Tomik : Nightlife Promoter to Mammoth Film Festival Co-Founder | Chaos Controlled Podcast 208 - Chaos Controlled Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to the chaos. Next time on Welcome to the
Chaos. You do the intro then.
I don't want to do that all. Right, cool.
I'll do the intro. You're the intro man.
What up everybody, And welcome back to the chaos.
I'm your host, Mikey Tableman, alongside one of my best friends

(00:27):
and Co. Hosts Gomez J Danny.
Yo man. And today in the chaos we have a
legend. And when I say we have a legend,
he goes by one name and one nameonly.
Tomic, that's. It that's a showboat, That's.
It. That's it.
Thanks for coming. Legendary legendary nightclub
promoter, now currently Co founder and running the Mammoth

(00:48):
Film Festival which is doing great.
Yo brother, thank you for being here.
Thanks for having me. This is amazing.
Got a little Mikey here and everything, hey?
Buddy, what you working on back there?
Now, yo, I appreciate when, likepeople from, like, our old, old
school like, 'cause I was a really little kid when I started
here and this group was the first people I met.
And I'm just like, Oh yeah, we go back, yeah.

(01:08):
These are the O GS right here with.
Degenerate story, Yeah, I used to like the last the O GS.
I used to work atomics table allthe time.
Oh yeah, yeah. No.
What was that? Gio.
Guillermo. What was the other little?
Oh oh man, the one that passed away.
Oh no. The Godfather.
Godfather. Godfather.
He was all TSA. He was the first what?
Gregorio. Gregorio.
Yeah, yeah, Gregorio. Called him the God he was.

(01:31):
He was like the first original TSA and then we all kind of got
jobs. So, like he was, he was the
Godfather. Man oh man, those days.
I feel so bad for all of us. Yeah, well, let let's start off
there. Tell us about your nightlife
days and how you got into it and.
Yeah, no, I mean, it's crazy. We were so young.
Like, the fact that any club owner would allow a couple of,
you know, early 20 something guys to come in there and just

(01:52):
run amok and just run the show was beyond me.
We're like, we need six more bottles.
They're like, oh, yeah, yeah, it's coming, Sir.
I'm like, what? But why are they listening to
us? But it was amazing, man.
We we opened the doors to some some incredible clubs back in
the day. You know, you look back and on
that on that era, I guess you can call it now, 'cause we're
kind of like in a whole new. It really was, yeah, you know
like your your your parents would say like back in my day.

(02:15):
I feel like we're saying back inmy day now, like we were back in
my day it. Was like back in the Studio 54,
like they had that right? We had our.
Studio 54 was like Ladue and like you know but your.
Group of promoters like back in the day were so much cooler and
nicer. There was no ego.
Everyone was so chill compared to what there is now, and
promoters think they run this city and it's.

(02:35):
Just like I would like to disagree with you there.
I would kindly disagree with you.
Well, you know, it was interesting then is because like
you had certain venues on certain nights and you had
certain groups promoting, right.And like it was where you went
on what night and like who was doing it.
So everybody kind of had their little click.
It was like and it was always a duo.
It was like Brett and Tom Acre, like KC and Pons, like it was

(02:56):
always like these teams of people that promoted and and and
everybody kind of like at first was doing their own thing.
But as you got older, you kind of started working together a
little bit on some crossover, but everybody wanted to have
that that that that Marquee night.
There was some egos in the beginning but I think it relaxed
overtime a little bit. So what was your marquee night
that made you guys famous? Man, you know what's crazy?

(03:17):
We we we took a lot of chances and stuff.
Like we wanted to do like the cool kids clubs and stuff.
Like I mentioned Ledoux, like wewere excited to be a part of
that. That was like kind of the days
of like paparazzi was starting to come around, you know, like
you had like the Paris's and those like reality shows.
That was a whole different era. But I remember we started doing
a club called Supper Club, right?
It was different because it was massive.

(03:37):
It was like the first like Miamistyle nightclub like in LA and
that's when house music DJs kindof became big.
So you know we connected with like Pascual over Insomniac and
then he started giving us DJs. So we have Benny Benassi, we had
Cascade, we had all these guys DJ ING this mega club and it was
kind of different. It was like this weird crossover
from like the small cool kids clubs where it was like, you
know, you can't get in or you can't sit here to, you know, I

(04:00):
mean I, I I don't even know whatyou would call it.
Like we we shut down the Hollywood Blvd.
With Cascade once and caused a riot on accident.
Like it got to that point. It's another story.
I can't remember, I mean. Google.
Yeah, like Cascade Hollywood Blvd.
Riots. And and and and there's me and
my old buddy driving the truck with Cascade on the bed of the

(04:21):
truck, DJ ING on the way to the EDC premieres like just go
through the police barricade. I'm like, no, he's like, oh,
Bill is out of jail. I'm like, I'm not doing it.
It's bananas. So there was, I don't think
there was like this one moment that like or this one club that
I think kind of set us off. But you know, it started back at
like the cabana clubs and mood and then, you know, I didn't.

(04:43):
Even get into that, like how do you you just showed up because.
You know, so I grew up in LA. I, I grew up here in a little
town called Burbank. It's really glamorous.
And one of my buddies who was like a year or two older than me
was promoting. His name is Justin Kelly.
He was promoting clubs. And I used to go out when I was
in town. I'd call him up and go out to
clubs on the weekends and I would be there and we'd be
hanging out. I'm like, dude, this is cool,

(05:04):
man. I want to do this.
He's like, no, no, no. He would kind of big time me all
the time. And then one day he was like,
OK, fine, you start on Saturday.I was like, what?
And like just like that. I became a promoter.
It's like, OK, I got to be thereon Saturday and I got to bring
people. You know, I'm hitting up friends
and calling girls that I know, But I grew up in LA, so it was
easy to start promoting. If you grew up here, you have a
base of bodies that you can bring out.

(05:26):
You know, I literally simply just called 20 of my friends and
I went to school with them. Like, hey guys, I can get us all
into this club tonight and drinktickets.
Yeah. Fucking easy sell.
Drink tickets. You know, like you don't have to
wait in line and you know, you walk up and hand your ticket and
get some like, well, drink. But you know, that's kind of how
it started and it and it startedexploding from there.
It just boomed. So how, yeah, how'd you go from

(05:47):
Jason Kelly to then Brett and Tomic running your guys's own
promotion team and, you know, really taking over clubs and
having your own nights? Yeah, you know, you start going
out and you start bringing people.
And it really depends on like who you're bringing in that
crowd, and you kind of start figuring out where you want to
be and who wants to work with you.
I was at an event where I think I met Brett and he was, you

(06:08):
know, had another partner and I was working with Justin where he
was working with somebody else and him and I kind of connected
and hit it off or whatnot, you know, it's it's all a blur.
But him and I connected. We start working together and
doing some stuff. We started doing events or I'm
sorry, promoting clubs together and getting bigger clubs and
bigger accounts and get more money.
And we transitioned from from promoting to producing events.

(06:29):
That was kind of the, like, the weird thing that happened to us
that got out us out of nightlifeand into being event producers.
And then from there, you know, the the Sky's the limit.
It was rare for like, promoters to have like, offices and stuff
back then. You just kind of work at home.
You just wake up at noon, order pizza, and just do it all over.
Again, text people all day. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you're just sitting on thephone.
You would, you know, we called it a bang session.

(06:51):
We'd all sit around and just like, bang on our phones and
like, all right, oh, this group's coming out tonight or
this guy's behind a table. You know, you'd all sit
together, like, collectively andjust go to work.
And then you're like, all right,tonight's looking great.
We got these people coming out. Then you'd show up.
It was like clocking in and you'd host and you'd have a good
time. You were the face of of it.
So it's twofold. You do that work to like get
people there, and then once they're there, you're hosting
them. But with that comes meeting

(07:12):
people and meeting, you know, a certain person that I met that
we became close with who then asked us to do an event at his
home, you know, with like a lot of money.
And we're like, yeah, of course we can produce a private event
at your house. No idea what we were doing.
You know, we call our buddy who does that and then that turned
into like big private events, you know, doing stuff for Paris
and for, you know, I, Seth MacFarlane and this rich guy and

(07:36):
so on and so far. But, and then that transition is
out of promoting and into producing events and then from
there into like getting brands involved and then doing
experiential marketing stuff. And like, there's this growth,
you know? But yeah, you know, and I credit
my old partner for for a lot of the stuff because he's like,
dude, we should get an office and you know, we should be in
here and like, I want to wake upat noon.

(07:56):
Let's go legit. No, let's go legit.
Office. Do something work.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Cool.
That's cool, 'cause you don't see a lot of people, like so
many people get caught up in nightlife, especially in that
part, 'cause it's just a party. You get whatever you want,
right? So if you guys to be able to
focus and be like, yo, there's abig future here.
Like I said, you grown up in Burbank, you have.
I mean, everyone was coming up with you, and now a lot of
people you're friends with, people you work with, are all

(08:17):
doing very well, big in the scene.
Like, yeah, you know, you you, you.
I always knew I wanted to do something in entertainment.
I just didn't know what it was. And you kind of learned there
was no handbook Then you just kind of went along with they
like, oh, this is cool now this is happening now we're on this
wave and we're riding this wave and you kept going and we're, we
kind of like save the road I guess for, for for some people.
You know the first person through the wall always gets

(08:38):
bloodied. And that was us.
We had to go through it, you know, and set that set that tone
for the people behind us. But, you know, but when we got
that office, you have other promoters come in there, be
like, oh, this is cool, man. You guys have like desks and
stuff like, well, what's on the papers?
Like you guys write stuff. What is this?
I'm like, I we don't know eitherand we're in here and but they
just like allowed us to do things and meet new people and

(09:00):
like. More professional?
Yeah, more professionals, other promoters would come in and be
like, yo man, can can we like can we work out of here with you
guys And people wanted to work with us and then you utilize
that and we didn't know what we're doing.
We're just figuring it out. But we had a pretty good idea of
like we utilize our relationships and our network is
what's important. And knowing now what I didn't

(09:20):
know then that those things would help me.
Where I am today and those relationships, I just did the
best I could and was good to people and that helped me.
Where I am now, if I just fuckedoff and treated people like
shit, I wouldn't be able to do some of the things that I'm
doing now. I think that was like the one
good thing that. I feel like that's so lost on
this industry in this city because like, we've all seen so

(09:41):
many people that are fucking terrible human beings.
But we were all kind to people called hospitality.
Yeah, there's no they're it's missing that hospitality part
lately like. Yeah, they put that the hospital
in hospitality, yeah. That's one of the things I
remember about you the most was that you treated everyone with
respect, Yeah. It was so kind.
We all got along like we all hadour jobs, but we had to work

(10:01):
together to make it happen, you know, and and back then it was a
lot of like I'm doing this and you're doing this like everybody
kind of did it into individually.
But I'm a big fan of like of of a community these days and
there's things I couldn't do without, you know, with without
my community, without my village.
And you know I I love helping people when I can.
I love asking for help when it, when I need it.
And you know what's the worst? I can say no.

(10:23):
And if they do, I I've called Mikey for stuff, you know, like,
hey, man, started bugging, goes,dude, you're crazy, what do you
need? And then like, a week will go
by, he'll call me up and follow up.
He's like, hey man, I got you that stuff.
I was like, dude, that's amazing.
Like, very few people do that. But you're seeing more and more
of that these days. And that's what we're trying to
put out, especially with the Film Festival.
Like that's why we're so different than other festivals.
It's so personal. Like, you don't go to Sundance.

(10:45):
And like, Robert Redford, who owns it, is like, hey, man, I
watched your short. It was great.
I'm like, that's not happening. But, you know, I'll be at the
festival and someone would be like, hey, yeah, thank you so
much for having us. I'm like, what was your movie?
She's like, oh, it's called so And so I'm like, oh, that's the
one with the girl on the thing. She goes, Oh my God, you've seen
it. I'm like, we'd love to try to
watch all the projects. We like to know what's
happening, kind of like hand in hand and help each other out.

(11:07):
Think that's a really good foundation to start at.
And only good things can come from there.
Yeah, I think a big theme on this show that's coming up a lot
is like because we were interviewing all these people
that were in nightlife with us and now are gone on to bigger
and better things. And we've all used that network.
And I think so many people in this industry so under
appreciate don't realize like itdoesn't matter where you went to
school. It doesn't matter like who

(11:28):
you're connected with, who's with you, what's going to make
or. Absolutely.
Yeah, man. Like, I I didn't know what I was
going to do in school. Like you'd have to take tests
and get good grades and pass like there was no classes for
marketing or like entrepreneurial ship.
Like hell, they didn't even teach how to open a bank account
or or what's credit scores are. You know, we just kind of figure
that out as you get older. What that's that's what's great

(11:50):
about now. There are programs.
There's educational stuff. There's YouTube University.
That's where I learn everything,man.
You know, you know what I would tell people is it doesn't matter
what you want to do, anything you want to do.
You can learn it now online. Like I taught myself how to do
Photoshop to design stuff for myself to save money.
You know, like I'm online learning contracts so I can do
my own stuff and not pay a lawyer.
Like there's so many ways that you can empower and enrich

(12:12):
yourself just online and the tools that are available that
weren't then, you know, but you know we harness those
relationships as well. So it's it's you.
You never know who's going to bedoing what when they get older,
like you said, you know, like your your buddy's just your
buddy then. And five years later he's a
celebrity and you're like, hey, I'm so glad I was so nice to

(12:32):
him, bro, I'm going to need you to come out and do you walk the
carpet? So how much of that network then
helps? Because obviously you touching
the Film Festival and you what you guys are doing is so cool
and I know it's been growing andexpanding.
How much of that network and those people that you didn't
realize were going to be so helpful kind of brought you to
this point and like, what made you guys decide, yo, we're going
to throw a Film Festival becausethat and not that it came out of

(12:53):
nowhere, We're all like, that's cool and different.
Yeah man, it's cool. Like, you know, I so I, you know
growing up in in in Burbank or in LA in general, everyone's an
actor or their parents or directors and producers.
You kind of grow up around that.You know, I I I acted when I was
younger and it was cool. You kind of grew up doing that
and then my business partner Tanner Beard, the Co founder of
the festival with me, he grew upalso acting, writing, directing.

(13:15):
He's had films competing like all the major film festivals in
the world like Can Venice, Tribeck, I mean you name it he's
he's he's been to all of them. My background with event
production and marketing his background in like producing and
attending festivals. We kind of we teamed up.
He came up to me. He goes, dude you grew up going
to Mammoth. Like I want to do a festival and
I think mammoths would be dope. You know about mammoths.

(13:35):
You know about events. You know how to produce.
You know all this shit. Let's let's go up there and take
a look and see if that's something that we can do
together. You know, he approached me about
it. So we got in the car, we drove
up, we got there and it was amazing.
Like, when do we start? It was just literally like you
just pulled the trigger and do it.
You could sit there and plan andcome up with stuff.
We just decided we're doing it. We picked a date and then went

(13:56):
to work on it. But it wouldn't be as big as it
is right out the gate without using our network.
You know, we could have started announced on Facebook, hey guys,
come to the festival, buy tickets on Facebook.
No Sharon Stone sending a tweet,like damn it, Film Festival.
You know, we had this, you know,actor and this director talking
about it and that was just friends of ours.

(14:16):
So we were able to expedite likeour, I guess, like our
visibility in the world with thefestival, utilizing our network
and people that were happy to talk about it and support us and
say, hey guys, I've never even been, they've never even done
one. But it's going to be awesome and
he should go. So that network really helped us
out. I think that's what really
helped jumpstart the festival. Like take it from zero to 60,

(14:37):
where most people don't have that opportunity.
They got to work to get up thereand a lot of people.
Get to 0. Yeah, to zero.
And a lot of people in the entertainment industry want to
be a writer, director, producer.What do you do?
You write a script, you send it to an agency.
Some assistant reads it, puts notes on it.
You're following up. Hey, did so and so read it.
With this festival, what's really cool is that we can
invite all of those people up there and it's mutually

(15:00):
beneficial. They want to show a movie, they
want to buy movies, they want tomeet talent, They want to
discover people. We've created this platform to
where they can all come up theretogether, have a good time.
And then now I'm not like calling them asking if they read
my script. They're calling me saying I had
a blast, like, we should work onsomething together.
Do you have a script? Do you want to produce
something? So it's kind of like working
from the top down, which has been really interesting, and

(15:20):
we're just bringing everybody along for the ride with it.
Like come be a part of this thing, come meet people in
person and network and shake hands and help each other out
and build this community. I'm going.
Yeah. I'll be there.
It's great. I'm going.
To hit you up. Hey, do you remember that
podcast you were on? Yeah, of course, dude.
I wanted to ask pass this for you guys.
Let's go. Yeah, right.
Let's go right now. Let's.

(15:41):
Go right now. See you later.
It's over. Yeah.
See you next time. OK.
The rest of the show is just like empty seat.
It's just awesome. This is a bad idea.
Yeah, you're pushing me. Out I'm rolling down a hill.
Sorry bro, I can't can't go any further.
Yeah, and I'm just like, just go, man.
Just go leave them. I'm like Jack Nicholson at the
end of The Shining All. Frozen and shit, yeah.

(16:02):
Right. Otherwise you have how many
times do we have we we'd be out at an after party like, yo,
let's go to Vegas. Everyone's.
Like, yeah, let's. Go.
We hop in the car, yeah, now we're and drive.
We're like. Terrible idea.
Let's turn around. Let's turn around.
It's it's funny. You see, I.
Never turned around. I went all the way.
Yeah, I don't know who, what group of guys you were with that
pussed out and turn around like.Right like we went.

(16:24):
I was one of the guys who pussedout.
I was like, yo. Me and Remy, one morning we
went, we partied super late and the sun came up and we're
walking out of a situation and and I was like, all right man,
it's late. I'm going to go get some sleep.
He's like, you go get some sleep, I'll talk to you in a
couple hours and we'll go to thepool party.
I I FaceTime him a couple hours later, like, you know, I took

(16:45):
like a four hour nap or something.
I wake up and I'm like, hey, R.E.M. what's up bro?
Let's go. And he's raging.
There's this party happening behind him.
I'm like, where are you? He's like, dude, I'm at 14.
I'm like, what? He left the party, got in a car,
drove to LA and went to 14 on Sunday.
Colony. What I was there.
That was my favorite party. Dude, 14 was, was something

(17:07):
else. There's nothing.
Nothing like it. Nothing like it.
Nothing like it before. We get into crazy stories.
I just want to get more into that Film Festival shows I want
to hear. Honestly, Kristen, we haven't
got to catch up in a while. I want so like how many years
has this been and like, what's been the coolest part of the
growth? And like, where do you see you
guys? Like, I mean, obviously there's
so much support for you guys. Like the Sky's the.
Yeah, I appreciate that. And it really has been that it's
been support really could not bedoing any of this without the

(17:30):
support of everybody involved. But I like to think that we've
built something that helps everybody out.
So I'm not asking a favor for stuff like I'm I'm.
I'm providing them with something as well.
I'm giving them a platform to come screen their films and
their projects, and they're helping me out by attending.
We're on our fifth year. It would have been year six, but
we took a year off because of the COVID situation, the
pandemic. We were like the last Film

(17:52):
Festival in the nation. To go right before COVID hit.
Like COVID was just like a coronavirus meme on Instagram
when, like on the last day of our festival, nobody knew what
it was yet. And then you fly to LA three
days later, the whole country shut down.
You're like, oh shit. And then we were the first
festival to come back post COVIDwhen the regulations allowed us
to do it, which is really neat. Everybody came out, but we're on

(18:16):
year five. It's been growing steadily,
Talent wise, film wise, quality wise.
We used to do, I think 5 world premiere features in in a year.
I think we're doing 15 or 16 this year.
We've like, already predominantly become a world
premiere festival, which is cool.
You know, if your movie shown at20 festivals, like, that's fine.

(18:36):
That's great for you as a filmmaker.
But we don't want that. We want you to premiere here.
We want you to get the press, bring your people out, let's
celebrate your movie. So that's what we've been doing
and it's been great and I can't believe some of the people have
been coming out to support it. We do this really cool thing on
the weekend of the festival every year.
It's our celebrity charity bowling tournament.
Yeah, there's this bowling alleyup there that does not look like

(18:57):
a mammoth bowling alley, by the way.
It's like a Lucky Strike. It's super nice.
Like, it's a brand new bowling alley and we do four teams of
five celebrities. And then we have, we've had
like, Tony Hawk, Dennis Rodman, Rebel Wilson, Michael Madsen, I
I mean, you name it, people havecome out and played on the
stage. Yeah, fucking dude.
He threw this awful gutter ball like right when the ball left

(19:18):
his hand and like hit the gutterand he like faked the knee
injury and he said, and he was on my team, he lost Tony Hawk
who got like 6 strikes in a row.That guy's a savage.
Dennis I I worked on when I worked on Burton Street way
before I came out to Lai, workedat a Cajun restaurant and they
had a Cajun band with like that washboard.

(19:41):
Dennis Rodman came in and he jumped on stage and put the
washboard on it. He was like, he's wild.
He's. Super crazy.
He just rolls around with a witha Ziploc bag full of Cuban
cigars and A and a flip phone. What?
Yeah, yeah. He's got no Instagram, He's got
no nothing. He just makes calls.
He's got that whole, like, Chinathing going with this phone.
Oh shit. Just watch this documentary man.

(20:02):
Like he's an interesting. He is.
He's very interesting. He's super cool, man, but we
love him. But it's guys like that coming
out. It's everything from like
athletes to actors, you know, wedo action sports because we're
in the mountains, which has beenreally cool.
Our good friend Luke Trembath, AKA Dingo.
Dingo in the snow, he's amazing.He was a snowboarder.
He's worked with Monster. He's got this charity called

(20:23):
Find Your Grind, which has been a big part of our art festival
in the past years. And they're helping like young
kids figure out what they want to do when they get older
because not everybody's going tobe a doctor or a lawyer or this
and that. They've created this really cool
program where you can go online and fill out this like
questionnaire and it gives you these options that just aren't
offered in schools. Like, hey, like a like a

(20:43):
musician, like a a you know, an artist and this and that like
different other routes, an entrepreneur, so on and so
forth. You can click on that.
It shows you how you can do those things that maybe don't
fit the the the mold of schools but there's people that are
creatives that just don't know how to express that or don't
know what to do. For like I was, I was
conflicted. Like growing up like I I was
good at math and English and history and all that stuff.

(21:05):
But I I didn't want to like haveyour everyday job but and all my
teachers like you're so smart you're so creative.
I didn't know what to do with that except, you know, acting
and and it was a progression. And now where I am, it kind of
all led to here. You know, I was producing of
parties and then I was producingand then I transitioned to
producing movies. Now I'm kind of producing
parties for movies. But full circle.

(21:27):
The full circle, Yeah, yeah. But but you figured out it's
just progression. It's just growth and you get
there and you just kind of ride that wave, you know, find one
little thing that you like and just just stick with that and
just, you know, give it your all, you know, Even if it
doesn't work out, why not? You can't do everything.
You can't half ass anything. If you like one thing, try it
out, go all the way. And we did it with the festival.
We didn't know what it was goingto be.

(21:47):
We're not reinventing the wheel.This has been done.
There's like 1000 plus film festivals.
But if I ask you right now, namefive film festivals.
Sundance South by South by Southwest Palm.
Tiff. Yeah, you guys just listed like
the top top. Yeah, right.
There's like 101,178 more festivals.

(22:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's like the
Sheboygan, Idaho, not international Short Film Writers
Contest Festival. They're out there like they
exist without reinventing the wheel.
But what we did is we we just picked a little piece of like
all kind of the top festivals that we liked and put them
together for. For example, you come to the
festival and one of our world premiere features is done.

(22:31):
You leave, you go to the after party.
I like to take the movie off thescreen and bring it to life as
an experience. We had a movie with Ashley
Green, Kate Bosworth and and Emile Hirsch that we premiered
called Immaculate Room. In the movie they were like in
this all white void and they hadto live there for like 50 days
and like you win like $20 million or something.

(22:53):
When that movie was done, we went to the after party, we took
a section of the room and we built out part of the set for
that movie. So you got to come in and like
sit on that bed from the movie and like like draw on the walls
like he was doing and stuff likethat, creating these
experiences, you know, and that just enriches the movie and the
press. You get on it and people talking
about it on social. So I'm trying to create more of
an experience festival. Because I I've done Sundance.

(23:13):
Yeah, I think I did something like 5-6 years in a row and I've
I threw a majority of the parties up there.
Yeah, but it wasn't like that. It was just like we had a room.
Sponsor the bar, the bar, yeah. Rage.
Cool. Yeah.
But again, tomorrow, like there was none of that.
And that's. There, we all do that.
That's just a business model, but.
But we don't create like like I think we're so like it's not fun
to just. I don't like just throwing part,

(23:33):
like I don't like doing the festival anymore.
It's just it's not we've done it, it's there.
It's like, there's so much more we can do.
Right. It's it's and that experience,
this whole like experiential marketing.
I get it. It's like being able to like
touch, feel, interact with the product or the brand or the
service. That's what's really cool.
Like what do we we we did a thing for for the show 24.

(23:54):
A Hollywood Highland has a huge courtyard in the center.
We built this like glass box that housed I think like 100
contestants that sat in there one morning.
And we launched this 24 contest.We started episode one, season
one hit play. Those contestants had to stay
awake as long as they could. The last person to stay awake
wins. I forget like $20,000 or

(24:14):
something. I think they got like 3 days and
it was down to like two people. The last person fell asleep.
It's creating these experiences.And the walls were glass, so
when the sun comes up and the shopping center gets busy and
people start showing up, they'rewatching these people.
These people are in there like like still going, you know?
But it was so cool to watch thisinteraction happen.
And then we did it again for TheSimpsons, because they love the

(24:35):
idea so much, because creating these really cool, unique,
memorable moments that people can walk away and talk about.
And I think that's kind of like my contribution to the festival.
We're doing the festival but bringing a little bit of that
that into it. And it's hard because we're
trying to explain this to peopleand like, just sell to brands
and stuff and get people to, youknow, we need money to do this.
We're a nonprofit. We're A5O1C3.

(24:57):
I'm like, hey guys, I love to doit, but come on the Jack
Daniels, I need this 50 grand and they're like, that sounds
cool. We get it.
Let us know how it goes and we'll talk next year always.
So I'm over here selling it. I'm just trying my hardest.
And then they see it and then they love it and then they they
come in. So it's an uphill battle.
Let me so on the uphill battle part, like I'm producing events

(25:18):
all over the world too, bro. It's fucking stressful.
Yes, it is stressful. Especially like you're saying
you're trying. I was late today.
I was working. It's stressful.
But like, you're trying like, you're saying like, because I
know what that's like, too. You're trying to do something
that nobody's done before. People are intrigued.
So, like, what is the mental toll that that's taken on you,
Tanner? Like there's a lot that you
like. People don't realize how much it
is, what it takes to throw, whatever.

(25:40):
You're absolutely right. You know better than anybody
what it takes because everythingwe do isn't conventional.
It's not like you're walking into a venue where there's a bar
built and a back bar and a walk in and a refrigerator and all
that stuff. We built stuff from scratch,
from the ground up, so there's alot of moving parts and if one
thing falls through, it's like awhole chain reaction.
Like I have this the whole bowling tournament is that kind

(26:01):
of set of like I've done the PrePro on it.
When I find out like the bleachers or whatever that we're
using the guys like hey, I can'tget the the, the, you know the
manpower to do it because we have another event that now that
little thing, it's not just about me finding bleachers to
replace it. I found them but they're in LA
now they have to go in a truck that I don't have room for the
now I need to make room for thatbrings on weight to that.

(26:21):
Like it's this chain reaction. It's going to cost you more
money. Don't have to do.
It it's super stressful, but I love that stuff.
I I like being busy. I like the challenges and and
like overcoming those things. I don't like things being easy,
which I think you need to be able to to appreciate to do what
we do. You addicted to the adrenaline,
you think a. Little.
I love it. It's the best.

(26:42):
What? I don't say doing shows, I'm
like, alright, cool, I got, I got like 2 weeks off.
The first three years I'm like, this is amazing.
By day four, I'm like. Yeah, what do we do?
Yeah, what do we do? 10 Right now we get here in the
living. Room and we'll come up with a
new business. Do like during COVID, we were
playing golf a lot. Like, all my boys play, so they
dragged me out. I'm the worst.
I look like I know what I'm doing.
I got nice gear, but I had no idea what I'm doing.

(27:04):
And we're like, oh dude, like these golf shirts suck.
It's hot out. We should what if there's like a
better golf shirt? Like created a golf shirt and we
started selling online and like,got on all these websites and
we're like, generating all this revenue off golf shirts.
And then we're like, dude, we'recrushing Red Bulls and coffees
in the morning like those liquidwhat I eat, Things would be cool
if there was like, I could just pour it into my drink in the
morning. So we created like a boost and

(27:25):
focus golf supplement like during Covad and had like a
little side biz. We just couldn't sit still.
We couldn't sit still, man. We were just creating stuff, you
know, it's it's fun though. It's a challenge and and I think
that's another example of you don't just have to do one thing
and be good at it, Try a few different things.
You have the chance to do that, the opportunity, yeah.
The people that are the most successful, the ones that are

(27:46):
able to multitask and then like I said, multitask but not be
afraid to be like let's try this.
If it doesn't work, you understand this to be a chain.
Yeah, you know, people say like try something and like it's OK
if you fail. Like, I don't.
I don't see it as like the the the word fail is in the word
like lesson. It's a lesson you learn try and
then you learn and then you go on and and and you move forward.
You know, people kind of like fail.

(28:06):
That was a cool message at first, but it it, it, it does
sound kind of scary. Nobody wants to fail, you know,
But you want to be uncomfortable.
That's growth when you're like in a place where you're like,
shit, if I take this leap, it's going to cost me more money or
time. I got to do this.
I'm going to be tight for a little while on on my budget,
but that's gross. It's called being It's being
uncomfortable. But then it's also being able to
juggle multiple projects you guys were doing, doing this Film

(28:27):
Festival. Didn't Tanner just produced like
the the Whitney Houston? Movie, yeah.
Tanner was an executive produceron AI Want to Dance With
Somebody, which is. Massive.
Yeah, and and they're working onBasquillon Andy Warhol movie
right now. They got a bunch of stuff in
the. World as he's doing the film.
Festival as he's doing the film,so like, so that's the other
thing, like we'll be at the festival right?
And we have stuff coming up thatfor example during the festival

(28:49):
Tanner's also an actor. He actually low key booked like
a role on on I I don't know it'slike 1923 or Yellowstone or.
One of those Yellowstone, yeah. But they're like, yeah, we shoot
on March 2nd and 3rd in like Texas.
He's like, that's during the festival.
So like he can't do that. Or like during the festival
there, there's like press for another movie that he's produced

(29:10):
or that we have to go to. And there's been days where
like, I'll hold down the Fort ifhomeboys got to drive to LA for
something for a day and come back, or if I have to skate out
to go do something and come backto like, where's Tommy?
He's like, Oh yeah, he's in the,he's in the bathroom two days, a
show of eight hours. Like, yeah.
That's the importance of it. Like you said, having a
community, having a good team of.
People like you got to trust your people and be able to like

(29:31):
like hold each other. I I have no idea what he's doing
at the office right now. He's handling like talent and
movies and distribution and stuff.
I'm over here sourcing stuff, doing pre pro staffing, building
all the production, the graphicsand design, all that stuff and
then we'll meet up and and I trust that he's done what he's
doing. He trusts that I've done what
I'm doing. You each have a lane, and when
everybody knows to stay in theirown lane and it works in unison,

(29:53):
it's a. Beautiful thing.
It's just scary when you start like adding lanes to it and it
goes from like a highway to a freeway.
And there's a lot of lanes moving, a lot of cars.
Yeah, yeah, that's what's scary.But it's exciting, You know, try
it. Do.
It doesn't work. You learned.
I think that's one thing that that taught us, you know,
working in nightlife is how to work in those high stress, high

(30:14):
energy, high intensity, how to multitask.
And and like he's at the table. I doubt you were sober when you
were working. But like you'd come to the table
and then we were raging and likelike we need more ice and
bottles. Like it's just because we need
it for this guy because he's going to spend more money and
then you know everyone's going to get paid and tipped out.
Well, like it was just this like.
This ecosystem, Yeah man, I was.We were fresh muddling shots at

(30:35):
that time, remember? Before.
We had the OH. Man, he's.
Got to get a muddler. Fucking somebody's choking me
from water. Yeah, he's like the like.
The somebody's like why don't wemix that up and yeah.
My God, that shit used to be theworst hangover.
Oh, that watermelon juice. Oh yeah, the water.

(30:55):
So good though, bro. And I remember after Beyoncé
came out with that song, every girl wanted the watermelon shot.
And we're just like. Hey, yeah.
And Speaking of songs and Beyoncé and stuff like like the
clubs and parties we did like are rap songs.
Like, yeah, you know, like drakes, 20 bottles, so whatever.
Like that was us, you know, I. Remember, It's crazy.
Yeah, well, we were there when that was Drake was on the cow

(31:17):
bottles. It's bananas.
What do? You wear at Greystone.
Oh my God. Like, yeah, people would back
home would hit me up. He's like, Oh my God, I saw this
place, Greystone on this. This is another there.
Isn't that the way? You saw your Instagram.
You're there. I'm like, yeah, I worked there
like, Oh my God, how great is it?
I'm like, honestly, it's really not as great as a.
Thing. Well, that's another variable
that we have too, right? That's like kind of a gift a

(31:37):
little bit living here, being here, like being in this world.
Like can other people in Ohio dowhat we're doing?
Sure, some of it. But we are kind of fortunate
enough to be in that environment, to have these tools
that were kind of maybe given tous rather than coming here and
trying to like find it, earn it.Well, we live in a different
reality. So, like, yeah.
It's easy for us to say. Yeah, but like I'm saying, even

(31:59):
like to make it here because everybody who's the best of the
best of where they're from is coming here trying to do that
and that. Know if that's the people in
Ohio. But it's like y'all got the same
little pool of things that you've been doing.
So it's like we have so much more against us coming up and
we're going up against people fucking that are.
You know, especially when you'redoing film, like film acting,
you're going against people thatare already established and
you're like. Right.
Like when I do a movie and I need so and so like in it, and I

(32:20):
happen to be friends with the guy and it's easy for me to call
him and be like, hey bro, would would you read the script?
Imagine coming here and being a writer and wanting to get that
movie made with that actor. Got a call the agency.
You gotta get so many steps. Chances are very low that that's
gonna happen. Yeah, it's all about
connections. It's network.
Anytime you go to like a film school or a panel or anything,

(32:44):
people raise their hands like what's the best advice or what
should I do? Like, where should I go to
school? What should I study?
Great, go learn everything you can.
But get out there. Meet.
People talk to everybody. Talk to everybody.
Get in rooms. And as an actor like I, I just
started cutting my teeth after my accident on short film.
And you've been crushing, bro. Yeah, he just started cutting
his teeth on it. Yeah, yeah.

(33:04):
Well, 'cause, you know, like when we were, when I was TSA ING
at your table, I was an actor. I was one of those guys.
I'm an actor. Never went to class, never did
anything, went to audition everything.
I just had an audition. When you weren't.
Anything. I'm hung over as shit at the
audition. Mouth's all dry and shit.
So like when I lost that distraction, now I can.

(33:27):
Now I'm finally training and I'm.
I'm booking shit and I can actually say I'm an actor and I
feel good about it. But there was a lot of like
those high stress situations that taught me, you know.
Well-being at those things, likeyou just being at the clubs and
stuff, right? You partying and not going to
classes and stuff, it didn't matter because the people that
you were interacting with at these events and these clubs and
these parties, they were cast directors.

(33:48):
There were, you know, producers.There were people that are like
just putting you in stuff without forget your bypassing.
And then you got this kid who's like living in a student, like
somebody'd garage, you know, Youknow, sharing a room with three
people, going to acting class and self taping every day and
going to auditions. And he's like, I was the best
one in that room. I can't believe I didn't get it.
I'm not going to make it. And then they move back home,

(34:10):
Yeah. And then here you are partying
and the guy's like, dude, I'm doing this thing.
There's like this role for this,like really like funny, good
looking dude. You should do it.
Like come by, come by on Monday and and and and read the script.
Yeah, I mean you just. Got to roll.
He's bypassed everything. That's how I got one of my first
agents. I just.
I would party with her all the time.
She's still acting. Yeah.
Like, yeah. But she's like, great.
Come in, I've got some. Stuff for you.

(34:31):
Boom. What?
I have some rooted medal issues right now, but I'll do it.
Fucking 8:00 AM Conversation turns into a film part.
You're like, I hate to say it atthat point, dude.
Yeah, you, you, you'd you'd party all night with somebody
and then you know, you you you'dgo home and then come Monday
morning, you talk to that executive.
You're like, hey, do you have a good time?

(34:51):
He goes, Dude, that was a blast.I'm like, cool, man.
What, what? What can we do together?
He goes, yeah, dude, come by, let's, let's, let's work
together on something. That, yo, that's the big thing
that people don't realize is us throwing these events, these
parties, we provide something that money can buy, but you also
have to know us to be able to like money can buy to a certain
extent. Most people don't have the money

(35:11):
it costs, but you have to be friends with us to be able to be
in that. Circle.
Absolutely. And.
And people like, don't even likecome here now and try to like go
to like film schools and stuff. They try to go out and get into
those circles. That's like the new Academy.
That's the new school. Yeah.
It's like, hey, I want to be in that circle of people.
Like they're all cool. They're all writers and they all
work like, how do I get into that group so?
Talk about your your festival maybe if we have like film

(35:35):
makers who are listening or watching right now, what's the
format like? Like how do you accept films?
Like what? What?
Yeah, man, it's it's it's it's similar to a lot of festivals
like you know and and and this is a me saying it, I think it
was like a variety. They call this the next
Sundance. We're we're like a like we're
like a mini Sundance, you know, we're a winter Film Festival and
we're closer. So much closer, yeah.
The snow's amazing. It's close.

(35:55):
And I'm going there, dude. We.
We we do it all shorts, features, documentaries,
international action, sports. We we jumped ahead of the We
Haven't Done podcast. We're looking to have somebody
out there doing podcasts. Well, you don't say.
We've kind of created like our own little podcast called The
Loop that we do out there. It's like our own interview city

(36:17):
that we bring talent in, so we should talk.
Network. There you go and.
There's probably other people that are like, man, we wanted to
do this for years and we're like, oh yo buddy, we should do
this. Yeah, somebody watches like look
you got. I'll get you guys in.
I know the whole. I know the owner.
I know the. Owner, you get, You get the
podcast studio, you get the party thrower, you get the

(36:38):
actor, you get all shit we could.
He can act as well. Well, the clip I can still sling
some drinks. You know the watermelon?
Yeah, bring it up. No, but let's be like if say we
were to do something like that, it's just with our
relationships, Alright? Cool.
He's like, alright, I know that you and your team know how to
set this up. Yeah, this is the space we're
giving you, yo. This brand is interested.
Cool. Go do it.
This is something dope to our 100%.
We don't have to. Worry about it, 'cause I'll get,

(36:59):
like, cold calls or emails from people like, hey, like, I'll get
an e-mail from somebody like, hey, we'd love to come out there
and, like, do our podcast there.I'm like, hey, nice to meet you.
Cool. Like, what do you need from us?
They're like, oh, do you guys have a space for us?
I'm, I'm busy like you e-mail melike, hey, we want to come up to
a podcast. I'm like, dope, dude.
You guys should get like rooms at the Sierra Nevada Hotel.
There's they have a lobby there.You guys should set up there.
It'd be dope. And I'll get you some passes.

(37:20):
Let's figure it out. Again, just knowing people, but
also those people reach out and some of that stuff works.
Don't be afraid to reach out andcold call people, but also.
Like you said earlier, it's about we've all been friends for
a long time. You you were really kind to us
as TSA is. We're like, yo, this is a really
good dude. So we appreciate sure you and
Brett were taking care of like there are some promoters.
I was like, I don't. I'm not. 100% and I never got

(37:40):
that. I'm like, why are you?
Why are you? Being like treating me like
treating us like shit. And it's like, for what?
And then you complain that you don't have your stuff, Well,
maybe. Because if you would write, so
it's just you. Look it over and we're like,
yeah, we got watermelon juice. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly. But you know, they say like, you
never know where it's going to be, where it's like, yo, I
haven't seen you in years. He hasn't seen you in years.
Like, yo, let's get together. It's like it's like I saw you
yesterday. You never know how just being

(38:01):
kind or just nice or smiling to.Not even for work or gain or
relationships or any of that. Just a person and how it's going
to affect them. You'll never see that person
again, but you don't know what they're dealing with.
When they go home, you might have just changed their entire
trajectory, right? You know, just just do it.
The world is no matter what, payit.
Forward. The world is such a shitty place
right now. It's like they said, that little
bit of kindness that, you know, that can honestly make the

(38:21):
difference between somebody liketaking their own life or not.
Absolutely. And you don't know and you don't
have to know. Just just just be the best
person you can be, you know? But so someone's like, oh, you
cost nothing to be nice. And I saw somebody goes like,
yeah, well how much does it costto be mean?
It costs nothing, right. Yeah, it's a you you you have a
choice. They they they both cost nothing
or a lot, but you get to choose which one you want to do so.

(38:44):
I think it costs you more at being mean.
In the long run, absolutely. Absolutely.
Being nice. You win.
Yeah, bud, it's it's not if you.Don't get anything, you still
win. And and we've all been there
like I've been in bad moods, I've been stressed out, and you
know, we all have. To go in our nightlife days like
we were all nice to each other, but like there's definitely
times are ego, shows important to it and be.
Able to communicate that later, even if it's a a day, a week, a

(39:05):
month, a year later be like, heyman, my bad about that day.
I was stressed out. That goes a long way.
That's it. Or just like, fist bump somebody
back, dude, my bad. That's it. 90% of the time it's
nothing personal towards them. It's just it's a trigger.
It's the moment you're stressed with a lot of shit and like they
just happen to be at the wrong place.
Yeah, exactly. I'm at the festival.
I'm getting hey man, we need canyou like, oh hey let's grab a

(39:26):
tree or let's can we show. I'm getting pulled in.
I'm like, guys, it's just I had an anxiety attack last year.
I've, I've, it's been happening to me a lot lately with like
social situations where I used to love being in clubs with a
bunch of people on a table in events.
It was awesome. Now it's like I got to take a
step back. I got to breathe.
I got to go in the back and justlike relax and regroup because
you're on all the time and people want stuff from you.

(39:48):
I. Noticed that too, man.
Like I was saying like. Yeah, I was gonna say the same,
like just going out to like our producer had a show last night
and I just, I needed, I needed. To charge my back.
I don't know. So I missed it, bro.
Love you. But like, I just like, I know
that we have this this job all weekend and I know that have to
be on and on and on and on and. Acting.

(40:10):
Yeah. Shit like, yeah.
You got You're right. You have to know when to step
back take. Yeah.
Take time for yourself. Comes with, you know, like being
a good person and being liked and stuff, you know, you know,
we're, we're modest, but people like hanging out with you guys,
you know, and and people keep coming up to you because you're
a good person and they enjoy youand they're friends with you.
That should be a testament to who you are.
That's a good thing that we haveanxiety because people like like

(40:30):
us, I guess. Man, I guess if you want to look
at anxiety in a positive way, like we we we can load it like
that, but. That happened to me at the
festival last year and a friend grabbed me.
She's like, hey, come outside. I got you.
We went out there and sat in thecold and just like, breathe,
hang out. That's been happening to me.
I don't know what it is. I'm not like diagnosed.
I don't care. But it does happen.
Right. It's since the it's wild, since
the pandemic. More people are struggling than

(40:53):
ever before. And a lot of it's just the
uncertainty, the uncertainty of the world, like, you know, all
of our job, right? In a way like that, 100%.
So it's like you're trapped, like subconsciously Now we're
all trying to be perfect, to make as much money as you can
because this is going to happen.Yeah, even people in jobs that
have a nine to five and like theretirement in four O 1K, like
even those people like had the rug pulled out from under.
I also think we've been over stimulated for so long too, like

(41:14):
we've been in these events, these parties, just like nothing
at nothing can surprise us anymore.
We've been through it all. So it's just like it's
overwhelming because now it's not fun.
It's more stressful. Right, you agreed.
Absolutely. So it's just it's, I think, the
stakes. Are higher now for all of us.
Oh, 100% because we got. Out of that life and now we we
step. Our own.
Stuff. I like that.

(41:35):
You said that the stakes are high, especially when you're
doing something like new and different, like with the
festival. And it gets to a point where
it's kind of getting some, like international notoriety.
It's it's getting big eyeball. Eyeballs are on you.
Yeah. And like to maintain and to,
like keep proving yourself, you know, it's every time, You know,
you got to keep growing or at least sustain it.

(41:55):
It's a lot of pressure. It's tough.
And then on top of that, like like being like a, a, a, a, a
man these days in a relationshiptoo.
There's like stresses at home and stuff that come with it.
There's so many things, there's so many layers to.
As we get older, yeah, 100%, I mean.
I I believe if you have enough love for something, the anxiety
is going to come with it. Because you don't.
Want to choose something? Yeah, absolutely.
You you stress yourself out on purpose, but I love this for the

(42:16):
love of the game. Yeah, but that's another big
thing about having community. Like, I'm very open about my
anxiety attacks, my panic attacks.
But I know that like when I'm ina situation and a work like EDC
Vegas, it's insane. But I know if I have a better
anxiety attack, my team knows. They know the signs.
They can be like, yo, let's takea break.
Yo, I'm going to go take care ofthis, Take your tent.
My boys know it's like, yo, let's get you this, this and

(42:36):
this, like so I can't stress enough to people because I used
to get things like that too. But I wouldn't tell people
that's what maybe had a mental breakdown where it's like the
biggest advice I give to everybody.
It's especially in those scenarios when you're throwing
these high end things. Yo, if you're having a hard
time, talk to somebody, yeah andtell.
Somebody or even know how to sayit like it wasn't a thing.
You were weird if you're like going through something.

(42:57):
Oh yeah, that's. We talked so much about that,
like when we were in the nightlife days.
Crazy. Like in this last 10 years.
And we would just self medicate,you know, there's a shot.
Let me take that off. Feel better?
It was. Just normal.
Yeah, it was self medicating. I mean, I'll look back like we
were just, it was crazy how much, like, we were going out
and like how much we were like, consuming, right?
It's nuts. And like you didn't want to miss
anything, right? It's like.
And your social calendar was full.

(43:18):
It's not that I did. It's not that I wanted to be at
everything. I couldn't sit home by myself.
I couldn't look myself in the mirror.
I couldn't be alone because it would spiral so much that I
would need to get high or drunk,be out amongst people.
So I did. And The funny thing is, thinking
about it now, it's like, yo, man, everybody was doing the
same thing I was. They were all miserable and
people by themselves too. And it's just like, wow, now

(43:39):
that that veil is lifted, that puts this lifestyle into a whole
new the fact. That we're sitting in this room
having this conversation and andand where we were 5678 years
ago. It's mind blowing like how open
we are and how much more knowledge there is and how much
sharing yeah there is amongst and and I say men because it's
just like because there's we've never talked about it you know
it was a whole different thing. So it was like swept under the

(44:01):
rug. I mean the the suit, the
biggest, the largest killer in males in the United States is
suicide. From the ages of 24 to 40, men
range 77% time. Wow.
Wow. Because people just aren't open
to talk about. I mean, that's the big one other
big thing we wanted to do with this podcast that's like scary.
Yeah, scary. It's crazy where it's like
everyone's going through something and especially where

(44:22):
you were raised or just, you know, the mindset your parents
had of no, you. I mean, you can't cry.
That's not a man thing to do, like.
I mean, just in the last few years of the people who we've
lost like to suicide, incredibleman.
Like people, childhood heroes, you know, the green power rager.
Like, you know, oh. The creep that.
Nature. When we all heard about Twitch,
that was like. Wow, I know that's.
That was like, he was like one of the nicest people.

(44:44):
I remember like it. It just so many people up
because you're just like I I don't get it.
Yeah, I saw this thing online. It's like, check on your funny
friends. They're not OK.
Like because the mass is the mass is the fucking.
Yeah, cover it up, you. Never know.
You're like, oh, he's the best person.
He's the most positive person. He's doing that.
That's a thought. He goes home and he flips that
switch off. Right now, it's just like, wipe

(45:05):
off your clown makeup and sit onthe couch.
You're like. Exactly, yeah.
Now there's a bunch of people like, I would have never think
you would have tried to commit suicide.
I'm like, you would never actually think to ask me what my
life is actually like beyond what you're seeing, right?
Yeah. And your judgment.
That's so big and it's importantto have conversations like this
and people like you guys doing what you're doing.
Hey, we're talking here. Yeah.
Hey, that's why I didn't come toyour show.

(45:26):
You do that when you go to the next show.
But you have having the conversation is the most
important thing right now. I mean, not just even on this
podcast in general like the world is so people are hurting.
They're struggling, like just talking to somebody and letting
them know, yo, I'm there for you, or yo, I'm going through
that too. Yeah, can change the course of
their whole day, their week, their life.
Absolutely. And I'm so lucky to have good

(45:48):
friends. Like, if I'm not saying
something, don't they know they'll they'll pull it out of
me? Like, dude, I know you.
What's what? Come here.
What's? Like Ramsay?
Yeah, I don't talk to Rams for aweek.
He'll call me. Hey bud, just wanted to get on.
You haven't heard from me this week and usually we'll send.
You a message like he's. Like, yo, man, yours just such a
sweet. Human being.
That guy is the biggest ray of sunshine I've ever known.
He's he's unreal. But like you said, the amount of

(46:09):
people who, and say like, oh, LAis a shitty place, they're
shitty people. And it's like, no, it's really
not like, right, We're fortunate.
We're fortunate enough to have amazing people around us.
Well, well people get like sucked into different groups and
then they're like they they kindof make that their home and they
feel like that's that's it, that's their clique.
And that's what's really hard. You see people like oh people

(46:30):
are so shitty. I'm like you hang out with and
not a bad thing against promoters and I'm like, but
you're like family is promoters whose job it is is to go to
events and host and drink and goto stuff like that.
That's the the the the the worldthat you subscribe to.
You know what comes with that? What if you're like best friends
in your circle where start the guys that had startups or, you

(46:50):
know, had their own party, right?
Your party, my all my party friends disappeared when I got
hurt and I wasn't partying. Anyway, 100% know what I mean.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I also think.
It's like everybody's leveling up.
It's like we're all bore on thatwavelength, 'cause there's a
bunch of people that I used to hang out with that I don't hang
out with anymore, but are doing the same thing they were doing
5. Yeah, it's crazy how like you
sometimes like and and and I used the word evolve, like grow,

(47:13):
whatever, move, move forward. And you see the people kind of
doing that as well. It it it blows my mind, man.
I'm I I put myself in their shoes.
I'm like, if I was still doing that, I don't think I'd be
around today. Yeah, absolutely not.
We we, we we were all fucking old.
Generous, mentally, physically, physically, emotionally,
spiritually. Like you're just it.
It crazy fucking family and stuff too, you know, Like the

(47:35):
last thing you're thinking aboutis like getting up on a Sunday
and going to your parents house to have lunch with them.
You know, you're not talking to your folks as much.
And you know, I've got two younger brothers like that.
Like I could have taken my days off and done more with family.
That I didn't because I was either hungover or like, going
to another party. Yeah, I mean, priorities just
just change. But I mean, we had a lot of fun
on those fucking party days. We had a It's so funny

(47:58):
explaining this shit like my parents when we were.
Young oh you can't but let you've been to so many parties
events give me your favorite ledoux for a teen story like
because we we talk about that a lot in those days and we always
love to reminisce with everybodyfrom our circle back in that
day. It's like, what's the your
wildest? No, no, no, no.

(48:20):
And then why you think of that? Answer.
Yeah. And then I want to like just the
positions with your favorite, like Film Festival, story.
So we get the two sides of like this crazy party scene and then
the film scene that you're like,you have so much love for now.
Oh my God, I hate the. I'm so bad at like on the spot

(48:40):
stuff, guys. I'm to hate to wear the show.
I know you do, but I'm just still not good at processing it
that quickly. Tell me.
Tell me what you're excited about the the Film Festival?
I mean, I mean so like like the nightclub days, right?
It's not like there was a a favorite favorite.
Well, the one of the one of the great things was like getting to
do like one of my clients when we did Seth Macfarland, that was

(49:00):
awesome. Like you will grow up watching
Family Guy and all that stuff like that to get to get to be
there, to interact with them andto activate that, that was cool,
you know, that was fun. But with that comes when you're
casually just doing shots with Sean Penn and Mel Gibson, you
know? That's a good one.
Pretty cool. You know, it's just like a fun,
you know, situations like that. You know some of these legends,

(49:22):
you know, you bump into like I bumped in a met Bill Nye and
Neil deGrasse Tyson in the same night, what I'm like, and then I
met Elon Musk. What party was that at?
Elon Musk. That was a more private party,
but it's just just kind of meeting these people and like
like rubbing elbows with them, which has been pretty cool.
But I I, I think back to 1 memory I had.

(49:44):
And it was on my birthday when we were promoting a supper club.
And I think the Hangover, The Hangover was big then, but The
Hangover like 2 wasn't out yet or something.
And we called it Tomics birthdayHangover Two.
And we shot this movie like a little trailer.
And it was the boys going aroundtown, like going to, like, Dean
May at a pool party and roof like, hey, hey, have you seen
Tomic? Like, we were out last night and
we haven't seen him yet. Dean Mays, like, yeah, we were

(50:05):
we were all messed up last night.
We went skydiving at like midnight.
It was like, I think he landed on the roof at supper club.
And like, we played this movie on the screen at supper club and
then the guys ran out and they're like, hey, we're still
looking for Tomic. Have you seen him?
And then I'm lowered out of the ceiling in a parachute harness
like I had parachuted on the roof with like bottles of
champagne and and outside as youwalk into the lobby the club had

(50:31):
gotten me the tiger from the hangover is in a cage in the
lobby of the club. What?
And I'm just like feeding it a bottle of milk while someone's
like feeding me a a bottle of beer and it's like all over TMZ
and Pita was livid. Oh my God.
I couldn't imagine. I mean, it's just this one.
That's 7 million moments that are incredible.

(50:53):
We could do a whole podcast justin the all 7 million moments of
like. Movies.
That all the. Way I I remember those movies
that you guys started making like Dean had one where he was
riding a little mini horse. On Hollywood, all the 14 XIV
videos, like do these promo videos every season before it
started where like we'd go like find Tony Daly somewhere and
he's like waking up at somebody's house like, Oh yeah,

(51:13):
I don't know what happened last night.
Oh, go ask Dean. And then we'd like, go find
Dean. Yeah, it was great.
It was amazing. There was one VR, remember,
where it was like 2014 and Dean's birthday, and like I
remember watching it where Dean was walking like this and all
white and then they let up dovesand the doves flew.
And we'll do these all white parties for his birthday.
But he showed them all red. Yeah, he blue like just.
We're like he just did a. Red suit, yeah.

(51:34):
And. Purposely and you're just like.
Yeah, but that was like kind of like where like the fun, like
ego and the personalities came in, you know, every Sunday at at
14 was a theme. I remember like it was like.
We'd have to get dressed. Up what was it a Cinco de Mayo
Sunday like? I went down to Aubera Street and
bought a head to toe mariachi outfit.
We went all out like everybody knew.

(51:56):
Every week that Atomics rolling in with like head to toe and
whatever the theme is. You remember where you used to
do that was The Flash. We did the Party Rock oh Party
Rock theme and Red. Who would be there would be
there? And that was when that that song
came out too. And Party Rock.
Oh my God, that shit is like incredible.
Like moments in in history, at least in like a nightlife and
music and entertain. Nightlife history.

(52:17):
Like I remember the zoo theme and we were all like zoo keepers
and there was blow up animals. Everywhere.
And mind you, for people watching and listening, this
stuff is online. You can go, you can go look.
Do not. It is not online.
Do not Google it. I don't exist.
I scrub myself off the Internet.We talked about I was like I
I've never been or never will beto another party like that ever

(52:38):
again. Ever again, Ever again.
It's it's it's incredible what we did.
And listen, there's going to be fun parties and people are going
to keep doing what they're doing.
But it was just this, like this moment in time that was so
special. And being in like a major city
like Los Angeles and the people that we were with and the
experiences that we had, the things we saw and who we did
those things with, will just will be so special.
Mind blown. Like guys would come in and

(52:59):
spend 100 grand on bottles. Not to drink, but to take it and
spray. Everybody spray now what I knew,
like if if I knew then what I know now, like I would have been
like, yo, hey, Mohammed Abdul Abzee is like, don't buy 50K
worth of bottles like I'm I'm, I'm producing this short.
Yeah, that's really use that money.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, come invest in this movie

(53:20):
with me and stuff. And a few of our our promoter
friends did that. They had these wealthy clients.
When they got into producing movies, they kind of brought
them over or two. Like, hey man, you're gonna
spend like $1,000,000 this year on going out and partying.
Like, yo, give me half of that. Let's produce a movie and and
make some money on it. Yeah, here, Here's my pitch deck
on my phone if you see here. Yeah, here you go.
Yeah, it's the bottle menu, but at the bottom of it is page
deck. He's like, what is this

(53:42):
international distribution for 500,000?
Don't. Worry about that.
Just sign sign Sign just. Sign and if you like, $100,000.
Chips, yeah. Yeah.
Really great. That's cool.
That's for P&A. It's for marketing.
You save some of the bottles to throw at your wrap party.
Your business card is the label.Oh bad.
And that was the arrows of afterparties.

(54:03):
You guys remember that like because because in California we
stopped serving alcohol at 2:00 AM.
Granted, you know we'd hang backat at at the venues because we
knew the owners and kind of keepgoing a little bit.
But it was like, where are you going?
What's the address? Do you pass the address around
to go to after parties remember that shit.
And for some reason everybody like there was just like all
these guys with mansions back inthe day like, so it's a Plaza,

(54:23):
but the. Shitty Part is back in the day
before Uber was a real thing in.Taxi cabs, bro.
Or it was a car. Commitment, though, 'cause if
you took a taxi, you didn't knowif you were getting a taxi back,
100%, you were like, am I gonna have to?
And then you're like, how many times you walk downhill?
Oh, yes. There's no service 'cause they
say the cab's on the way and that's it.
Oh yeah, you don't know how long.
Also, you'd have to like, go in the kitchen and like rummage

(54:44):
through drawers and find like a like a phone bill to see what
the address is, where you were at, where the like, where am I?
Like, I don't know, you'd wake up somewhere.
You're like oh. God, I remember the after party.
So like you couldn't drive up there.
You had to go to a location. Then we'd have to take a.
There's a lot of parties we've done.
Yeah. Yeah.
We can't give out location. We have to take shuttles.
Yeah. To and from that was the.
Yeah, it's bananas. Being the cab days that was

(55:05):
nuts. And then you like try to pay
with a credit card like no cash only.
I'm like I'm see your credit card machine.
I. Mean That's why they went out of
business, not out of business. Yeah, you know.
I remember when Uber first happened.
I have a buddy in LA who like called me one day and we're
chatting, goes, dude, have you heard of this Uber thing?
I'm like, no, he goes, I just, Ijust found out about it like my
cousin works up in tech. You like, it's like a cab, but

(55:27):
it's it's it's on your phone, You put in your address, they
pick you up and your credit card's on there.
And all black cars. Yeah, it was black cars and you
open the app and there was abouttwo or three cars that only
really existed because it just started.
And we always joked about like he had one car and I had one.
So we just wouldn't tell anybodyabout Uber, but I would just use
it and all my friends be like how do you have like just like
Lincoln's picking. Yeah, you show up in a Lincoln,

(55:47):
right? But because we used to pay for
the SU VS like the the Escalades, we'd pay homeboy like
500 bucks for the night. We'd all meet at a house to pre
party, we'd get in the SUV, takeus to the club, drop us off,
wait like 4 hours and then pick us up and take us home.
Or the after party and then. Yeah, yeah, after party, yeah.
But when Uber happened, those guys that we were paying 500
bucks a night were now availablefor like 65 bucks or whatever.

(56:10):
So they started like just selling liquor and stuff out of
the trunk of their car to like, try to make money.
They're selling booze at after parties after 2:00 AM, remember?
These 20 years ago like don't get into cars with strangers,
don't eat any random food or drinks that somebody gives you.
And now we just. Hey man, can I get in?
You have candy for me like I have water.
I have the bottle of this. Like what it is?
Oh, don't worry about this. Worry about this.

(56:31):
Put over your face. You'll be fine.
Like, like, damn times. But you can't us, bro.
I love it. But we just can't go back now,
this evolution. But I don't.
But like, I'm grateful for whereI was in the past.
I don't want to go back because the trajectory going forward is
so great. But we had to fall here, Learn
here, absolutely walk here. Having the memories, or lack

(56:52):
thereof, is enough for Venus. Yeah, right.
No, Hey, we lived a life, man. Bucket list is pretty much
crossed off. There's got some couple weird
stuff so left on it but. What are some of the things you
probably up up till now and being what you're doing, what
are a couple of things that you're most grateful for that
you know really help you just keep that perspective and keep
you going like, yo, man, I'm so lucky.
My friends, man, my, my, my friendships, You know, we've had

(57:13):
a lot of people come and go, like you said, we like party
friends and and acquaintances and whatnot.
I've had a core group of friendsthat have been there for me
always that have helped support me.
I've been so fortunate about that.
That's like the one thing I'm sograteful about.
They've been my family. Stay in and day out.
They know who they are and couldn't be luckier to have
them. Yeah, community.
Yeah, so what's? Community, community, your

(57:35):
network, your circle. You know, you get older and like
you got a buddy who's been your friend for 20 years but he's,
you know, still doing what he's doing and off or whatever,
that's fine. You guys can still be friends,
but you make less and less time for people like that you.
Appreciate people. You appreciate who they are,
where and where they are and understand that, you know, I
still got a lot of love for you.I'm just over here doing my
thing and it's nothing personal.You're just.

(57:56):
Doing yours, it's absolutely people.
Grow up in transition. People grow up, right?
So you ever let everybody know where they can find you, what
projects you got coming out? Where they can get more
information on the Mammoth Film Festival.
The the festival's called Mammoth Film Festival.
It's every year around February or March up in Mammoth Lakes,
CA. It's probably already happened.
If you're listening to this now,it was awesome you guys missed

(58:16):
out. Yeah, it was amazing.
Yeah, you guys should have seen it.
Oh, man. You know, And then the company's
called Silver Cell Entertainment, Tanner and I, you
know, trying to produce a couplemovies a year as well.
So we're going to keep working on that.
We'll keep you posted on that kind of.
Stuff if I got the script right here.
Oh yeah. Hey, I really do come to the
festival, man. Come.
No, I definitely want to check buyers up there.

(58:37):
We're building a market to buy movies and stuff and sweet.
And yeah, so would love to have you guys up there come to a
podcast up there. We got some great guests for you
guys to interview. Oh, that.
'D be amazing. I I just can't wait to see your
guys's growth too, 'cause like I.
Appreciate that. Yeah.
I mean, I love watching my people keep killing.
Hey, man, I'm learning. I'm learning stuff every day.
You know, like now that we've got liquor stuff coming in,
that's, you know, I've a little bit, but this guy knows it and I

(58:59):
don't. So I call him that.
This is my my network, this is my support.
We call each other for stuff. Yeah man.
I just want to say I was so excited to see when when I saw
Your Name pop up on our on our guest list, I was like, oh.
Shit, man. I was.
I was. I was looking.
Forward to it. I haven't seen you.
I haven't seen you and and app 6.
Plus, years just pick up where we left off.
We do. Yeah, that's kind of cool.
Yeah. Yeah, I love it, everybody.

(59:21):
Like, there's still so much support, yeah.
Thank you man. Thank you for coming.
On kidding me. Thank you for having.
Me, thank you for being just a like a a good generous person
and oh. Dude, I appreciate it.
Same with you guys. That's why this is so easy and
so fun to do. Yeah man.
We appreciate it. We're definitely going to have
you come back on you. Tanner would love to hear about
all the projects, but. Tanner's got some stories.
For it, definitely, man. Yo, thank you so much.
We'll see you next time on A Chaos.

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Tomik : Nightlife Promoter to Mammoth Film Festival Co-Founder | Chaos Controlled Podcast 208

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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;}Tomik : Nightlife Promoter to Mammoth Film Festival Co-Founder | Chaos Controlled Podcast 208