Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep. 35 | Living The American Dream | Guest: Optimus Is Here

Episode Date: November 10, 2018

 Living The American Dream | Guest: Optimus Is Here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Chewing the Fat on Demand. Welcome to Chewing the Fat, Saturday edition. Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher. I try to, you know, just give you a little something on the weekends just to enjoy and sit back and have a little bit of fun. And a couple days ago, we had Optimus Prime, well, the semi-replica of Optimus Prime, come to the studios. And I had an opportunity to talk to Joe Fedusha, who, you know, put it together and has been traveling the country. and talk about his story and his American dream. He's living his American dream, right?

He's doing what he wants to. That's what's special. You know, I talk about the American dream. Everyone thinks that, you know, Elon Musk is the American dream. He's his own American dream, but a hardworking guy that does a replica of Optimus Prime and travels around the country for charities and trying to help other people and just happy to bring a smile to people's faces and trying to pay the bills and enjoy his family and love his family. That's his own American dream.

And that's what makes America great. And that's one of the reasons that you would hope the non-caravan is coming to America for. They're not. Oh, did I just get political? Gosh darn it. It's Saturday. I'm sorry. Just know that off the air, we talked a lot about, you know, I have a soft spot of my heart for truckers.

And we talked a little bit about what he had to go through. because he wanted to build this. And we didn't get to it on the air, but he talked about how he had to take his truck. He had to get the Class A license to be able to drive the semi. And he said that he had private lessons. It got it. And it brought him a new respect for truckers on the road

with how hard it was for him to get that. And I just thought that was fascinating because I love truckers. and it's such a underappreciated gig that it's just, I love them. I can't help it. So I had an opportunity to talk to Joe while he was here showing off his Optimus Prime, and I hope you enjoy it. And have a great weekend, and we'll see you on Monday. And listen, for those of you that are just hearing this for the first time,

you can go back and check out chewing the fat, which comes to you Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Eastern it drops available wherever free podcasts are sold chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher and you know be sure to subscribe rate review and share and I know look I know it's difficult sometimes you're busy you're not sure you know everything that's going on you don't want to answer all the questions everybody's asking to answer questions on websites all you can do is rate it 20 stars review it best podcast ever share it with a friend or share it with someone you don't know and then you're done we're good

So subscribe, rate, review, and share. So nice of you. Now, before, just to show my love and appreciation to the fellow truckers on the road, I like to consider myself a trucker. I'll give you a little bit of trucker love. For those of you that have followed me on social media at Jeff EMRA, at Jeff Fisher Radio on Facebook and Instagram, you saw earlier this week that Optimus Prime made a stop at the Mercury Studios.

And he just rolled in. You know, he was just rolling out. And I thought he'd stopped by. And it was actually a surprise for my youngest son since he's been, you know, he's technically a, you know, transformer expert, mini expert. I have about, I think, just shy of $10 or $15 million worth of Transformers in my home. So this was just a bonus for him reaching his eagle as a scout. and the owner of Optimus Prime,

and I was very disappointed, by the way, that it doesn't transform. It's just a semi-tractor. Wow, so sad. The owner, Joe Fedusha is here. And Joe, thank you, first of all, for coming on. I appreciate it. It's good to see you.

It's been an honor to join you guys today, and it's been a pleasure to be here and share Optimus with you. And he does transform. You just got to find Megatron first. All right, so we have to, where's Megatron then? That's your job.

That's not my job. My job is to defend planet Earth. And if he shows up, we defend you guys. That's about it. That's so good. So how long have you... Now, actually, this is, you know, an exact replica of Optimus Prime from... Age of extinction.

Age of extinction. And the last night. I mean, I got it. Just me going to talk down to me about it. We'll test your knowledge in a moment. And so, what kind of problems have you had with Hasbro or in them? far as being a replica for them. Did they give you any problems? No, they've been very supportive actually in the beginning before we built this truck. One of the first things I did was have our

legal team contact Hasbro and basically asked for their blessing, their permission and explain to them. Here's what we plan to do with the truck. Here's how we intend to use it. And they got back to us three days before Christmas in 2015 and gave us the official letter of approval, legal approval, to build Optimus Prime. So that was probably one of the best Christmas presents you can get. And that's where the first major milestone was completed in this project. No kidding. That's great. So the idea obviously comes from, you know,

from Transformers, but most people wouldn't think to have a life-size semi-tractor looking like optimists in real life, you know, in front of their home. What, why did you do that? Because I love having an optimist in front of my home. Who wouldn't come on now?

Dumb question. No, it's, um, it is, very unique. There's not very many people that will do what I've done. As a matter of fact, I am the only fan in the Transformers world that I could see who has successfully replicated this truck. No one else in the world has done it. And it was my way of essentially pursuing that impossible dream, as cliches that might sound, to inspire my son. It was my way of showing him what it means to take that leap of faith. And in my case, I dove out of a plane, no parachute over a bridge underwater. This was a major, major leap of faith. But it was my way. It was my way.

way of showing him, no matter how impossible it is, don't be afraid to try it. So actually, I mean, this is your American dream. I mean, you're living your very own American dream. You could say it's a dream of mine to be doing this. Absolutely. It's a dream to be able to share it with people because, you know, I like to think I'm creating a lot of joy out there every time I take this thing on the road. People are smiling and maybe they don't have a reason to smile, you know.

I take a lot of pride and being able to share it. I take a lot of pride and be able to raise funds for good causes and charities, and that's why we're here in Texas. So, you know, it's something that I not only have built and I'm not going to keep it locked away in the garage, I am going to get out there and share it as much as I can. So when you go out and about and who decides what charities you're going to back, how do you raise the money for that? What happens with that? Typically, organizations will reach out to us. They'll find us online.

They'll message us and say, hey, we have an event. It's for XYZ charity. Would you be willing to bring Optimists to help us? And that's typically what we'll do. and if there aren't any particular charities that a specific organization is supporting, then we'll pick one either local to us or local to them that we'll support while we're in town for their event. Does Hasbro have you do any events with them at all?

Unfortunately, Hasbro has not maintained much contact with us after that legal permission we got. They gave us the go ahead and then they pretty much dropped off the radar. We haven't seen or heard anything from them since. Which may actually be better. Well, yeah, you know, if they had a problem, they'd let us know. They'd be pounding on my door. You stop immediately. What is this?

You're coming to Texas? No, you're going to go back to Pennsylvania. But, you know, I would love to get something going with them, some sort of sponsorship, because I am limited in my means. I am limited in how far I can get with Optimus and what I can do with it. So maybe one day they'll jump on board and help me accomplish some of these things I'd love to do. So you made Optimus. Did you just do it in your backyard?

I woke up one day and he was there. I don't know what happened. He just showed up. He flies in from Cybertron. Apparently, he left a big hole in my backyard. That's funny. We started with a 2017 Western Star, which was actually custom built by Western Stars factory to become Optimus Prime. So it was all specced out on paper from the very first bolt.

You know, this was its purpose. Good thing they'd do that for free. Yeah, well, I wish they would. You know, that was a tough part, finding a dealership who would take me seriously. These truck dealerships are used to selling fleets of vehicles to truck companies. And here I am, average Joe Schmoe. I just want one truck. And I want an old Optimus Prime, man.

Come on. How could you not jump on board with that? But we eventually got it built, and we had a team of about 25 people across multiple states that had a hand in assembling it from fabricators to chromers to people who are painters and artists. There was a lot of people that had their hands in this. You're still adding to it, I see, as little pieces here and there. Is that just something that you walk by a space out one day and go, you know, what we need here? Oh, you don't understand.

I lose sleep over this. I mean, I can't go to bed at night and not. think of something new I want to do with this truck, but that's where, you know, the time and the finances, you know, dictate what comes next. But yeah, whenever I can, I'm always, always adding little things here and there. I'd love to do some new things over the winter. I think all of this kind of brings more to the character of the truck. A lot of the things that I've done on Optimus are not on the original trucks from the movie, but I think it really helps bring it to life when I do add these small little details. So I know, obviously it's just the tractor. Do you ever pull a trailer at all?

Does it ever pull any kind of trailer or anything for you? Everybody wants to see a trailer. I can't tell you. I just don't want to see it. No, I know you want to see it. You'd love to see the trailer like everybody else. That's cool. You can admit it.

It's one of the things that I'd love to do, but I don't have the means of doing it. Logistically, it would create some things that we'd have to modify on the truck. And, I mean, where would I park it? You know, pulling into a lot, I came today, where am I going to put a 53-foot trailer? So as cool as that might be perhaps one day, not any time soon. Right. when you are not doing this driving optimists all around the country for charities and for special events, what do you do? Is this it?

Is this your American dream? I'm just driving optimist around. I mean, if I can do that and not have to, you know, I mean, I notice, you know, I know you're married and the wife's not here and the kid's not here. I mean, that must be horrible. Well, I will say my wife and my family have been very supportive. So thank you, Anya. Thank you, Ryan, my mom, Judy. This was all a family decision from the very beginning.

And they've been very supportive of what I've done. And I don't know too many people, you know, any spouse, husband or wife, doesn't matter, who would necessarily permit their significant other to blow a life savings and enter into a lifetime of debt to build Optimus Prime. But they've been very supportive, so I definitely want to thank them for it. And so outside of that, what else do you do? I clean him the rest of the time. Really?

I'm either touring the country or I'm cleaning. them. Now, it's, I have a website called America's Footprints. It's a place where basically parents, grandparents, they can create a digital memoir. It's almost like a private time capsule of your life story. Not only photos, but memories from your life, experiences in your life, milestones, things that you'd want to be remembered for or passed down to the future generations. It's a way for people to preserve their story because I believe everybody has a story. You don't have to have Optimus Prime to have a significant story in your life. And I believe everyone deserves to have that story remembered. So with America's footprints, I've created a way for people to

kind of keep their legacy alive long after they're no longer around. That's great. And now, how many days of, you said winter comes? So do you back it into the barn and winter and give it a rest? Because I know, I know you originate from Pennsylvania, but, you know, obviously we're talking in Texas, and I know that I see photos of you all over the country. So do you just give it a rest during the wintertime in the northeast. Well, I will say being from Pennsylvania, you said it was going to be, what, 35, 40 degrees down here and that was cold for you guys.

And for me, that's like tropical weather. I lived in Pennsylvania for a while. I understand. I was born in Michigan and I got out of there as soon as possible. Well, I'm down here in like shorts and a T-shirt in 40-degree temperatures. I know. I know. You know, with optimists and what we do with it,

it's one of those things that I take a lot of pride and being able to do what we do with it and share it in the way that we share it. So, you know, whether it's here in Texas, whether it's in Pennsylvania, whether it's anywhere around the country, I will take it anywhere that I can in order to bring joy to the people who want to come see.

I know you told me a story earlier today about a mom telling you that her son, who was autistic, saw it and smiled, and it was the happiest part of the day. Right, right. I get that all the time. People will message me all the time because on the back of our truck is our Facebook page,

so they'll see us on the highway, and they'll message me with pictures and stuff. But every once in a while, I'll get those people that say, you just completely made my day. You just made my year. And like I said earlier, I'm giving people a reason to smile, and maybe they don't have a reason to smile otherwise. So I forgot to look at the back of the truck.

So what is the Facebook page? On Facebook or Instagram or YouTube, just type in the words, Optimus is here. We built up quite a large following in a very short amount of time. And I think partially because people are very intrigued by what we've done with the truck and how we're using it and the story behind it.

Yeah, it's really, really, really cool. Joe, thank you very much for coming down here today. It's been a pleasure joining you guys. Our family really had a good time. And of course, my son Maximus, who joins us on the Talking Walking Dead podcast each week. It was very happy to see it. And I appreciate it very much. And good luck and God bless.

No, it's been a pleasure to be down here with you guys. I appreciate the opportunity to come down and join you. Any messages you'd like to leave before we wrap this up? Just one thing I like to say to everybody before we go. Leave behind a legacy worthy of a prime. Thank you, guys. And it wouldn't be the end of the Chewing the Fat Saturday podcast without quick shout out to my fellow truckers. Be safe.