Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Confronting Johnny Mitchell on Making Millions, Being Assaulted, And Starting Over

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Confronting Johnny Mitchell on Making Millions, Being Assaulted, And Starting Over

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash-brown and a small iced coffee for $5.00 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. Two times a week, I would get FedEx packages in the mail with $50,000 in cash. The DEA would come down. You ready to talk now? That's the plug.

I'm not going to send my plug to prison. And I would just walk in with duffel bag full of, you know, whatever, four or five hundred thousand in cash. So I tried to bribe them, right, as you do. He's up on stage, come at you. And I thought, yep, I knew that was a bad thing. I love that. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. My God. I'm just trying to get you, I'm just trying to get your channel taken down. So I do have some questions. Because I actually don't know. I know you started off by saying, you know, we're both overexposed. But I honestly have only.

seen bits and pieces of your whole story. Like I can probably weave it together and get 80% of it. But so, but I don't, you know, there are questions I have like, so it's middle class, brother and a sister. I'm the oldest. Dad's a lawyer. Mm-hmm. Drug dealing. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way to go. Mm-hmm. That's what all your friends were saying. So what your dad's a lawyer, you definitely going to drug. Well, you got to know this about me, Matt. I come from the 90s. I was like the second iteration of Whiggers. I just grew up listening

at gangster rap at a young age. And some of us actually went and emulated what we listened to in rap. Like we were dumb enough to do that. Like Scarface in the 80s

you talked to like we talked to OG crack dealers from New York City black guys from Harlem and they're like dude when Scarface came out that's why I got in the game. Scarface the movie.

So this shit really does influence people. But it was a collusion, it was that, it was, you know, boring, like psychological factors, you know, how my, I was raised, you know, I was always had the, we always had the poverty mindset, like the scarcity mindset in my house, even though we lived in like this beautiful, you know, in this old Victorian home and, you know, Northeast Portland's great neighborhood. But my dad was like, oh, yeah, we can, if I would order a Coke out at dinner, right, he takes out to dinner, order whatever you want, I would order a Coke. And he was the guy who was like, oh, you're breaking me right i got a mortgage to pay you know what i mean it was that asshole yeah so i was i was always worried about being poor i was like i was always in the mindset like we can lose this shit overnight so there was that i never wanted to work a job and it was just the times like everybody everybody was getting money from selling so it was all that all just kind of formed who i became later to just what you selling high school

yeah just like everybody but i was i would look at it's not like everybody like everybody colby you sold in high school didn't you no he's lying he's not like he's not like caught he just knows listen colby is as as my wife she's like he is as pure as the as the driven snow the first time he came here and met with like every and i remember the thing because like three people in a row every single one of them were just like derelicks even the cop that came i i interviewed interviewed Michael Mike Dowd. Mike Dowd was a derelict. And I'm looking at Colby. And Colby's face is just like, what have I got myself in? I shouldn't be here. Yeah. Who are these people? Yeah. Okay. So Colby you never sold. But, but Colby wasn't from. I'm sure he knows a guy. Yeah, he knows a guy. He knows a guy.

But if he had grown up in, you know, Northeast Portland where you would find like, you would just hear about these kids 18 year olds and they're fucking selling pounds. And that's all they do. You're right. That's all. You mean they don't have a job. And when I found that out, I'm like, oh, that's it. That's all I want to do. So how do you, but how do you actually, how do you actually do that? Right. Because if you buy it from them, you can't resell it at a profit because you're buying it at the going rate. Exactly. So how do I plug myself into the line of distribution? That was fascinating. Drug dealing and that kind of black market, that kind of invisible hand of the market was, fascinating and still kind of is. Like how, how do billions of dollars a year of cartel dogs that make it into America just, they just get sucked up. And cash comes back. I thought that was so crazy. So later when, you know, two times a week, I would get FedEx packages in the mail with $30,000, $50,000 in cash just for shipping out a bunch of pounds. It was like magic. You know what

mean so it how do you get to the initial dealer though well you know so again in high school selling you know buying retail getting a bad price good product but a way overpriced don't know what to do you can't you can't make any money you're selling weed to your friends you're smoking it you're fucking up the the pack as we would say so the turning point was when I got to college at the U of O University of Oregon and Eugene and we started buying from growers. So you go to the guy. The idea is to be the wholesaler.

So you go to where it's made and get the best price. So we initially met some like redneck, you know, people that lived in the mountains of southern Oregon. You know, he's laid off blue collar white guys. He's growing it up in the mountains on free land. No, their own land. So they would get, they would get, they would collectivize. They would take a bunch of different medical marijuana. cards, licenses to grow pot, right?

20, 30 plants. But then they would all combine them to get these, like, you know, 100,000 plant grows. But the best price came from the Mexicans, the, you know, the cartel people, the people that would just hike onto federal land. Right. And, you know, they do Mexican labor. They're the ones willing to go miles, miles, days into, like, the Sierra Mountains of Northern California and they cut down trees they run irrigation they know how the light hits the plants

perfectly it's it's amazing and they're the ones that get thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds every year and therefore they got the they got the best price so you know you have I'm buying now pounds for 1,800 2,000 bucks and you know I have distributors on the east coast that are buying them for 3,500 a pound my profit's 1,500 a pound I can do that you know 30 50 times a week. That becomes millions of dollars very quickly. You know what I mean? Aren't you concerned though? I mean, if you're moving that kind of product, aren't you concerned? Like, aren't people that you're dealing with getting getting busted? I mean, don't you? Yeah, that's of course a concern of mine, but, you know, possession is nine-tenths of law. So, uh, I figured, okay, if I'm shipping boxes

all over the U.S., I'm just shipping them. I'm not putting them under my name. I have people that are doing that for me. This is before you had to give your ID when you shipped out of package, like through FedEx. You didn't have to do that back in, like, the mid-2000s. So, you know, I had people taking the boxes there for me. Okay, I'm not touching it. I have people helping me receiving the money. I'm not touching it. So it was a layer of separation. And plus, but it's always a risk when you're selling. Right. It's, it's why it's, you can do it 300 times, but then the, the one time. Yeah, you could do it, you could do it twice. Right. And it could go bad. You could do it a thousand and you're just right you know you get lucky or yeah you know yeah it's funny because

how many times i've you know met somebody who's just a fluke you know they they got but like it's just a fluke how i got busted yeah fluke didn't even nobody was wearing a wire nobody nobody was snitching um just got pulled over no i never got never got uh jammed up on a traffic stop and we made that drive from southern oregon up to portland eugene a thousand times um at the Again, we had our own when I was rich. White brittles. For sure. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I only had, I've said this on the connect. I only had white mules. I only had white drivers. And they had to have clean records, no felonies. Certainly no, like, outstanding, you know, probation or anything like that. No expired tags. Nothing.

No, exactly. So, and actually one time, we did have one of our best customers did, get pinched and he he rolled on us and we had a stash house get rated and you know they found us with product and money and shit like that so after that that's when we switched it up that's when i said no more we're only shipping this off to people out of state okay um well what happened with those guys that got busted so did you get busted so i that yes i got busted that that's when you went to prison i got no that's what i got on paper i got a felony You know, they were like, hey, look, white boy, fucking college boy.

I was like fresh out of college when this happened. It was 23. I had just turned 23. They're like, we'll get this reduced to a misdemeanor. Just give us, you know, you're, we can tell you have weight on you, you know, bring us to your guy here you get it from. And I'm like, I'm not telling on the connect. I need that. That's the, that's the plug.

I'm not going to, I'm not going to send my plug to prison because I knew my business. I had just met new buyers on the East Coast. Right. that were willing to pay these crazy markups. So I knew my business was about to explode. Like I'm talking going from, you know, a $5,000 a week profit, which was an unbelievable success to $50,000 a week. So, no, but I didn't do, I didn't have to do any, you know, I bonded out.

I got probation. I was, but I was a felon now. And I'm on, you know, so I'm, I know that if I get popped the next time, I'm going in. And this wasn't, this wasn't the feds. this was no this is no these are just local local pigs tax task force yeah okay so you get out you you you don't go get a job regular job and put this to the side and say yeah i'm just going to do the right thing from now on didn't work out 10x 10x the business as you do so this is why laws work this is why prison really does work because you know the first time i got i got busted

i got three years paper and i was and i always say i'm like you know what i should have done was claim bankruptcy, you know, because I couldn't be a mortgage broker anymore. So I lose my business. Right. I can't make the kind of money I'm making. I can't keep committing fraud. Like I was like, if I can't, if I can't do that, then I can't pay my bill. So I'm going to claim bankruptcy, move into my parents' spare room, go sell used cars. That's what I should have done. Not what I did. I did the exact opposite. Well, now I'm a felon. Right. So the gloves are off. So the veneer of looking legitimate is gone. Right. Just start fucking committing a massive fraud. The shit that you were unwilling to do before, now go all in.

Right, right. So stupid. Right. But if you had done three years in prison right from the first offense, you may not have Yeah, I would have been like, fuck, I can end up in prison for this? Instead, I got slapped. Like you said, I got three years paper. Right.

I'm not going to prison. Yeah. I'm good. Yeah. So I don't know what the solution on a societal level is. Because then if you hit a guy, punish a person too hard right off the bat, they may just completely give up and then become even worse. so yeah i don't know what the answer is it's just i'll leave that to smarter people to me

um so yeah that's uh but that's that was really the the game for me was uh how do i i know there's millions to be made so i i should be the one getting that money i always felt like that you know what i always i was god i was so immature i had such a low vibration right like now i don't i don't get jealous of anybody in this space right you or or whoever, whoever else runs in the crime podcast space because I'm operating on like a level of like creation instead of competition. But back in the day, like you hear about this guy, he blew up.

Like you heard he blew up. He's big time now. He won't even sell you a bag of weed. He's like he's in the game. I would turn like green with envy. Right. You know, like might even try to go rob him. So and that happened all the time though.

Like I got stuck up. You know, you're talking about people like it was serious. back before it was now just this like completely legal commodity right you know I remember shipping like there were these these cats in like rural Connecticut these fucking white boys

and I would get them like you know 10 pounds a week you know that's a good that's a good hundred thousand a month I was making off of them but they were they were giving it to a guy one of their distributors and he fucking got tied up and shot to death

so wild so super serious it was like it was serious Like, do you feel like it was that serious until there's something like that happens and you're like, holy shit. Yeah. Like, nobody in the mortgage industry is getting tied up a shot. No. So, I mean, so you must.

They should. Yeah. But they don't. At that point, you must have been like, right? Yeah. Well, because you don't see it when you're at that high of a level. You're only dealing with two or three people at a time. And then it just goes out to that invisible, the invisible consumption.

Right. there's people to the bottom that are shooting each other totally totally i have a buddy pete i remember i wrote a book about him and uh and he was you know he's moving a hundred pounds of of of um of meth like they're manufacturing meth and they're he's moving 100 200 like two hundred like two million dollars three million dollars and i was like do you i was like so i mean i was do you like do you guys have guns security he goes no he's he's he said, it's not the movies. He goes, at that level, he's, you're not dealing with anybody that's going to bring a gun. He's at that level, you don't. He said, at the lower level, they're

shooting each other. He said, they're shooting each other over $10 crack rocks. He said, but at that level, he said, you don't. He's, you're even giving it to him on consignment. The guy owes me a million dollars. He's like, I'm not going to bring a gun. There's no money. Right. He's like, and then the guy brings it back. And if he doesn't, he said, well, maybe he said, you just never sell to him again or Right. Now, if you're dealing with, it depends. Before cameras everywhere, if you were an American distributor, when the cartels really had people in the States, if you owed him. This was prior to the cartel getting involved, by the way, because they actually, at one point, came to him and wanted him to come to Mexico. And he wouldn't. He was scared. He was like, my fear is I'd go there. They'll just chain me to the fucking floor. I'll never leave. He's I'll be in some jungle fucking lab in the middle of nowhere. He's like, I'll never leave. And he was like, yeah. Oh, because he had the recipe. Oh, yeah. He was the one making. He was manufacturing it.

His story is very breaking bad. Like they actually had a college, a university professor, a retired university professor that helped him, them figure. out the precursor materials, how to make it, how to manufacture them. I mean... So he was the Jesse. Yes. To Walter White. Yes. We've got to get him on the show. Yeah, I do. He's just got his ankle monitor off. Oh, great. How long did he do? Um, he did, I'm going to say, 27 or 28 years. Oh, wow. Not for the meth, but it was the murder of the two federal informants, which he didn't do. He's a nice guy. He just moved the bodies. Because somebody has to move the bodies You can't

One of them was killed in the meth lab He's like what am I gonna call the cop and say Here look I found the guy Forget about the meth lab Let's just talk about this officer He's like no I gotta move it So you know He said I had to move it

And then he said the other guy he Same thing the guy got shot And he's like you know he got shot And he said we had to get rid of the body But he didn't he didn't do it He says he didn't I believe Pete He said he didn't do it

I mean well did he go to trial Or did they Did he roll on the guy who actually did it? So at first they said he did it. At first, everybody said Pete did it. But then they started failing polygraphs. So then they said, okay, Pete didn't do it. But Pete told me, I did it.

Because everybody said, well, no, he did. So finally the guy's like, okay, I did do it. But Pete told me to do it. So now these guys roll over on him. He gets busted. Now he's got to go to prison. Do you know who Robert Mueller is? He was the head of the FBI.

Yeah. He was in charge of the Russia investigation. Yeah, the Robert Mueller. That was his prosecutor. Oh, wow. Mueller comes in and says, look, take 40 years. And then when the, and help me get these guys. And when these guys get, get, these guys take a plea or whatever.

He's like, then we'll reduce your sentence. And actually, if you know anything about the federal sentence or federal guidelines. Well, not just the guideline, but the system, you'll never get it in writing. They're always going to say, they say, like at the. state you can get it in writing right so in the feds they say we'll we'll if you help us you give us consider you give us provide us substantial assistance we'll consider it for a reduction that's so crazy that's so fucking crazy and i've seen hundreds hundreds of hundreds of hundreds of people's paperwork Pete's the only person i've ever seen that had a airtight document that said if you just

talk to me yeah you're going to get you you will get your sentence reduced just for talking to me and it was signed by uh by um robert muller to him and so robert muller came and talked to him actually two or three days him and an fbi agent he said this is what happened and i did not kill the the person um you know i i did not order the fucking murder which he didn't want to hear and then they use pete telling saying what happened to get the two guys that were blaming him they end up taking pleas they get 25 years pitt gets 40 muller becomes fbi director and doesn't want to reduce his sentence so he did have the paper luckily and he does eventually get his sentence reduced damn so he got more money than the shooters more to killers he got more time more time oh those

guys got out years ago that's crazy he ended up ultimately I think he got like five or six years off his sentence like which was nothing yeah like you're supposed to get drop it to get in half I just gave me the two murderers who've been lying to you right dude this is why this is my lawyer told me as much when I you know finally took the pinch that sent me to prison right uh they had all this money. They knew I was connected. The DEA would come down to my cell every other day. You ready to talk now? And my lawyer was like, dude, they could just get you. It's, they can just have you working for them for years. Yeah. Years. And, and you like, you don't know what you're going to have to do for them. They don't have a lot. That's why they're talking to you. That's why they're

trying to get you to talk because they don't have a lot. You might as well just risk. Let's just, like, go do three years. Yeah. Well, if you stay in the state, you stay in the state, you can get a deal in writing. You can walk in there and know, I'm getting three years. There's nothing the judge can do about it. They said three years. I signed for three years. Everybody agreed on three years.

And if the judge says, I don't agree, he might not sentence you. And he might say, go back, fix this. This isn't right. And then maybe the prosecutor would come back in and say, Your Honor and argue for you because they want you to do it. But in the feds, first of all, you're not getting three years. the feds. You're probably getting 9 or 10 or 15 years in the feds. And then, you know, which is always going to be, it's always going to be five times as long as the state. And you don't know that you're even going to get the deal that they're telling you're going to get. Right. Right. The judge might

say, yeah, I'm not going to reduce it. He's a, he did something on probation. He failed two urns on probation and or on, on, on pretrial release. And you know what, fuck him. I'm not going to give him the 10 years off. You're like, what the fuck? Yeah. So it's basically no laws. when the highest law on the land doesn't really have any constraints on them. Yeah, they don't play by their own rules. Now, the only can, on the other hand, in the federal system for, especially now, like under the First Step Act, Trump, you know, basically allowed judges to give leniency for, for mandatory drug cases.

And you don't have to do all your time. You used to have to do 85% of your time. You can do like 55%. Right. And now, so now if you have exemplary prison records, you know, people that had life. for selling crack in the 80s and 90s can now get out, which I think is a good thing. In the state, there's no mechanism for that. So actually, I met people in Oregon. Like, every state's different. Every state's different, but a lot of places don't have the mechanism. We've talked to, like,

federal lawyers that all they do is write these appeals. Right. You know, people are sitting in state prison oftentimes for, especially back when weed was fully illegal. You know, if you got caught with 100 pounds at your first offense you probably do about three years in the feds you got caught with 100 pounds in Texas you're sitting in there for twice the amount of time if you weren't charged

by the feds so you were actually incentivized before you have points and we're just like teaching people now YouTube we're not nobody should sell the game's over with anyways guys the Mexicans have it in a smash nobody's going to take this info and actually go do it.

You wouldn't be stupid enough, would you? You wouldn't be like Johnny Mitchell after he heard the Snoop Dog album back in 94. You wouldn't actually go do the things that you're hearing about. You were actually incentivized to push as much weight as possible. Because if five kilos to 150 kilos

is the same sentencing, let's push 150 kilos. Right. It's all a minimum of five years. You're hoping to get caught by the state. that case. Because you just said you'd get three times. Yeah, right, right, right.

Well, yeah. Usually, the problem is, usually it's the reverse. Usually, yes, correct. And it depends on the state, because I know in the state of Florida, there was a time where if you got caught with, you know, selling, let's say, oxies, you might get three or four years in the Fed, but the state of Florida was giving these guys 10 years because it was such an epidemic here. They're giving them 10, 15.

They're giving them wait, but it was just that. Right. anything else it was a reverse right totally totally right every state's different that's the problem is that you know you see the people in the comment section like that's not true in the state okay in your state like what what you get 10 years in you know in california for you might get two years in georgia right or reverse exactly yeah well you're reading the comments that's oh bro i read them all the time i do i love the comment section you don't get out a lot i don't i don't get out i don't this is all i do and i i don't this is all i do and i i

read the comments and sometimes sometimes i respond and if it's worth responding to i don't read all of them but yeah they must love that oh yeah cox responded to me they do love it even though i was shitting on him oh oh and they they shit on me all the time i'm like oh bro you know they're like what's what the fucking commercials bro like every five minute there's a commercial i'm like well i don't work for free and you should consider joining youtube premium right like you know commercials bro and you also get youtube tv and free movies like it's a great it's a great 15 bucks a month or whatever it is 10 i think yeah it's like it's great and then you You know, they don't like that.

No. I'm trying to help you. It's about people helping people and they get mad at that. Yeah. Like, I can't help these guys. Yeah. The biggest, the biggest problem with people in the crime space. I mean, crime, people that are fans of this genre are the worst people.

Oh, yeah. No offense. And the good people out there know who they are. But it's the problem is everybody's like, nah, cap. This is really what it is. It's like, everybody has a distinct story. Just because you didn't experience what I went through doesn't make what happened to me not true.

Moron. Or this guy's lying. This guy's this, this guy's that. That never happens. I get it. When I was a child, I didn't want to believe that people could become fabulously wealthy selling drugs.

And that's just because I didn't think I had the confidence to go do it. You know? It came from the insecurity. of like, oh, I'll, I can't do that. Well, then it's, he must be lying about it. Like, no. No, he is.

Sorry. Right. So, well, what about the same? I think it's a very low emotion. Or you can't get, um, I love the one. You can't get, uh, you can't get any time for, uh, for a white collar crime. You don't get any time. What fuck are you serious?

Squeeze me? Have you heard of Bernie made off? Yeah, I was going to say, like, there's guy, like, the problem is one, what most white collar guys like they, maybe they get hit clipped once for something. minor. Right. Or they roll over on each other. So this guy, that guy sold $100 million, or he's charged with $100 million. And he ended up doing five years. He gave them 10 people. Like, otherwise, he was going to do 25 or 30. And he still had some money. So I did a good lawyer. Right. Right. So yeah. And you could, you could maybe make the argument that they don't prosecute white collar

crime enough. Okay. Right. That you could argue that. You could argue that bankers, you know, are ruining the country and we're imploding. Like, there's that kind of like nebulous or, you know, kind of like theoretical argument. But no, there's huge, there's statutes for depending on how much money you steal and say like an embezzlement scheme. It's just like drugs over this amount of money. It's this much time. It's a lot of fucking time.

Yeah, it starts adding up, especially the more clever you are, the worst it is for you. Yeah, yeah. You evaded jurisdiction. You used a, that's an enhancement. Oh, it's more than 50. victims that's an enhancement more money that's an if it's a sophisticated scheme that's an enhancement like they start adding it up and it's like for listen you can get three or four you can till five or six million dollars and end up getting five or six years right like but guess what if you have more

than 50 victims okay we're now turned into eight years if it was sophisticated means were involved okay now you're at about 11 if you know you start adding it next thing you know like you end up 26 years for six million dollars and you're like my base level says I'm supposed to get five Yeah. So the more... That's if you stack consecutively. In your case, did they stack it? No.

What do you mean? No. Oh, no. I would have gotten 150 years. No. Well, I would have gotten... The only thing they stacked was aggravated identity theft. So you got an extra two years.

So really, I had 24 and a half years, but I got 26 and a half because they added two years. Because it's automatic. They have to stack it. If you use, if in your scheme, you stole someone's identity, which I did. And I feel bad about that. Yeah. Oops. So.

Yeah. Homeless people. Yeah. Some were homeless. That's, dude. As Brian was reading in the car over here, as he was reading your wiki bio, I just kept falling more and more in love with you. I'm like, I fucking love this guy, dude.

Beck-cock fucking rules. And I'm putting that out there. Listen, I, you know, they always make it sound horrible. Like, I gave these guys like 20 bucks. They filled out an application. They were happy to get the fill up, happy to fill it out, happy with the 20 bucks. Totally. Fair exchange.

And they weren't really using them. their information. And I don't know that it's nobody that happened to them. No. They're fine. They're dead. So, yeah, so what happened? So what's, what happened then?

So you got out, you started selling more and more drugs and shipping stuff. Business just blew up, you know, became a millionaire, just, you know, and started, became conscious of the fact that like, okay, I'm, I'm a target now. I got to get out of the game. What do your parents think you're doing? I was always bullshitting them, you know? I was always like saying... Your dad's got to have a good bullshit meter.

Oh, no, they knew I was selling bums. Oh, okay. I was always... Dude, I would be home, like, you know how, like, as a college student, you go home for the summer? Yeah. Stay with your parents. They were constantly finding me with the money. Right.

They'd be like, they would, my dad would walk out and be like, hey, I found a backpack with like 50 grand. Right. So it's like, I need... That's Bobby's. Yeah. It's Jimmy. I blame it on, yeah, I blame it on my sister. It's graces.

She's the ones selling a drawer. So, but no, he'd be like, you can't stay here. They would kick me out. Like they were, they didn't put up with it. I mean, they weren't like incredibly strict, but they were reasonable. So no, no, they knew I was. That makes, like, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm a lawyer and you got dogs and money coming through my house.

Yeah, you can't be involved in this. Yeah. So, so they knew, they knew what I was up to. but when I finally got busted and they saw all the paperwork, that's when they were like, Johnny was a fucking, Johnny was,

I'm proud of this kid. He was pushing weight. So, so yeah, that's, that's, you moved out, you got your own place.

Yeah, I was moving apartments, like, I was such a great life in many ways. Like, I was so, I was so free. I would just,

every month go get a new, fully furnished apartment. like the best that they had in Portland at the time, right? You know, overlooking the river. And I would just walk in with my bag, duffel bag, full of, you know, whatever, four or five hundred thousand in cash. And that was just the cash that I rolled with, right? You know, I had it stashed every which way.

But then I had my, like, you know, cash, it was like my pillow money. Help me sleep good at night, right? And then just my suitcase full of possessions. And then I would just walk into a fully furnished spot. So I was always bouncing around. Um, yeah. And, you know, what happened was, and I, and I was reading books, you know, I'm reading Robert Kiyosaki, right? Rich, dad, poor dad. It's a right of passage. So, and I'm like, oh, okay, I have this superpower. I fucking, if I quit, I basically would get away with it. I would

just, I'll roll this into legitimate business, right? I was obsessed in my mind with like the, the gangster turning businessman, like the kind of Joe Kennedy. Yeah. Right. The old world. kind of, he's coming legit and he's going to make a legacy. And I thought I was going to be this big, rich, legitimate business guy. But, you know, I didn't, it's just, that takes a lot. It takes a, I didn't have any skills besides what I was doing. So, you know, people, I find people that are successful in one, in one industry think they're going to be able to be successful in other industries. Same thing with people that are successful, especially if it's like crime. They think they're, oh, I was a successful criminal, and that will carry over to the, to the

business world. But the percentages aren't the same, bro. It may, right. The margins, the margins aren't the same. You're right. And you can't just walk into it, unless you have so much money. You can't just walk into it. You, it takes time. It takes like years. Well, if you buy $10 million worth of real estate and just start collecting rent, you're right. You're going to, you're going to make money. Right. Of course, you've got a huge leg up. You got $10 million in real estate. You can't lose unless you're of retard. But how do you buy $10 million worth of real estate in cash in this day and age? It takes... Not now. Sophistication. You have to really launder that. And manpower and time. And still, it's you still, and you're still paying a tax on the money. Even if you, you know, even if you have a

million dollars, just the laundering process, you're going to lose 30%. You're paying a tax one way or the other. So, you know, but it all came, you know, it all ended, right? There was a package of money getting sent to me from one of my distributors on the East Coast and these guys were sloppy I love dealing with like Dominicans and black people if you can believe it because they were

kidding of course my god just trying to get you your channel taken down I like dealing with people of color because They were just the best.

They were the, they were the, they were the, they were the, they were the tightest. Why? Because they don't have white privilege. Right. They know, they assume when they're selling drugs that there's a chance, right? That, uh, there will be some police interdiction. So they're extra careful. Yes.

So they were, they would fucking, they were just on point. But, you know, dealing with these like suburban, you know, guinea kids from just trying to not say racial slurs. Right. I just say these were like, these were kids. No, nobody cares about. Guinea. These dagos were basically children of like mafia guys out of Philly. Right. But nice kids, but they were spoiled. They were like, you know, fucking pillheads and all this shit. So they got 100,000 in the back and they're doing donuts and they're running through. Totally. You get it.

These like South Jersey, like Philly suburb kids. And I don't get packages of money, you know, like $20,000 and it would just reek. Like they wouldn't even like, they wouldn't even, uh, vacuum seal it. Right. Like I would vacuum seal their drugs. I'm like, you can't police go after cash. Oh, bro.

You make it a big deal about it. It's like, right? Yeah, exactly. Like they would, or they would just, yeah,

yeah, me. Like, it smelled like they were smoking blunts and then blowing it on the cash before they package it up. So eventually one of those packages got, you know,

a drug sniffing dog and a FedEx sorting facility hit on it. And they tracked it all the way to Oregon. And it led to me. So, well, I mean, led, did you like, it was being delivered to your house or? No, it was being delivered to, uh, one of the, the pickup locations, which was like a UPS store or something? It was like a UPS store. Yeah.

They called you and said, we've got something for you. No, no. I just, they waited. They went like, I tracked it. They, they did a good job because they, the feds did or, you know, the feds in combination with like the Portland task force. They didn't hold the package up at all because I would trace, I'm online now. This is 2010.

So I'm tracing everything, every step of the way. And if there's a box or a package that's super delayed, I'm like, that's a dead package. They let this one go all the way through without any delays. And as soon as I picked it up and I got in my car, the fucking, I got lit up by, you know, by the undercovers. So I took them on a high speed chase, got away because I'm speeding through like my neighborhood where I grew up, speeding through it. like 90, so they back off. I stashed my car and I walk. I wait till it's dark and then I walked to where I was living at the time.

You know, as I said, like every month I'm switching apartments. I live like a mile from my parents' house. So I took the money back to my apartment and that's not under my name. I'm like, these motherfuckers assumed I was safe. And they were, they knew where I had lived. So that was pretty wild. So they got a warrant, searched the house, found, you know, over half a million in cash. No, no, no, no, how'd they search the house?

I mean, like, did they wake? Were you sleeping and they knocked on the door? No, no, no, no. They were, they is, when I got back, I went into my house and they knocked. And, um, and they actually, we've got your car out here. They actually, no, they actually didn't have a warrant. I made them go get a warrant. Okay.

Because, you know, they had the money package. So they wait with you. They don't let you like, they kind of wait. No, no, they detain me. But I remember an old criminal telling me, even though it seems like they got you, don't let them search it. Make them do the work. Right.

Make them get the warrant. So it's like dark. It's like nighttime by the time they search. By the time they actually get it signed off by a judge, they go in, you know, they find everything but the kitchen sink. You know, they didn't find. any any dope no no I never kept product the house but you know they had two zip lock bags full of cell phones half a million in cash I think some packaging material so so I tried to bribe them

right as you do what did you say well I guess you guys found nothing he'll be leaving right you guys you guys got kids in college but it wasn't the feds at the time it was just the task force right and it was just i think me and three other guys not even a sergeant and i'm like guys just i've seen training day i know how this works exactly i was like just tell them i got away i'm not even saying like i'm i'm not even asking you to like call off say you called the warrant yeah exactly saying you didn't find anything just give me a head start. Give me a 24 hours to get out of here. Right. You're, I'm like, you're, yeah, your sergeant's not even here. Like, you guys are. What are you thinking that you can, you're going to just be on the run?

Yeah. I got a Canadian passport. I'm half Canadian. So I could run there. I got, you know, a property that I, I think I'm trying to buy in Columbia, South America. So I got hundreds of thousands that they still don't know about that I can, I can access. You know, I'm just panicked, right? And let me, let me go on the run. Let me take the money they haven't found. Hide it overseas. Then come back, turn myself in, deal with it later, right? Are you off probation? You're off probation? No, I'm not. But you're still on probation. I'm still on probation. So when they bring me in, I can't, and I know that. I can't bond out. So I'm like, just let me run. Let me do what I got to do. And then I'll come back and turn myself in. Did they say, let us talk about it for a little bit. These were boy scouts. These were fucking. And this would only have. Let us think about it. If this was Florida, if this was Florida, if this was Florida, if this was Florida, if this was like the Bronx, these are Irish, Italian cops, I think, I think they'd have

a new fishing boat. Yeah. You know what I mean? But no, these are, these are dorks. Right. So, and then the DEA shows up and they're like, what? Cause can do-gooters. Fucking, you know, yeah, these honest men. So, but then, like, because a DEA guy shows up and he's like, whoa. But, but, Like, they're like, they caught somebody. Like, they got a fish because they're like, this is not normal to have, you know, almost 600,000 in cash just laying in somebody's house. So they're like, who are you working for? Who are you holding this for?

You know, where's the heroin? Where's the meth? Talk to us with the, they knew I was cartel connected. So this is still just marijuana. But this is all marijuana. It's all marijuana. I thought, I thought at some point it became Coke or so I thought you said. No, I mean, I sold Coke when I was a smaller time marijuana dealer.

just to supplement my income. If there was a drought and you couldn't get to sell, you would go, you would start moving Coke just to stay afloat, right? Yeah, but no, I was selling so much weed, there was no need to sell coke. But it didn't matter. They knew that I was connected with a cartel somehow.

They just knew it. But I thought I was like working for them. They thought I was like, you know, I was like the George Jung, right? I was in the family. And it's not true. They were just a supplier. Yeah.

They were just one of my suppliers. So that's who they were trying to twist me and get me to cooperate on. But look, I kept my mouth shut and they had nothing. They had nothing besides what they had on me, you know, getting caught red-handed. So you end up in jail. Yeah. Or, you know, whatever. Yeah.

Detention. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you go to jail. And the feds, they come in. Well, you get an attorney right away, right? Yeah, I have my attorney on retainer.

Okay, so he comes in. Yeah. The feds talk to him or they talk to you. You explain about the DEA has been coming. They're trying to come and talk to me. And your attorney says what? Well, originally, it's a state case. The feds pick it up charging me with money laundering tax evasion.

But what they're trying to do is just to get me to cooperate. Yeah, yeah. Well, and money laundering, here's the funny thing about money laundering, what most people don't realize is that money laundering holds a lot of time. Like, for money laundering, you can get a lot of time. Right, right. Exactly. It doesn't sound like a big deal, right? It's like tax evasion. You think, yeah, you can't get very much. Yeah, you get a couple of years. Yeah. I, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was saying, they're going to get you on a drug conspiracy. If, if, if they can prove that you're connected with, like, you're connected. with, you know, you're moving, but they don't have any evidence unless they get you to tell on yourself and then cooperate against, you know, my suppliers. So what is he saying to do? He's like, we're going to basically make a proffer. We're going to, we're going to forfeit all this cash plus other cash that you have. And we're not going to tell in anybody.

and then we're going to get the feds to just seize the money with no, we want to appeal it or anything like that. And then the state, they're going to give the case back to the state. Because the state is the people who originally charged. My first case, my first felony was with the state. Yeah, yeah. And so the DA wanted the, he wanted the case. But with the money, that's where, like, I guess the, you know, assistant U.S. attorney got involved. But when they saw that they couldn't make a big, when they, when they, when they, when,

When the Fed saw that they couldn't make this a gigantic, like, conspiracy case, we, they took the money and then got out of the way and then I got charged by the state. Well, after being arrested, it really limits their ability to use you in an effective way. Exactly. Exactly. Like, if you were arrested and if you're arrested and they could release you with an hour or two and it's like, hey, nobody can, nobody even can know about this. We can wire you up. You can help us. out. You can work with us for three or four months, which could be years. Years. Like, I've met guys in jail that were like, no, like, fucking not. I'm like, oh, so, so, you know, because nobody cooperates in prison. But then when they find out you cooperated, then your kindred spirits. So periodically, they will, you'll hear things, right? Next thing, you know, I got the whole story. And it's not the story you told these guys. But, and then, like, I talked to one guy. He was

like, yeah, you know, I had cooperated. I got some time off. I'm like, oh, okay. And he's telling me story and I was like so how long would that take a few weeks or months how long that he's like oh no brother it was years yeah I'm like a year or two he doesn't know like almost three years and you're like are you fucking serious we talked to a guy on my podcast he cooperated for a decade a decade that's he was working for that he was a cop right you're a cop at that point yeah well I talk I talked to a guy who it probably was close to a decade two um it was white collar by the way. He was going to come on, talk to his lawyer, because he was still, there were still cases going on that he busted four and five years ago. Right. So he's like, I can't. I'm wait.

My lawyer said this, they'll be pissed. He contacted the FBI. They said, no. Like, I would, you know what I was so like, oh my God, he has such an insane fucking story. It was so good. At one point, he infiltrated a company and then hired his FBI handler to work at the company with him. I mean, he's got this. insane story but okay so con artists like it's just it's they they could be actors in hollywood it's wild so so you're not really effective anyway so they give it they give it back to they give it back to the d a yeah yeah yeah and uh and then he charges me with bribery why bribery oh because yeah and we got that toss because it's their word versus mine and it's yeah it's crazy but you know

how they you know they overcharge you right they throw everything at you exactly we're just talking here. And that's what I said. I think I said that. I'm like, guys, we're just talking here. What if? And so, and then charges to be with, you know, conspiracy, you know, distribution. Of course, my parole, because I'm on probation, felony probation, that gets revoked. So right there, that's like a year and a half. I had like suspended sentence. So I'm, so I'm like, shit, I'm going to get some time for that. Yeah, you're going to jail no matter what. No matter what. And so, but I wait almost a year in county jail because I'm like, we're going to fight these distribution charges.

Like, my lawyer is like, this is the state. Like, we're going to go, we're going to go all the way if we need to unless he drops this down to just a money laundering. And, you know, we'll roll in the, you know, when it comes to, like, plea, we'll roll in the time for the, for the violation. So I went to prison for money laundering. okay so so it's rare it's rare that you go to a state it's my crime was very rare in a your charge was my charges were rare yeah my crime was incredibly common actually but the charge in when i was in the state was pretty exceptional yeah yeah i was going to say there's not a lot of guys in state prison yeah money laundering yeah exactly um that's almost embarrassed embarrassed that's like getting

arrested by the um by the by the by an irs agent it's like i met guys they're they're like They have these crimes. They're like, I'm like, so was it FBI? They're like, no, no, IRS. Like, IRS. I got arrested by the park service. Yeah, did they, how they arrest? Do they have guns?

You're like, oh, no, they got guns and everything. No, they came to my house. I'm like, that's wild. Like three or four IRS agents and the, you know, they're backed up by like the U.S. Marshals or something. I'm like, no FBI. No, they had guns. Wow.

Like, that's embarrassing, actually. I mean, the mailman arrested you. Yeah, right, right. Well, but, you know, but you got me. respect in prison because, you know, you're, especially like the white boys, they're in there. If they're not, they're not in there for murder or, you know, something crazy. You can say $600,000. Like they've never seen $600,000.

Most somebody in states never seen $100,000. Right. And they'll get 30 years or 20 years. Because typically they're, you know, they kidnap someone or they beat someone up or they hurt somebody. It's violence involved. Yeah, there's lots of violence in the state. Yeah. And then tons of sex crimes.

So it's like, especially in Oregon. So, you know, immediately it was that, you know, combined with some other things when I was in prison, kind of let me be a non-affiliate, didn't have to really, didn't have to be in a gang or anything like that, didn't have to roll with a car. People respect, like, even, even psychos with swastikas on their knuckles respect intelligence. Yeah. And money. Because they can't, they know it's not easy because they probably tried to do it or want to do it. And they just can't figure it out. and they don't understand.

And so they do. I always say there's like a hierarchy in prison, you know, obviously sex offenders at the bottom. And at the top is the fraud guys because everybody wants to be the fraud guys. You know, they don't want to be here. And then, you know, you've got the drug guys. You've got the home invasion guy. You know, it gets worse and worse. Yeah.

Yeah. But yeah. And also they can't manipulate you. Like, it's very obvious. Like, you're not going to send me to go stab somebody. Yeah, you don't want me. You don't want me in the gang. Like, you're not going to.

I can do your social media. I was going to say, I can keep the books for you guys. Well, I'll handle all the gambling. I'll let you know, yeah, the guy in B-4, you know, so-and-so. Snoop, he owes you fucking $200. But, yeah. Yeah, I was going to say that the, yeah, well, no, they may, like, or they'll, they're extorting those guys. Like, if those guys end up in like a medium or a pen, right, then you're, then you're

probably extorting the fraud guys. You assume they have money, they're soft, and they're going to pay it. Right, right. You know, I always kept, especially in the early days when I was at two rivers, it's a, it's a medium now. It was a maximum back then. I always had a piece of steel on me or at least some kind of, no, because it's like if, if you're going to try to stab me, I'm at least going to defend myself. Yeah, and then I can at least go fight, you know, fight it. It's you sending me to stab somebody is going to get me 25 years.

if I stab you for coming at me, I can at least have a chance in court as self-defense. Right. But then I was sold up with a shock caller who took a shine to me. And this is kind of where it gets like cool. Like it kind of becomes like an arc.

I started doing stand-up. There was these talent show nights. And it would be like an old pedophile with a guitar or harmonica. You know what I mean? It would be like some like, you know, black guy that converted to Islam was doing like slam poetry it's like comical and then but it was wild the crowd the crowd was

fucking wild if you suck they would they would start throwing shit they would throw oranges at you know how much oranges there are in prison they throw oranges at you they would fights would break out if you you know they would boo you it was like being at the apollo right um so i would get up and i would just start like i think my first first time i ever did it i was doing impressions of the wardens and the guards and the counselors and it just fucking killed Yeah. Oh, well, because they probably, they love that. They love that. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to do this again, but I'm going to like, I'm going to like make observations and talk shit about like the weird, stupid, absurd things. I didn't even know it was stand-up comedy. I didn't grow up watching comedy except for like Eddie Murphy and like Chris Rock, the stars. I thought you had to be black to actually do stand-up comedy and famous. I didn't think it was like actually something you do for a living. Something that movie stars do for fun. At how old are you at this point, by the way? 25.

And how many people are in the prison? A couple thousand. Okay. It's a fucking penitentiary, bro. It's wild. It was like a real, before I went down to like a minimum, to a camp. How did you end up in a penitentiary with a, for money lottery? Fighting in county jail.

Fighting whole shots, my age, all that shit. Okay. So my security, bro, by the time I actually, because I had to be in county for so long that by the time it can, by the time it came to sentencing and where to, you know, they send me to Coffee Creek and, you know, you go to the intake. Yeah, yeah. They decided where to send you. I had like seven or eight tickets on my sheet already. Okay. You know what I mean? Just for, just for fights. Fist fights. Fits fights, defending myself. Yes. So they're essentially saying you've got a violent problem. Exactly. So, so I had to do a minimum, uh, minimum six months in a max. And I ended up being there for like

eight and a half before I got shot but I got I got eligible for a drug program because my lawyer was like oh this poor kids yeah yeah an addict yeah so addicted to money addicted to the game motherfucker so so so you're at the pin doing stand-up yeah and so but I just start killing and I'm like what's going on this is fun and so and I'm like writing screenplays like sitting like like a monk by candlelight you know in the middle of the night trust me I know Yes, you're right. So you, exactly. So, and my, Jimmy just takes a shine to me.

And he's, he's a lifer. He's approaching the end of his life. He's done. All his appeals are wiped out. But he's kind of found, he's, he's developed that piece within yourself. Like this is, this is where it ends. And so he really liked, he liked me and he liked that I want. wanted to make a change that I was like man I really love this I've always been a writer

I want to move to Hollywood and be like an actor and a writer and they get to kind of live vicariously exactly exactly and so that was really like kind of touching and so he was like he was like you don't touch this guy you know what I mean like don't the white boys don't touch him and he was like you got to go do this come you should do comedy and I'm like no no it's for it's you can't that's crazy it's just a fun thing I do he's like you should you should you should should do some you should do some stand-up comedy so it was always kind of in the back of my mind but I'm like yeah but there can't be a tougher crowd no no but you know I got out I found out they were an amazing crowd right the best the best audience members that you could say anything to prison crowds

as long as you're as long as you're funny yeah right but then I got out and I started doing open mics in L.A. for these like is this the guy that attacked these like 21 year old no no I don't know, I'll get that that was later. I'm doing, I'm 28 when I finally get to LA and I'm doing open mics. This is 2014 at the height of what's called like the alt comedy boom, alternative comedy. And these, this is like liberal arts comedy. I'm doing comedy at open mics with these like 20 year old like privileged, hyper privileged, liberal brainwashed white kids that go to Occidental. Right. And I'm doing jokes about black people and fucking prison rape. And they're just so bumming. They're like, they hate me. It's not just like it's not funny. They hate me. So I'm like, wow, the fucking,

I'd much rather do this for gangbangers, you know. So it took a while before I found my voice, comic voice, my lane. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, but that's, that's kind of the brutality of the first few years of actually trying to do stand-up comedy. You know what I mean? So I went to the medium, right, for three years. And there were guys getting stabbed there and everything. Yeah. But what was hilarious was when I went from the medium to, and keep in mind, in the medium, you know, obviously there's guys getting stabbed, but there's also, there's like trannies there. I don't know if there was any trannies. Yeah, there was one where I was at. I mean, full blown pits, ass implants. Yeah. I mean, it was bad. Dick? Yeah, I've still got the equipment, but it's not like,

there's multiples walking around. And these guys who've got life sentences. that's a woman. Yeah, for sure. And they're, these guys are like stabbing each other over these fucking, right. It's funny you would think like,

um, I knew a gay guy named Kiki, uh, which is this didn't do me any favors at all, bro. Like the first day I walked into the unit at the medium, I had been locked up with Kiki at, in Atlanta.

So he was in my, uh, in my unit. So when I walk in, you know, I, I'm trying to be tough, you know, it's hard at my height. But, you know, I'm walking.

I'm throwing some base in my voice. I got, you know, I'm holding out and doing the lat spread thing. I'm trying to walk in with my role. And I walk in, you know, and everybody, of course, immediately, 150 guys. And, you know, they're all kind of looking down. There's the different tiers. They're all kind of looking down on you. You walk in.

And all of a sudden I hear, Matt, oh, my God. And I, and there's Kiki waving to me from the second year. And I'm like, Kiki, what's up? And I realized, that didn't sound. Yeah. this just got you just made a mistake yeah for sure yeah but anyway after i went through the medium the funniest things when i went to low the carnival atmosphere in the yard at the low was ridiculous so i i you know you come in at like just before four o'clock count you get counted

yeah and then they but you go eat you come back i don't know anybody i'm not walking around so you stay the night well you could at the low you could after they counted you at 10 o'clock you could walk into the TV room Yeah So I go in the TV room But there's really nobody there I'm in a unicorn In a unicorn unit

Where they work at unicorn So these guys are going to bed Man they're waking up at four and five in the morning They're going to work tomorrow That's literal slave labor Right so but it's great Because the unit's quiet And you know how horrible the units are

They're so loud So I go in the TV room I turn on the TV This guy walks in And he says He says So where you're from He starts chatting me up right

White guy they called him slow motion because he had a he had a hernia so he walked around like this all the time slowly so i love the god i love how funny black people are so it only come from the brothers yeah but this is a white guy but i think it probably didn't get a black a name from the the slow my nickname was the brothers gave me called me dirk dirt why after dirk novitsky because i was lights out on the basketball court my first day in prison they recruited me they drafted me and i was just wet for some reason i was just on because i used to be a hooper and I was just draining them.

Like we were sweeping the teams. We were sweeping the other teams. They called me Dirk. The names are great. There was a white boy that used to run. He was super athletic. They called him the White Knight. Like, I mean, they have this great name.

You know, I didn't get a name. I didn't get a fucking name. So, you know, it was just Cox. I tried to push, I tried to push chainsaw. They were like, Cox. It's, no, it's not going to happen. Maybe paperclut. You're like, Connie.

Yeah, West, trying to give your own name. Yeah, no, you can't, you can't, you can't name your own. I tried, I tried to push, I've tried to push for like a month or two. They were just, everybody's like, bro, stop, stop, it's embarrassing. And, you know, I tried to do the black thing, like you walk by a guy and they go, you know, hey, Cox, what's up? I go, I can't call it. And they go, stop, stop.

I go, what? They go, don't, I know you're trying, bro. Not organic. Yeah, I'd be like, no, I thought I'd really pulled that off. Yeah. It sounds even worse. It sounds, you sound even more white. Do you know what?

If you want to sound cool when you get a black greeting, I learned this, greet me. Say, say, what's up, Mitchell? What's up, Dirt? What's up, Dirt? Nah. No, no, or shit. Or, yupp. Literally.

Right. How's it going? Yep. That's what you do. That's like, that's the, then the, damn, that motherfucker don't give a fuck. I don't need to know that. Hopefully that, that's not going to be. I don't need that for the next time.

So, but this kid, so this guy talks to me, right? So the next day, he goes, we got to go to the. the yard tomorrow and i was like okay so we go out to i go okay so we go out to the yard and they literally they had like like karaoke tuesdays and so there was more punks on the low than in the medium oh yeah and they would get up and they would do karaoke like they're singing madonna there and they're into it and there would be massive crowds yeah and you know there's guys selling slices of pizza they're selling hot dogs they're selling sodas they're walking around they got a big ice thing with soda in it that they've they've taken like shirts or pants and they've knitted you know they'll cut the

pants leg off cut them sew them together and then knit them together so and make a satchel for ice and they got ice and you know it's genius yeah it's amazing so it was like a fucking carnival and then there are they're singing they're doing comedy shows they're doing they got bands they got bands that you're like how are you not the record deal how are you not doing this on the fucking street. Like this is this is better with shittier equipment and this is better than any concert I've ever seen. Yeah. And yet there's a lot of that in the feds. There's a there, there's a lot more enterprising in the feds it seems like too. Don't you think? I haven't been in the state, but it sounds like you're you were fucking having a, you know, blast. Yeah. No, I did.

I wasn't having a blast, but I'm just saying in terms of like economy, prison economy. There's more money. There's more money in the feds. And it feels like they're, you know, and it feels like they're let more shit happen. I can be wrong about that? It depends on the prison. It depends on the prison. Yeah. But I do know this is just from what I've heard because I've never been to California.

But California federal, it's kind of like California state prison is a different animal. Different animal than any other state. Yeah. And then California federal prisons from what my buddy Pete said, because he's been in, he did probably 20 years in California state prisons, he's like, there's just an ungodly amount of money. He's like, I mean, like what I can charge $500 for doing legal work in Coleman. He's like, you're getting $3,500. He's so filled with cartel guys and money being sent.

And it's such a part of their culture to support these guys. And they all know they're going to prison. So they've all got money sitting out there. And they know we put money on here. They go in. They're putting money on six guys' books. Their lockers packed. They're living like a king.

And they're paying big money for. Yeah. For everything. Right. Dope. Cigarettes. legal service. Yeah, I was going to say

vastly different. You know what's kind of like and I will get right back to this because I want to finish obviously your store. And I don't know if you notice this in the state that black guys, at least in the feds, their family will drag their kids out to see them. Oh, yeah.

They'll put money on their books. Like their family supports them when they're in prison. If you're a white guy, a middle class white guy, you get very little support. Because it's a, well, it's a part of their culture. It's a part of their culture. Yes. And it's more normalized.

And I would argue that's, there should be more shame. Not to say black people, their families do feel shame when one of their children goes to prison for sure. But it is just a, it's a more normal part of the community. They have an uncle or a brother or a cousin who's been locked up before. So when it happens to their kids, yeah, they, they, it is just a thing they do. And, like, my parents came out to see me all the time, but we didn't drag, we didn't talk about it. I didn't, they didn't, they're not telling their friends. They didn't give updates to their friends.

They didn't give updates to the, to the extended family. You know, it was like a very insular, you know, embarrassing thing for them. Yeah. And I honestly think that that's kind of what keeps middle class people from committing crime is the, is the taboo of it. I really think embarrassment is a big, it's a reason that people stay on the straight and arrow. Yeah, I can see that for sure. It's the reason middle class people don't cheat as much, like on their spouses, as opposed to like super rich people.

They just have more options. It's just more accepted in the culture. And perhaps, you know, lower class people, the same thing. But yeah, no, I think you're totally right about that. So when you were getting out of prison, did you know when you were getting out of prison, did you think I want to do comedy when I get out? Because you live in L.A., right? Yeah, I live in L.A. I got released early 2012 out of some tiny little camp on the Oregon coast, beautiful little piece of land. It's not even in a prison anymore. I knew that I was

going to L.A. immediately. I didn't know that I was going to do comedy, though. I thought it was going to be writing and acting. Why did you think that? Because you have written some screenplays and You thought you, why did you think that out you were going to be successful? Because that's where, well, delusion. Okay. But also, I was like, oh, this is a thing that clearly people will pay money for. Right. TV networks, movie studios.

I can provide them something. It was like an economic decision. Right. I was like, yeah, I don't know. Hopefully I could become an actor. But writing is like, that's that essential thing that drives. They always have to have content. But I didn't know what content was, though.

This was like before the internet dominated anything. Is this like, is this like, um, the stuff you were writing, was it, was it fiction? It was like, it was all like crime, drug shit relay. It was all sucked. It's all in the, you know, in the, uh, the back of my closet somewhere with all my other scripts that never got picked up. You know what I mean? Um, it's all, it was all based around that. It was fiction, but it was like sometimes loosely based on my story, sometimes based off stories of, of other people that I heard.

Yeah, yeah. Talk to me. Good story. but I'm going to alter this or the guy won't get killed or he'll get shot, you know. Yeah, and it was like it's, I didn't know the odds. The odds of actually getting a movie to go. And then I got, and I very quickly, when I was in L.A.,

the golden era had already passed by 2012 when I got there. You know, studios were bankrupt. They were only making tent pole franchise movies. What's that? Like Superman, tent pole. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just big. I can sell lunch boxes.

and I can get a universal theme park. Exactly. $300 million budget. It's only going to the Chinese. They're all only Chinese people are watching this, right? So, uh, influencers started to become a thing pretty quickly. So I was like, eh, this feels like a job. This feels like, A, it feels impossible and B, it feels like even if I became a writer in a

writer's room, uh, you know, at NBC, that's like a job. Like I want to be like, I want to be a rebel. I want to be an artist. And so I'm like, fuck it, let's try. And I would go into these acting classes and I would just fuck up. I would kill. I get huge laughs. And so my acting teachers encouraged me to go do standup.

So that's how it began. So I said, okay, fuck it. Let's go do it. And that was 2014 and, you know, have a look back. So what happened because I saw a video of getting me getting attacked? Yes. That's my first viral video. It's got crazy millions and millions and millions of views.

And listen, when I was. watched it. Like, I don't know who you are. This was when it was going viral. Like, I don't know who you are. And somebody sent it to me and everything. And it's when you, you like, I do remember you like basically said, oh, you must have snitch to the guy. And I thought that, I thought, oh, that's a bad move. And then didn't you get it? The guy next to you know, he's up on stage come at you. And I thought, yep, I knew that was a bad. As soon as you said it, I thought, oh, I wouldn't say that. Dude, is, what you call a black guy a snitch in a room full of other black guys? Oh, no. He's got to do something. I thought it was a Mexican guy.

I know it was, he was, he was, he might have been like a Dominican. He was, he was, he was black. He was blackish. Um, and it was like a ghetto fucking show. It was a show like, all the more reason not to say that. Yeah, no shit, but I was off an edible. Like, I'd taken an edible earlier. And that's the reason my reaction speed too.

Like, I didn't immediately just start swinging on him because I'm like, I was so, it was like such an out of body experience. I'm like, is that guy really rushing the stage right now? He's not really going to put his hands up, whoop. And he had my collar. I was like, that's when I sobered up, you know?

And you don't see us, but we're like hockey wrestling off, off camera. Yeah. You hear like a bunch of, yeah. Well, dude, I had,

I was killing so hard. I was embarrassing that guy. Like he was, I was the victim. Like he was, he was, people were telling him to shut the fuck up. Like,

and I was, I was just, the easiest crowd work is when a buffoon like that is yelling shit out. You just, jujitsu. them. And he was just, I was just embarrassing him in front of his group. Hey, so what did you want to talk about? Well, I want to tell you

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Roll. And so we're resting on the ground. I pull his hood over his head. I'm like trying to like, you know, fucking punch him in the side of the head, right? It's just mayhem. The black guys, other people in the audience come over and they start like stomping them. That's what you don't see on camera. Because they, because he ruined the show.

Yeah. And I was killing and they loved me. So as soon as I went viral like that and then I cut it, I clipped it. Because that was like a six minute long interaction. And so I clipped it. a different way, like with different reactions, threw that up. That's still got like 10 million views. So I was like, how dope. I started to make a little bit of YouTube money. And I'm like, what can I do as a podcast that's different, right? Everybody's got a comedy podcast. There's no,

there's no getting ahead doing that shit. Is this 14 or 15? No, bro. This is 20. This is now I got attacked. And Brian, what year was that? 2020. Early 22. Oh, because the Chris Rock thing happened a week after the Chris Rock, uh, Will Smith slap happened a week after. Okay. I got that happened to me. So it was perfect timing. So, um, so that was like early 20, 22. And then, uh, a couple years ago. Yeah, exactly. And so I'm like, and I've been podcasting like slogging along with like a couple thousand views of video and just it wasn't, I was good at it. It was just, it was just comedians. It was comedy. It was comedy. Yeah. And it was like ban on the street stuff, prank stuff. I was like looking for my voice, you know, but I was like, okay, I'm good at podcasting, though.

Like, this is like something I do well is speak, you know, it's one of the few things I have a knack at. And so I was, I would watch these like drug videos and prison videos in my YouTube algorithm. What about like the like the prison type genre? Yeah, exactly. Like, and but then I would also see and they were all like really shitty. They were made on like an iPhone. Yeah. Some, you know, Cholo, a bunch of tattooed teardrops.

is like telling me about the craziest shit he saw in a Mexican prison. Right. And but would have millions of views. And I'm like, interesting. And then I would see like Vice News. It would be like some guy from Oxford would be like,

the Sina Loa Cartel. Right. He'd be like trying to tell me. But I'm like, wait, fuck him. I've been with the Sina Loa Cartel. Like I could tell you about it. Right. And so we kind of like married the two.

And that's when I started doing these videos. That's how I started the Connect. Okay. And so we just started, you know, Brian sitting over there. he's my editor and producer, we just started putting out these, like, weekly videos just talking about my story, but weaving them into like a larger, like historical context about like drug trafficking and like what it's really like in the system. And, you know, it did well.

It took off. So now we, now we interview people and we're spitting off doing other stuff. And, you know, it's leading a whole, whole lot of different unique opportunities. When you did Danny, so you had started the podcast by the time you did Danny's. Danny? Danny, Jay. I love that. Oh, yeah. Oh, concrete.

Danny, that sounds familiar. Oh, yeah. And he's in Tampa. He's your competition, dude. He's on the other side of town. He's, he's doing great.

He's doing great. You know what he does now. Talk about, like you said, finding your voice, right? Like, he literally has shifted from real estate. No, for first start, little, these mini documentaries that did. To real estate, because he had a real estate guy that used to come all the time, to kind of true crimeish.

And now, in the last year, it's been almost exclusively UFO conspiracy theory. And he's everything he puts out, 300, 400, you know, half a million, a million. Totally. No, he's great. He's, yeah, I did concrete. That was the first big podcast I got on. He changed it to Danny Jones. Yeah, it was the Danny Jones show now. It's, do we need to get that? What the fuck's here? Is this the feds? Oh, God.

I got a show tonight. Anybody got warrants? So I started the Connect in September of 2022. By the time I did Danny's show Concrete, which is now the Danny Jones show, in December, we already had 300,000 subscribers. So it was pretty, it was pretty insane growth. And then two months after that,

Brian and I went out and filmed in, you know, started doing kind of documentaries, influencer documentaries where we're doing other people's stories, went out to New York, did Andrew Schultz, the flagrant podcast, which has like two, two million views now. That was so much fun. Yeah, we went down to Mexico and, you know, interviewed some cartel guys, did a whole documentary about, like, how the cartels actually have, like, dispensaries, weed dispensaries now in certain pockets of, in certain areas of Mexico, because we're about to be very soon, they think, legal in Mexico, which they're totally correct about. Yeah, you know, got on some other big shows, but really just like, we keep, we just keep our foot on the gas. And now, now we're launching another

channel. We have a movie. Now I'm actually pitching movies that could get made. That's the ironic thing it's like all coming back now like all these years later now i'm like in studios in meetings with jews you know oh my god so i got so many jewish surnames in my phone right now working for me and with me so it's uh it's been an incredible uh it's been an incredible journey so but i'm still out in a florida suburban tract home doing doing the lord's work so So what, real quick, so the movies that you're pitching are, is it your story you're pitching? Or is it just no, no, no, no. It's a combination of people that I've met and had on the Connect.

Oh, okay. We're getting the wildest interviews. We're meeting the people with the most insane stories. And they just don't have connections to the system. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, no. It's like when I was in prison, like writing these guys, like they can't write their own stories.

And then even if they got out, they don't have the temperament. Right. put it together. They're illiterate, but they wouldn't put up with the, nor would they put up with the shit I put up. Like, they're not going to, they're going to be at a meeting and fucking come over the table where I'm like, okay. Can you imagine unique and being told no, our friend unique? He's a very cantankerous, Jamaican, former crack kingpin. Like him being given notes. Yeah. Just by us was a nightmare. Just for us to be like, hey, could you say that again would it would trigger like almost violence so for him to like yeah go through the

year long years long process of actually like getting a movie to market would be pretty difficult pretty untenable so so that's so yeah I'm very very excited about all that but you know the anchor of all this is the podcast and the content right right that's that's and you know that I'll probably be doing real estate soon I'm moving to Florida bro I'm moving to Miami suck my dick. I fucking love it out here. I really do. Do you? Yeah, yeah. I do. I love Florida. I love, like, I love Florida. But a lot of people like, you know, well, you're not really from L.A. They can't imagine living. I could never live. I couldn't live anywhere else. It's like, really? Yeah, but that's all changing. If you look at the demographics, a lot of people are moving to Florida and Texas. It's all the rich people that are moving. You know what's saying? Is that right? Yeah, I feel like they're all like those are the ones making videos saying, I'm leaving. Right. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. I'm. I'm getting it. I'm. I'm at 50% of my income is going straight. Those are the $5 million a year rich people,

five to $10 million a year. Right. You know, the ultra-rich, they're still in California because they're so rich. They don't really pay taxes. When you're in, well, yes, or whatever, but if you live in Montecito where Oprah lives, you're completely cut off from the consequences

of your political party, right? You're not around homeless people of San Francisco. the tenderloin. You're not around, you know, the graffiti everywhere in L.A., the trash, the homeless. It doesn't affect you. So you could just say, yeah, compassion, more money, more Democrats. It's like the, like I was saying about the, yeah, of course, give them $20 an hour. Well, of course, it doesn't matter. Yeah. You're making $5 million, but you're telling the IRS that you're making $100,000. So you don't care that, you know, you're at least laborable.

Your companies that are making that money are in this state over here. Sure, sure. There's so many. It's so funny because like the more. rich you get, the less percentage of taxes you pay. You think it would get bigger, but it doesn't. It depends. But if you're, if you're making a million dollars a year as a high paid attorney, and you live in Cali, you're really getting bent over and whacked out for half of your shit. So that those are the people that are like, I can't stand it. Yeah, those are the ones who are leaving. Yeah. Listen, I mean, yeah, Florida's great. The only problem is the heat. And honestly, how much time do you spend outside? Yeah. I like being outside.

But I'll be on the water. So where you, where, are you going to move to Miami? No. Oh, but maybe, maybe. I honestly, I don't know. I have to, wherever I go, I have to bring Brian with me. So we're going to try to get him out here. But Brian doesn't like, the problem is he burns easily.

And he's not, he's a very like liberal guy. He doesn't like the politics. He is kind of ginger. He's super ginger. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know if I can get him out here. But you know what? He'll just work remote.

I'll hire another team. I am moving to Miami for a couple of years. I feel like I feel like that that's the incentive. I have one more like adventure in me. And I think Miami, you know, before I'm like married and settled down, I think I want, I want a Miami experience. But I could just be romanticizing it. But I'm also curious to know, were you already doing comedy when you started selling drugs? Or how did that?

No, no, that started when I was in prison for selling drugs. Oh, okay. Yeah. So look, I don't have that remarkable. of a story. My channel blew up because of, you know, the flashiness and the, you know, the, whatever it was. Well, you also all. My charisma, other people's stories. Because of the comedy, this is what I was telling Colby, um, before you came here. I said, well, the thing is, I said, because of the comedy thing, I said, he was able, he ended up getting on a bunch of big podcast. Yes. For comedians. I said, so,

you know, I said, you have a story. You go on a podcast. It's got three million subscribers. I said, your channel's going to blow up. Like, that's going to be a huge draw. And, you know, Well, you know what's funny is that. And you're funny. I also said that. I said, and he's funny. Well, I appreciate that. What we found out is that our channels got most of its growth. Like, yes, flagrant with Andrew Schultz was amazing, kind of life-changing, Tom Segura. But we get the most of our growth just through the videos, just through our own videos organically, which has been pretty cool. Like, that's kind of bragging rights, you know. It's very hard to go on somebody else's platform now. It's not like going on Joe Rogan back in 20. 2018 when podcasting was still like a relatively like infant industry there's tons of them now now there's so many of them so somebody could go you can go on somebody's shit and they really like you

and they're like oh man this guest is great he killed it but to get them to go over to your page right because it when especially when they're so dialed in like your fans they're so dialed into you and you have so much content every week they might love me but it's a big stretch to ask him to then like go commit to me. It's like families almost, you know. So, but the comedy definitely led all of this. Right. Just having a background, you know, 10 years of stand-up comedy before I started

doing The Connect was big because then it just, there's a lot of, there's a lot of abilities that you hone when you're, you're going through the brutality of learning how to do stand-up comedy. It was hell. Yeah, I was just like, life was bad for a lot of years. Life was very good in my younger years, very bad for a pocket of years after that. And now it's good again. Because you're so old now.

I was going to say, well, one, I always mentioned this to, so this actually came up one time. So I went to L.A. one time. And I was supposed to be on Kill Tony. And you have to stand up and do a one minute. And keep in mind, this is Tyler. Tyler. Yeah. He calls me, he's like, oh, hey, it's great.

I got you on Kill Tony. It's kind of cool. you know I do a good Tyler right he's like you know that I'm like well what is that and he's like so he sends me some stuff and I look at I go okay well what's what's what's what are these people doing up front like are these are comedians he's like oh no that's something you're gonna have to get up for a minute and do a do a a routine I was like what oh you're funny it should be easy I said no that's not easy bro I said that's not easy he's like oh you're smart you're figured out I said no no no I said you know you I said you have to really know what you're fucking doing oh but you're funny

He said, no, funny talking shit to another guy. And every once in a while, you're funny, is different than standing up and trying to make people laugh, you know, on cue. I said, no, no, no, no. Now, but I was supposed to go on the show. Luckily, I, at the last minute, like, I had a time. I had a problem because, like, I was meeting

with a producer and he changed the time and I had to back out. Nice. And I was fucking, I never been so fucking relieved. Don't you love that, dude? Because I've had times I was supposed to go and kill Tony that have just not fallen through. And I'm like, oh, it's the greatest day ever.

And the reason I think I was so nervous was I had watched Barbara Walters. You know Barbara. Yeah. Okay. So Barbara Walters, when she was retiring, was being interviewed herself just before, like, it was the last interview, and they were interviewing her. And she said, and I mean like this, like she was ready for it. Sorry, she might have broke.

She might have even had it prepped. The woman said, you've interviewed a lot of people. She was, what do you think the smartest group of people, you've ever met, you know, were. And she goes, comedians. Wow. Just like that. And she goes, comedian.

She's like, you've interviewed doctors, lawyers, scientists. She said, yeah, and they're smart. She said, but comedians are fast. She said, you really have to be smart to have that level of, you know, to be able to put something together that's comical that quickly. She says, they're very sharp. She was, and I think that takes a real gene. genius that people don't, basically she said that people don't realize. And I remember thinking,

fuck, like I really started paying attention after that and I realized it because people are always saying, like, you should be a comedian. No, bro. No. Yeah. Comedians, there is a genius quality to the best comedians. The, but the intangible is the is the narcissism and the self-hatred. Right. Most people are content to just be funny with their friends. And if they're at a cocktail party, they get one off, they get a big pop, feels nice. And then you go back to your life. Comedians are like, oh, no, no, no, I need to make thousands of strangers in theaters and nightclubs four times a weekend around the country just to feel satisfied.

Like, what is that? And I have to be cocky and arrogant enough and narcissistic enough to stand on a stage and be willing to do, like that. That is, like, that's extreme confidence, which, which, you know, let's face it, all narcissism really comes from a deep-seated insecurity. That's right. But, yeah, that's ballsy. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to just hold myself up to ridicule and know

that I can take it. And the gall, you're right, the gall to think that you are worth it, like on the market to go to side splitters where I'm going to be tonight and make, you know, most of them, some of them will be fans, but most of them will be strangers who owe me nothing. Yeah. And it's like, okay, now we're starting from zero. So the material has to stand on its own. Yeah.

And that's why it takes so long. You can't just go write a minute and perform it and kill it. It's a craft. So you're still doing comedy and you're doing the connect. Doing the connect. And then we're launching other media from the connect. We're launching like ancillary YouTube content. But I can consider myself more of a influencer now.

And yes, the standup is growing. little by little, you know, selling more tickets on the road. But I got to be honest with you, I don't like, I'm not in love with the lifestyle of being on the road every weekend. Right. And like even if I were selling out, you know, big time talking like 40, 50, 60,000 weekends, uh, I think that would grow old quickly. I don't like being in airports.

I don't like, I'm too tall. Six foot six. So I, I'm not really built for. Fame. You know what I mean? My heart just breaks for you. I know, I know, right? God, what fucking... I got blonde hair, blue eyes. I'm tall. Life is so hard.

I sound like the pretty girl. I sound like the fucking... I sound like the bimbo in high school. But it's, it's, I don't love that. So I think like, I think comedy will always, for the most part, be like a localized thing to either L.A. or New York. Right. And then pick, select my markets. Florida's a great market.

okay why just the money's good or yeah yeah the money's good people come out okay it's a culture where people like like coming out to not in miami so much um they're too mostly too dumb to get comedy i mean it's wild to think tampa's a lot smarter than that you know what i mean but it's uh and also you know there's not much political correctness here right like you the people like balls to the wall comedy which i appreciate well it's funny is is people will ask me well you know know, oh, you're, so you're in, you're in Florida, you're, whatever. I'm like, yeah, I'm in Central Florida, like, and they'll go, well, yeah, I've been to Miami. I'm like, yeah, I'm not really in Miami. And they're like, well, it's the same, well,

it's still Florida. I'm like, no. I'm like, Miami, if you're driving in Miami, you put your blinker on, there's no fucking chance anybody's letting you in. It's not going to happen. You know, if you pull over and you're, you got a flat tire, nobody's stopping for you. You better figure it out. So I said, in Tampa, you put your blinker on, maybe three cars and somebody's going to be like, get in, you fucking idiot. But they're going to let you. But they're going to let you in. If you're an old person, you've got a flat tire, they're going to pull over and fix your tire. I don't know what you're doing.

You're not going to be super sweet about it. But they're going to be like, you don't know what you're doing. I got this. Yeah. Yeah. Miami is Latin America, more than it is Florida. Don't you think? Oh, yeah.

Definitely. They all speak. Listen, I've been in restaurants. They don't speak any English at all. And they don't try to. Yeah. They don't have to. No.

But I mean, they can see you're not an English speaker. Yeah. And they don't give a fuck. No. And the service is like. Latin American service. Bad, poor. Again, people's heart breaks for us. I know. So, I was okay, so you think, so what are you, are you thinking you're going to stick with, I mean, you're just going to grow the connect, right? Like that's got to be the goal, right? Of course. Well,

you know what? Like, it is the goal, but I'm actually, our two-year plan is to, move out of the crime space a little bit, to where it's not so, it's not so hyper niche, that you have to do that at the beginning now to get ahead on the internet because everything is niche. Like, there's no way you can be broad unless you're already famous, right? Right. So, but I would like to, I would like to get into more current events and politics. So we're, we're doing some of that right now. We're like launching that. Seems dicey. Soft launching. Um, but not, but I don't take. any like real hard political stance. I'm talking about like the news. Like I want to give a take on

Ukraine. I like that shit. I've always been into, you know, I'm a college boy. Yeah. So I'm a little deeper than just talking about meth. But, but yeah, no, and I think, but look, anything can happen in this game in the, in the media space. So if, if comedy suddenly breaks, I'll probably go with that. Yeah, yeah. I'll probably put, put less attention into this. Because you kind of have to go what's working. I was going to say, like to me, I'm an opportunity. If this is failing, like I'm not going to go down there with shit. It's failing.

This is where I'm making my money. I need to focus on that. And there have been, you know, since I got out, a prison, like, there have been times when, like, when I first got out, I was painting. That was paying all my bills. But then it slowly shifted to, you know, to YouTube. Right. So, you know, now I don't do any painting.

Right. Why would I do painting when this pays all my bills? Right. And if you weigh how much money, more money you can make interviewing people as a opposed to painting, you know, there's, there's no comparison. No. You were painting paintings? Yeah, yeah. Oh, you can't even see. We sold all those. Well, um, yeah. Did you see the paintings on this wall when I walked in? No. I was just, I was too busy, like, making sure this wasn't a, like a trap to sell us into, you know, sexual slavery or something. I have paintings. I paint,

like real, I have a degree in fine arts. That's right. That's the big joke. Yeah, you put paintings. We read your bio. You would be, you would put paintings in your, you would put paintings in your, houses to inflate the mortgage inflate that that that's the that fucking listen we're going to talk about that though that what let's save that for mine Wikipedia is such bullshit well you got a wiki page bro you're making it yeah um the uh yeah the Wikipedia page you know they they twist everything so it's like I like painting I like painting murals so you know you get a house like if if when I was committing fraud like fraud's not a full-time job all right you're working 15 hours you know maintaining multiple frauds you're working 10 15 hours

So I would paint murals on the walls and it wasn't really to boost the value. The boosting of the value was the fraud. I'm recording the value of this house at five times what it's worth. That's what boosted that paint, that mural doesn't do anything. Okay, so let me ask you this, because we were talking about this off pod. Trump, obviously, I think that he lost his civil suit for like $400 million out in New York because they said he was inflating the book club on Monday. Jim on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday

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Value of his real estate But as a we already said, you have the right to try to get the most for your assets. So at what, at when does it become fraud versus when do you versus just delusional? Like, hey, buddy, your building's not worth $800 million. I don't even think it's delusional. I think what happens when you take an application is they say, what do you think this, this property is worth? And you go, I think it's worth $800,000. Now, I can think it's worth. I'm not an appraiser. you ask me what I think. I think it's worth, you know, what's the value of it? Well, I think the value is

$800,000. That's fine. Yeah. So let me put it this way. When, when Hillsborough County values my house and I bought it for $380,000 and they say your house, the land and the property is worth $200,000. Are they defrauding me? What if I bought it for $100,000? They said, oh, it's worth $250. Are they defrauding? Would I get an appraiser that comes in and says it's worth $110? Right. Do we get to sue them? No. So, you know, It's subjective. He with the gold makes the rules. So you say it's worth 800,000. They go, okay, we're going to double check that to make sure we're not going to take your word for it. So we're going to send our own guy out. And we're going to go with what we think it's worth. They may have come out and said, you know what? It's actually worth 850. You know, what if they had said that? Are they lying? Am I lying? Do I get a points for that?

You know, what happens is they send somebody out and they go, okay, actually, Mr. Trump, unfortunately, we think it's worth 700 million, not 800 million. So we're going to go with 700 million. But we'll do this and this. And then they try and get the deal. He says, okay, I'm fine with that, and that's it. Yeah. Like, that is normal everyday business in real estate. You're not lying when I think it's worth this. There may have been different things. He's not an appraiser. He may have just said, well, you know, that hotel sold for this two years ago.

That one sold five years ago. We have more rooms. And ours is newer. And we did some renovations. Honestly, I think mine's worth a $800,000. Like, he's just, it's just a. How many times do on Shark Tank, do people go in with, valuations. And then Mr. Wonderful goes, oh, you're crazy. Right. I guess you got to arrest all

those people. Yeah. All those people tried to commit fraud against each one of them. So you're fraud. And there was no victim. No, there's no victim. Nobody lost money. The bank's thrilled with. Right. Right. So where's the fucking victim? Well, that's the whole big lies. Like, what about the prime, the prime mortgage, right? Prime mortgage? Subprime mortgage. That, that's like a bigger crime because you're you're no you're knowingly overvaluing and letting people run with that kind of credit right you know so it's like it's like the crime of enabling yeah well that the trump thing you know my stance on the trump thing it has nothing to do with trump if it had been Biden and he was in the same situation i'd be like what are you talking about like i don't give a

shit that it's trump i'm saying you can't that's bullshit you can't say like that that that is you're you're creating a fraud and you're and in this case you're only commitment creating a fraud to try and penalize somebody because you have a political motive against it. So I didn't believe it. I didn't believe I heard weaponization of the justice department back and back before COVID and I was like oh this guy this month I fell for the propaganda and I'm not like some super liberal guy but like I'm from Oregon you know Democrat all my life. I'm like this is this is crazy. I fell for Russia gate and now it's like is plain as fucking day. Isn't it isn't it funny though how many isn't it funny like if you go back and look at all the insane shit that he said

and you're like because at the time i'm thinking when he's like oh there's china virus and china i'm like what's with this dude well it came out of the when wuhan uh this and you know Wuhan lab and it's like nobody's saying that what are you talking about two years later this it it was from china it was the you know was he eloquent no i love the the comparison when Obama comes out and talks about how, I forget what the name of the terrorist they killed. He's like, they've got a comparison between Trump coming out and talking about it, where Obama comes out and he says, you know, he says, Udab, Sunanami, you know, was very presidential, high value target. He was executed. He was this. He was taken out. He was taken out. Right. Very simple, very elegant. He sums it up. And then they

have Trump come out. You know, Ubabo, Sudako, do, they killed him. like a dog he he and it's just like hilarious it is hilarious wild but it's like you know is he presidential no he's not but i'm okay with his policies well he's but our country has always had an appetite for populism Andrew Jackson had a lot of that Trump thing where he was like andrew jackson was is a was a monster right horrendous indian killer enslaver and all that shit But he was like, these central banks are fucking us. And he was talking to like poor people in the South who didn't own slaves. Right.

Right. He was, he was like the, the overreach of the federal government and the, he was talking about stuff like the weaponization of the military to take away your rights. America's always had a distrust of, you know, the elites. Right. Even though everybody wants to be an elite and should, in my opinion. It's way better. but so Trump's

Trump's actually not doing anything new but you're killing it it's not what you do it's how you do it it's funny what happened the other day this happened what months ago where they were passing was it California that was passing

like a fast food restaurants or they're gonna pay them all like $19 $20 an hour minimum yeah and and I went you know I just kind of I kind of heard it and I kind of laughed and my wife was like what's so funny I said what's funny is I said that hurts lower middle class people. And she's like, no, it doesn't. It's because they're giving

them more money and this and that. And I went, no, no, no, no, it doesn't. I said, it won't hurt somebody who's making a lot of money. Yeah. Because I said, they don't probably, first of all, they don't eat a lot of fast food. Secondly, even if they did. And it, and their, I said, a poor person's budget is, let's say, 15% of their, of their gross, 15% of their food. Their food budget. I said, and a rich person is maybe 2%. I said, so even if it jumps from 2% to 3% because of this hike, I said, the person at 15% just jumped to 25% or 30%. I said, so you tell me, who does that hurt? They're now spending 30% of their money to try and eat.

I said, so it doesn't hurt the guy that just jumped from 2% to 3%. I go, so they're laughing about it. They don't care. I know. Tax them to death. Right. But I said, but poor people here. I'm going to make $20 an hour.

And they're like, yeah. It's like, because you're not thinking about it. But now a Big Mac costs $15. Right. Right. Or a number two will cost you like $16.99. They're not, because they're not looking that far down the line. Well, I mean, economics is befuddling for most people.

Yeah. You know, like it's just while it's a science though. Yeah. Like this is what happens with markets. It's nobody's, nobody's screwing anybody from the top down. And these are how markets react when the cost of inputs go up, right? What is that par? What's the pyramid where it's the food pyramid?

No, no, no. Pyramid of Egypt? No, there's a pyramid. Pyramid scheme. No, there's a pyramid of, I forget the name. They've got a name for it. But basically it's like 90% of people are just trying to keep a food, keep a, feed themselves, keep a roof over their head.

Then the next one is they're looking for. And then 9% of the remaining 10%? Well, it keeps going up. The next level up is like they're just trying to, they're trying to save enough for retirement. And then the next one up is they're trying to build, you know, wealth for their family. And then the next one is they're worried about their legacy. And almost nobody ever gets to be. Those are, those are people that want to be president, senators. Nobody gets that high. Most 90% of, or it's like probably 70 or 80% or 80% of people can barely keep a roof and feed themselves. That's, that's when, so that's when, so of course, they don't, they're not thinking that far along. They're thinking, I got to get my check on. on Friday and cash it so I can pay my car payment before it's late and I get charged an extra $40 and like that's 80% of people. Yeah, it's like 70 or 80%. You got to look it up. We were part of the growing up.

I was part of the whatever the say 10% above that was or maybe like 15%. Right. You know. So it was so I grew up in like this very unique, you could call it like the last bastion of like like real like middle class America right which was cool how old are you I'm 38 so I grew up in the 90s in the 2000s okay um I'm just shoehorning and this into talking about me yeah I'm the king of transitions yeah I was in I was in the in the 80s so you know yeah um better time man I missed that the other is like excess like uh yeah they were still they were still I was going to

say there still was a solid middle class in the 70s and 80s and then by the 90s it starts to trickle out, you know, by 2000, it's shrinking and shrinking. Right. And people like my parents that started out, I mean, my dad was a lawyer, right? And people hear that and they're like, oh, you grew up spoiled. He showed me his receipts from like 92 when we moved into the house that I, that I basically grew up in. He was making 40 grand a year. Yeah. Most leaders don't make what they people think they make. Right. But 40 a year. And then my mom made another 40. You know, we lived in like, they were able to buy their house with a low interest rate, and that's now worth a million dollars. And they were able to save. And because they weren't burdened by all this inflation. They're boomers.

Where was this? Portland, Oregon. Okay. You know. And now, but so those people transitioned, they went from middle class to like upper middle class, you know, and they have millions now. And that was like, that, that's a very rare case where you're able to like grow, the stock market is growing. They were the beneficiaries of all of the money printing that really started to pick up in the 90s in the 2000s because everything just started going up and up and up and up and up and up. And the people that got in on the ground floor of having those assets are- Are boomers. Yeah. Did you have brothers and sisters? Yeah, one brother and one sister. So, you know, they got married. They had kids. They stayed together. Yep. They lived beneath their

means and you're basically you're basically guaranteed to to be able to retire with a million dollars and your house paid off and social security yep like because that's most people don't even realize that social security is designed for you to have a house paid off and social security will maintain you like a lot of people like that's why I hate it when like grant cardone these guys are like you should never buy a house it's like you're you're you're a jackass bro because most people have to have their house paid off by the time 65 they'll never fucking make on social security. Of course, never. So it's like 1,500 bucks a month. Yeah, it's bullshit. Right. So, so, so, but not Miami. Uh, so yeah, yeah. Uh, okay. So,

I feel like we're wrapping it up. Yeah. This is it. We covered some good ground here, Matt Cox. Two, so two hours? No, almost two hours. It's two hours total right now. The first 20 minutes, we probably cut out of 40 minutes. You got to just take the first 20 minutes and cut it and put it to the back. Okay. I can do that. Yeah. That way it's nice. It's a nice two-hour I want the extra, we've got to have the extra, and leave this in. You got to have the extra, I need the extra, we need the extra watch time. Yeah. It might be another 30 seconds of watch time.

Yeah. Yeah. Longer it is, I think the more they push it sometimes too. Yeah, well, I mean, if it's doing well, they're going to push longer videos. Yeah, we try to get, I mean, the longer the better because it's higher watch time. Yeah. We've got 25% like on average. Is it about 25% wash time? Is it?

Yeah, it's great. Yeah. I mean, 30 minutes, 30 to 40 minutes is like a two-hour video. That's great. That's about what we do. Yeah. Yeah. So that's not, unless Zach's on. Yeah. If Zach's on, my buddy, Zach, then it's 45 or 50%. Why, is he really hot? Fuck, no. He's a black guy that's just fucking hilarious. And people love him. Yeah. I mean, it's, he's one of these guys that I've been like, we started a channel. We literally have, we started a channel for him. We forced him. We came here, did a bunch of videos, put, on, put all the videos on my channel on his channel, like bent over backwards. Colby's working for nothing, editing videos, making thumbnails, like everything. And he just has no interest in it. And people love him. Yeah. But he's just not. The funniest, and we can wrap with this, that is exactly why the funniest people who are in prison, by the way, I mean, these black dudes, well, I'm, I'm, I've still to this day, and I've met some of the biggest comedians of the world, will never meet anybody as funny as these guys at the prison chow hall table.

Yeah. But they're just not, they're not comedians. They're just hilarious comic minds who have no, who have no desire. They're like, what? Why do I need to, I got to stand up comedy and podcast? What? Yeah. I got other shit to do.

And that's how most people think, you know? And also, unlike you, which I always, which I always get the guys in the comedy, I'm sorry, in the comment section, they're like, you know, why don't you have more subscriber? Johnny Mitchell's got almost a million. You know, this guy's got, it's like, don't, don't, don't compare me to Larry Lotton, okay, Larry Lotton's got, okay, fucking, that's a, listen, 99% of these fuckers, it takes years to get, you know, 20,000 subscribers. like just because you can pick out four guys that fucking blew up okay i'm grinding it out that's what i'm going to have to do yeah so um and that's okay that's how comedy's been for me i haven't been given anything in stand-up i've had to you know work my ass off um yeah i was gonna say it's it's just it's just you know you just got to just grind it out but i'm so i'm saying

but you if the the the subscriber base the views like honestly you got how many how many you put out two a week. No, we just put out one episode a week. One episode of a week. And how long are the... But we're putting out, we're launching a new channel. We're going, we're going... What's the other channel about? It's, it's going to be a crime, international crime news, drug news, mixed with politics, and it's just me, just videos. 15 minutes, you're getting, you're getting news about international drug trafficking, that you're not going to get anywhere else. But the main channel, you're going to try and kind of go Joe Rogan it, right?

I think, I think eventually, I think eventually, yeah, I, I tire talking about, you know, the same subject. Right. And, you know, my curiosity's got at limits when it comes to this space. Right. Well, you know, Michael Franzis, right? Yeah. So I just went out and did, and did his. And before we were talking about it, and he was like, you know, we talked about the mob genre and I said yeah these guys man they're just so you know they're so ingrained and they're so you know they're super super interested in it and he goes I know he said you know what but he said I'd be honest he said I just can't stand talking about it anymore yeah he's like I'm done yeah he said I've talked about it to exhaustion he goes I want to keep doing the podcast he said

but I'm going to start branching out he's like like you he said but I want to branch out into you know politics and you know he said you know he said a little bit more just get a little bit more broad so I can bring in other people that I'm interested in. He's because, you know, he's, you just, it's been talked to exhaustion. Yeah. And you do. You kind of get, it's kind of like, like, we're talking about, like, telling your story. Like, at some point, I sit down and people start asking, and it's, and I'm like, I'm sick of me. I know. I'm so sick of, I'm sick of, I'm sick of, I'm sick. Thank you. Six months or a year ago, people were like, do you ever get tired of? I mean, I'm like, no. But now the last few months, I've been like, I'm sick of me. Like,

I just can't, I tell this. I don't mind telling it. I didn't mind talking to Lex. but it was just open-ended. We just talked forever. It's always like, okay, can you do it in an hour? Can we go two hours? It just gets the same story. It's over and over and over again. I do feel like everybody's heard it.

And it doesn't bring in the views like it did. So I can get you. And the worst thing is, honestly, like, you're going to start another channel because you already have that subscriber base, that channel will be big. Maybe. Maybe. I mean, your channel right now has got to be killing it.

Doing pretty well. Yeah. Doing pretty well. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, um, Um, we, I mean, I know these guys take a chunk. I know this guy. Oh, yeah, I know. He takes a, he takes a very generous chunk. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, he earns every penny, but God, he bitches. Oh, listen, when they come in, when they come in, like, I'm ready to promise anything because I'm broken everything. And then it started making money, I was like, I'm paying this guy too much. Yeah. I got greed. All of a sudden I started thinking. Yeah. The percentages, the deal. The percentages I negotiated at the beginning would make one think that I had no confidence that it was going to work out. Me too. I mean, so, but, but skeleton crews, like, I, I thought for a minute, and I think he did too,

I'm like, yeah, we got to like bring, like, I want to like make like a network the way your mom's house out of Texas, you know, Tom Seguera, Christina P. You know, they just have like, it looks like a fucking television studio. You walk in there. You're like, this is CNN. I don't want all that. And I don't think it works really long term. And it's like, I'd rather operate with a skeleton crew.

just one or two solid people and then give all of the the thumbnails, the clipping, give it all of the Filipino twinks. All right. You can catch me at side splinters tonight. Being as racist as I want, I'm kidding.

From Portland, Oregon. Is side slitters on Dale Mayberry? Is it the one on Dale Mayer? It's the one in Tampa. I'm not sure. It's the old club. It's the first club. Now they have another one maybe.

Is it in Ebor? City? No. You're saying it's in downtown Tampa. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But anyways, this won't be out by then. It's all good. And I feel like, you know, you ever say something, you kind of feel like, fuck, I feel like I botched that. Yeah. All the time. But I, I guess I didn't botch it. Because, you know, I was just honest about it. And it was basically like, why should we make the, well, why make this movie? I was like, I'm, it's a great story. It's intriguing. It's interesting. I said, I think it's, you know, and it's also sellable, though. Like, like, like, look at the economics of it. Like, this is, it's a woeful Wall Street. Right. Like, Brian was

reading anybody, but there weren't anybody. But, but there wasn't, there weren't like individual victims. It's just banks. There are about four victims that had to pay an attorney like five grand, right. Right. Right. Right. But it's not like they're poor people that were being thrown out of their house. Right. Right. That's what Brian kept, he was reading me your, your bio, like your Wikipedia page as we were coming over here. And I'm like, yeah, he's just fucking over. banks. Gives his shit. And that's, so that's kind of what I said.

That's kind of what I said, you know, and I was like, you know, so I don't, I think he wanted something more in depth or more. I don't know. And I don't really have it. Like, that's just what it is. Yeah. I mean, just being honest and I don't have that. And I said, there's, I said, I mean, I know I'm supposed to say something about

redemption. You want to hear something about redemption. He's like, right. I said, there's no redemption. I said, I don't feel horrible about what I did. I said, I don't, I said, I mean, you know, I went to prison. I don't feel horrible. I said, and, you know, there's no.

Well, they need, when you write a movie script, you have to have some kind of, I mean, but look, Jordan Belford didn't really have a redemptive. There was no, there was no real arc. There was no real feeling bad. He just got caught. Like, it was just an incredible run. And then it ended. And that's what I mean.

That's what I said. I said, look, I said, there are redemptive qualities to it. Mm-hmm. if that makes sense. I said, but if I'm going to sit here and say, I'm a changed man and I'm this and I'm that. I said, I'm in, you know, I said,

I'm just not going to fucking lie about stuff and exaggerate and bullshit because I went to prison. Well, you were, I'm not going to go and math. Yeah, you were locked up for too long, so you're not going to do it again. Yeah, I'm not going to do anything that even remotely could get me in front of a fucking judge.

Right, right, right, yeah. You know, and I've got the guys all the time coming to me saying, you know, hey, bro, I'll pay you to give you five grand. If you'll just sit with me for a couple hours and tell me how to, for sure. I'm out of here, bro. You're just texting me. I'm already on the indictment. It's crazy. You just got me indicted. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. I get people emailing me like, hey, man, I love your podcast. I listen to it while I'm trafficking Coke across the interstate Canadian highway. Yeah. Love to be on your show. And then they leave their real name. And are you, how many are you doing? You're doing two a week? Or what are we? Four weeks. Jesus. Jesus. Fuck. That's all I do, though. Right. Yeah, I guess if you don't leave.

Yeah, I don't leave the house. I do three stream yards a week. Right. I do one in person. And now it's getting so, so, I don't even know what the word is. It's, you know, because we're over 200,000 subscribers and like, I don't want to say big, but whatever, because we're doing now when people, at least when they look at it, the numbers look good to them, right? They look at it. They're like, 200,000 subscribers. And then, what's the first few videos that people see? Because they only know what to look for. They're novice. So they're like, oh, 200,000, 300, 800,000. like, oh, I got to go on this. And then, so that way when they say, yeah, I definitely want to do it, um, if they say like,

hey, so what do you fly me in? I go, no, no, no, no, listen, bro, I don't, I don't, I mean, you can fly yourself in. You can pay for your own hotel. I'm sorry. I don't reimburse. I don't, we don't make enough money to do that. Yeah. You know, I have a business partner.

So, or I'm like, we can just do a stream yard. Now stream yards get 10,000 views. Some of them might get 200. Yeah, but if you're doing four episodes, it's just a different business model. Like, yeah, like you're, if you're banging out for. a week, like, you can take, two of them can be stream yards because it's at all, you're getting enough volume to where you could at least turn out a living. Now, where we were getting three, now it's two people coming in a week. Oh, wow. So that's what I'm saying is now they're like,

no, no, no, bro, I got it. I got a, no problem. I'll pay for it. I can. Yeah. Where before they were like, yeah, I'll just do the stream yard. You got 50,000 subscribers. Right. You know, but now they, and the great thing is, you know, they don't realize what they're seeing. Johnny Mitchell's a pro. I knew from the jump. I didn't care about views. I was like, we're not doing a fucking stream yard. We do, we pod in person. Yeah, but you planned two of them. I'm sorry about that. And I'm sitting there going, Tyler? Well, first of all, you have

been locked up a long time because you wake up early. You want a podcast at 10 a.m. I get up at 10 a.m. You know what I mean? What is the shit? I get up, my wife and I get up at four. It's crazy. And you're in bed by 10? No, by like 8.30. I'm old, probably 54 years old. over um okay so what are we doing let's get into it does you get all that okay okay it might be a clip or something but can I plug yeah yeah cool we haven't we just been

plugging we just plug it's true fucking can I plug plug um yeah well go watch the connect with Johnny Johnny Mitchell um yeah follow me on Instagram TikTok is very fun uh big on TikTok but I could use the the Instagram boost so if you want to find me me there. And then, you know, I'm going to start coming back on the road doing some more stand updates this year. So, so go check out the comedy. And, and yeah, a lot of fun, fun stuff coming out. Hey, I appreciate you guys watching. If you like the video, do me a favor, hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so get notified a video just like this. Leave me a comment in the comment section. Please share the video. Also, please consider joining my Patreon. I'm not rolling like Johnny is,

but so I need the extra, just the extra, you know, coffee money. It's like 10 bucks a month. it's really it's not that much so i really do appreciate it also we're going to leave all of johnny mitchell's um links to his social media and to the connect and if the new channel's out we'll leave that uh that link in there too it'll all be in the description box really appreciate you guys watching see you