MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Origins

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Today’s podcast will feature 3 stories about how a single decision changed the lives of the people in these stories, as well as millions of others lives around the world. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "One Man’s Trash" -- A woman finds something in her husband's office trash can that would change their lives forever (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qXHn2O7cY)#2 -- "Accidental Superstar" -- This person had a full blown "normal" career when something totally random made them an A list celebrity (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfcCindxhg)#1 -- "The Shiner" -- A man gets into a fight at a McDonald's the night before his big job interview (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXUyvt2tUGQ) You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my YouTube channel, just called "MrBallen" - https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today's podcast will feature three stories about how a single decision change the lives of people in these stories as well as millions of other lives around the world. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called One Man's Trash, and it's about a woman who finds something incredible in her husband's office trash can that would change their lives forever. The second story you'll hear is called accidental superstar, and it's about a man who has a completely normal career, but then something totally random happens that changes everything. And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Shiner,

and it's about a man who gets into a fight at a McDonald's restaurant the night before his big job interview. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, and you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do, and we upload four. four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays. So, if that's of interest to you,

please sneak into the Like Button's house and replace all of their very expensive and nice knives in their butcher's block with plastic cutlery. Okay, let's get into our first story called One Man's Trash. One evening, in the late winter of 1973, a 23-year-old mother named Tabby put her eight-month-old son and two-year-old daughter down for their naps inside of their double-wide trailer, which was parked in a small town in New England. Once her kids fell asleep, Tabby looked over at the clock. She was waiting for her husband to get home from his job as a high school teacher, and he was running late.

Tabby wondered, you know, what could be holding up her husband, and she certainly hoped he was okay, but she couldn't just call the high school to ask how he was doing because they didn't own a landline phone. They literally didn't have enough money to afford a landline phone in their trailer. In fact, they basically only had enough money to barely make ends meet. So Tabby and her husband actually had dreams of becoming professional writers, but they had found over the past few years that breaking into writing at this time in America was nearly impossible.

You know, they had gotten a few stories published here and there, but, you know, for the most part, the only thing their writing had gotten them was a whole bunch of rejection. And so as a result of this, both of them had taken day jobs to basically supplement the income that was not being generated from writing. Tabby was home with the kids, and then in the evening would work some shifts at a Dunkin' Donuts, and then her husband, in addition to being a teacher, also worked at a laundromat. But even with their three jobs combined, they barely made any money. Now, Tabby still held on to hope that, you know, maybe one day she could break in and be a professional writer and have that be her primary income. But her husband, who also, you know, had the same dream, was over time becoming increasingly

more pessimistic about his opportunity to, you know, one day just be a writer. He sort of felt like this truly was impossible, that they'd struggle forever and he wouldn't become a writer. Tabby walked to the tiny laundry room in the back of their trailer to switch their clothes from the washer to the dryer. So this room, the laundry room, actually doubled as her husband's office. And as soon as she walked back there, she saw his desk was a total mess. All around his typewriter, which sat right in the middle of the table, were all these empty beer cans and food wrappers and rejection letters from various magazines and publications, and the trash can next to the table on the ground was overflowing with crumpled up pieces of paper.

Feeling very annoyed by this mess, Tabby reached down to tie up the trash bag to take it outside, but as she went to do that, she happened to glance at one of these crumpled up pieces of paper in the trash, and she skimmed a couple of sentences that were written on it, that were typed on this paper. And as soon as she did, she stopped, because there was something really interesting about this writing. Now, she knew her husband had written whatever was on this page, but generally speaking, her husband always shared with her anything he had written, and she would read everything. And there was something about this text that she knew she had not read it before. Like, this was different. Clearly he wrote it, but she had not seen this before. And so she was curious.

So she pulled the paper out of the trash can and smoothed it off, and actually began reading what turned out to be this failed manuscript that her husband had thrown away, and she couldn't believe how good it was. And so it dawned on Tabby that clearly her husband had been working on this in secret, which made her wonder like, one, why are you doing that? Why are you hiding this particular thing from me when you let me read everything else? And two, again, this is so good. Why is it crumpled up and in the trash? Just then, Tabby heard the front door of the trailer open and her husband come inside. And so Tabby just took the page she was reading and walked out of the laundry room and she held it up to her husband and she was like, what is this? Why haven't you shown me this? And to Tappy's surprise,

her husband, when he realized what she was holding, just looked totally embarrassed. Like he wished she hadn't seen that. And she said to him, no, like, this is so good what's going on here. And her husband would tell her, look, like, I started writing this thing, you know, I didn't really know what it was going to become, but I quickly realized that I don't know enough about the subject matter and, you know, I'm just not talented enough to finish the story. And even if I was, like, this is too weird, it's too out there. No one would publish this. And so ultimately, he had just thrown it away and not told Tabby.

And in fact, he went on to tell Tabby that in addition to this being a failed project, he really understood at this point in his career that he was a failed writer. And right now, what he really needed to do was give up writing altogether and just focus on making money for the family, something they desperately needed. Tabby could see her husband was completely serious. And so she just held up this piece of paper and she said, no, this, this is the one. This is the one that's going to help you break through. I know it. And you know what? Even if you don't know the subject matter, I do. I can help you with that.

And together, we can make this a full-length novel. You've got to see it through. It's too good not to. And so at Tabby's insistence, that's what her husband did. He would spend several months working with Tabby to finish this novel, and by the spring of 1974, it was done. And so, that same spring, they began shopping the manuscript around to different publishers, really having no idea how anybody was going to react. But they were both totally blown away when one of the major publishers they sent this thing to came back and said, not only will we absolutely print this book, but we'll also give you a $400,000 advance, which in today's money is $2.5 million.

A massive, massive book deal by any standard. And so the young couple was totally thrilled. They took the book deal, the book got published, and with the money they got, they were able to move out of their double-wide trailer, and they were able to purchase a landline telephone. But that was only the beginning. Tabby's decision to pull that crumpled up piece of paper out of the trash can and force her husband to turn it into a novel would prove to be a good one, because her husband would go on to become arguably one of the most famous writers in the world.

That story that Tabby saved from the trash can would go on to become the iconic horror novel, Carrie. Tabby's husband was none other than Stephen King. Our next story is called Accidental Superstar. In 1964, during his final semester of college in Wisconsin, a 21-year-old man named Harry decided to take an acting class. He believed it would be an easy A, and he'd always been pretty shy, and so he figured this class might be able to help him get over that. But this class wound up having a much larger impact on Harry's life than he ever could have imagined. Not only did he meet his future wife in this class, but he also realized he loved acting, something he never thought he would like, and he decided after college that that was the thing he was going to pursue.

And so after he graduates later that year, he and his girlfriend get married, and then they fly out to Hollywood, California, where Harry auditions for Columbia Pictures' new talent program, which is basically this program that's designed to help new actors and actresses get parts in Hollywood because it's so hard to do that. And so he's accepted into this program. He signs a contract with them that pays him almost nothing. And right away, they start shopping him around for different parts in TV shows and movies. But nobody is interested in Harry.

Nobody. The only roles he was getting were incredibly minor and usually non-speaking. And so it was really not advancing his career. Then, in 1966, so two years after he and his wife had arrived in Hollywood, Harry received what seemed like his first big break. He was offered a speaking role in a movie, although it was a very minor role. It was a 60-second bit where Harry basically walked on screen in this hotel, and he started calling out for a particular guest.

And when he finds this guest, he walks up and gives him a piece of paper, and then he leaves. So it's a forgettable scene, but it's a real scene in a real movie. And so this was a big deal for Harry. And so after Harry goes over to the studio and he films his whole scene and it's all done, he goes back over to the headquarters of the new talent program at Columbia Pictures. And as soon as he goes inside, one of the producers that was in charge of this new talent program who had apparently had a chance already to see this 60-second scene in this movie that Harry was in, he calls Harry over and asks him to go up to his office for a second.

So the pair go up to his office, they both sit down. And the guy looks at him and says, Look, I just got to shoot you straight here, you're not going to make it in Hollywood. You're not going to be a movie star. When Tony Curtis was told to carry groceries across this room in one of his first movies, everybody knew right away as he's carrying those groceries that that guy, he's going to be a movie star. You could see it in the scene, even though all he was doing was carrying groceries. And when you did your scene as the bellhop walking around the hotel, I just didn't see it.

You don't have the X Factor. You're not going to be a movie star. For reference, Tony Curtis, the guy this producer was referencing, was a huge movie star in the 1950s and 1960s. And so Harry, after getting this horrible comment made about him, he pauses for a second, and then he leans across the table and looks at this producer and squints his eyes and says, you know, if Tony was such a good actor, shouldn't we have believed he was just a grocery delivery boy, not a movie star? And at this totally smart Alec remark, the producer fired Harry on the spot.

Harry would go on to sign a similar new talent program deal with Universal Studios, but again, he could not get a real part to save his life. And the feedback he finally got was, Harry, you're just not pretty enough and you're not really that talented. By the mid-1970s, Harry was in his mid-30s, and while he still aspired to be an actor and wanted to be an actor, he was making almost no money from acting. And so he decided, instead of acting,

he was going to become a carpenter. That was going to be his full-time job. Despite the fact, he knew nothing about carpentry. And so he literally, just because he has this interest in carpentry, goes to the library and checks out all these how-to-be-a-carpenter books, and over the next couple of weeks, he studies these books and does a couple projects around his own house.

And then finally, he just felt confident enough, or he was just desperate enough for money, that he began going around to his network and asking people in Hollywood if they needed some woodworking, if they needed help from a carpenter. And surprisingly, lots of people took him up on his offer and they hired him to be their carpenter. And before long, Harry was dubbed the Carpenter to the Stars, which was kind of ironic because

he actually was not a very good carpenter and he was regularly seen on the job literally holding a book, teaching him how to be a carpenter while doing the carpentry with his other hand. In 1976, Harry was a full-fledged carpenter and had been for about a year when one of his very close friends named Fred Ruse, who was a casting director and film producer, gave him a call and told him he had a very unique opportunity for him. Now, at this point, Harry was not looking for any more acting roles. He kind of figured that that ship has sailed, even though he wishes he could be an actor. At this point, he had a wife, he had two sons, and so he's thinking, I got to just keep doing this carpentry thing because I got to pay the bills. So he says to Fred, you know, I appreciate the

offer of whatever this is, but if it has to do with acting, you know, I'm just not interested. And Fred, who was one of the very few people in Hollywood who fundamentally believed Harry was destined to be a star, told Harry, no, no, no, this is different. This is not a pure go-out and try out for the part and hope for the best. This is like, put yourself in a good position, and maybe somebody will discover you're as talented as you really are. And so Harry's like, okay, tell me about this opportunity, you know, I'm interested. And so Fred explained there was this really talented and eccentric film director who was trying to cast upcoming movie. And the way he went about casting for movies was a little bit strange.

Instead of having each of the actors and actresses show up and individually audition for their parts, he would group batches of actors and actresses and he would have them audition as a group, because that way he could tell if there was chemistry amongst some of the actors and actresses, and he could gauge their individual talent. And so he had all these groups already planned out, but one of the groups was missing one male actor. Somebody had dropped out at the last minute and was not going to be there on the day of the audition. And so when Fred Ruse heard through the grapevine that this director was going to be short this one person, he immediately reached out to the director and said, hey, I got your guy.

There's this guy, Harry, he's done a little bit of acting, he's incredibly talented, you've got to give him a chance, you know, at the minimum, he can come in there and he can at least just read the lines and help you do this audition, but I know he's available that day and I know he would love to help. And so this director tells Fred, okay, thank you, I'd love to have him come down, but stressed to him, he is not auditioning for any part in this movie. I'm not bringing in some person and just throwing them in. It takes me a long time to find people that I want to audition, and he is not one of them. He is just there to facilitate the audition. He's just going to read the lines so the other people in his group can do their audition. And so after Fred stopped explaining

this situation, Harry was actually kind of annoyed. He was annoyed that Fred had basically already volunteered him, and so he couldn't really even say no without making Fred look bad, and he didn't like the idea that this was basically a waste of his time. He was being asked to go read lines, but not even try out. So how was this even an opportunity? But Fred told him, look, worst case scenario, you meet some pretty powerful people in Hollywood, this director's a big deal, the people there are going to be big deals in Hollywood, so you'll meet them and maybe they will recognize your talent, or maybe you get some new clients for your carpentry business, So no matter what, you get something out of it.

So finally, Harry says, okay, fine, I'll go do this thing. And so Harry goes to this audition, he's handed the script, and he's reminded repeatedly to not attempt to audition. Don't try to act, just read the lines. I don't care if you're monotone. You just read these lines because you're not auditioning. Everybody else is, you're not. Is that clear?

And Harry's like, yes, I get it. I'm just reading the lines. And so Harry sits down and he starts reading the lines, and he's trying to do what they told him to do, but the way he was actually feeling and his actual personality began seeping through. He started coming off as this really grumpy and sarcastic guy that just didn't care about anybody there. He was just totally bitter that he was in the situation he was in.

And apparently, this is exactly what the director was looking for in one of the characters he was trying to cast, that kind of nonchalant bravado, macho, alpha-type guy who just didn't care about anybody, And so over the course of the day, as he's reading the script over and over again, not caring at all about how he's performing. He's just simply reading these lines and just being himself. He was actually doing this amazing job portraying one of the characters.

And so they let Harry go the whole day. No one told him they were looking at him as a potential character. And then at the end of the day, when Harry was about to just throw the script in the trash and leave without talking to anyone, the film director, better known as George Lucas, walks up to Harry, better known as Harrison Ford, and says, wait a minute, I was wrong, you are perfect for this movie, Star Wars. You need to play Han Solo.

And so Harrison Ford said, all right, I'll play Han Solo. And that role as Han Solo propelled Harrison Ford into the megastar that we know him as today. A few years after Harrison had starred in Star Wars and he was this total A-less celebrity, he was at a Hollywood studio in one of their restaurants when one of the waiters walked over to him

with the silver tray, and on this silver tray was a single business card. So Harrison reaches over, he grabs the business card, the waiter walks away, and he looks at the card, and handwritten on it is the phrase, I missed my bet. And he flipped the card over, and it was the name of that producer from the new talent program that had called Harry into his office and said, you're never going to make it in Hollywood, and you're fired. It was that guy, and he had apparently sent the waiter over to make amends because he was eating lunch in the same restaurant. And so Harrison would later say in interviews that at the time he got this card and to this day that he was doing this interview, he said it gave him immense pleasure that when he looked

up from this business card and he understood the situation he knows this guy's in the room somewhere. As he looked around the room, he couldn't recognize the guy because he didn't know what he looked like. He was a nobody. And so instead of wasting any more time looking for this producer, he just looked at the card, chucked it, and went back to eating his lunch. The next and final story of today's episode is called The Shiner. One night in 2009, a 23-year-old man named Chris, along with his date, walked into a McDonald's in London, England. The following day, Chris had a very important job interview in the morning, and so this dinner in McDonald's was going to be the last part of the date. There were no plans beyond this.

This McDonald's was dirty, it was loud, it was packed with people, so not exactly a romantic location for a date. But this was all Chris could afford. In fact, he really needed that job the next day because he just didn't have much money. But for now, this was the best he could do. And so he put on his best smile and looked at his date like, is this okay? And she kind of looked back and smiled like, I get it. It's fine. We can eat here.

So they hopped in line and they waited, finally got to the counter. They ordered their food and their drinks. And then after receiving them, they turned around and looked for a place to sit down. But as they looked around, they saw every table was taken, literally every one. And so Chris and his date began looking for tables. where, you know, there were at least a couple of empty seats. You know, maybe somebody was sitting there, but they might allow Chris and his date to sit with them.

And so they began walking around, and eventually they would find a table where there was just this one guy sitting there. He was sort of minding his own business, you know, just eating his meal, he was not taking up the whole table. And critically, there were two seats at this table that were unused. And so Chris kind of tapped his date and pointed to the table,

and then the two of them walked over, and Chris very politely asked this guy, you know, hey, would you mind if we sat here too? You know, we won't bother you. you, we're just going to eat and we're going to get out of here. And the guy just kind of looked at them and he was like, sure, go ahead. And so Chris and his date, they sat down and they began eating and chatting and it was all fine. But as they were eating and chatting, Chris, his mind kept going to the next day.

You know, he had that big job interview the next morning and it was just really the only thing he could think about. In fact, he tried hard to focus on his date, but he was just so anxious about this interview that he just couldn't. And so he found himself not really eating and just kind of waiting for the date to be over so he could just go home, go to bed, and, you know, focus on tomorrow. But as he's sort of distracted and his date's chatting about whatever she's chatting about, he realizes the guy they're sitting with is no longer just looking at his food.

He stopped looking at his food and he's just staring across the table at Chris's date. And like the way he's looking at the date does not seem friendly. And so Chris realizes, okay, what's going on here? Did she say something? Did he say something? And so Chris kind of snaps out of his anxiety about the interview and he looks at this guy and he's like, what's going on? Because again, this guy's just staring at his date. And this guy, sort of unprompted, without even looking at Chris,

just begins insulting Chris's date. Insulting the way she looked, insulting the way she talked. And Chris is like, what's going on here? He's looking at his date? Like, did I miss something? You know, remember, he was sort of distracted a minute ago. But then eventually this guy, he says to Chris's date, you're an ugly pig.

And at this, Chris is like, I can't just sit here. And so Chris, who had actually never been in a fight in his whole life, just sort of reflexively stood up and he was like, hey man, get up. Like he's going to fight him here. But as soon as he did that, Chris realized he had made a horrible mistake because Chris, he was only about five foot eight inches tall. And this guy, just the way he'd been sitting at the table, Chris hadn't really seen his full stature.

And this guy, when he stood up, towered over Chris. But Chris, you know, he was not a scared guy. You know, he hadn't fought before, but he was defending his date's honor here. And he kind of looks up at this guy and he just kind of winds up and hits him once. But then this huge guy just proceeds to beat the living crap out of Chris right there in the McDonald's. The next morning, Chris walked up to this big fancy building in London for his job interview. And Chris was doing his best to be confident, but it was really hard given the circumstances. So the previous night, after Chris, had been battered by this total jerk.

You know, eventually the guy had stopped and stepped off of Chris and Chris had gotten back up again, and the guy kind of wandered off and was not held to account in any way. He just kind of left the restaurant and vanished. But Chris, you know, he got to his feet and he looked at his date and she was totally rattled by it. And Chris was super embarrassed at this point. And he kept apologizing to his date and she's like, no, it's fine. And they just wanted to get out of there.

And so they left the McDonald's and they both, you know, went to their respective homes. And Chris just went to bed. And then the next morning when Chris got up early because he has this big job interview, he went into the bathroom and he looked in the mirror and he saw he had this enormous black eye. But even though Chris understood that this very well could affect his chances of getting this job, I mean, they're going to ask about his black eye, and what's he going to say, oh yeah, I got in a big fight at the McDonald's last night? You know, there wasn't really a good excuse for it, and he wondered what they would think of him

if he showed up looking like this ruffian, you know? But he was like, you know what? This is the biggest opportunity I've ever had. I just going to go in there, try to be confident, and don't let the black eye define the outcome. And so fast forward to later that morning, Chris goes into the building, He arrives for the interview, and before long, he's having his interview, and he can tell they're all staring at his black eye, but nobody brought it up, which was sort of like worse in some ways. He almost wanted to be able to describe what happened, even though it didn't make him look good, but it was like the fact that they're staring at it and not acknowledging it, it really made him feel awkward. But, you know, Chris did his best.

He got through the interview, and by the end of it, he had no idea what the interviewers thought of him or what they thought of his ridiculous black eye, but he thanked him. but he thanked them for the opportunity, and he left thinking, I'm not going to get the job. However, not long after this interview, Chris got some shocking news. He had gotten the job, and it actually might have been because of his black eye. Because this job interview was actually an audition for a starring role in an upcoming TV show. And the character that Chris was auditioning for was this guy who's sort of gotten to fights. And so Chris rolls in here looking like a guy who gets into fights, and they're thinking, oh my goodness, he can hit his lines, he's got the charisma, and look at him.

He's even a ruffian himself. He fits the character perfectly. He's our guy. So, Chris got cast, and this TV show that he starred in became one of the most popular TV shows in the entire world. And so Chris went from being this guy who could barely afford a dinner at McDonald's to being this amazing actor who was getting nominated for Golden Globe Awards and Emmy Awards. I mean, he truly was an A-List star.

Today, Chris is better known by his stage name Kit Harrington, and the starring role that he landed that changed his life was the role of John Snow in Game of Thrones. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories,

is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. our head of production is Zach Levitt, produced by Jeremy Bone, research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio, Jordan Stidham, and Cole Lacasio. Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain. Production coordination by Samantha Collins.

Production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley. artwork by Jessica Klogsten Kiner, theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you want to hear more like it, go ahead and check out our YouTube channel, just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories a lot like this one, but most of them are not available on this podcast.

They are only available on that YouTube channel, which again is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See ya.