Speaker 1: How you doing?
Speaker 2: This is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer Valderrama.
Speaker 3: And the Dos a Egos podcast.
Speaker 4: We're here with Terry Crews and we just started the
Speaker 4: story about a puppet show.
Speaker 3: I want to hear the story about the puppet shows. Man,
Speaker 3: what's the show?
Speaker 5: It was wild because Wilmen was doing this puppy show,
Speaker 5: Hollywood puppet show.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And first of all, I love animation. I love puppets.
Speaker 5: I love the whole thing. And I said, oh my god,
Speaker 5: like I have to do this. I get the invite
Speaker 5: to tell a story, right, and they basically animate this
Speaker 5: story using puppets, and it was genius. And they're like
Speaker 5: Mary like, they were like real detailed, amazing.
Speaker 3: The heads really look like the people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, picture with it and suit on an old thing.
Speaker 2: And it was like, oh my god, we gotta find
Speaker 2: out where those puppets are.
Speaker 3: By the way, because those puppets are around.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We said, did you ever take your puppets?
Speaker 1: I didn't take No, I didn't take out.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll find it my personal shrine of humans.
Speaker 2: But the speakeasy basically that that we built, we built
Speaker 2: this show. I thought, oh, man, you know be really
Speaker 2: fun if like all of us have this crazy story
Speaker 2: that we've never told before, and the idea was that
Speaker 2: we use marionettes to to bring.
Speaker 3: That story to life.
Speaker 2: Right, So we would basically design all these marionettes and
Speaker 2: every every notable friend who came to to tell the story,
Speaker 2: we would do a replica of their of their face
Speaker 2: into a into a puppet.
Speaker 3: So it was called the Hollywood puppet Ship Show. And
Speaker 3: it was so fucking funny.
Speaker 2: Like and I had so many friends, like our boys,
Speaker 2: Steve Oki, like Joe Jonas and Gina Rodriguez, and like
Speaker 2: we had everybody come and tell the story.
Speaker 3: It was so it was so funny.
Speaker 1: It's a random genius. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 5: It's a cool idea, man, because you could whatever you
Speaker 5: can't say in real life, you can get away with puppets.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You're forgiven. You're forgiven.
Speaker 5: Wow, man, this is how even you know, when you
Speaker 5: look at the South Park guys, they got away with
Speaker 5: the hand put it in puppetry and like all stuff,
Speaker 5: you could never ever say so. But even though it
Speaker 5: was like VH one.
Speaker 2: Wasn't it, Yeah, it was it was like sitting again
Speaker 2: on all of them maybe they're really good.
Speaker 3: People love this show. It's very cool.
Speaker 1: And the story, what story did you told you?
Speaker 5: The story was so it was one of the most
Speaker 5: horrendous periods of my life. Like I just moved to
Speaker 5: la And what was crazy is that I was, you know,
Speaker 5: I retired from the NFL, and I wasn't a superstar.
Speaker 5: See a lot of people think you were in an NFL,
Speaker 5: but I was on the end of the roster. There's
Speaker 5: like the last ten fifteen guys on the roster. They're
Speaker 5: just they're holding on. Man.
Speaker 1: We got the NFL minimum.
Speaker 5: And what happened is I would play one year and
Speaker 5: then get cut and then set out so that money
Speaker 5: had to last for two years and then get picked
Speaker 5: up us and I play again and then get cut again.
Speaker 5: And so it was a really really again Me and
Speaker 5: my wife were going through all of it. But this
Speaker 5: was a wonderful part of the story is that when
Speaker 5: I when I met my I'm gonna give you a
Speaker 5: little background. When I met my wife in college back
Speaker 5: and it was nineteen oh it had to be eighties,
Speaker 5: probably eighty nine, no, no eighty eight, and I looked
Speaker 5: at her and we were dating and we were trying
Speaker 5: to getting interested in I say, look, I said, first
Speaker 5: of all, one thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna play
Speaker 5: in the NFL, and then I'm gonna move to LA
Speaker 5: and we're gonna make movies.
Speaker 1: Oh Eve.
Speaker 3: Even back then, I.
Speaker 5: Told this is I listen. I called it and we
Speaker 5: were outside of a Windy's. Wendy I'll never forget. She
Speaker 5: was like, that's what I'm down, babe, let's go, and
Speaker 5: I was like cool. After my there was a point
Speaker 5: when I had come back from a tryout with the
Speaker 5: forty nine ers and I broke my finger and I
Speaker 5: was so like done. Like there was a moment I
Speaker 5: was like, no more like football, It's not in me anymore,
Speaker 5: the energy. But I love entertainment. And then you have
Speaker 5: to understand I didn't. I didn't want to come out
Speaker 5: here to act.
Speaker 1: She's crazy. I was trying to get behind. See. I
Speaker 1: had a movie that I shot with my boys in
Speaker 1: Detroit that was terrible, like and we were getting kicked
Speaker 1: out of locations, we broke lost all our money, and.
Speaker 5: I said, this is the best thing in my life.
Speaker 5: Like I'm energized by this. This horrible experience is energizing me.
Speaker 5: I was this working and I knew that's what I
Speaker 5: needed to do, but so football was was leaving me.
Speaker 1: And then my wife looked at me.
Speaker 5: She said, remember when we said you said we were
Speaker 5: going to move to La make movies. Yeah, she said,
Speaker 5: let's go, let's go. And when she gave me that
Speaker 5: green light.
Speaker 1: Bru do it?
Speaker 3: You understand, was like she said, babe, yeah, we're wrong,
Speaker 3: let's go.
Speaker 1: Hey did you say that?
Speaker 5: And I said, wake up, let's go, let's get it.
Speaker 5: We loaded everything we have into our Nissan Pathfinder. At
Speaker 5: the time, nan.
Speaker 1: It was hot until it wasn't you know about the
Speaker 1: wheels were falling off that thing.
Speaker 5: But we loaded our two daughters at the time they
Speaker 5: were little baby girls.
Speaker 1: We have five kids now, moved out to LA and
Speaker 1: didn't know a soul.
Speaker 5: But the whole thing was like, I'm gonna take this
Speaker 5: little edit that I had still piece of stuff, and
Speaker 5: I'm gonna get investors and I just want to do
Speaker 5: that whole you know, Spike Lee, you know Robert Townsend,
Speaker 5: work it from the bottom.
Speaker 1: Up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Independent, You know this that energy man went out here
Speaker 5: and went broke, like broke, broke past broke, and what
Speaker 5: was happening. We got this duplex in Burbank and this
Speaker 5: lady who we rented it from, she was crazy and
Speaker 5: we caught her coming out of our apartment. We just
Speaker 5: rented it, and we got her coming out of our apartment.
Speaker 3: After you were living there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Wait, we already moved in, like we've been there for
Speaker 5: like a couple of months. And she was she comes out,
Speaker 5: she heard our car pulling up, and she jumped run
Speaker 5: out of the place. It's a terrible little spot and
Speaker 5: I'm like, what are you doing? I do I'm checking
Speaker 5: on something. Oh my god. And then she's just behaving erratic,
Speaker 5: she's going nuts. And then my daughter is drawing on
Speaker 5: the sidewalk.
Speaker 1: We cut her.
Speaker 5: Next day, my daughter's d drawing on the sidewalk with
Speaker 5: chalk and she comes over and you don't do that
Speaker 5: to my chalk woak on the mace sidewalk, and she's
Speaker 5: going nuts. Man, I don't know where she's from. It
Speaker 5: was the weirdest accent of all time. Like it was like,
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's Oh, she's yelling at my
Speaker 5: little baby man, and I'm going, okay, okay, And now
Speaker 5: I'm doing security now because it's not working out. I'm
Speaker 5: just doing security on movie sets. And I did security
Speaker 5: on Friday next Friday before I ended up in Friday
Speaker 5: after next, right, I.
Speaker 1: Was doing security on the original Friday. Well, no, the
Speaker 1: second Friday.
Speaker 5: We shot that all the way up and that was
Speaker 5: up in Santa Clarita where they were in the cul
Speaker 5: de Sac and the whole thing. And I was standing
Speaker 5: out there and Cuba Parkings car. Now I wasn't real like,
Speaker 5: I wasn't like a bodyguard. I was like security, Like
Speaker 5: the cars are there, you watch that thing and don't move,
Speaker 5: you know, twelve hours. And I was just like, but
Speaker 5: I want to be writing my little ideas. I have
Speaker 5: my little stuff. And I was all, sometimes I do
Speaker 5: all these you know. It was Cast Security, which was
Speaker 5: these cats that you know, they kind of had a
Speaker 5: stranglehold on the industry, and I became one of their
Speaker 5: main guys because they were like. People started to request me.
Speaker 5: And so I'm going coming back from the security gig
Speaker 5: and I'm finding out there yelling and I don't think
Speaker 5: so she's yelling at my daughter. I decided to go
Speaker 5: over to the lady's house and I said, look, because
Speaker 5: I already called her in a couple of minutes. I said, look,
Speaker 5: don't come over the house anymore, like I knocked on
Speaker 5: the door, and I just that was my job to
Speaker 5: just tell her that. I say, ma'am, please just don't
Speaker 5: come over the house anymore because I can't afford to
Speaker 5: get out.
Speaker 1: We have no money. So she says, what the hell
Speaker 1: get out of my place, and then she.
Speaker 5: Gonna do what no man, come on, spits in my face.
Speaker 3: Get out of here.
Speaker 1: Oh it's crazy.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, first of all, like what you understand
Speaker 6: the type of individual that you have to be for
Speaker 6: that to be an instinct, like an instinct in you
Speaker 6: to be like, oh, this is how I'm going to
Speaker 6: handle this block.
Speaker 3: It's like you have to be.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm going to spare the names, but you
Speaker 2: gotta be something so like just ugly inside. So go
Speaker 2: to that the most Like that's just like the craziest
Speaker 2: sound of disrespect, Like it doesn't get more disrespectful than that.
Speaker 5: Like it doesn't like I'd rather you kick me, yes,
Speaker 5: But the spin is like you spit on the ground,
Speaker 5: you spent on someone you hate, you spent on someone's grave,
Speaker 5: you know, like thee but to spit in someone's face.
Speaker 5: You're telling them that you're worse than nothing. Wow, And dude,
Speaker 5: I'm a And this is another thing because what I
Speaker 5: was going through at the time, I didn't know what
Speaker 5: we were going to make it.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what was It's the most vulnerable time
Speaker 3: of your life.
Speaker 1: Bro. I had the NFL.
Speaker 5: It's over and I'm going, oh, you know, I saw
Speaker 5: all the big things in bright lights, and all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, I'm down in a little duplex in Burbank
Speaker 5: with my wife and two kids.
Speaker 1: I'm struggling, and I'm going by the hour like, oh
Speaker 1: my God, like wull I ever see something again? Like
Speaker 1: you know, you don't get to you don't even want to,
Speaker 1: you don't.
Speaker 3: Don't want to stay it out loud to you, lady.
Speaker 5: You know stress, I was having an acid reflux and
Speaker 5: you're just wondering, like in LA it's hard and cold
Speaker 5: because they don't know you, and you got to go
Speaker 5: through at least three four years of bullshit like no,
Speaker 5: like people talking junk and yeah yeah yeah and no
Speaker 5: meaning no no no. So I'm just in all this
Speaker 5: and then they get this and I know I can't move.
Speaker 5: I know I can't afford it. And I'm like, now
Speaker 5: if I if I beat this woman.
Speaker 1: To be like.
Speaker 5: Like, well, now I'm in Burbank, which is a whole
Speaker 5: nother animal. Everybody know in La Burbank believes is different
Speaker 5: than the other police.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 5: But that old white guy with that coming in there,
Speaker 5: with that whole fifties attitude, the fifties haircut.
Speaker 3: The Portos community reached for them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: You see, Porthos is how they get the community out
Speaker 2: of Porthos.
Speaker 7: It is with the potato balls.
Speaker 1: They think they hang.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I know you can't hand because you have you
Speaker 8: think you can handles you Porthos is in Yeah, but
Speaker 8: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And do they I knew they would put me under
Speaker 5: the jail, like there's nothing I could do, so do
Speaker 5: I wiped my face and you're talking about having to think, think, think, think,
Speaker 5: like what am I going to do? And I went, okay,
Speaker 5: I remember wiping my face. I didn't say anything, and
Speaker 5: I just got back in the car and I went
Speaker 5: home and I said, Babe, I came home and told
Speaker 5: my wife, I said, and we called the police. I said,
Speaker 5: call the police, honey, I said, this woman spit in
Speaker 5: my face. This is crazy, dude.
Speaker 1: Wait. The police were there in five minutes and I went, whoa.
Speaker 5: I said, wow, I said, we just called you. I
Speaker 5: said no, no, no, no, no, she called us on you.
Speaker 5: What she said you attacked her?
Speaker 1: Now, man, I.
Speaker 2: Got just three levels, so I mean four octaves even
Speaker 2: more intense.
Speaker 5: Rah. Now I'm a big black man in bird Bank.
Speaker 5: They came in with their hands on their guns because
Speaker 5: I'm thinking, hey, you're here already, and they're like.
Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, we're here because she called on you. And
Speaker 1: I went, whoa, what she said you attacked him? I said,
Speaker 1: we're here to arrest you.
Speaker 3: Oh my what?
Speaker 2: Huh?
Speaker 1: Wait? I said no no, I said, oh okay.
Speaker 5: And man, something just downloaded from I don't know, from heaven,
Speaker 5: like God just saw it downloaded, I said. I said, okay, okay,
Speaker 5: I said, you can arrest me, but you have to
Speaker 5: arrest her too, I said, because I have a complaint
Speaker 5: against her, So let's both go to jail.
Speaker 1: Are we okay with that?
Speaker 5: And the cops were looking at each other like, damn,
Speaker 5: he's got a point, right, I said, okay, we're not
Speaker 5: going to arrest your dude.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Like if I'd have been like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: but somehow I thought it's just like I said, It
Speaker 5: wasn't me being smart, it was just God saying, listen.
Speaker 1: Tell them this.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean, like, because you got family,
Speaker 5: you got people to take care of. This is over
Speaker 5: like you got and I see what this woman is doing.
Speaker 5: So they said, no, we don't have to do that
Speaker 5: because they want They didn't want to arrest it. And said,
Speaker 5: but she says you got to get out of here,
Speaker 5: and you're being evicted, right, my god, worst story ever man.
Speaker 5: And so but then I went to one of those
Speaker 5: family law places and they said, okay, since she is
Speaker 5: trying to evict you the whole thing, you don't have
Speaker 5: to pay rent anymore.
Speaker 1: Protected.
Speaker 3: I went, what California.
Speaker 5: It's California law and said, so you gotta wait till
Speaker 5: they can figure it all out, and the whole thing.
Speaker 5: And we went four months trying to figure this all out.
Speaker 5: I said, don't pay the rent, said don't do it,
Speaker 5: and now I had it saved up.
Speaker 4: Wait wait because if you would have paid it, then.
Speaker 5: What well, it's it's literally because of her complaint against
Speaker 5: me and the attempt to evict has now kicked in
Speaker 5: this and I didn't want to go. And it wasn't
Speaker 5: for lack of finances. It was some of the order thing.
Speaker 5: You had to let the court settle it out and
Speaker 5: you had to wait for the court, so don't move,
Speaker 5: and nobody could literally move. But it was our advantage.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh my god, like, okay, okay, what's next.
Speaker 5: And then while we were doing that, my wife was
Speaker 5: working and all these things out and there we need
Speaker 5: to find another place to live. Okay, we need to
Speaker 5: find So we had like three four months to find
Speaker 5: another place too. We ended up moving across the street
Speaker 5: and this man who just knew this lady was crazy.
Speaker 5: He was like, hey, I'm moving out. I saw what
Speaker 5: you're going through with her. Hey, I got a new place.
Speaker 5: It was beautiful, it was gorgeous, and I said he
Speaker 5: Then he said how much it was?
Speaker 1: And I said, I can't afford that. I can't afford it.
Speaker 5: Damn it, I said, I can't afford it. He said,
Speaker 5: what can you afford?
Speaker 1: Come on, man, dude, I'm getting choked up.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, I'm getting choked up there.
Speaker 1: We opened him. That's the way you gotta look at me.
Speaker 5: Oh, man, dude, he said, what can you afford? I said,
Speaker 5: I can afford this and he said, I'll take it.
Speaker 5: And man, me and my little girl, my wife, my
Speaker 5: little girl. She's in the little wagon. We moveing our
Speaker 5: stuff across the street. And that was.
Speaker 1: That was. But the story I told was Devil White Puppets.
Speaker 3: That we told that story with puppets.
Speaker 5: Oh they told that story with puppets. But you know,
Speaker 5: but we ended up. And now I look back at
Speaker 5: those those times, man, because moving out here, man, it
Speaker 5: was so hard because I, like I said, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 5: I didn't know what was gonna happen, but I knew
Speaker 5: we were after this dream. Me and my wife was
Speaker 5: just like, we gotta we gotta make it work. So
Speaker 5: we were so broke. There were times we would have
Speaker 5: pizza night, like me and my family loved Friday night,
Speaker 5: Pizza night.
Speaker 1: And this is back with Blockbuster and the herd thing.
Speaker 5: And I used to park outside of the Blockbuster to
Speaker 5: wait for people to bring the movie back.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, a new release. You know, you know, you
Speaker 7: see somebody bringing in the box.
Speaker 2: Some of you don't know what blockbusters and plays where
Speaker 2: you're going. Rented a VHS movie, but sometimes the new
Speaker 2: releases they only would have two copies, so you gotta
Speaker 2: get there, you know, to actually get the movie.
Speaker 5: You know, my baby girls want to see the newest
Speaker 5: thing and the new Disney thing that just kept. So
Speaker 5: I used to approach people in the cars when they
Speaker 5: be pulling up, like, hey man, you got it, you
Speaker 5: got ye hey man, leave me alone, leave them alone.
Speaker 1: But what what what happened is the guy would come
Speaker 1: out and you see it in his hand, Hey man,
Speaker 1: is that you're intersecting? And as soon as he put
Speaker 1: it in, like I want that one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would be parked out for like an hour
Speaker 5: or two hours to get the hot movie then and
Speaker 5: then I would take we literally would take flower yeast,
Speaker 5: the whole thing, and I would make joke. Yeah listen,
Speaker 5: sure Little Caesars was like we couldn't afford that, so
Speaker 5: big flour dough and I would make a freaking dough.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Then we would put spaghetti sauce and we we
Speaker 1: had we knew we had some cheese. Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2: You're speaking so hard to my heart. First of all,
Speaker 2: I just want to say thank you for telling us
Speaker 2: that story again. It's uh, it's it's not just humbling,
Speaker 2: but it's also kind of reassuring of all of our stories, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, we we all have a tiny little bit
Speaker 2: of a version of your story. And when we first
Speaker 2: came to the United States, same thing. We were to
Speaker 2: the ninety nine and store for the groceries, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, and like, even even though I didn't I've
Speaker 2: told this this joke before. It's like, we couldn't get
Speaker 2: Coca cola, so we get cola, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: We couldn't get Captain Crunch. We just get crunched.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: But but the point is, like somebody was watching this
Speaker 2: whole time, you know, and somebody was watching and knowing
Speaker 2: that the blessing was going to.
Speaker 3: Change your life.
Speaker 2: It was going to give you the run where you
Speaker 2: needed to continue to dream on the level you were,
Speaker 2: you know, and nothink you know anything from there will
Speaker 2: be coming up.
Speaker 5: But this is so strange. This is what's so strange.
Speaker 5: And it's strange, dude. I've been in the most opulate
Speaker 5: places in the entire world, the biggest hotel, the best
Speaker 5: of everything.
Speaker 1: It wasn't as good as that pizza. Oh my god, I'm.
Speaker 5: Trying to tell you the movie and the pizza and
Speaker 5: me and my little girls, all of us, Me and
Speaker 5: my wife, my little girl. We all just sitting there
Speaker 5: and I'm like, we're doing it. We're doing it. We're
Speaker 5: gonna make it. Yeah, dude, again, we've had everything, you know.
Speaker 5: Now it's like, oh, you get a car, you get this.
Speaker 5: They're like, but man, when you go back, those times
Speaker 5: are so precious and.
Speaker 3: So important, so important to hold up the blessing later,
Speaker 3: you see what I mean.
Speaker 5: And again, it's just it's a precursor. It's just it's
Speaker 5: the way to these things. You're like, the only way
Speaker 5: out is through you know what I mean. It's not
Speaker 5: a magic thing. You just gotta earn it. You gotta
Speaker 5: take these little steps and baby step it, you know.
Speaker 4: But but sometimes God puts you through that to prepare
Speaker 4: you for the big blessings. Because you're not prepared to
Speaker 4: handle you.
Speaker 3: Won't behold them exactly.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: He put you put you through those storms.
Speaker 4: Man, it's called seasons, right, Yes, put you through a
Speaker 4: season in order for you to harden you, to strengthen
Speaker 4: your faith in him. I'm sorry, don't mean to get
Speaker 4: too spiritual.
Speaker 3: Him, no, but that's it. We're all very spiritual people.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of how I see it, because well, you're.
Speaker 5: Right, you're right ready, because dude, one thing I know
Speaker 5: is that you know, when you look at when things
Speaker 5: come too easy, they's just never appreciated, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean. It's like, you know, it's wild because you
Speaker 5: kind of have to it. The harder the battle, the
Speaker 5: greater that we wore, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's all.
Speaker 2: It's like, that's why the people always say, man, like
Speaker 2: when they're going through that small hell, you know, they go,
Speaker 2: something goods coming, Yeah, yeah, something, something's at the end
Speaker 2: of this road, you know. And speaking of that moment
Speaker 2: at the other road, what was that one moment where
Speaker 2: you tasted entertainment and you're like, oh, I'm about to
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 1: What was that moment? Yeah, this is what what was
Speaker 1: crazy was.
Speaker 5: Uh, there's several different starts to my acting thing, you know,
Speaker 5: because I never again I wasn't trying to be an actor, right,
Speaker 5: but but I was, you know, during after security, I
Speaker 5: would bounce. So there was a club at Burbank called
Speaker 5: Timmy Nolan's. Of course, the street Timmy Dolan's. I was
Speaker 5: a bouncer every Friday Saturday, well actually Thursday Friday Saturday,
Speaker 5: and so I would work twelve hours, get off, go
Speaker 5: straight to Timmy and Olands, and then work till I
Speaker 5: don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: If it's like a little Irish sh it's irish side.
Speaker 1: Had I go up?
Speaker 3: They had a second story.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah they did. They had a second story and.
Speaker 3: Their wings were crazy that a Mexican do. They used
Speaker 3: to do the wings in the back.
Speaker 5: Listen, you gotta understand. One reason I worked there is
Speaker 5: because I could eat. They would they would make They
Speaker 5: would give you this soup like this. I had this
Speaker 5: bread basket stewe that would be in a bread basket
Speaker 5: and you would just man or that I would get
Speaker 5: me a steak. They was like here, terry and dude.
Speaker 5: Because I couldn't eat all week and I would feel bad.
Speaker 5: Then they would let me take it home to the kids.
Speaker 5: I got to tell you, man, whatever we had to do,
Speaker 5: I was like, thank you. And I had a little
Speaker 5: white store for them and I'll put it in the
Speaker 5: back of the path, take it home.
Speaker 4: And uh.
Speaker 5: But I was at timmyn Oles and a police officer
Speaker 5: who was was all sets all the time. He said, hey, man,
Speaker 5: he said, I've been doing some work with Billy Blanks,
Speaker 5: you know. And he said, man, they got an audition
Speaker 5: down in Santa down in Santa Monica.
Speaker 1: For Warriors for like these this new show. And he said,
Speaker 1: would you like to do it? And I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not an actor, man, I'm not I'm not doing that.
Speaker 5: That's okay. So he said, oh, no problem, no problem.
Speaker 1: I on my day off.
Speaker 5: I had one day off and I just decided I'm
Speaker 5: just going to chill out. I get a call from
Speaker 5: that police officer who became a friend because I was
Speaker 5: always there and he was always coming there.
Speaker 1: So it was the regulars. He said, dude, we're having
Speaker 1: it right now. You have to get here, Like, dude,
Speaker 1: you could kill this. And I was like and I said,
Speaker 1: I look at my wife. I said, you think I
Speaker 1: should try this? Stuff said.
Speaker 2: It was one of those competition shows like it was
Speaker 2: a show called Battle Dough, Battle Dome.
Speaker 5: Battle do if you look at it look on Google
Speaker 5: you see it Terry Crews Battle Dough.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 5: It was a show that was American gladiator steroids. Okay,
Speaker 5: I went tried this thing out, man, and all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, I went down there and I'm running circles
Speaker 5: around these cats because you remember I'm out the NFL,
Speaker 5: A lot of them catching bodybuilders.
Speaker 1: The bodybuilders came athletes, right. You can hear the hamstrings
Speaker 1: going back.
Speaker 5: Oh, they just all fell out, like and you're like
Speaker 5: you might get hit with a hamstring because it was popping, like, oh,
Speaker 5: I get on. These cauts never ran in their light,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They're walking on the treadmill, but they look good. Oh,
Speaker 1: they looked amazing. They're like sprints.
Speaker 5: They had your twenty foot rope and these cats couldn't
Speaker 5: do it.
Speaker 1: They was.
Speaker 5: Nothing worse than watching a gigantic bodybuilder stuck on the rope.
Speaker 1: We can't get out, they can't get up.
Speaker 2: It's crazy that their bodies look like they're built to
Speaker 2: pull and push, but they're not right, Like they're not
Speaker 2: They can't pull themselves up.
Speaker 3: It's a interesting there's.
Speaker 1: A big difference between athletics where you had both. And
Speaker 1: I was an athlete, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even a bodybuilder at all, Like.
Speaker 9: You had the physique, but I was just I was
Speaker 9: ready to go and dude, I'm running circles. I'm going
Speaker 9: up to the top, going to the guy. I'm out
Speaker 9: running these casts, Like when are they going to show
Speaker 9: up at the finish line?
Speaker 3: You were lapping?
Speaker 5: So the producer and Billy blike, they were like, dude,
Speaker 5: this guy like and they gave me, they got my number.
Speaker 5: I did access Hollywood at that day. They were like,
Speaker 5: you're one of the warriors they're looking for. And I
Speaker 5: was like, yeah, yeah, you know, And I didn't know
Speaker 5: what was going on. And I went home and I
Speaker 5: told my wife, like that went really good. She was like, really,
Speaker 5: what how did you go down?
Speaker 1: The babe?
Speaker 3: I got I got interviewed Holly.
Speaker 5: When we sat and watched like that seven we waited
Speaker 5: for it to come on, and right before you know,
Speaker 5: the prime time and it came on, they showed a
Speaker 5: little clip of me and I was like, and then crickets, crickets,
Speaker 5: Oh what? Six months go by and I'm back to security.
Speaker 5: I'm like, I wonder whatever happened because it was just
Speaker 5: a pilot, dude. It was this is what I found
Speaker 5: out later that was not for the warriors. They were
Speaker 5: looking for contestants. They had already picked the Warriors.
Speaker 3: Oh so if you would have gotten so.
Speaker 1: The whole thing was, they went, maybe.
Speaker 3: You would have smoked everyone.
Speaker 1: So wait, this is crazy, they said. Okay. I got
Speaker 1: a call six months later.
Speaker 5: We were freaking out because I was like, oh man,
Speaker 5: that was really nice, like you know in your mind,
Speaker 5: like what happened. Months go by, I get a call
Speaker 5: and said, we have a call back for that show
Speaker 5: that you went on. And I was a call back
Speaker 5: and I was like it was a casting agent now
Speaker 5: so it was past that little like. So they like
Speaker 5: we were getting close, We're going to do this and
Speaker 5: I was okay, and I said, I said what should
Speaker 5: I do? She said, Terry be a personality. Just be
Speaker 5: Because I didn't know. I was like, what do I
Speaker 5: I said, okay, she said, just be you, but be
Speaker 5: big man. I went to send him a secrets up
Speaker 5: in Burbank, got my face painted like Darth Maul, had
Speaker 5: makeup going all up into my bald head because I
Speaker 5: was still balled back.
Speaker 1: I was shaved back every day because like Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, so aerodynamics, aerodynamics, I got it.
Speaker 5: I faked I got and then I went and got
Speaker 5: some because Burbank was perfect, but these little costume spots
Speaker 5: and the makeup spots, and then I went and got
Speaker 5: some space Age little strap lists and I was wearning
Speaker 5: span Dex and little goofy crazy like space Age wrestler outfit.
Speaker 5: I said, it's not going to be for lack of try.
Speaker 5: And I looked at my wife. I said, it's just
Speaker 5: crazy enough.
Speaker 1: She said, you look that that was the barometer. It's working.
Speaker 5: So I'm sitting here, man, and I drive down to
Speaker 5: Sony and this is a Sony show. I'm from burd
Speaker 5: Bank all the way to Cuba City. You know that Jerney,
Speaker 5: that's my makeup is starting to melt in the car.
Speaker 1: Oh in the car, it's only.
Speaker 5: You know. I got the windows rolled down and this
Speaker 5: was so bad. My tags were bad, like and I
Speaker 5: was just so scared to pull over. Oh you know
Speaker 5: the tags man about l a man, they get you all.
Speaker 3: It's not cheap to get that tax.
Speaker 1: Anytime a police office was anywhere I'm going to go,
Speaker 1: I go a go back around. It took me five
Speaker 1: hours to get out there because you're like, I just
Speaker 1: can't get afford to.
Speaker 5: Get pulled over, you know what I mean? And so
Speaker 5: I had this car pounded or something.
Speaker 1: So I get there.
Speaker 5: Man, I pull into the gate and the guys just
Speaker 5: cracks up. He looks at me and say, hey, man,
Speaker 5: come on, man, this movie studio. You've seen some crazy
Speaker 5: and stuff. He said, Man, he's laughing. I go in
Speaker 5: there and all these bodybuilder guys are like super cool everything,
Speaker 5: and they look at me and they start laughing.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, none of them are. No, They're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we went casting.
Speaker 5: Everybody had leather jackets and man, I'm walking around my
Speaker 5: spandex and sweaty. Yeah, like you know, I know I
Speaker 5: must I had to be musty because it was. And
Speaker 5: I sitting there and I'm like, I don't care.
Speaker 1: I'm like this is it? Like it won't be for lack.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. Are we gonna find out today? I got
Speaker 1: in that audition.
Speaker 5: I just I was like, they were like, oh, lood,
Speaker 5: I'm just yelling and screaming and I'll beat you.
Speaker 1: And I just went big yeah, yeah, dude. I got
Speaker 1: out of there. I'm like, they're like, great job, crickets.
Speaker 3: Wait, so how long did it take at all?
Speaker 1: Another Another three months go by? Right right? You gotta
Speaker 1: understand I'm.
Speaker 5: Going okay, man, maybe I didn't get it because it
Speaker 5: was to the point where I thought they were like,
Speaker 5: we're gonna do the show.
Speaker 1: Let's look at them one more time, and we're not
Speaker 1: going to go.
Speaker 5: So I said, oh, they just decided they didn't want
Speaker 5: to do and I'm like, man, baby, but I get
Speaker 5: I said, but I gave it everything I have. I
Speaker 5: told my wife, we gave it all we had. Ye, dude,
Speaker 5: I told it was read. Three months later, I'm coming
Speaker 5: back from security. I'm actually on the set of next Friday.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 5: I don't have a cell phone right and my wife
Speaker 5: was like, because they're calling me, like they call one
Speaker 5: more time.
Speaker 1: And my wife is like, oh, I got to wait
Speaker 1: for him to get home.
Speaker 5: And I'm in Santa Karna and I've been working all
Speaker 5: with Cube and him and I mean just literally watching
Speaker 5: his car all day, like and I'm driving home like
Speaker 5: well like when we had one car at the time,
Speaker 5: so my wife couldn't come tell me whatever.
Speaker 1: So I'm driving back from Santa Career. It takes all day.
Speaker 1: I get to the bar. She said, oh, she said, babe,
Speaker 1: they called.
Speaker 5: They want another meeting with you, like tomorrow, And I'm like, what, who, Yeah,
Speaker 5: they want you to go back to Sony again. So
Speaker 5: I said, so it's another call back. They said yeah.
Speaker 5: So I'm freaking out, like, oh, do I have to
Speaker 5: dress up the No? No, they said, you don't have
Speaker 5: to do that stuff anymore. They just want to meet
Speaker 5: with you. I said, okay, okay, and I'm freaking so
Speaker 5: I called my supervisor and I'm like, I can't come
Speaker 5: in tomorrow, and we okay, to get it. I'm making
Speaker 5: sure I got my job right. And they hit They're
Speaker 5: like okay, and I'm like, oh please, But I built
Speaker 5: up a lot of good will.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So finally I go to drive, take the drive back
Speaker 5: to so Many. I get in the room and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 5: who do I have to mean? Do we have to
Speaker 5: do an audition again? I said, no, Terry, you are
Speaker 5: one of our warriors, oh.
Speaker 1: With like seven guys. Yeah, And I'm like it's us,
Speaker 1: Like I'm gonna be on TV. Yes you are.
Speaker 5: We got a pole plan for your name is gonna
Speaker 5: be t Money. I love a badass battle Dome warrior.
Speaker 1: You on our show? Are there?
Speaker 4: Did they incorporate any of the things that okay, none
Speaker 4: of but they but they but they knew that you
Speaker 4: could go there.
Speaker 3: You have the range.
Speaker 1: You have, Yes, they told me.
Speaker 5: They said, when you came dressed like that, we were like,
Speaker 5: he's a guy.
Speaker 3: He knows how to create a character. He's entertainer.
Speaker 1: He's gonna go all out, right, And I went, then
Speaker 1: I need to issues again, dude. Yeah, I went. I
Speaker 1: went home to the back and I got a show.
Speaker 1: Don't breeze through that.
Speaker 2: So you come home because she thinks it's a callback,
Speaker 2: right right. She then you, So you come home because
Speaker 2: you can't call her back, right. So you come home,
Speaker 2: you walk through the front door, You look at her
Speaker 2: in the eyes, and you say, what.
Speaker 1: Wait, she's been looking the whole time. She's just sitting
Speaker 1: there waiting on the window. I got it, said she
Speaker 1: said no, because you know, because it's like months and
Speaker 1: all this, She's like, what, I got it? I got it.
Speaker 1: That's what in the world. Like, I'm gonna be on TV.
Speaker 1: Got crazy praying woman, Okay, praying woman. She's like, I
Speaker 1: pray for this, I pray for I knew I knew it.
Speaker 1: I knew it. I knew it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it was like everything changed. Like the
Speaker 5: day I just laying in the bed like I'm going
Speaker 5: to be on TV. I didn't think i'd be in
Speaker 5: the front. I always thought i'd be behind it.
Speaker 3: Like everything's getting rewired.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like oh man, a neurellogic mess right now, likease,
Speaker 5: I can't sleep and I'm like what is happening? Knowing
Speaker 5: just walking around like I'm in this grocery store, like
Speaker 5: one day, like they're gonna know because I'm on TV,
Speaker 5: I'll be on TV.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is different.
Speaker 3: Did they Did they tell you what you were gonna
Speaker 3: get paid?
Speaker 1: Yes? When you were there, so so not there. No,
Speaker 1: they told me later that this is when the legal
Speaker 1: people came.
Speaker 3: Here's the kind of thing.
Speaker 5: I got twenty five hundred dollars a show, which is
Speaker 5: it was like the most money i'd see.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm asking like, was that a discussion that
Speaker 4: you had with your wife?
Speaker 1: And was that mind blowing?
Speaker 5: Well, they called and told us eventually because they said
Speaker 5: you're on the shows. They didn't even discuss money there.
Speaker 5: But once they called and they said, this is what
Speaker 5: we're gonna to give you. It'll be twenty five hundred
Speaker 5: dollars a show, and you're gonna do four shows a week,
Speaker 5: So you do two on Tuesday and two.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, I was ten Queens week.
Speaker 3: I was weak a week.
Speaker 1: Friend, I'm coming from twelve dollars an hour. Yeah you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I'm coming from twelve dollars an hour. Bro, Like,
Speaker 1: what in the world. I'm like, dude, you understand you hold.
Speaker 3: Your babies together. You got them together.
Speaker 1: Like that was crack.
Speaker 3: Now we can do little Caesars now, no more making
Speaker 3: the pizza.
Speaker 5: I was like, I said, we got, We're going a
Speaker 5: pizza hut. You know where they had the salad when
Speaker 5: they used to let you in the pizza hus and
Speaker 5: you used to get the pairing pizzas.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, we get, we go. Well, we're gon.
Speaker 5: We slurted it over fan piece, go to the garden,
Speaker 5: go to the salad, barget anything. We're going to get
Speaker 5: this can get the extra tomato ad, extra bacon bits on.
Speaker 3: Dude, what like, how many episodes did they do it?
Speaker 5: So we did two years? We did twenty four episodes
Speaker 5: a year now, mind you. It was the most physical, Yes, yes, brutal.
Speaker 5: They put me in a cage, let the ends on fire,
Speaker 5: and the cage rotated and I had to take on
Speaker 5: three people per show.
Speaker 3: Trying to go through you, dude, the blood.
Speaker 1: I went home bleeding every night. But happened. Of course,
Speaker 1: I was like, what the hell, it's easier. In the NFL.
Speaker 1: One guy choked me out on camera.
Speaker 5: No, he was not allowed to do this move, but
Speaker 5: he put me on the truck and I was like,
Speaker 5: oh that all sudden, the world started getting all down.
Speaker 1: And he choke.
Speaker 5: He literally choked me out, and then I went to
Speaker 5: the rep. I say, hey, I woke up. I was like,
Speaker 5: he's not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: Like a sorry dude. All those other warriors were going
Speaker 1: down like flies.
Speaker 5: Of course they were like, oh my leg, I can't
Speaker 5: move my leg, and they kept bringing the new guys,
Speaker 5: but I was always there. Again, I wasn't an athlete.
Speaker 5: I'm ready money. My wife calls me tea money to
Speaker 5: this day.
Speaker 3: That's correct.
Speaker 7: So what was it?
Speaker 1: What was it?
Speaker 3: What was the story behind the character? Because you had
Speaker 3: to build a character.
Speaker 5: Team Money was this warrior from Detroit and I had
Speaker 5: a team of three triplets. It was Troy, Lloyd and
Speaker 5: Floyd Weaver, who were Mike Weavers brothers, the boxers, and
Speaker 5: they were these three triplets that would come and I
Speaker 5: had another guy that would hold my briefcase.
Speaker 1: He had all the money.
Speaker 3: So these are real guys who were with you. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they had built He's a final boss.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 5: And we shot in the LA Coliseum, which was right
Speaker 5: across from the jungle, so we would get gang members
Speaker 5: showing up.
Speaker 1: No gang signs, please, no gang. They were actors. They weren't.
Speaker 3: They weren't athletes, they were actors.
Speaker 5: Right, My guys were actually those three guys were real boxers,
Speaker 5: but they were just interesting. They were triplets, and it
Speaker 5: was so they said. And then Michael Hearn, who was
Speaker 5: another guy who's still one of the he's one of
Speaker 5: the biggest bodybuilders out right now. Yes, and still he
Speaker 5: had three the dom triplets, which were Playboy model.
Speaker 1: Triplets, and he was like the Golden boy, you know.
Speaker 5: And I was in the street and I had this
Speaker 5: chain with like a dollar signs, you know, let me
Speaker 5: tell you man, and I but I.
Speaker 1: Would go in.
Speaker 5: I would go in so far. I would never let
Speaker 5: the contestants see me. Right, all the other boys were
Speaker 5: walking around meeting the contestant. I was like, nope, I
Speaker 5: would hide right, And they said, I then where's team money?
Speaker 5: I was, you don't want to see nobody you stayed in.
Speaker 1: My whole thing was to get him scared before.
Speaker 5: And dude, I was like, it was so masterful because
Speaker 5: Money was badass, he was dangerous, he was a killer.
Speaker 3: What song did you come out to?
Speaker 1: It was they had an original.
Speaker 4: And so the two guys, the three, the three triplets
Speaker 4: would just come out next to you.
Speaker 5: They were there was a big gate and it would
Speaker 5: open up and I would come down the gang plank
Speaker 5: like what what what? Like?
Speaker 1: Who is gonna mess with this? Like?
Speaker 5: And I had my glasses on the whole thing, and
Speaker 5: then I did my peg pie. They would take and
Speaker 5: I would hold my hands out and the triplets would
Speaker 5: take off my jack and take off my stuff and
Speaker 5: get me ready for the thing. And it was like
Speaker 5: what people were like and the contestant. I would look
Speaker 5: at the contestant like you motherfucker.
Speaker 1: Ye he was like he was and I would go
Speaker 1: so far. It was because we had a game called uh.
Speaker 1: I remember.
Speaker 5: It was like it was these bats and I remember, yeah, bats,
Speaker 5: and they put us on this thing and I beat
Speaker 5: this dude down. They were like money, you you really
Speaker 5: had it? And I said, you know what, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: take this stick I'm gonna stick it up their ass.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna make all days stuck us out of every
Speaker 5: last one of them sons of bitches.
Speaker 1: They were like, we can't you what network? What network
Speaker 1: was it?
Speaker 5: It was Syndicate, So Sony at night like it would
Speaker 5: only come on Saturday nights. Oh just on anything like
Speaker 5: uh like your take out, It would be on upn
Speaker 5: they played.
Speaker 2: But whatever shows made so much, they money, they could
Speaker 2: sell it to any network in every market and any
Speaker 2: continent around the world.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: It was worldwide.
Speaker 1: We didn't see anything money. But I was about But
Speaker 1: so I was going all off and what was so great?
Speaker 1: And this was another thing? Man?
Speaker 5: But let me know I was on my way because
Speaker 5: it wasn't really acting. It was just grand theater like
Speaker 5: and that's what wrestling was.
Speaker 2: But you were you were playing something and you were
Speaker 2: committing to it, and you were created a whole character
Speaker 2: and that was that was your first training and character.
Speaker 1: All I wanted to do was.
Speaker 5: I said, what would I like to see? What would
Speaker 5: I what would make me entertained? And I did that
Speaker 5: and my wife came to me after one show and
Speaker 5: she said, Babe, I see it on you. She said,
Speaker 5: I can't believe this, Like, this is you, this is
Speaker 5: you're going to be doing I saw it and my
Speaker 5: wife is always called this. She said, You're going to
Speaker 5: be doing this for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: I see it on you.
Speaker 3: She's a prayer warrior, right, I'm trying to tell you,
Speaker 3: like it's different.
Speaker 1: Like you thought you were going to be behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: she said, but you are made for this, man. And
Speaker 1: you got to say.
Speaker 5: We were in the bottom of where the studio or anything,
Speaker 5: but it all started to really grow from there.
Speaker 2: You know, that the power of somebody seeing you, how
Speaker 2: you haven't seen yourself yet, you know somebody.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it only takes one person to be like you're
Speaker 3: this and you're like, uh what, and then you look
Speaker 3: yourself in the mirror.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, that's who I've been this whole time,
Speaker 4: especially when it's your wife.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, that's that's what I mean.
Speaker 5: I mean it was just us, that's all we had.
Speaker 5: Like there was so many people in and out at
Speaker 5: the time because you didn't know who to trust. La
Speaker 5: Is funny, man, la Is it's really hard to find
Speaker 5: a real circle.
Speaker 3: To find your tribe is very difficult.
Speaker 1: Oh, it was difficult.
Speaker 5: But what was wild is h You know, as I
Speaker 5: kept going, I just remember just saying I'm open, I'm.
Speaker 3: Open whatever whatever comes at.
Speaker 1: Whatever comes. Remember, like I wasn't trying. This is the thing.
Speaker 5: My whole career is free play. I didn't go to
Speaker 5: school for this, so I'm an ex football player, so
Speaker 5: there's no judge, just no acting.
Speaker 1: Coaches like, no, we don't do that, Terry.
Speaker 5: If you really want to be successful, I was like,
Speaker 5: I'll do it all yeah, whatever, okay, whatever you want
Speaker 5: me to do, all right, all right, and you know,
Speaker 5: as an actor, we tend to be pleasers, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it was like, I'll do it. I'll do it.
Speaker 1: I got it, and I'll go big with it. And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, one job.
Speaker 5: Turn it into two turn into three turn, and then
Speaker 5: it just turned into like because I one thing I
Speaker 5: knew to do was the same thing I did on
Speaker 5: Battle Doome go all out. Yeah, don't ever mail anything in, Terry.
Speaker 2: We're gonna hold you at right there because we have
Speaker 2: to now allocate a second.
Speaker 3: Episode the second album.
Speaker 2: It's still good, and so stay tuned for part two
Speaker 2: here with our brother Terry CRUs and those Aigos.
Speaker 4: Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Speaker 4: Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
Speaker 4: and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 2: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 4: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
Speaker 4: and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 2: This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
Speaker 2: and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Speaker 2: Madison Devenport and Helo Boy.
Speaker 4: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
Speaker 4: by Deny Holtz.
Speaker 2: Clau and thank you for being at Third Amigo today.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys always listening to Amigos.
Speaker 4: More podcasts from my Heart, visit the r Heart Radio app,
Speaker 4: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: See you next week.