AND HERE’S MODI

Michael Rainin

• Modi • Season 2 • Episode 168

Share episode

Episode 168: Modi and Leo sit down with filmmaker Michael Rainin to discuss his latest project, Run Raven Run, as well as his previous film projects with Modi (Waiting for Woody Allen) - the genesis of Modi's Yoely character!

Send us Modi Mail!
118A Orchard St.
PMB #208
New York, NY 10002

Modi's special "Know Your Audience" is available on YouTube now!
For all upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Follow the AHM podcast on Instagram at @AHM_Podcast.
Leave us a voicemail!


Send us a text

Support the show

SPEAKER_05:

Welcome back to And here's Modi. Um thanks for tuning in. And we have a special guest in the in the studio today, a good old friend of mine from for over 20, over 20 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, 23, 24 years.

SPEAKER_05:

20 23 years, yeah. Um ish. Michael Raynon. We also have Leo, my husband, here. What's up? What's up? Um and Michael Raynon and I met um in 2003. So it's just 22 years ago. Uh 22 years ago, I got a phone call. I don't know how you reached me. You saw me on something.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, where did I see you on online, I think. Yeah, online.

SPEAKER_05:

Online or something that was aired, and and um you were putting together a short movie called Waiting for Woody Allen. Yeah. And it was two chased guys sitting on a park bench, kind of like a waiting for Godot type of a thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, uh a parody of waiting, a parody of waiting for Godot um by Samuel Beckett. Yeah. And um and yeah, it was such a great piece written by Jonathan Ba Brown and Daniel Weschler. I found it on Craigslist.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. I was like, oh, okay, I've been art directing, I've been post-production supervising, I've been doing all this stuff. And you know, I want to be a director, I want to make films. And so that was the first film I ever made. My first short film, 16 minutes long. Went to how many film festivals already?

SPEAKER_05:

It was just way, way before that. So so you you bought the rights to this, to this, and you reached out to me to play one of the one of the chasidic guys. I'd never played a chassid, I'd never played a chassid before.

SPEAKER_01:

The lead.

SPEAKER_05:

Right, but you just caught whatever it was, and I said, I'll do it on one condition if I can choose the other chassid. Yes. And that's when I chose Joey Pakarski, who we've had on the podcast, and is a good friend of mine. Uh Joey Pakarski also never did acting or anything. And I just said that this this would work great with um with Joey. And uh we met you, you came to New York, and we um we we read it, and it was fun and it was good. And I said, okay, let's let let's shoot this. We got it. And we got the the the lavouche, the dress. Do you remember that? I remember. We we had some guy in in Bor in not in Borough Brook, in Williamsburg. Williamsburg. That had um that had um he gave us his extra his extras. I still have your hat. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I still have your hat from the shoot. If you do on top of my closet, right? It's it's up there. I think.

SPEAKER_05:

So he gave us, so this wasn't like we we we didn't go to G and G, which is the the main clothier for for the Hasidic wear. This guy gave it to us, and then we here's what happened. It was three days of shooting. You said it was the coldest days of your life. So the first day, the first day when we shot, it wasn't cold. It was okay, it was light, it was all right. So we sat there just with our coats, our hats, and we're good. And we just shot and went through it, different angles, different takes, different what whatever you want to call it. And um, and and we were in Central Park, you know, we were in Central Park on that, what's that called? That public walk? Literary walk. Literary walk, right, right. And um, and uh did did you have a permission to to to to film there?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, we got some sort of permits, I think, but very loosey-goosey, and maybe even not in the in the end, you know. Right, right. But uh, yeah, I mean how how absolutely.

SPEAKER_05:

The first day we shot, the the the first part of the first day we shot, it was okay, it was warm. There was a sun, it wasn't cold. The next half a day and two days after that, it was the two coldest days of ever in this in in recorded in New York State, recorded in history of America. I got you the warmers though, the little uh chemical warmers. I threw them at you. I threw them at you, toll worker, you were so cold that in between the tapes we would try to just put blankets and just like we were.

SPEAKER_03:

And then so just rewind a little bit. So you waiting for Woody Allen, it's too like what drew you to like making this uh concept, like of these two Hasidic men.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean the script, right? And that's the most important part of any film, I think, uh is and that's the most difficult part, the writing. The the script was brilliant, you know. Jonathan Brown and Daniel Weshler did a really good job on doing a parody of of Waiting for Godot, which is one of the masterpieces of literary history. You know, James Joyce, uh an Irish guy, right? Writes it in French the first time. Uh-huh. Like just because he knew how great the French language is for literary works. Yeah. I mean, who does that? It's like he's so good. And so the piece Waiting for Doe is obviously amazing. But then taking it from two homeless men and converting it to two Hasidic men who are questioning their faith and going through all sorts of angst as we all do, and then having you take it and really, you know, I mean, you really you should have gotten a writing credit because of the you know of your whole world. I just wanted heat.

SPEAKER_05:

I just wanted to be warm. I wanted soup. I didn't want a writing credit. I just wanted to be warm again. No, but I thought I'd never be warm again in my life.

SPEAKER_01:

I was so cold. So it's 16 minutes. 16 minutes, and uh, you know, won all these awards, etc. etc. But the thing is, the casting you brought Joe Joseph Pakarski. Yes, right? Yes. And he went through a period in his life where he was grew up Hasidic, right? And he he chose he I you know he internal angst of of of his uh right.

SPEAKER_05:

So the film had incredible success for a few reasons. First of all, the name Woody Allen was in the title. And if you ever sat you ever get a cease and desist? I did not. Okay. And then and then Joey Pakarski looks and sounds like Woody Allen. He does. No, one hundred percent, one hundred percent. I don't know if if anybody Google this this this movie. Oh my camera on. Not the DVD. So the DVD that's still wrapped in hasn't been opened DVD. This is like Deep Modi Archive. Deep Modi Archive, so just beta SP and not Mr. Yeah, so so this was the cover of the uh of the film, and it's me and him. And this got into I I'm not making this up, but it got into probably 24 film festivals. Oh so we we we filmed this and then bye Michael, nice to take care. Good, good to meet you. You know, we Joey and I walk away. What a good, you know, like this nine-foot gentile screaming at us directions in the middle of the park while we're just as chasids, you know, and it's like it was, you know, and um and then like okay, bye. And then just like out of nowhere, we just get you know, emails back then was like, hey, we're in this festival, hey, we're in that festival, hey, we're in that festival, hey, we're in this festival. Every festival wanted to have a picture of two chasids in their program.

SPEAKER_01:

What about Lincoln Center?

SPEAKER_05:

Lincoln Center. Oh my god, do you remember that? Do you remember what happened? Tell me. Oh my gosh. What are we talking about? Oh my god. Okay. So this got into some festival that was in the Lincoln Center. Lincoln Center, where the the the the ballet and all of all of that. But people who don't know the ballet and that it was in this massive, beautiful theater, the Tully. Uh, what's it called? Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01:

The big uh the big one there. Uh one of the big ones.

SPEAKER_05:

Keep going, keep going. Okay. And it they were they were screening this 16-minute short comedy. And then it was the opening act for a film called Holocaust in Hollywood, which was two and a half hours of how Hollywood depicts the Holocaust, like all the directors and one director that was actually a Holocaust survivor. And so it went from the 16-minute of like ha-ha's and chuckles into like you have to walk in the mud and show how they walk in the mud, and we the way we got them to be so thin and the way and Holocaust and how and it was very serious. It was such a serious movie and so intense. And you just stayed for the whole movie. And the Q we did, and the QA for both was after you had to stay. We had to stay. Oh my god. And and the director of the other film, the uh Holocaust in Hollywood, was what he came in after. He wasn't there. He started his movie a thousand times, so he came in after, and he didn't know like people were asking about the comedy, and like he didn't know. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_03:

People who came to see our film ended up sitting that's a little bit of a glitch on the whoever was curating and programming the evening to put this. They just saw they just saw Juju. Juju. Jewish film festival. Yeah. Okay, well, that's even worse then. Yes, they really should have known better. Yeah, known better. Right? If it was like a dive, like a just a secular film festival, I could understand some kid like being like, this one's Jewish, these put this crowd in this room at this time. But if it's a Jewish film festival, it almost the Jewish film festivals are amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know that it goes back to like this with Judaism that I find the giving, right? Always giving, giving so much. Even to the filmmakers, they pay flights, they pay per diem, they they pay you a a stipend for your film to be playing there, a few thousand dollars. Like it's there, I don't know if they're still doing that. Um I didn't see a dime. Yeah, you not so much. I didn't see a dime. I think they were just finding out that Michael Reagan isn't Jewish. Oh, are you crazy? He's the most non-Jewish. Oh, no, no, but I grew up with the sarcasm, the guilt, the rye bread, the pickles. My Judaism to him. Rybred is Judaism to him. No, but I'm 50%. 50% what?

SPEAKER_05:

50% Ashkenazi Lithuanian Jew. 50% guy and 50% guy-ish. He is a full-blown guy, but but he's very like he always tries to.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because it we're Americans, so we're like a conglomerate of so many different peoples, most of us, and we and we want to feel some roots. You know, where did you grow up? Grew up in uh San Francisco Bay Area.

SPEAKER_03:

San Francisco, okay. Yeah. And so you were like a you were sort of a multi-hyphenate before waiting for Woody Allen. You said you did art direction, you did producing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, art direction, post-production supervisor, uh script supervisor. Um yeah, I worked in with Louis Horowitz in in uh you know the award show kind of stuff, shooting like uh, you know, live broadcast TV, tribute to Johnny Cash show, different things like that. Worked in the writing department, then worked in the art department, worked my way up to art director, productions learner doing you know music videos and commercials, etc., here in New York and worked under Brock Houghton, Nick Houghton and all these guys. And then uh work did the Who Wants to Be Millionaire show with Regis Philbin, the first uh we wrote the American script with Regis, which was so cool, Michael Davies, executive producer, and then um and then waiting for Woody Allen and started directing. Now I've done some you know films since then. One coming out very soon called Run Raven Run. Hold on one minute, we're not getting into that yet.

SPEAKER_03:

That was a good segue, though. He was doing good. He was doing good, he was building another village. T-shirts crocheted.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, so so hold on. Those of you watching this, we're gonna do this visually. So here we are. Waiting for Woody Allen is a smash success with all kinds, not only that, I think they paid you the LA Film Festival gave you some kind of money. Yeah, you won. You won the festival. Yeah, the Discovering New Artist Award. Discovering New Artist Award. And you'd think with that money and that kind of energy behind this project called Waiting for Woody Allen with two chassids, uh, he would like, hey, let's make this a full-blown thing. Let's get we got the chasids in, let's rewrite something. And he said, No, why would we do that? What? Let's do this instead. Let's do this instead. My this movie. That's you. Yeah, that's him. He calls me up, he goes, I wrote a script uh called Stand Up. That was the name of the movie. Stand Up. That was my film school. Is it your first time seeing this? That was my film school, and it's probably better that way.

SPEAKER_03:

Should have gotten no source. We have to watch it and we have to like get your reaction to it. I think that should have been the good all along.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, we didn't know about this.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh god, I feel like I maybe have seen it in the in the closet or something.

SPEAKER_01:

And we just rip it apart. But we should get Jeff Ross to help us rip it apart or Michael Rapport or someone to just really tear into it. I can tear into it.

SPEAKER_05:

I don't need I don't need anybody's help. I don't need anybody's help. But he he he got some funds and said Modi was doing this movie. And he I said, Okay. And we what was the year we did it? Gosh, that was 2007. Yeah, 2007, right? So I I fly down, I sleep in his house. Oh my god, with oh it was so good. It was a great beautiful house you had.

SPEAKER_01:

We loved you. We I fell in love with Modi. I mean, my wife and I, my family, my kids.

SPEAKER_05:

The best thing about Michael Raynon is his wife. A hundred percent. His wife is a doll, French, classy, this beautiful, the house amazing. Monsieur Granji, the God gave you that that as your wife. Yeah, true. And I lived with them, and we went every day and we shot scenes, and he pulled it out of like amazing how he did it. The script wasn't the best thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01:

It wasn't. That's not my strong point writing, you know, directing as producing.

SPEAKER_05:

But but I again everything happens for purpose that we could have just we had the chuss thing down. So let me just continue with that.

SPEAKER_03:

We're gonna talk about his new project. Yeah. But what people kind of don't know is that waiting for Woody Allen was basically like the birth of Yoily. Yes. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05:

So talk so so you put me in a chussid ware and told me to go be a Hussid, and that like sparked something in me. And then Yoily came out again in 2000. Whatever that what was his name in the movie?

SPEAKER_01:

I uh Yassel and uh gosh, Yassel and uh Mendel. Mendel, right?

SPEAKER_05:

You were Mendel. I was Mendel, and um, and so that was the birth of like me doing a Hasidic character in 2011. I went with my friend Brian Gross, we got dressed as Hussards and went to a fashion show. Yes, and that was that. And I love that New York Fashion Week in New York Fashion Week. And then I began doing the character of Yoily during COVID and all of that. And but but you brought that in me like people love Yoily, like obsessed with Yoily.

SPEAKER_01:

I love Yoily too. It's a great character. I mean, you whatever you do, you're I mean, I I saw it back then. I saw it back then. I think you're gonna be a a big actor. I think you're gonna do great films. I really do. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And speaking of great films, now you are um you filmed. Is it already filmed?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Uh it's just uh right now getting uh distribution, and uh when this goes comes out, maybe on the ticker or something we can put you know in the Chiron where everyone can see it on which streamers, but it's already getting licenses and it's it's gonna be out there.

SPEAKER_05:

Congratulations. It's called Run Raven Run. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell us about it. Okay. Run Raven Run. It's uh you know, on the history and music of the Romani people of the Roma of gypsies, and uh lived with five musical clans all over Romania, also shot in Rajasthan and um San Francisco and um it's you know, they're we just follow the musicians, it's amazing. I mean, the story they come from Rajasthan, India originally, about a thousand years ago. Yeah, and then they they came up through um Iran and and uh Turkey. Yeah. And then now they're really everywhere. They're in Westlake Village. I live in Malibu, they're in Westlake now.

SPEAKER_04:

But when you think of they're everywhere, but but but it's you it's uh now I you now to say the word gypsy.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, so yes, the the the civil rights movement, which is which needs a lot of help in the in the in the romani community. Okay, uh, and that was part of the reason for doing the film. Like now as I get older, I want to make films that help people, and especially the underrepresented, you know. I think people need help, and and we should help if we can, right? So that that is one of the reasons I did it. And uh they uh they want us to you the people I lived with want me to call them gypsy, right? Really? Yeah, okay. But but the civil rights groups want you to say Romani or Roma. Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

And uh because they're known to be from Romania.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they a large population in Romania, Bulgaria, you know, all over the Baltics, but they're really everywhere now in Europe, Western, Eastern. Um there's a lot of disdain for the Roma people in Europe.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And how did you see that when you were embedded in these clans? Well, uh, we go into that a lot. You know, Margaret Bessinger, professor at uh Princeton says uh says it best, you know, they're both loved and loathed, right?

SPEAKER_05:

I was thinking about that because in Yiddish uh a gypsy is called a tzigainer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, zigan.

SPEAKER_05:

Right, a tziga, and it's and you say it could be said positively and negatively. Like someone's with tzagaina is like it's lost and there's no way he's living, and he did he hasn't stayed in the same apartment for more than a year. That's again it interesting. Or he's a tzagainer, he sings and laughs, he's a bo yeah, he's like he's jolly and great and can bring great fun with a fiddle or a piano and and a tsegained. It's it's it's uh it's both, it's good and bad.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, at these weddings, they play, let's say 200 days a year, 250 days a year, they're on the road playing. When they play a wedding or a funeral or a brisk or whatever, they it's it's three days, two and a half days of playing straight through. 12-person band. I mean, really, these guys work hard, the the men and women. They and that was the other thing. Great value system, not you know, very kind of conservative, like really good people. Which what's their religion? Um Orthodox Christianity. Okay. Yeah. Um and you know, they play these weddings. They're they they they everyone cheers their name, blah, blah, blah. They're them the best time. You sit, they sit down at the table with the the client, and the client goes, uh, you know, what are you doing at my table? You know what I mean? Like loved and loathed, right? A lot of racism.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I so my dad was born in Spain, and my gr so when my grandparents were alive, I went to Spain every summer to visit them, and there was a large population there, and it was like sort of like the worst thing that you could call someone was a gitanic or like a gypsy. Oh, really? And but it's also you say loved and loathed because there's also like they had so much influence in the music and like in the culture. Um from what I see, there's a there's a lot of squatting happening though on land and stuff, and that's where some of these disputes come up.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you see that?

SPEAKER_03:

On the ground at all?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, it was funny. Unitsa from Klajjani, which i there was a film Lacho Drum uh in in the 80s that won, I think the got the pomed or at Khan, right? It's an amazing film. Um but the the band that's featured in that from Romania, the musical director is Unica, and that is one of my main characters in the film. So we go to his village of Klajani, which is really interesting, and I don't want to bore you guys too much, but the the nobility back in Romania with they were slaves for 800 years, right? And the the more gypsy musicians you had as slaves, the wealthier you were.

SPEAKER_02:

Really?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You had a different song. You had a trio come in with violins and play a certain type of music for the daughter waking up, and then at lunch you'd have another group of of Roma musicians. And blah blah blah. So now the mar you know all those nobility fall, but that village has probably the highest capita of really good musicians in like you know what I mean? Like crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Really interesting. Uh and how how did you get to this project? Well, I was uh I was collecting, you know, I I like the unknown, right? I like you to lift up the rock and I I collect um, you know, as a director, you need to have images f uh uh for your pitches, right? For different creative ideas. And so you do blackboards like back in the day, now it's digital, but and I would take uh photo I would collect photo books, so I collected gypsy photo books, right? But there aren't many of them. So then I I actually I got sick for quite a while, and coming out of that illness, I I was like, I have to do a passion project, right? And uh and this was it. And and Stephanie, you know, was a part of that. She was like, you know, what about this?

SPEAKER_02:

Really?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I went down that rabbit hole and uh and even when I was still sick, kind of, and I left and I went to Romania and lived with all these musical clients.

SPEAKER_05:

But you were sick a while ago. It wasn't so recent.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was well, so I'm 50 now, I from 32 to 42, obviously. So at around, you know, you know, I was coming out of the you know, as as the days get longer from that, you know, that that illness, I get stronger and stronger.

SPEAKER_05:

So you look great. Thank you. You do too. You look great. No, you when when he was the when he was d directing us for those other two films for the Winning 40 Allen and stand-up, this big, massive guy and used to eat like a like a like a like a no, you used to used to chuck we used to we ate so much. I know I should be the king of colitis.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, yeah, board shouldn't have that name. I should be the king of collecting. And then all of a sudden with colitis went to Crohn's, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And then he, yeah, and he had a whole surgeries and and I was uh and then he just was miserable. Oh yeah, I almost died a couple times. Wow. And um and but but what what what advice do you have for people with Crohn's colitis?

SPEAKER_01:

Crohn's and colitis is you know, embrace the the uh evolution of the medicine, which now we have so many medicines with all these biologics, uh, that are really good in controlling the illness. And uh the doctors won't say it's diet, but I stick to a strict diet, you know. So you you believe it is diet? Well, yeah, it completely symptomatically helps me, you know, 100%.

SPEAKER_05:

What's what's his diet? Just the people listening with Crohn's colitis. Yeah, I mean it would it's not medical advice. No, it's just no, this is um somebody who has chronic scolitis and finds something that works for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, uh what is it called? The FODMAP uh diet and low FODMAP. Yeah, is it low FODMAP, low fiber, high protein, uh you know, for me, no gluten, no dairy. If I stick to, you know, that uh I'm I'm the healthiest I've ever felt. Good for you.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so it's that diet though, the FODMAP diet is actually just good for everybody. Every like anti-inflammatory longevity. I I think it is. I think you're right. Cell age reversal, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I think for sure. Yeah. The um but I mean, uh, you know, we should we should make waiting for Woody Allen a feature somehow. I think we should. Just saying.

SPEAKER_03:

I think yeah, I think so too. We found some scripts around with uh with the oily as a character some projects that you guys should talk about maybe off camera.

SPEAKER_05:

But yeah, but it was uh it was it was a great it was a great experience. And Stewie Stewie Stone Stewie Stone was in it. Stewie Stone Stone was in the movie. No, it was in the other movie Stand Up New York. Godfrey was in it. Godfrey. Godfrey, we Godfrey was in stand-up, stand-up, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

He's got some great uh material in it, actually.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it was he shot really well. I will tell you one thing, he stretched out whatever budget you had to make it look like it was four or five times. The biggest, I think one of the biggest mistakes you made as a director was shooting on actual film. I think we were the last people on to shoot on film. We shot super 16.

SPEAKER_01:

So I I I was at the DGA yeah two days ago, and I saw Benny Safety and uh Bradley Cooper do did the QA after the movie The Smashing Machine with the Rock, you know, with Dwayne Johnson. Okay, and Benny Safety shot that film on Super 16. When? How long uh just last year. Really? And he blew it and then he got it, blew it up to 4K, then blew it up to IMAX and to 65mm and all this stuff for these different sections. I didn't think that was possible. Yes, it's amazing what he did, and it it looks so good because the grain, right, right. The grain we got is was is beautiful. There's beautiful scenes in the film, but it was it was film school for me. It was my first feature.

SPEAKER_05:

I didn't know it was my first acting. I was the lead in this movie. Uh, we were doing takes over and over. I'm living with the director, so we watched the we we watched the dailies at night in in his in his in his family room, yeah. Oh yeah, and um, and we like we would see horrible things, and he'd be like, That's horrible. I go, the directing is horrible, not me. You're horrible. And we were in that living room that I was sleeping. Oh my god, in this day room. Um, and and so we it was like a real experience. It was like, wow, I got no no acting school could have taught me what I learned making this movie. And we and you really shy everything, but it was on film. So the time is so much more because you have to prepare the actual film. There's the people preparing the film to put it back on, and then we have to check the gate. Check the gate. Nobody today knows what the hell check the gate knows. No one has no check the gate is after you so if if the the film you know has those sp holes, those squares on the side.

SPEAKER_03:

Make sure it's lined up.

SPEAKER_05:

If it's not lined up, it all crumples and inside the gate, the lens, there's all the dirt.

SPEAKER_01:

But also the any lint, I mean, literally, like a little dust particle, if it when when they're getting, you know, putting the film together in the canister and get loading it, loading the film. If any little lint or any little piece of dust gets in there, then yeah, it could cause it.

SPEAKER_05:

So when he would go, cut, and we knew it was a good take, and like, okay, this is gonna be good, he would say, check the gate. And then they would check the gate. If the gate was good, there was no dust or or film particles, then you can add it. We can move it. If it didn't, we'd do the whole thing again. Yeah. So when I shot crashing, it was on film.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05:

Yep, it was on film. 35.

SPEAKER_01:

35 million.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and so when Judd Apatow would come on set and he'd want to be so so filmed, there's a limited amount of film. Yeah. So if he was gonna direct the scene, he everybody would take out what what whatever was on, whatever was left on the cameras, and they would put full ones on. I mean, obviously, this is HBO with no budget. Yeah. Like a here's unlimited budget. No big budget. Unlimited budget. Unlimited budget. Yeah, unlimited budget. So he would just like they would just take that off and put that the new ones back on, and we'd start from the beginning.

SPEAKER_01:

And it was it was what we were but what we were doing was we were using uh what do they call them? Cut ends. We were using we were using the leftovers that HBO, when they're done with the job, they have one role that's 150 feet, they got 100 feet, they got 200 feet, they got them together. As a producer, you know, I'm like, I'm like, how can I how can I save any money here? How can we shoot this film for$200,000? I mean, we shot that film for$200,000.

SPEAKER_05:

For my for my Jewish listeners, the Ashrayim, he bought the Ashraim of of HBO.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but whatever they had left over, he bought. Yes. So maybe we could only roll for two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, you know, wait. Should we put this on YouTube? Probably, yeah. This this regular oh gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

No, no, the movie he's talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

The movie itself.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh we'll talk.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll talk.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. We should do a live video.

SPEAKER_01:

I think well, no, this is what we should do. If you put it release it, we should you need to have some comedians ripping it apart in real time as you're watching.

SPEAKER_05:

There was a is is that scene with the the shirtless scene? Is it in did it make the movie?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the pizza, the the big uh yeah, I loved it. Pizza Pass. Are you shirtless?

SPEAKER_05:

No, I was we were the actress that did you full frontal? She did full frontal. It was amazing. Oh no, no, she was amazing. She's such a great actor. But she she she said that she would she'd be okay doing the scene with with with with shirtless. Um, and then they turned they turned to me thinking I'd be like, yeah, I'm like, I'm like, I could less. Yeah. I mean, uh yeah, I could care less.

SPEAKER_01:

No, but it was she was um she's a great actress.

SPEAKER_05:

She's a great actor. I've seen her in things, and she's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of I mean here's a uh a cute story about stand-up. Um Gilles Marini, who became the love interest on Sex in the City. Remember the really good-looking French guy on Sex in the City, that Gilles Marini actor. Uh-huh. He he uh he he he really blew up from that that role. I think he was in the feature film of Sex in the City, and he was like the love interest of one of the main characters, the real hot guy, you know, he's super good looking. So I go to Conn's 75th anniversary two years ago, right?

SPEAKER_05:

For and he was in stand-up, he was in Armand.

SPEAKER_01:

Who was it? Guess who else was in our movie? Who? Desi Lytic. Desi Lytic. She just won a on the Daily Show. She just won a friggin' uh, you know, with with Jon Stewart. She's like the new female Desi Lytic with the blonde. Yeah, I know. She said, I love Desi Lytic. She just won an Emmy, like multiple, I think. Uh, she's in stand-up. John Melendez is in stand-up, Elon Gold's in stand-up. Uh who else?

unknown:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05:

Godfrey was in there. Um the whole bunch of actors when we did the the Compton uh scene. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

If anyone would like to donate a DVD player to me so that I could uh watch this.

SPEAKER_01:

No, okay. So let me go quick. The Jill Marini. So 75th anniversary con. I'm there for Run Raven Run. It's like this big deal in my life. Yeah. I'm in a tuxedo. We go to this private party thing for you know, the studios at this at the Coped in Teeb, but this huge 20 acres on the water, big, you know. I walk in. Guess who the host of that evening is? Jill Marini. I gave him the fur his first job uh in that movie, his first gig. Now he's blowing up. How did he play in the movie? God, he was um either the photographer or the oh, what was he? I I I'm so sorry, I can't remember right now. But the fact is, is that when I saw him at that banquet with all these big actors and producers and everyone around, and he started crying, you know, and I did too a little. Like he hugged it out, and he's just like, Thank you. He grew up as like a poor baker's son in con, like living in this little shanty. And then now at 45 years old or however you old he is, with a tuxedo looking so good and hosting the biggest party, and you know, it was really cool. Full circle.

SPEAKER_02:

Full circle, yeah, full, full circle.

SPEAKER_01:

And Desi Lytic, she went when she won that uh thing the other day, you know, the Emmy. Yep. I wrote something on the like Instagram to her, you know, you know, on uh made a remark saying, like, you know, I always knew you were a star. And I did, and you as well. Thank you. You know, so cool to see.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it was fun, it was it was an experience. It was your filmmaking school, my acting school. It was it was so insane. And oh god.

SPEAKER_01:

But waiting for Woody Allen, we had some magic. Yeah, waiting for the Allen is good. It's that actually does exist on YouTube, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

Already, waiting for Woody Allen.

SPEAKER_01:

So we're right now, I'm actually working with this guy, Leroy, in Denmark, uh YouTube strategist, and I'm gonna try to release both, you know, I'm gonna try to do some stuff, and or I can even talk with you guys and release it. Let it release it. Oh yeah, you look for money.

SPEAKER_04:

No, not for money, just for money.

SPEAKER_05:

Get it out there. This thing happened. It's Meshich Energy Ghost, of course.

SPEAKER_03:

Gave us a gift. But now on YouTube you can collaborate with accounts, so it could be like co-posted, like on Instagram. Let's do it. Let's release it.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's release it.

SPEAKER_05:

Let it we we should, because it's a great film. It's a great film. Yeah, it's a great film. It was fun. We'll talk about that. But um, oh my god, thank God you're here, and thank God you're alive and well. And I'm so happy for you to do that. And again, you know, we always tell our audience what what's happening because we we shoot out of sequence. We are today, uh the hostages were released. Yeah, um and we just have that to be so blessed for and and so thankful to God and uh and to to reconnect with a friend from 20 years ago. 20 years ago 20 years, and um and I I love Leo too.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm so happy for you guys and for everything. I mean, you know, means you met Leo.

SPEAKER_05:

We we were we we we ran into you one time in Soho House in Beach Soho House in Miami.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I was there for the Miami Jewish Film Festival for Run Raven Run. Right, and that was an amazing experience. Like, can we do we have a few more minutes together? Yeah. Okay. So I mean the Messiah, what do you call it?

SPEAKER_05:

She and a Moshiach, Moe, Mo. Like Mo Larry and Curly. Right. Mo. Mo. She. She. Like the pronoun. Okay. She moshi.

SPEAKER_04:

Once you're there, the rest just goes. Moshiach. Moshiach, energy.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go. Okay, so this is why we haven't used that as the title of anything or like for any of these other projects that we're simmering on. Keep going. Okay. So hard to say. But now you you learned, so give it a go again. Moshiach energy.

SPEAKER_04:

You nailed it. Moshiach.

SPEAKER_00:

Moshiach.

SPEAKER_01:

Moshe. When did you get moshi? Moshirch energy. Period. Okay. Um, but speaking of that energy, like I go to Miami, the Miami Jewish Film Festival, which is like bigger than the Miami film film festival. It's huge. It's amazing. What a great event down there.

SPEAKER_05:

Who would have thought a Jewish festival in Miami?

SPEAKER_01:

Genius. Yeah, right. And uh I go there, I uh the film does great. We eat a Shabbat dinner with like uh with Steven Spielberg's sister and all these great Israeli filmmakers with Nancy, and who loves you, by the way. We spoke about you a lot. Um, had this amazing dinner, all these great Israeli filmmakers and actors were there. Then the next morning I I wake up, I go out of the hotel, uh, Gerard Butler, who's a Scottish actor who lived in my neighborhood for a long time. We'd surfed together and stuff, so we became friends. I see him, I haven't seen him in a long time. Boom. Jerry and I talk for two, three hours as we walk to the Soho Club uh down the road. Where then he goes into a finance meeting, I walk into the Soho Club, boom, I see both of you. And and it's just this energy. You know, it's it's just good, you know. And I think you talk about this a lot, and that's stay positive, help people when you can. Yeah. And things like that happen. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. I I have this this joke with the Scottish accent. Can we do that? Go for it. Go for it.

SPEAKER_05:

He would always try to do jokes. He would always try to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, Gerard Butler, Gerard Butler, he uh is Scottish, yeah. I meet, I'm surfing one day with I got my my you know, my my wetsuit on. I see him, I I run over to him, I'm like, Jerry, I got the funniest shit. And he goes, Oh yeah, what's that? I go, Well, you ever see Austin Powers, you know, the fat bastard? And he goes, Yeah, I saw the movie. He goes, Well, the cut that went to the Academy, they did the extended cut. So when Heather Graham puts the beacon in his butt, you know, in that scene where what we all saw, it cuts.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But in the version, the extended version that the Academy voting members got, he he he puts it up and he goes, Oh, feeling a wee bit frisky, are we? We're gonna have another go, this time in the style of a wee little doggy. Roll over and bite the pillow, Donna. We're taking the dirt road home. Okay. So I hope we can, you know, is it live?

SPEAKER_05:

Is that your first time busting that out?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so he goes, Oh, the voting academy, huh? And like that. So then, but then we become fast friends. So then I see him with his girlfriend on hikes, right? Around Malibu.

SPEAKER_05:

And you figure, why not bother them?

SPEAKER_01:

No, and I no, I see him coming by me and I go, Oh, Jerry, you're taking the dinner of them. You know, because we're on a dirt path. And then uh and then I see him in Miami, whatever. It's just uh We went on a hike in Malibu, didn't we? Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

We went on a hike with you in Malibu. You took us around. Oh, yeah, it was lovely. And also in I remember when those fires were going on, I go, I called you so scared. I'm like, oh my god, please pick up. And you picked up and like, no, we're okay. I know, thank God. What happened? How how close was your house to the fires?

SPEAKER_01:

It was close. It was uh the the Woolsey fire, you know, we had burn holes and all sorts of stuff in the yard and stuff. Luckily, we didn't lose the house then. Many friends of mine did. Strider lives down the street, tell me more, a lot of friends. Uh and the only reason that stopped was my neighbor David Massra, he stayed with his son and fought it because the engines were gone and with a hose. And fought it with a hose and stopped it. Otherwise, my house would be gone. Then the the Franklin fire and the the fires that were just a little bit ago, we luckily had this burn scar that stopped at Pepperdine University and so it couldn't come north.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

But the previous fire, a month before that, that had that burn scar, I would go to the end of the road every hour and see it coming closer and closer and closer. So, you know, it's part of living out there and it's you're blessed, you know. I mean, you're in the country and yeah, you can still work in LA. And you know, it's it's crazy, amazing area.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, amazing.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Wait, how can they find you and find out about this movie? Run Raven Run.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, a best way right now would be uh either Instagram, which is Michael Raynon, my name, or Rainpicks, uh also rainpicks.com, R-A-I-N-P-I-X.com, uh, which is my company. And then it'll be coming out uh on streamers here in the next you know two months. So I guess what it's October. So by by Thanksgiving, Christmas, it's gonna be uh, you know, Hanukkah. It'll be it'll be kind of out there on the streamers.

SPEAKER_05:

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Good luck with that. That sounds amazing. Thank you so much. And uh I will be on the road. Uh this by now. Still be okay. On the road, ModiLive.com for all of your tickets. We are in Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco. We are gonna be in Miami. Uh, last play for a while before we come back again in 2027 to do the hard rock. So get your tickets. Um, and then Syracuse. We're gonna have a good time re-uh uh working out the hour that we're taping in Atlanta on December 10th and 11th. And then we are also in Europe. We are gonna be in Paris, Amsterdam, uh, Berlin, and Vienna. Uh, get your tickets. Tell your friends who are in those cities that we are gonna be there. Be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show. That is Mashiach Energy, and that Mashiach is something we have to be talking about all the time. Every conversation should have Mashiach in it, and that's my my thing for this upcoming Jewish New Year. And thank you all for listening. Thank you so much for coming in, Michael. Good friend, good uh, good time spending with you here, and Leo, uh, and all of you uh and our sponsors. Wow, oh my goodness gracious. How does this how does this happen without a sponsor? Exactly. Thank you to our sponsors. Do you know who our sponsors are? No, tell me. AH Provisions, which is the best hot dogs in the world. Global kosher does it kosher hot dog, not just kosher, glaucko, dog. Gentiles like you. I know that you think you're 50% something, but you're not. Even they have realized that these are the most delicious hot dogs in the world. And when they order for their first time with a promo code Modi on kosher dogs.net, they get 30% off. Seth is uh is the owner and a good friend of the podcast. They're Givaldic? They're Gavaldik, they're Geschmack, delicious, delicious geschmack. Givaldik is our other sponsor, Whites in Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well. Oh, they do good. Super philanthropic. Arthur Luxembourg like a brother to me and Randy, his wife, who listens to the podcast to let him know what we're talking about. Thank you very much, Whites and Luxembourg, and thank you all for being a part of this. See you at a live show soon. Amen.