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Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
From Urban Planning to Playwriting: One Man's Remarkable Journey
David Preece's life reads like a series of fascinating short stories bound together by themes of creativity, adaptability, and service to others. Growing up in a tiny Utah farming town called Pleasant View with just 900 residents, Preece admits his mother always said he was "plotting to escape" from an early age. That wanderlust led him through an extraordinary professional journey spanning seven states and multiple careers.
After completing graduate studies in urban planning, Preece's professional path took him from Park City, Utah (where he developed the Deer Valley Master Plan) to Wisconsin, Washington DC, New York City (where he crossed paths with Donald Trump's development projects), San Francisco, Los Angeles, and finally New Hampshire. As a planner, he describes himself not as someone who dictates where buildings go, but as an educator and facilitator who helps communities make informed decisions about development. His guiding philosophy: "For a master plan to be effective, successful, you've got to have buy-in from the town, the city, at the very beginning. It's got to be their plan."
Parallel to his planning career, Preece nurtured his creative side through playwriting, screenwriting, and filmmaking. After his father's death in 1980, he began writing plays to process his grief. This creative outlet eventually expanded to include seven produced plays, six published with royalty companies, and several screenplays. When diagnosed with leukemia around 2000 and given seven years to live, Preece responded by creating a short film called "Lunch with Eddie" that was shown at over 30 film festivals.
Perhaps his most heartwarming creative venture began when he and his partner adopted a rescue Scottish Terrier named Higgins. This led to the creation of the popular "Mr. Higgins" children's book series, with the fourth book scheduled for release this fall. Preece describes the joy of having strangers approach him about how much their children love his books as "magical" and "a really rewarding experience."
Now serving his second term in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Preece approaches politics with the same creativity and thoughtfulness that characterized his other careers. His political philosophy is refreshingly simple: "It's not about me, it's about the people who I'm representing." As he continues to pursue new writing projects alongside his legislative duties, David Preece's remarkable journey reminds us that reinvention is possible at any stage of life, and that creativity can find expression in countless ways.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Yeti.
Speaker 2:And I'm Tom Preysol.
Speaker 1:And we're so pleased to welcome you to another edition of.
Speaker 2:Anything but Politics? Where?
Speaker 1:we talk pretty much about.
Speaker 2:Anything but Politics.
Speaker 1:And today we have a great guest. Really excited about him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, this guest we have today really has done a lot of different things within the arts and with planning. But you know, we're here today with Representative David Preece, who's in his second term in the New Hampshire House. The first term he served on the municipal and county government, which you'll understand soon, really made a lot of sense, and this past term he's been serving on the Finance Committee, specifically Division III, which is Health and Human Services. But without further ado, welcome.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you very much. It's a treat to be here and to talk with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much. So let's go to the beginning. Where are you from originally?
Speaker 3:I'm from a small town in northern Utah called Pleasant View Sounds pleasant, it was. It's on the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains and it was a small farming community, maybe 900 people, you know. In total Everybody was related to everybody, except for our family, and both of my parents were professionals. My father was a public school teacher and my mother was a registered nurse, and so they both, you know, worked full time, which was, you know, not heard of in those days. But it was a beautiful life. Beautiful life. You could just, you know, get your horses on and ride them up to the foothills and have a great view of the whole Salt Lake and Ogden Valley. So, yeah, it was a beautiful time.
Speaker 2:And do you have any siblings?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have a—I'm the youngest of three Same, same, yes, yes, I can see the similarities. Um, I have a sister who is was born in 48, um, beautiful, beautiful person. And then I have a brother who is was born in 49, who is. He was born with uh, developmental, uh problems. He was a premature baby and had brain damage at birth, but oh, he's amazing, he's amazing and I think I consider him one of the greatest teachers I've ever had, because he's kind of taught me empathy and loving everybody and finding joy, and so I'm really appreciative of having Dennis in my life.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's wonderful Do they still live out in Utah.
Speaker 3:They still live in Ogden, utah, my brother's in a nursing assistant home, but my sister is still going strong and will be to the very end, and I have all my family living pretty much in Salt Lake and Ogden.
Speaker 1:So how does one go from this beautiful picturesque area to then? It sounds like you've had a circuitous route, but winding up in New Hampshire. Would you mind just telling us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:Well, it's an interesting journey. My mother claims that at a very early age I was always plotting to escape. I was always running off and hoping to go someplace else, and maybe there's some truth in it, I don't know. But after college it was interesting. In college I was a pre-med major and I was doing that in order to please my family that I would not get accepted in medical school. So I opted to find something else that I could contribute in, and that was urban planning, and so I kind of secretly took more and more classes that would help me hopefully get into graduate school. And then I graduated and was accepted at Western Kentucky University into their graduate program and I went there and did my degree and then came back to Utah, as a good you know son would do, and I had a couple of jobs, first at a regional planning commission Wasatch Regional Planning Commission and then at Park City, utah, where I was the planning director.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:And so that really gave me. This was in the late 70s when Park City kind of exploded with development.
Speaker 2:All thanks to you and your planning Well no.
Speaker 3:I just think that the timing was right and I was there, and you know so I, you know I did the Deer Valley Master Plan, wow so. And I remember going after evening after evening to public hearings on various aspects of it, and the fact that it came out as well as it did is amazing. And I go back, you know, occasionally to see Park City and I see various elements of what I worked on in their master plans being implemented, which really gives me a lot of delight.
Speaker 1:But it's a lot to be proud of.
Speaker 3:Well it was, it was and I was very young. But there was a lot to be proud of. Well, it was, it was and I was very young, but there was a lot of development pressure. And so I decided to move on from Park City to Beloit, wisconsin. And if you could ask me where is Beloit Wisconsin at? Back then I wouldn't have a slightest idea where it was at. I still don't, no, really. So it was all a big thing. I flew out there. They loved me, I loved them and I saw a lot of opportunities for change and planning.
Speaker 3:So I took the job and I was in Beloit for close to five years and it was on the other spectrum of the development scale. All the jobs were leaving the Midwest and was going south because of unions and less regulations and whatever, and so I really had to come up with another strategy. So I again I went to the planning mode and did several planning for the downtowns and special neighborhoods, park planning and recreation, things that I could easily implement. And then I took a next step and did kind of revisions to the zoning and subdivision and then plan unit developments. And while I was there I pursued a doctor's degree in urban and regional planning at the same time at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and that was really crazy on my part. I can always remember the faculty saying now, what do you want to do with your PhD? And I said I wanted to be the best planner. I mean, I wanted to actually do planning instead of just researching and teaching it. I wanted to do it and during the course taking and phase of that it was really great learning about what other people did, did and and then actually seeing it implemented with the practices that I was trying to instigate in Beloit.
Speaker 3:But I got to a point that I just I had to move on. I had an opportunity to move to Washington DC to be a private consultant and so I went. I took that opportunity and it was in the early 80s to 88. And I had a wonderful time there. But it was. It was a time to go.
Speaker 3:And I had another opportunity to go to the city of New York, manhattan, to be the deputy director for the Office of Environmental Coordination. Now Ed Koch was the mayor then and I thought I was just too old to be moving to New York City. To tell you the truth, I was in my late 30s at that time. Oh, you were a baby. I was a baby, but I was still too old to put up with all that.
Speaker 3:But I took the job and within a year's time the director resigned and so I became the director of the office, and this particular office was in charge of all the environmental coordination documentation. You had to get certified that all of your environmental impacts would be documented and if they're not mitigated, they had to be disclosed of not being implemented, so decision makers would know if they were approving them. You know, are there any problems that will come back to haunt us? So I did that and that was a fascinating job and I had 30 people on my staff at the time and one of the projects that I was kind of shepherding through the process was a little project called Trump City. You say Trump City.
Speaker 2:Trump City, yes.
Speaker 3:Trump City. Trump City, yes, and he was just this kind of loudmouth developer that was always promoting himself, but he had purchased or got a lease on the West Side rail yards to develop over them and develop the air rights, mind you. So okay, so it was like building a platform over all these rail yards and building on top, and one of the things that he was building was the world's tallest building and it would cover Central Park completely in the daytime with shadow. Oh no, that's how tall it was. So anyway, he was an interesting character to begin with and he never paid his consultants or attorneys. So you know, you would write a 30-page comment letter on his reports and documents and they would come back and nothing would be changed, except for the footnotes on the bottom. The dates would be changed, and then he would come back and say, why aren't you certifying my programs? And we couldn't because the work wasn't done. Yeah, so anyway, um, from new york I went to san francisco and I lived in san francisco for three years and then as a planning consultant, and I came to a point where I had to decide whether or not I wanted to just retire in San Francisco, which was just beautiful there and I would have been very happy just having a glass of wine and watching the fog come in every night and riding on the cable cars and having great Chinese, or I could really do something that I was passionate about.
Speaker 3:I could really do something that I was passionate about Now. I'm always been passionate about urban planning, but there's been other sides of me that I've also been interested in, and one of them was the theater and writing plays, and I started writing back in 1980 when my father died, and a way of kind of dealing with the grief. I started to write about our relationship and I became more and more kind of doing this on the side, on the weekends, at nights, when I didn't have any evening meetings or, you know, reports to to do for school, um. But when I got to new york, I was actually taking classes, you know, at playwrights, horizons and at hb studios, and I thought, well, maybe do I go back to new york, where I know how expensive it is to live and how difficult it is to find a job, or do I go back to LA and I say, oh, let's go to.
Speaker 3:LA, I'll learn how to write screenplays, I'll make a million dollars and then I can leave in a couple of years Sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 3:I know Sounds like really good planning yeah really great planning, but it was very affordable at the time and this was the early 90s, and so I bought one back there and I had a terrific job as the environmental manager for the Southern California Association of Governments, which is the largest regional planning in the nation, and so it was a terrific job. And at night I was taking classes at UCLA in screenwriting and kind of learning the trade, as they say. So again, at night I would be writing screenplays like crazy and trying to get someone somewhere to read them. You know, because without an agent, or a manager, it's impossible to do that.
Speaker 3:So I did that for 10 years and then halfway through I kind of thought that I would not. I mean, I really was having a difficult time getting anybody with any sort of credentials to even look at my stuff, and I went through two agents and they were no help agents and they were no help um.
Speaker 3:So I went back to playwriting and I had came across this um equity theater in pasadena, who was who was interested in having me adapt some of the classics as plays, and so I said, oh yeah, I'll do that sure. And so I started to adapt these novels into plays.
Speaker 3:And I also wrote a couple of original ones which they performed and I got some recognition and that was good. But at the 10th year I woke up one morning and I said you know what am I doing in LA? You know, what am I? It's 10 years and the traffic is bad and when you go to sleep at night you see helicopters looking for escape criminals or whatever, and celebratory gunshots. You know, and you're going. What am I doing here? You know?
Speaker 2:well, 10 years for you sounds like a long time to be anywhere. Yes, it is.
Speaker 3:Well it is, and so I got an opportunity to move back to New England and it was like a godsend. It was a place where I could actually do planning again and when you say new england, what part are we talking?
Speaker 1:new hampshire?
Speaker 3:we're talking about new hampshire okay yeah, I had a another offer at the time in burlington, vermont, but I just love the the aspects of new hampshire. Because of the fact that they had no money, you had to really be creative to make it work. So I got a job as the executive director for the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission and I was the director for uh till 2017. Um, and that's how I've end up in uh, manchester, new hampshire and and in new england and so how long have you been in new hampshire now?
Speaker 1:uh for 21 years and you stayed this long right.
Speaker 2:I have stayed this long, 30 years after he was supposed to retire. Yeah, exactly. Exactly you know, I want to go back a little bit because you know we talked a lot about your time as a planner and for the planning commissions, et cetera, and I want to know what does that entail? Right, what does it mean to say you're a planner? Does that mean you're saying that building goes there?
Speaker 3:No, it doesn't Tell us a little bit about what goes into that Planning. No, it's hard to explain, but you have no.
Speaker 2:I should know, because I was on the planning board.
Speaker 3:You have no planner as a planner, power as a planner. What you can do is through your communications, through your relationships on the planning board and selectmen and town councils. By educating them as to what could happen there, to identify the pros and cons of the development, you enable them to make the best decision possible. And that's what I was doing.
Speaker 3:I was giving them the tools, the information, saying okay, so this is what this application will do, this development. But you've got to realize that it's going to cause some traffic and you know they're going to be taking away these two acres of trees, which you know may be detrimental to the adjacent property owners. So you may be wanting to reconsider that.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you're an educator in so many ways. Yes, you are an educator and a facilitator for change.
Speaker 2:And as far as creating these master plans, right that you had mentioned in. Deer Valley. So is that essentially identifying the potential?
Speaker 3:Yes For the area Right.
Speaker 2:And providing that to the planning boards and town councilors.
Speaker 3:Well, you can't with the master plans. Again, it's facilitating them to make the decisions themselves. In order for a master plan to be effective, successful, you've got to have buy-in from the town, the city, at the very beginning. It's got to be their plan. It's not just a consultant saying here's your plan, goodbye, you owe me so much money. They've got to have buy-in or nothing's going to happen with it. Yes, and that's what separates, you know, a plan that is a cookie-cutter plan from one. What the town owns and loves and wants to implement and developers are you know we're going to do this and this and this and this and this. You know we're going to do this and this and this and this and this. It all complies with the goals that you have set, that we have set as a community what we envision our town to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I myself served on the planning board for a number of years in the town of Hooksett and we relied very heavily on our planner to do a lot of the work. But I always thought that you know and I don't know if this is my question is essentially going to be is this unique to New Hampshire? But the buy in from the community was always very strong. You know every. You know the plan comes in as a plan complete. Sure, the plan is complete. Then you have a public hearing and I was always amazed at how many people paid attention to the agenda and came in community members saying well, you know, you're going to put this you know sports bubble up. Well, that's going to impact my view. That's going to impact my travel.
Speaker 2:And so New Hampshire. We're all very close-knit right.
Speaker 3:Everybody knows what's going on.
Speaker 2:So is that community involvement unique to New Hampshire?
Speaker 3:No, it's not unique at all. But the fact that New Hampshire is such a small community and the fact that everybody becomes involved it's everybody's development and everybody's concern what makes New Hampshire special.
Speaker 2:And, like you said, everyone has buy-in right. So then, when you see the project come to fruition, everybody feels comfortable with what the ultimate outcome is.
Speaker 3:Right, right, hopefully, hopefully, if the developer listens yeah you know, to the advice from the planners, you know saying you know I would do this and this if you. Really this is going to be a problem. Now. You, if you, you can choose to go ahead with what you plan, but you're going to be a problem Now you can choose to go ahead with what you plan, but you're going to be coming with some resistance to your plans and your developments. But if you did this and this, you may be able to address their concerns and move on and get your plan adopted. Now, if I was the developer, this is what I would do, and if the developer is smart enough, they would do that. You know, yeah, they would take that advice at the very beginning, work with their architects and their landscapers and make those changes instead of fighting them?
Speaker 1:How often are they smart enough?
Speaker 3:Yeah, instead of fighting them?
Speaker 2:How often are they smart enough?
Speaker 3:That's an interesting question. I don't know. I think it depends upon, again, the relationship that is formed between the planner and the developer and the public. If you go into a conference room and you're arrogant and you're I don't want to use any profanity- If you feel like it, yeah. But if you're a dick and you're just like, oh no, no, you know, put on airs, that's not going to solve anything, right, that's not going to solve anything. There's ways to doing it.
Speaker 1:And I think that transcends almost any situation. Anyway, right it is.
Speaker 3:It is. But some planners think well, because I'm planners and I have this position, I can just say or do anything. And no, that's not the case. That's not the case.
Speaker 2:But you know, one thing I do want to bring up and then we can move on to. You know, screenwriting is. People often think that developers have this. You know they're the god right. Whatever they say goes, and they forget how much power lies in the community and in the towns. And to illustrate that I would point to our neighbor, maine right, and I just read an article about this earlier this week about in Freeport, maine. There is a McDonald's in an old colonial house. Yes, and it's so. When you think about McDonald's, they didn't just throw up the arches, but the town had said if you want to build something here, it's got to look.
Speaker 2:Remain with the character of the town Right right, and so it's the only McDonald's in like a colonial home in Freeport, maine, right right, which I think is.
Speaker 3:But again, that's the power of the community. The communities in New Hampshire has that power to do that themselves here. They don't have to allow Dunkin Donuts to come in and put up their signature gaudy looking buildings up everywhere. They can make them compatible to their community. It takes a little effort and buy-in, but it can happen and it pays off.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It pays off.
Speaker 2:That's great, so let's move on to you know, obviously you had a lot of creativity, right, Right right. And that was kind of a hallmark to what you did as a planner and creator these master plans, but it really transcended into your work with screenwriting.
Speaker 3:Right, so you've written how many plays. Oh, I can't. I don't know the number. That many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that many yeah.
Speaker 3:And plays that were performed I've had like seven produced, performed, six printed up with royalty companies, um, and I have another five or six kind of at a stage where I'm looking for a theater company to work with me and coming up to put the next step. I've done the readings, um, I've, I've gone as far as I can go. I mean, I'm not the kind of person that will dwell on a script and go back and fuss with it for years and years. I get it to a stage and I kind of put it aside and go on to another project. Okay, so that's where I met with my playwriting.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of fun, though, right, it is a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun, though right, it is a lot of fun. It has to be fun.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of fun. I'm in that process now with a new play and I've been sitting on it now for about, oh, I would say, five years. It's like a, the gestation period. Um, you have an idea, it's in your mind and you're just trying to get it, you know, figured out, figured out the characters to speak to you in their own voices. You've got to hear the voices, yeah, and how?
Speaker 1:does it and I'm curious about the creative process. Um, and I wonder sometimes, as someone who produces videos, but sometimes I have to put things away for a while.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And then pick it back up because I can look at it with a fresh pair of eyes.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's always highly, you know.
Speaker 1:Which might be part of the creative process. But when do you get to the point when the voices start to come alive for you?
Speaker 3:They could come alive in the very beginning or they could take as long as they want to come alive. I mean, they're all very independent, yeah so. But I gotta hear the voices. I gotta hear the voices in my head, and one of the things that I would love to do was when I um had uh in my knees, I would get up in the morning and go run for five miles. Good for you. And it was like very early in the morning and I could hear those voices. And I know that sounds kind of wacky Actually, not at all, no but I could hear those voices.
Speaker 2:I hear a lot of voices. I hear voices. Those are different voices.
Speaker 3:I know, I know Don't listen to those, so yeah, so that was a great time to kind of cement that. But I've so that's usually, you know my playwriting experience.
Speaker 1:Now you also have books, yes, so I want to talk a little bit about Mr Higgins.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I adopted oh, I should say, my partner and I adopted a rescue Scotty in 2014. Uh, we had a scotty already. She was getting up there she's. I think she was like 13 at the time, wow. So we I got word that there was a male scotty in hillsborough, hillsboro, that went through two homes and had bit somebody in their yard who wasn't supposed to be in their yard but trying to protect, you know, the home. He's doing his job, doing his job.
Speaker 3:But the police came and said you know, you've got to do something with it or we're all going to put the dog to sleep. So I said you know we'll take, or we're all gonna put the dog to sleep. So I said you know, we'll take the dog, we'll take the dog. And he came with a name of Higgins. So we gave about Mr Higgins and so a publisher from London has picked it up and has published three so far and the fourth one will be out this fall hopefully. Oh, wonderful, and we're getting lots of good responses.
Speaker 3:I'm getting emails from children reading the book sent to me. That's awesome, and I think what really makes it a rewarding experience is when I'm out working in the yard or walking the dog, a stranger will come up to me, a woman, you know, a middle-aged woman with her children, and say are you David Preece, or did you write Mr Higgins? You know a home for Mr Higgins or Mr Higgins takes a stand. I said yes, that that's me. And she just goes on and on, and, and the kids wanted to, you know, to see if Mr Higgins is still around. And I have to tell him that Mr Higgins has left us and, you know, is no longer here.
Speaker 2:But physical world. But he's yeah, he's still longer here In the physical world, but he's yeah, he's still with us In perpetuity.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. So that's been a really rewarding experience.
Speaker 1:I bet, I bet that's magical.
Speaker 3:It is, it is, it is and you know it's international and I'm getting some really great responses and I'm losing my voice.
Speaker 2:No, but that's fantastic. And I remember now Barbara Bush, they had pups.
Speaker 3:And she used to write children's books, right? Yes, she did. Yes About her dog. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was that your inspiration?
Speaker 3:No, no what made you decide let's write a book. Let's write a book. I think two things my deputy director, sylvia Van Alick, was adventuring in children's picture books, and also my niece in Colorado, kari, was also writing children's picture books.
Speaker 2:And I said if you can do it, I can do it Exactly exactly.
Speaker 3:And I said oh good, if you can do it, I can do it Exactly exactly. And I said what is there? But there really is a science to it. You know, there's a word limit how many words can be used in the book and there's certain words that you've got to weave into the book because you want the children to have larger vocabularies. Oh yeah, so I'd weave those words in, and they've got to have like a three-act structure and there's got to be a moral to the story, and so it's kind of a challenge to kind of do all of that and come up with a good story. But I have a lot of good stories because Mr Higgins was with us for over 10 years. So lots and lots of stories.
Speaker 1:So there's, more Mr Higgins books.
Speaker 3:Oh yes yes, there's about, I would say, six or seven more books that have been written and are just waiting to be published.
Speaker 1:And when you say picture books, is there an illustrator, the?
Speaker 3:publisher provides the illustrator, and so I have to work with their production editor and then he works with the illustrator as the go-between. And that's one of my biggest complaints about the publishing company is you can't talk to the illustrator directly, you've got to work within their system, and so it's constantly back and forth, back and forth. But you know, eventually they'll come up with a product that we both can sign off on. That's fascinating, yeah.
Speaker 2:So then, children's books, plays, planning a little bit. You wrote a movie, directed a movie.
Speaker 3:I did. I did the last two years in two or three years, I think it was in the year 2000,. I got a diagnosis that I had leukemia. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:And so it really took me by surprise. And they said well, you have seven years to live. So I went through the chemo and after I survived the chemo I decided well, you know, let me write a short film, direct it, produce it and see if I can get some more attention on my screenplays. So that's what I did, and I wrote a lovely screenplay and I found a terrific cinematographer who was just a godsend, a sound editor, an editor. We didn't have to pay the actors, which was great. I only had like four actors anyway, and we kind of did its guerrilla style. Shooting in LA, oh wow, which, if you know about LA, it's like you need a permit to walk out on the street at night.
Speaker 3:You know, it's just, it's crazy. So we were doing all this shooting and filming in parks and on highways and roads and neighborhoods without the necessary permits and we could have been busted, we could have been closed down.
Speaker 2:Is there a statute of limitations? Are they going to listen to this and come at you?
Speaker 3:Well, I hope not. I hope not, but you know.
Speaker 1:Because we're big in LA.
Speaker 3:Maybe a nice agent will come and arrest me or something like that, I don't know. So we got this thing made, this film made, and we started to market it to film festivals and we were able to show it at over 30 film festivals.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:Which is amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which is amazing. And a German distributor, german film distributor, came. We signed this international contract and he was supposed to distribute it. Of course, he did nothing with it. He owned the rights, you know. He did nothing with it, so he owns the rights, so can we see it, oh, of course I still have a copy of it and I you know you can see it.
Speaker 3:I own the film so, um, yeah, I'm very proud of it. I'm proud how it turned out, yeah, given all the obstacles that we had doing it live without a studio.
Speaker 1:But it was a great experience, great experience I mean, what a fascinating story, and could you just take me through the plot of it a little bit. So what's the storyline?
Speaker 3:Well, it's about these three men who are brought together. They know each other from another person, who were central in each one of their lives, and it's called Eddie's Boys. No, I'm sorry, that was the pilot that I wrote because of the short. The short film was called Lunch with Eddie, and it's about one of them who planned a picnic to kind of celebrate Eddie's life, because Eddie died of AIDS, and so he planned a picnic, and while he was going to this favorite spot of Eddie's, he meets up with these two other people who know each other, and so he brings them back and all of their anger and jealousies surface within, believe it or not, 12 minutes.
Speaker 3:The whole movie is 12 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's a short film. Okay, yeah, it's a short film.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking well, today films are like four hours. So I'm thinking short is like an. Yeah, it's a short film. Okay, yeah, it's a short film. I'm thinking well, today films are like four hours.
Speaker 3:Well, I know, but it's a short film, so you have limits. I think it can go up to half an hour. Okay, but back in those days, if you wanted to have it shown, they always suggested 12 to 15 minutes.
Speaker 2:We do a short film. Isn't there a short film festival?
Speaker 3:in.
Speaker 2:New Hampshire there is. Is it here in Concord?
Speaker 3:I believe so yes.
Speaker 2:I've heard about it. There's some guys I know who go to it every year.
Speaker 3:But it's a great experience because if you've never gone to a shooting and you have and you're paying the cinematographer, you're paying the sound editor, you're paying for film and equipment, you're up to about twenty thousand dollars, yeah, and you're praying for a good day. You're praying for a good day. You're praying for a good day, yeah, and the day that we had was during the shooting. We were going to have this long shot through this living room to the kitchen and all the light would be coming in the window morning light. Guess what it?
Speaker 2:rained.
Speaker 3:It was like fog. It was like this coastal fog in the morning and I thought, how can this happen to me? But fortunately for me it burned off and it was the same way on the second day, foggy in the morning, very hot and bright in the afternoon. So we were fine, we were able to use it. That's great. But you're just like so you know I was bearing the cost. I didn't have any financiers my credit cards which I'm still paying off.
Speaker 3:But it was worth it. It was worth the experience. Yeah, but it was worth it. It was worth the experience because you had like 20-30 people who were you were responsible for and you couldn't just say, oh, we can't film today, no, we're not going to film at all.
Speaker 1:No, you had to do it and you're not a stranger to film either, right, and you're not a stranger to film either, right? No, I'm not. Tell us a little bit about, maybe, your touch with fame.
Speaker 3:My almost touch with fame, right? Yeah, well, I was also doing professional. I am still doing professional modeling on the side and I'm with the New England Modeling Agency modeling group, I think they call themselves. And I've done a couple of national commercials, which you know is fun.
Speaker 1:Which ones can you tell us Well?
Speaker 3:there was an insurance company in Maine where they played the commercial for years. I can't remember the exact name of it, but it's one. It's the largest insurance company in Maine and they were just wonderful to work with. But I had a trophy wife and I had a golden lab and I had a lovely family that came to visit me where I cooked this wonderful gourmet.
Speaker 2:It's like Pleasantville all over again.
Speaker 3:Yeah it was On the lake on the lake.
Speaker 3:And they would show this commercial, you know, for four or five years, and people would call and see me on the street or the grocery store. Strangers would come up to me and say, oh, I saw you. And there was one shot which I thought was very, very, very funny, where I was supposed to be canoeing my two grandkids in this canoe across this lake and there, but in the lake, there was like forty thousand dollars of of film equipment. Oh wow, that was being shot of me doing this. Oh, and then are you ready for this? The two children could not swim, oh no, and so they were not wearing life preservers. The boat was very unbalanced. And here I am and I'm not a champion this was known for the insurance company as well.
Speaker 2:Right, kind of ironic, and I'm not a champion.
Speaker 3:I didn't go to boys camp. You know they didn't have such things in Utah. We worked, you know we worked in the orchards and fields, but so I was canoeing these kids and trying to look like I'm having fun, this look of terror in my face as I'm canoeing across this lake. So that was one of them.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's quite the story. That is quite the story. And then my other. So I did another one, but it was for a senior retirement community. But the other one was for a movie that I was cast to be the dead image of Kyle. How was it to be the dead image of Kyle?
Speaker 1:How was it McEacher, mceacher, mceacher.
Speaker 3:Well, it.
Speaker 2:Something like that yeah whatever.
Speaker 3:Twin Peaks guy. Twin Peaks Blue Velvet yeah, you know Kyle McLaughlin, oh okay, and Jon Hamm was producing it and starring in it. So my last shot was being shot in a small boat Spoiler alert yeah, well, yes, and falling to the ground and that was the end of the film.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:You got to close it out. I got to close it out. Right, it was the last shot of the movie. You know they had this big celebration, you know, um, and I'll never forget. Just lying in there, not any, because you can't move, you're dead, you know.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, you can't breathe, you're dead and so, um, I'm laying in here and it's very uncomfortable and whatever. And then they said finally cut. And I thought, oh, thank God. And I looked up and there was Jon Hamm and he must be like seven foot tall and so nice. And he come and grabbed me up, are you okay? You did a great shot, you know whatever. Oh, that's great, so that was my fame in the motion pictures.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. Well, I have to say, I mean just the number of things you've done over the years and gotten into. I mean, creativity has been a constant theme.
Speaker 3:It has been. You know arts and you know I. I want to leave a legacy, I guess. Yeah, well, and that was the name of the game.
Speaker 2:you know, yeah, and then now you're in the legislature. Yes, I am and that's your last, your latest chapter was it?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, we're up to like 14 now chapters. Well it's, you can call it maybe the fourth chapter. I guess yeah, and the reason I got into the legislature was I saw a need.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I said if you need me. And so then I came up with all these reasons why I shouldn't run for office. Oh, I came up with a list of 10 or 12 reasons why, and I was talking with a good friend of mine who said well, david, it's not about you, it's about the people who you're representing, and I always remember that. It's not about me, it's not about my ego or my agenda, it's about the people, my neighbors, my friends, who live in district 17 in manchester.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that is a good reminder of what's important. And you, you know I show up, I speak out when it's time for me to speak out and I vote, and I make sure I vote.
Speaker 2:It's a good guiding principle, though it's not about you, it's about your constituents. It is it is.
Speaker 3:It is and it's often forgotten because you get some of this legislation that it's only benefiting the people who are sponsoring it and you know that's not the way you should do it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:So is there a fifth act coming up.
Speaker 3:No, I don't know. I'm just kind of gliding through Act 3 and 4, or Chapters 3 and 4 in my life.
Speaker 1:So no big new film projects or some other creative endeavor.
Speaker 3:No, but I'm trying to. As I mentioned, I'm trying to get a new play off the ground and yeah, I would love to. You know, I, when, you know, before I went into, decided to run for office. I was commissioned to write a screenplay which was based on the real life of a man in North Carolina and you know, he gave me his book and I thought, well, how am I going to adapt this into a screenplay? Because there were all those segments of short stories about growing up in a rural Appalachian, very impoverished, from 1949 to 1990 in that area, but mostly in the early 1950s, and they were very, very impoverished and his mother was making moonshine and, you know, having all these lovers. So I I said, okay, I'll write it, this is what, this is my fee.
Speaker 3:And so I wrote the screenplay and it was a great experience. It was, again a great experience and what made it really rewarding for me was to be able to give a call to the actual person and say, okay, I'm at this point. I need to ask you, would this happen to you? And he said, yes, it did happen. So I would write that into the screenplay.
Speaker 3:And I'm very proud of the screenplay. So I would write that into the screenplay and I'm very proud of the screenplay. So, again, that's one of the screenplays that I'm still marketing off. And another one was called More Than a Friend and that was optioned last year by a film company in LA, oh wow. So I'm excited about that. So you still might get that Oscar, I might I might, but I'm excited about that, so you still might get that Oscar. I might, I might, but I'm not counting on it, you know.
Speaker 1:Don't forget your friends back here on.
Speaker 3:Anything but Politics. I won't, I won't. I'll bring you along. How's that?
Speaker 1:That sounds great, good, good good Well, Representative, thank you so much for sharing your many stories with us. I mean, what a fascinating life.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for inviting me, and it's been great talking with you and reliving memories and stories. It's been a terrific hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's really been great and I appreciate everything you bring to the legislature, I mean from your time as a planner and your creativity and, most importantly, your guiding principle that it's not about you, it's about the constituents.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and if we had more people in the statehouse that did that, I think we would have a better House of Representatives.
Speaker 1:And your enthusiasm, obviously for people and for life.
Speaker 3:So thank you, yes thank you.
Speaker 1:What a treat. Well again, thank you to Representative Priest, we really appreciate your time and thank you for listening to another episode of Anything but Politics. And we hope to see you soon.