July 28, 2025 • 52 mins
Geoffrey Blake Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know Geoffrey Blake. You know Geoffrey from such iconic hits as: Young Guns, Forrest Gump, Contact, Midway, and more. In this episode, we chat about almost none of those projects. Instead, we get to know Geoffrey. We find out how & where he grew up, why they moved around so much, how his health is these days, and some crazy stories about his family. Next, we move into some of the acting classes that he was part of when he was just getting started, as well as the acting class that he teaches these days. Naturally, we touch on Young Guns, and his work with Emilio Estevez & Lou Diamond Phillips. He shares a crazy story about paparazzi in Santa Monica, involving him, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, and the city council. This story is insane. Of course, we talk about some of his past and upcoming writing projects, and so much more! Geoffrey has promised to come back on the show for round 2, and maybe THEN he will share the story of the time he met Lizzo!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Jeffrey Blake and you are listening to Fascination
Street Podcast with the wonderful Steve Yes. Yes the amp.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You walk down the most intert street in the world
with my voice Steve, Fascination Street.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You already know. Let's get it when you wait for
the fastest street. Welcome back to street Walkers. This episode
is with the great and talented Jeffrey Blake. You all
knows Jeffrey Blake because he has been in such films
as Young Guns, Castaway, Contact, Forrest Gump. He's been in
(00:42):
such TV shows as Godfather of Harlem, The Man in
the High Castle, Grim, Charmed and the Other Charmed, like
Book Charms. He was in the Old Charmed and the
New Charmed. Guy's been in everything, he still is in everything.
He is amazing. Franklin. I mean, I'm telling you what.
And here's the thing. We talk about almost none of
(01:04):
those projects. I think we talk about Young Guns a
little while, but really in this episode we get to
understand who Jeffrey is, why he became an actor, and
why he still loves doing it. We do go off
on a little bit of a tangent talking about some
of Jeffrey and his wife's screenwriting career and a great
story about how he personally played a role in getting
(01:27):
the paparazzi to be designated as aggressive panhandlers in Santa Monica.
That's a really cool story. And we talk at the
beginning about his growing up, his family, they moved around
a bunch. We find out why his whole family is
basically d one athletes in multiple different sports in multiple
different schools. So we talk some about that too, and
(01:48):
Jeffrey just shares some great stories, I mean dudes of
legendary screenwriter, so of course he is a storyteller. And
then we also talk about some acting classes that he
was in and some that he teaches. Jeffrey Blake is
an actor who also teaches acting, and so we talked
a little bit about that and what that actually means
(02:09):
and why he continues to do it. I have a
verbal commitment that Jeffrey's going to come back to due
round two. I hope that that holds, because we haven't
even cracked the shell of the egg that is Jeffrey Blake.
And this is my first conversation with the wonderfully talented
and prolific Jeffrey Blake. For credit be faffinating Forgreda be
(02:34):
facinating Forgreda be fafinating. Welcome to Fascination Street Podcast. Jeffrey Blake.
What's up, dude?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I like you man.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm not going to complain now because I complained alone
before I hit record, and you got an earfuls, So
thank you for being my therapist today. All right, ladies
and gentlemen street workers, if you will, This is Jeffrey Blake,
a man so good at acting. He once teamed up
with Spencer Garrett and they played sideburns and mustache. Mustache
(03:07):
and sideburns. Sideburns and mustache.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
How did you know that that's so obscure? Yeah, I
actually got Spencer to do that for a friend of
mine who was creating that graphic not all voice casting things.
Scott Wild got him to do it, got Xander Berkley
to do it, got some other people to help my
friend out. But yes, Spencer, that was Spencer's and ies.
We've known each other for forty four years. But yeah,
(03:30):
I think that's the first time we've ever donned a
microphone or grace the screen together.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So mustache and sideburns aside, it seems like you're a
bit of an influencer getting all your friends to work
on these projects.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I don't know. I think we're all influencers. It gets
to the point now where you know you've been doing
it for so long, you've worked with so many people.
I always say that I judge my career as being
a successful career, not by how much I've worked or
how much I've been hired, but how many times I've
been re by the same person. So I'm doing something
(04:03):
right if Bob Zamechis is hiring me movie after movie,
Ron Howard movie after movie, et cetera. But as we
move along, it's those colleagues, as Bill Pashton used to
call it the circus, and he and I have done
a lot of collaborations together because of him. So you know,
when I did Texas Rising, it was Bill who got
me the job on Texas Rising to be his sidekick.
(04:25):
A few other movies like one. One Sunday night last year,
I was at my kids baseball game. My phone rings
and it's Dermot Mulroney, and Dermott is saying, hey, Jeff,
what are you doing tomorrow? It was a Sunday and
I said, I don't know what am I doing tomorrow Dermott,
you're doing this movie with me. I'm not going to
say any disparacing but there was a guy playing a
part and so I told the director I'd rather work
(04:48):
with you. And so they'll be calling you and come
do it.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
And did that happen? It did?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, it happens all the time. Lou Diamond Phillips and
I are collaborating on him directing a script that we wrote.
And you know, now we're just dealing with rights with
Paramount and how to get them back. And we wrote
it for Paramount that you know, because paramounts being sold
and being held hostage.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Who are they selling to Paramounts being sold?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
This guy dance?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Oh well, okay, wow, that's all.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Being arbitrated in the courts. Sure, because it has to
do with CBS. That's the part that's the hold up.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You just mentioned it to Hey, I'm doing the same
you you don't have the shamed Ask well, is there
anything in it? I could do? And they'll say, oh, yeah,
well you did it. Let me go. That's just the
way it works.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
People think Hollywood's this really big place. It's Hollywood's dead,
but they think they're Elliott. But it's not. It really
is a very small, insular community of people who you know,
we've done it for so long and we have mutual
respect for each other that we tend to you know,
you want to work with the same members of the circus.
As Bill Paxton said, you.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Know, when I started doing this is when I really
started to notice how networked everybody is. And it's not
just in the film industry and television, but also you know,
musicians and authors, like everybody in everything is connected in
every way, and it is astounding to me how deep
those connections go. It's wild.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Did you have a good time with Yule last week?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yule?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
He's the best.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I am in love with Youle. Plus guess he is
the absolute nicest guy. He is a sweetheart. I love
him so much now. I mean I liked his work
before and some of the times I've heard him in interviews
and things, but just face to face, that guy is
the beas.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Andy's great musician, kindest, most inclusive. Just yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And his art, his photography and his paintings are just beyond.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
He is a true renaissance man.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh yeah, he does it all. And he's married to
a princess. What Oh my god. Okay, So, Jeffrey, what
I like to do is I like to start from
the beginning. It helps us understand how the guests got
from where they were to where they are. So where
we want to raise?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Man?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I grew up all over the world why and then
I ultimately ended up up in northern California for a
good portion of my younger you know, ten on why
I can tell you now why I wouldn't been able
to a few years back. I suspected my whole life
once they became an adult and became cognitive and aware
of how the world works. My father wasn't a CIA,
(07:16):
you know, although he ended up becoming in a strange
father anyway.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
This is the same father who was a lacrosse legend.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yes, a lacrosse legend. Basically that was one of the
reasons I realized, you know, mapping out that I lived
in places, particularly in those few years up to like twelve,
they were all in politically volatile places, and there were
always things that monumented, things happened.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So shit was going down every place you lived.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yes, Michael Dacaucus and my father were college classmates. At
a place called Swathmore University.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I think you have to say, like swamp More, Swathmont.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
You do for sure with that Philadelphia's Newdia accent, which
I still possess. My grandmother is my grandfa. Everybody went
to Swalksman. My parents grew up in Swarthmont. When Michael
to Caucus was running for president, he said, when I
think it was Time magazine, he said, so I went
to this very very elite East Coast Seyboard originally Quaker
(08:11):
school called Swarthmore on the level academically with the Harvards
and the Ales and the Columbia, that kind of level
of academians. And our school was made up of two factions.
It was made up of us me who were the
POLYPSCI majors, political science majors, and we all went into politics.
And then there was the other faction of the school
(08:32):
that were the engineering marriagers, that were the jocks. He
was the supreme jock at that school. They went into
the CIA. Who So my father went from Swathimore. He
was actually drafted in the NFL, which made no money
in those days. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, that was back when you had to have a
week job and then the weekend was your.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
You had to pack grocer to do something during the week.
So he was drafted based on his athleticism as a
ross player by the Baltimore Colts. He had played on
a very famous nc TWOA All Star team.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
That had Jim Brown for lacrosse.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, Jim Brown played football and lacrosse at Syracuse. He
played on this NCQA All Star team. And my grandfather,
Avery Blake Senior.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Also lacrosse legend.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
He was the coach. He's in the Hall of Fame
of lacrosse as well. He was the one time coach
of the one time It was at the Olympics in Berlin.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Hold on, your grandfather coached an Olympic lacrosse team in
Berlin and that was in the forties. Is that the
one that Hitler was at.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yes, he met Hitler. That's what they were a real
really excited about. I met Jim Brown at a Saint
Jude's event, you know the event they have here for
Danny Thomas Marlo Thomas's Hospital that treats cancer kids. Amazing organization,
and so I was at this event at Center City
and I saw him and I walked up to him
(09:56):
and I said, excuse me, mister Brown, but I believe
you played lacrosse with my father, and I believe my
grandfather coached you in this this all star team. He goes, oh,
the Avery Blakes. Yes, yes, let me tell you something
about your dad son. Okay, he goes, second greatest lacrosse player.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And oh snap. I thought he was going to say
something crazy that.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Was really colbl about it, but clearly wanted that he
knew that he was the greatest lacrosse player along with
the greatest football player. But of course that's what brought
eyes and attention to my father being drafted in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
So your dad was drafted. Did he ever play football?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
No, he didn't. He ended up getting an offered like
officer and a gentleman an officers training, naval training. So
he went to officers Candidate school, became a naval engineer,
which is also a huge recruiting ground for the CIA. Ultimately,
the CIA life became his path and he lived an
entirely secret life from that point on and all the
(11:00):
implications of that. I ended up, you know, doing a
project with Bob Behar, who's a very famous CIA agent,
who was contributor on CNN A lot. He was chief
of station in Lebanon and Libya, you know, Hesbelahamas, all that.
Once my dad passed, I said, Bob, this is what
I've always thought. He basically this gave me a very
strong wink, saying, yeah, your dad was involved in some
(11:21):
pretty incredible stuff. The two examples I'll give that, well,
you'll figure it out. We lived when I was a
child in nineteen sixty three, I was one years old.
We lived in New Orleans for a year.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh god, damn. I thought you're gonna say you lived
in Dallas. Okay, you lived in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
No, but that's where Dallas was being planned. That's where
all of it was being planned. So that's where where
he was. That's where the shooter was, but also what
was going on. Linking back to Yule, it also was
where the CIA was recruiting and plotting the Bay of Pigs.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Wow, so you.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Have Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans in nineteen sixty three,
You had the Bay of Pigs going down in nineteen
sixty three of all the anti castor or you know,
warriors that had fled, and you also have New Orleans
as a place where they had these very famous detainee rooms.
They had a lot of interrogation of communists and et cetera.
But enough about my father. I don't even like my
(12:13):
boss never did.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
One quick thing that I learned fairly recently, is that
on that fateful day in nineteen sixty three in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
November twenty second, there you go, wait for it, November
twenty second is my father's birthday.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Shut the fuck up? Are you serious?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I'm serious?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Wow? Okay, So that day there was four United States
presidents in Dallas that day that blew me away. Right,
So obviously Kennedy and Johnson, but also Nixon was in
town doing some fundraiser, and then I think the head
of the CIA at that time was George Herbert Walker Bush. Right, yep,
(12:54):
I guess your dad's boss. We're definitely we can stop
talking about that.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's transitioning because I don't want to talk him out
him anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
For all of you who are listening in a room somewhere,
we're gonna move on.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yes, hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors.
Let's get back into it.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
We're going to bounce all over the place because you
have such a wild and fascinating career. Yes, I'm here.
Let's go a few years ago, right around the same
time that your buddy Bill Paxson did, you had an
open heart surgery. Same here, lrip Bill. He was amazing,
one of my.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Most dearest friends and influencer in my life.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
It broke my heart, but I didn't even know him,
so I can't imagine what it was like for you
and all of the rest of the people who actually
knew him.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Hello Texan for you.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Do you feel comfortable with telling me why you needed
an open heart surgery?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
The father It's completely hereditary.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Was it the same sort of a thing that Bill had?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Not at all?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Bill had a heart defect that he was born with.
They had to repair that. And I was just straight
up blocked arteries, cholesterol based, stress based, but hereditary. My
father had a quadruple bypassed at fifty three. Don't know
if my grandfathers did. But and my brother, who's four
years older than I am, he's the one that started
(14:22):
the course, the path for discovery. As I said, we
were strange from my father. So he called me up
one day from the ski slope up in Tahoe. We
each call each other big big brother Big. I call
it big too big. I just had an incident on
the ski slope. I had to have a quadruple bypass
Jesus emergency. We're having that tomorrow. They say it's all hereditary.
(14:47):
My brother was a triathlete. Both of us were Division
one athletes. That's hereditary. That's also hereditary. So he ended
up having the surgery. And then of course with my
wife said, I immediately went to a cardiologist and I
had no symptoms.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I had nothing.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Basically, I wanted the UCLA cardiologists, and that's what we
have to go to a SAG. He said, okay, so
what I want to do is I want to put
you into this program because you're so young. I was
fifty four at the time. You're so young that we
have an experiment where people who are at risk with
areditary we're putting them on two paths. It's a blind study,
(15:26):
and we're going to do invasive, which is people who
are going to get stints and they're going to get
angioplasts and all that stuff. And then we're going to
also treat some people with just the new medicines and
see if that reduces your risk. I was put on
the new medicine path. Now, we said, but we also
have to do a cat scan, and we need to
do it all the imaging of your heart, because you know,
(15:49):
there's only one minor thing that would make you not
qualify it. But the program there was a two percent
chance that you would have something that is called left
main disease, very rare. Most people do not have it,
particularly at your age. I'm not worried that you're going
to have it because by your ekg I don't think
you're gonna have left main disease. Pretty confident at that.
(16:10):
And then he said, an even greater thing about this
is you get paid. I go, that is great. I'd
love to be paid.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Oh, you get paid for the study.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Nice paid for the study, and they pay for the
surgery if I was going to have one. Ever, that
didn't happen. But ultimately, I'm at a meeting, a writer's
meeting on sunset plaza. I'll never forget sunset plasma. I'm
just about to go in the meeting when I get
a text from this doctor and he says, you need
to call me right away. And I called them right away.
From the car before I went into the meeting, and
(16:39):
he says, you can't be in the program. You have
left main disease. So I need to get you to
another doctor because this is not the kind of thing
I deal with because I'm a cardiologist, I'm not a surgeon.
So he gives me up with another doctor that I
have a meeting with, and ultimately, what you don't want
to do and Steve, you don't want to google left
(17:04):
main disease on WebMD or any of those things, because
I literally went into this meeting. We were late anyway,
sat down with these people. We were pitching him a
movie project, and I excuse myself to go to the
men's room. And what do I do. I start checking
what left main disease is and the first thing I
read is diagnosis to death six weeks.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I stopped meeting there.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, you didn't have time to finish reading. You got
six weeks, bro, But.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
What I didn't know is that what that meant was
this six weeks if you don't have surgery got you.
Literally I go meet with this doctor and he assures
me that he's never lost a patient, that he's doing
this as a favor, and he's actually a tranceplant doctor.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Well hold on, if he's doing it for a favor,
then he was doing it for free.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, And ultimately I found out that my brother, who
is very very very very very wealthy, he had actually
had his heart doctor call this heart doctor to give
it a little less nudge that you know, would be
good for him to do this.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Nice thanks, big, Yeah, we.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Don't need to go there either. Another complicated human being.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
So ultimately I go meet doctor Arta Holly as sorry
it is you need him. Doctor Arta Holly plug for him,
and he tells me I need the surgery, and then
he tells me he's going on a trip. I said, okay,
because you're not going to die in the time I'm
on my trip. And then I say to him, okay, good,
because a week after your trip, I'm supposed to shoot
at Geico commercial. And I really want to do the
(18:38):
Geico commercial because what you're telling me is I'm going
to be down off the market for about nine months
to a year to recover. So I did the Geico
commercial and literally it carried us through the entire nine
months of the year than God for Geico. Then right
after the surgery, I turned fifty five, and then I
collected my SAG pension early, and so I had my sagpension.
I had Geico and we were fine. Which co commercial
(19:01):
Washington crosses the Delaware Jim Meskiman, the most wonderful impersonator
of the world. He played George Washington. And he was
on a boat and he was being pushed across the
Delaware Highway and I was the annoyed driver, late for
work or whatever. I had just done another job before
(19:22):
that where I had this very forward, you know, seventies
porn stash and I couldn't shave it for the commercial edition.
So I was in the fitting for the commercial edgit
and I had worked with this director many times before.
I said, so, of course you want me to lose
the mustache, right? He goes like that, He goes, no, dude,
I hired the mustache. I didn't hire you. I hired
(19:48):
the musk.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
So how are you doing these days? Like, how's your heart? Buddy?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Eighth year anniversary was just a few days ago.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, you're alive. I appreciate that. I'm so happy you're alive,
buddy and everything. Yet you have done all of the movies,
every movie that anybody's ever seen You're in it, all
the movies that are awesome and matter, you're in it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I'll take that.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
But we're going to go back a little bit. You
got into Juilliard, but your parents wouldn't pay for it.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I almost wore my Juilliard Athletics hat I thought I
was actually given last time I was in New York
till the girl at the register my story and she
gifted me this hat. Basically, yes, I got into Juilliard.
I had auditioned through the leagues and done all that.
I had done a bunch of regional theater at that point,
even though I was only seventeen. Basically, my parents, my father, certainly,
(20:36):
they didn't want me to be an actor.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Did they think it was beneath No.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
They didn't want me to be an actor. They didn't
want me to have everything around acting, which is what
Juilliard is. So they said, you need to go to
a four year college and get a regular education. And
all young actors, this is directly to you. If you're
watching this, do not listen to this. Do not listen
to the advice. Go for your dream. Do not allow
them to tell you need something to fall back on bullshit.
(21:03):
If you're worrying and living your acting career and you're
still have that little knowledge or your little escape route
to fall back on, you're never going to make it
as an actor. You got to be one hundred percent
all in. And it devastated me. And then basically what
happened is John Houseman, who was the head of the
school at that time, he had a relationship with Duncan
(21:24):
Ross at USC Theater School, and that qualified as a
four year program for my parents. But it also ended
up that I was a Division one athlete, so I
could use some of that towards being an actor. What
to USC for two years was in a acting program
with Forrest Whittaker, with Eric Stoltz, with Ali Sheety, with
(21:48):
Tate Donovan, with Kathleen Willhoyt. I mean, just an incredible
class at USC. Anthony Edwards was in that class, and
we all started by our sophomore year getting work. It
was the heyday of teen films. I got a job,
Eric got a job, Anthony got a job. They all
got fours, gotcha, They all got Fast Times. Original High
(22:09):
actually had three of them.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Anthony was in Fast Times, Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
He and Eric Stultz were the two stoner dudes that
were falling out of the van all the time.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Oh shit, I didn't recognize Anthony. I thought Anthony's first
thing was Gotcha, which was a weird paintball movie.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
We all had long hairy, had long blonde air, and
yeah it was Eric and they were dude the guy's
falling out of the van with smoke pouring out of it.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And Sean Penn was in your class too, right or
was that the Loft?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Now that's another So now we're getting to the Sean
pan face. So after a sophomore year, I carried mine
into my junior year because I had a fulfilling that's anything.
But we all left and we got invited to a
place called the Loft Studio, which is an affiliate of
the Actors Studio at the time, and it was Peggy
Fury was her name, and her husband's name was William Traylor.
(22:57):
His two daughters, Stephanie Fury and her sister both went
to the Loft. You had to be invited to be
at the Laft Studio. You had to meet them, sit down.
Some of people had to audition, or they just sit
with Bill and Peggy in that class. It was four
days a week at the Loaf Studio, which is a
wonderful little black box space on Lebrea Avenue, and you
(23:18):
went to school in the morning for four hours a
day every day. And in that class it was split
up into Mondays and Wednesdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the two
different classes that on Friday you all came together and
you presented work in the theater that class. Sean Penn,
Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Worswater, myself, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan,
(23:42):
Meg Tilly, Jennifer Tilly, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp would drop
in every now and then, Angelicie Houston, Kira Sedgwick, Meg Ryan,
and there's even more, you know, people who went on
to do other things. That was all one class. That
is insane, insane for sure.
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(24:28):
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Speaker 2 (24:47):
Let's get back into it.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Now that we have talked a little bit about acting classes, you,
my friend, are an actor who teaches. Do you still
teach classes?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And thank you for saying that, By the way, that
is literally how I define myself. Yes, I do. I teach. Virtually.
There is a wonderful Canadian actor named Kyle Warren who
has created a I had my own during pandemic time
called the Working Actors Studio that was for the pandemic.
I teach one night a week. I teach a masterclass.
(25:22):
And yes, I am one hundred percent an actor who teaches.
I'm not an acting teacher. And there's a difference because
I mentor and I consider my colleagues, and I talk
about acting from the process and the work and the
craft and career guidance as well. Acting teachers tend to,
not all of them, but they tend to have a
(25:43):
very set way in which they teach the craft, usually
some sort of dogmatic whether it's the method, whether it's Stella,
whether it's imaginative work Michael Chekhov, which is outward inward.
But that's not I teach all disciplines, you know, because
the law of the affiliation with the actors student. I
do teach the method. I also teach. I had worked
with Stella Adler before. I'm influenced by Larry Moss, Peggy Fury,
(26:07):
and Udah Hagen. But the one night a week, it's
very cost effective, and I also you have to be
selected to be in my class. I keep it usually
at ten or twelve people because I want everybody to
work every week. And I do it because Peggy was
such a wonderful mentors me. Larry Moss was a wonderful
mentor to me that I think it's really important to
(26:31):
keep the craft alive, particularly in the times now. You
know of TikTok and influencers and shortcuts and everybody wanting
everything everything now, and they're not willing to put in
the work. They want immediate gratification. And acting is it's
a deep craft and you need to work at your craft.
(26:52):
You know, do you think shoe a Otania Those people
don't go in the cage every day and hit and
work on their craft. It's the same with acting. It's
a discipline. It's a discipline of the craft of acting,
and that is what carries the day. If you focus
on the discipline of the craft of acting rather than
the myopic self indulgence of acting and me and me,
(27:15):
what am I gonna get? I'm never gonna work, and
really focus on what drives you, what makes you exciting.
When I speak at actors studios, particularly college studios or
younger actors, or in a seminar I'm giving online about
the craft of acting, the main thing I ask actors
is I will say to them, Okay, so it's a
(27:36):
trick for sure, I'll say to them, so is there
anything else in your life, anything that you could do that,
you would be just as passionate about as being an actor.
And then I'll raise their hand. They say, but I
want to be a you.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Know, I want to be a fry cook in Phoenix
Can I.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Want to be whatever? I want to cook steaks. I
want to be the bear I want to you know,
I want it to be a chef I wanted to.
Then I would literally say to them, Steve, I'll say,
then do that, because if you're not one hundred percent in,
and if you're not as Stella Adler said, one of
my very favorite quotes is, to be an actor, you
have to have the soul of a rose, but you
(28:13):
also have to have the hide of a rhinoceros. And
this is why I'm trying to weed out this generation
of actors, the ones who want to really just do
this is you have to understand that they come from
a generation, this new younger generation, and I love a
lot of them. I'm not beseeching her, and my kids
are as well. They come from what I call the
(28:34):
everybody gets a trophy generation. You know, when they play
Little League now or when they play Pop Warner, they
play this. Your team can be the worst team and
never won a single game. But yet at the end
of the year you still get a participation. Truth yep,
that doesn't happen in life, and it certainly doesn't happen
as an actor. Just because you gave a great audition
(28:54):
or just because they're calling you in and doesn't mean
you're going to get the part. I just gave a
fantastastic and I'm not blowing it literally was. I wouldn't
say it if it wasn't. I gave a fantastic audition
for this TV show on Monday. It's actually a producer
I've worked for before, and casting people I've worked for before. Then,
because of the new world order of self tapes, not
(29:15):
going into the room, not seeing them, it's now Friday.
I haven't heard a word.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I haven't heard anything, so.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I don't know if it went into the you know,
whend fell into a wormhole somewhere nothing and you just
go wow. And I'm sure you would have tested to
that too as well. I was like, wow, what, so
you have to have the that's the height of the rhino.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
The class that you teach is that different from the
Working Actor's Journey.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
The Working Actors Journey was basically a podcast but before
podcasts were big, and it was a literally like that.
It was a zoom show. So basically I'd put out
every week. This was height to the pandemic. Nobody could
go anywhere. We were all trapped in our homes. I
would invite my colleagues all like all the colleagues you've had.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
On and including Eric and Eliza Roberts.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yes, including Eric and Eliza Roberts, who I've known Eliza forever.
She was a CASTI director for many many years. She
put me in a lot of things. I've known Eric
forever just as an actor. And also we were collaborating
years ago on a as a producer he wanted to.
I used to have a production company with Martin Sheen
called Symphony Pictures. He wanted to do this one particular
(30:22):
book that he wanted to start in and so we
were working on producing it. So ultimately, and I would
I always run into Eric and Eliza at these comic
co on things. Yeah, they were fun. They're a cute,
wacky couple.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
They are cute together. I had them both on like
as a as a couple and we had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So do you still do I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I don't do the Working Actors Journey anymore. I don't,
but I had a great time. All the people in
Dermott was on, Larry Moss was on, Sharon Lawrence was on.
Giancarlo Esposito was on.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Can I ask why you don't do it anymore?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
If I do it, I do it as what you do.
I would do it as a podcast, Steve. It was
all craft based. We'd come on and we would talk.
It wouldn't be like an interview that it would be
about craft. How do they approach the work? What was
your process in this? Tell me about working with you know, Scorsese,
Tell me about working with was Sorkin. Tell me about
working all that just so actors could hear. Tell me
about your struggles. Tell me about when you you know,
(31:19):
talked about when Spencer was on. We talked about, you know,
his years of struggling as a bartender and trying to
It was very raw and open. That was live. So
you had one hundred and fifty two hundred actors who
would ask questions.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
And you had GDM on there right because he struggled
like crazy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I did not, actually he didn't.
Oh wow, No, I had wife interesting.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
JDM was so busy with Walking Dead at that point.
Oh okay, I had Hillary on.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Hillary Burton Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yes. I had Hillary on with Willie Garson, oh rip. Yeah.
So they were very close friends and they had done
the show together, and so I had the two of
them on and it was great and it was I
still have to find that actually, because I don't even
know where they are.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
But I was going to ask are those available anywhere
where people can check them out?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I don't know if I saved any of them. I
don't know if they did or not. I want to
find that one, in particular because I'd like to send
it to his son.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's sweet. Did you say they were recorded on zoom?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, so they may be out there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
It might be in your computer.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
It might be I don't want to know it's in
my computer.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Okay. So a couple of times we have for reference
that you were a D one athlete that was not
in lacrosse, like the whole family, that was in tennis, right.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I grew up in Northern California, so it was in tennis.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Were you on the same level as like Lars Ulrich
from Metallica. That guy was a tennis guy.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I don't remember playing against Lars. I played a lot
against the McEnroe, younger McEnroe, that generation, the Bolitari kids.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Okay, and you ball boyed for Elias Tassi?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I did. How did you find this out? You're a
fucking credible and detective. Yes, I did. There was a
tennis tournament and the country love that I played tennis
at called the Fireman's Fund in northern California. There was
a professional ernament there every year and all of us
junior players were the ball boys. He was my idol.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, did you learn anything from him?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Ilianistasi and John McEnroe were my idols. John McEnroe played
at Stanford, where my brother was going. I was an
actor through and through on the tennis court. Like my
mother would not come to certain matches because I was
very dramatic, as was Nastasi and McEnroe. I broke brackets,
(33:31):
I broke you know.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
I was.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I was a lot. I hated it, hated playing tennis.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Well, at least you were good at it. Okay, this
is a weird question, but I'm asking anyway, tell me
how missus Gilliland's sugar Cookies changed the path of your life.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Oh my god, Missus Gililand, Yes, wherever you are, Hello,
Missus Gillilan. Sam was her son's name, so she's probably
maybe no longer with us, but Sam certainly so.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
My very first acting job, I was seven years old.
Boy in the Manger I believe was the name of
the play at the Methodist Church, and I was the
Boy and the Manger. I was the star of the Joe.
I say it was the very last time I was
ever number one on the call sheet. It's a very
(34:24):
number of time that I was above the title and
that the title of the character was me.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
So yes.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
And then afterwards I got such attention from everybody. But
most importantly, I had a whole batch of cookies, sugar
cookies by Missus Gilliland, cooked for me, and they were
the most outrageous sugar cookies you could ever imagine. And
from that point on, I said, this is what I
want to do with my life.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Well, thank you, Missus Gilliland. Of all of the movies
that you have been in and all of the television
projects that you've been in, there's one that I well,
I'm going to ask you right now, can I be
in Young Guns one with you? Please? Can we just
go back and do that? I want to be in
Young Guns so bad.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
You hit the right one for sure. I would literally
ask by my wife the other day about what my
favorite movie.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Experience was was that it?
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It was it? And as you've deterred that group of men,
we were young men at that time, Young Guns, that
group of men have had such a major influence on
my life. As I said, Dermott is a confidant, a
friend forever. Lou is a confidant and a friend forever.
Emilio is a dear, dear friend, confidant forever. The four
(35:37):
of us there and Charlie is Charlie, and Keifer is Keifer.
And Casey we're like, where did he go?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Where did he go? What happened Casey? Casey come back?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I don't know. Casey and I also were in a
movie called Secret Admirer with the with seats Yeah, and
I actually had sent out both to Dermott and Lou
and c Thomas. A quick screenshot capture of Casey in
his sister Nina's Instagram feed.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
WHOA He's the only one on is one.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Shot in their entire feed, and I said it to
the boys, and I said, literally, Shamasco siding, Shamasco siding
what Dermott was saying to me the other.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He's so right.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Whenever we go to these comic on things, everybody comes
up to us with the iconic Young Guns poster. I
signed off to the right because I'm the snitche and
I'm not pictured. But everybody has everybody's signature except for Casey's.
He didn't even need to go to him. If you
just signed with a signing agent, they would send those posts.
He would make thousands.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yeah, he would kill it.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
You would kill it, and then those posters become worth
so much.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I have friends who show remain nameless for obvious reasons,
but they tell me about the Duffel bags of cash
that they leave cons with, Like Casey, if you're out there, buddy,
go pick up your double bag.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
They're pulling your leg because they're not Duffle bags. But
you weave with a lot of cash. But if you're
up to be sure, some huge celebrity, like I'm sure
Giancarlo Westposito, who's the king of the cons. He just is.
He flies all over the world and I'm sure his
duffel bag is first filled by the promoters. Yeah, we guarantee.
(37:21):
That's why he's there. If I get a guarantee, it's
not going to be a doffle bag. The fans do
come out and you know, you sign their things and
it's nice to meet them, and usually is all cash.
It's an interesting subculture.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
It is a very fascinating subculture.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors. Let's
get back into it.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
How is it different researching a role when you're playing
a real person versus one that's made up for the project.
How difficult does that research or how different is it?
And how much has it changed with the invention of
the internet, Because like when you were in Young Guns,
that dude really existed, but the Internet didn't, so you
had to go to the library.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Ding ding ding. Yes, I had to go to the library.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Which, incidentally, that's what Tommy was doing here. He was
a couple of days ago he was doing a signing
at some con, but then he went to the library
as part of his State Golden Foundation or something.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah, no, he has a State Golden Foundation, so he
was probably screening outsiders.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
He travels all over the country with meeting the fans.
They do a screening of it. Darren Dalton joins them.
Sometimes they talk about Stay Gold and Pony Boy. It's
such an influential book. Still.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, they still teach that book in schools here in Texas.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Yeah, my son's birthday last year. We actually went to
see Outsiders the musical on his birthday, right before it
won the Tony Nice. Yeah, and then there's still amazed.
They say, well, yeah, you know pony Boy was the
best man in your mom and his wedding. No, yah,
but yeah, research in the library for sure. It's still
(39:05):
questionable whether McCloskey actually was is.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
By my history is written by the winners, so we'll
never know.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
We'll never know, And I wish he wasn't because then
I could be in Young Guns three. So the last
few years I've done a lot of real people. I
played Kenny.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
O'Donnell god Father Harlem, right, which.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Is my introduction to Chris Broancato, who I met through
Paul Exstaine. It was the other show creator. Kenny O'Donnell
was the chief of staff for JFK. JFK A lot
of research on him. These two adults approached me once
after the show and I met them and it turned
out that they were actually the adult children of Kenny O'Donnell.
Their father has been portrayed in other movies. Costner played
(39:46):
him in twenty four Hours or twenty three hours, whatever
that was called. And they said thank you, and I said,
well why, I said, for the very first time, we
could close our eyes and we could hear our father.
So I did enough research to understand how the man
speaks and what his accent was. It's not a Boston accent.
It's a culmination of Kennedy accent, you know, Kenny bunk
(40:07):
Point accent and then Boston thrown in and then a
little bit Irish. So he did that one and I
found out who he was. And then after that I
did Midway where I played John Ford, the legendary director.
Again tons of research, documentaries, and again it was about
capturing his voice. You don't do an impersonation, but hear
(40:28):
you figure out where it sits, what it is. John
Ford's case, he comes from upp A, Maine, so he
got a seaboard Upper Main accent, and then his five
parents are very Irish, so he's first generation. So you
get a little bit of Irish that's thrown in. He
had a very gravelly voice, as do I in some
ways very influenced because he liked to drink whiskey now
(40:52):
and then, more now than then. And he also smoked
cigars and was most famous for his pipe. Always had
a pipe up on set, and Roland said, Roland emeric,
Roland embric. Yes, Roland said after I asked him, why me,
because I saw thousands of people for this, he said,
you were one of the I think maybe the only
(41:14):
actor who actually brought a pipe to the audition.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Do you still have it? Hell? Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
We all liberate a lot of employ I still have the
hat from Young Guns.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Hell yeah. Do you still have that Donna caron suit?
I do? Nice, totally do.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
That was some ed TV love that, Yes, shoulder pads
and all.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Did you say that they really are working on Young
Guns three? Is that something that Emelia is trying to do?
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, it's being done. It's being greenlit.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Oh fantastic. Is he going to direct it? Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And he wrote it. He wrote it with what if?
Speaker 3 (41:52):
The Amelia projects that he directed, have you been in
five of them?
Speaker 1 (41:57):
That's kind of man. Young Guns at Work Rated X,
The War at Home m M, and then one he
didn't direct but just acted in called Nightbreaker Never you
can find it.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Sure, you have been in so many projects with some
of the same people, Like you've been in a ton
of projects with Tom Hanks. You've been in a ton
of Ron Howard projects. You know, you've been in a
ton of Amelia projects. Are you at a point now
in your relationship with some of these folks that you
work with all the time, Like do you have to
audition or they just call you up and you go, hey, Blakey,
I need you.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
It depends, you know, Bob the Mechas used to just
call me up. Yeah, it really depends. Yeah, Ron Howard,
you still audition, but you come in. It's going to
be a big ensemble piece. And we always say that
we're the the Ron Howard players, And if he's going
to do a big historical piece, we really want him
to do a Bill Clinton piece because then we could
all be in.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
Okay, did you really play a role in getting the
paparazzi to be designated as aggressive panhandlers and not allowed
within one hundred yards of places of early education in
Santa Monica and you are good.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yes, Robert Shriver not Robert Kennedy Junior. I was a
city councilman in Santa Monica. He may have been in
the head of the city council at that point, but anyway,
So I went to a preschool in Santa Monica with
my older son. I didn't vot to my older somebody.
We always say we went because you basically do. It
was at the height of Ben and Jen, not Lopez,
(43:32):
but Garner, and it was their four year old that
was there, and Jen was pregnant and very close to
having number two. And the paparazzi would line up in
front of the preschool and they would just snap and
we'd have to fight, you know. I would help them
fight through to get them like like I would stand
in front of people, I'd block their cameras. And one
(43:53):
time I was had Xander on my shoulders and I
was blocking the cameras, letting Jen and Ben get in safety.
And it's disgusting the things that these paparazzis would yell
at Ben. They want a reaction, they want him to
come at them. It really was disgusting. I mean literally,
things that are so inappropriate to say in front of
four year.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Olds or wives or.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Wives of course, and all of their were the different
wives that were there, the Grinathan Chris were there as well,
Paltrow Martin. So this incident happened where Xander was on
my shoulders. This paparazzi got so aggressive he was bringing
trying to bring his camera cross to shoot over me
and he clocked my four year old with his lens. Ooh,
(44:37):
and that was it.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
I had it.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
So I went and I called Bobby Schreiver's office and said,
this is out of control. There has to be something
that we can do to curtail this. Their celebrities, Okay,
they've made that bed, their row, whatever it is, but
our kids should not have to pay for this. So
we devised it. We said at that point there was
a big homeless issue going on in Sentim, very aggressive
(45:01):
panhandlers on the streets asking for money. So Bobby came
up with the idea that basically they're panhandled, they are
on our curbs, they are doing it in public places,
and they are taking whatever they're doing on the curb
and they're making money with it. That is the definition
of panhandling and aggressive panhandling was the city's statute we
(45:24):
came up with, so if they wanted to pay huge fines,
they could continue to do it. But none of them
were going to do that because they weren't making enough
money to pay for these huge fines. So it literally
curtailed the panhandling problem and they had to stay where
they couldn't be heard. They could shoot with their long lenses,
but they couldn't be in Ben and Jen's face.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
And this is specifically tied to preschools.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
It ended up being tied to preschools, early education, and
high schools.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Oh good, So from high school all the way down.
Oh that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
I mean there were other There was Laura Dern was there,
Meg Ryan, wasn't just Ben and Jin, but they were
the most aggressive would benefit.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Well, kudos to you, my friend. Way to fight. I
love it. Yet, I love that we haven't really hardly
talked about any of your actual career. So I'm gonna
ask you to come back on at another point. I
need you to tell me if you will tell me
about that one time that Lizzo recognized you.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
No, I'm not going to discuss that. What. Nope, the
one getting into the Lizzo world. But yes that is
yes she did, and yes she was lovely, and yes
she was fantastic, And that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Love it. You and your wife are screenwriters or she
is you were? Is that how that works?
Speaker 1 (46:45):
For five years we were probably one of the hottest
screenwriting teams in Hollywood. We were called the Blakes. She
had written a play. This is the earliest parts of it.
I dared her to write a screenplay, and she wrote
a screen And then I had a friend of a
friend who was a friend of Madonna's and got the
script of Madonna, and Madonna wanted to do it. So
(47:07):
that was our start there. And then we started to
write together and we wrote a spec script and that
specscript got into the hands of a very famous entertainment
attorney named Carlos Goodman, and Carlos Goodman loved it. He
slipped it to at the time Scott Greenberg, who was
a literary agent at Caia. Scott Greenberg loved it, and
(47:28):
in the meantime we had a little job we had done.
We had adapted a screenplay called Lady of the Monster.
It was the story of Gloria Treddi who was a
very famous Mexican pop singer who also got involved with
the Schengali kind of p ditty ish manager who ended
up being very lurid, and he had this harem of
fourteen and fifteen year old girls singers that he was
(47:51):
basically molesting all of them. So we wrote that and
then Caia read that. So they had two scripts now
and for Lady of the Monster. Within a week, Penelope
Cruise was attached to play Gloria Trevi. It went out
people in sound Reddit. We met with every top production
company in town, and then Gloria Trevis story led to
(48:11):
a movie called Seventeen Stone Angels, which is what we're
trying to do with Lou now. Seventeen Stone Angels was
novel that they needed adapt It also set in an
Hispanic set in Buenos Aires and Robert Town, Chinatown. Robert
Toown the greatest screenplay writer of the time. He wanted
to direct it and so he hired us to adapt it,
and the producer on it was Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise.
(48:35):
So that was why I was at Paramount, and it's
full circle back to trying to get the rights back
from Paramount.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Got you at that point on.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
We wrote a movie for Warner Brothers, wrote a movie
for Trebeca. We were cooking with gas and I got
burnt out. You know, we still do write some I'm
an actor by trades. She's a great writer. Still do right,
but it's not my passion.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
At one point you were considering a sequel to Brink.
Did you ever do that?
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Did you find this out? We did not know, but
I still would love to. That is one of the
most particularly the con world, that is the most surprising.
Following There's not a day I don't hear from some
thirty year old just walking down the street. I don't
hear somebody yell out Jimmy, Jimmy. I guess I maybe
look like him a little bit still, And wait.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Maybe you just live near a bunch of jimmies. Maybe
it's not about you, man.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
I do live at a beach down and there are
a lot of thirty year olds, and there are a
lot of skaters, so that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
That is fantastic. Like I said, I'm going to have
to have you come back because we've really got to
talk about specifically some of these projects.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
And I welcome back for sure. I want to do brink,
but set in the skate world, skateboarding, not roll up lading.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Let's see here, we can pull some stings. We can
get Jason Lee. Jason Lee'll come be part of that project.
He was a skateboard star.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
My son's a big skateboarder.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Oh well, then we'll get him in it.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
And we' also acquainted with Paul Rodriguez's son, who is
gigantic in this school.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
It's huge. Yeah, huge. Wow. Jeffrey Blake, Oh my gosh,
definitely gonna have to have you back. But for this
particular episode, is there anything that specifically you wanted to
talk about that we didn't get to today? Nope, nope,
all right, you.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
Were a colombo of trivial facts.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
All right, cool, Jeffrey, Oh my god, Jeffrey Blake, the
star of all of my childhood and young adults and
adults films and TV shows. I love you so much.
Thank you so much for taking the time out of
your busy day and your hectic acting, teaching, writing, and
just protecting all of the little preschoolers schedule out much.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
I don't have to do that anymore.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Well, thanks, yeah, fortunately, thank you for letting us get
to know you. A little bit better on Fascination Street Man.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
I really appreciate it you, Steve, and we will do
it again soon.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
ABSA fing lutely thank you, dude. I keep in touch. Yes, please,
thank you buddy. You have a great rest of your weekend, dude,
many thanks, buddy. Opening music is the song FSP theme, written,
(51:17):
performed and provided by Ambush Vin. Closing music is from
the song say My Name off the twenty twenty one
album Underdog Anthems, used with permission from Jack's Hollow. If
you like the show, tell a friend, subscribe and rate
(51:38):
and review the show on iTunes and wherever else you
download podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
All the episodes are available there as well. Check me
out on vero at Fascination Street Pod and TikTok at
Fascination Street Pod. And again, thanks for listening.
This is Jeffrey Blake and you are listening to Fascination
Street Podcast with the wonderful Steve Yes. Yes the amp.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You walk down the most intert street in the world
with my voice Steve, Fascination Street.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You already know. Let's get it when you wait for
the fastest street. Welcome back to street Walkers. This episode
is with the great and talented Jeffrey Blake. You all
knows Jeffrey Blake because he has been in such films
as Young Guns, Castaway, Contact, Forrest Gump. He's been in
(00:42):
such TV shows as Godfather of Harlem, The Man in
the High Castle, Grim, Charmed and the Other Charmed, like
Book Charms. He was in the Old Charmed and the
New Charmed. Guy's been in everything, he still is in everything.
He is amazing. Franklin. I mean, I'm telling you what.
And here's the thing. We talk about almost none of
(01:04):
those projects. I think we talk about Young Guns a
little while, but really in this episode we get to
understand who Jeffrey is, why he became an actor, and
why he still loves doing it. We do go off
on a little bit of a tangent talking about some
of Jeffrey and his wife's screenwriting career and a great
story about how he personally played a role in getting
(01:27):
the paparazzi to be designated as aggressive panhandlers in Santa Monica.
That's a really cool story. And we talk at the
beginning about his growing up, his family, they moved around
a bunch. We find out why his whole family is
basically d one athletes in multiple different sports in multiple
different schools. So we talk some about that too, and
(01:48):
Jeffrey just shares some great stories, I mean dudes of
legendary screenwriter, so of course he is a storyteller. And
then we also talk about some acting classes that he
was in and some that he teaches. Jeffrey Blake is
an actor who also teaches acting, and so we talked
a little bit about that and what that actually means
(02:09):
and why he continues to do it. I have a
verbal commitment that Jeffrey's going to come back to due
round two. I hope that that holds, because we haven't
even cracked the shell of the egg that is Jeffrey Blake.
And this is my first conversation with the wonderfully talented
and prolific Jeffrey Blake. For credit be faffinating Forgreda be
(02:34):
facinating Forgreda be fafinating. Welcome to Fascination Street Podcast. Jeffrey Blake.
What's up, dude?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I like you man.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I'm not going to complain now because I complained alone
before I hit record, and you got an earfuls, So
thank you for being my therapist today. All right, ladies
and gentlemen street workers, if you will, This is Jeffrey Blake,
a man so good at acting. He once teamed up
with Spencer Garrett and they played sideburns and mustache. Mustache
(03:07):
and sideburns. Sideburns and mustache.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
How did you know that that's so obscure? Yeah, I
actually got Spencer to do that for a friend of
mine who was creating that graphic not all voice casting things.
Scott Wild got him to do it, got Xander Berkley
to do it, got some other people to help my
friend out. But yes, Spencer, that was Spencer's and ies.
We've known each other for forty four years. But yeah,
(03:30):
I think that's the first time we've ever donned a
microphone or grace the screen together.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So mustache and sideburns aside, it seems like you're a
bit of an influencer getting all your friends to work
on these projects.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I don't know. I think we're all influencers. It gets
to the point now where you know you've been doing
it for so long, you've worked with so many people.
I always say that I judge my career as being
a successful career, not by how much I've worked or
how much I've been hired, but how many times I've
been re by the same person. So I'm doing something
(04:03):
right if Bob Zamechis is hiring me movie after movie,
Ron Howard movie after movie, et cetera. But as we
move along, it's those colleagues, as Bill Pashton used to
call it the circus, and he and I have done
a lot of collaborations together because of him. So you know,
when I did Texas Rising, it was Bill who got
me the job on Texas Rising to be his sidekick.
(04:25):
A few other movies like one. One Sunday night last year,
I was at my kids baseball game. My phone rings
and it's Dermot Mulroney, and Dermott is saying, hey, Jeff,
what are you doing tomorrow? It was a Sunday and
I said, I don't know what am I doing tomorrow Dermott,
you're doing this movie with me. I'm not going to
say any disparacing but there was a guy playing a
part and so I told the director I'd rather work
(04:48):
with you. And so they'll be calling you and come
do it.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
And did that happen? It did?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, it happens all the time. Lou Diamond Phillips and
I are collaborating on him directing a script that we wrote.
And you know, now we're just dealing with rights with
Paramount and how to get them back. And we wrote
it for Paramount that you know, because paramounts being sold
and being held hostage.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Who are they selling to Paramounts being sold?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
This guy dance?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Oh well, okay, wow, that's all.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Being arbitrated in the courts. Sure, because it has to
do with CBS. That's the part that's the hold up.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You just mentioned it to Hey, I'm doing the same
you you don't have the shamed Ask well, is there
anything in it? I could do? And they'll say, oh, yeah,
well you did it. Let me go. That's just the
way it works.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
People think Hollywood's this really big place. It's Hollywood's dead,
but they think they're Elliott. But it's not. It really
is a very small, insular community of people who you know,
we've done it for so long and we have mutual
respect for each other that we tend to you know,
you want to work with the same members of the circus.
As Bill Paxton said, you.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Know, when I started doing this is when I really
started to notice how networked everybody is. And it's not
just in the film industry and television, but also you know,
musicians and authors, like everybody in everything is connected in
every way, and it is astounding to me how deep
those connections go. It's wild.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Did you have a good time with Yule last week?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yule?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
He's the best.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I am in love with Youle. Plus guess he is
the absolute nicest guy. He is a sweetheart. I love
him so much now. I mean I liked his work
before and some of the times I've heard him in interviews
and things, but just face to face, that guy is
the beas.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Andy's great musician, kindest, most inclusive. Just yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And his art, his photography and his paintings are just beyond.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
He is a true renaissance man.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh yeah, he does it all. And he's married to
a princess. What Oh my god. Okay, So, Jeffrey, what
I like to do is I like to start from
the beginning. It helps us understand how the guests got
from where they were to where they are. So where
we want to raise?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Man?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I grew up all over the world why and then
I ultimately ended up up in northern California for a
good portion of my younger you know, ten on why
I can tell you now why I wouldn't been able
to a few years back. I suspected my whole life
once they became an adult and became cognitive and aware
of how the world works. My father wasn't a CIA,
(07:16):
you know, although he ended up becoming in a strange
father anyway.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
This is the same father who was a lacrosse legend.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yes, a lacrosse legend. Basically that was one of the
reasons I realized, you know, mapping out that I lived
in places, particularly in those few years up to like twelve,
they were all in politically volatile places, and there were
always things that monumented, things happened.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
So shit was going down every place you lived.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yes, Michael Dacaucus and my father were college classmates. At
a place called Swathmore University.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I think you have to say, like swamp More, Swathmont.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
You do for sure with that Philadelphia's Newdia accent, which
I still possess. My grandmother is my grandfa. Everybody went
to Swalksman. My parents grew up in Swarthmont. When Michael
to Caucus was running for president, he said, when I
think it was Time magazine, he said, so I went
to this very very elite East Coast Seyboard originally Quaker
(08:11):
school called Swarthmore on the level academically with the Harvards
and the Ales and the Columbia, that kind of level
of academians. And our school was made up of two factions.
It was made up of us me who were the
POLYPSCI majors, political science majors, and we all went into politics.
And then there was the other faction of the school
(08:32):
that were the engineering marriagers, that were the jocks. He
was the supreme jock at that school. They went into
the CIA. Who So my father went from Swathimore. He
was actually drafted in the NFL, which made no money
in those days. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, that was back when you had to have a
week job and then the weekend was your.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
You had to pack grocer to do something during the week.
So he was drafted based on his athleticism as a
ross player by the Baltimore Colts. He had played on
a very famous nc TWOA All Star team.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
That had Jim Brown for lacrosse.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, Jim Brown played football and lacrosse at Syracuse. He
played on this NCQA All Star team. And my grandfather,
Avery Blake Senior.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Also lacrosse legend.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
He was the coach. He's in the Hall of Fame
of lacrosse as well. He was the one time coach
of the one time It was at the Olympics in Berlin.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Hold on, your grandfather coached an Olympic lacrosse team in
Berlin and that was in the forties. Is that the
one that Hitler was at.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yes, he met Hitler. That's what they were a real
really excited about. I met Jim Brown at a Saint
Jude's event, you know the event they have here for
Danny Thomas Marlo Thomas's Hospital that treats cancer kids. Amazing organization,
and so I was at this event at Center City
and I saw him and I walked up to him
(09:56):
and I said, excuse me, mister Brown, but I believe
you played lacrosse with my father, and I believe my
grandfather coached you in this this all star team. He goes, oh,
the Avery Blakes. Yes, yes, let me tell you something
about your dad son. Okay, he goes, second greatest lacrosse player.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And oh snap. I thought he was going to say
something crazy that.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Was really colbl about it, but clearly wanted that he
knew that he was the greatest lacrosse player along with
the greatest football player. But of course that's what brought
eyes and attention to my father being drafted in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
So your dad was drafted. Did he ever play football?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
No, he didn't. He ended up getting an offered like
officer and a gentleman an officers training, naval training. So
he went to officers Candidate school, became a naval engineer,
which is also a huge recruiting ground for the CIA. Ultimately,
the CIA life became his path and he lived an
entirely secret life from that point on and all the
(11:00):
implications of that. I ended up, you know, doing a
project with Bob Behar, who's a very famous CIA agent,
who was contributor on CNN A lot. He was chief
of station in Lebanon and Libya, you know, Hesbelahamas, all that.
Once my dad passed, I said, Bob, this is what
I've always thought. He basically this gave me a very
strong wink, saying, yeah, your dad was involved in some
(11:21):
pretty incredible stuff. The two examples I'll give that, well,
you'll figure it out. We lived when I was a
child in nineteen sixty three, I was one years old.
We lived in New Orleans for a year.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh god, damn. I thought you're gonna say you lived
in Dallas. Okay, you lived in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
No, but that's where Dallas was being planned. That's where
all of it was being planned. So that's where where
he was. That's where the shooter was, but also what
was going on. Linking back to Yule, it also was
where the CIA was recruiting and plotting the Bay of Pigs.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Wow, so you.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Have Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans in nineteen sixty three,
You had the Bay of Pigs going down in nineteen
sixty three of all the anti castor or you know,
warriors that had fled, and you also have New Orleans
as a place where they had these very famous detainee rooms.
They had a lot of interrogation of communists and et cetera.
But enough about my father. I don't even like my
(12:13):
boss never did.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
One quick thing that I learned fairly recently, is that
on that fateful day in nineteen sixty three in Dallas.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
November twenty second, there you go, wait for it, November
twenty second is my father's birthday.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Shut the fuck up? Are you serious?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I'm serious?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Wow? Okay, So that day there was four United States
presidents in Dallas that day that blew me away. Right,
So obviously Kennedy and Johnson, but also Nixon was in
town doing some fundraiser, and then I think the head
of the CIA at that time was George Herbert Walker Bush. Right, yep,
(12:54):
I guess your dad's boss. We're definitely we can stop
talking about that.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's transitioning because I don't want to talk him out
him anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
For all of you who are listening in a room somewhere,
we're gonna move on.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yes, hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors.
Let's get back into it.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
We're going to bounce all over the place because you
have such a wild and fascinating career. Yes, I'm here.
Let's go a few years ago, right around the same
time that your buddy Bill Paxson did, you had an
open heart surgery. Same here, lrip Bill. He was amazing,
one of my.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Most dearest friends and influencer in my life.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
It broke my heart, but I didn't even know him,
so I can't imagine what it was like for you
and all of the rest of the people who actually
knew him.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Hello Texan for you.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Do you feel comfortable with telling me why you needed
an open heart surgery?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
The father It's completely hereditary.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Was it the same sort of a thing that Bill had?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Not at all?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Bill had a heart defect that he was born with.
They had to repair that. And I was just straight
up blocked arteries, cholesterol based, stress based, but hereditary. My
father had a quadruple bypassed at fifty three. Don't know
if my grandfathers did. But and my brother, who's four
years older than I am, he's the one that started
(14:22):
the course, the path for discovery. As I said, we
were strange from my father. So he called me up
one day from the ski slope up in Tahoe. We
each call each other big big brother Big. I call
it big too big. I just had an incident on
the ski slope. I had to have a quadruple bypass
Jesus emergency. We're having that tomorrow. They say it's all hereditary.
(14:47):
My brother was a triathlete. Both of us were Division
one athletes. That's hereditary. That's also hereditary. So he ended
up having the surgery. And then of course with my
wife said, I immediately went to a cardiologist and I
had no symptoms.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I had nothing.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Basically, I wanted the UCLA cardiologists, and that's what we
have to go to a SAG. He said, okay, so
what I want to do is I want to put
you into this program because you're so young. I was
fifty four at the time. You're so young that we
have an experiment where people who are at risk with
areditary we're putting them on two paths. It's a blind study,
(15:26):
and we're going to do invasive, which is people who
are going to get stints and they're going to get
angioplasts and all that stuff. And then we're going to
also treat some people with just the new medicines and
see if that reduces your risk. I was put on
the new medicine path. Now, we said, but we also
have to do a cat scan, and we need to
do it all the imaging of your heart, because you know,
(15:49):
there's only one minor thing that would make you not
qualify it. But the program there was a two percent
chance that you would have something that is called left
main disease, very rare. Most people do not have it,
particularly at your age. I'm not worried that you're going
to have it because by your ekg I don't think
you're gonna have left main disease. Pretty confident at that.
(16:10):
And then he said, an even greater thing about this
is you get paid. I go, that is great. I'd
love to be paid.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Oh, you get paid for the study.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Nice paid for the study, and they pay for the
surgery if I was going to have one. Ever, that
didn't happen. But ultimately, I'm at a meeting, a writer's
meeting on sunset plaza. I'll never forget sunset plasma. I'm
just about to go in the meeting when I get
a text from this doctor and he says, you need
to call me right away. And I called them right away.
From the car before I went into the meeting, and
(16:39):
he says, you can't be in the program. You have
left main disease. So I need to get you to
another doctor because this is not the kind of thing
I deal with because I'm a cardiologist, I'm not a surgeon.
So he gives me up with another doctor that I
have a meeting with, and ultimately, what you don't want
to do and Steve, you don't want to google left
(17:04):
main disease on WebMD or any of those things, because
I literally went into this meeting. We were late anyway,
sat down with these people. We were pitching him a
movie project, and I excuse myself to go to the
men's room. And what do I do. I start checking
what left main disease is and the first thing I
read is diagnosis to death six weeks.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I stopped meeting there.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, you didn't have time to finish reading. You got
six weeks, bro, But.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
What I didn't know is that what that meant was
this six weeks if you don't have surgery got you.
Literally I go meet with this doctor and he assures
me that he's never lost a patient, that he's doing
this as a favor, and he's actually a tranceplant doctor.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Well hold on, if he's doing it for a favor,
then he was doing it for free.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, And ultimately I found out that my brother, who
is very very very very very wealthy, he had actually
had his heart doctor call this heart doctor to give
it a little less nudge that you know, would be
good for him to do this.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Nice thanks, big, Yeah, we.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Don't need to go there either. Another complicated human being.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
So ultimately I go meet doctor Arta Holly as sorry
it is you need him. Doctor Arta Holly plug for him,
and he tells me I need the surgery, and then
he tells me he's going on a trip. I said, okay,
because you're not going to die in the time I'm
on my trip. And then I say to him, okay, good,
because a week after your trip, I'm supposed to shoot
at Geico commercial. And I really want to do the
(18:38):
Geico commercial because what you're telling me is I'm going
to be down off the market for about nine months
to a year to recover. So I did the Geico
commercial and literally it carried us through the entire nine
months of the year than God for Geico. Then right
after the surgery, I turned fifty five, and then I
collected my SAG pension early, and so I had my sagpension.
I had Geico and we were fine. Which co commercial
(19:01):
Washington crosses the Delaware Jim Meskiman, the most wonderful impersonator
of the world. He played George Washington. And he was
on a boat and he was being pushed across the
Delaware Highway and I was the annoyed driver, late for
work or whatever. I had just done another job before
(19:22):
that where I had this very forward, you know, seventies
porn stash and I couldn't shave it for the commercial edition.
So I was in the fitting for the commercial edgit
and I had worked with this director many times before.
I said, so, of course you want me to lose
the mustache, right? He goes like that, He goes, no, dude,
I hired the mustache. I didn't hire you. I hired
(19:48):
the musk.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
So how are you doing these days? Like, how's your heart? Buddy?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Eighth year anniversary was just a few days ago.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, you're alive. I appreciate that. I'm so happy you're alive,
buddy and everything. Yet you have done all of the movies,
every movie that anybody's ever seen You're in it, all
the movies that are awesome and matter, you're in it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I'll take that.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
But we're going to go back a little bit. You
got into Juilliard, but your parents wouldn't pay for it.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I almost wore my Juilliard Athletics hat I thought I
was actually given last time I was in New York
till the girl at the register my story and she
gifted me this hat. Basically, yes, I got into Juilliard.
I had auditioned through the leagues and done all that.
I had done a bunch of regional theater at that point,
even though I was only seventeen. Basically, my parents, my father, certainly,
(20:36):
they didn't want me to be an actor.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Did they think it was beneath No.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
They didn't want me to be an actor. They didn't
want me to have everything around acting, which is what
Juilliard is. So they said, you need to go to
a four year college and get a regular education. And
all young actors, this is directly to you. If you're
watching this, do not listen to this. Do not listen
to the advice. Go for your dream. Do not allow
them to tell you need something to fall back on bullshit.
(21:03):
If you're worrying and living your acting career and you're
still have that little knowledge or your little escape route
to fall back on, you're never going to make it
as an actor. You got to be one hundred percent
all in. And it devastated me. And then basically what
happened is John Houseman, who was the head of the
school at that time, he had a relationship with Duncan
(21:24):
Ross at USC Theater School, and that qualified as a
four year program for my parents. But it also ended
up that I was a Division one athlete, so I
could use some of that towards being an actor. What
to USC for two years was in a acting program
with Forrest Whittaker, with Eric Stoltz, with Ali Sheety, with
(21:48):
Tate Donovan, with Kathleen Willhoyt. I mean, just an incredible
class at USC. Anthony Edwards was in that class, and
we all started by our sophomore year getting work. It
was the heyday of teen films. I got a job,
Eric got a job, Anthony got a job. They all
got fours, gotcha, They all got Fast Times. Original High
(22:09):
actually had three of them.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Anthony was in Fast Times, Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
He and Eric Stultz were the two stoner dudes that
were falling out of the van all the time.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Oh shit, I didn't recognize Anthony. I thought Anthony's first
thing was Gotcha, which was a weird paintball movie.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
We all had long hairy, had long blonde air, and
yeah it was Eric and they were dude the guy's
falling out of the van with smoke pouring out of it.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And Sean Penn was in your class too, right or
was that the Loft?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Now that's another So now we're getting to the Sean
pan face. So after a sophomore year, I carried mine
into my junior year because I had a fulfilling that's anything.
But we all left and we got invited to a
place called the Loft Studio, which is an affiliate of
the Actors Studio at the time, and it was Peggy
Fury was her name, and her husband's name was William Traylor.
(22:57):
His two daughters, Stephanie Fury and her sister both went
to the Loft. You had to be invited to be
at the Laft Studio. You had to meet them, sit down.
Some of people had to audition, or they just sit
with Bill and Peggy in that class. It was four
days a week at the Loaf Studio, which is a
wonderful little black box space on Lebrea Avenue, and you
(23:18):
went to school in the morning for four hours a
day every day. And in that class it was split
up into Mondays and Wednesdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the two
different classes that on Friday you all came together and
you presented work in the theater that class. Sean Penn,
Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Worswater, myself, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan,
(23:42):
Meg Tilly, Jennifer Tilly, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp would drop
in every now and then, Angelicie Houston, Kira Sedgwick, Meg Ryan,
and there's even more, you know, people who went on
to do other things. That was all one class. That
is insane, insane for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
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Speaker 2 (24:47):
Let's get back into it.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Now that we have talked a little bit about acting classes, you,
my friend, are an actor who teaches. Do you still
teach classes?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And thank you for saying that, By the way, that
is literally how I define myself. Yes, I do. I teach. Virtually.
There is a wonderful Canadian actor named Kyle Warren who
has created a I had my own during pandemic time
called the Working Actors Studio that was for the pandemic.
I teach one night a week. I teach a masterclass.
(25:22):
And yes, I am one hundred percent an actor who teaches.
I'm not an acting teacher. And there's a difference because
I mentor and I consider my colleagues, and I talk
about acting from the process and the work and the
craft and career guidance as well. Acting teachers tend to,
not all of them, but they tend to have a
(25:43):
very set way in which they teach the craft, usually
some sort of dogmatic whether it's the method, whether it's Stella,
whether it's imaginative work Michael Chekhov, which is outward inward.
But that's not I teach all disciplines, you know, because
the law of the affiliation with the actors student. I
do teach the method. I also teach. I had worked
with Stella Adler before. I'm influenced by Larry Moss, Peggy Fury,
(26:07):
and Udah Hagen. But the one night a week, it's
very cost effective, and I also you have to be
selected to be in my class. I keep it usually
at ten or twelve people because I want everybody to
work every week. And I do it because Peggy was
such a wonderful mentors me. Larry Moss was a wonderful
mentor to me that I think it's really important to
(26:31):
keep the craft alive, particularly in the times now. You
know of TikTok and influencers and shortcuts and everybody wanting
everything everything now, and they're not willing to put in
the work. They want immediate gratification. And acting is it's
a deep craft and you need to work at your craft.
(26:52):
You know, do you think shoe a Otania Those people
don't go in the cage every day and hit and
work on their craft. It's the same with acting. It's
a discipline. It's a discipline of the craft of acting,
and that is what carries the day. If you focus
on the discipline of the craft of acting rather than
the myopic self indulgence of acting and me and me,
(27:15):
what am I gonna get? I'm never gonna work, and
really focus on what drives you, what makes you exciting.
When I speak at actors studios, particularly college studios or
younger actors, or in a seminar I'm giving online about
the craft of acting, the main thing I ask actors
is I will say to them, Okay, so it's a
(27:36):
trick for sure, I'll say to them, so is there
anything else in your life, anything that you could do that,
you would be just as passionate about as being an actor.
And then I'll raise their hand. They say, but I
want to be a you.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Know, I want to be a fry cook in Phoenix
Can I.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Want to be whatever? I want to cook steaks. I
want to be the bear I want to you know,
I want it to be a chef I wanted to.
Then I would literally say to them, Steve, I'll say,
then do that, because if you're not one hundred percent in,
and if you're not as Stella Adler said, one of
my very favorite quotes is, to be an actor, you
have to have the soul of a rose, but you
(28:13):
also have to have the hide of a rhinoceros. And
this is why I'm trying to weed out this generation
of actors, the ones who want to really just do
this is you have to understand that they come from
a generation, this new younger generation, and I love a
lot of them. I'm not beseeching her, and my kids
are as well. They come from what I call the
(28:34):
everybody gets a trophy generation. You know, when they play
Little League now or when they play Pop Warner, they
play this. Your team can be the worst team and
never won a single game. But yet at the end
of the year you still get a participation. Truth yep,
that doesn't happen in life, and it certainly doesn't happen
as an actor. Just because you gave a great audition
(28:54):
or just because they're calling you in and doesn't mean
you're going to get the part. I just gave a
fantastastic and I'm not blowing it literally was. I wouldn't
say it if it wasn't. I gave a fantastic audition
for this TV show on Monday. It's actually a producer
I've worked for before, and casting people I've worked for before. Then,
because of the new world order of self tapes, not
(29:15):
going into the room, not seeing them, it's now Friday.
I haven't heard a word.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I haven't heard anything, so.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I don't know if it went into the you know,
whend fell into a wormhole somewhere nothing and you just
go wow. And I'm sure you would have tested to
that too as well. I was like, wow, what, so
you have to have the that's the height of the rhino.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
The class that you teach is that different from the
Working Actor's Journey.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
The Working Actors Journey was basically a podcast but before
podcasts were big, and it was a literally like that.
It was a zoom show. So basically I'd put out
every week. This was height to the pandemic. Nobody could
go anywhere. We were all trapped in our homes. I
would invite my colleagues all like all the colleagues you've had.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
On and including Eric and Eliza Roberts.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yes, including Eric and Eliza Roberts, who I've known Eliza forever.
She was a CASTI director for many many years. She
put me in a lot of things. I've known Eric
forever just as an actor. And also we were collaborating
years ago on a as a producer he wanted to.
I used to have a production company with Martin Sheen
called Symphony Pictures. He wanted to do this one particular
(30:22):
book that he wanted to start in and so we
were working on producing it. So ultimately, and I would
I always run into Eric and Eliza at these comic
co on things. Yeah, they were fun. They're a cute,
wacky couple.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
They are cute together. I had them both on like
as a as a couple and we had so much fun.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So do you still do I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I don't do the Working Actors Journey anymore. I don't,
but I had a great time. All the people in
Dermott was on, Larry Moss was on, Sharon Lawrence was on.
Giancarlo Esposito was on.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Can I ask why you don't do it anymore?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
If I do it, I do it as what you do.
I would do it as a podcast, Steve. It was
all craft based. We'd come on and we would talk.
It wouldn't be like an interview that it would be
about craft. How do they approach the work? What was
your process in this? Tell me about working with you know, Scorsese,
Tell me about working with was Sorkin. Tell me about
working all that just so actors could hear. Tell me
about your struggles. Tell me about when you you know,
(31:19):
talked about when Spencer was on. We talked about, you know,
his years of struggling as a bartender and trying to
It was very raw and open. That was live. So
you had one hundred and fifty two hundred actors who
would ask questions.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
And you had GDM on there right because he struggled
like crazy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I did not, actually he didn't.
Oh wow, No, I had wife interesting.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
JDM was so busy with Walking Dead at that point.
Oh okay, I had Hillary on.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Hillary Burton Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yes. I had Hillary on with Willie Garson, oh rip. Yeah.
So they were very close friends and they had done
the show together, and so I had the two of
them on and it was great and it was I
still have to find that actually, because I don't even
know where they are.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
But I was going to ask are those available anywhere
where people can check them out?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I don't know if I saved any of them. I
don't know if they did or not. I want to
find that one, in particular because I'd like to send
it to his son.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's sweet. Did you say they were recorded on zoom?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, so they may be out there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
It might be in your computer.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
It might be I don't want to know it's in
my computer.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Okay. So a couple of times we have for reference
that you were a D one athlete that was not
in lacrosse, like the whole family, that was in tennis, right.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I grew up in Northern California, so it was in tennis.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Were you on the same level as like Lars Ulrich
from Metallica. That guy was a tennis guy.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I don't remember playing against Lars. I played a lot
against the McEnroe, younger McEnroe, that generation, the Bolitari kids.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Okay, and you ball boyed for Elias Tassi?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I did. How did you find this out? You're a
fucking credible and detective. Yes, I did. There was a
tennis tournament and the country love that I played tennis
at called the Fireman's Fund in northern California. There was
a professional ernament there every year and all of us
junior players were the ball boys. He was my idol.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah, did you learn anything from him?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Ilianistasi and John McEnroe were my idols. John McEnroe played
at Stanford, where my brother was going. I was an
actor through and through on the tennis court. Like my
mother would not come to certain matches because I was
very dramatic, as was Nastasi and McEnroe. I broke brackets,
(33:31):
I broke you know.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
I was.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I was a lot. I hated it, hated playing tennis.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Well, at least you were good at it. Okay, this
is a weird question, but I'm asking anyway, tell me
how missus Gilliland's sugar Cookies changed the path of your life.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Oh my god, Missus Gililand, Yes, wherever you are, Hello,
Missus Gillilan. Sam was her son's name, so she's probably
maybe no longer with us, but Sam certainly so.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
My very first acting job, I was seven years old.
Boy in the Manger I believe was the name of
the play at the Methodist Church, and I was the
Boy and the Manger. I was the star of the Joe.
I say it was the very last time I was
ever number one on the call sheet. It's a very
(34:24):
number of time that I was above the title and
that the title of the character was me.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
So yes.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
And then afterwards I got such attention from everybody. But
most importantly, I had a whole batch of cookies, sugar
cookies by Missus Gilliland, cooked for me, and they were
the most outrageous sugar cookies you could ever imagine. And
from that point on, I said, this is what I
want to do with my life.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Well, thank you, Missus Gilliland. Of all of the movies
that you have been in and all of the television
projects that you've been in, there's one that I well,
I'm going to ask you right now, can I be
in Young Guns one with you? Please? Can we just
go back and do that? I want to be in
Young Guns so bad.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
You hit the right one for sure. I would literally
ask by my wife the other day about what my
favorite movie.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Experience was was that it?
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It was it? And as you've deterred that group of men,
we were young men at that time, Young Guns, that
group of men have had such a major influence on
my life. As I said, Dermott is a confidant, a
friend forever. Lou is a confidant and a friend forever.
Emilio is a dear, dear friend, confidant forever. The four
(35:37):
of us there and Charlie is Charlie, and Keifer is Keifer.
And Casey we're like, where did he go?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Where did he go? What happened Casey? Casey come back?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I don't know. Casey and I also were in a
movie called Secret Admirer with the with seats Yeah, and
I actually had sent out both to Dermott and Lou
and c Thomas. A quick screenshot capture of Casey in
his sister Nina's Instagram feed.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
WHOA He's the only one on is one.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Shot in their entire feed, and I said it to
the boys, and I said, literally, Shamasco siding, Shamasco siding
what Dermott was saying to me the other.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He's so right.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Whenever we go to these comic on things, everybody comes
up to us with the iconic Young Guns poster. I
signed off to the right because I'm the snitche and
I'm not pictured. But everybody has everybody's signature except for Casey's.
He didn't even need to go to him. If you
just signed with a signing agent, they would send those posts.
He would make thousands.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yeah, he would kill it.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
You would kill it, and then those posters become worth
so much.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I have friends who show remain nameless for obvious reasons,
but they tell me about the Duffel bags of cash
that they leave cons with, Like Casey, if you're out there, buddy,
go pick up your double bag.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
They're pulling your leg because they're not Duffle bags. But
you weave with a lot of cash. But if you're
up to be sure, some huge celebrity, like I'm sure
Giancarlo Westposito, who's the king of the cons. He just is.
He flies all over the world and I'm sure his
duffel bag is first filled by the promoters. Yeah, we guarantee.
(37:21):
That's why he's there. If I get a guarantee, it's
not going to be a doffle bag. The fans do
come out and you know, you sign their things and
it's nice to meet them, and usually is all cash.
It's an interesting subculture.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
It is a very fascinating subculture.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Hey, street walkers, here's a word from our sponsors. Let's
get back into it.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
How is it different researching a role when you're playing
a real person versus one that's made up for the project.
How difficult does that research or how different is it?
And how much has it changed with the invention of
the internet, Because like when you were in Young Guns,
that dude really existed, but the Internet didn't, so you
had to go to the library.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Ding ding ding. Yes, I had to go to the library.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Which, incidentally, that's what Tommy was doing here. He was
a couple of days ago he was doing a signing
at some con, but then he went to the library
as part of his State Golden Foundation or something.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah, no, he has a State Golden Foundation, so he
was probably screening outsiders.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
He travels all over the country with meeting the fans.
They do a screening of it. Darren Dalton joins them.
Sometimes they talk about Stay Gold and Pony Boy. It's
such an influential book. Still.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, they still teach that book in schools here in Texas.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Yeah, my son's birthday last year. We actually went to
see Outsiders the musical on his birthday, right before it
won the Tony Nice. Yeah, and then there's still amazed.
They say, well, yeah, you know pony Boy was the
best man in your mom and his wedding. No, yah,
but yeah, research in the library for sure. It's still
(39:05):
questionable whether McCloskey actually was is.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
By my history is written by the winners, so we'll
never know.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
We'll never know, And I wish he wasn't because then
I could be in Young Guns three. So the last
few years I've done a lot of real people. I
played Kenny.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
O'Donnell god Father Harlem, right, which.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Is my introduction to Chris Broancato, who I met through
Paul Exstaine. It was the other show creator. Kenny O'Donnell
was the chief of staff for JFK. JFK A lot
of research on him. These two adults approached me once
after the show and I met them and it turned
out that they were actually the adult children of Kenny O'Donnell.
Their father has been portrayed in other movies. Costner played
(39:46):
him in twenty four Hours or twenty three hours, whatever
that was called. And they said thank you, and I said,
well why, I said, for the very first time, we
could close our eyes and we could hear our father.
So I did enough research to understand how the man
speaks and what his accent was. It's not a Boston accent.
It's a culmination of Kennedy accent, you know, Kenny bunk
(40:07):
Point accent and then Boston thrown in and then a
little bit Irish. So he did that one and I
found out who he was. And then after that I
did Midway where I played John Ford, the legendary director.
Again tons of research, documentaries, and again it was about
capturing his voice. You don't do an impersonation, but hear
(40:28):
you figure out where it sits, what it is. John
Ford's case, he comes from upp A, Maine, so he
got a seaboard Upper Main accent, and then his five
parents are very Irish, so he's first generation. So you
get a little bit of Irish that's thrown in. He
had a very gravelly voice, as do I in some
ways very influenced because he liked to drink whiskey now
(40:52):
and then, more now than then. And he also smoked
cigars and was most famous for his pipe. Always had
a pipe up on set, and Roland said, Roland emeric,
Roland embric. Yes, Roland said after I asked him, why me,
because I saw thousands of people for this, he said,
you were one of the I think maybe the only
(41:14):
actor who actually brought a pipe to the audition.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Do you still have it? Hell? Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
We all liberate a lot of employ I still have the
hat from Young Guns.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Hell yeah. Do you still have that Donna caron suit?
I do? Nice, totally do.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
That was some ed TV love that, Yes, shoulder pads
and all.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Did you say that they really are working on Young
Guns three? Is that something that Emelia is trying to do?
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, it's being done. It's being greenlit.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Oh fantastic. Is he going to direct it? Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And he wrote it. He wrote it with what if?
Speaker 3 (41:52):
The Amelia projects that he directed, have you been in
five of them?
Speaker 1 (41:57):
That's kind of man. Young Guns at Work Rated X,
The War at Home m M, and then one he
didn't direct but just acted in called Nightbreaker Never you
can find it.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Sure, you have been in so many projects with some
of the same people, Like you've been in a ton
of projects with Tom Hanks. You've been in a ton
of Ron Howard projects. You know, you've been in a
ton of Amelia projects. Are you at a point now
in your relationship with some of these folks that you
work with all the time, Like do you have to
audition or they just call you up and you go, hey, Blakey,
I need you.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
It depends, you know, Bob the Mechas used to just
call me up. Yeah, it really depends. Yeah, Ron Howard,
you still audition, but you come in. It's going to
be a big ensemble piece. And we always say that
we're the the Ron Howard players, And if he's going
to do a big historical piece, we really want him
to do a Bill Clinton piece because then we could
all be in.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
Okay, did you really play a role in getting the
paparazzi to be designated as aggressive panhandlers and not allowed
within one hundred yards of places of early education in
Santa Monica and you are good.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yes, Robert Shriver not Robert Kennedy Junior. I was a
city councilman in Santa Monica. He may have been in
the head of the city council at that point, but anyway,
So I went to a preschool in Santa Monica with
my older son. I didn't vot to my older somebody.
We always say we went because you basically do. It
was at the height of Ben and Jen, not Lopez,
(43:32):
but Garner, and it was their four year old that
was there, and Jen was pregnant and very close to
having number two. And the paparazzi would line up in
front of the preschool and they would just snap and
we'd have to fight, you know. I would help them
fight through to get them like like I would stand
in front of people, I'd block their cameras. And one
(43:53):
time I was had Xander on my shoulders and I
was blocking the cameras, letting Jen and Ben get in safety.
And it's disgusting the things that these paparazzis would yell
at Ben. They want a reaction, they want him to
come at them. It really was disgusting. I mean literally,
things that are so inappropriate to say in front of
four year.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Olds or wives or.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Wives of course, and all of their were the different
wives that were there, the Grinathan Chris were there as well,
Paltrow Martin. So this incident happened where Xander was on
my shoulders. This paparazzi got so aggressive he was bringing
trying to bring his camera cross to shoot over me
and he clocked my four year old with his lens. Ooh,
(44:37):
and that was it.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
I had it.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
So I went and I called Bobby Schreiver's office and said,
this is out of control. There has to be something
that we can do to curtail this. Their celebrities, Okay,
they've made that bed, their row, whatever it is, but
our kids should not have to pay for this. So
we devised it. We said at that point there was
a big homeless issue going on in Sentim, very aggressive
(45:01):
panhandlers on the streets asking for money. So Bobby came
up with the idea that basically they're panhandled, they are
on our curbs, they are doing it in public places,
and they are taking whatever they're doing on the curb
and they're making money with it. That is the definition
of panhandling and aggressive panhandling was the city's statute we
(45:24):
came up with, so if they wanted to pay huge fines,
they could continue to do it. But none of them
were going to do that because they weren't making enough
money to pay for these huge fines. So it literally
curtailed the panhandling problem and they had to stay where
they couldn't be heard. They could shoot with their long lenses,
but they couldn't be in Ben and Jen's face.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
And this is specifically tied to preschools.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
It ended up being tied to preschools, early education, and
high schools.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Oh good, So from high school all the way down.
Oh that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
I mean there were other There was Laura Dern was there,
Meg Ryan, wasn't just Ben and Jin, but they were
the most aggressive would benefit.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Well, kudos to you, my friend. Way to fight. I
love it. Yet, I love that we haven't really hardly
talked about any of your actual career. So I'm gonna
ask you to come back on at another point. I
need you to tell me if you will tell me
about that one time that Lizzo recognized you.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
No, I'm not going to discuss that. What. Nope, the
one getting into the Lizzo world. But yes that is
yes she did, and yes she was lovely, and yes
she was fantastic, And that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Love it. You and your wife are screenwriters or she
is you were? Is that how that works?
Speaker 1 (46:45):
For five years we were probably one of the hottest
screenwriting teams in Hollywood. We were called the Blakes. She
had written a play. This is the earliest parts of it.
I dared her to write a screenplay, and she wrote
a screen And then I had a friend of a
friend who was a friend of Madonna's and got the
script of Madonna, and Madonna wanted to do it. So
(47:07):
that was our start there. And then we started to
write together and we wrote a spec script and that
specscript got into the hands of a very famous entertainment
attorney named Carlos Goodman, and Carlos Goodman loved it. He
slipped it to at the time Scott Greenberg, who was
a literary agent at Caia. Scott Greenberg loved it, and
(47:28):
in the meantime we had a little job we had done.
We had adapted a screenplay called Lady of the Monster.
It was the story of Gloria Treddi who was a
very famous Mexican pop singer who also got involved with
the Schengali kind of p ditty ish manager who ended
up being very lurid, and he had this harem of
fourteen and fifteen year old girls singers that he was
(47:51):
basically molesting all of them. So we wrote that and
then Caia read that. So they had two scripts now
and for Lady of the Monster. Within a week, Penelope
Cruise was attached to play Gloria Trevi. It went out
people in sound Reddit. We met with every top production
company in town, and then Gloria Trevis story led to
(48:11):
a movie called Seventeen Stone Angels, which is what we're
trying to do with Lou now. Seventeen Stone Angels was
novel that they needed adapt It also set in an
Hispanic set in Buenos Aires and Robert Town, Chinatown. Robert
Toown the greatest screenplay writer of the time. He wanted
to direct it and so he hired us to adapt it,
and the producer on it was Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise.
(48:35):
So that was why I was at Paramount, and it's
full circle back to trying to get the rights back
from Paramount.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Got you at that point on.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
We wrote a movie for Warner Brothers, wrote a movie
for Trebeca. We were cooking with gas and I got
burnt out. You know, we still do write some I'm
an actor by trades. She's a great writer. Still do right,
but it's not my passion.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
At one point you were considering a sequel to Brink.
Did you ever do that?
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Did you find this out? We did not know, but
I still would love to. That is one of the
most particularly the con world, that is the most surprising.
Following There's not a day I don't hear from some
thirty year old just walking down the street. I don't
hear somebody yell out Jimmy, Jimmy. I guess I maybe
look like him a little bit still, And wait.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Maybe you just live near a bunch of jimmies. Maybe
it's not about you, man.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
I do live at a beach down and there are
a lot of thirty year olds, and there are a
lot of skaters, so that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
That is fantastic. Like I said, I'm going to have
to have you come back because we've really got to
talk about specifically some of these projects.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
And I welcome back for sure. I want to do brink,
but set in the skate world, skateboarding, not roll up lading.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Let's see here, we can pull some stings. We can
get Jason Lee. Jason Lee'll come be part of that project.
He was a skateboard star.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
My son's a big skateboarder.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Oh well, then we'll get him in it.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
And we' also acquainted with Paul Rodriguez's son, who is
gigantic in this school.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
It's huge. Yeah, huge. Wow. Jeffrey Blake, Oh my gosh,
definitely gonna have to have you back. But for this
particular episode, is there anything that specifically you wanted to
talk about that we didn't get to today? Nope, nope,
all right, you.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
Were a colombo of trivial facts.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
All right, cool, Jeffrey, Oh my god, Jeffrey Blake, the
star of all of my childhood and young adults and
adults films and TV shows. I love you so much.
Thank you so much for taking the time out of
your busy day and your hectic acting, teaching, writing, and
just protecting all of the little preschoolers schedule out much.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
I don't have to do that anymore.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Well, thanks, yeah, fortunately, thank you for letting us get
to know you. A little bit better on Fascination Street Man.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
I really appreciate it you, Steve, and we will do
it again soon.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
ABSA fing lutely thank you, dude. I keep in touch. Yes, please,
thank you buddy. You have a great rest of your weekend, dude,
many thanks, buddy. Opening music is the song FSP theme, written,
(51:17):
performed and provided by Ambush Vin. Closing music is from
the song say My Name off the twenty twenty one
album Underdog Anthems, used with permission from Jack's Hollow. If
you like the show, tell a friend, subscribe and rate
(51:38):
and review the show on iTunes and wherever else you
download podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
All the episodes are available there as well. Check me
out on vero at Fascination Street Pod and TikTok at
Fascination Street Pod. And again, thanks for listening.
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