

Kevin McGill (07:25):
They were actually playing the character as
themselves.
It was some raw emotion,intense action and just some,
just some good acting.
You started with the end inmind you know Exactly.

Drew Glick (07:37):
Like well, like I told you back then like we set
it up like memento you know,yeah, yeah, I love that movie.

Kevin McGill (07:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
When my autobiography comes out, man, people are going to be
like in awe.
Man, they're going to be likeyou did what you know.
You inspired me to write whenyou sent me your book you've
been listening to outlaw wisdom,outlaw wisdom.

Sabra (07:55):
The outlaws are here to stay when I first met you.
I like who the hell is this guyman.

Drew Glick (08:05):
You thought I was shady, right?
I remember that.
Yeah, I did, man.

Kevin McGill (08:09):
You had on this Fonzie jacket man, you know you
had this like I don't know.

Drew Glick (08:13):
Oh yeah, I remember that was back in the day when I
was wearing a bomber jacket allthe time.

Kevin McGill (08:15):
I was like holy moly, yeah, this guy's my type
of guy right here, bro.
Oh yeah, this guy's my type ofguy right here, bro.

Drew Glick (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, you could say it how you always say
it.
I'm your type of asshole.

Kevin McGill (08:23):
Yeah well, I didn't want to curse for the
public.

Drew Glick (08:25):
You know me like, when I get passionate about
something you know, the languagecomes out.

Kevin McGill (08:29):
It's just part of the process, you know that's
right.
Yeah, that keeps it real foreverybody else, man.

Drew Glick (08:34):
I remember, when I't release the book, with all that
profanity you got to clean, Isaid, well, I'm not going to
change my personality becausethen that book isn't going to be
real.
Right, right, I mean exactly,and I fired her like a day later
.
Oh, you did, I had to, butthat's a story for another day.

Sabra (08:53):
Available now in paper and hardcover editions.
The Wheelhouse the true storyabout a boy and his dogs, Also
available on Kindle and as anaudiobook.
Listen to the audiobook onAudible, iTunes and Amazon.
Take the journey into a placebeyond your wildest imagination,
A continuing series by authorDrew Glick.

Drew Glick (09:17):
So you know that job is an acronym, right?
So what does job stand for?
Do you know?
Just one break, nope, journeyof the broke.
You got to have a career, kevin, you got to have a career.

Kevin McGill (09:26):
That's right.
Journey of the broke Wow, Ilike that.

Drew Glick (09:30):
Anybody out there that has a job dump that shit
and get a career, and get acareer.

Kevin McGill (09:34):
Wow, you know what Part of me doing my doctorate,
that's part of my career path.

Drew Glick (09:39):
So, Kevin, let's wrap it up.
Tell everybody what you're upto nowadays.

Kevin McGill (09:42):
Right now I'm actually working on a podcast
called Off the Deep End.
I've been shooting parades.
I've been shooting Sweet 16.

Drew Glick (09:48):
Yeah, we didn't talk about that.
You're also a videographer.

Kevin McGill (09:51):
You do that as a side hustle right Ever since I
had my first Honeywell Pentax35mm camera and was stinking up
the house with stop bath and allthose other chemicals.

Drew Glick (10:04):
What do you do?
I try to get a hold of you onthe weekend.
You're never available becauseyou're shooting something you do
weddings and that kind of thing.

Kevin McGill (10:10):
Any and everything I mean.
You know you can go to mywebsite, which is being revamped
, but there is some stuff onthere, kevstervisioncom.
You can see some of my work,you know, some parades, some
weddings.

Drew Glick (10:21):
As long as you can wake up loving what you're doing
, kevin then it's not really ajob.

Kevin McGill (10:27):
You know you sound your life.
May the force be with you, bro.

Sabra (10:30):
You've been listening to Outlaw Wisdom.
New episodes drop every weekUntil next time.
No retreat, no surrender.
Stay strong, spread the word.
The outlaws are here to stay.