#38 Who the F is Mike Young?

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:16

All right, Bobby, thank you for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week is no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 38 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. I'm Jeff Dwoskin. And I am so glad you're here again with me. We've got an amazing show for you today. Mike young, actor, director, writer and comedian hilarious comedian is with us. I hope you caught some of the last few episodes amazing episodes amazing episodes last week, depress Darth was here. I'm happy to report he's slightly less depressed now. He was so happy with all the positive feedback from the episode. Horace HB Sanders not too long ago David Landau. Oh, these gems check them all out all past 37 episodes of live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show. Oh can be found at Jeffisfunny.com. That's right, Jeffisfunny.com. What else can I do there? Jeff? Well, you can listen to all the episodes, there's links to where you can subscribe, you can join our mailing list. so much you can do it's like a carnival a podcast land. So check that out. Tell your friends if they don't know about the podcast, say I love the Jeff Dwoskin show your 2021 will not be complete without your own subscription. What's it cost? It's free. What? It's free. Yes. They're just giving it away. So thank you all for that. Speaking of Thank you. So I want to thank Scott Curtis and behind the bits for having me as a guest on their show. You guys can check that out la AF with Jimmy mccammon. He was also on crossing the streams with me not too long ago, but I just made a guest appearance on his show tons of fun. I was also with Jason Taylor and the three geeks fandom on the scene snobs network did a little fandom chat chatted up the monkeys. That's a good chat, you might want to check that out as well.

Lots of great podcasts to also check out not just live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. There's a whole plethora, I said plethora of podcasts that are amazing out there. And thank you to all of them who have had me on as a guest. much appreciate it. And you know what else is much appreciated all of your support of the sponsors week after week after week, I get calls, I get letters, I get emails, I get texts from all the sponsors saying what's going on our sales are through the roof. I said oh, that's not surprising, because I the best listeners and fans in the world in the world. And they're like, yes, yes, yes. But the problem is week after week, you guys buy so much of their product, they run out and I have to find a new sponsor. So here we are again this week. I've luckily secured a new sponsor this week's sponsor kitchen tables. That's right kitchen tables. Hey, do you have a spot in your kitchen? It's just a big empty area. Maybe you need a kitchen table. That's right. kitchen tables are perfect for breakfast, lunch, and now also perfect for dinner. That's right. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's right, you can conveniently fit up to four to eight people around each table. That's right, eat with all the people you know more if you have other chairs, so you can just shove into the corners. That's right. And each table now comes with four vertical legs. That's right for for vertical legs are now included with every table. maximum stability. That's right, no more glasses rolling off the table. No more plates sliding to their demise. With four legs. Stability will never be an issue again. So check out your own kitchen table. You won't regret it. wife and I we just got a kitchen table. Yeah, after years of just sitting on the floor, we and made the investment. And I gotta tell you, it was one of the best investments we ever made. So I'm encouraging each and every one of you out there. If you have a kitchen, get yourselves a kitchen table.

All right. Well, thanks again. I do appreciate everyone who supports our sponsors week after week, you helped keep the lights on. And I appreciate that greatly. And now it's time for the social media tip! Here's a Twitter tip for y'all. If you want to be the greatest Twitter ever retweet other people, but here's the thing when you push that retweet button, there's another thing there it says, quote, tweet, and you're like, quote, tweet, that must be just as good as retweet because otherwise why would they put it right next to retweet? And the answer is no, no, it's not reasonably it means you just share as his quote tweet means you put a little bit of your own information on top of it. So when it shows up on your time Mind they're really seeing your comments in relation to the other tweet. So really, if you're talking at the other tweet, maybe that's when you do it. But really the other person isn't interested if you're, if you're correcting or enhancing what they said, because they probably feel that they wrote it just fine when they wrote it, if you want to comments and people just reply to their tweet, that's like the greatest way to just let someone know you saw their tweet and you had some kind of conversation. You want to engage with them in by quote, tweeting, if you do both retweet, and then quote, tweet, that's maybe Okay, really depends, quote, tweeting can be kind of tricky, because usually it's for trolling. Like if it's a politician, or someone says something, you know, like, you might quote, tweet it and yell at them on top of it. But otherwise, if you're, if you see something great that you like, just retweet it, don't quote, tweet it, keep it as is, share it in its original form. It's kind of like you wouldn't buy an art piece, and then kind of draw and put your own little drawing on top of it. Oh, look, the Mona Lisa is now holding a lollipop, then I make it better. No, no, you did not. And that's the social media tip!

just a quick reminder to everyone that I have a live show every Wednesday at 9:30pm. Eastern time, on YouTube, the Jeff Dwoskin channel, also on Facebook Live facebook.com/jeffisfunny. We go live with a show called crossing the streams, amazing TV streaming suggestions from myself and a bunch of my very funny friends. It's a great one hour show, and we invite you to check it out.

But right now, I want you to focus on this amazing conversation I had with Mike young. All right. I'm here with Mike Young stand up comedian, director, writer, actor. He's done everything hilarious guy from Detroit, Michigan now living in LA. Welcome to the show, Mr. Mike young.

Mike Young 6:55

Jeff Dwoskin. Man, thanks for having me on. Been a long time. We've known each other a long time. Yeah, I live in LA and I took off on Memorial Day and I haven't I haven't been back since. I don't know what I'm going back.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:09

With a couple of times. You've been back you used to do the young American comedy where you had me a couple times on it here in the Detroit area. It was my first brush with fame. You had Bobby Lee and Steve Rennesinsky. Did I say his last name right?

Mike Young 7:26

Absolutely not.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:29

You say?

Mike Young 7:31

It's Stephen Rannazzisi. There you go. Yeah. And Bobby Lee. We came back to Detroit like four times. Probably you are with us? Probably twice. Yeah. Great, man.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:41

Thank you. Thank you. I do have I do have a funny story, which you probably don't know. But I'll share with you now. So you were coming to Detroit for one of the shows. And your mom and my stepmom were friends. And so she says to me, Jeff, I have someone who wants you in their comedy show. And I said Who? And she says Mike binder. I got Mike Binder. I got it. He says yes. I go Really? He goes yeah, I go. The director of Indian summer that Mike binder and she's like yes. And I'm I need a VHS tape right. The other famous comedian Mike from Detroit.

Mike Young 8:21

I'll leave it up to the Jewish mom Geography communication line to get that twisted. Exactly.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:29

It's funny because at the time I wasn't familiar with mad TV, I had no idea who Bobby Lee was he stripped down on the show, I think to his underwear. He was crazy. Steve was super cool. I remember him being Oh, if you're ever in LA, you know, give me an A. And then Steve was the first time I ever after we did that show and I'm sitting there watching I guess I can imagine watching this in the movie theater, Paul Blart Mall Cop. He's in it, and I turned to the person next to me. I'm like, I know that guy. The first time that happened to me where I was like, one of the people I knew then I saw him like in the big screen right after that was that was a hoot.

Mike Young 9:06

We had a strong strong lineup, man. Bobby Lee, Stephen Rannazzisi, Bert kreischer, Sebastian, Brett Ernst, Joey Diaz. We just Sam Tripoli, every one of those guys. Everyone's gone on to be big comedians, some bigger than others. But I mean, they're all successful dudes and movie TV. So it's funny, man. You just I kind of create I think I told you this before, but like I I created a young American comedy tour while on the patio at the Comedy Store. just literally hanging out with those guys. And I'm thinking to myself, how are we not like, like, none of us were like, no one had any real fame or celebrities that nobody. We were all like Bubbling Under in our own worlds. But we were all funny. And so I kept I kept hearing that the kings of comedy tour made like $16 million that year. dl hugely Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer, they were all huge comedians, so I'm sitting on the patio, the Comedy Store, and my entrepreneurial business brain kicks in. And I'm like, and those guys made $16 million. And they are famous at the time. And we have to at least be like, worth like $3 million. Like, we're not $16 million less funny than those guys. We are all very funny, I can hold it down. And I just literally was had like this epiphany and, and went right to work. And I was like, I just wrote down like a treatment on a piece of paper. I asked everybody if they'd be into doing a tour, I went to the owner of all the improv like that the Booker the improv, Aaron, and I went to her office, and I had a list of the comedians that were going to be on a tour, Steve Byrne, all those guys within like an hour, she just gave me like 10 offers of comedy clubs to go do like Tempe, San Jose Phoenix, la in Breda, Ontario, Irvine, she just listed like 10 and 10 offers right away. And so I started like, doing, I was like guys that we got to do a photo shoot. So I got everyone together, we did like photo shoots, and like we merchandise and, you know, I didn't have like a lot of business savvy, Jeff, I'll be honest, at the time, I would just put it together.

And it was just an idea. And it ran for like three straight years. And we all it was great. And the most fun ever, you know, you look back on like your businesses and moves that you've made. And you kind of think like, oh, man, I could have done this, I could have done that. And I truly should have, I should have just said to everybody, let's all own this together, and just all work as hard as the same. We'll all work the same. You know, we'll all work hard at this, instead of like me putting this thing together, like trying to wake up Bobby Lee at six in the morning to get to radio and trying to get Sebastian to you know, get out of bed and do his hair. It was just like, you know, looking back, you, you know, you would have made some different moves. But I'm proud of that tour. And it still comes up to this day. And I found like 50 young American comedy tour shirts that were at my brother's house, literally, I'm going to like re up that tour in some fashion. Like, we can't afford to bash anymore. He's on another planet unless he wants to just buy it for he could just own the tour. And he can just do it. You know, it was a lot of fun, man. It was just the thing of it was just like, Yeah, why don't we just do something with our friends who are funny. And every time we came to Detroit, you killed it. You were in Detroit. And it was a it's a tough thing to decide, do I want to go to LA and try to make this happen. But I always admired you because you had the skills to do it if you really wanted to dig in and do it. But you decided to be a man and have a family and be normal. I mean, because this should get you killed.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:47

I always think like I started so late during doing comedy. So I had the family I had the kids I didn't I didn't I couldn't afford to not make the money. It was always like a really, I don't want to even it's a it was more than a hobby because I I pretty much ignored most family. I skipped family events. I for those first years. I mean, like it was I was doing it like five times. I mean, in Detroit, that's a lot. But like, five times a week, you know, it was like it came before family events that came before a bar mitzvah. I like I like when I can only go to the service. I can't go to the party. I gotta I gotta forgotten the harvest benefit I'm doing and so it's, you know, it's just crazy, but I gotta say like, I'm always happy that I'd maybe didn't know who Steve and Bobby were going into that because it probably would have intimidated me. Oh, now after the fact that I have the picture of you and them and all of us together. It's always easier. Like I worked with Patrice O'Neal once, okay, and I didn't know who Patrice O'Neal was when I worked with him. He was amazing. And I started listening to Opie and Anthony afterwards. If I had known who Patrice O'Neal was, I probably would have been such a nervous wreck. And it was just like, but he was great. And Bobby and all them. I remember they were great. They were like looking at me like Who's this guy? They were really cool. And yeah, thankfully I did. I did well, so it was like I think they respected that. Thank you for all that.

Mike Young 14:07

Man. I remember Bobby's you know, the casinos had opened in Detroit at the time. So it is easy with off gala students. He got his money he was off gambling, obviously was in the streets till three o'clock in the morning. Nobody could find them. And it was just we had a lot of fun, man, a lot of fun. It was always Tony rock was part of it. It was always just about let's just do a great show. And then everybody can go do whatever they want afterwards, when we would go to different cities, we bring two or three guys, three guys usually and then we'd have a local, you know, comedian, and it's funny, man, you realize how hard stand up comedy actually is. When you go to all these cities and you go, there's actually not there's only two funny dudes in this town. There's not a lot of funny guys, and thanks for holding it down when we came to Detroit, man, you know, it was a great time and I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't know. I thought about Oprah re upping the tour and then I always let it just go but every like four months I get like emails and messages from like people that saw us 10 years ago, literally. And they're like, come on you coming back? It's like no, it's over. Sebastian sells out the Madison Square Garden three nights in a row column.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:17

Take it with you well now people love like the opportunity to go out and see I think multiple people like I always love going to comedy cellar in New York right so whenever I just time vacation, because it was like when you can see these powerhouses doing just 20 minutes each It is great to walk away with you know, the all the fillers gone. Everyone just brings their their A game and like, it's just a great show. And it's like to be able to end here because then not every comedian resonates with everybody exactly the same way. Right? So if you'd be like, Oh, I love Subash. Oh, I thought Mike Young was about right. I mean, how many times after a show there. People come up to you and they go You were the best one Mike. Right. But they go some dumb and different goes up to each person goes, You were the best one. You know. So it's like, I think it's good to offer that. I think I think that was what was part of the specialness of the show.

Mike Young 16:02

That was the point of the whole thing. The point was, everybody's got a different style. There's going to be something for everybody. And I named it young American comedy tour because we just, we had an Italian we had a Jew we had an Asian kid, we had an Irish kid. We just were you know, we had a Middle Eastern kid on the tour. We just it was just a melting pot of what I thought represented everything we had. Meanwhile, everybody else was like, Yo, man, that was so smart. You put your name in the title. I swear I didn't even think of my name when I did young American comedy tour. Like literally it wasn't. That wasn't why I said that wasn't why we named it that. But we had a lot of fun. And yeah, now Live Nation would have to pay a ton of money for that tour. If and when we come back. You will come back. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 16:46

yeah. Hi. So Sebastian is selling out Madison Square Garden. But you've done some awesome things, too. You've written and directed a couple movies, right? Yeah, my man is a loser a stand up guy. Tell me about that. Tell me like cuz you do those. You didn't just write those you I like to add them to you wrote Adam, with Aaron Paul. Talk to us about like, my man is a loser. That's what john Stamos and then you did explore stand up comedy and stand up guy, which is about a mobster. Right? Yeah. And of comedy. Tell us about those head writing and directing.

Mike Young 17:16

As far as writing goes, you start to see as a writer that a lot of similar themes keep popping up in your life, like they are in my movies, you know, like things I'm trying to obviously, work out myself. So my man is a loser I wrote because at the time, I was going through like a real single run, all my buddies were married. And I thought just, I just always had this idea of like, my buddies who were married at the time, they just seem lost. It was just like, my wife was doing this. They were kind of complaining about the married life. And I was always giving them advice on like, what how they could just be a little bit better. So the simple idea for my man as a loser was single guy gives his married buddies advice to help them get their marriages back on track. That was a simple concept. And that was the seat of where I wrote that from the movie itself. You know, I was on path, I was on a stand up path, and always writing on the side and I hadn't directed anything. So my whole life was like, stand up, stand up on the road, on the road in the hotel, writing, writing. And then these producers, just to tell you how the movie came about these producers out in New York, they actually went to Doug Allen, the creator of entourage, and they were friends with dogs. And they said, you know, we want to hire you, Doug to write this movie. And we really want to get in the business or trying to figure out how and do you have time to write anything? And Doug's like, No, but I have a really funny friend and a good writer, Mike young. So Doug introduced me to these guys. And they're, you know, they were great guys. They were finance guys out in New York. And they thought they wanted to be in the business and they wanted to be in the business. So they were I've never really dealt with like finance New York Wall Street vibe before, right? I'm just you know, me, I'm Southfield. I'm all about the story. Getting going. I don't want to hear you know, I don't do the Wall Street thing. Really.

These guys come to me. I meet him at a deli in LA, the guy sits down. He's like, you know, do you have any ideas for a movie and I can tell you about my life cuz we had thought about like an idea for us. This guy started talking about how like, he can tell a stripper his life story, but he can't talk to his own wife. So I was like, You know what, man, I have something in that lane. I said, Let me get back to you in a week. And I'm gonna give you an outline of a bullet point outline of what I think this movie should be. A week later, I send them I emailed them what I think the movie should be. And it's the idea that I already have in my pocket, you know, for my man as a loser. And right away, these guys are like, that's it. We're gonna raise the money. We're gonna go make a movie. I'm thinking Hollywood, everybody talks like that. Everyone's raising money. They're all looking for money. So I don't get involved in the money raising. I'm just holding firm and I'm like, this is a great idea for a movie. And they start calling me they're like, we got our first million in 10 escrow. It's in the bank. We're gonna get real And we're gonna make this movie. I'm like, wow. So they hire me first to write the script. So I write the script, they love it. And then I start to think about, you know, then it's getting very real. So now you got the money's in the bank, I have to move to New York, because we're gonna shoot the movie in New York. These guys are based in New York. And now we start coming up with casting ideas. And so I'm really truncating a long version of the story. But I started to just, you know, when you write characters, you have voices in your head specific characters. And, like, I was always a fan of Michael Rapaport as an actor, and I just knew he was hilarious. And I had this like, kind of bumbling, sort of bumbling last husband with his voice in my mind. And I didn't really know him well, but I knew people that knew him. So I called somebody who was in Rappaport camp. I said, we have the money. I love Rapoport. He doesn't have to audition. I just want him to read the script and see if he's in. Send Rapaport the script. I get a call. A week later, he loved the script. He wanted to meet for lunch. He was he was on a juice cleanse at the time. So I meet him in a juice bar. Hollywood shit. I meet Rappaport in a juice juice bar. And we hang out. He's like, dude, I love this. I mean, Who who are you? I'm like, we actually play basketball together. Like couple years ago, years ago, I kind of remember use flow for the Jewish kid. I'm like, Yeah, you too. And we totally bonded, signed him up for the movie. And then these guys, all their wives were like in love with Stamos. And so I didn't know john Stamos at the time, but I knew Bob Saget because Bob and I had toured together and he worked on entourage and I had an office there. So I got the script to stay Moses camp. And same thing they most responded to the lead role playing Mike, you know, my character basically. So I meet Stamos he wants to have lunch and talk about this potential movie that he's talking about wants to do. And so I go to this newsroom cafe and in walk Stamos in the middle of the day and sunglasses and perfect hair and polish skin and a shirt buttoned down to his belly button. Like he's Keith Richards, son, and we sit down and he's like, I love this character. I can play this character. I've been single veto for years before I got married and blah, blah, blah.

And that was kind of how the ball started rolling. And so I got Stamos locked in I got Rapoport, and the next weekend I'm going to do comedy in Miami with Bryan Callen. And so I'm hanging out with Bryan Callen in Miami. I'm opening for I'm featuring for Calvin, he's headlining and we're in the coffee shop and I'm like, Brian, this is gonna sound crazy, but I think I have a movie that's actually going to go and you really be great for like the third lead as a character that's just your you know, I'm like, Brian, you're like the funniest dude in regular life that I know. I'm gonna write this to your voice. And he's like, whatever, bro. Everybody sent. They have a movie, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, he doesn't believe a thing I'm saying. And I don't really believe what I'm saying. So Canada just sent me the script. So we have breakfast in Miami. I email him the script. At the show that night callin shows up. I think it's that night at the show. He's like, Dude, what's up? I'm in audition. I'll put myself on tape. I'm like, No, bro. I think I'm actually I can call the shot on this one. I'm like, I think I could just get to Okay, so Rappaport Stamos and Kalyn don't have to audition at all. I just write I just I locked them in. My guys agree to Brian Cowen even though they didn't really know who he was at the time, but they did their research and saw that he was funny. He had been on some shows and blah, blah, blah. I locked them in. The funniest is I had never directed anything before man. nothing, not even like a video in college. My the producers are like, okay, now we have to actively go find a director. So immediately I'm like, no way. I can direct this. I'm like, I can direct this. I read a ton of stories about like Barry Levinson, Woody Allen, Tarantino, all these guys who come from like a stand up background and had like, transitioned into the directing game just because they wanted to control their writing. I basically went to Doug Allen, who connected me to these guys. I said, Doug, you got to vouch for me that I can direct this movie, because these guys are gonna start looking for a director. So Doug calls him and does like 100% like a directive easily.

And they signed me up as the director for the movie and we didn't look any further and immediately, man, I started reading books and directing. I bought like playboy interview of every director. I read every interview like Woody Allen's and how he started directing. And that was it man and and they signed me up. And that's how that movie came to be. And we shot it in New York, and we cast it all the other parts out in New York. And it was an unbelievable experience. And it was a $5 million independent film, which is a lot of money. Looking back. I think we probably could have made that movie for three under 5 million. We probably could have made that movie for $2 million. But my guys were like these, like I said like these Wall Street New York. You know big money thinking guys. They got egos and they're like Stamos wants a trailer. We'll give them a trailer. Rapoport wants to trade it. We'll give them a trailer. Listen, they overpaid me for the movie. I felt overpaid. I learned so much. It's not even funny, because then when I did my next movie, I was just moving through it. You know, I was just moving through it fast. And it led me because you don't know what you're learning while you're learning it until you go and reapply. And so my man is the loser. We shot it and Lionsgate bought it. I'm proud of the movie. I haven't watched the movie since it came out because every scene, I'm psychotic like that, I'm like, every everything I see in it, I go, that could have been better if we would have done this. I can't believe I didn't use that music I should have. You know, I beat myself up a lot. Because there were things I thought I could have done better. And it was my first movie. Listen, man, I didn't even know the cameras couldn't zoom. Can I call my DPS zoom in on Stamos? He's like, dude, the $400,000 camera, they don't do. We change lenses. And it takes about 20 minutes. So I learned a lot. I had the greatest time doing it. An incredible amount of work to write and direct it taxes your system and you got to stay hydrated 24 hour job because every night you're going home, and you're realizing like like I realize like oh my god, Rapoport is so funny that if I if I don't rewrite some stuff for him tomorrow, I'm missing out on the potential comedy that I have with this guy. So I would be writing every night I'd be rewriting stuff. The actors don't love when you do that. Obviously, I try not to do that anymore, because it's just pressure on them. But like, it's really tough when you know, you could write a better joke or you you know, or something you can fit into the storyline that you can do for the next day to let that go.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:49

Is that why a lot of directors you think work with the same people over and over again because they can learn their voice and then they can actually build on what you were just saying?

Mike Young 26:57

I think it's because they learn their voice and I think if you can find a community of like talented people that you get along with that make great art together. Why? I mean, I'm always open to other people and like it's there's nothing cooler than when you find another actor who like you never heard of or I've never seen before and they're like oh my god it's got just blew us blew us away. We got to work together. But I think they work with the same people for comfort level and for pallet level. And it's just, you know, you find a community you know, you look at will Pharaohs movies, and they got a lot of the same you know, Jhansi Riley's in them all the time and they got guys around them and Sandler doesn't Sandler puts his camp together combination of comfort and they found the recipe that worked. So that movie was just and we had Tika Sumpter in it and she went on to do the show grown ish. And she's a big TV star now and a lot of Big Sean Young was in it. Who I love showed up like the first day she's like, I brought your horoscope, she's way out there. She's like, I got your birth date and I got your horoscope, you're gonna be doing great things in the next four years. This is the first ever matter.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:07

You gotta love this iPad. That's amazing. She rolled in like straight hippie.

Mike Young 28:11

She was very cool. Yeah, man. Other things I would have done differently. 100 of them. But I learned so much. And it got me to my next movie, a stand up guy. And it happened quite quickly. Even you know, it took me out of the stand up game. It took me out of stand up for you know, I started writing and directing and I got on this train that kind of has been gone went for like five years. You know, a movie takes about a year out of your life. You know, yeah, they say, you know, six weeks here and only 30 days here and then six weeks. But it actually is like almost a year to just like focus. So took me out of stand up and a stand up guy. So we had the premiere of my man is the loser in New York City. We have the premiere, and it goes great even though I'm ready to throw up. I'm not I'm so nervous. People are a full theater of people are watching my movie. I'm freaking out. I'm not even sitting down for the movie. I'm like standing in the back. praying that every time there's a joke, they laugh at the right time. So I'm like I'm nervous is can be tough. I got Stamos he's next to me nervous is talking the whole time. He's like it all. That's been worked. That worked. I'm like, dude, you're killing me. Just stop. And so after the premiere of a stent of my man is a loser. All of a sudden, there's a guy a friend, Danny a is his name that I've known for years who had just recently gotten into the film business of producing he, I don't even know that he's at my premiere. He comes up to me after my premiere, and he's with one of his finance guys. And he's like, Mike, and he's like a hustler type of and he's a funny dude. And he's like, like, we loved your movie. This is Ron, he finances my films. We want to do a comedy with you. And I'm like, really? He tells me this at the premiere party at the after party for my premiere. So I'm like There's no way that after that movie, I'm just gonna right away, get another movie. And right away, I got a stand up guy. So it was just, it was luck. And it was I did a good enough job on my madness and losers that they wanted to make an independent comedy with me. And so a stand up guy came my way. But it came, I convinced them to do the idea for a stand up guy that I had, they wanted to do a totally different idea. They had an idea. And he's like, I got this great idea about a college basketball player who weighs way past his prime. And he starts telling me the story.

And I'm like, I have a great idea. I have the idea of a gangster going into the witness protection program, who does stand up on a dare and becomes accidentally famous. And he's like, that's a great idea. We're gonna do your idea. So then a stand up guy happened, had to move back, I had come back to LA to we're based out of and I stayed there for what whatever, I six months. But then next thing I know, oh, they got me an apartment in New York. And I'm back to New York to go make a stand up guy. And we really cast as a stand up guy fully out of New York. And, sadly enough, my good friend who was a star of the movie, Nick Cordero, who passed away recently from complications of this whole COVID thing. It was on the cover of People Magazine, I cast with him in that movie, I can't even say that I cast them. Because my producer and lead called me one day and he goes, I just saw this guy on Broadway. He's a star, you have to cast him in the movie. And I did, and Nick play the lead in a stand up guy. And he was incredible. And he was super talented. You know, I don't want to go down the sad path, you know, but rest in peace to Nick. So sad What happened? You know, it's

Jeff Dwoskin 31:49

a tragedy. Yeah, though, that we I was following that story, too. It's so I can't even say yes, had a kid. And it was just he was such a star on the rise. It was star

Mike Young 32:00

on the rise. And equally, if not more of a gentleman type of guy. He just was like a sweet dude. And he's hilarious. In a stand up guy. So for anyone listening, go watch a stand up guy and just watch what he does. And like, you know, we improved a couple scenes. And I don't like to do that go off book. There's this scene where you know, he's a gangster. He's one of the gangsters of going after. He's going after the lead mob guy who is in ratted on everybody. He's become famous, which is against the mob rules. And he's going after him. But it's obviously it's a ridiculous comedy. And he's also he's jealous of them is jealous that he's becoming famous. And he's funny. And he's like, I was always the funny one in school. How did he I was the talented one. And one of the gangsters is like, What are you talking about? And all of a sudden, Nick just burst out and saw. And we came up with that idea that morning, because I was like, You know what, Nick, you could sing, you're a great, he's like a he was a Broadway star singer, Tony nominated. And so he can sing sounds like we got to utilize this. So it was just a case of having a talent on set. And you have to utilize their talent if it fits the part. And he was incredible. That's how a stand up guy came about. It came about from those guys seeing my man as a loser. And I had a great time making a stand up guy, a lot of good healthy battles. Because my finance guy was my lead. So he paid for the movie. And I was like, okay, so you have to deal with certain things in the independent film world if something like that comes your way. And he was any any was great. Danny has been a he was an Irishman. He's in mob town. He's been in 10 movies already. And he's great. But he was my boss, and my friend, which can create tension in the world.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:46

It's a great story these days. Where are these streaming? Now? Where can Where can we watch another

Mike Young 33:50

now they're both on amazon prime and they're on to be and I got to do is like go search both of them. But amazon prime for sure. And a stand up guy was was on Netflix for a year and a half. So it was great to have my movie Netflix bought it, actually. And that was a great lesson in it does not cost. And I tell anyone who's like getting in the business or thinking about making something. It doesn't cost any money to write funny. And it doesn't cost any money to write. But if you're in the indie world, you have to think about your budget you have to think about if you think you're being loose and you're writing an airplane into your scene, you just cost yourself $100,000 if you're in a moving car, you just have to know that putting a mount on a car is around five $6,000. In the independent world, I actually liked the restrictions of only having 100 grand or a million dollars in a stand up guy that I know I had to work with. So I had to write to that. So it was a lot of dialogue driven comedy. And we utilize you know one location for multiple locations and you really learn about budgeting and, you know, and how to write within the parameters of what you have. And then, you know, hopefully I'll just, I'll keep on that trajectory. But it's funny because standup is really like a love of mine is like I love stand up. I don't want to say more than writing and directing, but maybe more. I've just loved the idea of writing something down putting it on stage. Let's see if it flies. I just love it. And so I got out of the stand up game for a sec. But the last couple years I've been back strong, my special I'm actually about to sign a deal with comedy dynamics for my special which is already done. It's in the camp. So that's great. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:42

I can't wait to see that.

Mike Young 35:44

I'll send it to you, man. I got a link. I want to see what you think actually.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:47

Yeah, awesome. I would love to see it. That'd be Yeah. One of the perks of being a famous podcast host I get to see my Young's special before all of you guys.

Mike Young 35:57

You're gonna know Jeff, I really I do I want to send it to you see what you think I did something different. You know, Chris rocket said something funny. few months back. He's like every comedian says they got a special, but none of them are like special just you doing stand up on a stage somewhere. Let me see. Uh, so I I put some scripted narrative interstitials within my stand up, and I think it works. Hope people dig it. And you'll, you'll give me your honest opinion on basically bulletproof. There's another movie of yours called Adam, this movie has been in production, or at least moving along for quite a while

Jeff Dwoskin 36:35

this because I remember I remember specifically, this movie. I'll let you explain who it is. But it's starring Aaron Paul. And Aaron. Paul is Jesse from breaking bad. Yeah. And the What I remember most about it was hearing about you doing this movie. And then Jay Aaron, Paul won the Emmy. And I'm like, Well, I remember thinking I'm sitting there thinking, Oh, man, Mike young scored big on that to get the guy before he became like rocketed off. And so I thought that that was that's been a bit so it's been it's been a process. I'm excited to hear that it's coming out. It's a it's a real heartwarming story about a very courageous young man, if you want to kind of just give a quick thing, and then I'd like to talk to about your nikto show.

Mike Young 37:19

Yeah, so Adam, the movie itself has probably seven days. I wrote that movie, even before I shot my man as a loser. so crazy enough. Sometimes these movies and you hear stories all the time, you know, we shot this movie six years ago, what happened to it? It took us years to get this thing off. It was one of those situations and the way Adam happened. And thank God it is finally coming out. But that movie, I was a writer knocking around I sold a few shows before you know my man is loser ever happened. And I get a call one day from my brother who is hanging out at a bar in Detroit, with Adam niska. And Adam, this guy is a kid that we grew up with who had a tragic accident who became quadriplegic who had an incredible attitude about his life at this point, and was just like an inspiration to so many people. And my brother calls me he goes this thinking about making a movie about Adams life and Dan Gilbert talking about producing it. Dan Gilbert, the owner of Quicken Loans and the Cavaliers and I don't know Dan at the time. So I say that. And my brother's with Adam, who I know because I played baseball with his brother growing up. And Adam was a kid in the neighborhood who I knew. And so I say this is incredible. What are you thinking? And he tells me that he wrote a journal about his life when I read it. And then if I sparked to it let's talk to Dan Gilbert and see what the next steps are. He sends me his journal. It's like 500 pages. It's a real book. So Adam sends me the journal. And I read this journal, Jeff, and I'm not kidding. It's a freakin bestseller waiting to happen. It's the funniest, most tragic shit I've read. Like, it's like in the vein of Confederacy of Dunces. If you know what that book is. That book was ends up winning like Pulitzer Prize for Fiction yet was sitting on a desk and not published for years. This thing was incredible. I read it. I call my brother. I said, get me back in touch with Adam. I talked to Adam. I said, Dude, this movie is Juno in a wheelchair. This is Little Miss Sunshine type of movie in a wheelchair. This is hilarious and sad. I'm in.

He puts me on the phone the next week with Dan Gilbert. We have a conference call. I talked to Dan I said this is how I see this movie. This is a tragic comedy, but a guy's journey from being a wild man King, tragedy to redemption. We talk he says I'm going to bring you to Detroit, Dan Gilbert fly. He flies me to Detroit and like a Delta airline, whatever. I go home, I go home by home. I go home, I go to Quicken Loans offices stands on the 10th floor at the time I go up. I'm sitting in a conference room basically by myself waiting incomes Dan, and we start talking and he's from Southfield. Where I'm from, and I always obviously, he's famously well known as like an incredible businessman. And he rebuilt Detroit almost almost single handedly. So I know about him, but I don't know him. So we start talking in the conference room and we start talking about like, I know, like his friends, little sisters that I went to school with, and IGP it becomes an hour of chit chat, small talk. laughter, we're just laughing. And then we get down to business. And I say, you know, I basically pitch him, I see the movie, and stands up, just straight up, guy, and he just stands up, he shakes my hand, he's like, you got the job. He's like, I want I'm gonna hire you to write this movie. I'll call your lawyer tomorrow. He goes, and in the meantime, the Cavs are playing the SuperSonics in Seattle, if you want to hop on my plane, and then we're playing the Clippers, and you can what is drop you off in LA. So next thing I know, I'm basically I'm on a I'm on a private g five, with with Adam. Adam is in a wheelchair that weighs 7000 pounds, and we get him out of the plane and we take Adam with us on this trip. And we spend a weekend, go to the Seattle game, we go to the clipper game, we have the greatest weekend. And it's game on and next day, I know within a month my deal to write it aside.

And that's it. We don't have a director yet. I write the movie. And I'll just be honest with you, I wrote the movie and I thought to myself, this is I'm gonna win the Oscar is the best thing I've ever written. I thought that I wrote the best piece ever. And then Dan gets his brother involved and some la guys involved and the movie starts to drag it starts to take a longer time without going too much into detail of what it is. You know how tormenting it can be when you lose control of a movie, because I wasn't the director and they never intend to me and I didn't even think about directing it actually. until something funny happened. It's not funny, but I'll tell you what happened. So I write the movie. We start to get things in order. We're going to cast this movie. I'm friends with a meal hearse after a meal hearse. So I'm thinking a meal hertz would be great to play Adam. I send a meal script. He hits me back so he's like, I love this. I'm in. So now a meal. Hirsch's in. So I tell Gary Gilbert, who's approved for the movie also with Dan. I said we got to sign up a meal her so we got to mail her some a hook. Something happens to his schedule. I'm on an airplane. No joke. I'm on I had never seen Breaking Bad at the time. It's like a hit show. It is a hit show. Not like a hit show. It's a huge show. You know I'm on an airplane. The woman next to me is watching Breaking Bad on her computer. I'm just kind of like sneaking. I'm like sneaking in looks I'm just like looking at the screen. Doing what nobody wants to do sneaking a look over someone's shoulder. I see Aaron Paul. I don't even hear that I swelling to hear the audio. Really? I can like faintly hear it out of her ear for your phone. Aaron Paul's in the scene where he's like crying and fighting and like wrestling and dramatic and he crashed in the scene with Bryan Cranston. And I'm like this dude would be great to play Adam, if we lose a meal Hirsch. I land I call the producers of the movie I said you got to go look at this kid Aaron Paul, and one of the producers like course I know Aaron Paul, but I love breaking bed. Long story short, I get it to Aaron Paul. Aaron Paul signed on to play the lead. And we start the process. And we were going to shoot it in Detroit because Dan wants to shoot everything in Detroit in Detroit. The crew comes to Detroit. We cast Aaron Paul Jeff Daniels, Lena olan Tom Berenger incredible cat Michael Weston, amazing cast. And we shoot the movie in Detroit. side. Notice I spent a lot of time with Adam just to understand how he lives living before I wrote the movie.

And so I got a vibe and just kind of how he you know, I just got as much information as I could with him. You know, he was driving the van on his own with his fingers. And he was a super inspirational dude. We shot the movie. We put the movie in the can. The original director had a mental meltdown. In the middle of filming, I get a phone call from the producers. They found the director roaming the streets of Detroit at four o'clock in the morning yelling obscenities out to random people. And now he's going into a mental institution. He got put in a white jacket and shipped off to wherever he was living. I'm not going to even tell you his name because it doesn't matter. They were scrambling for a director. I tried to be the director. That would have been my first movie, but they weren't having it. Okay, Dan's like I put in $5 million into this interview who's never been behind the camera. So they went and got Mike up and all from he directed a bunch of madman episodes. super talented guy. He comes to town with his little crew. And he's got like his his two writer buddies that are high level writers in Hollywood. So they come in, they they change up the script a little bit. Bit, which happens all the time. There was a moment. And I gotta just, I'll be honest with you, because why not? I'm just trying to be honest with everything. You know, it was it was torturous to have them like it was torture, they were like, they were changing a lot of things in the script that I thought should have stayed. I had a lot of fights with the producers with Gary Gilbert. And you know, not not Dan, Dan and I were kind of on a team. At the end of the day, everybody just really does want to make a great movie. And I've had to, like learn to tame myself and like, kind of control my emotions when it comes to the creative process when making a movie.

And that's what I love about stand up is you write your stuff, you put it out, nobody can mess with you. When you write a movie, and they hire you, they have the option of rewriting you. That was my first lesson like getting some having some guys come in and rewrite what I thought was I was passionate about, I made some mistakes. I said some things to people that, you know, offended people, I got fired a couple times, I got brought back, I got brought back in, at the end of the day, the movies in the can it took a long time to get out because Adam had a lot of health issues he had since he since passed away, and things happen cut the six years later, five years later, whatever the movie is coming out, I'm a writer and executive producer of the movie, I'm proud of it. I don't have the emotional maturity to go watch it again. Because I'll just snap and I'll just, I gotta go see a therapist to figure out how to deal with that. That being said, the movies coming out. And it was a lot harder work than my other two movies. You know, because there was just so many moving parts and people coming in. It's changing what I wrote. And that's it. I'll stand by the fact that I thought I wrote something incredible. And it got trimmed up a little bit. But you live in your learn, man, it ain't easy making a movie. It's hard.

Jeff Dwoskin 46:51

As a comedian. Your words are important. That's all you got. Gary Gilbert, which you kind of just mentioned briefly, Gary Gilbert also was behind Garden State. The Kids Are All Right. And most recently, the one that I'm sure everyone is aware of la la land, big names here, kind of just elbow and around. It's so awesome for you. That's really good.

Mike Young 47:11

Yeah, I wish I would have known that when I was doing it that there were big names, because I probably wouldn't. I probably wouldn't have said some of the things that I said, but I'm passionate about what I do, man. And Gary and Gary is a great guy, Gary's awesome when we talk and going through it, and people are changing what you do you, you're in the heat of the moment, things happen. But at the end of the day, Gary knows what he's doing. He's made some successful, very successful films. And that's the way that's it but I gotta say, just as a funny, full circle moment when his producing partner thought he won the Oscar for lala land and had to give it back. Because I was the happiest guy in the world.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:51

craziest moments, craziest moments

Mike Young 47:53

ever, and he handled it. Well. I gotta be honest, it should.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:56

It should have won to be honest. I mean, lowlands, I love that movie.

Mike Young 48:00

It was great

Jeff Dwoskin 48:02

to wrap up with victo fecteau, sort of, it's one of those apps liquidity that has short form video and worked with Kevin Connolly. He directed you you wrote Kevin Connolly? Is he from entourage? So, so that's pretty cool. Bob Saget, one of the CO stars. So you've worked with Bob Johnson, you pretty much worked with the entire crew except Dave. Cool. So maybe you can reach out to him. I I've worked with him once. He was nice guy. Super cool. Super cool guy. He's a cool guy. So everyone download the nikto app. It The show was called who the EFF is Mike young? Yeah, basically just about you being single in LA, right. And intersperse with some comedy and all that kind of stuff.

Mike Young 48:43

Yeah, it's more It was kind of like an esoteric search for meaning. Yeah, I mean, which is my bs way of saying, Yes, me navigating being single in LA, and looking for love in all the wrong places. I had directed a short film called single Mike. And everybody who was watching it was like, this is a great concept. And I had even sold it as a concept to HBO, and then they didn't make the show. So I got the idea back in my possession, and I just always wanted to do something with it. And I'll just, I'll wrap it up as quickly as I can for you. But basically, there's a crazy story. I was opening for Sebastian at the pantages theatre in Los Angeles. And I'm opening for Sebastian, it's a great show and I'm in front of 7000 people, whatever this Pantages holds incredible show, one of many that I opened for him on that tour. And so I met john Stamos his barbecue. And I'm sitting there and this woman comes up to me with a friend and she's like, Oh my God, we saw you with the patties. You were hilarious. My husband loves you. So the husband comes over, and this is how hot is a real Hollywood Story. The husband comes over and he's like, dude, you're here. And he's like one of these guys who? Yeah, my wife dragged me over to see this guy's to see Subash and I'm sitting there and you blew me away. Listen, man, I'm in the business. You know, I like to invest in different projects if you have anything you you're ever thinking of, you know, let me know he's a big money real estate guy who wanted to get in the business. I think nothing of it right? There's just a barbecue at Stan Wilson's house. Connolly calls me like a month. No, no. Couple weeks after that. He's like, yo, young. What are you doing with this single like idea? I love it. If you ever can get some money to shoot something. I'll direct it for you. So I'm like, Alright, done. So I emailed three people. I emailed Dan, I email, my guys in New York, and I emailed this new friend from Stapleton BBQ barbecue. And I'm like, Hey, man, this is gonna sound crazy. But based on this little short that I did, and I sent him a short, I said, we're gonna make, we're gonna shoot a pilot for a TV show. And it costs X dollars, X amount of dollars. And he hits me back. And he's like, amen. And so that I hit him back. And I'm like, well, you don't have to be in for the whole budget. But you can have partners and you don't have to put all the money in, he writes back. That's too low of $1 amount for me to even have a partner. I don't even need a partner. I don't want a partner. But thank you. I swear, Jeff, this is what happened. I'm friends,

Jeff Dwoskin 51:13

like you have friends.

Mike Young 51:16

So I'm thinking, I'm literally thinking, Okay, this guy thinks that I'm somebody else. He thinks that I'm calling he must forgot he must have forgot. There's no way that this random person who saw me one time is going to finance my pilot, I write back one more time. I'm like, Okay, are you sure? Because you can just you could have partners, this is what a return on your investment looks like. I have my lawyer draw it up. So I tell the guy, here's my lawyer draw up a return on investment. The guy says to me, I'm leaving for emails me. I don't even talk to him physically. There's been no talking. It's on an email, send me your wiring information. I'm going to Cabo on Friday, I'll wire you the money on Monday, I'm in. So now 100%, I'm thinking he thinks I'm somebody else. But I'm definitely gonna give him the wiring information for whatever he wants to send. So I sent him my wiring information. And on Monday, I'm too scared to like look at the bank account. At around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, I've gone to my business account. And there's like 100, and some $1,000 that he put into my account. And I called my line producer immediately, like immediately, I said, Dude, we need to back this budget into 100 grand, we're making a pilot, I call Conley he's like no way, bro, shut up. There's no way that happened. Your bullshit, blah, blah, blah, take a picture of your account and send it to me. So I take a snapshot of my account. I sent it to him Game on. And just like an independent movie, we started casting who the EFF is Mike young, we shot it. It's an amazing cast. So it will live on nikto for a short period of time. But nikto is an app that you just download onto your phone. And you can watch who the EFF is Mike young, and we're gonna take it to some other places and kind of try to blow it up and get a season out of something. So it was an incredible experience. It's really fun and funny. I'm super proud of it. It stars Chelsea Kane, Jessica van. Abby Cobb, Bob Saget. Adam Shapiro, great cast. And we just we cast it like a movie. And we just had casting sessions. And that was it. Stevie Guttman, who was in a couple in my in a stand up guy. He's great plays my one of my best friends in the movie. It's an exploration of the single life in LA, trying to find myself. Oh, I

Jeff Dwoskin 53:36

loved it. I loved it. I don't want to give anything away. But this is the scene where you're wearing red wings. sweat. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's like, it's, it's like eight minute shows. I mean, they're short everybody. So it's like you can you can catch them all real quick, and they stream together real fun. So that's awesome. Hey, how can people find you or follow you on social media?

Mike Young 53:57

I'm the real Mike young on Instagram. And then you can always go to my YouTube channel, which is Mike Young's comedy channel. And then on Twitter. I'm real Mike young.

Jeff Dwoskin 54:09

Mike, thank you so much. I can't I can't thank you enough for spending some time with me. Thanks for having me. Jeff. That was so much fun talking to Mike. I've had so many good times doing comedy with my gang. I can't even begin to tell you. He's a joy. He's hilarious. Please everyone. Check out his movies. A stand up guy. My man is a loser. Adam is short series called who the EFF is Mike young on victo app. These are all so great. He's so funny. He's got comedy albums out there. Search those out. Get as much Mike young into your life as you possibly can. I promise you. You won't regret it. Dr. Dwoskin says gets a mike young in your life. All right, well, you know what time it is. It's time for the hashtag round up hashtag of the week. That's right. That's where we make a hashtag game from hashtag round up on Twitter. Hashtag Roundup, get the free hashtag roundup app and play along and one day one of your tweets my end up on live from Detroit. It's the Jeff Dwoskin show. That's right. You may go on to fame and fortune as your read aloud on my show. This week's special hashtag comes to you from caturday funny. That's right. Cat bunny brings us hash tag signs your single the funniest hash tag in the world about being single all these tweeters we retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show and they'll also be listed in the show notes so you can go show him some love. All right, put on your seatbelt. It's time for our hashtag signs. You are single, your phone and TV remote have their own side of the bed. You cover your wineglass with a chocolate wrapper to keep out the cat hair. No one corrects you about the way you hang the toilet paper. These are some great hashtag signs you are single, your cat is the only one that has access to all your passwords. Now, it hasn't rained man in years, and you blame climate change. They know you as meal for one guy at Walmart. The Jehovah Witnesses just want to be on their way, but you won't stop talking to them. And finally, you've finished Netflix. Congratulations. All right, those were awesome. Those are so great. Check out all those tweets at Jeff Dwoskin show give them all a retweet, play along it hashtag ground up and you could be on a future episode of live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show. I can't thank you enough for stopping by for week 38 Can you believe it? 38 weeks we've been together. This is incredible. I thank you for being with me every step of the journey. Don't forget to subscribe, like follow, tell your friends, sign up for my mailing list, and then re listen to every episode just to make sure you didn't miss anything. And I'll see you next week.

Announcer 56:59

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai