Mental Self-Checkout

Transcript

Action park media. Yeah, yeah. Welcome to Victory, the podcast, I'm Doug Allen. I'm Kevin Connolly, and we are coming off an epic episode of Victory with Mark Cuban. Where did I get that? Obviously, I knew what a great guy was from when he did the show in the movie, but you know, he doesn't have to show up here, you know, like, and you were right, he was here at 11 o'clock and zero seconds and he rolls up and his car by himself gets out of the car, walks in. There's that thing where people say, Oh, some of the richest people are miserable. I don't know, man. No, he's a happy guy. He looks pretty happy and humble. He's an authentic guy. And you know you. Connelly texts me like a half hour before tell Mark. We're saving the spot in front for him and I'm like, texting Mark. How's the helipad on the roof? Yeah, I'm sure he's coming in on a helicopter and Mark rolls up in a 2016 Lexus, right? And you know, it's not an act. He's just a good guy. He really is, and he's a humble guy. And he called himself, he said, You know, I like to keep a beat. He was planning that just because he didn't pull up in a Lamborghini, but he stopped himself. He's just a where he, you know, he wasn't going to call a 2017 Lexus, a beta beautiful car. But what kind of car does mark Cuban drive? What would we expect him to pull up? I don't even know anymore. I just he's just cool, and couple of good things came out of that. No one. I think we are responsible for Shark Tank. I think he said it. So said it. I don't know if that's part of him being humble. I don't want anything for that. I just like it because we love it so much. And now we get to watch it and I'm out of episodes, which is really annoying. Like, they got a guy. I got to get it on. I got to get going once in a while. People come in here, they just leave such a good impression on me. Yeah, he left me sort of speechless. But just what a good guy and Dylan, who is never bummed that he's not here. He was bummed that. So could you imagine Dylan grilling him about Luke? Dylan idolizes Luke. Yeah, he really does. If Dylan could be another person, it would be Luke. I thought we got some good insights, but by the way, we you know, it shows you how difficult it is to kind of break this out into press. We have great quotes from Mark Cuban that are better than anything else that's out there about Jason Kidd's hiring, and nobody's picked it up. So it's kind of sad. How did I do with my Shark Tank question? Either guy choked your question or your answer? Well, I didn't want to press him on the air. Like, how do you feel about investing? I really wanted to know if the three questions that he was going to ask if I would have off the top of my head knowing the answers to those. I mean, I don't I still don't know whether you do know those answers. I do. What was it? Look, what's nice about you is you are. You're a humble guy and a little like insecure, but you have a real business. And I may if this was my business, you were like, Have come on, I cheated up. Why is it Mark Cuban investing in action part? I would have had it. I would have made sure that Mark Cuban walked out with a deck and was like, Yeah, you know, what can I throw a f**king million at? You know, he said, a lot of things that I did, I learned I learned a lot about he, even in such a short period of time. Do you feel action park media will benefit from that time? Well, it's funny because he was talking about Avion and he was talking about how much fun he was having acting. And he was just having such a good time being an actor on entourage and focusing on his lines that when approached about the business, it didn't feel like the right time for him, right? He didn't want to talk about Ivan on set. He was slurring his dialogue. So you didn't think it was time to talk about action park media on the podcast. I just thought he was so gracious and his arrival and the way he treated everybody here and just the way he carried himself. And I didn't want to feel like I was putting him on the spot, asking him for money. I mean, he was holding a lecture about cryptocurrencies everywhere he goes. The guy's got to answer. But before I am done with you, Kevin Connolly, I'm going to get you to understand you're not asking anybody for favors. I know that you're asking people for opportunities now again, if Mark Cuban made a million dollars with you or $20 million. It's not going to change his life. But I think he does like to find winners and he does like to find things. So maybe we go back to him. Tell us about today. Well, we got Eric Weinstein coming up, which is Eric is the original E ! Yeah, and you'll we'll discuss how different the real entourage is from what Marques was that way. What kind of experiences came in? But E is e the name came for me. Obviously, you'll find the job and the personality are very different. But before we do, I just I got some text messages and now I'm f**king forgetting the guy's name. I'm sorry. He asked me to ask you about this Disney movie you did when I was in college. Robert Townsend wrote and directed The Hollywood Shuffle, which was an independent movie that I can honestly say to you. I've seen 500 times it was your big Robert Downey Jr. fan. I loved Robert Townsend and I didn't know why. You know Keenen Ivory Waynes, which was like a supporting player in that movie, and he was at the forefront of this great kind of sketch comedy that in living, oh, he's a genius. Yeah, and I heard that you did this movie with him up, up and away. Yeah, I was in 98. It was Vancouver. It was called up, up and away, and it was for the Disney Channel. And now because of Disney Plus. They're now airing these movies, so it feels like there was a movie, but it was a movie for the Disney Channel and Robert Townsend, I believe wrote. And he definitely directed it, but I think he also wrote it. And it's about a family of superheroes, and their youngest son is showing signs of not having the family trade, not being a superhero. But it's funny. I don't want to say it was ahead of its time, but there were moments where I'm standing on the on the set of this movie like, What are we doing? Robert Townsend is directing and he's in is his superhero costume. And but it's fun to watch and I play the bad guy I was trying to take over the world and we're evil. I mean, I'm going to have to check this out, but you'll get a kick out. You have Disney Plus, obviously, right? Of course you'll get a kick out of it. Just, I mean, for the older crowd that listens to us back in the day when you rented movies and didn't return them and you would get a bill literally for like a thousand dollars, right? You know, the Hollywood Shuffle was this movie that my friends in my roommates and I in college at Tulane, we wore it out because we watched it every day. It was that funny. It's also an indie, right? It was an indie movie made for no comedy, made for nothing, and it became kind of an iconic. And to be honest with you, I haven't seen in a while I want to watch it again because it's very relevant to today, because the what it was about was was kind of showing that, you know, African-Americans in Hollywood are not getting any kind of roles unless they're playing like criminals or whatever it was. But it's really funny, really smart. Keenan Ivory Wayans. I don't remember who else is in it, but I got a I'm going to check it out. I'm going to rewatch Hollywood Shuffle. I absolutely love it. So I'm excited for that and I'm excited for Eric Weinstein to really come in after this. Welcome back, make through the podcast, so this next guest. It's going to even begin. Well, it's going to be an interesting discussion because everybody obviously asks how close to Mark Wahlberg's real crew was the crew on the show, and there's a lot of interesting things to dissect in there. But one of them, that's just indisputable. And what it is, Eric Weinstein the real e who personality wise and job description may have been different, but from the beginning, everybody was like E.. The name is the guy and where we go from there. So Eric White said, How are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you guys doing work together? Yeah, yeah. Where are you at? What's going on with you? Are you working with Marc now? Yeah, I'm still with Marc. We just finished a movie here in L.A. called Father Stu. We finished one before that. We were in Europe, in Barcelona, and then we're also Berlin doing uncharted with What's the name of Spider-Man? Tom Holland, Tom Holland, Spider-Man? Tell me when you met Marc, did you meet Marc and Leo on Basketball Diaries? Is that? Yes. First, what happened was there was this kid, Jimmy Mario, you know? Of course. So Jimmy, they wanted him for the part of, you know, and he just could not act like a heroin addict. I was at the time he played Pedro in the massive Pedro, right? He was a f**king crazy character. He was, you know, and Jimmy was a good guy. So on a Wednesday night, I'm working on the program. You know, I'm clean. Thirty seven years. I was a director of a drug treatment facility on the Lower East side of New York. Out of nowhere, I got a call, Hey, we got this kid, Jimmy, Mario, we want to play. This puppy doesn't know how to act like a hero. I go, What are you talking about? It's a basketball diaries. I said, Oh, Jim Carroll, I know Jim. I used to get high with Jim. I, he's got to have a Jim, get high with Paddy, get high with. I mean, that's that was my life. I was a roadie, you know, and I worked for Jim for Soul with Jim, like in San Francisco. We hung out like ridiculous. So I said, send it to me. So he comes to me on a Wednesday. I teach him everything. I explain a lot of things to him. Thursday, he gets the part. Thursday afternoon I got a call. Can I meet with Leo on Friday morning, seven o'clock in the morning to come to the prom? Seven o'clock in the morning? Are you f**king kidding? I get up at seven o'clock in the morning. All right, so I get up at seven or more. I get down there and as I'm there, Leo gets that phone call. Oh, guess what? I just got nominated for an Academy Award. What's eating Gilbert Grape, right? And I had a long talk with him in May. He rest in peace. Scott Calvert. And they said, We want you. I said, OK, I'm here. Scott Calvert directed the Basketball Diaries and later on just ended up having having a tough time. Yeah, you know, it's a sad story. I mean, even though the movie, you know, he was a video director, he was a great video director. And maybe the movie might have been like a almost like a sequence of music videos. Yeah, and that's what he did. So, but still, whatever. And we made that movie. The other thing in hindsight, that was not a big budget movie that most people don't know that that was a small it was like five million bucks, something crazy like that, maybe even less. But it wasn't some like, you know, giant studio movie. Those guys were out there grinding Chris Blackwell, right? Chris Blackwell, producer and Petra, you know. Right. And then they were going to put on, I mean, island records, obviously, you know, put up the money and we never saw Chris. But you know, Liz. However, she was a great woman. She produced it, and it was great time. And so where does Mark come into this? So Mark's also so once I got the job teaching Leo, Leo and I going on every single night, I take him down to the Lower East Side. I throw him out the car, he's wearing his jeans, he's smoking a cigarette. He got people coming up to him ask, what if he got methadone, if he's selling or if he's buying to start taking them so they don't recognize them? They don't recognize, you know? No, no one was back. This is like house on street and avenue A. Right, right around the corner from the methadone clinic. He's getting out the van. He's just sitting there talking like that. People are coming up to him. What do you want? What are you selling? You got, you know, what are you doing? And so then they said to me, Hey, you did a really good job. Would you mind working with Marc? And at first my my instinct was like, Mark Wahlberg, you took my Marky Mark pulls his pants down. I was like, OK, I'll do it because, you know, they offer me a lot of money. I mean, for me back then, you know, work forty hours, get paid this amount of money, I'm like, Oh, that sounds good. And I did it. And in the craziest thing, we hit it off, right? I mean, unbelievable. Here I am, a Jew from the Bronx and Yankee fan is an Irish Catholic from Boston, a Red Sox fan. And like, you know, it's like, that's how when it came to baseball, we were having, like had heads like, you know, that's probably when you don't talk to each other during the playoffs, right? Yankees, Red Sox, you know, mark one time when the Giants are playing the Patriots and I made the mistake of. And honestly, I don't care that much anymore. I was like, the giants are going to f**king win and Mark. I thought, he's going to punch me in the face like he's, you know, he gets serious about real serious penalties. Right, exactly. Mark and Leo also worth noting These are two guys that are not drug guys, right? Right. Never were. Never had a bout with it. They're pretty clean, for the most part. Maybe they claim they don't know anything, right? I tell Leo, Come on, scratch a ball some more. I'll scratch a ball a phase. Do this, do that. And then all of a sudden Leo got it. He just got it. He was on f**king camera doing this and writing this f**king thing. And he was. He was, you know, he was really amazing. Leo does an impression of Eric Weinstein telling him that it's all, you know, not quite got to scratch your balls, you got to get it, not just scratch, you got a scratch of Leo. He does a great imitation impression of you telling him what's so weird about this time period is as we've talked about this before, but this girl, Terry Ostrow that I went to college with. She's like, calls me up. She's like, Do you want to come to Georgios with these two like guys who are about to be giant movie stars? And I'm like, Who are these like Leo and Mark? Am I? Yeah, I guess so. And that was the famous story where Elmo, you know Elmo, right? Elmo goes, tell Leo. Elmo says, what up. So I get there and I'm like, uncomfortable. These two young guys who everyone saying like a B movie stars and I'm some schmuck and I walk in, I'm like, Yo, Leo, Elmo says, what up? And Leo goes, What the f**k's an Elmo. And it's been always been like an embarrassing moment of my life. So Mark and you, you start, just hit it off with guys. We hit it off. And next thing you know, he's like, Hey, you know, do you want to actually my program? I was the director of the program. And they said to me, You know, you got to go back to school, you got to get a Ph.D. nude disaster. Visual Substance Abuse Services of New York State says in order to be a director of a program, you have to have a degree. I said degree. I went to UCLA University on the corner Lenox Avenue, you know, so I, you know, I'm like, What are you talking about? Well, you have to go towards a Ph.D., has a Ph.D. play and a degree. So are you? I mean, you kidding me? OK, well, the degree is going to cost me $200000 six years of my life. And then what do I make this all you can make seventy four thousand dollars a year. I said, Mark Eiglarsh, what are you doing because you want to come with me because I don't have a roadmap? Do you think I should do music or anything else? You do movies? I said, you should definitely do film. I mean, because what the heck? Some of the character, some of the roles and the things that he's played, I mean, even though as his character and basketball diaries, he was great. I thought him and Leo were amazing. Oh, you know, I mean, it was definitely eye-opening to watch Mark and Basketball Diaries because I think it was fair to say everybody. Initially your thought was wait, and then you watch the movie and you go, Oh, this kid's a star. Yeah, and maybe Scott Calvert was to be the guy to thank for that, because he they saw something man and man market that won. And so Basketball Diaries is before Renaissance Man. No. After writing, I saw Penny Penny, Penny Marshall as the one Penny Marshall and what's his name were the ones that said, Hey. And then when he met Danny DeVito, and that was, I mean, that was a great pop, that it was a lot different. Still a big jump to basketball. Yeah, no. Real street. This is him getting the chance to be the street guy that he really was in Dorchester, in Boston. But just doing it out in New York, you know, right away. All right. So let's so let's let's talk about that because we then we start casting for us. I mean, even writing process and mark was great because I said, I need to make it New York, which you know how important that is to us and how important Boston is to mark. But Mark was awesome and said, Just do it. And I remember the one thing Mark said, Don't make me look stupid. And when Mark says that, you know, he's not f**king around like, I want to read the subtitles. So we get going on this thing and we are trying to cast Mark Wahlberg, which is impossible. It really is. That's why he's Mark Wahlberg. There's not that guy's guy. That's kind of a tough guy. And Liev had Adrian in his back pocket for months before he really said, I got the guy. Do you remember any conversations with you and mark about Adrian specifically? Do I remember any comic? I remember everything. Good. OK, here's how it went. Love comes to me and I said, love. I even said, What about Adrian going, Oh Michael, never ever approve it. Michael, never do it. I said, Leave it to me. Let me talk to him. You know, I said, I told Mark, Hey, there's this kid is a good looking kid. He's he knows how to act. He knows what he's doing. Can I play? You know? But do you want someone that play you? Well, not really. You want someone to be this, this, you know, movie star. And he says, OK, make it happen. Wow, that was really how it. By the way, this is a great piece of information that I did not live to say that, but it doesn't matter. Now, level never give you that credit. But LaVar, take it back a step further. I know that's because I was there I was. We always ran side by side separate groups, but we were always under your protection, so we would be at separate tables at the bar. But we're like, Oh, you know, Wahlberg's guy's got a car. Nobody's talking about. That's how we got. We got the army around the corner. Let's just talk about exactly who that is, because in the show, when we have the real entourage come, it's Mark Wahlberg, Eric Weinstein, Jay Giannone. No, no, no, no. It's Jay. Not in that scene, you know? Not, not really. See, we missed by OK, so there's in the pilot for people listening. In the pilot, there's the first scene where we see Mark Wahlberg and we bump into the real entourage Johnny drama. Obviously, Johnny. OK, so now they wouldn't. They wouldn't be the ones that be that would be out with at. That table next. So who's the real crew, the real crew would have been myself? Mark, of course, would have been Ace, Ace, you know, Brizzi, you know this. I mean, some other people, you know, Johnny drama would come out. He'd have one drink and be gone. You know, really? I mean, and that would be it. I mean, internode, that's you know, you want to talk about donkey. Let's talk about donkey would always be there, but he'd be running around the room. May rest in peace looking at women's feet. No. Hey, you got beautiful feet. You got really nice foot thing you. I think you really did donkey, would you say, because I'm going to throw another name out there? Johnny Gallo was that turtle vibe, but no donkey donkey was really, really turtle. But again, just so we all know, of course, Liev would tell me things and this and that, but I didn't hang out with everybody and go, what? I was obsessed with Johnny Drama's name. I was obsessed with. I was obsessed with Johnny Drum's abs, even though Dylan didn't have them to be mad at me. Know like that was one of the things we would try to cast for. And then Turtle, there was a time when we didn't think you guys all had to sign releases. Do you remember this? This was a big thing. We didn't know if they were going to sign it. So I was getting calls every day. And again, I don't know donkey. I've never spent two seconds with donkey or murder. One is that the same same person? OK, so I've never spent a second with them, but I was obsessed with the name Turtle. So then I get the call. They're not signing the releases. What happened with that? So I was going to have to change Turtle's name and I spent the summer. I need to. By the way, that could have been catastrophic. You know, we were like, we were seriously sitting there like, what if we call a mooch? And I literally would not sleep? I'm like, We need a four legged animal that moves slowly. I'm telling you right now, so what was going on? It really wasn't. You know what? I don't think I think that before they even got to us because as soon as I got the release, I signed and I was right there when Johnny Drama signed. We signed together and I never really heard any. The only one issue I heard might have been was donkey. Right was donkey. Because he wanted this. He wanted that donkey went up for the part. Don't forget, donkey auditioned. Donkey Audition. The real Johnny drama. I remember drama's audition. It was funny. I mean, and they were together. Yeah, they were together. They all went up. They all went for the part, and they thought they were going to get it down. He'd be like, Yo yo, I went for the pot. Yo yo yo, I went to get the party magic. You do a magic. We've talked about it before, but I want I want Wahlberg. Like, I'm trying to find Wahlberg, and part of me at some point is like, Let's get if I can put Wahlberg in the show at some point, I'm thinking that now we find Dom and I'm like, Okay, now we got like, Tom fits. The prototype in a big way is the thing about Dom. Also, audition for it. And yeah, I'm audition for everybody. For everybody. I thought, be anything. But the truth is in hindsight, which which brings me to we do this screening at Mark's house of the pilot. Oh, this is awesome. I have to sit there with the real crew and it's a lot of them. There's Ross, the Ross and 20 other people. So you Ross Paulie Herman, who plays Marvin, the accountant, coming up. But it starts with Jim to an unlimited plan. But the show starts and Paulie looks at me and sees Adrien and goes, This guy is not my idea of male sexuality, OK? And I start sweating. I'm like, Oh, my God is a tough watching, a rough cut of the pilot with these guys. Yeah, that's I don't blame. Do you remember this? And Mark gets up, tells everybody, shut the f**k up. We've got a monster hit. That's what Mark said at that screening, and it was pretty cool because I thought everybody wanted to kill me. I really did. I was like, They hated everybody thinks we f**ked it up, but we couldn't find that type of crew. And I think in hindsight, it was better because, well, if you had a guy like Mark, he didn't. Even though he has you guys, he doesn't need it. Like Vince needed that crew around him. You know what? I mean it. It's a lot. He's a bit more. He's he's not. He's a bit more of an individual. Mark is not afraid to be alone, right? He could stay at home a lot. So tell us about the real answer. Is there any did you live with Mark ever? Yeah. I mean, I mean, I did my best not to live with them, because who wants to live with your boss? Kind of like that stuff. But I stayed. We had a big house on Hill at that time. He was moving around a lot. We moved from, we had an apartment. We had Milton Burrows apartment on Wilshire Boulevard. Then we had the Rock Star House up on Kings Road. I remember that and then we had king, and then we had another place on Doheny, and we kept moving around till we finally found the place on Oak Park Road, which I then I lived with him for a while while it was all being done while they were doing all the remodeling and all that stuff. But then it's like, You know what, I'm too way too independent. Who else did anyone else live there? Ace has been with them. I mean, Ace lived with them every chance, every step of the way. ACB, there generally wasn't really there. Bubba never lived there. Bubba was like, Give him the opportunity of a lifetime. He was. Mark said. When you know, he signed with Ari, look, you got to take care of a couple of my people. Ari and Ace Ace never made it out of the mailroom in eight years time. Go back, Gary. Hold on one sec. So Mark tells Ari Emanuel, who Ari Gold is based on that he's got these two guys, but I'm going to sign with you, but I need you to help out a couple of my board. I love it. I love it. So even Vince didn't do that. Vince said turtles got a business. He said if he set up a meeting. So Ari is got to meet these guys and tell me what he had to hire a many did. He hires baby Bubba and Bubba's all of a sudden sitting in Ari's office every day, dressed in a suit just like Ari going out to meetings. Ari comes to set. Bubba is right next to him, and then an ace is given the opportunity to be an agent, but you've got to starting tomorrow. Unfortunately, he never made it out. What happened? You know, I got caught sleeping under the table, hanging out in the some call lounge, hanging out, you know, talking to them, the girls that cleaned up the kitchen and getting involved with them and getting involved with this one and that one. And it just didn't work. And what about Bubba Bubba? Also, he was going to be a rapper. He was Bubba. His real name is Johnny Yow. Johnny Galaxy. A decent. I mean what? It's not bad. I mean, this is less new. Stuff isn't bad, right? I love Bobby. You know, he's a little pain and he's a con artist, but that's who is the biggest con artist. He could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge and yo man, I'm telling you, Well, that's what you do. That's also interesting. That's also where the entourage, the real entourage used to do. And because the real entourage, which is why when Levon Marc first came to me, which, by the way, I had no job, so why they were coming to me anyway, but I was like, This idea sucks. I don't like it because things that we talked about was like Paul robbing the fan club. Holy Campbell, by the way, is obviously a crazy, tragic. He's gone. Sorry. May he rest in peace. So, but one of the first stories that Levon Mark told me was was poorly set up the fan club for Marc and and people would send in 20 bucks, which I used it on the show when the girl sent the picture in the money and turtles put the money in his pocket. But Polly Campbell stole money from the fan club currently. He never turned a dollar in. Right. So that was the total start of the fan club and then stole the money. And then anybody bet the money on the Super Bowl. OK, bet the money against the Giants. And he took that money. Never, and he never paid them. He bet like it was like a few thousand lots of money and he went to the wrong people, you know? And he bet. And I think he ended up like pushing, you know, what's called the broom in their restaurant for a while because he never paid the money? Yikes. On the set of Perfect Storm, Paulie Campbell comes with two cases of iced tea. I go, Where'd you get those from? Oh, Jimmy Keough game to me, I would kill. What are you giving my Steve for? Oh, Mark wants it. That's said Mark's. Never drink and iced tea in his life. Jimmy Kehoe is a famous craft service guy. I've worked with them before. He's a pilot. He's a great guy. So this guy was trying to get free ice tea. He took it to its card, said it was from. Exactly. I mean, it's so insane. Well, we're going to do this at some point. There was a first draft of the script, which Chris Albrecht read and said, What the f**k is this? We're not doing sopranos in Hollywood, you know? And the truth is, is some of the surrounding guy's real entourage a little rough around the edges. There were a lot rougher than turtle drama, and Gerry Connolly and Dylan Connolly, come on. Are you be, you know, you might be this guy, but I've hung out with you in the club many times. And somebody walked the wrong way or said the wrong thing. And you were ready. You ready to go. You're ready to go right away. You and know when you're not there you are. Part of that you fit right in. Eric might be right. My first night going out Connelly's like, meet me at some club on sunset or you've told the story ten times the stories that get better with time. Oh, this is real. I love it. This is your guy gets bigger every time Doug Collins like, show up it. Whatever the whatever club was out there got a parking spot out front and Connolly is good like that. Except for when Charlie Sheen shows up here. He doesn't look out for his car, but Connolly is like, I'm out. I mean, it is pouring, which doesn't happen in L.A. that much. I go. I pull up. There's Connelly's like, waving me in like he runs the club. All of a sudden, the bouncer, who's six, six, six, 11 and a half. No, this is not me. 50 pounds. He is huge and he comes running over. Get that f**king car out of here. And Connolly turns just like you said, like, he's Conor McGregor and puts this guy in his place. The next thing I know I got a spot. So Connolly is here for all the crowd out there that always says he is a pussy. Connelly will fight you. He may get beat up, but he'll probably get beat out by. Yeah, no. I don't think I'll get beat up either. I think it can hit and run. Exactly. He moved away, so I don't believe that. So everyone, when the show gets rolling, there's a lot of people Giannone, who I love, I don't know what anybody else but, you know, just so people, you say Giannone, like people nudge, you know, he was part of. That's the other thing, too, about the entourage. At the end of the day, it's a TV show. You can only service so many characters. So if you really broke down entourage, that could have been 10 guys that you could name and then you have to hone it down to lots of elements. Go into all of it. But, you know, he used to say to me, is a friend of of of Mark's that I don't know that he was on that super inner inner circle, but he was around. But what Jay used to say to me, which I'm not criticizing him, I love him, and I don't care how the show came to me is Mark and Liev brought me an idea. I wrote what I thought worked. They were happy and we're all good. But I would get from Jay. Are you happy that I made you rich? Because this was my idea. How did this come about? Eric almost fell out of his chair and Jay Jay, don't get mad at me. Maybe I'm paraphrasing for Patrick. How did this initial idea come to pass back them all? The rappers were calling all their friends, their posse, and then I said something to Sarah Lum and I said, You know, maybe we should do a TV show called Posse. She said, No entourage. I went home. And then Sarah Lum said the word on first. The first time the word entourage was said was from Sarah Palin. And just so everyone knows Sarah Lam, who was awesome, who read every, every single draft of the script, worked for Liev in his office. So I've never heard that that's a man. That's the God's honest. I believe you. That's the name of it. And I think also Ari had promised Marc to TV shows, right? You know, for his signing and everything, you know, and he delivered. And on the front of it, you know, but I remember I got to tell you something. The first couple of drafts you wrote I thought were incredible. The first few, I not the original, the pilot wasn't, but they when they pass on those drafts, I was like, Are you out of your mind? I mean, it's so we still have to read it. Good. I mean, the first draft, I thought, was to die for it just was just the tougher guys, right? I mean, it was a tougher group like Vince. I wrote it how I saw Mark Vince through turtle out of the limo for criticizing the movie he just made, you know, and it it just was. Look, it's the guys that I grew up with who had a little more edge and a little more bite because I didn't really grow up with a guy like Vince, who was just so nice to everybody and take everybody like that, you know, nobody was. Nobody did, and that's why that's why everybody had a hustle so much because Mark was not putting anything on you just saying, Here you here, take it and go, take and go, No, you got to work for it. Figure out a way to figure out your way. And that's what Giannone. You do that. I mean, he was always every single day. He had a different puzzle, a different this different that he wanted to do this show. You want to do that, this music. I mean, every day it was something different. But that's that's what mark gifts to everybody, though. You know you want something. You got to go get it. So Mark provides the access. But then from there you got to go hustle it. I'm not going to. I'm not going to hold your hand. You're you're here now. Go figure it out. And Giannone, so everyone knows, has one of my favorite lines in the show, and he's outside and he ruins the movie for everybody. Well, he yeah, he had a squirrel movie that being in an episode where he where he said date night, season one, where he tells of my, you know, the squirrel dies. In the end, there were no, you know what is going on now with the crew. Now everybody's Mark's marriage got four kids. It's a lot different. There's no more going out at night golf in the morning. Jim in the morning. Hang with the kids when he's not working, where on set he's working all day and night at dinner. We have a chef. You know, it takes care of him and he eats. He reads every single night, reads the script still to the last day, make sure he walks on that set knowing his lines, your lines and the guy behind you. That's why he's got that house. You know, he was always, he was a worker. He just worked really. As you see him doing his four a.m. workouts, it makes me feel like a loser all the time. We just came back from the Dominican Republic. It was 2:30 in the morning every day because we had to leave your stuff. You know, the drive would be two hours to base camp, so you have to leave by 6:00. So we have to be out of the house, you know, and you had to get up at 2:00 in the morning to do it. Go to bed at 8:00 at night. No hanging out. No nothing. Get back from work. Go to sleep. You know, maybe have a little cigar sort of funds gun. It's not really gonna find a different kind of fun when we hang out and we enjoy each other's company. It's not really. It's not the same. Who wants to do that anymore anyway? Yeah. You know, we can go out and you know, you're you're, you know, everyone's married, everyone's got kids. What are you going to do? You're going to have all these women parade by you and you're not going to be like, Oh, you want me? Oh, you can't do that s**t no more. So who is around now on a every day is myself ace. We have. We have cheugy. We have Ricky. We have a bunch of other people not know. And Brizzi was around. We were just in Boston, but we're still around Jimmy Bo. Big Bo. No, I met Bo Bo Bo. I was like, still around once in a while. And and that's it. And so dramas home and out and bought in Boston, why he's got three three kids. You know, he's building his business, he's got his music going and the real. Johnny drama, by the way, I mean, he is cousin Johnny, because as hell and I really actually thought before we found Dylan that we could somehow make him work as he is funny, he's just got that thing about him, like everything he does is funny, much like Dylan. Yeah. So my question is, where do you guys go from here? In what in life? No, no. I'm talking about it. If you if this, if anything, you were to do, I always thought that what you could do would be a real another film where maybe, you know, 20 years later, here we are. And you know what happens? Certainly, things are different, right? Certainly, things are different. Donkey died. This one died. This character is gone. Doug, you get to kill a bunch of people off. You love that. Obviously, we got to kill Vince since he doesn't return my phone calls. All right. Well, whatever. But you know, I'm just saying, I still think that you have some really big interest in this show. That people want to know because it was great that people were entertained. They loved it the whole hold. They really got to see what the Hollywood scene is about. They didn't. They saw it. I mean, some of the back stuff in, you know, in all the films and what goes on on set and the stuff they saw that already. So now here it is, 20 years later. What's going on with the entourage? What's really happening? Oh, I could. I could see it in a second. It's almost easier to redo now than it would have been even five years ago. Much easier. The landscape has changed now. It would be interesting to go, Oh yeah, how did these guys maneuver in this new world? Yeah, I think we could. We could totally do it. So that's that's a mark. Question marks is going to call HBO and go, Let's go do it, HBO Max. So but you know, it's it's something that even with the movie, you know, I didn't want to do the movie. I know you did. And Mark was like, You're doing it. And that's sort of cowardly to want to do the show. And Mark was like, You're doing it. So you know, and mark when Mark decided doing something else, won't you need to have another show of 40 plus something? I had 40 with Eddie Burns, Michael Imperioli, but it wasn't even that. I just, you know, I just didn't see any. We had such a great ending to the show, you know, LED Zeppelin, Connolly in the manual for whatever slowly fly off. It just it was the perfect ending to me. That being said, even though the movie didn't work to the financial people, I still loved the ending. Dylan winning the Golden Globe is worth everything to me. I loved it. So. But I felt we had a good ending, but we'll maybe move forward one day. The opportunity is going to present itself in some form, and I might be today, tomorrow or in five years. Mean, you look, they're either redoing Dexter. Did you know that? No, they're doing everything. They're redoing Dexter. Mark's nephew is in it. Oh, wow. This is a kitchen. They're shooting in Boston. Yeah, we put them in an AT&T commercial with Mark Putnam and some other things. But now he's in Dexter. Got signed for like six episodes. That's awesome. It's a big family, the Wahlberg family. So Oscar is amazing. He's a great kid. When you look at a guy like Wal-Mart, how does he make things cool? That might not be cool to anybody else, in other words? So you go Wahlburgers, for example, right? How do you go? Hey, let's do a reality show and what we'll do about this restaurant Wahlberg's and oh, by the way, one of two hundred of them at it and turn it into a thing. How does an idea? Because I know you were involved in that as well? How does it how does that cause that elevator pitch could go, Mickey? Go Mark, go you crazy? What are you talking about? Marc just automatically sees the big picture and the big, you know, you know what? I think it really is. It's like if Elvis Presley said to you, Hey, I'm going to do this country and western song and you go Elvis country and western, and he goes, Yeah, and you OK? Yeah, it's the persona of having that certain kind of cool, you know, aura around him. You go, OK? And then you figure, OK, we do the show and you're going to use that for that's your publicity for all the restaurants and you do this, you do that. I think what's interesting about Marc? He's so authentic that it doesn't come off like he's. Why is this guy doing a reality show? Why is he doing this? I knew immediately there is a far bigger play here. I just knew instinctually that, you know, this is exactly this is the tip for him opening a bunch of these restaurants all over the place. So Eric, let's get into the real deal with you. Do you have pieces of this? Do you get I mean, do you, Doug, do not get me started because Turtle walked away with what a hundred million at the end of the show is the only one that left the entourage with money. Don't get me started on that point. I'm still working hard on other things as well. Yeah, that's me. But things, but you're happy. I'm OK. You know what? I've been with him for almost 30 years. You know, 30 years is a long time. I'm good. I'm going to be 67 this year. My health is good. He's happy. Yes, you know, I'm I'm the Yankees suck. But that's really my biggest. It's going to make a late run. I know, I know. But still, I'm fine. I'm always looking to do better. You know, I'm not. I'm not the kind of person that just sits back and goes, OK, I'm happy. No, I want more. My wife wants more. She really, you know, you know, she's young. She's younger than me. She's 42, 24. There you go, right? She's from Bangladesh. She's amazing. I love her dearly. And, you know, I'm always looking to do more. I'm good, though, and I'm, you know, as long as I got my head screwed on straight, you know, I'm not putting needles in my arm. I'm not doing anything stupid like that. I'll be OK. Yeah. Well, you seem great. And I mean, I love that we got you in here. It's amazing. I don't think I knew that you were a Lower East Side legend, but I didn't realize so you actually hung with Jim Carroll and you were like in that scene, in a big way where I started out as a roadie when I was 17 years old, I was working for Alice Cooper, running, you know, ounces of cocaine from the Bronx to Connecticut. You know, I had the rocks, baby, the rocks. You couldn't save them and everyone was doing coke back then. So I was I had to get a great price hikes to make a bunch of money. And one day they invited me to a show and I go to the show, so I'll come back to the house in Connecticut. We're going to have a little party, a few drinks hang out. I got no problem. I get there and the road crews unloading the trucks, I go, Hey, you guys need any help. So I start unloading suitcases and speakers and this and that, and they go, Hey, you want a job, a job? What are you talking about? And at the time, I was working on a clothing store called Granny Takes a Trip. They made all custom made clothing from England. High heeled boots for men, too. I mean, every rock star named mother Keith Richards gave me my first pair of tickets to go see the stones in 71. You know, that was pretty awesome. He threw a bag of f**king coke on the back and blasted, you know. And I just said, Yeah, sure. So the next day they say, OK, here's the keys to the truck. Take the truck and drive to Manhattan and pick up Neil's drum kit. I got a truck. I never drove a stick in my life, but I don't say this right. I didn't even have a driver's license. I don't say that either. I get in the truck and then to model my What's that smell the f**kin? I burnt out the f**king emergency brake the first two miles. OK, I drive it down to the city. I get there. I pick. I go to Manny's most famous music store in the world, get the drums, drive it back up, and I make it and they go, We'll give you a hundred twenty five bucks a week. You want to drop us in. I'm in. Wow. And then from there I was like, I then kiss. Oh, man, worked for Kiss and Paul, did you travel them? Oh yeah, oh yeah, we kiss. That's pouring in Ohio. And coming out of my room in the Holiday Inn, there's a line of women around the around the block, around the corner from their room waiting to get in just to f**k both of those guys. True story. Yeah, women waiting on line. And just like your turn, you come knocking on your door. And Paul, they were like, they weren't real, right? They were a legitimate rock. So gentlemen, rock stars, you know? Do you think that I mean, that world is just over? It's like, you see these rock stars now. They're all like health addicts and they're all like real pleasant. Like, It's right, you follow Paul Stanley. He's talking about his 25 mile bike ride. Yeah, you know, but now he's got married and kids and jeans doing this, and they've got to worry about the wig here and the wig there. And there I go. But they're going to do another tour end of the road tour. They're going to do another thing and make a few more million budget, millions more dollars. But right before they had those wild, wild days are interesting to talk about because even on Entourage, which? You guys know, and it was my tastes. It was somewhat conservative, given the reality of what was going on. Somewhat low. But let me let you know every single night, every club and we we walked in at 10 and they threw us out. We were they were the last ones to leave. You know, we'd walk in. They'd have a f**king garbage bag full of Bud Light. I always we didn't leave done. These guys used to sit down at the table and there was I don't even have saw anything like it. They had like it was like they was waiting for the giant tub packed with ice full of beer, no vodka beers, bud light for the boys, but like for the boys. That was it. Mark made sure there was Bud Light. That's why everyone's like, Why was Bud Light on the show? Because Mark wanted Bob Light on his show Bud Light. Well, that's why I drank, and that was it. And we didn't leave till the Sun came up or to someone's throwing us out. And then sometime, Oh, we're going here next week. I mean, 6:00 in the morning we stumble home and then sometimes six in the morning, stumble home and had to leave at 7:00 in the morning to go to work. And we did it, you know, but that was I mean, the life was so different. Every single night, every single night to a great restaurant. You know, always eating good food every day in the gym, every day. And while I mean, there was very conservative compared to the life. Yeah, well, I mean, let's say it was, it was my choice to go. Events sleeps with 400 women a season. Nobody's going to like them. Now people talk about the show like, Oh, there was so much sex. There really wasn't that much sex on the show compared to what was really going on. And don't forget, every time a woman like we talk to Mark and Michael kind of reject all of a sudden here become one of the other guys entourage going, Hey, baby, might you be hanging out with me? You can come hang out and go, Oh my God. People were like, it was like their radar was up. And, you know, once they saw that everywhere the moves, it was like a football game, you know, trying to get to the ball. And they and that's what happened every single night, especially memo like we were in Paris for like three months shooting there. Oh my God. Every single night, going out to the club, to celebrity, to this club, to that club. It's amazing. So I just want to jump back to the pilot for a minute because the day of the pilot, when Marcus showed up with you and Jay and drama. I'm like, Liev, is Marc coming? Because you guys were a little late? Was there any talk? Was Marc, do you remember? Was Marc like, What am I doing? Is this the right move? Is the Rahm? Anything like that or what? Not at all. Actually, he was pretty excited. He was, yeah, no. He really wanted to do it. It was great. He was just about I don't think he wrote any lines for him. I think he just kind of told them just then, yeah, when he's not, you know, he's kind of person, he wants to know what he's doing before he does it so we can make sure he does it right, right? And I think that was great. He just said, you know, when we walk past those guys, make sure you look hard, don't look, don't be smiling, and nobody does act like you like them and do this and do that, you know? And that was said, no, he was excited. We did it in two takes, you know, because I've done some other stuff with celebrity producers where they do nothing. Marc was the best. Marc would make sure Marty Scorsese, he was going to be there. Get Tom Brady for us if we needed to call HBO because we're running out of money, whatever it was, you know, he was involved. Then to this day, he's still the same way. Yeah. And every production we have, like, we just finished father Stu. He was involved in every aspect of it, made any call. He had a maid, raised every dollar. He had a raise. He that's that's just who he is. We always knew we had that card. So you would try to handle the right to be dog and laugh. They would be on the forefront. And then when you got to go into the bullpen and call Rivera into the game, Mark was always there and warm. And you know, right, you would try to keep that to when you really needed them. But when we really needed mark in any capacity, he was there in a f**king heartbeat. And the fact that he delivered always and then was really supportive, I think he was always happy with the content was the only time which I don't know Eric if he said anything to you. But when I wrote that Vince was going to die in season eight. Well, thank God he made you a bunch of money because then you wouldn't be able to do the movie. Well, no, but Mark was like, We're going to launch. You're not killing Vince, you know? And he was right. Obviously, Mark was like, We're doing a movie, we're doing a play, we're doing an opera cartoon. Whatever happened with the merchandising? Yeah, I can't thank you enough for coming in and doing this. This is awesome. It was very cool. And I think people really they're always asking what was the real thing? And as I said, Mark was the clear inspiration for this show, but he was great enough to let me kind of bring my spin on it and leave was there to kind of give us all those thoughts and you guys were there as well, which was it was awesome. So and we learned something else. Sara Lum was the first person to utter the word entourage. That's a little tidbit in the episode. So, Eric, thank you so much for coming in and thank you for having me. Guys, I really appreciate it. Anytime you want to know I'm around, oh, we got now a direct line, we'll have them call in next time. All right, thank you. The podcast. Kevin Connolly, Doug Allen and what's Eric Weiner seen in the new? Podcast Doug Allen, Hollywood weighs coming soon. Still bitter about this. I'm not sure who.