Macrodosing: Arian Foster and PFT Commenter - American Gladiator: Dan "Nitro" Clark

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

Former American Gladiator, Dan "Nitro" Clark joins PFT and Billy to discuss his journey to fame and his time as and American Gladiator.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/macrodosing

Hey, macrodosing listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon music. Let me ask you this. So why does he have a house and you don't? Is there a pay discrepancy? No, we don't need to talk about that. Yeah. We don't need to talk about it.

Moving on, one life. Thank you for joining us, nice show. It was fantastic. Happy on the show today. This interview with Nitro from American Gladiators is brought to by 3Chi. Of all the things in life, one of the best has to be getting high whenever you want, whenever you want, without the paranoia of consuming some sketchy black market bunk. What's the best way to do that?

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All 3C's premium THC products. Just go to 3chee.com, use promo code macro 15, take 15% off your order. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Please use it responsibly. And now here's Nitro. All right, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. I'm a big fan of you, by the way. It is Dan Clark.

It is Nitro. Nitro from American Gladiators. The original American Gladiators, maybe one of the best television shows ever created. I used to sit and watch this with my grandparents for hours on end. Like, it was appointment television. I loved this show. You were a superstar on it.

Let's start there. The name Nitro kicks ass. There's no other way to describe you. You have a kick-ass name. How did you come up with the name Nitro? Well, first, let me say thank you for, you know, being a fan for all these years and keeping the American gladiators alive because it's certainly found a place in pop culture, you know, and I was doing the show. You know, I was just a guy who was

23 years old, who got cut from a football team, who was looking for a way to make a living. I never thought of putting on those tidy whitties that I would ever, you know, be, you know, change the face of TV usher in a new era of reality TV and become this Captain Kirk, you know, pop culture icon, you know, for your generation. So I'm really appreciated to, you know, the whole team there for having me on. And Nitro. So I wasn't named Nitro in the beginning. We had this first audition in this park, like in Van Eyes at that time, no less.

That's like being on Six Mile in Detroit. It's not a good neighborhood. And they said, we're looking for actors who are good in front of the camera, you know? And I was like, wasn't much of an actor or athletes are good in front of the camera. I was a good athlete. I felt like I had a certain something, you know, I think like we all. do. That's why you're in this media. You think you got something, a Genesee qua. So I went on this audition at this park, they had these people who were actors. They had no right to be there as an

athlete. I remember specifically, like one guy was doing sit-ups, the old way where a guy was sitting on his feet, and each time he'd come up, the guy would give him a bite of a sandwich. I'm like, what the hell is this guy doing here? So I almost left. Then, you know, a girl grabbed me and said, hey, hey, hey, hey, you know, we want you to stay because there were so many people there trying out. But nobody looked like an athlete. And I need to make money to support my two-year-old son, Tyler. So I went through the drills like she asked me to.

You know, it's pretty easy. Just, you know, cones and regular football drills. And then she said, we want you to go on camera. Excuse me. And we want you to pick one of these three characters. And we want you to answer these questions in character. So the first one was Gemini, you know, loud, explosive, kick your ass and then say, can we eat Kish? The second was Malibu.

You know, bro, the wave, surfer guy, you know, all that. The third one was Evander. Loud, explosive, cocky, arrogant. So the original name for this character that, you know, it was a very important. Vander. So after all these different auditions, which was, you know, the first, the last audition story, I mean, crazy story. I knock a guy out. You know, I think they're going to fire me. But we can talk about more of that if you want later. So as we got to doing the show and they started making our uniforms and stuff. And I was like, you know, I just don't think Avander fits this guy, you know, Nitro. That's explosive. That's loud. That's cocky. And they're like, great idea. We own the trademark. great idea we're going to go own the trademark but yeah yes so that's how the name came about it's a great name it really is and and american gladiators if you haven't watched it i highly recommend you watch some of the old clips on youtube wherever you can find them there's also

a documentary coming out muscles and mayhem unauthorized story of american gladiators comes out june 28th on netflix it's got some behind-the-scenes stuff it chronicles the rise and fall of american gladiators i'm i'm i'm beyond excited to watch that nitro is a perfect name that does fit in with everything you guys had going on because it was kind of like wwee or it was like professional wrestling meets the olympics um meets just like dog fights kind of it was it was insane it was such a great tv show i i can't stress that enough and you're a legend i remember you were good at the ring event right where uh you'd have to try to like use the olympic like gymnastics rings to get past Nitro and you couldn't get past Nitro on those ranks.

Well, you know, PFT humbly, I like to think I was good at all the shit. You know what I mean? I was good at all this shit. And I think I was really good with, you know, bringing that attitude, you know, that character, that, you know, that to the camera. I think that's why Nitro, if he is remembered, is why he's remembered. You know, the first couple of seasons, it was all character, character. You know, they wanted us to have these wrestling personas, but it didn't really fit with the fact that this show was balls to the wall, punch you in the face, real competition.

So they toned down on the characters a little bit after the disastrous first 13 episodes of Gliderators. If you go look, if you watch it on YouTube, it's a crackup. So they tone that down, but I always kept a little bit of that character like, you know, I think I modeled it after I met with some big agent. key to being a star, a movie star in Hollywood, is you got to be the guy that the girls want to bang. That's probably not Peter. That's probably not. You can say that. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. You got to be the dude that the girls want to be intimate with. This is the woke version. And also the gentleman will think you are cool to hang out with. So that was the key. So I wanted to be this guy that was, you know, kind of brash that maybe girls would like, but that dude's

thought, that dude's kind of cool he'd want to hang out with. So I kept that character and, you know, I think where the – I remember I was just watching it for this docu-series, Mussels and Mayhem on Netflix. And I had to watch a bunch of old clips. And one of my favorite lines was like, a little guy beat me. And I just was like, not bad for a little man. You know, just cheesy stuff like that. But, you know, the docu series over at Netflix, which comes out in June 20th, as you said, I am so excited about that. BFT and Billy.

So it's based upon a book that I wrote 10 years ago called Gladiator A True Story of Roy's Rage Redemption. And, you know, it was just something where I wanted to tell my story. Not really the story of the American Gladiators, but I wanted to tell a story

about a guy who felt like a nothing who was, you know, whose older brother died in his arms who was lost in his life when he was 10 years old. And through sports and athletics, he finds a place to belong. And when that dream looks like it's gone

because of an injury, my first year of Juko, junior college football, I met this guy in the gym, and this guy was huge. So when I say when my dream was gone, with that injury, I saw any shot of getting a scholarship disappear. And I met this guy that was huge,

and this was probably 82. And I just said, dude, you look, you're big. Dude, you look amazing. And I said, what do you do? And he said, I take steroids. this was 1982 it's not like it is today you know it wasn't in the zeitgeist and i'm a 17 year old kid and i was like what the hell are steroids what is that and you know he says look they help you recuperate they make you bigger they make you stronger and i said you know it sounds too good to be

true i said are they safe and he said yeah you know i go to a doctor you know so they have to be safe. And I said, sign me up. So I go to the dog, you know, the next weekend, I go to see this doctor in one of the very first steroid doctors in America, Dr. Kerr, in San Gabriel Valley, California. And he says, you're not 18. I can't prescribe these for you. And I was like, so devastated. Again, you know, this wasn't the time with, you know, the bonds and Konseko. They weren't even illegal in the country. So I waited until my 18th birthday. And I'm 18th birthday, my dad gave me $1702 to go see this doctor. And I went and saw Dr. Kerr, and he said, okay, great, here's how we're going to treat you. And he opened up this, you know, like this

cabinet and had all these vials. And it was like there was like this, oh, you know, a moment, you know, and I said, sign me up. And I remember it was so interesting at that time. I wasn't worried about the dangers of steroids. I was worried that they weren't going to work. you know and then i i wouldn't have a chance at recuperating fast enough so anyways out of that book i told this personal journey about a kid waiting to be seen trying to overcome this the loss of his older brother his hero and he goes to find fame and and finally gets fame which i did you know we're pretty famous back at the day and it was really strange guys because i don't know if you guys have experienced this but you know i had everything i wanted you know i was on billboards i sold

Madison Square Garden, you know, there were, there are plenty of opportunities with women. But I wasn't happy. I was waking up on the floor. I was, you know, just high out of my mind on too many mornings, spit dribbling out of my face, yeah, on my mouth, and I was just crying. You know, here I am a star on this big show, and I'm waking up crying too many mornings. So that was the time, you know, I had to, you know, raise my hand as a big, strong, man in the early 90s when it wasn't the cool thing to do and I just said I need fucking help man

I need help and I started a therapy and getting that mental help so the journey of that book is the basis for the docu series so I'm excited because it goes much deeper not as deep as I want

than hey these guys ran around in spandex wasn't it cool did they shave their legs so it's a much deeper thing but it's the director was two directors, Jared Hess from Napoleon Dynamite. Yep. You know, are you guys familiar with him? Uh-huh.

At Nacho Libra, the Shanghai Knights, a fabulously, fabulously funny director. And we also got another guy who maybe he did a really great film. I don't know if you guys have seen this. It was a smaller film that was called his name is Tony Villanuku, and it was in football we trust, and it won an Emmy. It was about the Polynesian community in Utah. Did you see it? I haven't seen it, but I know that this is a movie that Billy would absolutely love.

That's why I'm nodding. I'm just thinking about Billy's face watching it for the first time, and I'm excited already. Yeah, so football we trust is about the Polynesian community and how in Utah and how football has became their way to a better life and the pressures it. It's a fabulous movie. So when we were out looking for directors, you know, Jared was obviously on the list because he's freaking fantastic and he's funny. and gladiators has a sense of levity to it even though it was a serious competition. And then when we were talking to Jared, he said, look, I got this other guy, Tony, I want to do this with. I think it would be a nice combination of, you know, Napoleon Dynamite Funny with his touch at dramatic filmmaking.

So it's really funny. It's good. The thing that threw me the most about it is when Jared Hess said, we want to animate portions of it. You know, we want to animate it. And I was like, animate. And I said, look, here's a rule. You can laugh with the gladiators, and I'm okay with that, but you can never laugh at us. Yeah.

Right? And then he shows me a frame of the, and he said, we want to do this 90s, heman style, like, you know, that whole thing. And so he shows me a frame of it, which tied into a funny story I had told to him that we tell him the documentary is where I went out with, there was a female gladdered name, Zach. Ray Holland. She was like the first woman of muscle. I mean, she's like thick like a dude, but pretty like a girl. It's really confusing. When you look out and you're like, I don't know if I want to have sex with her or I don't know if I want to wrestle her. Yeah, I was I was becoming a man at that point in my life and I was very confused when I was watching it. I was like, this is all the emotions I'm getting right now. So I tell him this funny story. I said,

I remember when I went on a promotional thing. It was one of our first things. And Ray, Hall at Zap, had just come off of a big movie, skin deep with John Ritter, where she has this funny scene where she starts posing, like, by his bedside, and he's under the cover, you know, biting his nails. He's scared. And she says, I train 365 days away, blah, blah, blah. And she said, how do you feel?

And he's like, shivering. He's like, like, Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenger. It's a great thing. So to me, she was a movie star, and I was quite smitten. And so we went and did a promotional thing and we had a couple drinks and we're going back to my little apartment. And she gets out of the car and I get out of the car and we're going to the house. And I said, hey, and I don't know why I asked this. I don't know if you guys ever do this.

I say, do you want a piggyback ride into the house? Do you guys ever ask you, that's smooth? Yeah, no, that's a smooth move right there. Yeah, what do you think, Billy, do you ever ask? I don't even know what I was saying. I was 23 years old. Hey, babe. You want a piggyback ride?

As a 24-year-old, I wouldn't say I haven't done that. well you know you think about it it's it's you break that physical touch barrier right now she's got her legs wrapped around you yep her crotch is touching you not that you know like it you're you're slowly breaking that wall down absolutely you can decide the destination uh both of you right so so i've got 240 pounds you know i'm you know i'm huge at you know pretty huge at time and strong so she wraps her legs around my waist we're walking up the sidewalk and she says to me, she says, whispers in my ear, she says, do you want to see how strong I am? I'm like, yeah.

So Ray starts to squeeze her legs, and the next thing I know, I feel like the life squeezing out of me, you know, I start to go black, I start to like, Pat, and I'm embarrassed and I'm struggling, taking these steps forward, and eventually she squeezes so tight, she drops me to my knees. I'm on my knees. I can drop to my ground. And I mean, how would you guys react to that? Yeah, I need mouth to mouth. Like stat. That's what you got to ask for. Zapp was, she was a piece of work. You were, you were absolutely right. Go Google Zapp right now. Yeah. So she, she drops me to my knees. And I remember I got up and I, it just changed me. you know changed my whole identity as a man and i just said um you know i got up and it scared me

actually and i just got up and i shook the hand and said we're going to be good friends you know and and that we we were friends you know uh we've been great friends ever since then um but the reason i bring up that long story was because jared hess knew that story and he said okay you know when she squeezes your waist you remember arnold scorch nager total recall where his eyes balls you got yeah yeah yeah you guys remember that mars yeah yeah yeah so that's the clip he showed me of the animation where she's squeezing my waist and my eyes are bulging out and I was like oh dude that's funny that's genius so the docu series will have funny moments like that as well as all the other stuff that you guys will love I think the best compliment we got from a reviewer

because it just it's nobody's really seen it and he said you know what I love the show growing up but after watching the docu series he goes i love it even more yeah so we knew we knew we did something great so i can't wait for you guys to see it i'm pumped i've been just watching clips because you know it was a little before my time as i said i'm 24 so like i saw some of the reboots growing up but i've just been watching tons of clips of the original and i'm so pumped to watch this uh you're only 24 are you only 24 only 24 you talk like a man though i appreciate that yeah you sound like a man you look like a man i didn't know you were just like a like a we sprout young guy hey no i mean this is really billy would have been a great american gladiator i think he's got

he would have been like the malibu type you know like bro you he would just bro you out need a little more juice a little more juice billy it's actually billy has dabbled in um how would you put it billy like uh body modification biohacking biohacking so i'm sure he's got a bunch of questions for you about the various biohacking that you've done in your past when you were at your largest. So, Billy, I'll let you take the floor and any science-related questions. Go for it. Yeah, I still biohacks. So this is AMA with Nitro, Dan Nitro Clark and Billy. Ask me anything. Billy respects people with large body mass. He just respects big, strong people. So I'm sure he's got a million questions for you on that front. Well, it's the whole aspect of discipline.

It takes a lot of work to get to that point. I was just wondering, Arnold Swartz, Neger recently revealed his cycle when he was really at the peak of his powerlifting days, bodybuilding. And he said he was only doing 100 milligrams of testosterone a week and then 15 milligrams a day of Dianabal. So comparatively to like one of a lot of guys that are running today, that's pretty minimal. Do you believe that? Like what was, what was guys back then using and, you know, I'm not saying like, you know,

But do you think that is a realistic cycle he said he was doing? Oh, boy. So I know that Kerr started me on 200 milligrams of testosterone cypinate a week when I was 18 years old. And he did start, he started me onto Diana Ball. And he said, look, when you stop getting the benefits from this, you're not getting that explosive growth that you want, he said, come back and see me again. So now, you know, young guy in 18, I wanted explosive growth. And my buddy at the gym who was huge was kind of my steroid mentor. And he just said, hey, after six weeks, just go back to him and tell him you're not

getting games. So I went back to him about six weeks later. And then he upped it to for Diana Ball a day. I can't remember how many milligrams, maybe five milligrams. This was 25, 30 years ago. And I got really consistent gains. And then about three months into it, my buddy nudged me again and said, hey, look, go ask him for something else. I'm taking anadryl. I think it was called Anadryl 50, another oral. And it's stronger than Dianna Ball. So I went back and I asked him for that. So I think it might have been a starting dose for him. You know, again, it's hard for me to speak for him, but I don't think being his size, that's all he could have taken. Maybe that was his intro dose. I do have friends that compete now in body building. These guys are just

monsters compared to Arnold. I mean, I think they look shitty. I'm part of me. I think that I don't like the aesthetic. Yeah, you're just too big. Classic physique. Like natural. Like if you're watching American gladiators and you're a kid, you could be like these are just like these are like superheroes. They're just like guys that have superpowers. But if you watch some like the body the bodybuilders now, you're just like absolute freaks. Yeah, and look, there's no, I commend them for all the work you've got to do. I think the misnomer that everyone, and there's this myth that if you take the bean, you know, that all of a sudden you just get huge.

I take more. You get, no, you don't. You got to work. What does it do? Right. It gives you more testosterone, number of light aggression. But two, it allows your body to recover more quickly, right? So all that damn work you put in, you get more and more results, but that also increases your ability to do a bigger workload, which I think while you see a lot of the huge huge guys like Ronnie Coleman, like rest in peace, we had a gladiator named Billy Smith Thunder who just passed away.

These guys muscles grow so fast that their joints and their ligaments and their tendons can't keep up with it. And then as they get older, you see them, they're almost disabled. you know, and you won't say the cause of their death is steroid, but you will say that I think it had something to do with their condition now because they put too much stress too quickly on the body. And I think the other funny thing now is, you know, I know so many guys who do TRT, you know, testosterone replacement therapy. Are you on roids? No, man. I'm on TRT. And I'm like, and I'm like, whoa, how much testosterone you take it? 200 milligrams a week.

That's what the doctor prescribed. So they're taken as much as I was back when I played football, back when I did Gladiator. You know, so it's just funny. And when you get CRT, you have to get it done like repeatedly, right? You can't just take one dose of it. At least that's what Billy was telling me. And again, Billy's not a doctor.

So I'm just kind of fact checking everything he said. But according to him, if you get it done once, it's kind of something that you kind of sign up for maybe the rest of your life. yes and no you know it depends what your goals are right i think as a certain age in your certain age in your health cycle that your testosterone stops producing as much as it used to you don't produce as much testosterone then if you want to supplement that testosterone to get you back into that optimal range so a guy who's in his 50s like me has the same thing as big billy there then I will go and supplement with that.

What happens is what you're talking about PFT is that your body stops producing testosterone when you put testosterone into your body, right? So then you have to continue to take it unless you want to go off your cycle, right? And then when you go off your cycle, you're at a testosterone deficit because your body produced so much.

And then you have to take post-cycle therapy that stimulates your body to produce testosterone natural to get you back to that level. That's why I think minimal dose, minimal effective dosage for prolonged periods of time when you're younger, go off, go back on, go back off on. If that's what you can do, as you get older, you know, for me, it's just a weekly shot of anywhere between 70 milligrams and 100 milligrams of tests. I don't want to look like a guy who's unroids. I just want to have that. And I get my blood work every three months. I want to look like I work out and I train. And I think that helps me do that.

because I'm at the same level. Hopefully you are. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. I'm curious to know what it was like backstage, like the relationships that you had with the other gladiators at the time. If anything's in the late 80s, I always assume that there's cocaine going around. I always assume that there's partying. Not 90s, brother. I'm not that old. I'm not your grandfather. I thought it was, I thought you guys got started in the late 80s. Maybe I was wrong on my dates. Yeah, 89. I think the first year was 89 to 97. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, In that time period, you guys were stars. I mean, American gladiars was, it was a mainstay on television.

I imagine that there were some egos. There were certainly some steroids. Did you guys all get along as a unit? Or was there beef between the gladiators that created drama backstage and made things kind of more than what we saw on television between you all? Yeah, what you guys saw, Billy, right? And it was just, you know, these people competing, you know, and sandbacks and going forward. and you saw the dreams of people who still, competitors, contenders, the dreams of people who still had that dream of being an athlete and were looking for a way to showcase their skills

compete against us. Behind the scenes, and I speak for myself, you know, being a 23-year-old guy getting to Hollywood, you know, when I first moved to Hollywood, my roommate at that time was Jim Star, Jim Caliphate laser you know a stud from a top montana state football uh still holds the records for the most tackles and in the season for them was a linebacker we played a strike ball for the rams together that's where i met him and we became fastest and best of friends and roommates and uh um you know it was two guys like us in hollywood in the 90s and i remember when we first got up there to Hollywood, there was this famous club. I can't even remember the name of it was so long ago,

but it was downtown Hollywood. I think Prince owned it. And it was one of those clubs where they had a cool guy in the sunglasses with a clipboard. You can't get in. And I remember us, you know, these big guys walking up there. We want to get any, are you on the list? No, we're not a list. Okay, hold on. You know, in about an hour later. Dude, we're still not in. You know, and are you on the list? We just said no, but you just let those models in, you know, those girls and let us in. I remember We were ready. We were like, we're going to kick your fucking asses.

You know, we're like, we're going to beat up the bounces. I'm like, you know, we were like ready to throw with those guys. We'll kick you out.

Let us say, this isn't fair. You can't treat people that way. You know, and it went from that to getting in the back door of the Rocksbury. You're going to have to look up the Roxbury, because you probably only know it as a movie.

There's a movie for Saturday Night Live. It's called the Roxbury. But, you know, the back door is where Stallone got in. It's where Denzel got in. It's where, anybody who was famous got in so it really really shifted from a guy looking at the world to having the world look at you and that's I mean you guys I don't know if you guys

have that now for you guys right where all of a sudden you know like oh hey dude you're so cool you're so cool oh dude kind of get my picture with you and it's a weird it's a weird thing right because you're like I'm just I'm just a podcaster bro yeah it is it's kind of strange. I always say that there's nothing in human evolution until the last maybe 100 years that would prepare your brain for having maybe millions of people know who you are and have opinions on you and that sort of thing. That just didn't exist until mass media, until electricity came out really. So maybe Shakespeare, maybe a million people knew who Shakespeare was when he was writing plays. But it was like a very rare occurrence in human history for that to happen. And you

have to you almost have to have to you mentioned mental health it's good to talk to somebody as you're going through that because your brain's not really ready for it and you don't want to wait until it's too late and you've developed all this you know all this head trash around oh shit everybody's looking at me everybody's looking at me that sort of thing um there are our biggest problem is uh people now are buying us shots of malort i just moved to chicago and i made the mistake of putting one of those on camera and doing a malort review and so now i just have i I have a rule. No more shots, Mal Lord. Can't do any more, Mallor. I'm sorry. I value my health too much. But yeah, Billy, Billy gets that a lot. Billy gets dudes that just come up to him want to wrestle. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, talking about that whole phenomenon stuff, like the man in the arena, the gladiator in the arena, you guys were probably some of the first, you know, competitors on TV. The personalities were displayed. People sort of felt like they knew you and they saw you competing. You had to deal with loss in winning in a national scale at a very young age.

How did you deal with that? Because I recently lost a physical type competition. And I'm not good with losing. Just every competitor, like if you become a great competitor, part of that is hating to lose more than liking to win. And how did you deal with like when you lost in people coming up to you and being famous? Well, I got to say you hit the first of all, you hit the nail on the head is you know, you don't like losing and that's what makes people a winner, right? I mean, that's just something we have to get ingrained into our head because I think right now we're in a society where everyone

gets a trophy, first or last. You know what I mean? Like, hey, let's give everybody a trophy. And I think, you know, trophies and accolades should be held for the winners. Because when I was a younger guy and I wasn't starting in high school and football, I remember I looked at that guy who was ahead of me and said, God, one day I'm going to be like him and gave me something to aspire for, something to shoot for. If they were to give me a trophy, and I said, hey, you're MVP too. I'd have been like, hey, what do I need to work for?

You know, there wouldn't have been that hunger. So I commend you on that. And the second thing, Billy, I'm not going to be surprised if people aren't going to start sending you vials of testosterone. Yeah. You would love that. Yeah, now you mentioned all of a sudden you get these little files coming in there. You don't know what they are.

You're going to grow a second penis. You know, it's going to be weird. Quick, quick disclaimer. Don't try steroids. They're dangerous. I know. So here's my thoughts on that. You know, again, I have the whole book, Gladiator.

And at that time, the publishers were pressing me a little bit more to say how dangerous steroids are. I think for younger people, they can be dangerous because your body hasn't completely developed. The bones haven't completely developed. I don't think you, even like, you know, drugs, I think are more dangerous. You can't drink until you're 21. I think if you're going to get into anabolics, I think you should wait. And I think now, because there's testing protocols in place, it's cheating. I mean, it's cheating.

You know, it's not even, maybe the playing field is a little more even, but what we can see was sky's still getting busted with Lance Armstrong 10 years ago. That maybe it's not. So I wouldn't say use steroids, but I think if you're a grown man and you want to keep a certain physique and your testosterone, levels are low, then go to your doctor and get your levels tested, and they will supplement it if you're on the lower level, if that makes sense. Back to, you know, winning and losing, I hated to lose, you know, and I see it in my stepson

now. You know, he's 12 years old. He's the kid, you know, when he was eight, you know, he's playing soccer. If you lost a play match, you go behind the tree and cry. you know so the one thing I never worry about him and I teach him how to deal with it now like you know I use Michael Jordan and Kobe a lot you know you just smile you take it in and you know in your mind you're out there saying you know good match but in your mind you're just thinking I'm gonna get I'm gonna kill you man I'm gonna get you next time you know to have that outward outward outward a face why you still have that inner animal going on inside so you know for me I hated to lose I still hate to lose you know even when I started doing CrossFit I hated to lose you know even when I started doing CrossFit I hated to lose you Even now, I'm a pickleball guy because I don't know if you can see my shirt. Yeah. I have a dinking problem.

I have a dinking problem instead of a drinking problem. And, you know, I want to win. I'm competitive. But I think you can process it as you get older. And like you, Billy, you know, it was funny because being a gladian, you're going to bars and guys, that can beat you. It's like, yeah, go sign up for the show. It's a TV show. I'm just here to have a drink.

You know what I mean? What do you do, Billy? You throw some guys down or what? No, you know, there's too many cell phones nowadays. Everyone's just, you know, get in trouble. But that's very funny because, you know, you were a young guy when this was all happening. And now, you know, there's more examples of people deal. There's more famous people now, which is interesting.

Well, what you're saying, I think, is the barrier to becoming famous is a lot lower now. Before you had to go through the studio system, right? PFT, you had to get a TV show. movie you had to get a bunch of yeses before you could be on TV you had to try out for the gladys you had to work out you had the show had to be successful you had to get a movie deal now you just have a your camera and if you're good at using that you know and your voice you know through the written word if you're good at blogging you can get incredible fame look at the Jake Paul yeah right and then look at the Kardashians love them or hate them how did they get famous

with the camera and a sex scene, right? And people bashed them, but they took that thing, which has happened to plenty of people, not me, but it's happened to plenty of people, and they parlayed that into a billion-dollar empire. So you have to, whether you like this idea that everybody is chasing fame or not, you can see that they and a few other people

have done really well at monetizing it, you know? But I think what's hard is, you know, like we talked about earlier, that what happens when you realize the emptiness of obtaining a false dream? You know what I mean? Like you get everything you want. And I know most people listening, right? Just let me get some of that. Then I'll be happy.

But there really comes a moment when you get everything you want. and you know it doesn't fulfill you in the way that you think like what do you guys want what would be your pinnacle what would be your dream well i mean that what you're describing right now is a brittney spears song she's so lucky she's a star but she cries cries cries cries in her lonely heart or whatever that is she's a britney spears who's that uh yeah she know she's a she's a snake handler i'm joking i'm a flight attendant who's a snake handler as far as i'm not I'm not quite that old. No, I mean, like, there's some truth to it, no matter how big you get in any field.

You're still a human being and you still have, you know, fulfillment issues if you're doing something and it's not exactly what you want to be doing. Yeah, you deal with the same things as everybody else, loss, desire. But what's your, what's your dream? Are you living the dream? Like, if you can say, this is my dream, this is all my wishes will be fulfilled. I honestly, I am living the dream. I think that I have the best job in the entire world and I'm I'm exceptionally happy with it.

I don't know what else I would want out of my career than what I have. I think I'd like to be able to do more writing because that was my first love was just doing writing and not so much podcasting and video work. But I love those things too. I would like to have more time to be able to write, but I can make time for that. Really the only thing that I need or want right now is an El Camino. I think if I get an El Camino, then I've got it made. baby. I've got it made. I got a house now. I'm out in Chicago. I'm living the real life. I'm not trapped up in a shoebox apartment in New York anymore. If you add an El Camino into this mix,

then there's no turn it back for me. I'm on the highway to hell. And I'm loving every second of it. So give me an El Camino with a bitch and sound system. And I don't think I'll ever complain about anything else in my life. What about you? What about you, Billy? That's funny. the thing is we uh i i i still live in a small apartment um you know like i'm young i'm doing like to think i'm on a good track uh so right now it's more for me i'm just kind of still growing up in certain ways and just trying to like being adults but i still feel like i'm you know 17 and it's a little bit you know we are very uh you know we're well recognized in our circle but that doesn't really correlate like you know i'm not like i can't you know i got a truck

which is great uh but like i'm not really like balling you know like a lot of people let me let me ask you this so why does he have a house and you don't is there a pay discrepancy does he no we don't need to talk about that yeah we don't need to talk about moving on uh one lot thank you for joining us night drill is fantastic having me on the joke today. There's also, he's in a truck and you're like in a mansion. There's a very large talent discrepancy too, which I would more than well say is definitely true. And also, you know, time spent in the, in the, you know, in the, what's the word I'm looking for? Field. Yeah, in the field. In a profession. In the profession. Of being a shithead with a microphone. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a few years, I got a few years experience saying

dumb shit online. I've only said a cup. Yeah. You know, PFT, that's true. The glad you're just, hey, look, your experience, football, your experience, right? Basketball, your experience. And you're paid, you know, on the scale versus your experiences, right? LeBron's getting $100 million a year, and the time comes and he's getting a million.

Totally, totally get it. But what's with El Camino? I just, it's been a car that I've wanted ever since I was a kid. And I don't know why. It's like, it's kind of an ugly truck car combination. Um, it's just, it just rocks. I don't know how else to describe it. It's just been something that I've always wanted.

I'm kind of like that like when I was growing up, there are certain things that I always wanted that for whatever reason I couldn't get, whether it was a certain type of basketball shoe, my parents were like, oh, I'm not going to spend $140 on a shoe, which I understand now in retrospect, but things that you want growing up and then once you get to the point where you can afford them, it's like, let's just get all the stuff that I really wanted when I was a kid that I couldn't have. And I wanted an El Camino for my first car.

it's probably not that safe of a car to drive for your first for your first auto um my parents probably wanted something more along the lines of a minivan more practical for me but the elkima that's funny that's a creeper van like you know right i put sparrows on there yeah it was i i tricked it out a little bit i've always i've always kind of given off el camino energy but i just didn't have the car to to truly round it out you had you had the van that would probably scare mothers when you're pulling up to take him on a date. He's got a van. Don't go on the date with PFT. There's a van. Don't go into the van. That's why I didn't get late in high school. Yeah, it's because of van. You're right. Now looking back on it, there's nothing else. But the El Camino, it's on my dream

board. You know, you have to have things and goals that you aspire to. I'm a pretty reasonable guy. My loftiest hope and dream in life is just a buy an El Camino. And I think, I think this conversation has solidified at me saying it out loud and verbalizing it. I think, fuck it. I'm just going to get an El Camino. It's going to happen. I'm going to get else now. I'll treat myself. You should.

It was funny because in college, I had a C.J.7 red Jeep. And that was the best times, man. I would take that Jeep to the beach. We would drive across the border to Mexico. Me and my buddy, Greg Early, have some coronas in the back. He had a black one. And that's when you could actually drive on the beach. We would bring a couple of girlfriends with us would camp out on the beach.

was just that time and eventually sold that car, you know, years and years ago. But just recently, I've been looking online at getting a new one. But, you know, the same model. But the weird thing is, I think I must have paid $22,000 for a brand new back in 86 or 87. I look now, the used ones are like $38,000, $40,000. So I'm going to try to manifest that like you. CJ7, please. I deserve it.

You do deserve. You do deserve. You do deserve. 10 me one, please. Give me a red CJ7 Jeep with the top off with a great sound system and then I'm a complete guy. You do deserve it. I appreciate you joining us. I thank you for your time and make sure to go watch Muscles and Mayhem on Netflix. It comes out June 28th. It's the unauthorized story of American gladiators. Before we let you go, I do want you to tell us about the time that you knocked a guy out when you were, was that during the audition process or before you started taping the show?

that was a oh man so the last audition and so i'll set this up i had packed my car and i was heading out of la because i was broke i couldn't pay my rent i had packed up my jeep my cj7 jeep and i was heading down the freeway and then i get at my pager yes there was such a thing as a pager it beeps in my thing i pull over i call my agent and he says you got a call back for this this this thing and i said dude I'm done. He says, look, I think it's for real that this, they didn't have a name for it. It's at the Universal Studios lot. You know, I'm like, oh, it's on the lot. I've never been on the lot, you know, Universal Studios. So I turned my car around, you know, packed to the hill with everything. I go and I try to get in the gate because my name's there. He's like, you can't

park that piece of shit filled with stuff on the lot. You know, go park down there. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I run on the lot. I run in there. And I go in there. And they, to try out the games, they brought these kids in from Northridge, University of Cal State, Northridge. And they told these guys that they were testing out a new game show. And I think in their minds, since something like American Glider has never been on, they're thinking, Wheel of Fortune, you know, Jeopardy, the Dating Game. And they give these kids 40 bucks a day, a brown bag of lunch, and they may even go through these drills with us.

We're down to the final one, you know, and they're picking people to stay. And they point at me and says, you know, go, and do this game. And it was what became breakthrough and conquers where the guy carries a football and he has to run 15 yards past you on a 10-yard wide field. And then they didn't have the field. They just took chalk. They're taking chalk and drawing chalk lines on the concrete floor inside of a sound stage. So they give it to this guy. He must have been 155 pounds soaking wet. This seems like a bad football drill, by the way. I just want to say, like I'm thinking through the dynamics and how you're describing the setup of it, I don't know any way that this drill just

doesn't end in severe injury football carrier. This is just Oklahoma drills in a hallway. That's what it was. So they gave this guy to football and they put him 15 yards across from me. They had chalk lines drawn on the floor. And they tell this guy, no gear, no gear, just a football. And they tell this guy, said, hey, run past him. You know, I'm 240. You know, I just. got cut from the Rams. And again, this is not just this event. This is my Hollywood dream. I'm trying to keep it alive. And so this guy runs at me. And I could see he was scared, you know, but like, oh, he's not going to really hit me hard. And I got down, like, in full LT, like, you know, linebacker mode, you know, I think I probably got down the three-point stands. And they blew the

whistle. This guy comes running at me. And I'm running at him. You know, I was even at 240, I ran a four, six, 40. I was pretty fast. So I run out of him. And then I just like hit him. Whoa. We both go flying in the air. He lands on his back with me on top of him.

His head, Swabat, hits the concrete. The ball spills out and the guy's out cold. Oh, Jesus. And I'm standing over this guy going, oh, shit, man. You know, my aggression, you know, I'm not going to get this job.

And the next thing I hear, you know, someone yell, call a pair of minutes. And I'm like, Oh, my God. And so then I'm standing over there, you know, by myself and one of the producers, hey, you come over here. And he said, I said, dude, I'm sorry, sir, I just kind of lost it.

And he looks at me, he says, I want you to keep losing it. I said, what? And he said, you got the job kid. And that's how I got on American Glad of you. So, you know, I want to thank you guys so much, man, for having me on. I've been listening to your show. I'm a big fan. and I really think people will love the docu series.

It's a, it's not one of those, you know, VH1, oh my God, I'm so sad. Oh, look what happened to our lives. It's a glorious, nostalgic romp into the 90s. For you guys who are playing it in your backyard with your brothers or you watched it with your grandpa, it's going to bring you right back to that time and put you there, you know, with the music, Buster Rhymes. And it's also, you know, fond. But there is some tragedy, but at the end, it's also triumphant.

And again, I hope everyone watches it is going to say like that reviewer did. I used to love the show. But now after watching the docu-series, I love it more. Thanks for having to Geist. Thanks, man. I appreciate your time. And yes, it was a fantastic piece of television. I'm very much looking forward to watching the documentary behind the scenes and get to know a little bit more about what you guys went through at the time.

but thank you for coming on. And again, you can watch the documentary Mussels Mayhem, an unauthorized story of American Gladiators premiering June 28th. It's on Netflix. You have Netflix. Just watch the fucking show. It's going to be great.

I'm putting the PFT stamp of approval on it. Watch a show so that you can love American Gladiators as much as I love American Gladiators. All right, Dan, Nitro Clark, Nitro. Thank you for joining us, man. Appreciate it. Peace out, boys. Hmm, hmm.