Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Aaron Jackson's Hollywood Journey: From Child Star to Director – Acting, Life Lessons, and Teaching

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

In this engaging episode, actor and director Aaron Jackson, best known for his role as Mark Winkle in California Dreams, shares his inspiring journey from Pittsburgh to Hollywood. He opens up about his early start in the entertainment industry, landing his first commercial at age five, and booking major roles in films like Lorenzo's Oil and Children of the Corn II. Aaron reflects on the challenges of navigating Hollywood, his transition into teaching, and the valuable life lessons he’s learned along the way. Join us for candid stories, insightful reflections, and motivational takeaways from Aaron’s dynamic career. Connect with me : https://linktr.ee/theshawnfrench Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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We are back with another episode of the Determine Society live at the Omni Performance Institute in Fort Myers, Florida. I have with me today a good friend, Aaron Jackson, an actor, a director, most known for his role as Mark Winkle in California Dreams. He is a motivational speaker. He is an educator of young adults. So happy that you're here today, man. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely, man. It's just always good when I get to kick it with your head. handsome face and and talk with you, man. Thank you. It is my pleasure. Thank you again for taking time out of work to come here and wrap with me a little bit.

I actually got permission to be. You got permission. I'm surprised. Good old Aaron, man. Good old Aaron. Yeah. You didn't cut, you're not cutting school or anything.

Indirectly, yeah. Indirectly. That's cool. I thought I was going to have to like put in ADP time and like, oh, you know, time off. Yeah. The dark side. I call, because I, because, you know, I sold payroll for a very long time.

And now I own a payroll company. ADP is like the dark side. You know, it's like Darth Vader of everything. But, you know, hey, oh well, right? But dude, you know, for the audience that doesn't know, a whole lot about your story, why don't you catch them up real briefly about your background in Hollywood

and kind of where you're at now? Cool. Kind of had that dream to California dream. Yeah. Growing up, I was born in Pittsburgh and graduated high school very young, did a handful of pictures in Pittsburgh. I booked my first feature film

when I was like 13, a small film called Lorenzo Zoyo with Nick Nolte. That was a good one. You're in Children of the Corn too, right? Storn the corn, yeah, that was a, that's a later story. It's a scary shit. It's a scary shit. The story I could tell you about, I will. I'll later, I promise you.

So I graduate high school and I moved to London. I went to college. And then when I finished my stent in college, I moved to Los Angeles. And there's a lot that happened in that journey to get me from Pittsburgh to ultimately to L.A., which we can touch later. But I was in LA for 11 days, and I right place, right time. I had a full head of hair. You were a handsome.

You still are. You said were. You called me fat earlier. You did. I didn't say fat. I said fluffy. I said fluffy. I didn't know you had some muscle.

I just thought you were fluffy. I said fluffy. I said, I was fluffy. But now you're muscular. I'm still ish, fluffyish for me. But continue. I'm the average height and weight of a fifth grader. A fifth grader, exactly.

You and my son are the same size. I think we are actually. I think he's actually a little taller. He has more hair, but anyway, we digress. We digress. Yeah. So, no, I get to L.A. I'm there 11 days.

And, like, divine intervention. I don't know, paying my dues, whatever it might have been. And I walk into an audition and I meet this amazing casting director that says, you're going to make it kind of thing. And on the 11th day kind of scenario, I signed a five-year deal with NBC to be on, at the time, a brand new show that was finishing up its first season. and I got to be on it for the next five years. That's just crazy to me because like, you know, you hear all these stories.

Right. It's never 11 days. No. There's people that go to L.A. in search of this dream, graduate early, sleep on fucking park benches. You know, do all that kind of stuff. And it's just, it's so serendipitous how your story happened. And it's not typical of, you know, it's not typical of every actor or actress in Hollywood. I have friends that that moved out to L.A.

give or take around the time that I did and they are still grinding and I mean it's like the movie rounders right yeah you're in this you've got to grind and you've got to be at it forever yeah it's it's Uda Hogan one of the best acting coaches in the world says that the day you decide to become a professional actor give it seven years and after seven years if it hasn't happened give it seven more years it's a it's a life I mean it's the rule of seven it is and and so for me like I when I was a kid I paid my dues I guess I mean I I was five when I booked my first commercial for a local waterbed company called Waterbed Willys. Waterbed.

I had a waterbed. Did you? Yeah, I did. Well, so here's the audition process, right? Is my dad takes me downtown Pittsburgh into a warehouse, a lot like this gym, but just nothing but a water bed in the center of it. And this man says to me, son, get on that bed, jump up and down and say, I love waterbed willies. So I look at my daddy, and then I look at this man, I look back at my daddy, and I said, Daddy, can I jump on this man's bed? And he said, honey, you do what you got to do.

So I get on this bed, I start jumping down. Hands for my head. I love waterbed willies. It was cheesy. It was the cheesiest thing. I was paid $150 for an hour's worth of work. Done. And that's big money.

How old were you? I was five. I thought $150 was going to buy me an island. Yeah, something cool. You're rich. You know? And then after that, I booked a commercial, a national commercial of a small company called Pepsi. Oh, I never really.

The underdog. You're the underdog, right? And it was with Paul Rodriguez. and it aired during the Super Bowl and it turned in from one national into five national commercials by the time I was 12. That's so fucking cool,

and then auditioned for Lorenzo's Oil. And in that audition, Keneas Kennedy was the casting director on that. And I walk in on that audition and it's like this, like small town Pittsburgh, but it was like every powerhouse in Hollywood. But I guess naivity and stupidity is kind of key to this industry

because in that room was a guy by the name of Nick Nolte, no clue who he was. Yeah, I mean, you know. Susan Sarandon, no clue. I love her in Bull Durham. Jack Nicholson, no idea who he was. Danny DeVito, no clue who he was. Sir Peter Houstonoff was in there.

Bob Hoskins was in there. Tristan O Tate was in there. Valerie Bertonelli was in there. Little did I know that when I walked in there, I'm auditioning not just Floranzos oil, but you had Hoffa going on at the same time. You had Citizen Kane and Rum. You had Innocent Blood with Valerie.

Like all these. And I'm auditioning for five films at one time. So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to? Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum? Get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research.

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And it was just, I was the right place, the right time. And I'm huge just on the way that we met. I think it's divine intervention. I don't want to say, the good Lord, I don't want to say this. I'm just going to say it's divine intervention, right place, right time. Yeah. And I kind of always knew that I wanted to act because my dad told me that, you know, you're going to have to get a nine to five someday. Like that's reality.

You're going to have to, I don't want to work. Yeah. Well, what do you want to be? You could be a doctor. You could be a lawyer. You can be an Indian chief kind of thing. And I'm like, you know, I don't want to be any one of those. I want to be all of them.

Yeah. So acting became legalized schizophrenia for me. I was like to be anything I wanted to be. Dude, let's touch on that real quick. Have you ever been lost in a role? I mean, because there's some things that, you know, Heath Ledger, you know, after the Joker, he kind of went, you know, it was like he was lost in that role.

Has anything like that ever happened to you? You know, the difference between method acting and non-method acting, you know, there is a fine line between the two of them, and there really is. And I've only had one role where I kind of got lost in it. I did a picture a couple years ago called Todd. It's out on Amazon right now, if you'd like to buy it. I want to. Yeah, so.

Nice plug. there, buy it, Todd. On Amazon, Todd, T-O-D-D. Amazon, I want money for this shit. Yeah, so do I. Amazon, please. To be fair, we can't need to be paid. We'll go 60-40.

Yeah, fine. 60, 40, throw me some miles, whatever. 70-30 at this point. But no, I was playing a psychiatrist that was dealing with some patients that were dealing with some stuff. Okay. My marriage at home was kind of going south. And I've been down that road of a marriage going south. I've been there, right?

And I've got two daughters with my with my ex-wife and then now my current situation. We have a blended five children family, which we can chat about. Beautiful. But in this role, it was like something failing in any man or female's life is something that even though it might be pretend because it's scripted. And if you've ever failed at something, you get spiraled back into that and you start asking questioning, what did I do? It triggers. It triggers something, right? And that triggered for me. And it wasn't a dark place, but it was a, it was one of those times I'm just like, I remember why I was there.

And I remember, I remember how I got to where I'm at now because of those. But I've always been able to light switch my acting. I've always been able to go into the room, do my job and shut the light switch off and walk out. I mean, I'm that one in between takes that I cut up, you know, whereas everyone else is like, I'm going to stay focused on like. Dude, it's funny. It's not a gift, right? That's a gift. You know, I think for the audience that is watching and listening, when you're in your element

and you are doing something that you are a professional at, you're an expert, it's easier to have that light switch mentality. You know, baseball coaches would always tell you that, hey, the light switch, there's no such thing. You can't just turn it on. I disagree with that. Like, for me, with this, like, this whole morning. And I'm always really real with my guests and my listeners.

and all that kind of stuff. And my team, I was off. I told Kevin Porter today, I'm like, dude, I'm off mentally. Like, I am not good this morning. But as soon as the cameras are on, I'm fine because it's that thing. Like, this is our fucking wheelhouse, man. This is what we love to do.

So I can really appreciate that about you because in between, I'm not focused either. Like I'm focused now on this conversation. And what people don't understand about actors and interviewers is simply this. It is not freaking easy. You know, like, even though this looks easy and it's fun and they're like, wow, this is a great conversation, it's energy still. Right, right.

And when you deal with multiple interviews per day, you have different energies. And so you have different whatever it is, you know, chakras or whatever, that get kind of like, you know, I'm like, okay, I'm a little off now. But dude, I'm in the weeds, but I just appreciate that about you, man. And we have to look at my perspective, I guess, is that when you're in your chosen craft, whatever it may be, like, Why are you in that craft? Are you in it because you have to be in it? Are you in it because you love it? See, this is the lesson for the, this is the lesson.

Dive into that. Yeah, because to me on the half to, you're in the wrong place. If you're in it because you're like what your main objective is, you know, as a school teacher now for me, my objective is X, Y, and Z. As an actor, my objective was A, B, and C. But for me, it came down to it was to make it, it was want, desire, and need. And I had the talent because that's 2% of the,

equation yeah but it's the 98% of want desire and need how far are you willing to go to get it what are you doing what are you willing to do to keep it and what are you willing to sacrifice to have it yeah and those are the things and we've all been in that situation where you've got to you have to make that decision if i go left will i be right if i go right will i be left like it's that kind of you you get to that crossroad and for me it was i was willing to sacrifice everything for the exception of who i was i was raised by a single father um with two sisters my mom and my dad divorced when I was three and my mom kind of she went she went one direction and my dad said I'm not going another direction these are my children my dad owned radio stations around the United States

was a sex symbol of his time I feel like I'm that now you are I think so I mean you're definitely I mean you're simple I feel the energy it's fine it's it's okay no judgment but but he um my dad my dad was one of these ones that that and I'll cry talking about my dad my dad just turned 80 in July and he's like, like, you've got God, then you have my dad. Like that sometimes, there's sometimes that I think my dad might even surpass some of that. You're lucky because a lot of kids can't. Don't have that. I don't.

Yeah. And I didn't have a mom. You know, and it's like, oh, growing up, it was, oh, poor Aaron, he didn't have a mommy. No, I did. My dad, because my dad was my mom. Yeah. My dad was home room mother. My dad was Girl Scout leader, Cub Scout leader.

What a badass, dude. My dad was my wrestling coach. My dad was everything, right? But most of all, my dad was the voice of reason. My dad was the one that said, when you make that choice, son, understand that once that choice is made, you can't go back on that choice. You can never go back and change time and say, oh, I wish I wouldn't have. You can repent for it. You can change the outcome maybe and ask for forgiveness kind of scenario, but make your choices clear and present.

So that want, desire, and need for me was like, my biggest want, desire and need life was to make my daddy proud. And to make a dad proud, that's hard sometimes because it's like my dad, my dad was everything. My dad gave up his career for his three children. So it was like, I was on that and still now. I'm constantly on that strive to always, not that I need that add a boy for my dad, but I want to know that when the, it's nice to have, man. It is. It's nice to have, you know, like I'm listening to this and it's like the lesson to me is knowing

exactly what your process needs to be. when you're working for something that you want. It can't be, I have to get up in the morning and do this. It's got to be like a, you jump out of bed and you're excited to do it. Even on my worst day, you know, I'm like, I can say like, I don't want to go and do it. But deep down, I'm like, it's going to be fun, right? When I dive in, but like, there's a lot of people out there that are listening right now and watching that have these amazing dreams, these aspirations to do everything that they want in life.

But yet they lack the discipline in order to go and chase that, right? And what you're displaying is that right there. I think within that discipline also, there's also the other side of it, which is fear. Yeah. Right? And fear never got you anywhere. No. It really didn't, right?

Because what are you afraid of? You're afraid of the unknown. Yep. Well, so the question comes into play. It's like any unasked question, the answer is always going to be no. So if you don't do it, you're never going to get it. The worst that's going to happen is it's going to fail. Yeah.

But what is failure? I mean, and if you really want to dive deep into what is failure, failure is how you feel about it. Failure necessary, do you? Like, I think there's to be a reframing on failure. But real quick, pardon me. We're going to go to a quick commercial break. You're going to hear from one of our sponsors, take it in, enjoy it.

And we'll be back with Mr. Aaron Jackson here in a second. So I've tried a lot of protein, you know. What I've always found is all the flavors. You can taste artificial flavoring in them. With raw, it's exactly that. I don't taste that. It's a clean protein source. It tastes great, and I'm not putting a lot of things in my body that aren't good for you.

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And we're back at the Omni Performance Institute in Fort Myers. Thank you for hanging on. We got the back half of the interview with Mr. Aaron Jackson coming up, dude. Dude, you've done some pretty funny things though. Like, you know, we've talked about some serious stuff about how great your father is and the impact that he's had and still has on your life. What it takes to do something, you know, that you really want to do, the sacrifice, the process, et cetera. Let's talk about some funny stuff. All right.

So, fuck, dude, you were in the courtroom for an O.J. trial? Like, why? Like, okay, can we? So I'm living in L.A. And you know, you got the 405, the 101, the 10, and all that stuff. And, you know, you're watching the news. And this white, right Broncos going down the road, you know. And it's like, I knew Cato Cailen.

Okay. I hung out with Cato Cajel. Okay. This was a thing. Like, this was a regular. We used to hang out the Viper Room. We'd hang out at the Roxbury. So I knew Cato.

But I didn't know Cato on that side. I didn't know he worked for OJ. I just knew who Cato Cail was. And so when the whole OJ Simpson trial went down, I decided, I'm like, I want to see this. I want to see this live. So I go to the courthouse. Now, back story on Aaron, I'm a concealed weapons permit holder,

and I carried a gun with me pretty much on a regular basis. Did you know you're not allowed to carry one in through security at a courthouse? Yeah, I mean, it's common sense, dude. Like, they might think you're there to shoot somebody. I wasn't very common that day. You're not a smart. My elevator didn't go all the way up there. It's like going through security at an airport, and you can't do that.

I didn't even think about it, to be fair with you. It was in my back, and I just, I walked in there, And I got through the security and they're like, and I was like, and they were cool about it. I'm here for the OJ trial. However, however, I did get frisked. So I was one of those ones that going through like TSA and all those things that like when they're going to wand you and do all that stuff, every time they came down my backside, I was always go, whew. Yeah. Thank you kind of thing.

And then this particular one was not good. Not good. I got brought into a room. I was taken into like a private room wondering, why are you here? Why are you making a mockery? What is this? you're making joke. So eventually got in there.

Went in there for two days to be able to see that. And I wasn't there at the good stuff. I wish I could have been, you know, if the glove don't fit. Oh, yeah, you weren't there for the glove? I wish I could have been there for that. I was there on a testimony of a neighbor. Okay. And then, but O.J. was in the courtroom.

It was very cool. It was very cool to see that. That was crazy experience, man. Because, you know, it's funny. You talk about the airport stuff. Like, you know, I do my best. You know, Jackie, dude. I do.

Like, God love her. in. You know, I try my best to say the most off-the-wall shit. I don't like airport security. I'm used to traveling now, so I'm a little more, my anxiety instead of like a seven to ten, it's like a three to five. I'm going the right direction, you know. And but whenever I used to get mad when they would like pull me to the side of them, and then now I'm just like, oh, you get, you're going to frisk me. You're going to thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Like, what do you mean? Like, this is my favorite.

How much do I owe you? Like, this is great. Don't miss anything. What I hate about TSA, though, it's like, you're not cops. No. I understand that you work for our government. But like, you're, like, you're searching for, I have too much hairspray. Yeah.

Wait, my liquid deodorant and all that. Yeah. They take that a little too. Again, I know why. I look at it like, dude, why do you have hair gel? Yeah, I was like, right? I get that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But no, so I, I, my traveling, I use. used to travel like it was a regular thing. I was on the road, you know, for weeks on end. And then come home for a day, go back out on the road for weeks on end. And you kind of forget what's in your bag sometimes, you know? And it was like, after 9-11, like, everything changed

on what you could and couldn't travel with now. I mean, the amount of water and, you know, it's like. Amount of water. Yeah, like, how much water? It's water. You want to smell it? You want to drink it? Did it?

I never told you about the time where I got, I guess there was a pocket knife in my bag. Oh yeah. I was going through Fort Myers, R SW. And I had my wife's pink bag, you know, because that was the thing I would carry the pink bag. I mean, of course you would. Standard. Why wouldn't you?

Why would it? This is a new black. So I'm going through security and I'm by myself. All of a sudden, they pull the bag aside. I'm like, what's going on? Is there what's in that bag? I'm like, what the fuck's going on? I'm thinking, I don't do drugs.

So there's not, that's not in there. But then I'm thinking someone framed me. You know, I'm thinking someone dropped some stuff in there. And there's a fucking pocket knife. I'm like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. No, no, no, no. Throw it away. Like, it's an old fishing knife.

I don't know what it's doing there. I was mortified. I thought for certain I was going to jail for it. It was like a year ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe two years ago. It's real. It's real.

And, dude, now it's just the funniest story ever because it's like, you know. Well, I have another one. Oh. Before you, this one's a TSA, a good one. I won't name the airports because I don't want to throw anyone under the bus. Okay. So, again, my concealed weapons permit. And I had a 38.

it was in my backpack tucked at the bottom didn't even realize it all the way through security I get to New York City my wife where I'm packing and I go into my backpack and I reach down

I have a 38 oh my God in the city of New York which is illegal we all know handguns are illegal in the city of New York so I call a friend of mine and I say hey what do I do about this like can I what do

you can't ship it no you can't because I I don't have a license to ship and I don't have a place to send it to. And then it turned out that, so I called a police officer friend of mine. And he goes, oh, I'm going to have to let you talk to an NYU guy. You know, you got to talk to him in New York City. I'm like, okay. So I call this gentleman.

He goes, where are you located? I'm like, is it really important right now? Let's not talk about that. You're going to keep me out of this for a second. Yeah. And I said, what do I do with it? And he goes, well, one of two things. He goes, A, you can bring it down to the station, relinquish it, surrender it.

There's going to be a couple of questions. We're going to fingerprint you and everything else. You're already in the database, so you're clear, obviously. And I said, how long is it going to take us? Three to four hours. I got Michael McIntyre tickets tonight. I really want to see this. How he's put it in the garbage can right here in the hotel room?

Better than that. He goes, option two, throw it in the Hudson. I'm sorry, excuse me, what? Throw it in the Hudson? So I'm not very proud to tell you that I broke down a 38, down to five pieces. And you threw it in the Hudson River? It threw it in a lot of garbage cans. But it also happened to be the weekends that the U.M.

going on. So there's security everywhere. So my wife was kind of like watching for me and I'm just like, throw it in shake shack bags. Dude, I did go get a bunch of shake shock. You know, in the in the hotel where they have like the linen bags on the stuff, I'm wrapping the barrel up in that. I took my deodorant. I threw the deodorant out, but I had the whole little thing. I put the clip inside there, put the lid back to it. It was bad. It was awful. You're a full on mess. You told me it in the Hudson. I'm like, dude, a cop is telling me to throw this in the Hudson. Well, I mean, you know, cops, you know, sometimes. They're crooked.

I'm kidding, kidding. I have a lot of cop friends. Joking, joking. Joking. A lot of respect, long. R-E-S-B-E-C-T. Clearly, no, no, all joking aside. Yes, love you guys, thank you.

Incredible. We're just joking. Another funny story. Okay. So tell me about the time you got bitch slap by Jimmy Fallon. Dude, you're like digging shit. This is my job. It's my job.

Like, Google? Like, hmm, let's see. It's my job. How did Aaron get screwed over? Not directly bitch slap, but Jimmy Fallon's a huge fan of dreams. And he was like, they had done a little bit on Saturday Night Live. And there was, and I can't remember something the rapper. What's his name?

Something the rapper. He goes by blank the rapper. The rapper. There's a ton of, like his name is like blank the rapper. Oh, shit. At any rate. What era? Like recent, like within the last four years.

I don't know. Not Eddie the rapper. but it's like that's a part of this title. You can put it in the subtitles once, I'll look it up. But he had brought on a picture of California Dreams on Saturday Night Live. Like, you know, it was like, so it was the cast picture of us. And I guess Jimmy had commented on that on his show. Like, watching SNL, I love California Dreams, would love to have them on the show.

So he reaches out to the publicist of the show. And he's like, I want season, you know, one. Wow. So it was Michael, it was Kelly, it was William, it was Heidi, it was Brent. and it was Jay. And I'm just like, I got left out. So it was like, seriously, like, you, there's only two more of us. You could have just said, hey, we're just going to bring on the whole cast.

Jimmy, what happened to inclusion? I know, right, Jimmy? Like, seriously. And then I came to your office, like, when I was in New York and you didn't invite me in. Can you believe them? Done with you. Done. Well, I mean, I'm verified.

You're verified. We can look each other up. Come on. He's going to, we'll get this. We'll get it. We're going to send it to them. We're going to, but no, dude, like, that's a funny story. And, like, yes, I do digging.

right that's my job right you know what's great is like all good things all good things from you you know proud of my past yeah proud of your past I'm I'm more proud of what you're doing now you know so kind of you know coming towards the end of the interview I want you to talk about what you're doing now you're at a prep school here I don't want to say the name because I don't want people you know stalk I stalk you anyway and I stalk you yeah so but like you're giving back to the kids man and so So talk to us about that journey and maybe how it was hard to get into that after you've been, you know, a Hollywood guy. It was, it was weird.

Putting my two and then my wife's three through, you know, a prep school. And my second daughter was an actor. And she was in the program and the predecessor in my program left one year. So our headmaster kind of reached out to me and says, hey, I know you're an actor. Hey, I know you'd like to be a part of, you know, maybe maybe come in and teach for you. be one and done kind of thing and I was traveling a lot I was making still making movies I was directing pictures I was I was kind of but my daughter had asked me years prior to that she's like daddy can you not travel as much I miss you and I

was traveling and as a dad you know that it's like when your kids talk you listen like yeah that that was it's it I was teaching a lot of private acting classes here locally I was working with a lot of the the local theaters and and then this jam came forward and I had been teaching but not teaching Yeah. And so this was the year of COVID. So I started the beginning of COVID. And my headmaster just kind of said, hey, you know, you know the school. You love the school. You put your kids through the school. I think this would be a good home for you. And I'm like, you know, I don't. Teacher. Like, you don't know, bro. You're talking like time clock. You're talking like. Yeah, you're telling me like I have contract hours. I can't leave until I can't do what I want. And I'm a jeans and T-shirt, baseball hat kind of guy. And he agreed all that. And he was like, we're jeans. We're a T-shirt. We're a baseball hat. Like you're an expert in your field kind of thing. I mean, I have a full sleeve of a shirt. tattoo like I'm this is me and I don't know that that I fit into that that box and he goes the box is what you make it yeah I love it I love it and um so I came on for a year and when it started like beginning of the year is awesome and then the small little thing called

COVID happened yeah that was that was a big deal right and and so we go online and everybody in the school was kind of freaking out like we have to go online and do this for me it was easy it was because I had been online now for you know seven years eight years doing FaceTime and Skype and all these teaching acting classes. So for me to go online, it was easy, peasy, nice and squeezy. And then that next year, like, it was July and the contracts come back out. And it was like, hey, we'd like to offer you another contract. And here you are. And here I am now. 2024, man. Yeah. And I mean, my program, I've got, I teach theater. I teach film studies and then I teach musical theater as well. You got some good shows coming

up. I've got a fantastic season. That's an outsider's coming. Outsiders, six, Shrek, the Shrek. Yeah, we're doing Shrek in the spring. I do about 19 shows a year on campus. That's crazy. Between one-offs and and full school. So you did mean girls. Mean girls last year. We went, we went to that. That was amazing. Thank you. We did a year before that was Elf. And I mean, it's, you know, creating theater and creating art. I mean, art is subjective. And I try to push boundaries and give my students opportunities to do stuff that they're not normally going to get or in any other situation ever had the opportunity to do. So two years back, we did, I'm the diary Van Frank, a story that needs to be told.

Yes. And I did it in complete black and white. And when I say complete black and white, I'm talking black and white makeup. All lighting was done in just very hue tones. My set was black and white. Like down to the stitching of the clothing. There was no color in anything. For the exception of the Star of David's, the diary itself, and then the swastikas. What needed to be highlighted? Wow. That's the story when you think about it. It was, it's the Jewish. It's the reason. the journal, the diary, and then what happens in the end. Incredible.

And I try to push the boundaries that way. We did, the year of COVID, we did when we came back, we did Bang Bang Your Deb, which is a school shooter show, which is, and any, anytime you're doing a school shooter show in a school, it hits. It hits. It hits hard. It hits hard, yeah, man. But we were dealing with six foot separation, and my headmaster was like, how are we going to recreate theater?

How are you going to do this? We're kind of, I'm like, if there's a will, there's a way, kind of, you know, trust the process. Yeah. So I built a glass box. a plexiglass box to allow my actor to be inside that box so he didn't have to have a mask on. So cool. And then we did shows in the round last year. We did three quarter thrust.

I was doing three act plays. And so my kids are getting these experiences. So you ask like what was that transition like? I was a Hollywood and it sounds arrogant and I don't mean it that way. I was on a network television shows on one of the biggest television shows of its time. I was on the cover of every teenage magazine from Big Bopper to YM, Sue. Super Team, Team Machine, you know, Tiger Beat, all of those. Yeah.

And now I'm a school teacher. You know, and do I make the money I made in Hollywood? No. Is it about the money? And if you're, whatever industry you've chosen to be in, if you're in it for the money, you're never going to get it. You're in it for the wrong reasons, because it's not about that. Like, I make enough money to live the lifestyle in which I've grown accustomed to.

And your lifestyle can be mazoradis and Ferraris, but you got to, you got to have that coin to be able to back that up, you know. And for me, it was like, It's not about the money. It's about the quality of the life in which I'm being able to do. So being able to teach, I teach high school. I get to work with your kids. I get to work with, you know, our community's kids.

And the funny thing is, is they trust me. And I don't mean that, like, they shouldn't, but I mean, like, they trust me to raise their children. Yeah. And when you think about an educator, that's what we do. Your child spends more time with me than they do with you. Dude, every parent just wants their child. And the parents that are watching and listening can very, can very, verify this because all we want is for our children to be in the presence of an expert.

And you are truly the expert in your field in teaching these young kids. I thank you so much. I know you got to get to school. This is probably one of a few things we'll do together. I'm just super grateful to have you here today. I'm grateful. I love you to death, man. You're as well.

Thank you, guys. Peace out, guys. See you next time. That's even a good slap right there. Tell me about it. Look at that. So I've tried a lot of protein. You know, what I've always found is all the flavors.

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