Do Go On - 384 - Nicolas Cage

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

This week we look at the man, the myth, the legend... Nicolas Cage. We talk about his family, his many movie roles and the time he blew a 150 million dollar fortune.This is a comedy/history podcast, t...he report begins at approximately 07:06 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodLive show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/20/nicolas-cage-frozen-groundhttps://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/nicolas-cage-1999-cover-story-832684/https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-10-wildest-craziest-nicolas-cage-stories-ever-from-being-stalked-by-a-mime-to-shrooming-with-his-cat?ref=scroll https://nymag.com/arts/articles/09/11/nymag-nicholascage091116.pdf https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/08/31/the-wild-and-weird-nicolas-cage/214dd456-5317-4186-9c81-6b1e2c64ccbe/ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/530681/9-bizarre-facts-about-nicolas-cage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenjai Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.
Starting point is 00:00:17 Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dev Warnikey and as always I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart.
Starting point is 00:00:54 It's me, Jess Perkins. Just quickly. How good is it to be alive? Check out my special live at Superdial Studios online for free right now. Matt Stewart. You didn't sing your name so I didn't know who you were. I'm Matt Stewart. I'm like, well.
Starting point is 00:01:10 Oh my God, I'm Matt Stewart. Jess. Are you okay? All right. You heard someone say your name and you're like, like, oh, got to plug something. Gotta plug something. It's like the idea of just always being plugging.
Starting point is 00:01:21 Always be plugging. Always be plugging, baby. A-B-P. Always be plugging. I feel like we're in relax mode. Matt and I are on the couch. Jess, you're in your sort of office chair. Are you recording at your place?
Starting point is 00:01:33 But Matt, no, we're on the couch. A couple's therapy. Yeah. And you guys are not going to make it. Oh, no. Now, I reckon you will. Thank you. You just have to meet each other halfway, you know?
Starting point is 00:01:45 You got to put in the work. You've got to be the partner you want the other person to be. Well, this asshole won't put out the bins. And he won't put out at all. Hey? You've been out and I'll put myself out. Okay? All right.
Starting point is 00:02:01 Deal. Therapy over, Matt. What is this show all about? Well, when I'm not having out issues. What it is about is it's basically a podcast, right? Oh, God. I think you're going to say like history show? It's a word.
Starting point is 00:02:19 I'm like, I just hates her when I say that. It's like a show where we, one of us research is a topic, usually suggested by a listener. We bring back that information in the form of basically like a school report and we do a little oral presentation, bring it back to the class. And the other two interrupt incessantly with dog shit riffs and tedious tangents. And let's not forget plugs. And plugs. Because ABP. Always been plugging, baby.
Starting point is 00:02:49 If you just look it up on the stupid old channel on YouTube, you can see my, yeah. It's a great special. See the master at work. You can listen out for Dave's laugh. People have said they in the comments that they've heard your laugh, Jess. I'm like, well, she was not there. That's incredible. I was at work that night.
Starting point is 00:03:05 I did a great impression that day. Yeah, which is impressive. We've been working on that few years and you finally nailed it just that one time. And I'm going to do your laugh right now. One, two, three. Here's my laugh. Holy molly, that was good. That was very good.
Starting point is 00:03:18 That's not what I laugh. Is that how I sound? Well, according to me. Jesus Christ. That's insufferable. When I say they, I mean me and everyone else. Anyway, Dave, we get on a topic with a question. You're doing the report this week.
Starting point is 00:03:32 Yes, I am. Do you have a question? My question is, hands on buzzes. Which actor has starred in the following films? Ooh, okay. Love these games. Stop me when you've got a guess. Okay.
Starting point is 00:03:43 And do you, what, are you locked out once you have a guess? No, you can keep going, I reckon. Okay. Great. We'll go forever. Trapped in paradise. Drive angry. The ant bully.
Starting point is 00:03:57 The ant bully. Kiss of death. Seeking justice. Any early guesses? Steven's the girl. I wish. Gosh, that would have been great. Dying of the light.
Starting point is 00:04:11 Dog. Eat dog. Uh. Jackie Chan, Nicholas Cage. I'm trying to think of someone interesting that you would have done a report about. You are corrected.
Starting point is 00:04:22 It's Nicholas Cage! Oh, no shit. You are joking. I'm doing a report on Nicholas Cage. Oh, my God. Don't tell me you started one. Yes. No.
Starting point is 00:04:32 Oh, thank God. I was so worried because I've been writing for a couple of weeks and two weeks ago. At the end of the pod, Jess, you were going home to watch a Nicholas Cage film, The Rock, with your partner, who suggested a Nicholas Cage Marathon and I was thinking,
Starting point is 00:04:45 I'm already doing one right now. I cannot believe that. Yeah, because we did watch The Rock. You're right. I was like, can we watch The Rock? And he said, yes, we can have a Nicholas Cage Marathon. I said, oh, not what I asked. But we just watched The Rock like last week.
Starting point is 00:04:58 I love it so much. I hadn't seen it before. So for the first time. Opinions? Thoughts feelings, love. It's, there's some scenes that are batchet, truly. It was great. A great film.
Starting point is 00:05:10 What a romp. Nicholas Cage, an unhinged. Incredible. Strange man and I'm so excited for you to talk about him for like an hour and a half these are the other movies
Starting point is 00:05:19 I would have said which one made you think of Matt or are you just thinking any actor that I like? I was thinking of actors have done a lot of movies and he sort of famously just does a lot of movies right
Starting point is 00:05:29 and some of them are just you never hear about definitely that was more obscure getting less I hadn't heard of any of this you didn't go face off it was going to go Peggy Sue got married
Starting point is 00:05:40 Captain Correlli's Mandolin ghost rider. I thought you get it from there, but then we had Coney, Melbourne. Do I have I told you my dad was on the set one day? Of Ghost Rider? Let's talk about that right now.
Starting point is 00:05:52 He loves to tell that story. He'll be screaming at his iPod right now as he listens. John, what were you doing there? He was, it was like, it was a work thing, I'm pretty sure. I'll butcher this, dad. I'm sorry. Like, dad's a salesman, and he at the time was working,
Starting point is 00:06:06 like selling, racking for big warehouses and stuff. So like shelving storage, that sort of stuff for big warehouses. And he went to like, a job in Docklands and they were filming Ghost Rider and he's just like that's Nicholas Cage on a motorbike over there Oh my God Wild! It seems like Melbourne every few years just has a
Starting point is 00:06:23 Hollywood star in town and it's news for a bit for this like and the movie's always pretty obscure by Hollywood standards. Like we've got John Sina here at the moment I know. And Zach Ephron I think. And I'm not sure what. And I saw John Sina.
Starting point is 00:06:39 Just on the street. It'll be on the news every now then. Yeah. Didn't he like almost run into your car? Yeah, he almost stepped out in front of my car because he was looking the wrong way. Wow. And then he turned and waved. He was very nice.
Starting point is 00:06:49 He like, he waved, thank you. And I was like, that's John fucking see her. Your car would come off second best. Yeah, big time. Wow. Did he say, you can't see me? And I said one of his classic lines. Yeah, no.
Starting point is 00:07:00 That's when he was a wrestling. I'm the wrestling. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. You should try around the corner. You can't see me. I mean, didn't you fucking see me? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:09 It's a great lot. Bit of fun there. W. Love it. WWE, whatever. This topic, Nicholas Cage, has been suggested by one person officially. That's Warren Vaughn Genders from Lincoln. Thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Oh my God, that's a great name. Are you kidding me? Warren Vaughn Genders. That's a fantastic name. And also, there was a kind of Cage-esque topic. Thank you from Kieran Foster in Leicester that I kind of cover within the report. Great. So, shout out to you too.
Starting point is 00:07:35 Thanks so much. So, do you know much about the man, the myth, the legend? Oh, bits and pieces. Emphasis on myth there. Right. Because a lot of this is based on, he's given dozens of long-form interviews over the years promoting films. That's usually how he seems to promote his films. He does a few TV interviews, but for not that many.
Starting point is 00:07:55 And for ages, it felt like he would sit down with Vanity Fair or The Guardian or something. And he just tells stories about his life. So most of this is coming from the man's mouth himself. Right. I'm taking it at face off value. So. Yeah, right. So let's dig in.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Nicholas Cage was born. That's not his real name. Nicholas Kim Coppola. On January 7, 1964. That's right. I think Americans say Coppola. Coppola, Coppola, yeah. Coppola, I apologize if I'm saying the wrong one.
Starting point is 00:08:26 He comes from the famous Coppola family and their family tree and list of achievements is quite simply incredible. It's wild. So does he count as a Nepo baby? Yeah. Absolutely. 100%. A nepo grandbaby.
Starting point is 00:08:39 A nepo nephew. Nepo cousin. He's nepo everything. It all starts with Nick's grandparents, grandma Italia Coppola, born 1912, known in the family as Mamarella. She's also known for her Italian cooking. She published a cookbook called Mama Copela's pasta book
Starting point is 00:08:58 and put out a line of sources called Mammaella. Oh, my God. Yum. To her, though, she wouldn't call it Italian cooking. She just called it cooking. Yeah. Absolutely. right. Matt, you are absolutely right.
Starting point is 00:09:12 Spot on there, actually. No, actually, bang on. Actually, Matt, that is spot on there. What an astute observation. Good shout. Good shout that. Her father was a composer of popular Italian songs and also owned a motion picture theatre very early on. So cinema was even in Mummeralla's blood. Whoa. So that's the matriarch, Mummeralla. Her husband, husband Carmine Coppola was a floutest flute player born 1910. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score with BAFTA Award and Grammy Award nominations for his music.
Starting point is 00:09:52 Wow. He won the Oscar for a song he wrote for his son, Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather Part 2. Francis Ford himself has won five Academy Awards and directed some of the most acclaimed films of the 20th century, including the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now. So he's Nick's uncle. And just following down Francis Ford's descendants, his daughter is Sophia Coppola,
Starting point is 00:10:13 who is also an acclaimed filmmaker, having won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation. Her brother is Roman Coppola, who's also a filmmaker and has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Grammy and a BAFTA. Far out. Wow. So that's one side of the family.
Starting point is 00:10:30 Part of the reason for this is their family makes up a third of the judges. I think once you win, you do become part of it. of the voting for sure. The Academy is, yeah, nearly all Coppola's. So that's one side of the family. Italia and Carmine also had a daughter named Talia Rose Shire, Nee Coppola, who appeared in the Godfather and Rocky Films, for which she was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress.
Starting point is 00:10:57 Wow. Her husband, Jack Schwartzman, was a film producer and produced the James Vaughn film Never Say Never Again, which is the one where Sean Connery came back and they remade. Thunderball. Mm-hmm. They had two sons, Robert Schwartzman, who has directed three films and plays in the band Rooney. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:11:15 Do you know that band? Yep. No. What kind of band is Rooney? Is it a pop rock? The one song I know is, when or where did your heart go missing? It's good stuff. It's Robert.
Starting point is 00:11:27 Named after the principal from Ferris Bueller or Wayne. Oh, Wayne Rooney. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's Wayne. It's Wayne. What the big? The big one. Yeah, right.
Starting point is 00:11:35 Founds of Wayne also named after Wayne Rooney. Founds of Wayne Rooney, the original name. He was also in the Princess Diaries. Really? Who did he play? He's the love interest in the Princess Diaries across from Anne Hathaway. God, I can't even remember him doing that. Great film, though.
Starting point is 00:11:51 Great film. Great film. And if you can't remember it, that means you're due for a rewatch. Turn off the podcast. I'll put the TV on. I'll make some popcorn. Let's go. And enjoy.
Starting point is 00:12:02 This is a wild family tree. Also, and then his brother, is Jason Swartzman. Yeah. Great actor, co-writer of a bunch of Wes Anderson films. And also, most importantly, the former drummer of Phantom Planet that performed the O-C-themed theme song. He played on and co-wrote that track. Yeah, right.
Starting point is 00:12:18 Okay, I did not know that about Jason Swartzman. That's wild. It's such an insane family. He left the band basically to be an actor. He plays drums in a very Murray Christmas. Ah. I think he plays drums for Phoenix, maybe or something. Oh, awesome.
Starting point is 00:12:33 He still got it. Still got it. The final child, so that's Nick's cousins and uncle and auntie. The final child of Italia and Carmine Dimension is their oldest son, August Floyd Coppola, who is the father of one Nicholas Cage. August Floyd. August Floyd. I love that.
Starting point is 00:12:51 Great. August. You on board? Yeah. Got a listener named August or used to. Yeah, yeah. Great name. Haven't heard from August for a while is why you say we used to.
Starting point is 00:13:02 We don't know if August listens still or not. That's okay. Can I say August? Great name? Great month. Agreed. Because, you know, the overused months for names like May. May. Yeah. April. June. Yeah. November. Not enough October kids. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:20 Ocky. Ocky. Novi. Decky. Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful names. Febby.
Starting point is 00:13:28 Febby. Yeah. Not man. That would be a name. This is my daughter, February. February. Febby. Febby.
Starting point is 00:13:37 Febby for short. So Nick's dad, August Floyd, was an author and academic and had a PhD and was Dean, crusty old dean at San Francisco State University. So he went quite different from the rest of the family. Yeah, so he did write some stuff too, but he was mostly an academic. Do you think you'd be a bit disappointed that his son, spoiler alert, went into acting as well? Shobis. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:58 Jess, don't get ahead here. Sorry, I said spoiler alert. I'm talking about the famous academic Nichols Cage, Professor. thesis and I'm going to read it to you now. So with his wife, Joy Voglesang, who was a, she's a great name as Nick's mom, Joy of Voglesang, who was a dancer and choreographer. He had Vogelsang up for grabs and he went for a cage. He could have been Nick Vogelsang.
Starting point is 00:14:22 Disappointing. They had three sons. They've got DJ Mark the Cope Coppola. Yuck. Nickname of the Cope. Sorry, yuck. Sorry. It keeps happening.
Starting point is 00:14:32 Yuck. Sorry. He still hosts radio shows Oh, Jess is spewing up Oh, he's a It's like a disc jockey rather than a live party DJ Yes I heard that as they have DJ That's one son
Starting point is 00:14:46 Mike the cope And I was like, oh So he's DJed the yeah that's fine for a radio DJ It's like you know Afternoons with the cope Yeah I'm pretty sure it's like that Now that you know that he's one of you
Starting point is 00:14:59 One of my peers Yeah you're claiming him Yes That's a real 180 Yeah. Oh, no, wonderful. Love him. Big fan. The middle son is Christopher, who's a film director. He's directed a few movies. I hadn't heard of any of them, but he's still in the biz.
Starting point is 00:15:12 And the youngest boy was Nicholas. So he comes from an incredibly prolific family. The lineal descendants of Carmine and Italia have been nominated for 23 Academy Awards, winning nine Oscars in categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. And two more family members, including Nick himself married people that have also won Oscars. Wow. So brought in, you know, other Oscar worthy blood into the family.
Starting point is 00:15:44 Yeah. It's like a royal family. It's kind of amazing. Is there much inbreeding? That's why they had to bring in outside of it. So Nick Cage was born in Long Beach in California in 1964. His family moved to San Francisco, where his dad was the dean, but came back to our for Cage's high school years when he went to Beverly Hills High School.
Starting point is 00:16:08 No, no, two, I know. I used that, I had to use a postcode for the, yes, to watch a recent episode of a Brendan Fraser film, but it wasn't available here. So Matt and I whacked on the US VPN so we could stream it from YouTube, but it said, what is your US postcode? The only one I know. Yeah, exactly. That's so good.
Starting point is 00:16:32 I would have Googled something. Damn it, not a 2-1-0, of course. I couldn't believe it worked. Yeah. It was so stoked. So good. So Beverly Hills High School, it's a school with many notable alumni from the media and film industry.
Starting point is 00:16:45 It's quite a famous school over there. At school, Cage became good friends with Crispin Glover. Ah. Another actor known for his eccentricities. Back to the Future. Let's call back to episode 8 or something. Charlie's Angels for our generation. That's how we know him.
Starting point is 00:17:01 He's a creepy thin man. I was known him as the only man I've ever heard. of being called Crispin. He sounds delicious. Yeah. I think it of Crispiam and Eves. Well, past the Crispin Glover. He also had a famous appearance on Letterman where it was...
Starting point is 00:17:16 Oh, did he have a meltdown? He was a meltdown and it's sort of like, I think maybe Dave was in on it a little bit, but it was pretty wild to watch. Incredible. So Nick's uncle Francis made the godfather when Cage was eight years old. And according to the Washington Post, he grew up with envy in his adolescent years as he watched his cousins become very wealthy. Oh, it's about the cash.
Starting point is 00:17:39 And also the fact that his dad, that their dad was super duper famous. He said, My dad's just a crusty old dean. Just a crusty old dean. Nick himself said, I was always in these weird circumstances, like going to Beverly Hills High School, but living on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and La Senega, and then basically having these football players throw their porches in my face
Starting point is 00:17:57 and taking girls out on dates when I was riding the bus to school. Because my father thought it was such a good school. And it was. Okay. He did later say that. I love her. He's like, he takes it as being thrown in his face. People are getting around going on dates, throwing it in my face.
Starting point is 00:18:15 Driving a car, ride in my face. They'll get me. Every matter what, it's about him. Yeah. Look at this guy. Look at this guy driving his car just to get at me. He's like, no, he's just driving a car. Oh, look at this woman, walking her dog.
Starting point is 00:18:29 Yes, a very nice dog right in my face. Picking up that shit in my face. You are unbelievable lady. So from that you kind of think, oh, maybe, you know, girls aren't interested in him and he's worried about that. He also said,
Starting point is 00:18:42 I took the most beautiful girl in the world to my prom. After kissing her, I was so excited, I threw up on her and the sidewalk. I've never been able to forget that. I guess that she's never forgotten it either. Threw up on her and the sidewalk because he was so nervous.
Starting point is 00:18:58 I get that. So basically, I'm trying to paint, he was a really cool. Yes. He's a cool guy. A jock is what I'm hearing. Cage took his first acting lessons in both comedy and juggling.
Starting point is 00:19:10 Yes. His acting classes. Mine juggling. Yeah, I'm not actually juggling. I'm only pretending to juggling. We can superimpose in the juggling balls later. He was 14 and he took the lessons to pass the summer. But his real inspiration to pursue acting was seeing James Dean on screen.
Starting point is 00:19:27 When he saw James Dean, that's when he knew that he wanted to be an actor. The exact opposite of a crossy old dean, am I right? He's a hot young dean. The least crusty of all deans. James. Nick didn't last long at school, according to the Washington Post again. Cage quit in his junior year, miffed over getting only a tiny part in the school production of Westside Story.
Starting point is 00:19:50 Yeah, that'll do it. He decided he'd go out and get real work. Love that. You're not good enough to get cast in the school play. He's like, I'll show these guys. I'm going to Hollywood. I'm going to go ask my uncle for a little. I'm going to go out alone.
Starting point is 00:20:05 Okay, fine. You don't think I'm good enough for this school play. Fine. I'm going to go be a huge star. Yeah, see you later. And I can do that easily and comfortably. Uncle Frank. But the most of the reality...
Starting point is 00:20:16 Uncle Frank, they won't let me be in the play. Uncle Frank was directing the play. Oh, no. I didn't put him in. That one probably was right in his face, actually. Yeah, that one felt personal. When he was 15 years old, whilst driving in the car with his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, who at this date, it, it was.
Starting point is 00:20:32 already directed great actors including Marlon Brando, El Pacino, Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro. He said to his uncle at 15, give me a screen test. I'll show you acting. Yeah. Great. Cage said that he was met with silence. Fair. It is. I love that. And I say Kate. Francis Ford just leads down and turns up the volume on the radio.
Starting point is 00:20:57 I say Cage, but at the time he was still known as Nicholas Coppola, which is what he was credited as in his first feature film role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Oh! Released in 1982, it stars Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Lee and Judge Reinhold. One of the only few judges. It's Crispin and Judge really taken up their categories. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:22 I've seen that, I reckon, at one point. It's just like an early teen movie. Yeah, but quite out there for the time. Right. In terms of them trying to hook up and stuff. Do you believe it? Scandalous. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:21:34 Dave, I don't think we can talk about that on this podcast. Sorry, can we beep that in post? That's naughty. Cage played a guy who didn't do any of that, but they were just doing it in his face. The role he was born to play. Apparently, he was supposed to play a larger role, but because he was only 17, legally, he couldn't work as many hours as overage actors. So his role had no lines in the end, and his character was billed as Brad's Bud.
Starting point is 00:22:01 Nice. Nice. The young Nick King. Cage did not enjoy his time on the film. He said that he was basically bullied for being a copula by the others in the film. He said, quote, young actors at 16 can be very cruel. I worked with people like Eric Stoltz who would just not let up, you know, on fast times hanging outside my trailer, constantly quoting lines from Apocalypse now. Godfather, it was just like, come on, let me do my work. Get off my back. Let me do my work. I'm 17. I'm 17. I've got to be a guy that flips burgers and
Starting point is 00:22:34 Has no lines. Yeah. Let me concentrate. I'm Brad's bud. Right. Okay. Unless you're Brad, get out of my face. I'm trying to get in the head of Brad's bud.
Starting point is 00:22:43 He's another fast, another back to the future guy, Eric Stoltz. He was the original Marty McFly. Ah. Right. You'd remember. Yes. The story I told. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:55 About seven years ago. He wasn't, they didn't like him. He just was so serious. He was like a method guy and they like, it's just not working. They wanted. They always wanted Michael Jay. They always wanted Mogg Jay Fox, but he wasn't available and then, and they'd filmed a bunch. They reckon there's scenes in the movies like the back of Eric Stoltz's head or his arm or something.
Starting point is 00:23:14 Can I please get some praise for remembering that? Yes. Good girl. He veiled so quickly all that. I would have been fine with that if you'd committed. Okay. Now it feels sarcastic. Hey, good girl.
Starting point is 00:23:29 Good girl. Apparently he told Wyer that people like Stoltz and the others would say, stuff like and this is horrific bullying. They'd say things like, hey Nick, good morning Nick. What? Nice to see you. All sorts of awful bullying in his face. They would say stuff like, I love the smell of Nicholas in the morning.
Starting point is 00:23:49 Awful, horrendous. How do they? The smell of napalm from Apocalypse now, but that's, I love the smell of Nicholas in the morning. Yeah, they, I'd be like, that's sort of embarrassing bullying, sort of, you know. Like, you guys are. Just beat me up. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:08 You know, what is this? What is this? This is embarrassing, guys. Just beat me up. Good one. Shub me in a locker or something. Come on. He wouldn't have been the own, like, isn't all Hollywood's, like, family connections as well?
Starting point is 00:24:20 Yeah. Yeah, let me look up with Eric Stoltz's parents. So who's he got? Okay. All right. A violinist and school teacher is his dad. All right. He's legit.
Starting point is 00:24:29 Okay. His mom was an Academy Award winner, but the dad was a violinist and a school teacher. Oh, I love the smell of violins in the morning. Got him. Got him. Well, that is ruthless bullying that I'm sorry he had to endure. And because of that, he decided to separate himself from the family name and rebranded as Nicholas Cage.
Starting point is 00:24:47 Sure, but we still know who your family is. Yeah. But okay. Eric Stoltz, he was tricked. He's like, oh. He's like, what? This is a different guy. Hello, I'm Eric Stoltz.
Starting point is 00:24:57 Oh, nice to meet you. Nicholas Cage, was it? Fantastic. Well, I can't wait to work with you, colleague. So he named himself Cage in honour of avant-garde composer John Cage, whose most famous piece is called Four Minutes of Silence. 33 seconds. Do you know this?
Starting point is 00:25:14 Yeah. Which he composed in 1952 for any instrument or combination of instruments, and the score simply instructs performance to not play the instruments during the entire duration of the piece. That's so far. They just stay silent for exactly four minutes and 33 seconds. Do people take that seriously at all? I mean, it'd be sort of infamous.
Starting point is 00:25:31 I guess if you're the first one to do it, people go, all right. Because Tism released an album a couple of years ago that was full silence on both sides. The vinyl sold out real quick. A full album. Yeah. Love them. So that's one half of his inspiration, he claims.
Starting point is 00:25:46 The other Cage he named himself after is Luke Cage from Marvel Comics, aka Power Man. Oh, okay. Interesting that Power Man hasn't quite made it into the cinematic universe just yet. But I think Luke Cage had a TV show. He had a TV show. Did he play Power Man and that? I'm not sure.
Starting point is 00:26:04 But I think, don't you think, when once you say it's named after two different cages, it starts to feel like you've picked the name and then are working backwards. Totally. Reverse engineering. Yeah. And it's also about factory hens. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:20 And about zoos. Yeah. The old school zoos. And my protests of them. Zeus. Yes. Probably had a cage at one point. At one point.
Starting point is 00:26:29 And my pet bird. Archie who lived in a cage. Yes. Archie cage. Not everyone was a fan of the name change. Nick's grandmother, Mummeralla, thought he was being stupid. Not disrespectful to the family, but stupid. It's stupid.
Starting point is 00:26:47 Nicholas, that's stupid. That's very funny. I was sure you're going to say, you know, disrespecting the family and your heritage. You're being stupid. Oh, Nicholas. That's so stupid. I'm embarrassed for you. You dummy.
Starting point is 00:27:04 Oh dear. Thanks, Nan. Can I have another piece of cake, please? Mamarella. Can you teach me how to make pasta, please, Mamarella? His next film role came the very next year in 1983 when the man now known as Nicholas Cage played one of the two leads in Valley Girl.
Starting point is 00:27:18 Lusely based on Romeo and Juliet, Cage starred opposite Deborah Foreman. It was a low-budget movie but became a box office hit. Made many times his budget back. Around the same time in 1983, Cage was introduced to a young aspiring museum. named Johnny Depp, who had moved to LA to pursue a career in music. Depp was applying for all sorts of jobs, and Cage convinced him to give acting a try,
Starting point is 00:27:41 introducing him to his agent, and Depp was quickly cast in a nightmare on Elm Street. Oh, right Nick Cage's face. That's my manager that I introduce you to. So there you go, a bit of Hollywood history there. The same year Cage appeared in his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola's film Rumblefish. You know that film, which sadly was not a box office hit. Cade was in another one of his uncle's films the next year in 1984. So we got a couple of jobs in with our Francis called The Cotton Club,
Starting point is 00:28:12 which although not a commercial success was met with good reviews, Cage played a gangster called Mad Dog Dwyer and lived his character even off set, talking trashed to everyone. And one day, he trashed his trailer, which people were not happy with. What a Mad Dog. It's one of the great nicknames, Mad Dog Dwyer. I think that was actually the name of the bad guy and Back to the Future 3. The connections to Back to the Future are incredible in this episode.
Starting point is 00:28:41 Mad Dog Tanner, I'm pretty sure. Wow. Biff's ancestor. Oh, yep. Wow. And off stage, Michael J. Fox was living and sleeping in a trailer. Yeah. So the connections are endless.
Starting point is 00:28:53 A film that was a commercial success. And as far as I'm aware, didn't involve any trailer trashing was 1986's Peggy Sue got married, also starring Cage and directed by his uncle Francis. So three in a row, Cage plays Peggy Sue's husband and said he never wanted to play the role but was asked multiple times by his uncle. He only agreed to take part if he could play it in an over-the-top manner. Really? Classic Cage. Apparently his uncle almost fired him when he refused to give up his high voice that sounded, people have described as like being, like, sounding like Pokey from Gumbie.
Starting point is 00:29:26 Oh, yeah. What a turnaround in the power dynamics between those two. It starts with him going, let me test for you. And France Ford Coppola didn't even answer. And now he's going, please be in my movie. Please. And then he's like, please don't do that accent in my movie. And then he hasn't worked with him since.
Starting point is 00:29:45 So, come on, Unk. It's really, there's one, I haven't seen this movie, but I watched a few clips to hear this voice. And there's like an infamous sort of sex. scene where like he's making out out with someone that's like feeling him up
Starting point is 00:29:59 and he goes you mean my wang it's just so incredible and this is a hit film yes it was a commercial success it was but he hasn't worked with his uncle since but you know
Starting point is 00:30:11 never say never again other movies of this early cage era include Raising Arizona and Moonstruck with Cher which was a huge box office hit and won a bunch of Oscars including the best actress for Cher I haven't seen, I would like to watch Moonstruck.
Starting point is 00:30:26 I say this every time we talk about anything and I never do. I haven't seen any of these apart from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Yeah. I haven't seen any of his cage era films so far. I think I've seen bits of Raising Arizona. I don't think I've watched the whole thing. That's a comedy, that one. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:43 Is that where he's got a kid called Arizona or he's like raising the state of Arizona to the ground? You got it the first time? Okay. And it's an early Cohen Brothers one. I think one of them directs it. He next starred in the black comedy horror film Vampires Kiss, where he took a surrealist approach to his acting and his performance was described as outrageously unbridled.
Starting point is 00:31:08 Wow. It included chewing on a real cockroach. Why? Why, though? To shock the audience, Jess. Yeah, it could be a fake one and it would have the same effect for the audience. Yeah, I'd assume it was a fake one. According to the Washington Post, it was Cage's idea, and he did two takes. Why?
Starting point is 00:31:26 Again. He said originally... He was hungry. Originally, I was supposed to eat raw eggs. I thought, well, but that's been done. We saw Stallone do that. I wanted to come up with something that would work with the vampire mythology and also create a visceral experience for the audience, where it almost broke the fourth wall down, and people
Starting point is 00:31:44 would go, oh man, that's really happening. No one's doing that. No one's doing that. People understand how movies work. Yeah, and it's like, I'm a celebrity to get me out of here, does worse than that. Yeah. I guess that was a while ago, but doesn't it, is it eating a cockroach shocking?
Starting point is 00:32:02 Oh, I would watch the same. There's a whole industry now, isn't there? Where they're trying to make that as an alternative to red meat? Yeah. Is it cockroaches? I think so. Or crickets, maybe. Crickets.
Starting point is 00:32:14 Some sort of bugs. Yeah. I would see somebody in a film, take a bite of a cockroach, and I'd go, But I would assume it was a fake cockroach. I think you would assume that with nearly any other actor. True. I reckon it should have been bigger. It needed to be like a possum or something.
Starting point is 00:32:31 He bit the throw that of a possum. That's where I needed it to be. You're happy to be shocked? That would make me have a visceral reaction. You'd have to film that in New Zealand. I think that'd be a crime in Australia. We're very protective of that possums. They get away with anything.
Starting point is 00:32:51 I read New Zealand. That'd be high-fired. him. Yeah. They'd be throwing him another one. He's a freshie. Over here, it'd have to be a cane toad. He would be rushed to the hospital.
Starting point is 00:33:01 Apparently, he washed his mouth out with vodka before and after, and he still couldn't eat for three days. I couldn't sleep very well either, he says. So why'd you do it? Is it more full on than I'm thinking? I hate cockroaches. They're one of my few really, really gross things. Me and people from New South Wales.
Starting point is 00:33:19 Yes. And also, I don't like snakes, aren't they? Yeah, I'm not a big fan. No, I hate him. You're a farm of the cockroach? I don't know. They're just like a little black bug, right? Or not a little bug, but they're, you know, like a couple inches long or something.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Yeah, but they're kind of a symbol of dirty. I don't know if it's true. But you see them as a gross thing. Yeah, they'll survive a nuclear holocaust. Yeah, this one survived a Nicholas Cage, bit it in an hour. That's disgusting. It's actually, yeah, it's lived on. It's had a lot of kids.
Starting point is 00:33:50 They're big and, yeah, it's a real big empire. the Hollywood Cockroach fraternity. So he was in a bunch of movies in the early 90s. Honestly, I can't mention them all and I'm sorry if I miss your favorite because the man is so prolific. He's been in at least one feature film every year since 1986 and in some years he's done seven films. Wow.
Starting point is 00:34:10 It's two years where he's done seven movies. What? Quality and quantity. Exactly. If you're doing that many, statistically some are going to be duds, but some are going to be great. So that's actually quite smart. Yep.
Starting point is 00:34:23 Rather than being one of those actors who's like, no, I wait for the perfect project and everything you do is really good. Yeah, whatever. Hopefully. But if your one movie that year is bad. Your one movie that seven years. Yeah. What if it's a bomb? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:39 I reckon, I reckon take the cage method. I would. Work yourself to the bone. I'm thinking about doing seven feature films this year. Okay. What we got? Ten months left? Let's do this.
Starting point is 00:34:50 Easy. Get me in there. So he's doing a bunch of movies. but in 1995 he received critical acclaim for his role in leaving Las Vegas, where he played Ben Sanderson, a down-and-out screenwriter who's taking himself to Vegas to drink himself to death. Cades received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, which he won. Whoa.
Starting point is 00:35:09 He's an Academy Award winner. No one can ever take that away from him. And I've tried. So he's like looking at his famous family being like, huh? I did it. Am I good enough of you now? I didn't even use the Coppola name. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:35:22 To get here. I didn't use any of those connections. No, not at all. Despite being in three of my very famous uncle's movies. Very early on. In a row. He beat his friend Sean Penn, who was nominated for Dead Man Walking, who he'd also co-starred with it in a few early films.
Starting point is 00:35:36 Cage said in his acceptance speech, which I watched, I know it's not hip to say it, but I just love acting. That is so unhipped. That is so unhipped. Most people get up there and they say, this sucks. Hate acting. Play it really cool. I fell into this.
Starting point is 00:35:51 That's so embarrassing. Actually, that's what Johnny Depp does. I wanted to be a musician. Yeah, I didn't know that about Johnny Depp. There you go. So he's won an Oscar, which is obviously almost the pinnacle for their industry, and no one can ever take that away from it. Why do you keep saying that?
Starting point is 00:36:04 Is somebody going to try and take it away from him? But I think we can all agree that Nick's supreme achievement in acting started the following year when in 1996 he started a run of near perfect films. And when I say near, I mean, so perfect, they're perfect. I'm not sure if any other actor could compete with a run of three movies this good. I'd be interested to see if anyone can come up with a run of three movies from any other actor this good. 1996, The Rock, 1997. Conair.
Starting point is 00:36:33 1997, face off. Whoa, that's a big three. Three of my favorite all-time films, especially the first two. So I'm going to talk about each of them now. Yeah, those first two are the same. They are two of the absolute greats. I saw Conair for the first time in ages last year. again and it was so good. I'm like, oh my God, it holds up. It's so, I really watch this too.
Starting point is 00:36:57 I'm lolling hard. It's so fun. It's so fun. Bloody love it. So I'm going to talk about each of the first of all is The Rock directed by visionary director Michael Bay. His second movie, co-starring Sean Connery, this film rules. Nick Cage later said he specifically took the role to prove wrong those who'd called him too quirky for a mainstream blockbuster. He's pretty quirky in it. He's pretty quirky, okay? But it kind of works. And when I say kinder, I mean, it definitely works. But he still put his mark on the role in the film. He plays FBI chemical weapons specialist Dr. Stanley Goodspeed. Goodspeed, Dr. Goodspeed. Who, along with Connery, must try and stop a group of rogue Marines who have stolen chemical weapons and taken hostages
Starting point is 00:37:42 on Alcatraz Island. I don't know how accurate it is to real chemical weapons or whatever, but it's such a beautiful design, those grape-like things. Those little green balls. Yeah, so good. Beautiful. You know how this shit works? When he puts one in one of the mercenary's mouth. Yeah, that's good stuff.
Starting point is 00:38:03 I think I was on my phone. What do you make? I'm allowed to experience things in different ways and I'm not shitting on it. Just saying I don't remember that exact bit. Please go on. I was about to ask you the list of other things you don't remember about it. That would be impossible. I'll get you up to speed, good speed.
Starting point is 00:38:23 Cage insisted on such eccentricities, such as GoodSpeed's aversion to swearing, doesn't like to swear, and the early scene in which he sits naked in his apartment playing guitar. According to IMDB's trivia section, Nicholas Cage and Michael Bay differ as to the reason behind the early scene of why he's naked with the guitar. Bay says it's because he knew Cage wanted to show off his body, so they decided just to get it out of the way up front. But Cage says he simply wanted to establish that the character was at home. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:53 As we're all naked at home. Jeff, we're in your home right now and I'm naked. Correct. Thank you for coming to my home. Dave and I obviously not comfortable enough for that. Oh, you're not at home. You're not at home. So you're fully clothed, tuxedos.
Starting point is 00:39:05 Yeah. I'm not glad you're a little bit covered with that big guitar. Cage also. Oh. You're going to have a little strum there. Sorry, inspiration struck. He also adlibbed the bulk of his lines, including the incredible... The bulk of his lines?
Starting point is 00:39:26 That's what it says. Wow. Including the line, how in the name of Zils's butt hole? That's classic Cage. Oh, it's so good, which Michael Bay wanted to cut, but Cage demanded he keep. Oh, so he had a bit of creative control here. Yeah, had a lot of input. According to IMDB, Nicholas Cage was concerned that he, quote,
Starting point is 00:39:45 looked like a little Japanese schoolboy, and what that means, in his scuba gear, while the other actors all playing Navy Seals looks super cool. I don't know why the ethnicity has to play a part. Isn't that a weird thing to say? I look like a Japanese schoolboy, and you all look cool. What are you talking about?
Starting point is 00:40:04 That's what he said. Was it, yeah, was it his scuba gear made out to look like a school uniform? Well, Michael Bay later admitted that he intentionally wanted him to look ridiculous, but he doesn't look like a schoolboy in any way. He just doesn't look as cool. He does a Japanese. Yes. Well, they're all Navy SEALs and he's like a, you know, a scientist.
Starting point is 00:40:23 Yeah. He's like a, he's slightly fish out of water who has to rise to the occasion. Yeah. So you can't look cool in every shot cage. No. But I looked cool when I was eating that cockroach, right? When I was having a nude fiddle on the guitar. Most of the film is shot on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco.
Starting point is 00:40:43 didn't know this, but as it's governed by the National Park Service, it was not possible to close down Alcatraz, and much of the filming had to accommodate tour parties milling around. Imagine looking over like your dad. Hey, there's Nick Cage. Yeah. A flaming motorcycle man. That's Nicholas Cage over there. The world premiere of the film also took place on Alcatraz.
Starting point is 00:41:02 They set up a cinema screen in what was once the prisoner's exercise courtyard. Oh, that's kind of cool. 500 people were invited. Pretty cool? That's kind of sick. That's sick. According to the Disney fan club D-23, Nicholas Cage summed up the event perfectly when he stated, it's a beautiful place to have a premiere, but this is really weird.
Starting point is 00:41:21 Yeah. If it's weird for Cage, yeah, it's weird. Then came Conair, directed by Simon West in his directorial debut. Oh my God. Wow. But he had done a bunch of commercials and Rick Astley's video for Never Gonna Give You Are. Whoa. So he was prolific.
Starting point is 00:41:37 So that's a training ground. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Never gonna give you a lot. Drone he directed Rick Astor do their sort of like moves with his arms where he's sort of like gyrating in the air. What else does the director do if not direct your movements? Conair co-stared John Malkovich, John Cusack and of course Steve Pashimi. This film rules.
Starting point is 00:41:54 In the movie, Cage plays Cameron Poe, a man who was about to be paroled from prison when the plane carrying him and other convicts is taken over by the inmates. Why are they on a plane? Why are they on the plane? They're being transferred to a new Supermax facility and on the way they're dropping off Nicholas Cage. Oh, I see. But he doesn't let on that he's not like them.
Starting point is 00:42:16 Yeah, because what you have to understand, Jess, is he's going to save the fucking day. Yep. Quote unquote. Okay, great. And he did most of his own stunts. Wow. In a making of TV, special Cage said, whether I wanted to or not, I did most of my own stunts in this movie. There were explosions five feet behind me, flaming helicopters dropping right behind me,
Starting point is 00:42:34 ball bearing bullets over my head. So there was a level of intensity. Fear, you might say. Yeah, that's funny how much I didn't expect him to be sort of like so needy to let people know he's cool. So I thought he was sort of like bit weird and just sort of just sort of cool because he's a weirder. But he sounds like in interviews, he's like, actually I did some really cool things. Let me list them for you. Pretty rad.
Starting point is 00:42:57 What do you think? He just is constantly leading in for a high five. Yeah. Am I right? Up top. Delo come on. Give me some praise. Was that, can I ask, was the mullet authentic?
Starting point is 00:43:08 Was it real? I believe that was a real mull. Oh my God. Do you know that famous? He gets out of prison towards the style of the film and the sunshine hits his face and he's just taking it all in. Oh, yes, yes, yes. That's, yeah, that's some of the best.
Starting point is 00:43:21 That's a gif face acting. Yeah, that's right. I've seen that meme. God, he looks good. Such great movie. I absolutely love it. Incredibly, production on Conair ran late and overlapped with face off. So Cage immediately went off and started filming that.
Starting point is 00:43:36 Back to back. Cornair and Face Off were released to cinemas in June. 1997 within three weeks of one another. Wow. It's a busy time. Can they do that anymore when people are just like a lead actor in two blockbusters at the same time? Cage on Cage.
Starting point is 00:43:49 Compete against each other? Amazing. Face off was directed by John Wu. In the film, John Travolta plays an FBI agent who has a facial transplant surgery to assume the identity of the criminal mastermind who murdered his only son and the face he adopts is Nicholas Cage. Cage's character then has the surgery to look like John Travoltax. So they're playing each other.
Starting point is 00:44:10 Nicholas Cage and John Travolta spent two weeks together before filming to learn how to play each other. They decided on specific gestures and vocal cadencies for each character that could be mimicked. It's absolutely bad shit. This film rules. According to IMDB again, the crew shot on Nicholas Cage's birthday. John Wu, the director let Cage get emotionally charged up for a scene, then surprised him with a birthday cake. Afterwards, Cage asked Wu not to do that again. if we ever make a film on my birthday again.
Starting point is 00:44:40 Don't ever do that again. Next year, don't do that. Don't let me get emotionally charged for a scene. And then everyone starts singing happy birthday. And then celebrate my day of birth. That's amazing. So all three films came out very close to each other and they were all huge hits. The Rock grossed $335 million.
Starting point is 00:44:58 Conair did $225 and Face Off took in $245 million. Not bad for the mid-90s. But not everyone was on board. Sean Penn, was an old friend of Cage's and had starred with him in a few films in the 80s and early 90s, thought Cage had sold out and famously declared, quote, Nick Cage is no longer an actor. He's more like a performer.
Starting point is 00:45:18 And to that, I say, fuck you, Sean Penn. He got an Oscar before you and you just couldn't handle that. Yeah, fuck off. Nick Cage responded in a 1999 interview. He said, a sellout. I've heard that word. It's only a sellout if you've being paid to do something you don't want to do. I want to make these movies.
Starting point is 00:45:36 Yeah. He also went on to say, after I shed my skin of wanting to be the rebellious, angst-ridden, broody actor, which I think is a very adolescent state of mind. Oh, that's so good. So good. I realized I didn't have... You'll grow up one day, Sean. Yeah, that's okay, little buddy. You said, I realized I didn't have to be that guy to be cool.
Starting point is 00:45:53 And suddenly, I enjoyed my life more. I became free. Which is a great response without naming Sean Penn. I became free. I believe they've since made up, but it's very funny. And Sean Penn has won two Oscars. Damn, and he's in the lead. now.
Starting point is 00:46:07 Oh, spoiler. No more for Cagey boy. Well, we'll find out. The truth is, it could have almost been four... I think we just did. Trying to keep some suspense here. Okay. The truth is, it could have almost been four incredible action films in a row.
Starting point is 00:46:22 I'm sure that Nick Mason mentioned it on our Superman episode, but around 1996, Nicholas Cage was due to star in Superman Lives, directed by Tim Burton, who had previously done the Batman movies. But just to quickly recap, because people would freak out of it. at least mention it. Nicholas Cage was going to play Superman, a comic book character he absolutely loves. Yes. Like, loves. Yes. Another comic book nerd, Kevin Smith, from Gen Silent Bob and Morrats and Clerks, wrote a script, and then Wesley Strick, who wrote Batman Returns, was brought on to write a new one. So the script written by some very acclaimed people, despite millions being spent on
Starting point is 00:47:01 sets, it was pulled by Warner Brothers just weeks before principal photography began. Years later, some footage and photos of Nicholas Cage in the Superman costume were revealed, leaving people to wonder, what could have been in? Wow. They made a big mistake there. They absolutely did. Should have followed through. Imagine that they were in the fourth film in that quadrilogy.
Starting point is 00:47:20 I don't think, I've never, I don't know if I've ever watched the Superman film. For some reason, I just feel, I don't know, I think it's because he's so invincible and everything. I think I'm the same. It just doesn't really appeal to me the character. He seems just a bit too buttoned up and invincible. Yeah, but... Maybe I'd love it. You a Superman fan, Jess?
Starting point is 00:47:38 No, I haven't watched a lot of Superman either. I think, yeah, I'm not sure. But he ended up playing the Spider-Man noir guy into the Spider-Verse or whatever that was called. And he also, we got a glimpse of what could have been in 2018 when Cage voiced Superman, the animated film Teen Titans Go to the Movies. Oh, that's fun. So he played Superman like a sort of a kid, kid's movie. Well, that's great. That's cute.
Starting point is 00:48:03 And I watched a clip of it on YouTube. he's just speaking like Nicholas Scared. Yeah. Which I guess could have worked. Yep, that makes sense. What were you expecting him to do? Hello, I'm superbram. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:48:16 He's on his high voice again, poking. He! Touch my wang! Pop up and away! Yeah, I don't know what I was expecting, but there you go. He finally got to at least voice the character. But Adam, have you seen the photos of him as Superman? No.
Starting point is 00:48:32 With a long hair. He works awesome. Was he? Is it the long hair because he was filming Conair? It really could have been, yeah. Maybe. I don't know if they were planning to have him have long hair or just because they had to have him, you know, get into the suit.
Starting point is 00:48:44 There's such a, like, a distinctive Clark can't look through every movie clip or whatever that I've seen. Yeah. I used to actually, I did watch Lois and Clark on TV when I was a kid. Oh, there you go. So that, that was a bit of fun because there is the whole journalist storyline as well. I guess. I should really give him a try. But it's, yeah, he looks like such an unlikely Superman.
Starting point is 00:49:10 He's a photo of Nick Cage in the suit. He's muscular, it's bright blue. That's, I don't know how I feel that. It's like, you know, one of the 90s Batman muscle suit style. Yeah. It's different. I love it. Yeah, it would have been interesting.
Starting point is 00:49:23 I definitely would have watched it. I feel like it would have been my first Superman feature film to watch. Yeah, yeah. Offscreen, Nicholas Cage has been married five times, like all the great actors. Yeah, you got a collector. them all. Collect those wives. Before his first marriage, he had a son with actor Christina Fulton.
Starting point is 00:49:42 She lived with Cage for three years and said laughing in an interview. Being with him is like being in a movie. A constantly surreal movie. If you're not on stage with him, go play somewhere else. I think he would be very difficult to live. Oh, yeah, yeah. Their son, Weston, is a, no, fully grown man himself. He's got two children of his own, so Nick Cage is also a grandfather.
Starting point is 00:50:02 That's nice. But Cage married his first wife. Patricia Arquette in 1995. She's one of the partners that went on to win an Oscar for the family's trophy cabinet. Ah, another big acting family. The Arquette's right? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:16 She won't it for boyhood, I believe. Okay. So she wasn't, I don't think they weren't married anymore, but still, it counts. It counts. The pair met at Cantor's Deli, an L.A. hotspot that's been dishing out corned beef sandwiches to celebrities for years, apparently. All the celebs love a corned beef sandwich. Downy Jr. goes wild for a corned beef.
Starting point is 00:50:35 He loves a corned beef. What do you have to do to beef to make it corned? It's not a nice looking process. Right. I used to make corned beef. It's corn silverside the same thing. Yeah. The phrase silverside makes me feel ill.
Starting point is 00:50:49 Silver side, yeah. The only thing that makes me feel worse is I discovered a couple of years ago a product called seafood extender. What is that? Yeah, I think a hamburger extender. Oh my God. Because I've been watching Yellowstone and in it there was, one of the characters said that they'd used hamburger extended to make this tuna thing.
Starting point is 00:51:11 And her partner was like, why didn't you use the tuner extender? What a fun bit of dialogue. It sounds like there's so many different kinds of extenders over there. What's an extender? I'm looking out of seafood extender. It's made from inexpensive fish, typically Pollock or Hake, pounded into a thick paste, then shaped and cooked. So it's just making it so you've got more seafood. It's quite cheap, but it just sounds like it.
Starting point is 00:51:35 The name's the worst bit of it. Less like corn silverside. It just sounds horrible. Yeah. And then seafood extender. It just makes you think it's all the bits that they didn't want to do anything else. It's like, so you get a good bit of fish, but you want to make it last a bit longer. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:47 I've got to make this stew a bit harder. It's some terrible fish. Yeah, you're sort of watering it down. Yeah, with fish. With fish. Fishing again. Yeah. Sorry to share that with everyone.
Starting point is 00:51:58 I haven't had corned beef in very long time. I imagine in America. That is just the standard thing, though, that is everyone would have all the time. And like that would be weird to Americans that it sounds gross, I bet you. Right. It's just extender. Yeah. The word.
Starting point is 00:52:11 Something about it. Because if it was just called like minced fish, which is, you know, sort of what it probably is. Yeah. Fish paste even isn't, I mean, it's not great, but that's probably better extent for sure. Yeah. So they met at this deli with the cornbow sandwiches. The 23 year old cage reportedly proposed to the 18 year old Arquette within hours of meeting her. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:31 He said. That's happened to me. For real? When people have met me. Yeah. At the corned beef sandwich shop? Yeah. Have you accepted?
Starting point is 00:52:39 No. Never accepted? Never accepted. Jeez, you're a bitch. She said no and Matt just couldn't get over it. Why would you bring it up on the podcast? She said, come on. It was years ago.
Starting point is 00:53:01 Let it go. I love that. You're like, and just to confirm, what did you say with a yes or no? I can't remember her. I mean, whoever it was, they went to all that effort to ask a question. The least you could do is marry them. That's true. I feel bad.
Starting point is 00:53:17 She said no, but Nick had a bit of a strange response. He said, give me a quest. Okay. I guess to like prove himself or something. Yeah. Patricia thought he was joking and gave him a list of all these things to find. On the list was a black orchid from the jungles of Peru, an autograph from the famously reclusive author of Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger,
Starting point is 00:53:37 a wedding dress from the Lissu tribe in Southeast Asia, and a Bob's big boy statue from. from a fast food place. She didn't think that Nick Cage would actually do it, but he started trying to get the things. The first was a JD Salinger autograph, which he turned up at her house with the next day. Wow.
Starting point is 00:53:53 Very rare. That would be worth a lot of money. Was he alive? Did he go around to his place to get it? He didn't say how he got it. He was alive at the time, but I don't think that he was given him out. He may have gone to an autograph shop or something
Starting point is 00:54:05 and paid a ridiculous amount for it. I don't know. Or forgery. Yeah, I mean, how hard could it be? How hard? I mean, this. I could write down J.D. There's so few.
Starting point is 00:54:13 I'm not even going to look up how to spell Salinger. I'll just do it. Just go for it. Yeah. Yeah, you do the S and then sort of comes a squiggle. JDS. S squiggle. Somewhere in there, I guess.
Starting point is 00:54:22 It's not a J I don't think. A few loops. There you go. Four million dollars, please. Done. I'm actually going to be rich. Yeah. And then of course, you know, you have the certificate of authenticity, which you also
Starting point is 00:54:35 forged that. I've never thought about that. Why can he just forge that too? I mean, for a penny. Yeah. Forged an or social store. In fact, I'll forward to the check that you gave me to pay for this. Easy.
Starting point is 00:54:45 Done. So that was day one. Day tune, he returned with a flower and a can of spray paint, representing the black orchid. Okay, well, that's killed a flower. She said, I peaked out the window, and there he is with a purple orchid and a black spray paint can, and he's just spraying it. I do it before you get there, mate. Yeah, don't. I think you're busted now.
Starting point is 00:55:03 You're getting black spray paint all over her driveway now. It's all over her car. Well, I've done that. All over her and the sidewalk. He's got form this guy. She soon stopped him because they were supposed to get married when he was done and it looked like the madman might actually follow through and try and do all the tasks. Eventually, the pair were married many years later in 1995.
Starting point is 00:55:22 According to Rolling Stone, they married two weeks after Arquette called Cage on the phone and said, I'm ready to get married now. At that point, they hadn't seen each other in eight years. There's just something about the guy. Yeah, that's an interesting way of doing it. Yeah. He obviously treats marriage as a sacred bond. Yes, they reportedly separated after nine months of marriage.
Starting point is 00:55:45 That's according to Hello magazine. However, they continued to appear together in public and didn't officially finalize the divorce until 2001. And he sounds like he would have been a nightmare to deal with back then. Something he acknowledged in a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone saying, quote, back then, I was living out my fantasies of what I thought an exciting man should be. I wanted to be unpredictable and frightening. I jumped out from around corners and spooked her.
Starting point is 00:56:11 Boo! Patricia, boo! Hey, Patricia, look over here, yes? Boo! Boo! Got you. Thrilling. I'm an exciting man.
Starting point is 00:56:19 I'm excited man. You're lucky to be wed to me. Is this your car? Can you just do the dishes, Nick, please? He could have brought his juggling back. He's acting, he's mime juggling. Ooh, these are chainsaws. Watch out.
Starting point is 00:56:34 He said, I wanted to be predictable and frightening, and I guess I was. I mean, Patricia says at the time, I was pure testifying. I can't really imagine myself getting that angry now. I haven't punched a wall in years. So I don't really know what happened. I mean, here Cage, halts for a moment of seemingly sincere self-inquiry. Should I be punching walls? Cage, no, you shouldn't be.
Starting point is 00:56:58 No, yeah, that one. Is that you or the interviewer saying that? No, that's me answering him. I mean, yeah, it makes you think like, should I be punching walls? Help me, somebody. That's such a profound moment for him. Is that what's going wrong with my life? Huh.
Starting point is 00:57:13 It all fell apart once I stopped punching walls. What did the wall do, though? What didn't the wall do? Jeez, that does make you think. How did the wall let me down? So I think it would have been very hard to live with at that time. Yeah. Cage's second wife was Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis and Priscilla.
Starting point is 00:57:29 They married in Hawaii on August 10, 2002 and filed for divorce 107 days later on November 25, 2002. Cade was a big fan of her father, Elvis, and based his before. in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart on the King, and they married almost exactly, it's only a few days apart, 25 years after her father died. I'm not sure if you planned that, but... Do you reckon he planned to marry almost exactly 25 years after he died? Probably. Yeah, that's the kind of thing he'd probably do. You say it like, you don't believe it, but I do. I do. But why wouldn't you have done it 25 years exactly then? Probably wasn't a Saturday.
Starting point is 00:58:11 You're not going to get your friends out on a Wednesday. That's ridiculous. Yeah, he's the kind of guy. All your Hollywood friends with their nine to fives. Cade said they both came from very famous families and that's what connected them. Oh, she's a Presley. I'm a Cage Coppola. I think you need a bit more than that.
Starting point is 00:58:26 That's enough for me. He said they had a habit of breaking up and then getting back together. One time she apparently threw his $65,000 engagement ring off a yacht. $65,000. Fuck you. And she threw it off. off a yacht. He hired divers to search for it, but apparently it was lost. Oh, no, they found it. They definitely found it, didn't they? Yeah. Oh, I didn't find anything down there.
Starting point is 00:58:49 What's in my mouth? I have to go. I've recently bought a boat. For $64,9,9.00. That would, it told him to keep the change. Phil, that would, it's while they'd even attempted it. Like, I imagine in the ocean, a tiny little ring would be pretty hard to find. Be so hard. Tiny little ring for 65, thousand dollars please that thing that rock is sinking to the bottom of the ocean instantly that ring inspired one of his biggest hit films face off i mean the rock i have read that in the years after the divorce him and lisa marie became friends
Starting point is 00:59:31 oh in the years after they were married yeah good that's the right sort of timing to do that i think when you meet someone and marry them straight away you're like Maybe we should have got to know each other first. We don't have time to be friends. Work it out in reverse. Cage married his third wife, Alice Kim, in 2004, and together they have a son named Cal L, which is Superman's birth name on his home planet of Krypton.
Starting point is 00:59:53 That is a brutal burden to give it your old. Calel Cage. I imagine Calal goes by a different name if he's still alive. I don't know if you just call him Cal. Cal Cage. He gets bullied on his film sets. I love the smell of Cal Al in the morning. That one works.
Starting point is 01:00:12 I like that one. Calal. Yeah, so, Keller, I told you he was a fan of Superman. Maybe too much. I would call him Superman Cage. Yeah, wow. Yeah, Calal, middle name. Superman, Calal Cage.
Starting point is 01:00:23 That's it. Lex Luther Calal Cage. Okay, I thought that was beautiful. Comic book cage. What do you mean? They're going to call him a nerd. Why? Why?
Starting point is 01:00:37 So, his third wife, Alice, he met working. as a waitress at a cocktail bar. No, actually, it was at a restaurant, but I thought it was funny to say... She was working at a cocktail bar. That much is true. I'm afraid it was a restaurant. They remained married until 2015. So, 11 years.
Starting point is 01:00:55 That's his longest marriage. In March 2019, Cage married his fourth wife, makeup artist Erica Coyke. This is in 2019. This is his fourth wife and he's had five. Yeah. Okay. They married in Las Vegas again, only to file for annulment four. days later. Right. So that's his shortest marriage. The divorce came through three months later.
Starting point is 01:01:14 Four days. Four days. Before you... Don't get married. I know. Then in February 2021... No, fuck it. Do whatever. Who cares? Well, he's gone again. February 2021. Nick Cage married his fifth and current wife at the time of recording. Rico Shabata. Oh my God. RICO Shabata. That's a great name. Wow. Again marrying in Vegas. Their daughter, August Francesca, was born in September 22. Oh, wow. Is that another August or is that the same August that you mentioned before? No, August was his dad. No. Yeah, that's what I mean.
Starting point is 01:01:47 Is this the same? Is the dad his daughter? Yes. Yes, that is his dad. It is a complicated family. It's a complicated family. We just don't understand Hollywood families. So that's named after his.
Starting point is 01:01:58 That's named after. The baby. And I guess Francesca, named after. Yeah. Francis is the name of the family, I guess. That's nice. So really set her up to be a Nepo baby. August.
Starting point is 01:02:09 So how old is Nicholas Cage? He is 60... What is he? 66. How old is he? And his swimmer's still got it. He'll never stop. He'll never stop. Oh, sorry, he's not that old.
Starting point is 01:02:21 He's 59, sorry, everyone. Oh, really? But... I thought he was older. Okay. 59, he's got three kids. Three kids in total. And two grandchildren.
Starting point is 01:02:29 It's a good for him. But back to the movies, everyone. The stuff we're really here to talk about Cage, made a bunch of other films in the 90s and 2000s that were hits, gone in 60 seconds. Yep. adaptation where he got another Oscar nomination, World Trade Centre,
Starting point is 01:02:43 and the National Treasure films that I hadn't seen until last week, and everyone told me I would love them, and they were absolutely right. Those films ruled. That felt right up here, Ali. I am a little surprised you hadn't seen that one. I hadn't got to him,
Starting point is 01:02:54 but in my marathon over the last two weeks, I included both of those. It sounds like the mummy with Nicholas Cage, sort of. Is that kind of the vibe? It's so good. But it's, you know, set in more recent times, but so good. I haven't seen in my that.
Starting point is 01:03:07 I'll watch that. Oh, yeah. I love a romp. Yeah, they're just good fun. Yeah. A few puzzles in there, Matt. You're a fan of puzzles and movies. You love puzzles.
Starting point is 01:03:14 Puzzles. Notorious. Interactive. Like, pause the movie and you get to do a puzzle. All right. Here's 20 seconds to solve this puzzle. Can you do it? Like the old wears Wally cartoons.
Starting point is 01:03:25 Yeah. Where is he? Can you find him? Time's almost up. Can you see him, huh? A where? Well, they? A where?
Starting point is 01:03:33 A where. A where a lot. There he is. I love that. That just unlo- something in my brain, yeah. I love those cartoons so much. Oh, where's Wally?
Starting point is 01:03:43 Where? Where's Wally? Oh, where's Wiley? Oh, there he is. Man, I love that one. There were a couple of episodes in particular that I really remember and just absolutely loved. Where's Wally? Has anyone suggested that for a topic?
Starting point is 01:03:59 I think so. It's got to be in the hat somewhere. Surely. It's huge. Good luck for on here. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. That is good stuff.
Starting point is 01:04:08 He also, this is Nick Cage again, O'Wolly, made his directorial debut in 2002 directing a film called Sunny, starring James Franco. It was not well received. However, Tommy Wazzo, visionary creator of the room, was a big fan of the movie, and Franco's performance in it gave Wazoo faith in Franco's ability to portray him respectfully in the film The Disaster Artist. He's like, important movie then. It's great. If he gets the Tommy Wazoo seal of approval, you know what's good stuff. Yeah. Cage was also in the ghost writer films where he was a number.
Starting point is 01:04:38 annoyed that no one believed his abs were real. God, he's weird. Did your dad see the abs? Yeah, that's the first thing dad mentions. And were they great? I saw Nicholas Cage's abs on his body, of course. They didn't even look real. They were incredible.
Starting point is 01:04:54 I haven't seen Ghost Rider. I'd like to, but I did look up the image of, I typed in Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider abs and they are something. They're quite something. He was also in the Wicker Man where he yelled about the bees. The bees The bees Which apparently has come out and said
Starting point is 01:05:11 Because that's become a real joke The film didn't do that well And it's become memed People laugh at it He's come out since instead Me and the director were in on the joke We knew it was funny Yeah yeah
Starting point is 01:05:20 No you did Tony Martin uses it a lot in his podcast Not the bees Any like they'll work up to any reference To bees or honey or something And then play that clip Oh that's great So naturally being a big time actor
Starting point is 01:05:35 In leading roles and hit films he made a lot of money. For a while there, he was one of Hollywood's biggest stars, most bankable actors, and commanded up to $20 million per film. Wow. And he was in a lot of movies, remember? In 2009, Forbes estimated that he made $40 million US that year alone. The problem was he made a ridiculous amount of money, yes,
Starting point is 01:05:56 but he spent an even larger and even more ridiculous amount of money. It's estimated that he blew through a $150 million plus fortune and then found himself owing the IRS millions in federal income tax. And you're thinking, how could he possibly spend that much money? Well, these are some of the things that he bought. Okay, starting with a Gulf Stream jet that he was advised against purchasing by everyone. He bought it anyway. I'm Nick Cage.
Starting point is 01:06:28 I need a jet. Wait, so what's a Gulf Stream jet? Just like a private plane. Private plane, one of those. It goes very fast. What's a golf stream? Let me go. Cost.
Starting point is 01:06:37 And it's got a nine-hole golf course inside of it. They cost between... 18. 18. Whoa. Right now, between 21 million and 59 million. Easy. One to two films.
Starting point is 01:06:48 Wow. Yeah, that's right. Up to three films. Easy. It's good to save for these things. Is it G6? That's a golf stream. Is that the one that they sing about in rap videos?
Starting point is 01:06:58 Like, where's Wally? Did you see him? Huh? Huh? In rap videos. Let me hear you. He also spent $192,000 on an octopus. Sure.
Starting point is 01:07:09 He told the LA Times, he found the creature restful. What does that mean? I find this octopus to be restful. Like looking at it swimming around me? Like it was calming or something? Yeah. Restful.
Starting point is 01:07:22 I don't think that, nah. Use it as a body pillow to get to sleep. Yeah, that's nice. Octopuses have a memory foam in their tentacles. Very supportive. I would agree, maybe with jellyfish. I don't know if you've been to the Melbourne Aquarium lately, but they've got this whole sort of like section around jellyfish and they're like in this sort of
Starting point is 01:07:39 mood lighting and it's sort of dark but neon and they kind of hypnotise you yeah right and then they sting yeah yeah that's how they get you that's how they get you that's how they get you that's how they get you won't be falling for that again he owned a lot of strange animals he had two albino king cobras that cost two hundred and seventy six thousand dollars as well as an antidote serum on the wall so that if you got bit by a snake, you could save yourself. They kept trying to attack him, and then his neighbours complained when they heard him talking about owning the venomous snakes on Letterman, and then he had to give him up. They're like, hey, I live next door to that guy.
Starting point is 01:08:16 I don't want him owning two snakes. He's crazy. Yeah. Other exotic animals owned by cage include a shark, a talking crow, and a two-headed snake. Okay. Which he said he had to feed at the same time, and he had to keep them apart with a stick because they would attack each other to try and get the food. I heard him talking about it in an interview.
Starting point is 01:08:36 I think it's, um, Fallen asked him, was like, how do you get a two-headed snake? Like, do people just come to you with that? And he goes, yeah, people just call me, used to call me up with stuff and go, hey, I've got a two-headed snake. They call my agent and say, I've got two-headed snake. Would Nick be interested? And he was like, yeah, I'm interested. So he'd just buy shit.
Starting point is 01:08:54 He had, uh, action comics number one that first introduced Superman, which was, we've talked about before. It was famously stolen. And then he got the insurance money and then it came back. I'm not sure if he had to pay that back, but he actually sold that for a profit. So that, we can put that in the pro column. That's clever. He had a huge comic book collection.
Starting point is 01:09:10 He spent $276,000 on a dinosaur skull, which he won in a bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio. Fucking out. Only to find out it was stolen and he returned it to Mongolia, where it came from. He never got his money back. He said, so somebody at the auction house should be in jail. Whoa. So he just lost that money. That's such a, wouldn't you just stop yourself?
Starting point is 01:09:33 and go, hang on, what am I doing? What are here? No, I guess... I'm in a bidding war over a... Over a dinosaur skull. With Leonardo DiCaprio. What is their life? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:43 I mean, I think money was meaningless until they said, actually, this money means something. You owe a lot of it. Yeah. And this is all beyond the time where he was... He didn't want to be a crazy guy anymore. This is when he'd settled down. This is the settled down to him.
Starting point is 01:09:57 Yeah. I've just got a two-headed snake. He... And a talking crow. A snake's got two heads. What do you need for a two-headed snake? You need not one. Two little hats.
Starting point is 01:10:06 Okay. But they need to live somewhere. Do they need matching hats or do they need different hats? Because I know like twins often are frustrated when people sort of, you know, refer to them as one unit. Yeah. So maybe you would want to encourage them. I'm different.
Starting point is 01:10:20 Yeah. To create their own sort of, you know, find their own interests and personalities and acknowledge that you see them as two individuals. So I think one would have a little cowboy hat and the other maybe a, like a, I'm thinking in like a headband with a unicorn thing on it. I like it. That's what I'm thinking, but I'm open to other hat ideas.
Starting point is 01:10:39 Yeah, no, I think you've nailed it in one there. Just by the vibe of those two individuals. The only third option I would posit would be one of those hats with a little propeller on the top. Oh shit, that'd be cute.
Starting point is 01:10:52 Yeah. It's a little, on a snake. I do like those. Yeah, maybe like a little tiny little one. Yeah. And it goes,
Starting point is 01:10:58 woo, in the wind. I think, so which one, I think we're replacing the unicorns. Cornhorn. I think that's for a party, I reckon. But like, you need to be sunsmart for this snake.
Starting point is 01:11:06 Yeah. Obviously, they hate the sun snakes. They hate it. So yeah, you're right. Okay, yeah, great. Well, I'm glad we figured that out. You just killed that snake. I killed half that snake.
Starting point is 01:11:16 It's still a one-headed snake. Usually that's enough. What's the problem? Why are people complaining? Not for Nick. Not for Nick. Get out of here, you one-headed snake. So two-headed snake.
Starting point is 01:11:26 He bought not one, but two, ten million-dollar-plus castles in Europe. Why? One in Germany and one, which was Midford Castle in Somerset. SummerSat. It's just nice to have. Yeah. Two $10 million castles.
Starting point is 01:11:41 That's why I got them. Just nice to have. Nice to know they're there. Nice to tell people we've got. Do you visit? Do you summer in the castle? No. But I do spend a lot on a top keep.
Starting point is 01:11:52 You are exactly right. This is what Nick Cage did as well. He spent even more renovating them and apparently never spent a single night in either of them. Yeah. What the fuck are you doing then? You got two castles. What else do you need? You need two yachts.
Starting point is 01:12:05 Yeah, no, that one makes more sense. One called Westint and one called Cerita. He's named one after his son or named the son after the boat? I don't know which came first. Apparently, the Serita cost $20 million and had 12 master bedrooms. You've got to pick a master. Yeah. I don't, yeah, it's not a master, you can't have multiple masters.
Starting point is 01:12:25 No, why don't think so? Twelve master bedrooms. Does that boat have one or 12 captains? What does it mean to be a master bedroom? Yeah. How can they all be master bedroom? I don't think they can. Are they all the same size with an en suite in a walking road?
Starting point is 01:12:37 Each room is better than the last. You're like, oh, that must be the master. Oh, this, no, this. Oh, my God, this is the master. That's too much. And you're pointing at Nicholas Cage when you say that. Yeah, that's right. And he likes that.
Starting point is 01:12:50 This is the master. Thank you, yes. He had 50 cars, including a fleet of nine Rolls Royces. I think most Rolls Royces, they cost like a million bucks. Crazy as well as Lamborghinisies, Bentley. and Ferraris. According to how stuff works, at one point,
Starting point is 01:13:06 he was reportedly buying one luxury vehicle a month and had even employed a full-time mechanic just to service them all. But you can't possibly be using them all enough that they need regular servicing. You could drive a different car every week.
Starting point is 01:13:22 Yeah. That's fucked. It's too many, Nick. It's too much. I should point out, he's also given quite a bit to charity. It's not heaps compared to everything else, but he donated $1 million for disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina,
Starting point is 01:13:34 at another time gave $2 million to Amnesty International. Sure, but he makes 20 mil per film. Okay, no, I'm changing my tone here because you know why I'm getting angry? It's because I'm thinking of like the maintenance and how overwhelmed I would be owning two castles and 50 cars. But if he's handling it, hell yeah, go off King. I think he's really just showing it to those jobs. who are driving their porches around.
Starting point is 01:14:02 Yeah. In his face. In his face. You're in my face? Well, now I've got nine Rolls Royces. In your face. And they're like, I don't remember going to school with you. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:12 In your face. He had not one but two islands in the Bahamas. Sure. Yes. He does everything in twos. Yeah. He's a bloody modern-day Noah. Two-by-two.
Starting point is 01:14:23 I love that one, that one, that one. Those islands. Apparently one cost at least seven million bucks. Is that it? For an island? Yeah. Yeah, what was the thing you paid 10 million for? A castle.
Starting point is 01:14:32 And he paid $20 million for a yacht. What's that about a floating island? Yeah. How does a yacht cost more than an island? I guess an island could be anything. Yeah, it was the size of a dinner plate. A beautiful island. I can dine on that plate any time I want.
Starting point is 01:14:47 Gorgeous. Just swims up to his island. There's a chef there with a cloth or whatever they call. Covering his island. Dinner is served. Your island is served. In 2007, he bought 1800 serial killer Delphine Lollary's house in New Orleans that he described as the most haunted house in America. He later said, I bought it in 2007, figuring it would be a good place in which to write the great American horror novel.
Starting point is 01:15:15 Sure. I didn't get too far with the novel. He bought a house to write a novel in. Step one, buy the house to write it. The perfect house to write the novel end. I do step two later. I didn't get that far. so funny.
Starting point is 01:15:32 In New Orleans, he also purchased two plots in the St. Louis Cemetery, home to the grave of previous report topic, Marie Levo. Ah, yes. I'm sure I've been to that graveyard. The voodoo queen of New Orleans. Yeah. You would remember if you had seen this. I think you have to, you can only see his plots with a tour.
Starting point is 01:15:52 They've got to take you to him. But you can do that. On top of the plots, he has put a nine foot tall white pyramid. I think you can probably see that. With that being on the two are against. Yeah, I remember there was like, people were talking about, oh, you're going to go to stay there. It's a thing that people were going to say.
Starting point is 01:16:08 I'm like, all right, we'll go see it. And you saw it? I'm sure I did. But you say, you would remember. But give me some, give me a break. There was an Irish pub day. Yeah, that's right. Did you see it from the pub?
Starting point is 01:16:19 No, there was, I was there. It was Halloween week. So I was down on the, you know, they just have pub crawls everywhere, drinking on the streets. You can take drinks from bar to bar. Right. So you, the world. was your Irish par.
Starting point is 01:16:31 Yeah. Cemetery became your pub. So it's a nine-foot-tore white pyramid with the inscription Omnia Abuno, which translates from Latin to everything from one. That's nice. So everyone knows he owns it right, but it doesn't say his name or anything on it, and he refuses to speak about it in interviews. So it's a bit mysterious.
Starting point is 01:16:50 If he plans to put himself there or bury someone else there, no one knows. That's so strange. It's also pretty funny. like, cemeteries are very interesting places. You get like a lot of history and a lot of interesting stories and stuff come out of there. But it's pretty funny to be like on it, paid to go on a tour to see a plot that Nicholas Cage is still alive owns. And may one day be buried here, maybe. And when you look it up, it's one of those ones where like, you know, Oscar Wild's one in Dublin, it's covered in kisses.
Starting point is 01:17:23 People who kissed it. Yeah. But like, will the Oscar Wilder and it kind of makes sense? He's there. Yeah. But this is... He's not there. This is Cages isn't there.
Starting point is 01:17:31 He just owns that. This is just a white pyramid in a cemetery and people kiss it. That's so funny. For good luck, I guess. We're getting to the end of his purchases, but he owned an $18 million dollar Bel Air home, previously owned by Dean Martin and also Tom Jones at different times. Whoa. It's not unusual.
Starting point is 01:17:47 Also a mansion in Las Vegas, another in Rhode Island, apparently also a chalet in Aspen, Colorado, and homes in San Francisco, New York, Newport Beach and Venice Beach. All up, he owned 15 and... homes around the world, of which he said, I had to put the money somewhere, and I was a big believer in real estate. And I got caught up in that bubble that exploded. I thought it was real. I didn't trust stocks and I didn't just trust leaving it all at the bank. I believed in real estate. So now I'm working through all that. Right. There's no way they all just tanked in value completely.
Starting point is 01:18:18 No, where did that? Where was, when did the bubble burst? Well, around the GFC 2008 in America, things did go down a lot. I've been saying, like they've been talking about that. Australia for so long. Yeah, but I think in America there was lots of foreclosures, which maybe did push the market down. But, you know, did you, island of the Bahamas dropped that much? Yeah, the castles. Well, he did, he lost his fortune.
Starting point is 01:18:41 That's basically what happened, having to sell a lot of the houses and cars and other exotic purchases, and he worked harder than ever to pay off his debt. A lot of the films weren't widely released or big budget movies, but it did a lot. And this is the time when he was doing seven films a year. In the 2010s, he made 29 directed. DVD or limited release movies. Whoa. Cage was criticized for some of these roles, but he defended himself.
Starting point is 01:19:04 He said, when I was doing four movies a year back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all. They didn't work all of them. Some of them were terrific, like Mandy, but some of them didn't work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that, that I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring. Yeah, that was definitely the, you know, the idea that he was doing to pay off debts and he
Starting point is 01:19:27 was phoning them all in. But yeah, that's interesting. He wasn't. Yeah, he says, I still gave it my all every time. By doing so many movies and so many of them direct to DVD, was that also like hurting his asking price? So in the end, meaning he has to do way more movies to get back to just having 20 million a year. He basically said that the phone stopped ringing for the bigger budget movies.
Starting point is 01:19:50 And I guess part of that might be because it's like, man, you're in eight movies this month. Yeah, yeah. We can't have you in our big movie. So, but he never stopped working. And in 2020, he revealed that he'd paid off all his debts. Oh, good news. So he did lots and lots of movies, but, you know, he put the money back into paying off those debts.
Starting point is 01:20:06 I love it when millionaires get through tough times. Yeah. Sell their two-head of snake and their octopus, the shark tank. It's really inspiring. Well, since then, the actor has made a resurgence starring in critically acclaimed films like Pig, which he called his favorite film he's ever done. Wow. And the unbearable weight of massive talent where he plays a fictional.
Starting point is 01:20:27 fictionalized version of himself. Yeah, I've heard that's really good. I should check it out. I watch it in my cageathon. It's good fun. My cageathon. I think I'm going to start offering that as advice to friends who hit hard times. It's like, just do more movies.
Starting point is 01:20:41 Sell your octopus and do you like, okay, sit down. I'm going to give you that hard truth. Yeah. You're going to sell that octopus. I'm sorry, it's got to go. You got to sell one head of the two-headed snakes, a minimum. Yeah. One of each.
Starting point is 01:20:55 Get rid of one of the castles, one of the. And just do more films. More films. And you'll get yourself out of this surprisingly quick. That's why you buy to it though. So that way if you're full on tough times, you can sell one and still have one. You got to spare. That's why you have two kids.
Starting point is 01:21:11 Second ones are always shitter. That actually hurts. Does it? Yeah. It hurts all of us. It hurts because it's true. Yeah. In 2022, Nick Cage said,
Starting point is 01:21:25 I'm just going to focus on being extremely selective, as selective as I can be. I would like to make every movie as if it were my last. So maybe doing seven films in the years is behind him. Right now, he's slated to play Count Dracula in Reinfeld, a film released later this year. That feels right. Yeah, that makes sense. That feels right. That's a role he was born to play.
Starting point is 01:21:45 He won't even have to act. No. So in many ways, Nick Cage is back on top, although some would say he never went away. After all, he's been in over 100 films. What? The majority of which he played the lead. It is kind of amazing. That is wild. That's so many films.
Starting point is 01:22:00 It's so many films. That sort of rivals like some of the early Hollywood film. You know, they were prolific. But movies were like half an hour. And they were like on a contract to do that. Totally. Yeah. He's chosen to do this.
Starting point is 01:22:13 Yeah. Wow. And he's giving every role everything he's got. Everything. Wow. When does he have a holiday? Well, that's why he can't visit the islands and the Bahamas. He's always working to her.
Starting point is 01:22:22 Exactly. Why did you have all these houses? You can't possibly go to them, Nick. Why not... Well, he explained that he didn't trust banks and he didn't trust stocks, Dave. Did you not even listen to what you were saying? I never listened. He believed in real estate.
Starting point is 01:22:35 But he should have said... He should have set some of the films in the castles. I love that. I believed in real estate. I also believed in octopuses. He also believed in super yachts, golf stream jets that people told me not to buy. Which was right, because he sold that one at a profit. Yeah, the one savvy thing he did.
Starting point is 01:22:50 Which he probably only did because it was stolen. And then it came back to him and it had been... years and it had gone up in value. But to finish, I thought I would read what I've written here as Batshit stories about Nick Cage that I couldn't fit elsewhere in the report. Great. Love standalone Batshit. Starting with, he was once stalked by a mime.
Starting point is 01:23:11 Just the best headline ever. Geez, the mimes would be the best stalkers too. So in 2009, whilst filming the Martin Scorsese thriller Bringing Out the Dead, where he plays a paramedic, he was stalked by a mime. artist. He told Parade magazine in 2009, I guess it would fall into the stalker category more or less. I was being stalked by a mime, silent, but maybe deadly. Somehow this mine would appear on the set of bringing out the dead and start doing strange things. I have no idea how it got past security. Finally, the producers took some action and I haven't seen the mime since, but it was definitely unsettling.
Starting point is 01:23:50 Oh, if you're unsettled the game. I think he's kind of loving it, silent and maybe deadly. Yeah, they shook that cage. He was shooketh. It's not the first incident to happen to him. This is from The Daily Beast. Quote, it was two in the morning. I was living in Orange County at the time and was asleep with my wife. My two-year-old at the time was in another room.
Starting point is 01:24:11 I opened my eyes and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket, eating a fudcicle in front of my bed. I know it sounds funny, but it was horrifying. You wake up, there's a man in your room wearing naked wearing your leather jacket, eating an ice cream. Yeah, it's funny because that's something that he would do. But, you know, the guy's like, hey, this is a tribute to you. My hero, Nick Cage.
Starting point is 01:24:34 What are you doing? Fudgecical. Fantastic. Fantastic. That's a beautiful touch. Whilst promoting Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance in 2011, actor Idris Elba recalled an incident on location in Romania, and Elba noticed that Cage was looking a little tired. Cage said, yeah, man, I went up to Dracula's castle.
Starting point is 01:24:54 The ruins up in the mountains and I stayed the night. I just had to channel the energy and it was pretty spooky up there. He just went and stayed up in some ruins on the mountain. Yeah, and then just came back and started filming Ghost Rider. He's got work tomorrow. That's right. You need a good eight hours. Come on.
Starting point is 01:25:10 Sounds like some of his life feels like he's living. I haven't seen it, but that national treasure or whatever was called. Like that pyramid gravestone feels like a clue in a movie like that. Yes. A story I haven't mentioned here is that he specifically. spent a good few years of his life where he was actually on a search for the Holy Grail. Just to buy the bar. And he ended up finding a well that was supposed to be like, you know, the well of the fountain of youth.
Starting point is 01:25:37 And he's like, and I drank from it. And it tasted like blood. But then I realized that there's a lot of iron, old iron stuff in the water and that water just, that blood tastes a bit like iron. And that's probably why. And then I gave up on the quest. So he really went on a quest. Wow.
Starting point is 01:25:52 In a break between the seven films, I don't know. Seven films, five wives. I've got about 20 minutes here. I might try and find the Holy Grail. Have we wrapped early today? Great. Well, I'll go find the Holy Grail. See tomorrow.
Starting point is 01:26:04 Yeah, I'm on the way to have a look at a three-headed gopher. So, Idris, I'll catch you in the morning. Hey, Ruth. Had bright and early. Finally, from 2014, the Elamo Draft House in Austin, Texas, held an annual festival called Caged. They played five back-to-back cage films in a row, but they didn't tell people beforehand what the films were going to be.
Starting point is 01:26:29 You buy the ticket, you take the ride. Great. Every year, they invited Nicholas Cage to attend, and in 2017, he actually turned out sick. According to Cracked, he walked on stage right as they were singing, Happy Birthday to the Absent Cage Over a Cake. It wasn't actually his birthday. He probably should have said,
Starting point is 01:26:49 don't do that to me again. So why would they... I think every year as part of the festival as a joke. They wish you meant happy birthday. They brought out a Nicholas Cage-themed cake and sang happy birthday to him. And he walks out. He walks in and they're like... Based on the John Woo's story?
Starting point is 01:27:02 I don't know. Or if it's just like a funny thing to sing happy birthday to their hero. Wow. And he walked on stage and they were like, holy shit. Well, didn't one of our patrons recently at like a mummy screening, Brendan Fraser was there? Yeah. Yes, I love that so much. I love that so much.
Starting point is 01:27:17 My dream. I would lose my freaking. mind. Oh my God. I would die. Dave, you should totally do that. You know,
Starting point is 01:27:24 when you know that the accounting ad you're in is going to play before a movie. Like when they play movies. You go on there and you stand up before we go, hey, I'm going to do a quick Q&A after the... You guys want to throw some balls at me just like I got thrown at me in the... That's a fantastic idea. In the commercial for H&R block or...
Starting point is 01:27:42 Or I just get up there and say, all right, who's done their tags? That's good stuff. Like they'll recognize me. Yeah. And then they're confused. But Nick Hachie got up, he answered questions from the audience, presided over a wedding proposal.
Starting point is 01:27:56 What? Preside. You don't need someone to preside over that. No, you do. Oh, do you? If you don't have someone to preside, you're doing it wrong. Oh, my God, is that what I did you're wrong? No.
Starting point is 01:28:03 Well, he goes, I've done five of these. I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Let me, I'll take it from here. I'll propose for you. What's her name? He then performed a live reading of Edgar Allan Poe's, the tell-tale heart. Sure.
Starting point is 01:28:18 He said, it's my way of saying thank you, explaining that the poem influenced his work. And you can watch the full video of him reading it on YouTube, and it's safe to say he goes full cage. He starts screaming at the end. Wow. It's in here!
Starting point is 01:28:36 The beating of that head of us heart! He really screams it. Oh, he's unhinged. Absolutely. He then stayed to watch all five films that they showed of his. Okay, what do we have? He just sat in a cinema with people. I wouldn't be able to focus on the film.
Starting point is 01:28:53 Nick Cage is right there. I'd be watching Nick Cage. You know what I mean? I'd be like, what's he chuckling at? What lines does he find fun? That's wild. Goal whispering to him. I love this bet.
Starting point is 01:29:04 Yeah. Or he'd be wishing me. Maybe he'd be annoying. He'd be giving you like the director's commentary. Shut up. I haven't seen this. Shut up. I've paid good money to be here.
Starting point is 01:29:14 Shut up. But that's it. Love him. I hate him. That's the weird and wonderful. world of Nicholas Cage. Fantastic. It's so good to have learnt more about the man, the myth, the legend.
Starting point is 01:29:25 The Cage. The Cage. Sorry, The Cage. Yeah, there he is. I'm not going to watch all these films. No. So many, but I'm going to watch many of them now. Actually, I'll watch them all. I'll do it.
Starting point is 01:29:36 I think you should. I think it's cowardly not to. My way! Well, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show where we get to thank some of our fantastic supporters. without these people, this show doesn't exist. They keep the lights on, as they say, by supporting us at patreon.com slash do go on pod.
Starting point is 01:29:56 And, yeah, we thank them in a bunch of different ways. We give some shoutouts, we answer some questions, that sort of stuff. The first thing we like to do is a section called fact, quote, or question, which has a jingle go something like this. Fact quote or question. That's right. Oh, he always remembers the ding. She always remembers the sing.
Starting point is 01:30:16 and the way this works is for people who sign up on the Sydney-Shaunberg level or above, they get to give us a factor quota or a question or a brag or a suggestion or a recipe or a joke or really whatever they like. Anything they like. Just not an insult. No, that's not an answer. I can't take it. I'm very fragile. Yeah, I think that's fair.
Starting point is 01:30:34 But you could insult Matt. Yeah. As long as you soften the blow by complimenting Jess. That's right. So, someone's going to do that and I'll be reading it out and two months time with no memory of this. Yeah. And just go, oh, that's so mean. Oh, thanks.
Starting point is 01:30:54 So maybe don't do that. They also get to give themselves a title and I don't read them out until I read them out, which is me just giving myself an excuse for stuffing up pronunciations or something. You're giving yourself permission to shine. Thank you. The first one this week comes from Jacoby Dangel. Dave, you always correct me on the pronunciation here. Is that, am I close?
Starting point is 01:31:13 Yeah, well, Jacoby. And Dangel? Dangel. Dangel. his middle name. No, sorry, surname. And Jacoby has given himself the title of co-director of the Dugan movie, currently stuck in development hell.
Starting point is 01:31:28 Oh, come on. We need cage in there. We need cage. Oh, he could play like our wacky manager or something. Yeah. Release the cage. All right. So, Jacoby's offering us a brag.
Starting point is 01:31:39 Love this. Love a brag. Yeah, great one. Writing, Hey Matt Jess and Dave. It's been a while. I finally caught up on the pod after being by behind for well over a year. I wanted to submit a fact, quote or question for a long time now, but forgot if I had done so since the last time we read one out. So I've finally committed to getting
Starting point is 01:31:57 up to date. I've shot through probably 50 episodes in the last couple of months. Hopefully now I'll be a bit more consistent with my fact quotes and questions. Anyway, that's not even my actual break. Oh, right. Oh my God, that wasn't it? That was very bragworthy. It was thrilling, Bringing. Bringing to a bunch of podcasts pretty quickly. So here's the brag. Dave is not the only one who got married last year. Who else?
Starting point is 01:32:23 That's right. I'm married, bitch. Congratulations. I met the love of my life, Margaret Mumba. Holy fuck, that's a great name, at school where we both were studying film. It lined up that we were able to graduate with the same associate degree in May, get engaged in June and get married in July. Oh my God. It was quite a big year filled with all sorts of highs and lows.
Starting point is 01:32:48 Hopefully the low wasn't the wedding. Honestly, I'm just glad to finally have someone I love to share in the adventure with. Oh, this is so nice. I'm surprised she agreed to a second date seeing as how I'm a big nerd and a total virgin. Something Dave would understand. By now, she's well used to my love of music, books, comics, useless trivia and Australian podcasts and even enjoys some of it. For instance, we are currently reading through the Lord of the Rings together. Consider this an unofficial request for Dave to cover them on book cheat.
Starting point is 01:33:22 Oh my God. You've already read them. Yeah, the point of book cheat is he reads the book so you don't have to. That's right. Everyone's read, Lord of the Rings. We've all seen the movies. Yeah. Marriage really has been wonderful so far and I look forward to spending a lifetime with my love.
Starting point is 01:33:37 Oh my God. I mean, I'm assuming the actual intended tone is quite difficult. different to the tone you've hit. But it's still fun. Congratulations. That's so nice. I love love, don't get me wrong. You love love love.
Starting point is 01:33:52 I also cringe at love. I've got a complicated relationship with love. You've got a love-hate relationship with love. Sincerity. Yeah. I just find it tricky. But I love it when other people are doing it. But now that I'm involved.
Starting point is 01:34:05 Yeah. It's disgusting. You're seeing how I can't even read it right. Yeah. No, it's beautiful. That's so nice. Thank you for that life update too. So cheers from your co-directors, Jacoby and Margaret.
Starting point is 01:34:17 P.S. Margaret is from Zambia. I'm wondering if Dave has been there on any of his adventures. May hit you guys some Zambia facts in the future if you're interested. I love to hear more about Zambia. It's on my list. Love to go there. I haven't been to Southern Africa in any way. And I am going to do it.
Starting point is 01:34:34 Yes. I'm very keen. We're going to go together, aren't we? Maybe. Sam for the Great Zambian. I think that's my main knowledge of Zambia. Is that Sam for the Greatest from there? Yes.
Starting point is 01:34:45 Fair. It's also where you can... Touring Australia coming up for the first time with a Zambian band. Oh, sick. Yeah. That sounds cool. All right, we'll go there. And that'll be our first foray, Matt, into Zambia.
Starting point is 01:34:58 Yep. Vambian culture and then we'll go to Zambia. Yes, okay. Yeah. An even bigger four A. Some would argue. A 5A. All right.
Starting point is 01:35:06 So the next one comes from Claire Norris. Oh, sorry, Jacoby. Happy wedding. Happy marriage. Happy marriage. Happy marriage. Great to hear from you. Claire Norris, aka Doctor of Solitude.
Starting point is 01:35:17 Holy shit. I love that. And Claire's offering a fact writing, Hi, all, I hope you're doing well. I want to just to be able to add more left-handed members to her list. Yes. Princesses Tiana and Moulan from Disney are both left-handed. Tiana was even purposefully made left-handed, so the character was more like the voice actor.
Starting point is 01:35:38 Oh, that's nice. I thought she couldn't get into character. That's right. She's like, I just can't relate to this person. Who are they? Writing with their right hand. What is that like? Disgusting.
Starting point is 01:35:49 I can't inhibit that body, the character. I'm vomiting on this vocal mic for an all morning. That's how I feel that right hand is. You're all disgusting. Mutual feeling. We're really stark cross lovers. You know? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:36:07 That's a really one-sided thing. Like, I'm indifferent to you. Well, I guess that's where the stars are crossing us. Unrequainted love. Requainted? He gets it wrong every time. Requainted? Requited.
Starting point is 01:36:24 Requited. Requited. Unrequited. There's no end. That's like bicept all over again. Jeez, I love to add a letter into a word. And what month is this? February.
Starting point is 01:36:39 February. really. And Claire says, thanks for giving me lots to listen to each week. P.S. Matt, I'm loving Who Knewit? Oh my God.
Starting point is 01:36:47 Thank you so much, Claire. Keep up the good work. Cheers, Claire. Thank you, Claire. Love that little bit of Who Knewit, love at the end. Yeah, love that. Love that way more than the whole Jacoby marriage.
Starting point is 01:36:58 Yeah. One little compliment to me. Gobble, gobble, gobble. Come on Team Jacoby. Of me, of course you are. All you married, pricks are all the same.
Starting point is 01:37:10 We get together and we talk about how great it is to be married. Mark married pricks. That's right. How does your life change once you're married? Completely. Really? I didn't think it would change that much, but it is so different. Have you got more money now?
Starting point is 01:37:23 Yeah. A colour's different now? Yeah, things taste better. Really? You know, you just taste marriage. Okay. Do you know what I? I don't even imagine how good it feels.
Starting point is 01:37:33 I can't imagine how, because I'm not married. You can't imagine living with your partner. No. You can't imagine. doing every going on holiday with your partner, for example. No, no. Now I'm allowed to do that. What?
Starting point is 01:37:44 You're allowed to be seen holding hands in public? Yeah. Wow. And if people come up and try and like karate chop our hands together, I say, slap me across the face and then chaw my ring and they apologize and give me $50 cash. Dave, what does love feel like? Dave, what does other people hand feel like? Next one comes from Saraj Pyrriss, whose title is Dennis.
Starting point is 01:38:09 Dennis. And Saraj is offering a suggestion writing Average Bear. It's on Paramount Plus. But do yourself a favour and see it live if you can. London is getting some live shows in March. She was on a plane yesterday. We are talking about Michelle Brazier. Michelle Brazier show.
Starting point is 01:38:29 Average bear. I got six shows in London coming up. By the time this comes out, it's like this week or something. At the Soho Theatre. Yeah. And it is a, it's a phenomenal show. A tour de force. It's an incredible show.
Starting point is 01:38:44 It's so good. So you should absolutely go check it out. Firmary. Very biased. She's a good friend of mine. March 6 to March 11 at the Soho Theatre. Fantastic. Go for Michelle, stay for Tim.
Starting point is 01:38:56 Oh my God. My favourite part of the show is Tim. I love to watch Tim watch Michelle on stage. It's a show they've done 400 times. If you like love, just go watch Tim. Oh, watch Tim love Michelle. And he sits there and he like, laughs at the jokes and I'm like, Tim, you see this every night and he's loving it.
Starting point is 01:39:14 Great guy. Love Tim. So go to Tim Lancaster's show. That feels right. Thank you for that suggestion. Saraj, finally this week from Nick Fidion. Oh, a fantastic name. A.K.
Starting point is 01:39:30 The junior, senior vice president of making this up as I go along. Oh, I nailed that, Nick. And Nick is asking a question. Oh, so we got to brag, a face. a suggestion and a question this week. Nick writes, what's your favorite type of topic to learn about, either when researching or when one of the others is giving a report. Mine's a scientist. I don't think I like learning from you guys. I don't learn anything from your reports. It's more just that I persevere through them. So which do you prefer persevering through the most?
Starting point is 01:40:03 So it was which type of topic is it? Yeah. I love it. Like a mystery is fun. Mystery. I like an adventure. Yeah. Adventures can be fun. When they're out on the high seas or they're surviving. Yep. Is gripping.
Starting point is 01:40:17 I like, you know what I say? I like one that I've never heard of because I don't know where it's going and I'm learning something the whole way. I kind of like one where I know the name of the topic but nothing else. And I sort of, because that always makes me feel like if I know of this, I should know about it, but I don't. And it makes me feel bad, like a naughty little idiot. So I like to learn about that
Starting point is 01:40:39 Because then I feel smart You know what I mean? Yeah Obviously I retain everything So Yeah I love a mystery or an adventure of fun Yeah some of a bit of a few twists and terms Yeah I love a twist
Starting point is 01:40:50 Wait what I love a A moment I love one that feels like a mystery But the mystery is solved Yeah That is such a great feeling Isn't it?
Starting point is 01:40:59 So satisfying When you're not expecting it to be solved And hang on They got the Golden State killer Yeah I like to research I like to research I like to have one where I can reveal late that it's a mystery. I do like to do that.
Starting point is 01:41:13 I like to build the suspense and then go, we still don't know. That's fun. Love it. That's fun. I like Nicholas Cage, for example. Yes, yeah. Well, Nick Fidion, he also actually answers the question saying, on a more serious note. Okay.
Starting point is 01:41:31 I really enjoy the biographies, especially of people I've heard of, but know very little about. Appropriate you on this episode. Because it's a bio, bio-wep. I haven't done one in ages. Love all of the reports, though. Even if it's on a subject, I wouldn't normally be that interested in. Keep up the great work you do every week. Oh, thank you so much, Nick.
Starting point is 01:41:47 That's very nice. I reckon, because the biographies are sort of, I reckon that would be a lot of people's least favourite, maybe. But I love that it's someone's favourite because it's, I enjoy them. I love the variety. I think that's the fun thing about this podcast. It can be anything, basically. And I really like doing biographies.
Starting point is 01:42:05 because it's usually somebody I'm interested in and I like, yeah, learning a bit more about, you know, I've sort of like, oh yeah, Dolly Parton, big hair, nine to five, cool, whatever. And then you learn more about them and you're like, oh shit, this is really interesting. Yeah. Yeah, like, for example, this week, because my last two reports were on a terrorist attack, it was quite heavy in full on to research and do.
Starting point is 01:42:25 So this one, I was like, I'm going to watch the movies, learn about Nicholas Cage, who seems like an eccentric character I don't know much about. So, you know, for me, it was just a little break from the darkness. Totally. And from a writing perspective as well, well more often than not a biography is quite a linear story so it makes it a bit easier to put information in order sometimes it can be hard when a report you can start it at many different points and you could bring in information at many different points it's hard it's hard to structure
Starting point is 01:42:50 it sometimes sometimes it's nice to have something that's nice and clear well you're like okay great I start here this is the middle that's the end done and this was a free choice for you so we every at any one time one of us is just as doing a free choice the other two are doing Patreon votes. Yep. So this was your choice? Yeah, I did this. It came,
Starting point is 01:43:10 Nicholas Cage came second. I put four Hollywood topics up when we did our show in Sydney in the cinema, and the Ritz. And he came second. And I was kind of happy because I think it was the live shows often were, you know, we're doing about an hour or a bit longer. And I felt like this was, yeah, a bit more time,
Starting point is 01:43:26 a bit more breathing. Yeah. Talk about him. Yeah, sick. Save it. Thank you very much, Nick, for that question. The next thing we like to do is shout out a few of our other great Patreon supporters are on the shoutout level or above.
Starting point is 01:43:39 Bob, you normally have a game based on the topic that week to play. That's true. I always feel like it's a stretch calling it a game, but... Okay. What do you think? Would you call this a game? Yeah, it's a game.
Starting point is 01:43:51 Okay. That's really fun. I'm ready to play. Some of us love to play. Well, I love playing games if I can win. Very competitive. I can't think of, oh, maybe, okay, yes, I've got it. It's the, we're going to assign each of these.
Starting point is 01:44:05 people, a lavish purchase they've made. Nick Cage-style. Nick Cage-style purchase. Yep. Fantastic. May I kick us off this week? Yes. Please.
Starting point is 01:44:16 I'd love to thank from Ashford in the United States. In Washington, I believe. It's Brendan. Brendan has bought the oldest tree in the world. Wow. And had it taken out. Whoa. Put in a very big pot.
Starting point is 01:44:32 Yeah. And delivered to his apartment. Put on a balcony. Kate would do that. One of those fossil ones in Scotland. Yeah. Didn't we go see some... Oh yeah, thousands of years old.
Starting point is 01:44:41 We were near some fossil trees. I don't think we found them. I don't think we fair to either. We were near them. We went to that part. We knew we were in the vicinity of greatness. Wow. Brendan, that's a fantastic purchase.
Starting point is 01:44:51 I think that all appreciating value. From Rochdale South in Queensland, Australia. I'd love to thank Katie. Oh, Katie has bought Big Ben. Whoa. The clock tower. It's actually the bell. It's actually called Elizabeth Tower.
Starting point is 01:45:09 If you want to be specific, they renamed it after the Queen at the Jubilee. So anyway, but she's bought the actually not the tower, the bell. The bell. So good luck ringing midnight now. So Katie has had the bell shipped to Queensland. Her apartment. Okay, great. Great, love that.
Starting point is 01:45:28 She lives inside it now. Beautiful spot. I guess if you turned it upside down, it'd be a nice jacuzooze. Oh, my gosh. It'd be so big that you couldn't swim to the bottom. Do you reckon? That's a big bell. How big is it?
Starting point is 01:45:39 I'll look it up. Okay, great. You thank another person. We're going to look up how big this been. It really is. I would also love to thank from Kangasala in perhaps Finland. It's Sandra Rabin. Sandra Rabin from Finland?
Starting point is 01:45:55 FI is the country code. Me, C. Yes, in Finland. Wow, cool. Very cool. Um, Sander is a great name as well. And Sander has actually purchased the Northern Lights. Wow.
Starting point is 01:46:08 Yeah. And had them shipped whose apartment. And it's embarrassing actually, Sander, because you can just buy like galaxy lights that do precisely that. Yeah, but why not get the real thing at this time of year? Yeah, you can do it any time. Specific to... I go one in my bedroom right now.
Starting point is 01:46:24 To Sanders' apartment? To Sander's apartment. It's pretty cool. That is so cool. Big Ben, the bell measures 2.7 meters in diameter. diameter, 2.2 meters in height. So you could dive and jump into that. You could do a bomb into the big bend pool.
Starting point is 01:46:38 You could also turn a large bong. I can't stand in that. Bong. There you go. Can I thank some people? I would love it if you did. I would love it if you did. I would love to thank from Mount Coolum in Queensland, Angela.
Starting point is 01:46:50 Angela. Angela. I think what Angela purchased was edition two of action comics. Wow. People don't think about action comics. No one does it. That's where Angela is ahead of the game. You know, what comes after number one?
Starting point is 01:47:07 Number two. Yes. Yes. Right. So there you go. That's exactly what Angela said. You two are in sync. Wow.
Starting point is 01:47:16 There you go. I would also love to thank from, I'm going to say this wrong, but Ruska in Poland, Sandra Anita. Sandra Anita. Two first names. Oh, that's so good. Anita is a sound fantastic. Sandra Anita has bought a two-headed car.
Starting point is 01:47:39 Wow. It's a Lamborghini with two front. Yep. Two bonnets. Yep. Welded together. Two steering wheels. And they both wheels work.
Starting point is 01:47:48 Great. So you have to drive it with a friend and get them. We're turning left now. We're turning left. Because they start turning right. And you're turning left. You'll end up just going straight. Pretty sure that's how that would work.
Starting point is 01:48:03 That's so. with the two-headed car. That's confusing. Yeah, what's the benefit of having two heads on a car? What's the benefit of having two heads on a snake? It's cage just buys wild stuff. Yeah, you're right. Sorry, I shouldn't ask questions.
Starting point is 01:48:15 Also, Sandra finds it soothing and relaxing. Fair enough. Did you know this? Sorry, just quickly, I've just looked up who first appeared in volume two. The one-eyed Gora. Wow. Yeah. And also Doroka, his servant.
Starting point is 01:48:33 Okay, there you go. Yeah. I would also love to thank from Dublin in Ireland, Paula Corcoran. Paula Corcoran. Paula Corcoran, from Dublin. Did you know this? Paula Corcoran bought issue... Issue for action comics.
Starting point is 01:48:58 Wow. Yeah. Who first appeared in that? Oh. How much did that go for? I've got number two here. Yeah? What do you got?
Starting point is 01:49:11 Well, the most recent one I can find, 2012 sold for $13,000. And this is how they describe it. The superhero who started it all, Superman makes his second ever appearance. That's so good. That's perfect. So maybe in four,
Starting point is 01:49:29 which Paul has just purchased, Superman makes his fourth ever appearance. Probably. Anything about that? Probably worth $150,000 to $200,000. Okay. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:49:43 Well, that's what you purchased it for, but imagine how much it's going to be worth, you know, in two, three, ten years. Millennia. Oh, years. Yeah, so it's pretty impressive. Dave, do you want to thank some people? I love to thank some of the people.
Starting point is 01:49:58 First of all, I'd like to thank from Western Australia in Wellard, it's Peter Hansen. Peter Hansen. Keep it handsome. Oh, warming up early. That's good. Can I use it in handsome? I really hope there's some...
Starting point is 01:50:12 That's Peter's catchphrase. I hope there's some Hanson's coming into the Trip Duk Club in a second, but Peter Hanson has bought, Jess, Peter's large purchase. Has bought a very big horse. Wow. Like you think Clydesdale big. Yeah. This is like a double Clydesdale. Two-head of Clydesdale.
Starting point is 01:50:30 It's a two-header. headed Clydesdale. We're turning left. We're turning left. A two anest. Holy moly. Which means more fertilizer. Double the poop.
Starting point is 01:50:40 Double the poop, which a lot of people would seize a negative, but not Peter. Peter says it as a point. We're talking about megatrots level big? Real big. Wow. That's so big. That's sick. And it flies.
Starting point is 01:50:50 Yes, that's right. And again, it has two heads and two arces and it flies and it's very big. Two wings. Two wings. Otherwise it couldn't fly. Or it has a little propeller. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 01:51:00 A little propeller. hat. Hey, good on you, Pete. Enjoy it. I'd like to thank now from Plainsborough Township in New Jersey. New Jersey. It's William Hofstader. Oh.
Starting point is 01:51:13 I love a city that doesn't oversell itself. Plainsborough. Yeah. Township. Plainsborough Township. Hey, we are what we say we are. Yeah. So what's on the label and what has William purchased?
Starting point is 01:51:28 William has purchased a. Monster truck Whoa Highway Two I know it's not but it's just the song that plays my head
Starting point is 01:51:38 whenever driving something And it's a monster truck It's that one that looks like a Meglodon Is this a Meg Is it's a Meg? You seen that one?
Starting point is 01:51:48 Love it A monster truck It looks like a Megladon It's pretty great I'm not making this up Am I That's William Hofstader
Starting point is 01:51:59 Yeah What's the truck? Megladon. Do you ever seen the Meglodon film, Dave? With Jason's Dave and the Meg, great movie. I haven't seen it. Death Race is my favourite. What makes you think I'd risk my life for you?
Starting point is 01:52:12 That's pretty sick. They're not showing me a picture of the Meg. That is pretty sick. I also really like Death Race. Death Race is fun. Great movie. And finally, I would like to thank, good luck with the truck, William, offstader. And finally, I'd like to thank from Overland Park in Kansas.
Starting point is 01:52:28 They're no longer in Overland Park. Nicole Speckin Nicole Speckon Dave, do you speckon the English? Because it didn't sound like it there Nicole Speckon bought Sputnik
Starting point is 01:52:42 satellite Oh, the space junk Or is it That's still a working thing, is it? It was the first satellite Yeah, what are you? That is a classic cage purchase He would buy that for sure
Starting point is 01:52:54 Oh yeah, big time I bought Sputnik Pretty cool Great choice to enjoy that Where should we put I just chuck it in the pile of my other junk. He's got just a pile of shit. Thank you so much, Nicole, William, Peter, Paula, Sandra, Angela Sanders, Katie and Brendan.
Starting point is 01:53:11 And the last thing we like to do is welcome a few people into the Tripditch Club. These people have been on the shoutout level or above for three straight years. And yeah, we welcome into this exclusive club where you, once you're in, you can never leave in a good way. A bit of theater of the mine. I'm sitting on the door on my clipboard. I'm going to read out some names. Dave is the hype man. He's chanting at your name.
Starting point is 01:53:33 He's hyping you up as you enter the club. Jess is behind the bar. You normally come up with a drink cocktail based on the topic. What's the Nicholas Cage tastes like? Well, I'm serving drinks in small cages. Oh, yeah. So you have to drink it very quickly. Essentially, what you need to do is like just put your mouth at the bottom of this little cage
Starting point is 01:53:54 and I'll pour the drink in and then you just have to try and get as much as you can from the little cage. Sounds like it would be like licking the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, when your mum had made a cake. Fuck, I love doing that. I love licking them peters. I love licking the beaters. It'd be like that.
Starting point is 01:54:10 Yeah, so it'll be a thick cocktail. No. Dave, you don't want to book a band for the after party? Yes, this week, though, we're going for something slightly different, but a spoken word. We've got Nicholas Cage performing Davy Crockett with music by David Bromberg, creating their famous 1993 album, I believe. Wow. Recreating it, love it, very much looking forward to that.
Starting point is 01:54:37 We've got a two-star rating on all music. Wow. Out of five. That's pretty good. Good, yeah. Well, let me bring in a few of our great new Triptage Club members. So have you explained that I hype them up? Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:54:56 You're the hype, man. You're on the stage of the MC. I want them to know. I'm doing you. They need to know. They need to know. I need a bit of you understand. So here we go.
Starting point is 01:55:04 From Prospect in South Australia, it's Brent Hills Hayes. Well, where there's a wheel, there's a way. Where there's a hills, there's a Hayes. Oh, that is good. Strong start. The Woodlands in Texas. It's Sarah Sumner. I love summer, but my favorite season is Sarah Sumner.
Starting point is 01:55:20 Yes, it's beautiful. From Adelaide in South Australia, is Joe Walker. I'm Joe Walker here. From Selena in God's Country, Ohio. It's Jenna Schaefer. I'm not Schaefer. I'm Schaefer. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:55:36 From Alexandria in probably Virginia in the United States, it's Sam Hanora. Hanora, you wouldn't bore her. Sam would never bore her. From Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's Dan Higgs-Matzner. Lots to work with you, Dave. I'm a fan. I'm a fan of Dan.
Starting point is 01:56:06 I'm a, I'm getting jiggy with Higgsie. I'm getting Kratzner with Matzna. Minneapolis, not mini-crapolis. Love you work, Dan Higgs, Matzner from Minneapolis. From college place in Washington at Sarah Stephen. Taking me back to college, it's Sarah Stephen. Watch those elbows. We're playing that game where you shoot the ping book.
Starting point is 01:56:28 Whatever, ping pong. Beer pong. Love it. From Dublin in Ireland. It's Ian, or is it Owen? It's Owen Kennedy. Look, Owen doesn't owe me money, but Owen owes us a good time. They're coming through.
Starting point is 01:56:41 From address unknown, can only assume from somewhere deep within the fortress of the moles. Please welcome in Jedediahia. Jedediahia, text me Jeddahiah. Oh. I'm soaring here. How are you so good at this? In New Zealand, it's Cat Ford. Look, I don't want to be forward here, Kat, but you're my favourite.
Starting point is 01:57:01 Come on, him. And finally, from Austin, stay weird in Texas. It's Justin Leach. Justin Leach, you ain't no Leach, you make me reach. For the stars. For the stars, Justin. You inspire me. Welcome in, make yourselves at home.
Starting point is 01:57:17 Grab yourself a cage cocktail. Justin, Cat, Jedder Dyer. Oh, and Sarah, Dan, Sam, Jenna, Joe, Sarah and Brent. That was like spoken word itself there. That was nice. Well, that brings us to the end of the episode. Is there anything we need to tell people, Jess? That they can suggest a topic on our website.
Starting point is 01:57:33 There's a link in the show notes as well. And you can support us on Patreon. Patreon.com forward slash dug on pod. You can find us on social media at do go on pod. And remember to wash your butt. Dave Booted Home. Remember. Hey, tweet us your favourite Nick Cage film.
Starting point is 01:57:49 What is it? And why do you love it? We'd love to hear from you. Hey, we'll be back next week with another fantastic episode. I'm already predicting that. But until then, also thank you so much for this. listening and goodbye. Later.
Starting point is 01:57:59 Bye. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree. Very, very easy.
Starting point is 01:58:22 It means we know to come to you and you'll also know that we're coming to you. Yeah, we'll come to you. You come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam free. Guaranteed.

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