Making Fun of Life’s Absurdities with John Bennardo

So as absurd as I made it, read it and go, this could happen.

And that's what makes it so crazy because the things that this guy does to get twisted 20 years later or 10 years later, some airline stewardess who made some you know off-handed comment which he meant to be nice and she took it the wrong way.

And now she goes on uh Dr.

Phil and says, you know, he I've been crying for 20 years over this guy, you know.

It's like it's it's really funny and it everything pays off at the end.

And it makes you laugh.

It's like holding a mirror up to society and showing what we've become.

SPEAKER_01: So many people think that my story is inspiring.

How I became blind at just 17 years of age.

They always want to know how I've done it and how I've kept smiling all along the way.

Well, I've just chosen to focus my attention on taking the positive.

And on the podcast, that's what I want to do for you.

Because no matter what you may be going through in mind, I hope to inspire you to focus on the positive.

And you know what?

I hope that I can also be a source of inspiration for you to just be positive.

The best way to handle serious things are to make fun of it.

Take Saturday Night Live, for example.

Do you remember a presidential debate?

Or do you remember the reenactment on Saturday Night Live?

That same type of mindset, making fun of the serious stuff?

That's what today's episode is.

Well, actually, it's that, but a whole lot more.

Hey, if we haven't met yet, my name is Kevin Little and I'm the host here on the podcast.

And today, I'm joined by an awesome guy, John Bernardo.

And we set off to make episode 49 that leads you laughing all the way through.

John is a guy with so much for us to talk about.

So we do just that.

We talk about a whole lot of stuff and a relatively little amount of time.

From kind of serious stuff like talking about him having bone cancer while still in high school, to crazy stuff like him creating a documentary on the$2 bill, and even to him creating his own app that you can download on the app store.

And to his latest endeavor, becoming a published author with the release of his book, Just a Typo.

A book that aims to make fun of cancel culture.

Almost at a loss where to even start with this guy, I figured we might as well start with his latest accomplishment, this comedic novel.

So I wanted to know, John, where does this passion for writing even come from in the first place?

SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.

I don't really know where it comes from.

I think it's ingrained in people, you know, when when you start something like I did as a child, when your natural instinct, when you're bored, is to go write something, I I don't know where that comes from, except that it's gotta be innate.

It's gotta be in your genes somewhere.

I grew up watching Sesame Street and the Electric Company.

And if you remember the Electric Company used to have these little things with words and uh they had that cartoon called Letterman where he flew down.

I think it was voiced by Gene Wilder, and he flew down.

Is this before your time?

I don't know, may maybe, but he flew down, he replaced the replaced the letter after the evil guy changed it.

You know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_01: No, I don't, but you just go right ahead.

I'm like, I'll have to ask my parents if they know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the electric company was a show on PBS, and it was uh you know all about learning and entertainment for children, but they did a lot more with words than Sesame Street, words and sounds and rhymes and things.

And I was very into that show, and you know, I just became passionate about words and stories.

So I would always be writing poems.

I love the rhythm of words when you you know have a rhyming scheme.

I I'm the one of those people that thinks that a poem isn't a poem unless it rhymes.

Uh, you know, because anybody can anybody can write the sun was beautiful on a windry day or something, and it's like okay, it's a poem.

I'm like, no, it's not, it's just a bunch of words.

You know, it's there's no organization to it.

If you can hit beats and have words that rhyme and have a rhythm to it, that's a poem to me.

So I I always liked that.

And I started writing, and this is kind of the long-winded answer to the question, but I think it was just there, just the creative, you know, the right side of the brain was more developed and interested in doing that, and I was always writing things as a child, and uh that never left.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's awesome.

And and and coming from me, that was always growing up.

English writing class in school was always my favorite, was always writing stories and and stuff.

So I think that's really pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had an assignment.

I was just uh refreshing my family's memory about the story.

I went to school in New York, and they were the classes were first, second, and third grade all in one room.

I don't know how they did that, but and I had the same teacher for three years.

And so they always had assignments that were, you know, shorter for the first graders and longer for the second graders and so on.

And one of them was memorization, and they would write three paragraphs on the board about, you know, mountains or about the sky.

And, you know, the first paragraph would be like an orange chalk on the board, the second one yellow, and the third one purple.

And as a first grader, we're always just supposed to read the first one, and I always memorized all three.

And the teachers were like amazed that I just I couldn't sit there and look at it and stop.

I had to memorize the whole thing, and then I would recite it back.

And and I think they nicknamed me the mad scientist back in my young adult, my young childhood days, because I would always do the I just loved things that had to do with words.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's super cool.

So now you said that was in New York.

Did you grow up in New York?

SPEAKER_00: Yes, born and raised in New York.

We moved to Florida when I was about 10.

My dad was tired of shoveling snow, and then uh lived here through college, went to school at the University of Miami, and then lived in Los Angeles for about 10 years.

I got a master's degree as a writer, a screenwriter, and worked in the business for a while, and then eventually moved back as I was doing freelance and never had steady, steady work.

You know, in the future, when I once I found my wife was kind of difficult to see buying a house for as expensive as it was out in California on a freelancer's salary.

So we moved back here to Florida.

I taught at a college for a while, and I also run my own video production business.

So that's kind of me in summed up.

And then on the side I do creative projects, which I know we're gonna get into my book, and I've I've done a documentary film and so on.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's super cool, super cool.

And and being a uh a native Floridian, I'd say you've you've you've chosen a pretty good state.

SPEAKER_00: So well, native New Yorker, but um long time Floridian.

Oh, well, me, me.

I'm a native.

What about you?

Oh, that's right, okay.

Because you're up to close for me.

We talked about that off camera.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, no, no.

So no, but uh, but no, that's super cool.

Now, now growing up though, at some point, and I think it was maybe during high school or something, you actually ended up having cancer.

Is that right?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I skipped over that for the moment, but it's because I was giving you the short version.

But as a junior in high school, age 16, I came down with osteogenic sarcoma, which is uh cancer of the left femur, which is right above the knee, you know, the bone that goes from the hip to the knee.

And my parents never told me it was cancer, but something was wrong with my leg, and we had to get it fixed.

And, you know, we did a biopsy, and then we had to start chemo and have a major surge at a major bone replacement where they took all the cancerous muscle and tissue and bone out and put a brand new artificial titanium prosthisher in.

And this is during, you know, junior year in high school.

So I'm missing a lot of school.

I'm in chemotherapy uh down at Jackson Memorial in Miami three days a week, you know, getting uh injected one night with the IV, and then the next morning, or having saline solution overnight, you know, flushing out your system, and the next morning they come in and give you the this you know crazy methotrexate and cisplatinum and adriomyosin, and you know, you absorb that and you get knocked out for a while and you know, recover for a couple of days, go home.

Next week, cycle repeat, you know, and meanwhile I'm learning to walk again and uh getting tutored so I could stay on par with my classmates.

So it was um, you know, looking back, it was rough.

I don't say it was rough at the time because I was just a happy-go-lucky kid dealing with it on a daily basis and you know, throwing punches when people punched at me, figuratively speaking, of course, and got through it.

You know, now I'm a healthy adult male.

I still have some issues with my knee.

I've had to have that bone replaced a couple times, uh, most recently in February of this year because the piece wore out.

And so I'm coming off my third major knee surgery and have my third artificial prosthesis in there, but I can safely say now I'm walking around fine and doing everything I normally do.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, yeah.

No, that's that's pretty big time.

And now, I mean, that had to be a pretty massive surgery though to actually replace that bone.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the first one was 11 hours.

And of course, I'm knocked out the whole time, so it was fairly instant for me.

But my parents, they wheeled me down to the OR in the bed that I was in in the room because when they they didn't really want to be transferring me from beds to beds.

So my parents had nothing, and this is in New York.

We were living in Florida at the time, but the surgery was back up in New York.

So my parents had to sweat out an entire day where their son may or may not come out of it with his leg, or even alive for that matter.

And they're sitting in an empty hospital room.

I had a solo room, so they're just in an empty room with two chairs, you know, for 11 hours waiting on the fate of their son.

I can only imagine what that must have been like uh for them.

Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_01: And and and I guess, you know, me, totally different, you know, situation.

But yeah, I can relate because it was in my junior year of high school when when I found out that I had a brain tumor.

Yeah, we talked about that.

It's crazy.

Yeah, and so it's kind of like this uh like ironic, you know, kind of similarity, you know, of having these traumatic events, you know, the junior year of high school.

So so now after after high school, what happened then?

Is that when you moved to California to go to college?

SPEAKER_00: No, I still no, I still had college at the University of Miami, and um I was able to graduate with my class, and I know we have something in common from speaking before.

We both got standing ovations at our graduation, correct?

SPEAKER_01: I know I did.

And you know what?

Well, I couldn't actually see the people, but I have a feeling they were standing.

Okay, you got both officials.

Yeah, yeah, they they were at least clapping, and in my mind they were all standing, definitely.

SPEAKER_00: I I think in my case, I missed enough school, but I got tutoring.

I think they were really, and this is you know, looking back, I think they were really gung-ho on making sure I graduated with my class simply as a morale booster and feeling that I was normal, you know, because I'm walking around with a cancer-ravaged leg that was replaced, and my hair fell out from the surgery.

And I think, you know, just if they would have left me back a year, I think they thought that might have done a little bit of emotional damage and whatnot, to not be able to graduate with my friends and miss a year of school.

So they worked hard to make sure that I was able to graduate with my class, and I was really grateful to do so.

Uh, and then I went to the University of Miami.

The thing was I was, you know, still physically recovering.

I was still walking around with, you know, one crutch most of the time.

I still was like only a hundred pounds.

I was like a bony, you know, so good luck scoring with any girls or anything anything like that.

I was kind of the social equivalent of a high school sophomore for a year or two of college until I started figuring it out.

So, you know, that that's life.

Again, you can't complain about that's what it is what it is.

I'm happy to be here and walking around, but it definitely set me back a little bit uh on the social structure, however you want to call it.

And then I think it I carried it with me for a while.

I I had uh some bitterness about it that I carried with me.

Um, I think I went through a phase of my life where I, you know, brought people down.

I'm usually funny and upbeat, but I would do it like I would mock people and just have like I'm having fun, like I'm teasing them.

But I think deep down it was a way to bring people down to help myself feel better about myself, which is I think a trait that a lot of people do psychologically.

You know, when you don't feel good about yourself, you bring others down instead of trying to raise yourself up.

So I think I went through a period of that uh in my, I guess, early 20s and had a friend call me out on that.

But it's all part of the, you know, the growing up process and learning process.

So I guess the point is there there were some struggles there, whether I realized them or not, but I got over them.

And all the while, getting back to my true passions, I'm still creating.

I'm in college and I'm taking film courses and we're making short little movies.

I've got some friends who I'm still friends with today, making movies in college and writing scripts.

And so it was a good creative time for me, even if it was a little socially awkward.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's super cool, super cool.

So now I know at some point in time, and and I don't know if this is much later on, you're actually talking about doing documentaries and stuff.

You did a documentary on the$2 bill.

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is after I moved back to Florida.

I run my own video production company, and as much as I like that, I'm shooting for other people all the time.

And you know, my creative passions won't let me do that for so long.

I was like, I gotta shoot something for myself.

Instead of sitting here editing till two in the morning for somebody's corporate video, I want to be working on my own project.

And and nowadays, unlike when I was in school and you had to film on film and use a flatbed, if you remember those or know anything about them, to edit.

Okay.

Now, yeah, now we've reached a point where you can shoot with your own camera, high-end, high-definition camera, and edit it on your home computer on a you know, top-notch system like I have.

So I went out and made a couple of short documentaries, and then I have these two dollar bills in my drawer that I've, you know, where you collect one here when you're seven years old and another one when you're ten, and so on.

And I said, God, I love these things.

I don't know what to do with them.

I said, maybe I'll do a documentary on these and I'll do a little history and try to spend them at 7-Eleven or something.

And boy, it took off when I started researching it.

It's amazing what the two dollar bill is and its history and its superstitions and the way it connects people and the way people light up when you give it to them and it forms a bond and so many stories.

I ended up raising money on Kickstarter, that's you know a crowdfunding website, and uh traveled the country for about a year and got a whole bunch of great interviews and footage.

They let me film two dollar bills being printed at the Mint in uh Fort Worth, Texas, uh back in 2013, day before my birthday, which was cool.

And then I spent a year putting it together, and the movie's called the$2 bill documentary, and it was it's on Amazon, but I've put it on YouTube because of COVID, people can watch it for free with ads on YouTube.

So that was a great conference.

SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, full movie.

Yeah, no, that's super cool.

So now on YouTube, what would you search to find it?

SPEAKER_00: You could literally type the$2 bill documentary, and in this case, the two is spelled out TWO.

But also, if you just search$2 bill, like$2 and the word bill in YouTube, it's gonna pull up a bunch of videos uh about$2 bills, and most of them will be mine, because I have a channel where I've made um additional videos like supplemental material or or clips about the$2 bill that I didn't really fit into the movie, some new stuff I've shot.

So I have about 60, 65 videos on my channel about the$2 bill, believe it or not.

Got about 21,000 subscribers, over 10 million views.

People are really fascinated by this bill and the misconceptions.

You know, people think it's rare.

And again, I can get into the whole thing, but it's it's a fascinating topic, more fascinating than I would have thought when I started.

And most of the people who watch the film tell me they're surprised after they've seen it, because they never realized something like that had so much content about it and could be that interesting.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I think that's that's very interesting.

And I'm actually sitting here thinking, like, dude, we need to wrap this up.

I need to go check this out.

SPEAKER_00: Well, wait a minute, wait a minute.

We talked about this.

We had a for the audience's sake, we had a pre-call about a week ago and everything.

And I think I told you about it, and you said you were gonna go watch it.

So shame on you if you didn't watch it in the last week.

No, busted.

SPEAKER_01: You're busted.

I I know, I'm totally busted.

But I guess I'm sitting there thinking, like, until you start kind of talking about it more in in the fact that you said they're still printing two dollar bills.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, they still made them, I think the last last year, October of 2020, they printed another batch.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, see, that's just so crazy.

See, so you've you've you've got me more and more intrigued.

SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I'm yeah, well, one of the misconceptions is that they're rare and out of print, but they print them like any other bill uh when there's enough demand.

They don't print them every year.

You know, the other bills get printed every year.

Sometimes the twos are out, but they'll print based on need, you know, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Treasury figures that out, and they come up with a number, and that's the number that gets printed, and and they made more last year.

Now, of course, when you have a new president and a new Secretary of the Treasury, you're required to make new bills of all denominations because those signatures have to change.

So unless you're not making the bill anymore, you're gonna make a new batch of$2 bills with updated Treasury Secretary information.

And I I yet to get my hands on a uh newly printed bill recent, but I will, and it the Secretary of Treasury will be on there.

You're just a wealth of information.

Yeah, no, we haven't even gotten to my book yet, right?

I know, exactly.

That's where we were gonna start.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, yeah.

So we we yeah, you've got too much interesting stuff, and then the the book, the book is like the grand finale, I feel like.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because well it's the most recent one.

Yeah, it's the it's the thing that's uh most recent on my have done list.

SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, so we're about to blow some people's mind because if we've not already impressed them about how diverse you are, you gotta tell me what is this?

You were on Wheel of Fortune?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Well, I told you I was good with words, and um and I always watched game shows.

I loved game shows as a kid, I just found them interesting, and the word ones were the ones I played along with the most because I would bomb on Jeopardy, but on Wheel of Fortune I would, you know, kick some butt.

And the funny guy, I got a great story about Wheel of Fortune when I was in chemotherapy, you know, when I had my cancer, there was a story my mom tells.

I actually remember it.

For as knocked out as I was, I actually remember this very well.

I was out cold, knocked out on whatever drug they had me on that week or you know, sedative.

And um, my mom's in the room watching Wheel of Fortune like 7:30 at night, and I I woke up from a slumber, you know, and I looked at the TV, and there's Wheel of Fortune, and I solved the puzzle and rolled back over, went to sleep.

My mom loves telling that story.

So ever since I was a kid, everybody's like, you need to go on that show, you need to go on that show.

So when I moved to California, I said, I gotta go on that show.

And I applied, but they were so backed up that they didn't take applications for a couple years.

I was like, wow, I gotta wait years.

So I went on a show called Scrabble with Chuck Woolery, if anybody remembers out there.

It was a show where you played off of a Scrabble board and they had answers, you know, words that were on the board, and you picked two tiles and drop them into this little box and he gave you letters.

And then when you're ready to solve the puzzle, you hit the plunger.

I don't know if you know if this rings a bell with anyone, but so I went on Scrabble and they tape five shows a day.

That's how they do it.

So you don't have to keep bringing people back.

You know, either one day, you tape five shows, you got a week's worth of shows, you only pay people for a day of work.

So they make you bring multiple changes of clothes in case you win.

So I had five changes of clothes with me, and I won.

I was a four-day champion.

So I did my show, I won.

They hustle you back to the dressing room, you change your clothes.

Chuck Woolery, the host, goes back and changes his suit.

You come back out, there's a new contestant, and you tape another show.

So for basically two, two to three hours on whatever day of the week it was, I was playing Scrabble and I won almost 10 grand over four days.

I won the bonus game one out of the three days, I think, that I was on.

And it was great fun.

And then my family got to watch it because I'm in California at this point.

My family back in Florida for four days in a row could turn the TV on on Scrabble and watch their son.

You know, they like to knew they had four days of shows, even though it was recorded all in one.

So uh and then later on, uh Wheel of Fortune auditions opened up and I got on and uh won 12,850 bucks on that show and got to the bonus game and lost.

And that's a sore subject with me, but uh it was a great time.

Uh, and I was, you know, I did win the show.

That was that was the good news.

And so that was a great experience as well.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

Do you do you by any chance remember any of the puzzles that you solved on Wheel of Fortune?

SPEAKER_00: In fact, I I recently made a YouTube video.

Now, this is not on my$2 bill channel.

I have a channel just with my name, which doesn't really have a lot of stuff up there, just some old college videos and some other recent stuff.

It's not a channel that I promote or develop, but I did do uh I did put my Wheel of Fortune show up there and I cut it down to only the moments that I'm in.

So you don't have to watch the other two people.

And then I also did like a commentary, an audio commentary.

So I put myself in the lower corner of the screen.

I'm explaining like what I was thinking at this time at the time, why I bought a vowel here, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

So it's pretty cool.

And I think the video is called How I Won$12,850 on Wheel of Fortune.

You can look that up as well when you're done watching my movie.

But yeah, one of the puzzles was it's it's called Fill in the Number.

And it had the answer was there are blank, there was a blank there, there are blank signs of the zodiac.

So you say there are signs of the zodiac, and then they come back and go ding ding ding, you got that one now for 3,000 extra dollars.

What is the number that goes in there?

And of course there's 12 signs of the zodiac, so I say 12.

Great,$3,000 bonus.

I was like, that is the easiest $3,000 I have ever, ever made to know how many signs of the zodiac there were.

So that was three thousand of the twelve thousand I won.

Wow, that's so awesome.

That's so cool.

Yep.

So it's it's it's all on, you can go watch it, it's it's all there.

Click click click like and click subscribe.

unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Actually, just put a $2 bill one.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Yeah, I was going to say you are a true YouTuber.

They all have that down.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I don't do it very often.

And on my personal channel, I don't really do it because I don't put content up all that frequently.

It's just like a storage place to put stuff.

But if I ever could build it up, if I came up, if I ever started doing like more funny videos or something, that's where I would put them.

You know, just if I had an idea for a skit or something and I filmed it, I would put it there.

But it's not really a channel that I'm I'm building.

I keep working with the$2 bill one and building that one up because that's where the audience is.

That's where I have 21,000 subscribers and growing.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Oh man, that's so cool.

So cool.

So now at some point in time, you decided to uh obviously you decide to to poke fun at uh this whole cancel culture with uh just a typo.

Correct.

SPEAKER_00: So now we're on to the book.

SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.

We are this uh ladies and gentlemen, we have just entered into the uh prime time event.

SPEAKER_00: Did we miss anything?

Is there anything else I've done that we missed?

Well, maybe I'll go back and add it in later.

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: We may go back.

I mean, I don't know.

I mean, all I saw was Wheel of Fortune.

I was like bingo, documentary bingo.

Yep, yep.

So just knowing your knowing your personality, I have a feeling there's probably a lot that we've missed.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's actually uh and I we'll get into this later, but I actually created a mobile puzzle app, which is in the Apple store.

We'll save that one for later if we have time.

SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, definitely.

Yeah, that sounds cool.

So so now though, so so tell me tell me about tell me about this book.

SPEAKER_00: So the book is uh an idea that I got, and I I don't quite remember where, except for the fact that I am, you know, being a lover of words, I always took an affinity to Weirdo Yankovic.

It's nothing really to do with the book, but this is backstory.

Okay, so I took a, you know, and I love how he takes an existing format, which is a song, of course, and existing lyrics, and then comes up with new lyrics that fit the exact form and are witty and clever and funny.

So I always found that interesting.

And I was always somebody that wrote my own like parodies, you know, without publishing or doing anything with them as a kid.

That was just one of the things I went off and did.

If I wasn't writing a story, I was probably writing a song parody.

The point is, I think when people ask me where I got the idea for this book, I think the idea for a typo came up with the uh it started with taking a song and thinking of the most logical place to go with it if you parodying it, but the parody was offensive.

Like the word that I is the easiest word to replace was offensive.

I'm like, well, I'm not gonna write that because it's offensive, but it made me thinking, well, gee, that's an easy, easy typo as well.

And I thought of what would happen if somebody created a typo and put that out there instead of the real word, and that that started the idea.

So the the book is uh my take on cancel culture, which we all know is big time prevalent nowadays, where if you say something wrong or tweet something, or or even if someone pulls something out of your past that that they might find offensive, especially if you're a celebrity, you're getting canceled, right?

You're getting your TV show is taken off the air and people are boycotting you and they're hammering away at you at Twitter and you're a horrible person, et cetera, et cetera.

And I find a lot of humor in that.

I think that's ridiculous.

I think people are generally easily offended.

And my first title of the book was easily offended until I changed it to something better.

But the point of the book is that a celebrity sends out a tweet in support of the LGBTQ community and has this egregious typo that I came up with.

And because of the one letter that gets removed by accident, he sends out this tweet that now becomes horribly offensive.

And the LGBT community is up in arms and the media is up in arms, and people are surrounding his house and picketing, and they want his game show.

He's a game show host, of course, because I told you I love game shows.

So he's a game show host, and his show, they want a show off the air.

And now because he's in this context of being a bad guy and being homophobic, people out from his past start coming out with all these stories, twisted narratives of his past, exaggerated things that he did, which weren't offensive at the time and aren't offensive now, but in the context of him suddenly being a homophobe, become offensive.

So we see him getting to the point where he gets arrested, and we see him getting arrested at the beginning of the book.

Then as he goes back and tells his lawyers what happened, we go back and we learn about how he, you know, grew up and rose to fame and he has issues with his brother and the whole thing.

We see all these little things happen on his way to becoming a famous game show host.

And then when we catch up to real time, all these things that he did, which we read throughout the book, people come forward now after the tweet comes out and say, well, he did this 20 years ago and he said this to me 15 years ago, and all these things are innocent, but in the new context, they're twisted.

And it's it's hysterical because things that you know are harmless now are made to look like this guy, you know, is the most vile person on the planet.

He insults every race and ethnicity out there, every culture gets skewered, and the guy becomes just like the most vile human being on earth, and none of it is legit.

It's just it's just and it's my way to exaggerate what I believe our society does, is once they get a perception on somebody, they run with it, and then anything else that person's done is negative because your opinion of him is negative.

Does that make sense?

So that's yeah, that that's my long version of the pitch.

I mean, the short pitch is that a guy has a typo that uh leads to a tweet that causes him to be canceled, basically.

There's your short pitch, but it's it's a lot more detailed now.

SPEAKER_01: But but I think I think I think like the sad truth of it is is that we've all heard that exact scenario play out in real life over the past, you know, however many years, you know, and that's the the sad truth of it.

SPEAKER_00: Right.

And the the funny thing about the book is it's it's extreme, it's almost out there, it's almost crazy and absurd what happens.

But looking on it now, it's entirely plausible.

So as absurd as I made it, you read it and go, this could happen.

And that's what makes it so crazy because that the things that this guy does to get twisted 20 years later or 10 years later, some airline stewardess where he made some you know off-handed comment, which he meant to be nice and she took it the wrong way, and now she goes on uh Dr.

Phil and says, you know, he I've been crying for 20 years over this guy, you know.

It's like it's it's really funny and it everything pays off at the end.

And it makes you laugh.

It's like holding a mirror up to society and showing what we've become.

And I I I'm just really proud of it and think it's terrific.

And it's just it's a like a laugh a page.

I can't write comedy and go five pages without something funny happening.

I would go back and you know fix it.

So there are a lot of laughs.

If you love to laugh, this is the book you want to read.

That's so awesome.

SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.

Now, is there like certain elements of the whole cancel culture that like you found easier or more primed to just totally poke fun at?

SPEAKER_00: Well, I had to be careful because this guy ends up insulting every race and ethnicity, although not on purpose.

So I had to be careful that the the way I made him look like he insulted these people because I didn't want to make it look like that was my perception.

You know, I didn't want to make it look like I was putting my views into this guy or these situations.

So I had to be careful as to have him do things that were maybe playing off stereotypes to a degree.

And I'm not gonna give you any examples.

I don't want to get myself in trouble or anything, but I mean, you can just take, I'm not even gonna let's just take African Americans.

There are some stereotypes out there.

There are some jokes we heard as kids about blacks that, you know, are not appropriate now, but we remember them and we have these certain stereotypes, right?

Let's just leave it at that.

And some of those things, you know, I pull up and put in there as if he did something on purpose when he offered them a candy out of a candy dish, uh, you know, and and it turns out to be a certain flavor.

And he has no idea what flavor he's offered him.

It's just random candy in a dish.

And then later on, when he sends this tweet out, the two black people that got the candy recall the flavor of the candy and think that it was his way of being stereotyped and insulting.

And you can maybe fill in the blanks.

Okay, if you know the stereotype I'm talking about, I'm not gonna say it because I don't want to go there.

That's just something that is perceived.

So to answer your question, I just kind of went with the ways that people interpret things that might be offensive and make them offensive.

The way people twist something that you're saying or your action and saying, oh, that's you meant that in the negative way, instead of either having a dialogue about it or you know, giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

Okay, so in the case of this example, if these two people get this candy and they were offended by the flavor of the candy, thinking that it was something that he was doing just for black people, they should say something or they shouldn't just go to the media uh ten years later and say, this is what he did to us.

Look at how offensive this is.

You know what I'm saying?

So that's kind of the angle I'm trying to show that I don't think people should get their excuse the expression, get their panties in a bunch over the smallest little things when they don't have all the facts.

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

Yeah, no, it makes total sense.

Total sense.

And so I I'm kind of curious, is more than just creating this this humorous book and stuff, is it kind of deep down maybe your way of of hoping to somehow bring to light this ridiculousness in hopes that maybe it could, you know, play a small role in stopping it?

SPEAKER_00: Not really.

I think my ultimate goal is to entertain people and have them open a book and laugh.

That's really what now I'm not trying to change the world with a humor novel.

So yeah, it's a good question.

And you know, maybe there's some hope for that, but that's not the that's not why I set out to write it.

I write it, uh, I learn, you know, you're I write it from myself first.

I'm I make myself happy.

I I use a creative muscle and get that out.

It was you know very nice to sit down and write it.

It was an enjoyable process.

And having the result, having been able to hold a book in my hand with my name on it and you know, flip through the pages and see all the words is is is a great feeling.

So it's self-satisfying, but I also really want people to read it and enjoy it.

That's what gives me my joy.

As a filmmaker in college, that's what gave me my joy.

Making a film and then at the end of the semester, having it at a student film festival and having an audience watch it and react to it.

And my$2 bill movie when I took it around the country at film festivals to have an audience pay for a ticket to come see my movie and watch it and enjoy it.

That's the payoff.

So I I do it for you, the listener.

But yeah, I didn't really, there's no social cause.

I'm not gonna start proclaiming that I'm I'm out here to solve the world's problems as far as cancel culture goes.

I'm just telling you what I see, and you can form your own opinion and you want to do something about it or just get a laugh about it.

That's that's up to you.

SPEAKER_01: Well, that's cool.

I was just trying to I was just trying to give my best, like, like I don't know, like Dr.

Phil impression.

Like, what's the deeper thought?

And then I'm like, wait, no, take it for who he is.

He just wants to make people laugh.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no, it's a terrific question, and it makes me wonder whether I I should have done that.

But the the message in the there is a message in the book.

I mean, it's clear what my what the message is, but the message is coming from it's my opinion.

You know, it's my message.

It doesn't mean it's the right one.

It's just how I see the world and how I see this situation.

And you're you could certainly disagree if someone who reads it and say, you know, he doesn't have this right at all, or he's exaggerating too much.

But that's what humor, it's humor.

It's not to be taken seriously.

Yeah, I think it reflects society and it is absurd, although it is plausible, as I said, but it's entertainment.

I mean, that's ultimately what this is, it's entertainment.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course, of course.

And and I I kind of wonder, I mean, with this this desire, this this passion for for making people laugh and stuff, I kind of have a feeling that you probably have this feeling inside that, you know, the world, especially today with all the ridiculous, could use a little bit more humor and laughter in it.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, and I agree.

And that's kind of what I'm hoping to do.

I'm working on another book, but I'm also working on some humor pieces.

I've been uploading some samples and writing, you know, short little funny vignettes to websites like uh medium.com, has a humor section called Slackjaw, and I recently published a comedy article there, which talks about the Chick-fil-A line and why they're too fast and why they should slow down.

The premise being that the guy writing it is this is his one moment to get away from the family, is while he's away picking up food.

And he's counting on a you know slow drive-thru experience to like you know unwind, and you damn you Chick-fil-A people are so efficient in your little suspenders.

So that's enjoyable too, because I don't have to take eight months to write a story.

I take you know an afternoon and then you know another day I I revise it and punch it up.

But so I'm doing all sorts of writing, and uh to answer your question, humor is it.

I mean, I'd rather be laughing than something else anytime.

I mean, you know, sit down and put on a humor movie on or a comedian, you know, you always feel good when you're laughing, right?

So why wouldn't you want to laugh more?

And if I can make people laugh, that's uh a win for both of us.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

I totally agree, totally agree.

That's so funny.

So now, do you have anything else in in the works?

You seem like you're a man who you probably can't sit still.

SPEAKER_00: Uh I hate having nothing to do, right?

And I like having creative projects because I like finishing creative projects.

Uh the$2 bill documentary took me two years, probably a little longer than I want to spend on something.

But you know, you you know you have a goal in mind.

You you're always working every day to get there.

And you know it's gonna take X hours to finish.

And I don't know what X is, but each hour I put in is one less than the total, and I try to get there.

So I like to come up with things that I'm working on, I can get excited about that when I finish, I can say, wow, that that's an accomplishment.

Like, you know, without being modest, to make a documentary and have it go off in film festivals.

Like, wow, that is a fantastic accomplishment.

Like, I almost can't believe I did that.

And now I have a book and it's on Amazon, and like I can't believe I did that.

I sat and wrote a full novel, you know.

So it's uh I enjoy having projects that have a long-term goal uh as well as some short-term ones because I like knowing that there's something I have to do every morning.

I have to get back to this.

Otherwise, I wake up and you know, so we've all been there at some point in our lives where we don't have a whole lot to do, and that's not a good feeling.

SPEAKER_01: No, no, I agree.

You gotta, it gives the day a whole new meaning when you can wake up with purpose and excitement, you know, inside of you to get up and start the day.

So yeah, no, I totally, totally, totally agree with that.

Well, well, man, I don't know.

I feel like this has been like like a uh quick hitting, like reel of like, what kind of crazy stuff did our guests do this time?

You know, and so I don't know.

Have we missed anything that that I've I've just totally Yeah, we well, I mentioned it earlier, so I'll I'll hit it now.

SPEAKER_00: So a mobile app.

I've created a mobile puzzle app.

Now, this is something that my father, my father was like getting into his iPad.

This is about five years ago or so.

Uh we bought him an iPad for his birthday one year.

He was in his uh early 70s, and he, you know, he I guess he went on apps and he started seeing how much money apps were making, you know, 99 cents, click to buy more coins, 99 cents, 99 cents.

He says to me, because he knows I've got an entrepreneuristic spirit, you know, John, we gotta we gotta come up with an app.

We gotta do something, you know, all this money.

And I said he says, think of some ideas.

And I'm like, all right, you know, I'll think of some ideas.

So I come up with, you know, I challenged myself to come up with 10 ideas for an app, and one of them was pretty good.

And I went to him with it, and he's like, Wow, this is a great idea.

You're like we should do this, you know, we should do this.

And I'm like, well, you know, who's gonna pay for it?

You know, that sort of thing.

And um, but I was excited about like it would be great to uh I love games.

I mentioned I'm a game show fan, I love playing games, and I said, you know what, maybe we'll do this.

And then he unfortunately and suddenly passed away in uh July of 2017, and you know, we sold his house and his office, and there was some money inheritance, so I have two brothers, so I I was able to, you know, have a nice blessing with an inheritance.

But I said, you know what, I I think my dad would be proud if I actually took some of this money and used it to make the app and not just you know, there's a hundred reasons to say no.

And then this is a lesson, I guess, that goes to my book and to my movie and everything else I've done.

When you sit down and come up with an idea, you you say no because, well, it's gonna take me two years to make that movie, and then it's done, and then you move on.

But if you actually stop and do it, take a few risks, there's uh accomplishment at the end of the tunnel there.

So in this case, I was like, man, I gotta make an app, I don't know how to do that.

And you know, there's a hundred thousand reasons to say no, but I said, I'm gonna, this is gonna be the next project.

And so I came up, and the idea was that it seemed silly at the time, it's just, you know, we've all tried to guess how many jelly beans are in a jar, right?

We've all played those games.

Well, what if there were all these creative, unique puzzles beyond jelly beans in a jar, and you had to try to guess how many small items are in a large container.

And I looked up some popular idioms, you know, like drops in the bucket and jacks in the box and things like that, and said, I'm gonna make literally visual representations of these puzzles.

So I did the jelly beans in a jar one, and I got a bunch of toy jacks and filled up a clear plastic box.

So there's jacks in the box, got thousands of plastic forks and dumped them in the street and took photos, and there's forks in the road.

And I took a bunch of popular idioms and made a puzzle game, which is called the container.

And you go through and you try to guess how many small objects are in large containers.

And you don't have to guess it perfectly because that would be almost impossible.

But you get within a range.

If you get within 10%, you get a certain number of coins as a prize.

If you get within 5%, you get more, 2%, you get even more.

You have um hints you can take where you can get the measurements, or you can make a practice guess, it'll tell you whether you're too high or too low.

And then there's another hint where you can get what's called the wisdom of the crowd, where you can get an average of all the guesses that have been submitted to the game.

So you can kind of see what the you know the population is thinking.

And it's a fantastic game.

And it's on, it's only available for iPhone.

It's in the app store, and it's called the container.

And the mission is to play these puzzles one at a time and use your hints, or you know, you can stare at the puzzle for three days if you want.

And there's multiple pictures you can scroll through, different angles, or you can guess within five seconds.

You could put your guests in immediately, or you can count them and you know, project it across the whole thing and spend you know a month working out how many jelly beans are in a jar or how many olives are in a giant martini glass or what have you, and and aman to your guests and try to win coins and climb the rankings and blah, blah, blah.

So it's a great game.

And you know, again, it's amazing.

Like I've written a book, I've done a movie, and I have this app in the app store that I I hired a company to make it, you know, do the technical stuff, but I was along with the process the whole way and made all the puzzles and had a professional photographer take all the pictures, and it's quite an accomplishment.

So there you go.

That's the other big project.

If you want to watch a movie, go to YouTube and watch my film.

If you want to read my book, it's on Amazon.

If you want to play a cool puzzle game, go to the iStore Apple i store and uh iTunes store and get the container, which is a little purple, you know, with a jelly bean icon.

So there you go.

There's another one for you.

SPEAKER_01: That's so awesome.

And and and I sat there and I thought, I thought, well, if you think about it, with the creation of this app, you've just become the host of your own game show.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know what's interesting about that is I've come up with a few side things to do with some of the puzzles.

I still have some of the physical puzzles.

And my son's friends had a birthday party and they said, hey, you know what would be great?

This is before COVID.

They said, Can you bring a couple of those puzzles over and maybe make little, you know, guess how many cards and put them out?

And so we did.

And so we had three puzzles scattered across the house.

And they're very visually interesting.

One of them was one of those glass mannequin heads, and I filled it up with rubber bands, and it's called headbands.

And then there's another one where I took a wine bottle and filled it with little mini, tiny little messages, like you would get, you know, that wash up on the beach.

And we took those pictures on the beach, like it looked like it washed up on shore.

And that one's called messages in a bottle.

You have to guess how many little scrolled pieces of paper uh are in the bottle.

So I brought those over to the party and we put them out, and they were a hit.

I mean, kids were like, say, what's that?

And they would migrate right over to the counter where it was, and they'd look at it, and they'd try to fill out their guests, you know, and try to get whoever's closest, got a prize, and they all downloaded the app, which was nice.

So I'm starting to find ways to monetize some of the puzzles.

And I did a bar mitzvah with a colleague recently where I created a version of the game on a computer, and we had it in the entertainment room before the kids, you know, go in and for the party, there's like a room with foosball and you know, Papa Shot and whatever else the kids do for the cocktail hour.

And my game was there on a big computer screen, and the kids were playing it.

You know, and so that was like a test run.

So now I might be able to, you know, sell the game as a party thing for bar mitzvahs and that sort of thing.

So if you're listening and you want to do this at your bar mitzvah or party, get in touch with me.

But it's the point is it's pretty cool because um it's more than just an app now.

Those puzzles are terrific assets which I could use for entertainment and other venues.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

Talk about a guy with a with a mind that doesn't stop thinking and creating and coming up with with take one idea and turn it into another idea and another idea.

You're somebody who I know myself, like I could talk to you for hours, and I feel like would come away just with like a benefit, or or maybe just feeling like, oh MG, I'm going crazy.

That guy's got my brain going 10,000 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_00: So it's just you need to create.

And I think you know, you need to be patted on the back as well because you here you are doing a podcast, and that's not easy.

I mean, it is in some form.

You hook a mic up to your computer, I guess.

And nowadays it's so easy, anybody anybody can do it.

But to do it, consider.

Consistently to book guests, to create the visuals for your website and to promote and all the things you need to do to have a successful podcast that goes on, you're doing it.

So you're doing the same thing I'm doing.

You're just doing a different project.

You're doing a podcast.

I did an app, I wrote a book.

But uh, you know, kudos to you and then anybody out there listening.

You know, if you stop and and again, don't let no be the easiest answer.

You know, you think you want to do it, you you can do it.

And it goes back to look, both of our illnesses, you know, I mean, you had cancer, I mean, with your eyes and I had my leg, and we overcame it.

Why?

Because we set our minds to it.

We didn't take no for an answer, and we we saw it through and and we beat it.

And you're going around not able to see, I'm going around, not able to run.

I have to be careful the way I walk, but I'm still out there creating, and so are you.

So I think that's a great lesson for anybody listening that from the two of us.

Take your passions and your projects and and make them happen.

And don't let somebody tell you that you can't.

Yeah.

Man, yeah.

That that's I mean, you're you're with me.

I mean, you could say the same thing, right?

You could say the same thing back to me.

You know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01: Exactly.

No, no, I I agree.

And I think it's um it is, it's it's awesome.

And and you know, and I think I think that's what's cool about a podcast, and in what I enjoy so much about it is the fact of getting to sit down one-on-one with somebody who I don't know from Adam.

And yet I sit down and it's, you know, you, you're hysterical, you're interesting, yet at the end of the day, you know, you can find, you know, similarities between the two of us, and more so, you know, just kind of, you know, connect with somebody on a on a deeper level and stuff.

And I don't know, I think it's pretty awesome.

So man, you know, like you said, it just it means so much to me to, you know, get the get the chance to uh have you on the podcast and you know get to talk about all your your crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_00: So I like talking about it.

I mean, yeah, I'm promoting it on one level, but uh it's it is interesting to me because there was a time at 16 where who knew what my future was going to be if I even had one, if I'd even be on this earth uh beyond that period.

And so I try, it's a cliche, but I try to you know take it one day at a time and and take advantage of the fact that I'm here.

And, you know, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, hopefully 40, when I'm you know close to passing away, I can look back and have this body of work and say, I I did something, you know, like I found what I enjoyed.

Because listen, I went through, I I told you I was a college professor.

I think I mentioned that early.

And I I was I enjoyed teaching and I liked it and I was pretty good at it.

Eventually, I realized this is not really who I am.

I mean, I like helping people and and educating our youth, but I I would see people get the award for like 35 years of teaching, you know, ever at the end of the year banquet.

And I'm like, I don't know if I want to be that guy.

A guy's 73 years old and he's still teaching.

I said, I don't think I can do that.

I need to do more than just teach and run a video business, you know.

So and when I was in Hollywood, I almost sold a screenplay, which I didn't talk about before.

It, you know, went through a big agency and we thought it was gonna sell and everything, and that might have changed my career path.

I'd be writing scripts in Hollywood and it didn't happen.

But, you know, so I just would love to leave some sort of a legacy of projects, you know, a book someone can read, a movie somebody can watch, a game somebody can play, or more books that people can read and that sort of thing.

So that's how I try to live my life.

And I I think it's good for people to hear it because as as great as everything sounds, you know, I still go through days where I don't have something to do and I'm not working on a project, and it's like a downer.

And, you know, you wonder what you're gonna do next, and are you know, are you making your way through life?

You know, so I'm sure a lot of people can relate, even though they may not have had cancer or gone through what you and I have, but I think that you know, anybody who's down and not sure of of what they are or what tomorrow brings, you know, find something that lights your passion and gives you a motivation to get up in the morning and do that.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.

And I think I think you embody the entire thing of not just like living, living, you know, each and every day, but making the most out of every single moment.

And and with and with this thing of of living it and not just making the most of it out of every moment, but doing so in a way that not only brings you fulfillment in your own life, but to make the world a happier place, to bring joy.

And and you found out, you know, through through laughter and and stuff.

And I think it's awesome.

And I think though, it it is.

It goes to the saying of for all of us is to just focus on that.

Because if everyone was focused on, you know, not only, you know, just doing something that they enjoy, but something that can benefit others, well, you know what?

That'd be one awesome world.

SPEAKER_00: I agree.

Uh very well said.

That's exactly the idea.

I don't do a lot of charity work.

I mean, if I had millions of dollars in the bank, I probably would be the kind of person that would give to charity and and and those sorts of things.

And if I had the ability to physically get around better, you know, I'd be painting ha houses or whatever those projects are.

I just can't physically do that all the time.

But my point is the way that I feel like giving back is just entertaining people and making them laugh.

And I'm thrilled to do that.

And I I hope I get you know more chances to write more books and write more things.

And, you know, I'm growing some followers now on that medium platform where people are finding my articles.

And, you know, the more people who know who I am and appreciate my work and uh will migrate to something new when I do it, that's rewarding for me creatively.

Now, listen, it's there, there's if somebody buys my book, yeah, I make a few bucks or whatever it is.

So it's not about getting rich or trying to sell a zillion books.

I'd rather sell a zillion books because I have a zillion people reading it than because of the money I would make.

But it it is nice to make some money on these things because it sustains the ability to do that.

I've not succeeded so much in my movie and my book and my app that I'm, you know, self-sustainable and live off the money that I get on those things, not even close.

So I still have to go to work, I still have to go run my business and whatnot.

But I would ideally love to see those things grow more and to for me to do more of those things to build up an audience and build up more monetary sales, strictly for the ability to stay home and do more of it, if that makes any sense.

You know, it's not about being rich, it's about having enough to keep doing what I'm doing without having to worry about how the bills are getting paid.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, man.

SPEAKER_00: I yeah, it makes total sense.

Absolutely.

That's where the no comes in.

I mean, really, when I talk about you find a reason to say no to things earlier, yeah, there's no reason why I should make an app, right?

There's no reason why I should spend that much time traveling the country and editing a movie.

Like, how much am I gonna make on this?

It's not about the money, it's it's about doing something that I enjoy.

You know, and if I say to myself, oh, I can't make an app because that's never gonna make any money, well, then I say no, and that's my reason for not doing it.

And then I lose out on the creative joy and the and the and the accomplishment that comes at the end of it.

So I have the accomplishment part down.

I don't have the the financial quote unquote windfall from these things, but you know, I have no regrets about anything I've done because it's never been about making money.

It would just be nice to do so again, so I can keep doing more of that stuff.

But in the meantime, uh I do my creativity and I run my business and I I work like everybody else, and that's how I get by.

Well, uh that's yeah, it leaves you speechless, right?

It does.

SPEAKER_01: That's why I started to say, I don't even know what I say.

But the host doesn't know how to follow that up, right?

SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I mean, there's so many points you could just end the podcast on on these inspirational things, but yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01: But no, and and and it is, and and like I said, you know, again, man, just uh thank you.

Thank you so much for for sharing, you know, all of this and and letting us just have some fun today.

And uh, and you know, and then not only, you know, making hopefully making those laugh, um, or I don't know, maybe people are listening and they're like, these two guys are just stupid.

SPEAKER_00: But uh if they are, they're not listening anymore at this point.

15 minutes in, they're not listening.

SPEAKER_01: That's true.

That's right.

So at this point, we figure we we've got them hooked, and and so yeah, man, but uh, but seriously, thank you so much for uh for taking time out of your day.

And this point, I feel like it's time for us to go and wrap things up because I gotta go watch a documentary.

SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go and go play a game, right?

And read a book.

But no, and I appreciate being on.

And we, you know, again, we we talked about a week ago, part of your process of uh, you know, pre-interview stuff, so we get to know each other a little bit and be ready for the show.

And that was an enjoyable conversation.

We have a lot in common, obstacles overcome and whatnot.

And I really appreciate the chance to come on the show and and yap as much as I'm yapping here on two three-minute monologues over and over again.

But, you know, I feel like I can provide value in that respect, and that the people listening, if they're still with us, to know that they have a an ability to follow their passions and and accomplish things that they might think that they can't otherwise.

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: Well, man, thank you.

And for all of you listening, I hope you enjoyed today's conversation with another awesome guest.

And um, I started to say another ordinary person living in anything but ordinary life, but I don't know that we can call this guy ordinary.

So yeah, but we do.

So we'll we'll say this.

We we've got another extraordinary person living another extraordinary life.

So, and uh for uh all of you, thank you so much for listening, and we will see you next week.

And it's the slowdown with Evan Love.

I hope today's episode inspired you, motivated you, and excited you to get out and enjoy life, no matter what obstacles may be standing in the way.