Almost always hidden underneath incredible prosthetics and costumes created by Academy-Award winning artists, he’s been the creatures, creepies, demons, aliens, and bad guys you’ve loved in movies and t.v. shows like American Horror Story, Star Trek, Grimm, Men in Black, Z Nation, Sleepy Hollow, and Teen Wolf.
Today, he’s not only currently the big bad guys on CBS’s new show “Evil,” but he’s also going to be appearing in the upcoming and highly anticipated Star Trek: Picard.
Come listen to Marti Matulis talk about life, travel, and what it's like to be the man... behind the masks.
Almost always hidden underneath incredible prosthetics and costumes created by Academy-Award winning artists, he’s been the creatures, creepies, demons, aliens, and bad guys you’ve loved in movies and t.v. shows like American Horror Story, Star Trek, Grimm, Men in Black, Z Nation, Sleepy Hollow, and Teen Wolf.
Today, he’s not only currently the big bad guys on CBS’s new show “Evil,” but he’s also going to be appearing in the upcoming and highly anticipated Star Trek: Picard.
Come listen to Marti Matulis talk about life, travel, and what it's like to be the man... behind the masks.
Daniel Scherl: 0:04
welcome to the memories of a moon bird podcast where we explore the human life through infinite forms of travel. Hello, friends and welcome to Season two of the memories of a Moon Bird podcast. I'm still Daniel Cheryl. We have an amazing season plan for you with more stories, travel tips and, of course, interviews with some really incredible and inspiring people. So tell your friends and family to subscribe and thank them for me in advance. We're going to kick off 2020 right now with an interview with someone who's pretty darn outstanding. The truth is, you wouldn't know it if he were walking down the street right next to you, but he's been entertaining you and scaring the pants off of you for more than 20 years. Almost always completely hidden underneath incredible prosthetics and costumes created by Academy Award winning artists, he's been the creature's creepy is demons, aliens and bad guys that you've loved in movies and TV shows like American Horror Story, Star Trek, Grim Men and Black Z Nation, Sleepy Hollow and Teen Wolf. Today he's not only currently the big bad guys on CBS's new show Evil, but he's also gonna be appearing in the upcoming and highly anticipated Star Trek Picard. In addition to his fascinating career as a creature suit performer, he's not only traveled all around the world, but he's a phenomenal photographer and videographer who I've had the distinct pleasure of working with many, many times. He's passionate about the environment and sustainability, and that's something we're gonna chat a bit about. He's also gonna tell us what it's like to be beneath all of that goop and foam and silicone as the proverbial man behind the mask. And he may even throw in a few travel tips for fun. Please welcome phoning in from set in New York City, Mr Marty Mottola's Marty Welcome to 2020 and the show
Marti Matulis: 1:49
Hey, Daniel, Thanks, Nice to be here
Daniel Scherl: 1:50
and thanks for phoning in from Set.
Marti Matulis: 1:52
Yes, indeed. No worries. Technology makes everything possible. It's
Daniel Scherl: 1:55
an incredible world we live in, so let's jump right in. Where you from?
Marti Matulis: 1:59
Where my from? Well, I guess technically, I'm a California native, though I spent my formative years in the Black Hills in South Dakota from second grade through ninth grade, the rest of it's been kind of in and around California.
Daniel Scherl: 2:08
What was that like growing up in South Dakota?
Marti Matulis: 2:10
It was great at the time. You know, being that young and going to such a drastically different part of the country. It was a little culture shock e. But looking back on it, it was one of the most amazing experiences could have had. It kind of informed. My sensibility is in a lot of areas
Daniel Scherl: 2:23
that's very cool. And did you travel a lot when you were growing up with your family?
Marti Matulis: 2:26
There were a lot of road trips. We traveled from back and forth in California to Missouri, where had Grandparent's South Dakota when we moved there in and around South Dakota? Not a lot of playing, traveling, mostly car trips. So
Daniel Scherl: 2:38
did taking all these road trips as a kid inform your desire to travel as an adult? You think
Marti Matulis: 2:42
I think so is as a kid. It was probably equal parts interest in what was happening on the trip and a desire to get out of the car and away from my parents. Both were kind of pushing me to go explore on my own. So yeah, whenever we'd arrive at a place like you know, say, Devil's Tower, I would immediately get out the car, go play in the dirt and go run off and kind of try to get lost a little bit.
Daniel Scherl: 3:05
Now, do you still play in the dirt as an adult? As often as I possibly can? Yes,
Marti Matulis: 3:10
I'm definitely a hippie at heart. I love, you know, being in nature, scrounging for mushrooms and looking at trees. I've even hugged one.
Daniel Scherl: 3:17
Uh, what do you What do you like most about traveling?
Marti Matulis: 3:20
I think breaking out of the comfort of the daily routine. You know, anywhere you go, there's going to be something interesting to see and people to talk to. But the biggest benefit I've ever had is just not doing the exact same thing. We get very kind of complacent, uncomfortable, like getting up, making coffee, going toe work. But when you travel, it throws a lot of that out of the window,
Daniel Scherl: 3:40
breaks up the routine and
Marti Matulis: 3:42
absolutely yeah, you gotta You gotta flex some new muscles and and use your brain or your iPhone brain, the eye brain. There's a lot of new things to figure out once you hit the ground in a new place.
Daniel Scherl: 3:51
What's been something that you have found over the years to be truly rewarding for years, for yourself, about travel. He's deep in thought. Don't
Marti Matulis: 4:03
edit that out. Just let it ride. The most rewarding thing, I think, is just on the heels of the previous response. Getting how the routine, but having conversations with people who have had a very different life than I've had. You go to a beer garden in Berlin and you're gonna talk to 20 people who all are from different areas of the world, and they all have interesting stories. And they're not all about the exact same thing that you'll hear when you're at your local coffee shop in your local hometown.
Daniel Scherl: 4:28
Your and
Marti Matulis: 4:28
just you know, the overall benefit is a human of, of experiencing different cultures.
Daniel Scherl: 4:33
As one of my favorite things about travel actually is the breath of human experience out there to explore and to talk to all these other fascinating human beings and realize you're just one small part of this greater, you know, cosmic thing, this living organism of billions of people on this on this beautiful blue rock, you know?
Marti Matulis: 4:53
Yeah, and and those experiences are not always sunshine and roses. They're assholes on every corner of the planet.
Daniel Scherl: 4:59
Sure, but
Marti Matulis: 5:00
that's that adds to the overall enjoyment of it is seeing the variety of people out there.
Daniel Scherl: 5:05
You know what, assholes on your podcast as many times as you on. It's already tagged. Asshole. Asshole! Asshole! One of things that I think it's so cool about meeting all these different people and I'd like to tell people about this is that when you have these experiences, right, you tend to understand more and more about humanity. And so therefore, what's cool about it is I think it hones your radar quite a bit. So traveling Maur gives you such a greater insight into humanity that when you then meet other people in your hometown or in your city or whatever, you can pretty quickly assess kind of who they are, what they're about and be able to decide. You know, I think I might want to talk to this person and have them in my life and get to know them or make a new friend wherever and you can also, you know, conversely, go. I'm definitely getting the fuck away from that guy because he's trouble and I can tell a mile away.
Marti Matulis: 5:55
Oh, nothing. Convene the people pleaser right out of you than your first international trip. The first time I went out of the country was to Hong Kong and I was all smiles and, you know, good, shiny vibes. And I found that there are a significant portion of the population around the tourist destinations that prey on that they're looking for easy marks. They're looking to come up to a friendly face and take advantage of it. So it didn't make me bitter or guarded per se, but it certainly does. As you said, kind of hones your radar, and you kind of assess your situation with the little A little
Daniel Scherl: 6:28
bit of your skills as a human become. It's like it's like you're leveling up in the video game of life. It's how I kind of like to make that analogy.
Marti Matulis: 6:34
Yeah, yeah, and travel is so many side missions in that video
Daniel Scherl: 6:39
that's integrated video game to the best in our let's
Marti Matulis: 6:42
keep using that, it's fitted in as often as we can. So,
Daniel Scherl: 6:44
Marty, how did you first actually get into travel as an adult
Marti Matulis: 6:47
Well, I take in a couple of trips in high school. That kind of started the whole desire to doom or of it. But finances were an issue, as I was starting in the job worlds. And, uh, a friend of mine talked about courier travel and I thought, you're a drug mule. I don't think I want to do that. But he told me about this amazing opportunity to go to Japan for a couple weeks, and the ticket was 100 bucks, and I couldn't figure it out. So it researched it. And at the time, this was all pre 9 11 There were companies that found it much more affordable to ship their whatever computer parts documents in the luggage allotment of, ah, standard airplane ticket than to ship it as cargo. So this was a pretty thriving thing back in the day where you could sign up for this courier monitoring Web site, kind of look at the destinations and then see what was available. A lot of times, these last minute flights would pop up 100 bucks round trip. Sometimes they were free. So literally, I signed up one day The next day, I found a flight to Hong Kong leaving the next day. And it was ah, $100 roundtrip. Wow. So I was at work when I was doing this. I called my boss was like, Hey, boss, what do you think about me being gone for two weeks starting tomorrow? He said, Where you going? I said, Hong Kong. He said, Okay, so I ran home and pack
Daniel Scherl: 8:09
backpack. That wrong boss? Yeah,
Marti Matulis: 8:11
it was fantastic. It was a great opportunity. So I packed a bunch of the wrong stuff into the wrong backpack, put on the wrong clothes, hopped on a plane and had an amazing, amazing experience in a culture that was so incredibly different than my own at the time that it just kind of cemented this. This both both fear and love of travel because I think it should be kind of a healthy mix of both, right. You want to have an adventure, you shouldn't know everything ahead of time. And Hong Kong was certainly different enough that it defied my expectations and just showed me that taking things as they come and and not having too many expectations was really a key aspect to satisfying travel
Daniel Scherl: 8:53
that's amazing. Now they still do this kind of service in modern day.
Marti Matulis: 8:56
Not to the extent that they did. I don't know if it's still a thing or not. But with the prevalence of Internet travel resources, I think now it's just easier as you propose as you promote on your site. Just find better ways to travel for cheaper and there's always deals to be had, and
Daniel Scherl: 9:14
I always recommend people sign up for every single airline. Service is last minute deals. Emails, because you'll what? Whether it's, you know, sky scanner or Expedia or whoever your jam is. But it's so great to be able to get these emails that say, Hey, if you can leave in a couple days, we suddenly have last minute tickets to wherever. For $49 you can end up going to cool places for very, very cheap.
Marti Matulis: 9:37
Yeah, as you get better and better at packing less unless you can just know what you're gonna take. Grab your list, throw things in your bag if it's not already packed and then hit the airport,
Daniel Scherl: 9:46
Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest with you. The years I've been traveling I can literally pack a bag and be out the door for the airport in an hour.
Marti Matulis: 9:52
A man. Brother.
Daniel Scherl: 9:53
Let's talk about your career a bit because it's really cool you that you have an amazingly cool job, Marty.
Marti Matulis: 9:59
I really do. It's It's the best job, Uh, grown up five year old can have.
Daniel Scherl: 10:03
Yeah, exactly. You basically get to be a kid and explore all these fun things. You, In my opinion, you live in an almost permanent state of make believe.
Marti Matulis: 10:12
Yeah, well, as you said in the intro, you know, I get to sit in an artist's chair and have them express their art all over my face. And then let's sounds really dirty.
Daniel Scherl: 10:22
What do they do?
Marti Matulis: 10:23
They apply their craft to my face. They
Daniel Scherl: 10:30
just they just make
Marti Matulis: 10:31
a mess all over my face. And then after these talented academy order, any people have crafted whatever they craft. I
Daniel Scherl: 10:42
got to go after they put their doing it on your chief. It is.
Marti Matulis: 10:45
It's very gooey. This took a turn. I wasn't expecting Daniel. What is the adult rating on
Daniel Scherl: 10:52
this one, eh? Well, it's explicit. So we could talk about what it was because I was much goo is we want. Okay, let's
Marti Matulis: 10:59
bring it back to some real serious talk.
Daniel Scherl: 11:01
You don't work with Academy Award winning makeup artists who? Yeah, I mean the level at which these people work there. They are unbelievable, you know, they have. They have unbelievable craftsmanship, you know, And you get to sit there and experience is what What's it like to be in the chair? Because a lot of people don't know how it is to actually, Can you walk him through the process of that?
Marti Matulis: 11:20
Yeah, Well, the particular process starts well before the production when you have a cast made of your head or your hands or whatever parts that need to sculpt to there alien slash creature slash whatever on. So you'll go in for a session there that involves sitting and having group put all over you to get the head cast.
Daniel Scherl: 11:37
And this is like a shell so that this stuff doesn't stay permanently on your face.
Marti Matulis: 11:40
Yeah, it used to be kind of like a weird Al Jinn it material, and then they do plaster bandages over that. Nowadays, it's ah, like a two part silicone that goes on quicker and is a lighter material and provides them a lot more details. So then they'll make a positive of that that they can sculpt their creation on, and then they make the molds and apart from that, so then when you get to the production, you sit in the chair. I typically shave my head and my face so they could just start gluing right on. And then for the next couple of hours, I just sit in a chair looking into a mirror. As I watched these ridiculously talented people build this creation on top of me as a younger actor, I thought, all that that's really cool. But it's more of a step to do something else. And now is Ah, what am I, nearly 50 year old kid? I adore this process. I've always loved it and just tow Watch these people at such a high caliber do this art that then I can sit there and and kind of figure out how the creature is supposed to move. So
Daniel Scherl: 12:39
as you're having this, this creature built on top of you and you're watching in the mirror as you're transforming into whatever an alien or a demon or whatever. Do you feel yourself in the chair as an actor? Start to transform into that character and have more ideas of what you're going to do
Marti Matulis: 12:53
for sure. I try to come in with his many ideas. It's possible upfront seeing the designs, but then, as it's being put on, the materials might have different thicknesses, so they might be harder to move. So if Marty, the actor, thinks that he can make a certain expression and I I practiced that expression in the in the mirror, it might be different with the creature. I might have to put 30% more effort into my angry face or whatever happens that threatens scene. So that's my time to kind of figure out how I can translate myself through the makeup and make the makeup look alive and not like a rubber mask.
Daniel Scherl: 13:27
What has been the most challenging character you've ever had to have applied? Most of the
Marti Matulis: 13:32
characters have their own challenges, but I think there were a couple on Sleepy Hollow, one that have had basically, um, no mouth and no eyes, so I wasn't able to really eat for the entire time I was in the makeup. Um, I tried not drinking, but that didn't work so well after about six hours. So any time you're impeded in some way of sight or sound or taste or touch or whatever that that makes things a little more challenging.
Daniel Scherl: 14:01
Obviously, what you do has a level of thrill and excitement, and there's there's so much just coolness to the whole thing, you know. But there's also I don't know if everyone realizes they're tough times as well. I've known you for a long time, and I've heard stories from set. There's been a couple injuries. There's times where you know it's freezing cold over. What's it like? What's the reality of some of the harder parts of doing what you do?
Marti Matulis: 14:23
Well, the creature suit thing is definitely prone towards those extremes. I'm not a stunt man. I'm not gonna do stunts, but it is expected that I could bring a physicality to the creatures so that would involve whatever I could do. Crawl around on the ground, crawl through the muck, have a sword fight so there are environmental extremes have to deal with. There's no smoke and other toxic things on set, and the makeup itself could be kind of challenge. Would
Daniel Scherl: 14:48
you say that being a creature suit performer is not for everybody? That it takes a specific kind of body type of person? In general,
Marti Matulis: 14:56
that's absolutely true. The makeup artists themselves air looking for certain body type, certain physicality ese. So they want someone say, like my type is tall, slim, strong that can wear the makeup, not be encumbered by it, but also be thin enough that they can build up their creature without making it look overbuilt. Or they want someone just huge and strong to wear these £200 monster suits or someone very like tiny and flexible. Yes, so they're definitely looking for specifics that will help them bring the creature life.
Daniel Scherl: 15:30
And how long is the process? From the moment they call you and go, Marty, we have, ah, new creature on Star Trek, and we want you to come in and play whatever Arambula and from the moment they cast you, and then they have to call you back again after the cast is done being built on and then and then the moment that you're in the chair, how long is that whole process usually
Marti Matulis: 15:50
well with this kind of of acting, this creature see performance typically. Now, since I know so many of these people and they're so many copies of my head around and people have some working experience with me, well, typically get in the email or text from one of these guys and them say, You know, Hey, Marty, I've got this character and it's gonna shoot such and such. So there's like the initial contact. And then there might be head casting or body part casting so they can start doing sculpt. And then there's some back and forth with agent and casting at that point to make sure I'm the right fit. And then, a couple months later, probably goto the initial meeting on set to do a camera test movement tests makeup tests with the with the elements of the creature suit that built at that time. So, yeah, I think with evil, it was about three months between that initial text and the pilot, which is still pretty fast.
Daniel Scherl: 16:41
What's your favorite part of that whole process?
Marti Matulis: 16:43
All of it. That's a tricky question, because each individual part of this is kind of I don't even know how to say it. It's not a negative, but like you know, it's hot, it's sweaty. You've got stuff glued onto your face with surgical adhesive that might be uncomfortable or might be bending your nose is the wrong way, and, you know, you might be in a suit that's like poking in the wrong direction. And then you have to, like, sit there at the end of the day for another two hours after everybody's gone home to have it removed with rubbing alcohol. It's horrible, but all in all, it's just the
Daniel Scherl: 17:16
battling. Evans, I want to ask you is, How long is the removal process for something like, Let's say, a raw Mulan and Star
Marti Matulis: 17:21
Trek removal process is our, I say, the kind of an average of 1/2 to 1/3 as long as the application process. If it's a lengthy application, obviously there's a lot more stuff to take off, but we also try to ride the line between how long the shoot day is, and how much glue do we really need to put on my face? So it's typically about an hour and 1/2 I would say to get everything taken off.
Daniel Scherl: 17:41
You've had the good fortune to work with some of the coolest actors in the industry. Has there been a particular starstruck moment when you're like, Ooh, my little boy is freaking out because I'm with this cool person, I get to do a scene with them.
Marti Matulis: 17:52
Well, I would like to say that I'm just so cool as a cucumber that that would never happen. But a couple times on Sleepy Hollow, I had an opportunity to work over several days in a couple scenes with John Noble Denna. Thor. Ah, he was so cool. And he's got the most gravelly, syrupy voice. It was awesome. It was hard for my character who was kind of his devil character, really berate him and slap him down because I felt just so in all of him and the other characters had seen in play. But, you know, I rallied to the cause game. What for?
Daniel Scherl: 18:26
Game? A good ass weapon.
Marti Matulis: 18:27
You bet. You, uh and the other one I got to say is, ah, Patrick Stewart. Um, one of the first gigs ever did. Just as, ah, young pup in Hollywood, doing the background stuff to kind of learn my way around a set. I was on Star Trek Insurrection, and, uh, we're up on a hill about a mountainside outside of Bishop, California. Everyone just kind of sitting around and, you know, I didn't wantto We were we were told, and I of course, I didn't want to bother any the principal actors. But when you're six feet away from Patrick Stewart and he's just sitting there looking at Iraq and you do what you gotta do So yeah, I asked him about something that I saw them. D'oh! Where they were he and Gates McFadden. We're closing their eyes before a take and kind of gazing off toward the sun, like would want to be doing is trying to get a quick sun tan or the evening out their color. What is that? So I said, you know, excuse me, Mr Stewart. What? And he he very kindly said, Oh, what you do is you close your eyes and then when you look back at the camera, you don't blink. And to date, that's the best piece of acting advice I'd I've ever had.
Daniel Scherl: 19:33
That's really cool. And what great advice to other actors out there Yes. What's the What's the What's the Stewart technique?
Marti Matulis: 19:39
So the process basically is, uh so you don't squint and blink when the camera's on you. If the location is kind of sonny, you close your eyes, stare toward the sun for about 30 seconds. And then when you look back to the camera, open your eyes. You're far less prone to the squinty blinky thing that looks so bad on camera. Thank you, Mr Extort.
Daniel Scherl: 19:59
Awesome. Thank you, sir. Patrick, that's great. And thank you, sir. Marty.
Marti Matulis: 20:03
Indeed, we can all aspire to, sir. Dumb.
Daniel Scherl: 20:06
I actually think it would be a dream come true to be knighted. Think that would be like one of those things? You go. I have achieved greatness. Now. I'm absurd, Daniel. That would be awesome.
Marti Matulis: 20:14
Yeah, and for nothing that actually is deserving of it. Just tow. Have it.
Daniel Scherl: 20:18
Well, I'd like to do something that, you know. Maybe my podcast influences the world in a positive way. And I'm recognized for wanting to do, you know, to move the world forward in a good way. That would be cool. You are writing a one of my novels gets, you know, successfully known and
Marti Matulis: 20:33
demand that everyone around you call you Sir Daniel.
Daniel Scherl: 20:36
I wouldn't demand that
Marti Matulis: 20:37
I would. I would have a shirt that says please address me as Sir
Daniel Scherl: 20:40
Martin. Well, Sir Martin, I have a question for you. Yes, sir. Daniel, what's one of your favorite places? You've traveled in the world.
Marti Matulis: 20:49
I think one of my favorite places was Prague. And I think it was one of my favorites because of the amount of time that actually spent their prior to going there. A lot of my travel was, as most people do, they'll figure out how much time they have, and they'll try to pack as much as they can into the time. Yeah, For this trip, I knew that I had a certain amount of time and I made a conscious choice to on Lee go to Prague. We had a couple of other destinations, but they were on the outside of this other trip to Prague. So for progress thing, we spent a week or maybe 11 days. And that was the one of the best travel choices I ever made. It allowed me to relax. It allowed me to get familiar with my coffee shop. on the place and go to breakfast and how to go here and there for Internet. That made it much a much richer travel experience to just be able to kind of take in more of the actual city and get a flavor for it and kind of understand its history while you're while you're in the city itself.
Daniel Scherl: 21:48
Well, this is something I'm very passionate about. Trying to teach people is that if you want to do what I call the movie preview trip where you just go to 10 countries in five days and you're always constantly on the move, you can do that. But in my opinion, it's a waste of time and money because you're never gonna be immersed in any real culture. You're not gonna talk to the people. You're not going to get to know the place. You're just going to see the highlight reel and, oh, I saw the three famous things every tourist sees, and that's not really what traveling should be about. And I agree with you. I think being able to go and immerse yourself in a culture is is so important when we're in Scotland, for instance, you know We got to spend two weeks just being there. We ended up talking to a lot of locals. We got referrals to great places to go explore. It was such a richer experience. And, you know, I look back on it with great fondness. I would go to Scotland anytime anyone ever invited me.
Marti Matulis: 22:40
Agreed? Yeah, I think it does. It largely comes down to the people. You could be around as well. I think that finding a coffee shop grabbing a map and striking up a conversation is probably the best thing you can do when you get to any new destination.
Daniel Scherl: 22:52
Is that how you is that how you get familiar with the new place?
Marti Matulis: 22:55
Yeah. I mean, I don't much care for cities other than what they can offer culturally or, uh, gastronomically. Um, I like to get out into nature, but prior to that, I do like to kind of take stock of the land and see what there is available in the city. So I do want to go to a coffee shop and you want to sit down, relax a bit, grab a map. I love a physical physical map. Old grab a piece of paper map any day of the week. That also makes other people interested in what you're doing, because that might be their local coffee shop, and they might want to come over and see what you're up to. But being able to sit down with someone and and talk about their interests in their city is far better than what you Congrats of somebody else's guidebook that you're reading. True, absolutely. But then escaping that kind of central tourist area that you inevitably arrive in in a new city, I like to strike out and find things in this area that are similar to interest that I have. So I'm interested in photography. I'm interested in woodworking. If I could go to a new city in a new country and find out from someone who in that area is a great woodworker than I might try to contact them and go see what they're doing and sitting there shops and photography, it seats you into that particular culture in a way that you're not gonna do if you just hit the highlights in your guidebook.
Daniel Scherl: 24:18
Yeah, I mean, Jolene actually talks a lot about this with friends when she's telling them she's like, Look, you know, she's really into animals in nature of right, So she always tries to find unique animal experiences wherever we go. We did, Nurtured by nature with the small, the small Claude Asian otters and the water puppies I saw that man was so great. And then, you know, wherever we go, whatever country we go to, we always try to find unique animal experiences. Oh, I get to see this animal that I've never seen before in person. You know, those are the things that make trips truly epic and worthwhile.
Marti Matulis: 24:49
Absolutely. I agree. 100%. I think that that's something that when you're when you're young in addition to over traveling, you know, packing too much in your schedule. You do want to hit the highlights. You know, you do want to goto, luv, if you're in Paris, you want to hit the pyramids unity when you're in Egypt. But as you get older, I think it it becomes a lot easier to see the benefit in doing something specific to the culture that isn't a top tourist thing you're navigate. You're never gonna get a sense of an accurate sense of the culture. If you're just going down with the tourist list,
Daniel Scherl: 25:23
yeah, if you're just checking off the things that everyone else has done before you there, there will be a level of, I think, boredom to the trip that you will innately feel at some point.
Marti Matulis: 25:35
Yeah, and that's tourism. That's not travel. That's tourism. Big difference.
Daniel Scherl: 25:39
That is brilliantly said, sir. Thank you. I really am on that in a
Marti Matulis: 25:42
future Post. Quote away, my friend.
Daniel Scherl: 25:45
Game back to your career for a second. Travel is generally as my friend John said, travel is baked into an actor's life. Ah, I assume you've traveled quite extensively for your career.
Marti Matulis: 25:54
I'd say it's been pretty significant All it all. When I was starting out, it was largely based around Los Angeles, Um, one of the first jobs I did when it took me to Berlin, and, uh, it was for a little movie called the Operation. Yeah, I played the apparition, but he's barely there, so don't blink or you'll miss the operation in the apparition. But going to Berlin, we were shooting at the battles Berg Studios on the same stage where they shot Metropolis, and there's so much history infused in that is a cinema lover, that I was just on cloud nine. The job itself was almost secondary to that experience and people that I met doing it.
Daniel Scherl: 26:34
Do you think that was the most fun or interesting place that you've traveled for your career
Marti Matulis: 26:37
to date for the career? Yeah, I think that was probably a highlight When I was on Sleepy Hollow. There were regular trips to women to North Carolina where they were shooting. So I got to know that area developed a love for seafood in Wilmington, North Carolina, that I didn't have prior. Ah, and then currently evil shoots in Brooklyn and I love me some New York City, so it's always lovely to go there. But then I have the good fortune of being ableto come back to Portland, Oregon, where I based nowadays, and live in the forest and play with my dog and go hiking and and, uh, explore the nature lover side of life as well.
Daniel Scherl: 27:12
Well, so let's talk about your love of nature and the environment, sustainability and whatnot that was mentioned in the intro. You're very, very environmentally conscious. You're also someone who's very pro trying to educate through. I'm going to summarize you and say by leading by example and you post stuff on Facebook and you try toe, you know, educate friends when you're having conversations. Hey, you know, if you just switch over to that, you know, sustainable straw, you got to keep those thrown away those plastic ones or whatever it is, you know? Ah, and you've You've certainly educated me on several things that our great to help the environment, What drives your passion to do that? And then I have some other questions. But first, let's let's talk about kind of how you got into all of it.
Marti Matulis: 27:53
I think that
Daniel Scherl: 27:53
what made you what made you what you
Marti Matulis: 27:55
a tree hugger? What made me the tree hugger that I am today? Uh, I think growing up in the Black Hills was a big part of it. I was surrounded by nature. I went out and played in the forest by myself and then moving to a city after that And seeing this stark contrast made me appreciate nature in a way that someone who just grows up in a city probably doesn't get, um but then also seeing the impact that we have as a species. As you get older, it becomes more parent. And wherever you fall on global warming and or its causes, there's no denying that the billions of us on this planet burning our little cars fossil fuel engines. Of course, we have an impact. So it's difficult to decide how much you want to devote your life to minimizing your own impact. Um, I try, and in his many ways as I can. I don't like single use disposable anything's. I try to be aware of packaging. You know, if you're buying something, shop in the bulk section in grocery store can use reusable bags like that kind of stuff is is the easiest way that I can, on a daily basis, kind of try to minimize my impact. And then, as it relates to travel, is, you know, you know, air travel is a significant source of pollution, So what I try to do there is if I am going to go on a trip, I try to be aware that, you know, I'm taking a big, long airplane right across a big ocean, and then when I get to my destination. I try to offset that as much as possible. I love walking. Walking's easy, you know you can. You can get a lot of places on your feet,
Daniel Scherl: 29:34
absolutely. And it's great for heart, health and your feet and keeping your body circulating and moving. And plus, my dad was actually a huge proponent of the power of observation by walking or riding a bicycle through town because you're you're manually moving, which is great for the environment. But you also get to see all the little nuance of whether it's a small city or big city or a little town that you'd never get blazing by at 50 miles an hour in a car. And I myself have discovered like, Hey, well, what's this little shop? And then Julian and I'll pop it and discover the greatest You know, chocolate brownie we've ever eaten in our life or whatever you know, it's it's It's a wonderful thing Toe walker
Marti Matulis: 30:09
ride a bike. There is a benefit that can't be overstated when you are moving at the pace of a human body. Like as you said, you know you're not flying through something so fast that you don't even register it. You're not enclosed in a bubble inside of a car. Yeah, it's great to be able to connect. You can meet other people you can, like, You said, duck into some little thing that catches your interest. So going from there, I think bicycling or even being on a motorcycle. Being out in the elements adds to the experience of travel. Um, public transportation is a great option, especially if you're in a European country, you know, absolutely public transportation. Infrastructure is tip top trains or great subways, air great buses, A great trolley. Cars are great.
Daniel Scherl: 30:56
It also saves a lot of money to people. Don't realize that you can get a subway or a train pass for Let's say you're gonna be somewhere for two weeks. You can just get a rail pass or a subway pass for a couple weeks. Far cheaper than renting a car.
Marti Matulis: 31:07
Taxis, uber's car rentals, They're convenient, and they cost money. So if you want to throw money and get somewhere fast, great. But yeah, it's not the best way to see a place
Daniel Scherl: 31:16
when I wantto bring this back to the environment for a second cause it's great that we're talking about this when I talked to other people about about climate change, environmentalists, even a couple of scientists. I know the general consensus they have is that they are. They're looking at the world saying, Hey, look, what we're hoping for is to minimize the amount of change that's happening because there are no magic bullets for this and the planet likely will not return to the way it used to be. But we can. If we take action now, we can weaken, stabilize the earth, at least in a new state, and go from there. So keeping that in mind in your experience and you've done, you've done a substantial amount of environmental work yourself, and you're very I really respect how much you know, Um, what are some things or ideas both in travel and in everyday life that you think are very important for the everyday person to know?
Marti Matulis: 32:08
It's a difficult thing to maintain an awareness when consumer culture is hitting you on all sides, and I mean all sides daily with opportunities to spend money on crap. We don't need
Daniel Scherl: 32:22
it. I took my first commercial acting class in L. A. The instructor was so great, but she was brutally honest and she said, I'm just going to tell you the truth. We're here to educate you on how to convince people to buy a bunch of shit that they don't really need. That I remember sitting there thinking that's that's fucking gross, man.
Marti Matulis: 32:40
Yeah, you have a hard time with that. That's a struggle. And you know where my career is right now. I recognize that I am not much of a commercial type. I've got kind of angular face. I'm really tall and gangly like and thank God, because I would have the hardest time of the world's selling crap I like. I won't do, you know, beggars can't be choosers, But there's a lot of stuff I just won't do, because morally it hits me the wrong way. And I'm not gonna compromise my ideals for a job is gonna last a day or two. You know, that extends all the way up through movies. You know, at the end of the day, it's a product intended to be sold, and I'm part of that sales process by being involved in it so personally, I can gain value and benefit in the artistry in the craft of it
Daniel Scherl: 33:27
well, but I have to say, I think there's a difference between being a part of a project that is really its sole purpose is entertainment. You're watching a TV show, Thio, you know, break away from your life and relax with friends and TV and movies. To me, you're not the same as you should buy this new thing for your house, you know,
Marti Matulis: 33:43
Right? Right. Commercials are certainly the most over direct form of that. Absolutely. Like you are selling a product, No doubt about it.
Daniel Scherl: 33:50
I have the new iPhone, and I bought it because specifically for traveling. I wanted the latest camera and the wide angle lens and all that right, But it was really expensive. And then what's gonna happen is next year, even though I have this, you know, $1200 phone or whatever it was, someone's gonna try very hard to convince me that I now need the iPhone 12 or 13 or 14. Because what I have now, just it's just dog shit. Essentially, you know where where the reality is that? You know, I could still be on iPhone six s at this point, and it's a great phone.
Marti Matulis: 34:19
It is. And you're touching a huge part of this whole kind of environmental thing that it drives me nuts. We were in such a disposable consumer culture, like I in my mind, I still want to live in the air where you can take your VCR down to the VCR repair guy and he'll fix it right up for you. And then you can watch videos that won't have screwy tracking for at least another five years. Yeah, I think that if we if there is any hope in the consumer culture kind of pulling out of this nosedive, it's It's using your power as a consumer to demand better quality products by not buying cheap ash it just because it's cheap ass shit.
Daniel Scherl: 34:54
Well, in what happened like, let's let's look at Apple for a minute. I love their products, I really do. And I'm a big supporter of Apple, but it used to be. You buy a Mac pro or or an eye Mac or a laptop, and you could upgrade that components you could put a new hard driving is as solid steak. Now you buy everything. It's all hardware. They give you very little choice. And they want you to buy a new machine now, every few years and to be to be answered, I think that is fucking bullshit. And it's the one thing that makes me really angry apple, cause it's like, Hey, dude, I get that you wanna make your $38 billion every quarter, But come on, you know, how about 24 hour tech support? And how about making machines that are upgradable so I can have a computer for 10 years, like I used to And I could just put new components. And when the components get upgraded and if you just become a component manufacturers well, start making, you know, start offering apple hard drives that air, that air upgradeable. You know, it's just from a techie,
Marti Matulis: 35:46
excited like I used to love tearing into. I think my first apple was an apple L. C. And now I'm up to whatever the latest PowerBook is from 2013 but it's still going long straw because I can get inside of it and and make it the way I want or upgraded to my my own specifications. But to have that to have that taken away from you is kind of unconscionable. Now, new people who come into this as younger humans aren't going to recognize the difference and they're going to go, Well, this is what's available, so I'm just gonna buy it. They don't know what they're losing, and we are losing something by not being able to to, as you said, kind of upgrade, slash repair.
Daniel Scherl: 36:24
Yes, all of these companies, they're taking away our control bit by bit by bit, and they're doing it so slowly that most people are not noticing, and they're actually excited about it. You know, they they don't realize, like you said, How many options they don't have any more, you know?
Marti Matulis: 36:39
Well, yes. So that that is, ah, tragic aspect of consumer culture that I feel I'm gonna go ahead and just use the judgment of it should be reversed. And and it's only it's on Lee in the hands of the consumers to do this, we're accepting what's being given to us. So if we really want to exert some power for whatever reason, just to have better stuff and or to lessen our impact on the environment by choosing better quality things. We we just have to make our voices hurt because that is what drives the economy. So even though we don't think we have power, we do 100%. You just have all the game behind things that you believe in, which involves informing yourself of what you really want. Like for example, you know, we're talking about travel, and one of my favorite things to take traveling is a good pen of all things like a good pen. No matter where you are, you need a good pen filling out your forms on the plane, taking notes. So to counter this consumer culture thing, the the innovation of like Kickstarter culture right now is wonderful. People are making amazing stuff in in kind of this rejection of garbage culture. I just picked up a black, sexy titanium pen that except almost any refill known to man. So now I feel like I can just buy refills when I need them. I don't need to buy a bunch of plastic pens that are garbage, and then this pen goes with me. It's like my pen and it's gonna last forever, and I could even pass it along to someone else. When I'm done with it, you know it's not going
Daniel Scherl: 38:15
to go on the land to send me the link to that pen, and I will actually post it on the page for your podcast.
Marti Matulis: 38:20
Absolutely will. And thank you for not asking me what it's called because I don't know how it's pronounced. It's like Biggie design Big badge I design. I'll send you the link. Yeah, it's a great pen.
Daniel Scherl: 38:29
I also want to say before I forget that if other people listen to the podcast, wanna look into some more information about environmental stuff. There are things like the London convention that was designed to stop dumping waste. It seethe Stockholm Convention that regularly regulates organic pollutants and the I P C C, which is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change through the U. N. As well as the Paris Accords. These are all resource is that people can dig into and look it how to engage in discussions about climate change with their friends without being Debbie Downer. And there's all kinds of great information about all those things, and they're all good things to research and
Marti Matulis: 39:05
yeah, it's all out there just just read up a little bit. You know it. All you have to do is be informed, because once you inform you can you can make some choices if you want to. You don't even have to make choices. You could just tell your friends about what you read, and maybe they'll be inspired to make choices. But we have to make some choices. Yes, that's that's about all I can say on the environmental issues. We've got to make some new choices. We've been going along on autopilot for years, and now we're seeing the effects of that.
Daniel Scherl: 39:30
So pulling things back around to travel, I wanna ask you, where is one of your favorite places? You've been in the world, and would you recommend it for other people to go,
Marti Matulis: 39:39
um, favorite place in the world? I think that Sweden and or Norway and now let's go with Norway. Norway is my favorite place that I've been so far. Um, it's probably because my people are from up north, um, half Latvian, half kind of euro mutt. So I like the colder northern climates,
Daniel Scherl: 40:01
half raw Mulan.
Marti Matulis: 40:02
Exactly the, uh, I spent more time there than I have in a lot of other places as well. I rented a car for the first time and took some days driving, and it's beautiful. It's an absolutely stunning country. And the tunnels? They're ridiculous. I went through a tunnel that I think, if I recall correctly, was like 14 kilometers through the earth. There's a roundabout. There's a highway exchange roundabout inside the Earth. It's ridiculous.
Daniel Scherl: 40:27
That's awesome, actually. Yeah, good stuff in. This is in Norway. This is
Marti Matulis: 40:30
Norway between Oslo and Bergen.
Daniel Scherl: 40:33
Is there anything that you don't like about traveling?
Marti Matulis: 40:35
Uh, being away from my dog. I love my puppy so much, it's It's hardly the pub behind, but, you know, it's always great when they come home. I think that end and over packing, like if you're gonna go on a trip and have your stuff with you. I always am encumbered by the weight, no matter what, Even if I think I'm traveling light once I get somewhere and I'm walking around every ounce counts. It's it's Ah, it's a weight that you have to carry literally, and it's always better when you have less stuff I've never had. I've never had such a desperate need for something that I was like, Oh, God, I wish I had my £12 thing on me right now. And the other thing that people don't realize when they overpack I mean, we could go for an hour on packing that, you know, gear selection organization. That's good stuff. Bowling versus folding wth e idea of getting your stuff laid out and then cutting in half. What a scary proposition. But it's always, always better. And no matter what it is, wherever you go in the world, when you arrive at an airport, that airport alone is gonna have pretty much anything you would need. If you forgot something from clothing to toothpaste, you're never gonna be in that desperate of a situation. Actually,
Daniel Scherl: 41:48
hold on peace. So me, too. You just keep recording or
Marti Matulis: 41:52
you want to keep going and just cut the silence.
Daniel Scherl: 41:54
Yeah, that's fine. Let's do that because it's just one nice. Take it back. While Barney and I are actually off paying for real, I'm going to take this opportunity in post production to promote next week's episode. Join me when I interviewed Air Force technical Sergeant Catherine Roared, who's not on Lee flown more than 3500 hours, but she's a dedicated mom was gonna talk to us about traveling with a child. And look, we're back from peeing. Hello, Haddo. Hey, Uh, much better. Much better mood. Suddenly,
Marti Matulis: 42:24
the pace of this podcast is gonna take a nosedive.
Daniel Scherl: 42:27
Be like I'm so relaxed, man. How you been? That's hilarious. Um, it's really funny, actually, because I I obviously love what I do as a traveling blogger and photographer, et cetera, et cetera, And you know what it's like to be a photographer and videographer. But the only thing that when people when people ask me like, Is there anything you don't like about travel and like, this is what it is. No matter where I go in the world because of my job, I always have to take a drone and a camera and six batteries and all this camera gear. And no matter how you know, even muralist stuff, that's lighter weight and the carbon fibre tripod that no matter how much you lighten your load, you're always carrying, you know, 10 to £20 of gear in addition to your clothing and stuff. And I do long Thio disconnect from the travel stuff at some point and just take a trip where I don't I don't take any gear with me. Maybe just my phone. And that's it.
Marti Matulis: 43:19
Well, that's one option. The other option, Daniel, is just take all your camera gear and don't take extra clothing.
Daniel Scherl: 43:23
You know, I was thinking about doing the trip where I'm just in my boxers the whole time. But Norway is so difficult in winter in boxer shorts. You know,
Marti Matulis: 43:30
I think that could be a segment, though. How
Daniel Scherl: 43:34
long can the Harry juice survive in the wild? Scandinavia?
Marti Matulis: 43:38
I'm debating that right now. Like, literally as we're recording this, I'm looking over a case with lighting year. My backpack that's gonna be full of camera gear. And I'm thinking how much how how little oven amount of space can I devote to, uh, personal gear? Like underwear and toothbrush stuff?
Daniel Scherl: 43:54
Yeah, and it sucks to because you think to yourself, You know what I think I'm only gonna bring to camera batteries and I'll just charge on the fly. You never charged
Marti Matulis: 44:02
on the flight. It never works. And
Daniel Scherl: 44:03
then you're on a day where you're shooting something you're like, Oh my God, this is so beautiful. And you would have taken a 1,000,000,000 photographs and then the red light starts flashing. You're like shit. I'm totally out of battery power. Yeah, it's It's always It's always
Marti Matulis: 44:14
the wrong choice, which is really illustrative that, you know, there's never a right choice. You can only do what you think is gonna be right for the time plan as well as you can, and then just deal with what happens.
Daniel Scherl: 44:24
So speaking, which I want to tell a funny story for the listeners out there. Actually, Marty and I got to work together in Portugal about six years ago, and we were we were shooting the International Gourmet Food Festival, which, which was an incredible experience. I am. And he's an amazing, amazing photographer and videographer. And so we got to work together with a couple of friends and we're doing this job and we're at this racetrack shooting a go cart event. I love
Marti Matulis: 44:49
that day. That was so
Daniel Scherl: 44:50
fun. It was great for everybody but Daniel because I'm the one filming while these guys were in the go carts and I was like, No, no, look, you guys. You guys go have fun This while sit this one out, I'll be the one to record. So I'm the camera jockey. You know, I'm doing my thing. And one of the go karts goes by right as I'm changing a lens and just blows a bunch of shit right into my camera. And I then had to run around for an hour trying to find a way to clean my sensor because it had grease and all this other stuff on. And the truth is, I never recovered and the camera didn't get cleaned. I couldn't. I couldn't get it to work. Eso Thankfully, Marty had his camera, and I quickly flagged him down and he pulled over. I like where your camera, Mike, I got grease on my sensor. And Ah, So Marty saved the day and I got to shoot the event with his camera so that
Marti Matulis: 45:40
before or after my GoPro camera fell off the go kart and went rolling
Daniel Scherl: 45:44
the racetrack. That's right. We actually have that footage captured where the That was compelling.
Marti Matulis: 45:50
My favorite part is when I come walking up to it, pick it up, look at and go. Oh, shit.
Daniel Scherl: 45:54
speaking of toys in gear and all the cool stuff, Do you have a favorite travel toy or piece of gear you love to take with you?
Marti Matulis: 46:00
Well, I mentioned the pen that that's certainly a new love piece of travel gear that I always take with me. Um, I think I'm old enough that my Kindle is now one of my favorite things to take along. It's like it's just old school enough to not really attract attention. But I can carry however many 100 books, and it's it's light enough to justify its place in my bag. But above anything else. Earplugs, man. Earplugs?
Daniel Scherl: 46:25
Yeah, definitely.
Marti Matulis: 46:27
And I got to say, I just found it's a Swedish made earplug called Happy Years. I'm just gonna shout him out like they're not sponsoring me. They can if they want to, but half happy. They're amazing. Daniel, you need to pick these up. They come in a few different sizes. You can get ah, grab bag of their sizes to see what works best for you. And they're a silicone based earplug that has its has even attenuation across the frequency range, so it doesn't make things sound muddled. It just drops the overall decibel of everything. So things are still clear but quieter.
Daniel Scherl: 47:03
Earplugs are actually super important to me, and I talk about them in my top 50 travel tips that having a great pair of earplugs is essential for travel. And I will definitely look at those happy years. You said Happy Ears has a majority of your travel in your life, been by yourself or with other people.
Marti Matulis: 47:17
I think it's a fairly even split, though I know that in my heart of hearts I prefer traveling by myself.
Daniel Scherl: 47:23
Now why is that? You just kind of a nomad
Marti Matulis: 47:25
ama, you know, bit of a missing throat, but heart No, I love people, but I I find that probably because I'm an only child and probably because I am very, definitely an introvert. I have a difficult time sharing every decision made from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed with other people and so that part of travel with other people is a little difficult for me Sometimes. I mean, it can be great if you have someone that you just really jibe with. Um, it could be the best way to travel. That's oftentimes difficult if you're traveling with friends or acquaintances. I think that if you travel with other people and you can probably attest to this, you have to plan for downtime alone Time, abs also have some kind of ah ripcord like I can't deal with this anymore. We need to go our separate ways. That could be a lot easier when you're younger and you're just traveling with friends. If you're traveling with a partner, then that's probably not so reasonable. But you got to be able to get away.
Daniel Scherl: 48:22
This folds beautifully into my statement about when I teach people that planning ahead of time is very important. And part of that planning is if you're gonna go travel with six friends to a place you need to sit down, have an honest conversation. Go okay. If we all start pissing each other off or irritating each other, what's R B plan? Where can we go? And also, by the way, I'm just f y I. I'm someone that you know needs to have a little alone time, so let's if we're gonna go see the Luv together in Paris as a group, that's great. But after the museum, I'm gonna want to go do my own thing and have dinner by myself, or I want the option to do that. And if you just have an honest conversation with people that you're traveling with, chances are everyone's gonna feel the same way. I mean, we we traveled with Joe, leans Dad and step mom through Scotland for, like, eight days, and we shared on Airbnb, and we had the best time. But in some point, you know, Gillian would say, Hey, guys, I'm gonna I'm just gonna go for a run by myself. I want to breathe some air and okay, of course. You know, see you later and I'd go off and do some stuff on the computer and do some editing. And you just You know, if you all care for each other and love each other, then you just you understand have that honest conversation. It's not difficult.
Marti Matulis: 49:26
It's a reasonable, a mature way to approach travel planning.
Daniel Scherl: 49:29
Is there somewhere you haven't traveled that you really desperately want to get?
Marti Matulis: 49:32
Oh, everywhere. I haven't traveled to somewhere. I want to go. Um, I think the reed agree. Yeah, right. New Zealand is probably tops on my list and no thanks to you and your amazing trip that you've documented very well. You're very welcome. Yeah, that's a place again, kind of the nature lover in me. It seems like a definitely a top bucket list destination. The Scandinavian countries have a huge appeal to me, even Siberia like that. That railway just sounds kind of mysterious and iconic. And, you know, I I like that kind of travel as well, probably because I read a lot of Bill Bryson and he has some amazing travel tails.
Daniel Scherl: 50:11
Have you ever had to overcome any kind of particular challenge while traveling?
Marti Matulis: 50:14
Food choices are probably my biggest challenge While traveling, I've got him sensitive stomach and a couple of allergies to deal with. So depending on where I am, have to be pretty rigorous about finding out if the translation is precise. If people really know whether or not there's a dairy and a certain thing and one of those I can't do my lot of dairy. But I will say that it's also, you know, travels a huge opportunity to expand your horizons, even gastronomically and I broke a A 10 year vegetarian stint happily in Barcelona with some ham. Only Baruch. Oh, man, it was It was well worth it.
Daniel Scherl: 50:50
And what is that?
Marti Matulis: 50:51
It's a thin, sliced, dry cured ham. That is just amazing.
Daniel Scherl: 50:56
Do you have a favorite food? Actually, Pancakes, Buddy, really not know this all this time?
Marti Matulis: 51:01
Well, pancakes with with a crunchy peanut butter maple syrup. I mean, you know, not just any old pancake dude.
Daniel Scherl: 51:08
Have you ever had the pancake balls in either Southern Ohio or New Orleans?
Marti Matulis: 51:12
No, But you said pancake and balls, and I don't even understand what you're talking about. It sounds
Daniel Scherl: 51:16
amazing. They take pancake batter and they form it into a ball shape, and they inject the center of it with whatever topping is topping day, whether it's apples and spice or maple and peanut butter, whatever. And then they plop them into a deep fryer for a second and then serve them to you with powdered sugar and whatever you, Donatella or maple syrup or whatever your thing is. And they are kind of crispy fried on the outside and a very slight thin layer, and then soft and squishy pancake on the inside with this little whatever group is inside them, and I will tell you that they are there honestly, near orgasmic level. Uh, culinary treat. It
Marti Matulis: 51:51
sounds portable. It sounds delicious. It sounds like all the groups not going to slide off on your own. That solves
Daniel Scherl: 51:57
a lot of problems in one piece of food. Way to bring the group full circle. I love it's all about the good Other a travel tips that you would like to impart on people from your years of experience.
Marti Matulis: 52:08
Well, I think we covered most of my favorite things to do while traveling. Getting off the beaten path of the public transportation, Um, finding a great coffee shop. There's a travel tip first thing. Find a great coffee shop even if you don't drink coffee, get a snack, have some tea. Sit down, take stock of things. It's a good way to just kind of take a quick break, not feel like you have toe hit the ground running. And just not taking too much stuff kind of don't over pack. You know, if you have a backpack that you expect to have on you all the time, lay out all your stuff. Cut it in half. If you can cut it in half, you know you don't need to take every pair of socks you own. You can wash a pair and wear a pair. I don't feel that there's a need to pack any differently for a three month trip than I do for the three day trip, because you can always wash things. And if you can't wash things, you can always pick up something at a local goodwill. Or, you know there's always a way around what you might think is a problem. So
Daniel Scherl: 53:02
and also don't take the kitchen sink exactly. And as far as the laundry thing goes, a lot of people have asked me about this. And what maybe people don't realize is it doesn't matter what budget you're on, because if you're if you're very budget tight and you don't have a lot of money to burn, there are laundromats in almost every town or city that are very inexpensive. It's, you know, $5 to do some laundry. If you're in a hotel and you have a lot of money to burn, there's laundry service at the hotel and they wash it, press it and delivered to your room the next day. So it's it's readily available to have your clothes clean when no matter where you go. Or worst case scenario washing in the sink with a little bit of detergent hang drying for the next day. You know,
Marti Matulis: 53:38
I do that all the time. Like I I'm a big proponent of wool socks and merino wool. Anything because way talk about that later. But
Daniel Scherl: 53:46
oh yeah, you can always
Marti Matulis: 53:47
wash something out, a ring it dry in a in a towel and it's good to go next
Daniel Scherl: 53:51
morning. So speaking of Merino wool, then I have to say, Marty tried to convince me for years as my friend, saying, Dude, you gotta switch over the wool socks, these cotton ones. You're wearing your bullshit, and they're not good for what you're doing for traveling and your blogged about it. And I was like Whatever. Dude, you take your hippie socks and go away. You know, you're pretty resistant for a while, so but we seriously had a conversation about it, so I decided to try a pair of wool socks. I went to Ari. I was like, Well, if I'm gonna do this I'm gonna buy a nice pair of wool socks, and I'm going to give them a free plug, even though I wish they would, you know, pay me to do this, but I ended up with a pair of socks by the company. Darn tough, and they're darn tough dot com out of Vermont. They're a family owned business there. As far as I'm concerned, they make some of the greatest socks in the world. And anyway, I switched over to them and full disclosure. They are a bit pricey there, about $20 a pair for a lot of people. That's like who? However, my darn tough socks have a lifetime warranty, and I've had them now for years and years and years, and I have never had to buy another pair of socks because they're so frickin awesome. And I now have multiple pairs at different thicknesses for different climates, and I will tell you that Marty is 100% correct that merino wool wool socks are the shit, and you should absolutely invest in them because they're great for hot weather. Cold weather. It doesn't matter. They're amazing and they're so comfortable and my feet thank you,
Marti Matulis: 55:09
sir? Yes, indeed, my friend. Yes. Uh, they as you said, they regulate temperature. They're great in hot weather, cause they lie your feet to breathe, but they insulate in cold weather. And when your feet get wet, they don't lose their insulation like synthetics do. But best of all, beating all of that wolf doesn't stink. Yes, I've had some, like Polly pro socks for hiking. They were supposed to be high tech. They smelled like death in the tent. They were horrible, but And I've tested this theory myself. You know, you can wear
Daniel Scherl: 55:39
hashtagged death in the tent. You can wear
Marti Matulis: 55:44
wool stuff for days on end, give it a good shake out, and it just doesn't stink. So depending on your bathing habits, they can save you in a pinch. No,
Daniel Scherl: 55:51
for real. We're in Scotland. I wore the same pair of socks four days in a row and was like, just give him a quick rinse, you know, but But they were fine. I mean, it's great. It's awesome.
Marti Matulis: 55:59
Can we go to your will be questioned now? Because if this is what this is it. Yeah,
Daniel Scherl: 56:03
absolutely. I so I'd like to ask every interviewer, what's what's there will be. What's your security blanket item you would take with you when you're traveling, no matter what.
Marti Matulis: 56:10
Thin Wait merino wool. Long underwear tops and bottoms boom so you can travel in them. It gives you a nice little extra layer of warmth. When you're on the airplane, which is inevitably cold or too hot, it will regulate your temperature. You can sleep in them like PJs you can wear under your clothes. You just wake up in the morning and throw your clothes on top of them. Don't have to change your Long Gundy's. They're great, and it doesn't matter the brand, because Merino wool has. They've really figured out how to make it great and not scratchy. And you know they're smart wall. There's ice breakers, Isela being whoever you go with, just find a good size and treat him nice and they'll treat you nice.
Daniel Scherl: 56:47
And it should also be added that one of the reasons I didn't go with wool is because back in the eighties, when people were like you should wear this wool sweater, I try one on, and it was the richest, most uncomfortable thing. I never like strapping on my body. Thio. Yeah, And so now what people should know, in case you're wondering, is that these new wool products are some of the softest things I've ever worn. I put those darn tough socks on my feet and seriously, my feet just go. That's so nice. Your toes have a little little orgasms. Yeah, they'd have orgasms. Absolutely. Hatch tag, orgasms. Marty, the last thing we're gonna do here is I always like to ask everybody to play my little game, which is 299. Philosophical in life Questions with Moon Bird. As you may already know, I've collected 299 cool questions about life from friends, family and the Internet. You get to pick two numbers, sir, and then a masculine questions. What are your two numbers?
Marti Matulis: 57:36
Yeah, I will, But I have to ask you a question. What happens when you run out of questions?
Daniel Scherl: 57:41
Well, I mean, some people have actually asked the same number, which is fine, but different people give different answers. So the questions we're good. Okay, So and can you ever really run out of questions in life? I could write him up 2999 question.
Marti Matulis: 57:52
That's true. As long as it's just a framework and you're not, like holding strong like Oh, no, no, Marty, you can't. I'm sorry to 49 is taken.
Daniel Scherl: 57:57
No, no, no people. If everyone asked the same number, that's fine. Because, you know, different people, different strokes, different folks.
Marti Matulis: 58:03
All right, I'm ready, buddy.
Daniel Scherl: 58:04
Night. Two numbers go.
Marti Matulis: 58:05
250 Okay. And 25.
Daniel Scherl: 58:11
Do you want them in numerical order or No.
Marti Matulis: 58:13
Which I think the podcasters choice.
Daniel Scherl: 58:17
We'll just go in the order. You You said them so to 50. Really excited. This question makes me feel like a therapist. I'm ready.
Marti Matulis: 58:25
I'm ready for it. I'm reclined. My future up
Daniel Scherl: 58:29
2 50 How are you? Really? That's the question.
Marti Matulis: 58:35
I feel great. I'm sure you're gonna edit it out. But I've taken a couple of pee breaks during this podcast. I've had some coffee. Clearly, I've had some coffee and buzzing pretty fast right now, but I feel great. Thanks for asking. You're very, very welcome.
Daniel Scherl: 58:48
What was it? The 1 24 25 20
Marti Matulis: 58:49
five. I'm keeping the themes.
Daniel Scherl: 58:52
Oh, wow. Okay, this is very interesting. Marty, how do you feel about sharing your password with your partner? Are we
Marti Matulis: 59:01
starting a new podcast now?
Daniel Scherl: 59:03
Because I think I've got
Marti Matulis: 59:04
hours of data to relate on this one. I feel that sharing your password with your partner should be a reasonable backup plan tactic. But in my personal experience, I cannot recommend it. Why are
Daniel Scherl: 59:28
we giggling? Who knows? Uh, we'll just let the list.
Marti Matulis: 59:35
I'm just saying sometimes, you know, you make sure you vet your partner before you start handing out passwords, not everybody's password
Daniel Scherl: 59:42
worthy. I do just have to say that to put it out there. I think in a healthy, long term commitment with the right person, there is absolutely zero worry about sharing your password. I happily let Jolene know how to access my stuff in case there's an emergency and whatnot. So, uh, but I do think a bit of caution would be in order until you until you know fully the depth and breadth of that relationship. Maybe, you know, better safe than sorry, right, Marty?
Marti Matulis: 1:0:14
Who knew Question five was going to be fraught with so much peril?
Daniel Scherl: 1:0:18
25 25. Who did you see question five or 25. You said five. I read you the wrong question.
Marti Matulis: 1:0:23
No. 25 don't need to Radio,
Daniel Scherl: 1:0:25
okay. No, no, no, it's fine. How about I read you five anyway, just for fun? What? Five. What is your favorite word soup? Really?
Marti Matulis: 1:0:33
Yeah. Well, maybe. I mean, you know, that's the first thing that popped in my soup. Say, it was just kind of around. You know what? Honestly, that's the 1st 1 that popped in my my longtime favorite word is putting Oh, putting, cause it's even better than soup. But it sounds kind of like it sounds like putting smooth, creamy putting.
Daniel Scherl: 1:0:53
It does. And who doesn't? When you say the word putting, who doesn't smile and think of, like, yummy chocolate pudding or whatever. Butterscotch. You nailed it, buddy. Butterscotch is my favorite. Mmm. I love it. I love it. Well, Marty, to bring things full circle, let's tell the listeners out there where they can find you on television.
Marti Matulis: 1:1:10
I'm currently on CBS's evil playing. Ah, lovely character named George. And then not sure when your podcast ares, but I might be playing something else kind of devilish.
Daniel Scherl: 1:1:23
You will be airing most likely this will probably airing in the beginning of 2020 at some
Marti Matulis: 1:1:28
point, then I think you'll have seen it.
Daniel Scherl: 1:1:30
All right. Um, thank you so much for calling and remotely appreciate taking the time. I know you're busy, man. No worries. Thank you, Daniel. Love your face. I love you too, buddy. And we'll see you soon in person. And, uh, and on TV,
Marti Matulis: 1:1:44
I have no follow up to that. All right, Cool Already. Talk soon.
Daniel Scherl: 1:1:49
Talks and travel safe. Have a great day If you'd like some more movement in your life. And, hey, who wouldn't head on over to memories of a member dot com or visit me on social media at memories of