July 31, 2024 • 36 mins
ICYMI: Hour Three of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – An in-depth conversation with writer/director/producer Mark Stewart Iverson who joins the program to introduce his new faith-based comedy ‘For Prophet,’ which tells the story of “a struggling entrepreneur who encounters the relentlessly encouraging Archangel Raphael, revealing that he has been chosen by God to become a part-time prophet with the divine mission to save his crumbling and corrupt hometown”…PLUS – Thoughts on the 50th anniversary of actor, comedian, filmmaker and EGOT winner Mel Brooks trailblazing comedy classic “Blazing Saddles” - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Kelly six Friday, We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Let Me tell You about for Profit as in p
r O p h e T. It's a faith based
comedy which tells the story of Damon Fisher, a struggling
entrepreneur who encounters Archangel Raphael, revealing that he, as in Damon,
(00:28):
has been chosen by God to become a part time
prophet with the divine mission to save his crumbling, corrupt hometown.
But to make matters worse, Fisher must also battle an
endlessly trash talking demon in the form of an ever
present cameraman that only he can see. For Profit is
available now everywhere for video download and was written, directed
(00:50):
and co produced by my next guest, mister Mark Stewart Iverson,
who joins me now on the show. Mark is good
to talk to you this evening, Sir, Thank.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You so much for having me moppreciate you a big time.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Mark. I talk about the Christian community as someone who
is a Christian on my show oftentimes, and it's hard
to sometimes dabble in the sacred and secular world simultaneously.
But it has shown me that we live in a
time in which people are generally super sensitive. I need
not tell you. Were you ever concerned about how a
comedy would be received by the Christian community, Well.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sure, I am human. I have those kinds of thoughts.
But at the same time, I felt called. I felt
called to use the gifts that God gave me to
tell the story.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I worked in the comedy world for a better part
of a decade, and.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
So God gave me the skills of.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Trying to be able to make people laugh and bring
joy to people's hearts, and he asked me to bring
that to the faith world, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
And so when I wanted to tell this story, when
this story came into my.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Heart, I felt like we needed to make sure and
be able to laugh, even though we want to go
deep spiritually, even though we want to have those theological discs,
even though we want to go into the drama and
the inspiration and the movie has all that. But at
the same time, let's laugh. Let's be able to joke,
Let's let's have some wit, let's have some humor. You know, God,
(02:13):
God put joy in our hearts for a reason. And
I really think that film especially is a great medium
to be able to laugh. And when you have something
that I tried to do here, which is the balance
of make you cry and make you laugh. I think
that's the real sweet spot when it comes to the
entertainment I'm looking for at least.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Okay, there's this old saying, I know you've heard it,
preaching to the choir, meaning that the sermons, the message,
biblical word is often reaching only those who are believers,
already saved, already in church. How do you reach the
mass as men of every birth, as to him used
to say, and not just preach to the choir.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You make a great movie, you know that. That's what
I put my efforts into here. God made me a
filmmaker before I really came back to him, you know.
And so I've been making movies for twenty years and
my faith is now very strong, but it wavered for
a long time, and so I just kept working on
my craft of filmmaking and.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
The spiritual side of me slowly, slowly grew.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
But in order to reach people with spirit, in order
to reach and put out God's word to the masses,
you have to have a great package. You have to
have something a story, a narrative, a piece of material
that reaches people more than just a message. There's a
lot of great, lot of great Christian films out there
(03:35):
with great messages, fantastic themes, and really good, really really
good heart, but they don't always have the best acting,
the best production value, the best cinematography. We know this,
we know this, and the faith world that's unfortunately become
a problem.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
But that's where I really wanted to step in, and God,
I felt called to be like, look up, let's make
a great movie first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
In order to get away and start to talk to
the congregation and not just the choir, you really have
to engage them, you know. And the story that is
set forth and for profit is a very universal story.
It's angel and demon. Angel on one shoulder, demon on
the other. Everybody, every human being battles.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
That doesn't matter what your beliefs are.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Every human being battles battles against the demon voices and
must try and listen to those angel voices and just
telling that story first and foremost with great characters, great cinematography,
great acting. I'm so proud of my cast. That was
the goal, and I think that should be the goal
when you're trying to reach a bigger audience and really
(04:45):
trying to touch people's hearts beyond just pushing the.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Same message over and over.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
The message needs to be there, of course, but you
got to have a great piece of filmmaking in there too,
And if you don't, then you're not going to reach
anybody except the echo chamber you're in.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
All right, let's get into this story. Who is Damon
Fisher when we meet him in for profit pro pH
et and what is happening in his life?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, he is struggling. He's struggling. His business is falling apart,
his town is falling apart. They're shutting down the homeless
shelter that his stepmom works at. His marriage is having issues.
He's having financial problems, spiritual problems, and he's got a
demon that's latched onto him. He sees this cameraman always
watching him, always filming them, always recording him, always talking
(05:33):
in his ear, talking negative, saying sometimes funny things, but
just being annoying and bringing him down. And he is
not doing great. That said, he puts on a good face,
he moves forward, he tries to have good days and
things like that, but he is not where he needs
to be spiritually. And so happens is God sends an
(05:53):
angel brings it into his life, not unlike a modern
day it's a wonderful life, very much like that in
the setup of this story, where an angel is sent
by God to help this man become what he's supposed
to be, which is this part time profit in the town,
and help save the town from crumbling.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
And I think it's very.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Relatable, not only because he's struggling, like I said, with
the angels and the demon voices, but he's also really
cares about his hometown and his family, and he's really
really trying to be a better man, not unlike George Bailey.
And it's a wonderful life where he's doing all these
great things, putting one foot in front of the other,
trying to do the best he can for the town,
(06:31):
for his marriage, for his family, and yet things keep
falling apart and keeps things keep going wrong, and that's
where he needs to find his faith and put it
in those angel voices and in the archangel Raphael specifically.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Here's the trailer for for Profit. Damian. Welcome to the show. Thanks,
let's get down the business to the folks. Idiot family,
you and I right, people, shud these in your mail
box and you read them. You're really awkward.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You know that support defunding the crisis shall some services.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Just have to go? They lost state funding years ago,
federal decades ago. Private, Thanks Lieutenant George, the arcade you
rough descents for you, Private dayment you sir, up.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
God morning walking always just warm.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I have been sent by the Most High and the
name of the Son of Man. You are blessed prophet.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't believe in God.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Lord.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
You have been recruited, scouted, drafted for the army of
the Most High. You have been chosen to save Malzion
from destruction.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Can I get a namen? Corruption? Investment, collusion, local fascism
all the way to the top. May won. The night
is always darkest before the.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Dawn.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
The dawn.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
You need to tell your wife about.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
I know you're struggling with your faith.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Everyone, let's struggle.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It's gone. Come on, You're never going to be as
good a doctor as your dad. Anyway, what I just
said on the radio, I.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Mean, is any of that true energy?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Everyone has served this disgusting accusation. But you can't accuse
someone of something without evidence.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I'm taking action.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I'm choosing I'm done. He thinks he talks to angels.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And everybody thinks I'm bonkers diagnosed mentally.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
It is your path, your journey, your prophecy.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you want to know my prophecy? It's shutting my mouth.
Oh damn, you don't want to come from the face.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Take it again, you're lying.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
What do you want from me?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I don't want to be a prophet.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Must have faith.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
God Morning. My guest right now is Mark Stuart Iverson
as we talk about his new film for profit p
r o pH e T, which is available now everywhere
for video download. And we'll have more with Mark Stuart
Iverson in just a moment.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I'm speaking with filmmaker Mark Stuart Iverson, who is telling
us about his new movie for profit, that's p r
o pH e T. It is a faith based comedy
which tells the story of Damon Fisher, who's a struggling
entrepreneur who has to battle both the angels and demons
in his life. And let me pick up right there, Mark,
(09:46):
as you are telling us about this demon who is
ever present, has this camera in his face, whispering in
his ear. I took that to mean or in a
way could be relatable to social media today. We have
this obs session with how we are perceived, how we
were seeing. We're trying to be of the world. Am
(10:06):
I warm?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Oh you're hot? Yes, you're You're on it?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I think, I think when it comes to nowadays, absolutely
it's the social part. You have to have a social identity,
you have to really think about how other people are
perceiving you. In fact, that's not what you should be
most worried about. You should be most worried about the
most High and his perceptions of you and what you're
doing in the in terms of what the angels are
(10:32):
seeing and and following the spirit.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
But when you have this, you know, for damon, he
the demon.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Manifests as this cameraman, like you said, And I think
it's not only relatable in the sense of the nowadays
with social media, but one of the things that I
talk a lot about in theology when it comes to
the enemy is the idea of bringing up your past mistakes,
recording all of your bad problems, all the things you
said wrong, all the all the issues you have, and
(11:01):
just recording them and relaying them back to all of them. Look,
you're you're not great. You remember you said that wrong,
and you did this wrong, and you made this mistake. Remember, remember, remember,
And that can get overwhelming, it can really become a
problem in people's lives. And that's I think the theme
that I put in there from a personal sense that
I put into the film is that kind of theology
(11:22):
where you have the demons always trying to tell you
that you're not growing and you're not changing, and you're
not being better. Remember you used to be bad. You
are a bad person. Remember, remember, Remember, But no, you've got.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
To look to the future. You have to look to
the now. You have to look to those angel voices
and follow them.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
When it comes to social media, oh man, Yeah, it's
it's a perception, you know. The perception of you has
become what needs to be your identity, and that's just
the opposite.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
It's the opposite.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
And your heart needs to lead the way, not your image,
you know, And that is a big issue these days,
and I I'm glad you you caught up on that,
and I feel I feel like a lot of the
audience will and I hope they do see that in
the film as well.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I suspect that there is some of you in the film.
Just because you're the writer of for profit, it doesn't
mean that you two couldn't have been impacted by the
journey or the content that you've created. Who are you
now on the other side of creating for profit? And
was that impacted in in any way by creating for profit?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
In every way, I was a boy and now I
am a man, you know, I every step of the sense.
I mean, in the film making sense, I learned so
much about business. I mean, I invested a lot of
my own money into this film. I am fully invested
as writer, director, producer, and co financier. So in the
business sense, I got a master's you got to get
(12:51):
I got an MBA in business making this film. But
in a spiritual sense, absolutely, you know. One of the
things that I've struggled with my whole life as an
artist is not so much faith in the creation of art,
but faith in that it will find an audience. And
(13:11):
I think every artist struggles with that, every artist as well.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I know what to make.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I have this idea, but will it get me a life?
Will it get me finances? Will it get me where
I need to be. Will it get me spiritually, you know, enlightened? Whatever,
whatever the goal is. As an artist, you always struggle
with will people like my work? And I struggled with
(13:37):
that big time with this film because I, like I.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Said, you know, going back to what we talked about before,
I'm a filmmaker.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
I'm a real filmmaker, and I'm also a man of faith.
And I put those two things together, and that sometimes
feels like a very difficult task. You really want to
spread spread the word. You want to tell people about spirit.
You want to do what God's asking you to do.
But the same time, you also want to make sure
and make a great piece of art. You want to
make sure and tell a great story. You want to
(14:04):
use the skills that God gave you. So that blending
together is what I learned as an artist, and being
able to not only put my spiritual self and my
artistic self and my business self altogether, but also it
be me and allow.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
My voice to shine through.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And I found I found my voice in this film
and the voice that God gave me. And I am
so excited to move forward and continue to make films
and tell stories because now I feel like I'm a
full fledged artist.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You understand what I'm getting ready to ask you because
you've been on this journey we as people of faith.
We're at different points in that journey. Some people are
relatively new and some people have been on that journey
for a while and they know about the twists and turns.
In other words, we're all going to see for Profit,
which is available everywhere now for video download. We're going
(14:55):
to see it at different points in our journey. What
would you want in a general sense for peace people
to take away from for Profit? Because we may get
different things, because we may only understand certain things on
a certain level, we may not be ready for the
fullness of the message contained therein Well.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
First of all, I would say, please, you know, make
sure and interpret the film how you're going to interpret it,
and take in what it gives you. So many things,
So many different people have said so many different things
about what their favorite thing about the movie is, how
it impacted them, what scenes made them cry or laugh,
and that's so so wonderful to hear.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
The one thing I would.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Say that I keep coming back to that that was
the main point when I first started writing the script
and it's still today.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Is the most important idea of this.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Film is you gotta follow the angel You gotta follow
the angel voices. Everybody's got everybody's got the demon voice,
and everybody's got the angel voice, and you have to
follow that angel voice.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Maybe it even.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Might take you a minute to figure out which voice
is which, and that's a struggle spiritual discernment exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So definitely work on that maybe first.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
But once you know what the angel voice is and
what the demon voice is, you have to follow the
angel voice.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
And it's so difficult.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I struggle with it every single day. My main character
struggles with it throughout the entire movie because you don't
really always want to do what the angels are telling
you to do.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
You don't want to follow.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
God's will a lot of times because it's difficult. It's gonna,
you know, going back to the social media thing, it's
not going to be perceived the way you want it
to be perceived. If you do what you have to
do and you're being asked to do it, it's gonna
it's going to be a struggle no matter what to
do the right thing, to follow those angel voices.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
But you have to You have to.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
On so many levels, not only spiritually, not only not
only because this world has fallen, but I think also
really because at the end of the day, you do
want to follow the angels and you do want to
go with spirit. It's just that you have a little
ego and you have a little demon on your shoulder
that says no, no, no no.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Just take it easy. Just do the easy thing.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You don't have to go do that hard thing that
you have to have faith to do or whatever. Just
take it easy, Just sit back, relax. Everything is fine.
You don't have to do that, but no you do,
especially when you're called. And I felt called to make
this movie, and I think everybody listening right now it
feels called to do something, to follow a path that
is difficult, whether it's with your family, your friends, your business,
(17:32):
your artistry, your children, whatever it is that the angels
are telling you to do. Just flow with that spirit
and listen to them always for profit.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's Prophet is available right now everywhere for video download
and was written, directed and co produced by by guess
who you've just heard, Mark Stuart Everson. Mark, thank you
so much for this conversation. I know it touched someone.
Thank you for what you do.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Thank you for what you do.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Bless you.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
This was amazing. I'm humbled and really proud to be here.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It's Later with mo Kelly. Can If I Am six
forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
k IF I Am six forty, Give me that.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Playback and watch me to watch amazing. How you got it?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yeah, sounds like steam escaping a shout.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
Okay, wait till I get out, Wait till I get out?
Okay high.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Can if I Am six forty. It's Later with mo
Kelly Live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app. Maybe you're not
old enough to remember where that from. Maybe you just
haven't been exposed to enough fantastic classic American cinema to
know where that is from. But it's been fifty years
in a few months since the movie Blazing Saddles was released,
(19:15):
and this past weekend there was a fiftieth anniversary screening
of Blazing Saddles at the Peacock Theater here in LA
and there was even a Q and A with mel
Brooks himself, and I wish I could have been there
for that that would have been wonderful. But here's something
that he said to the audience which really jumped out
to me, jumped out at me. He was saying, quote,
(19:37):
I was on the way out of the theater and
somebody grabbed the nape of my neck and took me
to the manager's office, threw me down. And he was
the head of all of Warner Brothers, the same Warner Brothers,
which is about twenty feet from this studio right now,
Ted Ashley, I was with John Kelly, who was in
charge of the studio, but not in charge of all
of Warner Brothers. This guy was the head guy. He
(19:58):
threw me a legal pad in a sharpie and said, right,
no hitting an old lady out, no hitting a horse out,
no farting out. Why listen to anything. I would have
had an eleven minute movie. That's mel Brooks. So he
left I mel Brooks, crumpled up his notes, throw it
in the waste basket. Could you imagine if they cut
(20:20):
out all the things that the studio was asking him
to cut out? And if you've seen Blazing Saddles, it
specifically dis as Hollywood and the movie studio it is.
It was meta before the idea of meta was even
a thing in Hollywood. I think I've seen Blazing Saddles
(20:40):
maybe forty five fifty times maybe. And if you don't remember,
originally it was supposed to be with Richard Pryor. They
couldn't get Richard Pryor, so they got Clevon Little. And
you know, Gene Wilder was not even the first choice
for Waco was Nick gig Young. And he was too drunk.
He was a trunk. He was an alcoholic.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
Yeah, And if you look, by the way, there's a
TV movie called Specter from a couple of years later.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
He's drunk through the whole movie in that. Seriously, did
you know who's a guy in Jaws who played uh,
what's his name, Robert.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
Who owned the boat saw Robert Shaw. Yeah, he was
drunk through all of Jaws. He was one of the
all time great Hollywood drunks. And it worked for every
role that he was in for whatever reason, Like I've
seen him recently on an old Cavit show just show.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Up drunk for the show. But anyhow, getting back to
Blazing Saddles, I think people have misunderstood its importance and
relevance and the whole point of it in recent years,
because we hear people who are bemoaning comedy today. How
you can't say this, You can't say that, you know
they could never make Blazing Saddles today. But do you
(21:53):
know the whole point of Blazing Saddles. Do you know
that it was making fun of racists and racism, It
was making fun of Hollywood, It was making fun of
all the people who are mostly uptight today.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
We're mad about Hollywood today. Does it make you think
of Deadpool in some respect?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh? No, I said this on the Neudorama podcast. I
think that Ryan Reynolds, especially through Deadpool, is the closest
thing we have to the mel Brooks Golden Age of movies,
because there was nothing which was off limits. No, no
sacred tip right now, it's there's certain lines that Ryan
(22:36):
Reynolds clearly won't cross when it comes to race, but
there are a lot of other lines that he will
cross gladly.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Well.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
No, Deadpool isn't a race movie. Blazing Saddles was specifically true,
a race satire.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
True true. And no, you can't recreate Blazing Saddles because
you can't recreate the America it was born out of.
You can't recreate the time and the circumstances surrounding Blazing Settles.
It was when they say it was a different time, Yes,
it was a much different time, and I'm old enough
to remember that time. People want to remember the move
(23:11):
but you also have to remember the context of when
it was written, what was going on in America in
the early nineteen seventies. You know, you're coming out of
the Civil rights movement, and there's just this period of
settling where you're trying to find some equilibrium. And we
were getting better, but we were still dealing with the
demons of the forties, fifties, and sixties. There's no question
(23:33):
about that.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
But you also you've got to put this in the
context of like there's a big difference between mel Brooks
and Cleveland Little doing race humor and using those dicey words.
Then say, if you were watching a Mel Gibson production
of Blazing Settles when it's satire and it's punching up
not down, it makes a huge, huge difference. It makes
(23:56):
all the difference. Like, for instance, here's another example. When
I came into work today, I told you that I
just saw a fantastic old movie from the late sixties
called Castle Keep with Burt Lancaster, right. It's a World
War two movie, and one of the characters is a
black private he's the writer, he's the narrator of the story.
And they get to this castle that they're trying to defend,
and the black character says, gee, I wonder if I'm
(24:16):
going to bring down the property values here. So coming
out of his mouth, that's a hilarious satirical joke. But
if it came out of the mouth of the redneck
character in the movie, it would have taken on a
whole different meaning.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, also, we're at a place in America and time
in America where the mere mention of race means that
you are racist. If you acknowledge that there is an
issue of racoud called racist. I give you a perfect example.
Last night, I mentioned the name Sonia Massy in regard
to her shooting in her own house as a passing
thought talking about Paris and the Olympic opening ceremonies. How
(24:53):
Christians are low to acknowledge Sonia Massey, who was saying, literally,
in Jesus' name, I rebuke you, you know, using the
name of Jesus. Christians have nothing to say about her,
and they had plenty to say about the Olympics. I
mentioned Sonia Massi in passing, and I get messages from
people saying, why did you turn that into a race debate?
Not understanding that Acknowledging that race exists in America is
(25:18):
not racist. What's racist is when you try to malign
people and denigrate and subjugate through race. And we're in
our reticence and our reluctance to make these distinctions and
understand the difference is why I think we're so uptight
today as opposed to nineteen seventy four when Blazing Saddles
(25:41):
came out.
Speaker 7 (25:42):
Yeah, times have changed, but in some ways they're the
same or worse. It seems like recently a lot of
people have crawled out from under rocks and said things
that we never thought we'd hear again in our lifetimes.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah. When I was growing up, I was told by
my parents, like, hey, you know, it'll be better for you.
You know, the older racist will just eventually die off. Well,
it didn't exactly happen that way. And there's a degree
of animosity today which is greater than when I was
a child now. And as a child I was called
the inward first day of school kindergarten, and every year since,
(26:15):
every single year, there has not been a year in
which I've been on this earth where someone hasn't called
me the in word, either through my work, either through
my public life or personal life, every single year. So
I think I kind of know, you know, the temperature
in America from year to year. It's not something that
I think will ever get past. But there are going
(26:35):
back to Blazing Saddles, there are moments where someone can
best contextualize how ridiculous we can be. God bless America.
And that's why I love mel Brooks and all of
his work and what he's done for comedy. And I
don't know if anyone will be able to duplicate what
(26:57):
he does because I think he existed, his work existed
in a time which is very specific. You can't. You
can't rewrite Blazing Saddles for today's off audiences. It just
wouldn't work, It wouldn't make sense. There's no cultural tent
poles or or markers for people to understand it. But
(27:17):
if you have not seen Blazing Saddles, go watch it
with someone who's at least fifty years old. Fifty five
years old and can walk you through some of the
jokes and explain the context. A lot of them they're
not going to understand. But you got to see it.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
You've seen this movie so many times. I wonder if
one of your favorite lines. There's a part where Gene
Wilder and Cleveland Little are behind and mount the rock,
hide behind the rock, and he says, you've got to
remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people
of the land, the common clay of the New West.
But who are they looking at? You know, morons? One
(27:54):
of the best lines in the whole movie.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
The movie was so funny because I think everyone knew
someone in that movie. When I say new someone, it's like, oh, yeah,
I know someone who's just like that. They're talking about
so and so, or they could they could look at
the Hollywood machine and how ridiculous Hollywood was. Because Blazing
Saddles made fun of America. It made fun of Hollywood.
It's a movie inside of a movie, and if you
(28:16):
see how it ends, it literally turns into another movie.
Total master So if you haven't seen Blazing Saddles or
you need to see it again, just see it tonight.
If you want to remember what America was fifty years ago.
Blazing Saddles mel Brooks.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Before we get out of here, I did want to
finish talking about Melbrooks because Blazing Saddles is not even
my favorite Melbrooks movies. It's History of the World Part one,
all of that. And Stephan, why don't you go ahead
and pull up the Inquisition before we go, because that's
my favorite song from History of the World Part one.
(28:58):
And I waited forty years for History of the World
Part two, and I'm sorry to say Part two did
not measure up to Part one. My goodness, my goodness,
and certain things you just can't recreate. We talked about
it waiting for it, and we were kind of scared.
It's like, can you do it again? It's been too long.
Most of the original people who were in Part one
(29:19):
had already passed on with exceptional mel so it wasn't
going to have that same feeling. And it didn't. I mean,
you know, it was a fair attempt at it, but
it just didn't recreate that magic. Some things you just
can't duplicate like I would never want a sequel to
Blazing Saddles.
Speaker 8 (29:34):
Never, But you know they're doing a sequel to Spaceballs.
I don't know how I feel about that. It's happening.
Is it gonna be with Rick moranis as well?
Speaker 7 (29:45):
No?
Speaker 8 (29:45):
I think this one stars. Oh what is the kid's name?
It is an entirely new one. We'll look it up.
I mean, well, fush Is, get the inquisition for us.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
The acquisition. Let's begin the inquisition. Lookout, see, we have
a mission to convert the ju ju ju j We're
gonna teach them right. We're gonna help them see the
light and make an.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Offer that they can't refuge. Just can't you confess? Don't
be boring, say yes, don't be dull.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
A fact.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
No, No, it's better to lose your skull cap than
your skull. The inquisition.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Show the acquisition.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
We know your wish that we do, but the acquisitions
here and it's here. To the inquisition.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Good the inquisition.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
It's something people miss and they don't understand. In nineteen seventies,
musicals were really really big thing. Blazing Saddles was a musical.
A History of the World Part One was a musical
so it fit within the times. You know, when you
do musicals today, they don't have the same type of
emotional impact. They don't do as well. Nah, now they
(31:21):
do well.
Speaker 8 (31:21):
Are There are a couple a handful, But those are
musicals based on musicals. Those are just films that are
on existing musicals. They're not new material like what mel
Brooks was creating.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Right, and it was a movie and then all of
a sudden they would break out in song and it
made sense, and it made sense. Yeah, and look you
heard the lyrics. You just can't do that today on TV.
And I don't know what the appetite would be for
it in the theaters. And I've long said you can't
go back. You can't recreate the past. You can't get
(31:55):
that same magic back. But you know, I can wildly
say that I lived through the glory years of mel Brooks. Okay,
but yes, mel Brooks. He is producing the sequel to Baseballs,
starring Josh Gadd. Yeah, and he also produced and appeared
in History of the World Part two. Ye. I'm not
(32:16):
saying he lost his touch. I'm just saying there's certain
magic that you cannot recreate, and I think that's a
function of where different as Americans, how we consume content
is really different. And you know, like for example, I
don't know, and I thought about this before, and to
(32:36):
make a parallel here, I don't know if Richard Pryor
could do the same comedy today that he did in
the nineteen seventies, whether it would have that same impact.
George Carlin, Yes, Richard Pryor, I don't know whether his
because we don't even look at stand up comedy the
same way. We don't have the same affinity for it. Yeah,
(32:56):
So I don't know Richard Pryor as a movie actor, sure,
but as a stand up comedian, I don't know if
he would be as successful. I mean, look look at
Eddie Murphy, who started in stand up. He's not trying
to really go back to that now.
Speaker 8 (33:09):
He's got a couple of stand up tours out there,
but that's not his focus, right He's moved on because also,
I believe he knows that that level of comedy that
was in raw and Delirious, those jokes don't hit the
same because right now we're just that profane a country.
So him dropping all those F bombs on stage is
gonna sound like whatever. Yeah, stuff like that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Richard Pryor. In the age of Dave Chappelle, most medias
don't feel the need to tour anymore and doing stand
up comedy tours. They'll do the HBO special yeah, and
Netflix special and that will be that. You know, I
don't think they put in the same type of time
honing their craft in the way that Dave Chappelle did,
because he's probably the last that of the generation who
(33:56):
actually honed their craft and still kept up doing stand
up throughout his whole career. He did a few movies,
but that wasn't what he was really into.
Speaker 8 (34:05):
Yeah, And like the difference I'd say with mel Brooks
movies and being able to do something like that now.
Star Wars as a franchise right now is laughable to many.
So doing a film that's poking fun as Star Wars
is like whatever, people are laughing at the series as
a whole. When Space Balls came out, everyone looked at
(34:26):
Star Wars. It's like, don't you dare and make fun
of Star Wars. Yeah, you know, people took that type
of stuff more serious. Even the film like History of
the World was funny because we didn't have the level
of satire and stuff that we have on television now,
So it's a lot harder. Like Ryan Reynolds, as you mentioned,
what they were able to do with Deadpool is bold
because they're saying things that no one would dare say
(34:48):
about a studio to their face right now. That's what
they're doing, which is what made Deadpool Wolverine so shocking.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
And that's what mel Brooks was talking about. Hey, I
just said take this out, take this out, and then
he just made a whole movie keeping it all in,
making fun of Say it with me, Warner Brothers. Yeah,
those are the common threads.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But no, I wouldn't say Ryan Reynolds and Sean Levy
they're not mel Brooks. I would say they're mel Brooks esque.
And Spaceballs too, Yeah, it doesn't make sense because there's
no Star Wars to make fun of in that way.
So Spaceballs, it is like all right, and and yeah,
it's not going to make sense to anyone. But you know,
(35:33):
just tell me they're not going to make a sequel
to Young Frankenstein that I can't handle. I probably don't
relieve that they are. Yeah, I believe so. No, like
I Gore and Frankenstein. Yeah, yeah, they probably will since
Martin Feldman and Jeane Wilder are gone. Yeah, I could
see that in a heartbeat. They would do that. Nothing sacred,
(35:54):
there's nothing new anymore, Okay. If I am six forty
light everywhere in the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
App stimulating talk for independent thought, k f I and
k ost.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
H D two Los Angeles, Orange County live everywhere on
the Art Radio
Kelly six Friday, We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Let Me tell You about for Profit as in p
r O p h e T. It's a faith based
comedy which tells the story of Damon Fisher, a struggling
entrepreneur who encounters Archangel Raphael, revealing that he, as in Damon,
(00:28):
has been chosen by God to become a part time
prophet with the divine mission to save his crumbling, corrupt hometown.
But to make matters worse, Fisher must also battle an
endlessly trash talking demon in the form of an ever
present cameraman that only he can see. For Profit is
available now everywhere for video download and was written, directed
(00:50):
and co produced by my next guest, mister Mark Stewart Iverson,
who joins me now on the show. Mark is good
to talk to you this evening, Sir, Thank.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You so much for having me moppreciate you a big time.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Mark. I talk about the Christian community as someone who
is a Christian on my show oftentimes, and it's hard
to sometimes dabble in the sacred and secular world simultaneously.
But it has shown me that we live in a
time in which people are generally super sensitive. I need
not tell you. Were you ever concerned about how a
comedy would be received by the Christian community, Well.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sure, I am human. I have those kinds of thoughts.
But at the same time, I felt called. I felt
called to use the gifts that God gave me to
tell the story.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I worked in the comedy world for a better part
of a decade, and.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
So God gave me the skills of.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Trying to be able to make people laugh and bring
joy to people's hearts, and he asked me to bring
that to the faith world, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
And so when I wanted to tell this story, when
this story came into my.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Heart, I felt like we needed to make sure and
be able to laugh, even though we want to go
deep spiritually, even though we want to have those theological discs,
even though we want to go into the drama and
the inspiration and the movie has all that. But at
the same time, let's laugh. Let's be able to joke,
Let's let's have some wit, let's have some humor. You know, God,
(02:13):
God put joy in our hearts for a reason. And
I really think that film especially is a great medium
to be able to laugh. And when you have something
that I tried to do here, which is the balance
of make you cry and make you laugh. I think
that's the real sweet spot when it comes to the
entertainment I'm looking for at least.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Okay, there's this old saying, I know you've heard it,
preaching to the choir, meaning that the sermons, the message,
biblical word is often reaching only those who are believers,
already saved, already in church. How do you reach the
mass as men of every birth, as to him used
to say, and not just preach to the choir.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You make a great movie, you know that. That's what
I put my efforts into here. God made me a
filmmaker before I really came back to him, you know.
And so I've been making movies for twenty years and
my faith is now very strong, but it wavered for
a long time, and so I just kept working on
my craft of filmmaking and.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
The spiritual side of me slowly, slowly grew.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
But in order to reach people with spirit, in order
to reach and put out God's word to the masses,
you have to have a great package. You have to
have something a story, a narrative, a piece of material
that reaches people more than just a message. There's a
lot of great, lot of great Christian films out there
(03:35):
with great messages, fantastic themes, and really good, really really
good heart, but they don't always have the best acting,
the best production value, the best cinematography. We know this,
we know this, and the faith world that's unfortunately become
a problem.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
But that's where I really wanted to step in, and God,
I felt called to be like, look up, let's make
a great movie first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
In order to get away and start to talk to
the congregation and not just the choir, you really have
to engage them, you know. And the story that is
set forth and for profit is a very universal story.
It's angel and demon. Angel on one shoulder, demon on
the other. Everybody, every human being battles.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
That doesn't matter what your beliefs are.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Every human being battles battles against the demon voices and
must try and listen to those angel voices and just
telling that story first and foremost with great characters, great cinematography,
great acting. I'm so proud of my cast. That was
the goal, and I think that should be the goal
when you're trying to reach a bigger audience and really
(04:45):
trying to touch people's hearts beyond just pushing the.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Same message over and over.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
The message needs to be there, of course, but you
got to have a great piece of filmmaking in there too,
And if you don't, then you're not going to reach
anybody except the echo chamber you're in.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
All right, let's get into this story. Who is Damon
Fisher when we meet him in for profit pro pH
et and what is happening in his life?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, he is struggling. He's struggling. His business is falling apart,
his town is falling apart. They're shutting down the homeless
shelter that his stepmom works at. His marriage is having issues.
He's having financial problems, spiritual problems, and he's got a
demon that's latched onto him. He sees this cameraman always
watching him, always filming them, always recording him, always talking
(05:33):
in his ear, talking negative, saying sometimes funny things, but
just being annoying and bringing him down. And he is
not doing great. That said, he puts on a good face,
he moves forward, he tries to have good days and
things like that, but he is not where he needs
to be spiritually. And so happens is God sends an
(05:53):
angel brings it into his life, not unlike a modern
day it's a wonderful life, very much like that in
the setup of this story, where an angel is sent
by God to help this man become what he's supposed
to be, which is this part time profit in the town,
and help save the town from crumbling.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
And I think it's very.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Relatable, not only because he's struggling, like I said, with
the angels and the demon voices, but he's also really
cares about his hometown and his family, and he's really
really trying to be a better man, not unlike George Bailey.
And it's a wonderful life where he's doing all these
great things, putting one foot in front of the other,
trying to do the best he can for the town,
(06:31):
for his marriage, for his family, and yet things keep
falling apart and keeps things keep going wrong, and that's
where he needs to find his faith and put it
in those angel voices and in the archangel Raphael specifically.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Here's the trailer for for Profit. Damian. Welcome to the show. Thanks,
let's get down the business to the folks. Idiot family,
you and I right, people, shud these in your mail
box and you read them. You're really awkward.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You know that support defunding the crisis shall some services.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Just have to go? They lost state funding years ago,
federal decades ago. Private, Thanks Lieutenant George, the arcade you
rough descents for you, Private dayment you sir, up.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
God morning walking always just warm.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I have been sent by the Most High and the
name of the Son of Man. You are blessed prophet.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't believe in God.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Lord.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
You have been recruited, scouted, drafted for the army of
the Most High. You have been chosen to save Malzion
from destruction.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Can I get a namen? Corruption? Investment, collusion, local fascism
all the way to the top. May won. The night
is always darkest before the.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Dawn.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
The dawn.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
You need to tell your wife about.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
I know you're struggling with your faith.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Everyone, let's struggle.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It's gone. Come on, You're never going to be as
good a doctor as your dad. Anyway, what I just
said on the radio, I.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Mean, is any of that true energy?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Everyone has served this disgusting accusation. But you can't accuse
someone of something without evidence.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I'm taking action.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I'm choosing I'm done. He thinks he talks to angels.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And everybody thinks I'm bonkers diagnosed mentally.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
It is your path, your journey, your prophecy.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Do you want to know my prophecy? It's shutting my mouth.
Oh damn, you don't want to come from the face.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Take it again, you're lying.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
What do you want from me?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I don't want to be a prophet.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Must have faith.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
God Morning. My guest right now is Mark Stuart Iverson
as we talk about his new film for profit p
r o pH e T, which is available now everywhere
for video download. And we'll have more with Mark Stuart
Iverson in just a moment.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I'm speaking with filmmaker Mark Stuart Iverson, who is telling
us about his new movie for profit, that's p r
o pH e T. It is a faith based comedy
which tells the story of Damon Fisher, who's a struggling
entrepreneur who has to battle both the angels and demons
in his life. And let me pick up right there, Mark,
(09:46):
as you are telling us about this demon who is
ever present, has this camera in his face, whispering in
his ear. I took that to mean or in a
way could be relatable to social media today. We have
this obs session with how we are perceived, how we
were seeing. We're trying to be of the world. Am
(10:06):
I warm?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Oh you're hot? Yes, you're You're on it?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I think, I think when it comes to nowadays, absolutely
it's the social part. You have to have a social identity,
you have to really think about how other people are
perceiving you. In fact, that's not what you should be
most worried about. You should be most worried about the
most High and his perceptions of you and what you're
doing in the in terms of what the angels are
(10:32):
seeing and and following the spirit.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
But when you have this, you know, for damon, he
the demon.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Manifests as this cameraman, like you said, And I think
it's not only relatable in the sense of the nowadays
with social media, but one of the things that I
talk a lot about in theology when it comes to
the enemy is the idea of bringing up your past mistakes,
recording all of your bad problems, all the things you
said wrong, all the all the issues you have, and
(11:01):
just recording them and relaying them back to all of them. Look,
you're you're not great. You remember you said that wrong,
and you did this wrong, and you made this mistake. Remember, remember, remember,
And that can get overwhelming, it can really become a
problem in people's lives. And that's I think the theme
that I put in there from a personal sense that
I put into the film is that kind of theology
(11:22):
where you have the demons always trying to tell you
that you're not growing and you're not changing, and you're
not being better. Remember you used to be bad. You
are a bad person. Remember, remember, Remember, But no, you've got.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
To look to the future. You have to look to
the now. You have to look to those angel voices
and follow them.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
When it comes to social media, oh man, Yeah, it's
it's a perception, you know. The perception of you has
become what needs to be your identity, and that's just
the opposite.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
It's the opposite.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
And your heart needs to lead the way, not your image,
you know, And that is a big issue these days,
and I I'm glad you you caught up on that,
and I feel I feel like a lot of the
audience will and I hope they do see that in
the film as well.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I suspect that there is some of you in the film.
Just because you're the writer of for profit, it doesn't
mean that you two couldn't have been impacted by the
journey or the content that you've created. Who are you
now on the other side of creating for profit? And
was that impacted in in any way by creating for profit?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
In every way, I was a boy and now I
am a man, you know, I every step of the sense.
I mean, in the film making sense, I learned so
much about business. I mean, I invested a lot of
my own money into this film. I am fully invested
as writer, director, producer, and co financier. So in the
business sense, I got a master's you got to get
(12:51):
I got an MBA in business making this film. But
in a spiritual sense, absolutely, you know. One of the
things that I've struggled with my whole life as an
artist is not so much faith in the creation of art,
but faith in that it will find an audience. And
(13:11):
I think every artist struggles with that, every artist as well.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I know what to make.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I have this idea, but will it get me a life?
Will it get me finances? Will it get me where
I need to be. Will it get me spiritually, you know, enlightened? Whatever,
whatever the goal is. As an artist, you always struggle
with will people like my work? And I struggled with
(13:37):
that big time with this film because I, like I.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Said, you know, going back to what we talked about before,
I'm a filmmaker.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
I'm a real filmmaker, and I'm also a man of faith.
And I put those two things together, and that sometimes
feels like a very difficult task. You really want to
spread spread the word. You want to tell people about spirit.
You want to do what God's asking you to do.
But the same time, you also want to make sure
and make a great piece of art. You want to
make sure and tell a great story. You want to
(14:04):
use the skills that God gave you. So that blending
together is what I learned as an artist, and being
able to not only put my spiritual self and my
artistic self and my business self altogether, but also it
be me and allow.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
My voice to shine through.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And I found I found my voice in this film
and the voice that God gave me. And I am
so excited to move forward and continue to make films
and tell stories because now I feel like I'm a
full fledged artist.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You understand what I'm getting ready to ask you because
you've been on this journey we as people of faith.
We're at different points in that journey. Some people are
relatively new and some people have been on that journey
for a while and they know about the twists and turns.
In other words, we're all going to see for Profit,
which is available everywhere now for video download. We're going
(14:55):
to see it at different points in our journey. What
would you want in a general sense for peace people
to take away from for Profit? Because we may get
different things, because we may only understand certain things on
a certain level, we may not be ready for the
fullness of the message contained therein Well.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
First of all, I would say, please, you know, make
sure and interpret the film how you're going to interpret it,
and take in what it gives you. So many things,
So many different people have said so many different things
about what their favorite thing about the movie is, how
it impacted them, what scenes made them cry or laugh,
and that's so so wonderful to hear.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
The one thing I would.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Say that I keep coming back to that that was
the main point when I first started writing the script
and it's still today.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Is the most important idea of this.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Film is you gotta follow the angel You gotta follow
the angel voices. Everybody's got everybody's got the demon voice,
and everybody's got the angel voice, and you have to
follow that angel voice.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Maybe it even.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Might take you a minute to figure out which voice
is which, and that's a struggle spiritual discernment exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So definitely work on that maybe first.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
But once you know what the angel voice is and
what the demon voice is, you have to follow the
angel voice.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
And it's so difficult.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I struggle with it every single day. My main character
struggles with it throughout the entire movie because you don't
really always want to do what the angels are telling
you to do.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
You don't want to follow.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
God's will a lot of times because it's difficult. It's gonna,
you know, going back to the social media thing, it's
not going to be perceived the way you want it
to be perceived. If you do what you have to
do and you're being asked to do it, it's gonna
it's going to be a struggle no matter what to
do the right thing, to follow those angel voices.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
But you have to You have to.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
On so many levels, not only spiritually, not only not
only because this world has fallen, but I think also
really because at the end of the day, you do
want to follow the angels and you do want to
go with spirit. It's just that you have a little
ego and you have a little demon on your shoulder
that says no, no, no no.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Just take it easy. Just do the easy thing.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You don't have to go do that hard thing that
you have to have faith to do or whatever. Just
take it easy, Just sit back, relax. Everything is fine.
You don't have to do that, but no you do,
especially when you're called. And I felt called to make
this movie, and I think everybody listening right now it
feels called to do something, to follow a path that
is difficult, whether it's with your family, your friends, your business,
(17:32):
your artistry, your children, whatever it is that the angels
are telling you to do. Just flow with that spirit
and listen to them always for profit.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
That's Prophet is available right now everywhere for video download
and was written, directed and co produced by by guess
who you've just heard, Mark Stuart Everson. Mark, thank you
so much for this conversation. I know it touched someone.
Thank you for what you do.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Thank you for what you do.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Bless you.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
This was amazing. I'm humbled and really proud to be here.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It's Later with mo Kelly. Can If I Am six
forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
k IF I Am six forty, Give me that.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Playback and watch me to watch amazing. How you got it?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yeah, sounds like steam escaping a shout.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
Okay, wait till I get out, Wait till I get out?
Okay high.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Can if I Am six forty. It's Later with mo
Kelly Live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app. Maybe you're not
old enough to remember where that from. Maybe you just
haven't been exposed to enough fantastic classic American cinema to
know where that is from. But it's been fifty years
in a few months since the movie Blazing Saddles was released,
(19:15):
and this past weekend there was a fiftieth anniversary screening
of Blazing Saddles at the Peacock Theater here in LA
and there was even a Q and A with mel
Brooks himself, and I wish I could have been there
for that that would have been wonderful. But here's something
that he said to the audience which really jumped out
to me, jumped out at me. He was saying, quote,
(19:37):
I was on the way out of the theater and
somebody grabbed the nape of my neck and took me
to the manager's office, threw me down. And he was
the head of all of Warner Brothers, the same Warner Brothers,
which is about twenty feet from this studio right now,
Ted Ashley, I was with John Kelly, who was in
charge of the studio, but not in charge of all
of Warner Brothers. This guy was the head guy. He
(19:58):
threw me a legal pad in a sharpie and said, right,
no hitting an old lady out, no hitting a horse out,
no farting out. Why listen to anything. I would have
had an eleven minute movie. That's mel Brooks. So he
left I mel Brooks, crumpled up his notes, throw it
in the waste basket. Could you imagine if they cut
(20:20):
out all the things that the studio was asking him
to cut out? And if you've seen Blazing Saddles, it
specifically dis as Hollywood and the movie studio it is.
It was meta before the idea of meta was even
a thing in Hollywood. I think I've seen Blazing Saddles
(20:40):
maybe forty five fifty times maybe. And if you don't remember,
originally it was supposed to be with Richard Pryor. They
couldn't get Richard Pryor, so they got Clevon Little. And
you know, Gene Wilder was not even the first choice
for Waco was Nick gig Young. And he was too drunk.
He was a trunk. He was an alcoholic.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
Yeah, And if you look, by the way, there's a
TV movie called Specter from a couple of years later.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
He's drunk through the whole movie in that. Seriously, did
you know who's a guy in Jaws who played uh,
what's his name, Robert.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
Who owned the boat saw Robert Shaw. Yeah, he was
drunk through all of Jaws. He was one of the
all time great Hollywood drunks. And it worked for every
role that he was in for whatever reason, Like I've
seen him recently on an old Cavit show just show.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Up drunk for the show. But anyhow, getting back to
Blazing Saddles, I think people have misunderstood its importance and
relevance and the whole point of it in recent years,
because we hear people who are bemoaning comedy today. How
you can't say this, You can't say that, you know
they could never make Blazing Saddles today. But do you
(21:53):
know the whole point of Blazing Saddles. Do you know
that it was making fun of racists and racism, It
was making fun of Hollywood, It was making fun of
all the people who are mostly uptight today.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
We're mad about Hollywood today. Does it make you think
of Deadpool in some respect?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh? No, I said this on the Neudorama podcast. I
think that Ryan Reynolds, especially through Deadpool, is the closest
thing we have to the mel Brooks Golden Age of movies,
because there was nothing which was off limits. No, no
sacred tip right now, it's there's certain lines that Ryan
(22:36):
Reynolds clearly won't cross when it comes to race, but
there are a lot of other lines that he will
cross gladly.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Well.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
No, Deadpool isn't a race movie. Blazing Saddles was specifically true,
a race satire.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
True true. And no, you can't recreate Blazing Saddles because
you can't recreate the America it was born out of.
You can't recreate the time and the circumstances surrounding Blazing Settles.
It was when they say it was a different time, Yes,
it was a much different time, and I'm old enough
to remember that time. People want to remember the move
(23:11):
but you also have to remember the context of when
it was written, what was going on in America in
the early nineteen seventies. You know, you're coming out of
the Civil rights movement, and there's just this period of
settling where you're trying to find some equilibrium. And we
were getting better, but we were still dealing with the
demons of the forties, fifties, and sixties. There's no question
(23:33):
about that.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
But you also you've got to put this in the
context of like there's a big difference between mel Brooks
and Cleveland Little doing race humor and using those dicey words.
Then say, if you were watching a Mel Gibson production
of Blazing Settles when it's satire and it's punching up
not down, it makes a huge, huge difference. It makes
(23:56):
all the difference. Like, for instance, here's another example. When
I came into work today, I told you that I
just saw a fantastic old movie from the late sixties
called Castle Keep with Burt Lancaster, right. It's a World
War two movie, and one of the characters is a
black private he's the writer, he's the narrator of the story.
And they get to this castle that they're trying to defend,
and the black character says, gee, I wonder if I'm
(24:16):
going to bring down the property values here. So coming
out of his mouth, that's a hilarious satirical joke. But
if it came out of the mouth of the redneck
character in the movie, it would have taken on a
whole different meaning.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, also, we're at a place in America and time
in America where the mere mention of race means that
you are racist. If you acknowledge that there is an
issue of racoud called racist. I give you a perfect example.
Last night, I mentioned the name Sonia Massy in regard
to her shooting in her own house as a passing
thought talking about Paris and the Olympic opening ceremonies. How
(24:53):
Christians are low to acknowledge Sonia Massey, who was saying, literally,
in Jesus' name, I rebuke you, you know, using the
name of Jesus. Christians have nothing to say about her,
and they had plenty to say about the Olympics. I
mentioned Sonia Massi in passing, and I get messages from
people saying, why did you turn that into a race debate?
Not understanding that Acknowledging that race exists in America is
(25:18):
not racist. What's racist is when you try to malign
people and denigrate and subjugate through race. And we're in
our reticence and our reluctance to make these distinctions and
understand the difference is why I think we're so uptight
today as opposed to nineteen seventy four when Blazing Saddles
(25:41):
came out.
Speaker 7 (25:42):
Yeah, times have changed, but in some ways they're the
same or worse. It seems like recently a lot of
people have crawled out from under rocks and said things
that we never thought we'd hear again in our lifetimes.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah. When I was growing up, I was told by
my parents, like, hey, you know, it'll be better for you.
You know, the older racist will just eventually die off. Well,
it didn't exactly happen that way. And there's a degree
of animosity today which is greater than when I was
a child now. And as a child I was called
the inward first day of school kindergarten, and every year since,
(26:15):
every single year, there has not been a year in
which I've been on this earth where someone hasn't called
me the in word, either through my work, either through
my public life or personal life, every single year. So
I think I kind of know, you know, the temperature
in America from year to year. It's not something that
I think will ever get past. But there are going
(26:35):
back to Blazing Saddles, there are moments where someone can
best contextualize how ridiculous we can be. God bless America.
And that's why I love mel Brooks and all of
his work and what he's done for comedy. And I
don't know if anyone will be able to duplicate what
(26:57):
he does because I think he existed, his work existed
in a time which is very specific. You can't. You
can't rewrite Blazing Saddles for today's off audiences. It just
wouldn't work, It wouldn't make sense. There's no cultural tent
poles or or markers for people to understand it. But
(27:17):
if you have not seen Blazing Saddles, go watch it
with someone who's at least fifty years old. Fifty five
years old and can walk you through some of the
jokes and explain the context. A lot of them they're
not going to understand. But you got to see it.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
You've seen this movie so many times. I wonder if
one of your favorite lines. There's a part where Gene
Wilder and Cleveland Little are behind and mount the rock,
hide behind the rock, and he says, you've got to
remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people
of the land, the common clay of the New West.
But who are they looking at? You know, morons? One
(27:54):
of the best lines in the whole movie.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
The movie was so funny because I think everyone knew
someone in that movie. When I say new someone, it's like, oh, yeah,
I know someone who's just like that. They're talking about
so and so, or they could they could look at
the Hollywood machine and how ridiculous Hollywood was. Because Blazing
Saddles made fun of America. It made fun of Hollywood.
It's a movie inside of a movie, and if you
(28:16):
see how it ends, it literally turns into another movie.
Total master So if you haven't seen Blazing Saddles or
you need to see it again, just see it tonight.
If you want to remember what America was fifty years ago.
Blazing Saddles mel Brooks.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Before we get out of here, I did want to
finish talking about Melbrooks because Blazing Saddles is not even
my favorite Melbrooks movies. It's History of the World Part one,
all of that. And Stephan, why don't you go ahead
and pull up the Inquisition before we go, because that's
my favorite song from History of the World Part one.
(28:58):
And I waited forty years for History of the World
Part two, and I'm sorry to say Part two did
not measure up to Part one. My goodness, my goodness,
and certain things you just can't recreate. We talked about
it waiting for it, and we were kind of scared.
It's like, can you do it again? It's been too long.
Most of the original people who were in Part one
(29:19):
had already passed on with exceptional mel so it wasn't
going to have that same feeling. And it didn't. I mean,
you know, it was a fair attempt at it, but
it just didn't recreate that magic. Some things you just
can't duplicate like I would never want a sequel to
Blazing Saddles.
Speaker 8 (29:34):
Never, But you know they're doing a sequel to Spaceballs.
I don't know how I feel about that. It's happening.
Is it gonna be with Rick moranis as well?
Speaker 7 (29:45):
No?
Speaker 8 (29:45):
I think this one stars. Oh what is the kid's name?
It is an entirely new one. We'll look it up.
I mean, well, fush Is, get the inquisition for us.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
The acquisition. Let's begin the inquisition. Lookout, see, we have
a mission to convert the ju ju ju j We're
gonna teach them right. We're gonna help them see the
light and make an.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Offer that they can't refuge. Just can't you confess? Don't
be boring, say yes, don't be dull.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
A fact.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
No, No, it's better to lose your skull cap than
your skull. The inquisition.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Show the acquisition.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
We know your wish that we do, but the acquisitions
here and it's here. To the inquisition.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Good the inquisition.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
It's something people miss and they don't understand. In nineteen seventies,
musicals were really really big thing. Blazing Saddles was a musical.
A History of the World Part One was a musical
so it fit within the times. You know, when you
do musicals today, they don't have the same type of
emotional impact. They don't do as well. Nah, now they
(31:21):
do well.
Speaker 8 (31:21):
Are There are a couple a handful, But those are
musicals based on musicals. Those are just films that are
on existing musicals. They're not new material like what mel
Brooks was creating.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Right, and it was a movie and then all of
a sudden they would break out in song and it
made sense, and it made sense. Yeah, and look you
heard the lyrics. You just can't do that today on TV.
And I don't know what the appetite would be for
it in the theaters. And I've long said you can't
go back. You can't recreate the past. You can't get
(31:55):
that same magic back. But you know, I can wildly
say that I lived through the glory years of mel Brooks. Okay,
but yes, mel Brooks. He is producing the sequel to Baseballs,
starring Josh Gadd. Yeah, and he also produced and appeared
in History of the World Part two. Ye. I'm not
(32:16):
saying he lost his touch. I'm just saying there's certain
magic that you cannot recreate, and I think that's a
function of where different as Americans, how we consume content
is really different. And you know, like for example, I
don't know, and I thought about this before, and to
(32:36):
make a parallel here, I don't know if Richard Pryor
could do the same comedy today that he did in
the nineteen seventies, whether it would have that same impact.
George Carlin, Yes, Richard Pryor, I don't know whether his
because we don't even look at stand up comedy the
same way. We don't have the same affinity for it. Yeah,
(32:56):
So I don't know Richard Pryor as a movie actor, sure,
but as a stand up comedian, I don't know if
he would be as successful. I mean, look look at
Eddie Murphy, who started in stand up. He's not trying
to really go back to that now.
Speaker 8 (33:09):
He's got a couple of stand up tours out there,
but that's not his focus, right He's moved on because also,
I believe he knows that that level of comedy that
was in raw and Delirious, those jokes don't hit the
same because right now we're just that profane a country.
So him dropping all those F bombs on stage is
gonna sound like whatever. Yeah, stuff like that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Richard Pryor. In the age of Dave Chappelle, most medias
don't feel the need to tour anymore and doing stand
up comedy tours. They'll do the HBO special yeah, and
Netflix special and that will be that. You know, I
don't think they put in the same type of time
honing their craft in the way that Dave Chappelle did,
because he's probably the last that of the generation who
(33:56):
actually honed their craft and still kept up doing stand
up throughout his whole career. He did a few movies,
but that wasn't what he was really into.
Speaker 8 (34:05):
Yeah, And like the difference I'd say with mel Brooks
movies and being able to do something like that now.
Star Wars as a franchise right now is laughable to many.
So doing a film that's poking fun as Star Wars
is like whatever, people are laughing at the series as
a whole. When Space Balls came out, everyone looked at
(34:26):
Star Wars. It's like, don't you dare and make fun
of Star Wars. Yeah, you know, people took that type
of stuff more serious. Even the film like History of
the World was funny because we didn't have the level
of satire and stuff that we have on television now,
So it's a lot harder. Like Ryan Reynolds, as you mentioned,
what they were able to do with Deadpool is bold
because they're saying things that no one would dare say
(34:48):
about a studio to their face right now. That's what
they're doing, which is what made Deadpool Wolverine so shocking.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
And that's what mel Brooks was talking about. Hey, I
just said take this out, take this out, and then
he just made a whole movie keeping it all in,
making fun of Say it with me, Warner Brothers. Yeah,
those are the common threads.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But no, I wouldn't say Ryan Reynolds and Sean Levy
they're not mel Brooks. I would say they're mel Brooks esque.
And Spaceballs too, Yeah, it doesn't make sense because there's
no Star Wars to make fun of in that way.
So Spaceballs, it is like all right, and and yeah,
it's not going to make sense to anyone. But you know,
(35:33):
just tell me they're not going to make a sequel
to Young Frankenstein that I can't handle. I probably don't
relieve that they are. Yeah, I believe so. No, like
I Gore and Frankenstein. Yeah, yeah, they probably will since
Martin Feldman and Jeane Wilder are gone. Yeah, I could
see that in a heartbeat. They would do that. Nothing sacred,
(35:54):
there's nothing new anymore, Okay. If I am six forty
light everywhere in the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
App stimulating talk for independent thought, k f I and
k ost.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
H D two Los Angeles, Orange County live everywhere on
the Art Radio
Later, with Mo'Kelly News
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