The Kristian Harloff Show - Freddie Prinze Jr Interview: Kanan, Cooking and the WWE

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

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Hey there, it's Wayfair here, where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock, scrolling Wayfair's app, when you spot it, a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Oh, you need a new grill, too? All right, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. What's going on, everybody? I am very excited for today's episode of Big Thing.

Get a chance to talk to Freddie Prince, Jr. I haven't spoken to him since the Collider days. So very excited to just to catch up with them, reach out to him and said, hey, let's just shoot the shit because that's honestly, I wanted to talk to him about Bad Batch and see how that whole thing came about. I want to see what he's doing.

Guys like a master chef want to talk to him about that. He's gaming. He's doing so much shit. I haven't got to catch up with my buddy. That's really what I want to do here. and I hope that you guys are going to enjoy it. All you got to do is go to Apple Podcasts, go to Spotify, make sure you follow us there.

And if you're not already subscribed to the channel, man, you should be doing that. Hit the subscribe button, follow us there, make sure that you get the notifications, do all that. It's the big thing. It's Freddie Pinch, Jr., coming at you. Here we go. What's up, everybody?

Welcome back. It's a big thing. And I told you guys, I told you I wasn't going to do any digital shows this year, and I lied to your faces. all of your faces, but figured if we've got to be stuck in this thing, let's

do it with some friends. Let's do with some cool peeps. And one of those cool peeps the one and only. Freddy Prince Jr. here, ladies and gentlemen. Freddie, what up, man? What's up, man? You said shit twice and burped in the first 30 seconds of your show.

You're just allowed to do whatever you want when it's your show. I got a plate full of tacos right next to me too, but I'm not Ooh, yum. I'm not going to eat on air. Yeah, dude, this is why, why do you think I left collier so I could burping? Well, just ask me a question that you know I'll go long on, and you can at least shove a one taco down. No, dude, I just told, so you know, I'm doing stuff with Skybound now, and I told him, I said, I got Freddie on and I said, oh, I love Freddie machinery. I said, Freddy is very zen to me.

That's why I like talking to you, and I like, so I'm not going to, I would never, I would never interrupt one of your stories with a stinky taco. I'll have to just leave, I'll have to eat it cold later. But so much I wanted to talk to you about, and so many things that you've been doing and so much that we really haven't, I think shit, man, last time we were actually, like did a show together, was at Collider, probably like three, four years ago at this point, which is crazy. Yeah, you went and did another, like, solo one, and I came in and sit down and sat down with you.

I think Burbank is the last time. And that was a couple years ago, for sure. At least, it was at three, four years ago. And I think, so I was at Collider for a bit. And then I basically what I wanted to do, was combine that type of show with the other shows that I was doing, but to be able to do it on my own, on my own terms really,

just to be able to do whatever the hell I want to talk about. And that's kind of what I'm doing. So I had no idea, had no clue that you were going to pop up in Bad Batch. It was, it was awesome. And you kept it, you kept it quiet,

but they didn't, they didn't even try to like shield your voice as a younger kid. And who gives his shit? It was like, there he is. And Caleb shows up. So how did that all come about? out. So it's, yeah, it's been long enough now that I guess, I mean, I don't, they don't really get

mad at me when I say stuff, but, but, uh, yeah, so Dave, I think someone else called first or reached out and I was like, yeah, I don't, I don't know. And then Dave had mentioned it casually when I was doing something else. It was maybe some, uh, some like Canaan ghost stuff or, or, or something. I can't remember when, but, uh, he said, you know, if we ever do a young, Canaan as Caleb, I would love for you to sit and work with the actor and let him kind of get your cadence and your flow. And I was like, oh yeah, that'd be sick, man. And then, you know, like a year went by and I never heard anything about it. And then I got a call from Dave. And he knows, like, if he wants me to do it, he has to call. Like, if Disney, I'd be like, nah, man, I'm good. And if anyone

else got to be like, nah, man, I'm good. But I can't say no to Dave because Dave fought for me when Disney didn't even want me to voice Canaan. And so for him, it's always a yes. It's never a no. And so some time went by and he called me and he said, hey, would you come in and do a track on young Caleb and just, you know, do what you can with your voice. I just don't want it to affect your performance.

And I can play it for the other kid. And then if it's just really good, then I'm just going to use yours. And I was like, all right, cool. And so I came in and it was like, I think he was working on Mando at the time and we busted it out and his number one was there. I can't remember this is a long time ago.

And we went in and did it and it was really emotional. It was, you know, I didn't have access to the whole script, but the scenes were like crazy and it was 90% animated. So I was able to see everything really outside of a huge force jump at the end, which they weren't done with the background on it yet. And that helped a ton. And then I just went in and let myself get real vulnerable and had a lot of genuine emotion that required tissues at the end.

And I, you know, I did my best to lighten the voice. And, you know, I said, if you want to help it digitally, do what you got to do. And Dave was like, I don't care. He said, that's too good. And I'm not messing with it. And then he put it out there. and I actually never even got to see it.

I don't get to see as much of the TV stuff as movies just because I've never been a TV watcher, really. I played video games or tabletop games or movies. So I know what the scene, I know exactly what the scene looks like, because like I said, I saw 99% of it, and I was literally looping it as if I had acted in the movie. So I got to see it live.

I got to see it before any of you. You got to see it. But that was it. That was it for it. me and Badbatch, I haven't seen any of the episodes. Oh, wow. So since your arc on, with Canaan ended, has your, I don't know you love Star Wars, but has like the, because you were really, you know, the reading up on it and when we used to talk about it on whether it was counts, whatever, it was, there was so much of the philosophy

because you were in the middle of working with Dave and learning. Has you, have you kind of tapered off a little bit from Star Wars since leaving it? You know, anytime I leave something, for whatever reason, I take a break. And the best, example I can give you, and I talk about this in my new wrestling podcast, which is wrestling with Freddie. But I talked about when I left the business, I couldn't watch wrestling again for like six to nine months because I saw how the magic trick was done. And it's not, it's, there's just something weird about it.

There was a scene in the movie with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman where they're both magicians. I don't remember the name of it, not the illusionist, but the other one. Yeah, right. So, he has this scene with his, with his girlfriend or soon-to-be wife, and he's going to do a bullet catch. And she's like, I'm not letting you do that. You get killed.

And he's like, no, I'm a magician. I'm a pro. Don't worry. And she's like, no, I do worry. And he's like, fine. All right, I'll show you how it's done. And then he shows her and he goes, the bullet was never in the gun. Right.

And then she kind of looks and she goes, oh, when you say it like that, it's not so special. And you just see the look on his face. He's just like, oh, my God, why did I even share it with her? You know, and he was the brother that wasn't in love with her. So it was easier for him to get angry, right? So once I saw how it was done, I had to take a step back and kind of let new faces come in. Because when I was watching, I was more concerned about their career than I was interested in the show, right? I'm like, don't get hurt, don't get hurt.

Please have a good match. I want you to make a good living, like that kind of stuff. And there was unnecessary stress attached. And then after a good break, I got back into it and started to see new faces and saw the women's division like explode. That was right when I came back into it. And then I got back in full time because my kids dig some of the matches and they have a couple favorites that they like.

I was the same, man. Because when I worked there, I mean, I worked there a lot shorter than you did. stuff that you were working but I but I were when I I I same thing I was a massive massive fan and I think I told you the whole story and how I got the gig with talking to Paul Heyman and all that stuff too and then getting the gig once I left I way longer than you I was out for I stopped watching from 2001 until like 2000 and like 15 sure so and the only reason I think I came back to it at all was because of the shmode out and because I was that's right that's right and to be able to right the sore lines go because you'll see it if you watch any of this showdown you'll see

bash at the beach stuff you'll see you'll see you'll see tons of shit the mega powers explode all of it it's it's all in there but um but so yeah so I relate to that very much so and speaking are you working with them again or you're just doing your because you podcast I was no I i heart I had a friend who worked said I heart and she said hey I used to love when you did uh fillins on ESPN radio which you'd be down to do a podcast and I was like yeah sure you all got to pay me but I'll do one. Yeah, of course. And so she called me up and they sent me some ideas and it was like, here's a family

podcast. Here's a tabletop RPG podcast. Here's a podcast where you bring in the actors that you worked with and you talk about your movies and here's a wrestling one. And it was easy. There were two that I wanted to do and they wanted me to do a wrestling one. Wrestling was one of the ones I was excited for. And so I did it.

And I just started talking about my entrance into wrestling period through. my grandmother in Puerto Rico and then my entrance into WWE, my exit, my re-entrance and my re-exit. So yeah, man, I'm not working with them right now, but I got a lot of love for them, and I'm doing some stuff with Xavier over at G4 pretty soon. And he and I became really tight. I ran a D&D game for him and his up, up, down, down crew.

And we just, we became super tight and became really just cool. Like we text each other pictures of our kids, ideas that we have. You got the G4 job. He's like, hey, you want to do this crazy thing on G4? I was like, yeah, do you not do anything? Him and Dave Filoni. Those are the only people. Those are the only two that I just say.

For me, from you have a person from each place that you've worked. So you have like that one person. Okay. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Well, so because on your show, though, too, because I honestly, I didn't know enough about it. So I want to, I'm actually subscribing to you enough. But.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, man. Of course. So I wanted to do you, on your show, do you, only covered W. Do you cover AEW and all that other stuff too? I don't cover any of the shows right now. Right now it's a ton of stories from my experiences there. And then every once in a while I bring a wrestler in and then we discuss the whole wrestling business in general. I've had Woodsy in. I've had big show. I've had the Bellas. Because they give me like a lot of

credit for bringing them up and we kind of had because they put people over. But that's not how it went down. Like the real story was they knew their damn value and we're like, look, look, you're bringing us up or we're leaving. I had tried to bring them up three previous times, but it was them saying, yo, we'll walk that made WW go, oh, no, of course, no, coming up, coming up. Oh, yeah, we got something for you right now.

Brett it quick, write something. So it was, you know, it's cool stories like that where I get to just kind of put them over. I had the Miz on. I'm talking to Jericho on Monday. So yeah, man, I have a soft spot for two types of people. Stand-up comedians. my father was one of the best to ever do it and professional wrestlers.

And I look at them almost through an identical lens over all other art, over movies, music, theater, everything, because it's different every single time. It's a live response. And if they're not liking it, they're not liking you directly. It's not like a movie, man. Like you get nine, six to nine months to figure out how you feel about it before anybody else has even seen it.

So the opinion doesn't affect you. But when you're on a stage or you're in a ring, it's a different story, man. If they start screaming, you suck and it's for the wrong reason, that's because they hate you and they don't want to watch you wrestle. And that's that's scary, scary stuff, man. Look at the rock. Look at the rock. When he comes in and Rocky sucks, Rocky sucks, and he's thinking, all my career's over.

And then he becomes one of the biggest stars of all time. And you've got to be able to pivot because no one. And that's the beauty of it too. and working with wrestlers and seeing how some of them are trying to work and trying to get there. The business to me is very, and I'm sure you guys talk about this, very different now. I was there in 2001, so very different then than it is today. But one of those people, it's funny because you bring up Jericho because Jericho is in the snowdown now. And Jericho was also, he was one of the guys when I first got there that I pitched an angle to and like, well,

yeah, it was not bad. I go pitch it to Jericho. and Jericho shot it down like real quick. And we talk about it. He's like, yeah, right, because, you know, Jericho's been very vocal about like, you know, the writing stuff and things. He's old school, you know, on the way that they play that. So you're, the way your two-sentence, like, pitch,

even though you weren't really pitching it of your show, is more fascinating to me than covering the actual matches all the time because that's the inside. And obviously, you're a great talker too. But I think the idea of hearing that behind the stage and not just from somebody that was there doing it like as long as you did but i think also be get that perspective of a big show jericho people like that that's pretty that's fun man is it once a week yeah it's once a week it's every wednesday the newest one was today i think was the big show one and uh and yeah man i just like i said i got a soft spot for him and to me pro wrestling is is the literal translation of blood

sweat and tears on a literal canvas so i don't know what's more artistic than that sometimes it's sucks, but when it's great, it's such a special thing. Yeah, and I think so doing it this way, that's why when I asked, are you, well, obviously you have Jericho and I'm assuming you're going to talk about A.W and the business because competition, I think, is what made wrestling so special again in the mid, late 90s with WCW. So, AW now coming in because they're like the rock stars right now. They're like punk rock, you know.

Sure. I can see that comparison. And it's like, because that's, that's, every single time I get people who are like, hey, you watch and wrestling, are you checking out AEW? Like any fan that says, are you checking out AEW? Because what they're doing is hip and kind of cool right now, right? And the new stars that they got. But that kind of lights a fire under the ass of WWE, too, right? Or at least it should. Yeah. I mean, I've always looked at, you know, competition is a very American word, right? Like this, this guy jumps high and this guy jumps high. Who jumps higher, right? But for me, competition is just another. word for opportunity and you get to see a lot more wrestlers that would be held down or simply in a promotion that you wouldn't see with an opportunity on nationwide TV. And then when they move on to another smaller brand, that brand can suddenly have an opportunity to grow. So long as the works worthy of the growth. And if it is, word of mouth spreads. Wrestling, comedy and horror evolve faster than all the other forms of art combined. Those three evolve. You don't believe me.

Ask James Want. Ask him how he slaughtered the lovely I know you did last summer franchise by making it not scary at all anymore. Anyway. But comedy too, man, like jokes that worked in the 80s would drop dead today. You know, sensibilities change. Cultures change. So, and wrestling's no different. There's people that fight against the new style and will till the day they die.

But they have what they love. But that's not going to stop the evolution of wrestling. Like it's going to keep on changing regardless of who fights against it. Well, you mentioned also with comedy, right? I just recently, I started getting back into it after a hiatus of how long. I don't know if I think I told you that, but I've gotten back up on stage in New York. I got back up stage a couple of times here. And like, it's definitely a young man's game for sure.

There's no doubt about it. But it's a matter also of what are those sense and sensibilities. What is happening at the moment? Well, to me, comedy, always no matter what is the truest of art. because like you're up there by yourself. You're the one that I've never been more free in my life. Like I can talk to you and have a conversation. We can have a lot of fun just talking, right?

But there's something about being on that stage for 20, 30 minutes and just going, okay, I want to make a move. I want to say something that's been on my mind. I can do it. I don't have to worry about the page written here. I don't have to rely on whether or not this person next to me is going to be able to say something or keep up. You just do what you're going to do.

so it is free terrifying at times but freeing but i bring that up also because i don't think we've had the opportunity yet to talk about did you watch the comedy store doc that was on showtime yeah i did man look man they used to let me in there when i was 12 years old yeah and i was in there all the time i mean all the time i watched richard prior go up there when he was sick and have i told you this story before i think you definitely mentioned that you used to go there a lot and you said the people but i'm You can please tell me again. Well, Richard discovered my dad, okay? And without him, there is no Freddie Prince.

So I love Richard, because without him, there's no me. And I like me too. So I used to hang with him, and he was always brutally honest to me. Hang, I don't mean like hang with him, but I would, anytime he saw me, he was good to me, even though him and my dad, well, I'll tell this too. Him and my dad had this terrible falling out because they were both in love with Pam Greer. And for those of you who don't know, just Google her. She was the most beautiful woman on Earth in the 70s.

And she's still one of the most amazing women on the planet. She's been a mentor to me over the years. She's always looked out for me when I was a young actor and I had questions. She's somebody who always told me to know my value and to aim high and to not and to remember that it's show business and which word is big. her. So she was a big, powerful energy that they both fell in love with. And she wrote about this in her biography, so I'm not, you know, telling tales or anything. But she picked my dad. And Richard lost his shit. And it messed with him. My dad was on a date with Pam Greer and Joanna Kerns in 1975 at the same time. And Richard called the restaurant they were at.

You went out with both of them at the same time? Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, my, I'm telling you do like no joke this is nothing i i there's stories i can't tell you oh the stories on the stories on the doc blew my mind about your pops i was like yeah he's no joke so richard calls the restaurant and says hey friday i'm having a party why don't you bring why don't you bring pam you guys come come through yeah my dad says yeah okay so he gets he gets him and joanna in the car and and he heads over and uh back then playboy had a they paid for radio time back in the day here in Los Angeles at night. And a lot of comics would do like a set from like, you know, 10, you know, 11 o'clock to midnight, right?

And my dad did a set that he hated, okay? And Richard, this fucker takes, got the reel. I shouldn't have said that, but took the reel and had it. And when Pam and my dad and Joanna got there and Joanna Kearns is the one that told me this story, there's no one there. There's no party. It's just Richard. And he literally yells, right?

He's like, you think this motherfucker's funnier than me? And he turns on the reel and starts playing the bad set. And my dad gets hot. My dad was six, two and a half, and he could fight. He used to spar with Muhammad Ali. I used to whip on him all the time. So my dad wasn't scared to anybody. Richard was a little dude.

So my dad jumps over the coffee table, punches out Richard, takes the reel, like a real, right? Like, so the, it's not film because it's not video, but you know what I'm saying. I just don't remember the term. He yanks that off. And Joanna Curt tells me the story. She goes, he takes Pam and forgot me and just left. Like I said, what is in a makeup trailer? And I said, what are you talking about?

I go, what did you do? Richard got up, called me a cab and said, take your ass outside and wait for that cab. Wow. And slam the door. And so those were like, I got to hang out in that club. And so Richard one time came up, this is when he was real sick. He was in his wheelchair. Yeah.

And he said, he took my hand. His hand was shaky, man. And like put like chills down my whole spine. And he said, your father was a motherfucker. But he was a funny motherfucker. And all like the power of my body just dropped. I almost fainted. For real.

Like I like, almost. almost blacked out. And they took him up on stage to do to do a set. And we're all sitting in the small room there. And it's so, it's so tense, man. It's so, it's so, you could like see like when the Marine layer comes in here in LA and you have a hard time drive. It felt like that. Yeah. And his voice was real weak. And they had the mic was like curved. The stand was curved so he could, he could put his rest his hand on it. And he says, I was at a multiple sclerosis function with Annette Funicello.

And the whole crowd is just like, oh, God, oh, God. You don't want to see heroes suffer. And so we're just, we, everyone wants it to be over and painless. And he says, he looks down and then he looks back up. And he's got this evil little twinkle in his eye, man. and he goes, and she sucked my dick. And he did a five-minute set of what a blowjob from Annette Funicello was like in front of the whole crap. And he was rich and he was Richard.

His, you can feel his heartbeat, man. And you could literally see it pumping the, the tension out of the room. And then after the story was over, it was about five minutes. You can see he was a little tired and they came up and he said, that's all I can do these days. And they took them off stage. And for 10 minutes straight, the small room sounded like 82,000 people. Like, no one, no one could stop. No one could stop clapping.

No one could let him go. It was such a, such a powerful moment. So I had huge memories of that place. So when the documentary was out, I watched, I watched all of them. I watched all of them. So that was my home. That was my home. Yeah.

And that's where like, so one of my favorite memories when I first got out to Los Angeles was I went there. That was where I went. And the door was open because it's a very different place now. It's actually very, it's, it's way more legit. And like it's like, it's people like, you're actually workers. Like you could just get into the comedy store. And I remember walking in there and I was, I walked in. Nobody was working in the OR where you're just to the room you're just talking about.

Yeah. Walk in and I stood on that stage. And whether I should have or not, I did. And I said, prior, Carlin, Prince, all these guys have, have been here, Robin Williams. I'm like, I'm getting here. And I went that, whether it was the night or two nights later, I went to see comedy there in that room. And I will never forget the two comedians that I saw that night.

It was, I don't know, do you know Mike Young? Yeah, yeah, I know Mike Young. Mike Young and Bobby Lee, where the two, they saw and I wound up becoming buddies with Bobby. So, and Mike, and Mike. So, but it's just so bizarre that that place, the magic, the watching someone. And I'm so glad that you said that thing about how that room, that's the beauty of that room, is that that room to me is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, man, that's great.

I love that. It is. It is, please, too. And it's, it is that, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I used to, sometimes I'd have to, I'd go up, I'd go up at at nine o'clock when it started, crush. Then other days, it's, okay, great, you did good. Well, Rogan's doing, uh, about an hour and, and, and, and, and, 30 right now and you're going up right next.

Go, right? You go, okay, now you got to go up at three, two in the morning in front of three people who are hammered and want to go to sleep. And pop sleeping in the room right now. Yeah. So like that kind of stuff. So I can only imagine that was, and that was, that was in the early 2000.

So watching that shit go down and I had Mike on the director, Mike Biner, to talk about it. I've seen Mike kill and I've seen Mike die. Yeah. In a, I saw him once in March and, on my birthday and I saw him a month later in April and did the exact same set and it died. And it was such a perfect picture of what the stand-up comic has to go through. Because it's like, what do I have to do?

What did I do wrong? This worked last week. It's why guys like Larry David take the philosophy of it's not your fault. It's the audience's fault. And I love that philosophy. I'm not saying he's right, but it's the right. philosophy, I think, for a lot of comedic minds to take because you're not the problem. You're not the problem. They're programmed to receive information a specific way. And they weren't programmed to

receive what you were giving them that night. And it's a sick way to look at it. And again, it's dead. It's not right, but it's right for the mind of the artist. Look, 100% the way I look at it, too. Let's say there were 60 people or 100 people in the room that night, right? And you put those hundred people, let's say for that night, a hundred of those people you put in a specific movie, they don't like that movie. But the next night, a hundred of those people love that movie. It's just what audience that night saw it, right? And I don't, I'm not always on the philosophy that it, I mean, like, that it is the, the audience's fault because I do think there are ways. Because it's such a hardcore stance to take. You can't believe that. You can't. I mean, you should,

but you can't. You can't, not all the way. I mean, but there's, because there's always ways to maneuver. and I've certainly had sets when I've been up there and I'm like, ah, I just, my rhythm was off, my mood was off. And then I've got like, when I did,

I did a set, I did a set of flappers like, I don't know, two months ago. And I went in, I had been in a very kind of silly, not silly mood, kind of goofy mood.

And then I just kind of got a little bummed. I was a little bummed going into it. And I saw Ellis and Ellis and I was performing in the same bill that night. I was like, I'm just not, I'm just kind of like, eh. He's like,

you're going to do well because of that. And I went. He's a Jedi with that stuff. Yeah. He's a low-key, not enough people. I'm trying to think of the best way to say. Not enough people know about Mark Ellis and how low-key, sneaky, funny he is, man. He's got a really great.

The dog father, what was his? What was the name of his? His dog stepfather. Dog stepfather, yeah, man. He was real low-key with that, man, and more people need to check that out. I was there for that when he when he shot it. We shot it in Chicago because we did it. We did a Schmodeown like event.

That's where my dad recorded his only special with Chicago. Oh, really? It's not there anymore, but it Mr. Chowse in Chicago. Yeah, man. That's what he did. He did it in Chicago. And then we did a Schmodeown event. It was our biggest one with like a thousand people there.

And then it was, but Mark did his special the night before. And we were all out there. But yeah, Mark, I went. And it was at the comedy. So that's where Mark and I met. Well, met at a barbecue. He had bleach blonde hair. And off like Metallica shirt or something, right?

And he showed up to a barbecue. And he's like, and I was a regular at the store. And his buddy was like, hey, this is my buddy Mark. I went to school with his buddy. And he's like, hey, so here's my friend Mark. And he wants to get into comedy and everything too. So I had introduced him to a couple people and he got sets. But then years later, he was at the store all the time and we became friends.

But I remember, funny enough, he did a Star Wars bit that it was in the OR. I don't know how many people were there. but he was just so quick and he was just so, like, the way that he put things together, he was talking to the crowd, and then I just shit with him all the time for the last like 12 years,

but like his mind works that way. And it's also, and it's a reason why I got back on stage. It keeps the tools sharp, man. Yeah, yeah, you got to stay. It's like a fighter. You got to, if you're thinking about other stuff,

you're going to get knocked out. You have to, you have to focus 100%. It's a really good outlet for dudes like you who have the skill for it, but have found success in other things. And when those things start to get big,

or when you're still climbing, but you need something to help take it off, like you should really do that, man. For me, it's jujitsu, right? But I get John Jax Machado. So if you had John Jaxe Mashado, you would want to see him every day because he teaches me a lot about being a dad,

a man, a martial artist, everything. So for me, that's where I get a lot of that release and that requirement of total focus because you get choked out. if you don't. But dying on stage feels a lot worse than tapping out. I've seen it happen enough times, man. I'm sure. No, it was, it was, I think that the biggest from me when I got back on in New York was one was my first one coming back for a bit. And it was, it was easier because, I say that, because we had a full, a room full of people who knew who we were, right? So I actually,

to me, it was like, okay, was that real? Because I, because these people know, and they weren't, they weren't friends, but they were, they were people who watched the show. Sure. They're, they're wanting to laugh and be, there's nobody sitting there with their arms crossed like, make me laugh, monkey boy. Who's this asshole? Exactly.

They're all, they're all wanting you to succeed. Yes. And after I was done, I said, yeah, but I kind of need a who's this asshole crowd. Sure.

And then we did that the next night and then this, and it went over even better. And I was like, okay, then I can do it. But can't you compare that to like when quarterback say like, yo, I need that first hit before I can,

kind of like, you want a little adversity to see, you know, okay, what kind of, how are we going to do this? Am I going to have to shuck and jive or can I just get you with a jab? Like, it's a, it's a fight, you know? It's a, it's a, you guys are fighters. Well, would you say the same thing? I mean, as far as like when it comes to acting, right? Nah, no, not enough. I was going to say, but it, because if there was a good scene and going back and forth, did you see these interviews sometimes and you're like, oh, man, and I had to, and I really understood, like, I just watched this whole thing, the Harry Potter,

thing, right? And watch like Gary Oldman talking and and how they say, like you listen to Daniel Radcliffe when he came into the, he's like, look, we thought we knew what we're doing. We're kids. And then you look and you in there and there's Gary Oldman and, and, oh my God, Alan Rickman. And you're going back and forth and you realize those, those are the ones and you're throwing you a scene and you're getting stronger and you're. And so that, that's kind of what I meant as far as like the battle there. Not the same because like you see, like we've mentioned earlier. Yeah, but you're talking about peers versus an audience. And when you're with your peers, there's a different level of respect there.

You know, an audience hasn't done anything to earn your respect. You haven't done anything to earn their respect. Respect should never be given. Never. That's how heroes are made. And hero worship is bad news. That's how villains are made when they're not even villains. So you don't want that, man.

You want to earn it. Now, when you see somebody who you've watched, I never had the opportunity to work with with Alan Rickman, but my favorite villain of all time isn't Darth Vader. It's Hans Gruber because Hans Gruber would kick the shit out of Darth Vader. Like it wouldn't even be a fight. So he's just too smart. So, you know, if I was in a maneuvering out maneuver him? Oh my God, out maneuver him.

You wouldn't even have, I mean, could he even get to him is the issue. And no, he could not. So if I was in a room with him and got to do a scene with him, that's an impressive, you know, person to me. That's somebody who's earned my creative respect. So I could see how they would feel like that. But for a comic, you said it. I'm not saying, you said it. You are alone.

You're alone. It's one thing to follow Joe Rogan. But when you're on stage, that's you and that crowd. And too many times, the comic, 90% of the time, the comic can own that crowd. You can't own Alan Rickman, period. Right. You know what I mean? He didn't even die off the Nakatomi.

You didn't see his body get taken away. You didn't see it. That's true. You didn't see it? You didn't see Jeremy Irons at the funeral and the sequel? You didn't see that? That's what they're going to do. They're going to somehow with all the technology they have.

No, don't. I just ruin that franchise. Don't. It's not. I think Bruce Willis won that franchise. Stop it. The last. There's no John McLean slander allowed on your podcast.

I didn't, I didn't slander him. I slander Bruce Willis in the last diehard movie. He's such an asshole. smells something in the top of the plane in a long time. Whatever. So, yeah, other stuff, man. So the other thing I do, one of the reasons, you're a great follow on, whether it's Instagram or Twitter,

because for the positivity, that's first thing. I love when you tweet down, you're always like, hey, everybody, what are you feeling good about today? That's still good Friday, man. That's from the hip-hop world. That's not even mine. I stole that from Lord Sear. Do you read them all when they come in there,

or a lot of them? Do you read them? I read a ton, check it out. I heart things. I reply to some. Some people are like, yo, man, it's payday. And I'm like, yo, get your ass paid. Like, it makes me feel good.

I like seeing people find something that they're grateful for because things are tough, you know, life's tough. It's not easy. It's hard. And it's hard for poor people, rich people, people in between. You know, nobody knows what somebody's suffering through. Nobody knows what's going on on the inside. So I don't want to sound preachy, which is why I just do it once a week on Fridays and say, what do you feel good about?

But it's just a fancy way of saying, hey, let's feel grateful for something today, you know? I love that. I look forward to it, actually, when I see it. Because I really do. It is that smile in the face. It's just because you're a dad and you're sappy and cry during Survivor now and all that crap. Probably what it is as well.

There's no doubt about it. Like, when I'm watching stuff with my daughter, I watch things differently now than I used to because I watch it through, like, the prequels. You go back to Star Wars. I was the prequels now, like when, when, because I watched it through my daughter's eyes and when, like, Jar Jar came on and she was like all happy and stuff. I'm like, that's what that was meant for. But what am I getting mad about it?

I've always defended that brave, brave alien. As you should. And I, I know more now too. More courageous than the rest of us. It definitely was, but some people think he was a Sith Lord. It would have been a good Sith Lord too. You would have. But the other, the other thing that is that you cook your ass off, man.

You've been cooking for a while, and I love the post of the, every time, I'm always inspired to throw my grill on when I look at your Instagram post. Oh, dude, we're getting a new, we're getting a new grill put it. We're redoing the whole backyard. I'm getting half grill, half habachi, like Benny Hanna style. Yeah. I'm going to do breakfasts out there and just throw it all on the damn griddle. I'm going to do, I'm going to get my chops down.

I'm going to be throwing knives of people and getting it like right next to your head, but I won't get you. But it'll, you know, enough to command your respect. Enough to wake up and watch this chef do his thing. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's right. When did you start cooking?

My mom was a chef, man. So, you know, it was just her and I for a long time. And then so I learned about my grandfather being in World War II next to my mother in front of a stove, making miso soup from scratch. And so that's where a lot of our bonding moments came. and then things got tough for her. And I had to go live with my godparents, who I've told you about before,

my godfather, Bob Wall and his wife. And that's where I got to really kind of find myself, become a young man through guys like Pat Johnson, Pat Berlison, rest in peace. He just passed away last year. Chuck Norris, judo Jean LaBelle, who's pretty sick right now, but a lot of prayers for him.

He's the toughest son of a bitch on earth. And my godfather, Pop and, you know, they helped, they were weirdos and psychopaths. And I'll say that to their face. And I have, and I have the scars and injuries to prove it. But the life lessons they taught me helped me navigate this business better than anyone that I've ever worked with. And I've worked with people that have succeeded at the highest of high levels and not succeeded at any level at all. and I've always been able to problem solve better than any of their asses. Maybe not act better than them,

but when there were problems and issues in scenes and things they couldn't work through, I always was able to see solutions because that's what martial arts teaches you. It's just about problem solving. That's all it is. If his jab's quicker than yours, what are you going to do? You're going to keep jabbing with him? Or you're going to move your damn head? And so that was really a huge benefit to me.

they were the ones that really beat in that respect is earned, not given that I was preaching to you, that I'm trying to make you believe, Christian. Because that's what they did to me. So, you know, it's all I'm always, I try to preach them a lot because I'm forever grateful for what they, what they taught me. And I'm glad I listened,

not as much as I should have, but I did. And they're responsible for me having a lot of what I have, man. Dude, you picked up a lot of it too, because like I said, when you look at half the shit we talked about today, right? Whether it's martial arts, whether it's the cooking, whether it's comedy, whether it's, you know, all this stuff that you've done.

So I think I asked you this last time, but I just want to just for a newer audience too, did you ever attempt to do stand-up? I know that you- Hell no. Are you crazy? Yeah. No, I, no.

I made a promise to myself a long time ago, never to step on the same wood that that man stood on. It felt awkward to me, even doing the Tonight Show back in the day with Jay because he moved his stage to my dad's old stage on NBC and I felt real shaky like going out there. I wasn't sure if he had been on the SNL stage like with a friend or something when I hosted SNL. I got this weird flash where I was like, yo, he hasn't been here, has he? And, you know, like it just, it creeped me out. So I've never, never won't. Josh made me do our podcast one time live. And he was,

going to perform at the club and the only reason i did is because it wasn't really like a club it was a restaurant in a hotel okay and so we did it and i even during while we were doing it i said just so we're clear i hate this this is horrible i don't want to hear you guys laughing at us i want to hear you guys enjoying yourselves at all this is a nightmare experience for me and it really was like they were laughing what i'm saying that and i'm glad they had a good time but it was legit like and I was laughing it off too but I hated it's just every second of it so it's just and it's is echo back to what we were talking about before like is it a respect thing you just because it's a lot of things it's respect is a big part of it another part of it is is I don't know

I don't really believe in ghosts but you know when you're a junior and you're in puberty you feel like a statue built to honor that which walked before you And then when you grow up and you have that same name and you end up in the same industry he's in, you feel like you're chasing a ghost, right? Like your goals are his goals, not your goals. Right. At least for me, this is for what my experience was. And then eventually, I accomplished all my goals. By age 30, I had a number or not a number one show, but we were number one in our time slot.

It was a sitcom just like my dad did. I put it in his name, which was Hungarian, which was at the end of every show. I was the youngest creator, EP writer and lead of a show in the history of Warner Brothers and ABC. And everything that I had wanted to pull off was within that show at the end. And it happened and then I was done. And then you keep doing jobs because the money out here is so sweet. and then the WWE saved my life, man. Like I went to WrestleMania.

This lady said you should work here. Her name's Kristen Proudy. I'll never forget her. I talked to Steph. I talked to Vince. He called me son, which for a kid who didn't grow up, but a dad is like kryptonite for Superbay.

I'll do whatever he says. He's the third. Yeah, so he goes, we could really use you here, son. And I was like, oh, man, I hadn't even asked Sarah yet. I hadn't even asked her. I'm on a train from Stanford back to our apartment in New York.

I call her up. I say, hey, I just got a job with the WW. She goes, what? You're going to fucking wrestle? I said, no, she goes, Freddie, you're not wrestling. And I was like, I go, no, I'm going to write. She goes, what are you talking about? And I explained the job to her.

She was like, you're out of your mind, but I love you. Have fun. That's awesome. Instead of getting a check, I asked if they would just pay me in stock. and they did and it was the only probably good stock investment I ever made which wasn't even an investment and then we sold it all last year and so yeah man it was like wrestling wrestling gave me the whole like second half of my life you know what I mean like so I you know we were in Hawaii looking at property out there so I can get I'll get big and fat and 10 and

look like probably, I'll probably look Samoan. I'll get tattoos. I'll start my own indie Samoan wrestling company where you can't wrestle unless you're Samoan, even though the promoter has no Simone within him whatsoever. That would be nice. I'd be a good heel. I'd be a good heel character. The non-Samoan Samoan, Samoan.

Oh, dude. That's great, man. I didn't realize I knew that. I mean, obviously you worked there. Then you went back, though. When did, when did you go back? How many years ago? I went to, no.

It was only about. a year after i had quit and i i went early to summer slam when it was still in la okay and i was uh talking to to big show and he said vince is down by the ring they want to this guy came up said vince's ring side he wants to talk to you i was like oh cool man so i go down i talk to vince and uh he's he's on the headset talking to kevin done in the truck yeah and uh i hear him go hold on a second I got your favorite guy here, which means Kevin fucking hates me, I guess. And so he puts down the headset and he goes, oh, it's good to see you look good. You look healthy, down and I go, yeah, right on, you still look like Robocop.

Very cool. Because he looks like, his body looks like the shell of Robocop. It looks like armor, right? And he said, by the way, he's never seen Robocop. He didn't know what fuck. You're right. He didn't know an insult or a compliment. No, no, he doesn't know who Robocop is.

Why would he? So he says, you know, just a couple sentences in that he would like for me to come back. And I say, I just can't, you know, I got a kid now. And I really want to be a good dad. That's why I left the first time. And he says, well, you can make your schedule. And I go, I wouldn't even know how to like make a schedule of events.

You know, he goes, just come for paper views. And so I go, this is the time he called me son. He goes, son, you can just come for pay per views. And I literally was like, oh. Right. That's what you have. All right. I'll just come.

come for paper piece. And that turned into coming every other week. And that was when we started the promo class where it was literally having gigantic wrestlers doing acting class exercises like repetition and say it's hysterical. Did they do that? No, I promised that I would never. But I kept journals of everything. Oh, but that's how I got the most out of them was by earning their trust and saying, look, the way it's ever going to hear about any of this. And the only time Vince is going to hear anything is when you guys, crush it. And I can say, hey, give Eve Torres more to do because her acting skills are getting way better than you realize, like that kind of crap. So everyone believed me and I kept that

promise. But I did write a bunch of journals and a lot of like what I was going through at that time, the funniest moments in there. I mean, we had big show came in and said, hey, I want to do the monologue, the Christopher Walker monologue from Paul Fiction. And I go, are you serious? He goes, yeah. He goes, and I'm going to cut the, he called it a promo. He goes, I'm going to cut the promo on swags, horn swoggle. Dylan. Yeah. I go, you have him be the young Bruce Willis.

He goes, yeah. I go, all right, man. So this was like the first time a top tier talent was going to put over my acting class, right? It was all the young bucks until he came. And then some of the older bucks started coming in after Big Show open that door, right? Awesome. So he comes in and he cuts this, and it's beautiful, man. He's like so tender with it.

He does it in a very different way, man. And it's like, it's special. And at the end, everyone's clapping. I'm like, thank you so much. That helped the clack gave him so much courage. I know they're going to like step on more now. He's like, oh, no, my pleasure. You know, I want to learn too.

I want to learn too. I'm like, dude, you already know what's up. He's like, no, I really do. Always trying to get better that guy. So he leaves the next week, and I'm not going to say the wrestler's name. This is an embarrassing story. And unless I had his permission explicitly, I won't say it. But he says, hey, I want to take a shot at the Christopher walking speech,

the one show did. And I'm like, dang, yeah, all right. And he starts, but he does it. He's doing that. He does the Christopher Walken voice, right? So he's like, now little man, I don't do a good, but he didn't either, so that's probably

free but he finishes. And I don't have the heart to stop him, because he's got the guts, you know, and I don't know if it's a rib. I don't, you know, and about halfway through I realize, oh, he's really doing this, but I can't stop him now. like there's nothing in my I should have maybe but nothing in like half of me is like for the rib it's going to be great and the other half was like I don't have the heart to like jump on this guy

and be like stop save yourself I thought I'd make it worse so anyway he finishes he says and now a little man I give the watch to you and it's super quiet no one says any and then Matt Cardona and it goes, why the hell did you do a Christopher walking impression? And the whole room just starts to die. And this guy stands up and the chair flies from behind him. And he storms out of the acting class. Like, he was so mad. And he stormed out.

And I'm literally on the ground. I have asthma, because I'm like almost having an asthma attack on the ground. Cardona's like die laughing but dumbstruck at the same time. Nidehart can't stop saying the same sentence, which is, why did he do a walk-in accent? Why did it? We were like 13 of us in there at the time.

Yeah, man. And it's like I got to have that every freaking week. Every week. My big show story is when I first got there and I had to walk, I had to walk into the locker room and he's fucked naked. It was like a rhinoceros penis. Just like. That sucks so bad.

It was terrible. I was like, oh, okay. They're like, yeah, so this job is horrible. There you go. But either way, man. So I'm assuming stories like that are what people are going to hear on your show. Lots of stories like that. That's fantastic.

I didn't get to see big shows, humongous penis. But the first time I met him, Vince had me trying to put over a new kind of match where he was going to, he was describing it. And there were three ways the match could finish. And he goes, you're going to write this promo. And he's got to describe the match and put it over. So it's like a, you know, 127 page promo, but I'm on done with it. And I don't even get to meet Big Show. They email it to them.

They won't even give me his email address. It's early in my career, so to speak. And I'm in the writer's room at the arena, and the door flies open. And it's big show. And he's holding the pages. And it goes, five pages, dude, for real. And he goes, who the fuck wrote me war in peace? And I was in my head.

This was in my hands and I'll put my, like, brother, it's me. Let me work on it with you. We'll cut whatever you want. And we found a glad space. And he's like, you can't write five. I go, I know, man. Look, here's what we're tasked with. I knew it was too much when I wrote it.

Let's find the key parts and we'll chew up all the fat and just get rid of it. And he's like, all right, you got to do better. I go, I know I got to do better. But this is the best I can do today. Let's, we'll trim it up. I go, I'll show you how I memorized stuff. maybe it'll help you. And so I showed him my technique and he thought it was bullshit.

And then a month later, he started doing it, which was cool. But yeah, like those were learning experiences for me, man. Like I had to learn how to write wrestling because, you know, the way I did it, as he said, fucking sucks. Yeah, a hundred percent. I could, I could, look, I saw a lot of that stuff when I was there too. And like, so, but that, my question is, so how old were you when you start, your first run when you started there?

Oh, shit, man. Don't make me do math. everyone's going to see how stupid I am. I was there in 07. So you were like 30, 32, 33, somewhere in there, man. Okay. So the reason I asked that is because, like, at that point, you'd already done, because that's, I also think that it just shows it, it shows you, from what I got to

know of you over the last, like, five, six years. You're pretty humble dude, right? And you're also, it's one of those, because you, you could have been the dude that's like, well, I've been in movies. I've did this. You know what my dad was. And you're not that guy. and instead you go there and you have that conversation where because what I'm curious is did they were there had to be a ton of ribbing with you about movies that you were in things that you were doing like they break your balls when you first get there right yeah but yes but I'm an I'm an old school guy okay I'm 45 years old so I don't mind earning it right I don't mind doing things and you're making it hard to see if I have it because when I do you have every time you see my face you have to know how wrong you were

And that you were the one to fail, not me. Like, I love the way that feels. I don't need internal motivation. People shitting on you is plenty. You know what I mean? I'd rather save that energy to come up with ideas, right? So when I got there, like JBL, his name for me was just Scooby. Like, that was it, Scooby.

Oh, he called you Scooby, right? John Cena's name called me Ashton Coucher. Right? He's like, he hated me, right? I'll tell you. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, okay. We were, I just, Leo gets the whole podcast right there. So we're doing an acting class. It's Hawkins and Ryder and they're doing a scene from bad boys. I was letting them pick scenes they liked. And then I would type it all up for them, do the pages on them. So they didn't have any of those responsibilities.

Just let's break down scenes and try to make these work. Right. So we're in the middle of the scene and John Cena walks right in the room and he sits right in between them. Or sorry, grabs a chair, opens it up, puts it in between Hawkins. and writer sits down and is just staring right at me and i'm looking at him and i'm not a reactionary dude okay so like when i see a challenge like this or a confrontation or speed bump however big or small it is before i i'm not uncomfortable with silence so i sit there and i'm just looking at him and in my head i'm like what the fuck is going on like i'm not going to fight him he looks like

the actual thing like he looks like ben grim from the fantastic fort right Really does. So, you know, I'm like, what is he, what's his motivation? What is he wanting to do here? Right. Like that's my brain, whether you compliment me or criticize me, I'm always, if it's a compliment, I'm like, he's got a script he wants me to read. And if it's a criticism, I'm like, oh, his girlfriend drug him to one of my movies.

Like, I don't know what else he could be mad about because I don't do anything to anybody. So I'm sitting there and these thoughts are all going through my head. And Cardona and Hawkins are both, are both there. they're not going to say anything. John's the man, right? And I respected John when I got there. And I didn't like John, but during my time that I respected him, he took, he had to wear that G-rated crown.

And other dudes could have done it, but they didn't want it. Triple H could have held that crown during that time and carried the company, but he wanted to do his DX, grown-up stuff. And Cina was like, yo, give it to me. I'll take it. The people are going to hate me, but I'll take it. So I have big respect for that. But I'm not going to let him destroy the class.

Right. So I go, hey, man, do you? You need to talk to me outside. And it gets like crazy tense in the room, right? And he goes, yeah. And we go outside. And he'll admit to all this. It's not a big deal.

And so we go outside. And I go, dude, what the hell are you doing, man? What's going on? And these are his words. He goes, look, maybe I'm a Neanderthal, but you either know how to act or you fucking don't. And I'm like, all right, man, fair enough. And I was very direct with, I think confrontation is good.

I think conflict is good. I think most of the time, that's the only way to properly resolve. solve a situation. I'm not saying violence. I'm just saying, it's good to argue. That's how you figure crap out. So I say, and to be honest and direct. And so I say to him, I go, look, man, these guys can't do what you do. But some of them have a certain amount of talent, and it's my job to help get him there. And if you're not going to do it, I damn well have to. He didn't say anything for a second. So I knew right away, I was like, all right, he's going to chill. And he goes, well, whatever, you can do it or you can't. And he storms off.

I go back in and Cardona's like, man, I thought you guys were going to fight. I was like, man, shut the fuck up. I'm not trying to fight the WWE champion, bro. You're the champion at the time? I'm sure him or Randy. Yeah, yeah. So the class is over. We do the show.

It must have been a Monday night raw because it was Cina interrupted the class and he was the raw guy. Yeah. And so we're on the jet flying to the Tuesday night taping, which was when they used to film Smackdown when I worked there. And I get on the jet. Vince has like a, whatever, a G, whatever, just five, four, whatever it is. And he's a germaphobe. So there's hand sanitizer all over the place.

And he grabs some hand sanitizer, puts it in his hands, holds it out for me, gestures for me to sit down across from him. He wants to talk to me. So I put my hand out and he starts squeezing the hand sanitizer. And he keeps squeezing it. And he keeps squeezing it. and it's just piling up in my hand. And again, I'm not a reactionary dude.

I always think, like, what's the motive, right? So in my head, I'm like, what the hell is he doing right now? He knows I'm not going to dump it on his frigging G-27 billion, whatever it's called. So he's just trying to see what I'm going to do. All right, fine. So I wait till it's empty. It's one of those small little bottles. I let him do the whole thing.

I smile in his face. I say, I go into the bathroom. I slap it in the sink, clean off my hands. I sit down. I go, what the hell you were trying to do, man? And he's like, ah, ha. And Kevin thinks it's the greatest break ever. Kevin Dunn's like, oh, that's fantastic boss.

I don't do a good Kevin Dunner. No, I do. He laughs at everything. Everything. So Vince is like. It's like, Smey. Yeah, he's like, Vince is like, well, welcome to the club. And Kevin's like, ah, I had a club, the club.

And it's an awkward environment. And then he laughs and he goes, so I heard you had a, or you had a tough day to day. And I go, yeah, what did you hear? And he says, ah, I talked to Sina. And I go, yeah, I go, he didn't seem to be too crazy about me. And he goes, I don't worry about it. I'm the only one that can fire yet. And I said, okay, cool, it's good to know.

And in my head, I'm like, all right, so if there's any more problems, I have more freedom than I thought. Like, I can report to Vince crap if I need to and have more of a line of communication. And after that, he and I started to get pretty cool, man. He was, he was, and I earned John's respect eventually. He was backstage. And a guy I had in the ring crushed a promo that we had been working. on and he was like uh he goes it was the best he could muster he goes hey that was that was really

good and i was sitting next to vince and i know sold it i i chose pettiness instead of kindness and i was like yeah whatever and i just stayed right on the monitor and bince's elbow and which was either oh fuck off or hey good job i don't i didn't know how to interpret it and then and all the guys there that hated me like MVP hated me when i was there and now he and i are still like this today like We talked jujitsu together, and I cried when he got his, he got his belt promotion. Like, it's a big, we have a tight relationship. JBL, JBL didn't call me Freddie until I've written this promo for him that Vince said was shit. And Vince, Vince rewrote it. And I disagreed with Vince's take. And he wrote it, rewrote it and said, you tell John to say this word for word. say, all right.

So I give JBL the promo. I go, hey, man, Vince said, we got to do it this way, and we got to do a word for work. And John's like, all right, don't worry. I'll take care of it. I go, you don't want to work on it. And he goes, no, no, I worked with Vince Longer, and I work with you, Scooby. You fuck out of here. Like, dude, all right, whatever, good luck.

So I walk away, I'm like, this is going to be a friggin shit show because the promo Vince wrote was not good. Like, the promo I wrote was good. And the promo that he wrote was not good. It was very simple. And so we go out there, and I'm saying, sitting in Gorilla and John goes out of the curtain. For those who don't know, Gorilla's like the backstage position where the boss watches the show. And as soon as you finish your match

and come back, he could let you know whether he loved it, hated it, or was indifferent with just a look or no look. So John goes out there and he cuts the promo that he and I worked on, the one that I wrote, word for word. Doesn't say anything to Vince says. And Vince is just hammering me, dude. Like I'm sitting right next to him. And Kevin's not helping. Kevin's like, well, this is the wrong fucking promo and just like bury me. And Vince was like, I told you. And at this moment, I have a choice to me. I can either be like, man, fuck this.

I told him, fuck him. He took what was better because that's better because he's right and I was right. But instead, it's my job, even though JBL's over, it's my job to eat the bullet. And I can eat the bullet because he said he's the only one that can fire me. If he's going to fire me, whatever. I live in New York already. I'll get home just fine. So I say, I go, look, man, I know what you said, but I just, I know my promo was better.

I didn't even let him see it. I trashed it. And I told him, Vince approved it and just fucking rock and roll. And he was like, God, damn. He's just throwing bananas on me, right? And he's like, get the fuck out of it. So I'm like, all right, fine. I'm out of here.

I take my headset off. I throw it down on the table and I storm off, pissed off, right? And everybody's mad. And JBL comes back, or so I heard, right, from Freebird. and Vince is going in on him and John's like, what? And he goes, oh, no, he told me to, and JBL laid on the grenade and told the truth. And so that was when JBL respected me because I didn't throw him under the bus. And I took the bullet and Vince respected me because I took a bullet when he realized what the truth of the situation was.

And that was when my idea started to get over a lot more with Vince. He had a little bit more respect. for me. I think that's the thing though, man. I think that that's, and I know you got to get going here, but the thing with you though, I think that that's, that's, as you mentioned before, there's a perception, right? And like, even I remember,

I don't know if I ever told you. I said it's the first time I ever, never met you, but I had seen you. I was doing, I was at the ha ha comedy club in in like Burbank, wherever. Yeah. Yeah. And you were there and you were watching the show. And I was like, is that the guy from, I know what you did last summer?

I'm like, I like that movie. I like Freepin's Jr. I'm like, he's going to watch my shit. He's going to watch the Saturday. I'm, I'm going to crush it. And you left before I went up. I was there with Dan Ferguson to see a comic he was going to have on Conan. And we split after that.

And I was like, you son of a bitch and his end. Oh, no. You hate it. Oh, you hated. No reason at all. And I'm like, fine. There's never a reason. It's okay.

Of course. And then obviously years later, we, and oh, and then I think that there was, there was another time randomly. You were out with your wife and some, so I was out with my wife for our anniversary. You very kindly walked in. And you just locked out. I said, how's it going, man?

I said, hey, how's it going? I was like, and I was like, and I was like, and I told my wife the story about the ha. And I go, I was wrong. He seems like a nice guy. And then years later, we became buddy. So look at this small world, the small world. But this is all the talk to you, man.

So I'm glad, I'm glad that we got a chance to talk again. And thanks for joining me on the news. show because this is really this is kind of what I love to do and I'm glad that I got to do it with you all you all you you you right brain crazy folk have to break away from the system and and do your own thing I think to to be truly satisfied and to and have true success and while they may be a part of the foundation of your success you guys need to go and do your thing and I and I think you'll be really satisfied and I know you'll be very successful man so I'm happy for you. I really appreciate it.

And thank you for coming on. I look forward to seeing some more. I'm going to be looking at your posts. I'm going to see what you've been cooking up. So ladies and gentlemen, please check out Freddie Prince Jr. And check out, check out the show,

guys, because one more time. It is wrestling with Freddie. You can get it now. I just subscribe to it. You should do the same. Check it out. Obviously,

you hear a ton of stories like that and a lot of great ones. So the great Freddie Prince Jr., everybody. We shall see you next time. Catch us, The Big Thing, Apple Podcast, Spotify, all of it. All right, everybody.

Peace out.