October 18, 2024 • 28 mins
Film Maker and actor of the new hit, Office Joe, Dan Mercer joins Patti Katter to discuss all things OFFICE JOE.
About Office Joe:
Joe, an Army Infantry Staff Sergeant, gets his DD214 and drives across the country to start a job as a graphic designer, a skill he perfected by drawing in porta potties across multiple combat zones.
Fresh out of the military and never having had a civilian job, Joe hilariously finds himself on a quest for the two things that every military veteran searches for when they get out: Tribe and Purpose, as well as the one thing every human seeks: Love.
He also shoots a guy in the junk. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello everybody, you're. Listening to and watching Wake
Up With. Patty Katter today.
I have Dan Mercier on the show. Did I pronounce that right, Dan?
Urser, but I I like the flair. I like the flair you added to
it, you know, I I'll take it. The little French, you know?
Yeah, I'll just call you. Dan Mercenary, I don't know.
(00:22):
Mercenary Dan Yeah, Merciless ismy rap name actually.
And so do you want to start it over?
Or you want me to keep rolling with it?
You're fine. Let's keep going.
All right, So I don't like to. Edit my shows, everybody knows
that. Welcome to the show, Dan.
How you doing? I'm doing great.
I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited to see good So what
(00:43):
I'd. Like to ask my?
Guests is to have my guests. Tell me a.
Little bit about yourself. Where you came from, tell us.
Even a little bit about your childhood.
Yeah. So I grew up in Raleigh, NC, you
know, amazing family, very supportive family.
And growing up I was really intoathletic.
(01:03):
So my big thing was basketball. And, you know, I'll give you a
quick little story about my journey, but I played basketball
all growing up through elementary school and through
middle school, played on my school team.
And then my 8th grade year in middle school, I had a really
bad experience with like the coach.
And just also, you know, when you're in 8th grade, you don't
know yourself very well. And I was so afraid of, of not
(01:25):
living up to the expectations of, you know, Dan Mercer's
really good at basketball. He's going to play in high
school. He's going to play, you know,
and so actually after 8th grade,I quit basketball.
I just stopped going. I have like an individual skill
coach that I, that I just walkedout on one day and I decided I
was never going to play basketball again.
So I actually went through high school just as a regular
student, got into music and exploring some of my artistic
(01:47):
stuff. And then I went to the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill right out of high
school for undergrad. And I was there for a couple
years, started getting into partying and just, you know,
doing things I should have been doing.
Got really depressed and, and I actually dropped out of school
and I moved back in with my parents in Raleigh and I went to
(02:09):
the YMCA and start playing back pick up basketball while I was
waiting to go back to school. And I remember one day this guy
was playing. He, he was like, I had a
Carolina shirt on. He was like, Hey, are you one of
those fratty white guys who sitson the end of the bench at
Carolina? Like I was like, no, no, he's
like, well, you're, you're good.You should be.
And so I remember I left the gymthat day and I called my my dad
and I said, dad, how crazy wouldit be if I told you I wanted to
(02:32):
play college basketball next year?
I hadn't played since 8th grade and he said the first thing he
said was call Mike Hollis. Now, Mike Hollis was my coach.
The individual, like outside of school, skill development coach.
I called him. I hadn't seen him in six years.
He told me to meet him the next morning and I thought we were
gonna go work out. He actually took me to like a
men's Bible study and then he told me like I'm going to, you
(02:54):
know, I'm going to tell you whatto do.
I need you to completely trust the process and give everything
you have. If you do that, I'll work with
you. So very Long story short, we, I
went back to school that that January, this was 2000, 2008,
January 2008 and was commuting to Carolina.
(03:14):
And then I'd work out with CoachHollis in the morning, early
morning drive to Chapel Hill, 30minutes, come back at night,
lift weights with no guarantee that I would play well.
He started to get some Division Three small schools looking at
me. And then he had another, another
player that he worked with who played at UNC Wilmington, which
is Division One basketball. And he came home to work out and
(03:36):
met me and thought I'd be good. So he actually helped get me a
walk on spot at UNCW Division One.
And so I went Division One and and you know, more Long story
short, at halfway through the year, I ended up starting and
playing a lot of minutes. And so I had two years of
eligibility. So I spent two years at UNCW and
did like, you know, was the Co captain my senior year and
(03:58):
academic hall conference. And so that really changed my
life like that, that that taughtme that, you know, if you work
hard and you trust in the process and you do the right
thing, you get good results. So I did that thought I might
want to get into coaching. Did a year as a grad assist in
East Carolina. Realized that I, I don't wanna
get into coaching. I just, I realized that I didn't
(04:19):
want my livelihood to be based on like begging a 16 year old to
like come to my school. I don't know, I had this like
existential crisis, but I still wanted to play, so I did.
There's a group called Athletes and Actions.
It's a Christian organization that does travel sports.
The coach had some connections to some small leagues overseas.
So I went to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for some tournaments
with athletes in action. And off that he sent my video of
(04:42):
me playing to a team in Australia, got an offer to go to
Australia. So I went and played very, very
low level pro basketball in Australia for a year and then
went to China, did some tournaments over there and, you
know, then came back to Raleigh and started the next portion of
my life, which was, which was working for a start up with my
brother. But what I was doing while I was
(05:03):
working at that startup is that's when I really started to
get into my music, to my film making, all this stuff.
And, and I realized it was the only other thing in my life that
I had ever cared about besides basketball.
And I'm not doing great at doingstuff I don't care about.
So I was like, I'm going to do the same thing with film making
as I did with basketball. I don't know where to start.
So I applied to AUNC school, thearts.
They just started a master's program.
(05:24):
So I went there, spent an amazing, amazing time there and
and then that's what got me intofilmmaking.
Met these guys at Diesel Jack Media and you know, years later,
Office Joe is happening. So that's a that's, you know,
the abridged version of my storythat is crazy.
I never would have guessed all of that about you.
So it's funny. You never can judge a book by a
(05:46):
cover. We all know that.
But really? I had no idea.
Your. Background was so fascinating.
So tell me you were in film school so you were thinking
about filming behind the camera.Tell me more.
About the logistics here, yeah, so.
Yeah. So I was studying directing,
writing and producing and I was taking like the grad school was
(06:09):
just producing and screen writing majors.
So I like double majored in that.
And then I took the the undergrad directing faculty let
me audit the undergrad directingcurriculum.
So I studied those three things.But then it was a two year
program my second year there because I was in some of these
classes with these undergrads and we'd have to make short
films in these classes. They got to know me and this one
(06:31):
kid had gotten his script like they, they selected a number of
scripts to be filmed at UNCSA and do these big productions so
they can learn how to work on a big set and all this stuff.
And he, he had gotten his scriptapproved for like a fourth year
film. And it was about a guy who's
like a wrestler and he breaks his neck and then sues the the
federation and his lawyer quit. So he like represents himself
(06:53):
and he's like, would he wanted me to play the role?
So my first, you know, that was my first experience like really
acting, you know, with with thishuge crew and this they had
built this like wrestling ring in this courtroom and, you know,
all all hands on deck, all the all the different departments of
the school come together to makethese and and I got to play the
lead role. So that was that's kind of how I
(07:16):
dipped my toe in in the acting. I mean, it was really just doing
short films in class. But that was the first like, you
know, major thing I did. That's incredible.
So do you memorize? Script well or do.
You just kind of improvise. I I actually, I found that I
have a really a good ability to to memorize lines.
(07:38):
I found that out because when I did the, the, the film at UNC
School of the Arts, I he had actually had someone else cast
and he didn't like it and they were about to start shooting and
so he recast it. And so I didn't really have much
time to learn the script and I had this like page long
monologue to the jury. And I just remember I had to get
(07:59):
like tattoos put on each morning.
And so I was just kind of reading the script, trying to
learn this like page long monologue and just, you know,
for some reason I just clicked and I was able to the, the, the
go out there and, and just nail it on the first, the first try.
And so, yeah, I definitely have to study some, but but like, for
(08:19):
some reason I can't, I'm just able to, I'm able to learn, you
know, learn stuff pretty fast, which was helpful for Office Joe
because Joe had a few long, you know, blocks of dialogue.
So I mean, I definitely studied every night before.
You have, you know, your scenes the night before.
So I'd study the night before and then read them as you as
you're getting set up. But but yeah, that kind kind of
comes naturally to me. Did you audition or?
(08:42):
Were they just like, oh, you're it because.
We know you and we know your acting skills.
Awesome. For Office Joe Yeah.
So, so last summer, Hollywood, our producer and myself, we're
doing a lot of sketch comedy type, you know, like Instagram
(09:02):
commercials for different companies who are paying us, you
know, to do these. They'd send us their product and
we'd do these silly kind of commercials.
And, and we were, it was kind oflike we were, it's kind of like
a sale, a video sale, you know, so they were just $500.
And because of that, we weren't going to hire outside actors and
do a bunch of crazy stuff. We just kind of Hollywood and I
would act in a lot of them. And so I mean, we must have done
(09:25):
75 to 100 of those $500 videos over the summer, last summer.
And this is when we first had started talking about Office
Joe. And so, you know, Hollywood, you
know, kind of started to believein me as an actor.
And so when it came time to start talking about who, who
could play the roles, Hollywood suggested to suggested me for
(09:48):
Joe. And, you know, Nick got on board
And I, I really think those $500videos that we did all last
summer was really the reason that I was able to, to get the
opportunity to play Joe. So those of you who watched the
show last week, watched. Nick Palmagiano on my show from
Office Show. But I want you to tell our
(10:09):
listeners in your your thought of mine here.
Or your thought process about office show.
Tell me how do you think that itstarted?
And I want to hear your version and we'll compare it to the next
version. Yeah, OK.
So my version is, well, it's, it's a very different, you know,
experience for me because I, I'mnot a veteran.
(10:31):
So I work with veterans and, and, and a lot of our, our
clients as in our marketing agency and video production is
working with veterans. So, you know, the last two years
I've really learned so much about that community and it's,
it's been, it's been amazing andI've gotten to know so many
people. So, you know, put that in the
(10:51):
back of your mind as we, as we start talking about the show,
you know, it was like probably August of 2023, we started kind
of playing around with ideas. And originally it was, it was,
we were potentially going to have it on vet TV.
So we started thinking about, you know, what kind of show can
we make for, you know, like a independent, you know, cheap
(11:14):
show that we could make, but it's still, it's still quality.
And I think sometimes creativity, it can really
blossom when you put constraintson it, which is like
counterintuitive, right? But we were like, you know,
what, what do we have access to?You know, we had this office.
We're we're a video production, you know, marketing agency.
You know, we have this, this, this soundstage studio that I'm
(11:35):
in right now. You know, what are our
resources? Who do we, you know, who are the
people we know how, you know, how could we shoot it in, you
know, ATV series in in three weeks?
Well, you know, one of the ways is you can't have, you know,
intricate lighting setups and stuff.
So let's shoot it like the office or it's sort of
documentary style. So all these things played a
(11:56):
role. And so we said that's kind of
like how we started thinking maybe this guy works at a
marketing agency. We've already got the main set,
you know, and then, you know, Nick, obviously with the veteran
community, the audience, you know, we knew it was going to be
about, you know, military base, but we also wanted it to be able
to crossover into mainstream. So so we found that balance of
(12:19):
like this guy, you know, he's he's getting out of the military
and then he's going into the civilian world.
So, you know, it still reaches that military audience.
But also if you're a civilian, like you can watch it and relate
with it too. It's really a fish out of water
story, you know, which is a classic, you know, classic
story. So yeah, so we started thinking
about it, started writing, we talked about TV.
(12:40):
We decided that wasn't the best route.
We're going to produce it on ourown.
And so I'd really say it really ramped up in September, October,
around this time last year. And and we had a writers room.
It was Hollywood, our producer, myself, Co worker named Teresa
and and Nick. And we'd meet in the mornings,
you know, before, before work and would just kind of start,
(13:03):
right, like doing bullet points for the episodes, kind of
writing the beats where we thought it would go.
And then Nick would go and writethe scripts and then bring them
to us. And we do notes and, and sort of
that we, I think we finished thescripts maybe in October and
started casting in, you know, late October, early November,
and then we were shooting by December 1st.
(13:23):
So, so it really came together, came together fast and you know,
it was an awesome experience. And for then for me to play Joe,
I was able to take all those experiences with that.
I've learned, you know, working with veterans, seeing all these
veteran organizations like the American Legion, like Warrior
Rising, like student Veterans ofAmerica that we worked with.
(13:44):
And sort of Joe to me kind of became like an amalgamation of a
lot of people that I've met through the last two years and
it and hearing about their journeys of, of transitioning
out of the military. And I was sort of to able to
take pieces from everyone and sort of put it into Joe and then
kind of put my own little, little spin on it.
So it was an awesome experience and I was just so honored to get
(14:07):
to play the role. Man, I I mentioned to Nick,
without giving too much away to to listeners who haven't seen it
yet, but the part about transitioning and I'm going to.
Leave it right here was hilarious because you had.
Mentioned you were transitioningand I'm not going to go into the
details you. Guys have to watch this, but
I'll just say it's. Spot.
On because I had. One of my neighbors ask, what do
(14:29):
you mean Ken's transitioning? Yeah, yeah.
No, that's the first episode is yeah, there's a little bit,
there's a little misunderstanding in the first
episode with Joe and his new Co workers.
And that's sort of the a thread that runs through most of
episode 1. That's it's pretty funny.
So yeah, people will have to watch and, and and I think it's
(14:51):
I think it's really, I think it helped us develop that that like
storyline helped develop some ofthe other characters in episode
1. And, you know, a lot of the
people that he works with are sort of caricatures of, you
know, maybe like the, the type of people that you know, are,
are yelling on the Internet and stuff.
Like we were able to kind of make fun.
(15:13):
We it was equal opportunity in terms of making fun of people.
And but at the same time, I think the characters are, are
also like likeable. And I think even though some of
them have really different viewpoints, everyone's friends
and everyone accepts each other.So I actually think, you know,
we were able to to kind of make fun of things, but then also
(15:34):
send a positive message about people getting along, you know?
Absolutely. And that's something that I
loved. You know, you can't hardly turn
on the TV anymore. Or a movie.
Without feeling like some. Agenda is being shoved down your
throat. And so this series is amazing.
Because I didn't feel like that at all.
And in fact, like we all have. Friends that don't believe
(15:54):
exactly as we do and it's fun tojoke around with each other and
not get so serious. And not get so offended, you
know. So it it's a really great show.
In fact, there's a couple other shows that I I think of in the
lines of shows that started sortof like yours.
And did amazing and had such longevity.
And so I think that your show. Is one of those.
(16:15):
I think it's very relatable to. Civilians as well as military.
So tell me when you were acting as Joe or when you're acting as
him. Do you?
Literally. Get into character like.
Do you have to psych yourself out and just.
Become that. Character or how do you pull
that off? I'm definitely I'm definitely
not like a method. You know, I don't take myself
seriously enough to be like a method actor where I'm acting as
(16:38):
Joe when we're not on camera, you know like I'm not you know I
I think if you're going to be like a method actor, you got to
be like Daniel Day Lewis, you know you got to be like the best
of the best like you know you meet people on like a little
show that I'm a method actor. That's ridiculous to me.
So no, but you know, like, like I said, like a lot of the, you
know, Joe's personality was likeI said, kind of taking these
(16:59):
pieces of people I've met over the last few years and then also
putting like a little bit of my natural personality.
You know, he, he's, he's kind ofsilly, you know, he, he
sometimes doesn't like quite understand, you know, he, he
always means well, you know, andso I took some of these things
about and some of my quirks and kind of turned them up to 11.
(17:21):
There's a few scenes though, definitely like the scene where
there's a scene where Joe gets really mad, which is he doesn't
get mad a lot in the show, but he gets really frustrated with
the, the people he's working with.
And, you know, he's just frustrated with his transition
in general. And I had to like really scream
at these people. And The funny thing about that
episode is that the night we were shooting that scene, I, I
(17:42):
didn't know it was on this. I thought it was on the schedule
for the next day. So I had not.
And this is probably 1 of Joe's longest blocks of dialogue.
So I didn't even know we were filming it.
And then Nick was like, all right, we're gonna go to, you
know, the next scene. And it was that scene.
So I was like, oh, crap. You know, I haven't memorized
this dialogue. So, you know, while they were
kind of setting up for the next scene, I just kind of went
outside and, and just start reading through it, saying it to
(18:05):
myself and was able to, you know, going back to talking
about memorizing dialogue. But but yeah, I think that was a
scene where I actually did kind of have to like separate myself
and get like pumped up for it. And we didn't rehearse that.
So it would be the the other actors had never seen me like
that, you know, So we thought ifwe didn't rehearse it, we'd get
some genuine reactions out of them.
(18:26):
And I just remember Nick and then Ben Bunn, who was a
producer on the show and also plays Lucius, them just giving
me some pointers on, you know, how to kind of be a drill.
They wanted it to kind of be drill Sergeant style.
And so, you know, they gave me the pointers about the knife
hands and all this stuff and outof the delivery.
So I kind of took that and then just went outside, psyched
(18:46):
myself up and then and then camein.
I think we only did that one time, the one time, you know,
and, and got it on the first try.
And yeah. And so that that was all.
But but other than that, you know, it's kind of just like,
you know, I think the set was just really relaxed and
positive. And so it didn't feel like any
pressure. And I feel like, you know, I
(19:08):
feel like it was a great, a great environment.
What was your very favorite? Part of recording.
Oh man, put. You right on the spot.
Like my favorite part, I don't, I don't like when I think about
what my favorite part is about filming the show.
I, I, I don't think about a specific moment.
(19:29):
I think about the fact that for three weeks that my full time
job was to wake up and go act every morning like was my
favorite part because, you know,we do a lot of a lot of
different work with nonprofits and you know, our videography
and stuff. But you know, that my my passion
is filmmaking. And so, you know, for for three
weeks in December, you know, allthat I had to think about was
(19:53):
was like being this character. And so that was my favorite part
is just the fact that like that's where I was going every
morning, you know, is waking up to go be to go play Joe like
that was an amazing experience and you know.
Just made me made me want to do it even more.
So this is cut out to be a series.
Long term or? Is it a short series?
(20:14):
Yeah. We'd love, we'd love to keep
going with it. You know, we'll see.
We'll see what the, the you know, how it's how it's received
and if it does well, I mean, we've got some, some ideas for
Season 2, you know, just like high level kind of plot points.
And I would love to, you know, it'd be great to keep it going
because you know, it's funny. You, you start to the more you
(20:36):
work on it, the more you write, you start to learn more about
the characters. And you know, that's why I think
some comedies, I think a lot of times with like dramas or
thrillers, season 1, a lot of times is, is is the best.
But I think sometimes for comedies it, it takes like, I
think it sometimes it gets better as it goes because you
learn what's working more, you learn the characters, you get,
(20:58):
you know, more ideas. And so I think I think it'd be
great to be able to, you know, keep going because I think we
have some really good stuff. Like I think we, you know, just
hitting our stride with it. So we'll see what happens.
That would be the goal. I mean, I agree with that.
Because, you know, always. Takes a couple episodes to get
used to the character, so for. Me, somebody watching?
It's like I really started to get.
(21:19):
To know these characters and I just wanna another episode,
another episode and I. Thought Oh my gosh it's over
already. Like I only got a preview.
Like I need more. So.
Yeah, and I think, and I think even in the first season, like,
you know, I think as you get to like episode 4-6, you know, you
can even tell within the season where we started to, you know,
(21:41):
get even better. And so, so like, so editing it
as we're going, it was exciting because like you, you added
episode one, you're like, this is good, you know, but then you
get to like I, I did, I edited 1and 4, then I got to four and
I'm like, wow, like this is really, really getting good.
So it's exciting and makes you it makes you want to do more.
But it'll all be, you know, based on, you know, how it how
(22:02):
it does. So we'll see.
Well, let's get the word out there.
Because I need to see more. I think everybody.
'S going to love it, really I doso.
I want. You to think about your future
self. Dan, when you make it huge and
you're making multi millions of dollars being an actor and
(22:23):
you're going to go back and watch.
This episode. Is there anything profound that
you want to say? That when you go back.
Someday and when I say. Hey, you guys.
He. Was on my show 1.
What would that be? I think I think, you know, the
most profound thing about about this is, you know, I proved to
(22:45):
myself that that I could I coulddo it and that I have a shot to
to, you know, do this long term,whether it's acting or directing
or, you know, writing, whatever it is.
But like, you know, I remember going back to the basketball
thing. I remember the first game I
started was a culmination of allthis work and trusting in the
(23:06):
process and, you know, just working hard.
And then it kind of culminated and, you know, I'm on the court
as the game is, as the game's tipping off, you know.
And so like, I think of Office Joe as sort of a culmination of
the last, you know, 6-7 years. Like, you know, be, you know,
back when I was 29 years old saying I'm going to go to film
(23:29):
school, like I don't even know where to start, but I just I
want to do this. And so, you know, then 6-7 years
later, Fast forward and like I said, I get to wake up in the
morning and go act, you know, and it, so it proved to me that
like it, it just re reinforced the same lesson I learned
(23:49):
playing basketball where it's ifyou work hard, if you trust the
process, you do the right thing that that good results will
happen. And, and it just, it kind of
reinforced that. And so, and made me want to keep
going. It kind of justified all the
work that I've put in over the last 6-7 years.
And so, and really like, I, I knew I could do it, but it, this
(24:11):
really showed me that I could doit.
I think a lot of that, too is like the producer, Hollywood
believed in me so much even whenI didn't believe in myself.
And so, yeah, it was just, it was really satisfying and, and
prove that, you know, I'm I'm, there's something to this for
me. Oh my goodness, yeah, I can't
even speak highly enough. About Hollywood, I hope.
(24:31):
Someday that I can find some. But he has a.
Little extra time to be on my show because this man has
mentored me and has cheered for me when I haven't felt like
cheering for myself so. He's.
Truly inspirational and one of my.
Top favorite? People in the world so.
Same. Absolutely.
(24:53):
What did you feel your responsibility was playing a
veteran? My responsibility?
Yeah, no. Playing a veteran, my
responsibility playing a veteranwas to, you know, to do it, to
do it justice and to make, make the veterans that I've met over
(25:14):
the last few years, like proud and, and to make them feel like,
you know, they could, they couldsee some of their own, some of
their own struggles and stuff, you know, in the character.
You know, yeah, it wasn't about me.
Like playing this role wasn't about me.
It was about other people and about taking what I'd learned
from them. And like, you know, like trying,
(25:36):
trying to, to, I, I thought thatas a civilian, I thought it was
cool And I, I thought it worked well because, you know, as a
civilian, I kind of take all these things that, that I've
learned these experiences that I've had the last few years that
maybe like a lot of civilians haven't had and sort of like
channel that into Joe and make aconnection there.
(25:57):
Like cross, you know, like we'retalking about crossing over to
mainstream from the veteran audience.
I thought like, you know, the opportunity that I have to kind
of be that vessel as Joe. You know, I thought I thought
that was cool and I thought thatworked out really well.
You know, one kind of unique perspective on us, too.
Is I could see where. Some the veterans may not want
(26:18):
to. Play that role because.
They might not want people to think like.
Oh. He really went through that.
Or the fact. That oh, he went through that.
Now he's like, you know, he's either coping with it or not
coping with it or judging them based on their character, like
judging their military experience based on this, this
(26:39):
funny character, you know? Yeah, for sure.
And I, I think one of the cool things that that Nick, you know,
did with, with the show in general is that like, you know,
a lot of a lot of times you see a veteran in in, you know, films
like Hollywood films, it's he's either like damaged good, he or
she's either damaged goods or it's like a, you know, a killing
(26:59):
machine. You know, it's like one or the
other. And I thought, you know, Joe is
just this like, you know, nice guy.
He's, he's earnest, he's endearing.
And, you know, he's struggling through the new phase of his
life. But, you know, he's not, he's
not a cliche, which I thought was really cool.
I thought it was really well written.
Oh my gosh. Yes, I mean right from the.
Very beginning. I, you just reminded me of every
(27:23):
veteran that I've ever met who has been, you know, through that
point of going from being in themilitary to getting out.
And how is that transition? The beautiful part of this is
that it speaks to. Civilians as well as military,
and I think it's going to help one another.
Understand each other better. Definitely.
(27:43):
Definitely. Yeah.
No, I think that's what the showis all about.
Yeah. So if you could tell everybody
where to touch the show, that would be great.
Yeah. So the show's going to be out on
November 8th and it's going to be on you wherever you rent your
movie. So Amazon, iTunes, you know,
Apple, they I don't know if they're calling iTunes Movies or
Apple Movies, Google Play. It'll be available for rent or
(28:06):
buy on all those platforms on November 8th.
We're really excited and, you know, we hope people people will
check it out. Absolutely.
Thank you so much for being on the show, Dan.
I appreciate you and taking timeto be on the show.
Is really. Awesome.
So thank you. Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Hello everybody, you're. Listening to and watching Wake
Up With. Patty Katter today.
I have Dan Mercier on the show. Did I pronounce that right, Dan?
Urser, but I I like the flair. I like the flair you added to
it, you know, I I'll take it. The little French, you know?
Yeah, I'll just call you. Dan Mercenary, I don't know.
(00:22):
Mercenary Dan Yeah, Merciless ismy rap name actually.
And so do you want to start it over?
Or you want me to keep rolling with it?
You're fine. Let's keep going.
All right, So I don't like to. Edit my shows, everybody knows
that. Welcome to the show, Dan.
How you doing? I'm doing great.
I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited to see good So what
(00:43):
I'd. Like to ask my?
Guests is to have my guests. Tell me a.
Little bit about yourself. Where you came from, tell us.
Even a little bit about your childhood.
Yeah. So I grew up in Raleigh, NC, you
know, amazing family, very supportive family.
And growing up I was really intoathletic.
(01:03):
So my big thing was basketball. And, you know, I'll give you a
quick little story about my journey, but I played basketball
all growing up through elementary school and through
middle school, played on my school team.
And then my 8th grade year in middle school, I had a really
bad experience with like the coach.
And just also, you know, when you're in 8th grade, you don't
know yourself very well. And I was so afraid of, of not
(01:25):
living up to the expectations of, you know, Dan Mercer's
really good at basketball. He's going to play in high
school. He's going to play, you know,
and so actually after 8th grade,I quit basketball.
I just stopped going. I have like an individual skill
coach that I, that I just walkedout on one day and I decided I
was never going to play basketball again.
So I actually went through high school just as a regular
student, got into music and exploring some of my artistic
(01:47):
stuff. And then I went to the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill right out of high
school for undergrad. And I was there for a couple
years, started getting into partying and just, you know,
doing things I should have been doing.
Got really depressed and, and I actually dropped out of school
and I moved back in with my parents in Raleigh and I went to
(02:09):
the YMCA and start playing back pick up basketball while I was
waiting to go back to school. And I remember one day this guy
was playing. He, he was like, I had a
Carolina shirt on. He was like, Hey, are you one of
those fratty white guys who sitson the end of the bench at
Carolina? Like I was like, no, no, he's
like, well, you're, you're good.You should be.
And so I remember I left the gymthat day and I called my my dad
and I said, dad, how crazy wouldit be if I told you I wanted to
(02:32):
play college basketball next year?
I hadn't played since 8th grade and he said the first thing he
said was call Mike Hollis. Now, Mike Hollis was my coach.
The individual, like outside of school, skill development coach.
I called him. I hadn't seen him in six years.
He told me to meet him the next morning and I thought we were
gonna go work out. He actually took me to like a
men's Bible study and then he told me like I'm going to, you
(02:54):
know, I'm going to tell you whatto do.
I need you to completely trust the process and give everything
you have. If you do that, I'll work with
you. So very Long story short, we, I
went back to school that that January, this was 2000, 2008,
January 2008 and was commuting to Carolina.
(03:14):
And then I'd work out with CoachHollis in the morning, early
morning drive to Chapel Hill, 30minutes, come back at night,
lift weights with no guarantee that I would play well.
He started to get some Division Three small schools looking at
me. And then he had another, another
player that he worked with who played at UNC Wilmington, which
is Division One basketball. And he came home to work out and
(03:36):
met me and thought I'd be good. So he actually helped get me a
walk on spot at UNCW Division One.
And so I went Division One and and you know, more Long story
short, at halfway through the year, I ended up starting and
playing a lot of minutes. And so I had two years of
eligibility. So I spent two years at UNCW and
did like, you know, was the Co captain my senior year and
(03:58):
academic hall conference. And so that really changed my
life like that, that that taughtme that, you know, if you work
hard and you trust in the process and you do the right
thing, you get good results. So I did that thought I might
want to get into coaching. Did a year as a grad assist in
East Carolina. Realized that I, I don't wanna
get into coaching. I just, I realized that I didn't
(04:19):
want my livelihood to be based on like begging a 16 year old to
like come to my school. I don't know, I had this like
existential crisis, but I still wanted to play, so I did.
There's a group called Athletes and Actions.
It's a Christian organization that does travel sports.
The coach had some connections to some small leagues overseas.
So I went to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for some tournaments
with athletes in action. And off that he sent my video of
(04:42):
me playing to a team in Australia, got an offer to go to
Australia. So I went and played very, very
low level pro basketball in Australia for a year and then
went to China, did some tournaments over there and, you
know, then came back to Raleigh and started the next portion of
my life, which was, which was working for a start up with my
brother. But what I was doing while I was
(05:03):
working at that startup is that's when I really started to
get into my music, to my film making, all this stuff.
And, and I realized it was the only other thing in my life that
I had ever cared about besides basketball.
And I'm not doing great at doingstuff I don't care about.
So I was like, I'm going to do the same thing with film making
as I did with basketball. I don't know where to start.
So I applied to AUNC school, thearts.
They just started a master's program.
(05:24):
So I went there, spent an amazing, amazing time there and
and then that's what got me intofilmmaking.
Met these guys at Diesel Jack Media and you know, years later,
Office Joe is happening. So that's a that's, you know,
the abridged version of my storythat is crazy.
I never would have guessed all of that about you.
So it's funny. You never can judge a book by a
(05:46):
cover. We all know that.
But really? I had no idea.
Your. Background was so fascinating.
So tell me you were in film school so you were thinking
about filming behind the camera.Tell me more.
About the logistics here, yeah, so.
Yeah. So I was studying directing,
writing and producing and I was taking like the grad school was
(06:09):
just producing and screen writing majors.
So I like double majored in that.
And then I took the the undergrad directing faculty let
me audit the undergrad directingcurriculum.
So I studied those three things.But then it was a two year
program my second year there because I was in some of these
classes with these undergrads and we'd have to make short
films in these classes. They got to know me and this one
(06:31):
kid had gotten his script like they, they selected a number of
scripts to be filmed at UNCSA and do these big productions so
they can learn how to work on a big set and all this stuff.
And he, he had gotten his scriptapproved for like a fourth year
film. And it was about a guy who's
like a wrestler and he breaks his neck and then sues the the
federation and his lawyer quit. So he like represents himself
(06:53):
and he's like, would he wanted me to play the role?
So my first, you know, that was my first experience like really
acting, you know, with with thishuge crew and this they had
built this like wrestling ring in this courtroom and, you know,
all all hands on deck, all the all the different departments of
the school come together to makethese and and I got to play the
lead role. So that was that's kind of how I
(07:16):
dipped my toe in in the acting. I mean, it was really just doing
short films in class. But that was the first like, you
know, major thing I did. That's incredible.
So do you memorize? Script well or do.
You just kind of improvise. I I actually, I found that I
have a really a good ability to to memorize lines.
(07:38):
I found that out because when I did the, the, the film at UNC
School of the Arts, I he had actually had someone else cast
and he didn't like it and they were about to start shooting and
so he recast it. And so I didn't really have much
time to learn the script and I had this like page long
monologue to the jury. And I just remember I had to get
(07:59):
like tattoos put on each morning.
And so I was just kind of reading the script, trying to
learn this like page long monologue and just, you know,
for some reason I just clicked and I was able to the, the, the
go out there and, and just nail it on the first, the first try.
And so, yeah, I definitely have to study some, but but like, for
(08:19):
some reason I can't, I'm just able to, I'm able to learn, you
know, learn stuff pretty fast, which was helpful for Office Joe
because Joe had a few long, you know, blocks of dialogue.
So I mean, I definitely studied every night before.
You have, you know, your scenes the night before.
So I'd study the night before and then read them as you as
you're getting set up. But but yeah, that kind kind of
comes naturally to me. Did you audition or?
(08:42):
Were they just like, oh, you're it because.
We know you and we know your acting skills.
Awesome. For Office Joe Yeah.
So, so last summer, Hollywood, our producer and myself, we're
doing a lot of sketch comedy type, you know, like Instagram
(09:02):
commercials for different companies who are paying us, you
know, to do these. They'd send us their product and
we'd do these silly kind of commercials.
And, and we were, it was kind oflike we were, it's kind of like
a sale, a video sale, you know, so they were just $500.
And because of that, we weren't going to hire outside actors and
do a bunch of crazy stuff. We just kind of Hollywood and I
would act in a lot of them. And so I mean, we must have done
(09:25):
75 to 100 of those $500 videos over the summer, last summer.
And this is when we first had started talking about Office
Joe. And so, you know, Hollywood, you
know, kind of started to believein me as an actor.
And so when it came time to start talking about who, who
could play the roles, Hollywood suggested to suggested me for
(09:48):
Joe. And, you know, Nick got on board
And I, I really think those $500videos that we did all last
summer was really the reason that I was able to, to get the
opportunity to play Joe. So those of you who watched the
show last week, watched. Nick Palmagiano on my show from
Office Show. But I want you to tell our
(10:09):
listeners in your your thought of mine here.
Or your thought process about office show.
Tell me how do you think that itstarted?
And I want to hear your version and we'll compare it to the next
version. Yeah, OK.
So my version is, well, it's, it's a very different, you know,
experience for me because I, I'mnot a veteran.
(10:31):
So I work with veterans and, and, and a lot of our, our
clients as in our marketing agency and video production is
working with veterans. So, you know, the last two years
I've really learned so much about that community and it's,
it's been, it's been amazing andI've gotten to know so many
people. So, you know, put that in the
(10:51):
back of your mind as we, as we start talking about the show,
you know, it was like probably August of 2023, we started kind
of playing around with ideas. And originally it was, it was,
we were potentially going to have it on vet TV.
So we started thinking about, you know, what kind of show can
we make for, you know, like a independent, you know, cheap
(11:14):
show that we could make, but it's still, it's still quality.
And I think sometimes creativity, it can really
blossom when you put constraintson it, which is like
counterintuitive, right? But we were like, you know,
what, what do we have access to?You know, we had this office.
We're we're a video production, you know, marketing agency.
You know, we have this, this, this soundstage studio that I'm
(11:35):
in right now. You know, what are our
resources? Who do we, you know, who are the
people we know how, you know, how could we shoot it in, you
know, ATV series in in three weeks?
Well, you know, one of the ways is you can't have, you know,
intricate lighting setups and stuff.
So let's shoot it like the office or it's sort of
documentary style. So all these things played a
(11:56):
role. And so we said that's kind of
like how we started thinking maybe this guy works at a
marketing agency. We've already got the main set,
you know, and then, you know, Nick, obviously with the veteran
community, the audience, you know, we knew it was going to be
about, you know, military base, but we also wanted it to be able
to crossover into mainstream. So so we found that balance of
(12:19):
like this guy, you know, he's he's getting out of the military
and then he's going into the civilian world.
So, you know, it still reaches that military audience.
But also if you're a civilian, like you can watch it and relate
with it too. It's really a fish out of water
story, you know, which is a classic, you know, classic
story. So yeah, so we started thinking
about it, started writing, we talked about TV.
(12:40):
We decided that wasn't the best route.
We're going to produce it on ourown.
And so I'd really say it really ramped up in September, October,
around this time last year. And and we had a writers room.
It was Hollywood, our producer, myself, Co worker named Teresa
and and Nick. And we'd meet in the mornings,
you know, before, before work and would just kind of start,
(13:03):
right, like doing bullet points for the episodes, kind of
writing the beats where we thought it would go.
And then Nick would go and writethe scripts and then bring them
to us. And we do notes and, and sort of
that we, I think we finished thescripts maybe in October and
started casting in, you know, late October, early November,
and then we were shooting by December 1st.
(13:23):
So, so it really came together, came together fast and you know,
it was an awesome experience. And for then for me to play Joe,
I was able to take all those experiences with that.
I've learned, you know, working with veterans, seeing all these
veteran organizations like the American Legion, like Warrior
Rising, like student Veterans ofAmerica that we worked with.
(13:44):
And sort of Joe to me kind of became like an amalgamation of a
lot of people that I've met through the last two years and
it and hearing about their journeys of, of transitioning
out of the military. And I was sort of to able to
take pieces from everyone and sort of put it into Joe and then
kind of put my own little, little spin on it.
So it was an awesome experience and I was just so honored to get
(14:07):
to play the role. Man, I I mentioned to Nick,
without giving too much away to to listeners who haven't seen it
yet, but the part about transitioning and I'm going to.
Leave it right here was hilarious because you had.
Mentioned you were transitioningand I'm not going to go into the
details you. Guys have to watch this, but
I'll just say it's. Spot.
On because I had. One of my neighbors ask, what do
(14:29):
you mean Ken's transitioning? Yeah, yeah.
No, that's the first episode is yeah, there's a little bit,
there's a little misunderstanding in the first
episode with Joe and his new Co workers.
And that's sort of the a thread that runs through most of
episode 1. That's it's pretty funny.
So yeah, people will have to watch and, and and I think it's
(14:51):
I think it's really, I think it helped us develop that that like
storyline helped develop some ofthe other characters in episode
1. And, you know, a lot of the
people that he works with are sort of caricatures of, you
know, maybe like the, the type of people that you know, are,
are yelling on the Internet and stuff.
Like we were able to kind of make fun.
(15:13):
We it was equal opportunity in terms of making fun of people.
And but at the same time, I think the characters are, are
also like likeable. And I think even though some of
them have really different viewpoints, everyone's friends
and everyone accepts each other.So I actually think, you know,
we were able to to kind of make fun of things, but then also
(15:34):
send a positive message about people getting along, you know?
Absolutely. And that's something that I
loved. You know, you can't hardly turn
on the TV anymore. Or a movie.
Without feeling like some. Agenda is being shoved down your
throat. And so this series is amazing.
Because I didn't feel like that at all.
And in fact, like we all have. Friends that don't believe
(15:54):
exactly as we do and it's fun tojoke around with each other and
not get so serious. And not get so offended, you
know. So it it's a really great show.
In fact, there's a couple other shows that I I think of in the
lines of shows that started sortof like yours.
And did amazing and had such longevity.
And so I think that your show. Is one of those.
(16:15):
I think it's very relatable to. Civilians as well as military.
So tell me when you were acting as Joe or when you're acting as
him. Do you?
Literally. Get into character like.
Do you have to psych yourself out and just.
Become that. Character or how do you pull
that off? I'm definitely I'm definitely
not like a method. You know, I don't take myself
seriously enough to be like a method actor where I'm acting as
(16:38):
Joe when we're not on camera, you know like I'm not you know I
I think if you're going to be like a method actor, you got to
be like Daniel Day Lewis, you know you got to be like the best
of the best like you know you meet people on like a little
show that I'm a method actor. That's ridiculous to me.
So no, but you know, like, like I said, like a lot of the, you
know, Joe's personality was likeI said, kind of taking these
(16:59):
pieces of people I've met over the last few years and then also
putting like a little bit of my natural personality.
You know, he, he's, he's kind ofsilly, you know, he, he
sometimes doesn't like quite understand, you know, he, he
always means well, you know, andso I took some of these things
about and some of my quirks and kind of turned them up to 11.
(17:21):
There's a few scenes though, definitely like the scene where
there's a scene where Joe gets really mad, which is he doesn't
get mad a lot in the show, but he gets really frustrated with
the, the people he's working with.
And, you know, he's just frustrated with his transition
in general. And I had to like really scream
at these people. And The funny thing about that
episode is that the night we were shooting that scene, I, I
(17:42):
didn't know it was on this. I thought it was on the schedule
for the next day. So I had not.
And this is probably 1 of Joe's longest blocks of dialogue.
So I didn't even know we were filming it.
And then Nick was like, all right, we're gonna go to, you
know, the next scene. And it was that scene.
So I was like, oh, crap. You know, I haven't memorized
this dialogue. So, you know, while they were
kind of setting up for the next scene, I just kind of went
outside and, and just start reading through it, saying it to
(18:05):
myself and was able to, you know, going back to talking
about memorizing dialogue. But but yeah, I think that was a
scene where I actually did kind of have to like separate myself
and get like pumped up for it. And we didn't rehearse that.
So it would be the the other actors had never seen me like
that, you know, So we thought ifwe didn't rehearse it, we'd get
some genuine reactions out of them.
(18:26):
And I just remember Nick and then Ben Bunn, who was a
producer on the show and also plays Lucius, them just giving
me some pointers on, you know, how to kind of be a drill.
They wanted it to kind of be drill Sergeant style.
And so, you know, they gave me the pointers about the knife
hands and all this stuff and outof the delivery.
So I kind of took that and then just went outside, psyched
(18:46):
myself up and then and then camein.
I think we only did that one time, the one time, you know,
and, and got it on the first try.
And yeah. And so that that was all.
But but other than that, you know, it's kind of just like,
you know, I think the set was just really relaxed and
positive. And so it didn't feel like any
pressure. And I feel like, you know, I
(19:08):
feel like it was a great, a great environment.
What was your very favorite? Part of recording.
Oh man, put. You right on the spot.
Like my favorite part, I don't, I don't like when I think about
what my favorite part is about filming the show.
I, I, I don't think about a specific moment.
(19:29):
I think about the fact that for three weeks that my full time
job was to wake up and go act every morning like was my
favorite part because, you know,we do a lot of a lot of
different work with nonprofits and you know, our videography
and stuff. But you know, that my my passion
is filmmaking. And so, you know, for for three
weeks in December, you know, allthat I had to think about was
(19:53):
was like being this character. And so that was my favorite part
is just the fact that like that's where I was going every
morning, you know, is waking up to go be to go play Joe like
that was an amazing experience and you know.
Just made me made me want to do it even more.
So this is cut out to be a series.
Long term or? Is it a short series?
(20:14):
Yeah. We'd love, we'd love to keep
going with it. You know, we'll see.
We'll see what the, the you know, how it's how it's received
and if it does well, I mean, we've got some, some ideas for
Season 2, you know, just like high level kind of plot points.
And I would love to, you know, it'd be great to keep it going
because you know, it's funny. You, you start to the more you
(20:36):
work on it, the more you write, you start to learn more about
the characters. And you know, that's why I think
some comedies, I think a lot of times with like dramas or
thrillers, season 1, a lot of times is, is is the best.
But I think sometimes for comedies it, it takes like, I
think it sometimes it gets better as it goes because you
learn what's working more, you learn the characters, you get,
(20:58):
you know, more ideas. And so I think I think it'd be
great to be able to, you know, keep going because I think we
have some really good stuff. Like I think we, you know, just
hitting our stride with it. So we'll see what happens.
That would be the goal. I mean, I agree with that.
Because, you know, always. Takes a couple episodes to get
used to the character, so for. Me, somebody watching?
It's like I really started to get.
(21:19):
To know these characters and I just wanna another episode,
another episode and I. Thought Oh my gosh it's over
already. Like I only got a preview.
Like I need more. So.
Yeah, and I think, and I think even in the first season, like,
you know, I think as you get to like episode 4-6, you know, you
can even tell within the season where we started to, you know,
(21:41):
get even better. And so, so like, so editing it
as we're going, it was exciting because like you, you added
episode one, you're like, this is good, you know, but then you
get to like I, I did, I edited 1and 4, then I got to four and
I'm like, wow, like this is really, really getting good.
So it's exciting and makes you it makes you want to do more.
But it'll all be, you know, based on, you know, how it how
(22:02):
it does. So we'll see.
Well, let's get the word out there.
Because I need to see more. I think everybody.
'S going to love it, really I doso.
I want. You to think about your future
self. Dan, when you make it huge and
you're making multi millions of dollars being an actor and
(22:23):
you're going to go back and watch.
This episode. Is there anything profound that
you want to say? That when you go back.
Someday and when I say. Hey, you guys.
He. Was on my show 1.
What would that be? I think I think, you know, the
most profound thing about about this is, you know, I proved to
(22:45):
myself that that I could I coulddo it and that I have a shot to
to, you know, do this long term,whether it's acting or directing
or, you know, writing, whatever it is.
But like, you know, I remember going back to the basketball
thing. I remember the first game I
started was a culmination of allthis work and trusting in the
(23:06):
process and, you know, just working hard.
And then it kind of culminated and, you know, I'm on the court
as the game is, as the game's tipping off, you know.
And so like, I think of Office Joe as sort of a culmination of
the last, you know, 6-7 years. Like, you know, be, you know,
back when I was 29 years old saying I'm going to go to film
(23:29):
school, like I don't even know where to start, but I just I
want to do this. And so, you know, then 6-7 years
later, Fast forward and like I said, I get to wake up in the
morning and go act, you know, and it, so it proved to me that
like it, it just re reinforced the same lesson I learned
(23:49):
playing basketball where it's ifyou work hard, if you trust the
process, you do the right thing that that good results will
happen. And, and it just, it kind of
reinforced that. And so, and made me want to keep
going. It kind of justified all the
work that I've put in over the last 6-7 years.
And so, and really like, I, I knew I could do it, but it, this
(24:11):
really showed me that I could doit.
I think a lot of that, too is like the producer, Hollywood
believed in me so much even whenI didn't believe in myself.
And so, yeah, it was just, it was really satisfying and, and
prove that, you know, I'm I'm, there's something to this for
me. Oh my goodness, yeah, I can't
even speak highly enough. About Hollywood, I hope.
(24:31):
Someday that I can find some. But he has a.
Little extra time to be on my show because this man has
mentored me and has cheered for me when I haven't felt like
cheering for myself so. He's.
Truly inspirational and one of my.
Top favorite? People in the world so.
Same. Absolutely.
(24:53):
What did you feel your responsibility was playing a
veteran? My responsibility?
Yeah, no. Playing a veteran, my
responsibility playing a veteranwas to, you know, to do it, to
do it justice and to make, make the veterans that I've met over
(25:14):
the last few years, like proud and, and to make them feel like,
you know, they could, they couldsee some of their own, some of
their own struggles and stuff, you know, in the character.
You know, yeah, it wasn't about me.
Like playing this role wasn't about me.
It was about other people and about taking what I'd learned
from them. And like, you know, like trying,
(25:36):
trying to, to, I, I thought thatas a civilian, I thought it was
cool And I, I thought it worked well because, you know, as a
civilian, I kind of take all these things that, that I've
learned these experiences that I've had the last few years that
maybe like a lot of civilians haven't had and sort of like
channel that into Joe and make aconnection there.
(25:57):
Like cross, you know, like we'retalking about crossing over to
mainstream from the veteran audience.
I thought like, you know, the opportunity that I have to kind
of be that vessel as Joe. You know, I thought I thought
that was cool and I thought thatworked out really well.
You know, one kind of unique perspective on us, too.
Is I could see where. Some the veterans may not want
(26:18):
to. Play that role because.
They might not want people to think like.
Oh. He really went through that.
Or the fact. That oh, he went through that.
Now he's like, you know, he's either coping with it or not
coping with it or judging them based on their character, like
judging their military experience based on this, this
(26:39):
funny character, you know? Yeah, for sure.
And I, I think one of the cool things that that Nick, you know,
did with, with the show in general is that like, you know,
a lot of a lot of times you see a veteran in in, you know, films
like Hollywood films, it's he's either like damaged good, he or
she's either damaged goods or it's like a, you know, a killing
(26:59):
machine. You know, it's like one or the
other. And I thought, you know, Joe is
just this like, you know, nice guy.
He's, he's earnest, he's endearing.
And, you know, he's struggling through the new phase of his
life. But, you know, he's not, he's
not a cliche, which I thought was really cool.
I thought it was really well written.
Oh my gosh. Yes, I mean right from the.
Very beginning. I, you just reminded me of every
(27:23):
veteran that I've ever met who has been, you know, through that
point of going from being in themilitary to getting out.
And how is that transition? The beautiful part of this is
that it speaks to. Civilians as well as military,
and I think it's going to help one another.
Understand each other better. Definitely.
(27:43):
Definitely. Yeah.
No, I think that's what the showis all about.
Yeah. So if you could tell everybody
where to touch the show, that would be great.
Yeah. So the show's going to be out on
November 8th and it's going to be on you wherever you rent your
movie. So Amazon, iTunes, you know,
Apple, they I don't know if they're calling iTunes Movies or
Apple Movies, Google Play. It'll be available for rent or
(28:06):
buy on all those platforms on November 8th.
We're really excited and, you know, we hope people people will
check it out. Absolutely.
Thank you so much for being on the show, Dan.
I appreciate you and taking timeto be on the show.
Is really. Awesome.
So thank you. Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
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