PBD - Patrick Bet-David - PBD Podcast | Guest: Chazz Palminteri

Sept. 16, 2021 - PBD - Patrick Bet-David

01:52:19

PBD Podcast | Guest: Chazz Palminteri | EP 88

FaceTime or Ask Patrick any questions on https://minnect.com/ Patrick Bet-David Podcast Episode 88. Download the podcasts on all your favorite platforms https://bit.ly/3sFAW4N Check out the official Mafia States of America Merch: https://store.mafiastatesofamerica.com Check out Chazz Palminteri's YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3tN80b5 Check out Chazz Palminteri’s website: https://bit.ly/3CjUZZC Text: PODCAST to 310.340.1132 to get added to the distribution list The Bet-David Podcast discusses current events, trending topics, and politics as they relate to life and business. Stay tuned for new episodes and guest appearances. Connect with Patrick on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickbetdavid/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/patrickbetdavid Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PatrickBetDavid.Valuetainment About the host: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of a financial services firm and the creator of Valuetainment, the #1 YouTube channel for entrepreneurship with more than 3 million subscribers. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Your Next Five Moves (Simon & Schuster) and a keynote speaker. Bet-David is passionate about shaping the next generation of leaders by teaching the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and personal development while inspiring people to break free from limiting beliefs to achieve their dreams. Follow the guests: Gerard Michaels: https://bit.ly/3fMja9z Adam Sosnick: https://bit.ly/2PqllTj Chazz Palminteri: https://bit.ly/3kaS932 To reach the Valuetainment team you can email: info@valuetainment.com Want Patrick on your podcast? - http://bit.ly/329MMGB #PBDPodcast 00:00 - start 18:00 – How he wrote a Bronx tale 31:00 – Lessons from the movie 36:00 – Turning down roles 42:40 - Wasted talent 44:50 - why he joined mafia states of America 50:40 – Sunny vs his dad 1:02:00 - Chazz on the mafia 1:02:00 – New York, then vs New York now 1:15:00 – Why did mobsters join the life 1:28:00 – Man's man today 1:33:00 – How stardom changes people's life 1:41:30 – Frank Sinatra

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	Because, like I said, I text him back today.
	I said, listen.
	And we're live.
	He says, my girlfriend says, Danielle says, hey, he's making progress.
	I said, tell your girlfriend.
	You're whooping my ass every time I leave.
	I cry like a little kid.
	That's like it is.
	Anyways, today we have a special guest with us, the one and only Chas Palminteri, aka Sonny.
	Chas, thank you for joining us on the podcast.
	It's good to be here.
	It's great to have you.
	I tweeted something out last night.
	We were talking about.
	I said, sometimes the best podcasts are the ones not recorded.
	Because last podcast was insane.
	At Casa DiAngelo, we had a good time, but everybody was asking questions.
	I know there's a lot of things that we want to cover.
	Of course.
	One of the best things yesterday when I was talking to my trainer this morning, when he told the story about both Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson saying their favorite movie of all time is Bronx Tale.
	Yes.
	Right?
	So it is.
	And Jason Kidd.
	Jason Kidd.
	Well, we have to put him there because he's a head coach now, right?
	He was a decent point guard.
	Yeah, Rizzo from the Yankees.
	Favorite movie.
	Wow.
	Oh, I can go on and on.
	Well, keep going, Chas.
	But you got to realize the movie is, I don't think people really realize.
	Like this morning, I'm talking to the trainer and he says, how you feeling?
	I said, good.
	I said, today we got a special podcast.
	He says, who's on?
	I said, we had dinner with Chas last night.
	He says, Chaz, who?
	I said, Chaz Palmenterier.
	He says, Chaz, Chaz.
	I said, yeah, Chaz.
	From Bronx Tale.
	I said, yeah.
	He says, one of my favorite movies of all time.
	I said, do you know that's his story?
	And he's like, no.
	I said, that's his story.
	So, Chaz, if you don't mind, maybe share with us in the audience your story and how it led to you writing Bronx Tale.
	Okay.
	All right.
	I'll try to condense it.
	Sure.
	What happened was I was in L.A.
	I was, and first I was in New York, obviously.
	I'm a New York guy.
	I was an actor.
	And then I said, you know what?
	I'm going to try L.A.
	So I went out to L.A.
	I saved some money, maybe four or five grand.
	I said, all right, you know, maybe it'll get me started.
	And I started like, as soon as I got there, bam, I got on Hill Street Blues.
	Bam, I got on Dallas.
	Bam, I got on Madlock.
	I was like guest starring.
	I was like, all right, man.
	What year is this?
	What year is this?
	This is 86.
	Got it, bro.
	86, 87.
	Exacting things easy.
	So you're late 20s, early 30s at this point?
	At the time, late 30s, middle 30s.
	So I said, man, this is, you know, I mean, I was doing okay in New York, but theater.
	I wasn't doing much film, you know.
	So I said, wow.
	And then all of a sudden, I started, after you do the guest star roles, you know, you start running out of places to go back to.
	They can't bring you right back.
	So I started running out of money again.
	And I says, oh, man, wow, look at this.
	You know, after about a year, I started running out of money.
	And I said, well, I got to go back to what I do.
	And that was I was a doorman bouncer.
	That's what I did in New York.
	Amazing.
	So I said, all right.
	Something you and Gerard have in common.
	Yeah, you and Gerard have that.
	You know, so I got into, I got a club, a real swanky club in Beverly Hills called 2020.
	It was in the Beverly Center, I remember.
	And I'm working there one day, and I'm working there for about a couple of months.
	And the guy's really nice.
	He's let me go on auditions.
	The guy loved me.
	And I was, and I'm a really good doorman bouncer.
	I can really handle myself, but I don't.
	I always get out with my mouth because I'm really funny and I can talk.
	You know, also when I would mess up your pretty face.
	No, you don't.
	Exactly.
	I don't want to do that.
	So all of a sudden, one night, there's three rules to a doorman.
	I'm sure my man over here, Gerard, would know.
	There's three main rules about a doorman.
	What are these rules?
	Here are the rules.
	If you haven't seen Roadhouse, you're not sure.
	You never say the word, do you know who I am?
	Never.
	Because you say that to a doorman, immediately he knows who you are.
	You're an ass.
	You're saying if you're the customer walking in.
	Yeah.
	If you're a customer.
	Yeah, okay.
	And you give him a little bit of shit.
	Could you hold on one second?
	He goes, excuse me, do you know who I am?
	No.
	That is like, if I have to guess who you are, then you're not really somebody.
	And I usually always, my standard answer was, yes, you're the guy who's not getting in tonight.
	That's who you are.
	And that would really piss.
	So this guy got really pissed off.
	And the second rule is, you never touch the rope.
	Never touch the rope.
	You grab the rope, you're not getting in.
	Of course.
	And the third rule is, you never get in the doorman's face, like close.
	So this guy, he comes over, he goes, let me in.
	I have to get in.
	This is my party.
	And I just looked at him, you know, this little short guy, bald with these big glasses.
	And I said to him, Excuse me.
	Just relax for me.
	And he grabs the rope, gets in my face, and goes, Do you know who I am?
	In three seconds, he broke all three rules of this guy.
	Okay?
	And I said, You're the guy who's not getting in tonight, just like that.
	And he goes, You will be fired in 15 minutes.
	I said, Really?
	Yeah, get online.
	Everybody says that.
	And who was the guy?
	Swifty Lazar.
	Now, for those of you who don't know who Swifty Lazar is, Swifty Lazar was the biggest agent in the world.
	Oh, man.
	The biggest.
	Represented, you know, Elizabeth Taylor, everybody.
	The biggest agent in the world.
	Guy, pull this gentleman up, Swifty Lazar.
	Swifty Lazar, you see?
	Short guy, bald, big glasses.
	And I just told him that he's not getting into his own party.
	Get out of here.
	His own party.
	His own party.
	This is Swifty Lazim.
	What a freaking character.
	Good looking guy.
	He looks like Junior Sophia.
	Exactly.
	Junior Soprano.
	Exactly.
	Those glasses.
	Pat, if you watch Sopranos, you would get the reference.
	And sure enough, shit, I get fired in 15 minutes.
	He looks like the Six Fegs guy.
	I get in my car.
	I get him my 1970.
	You know, I started, I was broke.
	I had a 19.
	Oh, so you got fired?
	I got fired.
	Oh, yeah.
	15 minutes.
	You're out.
	15 minutes gone.
	He broke all the rules and you got fired.
	The guy came over to me, the owner.
	He felt so bad.
	He goes, Chaz, I got to let you go, man.
	This guy has parties, three or four parties here a year.
	I got a mortgage.
	I got to let you go.
	He goes, but I love you, man.
	I said, hey, man, you've been good to me.
	You always let me audition.
	Don't worry about it.
	I left.
	I get in my junk car and I drove back to my little dumpy apartment in North Hollywood.
	And I said, what am I going to do?
	I said, I'm running out of money again.
	I'm in my late 30s.
	I said, well, you know what?
	I look up and I see my father's card.
	Saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
	There it is.
	That's it right there.
	Something that I'm very familiar with.
	Yeah, and I see that card.
	I just happened to look at it and I said, because I always brought it with me.
	And I said, you know what?
	Your father's card?
	My father wrote on a card, the saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
	This was your father's catchphrase?
	When your father was a bus driver over there?
	My father was a bus driver.
	So everything from the Bronx Tales, De Niro's part, the bus driver.
	My father Lorenzo.
	Wow, exactly.
	For people that don't know, Chaz, what's your real name?
	My real name is Cologio.
	C. My name is Cologgio Lorenzo Palminteri.
	Get out.
	My friends call me C, my guys that I grew up with.
	So anyway, let me explain to you what happened.
	So I'm sitting there, so I said, you know what?
	If they won't give me a part, because I want to do film, movies, it's very difficult to get into movies.
	I had Broadway credits.
	They don't give a shit over there in Hollywood.
	So I said, you know what?
	If they won't give me a great part, then I'll write one myself.
	I went to Thrifty Drugstore.
	I got five tabs of yellow paper.
	I sat down.
	I said, what am I going to write?
	I always remember this killing that I saw when I was nine years old.
	I was sitting on the stoop.
	I thought they were fighting over a parking space.
	Baseball bad guy was exactly the movie.
	Exactly.
	Exactly.
	Wow.
	And all of a sudden, I remember he killed him, and then he stared at me and I stared at him.
	And the next minute, my father grabbed me by my arm and dragged me upstairs.
	And I remember that whole scene.
	So I wrote that, just that one bit.
	And I did it for my theater workshop on Monday.
	And then everybody was like, wow.
	So I said, whoa, wait a minute.
	This is really good.
	So each week I would write more and more.
	And each week on Monday, I would go back and perform it at my theater workshop.
	And every time I would keep two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, I kept workshopping it.
	You know what I mean, John?
	Absolutely.
	Edit it, edit.
	I would tape everything with a disc, you know, a cassette player, and I would tape it, then go back and look at it, perform it for them, perform it.
	After about a year of doing that, I had 90 minutes of this show that was tight as a drum.
	Your own proof of concept.
	Done.
	Yeah, it was done.
	Because I performed it.
	I saw what worked and what didn't work.
	That's the key.
	You know, I was able to develop it.
	Fat calls it testing, tuning, testing.
	That's what I'm doing.
	The exact thing.
	You have to test it.
	You have to, if you really want to be sure.
	So what I did was I said, okay, now here we go.
	Now, how do I do this?
	I said, well, I got, now, how do I get the money?
	I mean, money to produce it.
	I called my friend who I worked, who I was his bodyguard in New York.
	Not a legit guy, Peter Gation, his name was.
	And he owned the clubs and a legit guy.
	He owned the limelight in New York.
	Anyway, I told him about it.
	He says, you know what?
	He says, I always, I saw you in a play.
	You got a lot of talent.
	He goes, let me think about it.
	I thought he blew me off.
	The next day I get a knock on the door.
	I open the door.
	FedEx gives me a check for like, I think it was 40 grand.
	You kidding me?
	Yeah, just like that.
	He just sent me 40 grand.
	And I called him up.
	I said, you don't even know what I have.
	You didn't read it.
	He goes, no, no, no.
	I saw you.
	You got talent.
	He goes, that's it.
	That's it.
	Wow.
	I said, okay.
	I took the 40 grand.
	I got a little theater.
	I hired a little producer.
	Boom, boom, boom.
	I got a box office.
	I put up the show.
	And bam.
	People were coming from all over Hollywood to see this.
	People go, you got to see this.
	It got so crazy that I had to move into a big theater.
	Oh, this was a one-man show before it was a movie?
	Yes.
	It was a one.
	I did all the characters.
	Holy shit.
	What I said was, I said, I'm going to do a one-man show.
	I'm going to do a movie on stage, like by myself.
	So I did it.
	You played The Little Kid C and I played everybody.
	Roxtal is a film adaptation.
	Yes.
	That's insane.
	You didn't know that?
	No, that's crazy.
	Why am I here?
	What am I doing?
	Gerard, I'm so done with you right now.
	I thought he wrote the script.
	Option the script.
	I thought it was a traditional movie.
	I am so sorry.
	Get the hell out of here.
	You know the story about somebody cut him a chick for like a million bucks to walk away William Morrison.
	And we're going to get to that.
	So what happened was people were seeing this.
	They go, my God.
	They go, this is a movie.
	The man is doing a movie on stage.
	It's brilliant.
	They said all these great things.
	This is what you're late 80s?
	This is 1989.
	Okay.
	So then we went into this.
	All of a sudden, I'm doing the now.
	Here I was.
	I was a nobody, right?
	All of a sudden, Jerry Weintraib, Ray Stark, Tom Pollack, all these people, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Burt Reynolds, are all coming to see the show.
	They want to play Sonny, and these other guys want the property.
	Hollywood A-list is extraordinary.
	Extraordinary.
	Wow.
	After I do it, two weeks later, I get a phone call from Universal.
	They said, we love it.
	We were there.
	Forget it.
	This is great.
	We want to give you $250,000 for the property.
	And I said, I said, oh, wow.
	I got no money now.
	I got 200 bucks in the bank.
	I said, well, what about...
	Gotta love it.
	What about, you know, I'm going to play Sonny, right?
	I want to write it.
	It's my life.
	They said, no, no, no, no.
	We just want the property.
	I said, well, no, no, no.
	I said, I have to play Sonny.
	They said, well, we can't do that.
	I said, well, I won't do it.
	They said, forget the check then.
	I said, okay.
	So now I'm saying.
	$200 in your pocket.
	They offer you a bunch of people.
	Say no to a quarter player.
	$40 million.
	But $1989.
	You got to see where this goes next, though.
	On my hand to God, I'm telling you exactly what happened.
	I do it.
	Three weeks later, they call back, $500,000.
	But no you.
	No me.
	No.
	I said, look, I can't do this.
	I'm sorry.
	I have to play Sonny.
	I got to do the screenplay.
	Again, they said no.
	So I said, forget it.
	So now ICM, William Morris, and CIA are all chasing me.
	They want me, right?
	And all of a sudden, I said, well, I started meeting with everybody, with all three of them.
	So to tell you how crazy this was, guys, how insane what happened was my car had a little hole in the radiator, so it would leak.
	So if I forgot to put water in, it would overheat.
	So the morning I'm meeting with William Morris, it was about the third or fourth meeting, it overheated.
	And I said, oh, look at this.
	So I called him up.
	I said, hey, man, I can't be there today.
	They went, what's the matter?
	Why?
	Did you sign with somebody else?
	I said, no, no.
	My car had overheated.
	Your car?
	You have trouble with your car?
	I go, yes.
	Sit right there.
	We'll call you right back.
	Just don't move.
	I said, what?
	So I hang up the phone.
	I said, what was that about, right?
	All of a sudden, one hour later, knock on the door.
	I open up the door.
	There's this guy there.
	He's got like a uniform on me.
	He goes, you Chasm Pomeroy?
	I go, yeah.
	He goes, come with me.
	I go, well, who are you?
	He goes, I have something for you.
	I go down in my parking lot.
	You know, there's all these beat-up cars because we're all actors living in this dump, right?
	I see a brand new 1989 Cadillac Eldorado black, black with saddle interior.
	He gives me the keys.
	He goes, here, William Morris got this for you.
	He goes, they said, don't be late for your audition, for your meeting.
	I said, what the fuck?
	Second prize set of state guys.
	So I called them up.
	I said, hey, man, what are you doing?
	They said, no, no, no, we don't want you to be.
	We don't want you.
	You shouldn't be driving around.
	You're going to get an accident.
	I said, but I didn't sign with you guys yet.
	They said, that's okay.
	We leased it for two years for you.
	If you want to sign with us, you sign with us.
	If you don't, don't.
	Good for them.
	Good for them.
	That's wow.
	What an approach.
	Right.
	What an approach.
	P.S.
	I ended up signing.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Because, I mean, they just wanted me so bad.
	What an approach.
	Right.
	So would you have signed with them without the car?
	Were you in between those three options?
	But they had such, wanted me so bad that you could, you know.
	You felt wanted.
	You felt wanted.
	Yeah, it's true.
	Yeah, I mean, look, CAA did, and ICM did too.
	They met, but it was more of a meeting.
	Look, we like the property.
	This was like, you got to be here.
	We will do, you know, and there's, you know, so you do it.
	How did that make you feel like that?
	By the way, these are the stories you don't hear about behind closed doors on how they sell.
	You got to give respect to William Morris for doing what they did.
	That's a very creative thing.
	That was creative.
	Yeah, very creative.
	Is this why you're always treating your top guys so good like this?
	But I love this stuff.
	Yeah.
	This is stuff you don't see.
	This is stuff that people tell the story 30 years later.
	Dude, for people that listen to it.
	For people that have never been on auditions or been a struggling actor or been talented and it just hasn't been a right role for you, you could be very, very talented and it's just not in the right place, not with the right representation.
	The entertainment industry is so unforgiving, man.
	You're in your mid-30s.
	Your broken radiator broke, dude.
	How the hell you turned down a half million dollars?
	Where's that willpower come from?
	You know what?
	I don't know.
	People asked me that question, and I was just so driven.
	I'm a very driven guy.
	I'm very stubborn.
	I'm 100% Sicilian.
	And I'm just like, hey, this is my shot.
	And people are going.
	You sure you're 100% Sicilian?
	100%.
	Well, I don't know.
	I got to do another DNA test with that.
	That's a good callback from dinner last night.
	That's a good callback.
	Yeah, that was very good.
	You're saying you're stubborn.
	You're 100% Sicilian.
	So what happened was, now I get with William Morris and they say, we're going to set up this big meeting for you.
	I meet with another studio.
	So the guy has a piece of paper like this.
	I'm sitting down.
	There's 12 people around this big table.
	My agent, one on the left, one on the right.
	The guy's talking to me.
	He goes, Chaz, we all came to see the show.
	We know everybody wants to do it.
	He goes, I have this piece of paper here.
	Goes like this.
	Slides it over to me just like that.
	He says, If you sign that paper, you'll have a check tomorrow for $1 million.
	And I said to him, Patrick, I looked at him and I went, Is there a bathroom here?
	And he said, Yeah, there's the executive bathroom right over there.
	I said, Excuse me.
	And I just get up and I walk into the bathroom.
	I go into the bathroom and I'm just walking around the bathroom.
	And I'm saying, $1 million.
	I could help my parents.
	I could, this is it, right?
	And all of a sudden, I put my hand in my pocket.
	And for some reason, that morning I took the card with me.
	I don't know why.
	But the card was there.
	Saddest thing in life is ways of telling.
	I look at it and I go, and I look in the mirror and I go, fuck it.
	And I walk back out and I sit down and I said, well, I'll sign that paper.
	And they all, like, you could see they were getting really giddy.
	And I said, but I play Sonny and I write the screenplay.
	And the heads went like this.
	And I said, well, he says, Chaz, I'm sorry, we can't do that.
	And I said, okay.
	I stood up and went.
	Express.
	And when you stand up at a meeting, it's over.
	It's done.
	That's right.
	That's done.
	It's over.
	You stand up, the meeting's over.
	That's right.
	And my agents, it's like this.
	They're looking at me like, this kid.
	This cost me $100,000.
	This guy's $100,000.
	So they got up with me, and I said, I'm sorry.
	And I'm walking out.
	And he goes, He goes, let me tell you something, Chaz.
	You realize this movie will never get made.
	Just like that to me.
	And I said, Yeah, it won't get made with you.
	And he goes, What makes you so sure?
	I said, Because it's just too fucking good.
	That's why.
	And he said, I wish you well.
	I said, I wish you well.
	And I walked out.
	And all of a sudden, two weeks later, I'm doing the show.
	Crowds, I mean, everybody's, I mean, it was, you couldn't get a ticket for months.
	It was crazy.
	I'm doing the show, and I get off the stage, and the stage manager runs over to me.
	He says, Chaz, Robert De Niro is in your dressing room.
	He snuck in there after the show.
	He's waiting for you.
	I go, Robert De Niro.
	Bob De Niro.
	I said, Robert De Niro?
	Robert De Niro?
	He goes, Yeah.
	So I walk into my dressing room, and there's Bob sitting there.
	You know, he's sitting there.
	You know, he goes, That's the greatest one-man show I ever saw.
	I said, Well, thanks, Bob.
	He goes, You did a movie.
	That's a movie.
	And I went, Yeah.
	And he went, He goes, Let me talk to you about what I want to do.
	And I just looked at him and I said, Okay.
	He goes, Look, if you end up selling this thing, they're going to come to me anyway.
	He goes, But, you know, he had a nice approach to me.
	But I wasn't going to sell it.
	Wait, wait.
	He says, if they end up selling, they're going to come to me, Bob, anyway.
	They're going to give me the job.
	Yeah, he goes, if you sell this thing to a studio, they're going to come to me.
	So he goes, but I'm going to tell you something right now.
	He goes, I know what you want.
	He goes, I think you'll be great as Sonny.
	And I think you should write the screenplay because it's your life.
	He's an actor.
	He knows.
	He knows.
	He goes, it'll be honest and nobody will sanitize and water it down.
	He goes, it'll be real.
	He goes, I'll direct it and I'll play your fucking.
	No, shit.
	He goes, and we'll be together and nobody will touch it.
	And he went, and he went like that.
	And he goes, if you shake my hands, that's the way it'll be.
	I shook his hand and that's what happened.
	Bob De Niro came in.
	And that's how you make an all for you.
	Batman.
	Yeah, exactly.
	That's how you are.
	And I ended up getting more than the million and played Sonny and wrote the screenplay.
	And not only that, you did so good in that role.
	Unusual suspects, analyzed this.
	My whole career was right.
	That was my whole career.
	Talk about betting on yourself.
	Yeah, you got to realize that there's so many lessons in the movie Bronx Tale.
	It's not like one or two or three.
	It's non-stop.
	And sometimes when you make a movie and you try too hard to put the message in the movie, you lose the entertainment factor.
	Absolutely.
	But you got both of that.
	You got the story and the lessons.
	Now, why did you want to play Sonny?
	Why don't you want to play your dad?
	But I knew, because Sonny, I knew, was the flashy part.
	And I knew I didn't want to play my dad.
	Sonny was the character that I loved.
	Because he was so Sonny was a strange guy.
	He was really a rough.
	He was very tall.
	He was very handsome.
	He was a fighter.
	Who was Sonny in real life?
	Come on.
	You know I can't answer that question.
	People ask me that all the time.
	I mean, he got whacked.
	Anyway, he was a real guy.
	He was a real guy.
	Okay, God.
	And Sonny was based.
	Miami don't know the rules, man.
	Sorry.
	You're right.
	I'm sorry.
	Please forgive me.
	Yeah, okay.
	So, what did he do for a living?
	I mean, really.
	I mean, so, gee, was he a wise guy?
	I mean, come on, stop it.
	Keep going, keep going.
	Can you speak it to this microphone?
	So, anyway, you know, he was I, oh, yeah, so we did it, and it just exploded, man.
	I mean, you know, Bronx Tale is taught in schools.
	Bronx Tale is taught in colleges.
	There's a book called The Moral Intelligence of Children by Robert Cole that he dedicated a whole chapter to Bronx Tale on the education of children.
	Yeah.
	I mean, it's, did I know this?
	When I read these things, I go, man, I didn't know I was that smart.
	You know, I didn't, all I did was write a story.
	Yeah.
	But it was lightning in a bottle, just like Patrick's.
	It's lightning in a bottle.
	It goes so far beyond your normal mob genre.
	I mean, how many guys before there was your electric starter in the car?
	How many people wanted to see if the girl would open the door?
	No, no, I'm telling you.
	No, no, no, it's not one or two or three.
	It's non-stop.
	Chad's question: who owns the movie rights right now?
	The movie rights?
	De Niro.
	De Niro does.
	Yes.
	I own all theatrical rights.
	You own theatrical rights.
	He owns the movie rights.
	He owns the movie right.
	It's crazy.
	Yesterday we're having dinner together.
	And you tell a story about when people typically approach your table.
	You know, when you're at dinner, they're very respectful.
	And sometimes people approach you and they're, you know, they're qualified assholes.
	Yeah, not often.
	Very rare.
	Very rare.
	That happens.
	So you tell this story.
	Like, literally, he's telling the story.
	An hour later, guy walks up to the to there's a background.
	Someone's audio is up.
	So lower your audio because we can hear it.
	Okay.
	So guy walks up to the guy walks up to the, what do you call it, table?
	Right.
	And he says, I know you.
	He looks at me.
	He says, you're my neighbor.
	He says, I'm trying to figure out.
	I said, what's that guy's name?
	So he gets the number.
	He says, I said, okay, cool.
	I said, good to meet you.
	He says, you want to have the show.
	I said, that's right.
	You have the show.
	The guy has two beautiful cars, by the way.
	Nicest guy.
	We're having a conversation.
	And I asked that nice question that you appreciated a lot.
	And then I say, you obviously know.
	I said, where are you from?
	He says, New York.
	I said, but where are you from?
	He says, New York.
	I said, no, where's your family from?
	New York.
	I said, where is your family from?
	He says, Italian.
	I said, you know who this is?
	He says, of course I know who this is.
	And then what does he say?
	He says, he read for the part of Collogiro.
	He read of Collogio and got through three different auditions, was doing it for six weeks.
	That's pretty sick.
	And then he says, oh, yeah, yeah, March 16th, we're coming to the show.
	And for Lauda de Brow, we bought 16, whatever it was.
	We bought 16 tickets.
	We never miss it when Chaz comes here.
	And then he just went talking about shit, right, last night about what it was.
	So that story affected a lot of people to know that, you know, the lessons that.
	But one of the things I want to ask about the lessons in there was the following.
	Is you're walking down with the younger version of you.
	And Sonny is walking down with the younger version of you.
	And he says, so, hey, you know, there's only three things you do in jail.
	What are they?
	I think it's you fight, you gamble, you play.
	You play, you play cars before you get in trouble.
	And you get in trouble, yeah.
	And he says, what'd you do?
	He says, I read.
	And he says, what'd you read?
	You said Machiavelli.
	And he says, what's Machiavelli?
	He says, Machiavelli was somebody, you know, and you give the history of.
	100 years ago.
	And then he says, so what'd you learn?
	You said availability.
	Yes.
	And he said, what do you mean availability?
	He said, I can live anywhere.
	Why do I live here?
	Can you unpack the concept of availability?
	I mean, it was brief, but I'm curious to know about it more than you.
	What happened was the wise guys, especially Sonny, he read Machiavelli in jail.
	But not just him.
	Wise guys have read it.
	It's mandatory, right?
	So, and when he explained it to me, I was like, And I didn't read it back.
	I read a little bit back then, but when I started researching it when I was writing the thing, what I did was I took the Machiavelli principle and I made it into his street language.
	So what I did was, where he goes, availability.
	Well, this is actually right from the play.
	I said, availability.
	He goes, yeah, availability.
	He goes, I can live anywhere I want to live.
	Why do you think I live here?
	He goes, availability.
	He goes, you see me.
	He goes, I'm trying to think how he's done.
	He goes, availability.
	He goes, because the people that's, he goes, a boss always has to be available.
	What a freaking lie.
	Always.
	He goes, because the people that see me here every day that are on my side, they feel safe.
	They feel safe.
	Do you realize how powerful this is?
	And he's saying that they feel safe because they know I love them.
	But the people that want to do otherwise, they think twice because they fear me.
	So, you know, the people that want to hurt him when he's around there.
	It's different.
	I mean, what I did was I took it.
	And I put it into street terms.
	And then in that scene, correct me if I'm wrong, C asked back, well, is it better to be loved or feared?
	Exactly.
	And he asked that question.
	And this is a very big topic on this movie.
	He goes, is it better to be loved or feared?
	And he said, that's a good question.
	He goes, what he says to me, he goes, that's a good question.
	He goes, in my world, it's better to be feared.
	Because trouble is like a cancer.
	When it's small like this, it's easy to cut out and get rid of.
	But when you're not around to see the trouble, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
	And then it eats the whole.
	And then you say the trick is not to be hated.
	He goes, that's right.
	Then he goes, the trick is not to be hated.
	He goes, that's why I treat my men well, not too well.
	I give them too much, then they become independent from me.
	I give them just enough where they need me, but they don't hate me.
	They hate me.
	Yeah.
	Awesome.
	I mean, it's powerful.
	This is the first movie, the first movie in my life back in the day with VHS.
	My father actually woke me up from sleep and said, come on, you got to come see this.
	And he dragged me out.
	We had just moved out of Brooklyn.
	We were in Jersey.
	And he played the scene about, you know, the working man.
	The working man is a sucker.
	A whole powerful scene with De Niro.
	But also, he swears to God to this day, my father was a Brooklyn Mariner and a Garrison Beach husky.
	And he swears to God from this day that that scene with the bikers comes from the Garrison Beach, what they do.
	Let me tell you something.
	Hear that?
	When I hear that, I hear that 20 times a year.
	This came from 189th Street.
	This came from Queens.
	Yeah, I know that story.
	And I go, no, it didn't.
	No.
	Maybe your thing happened there, but no, this happened here.
	I was sitting at the bar.
	This happened.
	So everybody says that.
	Everybody says that.
	Sonny, in that scene that Pat references with the Machiavelli scene and everything like that, prior to that, like literally the minute before that, your dad, Robert Niro, drops C off on the bus.
	He sees you across the street and he sees Louie Dumps across the street.
	Where's my $20?
	Right.
	And you say, well, this is your friend?
	You like this guy?
	And he says, no, he's an answer.
	Yeah, exactly.
	And he says, figure out the $20.
	And I'm like, what?
	He goes, look, look at it this way.
	It costs you $20 to get rid of him.
	He goes to get rid of him.
	He's never going to bother you again.
	He's never going to ask you for money again.
	He's out of your life for $20.
	Exactly.
	He says, you got off cheap.
	You got off cheap.
	Talking about this last night about having to pay for situations where things could get ugly and it's like, you know, in this case, 20 bucks you got off cheap.
	Maybe 50 grand you get off cheap.
	Right.
	You know, 100 grand, the story you told, you could have got off cheap.
	What's the money lesson of that?
	It's just you cut your losses, basically.
	You cut your losses and you know what?
	He can't ask you for money again, ever.
	You got to be Machiavelli on these guys.
	Look, I knew my friends.
	I knew my friends.
	I was doing all this in Hollywood.
	This is a funny story.
	I'm doing all this in Hollywood, right?
	I knew my friends were going to ask me for money because it was going to be in the newspapers.
	When you got the million.
	Oh, I got more than a million.
	Now, were they offering you money when you had a broken radiator?
	No, that's the other side of it.
	So I called my friends up before all this hit big.
	And I went, you know, I'm doing okay, but I need, listen to me.
	Is it possible you could lend me 10 grand?
	Get out of here.
	Now, I knew they was.
	Set them up.
	No way they could give me 10 grand.
	They were married guys.
	The chairs, I can't.
	I got kids.
	I totally understand that.
	Don't worry about it.
	You know, I'm just a little desperate right now.
	Called all five of them, seven of them up.
	Wow.
	And they asked them for money.
	Boom.
	As soon as I got the check, they couldn't ask me for money.
	Of course.
	You Machiavelli.
	I'm Machiavelli.
	You Machiavelli did.
	Wow.
	Wow.
	So what's that?
	They called me up and they said, hey, yeah, congratulations.
	I said, hey, yeah, it all worked out.
	I didn't need the 10 grand.
	Thanks, everyone.
	That's awesome.
	Wow.
	I won't tell you who it is, but the only thing I've ever heard that even remotely comes close to that, there was a guy who played ball wheel.
	He had been divorced twice and was about to get divorced for the third time.
	So he was a veteran.
	So he calls every single divorce lawyer in the state so that when he files for divorce, his wife at the time cannot get a divorce lawyer because he's already entered into conversations.
	Wow.
	So he literally took two days of his life and called a thousand attorneys.
	Veteran.
	Because this was his third time.
	I was like, bro, you really wanted that of that man.
	Well, he's an experienced divorce.
	This is your third one.
	So none of those guys could even attempt to ask him because they already one guy did, but.
	You didn't give me the 10 grand.
	I asked you.
	Now you need 10 grand.
	Yeah.
	I said, no, you want money now.
	When I asked you, he goes, no, come on.
	I couldn't.
	I said, no, no, I can't do it, man.
	I can't afford it, Chaz.
	That's awesome, Chaz.
	Dude, I still can't get over the fact you're in your 30s.
	You're a struggling actor, man, and you're out there.
	You're bottom dollar.
	Somebody wants to buy a script.
	They want to option your script.
	That in and of itself is a dream.
	Half a million dollars.
	No.
	No.
	You understand that that's like hitting on 20, right?
	Like, you're showing two kings in your hit.
	This only happened three times in the history of Hollywood.
	Happened three times.
	It happened with Sly Sloan.
	Rocky.
	Rocky.
	It happened with me, obviously Bronx Steele.
	And it happened again with Big Fat Greek Wedding.
	So it happened three times.
	That's it.
	That what?
	Where the person wrote the one person show and actually was in it and it was in the movie.
	Three times that happened.
	Sure, it happened a few more times and it didn't end up well, though.
	No, no.
	At this level, yeah.
	That's what I'm talking about.
	At this level.
	Yeah, at this level.
	Success.
	Sure.
	Success.
	Where was that?
	And then you turn it into.
	You've been on some of the most insane ensembles in the history of film.
	I mean, unusual.
	How did unusual suspects come about?
	No, they just called me up and they said, they want to off either roll.
	And I was like really excited by that.
	He saw Bronx Taylor.
	He said, you'll be great as that.
	And I said, great.
	You know, okay.
	What was your character's name?
	It was the police.
	Agent, Agent Kujan.
	Kuyan.
	Exactly.
	Yeah.
	And you know what's interesting?
	I was in a room with Kevin.
	I was doing another movie.
	Jade.
	Was it Jade?
	Yeah, Jade, right after that.
	So what they did was they put me in a room with Kevin Spacey for 10 days.
	And we did all our scenes.
	And then I left, and then they started the movie.
	Okay, listen, the final scene where you dropped a cup of coffee.
	Oh, spoiler literally.
	I'm not going to say nothing.
	If you haven't seen suspects at this point, you dropped an orca fat and everything that's going on.
	I was in a barbershop quartet and the music, and Verbal Kent is walking and he's doing his thing.
	Top five scene of all time.
	I mean, seriously.
	They say it's one of the topics.
	I watch that, and you get all the you ever heard I get all the feels?
	Right, yeah, it gives you all the stuff.
	By the way, this is the great thing.
	I like when I see movies like that, I like to bring friends over who have never seen it because I just want to watch their reaction.
	I want to see because I remember my reaction the first time when I saw that scene.
	I watched that scene this morning just to remember.
	I get teared up still.
	Toro, Kevin Spacey, gets the turn.
	I mean, but if you guys have not seen usual suspects, you got to watch the whole thing.
	That's a great movie.
	Kaiser says it, and the final scene is so ridiculous.
	That's a great script.
	Look at what the Academy Award.
	You know, the director, Brian Singer, was brilliant.
	The music was brilliant.
	The actors, it was one of those things.
	Everything just came together, man.
	Kevin Pollack.
	Kevin Pollack.
	People don't know that he's actually a funny guy to me.
	Very, very funny.
	Oh, very funny.
	Yeah.
	Hilarious.
	That's who you're talking about.
	Exactly.
	What's his name?
	Kevin Pollock.
	Yeah, Kevin Pollock.
	Let me ask you, because Great LINE and Entourage is, it's not the movies you do, that bomb that kill you, it's the movies that you pass up on.
	And I, I'm a big Will Smith fan and he was telling a story, you're huge on TikTok, you're getting massive on TikTok.
	I know Will Smith was telling a story about how he turned down the role of Neo for people that don't know in The Matrix.
	The Matrix is rebooting, it's coming back out.
	Really, the role of Neo was written for Will Smith and the Wachowski brothers.
	At the time they pitched him this movie about and he was like, so wait, I'm like Ninja Jesus, I don't, I don't get it.
	Like, this doesn't make any sense.
	And he's like, and it came down to, he wanted to do a song for the movie right, and they're like, it's not really that kind of movie, this ain't the wild west.
	So he literally turned down the Matrix to do the Wild, Wild West, because he thought the wild, wild west he he, he thought nature is going to be too esoteric.
	Nobody was going to get it.
	The Wild, Wild West is going to be a franchise.
	I'm going to do five movies, i'm going to get albums.
	So he, he sits there and he's, and he's telling this story and it's, he's sitting there and he's like man, that was dumb like, ah god, sometimes you you miss.
	Well, that's what I was gonna want.
	Have you ever been offered a role that went on to become a banger and you were like, how did I think?
	Well, one role I was offered and I don't feel bad about it because the right guy did it uh, and I couldn't have done it at the time.
	At that time I couldn't have done it.
	I got off for Tony Soprano uh, in the soprano whoa, and I don't feel no, I don't.
	In fact I, I mean this sincerely, I don't feel bad about it at all because James, who I knew, was so brilliant yeah, and so wonderful and such a good person, and I couldn't have done it at that time, I couldn't have done it, you know.
	So I, I just couldn't do it at the time.
	But I, I read it and I did love the pilot, but I just couldn't do it.
	So I I, I couldn't do it.
	So maybe I shouldn't say I, I turned it down.
	I did get offered it.
	And the second one that I it still bugs me till this day.
	It bugs me because I love the movie so much.
	And that was Donny Brasco and that was the role of Uh, Sunny Blackino, Sonny Bilacko.
	The story of Joe Pistone.
	Is that the Michael Madsen?
	Michael is that.
	Michael was great.
	He killed that thing.
	He killed it.
	But I was offered it first at the time.
	But he killed it.
	And I was directing something at the time, but I could have worked it out if I just would have done it.
	And I went, ah, no, I don't want to do it.
	And it's one of my favorite movies of all time.
	It's one of your favorite movies.
	One of my favorite movies.
	And I think it's one of Al's greatest performances.
	Johnny Deb.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Johnny Debb.
	And I'm so upset that I turned it down because I love the movie so much.
	It's such a brilliant movie.
	I think you would have been monstrous in that role.
	So when you see these roles that these guys absolutely kill, Michael Madsen and that movie, James Gandolfini, do you feel happy for them?
	Is there like, okay.
	My career has been great, man.
	Of course.
	Gandalfini, I mean, he, I mean, iconic in that role.
	Well, sometimes it just works out, you know.
	Sometimes the right person ends up doing it.
	And they were the right people.
	So that's fine.
	You know, be grateful, man.
	You know, life has been good for me.
	Life has been good.
	What's the matter with you?
	Seriously.
	Just smack me in the head right now.
	No, no, no.
	Nothing is the matter with you, buddy.
	I'm great.
	I'm so grateful, you know, that I'm playing with house money, man.
	I mean, come on.
	How do you find that gratitude right there when I guess like how Gerardo said, you're in your late 30s, you got 200 bucks in your pocket.
	Do you think you would still be as grateful?
	Like we talked about last night, health as well.
	Health as well.
	Let's say the Bronx Tale was never made.
	Let's say you were never this big-time A-list Hollywood actor, and you just were this one-man show guy thing going on.
	I can't think of that because I knew that would not happen.
	You had that much conviction.
	He's a Taurus.
	What are you talking about?
	He's never going to, yeah.
	Listen, I was 38 years old.
	I turned down a million dollars with $200 in the bank.
	That's insane.
	That's insane.
	I was insane.
	I said, look, I'm doing this.
	Yeah.
	And that's it.
	What is that emotion that says, I don't give a shit about the million.
	I'm doing this.
	What is that?
	People ask me, they say, how hard.
	I said, you know what?
	The hardest offer was to turn down?
	Was the 250?
	I bet.
	The first one.
	The first one.
	You had the 200 bucks.
	No, the 250,000.
	You had 200 bucks when you were off the bank.
	But that was the hardest one because that came out of nowhere.
	And I was like, whoa.
	Yeah, this is actually what I can do.
	Like, oh my God.
	But after 250, once you turn down 250, it became just numbers to me.
	It didn't mean anything.
	When did you know you belong in that world?
	Like when you were sitting there and Bob is De Niro is talking to you, when did you know, like, listen, I can compete in this world.
	From day one, man.
	Or from day one.
	What gave you that confidence?
	My mother and father.
	Okay, got it.
	I'm going to tell you my mother and father, who always told me you're going to be a star.
	And my father, look, the saddest thing in life is a waste of time.
	Of course.
	And my two sisters, very successful.
	One lives right in Boca Vuitton.
	Beautiful, big place.
	Very successful, my sister.
	And my other sister, too, both of them.
	Of course, the confidence.
	This is my mother and father.
	When I was broke and living in New York, working in plays, right?
	My parents lived on top, and I lived in the apartment underneath when I was with them.
	So I would write on a card.
	I'm in my 20s now.
	I would write, dear dad, could you lend me $20 for gas?
	And I would put the card, the index card, under his door.
	So I didn't wake them up because when I got back from bouncing and stuff.
	Next day, I would wake up and see the card, you know, and the 20 bucks.
	Not the card, I mean the $20 in an envelope.
	And I said, oh, thanks, Dad.
	And this went on for like a while, six months, whatever.
	And then I got another part, and then that was it.
	I never had needed the money anymore.
	Cut two, 25 years later, or whatever, 20 years later, whatever it is.
	I get nominated for Academy Award.
	And I told my parents, you have to come in the car with me.
	Going down the red carpet.
	My wife is with me.
	I said, you have to come too, Mom.
	Dad.
	We're in the car.
	We're just about to, we're pulling up, and my father turns to my mother and says, Should we give it to him?
	And my mother goes, Yeah, give it to him now.
	My father puts his hand in his pocket, takes out this envelope, and hands it to me.
	He goes, Here, you remember these?
	I open up the envelope, and I go, and I see all these index cards: $20, $20, $20.
	And I'm going, What's this?
	He goes, Those are the cars when you had no money.
	You used to put them under the door, and we used to give you $20.
	He goes, We saved those cards because we knew this day was going to happen.
	Wow, wow.
	By the way, you owe me $380.
	Wow, that's incredible.
	Chaz, can you talk about the meaning behind it?
	Like, your dad had this on his card.
	I think I told you this story.
	I used to wake up every week.
	Yeah.
	And after seeing the movie, I was in my 20s.
	I was trying to figure out life.
	I didn't know what I was doing.
	I would write the saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
	Where did that come from?
	I'll tell you exactly where it came from.
	My father, there was a great fighter in the 60s.
	He fought Gaspar Otega.
	I grew up in my father's a bus driver, but he was a trainer, too.
	That's how I learned to fight, box, and stuff.
	And my son is a great fighter, too.
	But anyway, my father found Billy Bellow.
	He was a fighter in the 60s, Billy Bellow.
	And he fought Gaspar Otega.
	And two weeks later, my father found him on the roof with a needle in his arm.
	Jesus.
	And he was devastated.
	You could probably get Billy on Google.
	Billy Bellow, okay.
	Billy Bellow.
	Was he in the Bob Dylan song with the hurricane?
	No.
	Two L's.
	No.
	Two L's.
	Billy Bellow.
	Yeah, Billy Bellow.
	And that's where the phrase comes from.
	And there he is.
	That's Billy.
	Oh, I got the chills when I see that.
	That's Billy.
	Good looking young kid.
	Good looking.
	And man.
	His father found him?
	Yeah, him and with a needle in his arm.
	With a needle in his arm.
	He died at an overdose.
	I mean, 18 years old.
	And my father looked at me and said, Look what Billy, look at the talent he had, Chaz.
	And he said, Saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
	That's where it came from.
	And he goes, He goes, Don't ever forget that.
	And then he wrote it on a card and he put it in my room.
	Your dad seems like a very, very philosophical guy.
	When's your dad's birthday?
	When is your dad's birthday?
	September.
	September what?
	What is it?
	September 12th, I think.
	Okay.
	Got it.
	You were saying your dad seems philosophical.
	He seems from just our art, a few conversations, very analytical about the world around him.
	You know, he's able to, you know, he's a working man.
	He's a blue-collar guy, but he was very keenly aware of his surroundings and was able to interpret the surroundings in a way that, you know, could provide lessons for his son.
	It broke his heart.
	It broke his heart.
	And he was such a great fighter.
	that's where that phrase comes from do you think that analytical mind did that help you in your roles to get into character I would imagine you play the everyman so well But it's been a long time since you've been an Everyman, right?
	So, I mean.
	But I always feel like an Everyman.
	You know, I am.
	I don't take, you know, I take my craft seriously, but I don't take the fame seriously.
	You were very gracious last night at dinner.
	You were taking pictures.
	Yeah.
	The people love you.
	They love this.
	They love your movies.
	Look, what does it take?
	It takes me 30 seconds to take a photo, and they remember it their whole lives.
	That's awesome.
	I always have a card.
	I walk around with a card.
	The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.
	And when I meet an actor or somebody, and they go, Chaz, can I talk to you a second?
	I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	On the street, they go, I go, I only got a few minutes.
	He goes, that's all right.
	He goes, could you just give me some advice?
	And I give them advice.
	And the guy, I said, you really want to do this?
	He goes, yeah.
	I open up my wallet.
	I take out a card.
	I go, here, here's a card.
	Remember this card.
	Take it with you.
	Don't waste your talent.
	And I've been doing this for like 25, 30 years, right?
	Every once in a while, I'll meet a guy come over to me.
	Hey, Chaz, I want you.
	Hey, man.
	Hey, I got a card.
	See this card?
	I go, yeah.
	He goes, you gave me this eight years ago.
	He goes, I'm on a soap now.
	I'm doing, oh, I'm doing this now.
	That's right.
	And I go, cool, man.
	That's cool.
	That's sick.
	That's awesome.
	The impact on others' lives.
	Impact on others.
	Let's talk about the mob.
	So when we started talking and Michael Francis and you had been on his show before, I think it was something that had been done before.
	And I called you and we started talking together and told you about the project.
	What turned you on to want to participate in Mafia States of America?
	What I really felt was when I heard about it, I said, wow.
	I thought about it.
	I said, has there ever been two made guy, two really bosses, sit down and have a sit-down where people could see it?
	And I thought about it.
	I said, no, never.
	I said, this would be really interesting.
	And then I saw Sammy's podcast and I saw Michael's and obviously yours.
	And I said, wow, I said, this could be really something if this could really work.
	You know, if it's real, if it's real, if it's honest.
	Then I said, I would want to, if it's going to be like, you know, you're going to have enactments of things.
	Ah, I don't want that.
	I want to be involved in that.
	But if it's really real and raw, which Mafia States is, when Michael and Sammy sit down with Patrick, I said, okay, I like to be involved in that, you know?
	And then I met Gerard, obviously, the director.
	And I said, okay, you know, this could be good.
	You know, I go by my gut.
	If something looks and feels right, hey, you know, take a chance.
	Let's see what happens.
	Yeah, and you wrote a lot for this as well.
	You contributed on the writing side.
	Yeah, I like to, because I like to, if I'm going to be in it, I always ask, would you mind if I write?
	And Gerard was very gracious.
	You know, but that's what a good director does.
	If they see something in someone, as a director, you galvanize people.
	You encourage people to make the project better.
	Let me ask you, in real life, was Sonny a good man?
	Meaning, when you're, you're, Robert Kiyosaki writes a book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
	Yeah.
	And he says, my dad was poor, but I met this one guy that played the role of my dad and he was a rich dad.
	And my dad followed all the rules, got the degree, got a regular job, but this rich dad was a business guy, investor, real estate, all this other things.
	And I followed my rich dad, not my poor dad, right?
	Right.
	When you look at the life between Sonny and your pops, was Sonny good for society?
	Was Sonny a good man?
	Was he doing the right thing, Sonny?
	You know, that's what makes a Bronx Tale so different and so why people want to see it.
	Sonny was telling me exactly the same things as my father.
	You have to realize that.
	This is not Goodfellows.
	Goodfellows, as brilliant a movie as it is.
	They wanted the kid to be a bad guy.
	Sonny was saying, don't be, don't be like me.
	Do something with your life.
	If you've got talent, do something.
	Now, I thought about this as I got older.
	I could be totally off, but I always thought that I was Sonny's penance.
	In other words, he was saying to himself, if I'm going to do one thing that's right in this friggin' world, I'm going to make sure this kid don't go under.
	Interesting.
	You know, now that's my way I've seen it.
	Just to be clear, are you talking about the character or are you talking in real life?
	Real life?
	Oh, real life.
	Real life.
	Well, he says in the movie, all your friends you're hanging out with, half of them are going to have to be a little bit of a damage.
	They're going to jerk in jail.
	That is my actual favorite scene in the movie where he grabs him out of the, where he grabs him out of the car.
	And the other guys actually look up to Sonny.
	He's like, hey, Sonny, we're going to go do this.
	If I ever see you with these guys again, I mean, that's powerful.
	The things that he says, you think you're a tough guy.
	He goes, you think having a gun makes you a tough guy?
	He goes, it's when the other guy has a gun.
	Now we see what the real tough guy is.
	And you go, oh, wow, he's right about that.
	You know what I mean?
	But the thing about Sonny was he wasn't black or white.
	He was gray.
	And my father was gray.
	So it was these two forces.
	Interesting.
	Gray versus gray.
	Gray versus gray.
	Not black versus white.
	It wasn't evil and good.
	They were both.
	They both had great qualities.
	The bottom line is Sonny was a killer.
	Sonny would kill you.
	But he was a great guy.
	And he was funny.
	People are not just so, that's why Robert Cole in The Moral Intelligence of Children talks why children go, but why children study a Bronx Tale because they go, well, but wait a minute, but Sonny wanted him to do well.
	And what Robert Cole was saying in his book, he goes, Sometimes good and evil is not so easily recognized.
	It's not so delineated.
	You have to look at it and study what's behind it.
	And that's what makes Bronx Tale so different.
	What's great about your dad, though?
	What was gray about your pops?
	My dad, which was incredible, was I couldn't tell my dad, even though he was on the bus, he loved, he worked with black people and he was kind to them and wonderful.
	And they loved him because he would always talk to them and he always helped him.
	He didn't want, I knew it would bother him if I dated a black girl.
	I knew it would.
	I knew it would.
	And I think the reason why.
	It was a product of the Times.
	It was a product of the Times, 1968.
	It was insane in 1968.
	Race riots, race riots.
	Kennedy got assassinated.
	Mother Luther King got it.
	I think when I got older, I asked him that question when I got older.
	I said, Dad, you know, I did date a black girl.
	I said, Why?
	He goes, I know you and Tommy.
	He goes, I figured you were.
	And I said, Why were you upset about that?
	Why you don't like that?
	He goes, I was afraid for you because of my love for you that I didn't want you to go through that.
	Had nothing to do with her, but in a way it did, he says.
	I just, as a son, you didn't want your child to go through what he's about to face.
	So I understood that where Sonny was different, he was like, Hey, black, white, what's the difference?
	Go ahead.
	Interesting.
	Morality, yeah.
	Morality.
	So, so with you being, do we have the clip with Rudy or no?
	The clip, do you have that where he talks about the Italian family or no?
	Kai, you're looking at me like a doctor, like you're confused.
	Yes, no, maybe you do have it or you don't have it.
	Kai, I'm just absolutely concerned.
	No, no, Kai today with his glasses.
	No joke, Kai, you look like a professor at Harvard, maybe Wharton Business School.
	That's what I'm leaving.
	I'm going from the accounting look.
	You're going for what?
	Carl from accounting.
	Is that what it is?
	You got the look.
	It works for me.
	It works for you.
	Pat, that gray area thing, that's very interesting.
	Is that what attracts you to the mafia genre?
	I think business is gray.
	I think business is gray.
	I think leadership is great.
	I think parenting is great.
	I think it's very hard for a black and white person to make it in business.
	I think it's very hard for a black and white person to make it in many different industries.
	Because here's a challenge: like, you know how he talks about the whole $20, the Bronx Tail, and then you say the $100,000 with me.
	It's not the $100,000.
	It's the fact that your mind is consumed with the thought of that guy that has your money.
	That sucks your energy out, right?
	So the gray part, if somebody's in the gray, they understand it.
	They're like, it's part of the game.
	I got to move on.
	The black and white part is you have to go get that money back.
	You know, because you're so stuck on the principle of the fact versus the grays, like, let it go.
	You need that energy, put it here to make 10 million rather than trying to consume so much time.
	So, no, I think on the business side, by the way, you learn gray the hard way.
	You don't learn it the easy way.
	It comes with experience.
	That's not something that you can read about.
	But were you black and white at one point, and then you had to.
	My dad's a black and white guy.
	My dad raised me.
	You met my dad.
	My dad is very, you know, strong personality that he has, but he's got a sweet side to him as he's a good person.
	He's the sweetest guy.
	Yeah, he doesn't.
	But let me tell you, my dad's a high standard guy.
	It's like, you know, you say one time to him, you're going to do something.
	I swear to God, if you don't do it, he's going to call you 100 times about it.
	But I had to learn on the business side, it's very complicated.
	This whole Machiavelli thing that you talk about, you know, there's a lot of that that applies to business.
	This is why books like 33 Strategies of War, Art of Seduction by Robert Greene, you got 48 Laws of Power.
	Got these.
	These things apply to business, but but going back to with the mafia, going back with the mafia, Chaz is uh for you.
	You know uh, uh.
	What do you think about the mob?
	You know?
	What is your feelings about the mob?
	There's different uh, we have a close uh, uh people.
	I will go to Rudy here in a minute.
	I just want to know what he thinks.
	What do you think about the mob at this point of your life?
	You've been around it.
	You get a lot of uh, sometimes people I mean, you've read it, you've seen it you you, this is you, it's your life.
	People claim you were part of it, like maybe there was some affinity to it, a connection to it.
	But what are your thoughts when you think about the mob?
	Well, the mob is not what it once was, that's for sure.
	It's kind of like all fractured.
	You know it's not what it once was.
	And what, what was it?
	I mean, could you say at one time it was, there was real honor?
	Yeah probably, maybe the old timers there was.
	But what's, what's the benefit of of shaking down your own neighborhood and people have to pay you money?
	I don't, I don't know.
	You know it comes down to what my dad said, real respect real, real people who are real men go out and they get a job and they work for a living, take care of their family.
	That's a real man.
	He goes.
	He said it doesn't take much strength to pull a trigger, but get up in the morning every day.
	So I see them, I do, I admire them.
	No, I have do I?
	I still see them and now I have fun with them.
	When I see them, I laugh, I talk, but I I, I respect my dad.
	You know, I respect the guy who gets out and and works and works hard.
	Working man's not a sucker.
	The working man is not a sucker.
	No, he's not, he's not.
	Look, everybody in the wise guys that I knew ended up dead or in jail.
	So if somebody told you, if you walk out that door, every time you walk out that door you're going to get hit in the head with a bag of garbage, you stop walking out that door.
	But these guys keep walking out that door.
	Yeah, they know they're.
	Why do they keep walking?
	That's part of that fascination, because that that life kind of doesn't exist anymore.
	These were kind of like the modern pirates.
	This is the Wild West, this is Jesse James.
	It's romantic looking back at it and saying wow, these guys took life by the horns.
	They did whatever they wanted to do and nobody could say anything right.
	But if you lived with them, if you lived with that type of person, it had to be a hard life to deal with that.
	Well, the movie is romanticized.
	They have terrible lives.
	They have terrible lives.
	Their kids are always forget it.
	If they they're not there with their children, their kids end up bad.
	I mean, i'll tell you.
	I'll tell you a story about a big wise guy in my neighborhood.
	Oh he I, I don't want to mention his name um, but his son, his son became a wise guy.
	He wasn't made his son, yet he ended up getting made.
	Uh no, i'm sorry he never got made.
	He was so crazy.
	And i'm sitting there, i'm with, i'm standing there with a priest, my best friend, and this guy, this wise guy on the corner, his son is walking up the block.
	Son was maybe 20.
	Okay, son is going.
	Now I could curse right, I mean, of course yeah, and his son's walking up and he goes, fuck that, fuck that.
	And he's going.
	I don't, I don't give a, he's talking to another guy fuck that and I, and it's like there's a priest right there and he walks.
	He goes hey dad, what the fuck?
	And his father goes, what's the matter?
	What the hell's wrong with you?
	He goes.
	The fucking guy just he pulled his shit with me in the scam.
	He goes, I swear to god dad, i'm gonna shoot him, i'm gonna kill him, i'm gonna kill him.
	And his father, standing right there, goes quote, the hell's the matter with you.
	You're saying things like that in front of people.
	So i'm saying to myself, oh, he's gonna, you know, reprimand his son, right?
	You don't ever say things like that.
	What's wrong with you?
	He goes, if you're gonna whack somebody, you don't say it in front of anybody, which is good advice.
	Yeah, this is a father talking and I was like, did he just say that?
	I was like the there was a priest there and we both looked at each other like, Did he just say that?
	If you're going to whack somebody, you keep your mouth shut.
	I'll be with you guys in one minute.
	He walks away with his kid.
	Now, what shot does this kid got?
	What happened to him?
	That value at 20 years old.
	At 20 years old.
	What happened to this kid?
	Yeah.
	Killed three people.
	Life in prison.
	He ended up killing three people.
	Killed two guys, and then he killed the guy in jail.
	He's gone.
	Jeez.
	Do you expect different how he grew up?
	Right.
	You're expecting the father to be like, you don't do that.
	What's wrong with you?
	What's wrong with you?
	If you're going to do that, you don't tell nobody.
	Keep it low.
	What?
	And I was like, I was like, wow.
	Did you see anybody?
	Did you see anybody that was able to have a normal life or no?
	Yeah, my friends.
	No, no, on the mob side.
	Made-man, mob side, you know.
	No.
	Okay.
	No, ever.
	No.
	The number runners, some of the number runners, yeah, I knew them.
	They passed the father to the son, to the son.
	They had just normal lives, but they were just number runners.
	Bookies, yeah.
	Sal Romano was here yesterday.
	He said something.
	He says, you know, you know why everybody eventually flips and they go cooperate?
	I said, what?
	He says, if the mob did one thing, nobody would ever cooperate.
	I'm like, what is that?
	He says, if they, he says, we're not afraid of going to jail.
	We're not afraid of going away.
	We already understand that.
	That's part of it.
	Every one of us has done a little bit of time.
	I'm like, let me see what this guy's going to be saying.
	He says, if the mob had a program to take care of the wives and kids when you went away, nobody would cooperate.
	That's bullshit.
	Yeah.
	That's what he said.
	I'm just telling you what he said.
	That's bullshit.
	Okay.
	So go.
	That is bullshit.
	Tell me why.
	Because it's bullshit.
	Because they're just trying to justify why they can't wait to get they all sing as soon as they get caught.
	They have run.
	They raced to the DA.
	Who's going to make the deal first?
	It's bullshit.
	Listen, my friend, you saw Rudy Giuliani.
	One of my closest friends worked for him, and Rudy knows him very well.
	And I'll tell you who he is.
	His name is Phil Folio.
	He passed away, my closest friend, with COVID.
	When COVID happened, it still breaks my heart.
	Anyway, Phil told me with these wise guys, because he worked with Rudy.
	He put them all away.
	It's just one wise guy who goes into his office, right?
	He's sitting down at the chair.
	Of course, Phil's going to speak to him about, you know, flipping.
	So he goes, listen, you want to make a deal with me and blah, blah, blah.
	And all of a sudden, Phil told me the story.
	He goes, the guy just sits back and goes, well, you know, Phil, I don't know what I want to do.
	I got to think about my future.
	Those were the words he said.
	My friend Phil gets up, right?
	There's two detectives in the room with him.
	He says, come here.
	Come here.
	Picks the guy up, grabs him by his arm.
	Come here, come over to the window.
	Brings him over to the window and says, look, you see that sun over there?
	You see the sun?
	Right?
	He goes, the next time you see that sun is going to be the year 2040, 2040.
	That's when you're going to see it.
	Because I'm going to put you the fuck away for 40 to 50 years.
	Now get the fuck out of my office.
	They brought him out of the office.
	10 minutes later, he came back.
	He goes, I'm sorry.
	They made a deal.
	Come on.
	Stop it.
	When somebody's telling you you're going to sit in a box for 40 years, 50 years, you talk.
	It's got nothing to do.
	full of shit there's so that's yeah I I mean obviously that's why I wanted to ask you but there are some people that look at Rudy and they say Rudy as an Italian how the hell you put so many people away as an Italian You put away your own people.
	Yeah.
	And it went to jail.
	You, you did this with the Rico law, all this stuff that you go through.
	What do you think about Rudy with what he did in the 80s to the mob?
	I think Rudy was great.
	Yeah.
	I mean, look, I mean, I got to be honest with you.
	When he came to my neighborhood, they booed him.
	They, you know, they didn't like him.
	Yeah.
	It was, you know, because, you know, but is Rudy a good man?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	He put people away.
	These guys are bad guys.
	You know, don't get me wrong.
	I hung out with them, but I didn't become a wise guy.
	I don't want to be a wise guy.
	They're bad guys.
	They're the first ones to tell you that.
	Are there some stand-up guys who don't rat?
	Yeah, Benny Eggs, the old-timers, guys like that.
	Sam Francis.
	Yeah, they didn't rat.
	You know, that's it.
	They don't rat.
	And okay, but that's it.
	If you want to go that, listen, John Gotti didn't rat.
	Say what you want about John Gotti.
	He was a gangster to the end.
	To the end.
	You know, I'm not saying, but at least he stood by his code and said, no, this is it.
	This is it.
	A guy told me a great story.
	I won't tell you who he was.
	But when Gotti was on his deadbed, when he was dying from throat cancer, a priest walked in.
	And the person whispered to John, you know, there's a priest here.
	Do you want the priest to...
	And John went like this.
	Right to the end, man.
	No.
	He already made his decision.
	He already made his decision.
	No, no.
	He didn't want to give me.
	No, I don't know if it's that.
	I don't know.
	How do you interpret that?
	I interpret it like I don't need a priest.
	I made my decision.
	But do you think he's saying, I don't need a priest, or do you think he's saying there's no way I'm going to have a spot in heaven?
	Like, there's no way I can get in.
	How do you think you process that?
	I don't think he was even thinking that.
	Yeah, got it.
	I don't think at that moment.
	I can't, like, is it like I can't believe it?
	I don't know him.
	I never met him.
	But I think a wise guy was just saying, like, nah, you know, I don't want to deal with it.
	It looks like I'm giving up at the end.
	Now, not to give the audience too much here, but there's a gentleman in obvious States of America that may disagree with this sentiment.
	No, no question about it.
	I mean, obviously, there's a part of it that, you know, some on the other side who from Sammy's camp may say in the recording, John did kind of throw Sammy under the bus saying he was going to have somebody take him out.
	So there was that.
	I don't know about that.
	Again, those things I don't know about.
	All I know is the guy didn't rat.
	You know what would be a great sit-down?
	You know what would be a great sit-down?
	Yeah.
	You know what would be a great sit-down?
	Junior and Sammy would be a great sit-down.
	Yeah, that would be, poo, I don't know about that.
	We wouldn't need to have a fence.
	You would probably have a family.
	We would need to have a lot of people.
	John Gotti, too, John Gotti Jr.
	Oh, yeah, because let both of them hash it out in front of the world and talk to one another.
	Now, the likelihood that happening, that's probably not.
	But you're not going to get it.
	Look, you're not going to get an answer.
	You're not going to get a truthful answer.
	But what would happen is, you know what would happen is I'm a big fan of a good debate.
	You know, what does a good debate do?
	We don't necessarily end up getting an answer, but we get a little closer to the truth, right?
	A good debate.
	Because you watch body language, you see one person backing down, you see one person gets nervous.
	You see one person really gets annoyed when you poke them in an area that's like, listen, you don't poke me.
	You can poke me anywhere.
	This one area, you went after this person.
	We learn a lot.
	So I don't know.
	I'm not telling you it's going to happen.
	The likelihood is slip to none.
	But I'm just saying.
	That would be something I don't know.
	I don't know if that could happen.
	I don't think neither Junior nor Sammy would agree to do that sit down.
	I don't think they would.
	I think there's too much water under the bridge.
	I think so as well.
	I think they couldn't even talk about certain things.
	Yeah.
	Now, if it did happen, how crazy would that be if it did happen?
	If it did happen, we would probably need to get the National Guard there.
	We would probably need to get the military there.
	We probably need to call security.
	Yeah, I just don't think it could happen.
	Yeah.
	Now, the setting, too, is very, very important, right?
	Like, you were talking about Rudy and who talked, who didn't talk.
	The New York you grew up in is so different from the New York people know today, especially in the Bronx.
	The Bronx was burning back in the day.
	I mean, you were 60s and 70s in the Bronx.
	There was a five-alarm fire every day.
	They were trying to burn the tenants out.
	You know, then the late 70s, late 70s was son of Sam, right?
	I mean, like, the New York you grew up in, a lot of times I hear the stories, it feels like it was a little bit of a war zone, man.
	It was a crazy time, but I have to say, I didn't have a, I had a great childhood.
	I had a wonderful childhood.
	So people always go, my God, the childhood.
	I go, no, no, it was great.
	You know, the wise guys ran the neighborhood.
	We were all Italian guy kids growing up.
	Well, everybody was Italian in the neighborhood.
	It was great.
	So I can't say, I didn't have, to me, it didn't look like bad, you know.
	Race riots, the Bronze.
	No, Bronx is burning.
	There's no race riots in my neighborhood.
	There was none.
	Everybody was Italian there.
	But it was our turf, you know, like Bronx Hill.
	We owned that.
	And then the blacks owned from where Webster Avenue was.
	The Puerto Ricans owned a different area.
	So you stayed in our area.
	Reggie Jackson, Thurman, Munson.
	I mean, come on, crazy.
	Yesterday, Chaz is at the house.
	And Tico and Dylan are like, hi, how are you?
	I said, do you know who he is?
	No.
	They say he's a very, very famous actor.
	Really?
	What movie were you in?
	They're just like having a conversation.
	I say, Bronxdale.
	I said, do you think it's time for them to watch Bronxdale?
	Chaz says, how old is your son?
	I said, Tico's nine years old.
	He says, you know, that's how old it was when I saw a guy get shot right in front of me.
	I said, they're probably ready to watch Bronxdale.
	I know.
	When will you let the kids watch?
	Listen, we've already watched movies they shouldn't have watched.
	So we'll probably be ready.
	We just haven't had the time to watch it.
	And Dylan's what, six, seven?
	Dylan is seven.
	You know what?
	And I never noticed that about that until I had a son.
	And then when my son became nine, I turned to my wife.
	I never forgot it.
	And I said, I said, John, you know, Dante, and Dante, my son grew up in Bedford, you know.
	So I look at him and I go, he was, I was that age.
	And it was like weird to me.
	Great childhood.
	When I see a child who's, a child who's nine or ten years old, I look and I go, how could I be at that age seeing what I see?
	It was crazy, right?
	It was crazy, man.
	Can I ask more of a lighthearted question here?
	We were talking about it last week.
	Women again, are you going to go to the women?
	We're going to go to women.
	We're going to go to women.
	How'd you know?
	Well, you talked about, you know, the girl, the black, are you going to be here?
	Let's stay here.
	Let's before we go there, because that's like a complete race.
	We're going to begin on the 95 freeway.
	Let's stay on A1A for a while.
	We're going to stay there.
	Kai, can you pull up the video about Giuliani before we take the street for, because Adam's trying to learn about women's family?
	I have questions.
	You want to learn about women?
	Go to my podcast, Chaz Palmeteri Show.
	There it is.
	I talk about women all the time.
	By the way, Kai, put the link to his podcast in the comment section as well as the description.
	Folks, go subscribe to Chaz's podcast.
	You do this how often?
	You do show how often?
	I do a new show each week.
	Each week, a new show.
	Okay, fantastic.
	So Rudy says some things here about this is when he talks about.
	It's part of the Italian heritage.
	It's just part of the Italian immigrant status.
	It's part of the dealing with this was just part of being from an immigrant family and being in Italian New York.
	Play it.
	I want to hear Chaz's thoughts on this.
	It's nearly as serious as he thought it was.
	I mean, it's the kind of thing you could easily explain as had nothing to do with Matilda.
	It had nothing to do with Mario, and it's the kind of thing that happened back in those days when you had to conduct a business, and if you didn't play ball with them, you were going to...
	they were victims.
	They weren't.
	They easily could have been interpreted that way.
	That's the way I interpreted it.
	But he saw shadows about it.
	You know how sometimes people are more embarrassed about something than they should be?
	I always thought that was the case with Mario.
	Largely because he was very ethical and a very good man.
	Mario was.
	This is about characteristics.
	This is about Italian heritage or something.
	Yeah, this was, he's talking about Mario Pomo taking it too seriously.
	Outdated.
	That whole thing about, you know, there's two Americas, one for the rich, one for the poor.
	I think that ended during the Depression.
	I didn't think if he ran, he would get elected.
	I thought he could be nominated, but I thought his message was too outdated, and I don't think he could have beaten Ronald Reagan, who was...
	Mario was a very brilliant man.
	He was not a particularly great candidate.
	His speeches were more designed for Kai, look for what part we're looking for.
	This was not it.
	What I'm looking for is when he talks about early on.
	Chaz has a great, a great, you have an absolutely fantastic monologue, too, about the, we can pull that up as well.
	But you gave it really as an improv during our recording process about how, you know, just to be very clear, not every Italian is in the mob.
	No.
	And Italians do not have a monopoly on organized crime.
	Absolutely not.
	Kai, if you have that one, we can pull that one up real quick.
	I mean, I thought that that was a brilliant, brilliant statement that you had made as far as what the real backbone of the Italian American community is.
	All Italians aren't in the mafia.
	It's important to remember Italians don't have a monopoly on organized crime.
	And that the true fabric of an Italian neighborhood is the working man, the baker, the bus driver, the cop, the seamtress.
	You may have heard this once before, but it doesn't take much strength to pull a trigger.
	But get up in the morning and work for a living.
	In my opinion, that's the real tough guy.
	And remember, the choices you make will shape your life forever.
	For Valutainment Media, I'm Chaz Palmonteri.
	Yeah, I thought that that was like a really, really powerful.
	When you were growing up, when you were, you know, you had not even thought about doing a Bronx Tale, you're just living this life.
	Did you feel a pull towards, like you guys were talking about, Gray?
	Yeah.
	But did you feel like it could have gone either way for you?
	Do you feel like it could have?
	I don't know if it was that close.
	I mean, I admire them, but you see, back then it was different.
	Bad guys and good guys would all hang out together.
	We would all hang out on the corner.
	You know, we had no club or anything.
	We were straight guys.
	We all hang out on the corner.
	And it was very easy to go, we're going to go do this.
	We're going to go do that.
	So the good guys would hang and the bad guys would go do what they got to do.
	You know, so, and every time it was like, hey, Chaz, you want to come?
	And I would be about to, then I'd go, nah, nah, I'm cool, man.
	Because I never wanted to hurt my mother and father.
	Were you ever tempted to join the life or no?
	I never got that close to join the life.
	No, I can't even say that.
	Did you get an invitation?
	Was it kind of like, hey, Chaz, you know, you'd be great in the life or no?
	No, it was never that.
	It was more like you get involved in a small way.
	You start doing the car.
	They were chopping up cars.
	You want to go there.
	Then you chop up cars.
	Then you'd meet somebody else and you meet a bigger boss.
	And that's how it happens.
	I just never went there.
	I just didn't want to do it.
	If your father had different values to teach you, could that have happened?
	Oh, yeah.
	So let me ask you this question.
	Because for me, I'm always trying to find a motive and what caused somebody to go into that life.
	When you hear the story about some of these guys with their fathers, it's like automatic.
	Okay, this makes sense.
	This person's going to be it.
	So how much of it you think is the individual that wants to be part of the life?
	How much do you think it's the influence of the parents?
	Oh, the parents.
	Oh, you put it on the parents.
	I'm saying the parents definitely just...
	Got it.
	Because when you're young, what is a parent?
	A parent is a mirror.
	Kids watch the way you treat your wife.
	They watch what you do.
	They watch you get up in the morning and go to work.
	If they see that, they go, oh, that's how you're supposed to be.
	They grow up and they mirror you.
	You know, if you treat your wife bad, they'll grow up, they'll treat their wife bad.
	It's very simple.
	So you really have to, as a father, you got to watch them.
	My father led by example.
	My mother led by example.
	And they loved me so much.
	I love my sisters.
	I didn't want to hurt them.
	My father said, don't ever let me have to come to jail at Bailioboo.
	Please don't ever do that to me.
	That would kill me.
	Me and I said, oh, dad, don't worry about it.
	I wouldn't do that, dad.
	And I didn't.
	Well, sometimes when your parents do not set a good example, if you have a good moral compass, you might say, I'm never going to be like my father.
	I'm never going to do that.
	I'm going to do the exact opposite.
	I've seen Billy's father, and that's a man that I want to emulate.
	And some people go down a different road.
	That's hard.
	Show me people who do that.
	That was me.
	I did not have a good relation to my father.
	He was doing some things I didn't agree with.
	I said, I'm never going to be like you.
	Some people can do also that.
	It's harder.
	It's harder.
	It's harder, but it is possible.
	It is possible.
	Just because, you know, it shows the value of.
	But there is a part that affected you, though.
	I mean, if you think about it, there's a part of it that affected you.
	There's certain things in life that probably, how hard is it for you to find somebody right now that you want to make your wife?
	How hard is it for you?
	Because you're overthinking it.
	Like, what if it doesn't work?
	What if it's this?
	What if it's that?
	Because there's a part of that fear.
	Like, I don't want to ever get married.
	To me, it's like, I'm never going to get married because, shit, I saw my parents get two divorces in 20 years.
	I don't even want to deal with this marriage stuff.
	But I really wanted to have kids and I wanted to have a family.
	I wanted to have that legacy type of thing.
	Right?
	So it just tells you the power of parenting, man.
	It tells you the power of parenting.
	I had a friend of mine, his dad would always slap him in the face in front of us.
	And the kids would kill him.
	And this was a grown kid.
	I would slap him in the face.
	Man, I would walk away.
	I'm like, dude, I can't be in your house, man.
	I can't come to your house.
	He said, well, I can't watch your dad slap you in the face.
	It makes me feel uncomfortable.
	I'm not cool with that.
	It's very, very awkward to see that take place.
	And what happened with that guy?
	He's no longer with us, man.
	I just, you know, literally, he's no longer with us.
	So I think the value of parenting, man, that's the part where you hear kids being raised without a father or without a mom and dad in the picture.
	It's got a big influence on that.
	Look at crime.
	Most of these kids in jail, 80% of them have no father.
	That's right.
	Where are the fathers?
	You know, when you get these kids eight, nine, ten years old, it's too late.
	You got to get them at that.
	You got to get them early.
	I go to prisons.
	I go to juvenile prisons and I talk to some of the kids.
	Okay?
	These kids are 14 years old.
	They're like men.
	They're like men.
	They're talking about whacking people, double murders.
	Come on.
	Where were the parents?
	Where were the parents?
	Where?
	His mother was a junkie.
	His father was in the can.
	I mean, what shot does he have?
	What shot does this kid have?
	No shot.
	Nothing.
	You must get these kids early.
	Purpose and accountability.
	What do you do when the father?
	What do we do?
	Because, look, we're a nation of choices, right?
	Freedom of choice.
	You get to choose to use a condom or not.
	Nobody can force you to say, wait, put it on.
	Like, we're not there to be able to catch that situation, right?
	So there's a lot of temptation when you're having sex, you know, you're not thinking about it.
	You get pregnant, baby comes, father bails.
	Dude, I didn't want to be a father.
	I just wanted to have some good sex.
	I'm not here to help you.
	I don't even have any money.
	I can't do anything.
	I can't be in the picture.
	What do you do in those cases where the father's not there?
	How does the community, how does the state, how does the country address that?
	I don't know.
	Yeah.
	So that's a.
	You know, it's funny.
	I was many years ago, I was at Spielberg's house, and I was talking to him about a project.
	I never forgot that.
	And a little boy came out.
	A little boy came out.
	He was black, very beautiful haircut.
	He was only about 10 years old, maybe, I think, at the time.
	He had this like Ralph Lorenz shirt, pants, I mean, really stylish.
	And he said, and he said, Chaz, this is my son.
	Spielberg's son.
	Yes.
	And I said, oh, he has another son, Max, that he has a bunch of.
	And again, I'm not talking, I don't know Stephen, but I'm just telling you the story.
	And he said, this is my son.
	And I went, oh, very nice to meet you.
	It was very, hello, really, you know.
	And then I said, wow.
	And I found out that he adopted him.
	That his parents, I don't know, maybe they, I don't know if they, something, somebody said they were crack addicts.
	I don't remember exactly.
	But now here's this young boy.
	Think of this.
	That if Stephen doesn't adopt him, where is he?
	And now he went from there to being one of the most influential, richest people in the world.
	How's his career going to be?
	It's, you know, Stephen's introducing him to life.
	And it's the parents mean everything in a young child's life.
	Everything.
	People don't get it.
	But you got to get them early.
	You got to get them early.
	Chas, last night when we left dinner and we went to the house.
	We were talking.
	We went back to the house and we were there till about 11.30, 12 o'clock.
	We said, I said, I said, Chaz is a man's man.
	Okay?
	That's what I said.
	He's a man's man.
	I come from a lineage of man's man.
	It's different when you are run man's man.
	The language is different.
	The swagger is different.
	The respect is different.
	The expectation is different.
	Things that don't matter to the average person is going to matter a little bit more to the man's man.
	There's certain things.
	You can't cross the line on certain things with them.
	There's certain things that's respect.
	Thoughts on you with movies?
	Movies have a lot of power.
	John Q was the first movie where I sat there and I said, man, that kid should have had a heart, man.
	What are we going to do with this quarter million dollars that costs to get that heart?
	Like, what do we do with health insurance?
	There's influence with movies, right?
	Last 20 years, men in movies are like, you know, presented as weak, fragile, pansies, softies, you know, being pushed around.
	You know, they're a joke.
	They're a laughingstock.
	How much of this direction we're going and the way we're shaping and presenting how men are, are we losing the concept of man's man?
	Because today, masculinity is a little bit frowned upon.
	Like if you're too much of a man's man, it's kind of like, well, that's not respectful.
	But that's not this.
	And you become almost a target.
	So how does a man's man today survive in a era where it's frowned upon to be a man's man?
	You know what?
	That's a good question, Patrick.
	Women complain about chivalry.
	And sometimes I would say, well, you're the one who killed it.
	You know, don't complain about it.
	You know, I remember I was trying to, I was on a plane, and the woman, she had her stuff there, and it was kind of, she was struggling to get it off the top.
	And I said, excuse me, I said, I'll get it for you, honey.
	I just meant, I said, honey.
	And she said, excuse me, I could do it, and I'm not a honey.
	I said, oh, I'm sorry, you know, and she kind of yelled it like, not yelled it, but people heard it.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And I was just, oh, okay.
	I'm sorry.
	And I was like, wow.
	I was trying to help her.
	Good luck then.
	I didn't mean anything by that.
	I wasn't saying, hey, honey.
	I just said, oh, excuse me, honey, I'll get it for you.
	You know, as being a man.
	And she jumped on my case.
	You know, I'm not your honey.
	And I could get it.
	And I was like, whoa, wow.
	Well, you being in Hollywood, what's your take on the MeToo movement, feminism?
	And I'm curious to know if he goes deeper on that.
	Are you going to go deeper on that?
	Because you're a pretty deep guy.
	Because I'm sitting there having a conversation and I say, hey, ladies, can we do this?
	And we're at a restaurant.
	I said, hi, ladies.
	And one of the girls says, don't call me a lady.
	I said, I'm sorry, what can I call you?
	You just can call me a woman.
	I'm a woman.
	I'm not a lady.
	I said.
	So I stepped back.
	I'm like, I'm trying to see why.
	I said, can I ask you, just for my own curiosity?
	Says, if I'm a lady, you're a lord.
	You're not a lord.
	I said, wow.
	There's nothing you could say.
	I mean, you got to walk away.
	Yeah, no, I did.
	I walk when I have my food.
	But the point is, you know, like you, you, you, it's almost, you're a target today.
	That's all I'm saying.
	I feel bad for those people, though, Pat, because a lot of it is coming from, like, internalized hatred and stuff that they don't, you know, it's a way for them.
	I don't think it's internalized.
	You don't think so?
	No, I don't think so.
	This is a way for them to feel powerful in ways that they don't feel powerful.
	And they're, you know, just imagine having to go through life and everything has to be filtered through the lens of how can I make this about me?
	How can I make this about this offends me?
	You should have known this way.
	That's taught.
	No, that's taught, bro.
	I'm sorry.
	I can't buy that.
	I think that is taught.
	We spent an hour and 30 minutes so far on this podcast talking about the value of somebody teaching you good or bad principles.
	And then he said 100% is parenting.
	I say, I don't know if it's 100% parenting.
	Let's say it's 90% parenting.
	Let's put the number on whatever ratios we want to use.
	I think that is taught through a generation and you think it's normal.
	It's very simple.
	It's taught.
	And I'm having a hard time with that because for my kids, you know, one of my kids, some happen was a bullying.
	They said, yeah, in school, this one school they were going to, in school, daddy, they're telling us, even if somebody hits you, never hit back.
	So I said, yeah, really?
	Yeah.
	I said, listen, here's what we're going to do.
	I'm going to call your teacher.
	So I called the teacher and I went and met the school.
	I went and had everybody there.
	I said, so here's what I'm being told.
	I just want to manage expectation because we have to be on the same page.
	Because, you know, as teachers and parents, we're on the same team.
	We're trying to raise good citizens, right?
	So, yeah, of course.
	Yes, fantastic.
	I said, so this kid is bullying my son.
	Okay.
	He's being told to just come and tell you guys.
	So he's being taught to snitch, which is fine.
	Okay.
	But I'm just trying to understand this.
	I said, is that what feedback he's being told?
	Yes.
	Now, what is the limit of limitation you guys have here for how much he has to accept bullying until he punches back?
	No, we don't tolerate that.
	I said, okay, so we have a challenge here.
	He says, what's that?
	Because my kids come home and my kids are instructed that if somebody bullies you, respectfully you tell them to stop, okay?
	And you address it.
	And then if it happens continuously, you have to punch him in the face.
	That's a specific instruction.
	Now, somebody may disagree with this and said, that's not the right way to do, right?
	You have to do in every possible way to avoid conflict, but you got to stand up.
	And then they're going back and forth.
	Well, that's not the right way of parenting.
	I said, I'm sorry.
	I'm not going to raise little pansies.
	Let me tell you why.
	Let me tell you why.
	When I went after my parents got a divorce and I lived in Germany and there was no father figure, and it was me, my sister, and my mom, and they're both attractive, the world is an ugly world.
	If you're going to be soft, they're going to devour you.
	So you want me to raise kids that are going to be bullied the rest of their life?
	Hell to the effing?
	No, it's not going to happen, right?
	So that's the part where I'm asking because, you know, like imagine if your son hangs out with them for three months.
	What do you think is going to happen?
	No, honestly, I want you actually thinking well, you got a kid.
	He hangs out with chest for three months.
	What do you think happens to your son?
	He comes smooth.
	Forget about being smooth.
	He's going to learn the right way to act.
	I'm going to learn values and principles of what it is to be a man, right?
	That's the challenge I'm having.
	I don't know if you have any doubts about it.
	So, no, I am so proud of my son.
	I have a son, Dante, who's 25 years old.
	6'2, like me, dropped dead, handsome, built, stud.
	Fud.
	He could fight.
	I taught him how to fight just like my dad taught me how to fight since he's three years old.
	Box or box.
	Dante versus Jake Paul.
	Right here on value tables.
	My son is, when we get off camera, I'll show you some things.
	My son could fight.
	But you know what?
	I always told him, I always said to him, Dante, when he was young, I'm teaching you how to fight so you don't fight.
	Remember that.
	I know, Dad.
	My son is a stand-up, graduated Berkeley.
	He'll walk away, but let me tell you something.
	But if you push it, he will put you out.
	MMA, you know, the whole thing.
	All you have to do is build a reputation once.
	Yes.
	You have to.
	You have to teach a person to fight.
	You have to.
	If I have a son, if I had another son, I would teach him.
	And my grandfather taught my father.
	My father taught me.
	I taught my son, and my son will teach his kids.
	Not just a boy, a girl too.
	No, and that's what I was going to ask.
	On the other side of it, you guys are both fathers to daughters.
	So if somebody comes up, somebody at school made an unwanted advance on your daughter and she came home, dad, how do I handle it?
	What are you telling her?
	Well, I wanted to go to someone and tell them and see how they handle it, just like Patrick did.
	If they handle it the right way and say, hey, you did it once, you never do it again, because if you do it, you're going to get expelled.
	Then his boy doesn't have to worry.
	But if this boy keeps doing it and they keep telling this kid, you can't do anything back.
	No, no, no.
	I grew up where a guy was a bully.
	Yeah, you want to be a bully?
	Boom, let's go for it.
	You know what?
	It stopped.
	It was over.
	No more bullying.
	Fights in the school.
	It only takes a couple times.
	The world is an ugly place.
	People feed off you.
	And if they see weakness, they keep it up.
	They keep it up.
	I had a thing a year ago.
	I don't get into fights anymore.
	I have two off-duty cops that travel everywhere with me.
	And they'll stop it.
	But this one guy, I was standing at the bar, and he came over to me.
	He goes, he goes, yeah, you were here three weeks ago.
	I saw you.
	You remember me?
	And I did remember him because I was with a table and he walked over and said, hey, I love your movies.
	And I said, thank you.
	And he pulls up a chair and sits down.
	I mean, you don't do that.
	And I said, excuse me.
	I'm with a party here.
	Thank you that you love my movies, but I'm sorry.
	I'm with people.
	And he got up and left.
	So then three weeks later, he sees me.
	He comes.
	He goes, yeah, you dissed me a few weeks ago.
	I said, what?
	He goes, you dissed me.
	I go, look, I was with a party, and you came over.
	I'm sorry.
	He goes, yeah, well, I didn't like that.
	And I could feel the guy who's with me holding my arm, one of my bodyguards.
	And he goes, wait, I go, I told him, just wait a second.
	I said, look, if I did do something, I apologize.
	I'm very sorry.
	I don't think I did, but if I did, I truly apologize.
	And he said, yeah, well, you know what?
	That's not enough.
	And I says, well, then I don't know what to tell you then.
	And he was a big guy, you know.
	And then he leans over to me at the bar and he says, you know, I'm a fucking tough guy.
	Says this to me.
	So now, all of a sudden, I went way back in the street.
	All of a sudden, I said, okay, I know what I'm dealing with now.
	I said, that's good.
	I said, because I'm a fucking tough guy, too.
	So what do you want to do?
	And he went to me, looked at me and went, come on, and he went, I'm just teasing.
	Hey, man, I really love your movie.
	I said, all right, we're cool, man.
	And he walked away.
	He pushed me to the point where I had to show him, hey, man, you want to play?
	Make your move.
	Let's go.
	Until I did that, until I did that, he would have kept going.
	How long ago was this, by the way?
	It's about a year ago.
	A year ago.
	A year ago.
	No, I thought he said three weeks ago.
	You brought up, you reminded me of a story, man.
	It's about a year ago.
	Respect, Jazz.
	No, no, but it's just, come on, guys.
	Yeah.
	That's enough.
	Do everything you can to avoid the fight.
	You know, in the school, you hope to have a law and order where it doesn't even come to you.
	Some schools do great, but the kids are going to the school right now.
	We had an incident.
	They didn't even make it up to me that I didn't need to go to school.
	They handled it themselves.
	See, I was taught wrong.
	Like, you guys are right, but I was taught wrong.
	I'll never forget, I was in first grade, and there was a kid named Matt, and he was kind of a bully.
	My mom was the lunch, what do they call it?
	Like, they come and they like lunch lady.
	Well, lunch lady, but they like lunch ladyland.
	It wasn't a lunch lady.
	like uh cafeteria worker no they like chaperone during recess or whatever like whatever so this little the guy calls him he my mom tells the kid to stop doing what he's doing he was like pinching a girl or something like that my home was like matthew stop and he goes shut up to my mom and i was like oh like you don't do that to my mom like my mom's a warrior woman dude like oh and then i come home my dad's never home He worked in the city.
	He was home at 8 o'clock at night.
	When I come home, my dad's waiting for me at home.
	He goes, hey, did Matt call your mom a bitch today at school?
	I was like, yeah, I can't believe it.
	He goes, what'd you do?
	I was like, nothing.
	He was like, okay.
	This is what you're going to do.
	As soon as you get off the bus tomorrow, you're going to walk up to Matt.
	You're going to punch him in the face.
	You're going to keep punching him until you can't punch anymore.
	And I'm like, I don't think I'm allowed to do that.
	He goes, you're allowed to do that.
	Go do that.
	So first thing I get off the bus in the morning, I go, and I punch this kid.
	I beat the living crap out of him.
	I'm crying while I'm on top of him the whole time.
	I obviously get dragged to the principal's office.
	Principal was like, what the heck was that about?
	I was like, ah, he called my mom a bitch.
	So my dad's there, obviously called out of work.
	He's there.
	He goes, Gerard, I am so disappointed in you.
	This is not how I'm like sitting there like shocked, like, what the, what just happened here?
	He comes out and he goes, hey, free day off.
	And he pounds me.
	We go get ice cream.
	He takes me to a Yankee game that night.
	He was like, look, man, sometimes there's a part of that that's not, your dad didn't do you wrong, dude.
	There's a part of that that's kind of like, you know, he taught you to protect your mom and your two sisters.
	You got two sisters, right?
	It was a better way to go about it.
	I'm not saying, listen, the one thing about parenting that sucks is there's no freaking manual.
	You know, you can say the Bible, yes, but there's not a manual that says, if this thing happens, what do you do?
	Go to page 396 to see 70 steps on how to handle this.
	He kind of got to freaking go off the cuff.
	He was so legitimately mad at me that he had to teach me that lesson.
	He was like, you didn't think.
	Chas, a guy just, Jack Hasso posted a question here about Lilo Broncado.
	I've heard you talk about him before when he got in trouble himself because he was a star coming up at a young age and he didn't know how to handle a good-looking guy.
	He does a movie like Bronx Till.
	He's partying.
	He's everywhere.
	Women are all over him.
	What happened to him?
	He's out right now.
	I know he's out.
	What happened with his story?
	What happened was he, you know, he was 16 years old.
	I mean, it was too much too soon.
	He believed all the press reviews and everything.
	And he just acted terrible and got involved with drugs.
	He became a junkie.
	And it was funny because as the years were going on, I used to say to him, I said, Lilo, you were in the quintessential movie about not wasting your life.
	And that's exactly.
	Wasted talent.
	And it's exactly what you're doing.
	Wow.
	I said, do you realize that?
	You're living the movie.
	Yeah.
	What was his response?
	No, no, I'm going to be cool.
	I'm going to be cool.
	Yeah.
	Three weeks before it happened, he came to my house because he wanted me to do a movie, write a movie about this guy.
	And he was stoned.
	I said, Lilo, it's going to happen sooner or later.
	Three weeks later, a big report on the news that a cop died, was shot.
	He was with the guy, and that was it.
	Are you still in touch with him?
	No, I don't speak to him anymore.
	I tried for 10 years to talk to him.
	And now, look, he's a talented kid.
	He could have been a big star.
	But my friendship is over with him.
	But I wish him well.
	I hear he straightened his life out.
	I think that's great.
	I hear he helps kids.
	I think that's great.
	And I wish him well.
	Did you look at him as a son at some point?
	No.
	No.
	Chas, how often does that happen?
	Do you see like not being able to manage the limelight?
	Is there what comes with the limelight?
	I mean, when you get the lime, okay, so for example, you're doing theater, right?
	You're doing all this in Greg.
	How many people are in the audience, by the way?
	500, 1,000, 10,000, 5,000?
	Most 25,000, 3,000.
	Let's say 2,500 to 3,000 people.
	There's a big difference between 2,500 to 3,000 to 50 million people watching your movie, right?
	It's a big, big difference.
	What happened the moment Bronx Tail became a hit and you were nominated for the Academy?
	What happens to your life?
	What happened overnight to your life?
	It was amazing.
	Can you walk us through it?
	I was totally totally unknown.
	I was an actor, but I was totally unknown.
	The next minute, I remember we were flying, we're flying to Paris.
	I'm on a private jet with Bob, and we're flying to Paris, and he's sleeping in one bed, and I'm sleeping in the other.
	And I wake up, and I just looked at him sleeping there.
	I look out the window, you know, blackness.
	And I went, wow.
	Here I was, like months before, and now I'm on a private jet with Bob Moniro, you know.
	And I got up, I'll never forget it, and there was a guy just sitting there reading.
	He was like the butler, you know.
	And I said, Do you have any, I was a little hungry.
	I said, Do you have any like, you know, finger food or something like it?
	I'm a little hungry.
	You know, I was never on a private jet before.
	And he said, What would you like that?
	You want some pancakes or French toast or something?
	And I was like, Pancakes, French toast?
	I'll make you an omelette, you know, and I'm like, I'll get some salty peanuts, some presents.
	That's what I want.
	I want to show you.
	He goes, no, no.
	All of a sudden, he opens up the table.
	He puts the white table before it puts a rose there on a thing.
	And like, you know, sets this beautiful table up.
	I'm sitting there and he's cooking and he's making me pancakes and I'm eating scrambled eggs and I'm looking, I'm eating.
	And I look over and Bob is sleeping and I go, all right, Chaz.
	I go, but you belong here.
	But I said that to myself.
	I said, you belong here.
	It's okay.
	But that was one, that was a moment.
	It's funny you brought that up, Patrick.
	That was one of the first moments that I was like, wow.
	And then we got off the plane in France and Paris, and there was this giant, giant whoa with Bob's face and my face looking at each other.
	It's that poster.
	And I was like, wow.
	Pull up the poster, by the way.
	That's one of the sickest posters.
	When you interviewed Mike Tyson and he was the world champion, and you asked a question, which has given me sort of vibes like this.
	You said, when did you know you would be the champion?
	And he says, what was his response when he was 14 years old?
	Sometimes you have to be the champion.
	You have to believe you're a champion before you become a champion.
	There's a lot of similarities there.
	Is that basically how you knew you would be?
	There's a saying, you have to go there in the mind before you can go there physically.
	You know, it's like when people train, like Navy SEALs, why they train so much.
	And when they get into the shit, they're there already because they trained in.
	They're there.
	So you have to go there in your mind.
	So I always already pictured myself working with great people.
	At what age?
	That mindset stuff.
	God.
	I wanted to be an actor at 10, probably in my, you know, 11, 12, 13.
	So when you're 38 and that $250,000 check comes, you're thinking, no, I'm going to hold out.
	The only person that I ever got starstruck, and I worked with all of them, the biggest stars, the only person who I could never get over who he was was Frank Sinatra.
	Wow.
	Who was the only one?
	You've been on set with Sophia Vergara, not starstruck even a little bit?
	No, Sophia Lorentz.
	She's a beautiful person.
	What was the interaction with Sinatra?
	It's not Sophia Lorentz.
	That's a very big thing.
	Exactly.
	Sinatra, every time I was with him, I would just kind of just put my head down and go, Frank Sinatra, man.
	I couldn't get over.
	I just couldn't get over who he was.
	He was the only one because he was like, to me, you know, it's a famous story.
	I told it on a tonight's show, and it's in a book.
	And that's when we were sitting there.
	Everybody went inside, and I was at a barbecue at Frank's house this one time.
	I'm sitting there with him.
	And all of a sudden he goes, hey, Chaz, you know, Bronx Tale is one of my favorite movies.
	I said, oh, thanks, Frank.
	And he goes, it was a great movie.
	I said, thanks, Frank.
	He goes, you know why it was a great movie?
	And I'm like, why, Frank?
	He goes, because I didn't fucking fall asleep.
	That's what he said.
	Same with Pat.
	So then he goes to me, he goes, and we're talking and having a great time.
	And he's got a martini with two olives in it.
	Did I ever tell you this?
	No.
	So he takes the toothpick out with the two olives at the end.
	And he goes, Chaz, come on, share my olive.
	And I said, what?
	He goes, Go ahead.
	Take the olive.
	Share it with me.
	So I didn't know what he was doing.
	So I took the olive off the toothpick and he goes, you ready?
	I go, yeah.
	And we pop the olives and I'm out.
	And he hugs me and goes, I love you, man.
	You're a good kid.
	You know, you're always welcome to come around.
	Frank Sinatra.
	Frank Sinatra.
	Wow, what a ridiculous thing.
	So I said, well, thanks, Frank.
	He goes, come on, let's go inside.
	Everybody's waiting for us.
	I said, all right, we walk inside.
	And everybody's, you know, serving, they're serving a smuggler spoiler food.
	And all of a sudden, I go up to Don Rickles.
	Oh, my God.
	Don Rickles was there with Stephen E.D. Gourmet, Don Rickles, De Niro was there, and a couple of other, I think Sean Connery was there too.
	So I walk over there and I go.
	His name has just come out of your mind.
	Yeah, and I go over there and I go, hey, I go, what's with this olive thing?
	Frank just never did that before.
	I mean, what's that about?
	Right?
	And I hear a voice behind me go, Frank shed an olive with you.
	And I turn around and it's Gregory Peck.
	Gregory Peck, the great actor.
	They were best friends, him and Frank.
	So I said, yeah, what's this olive thing?
	He goes, that's a sign of great friendship, Chaz.
	The Rat Pack would share their olives together after they drank martinis.
	And it's a sign of being a bond.
	He goes, if Frank did that with you, welcome to the club.
	That's incredible.
	I was blown away.
	That's incredible.
	I was blown away.
	What an experience.
	How did you handle limelight?
	Because sometimes when you go from overnight and now the world knows who you are, that's dramatic.
	That's not a little bit.
	How do you manage that?
	I just managed it.
	I just managed it.
	Look, was it hard sometimes?
	Yes.
	Sometimes you just got to go, you know, okay, I'm cool.
	You know, I'll be all right.
	You know, you just got to, you know, don't forget, I was 38, 40, so I wasn't a kid.
	Anybody who makes it under the age of 20, 30 is insane.
	So I was already seasoned.
	But even me, even at my age, it was still like, you know, all of a sudden you have, you know, all these people want something from you.
	You know, I was always, you know, I always had girls, so it wasn't like I never had girls before.
	You know, but it's just this constant level of women and money and people.
	And what saved me was, no, believe me, what saved me was I had a beautiful, I met a beautiful girl, my wife, and I got married right around the time Bronxdale was coming out.
	So people go, my friends are going, what are you crazy?
	You're getting married?
	Are you out of your mind?
	You know, and I said, look, man, I've had a lot of pretty girls.
	I grew up.
	I've had a lot of women in my life.
	Do you believe in the three great women in your life?
	No question.
	No question.
	I believe that.
	I mean, that's one of my things.
	That's how I wrote it in.
	Look, think about it.
	How many times have you felt, think about it?
	You know, you guys are younger.
	How many times have you fell in love in your life?
	Think about it.
	Once?
	Twice?
	Twice, yeah.
	Maybe twice?
	That's it?
	Three times.
	Three times is like, forget it.
	You only get three.
	Adams once a week.
	Every week is somebody who's in love with you.
	The Panther.
	You got to listen to my podcast because I talk about this whole thing about Sandy Blue Eyes.
	Come on, of course.
	No, no.
	So they come around every 10 years like great fighters.
	Exactly.
	But here's the thing about that is, yes, could you have all the women in the world?
	But some of the biggest ladies men in the world are very lonely.
	Yeah.
	You know, very lonely.
	You know, happiness is marriage and meaning of family.
	You know, look, is it hard?
	Yeah, but that's the way life is.
	Chas, what is the modern day door test?
	In the movie, you said, you know, you're going to do the test.
	She orders the Uber.
	No, no, no.
	And she goes, oh, and they go, oh, the Monte Grey door test.
	As soon as the door closes, she has to get the automatic thing on her side and hit it a few times.
	So the button goes click, Now, nowadays you have to lift it up.
	But now she has to lift it up.
	But now with social media and dating apps.
	I got to tell you, as comedians, you know, Don Rickles is as good as it gets.
	And you talked about Frank Sinatra.
	One of the funniest stories I ever heard, Don Rickles talking about marriage.
	He's like, he was explaining, I believe it was to Carson, how he fell in love with his wife and I guess he was married for a very long time.
	So he finds this girl he's madly in love with, and he's begging Frank Sinatra.
	He's like, Frank, I got this girl.
	It's a great story.
	I want to make it with this girl.
	I told you this story.
	You would have told me this.
	Yes.
	He's like, you got to come.
	You want to take the story?
	Wow, okay, sure.
	I mean, yeah, it's fine.
	He says, Frank, you're the biggest star in the world.
	Do me a favor.
	I'm going to have dinner with this girl.
	And just come by and say hi.
	And he's like, I'm not going to come by.
	I'm not going to do this.
	Frank, please, come on.
	Have a little respect.
	I want to help me out here.
	You're fucking Frank Sinatra.
	Don, listen, I'm not coming over to your table.
	It's like, just leave me alone.
	Don, please.
	All right.
	Okay, Don Rickles, I'll come.
	So Frank showed up.
	10 o'clock.
	Don't be late.
	10 o'clock.
	Exactly.
	He sets it up.
	I'll be with the girl.
	And it's like, all right, Frank Sinatra.
	I'll come over to your table and say hi.
	And Frank Sinatra comes over to Don Rickles tables.
	Hey, Don, how are you doing?
	Don goes, Frank, I'm having dinner here.
	I have a little respect.
	What are you doing?
	Interrupting my dinner.
	That's him.
	And that's like, he set Frank Sinatra up.
	You kidding me?
	They make the best Don Rickles girl ever.
	I could tell you Rickles stories.
	He says to me, he goes, you know, Frank's three wives were all named Joanne.
	Wow.
	I didn't know that.
	He goes, you know, Frank, he goes, you know why Frank picks always Joanne?
	He goes, cheap bastard doesn't want to change the bed towels.
	Jay Carson, Jay Carson.
	So he goes, let me tell you something, chat.
	Oh, I could go one.
	This is Rickles.
	This is Rickles.
	He was one of a kind, by the way.
	Rickles goes to me.
	He goes, you know, Rickles saved my life.
	Sinatra says this.
	No, Rickles is saying, Sinatra saved my life.
	Rickles is telling me.
	I said, really?
	He goes, yeah.
	I said, Don, are you serious?
	He goes, saved my life.
	I said, what happened?
	He goes, 1967, in front of Caesar's Palace.
	Three guys start beating me over the head with baseball bats.
	Beating the shit out of me.
	Frank walks out and says, that's enough.
	Jeez Louise, man.
	And you played Vegas for you were in Vegas for how long?
	Oh, seven, eight years.
	I was in Vegas.
	He goes to me.
	He goes to me.
	He goes, is Frank Big?
	Is Frank, Frank Sinatra?
	Frank's over there.
	He goes, is Frank Big?
	Frank's so big.
	Look at him.
	He wears a cross with nobody on it.
	You know, like, you know, nobody on it.
	I mean, I mean, Rickles is.
	First day I met him, first time I met Don Rickles was at Sinatra's house, the first time I met him.
	I walk in, and De Niro introduced me.
	He goes, this is Don Rickles.
	And De Niro looks at me right in front of everybody.
	Everybody's standing.
	He goes, hey, Jazz Palmeteri, where the fuck would you be without Robert De Niro?
	Chaz, do you have like a Mount Rushmore?
	You gotta love that.
	First thing.
	Do you have a Mount Rushmore of people that are the icons?
	Like, obviously, Frank Sinatra's probably.
	Frank Sinatra, yeah.
	Is there anybody out?
	Like, is De Niro on that list?
	Oh, Rickles.
	Who's on Chaz Palmontary's Mount Rushmore?
	Yeah, you know, of course De Niro, you know, Bob's the greatest actor of our generation.
	You know, who knows, maybe of all time.
	I don't know.
	But De Niro, what a great artist.
	But Denero Smith.
	The Italians.
	Yeah.
	No, I mean, yeah.
	I would say, yeah, they happen to be Italians.
	You know, Brimagio isn't.
	Brimaggio?
	Brando.
	I didn't meet Brando, so I can't, you know, I was supposed to go to his house.
	I'll never forget it.
	Sean Penn asked me, he says, hey, I'm meeting with Marlon tonight.
	Do you want to come?
	And I was getting on a plane.
	I should have just turned around and walked off the damn thing, but I didn't.
	I said, no, I'm getting on a plane.
	Yeah, Sean Penn asked you to go to Marlon Brando's house.
	The plane can wait, you know?
	I should have did it.
	Let me ask you.
	You should have done a couple things.
	I should have.
	I'm going to ask two current events.
	I'm going to ask two current event questions and see what you think about this.
	Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney.
	Okay, what it means to Hollywood's future, right?
	Scarlett Johansen and Disney are embroiled in the legal battle.
	You know, it's not looking pretty, you know, because the movie went straight.
	And, you know, Johansson also allegedly that Disney's decision to release the film in the current environment robbed her $50 million in box office.
	Similar thing is happening also with the what do you call it? With the Many Saints of Newark.
	Yeah, the Many Saints of Newark, which is like, hey, why are we not going into movies and all this stuff?
	That's very cool.
	What is changing about Hollywood right now, especially since COVID?
	Because a lot of guys are like, we're not going to go into theater.
	We're just going straight to streaming service.
	What's changed with Hollywood?
	Well, it's faster.
	You know, instead of just showing it so the movie runs.
	Well, think about it.
	How many people are going to see it in the movie?
	You got to show it to what?
	3,000 screens.
	And first of all, that movie wasn't like that.
	You know, you don't know.
	How many people could see it?
	But if you see it online and put it out there for the world to see, it's a big difference.
	But the salary has to act accordingly to that.
	And they didn't catch up.
	You know, we're not caught up with the media yet.
	You know, we're not, the big actors have to work it out.
	You know, you get not many people get $20 million to do a movie.
	You know, it's only a few.
	Leo does it, and Denzel, they get 20 million.
	But if they're going to say, you're going to stream it to the world, now you're going to say, all right, give me my 20 million, but then I want a piece of that whole stream.
	They haven't worked that out yet.
	Got it.
	So that's still being worked out.
	I mean, they'll figure it out.
	They'll figure it out.
	But that hasn't been worked out yet.
	Interesting.
	Who's winning more right now?
	The studio or the actor?
	Oh, right now, the actors.
	Okay.
	The actors.
	Because, look, here's the deal.
	Years ago, when I was growing up, you had channel two, channel four, channel seven.
	You know, all of a sudden now, it's a big difference now.
	Now they're shaking in their boots because, look, you have your own podcast.
	You get two million people, three million people.
	I have my own podcast.
	You have subscribers.
	You have a channel.
	You actually have a channel.
	You know, Patrick has a channel.
	You guys have a channel.
	You know, PD Podcast has a channel.
	How many subscribers?
	Millions.
	How many million?
	You know how many people see the tonight show?
	A million.
	Maybe.
	A million and a half see it every night.
	You know, that's all.
	So you're outdoing them.
	So they're shaking in their boots saying, hey, wait a minute, what's going on here now?
	A lot of these guys, a lot of these stand-up comics, they don't want to go on HBO Netflix.
	You know what they do?
	They put their own channel up.
	Louis C.K. did it.
	Put his own channel up, sign money, boom, he gets all the money.
	Well, back in the day, the biggest honor ever were to go on Carson.
	It was Carson.
	It's Carson.
	And then it may be turned into Leto Letterman, and now it's Rogan.
	Exactly.
	Now, that's the fact that you can get your own channel now.
	So it's changed.
	It's crazy.
	It's gone.
	It's gone towards the artist now.
	If the artist is smart, he's a good entrepreneur.
	Is this a good or bad thing?
	I think it's a good thing.
	That's an evolution.
	I think it's an evolution.
	I think you bring up a good point.
	Whether it's a good or bad thing, it's a thing now.
	It's not going away.
	It's not going away.
	Yeah, I mean, Ricky Gerais said, listen, all this stuff with movies, we may as well just give all the trophies to Netflix because they're taking out.
	They're taking everything, right?
	They one by one by one.
	Mob movies.
	When's the last time we had a good mob movie?
	Like something where you can say like a Bronx tale like a good fella stopped.
	I haven't had one in a while.
	Yeah, why do you think?
	It's been a while.
	Well, because it's hard to make a good one.
	It's hard to make one that hasn't been done before.
	The departed with Leo.
	Yeah, but it's hard to make those.
	Yeah.
	Excuse me.
	But it's hard to make those movies now.
	It's hard.
	People go, who wants to see another mob movie?
	Unless it's really great, then they want to see it.
	But I think you have to push the envelope and try new different things.
	I really believe that.
	That's why I like independent movies.
	I've always liked independent movies.
	More people can make movies now for less money.
	Yeah.
	We have a guy in-house, Zach Parker, produced an independent film, actually wanted Sundance.
	Who's Zach Parker?
	No, I know.
	If he watches this, he's going to understand my joke.
	Chaz, tell the people where they can see your show.
	Yeah.
	The one-man show, everything.
	I'm still doing the one-man show for all these years.
	I do it.
	If they go to chazpomentary.net, that is my website.
	You can buy tickets.
	You could see I'm booked for this year and next year.
	And I know you guys are going to come and see me when I'm in the middle of the day.
	We were taking a field trip.
	Do you have any final questions from him on ladies?
	Any specific tips?
	Because, you know, here's a man.
	He tells us he wants to have a family one.
	He tells us.
	So how old are you now?
	I'm 40.
	Oh, you're 40?
	Wow.
	You look a lot younger.
	Thanks, Chaz.
	I appreciate it.
	No, you didn't make a show.
	You just made his month.
	You made his month.
	Well, here's how you got to look at it.
	Here's what I tell people.
	You know, if you had a job and you made a lot of money each week, you made $5,000, $10,000 a week.
	It's a nice salary.
	But that $10,000 a week, that whole week, you blew it.
	You just spent it all.
	Well, let's just say.
	Save that money.
	But let's just say you blew it.
	You blew it.
	But think of the money as its emotions.
	You blew the $5,000.
	Each week, boom, you blew it a little.
	Fm, blew it, blew it, blew it.
	And at the end of your lifetime, you got no money in the bank.
	You got nothing, but you.
	But now think of it as emotions.
	If you meet a great woman and each week you're putting that money in the bank, what is that money?
	It's memories.
	Your children, your wife, your family.
	And at the end of your lifetime, you're going to have all these riches of a moment.
	One guy's going to have no money in the bank emotionally, and the other guy's going to be rich emotionally.
	So when you pass on, which we all will, when you're on your debt bed and you have a wife and great kids, that you go, hey, man, it's cool.
	As opposed to just living for pleasure and not happiness.
	Is it hard?
	Yes, it is.
	Do I still struggle with it?
	Yes, I do.
	We're just works in progress.
	That's all we are.
	But it's the ones who have the discipline are the ones who, in the end, are happy.
	True.
	It's so cool, Chaz.
	Yes, I am happy.
	Also, you know, I got to tell you too, man.
	Like, watching the way, like, your relationship, in particular, the way you and Jen are, it's changed my view on marriage, really.
	And I told you guys last night, and this is not a bit, this is me being for real.
	I want to be your father.
	I just, I really have no interest in being a husband at this point in my life.
	I just, and I know that's.
	The key word right there is at this point in life.
	But the more you don't have to put an end to it.
	Yeah, you know what?
	I've never really seen a partnership the way I see a partnership with you guys.
	And I see it's like the value in that attracts me.
	You know, the value in having someone that has your back as you get older attracts it, you know, because you never really needed that like emotional, you know, I never needed that sanctuary.
	I always had my friends.
	I always had my boys.
	Now, as I'm getting older, man, those guys are coming off.
	They're starting their own families.
	And you do feel a little bit more alone.
	And you can definitely see the value of it.
	It's true.
	You know, it's in the DNA.
	Look, here's the deal.
	The problem is, men were born to procrocate.
	Yeah.
	No, excuse me.
	Procreate.
	Procreate.
	And women, men are attracted to aesthetics, beauty.
	You see people.
	With the eyes.
	With the eyes.
	See a beautiful woman.
	You go, oh, wow.
	From beautiful women.
	Women are attracted to power.
	And that comes from the caveman.
	You know, they took the biggest caveman, the most handsome caveman, because they wanted to be with him because they knew they were going to eat.
	I'm with this guy.
	I'm eating.
	This guy's going to make sure I prove that.
	If he wanted to be with the most beautiful girl, I want to have kids.
	And that's in our DNA.
	That's printed there.
	So every once in a while, you're married, but you see a beautiful woman, you go, oh, man, Jesus.
	Oh, boy.
	It takes discipline, man.
	It takes discipline.
	And women, you know, why'd you say, I see so many beautiful women with ugly guys, that they're not thinking about it.
	They're thinking of the power.
	Hey, I'm with this person.
	Or the money.
	And the money.
	Well, the money, yeah.
	Well, that's part of the power.
	The money, you get the power.
	So, but that's in our DNA, and we have to fight that all the time.
	Both of us, both races.
	Women, men have to fight all of that both the time.
	I'm with my husband.
	Yeah, well, he's a bus driver.
	But gee, this other guy's a lawyer.
	Man, I don't know.
	You know, it's always just everybody goes through this, man.
	I think what he's trying to tell you is find a Russian woman.
	I won't talk about that.
	We won't go there.
	We won't go there.
	Let me tell you, if you guys thought this podcast was fun, which it clearly was, dinner last night.
	Dinner last night.
	Everybody's watching.
	Why the hell are they laughing as hard as they're laughing?
	Anyways, thank you for all the stories.
	If you enjoyed the podcast, go click on Chaz's podcast below.
	We got the link below.
	Kai, put it in the comment section as well as the chat, live chat section if you can.
	Go subscribe to his channel.
	He's got a bunch of great stories to share with you, a ton of it.
	And he explains clips.
	He brings different people there.
	But if you haven't yet subscribed to his channel, please do so.
	More short clips will be coming out on our Value Tammy Short Clip channel.
	Having said that, Chaz, thank you so much for coming out and being a guest.
	This was great.
	Really enjoyed it.
	Really great, Chaz.
	Have a good one.

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