"The Black Man Talking Emotions Podcast" Starring Dom L'Amour
"The Black Man Talking Emotions Podcast" Starring Dom L'Amour
Navigating Entertainment and Politics in Los Angeles with Mark Reichard
Dom L'Amour speaks with good friend Mark Reichard AKA @pluark about living in la working in the film industry, politics and so much more.
Join us as we navigate the intricate relationship between staying informed in politics and the industry dynamics in Los Angeles. We start with a heartfelt chat on why it's crucial to hold our leaders, especially those like Kamala Harris, to the highest standards. From the importance of staying vigilant against unchecked political tactics to the resilience needed during the recent industry strike, Mark shares his unique experiences and insights living in LA.
Ever wondered how to keep your creative spark alive while working in the high-pressure entertainment industry? We’ve got you covered. Mark and I discuss the balance between maintaining passion and facing the industry’s demands. Sharing personal stories, including an exciting music video project on the Sunset Strip and the incredible contributions of art department veteran Josh Meltzer, we highlight the importance of supportive friendships. The chapter mirrors the joy and enthusiasm that drive us, even amid the challenges.
As the conversation deepens, we explore the realities of life in Los Angeles, the democratization of filmmaking through technology, and the broader political landscape. From the emotional toll of starting fresh in a diverse city to the contrasting treatment of political leaders by Republicans and Democrats, our discussion is both insightful and reflective. We wrap up with a sneak peek into my upcoming album "Domie,”, and a call to action for listeners to find their tribe and nurture meaningful connections. Whether you’re an aspiring filmmaker or a politically conscious individual, this episode offers a rich tapestry of experiences and reflections.
Opening quote: John Lewis
Opening and Closing Theme song: Produced by Dom L'Amour
Transition Music from Mad Chops Vol. 1 and Mad Chops Vol. 2 by Mad Keys
and
from Piano Soul Vol.1(Loop Pack) by The Modern Producers Team
Featured song: "Adrienne's Interlude" by Dom L'Amour
Cover art by Studio Mania: Custom Art @studiomania99
Please subscribe to the podcast, and give us a good rating. 5 stars please and thank you. Follow me on @dom_lamour on Instagram. Or at
Whoever is in charge.
Speaker 1:I feel it is like your duty as an American to like read up on what's going on.
Speaker 1:So often, I have found myself the victim of this in the last four years, since I am a left-leaning individual, of not paying as close of attention to things, and something that I don't like that's currently happening is, like obviously, like I'm going to vote Kamala, obviously, like a lot of us on the left are going to vote Kamala, obviously, like a lot of us on the left are going to vote Kamala.
Speaker 1:But what I don't want to have happen is like us blink and like it'll be four years from now because, like right now, the Democratic Party does not have an official party platform and they're doing that on purpose, but they're also doing that because Trump did that and got away with it in 2016 and 2020. That and got away with it in 2016 and 2020. And what I don't want to have happen is like people that are just now starting to like look at, like what's happening with like politics, like we need to be very careful of, like not letting stuff like that slide, like again, I'm voting Kamala. I am not going to tell anybody what to do with their vote, but that's what I'm going to do with my vote. And just because I'm going to vote that way doesn't mean that like we shouldn't hold people to like a certain standard.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, and anyone else who is here. My name is Dom L'Amour and you are listening to the Black man Talking Emotions podcast. On today's episode, I speak with one of my best friends, mark Richard, about living in LA, working in the film industry, politics and so much more. The vote is precious. It's almost sacred. It's the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy. This is the Glen Levin 14. I drink with every episode that I can, and this is the last glass I'll pour for a podcast this year.
Speaker 2:So cheers to you and I'm going to finish the rest of that on leisure time, how about that Fancy boy, mark Richards? We've been trying to make this happen for years, officially. Years I've been trying to get you on the pod and you're finally on the pod, you piece of trash. Good to see you.
Speaker 1:What a nice intro. Huh, Isn't that nice. You hear how he talks to his friends everyone, Isn't that just awful?
Speaker 2:How are you doing? You live in Los Angeles. You work in movies, of course, TV, whatever you can do. How are you doing? What are you up to right now? How's your feeling? How have you been?
Speaker 1:Good man In 2023,. The industry went through a strike Shortly after that. We were thinking about maybe another potential strike in 2024. Thankfully knock on wood I've been able to weather it pretty well, but I certainly know a lot of really talented good folks with resumes far deeper than mine who are out of work, so I am grateful to be working. I've been able to work on some pretty fun things this summer finish the feature up this summer, prepped for a short film that starts this upcoming week and we'll shoot through the weekend and that will be a tremendous amount of fun and with a really good group of people. So I don't know. Things are going okay for me right now, all things considered, and I yeah, I'm I'm breathing easy, compared to where I was last year, at least, with pending strikes and whatnot.
Speaker 2:Strikes America's way of making things right. How about that? How flipping stressful was the strike for you. Like now that you've had a chance to get back to a place where you're like, oh, I'm actually too busy now. Like you got to a place where you're like, damn, I got so much going on Reflecting back when you think about when it first hit, how devastating was it mentally to think, oh my God, we might not work for over a year for over a year.
Speaker 1:For me specifically, it's strange so much of everything that I'm doing is just like uncharted territory for myself, I feel like so often in this whole experience out here, I've almost always felt kind of slightly out of my depth, I don't know. I kind of naively went into it, being like, well, we'll see how this goes, but I mean, that's kind of how it's been, it's just been a ride. It was stressful in the sense of like it was another unknown. However, it was just more than anything. It felt kind of empowering in a way.
Speaker 1:I remember, like how the workflow was right after things started trickling back into work after COVID. I just remember how insane that workflow was while wearing two masks and a face shield, while you've got someone walking around set with a six foot long stick saying like you're not at six feet. You got to be at six feet, man. You got to take a step back, man. You know I think about that feet man. You got to take a step back man. You know I think about that.
Speaker 1:And we accomplished a lot of really amazing things during that weird time, but it also led to a lot of people thinking about things that they hadn't really had time to think about, because, I mean, we weren't doing anything else yeah, a lot of us anyway. So it was interesting to like have that in the background, while people are, like, grateful to be back to work, but also working at a pace that's kind of unprecedented. Yeah, it was stressful at the outset, but it was really amazing to see what people were able to accomplish in that time. Yeah, although we still have our work cut out for us, people need to figure out how this industry is going to become profitable in the way that it used to be with the new streaming universe that we live in.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, speaking on like, what I can only anticipate is the contraction of the industry within the scope of, like ai and other things that are coming on the future, like I don't know, it doesn't really feel any different, because that's just as much of an unknown to me now as the strike was then and I feel like, not only with the strike, but you also had, like, the stuff with alec ball when happened as well, and that was so bizarre in the community in la, I'm sure, with that still being in court right now how do you feel like the industry has changed the way that you look at everything?
Speaker 2:You know, when it comes to waking up every day and saying, ok, I got to go grind, like you said, you had this awakening and you were able to feel some type of relief because of the fact that you were on strike and it was this idea that it's going to be better, hopefully, afterwards. How do you feel your approach to what you do to the people in your industry has changed, with all of the stuff from the strike to the pandemic, to someone being murdered on a set because of not properly doing things that are protocol, like everyone in the industry understands what was wrong about what happened in that scenario. So you continue to see all of this different activity in the industry. How do you approach everything now? Do you still enjoy it? Is it just a job to you now? I know that's kind of crazy to ask, but I'm always curious to hear what you think and how you're feeling. That's a good question.
Speaker 1:I try to hold on to that feeling. I think you got to protect that as much as you can. I work with so many talented people. You see the whole spectrum of people's outlook within that group of talented people. You've got the people who are excited to be there because they've been able to protect that kernel of creativity and imagination that either brought them out here or brought them into the industry in the first place. And you see the people who, through life and circumstances, have become somewhat jaded, and I'm happy to report that.
Speaker 1:I think most days I work, I find something to be excited about. I certainly have worked on things this year and in years past where my whole approach was I'm just going to like work super hard and I'm going to throw myself out this full force and that's how I'm going to solve this problem. What I found, especially lately, is like you've got to take time within yourself and step away from it sometimes, but also like you got to focus on the things that got you there in the first place, because whatever you do, you got to figure out why it is. You're still going for it, yeah, and if you lose sight of that, you know that's when you see the people who are already complaining. And you're an hour into the day and you're like oh man.
Speaker 2:And it makes it harder for you. Yeah, You're like, dude, I'm not even thinking about the stuff that you're bringing up and you're you're throwing this negativity. I mean, I'm like, ah, I didn't even notice that. But yeah, what he's saying is kind of true, but still, why? Or is that the way you're approaching it? You know, and that is.
Speaker 1:You know, not without to say, I worked on a project this year where I was the grumpy guest at the end of the project. You know, as time went on, I mean, like there are responsibilities and things that you need to do and certainly accomplish and be responsible for, but you gotta like have fun with it still, otherwise you're going to run out of fuel pretty quick. Yeah, I think that's been part of why I've been able to continue to keep writing this crazy wave out here, although you know I've had moments of feeling super jaded. Certainly, I see things for what they are a little quicker on set. I can see certain patterns before they happen and that's interesting. But I think I'm still just like super excited. Like I, I just worked on a project where we shut down the sunset strip and there's a music video coming out on Friday for it Stuff. Like that's fun, man. Like I got to explore like the roxy and be given the tour by the staff there and see, like all the super secret weird rooms. Yeah, that exists within that building. And there's been other like projects I've been able to work on where, like you, get to explore los angeles or like weird parts of the world where, like, yeah, the job, the job is stressful, but the job's always going to be stressful, man, like it's, whatever job you do, like whatever boulder you decide to roll up the hill, yeah, it's always going to suck, yeah, that sucks, but like, you gotta like accept that and you gotta find the thing that or the things that are fun to you about it. Sometimes you like you don't even know, like when those are going to present themselves.
Speaker 1:I worked on this feature. There was this older gentleman named Josh I shouldn't say older gentleman. He was a distinguished, mature gentleman named Josh Meltzer. Shout out to Josh. You know he worked in the art department. He was like so nice, like really kind eyes and wonderful energy and just like had like great, like dad slash, like grandpa energy, right, yeah, such a I mean legitimately such a sweet guy.
Speaker 1:We get to this scene in the movie where we are walking into this house where this super brutal, like stabbing just occurred, like I mean like super bananas, like it. It is horrendous, looking helter, skelter, looking stuff, right okay. And I looked at the call sheet that day and josh's call time was like hours before anybody else's and like you walk into that, I'd been in that house like the day before and it was like a really beautiful house in simi valley and just like stunning, whatever. And then I walked in the next day just I mean truly haunting things and josh is has like a little like it looks like a ketchup bottle of like fake blood and he's doing the finishing touches on this kitchen counter and I was like jesus christ man who did all this and he's like, oh yeah, I just been, yeah, I've just been in here just setting this and this is like the nicest, sweetest dude.
Speaker 1:And you were just, you're like, you're just blown away. And then suddenly this guy who you've been like seeing at like the snack table and like at like catering, and that you have just been like chatting with, you know, and he's been saying encouraging things to you're looking at him and you're like what is going on in your sick little brain, josh, that allows you to execute that so well? And like you and I say this purely, you know I'm joking, of course I love josh, you know you. You see these people who are like stunning at what they do and you can't help but, like, in those moments, be like so wait, how did you do this? Is this is awful looking. How did you do this? That's fun.
Speaker 2:I love that you know, mark is one of those friends who make it harder for my other friends. In my head, I feel like I don't really have to ask him to reach out. I don't have to ask him, have to ask him to reach out and I have to ask him about his life. I mean, he makes sure that I'm up to date and he also checks in to make sure I'm okay when most people don't, and so I value his friendship more than most. I believe that if I needed someone to look out for me, I know that Mark will, and he's always been that way. He's always been that guy that people think man, he's just so generous or I don't know if it must be an act because he's too nice kind of thing. I always know he's genuine when he says something, he's being honest and that's something that has never changed about him Coming from Jefferson City. He's grown a lot and he's been able to see a lot and understand where he needs to be better for himself and he's not looking at it as, oh, I'm being better because I think everyone. No, he's doing it for himself and that's encouraging to me and it just helps our friendship, because we both are trying to grow. We both want to help each other grow, we want to look out for each other, we want to make sure everybody in our circle is good. We care about each other. That's my guy, you know, and this conversation, like I said, it was a long time coming. I really wanted him to be on the first season but he's crazy busy in LA and the first season came together so well. I was like, all right, second season's gonna happen. And we almost got to the end of the second season and it didn't happen. And I honestly think the fact that it happened at the end of the season is better, because I knew that eventually we would talk politics and the last time I had a politics conversation was Jay Boogie and and we did politics talking. It was before Kamala actually was the nomination. So there's so much more to talk about, there's so much more to dig into, and also it's another element of my LA life, because Mark was a part of that LA life, and so we both understand everything that happened there and why it was so weird and difficult or great in some, some ways, some. This was something that I really looked forward to. I was very happy with the outcome and I hope that you enjoy it. I really felt like this was a great conversation and I send all my love to Mark. That's my guy. You know something with the pot.
Speaker 2:I feel like one of my overall things, of course, is just talking to people and actually speaking honestly about life. That's the way I like to pursue. Every talk, every conversation. I feel like I want to hear what people are going through so that people can listen to that and understand that this is normal world. You know, social media makes it seem like we all are in this upper gray place and then some people take the opposite route where look how sad life is and I need help and this and that, but us just talking. You have the good, you have the bad, you have the ugly, you have the cool, you have the funny, you have everything, and I try my best to always illustrate that with every conversation.
Speaker 2:One of my goals have always been that I would love to eventually get to a place where I could like put like a hotline or something together so that aspiring artists and performers can speak to people like you who actually are working performers who you know you're not as crazy successful as you know, or Scorsese or someone like that. But you are constantly working. You're actually on the grind, you are a working performer in the industry and that is something that a lot of people don't highlight. They talk about everybody who is at the top of the mountain instead of the people who are in there working. You hear some people highlight the PAs and the assistant directors and the prop guys. You hear it from time to time, but you don't get movies about that, you know. And if you do, it's a comedy. You know it's not good, it's or it's the worst version of what could happen to someone. You know. But you've all you've had the pleasure of being able to do, like a masterclass or a conversation with students, right, you've already done that before, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've done that a few times with the high school students in my hometown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, In my head. I always feel like, if I ever got the opportunity to do that, my first thing would kind of be trying to separate the people who are just there to be there and the people who are truly there because they want to be there and believe that they could do this. Because you were there with me when I heard this the first day in R&P freshman year Shout out to R&P yeah right, hillary came in and said hey, one day you're going to be poor. If you can't handle that, you need to leave. And I still think that that moment is one of the best moments I could have had as an aspiring artist, as someone who wants to do this, because before that moment, my vision of me being successful was, you know, getting the cars I wanted, getting the girls I wanted, living in the big cities, traveling the world, being uber successful, performing Just because I sing. I'm thinking that I'm going to be able to just do whatever because I'm a good singer, I'll be good. And then, after that moment, I actually stopped and was like wait, I could be performing every day in a week and be broke. Still, that's really possible. Because that's what's happening now.
Speaker 2:Because at that point I'd already started performing. I was already going out and doing gigs. I already was meeting people and people telling me damn, you're really good. You're so good to be 17. I heard that so much as a kid. Continue to hear it All the way to now. I'm the 35-year-old guy at the old jam talking to 23-year-olds who are like, oh man, you're still young. And I'm like, okay, dude, I guess I'm still young, but I'm feeling like I'm still grinding and this is how it's supposed to be. You're supposed to be in a place where you are successfully performing and increasing your craft and growing as an artist. You just continue to grow and as success comes, it comes. But continue to grow, continue to be better, continue to want to learn, continue to want to increase the things that you're doing. Don't settle. Try to challenge yourself. These are the things that I always want to go for.
Speaker 2:So for those masterclasses I've always wished, if I get in a position to do it, I want to separate the people because I truly believe you got to be okay with doing this for free. You got to be okay with doing this for as cheap as possible and pushing yourself to a place where you are getting what you are owed eventually. But if you start out and you're thinking I'm supposed to get $900 for a two-hour set, like, you're not in the right headspace. So how do you feel like you approach talking to students, high school students, kids, people who look at you and say, oh, you're so cool, I would love to do that. How do you approach that conversation?
Speaker 2:Because a lot of people hear that I remember my teacher in high school. I told her I was going to be a music teacher and I remember it was yesterday. I said, yeah, I'm going to school, I'm going to be a music education major. And she like, oh, yeah, you're going to be a music education major. And I was like, yeah, and she's like, okay, it's really hard. So you know, be ready for that. And that was the conversation. And I was like damn, and of course, I'm not a music education major, of course. But it was incredible to see that was the way that she approached me about it, instead of trying to either lie about oh, it's great. Or encourage me to oh, make sure you do this because it's going to be difficult, like she was just like oh, you really think you're going to do this, you're not going to do this. And I was like, damn, how do you feel you approach those kids who actually really want to do it, but you're like they're still green, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, shout out to you for getting mistaken to be a much younger man. I can't say that that's ever happened to me.
Speaker 2:You've had grays, since we left Cape Girardeau was there. Yeah, dude.
Speaker 1:I, I was working, I was working on a thing this spring. I was working with this girl. Uh, there's no way she's going to listen to this. Her name's Veronica. If she does listen to this somehow, then, um, then shout out to you, veronica, you're a real one for listening. But I was working with her and you know it's like one of those things of like you know, I'm going grayer. You know, I'm looking at myself in the mirror and I'm like, do I look older? No, I don't look older. Like, I feel like, look the same. And then you get the set and this girl's talking about so-and-so, this like guy that like I did not know that she worked with on another show. And she's like, yeah, I don't really like him because, well, no offense, but all he does is hire like older white guys like you. And I was like, oh oh, am I old? I guess I'm old.
Speaker 1:Yes, I guess no-transcript that and it was a moment that really kind of set things in motion for you. I heard that and I had no frame of reference for what that meant because I was a broke college kid. So I was like okay, yeah, all right, like I'll be broke, it didn't. You know, it's not until like you are in it for a while. And you see, in my case I look at people that I know who are back home with houses and they're going on vacations. And I had a conversation with a friend of ours not too long ago and he was saying like when's the last time you took a vacation? And I was like, buddy, I have never taken a vacation. Are you kidding me, dude? What Never, once I have my vacation, is I go home and see my family for like a week and then I come back here. That's the vacation. But I don't know. Don't be afraid to be honest either, because kids are only going to be able to take things where they are in that moment.
Speaker 2:And I feel like they need that honesty. If you're trying to butter the biscuit for them, I mean, what good is that going to do when they meet their first asshole in Hollywood that has no type of understanding of people skills, who looks down upon other people because they have found success in a certain way or they knew the right people? You got to be honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think acknowledging how hard things are or like the things that you struggle with, are empowering, because it's one thing to hear like you're going to be poor, okay, but it's another thing to like find yourself having to pick between, like a couple of jobs you really don't want but you have to take, like that's like more so the message that like I think should be delivered, but also, like I don't know, I try to just give kids practical steps that they can actually take, yeah, things that they can do, because I've only spoken to kids in Jefferson City but I imagine that, like, while we're years apart, the community hasn't changed all that much and yet things are so much more accessible now with technology to be able to shoot something. I mean, I think anybody going into film or anybody who's ever even thought about acting or filmmaking, you can approach it in a way that is pretty tangible and easy to do. It's just like anything like, unless you've got someone who has the know-how or who has a perspective, like you're probably just not going to independently think of it, but like you could you know now, with like the phones that we have, you can shoot a pretty good little short and you can figure out, like what the advantages are between like a two shot or like an over the shoulder shot or all these various shot types that can tell your story in various type of ways. And you can do that for free, yeah, and you can buy a little stabilizer, your phone for pretty cheap anywhere for that purpose and shoot yourself a good little project.
Speaker 1:Filmmaking is just such a different landscape than it was when I first came out here, like I first came out here and YouTube was like really starting to take off. But I don't know if you think about it when we graduated high school in 2000, we, the first iPhone came out not too long after that, and now I mean you can shoot a whole movie that looks pretty good on an iPhone. And when we graduated high school, like you had to be in one of the bigger cities and I don't mean St Louis or Kansas city for those in Missouri, I mean like you had to be in a Chicago, a New York or Los Angeles just to have access to the type of equipment that even looked good enough to tell your story in a way to where enough people would take it seriously and want to watch. And now I mean you're seeing it all across the industry about how there's like this scattershot of the industry almost. I mean you're seeing all these hubs for it picking up, and some of that's to do with tax incentives being put in place. I mean Missouri just put one into place If I'm not mistaken fact check me if I'm wrong internet I think it's the highest tax incentive per any of the States in the country. It's 42% tax incentive for TV and film and if you shoot in Kansas city there's an additional 10% on top of that, so you have 52% tax incentive. Now that does certainly make quite the difference and you got to hope that at least I got to hope that in 10 years time there will be enough of an infrastructure there to shoot.
Speaker 1:But regardless, like I think that the world is a lot more open than it was even when we were in high school. I mean it used to be you had to go to like a certain type of school. High school, I mean it used to be you had to go to like a certain type of school, and now I mean you can get noticed making little shorts on Tik TOK, which is crazy to me but pretty cool. But I think that's like where I try to approach it is like people are going to get stuck into that Tik TOK like forward facing camera. Let me do a little factoid about whatever like that's like going to be a format, like visually, that like is going to be around forever, but like there are steps that people can take right now for free. If you have like an iPhone and like a Mac that you can cut it together with, that like can teach you the basics of movie making that are pretty accessible.
Speaker 1:And then the rest of it just comes with time and experience. And you can't tell a young kid like, hey, man, it's going to be hard moving to Los Angeles and you're not going to have any of your friends and like you're going to be stressed about money. All you're going to think about is like how am I going to pay my next bill? And you're going to have people talk reckless to you while you're working a catering job because, like they're rich and they feel like they can. You got to figure out in real time how to build the emotional wherewithal to make it through that and still look at yourself in the mirror the next day after someone's disrespected you to such a degree like you can't tell a young person that, because they'll just hear that and they'll be like, oh okay, like exactly how I was when I was 18, you know you're gonna see a 13 year old kid blitzed out of his mind at his bar mitzvah.
Speaker 2:That that's what you're gonna see at one of these catering events. That's the truth story. You're gonna see some you're going to see at one of these catering events.
Speaker 1:That's the truth story. You're going to see some things.
Speaker 2:You're going to see something you think is very illegal.
Speaker 1:You're going to see some stuff Working these jobs you got to work to make ends meet, man. You're going to see a breathtaking portrait of humanity that maybe you didn't even want to see. Los Angeles is a wild place, man. It's crazy dude.
Speaker 2:I think more and more because the one thing and I feel like I always have to backtrack on certain things when I talk about st louis, I so talk so passionate about it that you would think he hates his whole job. It's like no, I no, I love St Louis. I love St Louis. La is the same thing where I struggled so hard there because I felt like I was around the wrong people to do what I wanted to do, so I wasn't really exposed to the proper groups. And nearing the end of it before the pandemic was when I started to find my little tribe, but I felt like it was too late in the sense that I was over LA already. I was like I can't stay here. So leaving was easy, and that was the hard part. It shouldn't have been easy for me to leave after finding the people that I should have been working with. So I always feel bad because I'm like LA was so bad this and this and that. But LA was great in many ways. I did love LA. I did love being able to go to the beach and Malibu and see the water and experience just crazy things like driving through Bel Air thinking about Fresh Prince or going down Sunset, like seeing all the billboards. It was incredible, but the shit that you saw from the people really was crazy. It was a crazy place. It is something so unique.
Speaker 2:I used to tell people that New York City is the one city in the country that I feel like nothing else in the country reminds you of New York, and I still believe that New York is that place where you go to New York and that's the only place you can go there. The only other place I could think that's close to a, maybe New Orleans, but even then you go to Charleston or Savannah and you get New Orleans vibes there. So, like New York's the only place where you're in New York, you feel like you're in New York. In LA, I feel like it's the opposite of that. You can have any type of place you want. You could be in the mountains, you could be in the desert, you could be by the ocean, you could be in the hood, you could be in the slumlords areas where they're like anywhere you want you could be anywhere. You could be in Hancock Park, you can be around all the Armenian people and, with that being said, it just was so diverse and weird and crazy it was overwhelming.
Speaker 1:I think that's the same thing that Kobe Bryant said was his favorite thing about Los Angeles was the variety of experiences and how you can kind of shape anything. Well, who knows how much of a say you have in shaping.
Speaker 2:Right, he could shape it the way he wants. He was flipping Kobe Bryant but, with that being said, telling a high school student that is impossible almost Trying to open their eyes to what LA truly is. Hey, you're going to work here in this place and you know, tuesday you'll see Arsenio Hall eating chicken enchiladas at the restaurant down the street. Thursday, you'll be walking out and Regina King will be walking her dog to her house and you'll be like, oh my God, celebrities everywhere. Friday you're in Hollywood and there's five rats eating a pizza at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Like, what? Like, that same thing could happen in this city with all these stars and these rich people.
Speaker 2:You go downtown on Friday or Saturday, whatever day of the week I'm on now and you're walking down the street and you're seeing these old, beautiful, beautiful theaters on Broadway and you keep walking, just la, la, la, la, and you're walking down flipping skid row. You know what I'm saying. Like that is LA for you. It's so crazy at each corner you don't know what you're going to get. It's so unpredictable that's the word I think that I would have to describe LA to anyone. It's unpredictable. You never know what the fuck you're going to get.
Speaker 1:Truly, man, I think there probably aren't too many people, many more people than yourself that I have told more of my really crazy Los Angeles stories too. I've told so many and forgotten. And then you'll, you'll remind me of, like, some key word or phrase and then it'll open some memory of something long forgotten, about how some insane thing happened at work or just in life. Yeah, los Angeles man. Yeah, definitely at work or just in life. Yeah, los angeles man. Yeah, definitely I. I don't think I could have picked a better setting for myself personally to kind of really come online. Yeah, you know, like I don't want to say what happens in los angeles is reality, because I know it's quite different than other places.
Speaker 2:But like that is a.
Speaker 1:That is my reality, so like I don't know anything else to base it off of man, this is a place that has tested me in every single way, and usually I mean most times I'm like laughing about it, or at least I am. When I'm telling you about it afterwards, yeah, which is good. I I'm glad that, like I can laugh at it right now, there were times like I couldn't laugh at it.
Speaker 2:When you say there were times, give me an example of a time you couldn't laugh at it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean, like I think, about catering right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not to keep harboring on catering, but like, okay, I show up to bartend at this house in Beverly Hills. They had three bars set up. They had one in the front yard and they had two in the backyard for this wedding. And I'm in the front yard, you know, I'm handing people glasses of champagne as they come in. People are heading, you know, through the house and having a good time, and some are milling about the front yard. Most people go to the back and this girl comes up to the bar in the front yard about an hour later and she's obviously pretty inebriated. And so I said to my fellow bartender, like, hey, let's not serve this chick anything like like, let's hold off and you know what, let's go ahead and just like spread the word to the other bartenders that like we should probably just like, probably chill. Yeah, he's like all right. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna go to the other bar, you know other bars. Like just hang tight for a second. So I go to the other bars and I'm like, hey, this chick over here, she's, she's wearing this, like she's pretty wasted, like let's kind of like hold off for a little bit, whatever. And everyone's like, yeah, great idea, whatever.
Speaker 1:While I'm gone, my co-bartender has to go to the bathroom and has someone cover for him, who does not know what is happening, of course. So by the time I get back to my bar, that woman she had gotten herself another glass of champagne. And I see it and she's at this tall table and I was like, oh man, how did that happen? Like I feel like I just I just told everybody like whatever. So I get behind my bar and like he comes back from the bathroom like my co-bar turn. I was like you see this, Like that chick's like oh, come on man. And he's like, oh, yeah, my bad. And then he and I are like cleaning up and like slicing you know garnishes or whatever. And then we just hear like a crash. Right, and we look up and this chick had like broken her like glass of champagne on this high top table that we had set up right we're like okay, whatever.
Speaker 1:So I grab a rag and I like come from behind the bar and as I'm walking up to be like hey, I got it, don't worry about it. This chick, I mean she's wasted. She is like so drunk she doesn't realize she doesn't have the manual dexterity that's required to do what she's doing and so she's just like basically pawing at like all this like broken glass, like that's on the table, and picking it up for like a pile, and I was like hey, miss, I got it, I got it, I seriously I got it.
Speaker 1:And she's like nothing. I feel so bad, like don't worry, a pile. And I was like hey, miss, I got it, I got it, I seriously I got it. And she's like nothing. I feel so bad, like don't worry about it. And I was like miss, miss, I got it. And I walk up with like my rag outstretched and she goes to like put it like kind of fling the glass that she had been holding into the rag and when she did that, blood like flecks off of her hands onto the rag and she realizes like her hands are like super cut up. So then she starts like freaking out and starts like flicking her hands everywhere. I'm getting like sprayed in the face with like this blood in my face on my on my white shirt, on my tie, whatever.
Speaker 1:And then I was like miss, oh my god, miss, oh my god. I like I like turn around. I'm like to my co-partner. I was like grab a rag and put some ice in it. So he like grabs, like a clean, like napkin, puts ice in it. We like walk it over to her hands. She like leaves the party. And then I went to the back to like grab my spare shirt that I had brought to change into it.
Speaker 1:And my manager at the time, ari, shout out to Ari for being the king of all dick goes, richard, because he never said my last name correctly. Why aren't you at the bar? And I turn around just covered in blood. And I was like, well, what do you want me to do right now? Man, I'm covered in a strange woman's blood and like I think about that story now and I think I just laugh because, like how absurd, how absurd is that? Like that is such a crazy story. And yet, like for a while there I mean the insanity is now just like shifted to like my other job now, which is being on set, but, like you know, like at the time that was just like another tuesday yeah, yeah, and that would happen and I would just get so annoyed. And now I just like I laugh, laugh and like I acknowledge like wow, I got through that.
Speaker 1:I don't know Cause I've worked on some crazy things by this point, like whether it was like just other BS jobs I had to work, or like working on sets and things that used to probably have like shocked me into a state of like inaction, like I just kind of like take it and stride, so to speak.
Speaker 1:Now so, yeah, I'm just grateful that like Los Angeles was like my playground to like gain some of that with. I think I would have like probably been okay had I gone somewhere else, but I'm glad that it was here, because like set boundaries or like stand up for myself when I first moved out here and now, like I, that is very much not the case. Yeah, and I can smell a scam when it's occurring and I can tell when someone's like a bs artist who, like I don't need to invest any of my time or emotional capital with this person out here matches kind of what I wanted when I was a younger man without it, like I wasn't the type of kid to sit down and try to manifest and think out my future and what it was going to look like. But looking back now I'm like wow, this is actually pretty close to where I wanted to be and pretty close to what I wanted to be doing. I mean, there's still things I'm striving for, but I think if you were to ask 18-year-old Mark, who just met Dom and we're auditioning for Big River yeah, I'm auditioning to be racist Number three, number three.
Speaker 2:On stage. I'm slave number two. What a time.
Speaker 1:I think I would be pretty stoked. You know, yeah, oh man, I think about I. I don't ever think about that stuff unless, like, I'm chatting with you and then I'm like, oh yeah, that was, that was a thing. That was a thing that happened, that was a show that I was in. These were things that we did.
Speaker 2:Not only did we do it, they did it again 10 years later, because they just had to do that show for some reason. Wait a second, I don't think I knew this. Oh, you didn't know that they did Big River again.
Speaker 2:No, it was the 10-year anniversary and they were like we're going to do Big River again. I was just like, why is that musical even still a thing? It's like Carousel. There's no reason for people to perform that musical anymore. Why? Why would you perform the musical? That's the question. It's about a guy who just beats everybody and then finally he pats someone's on the back once and says I guess you're okay, and then that's the end of the musical, like he's a horrible person. Why are we following this horrible person? My mother pointed this out to me and I guess that's just musical. Shoot, we were talking about hamilton and I was like man, it's just so good. And she was like but he's a horrible person. And I was like huh, he is a horrible person. I. And I was like huh, he is a horrible person. I guess it's just musicals.
Speaker 2:I guess we just like horrible people and musicals and and that's the dream. So when I started this podcast, I wanted it to be a place where I can be more honest and kind of create this new space for me to talk directly to people who support me, people who enjoy what I do, and I wanted to create a place where I can promote my own stuff and do the things that I want to do, and it's my happy, safe place. So this is the last show of the year and the one thing I've been working on nonstop this past month, since I haven't had to do any recordings or any editing, I've been working on my demo for my album I'm going to be releasing real soon as of now. I'm hoping that it's next year that I release it, but it's possible I could be releasing it at the top of the year, after next year. But the goal is to really get this album put out and to have people who support me actually purchase the album. I'm not looking to stream. I'm going to put some album songs on streaming every month, but I'm not going to put the full album out on streaming.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do some different stuff with this one. I want to have a vinyl. I want to have some. I have some digital for people who don't have record players, of course, but I want to create an album, a work of art that is full. It isn't just singles, it's something that's unique to me and I'm very proud of the work that I've already done. I pretty much believe that I have all of the tracks except for one.
Speaker 2:I think I need to write one more song for this project, but everything else has been. I've been writing this album for years now. There's songs on the album that I wrote in 2012. So that tells you that I've put a lot of work in, and it's hundreds of songs that have gone into this one project, and I'm hoping that I've gotten it down to the final 16 17 songs, or maybe get it down to 14, we'll see. But with all of that conversation, I'm gonna do more promo. I'm gonna do more talking about how I want people to receive this album. But since this is the last episode, since I want to leave you out with something that I wouldn't do on any other episode, I want to actually give you a song from the demo project that I'm working on. That will be on the next album, so hopefully you dig it.
Speaker 2:Here it is. You're just so beautiful and you stole my heart. You can take me there Anywhere. I'll follow from the start. Clowns above, but you still shine. No ladder, but you still shine. No ladder, but you still climb. I'm yours and you're mine.
Speaker 2:I'm yours and you're mine, you and I both have unique situations we're in, and this is the way that I see it. You and I come from Missouri, which is an extremely conservative state, but the difference is I came from St Louis, which is a crazy liberal city, and you came from Jefferson City, which is a crazy liberal city, and you came from Jefferson City, which is a crazy concern.
Speaker 2:Which is another liberal utopia, oh yeah, and after years of living, we both end up in opposite places. You live in Los Flippant, angeles, and I live in Sharpsburg, georgia, and I say that specifically because I'm in Coweta County, which is a red county. Everyone around me has a certain somebody's sign in their front yard. I'm just curious because the one thing that I think I miss about St Louis was the idea that everyone around me thought and actually did their research the same way as me. So when I would have conversations this past week I did a wedding in Nashville and we were just in Nashville and I was talking to one of my friends from St Louis who lives in Nashville now. We talked for like an hour about what we've been doing to prep for the election and studying who we want to be and how. We think it should be outlawed that you can just vote all Democrat or vote all Republican. You should be forced to actually do your research to know who, what, when and where and why. You're picking these people, not just because you're on one team. You've done your work and you understand what's at stake. That conversation really just was so refreshing because, living here in Coweta, I don't have those conversations unless I'm talking to my wife or my in-laws. It's not like that. People don't even like talking politics down here for real, because everyone is usually opposite. So it was like all right, I see your sign over there. We're just going to talk about how the weather is today and that's going to be our conversation period, because the other side don't look at each other as if they're smart. You're an idiot for believing in that. You're an idiot for believing in that. That's the way people treat each other down here.
Speaker 2:So, coming from St Louis to this, living in Chicago, living in LA, living all over the country in these liberal hubs and then settling outside of a liberal hub I live close to Atlanta, but I am outside of Atlanta. It's difficult for me because I am a person who's, like I said, passionate about the things that's happening around me. So I want to help, I want to be able to talk. I'm looking into working with the Coweta County Democrats and seeing what I can do down here. I'm looking to volunteer for election season this year because this is the year where I'm like I need to actually do more For you being in the scenario where you came from the belly of the beast and now you live in LA, which is the belly of the beast of the opposite side.
Speaker 2:How do you think it's affecting you when it comes towards going to vote? Do you think your vote doesn't even count Because you're in LA? You're in California, your state's going to be a blue state. How does this election season make you feel? How do you feel that you're going to approach it? Have you already been studying? Do you care? How are you approaching it? Because you're in a different scenario For me. I feel like I'm in a state that people keep saying is a swing state. We're in a battleground here. Last time, we got two Democratic senators and I truly felt like my vote counted. It felt like I had to vote. If I didn't vote, we would have been close to losing.
Speaker 1:You know, how do you feel is for you on the opposite, side, I feel like my vote counts to an extent with the national stuff. The thing that I have been, the last couple cycles, been trying to be better about is the local politics I think, about pop culture and tick tooking and whatever has happened in life. That's the natural progression of the flow of information and yet sometimes it's weird to me, like the things that we all seem to know and the things that we should, I feel like everyone should know Like. I'll give you an example I keep getting like on like my Facebook, cause my Facebook is just like a weird Facebook's weird weird. Now facebook is like happy birthday posts and then like posts from pages that I don't follow, giving me factoids about celebrities that I don't care about.
Speaker 1:But I think like there's like weird factoids that, like everybody is like being delivered, that like people hear about like jim carrey was a jerk on this on the set of man on the moon and like this is something that like people talk about because like you went full method and people could like talk casually at like a barbecue about his like behavior on that set and go on at length about like how strange it was.
Speaker 1:And I because I've heard this at parties I've seen this with my own eyes happening in front of me and yet I'll bring up, like hey, has anybody heard about the story about, like, the latest city councilman who just got hit with a crazy corruption and fraud charge? And people go no, I didn't even hear about that. And you're like, oh, it's just, it's just the people who are like drawing up the neighborhood lines and fighting over resources and like were like drawing up the neighborhood lines and fighting over resources and like I mean like for those who are in the know, like Los Angeles just got rocked with a scandal in the last couple of years because there was this recording of, I think, three city council members at the time, including, like, the president of city council.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:We're all speaking horribly about another city councilman's district and saying super racist stuff on audio. Since then, like the person who was from like the labor movement, who was there, like he stepped down. He was like the president of like labor in southern california or something crazy. Two of the other city councilmen have stepped down. The other dude is running for re-election. Like he has not stepped down and and not only do people like not know the original story, but like that's like that, but like that's crazy to me because like not only do they not know, but like they know this like other thing that does not matter and like that is like something that happens to me pretty often recently. It's just like we get caught up in the cultural zeitgeist of like everybody knows the pose of like the turk and like you know, sidebar, that's like one of the hardest photos of all time. Like the guy. So like no shade to that guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Limp of his body was like I'm not going to make this perfect he knew he was so dope.
Speaker 1:So, while I criticize both of us having this knowledge, that guy, that photo is super hard and that guy is a gangster for real Okay, into sidebar. You know, I feel like all of us knows, we know that, but like I don't know, I'm trying to get more plugged in, like on the local level, just because, like you always hear growing up, like that's where you're going to have the most effect and change. But it really is. It is, politics is going to be this way for you know, maybe a while, whoever is in charge, I feel it is like your duty as an American to like read up on what's going on.
Speaker 1:So often I have found myself the victim of this in the last four years, since I am a left-leaning individual, of not paying as close of attention to things, and something that I don't like that's currently happening is like obviously, like I'm going to vote Kamala, obviously, like a lot of us on the left are going to vote Kamala, but what I don't want to have happen is like us blink and like it'll be four years from now Because, like right now, the Democratic Party does not have an official party platform and they're doing that on purpose, but they're also doing that because Trump did that and got away with it in 2016 and 2020.
Speaker 1:And what I don't want to have happen is like people that are just now starting to like look at like what's happening with like politics. Like we need to be very careful of like not letting stuff like that slide. Like again, I'm voting Kamala. I am not going to tell anybody what to do with their vote, but that's what I'm going to do with my vote. And just because I'm going to vote that way, does it mean that, like we shouldn't hold people to like a certain standard? I have a guess of like what she's going to do and like she's the antidote to like a flaming turd sandwich? Yeah, like a flaming turd sandwich, yeah, but like, what I don't want to like have happen is like us just like blink and the democrats are like still without a party platform, and you're like, oh, that's a fun way to like not make any promises.
Speaker 2:So therefore, you don't get in trouble when you don't deliver yeah, and you know, another thing with that that makes me nervous is just the idea of people not understanding how the government works. I've been seeing more and more recently when people on the right talk about Reagan, they talk as if he was Julius Caesar. He was some legendary figure who was the greatest president ever. So whenever a Republican becomes president, he's the best president since Reagan, he's the best Republican since Reagan, reagan, reagan. But for us, barack Obama didn't do enough. You know, on the Democratic part, barack Obama was this evil murderer who killed all these people with drones. He didn't do enough for the Black community. He didn't do this, he didn't do that, he didn't, didn't, didn't, didn't, didn't, didn't, didn't. But they don't talk about the fact that the Republicans, every day of his presidency eight years, did everything they could to not work with him. And then he didn't have full House and Senates, so he wasn't able to do certain things, but he still did so much. And people act like why didn't he do this? Why didn't he do that? Right now, we're in that same scenario where Kamala act like why didn't he do this? Why didn't he do that? Right now, we're in that same scenario where Kamala why didn't she do anything about the wall. They were going to do a wall bill. They had it.
Speaker 2:Trump said no. Why do I have to bring that up? Why do I have to remind people that happened? Why do people act like that? The Senate and the House and the judicial system, all of that doesn't matter. Why do people act like it's just the president who makes the gas prices high? The fuck are you talking about? That's the hard part for me too. Like you said, like you feel like we are gonna avoid keeping our foot on the gas and we're gonna blink and boom. We're gonna be in a situation where we're like damn, she didn't do this, or she did this or she didn't do that. I agree with you and I feel like not only with that. It also goes even higher, to the sense that we purposefully put ourselves in situations where it's good and bad at the same time. You know we're watching people on our side.
Speaker 2:Andrew Gilmore, the Florida the guy that was going for governor of Florida black guy. I remember him being this big Democratic symbol in Florida and getting pushed. But then he got caught up with a couple of gay guys or transvestite or something, and there's pictures of him butt naked in an apartment or whatever, and he was on crack or something like that. I forget what exactly was going on, first and foremost, what the fuck's going on with that? But two, I remember how we handled it as Democrats and he was taken out of office or he was not allowed to run or date. They actually was like no, this is not good. And he's doing podcasts and stuff now and still working, but he's not representing the Democratic Party anymore. That shit happened on the other side. They find a way to put that shit under covers and he'll still be working.
Speaker 2:Like you say, in our eyes is like it's good because we don't want that to represent us. But then also it's like we're taking another soldier off the field and it's like, damn, we're losing soldiers on our side instead of empowering ourselves, and it's like there's no answer to that. I can't. I can't say hey, we need to do this. I don't fucking know what we need to do. But I feel like the Democrats have way more negative coming from the way that we approach, how we vote, how we judge our people, because we are thinking logically Yep, where someone could be a horrible person, we'd be like yo, you're a horrible person, we don't want you to work for us, but then on the opposite side they're not thinking logically. So you don't like black people? Cool Okay.
Speaker 1:To me, though, what we're speaking on as frustrating as it is, though, is signs that we do still have a relatively healthy left wing of the country in this coming election. I'd love to see Trump lose, obviously because of who he is and what he represents, but I would love to see a return to something that resembles a little sign that there is going to be like, a healthy part of the right wing. I mean, we we almost saw it after 2012, when Romney lost the Republican party did their famous autopsy of that election and decided that they were going to do more of an outreach to communities of color and voices that they had not really been seeking out before, and then, obviously, they went another route the next election, and I'd love to see something that resembles that more, because that resembles a more accurate reflection of, like, what America is, because, like I have to hope that, because that's the only way that like it can, I think, get any better is is, if he loses, and it's like a resounding like hey, like this doesn't win anything for you all anymore, other than like a few points in a culture warp, perhaps, but like no real state governmental power. That's what I'd love. I'd love for that to happen so we can get, hopefully, back to something that resembles something like both parties working together on certain things, because where we're currently headed is like untenable Approaching like politics, like with yeah, you were mentioning like not talking about certain things to your neighbor.
Speaker 1:I don't know what the, I don't know what the solve is there either. I mean younger me, with fire in my belly, was ready to like talk about it. Now I, I definitely still talk about it, but I, whenever I do engage with someone who really doesn't think the way that I think that fire is certainly still within me, but there's like this like feeling of like. I have to like be reasonable past the point where I think that fire is certainly still within me, but there's like this like feeling of like I have to like be reasonable past the point where I normally would with this person because, like, I'm desperate for a sense of like. You see this too right. Hey, this isn't cool and you see this too right, because I think 2016 to now I mean really 2016 to 2020, that entire period, I was like so all over the place emotionally and like, now that I've had time to look back on it, I think it's because I, in a way, was like grieving a sense of commonality with my fellow American, like this feeling of like I have common values with my average neighbor because, like, growing up, where I grew up, it's quite conservative. It's more conservative, I think, now than it was when I was growing up, which is to say something, and I knew that. I knew that, like I was in a pretty conservative area of the country, you know.
Speaker 1:So when I came out here to Los Angeles, I remember thinking like well, like, I know that the Jefferson City Missouri brand of conservatism, but I know that like it has to be different than like. Like that has to be an extreme version versus like what else exists, and I think it does still exist. But I think they've just been so browbeaten into being like submissive at this point that it's just kind of like. I think there's like people like myself who, even though I don't agree, policy wise, with many things on the right, I'm desperate for someone with integrity to rise up from the ranks and for people to like actually start calling things for what they are, because it just feels like we live in this split sense of reality and it's very much because of, like our information sources, and that's bigger than you, are bigger than me, and so sometimes you know, it can be really frustrating.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't fall prey to it as much as I used to when I was a young man, like when and whenever I thought that like if I could just make this point, if I could just string these words together in this order, that like it would like pierce the bubble of like around this person, of like what they're hearing, and like now you know I'll listen to someone, but like that feeling of like I can change something or plant the seed to something, like I think that's gone and so now I'm just like hoping for like a white knife, so to speak, like to come in and save us on like the right wing of this country.
Speaker 1:Because, man, if I have to listen to that bozo who doesn't know what he's talking about, anytime he opens his mouth and is just riffing, it's like watching a bad comic riffing, and you're just like dude, you don't know what you're talking about. Like your setups suck, your content sucks, no one's laughing, no one finds this charming. I would just love to like not hear that anymore and like hear someone who, like I, disagree with like on every point of it, but like I'm not offended by that person's presence, We've made it to the end of the episode.
Speaker 2:See, it flew by. That's how it happens every time, man, wow, very simple how I end these. This is the last interview of the year, so you're appreciated. You were a bonus interview that I did not think was going to happen and I appreciate you for actually making it happen. So I kind of planned out this is not even happening but it happened and I'm so thrilled that you did it. It is so great to talk to you. Last question I always ask very simple question how do you feel I feel good?
Speaker 1:I feel good. I hope that this was interesting for someone to listen to. I think what I would like to tell people as like we head out of this episode is that now more than ever, it is important for us to seek out community and for those that fill your cup and who are like-minded with yourself, it's never too late. Find that group, do that weird thing that like you love and like. Find your tribe man, because we got to figure out how to make it through this weird kind of growing pain together. Be excellent towards one each other, and do the weird thing that makes you feel out of your depth and you never know what will happen.
Speaker 2:I want to thank you for listening to the Black man Talking Emotions podcast. The open and quote credit goes to the late great Senator, john Lewis. I've been having a lot of people speaking to me about politics online so I want to make sure that I correct something that I said in the pod. I said the bill that Kamala tried to get passed was a wall bill. It was actually an immigration bill. That's what I meant. Immigration bill, that's what I meant. And Trump indeed made a call to have that bill stopped because he wanted to use that as an angle in his debates and for his campaign. I was just fired up and wall came out instead of immigration. Also, andrew Gillum not Gilmore was the mayor of Tallahassee and he was running for governor in Florida and he was found with a male escort.
Speaker 2:And meth was the drug of choice, not crack. I'm sure people are wondering why are you explaining all of this? Well, like I said before, a lot of people reach out and try to undermine my views and tell me that I'm either gullible or not properly informed, and I just want to let y'all know I do my research on all of these subjects and sometimes I might say the wrong word or name. That isn't enough of a mistake to claim that I don't know what I'm talking about and to undermine me. That is not how you talk to people about things that you believe in. So I thank you for listening to this episode.
Speaker 2:Shout out to Mark for being on the pod. Follow Mark at P-L-U-A-R-K on Instagram. Please subscribe to the podcast, share the podcast and give us a good rating Five stars, please and thank you. You can support the show by clicking the link at the bottom of the episode description. Also, I send all my love to you and your families for the holiday season. It's a big time for me and I look forward to hugs and food and laughs and all that jazz. So follow me at D-O-M underscore L-A-M-O-U-R on Instagram or at DomLamorecom. The marketing for my upcoming album, dommie, will begin soon and I would appreciate all the support you can offer. I'm Dom Lamore. Much love, thank you.
