Berner Phone - Tommy Marcus: Being Unhinged & Creating Quentin Quarantino

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

On his first ever podcast interview, Tommy reveals the truth behind the biggest account of 2020: Quentin Quarantino.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/berninginhell/support Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I love selling dildos. It's my fucking favorite thing because I also think it's so empowering. I'm like, hey, I just shove this up my badge and it felt good. What are you going to do? No, honestly, I love it too. I mean, like, I love it for you, you know. Welcome to Burning Hell. What is up?

devil's my piquino de villos how do you say devil in spanish not important the important thing is is you guys have been blowing up my dms telling me i need this guy in my podcast because you found out that we were friends i know the internet world is weird because you follow someone and then you're like wait how the hell do they know this person from a totally different world i have the quentin quarantino on quentin aka tommy marcus welcome to the building welcome it's hot in here the Satan says hello hi Hannah it's good to be on here well you know a little nervous but uh less nervous because you're around and we're friends so thank you kind of have a good calming presence to you so i'm excited to do this one way to describe it i do think i do think that we we've known each other for

two years um but this is your first podcast ever it is indeed you've never done it and you've just recently blown up you have over half a million followers on quentin quarantino and at first you were kind of anonymous and then you've recently showed your face so this is kind of your like coming out party i've definitely over the years been approached by people to do podcasts and kind of like thought it over and turned all them down i've been anonymous for a long time on the internet and then like you DM me one day a couple weeks ago like so when are you coming on the podcast and i was just like immediately like you know what this is the perfect timing i'm ready let's do it and uh now here we are ladies this is how you do with men don't give them options their brain doesn't work as fast as

ours so you just have to say this is what you're doing and then they say yes no but i actually tommy is a unique a unique man because he's only 24 i don't want to age you 5 thank you very much sorry 25 excuse me you just became a lot wiser you're 25 i met you when you were 22 and i have seen a real change in you like i've really seen you evolve and i feel like a lot of time we talk to single girls on this podcast or girls going through insecurities and coming of age and you're former i like to call you finance bro but you're an accountant and i can't wait to kind of delve you are someone's bitch boy exactly doing numbers and i think that we need again the mind of like a finance bro's mentality and then how he kind of escaped but before we start i just want to tell a sad story

Do you have dogs? I do not, but my parents have a corgi and a French bulldog, beautiful dogs. Wait, wait, that's like two of the most Instagrammable dogs ever. How have I not seen them on your Instagram? Yeah, well, they are on my Quentin Holsom page, but, you know, they are definitely the two most Instagramable dogs you could possibly imagine. What are their names? The corgi is Skyler, and she's very disapproving, and, you know,

you don't always know what she's thinking of you and uh she's judging yes and the french bulldog is bailey she's 11 years old i believe my mom's gonna text me and be like she's 10 how did you not know uh yeah she's 10 and a half she's they're both beautiful and uh i definitely i love that skyler has an attitude though and like no she's better than you yeah my parents got her like the summer before i left her college so i was never really like a family member to her so she when i comment so I was like I don't know about you um but recently we actually have kind of become closer friends uh scotter and I love that for you too well I'm my current boyfriend I love I'm like as if I'm I have so many all the time and I'm going to leave tomorrow but my my boyfriend loves dogs

he's like I'm a pit bull guy I'm a people guy but I brought in butter and I was like I can't have your people eat butter's face off even though butter she holds her own she's tough so we've been fostering these dogs and they are so cute this one's from the bahamas it's called like a pot cake dog they're basically like dogs that run around in the streets and packs and i guess some rich people were like we cannot have these dogs free we need to put them in our hampton's mansion so anyway but these dogs actually live a much happier life once they're taken in because there's a lot of disease whatever anyway so i don't really know how to deal with dogs i'm a cat person everyone knows that i've been trying to make cat women cool for the last

couple years on Instagram. It's kind of working. I think it's worked just to interject. Oh, God, stop. Do you want to get a cat? Uh, yeah. I mean, I do have a... Oh, yeah. I do have a big portrait of a cat behind me. I would call myself a cat person. I, uh, my best friend growing up was a cat named Seamus. May he rest in peace. Oh my God, I love that. Shamus is so whenever I eat too much and because my boyfriend's Irish, I go, oh, we're going to have a little Shamas. Okay, I've already talked about my boyfriend too much. I'm going to get to trouble or people are going to be like Hannah's not funny anymore she's a boyfriend um and it's all happy it's not funny anymore so long story short I don't know how to deal with dogs

I don't like the whole poop thing like cats it's like in a litter you just like scoop it but you have to like physically touch the poop and like feel the texture like you know what they fucking ate that day anyway it's like warm I don't like it but I've decided to be a good girlfriend and walk the dog sometimes so it was 11 p.m. pitch black and the dog need to be walked and Des was asleep and I was like I will walk the dog so I'm walking the dog and the dog starts to have like the time of her life and she starts like rolling around on the floor and like for a cat cats when they roll around show you their belly it means they're like so happy so I'm like this dog loves me the dog's rolling all over the place

and it's pitch black so I don't really know what's happening but I know she's happy and we get back in I realize the dog's been rolling around in another dog's poop. That's beautiful. Should this dog know not to roll around and shit? And then you don't just get it off. Shit has a strong, strong way of holding on. Shit is like a roach, but like if it was a sense of smell. Like it doesn't leave anywhere no matter what you want to do.

So anyway, I got back and I was like, we got the dogs full of shit. And we had like a whole moment and it was not great for a relationship, but we've survived it. but I just want to let you know. I've had a rough fucking night. But we're here now. And you're very, you're a smiley face and making me happy. Yeah,

I'm hoping to make things happier for you, Hannah. By the way, Tommy loves Summerhouse, and he is like my Reddit spy. Like, he tells me when Reddit hates me. It's true. It's very true.

Side note, did you watch the Summer House trailer? I did. It looks, I saw you crying a lot. I just remember the last season I went to one of the, uh,

the filings of the episodes. It's a story. that I just said it's in the middle of all this, but, you know, like we were, I mean, not we, like I was in a to, I was in a toga and I was so drunk and I somehow ended up like rolling around in the in the mud with with all these baby goats and there was a moment where I looked up and like three cameramen were like filming my, like I, so I spent the next six months. Like, I didn't tell you, but I was, like, really worried, like, oh, my God, is there going to be, like, a scene where it's, like, look at this drunk guy rolling around with the goats. All of episode four is about your journey with the goats and how drunk you were.

It's funny, because I think it was that party. Was that when we had the big, like, thing that people slide down? Probably, yes. I believe so. Because a cameraman broke their arm. A girl locked herself in a closet because she was having some kind of, like, too drunk breakdown. and then someone else also like broke their foot so um that's called a successful summer house party so you excited to watch a new season or what because i need i need my male demographic i really am

i get my i get my uh friends to watch it too i have a few friends here you have like at least five male fans so you're welcome i love bringing men to bravo when i first met you two years ago you actually started with an account called Unhinged and you were doing well and I don't know if people know that you're necessarily connected but that was the account you had can you tell me about the day we met yes my page unhinged was about dating app humor and it started with me just kind of like talking to girls on apps and posting like things I found funny what was your like vibe like what's your game I think my game was that I have no game but anyway it went viral um what was your openers i want to know like would you say hey would you like

like what was your opener in a dating app i i would definitely vary it by person each time um so there would you find like something specific in their photos yeah just like something that i could make some sort of connection to if not i would just you know get scared and not say anything uh but uh anyway the page went viral and all of a sudden I had this like Instagram following and meanwhile I was sitting in this accounting job I had just gotten out of college kind of like walked my way through college limped my way through college into this job for kind of like you know I just followed the cues of what people around me kind of said was the right thing to do and found myself wearing a suit and tie in this accounting firm like in college did you have a passion did you have a passion for anything or

Did you know what your goal was? No, I mean, I thought that I was just going to be some suit and tie guy who made a lot of money. I think that was the extent of my vision. Like, if you put a suit and a tie together, doesn't that make money? Yeah. No, sometimes I get like Snapchat memories from me going to like internship interviews from like six years ago. And I'm just in a suit and tie. And I just like remember how like proud I was to just like be in the suit.

And I was like, here I am. Like, we will hire you to be our slave and we won't pay you. We're going to treat you like shit. But then you could use it on your resume. Little than I know this. It was like $120. They probably knew. Yeah, they probably did.

Right away. So you start your accounting job. Was any of it enjoyable? I will say that the people that I worked for was a small company, they were all really nice. But I knew very early on that I was kind of in the wrong place. just like in the wrong profession like even i would i would be catching up with people from high school from younger days and they'd ask what i'm up to i'm like i'm working in an accounting firm and they're like they'd be like you accounting firm like that doesn't sound right um isn't it

funny when other people see you in a different light sometimes than you see yourself like everyone's always like oh i have so many haters but sometimes it's other people like your friends who are like when i got on reality tv people were like duh and i was like what you guys always always thought I was crazy and they're like yeah but in my head I was like no I'm going to be in business I'm going to do marketing so sometimes it's good to get other people's perspectives on like the real you that you're not like influenced by society about right so anyway I built the on hinge page while I was at the job I started it about six months into my six or seven months into working there and it was really just out of kind of a mixture of boredom and depression I guess um actually actually

Actually, that is a great combination for creativity, is boredom and depression. I want to know, like, how was your confidence level at this time to, like, start a meme page while also having this job and also be dating in the city? Like, where was your head at, confidence-wise? I think I tricked myself into being confident, like, on the outside, but, like, inside, deep down, I knew that I was kind of just going through the motions. And to be quite honest, I was sitting there like, how did I actually end up here? Like, I was really just, I just remember I'd have some moments where I'd be sitting there doing my data crunching, whatever, and just being like, when did this become me? So it was like, I never really.

Did you party? Like, did you blow off steam? Yeah, I mean, it depends on your definition of party, I guess. blowing off steam i would say would be the more uh applicable definition of of me at this job um i would uh very often i don't know if you've ever been to the the port authority bus terminal um oh the armpit of the world yeah so for for anyone who doesn't know the port authority bus terminal is yeah as hannah said the armpit of the world dreams die yeah um it's good for people watch you go to cry and no one cares right it's just like everyone's crying like just you know no one gives a shit um anyway there

there's uh there's this bar on the second floor of the port authority bus terminal called i believe mccan's irish pub and when i was really this is like pre starting unhinged and like while i was like in the shit of like who the fuck am i and why am i here um i was i was frequenting this bar quite often to blow off steam and I would describe would you go with your friends no I never went with anyone ever I went alone every single time oh my god that's so sad or was it like yeah what would you do no it was sad um I would get out of work like late because it was the type of job you get out of like seven or eight and I would just go sit there I'd like I was living with my parents at the time so Oh, you wanted like a little independence before you had to deal with like, why didn't you clean your room?

Right. So, you know, what ended up really happening was I'd go in this place. It's really kind of like a white collar bar. It's a lot of people getting off long days or in the middle of long journeys and just kind of strange people walking in and out. And I would just sit there and drink a lot. Like quite a lot. Would you talk to people? Yeah, that was kind of my thing. I would just. kind of be sitting there now during the pandemic i'm actually like kind of like yeah that doesn't sound so bad but i would i would always just like start conversations with the the other randos who were in there and there were some regulars but really was the random people who were like the most uh i don't know if interesting is the right word but um characters yeah i met some fucking characters you can even call them creatures i like to say creatures yeah like there's creatures of Walmart, creatures of Target, creatures of the Port Authority. Did you see that as like your

future if you stayed in your job? Yeah, no, there would definitely be a daily moment of clarity where once I was like hammered and I was just like, you know, like the port like the bartenders, like they all knew me and like I could see them like like I didn't fit in there like you know like and they were like always just kind of they would talk to me a lot. They knew me by my name which is like, you know, the first step of knowing something's strong. But it sounds like the hamster wheel, yeah. Like, you know where your alarm goes off and you feel like one of those movies where the alarm keeps going off and the day just like goes like,

me, we're, me, me, ma'am, me, ma'am. And I remember being in some of those hamster wheels and just being like, I need off, but I don't know where to go. But the day I met you, I think you messaged me and you had the account, uh, account unhinged and you're like, I have some questions. And I was like, cool. I loved not being just like a reality team. TV person. I like being considered like a fellow internet creator. And we got coffee and you basically

were like, I quit my job. Like we had we had some direct messages where I was like, so like I think I'm quitting my job tomorrow. If I do, I'll let you know. If I don't, we can't get lunch. And then I ended up, I remember like walking in and being like, I'm not going to do it today. And then like, I remembered that like I had told you we were going to get lunch. And that was like one of the reasons that I was like all right you know what fuck it and then i just walked in and quit but you didn't just quit like you had some kind of like corporate sponsorship like did you have money coming i did i i had uh corporate sponsors on my unhinged page and i was doing at the time a little bit of like consulting for uh startups how many followers did you need before you got like a corporate sponsorship um i think

the first corporate sponsorship was like 90 000 followers or something and i think at the time we were around the same size like you weren't like 500,000 follower Hannah Burner so you know I was lucky I got in early okay I don't like your tone but it's so funny because I literally I feel the same no matter followers really don't affect anything except like people like try to talk to you more yeah which actually is quite annoying at times yes but you or they just like want things from you they get very leachy so you your job but tell me was unhinged everything you wanted it to be so you know in the beginning when i quit my job it was like you know i did it and i i was so proud of myself for like branching off and

doing this kind of like risky thing that's like it felt more like like me but you know after leaving my job i kind of started to feel like it was like a be all end all like i had to I had these corporate sponsors now that I had to please and I was putting a post and every time I would post, I'd be worried about who I was going to piss off if it was going to like lose, if I was going to potentially lose money from it and really just like focusing on people pleasing became this dominant characteristic of running this page. That's so scary because yeah, you have no control. It's whether other people think you're good enough.

Like that sounds like high. No, yeah. I mean, I started it for myself. and like quickly it became about everyone except myself. It was like this urgent need to prove to friends, family that I wasn't like absolutely crazy for quitting my job and becoming like this meme guy, for lack of a better word. I think that is the best possible word to describe it.

But like that was my only source of validation was retaining corporate sponsors and like proving people that I wasn't crazy. I guess. And you also had to prove to yourself, you weren't crazy. Yes. And I think you needed to gain that actual confidence. Also, two years ago, like, you've changed a lot physically.

Like, you've put on some good weight. Like, I feel like you've been working out a little. I'm so proud you noticed. You also have, you have your hair a nice type of way. Like, guys are so funny. They really do evolve so much. You're still fucking growing, probably. And you have, you're tatted up now in, like, honestly, like, sexy, like, quality.

the just like done making me want to get tattoos but i'm 29 like you can't start getting tattoos if you need hannah if you need some consultation i've got you where did you get your tattoos because they look like you got them like in peru from like a handcrafted like monk in a it's funny so the first uh tattoo i got was um actually it's a bikini bottom tattoo on my forearm and so i really yeah so i really jumped right into it but this was like you know a couple months after I'd quit my job and it was like for a lot like for a lot for probably a year after getting that tattoo I didn't really know how to explain like why I'm not like some like die hard SpongeBob fan or anything but like to me I had had this photo saved on on my on my computer forever and I'd always like thought like this would be

such a cool tattoo one day my roommate I was in the city now my roommate texted me like you want to go get a drink after work and then like six drinks later we were googling like we're on the lower east side googling closest tattoo shop and we went to this I love enabling yeah so we went to fine line tattoo and on the lowery side I actually believe it closed down unfortunately but luckily this is like a pretty detailed tattoo and like I am pretty crazy for just going to a random place and luckily that one came out well. Why did you do it though? Like what was the psyche behind it? The psyche behind it was like I have left the corporate world, the finance world. I'm not going to be like I want to be my own person. I want to be like my own brand and just having this tattoo was like kind of me in some

weird way like making this bet on myself that this was all going to work because you know there's not a lot of finance executives with sponge valve tattoos on their forearms but if you were like really badass you would have gotten it on your hand or your forehead or your neck i mean i guess we're finding out i'm not that badass then well it's so it reminds me i just watch a documentary on takashi 69 who i didn't know anything about but he basically got the tattoo 69 all over his body to be like I am Takashi 6-9 I am that rapper man and that's the only job I can ever have I actually heard Pete Davidson quick pop culture update it has tattoos all over his body is trying to get all of his tattoos removed like hundreds of tattoos which is going to be so painful because he says

that it's like too much work removing them with makeup every time he has to perform for SNL maybe but I think it's because they're all his ex-girlfriends anyway I fucking stand SpongeBob Sponge Rub was our childhood. I love that for you. But you have other tattoos. Tell me what they mean. Yeah, I've got this nice little line drawing of a lotus flower, which is kind of like a Buddhist concept of rising above, I guess, like, you know, like facing challenges and kind of adversity and blooming despite. them because the lotus flower like grows in murky waters, et cetera. Um, so that's, that's one I really

like. That sounds like really deep, but I feel like a girl can make fun if you want to date. That's fine if you want to make fun of me on a date for it. Because to me, I got it in a time. It means your shirts off. Well, yeah, uh, that, but also like, you know, I got it at a time where I felt like I was blossoming, which is kind of reasonably. I think I got a tattoo like three months ago. hell yeah i like it also is aesthetically pretty and i remember why i should i can't make decisions for myself to get tattoos because the tattoo i wanted when i was like 20 was the tattoo of the word brooklyn under my boob yeah see that's kind of that's not a good idea and okay so you keep getting more what else do you have i have a rocket a little rocket chip on my left bicep um that's

kind of it's hard it's that one i still don't have the explanation perfectly down but like in my brain it makes sense and it's kind of just about you're soaring yeah kind of uh in a way and then i have this egyptian thing on the back of my arm that is called the jed and it's basically a pillar of stability and balance i'm not going to get into the actual uh Egyptian myth um because i doubt your listeners are that interested and I also don't remember like the specifics but at the time when I when I got when I got it you go and I also don't fucking know I just think it looks good but they're good conversation starters they do the thing is it does look good and and tattoos will change in meaning over time and I also think depends on the it's like all of us we all see things through

our own lens and whatever SpongeBob means to you is what it's going to be so you have a hinge, you're transitioning as a person, you have corporate sponsors, but you're feeling pressure. What happens next? We're on this journey with you. Really, like, my, my intentions of originally being entertaining and funny and, like, human, uh, they were distorted into the actual execution, which was about making sponsors happy, making every follower happy. I would never post, never dare to post anything political or polarizing or anything. Um, so, So really, it became kind of toxic for me. I was exhausted and kind of was wondering if I had made a mistake.

I was kind of trapped and, you know, it unhinged to me was really like the be-all and all to my life at the time. Like, you like, because that's how you have to be when you commit something. And that was the only thing. You have to be like, this is everything. I am Tommy and I have unhinged and that was everything. But I love this moment because so many people were probably looking. at you being like oh my god i'm so jealous of tommy like he's making money just like posting on instagram like it seems fucking amazing yeah and and you know on the outside it did but really i felt

kind of backed into a corner where i was just you know the intention was for me to be working for myself but really i was i was working for corporations at the end of the day even though i was you know didn't have to go into an office uh it was still at the end of the day the same kind of concept that I had people that were you know looking over the stuff that I was doing and making sure that it fit their brand visions and goals and also at least in an office you can leave and go get fucked up at Port Authority where this it's like every second of the day you could be doing something like you're definitely posting at night wake up in the morning to prepare for stuff like when you work for yourself there's no off hour that you can just like check out I feel like some

people just feel like we're not working but really it's like you wake up and you you're just immediately working because everything that you do is kind of work. Well, I struggle with balance sometimes, especially because, like, if you pick up your phone, you could be on your phone all day because there's that spiral of, okay, check your email, answer some emails, check Instagram, enter the DMs, go to Twitter, answer the tweets, or check the tweets. Then, you know, go back on email, people have responded to respond to them, go back on Instagram, respond to all the DMs there, post something.

Next, you know, you get a phone call. And, like, you're just not off your phone the whole day. and like you need that balance of like living to create good content but so anyway bring me bring me to current how did quentin quarantino the biggest meme page on the internet right now like you've exploded everyone knows about you how the fuck did that happen from you going from one dark place to kind of another dark place so in December and January of this this you know recent year so like 2019 going into 2020 I lost most of the corporate sponsors that I had pretty randomly and like there was no explanation given so I was kind of sitting there like oh so the universe was like yeah so you know I was really

sitting that you know I was really losing my stability more than I already had so the pandemic hit and I I was burnt out but I had this desire to like you know try again so this time I you know obviously the pun Quentin Quarantino is great um I was on top of the coronavirus news in January and February, I knew it was coming, I didn't listen to Donald Trump. The joke at the beginning was like, I'm posting every 30 minutes until the pandemic's over. And like, so was that good for the algorithm to be posting that much? I don't know. I think honestly, a lot of people hire me thinking I'm some like algorithm, like expert, like growth hacker. And honestly, like, you know, I don't know. No one knows exactly how they. People love

the word hacker. It's such a buzzword. So honestly, I had nothing to lose. Like a lot of people, I was feeling like the pandemic was starting and I was feeling lost, disrupted. And ironically, that was kind of like the safest window for me to be like real self-deprecating and like imperfect. Because, you know, like the whole fucking world was falling apart. So I could feel safe. Everything was falling apart. But I do think that you have a particular sense of humor as in like you were posting your own stuff.

you were curating other content and it was just like the best tweets of like you know being alone with your own thoughts banana bread sourdough bread like you know sweatpants like you know sweatpants like it was just everything in one place and i'm going to tell you the name really is so important like the name was so good and i remember you messaging me early on being like hey can you follow this account do you ever get scared to ask other people for help because like i personally I'm bad at that. No, I just felt comfortable with you. I didn't do it with that many people, but I was definitely like, Hannah will follow me. I bet Hannah will follow me if I ask her. She's a follow more. But you did follow me and I appreciate that. Because the early day blue checkmark

follows were definitely inspiring. Who are some big people who follow you? I mean, you know, now it's like I get messed like the other day. Someone was like, Drew Barrymore follows you. I was like, oh, really? Okay, cool. But like in the beginning, like the first like few hours that I had the page up, I don't know if you remember Mr. Hudson, he's like a singer. He collabed with Jay Z and Kanye West on a lot of their albums, had a couple of those songs that meant a lot to me back in the day. And I saw Mr. Hudson followed me. This is like literally three hours into me like posting on the account. I was like, whoa, I am on to something here.

Are you immediately getting a lot of likes? Yeah, yeah. It was, I mean, like, I had the secondary platform to, like, be, like, go check out this page. Unhinged, be, like, check it out. But it was also, like, being careful. But anyway. Because starting something is scary. Once you start something, it's not immediately going to pop off necessarily.

And it could just be, like, a real drag. And people hate failing. So I could see why a lot of people don't even start something new to be like, oh, I don't want another failure. But you went for it. And it immediately popped off. It's almost like. I was just so burnt out from the failing of unhinged that I was just like fuck it you at least want a fresh yeah I was like fuck it I don't have to worry I don't have to obsess I didn't have

it in to throw in like the level of I guess perfection that I was doing with unhinged I was truly just you know it was a live stream of my consciousness and has been from the second I started it but your consciousness changed it started very light and funny and then you've come kind of become this like political voice and for people like a hundred don't get political on your podcast we're not getting political calm down i'm talking about his political podcast that kind of seemed to help like i don't know you've become so confident and like i feel like you're being very true to yourself well you're perfect for brinning how because brandy and how is a combination of comedy and serious you've really found this new voice of like you were just you posted every single

second of the election i did i i i literally slept two hours a night for like the whole month of November at the beginning it was supposed to be a 14 day quarantine I was making jokes about you know I ordered a 10 pound bag of sour patch kids and I was eating malamars for dinner and chef boy already was like the only real quote unquote real food that I had it was a different kind of pressure like I did feel like all of us I had these hundreds of thousands of followers and I did make a pretty drastic switch to posting political stuff um my goal is always kind of to to do political stuff in a comedic way. I don't know.

It was ironic because it made me like have to take a stand for myself or like have an opinion for myself. And then like I started doing that and you know like... And possibly be told you should die or you're stupid. The amount of death threats that I've gotten, Hannah. Oh my God. There are a lot. And you know, someone even did some like trigonometry type of stuff

where I posted a picture of like out my window when people were cheering at 7 p.m. for the essential workers changing shifts. And I got a message from someone being like, he listed my exact apartment number and was like, wow, you recently changed your curtains. And I had like just recently changed the curtains. And I'm like, oh my God. So I'm like, you know, losing tons of followers, et cetera. But the people who were sticking around, I think they were appreciating I guess my willingness to take a stand and share my honest thoughts like they're like I started to just not care you fucking called out other meme accounts and you basically said in so many words like meme accounts who haven't taken a stance politically like big fucking mistake what did you mean by that

in general I'm not like I run those are fighting yeah no I'm I'm I'm I'm a fighter no on Instagram at least um but i really i i'm gets one sponge bob tattoo um but you know like i am in general just kind of against the the like i'm going to play this neutral because i have all this but i get it i i do understand that these big meme pages have turned into really like you know corporate brands that are worrying about the 15 different sponsors that they have and what they're going to think if they make one comment that's that's too anti-distance and or anti that. In my case, that would be anti-Trump, but we'll try to stay away from fully going into that. But, you know, like, it's like I just have this, I feel like these platforms are more

important than people realize. Like, it's, I know it's a meme page, but at the same time, like, you're talking to so many people that the stuff that you're putting out there is, is really important. Well, people think everything they read on the internet is true. So it doesn't matter where it comes. I mean, I get most of my education from memes, but I think why do you, with, yes, with all this power, though, comes great responsibility. Do you ever feel like who am I or like, why do I have this kind of word of God in Quentin Quarantino right now? I think the reason that people really connect with me is that I don't pretend to be some all-knowing person. I've gotten into many difficult conversations and discussions with people who disagree with me.

I mean, I think that's what a lot of people like me for is that, you know, I kind of, I fight the, the hateful people with kind of, I make it into a joke. I've made tons of memes about people who have started off, like, threatening me with death and then ended up with free merchandise. But like, anyway, like, it sounds crazy to say that, like, I became myself through a meme page, through an alias on a pun of my second favorite director. I love Wes Anderson. I have to admit it. Tarantino's awesome. But West Anderson is my favorite director. But by literally, you know, just following the flow of real-time events, I think it kind

of taught me actually, ironically, to be my real self. It's an ironic plot twist. You have to have some fucking, you have to have some fucking confidence to be like, these are my beliefs, this is me. You're not really that anonymous now. People kind of know who you are. fuck now you're fucked now you're like this is all of me it's similar like reality tv you're just like everyone can have a judgment and i don't know if the tommy two years ago like could have done

this he couldn't have like that makes me happy for you but also are you what are you still like do you still deal with anxiety and depression like how's your mental state to be honest my mental state is the best it's ever been i hate saying that in a pandemic because i know a lot of people are struggling and I've struggled for a long time with stuff like that. But I think kind of through this evolution and like, like, you know, personal, like you said, like I've put on weight, like I've really like like literally and figuratively grown into myself. And on this this page, Quentin Quentin Quintino, what's really connected to people is being human, being like a clear and confident identity. And that is what I, I would say, you know, not to pat myself on the back too much,

but like I really kind of have my identity set there and people know what to expect for me. I like that you use the word human because that's how I explained reality TV. It's like people aren't watching to watch like the perfect talent. They're watching to see me make mistakes that a lot of people make and how I solve it. How's your dating life though? Like because I know that you had your insecurities dating in the past. I know that it's tough being a finance bro who's an accountant who's crying at a bar. New York City. Like how are you feeling as a dude? To be honest, I mean, my dating life has been like

pretty non-existent for 2020, you know, for a while, honestly, because I think I just have been so focused on my personal growth because I kind of looked at myself in the mirror a couple of years ago and realized that I wasn't the person that I wanted to be. And I think I would, you know, on dates, like I don't have any like crazy dating stories. I just feel. like I would kind of always be performing like as this person that I wasn't like just because I didn't really know

who I was yet. Do I fully know who I am? No, obviously you like you keep growing and stuff. I'm sure in five years I'll think differently on things but you know there's a there's a certain level of like I was going out on dates and like you know we would hit things off

but I would just be like I'm it's kind of a front like did you feel like you deserved the Girl? No. Not at all. Like you felt like the sidekick, not the star. Yes. Yes. Exactly, Hannah. You're reading me like a book. Yeah, girls can smell blood and weakness. So if they sense that you don't feel like, like, you want them and they deserve you and like, then they're going to just smell that fear. Exactly. Exactly. And I had never really bet on myself in my life. Like you said sidekick. I feel like for a long time, I have. have kind of been like a human sidekick in like a people pleasing type of way like not just on Instagram like in every facet of my life I do think in the past I think guys and girls you have this image for like what success means or like what being like a hot individual is and then you don't realize that it's like always been there and like you just have to find what makes you you

like being a white dude right now in 2020 like especially with like so much anxiety going on I feel like so many guys have that like toxic masculine energy where they're like I just have to be the toughest, right about everything. And like, did you feel like you fit into that mold? I mean, there were definitely aspects of these weaknesses that I've been describing that were kind of like molded from, I would say, a toxic masculinity kind of foundation of, you know, suppressing your true feelings and trying to be this, not that I ever thought I was a macho man.

When you first met me, I weighed like 150 or 140 pounds. but like you know like the concept of like the alpha male like i don't have feelings like you know nothing can stop me like a lot of men think that's what being a quote unquote like alpha like confident person is but in reality that's that's what really i really i would say toxic masculinity is and it's not it's like the the exact opposite of authenticity you know what i'm saying yeah and it's funny because earlier on I was like, girls can smell a weakness. It's not that we spell weakness, it's like we can tell when you're questioning yourself because we love a sensitive man.

Little Devils love a sensitive man who's in touch with his feelings, who's going to therapy. Like, it's hot to not just have a man who's like putting on a front that he's so fucking tough because honestly it's like boring. I'm bored. Like what I spoke to my therapist last night about this podcast episode. She's going to listen to it. Oh my God, it's amazing. But it's like, I don't want to hear about your lacrosse school when you were a junior.

high school I want to hear about like what keeps you up at night and like what you're doing to work on yourself and it sounds like you're in that game now where you're like this is me these are my ups and downs my weakness is my strength and like let's go on this journey and like let's own it at least and Quentin Quarantino seems like this really healthy place for you to express yourself and also be like this is what I fucking stand for like doesn't it feel good to stand for something yeah even if people hate you for it exactly and and that's what I hate about social media is like how inaccessible famous people are not to name names but like the to name names like the Kardashians of

those types like just showing their strengths their beauty and never like their weaknesses or their soft side and that's what you do really well Hannah like in the same breath that you're like you know reality star Hannah Bernard you know pretty and all that all you know all the stuff you've got going for you also like routinely like make fun of yourself so like for every moment that you're like cool and attractive and successful you're also like like the picture of like holding the food baby thing uh which i think i commented i think i had like one of the top comments and i just commented like i have no idea what to comment on this but i loved it it's so funny too is Bella Hadid came out of the bloating photo like the day after or something and she literally looked like when i wake up in the morning like

it was not a fucking bloat i was like i'll show you a real bloat but i there is something to say like people are aware of that Tommy like people are aware of like okay we have to be more open and like show our emotional sides but it's like they're still doing that in a crafted way like even Kendall dinner being like I have anxiety like talk actually but like show it like show it and stop editing all your fucking photos and changing your face but anyway you have gotten such an amazing journey we are going to finish with the seven deadly sins cue the music What are you greedy about? That's a good question. I think sometimes I can take this huge following that I have for granted. It's tough to really put words to it, but I think, like, you know, sometimes I can be a little too cocky, like, to myself.

Like, I'm not, I'm literally sitting here alone 24-7, but like. But what's funny is you were very scared with Unhinged. You thought you were going to lose it at any moment. So why are you suddenly saying? so like secure well it's the fan base they're just so validating i mean i've i've been so motivated by the fan base like one direct message made me inspired me to write a book it's coming out in like a month check it out that's fucking awesome you heard it here first like a like a coffee table book or like a novel it's so i actually the the dm was like i'm going to include it in the book but

so i got this dm that was like when this pandemic is over can you put together a book of all your memes it would it would win a politzer such emotion such turn of events as the narrator turns from an innocent joker stuck inside their house to grown man with meaning like fed up with this country spiral out of control and i posted it and i went to sleep and i was like uh i'm going to bed am i going to wake up with a book deal and then like i woke up with like five literary agents contacting me and i turned all of i turned down all of those offices offers and himself publishing it. But basically, the book is kind of a combo of like a coffee table meme book and like a narrative of the development, like kind of, same kind of stuff that

we're talking about. But, you know, like more focused on the politics and the memes and the kind of journey. I love it so much to use that kind of validation to give you that confidence to do things you really want to do. But also on the other side, it's like a good piece of advice I got from a producer once was like don't believe the hate but also like you can't let the love get to your head too much because like they're both on you know when it's like extremes where people are just like you walk on on water and you're just so fucking amazing like you can't let that get to your head or next you know like you become a monster who are you envious of in the world right now since you're kind of flying high i feel like i've spent a long time kind of being envious of

of a lot of different people. I'm wishing that I was a different person doing different things. And I think the true answer to your question is that I don't have that much envy in me right now. I don't sit here anymore, like looking at what other people are doing and being like, I wish that was me. Maybe that's a little cliche, but like honestly, I'm just like happy to be me on this journey that I'm on. and I don't know where the train's going to end. What are you gluttonous about? Like, what's your guilty pleasure? It's got to be, like, the New York Times crossword.

When everything's too much, I just go into the cross, get lost in the crossword. You're blowing my fucking mind right now because the New York Times crossword has been my new favorite thing to do in life. And you know, I don't seem like that's smart of a person. However, I'm not, I can't get past Monday, but the idea of challenging myself

and trying to get better at something, and like I feel like I'm getting smarter during it but like my boyfriend used to do it at night and I'd be like you're a fucking nerd loser but then I like would solve one and I'd feel like this rush of a high and now I'm just chasing like I have a full addiction to New York Times

crossword puzzle you guys download it it's like $6 a year or maybe a month I don't know but that seems like a lot but anyway it's the best money you spend and and like the crossword puzzle like the beauty of it is that like if you really like fall into it and you're you know you said you're only doing mondays that was me six months ago now i'm doing

sundays but anyway not to brag but i just brag but but anyway like crosswords are something that you can fully control like you from start to finish it's it's all on you to either to get figure it out or don't there's something beautiful about that it's like a tennis match so i had to bring up tennis also something beautiful about thinking that there's no way way out and then like one words you get just opening so many other opportunities it really is a metaphor for life crosswords because things can seem dark and then you just get one more step in the ladder and then suddenly you see a whole new perspective oh my god again i'm gonna cry why am i so emotional right now i'm not even being missing when's the last time you experienced extreme wrath or anger because you seem like

the most chill guy yeah i feel like i only get angry at people that i really am close to if that make sense. Like, I'm not an angry person and I don't get angry often. Like, do you not snap on people on Instagram and tell you to die? No, honestly, I don't. Like, when people tell me to die, I, like, turn it into such a joke. Like, I respond every time and I turn it into such a joke that they either end up apologizing or, like, I turn it into content.

See, I get scared to, like, feed that energy. Even guys who send me creepy messages, I just put them up last. Like, I don't even respond. Except when one guy asked me to be a sugar daddy. like he would pay me and then I wanted to be like why do you think that I tried to therapy as him I was like why do you think that you need to pay women for love like why do you think you're not good enough just being yourself and he was like okay I didn't sign up for this I'm not going to try to scam you that's amazing when was the last time you were a sloth

um I think yesterday in preparation for today I uh I I find it very important I'm assuming you mean sloth isn't just like sitting around doing literally nothing so like you said like during the election i was literally posting at all hours of the day i i that kind of stuff and and right now i'm working on the book like nonstop but i think it's super important and this goes for like anyone who's doing anything to have like recharge days where you just literally do nothing um and i i would say i sloth it out two to three days a week i just Like I turn off all my electronics and do crossword, either do crossword puzzles or literally meditate or like I've binge two different mini series yesterday. When I push myself too hard, which society like fucking, I mean like I respect Gary Vee, but like him being like you got to wake up a 4 a.m.

It's like if I do that, I have the worst days where you're so burnt out. You're like not good on podcast. You're like making stupid errors in your work. and then you're just unmotivated, you start hating things. Like, I need to recharge. And if it's watching the real housewives yell at each other and lie to each other, that's good. If it's a New York Times puzzle, that's good. If it's just sleeping, that's good.

Like, it's so important because this life is a marathon, not a sprint. I couldn't agree more. When was the last time you let your pride or your ego get in the way of something? I mean, the honest answer is, is like, when corporate, when, like, a couple weeks ago, I'm not like made of money or anything and a couple weeks ago this this very legit looking financial company offered me $20,000 to do one post for them on Quentin Quarantino and I mean I told them to go fuck themselves but the reason was like you know definitely rooted in the fact that like you know maybe this is a cop out answer but like you know I looked in this company

and it was like Billy McFarland Fire Festival type of shit and I just knew it was bullshit even though I could have really used the money like I told them to go fuck themselves and I told some people about that and they were like you're an idiot just take the 20 grand make one post no one like it's one post out of thousands

no one's gonna unfollow you I was like I just can't I can't do it and I do think that was an ego thing in a way because before you didn't like that like you were controlled by so many corporate sponsors but now it's like you also don't want to be too controlled by your followers that like god forbid you can't do something to make money or that's what you do so well is that like you know not to you know flattery compliments here but whenever you do advertisements um you kind of like mesh your brand in with their brand

and it fits really well like these guys were asking me to advertise some Oh, they were sketch. It was the sketch, like, so I was going to be off-brand. And they were in this big office in England, and they had this, like, really fancy, like, giant unicorn statue behind this guy. And every, it was like a 30-minute Zoom call. I was on the two other big meme accounts. And every, like, 30 seconds, there'd be, like, an eruption of applause. And it just, it was, like, all fake.

It was just, like, the fakes shit I've ever seen in my life. That is so weird. There's sketchy stuff happening in this world. and it's good that you're looking at stuff with a critical eye there's also what I love is when you in your head have like a bigger picture way that you're going to make money and sometimes it's it's good to wait and like get those people that really love you to like really understand you before you start like throwing shit down their throats not to get too graphic no I completely agree you know for lack of better words like you make selling dildos funny but I can't really sell

dildos. I love selling dildos. It's my fucking favorite thing because I also think it's so empowering. I'm like, hey, I just shove this up my badge and it felt good. What are you going to do? No, honestly, I love it too. I mean, like, I love it for you, you know. Oh, God.

Okay. When was the last time you lusted over? someone perfect segue oh god it's definitely alexandro casio cortez and uh i recently unfortunately found out aOC yes i unfortunately found out she has a partner so um it's more like you know she wants to be like my best friend or like second mom she could also do that she followed the account are you trying to get her to follow uh i would definitely cry if she followed me but she's not going to she just started commenting on her shit i feel like she's seen enough of my like enough

people have sent me, showing her my stuff that she was like, no, I'm not doing it. She's blocked you. She's blocked you. Yeah, she's, I,

you know, my friend Elise Morales, who was on Burning Hell, actually does her voice in the cart. It's called Cartoon president. And she kind of nails it. But yes, very glam.

Also in general, Tommy, because I think that you're single, you're eligible, bachelor, you're successful, you're sweet. We,

we stand a Tommy. So for little devils who are single and want to sign to your ands, what's your type i don't really think i have a type like to be honest i know that's that's also a cop-out answer but like like like it's just a feeling no because like i'm talking about like aOC and like aOC isn't necessarily like my type like i i've never like i guess i've never found my type yet so maybe like dm me and like we'll figure out if you're my type okay that's fun wait you guys i love him like i'm giving him the burning house stamp of approval for datable men um

And there's been on guys on this podcast that I would not do the same before. I feel like there's no higher honor. There's no higher honor because everyone knows that men are trashed. Can you send me like a plaque or something? I don't put that on my wall somewhere. And then girls come in, they go, oh my God. Well, also I used to have these like dushy male roommates. Corey and Dave, we love them, but they are dushy.

Now they, well, Dave has grown up and he has a fiance, Haley, who we love, who is my good friend. But anyway, they loved when I went out with them because girls subconsciously, if a girl is with a bunch of guys, guys, they're getting a stamp of approval that they're not creepy because like a girl's with them. So they just love when I'd be hanging out with them because girls would come up and be like, oh, like your dress. Then I'd be like, oh, this is Corey. The next thing you know, but I didn't get any credit. Anyway, that's my own problem. Last question for you. Oh, God. You've been through a lot of ups and downs in your young life. You've gotten SpongeBob tattoos. You've cried in the port authority. What advice would you give to the listeners on how to cope with your hell when you're in that

darkness. I mean, I think that like weaknesses and low points and rock bottoms are really like they inform, they eventually inform you on like what your strengths are. Like failures are the learning experiences that make you have successes and not just like, you know, like job success. Like just success to me is just like being happy and you have to just, you know, it's obviously been a horrible year and lots of people are not having a good time right now. There's there's always a light at the end of the tunnel and I think that that when you know that you're at a really low point, that's like you're already, you're in a good position because you're aware of it and and that means that you can like start to start to change and start to move

away from being in the rock bottoms of the port authority crying at the port authority bar talking to like drug lords in the port authority bar like just doing anything at the port authority bar you could have gotten involved with some bad stuff it could have you were hanging with a strange crowd over there but i do think it's important that you can't know happiness without darkness and like sometimes it really takes adversity for you to get the strength to like be successful and know what you're capable of Tommy you're amazing thank you so much for doing this interview because I know that you don't do interviews very often but where can people follow you buy your merch I'm obsessed with his merch you guys I he he sent me a bunch but I

also I did wear them all the fucking time I made you a custom pillow I want to get I want to get credit for that I made her two-sided that's when people freaked out that they were like oh my god you know Quentin Quentin Quentin and I was like um he damn me two years ago so come down um yeah where can people follow you the ad the main at is quentin quarantino my personal i guess i'm dropping my personal these days really a weird feeling is uh t g mark tg m rc so uh that's that and i have a couple i have quentin wholesome too where i just post happy memes and try to stay away from the politics and make people happy um but those are are the three main and you can also follow me on unhinge that is still my page i need to figure out

what exactly the deal is there but you know it does exist still and what's your website oh right of course merch the uh the big uh the big guy uh quentin 2020.com which is going to have to change pretty soon because it's almost not 2020 but for now it's or you keep it just to remember yeah i mean i am 20 i feel like i am 2020 did someone have quentin quarantino.com uh yeah unfortunately because I didn't make I didn't start selling merch until like six months into the pandemic yeah so so so people had bought up all my shit like I didn't yeah it's really annoying well speaking of giggly squad if you guys haven't listened I have a new podcast giggly squad with page a sorbo it is so much fucking fun a lot more pop culture and just giggling and making fun of everyone and everything and ourselves and thank you so much for listening to burning in hell give me a rating a review I don't I don't know a pigeon signal a smoke sign i don't fucking know just i love you guys so much for listening and thank you for coming to hell tommy you're the best talk to you all later bye