0:00

do

0:00

you

0:00

want

0:00

to

0:00

show

0:37

Welcome to this podcast. I'm Kevin Smith.

0:40

Okay. Kids remember last time we were having big old discussion about the secret origins of the secret stash.

0:45

That's right. Jane selling Bob secret stash moved from their longtime home at shit.

0:55

I always do this as a reverse 35 broad street, and we've moved up to our new home at 65 broad street.

1:03

I always conflate those numbers, reversed them.

1:05

And so while I was back East a while back for the grand opening secret stash, we, we recorded sit down me and Walt Flanagan, Michael and Ernest O'Donnell talking about how the stash came to be back then and how it evolved then how the new secret stash, the Neo stash came to be at 65 broad street with Ernie building it.

1:38

So we got Mike and, and Walt talking about the history, talking about comic book, men, era and whatnot, and Ernie talking about the present and the future of the secret stash.

1:51

Let's go back in and start listening to that conversation.

1:57

Let's become audio cooks for the rest of the secret origins of the secret stash book, man begins what?

2:05

2012? 2012. Yes. So from 2001 ish, 2002 ish, cause that was late September and shit like that, but somewhere in that corridor, so almost 10 fucking years, what goes on at the stash for that decade?

2:21

Just big it's everyday business and everyday nothing exciting.

2:28

We're doing events like we do vulgar fonts that are tied to the stash.

2:32

We do, you know, fucking later on podcast events, we do a lot of poker events here in the secret state or they're in the secret session.

2:39

And we will hear in the new secret stash, but lot of events and stuff like that, we shot Jane's on Bob strike back there as well at that point.

2:50

But that was in 2001, but a few years, about two years before, or one year comic book, men conversation began, like I remember talking to Walt and go on, like, I think, you know, you wouldn't use this expression back then, but things were trending downward.

3:09

And so I was like, I think the stash like has about five more years of life left.

3:16

Was it five or two?

3:17

I don't know. I don't even remember this.

3:20

I don't remember this conversation.

3:21

I felt the need to tell you.

3:24

Cause I was like, cause I told you like, I'm going to keep the stash open for 10 years and we did, but it was like, I wasn't making any more Jane silent Bob anything.

3:32

And so I was like, you know, after clerks too, it all just kind of goes by the wayside and maybe, you know, it's fucking the money.

3:43

Wasn't the same as it was when we began it wasn't, we weren't in debt or anything like that, but it was trending down.

3:47

So at that point I had a conversation with you where I was like, probably within five years, the stash will go away just as a heads up in terms of like, you know, not like start looking for a job now, but like, you know, it's going to stop then a couple of years into that two or three years after we had that conversation was when the comic book men, well, which wasn't called the compliment.

4:14

The AMC conversation began about doing a show, a book, a show at a comic book store, which later became a pilot.

4:22

This is a wheel called the secret stash, which was then later changed into comic book men.

4:28

And so when I like talked to Charlie about the idea and was it usually do his fucking show set at a comic book store, man, because the culture understands it now and that's cheap.

4:39

I don't cost nothing. Right? It's just reality TV and shit.

4:42

And whoever runs a comic store, they're usually fucking fast funniest, cervic, fucking people and stuff like that.

4:48

And he went to AMC with it names.

4:50

He was like, that's fucking great. And so he came back and said, they want to do it.

4:54

And they're going to give us 10 grand shoot.

4:56

This is a real, and I was a slight fucking, how is that good?

4:59

And he's like, Oh, it'll go to location fee.

5:01

And I was like the location fee.

5:03

What do you mean? And he's like, we've got to pay complex store to do this.

5:05

Like shoot our, our imagined show.

5:08

My imagined show, the show I pitched was like, go find the most acerbic comic book store staff in America, do a nationwide search.

5:15

And then you're doing a show about them and shit.

5:17

And so, you know, he's talking about shooting a sizzle reel and I'm like, well, I have a comic store.

5:23

We could shoot at mine and won't cost anything.

5:24

And he was like, what do you mean you have accomplished store?

5:27

And I was like, I, I hadn't brought it up before, but yeah, I, I own a comics for Jane sandbox.

5:32

Seeker says we've had it for years in red bank, New Jersey.

5:34

And I was like, you fucking crazy.

5:35

Like that's the Sheryl.

5:37

And I was like, is it? I said, well, he goes, we can, we can, we still have to shoot the sizzle reel.

5:42

And I was like, well, the guys who work at the store do a podcast and they're very fucking funny.

5:47

And so they could stand in for the guys who will, the show will eventually be about in the sizzle reel.

5:53

They'll be like the pilot stars.

5:56

Then we can go out and do our nationwide search and find the real comp bookstore that the show will be based on.

6:02

And he was like, okay. He goes, ha how funny are they?

6:05

I was like, I'll tell you, man, you smoke some weed tonight.

6:07

You go fucking listen to the first five episodes.

6:08

I'll give you links to tell him Steve, Dave it's, it's just fucking fantastic.

6:13

And he did. He went home and fucking spoked up, lets those up.

6:17

So as he called me back the next day and was like, this is the fucking show.

6:20

You're an idiot. This is the fucking show.

6:21

And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, you already have a fucking TV show here.

6:25

You have your own comic book store, your fucking friends, work there and run it and shit like that.

6:29

And these two fucking dudes were always arguing, sound like an old married couple.

6:32

He's like, this is fucking perfect, man.

6:33

It's like, I'm pitching this to AMC.

6:36

And he went and pitched it to AMC and they came back.

6:38

He's like, they're in now. They want it even more.

6:41

They want to meet the boys.

6:42

And that's when I was like, Oh God.

6:44

Now I have to tell the boys. Cause I wasn't engineering a TV show about the secret stash or trying to put Walter and Brian on TV.

6:51

We backed into it.

6:54

And so suddenly I was like, okay, I got bulb.

6:58

And I called up Brian. I was like, Hey man, the weirdest thing, you know what I am saying?

7:03

And he was like, yeah man, fuck walking dead. I was again, walking dead.

7:05

I was like, they're there. They want to do a TV show.

7:08

Like based on a comp well actually I called you first.

7:12

He was the second one. Both of them are not into it.

7:15

I call it Walter first and Walter is at the store and he goes comics.

7:17

And I go, Hey man, you're never going to believe this in a world of all the weird things that happen, you know, I am C and he was like, yeah, walking dead.

7:24

I was like, yeah, fucking walking dead. They want to do a comic books.

7:28

They want to do a reality show set at Jane sound, Bob secret.

7:34

And then the line went dead.

7:35

And then I called back and I was like, what happened?

7:38

We got cut off. And he was like, I don't want to do that.

7:40

And I was like, you didn't even let me finish. He's like, I don't want to do a reality show.

7:43

I don't want to do that on. And I said, why not?

7:45

And he goes, I don't want to be Snookie, which was a totally valid, fucking reason to not do it at that point.

7:51

And I was like, but Snooki made a lot of money last year.

7:53

And he was like, yeah, but she got punched in the face as humiliating.

7:55

Fuck all that. That will be the they'll make us look like idiots.

7:58

I don't want to do that and shit.

8:00

And then I was like, but wall, if we did the sizzle reel and it became a show and it was set at the stash, it would be like a free commercial for the stash.

8:11

And maybe the stash don't close down in two years or whatever.

8:15

Fuck. And Walter goes, all right. Like if it's, if it's a commercial for the stash, I'd get them stuff.

8:20

He's gone. But I ain't doing less. Brian does it too.

8:23

And I was like, but Brian doesn't work there. And he goes, that's the fucking point.

8:26

So that's when I called Brian and I was like, Hey man, weirdest thing fucking happened.

8:30

And shit. I was like, Hey, MC you know what IMC is like, yeah.

8:33

Walking, dead, walking dead.

8:35

They want to do accomplished store set at Jane's on Bob secret session.

8:39

The first words out of Brian's Val is like, Walter's not going to do that.

8:42

And I was like, I, your eyes, you're not wrong.

8:45

I just talked to him first and shit. But he said he would do it if you do it.

8:49

And Brian's like, I ain't doing that.

8:51

And I was like, why? And he was like, cause they're going to make us like assholes.

8:55

All those reality TV, people look like assholes and shit.

8:58

I don't want to fucking sing for my supper.

9:00

Look humiliated, blah, blah, blah.

9:02

So very Jersey chip on the shoulder.

9:04

Like, I don't wanna look like an asshole.

9:05

And so I was like, Bri, if you do it, Bri had a bad knee.

9:09

And he didn't work for the rec center and shit. So I was like, if you do it, you could fucking, and it works.

9:14

You can get paid and fucking fix your knee and shit.

9:18

And that was his way in.

9:20

He was like, all right, fucking, you know, maybe it'll help the knee and shit.

9:24

And so bam, suddenly I had the two dudes ready to do a fucking sizzle reel.

9:29

Then I was like, you can come down and meet them.

9:33

I wasn't there for that meeting who came to meet the, what AMC was that like Mary and shit like that?

9:38

I don't remember.

9:39

There was two dudes.

9:42

I think one of them was Charlie, Charlie, or AMC, Charlie AMC, Charlie.

9:50

And I think it might've been, it was literally the head of the network at that place.

9:54

And I think Mary as well, she was our exact, yeah.

9:57

They come down. And what bring you guys out to eat?

10:00

What, what was it and how did you get involved?

10:02

I have no idea.

10:04

Actually. They, they went out, I think you guys went out to breakfast or lunch or whatever.

10:08

You know, I

10:11

never went to breakfast with any ITV people dinner I'd know.

10:14

They just had to meet them.

10:16

What I recall is they just came down and looked around the store and said, like you ever gonna do this?

10:21

You guys ready for this? You excited.

10:22

All right. And I just looked at the place and it kind of left kind of quick.

10:25

That was, I just want it, like, how long have you been comics?

10:28

I said, how long we were and you know, and you know, you said how, you know, obviously you must love comics.

10:34

It's like, Oh yeah, we love comics.

10:35

And that was it. They really didn't stay that long as I recall.

10:39

Did you, so did you eat with him or no. No.

10:41

So was Ming here?

10:44

Mel Ming was in on that meeting cause Ming worked at the office and he mangrove, Not

10:49

that you with them, them With

10:51

some really nice jeans.

10:52

Ming worked at the office.

10:54

He was our web guy, of course, and whatnot.

10:57

He had built the Husky website and worked for Ben and Matt at live planet.

11:01

And then when live planet folded, he had no job.

11:03

And I was like, well, why don't you come work for view skew?

11:06

You built the website and shit.

11:07

So he moved to Jersey with his young bride time as well.

11:12

And I don't think they had kids at that point. Yeah, not yet.

11:14

I don't even know if they were married at that point, but she was from the area or nearby Ohio close enough rather than them being in.

11:22

I think she lived in Middletown. I think she had Middletown.

11:24

He

11:24

wasn't,

11:24

yeah,

11:24

he

11:24

was

11:24

living

11:24

he's

11:24

from

11:24

Michigan,

11:24

but

11:24

he

11:24

was

11:24

living

11:24

in

11:24

Ohio

11:24

for

11:24

some

11:31

reason. He's from Michigan. Cause I thought he went to school in Michigan.

11:33

He did, but his parents are out there.

11:35

They lived there. I think he went to school in Ohio. Then I think I met him.

11:39

He was going to school in Michigan, like Amherst.

11:41

I think he's kind of fake past.

11:43

And he's been looking at him man, just like right.

11:46

There's bodies somewhere. But he was working at the office and like he wound in the mix as well because I play, I said, listen to tell him Steve Dave.

11:58

So my whole thing was like, just to tell him, Steve, Dave, like, you know, fucking, they can talk and fucking, I thought Brian Quinn would be involved.

12:05

In fact, the sizzle reel has Brian Quinn involved in it.

12:09

But Brian Quinn was already on the cusp of impractical jokers, IJ as they refer to it.

12:15

And so he, I remember him being like, I don't know if I can be involved.

12:20

So he was there, but we kept them kind of off camera.

12:23

Cause he had already had an existence.

12:25

Well, he, he had written into his contract that he could do it.

12:27

And they, and nobody really at, at true realized that he had given him, he had sliced out this like that.

12:33

He had full permission to do it. If it happened, if it got greenlit, he could do it.

12:37

And there's nothing they could say about it.

12:38

And they said, well, we don't want you to do it because it's a commercial for another network.

12:42

So they had to pay him like a little bonus, not to do it.

12:46

Kidding me. Yeah. So he fucking, he got the wet his Yeah.

12:49

To not do it, which is smart money.

12:52

Yeah. Cause he had, he had, he had written it into it that if this show got picked up, he was going to be allowed to do it fucking a And

13:00

at least he got paid to not do it. Yeah.

13:02

So we shot the sizzle reel and the sizzle reel.

13:06

Are you in it? Yes.

13:07

Is Ming in it and that's in the transactional stuff.

13:11

Cause the podcast, we did the sit around a table and I remember it was me, you Brian Quinn.

13:17

And Jason was there as well.

13:19

But when they did in the sizzle reel, it's like 15 minutes long.

13:24

It's on that. Kevin Smith clubs also, I've seen it on YouTube and stuff.

13:27

You

13:27

know,

13:27

there's

13:27

the,

13:27

it's

13:27

us

13:27

in

13:27

black

13:27

and

13:27

white

13:27

around

13:27

this

13:27

podcast,

13:27

this

13:27

poker

13:27

table

13:27

or

13:27

a

13:27

poker

13:27

table

13:27

recording

13:27

an

13:27

episode

13:27

of

13:27

tell

13:27

him,

13:27

Steve,

13:27

Dave,

13:27

and

13:27

then

13:27

there's

13:27

transactional

13:27

stuff

13:27

where

13:27

somebody

13:27

comes

13:27

in

13:27

and

13:27

tries

13:27

to

13:27

sell

13:42

things. Basically what comic book men became and stuff.

13:46

The only difference it was, it was called the secret stash and Quinn was there and, and, and Jay was there.

13:52

Jay came in to do episodes, but he was never there all, all the time as when we did the show and they did OTF switch, you hate it.

14:00

Yes. That was OTs are on the flies.

14:01

And that's when, when you're done with the transaction, they interviewed the person who bought the thing or you know, like, how'd that go?

14:09

I thought I was going to get more for it and shit like that.

14:12

And I hated that.

14:14

Like that was never interesting to me, like in a bar, I didn't shape it in season one.

14:19

They just didn't use them in the edit.

14:22

And season two, when y'all got like new producers, they were shooting OTs and overshooting.

14:29

They were doing more OTF, more shooting of the fucking customers than they were with the cast.

14:35

And you know, that's when Brian got real shitty and was just like, I'm not doing this fucking walked off an episode and shit like that.

14:41

So those producers went bye-bye and all the OTs, which they had shot hours of didn't get used.

14:49

My insistence was like, this fucking show is called comic book men.

14:52

It's about the people that work in the store. Nobody people are happy to see the people come in and do transition and transactions.

14:57

Nobody wants to fucking hear about the aftermath of the transaction.

15:00

Like I feel really good about that. That's fucking boring.

15:02

We can get like three more jokes out of these guys, put in an interstitial where they say some fucking funny shit and then move the fuck on.

15:08

They knew you felt that way. And they went behind your back to do it.

15:11

They did. I remember they tried to get, they tried to get me and Ming on board because You

15:18

guys came in and was like, Hey, what do you think of these OTs?

15:20

Say, what do you think of this?

15:21

You want to see a little more screen time, Mike, I can make that happen.

15:24

I'm

15:24

like,

15:24

fuck

15:28

you. I'm not going to be and screw everybody else on the show.

15:31

No. And awesome. It's like, like the, the interesting part happened.

15:35

The person came in with a thing.

15:37

You got to see them make a decision.

15:39

You're watching real-time presumable, presumably real-time conversation.

15:44

And then w you know, the transaction wants it's like, did they buy it?

15:48

Did they sell it or not? That's it story's over.

15:51

Like, you don't need a day new mall where they're like, you know, I was, I was really hoping that it would be more, you know, but they were in ice and I'm glad I did it.

15:58

Like, nobody cares about that story. They want to get back to the funny fucking guys, which was Brian's point too.

16:03

He's like, why the fuck?

16:05

Like, cause they were giving Brian lines to do in season two and telling him to do this and like we're building storylines and shit.

16:11

And like that was not the show.

16:13

Anybody signed up for it. It was, it was a miracle that they signed up to do the show at all.

16:19

And to have like Brian deal with friction, like at a certain point I had to step in and shit.

16:24

And then things ride themselves.

16:26

I remember sending Brian into an editing room with all the footage and be like, watch and pull out anything that you think is funny that they didn't use and shit.

16:34

And he went through a bunch of stuff and he was the one that told me, like, you should see how much OTF they have.

16:38

He's like, they just shot these people for hours.

16:41

They would go outside and talk to him for like a half an hour after the transaction.

16:44

So the S the comic book, man, while the secret stash sizzle reel turns into combo men, it was called the secret stash right up to like two weeks before it premiered.

16:55

AMC was like, we want to call comic book men.

16:58

And I was like, why? And they were like, because mad men.

17:01

And I was like, Oh, fair enough.

17:04

We got mad men. Now we got comic book men.

17:06

They were hoping to do a line of men shows or some.

17:08

So shit. My point was always like, you call it comic book men, you're alienating half the fucking world of comic books.

17:14

You're allocating fucking women. And sure enough, we did get tagged in season one or two for having that fucking name, but not enough that ever really heard us or slowed us down and shut up.

17:23

But it did give some folks a preconceived notion of what the show was.

17:27

And they probably never jumped on board because of, and stuff didn't matter because we were pulling incredible fucking numbers on AMC.

17:33

To be fair. We were, you know, in the wake of one of the biggest television shows that ever happened, the walking dead was pulling nine, 10 million fucking viewers, 12 million viewers, historic fucking numbers in an era when TV was already starting to fall with Nielsen ratings.

17:49

And suddenly this thing was a giant juggernaut.

17:52

So a lot of our success is us riding on Robert.

17:55

Kirkman's very long Dick intimate night and having an audience that just like, well, I'm not going to turn off the TV.

18:01

And slowly over time, having that audience be like, Oh my God, you guys, my comfort, man, I watched fucking walking dead and it makes me tense.

18:09

And then I watch talking dead.

18:11

Cause I need all the info. And then you guys are like a fucking like app TIF manual.

18:15

Like the thing that like makes you go to sleep like, Oh yeah, this is comfort food and shit.

18:20

And that's what we remained for years and Tati very much like they're fucking, this is how I do my Sunday night and shit.

18:26

So that went on until it stopped.

18:31

After my heart attack, we did seven seasons and shit like that.

18:34

And during that era, you put up the fucking window, the old stash window, which we now know was built with a brick replica to fucking reflect ingenious.

18:43

It's just, I just thought it was a choice you're like on brick.

18:47

Why not? I honestly, I probably thought there was brick up there.

18:50

Yeah. It's a fucking sweet move.

18:52

What else Did you always try to reference in my own way, your history or I don't think you always catch it.

19:01

No, but apparently that's obviously, but I just think it's appropriate.

19:07

It's very appropriate. It's fan thinking and it's not that Ernie is a fan.

19:11

Although he likes me, we've known each other for a long time, but it's Ernie's Ernie knows how a fan thinks like this.

19:18

If I was into this shit, this is what I would like to see if I wasn't doing this, this is what I would want it to be like and stuff.

19:24

And because of that and inform shit, for example, when did the blot Mo did the bloodmobiles Start

19:31

at the secret stash on the floor?

19:35

On the floor? Yeah, that's right. With a fucking rope chain around the floor and people was stealing Jays.

19:42

They were still in this time, Jeanette,

19:43

some of the videos that we've done, but again, I got the call.

19:48

No, it wasn't a call. You were here and you called me and just said, Hey, just come by to stash or something.

19:54

I want to talk to you about something. So I came by and this is when we were in the heat of playing stash poker.

20:01

Every month you were coming in almost every month and we needed more space.

20:05

And you said, we need more space.

20:09

That's why, when I had nothing to do with more Stuff

20:12

for the stairs, it was, we need more space.

20:14

I was like, well, I could build a platform and elevate it.

20:21

We can put a table on the, and we can, and you were like done.

20:24

So that's the only reason the blunt mobile went up in the air is the play more poker To

20:30

build fucking space for poker, For

20:32

which actually worked out for this, for the show.

20:35

And for tell them, Steve, Dave have to, this is this the same?

20:39

This the same, the same. Right.

20:41

And the sizzle reel could be, I think it was just a resurface.

20:44

This

20:44

was

20:44

one

20:44

that

20:44

you

20:44

weren't

20:44

actually,

20:44

I

20:44

think

20:44

Ming

20:44

bought

20:44

this

20:44

for

20:44

you

20:44

guys

20:44

to

20:44

play

20:44

poker

20:51

on. It was one of the extra tables.

20:53

Right. But you know, it all fucking ties together.

20:55

That's so fucking well, that's the reason why it went up because of that, just so we get more room for poker.

21:00

That was it. What do you, I, you know, I love the show, but my job on the show was minimal.

21:07

What, you know, you guys had seven seasons and stuff during that time.

21:11

W

21:11

how

21:11

did

21:11

you

21:11

balance

21:11

store

21:11

and,

21:11

and

21:11

fake

21:11

store

21:11

and

21:11

real

21:18

store? How long did they come in for the average person?

21:20

Doesn't know, how long did they shoot comic book men?

21:23

Like it wasn't like a year long experience.

21:26

July Through September.

21:29

Yeah. And the last three, four years, the last four years were like, we were in 10 30 out by six.

21:37

So we ended down to a science.

21:39

So was it an inconvenience?

21:46

No. Cause they wanted people inside the store.

21:48

So they were happy to have customers come in and customers were happy to come in and have a chance to be on camera as background.

21:56

And so is that what they did? Like you, they would just want to shut the store if people were there, like, Hey, you want to be on a TV show and then They

22:01

would be, they would be like, you know, you will have to stay here for at least an hour to an hour and a half.

22:06

If you could commit to that, you could be in the background.

22:08

And yeah, they, they really desperately wanted background because they didn't want to have an empty store.

22:15

So they want it real customer.

22:18

So you guys operated while shooting?

22:21

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, in between transactions while they were setting up and prep prepping the next transaction, you would have like 45 minutes where you could just open up and people would come in and shop and then they would clear it out and just start it all over again and bring a new group of, of customers who are waiting outside.

22:40

Now, this only gets to happen like this TV show, which, you know, again was backed into all around it.

22:49

Wasn't me going, like I have a brilliant idea.

22:51

It, it backed into the secret stash and whatnot.

22:55

Having

22:55

a

22:55

TV

22:55

show

22:55

for

22:55

a

22:55

kid

22:55

who

22:55

was

22:55

raised

22:55

watching

22:55

TV

22:55

is

22:55

a

22:55

fucking

22:55

dream

22:55

come

23:05

true. Having a TV show where like, I only have to come in for a little bit.

23:10

Cause I was already at a completely different life on the West coast, but I could be in the show as well.

23:16

Cause initially, and in fact I was never a contracted player.

23:18

Like you guys were contracted players.

23:21

I was not like I was paid as a producer, but like I was there just because I want it to be on TV.

23:28

So, so weird.

23:32

I just realized that I forgot every year I never got paid as an actor or as, as one of the guys at the table or whatnot, it was like, I literally could have been like, well, I'm not doing this.

23:41

And they had no recourse.

23:42

It was van it's like I get to be on TV.

23:45

So the joy of that show for me living out West was like, when the show was on, I could turn it on.

23:52

And like, I, there were my friends on TV.

23:55

It was just so fucking mind bending and cool.

23:58

And they were doing the same shit that we did when I left.

24:01

Like, so everything was where it was and shit like that.

24:05

So it was absolute joy.

24:07

But on the pure level of like, I was raised by a television, grew up in front of a fucking TV and stuff.

24:13

I, we had a brief soul yearn into a animation with the clerks cartoon.

24:21

They canceled it after two episodes.

24:22

And I was like, soured on TV.

24:25

Like people would be like, you should pitch something like that.

24:27

I, me and TV as they've ran two episodes of our cartoon and they canceled it now I'm not a TV guy.

24:33

I'm an indie film guy.

24:34

So I put away all notions of ever having a TV show and not even a TV show in which I was featured.

24:40

Just like your own fucking show or whatever the fuck.

24:43

So Walt taken over the stash and making it run for as long as it did getting us to the fucking point where there was a conversation about like, maybe we could shoot a fucking TV show here.

24:57

Like not only affords the secret stash to go on.

25:02

It literally afforded me being on TV, like a childhood dream.

25:07

I had my own fucking television show.

25:09

Like for some people that couldn't be bothered to memorize comic book men, they'd be like, that's that Kevin Smith show and shit like that.

25:15

Such a fucking like amazing gift that was born in bootlegs and shit like that.

25:23

So we did the show for like seven seasons.

25:26

We just lost one of the people that worked on the show.

25:30

Mellow.

25:30

Whose

25:32

name? What was is Darryl sham. Mellow do rant.

25:35

Yeah. Darrell, Darrell do rant.

25:37

That was his name. Darrell Duran, right?

25:40

Yeah. It's such a great name. Why fucking mellow.

25:42

Darryl Duran. Double D is your name Double

25:45

D. Who is that? Bear. All you want, your middle name was

25:50

Yeah. So a bear who was also on your production crew, another great guy who we still play poker with every week on zoom just kept shouting, mellow out.

26:01

Shamila D double D it's like every time he out of hand, that's all he kept saying similar D man, man, it just makes you what you think about when he said it quick enough, mellow DEET, Melo D.

26:13

That makes sense. And he came from the world of music.

26:15

He dropped beats these for Belbin Public

26:20

enemy. Busta rhymes.

26:22

Yeah, man. He's Grammy award-winning because he's the big loss for the comic book fan.

26:29

Yeah. It was part of all that stuff, man.

26:31

I got gold albums. What was the, what was his job on comic book man?

26:35

Cause he, I talked to him frequently whenever I came to the show and of course Kimberly was his lady.

26:40

She did the hair and makeup on the boys and stuff for every season I think.

26:44

But you know, she she'd one day told me she was like, Kevin, I like understand that you like old school hip hop.

26:50

And I was like, Oh my God, I love it. And she's like, well I was the, the artist management at jive.

26:56

And I was like, what?

26:58

And she was like, yeah, like all through.

27:01

I was like, who did you have? And she was there for fucking MC hammer and shit like that.

27:05

And I was like, what are you doing this for?

27:07

And she's like, the record industry collapsed, like basically the film industry and the TV industry collapsed a few years later, music industry went first.

27:16

And so jobs that existed in a world where they sold vinyl and cassette and shit like that, or CDs stopped existing whenever things started going digital.

27:26

And so her very lucrative position of being like artist management and stuff, the record companies were just like, we can't afford it anymore.

27:34

And those positions went away.

27:35

So what did, what was his job?

27:39

They were behind the scenes who was Christian pallet, Dino, Melissa DeGagne Kimberly Thornton and Melo D they were the ones who made sure that everything got, got done.

27:53

Every, you know, transportation Melo was the one that got me to and from the airport all the time, always greeted me when I pulled up and stuff like that.

28:01

He never, he never drove.

28:02

I found that out.

28:04

I need mellow syndrome. No, but he was in charge of transportation, which I love that's.

28:08

So Jamie up once he drove, Oh, you sure?

28:12

Yeah, he was no, maybe not.

28:14

It wasn't him. Cause they made a joke about this.

28:17

It was the other night on poker.

28:19

When we were playing a bear and made a comment about if you ever needed mellow.

28:23

He was always there, but he never had a car.

28:25

He

28:25

passed

28:25

away

28:25

sadly

28:25

of

28:25

a

28:25

heart

28:25

attack

28:25

two

28:25

weeks

28:25

ago,

28:25

a

28:25

week

28:33

ago.

28:33

But

28:33

anyway,

28:33

back

28:33

to

28:33

the

28:33

show,

28:33

it

28:33

only

28:33

kind

28:33

of

28:33

interrupted

28:33

in

28:33

people's

28:33

lives

28:33

for

28:33

three

28:33

months

28:33

generally,

28:33

but

28:33

that

28:33

went

28:33

on

28:33

for

28:33

seven

28:49

years. And it, you were here at ground zero.

28:52

Did the plan work?

28:54

And as much as I was like, this is like a free commercial for the secret stash.

28:57

Oh yeah. Business picked up substantially the show.

29:00

We were always like Walter watched, what was the cake guy?

29:03

Oh the cake boss cake boss.

29:05

And Walter told me like at one point, like, you know, I went up to, I took my kids, my kids and it was a huge buddy.

29:12

And then we waited in the middle of winter and an hour and a half.

29:16

We went to Hoboken and we never had anything.

29:19

We never had cake boss lines and I, Oh, you know, and it's because everybody eats cake cookies and everybody reads comics.

29:25

So it was in the beginning.

29:27

He's like we have a TV show, man.

29:29

Maybe we'll have that cake boss line. And then once we went into, we had lines, but not like, you know, fucking like, you know, cake, boss lines and waltz, waltz proof was absolutely in the pudding where it's like, everyone loves cake.

29:42

Not everyone loves comics.

29:44

We're seeing one of the secondary cooks.

29:47

He was a big, big bear of a guy with a bald head that was on that show.

29:51

And he was there.

29:54

And when we, when we walked in with our little group and went my family and everything, and I remember looking at him as somebody who was just going, like everybody in one group of photos was pointing at him like, Oh my God, there's this.

30:04

Like, he wasn't even there. And you could just see on his face, he was just like, I've had enough of that.

30:08

I was just like looking at a future.

30:11

So

30:11

like,

30:11

just

30:11

like

30:11

I'm

30:11

a

30:16

Baker. Right. And people are treating me as if I'm more than a Baker.

30:19

And it's really like, he, he didn't look like he was happy about it.

30:24

Like it just looked like, you know, like, you know, it, it made him uncomfortable.

30:28

And you know, we had a little bit of that.

30:32

Not much. I mean, but most people were pretty cool, but it definitely was an uptick though.

30:38

After, after season two, it really w it was helpful and put and put more people, planning road trips to see us in the summertime and everything.

30:50

It was extremely, extremely helpful.

30:52

I, I maintain it.

30:53

It was a stay of execution, probably compliment It's

30:57

it, it fucking saved the store. There was no reason to close the store because suddenly the store was like doing well and thriving.

31:03

And even though we didn't have a Jay and silent Bob movie or anything promoting it, comic book, men became the promotional driver, which is so weird because it's like predicated on the promotional driver of the store was Jay and silent Bob.

31:21

And then all of a sudden for goods to seven years comic book men becomes the driver of the secret stash, the driver of the business.

31:29

The thing that keeps me relevant, particularly at a time where like shit was falling apart from me and whatnot, like post cop-out and RedState particularly post RedState.

31:38

When I stood on stage and Sundance, it was like, I don't fucking need anybody in check.

31:42

Like I, you know, they wrote in deadline or variety is Mike Fleming.

31:47

I think he was very in variety. And he was like, Kevin Smith imploded last night, he had a perfectly sellable movie and he insulted everybody and says, he's going to do it himself.

31:53

He's finished in this business comic book men happening was like, like a life preserver in the fucking ocean, like while you're drowning.

32:05

Cause I was like, I I've just literally cut myself out of the business.

32:09

I don't know why. And fucking like, I, I, you know, this they're saying that I'm fucking finished.

32:14

And if AMC, which then had to have the fucking hottest shows and then three, when breaking bad, fucking broke huge.

32:23

I'm like, if they are willing to give me a show, like clearly they don't give a fuck what I did at Sundance.

32:30

They were like, Oh, he insulted distributors.

32:31

Like it gives a shit, we're doing a story about a show about a conflict store.

32:36

So not only was it like, Ooh, I got a TV, but it was buoyancy at a time where I was like fucking sink in where I was like, Oh, anyone at that moment would like attack me for like, he's irrelevant.

32:47

Like you're losing relevancy.

32:48

You haven't been relevant since the fucking nineties and shit suddenly we had a TV show and it's like, you can call me irrelevant all you want.

32:55

But like the fucking show, you're irrelevant.

32:59

Like, I'm sorry. I know you may hate it.

33:02

Maybe not relevant to you, but like clearly relevant enough.

33:09

This episode is sponsored by blue chew.

33:11

Man, go to blue, chew.com right now and follow along as I talk about the wonder that is blue chew men is sex.

33:20

You want to do. Then you need the blue chew guys.

33:23

It's been a hell of a year. Personally. I feel like I've aged 12 years over the last 12 months.

33:28

If you're like me, you're feeling your age more than you used to man, especially in the booed war, Ms.

33:36

Tom snap out of it. Spring is here.

33:38

It's time to get sprung spring at man with Bluetooth.

33:42

Bluetooth is a unique online service that deludes the same active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis, but in chewable form and at a fraction of the cost man, blue chews tablets help men achieve harder, stronger erections combat all forms of erectile dysfunction.

34:00

Men is ship. Get your Dick hard.

34:02

Boot shoe is an online prescription service.

34:05

So no visits to the doctor's office, no awkward conversations like doc, do you have something I could chew on?

34:13

Make my Dick hard and no waiting in line at the pharmacy man ships right to your door in discreet package.

34:20

The process is so simple.

34:21

You sign [email protected].

34:23

He consult with one of their licensed medical providers.

34:26

And once you're approved, bam, you'll receive your prescription within days.

34:30

The best part it's all done online.

34:32

Man, blue chews, licensed medical providers, work with you to find the right ingredient and strength for your prescription.

34:40

Don't like small one pills.

34:42

The problem, zero myth blue choose sildenafil to dollar Phil's tablets.

34:48

They're chewable. As we're getting at man blue choose tablets are made in the USA and they prepare and ship direct.

34:56

So it's cheaper than a pharmacy man.

34:58

Plus you got that American pride when you're chewing on a blue chew, you're like, Oh yeah, this is going to be a all American rod.

35:05

So if you could benefit from little extra confidence when it's time performance, visit blue chew.com for more details.

35:13

And of course the very important safety information, man, we've got special deal for our listeners.

35:18

Dry blue chew free when you use our promo code smart at the checkout, man, just pay five bucks for shipping.

35:25

That's it. That's bluetooth.com promo code S M O D to receive your free first month, man, your first month free.

35:34

And we thank the good folks at chew for keeping a sword and sponsoring this podcast now on with the show.

35:47

So it was this great thing that I never wanted to fuck with.

35:52

Like it seemed to be in this perfectly a machine.

35:54

So I never like very rarely was I involved in a storyline, you know, like first season I was there for the hockey game and shit, and that was built around like calves coming.

36:04

We were gonna play a fucking hockey game and shit, but generally speaking, it was the adventures of the secret stash.

36:10

It was bright and Walt and Mike and MIG.

36:12

And so, you know, periodically I'd come and be part of a storyline or something, but I wasn't here a lot.

36:19

You guys built a family like the crew that came to work here.

36:24

As we talked about in the previous podcast, like they would treat it like the summer vacation and get big houses down the shore and stuff like that while they were working during the day.

36:33

And none of them felt like they were working because the boys were very funny and they could get material a job as a job when you're like, Oh my God, it's like pulling fucking teeth to get content, to shoot some.

36:43

They never had a problem like that with the boys because they turn on a camera and the guys can just fucking generate.

36:48

And Walter was being asked to talk about shit and make fun with shit that he was an expert at.

36:57

You know, it's not, not like, Hey man, I need you to do jokes about Bitcoin.

37:01

Like he, he could do like what if Robin and fucking Batman and then go off on that tangent, which became like the spine of like the show and stuff like that, along with the fucking transitions or the transactions rather.

37:17

So it's like being, being asked, like you have to be on TV.

37:23

I'm sorry. But the good news is you're not going to have to do anything that you don't already know how to do.

37:30

And for me, what was always thrilling about that too, is like, and this can sound arrogant as fuck, but like in arguably clerks and Mallrats are two movies that changed the culture a bit.

37:40

And that came from knowing Walter.

37:43

So having comic book men, which also changed the culture a little bit and having the guy on the show, who's not like, Hey, this character is inspired by my friend, but having my friends on camera, like I didn't realize until they showed me first cut of the show, I was like, Oh my God.

38:03

It's like clerks, the reality series, like you got a Dante, you got a Randall and stuff like that.

38:07

There's an Elias over there and whatnot.

38:09

And I remember Christian or whoever was cutting.

38:13

It was like, yeah, didn't you think that's what we were going for?

38:15

And I was like, no, I just thought it was pawn stars in a comic book show, but like a comic store.

38:20

But this, this is fucking relevant to my interests as well, but I didn't stay, I wasn't here all the time.

38:26

I'd come in for like a day, three days and fucking shoot wraparounds that became the stuff in the episodes.

38:32

Like the, the, the, I don't know the fucking skeleton on which the hang the fucking show.

38:37

But you Ernie became a part of it.

38:40

You were on the show a few times, one time, more than one time.

38:43

This is a bowl episode.

38:46

Yeah, the bowling up. So it was probably the biggest one. We had a blast on that clerks crew came in and she O'Halloran and muse against wall Ming and Mike and Brian.

38:58

And I think there's Clerks

39:02

and I think bolt jumped ship.

39:04

Then you won't Well,

39:05

just wait and see who was going to win.

39:08

Right. I could go to the winning side.

39:10

I was in both.

39:14

And then from what I was told, not to vote, but it's true.

39:17

Maybe it is an ego thing, but one of our highest episodes rated episodes.

39:22

Well, of course clerks, which is cool, but now we're not clerks you every relative to.

39:27

And again, what is, so when did you start hanging out with, with them?

39:32

Cause you start doing poker games with the crew.

39:34

You start, you know, the crew as intimately as the guys.

39:37

Yes, I do.

39:38

First season, I got wind from you.

39:42

I think that, Hey man, you should check out the poker game.

39:46

The guys play a poker game every Tuesday night and it wasn't a Tuesdays, Tuesday.

39:50

It was every Tuesday night, you know, just let them know who you are.

39:53

And that was it. I made a phone call and it was, I think we started, it was like six or seven of us that we'd play in.

40:01

There were, it was, yeah, it was really small.

40:04

It was actually like 10 or 10.

40:07

It was in the yoga studio at the production office.

40:10

Yeah. Yeah. Black and white. Yes, that's right.

40:13

That's where we did the ugly.

40:15

Yeah. That room was that room was black and white.

40:19

Yes. It was tiny. And it had really weird maps on the walls, but I get it like it was black and white cause it like clerks because of the podcast.

40:29

When we shot the sizzle reel that we, the podcast section was in black and white.

40:35

They presented that in black and white and the transactions and color and stuff.

40:38

So they wanted to maintain an element of what they did.

40:41

And so that room didn't have any of the chotchkies in, it were weird maps and schedules and shit like that.

40:47

But it was done in gray tones and black and white, which is what I'm talking about for them.

40:51

It's like, where did I get the idea apparently fucking there?

40:53

What was it like to, for, for you to become a TV personality Surreal.

41:02

I mean, I didn't ask for this.

41:05

I just wanted to come and work in a comic book, Some

41:08

degree, like he's like not a nearer to it, but like he'd been in the movies.

41:13

He'd been on stage when we did stuff and whatnot.

41:16

So there wasn't like a complete shock when I was like, I think we're going to do a TV show at the stash.

41:22

It was more like, Oh no, I don't want to be involved in that.

41:25

But if he did know the world, I would drag Waltons and things.

41:29

He was there for all of clerks and stuff. He's in fucking Mallrats and, and they opened chasing Amy originally, Steve, Dave, and the fan boy.

41:37

And then we cut that scene.

41:38

Dogma he's always been involved, but so me going, I'm going to do a TV show and you gotta be in it and shit, you know, maybe a little bit on brand.

41:47

It wouldn't be like, I don't, I doubt it cracked your world open.

41:50

And you're like, I don't even know this guy anymore, but you go from a weekend guy to a stash employee with zero, quite like Ming zero expectation of ever being involved in a thing.

42:03

Ming was at least in dogma, like, you know, pops up in the strip club or something like that.

42:08

And for him, I'm sure that was like, it'll never be better than that, man.

42:11

Holy shit. Suddenly this TV show happens and you go from being like the weekend guy to a regular employee to literally being a character on the show and not even background, but like one of the fucking fab for what did it feel like?

42:27

I surreal.

42:29

I mean, there are, there are no words for it.

42:32

It's like kind of like, like you said, we backed up into it and if it weren't for Brian Quinn getting a pay off from Jew TV, you're not at the table.

42:46

You O'Quinn.

42:48

So you, I know. So you're like, you know, like originally there was somebody cast as Wolverine, another actor and yeah, grey Scott.

42:56

He could have been Pete best.

42:58

That's right. Oh my God.

43:00

It's there you go. Beatles reference Walters, falling down a Beatles fucking rabbit hole.

43:06

Recently we were one of the fab four.

43:08

I was like, John Lennon is rolling over in his grave.

43:11

We are being compared to the fab four.

43:14

They may have heard that term originated with them, but that works in any situation.

43:21

Seinfeld, the cast was referred to as the fab four.

43:23

Yeah, they did a, they did a cover of entertainment weekly that looked like the beat him feels out cover for that reason.

43:30

So, but in our world comic book, men definitely the fat for it.

43:35

So it just felt so weird and to be thrown in with, I mean, Walt and I had a relationship, but Brian and I hadn't seen each other in a long time.

43:47

And he had just moved back from Vegas.

43:50

Like he's criers bef he was wander, lusting it for a while.

43:55

I was out in California, he ran the secret stash out there.

43:58

That's a whole different story that told another day, but I've always liked Brian.

44:02

And you know, we get along well, but Ming and I have never done anything together except like a year before we started a podcast.

44:10

Did you, you guys, you were doing the comic book.

44:14

We, we started, yeah.

44:16

I sell comics [email protected].

44:18

One

44:18

of

44:18

the

44:18

many

44:18

shows

44:18

that

44:18

made

44:18

it

44:18

a

44:18

network

44:18

testy

44:18

made

44:18

it,

44:18

this

44:18

is

44:18

my

44:18

guest.com

44:18

network

44:18

at

44:18

one

44:18

from

44:18

one

44:18

show

44:18

to

44:18

two

44:28

shows. And then I was like, let's get as many shows as possible.

44:31

So I sell Comics, predates comic book men.

44:34

Yes. By a couple of months.

44:36

That is fucked up. So yeah.

44:37

And Ming and I hadn't had our, you know, I bumped into him actually.

44:42

We were Ming had put the webcam into the stash.

44:47

That's why we had a webcam at one point where you can just look at the secret stash lie.

44:52

We didn't trust that little motherfucker after that because we're like, is this thing wired for sound too?

44:58

It's like, do we have to be careful about what we say?

45:00

And it was a webcam in name only because it refreshed only every like 45 seconds.

45:07

Right? So you can, it's true. It wasn't just a steady stream.

45:10

It was an image.

45:11

And it was like an open laptop that sat on.

45:15

It was one, it was like one of those, it looked like a little, little mini pie.

45:20

So wait, so you, you know, you, you and Ming are fucking associated now forever.

45:27

Yeah, of course. You have a business together shared universe podcast studio, but you had prior to book men, you Ming and Mike wasn't a thing.

45:36

No, no. We, we were just two guys who like wearily Hey, how you doing?

45:42

He was the guy who at the view of skew, Christmas party would always wear the blazer and the turtleneck and wander around with a snifter of Brandy.

45:51

Oh, that sounds like me.

45:53

That's perfectly how strange man.

45:56

Like when the show begins, it's kind of presented like these are the relationships, but they became the relationship.

46:05

We grew into them. Yeah.

46:07

That's fucking nuts.

46:08

You didn't grow into it at all.

46:10

It was really literally you doing real life, but PG.

46:15

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, cause I, I, yeah, I knew of Ming.

46:19

Ming was on Tom, Steve, Dave, quite a bit early on.

46:23

He would fall out of being on Tom Steve day.

46:28

But those first couple of years he was on almost every episode.

46:30

So he's in a lot of the one, two, three.

46:33

Yeah. He was a, so he, we had, we kind of had our, a rapport going with him.

46:37

We had like, w we kind of clicked with him.

46:40

So it was, it was real easy.

46:43

There was no awkwardness of, of us having to like, you know, get along with each other or figure things out.

46:52

And it was like, we knew who we were Or

46:54

what in front of him.

46:56

He

46:56

knew

46:56

his

46:56

role

46:56

in

46:56

some

46:59

way. I'm going to take it, Man.

47:01

He loved it. Every bit of it, he would set it up.

47:03

He would say he would intentionally like lead us to lead us to there so we could knock them out.

47:08

right

47:08

up

47:08

there

47:08

and

47:08

go,

47:08

come

47:08

on,

47:11

swaying. I'm lit. I'm putting it right there. They call it I'm wrestling when you're like the fall guy or whatever.

47:16

Fuck the heel.

47:17

And

47:17

Ming

47:17

was

47:17

like,

47:17

teeing

47:17

it

47:17

up

47:17

for

47:21

them. Oh my God. Yes. The heel who loves heels, the, you, you being able to extemporize on comic books really helped in a comic book show, but your relationship with Brian and all the talking and the chatting and the back and forth, and the friendship that you've had for years literally became like the fucking spine of the show.

47:43

Was it weird?

47:46

No. Never felt weird. Did

47:48

you ever get, but did you ever stop and go like this so fucked up that like, we're still doing this, but now they pay us.

47:57

It just feels Like he's been doing it for so long. You know, I don't really stop and be like in, in, in smell the roses, I'm just like, Oh, I've got something to do next week.

48:07

You gotta make a test. You watch machine doesn't stop.

48:12

It's so weird though. Like, think about it. You've been talking to this fool for most of your young life, all the way into your adult life.

48:18

And at a certain point, it was like, now you get paid to talk to the school and something you would do anyway for free.

48:27

Definitely. It's, it's just one of those satisfying components.

48:31

All right. So we do count book men and the boys do cobbled men, particularly for seven seasons.

48:37

Then I have a heart attack and we all think that, well, I think we found out in the last episodes, a small guest wall, like myself thought there was no way they canceled the show now like, Oh my God, I just had a heart attack.

48:48

They're getting all this press and shit.

48:49

That was so weird because we had said, you know, every season we're not coming back next year, honestly.

48:56

And I don't mean that in the facetious.

48:59

Oh, you're being so kind like I literally, every season was like, there's no way they fucking keep doing this show because remember all the other shows we started with, they launched us amongst four other reality shows.

49:12

And one by one, those fucking shows all died.

49:15

And so I was like, well, sooner or later, the fucking sky that's coming for us as well.

49:19

Wasn't that like the common thread at the wrap parties, Michelle would always say, Oh, maybe we'll be back next year.

49:24

We don't know. And that was true.

49:26

We never knew what the end of the shoe and never knew.

49:28

And they would drag it out until literally three days before they showed up with their cameras and their lights and Oh yeah, you've been renewed.

49:37

But every year we were like, no, that's not going on.

49:41

And you know, you gird yourself for that.

49:44

But this time around, I'm like, there's no way.

49:47

Cause I, I saw our numbers and I'm like, there is no precipitous drop.

49:52

There's no nothing. And then we got a lot of hype because the one guy almost done.

49:57

Yeah. So, and they just had him at the upfront.

50:00

So there's no Way

50:01

they used him for the last, In

50:04

the last conversation we had Brian brought that one up too, about the upfronts that really sticks in everybody's cross.

50:08

They put you to work and still canceled the fucking show.

50:11

I totally forgot about that. They did a couple of upfront stories that Brian and I still stick.

50:16

It still sticks in our crowd. Like Ming got to go to like two of them and we're like, we weren't invited.

50:21

And he did go. I remember seeing him at it upfront because normally it was me.

50:26

And then all of a sudden like, Oh, Ming's here. And I'm Like,

50:28

he is. And they're like, yeah, yeah.

50:30

We invited them. And I was like, Oh my God, he must love this.

50:32

And sure enough, he was walking around with a sifter of a table, the table or jacket.

50:38

Hello. Oxyclean so when, when the show comes to a close, you know, there's like, there was no like, alright, now it's time to close the secret stash.

50:53

Cause we still had the, you know, fucking momentum from a TV show when they cancel you.

50:59

It's not for awhile that the rest of the world finds out and shit like that.

51:03

But it goes off the air in 2017.

51:05

Is that correct?

51:06

I believe that's the year.

51:09

Yeah. Cut to 2020 pandemic.

51:13

The

51:13

place

51:13

has

51:13

to

51:13

close

51:16

down. You were forced to close, like every other store or something for how long a month?

51:20

A week.

51:21

God, it was months.

51:23

It wasn't really, we weren't allowed to open up until July.

51:26

So from when, til March, March, till July, during that time you're selling shit online.

51:32

You were doing boxes and shit. You were drawn comics and stuff like that.

51:36

Drawing artwork or something like that. I did like these auctions from my original art and from some rare comics that I had.

51:42

But generally speaking, nobody could come to the store.

51:44

You couldn't even order new books because diamond shut down, shut down and shit like that.

51:50

And then there was a lot of like, you know, comic book stores had been dropping for years, but a bunch of them fucking dropped in the course of 2020 without new product to support it.

52:00

Like with comic books to support it.

52:02

Like how do you maintain a business and stuff like that.

52:05

So as I watched place after place going and stuff and we were closed, I called up wall and I was just like, I'm thinking that maybe now is the time like we've, they've already closed us.

52:24

Maybe we just call it quits.

52:28

We've been in this business over 20 years.

52:30

It's a triumph by any measurement and shit.

52:32

But you know, who knows what the new world looks like.

52:35

If we ever get open, is anybody gonna want to fucking go to UCOM bookstore?

52:39

I had September 11th in my head where the fucking sales of t-shirts dropped right in the toilet.

52:44

I'm like, who's going to give a fuck about a Jane song, Bob, anything, if we all survive this fucking pandemic or whatever.

52:51

Fuck. So I was like, is it time to just like kind of let it go.

52:57

Like maybe we just don't open up again.

52:59

And Walter was like, Oh my God.

53:01

And I honestly, my, my, my prediction for the conversation was Walter going?

53:08

Yeah, because Walter, like now that we're not doing comic book men anymore, I'm guessing he's probably pretty free to say you don't read new comics and haven't read new comics for a long, long time.

53:17

No, I don't. I don't keep up on new comics.

53:19

It's all just shucking and jive and trying to like convince the world that I was reading everything that came out, Emmy winning performance, but all predicated on true fandom at one time.

53:30

Oh yeah. Yeah. I stopped in like 2006 or something, 1975 to 2006.

53:34

I devoured everything.

53:35

And then one day you're asked to play that guy and you'd like, did convincingly when you watch him on that show, Walters is like, let's go on an adventure because comics are life.

53:49

But

53:49

it's

53:51

crazy. Cause it's like, you, you can't do that unless you actually felt it at one point, right?

53:56

Because you can knowledgeable, you speak about shit.

53:58

And when you get on shit that you loved, like you'd light up like Christmas.

54:03

So even if you weren't currently engaged with ghost rider, the subject of ghost rider fucking brings you to life.

54:09

And she'll like, you can channel it. You can channel it is unfucking canny.

54:12

So the call to me, the call to Walt is like, I think we should let it go.

54:18

And I was cock sure that Walter was going to be like, yeah, it's time because he doesn't read comic books anymore.

54:23

And I even said to him, I was like, I got the store for you, but you don't read comics anymore.

54:29

So it's like, what's the point?

54:32

We got so much great out of it.

54:33

You know, maybe it sounded let it go.

54:36

And Walter was like, man, I, I didn't think that that was the last time I was ever going to walk into the stash.

54:43

And I was like, well, we still have to empty it out and shit.

54:45

And he was like, I just always imagined, it'd be like the end of Mary Tyler Moore is like, where they turn off the fucking lights and then the credits roll on.

54:53

And he was like, I always thought I would turn off the lights and that the store would that's when the store would be done.

54:58

And he was like, I tell ya, I don't, he's going.

55:01

I don't know if you should. And I was like, and I did bring up.

55:04

I was like, I got it for you. And you don't read comics.

55:06

And that's when he said, it's way bigger than me.

55:09

He's gone. He may have started it cause of may.

55:11

But like there are people come in, like from all over the world, people get emotional.

55:15

Like this place means something to a lot of people, not just people from outside, but people in the community and shit like that, he's gone.

55:22

I don't know. Unless you were in like a financial, like fucking hole or something, he's going don't you have a lease until the end of the year.

55:29

And I was like, it was December or something would be like said I wasn't just, I was thinking about Mo I wasn't just thinking about myself.

55:35

I was thinking about Mike. Yeah, thank you.

55:37

I was thinking about getting them. Right.

55:39

And I was like, why don't you don't be so quick to make a rash dishes and rash decisions at the beginning of the lockouts.

55:50

Cause that's when he called me. That's when it was, it was like April May-ish.

55:53

We have this conversation late March or early April.

55:56

And I got scared quick.

55:58

I was like, we're Fox down quick for the insurance money.

56:02

I said, you know, in my heart, I was like, you know these, you know, I think that for these two guys, not even for myself, I was like, you should at least write out because I didn't know when the lockdowns were going to end, nobody had any information.

56:17

I said, why don't you just at least wait to make a decision after the lease is up.

56:22

You make such a Big

56:25

decision like that because you don't know what's going to happen.

56:28

You don't know if people come back and droves, you just don't know.

56:31

And if, if, if they don't well then yeah, then you got to close it.

56:34

But like, don't do it yet.

56:36

His point being like, you're already paying the rents of December.

56:39

Yeah. Like since you're already doing it, like wait and see when it may be when it reopens.

56:44

Everything's great. And even said, he was like, it could be the reverse.

56:47

Like I'm like, who's going to want to buy a fucking Jane som Bob, anything, or a comic book after all this.

56:52

And he's gone. I think that people will want that again, because that's going to make them feel normal.

56:57

And I was like, huh, you know?

57:01

And boots on the ground is better than theory in the, in the fucking sky and shit.

57:06

So I'm like, all right, like, it makes sense.

57:09

We're already paying the fucking rent. Like we got in the lease.

57:12

There is a chance that it bounces back hard because people are like, I fucking miss this so much.

57:18

Like, you know, as soon as they open up movie theaters, I'm going to fucking go.

57:21

So I was like, all right.

57:24

All right. And I was, I remember as being like, I'm surprised, man.

57:28

I honestly thought you'd be like, let it go and stuff.

57:31

And you're like, now, now it's not.

57:32

It's just doesn't feel like it's necessary unless it's necessary.

57:35

And I was like, I know it was merely just, It

57:38

could, it could have be necessary. You know? I, I didn't, I wasn't sitting there going like, yo, you're making a mistake.

57:42

No, you don't know.

57:44

But let's wait to see before, you know, you pull the plug, you know, maybe this patient couldn't come back to life.

57:50

Much of it was because you're not, unless still waters run deep.

57:55

You're not wear your heart on your sleeve kind of guy.

57:57

How much of that defense of keeping the store open, as you said, it's for my cause.

58:01

Forget them and stuff. But how much of it also was I like, no, no, no.

58:07

There's a script here and I'm going to turn the lights off.

58:12

Oh, that, yeah, that wasn't, I mean, that was just like, kinda like just me being a child of television, you know?

58:18

Like I would see that episode. Cause w because I mean our daily routine, even during like, we, we, we had to, we came to work during the lockdowns to the place of the snow.

58:28

I don't know if you can cut that out.

58:32

I don't know why, but we had to cook. We had to come to work during the lockdowns for some reason.

58:36

And we would just watch a TV.

58:40

And Mary Tyler Moore was one of the things we watch every single day when that episode came on, you know, I saw it and I was like, Oh fuck.

58:47

I always knew that this episode was going to happen in real life to me one day.

58:51

And now I feel like it's, it's, it's just around the corner, but, you know, I didn't really ever think like, it really, that would be crazy if I was like, have you got to keep it open?

59:02

Even though it's fucking, it's a sieve and you're, you're bleeding money because I want to lock the doors.

59:06

Like Mary Tyler Moore.

59:08

I really was just like, you know, like, I think that there you could, there's a little bit more toothpaste in there.

59:15

Possibly. There may not be though, but let's just wait until you have a better understanding of let's see what happens in at the end of the lease, because you may have a better, big picture of things.

59:25

I thought, I mean, it was 50, 50.

59:27

I thought you would, you could have closed it down.

59:29

And when I was surprised, it did say that.

59:31

So you were like, you know, it could go either way, but like, if I, if you said, if it were me and I already got the lease, I would just, I would have, I would have waited until the very last minute to make that decision.

59:43

I would have the gun to my head. Sentimental, nothing to

59:46

Oh yeah. But like, I could never be like, used that like as a against you, like, it'd be like, because I, because I have so much in stylish, I want you to keep open something that's, you know, hurting you.

59:58

Right, right. Right. But at the same time, like I'm, I romanticize everything.

1:00:04

So in my mind and heart, I'm like, Oh, you don't want it to say, Oh yeah.

1:00:09

I don't want to know. It's not like the fucking driver of his life anymore.

1:00:14

Like, he'd still don't want to see it go.

1:00:17

Even though he don't read comics, even though it's not, there's a place I went to primary income driver and stuff.

1:00:22

It was the place I went to every day. It was the place where I made amazing friendships that I would never have made without being there.

1:00:30

It was being honest with you.

1:00:33

And I still at this doesn't feel like the staff, it doesn't.

1:00:36

And I, when I walk past that place, I drive past that place.

1:00:40

It's like, it's tough because emotionally, because it's still 20 years of your life.

1:00:45

Yeah. It's like, it's hard to be like a 20 years and now, okay.

1:00:47

We've been here for 20 days. I just got to take time.

1:00:50

It'll get there eventually. But right now it's just not there yet.

1:00:53

When did you, this is going to sound weird, but when did you know that you loved the stash?

1:00:58

Because again, this is a job that you were like, come on, we'll just fucking do it.

1:01:03

And you're like, Oh right already. When did it become, how long did it like, look, it took us eight months working together before he finally spoke to me.

1:01:10

So how long did it take for you to be like, Oh, I actually, I absolutely love this.

1:01:15

I guess when you, when you realize, when you go to sleep and you're like, and it sounds bizarre, like, I can't wait to go to work tomorrow.

1:01:23

There was times that I had that early on, you know, I thought that I lost that, but like that, but early on, it was like, like, I really can't wait to go to work tomorrow.

1:01:31

Which was something. Did you ever have a wreck?

1:01:34

Yeah. When I knew, like we were playing like a big hockey, but to have it, you know, I, cause I don't think a lot of people have that, that feeling.

1:01:41

Oh, about going to work.

1:01:43

Yeah. Like, you know, and you're like, Oh, or, or like, I, I didn't ha I had a weekend off and it was Sunday night and Sunday nights were just like the worst nights on the planet and growing up because it was school the next day.

1:01:55

Like there was like, it was like a depressive tone in the, in, in the house.

1:02:00

Cause my father didn't want to go to work. I didn't want him to go to school.

1:02:02

It was like a miserable, Sunday nights were fucking terrible.

1:02:05

60 minutes. Fucking sucks.

1:02:07

Mash

1:02:07

maybe

1:02:07

was

1:02:11

on. It was the most it's like, it was like, like if we had guns in the house, like he, my father was shot himself that it's out of Our

1:02:20

misery. But like Sunday nights when, when the stash was, was ready for me on Monday morning.

1:02:27

Yeah. All that was like gone suddenly.

1:02:29

It was just like, Sundays were awesome.

1:02:30

Well,

1:02:30

I've

1:02:30

got

1:02:30

this

1:02:37

stack. When I, I look like at the poster, that's hanging up here in the testy town, general store and it's it's who took the photo?

1:02:50

Victor Juarez. He's a guy who works for Tom, Steve, Dave on the video side of things.

1:02:54

It is a like picture.

1:02:56

You can't see it. It's a picture of the stash dead center.

1:03:00

You got surf taco next to it. And as a duxiania on the other side at the time, I guess duxiania left the long-term duxiania was when I fucking lived there and shit.

1:03:13

And that was in the nineties. And my old apartment is right there.

1:03:15

The place where fucking Harley was conceived.

1:03:17

Because in that picture, did you hang it?

1:03:21

Yeah. Oh, get him.

1:03:23

Go

1:03:23

up

1:03:23

for

1:03:23

a

1:03:23

sense

1:03:23

of

1:03:23

like,

1:03:23

that's

1:03:23

my

1:03:35

stash. Yeah. That will forever be my stash.

1:03:37

And no, at the moment I saw that poster at first I was like, Oh fucking great, man.

1:03:41

Like, like I got pictures of the stash, like on my hard drive and shit like that.

1:03:45

But there are no pictures of the stash in the stash, even in the milestones thing we did, when it says stash moves up to broad street, it's the artwork, but not an image of the fucking stash.

1:03:57

So seeing the image of the stash at first, I was like, Oh, fucking right on, man.

1:04:01

Of course, like we need an image of the past.

1:04:04

Like it suddenly made me go like now I have to blow up the Jason Lee picture of me and Jason Lee in front of the fucking, all that secret stash and shit like that.

1:04:13

But then the second thought I have was like that, that is one man's monument to his life's work.

1:04:21

Am I sure?

1:04:22

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

1:04:25

I fucking, no, you're not.

1:04:27

I want to have the, the stash from 35 broad street represented in here.

1:04:32

So good.

1:04:32

When

1:04:32

we

1:04:32

moved

1:04:32

the

1:04:32

first

1:04:32

idea

1:04:32

I

1:04:32

had,

1:04:32

I

1:04:32

called

1:04:32

Walt

1:04:32

like

1:04:32

a

1:04:32

few

1:04:32

weeks

1:04:32

later

1:04:32

and

1:04:32

I

1:04:32

was

1:04:32

like,

1:04:32

what

1:04:32

if

1:04:32

we

1:04:32

took

1:04:32

the

1:04:32

stash

1:04:32

to

1:04:42

Leonardo? Because Ernie was building smart castle, which looks fucking astounding.

1:04:46

It looks so good.

1:04:47

And RN he's like, they got to empty units here.

1:04:49

Why don't you move the secret stash here? People come here to see the Quickstop we've got the smokehouse there.

1:04:53

I was like, that's fucking tight, man. That's a good idea.

1:04:56

As I'm a call wall. And once again, I was like, well, it's gonna love this.

1:04:59

Cause what lives closer to Leonardo and Quickstop than he does to red bag.

1:05:05

So I called Walton and I'm like, how about, what if we move the secret stash to Leonardo, to the quick stop building?

1:05:11

And I was waiting for him to be like, yeah.

1:05:13

And instead he was like, I wouldn't do that.

1:05:15

And I was like, why? And he goes, because red bank is where people go to shop.

1:05:20

We get people in the store, don't know anything about you or comics.

1:05:23

And they come in and buy shit and he's gone.

1:05:25

They're doing other things in town.

1:05:26

And so we become one of the things they do, he's gone.

1:05:29

But you go to Leonardo, that's the only people coming to the store are going to be the fans looking for you.

1:05:34

He's like, you won't get any walk-in traffic, which is absolutely right.

1:05:37

I mean, you get people coming over for quick stuff, but very minimal community traffic and stuff.

1:05:41

So I was like, yeah, I guess you're right.

1:05:44

He goes, look, you don't have to stay in on, in this location on broad street, but you should stay in red bank.

1:05:51

And we did a kind of like, well, let's think of the next closest red bank.

1:05:55

Like maybe we've like shot our wad here.

1:05:57

Where's the next coat. And the next closest red bank was Manhattan.

1:06:00

So it was like, all right, red bank is the move.

1:06:04

And so, but what was, I know I have to stand broadsheet and go to like one of the side streets, but I think it'd be ridiculous.

1:06:08

Move to Libra.

1:06:09

So at that point I was like, all right, well, let's start looking around because we were paying a very high rent at the old location.

1:06:17

And in when the pandemic broken shit, I looked for a little relief, you know, rent relief.

1:06:26

And there was none to be found and you know, whatever, that's fine.

1:06:31

But it gave me enough space to be like, well, a lot of businesses closing in town, there's open vacancies and shit like that.

1:06:41

So I told wall and I told, Mike has say, man, do me favor.

1:06:45

And your spare time when you're just walking around red bag, if you see an open space that could be the new stash, like just hit me up with some pictures or something like that.

1:06:57

When, how soon after that, did you find 65, 20 minutes?

1:07:04

Did you just walk down the street?

1:07:06

I had this place, I have always walked past this place and said to myself, this is a really cool building.

1:07:14

It used to be what, like a grocery store.

1:07:16

It was a vegan grocery store, you know, ironic about 10 years ago, because Quinn talked about on the show the other day that Scott, Monica had sent him there to get, we crashed same fucking place.

1:07:28

Yeah. And it's been lying dormant for literally 10 years.

1:07:34

I think it was Republican national headquarters.

1:07:37

We burn some Sage in here.

1:07:39

And when did you come see it with me?

1:07:45

Or know when? Cause I'd come and see you at one point, like, God, you did down for these or something.

1:07:51

I became, Mike gave me a call and said, Hey man, Kevin's looking to move.

1:07:58

And I was like, Oh, okay.

1:08:00

So he came and brought me to this spot first.

1:08:03

Well, technically I didn't rat him out like that.

1:08:06

I did say, well, you know what?

1:08:08

Let's I just want you to see about the viability of, you know, the building does, are the bones good?

1:08:16

Right? Pretty much. Well, I will say that when I first walked in here noticing that nothing has been done here forever and I was here prior, besides the grocery thing, something else had been there since right next door, there was a rug and he'd use this for storage.

1:08:35

Right? Cause there were doors. Yeah.

1:08:37

Well they also had a wall up, but I think that was put up by the Republican party or something.

1:08:41

And when I walked in, I looked around and I saw the amount of work that needed to be done to bring it back to where it had to be.

1:08:49

And I was like, let's go look somewhere else.

1:08:53

And mind you, this is when Ernie was still building spot castle.

1:08:57

I was like, come here real quick.

1:08:59

I got another frog.

1:09:00

I know you're building this thing, but hold on, hold on.

1:09:03

So I, and Mike trust my judgment.

1:09:06

So I said, let's at least look around red bank and see if there's anything else.

1:09:10

Even though the space is cool, the outside is great.

1:09:14

And the visibility is awesome.

1:09:15

Let me see if there's anything else, because in my mind I'm thinking about you and what this is going to cost.

1:09:22

Can I save Kevin A.

1:09:24

Little bit more money and things like that, Ernie knows the world he builds.

1:09:29

He knows like what it's going to be.

1:09:32

So it's one thing to walk in and be like, Hey, this could be the store and are going to be like, sure, Ken, for this amount of right.

1:09:37

Right. And that's the first thing that went in my head and that's Mike, that's why Mike brought me there.

1:09:41

So we looked around and we really couldn't find anything.

1:09:44

We did find, I think one spot, but what they wanted for, it was ridiculous this for the, for the space and for the amount that you would be saving in rent, it kind of justified what I thought I could do the project for, for you, but not knowing the scale that I was really gonna come to.

1:10:07

It's one thing to be like, Oh, I can do it for this.

1:10:08

And then in the middle of the job, you're like, well, it's going to be more like this and stuff.

1:10:11

But regardless it was in a world where we're like opening up a new business right.

1:10:17

In my head and heart. I'm like, look, it's under a hundred grand.

1:10:20

We're all good. And it was well under a hundred fucking grand.

1:10:23

Yes. So at that point, part of the benefit of this place, not just Oh, new space cheaper.

1:10:32

Yes. Because the rent was like almost half of what we were paying that because I remember saying to Mike, I was like, my dream is that we pay half of what we're paying right now, which was 6,500 bucks.

1:10:41

I was like, try to find the perfect location for 30 to 50, that way, you know, we'll, we'll twice the size, half the price.

1:10:50

So not only was it more floor space, but it came with a giant basement which had also then enabled us to close storage spaces that we rent to.

1:11:00

We had two storage units that you've been, well, one you've been occupying for years.

1:11:05

And the second one, we occupied one reboot and you wrote all the reboot stuff over.

1:11:10

So paying the rent on those, you know, that adds up In

1:11:15

the office too. Like the view skew office, the other half of it was the merchandise, right.

1:11:21

Johnny was sending stuff out.

1:11:23

Right? So this space enabled us to close that like that's how Ernie sold.

1:11:29

It's Carol. He's like, you will close your storage bins.

1:11:32

And you'll also won't need the other half of that office.

1:11:36

So that would reduce you this much in fucking rent on a regular.

1:11:40

So over like this much time, we would save this much fucking money while still paying less rent than we're paying to Jack.

1:11:47

And so it was initially when I was like, why don't you guys go for, at it for a place.

1:11:53

It was about what does that term stock and horse or whatever.

1:11:57

Like the idea was, if I can get a better offer, I could go back to Jack and be like, well, this place is going to give us rent for 3,500 bucks.

1:12:07

Can you match that? If not, we got to leave and stuff, but then it became a, a better deal in as much as like, even if Jack could have matched the rent rate, There's

1:12:17

no way he could have competed with this building.

1:12:20

Now with the, and with the sheer, like being able to close down the office as being able to close the storage thing, like getting all this free storage as well and stuff, it was like he could have maybe matched the money, but he couldn't have matched that.

1:12:32

Even if you were, even if you were paying the same exact rent as you were with 35, you're still gaining here for storage and closing down the other spaces.

1:12:42

Plus you also give and tell them Steve, they have their own room, which also cleans up a lot of floor space for the main stash, Which

1:12:50

you guys only ever put the poker table up to do the show or was it up all the time?

1:12:55

I mean, yeah. The poker table was really the only prop or only thing that, and it was, it was there before we started tell him Steve wasn't there because it's always there.

1:13:11

Amy has to be Kevin Smith. Let me tell ya.

1:13:12

I don't have many regrets in life, but I wish I kept all my childhood stuff from my bedroom.

1:13:22

Now

1:13:22

I

1:13:22

spend

1:13:22

a

1:13:22

lot

1:13:22

of

1:13:22

time

1:13:22

going

1:13:22

back

1:13:22

and

1:13:22

trying

1:13:22

to

1:13:22

recollect

1:13:22

it,

1:13:22

bring

1:13:22

it

1:13:22

back

1:13:29

together.

1:13:29

But

1:13:29

I

1:13:29

wish

1:13:29

I'd

1:13:29

kept

1:13:32

that. I wish I'd kept my, my boyish figure from when I was in high school.

1:13:41

And it wasn't even that great back then, but I'll tell you the thing I wish I kept the most, my hair, my hair kids.

1:13:48

It's gone. Can't keep, what's not there man.

1:13:52

And I couldn't keep it because you know, it didn't exist.

1:13:56

Back then keeps keeps.com kids.

1:14:01

K E E P s.com.

1:14:03

Man, go there right now while we're talking.

1:14:06

If you're ready to take action and prevent hair loss, go to K E P S.com/smart to receive your first month of treatment for free that's K E E P s.com/smart to get your first month free man.

1:14:22

K E P s.com/moc keeps.com.

1:14:25

I wish keeps it existed when I was a kid, I wish keeps existed.

1:14:31

When my mom started telling me, I think you're losing your hair.

1:14:34

I was like, no, everybody's got a little bald spot back there.

1:14:36

And now that little bald spot takes up my entire fucking body and it wouldn't have been the case.

1:14:43

If I had keeps back, then man could have got me some damn keeps.

1:14:50

You know why? Because two out of three men experience some form of hair loss by the time they're 35 and I'm fucking 50, I'm going to be 51 more than 50 million men in the U S suffer from male pattern baldness.

1:15:04

Man, there's only two FDA approved medications that can prevent hair loss and keeps offers.

1:15:10

Both it. Keep it simple stress free way for you to keep your hair.

1:15:17

Man convenient, virtual doctor consultations and medications delivered straight to your door.

1:15:23

Every three months, you don't have to leave your house.

1:15:25

Low cost treatments. Start at like 10 bucks a month and keeps offers generic versions and discrete packaging.

1:15:32

So you're, ma'am, ma'am the mailman or mailwoman, won't be like, what the fuck?

1:15:35

You're losing your hair too.

1:15:37

And lots of proven results keeps as more five star reviews than any of its competitors.

1:15:44

Man. Prevention's the key treatments could take four to six months to see results.

1:15:47

So act fast. I wish keeps existed when I was a young man, I wouldn't have been making clerks.

1:15:54

I would have been keeping my hair.

1:15:55

I spent all my money on keeps and it wouldn't have been that much.

1:15:58

I still could've made clerks and had keeps happening, man, all the good things up too late, but don't let that happen to you.

1:16:05

It's not for you. It's never too late for you for having sex.

1:16:09

If you're ready to take action and prevent hair loss, go to keeps.com K E P s.com/smart to receive your first month of treatment for free that's K E E P s.com/smart keeps.com/mud to get your first month free keeps.com K E E P s.com/buy keeps.com/smog.

1:16:29

Now

1:16:29

on

1:16:29

with

1:16:29

the

1:16:29

show,

1:16:38

It, it became like as soon as we came into the space, like this was the first, when we came in like, Oh shit.

1:16:44

When we came into the adjunct room, it's like, Oh my God, this could be, I kept calling it the Tezi theater.

1:16:49

This is going to be tones day fucking theater, man.

1:16:51

They could do all their shit like right in this fucking room and blah, blah, blah.

1:16:54

How long did it take you to do it?

1:16:57

And then we were opening. We were in the midst of opening spot gasoline, finishing spot castle, and then suddenly the pandemic shut that down.

1:17:03

So I was like, Ernie, we got this other job over here and we couldn't start until stash Ended

1:17:10

until 35 ended.

1:17:12

And so that was Christmas.

1:17:15

Essentially. We took it up to Christmas or after Christmas, January 15th, I thought we, at first we were supposed to be out at that point.

1:17:23

So while the, when did you start in on six here on 65 broad street, what month Jesus, can we get in trouble for this?

1:17:38

Yeah, I gotta be careful.

1:17:39

I gotta be sure.

1:17:41

Yes. What I will say is listen in the trades demo work is really not something that has to be under a permit.

1:17:50

The demo and the cleanup that we were doing in here was pretty much basic stuff and we weren't creating any more electrical or structural or anything like that.

1:17:59

We were cleaning up a mess of stuff that was here for 10 years or so.

1:18:02

I came in here for a good month before the lease was up over 35 and just did a massive rehaul of cleaning up and stuff like that.

1:18:14

And really figuring out, laying out how I was going to do it.

1:18:17

And did you ever draw what you wanted to do?

1:18:19

Like did cause the store, when you walk into sixty-five broad, like it's unlike when you know, you walked into 35, I could look around and be like, well, I made that happen.

1:18:30

I made that up and stuff. You can sense my, even the fucking colors of like, Oh, the red and blue is for Superman.

1:18:35

Like I still had a sense of like I was involved here.

1:18:39

I wa like with Ernie in the staff, the new stash, I was like, do what you want.

1:18:45

Like just make it look cool. Make it a fan thing.

1:18:48

There's certain pieces, of course, that are always going to come like buddy costs and whatnot.

1:18:51

But like just, we got space, make it look fucking cool.

1:18:54

And most people would have like, I'm going to go hire a fucking art director or some sort of shit.

1:19:00

But with you, I was like, he fucking knows the fan base.

1:19:04

Like he knows what they would like to see.

1:19:07

Plus he knows how to do this shit.

1:19:09

So I'm not going to have to explain my entire history and mythology to some fucking worker who's like, and you want me to do what?

1:19:16

And so it wants to be what that's kind of what the inspector said when they walked in with like, you're doing, what, what is this, what is this?

1:19:23

What do you make? Why do you have a church?

1:19:25

Right? Mike, when they walked in, they were baffled by what I was creating.

1:19:29

And when I would tell them, well, this is going to be a shrine.

1:19:33

This is going to be like a, a light size robot breaking out of a wall.

1:19:37

This is going to be a car coming up. They're like, what, what is this?

1:19:41

I don't know. What do you sell here?

1:19:44

Robots? I'm like, is this A weed story?

1:19:46

Yeah, it was, it was strange. But what I will say is when I walked into the space, I initially already had an idea of what I wanted to do.

1:19:55

I could just, the good thing about, I have a good way of visualizing how things can be placed.

1:20:03

And as much as I love 35 and you all guys love 35 to me, 35 was a little tight mate.

1:20:12

Then that's probably made it more comforting and more intimate.

1:20:17

And it did.

1:20:18

But it, to me, when I buy, look at it from a building perspective and presenting your artifacts of movie memorabilia, it didn't really, it didn't justify some of the stuff that was in there.

1:20:33

Right. You really couldn't appreciate it, even though it was beautiful and great.

1:20:37

But when I looked at it in here, I was like, Oh my God, I could do that.

1:20:42

And this is really going to look really cool.

1:20:45

Now it's like in the old stash, we had a bunch of stuff up on the walls, right.

1:20:50

But there's, you know, there was no theme other than like, look at all the shit we did.

1:20:55

Now, when you walk into 65 broad street, there are like here's tusk land.

1:21:01

Here's dogma land with the buddy Christ, which is now open and like in a little fucking shrine with a kneeler in a fucking Pew.

1:21:08

So it looks like a job on top of it is the, is the bumping and wheel over here is reboot land with iron Bob coming out of the wall.

1:21:16

And then the entire back wall of the stash, which, you know, any retailer worth their salt would be like, why are we giving up a full wall to this?

1:21:25

We can't put merchandise on a ship, but it's such a beautiful showcase, gorgeous piece of acknowledgement of the store's history.

1:21:36

Like we don't get to the secret stash without fucking Quickstep.

1:21:40

First Ernie built the quick stuff.

1:21:43

Right. But to be honest, when I walked through with Mike and I think he'll probably remember when I saw it originally back, there was a big black, black wall, black wall.

1:21:51

Now the first thing that popped out of my head was this wall should just be the whole view is skew universe on film, just running constantly projected on injected on the wall.

1:22:06

I'll have red velvet curtains To

1:22:08

make it be like a movie and ongoing like Abandoned

1:22:10

Highlands when we were kids. I mean, it would look really cool and nostalgic and we'll do a red velvet ropes and this and that, and maybe do the stars and the front on the, on the floor.

1:22:19

I thought it'd be really cool.

1:22:21

But then I started to realize that, you know, like the height of the ceiling is not as big as the, the old stash.

1:22:28

It's about almost two feet left.

1:22:32

Is that right? So yeah, 35 bucks, you did have very high ceilings, Tin

1:22:36

ceilings, which this one doesn't.

1:22:38

So my second thought was, well, Kevin's bringing the quick stuff, facade around to all these places when he's doing movies.

1:22:46

And if they read it in the reboot and then something just clicked.

1:22:49

And I said that, I think I said the mic of one day.

1:22:51

I said, you know what, I'm going to redo the quick stop.

1:22:54

And he goes, okay. And then at that point, I told you I was going to RST also.

1:22:59

Right.

1:22:59

But

1:22:59

then

1:22:59

you

1:22:59

threw

1:22:59

at

1:22:59

me

1:22:59

all,

1:22:59

I

1:22:59

want

1:22:59

iron

1:22:59

Bob

1:22:59

somewhere

1:22:59

in

1:22:59

that

1:23:05

corner. I said, well, if I give you honor, and Bob, I can't give you RST.

1:23:08

I was like deal.

1:23:09

And he goes deal. I said, yeah, exactly.

1:23:11

So when you think of clerks, you know, definitely RST is a part of it.

1:23:17

But if somebody like, you know, name the fucking you, Oh, it took place in a convenience store.

1:23:22

So it was it's it's the quick, quick step for sure.

1:23:24

And I mean, there was many, many nights and days that I worked here that Mike's like, aren't you out of your fucking mind?

1:23:33

I was going to say, I think one of the best decisions you made on this, I didn't know that though, until hearing it was allowing Ernie to do what he wanted to do.

1:23:41

Because I think that there was like, absolutely an artist hiding inside that like a carpenter's body.

1:23:50

Yeah.

1:23:52

Just like Jesus, this carpet dirt.

1:23:58

Well, his, his work is on any level of any kind of like prop guy, like or set designer in Hollywood.

1:24:06

He was to Walter was talking about when we were doing the grand opening at one point I was like, isn't this a great.

1:24:10

And he was like, the thing that blows my mind is he painted rust onto the shutters.

1:24:14

And I looked up and I was like, Oh yeah, like Ernie weathered it and shit like that.

1:24:18

So it's one thing to like build the fake facade that would have been enough is one another thing to put lights on behind the Quickstop sign.

1:24:25

That would have been fucking enough. But then he like, whether did he put you age?

1:24:28

The locks you put gum in the locks yet had put, come in there.

1:24:34

Yeah. I, I was here while Ernie not in later stages.

1:24:40

So I was here a lot lately and I can attest to it, like consumed with accuracy.

1:24:53

It don't have to be that close. Oh,

1:24:54

there's no telling him that.

1:24:56

Like, it's close enough, close enough. Doesn't exist.

1:24:59

I can't tell you how many times. Well, why after I put the TV up over the milestone poster or the milestone poster was instigated burn areas.

1:25:08

Like you got a big white, red wall. He was like, why don't you put up like some of the shit that happened, like put up a time, like put up a timeline.

1:25:15

I was like, Oh, that's fucking, that's cute. That's a good idea.

1:25:18

Cute. It is cool. It's like, that's neat.

1:25:20

Like we can list a bunch of shit.

1:25:21

And I listed, first thing I did was like, cause I'm so fucking egocentric.

1:25:27

Yeah. It was a Kevin timeline. So it's like, this is all the important shit I did, which includes a lot of Hudson and shit like that.

1:25:32

But then I was like, Jane saw above.

1:25:34

So it says it should be like Jane Samba.

1:25:36

And so I came up with lists, we sent it captain rip, man.

1:25:39

I just wanted him to do it in his font.

1:25:41

Like just can instead of us doing a normal FOC and you write it like this instead he came up with like a fucking gorgeous piece and I unrolled it and sorry on rolled it.

1:25:51

But when you sent me the first graphic graph, thank you.

1:25:56

Well, the first graphic of it, I was just like, this is not what I was expecting me to.

1:26:01

I was like, Jesus, it wasn't. I was kinda blown away.

1:26:04

And I brought it over to Mike and I was like, check this fucking thing out.

1:26:07

Became, came like honestly, grand opening weekend.

1:26:10

I don't know how it's been. Like prior to that.

1:26:12

Well, it just went up for grand opening days before.

1:26:15

But during that grand opening weekend, like, you know, you expect people to fucking look at the buddy Christ.

1:26:21

You expect people look at R and Bob, you expect them to look at the quick setup, but so many people gravitate toward it.

1:26:28

And because it's a reader, like you look at it and then you can actually follow it.

1:26:32

And then it makes you feel warm inside because you're like, I remember this, I remember this Holy shit.

1:26:35

And then you realize how much you were a part of.

1:26:38

And then for people who don't know.

1:26:40

Right. It's fucking fascinating. Cause it was like, who knew these, these fuckers were a thing.

1:26:44

You know what I'm saying? It's like walking into this room and be like, who knew this was a thing and there's an entire fucking universe.

1:26:50

10 people think it's the magic, the gathering, playing card games.

1:26:55

Hang that on the wall here.

1:26:58

People like, Oh, you play magic in here. I'm like, yeah, I don't even bother to explain yet.

1:27:01

This is Friday nights, eight o'clock cards.

1:27:03

I don't even bother to explain it.

1:27:05

Shuffle up. We're doing it on Friday, but banging on the door and like seven 30, come on.

1:27:11

We want to get in. So you, So

1:27:13

you go for the quick stop back wall because when, when does it stop being a movie thing and become, I'll do a quick stop.

1:27:21

Oh

1:27:24

no. That's what you were talking about. Hanging the TV.

1:27:25

That's fine.

1:27:26

We hang the TV.

1:27:28

Yes. And I become annoying to, to a degree to get him.

1:27:33

And he's been, he was wonderful to help me get him, me certain things.

1:27:37

But like, he, he is so proud of, of, of being able to help you.

1:27:43

I mean, had that respect.

1:27:43

I don't think he respects anybody more Planning.

1:27:49

I'm not kidding Around.

1:27:51

I say this with a hundred percent seriousness, so much so that like he tells me, he brought him a Valentine's day card.

1:27:57

I'm

1:27:57

like,

1:27:57

what

1:27:57

the

1:27:57

fuck

1:27:57

is

1:27:57

going

1:27:57

on

1:27:57

between

1:27:57

use

1:28:03

two. What is going on?

1:28:04

But not Bernie could scoff and be like, yeah, like he was just as much an average what?

1:28:10

This guy, you are leaning on each other, like get a copy of Valentine's day card.

1:28:14

And I was like, yeah, I know already.

1:28:15

It's

1:28:15

just

1:28:18

weird.

1:28:20

It's like blossom in like this like really, really intense friendship that you know, that he's like depressed that like you're moving on.

1:28:28

You're not going to be, what do you mean?

1:28:31

He's not gonna be here every day.

1:28:32

Buying him food donuts.

1:28:35

Talk to me.

1:28:37

Do you think Ernie likes chocolate with cinnamon?

1:28:42

Fuck too. I know. And why aren't you asking me But

1:28:52

it was, it was weird though. Not weird, but it's strange.

1:28:56

Listen, it was fucked up because, well, first I, you know, I'm not techie, you know that I it's, I have a hard time sending you a, a video when it comes to like the phone.

1:29:07

You're you're very much like a like dad.

1:29:09

Yeah, exactly. I'm one of those old Syriza.

1:29:11

They used to sell the big button phones too.

1:29:14

I'm not that good at it.

1:29:16

So get in my way and be like, Hey man, can you, can you pull up the quick stop for me?

1:29:21

I can get it on my phone, but I can't fucking see it.

1:29:23

I was like, can you pull something? And he's like, well, I'll put it on the TV for you.

1:29:26

And he put it on the TV now is the, the, he shouldn't have did that because now I'm watching the fucking TV, you know, I'm doing a thing on the thing.

1:29:34

I'm like, that's the game shit. what it looks like.

1:29:37

And then he's, then he he'll go as far as blowing up pictures for me on the window.

1:29:43

And I'm like, fuck, I forgot this.

1:29:44

I gotta this now. And I got in that and he's breaking my balls saying, Ernie, what about that?

1:29:51

And I'm like, mother, God, you're right.

1:29:53

You're talking about he's being cruel because he knew that you're the type of personality that was like, Oh, I think there's a donut, a donut box on that counter in the original clerks.

1:30:03

You're like, Oh, I got to have a doughnut box. Now I

1:30:05

won't be able to live without a donut.

1:30:07

But guess who goes out at 3:00 AM and gets them a fucking donut box?

1:30:10

That guy over there they're chopping meat.

1:30:13

I know. That's what it morphed into a digital man Analog

1:30:19

world.

1:30:22

Cause I didn't even originally when I was going to build the door to the quick stop, I was just going to make it look like the door.

1:30:28

Right. And then I'm like the steel shutter over it.

1:30:30

No, no, no, no, no. But I was always going to do the door.

1:30:32

I didn't like the steel shutters that they did in the other places.

1:30:36

Yeah, no, I can do better. I hate to say that, but I just, I wanted to represent, I want it to represent, I just wanted to represent the store for you properly.

1:30:47

Right. So it just, I was like the black wall just doesn't do it for me.

1:30:51

And then I just see it clicked.

1:30:53

I was like, can we put a, I'm going to put a photo in there and you're like, Holy fuck.

1:30:58

And then when he kept showing me the videos, I'm like, shit, there's a bar.

1:31:02

There's a a month. And there's a bucket.

1:31:04

And all of this, I asked, listen, I don't know what the fuck he does at night.

1:31:08

Get him. He thinks about

1:31:10

texted

1:31:14

me. He thinks you might like, how do you spell mine?

1:31:18

I'm ready to be mine.

1:31:22

I, I leave here one night.

1:31:24

I usually leave pretty late.

1:31:26

And I was like, I got, I, I need them up the next day.

1:31:31

There's a map here is that you get them on it.

1:31:35

I'm like, what the fuck do you get them up?

1:31:37

Because I just stumbled across them up somewhere.

1:31:39

And I was like, yeah, but my asshole says the sign, the fucking mop signs so that people should know that the mop sign it's upside down in the side, glass is actually officially from the quick stuff.

1:31:51

Are you serious? Yeah. I got all slurry there are you serious?

1:31:54

What'd you ask Raj?

1:31:56

And we were like, I went to Raj and said, give me an sign.

1:31:59

That's he goes, let me go into storage.

1:32:01

And he pulled one out. When I saw that, like Ernie had asked me, he's like, can you get me one of your artists to do inside of the window of Quickstop man.

1:32:11

He's like, we're trying to pull it off of the DVD and the blue rays.

1:32:15

Yeah. We tried to get him to try it for, I mean, how many, how long did we try finding photos?

1:32:19

And he searched high and we couldn't and I searched at home for hours.

1:32:24

Right? It's like the best point of view is when John's point of view walks in from the last scene, I was like, Oh, we don't even have a nice version of that.

1:32:33

Right. So I was like, I bet you, Nate could do it.

1:32:35

And so Nate Gonzalez, who does all of our fat man beyond our work, he drew the door.

1:32:40

Like we're looking in the window in the window and it's such a nice touch, man.

1:32:44

It gives it depth on the camera. Like, cause we shot it all weekend.

1:32:47

It looks really cool. But when I saw the ups, the fucking upside down, you know, mop floor, mopping, fucking sign, like that took me instant.

1:32:56

I thought that was a brilliant fucking touch.

1:32:58

Cause I'm like, I put that sign up so often and it's in clerks when they, they put it up and they're mopping at the very end before they leave and shit like that.

1:33:05

Yeah. But it was such a part of the culture is such a part of my everyday routine.

1:33:08

Then when I saw it in the window, I was like, yeah, well I quit again.

1:33:12

I quit again.

1:33:13

And I tried so glad I have a fake version of this place to romanticize it, but I tried.

1:33:18

So I mean, I know everything was under the gun and I wanted everything ready for the opening.

1:33:23

That's the other thing this was built like in record time.

1:33:27

Well, if man, Nah

1:33:29

like in a smile As

1:33:37

a one man operation, you bring in other people and stuff, but you're mostly the fucking loan.

1:33:41

The loan. Yeah. You went fucking fast too.

1:33:44

Cause you closed one. When, when did we open the soft opening?

1:33:48

Well, listen, I, in my upper wary, it was two weeks ago last Monday.

1:33:53

So to wait till March. So no, no all Shucks

1:33:56

man. No, no, no.

1:33:58

When we started, I was like, you know what? Like January and February are kind of slow.

1:34:01

So we did be closed. It's totally okay.

1:34:03

In my mind, calculating what I wanted to do, even though I did things a lot bigger than I expected because my mind just kept opening up.

1:34:12

As I was doing stuff, I had seen myself about 10 weeks, but unfortunately the pandemic, what it took to get material that wasn't, you know, everything was just slowed down ever.

1:34:28

And also permits the permits, the town meetings, historical society, reviews, all this kind of stuff got slowed down so bad because of the pandemic that it kinda, which was good and bad because what it did is it made me rethink a lot of stuff.

1:34:47

And I was like, okay, I'm going to do this now.

1:34:49

And I'm going to do that now. And then once I started can help me with, but once I started sharing, sounds like he rolled over and said, wake up.

1:35:00

I got a great idea.

1:35:02

Let

1:35:02

me

1:35:02

show

1:35:02

you,

1:35:10

man.

1:35:12

When Ernie moves on to his next job, I said, it's cool having him here.

1:35:15

He's just, he's really fun to have around us.

1:35:17

Like I'm thinking about breaking some shit into a yeah.

1:35:18

just

1:35:18

to

1:35:18

have

1:35:18

them

1:35:18

come

1:35:18

back

1:35:18

and

1:35:18

work,

1:35:18

keep

1:35:18

working

1:35:18

here

1:35:18

something

1:35:18

he

1:35:18

knows

1:35:31

That like this, this wouldn't break naturally.

1:35:33

How did this happen? We went looking for treasure.

1:35:35

It's a long story. But anyway, it's going to take a month, six weeks, right?

1:35:41

Exactly.

1:35:44

What was the, the most satisfying aspect of the new stash when you built it to me?

1:35:51

I mean like, I love the Quickstop it's an absolutely ingenious.

1:35:54

And I remember when you were like I'm building buddy shrine and stuff.

1:35:58

I was like, Oh, that's going to be cute. And then when we saw the kneeler and you're like, I could get this dealer for 40 bucks, but it's in fucking Rhode Island.

1:36:04

I was like, get it. What are you waiting for?

1:36:06

And then when he was like, I got a Pew, I got lights.

1:36:09

So when I saw the picture, one of you sent me a fucking picture.

1:36:12

The first time it was up, like I fell in love with it.

1:36:16

It's bright. It's poppy.

1:36:17

Like it's you use the repurpose, the stained glass and the doors that were here when we came to the place, when we came to look at the place and stuff.

1:36:26

So I like am drawn to the shrine.

1:36:28

I love that. There's a Pew there.

1:36:30

I love that. There's a kneeler there.

1:36:32

And I did get to kneel at the kneel or the other day.

1:36:34

And I was like, this is the right relationship.

1:36:35

It takes me right back to OLP.

1:36:38

H like that is may of fucking age, six to 13.

1:36:42

And what forced to kneel in front of there.

1:36:45

When I told you today, when we were together, that's what's coming.

1:36:49

So when you go to, when you go to at least when we went to LPH, I'm sure it's the same in all fucking churches though.

1:36:55

He's got the poor box, which they later renamed donations instead of like fucking putting poor on it.

1:37:00

Because people like me receive that money.

1:37:02

And my mom was like, well, it's not necessarily poor, but we could use the help and shit.

1:37:06

Ernie was like, we need a donations box, which would just be fantastic.

1:37:09

What

1:37:09

do

1:37:09

they

1:37:12

donate? And in that instance, you donate to the church.

1:37:14

In this instance, you're donating to like a profitable show, But

1:37:19

to be fair. So is there, Yeah,

1:37:21

they don't even have to pay fucking taxes. No, no.

1:37:23

Let's, I mean, we're not paying off the sins of the, well, we're all still Paying

1:37:33

for our sins. The fucking, That

1:37:35

fucking book I left the Island for Ray, man.

1:37:42

I know what you were talking about.

1:37:45

Yes.

1:37:47

What is your favorite?

1:37:47

God,

1:37:47

I

1:37:47

mean,

1:37:47

I

1:37:47

really

1:37:53

listen. I love buddy.

1:37:56

It does. It brings me back to school and, and he's now appreciated more than he ever was, but he's not behind bullet.

1:38:04

Right. Set up an old Pope, like the new Pope he's riding around.

1:38:07

And I do love it.

1:38:09

I have an affection for the glass.

1:38:11

The fact that it's still here and not in pieces for all these years since the, the window.

1:38:20

Yeah. The old windows from Monmouth and now you've moved it twice.

1:38:22

Right. That is just, you know, beyond words for that.

1:38:27

But to be honest, I re I honestly did not think I could have created that quick stop that way.

1:38:34

Is that right? So you pushed yourself and you found a new, a new high, new limit or a new fucking, yeah.

1:38:40

I just didn't think, you know, I was like, ah, I can do this and that.

1:38:43

And then at some point I was like, you know, you get to a point where I, if you know me, well, I do not really Pat myself on the back for work that I do.

1:38:53

I'm just like, yeah, fuck. It's good.

1:38:55

Yeah. Whatever. And I walk away, I don't take pictures of any of my work, whatever kitchens house I build anything I do.

1:39:01

I don't. I so fucking, I guess.

1:39:03

Yeah, because when you build the kitchen, I walk away from it.

1:39:06

Right. Pictures of the bookshelves you built me But that I, you know, cause it has history.

1:39:19

Yeah. It has. That's the literal sign from quick, quick stop sign that I worked beneath.

1:39:26

I, I, you know, I joke about like fucking the place.

1:39:28

I didn't want to go to an Ernie, built it in the back of the store, but even more so that is literally the sign under which like I toiled and dreamed and thought, Oh, what about a movie in a convenience store?

1:39:38

So it's not just a replica, it's the actual sign.

1:39:41

When we shot clerks to there, they let us take that.

1:39:44

And we gave him a brand new one. So that's, I mean those couple items, but I'd have to say the quick stuff.

1:39:50

Cause I really didn't, it's, it's a museum showcase piece.

1:39:53

Like if you go into the Funko pop store and they've got like this big Batman environment, like this is fucking stunning.

1:39:59

It's like that it's an entire environment that, you know, again, most retailers would be like, we gotta fucking hang shirts on it or something like fucking it's literally just there to be a photo op and kind of as a breathtaking.

1:40:16

Yeah. Well, and like, and you're stepping into the movie junkie is going well, the fans Deserve

1:40:23

it. They really do.

1:40:24

They deserve to have that here.

1:40:27

Even though they should go visit the original, which they still do, they do all the time, but they should have that.

1:40:34

That's why, you know, that's why I think the way I think.

1:40:37

And you like the way I think for that, because it's like, they deserve good as a Disney world store.

1:40:42

Like if you went into a Disney world, A

1:40:46

Disney world that as well, I think I could survive a real fucking hurricane.

1:40:50

Tom

1:40:50

Sawyer,

1:40:50

Ryan,

1:40:50

I'm

1:40:50

telling

1:40:50

you,

1:40:50

man,

1:40:50

like,

1:40:50

you're

1:40:50

going

1:40:50

to

1:40:50

like

1:40:50

down

1:40:58

John and you go shopping at those stores and they're all themed to whatever the fuck moving and stuff.

1:41:02

It's like an adult Disneyland out there, you know, for, for something, for something that, well, it was a cartoon for a second, generally not cartoons.

1:41:10

Yeah, really fucking wonderful.

1:41:12

And adult Playland. And one of those things that, like I said, it, when I walked into smart castle today Zo and showed mom and a smart castle and Ernie's hung all the like live artwork and stuff like that from live shows and ship, it looks fantastic.

1:41:28

But I said, when I walked in at 1.6, fucking makes me so happy.

1:41:32

Like it's just a like that this exists and stuff.

1:41:36

Same with the stash. When I came in, I seen it on video and stuff.

1:41:40

Cause Ernie and Christian had been shooting a making of the stash or project stash, a video series on the YouTube channel and stuff and seeing it all.

1:41:50

I was like, Oh my God, this looks great. And of course they said pictures while it was going on.

1:41:53

But just walking in, it made me happy if it made me fucking happy.

1:41:56

I got to imagine like the average fan walks in and they're like, wow.

1:42:00

Well I said, I kept saying to Mike and I said to my, I said to my wife, I would say to, to Wayne and every pretty much who would ask me all their money.

1:42:07

That's great. It looks wonderful.

1:42:08

And I'd be like, yeah, I know like what the fuck, dude, it looks so good.

1:42:12

And I'm like, I will not be satisfied until my boy comes here and looks at it and said, I mean, I serious.

1:42:19

It's just, I mean, it's just because you know, that's all it really is, is just to you to come in and say, this is fucking amazing.

1:42:27

The Oh, and do you like chocolate and cinnamon together?

1:42:33

Yeah. That's exactly what the immortal question. Yeah.

1:42:37

It's the two architects of stash one and well, mostly two.

1:42:44

It's so funny because stash one is really stashed to stash.

1:42:47

One is the tiny ass place, but I always think of the stash here.

1:42:51

Broad street, is that what you call it there long enough to, or if we're doing it Ironman style, that's Mark wan stash.

1:43:01

Mark one Are two becomes what everyone knows as the secret stash legendary.

1:43:08

And we had, again, we had fucking seven seasons of a TV show.

1:43:12

So it's like, just like the set of Mork and Mindy is forever locked in your heart and imagination.

1:43:16

The set of happy days, owls are fucking Arnolds you, you know what?

1:43:22

It looks like that stash had that going for it.

1:43:25

When you walked into the stash, it started as a celebration of all things, view a SKU and then became a TV set so that when you walked into it, now, it wasn't just like, Oh, there's some shit from, from a thing.

1:43:37

When you walked into it, you're like, I'm in a thing.

1:43:40

This is where it fucking happens.

1:43:43

And stuff like that.

1:43:44

The two architects of the two stashes you built, I mean, we know rat built and designed and shit, but like you built 20 years of a fucking store that, that built a TV show.

1:43:57

And then you just came in and built the new version of the fucking stash as we go forward and stuff like 25 next year is a quarter of a century of a brick and mortar businessmen.

1:44:11

And mind you in order to get there, most people that own the business have to put nose to the grindstone, probably do it themselves and shit like lots of owners of a business man, the counter themselves and shit like that.

1:44:25

I've had the benefit of 25 years of a FA coming up next year, 25 years of a fucking business that I didn't even have to be there for.

1:44:34

And operated like perfectly well without me so much so that it led to a fucking television show.

1:44:41

Like I know if I'd been more involved, none of that would've happened, but like the freedom to like do it, like, as I said, this is your store.

1:44:47

Like, I'll remember, like I said to wall, this is your store man running.

1:44:51

When he finally came up to broad street and shit, I was still living next to broad street.

1:44:55

Like I said, me and muse would come down and shit.

1:44:57

And I, when the store was open, like for business closed at night, we'd come down and be like, let's put this here, let's put this here is move shit around and whatnot.

1:45:06

And I would do that. And then like, I'd go in the next day.

1:45:09

And shit was like moved back. And that went on for like a week.

1:45:12

And one day I asked Brian and I was like, who keeps moving the shit?

1:45:14

Like I go in there and I keep moving the shit. And the keeps being moved back.

1:45:17

Do you move back? And he goes, no author does that.

1:45:19

And I was like, why? And he goes, he doesn't like it when he messed with the store.

1:45:22

I was like, it's my story? He's like, no, you gave it to Walter.

1:45:25

And I was like, and so like I did at that moment, I did go like, you know what?

1:45:32

That is true and stuff. And so I stopped inflicting any, like, this is what I want, or we should do this or whatever.

1:45:39

Cause I was like, it's his?

1:45:41

I told him it was his, that was predicated on the dream.

1:45:43

Let them do it. And in doing so, just like giving him the freedom to be like, do what you want.

1:45:49

Like fucking just, you know what it should be.

1:45:51

These are the certain components that got to go, but like just make it fucking amazing, make it cool.

1:45:56

When you give talented people and mind you, and you talked about him earlier on going, like it was a budding artist and fucking like hidden the artist hidden in that carpenter chip, same fucking thing with you.

1:46:07

As we did in the previous two episodes of spot cast, like you fucking built something out of fucking nothing and stuff, but that's a badge of honor for me.

1:46:14

I could walk around this world pride. One more thing to be proud of.

1:46:17

I got 25 years of a brick and mortar fucking storm of retailer.

1:46:20

I left the world of retail by telling a story about the world of retail, but never really left the world of retail, but I never had to work the world of retail again.

1:46:29

You know, if, if you're lucky in this life, you get to stand on a tall shoulders and I continue to stand on tall shoulders.

1:46:38

And, and because of that, I get the beauty of bragging rights of having something that not a lot of people fucking have.

1:46:46

The idea is that was the first 24, 25 years.

1:46:51

And let's see how much longer we could go.

1:46:54

You know, now at this point we've made the move and shit like that.

1:46:57

Financially things are making sense in terms of we pay less and whatnot and get rid of all our other storage spaces.

1:47:03

And you know, granted, we reopened and we've had the grand opening.

1:47:07

So things are very good right now.

1:47:09

Good numbers and shit like that.

1:47:11

But I'd be happy to get my goal now is just to get to 37.

1:47:17

If we can get, if we could get to 37 years of the secret stash, then we'll have that conversation again where I'm like, now we can probably let it go.

1:47:27

That feels like a number to hang the hook on 12 years from now 13, but yes, 13.

1:47:33

Wow. That's a long time. It just means that like that's a long time.

1:47:37

Well, tell him Steve day might be the big muscle by that.

1:47:42

Tell them secret Stash or get them secret stash Ernie and get them.

1:47:46

We'll build it. But

1:47:47

I feel like, I mean, if you just spend breakfast, 37

1:47:59

guarantee and then one day there's no storage.

1:48:02

Just like nanotech The

1:48:04

store builds around the customer, opened up a garage door and you can have it right there.

1:48:10

That's right.

1:48:12

We can always take the page from the pioneer Himself,

1:48:16

Kiss his ass. Now Gavin is still listening.

1:48:18

You know, you know, we didn't tune out.

1:48:20

Steve Dave tuned out when he was still a part of the story it was done.

1:48:23

But Ray was like, look, he fucked Me

1:48:26

over with that. Hardcover terminate argue over.

1:48:28

But I believe in him. He's a good guy.

1:48:29

Thank you for your belief.

1:48:31

Right?

1:48:31

That's

1:48:31

my

1:48:34

goal. We just gotta make it another 13 years.

1:48:36

And I, I didn't expect we'd make 25.

1:48:41

The only thing I said was like, I guarantee you will make a 10 and shit here.

1:48:45

We are still fucking going. So that's that is my long-term fucking dream.

1:48:50

13

1:48:52

years. Me 66, no, hold on 16,

1:48:58

16. I'll be calling you up in Florida being like, can you fly up and turn the lights off?

1:49:02

I'm

1:49:05

retired. I can do that from my phone. I'm

1:49:14

67. You'll be 67 years old.

1:49:17

Still. Won't be 70 year old man. And 70 don't look old anymore.

1:49:19

No, no, no, not anymore, man.

1:49:22

So we get the younger, we look and it'll be like, remember, remember when Jack's metal lady worked there and she was much older than the people that bought albums there.

1:49:32

She looked like a grown ass adult. Maybe not just a grown ass adult, but like hidden 60.

1:49:37

That could be, that could be, that could be us.

1:49:41

We could be the new metal lady Red

1:49:43

back.

1:49:45

I thank you both. I thank you, Mike, as well.

1:49:48

Get, thank you for, for being earnings, Jimminy cricket.

1:49:53

Apparently on this journey of building the store, you should do it better.

1:49:57

Here's

1:49:57

the

1:49:57

Valentine

1:49:57

to

1:49:57

keep

1:49:57

you

1:50:01

going.

1:50:01

The

1:50:01

stash

1:50:01

secrets,

1:50:01

Jay

1:50:01

and

1:50:06

silent. Bob secret stash is alive and well in red bank, ladies and gentlemen.

1:50:09

And once again, we've traded places for the third time ever and stuff, but we're still here and God willing, we'll be here for minimum and other.

1:50:18

I'm telling you like, even if, even if we're doing gangbusters at year 37, that just seems like the year to end.

1:50:25

Because then what happens is like, Ooh, if we just go another 13, we're at 50.

1:50:29

So it feels like you commit to the 37 years Michael being a Walker.

1:50:34

Now I'll be in diapers, man.

1:50:36

What are you talking? A lot of us might be dead at that point.

1:50:38

I'll be honest. But to be able to be like that comic store lasted 50 fucking years.

1:50:42

Well, let's just go, Holy shit.

1:50:47

That's that's 26 years from now.

1:50:49

So it is, it is a moment we'll go 37 is good.

1:50:52

That's longer than what the got a dream man kind of something to look forward before we go.

1:51:00

No man is an Island and stuff.

1:51:02

So I know you had a lot of help, Megan, the store.

1:51:04

Do you want to shout out some, you've got to list, so I know you want to shout out some people go.

1:51:09

Yeah. Well first my, my crew that helped me out.

1:51:11

I had my, my good friend, Wayne Levy came by for a good amount of time and helped me out.

1:51:17

He's he actually did some work with me in the past, on the Motown plan in Hollywood, things like that.

1:51:23

I had my nephew, Brian here helping me out.

1:51:26

And of course, Troy Burbank, who's another good friend of mine helped me with a lot of stuff.

1:51:32

I brought in Chris covert, a great artist and designer who, when you come into the stash to the front doors, please look up The

1:51:41

unsung piece of the stash. And I didn't even, and I knew it was going right.

1:51:45

And I was so like in raptured, by things that I leveled that I never looked up, Ernie had an idea for like, why don't we put a mural up on the ceiling, man?

1:51:52

Like kinda like God created Adam and shit like that.

1:51:55

And him and Chris came up with this gorgeous fucking piece, which is, if you look up it's lit back lit and shit like that, it really looks dope.

1:52:04

Yeah. It's the Easter egg feature of the staff because a lot of people don't notice it, But

1:52:11

with the need to ride on the floor, look up and people bow.

1:52:14

Yeah. That's a good idea. And then of course we changed the awnings outside to black.

1:52:18

That was Jersey shore awnings out of Neptune.

1:52:21

They gave me a great deal.

1:52:23

A bunch of great guys over there, you need An

1:52:25

awning. You go to Jersey shore and Neptune.

1:52:27

Yes. And then of course Moore's plate glass has been with us for a few years, moving that beautiful piece of glass that Mr.

1:52:36

Scott Mosher did multiple times for us and never breaking it.

1:52:40

So we really appreciate that for them.

1:52:42

They've been in red bank for awhile glass masters.

1:52:45

Yes. And we also got the guys who created a new logo that you sent me the new sign in front of the stash and the window graphics and the tea and the what company what's their company called.

1:52:57

That is Chris. That's my man, Chris at South shore, sine brothers out of Mattawan at Amana one at a matter of OTO where the hobby shop was But those guys killed it and they were the window graphics.

1:53:19

But the fucking sign, the sign was the new logo of the stash, captain red man drawing and stuff.

1:53:25

Really nice. And it looks like me and Jay from Jay and silent, Bob reboot, more modern version of us.

1:53:29

But the company that like made the sign, right?

1:53:34

Which Ernie mentioned say their names again.

1:53:36

South shore sign brothers also did like window graphics that went up first, the captain, Rick Redman, window graphics and stuff like that.

1:53:44

But the sign is beautiful.

1:53:45

What I love about this, it's not as big as the old sign, which is still in our window here.

1:53:49

I love that you put the old sun right upfront in the window and the old letters and shit like that.

1:53:53

But what I dig about the new sign is it looks like in like an indie record store, right?

1:53:59

That's what we mean. You were talking about going Pez.

1:54:00

A real punk rock fields are too big, too small, just enough where it had that vintage type of feel to it.

1:54:07

And they pulled it all kind of like if you know, you know, there it is.

1:54:10

Ladies and gentlemen, oral history of the secret stashes, at least the East coast secret stashes.

1:54:16

We haven't touched the West coast ones, but you know, let's be honest.

1:54:19

The East coast secret stash was always the secret stash.

1:54:23

You know, we may not have franchise as big as comics plus, but we did get to two coasts and shit, but the one, the heart and soul, the operation always been there in red bag.

1:54:33

And here we are still in red bank.

1:54:35

And next year, as I keep saying, it's going to be 25 years.

1:54:37

Cause I just want you all not to be surprised when I started fucking selling t-shirts and shit.

1:54:41

But as we sit here and year 24 and whatnot, it's it's to me, something that I wear like a fucking merit badge, like I wear like an accomplishment, like making clerks or something like that.

1:54:55

And I didn't even do it. Like I just, I funded it.

1:54:59

Y'all make the stash what it is.

1:55:02

Thank you for that. Thank you for keeping it going.

1:55:05

Thank you for fucking making it so much so that we could add a TV show and who knows.

1:55:09

It's always possible that there's another fucking TV show in the future and shit like that.

1:55:15

You might have to act again.

1:55:19

Oh no. Oh no. You're like boy Scheider and fucking jaws too.

1:55:22

You're like, I know what a shark looks like.

1:55:24

You better fix this problem.

1:55:26

So I go through that.

1:55:29

There it is. Kids. That's my podcast for this week, man.

1:55:33

I'm Kevin Smith planning.

1:55:35

Mike's AppSec and Ernie O'Donnell the architects of the secret stash.

1:55:39

Ladies and gentlemen have a week.

1:55:41

This

1:55:57

has been a smart coat internet production [email protected].

0:04

You are in a pocket? Hi, guys.

0:07

You wanna podcast? I got a podcast.

0:10

You wanna a podcast? I gotta a podcast.

0:12

You wanna you wanna wanna you wanna you

0:15

wanna you wanna you wanna buy can't

0:17

do you wanna show? Do you get your

0:19

last from what you hear radio with this

0:37

Welcome to SMOD I'm Kevin Smith.

0:40

Okay, kids. Remember last time we were

0:42

having big old discussion about secret

0:44

origins of the secret stash.

0:46

That's right. Jane Selimab, secret stash

0:49

moved from their longtime home

0:53

at shit.

0:55

I always do this as a reverse thirty

0:57

five Broad Street, and we've

0:59

moved up to our new home at

1:02

sixty five street. I always conflate those numbers, reversed 2. I always conflate

1:04

those numbers, reverse them. And

1:06

so while I was back east,

1:09

while back for the grand

1:11

opening secret stash. We

1:15

we recorded sit down

1:17

me and Walt Flanagan,

1:21

Michael Zapcic and Ernesto Donald

1:24

talking about how the Stash

1:26

came to be back then and how

1:28

it evolved and how the new secret

1:31

stash. The neo stash came

1:34

to be at sixty five Broadstreet with

1:36

Ernie building it. So

1:38

we got Mike and and Walt

1:40

talking about the history, talking

1:43

about Comm Bookman's era and

1:45

whatnot, and Ernie talking about

1:48

the present and the future of

1:50

secret stash. Let's go

1:53

back in and start

1:55

listening to that conversation.

1:57

Let's become audio cooks

2:00

for the rest of the secret origins of

2:02

the secret stash. Bookman

2:05

begins, what? Twenty twelve? Twenty twelve.

2:07

Yes. So from two thousand and

2:09

one ish, thousand

2:11

too ish because that was late September and she looked

2:14

like that, but somewhere in that corridor.

2:16

So almost ten fucking years. What

2:20

goes on at the Stash for that decade. Just

2:23

big it's every day -- Business. -- and

2:25

every day. You know? Yeah. So No problem.

2:27

Nothing wrong. Nothing exciting. We're doing

2:29

events. Like, we do magazines that

2:31

are tied to the Stash. We do, you

2:33

know, fucking later on podcast events.

2:35

We do a lot of poker events. Here

2:37

in the secret state or there in the secret stash,

2:39

and we will here in the new secret stash. But

2:42

a lot of events

2:44

and stuff like that we shot James

2:47

on Bob's right back -- Yeah. -- there

2:49

as well at that point by

2:51

by that was in two thousand one. But

2:55

a few years, about two years before

2:58

or one year before comic

3:00

bookman conversation began. Like,

3:02

I remember talking to Walt and like,

3:05

I think, you know, you wouldn't use this

3:07

expression back then, but things were trending

3:09

downward. And so I was like, I think

3:11

the Stash, like, has

3:14

about five more years of life

3:16

left. Was it five or two? I

3:19

don't know. I don't even remember this. I I You don't remember

3:21

this conversation? Yeah. I need more information. I

3:23

felt the need to tell you because I was like because

3:25

I told you, like, I'm gonna keep the stash open for

3:27

ten years and we did. But it was,

3:29

like, I wasn't making any more Jane.

3:31

Sound and Bob anything. And so I was like, you know, after clerks too, it all just kind of goes by the wayside and maybe, you know, it's fucking the And so I

3:33

was, like, you know, after

3:35

clerks too, it all just kinda goes

3:37

by the wayside. And maybe,

3:39

you know, it's it the fucking

3:42

money wasn't the same as it was when we began.

3:45

It wasn't we weren't in debt or anything like that, but

3:47

it was trending down. So

3:49

at that point, I

3:51

had a conversation with you where I was, like,

3:53

probably within five years,

3:56

the Stash will go away.

3:58

Just as a heads up in terms of,

4:00

like, you know, not, like, start looking for a job

4:02

now, but, like, you know, it's gonna stop.

4:06

Then couple of years into that.

4:09

Two or three years after we had that conversation

4:11

was when the comic bookman well,

4:13

which wasn't called the comp book. And the AMC

4:15

conversation began about doing a show,

4:19

a a show at a comp book store, which the later

4:21

became pilot. This is a

4:23

real called The Secret Stash, which was then

4:25

later changed into comic

4:28

book men. And so when

4:31

I, like, talked to Charlie about the

4:33

idea and was, you used to do this fucking

4:35

show set at a comic book store, man, because

4:37

the culture understands it now and

4:39

that's cheap. I don't cost nothing. Right? It's just reality TV and just

4:41

reality TV and shit. And whoever

4:44

runs a comic store, they're usually fucking fast,

4:46

funniest Arabic, fucking people, and stuff like

4:48

that. And he went to AMC

4:50

with that name. He was like, that's fucking great.

4:52

And and so he came back and said, they wanna

4:54

do it and they're gonna give us ten grand shoot. This

4:57

is real, and I was just, like, fucking, how

4:59

is that good? And he's, like, oh, go to location

5:01

fee. And I was, like, the location

5:03

fee. What do you mean? He's, like, we gotta pay conflict

5:05

story to do this. Like, shoot our

5:07

our imagined show. My imagined show of the

5:09

show I pitched was like go find the

5:11

most disturbing comic book store staff

5:14

in America. 2 a nationwide search, and then

5:16

you're doing a show about them and shit.

5:18

And so, you know, he's talking about

5:20

shooting a Caesar reel, and I'm like, well, I

5:22

have a complex tour. We get shoot at mine and won't

5:24

cost anything. And he was like, what do you

5:26

mean? You have a complex tour? And I was like, I

5:29

I hadn't brought it up for. But, yeah, I I

5:31

own a couch or James, sandbox. Seeker says we've had it for years in red bank, New about to see if you said we've had

5:33

it for years in Red Bank, New Jersey. And I was

5:35

like, you're fucking crazy? Like, that's the

5:37

show. And I was like, is it? I I said, well,

5:40

he goes, we can we we can we still have to

5:42

2 this Israel. And I was like, well, the guys who work

5:44

at the store do a and

5:46

they're very fucking funny. And so

5:48

they could stand in for the guys

5:51

who will the show will eventually be about. And

5:53

the sizzle reel, they'll be like

5:55

the pilot stars, and then we

5:57

can go out and do our nationwide search

5:59

and find the real comic book store that the show

6:01

will be based on. And he was like, okay.

6:04

He goes, how funny are they? I was like, I'll tell

6:06

you, man, you SMOD some weed tonight. You go fucking listen

6:08

to the first five episodes. I'll give you links

6:10

to tell him Steve there. It's

6:13

it's just fucking fantastic. And he did.

6:15

He went home and fucking spoke to uplist those episodes.

6:17

He called me back the next time. He was like, this

6:19

is the fucking show. You're an idiot. This is the fucking

6:22

show. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, you already

6:24

have a fucking TV show here. You have your own

6:26

comic book store. Your fucking friends work there

6:28

and run it and shit like that. These two fucking dudes

6:30

are always arguing sound like an old married couple. He's

6:32

like, this is fucking perfect, man. He's like,

6:34

I'm pitching this to AMC.

6:36

And he went and pitched to AMC, and they came back.

6:38

He's like, they're in. They now. They want it even want it even

6:41

more. They wanna meet the boys. And

6:43

now that's when I was like, oh god. Now I have

6:45

to tell the boys. Because I wasn't engineering

6:48

a TV show about secret stash or

6:50

trying to put Walter and Brian on TV,

6:53

we backed into it. And so suddenly,

6:55

I was like, okay. I

6:58

got calm in bulb. And I called up I called up Brian. I was

7:00

like, hey, man. The weirdest

7:02

thing. You know, AMC? And he was like, yeah, man. Fuck

7:04

long and dead is again. Talking dead. I was like, there

7:06

you they're they wanna do a TV show,

7:09

like, based on a well, actually,

7:12

I called you first. He was the second one. Both

7:14

of them weren't into it. I call it Walter first

7:16

and Walter's at the store and he goes, comics. And

7:18

I go, hey, man, you're never believe this in

7:20

a world of all weird things that happen. You

7:22

know AMC? And he was like, yeah. Walking Dead.

7:24

I was like, yeah. I'm walking dead. They

7:27

wanna do a comedy show.

7:31

Set at Jane, saw Bob's

7:34

secret, and then the line went dead.

7:36

And then I called back, and I was like, what happened?

7:38

We got cut off. And he's like, I don't wanna do

7:40

that. I was like, you didn't even let me finish. He's like, I don't

7:42

wanna do a reality show. I don't wanna do

7:44

that. And I said, why not? And he goes,

7:46

I don't wanna be snooky. Which was a totally

7:49

valid fucking reason to not do it at that

7:51

point. And I was like, miss Snookie made a lot of money

7:53

last year. And he was like, yeah. But she got punched in the face, that's

7:55

humiliating. Fuck all that. Will be they'll

7:58

make us look like idiots. I don't wanna do that

8:00

shit. And then I was like, but

8:02

Walt, if we did

8:04

the Sizzle reel, and it became

8:06

a show. And it was set

8:08

at the Stash. It would be like a

8:10

free commercial for the Stash and maybe the Stash

8:12

don't close down. In two years

8:15

or whatever, fuck. And Walter goes, alright.

8:17

Like, if it's if it's a commercial

8:19

for the Stash, I get then. So if he's gone, but

8:21

I ain't doing unless Brian does it

8:23

too. And I was like, but Brian doesn't work there because that's

8:25

the fucking point. So that's when I called Brian.

8:28

And I was like, hey man, weirdest

8:30

thing fucking happened, shit. I was like, AMC.

8:32

You know, AMC? He's like, yeah. I walked into it. Yeah.

8:34

I walked into it. They wanna do a complex

8:36

store set at Janesville and

8:39

Bob secret stash. And the first words out of Brian's

8:41

mouth is, like, Walter's not gonna do that.

8:43

And I was, like, I you're you're

8:45

not wrong. I just talked to him first and shit,

8:47

but he said, he would do it if

8:49

you do it. And Brian's like, I ain't doing that.

8:51

And I was like, why? And he was like, because

8:54

they're gonna make us look like assholes. All those

8:56

reality TV people look like assholes

8:58

and shit. I don't wanna fucking sing for

9:00

my supper, look humiliated, blah blah blah.

9:02

So very Jersey, chip on the shoulder, like,

9:04

I don't wanna look like an asshole. And so

9:06

I was like, Brian, if you do it,

9:08

Brian had bad knee and he didn't work for the rack

9:11

center and shit. So I was like, if you

9:13

do it, you could fucking and it works,

9:15

you can get paid and fucking fiction

9:17

in your knee and shit. And that was his

9:20

way in. He was like, alright. Fucking,

9:22

you know, maybe it'll help the knee and

9:24

shit. And so, bam,

9:26

suddenly I had to to do to ready to

9:28

do a fucking sizzle reel. Then

9:31

I was like, you can come down and

9:33

meet them. wasn't there for that meeting. Who

9:35

came to meet the the what AMC?

9:37

Is that, like, Mary and shit like that? I don't

9:39

remember. We we don't know. There

9:42

was 2 dudes. I think one of

9:44

them was Charlie Charlie.

9:48

RAMC Charlie. Yes. Yeah. AMC

9:50

Charlie. And I think it might have

9:52

been there. It was literally the head of network at that time.

9:54

Yes. And I think Mary is about she was our exec.

9:57

Yeah. They come down and what?

9:59

Bring you guys out to eat. What what was it? And

10:01

how did you get involved? I have

10:03

no idea. Actually. They, they went out, I think you guys went out to breakfast or lunch or they they went out

10:05

I think you guys went out to breakfast or

10:08

lunch or whatever. No. You guys right

10:10

now, but I never went to breakfast on any TV

10:12

people. What about dinner? I know.

10:15

Thank you. You had to meet them because they came I think

10:17

what I recall is they just came down and looked around

10:19

store said, like, yeah. We're gonna do this? You guys ready for You guys

10:21

ready for this. You're excited. Alright. And

10:23

I just looked at the place and it kinda left kinda

10:25

quick. That was it. They just want like, how

10:27

long did ring SMOD, how long we were?

10:30

You know? And, you know, you they

10:32

said, how you know, obviously, you must love comics

10:34

and say, oh, yeah. We love comics. And that

10:37

was it. They really didn't stay that long as I They really didn't stay that long as

10:39

I recall. Did you say did you eat with them

10:41

no? No. So was

10:43

Ming here? Oh, Meng

10:46

was in on that meeting. His Meng worked at

10:48

the office. Maybe Meng went out to you with some of

10:50

them. Maybe he worked with some

10:52

really nice jeans. Mhmm. Ming

10:54

worked at the office. He was our web guy,

10:56

of course, and whatnot. He built the Bieske website

10:59

and worked for Ben and Matt at live

11:01

planet. And then when Live Planet folded, he had

11:03

no job. And I was like, well, why don't you come work

11:05

for Viosquio? You built the website.

11:07

shit. So he moved to Jersey with his young bride time as So he moved to Jersey

11:09

with his young bride's time as

11:12

well. And don't think they had kids at that point. Yeah.

11:14

No. Yeah. I don't even know if they were married at that point,

11:16

but she was from the area or nearby?

11:19

Ohio. Close enough. Right?

11:21

No. I think them being in I think she lived in

11:23

Middletown. I think she had Middletown too.

11:25

Ohio. Yeah. He was he? Yeah. He was

11:27

living he's from Michigan, but

11:29

he was living in Ohio for some reason.

11:31

He's from Michigan because I thought he went to school in

11:33

Michigan. He did, but his parents were out there.

11:35

They lived there. I think he went to school in Ohio then.

11:38

I I think he was I met him. He was going

11:40

to school in Michigan like Amherst. I think

11:42

he's got a fake past, and he's been really

11:44

awesome. Looking at him, man. Just like, right. There's

11:46

boxy crudes more. But he

11:48

was working at the office and Like,

11:52

he wound up in the mix as well.

11:55

Because I play I said, listen to tell

11:58

him Steve, Dave. So my whole thing was, like,

12:00

just 2 tell him Steve Dave, like, you know,

12:02

fucking they can talk and fucking I thought

12:04

Brian Quinn would be involved, in fact, the Sizzle

12:06

reel. Has Brian Quinn

12:08

involved in it. But Brian Quinn was already on the cusp of impractical jokers, IJ as they refer to but Brian Quinn was already

12:11

on the cusp of -- I j. -- I

12:13

am practical jokers, and I j as they

12:15

refer to it. And so he

12:18

like, I remember him being, like, I don't know if I can't

12:20

be involved. So he was there, but we kept him

12:22

kind of off camera because he already had an existing

12:24

he he he had written 2 his contract

12:26

and he could do it. And they and nobody really

12:29

at at True realized

12:31

that he had given he had sliced out this like

12:33

that he had full permission to do it if it happened,

12:35

if it got greenlit. He could do it. And there's nothing they could say about and there's nothing

12:37

they could say about it. Mhmm. And they said, well,

12:39

we don't want you to do it because it's a commercial for another

12:42

network. So they had to pay him, like,

12:44

little bonus not to do it. Are you kidding

12:46

me? Yeah. So he fucking that he got

12:48

to wet his beak a little -- Yeah. -- to not do it.

12:51

Which is smart money. Yeah. Because he had

12:53

he had he had written it into it that if this

12:55

sure got picked up, he was gonna allowed to do it.

12:58

Fucking a. And

13:00

at least he got paid to not do it. Yeah.

13:02

So we shot the Sizzle reel, and

13:05

the Sizzle reel Are you in

13:07

it? Yes. Is Meng in it? Yes.

13:09

And it's in the transactional stuff.

13:12

Because the we did the sit around

13:14

table, and I remember it was me, you,

13:17

Brian, you Brian Quinn and Jason was

13:19

there as well. But when

13:21

they did in the Cision Real, it's like fifteen

13:23

minutes long. It's on that Kevin Spitt Club's also

13:26

live seen it on YouTube and stuff. You

13:29

know, there's the it's us in black and white

13:31

around this podcast, this poker table

13:33

or up poker table. Recording an

13:36

episode of Tell them Steve, Dave. And

13:38

then there's transactional stuff

13:40

where somebody comes in and tries to sell

13:42

basically, what Yeah. Comic bookmen

13:45

became and stuff. The only difference it was it was

13:47

called the secret stash and

13:49

Quinn was there and and and

13:52

Jay was there. Jay came in to do episodes,

13:54

but he was never there all all the time

13:56

as when we did the show. And they did OTS,

13:58

which you hated. Yes. That

14:00

was OTS are on the fly, and that's when

14:03

when you're done with the transaction, they

14:05

interviewed the person who bought

14:07

the thing or, you know, like, how'd that

14:09

go? I I thought I was gonna get more for

14:12

it and shit like that. And

14:14

I hated that. Like, that was never interesting

14:16

to me. Like, even in a Biden

14:18

shape it. In season one,

14:20

they just didn't use them in

14:22

the edit. In season two, when y'all

14:24

got, like, new producers, they

14:26

were shooting OTFs and

14:29

overshooting. They were doing more OTF, more

14:32

shooting of the fucking customers. Than

14:34

they were with the cast. And, you know, that's

14:36

when Brian got real shitty and was just like,

14:38

I'm not doing this. If I can walk to off an episode

14:41

and shit like that. So those producers

14:43

went by by and all the

14:45

OTS, which they had shot hours

14:48

of, didn't get used. And my

14:50

insistence was like, this fucking show is complement.

14:52

It's about the people that work in store. Nobody

14:55

people are happy to see the people coming to do transition

14:57

and transactions. Nobody wants to fucking hear

14:59

about the aftermath of the transaction. Like, I feel

15:01

really good about that. That's fucking boring. We

15:03

can get, like, three more jokes out of these guys. Put

15:05

in an interstitial where they say some fucking funny

15:07

shit and then move the fuck up. They knew you felt

15:09

that way and they went behind your back to

15:11

do it. They did. I remember. They tried

15:13

to get they tried to get me and

15:15

Ming on board because one

15:17

of the You guys came in and was like, Hey, what do you think of these came in as, like, What do you think

15:19

of these OTS? Hey. What do you think of

15:21

this? You wanna see a little more screen time, Mike?

15:24

I can make that happen. And if you get OTS

15:26

guy Yeah. I'm like, fuck you. I'm not

15:28

be and and screw everybody else on the show.

15:31

No. And also, for me, it's like

15:33

like the the interesting part happened.

15:36

A person came in with a thing. You

15:38

got to see them make decision.

15:40

You're watching real time, presumably,

15:43

presumably, real time conversation. And

15:46

then, you know, the transaction, once it's

15:48

like, did they buy it? Did they sell it or Did they sell it or not?

15:50

That's it. Story's over. Like, you don't

15:52

need a day new model where they're like, you know, I

15:54

was really hoping that it would be more, you

15:56

know, but they were nice, and I'm glad I did

15:58

it. Like, nobody cares about that story. They wanna get

16:00

back to the funny fucking guys. Which was

16:02

Brian's point too. He's like, why

16:05

the fuck like, because they were given Brian lines

16:07

to do in season two and telling him to do

16:09

this and, like, were building storylines

16:11

and shit. And, like, that was not

16:13

the show anybody signed up for. It was

16:16

it was a miracle that they signed up to

16:18

do the show at all. And

16:20

2 have, like, Brian deal with friction, like,

16:23

a certain point I'd step in and shit and then

16:25

things write themselves. I remember sending

16:27

Brian into an editing room with all the footage be,

16:29

like, watch and pull out anything

16:32

that you think is funny that they didn't use and

16:34

shit. He went through a bunch of stuff, and he was the one

16:36

that told me, like, you should see how much OTF

16:38

they have. It's like they just shot these

16:41

people for hours. They go outside

16:43

and talk to them for, like, a half an hour after the transaction.

16:46

So this the comic

16:48

book manual, the secret stash sizzle reel

16:50

turns into comic bookman. It was called

16:53

the secret stash right up to, like, two weeks

16:55

before it premiered. AMC

16:57

was like, we wanna call Comm Book Men, and

16:59

I was like, why? And they were like, because

17:01

SMOD men. And I was like, oh,

17:04

Fair enough. We got mad men, now we got comic

17:06

book men. They were hoping to do a line of men's

17:08

shows or some shit. My point was

17:10

always like you call it comic book men, you're alienating

17:12

half the fucking world of common books. You're allocating fucking

17:14

You're recounting fucking women. And sure enough,

17:17

we did get tagged in season one or two for

17:19

having that fucking name. But not enough that

17:21

ever really hurt us 2 slowed us down

17:23

a shot. But it did give some folks a preconceived

17:25

notion of what the show was, and

17:27

they probably never jumped onboard because of this

17:29

stuff. It didn't matter. Because we were

17:31

pulling incredible fucking numbers on AMC.

17:34

To be fair, we were, you know, in

17:36

the wake of one of the biggest television

17:38

shows that ever and Walking Dead was

17:40

pulling nine, ten million fucking

17:42

viewers, twelve million viewers, historic

17:45

fucking numbers in an era when TV

17:47

was already starting to fall apart with Nielsen

17:49

ratings, and suddenly this thing was a giant

17:52

juggernaut. So a lot of our

17:54

success is us riding on Robert Kirkman's

17:56

very long sick 2 midnight and

17:59

having an audience that just like, well, I'm not

18:01

turn off the TV and slowly over time.

18:04

Having that audience be like, oh, my god. You

18:06

guys are my comfort man. I watch fucking walkin'

18:08

dead, and it makes me tense. Then I watch

18:10

talking dead because I need all the info. And

18:13

then you guys are, like, a fucking, like,

18:15

app teeth manual, like, the thing that, like,

18:17

makes you go to sleep, like, oh, yeah. This is

18:19

comfort food and shit. And that's what

18:21

we remain for years. And Tati.

18:23

Very much. Like, they're fucking this is how

18:25

I do my Sunday night. Right. So

18:28

that went on until it

18:31

stopped after my heart attack. We did seven

18:33

seasons and shit like that. And

18:35

during that era, you put up the fucking

18:37

window, the old stash window,

18:40

which we now know was built with a brick replica --

18:42

That's a fucking reflect. -- ingenious. It's

18:45

just I just thought it was a choice. You're like, oh,

18:47

bro. Why not? Honestly, I probably thought there was

18:49

brick up there. Yeah. It's a fucking

18:52

sweet move. What else did you always

18:54

try to reference in

18:57

my own way your history or

19:00

don't think you always catch it. No.

19:02

But apparently that's obviously, but

19:06

I just think it's appropriate. It's very

19:08

very appropriate. It's fan thinking. Yeah.

19:10

And it's not that Ernie's a fan, although he

19:12

likes me, we've known each other for a long time.

19:14

But it's Ernie's he Ernie knows

19:16

how a fan thinks. Right. Like, this

19:18

is if I was into this shit, this is

19:20

what I would like to see. If I was in doing this,

19:22

this is what I would want it to be like and stuff.

19:25

And because of that and informs shit,

19:27

for example, when did

19:29

the blom did the automobile

19:31

start at the secret stash? On

19:35

the floor? On the floor. Yeah. That's

19:37

right. With her fucking road chain around the

19:39

floor. And people

19:41

were stealing Jason. Well, they were stealing this tongue.

19:43

We mentioned that in some of the videos that we've done.

19:45

But Again,

19:48

I got the call. No, it wasn't a call. You were

19:50

here, and you

19:52

called me and just say, hey, just come by a stash

19:54

or something. I don't wanna talk to about something, so I came by.

19:57

And this is when we were in the heat of

19:59

playing Stash poker. Every month you were coming in almost every month and we needed more

20:02

every month. Yeah. You were coming in almost every

20:04

month, and we needed more space. And you

20:06

said we need more space.

20:09

why it won't. I had nothing to do with more

20:12

stuff of the stash. It was we need more space.

20:15

I was like, can you play about this on the Yeah.

20:17

We're talking about it. Nice. Well, I can

20:19

build a platform and elevate it. We can put

20:22

table on it, and we can And you were like,

20:24

Don. So that's the

20:26

only reason the the automobile went up in

20:28

the air is to play more poker. To build fucking space for poker,

20:30

2 build fucking space for a poker four.

20:32

Which actually worked out for this for

20:34

the show. For the show and for tell them

20:36

Steve, Dave, I have to this is

20:39

this the same this is the same one? same. same one. Right?

20:41

The same thing that says already? It could

20:43

be. I think it was just the resurfaced

20:45

several times. This is the one that you

20:47

were actually, I think Ming bought this. For

20:50

you guys to play poker at. Mhmm. It was one of

20:52

the extra tables. Right. But, you know, how

20:54

it all fucking ties together. It's it's so fucking

20:56

That's the reason why it went up. Because

20:58

of that, just so we get more room for polar.

21:00

What was it? What do you I,

21:04

you know, I love the show, but my

21:06

job on the show was minimal. What,

21:08

you know, you guys had seven seasons and

21:10

stuff. During that time, how

21:14

did your balance store and

21:17

and fake store and real store. How long

21:19

did they come in? For the average person, doesn't know

21:21

how long did they shoot comic book men?

21:23

Like, it wasn't like a year long experience. July

21:27

through September? Yeah. And

21:30

the last three, four years.

21:33

The last four years were like, we were

21:35

in ten thirty out

21:37

by six. So we headed down

21:39

to science. So was it

21:44

An inconvenience? No. Because

21:47

they wanted people inside the store, so they

21:49

were happy to have customers come in and

21:51

customers were happy to come

21:53

in and have a chance to be on camera as

21:55

background. And so is that what they did? Like,

21:57

you they would just wanna shut the store if people were hey,

21:59

you wanna be on a TV show and this Yeah. They would be

22:02

they would be like, you know, you will have to stay here

22:04

for least an hour to an hour and a

22:06

half. If you could commit to that, you could be in

22:08

the background. And, yeah,

22:10

they they really desperately want

22:12

a background because they didn't wanna

22:14

have an empty store, so they wanted

22:17

real customers. So you guys

22:19

operated while shooting.

22:21

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, in between transactions,

22:25

while they were setting up and and pre

22:27

prepping the next transaction, we

22:29

would have, like, forty five minutes. We could just open

22:32

up and people would come in. And shop,

22:34

and then they would clear it out and just start all over

22:36

again and bring in a new group of of customers

22:38

who are waiting outside. Now,

22:41

this only gets to happen like

22:44

this TV show, which, you know,

22:46

again, was backed into all

22:48

around. It wasn't me going, like, I have a brilliant

22:51

idea. It it

22:53

backed into the secret stash

22:55

and whatnot. Having

22:58

a TV show for

23:01

a kid who was raised, watched, TV is

23:04

a fucking dream come true. Having a

23:06

TV show where like, I only

23:08

have to come in for a little

23:10

bit because I was already at a completely

23:12

different life on the West Coast, but

23:14

I could be in the show as well, because initially

23:16

and in fact, I was never a contracted player.

23:19

Like, you guys were contracted players.

23:22

I was not. Like, I was paid

23:24

as a producer, but, like, I was there

23:27

just because I wanted to be on TV. So

23:31

so weird. I just realized that I forgot. Every

23:33

year, I never got paid as an actor or as

23:35

as one of the guys at the table or whatnot. It was

23:38

Like, I literally could have been, like, well, I'm not doing

23:41

this, and they had no Of course.

23:43

was fantastic. It was like, well, I get to be

23:45

on TV. So the

23:48

joy of that show for me living out west

23:50

was, like, when the show was on, I

23:52

could turn it on and, like, I there

23:54

were my friends on TV. It was so

23:57

fucking mind bending and cool. And they were doing

23:59

the same shit that we did when I left.

24:02

Like, so everything was where it

24:04

was and shit like that. So it was

24:06

absolute joy. But on the

24:08

pure level of, like, I was

24:10

raised by a television 2 grew up in front of a

24:12

fucking TV and stuff. I

24:15

we had a brief saw urine

24:17

into animation

24:20

with the clerk's cartoon that cancelled with f two

24:22

episodes. And I was, like, soured

24:24

on TV. Like, people would be like,

24:26

you should pitch something like that. I mean,

24:28

TV. I said, they've ran two episodes of our

24:30

cartoon and they canceled Now I'm not a

24:32

TV guy. I'm an indie film guy. So

24:35

I put away all notions of ever having

24:38

a TV show not even a TV show in

24:40

which I was featured just like your own fucking show

24:42

or whatever the fuck. So

24:45

Walt taken over the stash and

24:48

making it run for as long as it did,

24:51

getting us to the fucking point where

24:53

there is a conversation about, like, maybe we

24:55

could shoot a fucking TV show here.

24:58

Like, not only affords a

25:00

secret stash to go on, it

25:03

literally afforded me being

25:05

on TV. Like a childhood dream.

25:07

I had my own fucking television show.

25:09

Like, for some people that couldn't be bothered

25:12

to memorize comic book, man, they'd be like, that's

25:14

that Kevin Smith's show and show like that.

25:17

Such a fucking, like, amazing

25:19

gift that was

25:21

born in bootlegs and shit like that.

25:25

So we did the show for, like, seven seasons.

25:27

We just lost one of the people that worked on the

25:29

show. Melo, whose

25:32

name what was his Daryl Chamelo Durant?

25:35

Yeah. Daryl Durant?

25:37

Mhmm. That was his name, Daryl Durant? Mhmm.

25:40

Mhmm. Such a great name. Why fucking mellow?

25:43

Daryl Durant, double d is your name, double

25:45

d. But who is that? bear all you want? You want

25:48

His middle name was

25:48

Shimelo and middle name is Shimelo. Yeah. So

25:51

but bear if it was also on your

25:54

production crew. Mhmm. You know, like, right that

25:56

we still play poker with every week on Zoom.

26:00

Just get shout and mellow out. Shimelo

26:02

d double d. It's all like every time

26:05

he had a hand, I thought, like, I'm saying similar

26:07

d. Yeah. Man. This makes you what

26:09

do you think about when he said it quick enough?

26:11

Melody. Melody. Oh, that

26:14

makes sense. And he came from the world of music.

26:16

He dropped beats. Oh, yeah. He did beats for

26:18

velvet developers and developed public enemy.

26:21

Buster Rhimes. Yeah, man. He's

26:24

Grammy Award winning because he's the the

26:26

big loss for the combo book. Did he

26:28

win Grammy? Yeah. He's part of

26:30

all that stuff, man. He got gold albums. What

26:33

was the what was his job on Complement?

26:36

Because he I talk 2 him frequently

26:38

whenever I came to the show. And, of course, Kimberly

26:40

was this lady. She did hair and makeup

26:42

on the boys and stuff for every season,

26:44

I think. Mhmm. But, you know, she, one

26:46

day, told me she's, like, Kevin, I, like, understand

26:49

that you, like, old school hip hop. And I was, like, oh my god.

26:51

I love it. And she's like, well I was the, the artist management at And she's, like, Well, I was

26:53

the the artist management at

26:56

Jive. Yeah. And I was like, what?

26:59

And she was like, yeah. Like, all through.

27:01

I was like, like, who did you And she was there for

27:03

fucking MC hammer and shit like that?

27:05

And I was like, what are you doing this for? And she's

27:07

like, the record industry collapse. Like basically,

27:11

the film industry and the TV industry collapsed

27:13

a few years later, music industry

27:16

went first. And so jobs

27:18

that existed in a world where they sold vinyl

27:20

and cassette and shit like that or CDs,

27:23

stopped existing when everything started

27:26

going digital. And so her

27:28

very lucrative position of being, like, artist

27:30

management and stuff, the record

27:32

companies were just like, we can't afford

27:34

it anymore in those positions, went away. So

27:37

What did what was his job?

27:39

They were behind the scenes. It was Christian Paladino,

27:43

Melissa DeGini, Kimberly,

27:46

Thornton, and Melody. They

27:49

were the ones who made sure that

27:52

everything got got done. Every, you know, transportation Melo was the one that got me to and from the airport all the time, always greeted me when I pulled up and stuff like

27:54

Every you know, transportation -- Yes.

27:56

-- l o was the one that got me to and from the airport

27:58

all the time. Always greeted me when I pulled up

28:00

and stuff like that. He never he never drove.

28:04

He found that out. I need mellow mean, Melodin drove. No. But

28:06

he was in charge of transportation, which I love.

28:08

That's that's his joke. At once.

28:11

He drove? Are you sure? Yeah. He

28:13

was no. Maybe not. No. It was It

28:15

wasn't him because they made a joke about just ramming.

28:17

Maybe just ramming the other night on poker

28:19

when we were playing. Bear and made a

28:21

comment about if he ever needed

28:23

mellow. He was always there, but he never had a he was always there, but he never had a car.

28:26

No. He

28:29

passed away sadly of a heart

28:31

attack 2 weeks ago, a week

28:33

ago. But,

28:35

anyway, back to the show. It

28:40

it only kind of interrupted

28:44

in people's lives for three months,

28:46

generally. But that went on for

28:48

seven years. And it

28:51

you were here at ground zero. Did

28:53

the plan work. And as much as

28:55

I was like, this is like a free commercial for the Secret

28:57

Stash. Oh, yeah. Business picked up

28:59

a substantially. Show. We were always like Walter

29:02

had watched what was the cake guy. Oh,

29:04

the cake boss. Cake boss. And Walter

29:06

told me, like, at one point, like, you know,

29:08

I went up to I took my cake Just my cake

29:10

boss. They were into into And it was huge

29:12

blind buddy. And then we waited in the

29:14

middle of winter in an hour and a half hour.

29:16

The Hoboken deal line. Mhmm. And we never

29:18

had anything. We never had cake boss lines.

29:20

And I owe you know, and it's because everybody

29:23

eats cake -- Right. -- cookies and everybody reads

29:25

comics. But it was the no. It was the fact that,

29:27

like, in the recounting, he's like, if we have a

29:29

TV show, man, maybe we'll have that cake loss

29:31

line. And then once we went into we

29:33

had blinds, but not like, you

29:35

know, fucking, like, you know, cake

29:37

boss lines. And then walt's walt's proof

29:39

was absolutely in the pudding where he's like

29:42

everyone loves cake, not everyone loves

29:44

comics. But I've never seen one of the

29:46

secondary cooks. He was a big,

29:49

big bear of guy with a bald head

29:51

that was on that show. And he

29:53