Entertain This!
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Join Hayden, Mitch, and Tom with upcoming movie, tv show, and game news. Listen to reviews and off the wall facts, while providing a comedic spin with our opinions on the matter. Join us for amazing behind the scene interviews. The one true original "Entertain This" podcast.
Entertain This!
Chris Maher’s Pathway to Stardom Laughter and Lessons
Chris Maher dives deep into his journey as an actor, producer, and model, sharing insights and experiences that define the entertainment industry today. He provides listeners with an honest look at the challenges and triumphs of navigating a career marked by resilience and adaptation in a constantly changing landscape.
• Chris's early acting and modeling experiences
• Transitioning from modeling to serious acting pursuit
• Differences between shooting for film and TV
• Unique filming locations and their impact on the production
• Challenges faced during indie filmmaking in the pandemic
• Discussion on industry shifts towards streaming vs. theatrical releases
• Chris's upcoming projects and collaborative efforts
• Encouragement for aspiring artists in the entertainment field
Hello and welcome to entertain this. It's a podcast about movies, tv shows and video games. Way to say it with enthusiasm. Video games I'm Tom With me.
Speaker 2:I have Hayden and Mitch.
Speaker 1:And we have a special guest. We have Chris Marr the seventh, the king of a place I've never been made aware of, actor, producer, writer, known for such films as Locked In Blowback Canyon of the Dead Mojave Diamonds.
Speaker 2:You do say Maher, right? How do you say your last name one more time, I'm sorry. Maher like Bill Maher.
Speaker 4:Thank you guys. Very excited to be on your show today. Looking forward to entertain this, I'm excited With the exclamation point.
Speaker 2:Yeah entertain this.
Speaker 1:With the exclamation point. That's right. We have an angrier show called Go Entertain Yourself.
Speaker 4:Yeah, go entertain yourself. Kid, Get out of here.
Speaker 5:When we first started, there was another entertain this that started like two weeks after us, that had like the little dot dot dot after their name. So we had to make a point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had to dominate and win. So far we're the only survivor. They gave up like two years ago.
Speaker 2:Well, chris, I'm going to start off with a bone to pick, because you have no business being this talented and this handsome. So tell me something wrong about yourself so I feel better.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you first off for thinking that I'm talented. What?
Speaker 2:do you got? Give me a flaw, give me a flaw, come on.
Speaker 4:Oh, I got like a wart on my finger.
Speaker 2:Oh man, oh, thank gosh. Tainted goods. Why are we even? Talking to this guy, but you guys have epic beards.
Speaker 4:I hope your audience can see them one day.
Speaker 5:One day I see those One day, whenever Tom moves out of an apartment into a house, then we can.
Speaker 1:Well, we're in the process. I got pre-approved for a mortgage. Things are going on for my starting family.
Speaker 4:Get ready to pay 8% on that a year.
Speaker 1:So far it's at 6%. Oh, okay, Well there you go, but we're not here to talk about the housing market. We're here to talk about Chris M.
Speaker 4:Mr M, like when you havea substitute. Who has a name?
Speaker 1:you can't pronounce, it's just like Mr M Marinar, have a substitute who has a name. You can't pronounce it's just like Mr M Marinar.
Speaker 4:Marinar. You know what? It's okay. I've got friends I've had for like literally 10 years and they still can't get my last name. I don't get it. I don't know why. I talk to them like every other day. They're like where's Marinar?
Speaker 2:It's like no, I have two first names, so I mean these two guys butcher my name. They call me Brandon or Hayden, depending on what they feel like.
Speaker 5:Yeah, just the spur of the moment.
Speaker 2:It just depends. All right.
Speaker 4:No, hayden on Hayden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean, I'm not Phillip Phillips or anything like that, hayden Haydens. So where are you from if you don't mind telling us?
Speaker 4:Totally cool. I am from the very exotic land Of Council Bluffs, iowa. Oh, you're our first Iowan.
Speaker 2:We got potatoes out there. No, that's Idaho.
Speaker 1:Idaho has potatoes and Napoleon Dynamite. Iowa has radar From MASH.
Speaker 4:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:My hometown.
Speaker 4:The most famous person from my hometown is the original Blue Ranger, billy you don't know what you've just done. They're going to talk about Power Rangers now you guys have the Power Ranger force going on here that was our bridged one Hayden had deployed for a year.
Speaker 1:so we changed our thing to just me and Mitch, and me and Mitch love talking about Power Rangers as much as humanly possible.
Speaker 2:They got it out of their system.
Speaker 1:I thought we had our own spinoff show. You didn't know about.
Speaker 2:Then you came on the podcast, Chris M.
Speaker 4:Now we can just talk about the origins of the Blue Ranger, the OG Blue Ranger. That'd be cool. That would be an awesome role to play, like come back and be Blue Ranger number 20 or whatever they're on now.
Speaker 5:They're rebooting it's going to happen.
Speaker 2:We digress let's get back on track here. All right, getting back on track.
Speaker 4:How did you get into the biz, if you don't mind me asking? Oh, I don't remember. I had done stage and theater stuff my whole life, from junior high, high school. I even started doing it in college a little bit. I left for a while in college because they were really mean to me, they didn't like me. So I was like all right, I'll go be like a serious person and study economics and policy and law Traveled. I came back from traveling and studying, working abroad for some years, and a friend of mine actually asked me to audition for a runway modeling show that she was putting on here locally in Omaha, right next to Omaha. Wow, and so. I did?
Speaker 4:I got it. I got on stage, I got like professional photos. It was doing like TV interviews and I was like, hey, this is fun, I miss being on stage. Yeah, this is cool stuff. And then I ended up moving to Chicago where I started doing more of a modeling Okay and then taking more acting classes and doing commercials and doing more theater stuff with Second City, which was awesome, and from there starting to get into movies and now shows.
Speaker 1:So you got into it by being handsome. Yeah, I got into it. They just went hey, that guy's good looking, let's get him in here.
Speaker 4:They're like but can he?
Speaker 2:And then, and then they're like no, he can't I get paid not to be in stuff well, I mean, uh, traditionally the actors we talk to they, they go through the education route, like we talked to some people that have been through I I can't remember some of the schools I've been through but like they, you know do you remember what Peter Jacobs went through?
Speaker 2:He was educated in New York, yeah, so film some acting school or something so they, they go through school and they get their foot in the door to see the opposite side, where the modeling standpoint, and get in, is there a lot do?
Speaker 4:do all models aspire to be an actor? No, many of them actually that I know and speak to are like no, not for me, don't want to talk on camera, I just do the thing. Where you know I can smile, I hold the thing and smile. That's it?
Speaker 1:do you have like your own zoolander pose?
Speaker 2:I might. What is this blue steel?
Speaker 1:what his was. Blue steel. What's yours called?
Speaker 4:we just, you know, call it. He goes for this blue steel. I aim for the magnum. Still haven't the magnum.
Speaker 2:I call mine the magnum so like do you see a lot of models who aspire to be an actor and you're just like no, sorry buddy, you're just gonna be a pretty face oh, no way, I'm a very positive person.
Speaker 4:I encourage anybody and everybody who wants to act to try, because you never know, okay, and you don't have to be. You know you can be a model or not. I particularly love people actors who have great character looks or character voices, because I personally just love characters, seeing characters and those sort of things. I tell people hey, you want to act, go for it. Just, if you have questions, just ask, tell you how to get in.
Speaker 1:So you grew up in this, I guess a theater background, middle school, high school, a little bit. In college they made fun of you. You were like, all right, I'm gonna get into the business world. And then the modeling world just grabbed you and it's like you're not done, kid, get back out there on the runway. And you're like, man, I could totally go back and do this again, like what was the first, like acting credit that you got. After you got back into the modeling game.
Speaker 4:Ooh, that's a great question. I don't totally remember. Let's see, I think there was a movie that I did. It was either a short film or a whole movie that.
Speaker 2:I did called Black Coffee.
Speaker 4:Black Coffee was one. I did a movie before that. It was called Cherchez de l'Agent, which is In Search of Fortune. It's credited as much later, but we filmed it forever ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one.
Speaker 4:And it was never released, but I got the credit. But yeah, Black Coffee was definitely one of the first that was released and it was a short film the first that was released and it was a short film and that was fun.
Speaker 2:It was fun to work with in Chicago. How did you get linked up with the because short work is kind of an interesting, usually like a student film kind of gig how did you get linked up into the short work?
Speaker 4:That short film was being done by a gentleman called Raul Colon.
Speaker 4:That short film was being done by a gentleman called Raul Colon and I met him through people, through the modeling world in Chicago and like modeling and acting world and people got linked up. We were prepping to shoot some show something that never happened, sadly, which would have been, would have been cool and then just people I met through that show and through that modeling role were like hey, there's this guy out here who says he can act, thinks he can, we've got this role coming up and he's got to fix that character, that person, just right. So I come in, hey guys, I'm the guy. And then I did and it was great. I highly recommend it. Search it up. I think it's available to watch Black Coffee somewhere.
Speaker 2:It's definitely listed on your IMDb. It looks like you did another one away from the mountain shortly after.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you got into a TV show for three episodes called Duels.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, there was an app. This was before like the big TikTok and Instagram reels came out, but there was an app called Black Pills that they were. It was like a short webisode TV viewing thing that you could watch through your phone years ago and we were on a show called duels. That was on there and I don't know where you can find it now, but it was kind of cool. That's cool.
Speaker 2:So you were like ahead of the game and as far as like internet content and having a, I guess you could say serialized like, people knew that there was going to be other episodes coming out after they watched your first bit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I don't remember if it was a subscription service where you could pay like $1 or $2 a month or something Super cheap, just an app you can go through and watch shows on your phone.
Speaker 1:Back in my day. It was Vine. I remember Vine. I remember it was Vine. I remember Vine. I remember it was do it for the Vine and that was like the one key phrase to get somebody to do something stupid Like jump off a roof with a table umbrella. It doesn't work. It does not work. Did you do it for the Vine? No I yelled, do it for the Vine. Oh, okay, and then Chris jumped off the roof off a one-story house and ate it.
Speaker 2:So what about Clash of the Vampires? Was that?
Speaker 4:traditional TV. That was the show that I was getting into working on to make as an actor, and they were like, yeah, we're all ready to go and do it. And then they started trying to make it and it didn't happen. It just didn't happen. So the credit is still up there. Yeah, but we never got it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I don't know but your experience sorry your experience working for um short work and I guess you would say traditional film production, and then, uh, what you have done as far as I guess you would say traditional tv, uh can you describe what the differences would be like, for that you know oh yeah, very different um traditional tv, like I just did one an episode of rescue hawaii surf that just came
Speaker 4:out for fox. I was on that. We got to shoot in Hawaii most beautiful, amazing films that I've ever been to, right on the beach, mountains, everything. So that is extremely structured and very good. So it's like, okay, all right, we have to get these guys in here. We have exactly five minutes for them to get prepped. Look right, okay, get in here. We have exactly five minutes for you know them to get prepped. Look right, okay, get in here. We're going to take maximum five minutes per take, per look whatever, and then we gotta get out of here and on to the next shot right well, film is, you know, it can be a little more relaxed.
Speaker 4:There is a lot of that. There's a lot of hurry up and wait in film. So I've spent you know, as many actors might tell you, they've spent like entire days in their trailer just waiting to be called to set and be like all right, get on set. Cool, now that you're on set, we're gonna you're just gonna stand here for like another hour or two and, uh, be ready to deliver your one, two, five lines for this scene. It's great. Do you?
Speaker 2:do you prefer TV over film or what? What like the the down to business kind of craft, or do you like the idea to let it people breathe behind the camera or in front of the camera?
Speaker 4:I like. I like film because film sets are great, because you create and build like a little family. A little film set family they have, but it's for a month or so. I have not been a recurring character on a TV show yet, but I feel that would be the same. I love that camaraderie. You all come together, work together to a common goal and it becomes like a little old work family and it's so fun.
Speaker 2:You get great experiences with people and yeah, the people that we talk to, that say like, if you get that reoccurring role in a tv show, um, it's, it's kind of like the you know striking gold, because it's it's kind of like a nine to five, like everybody's done at some point in the day and you still have the rest of your day to enjoy another life you know, so I could only imagine.
Speaker 4:You get to be an actor and have a time off. Yeah, having a recurring role on a TV show is definitely a big goal. That means you're working, you're getting your bills paid, and that's something that's not easy to do as an actor, for sure.
Speaker 1:So, aside from Hawaii I mean you've probably been to a bunch of locations what was your aside from Hawaii? What would you say is your probably best film location you got to be a part of?
Speaker 4:Ooh, we were filming for Canyon of the Dead, which is about to be out. Later this year we were filming just outside of Gallup, new Mexico, in the canyons out there, so like we were deep in the canyons and the beautiful, like desert landscapes and that was definitely one of the coolest spots. We were working and shooting on the Navajo reservation. Wow.
Speaker 4:I'm working with a lot of the Native guys there, who are some of the coolest people I've ever met in my life, yeah, and we're just enjoying the fresh air, the amazing landscapes and just being in the solitary area, far from the cities and the wildlife of the city.
Speaker 2:How long were you shooting there?
Speaker 4:We had a lot of shoot dates because we were trying to film that during COVID times. We had a couple of COVID shutdowns, so let's see, we were shooting out there for a couple of months total Wow. And then we ended up going to shoot in London for another extra two weeks two, three weeks. That was really cool too.
Speaker 2:When's this movie coming out?
Speaker 4:This will be out later this year. I think it will probably hit theaters. Maybe we're going to see. We're going to see what happens.
Speaker 2:What did you? If you don't mind me asking what was the delay about getting that? Because you shot it. What five years ago?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we started, yeah, crazy, so we didn't start shooting five. We started pre-production five years ago for that in 2020. Then we started production in November of 2020. We had a big COVID shutdown. So you know, we had a really large set, 150 people on set and we had several cases of COVID hit, even though we were outside and everybody was, you know being safe, masks, everything. We had a COVID shutdown. Yeah, we had to start shooting again in spring. So we took that big winter break to shoot in spring because of weather, cold, and just reorganized. So we did that and then we came back and shot more later. And then the next year we had to do extra pickup shots to shoot in a big studio soundstage, wow, where we recreated one of the Anasazi towers natural towers that are there that you can go and visit, I think in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. We shot many, many different places. It's a pretty large undertaking.
Speaker 2:Well, this sounds like a big money movie. Yeah, now I want to see it. I'm kind of excited for it.
Speaker 1:And your character in this film.
Speaker 4:I played a character named Bud Bud Wire. Yeah, it sounds like Bud Weiser, Bud Weiser.
Speaker 1:Bud Weiser.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's based all on true events, true story. The story is about Earl and Ann Morris, who co-discovered the Anasazi nations, the first nation in the US. So you know, like those old Anasazi ruins out in the desert out there, the places that are built into the cliffs, yeah, things like those old Anasazi ruins out in the desert, the places that are built into the cliffs, things like those. There's a lot of that story and a lot about that civilization and the people who discovered it in 1920s so time period starring Tom Felton, who was Draco Malfoy, wes Studi, famous for Dances with Wolves. Yeah.
Speaker 4:We also had Finn Jones, abigail Breslin, ewan Bremner. We had Jacob Fortune Lloyd and yeah, he is truly the most important.
Speaker 1:Chris M, that's right, chris M the seventh.
Speaker 4:I can't pronounce his last name.
Speaker 2:So you would say this is probably your biggest movie coming out definitely the biggest that's exciting. No way I didn't realize we struck gold with this one.
Speaker 5:Mitch, you did good well, you can thank Cindy keep her on your payroll, man so alright, let's go his publicist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, keep her on your payroll man, so sorry. Uh, well, cool. So, despite all the I mean, first off, as an actor who has, like you know, you've been in the game for 10 years, it looks like, and you definitely have a lot coming down the pipe uh, maybe the next 10 years to have this as a background movie, maybe even your first big in theatrical release kind of film with you know, let's just call it a nightmare production shoot because you had to stop to shoot a couple of times and all this other stuff. That's probably going to be an experience story that that will carry you a long way. And when you are a senior person on films and people are having crisis mode and stuff kicking off, you can have things like this to refer to right Back in my day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah we used to walk up walk up the mountain barefoot in the snow, just to get to the set.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I mean no, just to get to the set yeah yeah, I mean that almost was a real thing, because some of the shoot days in November in the desert, out in the middle of nowhere, it would drop to like 20 degrees when we would head to set, because we'd be going there before dawn and then you get out to set in the desert and it might be 40 degrees but the sun is shining, so it gets really hot or feels hot but in the shade, and it might be 40 degrees but the sun is shining, so it gets really hot or feels hot but in the shade. It'll feel less. But yeah, so no, with regarding that experience, I would definitely attribute a lot of my ability to handle a lot of that stuff or stuff in the future, to my indie past and like just doing the short film stuff and making mistakes on the you know the small things here and there, and learning to be creative without money, without a budget, without making it work, without having, like, being able to call somebody up.
Speaker 4:Hey can I get $50,000 for today? Thanks, pal, cool, right, I wish I could make those I would be. I'd be lucky to be making stuff for like $500, and that's just enough to feed your cast and crew. You know if that deals, but hey, if everybody's in it to win it. They all love what you're doing, they love the project you get on and you know, like I said, it's a camaraderie. People are there because they want to be there. That's where a lot of magic can and will happen.
Speaker 2:You had to have one producer that was crying in a corner somewhere like, no, we're shutting down again. Oh, we were all crying.
Speaker 4:Have a lot of your projects or have half of them or so been in the indie film festivals and things like that. Let's see. Probably I don't remember which ones I think some of the shorts have done pretty well on some of the indie circuits. The other feature films that I've done are primarily being sold at these larger film festivals, such as can or american film market. Yeah, I've been going to can for the past three years. No way um. This last year we held a big cool red carpet party for a canyon of the dead um, it was at one of the big fancy hotels and yeah, we had the red carpets and doing all the cool photo shoots, yeah, and all the photo ops.
Speaker 4:It was pretty fun.
Speaker 2:How did the audience take the?
Speaker 4:premiere.
Speaker 2:Did they laugh at the right beats and were into it?
Speaker 4:I think there were a few moments of laughter, but yeah, it was more of a historical drama, like we were saying. So there were the gasps where it needed to be and the whoa wow.
Speaker 2:Did you find yourself watching the audience more than the movie? Like react?
Speaker 4:Kind of, because you know, on that one, I was helping to be part of the producer team and helping some things go through left and right, Just to try and help make things happen. Uh, for the production, um, just, you know, helping out, like I said, I've got the indie background and I'm like, hey, I was working with the director writer, extraordinary Cordy. Cordy Voorhees specifically. The dude's amazing at handling things left and right. Never seen anybody handle so much stress so beautifully and eloquently. It's just okay. You just receive extreme, you know, crazy bad news, like the shutdown, for example. Okay, all right, everybody here's what's going to happen, we're going to do like this and that he makes it look he would turn crazy things like that into opportunity and into something good that people look forward to. Oh wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can sell a disaster, oh man.
Speaker 4:Dude's amazing, great guy.
Speaker 2:That's how you're a leader. So you talked about being a producer. Yeah, how did you find yourself into this role? I see you made some short work yourself. What is this the face? What was it called?
Speaker 1:Funny.
Speaker 2:Face, funny Face. You wrote and directed and produced that one. Was that your first?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I didn't direct it. I did write it and produce it. I had a gentleman named Felix Pinheiro come on board to help direct. I was just honestly, it was one of those shorts. I was like I'm bored, what are you guys doing next week? Cool, all right, you guys want to make like a short film? Yeah, sure, why not? Cool, let's go. And it was just that sort of a deal. I was like, all right, let's write this up. And it's meant to be a silent film. Yeah, I hired some amazing composers to come on board and give like a, a french marionette style music to go with the short. Oh, cool, um. And then, uh, yeah, I had some great makeup artists come on board to do funny faces the clown faces and got some cool people on board and then I never released it she never released it.
Speaker 1:We did this awesome project. It's like awesome project. How do you get to the point where you could just be like, hey, let's just do a short? It's like you got an idea. No, I was just thinking of something Money.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it does cost money, that's for sure. The short was just like I just had some ideas and with the modeling background, it was very easy to just set up photo shoots. You just be like, hey, mr photographer, you know what are you doing next week. You want to get together, do a photo shoot. And it was just sort of the same idea for creating this short, um and other shorts. I was like I got an idea, we'll see if anybody wants to do it. And you call two people and they're like yeah this is great, let's do it.
Speaker 4:And then they call two people and they're like yeah, this is great, let's do it. And then they call a couple people. And then they call a couple people and before you know it, you've got 50 people on set. And, before you know it, Tom Cruise is like what are you doing?
Speaker 2:I've done. I went to film school. I've struggled to get people interested in doing projects, especially if it's short work. You know, it seems like you have the exact opposite, and that's another reason why I'm struggling to like you so much, right he's handsome so yeah, you're way more handsome than me and charismatic but, but you guys.
Speaker 2:but so, uh, like what, how do you pitch short work to people like hey, this is for funsies, or like we, we're going to see what festivals we can get into? Like you can't pitch money, you know this is going to make a thousand bucks per head or something like that. You can't do that.
Speaker 4:No, Um, a lot of times it's just um, because of where I'm at, who I talk to. I talk to who I talk to. I talk to annoyingly talk about making movies and acting and all that all the time with everybody, and so I think just talking about it enough to enough people. It gets them excited because they have similar passions and interests. And when you're talking about passions and interests with people who find to have the same passions and interests, you can get that collaborative effort going on, especially and interests with people who find to have the same passions and interests.
Speaker 4:Okay, you can get that collaborative effort going on, especially when people get excited about a particular idea. It's like, hey, what are you doing on Friday and Saturday? You want to do a thing. Yeah. And they're like, no, don't ever talk to me again. Or they're like, oh, that's sweet. And then, you know, stuff comes out of it and sometimes it's out there and gets a ton of laurels and great stuff, or you know, at worst people come together and it's a great networking event for people who are working. You know who?
Speaker 1:want to work. You're just calling the wrong people.
Speaker 2:I am. I was about to say like there's people out there that make you know who want to work. You're just calling the wrong people. I I am. I was about to say like there's people out there that make you know film for the sake of making it and not just because, like, they want money. That's wild. I I clearly I'm in the wrong circle, but my money helps, money helps well, I, I get that too yeah so yeah looking well the tough part is also in film school.
Speaker 4:everybody's also trying to do their own thing and I feel, I believe, and it's not until you're actually out there are people like yeah, like this is great. And you find passionate people who may not have gone to film school but want the experience.
Speaker 2:What I advise, and with my, you know, I'm obviously not in a position, like you, to give advice, but here it is. But people who are starting out, I I'd say you know, sure, you want to be a writer, you want to be an actor, you want to be a director, but also find a technical trade behind the camera. That uh could apply as well. Be a helper on somebody else's set if you could be that grip guy know, do you got anything like that too, uh?
Speaker 4:I mean, I would just say, as the producer guy, my skill outside of acting is, I feel like I'm very good at recognizing people's talents and know what they like and knowing how to kind of put their, put them and connect them with the right people to do the right awesome, cool stuff. Yeah, and just know like, oh, this person is really loves the power rangers and they know how to, you know, do martial arts. Yeah, uh, meanwhile I'll be like, oh wait, there's this person who just really loves cosplay or something and it'd be like, cool, and I know this guy who's an amazing cinematographer but he hasn't had a chance to get out there and do stuff. Let's do a fight scene with Power Rangers. Oh, yeah, put them all together and see what happens? And then?
Speaker 2:you collect the finer's fee. Right, you get to collect some finer's finance fee money, if there's money in it doing a thing.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I totally agree. I do agree five thousand percent with you. For me, like I said, mine is more of like the. My experience is on the business side of things, putting it all together and just knowing who is good at going where, what doing, that I tried learning camera stuff and I am me too technical and you know, every freaking year there's a new camera apparatus with crazy technique that requires a college degree to figure out.
Speaker 2:You know, I just like I can't keep up with this.
Speaker 4:So it's insane and I try to talk to a lot of these camera guys who are super excited about it and I'm like I have no idea. I recognize three of those words yeah, um yeah but, I see that you're excited about it, so I'm like I know exactly who to put you with right. You know to geek out about it. Yeah, on set.
Speaker 5:That's how I get one. He starts talking about specifics behind camera, stuff about movies, and I'm like uh-huh, okay.
Speaker 1:Just nod, yeah, uh-huh. Anyways, looking at your IMVU as you listed out as, like an actor, a producer and a writer, which one, personally, do you find the most rewarding?
Speaker 4:Oh, definitely the acting and the producing. I don't know. Producing is pretty rewarding in and of its own self yeah. Because, like I said you, you know, at the end of the day, when you bring all these people together for a common goal, and then you accomplish that goal and everybody's happy about it, that is really cool.
Speaker 2:When you're the big guy on set and I'm sure you've been on film sets where everybody's just miserable and they're slogging away you get people to slowly stop showing up. But then you've been on film sets where it's like a party 24 seven and that to be the guy that can orchestrate all that, get good product and have a great experience, that's gotta be a champion.
Speaker 4:Experience oh yeah, uh. I've been fortunate to be on some great sets like that where it's like I say, you know some of these movies it turns into something of like a family environment. You get your temporary family. Then they, you know, it's the last day of set and it's, it's a bittersweet thing. It's like, wow, we did some cool stuff, it was awesome and we, you know, all became such close, great friends for past month or two and then you all got to go say bye and go to work on the next thing. I agree, it's definitely there.
Speaker 4:There's the opposite end where you know what it's like being on those bad sets where people just don't sometimes may not know what they're doing, or didn't have the budget, and people are being miserable about this or complaining about that. Yeah, have you ever found yourself?
Speaker 2:in like a uh like you know, under somebody who's difficult to work with and you're just kind of like trying to take over a little bit you know, for the sake of the film or something like that
Speaker 4:oh, yeah, I I don't try to take over anything ever. I'm always like hey, if you guys need help with anything, let me know. You know I'm there for jiggling, but most of the time if anything like that happens, I just do this thing where it's just smile and nod.
Speaker 1:Smile and wave, bro. Smile and wave, I do that a lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you realize it's like well, yes, this is my passion, it's something I love to do so much. It's also a job. It's my job, it's my career. And sometimes even in the 9 to 5s people in the 9 to 5 office job, you got to work with people you don't like. You have to work with people who are crappy. You have to work and that is a normal thing. But these movie sets are temporary things when it comes to that, so I can just be like cool, all right, I'm getting paid.
Speaker 4:You can waste all the time you want.
Speaker 2:I'm getting paid, no matter what. I can see a lot of people having problems working with you. I can understand why you'd be a difficult person.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'd be so mad man, this laid back handsome guy, how dare he?
Speaker 4:I just, you know, I just got one of those faces that people just really want to punch.
Speaker 1:He's too pretty hit him look at this guy one thing we do like to ask actors, who we have have good amount of credits and been around a little bit. We always ask what is your biggest starstruck moment in your career, where you like saw like an actor, you were somewhere and it was just kind of like that moment of holy crap, that's so-and-so or like, oh my, my God, I made it.
Speaker 4:Well, I would say potential, yeah, making it. When I felt like I made it was when I got my first SAG residual check.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, hey, honesty, I appreciate that Most people are like oh, you know, when I was first, the camera was first turned on. You know, I hear what you're saying and I agree.
Speaker 4:That's what I'm like. I am a paid like. I get paid for acting commercials, you know. But when I felt like I really made it, it was when I got that first SAG residual check, yeah, and I think it was like $65. Nice, and I was like, yeah, this is the best day I cashed it. That's probably the most grounded response, I think.
Speaker 2:That's realism. I appreciate it. A lot of people give us some BS answers. I'm like okay, we'll believe that.
Speaker 4:What about a starstruck? Yeah, starstruck, it might've been uh there are a couple of times I'm always like, wow, every time I'm on set with somebody cooler has credits. I'm like, well, this is the coolest, Um. But I think one of the first ones was working with Tom Felton and Wes Studi. Cause Tom, I was basically working as like acting as Tom's right hand man or one of his right hand guys.
Speaker 4:Um so I was like working with him and and I ended up getting we got to do like Thanksgiving together, because it was during COVID times, Nobody was traveling. We did Thanksgiving and then we were working together in london and in new mexico and he like knows my name and I'm like that's really cool draco malfoy knows who I am and we're like you know.
Speaker 4:We had little pre preliminary uh showings, whatever you want to say, in london. We got to like hang out there and chat, I just play cool. I'm talking with one of the stars from one of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 2:Totally normal. Should I ask him questions about Harry Potter, or should I just not ask him questions about Harry Potter?
Speaker 4:What was going through your mind. Oh no, we didn't talk about that too much. That's good. That's probably for the best.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and what was it? There was probably another time. Oh, there was working with oh no, why can't I think of his name right now? We were doing Desert Dawn, the movie Desert desert dawn, and it was starring. It was cam, so cam, and then also cam gigante is that how you pronounce I was. I've worked on a couple of things with him. Being recognized by cam was really cool. Uh, he's like oh hey, because we had done the acting stuff together in a movie prior to that, like a year or two before. But yeah, we were doing that and I was also.
Speaker 4:I was on set getting ready for my character getting all the makeup done, like the dirty hair and blood on my face. I was in the trailer for that getting my makeup done, and Kellen Lux walks into the trailer. He just stops and goes oh hey, you're Chris Maher, right? Yeah, I was like yeah, who me? How did you know? He's like oh right, yeah, I know. I saw your picture and your name on the call sheet. I'm great. I'm going to be looking forward to working with you today. Well, we'll check you out once you get it all set up, and then he like head out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I turn around. I'm like, you know, it's my name, that's awesome, it's amazing, best day ever.
Speaker 1:Just like geeking out. It's like being like a girl in the front row at a Beatles concert and John Lennon winked at you.
Speaker 4:It's like yeah, it's like these people who are big stars, and Kellen and Cam. They were some of the big characters in Twilight, which is huge, and Kellen's done some really cool stuff and they're awesome guys, great guys to work with. Kellen was super positive all day and I love that he's just down to say hi and chat with everybody, right. So I love, I love it when actors like that, when they're humble and excited to be there.
Speaker 5:yeah, it's always nice when somebody that you know you you know that they've done a lot of good stuff. They know they've done a lot of good stuff, but they're still like a normal person to you they're not like you know, kind of like kiss the ring, like yes, I am that person yeah, it's crazy because people forget that actors are people too well, sometimes actors also forget that there are people too.
Speaker 2:So this is true, yeah do you have any crazy stories about that, some wild, you know, uh demands or anything like that?
Speaker 4:yeah, oh yeah. I'm not gonna name names or anything, but it's not even. The crazy thing is, out of all the people I've worked with and like people who throw fits on set as actors are people. The people who throw who are the coolest, are the name actors, who are recognizable from movies or shows. But it's the guys who are the people who are not known, who are not recognized, that need the biggest, that have the biggest heads sometimes that I've experienced personally.
Speaker 5:I need to germ all red M&Ms.
Speaker 4:Yeah, do you know why that is? Do you know the reason behind that? In Riders, by the way.
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 4:So I don't know, this is more of a concert thing, a band thing. Okay, but I'm going to digress, but it's a cool fun fact Is this the Van Halen thing?
Speaker 1:No, I think it was.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:So it was based on, like they have the whole writer, which is the contract of like, oh, you have to have this, this and that, and et you read the contract that somebody read the contract. And because a lot of times in the contract might be entire safety things I think you referenced Van Halen, but they had like a pyrotechnics thing that went wrong simply because the stage or people producing it didn't read the contract and they didn't know how to properly do it. So since then they're like okay, we need to make sure that people read the contract.
Speaker 4:But it also creates an escape clause. It's like, okay, if you don't have the brown M&Ms, we can technically cancel because you didn't follow the contract. What a wild loophole, I guess. And it's a little, but it's like, yeah, if it's in the contract, technically they have to provide it. But it could be a thing of like well, now they didn't fulfill the contract and we don't want to play. Huh. I never knew that, so they're going to do it without penalty.
Speaker 5:But the real yeah.
Speaker 4:It was all for safety reasons.
Speaker 2:The real reason is more because of safety. I've never heard an argument on the defense of why a person should have a bowl of brown M&Ms. But it makes sense they didn't read it. That does, that's perfect.
Speaker 1:Because early 80s Van Halen they would do these shows in California and around the West Coast and the stage and stuff they had set up for David Lee Roth going out towards the audience they were rickety. He fell through one of them. So they would have all these big safety clauses in their contracts and then they would put the most outrageous nonsense in mixed into it, like, oh, only brown M&Ms, every girl who comes in has to wear green shoes. Like it's just all this, like wild nonsense that they want. It's like there has to be exactly five bottles of Jack Daniels on each table if, if there's six, I will lose my mind. It's just that BS that they would put in, because then they would go in and look to see if all the crazy crap was there and be like all right, they read it. It's like we should be okay.
Speaker 4:So it's basically because of safety, because of you know, I remember the pyrotechnic story and it's like if the guy simply read the outline of everything that needed to be done properly, there would have been no problem. But it was clear that they just didn't read it, and so that's sort of the way to test and make sure that they know things would kind of go according to plan or as just an ephemic escape clause, so they could see that and be like meh, that's fine, they don't have M&Ms, we like it, we're down.
Speaker 2:Show's canceled.
Speaker 4:Well, thanks, for not demanding a bowl of brown M&M's from us. Yeah, where is my M&M's?
Speaker 1:It's in the mail we sent them.
Speaker 2:They're fresh from the M&M factory. We read everything, we swear we promise.
Speaker 1:It was all in the contract. We read every single word.
Speaker 4:Quit, I'm quitting. I cannot believe this. I'm calling my agent.
Speaker 1:Is there anything you got that's coming up? You want to talk about that you're involved in.
Speaker 2:We talked about the Canyon movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Aside from the Canyon of the Dead that we're hoping for a theatrical release on this year.
Speaker 4:Hoping for a theatrical release. We're waiting for some of the final, the final uh confirmations on some thing, but some things. So cross your fingers who's distributing that?
Speaker 2:uh, who's distributing that movie? If you don't mind me asking that's what.
Speaker 4:That's what we're waiting for we got something like I can't. I can't play too much, but good things probably talking too much about it but but whatever, it's fine what.
Speaker 1:I'm not in that, I've never, what about.
Speaker 4:I've never acted in my life. What a crazy. Well, um no, what do I have coming up?
Speaker 5:I was gonna say when I talked with your publicist uh, she mentioned something with a Victoria Jackson from SNL.
Speaker 4:Yes, uh. So next weekend, on February 8th, you're having a huge red carpet premiere in Virginia Beach of a movie that I co-starred in with the amazing Natalie Veeder as the lead actress, and we're having a big red carpet premiere for it, called Boardwalk Winter. Okay. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to do all the fancy red carpet thing. I need to find a suit. Do you guys have any recommendations?
Speaker 2:We are not the tax bracket for asking for suits.
Speaker 1:I mean, you could borrow my tux. But I'm in gym clothes, so I don't know what size you are. Are you a 46 regular with 34-inch waist?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what you need some tickets to that premiere and we'll figure it out for you. How about that?
Speaker 4:We'll tell you what we need. I'm going to wear the tux top with, like the gym shorts bottoms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it'll be great. Is that like the Idaho, idaho formal?
Speaker 1:wear.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, iowa, I'm sorry. You got two states that start with an I. Pink flamingo chubbies, okay, and anything else coming out this year.
Speaker 4:This year. Let's see, I have I don't even know man. Oh, ftx Descent Into Madness, that'll be out. That's a pretty funny, crazy movie about the whole FTX scandal, ftx, yes. Ftx, what is it? The Sam Bankman Freed people? I have no. What is it? The Sandbank Manfred people.
Speaker 2:I have no idea what we're talking about. Tell me more.
Speaker 4:So the whole FTX scandal, the crypto company that went bankrupt and they were having like Sandbank. Manfred the leader of it was like embezzling money or doing horrible, crazy stuff with money, no way. Anyway, it made a lot of big news in the crypto world. You guys are into that. I just remember Doge, doge, yeah, doge. That's the thing. Hey, I'm a big fan of Doge. It made me a lot of money at one point.
Speaker 2:Wow, A long time ago. Man he's just striking gold everywhere.
Speaker 1:Were you born with a four-leaf clover in your pocket.
Speaker 4:I am Irish a lot. I'm just especially an Irish, don't you know that?
Speaker 1:was a good accent.
Speaker 2:He's an actor.
Speaker 1:He is an actor. He acted very well.
Speaker 2:You don't have to be so nice, you can be a little critical.
Speaker 1:You can't be mean to somebody this handsome you totally can I'm used to it.
Speaker 2:Do you find that most of the work coming out theatrical versus streaming like Gable? What is the most interesting, most challenging? Can you describe for the layman what that's like?
Speaker 4:Well, everybody wants their movies to be out in the theaters, but a lot of the things are now straight to streaming. That's a big deal. A lot of people you know theaters are sadly kind of dying. It's not the experience it used to be. Tickets are extremely high. The cost of living is really high, so it's hard to go justify spending 20-something bucks on a theater ticket. Meanwhile you could just spend less than that on a subscription and just stay at home. And there's never a lot for the bathroom.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, and I feel like a lot to do about it. Yeah, exactly, and I feel like we're losing that sort of movie magic that's going on now and straight to streaming. But I mean, it's good to have straight to streaming for some things. Yeah. And other things. You've got to have that big theater experience.
Speaker 2:You think that's why the indie film, you know dichotomy of, like the film, entertainment world, is kind of blowing up, even more so than the big A, the oligopoly, you think that's because of the streaming services.
Speaker 4:Streaming services have a lot to do with it, because now the average American consumes some ridiculous amount of hours of streaming, like months even. But there's also the fact that the past several years we've been in the writer's strike, we've had the SAG strike and it's still not even all the way completely resolved. You did it to yourselves, Sorry what.
Speaker 2:You did it to yourselves. What?
Speaker 4:you did it to yourselves yeah, yeah um. So yeah, it made made things kind of difficult and there were a lot of things that people aren't budging on, but it makes sense, yeah, um, for example, like a lot of these studios wanted to say, even if you were an extra, if you were an extra in one of their movies, they wanted to have the right, the entire right, to copy your entire image, right, put it into ai and then just continue to use that as extras or like as extras in their movies yeah or their shows.
Speaker 2:We talked about ever paying those people, ever again we, we talked about this before and actually you'll have a really interesting standpoint, being an actor and a producer. Like there's some production you know movements before the SAG strike where people were like I don't know, there's no way they're not viewed as a villain in those situations.
Speaker 2:You know what was going through a person's head where they think that they could get away with something like this you know, what was going through a person's head where they think that they could get away with something like this, you know, and uh, I felt bad for those actors, money typically has a lot to do with it, you know, because think about it.
Speaker 4:It makes sense. Uh, a background actor for SAG will cost you know a couple of hundred bucks for a day. You got to feed them, you got to make sure everybody's good and then you multiply that times, maybe you have a huge set day where it's a hundred people that right there, of just having one scene with like 100 extras just extras, not even the main cast, who you know already is costing you a million dollars a day. Your extras might cost you something like a hundred thousand dollars extra per day. Right now.
Speaker 4:Me coming from the indie world, I'm like I could make like a huge indie film with that just no name actors and this by you know, get people involved, right. But with these studios then you're talking potentially spending, you know, yeah, a million dollars on just extras, and it makes sense. But with the main people, you know the main named talent who's recognizable and wanting to take their images and use that continuously. I mean, they'd be making bank off of that if they never have to pay them to be there or do anything again. You just hire some like a stunt double or a body double and you put an AI image over their face. You just copyright their likeness and usage.
Speaker 4:And they're like hey, you don't have to show up, Mr Rock, or somebody like that.
Speaker 2:Is that the future?
Speaker 1:They're just going to start using dead people. It's like in this summer, the Rock John.
Speaker 2:Wayne John.
Speaker 1:Wayne, Buster, Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Hitler Star in Three Men and a Baby.
Speaker 2:Is it just like hey, chadgbt6, can you make me a movie and then give them a log line and then just watch what pops out and see if you can sell it? Is that where we're going?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's probably a very realistic thing that may be happening in the next five to ten years. Oh, I hope so.
Speaker 4:I hope it's not that soon, you know an entire industry is looking to be down. You know automated AI. You know a lot of people in my industry might not be having a job here because of that. I believe there also be you know people. Maybe people will pay more to go to the theater experience and have an immersive theater experience where they do have the real actors and they do have the real you know storylines, the real writers writing them, rather than just chat. Gpt plugs, inputs and outputs.
Speaker 4:But, who knows, it's an interesting and scary future ahead.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 2:I'd say fewer and fewer movies feel authentic nowadays but, man, some of the ones that you see I'm trying to think of something more recent Dune okay, it's kind of been talked about way too much, but I felt like those two movies were pretty solid, pretty original, you know, based off the IP, but well produced and everything was as authentic as you could get in this fantasy world, whereas, you know, you have some cookie cutter Hallmark romance movies that pop out every Thursday and it's just the same story rehashed over and over again, and it feels like Chad GPT wrote it, you know.
Speaker 4:People watch them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they do, that's true.
Speaker 4:Watch those, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Whatever the underline is, we can get people to pay money for them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, once again they call it the entertainment industry. It is an industry. I mean, there are people who make the movies just as art, which is great, but they've got to make money once again, because a lot of people won't show up. They won't show up to work if you're not getting paid. It's all about the money. It's a job. At the end of the day, it is a job, it is work, it is an industry, it's a business and ain't no business like movie business like showbiz, it's constantly evolving well, chris, mayer, mayer, I'll get it.
Speaker 1:Maher, maher, maher, you were so close. Chris.
Speaker 2:Maher.
Speaker 4:Maher. Next time All right Next time.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for coming on Honestly your background and you know, I think this is probably one of the more original guys started modeling, got into acting and ended up producing and acting in a lot of his own works. That's, that's a wild take on everything and, yeah, your production, thoughts and advice on stuff Phenomenal, phenomenal. I really, really appreciate you taking a minute out of your day to talk to us and we'll be watching you closely. We hope that you know the the the Canyon of the Dead movie comes out and if it comes in theaters, we're going to see it.
Speaker 4:Me too.
Speaker 2:And we hope that we get to talk to you like a spoiler kind of like episode. Maybe one day we can talk to you about all the stuff that happens in the movie, so that'd be cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that'd be fun. Thank you guys so much for having me on board. It was fun to chat with you on this Sunday afternoon. Yeah, thanks for having me. You guys rock. It was a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just kind of laid back, take it as it comes, kind of podcast.
Speaker 1:Just three guys with beards drinking Red Bull and hanging out.
Speaker 4:That's right, there you go, hey soon. I heard you guys are going to be having some video portion on this next. We could get on that.
Speaker 2:See those epic beards this next, we could get on that.
Speaker 4:See those epic beards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll show people the face that we keep trying not to talk too much about. Here we are Three unfunny gentle people.
Speaker 4:And it's like handsome Squidward over here.
Speaker 2:Yeah you did a face for that pretty good.
Speaker 1:He's just like more mad.
Speaker 2:It's like damn it, he's more handsome. I have to be the most handsome person in the room. He turned a handsome meter from 10 to 11. Alright, man. Well, thanks so much. We'll try and find a way to keep in touch. Thanks for taking some time with us and that was it for this episode of Entertain this.
Speaker 1:I'm Tom Hayden, I'm Mitch, and we'll catch you on the next one.
