Episode 1375 - Ralph Macchio
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks this is mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome to it if you're new hang out i am not broadcasting from home i am still in new york i'm still in a hotel room in new york city i've been here for a few days it's been a great trip
Marc:I could tell you about it.
Marc:Do you want me to tell you about it?
Marc:I can tell you about it.
Marc:But first, let me just set up the show a little bit.
Marc:Today, I talked to Ralph Macchio.
Marc:Yeah, that guy.
Marc:Of course, you know who he is.
Marc:He was Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid and now in Cobra Kai.
Marc:And in fact, so many people know him as Daniel LaRusso.
Marc:He wrote a book about it.
Marc:It's called Waxing On, The Karate Kid and Me.
Marc:And I figured, look, I had an opportunity to talk to Ralph.
Marc:I'll talk to Ralph.
Marc:He's one of those guys that you kind of felt like you grew up with at a certain point in your life, depending on what age you were.
Marc:I'm a little older, but my brother was certainly in that world.
Marc:But, you know, he's Ralph Macchio, and I'm a fan of Cobra Kai.
Marc:And we had a nice conversation.
Marc:Also, I'll be in London this week.
Marc:So if you don't have tickets to my sold out stand up shows and still want to come see me, I'll be doing a live WTF at the Bloomsbury Theater on Wednesday, October 19th, with writer and comedian David Baddiel.
Marc:It's been a long time since I've done live WTF.
Marc:We used to do them.
Marc:I don't know how many of you know this.
Marc:We originally did live WTFs that were not like the show.
Marc:They were multiple performer broadcasts.
Marc:We would do it at...
Marc:at a venue, and there'd be four or five guests that we'd just bring out in a row and do interviews with them and kind of riff with them.
Marc:And originally we did it.
Marc:This is going back.
Marc:Before we could figure out how to make money doing the podcast without closing it down and offering it for membership, there was just limited things you could do.
Marc:You could sell merch.
Marc:You could get donations.
Marc:I don't even think Patreon existed at that time.
Marc:Or you could do some other sort of performing, live performance.
Marc:And it was still pretty early on in podcasting to where that draw was.
Marc:I don't know that we could make a living out of it doing live WTS.
Marc:But they were special events that we recorded as content that people would buy.
Marc:We had set up a pay site where those were made available.
Marc:And it was specifically done to try to make money at podcasting.
Marc:There's a handful of those somewhere.
Marc:But they were always exciting.
Marc:And I remember getting artwork made for them for the posters.
Marc:And there was one that was like Ira Glass.
Marc:I was so excited to have Ira Glass and Artie Lang on the same panel.
Marc:And then there was another one where we had a woman that was a robot expert.
Marc:And she made a little robot that that she claimed did stand up comedy.
Marc:So I had her and I had Otto and George.
Marc:There was there was some interesting bookings and they were definitely fun shows, but it's been a while since I've done a live one.
Marc:I did a couple of events as a as a interviewer that I didn't love doing that.
Marc:Of course, there's the Terry Gross one, which was done live, but just by virtue of it was at an event in the Paul McCartney was done live because that was at an event.
Marc:But the but the the multi guest guest.
Marc:Live WTFs are a rarity.
Marc:But this one I'm doing in England, we're just trying it out.
Marc:David Baddiel is an interesting guy.
Marc:He's a big deal in England.
Marc:He was a big comic performer in a duo.
Marc:And then he did one-man show stuff.
Marc:Then he wrote some novels, some children's books.
Marc:And now he's written a book about being a Jew.
Marc:And he sort of speaks out about anti-Semitism and how it's framed in the current world we're in.
Marc:But he's an interesting guy.
Marc:And I didn't know anything about him.
Marc:And now I know a lot about him.
Marc:And I'm going to talk to him about it.
Marc:So that's going to happen in London on October 19th.
Marc:And then you'll eventually hear it here.
Marc:So, fuck you guys.
Marc:I've been in this hotel room.
Marc:I don't know what it is when I get hotel rooms.
Marc:I would say six out of ten hotel rooms that I stay in.
Marc:It sounds like the person upstairs is involved in some sort of long game of marbles.
Marc:I don't know if they're different size marbles.
Marc:Sometimes it sounds like they're small glass or metal balls and then sometimes slightly larger ones that are rolling around up there.
Marc:I don't know what's going on.
Marc:I don't know if someone's following me and this is designed to make me crazy.
Marc:He's why would anybody be playing with marbles?
Marc:I don't know, but I don't know what's going on up there.
Marc:It sounds like marbles.
Marc:It stopped now, which is good.
Marc:I never know what the hell's going on in rooms because you assume like, is there really a reason to move furniture?
Marc:Look, sex noises next door is one thing.
Marc:I don't hear much of that anymore.
Marc:I stay in pretty good hotels.
Marc:But upstairs, you're like, why would they be rearranging the entire room?
Marc:Why are they playing tennis in their room?
Marc:What the fuck is that noise?
Marc:Should I call somebody?
Marc:A bit of that happens.
Marc:But I've been here since, what, Tuesday night.
Marc:What has happened since I talked to you?
Marc:I feel like I recorded.
Marc:When did I record?
Marc:Probably Wednesday.
Marc:But I did.
Marc:So, yes, you don't know anything that's happened.
Marc:I came out here to play this gig for a kind of benefit gathering party at a loft.
Marc:We did the gig.
Marc:It's called the Soho Sessions.
Marc:It takes place in this loft and it raises awareness for certain charities.
Marc:And it was me, Jimmy Vivino, Jimmy Vaughn, who's a fucking hero of mine from the fabulous Thunderbirds.
Marc:So I got here and on that Wednesday, on the Wednesday, I rehearsed.
Marc:I rehearsed with Jimmy Vivino, with the band, with Jimmy Vaughn came in.
Marc:Again, a hero of mine could not believe I was playing with Jimmy Vaughn.
Marc:I did two songs with Jimmy Vaughn.
Marc:And the rest of the guys.
Marc:But so we rehearsed on Wednesday.
Marc:Also on Wednesday, Dave Manheim from Dopey, the podcast.
Marc:He's over at Katz's.
Marc:They set me up with a plate of meat.
Marc:So I'm jamming meat into my face Wednesday.
Marc:Big mounds of brisket, pastrami, corned beef, rye bread, pickles.
Marc:So that happens.
Marc:And then I went to the Whitney Museum.
Marc:I'm a member.
Marc:I like to be a contributor.
Marc:I guess a patron of the arts.
Marc:And I'm just happy that when I'm in town, I can just go over there.
Marc:But it doesn't always sync up with a major event.
Marc:But they had a members only preview of this show, this Edward Hopper show.
Marc:Edward Hopper in New York, I think, is the show at the Whitney or Edward Hopper's New York.
Marc:So I just made my way over there, and that was fucking spectacular.
Marc:I mean, just unbelievable.
Marc:And then on Thursday night, we did the show.
Marc:It was great.
Marc:There were some people I hadn't seen in a while there.
Marc:Michael Imperioli was hanging out at the loft.
Marc:His son played guitar.
Marc:It was very sweet.
Marc:Good guitar player.
Marc:And I saw some old friends.
Marc:And we did a show.
Marc:And I only fucked up a little bit.
Marc:I just fucked up the Dylan song a little bit.
Marc:And it's kind of sticking with me.
Marc:I've really got to stop beating the shit out of myself.
Marc:Any ideas?
Marc:But it was amazing.
Marc:Playing with Jimmy Vaughn.
Marc:And then after that, then the next day, what happened?
Marc:I did the tech run through or the beginning of the process.
Marc:of putting my HBO special together at Town Hall, kind of looking at logistics, looking at set design, meeting the crew, meeting the producers, getting everybody in one room so they could break into groups and do their thing.
Marc:And then I went and met Brendan, who I never see because I'm in L.A.
Marc:and he's here.
Marc:And we did this sort of day hang.
Marc:We went down, ate a Veselka.
Marc:Got to be honest, as nice as it is that Veselka is kicking back some bread to the Ukrainian war effort, the food has gone downhill tremendously.
Marc:It was just a bland plate of mush in different shapes.
Marc:Some of it didn't taste good at all, and it's very sad.
Marc:It's a very sad thing, you know, when a place that, you know, you've sort of, you kind of hold dear and it kind of triggers certain memories if it's consistent.
Marc:You know, it's sad when that moment diminishes that when all of a sudden the food's not as good as it used to be or that place is not there anymore or that the store is now some other store or what they do to the building you used to live in where somehow or another these reliable,
Marc:Time travel vessels become compromised.
Marc:And it was a bit of heartbreak.
Marc:Maybe it was a bad day.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I had a couple of other places that were OK.
Marc:But Brendan and I, we hung out for a few hours, went down to Ferrara's, the Italian pastry place that I used to go with my grandmother when we came into the city.
Marc:Had ricotta cheesecake.
Marc:I'm just, you know, stuffing myself.
Marc:I seem to be on some sort of suicide trip with food.
Marc:But, you know, we'll see.
Marc:You know, who isn't?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I can't seem to reel it in right now.
Marc:But, yeah, so I also went to Mogador, which is another place.
Marc:That place held up pretty good.
Marc:That food was pretty good.
Marc:And on Saturday, I spent the day with Sam Lipsight.
Marc:We did a little talk on the mics.
Marc:And then we headed out to the Tompkins Square Park, talked some more there, talked about stuff, personal stuff.
Marc:Then we went and had dinner at the Greek place, Kiklides.
Marc:That was the best.
Marc:And then we went and saw Ron Carter Trio, the Ron Carter Trio at Birdland.
Marc:Spectacular, because I was going to talk to him.
Marc:Also, sorry, went to Russ and Daughters.
Marc:Yeah, got that covered too.
Marc:The cafe had bagels and lox.
Marc:So now I'm just wondering when my heart's going to stop and getting ready to go to London today.
Marc:That's how that's going.
Marc:I got to be honest with you.
Marc:I've been here.
Marc:What?
Marc:So what is it?
Marc:Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Marc:So five, six days and it's fall and I fucking love it.
Marc:I think I'm moving back to New York.
Marc:That's this.
Marc:This is the new vision for the future.
Marc:Halftime.
Marc:In Canada, halftime New York City, and doing nothing but doing things that I enjoy.
Marc:Would that be okay?
Marc:I did zero comedy while I was here.
Marc:And you know what?
Marc:It was fucking tremendous.
Marc:It's so weird about the general comedy scene for me in New York City.
Marc:The Comedy Cellar, when I really think about it, it was just always kind of like, I've got to know how to do this.
Marc:I have to know how to do this room.
Marc:I have to perform well in this hard-ass room.
Marc:It was all about knowing how to do it or learning how to do it and just getting through it.
Marc:The best thing about the Comedy Cellar was seeing your friends.
Marc:And I don't know, man.
Marc:I just didn't feel like dealing.
Marc:I didn't feel like going to a New York City comedy club and just hammering it out.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Maybe it's just because I started here.
Marc:I spent a lot of time here just pounding my head against the wall and doing okay.
Marc:I just wanted to see some friends, but I didn't.
Marc:I don't even know how many of my friends are around.
Marc:Maybe I'll go in tonight.
Marc:We'll see.
Marc:Just to say hi.
Marc:But I just...
Marc:I just didn't do any comedy.
Marc:I did all the other stuff.
Marc:But the point being, I want to live here.
Marc:You feel so alive.
Marc:It's so great to be surrounded by all these people.
Marc:There's no place like New York where everything is a collaborative effort.
Marc:Just being out on the street is a giant collaborative effort.
Marc:The entire city is a collaborative effort.
Marc:You're walking around with hundreds and hundreds of other people at every corner.
Marc:Just everyone is making sure, for the most part, that things run the correct way.
Marc:It is just a Petri dish of humanity.
Marc:I was walking through Times Square last night.
Marc:And it's all lit up.
Marc:It's almost like what I imagine Tokyo to be, like a Blade Runner, except it's a little too American.
Marc:But it's a spectacle.
Marc:But you just see all these different types of people, tourists, hawkers, people on the street, some houseless people.
Marc:But also, like, you know...
Marc:You're in the middle of Times Square.
Marc:It's 2022.
Marc:And I swear to God, I saw maybe a Pakistani or an Indian family moving through Times Square with their luggage as if they just arrived or they're just leaving.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I could project a lot of things.
Marc:I'm saying that everything is happening all the time with thousands of people in New York City.
Marc:And it's spectacular.
Marc:It is energizing.
Marc:And there's something.
Marc:That kind of makes you feel part of something bigger than yourself, certainly that being the city and that being the human race and that being the type of diversity that you see here.
Marc:It's just it's just great.
Marc:And there's so much vital creativity going on here.
Marc:I mean, just going to the Whitney, going to the Birdland Club, going to, you know, Tompkins Square Park, just walking.
Marc:I just and I think I feel like I go through this every time I'm here.
Marc:But I'm now at a point where I can sort of see a finish line.
Marc:I can I can sort of see an endgame, not my death, but my pulling back, you know, from from everything I'm doing just to to try to enjoy.
Marc:Life that doesn't involve compulsive engagement in stuff I think I have to do because I've set out to do it.
Marc:I feel like I've done almost everything I set out to do.
Marc:Some of it I enjoy.
Marc:Some of it I'm tired of.
Marc:Some of it I can take further.
Marc:But no matter what, I definitely want to pull back in a few years.
Marc:And the idea of having a place in New York to just take advantage of the city and then having a place somewhere else to just kind of live life in a relatively peaceful, undistracted way seems appealing to me.
Marc:That being said, I could drop dead from a heart attack or lose my mind at any minute.
Marc:So look.
Marc:The book that Ralph Macchio is here to talk about, or he's here to talk about his life, but he has this memoir, Waxing On, The Karate Kid and Me.
Marc:That comes out tomorrow, October 18th.
Marc:You can get it wherever you get books.
Marc:The new season of Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix.
Marc:And this is me talking to Ralph Macchio, who we all know.
Marc:All right, so wait, now tell me, because when we walked in here, you saw my Fender Telecaster over there.
Marc:You have the Crossroads Telecaster.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Is it an old one, even?
Guest:I think it is.
Guest:I don't know if we ever got the year on it.
Guest:You've had that thing sitting there forever, and people have offered you money, and you never did the research?
Guest:Well, no, no.
Guest:I have done some research.
Guest:I thought it was late 60s.
Guest:I think it's early 70s, if memory serves.
Guest:I need to have that time machine back to that conversation.
Guest:But, yeah, because we were looking at it when we were doing the film initially and trying to find out, well, should we go with Gibson?
Guest:What kind of guitar?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, I was a big Springsteen fan growing up, still am.
Guest:And so it was always Telecaster.
Guest:So I went Tele.
Guest:And plus, I'm, you know, Gibson's a big guitar for a little scrawny guy like me.
Marc:The West Pauls, like the Black Customs, they're heavy.
Marc:And like, what, 335?
Marc:That would have been huge.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I like the Springsteen connection.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He's a big Tele guy.
Marc:He's a big Tele guy.
Marc:All Teles.
Marc:All Teles all the time.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:But it's interesting to me that there is this huge collector's market.
Marc:It's actually ruining the market for people that just are interested in finding a cool guitar out there.
Marc:Everyone knows what they have now with the internet.
Marc:There's no finding that.
Marc:But really, I don't think that the period of time that that telly is from is necessarily an important period in Fender history.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But because it's the Crossroads of Guitar, you would do a certificate and take a picture.
Marc:And then someone, you know, when they sold it for $50,000.
Guest:No, listen, I've signed many guitar picks.
Guest:They bring them in, you know, collectors and stuff like that to sign that.
Guest:Lightning Boy, Martone, or whatever.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's fun, man.
Guest:It's fun.
Guest:But, yeah, arguably...
Guest:You know, the 47 Ford, the wax on, wax off car that I got to keep after doing the original Karate Confilment.
Marc:Jesus, most people just take the wardrobe.
Guest:Yeah, I took the headband and the car.
Guest:Can I keep this suit?
Guest:That's what I get.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But more people ask about the... The guitar?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:well i mean that that that ford i mean that's that's an old car what is that 47 47 i think that people who collect cars to drive on the street it starts in the 50s yeah yeah those are the cool yeah it's a rare guy that's gonna be driving around in a 40s yeah exactly 57 chevy is yeah that kind of shit or 60s and the impalas and stuff but so you still have that car do you drive it uh it is in being used in the cobra kai series oh that's the one sitting there it is the one that's it yeah yeah where's that shoot though
Guest:Atlanta, and that's where it is.
Guest:Oh, so you drove it down and you had it towed down there?
Guest:They had it towed down and they helped get the old girl back up and running and off the four flats.
Guest:Yeah, it was sort of a metaphor for my big screen career.
Guest:So I was sitting in storage about six, seven years ago, covered in dust on four flats.
Guest:And now it is popular and it's got his luster back.
Marc:That's crazy.
Marc:You know, it is quite a ride you've had.
Marc:And my producer brought it to my attention.
Marc:It's sort of like, you know, you've plugged along and you've done the work.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you were a huge star when I was a kid.
Marc:I mean, I think I was a little old.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I think we're around the same age, but I think when you were popular, somehow it was more my brother, who's like two and a half years younger than me.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:That was like in the same zone.
Marc:But I remember seeing The Outsiders.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you always kind of worked.
Marc:Yep.
Guest:Somehow, you know, I mean, ups and downs and all.
Guest:You know, I talked to Zapka.
Guest:Did you listen to that?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yes, I did.
Guest:I did.
Guest:I did.
Guest:I just spoke to him last night and he said he had a great time and I listened to it last year or whenever that was done.
Guest:I just couldn't believe it.
Guest:I couldn't believe how well he matured that character.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Both of you.
Guest:Well, listen, these guys who create the Cobra Kai show had such a smart angle in to sort of how to peel the layers off the villain and all of a sudden put the ex-hero in his midlife transition.
Marc:Yeah, and he's like, they're both empathetic characters, but they're not as...
Marc:defined in the way that you were when you're kids.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like there's a good guy and a bad guy.
Marc:There's black and white.
Marc:But now, you know, because age has happened, you know, both guys have a little bit of both, you know, in their own weird way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's, and that's truthful anyway, you know, diving into, you know, there's a little bit of good, a little bit of bad in everybody.
Guest:And the intentions of both are good.
Guest:So that's why you root for both, even though your allegiance may change episode to episode.
Marc:But his, his, he,
Marc:He's his own worst enemy.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And your ego is your own worst enemy.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He's still hanging it on one kick that got him.
Guest:He's like the guy who won the high school football game who still talks about it.
Guest:I mean, not so much in these seasons now or during season five.
Guest:I can't believe it.
Guest:Five seasons.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:I mean, I was curious about it.
Marc:And I was just so taken by the age of you guys.
Marc:It is the show and it is those characters, but I think there's an honesty to how you're playing the age that we are at.
Guest:Yeah, you have to.
Guest:And even when we see in the script, it's time to go drop the gloves again.
Guest:It's like, okay, can we play this as we would as guys in our 50s and not pretend to be doing the rematch like we're 20 years old again?
Guest:And how'd that go?
Guest:Pretty well.
Guest:Pretty well.
Guest:Although they still want us to, you know.
Guest:And the music, the music, the underscoring helps us with the youth and energy.
Guest:And we work hard at it, you know.
Guest:It's fun.
Guest:And we got these great kids in the show, which is wonderful.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:They're awesome.
Marc:Yeah, they all seem really good.
Marc:It's a sweet show.
Marc:But when you look back at the, I mean, this came, did it come out of nowhere?
Marc:When the offer came to you, like, we're going to do this again, you win?
Marc:Were you like, what were you doing?
Guest:In your life.
Guest:Basically, the three guys who write it pitched it.
Guest:They pitched it to Billy first.
Guest:I was the last guy.
Guest:And I was probably the most resistant always.
Guest:Really?
Guest:To, you know, the Karate Kid film has become a piece of pop culture.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And a piece of many people's childhoods.
Guest:As a comic, I mean, that wax on, wax off thing is used in punchlines to this day.
Guest:Yeah, all the time.
Guest:All the time.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's cool wild.
Guest:Just in case you don't have something fresh and new.
Guest:You go to that.
Guest:It's a home run.
Guest:It's a fastball down the middle.
Guest:You always catch the plate.
Guest:But, you know, it was like, why mess with it?
Guest:That was your resistance.
Guest:The great Pat Morita is no longer with us in that Miyagi character.
Guest:How do you move that forward?
Guest:And, you know, it was risk reward for me.
Guest:So I sort of held it.
Guest:And I write about this in my book.
Guest:I write about it.
Guest:I held it to a certain standard and on a certain pedestal.
Guest:So it is quite precious.
Marc:Because it defined your young adult life.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And it's sort of it is it is a cultural touch point.
Marc:I mean, it's like, you know, it's a piece of history.
Guest:Yeah, it is exactly right.
Guest:And it's a lot of whether it's, you know, someone in there, a guy in his 40s, a woman in her 30s or someone in their 60s or a kid who's 15.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like this movie meant something to me.
Guest:So why am I going to fuck with that?
Guest:And you didn't need the bread.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we could always use a little more of that.
Guest:But I somehow was able to string it all together over the years, even during the drier years.
Guest:But when they came to me with this, you know, I had just seen Creed.
Guest:Which was sort of the, how do you do the Rocky Balboa universe?
Guest:How do you do the ninth Rocky?
Guest:And not be Rocky Nine, right?
Guest:And that was sort of kind of smart, coming through the eyes of Apollo Creed's kid.
Marc:Okay, yeah, yeah, sure.
Guest:So that kind of was relevant presently at the time.
Guest:And then so the concept of taking, okay, who is Johnny Lawrence?
Guest:What happened to this guy after he took the crane kick to the face kind of thing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And where did LaRusso go?
Guest:Now these writers had a way into the universe.
Guest:But then when they spoke about the kids, you know, and Johnny's son, who becomes my student, and Miguel is sort of the millennial Daniel LaRusso, and my daughter being overprotected, now I start seeing, okay.
Guest:It's not just these two guys fighting about 1984.
Marc:It's not about you.
Guest:It's not only that.
Guest:I mean, you need that, and that's still a tentpole.
Marc:But it's gonna honor the legacy as opposed to diminish it exactly and did still you know, right?
Marc:Well, right who knew it started on YouTube?
Marc:Yeah And it was just it blew up.
Marc:Yeah, but but when those conversations in those conversations
Marc:When they were talking about character and presenting to you, how many kind of pitch meetings did you have to go through?
Marc:Were you able to have any input?
Guest:To a point, the beauty is they see the whole roadmap, John, Josh, and Hayden.
Guest:And for Billy and I, we see our...
Guest:Characters that we've been walking in the shoes of and in the skin for close to 40 years at that time, say 34 years or whatever.
Guest:So you're protective.
Guest:And I play the protagonist of the movie, the hero, quote unquote, whether you thought the kick was illegal or not or who's the real jerk and who's the real bully to become-
Marc:We have to talk about that kick in general, because that's like, if there's any breaking news in this book, it's that that kick was nearly impossible to really do.
Guest:Yes, yes, as written, as originally written.
Guest:But anyway, so all that stuff.
Guest:So the input was there from the onset with the guys, and they're very collaborative, and we're always talking that stuff through.
Guest:But they get the tiebreaker.
Guest:Because they're looking at the whole landscape.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so there has been push and pull throughout.
Guest:But the longevity of the Cobra Kai series is credit to them saying, I know you're feeling this, but this is that way because of what we have here.
Guest:And if we go here, you know, you could you could front load everything and front load all the guest stars.
Guest:And Cobra Kai is done in three seasons.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it has, you know, it's been listen, it's been this franchise has got some blessing from day one.
Guest:And I credit John Avilson, Jerry Weintraub, Robert Kamen, who wrote the original script.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, they created a world that we go back to, and now these guys are adding more colors and layers.
Marc:And the benefit also, too, is that, you know, unlike some shows, you can kind of let these kids grow.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And you can get older.
Guest:Yeah, well, the streaming service, they give you, you don't have to do the two hour and 15 minute blockbuster movie.
Marc:Right, but also just that, like, because they're at a certain age, there's no reason, they're not going to age out too quickly, because you can keep doing karate classes.
Guest:sure because a lot of these things there's two years between them right and you got to believe that the guys welcome back cotter he's like 80 years old and he's supposed to be 60 and it's like what happened i know yeah so when you're a kid you grew up where uh long island in new york which was still home base what town i grew up in dixills oh yeah i i just i play huntington yeah oh yes yes the paramount it's great yeah they give you a brick
Guest:They give you a brick.
Guest:I've been there.
Guest:I think I've seen the Marin Brick.
Guest:Have you seen a brick?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's like they give you a commemorative.
Marc:I've got two bricks.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's a good club.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:You see rock shows there?
Guest:The last I was there, I took my son to see, oh God, it wasn't a rock show though.
Guest:No?
Guest:It was... Comedy?
Guest:No, it was like a rap, but a fun, upbeat kind of mainstream rapper.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:I'm just blanking out on the name.
Guest:Friendly.
Guest:Friendly show.
Guest:Friendly show.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:How old is your son?
Guest:He's 26 now.
Guest:Oh, so that was a while ago.
Guest:My daughter's 30 and she'll be angry that I just said that.
Guest:No, she won't.
Guest:But I'm only 32, so how this was done, it's just... It's crazy, dude.
Guest:It's crazy.
Guest:You have these grown kids.
Guest:I know.
Marc:It is crazy.
Marc:But you seem pretty... I think one of the things about you is you seem well-adjusted.
Marc:And also, I mean, you look at some of the people that came up in your generation.
Marc:You never made any bad news.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Yeah, I'm the anti-E-True Hollywood story, as I allude to in the
Guest:waxing on but um yeah i mean some of that is my sensibilities my upbringing my parents yeah how are you brought up my uh you know suburban um not not super italian but and my dad's half greek so i that makes me a quarter that's a lot of food that's a lot of food a lot of mediterranean a lot of olive oil yeah but never you know it wasn't like sunday gravy and pasta right the seven fishes on christmas it wasn't pretty americanized yeah
Guest:Everybody's from Long Island.
Marc:You got the grandparents and the whole extended family.
Guest:Yeah, extended family.
Guest:Still home base.
Guest:Cousins.
Guest:Still home base, yeah.
Guest:But it's not the massive, big Italian family, like in the traditional way.
Guest:But fairly close.
Guest:My brother and I, about two and a half years apart.
Guest:And my wife and her family was somewhat like that as well.
Guest:So that's...
Guest:i think for me i've kept one foot in one foot out of it all right but it seems like your priorities priorities like i i have a hit movie but if the mets are in the world series i'm going back home you know and that's what i was doing in 86 um you know and uh you know once i got the outsider i came out to la so what yeah so like your brother's how much what's he's younger two and a half years and what's he do
Guest:he's like my dad was sort of self-made yeah my dad worked it owned some laundromats then bought a pump truck when he needed to oh yeah pump out the the overflowing septic tank and then owned the biggest liquid waste company long island sold that my brother took off on that he's more into water purifying oh wow and i'm the other guy yeah yeah you're the yeah it's interesting that
Marc:There are people that do jobs, and they may be great at their jobs, and they may be great at starting those kind of companies, and they seem necessary.
Marc:But you realize that some people work to have the life they want to have, not because, like, I love water pumps.
Marc:I love pumping sewage.
Guest:That just happened when you got your first thing, and it led to something else.
Marc:Yeah, and then you just get a good business going, and then you live the life you want.
Guest:You don't have to love your job.
Guest:Right, exactly.
Guest:We do, kind of.
Guest:Yes, true, true.
Guest:It used to just work and not ask questions.
Guest:Yeah, that's right.
Guest:But I like that.
Guest:But it seems that your sensibility is around family.
Guest:I mean, you've been with your wife forever, right?
Guest:Yeah, 35 years.
Guest:How old were you when you met her?
Guest:Met her, I was 15.
Guest:That's crazy, right?
Guest:Crazy.
Guest:It was, you know, and we dated platonically as, you know.
Guest:Like kids?
Guest:Like kids for a couple of months.
Guest:And then we always remained friends.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:You know, our first date was seeing Scorsese's New York, New York with De Niro and Liza Minnelli.
Guest:So you're kind of a highbrow high school kid?
Guest:Not necessarily.
Guest:You just like musicals?
Guest:I did like musicals.
Guest:Wanted to be Gene Kelly.
Guest:I write that early on in the book, too.
Guest:I watched musicals with my mom when I was a kid.
Guest:Really?
Guest:You know, the 430 movie in New York.
Guest:What station was that?
Guest:Channel 11.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:You know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it had the Gone with the Wind music as the theme.
Guest:Right, yeah.
Guest:And then, you know, it would be, you know, whether it was Fred Astaire, it was, you know.
Marc:You got to see all those old ones.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I used to watch all that stuff.
Marc:And your mom grew up with that shit.
Guest:Yeah, which, you know, it was like me, the Entenmann's chocolate donuts, milk, home from school, and watching movie musicals.
Guest:East Coast.
Guest:And Gene Kelly was the, you know, he was like the star baseball, football player, hockey player, and yet dancer.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was your guy.
Guest:He was my guy at that young age.
Guest:I mean, like five.
Marc:Yeah, but did you learn how to dance?
Guest:I did a little bit.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:A little bit.
Guest:You seem like a guy that could do a musical.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I did a musical.
Guest:Which one?
Guest:I did a musical called How to Succeed in Business.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Guest:Matthew Broderick did the Broadway version.
Guest:It was at the revival.
Guest:And I did the national tour.
Guest:So how long did that go on for?
Guest:A year.
Guest:A year.
Guest:By the time- This was 96, 96.
Guest:Did you love it?
Guest:I did love it.
Guest:It was a little over a year.
Guest:For 10 and a half months, I loved it.
Guest:Then I started getting exhausted.
Guest:The job, the job.
Guest:By then, you're moving one week city to city.
Guest:At first, you're doing four weeks in San Francisco and two weeks in Chicago.
Guest:It's Schenectady.
Guest:Yeah, back on the bus.
Guest:Are we taking a bus?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Drove, flew.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Flew, flew, drove.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I had my family.
Guest:My daughter was five, four.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My son was a house plant at the time.
Guest:You know, it was like he added water and he just kept growing.
Guest:And so that was it was an amazing year.
Guest:And so and so theater is in my my blood, you know, as well.
Guest:And you like didn't you do a thing with De Niro?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like when you were younger.
Guest:Yeah, that was 86.
Guest:What was that movie?
Guest:What was that play about?
Guest:It was about a Cuban-American drug dealer, De Niro, played him on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Guest:And I was his son- He had the long hair and the beard, right?
Guest:Yep, he had the long hair.
Guest:It was right after the mission.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was his son, who was a creative writer, who was-
Guest:Sort of experimenting with heroin at the time.
Guest:And it was a father-son trying to reach his son, like, don't do as I say, not as I do kind of scenario.
Guest:So how was that?
Guest:Do you remember?
Guest:It was great.
Guest:How old were you?
Guest:I was just 24, 25.
Guest:Okay, so you're a grown person.
Guest:So I played 16.
Guest:I played 16 for 37 years.
Guest:That's the deal.
Guest:That's my go-to.
Guest:It's a good one.
Guest:Everybody laughs.
Guest:So you got to go study heroin.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I got to go study heroin.
Guest:It was funny because De Niro was like, you know, it probably makes sense if you want to go to one of these.
Guest:I said, well, I can probably pretend.
Guest:Now, he wasn't telling me to shoot heroin.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But to go to one of those houses.
Guest:To hang out.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:A shooting gallery.
Guest:A shooting gallery.
Guest:So I went and I walked those streets and went around.
Guest:And Miguel Pinero was a playwright.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:He was written a character.
Guest:He wrote a play called, he wrote the play?
Guest:Dark Eye.
Guest:Short Ice.
Guest:Short Ice, I knew him.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Oh, Jesus.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Brutal.
Guest:So one of the characters in the play, sort of my dealer, was based on Miguel Pinero.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So this 16-year-old kid is aspiring to that part of the art.
Guest:Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And Burt Young was in the play as well.
Guest:So it was a great, it was at the public theater.
Guest:It was amazing.
Guest:Did it have a good run?
Guest:Karate Kid 2 was opening, and the Mets were winning 108 games, and I'd come out of the Longacre Theater and be like, you know, Paul McCartney leaving Shea Stadium.
Guest:That was that summer for me.
Guest:You know, that was like probably the biggest of it all.
Guest:You were at your peak?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just all of that happening.
Marc:Yeah, because I wonder how that – it's interesting that you lived through that and somehow you did not – you kept your ego in check and you kept in your lane a bit.
Guest:You could have really –
Guest:For the most part, I mean, we spoke about that earlier, but for the most part, it's a combination of, like I said, my upbringing, my sensibilities, and then my neuroses or my neurotic kind of knowing good and bad and maybe being not taking the risk.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Sure.
Marc:Well, you know your limitations.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And sometimes-
Guest:Sometimes you have to go there.
Guest:And certainly as an actor, it probably benefits to go down those paths.
Guest:I was always, you know, I really had to get past my, you know what, I'm cool.
Guest:When I was on The Outsiders, I think the guys wanted to get me a shirt that said, do not disturb, because that was always on my door.
Guest:I would do the scenes.
Guest:I'd go back, study my lines, and be ready.
Guest:I was in a Coppola film.
Guest:I can't mess this up.
Guest:So sometimes you just have to relax a little bit.
Guest:And I've learned that over time.
Guest:But it might have kept me out of trouble.
Guest:Maybe it's time to go to the shooting gallery.
Guest:Let's go to the shooting gallery.
Guest:And take that roll on.
Guest:There we go.
Marc:It's happened here, folks.
Guest:It's going to happen.
Marc:Your amazing method star turn is yet to happen.
Guest:Yeah, no, I'm just a kid in a candy store.
Marc:So how does it happen?
Marc:So you're out there in Dix Hills?
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And how do you get from there to the Outsiders?
Marc:Well, I know that was one of those ones where he casted all over the country, right?
Guest:Or no?
Guest:Not so much.
Guest:I mean, I know the big casting story with the Outsiders is that Francis had all the actors in the same room watching each other, which is, you know.
Marc:Well, that was during his like he was building a studio.
Guest:Yes, so true.
Guest:He had Apocalypse, then one from The Heart.
Guest:And Rumblefish, right?
Guest:Rumblefish came after The Outsiders.
Guest:That was a double banger in Tulsa.
Guest:He shot them back to back.
Marc:Right, I was just in Tulsa.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And there's plaques all over the place for The Outsiders and Rumblefish.
Guest:Yeah, I'm going to Tulsa for waxing on.
Guest:S.E.
Guest:Hinton is going to do In Conversation with me for the book.
Guest:We're doing a book tour event in Tulsa.
Guest:And that's where she lives still?
Guest:Yeah, she's still there.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:That's wild, man.
Guest:But yeah, it's fun.
Guest:I'm looking forward to that.
Guest:Author to author.
Guest:Now I could.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But how I got to from Dix Hills to commercials, got a bubble yum commercial.
Guest:A bubble yum.
Guest:I remember bubble yum.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was okay.
Guest:It was big, soft, chewy.
Guest:It was pre-chewed bubble gum.
Guest:Pre-chewed.
Guest:You didn't have to do any work.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And the flavor was gone in 15 to 20 seconds.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So you did a Bubble Yum commercial.
Guest:Yeah, I did two.
Guest:I was called back for the reboot.
Guest:You had the magic.
Guest:Yeah, I did.
Guest:It was sort of like a song and dance with a group of kids.
Guest:Musical skills.
Guest:Just unpacking everything.
Guest:And then first movie I auditioned for that I got was a film called Up the Academy, directed by Robert Downey Sr.,
Guest:Wow, that must have been trippy.
Guest:Downey Jr., as we know him, he was 14 at the time, and he was on set.
Marc:Up the Academy, because Downey Sr.
Marc:was sort of, I don't know that movie, but he was kind of a rebel.
Guest:A cult director in New York.
Guest:Yes, yes.
Guest:I mean, it was Greaser's Palace and Putney Swope in the 60s underground films.
Guest:So what was that one?
Guest:What was Up the Academy?
Guest:Up the Academy was a Warner Brothers movie that was about, written by, I think, Tom Patchett and Jay Tarsis.
Marc:These guys were, you know, of the sitcom.
Marc:Yeah, Tarsis became a big showrunner, right?
Marc:Or an executive.
Guest:Didn't run a network.
Guest:Oh, Jamie Tarsis.
Guest:Jamie Tarsis, right.
Guest:Yes, I remember.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I got the part and my character's name was Chooch Bambalazzi and I had to play everything like this.
Guest:He was a mob kid.
Guest:So it was four misfits from different areas, like the rich kid from Connecticut, the Italian kid and the mob, the African-American kid.
Marc:Was this his attempt at making a sellable movie?
Guest:I think from my perspective and opinion, and I don't have the intel, but I think he got the job.
Guest:He was hired to direct this movie.
Guest:It was kind of like a negative pickup at Warner Brothers for X amount of dough.
Guest:And then they slapped a Mad Magazine comic.
Guest:Because what happened is once we made the film, Animal House must have come out right before.
Marc:I'm looking at the poster right now.
Marc:So Mad Magazine produced it?
Guest:No, they just slapped that on.
Guest:After the movie was cut, it all of a sudden became Mad Magazine's Update Academy.
Guest:And then they did some prosthetic-y Alfred-y Newman mask, and they tagged a little piece of footage at the end of it.
Guest:It's an R-rated comedy about Weinberg Military Academy.
Guest:It was just... Weird.
Guest:It was the first part, but from there... Ron Liebman was in it.
Guest:Ron Liebman was in it, took his name off the credits.
Yeah.
Guest:anyway and good actor that's a great actor and hutch parker was in it plays parker stevenson's younger brother he wound up like running paramount for a while or anyway so uh so that from there abc was doing some talent search and i went in you know i had a little something under my belt auditioned and they put me they sort of signed me put me on eight is enough
Guest:Okay, yeah, right.
Guest:So I was nine, was too many, and that was the end of that show.
Guest:22 episodes in.
Guest:This is all, I'm rolling with all my good shit.
Guest:How many episodes did you do?
Guest:21 episodes, I think.
Guest:So you made money?
Guest:Yeah, okay.
Guest:You got your quotes up?
Guest:Moved out to Santa Monica, stated to, actually, I got that part, and two days later, the actors went on strike.
Guest:Screen actually went on strike for three months.
Guest:So I had an apartment, and I was living back home, calling the hotline for SAG to see if I was ever going to work again.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then from 8 is Enough after that, the Outsiders auditioned, and that was the one, you know.
Guest:Now, when you were living out here, did your mom come out with you?
Guest:No, I was just, you know, I was probably 20.
Guest:Oh, so you were already old.
Guest:Old enough.
Guest:No, I was 19, 19, 20.
Guest:You got to do the Machio curve, because I looked like I was 14, so that means I had to be 19 or 20.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the day came out to set me up and such.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they would go back and forth, but I wasn't a minor.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So The Outsider, so you go audition for it.
Guest:That was the big one.
Guest:That was the one I wanted.
Guest:I read it when I was 12.
Guest:Yeah, of course.
Guest:I wanted that part.
Marc:Everyone had to read it, yeah.
Guest:And that still holds a special place for me.
Guest:It's a beautiful looking movie.
Guest:Steve Burehm's cinematography.
Guest:Crazy.
Guest:It's Coppola.
Marc:But yeah, but how'd that audition go?
Marc:Did he put you, were you in the room with everybody right away?
Guest:Yeah, kind of.
Guest:And I kept, and he was, Francis was very much like, okay, you read Ponyboy, you read Cherry, you read Johnny, you read Dallas, and then switch.
Guest:Okay, now you read this and you read that.
Guest:You know, it was anywhere from the guys in the cast to like Dennis Quades and Mickey Rourke and the Scott Baos and the, you know, everybody was, you know.
Guest:They were all coming in and out?
Guest:Everyone was coming.
Guest:Everyone wanted to be in the movie.
Marc:Of a certain age group, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And but for me, I wanted to play Johnny and Johnny only Johnny, you know, Johnny Cade.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Great character.
Guest:And because I felt he I, you know, I read the book.
Guest:He was the guy.
Guest:I just I related to him being the sort of the runt of the litter.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The one that was protected.
Guest:He had a broken family life, and I did not.
Guest:I had the antithesis of that.
Guest:So you had to act.
Guest:You had to challenge yourself.
Guest:I challenged myself, but there was just a connection.
Guest:He's a sympathetic character, so I sympathize with the guy.
Guest:And so having that opportunity, I kept wanting to only read Johnny.
Guest:And I talked to Francis about that, even to the recent times, talking about how I wanted that part.
Guest:And he remembers me.
Guest:Like when he said, okay, now I want you to read Ponyboy.
Guest:I said, yeah, but don't answer back.
Guest:The guy directed The Godfather.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:An apocalypse.
Guest:Who do you think?
Guest:It's so funny.
Guest:Youth is wasted on the young.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But, you know, and then they went around, and I think he went to New York and brought a bunch of guys from the cast, like Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe, and they went to New York and brought Matt Dillon in, who wound up being in both Outsiders and Rumblefish.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I didn't go on that trip, so I thought maybe I didn't get the deal.
Guest:But I found out later that I was in the bank already.
Guest:I would have appreciated the call two months earlier.
Guest:They forget to call about a lot of things.
Guest:Or maybe they were just looking for something else.
Guest:But in hindsight, it's all good.
Guest:It's a great one on the resume, and I'm super proud.
Guest:So that was like, I guess Matt Dillon's first thing was my bodyguard, right?
Guest:Yeah, I think he did.
Guest:had Over the Edge.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:God, I should be his publicist.
Guest:Look at that.
Guest:Who knows that?
Guest:I don't think he knows that.
Guest:Are you friends with any of these people?
Guest:Yeah, we stay.
Guest:The ones that are alive?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I connect with Matt.
Guest:Is Leif still alive?
Guest:Leif is still alive.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I haven't spoken to him in a while.
Marc:But you talked to Dylan...
Guest:I haven't in the last couple of years, but we connect because we're both New Yorkers, and I have such great respect for him and his work, and Rob Lowe, and C. Thomas Howell, and Diane Lane, and who doesn't love Diane?
Guest:Diane Lane's the fucking best.
Guest:She's just fantastic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Always good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Emilio.
Guest:I was close with Emilio for a while, for a couple years after.
Guest:Anytime I came out to L.A., I would hang out.
Guest:That was like me being a Hollywood guy in Malibu.
Guest:It was sort of like fantasy camp.
Guest:The other good kid.
Guest:He's a pretty good kid.
Guest:He is a good kid.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:That must have been fun.
Guest:Was Martin Sheen around?
Guest:He was a little bit.
Guest:I did a TV movie with Martin called The Last POW.
Guest:I've known Martin through Emilio and Charlie, and it's...
Guest:Good guys?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They're good guys to me.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Always mutual respect there.
Guest:Totally different lives, totally different coasts, totally different everything.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:It's so funny that whole generation of those guys, because even like Charlie Sheen, when you think about it, he was in Ferris Bueller, right?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Didn't he, for like a second, he was the kid who had been busted, the stoner.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, the stoner.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There's that whole generation of you guys.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But is Downey, he's among that age, right?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Maybe.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think a little younger.
Guest:Just a little.
Guest:No, probably around that.
Guest:I mean, I was one of this.
Guest:Oddly, I'm one of the older ones.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, on the outside is only Swayze was the only one at the time older.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I played the youngest, smallest.
Guest:But that's been my thing.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I keep it.
Guest:That's what I got.
Guest:Those are the cards I've been dealt.
Marc:But it's interesting, isn't it, though?
Marc:Because you were considered a child actor, but you really weren't a child actor.
Guest:No, I was not.
Guest:I didn't get my first job until I was 17, turned 18.
Marc:I guess that probably contributes to your ability to have some longevity.
Marc:It's like a lot of those child actors, real child actors, they grow out of themselves.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Your look didn't change.
Guest:You already dug in.
Guest:Yeah, but it became that double-edged sword.
Guest:I write about that as well.
Guest:You know, when I was aging out of teenage stuff, but I didn't mature into young leading man.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I'm still waiting.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But somehow I stay working throughout.
Marc:Well, I mean, I haven't seen C. Thomas Howell in a long time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In things.
Guest:Well, he's doing his own.
Guest:I think he's doing music stuff now.
Guest:And I don't want to.
Guest:I know there's something acting-wise happening for him right now, but I don't want to be the guy to drop that.
Marc:And Tom Cruise, he still got his phone number?
Guest:I think Tom Cruise.
Guest:Is he still working?
Guest:He's doing okay.
Marc:How's he doing?
Marc:He just had a movie come out.
Marc:I think it was kind of popular.
Guest:He did okay.
Guest:Once again.
Yeah.
Guest:Just tapping into yesteryear.
Guest:That's what we do, folks.
Guest:That film did, you know, Top Gun Maverick.
Guest:Did you see it?
Guest:It did everything right.
Guest:You saw it?
Guest:Yeah, that's what I think.
Guest:I didn't see it yet.
Guest:Yeah, I think it does everything right.
Guest:And it's interesting, in the press junkets for Cobra Kai, now we're hearing that.
Guest:Like, these are the two examples.
Guest:How to do it right.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You know, one is a streaming series and one is a. Yeah.
Marc:A multi-billion dollar movie.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But do you do you are you in touch with that guy?
Guest:Not not.
Marc:Not really.
Guest:Normally.
Guest:But, you know, I bumped into him a few times and we, you know, we just talk about how we kind of preserve pretty well.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, he looked pretty good for our ages.
Guest:Yeah, that's true.
Guest:And, you know, and maybe who knows?
Guest:Maybe he is.
Guest:I ran into Ben Stiller at something who I'd never met in my life.
Guest:And he was he came up and he was talking about how his kids love the Cobra Kai series.
Guest:And he's, you know, because he's just kind of cool.
Marc:He keeps up pretty well, too.
Marc:He looks pretty.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:He's doing all right.
Marc:That Mediterranean thing.
Marc:He's got the Jew thing.
Marc:You got the Italian.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:I don't know how Cruz is doing it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's a secret.
Marc:We don't have to go there.
Marc:That's some secret magic there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Dark magic, maybe.
Marc:But so after The Outsiders, Karate Kid, like Pat Morita was hilarious.
Marc:He was a stand-up comic.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:The hip nip.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Right?
Guest:That's what it was.
Guest:That's what they called it.
Guest:Lenny Bruce is my right about that.
Guest:I write that in Waxing On.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was Lenny Bruce's mother who gave him that test.
Guest:That was his manager, right?
Marc:Wasn't she his manager?
Guest:Perhaps.
Guest:I think.
Guest:Perhaps.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I know he didn't start till he was like 30.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, into that.
Guest:And he was, you know, I talk a lot about this.
Guest:Was it in the 60s and 70s?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I talk a lot about that, you know, he was Arnold from Happy Days for me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right?
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:So, I mean, honestly, when I got the part of Daniel LaRusso and they were looking for who are we going to cast as the great Miyagi in this screenplay.
Guest:And, you know, it was Toshiro Mifune was the, you know, the Akira Kawasawa.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Great Act of Seven Samurai.
Guest:That's what they were thinking?
Guest:Yeah, they were thinking along those lines.
Guest:But then it was, and they could not find Miyagi, you know, and where was he?
Guest:He was right in front of everybody.
Guest:He was on a long happiness.
Guest:And I walked in that, and I had, it's so funny because now, and I allude to this in like the second or third chapter where I talk about...
Guest:The irony of my initial insight into Pat Morita auditioning for Mr. Miyagi and saying, oh, this thing, I mean, Arnold from Happy Days, this is going to be like a, I had all these preconceived notions.
Guest:And the irony is years later, I went through that same, oh, Ralph Macchio, yeah, he's that.
Guest:You know, you get pigeonholed.
Guest:You know, it's preconceived notions versus.
Guest:And then I walk in the room and he is instantly Miyagi and I am instantly Daniel LaRusso.
Guest:And that yin yang kind of chemistry was just from the from the first meeting.
Guest:You could just see the filmmakers and just say, this is done.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, just the first time we read four lines.
Marc:Really?
Guest:It was just so easy and so natural.
Marc:When you were brought in for it, is it just a straight audition with a bunch of other dudes?
Guest:I said, no, there were a bunch of other dudes.
Guest:It was in John Avilson's apartment.
Guest:John Avilson directed Rocky along with the Karate Kid and other artists.
Guest:other great films and he it was his apartment upper east side um i i do explicitly go what that day was like for me yeah um and i walk in there it was well basically it was um okay the sentiment script called the karate kid i was like seriously is this an after school special how old are you 20 20 uh karate 21 yeah
Guest:And The Outsiders was out there.
Guest:So I, you know, I had felt a little bit of street cred.
Guest:Did it do well?
Guest:It did.
Guest:I certainly did very well.
Guest:The Outsiders was not, you know, you thought it was going to be the biggest hit in the world.
Guest:It's a great book.
Guest:And it did well, but it did not.
Marc:It was too weird for people because of the way Coppola conceived of it.
Guest:Yeah, perhaps.
Guest:It was a romance to it all.
Guest:But that was, you know, it was written by a 16-year-old girl.
Guest:And that's how she shot all.
Marc:How much was shot in a studio?
Guest:No, most was shot.
Guest:It's all in Tulsa?
Guest:Yeah, all in Tulsa.
Guest:There was one, you know, with the sun set.
Marc:That cinematography was crazy.
Guest:Yeah, the sunset scene with me talking, you know, the Robert Frost.
Guest:And Rumblefish, too, huh?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:All right, so you get the script.
Guest:So I got the script, and I, you know, the title was just like, I joke about it in the book where I say, God, this is such a bad title that if the thing ever works, I'll probably have to carry it for the rest of my life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Jerry Weintraub, the producer, would say to me all the time when I complain about the title, he goes, it's a terrible title, which makes it a great title.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Anyway, I took the train into Manhattan from Long Island, you know, studying my part, and I go into Abelson's apartment, waiting my turn.
Guest:Who's there?
Guest:Anybody?
Guest:Who's there?
Guest:No, it's just John.
Guest:Just John and a big JVC video camera.
Guest:Who's waiting?
Guest:In the hallway, I think I recognized years later, it was John Cryer, a couple other people that were, you know.
Guest:And a lot of people were making fun of the title, and it was interesting.
Guest:I write about this.
Guest:And having the script that weekend, preparing for the audition, still audition for the guy who directed Rocky.
Guest:So I'm going to his major league ballpark.
Guest:But I remember being kind of offended that people were making fun of the title when I made fun of the title.
Guest:But it's almost like when I write, it's like when someone says, I can make fun of my brother, but you can't.
Guest:Exactly, yeah.
Guest:And so that was starting to happen right away, which is kind of interesting.
Guest:I wonder if that's some subliminal, like I was taking control of it.
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:Oh, that's interesting.
Guest:I might be adding more to it and making myself sound smarter.
Marc:Well, no, I think it was probably like you, by the time you got to Manhattan, it decided you're going to go for this.
Marc:I'm going to go for it.
Guest:All of a sudden I started falling in love.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right, so you had to frame it in your head as something worth doing.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:So I auditioned for, and John just talked, and my audition you can see on YouTube.
Guest:He posted it.
Guest:Oh, you did.
Guest:And he intercuts it with the first time Pat Morito read.
Guest:And it's really interesting, and I write about this, and then you could have the visual to click on and see the first time I ever spoke Daniel LaRusso's words, you know.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And interestingly, it's kind of felt like the movie is.
Guest:It's not like, oh, that's where I started and I went to here.
Guest:It sort of was natural organic from the upfront.
Guest:I put a little bit of East Coast bravado into him and a little feistiness.
Guest:And John was just holding a big ass JVC camera kind of thing.
Guest:Like a VHS recorder?
Guest:Yeah, VHS recorder.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And just reading with me as he's holding the camera in his hand.
Guest:He did that all.
Guest:He had the camera all the time.
Guest:You go out to lunch with him, he would be shooting stuff.
Guest:And, you know, he said to me, basically, he goes, you know, I can't make final decisions right now, but if I were you, I'd start taking some karate lessons.
Guest:I was like, this is a pretty good sign on a first date, is it not?
Guest:And I came out of that building and I literally didn't know what to do with myself, you know, that I didn't even take a cab.
Guest:I think I ran all the way down to Penn Station and I couldn't call anybody because I didn't have a cell phone.
Marc:It's 1983.
Marc:Get into a phone booth.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Guest:Like Superman.
Marc:And you're who you are, so you didn't immediately go out and start ruining your career.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:Go down to Alphabet City.
Guest:So that's sort of how it happened.
Guest:And then I flew out to L.A.
Guest:and went more hoops to jump through before.
Guest:But it's when Pat Morita got in the room with me is when all of a sudden it was a sign off.
Guest:And then all the options were picked up and it was a go.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I thought it was interesting, you know, flipping through the book, that the way that, you know, came and frames that relationship in terms of, you know, after Pat passed, that, you know, what is left there is one of these classic sort of Hollywood pairing that transcends, you know, time and place, really.
Marc:That you two guys, I mean, people will remember that and they'll be around forever.
Guest:Yeah, it is a – exactly that.
Guest:It's framing of a time, a piece of pop culture, a piece of – you know, and I'll get – I mean, it sounds – sometimes I tell these stories and I hesitate because they sound – not in telling them, but it's people get it like, okay, enough already.
Guest:But people come up to me emotional of all ages about –
Guest:you know what this movie meant what that Daniel LaRusso character meant to them growing up what not having a Mr. Miyagi in their life or the Mr. Miyagi they had in their life that they no longer have in their life or their dad and then would watch this movie or you know and what it got people through and it's you know it's a popcorn karate movie but yet it worked on that human level I don't know but
Marc:Is it, though?
Marc:Because it is about a kid trying to become or learning how to be a good person.
Guest:And navigate life, fish out of water, bullying mentors and having that person to help you.
Marc:It's one of those stories that would resonate with a lot of lost stories.
Marc:troubled people or people that had a certain amount of heartbreak around their family situation.
Guest:So it really has resonated.
Guest:I mean, I look at that.
Guest:I look at the outsiders that you mentioned.
Guest:Even my cousin Vinny is another one of those that kind of still hang in there.
Guest:I just saw that recently.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a late for dinner movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I was flipping through and I'm like, I'm not sure I ever watched this whole movie.
Marc:And it was pretty close to the beginning.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It was kind of funny because, you know, you start as all these people get older, like not Marissa so much, but like with Pesci, you forget that he was kind of he could do this lighthearted kind of goofy shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:No, he's very, you know, he's coming back when you.
Guest:Yes, he is.
Guest:He is.
Guest:They all come back.
Guest:If you give him a good role.
Guest:I'm retired.
Guest:You know what?
Guest:Maybe not.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You got along with him on that set?
Guest:Yes, very much so.
Guest:Very much so.
Guest:He would come.
Guest:I met him when I was doing Cuban's Teddy Bear.
Marc:Eccentric, I think, is what I wanted.
Guest:Yeah, he is eccentric.
Guest:And he's quiet.
Guest:You know, he's to himself.
Guest:You know, you just go, everybody does a Pesci impression or whatever.
Guest:But for the most part, you know, he's very...
Guest:But I first met Joe when I was doing Kubin and his teddy bear with De Niro.
Guest:And my cousin Vinny wasn't an easy get for me, because that was sort of the beginning of the downturn.
Guest:Well, let's talk about that.
Marc:So you go from the Karate Kid, and so you shoot this movie, and then it blows up.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you're like the hottest kid in Hollywood at 21, 22.
Marc:22 at that point, yeah.
Guest:So you're out here?
Guest:Do you buy a house?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:Once I did The Outsiders before the karate, I moved back to New York.
Guest:The apartment I rented was probably for two years on and off.
Guest:The eight is enough apartment.
Guest:And then I spent a year just studying acting because I figured maybe I should learn how to do it.
Guest:I sort of got the parts first and then figured out the craft.
Marc:Who'd you study with?
Guest:I studied with Lynette Gonzalez, who was Milton Gonzalez's ex-wife.
Marc:In New York?
Guest:No, here at the Beverly Hills Playhouse for six months on and off-scene study.
Guest:Yeah, and that helped?
Guest:It did.
Guest:It did help because I actually brought in the scene from The Outsiders before my audition to sort of
Guest:You know, get some feedback.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And that was, yeah.
Guest:God, you're taking me.
Guest:It's fun to go down this, open these cans and close tight for a while.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, when you did that, though, that kind of scene work with somebody, I imagine, was very intense.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it was a way to... Well, here's the story.
Guest:See, now you're doing a great job because now I remember exactly how this happened.
Guest:I auditioned for Fred Roos, who is Francis Coppola's still producer and casting director.
Guest:He has American Graffiti and The Outsiders when you look at those two alone.
Guest:Not to mention The Godfather and Apocalypse and everything else.
Guest:But I read for him...
Guest:And I didn't get a callback.
Guest:And then the movie fell off and they weren't making, you know, they were going to make it and then they weren't going to make it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Then when it came back and they were recasting again, I put, that's when I went to acting class.
Guest:I was like, I need, so I brought in the scene that I didn't get.
Guest:The movie didn't happen, so no one got the part.
Guest:And the feedback was that I wasn't kind of there yet.
Guest:And I did not have... I was saying the stuff, and I had the right look, but maybe not enough of the gravitas or what should be underneath.
Guest:So I took that to heart and started... So then when I went back in... I mean, it's not as simple as this, but I'm giving you the broad strokes.
Guest:And then, as history would say, I got the part.
Marc:What was the key for that?
Guest:I just think it was just about, you know, living in it for that character and not just... Just because I had the look of Johnny Cade and I had the dialogue doesn't mean I had the... But what did she teach you to connect with what you needed to connect with?
Guest:I think...
Guest:Some of it might have just been taking the pressure off performing the audition.
Guest:Right, right, right, right.
Guest:Behavior, more like behavior and listening.
Guest:I probably was so amped up that I was just doing the lines and playing the sadness or playing the darkness as opposed to the behavior part of it.
Guest:And that's what the scene study helps you with.
Guest:That's great.
Marc:Was that the last class you took?
Guest:I said, I got that part.
Guest:I don't need this anymore.
Guest:I'm done.
Guest:I did it.
Guest:Not true.
Guest:Not true.
Marc:So, okay.
Marc:So you do Karate Kid and like what happens when it just kills?
Guest:Well, it just, you know, yeah, I talk, there's a chapter in the book called The Crane Takes Flight, which is sort of my, the beginning of the afterlife of, you know, there's the make, the book is kind of broken up into three parts, the making of the movie and
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I get to tell all those stories of how things happen.
Guest:Then there's the afterlife.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:You know, and then there's the lessons of that are still giving back today.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was, you know, that was all encompassing, you know, with going to Europe and doing the opening of the film there.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then to, you know, Karate Kid Part II.
Guest:Well, tell me the story about how that, you know, in the script, this crane kick.
Guest:Oh, well, here's the thing.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:That story.
Guest:So the crane kick was written as, you know, his leg is injured.
Guest:So he's got to not use that leg at all.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This is the best of my memory.
Guest:Any of this stuff, you know, like it's when you're writing something from 34, 35, 38 years ago.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's really about, okay, this is what I'm remembering of these moments.
Guest:But for me, it was written that he had the injured leg, so he had to be able to throw the crane kick with one leg, throw it, and land back on that leg.
Guest:That's not what it ended up being.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it was about how are we going to do this?
Guest:But it didn't exist.
Guest:It didn't exist in martial arts.
Guest:It didn't.
Guest:No.
Guest:This was a conception of the writer.
Guest:And Robert came.
Guest:I wrote his exact words.
Guest:He goes, it was cinematic.
Guest:I made it up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he made up something beautiful that you could mention almost anywhere on the street.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like universal.
Guest:People know it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it was about how are we going to do it?
Guest:Are you going to do it with wires?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And so at one point I was like, oh, wow, this might not work.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:I mean, it wasn't like the movie's a disaster.
Guest:We can't make this.
Guest:It was sort of like, okay, it was more in John Avilson's hands, the director and stunt coordinator Pat Johnson at the time of finding the best way to achieve.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because it is cinematic.
Guest:The arms are out, open your arm, one leg.
Guest:That's what everybody mimicked.
Guest:People would do that just for a laugh.
Guest:Right away.
Guest:It's still done.
Guest:In MMA, you'll see someone do the pose.
Guest:And it's on Twitter and Instagram the next day.
Guest:So this guy, Daryl Vidal, who's Pat Morita's stunt, he did the...
Guest:The Pat Morita crane when Daniel LaRusso sees it for the first time in a fat suit and he was up there doing it.
Guest:And sort of he was able to to execute the kick and switch his weight so quickly that it almost you never thought that he landed on the bad leg at all.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so that was I mean, it's it's not that bad.
Guest:brilliant to fix but it's sort of what was done so how could you fluidly execute seamless going up throwing it and landing back and so it because it was written that he never the base leg was the kick leg and the base leg which kind of was awkward when anyone tried it right you know and that that's what became of it and then it was about okay how can i
Guest:pull this off and we just kept working on it and working on it.
Guest:And you did it.
Guest:And we did it and we shot it a zillion different ways.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And it really just played in low, a low wide angle.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So what happens?
Marc:It becomes this huge success and now, like, how do you handle your life?
Guest:Yeah, I, you know, from there, I mean, it was, it was,
Guest:You know, Karate Kid Part II, I did Karate Kid.
Guest:The busiest year is probably Crossroads, Karate Kid Part II, and then the Cubanist Teddy Bear on Broadway.
Guest:So those, one, two, three.
Guest:And that's when you walk out of the stage door.
Guest:Yeah, stage door and everybody's, you know, they're all crowded around.
Guest:Well, you had De Niro as well.
Guest:Sure, sure.
Marc:I'm not taking credit for all those people.
Marc:They weren't all holding their hands.
Guest:But they weren't all doing that.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:But, yeah, so that was...
Guest:You know, it's a bit of a blur to me.
Guest:And then, you know, then I got married in 87.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I think Tom Cruise married Mimi Rogers the same weekend.
Guest:So that was cool because no one even knew that I got married.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And also, I guess you didn't go to each other's weddings.
Guest:No, we did not.
Guest:My wedding was very much just family and friends.
Guest:It was not, you know, I had honestly no one from the entertainment business.
Guest:Long Island.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Long Island.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:How do you get there from here?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, so that's how I... And that's the balance.
Guest:I write about that.
Guest:You know, there's the balance of my life.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Keeping, you know, one foot in and one foot out.
Guest:And there were times that, you know, it wasn't always by design.
Guest:It seems like I'm well adjusted and I planned it that way.
Guest:But there were certainly years in the 90s and early 2000s when things were dry and I'm having to...
Guest:provide for the family and I have two young kids and all that stuff was challenging at times.
Marc:How did you adjust?
Marc:Did you take jobs you didn't want?
Guest:Not many.
Guest:Really nothing that I'm like, oh God, that was terrible.
Guest:I mean, some of them do come out that way, but it wasn't the intention.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I jumped behind the camera, did some writing, shot a couple of short films.
Guest:How'd that go?
Guest:Because Zafka did that as well.
Guest:Were you guys in touch around that?
Guest:No, it was after we reconnected.
Guest:I talk about this too.
Guest:We went home 20 years without seeing each other.
Guest:And then when Pat Morita passed away, we went to his funeral at Memorial, and I spoke there.
Guest:And it was kind of wonderful seeing Billy there, and I hadn't seen him.
Guest:We were, for the first time, on the same side of the mat, if you will, is what I write.
Guest:And from that point forward, it meant something significant to me that he was there.
Guest:because not many people were at Pat's.
Guest:It was in Vegas, and it wasn't like everybody from the film was there.
Guest:I mean, they had something else in Los Angeles that was more widely intended.
Guest:But so, you know, that's when we started talking about our love of filmmaking and that side of it, and he was doing his film Most, which was nominated for an Oscar, and I was doing a film called Love Thy Brother.
Guest:They got into Sundance, and it was sold to HBO.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:You know, so that was about...
Guest:being creative and telling stories and, but not having the money to make a picture and, but also learn.
Guest:And I would show it to Coppola and I would show it to John Avilson and get some notes.
Guest:And, you know, I had a great, you know, I had a great resource with some of these filmmakers.
Guest:Did you learn, how's your karate?
Guest:Um,
Guest:About the same as my guitar.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I make a judge that's enough to fake it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, listen, I dive deeper into it now with the martial arts.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Since everything hurts more.
Guest:Oh, God.
Guest:Yeah, no kidding.
Guest:But doing the katas and that Okinawan classic, I mean, that's good stuff to do physically.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's almost like that Tai Chi.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:version of just moving your body and forming.
Guest:So I want to continue that.
Guest:Okay, that's good.
Guest:Everything, you know, it takes longer to just get up in the morning, man.
Guest:No kidding.
Marc:Do you have a trainer?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I have a trainer that I work with in New York, just kind of my wife and I, and we just, you know, it's not hard.
Guest:Injury prevention.
Guest:I like it.
Marc:You're just a Long Island guy.
Guest:I'm a Long Island guy.
Marc:And you had a good time doing Entourage and all this other shit that you did?
Guest:Yeah, that was great.
Guest:Entourage was a great, you know, that was the first time I ever played myself, and it turned out to be, and that was a good episode.
Guest:Pretty funny, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it was the Playboy Mansion episode.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:You know, 16 hours at the Playboy Mansion.
Guest:It was not the worst day at the office.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was funny.
Guest:At that time, I wasn't working much.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I said to my wife, you know, when I got the pitch of what it was and I said, you know, but it's like the Playboy man.
Guest:You know, I'm not good of a Long Island guy.
Guest:I wanted to check with her first.
Guest:And she's like, just get out of the house.
Guest:Do something.
Guest:Get them.
Guest:Go.
Guest:Just go.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She's the best.
Guest:So what about Springsteen?
Guest:I've seen him, you know, my gosh.
Guest:I've never met him.
Guest:You haven't?
Guest:It's really interesting.
Guest:Did you go see him on Broadway?
Guest:I did twice.
Guest:Well, first I got a serious something.
Guest:It was a charity, a serious special performance.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:So I got in on that after I bought my $1,500, $1,800 tickets.
Guest:And then I went a few weeks later.
Guest:So one of the shows Patty was in and one she wasn't.
Guest:So I got to see a little differentiating of that.
Guest:And I saw him at first at the L.A.
Guest:Sports Arena out here back when I was doing Eight is Enough.
Guest:I went with Betty Buckley, who was on Eight is Enough.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And I think our second assistant director or something like that went to see Springsteen, and that was when I was bit.
Guest:What tour was that?
Guest:That was The River.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But I had Born to Run at that point, you know, from high school.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Did you read the book?
Guest:I have the book.
Guest:You've got to read it.
Guest:And here I am promoting a book, and I have to read it.
Guest:I have it.
Marc:I interviewed him.
Marc:I interviewed him around the book.
Marc:I went out to his house.
Marc:Right.
Marc:It was crazy.
Marc:Out to the ranch.
Marc:It was something.
Marc:Because I love the guy, but I'm not a crazy fan.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:So it gave me just enough distance to sort of treat him like a person.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:Good.
Marc:And there's a very funny moment in there because I go- I'm going to go listen to it.
Guest:You should because- Yeah, I totally am.
Marc:Because you read the book and you really see who he is, and it's heavy, man.
Marc:I know.
Marc:I mean, he's depressive, and he's hard on himself, and his upbringing was rough.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But I just remember I didn't know how I was going to get in with the guy or who I was going to be talking to.
Marc:Because, you know, that whole thing, he's got a whole bit he does.
Marc:Like, oh, yeah, me and the boys.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Whatever, right?
Guest:Get past that.
Marc:Yeah, try, how are you gonna get past that?
Marc:How long is it gonna take?
Marc:But I went out there and it was like the week before Christmas or something, like around there, right?
Marc:And I'm waiting and he's got this, he's got the house and then he's got the studio.
Marc:So I'm out there and I'm just waiting for him and he comes, I see him walking down from the house, there's a little guy holding his book.
Marc:And he walks in, and we got two chairs set up with the mics.
Marc:My producer had set up chairs.
Marc:So I go, so what's going on with the house?
Marc:A lot of Christmas stuff, cooking, presents, family.
Marc:And he goes, correct.
Marc:And I'm like, I want to talk to that guy.
Marc:Let's get that guy.
Marc:Correct.
Marc:And I just went in.
Marc:And it was good.
Marc:It was present, and it was connected, and it was exciting.
Marc:Yeah, no, I gotta listen to it.
Marc:He was talking to another musician who I know, Tal Wilkenfeld, a woman who's a bass player, genius, young, who was talking to Bruce about asking him questions about how to handle press.
Marc:And he's telling her.
Guest:And she goes, well, you talked to a friend of mine, Marc Maron.
Guest:And he goes, he pushed.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:That's what you want to hear.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Yeah, I did push.
Marc:But this book is going to be fun for people to read.
Marc:And the bits and pieces I got out of it, just the story about the kick, I was excited.
Marc:It really felt like, does anyone know this?
Guest:Right, right, right.
Guest:Well, since hearing it from the, you know, not that it was a hurricane, but I'm from the eye of the hurricane.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:From the moment getting the part throughout and here with, you know, its relevance today, it's kind of awesome.
Guest:And, you know, when I talk and nobody, you know, it's a celebratory reflection.
Guest:It really is.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The only person who gets thrown under the bus in this book is me by me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, in a way.
Guest:And it's kind of it kind of made sense for me because it really is the gift that that keeps on on giving.
Guest:And it's very specific to the Daniel LaRusso of it all.
Guest:What that has been like for me and what and what what I've gained from.
Guest:it in life and how i've had to um you know navigate certain elements or or wanting to do certain things over not that there are many examples but there are a couple of do-over examples that that i want to that i should i shed some light upon and and so that that gets more personal and i i enjoyed uh doing that through that lens and i think that so by by writing about those do we don't have to talk about because you get people to buy the book but uh
Marc:But you don't have regrets around them.
Marc:And by writing about them, did you put them into a different context?
Guest:No, I mean, it was more about like I took a few examples of that, you know, where I would.
Guest:say, be a little bitter about being tied into the second sequel that was a struggle to make a good script which never achieved itself.
Guest:Footnote, season five of Cobra Kai is using that chapter of the original franchise and blowing up great stories.
Guest:So the lesson here is even the shortcomings from the Karate Kid universe are bearing fruit and handing off gifts.
Guest:And it's all about that.
Marc:you can call it a universe.
Guest:It's almost the Karate Kid's cinematic universe.
Guest:I mean, arguably, I want to see the Miyagi origin story.
Guest:Who was this teenager?
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:And also, like you said, you wrote in the book that they're going to do a musical?
Guest:They are.
Guest:Well, listen, we'll see how far it gets.
Marc:But you don't got a piece of it, do you?
Guest:I don't got a piece.
Guest:Listen, when I put the headband on, I no longer own myself.
Guest:This face only, well, as soon as I put the headband on, it's somebody else's property.
Guest:But it's, you know, and so looking at, you know, even scenes that I get to do in Cobra Kai from a different perspective of a scene that's in the original film that I wish I had another shot at.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:That's a do-over moment.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or maybe the way I reacted a certain way when I met a high-profile movie director, actor, because I was a little bitter that I had to be stuck in part three when I wanted to do another movie.
Guest:Do you look back on things like that where, like...
Guest:How do you frame that now for yourself?
Guest:I frame it as it's just, it had to happen because I've gained this much from it.
Guest:I don't look at it as like, God, if I only got that movie.
Guest:There's a really good story about a terrific movie made by Sidney Lumet, one of my favorite directors who I got to meet.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I don't want to say what it is, but the actor was nominated.
Guest:And I know I was in contention for that, but couldn't do that movie based on the option pickup.
Guest:So I was, you know.
Guest:That's rough.
Marc:That's part of show business.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's part of it.
Guest:And and so when I was with someone else of high regard in the industry, I was a little bit of, you know, I'll look back at that and say maybe I was a little bratty.
Guest:I was a little negative.
Guest:And it's.
Guest:It's sort of I'd like telling that story mainly because it's, you know, I learned something from it going forward.
Guest:So if a young actor reads this or a young person reads this or someone, one, it's just information about me that someone didn't know.
Guest:And this is not deep and dark.
Guest:None of this is.
Guest:No, it's just a self-reflection at a time where youth might have been wasted on the young people.
Marc:Yeah, but also, you're looking at your peers.
Marc:Show business is show business.
Marc:You're looking at guys becoming superstars.
Marc:Yep, yep, yep.
Marc:And you probably felt yourself being judged a certain way.
Guest:Yep, yep, yep.
Marc:It's about navigating all of that.
Marc:Yeah, but you had to find peace with that and have the career you had, and then out of nowhere,
Marc:You know, this amazing thing comes and you're old enough to appreciate it and realize that through a lifetime of having a relationship with this character in this movie, that it has made an impact and it continues to make an impact in a very sweet way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That in a way, the story of the Karate Kid and how it keeps sort of.
Marc:going is actually, you know, who cares what anyone thinks about it because it has an impact on people's lives in a real way.
Marc:I think every movie wants to think they can do that, but a lot of movies are just movies that people don't have a lifetime relationship with.
Guest:It's crazy.
Guest:No, it's very unique.
Guest:Very unique experience.
Guest:And that's why I sat down and started writing.
Guest:It's a unique experience.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, good.
Guest:And that's why it's there.
Guest:Congratulations.
Guest:Thank you, man.
Guest:I'm excited.
Guest:Good to talk to you.
Guest:I appreciate the time.
Guest:You got it, Mark.
Guest:Thank you.
Marc:There you go.
Marc:Ralph Macchio, the book, Waxing On, The Karate Kid and Me, comes out tomorrow, October 18th.
Marc:Get it wherever you get your books.
Marc:The new season of Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix.
Marc:Watch that.
Marc:And could you do me a favor?
Marc:Just hang out for a second.
Marc:OK, folks, listen, if you heard me talk last week with the director of Two Leslie, Michael Morris, you noticed it was a short talk, only about 20 minutes or so.
Marc:But there's another half of that talk that we had to cut for time and we'll be posting it for full Marin listeners this week.
Marc:The full Marin and all WTF Plus subscriptions.
Marc:are now completely ad-free.
Marc:That goes for archive shows and current shows.
Marc:So if you want WTF as a totally ad-free experience, sign up for WTF Plus now, where you also get access to the first 500 episodes, which are not available on any other podcast platforms.
Marc:Go to the link in the episode description to sign up or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF Plus.
Marc:I'm going to London today.
Marc:And I've got shows at the Bloomberg Theater in London.
Marc:I've got a show at Vicar Street in Dublin next week.
Marc:And I think the London shows are sold out other than the David Baddiel live podcast.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com.
Marc:Slash tour for ticket info.
Marc:I'm looking forward to seeing everybody out there.
Marc:When I get back from Ireland, I'm in Oklahoma City at the Tower Theater on Wednesday, November 2nd.
Marc:Dallas, Texas at the Majestic Theater on Thursday, November 3rd.
Marc:San Antonio at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts for two shows on Friday, November 4th.
Marc:And Houston at the Cullen Theater at Wortham Center on Saturday, November 5th.
Marc:Then I'm in Long Beach, California at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Saturday, November 12th.
Marc:Eugene, Oregon at the Holt Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, November 18th.
Marc:And Bend, Oregon at the Tower Theater on Saturday, November 19th.
Marc:In December, I'm in Asheville, North Carolina at the Orange Peel.
Marc:for two shows on Friday, December 2nd.
Marc:And then Nashville, Tennessee, I'm at the James K. Polk Center on Saturday, December 3rd.
Marc:And my HBO special taping is at Town Hall in New York City on Thursday, December 8th.
Marc:Go to wtfpod.com slash tour for all dates and ticket info.
Marc:So as I said earlier,
Marc:I love playing with Jimmy Vivino.
Marc:He's been very good to me, and he's been very supportive of my guitar playing, and he's taught me a lot.
Marc:And he lets me play with him.
Marc:It's fucking unbelievable.
Marc:It's like almost, in a way, it's all I ever wanted to do.
Marc:And we got to do it last Wednesday with Jimmy Vaughn, too.
Marc:But here's a little bit of me and Jimmy Vivino playing together, jamming a bit.
Marc:On his song, You've Got an Itching For It, back when he was on the show.
Marc:This is in 2014.
Guest:Oh, I'll play you a song.
Guest:We'll debut a song of mine that hasn't been... Can I handle it?
Guest:Yeah, sure you can.
Guest:It's like a Jimmy Reed song.
Guest:Except there's one little thing.
Guest:Yeah, you can play the fills.
Guest:You'd be the second guy.
Guest:A. It's A?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Sometime you need a little something Then you need a little something more Nothing you can buy at your five and dime Or your local convenience store You got a itching for it You got a itching for it, boy
Guest:You got itching for something Itching you just can't scratch Might be a little bit of moonshine Might be a little railroad gin Might be a little bit of China White Or for the road that just come in You got itching for it
Guest:You got an itching for it You got an itching for something, boy Itching you just can't scratch
Guest:Sometimes you do a little evil, and you call your backdoor friend.
Guest:Every time her husband's slipping out, you go sliding in, you got a itching for it.
Guest:Yes, you got a itching for it.
Guest:Man, you got a itching for something, child.
Guest:Man, you just can't scratch it.
Guest:Scratch one now for me.
No.
Guest:Well, it might be a little piece of candy Might be a little piece of cake When your nose is open and your mouth go dry There's only so much you can take You got an itching for it Yeah, it's an itching for it You got an itching, boy
Guest:just can't scratch yeah sometimes this life is like a card game and we gamble from day to day sometimes you hold a spinning hand but you ain't got no dough left to play you got a itching for it you got a itching for it
Guest:You got a itching for something, boy.
Guest:You just can't scratch it.
Guest:You got a itching for it.
Guest:You got a itching for it.
Guest:You got a... You got a...
Guest:You gotta... Yeah!