Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.41 Mike Found The Llama of Syracuse NY!

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Llama Drama: A Hilarious Viral Story and More with Steve Peterson In this special Wednesday edition of Good News York, host Mike Brindisi interviews Steve Peterson, famously known as 'the llama guy' from a viral video shot in Syracuse. Steve shares the backstory of the video that brought immense joy and laughter to Mike's family and millions of others. The conversation delves into Steve's varied career, including his background in broadcast journalism, voice acting, and his involvement in a 90s cover band. They also discuss Steve's current work with a government contractor and his creative endeavors with Summer School Electronics, a local guitar pedal company. Steve's story highlights the unpredictable nature of life and the enduring impact of viral moments. 00:00 Introduction and Special Episode Announcement 00:28 The Viral Llama Video 01:25 Playing the Viral Video Clip 04:11 Steve Peterson's Background 05:27 The Day of the Viral Video 09:15 The Aftermath and Going Viral 12:42 Life Beyond the Viral Video 13:12 Freelance Confusion and Clarification 13:42 Career Detours and Discoveries 16:30 Musical Journeys and Band Stories 19:00 Voice Acting Ventures 20:45 Creative Aspirations and Reflections 24:09 Final Thoughts and Plugs

You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this, even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your listeners. your sign. Start free at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com,

starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. Welcome to Wednesday edition of Good News York. I'm Mike Brindisi. Matt is off, I don't know, chasing tornadoes or something.

Who knows? So it's just me today, but I'm not alone. And for those of you that have been listening or watching the show, you understand why this is such a special episode. I, a while back, talked about my favorite viral video of all time. Fast forward, we find out, as we're watching the video, someone recognized the sign. I think it was Matt. And he said, dude, that looks like that's in Syracuse.

Long story short, it was. My favorite viral video was not only shot in Syracuse, but we found the guy, and he's here. Mr. Steve Peterson. He's much more talented than just the Lama guy. We'll talk about that. But to me and my world, dude, you have brought. More laughter and joy to me and my family than you realize. I can tell you that, you know, when people say, like, what's your top 10 favorite

movies or what's your favorite viral video? It's like, dude, there's like 10 million. I don't know. I can honestly say, I have a bunch of favorites, but my absolute favorite viral video is you and that Lama. And I'm going to explain why, but first I want to play a video. Danny, our producer, Danny Tripote, love you. Play the first video.

So here's me, Steve, talking. on the show about this. This is how it originally happened. The video that I think is the funniest video of all time, and we found out that the video was actually shot in Liverpool. I'm going to hunt this guy down. I want to interview him on the show. Just I need to know what was going on that day

and why there was a llama just running at his car. I did a little digging. I think I found through comments and stuff of kind of why it was happening. But I do want to explain to you first, why I think it's the funniest thing ever. First of all, there's the obvious, right? You're getting out of your car in a urban area and a goat walks up and you are like anybody kind of like, what the fuck?

Hey, buddy, and you're so sweet to this goat. And then around the corner comes this llama. And we're going to play the video in a second. For me, it is your reaction is, I hear it in your voice. it is this like what the fuck is going on but the thing that makes me laugh the hardest is it's also there's this childlike

excitement in the tone of your voice it's like the perfect mix of what the fuck is going on and oh my god I'm so excited I get to see a llama and I just thought it was so funny so let me let's play that clip and we'll get this thing really started here

so here it is I found the original this is really happening there's a good Why is there a goat? Hi. Hi buddy. Are you a nice goat? I don't have food, goat.

Oh my god! Who's a vicar llama? What is going on? I just got back from a service call, and I go to my truck and a goat and a llama run up to me. What is doing out here? You're not supposed to be here. it is so

it's up so oh Steve you know I should have said this first welcome to the show maybe I should have maybe I should have it maybe I should have

maybe I should have said welcome and did some pleasantries before I played that but I'm just over-excited thank you for coming in I know it's a bit ridiculous that someone is this excited over a video but I think it's the way it played out that first of all it made me laugh harder than I've ever laughed and second of all just the way it unfolded and we found out that it was shot, you know, it happened right here in Syracuse, and then finding you

was amazing. But it turns out that there's way more to this story, uh, than we thought, which is you, you actually come from a background of broadcasting and, and let's talk about that. Yeah, um, I, uh, went to college, uh, in, uh, Oswego, Sunni Aswego, graduated with, um, communications degree. Didn't really know what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to movies turns out at the time. Sure. Syracuse wasn't great for that. Now it's great for it. Yeah. And I was actually an extra

in one of, an Adrian Brody movie. Oh no shit. Was that the American High? It was through American High, I think. Okay. I stood outside a crucible for 12 hours. That's awesome. And then the scene got cut. Yeah, so yeah, worked

at Channel 3, worked at WSYR Radio. When the society collapsed in 2008. Yeah. I didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I started working at my family's plumbing company. So you see in the video, that's right out there.

Is it Peterson plumbing? Yeah, we're going to definitely make sure we throw in graphics contact even. We definitely want to make sure we plug the family business for sure. Yeah. And that day, it was after hours. I had, like the stars completely aligned to make that video happen. It's amazing. There was a service call.

I had to go to a service call after hours. And my parents invited me to go out to eat. So I had to decide what I wanted to do. We could go out to eat and then do the service call. I could do the service call, then go out to eat. I decided to do the service call, meet them at Luigi's in the Valley, rest in peace. And yeah, then I got back after that. So yeah, I just parked my truck, locked the gate.

Right. And came around to my pickup truck. And I thought, I thought it was a dog. Right. I thought I was about to get attacked by a dog. So I was ready to jump in the back of my pickup truck. Sure. And, oh, that's a goat.

So I get my phone out and it's filming and that's where you see, you know, the magic happens. And it is magic. And that fucking llama comes wheeling around the corner. Yeah. And again, am I right? Was it a mixture of like what is going? and also like this is like a child like you're like

this is amazing. Yeah it was I was really excited as you can tell from yes as you should have been I was also scared I was worried that I was about to get attacked and I didn't know what like how much damage a llama can do but this thing was charging at me you hear about these stories of like animals that you think are very you know loving animals

and you find out they're like no actually they could slit your throat in 3.2 seconds like and let's be honest there's not a lot of info out there about llamas, right? So I too would be like, this is great, but is this thing going to charge it me? Is it going to kill me? So we got to know. I'm assuming you found out what was going on. And this is great because I want to put it to rest.

I heard that it was, they got loose because of a filming of a movie. I don't know if that's true. What is the story? No, there was, um, I, so I, face-timed my, uh, My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, we'd actually just started dating at the time. Yeah, well, when she saw that video, she was like, I got to marry this guy. I live a very strange life. I need to prove dude, this is real.

It's, yeah, after that, I called my dad, and he's like, oh, yeah, so-and-so has a little, like, pen that he keeps some animals in. Oh, like a local... Yeah, I don't give it away because I don't want people to go and try and find it. And I know it's old news now, but at the time I was worried that. that people were going to try to, like, hunt these things down. Yeah, I'm never going to make it as a reporter because I'm having you on, like, five years after this happened. Ten years after this happened. Just hit the ten-year anniversary.

That's amazing, actually. Okay, then let's call it that. I knew that it was the ten-year anniversary, and I wanted to have you on. Dude, that is wild. So did you call the guy he came and got him? No, I played sheepdog, and I literally, like, corralled them back. You are the best. Yeah, so there were these guys in the building.

It was like a big warehouse. And they were all working on these trucks or some sort. And they, I've got these animals back there. And I walk into the building and they come at me like mad. Or like ready to fight me. Like, what are you doing in here? Like, I just, I brought you goddamn animal. Like, all right.

Guys, I got a llama and a goat. Like, chill. This has been quite the ordeal. Yeah. So, yeah, I got them back home safe. And then, yeah, that's that night. I texted them. video to some of my friends and I was like, hey, this just happened.

They're like, you have to post it. And they were right. And so you did. So you were the original one that posted it? Yes. Okay. And so was this like an overnight you woke up and you're like, holy cow. Yeah.

So I posted it on Instagram and YouTube. Okay. Yeah, both the full length videos on Instagram and YouTube. And I went to bed. I don't know how. I don't know who found it, but somebody reposted it to Reddit. Oh, there it is. That's when it blew up.

Yep. So I woke up, I, you know, I posted it no views. A couple comments from some of my friends. I woke up to 5,000 views. And by the end of the day, I had like 250,000. That's. And by the way, I mean, 250,000 views now is a lot. But, you know, those can happen.

Like, we just had a video about an oil change. Just got like a, we hit the 120 mark. 10 years ago, that is viral. That is, you know, that's a lot of views. And so did, what was life after, like a few days after? Were you getting calls, emails or anything like that? Yeah. Yeah.

It went pretty crazy for a while. For a few months, I hooked up with a company for licensing. Yep. I don't think they did a good job. Yeah. I should have went with a different one, but oh, wow. That's all right. The problem, well, I was trying to remember it all.

It's also, I know. Well, it was 10 years ago. That's when, like, it started hitting, like, TV shows and stuff. But the big problem was it got stolen. So at the time, there was no way you weren't making money off Facebook. Right. They didn't have, it wasn't monetized back then, yeah. So Lad Bible stole it, and that's when it got.

billions of views. Like, I, I would put the hits probably somewhere in the billions at this point from how much it's been circulated. Holy. But my video on YouTube only has a million hits, the original. So, yeah, like, you know, I license it out. I made a little bit of money, but nothing crazy. Today, if it happened today, I'd probably own an island somewhere. So, yeah.

So that's frustrating. Now, you weren't able to contact it. Is it, Danny, is it Ladd Bible or L-A-D Bible? I never know. Yeah, whatever. Who cares now? There's no repercussions for that? At the time, no.

They didn't know what he can. Yeah, there was nothing you can do. I actually contacted a media lawyer. And they said, you're up shit creek. There's nothing in writing. Yeah. Oh, man, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I'll tell you this.

If it helps, we will not promote Ladb Bible. And I will not follow them. Dude, that is such a great story. And I just, I love the way that you were so kind to the animals and but also just a hilarious reaction. And I, I can't thank you enough. But forget that. I know the feeling of like being known. So I've been on stage or in front of a microphone my whole life.

I remember my sister got her own TikTok and she got tens of millions of views. of videos of scaring me. And I'm like, you know, I've worked my whole life at honing my craft, you know, in radio and film and music. And now I'm going to be known as the guy. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog.

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If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. It's tax time, y'all. If you want to file free, this next one's for you. Love that jam. Up next, commercial. Into it, TurboTax Free Edition,

see if you qualify at turbotax.com slash free. No schedules except for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, student loan interest, and Schedule 1A. they got the shit scared out of them so there's way more to you than the guy that saw a llama i want to be fair um so you you worked in in uh you said uh tv yep and so when you when you graduated what i know you said you didn't really know what you wanted to do but are you more of like a behind the scenes guy or more of on the air

guy yeah no i'm a behind the scenes guy okay uh i actually i i wanted to be a video editor you got a great voice by the way starting to run you do have a great radio uh podcast voice Yeah, no, I do voice acting. Oh, there you go. I do freelance. Look them up, Scott Peterson freelance. Steve. Steve, what did I say?

Oh, Scott Peterson's the murderer. No, that's another funny thing. I get called Scott all the time. I just didn't. My entire life, like, everywhere, everybody calls me Scott. I am so sorry. I also knew, and I have an acquaintance who's a Scott Peterson. I promise I know your name is Steve.

Obviously, I'm your biggest fan. Steve Peterson, look him up for you. Lansing. But anyway, yeah, so, um, he's not a murderer. I, uh, after I, I decided I didn't want to do TV anymore. I had, uh, I thought about being a reporter. Yeah. I went out with a reporter. Um, I can't, I can't remember his name now, but actually did like the, you, you could shadow a reporter. Sure. And they'd set you up and shoot and you, you, that's cool, you know, get some, uh, like test reels. And, uh, reset every. He goes, okay, ready, go, and I just freeze.

I can't do it. Like, I can't be the guy on camera. I'm much better behind the scene. Well, that's okay. That's a good thing that it happened that way and not, you know, live on the air or something like that. Yeah. So then, you know, I took a, excuse me. I took a detour for a few years and ended up plumbing.

I thought I was going to take over the family business. Then I realized that I hated it. I really did not want to be a plumber at all. Yeah. So I took some odd jobs. I was a screen printer for a while. I did, yeah, I worked for a screen printer. Then I started my own shop in my basement,

worked literally across the street at VP Supply for a bunch of years. And then I got a really great opportunity where I am now, working for a government contractor. Good for you. It's been quite the adventure. I can relate, man, because I always talk about this. I don't mean to, but it just keeps coming up. But I did.

I went back to school late. I went back in my 30s. And I graduated in 2022 from Park School of Communications at the college shoutout. And, dude, I had two years where I couldn't, I mean, I probably applied for 75-something jobs in what they call, I guess, digital media, which is the new term for television radio, what we did. And I got to a point where I'm like, I'm, I guess I'm not just, I'm not going to work in this business.

And I worked as a long term substitute at an elementary school and, uh, a bartending, you know, so I know that feeling of being like, God, I, this is what I'm good at.

I just can't find a gig. I think honestly, if you want to look at glass half full, I think you were lucky that you have a family business that you could fall back on it. You know, I mean, that's a, that's a great,

that's a great thing to have. And look, everyone needs, plumbing, you know, so. I don't, I, I definitely, like, changed my life. Sure. I, I was directionless after college and after Channel 3. I didn't know what I wanted to.

The day I got laid off, I had a show with my band at Dinosaur Barbecue, and then we were leaving for tour that day, so. Oh, no. I got my severance package, and then I had three months off. And, yeah. So you do music as well. Yeah. I was in a band as well.

What was the name of the band? The band was the injury. That was a long time ago, but you might know my so-called band. Yeah. We were, yeah, I was the bass player and vocals in my so-called band, the 90s cover band. That's so great. We did that for 10 years. That happened, like we started that right up to the Lama video.

Awesome. So, yeah, 90s cover band did that for a long time. It was fun until it wasn't fun anymore. I had a band, I had a band as well, and we did. pretty well for ourselves. Our last show we played was in Ithaca. That's where I live. And we opened for Tim Reynolds of the Dave Matthews band.

He has a band called TR3. And we got off stage that night. And at that point, we'd been spinning our tires because things have changed so much. You know, we were three albums in. It's rock music. People aren't consuming rock music like they used to. It's hard to make a living doing it.

We finished a show that night. And because we weren't traveling together because we weren't on the road. It was at home. We all kind of like just said, like, we all left out of different exit and never, like, said, hey, I'll see you at practice this week. And when Wednesday came, we just never, it just kind of ran its course. And I think we were all feeling like, just not fun anymore.

And once it's not fun anymore. Yeah. She's not in it for the money. But, um, see, I knew there was way more to you than just the Lama video. What do you do? So you're still working at the family plumbing place now or? No, no. Okay.

Oh, government. Yeah, yeah. I do a hybrid. remote stuff cool on a contract we what I can say

yeah I don't we make sure that drones don't blow people up okay yeah I love that it's it's good work it's yeah it's interesting kind of you know it's it's work yeah I mean look

work is work but that's what I had you know I always had my the side gigs I always did the I do the voice acting freelance I did the band kind of like helps me stay creative outlet yeah yeah I'm I uh I understand

when you're a creative and you're not per se working in a creative field um you want to scratch that itch you know and so it's important to have those outlets or else you go crazy yeah you know until I found this gig I was just about on the verge of insanity because I'm like I don't I don't know what to do okay I what am I doing here um let's talk real quick

before we go about the voice acting how'd you get involved with that I mean like I said you have a great great voice. It was always something I wanted to do. Um, and it was, it was, it was tough to like break into. It was, you know, unless you know somebody. Right. Unless you like have somebody gives you. I don't know. It's tough to like. It's a niche opportunity. Yeah. So I finally, um, I, my friend Sarah texted me and was like, hey, you're a voice actor, right? And I like, Absolutely. Yes, I am. Yep. Yep. Oh, yeah, my friend needs somebody to start narrating these audio books. No, they were educational courses. Oh. It was a local company pro-literacy, and I narrated a ton of, they started narrating a bunch of their courses for English as a second language students. And yeah, they kept coming back. Then they referred me to like other branches of it. So I started working for pro-litz. literacy of Boston for a little while. And then I went on one of the pay-to-play sites, Voices.com. Yeah.

And basically you're just auditioning. Audition, audition, audition, audition, audition. And maybe you'll land something. I had a little bit of luck on that. Good for you. I paid my subscription back. And then, yeah, so it's slowed down now. AIs.

Yeah, I know. I know. I know. It's still something I do for fun. That's great, man. So let me ask you this. In a perfect world, I'm sitting here with you and I say, you know what? You can have your dream gig right now in whether it's music, voice acting, production.

What is it that you would ultimately love to do? Oh, man. You know, I would love to be. That's tough. I know. I threw a hard one. We can edit this, so don't worry about it. Don't worry about taking your time.

I had honestly, I love the media, like the media aspect of what I was doing. I miss, I miss voice acting. I miss, I loved editing videos. Edited? You know, stuff like that. I really enjoyed, like, being, like, part of production and creating, you know, creative, just being in a creative environment. Yeah, yeah.

And it's, you know, I'm blessed. I'm very thankful for what I have, but it's tough to find that now, especially with the band done. Well, I still do have, I work with my friend Mark on summer school electronics. Cool. Local guitar pedal company. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I do all the artwork for that. We do some building. We get to travel around. So I've still got like my part there. We're going to start doing some more long form content.

But yeah, in a perfect world, it would just be me. getting to be creative. That's it. You just nailed it because before I took this job, you know how it is. Over the years, it was like, ah, I'd love to, you know,

sell millions of albums and get to tour the world or, you know, my dream was always I want to be on SNL, you know? And things, I've learned that preconceived notions really can kill you because I had it all planned out how it was going to happen. And as you know, life, it just doesn't happen that way. One day you wake up and there's a fucking llama

running at you. But what I do know is that I found along the way that I was like, you know what, I just want to be paid to do what I love. And that's to be creative in some capacity. And like you, it was like, you know, I love music. I love acting. I love voice, you know, doing radio. So listen, we don't know where this is going to go.

But, you know, we're growing day by day. And I can promise you, Mr. Steve Peterson, that if there is a job opening, we'll have to look you up because you're a great guy. And you have brought, I mean, if you go to my house right now, And if I said to my kids, kids, this is, this is Steve, this is the llama guy, they'd be like, because my son's five in this morning, I said, God, I said, bud, I'm going to go meet the llama guy.

He goes, you are? I go, yeah, he goes, can I say one swear word? I go, I look for his mother. Yeah, go ahead, he goes, it's a fucking llama. It's great. So, dude, I, you're much more than just the llama guy, but, I mean, it must feel nice to know that that, that silly little video,

brought so much joy to my family, dude. And we need more of that these days. Yeah. It's, you know, the hype has died down, but I'm really glad, like, that I can reflect back onto all the joy that it's brought to. Yeah. Well, and look at that. I mean.

And I didn't get killed. Yeah, and you didn't get killed. Although I think Dolama spit. Yeah, that's what I was, I was really worried. Like, when I got, like, real up close to it at one point, I was like, I'm going to get spit on. Spin on. That might be, like, you know, the way hockey players love when they have a tooth missing. Maybe if you're a llama enthusiast, it's like you get spit on a llama, maybe it's good luck.

Listen, before we go, last thing, are there any plugs? I mean, obviously your social media handles, the pedals, anything you want, you got something coming up? Check out summer school electronics, local guitar pedals. But, yeah, we're growing. It's been a really great adventure with one of my oldest friends. And he was actually in the band with me. Awesome. Yeah.

Then there it is. You can find me on Instagram, but it's kind of boring. I just mostly post pictures of guitar battles. That's great. People love that stuff. Steve Peterson, thank you so much. You're a busy guy. Thank you for coming in and taking the time to meet me and talk about this silly video.

And I really do wish you the best of luck. And maybe we'll be working together eventually. Steve Peterson, what's the name of the pedal company again? Summer School Electronics. Summer School Electronics. We'll make sure we get all that stuff. on graphic and put up for you. Thank you for taking the time.

And good luck with everything, man. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for watching. Good News, York. Thank you for tuning in.