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SLAP the Power
SLAP the Power - a dynamic new show from SLAP the Network that aims to weave artistry into advocacy through the raw power of music, comedy, movies, visual arts, and beyond.
Hosted by world touring musicians Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill @vintagetrouble) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator), join them as team with musicians, comedians, actors and artists of all angles and try to chop up some of todays most troubling topics, but with a fat side of chocolate cake and incredible silliness.
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SLAP the Power
Navigating Hollywood’s Uncertainty and Embracing New Opportunities with Johnny Cruz
What if Hollywood's uncertainty could become an artist's greatest opportunity? Join us as Johnny Cruz shares his firsthand experiences on "Slap the Power," exploring the evolving job landscape in Hollywood post-strikes. Learn how actors and artists are diversifying income streams to adapt to the industry's inherent unpredictability, and discover how platforms like TikTok and YouTube are reshaping the entertainment world into what could be a more meritocratic system. Through Johnny's insights, we highlight the critical importance of maintaining a hustle mentality in a rapidly changing environment.
AMAZON
Compassion Kind
PATREON
SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats). Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a featured guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
All right, the world may not need another podcast, but it can definitely use a huge slap in its face. That's right. Welcome to Slap the Power, the show where we bring together artists who use their powers for progress. I'm your host, rick Barrio-Dill, and I am Maya Sykes. That's right On the show today. Hollywood's job picture, maya, it's looking really bleak.
Speaker 2:Well, have you seen Hollywood's pictures?
Speaker 1:They are terrible, that's right. Also, the US is suing Adobe for making it too hard to cancel a subscription.
Speaker 2:They should because it is too hard to cancel a subscription.
Speaker 1:That's right and back by popular demand. We're going to do two truths and a slap. A little later, a new segment where we go over three ridiculous realities together that neither Maya nor myself have ever heard and we just try to determine which one is actually a slap. A little later we're going to slap the topic with AI again, but first in the studio today.
Speaker 2:We have the amazing, handsome and fabulous, the one and only Mr Johnny Cruz and you may know him as the voice of something that we don't want to give away, so I'm not going to tell you the surprise, because it's really dope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he is in studio today as a co-host and, uh, we appreciate you sitting on the table. Man happy to be here yeah brother. So first topic we're kind of want to hint at today is just the, the job scene in Hollywood. I know we bring you back to the interview later and we we talk about that a little bit later, but uh, what's your feeling on the ground, on the job scene post two strikes?
Speaker 3:Yeah, post two strikes. Well, you know, I think, just as an actor man, it's always the utmost uncertainty. Yeah, to begin with. To begin with, yeah, so this for me pretty normal, you're like oh, I'm not panicking.
Speaker 2:It's usually all fuckery.
Speaker 3:Okay, fine, because I think for me there are some gigs that people rely on so deeply and heavily, but I think for over the years, I've just created so many different ways in which to take care of myself, whether it be if I'm not doing some high-end video game or something, I'm doing some little tech motion capture job or something. Whatever it is, I'll do it.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that you kind of hit the nail on the head with that. I think that the people who have always found ways to adapt and always found ways to hustle this was nothing new, I think where it hit a lot of people were who had those regular threads. I know a lot of friends that I know in acting are having a hard time because they knew that they could get six to seven commercials a year.
Speaker 2:That would be. You know about six figures that could you know, and now they don't have that and, dramatically, they don't have that. So they're in this place where they're having to all of a sudden hustle in a way that they don't know how to do, but I think the people who never gave up their hustle are the ones who are surviving.
Speaker 1:To be honest, that makes sense. I think back. Somebody told me a story once ago, a long time ago, about how when the piano roll came out, right like it was like it, just it was like, oh, it's gonna, it's doing away with.
Speaker 1:You know all piano players and show and stuff like and it kind of it. It really didn't. It just it was the evolution of things. I think you, when you said you've one of the things that we did, because the bottom got dropped out in the music, live, touring industry, when you rely on that for 100 of your income, and the pandemic came around, the dropped out and it forced all of us to kind of rethink about, okay, well, that's one thing, but then also, what can we do to hedge against that? What can we do to protect ourselves? What can we do to sort of see what the future might look like, where there's new things that are coming along? And that's what we hope to kind of create with this show here is, keep the subject of conversation, you know, abound for the people that are actually all up in it. But I do think, for you know, for me, every time I get in these conversations, I'm always like, well, you know, we're doing something about it, we're making our own productions.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and it's the people who never allowed themselves to get too comfortable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, amen, amen, and the industry is evolving into crazier and crazier ways, like through tiktok to youtube, like you know. So this old hollywood, you know thing that I still am like, oh, the old sitcom or the film, tv movie person like it is not quite that anymore. They get, it's the, the. It's a disparaging gap. Now it is is with the huge, huge movies and then just kind of the other ones and then social media and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:And there's so many movies now. I mean Tubi has movies.
Speaker 3:What the hell is Tubi? What is Tubi?
Speaker 1:But actually because, again, we've talked about this a lot. This happened to musicians 20 years ago with Napster and stuff like that, where it started to come from the bottom up rather than the top down where it was like gee, it used to be, I got. I hope. I hope Warner Brothers loves my demo. I hope the check clears right. I hope we get to do this. I hope we get to do that. And when you put GarageBand on everybody's laptops and yeah, napster came out, yeah like, okay, I can put out a record for for nothing.
Speaker 1:all of a sudden it's like, okay, can I make good stuff? And I feel like from the bottom up there's a lot more competition, obviously, but it actually to me it feels like there's going to be a chance for more of a meritocracy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, by good quality stuff, but then you know if it's just Marvel movies and Tubi Child.
Speaker 2:If that's it Marvel movies are too big. So I would ask you Because it is Contingent.
Speaker 1:I would ask you something too, because this is this is something we wanted To hit on today and we wanted. We were going over Our producers this morning, the, so this happened too With Do you have subscription services? You're a guy.
Speaker 3:That puts together All your own content. I pretty much have Pretty much all of them.
Speaker 2:How can you not in today's you have to have them right.
Speaker 1:Have you ever looked at the total on what that is per month? Okay, actually.
Speaker 2:I recently just started doing this because I've been doing this podcast budget thing called. There's this lady, her name is Tori Dunlap and she has a thing called the Financial Feminist and I really like her platform because she says, especially for people that aren't white, financial literacy is the equivalent to a freedom that you need to have because it's your way of saying it's your way of being against the patriarchy. It's a lot of a better phrase, but one of the things that she says is you can pay an app to go through all of your apps and say here's where you have double subscriptions, but then you're paying another thing to do
Speaker 5:something for you.
Speaker 3:They don't look at themselves.
Speaker 2:So she said to look at your payment source for one month and see where all your subscriptions lie, and then go to your app store and see where all your subscriptions lie and then go to your app store and see where all your subscriptions are going to renew.
Speaker 2:So then, you'll see, because some don't do it monthly, Some do it annually or they do it a couple times a year. But she said to write all of those down and see where you can ditch half of them. But it's an interesting exercise because when I did that I didn't realize how many I had on a sneaky level.
Speaker 2:And so this is why this Adobe suit is fascinating to me, because Adobe is one of the ones that I just got. Here's what happened. It does. Here's what happened. So I had Adobe fill and sign because I liked it a little bit better than DocuSign.
Speaker 3:Okay, right.
Speaker 2:But in this day and age, if you sign any kind of paperwork, you're asked to do it now digitally on one of these platforms.
Speaker 2:So Adobe is phasing out their fill and sign, no, and they're making it so that you have to have the actual Adobe app now to fill out any documentation, but that app costs four times as much. Any documentation, but that app costs four times as much. So I got a thing saying by july, blah, blah, blah, blah, your new subscription to adobe is going to renew at 33.95 or whatever. I think no, at 29.95.
Speaker 2:meanwhile, for adobe fill and sign, I paid a one-time fee of six dollars but, now, since they're phasing this out now I'm going to be charged a monthly fee to use anything Adobe-like and I'm like that's a huge bait and switch. And that's what's happening with a lot of these companies Same with Apple Services, because they did a bait and switch. So now, if you want to get Apple News at premium, that's now $30 a month. I don't know if you you know that you're paying that no, I don't, I don't have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I like when it comes on your on your phone, like here are the top stories. Yeah, that's a new service and you are paying for it. Well, there's a free version.
Speaker 1:But every cuz I have it cuz, then every time I click it says you don't belong to this newspaper.
Speaker 3:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I know there's the automatic thing, like for example with Adobe they just kept raising prices. And then it happened with Waves, where they would have us buy software and every year you had to buy the annual subscription so you could stay current and then, when it finally they were like okay, so now you own this software, but now we're going to a monthly service and this software is obsolete.
Speaker 3:I think they're probably getting me back for all the times I downloaded their software.
Speaker 1:That's fair.
Speaker 3:I do pay the full price. I like all of it, the bundle suite at the beginning. So I don't even know what's going on on those levels of individual.
Speaker 2:But that's what I'm saying. A lot of us bought the bundle suites of some of these things, thinking that it was a one-time fee and that we owned, if not the software itself, that we owned that version for as long as we wanted to use it. And now they're making these little tricky-dicky moments.
Speaker 2:It is because they're doing these things, being like we're phasing this out now, so you'll no longer be able to use it. So if you want to be able to use it, you now have to go, because they did that with Pro Tools, remember, and that was a huge bait and switch with Pro Tools. It was a big deal and you kind of had to fall in line.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. You had no choice.
Speaker 2:You really had no choice, and so it's these companies that have you over a barrel and you have no other option. That's the part where I'm like is that considered a monopoly? What is that? Because, I'm noticing it and it's happening everywhere.
Speaker 3:Everybody is getting these little trick-or-ations and I don't like this hater-ation Amazon ads now.
Speaker 1:I was like what is this? No, totally. How do I get't like this hateration Amazon ads. Now I was like what is this? No, totally. How do I get rid of this? It was immediate, so this is cable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. I was like so this is rude. This is cable, but I have this so that I didn't have commercials and y'all told me that if I got the thing, then I wouldn't have the commercials. Yet that looks like a commercial.
Speaker 1:What wouldn't have the commercials?
Speaker 3:yet that looks like a commercial. What am I paying for?
Speaker 1:No, it's an interesting place where we find ourselves because it actually leads back to the Hollywood and the jobs market. I think in some ways is because you know and shout out leave your worst sort of subscription story, feel free to leave it in the comments and stuff like that, but the streaming model is flawed.
Speaker 3:That's what the strikes were about.
Speaker 1:It's not sustainable, and so in that I think the software companies it's kind of like the same thing where it feels like it's going to the only way you can do they're trying to do the same thing where it feels like that the studios made the mistake with which is, once you, if you get people on a subscription service, that's it right and it only has. Your market can only go so big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's where the studios realized, oh wow, okay, so we've already got all the Netflix subscribers we're ever pretty much going to get in the United States and the Netflix.
Speaker 2:I mean, is it me? But every Netflix movie seems seems the exact same lately, like they all have the same protagonist and antagonist. They all have the same result. They all have the same slightly digestible storyline that isn't too complicated.
Speaker 5:What's the worst one you've seen lately?
Speaker 2:Damsel.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I did watch that.
Speaker 1:I was like this didn't satisfy my fantasy. Itch yeah, yeah, yeah. Was that a Netflix? I thought that was a movie. This didn't satisfy my fantasy. Itch yeah, yeah, yeah, madame Web.
Speaker 2:Was that a Netflix?
Speaker 1:I thought that was a movie, that was Sony.
Speaker 3:But, oh man, I was just like what in the hot? What drivel is this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, and I was trying Like I wanted you know, because it was women and I wanted to like it you know what. I'm saying Because I want there to be more like female-driven, you know things of the Marvel whatever. But Lort, lort, oh, my Lort, my Lort.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Damsel same. I was like okay, girl, Now you with the dragon With the dragon. So now you and the dragon's as besties? I was like girl, I am confusion. What is happening?
Speaker 3:The whole.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 3:It didn't yeah.
Speaker 1:Before we go to the break. We don't want to get too serious too fast, but how are you feeling about sort of the state of things with regards to? It seems like there's a lot of we're in the internet age. We're being played against each other in a way that feels tremendously disingenuous. And yet we're letting a 34, you know we're letting a convicted felon kind of stoke those things back up in us Living in. Trombone yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm actually positive about the future that's coming up, but I also think that it's going to.
Speaker 1:we can't be silent through this period and expect it to work itself out. Do you feel anything with regards to the social climate kind of picking up around you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean there is always this right, there is always this on different levels, throughout all generations, in our entire lives right, yeah. And I think the biggest thing is what I take from is when you preach separation in any way, right, it is an untruth, right. And so that's how I decide who I'm looking at as somebody I want to lead. Does this person divide or do they bring together baseline, right? Yeah, and how do they go about doing that?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 3:And I think it's never perfect, but I do think there's better people to be looking up to. Yeah, people who have a leadership that, yes, you can call out the wrongs, but how can you bring together the different sides through a bridge and not burn all these bridges? Biden and Trump have a responsibility to build a bridge, and I don't think either of them are— Trump's not worried about that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, Biden's trying to do as much good as he can before he gets off this earth, because his next stop is heaven.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's real close. It's real close.
Speaker 1:And you know, the Inflation Reduction Act, reducing college loans, we could go on, but I understand, as far as he's not, he's probably not the person. It's still the old white male trope yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's still the interesting fact that we had other candidates. People still boil this down to two old white men.
Speaker 3:So it just says something about our country that we were like. So it just says something about our country that we were like.
Speaker 2:Here are all these progressive other candidates who aren't one step to the upper room and we were like nah, let's keep these old white dudes.
Speaker 1:I think it's different because it is an electoral college. It's all about the electoral college, Of course. So that battle that's going on is can this old white crusty guy? He's the only guy that's beat Trump before.
Speaker 3:Bring in our champion. Hey, this guy has done it before.
Speaker 1:So they're going to bring him back and hopefully, you know, even if it's, I like what Bill Maher says, even if it's head in a bottle of blue liquid, I'm voting for him.
Speaker 2:Listen, drama style it. I don't care.
Speaker 1:Because you know I don't know if you saw the other day where they slipped the house slipped in. This is Trump's house, mike Johnson is his puppet and they slipped in an 18,. Well, they've had it for a while, but the automatic registration for the draft and the house bill.
Speaker 2:When I read that I was like wait. What in the 1972 are we?
Speaker 1:What is happening. Watch the signs. Don't watch what they say. Watch what they do. Watch what they do.
Speaker 2:The Roots told me to never do what they do what they do.
Speaker 1:Well, if you ever get confused, there is a wonderful site that's out there for no matter where you're at, because it's not all just about the presidents, it's all the local races, it's all the school board races and things like that, and so you can always go to votesaveamericacom. You can put in your state.
Speaker 2:It's really helpful.
Speaker 1:Any way you want to help. It's super easy.
Speaker 2:It's free, so make sure to check that out and it gives you a nonpartisan look at every race, every candidate. It gives you a breakdown that's easy to digest. You can go over it with your communities. If people in your communities are unsure about what and I've been seeing that's a thing that goes back to the 60s one of the things that black churches did was just this people who didn't necessarily have the same literacy people got together and they were like here's what this says, and here's what this means that's what's needed and that's what we need to do it's because it's such's needed and that's what we need to do education of you know the.
Speaker 3:You know it's because it's such a dance and weird world and you know, when you get your little your packets to vote, you're like I don't know this person.
Speaker 2:You know like who is this? Also, you're like who is appellate court 1127? What do they do?
Speaker 3:and you're like I don't want to sit here and like no somebody just explain this to me right, you know, but that that is like the education of, like how, and I think there is none you know like for especially middle america, like no like it, there's, there's, nobody's that's why we have this show dog.
Speaker 1:It's because because they're eight out of the nine out of the top 10 political policies are right-wing extreme propaganda machines. Right, it's white grievance, white white male grievance all over the place.
Speaker 2:And it's spouting a lot of things that are just categorically untrue. That's my problem with it. You can have whatever opinion you want, but if you're spouting your opinion as a truth, there is where we draw the line. We should be drawing the line. We're not drawing the line and she, her eye is scared.
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, we're going to be working on it all in between now and November, and we like it so much here that we're going to keep Mr Johnny Cruz around after the break. So, coming up after the break, our interview with Johnny hey.
Speaker 5:Gambling is part of the culture of America Since even before we were America. I'm Norman Chad. I know gambling. I've played blackjack and poker. I've bet sports and horse races. I've even hit the slot machines at a Pahrump Nevada 7-Eleven. You say gambling, I say gambling mad. So join me on Gambling Mad with Norman Chad wherever you find your podcasts. Follow us on socials at Gambling Mad Show or at Gambling Mad Norman Chad at YouTube.
Speaker 1:All right, joining us for the interview today in studio. He's an actor, he's a screenwriter, producer, filmmaker, musician we're going to talk about this a little bit later. Dear friend of ours, voiceover star and ladies, you know, mr Hotman himself, johnny Cruz.
Speaker 3:Hey, uh-oh.
Speaker 2:Are you?
Speaker 3:single. I am not See. I said Hotman, I didn't say single.
Speaker 2:But, no you said ladies See, don't be getting a man in trouble.
Speaker 1:That's rude, I'm just saying that he's fun to look at.
Speaker 3:I'm not even gay.
Speaker 1:but you know, oh, thank you.
Speaker 2:Okay, but maybe his lady is doing it like Idris Elba's lady, like sister wife situation.
Speaker 1:But I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, yeah, no, no, not like that at all, no, no.
Speaker 2:Oh, she probably could throw down, she could fight, so let's not get him in trouble.
Speaker 1:On the way home. No, no, no, but thank you truly.
Speaker 2:Thank you for coming here, brother, I'm happy to be here yeah.
Speaker 1:For those that don't know which an actor for the majority of my life since about the seventh grade. Oh yeah, uh what did you act in as in the seventh grade, in the seventh grade, well, actually let me, let me tell you my very first experience.
Speaker 3:Uh, fourth grade was the first time I ever did any performance and it was sleepy hollow oh, okay for the role of Brom Bones Okay. And I was like, oh, this is mine, yeah, but it wasn't because Lawrence got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I got Mr Van Tassel and I remember being so upset and I've been chasing my Brom Bones role ever since, ever since, I've been trying to be Brom Bones yeah, I get it. The villain boy. But you know what I, the villain boy, but you know what I gave the most incredible Mr Van Tassel you would have ever seen.
Speaker 2:You know what? I bet it was stirring and rabble rousing at the same time, but there was something about it.
Speaker 3:I was like I love this and so I kept doing it in classes and I had teachers that were always very encouraging out of all the sports and all the things they were like. You got to get out of here, kid yeah, it was like hey, whoa hey that was awesome, and so I I found you know that level of love and appreciation kept me yeah coming back and uh, just enjoying it.
Speaker 1:So that's cool, you.
Speaker 3:You knew kind of early when, when you have something like that, and that's pure joy coming from the center right and I was already a cheese goofball and that was just the place to be doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And what got you to LA, what brought you here? Because you were, it was El Paso right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, El.
Speaker 1:Paso.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're a Texan, okay, cool, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Texas, Texas.
Speaker 1:How do you associate with Texas now as a Californian?
Speaker 3:You know, I think there is this ease or kind of making sure people are taken care of in some regard, or hospitality. I like to make sure people are having a good time. You know this level of like friendliness. I think you know a level of like how y'all doing. I'm still using that how y'all doing, how y'all doing, how y'all doing, I use that.
Speaker 2:How y'all doing, how y'all doing, how y'all doing, I use that I appreciate you I like y'all because it's non-binary, but it doesn't piss off Republicans Like if you say how y'all doing, they're not like oh, you did this to be gender inclusive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I do that on emails. Hey, y'all Samsees. Yeah, and I do that on emails Samseys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, samseys, how y'all doing? I use y'all in emails too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a good one.
Speaker 1:So what got you out here?
Speaker 3:Is it?
Speaker 1:strictly acting the acting bug.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think in high school I remember being like well, I wanted to do acting. I had gotten like a well I wanted to do acting. I was just like I am not ready for LA, just emotionally as a person. The foresight to understand that are we.
Speaker 1:There are we still. I'm not there.
Speaker 2:I'm born here, so I guess you just have to have it in your bloodline.
Speaker 3:It's coursing through you right now.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I get it, though. This is a weird place to acclimate to because it's like a dozen little cities trying to be a city in one large area so it's kind of hard to make sense out of.
Speaker 3:Well, it was interesting, because then there's Dallas, which is like the Metroplex, which is a dozen little or less little cities.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Fort forward that that whole part of it right um, and so I was like I'll go to.
Speaker 3:Well, I I remember being like I had a couple offers from a couple colleges for, like you know, partial theater scholarships and things like that, and I remember this is a weird moment in my life where I I was overwhelmed, I didn't know anything. I felt like growing up, I was just you shot out and like you figure it out kid. My mom was working all the time, my dad wasn't anywhere. I was like I don't know.
Speaker 3:So I remember looking at these packages. I had a ton of packages. I was looking through them. I remember being like how do you make this choice? I didn't know the process. There's a really big process of doing sats and all I learned later on in life of, like you know, getting a certain rate. I didn't know that at the time, but I remember I was sitting there and I'm just big on synchronicity I get a call at that moment, the moment I sat down to look at all my packages from, uh, angel inman from university of texas at arlington, and she was like hey, johnny, I was just wondering if you wanted to accept our scholarship and come to our school. And she's like you can come check it out. And I was like, okay, but the thought was Dallas was in my sights because it had a film industry. Right, it had a small commercial and directed DVD movies.
Speaker 3:Some series were going on down there. So it was like I thought if I got my feet wet over there, you know, maybe I could like build up to to hit in la. So, uh, I went down to check out the school. I was like chirp, that's hilarious. And I was there and during that time that is when I got an agent down there I got my first commercial. I started doing direct to dvd action movies, like you know, like kevin sorbo. That's what was filming down there.
Speaker 3:But it was a big market right yeah like stunts and all kinds of stuff, because they were like you're young, get get to it, get blown up, yeah yeah, yeah and it was fun. It was a great like learning experience. I started making my own movies down there. So over a period of time I did improv and I was just like working on myself as a human and at some point point I remember I was doing improv. For this really I felt prestigious group of guys down in Fort Worth, the Fort A Weekend Theater, which incredible improv.
Speaker 1:They're big yeah.
Speaker 3:And so I was doing shows with them and at some point I was like, wow, this is great. And then I remember this kind of moment where I felt like I had done a lot of the things and I wanted to stay. I was like this is great. There was this like one of the guys in the troop, oliver, was like why aren't you in LA, man? And I was like what do you mean?
Speaker 2:what are you talking about?
Speaker 3:this is great man he was like no, you need to do that. And I was like, oh, go beyond comfortable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go beyond comfortable. But isn't it interesting that somebody else had to tell you this yeah, yeah, and that they weren't also going I should, too, go to LA that they saw something in you that they didn't themselves have.
Speaker 3:It was funny, another synchronicity I remember being like in germany with my family and I had my phone and I was like sitting in this, the back of the station wagon we had rented to like go around, you know germany. And I just remember being like once again I was like man, should I go to la? Like is this? Like some friends had moved there and stuff, and I was like is this the time? I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just scared.
Speaker 3:At that exact moment I get a call. It's like I don't know, nighttime in Germany. It's my friend, donnie Bowes. He had, he was moving to LA and he was like yo, johnny, I'm moving to LA. Do you want to come with me? At that moment where I'm thinking about LA, oh, wow, yeah. And I'm like, nah, man, but it was just like that was the final confirmation. I was like, okay, these weird little things that are happening keep happening, so follow them, right. So I said no to him. But then I was like, maybe like three or four months later I had set up to move in with a friend and hang out there for a little bit and see what I was going to do, and then I ended up moving in with my friend Donnie and Kim and it was just like yeah.
Speaker 3:So just these little things.
Speaker 1:Do you consider this home? Now? I do, yeah, I've been here since 2009.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, okay, that puts you in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. Now, at this juncture, you do both live action and voiceover work. Yeah, what do you do to prepare for one versus the?
Speaker 3:other. It's interesting because I didn't. I wasn't like a voiceover guy. I didn't see myself as a hey, I'm going to do voiceover. Really I was like I didn't see myself as a hey, I'm going to do voiceover, really I was like I'm a non-camera guy, you know.
Speaker 1:Hey, for some that don't know, though, I buried the lead. I mean he's Lucio in Overwatch. So, most people know you from that. Yeah exactly, but you weren't ever planning to get into voiceover. No, no.
Speaker 3:But I got out here and I had a reel from from texas and I was able to show that to people like, oh, great, great, great, like this is, this is some good work here yeah and uh, the manager I was with at the time sent me to a voice over agency and they're like do you want to do that?
Speaker 3:I was like, uh, yeah, sure, whatever, you know, I go in. I'm in the meeting that we're talking. This is a good conversation. They have me read in the booth, like you know. Uh, at that moment I oh, we're doing this right now.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 3:So I read, but I was just taking it very nonchalant because I don't think I have a voice for whatever I was thinking voiceover was yeah, yeah. And then a week later I didn't hear anything. So I literally wrote an email. I was like yo, are we doing this or what, to Overwatch?
Speaker 1:No to the agency, oh to the agency and they sent me paperwork.
Speaker 3:That's hilarious. Yeah, it wasn't until later that I was like oh, this is difficult to get into or be a part of, and it was with a higher tier agency.
Speaker 3:But you know, maybe my ignorance, my affableness, whatever I was, they were like, yeah, let's do it. And then that's when I started to jump in and be like it was this wonderful haven. I didn't have to memorize my lines and I could just go straight from the emotion to the paper and whatever that was and, using just only my voice in any way, shape or form, I could use my face or my body to do the work, Because on-camera acting is a lot more still, it's a lot more form. I could use my face or my body to do the work. You know, cause, on camera acting is a lot more still, is a lot like real close. This was like a exorcism of emotion. You know, that was exciting and fun. And to find the truth in cause they're, they're different. Find the truth in, uh, just being behind a camera and using whatever, whatever you could are behind the mic, whatever you could to could to bring forth the sounds and the things and it was fun.
Speaker 3:And since I didn't have to memorize my lines, which has always been the biggest struggle for me with my ADHD, it was just great. It was just straight from me to the microphone.
Speaker 1:And then live action. You're kind of because you're doing like last time had a funny encounter. My, this is hysterical. So I was riding the bus, my car, I got in a car accident. I was riding the bus in la, which is a which is a blast. I actually I like, I like doing everyone's, and I had to walk. I had to make a connecting bus and I'm walking over and I get on the connecting bus and as soon as I get on, johnny's sitting there he's like Rick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was just a moment. I also don't take public transit very often, but I had to go Talking about serendipity.
Speaker 1:I think that's why we talked about finally trying to line up our schedules and get in the studio, but you were coming from doing a mo-cap, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was down in Santa Monica.
Speaker 1:I decided to take time.
Speaker 3:It was just like faster, yeah, because all driving, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that right time, yeah, and so then I was like you know, let's take it, let's let's take a public transit day, and then that's the day that you pop on it. I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 3:yeah, that is life, yeah that is hard like never expecting to see certain people in certain things and this, this happens to me just week after week and it's just like what is calling here? What is this moment? Pay attention here right. It's not just by chance. There's something here to explore. So, let me explore that. And you know, so that after we talked, we that's what's beautiful about the city too.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, we talked. That's what's beautiful about the city too, right yeah?
Speaker 2:But you also strike me as a person who is just kind of guided by a specific force and you just kind of follow that, because all the stories that you told you were just kind of like synchronicity happened, and this just so coincidentally happened. So it's interesting that some people are very tenacious about these kinds of things and are like I have to focus on this, this and this, but it seems like you have a very different approach, but it's wildly successful for you. So why do you think that that approach has been the way for you, rather than being the person who's constantly on the hunt for the thing.
Speaker 3:I think there's this level of power versus force. Right, a mentor of mine, david hawkins, talks about this level of forcing is like an aggressive uh, this is how it must be kind of like, uh, almost oppressive feel like this is the force. Power is a level of allowing, I think you know, allowing what is to be to be without such resistance. And I think I've resisted a lot of my life and I found that to be the most tumultuous times. It was where I'm trying to force a thing, trying to make things happen with my own small will. But there are things that when we kind of back up and allow things to happen, allow feelings to happen, allow stuff to happen, where you're seeing the world in a way that's uh, not so. I guess growing up was very angry, you know. I was like, yeah, I didn't have the things. I gotta get the things.
Speaker 2:I gotta I gotta get the love, I gotta get people gotta see me on camera, love me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll show everybody, right, right. But you know that drove me to a certain place. It drove me to be more talented, to achieve, achieve, achieve. But the achievements were never the, the thing I was looking for, right? So the achievements of like the, the next role, the next thing, the next thing now people are seeing me, the great, great. The more I climbed I was like, ah, this is not the, the satisfactory fulfillment I've been garnering or wanting, right, because then I'm still this person. I'm still this person who sees the world in an angry, upset way and taking offense and taking, like, all these moments of uh, ways to twist things into me being a victim or whatever in that moment. So, over the years, these little moments that went when I would just kind of back up and allow these synchronicities to happen, like when I moved to la, it was the most insane level of like, was this the right choice? But I was walking down the street, I saw a friend from like high school.
Speaker 3:I saw a friend from an acting class like these things, and so you're just living in this world of like watching these things happen. There has to be something. These, these probabilities are absolutely astronomically insane.
Speaker 1:Like this is not real, like what there has to be something more right, there's eight million people here and yeah, yeah, I'm running into people that I know right all the time yeah, and you know like this person knows this person.
Speaker 3:I was over there across this. It's just so interesting. It got me questioning what? Is truth, what is real? What is this world? Is there this higher being that is actually? I grew up Christian. That's part of my anger problems.
Speaker 1:Right, my mom's Cuban, as you know, catholic everything.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the organized religion.
Speaker 1:Catholic everything.
Speaker 3:So I was always just like you know that that wasn't it for me this level of like hey, there is this, something that didn't make sense, which was like this level of self-condemnation I would put it, you know, I know a lot of Christians. I love them and they have sometimes their own relationship. But what was this world? And I just needed to define what that was, because when you define what the world is and what it means to you, then everything changes right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I started reading a lot of books, started, you know, diving into that reality of what is this world and, you know, I came to this conclusion that there is this loving force that brought us here, for experience right.
Speaker 3:For this experience, this earthly, worldly experience, whatever it is, source, source exactly To give us this experience on life, and we get to choose however we label it in every moment right, this is bad, this is good, we've chosen that. Even if it is like a really thing, that a breakup that's like, oh God, this is painful. I don't want to be experiencing that In that moment as we're judging the moment. That is the experience right.
Speaker 3:The thing is happening, but our judgment makes it, the creation right. So I created this with this experience and I put a judgment on it. Sure, now this is my creation right because that judgment is the the one thing we do have control over, right, yeah, and in in things I used to be like why is this happening? And then be like, okay, well, why is this happening? Yeah and how do I, how can I label this that it comes out for the highest good for all?
Speaker 1:It's Shakespeare. I'm stealing from somebody, but thoughts make things, so think good ones, yes exactly. So think the good ones right, and I always say this to people like if you love LA or you hate LA, either way you're right and your life can change in this city in a bus ride, in a bus ride.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go you know, and so that's fascinating to me. I think really it's much more of a testament to you staying open and you being a vessel and a channel and being able to accept, like you were saying rather than but there's so much of our existence where we get fooled into thinking we have to do this or it needs to look like this or whatever, and the reality is you, could you know it's part of the four agreements, right y'all you can do your best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, cool, then leave it there. That's the water's edge, right, you know and see as an la native.
Speaker 2:I'm like if you don't love, la get out goodbye.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love my favorite city in the whole world. I love it.
Speaker 2:I have a question for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I know you have a background in computer science. Okay, so you're in this voiceover world where you are Overwatch and Overwatch is you and you have this background in computer science. Do you have the same doomsday attitude about AI? As everything else I've read.
Speaker 1:That's a great question.
Speaker 3:So, once again no, I do not. I have this Okay, assuage us. So I think in reality it is. It's going to be the power of the user right, and what your intent is right and I do think that there is malintent a lot of times and there is good user right and what your intent is right, and I do think that there is malintent a lot of times and there is good intent right. You have this machine that has so much information and so many possibilities and assist you in your journey to create right, to create experience, and so it's going to come down to the people that use it and what they use it for and how they use it. Because you know, here's one thing I've been using it for.
Speaker 3:You know, I've been reading A Course in Miracles for years, right, which is a book about just your perceptions, and it's like a very well-known, like it's dense, and you're like I don't understand what's going on. It reads like you know a scribe and like an old Bible passage. What's going on? It reads like you know a scribe and like an old Bible passage Copy. It's just, basically, you know what Jesus really meant when he said. You know what he said, and it comes down to you create through your perception. That is the basis and you could create peace right.
Speaker 3:You're looking for peace. Here's the way to peace, right? I'm like I don't know what this means.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I highly recommend, if you're reading that, to read as an addendum the Oxford Annotated Bible. It's an annotated version of the Bible.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it'll go by certain passages, and being like this. Translation from Samaric means this yeah, yeah, that's great and this from Aramaic goes to this, but it might help you with the passages that you're talking about.
Speaker 3:And that's another thing I'm going to do. I'm going to read all the great texts, right, and so partially, I'll ask chat. I was like what does this mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Or like you know they'll have.
Speaker 3:And it tells you, like the basis of like, hey, you know what this means. Is this from this previous passage that you might have missed? I'm like, oh, that makes a lot higher little being telling me, hey, this is what you're trying to read. And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, that makes sense. So there is like, whatever you're using it for, I don't have a doomsday attitude about things.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Because you know, just in life, things will come and go in some regards.
Speaker 1:Sure sure, the dinosaurs, for example. They came and go.
Speaker 2:Has it affected your job yet? Because I know for me that came and go has it affected your job yet? Because I know for me. I've had jobs where AI has been used and I'm working with the AI and I'm like this is weird.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've had auditions for AI and stuff like that. I think the biggest thing is how is it going to? When a car was invented? It's a dangerous thing, it could be a dangerous thing, but there has to be rules and regulations and things that are, you know, helping it to not be that thing.
Speaker 1:Now you presume this is funny. Can I read something to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay and get your reaction. So it's been a little over a year, right, and a little over a year ago, more than 1,000, on March 29th 2023, more than 1,000 tech leaders urged a pause on AI development, signing a letter about it, presenting quote profound risks to society and humanity. That was a year ago, april 27th, which is a month after that tech pioneer Jeffrey Hinton, aka the godfather of AI resigns from Google, saying he regrets his life work. Wow, it's a month later. Okay. Now, november 17th, which is about six months after that, a power struggle over safety temporarily deposes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, if you remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Everybody's like why did they get rid of this guy? Then they brought him back, brought him back. They brought him back why? Because speed wins, right. Okay speed wins. February 12th, 2024, so this year, ai safety researcher, dr Roman Jankowski, that's a doomsday sounding name.
Speaker 2:Like he has a white Persian cat and he is contemplating world domination. Exactly, he's got a little long fingernail.
Speaker 1:Okay. Dr Roman Jankowski says there's no proof AI can be controlled. One month later, he gives humanity a quote 99.99% probability of doom. Okay, that's okay, that's all right. There's nothing to worry about, right, okay? So March 11th, a little over, a report commissioned by the US State Department warns AI could lead to human extinction. And then on May 17th so roughly a month ago OpenAI dissolved its safety team. I think you're absolutely right and I think it's one of these things where, much like a lot of things, there's just a lot of hype and it makes for a lot of good discussions and things like that. I do believe controlling the machines is the key. The problem is much the same thing that we've lived through. This is kind of one of the reasons I wanted to have you on in the beginning. It is that you have septuagenarians.
Speaker 1:You have 70-year-olds and 80-year-olds making legislation about technology that they do not use and do not understand Right, that was the internet writ large that was the smartphone writ large. This is something where, if we're going to ask our leaders- the stakes is high. Well, these people they don't even Most of them they use flip phones.
Speaker 2:Right, these people, they don't even most of them. They use flip phones, Right? You know what I'm saying? They can't even spell that GPT. How are they going to make legislation about it? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:My point is who are we asking to take care of this right? Who's got the who's?
Speaker 2:on first.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:It is interesting because it is a reflection of what we are as humans, right and I just see the trickeration is what I. The trickeration, the trickeration, the trickeration. There's hateration in this dancery and I don't like it.
Speaker 2:Okay, because here's why. Okay. For example, I have run into this problem a couple of times and I've met at least 20 singers that have as well. We've been approached by companies that will ask us to make something called sound packs, and that's not uncommon. They'll ask you for a suite of oohs and aahs that they could use for a sample or whatever. The problem is, what these companies are doing is they're then using that and AI-ing that. So I actually am in the middle of You're doing it.
Speaker 2:I'm actually in the middle of a dispute right now because I didn't agree to do the pack right. They took a sample pack that I did for something else and they AI'd my voice and they're offering that as a sample pack that you can have for like R&B vocal sounds okay.
Speaker 3:Well, that's just not right, right.
Speaker 2:But that's my issue is that because we're still at the helm of who controls this. These companies are picking these reach-arounds that have not been legislated because the people who control the legislation have never even conceptualized, or something like this.
Speaker 3:I think there was some issues I had kind of like with SAG early on making deals about things they didn't understand. Sure, Like early on with like the internet and how that was working. They had no idea, right? And so now when AI?
Speaker 1:is coming around and that's fair. Yeah, yeah, come back to the table. We didn't understand. We didn't understand. But we can't act like this situation we're walking into, we don't quite a lot of it.
Speaker 3:We understand, we don't understand, right, and you talk about that. Have you seen Suno S-U-N-O.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, the thing that creates music.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, are you in there? Yeah, are you in there?
Speaker 1:No, exactly, that's bonkers, yeah, yeah, you're talking to two lifetime musicians right here.
Speaker 2:That's why how do you guys feel about it?
Speaker 1:I'm like am I going to have a job next year Because I'm having to diversify my skill set? She's a poly-sci major from Yale and got a fellowship from Oxford and it's like I've got to diversify my skill set.
Speaker 3:Now I've got to do even more.
Speaker 1:Now I've got to do even more.
Speaker 2:Okay, this brings me to the point you were talking about, where how you were using ChatG, gpt, to help you disseminate certain parts of information. I feel like partially for everyone nowadays. That's necessary because the amount of information that we get is more than 10 times what we used to get, and we aren't being taught in schools how to properly disseminate a piece of information and digest it and then make our own cogent results.
Speaker 2:We don't know how to do that. We're not teaching children how to do that. We don't teach them the analytical skills that are necessary to do that. I remember being in school and we had sentence diagramming. We had paragraph structure. You were taught how to make a proper thesis, what the proper points around supporting a proper thesis is. I see people who can't spell, so now how are we supposed to? It's just, it's very disconcerting. So I feel like we're almost going to have to have a chat GPT-like system in school in place to help people understand certain complex theories and texts, because we've never taught them the skill set that they would need to be able to do that on their own, that absolute discernment, but it's almost like we did that by design, because then you can allow any form of government to just take the minds over people.
Speaker 2:The stupider you make them. The less you make them question what your objective is, the more they're apt to go along with it.
Speaker 1:Before we run out of time. Do you find yourself with the video game companies that you work with and stuff like that? Is that something that is also that they're trying to work into their sort of mission statements, or is this something that's just kind of pay no attention to the guy behind the curtain?
Speaker 1:uh not even you don't have to put yourself on the spot. I'm saying, do you see it just sort of like you know, do you kind of sense an understanding of a responsibility there, right, because well, we're going to have you come back and we're just we'll do something that's just gonna be specifically on mental health in the video game industry, because that was really kind of one of the reasons why I wanted to get in there. But do you see, on the on an ai issue, I know you know, with angelia and stuff like that, it's like you having to get your likeness right and owning your likeness is, I feel like that's a frontier, that we're right, we're on right, and I think it comes down to the deal being transparent, 100% right.
Speaker 3:And then I kind of also feel that right now in the video game industry, there's not the proper type of compensation for what is being done. So the fact that it's taken to an even other degree something needs to be, you know, taken a look there. Something's got to be, something's got to like hey, if you want to do this, make it so that it is you know for the highest good for all, so everybody benefits right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And you know there is some saying, like you know, I think, when you are a company, you're the voice they own. You know Lucio's voice, but definitely do they?
Speaker 1:it's Johnny Cruz come on man.
Speaker 3:No, but I understand.
Speaker 1:I understand the character Lucio is like Han Solo, right, and we know Harrison Ford right. But I have as a kid you know Harrison Ford was Han Solo, han Solo was Harrison.
Speaker 3:Ford right, right, I see you at a convention. I'm like I want a picture with Lucio, who's also Johnny well, you know, and then it was interesting because I was in a movie many years ago that kind of had me take a step back from making movies for a little bit, and it was, you know, this kind of apocalyptic kind of movie where don't talk about Chippendales like that apocalyptic, apocalyptic dance move, but that's right, it was like this movie that I had done and it wasn't the greatest experience.
Speaker 3:On the movie set and I just remember, you know, reading the script, I was like it's fine, but at the end of the day, on the movie set and I just remember, you know, reading the script, I was like it's fine, but at the end of the day I didn't have control, of course, of what the movie came out as and at some point, you know they put Alex Jones in the movie. They put yeah, like a bunch of it was propaganda for kind of like the director.
Speaker 1:Next thing you see the playback Kid Rock shooting a bunch of Bud Light cans.
Speaker 5:Which you know and I don't reserve judgments.
Speaker 3:Everybody's doing what they're doing, but I was just like that's okay we do here that was one thing.
Speaker 3:I was like I'm in this movie and I don't necessarily align with this message right of what they were trying to do after the fact. And I was like, huh, that was interesting, right, so let that go. But in in the regard is like I didn't have. Of course, as an actor we don't have control of how these things sometimes go, and it is one thing if lucio is like now preaching you know anarchy and destruction of something, and I'm like, hey, that's my voice.
Speaker 3:But they went rogue and did some all right it's interesting to think about that whole process of what could potentially happen yeah and so you know, uh, and it's somebody else getting the voice and making them say things. I mean, you just, in some regard, are having to separate that piece of me and Lucio and these characters and whatever happens, to surrender them fully right. There is going to be this thing where it's like, hey, here's this Sure, and hopefully you do good with it. That's a fair point.
Speaker 2:Before we let you go because I know we could talk to you forever. This is so interesting and fascinating. What projects do you want to talk about? What would you like the people to know about on your end. That means something to you right now.
Speaker 1:Oh man If people want to make comments about your performance in Chippendales, for example. You've barely seen that. Where.
Speaker 3:What frame are you in? Give me the exact frame. I can tell you.
Speaker 1:We've got some screenshots. I'll show you.
Speaker 3:There's a movie that's screening at the Dances with Films Festival. I guess this will come out after, but Wednesday at 7 pm at the Chinese Theater. It's called Best man, dead man.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:A movie I'm in which is a comedy, a murder mystery.
Speaker 1:Presumably it exists after the Chinese Theater.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so definitely check that out.
Speaker 1:And it's called what again?
Speaker 3:Best man Dead man. Best man Dead man.
Speaker 1:Best man Dead.
Speaker 3:Man.
Speaker 2:We can get the link for that and maybe put it in our show notes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it'll be on my Instagram.
Speaker 2:But we can put it on here too.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, and your Insta handle is what.
Speaker 3:At Johnny Cruz J-O-N-N-Y-C-R-U-Z-Z-Z, because because I'm a sleepy boy. But yeah, that was like my first on-camera thing for many years, oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Film, film, film, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm happy to be doing it.
Speaker 1:There's been so much mo-cap and voiceover.
Speaker 3:Mo-cap and voiceover has kind of been my thing, but I'm like let's get this face back on the big screen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this face deserves a green timer. That's right. It's too gorgeous to let it sleep, baby, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's too gorgeous to let it sleep Well.
Speaker 3:Thank you, brother, I appreciate it hey, no, so much love.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you for coming on and I can tell we're going to have you back soon.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for being on. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it Great. Yeah, hi, I'm Anjali, new creative baby. The Character Select Podcast. I've wanted to save the world since I was four.
Speaker 5:There has been no character like him up to that point, and there really hasn't been a character since.
Speaker 4:Every episode of Character Select, we're going to be taking fantastic video game performances and talking about what makes them tick, what makes them exciting as players, as performers, as sound designers, as casting directors. That was, I feel like I've been ambushed.
Speaker 3:I was going to be on a podcast to talk about a video game.
Speaker 4:So there's a big old love fest here. That's how we start this, and you're just going to have to deal with it. Recognized by the 2013 edition of the Guinness World Book of Records, gamers Edition, as the most prolific female video game voice actor in the world.
Speaker 5:You know it's a special project when you hold on to the people you created it with.
Speaker 3:Careers are born by being in the right place at the right time, where you can't control the right time, but you can control the right place.
Speaker 1:Okay, before we go, that was amazing with Johnny, isn't he?
Speaker 2:He is so charismatic Like he could run for president and I would totally buy it.
Speaker 1:I'd vote for Johnny Cruz.
Speaker 2:But you know, what I loved about him is his earnestness about really looking at the way he's decided to look at life, like just looking at oh, there's a cause and an effect, and if I meditate but also look at the right factors, I can influence my choices and that can influence my outcome. I think that that's a really beautiful way to look at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're shaping your own, you're manifesting your own life by just being that.
Speaker 2:But I love that he also said by also being present.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been. What's been cool. Is it finally hit me If I'm on my phone? I'm not present. I am on that phone, you're present to that.
Speaker 1:I'm present to that right, but you're not present in the moment and I've started to get so much joy out of claiming that present time back, and I do think that that's going to be part of the skill that we're going to have to keep sharpening as we get, you know, as we get deeper and deeper into this kind of AI world Before we go. Slap Studios is proud to announce that not only have we moved to this new studio, got the new, new, new, new, new, new.
Speaker 2:We even have new plants.
Speaker 1:That's right. Make sure to check it out at slapstudioslacom. But we also have our first co-production with our new partners and we are super over the moon to announce we signed the one and only Norman Chad World Series of Poker legend. We've got his show Gambling Mad with Norman Chad. Make sure to check it out. He's a legend. I say this. He's going to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He's also one of those guys where, the first time he came in, he made fun of everybody in the room, including Charlie. That's hilarious. When you make fun of the dog and everybody in the room, I'm like props, you're good, you're one of us, you're one of us, and his show is all about that too. So make sure to check that out. And what else we got? I know we got some other stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, the that's it. That's All. Is in its new season and Casey has some really wonderful guests coming up. I was talking with her earlier about some of the subject matter that she's tackling and it's definitely going to be an in-depth dive that, I think, is an extension of where she started from season one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you did an episode, another episode we did yeah, yeah yeah, so make sure to look out for that one as well. And we want to leave you on a high note. This week there's a lot of news that we've kind of gone over and we ran through it with Johnny and stuff, but we want to do favorite new things because I think there's a lot of stuff that's going on that is worth being happy about and lifting up back to.
Speaker 3:Johnny's point.
Speaker 1:And hopeful, and hopeful, and hopeful.
Speaker 2:So, mayaa, if you had to say what's your favorite new thing right now, okay, I don't know that we might agree on our same favorite thing, but one of my favorite things that just gave me hope in the world was that mexico elected a woman hey, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:And a climatologist?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, doctor, and like a smart woman like, not just like a puppet woman like an actual woman yeah, we can do actual things. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And I love how people say, well, why can't we do that here? And it's like, okay, well, we have an electoral college problem where it's, you know, really, it's just, can the crusty white guy beat the red states electoral college? Right, that's the game. But more has been done for climate under the Biden administration because of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Then any time in history up to this point, and so, provided we hold on to democracy, I'm looking forward to some of the climate things that can be teamed up now, because they're our neighbor to the south and it really. We have a documentary that we're working on that we can't say anything about right now, but it's inside of Slap Music Media. It's a giant documentary that has to do with how the oceans tie everything together in climate, and we really need our neighbors to be going the same way that we are.
Speaker 2:But that the progress is there, it's there it's hopeful. The solutions are being manifested, so that in and of itself is its own hope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that in and of itself is its own hope. Yeah, yeah, and I would say I would guess my favorite new thing of recently has been that, the realization that I have the power to be more present and I have the power to fix some of the things that are, you know, that are unhappy or that make me kind of unhappy in my surroundings. And I feel like, you know, we design the world. We said it during Johnny's thing, but thoughts make things, so think good ones, and I feel like getting control of that is my new favorite thing Is the.
Speaker 2:thing. There's this song by this amazing artist named Amos Lee that I love.
Speaker 1:Love Amos Lee.
Speaker 2:Okay. So he has this song. Then he says and the world ain't no harder than it's ever been. And I think that, even in the face of the world looking very, very difficult and almost impossible to navigate, at the end of the day the world really isn't harder than it's ever been at any point in time.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. That's a perfect way to leave it. I love that, maya, and I love you, and thank you for this, and make sure to leave comments on what your new favorite thing is. You've got a favorite thing, you've got a favorite thing, and if there's something you want us to dive into and chew on here, that's what we're about slapping that power.
Speaker 2:So thank you, guys of you. Slap the power is written and produced by rick barrio dill and maya sykes. Associate producer, brie corey, audio and visual engineering and studio facilities provided by slap studios, la with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art, slap the network. If you have any ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or if you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slapthepowercom. Yo hey, won't we go slap today?
Speaker 5:Ever wonder what a high-stakes private home game looks like this? Is it Real poker? Real it Real poker, real money, real people? It's the boardroom in Beverly Hills. They win, they lose, they even go broke and they come back. Join Amir and Jacob as they welcome a cast of dignitaries and degens to the boardroom. Amir is my best friend.
Speaker 3:We battle to the f***ing death. With all due respect, our game is much different than your game.
Speaker 5:This ain't a pansy-ass Hollywood home game. These are the rough and tumble streets of Beverly Hills. Can you rank the players here? I don't think it's a good idea. They play big, they play hard. Watch as they make their way to the World Series of Poker. Each will try to turn $10K into half a million dollars at the Big O event June 13th. In my opinion, some of the guys that play here they should make the final table. For many, that $10K might go down the drain in just one hand. Follow it all on socials, at GamblingMad Show or GamblingMadNorman Chad on YouTube.
