612 N. Main welcomes Bobby Lacer to the turret!
From Mothers Day to Halloween Heroes with stops in Chicago and Ohio, Bobby Lacer shares his story including the impact Henderson continues to have on his life.
Here are some links to a few things we discussed:
Please share, like and subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast service!
Send your comments to brent@612nmain.com
Thank you!
612 N. Main welcomes Bobby Lacer to the turret!
From Mothers Day to Halloween Heroes with stops in Chicago and Ohio, Bobby Lacer shares his story including the impact Henderson continues to have on his life.
Here are some links to a few things we discussed:
Please share, like and subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast service!
Send your comments to brent@612nmain.com
Thank you!
Hey guys, welcome to six 12 north Maine. If you're interested in learning more about the Henderson Evansville Owensboro area, well, you're in the right place. This is where you hear the story of us and amazing stories. They are to sit back and relax while we welcome our special guests to the turn. And
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the turret. Six, 12 north main has been alive for one month. Now we've had over 500 downloads of the podcast. So thank you for everyone. That's listened very one. That's been a guest. And if you have recommendations on how to make this Henderson's podcast better, shoot me a line@brentatsixtwelvenorthmain.com. That's six one two in M a I n.com in the term. Today is a good friend.
Speaker 3:He's been well, let's just say the actors, actor, the producer, the entertainer of all sorts we have in the turn here.
Speaker 2:Bobby lacer. Welcome. Bye. Oh,
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. It's it's exciting to be here. It's
Speaker 2:Exciting to have you here now. We you've seen you a lot recently at six 12 north main. We're going to talk about some movies here in a few minutes, but we're going to start where we always start. Who is Bobby lacer? Well, born and raised hinder. Sonian uh, went to
Speaker 3:School at the university of Kentucky, uh, migrated a little north to Ohio where I met my wife, Eileen. We've been married now 19 years. We have a wonderful, uh, educated, talented son of 15, uh, who we're super proud of. And, you know, outside of that, I'm someone who loves sports. Uh, I, I love a good bourbon, uh, but I also am very involved in the arts. And so, you know, my first love, uh, has always been music and acting and, and luckily I've had an opportunity to do those things throughout my lifetime. And now here making it a little heavier part of my career. Yeah. So I think you and I probably met at a United way
Speaker 2:Panama and show if I remember correctly, that's the way I remember as well. Uh, you know, learning a little choreography and learning to lip sync. We'll make fast friends of everyone. You know, you have been in all kinds of shows and entertainment and at one time it was your side gig. And so now what's your primary function. Is that right?
Speaker 4:Still a little bit of a side gig. It's just a lot
Speaker 3:More of a side gig than it used to be. Uh, my I've spent my career, uh, predominantly in marketing and communications for, uh, really health insurance or life insurance or, or just banking and financial services in general. Uh, I still do that. Uh, but I've gotten to where I do this a lot more and it's beginning to shift to where the production portion of it and the acting portion of it are, are kind of starting to take over which being my passion. Uh that's great. But in between films, you still got to put food on the table. I hear you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So I'm still in pharmacy for the very same reason. So let's go back to your child. You're born and raised in Henderson. You are actually the first person from Henderson that we have on this show. No kidding. We've all been transplants that have come to know and love Henderson for what it is basically visitors first. And then we adopted our have been adopted by Henderson, I should say. So growing up in Henderson, what was that like?
Speaker 3:It's interesting as a kid, you don't quite respected as much as you do as an adult. Uh, you know, as a kid with a small town. And if your family is from here and has been from here for generations, uh, you may not know everyone, but you can make a connection to everyone. They know someone in your family. And because of that, it's very difficult to get away with things as a kid. You always think that your parents must have, you know, eyes in the back of their head and satellites looking down on you, but it's neighbor and friends that are letting them know if you start to get in trouble there, they're going to find out. Uh, so, you know, kind of growing up in a, uh, in a small town, which Henderson, in retrospect, isn't a small town. Other than if you're looking at it again, say, uh, uh, Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago, uh, but it's a town that feels like a much smaller town than it is, uh, in the current film that we're working on. Now, uh, we do highlight Henderson as the primary location, and we have a voiceover section in the beginning. We're one of the girls who's from Henderson talks about what a wonderful town it is. Uh, and there was one line specifically. I wanted to make sure that I got in there, which is, it's the kind of town where people say hello to you on the street. Even if they don't know who you are, all, that's a
Speaker 2:Great line. And isn't that the truth.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely. And so I, I said, you know, that's the best way that I could describe the, uh, the, the feeling and the, you know, just the, the, the beauty of my hometown is that I could tell you all about the river. I can tell you about the fountains. Uh, you know, I can tell you about the parks, uh, but it's the people that make Henderson. Absolutely. That's fantastic. So you go to Henderson county high. Then I did graduated in 1992. Uh, the Henderson county school system was where I found my love for music and theater, as well as church. You know, I began doing things really just before kindergarten. Uh, kindergarten was my first solo. Uh, I was, uh, I was Santa Claus singing the intro to Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer. Uh, but you know, it continued from there. So I've found that love for music. My family is, uh, is a very musical family. My grandfather, a spider Ridge from here in Henderson, uh, was, uh, the writer of yakety sax along with boots, Randolph, which he and Jett Atkins were great friends, but, uh, he always said, even though Chet recorded so many of his, uh, so many of his songs that he'd written that Yaqui Sachs was the least musically solid a song that he'd ever written, but it was the one that truly made him money. Right. Yeah. It's funny how that happens. That's, that's
Speaker 2:A great story. I love that. And I love that song. Now. I'm going to have to look him up and see what else he wrote. If that's the one that is just
Speaker 3:Like, eh, you know, pay the bills. Yeah, yeah. Not my best writing, but it's the one that really took off. So, you know, you, you, you learn to love the one that, that pays you. So
Speaker 2:Through Hendrick Henderson county schools and being in the arts, you had to run into somebody by the name of, oh, I don't know, cherry Lyles or, uh, Brian Eaton's son.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So, you know, aren't, we lucky we had special people that appreciate the arts and yeah. Oh, wonderful. I mean, uh, uh, cherry played my mother, uh, in an opera when I was in fifth grade that we performed at at first Baptist. And I was, I was blown away with her at that time. You know, she just had a special talent and she was wonderful to me as, as not just my mother, but also as a mentor, uh, who was, uh, supportive and, and provided suggestions. And, uh, you know, would give you encouragement to say, oh, that was a great choice of your character, those types of things. And so as a young person, you greatly appreciate that when, you know, what somebody who you know, is a, is a music teacher, a music director. Uh, and you know, my, my favorite teacher of all time was Robert Ellis, who was with Henderson county for years and years and years. And, uh, he really was the one that made Henderson county, the choral program of the state of Kentucky. I mean, we would take six, seven choirs to state and we would get superiors and all of them. And we had, you know, twice of what any other school in the state did and we'd went every national contest we went to. Uh, but it was again a kind of like cherry. He really sort of took me under his wing and became a mentor, uh, and that helped develop that love for music and theater even further. Uh, you know, and then after school, you know, I went to college, but I continue to sing and perform and inquire there. And, and, uh, was one of the founding members of the acoustic cats, uh, at the university of Kentucky. And after college, uh, you know, went on and moved to Ohio memo. Wife has, I mentioned, but I also signed my first recording contract as a Christian recording artist. And, uh, I only left that because my wife and I were planning to have a family and being on the road is just awfully difficult. But a few years later, as, as I look across at USC, the, uh, the parrot behind you and, uh, you know, the, the directions to the beach and I was the lead singer for a Trop rock band, uh, for a number of years. And we traveled all over, uh, south and the east and up into the north, just performing originals and buffet tunes, and beach boys, and really anything, you know, that was a party song, whether it be Willy bully or things like that. And so it was, that was a great deal of fun. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Rock before it was a channel. Right. That's awesome. So you come up in Henderson being surrounded by the arts, being surrounded by incredible people that help lead you and mentor you along the way you go to UK and, and, uh, you continue your
Speaker 3:Passion there. What did you use study? Uh, I studied journalism. Uh, so journalism was my major. My, my original plan was to, uh, be a criminal lawyer. So I minored in criminology. Uh, but just as I've finished school, well, to backtrack on that, I was, uh, there are, there were two choirs at the time. There were actually three, there was a women's choir, but there was a for your mixed courses, there was a mixed choir. And then there was, uh, the, the corral and the corral was a very select group of about 32 singers. And I was the only non music or vocal music major in, in that group. And so that was, that was a nice honor to, to be there and be part of that. Uh, but you know, then after I graduated and I'm thinking I'm going to be a criminal lawyer, I decided I don't really want to be a lawyer. So I ended up going into marketing and that began my career working in financial services. And along the way, piece by piece, there would be, you know, a show that would come up and I would do that show and have a, you know, a year and a half later or so I'd do another show. Uh, and are these, um, musicals that work on musicals, predominantly musicals? Occasionally a play. One of the most interesting was, uh, I had moved back to Henderson. We were back here in Henderson and a gentleman that had directed another musical that I've been in with him. Um, left me a message on my cell phone. It was very late at night and I pick it up and he says, please call me as soon as you can. Doesn't matter the hour I'll be up. Uh, and I'm concerned that maybe something has happened to a mutual friend or things like that. And I call him back and he says, Hey, I appreciate you calling, uh, you know, we're getting ready to do Chicago at Evansville civic theater. Right. And I said, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. He says, well, the gentleman playing our Billy crocker has just completely gone. AWOL. We don't know where he is. I was like, oh, that's terrible. Right. I was like, man, what are you going to do? He said, well, that's why I called, uh, he said, I was sitting here. Okay, let me,
Speaker 2:Let me just stop you right there. You're about to tell me a story where you walk into maybe one of the best male roles on Broadway
Speaker 3:Playing Billy at civic theater. Absolutely. And one of the, one of the roles I had always wanted to play and had originally wanted to audition, but it just, uh, their, their rehearsal schedule work. So
Speaker 5:He says, this is exactly how he said
Speaker 3:It. He said, you know, we have a, we needed someone with the, with the age and the maturity to step into this role in eight days and pull it off. And I sat there silently and I said, Chris, did you just ask me to do the near impossible while at the same time calling me old? Uh,
Speaker 5:He laughed. He said, no, no, no, he's a, once you see the rest of our cast, he
Speaker 4:Gave you the old razzle dazzle. That's exactly what
Speaker 3:He did. Uh, it was a younger cast, a lot of UV students. Uh, and so literally we had one and we didn't even have eight days. We had seven days for the opening. Uh, and I talked with my wife Eileen and said, okay, we're going to do this. But I mean, at this point, they're, they're all off book. They've already got all of their choreography set. Their blocking is done and I'm walking in completely cold. Now, luckily I know the musical pretty well because it's one of my favorites. Uh, but still it was, you know, okay, we're going to do, you know, like this mega blocking and I'm just need you for the day. And it was literally one day of blocking. And now you got to know, uh, and it's, I need you off book in two days and you know, don't worry about the choreography. You can just park it. And I'm like, no, I'm not just going to work it in. If I'm going to do the show, I'm going to do the choreography correctly. So I got to learn that. Uh, and luckily there were a lot of talented people on the set, um, who if I've failed to find my block spot would somehow casually take me by the arm or put their hand on my shoulder, friendly walk with me. Uh, so they helped a lot. But, uh, that was definitely a bucket list role and a, and a bucket list type of thing to pull something off like that. And in a week, uh,
Speaker 4:That story, but I would never do it again. I hope you
Speaker 2:Had a really good Roxanne like that, that helped. I mean that the timing
Speaker 3:Of that, of the phrasing that you have to go through for that role is just incredible. Hopefully
Speaker 2:You had the traditional blocking, which was, you know, that, that show is so great because it has such a sparse stage. I mean, you have a few chairs and a bandstand and that's about it. And what was really cool about it is
Speaker 3:Tyner was the director at the time. And he decided to make it a women's prison that was putting on the musical Chicago. Oh. And so I was actually the warden and the other men that were in the show were, uh, guards at the prison. And, uh, you know, there were custodians and things like that. But so everything that was shot in every character wore some level of orange in their costumes, uh, because it's a prison. So
Speaker 4:It was very creative on his part,
Speaker 3:A different way to present a musical that everybody has seen numerous times, uh, and give it just a little twist. So I love that creativity, um, the, that people come up with when they do, you know, shows or movies and, you know, musical theater will always be my, my first love, uh, because I love music. I love theater. The, the live audience is it's just exhilarating. It gives you so much energy, but doing film and television is very vastly different because what's written in the script is likely not going to be what ends up in the film. It's really more of a suggestion as to what this scene is about. And then, you know, your actors are encouraged to make it their own. So the script may not be followed at all. And it's actually encouraged like, Hey, you know what? This is about. Don't feel like you're handcuffed by the script presented the way that's most natural for you and how you see your character. And that, that, that makes it a lot of fun. Uh, for someone who, you know, likes creating characters because in theater, you're portraying a character and that's exactly what it is. A character is written out there on the page and you are to be that character, but in film, you get to create that character. So the same way they're written down, but the character is ultimately who you make them not who you're supposed to be. And so I assume part of that is the type of director that you have, sorry, I'm
Speaker 2:A complete layman. Okay. My favorite role of all time was I was a horse in Shrek.
Speaker 3:Basically. I got the carry Lord Farquan I got
Speaker 2:To carry him on my back, uh, with a horse head mask on. And that was, that was my best role of all time.
Speaker 4:That's great. I wish you could see that. I wasn't
Speaker 2:Quite talented for it, but, you know, we got through it. So, uh, but we were talking about directors and there are different types of directors. Sorry. There were some that encourage actors to have their own vision and bring whatever
Speaker 3:They see the character, um, to the, to the scene.
Speaker 2:And there are some that has, uh, have a very
Speaker 3:Specific, uh, direction. Yes. And, uh,
Speaker 2:No it's going to be played this way. So have you worked with both
Speaker 3:Styles? I have. Um, I certainly prefer the director that that wants to be more flexible. And when I direct something, uh, I would, I would call myself a actors director, uh, because being an actor myself, uh, what I don't like, I want the director to give me direction. This is what I want to see out of this scene. Or this is where I'd like you to begin in your, in your one spot and then move to here for your two. But I need you to have this angle while you're presenting your lines, because I want to see something specific in your face. Like that's good direction. But what I don't want is I don't want a director telling me to do that and then says, and I specifically want you to look this, and I want you to change your intonation to this. And I want you, I'm gonna actor. You hired me to do this role. Let me, me ax. You know, if they're in a once I've presented, if there are things about it that you slightly want to tweak, then talk to me about that. Cause I'm open to it. But if you begin to try to specifically tell me all these different ways that you want me to present my character yet, I've been preparing this character for, you know, weeks or months now, all of a sudden it, it doesn't fit with what I had in my head. If you didn't give me those specific directions way in advance, my character may be totally different than that. And so, you know, when I shoot a film, I did a short film here recently, uh, just a couple of weeks ago and, uh, hired a separate cinematographer. Uh, it was a very small, uh, staged short because it was actually a play, uh, you know, that was originally written as a play, but, but adapted to screen. And so it was a single table with two chairs and two actors in a, in a room that was supposed to be like a safe room. So I hired a cinematographer to work with me and I hired two very good actors. I gave direction. We went through, you know, zoom calls and read-throughs and I said, Hey, this is great. I'd like you to have a little more inflection here. I really want you to get angry here. They came back at the next one, took all those marks and notes and did a great, I felt good about it. The original writer saw it and said, I love it. It's the best I've ever seen it. And then when we went to shoot, you know, I let the cinematographer do his thing. He said specifically, what are some things you want to set a specifically, want to see these things, but outside of that, whatever angles you want to get, whatever you think looks the best cinema likely do it. Uh, because that's what, in my opinion makes a film great is that you have good actors who create a character. You have a director who has a vision and directs all of this, the way that they want it to be. And then you have great cinematographers who just know the right way to catch that on film. And then you turn it over to an editor who basically builds the story. So that that's what comes out in the
Speaker 2:End. And they can have a lot of influence over the final product. Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And you know, many times there can be some, uh, you know, conflict between the, the directors or producers and the editor because of what they're seeing versus what they're seeing. And I've always said, it's, it's incredibly difficult to write a story, direct your own story and edit your own story, because it's just your vision. When you bring a multitude of people in to collaborate, it becomes so much better because they see things you didn't, you know, that they have a feeling about how this should be edited and, and what it should look like and you know, how the sun should, or those types of things. But you don't see because you didn't think of that as you wrote it. Uh, and as we go through that process and, you know, somebody says, Hey, what are we supposed to be doing in the scene? And I'll talk to the cinematographers. I wasn't supposed to be this. And he'll say, you know, I really feel like it would look this way. And I'm like, well, I really want to film it this way. And then you can shoot it that way too. And then we'll get it at the end and we'll look at it. I was like, yo, I like your way, way better. Because again, they see something differently than what you saw because you wrote it. Uh, and it's very, very difficult for writers to give up their project to a director and editor because they see it. They're basically, yeah, they see it just the way they wrote it. And so it's difficult for them to see the additional vision of what other people see as they look through it. Uh, and that's, you know, that's some of the fun things about, about film and television, you know, that just make it super creative, but you have people that come through to become, you know, that they're extras or, or as first time they're on set. And they don't realize that, you know, when you sit down in a theater and you watch this and you're thinking, oh, this is what has to be so glamorous to make these films and so much fun. Yeah. Even the smallest take that could be all of about eight seconds, we'll take six, seven shots. And it takes, you know, six, seven shots is great. You're happy about that, but it takes you 45 minutes just to set up, to take that one little shot of, of eight seconds. So it's a lot of hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, and just doing the same take over and over and over and trying to, you know, do it the same way you did it before, so that when we added it and cut to different looks and so forth, that the continuity is the same. So, you know, making a film, it's fun. If you're a creative person and you enjoy the process, but you also learn that it's, it's not glamorous at all. It's a lot of work, my
Speaker 2:Very best friend in this world. He's, he's my brother from another mother, Andy Jones has this incredible ability to bring a certain energy
Speaker 3:To her performance. And then there's this hurry up and wait yeah. Where he relaxes.
Speaker 2:And he becomes someone completely different. Uh, and then all of a sudden the lights come back on and he's exactly right back where he was before. And I was, I've always been just a little bit jealous of that. And, you know, I have to get mentally prepared to be a horse, carrying someone else on my back and, and he just kind of turns it on. So I don't know how you guys do that. I don't know if it's just practice or if it's something you're built with, or if it's something you
Speaker 3:Learned, it's really both. I mean, you know, I think most actors are born with a natural ability to be characters and to act and understand emotions. But the difficult part of it is understanding how to portray those emotions or when those emotions are the most important. And, you know, really, if you want to be a good actor of whether you're already talented, you need to take classes. I mean, you really, really do because you get different perspectives. You have an understanding of things. Uh, you know, you're like, oh, I've got to cry in this scene. And, you know, in a film, there's going to be a closeup of your face crying. So you have to cry, but you don't necessarily know how to make yourself cry. Well, there's coaching techniques for that. And there's things to talk through. And there's various ways in some may work for you. And some may not, uh, the coaches help you become much better. I mean, it's just like being a great singer. You can, you know, you're born with a good voice, great, wonderful. You have a beautiful voice, but it's not a trained voice. And you can certainly tell the difference between a trained vocalist and somebody who just has a very good voice. Uh, they're much stronger. Uh, their voice tends to have a Bronto at the right times. Uh, they understand breath support better. Uh, but that comes from again, work and practice and, and working with people who are able to coach you to do those better. And that's really what it takes in acting too. You know, there are so many phenomenally good, uh, you know, community actors out there that, you know, will never end up on screen or, or Broadway. And so their name goes unknown outside of their local area, but they're so, so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You name it. I'm just telling you right now, we're going to have name as a guest. He's a good friend of mine as well, and is well known in Evansville. He's an amazing actor and a producer and director just like yourself. Tell me a little bit about the story of mother's day.
Speaker 3:Sure. Yeah. The story of mother's day, we, we just released a here in Henderson where we had our premiere the day before mother's day itself. Uh, the film came about really because, uh, Jason Campbell, who's the president of, of JC films, one of the largest Christian production companies in the U S uh, they do faith and family based films. Uh, we had been doing a number of things with him over the last few years, specifically as actors. When I say we, I mean, my wife and son and my wife and my son is really the primary actor in the family. Like, he's the focus, he's the one, we all have an agent, but he's the one with the talent manager in LA and, and gets the big, big auditions. But that was how it started. He booked it role with, with Jason and one of his films. And, uh, we went, and then I got thrown into a role in the film and we became friends and we stayed in touch and we continue to do things. I kept telling Jason with a lot of the films that he was producing, uh, that he was doing a lot of them in West Virginia, where he's from. And he was beginning to talk about branching out further. And I said, you really ought to do one in my hometown of Henderson. And, uh, I just kept kind of plugging that at him. I said, it's a really great little small town. I was like, it's as perfect for a lot of these scenes. I said, it feels very much like a hallmark film, uh, know, during the holidays. And it just kept falling on deaf ears. So I was talking to him at the beginning of the year, and I had said something again about, Hey, we, we should really look at doing something in Henderson.
Speaker 5:And so he says, man,
Speaker 3:You keep talking about Henderson. Tell me about this town. So I'm kind of telling him about the history of the city and the people. And, and I mentioned the, the first observance of mother's day here in Henderson, Blab by Mary Taos, I seen, and he says, oh, that that's, that's not what happened. It was, it was Ann Jarvis from West Virginia that created mother's day. No, I said she was the person responsible for pushing for it to ultimately become a national holiday. Uh, but it was Mary towels who observed the first celebration of mothers. Uh, many other school teachers picked up what she was doing a good 30 years before and Jarvis ever became involved. And I said, she's also credited with having written the first, as I say, quotation, you know, in quotations birthday card, but it's really like a 32 page book called the celebration of mothers. And he said, you know, that's really interesting. I've always wanted to write a mother's day story and do a film about mother's day, but I never really had a good idea. And I think I got one now. So the idea behind it was is that it's a high school coming back from being out of school from COVID. They haven't been able to do a play and, you know, 18 months and they're challenged to come up with their own play, but just so happens that two kids had just moved to Henderson because their, their parents had passed and they're living with their aunts. And, uh, they come across a plaque in the school that talks about Mary towels. And they're like, oh, it looks like she created mother's day. No, it was in West Virginia. And so they write two different scripts and then, you know, the kids are supposed to vote and they say they w we should do them together. And so it talks about the history of mother's day, but that's just sort of the undertone of the film. The film is really about the individual lead characters and their relationships with their mothers. Uh, and we dive into some, some very, what you would think of, you know, mainstream perinatal know, parental relationships to ones that have some difficulty, uh, you know, one, uh, her mother is, uh, suffering from substance abuse with pain medication, or from an injury that she had received. Uh, another kid's father has PTSD and his mother is, is filling sort of both of those roles. Uh, another kid's mother, a father had just left them three years before, and mom works double shifts. And, uh, they don't get to spend a lot of time together, but he recognizes that she's there to support him. Then you've got two kids whose parents passed away and, you know, now have an aunt that's serving as a mom, and then you've got, you know, a kid that just, you know, her and her mom seemed to be fine. There doesn't seem to be any conflict. And so the idea behind it was to show that, you know, relationships with mothers come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and that in the end, each of the kids developed a much stronger, you know, uh, appreciation for what their mother does and they are. And that was the purpose of the film. Uh, and we did it here in Henderson. We shot it as if they were going to school here in Henderson. Uh, we made sure to highlight different areas of Henderson. So that's the reason we wanted to do, you know, the premiere here. And, uh, once it was all said and done, uh, Jason's company, JC films, mind, little Chicago pictures. Uh, Jason sent me, this is one of the best films I've done in some time. And he was blown away, not just with the talent that we have here, because about 95% of the actors were from Henderson. Uh, but it was also the community, uh, who opened their doors for us, hometown roots though, the high school, uh, mixed martial arts and the dance factory, a bushel and a pack. I mean, all of these places allowed us to use their facilities and, and were supportive and, and just the city and the county and, and all the wonderful organizations in town supported it. And he said, we have to do another film here, which was what led to the film, we're shooting today, as we speak right here, but the oh, man,
Speaker 2:Well worth. Right. So, uh, we were, we were very happy to open the home up, uh, to the story of mother's day. And it makes a brief appearance here and there. And, uh, you know, if you drive by south on north main today, it looks like the Laos bridges client are getting ready for their, you know, uh, annual Halloween party. Uh, uh, not quite yet. We are going to have one this year, but it's it, this is all for the movie. And we were excited to have you guys here, uh, and, uh, using this house is, uh, as Jennifer always says, we're, we're just caretakers until the next folks come along. I love that.
Speaker 3:I love when she says that, because it's, it's such an amazing home. And it's, it's such a, really a focal point of, of the historic homes in Henderson. And so many people know it because of, you know, a league of their own, right. And those types of things that just, just the history of the home itself. But, uh, yeah, you're, you're, you guys went from, you know, hosting a home in the first film with the mother's day film, uh, that was, you know, just a regular home, uh, with, with people who, you know, really love their home and their place. And people were impressed by the home to being the home of the villain of, of the entire Halloween heroes movie, which is what we're shooting now. So creepy basement. That's all I can say.
Speaker 2:All right, you're going to have to go see this movie, but look, let me ask you a couple of questions about story of mother's day. Yeah. How long did it take from beginning to end for this production to,
Speaker 3:You know, uh, be released. It was really crazy for us to push for what we did. Um, the idea for the script of course came up first part of the year in January, when we talks, Jason said, ah, I've got an idea for a script. So he developed the script that we talked about and what, and when he sent it to me, it was about 45 pages. Now we wanted this to be a roughly 90 minute film, a feature films or anything over 45 minutes. So if you're under 45 years short film, anything over, it's a feature. Uh, but we were shooting for about a 90 minute clip, which means we needed to be closer to like 80, 85 pages in this script. So I said, okay, let me take a stab at it. So now I get to add all the things about Henderson, et cetera. And we were able to develop a story and get the script to about 81 pages, but we still had to get permission to use everything. And, uh, he said, you know, what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to shoot this thing the first week of March, uh, shoot it over seven, eight days, get it knocked out. And then we've got to get it released before mother's day, because it doesn't make sense not to. And that is a ridiculous turnaround time from concept to scripts, to post production, to production, to mobile, preproduction, to production. And then post-production all in the throws of COVID all in the throws of COVID. So we're talking a legitimate four month turnaround from the idea of the film. And even though we got everything shot in the early part of March, you know, it was our editor did a great job of pushing and making sure that we had everything ready by the early part of April. However, there were three scenes that had to be shot with Dean Cain and Dean was not able to come to Henderson because of scheduling conflicts. So I had to fly to Phoenix to pick up those scenes with him two weeks before the release. So not only do we have to everything's edited except that. So they've got to plug those scenes in, finish up the editing. Now the entire thing has to be sent, uh, to show, play cinemas, as well as the, uh, the, well, they had to go to sound. Then it's got to go to show place in a very specific, uh, cinematic format. We've got to send it over for production of DVDs and those have to be done and printed and everything else into weeks. Uh, and we still hit it. We hit it. We, uh, I actually picked up the DVDs or my wife picked up the DVDs, uh, the day before the premiere. And, uh, showplace was great. They opened their doors here in Henderson and welcome to sin. And we had a red carpet event and, and people from Henderson came out dressed to the nines and it was beautiful. I w it was wonderful to see that many people and that support, uh, but I won't ever do another four month movie. That's kind of like a one-week Chicago. That'll never happen again. Yeah,
Speaker 2:I hear ya. Well, thank you for keeping the word Henderson in the ear of the right people and coming back, I think Henderson needs this so much and what a wonderful story to tell. So if somebody wants to see this movie, how can they do that?
Speaker 3:They can certainly just a copy of the film from the JC film's website, JC films.org. You can see all of their film catalog there. Uh, they can also go to Amazon. Uh, it is available on, uh, prime. Uh, if they just simply type in the story of mother's day, it'll come out, uh, both for, uh, rent or buy. And so they can do that right now. It's not free streaming, it's still rental because it's so new, but, you know, we released it. We wanted to make sure we got it out early for the people of Henderson, the real push for this film won't come until 2022. And, um, there are other streaming formats that have already said they want to pick it up. Uh, pure Flix is one in particular, that's already, hasn't lined up to purchase. So you'll be able to see it, you know, streaming through there, et cetera, uh, you know, coming up and it'll get a big push. Uh, Halloween heroes itself will be coming out this October. Uh, so the film we're shooting right now, which is a very campy kind of twin comedy, that's really family friendly to everyone. Uh, very, very funny film, uh, will be coming out in October. And our hope is to do the same thing to premiere it here in Henderson. Since, you know, this is really the base of the film, uh,
Speaker 2:Fantastic. And this is no small cast, right? This is not a tiny,
Speaker 3:No, no. This is, uh, you know, our last, uh, the, the mother's day film we had about 50 cast members. Uh, this one credited, we have like 92 and we've got 17 shot locations. And then we've had a plethora of other, you know, extras. So, you know, you're just talking credited cast at 92, you had the extras enemy. We're probably going to have somewhere around a 130, 140 people in the cast. And that is a very, very large cast, especially for, uh, an independent film. So
Speaker 2:You're pretty happy with how it's going so far. Yeah,
Speaker 3:It's very funny. Uh, the kids are great. There's seven league kids, and then we've got, uh, a plethora of adults, uh, in its, uh, uh, we even have a, uh, a former, uh, WWE WCW, uh, professional Bressler, Mike Bucci, uh, who played, uh, Simon Dean, uh, in the WWE. And then he was Nova supernova, uh, Hollywood Nova, and the WCW. He plays a character named Rambo, uh, who is the, uh, school security guard, but he's kind of like the, the souped up ridiculous version of a, uh, of a mall cop. Uh, and he's just so funny. And then I play the mayor and, you know, I'm pretty sure by the end of this film, I'll have diabetes cause I've eaten nothing but snacks through the whole thing. My character never stops eating sweets. Uh, and again, it's take after, take after, take after take. So I have to start with a new one and he needed all over again. So it's, it's cute. It's funny. The kids are great. The kids are hilarious together. Uh, and I'm excited for people to see this film. Uh, we may, uh, we've been talking about it. What we may do with this premiere, uh, is possibly premiere it in the earlier part of October. So again, we're, we're releasing it, but it'll be premiered here and have it as a, uh, as a Halloween costume premiere,
Speaker 2:Although that would be awesome. Yeah. And so
Speaker 3:Adults, kids, everyone can, can wear their costumes and come to the premiere. Uh, we'll have the, uh, the, the main characters of the movie also where their, their character costumes as well. Uh, so we think that would be a really cool idea and something
Speaker 2:Fun for family Ababa. You know this about me, but the audience may not know how big of a nerd that I am, but you have not lived until there's been a little cosplay at the movie theater is there's just something special about going as a character to the movies. Yes, that is just awesome. Absolutely just lost half the audience there, but it truly is really fun. And you should try it if you haven't done it before. My wife and I I've definitely
Speaker 3:Appeared to star wars, character stars, star wars characters, uh, we've, we've appeared as many characters from Marvel films and DC films. And, uh, you know, we live in Shelbyville now. That's, that's where we call home. This is always my hometown, but it's where we call home today, where we hang our hat, you know, I should say. And, uh, there's a small theater there. And every time one of the, you know, new, you know, film releases, we're there for the very first showing as it comes out. And we would all be in a character costume and the management, they loved us. They were always getting pictures of us and sending it out because it's fun. I mean, you know, it's, it's an experience to go and see a film that you're excited about, but it's a totally different experience when you, you know, make it a little more fun by dressing as a character. And having people want to take pictures with you because they're excited about the film. Uh, it, it's, it's a nice fun family experience to do that. And I think that that would be the, the nice thing about Halloween heroes. Uh, you know, another interesting fact we didn't talk about, I was talking about JC films and I mentioned that, that my, um, my production company is called little Chicago pictures folks. My age, mid forties, aging, myself, and up are very familiar with Henderson's history and their ties to the Chicago mob. Younger than that, a lot of people are not familiar with that. Uh, and, and back in the day during that time of prohibition and, uh, Chicago, you know, mob and mafia being so prevalent, uh, Henderson was known as little Chicago, right? There was a lot of bootlegging bootlegging that was done here. Uh, we, we know for sure that there were gangsters that, uh, at least frequented the area Darrow is world famous.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Maybe not so famous in Henderson anymore if you're at a, at a younger age, but it was a and in place. And the strip was a little bit more than chicken and burger places, uh, back in the day. And that's the reason it was called the strip.
Speaker 3:Uh, and, uh, you know, six, 12 north main has its history.
Speaker 2:You know, there's this little side door on sixth street that has a purpose and its purpose, uh, includes being right next to the stairs that go down to the basement that has this interesting little room that if I ever wanted to put a, oh, maybe I'll wine cellar or a whiskey bar in there, uh, that might be a good use for that space, or may have been used for that at one time, uh, when it shouldn't have been past.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Right. So when I created, when I was creating the name for my, uh, production company, I wanted to pay homage to my hometown where I really found my love for the arts. And, and, uh, I didn't want to just say, oh, Henderson pictures, or, you know, uh, red banks. I don't, I have people will know. Uh, and then it hit me a little Chicago and so little Chicago pictures in and of itself, you know, touches on a real piece of Henderson's history that is very intriguing. Some people might want to forget, but it's really at the heart of some of those things that make Henderson such a really interesting historical city of all the things that happened here. Uh, and so for me, it was just a way for me to really kind of tip my cap and give a nod to my hometown, uh, and naming it, little Chicago pictures. So we're going to put
Speaker 2:A link to a little Chicago pictures, JC films, civic theater, and all the other things that we've talked about in the show notes, Bobby laser, you've been a writer, an actor, a producer. Is there anything you haven't done in the arts that you would like to do? What's next
Speaker 3:For Bobby yo man, you know, that's a good question. I've had a chance to do so much, um, because when you, when you work, especially with, with a lot of independent films, that there's lots of opportunity to really get your hands dirty. Uh, and as an actor, I encourage actors, especially film and television actors to, to do those things, to find a way to get behind camera, because it makes you such a better actor when you see how shots are dirtied and why a shot angle comes in this way, or, or, you know, just sort of why you want to catch that specific lighting. Uh, it really makes you a better actor because you understand it more, uh, know the real thing that I would love to see, um, when it comes to the arts and especially, you know, moving forward in my life with film and television is my son to have a successful career because that's what he really wants to do. And it was, it was not until he came to us a little over three years ago and said, dad, I want to be an actor, but this all opened back up because once he got in, uh, then we got drug in and now we have an opportunity to do this together. I mean, just the film we're, we're, you know, we're filming here in Henderson now, Halloween heroes, uh, he, my wife, I, uh, also my parents and even my dog are all getting to make little cameo appearances in the film. That's a opportunity for our family to do something together, to make memories that are lasting memories that are forever caught on film. And, uh, that's pretty special to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Henderson, family entertainment, Bobby Leiser. Thank you for being here. My friend, we appreciate you and what you've done for Henderson and, uh, we're going to be in line
Speaker 1:Waiting for our Halloween heroes. Well,
Speaker 3:I can't, I can't wait to see everyone from Henderson there and, and I graciously appreciate you having me here. It's, uh, it's always my favorite room of, of this lovely home. And it's great to always[inaudible].