November 10, 2024 • 58 mins
In this episode, I get to know actor Rick Daniels. Come hang out in the lounge and hear his story!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
The whole point is the share on here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right. Embarrassed the out of yourself
to keep the conversation, you know.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
The post and you're doing your friend job on what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome back to JG's Lounge. I'm your host jukebox, and
we are back with another episode of Stardom. And uh,
you know, I can guess tonight Dan in fact, you know,
Daniel fact. Sorry, I messed it up already already. You
might as well cancel me right now. We got Rick Daniels.
Rick Daniels with us tonight. You know, I apologize right
(00:43):
off the bat. I told you just watched it within
a minute of the show.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, you are forgiven, my son, what.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Way to start it off? I do apologize. So Rick Daniels, Uh,
you know, we've we talked about a year ago, and
I don't know what happened either. I obviously got distracted
and we never stayed in contact. And then I meet
Kyle Mint and he's like, hey, I got a guy
that you should talk to. And I find you on
a messenger and I'm like, oh, I already talked to
(01:13):
this guy a year ago. What happened. So how you doing? Man?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Doing fine? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
You know, I'm a little disappointed at myself because we
literally talked about this before we went live, and I
still messed it up. So but other than that, I'm
good man, I'm doing all right. Have you been in
Kansas City your whole life?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Since? I was about nine? Born in Saint Louis, Missouri,
lived in Alton, Illinois for a few years and went
to Jefferson City kindergarten through third grade, and after that
we came to Kansas City and I've been here ever since,
except for when I was in the military. Yeah. About that, Yeah,
(02:01):
that was about it.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right. So, so you're you're a Midwest.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Liberty Liberty Missouri for five or six years? No, twelve?
Uh huh about six years.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I feel like Liberty, Missouri is kind of part of Kansas.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
City, right kit area? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I mean you probably traveled a lot though, right, I mean,
you're you're a Midwest guy, but you've done a lot
of traveling.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, I uh, I had a job for about eight
and a half years, or I was in a career
for eight and a half years. I had several jobs,
but where I traveled throughout the units, you know, I
was in every one of the lower forty eight as
a seminar leader.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So okay, So, so what's a little bit of your
like upbringing. I mean, before we kind of get into
the career path you chose, you know, with the acting
and some of the burlesque. You know, you hosted burlesque
shows as well, which we can kind of talk about.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But they have performed in Browiss shows.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I didn't know, Oh you performed. Oh okay, so you
didn't just host. How'd you get into that kind of stuff?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Like?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
What led up to being interested in that?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well? Uh, actually I kind of always thought it might
be fun to be an actor or some kind of performer.
But like in high school, you know, they always had
the plays in the spring, but I was wrestling. I
wasn't a good wrestler, but I was a wrestler, and
(03:38):
you can't be a wrestler and be in the spring
play too, so you know, so I put that on
hold for many, many years. And then I was nineteen
ninety three I saw something in the local paper or
(03:58):
someplace that they were having auditions for some local film
at Kansas City Library, and I didn't even get off
work that evening until I got off work and got
over there, and everybody's walking out. So he said, well,
it looks like I missed it. And the producer, director, writer,
(04:23):
he said, look, and I ran into him. I encountered him,
and he was on the way out. He said, look,
everybody wants to be in this thing, but nobody wants
to do any work. Nobody wants to help me with it.
So if you will be on one of my crews
when we filmed this thing, I will find some way
to put you into the film at some point during
(04:46):
the production of it. I said, okay. So I worked
on the lighting crew and was a production assistant. Essentially,
I coined the term or the phrase or the titled
zombie wrangler because I kept I kept tabs of the zombies,
(05:07):
and you know, like people they'll have like a horse
wrangler or a rat wrangler or whatever on a film set. Well,
I was one of the zombie wranglers. And I introduced
that idea to him and he said, hey, yeah. And
I actually was one of the first people, I guess
in the whole world credited at the end of a
(05:27):
film as a zombie wrangler. And that was ninety three
and fled Bath. That was my premiere performance.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And didn't you also play it like it? Weren't you
also a sergeant in that film as well?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well? Well, yes, I was Sergeant Romero and that was
in homage to George Romero. See, and they had Lieutenant Foultschie.
I guess Folkshi was a big Italian horror filmmaker, and
so we had Lieutenant Foultsch and I was Arginal Marrow
(06:02):
and yeah, I thought it was just gonna be an extra,
but actually I got one line. Let's see, sir, the
radiation levels too high. We have to evacuate the facility.
And with that, I am hitting the face with radioactive,
radioactive cosmic dust and melt down on screen.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And I saw that. I've seen that scene that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
At the beginning of the film, and it's it's actually
mentioned in a review I've referred to as melting man.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So what was what was what did you have on
your face?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Like?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
What was that using down your face?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
That was a combination of margarita mix and margarita mix.
It tasted pretty good and uh, I think flour and
water and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You just.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It actually looks like somebody's pouring something over my head,
which is what's happening, but it's supposed to be all
my flesh is melting, and that's that.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's funny. I always like asking those kind of questions
because I've had a lot of like musicians and bands
on and then we talked about like music videos and stuff,
and whenever they use stuff like stage blood or anything,
it's crazy to hear like what they actually used.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, well, they did a lot of improvisation with props
and everything and makeup in this because you know, a
very low budget. And I'll tell you for some of
the scenes where they're eating the guts and stuff that's
real guts. He would go to butcher shops and so forth,
(07:40):
and you know, it's the middle of summer. It was
one hundred degrees and this stuff would be in the
trunk of the car, you know, maybe all day and
they'd be and he'd say to the people, do not
do not actually put the stuff in your mouth, because
it would be smelling by the time they pulled it
out of the trunk. I'm surrobabed somebody didn't die from that.
(08:04):
But yeah, when you see the gut munching those are
real guts, most of them. Now, some of them, the
ones they put in their mouths that was rubber, but
a lot of them it was real, like pig guts
and cowguts and everything. And boy did it smell too.
(08:24):
So we had a lot of fun with that one.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well. And you've also kind of been like you've been
through the changes of like film too, through like the
technology advances, because nineteen ninety three, I mean, internet wasn't
really even acknowledged and CGI and effects weren't really that
big of it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Those are all practical effects in there. You know, there's
no all the blood's reeal something and the guts are
real something and yeah, I don't think any of that
is CGI in that zombie blood.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Bath, right. I didn't try to up and I finally
got the picture. What is what is this right here?
Is this one of the burlesque shows?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Oh yeah, well that's that's not when I was in.
That is Kat Kimmitz and her beautiful mother, Amy Gosh.
I just forgot Amy's last name. And she's just as
gorgeous as as her daughter and kad is. She's still
working as she's in New York City. She's one of
(09:26):
the and she's danced in London and everything, and she
was Kansas City's Queen of Burlesque and guys, I can't remember.
I want to say twenty twelve maybe, but yeah, I
mean she's she's she's pretty big. She's kind of international really,
and she's she's got a big presence on the internet. Yeah,
(09:48):
she's got a Facebook page and website and all that.
And yeah, she's she's an excellent dancer. I mean, she's
she was a dancer, dancer. You know a lot of
those trippers, you know, they're not quote just strippers, I
mean they are dancers. They're professional dancers. And a cat
she can do taps, she can do she can do
(10:09):
it all.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And how did you really? Honestly, I guess the biggest
question for me is what exactly is a burlesque show? Like,
what's I don't really understand what it is.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, burlesque is a well, I want to say it's
an American art form. But they had a lot of
burlesque like shows in England for years and it's kind
of a I think it kind of developed from Vaudeville,
although Vaudeville people kind of look down upon burlesque. I
(10:50):
guess the heyday of burlesque was like in the thirties
and forties. Maybe, uh, but the movie Gypsy is really
kind of a and idealized to look at Burlesquez is
the Night they raided Minsky's. I don't know if you
ever saw either of those. Gipsy or The Night they
Raided Minsky's is really great because they used some of
(11:13):
the actual old burlesque bits. If you get a chance,
that'll give you a flavor of it. But a real
burlesque show, traditional one. They had strippers, but in the
beginning it was, like I said, it was kind of
an evolution or devolution of burless which was a variety show.
(11:36):
They had singers and dancers and jugglers and all kinds
of variety acts, but it seemed like the strippers brought
in the people more so the emphasis started to shift.
And I don't know when that happened, but they kept burlesque.
They always had comedians, and I started out I wanted
to be a burlesque comic, like fifty years too late,
(12:00):
and actually, uh, who I think Red Skelton was a
blessed comic. Red Buttons was a less comic. Bur Laura
was a burless comic. I think Melton Burrow was in
burlest Phil Silvers was for sure a Bless comic. So
a lot of these guys got to start in burlest
(12:21):
back in the day. And now Neil Burlesque is not
so much. Uh uh, they don't do much traditional Burless
comedy a few of the shows. I was just in
a few shows, uh and uh. In most of them
I do. I do burlesque comedy bit, and then I
also do my kind of novelty strip act, which was
(12:46):
Charles Chip, Nelson, Dale, Chip and Dale. Get it, Charles
Chip Dale, world's oldest mergen well built, uh, world's oldest
marginy well built male exotic dancer. And I started that
at sixty six, so I couldn't say, oh, because I
(13:07):
knew a guy who was older. I sure as hell
couldn't say best built. So I said, marginally well built
male exotic dancer. How the oldest one of those?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And well, any you mentioned doing comic bits, is it difficult?
Because you know, when I talked to comedians, which I've
had quite a few on, they talk about kind of
trying to work the crowd. But you mentioned how like
a lot of the strippers are the ones kind of
bringing in the crowd. So was it more difficult being
a comic on a burlesque show to try and keep
(13:40):
the crowd entertained?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Well, the shows I actually did were really very limited
to one venue actually, and that crowd was an older crowd,
and they were very appreciative. It was at the Eagles
Lodge over in Independence, and the woman who had was
(14:04):
the producer of the show, and she's still producing burlesque
and all kinds of things. Jamie Lynn or Anie May
Allure is her stage name. She's really a good actress.
I mean, she's been at all the little local theaters,
she's been at the New Theater and more legitimate type
(14:25):
productions and everything. But she's a burlessed producer and an actress,
and she's got a degree, I think in theater. And
she had that venue for a couple of years, and
the ones she hired me for were all at that venue,
and I think the average age is probably forty five
or fifty, and they were kind of appreciative of the
(14:48):
kind of hokey type of burlesque humor that I would do,
which was which was really typical of traditional burlesque now,
Neil ask Neil meaning new they don't really have those
types of blessed skits very much at all. They might
have a stand up comic or something. And I've done
(15:11):
stand up at those Burless shows too, but I've done
stand up. And then this was like sketch comedy, and
then also did a little novelty strip act, so and
then I wanted to do that. I contacted the producer
of the Florida Burless Festival and I tried to sell
(15:31):
her on the idea of doing some sketch comedy and
she says, well, we don't really do that kind of show,
but I would be interested in chip. You know, you
do what you want. So I was there. I went
down there and everything fell into place for that show.
I mean, my golly, I got I had a free
flight on Southwest because you know, I had that card
(15:54):
you pay sixty five dollars a year for and save
up points, and I had enough to get me down
to Fort Lauderdale is where they had it. I found
really inexpensive lodging in this place that the very next
week they doubled the rates. I don't know what was
I guess the fate smiled upon me. Then I got
(16:15):
a rental car for like everything included all the little
crappy add ons and stuff. We had a rental car
for twelve bucks a day for everything.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Tell me how that happens. This was in like, I
guess his team, you know, And so I met some
people I'm still friends with on Facebook. We had our
wrap party for the festival at my Ki, I think,
which is the world's biggest and at one time was
(16:51):
the best, world's biggest and rated the world's best tiki
bar as tiki bars go. I'd never been to a
tiki bar and started out at the biggest and best
in the world. So it was wonderful that. Uh, Like
I said, it all fell into place.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
That day, right, And you mentioned, you know, staying in
contact with people on Facebook, and earlier we talked about
sort of the evolution of the technology and this kind
of stuff, and how do you feel about social media?
Did you like it? Do you utilize it for work?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well? I do not utilize well for work. I have
gotten actually, uh yeah, I've gotten some some parts in
films right off Facebook. Actually the best, uh the best
acting job I ever got I got off Facebook. Also
got uh. I think it was on Facebook that I
(17:50):
actually became a standardized patient over at the Young Casey's
School of Medicine. I think of that on Facebook too,
So I guess I do use it for work, because
the only work I do anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, you're retired now, but you know he's looking at
these stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah. I'm essentially a techno folk, so you know, to
do anything with a computer is a is a big
thing for me. I know Kyle told you about that film.
We were both in an animated film, The bel Afair.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I got a little picture right this one right here.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, And when they said we're switching in, we're gonna
we're gonna do everything on uh you know where you're
going to tape yourself and that just, man, that struck
fear into my heart. I almost dropped out, but I thought, man,
you know, I've done all this memorization and it's going
(18:54):
to be a really cool project. So I'm going to
give it a try. And they had this line. I
think you the line producer and his name escapes me,
but that man should be sainted. He he he said,
you call me anytime. He says, unless I'm asleep, I'm here.
At my desk and you just call me. And he
(19:15):
was the most patient, saintly person in the world, and
he helped me get through everything. And my phone wouldn't
do what they did, so they actually sent me a
phone that I had to mail back and forth. And
when I finally got all my stuff done, I had
a couple of sleepless nights because I thought, man, they're
going to make me do it over again. And the
(19:36):
feedback I got from him was they said, this is
exactly what we want and I go, oh yeah. And
it was because of him that I got it right right.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
So yeah, and Kyle mentioned like it wasn't just lines,
it was like look at this angle, look at this thing.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, they send you everything. It's like stage directions and
you had to kind of figure it out. And just
like Kyle I said, I was down in my basement too.
I had a I didn't have a green stream. I
had a blue screen that was made out of a
shower curtain. Uh you yeah, you just walked through the stuff.
(20:13):
But what was really you know, you talked about the
miracle of technology. Even if you came in from the
wrong direction, say think it somehow, turn it around and
make it come out right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So I do. I do it all the time.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I make a lot of clips and stuff from my
shows and the way technology. I literally like I'll stream
the show like this on my laptop. But everything else
I do for my cell phone, every other bit of
my editing and everything I do on my phone.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
That stuff amazing me. My hat's off to you. If
I had a hat on, it would be off to you.
Uh yeah, I mean I can send email. And I
did what he told me to, so it worked out
right otherwise.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So I got a couple more pictures. Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh. The process is called rotoscope animation, by the way.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Oh it's really what is it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I'm not sure what that is. I tried to read
the description of it, but I just remember it was
rotoscope animation.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, I mean, I saw like the trailer for it
on YouTube. There's like a trailer for it, so it
might not be on YouTube, but I saw like a
little trailer from it from Kyle and it's pretty impressive,
like especially the fact that everybody was placed into the
scenes like you were just in your basement.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It's all filmed remotely and then they somehow merged them.
It was amazing to me. And that can be seen,
by the way, on Amazon Prime. You can rent that
on Amazon Prime and it's available on DVD.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So, and I'm guessing you probably watched it a few
times or at least once.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Well, I watched it the premiere night. I'm I'm going
to get a v DVD of it.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You DVD? What is that? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, I want a d v D because I have
a DVD player, right, I understand how to make it work, So.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I want dv I remember growing up and my grandma
had one of those like classic car VHS rewinders. Yes,
my kids have no idea. Yeah, she had a VCR
(22:35):
and then she had like really one of the little rewinders.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, so you didn't wear out your v c R.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah yeah, yeah, all right, So I took some pictures
of some of the other roles that you did. But
before we kind of get into them, how about I
play the trailer from your IMDb page. Sure, all right,
here we go.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's the insurance. They won't cover you anymore. We have
to stop cheme on by midnight. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I got a bullet for every one of your batter.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Come on, it was the rose that died, mar Rose,
the one that withered from our pose. She blew knocked
a flower and then died in the late hour, buried.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Beneath a tray, a name rose, a mellow d.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
And again that was just divine intervention that led me
to the calling that I pursue now. I want to
help other people, especially young ladies, written themselves of their
sins and tread the paths of righteousness.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
Let me show you just how handy as an interrogation tool.
You see, this is pretty handy. And the beauty of
it is the trauma dispersed. See, there's not even hardly
a bark. Now you want to see it again if
you must, captain. But Bob is watching it.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
He will not forget this. Take a look at this, Bob.
I read an article he wrote on that body integrity
disorder thing. He's already operated on three or four patients.
You call him, don't be a dumbass, have a nice day.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Is that something you pieced together?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
That's something that somebody I worked with who moved to
Chicago and was putting together reels, and it was it
was just starting out, and so he was giving people
a real good rate to do that and I said,
do it for me. Yeah, and he did it for me.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It turned out good. I mean, you've played. I think
one thing that I really took away from that is
how different some of these roles are that you played.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, I've played some different ones. I don't know if
you have some of my little character pictures up there,
those are I don't know if Yeah, that's al Dente.
That's the owner of an Italian restaurant in a film
that is in post production right now called The Wish Fish.
(25:42):
And I'm the owner of the Italian restaurant. The guy
takes his dream rule too, Okay? Who the fish brought me?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
For some reason, when I see this image, I think
of Ratatuwey. Have you ever seen Ratatuwey? Nope, it's an
animated film about a chef. For some reason, it just
reminds me of that.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, I think that's good. I think that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That is a good thing. It is not a whole
lot of pref as far as like wardrobe, right, I mean,
other than the mustache, but the character, what was your
character like?
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It was just he owned the restaurant and he had
to be not only the host, but he also had
to be the waiter because Tony didn't show up again.
You know, he's my sister's kid. What can I do anyway?
What can I bring you? You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
That's good. I like that. I've worked in a lot
of restaurants. I actually went to culinary school and graduated
with a degree in the school, and I ran restaurants
for a while. And it's.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
When people don't show up. Then right now you're doing everything.
You're cleaning up the toilet. That's you know, some asshole
plugged up, you know what I mean. And then you
gotta go cleaned up and then do the fini you know.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
So what, Yeah, that's perfect. Man. The accent's great. See,
I can't do accents. I'm terrible in accents.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
One of the things that do.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Next step, what we got here?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Oh, that is the bartender in a film called Protege Mois.
That was very That's a Robbie Lopez production. And uh,
I was the little sidekick, not in that character. I
had a full face mask. I played two characters in
that that's that's the bartender and the little character that
(27:48):
I play is a little deformed character and he's the
sidekick of the vampire King played by rocker Richie Ramon. Okay,
Richie was the vampire king in that, and I was
his little sidekick almost all through the production.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So zombies vampires, I mean it's gotta be such a
change of like scenery between these films. You know, you
do something in the basement, you got stuff using on
your face and zombies. Then you're the assistant of a vampire.
I mean you're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Oh yeah, well that's what's fun. You get to do
all these things, man, I mean I love.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
It is there. Like, did you take acting classes to
kind of get to the point that you're at.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Well, I've taken some acting classes. I took Brian Cuttler's
course at the Actor's Commercial Actors Studio. I think it's
called he went back to Hollywood, but it's run by
Daniel Coppo now and then Andy Garrisons Andy, I think
(29:03):
it's Andy Garrison. I took a little bit from him.
I took a movement course with Beth Bird. I got
some coaching from Peter Wise, who's a fantastic acting coach.
They brought him in from Hollywood. It was like a
two day boot camp and It was great that guy.
You know, there are a lot of people call themselves
acting coaches and their acting coaches because they call themselves
(29:25):
acting coaches. But this guy, Peter Wise, is the real deal.
I did something. He said, Okay, now try this and this,
and I did it. It is like doubly as good
as it was before. You know, I mean, that's that
guy is. And yeah, I'm not easily impressed, but I
was impressed by that guy. And then I took some
(29:47):
improv stuff from Second City. I actually went on a
tour and they were part of the entertainment, but they
put on a little workshop and so I went to
it a lot of fun, learned some stuff, and I
did some other improv stuff with the guy whose name
I can't recall. But it wasn't really improv for like
(30:09):
comedy like you see whose line is it? Anyway, it
was like just really being in the moment for your character,
even with scripted stuff. That the key to improv as
far as I understand, and I mean, you can take
all kinds of courses, but basically the thing is to
focus on the other person. Don't think about what you're
(30:30):
going to say, focus on what they're saying and what
you need to say is going to come out right.
That to me was what I took away from all
that improv stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Right. I had a actor on recently and he told
me that, like during like casting, sometimes you could do
like a great job, but the person who you're like
auditioning in front of might not like the colone that
you're wearing or something, and something as simple as that
can can turn you away.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
It can be or I had an audition once and
a guy told me, he said, well, you know, the
guy I'm gonna ended up hiring wasn't the best way.
I mean, this guy and I know liked me because
he gave me a ticket to the show and asked
me to come back and everything, but then he didn't
(31:22):
hire me. And he said, well, the guy ended up
hiring wasn't really the best one I saw, but I'm
gonna need him for another show after this, and if
I didn't hire me, he'd have gone someplace else that
he wouldn't have been available. So also, you can do
a great job, but you might not have the look
(31:45):
that fits the film. Now, I had a deal. I
went to an audition once and I mean these people
were gushing best we ever saw, YadA, YadA, YadA, And
they wrote to me after a lot of times, if
you don't get the part, you don't hear anything. But
he said you had a great interview, he loved you.
Unfortunately we cannot offer you apart and that struck me
(32:07):
as odd. But then I saw the film and the
guy they had in the part that I'd auditioned for.
He did great job too, but he had a look
that fit the film. I don't know, you know, it's
hard to articulate. Everybody said this guy though you know,
(32:27):
it is what.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
It is, right, Yeah, And I never thought of that
as like an aspect of being turned down. I mean,
there's just some things you don't think about.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, it can be anything, or like you say, they
might not like your cologne, or they might have a
friend's friend. You know, it can be anything. And you know,
you go in, you do your best. And I've had
Oh that's when I'm the I'm the only small town
(33:01):
veterinarian who is a bit more than he seems.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Oh, what what role is? What film is this in?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
That's in Robbie Lopez's River Beauty. Mm hmm. It seems
like a lot of people are disappearing. Who can who
can figure that one out? I think from the Black wadoon.
So that's good.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That's a good image. And I'm guessing that's not a
real cat.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
No it's not. But I fell in love with it
anyway and brought it food and never ate it. But
that's a great little stuff cat.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Though, Right, what else you got here? Sorry? I got
notifications that pop up here and then I mean, you know,
there's a lot of stuff going on on my end,
but okay, this is no that's there's a lot of
great roles that you've play. Like I said, you've been
all over the place.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I do my own makeup too. Oh that's another Robbie
Lopez film. I'm a homeless guy in that, believe it
or not. It was so funny. I got out of
the car and he says, you look terrible. I said,
isn't that what you wanted? He says, yeah, yeah, and
(34:24):
you notice it. I do teeth in most of them,
and that probably has due with I was a dental
hygiene specialist when I was in the army.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So oh, okay to.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Do so yeah, that that was in born to raise
hell And that's actually a film that is based on
the Richard spec murders back in I think the sixties. Yes,
those like six nursing Students or whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yes, I don't it wasn't recent. But I do listen
to a lot of other podcasts, some true crime, and
I do remember listening to an episode about him.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, it was back in the I think the sixties,
and this this guy wasn't even really part of all that,
but he was just there for dramatic license or dramatic
effect in the film. And that was actually my first
role with Robbie Lopez. I've done several things since. Robbie's
just a whot to work with and we get along
really well. He'll basically give me the character and give
(35:25):
me some basic lines and let me do what I want.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So right, do you do you find that there's a
certain group of casts or directors that you work with
better than others.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Well, I sure work well with the ones who hired me.
But yeah, I I you know, I get out there
to do a job, and I I don't think I've
ever really had a problem with any director on a film.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
How about cast?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Have you?
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Have you had, like worked with anybody? And I like
to ask this, and you know I have to answer,
But has there ever been like somebody that you were
working with on set that you didn't like that you
kind of butted heads with, maybe as far as like
how the acting was going.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
No, not really. One time I was in one film
and there's some some young girl. She said, you stepped
on my lines? I said, did I She said yes.
I said, jeez, I'm sorry. But that's the only thing
I remember. I mean, you know, usually, at least it's
been my experience. Everybody's there and we're there to do
a job and have a good time, and we pretty
(36:39):
much do. Yeah, right, I love.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well. And I've heard that that can be kind of
a part of it with with some people get they
like come on as extras or it's like their first time.
They don't realize that sometimes you're gonna be here twelve
thirteen hours and they kind of get irritable, and sometimes
that can affect the said.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Oh, you know, I'm sure that happens, but I not
that I've been on. I mean, I was on one
where I was just we were really cold and we
were all getting a little bit crabby. But then they,
I don't know, they started a fire or something. So
it was you know, and I will say, you know,
I have, well this one film, I did this ready,
(37:23):
I God, I love those people. It's uh gee yes,
Jen Jen Frank Clinky and Jennifer Jin Clinky Dressler and
(37:45):
thank you or their last names. They're wonderful and I
love working for them. And had the best food of
he said, I've ever been on, whether it's a big
Hollywood production or anything. I don't know how they did it,
but they did it fine, and everybody was really super
nice and and uh and that was their first film
and it came out great. They had the big premiere
(38:06):
at the Folly Theater and that's always been a dream
on my mind to be at stage at the Folly
for burlesque that used to be a big burlesque theater.
And that didn't happen. But I got on screen at
the Folly, so that's almost as good.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
And what was that shot at the Renaissance Festival.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
A lot of the scenes were yes, right, we just
we shot around people and if somebody came by and
they had on a really neat costume, they'd say you
want to just walk through this scene? And the person
said yes, he said, here sign this, and they were.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
In the movie.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
So it was just a lot of fun, real democratic,
real funny. If you get it. If you like Renaissance
festivals especially, you're going to love that.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I mean, actually, I can walk to that festival, that Renfest.
I live right down street.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Oh wow cool? Okay, Yeah. Much of it was filmed
right at the right at the Renaissance Festival. And they,
from what I understand, the Renaissance Festival administrators were just
super receptive to to Gin and everybody to them doing
their film there and it worked out great. And they
(39:22):
had that had been in their minds for years and
in the Pandemic team, and boy, that was an opportunity
for me and they got together and did it.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Makes Yeah, it's the way to do it. I do
have two more scenes here. What's this one?
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Well, that's from a little short called I Want to
Say Killing with Kindness, and basically it's about a serial
killer and I'm the dispatcher. I'm actually I'm actually a
police officer who is injured, and so they put him
(40:05):
to work as a dispatcher because he's like six months
before retirement and they don't want to just let him
go because then he'll lose his pension, so he's I mean,
that's the I have backstories for all my characters, almost
even if I'm just so anyway, that's the backstory on
this guy. And they're calling in about this serial killer,
(40:26):
and I'm saying, is this some kind of a joke. Look,
I don't have time for this. I got real people
with real problem but really they're dealing with a serial killer.
That was a real cute little work I don't think
in any place. But I got a good picture out
of it. So what are you going to do? And
we had fun?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah? And actually that's other things like I've heard that
sometimes people will be cast and then like their scenes
aren't even actually on the film. Sometimes all that happens
all the time.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, Sometimes you'll even see somebody with a recognizable name
and it says credit only, and that usually means their
scenes were cut.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
What I mean, what's do you have any idea what
the deciding factor is on that? Like that just didn't fit.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
There can be many deciding factors. One thing can be
the length, you know, if it's running too long and
they have to get rid of something like that. The
belle Afair I was in two scenes. Both of the
scenes are really good scenes, but the very best scene
was cut, and it was cut for two reasons. One
(41:41):
was length and the other. And this is what I
was thinking, even when I was filming it, said, I
don't see how this is that relevant to the story.
And when I thought, Elijah Watson is the guy's name,
who is the saintly guy who helped me through this.
I was talking with him and I said, my best
scene is go oh, and he says, yeah, it was
(42:02):
a question of length. You know, we were running too long.
Plus we really just couldn't you know, in retrospect, we
couldn't see how that scene really fit in very well.
And I said, you know, I was thinking the same thing. Yes,
but it was a great speech. One of the things
about that belafair, at least my lines, most of them,
(42:24):
I researched the character. These these characters are real historical figures,
and most of my lines actually came from the trial
transcripts from like seventeen fifty three. Wow, eighteen fifty three
and then eighteen fifty three.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, I mean that's still just the historical factor behind.
That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, And like I said, I was reading my lines.
I said, these guys gave me the best lines in
the world. Well, it was from the character that I played,
who was real. It was a renowned lawyer back in
those days, and he was also kind of infamous. I mean,
this guy William William H. Bradley, I think, are we Yeah,
(43:11):
that is very familiar. Yeah, well there's also a toy company,
so don't get them confused. But uh yeah, this guy
actually beat up a judge. I mean, he was a
wild man, but he was he was brilliant and they
said he never lost a criminal case. So but anyway, yeah,
(43:32):
I thought, man, these guys are brilliant. They wrote me
these great lines. Well they adapted the great lines from
the actual trial transcript, so that was good. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
So did you kind of go on a rabbit hole
and do quite a bit of like history digging into that?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
I well, for that one, I did. I just I
was interested in the character and I had never you know,
I wasn't familiar with these freedom suits. I mean there
was a whole body of law and so forth that
a case law that came out of the freedom suits,
and that is where these slaves had been promised their
freedom or whatever. This is before slavery was abolished, before
(44:12):
the Civil War. And and but the you know, in
the case of the belofare at least the trial that
where I represent the slaves. What had happened was the
slave owner had promised mister Bell and his family their
(44:34):
freedom and then he dies. And the wife says, and
these weren't rich people. These were the people with like
a couple of slaves, you know. And the wife says,
uh uh, this is all I've got. This, these these
slaves are my entire assets. You know, you think slavery
is terrible, but it's you know, we're talking about a
(44:55):
long time ago, and the world was different. And she says,
I'm not giving these people up because they're the only
thing I have. They're the only items of value. And
that's you know, they were commodities. They're the only thing
I have that's worth anything. And so she went to court.
I'm not going to tell you how it comes out.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, don't tell me. We got to watch it, Oh.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yes, please do please rent it. And Kyle mentioned he thought,
I still think it's going to get on PBS or
b E T or something someday, because it's a very
good film and it's historically accurate, it's relevant everything.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah, that's and then the fact that there's a lot
of history behind it kind of makes it that much
more intriguing to watch.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Well yeah, oh, like I say, it's it's all historical.
And who knew. I didn't even know that Francis Scott
Key was an attorney. Oh that's from a movie called
The Brutal Nine and the Brutal nine are you t
(46:00):
l nine? And that is a super secret, super high
security prison that a guy in filtrates, and uh, I
actually play the kind of the right hand man of
the Irish gangster who runs things and he has to
(46:22):
get not the main guy, but he has to get
somebody else out of that prison for some reason. But anyway,
I have to go because I'm a hitman and I
I take care of business. You know.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Have you gotten the opportunity to shoot blank like a
prop gun?
Speaker 5 (46:43):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Well that was a prop gun, but it was all
cgi to make the little muzzle flash.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Okay, they have, I know, they have like the ones
that shoot blanks you know.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, yeah, but since that thing with what's his face?
Even even on some of the big shows I've seen it,
they're using CGI and very poorly that I was watching.
I think the equalizer and those muzzle flashes were like
a half inch above the muscle of the gun. I thought, oh,
(47:18):
they've got They've got hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
They can't. I've been in productions that costs like five
thousand dollars and they got the muzzle flashes better.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
We've gone through all these roles and all these things
that you've done in your life, which is very impressive.
What was probably one of the hardest roles that you
would say you had to prep for.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Man, Well, I don't memorize things well, so anything that
has a lot of memorization is just well, I say that.
But and I've done things where I've shown up. There
was one I showed up to be an extra and
one of the leads didn't make it and I end
(48:08):
up doing his part and did it fine. So I
guess when I'm under pressure, I can do it. But yeah,
anything that involves a lot of memorization, I guess that's
the biggest challenge. But I mean I get into all
these roles. I mean I really get into all these roles,
and so it's fun it's I'm not really one for challenges,
(48:34):
but that's one kind of challenge. I do kind of
like see what you can do.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
The under pressure kind of kind of feeling.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Well, just just different roles. I mean, I just love
to play different kinds of roles.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Like Kyle said, he really likes being the bad guy.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Well, yeah, I like being a killer now. I do
like being a killer. I've only got to be a
killer a couple of times. I played cops mostly, but
once in a while I get to be murderer and
I like that. Yeah, hey, do you have that film?
Do you have that still of me as Reverend Jimmy
Joe Love? I love doing that one.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
No, but I could probably find it if.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
I am dB page and with a lovely young lady there,
I'm in a mullet wig.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Let me see here. I bet you I can find it.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
That's a Reverend Jimmy Joe Love and his Earth Angel Bambie.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Let's see here. I don't see Are you sure it's
on your IMDb? I'm I think you know what is
right here?
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (49:39):
This right here? It's not very bright, but that that's.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
One of my favorite roles, right there, Reverend Jimmy Joe Love.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
What was what's kind of the story of this.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Well, that's a little locally produced thing called praise than
let us Pray, And it's p r e y let
us pray because I'm actually a I'm not the main
corrupt mega preacher, but I'm a mega preacher who's on
his telethon and he's promoting, uh, you know, he's trying
(50:17):
to collect more money because they can't come to his
tabernacle or whatever in person. So he's got to raise
some money. So he's going to all his associates and
fellow fellow fake preachers to uh to get him to
help it. But of course during the thing, I say,
(50:39):
you don't. Probably the best thing to do would be
to send that money straight to me. And I will
give ren Rick I think, no reverend anyway, I'll give
the other revend. I'll give him a percentage because we've
had a hard time too.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Well, it's one to do it.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Well when we say let us pray p r e y.
That gives you. That gives you, yes, Uh, it's the
idea of it.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
That's good. That's that. I like you. I like how
your character is dressed.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I love that character. I love that jacket. You know,
I wore that to one of the nights of the
of the premiere of Rennie.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
Okay, so you still have that jacket?
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Oh yeah, I mean I bought that long time before
I conceived Rev and Jimmy Joe Love you know what
I mean?
Speaker 1 (51:37):
So what is okay? So what's your wardrobe like? If
if you wear something like that on a normal day, Well,
is your wardrobe all over the place? Oh you mean
normally like on a normal day, No, I'll.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Be wearing T shirts and a pair of jogging pants,
or if I go out, I'll generally wear a you know,
polo shirt, Khaki's I mean, you know, just very in fact.
Jessica Whitfield, who's a very good actress, one of the
few full time actresses in Kansas City who actually makes
(52:12):
a living in it, I told her I dressed wildly sometimes.
She couldn't believe it. She says, yeah, right, because she
knows me. I've actually played her father and her father
in law and a couple of different different productions. So
and you know, she knows me as you know, this
kind of low key, but once in a while I
(52:37):
like to do it.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Right, did dress up. That's that's great, man. You know,
is there anything that we didn't really kind of touch
on tonight that maybe you want to talk about before
we kind of wrap it up?
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Oh my, are we done already? This was so much fun.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Oh no, I'm glad.
Speaker 7 (52:53):
Glad.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
You know. That's kind of the vibe that I try
to keep with these shows, is especially even if it's
a new face. I kind of try to keep the
vibe as if we've known each other forever and it's
just like a casual conversation. And I think I'll do
a pretty good job at it. It flies by.
Speaker 2 (53:09):
Did a great job because hey, you brought out the
you brought me out of my show.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Well we do have I mean, we have nineteen different
podcasts on this you know, we got true crime ones,
we have like improv skit show that we do. Oh,
there's all kinds of stuff. It's called burn After playing
you mentioned whose line is it anyways earlier. It's it's
kind of a similar concept, but we use Facebook Messenger
and I get people from all over the US the
(53:39):
cast in it, and we come up with like these ideas.
First get and then I say, okay, you guys have
a week send me three or four one minute clips
and then I make it into a short film.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
You know, I think I think you told me about
that once. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Towards towards the beginning, and it might have even been
how how we got in contact about a year ago.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
But it would have been I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
But it's a lot of fun, you know that. It's
it's it's something I enjoyed. It definitely challenges me in
my editing skills.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Oh, I'm sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
One film that we didn't mention that I thought was
really an interesting role for me. It's called Oh what
was Vincen's Vow? Vincent's v I n Cean t apostrophees
Vow Vow And it's won a lot of awards in
(54:38):
the faith based movie circuit. But I played the voice
it was. I just did a voice over for that,
and I played the voice of Albert Einstein. And there's
a letter going around that is purportedly written by Albert Einstein.
(54:59):
It's been just credit. It's more like an urban, urban
myth or urban legend that this was a letter written
by him. People are saying it's a hoax, but it's
on the nature of love. And my role was just
he finds this tape and it's a bunch of still
(55:20):
shots of Albert Einstein and it's this letter he purportedly
wrote to his daughter, and I'm voicing that letter. And
that was very interesting, and I got to do my
German accent.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
You know, Albert Einstein. See, I can't do an accent
at all.
Speaker 2 (55:39):
I'll tell you I've done German, Irish English. I did
a live production of Christmas Carol once and did three
different English accents. That was kind of fun. I did
a Cockney, a kind of middle class and then aristocratic British.
Speaker 7 (56:01):
So when you when you did, you know what that
you were going to have to do that before you
actually shot, Like, is it something that you cast it
specifically for?
Speaker 2 (56:13):
Are you talking about the Christmas Carol?
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Just the accent like rolls, I mean, are these things
that you know about ahead of time and that you
cast specifically for those roles?
Speaker 2 (56:24):
Well, the the uh, the vincent's foul one. Absolutely, I
mean I sent in you know, he just said this
is what we'd like you to try and do, and
I just I just took the copy and read the
letter with a German accent, and he said you're higher.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
So and did you have to prep? I mean, did
you have to do any sort of research for any
of these accents or did you just kind of wing
it off the top your head.
Speaker 2 (56:55):
Well, you know, I lived in Germany for about a year,
so that helped. And then I watched Mogan's Heroes a lot,
so that helped.
Speaker 1 (57:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And uh, well and I'm German.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
You know my background.
Speaker 3 (57:12):
But no, you mentioned all the other ones. I wasn't sure,
but yeah, so I I did. I played a one
of my biggest jobs. I played a Hispanic or a
Mexican cosmetic surgeon in a commercial and people say you're
not Mexican. I say no, but I'm an actor. So
(57:34):
and that was that went over really well. So yeah,
I've done Mexican or Hispanic, British three types, German, Irish, Bronx.
I just did a Southern accent, kind of Atlanta type accent.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
Uh. I think that's all I've been paid to do,
so I haven't.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
But do you enjoy the accent? Rules?
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Oh? Love it, love it. Love to play these characters.
Speaker 1 (58:06):
Good, good, well, Rick Daniels, Yeah, I really appreciate you
having you on today.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
Yank much.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah, everybody that's tuned in or is gonna be tuning
in later on. We appreciate you guys. Check him. Check
out his IMDb Rick Daniels. You'll see his pretty face
right there. Can't miss him. Uh And until next time, everybody,
we will see you around. Rick hang out for just
a moment. You can chat after this over.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
Thank you, You're very welcome.
The whole point is the share on here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right. Embarrassed the out of yourself
to keep the conversation, you know.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
The post and you're doing your friend job on what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome back to JG's Lounge. I'm your host jukebox, and
we are back with another episode of Stardom. And uh,
you know, I can guess tonight Dan in fact, you know,
Daniel fact. Sorry, I messed it up already already. You
might as well cancel me right now. We got Rick Daniels.
Rick Daniels with us tonight. You know, I apologize right
(00:43):
off the bat. I told you just watched it within
a minute of the show.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Okay, you are forgiven, my son, what.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Way to start it off? I do apologize. So Rick Daniels, Uh,
you know, we've we talked about a year ago, and
I don't know what happened either. I obviously got distracted
and we never stayed in contact. And then I meet
Kyle Mint and he's like, hey, I got a guy
that you should talk to. And I find you on
a messenger and I'm like, oh, I already talked to
(01:13):
this guy a year ago. What happened. So how you doing? Man?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Doing fine? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
You know, I'm a little disappointed at myself because we
literally talked about this before we went live, and I
still messed it up. So but other than that, I'm
good man, I'm doing all right. Have you been in
Kansas City your whole life?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Since? I was about nine? Born in Saint Louis, Missouri,
lived in Alton, Illinois for a few years and went
to Jefferson City kindergarten through third grade, and after that
we came to Kansas City and I've been here ever since,
except for when I was in the military. Yeah. About that, Yeah,
(02:01):
that was about it.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right. So, so you're you're a Midwest.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Liberty Liberty Missouri for five or six years? No, twelve?
Uh huh about six years.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I feel like Liberty, Missouri is kind of part of Kansas.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
City, right kit area? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I mean you probably traveled a lot though, right, I mean,
you're you're a Midwest guy, but you've done a lot
of traveling.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, I uh, I had a job for about eight
and a half years, or I was in a career
for eight and a half years. I had several jobs,
but where I traveled throughout the units, you know, I
was in every one of the lower forty eight as
a seminar leader.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So okay, So, so what's a little bit of your
like upbringing. I mean, before we kind of get into
the career path you chose, you know, with the acting
and some of the burlesque. You know, you hosted burlesque
shows as well, which we can kind of talk about.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But they have performed in Browiss shows.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I didn't know, Oh you performed. Oh okay, so you
didn't just host. How'd you get into that kind of stuff?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Like?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
What led up to being interested in that?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well? Uh, actually I kind of always thought it might
be fun to be an actor or some kind of performer.
But like in high school, you know, they always had
the plays in the spring, but I was wrestling. I
wasn't a good wrestler, but I was a wrestler, and
(03:38):
you can't be a wrestler and be in the spring
play too, so you know, so I put that on
hold for many, many years. And then I was nineteen
ninety three I saw something in the local paper or
(03:58):
someplace that they were having auditions for some local film
at Kansas City Library, and I didn't even get off
work that evening until I got off work and got
over there, and everybody's walking out. So he said, well,
it looks like I missed it. And the producer, director, writer,
(04:23):
he said, look, and I ran into him. I encountered him,
and he was on the way out. He said, look,
everybody wants to be in this thing, but nobody wants
to do any work. Nobody wants to help me with it.
So if you will be on one of my crews
when we filmed this thing, I will find some way
to put you into the film at some point during
(04:46):
the production of it. I said, okay. So I worked
on the lighting crew and was a production assistant. Essentially,
I coined the term or the phrase or the titled
zombie wrangler because I kept I kept tabs of the zombies,
(05:07):
and you know, like people they'll have like a horse
wrangler or a rat wrangler or whatever on a film set. Well,
I was one of the zombie wranglers. And I introduced
that idea to him and he said, hey, yeah. And
I actually was one of the first people, I guess
in the whole world credited at the end of a
(05:27):
film as a zombie wrangler. And that was ninety three
and fled Bath. That was my premiere performance.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And didn't you also play it like it? Weren't you
also a sergeant in that film as well?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well? Well, yes, I was Sergeant Romero and that was
in homage to George Romero. See, and they had Lieutenant Foultschie.
I guess Folkshi was a big Italian horror filmmaker, and
so we had Lieutenant Foultsch and I was Arginal Marrow
(06:02):
and yeah, I thought it was just gonna be an extra,
but actually I got one line. Let's see, sir, the
radiation levels too high. We have to evacuate the facility.
And with that, I am hitting the face with radioactive,
radioactive cosmic dust and melt down on screen.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And I saw that. I've seen that scene that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
At the beginning of the film, and it's it's actually
mentioned in a review I've referred to as melting man.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So what was what was what did you have on
your face?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Like?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
What was that using down your face?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
That was a combination of margarita mix and margarita mix.
It tasted pretty good and uh, I think flour and
water and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You just.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It actually looks like somebody's pouring something over my head,
which is what's happening, but it's supposed to be all
my flesh is melting, and that's that.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's funny. I always like asking those kind of questions
because I've had a lot of like musicians and bands
on and then we talked about like music videos and stuff,
and whenever they use stuff like stage blood or anything,
it's crazy to hear like what they actually used.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, well, they did a lot of improvisation with props
and everything and makeup in this because you know, a
very low budget. And I'll tell you for some of
the scenes where they're eating the guts and stuff that's
real guts. He would go to butcher shops and so forth,
(07:40):
and you know, it's the middle of summer. It was
one hundred degrees and this stuff would be in the
trunk of the car, you know, maybe all day and
they'd be and he'd say to the people, do not
do not actually put the stuff in your mouth, because
it would be smelling by the time they pulled it
out of the trunk. I'm surrobabed somebody didn't die from that.
(08:04):
But yeah, when you see the gut munching those are
real guts, most of them. Now, some of them, the
ones they put in their mouths that was rubber, but
a lot of them it was real, like pig guts
and cowguts and everything. And boy did it smell too.
(08:24):
So we had a lot of fun with that one.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well. And you've also kind of been like you've been
through the changes of like film too, through like the
technology advances, because nineteen ninety three, I mean, internet wasn't
really even acknowledged and CGI and effects weren't really that
big of it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Those are all practical effects in there. You know, there's
no all the blood's reeal something and the guts are
real something and yeah, I don't think any of that
is CGI in that zombie blood.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Bath, right. I didn't try to up and I finally
got the picture. What is what is this right here?
Is this one of the burlesque shows?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Oh yeah, well that's that's not when I was in.
That is Kat Kimmitz and her beautiful mother, Amy Gosh.
I just forgot Amy's last name. And she's just as
gorgeous as as her daughter and kad is. She's still
working as she's in New York City. She's one of
(09:26):
the and she's danced in London and everything, and she
was Kansas City's Queen of Burlesque and guys, I can't remember.
I want to say twenty twelve maybe, but yeah, I
mean she's she's she's pretty big. She's kind of international really,
and she's she's got a big presence on the internet. Yeah,
(09:48):
she's got a Facebook page and website and all that.
And yeah, she's she's an excellent dancer. I mean, she's
she was a dancer, dancer. You know a lot of
those trippers, you know, they're not quote just strippers, I
mean they are dancers. They're professional dancers. And a cat
she can do taps, she can do she can do
(10:09):
it all.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And how did you really? Honestly, I guess the biggest
question for me is what exactly is a burlesque show? Like,
what's I don't really understand what it is.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, burlesque is a well, I want to say it's
an American art form. But they had a lot of
burlesque like shows in England for years and it's kind
of a I think it kind of developed from Vaudeville,
although Vaudeville people kind of look down upon burlesque. I
(10:50):
guess the heyday of burlesque was like in the thirties
and forties. Maybe, uh, but the movie Gypsy is really
kind of a and idealized to look at Burlesquez is
the Night they raided Minsky's. I don't know if you
ever saw either of those. Gipsy or The Night they
Raided Minsky's is really great because they used some of
(11:13):
the actual old burlesque bits. If you get a chance,
that'll give you a flavor of it. But a real
burlesque show, traditional one. They had strippers, but in the
beginning it was, like I said, it was kind of
an evolution or devolution of burless which was a variety show.
(11:36):
They had singers and dancers and jugglers and all kinds
of variety acts, but it seemed like the strippers brought
in the people more so the emphasis started to shift.
And I don't know when that happened, but they kept burlesque.
They always had comedians, and I started out I wanted
to be a burlesque comic, like fifty years too late,
(12:00):
and actually, uh, who I think Red Skelton was a
blessed comic. Red Buttons was a less comic. Bur Laura
was a burless comic. I think Melton Burrow was in
burlest Phil Silvers was for sure a Bless comic. So
a lot of these guys got to start in burlest
(12:21):
back in the day. And now Neil Burlesque is not
so much. Uh uh, they don't do much traditional Burless
comedy a few of the shows. I was just in
a few shows, uh and uh. In most of them
I do. I do burlesque comedy bit, and then I
also do my kind of novelty strip act, which was
(12:46):
Charles Chip, Nelson, Dale, Chip and Dale. Get it, Charles
Chip Dale, world's oldest mergen well built, uh, world's oldest
marginy well built male exotic dancer. And I started that
at sixty six, so I couldn't say, oh, because I
(13:07):
knew a guy who was older. I sure as hell
couldn't say best built. So I said, marginally well built
male exotic dancer. How the oldest one of those?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And well, any you mentioned doing comic bits, is it difficult?
Because you know, when I talked to comedians, which I've
had quite a few on, they talk about kind of
trying to work the crowd. But you mentioned how like
a lot of the strippers are the ones kind of
bringing in the crowd. So was it more difficult being
a comic on a burlesque show to try and keep
(13:40):
the crowd entertained?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Well, the shows I actually did were really very limited
to one venue actually, and that crowd was an older crowd,
and they were very appreciative. It was at the Eagles
Lodge over in Independence, and the woman who had was
(14:04):
the producer of the show, and she's still producing burlesque
and all kinds of things. Jamie Lynn or Anie May
Allure is her stage name. She's really a good actress.
I mean, she's been at all the little local theaters,
she's been at the New Theater and more legitimate type
(14:25):
productions and everything. But she's a burlessed producer and an actress,
and she's got a degree, I think in theater. And
she had that venue for a couple of years, and
the ones she hired me for were all at that venue,
and I think the average age is probably forty five
or fifty, and they were kind of appreciative of the
(14:48):
kind of hokey type of burlesque humor that I would do,
which was which was really typical of traditional burlesque now,
Neil ask Neil meaning new they don't really have those
types of blessed skits very much at all. They might
have a stand up comic or something. And I've done
(15:11):
stand up at those Burless shows too, but I've done
stand up. And then this was like sketch comedy, and
then also did a little novelty strip act, so and
then I wanted to do that. I contacted the producer
of the Florida Burless Festival and I tried to sell
(15:31):
her on the idea of doing some sketch comedy and
she says, well, we don't really do that kind of show,
but I would be interested in chip. You know, you
do what you want. So I was there. I went
down there and everything fell into place for that show.
I mean, my golly, I got I had a free
flight on Southwest because you know, I had that card
(15:54):
you pay sixty five dollars a year for and save
up points, and I had enough to get me down
to Fort Lauderdale is where they had it. I found
really inexpensive lodging in this place that the very next
week they doubled the rates. I don't know what was
I guess the fate smiled upon me. Then I got
(16:15):
a rental car for like everything included all the little
crappy add ons and stuff. We had a rental car
for twelve bucks a day for everything.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Tell me how that happens. This was in like, I
guess his team, you know, And so I met some
people I'm still friends with on Facebook. We had our
wrap party for the festival at my Ki, I think,
which is the world's biggest and at one time was
(16:51):
the best, world's biggest and rated the world's best tiki
bar as tiki bars go. I'd never been to a
tiki bar and started out at the biggest and best
in the world. So it was wonderful that. Uh, Like
I said, it all fell into place.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
That day, right, And you mentioned, you know, staying in
contact with people on Facebook, and earlier we talked about
sort of the evolution of the technology and this kind
of stuff, and how do you feel about social media?
Did you like it? Do you utilize it for work?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well? I do not utilize well for work. I have
gotten actually, uh yeah, I've gotten some some parts in
films right off Facebook. Actually the best, uh the best
acting job I ever got I got off Facebook. Also
got uh. I think it was on Facebook that I
(17:50):
actually became a standardized patient over at the Young Casey's
School of Medicine. I think of that on Facebook too,
So I guess I do use it for work, because
the only work I do anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, you're retired now, but you know he's looking at
these stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah. I'm essentially a techno folk, so you know, to
do anything with a computer is a is a big
thing for me. I know Kyle told you about that film.
We were both in an animated film, The bel Afair.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I got a little picture right this one right here.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, And when they said we're switching in, we're gonna
we're gonna do everything on uh you know where you're
going to tape yourself and that just, man, that struck
fear into my heart. I almost dropped out, but I thought, man,
you know, I've done all this memorization and it's going
(18:54):
to be a really cool project. So I'm going to
give it a try. And they had this line. I
think you the line producer and his name escapes me,
but that man should be sainted. He he he said,
you call me anytime. He says, unless I'm asleep, I'm here.
At my desk and you just call me. And he
(19:15):
was the most patient, saintly person in the world, and
he helped me get through everything. And my phone wouldn't
do what they did, so they actually sent me a
phone that I had to mail back and forth. And
when I finally got all my stuff done, I had
a couple of sleepless nights because I thought, man, they're
going to make me do it over again. And the
(19:36):
feedback I got from him was they said, this is
exactly what we want and I go, oh yeah. And
it was because of him that I got it right right.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
So yeah, and Kyle mentioned like it wasn't just lines,
it was like look at this angle, look at this thing.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, they send you everything. It's like stage directions and
you had to kind of figure it out. And just
like Kyle I said, I was down in my basement too.
I had a I didn't have a green stream. I
had a blue screen that was made out of a
shower curtain. Uh you yeah, you just walked through the stuff.
(20:13):
But what was really you know, you talked about the
miracle of technology. Even if you came in from the
wrong direction, say think it somehow, turn it around and
make it come out right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So I do. I do it all the time.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I make a lot of clips and stuff from my
shows and the way technology. I literally like I'll stream
the show like this on my laptop. But everything else
I do for my cell phone, every other bit of
my editing and everything I do on my phone.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
That stuff amazing me. My hat's off to you. If
I had a hat on, it would be off to you.
Uh yeah, I mean I can send email. And I
did what he told me to, so it worked out
right otherwise.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So I got a couple more pictures. Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh. The process is called rotoscope animation, by the way.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Oh it's really what is it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I'm not sure what that is. I tried to read
the description of it, but I just remember it was
rotoscope animation.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, I mean, I saw like the trailer for it
on YouTube. There's like a trailer for it, so it
might not be on YouTube, but I saw like a
little trailer from it from Kyle and it's pretty impressive,
like especially the fact that everybody was placed into the
scenes like you were just in your basement.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It's all filmed remotely and then they somehow merged them.
It was amazing to me. And that can be seen,
by the way, on Amazon Prime. You can rent that
on Amazon Prime and it's available on DVD.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So, and I'm guessing you probably watched it a few
times or at least once.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Well, I watched it the premiere night. I'm I'm going
to get a v DVD of it.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You DVD? What is that? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, I want a d v D because I have
a DVD player, right, I understand how to make it work, So.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I want dv I remember growing up and my grandma
had one of those like classic car VHS rewinders. Yes,
my kids have no idea. Yeah, she had a VCR
(22:35):
and then she had like really one of the little rewinders.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, so you didn't wear out your v c R.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah yeah, yeah, all right, So I took some pictures
of some of the other roles that you did. But
before we kind of get into them, how about I
play the trailer from your IMDb page. Sure, all right,
here we go.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's the insurance. They won't cover you anymore. We have
to stop cheme on by midnight. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I got a bullet for every one of your batter.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Come on, it was the rose that died, mar Rose,
the one that withered from our pose. She blew knocked
a flower and then died in the late hour, buried.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Beneath a tray, a name rose, a mellow d.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
And again that was just divine intervention that led me
to the calling that I pursue now. I want to
help other people, especially young ladies, written themselves of their
sins and tread the paths of righteousness.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
Let me show you just how handy as an interrogation tool.
You see, this is pretty handy. And the beauty of
it is the trauma dispersed. See, there's not even hardly
a bark. Now you want to see it again if
you must, captain. But Bob is watching it.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
He will not forget this. Take a look at this, Bob.
I read an article he wrote on that body integrity
disorder thing. He's already operated on three or four patients.
You call him, don't be a dumbass, have a nice day.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Is that something you pieced together?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
That's something that somebody I worked with who moved to
Chicago and was putting together reels, and it was it
was just starting out, and so he was giving people
a real good rate to do that and I said,
do it for me. Yeah, and he did it for me.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It turned out good. I mean, you've played. I think
one thing that I really took away from that is
how different some of these roles are that you played.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, I've played some different ones. I don't know if
you have some of my little character pictures up there,
those are I don't know if Yeah, that's al Dente.
That's the owner of an Italian restaurant in a film
that is in post production right now called The Wish Fish.
(25:42):
And I'm the owner of the Italian restaurant. The guy
takes his dream rule too, Okay? Who the fish brought me?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
For some reason, when I see this image, I think
of Ratatuwey. Have you ever seen Ratatuwey? Nope, it's an
animated film about a chef. For some reason, it just
reminds me of that.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, I think that's good. I think that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That is a good thing. It is not a whole
lot of pref as far as like wardrobe, right, I mean,
other than the mustache, but the character, what was your
character like?
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It was just he owned the restaurant and he had
to be not only the host, but he also had
to be the waiter because Tony didn't show up again.
You know, he's my sister's kid. What can I do anyway?
What can I bring you? You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
That's good. I like that. I've worked in a lot
of restaurants. I actually went to culinary school and graduated
with a degree in the school, and I ran restaurants
for a while. And it's.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
When people don't show up. Then right now you're doing everything.
You're cleaning up the toilet. That's you know, some asshole
plugged up, you know what I mean. And then you
gotta go cleaned up and then do the fini you know.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
So what, Yeah, that's perfect. Man. The accent's great. See,
I can't do accents. I'm terrible in accents.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
One of the things that do.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Next step, what we got here?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Oh, that is the bartender in a film called Protege Mois.
That was very That's a Robbie Lopez production. And uh,
I was the little sidekick, not in that character. I
had a full face mask. I played two characters in
that that's that's the bartender and the little character that
(27:48):
I play is a little deformed character and he's the
sidekick of the vampire King played by rocker Richie Ramon. Okay,
Richie was the vampire king in that, and I was
his little sidekick almost all through the production.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So zombies vampires, I mean it's gotta be such a
change of like scenery between these films. You know, you
do something in the basement, you got stuff using on
your face and zombies. Then you're the assistant of a vampire.
I mean you're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Oh yeah, well that's what's fun. You get to do
all these things, man, I mean I love.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
It is there. Like, did you take acting classes to
kind of get to the point that you're at.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Well, I've taken some acting classes. I took Brian Cuttler's
course at the Actor's Commercial Actors Studio. I think it's
called he went back to Hollywood, but it's run by
Daniel Coppo now and then Andy Garrisons Andy, I think
(29:03):
it's Andy Garrison. I took a little bit from him.
I took a movement course with Beth Bird. I got
some coaching from Peter Wise, who's a fantastic acting coach.
They brought him in from Hollywood. It was like a
two day boot camp and It was great that guy.
You know, there are a lot of people call themselves
acting coaches and their acting coaches because they call themselves
(29:25):
acting coaches. But this guy, Peter Wise, is the real deal.
I did something. He said, Okay, now try this and this,
and I did it. It is like doubly as good
as it was before. You know, I mean, that's that
guy is. And yeah, I'm not easily impressed, but I
was impressed by that guy. And then I took some
(29:47):
improv stuff from Second City. I actually went on a
tour and they were part of the entertainment, but they
put on a little workshop and so I went to
it a lot of fun, learned some stuff, and I
did some other improv stuff with the guy whose name
I can't recall. But it wasn't really improv for like
(30:09):
comedy like you see whose line is it? Anyway, it
was like just really being in the moment for your character,
even with scripted stuff. That the key to improv as
far as I understand, and I mean, you can take
all kinds of courses, but basically the thing is to
focus on the other person. Don't think about what you're
(30:30):
going to say, focus on what they're saying and what
you need to say is going to come out right.
That to me was what I took away from all
that improv stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Right. I had a actor on recently and he told
me that, like during like casting, sometimes you could do
like a great job, but the person who you're like
auditioning in front of might not like the colone that
you're wearing or something, and something as simple as that
can can turn you away.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
It can be or I had an audition once and
a guy told me, he said, well, you know, the
guy I'm gonna ended up hiring wasn't the best way.
I mean, this guy and I know liked me because
he gave me a ticket to the show and asked
me to come back and everything, but then he didn't
(31:22):
hire me. And he said, well, the guy ended up
hiring wasn't really the best one I saw, but I'm
gonna need him for another show after this, and if
I didn't hire me, he'd have gone someplace else that
he wouldn't have been available. So also, you can do
a great job, but you might not have the look
(31:45):
that fits the film. Now, I had a deal. I
went to an audition once and I mean these people
were gushing best we ever saw, YadA, YadA, YadA, And
they wrote to me after a lot of times, if
you don't get the part, you don't hear anything. But
he said you had a great interview, he loved you.
Unfortunately we cannot offer you apart and that struck me
(32:07):
as odd. But then I saw the film and the
guy they had in the part that I'd auditioned for.
He did great job too, but he had a look
that fit the film. I don't know, you know, it's
hard to articulate. Everybody said this guy though you know,
(32:27):
it is what.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
It is, right, Yeah, And I never thought of that
as like an aspect of being turned down. I mean,
there's just some things you don't think about.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, it can be anything, or like you say, they
might not like your cologne, or they might have a
friend's friend. You know, it can be anything. And you know,
you go in, you do your best. And I've had
Oh that's when I'm the I'm the only small town
(33:01):
veterinarian who is a bit more than he seems.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Oh, what what role is? What film is this in?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
That's in Robbie Lopez's River Beauty. Mm hmm. It seems
like a lot of people are disappearing. Who can who
can figure that one out? I think from the Black wadoon.
So that's good.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
That's a good image. And I'm guessing that's not a
real cat.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
No it's not. But I fell in love with it
anyway and brought it food and never ate it. But
that's a great little stuff cat.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Though, Right, what else you got here? Sorry? I got
notifications that pop up here and then I mean, you know,
there's a lot of stuff going on on my end,
but okay, this is no that's there's a lot of
great roles that you've play. Like I said, you've been
all over the place.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I do my own makeup too. Oh that's another Robbie
Lopez film. I'm a homeless guy in that, believe it
or not. It was so funny. I got out of
the car and he says, you look terrible. I said,
isn't that what you wanted? He says, yeah, yeah, and
(34:24):
you notice it. I do teeth in most of them,
and that probably has due with I was a dental
hygiene specialist when I was in the army.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So oh, okay to.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Do so yeah, that that was in born to raise
hell And that's actually a film that is based on
the Richard spec murders back in I think the sixties. Yes,
those like six nursing Students or whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yes, I don't it wasn't recent. But I do listen
to a lot of other podcasts, some true crime, and
I do remember listening to an episode about him.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, it was back in the I think the sixties,
and this this guy wasn't even really part of all that,
but he was just there for dramatic license or dramatic
effect in the film. And that was actually my first
role with Robbie Lopez. I've done several things since. Robbie's
just a whot to work with and we get along
really well. He'll basically give me the character and give
(35:25):
me some basic lines and let me do what I want.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So right, do you do you find that there's a
certain group of casts or directors that you work with
better than others.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Well, I sure work well with the ones who hired me.
But yeah, I I you know, I get out there
to do a job, and I I don't think I've
ever really had a problem with any director on a film.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
How about cast?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Have you?
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Have you had, like worked with anybody? And I like
to ask this, and you know I have to answer,
But has there ever been like somebody that you were
working with on set that you didn't like that you
kind of butted heads with, maybe as far as like
how the acting was going.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
No, not really. One time I was in one film
and there's some some young girl. She said, you stepped
on my lines? I said, did I She said yes.
I said, jeez, I'm sorry. But that's the only thing
I remember. I mean, you know, usually, at least it's
been my experience. Everybody's there and we're there to do
a job and have a good time, and we pretty
(36:39):
much do. Yeah, right, I love.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well. And I've heard that that can be kind of
a part of it with with some people get they
like come on as extras or it's like their first time.
They don't realize that sometimes you're gonna be here twelve
thirteen hours and they kind of get irritable, and sometimes
that can affect the said.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Oh, you know, I'm sure that happens, but I not
that I've been on. I mean, I was on one
where I was just we were really cold and we
were all getting a little bit crabby. But then they,
I don't know, they started a fire or something. So
it was you know, and I will say, you know,
I have, well this one film, I did this ready,
(37:23):
I God, I love those people. It's uh gee yes,
Jen Jen Frank Clinky and Jennifer Jin Clinky Dressler and
(37:45):
thank you or their last names. They're wonderful and I
love working for them. And had the best food of
he said, I've ever been on, whether it's a big
Hollywood production or anything. I don't know how they did it,
but they did it fine, and everybody was really super
nice and and uh and that was their first film
and it came out great. They had the big premiere
(38:06):
at the Folly Theater and that's always been a dream
on my mind to be at stage at the Folly
for burlesque that used to be a big burlesque theater.
And that didn't happen. But I got on screen at
the Folly, so that's almost as good.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
And what was that shot at the Renaissance Festival.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
A lot of the scenes were yes, right, we just
we shot around people and if somebody came by and
they had on a really neat costume, they'd say you
want to just walk through this scene? And the person
said yes, he said, here sign this, and they were.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
In the movie.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
So it was just a lot of fun, real democratic,
real funny. If you get it. If you like Renaissance
festivals especially, you're going to love that.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I mean, actually, I can walk to that festival, that Renfest.
I live right down street.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Oh wow cool? Okay, Yeah. Much of it was filmed
right at the right at the Renaissance Festival. And they,
from what I understand, the Renaissance Festival administrators were just
super receptive to to Gin and everybody to them doing
their film there and it worked out great. And they
(39:22):
had that had been in their minds for years and
in the Pandemic team, and boy, that was an opportunity
for me and they got together and did it.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Makes Yeah, it's the way to do it. I do
have two more scenes here. What's this one?
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Well, that's from a little short called I Want to
Say Killing with Kindness, and basically it's about a serial
killer and I'm the dispatcher. I'm actually I'm actually a
police officer who is injured, and so they put him
(40:05):
to work as a dispatcher because he's like six months
before retirement and they don't want to just let him
go because then he'll lose his pension, so he's I mean,
that's the I have backstories for all my characters, almost
even if I'm just so anyway, that's the backstory on
this guy. And they're calling in about this serial killer,
(40:26):
and I'm saying, is this some kind of a joke. Look,
I don't have time for this. I got real people
with real problem but really they're dealing with a serial killer.
That was a real cute little work I don't think
in any place. But I got a good picture out
of it. So what are you going to do? And
we had fun?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah? And actually that's other things like I've heard that
sometimes people will be cast and then like their scenes
aren't even actually on the film. Sometimes all that happens
all the time.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, Sometimes you'll even see somebody with a recognizable name
and it says credit only, and that usually means their
scenes were cut.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
What I mean, what's do you have any idea what
the deciding factor is on that? Like that just didn't fit.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
There can be many deciding factors. One thing can be
the length, you know, if it's running too long and
they have to get rid of something like that. The
belle Afair I was in two scenes. Both of the
scenes are really good scenes, but the very best scene
was cut, and it was cut for two reasons. One
(41:41):
was length and the other. And this is what I
was thinking, even when I was filming it, said, I
don't see how this is that relevant to the story.
And when I thought, Elijah Watson is the guy's name,
who is the saintly guy who helped me through this.
I was talking with him and I said, my best
scene is go oh, and he says, yeah, it was
(42:02):
a question of length. You know, we were running too long.
Plus we really just couldn't you know, in retrospect, we
couldn't see how that scene really fit in very well.
And I said, you know, I was thinking the same thing. Yes,
but it was a great speech. One of the things
about that belafair, at least my lines, most of them,
(42:24):
I researched the character. These these characters are real historical figures,
and most of my lines actually came from the trial
transcripts from like seventeen fifty three. Wow, eighteen fifty three
and then eighteen fifty three.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, I mean that's still just the historical factor behind.
That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, And like I said, I was reading my lines.
I said, these guys gave me the best lines in
the world. Well, it was from the character that I played,
who was real. It was a renowned lawyer back in
those days, and he was also kind of infamous. I mean,
this guy William William H. Bradley, I think, are we Yeah,
(43:11):
that is very familiar. Yeah, well there's also a toy company,
so don't get them confused. But uh yeah, this guy
actually beat up a judge. I mean, he was a
wild man, but he was he was brilliant and they
said he never lost a criminal case. So but anyway, yeah,
(43:32):
I thought, man, these guys are brilliant. They wrote me
these great lines. Well they adapted the great lines from
the actual trial transcript, so that was good. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
So did you kind of go on a rabbit hole
and do quite a bit of like history digging into that?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
I well, for that one, I did. I just I
was interested in the character and I had never you know,
I wasn't familiar with these freedom suits. I mean there
was a whole body of law and so forth that
a case law that came out of the freedom suits,
and that is where these slaves had been promised their
freedom or whatever. This is before slavery was abolished, before
(44:12):
the Civil War. And and but the you know, in
the case of the belofare at least the trial that
where I represent the slaves. What had happened was the
slave owner had promised mister Bell and his family their
(44:34):
freedom and then he dies. And the wife says, and
these weren't rich people. These were the people with like
a couple of slaves, you know. And the wife says,
uh uh, this is all I've got. This, these these
slaves are my entire assets. You know, you think slavery
is terrible, but it's you know, we're talking about a
(44:55):
long time ago, and the world was different. And she says,
I'm not giving these people up because they're the only
thing I have. They're the only items of value. And
that's you know, they were commodities. They're the only thing
I have that's worth anything. And so she went to court.
I'm not going to tell you how it comes out.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, don't tell me. We got to watch it, Oh.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yes, please do please rent it. And Kyle mentioned he thought,
I still think it's going to get on PBS or
b E T or something someday, because it's a very
good film and it's historically accurate, it's relevant everything.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah, that's and then the fact that there's a lot
of history behind it kind of makes it that much
more intriguing to watch.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Well yeah, oh, like I say, it's it's all historical.
And who knew. I didn't even know that Francis Scott
Key was an attorney. Oh that's from a movie called
The Brutal Nine and the Brutal nine are you t
(46:00):
l nine? And that is a super secret, super high
security prison that a guy in filtrates, and uh, I
actually play the kind of the right hand man of
the Irish gangster who runs things and he has to
(46:22):
get not the main guy, but he has to get
somebody else out of that prison for some reason. But anyway,
I have to go because I'm a hitman and I
I take care of business. You know.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Have you gotten the opportunity to shoot blank like a
prop gun?
Speaker 5 (46:43):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Well that was a prop gun, but it was all
cgi to make the little muzzle flash.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Okay, they have, I know, they have like the ones
that shoot blanks you know.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, yeah, but since that thing with what's his face?
Even even on some of the big shows I've seen it,
they're using CGI and very poorly that I was watching.
I think the equalizer and those muzzle flashes were like
a half inch above the muscle of the gun. I thought, oh,
(47:18):
they've got They've got hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
They can't. I've been in productions that costs like five
thousand dollars and they got the muzzle flashes better.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
We've gone through all these roles and all these things
that you've done in your life, which is very impressive.
What was probably one of the hardest roles that you
would say you had to prep for.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Man, Well, I don't memorize things well, so anything that
has a lot of memorization is just well, I say that.
But and I've done things where I've shown up. There
was one I showed up to be an extra and
one of the leads didn't make it and I end
(48:08):
up doing his part and did it fine. So I
guess when I'm under pressure, I can do it. But yeah,
anything that involves a lot of memorization, I guess that's
the biggest challenge. But I mean I get into all
these roles. I mean I really get into all these roles,
and so it's fun it's I'm not really one for challenges,
(48:34):
but that's one kind of challenge. I do kind of
like see what you can do.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
The under pressure kind of kind of feeling.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Well, just just different roles. I mean, I just love
to play different kinds of roles.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Like Kyle said, he really likes being the bad guy.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Well, yeah, I like being a killer now. I do
like being a killer. I've only got to be a
killer a couple of times. I played cops mostly, but
once in a while I get to be murderer and
I like that. Yeah, hey, do you have that film?
Do you have that still of me as Reverend Jimmy
Joe Love? I love doing that one.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
No, but I could probably find it if.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
I am dB page and with a lovely young lady there,
I'm in a mullet wig.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Let me see here. I bet you I can find it.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
That's a Reverend Jimmy Joe Love and his Earth Angel Bambie.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Let's see here. I don't see Are you sure it's
on your IMDb? I'm I think you know what is
right here?
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (49:39):
This right here? It's not very bright, but that that's.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
One of my favorite roles, right there, Reverend Jimmy Joe Love.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
What was what's kind of the story of this.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Well, that's a little locally produced thing called praise than
let us Pray, And it's p r e y let
us pray because I'm actually a I'm not the main
corrupt mega preacher, but I'm a mega preacher who's on
his telethon and he's promoting, uh, you know, he's trying
(50:17):
to collect more money because they can't come to his
tabernacle or whatever in person. So he's got to raise
some money. So he's going to all his associates and
fellow fellow fake preachers to uh to get him to
help it. But of course during the thing, I say,
(50:39):
you don't. Probably the best thing to do would be
to send that money straight to me. And I will
give ren Rick I think, no reverend anyway, I'll give
the other revend. I'll give him a percentage because we've
had a hard time too.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Well, it's one to do it.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Well when we say let us pray p r e y.
That gives you. That gives you, yes, Uh, it's the
idea of it.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
That's good. That's that. I like you. I like how
your character is dressed.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
I love that character. I love that jacket. You know,
I wore that to one of the nights of the
of the premiere of Rennie.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
Okay, so you still have that jacket?
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Oh yeah, I mean I bought that long time before
I conceived Rev and Jimmy Joe Love you know what
I mean?
Speaker 1 (51:37):
So what is okay? So what's your wardrobe like? If
if you wear something like that on a normal day, Well,
is your wardrobe all over the place? Oh you mean
normally like on a normal day, No, I'll.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Be wearing T shirts and a pair of jogging pants,
or if I go out, I'll generally wear a you know,
polo shirt, Khaki's I mean, you know, just very in fact.
Jessica Whitfield, who's a very good actress, one of the
few full time actresses in Kansas City who actually makes
(52:12):
a living in it, I told her I dressed wildly sometimes.
She couldn't believe it. She says, yeah, right, because she
knows me. I've actually played her father and her father
in law and a couple of different different productions. So
and you know, she knows me as you know, this
kind of low key, but once in a while I
(52:37):
like to do it.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Right, did dress up. That's that's great, man. You know,
is there anything that we didn't really kind of touch
on tonight that maybe you want to talk about before
we kind of wrap it up?
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Oh my, are we done already? This was so much fun.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Oh no, I'm glad.
Speaker 7 (52:53):
Glad.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
You know. That's kind of the vibe that I try
to keep with these shows, is especially even if it's
a new face. I kind of try to keep the
vibe as if we've known each other forever and it's
just like a casual conversation. And I think I'll do
a pretty good job at it. It flies by.
Speaker 2 (53:09):
Did a great job because hey, you brought out the
you brought me out of my show.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Well we do have I mean, we have nineteen different
podcasts on this you know, we got true crime ones,
we have like improv skit show that we do. Oh,
there's all kinds of stuff. It's called burn After playing
you mentioned whose line is it anyways earlier. It's it's
kind of a similar concept, but we use Facebook Messenger
and I get people from all over the US the
(53:39):
cast in it, and we come up with like these ideas.
First get and then I say, okay, you guys have
a week send me three or four one minute clips
and then I make it into a short film.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
You know, I think I think you told me about
that once. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Towards towards the beginning, and it might have even been
how how we got in contact about a year ago.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
But it would have been I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
But it's a lot of fun, you know that. It's
it's it's something I enjoyed. It definitely challenges me in
my editing skills.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Oh, I'm sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
One film that we didn't mention that I thought was
really an interesting role for me. It's called Oh what
was Vincen's Vow? Vincent's v I n Cean t apostrophees
Vow Vow And it's won a lot of awards in
(54:38):
the faith based movie circuit. But I played the voice
it was. I just did a voice over for that,
and I played the voice of Albert Einstein. And there's
a letter going around that is purportedly written by Albert Einstein.
(54:59):
It's been just credit. It's more like an urban, urban
myth or urban legend that this was a letter written
by him. People are saying it's a hoax, but it's
on the nature of love. And my role was just
he finds this tape and it's a bunch of still
(55:20):
shots of Albert Einstein and it's this letter he purportedly
wrote to his daughter, and I'm voicing that letter. And
that was very interesting, and I got to do my
German accent.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
You know, Albert Einstein. See, I can't do an accent
at all.
Speaker 2 (55:39):
I'll tell you I've done German, Irish English. I did
a live production of Christmas Carol once and did three
different English accents. That was kind of fun. I did
a Cockney, a kind of middle class and then aristocratic British.
Speaker 7 (56:01):
So when you when you did, you know what that
you were going to have to do that before you
actually shot, Like, is it something that you cast it
specifically for?
Speaker 2 (56:13):
Are you talking about the Christmas Carol?
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Just the accent like rolls, I mean, are these things
that you know about ahead of time and that you
cast specifically for those roles?
Speaker 2 (56:24):
Well, the the uh, the vincent's foul one. Absolutely, I
mean I sent in you know, he just said this
is what we'd like you to try and do, and
I just I just took the copy and read the
letter with a German accent, and he said you're higher.
Speaker 1 (56:46):
So and did you have to prep? I mean, did
you have to do any sort of research for any
of these accents or did you just kind of wing
it off the top your head.
Speaker 2 (56:55):
Well, you know, I lived in Germany for about a year,
so that helped. And then I watched Mogan's Heroes a lot,
so that helped.
Speaker 1 (57:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And uh, well and I'm German.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
You know my background.
Speaker 3 (57:12):
But no, you mentioned all the other ones. I wasn't sure,
but yeah, so I I did. I played a one
of my biggest jobs. I played a Hispanic or a
Mexican cosmetic surgeon in a commercial and people say you're
not Mexican. I say no, but I'm an actor. So
(57:34):
and that was that went over really well. So yeah,
I've done Mexican or Hispanic, British three types, German, Irish, Bronx.
I just did a Southern accent, kind of Atlanta type accent.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
Uh. I think that's all I've been paid to do,
so I haven't.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
But do you enjoy the accent? Rules?
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Oh? Love it, love it. Love to play these characters.
Speaker 1 (58:06):
Good, good, well, Rick Daniels, Yeah, I really appreciate you
having you on today.
Speaker 2 (58:12):
Yank much.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah, everybody that's tuned in or is gonna be tuning
in later on. We appreciate you guys. Check him. Check
out his IMDb Rick Daniels. You'll see his pretty face
right there. Can't miss him. Uh And until next time, everybody,
we will see you around. Rick hang out for just
a moment. You can chat after this over.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
Thank you, You're very welcome.
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