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Travis Boles ignites! | EP40 | Down with DP Podcast 7-4-2026
23 Plays16 days ago
KICKSTARTER HERE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/travisboles/nine-in-the-evening-forbidden-knowledge?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGn4yDg2tgVKFko185PTWBjuPWoOu7Q7FMKyojBK0JeWGHx2-OHZi3w3byMWEY_aem_6xXOqPqsyZoGk1SWUwfj7w&utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv3
#DownwithDPPodcast #DWDPP #DWDP #Podcast @itsrobertdunne @rev_ron_prendimano
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Transcript
Pitching the Mega Man Movie
00:00:00
Speaker
Me and Robert and Mike are sitting by the pool and Robert is pitching the Mega Man movie to me and Mike Scott and Robert is not screwing around. was like, look, here's how this works. Interior day. Boop, but boop, boop, boop. Mike's like, no, he's right. It could work.
00:00:16
Speaker
The Mega Man movie could work.
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome to the...
00:00:30
Speaker
What's the deal? Let me try that again. It's the Down With DP podcast with Robert Dunn and Ron Prendamano in three minutes.
00:00:42
Speaker
What's up, everyone? How is it going today?
Guest Introduction: Travis Bowles
00:00:47
Speaker
Yeah, today is going to be a special episode. We have a guest. We have Travis Bowles. Very excited about this one. Very excited.
00:00:55
Speaker
Old friend of mine. He's going talking about a new ah project called Nine in the Evening, which is installment number three of a very popular series from old YouTube days called Three in the Morning. Then he did Six in the Afternoon and now Nine in the Evening. And, ah you know, we we talked ah we talked to him for a bit and got to know his interests, his loves, our loves, our interests, all the cool things. Very cool.
00:01:19
Speaker
of know um but A lot of compliments, you know, just awesome stuff.
Friendship and Emotional Attachment
00:01:23
Speaker
Great conversation. So ah without further ado, everybody, this is going to be kind of full on guest episode. So without further ado, let's introduce Travis Bowles.
00:01:35
Speaker
But ah yeah, we're here with ah Travis Bowles, everybody. a Good old friend of mine. And ah not to Ron. Ron just met him. So literally emotional attachment. Well, I've seen him before, but I've never seen him before. Like Travis's house could burst into flames right now. Ron would feel nothing.
00:01:51
Speaker
I would feel something. I would feel bad. I would feel bad. feel a little sadness, but just for the sake of humanity. But yeah. Yeah. No, I don't think I care. No offense. drive Well, well, he is on the run in 2026, so I don't blame anybody for feeling you how they're feeling.
00:02:09
Speaker
Keep going. Yes. sir I'm like tossing around a rubber band ball. I don't want you to think like, ah i don't I don't know. I'm not really interested in that. I think because like I've so Travis and I've been friends for so, so long. I just feel comfortable. He doesn't really feel like a guest guest. He just feels like a guy I'm talking to. Hence why I'm um'm throwing around a rubber band ball. But what we can get into it, everybody.
Travis's Past and Future Projects
00:02:35
Speaker
Welcome, Travis. And what we are going to be talking about today is something cool that Travis has been trying to do. Or I don i don't want to say trying, but like.
00:02:46
Speaker
marinating an idea about for years now. ah Travis is known for a series back in the day. um We have three in the morning, six in the afternoon ah series, which was a correct me if I'm wrong. As I say series, my Siri just lit up.
00:03:05
Speaker
So even even series cheering it on. yeah Hey, yeah. um Robot slaves. ah But What we have going on here is ah Travis has decided 20 years later to embark on a journey, if you will, ah to the third installment. Technically, I mean, do you call it the third installment? Because I know six was like part one and part two.
00:03:30
Speaker
But ah it would be the third installment would be. Yeah, it would be. Yeah, that's that's right. yeah like it. I like it. OK. But I don't know if I want to give the breakdown. Do you want to do you want to tell us? Because I was going to say what what it was kind of about. But essentially, through ah ah but I don't know. Do you want to say bunch? Well, I would frame it. I mean, people.
00:03:53
Speaker
to the To the youngsters out there, I mean, here for me, Robert, first off, thank you for having me on the show. It's great to be here. Oh, for sure. Thank you wrong yeah you're paying us guys for having me. I know this well this was not cheap, so let me plug my shit and then get the hell out of here. so Yeah, please. Shit! Wasting my time! no ah I don't think that um it this this situation I'm in with this project is that ah
00:04:23
Speaker
you know, what would you what would you do if you had done a bunch of backyard movie making in your 20s and made probably a dozen shorts of various form combinations and forms and complexities and and scopes and scales, and then you made one that 20 years later still gets double digit viewership on YouTube on the daily and is well remembered by
00:04:58
Speaker
the ah the kids who, as as it has been explained to me, effectively grew up watching it. i mean, we're talking about 8, 9, 10, 11, 12-year-old Star Wars fans in the you know mid to late 2000s during birth of YouTube era. you know We're talking about pre-YouTube on the Force.net fan film boards. yeah and And when you start talking about that,
00:05:23
Speaker
People start to some people roll their eyes and dismiss it. You know, as soon as you say fan film, you know, the cineasts with their noses in the air go running for the hills. But what a lot of people ah don't understand is that.
00:05:38
Speaker
the people who were in those spaces pre-YouTube went on to, many many of them went on to careers in Hollywood and and as serious you know creative professionals. And so there was a kind of a ah a lot of little lightning bolts striking pre-YouTube on the Force.net and in other places like Atom Films and DVX User and and other places on the internet where the you know, filmmakers and and backyard, particularly what i what I shorthand, backyard filmmakers, you know, as the technology got cheaper during that time, you know, we were finding one another and we were working on projects and having little film festivals and and figuring things out.
00:06:15
Speaker
And so three in the afternoon is kind of my greatest hit. It's kind of my ring of fire. It's kind of my, you know, ah you know, whatever my sweater song. It's ah it's my it's my radio hit, you know, and it will go on being my radio hit kind of whether I acknowledge it or not, whether anybody acknowledges or it or not.
00:06:35
Speaker
And really, regardless of how I or anybody else feels about it. what I've come to understand just in the lab, really in particular over the last few weeks is
Reviving Old Projects
00:06:45
Speaker
that for some people it's institutional internet. And, the, my channel is basically where people come to watch this thing and to come back to it. And it it's value that's valuable to them for various reasons. And I've been in the YouTube game long enough in various combinations as 25 you know, video production manager and producer to know that when you have a situation like that, you know, you can let it sit and just let it and just let it rest and and be what it is and and keep going. Or you can make it kind of part of your brand and my personal brand and part of my story as a creative professional.
00:07:27
Speaker
And as I kind of cruise into my mid 40s, I think it's I got really fired up about picking it back up. And and so that's kind of the thing. i That's that's how I tell the story now to people who have no idea what I'm talking about and aren't invested. It's like, well, what would you do if you kind of had a ah radio hit on the Internet and it's 20 years old?
00:07:47
Speaker
And you kind of felt like picking it back up and writing another you know verse. you know I mean, especially in an era now where I feel like continuations of of stories like like things are getting just sequels like Freaky Friday got a sequel recently. You know what I mean? I'm not saying you're the freakier Friday, but you know what I mean? Like there's just these older stories now that are people are welcoming with open arms for a sequel. There's other examples, too. I'm trying to think of.
00:08:17
Speaker
ah Oh, oh, Devil Wears Prada, too. I mean, Beetlejuice, too.
00:08:24
Speaker
So my North stars are the Twin Peaks return, which is now you know resolved itself. Right. And what a what a huge buzz that was that it was coming back. And then the current buzz is the Mystery Science Theater 3000 place we're at, where they've they've picked it up and they're taking it back to basics and and building that back up. And so things that have been dormant.
00:08:49
Speaker
you know, MST kind of qualifies, but there's some of these things that are coming back around. Time remake coming out. I heard about that. Star Fox 64. Oh, yeah.
00:09:00
Speaker
I've been playing Ocarina of Time, ah the OG, and it's so much fun. um But yeah, I mean, I feel like now is like, sorry, Travis picks up all my little like nuances and stuff. i do um oh talk Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah, we can talk about that. But I really feel like now is like that perfect like Time ah to make something like this. I don't I would I'd be curious if 10 years ago if you try to do this, if it would if it would have ah as big of a reaction. I feel like now people are like seeking that in a sense. And and especially now to see like obviously with improvement on technology and everything just to see, ah you know, something to come back and to look so much more like fancy and polished now. would be really cool in my opinion.
00:09:53
Speaker
So, well, it kind of brings everything together and takes everything I've learned and and brings it all together. But 10 years ago, I was having, you know, starting a family, getting married and having my daughter, you know, who's 11 now. So, you know, I wouldn't want to do it 10 years ago and I don't want to do it 10 years from now. You know, she's 11. Dude, I swear she was just like, I swear she was like eight when I saw her three years ago.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's crazy, right? Or nine. Something remember. i was trying to make a trying to make a aging like all of us. ah She's she's aging at the exact speed of time, um which is good because this either could be a Benjamin Button situation or a Jack situation. So god I feel like I'm in the middle. Like you're I'm going to I'm like a Benjamin Button meets Jack kind of guy. You know what i mean?
00:10:40
Speaker
You're aging backwards four times faster. You're Williams movie Jack. Robin Williams movie Jack. Yeah, yeah. He aged four times faster than everyone else. And Benjamin Button ages backwards. So you're aging four times backwards.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Did you know the nanny was in Jack? The nanny? And he had like crush on Grand Drescher played, ah yeah. Grand Drescher, ex-president of Bag After. She was the mom. She was the mom. She was the mom. Mr. Powell, oh my God. Wow.
00:11:11
Speaker
um Well, I guess because I do have questions for you. Don't worry. This is not right off the cuff here. ah What I was going ask is like what made you I kind of gave an answer to this question, but you can still answer it since I'm asking you ah what what made you want to start production now? Like what? What was it just kind of like when the fire hits you, it hits you because I know that can happen where you're just all of a sudden you're just inspired out of nowhere. Here's the thing, and I'm just gonna go ahead and confirm what I'm sure my my quiet critics are are absolutely saying to each other, which is which is fine with me, because I'm right there i'm i'm i'm right there with them. Because if you if you are from the outside, look if I was from the outside looking in at this,
00:11:52
Speaker
I would say i would think this guy doesn't know what the hell he's doing. And I definitely think that I'm doing everything backwards and trying and and and kind of running screaming out of the dark after really not uploading to my channel for a decade, you know, and come running out. I feel like, you know, Bilbo running around waving a big, long contract, you know, yeah I'm going on but yeah and and everybody is sort of looking at him indifferently like, well, then go, you know, and and that's funny. and It's really where I feel about then go do it. You know, yeah want to go on an adventure so bad that get going.
00:12:29
Speaker
and Did you lock up? We're going to steal your house. You're 112. You only have 800 years left. You've got to make something to yourself. Steal your flatware. No, I...
00:12:42
Speaker
um no i um quit my job last October after producing a TV show for PBS ah for three years and getting nominated for a Chicago Emmy for the one I produced for the Coast Guard.
00:12:57
Speaker
And i couldn't stay in Madison, Wisconsin anymore. And I ah had to move my family to get closer to my mother, who is getting older and got family out here in Kansas City. So it was a really tough situation. Had to make a move. So here I am.
00:13:12
Speaker
And in that kind of of, and I think I'm probably talking to a couple of people. I certainly know Robert knows what I'm talking about where, you know, this script just came flying out of me in a fever. I just sat down and wrote a thing.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah. I can tell you all about this thing I wrote and just chew your freaking ear off about this thing I wrote in October, November last year. But I wrote a 25 page thing and I was on fire for it. It's like, this is it. This is insane. This is sensational. It's the best thing I've ever written. this is what I want to do. Here we go.
00:13:39
Speaker
So I reconnected with a editor and co-producer, a friend of mine named support car, who I worked with at six pack shortcuts in Austin, Texas, when I was managing their production department down there, 2017, 2016, 17, 18, around there.
00:13:54
Speaker
and um she and i got to work on producing this script and kickstarting this script. Well, it doesn't feature the original cast of three and six. And I at pre-launch of the Kickstarter was like, okay, well, we'll do a part one with this cast and we'll start nine in the evening.
00:14:15
Speaker
And it'll be a it'll be a jam. And then who knows what legacy characters will make their way in. Well, we um and the reaction, not just externally, but internally from the people who want to watch this movie and would potentially fund it but also you know my wife and and close friends who are going to be in and involved with the movie were kind of like Trav. you know is Is this, if it's not going to have...
00:14:46
Speaker
my ah core So in the in three in the afternoon, for those who don't know, the setup is the three friends are sitting there playing video games and then three real lightsabers show up at their door and they have to deal with that over the course of a 10 or 12 minute short short film. And then we made a sequel to it a couple years later where the stakes are very high and it's a very dynamic, tense thriller sort of situation.
00:15:10
Speaker
And so ah this thing I wrote in October is three, so three high school girls accidentally list the Necronomicon on eBay. and I like was I'm and still am just in love with it but it is a departure no on you know it's got supernatural components way out in front where three and six does not you know so you know they say here on the internet you confuse you lose and there's reason they say that and really right from the jump I managed to create a brand confusion that then at launch
00:15:48
Speaker
I listened to all the feedback. I'm listening to, you know, particularly Ryan Weaver, who, you know, did my lightsaber effects. And i think most everybody. Shout out Ryan. We love right. And ah and he was like, are you sure?
00:16:03
Speaker
And I'm like, well, look, 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong. I would like to make a proper sequel to nine in the evening. But, you know, this is where you get this is where it becomes very complicated because you're talking about three people who are now in their 40s.
00:16:18
Speaker
Two of them have children. One of them has had prostate cancer. So I'm ready to go. I'm ready to I'm ready to rock and swing a lightsaber. ah Jonathan Pruitt is recovering from prostate cancer and is cancer free and healing beautifully. I just talked to him yesterday.
00:16:35
Speaker
ah You know, he and I hadn't spoken in in years, so I wasn't quite sure where he was at, but I've reconnected with him and it's been joyful. And so he's kind of halfway there, right? He's got to get back on his feet.
00:16:47
Speaker
And then the other guy, Corey Gray, the our other actor and and the kind of the key part of that, he just doesn't really want to do it. He told me like, you know, maybe, but he's really not really not into it. Really not. Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't want to do it.
00:17:00
Speaker
Yeah. that's fine And there you go. And I took maybe took that personally for a long time, but this process and if I'm If I'm grateful for any, I'm grateful for a lot of things that have come around since I started this Kickstarter, and I'm glad I shot it out of a cannon the way I shot it right out of a cannon, because sometimes you got to do that. and It's not how most people roll.
00:17:21
Speaker
But having shot this thing out of a cannon, not only did it continue to smash a 15 year creative block, but it also gave me closure on some of my relationships with some people who, you know I've got people in my life who love this thing and would would shoot it tomorrow. And I've got people in my life who are like, are you sure?
00:17:39
Speaker
Lightsabers? Really? Yeah. That's been a constant in my life for these 20 years. And so. To have kind of busted through that and to be just sort of holding this up to the universe and going, what do you think, universe, and letting the universe react to it, I i think it's something that's brave and interesting, and I'm having fun doing it.
Creative Freedom in Filmmaking
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, and you know what's interesting, too, is that um back in like the prequel days, I feel like there were so many people making parody videos of Star Wars all the time. And I don't know if I would call yours as a parody.
00:18:12
Speaker
It's almost like its own contained thing. it's not it's not a star It's not Star Wars, right? or was it's meant to... I appreciate you bringing this up. Yeah. it's meant it's It's not meant to be direct satire. Right. It's not meant to be parody.
00:18:27
Speaker
If anything, it's an episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon starting you and your friends, and instead of nunchucks, they all have lightsabers, and we all are kind of thrust into a Saturday morning situation that takes itself a little too seriously. And there wasn't really anything else on the Force.net doing that. I think the difference, Robert, is...
00:18:47
Speaker
And something that I've been thinking about a lot for all of us as filmmakers is like, Are you doing something that is an impression of something that you've seen or are you doing something that is something singular that is unique to you and the people who you're with and the situation you're in and where you got to shoot and and therefore find something unique out of it? I think you could point at the back rooms maybe as the most immediate example. when i When I look at Obsession in the back rooms next to one another, Obsession is a 30-year-old episode of Tales from the Crypt, which is fine. You can make a 30-year-old episode Tales from the Crypt. Go do that.
00:19:21
Speaker
I will. And and you and i'll I'll be in it and I'll help you produce it. but Fine, man. Fine. I'm going to do it right now. Stop fighting. ah But you can also like take some bit of our culture and kind of break it in half. And I i think I haven't seen Backrooms yet, but I'm definitely a big fan of the YouTube series. Yeah, I think you'll like it.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I know most people do, and I'm thrilled for it, and I'm thrilled that that's the moment that we're in because people who are brave enough to do something unique and singular unto themselves and to the moment that they're used to have to go to Los Angeles to ask the Threshold Guardians and Gatekeepers if it was the right time for that to be shown to the world, and that time in our culture is over. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:20:10
Speaker
And now you can show your work directly to the world and you and the world can shake hands before Hollywood or the money or some other person or eight 24 or whomever ever gets involved. That's what Markiplier just got done doing in Austin, Texas is hiring bunch of people I used to work with because he's got the cash to just go whole cloth, make a movie. Right. Yeah.
Success of Independent Films
00:20:32
Speaker
And that's kind of what I say when like when because, you know, there's people that are like, uh, scared of AI and stuff and my and like what movies are going to become i always say that indie is the cure to all that I do think indie is the cure we talked about on the previous episode yeah indie is definitely the cure And something funny that someone wrote, I forgot, I must have read it in a comment or something. um Someone said, like, you know, Hollywood is seeing these YouTubers make these movies that are doing amazing at the box office right now. And, you know, Hollywood's response to that is going to be like, let's make a Mr. Beast movie.
00:21:14
Speaker
Like, no, no, you're missing the point. Like, it's. That's not it's not because it's YouTubers. It's that there there' is not as much gatekeeping. So you have these people with these vast, ah vibrant ideas that now have the funds to make it.
00:21:28
Speaker
um And like there's other talent out there besides what studio executives choose. So. um It is crazy that like something I mean, ah one of the things I think about is like the member. Someone made a trailer of Fresh Prince Bel Air and that became a show and Bel Air became an actual show and it went on for seasons. I don't know if it's still on. I think it might be. But ah so, yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of unpredictable now, like where success can come from.
00:22:02
Speaker
So it's a special time. Yeah. Yeah. and And I've been doing this too long to sit and watch the game go by.
YouTube Growth and Storytelling
00:22:13
Speaker
And, you know, again, this is a what would you do for the two of you or your audience or, you know, me and everybody else is if you had eight thousand subscribers on YouTube, if you had double digit passive viewership, no matter what you did,
00:22:28
Speaker
if you had these relationships that brought the, that work into existence for me, isn't the story that you're about to tell about the passage of time and how we grow up and how we change and how our relationships fray and, and, and, and change and break and, and whatever. And don't, I need three new characters for kind of my character to look at and go, look, if you're going pick up,
00:22:56
Speaker
If you're gonna pick that weapon up, if you're gonna play the game, It's kind of why I love Better Call Saul so much was and why I think about it when I talk about this because Better Call Saul hit a point about two-thirds of the way through it where there was a line of dialogue where he's like, you're that you're either in the game or you're out of the game, right? and You can be a normal person and live your life and not be in the TV show or you're going to get in the game. And getting getting in the game means risk and getting in the game means risking failure in public.
00:23:22
Speaker
It means, you know you know, staying up all night long, you know, editing when you don't want to, you know what I mean? the best thing in it to a degree. Like I launched a podcast a couple weeks ago about my dad's news career. Yeah, I saw the trailer for that and was really impressed. I had no idea.
00:23:41
Speaker
appreciate you. It's been a joy. I've been working on it for two years. those All those interviews I recorded two years ago. So I have all this incredible ammunition, including a lost Orson Welles industrial he did for Frito-Lay in 1983, two years before he died.
00:23:57
Speaker
I've got the guy who produced it, who was my dad's brother-in-law from his first marriage. And he tells this whole story about getting Orson Welles on the phone and offering him $15,000. And then he turns it down and then he accepts it because he needs the money. And it's just, it's just so great. So I'm so excited about these episodes of news, man. But, uh, the reason I brought it up is it's, um, taught me so much about, um, launching something in 2026 how,
00:24:27
Speaker
ah different the I can get something out and get something in front of people very quickly and um damn I had another but there was another reason I brought that up though what was what was I just saying before that damn I get to cut this part Ron oh no Ryan does ron does no post whatso ah I'm not allowed who cuts this by the way I do Robert does yeah I'm not allowed you're gonna get to rescue me here because I was working on a point and I lost it Ron is literally the talent
00:24:58
Speaker
And those drops. No, no, actually, Ron is like so strong where I'm not. And that's in scheduling. That's in like coming up with things on the fly of what to talk about, ah making sure we're on point, like making sure that we're recording every week. Like that's where Ron shines and that's where I don't shine. So that's the yin to the yang there.
00:25:21
Speaker
Obviously. Okay, well, I was trying to sugar him up, but it's all good. thanks, baby. i appreciate you. Oh, yeah, but like all sugar, it rottens your teeth. So um anyway, Travis. I'm trying to behave on this part of this episode right now, Robert, and you're really pushing me. Really pushing me. got it. I'll mail you some of my medications. You're going to love it.
00:25:42
Speaker
Travis, I do like each what you're saying, just like kind of how the but the involvement of the whole process and everything, just how you started off from you know what you were doing 20 years ago and the relationships that are frayed and stuff over the time. I mean, it's um I think it's great that you're picking it back up and you're doing this again. i I think it's awesome that you have the actual have the balls to go out and do it again.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah. and and you And like you said, you wrote it like, you know, in the the middle of the night, like you just get came to you, pen to paper, done. And I think that's that's that's a lot of a strive for that to have that, you know, reignition of something. And I think that's great that you're doing that.
Growth as a Director
00:26:17
Speaker
And and my my first reaction to seeing Travis do it was literally it's about time. Like that was literally my reaction. i was like, oh, finally. Like when I saw like the first like video you made, I was like, OK, about time. Like ah but I guess I would ask since it's been so long, how do you think you've grown?
00:26:39
Speaker
as a director, like me, you know, like, do do you like what grasp do you think you have bit? What do you think you have a better grasp on now on a film set than you did back then?
00:26:52
Speaker
the This is the most fun I have had or will have all week. i Thank you. Thank you for the question, Robert. die Yeah, you're welcome ah to to your audience. I say be patient, gentle viewer. um what do i ah I shot three episodes of this TV show into the outdoors last year.
00:27:11
Speaker
And it was um I wrote, produced, directed and cast them. And it was because I had already produced some dozen or half dozen episodes of the show that using other people's concepts, other people's ideas and getting that. And then we eventually hit a point where they were like, we'll do whatever you want. And the inmate had well was well given keys to the asylum. And, ah you know, I had $6,500.
00:27:33
Speaker
sixty five hundred dollars And in the first one, I managed to talk the Shedd Aquarium into letting us in for four hours at 5 a.m. m in the morning on a Tuesday so I could shoot five pages of dialogue and an interview in four hours with two crews and two co-producers and, you know, as my lieutenants and all this. Yeah.
00:27:52
Speaker
Why do I imagine there's someone outside the aquarium at 4.30 a.m. m and then you get it shut down? It's like, I wanted to see the puffer fish. I got up at three zero in the morning.
00:28:03
Speaker
i love this. thing Yeah. walking through the Shedd Aquarium at 530 in the morning and we're all we're all walking through this set and it's it's quiet like a church.
00:28:15
Speaker
And you just hear you hear about five feet from you the water move and like five little beluga whales with their happy little faces came out and said good morning to us. Wow.
00:28:27
Speaker
when it's when there's not you yeah yeah healthy you food. And yeah, ah but but being in, you know, it's like being in an amusement park when it's closed, you know, it's just this liminal spooky you know thing. So. So anyway, what do I think I've done better? I've had a lot of insane experiences and um Doing those three shows with ah three cast members that I chose, that I handpicked, and then cast for chemistry. I'd never had the opportunity to really do that, where I read 12 young people and then picked three of them and narrowed it down to three that had a che had a chemistry read together. And like it was clicking and working. And then to do that over three shows, when you look at the first show,
00:29:10
Speaker
And then you look at the first scene of the third show where my character comes in and basically blows up their whole weekend by sending them to all these places and sending them on this adventure. And it's not like normal episode of that show where you're going, have you ever thought about wood?
00:29:25
Speaker
Have you ever thought about wood products and and all the things we make out of wood? Well, let's talk about that for 25 minutes because you can't leave this room. ah ah You know, yeah doesn't that sound like fun? Like i if I have a captive audience, I can make a show that's for a captive audience. But if I'm making a show that's not for a captive audience and I'm making a show that I'm trying to have big curb appeal and I'm trying to make something dynamic and interesting and funny and thoughtful, then that was that was my exercise to do that. And then I wish I could have kept doing it, but I couldn't keep doing it. And I had to, I had to move and I had to quit that job and I had to move on to something else. And so if I'm going to operate on my own behalf and under my own steam, then, you know, i think I, now i remember why I brought the podcast up.
Challenges in Filmmaking
00:30:13
Speaker
What do I think I have done differently and and will do and can do better? Yeah. Maybe sort of the you, you were like maybe too naive about when you filmed, you know, three in the morning opposed to like,
00:30:26
Speaker
If when you start filming this, I was looking at a Silent Hill fan film I shot in February 2004 last night at two in the morning that really no one has ever seen that I'm about to put on YouTube. That's really kind of. I'm sorry. Did you say 2004?
00:30:42
Speaker
I shot a Silent Hill fan film in February 2004, and there are patient demons. i She beats them up with a pipe. I had watched the tapes they're right here.
00:30:53
Speaker
Here's one. Here's three. These are all mini DV. I'm going through all these old mini DV. Oh, my God. that I love it. That's what I used to film with. Yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
I never finished it and it looks like a million bucks and it's dynamic and interesting and and it's it's fucking cool. Well, i never finished it. Well, three is by comparison shot just a few months later, shot maybe six months later and we finished that sucker and you know millions of people have seen that sucker. And so I have all these kind of lost films that are me doing different things and impressions of different things that I've seen that I wanted to do an impression of, which is why I like and and honor fan filmmaking, um because it's it's a great way to learn and create your chops to figure out who you are as a creative professional and what your actual voice is. and
00:31:41
Speaker
that it is poo-pooed or was poo-pooed for me ah i carry kind of a little bit of a chip over and on the behalf of other people um and i think it comes out in the work a little bit and i think that's kind of what three and six are kind of a reaction to is no it's not a fan film but it does have star wars in it and it is it has a little bit of a chip about star wars and a little in in what i think is kind of a sophisticated degree which is what i'd keep exploring kind of like an ode star wars kind Night and evening. Well, and and the culture around it, right? And and what it feels like to be a fan and how it feels like to carry, for in my opinion, a long term disappointment over many many things in regards to Star Wars that have a lot to do with corporate gatekeeping and threshold guardianship over and people who don't understand the brand. Don't understand the fan base and made terrible decision makings that really hit a peak, I think, in a crescendo during at the episode nine is really the Christian. I think really the denouement of horrible decision making on behalf of something that means a lot to a lot of people. Yeah. um Maybe too much to too many people in some degrees, you know.
00:32:51
Speaker
And that's kind of what the movie is in a little bit of a shade ah about is something that just got too hot, too fast, too big. We're living it with AI right now, just too hot, too fast. We're not ready. So to try and make something prescient is is part of the goal of the whole thing.
00:33:06
Speaker
um And I think that's what I would do. That's how I've.
Creating Distinctive Films
00:33:11
Speaker
I would try to make Robert a movie like a capital M movie where you don't have to go watch my fan films from 20 years ago that aren't really fan films. And ah well, actually, they're well, actually there and, and, and like, I don't have to go and walk you through some crap. The Bulls cinematic universe. ah You can explore that at your leisure. But if I was, if you were at the XYZ film festival in 2027, 28 or whatever, and i had you for minutes or I had you for minutes,
00:33:40
Speaker
Clearly, this guy and all of his people had pulled together something singular that's totally bananas balls crazy and is ah like a sci-fi alternate timeline, alternate future situation where laser swords were released to the public like for $34.99.
00:33:57
Speaker
And we're dealing we're dealing with that and everything that means. so Now, ah is there anything ah that you would want to tease about the story or you kind of keeping it under lock and key? lock and That's what was going to Underlocked? The thing I keep pitching to people is just like, we're going to make a 60. So I grew up watching.
00:34:19
Speaker
My dad was a news director and a career journalist. And so I grew up watching the 10 o'clock and the six and the, you know, the nine and the network and, you know, and, and then also, you know, 60 minutes, you know, and I, so anyway, it would be ah a joy to make a 60 minutes episode. I'll call it 90 minutes. Yeah.
00:34:38
Speaker
And to really match when you talk about an impression of something you've seen to try to really get the tone and temperature of a 60 minutes episode, right? Particularly how they end the end of every sentence with in like an investigative kind of a thing where they end every sentence with the tone that says, but we're pretty sure that that is bullshit.
00:34:58
Speaker
And then get them onto the the next thing. And so to have something where they're, investigating and running down whomever was responsible, the shadowy organization that was responsible for the events of three and six.
00:35:11
Speaker
And so we produced this 60 minutes episode. It has this shocking interview with the creator of the power source inside these lightsabers and that's like this holy shit you know situation and i would base him on like a like a george washington carver and then also lonnie uh johnson the inventor of the super soaker who are fascinating black inventors uh and incredible characters and to kind of create a composite character of
00:35:43
Speaker
um those guys in particular and particularly ah Lonnie Johnson, who is a fascinating guy. And if you go to his YouTube channel and explore his career, he has since solved the energy crisis with a, with water.
00:35:57
Speaker
And ah so he's a really interesting dude. And I've got the children's book that's based on, you know, the about him and stuff. So, you know, ah there's a lot of fun to have with um like the turbo and cabulator,
00:36:11
Speaker
ah is a big inspiration. I'm fascinated by the turbo and calculator. It's a running joke in the physics and engineering community going back a long way. i think you guys know what i'm talking about.
00:36:21
Speaker
And so, you know, memes and so and Jack Kirby bullshit science And ah news and information. So like Magnolia, you know, or like an Altman movie, you've got a pretty big cast, bigger, you know, than just three people shot an iPhone. Yeah.
00:36:43
Speaker
right Shot on an iPhone, shot on a Canon XL2, or a DVX-100. I will shoot this movie in 4.3. Don't tempt me.
00:36:55
Speaker
I will shoot it like Zack Snyder shot Justice League, whatever, and make 4.3 movie. I love how he sees right through Robert. I love how he sees right through i don't ah like are are you are you. Are you shooting at 4.3? I think we should go IMAX, honestly. All right.
00:37:13
Speaker
got it right here. Listen, i got oh ghost god I got a wide angle lens on this guy and I am not afraid to use it. Is that it is that a HDX? It's a DVX 100D. Oh my God. That's beautiful. All right. It's beautiful thing. Well, we're going to talk. We're going to rent out a Blackmagic. It's going be great. Yeah. My co-producer has a Blackmagic pocket, and so we'll shoot the movie in 4K. But like I want to shoot the 60 Minutes piece.
00:37:41
Speaker
you know I'm going to try and rent something, especially for the interviews. Oh, that's perfect. I love that. We'll try and create like something produced in 2026, but also that there's a there would have it would reference back to a 90 Minutes piece produced in 2008 about the injuries that happened when these things came out.
00:37:59
Speaker
And then... And all the terrible things that happened when these things came out and why they went away. And then... ah So then you create this 60 minutes, 90 minutes piece. All the characters are watching it and reacting to it. And that's like the first two-thirds of the movie.
00:38:16
Speaker
Because once you've unspooled, they're all watching it kind of in real time. And if you... could watch it independently of the movie on the Blu-ray, right, and just pick up on the stuff that's covered up by the dialogue because I think it would be fun to try to make a movie where that 60 minutes piece is unspooling in real time.
00:38:32
Speaker
And we're cutting to the characters who are in a bar or a restaurant or at home or on their phone or wherever they're at. And everybody's going like, oh, holy shit, like on top of each other. And then it's over.
00:38:46
Speaker
And whatever the third act, the budget's gonna dictate the third act, the casting's gonna dictate the third act, the locations are gonna dictate the third act, and really how the ah the writing of the first two thirds of the movie kind of concludes is gonna dictate the scope and scale of how much of a rock and roll action set piece I get to have three and six both have big action moments that even 20 years later especially six you're watching me like no it's that's not bad it's pretty good lights are in five yeah yeah yeah
00:39:20
Speaker
and fun to watch right flashy and colorful and well i mean ryan i mean our buddy ryan weber shout out again he is the king of lightsaber effects i don't care who's doing them now ryan is better and uh we're not doing them you don't even we're not doing am i right everyone um yeah ryan is just uh well Ryan was a he's like he was like the king of lightning VFX for a while. ah Ryan got because he he worked on the show Heroes where they really started using like lightning out of the hands. And he was he was like the lightning guy. Like the guy's just good with this kind of shit.
00:39:58
Speaker
And the time stop stuff. Oh, the time stop. Yeah. I mean, the guy positor is the big is his big. You know, you would hire Ryan as a compositor. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. You would have.
00:40:10
Speaker
But anyway, super talented guy. But I guess I would go into because we were talking about looks and everything. Are there any films that kind of that might inspire a new creative style on how you would take this on? Because obviously, this yeah, like because, you know, there's new movies that come out and you're like, wow, that's an interesting style. Maybe I'll take a little bit of that. Oh, I like that movie, too. I'll take a little bit of that. um And I don't know if there's anything that's like influenced what you think the look will be.
00:40:42
Speaker
that's such a good question you're getting you're good at this robert uh i come in like with that unprepared attitude like i don't know we'll talk about something so it's all it yeah it's all a fucking ruse dude it's all fake he's really good at this it's all fucking fake okay i'm telling you i want to say something completely so right now i have known since i met robert that he will one day b
00:41:09
Speaker
super famous or super successful, there is there is something there's something going to happen to Robert. And I'll take the second one. In some degree, he's already had like three or four or five things, three or four or five of those, you know, being young Joe Mantegna. think yeah i was if I was young Joe Mantegna, I'd be like, well, I appreciate you. Goodbye, pop culture. i want to thank pop culture. want to thank my agent.
00:41:32
Speaker
yeah and it's time to make new friends fuck everyone i ever met uh time to make all y'all thanks buddy i'll see you yeah this is the down with dp podcast yeah just me because rob doesn't care anymore yeah we're gonna call this we're gonna call this i'm got famous again and i'm here just doing the podcast by myself and i'll see you wizard world booth yeah you was world booth c twelve yeah my Yep. I'll be signing in my bedroom like I am with my Brooklyn Nets sweater behind me. Cause you know, I $25 an autograph, 35 selfie. We're going to talk about the, uh, you know, 10 greatest things that, uh, you know, America still has left. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. And, and, uh, Robert is one of them. Um, Robert is one of them. Number two, we have Robert Dunn.
00:42:16
Speaker
i you my favorite, my favorite My favorite character to get into something that this is like how I handle, like if you've ever run into assholes, people that annoy you, i they just be they start to become characters in my head and that I act out on. So if I like and I love playing the pretentious film bro i love playing the guy who thinks he's hot shit um like because i've met so many of them you've done this me before i've seen you many many times but people that don't know me they're like oh wow he really is like full of himself ah but i i just love it it's the way i handle it because it's either i meet someone that annoys me and i just let them anger me
00:42:59
Speaker
like over and over or I turn it into a comedy sketch, you know, in my own head. I want to set the stage. It's Florida. It's it's somewhere in Florida in 2000 2000 when Robert Seven. yeah yeah six and seven Yes. I'm sitting at this insane man's pool. This some insane man has their, their not their fundamentalist. They, they get annoyed with fundamentalist Christians for not being fundamentalist enough. I can't remember the, their, their originalist Orthodox something or other. It's not LDS. And, um,
00:43:37
Speaker
Some Florida hardcore something. And the parents own a health care, a regional health care organization. So they're just super loaded. And they've got two or three sons and two of them are knuckleheads. And one of them is not fucking around. And he has bought the land speeder that was in the Coca-Cola advertisements that were released regionally.
00:44:04
Speaker
during the pre this, uh, the trilogy re-release. So he was on the local news for having acquired the only land speeder officially licensed land speeder sent to Florida to put in his movie that he is going to show to George Lucas as the new star Wars TV show come hell or high water. He is focused. He is driven. He has resources. He has hired Robert Dunn as a Jedi Knight, and he has hired Robert Ryan versus Dorkman.
00:44:29
Speaker
one and twos michael scott to be his dp his editor and everything is basically production point man full stop yeah ad he was everybody mike scott calls me and says hey you want to make a little money in florida he'll fly you out i said sure so i'm sitting by the pool in this crate behind of crazy man's house with mike scott and we're talking mike scott who was uh ah who is a confident dynamic, then hot off of Ryan versus Dorkman two, and also like so whip smart and knows that everyone around him is fucking this up except for this guy and this guy and him, except for just a couple of people, Mike, all as far as Mike is concerned, all these people can go to hell and, and me and Robert,
00:45:23
Speaker
and Mike are sitting by the pool and Robert is pitching the Mega Man movie to me and Mike Scott and Robert is not not screwing around. i was like, look, here's how this works. Dr. Light, scene one, act one, interior day, Dr. Light's lab.
00:45:41
Speaker
You go booffooop boop, boop, boop, boop. Oh man. your ear Cut man. Boop, boop, boop, boop. And I'm like, I'm down Robert. I'm down. And Mike is looking at you and Robert,
00:45:52
Speaker
Mike loves you. Mike doesn't. Mike's not looking at you like you're a knucklehead like all these other people like. Mike's like, no, he's right. It could work. The Mega Man movie could work.
00:46:05
Speaker
I'm like 22 or something. don't know how old I am. We were like 22. You're like 22. Yeah.
00:46:13
Speaker
No, it could work. Dr. Wiley is then, you know, he's the works, but then he gets kicked out and then he creates the robot masters. And it's like, yep, no, no, I get it. I get it. Yeah. Act two is the at the yep at the damn. Sure. I remember being very passionate about this. Like I was just a naive like this was my first like acting gig ever. I've and I'm yeah, don't know. I was very new to the scene.
00:46:36
Speaker
But you asked me about influences, I'll bring it back around. You asked me about influences, you know, like, like turtles, Mega Man, you know, Ghostbusters is a big deal. I think about things in threes all the time. And then the threes that become four, right. And how many times we see that in our movies and television. And I, I liked that device. You know, I think I kind of had the Joseph Campbell monomyth, uh, and the, the uh dan harman kind of this is what a story must be in order to writer's journey kind of you're getting you're getting you're getting big whiffs of if you were going to go be in the big room this is how better this better be how you talk and i i became over time pretty disinterested in that and started to really hone in on like well i love listening to three characters talk to each other
00:47:25
Speaker
Really any three characters, whether it's Kermit, Fozzie and Miss Piggy, or it's Ray, Peter and Egon, or it's, you know, to to get three that then are also four.
00:47:36
Speaker
And that's how the turtles kind of function is like two becomes three becomes four pairs, triplicates. things in fours that become crowded, but then also that's like kind of what's right about it, right? And kind of the rhythm of starting to stack characters on top of each other and then how they sound and then reducing that and kind of making things elastic, like if we've learned anything from the marvel movies it's how quickly they wanted to make this elastic and how quickly they wanted to establish rules and then break them yeah and yeah i i'm kind of into that a little bit i i think that's kind of like kind of cool i'd like to pick up and play with that so you know but then also like jacob's ladder is really where kind of ah i would love to introduce a a wild sort of um
00:48:25
Speaker
psychological horror component to it that is yeah I mean we've talked about that a lot like even recently with a film that I wrote um that yeah you know yeah that we i I wanted because I love you you know as a director and as a person um that I wanted him to take on actually Ron has read it I don't this is not like a promotion for me but you know with life getting in the way and a lot of moving around oh here's your script your short film yeah loved So, ah yeah, Travis originally was directing and then life stuff, you know, happens. and Life got the way? No way. We're all in different states. Not life. Anything but that.
00:49:05
Speaker
right I love that serial. I know. But the only reason why i bring it up is because it is that kind of like psychological ah kind of story that yeah kind of like, I think, touch like tickles our fancy, if you will. Well, you wrote like a night gallery episode.
00:49:23
Speaker
and And I mean that as a total compliment. Like you wrote like a Rod Serling Twilight Zone. Yeah. Yeah. It could easily be a Twilight Zone episode.
00:49:34
Speaker
Yeah. um You need go do that. It's also so much more than that. You know what I mean? Oh, sure. I'm just really. It's much more than that. um it's It goes beyond what the definition of art really is, if you think about it. um Anyway. You're robot boy.
00:49:52
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, ah no, anyway we we liked it. We liked it. We love it. Insert dead air for a second. Yeah. Insert. ah Don't you, do you not have like a, you have a a cricket sound?
00:50:05
Speaker
i can Yeah, there you go. Oh, that was, that's good. I liked it. That's good. That was actually me for those listening. That was me. That was, okay. um Well, they're all watching the video. I have a crow if you want to crow or something.
00:50:21
Speaker
Oh, i thought you I thought you were going to play it. I can play it, sure. yeah Cool. It's amazing what you can get from Amazon. gotta cute You got to keep doing that. That's so much fun. Hit that one again. That's funny. Hi, I'm Travis Poles.
00:50:36
Speaker
ah This is Robert Gunn. And when we're out here hunting big Texas... Crows. Sandhill cranes. We're out here in Texas, Florida. Hunting sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes and galleys. Having a great time. We're out here in... You're going to do Macho Man? You're going to do Macho Man? You're going to do Macho Man? Yeah. Amor can come out. Oh, God.
00:51:04
Speaker
ah Oh, no. And then Travis, he does a great. ah I wanted to say what's his name from Oscar the Grouch. It's a great Oscar the Grouch. Oh, no. what What's his name from ah It's a Wonderful Life?
00:51:20
Speaker
I was trying to think of a super Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy Stewart. I was trying to think of trying to hold up my Jimmy Stewart. Yeah, i don't know. I was trying to think of something super random and like it. Travis does a great Jimmy Stewart. um I don't even know how you do that. I'm doing I'm doing a new i and not not nine in the evening. Like something like that. just so Just pretend like you're having a stroke and then you can do Jimmy Stewart. OK, that's kind of how feel.
00:51:43
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah. He can't even, ah ah he can he can't get his words out. Yeah, something like that. It's actually not bad. okay Yeah, not bad. You asked me about movies, though. That's the only Jimmy Stewart impression I can do is is from Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
00:51:58
Speaker
Have you guys seen Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? No, I have not, actually. I've seen sch mr mr Man Goes to Washington. Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Macho man goes to Washington. Macho man goes to Washington. Listen, man, I want to talk to the president.
00:52:12
Speaker
United States. Imagine if macho man actually – imagine if he actually filibustered for like hours on end. Oh, dude, there is a hilarious ah realization by Dan – by Dan – Dan – dan Dan, ah comedian, you know, Dan Soder, who says that ah if you were to read a um a on Maryland. No, Mon.
00:52:42
Speaker
Who's who's the serial killer that Charlie Manson, Charlie Manson. yeah Yeah, that if you read Charlie Manson quotes in a macho man voice, it just sounds like it sounds like a wrestling promo.
00:52:57
Speaker
don't you heard that. Dude, that that that podcast. Here's here's Robert paraphrasing and the probably from where I was sitting. And now that the monoculture is dead, I don't know what everybody else has seen and neither have you.
00:53:13
Speaker
But what you and i both do know is that Dan Soder and Will Sasso were on a podcast about two weeks ago. And yeah all they did was was do impressions and this is the world we're living in all they did was do impressions of wrestlers yeah from their childhood and it was so screaming damn funny and they only got in that guy who runs that podcast got them together because the one he did with just dan soter got a billion views and the one he did with just will sasso doing hulk hogan impressions got a billion views yeah and i'm here to tell you i will watch will sasso do his impression of jesse ventura on oh god yes well into the evening
00:53:51
Speaker
because it is screaming funny and dead on and like really it's the only Theo Vaughn clip I really feel like watching is anyway so what you're hitting on is like why don't you tell me why why don't you tell me why you're baha yeah down all that stuff man the baha if you're such a pun if you're such a patriot won't you tell me why oh my god happy fourth everybody yeah um yeah this is it Because the monoculture is kind of dead. Like, I love that you're bringing it up.
00:54:23
Speaker
And like, I'm like, I have seen that. And that was totally in my shit, man. I watched the hell out of it. um Yeah, i I kind of like got into Macho Man because I didn't grow up with wrestling, but I got into that because of Dan Soder.
00:54:38
Speaker
So any impression I do is kind of an impression of someone doing the impression. For some reason, that's how it clicks for me. Like if I listen to Tom Hanks, I can't do an impression. But if I hear someone doing an impression of Tom Hanks, it makes sense to me because then because there's like cadence to it. There's like there's things that they're doing that you're like,
00:54:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah, he's like 99% there and I can I can hear that 1% that's off and that's what helps me. Hey, um Robert, what's the deal with the speaking of the deal? What are you doing butter commercials on the Internet? Are you getting paid? by now we're talking about the elephant in the room here. that are we Are you getting paid by the term of reg gold?
00:55:19
Speaker
Yeah, why are you doing ads for an expensive Scottish butter company? Because they're paying me hundreds of thousands of dollars Travis. Are they? Yes, that's why ah that's why I built this one apartment studio. Have you ever thought about being a movie producer?
00:55:34
Speaker
No, no, no, no. there No, absolutely not. so many employees because of his butter ads.
Comedic Interlude: Kerrygold Butter
00:55:39
Speaker
We have so many employees. No, I haven't got a dime or or free butter for that matter. is that Is that the game you're playing? Are you trying to get something from them or is it a ride joke?
00:55:50
Speaker
It's a joke, but boy, howdy, would I love to rep Kerrygold butter and for real. um So that came to be. So here's here's the back story. Here's the back story um of Kerrygold butter. I was in Ireland and I we had some time to kill and we happened to pass by a butter museum and we went in and I learned all about butter and I learned about Kerrygold.
00:56:18
Speaker
And I didn't it i was not familiar with butter brands. I just like that's a I thought it was all the same. com I thought it was all the same. I couldn't believe it's not. I know. Hey. And then I then I heard Kerry Gold was so good. And I I started doing fake commercials for it in the style of like because I always made fun of like those like Ford commercials where it's like the new Ford F-150 brother. Right. um You know, you can you can pull anything. Yeah, you could pull another Ford F-150 and I can pull that Ford on what can make a train of Ford F-150s anyway. And I did that. But for Kerry Gold, I just because I would go around my apartment. I'm like, Kerry Gold.
00:56:59
Speaker
I do have a question for you, Robert. Why was the butter so accessible just now? Oh, I, well, Ron. You had it ready to go. yeah I mean, I have a prop.
00:57:11
Speaker
it's a It's just a prop? Okay. Yeah, it's an empty is ah empty box of butter because you never know. I was concerned that you just had Are you a toast guy? I mean, this butter is deployed how?
00:57:24
Speaker
You're not over there eating spoonfuls of $6 a package. If want to, would support it. I would support it 100%.
00:57:33
Speaker
che trep tre tre Of course, I'm not I'm not not not piling the butter in my mouth. Eating butter. OK, so here's the thing.
00:57:43
Speaker
ah It's a little bit of both. I like just piling the butter um for every spoonful of butter I eat. I'm not getting on the Jimmy has diarrhea. Yeah.
00:57:56
Speaker
um Yeah, i I take a bite of toast and and I eat a spoonful of butter. i don't put it on. Separately. Separately. like that. I like that. Wow.
00:58:08
Speaker
Real Jim Crow of you. I like it Wow. Yeah, you gotta realize that you're the devil as much as you're God. ah That was a quote by Charles Manson. ah You looked him up good. I'm happy. I did.
00:58:21
Speaker
Yeah, the more I read about Charles Manson, the less I like about the guy, have to say.
00:58:31
Speaker
that was ah So that was totally so a stolen bit from Norm MacDonald where he says, that hey, that the more I read about Hitler, ok you know the less I like about the guy. And now Robert's talking about Norm MacDonald. Here we go. I'm i'm taking the wheel. I'm takingly we going to say Hitler. I'm hijacking your podcast. This is what happens when you give him too much leeway. This is what he does. and why I crave the spotlight, okay?
00:58:55
Speaker
and Ron is a high school and middle school middle school childhood friend of this person. He wasn't like this growing up, I promise. He was just for he put the butter on his toast when he was growing up. Something changed in him. I don't know what happened. Butter, butter, butter.
00:59:15
Speaker
Anyway, let me ask you question. When Man died in Tampa, Florida, that's what happened. Yeah. was a margarine man when I knew him. Actually, I couldn't believe it. are you Am I able to share my screen? Is that a thing? might be able to. I don't know. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we can't. okay I can when I have OBS, but...
00:59:36
Speaker
All right. Well, fine. Then whatever. I'm just going talk about it. You can pull a clip if you want to. Cool. I want to take what I'm taking a breath to say is that I one of the things that has happened over the last two years is as I have struggled to figure out how to point a camera at myself and what is my voice online, the Internet, the Internet is written in ink not pencil.
00:59:57
Speaker
And, you know, anybody who puts themselves out there, you in online. you know there's a For me, my money, there's a bravery there and to that and and we're living in this creator culture and I have always admired what Robert did. robert What Robert did is what a lot of people say they're going to do and including i could rattle off on my on my hand right now five people I went to high school with who said they were going to do what Robert did.
01:00:23
Speaker
And Robert went out to L.A. and Robert got headshots and Robert did his thing. And I i did that too. I got headshots and took acting lessons and did play the L.A. game. i was younger than Robert was but by a mile was in my childhood. But I was the voice of Schroeder in It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown. And I know you guys already know that, but I just want to make sure that – We didn't want to bring it up. I know. Well, I appreciate that. No, we really didn't want to. The signing starts at 6 o'clock, yeah and I will sign action figures for $35. The point is... Literally any action figure. Literally any...
01:00:56
Speaker
Any Schroeder action figure dressed as a catcher, I will sign it. No, you got a My Little Pony, I'll sign that. I was really hoping it was Macho Man action figure, but it's okay. I not get the cast as Macho Man. I'm not the body type. But Robert did something and all the things that he's, not only is he accomplished lot while the entertainment industry was humming and he was a part of this era that I think probably Robert would agree has has in large in a lot of ways concluded and now he's in a new I'll bet bet you would agree that you're in a new era in all of this and I think everybody out there is my brother works legal and or works in legal at stars right now and has for the last three or four years and ah you know he tells a wild story of watching Hollywood you know trip over its own shoelaces and i don't think I'm telling tales out of school there but It's a fascinating thing going on out there.
01:01:51
Speaker
And you've been right up against it. And so that what um my point is that I then watched you figure out how to get on your social media and do your Tonight Show riff and you know all the things that you've tried and run and done clearly on your own steam in your apartment just because you felt like doing it you thought it was funny. I admire that so much. I struggle with that so much.
01:02:17
Speaker
And I get don't really, really, like I've made videos and five times and not shown them to anybody. i've yeah yeah And that's why that is why i didn't upload my ah room dramatic take and Bob Odenkirk beat me to it.
01:02:31
Speaker
You know, so I learned a lesson. you Wait, what? what a time We talked about this. Travis, we talked... Bob Odenkirk is coming out with The Room. Oh, oh, oh, oh. And how I said i thought of it first. Excuse me.
01:02:46
Speaker
And I didn't upload it. Bob Odenkirk did. And now... Now he's getting all the praise. You're giving Bob Odenkirk lot of credit. Someone that we don't know the name of went, I'm going to take the room script. I would love to know if they paid Tommy Wiseau a little bit of money and said, hey, can i can I remake your movie? And he went, OK. And he smells weird and he says yes to anything. And so you know they did.
01:03:12
Speaker
And then they shot it and Bob Odenkirk was bored and thought it was a he said on a podcast recently, i saw some clip. you yeah but i He thought it would be a funny experiment to try to give that some gravitas and some performance and try to get that script to work.
01:03:28
Speaker
as a piece material. And I think that's fascinating and such a fun experiment that I don't think is going to work. And I can't wait to watch it. No. Yeah, I can't wait either. I would like to give some credit to Ron, too, because it's funny how we both came out of the same high school and.
01:03:43
Speaker
Aside from like maybe one of our buddies, we have a buddy, Brad. There's not many people that because he where I moved to l L.A., he moved to New York City and he's a great stand up.
01:03:55
Speaker
And so he's kind of like it's it's weird how like there's only like three of us that really moved out of our town. all different states, by the way, and are doing the best we can in this crazy the industry. Yeah. This crazy place called the entertainment industry. And stand up. You're in the more the L.A. filmmaking scene. and Yeah. Our friend Brad does improv in Jacksonville.
01:04:17
Speaker
Yeah. and And he's trained in Chicago and stuff like that. So there's only ah that I can think about the top of our head. A few of us that actually got in are still actively doing it. And I mean, yeah what's your, what someone's definition of success is entirely, you know, amongst them. I mean, you know, are we famous? No. Have Rob, you've had your moments to shine, which is fantastic. um I mean, just the fact that I get a pay, I get paid to do standup.
01:04:39
Speaker
Yeah. That's that, that, that's a win for me. So, and and this, so hopefully one day this podcast will take off and, Right. And I fly from Seattle and then do a podcast at two in the afternoon. That's true.
01:04:52
Speaker
But there there is um there is like a i don't know if you can like sense it in people because I sense it in Ron and Travis. I always have with Travis that that like motivating.
01:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, no, a lot lot of times, nine out of ten times, wrong. No, that like there's that like motivating. I don't know what you would call it. I'm sure there's a name for it. But there are people that you meet in the entertainment world that are kind of like honing it in. They're not really like I know actors that don't audition.
01:05:23
Speaker
They don't seek an agent. They don't do anything outside of just call themselves actors and hope. That someone puts them in a short film. Like that's it's really it.
01:05:34
Speaker
um And I'm sure that there are people that have jokes that are written that don't really do stand up. But maybe I don't know how that would work in the comic world. But I i just want to give praise to.
01:05:48
Speaker
people like, you know, like Ron, like even Brad and Travis, who have that like drive to go to go outside of their comfort zone. And I think that's what is happening now with like night in the evening, that even though Yeah. Like, I think you found the right time to do this. And I think that motivation has always been there. But it's like it's like the stars kind of have to align. I don't think you've ever been out of orbit.
01:06:15
Speaker
I think you've always been in there, but you haven't aligned with the sun just right yet. And I think now is that time. so it's a it's like it's like. I was trying to think of like a 90s cartoon reference that I could use here. i always When the gargoyles stop turning into statues. I don't know. You get what I'm saying. I always say this to you, Rob, and I use that as a motivational thing myself. um It's from the Muppet movie, The Magic Store, their finale. There's a line in there that has resonated with me my entire life. And it's one of the last lines of the finale. It's keep believing, keep pretending.
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah. And that has always resonated with me. And well life is like a movie. Write your own ending, baby. Yeah. Write your own ending. left Oh, I like that. Write your own ending. Keep believing. Keep pretending. Exactly. Then that's, that is something that has kept me going for decades.
01:07:03
Speaker
And one of the decades. Fuck. Yeah, I know. I try not to, I try not to think about it, but, uh, But yeah, it's a real thing. But in the ah to get this all started, um I know that ah we have a Kickstarter going on.
01:07:18
Speaker
um And ah how has that been? Like, have you i don't know. Have you run Kickstarters before? Does it does it feel very time consuming and like exhausting? I've never done it myself. Yes.
01:07:32
Speaker
It's exhausting. Yeah. um and we're living in this world where the um the the GUI, the graphic user interface, and the UI of all of these various platforms and um these these things that they've built for us to use to do this and to create our own commerce, um the back end of Kickstarter to create the kind of, when you go and look at campaign pages that are really a visual feast, that have lots of colorful visuals and their backer rewards, or, you know, it's ah it's a more visual experience takes a lot of work and you've really got to get into Photoshop and you've got to, you know, get your graphic design chops up and you're going to be creating assets and elements. And, and what I did was I came right out and I wrote a bunch of copy,
01:08:24
Speaker
And I put together an ask and I built my rewards out and I did a couple of visuals and then launched it without really understanding that once you launch it, you are committed to the number and then with every backer,
01:08:44
Speaker
that backs a reward, once they back that reward, you cannot really change any of the details of that reward. And you would have to introduce a new reward in order to add subtract, remove, otherwise change. And so because i was launching with this part one forbidden knowledge concept that then got scratched basically, or otherwise scrubbed day of launch,
01:09:14
Speaker
So, you know, me and my co-producer, this is our first rodeo on Kickstarter. and And I can see a lot of I can hear the voice of a lot of people I used to work with who have launched successful ah Kickstarters clucking their tongues at so naive and attempt at crowdfunding. But for my money, when you look at it.
01:09:36
Speaker
ah It's a sincere and detailed ask for a project that is materializing in real time and is based entirely on the name value. Right. The brand value of the fact that people have been asking me for 15 years every time I show my ass on the Internet, where is nine in the evening? And so. Right.
01:09:53
Speaker
I remember why I brought up my the podcast I launched, Robert. it's When I did that, i got and when you log into that channel, you're immediately when you launch a new channel on YouTube in 2026, you're immediately tipped into that part of the algorithm of these YouTube channels who basically are just going explain to you how to launch a successful YouTube channel. And most of them are going to same thing, which is find the question that the audience wants answered and then answer it over and over and over and over again. How do I make money on YouTube? How do I clean a rug? How do I customize action figures? How do I do how do i tie a tie?
01:10:23
Speaker
So if my channel, if the question my channel is asking is where is nine in the evening, then this is my first attempt at answering it. And we had a message on Kickstarter just yesterday, the day before, where we're kind of stalled at eight grand. We're kind of, we're kind of stalled out and we're going to have a big last week. Tomorrow is seven days till the end.
01:10:46
Speaker
And that's why I wanted to get this in as quickly as possible. I appreciate you, man. And so and I've got a you know, you've got just a podcast to get in. I got to make a half dozen videos like tonight. There's a lot I have to do. And I've talked to six cast members in brief interviews over the last two days.
01:11:02
Speaker
everybody's got life. I got to pick up my kid. We got to pay our bills. We got stuff we got to do. Life happens whether we want it to or not. And so anybody who has a successful Kickstarter campaign has my, you know, to salute Don Corleone. You know, i'm I, it takes a ton of work and,
01:11:21
Speaker
whether or not this particular campaign is successful and we're going to push and make a good show. And I'm not afraid to to pass or fail in public, which I think is what maybe makes me different from, i think, a lot of the people that I've worked with um who will work and sell their time, but, you know, maybe would not be able or otherwise um struggle more than I have to shoot something out of a cannon and to just try and pass the hat and see what happens.
01:11:56
Speaker
And it's OK to do that. It's OK to try to figure it out in real time. For me, I think it's interesting. um And I've long since demonstrated that I could make a movie right now in this room with the two of you with everything in here and we could get something together by eight tonight. Right. Yeah. Whether or not we can do something is not the question.
01:12:18
Speaker
question is, well, ver Ron and I are down. e Well, here we go. I have a script. Interior podcast day. the ah the um To make something with a group of people in 2026 with everything as expensive as it is and with the world and the shape that it's in.
01:12:34
Speaker
is ah a risk and a brave ask unto itself. And I would not be careless with that. A lot of my audience, a lot of the audience for this would very much like to see me and Corey and Pruitt together on camera talking to each other and swinging lightsabers around. And the fact of the matter is,
01:12:54
Speaker
I'm down. Pruitt is recovering from a serious illness and surgery. And Corey's really not interested in, in, in being a part of it for, for whatever, for his own reasons. And are they could Corey just be a phone call.
01:13:07
Speaker
and that He's a maybe, and I've got an idea for one cool scene with him. And frankly, if you're going to do this, you know, white, black, gray, if you're going to things in threes, you know, someone who's entirely checked in, someone who's kind of somewhere in the middle and someone who's entirely checked out or dead, whatever we end up doing with his character, there's this opportunity. Three and the six were never about...
01:13:29
Speaker
good relationships. Lightsabers were going to tear this friendship apart. That was what was interesting to me. It's how six ends. He's like, I want my friends back. I don't want him to have them.
01:13:39
Speaker
So I'm not so broken hearted, perhaps that three men in their forties aren't going to swing lightsabers together. I think it's more interesting to now explore it. It's like Dale Cooper getting out of the black lodge and not speaking for nine hours.
Sophisticated and Economical Filmmaking
01:13:53
Speaker
You know, like I'm going to make you hurt for what you want and you will thank me for it. And that's a cruel thing to say to an audience. But if you love the Twin Peaks return and you trust the creator and you want to see what he would he or she or they would do.
01:14:10
Speaker
with resources, you know, and to continue something that clearly means something community. I would not let you down. We will have a sword fight. We will shoot. We will have a laser. But I also would do something that's sophisticated.
01:14:21
Speaker
If I had the chance to do it, I would do something that represents a sophisticated ah product and to the marketplace. you know, that you or you, me, if the three of us were to produce a movie and we were to go swing the bat and try to get 824 or some insane person to pay for it, you know, how would, what considerations would we make in our narrative economy to make something with as much bang for the buck and punch, narratively speaking, within 75 to 90, 110 minutes?
01:14:52
Speaker
How would you do that? And
Highlighting Personal Stories
01:14:53
Speaker
that's the thing I'm living right now and what the audience has an opportunity to watch me do that I'm not going to hide from that. Man, ah there's kind of like ah an agenda here where I didn't want to just talk about um YouTube because I can't I can't stress enough how not only do I want this to happen because of the the product itself, but because of you like you.
01:15:19
Speaker
ah There are too many. There are too many. There are great people that find success and there are a lot of assholes that find success. And it'd be nice to have one of the good ones. out there. And so I wanted to talk about Jimmy Stewart. I wanted to talk about all this other shit, um, too, because I want to give people like a little window into Travis here.
01:15:40
Speaker
And, uh, Unfortunately, I failed on doing that. But um my took peopleibility yeah if if people can just trust me that he is a good guy despite this interview. No. ah But
Crazy Filming Experiences
01:15:54
Speaker
yeah, that's that's why. And that's why I still talk to you all these years today from a very, ah very strange ah shoot that we met on and still talk about today. And I think there's a reason for that.
01:16:06
Speaker
um Trauma? No. But ah I beg to differ from the stories you guys told. Yeah. I beg to differ. Yeah. ums It was insane. It was. um there was insane. Ron, there was literally a scene it was insane.
01:16:23
Speaker
front We shot at this like abandoned nuclear facility and or in sam florida somewhere in somewhere. It's like they I don't know. They dropped a bomb there or something. I don't remember. But it was like this dome we were shooting in. I think it was a dome. and It was a building. It was a very small concrete building. And they wanted smoke effects. Right.
01:16:42
Speaker
Like like a lot of times, you know, on on TV shows and stuff, they'll just have a smoke machine because it makes the light look great. So, you know, a little tip for filmmakers out there. If you want light, if you want to see the light shine, you put a smoke machine anyway. But they didn't have a smoke machine, so they just lit a barbecue inside this. bill And so it was just a scene filling up with smoke. Very safe.
01:17:06
Speaker
No, I don't know. Travis, were you there yet? Or is this pre? I didn't do the power plant thing. ah The first thing that pops into my head when we talk about this is it's one thing to be at a convention and meet a Wookiee and like and be like, oh, there's a Wookiee. It's another thing for to be on a like a 10 hour day Yeah, with a grown man dressed as a Wookiee in like a like a full Wookiee outfit that is that is coming apart in real yeah time. And so to make up people are continually coming back towards the Wookiee costume to just try to keep it together for another hour or two so that we can get this shot.
01:17:46
Speaker
And like the guy in the Wookiee costume is like the nicest guy you've yeah ever met in your life. But he doesn't look like him. He's he's a Wookiee right now. And he does the voice and he does the whole thing. It was a surreal and it's so hot. It's so We're in an airplane hangar. Oh, my God. It was just, oh, that airplane hangar. Oh, OK. Here's a story. Yeah.
01:18:05
Speaker
Okay, this is this is the send really quick. So we're in that airplane hangar. It's stunt day. He had brought in a stunt crew that was run by a guy named Popcorn.
01:18:16
Speaker
And this guy named Popcorn is That is the most Florida thing I've ever heard of. yeah In Goodfellas, he's the guy that... um Robert De Niro gets a carton of cigarettes from him and they have like ah a scene in a parking lot.
01:18:31
Speaker
It's in between the Lufthansa heist and like the whole beginning of the movie. And it's a popcorn is in it. And I went back and looked at it like sure enough, there he is. Wow. I didn't know that. Yes, sir. This guy was, and he was telling stories about being on the set with Marty and, and, and De Niro and the whole thing and super nice guy. And he and his crew of a dozen dudes were,
01:18:50
Speaker
were hanging people from cables and I'm running a camera around and it was Hollywood there for 10 to 10 hour days, three, 10 hour days. yeah I sweat so hard. My nipples bled.
01:19:02
Speaker
ah Yeah, it was so hot that I got like dizzy. Yeah. And it was like the most fun I've ever had and the hottest I've ever been. I lost like 10 pounds. I read From Hell by Alan Moore cover to cover.
01:19:18
Speaker
I watched Predator in that kids in that crazy man's private movie theater in his parents. Giant house. Right. Watched. We lived in a mansion for like a month and a half. It was crazy. I was there for two weeks. Oh, you were there for two weeks. Yeah.
01:19:31
Speaker
And then we went down to Clearwater, which is where Scientology basically owns everything. that Yeah. Now it's like insane. And it was like being in the Joker's gang in like high society Gotham.
01:19:46
Speaker
Right. It was like everyone is everyone is in their sweaters and they're looking at us like, you know, yeah. Happy. I was happy. hour We had to get back for happy hour and all. shit It was psychotic. You know what? There's kind of a coincidence because ah what was his name? Kibwe?
01:20:03
Speaker
Who is he boy Dorsey was the yeah. key So keep weight now. And I don't know if this is a coincidence, but keep weight now is like a very he's a preacher. He's very, very religious. And I think because he was in that Wookie costume in that heat, I think he saw God for a moment. don't remember him being religious back then. And now he is. And I'm just saying, I think he saw God in that suit. And
Emphasizing Creativity in Filmmaking
01:20:32
Speaker
And the rest is history.
01:20:34
Speaker
You have people you had people on that set. And this is this has happened to me a couple of times is like I did that again with a young lady named Elizabeth Shantz, who now is on the writing staff of or the the production staff of K-pop Demon Hunters. And she's like an improv actress in L.A. and all this. And so I've worked with, i've've I've gotten weird phone calls. Hey, this person's got some money. this that That guy in particular, his parents lived on the Red Sea and his what he was being he was just going to make a movie in Austin because he just had all this money. And it was similar to the the experience Robert and I had where you get someone with a big notion and some resources and they go running off. And so for me with this night in the evening thing, if I had the resources to make a movie in 2026, I would pull everything I could together. But the challenge is to make something economical and to not, you know, the directing position,
01:21:24
Speaker
There's a reason why Orson Welles called it so overrated and and you know all but waved his hand at the role of the director is because he had a self-awareness where he didn't want to come off as an ego. He was an ego. he was an egotistical man. But he also, yeah I admire how, I love Orson Welles dearly. And for one of the reasons why I love him so much is how he presented. He was such a self-effacing dude for someone who had such an ego. And you're damn right for what he, and he'd earned it. Sure.
Authenticity in Personal Stories
01:21:52
Speaker
And, and so how do you own who you are and how do you own what you've accomplished and how do you not apologize for yourself? And how do you kind of, you know, get on Dick Cavett in your life? How is Ron kind of like live like you're about to be on Dick Cavett or Robert about to live like you're about to be right. Kevin, why are we so like ashamed, like, like so nervous about ourselves? And, and so, and, and it's because the internet is a wild place it's written in ink you know yeah our pencil it's you got to be careful with what you do and say but also like our currency now is who we are and the stories that we can tell because a computer can't write that somebody else can't pull that up out of the ground it's unique unto ourselves and if we're in touch with the joy of the doing to make something creative if robert wants to make carry gold butter commercials alone in his apartment on a tuesday by god he can do it yeah they're beautifully done it's not depressing
01:22:44
Speaker
and Well, you know, we well, yeah yeah, thank you. Well, what
Call to Action and Conclusion
01:22:49
Speaker
with that said, everyone, i cannot recommend Travis as a person enough, ah let alone his ideas. And I would highly, highly if you are listening to this, please go help out the Kickstarter right now.
01:23:02
Speaker
um I'll put a link in the show notes. Everybody, you can also check out down with DP podcast. Instagram will have a little ah we'll have a little thing in the link tree there. And without further ado, I mean, that's that's kind of, well, you don't say without further ado at the end. That's at the beginning, right? um And with that said, some other term that you say at the end of things. Thank you. damn it Yeah. All right. ah Thank you, Travis. Thank you, Travis. Yes. Nice to meet you. being in here.
01:23:32
Speaker
You too, Ron. i I want to hear your stand up. I've enjoyed visiting with you very much. And I'm so glad Robert is doing a podcast and he has someone. I know. I know. you join robert it's ah he should He should be doing a podcast and and I'm so glad it's with you. And thank you guys so much for having me.
01:23:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:23:53
Speaker
All right, guys. Thank thank you so much for ah for listening. We hope you enjoyed the interview with Travis. It was great having him on. We did have it. We did do the interview. Yeah, it was amazing. and I mean, there's some stuff I i want to talk about but I'm going to have to wait until the next episode we're on. yeah Yeah. You know what? i We're to have more guests coming up. ah you know We got some more got you know We got World Cup to talk about. We got a new fire oven beer. And i think we're going to make a segment for Rob.
01:24:20
Speaker
Rob needs a segment. So we're going to come up with that. Maybe something new to the show. All right. All the cool things. um And until then, everybody take care. you on the next one. Bye. i Hey everyone, thanks for listening to today's episode of the Down With DP Podcast. If you want to support what we're doing, please head to our Patreon, where you'll get bonus content, extra access, and other cool perks. We'd seriously appreciate the support. You'll find all the info on our Instagram at DWDP Podcast, and on our Facebook under Down With DP Podcast. Got a question or topic you want us to dive into?
01:24:56
Speaker
There's a super easy anonymous form linked right into our Instagram bio. Send it in and you could be the next penetrating question. Or you can email us at downwithdppodcast at gmail.com.