March 22, 2025 • 53 mins
Join comedians Darren Carter and John DiResta on this hilarious and insightful episode of Pocket Party Podcast! This time, John—a former NYPD officer who patrolled the subways from 1986 to 1998 before landing his own sitcom—turns the tables and fires off questions about life as a cop. Darren and John dive into the gritty, funny, and sometimes surreal experiences of working in law enforcement, blending humor with real-life stories.But that’s not all! Darren shares a wild tale about a family walk on a farm that took a terrifying turn when they encountered two extremely aggressive dogs. It’s a story full of suspense, laughs, and maybe a lesson or two about rural adventures.Whether you’re here for the cop stories, the comedy, or the canine chaos, this episode has something for everyone. Tune in for laughs, life lessons, and a whole lot of fun! 🎙️🐕
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Pocket Party. We're walking, we're getting closer and there's a
nice and it looks like there's one of those black dogs.
And he was like he was like sitting up, perched up,
if you could picture, he's sitting straight up, just looking
at us, getting closer. And as we got closer, he went,
there's another black dog and the other black dog was
(00:22):
was more aggressive the other black dog. Both his ears
went straight up on top of his head.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Everybody listened to Derek Carter. We all know he's the
party starter. So if you want to listen to a podcast,
listen to a Pocket Party, Pocket Pocket Party. They're wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And we're back. Episode three one, six three sixteen. Big
shout out to all the good listeners out there. Thank
you so much. Christopher McCrae. We've got Cindy Larson, we
have Dave Smith, David, how are you, David, Thank you
so much. And we got Casey out in Texas with
their friend Alexis in Texas. It's a rhyme, it actually
(01:16):
these are real people, folks. It sounds like a joke,
you know, thank God, you know Lulu and Hanah Lulu,
but it's really there's Alexis in Texas. And Casey in
Texas as well. And our guest today is former NMYPD
cop mister John Dresta went on to have his own sitcom.
He's been in a bunch of movies and he's the
(01:38):
guest today. So what do you know, John? Are you there?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yes, I'm here.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Hello, you're on the air with the Pocket Party Family.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Okay, Hey, what's up guys. Very nice to speak to you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Nice to speak to you. Man, Before we get into it,
how's life, how's everything going? How you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm okay, Thank god, I'm sixty years old. I have
a couple of medical things wrong with me, but I'm up.
Been running, I'm doing some stand up shows. I'm making
a lot of furniture, and now I'm helping out a
lot of fire victims. I bet you never thought of that.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh yeah, Because Alta, Dina and Malibu and all that
and the policy.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
A lot of people are just they kind of hit
me up for like inexpensive furniture for their rental. You know,
I haven't made anything real big and expensive, but you
know it's people like we need a desk, we need
a bench, we need a coffee table, And I give
them a big discount.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You've had multiple lives. I was thinking about this, like
you you started out in life, like I guess, just
you know, like not on the wrong foot, but like, uh,
you know, your your dad was a firefighter, and you
guys sound like you guys had a nice, happy home
with your mom and dad and the four kids. And
then and then you kind of got into the pot
and the drinking, and didn't you know, you even even
(02:50):
left New York and kind of lost direction and we're
hanging out on the beach and then and then one day,
I guess you joined the police academy. You're like, well,
this isn't.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Darren, You're funny. I never really thought of it that way,
and it's my life. But you're right. I got kicked
out of Newport's College in eighty two. I dropped that
in Nassau Community College in Long Island, you know, the
local thirteenth grade. Yeah, And I moved to Huntington Beach, California,
and drank and did drugs for six months on the
(03:22):
beach and worked as a laborer in Newport, you know,
five bucks an hour carrying sheet rock. And my dad
I was literally in Newport on a payphone I think,
and my dad said, I registered. I registered you for
the New York City Police exam. You're gonna come home
sooner or later in your life. Come home now and
(03:43):
get a good job. And I got very excited out
of nowhere to be a cop. I bought into it.
I was gonna grow a mustache and get a flannel shirt.
I was gonna have a partner named Mike. We were
gonna go on vacation together.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Because you were thinking of like the TV cops, I would.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Oh, I did one thousand. I did the medical, the physical,
the psyche. I lost the weight, I stopped doing pot.
I did everything, and I got to sign to the
New York City Transit Police in the subway. It was
such a letdown.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's funny you say that because I uh to me.
You know, I grew up on the West Coast, so
I'm like, a cop is a cop as a cop
in New York. But I realized there's different divisions, I guess,
and the subway is something you're like, you don't you're
not cruising around with a partner named Mike.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You're like, you're not cruising, dude. You work alone. You
don't even have a partner. Imagine being put into the
subway of New York in a police uniform twenty one
years old, and you don't even know what the next
stop is. If you get into a tussle with a criminal,
you literally don't even add a call for backup. You
don't even know what your next stop is.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You don't even know where you're at.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Have to say, excuse me, can you stop beating me
up for one second? I want to check the map.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You told me something once which I never I've always remembered.
You said that at that point, you'd never even been
on the subway, and here you are patrolling it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Never been on the subway. I'm from a Long Island
and all we did every Saint Patrick's Day. Once once
a year, we all got on the Long Island Railroad,
went to Manhattan, got drunk, went to the Pono boots,
got a fake ID, and went home. Never been on
the subway, And then there I was. I think I
(05:29):
told you the first night I worked as a transit cop.
People can google this up the fall of eighty six.
The first night I worked, I did a four to twelve.
I want to do the four. I got off at
midnight in Coney Island, Brooklyn, which looked just like it
did in the movie The Warriors. It was crack addicts
and cracked hookers. And that night, at nine o'clock on
(05:52):
my first shift, the hooker was killed with a bow
and arrow. That is gruesome and I'll never forget it
because I was supposed to meet her at twelve fifty
team that night the Rookie Special. I lost my deposit dog.
I put two dollars down on a four dollars sex act.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I put out there that you were coming on. So
I hit up the different social media's and I said,
former NYPD cop coming on any questions. And here's a
question coming from Tommy Tommy aka Throwback. He wants to
know how accurate is the French connection.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Oh, it's funny you asked. That was before my time
as a cop, and that movie kind of came out
in the seventies where I was probably watching Jaws and Rocky,
So I'm not good with the French connection. I do
know that those two guys existed in real life, the
two cops, pop Eye Doyle and the other guy. I
(06:52):
don't know much about the movie. I do know that
I was compared to Gene Hackman as an actor. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Nice. Yeah, I don't know much about the movie. It
sounds like we should both watch it because it's you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I would love to watch it. I and and I
think I do know, uh that most New York City cops,
at least the old old timers, when asked what's the
most realistic show, they always said Barnie Miller.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh wow, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, they always said Bonnie Miller. I never liked Brooklyn
ninety nine. I thought that was the worst. Did you
ever see that?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
No, that's that's uh, that's a little bit after my time.
That's more recent.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't Yeah, Brooklyn nine nine just had a weird
vibe to it was good.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, and uh, I remember I must have been in
sixth grade when Barney Miller was was on and I
was like, oh, it looks like a fun job. You're
you're in an office with a bunch of guys, cracking
jokes and weirdos are coming in and you're making fun
and having you know, but of course you know that's uh,
that's that's not the real.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Dude, being a New York City cop. Well, I just
told a friend of mine, I was on the phone
with UH and I said it was It was thousands
and thousands of funny people, I mean the funniest people
at a Irish, Italian Puerto, Rican, Jewish Black And when
(08:15):
I got on the job, the mutts of all these
different races, we became cops, like the low ball Italian guys,
the low life Irish guys.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Like.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I'm not dismissing us as people, but you know, we
weren't the top dogs. You know what I got on
the job. You needed no felony convictions and a driver's license.
That's it. Wow wow, So they got the vermin dude.
(08:48):
We were all misfits.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So Luca Polunka, I love Luca Polunka, what's up?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I find that guy extremely funny.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
He's funny. He's got the perfect name. To Luca Polunka,
it sounds like like somebody had made that name up
for a movie. But Luca asks ask him about the
Guardian Angels. Now, all I know about Guardian Angels the
way I see it, I don't know anything about it.
I just I just look at them and I'm like, oh,
those are like helpers to the cops.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Is that dude is exactly the opposite. Really really, there
are a bunch of weirdo low lights that deputize themselves
and then would get involved in things that would escalate.
Like they you know, they would tackle a guy because
he's smoking a cigarette or drinking a cannabia and they
(09:40):
have no legal authority to do anything, and then I
have to get involved, and it looks like, you know
what I'm saying, they escalated the situation that I got
a squash.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Ooh, I could see history. I could see history repeating itself,
like on the West Coast. I think in West Hollywood
they have like these you know, West Holly Patrol and
it's like you know, partners that walk up to people and.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, it's it's weird. And watch this. I went to
the NYPD Academy for six months, and then you go
to the Subway School. You go to Transit Police Academy
for six weeks. So I went to two different police
academies and they had a So watch this. The class
about the Guardian Angels was two hours. The very first day,
(10:26):
at noon is Guardian Angel Class. Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
The instructor comes out at noon, he goes Guardian Angels.
A bunch of fucking assholes. Stay away. You have the
next hour and fifty nine minute break, and he walked out.
That's a true story.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So I give you an example. I was ready to
go off duty. I had three days off. I dodn't
want nothing to do with police work. I get called
off the train, A guardian angel tackle the guy that
had a gun. So now it's I got my gun out.
It's a yes, it's a hooptie scoop. And it winds
up the guy had a cap gun. Remember the cap
gun for your kids had little six rings that you
(11:08):
just put in there. Yeah, it was a cap gun.
Oh no, and now I'm involved in a hooptie scoop.
All cops are coming that he had gun over the radio.
No the guardian angels. However, I will say this. When
I first started to get a little fame as the
stand up comedian, Curtis Sleewah had me on his radio
(11:29):
show and he was very nice to me.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Oh that's good. Yeah, he's the one that I know,
Curtis Sleewah.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah. I don't want to drop names. Michael Kane told
me it was rude, Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I just looked him up on Wikipedia, says In nineteen
ninety two, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sleewaw issued a public
apology for faking several subway rescues in the nineteen eighties
in order to get publicity for the group.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, he's he's kind of known as a charlatan. And
I'm pretty sure if you refer that he was shot
five times, and I think the hit was put out
by John Gotti's son, who looks like yours truly. I
look like junior and senior.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
That's interesting. You look like junior and senior. Yeah, you're
like the t move version of John Gotti.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And John Gotti has nine toes and I have nine toes.
So it's kismet. Oh wow, so we both have the
white puffy han now.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I know, like uh like Polly Walnuts on the Sopranos.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I got my wings, You got your wings.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh okay, here's another question. Let me see if there's
any more police questions, because I got any I got
questions for a cop. Okay, here we go. This coming
in from Galaxy Goddess asks what was the most rewarding
moment for him when he was on duty?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
There was, uh, there was not a lot, you know.
I always say the only life I have saved was
my own by quitting, and the closest I ever came
to using my gun was a self inflicted wound. However,
I did help a lot of homeless people to the shelter.
I did you know every now and then when you
(13:15):
just treat a homeless guy with respect. Me and my
partner Mike Venkas, got a call to the un building.
A guy was living like in a tunnel, like in
a restricted area. Yeah, and we just said to him,
hey man, we'll get you something to equal take you
to the shelter. And he said, you're the first two
people to look me in the eye and talk to
me like a human being in five years. WHOA so
(13:38):
little things like that? I mean, I did save a guy.
Me and Tony Bravada, my sergeant, got called. And the
way I remember it was the guy was laying on
the roadbed and a train was like round in the corner.
And I know I would never jump into the roadbed
in front of a moving train, but somehow, someway I
remember us saving this guy. Maybe he reached up, you know,
we kind of yanked him up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, let me throw some things at you. These are
my own questions. Did you ever save any lost children
where there was like a child wandering around and they
go to a cop.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And mister help me. We did have a one incident
and we were working the train at two o seven
on the A in Harlem. It's the last stop. So
when the train pulls in and it's the last stop,
if someone doesn't get up and they're sleeping, they're usually homeless.
So that's the people that we have to kind of
target and say, would you like to go to the shelter?
(14:30):
Would you like to go to the shelter? And a
ten year old kid came to up. It was a runaway,
so me and my partner, I kind of got stuck
with the kid because once you get a runaway, the
courts involved social workers, parents, you know what I mean.
You know this ain't two hours. This is two days
worth of overtime.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, which is good.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And I kind of got stuck with the kid and
it was like a sixty hour thing and I had
no money for food. My wife didn't have a car,
I had no ATM card, no cell phone. I got
jockets from not taking a shower. But at the end
I helped the kid out. His name was Willis. And
you know what's the last thing I said to him, right,
(15:11):
he said, what you're talking about, Willis?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
What you're talking about Willis? You know you're right because
I would think it's like, here's a copy's a hero
and you just describe being on the downside, like being broke,
this and that. You would think a cop would be
like that hero.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Shit and you're saving the world and all that. That's
one percent of it.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Damn Yeah, good.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Out of the If you took ten New York City
cops in nineteen eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight, at
least transit cops, Yeah, if you took ten of them,
eight of them where they had to fuck off and
just get a pension and get a paycheck and they'll
help if they have to, but they are not that
concerned with police work.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
It's funny because you see these TikTok videos or whatever,
and they're like, here's a copy playing. You know, he's
in his full uniform playing basketball in the hood with
you know, the white cop coming into the black neighborhood
playing basketball and you know, and winning, winning over hearts
and minds.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Like I guess it was hard. When I was on
the job. You cracked skulls. That's it.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
You guys weren't out there playing.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Guess what. Guess what transit cops carried before I got
on the job. Guess if they would carry just a true.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Story guns, night sticks.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
They would carry an axe handle mm. They would carry
an axe handle and it would be in the hand
the whole shift, not even on their gun belt.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Dude, that's like me out here on the I'm at
the farm this week and and uh, there's like there
was two wild dogs and they were hanging and when
was this. This is Sunday when nobody's around. No, no
farmers are around, no, No railroad construction workers are around. No,
nobody's around, man, nobody and its me, my wife and
(17:01):
my son and we see these two black dogs. Yeah.
My son actually was running. He was he was late
and he was so he was running, he was jogging,
trying to get his workout. And I saw and the dogs.
He got. The dogs perked up and looked at him,
and We're like, what are they doing? And then they
(17:21):
they kind of started like like not really chasing him,
but just kind of like where's he going? And they
were kind of running. So the next day on Sunday
is when I carry an axe handle out here, so
I have my axe handle. He had his, Uh, yeah,
I do. I have one. I got an axe handle,
and I'm thinking about getting another one because it rained.
It rained on that day and we were like, oh,
(17:42):
what if lightning in the metal. You know, I don't
want to get shocked.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Can you shoot these dogs or now you'd be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I don't. I mean, he probably could, but only if
they attacked. But I don't know. It's like.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Only if they attack might be too late.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I know, but I'll tell you this though. I went
on I went on YouTube earlier and I said, well,
how to fight and how to fight a dog? And
there are several videos on YouTube about how to fight
a dog, Like, if it comes down to it, how
do you get fight one? And it said the biggest
thing is remain calm. Remain calm, don't turn your back
to them and run away because they'll chase you. They said,
you know, if you move around all frantically, it freaks
(18:20):
them out and it makes them more aggressive because they're
scared and they don't know what you're doing. So I'm
telling you just reading that video, watching those videos, it
helped me.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
There was one, Yeah good, I would have never thought
that would but even that little lesson, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That and also having an axe handle with me, so
my son had everyone had one, my wife, My wife
had a stick, my son had a weapon, and I
had my my axe handle. And we're walking. We're getting closer,
and there's a nice looks like there's one of those
black dogs and he was like, sit up. He was
like sitting up, perched up, if you could picture he's
(18:53):
sitting straight up, just looking at us, getting closer. And
as we got closer, he went but and I'm like, well,
let's we got to keep walking that way before we
turn left. And then his I don't know if it
was his mother or his buddy or his brother or whatever.
There's another black dog and the other black dog was
more aggressive. The other black dog. Both his ears went
(19:18):
straight up on top of his head, like picture the
both ears going straight up on top of your ear,
like just ears straight up. And he was going like that,
and then they kind of came like jogging towards us.
But I took it more. My son was kind of nervous, obviously,
but I took it more as being like kind of curious,
(19:38):
but like, I don't know, dude, I just felt relaxed.
Plus I had that axe handle and they kept walking
and I faced them and I kind of stood my
ground and I went sit. And when I said sit
and I pointed my hand out like that, they both
kind of retreated a little bit.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And I'm like, okay, this is I'm gonna tell you, Yeah,
you got it. You got to somehow expelled them from
your life. This is all too close.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, totally totally.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It's watched this. You could have fifty fucking axe handles.
When two of those dogs come at you and they're
determined it's over. I know, I know it's over. So
I mean, think about fucking getting a shotgun and just
taking the heads off. Here's what we know. That's easy
to say, but.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
No, here's what we did. We I said sit, and
then I kept walking backwards a little bit because they
said don't turn your back. And then they kind of
retreated a little bit, and then we kept walking. But
then you're right, were our head's on a swivel, Like
every time we turned the corner, We're like, are they
gonna come out? And plus as the sun goes down,
We're like, they're gonna be harder to see, Like, but I,
you know, is.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
This the first time you've seen them?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
They yet, No, I've never We've never seen these two
black dogs never.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
There's coyotes out here, but those guys are usually scared
of you and run. However, here's the thing. The next day,
all these there's more like farmers and workers and machines
going beep beep, and there's construction and so the dogs
were gone and we haven't seen them. And this is
four days later, and my my sister in law called, uh,
(21:02):
she called somebody. I don't know if it was animal
control somebody, and we know that. I don't know if
that phone call had something to do with it or
all the action in that.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh okay, yeah, maybe they got rid of him.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, we haven't seen him in four days.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So on that note, just ten minutes ago, I was
on the phone with my new friend Leslie and boker
rattone Florida.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Shout out to Leslie and boker.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Ratone my future ex wife.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Future x wife.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
She I told her that I live in a bit
of a ghetto in North Hollywood and for fifteen years.
Fran would always say, we should start walking, we should
start walking. Yeah, And I never told Fran I never
wanted to get a nervous I don't want to get
attacked by stray pitbull. I just don't walk around my neighborhood,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh yeah, pit bulls or dude, if these were pit bulls,
I'd be really scared.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, I mean, what kind of dogs were these?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I'm not sure, but they weren't. I looked up. They
were not Rottweiler's, they were not German shepherds. They were
not pit bulls. Don't know what they were. They were big, though,
and you see their pawprints. Because I see the muddy popper,
I'm like, that's a pretty big freaking It's bigger than
a coffee mug. I mean, it's or just as good
if you put a coffee mug down on.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The dude, I don't even want to hear anymore. Yeah,
how about those mets any more questions about being a cop.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
It's I'm in the movies too.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, we're gonna get to all that, you know. It's funny,
Like you know, they say, put your problems in a circle.
And then after you read everyone else's problems, you'll reach
back for your own problems. You're like, right, I don't
think you're You're like more about this NYPD subway talking
as opposed to.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
No, I just do I I'm telling you as a friend.
Your wife is involved, your son is involved. I know
you're involved. I know this is this is a situation, dude.
I hate to say it. I know you want to
not think about it, but the fact that you're staring
them down and challenging them, like, no, telling them not
Oh they ran past us one thousand feet away.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
No, No, it was dude.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Even the verbiage of us, like his ear went up
and I had my axe handle. What are we doing here? Though?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I know, dude, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I was like I write online how you can fight
him off exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You're supposed to wrap around your sweatshirt and give them
your arm. And then yeah, this is just crazy. My
wife had pepper spray thing too, But I'm like, everyone's
gonna get panicked and the spray is gonna be facing
the wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And by the time that dog's close enough to pepper spray,
he's already running fifty miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I know they said don't run, because you run. A
human being runs fifteen miles an hour and not very long,
and these dogs can go like thirty miles an hour
for forty miles an hour, You're screwed, man.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
But let's talk about Leslie Bella.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Okay, so shout out to you. Know what you just said.
That was interesting, By the way, I remember parking at
your house once in North Hollywood, and I think there
was a stray dog running around, and I was very
nervous because it's one thing if you expect a dog
and you have a weapon, but if you just get
out of your car and there's a dog, you're just
like a where'd that come from? And I was actually
(24:10):
bitten once and and after I got After you get
bit by a random dog, it makes you a little
bit more skittish. But I remember you and I talked
about the random dogs in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
But yeah, I got And I deliver furniture, so I'm
in someone's house that strange his house once or twice
a week, so I've been I've had a lot of
dog incidents and I got bit twice. I got bit
in the back of a calf over little Brayer and Wiltshire,
my little dog, you bit into my calf and then
this really big, like ole massive pit bull coyote chaina
(24:45):
mix and I just put my hand out and he
just bit down on the back of my hand, just
enough to put two holes in my hand. And while
he bit my hand, he looked up to me and said,
I am the captain now. And then the woman tells
me we just got him out of the shelter that day,
like I shouldn't have put my hand out.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Oh shit, like tearful. Drake Nelson asked a question, and
I don't know what if he was joking or if
he's really serious. He asked, what's it like to be
a snitch? Does he mean on the cop side, being
cops being snitches or does he mean criminals being snitches.
I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh I'm not sure. I think he probably means as
a cop. But if you if you had any reputation
that you went to the man behind another cops back,
they really turned on you. I mean, some people got
put into really shitty positions where they had to say something.
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, if it's something minor you're not gonna volunteer like.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
You watched this. I was with a cop named Willie
Rodriguez and he committed a felony while he was with
me on duty and uniform. He committed a felony. So
you know what is I gonna do? Rat him out?
You know what I mean? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Gotcha? Allegedly that was his name, and allegedly it was
I like how you just pulled that name up out
of your creative guy?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, I know I made that up.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
That's good. Now what about this?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Somebody says, oh, yeah, this is our buddy, Jeffrey Peterson.
He knew it was you. When he goes, he gotta
go any questions for a cop, he goes Ozzy Ordo.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, Jeff is a great guy. I love Jeff. He
is U. He knows this. And you know this. I
hate to say it, but I have to listen to
Ronnie James Deo every seven hours like a heroin addic. Yeah,
and Ozzy. I can go twenty four forty eight hours without.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Still it's it's still wow. There's just something about us.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Huh, just hearing that's just something about And dude, you
discover new Ozzy New Dio daily on YouTube. There's just
there's dozens of songs you never heard.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Of, songs and concerts and live.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Performances, everything and interviews.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Here's a good one. Here's a good question. This is
from someone named Flobto. He goes, if it's John Deresta,
which it is, ask him how he would have done
season two of the sitcom DiResta on up. And by
the way, before we go any further, let's tell the
audience you had a sitcom. Okay, so real quick. Let's
catch them up to that real quick, and then we'll
(27:17):
get to Flibido's question. So you're a cop for twelve years.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I was transit for eight NYPD for four total, twelve twelve.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And you're a funny guy. You were like, I want
to be a comedian. I want to do stand up.
Somehow you got into stand up and from stand up,
I want to say you created a one man show.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, so one man show called beat a Subway cops
comedy and the theme of the one man show was
how when you become a civil servant, everyone thinks you're
set for life, but they forget that you have to
work nights, weekends, get divorced, lojah hair, go bankrupt, become
an alcoholic, Like that was the downside, like you mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
And from there, somehow, how'd you get this sitcom? How
do you go from me?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Well, the One Man's Show kind of caught on. It
got good. It was it was it was parts that
were acted, parts that were silent, parts that were directly
to the audience, like a stand up. So it was
like there were oh, there was slides, there was video,
there was it was multifaceted, and so it caught on
and the people from Hollywood started to come look at it,
(28:23):
like casting people.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Dude, that's incredible. When you really, let's slow down and
think about that. You're doing this one man show not
in Hollywood. You're doing it in New York somewhere right
like off Broadway.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Like on forty second Street near all the porno boots.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So that means it's not even in the mean drag area.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I guess no, it's it was off the beaten path,
like you know, you had to have a helmet to
get to this place.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And somehow, some way they started seeking it out and
looking at it and watching.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It got good reviews in the New York Times, The
Daily News, and and and I started to get on
like a couple of little talk shows about it, and
and there was a buzz, for lack of a better term,
there was a buzz. The next thing you know, Disney's there,
Warner Brothers is there? Even what's his name? Who's the
guy that's in jail for raping everybody? Horvey Weinstein's company.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Harvey Weinstein's company.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Wow, Well, Harvey Weinstein met me in the green room
and I don't want to say, but he touched me
in a bad place. Where's that Jersey City?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yikes?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
No, Horvey Weinstein's Company came, so everyone came, and all
of a sudden, everybody thought I was the next Roseanne,
the next Kevin James, the next Ray Romano, the next
John Belushi on TV, the next Jackie Gleason. And I
got a very big sitcom deal with Disney, and I
resigned the NYPD March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Wow. When you signed a deal is like when a
musician gets a record deal and they're like, sign this
contract and here's a bunch of money, a lump sum
of money.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, there was a couple one hundred thousand bucks involved,
and it was in increments, but I did get the
initial check. I was literally eating cat food. I was
stealing cookies for my kids from the homeless outreach sandwich bags.
That's how broke I was.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So Yeah. I remember, I said, when you found a
lost child and you didn't really even have any money
on your credit card to buy like a dinner or nothing.
So nothing was it was it while to go from
being broke to like, here's sign this contract, you're in
show business.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I got a check for fifty thousand bucks wow, and
paid a lot of debt, paid off a few people
I owed money to, and we rented an Icer house,
we bought an Icer car. Yeah, we were white trash
with money. It was like it was I mean, when
I look back on it, because the money's all gone,
it was kind of like winning the lotto. But I
(30:47):
earned it. I mean, I'm doing a one man show, dude.
That started at eight. This is five, six nights a week.
It started at eight. I said thank you good night.
At nine oh five. I had to be on duty
in the homeless outreach unit. At nine to thirty. Damn,
I had to jump in a car and drive fifty
(31:08):
blocks in Manhattan, and I was late every night, and
everyone knew I was doing an off Broadway play and
they were all pissed at me.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Oh yeah, because they're like, that could have been doing
over there. Yeah, but you did it though. God, that's
you couldn't even really say goodbye to the folks, huh,
because you had to get out of there, can I everybody?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I literally had to run through the lobby some nights,
run past fucking this is from Disney, this is from WHOA.
And then Tom Snyder had me on four times in
one year. Tom Snider was on after Let Him In.
You did a one on one interview for twenty minutes,
twenty five minutes. You had a film.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
That's huge, no audience.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Wow, that was big back then, big now, but it
was huge because there was less options back then. This
is pre social media. This is like a big deal,
damn it.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Not only was it a big deal to be on TV,
but to to you know, if you do the Tonight
Show or Let Him In, it's the seven or eight
minutes sketch, you know, and you know this is twenty
five minutes you got to fill.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay, So Flobido's question, So you went one season and
I guess you'd seven.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You did one season of Duresta. I didn't find it
that funny. And when you sell your TV show idea,
you sell the idea. You have no say at all.
You have no say, no say. There's even been comedians
that sell their life story and they get replaced as
an actor. The lead is someone else.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I've heard of people writing their autobiography and then when
the audiobook comes out, they hire a different person to
read it. Somebody else reads it, like not even their voice.
And especially if it's a comedian, you want to hear
their voice, not like you know.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So season two, if I would add, I would have
just wanted to make the show more wild.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
They Disney bought a New York City transit cop that
hated the job, that couldn't wait to smoke pot and
loved heavy metal and garage sales, and all of a sudden,
on the sitcom this Happy Go Lucky Honey, I found
a wallet. Should we return it? I don't know. Let's
ask the black couple next door. She's a lawyer, he's
(33:07):
an astronaut. They know better than us.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. It was to
clear your conscience. You better return that wallet.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Okay, it was, it was. It was very hokey. It
was fucking it was. It was horseship. I hate to say.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
All right, let me ask you a brutally honest question.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Have you met ye.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh yeah, okay, good good, you're good. We we kind
of already knew that, But okay, brutally on a question.
Have you met people that were not just had seen
this show? It was anybody a fan of the show
where they're like, I love that show. It got me
through hard times? Was it? No?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Very few people. You know, who's the biggest fan and
he's listening. Jeff Peterson was a fan of the rest.
That's cool, Jeff Peterson. Very few people, so much so
that I've never been to a Transit Police reunion. They
have them all the time, Alida showl at Carolina. This
in New York and Florida, all up and down. The
(34:06):
Transit reunion, and these guys they live for it. It's
the only you know, they can't wait to all get together.
So I went to one, and I'll never go again.
It was just I felt I felt like everyone knew
who I was, or a lot of guys did, and
went out of their way to not say hello to me,
like they were gonna show me.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
So you know what, So back to your point, you
must have been right about the show and it's not
your fault. But like not being good, they were creating this.
They were sounds like they wrote a show and created
the show for an audience that didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
It was like this just created an unrealistic like the
sitcoms written by ten guys that wrote on other sitcoms.
And it's all very formulaic, Like I'm doing an episode
and I'm watching according to the gym, and it's the
same episode, you know what I mean? Whatever, it is
the same theme. But oh so watch this. So at
this Transit police reunion only about two years ago, it
(35:00):
is about a good seventy no, no, probably about good
three four five hundred cops. Hey, John Dress, Hey you
remember me?
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
What are you doing here? Do you look to the floor
at California's What do you doing? He eats? So I
go outside to use the cell phone and there's one
guy smoking a cigarette, old Italian guy with a hook nose.
He's eating a cigarette. He goes, you look familiar. I said,
I was on the job. I was Transit he was, wit,
you work as a District one, District thirty four, District
(35:30):
three on Punishment and the homeless outage Unit, the scale Squad.
He was, Wait a minute, you're the guy that had
the fucking sitcom. I go, I am, he goes. Dude.
We laughed every Tuesday morning at how ridiculously stupid that was.
You know that, right?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Oh man?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
See, yeah, it was just hokey. It was. It's hard
to make the New York City Subway look like the
New York City Subway.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yes, that sucks, right, because it's like other other shows
have done a good job at that kind of thing,
and they actually go on to like fame and glory
like uh like is his name Dannis Prino or something?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Or Kevin James and Ray Romano and and Seinfeld are
worth a billion dollars each. Yeah, Or I'm eating cat food.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
And toilet paper soup.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
No I eat cat food, dude, I fry it up
with little garlic and onion.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah. No, I look at no for example, you know,
you look at like, uh like Erica Strata from Chips.
You know, he's always invited like police functions and fun rasing.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
He's been dining out on that credit for fifty years.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
But they love him, and I guess it was I
don't know, it must have been realistic or something. And
there's people that got jobs as cops and they're like,
I love Punch and John Chips. I mean, it's like,
I get that was like a well written show and
it was loved, but right.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
There was something to watch this. Yeah, it had They
had lifts. It lifted people's spirits. It had something that
you can't even explain what it is.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
I know, I bet you there's these people that uh
watched Karate Kid and Cobra Kai and all that kind
of stuff. They probably got in the martial arts because
of that, and I'm sure they've met the stars and
they're like, I got in the martial arts because of you, dude.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
On a lighter note, I did a couple of stand
up shows in Long Island in November, right around Thanksgiving.
And I did two shows at a real club, and
then the Sunday night was at like an Elks club.
It was a benefit for the local football team that
I was on my high school and that night three
different people pulled me to this side and said, I'm funny. Now,
(37:47):
forty years later, because you you taught us how to
be funny, but we was ketch.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Oh so now that's cool. See so that's so.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah. I mean my reach is there, but it wasn't
with the sitcom.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
It was with every thing else.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yeah, and you're in miscongeniality. You're in a movie with
Robert de Niro that no one's heard of, Like, you know,
it's it's weird. How I have you know this? Semi
uh what looks like I hate to use the word fame,
but I've been in for a couple of movies. But
at the end of the day, I'm just a schmuck
from Long Island that eats his toenails.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Gross. If this was Disney, we would cut that out
and have you eating jelly beans.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Instead, Rainbow jelly beans, Rainbow.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Jelly beans and skittles. And then on Tuesday morning, the
other cups would laugh at you. We don't do that.
We don't need skittles.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Oh my god, dude, this guy couldn't wait to eat.
You have to see the smile come over his face. Dude,
you're a guy. You're a guy. With the sitcom. That
thing was fucking ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Dog, Dude, all people want let me. You know what, Guys,
if there's anyone here listening and you want and you
approach a comedian after the show, just tell them they're funny.
Love your show. You're so funny. They don't need anything
else you don't like like I did. I was, I was.
I was on the road recently and it was sold
out and and it was sold out and that's great,
(39:09):
but there there was no green room at this club,
so the only place you could eat was in in
another part of the nightclub, and that's where the people
were waiting to come into the comedy club for the
second show. So I found this little I went. I said, well,
let me sit at the bar, but I'll find a
part of the bar that nobody's at. And dude, you
know they see you. You know you were just in
(39:30):
a sold out show. So I'm eating my steak dinner.
It was really delicious, by the way, and this guy
comes over and he goes, uh, he goes, oh.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Is this how they pay you?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
You do a good show and they give you a
steak dinner? And he could tell I wasn't really in
the mood to talk or joke around, and he goes, oh,
I'm just kidd man, I enjoy your meal. Oh oh right, man,
take it easy. And then like five minutes later, another
guy comes over and he goes, hey, so the faster
you eat, I heard, the funnier you are. Looks like
you looks like you could and be pretty funny tonight.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
It's like, oh my gosh, get away from me, you
know you just you just want that space, Like come on,
give me a green room. Just I just want to
you know what I mean, Like, come on.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, I like sitting in the green room before and
after and during.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, I don't mind. I don't I love talking to people,
but just I just want to eat in privacy. You
don't want to, like, because what happens if you're like
eating you know, green beans, and hey can we get
a selfie? And you get stuff in your teeth? You
just come on, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
And comedy is weird. I don't think we've ever discussed
this out loud. It it puts people into a mood,
whether it's before this show or after a good show,
that you just opened them up, you made them help release,
you help them. So now they're trying to be festive
and funny in their own way, and and they're not sometimes.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah sometimes yeah, sometimes they are. But sometimes it's like.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
But we've all had the racist joke whispered in our
ear by someone that's completely drunk and stinks of alcohol.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. They get touchy
feely onions like dude, stop, you.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Know, well watch this. I don't think I've ever told
anyone this. Every now and then I would do a
homecoming show, and my dad was a real nudge you
know what I mean. A nudge is really John's coming out.
You got to show support. So he's inviting, he's inviting
and not even inviting. He's like forcing aunts and uncles
that are in wheelchairs, you know, like like like forcing them.
(41:35):
So after some of my shows, you know, hey good,
hey good, nice to see you. Hey transit they good,
And then I get someone grab my arm. Tell your
dad I was here. M that's it not you were funny,
you had a good time.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Your dad, get it, Tell him I was here. I
get overtime.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I want to ask you something before we jam. We
got to get we gotta keep it moving. But I
want to thank you for coming on. Okay, So I
found this book, and I've asked the last few guests
about this. This book is from nine. It says nineteen
thirty six. Remember when a nostalgic look back in time?
So this is from nineteen thirty six. What do you
think of a house cost in nineteen thirty six?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Oh, I tell you exactly one thousand, nine hundred and
fifty bucks.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Wrong, you want another guest, it's a lot higher.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Oh, six thousand, seven hundred.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I'll just tell you it is three thousand, nine twenty five. Okay,
here we go. Movie ticket? Do you want to guess?
Or should I tell you?
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Thirty five cents?
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Ooh close, you're you're like the closest twenty five cents.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Average rent in nineteen thirty six sixty five a month,
twenty four dollars. Okay, United States postage stamp one cent. Ooh,
you're really close. Three cents. I remember I was traveling
the country about thirty years ago. I did like these
(43:09):
big college chores. We'd fly across the country, get a
rental van, and go from school to school. I got
to see almost every state except for Hawaii. And I
would mail postcards to my grandparents and I don't know
what stamps were back then, But it wasn't that much.
Neither was the postcard. But somebody told me, they go,
you know, you don't even have to buy a postcard.
You could just get like a recipe card, like an
(43:29):
index card, and as long as you put the address
and you can just make that, you can mail that.
I did it like once, and then I thought, what
am I doing? How cheap am I?
Speaker 2 (43:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (43:40):
I mean, I'm in these beautiful areas like Vermont and
Maine and Florida, Like, let me just get a normal
postcard from the hotel lobby.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
But yeah, well watch this. I'm so old. I remember
cigarettes being fifty five cents fifty five cents cigarettes and
Saventino's pizza. I worked in the summer of nineteen seventy seven,
two slices an hour. I gained forty pounds in eight weeks, damn.
And and the sign it was a Neon signed it
(44:07):
said slice thirty five cents.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Hmmm, wow, that's cool. I remember.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I remember as a kid, you'd find money on the
ground and you're like, I could actually buy something with that.
Like back when I was a kid, if you found
a quarter, you could go get a candy bar at
the local liquor store.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Then eventually they moved they moved the candy bars up
to thirty five cents.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
When I started drinking at about fifteen, a six pack
of Schmidz was ninety nine cents. Oh wow, yeah Schmidz.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Would you rather know? Do you have any idea what
I didn't even know, like a gallon of milk was
back then?
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Or no? I do know this. I share a workshop
with some Mexican dudes, and they always helped me move stuff,
and they're always they give me food every day, home
cooked Mexican food. So I buy them beer. And I
know that a six pack of Medellos in a can
was eleven bucks today, just a six pack when you're
(45:01):
doing it, twelve pack is eighteen.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yeah, that's okay. I was gonna say, if you put
it into Starbucks terms, that's uh, because Starbucks you can
usually get you know, yeah, that's a pretty good deal.
Like you'd be better off getting them some Medello than
if you brought if you bought them like six lattes
or six Americanos.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
They ain't drinking lattes. Doug all day long, crunching up
cans and throwing bottles in a garbage cell all day
long and they're yelling with tools.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Do they recycle they recycle the cans or they just
throw it away?
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah? Just everywhere. Every way you look, it looks like
there was a looks like they sail is on leave.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
And they're really good woodworkers. They make stuff that you
go in their workshop. Dude, it looks like Jurassic Park.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh. Last question, and this is from my son. He uh.
He wanted to know how did you get in? So
that's what I'm saying. You had these different lives. You're actor,
stand up comic, but first you're a cop and would work.
My son, Austin aka Austin Base Boss, he wanted to
know how did you get into woodworking? Like, how did
that happen? How did you get into that life?
Speaker 2 (46:09):
I grew up in Long Island in a town called Woodmere.
My dad was the local handyman and woodworker. My dad
had a woodworking shop in our basement. So from being
very very very little kids, we started making stuff out
of wood and plexiglass and you know, making bombs and
guns and sake knives. Like we were always tinkering with
(46:29):
woodwork and then and and I saw I was handy
with a soar in the wood and the drill. And
then about thirty years ago, I was just a stand
up canedian and a cop and a security guard. And
we moved to an unusual spot in Central Valley, New York.
(46:49):
And there was a big barn on this property. And
I see this guy coming and going each day, and
I'm like, I don't see what he's doing. So I
went over to the barn, opened the door, and there
was a thousand old wooden planks, and he said, I'll
give you ten bucks an hour. And he taught me
how to make rustic furniture. So Pete vanum Trump this
is his name. He taught me how to make the furniture.
(47:11):
And when I moved to La I had two or
three really good years where I never even thought of
being a woodworker. It wasn't even in my mind. It
was just a part time job I had. And then well,
I went broke out here in Hollywood. Right after nine
to eleven, the phone stopped ringing. I went broke, and
I made my wife. She said, hey, can you make
(47:31):
me just a table for when you walk in the house,
a key table you know, you throw your keys in
your cell phone. Yeah, made her one table. Never ever
ever thought of it as a business. And some old
hag next door tried to give a script to me.
Can you get this to Shandra Bullocks? I said, look,
I haven't seen her in four years. I got my
own problems. Can you get dish to Shandra Bullocks? And
(47:54):
she had a foot in the door. She wouldn't let
me shut the door of my own home. And she
looked over my shoulder and goes, well, did you get
that little handmade crafty table? I said, I made it.
She goes, how much if I wanted one? And it
was about ten bucks worth of wood? I said one
hundred dollars. She said, I'll take two. Let me go
(48:18):
get dude, let me go get the money. I'll pay
you up front.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
And that was it. That was the birth of this business. Whoa,
it's crazy, that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
And I think you just probably got better and better
like any like anybody would. It's something.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Well then I just had to take jobs, you know
what I mean. You get better that you know, any
craft you do over and over and over, and then
you take you know, you stake the job. In other words, Hey,
can you make this cabinet? I've never made one before,
but I need one thousand dollars. Yes, And then you
had to learn how to do it.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
What's the most you ever got in over your head
where they were like, can you make this, this and
this and we'll pay you a lot.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yes, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
A woman wanted a big white fence, like one hundred
feet of like plastic white fence, not wood. You know
how you buy the you know the sections? Yeah, and
you got to dig them into the ground. Yeah, and
that's not the hard pot. Then there was like a gate,
like a huge, swinging plastic gate, and she gave me
(49:17):
fifteen hundred bucks up front. And when I went and
looked at it and realized I have no idea what
I'm doing, I had to get I didn't have the
money to get back. Yeah, dude, I had to pay
her off. She let me pay her off like two
hundred bucks a month for like a year. But there's
been a few like that. So now, dude, all I
do is make benches and tables. That's it.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
That's cool. So you got it down well, John, thank
you for coming on the Pocket Party podcast, and you
guys thank you for listening. Do us a favorite. Tell
at least one friend, Tell one friend or maybe two,
maybe two, and leave a comment no matter how you're
listening to this, gone over to my YouTube channel, leave
a comment on my YouTube channel on this episode and uh,
(49:59):
lets me know care and it helps the algorithm. John,
did you have something to say?
Speaker 2 (50:03):
No, I was just gonna say tonight was a fantastic night.
I spoke to my new friend Leslie and Florida shut
out Toli on FaceTime and it wind up we was
gonna be one minute, wind up being about an hour
and we had a lot of laughs. We're both from
Long Island. We both sound like we're totted.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Nice and uh so uh between talking to her and
then talking to you tonight, it's a fun night.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Nice dude, Thank you so much. Pass this episode over
to Leslie and uh and shut out to Leslie and
you said Boca ratone boker.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Tone Florida, Leslie, and also shout out to Darren Carter.
If there's one comedian that's helped me over the last
three or four years since my wife went to the
big flea market in the sky, it's been Darren Carter.
One thousand percent.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
May dude, thank you, buddy, thank you, and hey, don't
forget my son Austin. He curated that theme song for you. Man.
He played it for me the other day and I'm like, damn,
that's bad ass. You gotta you got to keep putting.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It out there. I'm I'm his biggest fan.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Man that metal. Oh and he's he's writing a song.
He wrote a song a long time ago. He's only seventeen,
but he's been working on it and working on it,
and every time he's adding little pieces and little guitar
solos and this other it's called well, I don't know
if I should say what it's called, but it's He
played it today and I'm like, dude, this is sounding good.
It's like really good. He's harmonizing with themselves and doubling
the vocals and oh good.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
You know, I don't know, I know he's got that.
You should be very proud because I have a son
and two daughters, and I know to raise a kid
is not easy and to keep them on the straight narrow.
He's a he's a great kid.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
We should be very happy.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
I am. We you know, it's funny. I started out
getting him to do push ups and sit ups and everything,
and and now you know, I'm doing my daily one
hundred push ups. But he's got me beat on that.
He's like, I'm you know whatever, I could. I could
brag about him all night. But anyways, Hey, John, thank
you so much and congrats on everything. And we'll do
another one soon. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
You got you in touch with yourself.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
All right, buddy, look at you. You made it all
the way through Pocket Party Podcast. It's my favorite podcast,
Pocket Party Podcast. Remember that theme song. Uh love you
guys so much. If you want to help me out,
do me a favor and check out my link tree
and uh, I think there's some donate buttons on there.
(52:22):
You can hire me for cameo. I do personalized celebrity videos.
I'll do shout outs for you. If it's somebody's birthday
or anniversary, I'll do some I like my women like
I like my I'll do them for you, and I'll
save the person's name and all that good stuff. All right, guys,
have a great rest of your day, and thanks for
letting us be a part of it. Darren Carter Party
Starter see you soon. I'm coming to Atlanta. I'm coming
(52:45):
to Oxnard, I'm coming to San Jose. Love you, everybody.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Listen to Darren Carter. We all know he's the party starter.
So it you want to listen to a podcast for free,
listen to The Pocket Party
Pocket Party. We're walking, we're getting closer and there's a
nice and it looks like there's one of those black dogs.
And he was like he was like sitting up, perched up,
if you could picture, he's sitting straight up, just looking
at us, getting closer. And as we got closer, he went,
there's another black dog and the other black dog was
(00:22):
was more aggressive the other black dog. Both his ears
went straight up on top of his head.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Everybody listened to Derek Carter. We all know he's the
party starter. So if you want to listen to a podcast,
listen to a Pocket Party, Pocket Pocket Party. They're wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And we're back. Episode three one, six three sixteen. Big
shout out to all the good listeners out there. Thank
you so much. Christopher McCrae. We've got Cindy Larson, we
have Dave Smith, David, how are you, David, Thank you
so much. And we got Casey out in Texas with
their friend Alexis in Texas. It's a rhyme, it actually
(01:16):
these are real people, folks. It sounds like a joke,
you know, thank God, you know Lulu and Hanah Lulu,
but it's really there's Alexis in Texas. And Casey in
Texas as well. And our guest today is former NMYPD
cop mister John Dresta went on to have his own sitcom.
He's been in a bunch of movies and he's the
(01:38):
guest today. So what do you know, John? Are you there?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yes, I'm here.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Hello, you're on the air with the Pocket Party Family.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Okay, Hey, what's up guys. Very nice to speak to you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Nice to speak to you. Man, Before we get into it,
how's life, how's everything going? How you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm okay, Thank god, I'm sixty years old. I have
a couple of medical things wrong with me, but I'm up.
Been running, I'm doing some stand up shows. I'm making
a lot of furniture, and now I'm helping out a
lot of fire victims. I bet you never thought of that.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh yeah, Because Alta, Dina and Malibu and all that
and the policy.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
A lot of people are just they kind of hit
me up for like inexpensive furniture for their rental. You know,
I haven't made anything real big and expensive, but you
know it's people like we need a desk, we need
a bench, we need a coffee table, And I give
them a big discount.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You've had multiple lives. I was thinking about this, like
you you started out in life, like I guess, just
you know, like not on the wrong foot, but like, uh,
you know, your your dad was a firefighter, and you
guys sound like you guys had a nice, happy home
with your mom and dad and the four kids. And
then and then you kind of got into the pot
and the drinking, and didn't you know, you even even
(02:50):
left New York and kind of lost direction and we're
hanging out on the beach and then and then one day,
I guess you joined the police academy. You're like, well,
this isn't.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Darren, You're funny. I never really thought of it that way,
and it's my life. But you're right. I got kicked
out of Newport's College in eighty two. I dropped that
in Nassau Community College in Long Island, you know, the
local thirteenth grade. Yeah, And I moved to Huntington Beach, California,
and drank and did drugs for six months on the
(03:22):
beach and worked as a laborer in Newport, you know,
five bucks an hour carrying sheet rock. And my dad
I was literally in Newport on a payphone I think,
and my dad said, I registered. I registered you for
the New York City Police exam. You're gonna come home
sooner or later in your life. Come home now and
(03:43):
get a good job. And I got very excited out
of nowhere to be a cop. I bought into it.
I was gonna grow a mustache and get a flannel shirt.
I was gonna have a partner named Mike. We were
gonna go on vacation together.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Because you were thinking of like the TV cops, I would.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Oh, I did one thousand. I did the medical, the physical,
the psyche. I lost the weight, I stopped doing pot.
I did everything, and I got to sign to the
New York City Transit Police in the subway. It was
such a letdown.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's funny you say that because I uh to me.
You know, I grew up on the West Coast, so
I'm like, a cop is a cop as a cop
in New York. But I realized there's different divisions, I guess,
and the subway is something you're like, you don't you're
not cruising around with a partner named Mike.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You're like, you're not cruising, dude. You work alone. You
don't even have a partner. Imagine being put into the
subway of New York in a police uniform twenty one
years old, and you don't even know what the next
stop is. If you get into a tussle with a criminal,
you literally don't even add a call for backup. You
don't even know what your next stop is.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You don't even know where you're at.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Have to say, excuse me, can you stop beating me
up for one second? I want to check the map.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
You told me something once which I never I've always remembered.
You said that at that point, you'd never even been
on the subway, and here you are patrolling it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Never been on the subway. I'm from a Long Island
and all we did every Saint Patrick's Day. Once once
a year, we all got on the Long Island Railroad,
went to Manhattan, got drunk, went to the Pono boots,
got a fake ID, and went home. Never been on
the subway, And then there I was. I think I
(05:29):
told you the first night I worked as a transit cop.
People can google this up the fall of eighty six.
The first night I worked, I did a four to twelve.
I want to do the four. I got off at
midnight in Coney Island, Brooklyn, which looked just like it
did in the movie The Warriors. It was crack addicts
and cracked hookers. And that night, at nine o'clock on
(05:52):
my first shift, the hooker was killed with a bow
and arrow. That is gruesome and I'll never forget it
because I was supposed to meet her at twelve fifty
team that night the Rookie Special. I lost my deposit dog.
I put two dollars down on a four dollars sex act.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I put out there that you were coming on. So
I hit up the different social media's and I said,
former NYPD cop coming on any questions. And here's a
question coming from Tommy Tommy aka Throwback. He wants to
know how accurate is the French connection.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Oh, it's funny you asked. That was before my time
as a cop, and that movie kind of came out
in the seventies where I was probably watching Jaws and Rocky,
So I'm not good with the French connection. I do
know that those two guys existed in real life, the
two cops, pop Eye Doyle and the other guy. I
(06:52):
don't know much about the movie. I do know that
I was compared to Gene Hackman as an actor. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Nice. Yeah, I don't know much about the movie. It
sounds like we should both watch it because it's you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I would love to watch it. I and and I
think I do know, uh that most New York City cops,
at least the old old timers, when asked what's the
most realistic show, they always said Barnie Miller.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh wow, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, they always said Bonnie Miller. I never liked Brooklyn
ninety nine. I thought that was the worst. Did you
ever see that?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
No, that's that's uh, that's a little bit after my time.
That's more recent.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't Yeah, Brooklyn nine nine just had a weird
vibe to it was good.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, and uh, I remember I must have been in
sixth grade when Barney Miller was was on and I
was like, oh, it looks like a fun job. You're
you're in an office with a bunch of guys, cracking
jokes and weirdos are coming in and you're making fun
and having you know, but of course you know that's uh,
that's that's not the real.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Dude, being a New York City cop. Well, I just
told a friend of mine, I was on the phone
with UH and I said it was It was thousands
and thousands of funny people, I mean the funniest people
at a Irish, Italian Puerto, Rican, Jewish Black And when
(08:15):
I got on the job, the mutts of all these
different races, we became cops, like the low ball Italian guys,
the low life Irish guys.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Like.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I'm not dismissing us as people, but you know, we
weren't the top dogs. You know what I got on
the job. You needed no felony convictions and a driver's license.
That's it. Wow wow, So they got the vermin dude.
(08:48):
We were all misfits.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So Luca Polunka, I love Luca Polunka, what's up?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I find that guy extremely funny.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
He's funny. He's got the perfect name. To Luca Polunka,
it sounds like like somebody had made that name up
for a movie. But Luca asks ask him about the
Guardian Angels. Now, all I know about Guardian Angels the
way I see it, I don't know anything about it.
I just I just look at them and I'm like, oh,
those are like helpers to the cops.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Is that dude is exactly the opposite. Really really, there
are a bunch of weirdo low lights that deputize themselves
and then would get involved in things that would escalate.
Like they you know, they would tackle a guy because
he's smoking a cigarette or drinking a cannabia and they
(09:40):
have no legal authority to do anything, and then I
have to get involved, and it looks like, you know
what I'm saying, they escalated the situation that I got
a squash.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Ooh, I could see history. I could see history repeating itself,
like on the West Coast. I think in West Hollywood
they have like these you know, West Holly Patrol and
it's like you know, partners that walk up to people and.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, it's it's weird. And watch this. I went to
the NYPD Academy for six months, and then you go
to the Subway School. You go to Transit Police Academy
for six weeks. So I went to two different police
academies and they had a So watch this. The class
about the Guardian Angels was two hours. The very first day,
(10:26):
at noon is Guardian Angel Class. Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
The instructor comes out at noon, he goes Guardian Angels.
A bunch of fucking assholes. Stay away. You have the
next hour and fifty nine minute break, and he walked out.
That's a true story.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So I give you an example. I was ready to
go off duty. I had three days off. I dodn't
want nothing to do with police work. I get called
off the train, A guardian angel tackle the guy that
had a gun. So now it's I got my gun out.
It's a yes, it's a hooptie scoop. And it winds
up the guy had a cap gun. Remember the cap
gun for your kids had little six rings that you
(11:08):
just put in there. Yeah, it was a cap gun.
Oh no, and now I'm involved in a hooptie scoop.
All cops are coming that he had gun over the radio.
No the guardian angels. However, I will say this. When
I first started to get a little fame as the
stand up comedian, Curtis Sleewah had me on his radio
(11:29):
show and he was very nice to me.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Oh that's good. Yeah, he's the one that I know,
Curtis Sleewah.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah. I don't want to drop names. Michael Kane told
me it was rude, Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I just looked him up on Wikipedia, says In nineteen
ninety two, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sleewaw issued a public
apology for faking several subway rescues in the nineteen eighties
in order to get publicity for the group.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, he's he's kind of known as a charlatan. And
I'm pretty sure if you refer that he was shot
five times, and I think the hit was put out
by John Gotti's son, who looks like yours truly. I
look like junior and senior.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
That's interesting. You look like junior and senior. Yeah, you're
like the t move version of John Gotti.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And John Gotti has nine toes and I have nine toes.
So it's kismet. Oh wow, so we both have the
white puffy han now.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I know, like uh like Polly Walnuts on the Sopranos.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I got my wings, You got your wings.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh okay, here's another question. Let me see if there's
any more police questions, because I got any I got
questions for a cop. Okay, here we go. This coming
in from Galaxy Goddess asks what was the most rewarding
moment for him when he was on duty?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
There was, uh, there was not a lot, you know.
I always say the only life I have saved was
my own by quitting, and the closest I ever came
to using my gun was a self inflicted wound. However,
I did help a lot of homeless people to the shelter.
I did you know every now and then when you
(13:15):
just treat a homeless guy with respect. Me and my
partner Mike Venkas, got a call to the un building.
A guy was living like in a tunnel, like in
a restricted area. Yeah, and we just said to him,
hey man, we'll get you something to equal take you
to the shelter. And he said, you're the first two
people to look me in the eye and talk to
me like a human being in five years. WHOA so
(13:38):
little things like that? I mean, I did save a guy.
Me and Tony Bravada, my sergeant, got called. And the
way I remember it was the guy was laying on
the roadbed and a train was like round in the corner.
And I know I would never jump into the roadbed
in front of a moving train, but somehow, someway I
remember us saving this guy. Maybe he reached up, you know,
we kind of yanked him up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, let me throw some things at you. These are
my own questions. Did you ever save any lost children
where there was like a child wandering around and they
go to a cop.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And mister help me. We did have a one incident
and we were working the train at two o seven
on the A in Harlem. It's the last stop. So
when the train pulls in and it's the last stop,
if someone doesn't get up and they're sleeping, they're usually homeless.
So that's the people that we have to kind of
target and say, would you like to go to the shelter?
(14:30):
Would you like to go to the shelter? And a
ten year old kid came to up. It was a runaway,
so me and my partner, I kind of got stuck
with the kid because once you get a runaway, the
courts involved social workers, parents, you know what I mean.
You know this ain't two hours. This is two days
worth of overtime.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, which is good.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And I kind of got stuck with the kid and
it was like a sixty hour thing and I had
no money for food. My wife didn't have a car,
I had no ATM card, no cell phone. I got
jockets from not taking a shower. But at the end
I helped the kid out. His name was Willis. And
you know what's the last thing I said to him, right,
(15:11):
he said, what you're talking about, Willis?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
What you're talking about Willis? You know you're right because
I would think it's like, here's a copy's a hero
and you just describe being on the downside, like being broke,
this and that. You would think a cop would be
like that hero.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Shit and you're saving the world and all that. That's
one percent of it.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Damn Yeah, good.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Out of the If you took ten New York City
cops in nineteen eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight, at
least transit cops, Yeah, if you took ten of them,
eight of them where they had to fuck off and
just get a pension and get a paycheck and they'll
help if they have to, but they are not that
concerned with police work.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
It's funny because you see these TikTok videos or whatever,
and they're like, here's a copy playing. You know, he's
in his full uniform playing basketball in the hood with
you know, the white cop coming into the black neighborhood
playing basketball and you know, and winning, winning over hearts
and minds.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Like I guess it was hard. When I was on
the job. You cracked skulls. That's it.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
You guys weren't out there playing.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Guess what. Guess what transit cops carried before I got
on the job. Guess if they would carry just a true.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Story guns, night sticks.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
They would carry an axe handle mm. They would carry
an axe handle and it would be in the hand
the whole shift, not even on their gun belt.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Dude, that's like me out here on the I'm at
the farm this week and and uh, there's like there
was two wild dogs and they were hanging and when
was this. This is Sunday when nobody's around. No, no
farmers are around, no, No railroad construction workers are around. No,
nobody's around, man, nobody and its me, my wife and
(17:01):
my son and we see these two black dogs. Yeah.
My son actually was running. He was he was late
and he was so he was running, he was jogging,
trying to get his workout. And I saw and the dogs.
He got. The dogs perked up and looked at him,
and We're like, what are they doing? And then they
(17:21):
they kind of started like like not really chasing him,
but just kind of like where's he going? And they
were kind of running. So the next day on Sunday
is when I carry an axe handle out here, so
I have my axe handle. He had his, Uh, yeah,
I do. I have one. I got an axe handle,
and I'm thinking about getting another one because it rained.
It rained on that day and we were like, oh,
(17:42):
what if lightning in the metal. You know, I don't
want to get shocked.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Can you shoot these dogs or now you'd be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I don't. I mean, he probably could, but only if
they attacked. But I don't know. It's like.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Only if they attack might be too late.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I know, but I'll tell you this though. I went
on I went on YouTube earlier and I said, well,
how to fight and how to fight a dog? And
there are several videos on YouTube about how to fight
a dog, Like, if it comes down to it, how
do you get fight one? And it said the biggest
thing is remain calm. Remain calm, don't turn your back
to them and run away because they'll chase you. They said,
you know, if you move around all frantically, it freaks
(18:20):
them out and it makes them more aggressive because they're
scared and they don't know what you're doing. So I'm
telling you just reading that video, watching those videos, it
helped me.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
There was one, Yeah good, I would have never thought
that would but even that little lesson, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That and also having an axe handle with me, so
my son had everyone had one, my wife, My wife
had a stick, my son had a weapon, and I
had my my axe handle. And we're walking. We're getting closer,
and there's a nice looks like there's one of those
black dogs and he was like, sit up. He was
like sitting up, perched up, if you could picture he's
(18:53):
sitting straight up, just looking at us, getting closer. And
as we got closer, he went but and I'm like, well,
let's we got to keep walking that way before we
turn left. And then his I don't know if it
was his mother or his buddy or his brother or whatever.
There's another black dog and the other black dog was
more aggressive. The other black dog. Both his ears went
(19:18):
straight up on top of his head, like picture the
both ears going straight up on top of your ear,
like just ears straight up. And he was going like that,
and then they kind of came like jogging towards us.
But I took it more. My son was kind of nervous, obviously,
but I took it more as being like kind of curious,
(19:38):
but like, I don't know, dude, I just felt relaxed.
Plus I had that axe handle and they kept walking
and I faced them and I kind of stood my
ground and I went sit. And when I said sit
and I pointed my hand out like that, they both
kind of retreated a little bit.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And I'm like, okay, this is I'm gonna tell you, Yeah,
you got it. You got to somehow expelled them from
your life. This is all too close.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, totally totally.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It's watched this. You could have fifty fucking axe handles.
When two of those dogs come at you and they're
determined it's over. I know, I know it's over. So
I mean, think about fucking getting a shotgun and just
taking the heads off. Here's what we know. That's easy
to say, but.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
No, here's what we did. We I said sit, and
then I kept walking backwards a little bit because they
said don't turn your back. And then they kind of
retreated a little bit, and then we kept walking. But
then you're right, were our head's on a swivel, Like
every time we turned the corner, We're like, are they
gonna come out? And plus as the sun goes down,
We're like, they're gonna be harder to see, Like, but I,
you know, is.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
This the first time you've seen them?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
They yet, No, I've never We've never seen these two
black dogs never.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
There's coyotes out here, but those guys are usually scared
of you and run. However, here's the thing. The next day,
all these there's more like farmers and workers and machines
going beep beep, and there's construction and so the dogs
were gone and we haven't seen them. And this is
four days later, and my my sister in law called, uh,
(21:02):
she called somebody. I don't know if it was animal
control somebody, and we know that. I don't know if
that phone call had something to do with it or
all the action in that.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh okay, yeah, maybe they got rid of him.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yeah, we haven't seen him in four days.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So on that note, just ten minutes ago, I was
on the phone with my new friend Leslie and boker
rattone Florida.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Shout out to Leslie and boker.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Ratone my future ex wife.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Future x wife.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
She I told her that I live in a bit
of a ghetto in North Hollywood and for fifteen years.
Fran would always say, we should start walking, we should
start walking. Yeah, And I never told Fran I never
wanted to get a nervous I don't want to get
attacked by stray pitbull. I just don't walk around my neighborhood,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Oh yeah, pit bulls or dude, if these were pit bulls,
I'd be really scared.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, I mean, what kind of dogs were these?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I'm not sure, but they weren't. I looked up. They
were not Rottweiler's, they were not German shepherds. They were
not pit bulls. Don't know what they were. They were big, though,
and you see their pawprints. Because I see the muddy popper,
I'm like, that's a pretty big freaking It's bigger than
a coffee mug. I mean, it's or just as good
if you put a coffee mug down on.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The dude, I don't even want to hear anymore. Yeah,
how about those mets any more questions about being a cop.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
It's I'm in the movies too.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, we're gonna get to all that, you know. It's funny,
Like you know, they say, put your problems in a circle.
And then after you read everyone else's problems, you'll reach
back for your own problems. You're like, right, I don't
think you're You're like more about this NYPD subway talking
as opposed to.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
No, I just do I I'm telling you as a friend.
Your wife is involved, your son is involved. I know
you're involved. I know this is this is a situation, dude.
I hate to say it. I know you want to
not think about it, but the fact that you're staring
them down and challenging them, like, no, telling them not
Oh they ran past us one thousand feet away.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
No, No, it was dude.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Even the verbiage of us, like his ear went up
and I had my axe handle. What are we doing here? Though?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I know, dude, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I was like I write online how you can fight
him off exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You're supposed to wrap around your sweatshirt and give them
your arm. And then yeah, this is just crazy. My
wife had pepper spray thing too, But I'm like, everyone's
gonna get panicked and the spray is gonna be facing
the wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And by the time that dog's close enough to pepper spray,
he's already running fifty miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I know they said don't run, because you run. A
human being runs fifteen miles an hour and not very long,
and these dogs can go like thirty miles an hour
for forty miles an hour, You're screwed, man.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
But let's talk about Leslie Bella.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Okay, so shout out to you. Know what you just said.
That was interesting, By the way, I remember parking at
your house once in North Hollywood, and I think there
was a stray dog running around, and I was very
nervous because it's one thing if you expect a dog
and you have a weapon, but if you just get
out of your car and there's a dog, you're just
like a where'd that come from? And I was actually
(24:10):
bitten once and and after I got After you get
bit by a random dog, it makes you a little
bit more skittish. But I remember you and I talked
about the random dogs in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
But yeah, I got And I deliver furniture, so I'm
in someone's house that strange his house once or twice
a week, so I've been I've had a lot of
dog incidents and I got bit twice. I got bit
in the back of a calf over little Brayer and Wiltshire,
my little dog, you bit into my calf and then
this really big, like ole massive pit bull coyote chaina
(24:45):
mix and I just put my hand out and he
just bit down on the back of my hand, just
enough to put two holes in my hand. And while
he bit my hand, he looked up to me and said,
I am the captain now. And then the woman tells
me we just got him out of the shelter that day,
like I shouldn't have put my hand out.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Oh shit, like tearful. Drake Nelson asked a question, and
I don't know what if he was joking or if
he's really serious. He asked, what's it like to be
a snitch? Does he mean on the cop side, being
cops being snitches or does he mean criminals being snitches.
I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh I'm not sure. I think he probably means as
a cop. But if you if you had any reputation
that you went to the man behind another cops back,
they really turned on you. I mean, some people got
put into really shitty positions where they had to say something.
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, if it's something minor you're not gonna volunteer like.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
You watched this. I was with a cop named Willie
Rodriguez and he committed a felony while he was with
me on duty and uniform. He committed a felony. So
you know what is I gonna do? Rat him out?
You know what I mean? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Gotcha? Allegedly that was his name, and allegedly it was
I like how you just pulled that name up out
of your creative guy?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, I know I made that up.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
That's good. Now what about this?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Somebody says, oh, yeah, this is our buddy, Jeffrey Peterson.
He knew it was you. When he goes, he gotta
go any questions for a cop, he goes Ozzy Ordo.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, Jeff is a great guy. I love Jeff. He
is U. He knows this. And you know this. I
hate to say it, but I have to listen to
Ronnie James Deo every seven hours like a heroin addic. Yeah,
and Ozzy. I can go twenty four forty eight hours without.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Still it's it's still wow. There's just something about us.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Huh, just hearing that's just something about And dude, you
discover new Ozzy New Dio daily on YouTube. There's just
there's dozens of songs you never heard.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Of, songs and concerts and live.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Performances, everything and interviews.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Here's a good one. Here's a good question. This is
from someone named Flobto. He goes, if it's John Deresta,
which it is, ask him how he would have done
season two of the sitcom DiResta on up. And by
the way, before we go any further, let's tell the
audience you had a sitcom. Okay, so real quick. Let's
catch them up to that real quick, and then we'll
(27:17):
get to Flibido's question. So you're a cop for twelve years.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I was transit for eight NYPD for four total, twelve twelve.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And you're a funny guy. You were like, I want
to be a comedian. I want to do stand up.
Somehow you got into stand up and from stand up,
I want to say you created a one man show.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, so one man show called beat a Subway cops
comedy and the theme of the one man show was
how when you become a civil servant, everyone thinks you're
set for life, but they forget that you have to
work nights, weekends, get divorced, lojah hair, go bankrupt, become
an alcoholic, Like that was the downside, like you mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
And from there, somehow, how'd you get this sitcom? How
do you go from me?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Well, the One Man's Show kind of caught on. It
got good. It was it was it was parts that
were acted, parts that were silent, parts that were directly
to the audience, like a stand up. So it was
like there were oh, there was slides, there was video,
there was it was multifaceted, and so it caught on
and the people from Hollywood started to come look at it,
(28:23):
like casting people.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Dude, that's incredible. When you really, let's slow down and
think about that. You're doing this one man show not
in Hollywood. You're doing it in New York somewhere right
like off Broadway.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Like on forty second Street near all the porno boots.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
So that means it's not even in the mean drag area.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I guess no, it's it was off the beaten path,
like you know, you had to have a helmet to
get to this place.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And somehow, some way they started seeking it out and
looking at it and watching.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It got good reviews in the New York Times, The
Daily News, and and and I started to get on
like a couple of little talk shows about it, and
and there was a buzz, for lack of a better term,
there was a buzz. The next thing you know, Disney's there,
Warner Brothers is there? Even what's his name? Who's the
guy that's in jail for raping everybody? Horvey Weinstein's company.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Harvey Weinstein's company.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Wow, Well, Harvey Weinstein met me in the green room
and I don't want to say, but he touched me
in a bad place. Where's that Jersey City?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yikes?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
No, Horvey Weinstein's Company came, so everyone came, and all
of a sudden, everybody thought I was the next Roseanne,
the next Kevin James, the next Ray Romano, the next
John Belushi on TV, the next Jackie Gleason. And I
got a very big sitcom deal with Disney, and I
resigned the NYPD March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Wow. When you signed a deal is like when a
musician gets a record deal and they're like, sign this
contract and here's a bunch of money, a lump sum
of money.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, there was a couple one hundred thousand bucks involved,
and it was in increments, but I did get the
initial check. I was literally eating cat food. I was
stealing cookies for my kids from the homeless outreach sandwich bags.
That's how broke I was.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So Yeah. I remember, I said, when you found a
lost child and you didn't really even have any money
on your credit card to buy like a dinner or nothing.
So nothing was it was it while to go from
being broke to like, here's sign this contract, you're in
show business.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I got a check for fifty thousand bucks wow, and
paid a lot of debt, paid off a few people
I owed money to, and we rented an Icer house,
we bought an Icer car. Yeah, we were white trash
with money. It was like it was I mean, when
I look back on it, because the money's all gone,
it was kind of like winning the lotto. But I
(30:47):
earned it. I mean, I'm doing a one man show, dude.
That started at eight. This is five, six nights a week.
It started at eight. I said thank you good night.
At nine oh five. I had to be on duty
in the homeless outreach unit. At nine to thirty. Damn,
I had to jump in a car and drive fifty
(31:08):
blocks in Manhattan, and I was late every night, and
everyone knew I was doing an off Broadway play and
they were all pissed at me.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Oh yeah, because they're like, that could have been doing
over there. Yeah, but you did it though. God, that's
you couldn't even really say goodbye to the folks, huh,
because you had to get out of there, can I everybody?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I literally had to run through the lobby some nights,
run past fucking this is from Disney, this is from WHOA.
And then Tom Snyder had me on four times in
one year. Tom Snider was on after Let Him In.
You did a one on one interview for twenty minutes,
twenty five minutes. You had a film.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
That's huge, no audience.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Wow, that was big back then, big now, but it
was huge because there was less options back then. This
is pre social media. This is like a big deal,
damn it.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Not only was it a big deal to be on TV,
but to to you know, if you do the Tonight
Show or Let Him In, it's the seven or eight
minutes sketch, you know, and you know this is twenty
five minutes you got to fill.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay, So Flobido's question, So you went one season and
I guess you'd seven.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You did one season of Duresta. I didn't find it
that funny. And when you sell your TV show idea,
you sell the idea. You have no say at all.
You have no say, no say. There's even been comedians
that sell their life story and they get replaced as
an actor. The lead is someone else.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I've heard of people writing their autobiography and then when
the audiobook comes out, they hire a different person to
read it. Somebody else reads it, like not even their voice.
And especially if it's a comedian, you want to hear
their voice, not like you know.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So season two, if I would add, I would have
just wanted to make the show more wild.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
They Disney bought a New York City transit cop that
hated the job, that couldn't wait to smoke pot and
loved heavy metal and garage sales, and all of a sudden,
on the sitcom this Happy Go Lucky Honey, I found
a wallet. Should we return it? I don't know. Let's
ask the black couple next door. She's a lawyer, he's
(33:07):
an astronaut. They know better than us.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. It was to
clear your conscience. You better return that wallet.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Okay, it was, it was. It was very hokey. It
was fucking it was. It was horseship. I hate to say.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
All right, let me ask you a brutally honest question.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Have you met ye.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh yeah, okay, good good, you're good. We we kind
of already knew that, But okay, brutally on a question.
Have you met people that were not just had seen
this show? It was anybody a fan of the show
where they're like, I love that show. It got me
through hard times? Was it? No?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Very few people. You know, who's the biggest fan and
he's listening. Jeff Peterson was a fan of the rest.
That's cool, Jeff Peterson. Very few people, so much so
that I've never been to a Transit Police reunion. They
have them all the time, Alida showl at Carolina. This
in New York and Florida, all up and down. The
(34:06):
Transit reunion, and these guys they live for it. It's
the only you know, they can't wait to all get together.
So I went to one, and I'll never go again.
It was just I felt I felt like everyone knew
who I was, or a lot of guys did, and
went out of their way to not say hello to me,
like they were gonna show me.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
So you know what, So back to your point, you
must have been right about the show and it's not
your fault. But like not being good, they were creating this.
They were sounds like they wrote a show and created
the show for an audience that didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
It was like this just created an unrealistic like the
sitcoms written by ten guys that wrote on other sitcoms.
And it's all very formulaic, Like I'm doing an episode
and I'm watching according to the gym, and it's the
same episode, you know what I mean? Whatever, it is
the same theme. But oh so watch this. So at
this Transit police reunion only about two years ago, it
(35:00):
is about a good seventy no, no, probably about good
three four five hundred cops. Hey, John Dress, Hey you
remember me?
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
What are you doing here? Do you look to the floor
at California's What do you doing? He eats? So I
go outside to use the cell phone and there's one
guy smoking a cigarette, old Italian guy with a hook nose.
He's eating a cigarette. He goes, you look familiar. I said,
I was on the job. I was Transit he was, wit,
you work as a District one, District thirty four, District
(35:30):
three on Punishment and the homeless outage Unit, the scale Squad.
He was, Wait a minute, you're the guy that had
the fucking sitcom. I go, I am, he goes. Dude.
We laughed every Tuesday morning at how ridiculously stupid that was.
You know that, right?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Oh man?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
See, yeah, it was just hokey. It was. It's hard
to make the New York City Subway look like the
New York City Subway.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yes, that sucks, right, because it's like other other shows
have done a good job at that kind of thing,
and they actually go on to like fame and glory
like uh like is his name Dannis Prino or something?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Or Kevin James and Ray Romano and and Seinfeld are
worth a billion dollars each. Yeah, Or I'm eating cat food.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
And toilet paper soup.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
No I eat cat food, dude, I fry it up
with little garlic and onion.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah. No, I look at no for example, you know,
you look at like, uh like Erica Strata from Chips.
You know, he's always invited like police functions and fun rasing.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
He's been dining out on that credit for fifty years.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
But they love him, and I guess it was I
don't know, it must have been realistic or something. And
there's people that got jobs as cops and they're like,
I love Punch and John Chips. I mean, it's like,
I get that was like a well written show and
it was loved, but right.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
There was something to watch this. Yeah, it had They
had lifts. It lifted people's spirits. It had something that
you can't even explain what it is.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
I know, I bet you there's these people that uh
watched Karate Kid and Cobra Kai and all that kind
of stuff. They probably got in the martial arts because
of that, and I'm sure they've met the stars and
they're like, I got in the martial arts because of you, dude.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
On a lighter note, I did a couple of stand
up shows in Long Island in November, right around Thanksgiving.
And I did two shows at a real club, and
then the Sunday night was at like an Elks club.
It was a benefit for the local football team that
I was on my high school and that night three
different people pulled me to this side and said, I'm funny. Now,
(37:47):
forty years later, because you you taught us how to
be funny, but we was ketch.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Oh so now that's cool. See so that's so.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah. I mean my reach is there, but it wasn't
with the sitcom.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
It was with every thing else.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yeah, and you're in miscongeniality. You're in a movie with
Robert de Niro that no one's heard of, Like, you know,
it's it's weird. How I have you know this? Semi
uh what looks like I hate to use the word fame,
but I've been in for a couple of movies. But
at the end of the day, I'm just a schmuck
from Long Island that eats his toenails.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Gross. If this was Disney, we would cut that out
and have you eating jelly beans.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Instead, Rainbow jelly beans, Rainbow.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Jelly beans and skittles. And then on Tuesday morning, the
other cups would laugh at you. We don't do that.
We don't need skittles.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Oh my god, dude, this guy couldn't wait to eat.
You have to see the smile come over his face. Dude,
you're a guy. You're a guy. With the sitcom. That
thing was fucking ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Dog, Dude, all people want let me. You know what, Guys,
if there's anyone here listening and you want and you
approach a comedian after the show, just tell them they're funny.
Love your show. You're so funny. They don't need anything
else you don't like like I did. I was, I was.
I was on the road recently and it was sold
out and and it was sold out and that's great,
(39:09):
but there there was no green room at this club,
so the only place you could eat was in in
another part of the nightclub, and that's where the people
were waiting to come into the comedy club for the
second show. So I found this little I went. I said, well,
let me sit at the bar, but I'll find a
part of the bar that nobody's at. And dude, you
know they see you. You know you were just in
(39:30):
a sold out show. So I'm eating my steak dinner.
It was really delicious, by the way, and this guy
comes over and he goes, uh, he goes, oh.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Is this how they pay you?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
You do a good show and they give you a
steak dinner? And he could tell I wasn't really in
the mood to talk or joke around, and he goes, oh,
I'm just kidd man, I enjoy your meal. Oh oh right, man,
take it easy. And then like five minutes later, another
guy comes over and he goes, hey, so the faster
you eat, I heard, the funnier you are. Looks like
you looks like you could and be pretty funny tonight.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
It's like, oh my gosh, get away from me, you
know you just you just want that space, Like come on,
give me a green room. Just I just want to
you know what I mean, Like, come on.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, I like sitting in the green room before and
after and during.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, I don't mind. I don't I love talking to people,
but just I just want to eat in privacy. You
don't want to, like, because what happens if you're like
eating you know, green beans, and hey can we get
a selfie? And you get stuff in your teeth? You
just come on, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
And comedy is weird. I don't think we've ever discussed
this out loud. It it puts people into a mood,
whether it's before this show or after a good show,
that you just opened them up, you made them help release,
you help them. So now they're trying to be festive
and funny in their own way, and and they're not sometimes.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah sometimes yeah, sometimes they are. But sometimes it's like.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
But we've all had the racist joke whispered in our
ear by someone that's completely drunk and stinks of alcohol.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. They get touchy
feely onions like dude, stop, you.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Know, well watch this. I don't think I've ever told
anyone this. Every now and then I would do a
homecoming show, and my dad was a real nudge you
know what I mean. A nudge is really John's coming out.
You got to show support. So he's inviting, he's inviting
and not even inviting. He's like forcing aunts and uncles
that are in wheelchairs, you know, like like like forcing them.
(41:35):
So after some of my shows, you know, hey good,
hey good, nice to see you. Hey transit they good,
And then I get someone grab my arm. Tell your
dad I was here. M that's it not you were funny,
you had a good time.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Your dad, get it, Tell him I was here. I
get overtime.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I want to ask you something before we jam. We
got to get we gotta keep it moving. But I
want to thank you for coming on. Okay, So I
found this book, and I've asked the last few guests
about this. This book is from nine. It says nineteen
thirty six. Remember when a nostalgic look back in time?
So this is from nineteen thirty six. What do you
think of a house cost in nineteen thirty six?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Oh, I tell you exactly one thousand, nine hundred and
fifty bucks.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Wrong, you want another guest, it's a lot higher.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Oh, six thousand, seven hundred.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I'll just tell you it is three thousand, nine twenty five. Okay,
here we go. Movie ticket? Do you want to guess?
Or should I tell you?
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Thirty five cents?
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Ooh close, you're you're like the closest twenty five cents.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Average rent in nineteen thirty six sixty five a month,
twenty four dollars. Okay, United States postage stamp one cent. Ooh,
you're really close. Three cents. I remember I was traveling
the country about thirty years ago. I did like these
(43:09):
big college chores. We'd fly across the country, get a
rental van, and go from school to school. I got
to see almost every state except for Hawaii. And I
would mail postcards to my grandparents and I don't know
what stamps were back then, But it wasn't that much.
Neither was the postcard. But somebody told me, they go,
you know, you don't even have to buy a postcard.
You could just get like a recipe card, like an
(43:29):
index card, and as long as you put the address
and you can just make that, you can mail that.
I did it like once, and then I thought, what
am I doing? How cheap am I?
Speaker 2 (43:39):
Like?
Speaker 1 (43:40):
I mean, I'm in these beautiful areas like Vermont and
Maine and Florida, Like, let me just get a normal
postcard from the hotel lobby.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
But yeah, well watch this. I'm so old. I remember
cigarettes being fifty five cents fifty five cents cigarettes and
Saventino's pizza. I worked in the summer of nineteen seventy seven,
two slices an hour. I gained forty pounds in eight weeks, damn.
And and the sign it was a Neon signed it
(44:07):
said slice thirty five cents.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Hmmm, wow, that's cool. I remember.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I remember as a kid, you'd find money on the
ground and you're like, I could actually buy something with that.
Like back when I was a kid, if you found
a quarter, you could go get a candy bar at
the local liquor store.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Then eventually they moved they moved the candy bars up
to thirty five cents.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
When I started drinking at about fifteen, a six pack
of Schmidz was ninety nine cents. Oh wow, yeah Schmidz.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Would you rather know? Do you have any idea what
I didn't even know, like a gallon of milk was
back then?
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Or no? I do know this. I share a workshop
with some Mexican dudes, and they always helped me move stuff,
and they're always they give me food every day, home
cooked Mexican food. So I buy them beer. And I
know that a six pack of Medellos in a can
was eleven bucks today, just a six pack when you're
(45:01):
doing it, twelve pack is eighteen.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yeah, that's okay. I was gonna say, if you put
it into Starbucks terms, that's uh, because Starbucks you can
usually get you know, yeah, that's a pretty good deal.
Like you'd be better off getting them some Medello than
if you brought if you bought them like six lattes
or six Americanos.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
They ain't drinking lattes. Doug all day long, crunching up
cans and throwing bottles in a garbage cell all day
long and they're yelling with tools.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Do they recycle they recycle the cans or they just
throw it away?
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah? Just everywhere. Every way you look, it looks like
there was a looks like they sail is on leave.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
And they're really good woodworkers. They make stuff that you
go in their workshop. Dude, it looks like Jurassic Park.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh. Last question, and this is from my son. He uh.
He wanted to know how did you get in? So
that's what I'm saying. You had these different lives. You're actor,
stand up comic, but first you're a cop and would work.
My son, Austin aka Austin Base Boss, he wanted to
know how did you get into woodworking? Like, how did
that happen? How did you get into that life?
Speaker 2 (46:09):
I grew up in Long Island in a town called Woodmere.
My dad was the local handyman and woodworker. My dad
had a woodworking shop in our basement. So from being
very very very little kids, we started making stuff out
of wood and plexiglass and you know, making bombs and
guns and sake knives. Like we were always tinkering with
(46:29):
woodwork and then and and I saw I was handy
with a soar in the wood and the drill. And
then about thirty years ago, I was just a stand
up canedian and a cop and a security guard. And
we moved to an unusual spot in Central Valley, New York.
(46:49):
And there was a big barn on this property. And
I see this guy coming and going each day, and
I'm like, I don't see what he's doing. So I
went over to the barn, opened the door, and there
was a thousand old wooden planks, and he said, I'll
give you ten bucks an hour. And he taught me
how to make rustic furniture. So Pete vanum Trump this
is his name. He taught me how to make the furniture.
(47:11):
And when I moved to La I had two or
three really good years where I never even thought of
being a woodworker. It wasn't even in my mind. It
was just a part time job I had. And then well,
I went broke out here in Hollywood. Right after nine
to eleven, the phone stopped ringing. I went broke, and
I made my wife. She said, hey, can you make
(47:31):
me just a table for when you walk in the house,
a key table you know, you throw your keys in
your cell phone. Yeah, made her one table. Never ever
ever thought of it as a business. And some old
hag next door tried to give a script to me.
Can you get this to Shandra Bullocks? I said, look,
I haven't seen her in four years. I got my
own problems. Can you get dish to Shandra Bullocks? And
(47:54):
she had a foot in the door. She wouldn't let
me shut the door of my own home. And she
looked over my shoulder and goes, well, did you get
that little handmade crafty table? I said, I made it.
She goes, how much if I wanted one? And it
was about ten bucks worth of wood? I said one
hundred dollars. She said, I'll take two. Let me go
(48:18):
get dude, let me go get the money. I'll pay
you up front.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
And that was it. That was the birth of this business. Whoa,
it's crazy, that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
And I think you just probably got better and better
like any like anybody would. It's something.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Well then I just had to take jobs, you know
what I mean. You get better that you know, any
craft you do over and over and over, and then
you take you know, you stake the job. In other words, Hey,
can you make this cabinet? I've never made one before,
but I need one thousand dollars. Yes, And then you
had to learn how to do it.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
What's the most you ever got in over your head
where they were like, can you make this, this and
this and we'll pay you a lot.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yes, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
A woman wanted a big white fence, like one hundred
feet of like plastic white fence, not wood. You know
how you buy the you know the sections? Yeah, and
you got to dig them into the ground. Yeah, and
that's not the hard pot. Then there was like a gate,
like a huge, swinging plastic gate, and she gave me
(49:17):
fifteen hundred bucks up front. And when I went and
looked at it and realized I have no idea what
I'm doing, I had to get I didn't have the
money to get back. Yeah, dude, I had to pay
her off. She let me pay her off like two
hundred bucks a month for like a year. But there's
been a few like that. So now, dude, all I
do is make benches and tables. That's it.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
That's cool. So you got it down well, John, thank
you for coming on the Pocket Party podcast, and you
guys thank you for listening. Do us a favorite. Tell
at least one friend, Tell one friend or maybe two,
maybe two, and leave a comment no matter how you're
listening to this, gone over to my YouTube channel, leave
a comment on my YouTube channel on this episode and uh,
(49:59):
lets me know care and it helps the algorithm. John,
did you have something to say?
Speaker 2 (50:03):
No, I was just gonna say tonight was a fantastic night.
I spoke to my new friend Leslie and Florida shut
out Toli on FaceTime and it wind up we was
gonna be one minute, wind up being about an hour
and we had a lot of laughs. We're both from
Long Island. We both sound like we're totted.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Nice and uh so uh between talking to her and
then talking to you tonight, it's a fun night.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Nice dude, Thank you so much. Pass this episode over
to Leslie and uh and shut out to Leslie and
you said Boca ratone boker.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Tone Florida, Leslie, and also shout out to Darren Carter.
If there's one comedian that's helped me over the last
three or four years since my wife went to the
big flea market in the sky, it's been Darren Carter.
One thousand percent.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
May dude, thank you, buddy, thank you, and hey, don't
forget my son Austin. He curated that theme song for you. Man.
He played it for me the other day and I'm like, damn,
that's bad ass. You gotta you got to keep putting.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It out there. I'm I'm his biggest fan.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Man that metal. Oh and he's he's writing a song.
He wrote a song a long time ago. He's only seventeen,
but he's been working on it and working on it,
and every time he's adding little pieces and little guitar
solos and this other it's called well, I don't know
if I should say what it's called, but it's He
played it today and I'm like, dude, this is sounding good.
It's like really good. He's harmonizing with themselves and doubling
the vocals and oh good.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
You know, I don't know, I know he's got that.
You should be very proud because I have a son
and two daughters, and I know to raise a kid
is not easy and to keep them on the straight narrow.
He's a he's a great kid.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
We should be very happy.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
I am. We you know, it's funny. I started out
getting him to do push ups and sit ups and everything,
and and now you know, I'm doing my daily one
hundred push ups. But he's got me beat on that.
He's like, I'm you know whatever, I could. I could
brag about him all night. But anyways, Hey, John, thank
you so much and congrats on everything. And we'll do
another one soon. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
You got you in touch with yourself.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
All right, buddy, look at you. You made it all
the way through Pocket Party Podcast. It's my favorite podcast,
Pocket Party Podcast. Remember that theme song. Uh love you
guys so much. If you want to help me out,
do me a favor and check out my link tree
and uh, I think there's some donate buttons on there.
(52:22):
You can hire me for cameo. I do personalized celebrity videos.
I'll do shout outs for you. If it's somebody's birthday
or anniversary, I'll do some I like my women like
I like my I'll do them for you, and I'll
save the person's name and all that good stuff. All right, guys,
have a great rest of your day, and thanks for
letting us be a part of it. Darren Carter Party
Starter see you soon. I'm coming to Atlanta. I'm coming
(52:45):
to Oxnard, I'm coming to San Jose. Love you, everybody.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Listen to Darren Carter. We all know he's the party starter.
So it you want to listen to a podcast for free,
listen to The Pocket Party
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