#66 Around The World with Keith Famie

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:16

All right, Richard, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 66 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for another super incredible week of podcast goodness. And we've got the goodness for you today. Oh, by the way, my guest today is Keith Famie. That's right, Keith Famie from survivor season two. That's right. I said Season Two Australian outback. We got one of the original survivor oh geez with us going to talk about all his Australian adventures and we're going to put a shrimp on the barbie that that wasn't even that was a horrible Australian accent I apologize and I will not be even attempting that moving forward. Anyway, Keith Famie here ladies and gentlemen from survivor Season Two that's right survivor win survivor ruled the world. 30 million people a week watch a beat friends. Yes, that show with those six people beat friends on a weekly basis. And Keith has some awesome stories he's going to share with us. He's also going to share with us life after survivor Keith is an author he wrote living through the lens. We're going to discuss his book. And also we're going to dive into a bunch of his amazing human interests documentaries that he's made with this company Visionalist Entertainment Productions. So many great stories, Keith Famie has dedicated his life to putting on film and sharing with the world and I can't wait for you to hear all about them. And now this is coming up. In just a few minutes. This episode of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show is being powered 100% by renewable energy thanks to the inspiration from last week's guest Ed Begley Jr. If you're like, Jeff, what are you talking about? Well, that means you missed last week's episode Shame on you shame shame. After you're done listening to this week's episode, catch up with the Ed Begley Jr. Episode so many amazing stories from his career working with Christopher Guest and dedicating his life to being an environmentalist. He shared some great tips on how we can all go green to check that episode out immediately after listening to this one.

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And now it's time for the social media tip!! Alright, this is the part of the show where I share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you a little 411 you can take with you into the real world and hopefully improve your life on social media. Today's tip is a simple one. don't post angry We live in a time where you're It's easy to get upset, angry about stuff, do what I do, type it out, get it out of your system, don't hit send, no matter how satisfied you think you're gonna feel hitting send, you won't feel satisfied. It's not going to do anything. There are better ways to solve issues problems and get your voice out there then mean posting on social media. So take a second before hitting send. And let's just focus on spreading some love and good cheer and good vibes on the social medias. And that's the social media to tip.

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Speaking of which, I think it's a perfect time to now share my conversation that I had with Keith Famie. With you I dedicate this interview to my daughter Sophie. I hope she enjoys it. I hope you enjoy it. And here you go.

All right, everyone. I'm excited to welcome my next guest to the show celebrity chef survivor contestant Season Two author, executive producer and director of many amazing documentaries we're going to talk about Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Keith Famie. Cue the survivor music dude. How are you Keith?

Keith Famie 7:40

I'm good. I'm good survivor, you know to reach back in the memory banks is almost 20 years ago for me, but I will serve up the best I can for you.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:48

It's really important that we talk about survivor one because my daughter is obsessed with survivor. So when she found out I was what's your daughter's name? Sophie. Okay, Sophie, let's let's get make sure Sophie is obsessed. Sophie's obsessed. So once you find out, I was talking to someone who was on survivor. She got very, very excited. And she started sending me some notes. I'm sorry for that, which I'll read some out. She was mostly concerned that I would screw up the show. She doesn't understand that old school survivors a little probably a little different than the how they do it now.

Keith Famie 8:16

Yeah, matter of fact, I just had a discussion and online discussion yesterday about that about shows now and so on what the difference was, and I you know, I haven't I'm not a big reality TV watcher, I haven't watched your show since my show. So I mean, I just haven't had that time to dive into it. But I think that one thing that really helped our show to be as successful as it was, it was, it was very raw and very unpredictable. And they didn't have a lot of little fun games, this and that and so on. It was just the real raw experience where they put 16 people together who didn't know each other in very complicated situations. And I always try to explain to people you go in as a person, you come out as a cast member. And that's just what you sign up for. And the other thing is that it's really the game is the whole thing is really based around boredom. It's all boredom, boredom, forces, social interaction. And there comes the drama. The selection process is really so brilliant on their part and how they go about selecting individuals to put the certain personalities together. And every three days there's in our case, there was you know, a challenge and some kind of a tribal council and everything else is really just boredom trying to get together and live in from that comes anxiety. And naturally it would be just with family members, little and strange

Jeff Dwoskin 9:26

for those listening. Keith Famie was on Season Two of survivor I think they're on season 550 or something like that right now. Yeah, something like that. CBS is still printing money. Keith was on a real reality shows before people really didn't realize that these weren't totally real survival early, especially Season One was kind of like almost the birth of what we think of I think is reality TV today. You didn't realize what you were watching wasn't just something being taped. Maybe the people doing it did.

Keith Famie 9:58

Yeah. So survivor Really was the the start of it all, obviously, it kicked off and it lit fire fast survivor to is still very much unknown to why we are doing the show, I was really simple. I was a single dad with two young kids, I was offered to play a game, I found out about this game you could play where you got one in 16 chance of winning a million dollars. Those are pretty good odds for me to think you know what, I'm going to toss my hat in this and you know, I was adventures kind of guy and a cook and all that kind of stuff. So for me, it was really about how can I walk away with this money. Now, towards the end of the show, I kind of walked away from the show the game in my head, and I really found my own personal experience with it, which I'm really satisfied. I'm glad that that happened. And then as the show's went on the reality series, boom, big. And what happened was the network's started realizing wait a minute here, we can make a ton of money with these reality shows we're not the pay these actors make it a game, they get gameshow winnings, and the production costs are still very high. But the cost to put these shows on are far less. And if they can create these strip shows the advertisers love it. And survivor, one survivor to those shows taught the audience how to watch. So survivor really molded. The format for all reality shows, every reality show had some kind of a drama, hook, arc, prize, etc, etc. And so it really did start a huge movement. And only in the last five or so years that we started to see sitcoms coming back in a bigger way more scripted, things of that nature. But for a long time reality TV, and it still plays big. And the reason it is is because people vicariously can step into the shoes of somebody experiencing something and it's like, what would I do? One of the questions I always got was how did you get on the show they had 48,000 applicants. And I always said they didn't pick the best of the 48 they just pick the best combination of demographics. So I just fit a demographic single father chef, strong demographic so that if you noticed all the survivors all there are all different demographics. Well, they do that to grab a wide audience. You know, you got the old guys in the middle guys and young gals and young studs, and you put them all together in their society. And so now everybody has somebody to root for, or to hate or to complain about or to talk about and all that crap.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:18

One question I had one of my humble brags, which is not a real brag is that I watched the original survivor before was a big deal. Like once it caught on everyone was like watching. I was like, Oh, I was watching it before it was even people even realized it was gonna be a thing. So I brag to my daughter. One of the things that was interesting about season one, they all sort of at least for a period of time, became famous after the show. A lot of them at least had like some fame, they ended up on this show they were correspondents, etc, etc. How aware were you doing Season Two that now you're on a show? See in season two, I think to this day is one of the biggest rated highest rated show. Yeah,

Keith Famie 12:57

I think it was 30 million people a week watch survivor. Yeah, we've been friends consecutively every week for how many weeks. So the interesting backstory is that I was supposed to be on survivor one, I was interviewed for survivor one, I really threw my hat into not knowing only thing I would do is I could win this game to win this million dollars. So I threw my hat into the arena to get picked. And I went through the application process. And I got picked and they called me and they said we need you to come to LA there was a set date, we need you to come to LA for this last round. So what they do is they after they've gone through the whole other applicants, they've gone through there, they come to each town and do these little interviews, then from all these individuals they pick out Well, in this case, I think it's it's 60. They bring them to LA you're sequestered in a hotel room, and they whittle you down after a week of interviews and doctors and his net down to the final 16. I made it to that level. They call me to do that. And I was going to Mexico at the time to do a show a documentary for the Hispanic community for WD IV NBC affiliate in Detroit. And I was leaving going to Mexico and I was producing this documentary, and I had to tell him I I can't go I can't I can't not do this. I am committed to this. And I said Are you sure you want to miss this? I I gotta let it go. So I let it go. And that was it. The show came out I watched it and I watched the first 20 episodes. I didn't watch the entire series. I watch first few episodes and I said to myself, Damn, I'm so glad I didn't get on that show. I was so obsessed. I was like oh my god I could do all this so glad I wasn't on that show. So then survivor two comes around and the producers reach out to me again and said Listen, you were a finalist for survivor one. We're not know this for sure. But you might have actually been there would have been no Richard hatch because you were the his demographic and we really wanted you for sir. So one. Would you want to do show too? I said nope. Not interested. They call me on a Thursday and call me again later that day, say you sure you don't want to reapply and send everything in for Monday? Nope, not interested. Don't want to do it. And a good friend who at the time was the general manager of the media via Detroit. I told him and I said hey, Henry, they want me Are you out of your mind? You got to do this you got it equipment for like two days into the weekend he called me relentless. You got to do this. You cannot turn us down. As he Henry, I really just just doesn't feel like something I want to do. Oh, you got to do it. You got it. So Monday morning, I called La and I said, All right, Listen, I'll send everything in. If I still have time, I'll throw my hat in. They said, Yes, I said everything and went through the whole process again. And of course, rest is history. And I ended up on the show, but I didn't watch show one, religiously there fact, they had to send it to me to watch over again, which I still never watched it. He's putting the time into it. To see how this thing works. I just figured I'm going to go in and just do the best I can and be the hardest working guy and humble and empathetic and just don't be an asshole just see how far I get. I never win with the idea I'm gonna win the money once you get there. But anything you think in your head goes out the window really fast. You know, the moment your first night with no fire water pole. You don't care how big of a badass you are. Everything goes really quick. For me. It was just how do I get to the next day? Let's just get to the next day. That's I just took a day at a time.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:03

That's really interesting. I'm trying to picture a world where survivor became survivor without Richard hatch. I'm sure you would have been amazing on season one. Oh, I

Keith Famie 16:11

I was not a personality like Richard and and i think that they thought that I maybe had that same kind of extreme type a persona. I wouldn't have been the Richard hatch probably would have done whatever. But I wouldn't say I want to run around New. Let's just start with that. I wouldn't have been nude every time. All in all the scenes. I think that he was he was a great ambassador for the show for kicking it off and all that good stuff. You know, obviously he's had his difficulties over the years, but it was a good move for I think it worked out well for CBS.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:37

Yeah, it's it's amazing that people that had the strategy that they did in season one with nothing to base it on other than counting and he definitely he definitely was. So here you are season two. You're the chef, kind of renowned for infamous for getting into a fight with Jerry over cooking rice.

Keith Famie 16:55

No, it wasn't it wasn't it's funny had this discussion today with one of my producer, one of my film producers, because we're shooting this morning. You know what happened was the producer of the show, the producer, the lead producer, survivor and I are very very close now we talk weekly, we hang out when we can he lives in Texas and stuff. We're just really like brothers, but it really didn't like didn't really didn't like him as a producer out there. His name was john Feist. Everyone knows him. He's a big, big deal name. So I'm up top on a hill collecting wood with Cal and I think Mitchell or something like that, because we had to get word was a big deal. You needed wood for your fire. And I had cooked some rice. And let me back up by saying you're allowed to bring one luxury item. And you give them a list of three luxury items that you want to bring. And then they the producers pick out which one they want. And the luxury item can't in any way be a survival like a knife and things like that, or you know, whatever. It's got to be something that that defines you as a person. So I picked a pipe ham, and I had a lid, they would let me bring the lid. So I was like alright, well I'm kind of screwed that alright. Still, I'm bringing my pipe here. And I figured I can cook with it. I could do a lot of things with it. They didn't think through the process, but I knew I could do and so I cooked rice in it. But I would put my coat over it to try to grab steam and it just didn't do well. So the rice you cook rice on a pot on a campfire with no lid and the rice is going to be not good. But listen, you're hungry You can eat right? So I'm up top of the hill getting this wood and I'm watching the producers John's down there and I see that the rice is there and I can see everybody talking and I'm already in my mind thinking I am being set up. So I'm watching them make these funny faces and Jerry's hemming and hawing and this and that. And so john comes up Tom and I still don't know toy what's happened, but I've seen it unfold down there. And he goes, he goes so there's seems to be a problem with your cooking. He's Oh, what's that, john? Well, they don't like your rice. They don't like the way you cook. And I think Jerry is going to take over cooking. How do you feel about that? Now, of course, he's expecting I'm just going to go off. You know, I said, Listen, I didn't come here and sign on to be everyone's personal chef. If Jerry wants to cook fine. I don't care. And that's why I left it but you know what it? Of course, in great story byte editing came out that the chef can't cook rice and you know, Flash forward to the show's done. It's season. It's episode four or five. I don't know which episode it was. I'm sitting on the couch with my kids watching the show. And everyone comes on and it's the whole big thing. Jerry's like he can't cook rice. What kind of chef can't cook rice. It's terrible. And my kids go Dan Did you can cook rice, you know? And so that was that was fairly upsetting with my kids. But the even more upsetting than that is that every chef's dream is to be in the food section of the New York Times. Clearly it is it's we all would fantasize about that. Sure enough, the next morning I'm in the New York Times in the food section. Chef Amy can't cook rice. Oh, say it was very upsetting. But you know the old adage they give you lemons make lemonade. When the show ended I wrote a book that said yes, I can cook rice I signed a deal with the American us rice Council. I did tours all across the country and I made out just fine with some extra cash, cooking rice showing up cook rice.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:00

That's awesome recording on Oprah. That's really cool. Can you rewatch the show and know like, wait a minute, I explained that they didn't edit that in Wait a minute, that's completely out of context. She's not even meaning that when she,

Keith Famie 20:12

here's what I say. And I said it, if you sign up, you get out a show like this, you got to know you're going in as a person, you'll come on as a cast member, right? You have to understand that they're building a story. And do you agree with all the editing? No, but you know what, what I signed up for, that's just it. Now, people going on reality shows they pretty much know going in, everybody's gonna walk away with something that's not a positive in their mind. It's just the way it's going to be that that's otherwise the shows are boring. So you know, do I look back on it now said, Yeah, they could tell? Yeah, sure. Of course, you know, what, whatever, walking around the bridge, you know, and it's sad, because there are some individuals that were so hurt by their experience, really hurt bad emotionally and have just still haven't come back through it. They live it over and over in their mind, why did I do that? Why did I say it? Whatever, whatever. They just gotta let it go. Interesting. So

Jeff Dwoskin 21:00

so you made it to the final three. I know you said earlier, you didn't think you were going to win the million. But once you get down to the bottom three, or the top three, which we like, maybe maybe I'm gonna

Keith Famie 21:11

No, not at all. Actually the last eight or 10 days of survivor, I really didn't care where it went. I mean, I just I knew I was gonna end up in the final three. We knew Tina Colby and I knew we had this kind of locked in what we were going to do. And I knew that there the two of them are closer than me. So I knew that they'd probably end up in the final two. I anticipated Colby would win because everybody loved Colby. I didn't I never saw coming at Tina, when when Colby was kind of like the favorite of all young everyone. So the last eight days or so I really just kind of you know, I went out a lot of walkabouts by myself, you know, it was it was an opportunity where there wasn't as much scrutiny of what you're doing. And I would go for hours and just sit and just kind of re evaluate my own life and all my failures, successes, hopes and dreams. And so for me, it was really kind of a cleansing process. You know, I didn't really care how it ended up. So I never was like, Oh my god, I'm gonna win the million dollars. Now. I was just so joyful that I had this really personal experience that I started to really be able to relax and just suck at me sit for hours and hide behind a tree and swatch kangaroos walked by I mean, just we can't hear a sound. Have you ever gone someplace where there's no sound except for nature? As far as you can listen, you know, it's really kind of breathtaking and mental cleansing night It's hard to explain. I wish I could teleport myself back there from time to time but it really changed the way I looked at my own personal life. So it's incredible. So I want bars I'm concerned I would rather have had that that has now lasted me through my rest of my life than the million dollars so I'm good

Jeff Dwoskin 22:39

Yeah, Richard hatch won the million dollars and that only brought him woes later on right so you gotta be coming so I'm not gonna pay tax free Yeah, I don't think so. When seven I told my daughter I was talking to you. She's like blaming This is the fact she throws out as a survivor chunky Boston, Rob's wife, he played with Boston, Rob's wife, Amber, Amber, great gal. Amber later went on to win survivor all stars. She says to me, Jerry, she was the Oh gee villain of survivor, the original, the original villain. So that's that's how she kind of looked at a couple more that later went on to maybe some questionable things. So I won't mention their names. But season two, as I read are the ones that the people who played Season Two went on to do more other seasons of survivor they think than any other season. Was there any time that you were going to come back or consider coming back or

Keith Famie 23:27

when they started the I think was the All Stars not sure what it was in 2003 they started reaching out to survivor individuals with informal requests of is there an interest and I got one of those you know, emails Hey, would you have an interest at the time my father was going through he was in his late stage Alzheimer's and I was taken care of I just not not interested at all and and I'm glad because that he would have he died, I would have missed him i would i was held his hand when he took his last breath. And I was there. And that was really kind of a pinnacle, emotional change for me in my life as well. Because that was when I decided I no longer want to be the adventure chef guy in front of the camera. And I don't want to do any more Food Network stuff. And I want to do documentaries. And I was kind of a really. So the point is I would have missed all that. So I have zero regrets for it.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:13

Zero. I've been there with family members at the end. And it's it kind of puts everything in perspective and real fast. real fast. Yeah. After that you become an amazing documentary filmmaker.

Keith Famie 24:25

After survivor I signed with Food Network. So I had a chance to do you know we did 32 shows that were they were adventure cooking shows all over the world, from Tahiti, to France to Greece to Memphis to so on. So on. I traveled I wrote two books, two cookbooks did those did all kinds of appearances. What survivor does is it gives you a small window that opens what you do in that window opens is really up to you. And I always said that the game of survivor really began when the game ended. That's when the game really begins for you. It's what you do with it, how you use it. And so for me, it was you know, it was a natural to move forward with the whole adventure chef thing which I was already naturally good at. And something I enjoyed doing. It took that on the road. Yeah. And yeah, then in 2003, when my father passed, I decided it was time to kind of pivot out of the chef restaurant tour thing and take what I knew and learn from production to help people tell stories. And it's been, you know, a while it's not the most, it wasn't the most financially smart thing to do. It's the most gratifying for me. And I've, you know, we've been able to do some pretty amazing films that do two things, they shed the light on somebody else to help tell their story and they turn the mirror on the audience to have them look at their own lives from the experience they have on that we could take them on, you know, with the documentaries.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:36

So you formed a company Visionalist Entertainment Productions, you've won 11 Emmys. Let's talk about a few of the documentaries you've made. One in particular I'm really interested in hearing about because it's such a unique approach to the story of the Holocaust is shoah ambassadors Mm hmm. How did that come about?

Keith Famie 25:55

So I was at the Holocaust Memorial center in Farmington Hills, mazing beautiful Museum, and I was listening to a Holocaust survivor talk about her experience as part of the Kindertransport. I'm not sure if you understand the Kindertransport is there was hundreds of children were when the war broke out through somebody who was very smart. I believe his last name was Kindler felt he needed to move as many children as he could, as rapidly as he could out of Europe, Central Europe, and get them to England and put them in families so that they were safe. And she was part of that journey. So I was there listening to her talk. She was there doing this talk to high school students. It was a wonderful talk. And some of the kids asked questions, and they got up and left. And I just thought to myself, I don't think they really got it. It's not that the message wasn't solid. It's not that the messenger wasn't amazing, it just that the the distance of generation gap is so severe, how much of it really stuck. So I thought, you know, there's got to be a better way to tell the Holocaust story today through young lives of individuals who know that are not Jewish and know nothing or very little about the Holocaust. And what if we took a couple individuals and immerse them in the world of the Holocaust meeting with Holocaust survivors, traveling the museum, etc, etc. and then let them turn around and tell the story back but they need to tell the story back through their own artistic medium, I was so I had to go I went out we took several months to find two individuals that I felt were really unique, that could be ambassadors, and then you got to roll the dice and just hope the hell it gonna work out. We picked a young gal who was a graduate of CCS in Detroit and she was an art student amazing art student and one of our mediums is glass. she interviewed five Holocaust survivors we set it up all beautiful filming and all that and she asked questions and she came away from the experience of creating a glass 16 inch long four inch wider so train car replica of what they use to transport prisoners to the camps with glass butterflies flying out of it just beautiful. Wow, we're gonna film this with her unveiling it and talking about it with five Michigan Cantor's singing this prayer they're going to walk out from behind me at the Holocaust Museum is a beautiful it's a it's a real train cars are, you know, walk out from behind that singing a prayer that is used on a very regular basis in relation to Holocaust Remembrance with an eight year old girl reading it in English, because once again that the film is not for the Jewish community. This film is for a big broader audience of the of a generation that has maybe never had a chance to really deeply understand it. So through young lives helping tell the story. Our other ambassadors, a singer, songwriter, rapper from Detroit, 22 years old are so amazing young kid interviewed five Holocaust survivors tour of the museum, all kinds of stuff has immersed himself deeply. And he wrote in a stunning rap song that will be used in the film. So besides those components, and we're doing some other things with one of the Holocaust survivors as a painter, so we're painting it when he's painting at home, and at the end of the painting is going to have a painting and I'll turn it upside down, it'll say never again. And then there's a gentleman who was had a little teddy bear that now sits in his museum yonder shum in Israel. And this teddy bear is like the Mona Lisa displays there. And he had this teddy bear through his whole life that helped him through the Holocaust. And there was a book written in done in 20 different languages children's book, he's from Michigan, talk about this little teddy bear and how it got him through. And Haley's actually going to do the interview with him for that. That's the premise behind it. It's really coming together, it's really going to be a just a powerful film that we anticipate will end up being seen in several different school systems. Of course, it's a PBS film as well. So

Jeff Dwoskin 29:31

that's fascinating. That sounds amazing as someone who is Jewish, and I've been the adverse Sham, and I've been to Oh, have you Really?

Keith Famie 29:37

We were supposed to film there, but COVID hit so actually, I haven't I have a call with the director of communications on Monday. Yeah, for sure. And he's helping us some video footage that we need from

Jeff Dwoskin 29:46

them. It's a it's amazing place to go and you're walking through that type of history. And it's you know, is as you think about it as Jews, especially a lot of things that are going on now with a rise of anti semitism and stuff like that getting the word out is so important. And then I think it's it's a brilliant angle to have people who aren't Jewish telling the story, you know, absorbing it and then telling it back. Yeah, cuz

Keith Famie 30:08

it's it's, you know, we've seen it. We've already seen the the impact it's had on individuals that have seen it in little bits and pieces of it. I know we've kind of hit it out of the park here because young people will be more inclined to pay attention to listen and to embrace the story from their peers. Absolutely.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:26

Sounds amazing. Thank you for doing that.

Keith Famie 30:28

Oh, no, no, it's my honor. I've been fortunate to have done so much in the Jewish community over the years and a whole range of from health documentaries to documentaries and Alzheimer's and cancer

Jeff Dwoskin 30:39

is another interesting one, those on the frontlines of cancer.

Keith Famie 30:42

That was a two hour film that it takes a deep dive into cancer. I mean, the real unsung heroes in the film are those that allowed us to step into their lives as they're going through their journey. And tragically, unfortunately, several them in our film did make it but it's it's a powerful film with some great National Medical leaders of the cancer community that helped break down understand all aspects. I mean, we everything from prostate cancer, to breast cancer to you know, everything in between, as well as new treatments and environmental toxins. And it's actually we've loaded the entire film up on our YouTube channel now that people can watch because it's a two hour film, they can watch segments, they can pick a segment and watch it.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:22

Excellent. I'll put a I'll put a link to that in in the show notes.

Keith Famie 31:25

Yeah, that's fascinating. Then we did the one those on the frontlines of Alzheimer's and dementia. Now they're very, very insightful, powerful film, cognitive mental health is paramount. I mean, I'm sure it may be something you think about now. But when you're 60, you'll definitely be thinking about it. Do you have to care for a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer's? You really will think about it. And so the idea is, what can we do now? And that's why we did the film. What can everybody do now to stack the deck in their favor, as best they can to avoid a you know, incident in their life, some of which is unavoidable. But there are things you can do. And so I think the film offers some solid messaging there that can help. We're also loading that one up as well on our YouTube channel.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:04

Do you do any movies or do you that are not PBS focus,

Keith Famie 32:09

you did a film called Maire's Journey toward film festivals and went to Sundance and all that kind of stuff. That's a powerful story about a young if you would like to hear about it,

Jeff Dwoskin 32:19

I would love to hear about it.

Keith Famie 32:20

Yeah. All right. Well, I met Maire she was 23 years old. She was a patient at U of M she had cardiac sarcoma to tumor she had cancer the heart very rare. A lot of people don't realize you can get cancer the heart I didn't know it, and I met Maire, you know, this is one of those stories where you know, people say Where do you get your ideas and I always say you got to kind of keep your eyes and ears open. And I met Mariana fate I was having I was having chest issues, ping issues, they would wake me up every night. I ignored it for a long time. And finally I one more I woke up and I tell my wife I said these things just keep you know, she's like, Oh my god, you're not doing anything about it, you know, better bla bla bla bla bla, so I called it a good friend of mine who was the my cardiologist, you know, he checks up on me and Simon seem really nears but he was the head of cardiology, you have a Michigan Kim Eagle. And I said, Kim, I'm having these these heart palpitation things and he says, Well, you need to come to emergency right now. And then Dr. And Dr. Byrne go into emergency right now. I'm not doing it. Well, at least go to my Lavanya office. See Dr. Monica. You know, Leah, let her check you. And so I went through a treat like emergency EKG, all that stuff, couldn't finding and I'm telling you, they would literally wake me up knowing they couldn't find anything. She comes in. She goes, you know, Keith, I can't see anything. We need to get you in for a stress test. Because I don't know what this is. And I said, Monique, it's right here. I can feel it. It wakes me up. She's I don't know what it is. I don't know, Keith, let's get you back then. So we started talking digressing. She says What are you working on now? So we started we just had finished working on a 13 part series called the embrace of aging, the female perspective of growing old and we're starting to work on an eight part series called the embrace of dying how we deal with end of life and she said I'm not going to young gal, she's 23 years old. Her name is Mary spelled Maire. She's Irish. And she was just diagnosed with a rare cancer called cardiac sarcoma tumor of the heart. I said I didn't get cancer her she's Oh, it's real deadly. It's like cancer on steroids, the hearts feeding and she said she might be interested in talking about where she's at right now. And the stage that she's added the things she may be facing. I said I'd love to talk to her. I was going to do an interview with her and talk to her about the embrace of dying. Does she think about that because they really felt her outcome was really kind of grim. They were trying to shrink the tumor to cut the tumor out. So long story short, went met with Maire didn't bring a camera. She was living in a nursing home she was bald legs are swollen from the edema from chemotherapy, sweet gal. My daughter was the same age. She's living by herself in this nursing home where she was an employee yet because she had this really dysfunctional relationship with her parents should know where to go. She's alone. I go there. I spent a few hours talking to her. She got to know me. I got to know her. And then I said to her, this is a Friday I said to her Listen, I'd like to come back Monday and do an interview with you can I have your phone number? And I'll call it your phone ring and have your number and I'll text you shirts because you Number I call it I'm sitting right to her phone rings. And it's the ringtone the good, the bad, the ugly, Clint Eastwood 1960s spaghetti western film, and I said, hearing out of all the ring tones, you could have a 23 Oh, why would you have that ringtone? I just really liked it. Yeah, but you got to find that up. I marry I don't understand how all the music you listen to. Yeah, I know. I just feel like Maire. That's my ringtone. Wow. Next morning, I woke up, chest pains were gone. And I was so taken back by this internal emotional understanding of what was happening. So I went did an interview with her on that Monday, I left really pissed off and upset that somebody so brilliantly smart, humorous and funny was by herself facing cancer. And so I said, you know, Maire, I'd like to come back and do some more with you. And I started to make the decision that I didn't want her in the film, the embrace of dying. And so she and I became very close. And she had no one. A lot of there was no family that could really help her. So we kind of adopted her in a way and I ended up taking her a lot of her chemo camp appointments at U of M whenever I could drive her there, or I bring her to the office. So she wasn't sitting alone and let her hang out the office. I took her to concerts, I mean anything that I could just felt that could change the direction of the journey that she was on all in the goal of hoping that she didn't get this they could cut this tumor on I mean came very close to when Maire went into hospice and that was the only alternative. Maire wanted to see the ocean. Her goal was she always wants to show she wanted to be cremated and her brothers and sisters were going to put her ashes like Michigan and she float the waterways and see the world that was Maire's thought through from a film I did years ago called Can you see ice I befriended a very dear carpenter. brilliant guy when I say he's a carpenter can build stuff like you can imagine. He's got a woodworking shop that lives in Tennessee now jers drily off the trail build furniture, he's totally blind, big guy looks like Sasquatch. six foot four is a monster. big beard, gentle heart. I said Maire wanted her ashes to go in a boat. She learned to read as a little girl for a book called paddle to the sea to buy a little Indian boy carves a boat canoe and drops it in northern Lake Superior, and it makes its way all the way ocean as people help get it to the ocean. So Maire decided that she wanted her ashes to go on a boat. So George met Maire, they sat and talked, he built Maire a three and a half foot wooden sailboat. her ashes went in a glass vase in this sailboat, and it was launched on Lake Michigan, on cross village beach, and she wrote a message that went on the sale. My name is Maire, I died of cardiac sarcoma. My estrogen in this boat, I'm trying to get to the ocean. If you find it, please place me back on my path. And I'll bless you from having we followed that boat for almost six weeks, planes, trains, motorcycles, people from all walks of life picked up her boat, as they found it tell advance it alone, she finally made it to New York City, her brother and sister flew in and harassed is released in the harbor in New York City. And the film is so it takes you on an emotional ride like you can't believe and it really it guess it, Maire beat it in her own way. And Maire, who is this insignificant individual in society ends up touching 1000s of lives. The people that follow her journey, rooting for to make it and she did.. It's a powerful story.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:15

Yeah. Give me a second. That's, yeah, that's unbelievable.

Keith Famie 38:19

You can watch it online. It's a powerful story. And it's a powerful story about humanity. You know, there's hope in humanity. Girl Scouts, Hatter veterans. hador.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:27

People found it and just wanted to they just felt compelled to move her along. Well, it's so amazing. And so you feel you were the universe sent you there that the pains in your chest?

Keith Famie 38:38

Oh, I wish I was it was my job to tell Maire's story. No question.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:41

Amazing. You're a good dude. key thing. You're good dude.

Keith Famie 38:45

I think well, I enjoy I enjoyed. Listen, we have one time around this, this universe, we have one time in the end, what you do who you are, who you've touched, is all it really matters. That's it. It doesn't matter what you've acquired and all this or crap. It's the people you've touched, and the people you've touched, they've touched you. And the journey you've gone on with them is what will will be remembered. You know, that's the way it's going to be. And there's nothing I can do about it. That's just fact. It

Jeff Dwoskin 39:13

is true as your wise words. You've done a lot and you as you kind of said, the real game of survivor takes place afterwards and you capitalize on that fame and you convert it into telling amazing people's stories through your movies. And that's so amazing.

Keith Famie 39:30

So it really is I enjoyed I I'm jazzed about getting out of bed every morning. The other film we're working on right now we have two other ones one is called chromosomally enhanced. What's your superpower? It's all about Down syndrome. Those that live in thrive with down syndrome. I came to the conclusion that there's they do have they having an extra chromosome they have this superpower and this superpower is them their capability of being kind, empathetic, joyful, friendly, that we're bringing out in this film filming with a young man From the Asian Indian community, he is a swimmer at Novi High School. He Down syndrome can be a powerful feel good film that will help people once again look in the mirror and say, you know, maybe I'm kind of an asshole sometimes. And maybe I should maybe I should be more like individuals that are so kind and empathetic of others, and accepting.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:18

All your movies seem to have an amazing thread and message to them. Yes, they do. Thank you for noticing that though. It's amazing. From celebrity chef to survivor to master storyteller. It's a great journey, Keith Famie.

Keith Famie 40:32

Think about master but I enjoy helping people tell stories. There's a lot of great stories out there. People just need the individuals to care enough to say, hey, I want to tell that story because it'll help others Listen, anytime you can. You can watch something or listen to something that can help you navigate through your own life in your own journey that you're on, I think is important, or a lot of these just to kind of the journey to making them kind of documented in your book. Yes, my Yeah. So yeah, my book, living through the lens is just that I the first part of the book actually delves into early life and my experiences on survivor and all that, but it what it does it really, it's a collection of stories, impactful stories and why I told them why I felt they were important to tell in the documentaries that we've done, how they touched me and how they might touch somebody else. So you know, everything from I spent the night in or at gift of life filming a patient who was 47 years old, who died of asthma of all things, and they as they procured all of his organs, and we ended up following his heart in his eyes to recipients a year later. And I you know, I spent that entire night watching this all unfold with his sister. They're very powerful. I mean, things like that to display a young guy who was a young girl when the Nazis invaded Crete, and they bombed the the island of Crete and she and her father and little brother ran into a cave underneath the church and a bomb had blown up outside and scrap metal flowing through the cave and hit her in the jaw, removed her lower jaw severed her shoulder hit a little brother had took his top of his head off and killed him through her father from there and so on. And she's crawls out. She's bloodied and everything. She's a little girl, and she's crawled out of this cave, and she's crawling through the crater. And she's then shot by Germans shoot her, and they think she's dead and they bury her alive. And her dog digs her up. We took her back in her 80s we took her back to Crete where she was buried alive, really powerful story. I mean, it's it's an amazing love story, because it ends in a way you will can't even fathom and so there's a section and that's part of our film our Greek story. So yeah, you know, I just, I get so jazzed by stories that I know we're gonna move the needle on somebody's thought process. That's just one of them. So I mean, there's, there's a lot of them. Everyone you explain is is equally or more fascinating, the one before it, it just adds they're good stories. And then you know, we did a whole series about eight men and aging seven part series on men an aging 13 part series about women and aging. We'll be posting all those on YouTube. For those films. We do you know what a Blue Zone is. Now, there's five Blue Zones in the world. A Blue Zone is identified as a place where men and women live the longest with the least amount of heart disease, diabetes, cancers, etc. etc. Sardinia, Italy, ie Korea, Greece, Loma Linda, California, Costa Rica, and oh, gimme Oaken Ella. We went for the men's film. We went to the mountaintops of Sardinia spend time with men there. We took a doctor with us, Dr. Tom refine local doctor from Michigan, spent a week with the men. Why do they live what it is? They live into their 90s and hundreds, no medications, no vitamins, nothing what it How is it? They do that low dementias, low cancers, they just get to a point everything stops, they're done. I mean, what a brilliant way to go for the women's film. We went to the villages and ogema to focus on the women there once again, many of them centenarians, and one of the fascinating things to see is none of the more glasses that you don't even realize, wait, no one's wearing glasses, you know, and they're very mobile and get around and we are filming a lunch in there that we've had all the women that once a month they bring all these ladies to the community center in this little village to host a birthday party for anybody had a birthday and they on that particular day they felt that they bring the medical doctors to come and do checkups because none of them ever go to doctors and they end up in a police officer there was giving a lecture on crossing the street and how they be careful when they're crossing the street because their cars well in America. No one would be lecturing a 90 100 year old about crossing the streets. They're not walking anywhere. These women are all out dancing and walking around. And you know, my they're very, very active. Once again, it's a good lesson about you know what you can learn. So Blue Zones are a fascinating place in the world to dive into to understand some of the aging

Jeff Dwoskin 44:47

that is fast and I had no idea

Keith Famie 44:48

fountain of youth in those regions. If fountain use does exist, you have to dig hard and you have to work harder, but it can exist. I mean, I've seen it firsthand.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:57

Amazing Keith, what

Keith Famie 44:59

is your YouTube channel with where would we search to find all these just visual honest entertainment productions? Excellent. And our website is just v dash p ro d.com.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:10

I'll put all those in the show notes as well so people can find it real easy.

Keith Famie 45:14

I'll give you the website, the marriage journey. You can click on it, there's a place you can actually watch the film. Awesome. It's https://mairesjourney.vhx.tv/. But he gets ma I RTS Maire's Journey. Yeah, but yeah, it's a it's a good one.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:26

Keith, I can't thank you enough for sharing all these stories with me. Thank you so much. No, it's an honor. It's an honor to be here. Honor, honor beer. Oh, well, thank you.

Keith Famie 45:37

We're all on a journey. And when you can share the journey with somebody that gets it and understands and appreciates it that makes it really worthwhile. So I just like to capture and put out their stories that can help people navigate through life in some way that's joyful.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:51

Well, it sounds like you have been successful at that. And I appreciate you sharing that journey with me. All right, everyone, Keith Famie survivor, author, excellent rice maker, fantastic documentarian. I loved hearing Keith's journey on the show, and even more so his journey after the show, bringing so many amazing important stories to us. through the medium of film, I'm going to put a link to the movies that we talked about in the episode in the show notes, Maire's Journey and all the other great ones we talked about Jeff, where where the show notes, the show notes, go to Jeff is funny.com. Click on episode 66. And all the show notes will be there. little synopsis links, all that good stuff right there at your fingertips.

All right. Well, the end of the interview means we're getting close to the end of the show. Jeff say it isn't so it is. I'm sorry. It's the way it works. We wait for the show. We experienced the show. And then it ends. I know I feel the same way. But there's gonna be a new one next week. Hang on, just hang on. But the show's not over yet. We still got one more thing to do, right? That's right. It's time for a trending hashtag. When the world of hashtag around us where we read amazing tweets from tweeters across the world. They played hashtag games from hashtag around up hashtag ground up can be found on twitter at hashtag Roundup, you can download the free hashtag roundup app totally free on Google Play and iTunes Apple Store, grab the app follow along and play hashtag games with us daily and you know what can happen one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of a live from Detroit de Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune. Well these fame awaits you. This week's hashtag is a fine one from one of the best games on Twitter roe's rage run by roe, a good buddy of mine his hashtag #MyCookingSkillsInclude that was a great tie into the episode chef Famie's got skills but let's see what you have. And let's explore that with the #MyCookingSkillsInclude: Jackie's include takeout curbside pickup or dine in I'm feeling you Jackie Robbins cooking skills include folding in the cheese. What does that even mean you fold in the cheese raises cooking skills include anything that can be made in a toaster. I'm smelling PopTarts TV and sweatpants. cooking skills include adding copious amounts of alcohol to any dish alcohol definitely can add to any dish. Dan's cooking skills include knowing the difference between barbecuing and grilling. I still don't know I'm gonna have to Google that Frank's cooking skills include removing the batteries from the smoke detector. Frank sounds like you're cooking with too much smoke. Dan's cooking skills include melting cheese on top of everything to hide the fact that it's either overcooked or just unappetizing. Cheese can solve everything Geron says cooking skills include hot pockets and a microwave. I like your style Jarrett's DeRose cooking skills include defrosting ice cubes, is there any other way to make water true North's cooking skills include shucking corn, and the final cooking skill comes from David. David's cooking skills include burning water? I don't even know if that's possible that maybe that's how you get the smoke and why we need the batteries for the smoke detector. Oh, all right. Well, those were some amazing #MyCookingSkillsInclude, as always, I'll retweet these on my Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and I'll list all these tweeters in the show notes. You know where those are, go find them, retweet them shown some love and keep playing hashtag games and one day I'll read one of your tweets on my show. Looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to seeing you next week because we're at the end of this episode. I can't believe it. Episode 66 has come and gone I want to thank my awesome guest Keith Famie. I want to thank again my daughter Sophie for giving me all the good survivor questions to ask him. She's a super fan. And I want to thank all of you for stopping by week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

Announcer 50:11

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 catches 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