GETTIN' SALTY EXPERIENCE PODCAST Ep. 190 | PHIL CAPPADORA & CHRIS EDWARDS

Disclaimer. We'd like to know before the start of this interview that the opinions about to be expressed by the guest of Tonight's Getting Salty Experience Podcast are that of the guest and do not directly or necessarily reflect the views of the host of the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. You're listening to the Getting Salty Experience Podcast. Hello, Hello, Darren de Friese listening to us from his hospital bed. My boy, bro, that is a dedicated listener, right Rofe,

He is welcome. It might feel a little crazy. I might say Get Insalty Experience podcast only, and that brings the firehouse, get your table to you. I used to say this in the past, but I'll say it again. You're gonna say it's the best first responder podcast in the whole world. I'm just gonna say that self proclaimed. Are you're going out on the

limon saying it's self proclaimed? Even though film Gola tonight he's got a podcast, But everybody's got a podcast, everybody in their grandmother's got a podcast, but ours is the best. I might be a little boyased. You know, we got Gunzo and Mike and once in a while we trip all a tank. He comes in every now and again. Come here. Well, welcome back, guys. We missed you. Sure, I'm gonna let the count out of the bag right now because I got it. It was a

big you know, give me a second, Give me a second. We got a little scare. The boy Roofy had to go for a procedure. We had a little health scare. Yeahm truth be told. He had two blockages, blockages, blockages. He had to go and you got a step now put in there too much? Maybe they had too much Gobba gold baby. Maybe maybe just happy my boy's back. I was very worried. I was texting Rosie every couple of minutes to make sure my boy was all right.

My boy Blue. I actually said a whole rosary for my boy the night before, had a lot of prayers. Was good and uh he came out. He didn't do he didn't go into the light. I was just hoping each stay away from the light, little buddy, stair away from the light, little buddy. I was saying that the whole night, stay away from the light, little buddy, stay away from the light. Please. I shot Robbie Brown, rob Brown picking up guys. He's making more grams

now than any guy on the job. Bro, should somebody should put in I'm gonnaut him in from I'm gonna send him a soldier something right, Hey, he's got to get there. Well, they don't have to go in better at anymore. It he's got He's making more stage that guy than Gabe. I'm sending the curtains to you. Bro. Oh wait a minute,

let me go. He hitting it up on the curtains. But you know what, like we always preach it, I'm gonna say it later on in the Health and Safety tip of the Day, Early detection, Roofy went for a full medical hold them back, said he had a blockage, went in there and they rode over to him. Then he got old put a stent in there. Oh man, I wish how that how you feeling? I feel good? Yeah? I mean it. So, you know they throw out stent, you know, every once in a while, you know,

you hear that somebody went for a stint. It's kind of like a quick yeah, I don't even think about it anymore. But when you're laying on the slab and you're looking over at the machine and you see the wire going through your heart, Wait a minute. Hold on, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I got to keep waking up, I keep saying all the time. Time, right, yeah, yeah, the old tict. Yeah, you know he's a new guy. Well, thank you, welcome Bedison Man coming in ship hot bro, listen, it's all I'm very mellow

nowadays. I don't really get to your ass. What I'm sorry he does, I don't know the old ruff. He is mellow compared to the way he used to be back in the day. As a matter of fact, my son came in today. He goes the how's uncle switch doing? Well? Yeah, he's doing good. Switched like a light switch. He goes on awful like a light switch. Bro. Yeah, I haven't switched out. I don't really know. Pretty chill. Yeah. We haven't had a fight in a while either, so we'll probably do for him. But all

right, let's get to a commercial here. Bro. All right, I say my condoles two for Gonzo lost his uncle. I appreciate we thank you the old I hope at least ninety two. I'll take it, but I'll sign off of that they do. I hope I have his ninety two. And he was running around and so I mean he had a stroke about a year ago and it you know, he wasn't the right ever since that, but he was still running around to ninety one years old. Man, have a full of hair. Uh. He had a lot more than a little

lesson I did, but he had more heart of them. China runs in the gene and the Yeah, I'll take eighty two for God's sake, That's what I said. That second have eighty five, ninety, whatever I'll take. I gotta go piss that. My mother's eighty five. I told you she's gotta be around for another fifteen twenty years. I gotta have it around. That's why I try to exercise, and like you said earlier, I go for my check up for every six months. Man, I want to

be around you know. Yeah, you have grandkids. And what he told me, you go for the prosty like every other week. Is that something that you enjoy? It's a anal induced never mind, guys looking around like he's looking for lost changing. You need a professional assistance milking the prostate. Yeah, anyway, all right, let's take it. We gotta get We

have a very interesting shelter tonight. We have two guys coming together. We got a guy who was uh in the in the in the biz, we'll say film goub of Goal Capadola and we have a hot charger and Chris Edwards coming in ship hot from the Bronx bro who's forget about hot charges. So we'll talk about how their lives became intertwined and how they're trying to get this movie off the ground or a TV series. We're gonna be guest starring in it, just so you know that's part of this thing. Oh yeah,

he's not even listening, but all right, let's go Jersey. He's on his phone already. I don't know who he forgets. He's like what everybody? I had his stats? Everybody's texting me? Uh off commercial Here we go. Established in nineteen thirty and under the current ownership since nineteen eighty seven, the New Jersey Fire Equipment Company handles a complete line of fire department equipment

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company, sales and service are limited to the state of New Jersey. Find us now at www dot n j f E dot com. That's www dot n j f E dot com. Wonderful. We got a new sponsor coming on board. I can't remember his name for the life of me now, but and we got a new commercial coming up for New Jersey Fire. I told you in the Guinea everyone's getting old. We got to get a new one on it data this. We need some fresh got a fresh rush fresh. I was pretty man here rough, all right, bringing the bolt of

him in. You bring him in, buddy, all right? Ready, you're hot, all right? You don't go to get to show mel Wait at nice, take deep wretch, make it easy. Here we go on the waking to my guy. Wait wait wait wait wait wait, hey, you're talking to my guy all wrong. It's wrong. Tom do it again, stabbing her face with a soddering eye. There coming to the stage. Chris Edwards and Phil Cappadora forgot about it? Three killer Junior. Now, Gonzo, that guy's giving you a run for money with that head of hair

over there. Chris is in my boat. That's right, in the same canoe. Meaning, but Goba Goal over there has got a full head. He's got the going on over there, Goba Goal. That's why how you Phil? I turned thirty seven on the tenth. Wow, But you old man's got a full head of hand. Yeah for the most part, bitch, Chris, I hate those guys. Don't you hate those guys? Man? All right, let's let's but I don't hate too much. I don't

I'm not a hater. Let's let's let's play. Uh, let's do the let's get patriotic really quick, and then we'll dive right into this whole mishmash of a collaboration. Here all, here we go. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Wonderful, It's still the best country in the world. Right man, All right, let's start to unwind, unravel this whole mishmash. Yeah,

how do you guys get together? So we got to start with Chris. I would say, let's jump into Chris's early years, how he got on the job, why he got on the job, what got him into the job, and where we started on the JAT and the JEB. Yeah, I was eighteen years old, just got out of high school and at the time I had a My girlfriend got pregnant and I had to grow up. At the snap of a finger. Her father was a New York City firefighter. Oh my god, he kind of like directed me. He's about six

foot four, about two hundred and thirty five pounds quick. He actually worked the fifty six truck and uh, you know he kind of like one day, you know, growing up, the snap of the finger. He pulled the car over and said, what can we can we use the four lettle word on the show? Fucking said, he goes what he cuts exactly, goes, what the fuck are you doing on the street. Yeah, you got a baby on the way, and you got to go out and get

a job. And at that point I walked down a hill to my house and I coming out and started working, and he guided me to go take every single you know, he told me to take the New York City fight upon test. My father, who wasn't actually the first sanitation cop in New York City, wanted me to take the sanitation and the NYPD, and I took them all and I was actually I graduated in seventy seven. My daughter was born in seventy nine. I took the test in seventy seven and I

passed. But then we had that protest in seventy seven where they froze the list for almost seven years, and I had it. You know, it was either I was going to get on a job or wait for the NYPD. I was on that list too, so I decided to take the not decided I wanted to get become a finean. I had no idea what it was about. But I took the test in eighty four and I got made in eighty six, eighty seven. And now with this conversation happened before,

after he pubbled the shit out of you getting the daughter pregnant. Well it was funny, you know. It was Kevin. He was like I said, it was a big dude. And one time when he found out about it. Where we lived at Warley Heights is a it's a town between Monroe World and Monro washer with him, it's a small town at thebominous development was made up of New York City cops, firefighters, all city workers. So he was down at the bar and she tells me, my father just found

out. So I said, you know what, I'm going down and I got to talk to him. She goes to me, what are you crazy? He's down there drinking. I said, I really don't give a shit. So I walked down the bar, walked down the hill, and I went went into the bar and he said, what the fuck are you doing over here? Get the hell out of here. I don't want to see

you. I said, well, I got to talk to you. So he was a volunteer firefighter, was a chief in the fire department South when we grow So he says to me, go over to the firehouse and I'm eating That's like about one o'clock in the afternoon. Nobody's around, so he had the key. So we walked over to the firehouse and he opens up the door. It's just me walking in. We walk in the back and I said, I'm gonna tell you right now, you lay ahead on me,

I'm going to fucking hit you with the first thing I find. Then he goes, no, no, I'm not going to hit you. I'm not going to hear you. I just want to you know, I just want you to understand you got responsibility. And you know what. I had an opportune about two years ago to go down there and to Florida. He moved down to Florida and I had an opportunity to talk. He was in bad Sheepe, but I wanted to thank him for what he did for me and what I mean by that. He said he directed me in one of

the greatest jobs in the world. And I went in there and he was in a wheelchair and as a matter of fact, my ex brother, my brother in law. He's like a brother to me. He said, Chris, he's not going to want to talk to you. So I went over. I said, you know, Stevie, I really don't care. I went over to his house, went in. He wheeled himself over to the table and I said, Steve, I have to say something to you.

I want to thank you for what you did for me. And he I said, you know what, you led me to one of the greatest jobs in the world. I'm sorry that, you know, what happened between your daughter and I didn't work out. But I want to just say to that point you left out. You guys didn't work out. No, and you know what, and he and he got old, teary eyed, really and I thanked him for what he did. And you know, the sad part was about two or three months later he passed away. But I had that

opportunity to thank a man for what he did for me. And you know what, I needed to grow up. I'm fucking eighteen years old out on the street playing playing ball, and in reality, you know, I had responsibility. And from that point on, I mean, I worked every single day in my life up until the fire Department retired me on May fourth, two thousand and two. So, you know what when he passed away seems young? What was that? I'm sorry? How how old was uh?

How old was he when he passed away? Young? How old when he passed away? Yeah? He had to be young. He was in his he was in his mid seventies. Oh all right, yeah, yeah, you know what, bro, how do you lay the hang on you? That would have been a good time for payback while he was in a wheelchair. Oh listener, man, I was young, I was crazy, So you know what it would have been. It would have been a struggle, but it would have been something. I would have found something to hit him

with. Yeah, he got day back when he was in the wheelchair. You could have got him back, bro, he would have been able to find you. Yeah what mean by put put a boom handle in in a wheelchair and then do what I gotta do? Roll down the street? He gets it. He's the one who points you towards the job. Right. So what years you get called eighty what? I well, yeah, I

got called off to that second list eighty six, eighty seven. I got on a job and uh, you know, I had no idea what it was really to be a fireman, you know, since my poke that guy bro, yeah yeah young, he's young, and had no idea really what it was about. And then uh, you know, I go in and graduate and they give you a you know, to give you an assignment and where you're gonna go. And they said, Chris said, would you go on a forty six truck in the Bronx And I had no idea where it

was. You know, all of a sudden, here guy's saying, oh boy, you're going to forty six truck. I said, yeah, this is back in the eighties. I had no idea. So next see, I know, I go over to the firehouse and it was made up of some old salty man man, you know, getting salty. Ain't the world These guys were already they were like in the sixties originally salty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the originals and the hair combs you off. I looked at it as walking through the big red doors. It was like the burn

Canal of life. You walk through those doors, burn Canal of life. I love that. And you know, you walk through those doors and you're you're born into another another, another world, another life, and you know, you you salute the guy on the house watch, you know, you go as you're walking in the back. Then you get to the kitchen table and that's when you get the fucking baptism because they are this is this is a nice this is the nicest version of the kitchen table compared to what it

was. You know, but it was made up of some real guys. You know, a lot of Harlem guys, uh Brooklyn guys. It was a mixture and there was real tough guys and it was funny. One of the stories was they go to me, Hey, Chris, did you see that guy over there? And I said, yeah. They said, whatever you do, don't call him Mike. He hates me called Mikey. You go call him Mikey. Now, this guy is probably about five six five seven. Gods setting you up on Mikey. I can see that a big

time, big time. You know, he's a probably going over. So this guy was and on top of that, he was a boxer. His nose was you know, of course. So I go over to him. They go, right, they go over there and tell go, tell, go, tell Mike and Chiles. So I walk over to him and I said, hey, Mikey d he hits me and I go, want, I go, what was that for? Don't ever call me Mikey? He goes who told you to call me Mikey? And and all of those guys

are standing over there, laughing their wrass off. They were all laughing and laughing liver and and it was like that was that was part of the baptism man. I guess the guy came over and I realized then that that, you know what, the way to make it around a fire house is, never let these guys see never let him see anything bothers you. If you keep laughing your whole entire career, they won't get they won't get to your drivers of MutS. And I'll tell you what. Years go by, and

I always laughed all the time in the fire house, never stopped. They bust my boss, they sat talking about my mother and my sister whoever. I would laugh and laugh from laughing. So what eventually ends up happening, It's like hears go by like thirty years go buying him at a funeral and this guy comes over. Is that was Pete Backshark and he was one of the greatest ball busses man Pete was a great fireman too. And he comes over and he goes, hey, Edwoods and I go over there and I

saw laughing at my ass off at the funeral. He goes, son of a bitch, fucking thirty years, you're still laughing. And I and I said to myself, you know what I got. It took me thirty for him to say it's still laughing. Yeah, I finally got him. Roof. Do you remember the first day you walked into one seventeen like that? That's something we should ask the very first day they walked in, I met Tony Mikaelic. They were they were out, the whole the whole company tapped

out. They had a like a second or third alarm in one of the towers that we had over in the story by the water, and it was like a really bad fire. So I was thinking, holy ship when I walk into you know what I mean. But Tony Mikaelach was the first guy that I met. Yeah episode yeah, yeah, second Street, forty third street, right on right on the forty second and uh and the story of Bullbard, Yeah, right in my neighborhood. Yes, So I was gonna

say, we got to get to gobble goal. Now let's see what's what's a gold story now? Well gobble gould stories. His old man was on the job, right, yes, yes, So give us a little history on the old men. Where'd you grow up? Would you? How was it? Where did he work all that stuff? Oh? Well throwback. My family is all from Canarsi, Brooklyn, and uh, my dad got on the job like right around eighty four, eighty five, the eighty He got on a job actually in eighty four, and then he married my mom

in nineteen eighty five. And then I showed up in nineteen eighty seven. Uh, he went on, look at that guy, that's you, bro, that's a little that was out. I was actually born with a lot of hair too. Found out. We can see it. The Dophins thing, I got it. I think it was. I want to say it was engine three h nine latter one fifty nine. The Friendly firehouse on Flatish Avenue. That that was my dad's firehouse for about fifteen or sixteen years.

So you old man's Italian. Your mother Italian too? Irish? Oh your Irish Italian mixed bro Ye, I'm a gimmick. So your old man used to make the sauce and your mother used to just boil the ship out of meat pretty much. They worked pretty They make quite a quite a pair. Now that's the old man, right, he's got the pistol grip. Uh yeah, I guess he was drilling. This might have been around two thousand and two or three maybe, Uh huh. Did you remember going to the

firehouse? Oh yes, absolutely, an engine engine three oh nine and as well as Bronx what was that, uh eighty one? Yeah, yeah, I remember all of it like I could still smell it to this day. I'll never forget it. When you walked in there before they had THEMS, right, that firehouse they had a job. He would smell of smoke. Yeah, that was great. We used to go to I think it was Lido Beach for the fireman. Yeah, that's where I lived, bro right

there. I haven't been there in like a long time, but it would be nice to go back. You can have dinner with me, Phil, You can hang out anytime. So you never got to drive down from bubble fuck though you're only upstate, right or something like that. Well, I'm back and forth between Astoria and Upstates, all right, doesn't matter. What's what's a drive. Yeah again, say what, uh so, did you ever feel like you wanted to get on the job or any of that.

What what happened with that? Do you have other brothers or sisters or anything. Yeah, so, I'm the oldest of four. I think we all pretty much took the test back in two thousand or we signed up to take the test, maybe in two thousand and four or five. But I got on the job as an iron worker in two thousand and six, and I did that for about a full year and then going into two thousand and seven before I got hurt. Some judge canceled the test and that was it.

So in two from two thousand and seven to twenty twelve, I was pretty much just in and I wasn't working as a worker anymore. So by the time the opportunity to get on the job happened again, I signed up for the twenty twelve exam, but the week of the test, I got sick with mono and then I missed that test. So you went to Hollywood version went to Hollywood route. I guess if I was gonna it's I guess we

could call it poetic justice. How it became full circle on how I got to this point where no, I'm not going to ever be on the job. I spoke to a few firefighters on how to like come in through the side door, go as an EMS, and then maybe get promoted. I didn't know that until I turned thirty, and by then it was like great mind, I already sat yeah too old. How did you How did you

start up doing the the historia gig? How did that all start? It all like, it's it's strange because in two thousand and seven I had to get a shoulder operation because the year prior, in two thousand and six, I got hurt on I got I got hurt multiple times on the job, and I also got hurt in a separate accident. Because I was pursuing playing college football. So I had to go to college just because under Obamacare you had to be in school until you're twenty six years old just to have healthcare.

And I couldn't work as an ironworker anymore. So I went to college. So I started at Sunny Orange and I literally just took an intro to theater class wearing a sling, just to kind of like no it, yeah, just get get my degree. That's crazy. So they about that my toms familiar. My son's doing the same thing. He's gonna ta he's gonna go to the twenty six trying to get a two year degree. I don't know. I didn't know. I didn't I didn't have a degree to the

degree. I went for healthcare. That was it. I took an intro to theater class, and the people in the theater class said, we need a guy for this play. So I signed up for the play. I couldn't go to the gym, so'd all right. My brother, my sisters, they all did plays in high school. I might as well give it a shot. I don't care. But they said I did well, and then I did three more throughout the next three months, and then they said

try it, like, try this a little bit. So I switched from a business major to a liberal arts major, and I just focused more on theater acting and I didn't care about the degree. I was just there for healthcare. So the following semester I did my first acting class, and then when the final came around, there were filmmakers sitting in the audience and they scouted me for my first independent film, and that film got accepted into the

Black Bear Film festival in two thousand. I guess by now it's the beginning of two thousand and eight, and the director of that film festival told me to go study in New York. So from twenty ten to twenty twelve, that's exactly what I did. And next thing, you know, you're the president of the Historian Filmmakers Club. Who uh, I'm throwing a shenan against flag coops. What do you think? Guy goes inded for healthcare? Next thing you know, he's like running the top places. The film one Gonzo

is a picture of your story. We have no ship my Badler. No, that's the book that Big Break, Pete. What the fun are you doing, Pete? We only have a few to choose from. Yeah, thus we figured you could. Yeah, you know, bro, we'll go back back to the first Big Break. Then that's all we have. That's all we have. Go back to the Moe where he's uh, he's what the one before that that you just had up? This one? No, you dick, some of which one is? He mek not what Jesus Christ?

Get it? Right? Gone? So so what is this? Bro? That's the guy who plays Batman? Now right, that's right? Yeah, that's actor Robert Pattinson and that's you. Yeah, and that's me. And that's your first big break. What uh Yeah, that was more or less my first break at all. From two thousand. After after college in twenty twelve, I finished my education at the Neighborhood Playhouse shout out Neighborhood Playhouse.

I took about a year just to kind of digest and like reset and try to like figure out what it is I want to do in my life. Do I go back to working as an ironworker. Do I try to like maybe get back into taking a fire Department test? But there wasn't any, so I just was figure figuring shit out. So I just picked up small acting gigs all twenty thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. Just background acting was the only thing I could ever book. I applied to every every,

every single known talent management agency in the city. I submitted my resume by email and mailed it in and the just the stamps in the postage was over two grand in that time. In that time. Yeah, No, I'm like I was. I was consistent. I would always I even have this. I even have one of my old like resumes right here on my desk, just as a reminder like a head shot, okay, mug shot office the straight, not only magazine, not only club president. You're also a

client, Yes I am not just looks. That's true. You were an actor too. I thought you just ran the thing. Well, I I guess uh, I could skip ahead, but there was no there was no there was no luck for me to really just uh. I got turned down the entire like for years, just NonStop and one guy. In around twenty fifteen, I booked a play where I was going on tour for the story of Van Frank. So I left the city for a while, and when

I came back, one of my friends from college recommended actors access. So I applied to some sort of social services gig where they just need a cop, and I was like a cop or whatever. And everything I ever booked as whether it's background, part principle, like in the Sides, I was always a cop, even on a Spielberg set, And that is a true story. But this twenty sixteen March rolls around. They're filming the show what would be called Good Time with Robert Pattinson, and at first I was just

a background actor. But six months later they had to reshoot the entire arrest scene, and they asked me to come back in, so of course I show up. I need the money. But what ended up happening while I was there? The guy who actually didn't make the arrest, he was he wasn't able to make it that day, He had a prior prior thing. Nothing happened. But the director, Benny Saftie from The Saftie Brothers, he just looks right to his left and he says, what about Phil? And

I say what about me? So I got promoted right then and there, and now I look like the guy who arrested Robert Pattinson in the movie There you Go. And that was it. All right. Now we're gonna get to get I promise you, guys, We're going to get to how these two met over here? How well, how are you? Let's get back to Chris. Chris gets down the job again. How did you what? He says? Anyway, brother, do you know anybody or I've never done this? Well, not that I knew at the time, an uncle or

somebody I was. I guess it was my father in lawst friend. Oh, like, yes, I guess. But the guys who to pound you into submission, that guy got up and they knew my up. What they knew? I needed a paychecks something. Man, when you get over to forty six, right, yeah, eighty What do you say, eighty six? You got there? Yeah, eighty six, eighty seven I got over there. So that's still the tail end of the bronze is burning over there.

Now they're doing some work. Yeah, I mean, you know what, we had a h it was a busy company somewhat, you know. I mean, I think we're in the top twenty twenty five at the time the truck was. But then what ended up happenings. I transferred over to forty two engine, and that's when oh wait, let me get hell bro oh that we gotta throwback. Let me you big out that. Who is that Tom is top? Would you like to buy her? I like to buy her a reverse mortgage work? He's on fire. I think that operation

didn't. I don't know, damn pull. I'm not going to say who this chicken was. But she was following around. They met him somewhere and she showed up all over the place. It's got the green machine. Then I would just say that's forty two hundred, that's the green machine. Then yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was one of the uh I think we were using uh I think forty one. Yeah, it was like

six or forty one was another one, I believe. But we were in a highway, so it's like, yeah, were any single engine over forty yeah, single engine, So they were rocking and rolling over there. That's a it's a hot spot, man, it's a good spot. Yeah. At the time I got there, we were like fourth busy, send your company in the city. So you see the playgum and it was you know, I mean night and day compared forty six truck and forty two. The difference was when I got when I got to forty two. Actually, my

first tour in forty two. If you remember back in nineteen ninety seven, September of nineteen ninety seven, forty two engine was the firehouse. They got shot up really going out on the run and it was a livery guy giving him a hard time and they wouldn't let the rig go by, and it was a confentation between this driver and a couple of brothers on the rig. The driver was going to the trunk and one of the brothers grabs got into a big fight. The PD show up, the driver runs down the block.

PD shows up. They popped the trunk and there's nine millimeter guy going for a gun. So they go over. They go back to quarters and Chief comes over and there's back eight, you know, eight of the brothers sitting out front, and all of a sudden, this guy walks up the box and reaches into the back of his pan, pulls out an imbi and point blank range. He points it at the brothers and he goes click and jams and by the time he hit the magazine, they all ran and he

shot out the windshield of a rig. He shot out into everywhere that somebody rolled. This guy shot. A better story would have been by the time he put it, he ungenmed it. He had a Halligan sticking out the side of his head. You know what if they had, you know, Kevin, if they had enough time to do it, they probably know they would. They ran their rasses off, you gout, you know. And I get there in nineteen ninety and it was my basically my first week.

So one of the brothers called me up, you know, one of the brothers called in, said, hey, Chris, could your home over for me? I got my daughter's got a softball game up in Yonkers. I see, I have no problem, so I'm out, you know, I'm mount in front. It's like June. It's a Thursday in June and nineteen ninety. It's warm and everything. The music's playing up on the corner. Everybody's out in the street. So these two little kids are out there playing

ball. So I see they gut like cardboard, all rolled up with tape on it, and I go, yeah, I go to my trunk and pop the trunk and get a softball out. I go over there and get a clincher. And I'm playing ball with these two little kids. So I got my back turn to the corner, which is probably about thirty forty feet away, and I hear pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop, and I'm thinking this fireworks, you know. And I got my back turn.

Yeah, pop pop pop pop pop pop pop, and I see these I'm bended down picking it up, the kids hitting the ball, and I look across the street and I see these people running down the block and I'm

like, shit, you know, Whatell's going on? And go down to pop pop pop and I look at the bricks on the window on the on the building and I see puff Puff Puff Puff Puff, And I turn it around and there is this kid in the middle of the street with a what ao b b b b b b bout sweeping the street and there's three people shot up on the corner laying down. There's one guy shot in the middle of the street. I'm standing down in the middle of the street with these

two little kids. What I did, It's like, grab the two little kids. I roll behind this double park car and I'm looking around the car and see what this guy's going to do. All of a sudden, he goes to take the clip out and I and I tell the kids, listen, I got to make a run for the fire house door. So I got these two kids, like eight years old under my arms, and I take a run about twenty feet behind the double park on a regular park car. This guy picks a clip back in, ping ping ping, pink pink

pink, pink, pink pink ping. Oh he h, it's a double park car. Here, said legally Parkard. I'm running. I push these two kids up up against the wall and I gotta pop the combination, pop the combination. Run in the back of guys. Listen, we got a major, major shooting out front. Man. They go, yeah, yeah, we heard the shots. I said, listen, we gotta get out there. There's got to be a lot of people here. Hey, well, what do you do? O one are not cops who fired me?

We had no guns. So I run to the front door, and now everybody's out in the street. I said, listen, they're out. We open up the door. Pauly Gambolini, a great gray fire and he was in forty two at the time, puts a pair of rubber gloves on, runs up to the guy in the middle of the street. He was actually pumping blood out of his chest and Pully put his fingers in there to try to save the guy. He ends up dying. The three across the street

were actually working with the drug dealer. They were all hit with rickerst shots. And now all of a sudden, we go to the there's a Chinese place on a corner and this guy fell in there and they friends grabbed him, through him in the car, brought him over the Bronx elevenon. Then we go down two stores and it was a liquor store, and then the liquor store, this guy bled out. We opened up the door. So this guy, this this kid was a kid. He shot He shot six

people and killed two of them. Wow, And what happens is you know P. D. Combs, and it was there was there was a girl in the neighborhood that also came in and you know told you know, it was a witness of what happened. So I gave the description of his kid. Then about two weeks later, you know, we'll out in front of the firehouse again, and all of a sudden, this car pulls up. There's up all across the street and it's kind of it's like a reel narrow

Streeten, a car pulls up on the other side. So kid gets out of the car and gives us a stair down. I go, come on, kid, just keep walking. He's going to the bodegas right next to the flask I just just keep walking, don't starve, no trouble. So one of the brothers go over to him and say, hey, listen, you gotta move your car down. So the guy starts giving him lit He said, listen, move your car down. So the guy moves down a couple of couple of feet. Being the wise guy, Well, the other

guy comes out the other kid comes out, same thing. He's got the smirk on his face. He gets in the car and he turns around to me, to us, he takes his frainger like a gun like he's shooting, and I said, both shit, boom, boom boom, I take down the plate, go up. P D end up telling him listening, we had a shooting here two weeks ago, six people shot, two people killed, and I just get this kid coming over. Well what happens is

they run the plate. Boom. That was the kid came back in the neighborhood to say, you know what you want to I can come back and get you anytime I want. And eventually it ended up catching him about a week or two weeks later, they caught the kid. You know, his excuse was on the street. The excuse was he wanted to take over the drug corner. And he was only seventeen years old. He wanted to take

over the drug corner. The what he told the cops was that they listen, the guy disrespected my sister, and I couldn't understand for the life of me, how like I talked to the people on the street. I would tell him there's a guy down the block who's the drug dealer. You got to understand something. He's not good. No no, no, chrise, no no, no, he's he brings protection to the neighborhood. I go

to know he's the one that brings violence into the neighborhood. And telling you now, and you know as a as a sick joke that he had he had a Mint sixty nine thunderbird with white leather interior cherry red. He went out and got a license plate changed too hard to kill. That was the big joke in the neighborhood. And for the life of me, I mean, you know we in that neighborhood. I mean you were surrounded. It

wasn't just an isolated thing. It was one of the brothers were going out and all of a sudden there was a fight across the street and it was against a woman and a man. A man was beating the shit out of this woman and the brother sees it and next thing you know, a guy runs out of the building and there's a competition between this guy beating the woman up and a guy trying to break it up. Well, the guy trying

to break it up gets a shit kicked out of him. He runs back in the building, grabs a shotgun, comes running out and blows this guy away right in the middle of the street about ten o'clock in the morning. You know, a lot of people don't understand, especially when you work in these neighborhoods, the type of situations that happened. You know, that's pretty crazy. And as a fireman and forty two engine what I saw, I mean, this goes to find and throughout you can go out the country and

throughout the city. You have an opportunity to help a kid on a one way street. If you could give a kid, if you help one kid out of ten or twenty or thirty, you succeeded to get him out of that element. I mean, that's just I mean, they really don't last. There's another story about another kid I used to take to walk the kids

back and forth to school. The mother would come over and I take a handy talking go guys were going down the block to walk a kid to school, you know, And I would tell these two kids, one kid was Raqem and the other kid was Willy. I walk down the end of the block, tell them every time, stay away from the corner. Stay away from the corner. For years five or six years and then when I transferred out, you know, I wasn't there anymore, and I really missed helping

the kids out. I go back five years later and all of a sudden, I have my son at the time was twelve years old, and I pull up and I said, I'm going to tell you right now. My son was a wrestler, you know, at twelve years old, so it's a tough kid. And I said, I'm going to tell you right now. We pull down the block. There's gonna be kids on that corner. People on the corner, they're gonna call out my name because not because I had anything to do with the drug dealing, but because they know me.

And a lot of them are kids that you know, that were growing up in that neighborhood. They it's a vicious cycle. So come down the block. My son said that I'm not getting out of and I'm not getting out of the car, and this kid comes down and you want to hoodie. So all of a sudden, I pull up. They go, Chris, Chris, Chris. They all come down, about five of them. They come over and they give me a hunk. When kid comes over, puts his hand out, he's got a hoodie eye it, And I told him,

and I knew exactly who the kid was. I said, if you got if you're man enough to come over here and shake my hand and hang out on that corner and do what you're doing, you're mad enough to take your hood off, and you look me in the eye. You look me in the eye. And this kid takes his hoot off and he puts that and it's a kid, one of the kids from that that I used to take the school. And I tell him, what, what the what are you doing? What are you fuck? I told you not to hang out

of that. It's almost you know. And the kid says it's his head back down. He said, no, pick you had a little mini eye. So we're talking, laced them to him. My son's like, oh my god, my father's telling a drug dealer the taker's hood off. You know, he should be crazy. So I asked him about his brother and he puts his head down. He says, my brother was killed. I said, what His brother at eight years old was probably about six foot and

one hundred and seventy five pounds at eight years old. This can cault him in a football player at basketball play if he was living upstate. Well, if he was living in a suburban, he would be a phenomenal athlete. And what happened was he got a He ended up getting a girl pregnant in high school, quit high school, got a ged, and he was having a hard time with you know, bring him formula and diapers for his baby. And the guy on the corner said, listen, you come work with

me. I'll give you a thousand dollars a week. So what the kid did, He said, I don't want to do it. I got a secure away from my New York State security license. Take like almost four or five months get that. I don't know what. It's so crazy, you know, to wait so long. And what ended up happening It was the kid said. The kid kept asking a massive mass and finally he goes over and says, listen, I'll go on a quarner, but I'm not staying

more. I'm only wait until get my license. He goes over. Next thing, you know, about a week two weeks later, the drug kingpin says somebody's stealing money. This kid turns around and says, this kid's taking the money. The kid they just took on and just had to be. They stopped telling him to go over the top of the avenue. We want to talk to him. This kid goes over the top of the avenue. They beat the shit out of the kid, and then they shoot him twice

in the face. They came. So it's a fish and fishing cycle. Man, you could make it. The kid's life is a firefight. You gotta do it, you gotta do it. You know how long? Uh? In eighty two? Bro? Eighty one? Oh, eighty one a minute? Sorry, you were going back to when this was happening. No, he was at forty two. Oh he was, Yeah, me too. Anyway to eighty one? How long are you in forty two? That's what I meant the time five years, five and a half years. I

stayed there, and then I came back to eighty one. Yeah, I went back to the engine. Yeah, how come? What made you want to go back to you know what it was? I'll tell you what went. Forty two. We basically were both. We were both you know, in the back of our shirts. And forty two it says no truck because there is no truck. You're a single engine company. So you're doing you're doing everything, you know, you know bus balls between truck guys and guys

are the truck you guys in the engine. So I ended up the guys back in eighty one. There was a couple of senior guys that came over to me and said, listen, why did you come back home? Come back home? So I did. I went back home. And it was a bunch of young guys working in eighty one, guys that I basically grew up with. And that's a that's a group of them, and that's from that point. From that point, I went back to eighty one, and uh, you know, we had a I mean great, great times in

that fire house, and we caught a lot of great work. And I mean with the experience, what are you two to bring into eighty one? It was it was like a blessing to be able to, you know, experience that. You know, somebody says, ask Chris about Walter and Tommy, Oh my god, oh to the greatest man. Before we we got to get the criss to fill a little bit here. Two weeks. He's been out there for a while. He's he's off on his eating or weed over there. I don't know what he's booking. UF bro Co and go

Ice looking up the rotation. So Chris was back in eighty one. Right, we're gonna leave off with Chris. Now, your father goes to eighty one, correct, Is that where they meet? Uh? That's the Bronx, right, yeah, yeah yeah, so uh yeah, I guess they crossed paths. I believe he went in the spring of two thousand and one was when my dad first got you. Moved out of Kafi. We moved

out of Canarsie in the mid nineties. I started. I started like midway through elementary school back in like nineteen I want to say, ninety three, ninety four, give or take maybe frunt around then up in Goshen, New York, and graduated Goshen High School in two thousand and five. Where's that. I'm in Warwick, Phille. Oh we're neighbors. We actually beat Warwick for the spiritual Good for you, good for you, oh my oh my

long football rivalry. But yeah, Goshen. If you went anywhere near the Woodbury Commons, you would go west on seventeen and Goshen is about ten minutes down past Chester now where Lego Land is. That's Gosher, New York. So you're up at Goshen, your old man says, I ain't making that trip to the Friendly fire House anymore. So it transfers back to over eighty one. Yep, right, that's that's yeah, great, guess you're right.

That's where Chris meets your old man, Phil Goba Ghoul Senior. Right at this point, you you're well, you're up there, right, we already went through you went to college. Now you're getting into the acting, right, and so around the time they met, I was a freshman in

high school. Yeah, but we're past that with your timeline. We're up to uh, your big break over there when you play the cop, right, twenty sixteen, right, so okay, that's right, right, So we're gonna fast forward to what happens to you after you get that big break with Batman. So what do you do after that? Uh? So I literally as soon as I I made that arrest, I had just gotten off

the plane from my honeymoon. So I was married. Well, oh wait, the story gets the story gets so much better, all right, it's gonna get it's gonna get great. So it's twenty sixteen. I'm fresh back from watching the Olympics down in Rio de Janeiro, come back post honeymoon, gain twenty pounds, thirty pounds, and they asked me to make the arrest, and it's like, wow, this year is amazing. Twenty sixteen is a godsend. I love every second of it. So my wife and I

we get our own place. Summer of twenty seventeen, I'm still, of course looking for work, try to try to find an acting gig something, but it's not. Being an actor and being a husband do not really mesh at all. It's it is more like you like, your challenge to actually

become just a working actor is hard. But when you're only SAG eligible, you're not in SAG, your money is going to be a lot lower, and if you do not have a team helping you, you're already like you're already still like it's like it's like you never went to school, or like you have no shot. And that's what it felt like. So I didn't really step aside from acting or anything like that, but I just started writing my own stuff. So in mid twenty seventeen, I started actually writing a

book. I'm sorry, I already finished a book. I'm sorry, but I started adapting Chris's book because I read Chris's book as soon as I got back from my honeymoon. His life in the fire department, coming through the flames. So ah, there you go, there you go go. Fuck you gets an sis a bitch too. Eventually he's gonna get it right metures. Hey see, let's go. I read. So I read Chris's book twice, uh, like really quick? The book? Why did you pick

that book? Did it just happen? Because while I was on my honeymoon, my dad and my mom uh went to Chris's book signing and they got two copies of the book. And as soon as I got back, I saw the I saw the book and I said, Dad, where'd you get this? Oh? He's like my friend Chris. I used to work with him. He just wrote a memoir and we got to sign copy quick. So I started reading it. My brother and I had worked that day, so he was driving. I was sitting in the van. We're doing our

deliveries and stuff. So I read the book twice in the entire span of the shift, and and I asked Dad, how do I get in touch with Chris? My dad connects us. And then I asked Chris if he would be okay with me trying to turn this book into something of a screenplay. And Chris and I, I think had met officially right after my wife and I got our first apartment, where I started like dabbling a little bit

on structuring on how to actually write the screenplay. And we had lunch together in Middletown right around June or July in twenty seventeen where we actually got to have like a real face to face and just talk. Before that, it was just over the phone. And so like Chris seemed to like the idea and said, give it a shot, see what you could come up with. And I'm paraphrasing, and that's how this relationship seven years ago now is

how it all really started. So you start writing his screenplay about his book. We'll get it through his book in a minute. And how long will it take you to write that screenplay? Well, like the first shitty first draft, I had a really good one hundred and ten pages ready by November

of twenty seventeen. I knew exactly how I wanted the story to go, based on some elements of the book, but I thought it'd be more interesting to have a strong beginning and have it set during the nineteen nineties prior to nine to eleven, and try to make it more of a period piece and see if we can tackle why he wrote the book and try to summarize that cinematically, because it's my understanding that the job before nine to eleven and after

nine to eleven are two separate, different different things. So what I wanted to do is capture basically the heart and soul of the fire department during that last decade before nine to eleven. Right, So, Chris, what makes you decide to write a book? What happened was the I went through everything. I had a whole bunch of these servers. It was and uh, wait, we do have a picture. Don I know? You can't fuck this one up. We got a picture. It's not the book. Sign

I'll sign that. That was the beginning of the end. That's all the beginning. Yeah. As a matter of fact, the guys, what year? What year is this? Though, Chris? What year you blow out your knee? This is uh September of two thousand. Bro, You can't put another screw in there? And I don't think what else is that one sticking out on the other side of your little pain on that one that comes

all the way through. This is uh, this ended up being uh, let me see, let me I gotta count the screws because I'm looking at one, two, three, four, five, I'm looking at six. I'm looking at six maybe seven. That was I'll tell you what that was in March of two thousand, because I put somebody screws in because you blow out your knee and you wanted to get back to the job and they wouldn't let you back if you had a knee replacement. Correct, correct, right,

right. I went through a series of reconstructive surgeries starting from September of two thousand, October two thousand, December two thousand and Marching two thousand and one. And it was a major, major infection and two of the main operations. I was in the hospital for a month and a half. Between the two of them, you couldn't understand why it was such a dick game while I was trying to come back, and I told her to love for the job. But what ended up happening was, you know, this is

why I don't care. Hold on, Chris, didn't let you put that many screws and plates in your knee. But if you have a knee replacement. They won't let you back. Well, Louis kep the only way I could get it done. The only way I get it done the first time was two screws and a metal plate. That was the first one in that September of two thousand. Then it got infected in the hospital. Was in the two and a half weeks they had to take it out because the bone

graph was eaten by the infection. Now I got to walk around with a broken leg for two months. Now. I could have retired any time I wanted. But the love of the job is yes, I mean that's I just love the job. So I go through that, and I would have mentioned ends up happening is the doctor from the fire department said, listen, got to get another opinion. I went for another opinion, and that doctor down Especial Surgery said, look, I could put a hell on your knee.

You gotta turn the screws every day. Said how long is it gonna take me to come back to work? He says, that'll take you about a year. I said, I don't want to wait. I said, what's the fastest I can come back? This doctor says, I can do the asiatomy all over two metal plates, eight screws and bone graph off your head. And what ends up happening. I'm in special surgery, gets infected

again, and I'm in for another two and a half weeks. What does this happen when they keep getting in fact, I mean special surgeries to get shut it out of work. You know. It was the guy that I was rooming with. He ended up being in an accident years ago. He got an infection in the hospital. I was wounding with the guy right and then all of a sudden they come over to me and I got this red

line going up my lake and they marked it. Next thing you know, they go said, listen, we're gonna have to put you in isolation. So they take me. I tell you, they did me a major favor, and it put me over the East River with the hardwood floors of refrigerator. I had a big TV and as they did it was count the barges going back and forth the East River for two weeks. I had a maid in the place. The nurses were great, I mean, and I had

antibiotics. They were just pumping me up. And then eventually what ended up happenings. I got a clean to leave and uh, you know, I got out of the I got out of the hospital and March in two thousand and one, and you know, like we all know about the terrible fire out in Queen's the hardware store with the three brothers get killed, and now

it's like I want to come back even more. And then you had a fire and in us in August where the kid Michael Roma died from a heart attack, and that kid worked with me up in the Bronx, and it's now you won't even come back even more. And you know, three weeks, two weeks later, three weeks later, September eleven comes around, you know, and I'm down in the hole two weeks. And you know when I basically got out of the hole after two weeks. So got out,

started going to memorial services like we all did. And then I wanted to come back to work. I talked to the doctor, fired upon. The doctor says, Christ, you got to get the places of screws out before you come back to work. So I did is. I went in especially surgery of December, got everything taken out. Nurse comes over and says, mister Revers, you have to have a heart problem. I said, no. She was you got a serious heart problem. I got what's kind of

how I found it? Hey, mister, you have a serious heart problem. It gets worse. And so what is what happened is I go, you know, I said, goes, you better go tell the doctor. So I go to the fight upon the doctor just so it just happened to be a cardiologist. I won't mention any names. And he takes a look at the paper and he says, look, I'm gonna put you on light duty for four or five months to all the holes here from this cruise. And then he says, you know. I said, all right, doctor,

you know? And he goes, you take a trade on the medical yet, and I said, no I have. So he said, want to go take one house in Brooklyn? So I went over to the MS. Guy goes over, puts the thing on to come back with the EKG. I give it to him and he looks at it and he goes, I can't fe be back to work. Yeah, he goes, you gotta left bundle branch block And I said, you know what, dock dnny and this guy didn't put those things. I got a harry chest dock I gotta

shave. Let me shave. Oh yeah, And you know it was like pulling the heads out Kevin, because those raises don't have no shaving crew. So next thing I know, he says, I never let anybody take it twice, Crise, but I'll let you take it again. So I went in. I go to the MS guy. I go, brother, the hell did you do to me? Man? You didn't put them things out? I shaved. I came back. I gave him the paperwork. He looked at it, goes, I gotta retire you. He says. You

know you're not gonna be able to go back to work. You got a major, major heart problem. So he said, we'll keep you around and we'll retire you with your knee, but we're gonna keep you around to find out what serious heart problem you have. And you know, they sent me to Saint Francis and did a stress test. And you know, I go over there and I do a stress test and all of a sudden, everybody's leaving, people coming in before you know, after me, and I'm like,

they nurse, can I leave? Mister Redwids. Doctor wants to talk to you, and I go, shit, here we go, I said, is that bad? She just wants to talk to you. I go in to Guy's office and all of a sudden he looks at me and he goes, mister Evers, what is your appointment for your Cardiolois said, Doc, I'm coming down to mar you know. He goes, no, you're gonna go right now. I go wait, wait a minute. I says, it's that bad. He goes, you know what an injection fraction is?

I said, I have no idea fifty five to seventy five perus, right, God, it was a normal heart. He goes to me, your heart's working at twenty one percent. He says, you should be on oxygen and a wheelchair. And I told him, I said, I feel great. I really feel great. And he goes to me, you're gonna go see the cardiologist now. I said, all right, I'll let me go out to get my car. I'll drive around to the other way. He goes, no, no, no, no no, I'm getting an

orderly to wheel you there. I go, what they got a wheelchair? Put me in a wheelchair. He brings me to the other side of the hospital and one of the greatest doctor Joctor Robert Glatta, father, great, great guy. Someone's good to me. But he walks into the room and he goes, he looks at the chart and great bedside manner. He goes, mister rellits this is you. I said, this is me. He

goes, I was expecting to find an eighty year old man. I couldn't walk in a wheelchair looking at Holy shit, Yeah, fucked you know the Stanza what cancer get out? So what eventually ended up happening is they retired me on May first, two thousand and two, the orthopedic doctor and I went through this whole thing from September and very very emotional, and she was branded on the job. And when when I when she knew that I wasn't coming back, basically both of us, you know, I started crying my

eyes so she did. Thank god, I'm not the only one. Bro. I remember getting the news. I was crying like a baby. But I called my brother let me back, Yeah, Kevin, and you know what, yeah, I mean it was it was heartbreak. And then she goes, I'm gonna tell you something, Chris. You you set the bar, the bar very high for anybody to ever come down. She was just

starting off. Anybody comes in here after all the things that you've been through to try to stay on a job as you set the bar very high for anybody else that comes in here, and you fall off the ship base and get on the job wanting to get off the job. You mean those guys, Yeah, oh man, I you know what it was? Christ What

did you? So that's where I mean. This is when now you're retired, you start your mind starts working, and this is where you come up with the idea, Like how did the idea even come up with the book? You know? Uh, Louis. I felt sorry for myself for about three years, and you know, I was sitting sitting at home and I'm very depressed and stuff. And so what I ended up doing was I said,

you know, I got to go to church. And I moved up towards this town and called Sparrowbush. I moved up here, and I just like maybe about ten or twelve churches in the area. So I went to a Catholic church It's called Saint Mary's and I went in there and I kind of made a deal with God. I said, you know what, I'm gonna come here every single day and you've got to tell me why bad things happen to great people, Why like nine to eleven. I had too many

questions, Why why take the lives of great people? So I started going to church. I went into church. I said, I'll come every single day to you give me an answer. So after like after three months, have gone every single day from nine o'clock in the morning, five six days a week. After three months, I got frustrated. I walked out and I'm looking in front of the church, and if anybody's seen, they probably would have called the cops, thinking I was nuts. I was screaming at

it in the front of the church. I said, you know, I come out of every single day and you haven't given me an answer. Yet. I come to a house and you haven't give me an answer. During this time, I looked over to my left and on top of Port Jervis's an American flag on top of the hill. It's called Point Peter. I said, okay, God, you know what, I'll come to your house. But then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna drive up to the top of the mountain. I'm gonna get a little closer to have and I think

you'll hear me a lot better. So what I did, I got a notebook black and white notebook, and I drove up after church. I went over, went to church, took the book, went up on top of the mountain and started writing these stories about the shootings, delivering a baby, brothers dying, and on jobs at different things. I kept writing, writing and writing. I went to church for two and a half years. If I missed ten days, that was a lot. And I went every single

day. My wife said, my wife goes to me, are you seeing somebody I go to church? Yeah. Church. But I finally got about six or seven black and white notebooks. And there was a woman that I went to high school with and I told her about it, and she went she was going up community college up here in Orange County, and I told her about it. She goes, Chris, I'd like to help you with the books. Like I gave her all the books. She put it into a book for me. The books were written. The book was written for

my children, only for my kids. You know, we have a clock. If you were down at the World Trade Center, we have a clock that's ticking. We all know that that's just being honest, and I know that you know with the pace making. Now I got a paste makeing the

fibulator. You know where you got to pacee makeing the fibulator. So I know my time is limited, so I figured out I want to get these stories out to my children so later on, you know, when I'm gone, All of a sudden, they could say, you know what, go read this about your great grandfather. Go read this about your grandfather, read about what he was. And the stories were based on different things that happened

in my life that basically formed me into who I became. And she gave me a book for him and she goes, listen, Uh, I got a couple of professors that would like to read it. I said, listen, I want to make it for my kids, because no, no, let me get it to these professors and professors. All of a sudden she comes back and says, Chris, they love the book. Your message is so profound. What you've got, you know about hope, faith and never

given up. Because they gotta you know, you gotta give it to somebody else. So she says this to me, and I say, you know what, This woman Linda, her name is Linda. She goes to me, listen, Linda Lucas. She goes, listen, you know they love the book, and they think you should publish it. It's like, all right, And I'm saying to myself, you know what. They work with her, the professor, so they like her. They know she's going to

work in a book, so they're gonna say anything bad. So I go to with Dinah where I go with Stooi's over here and Madam more responsive Aania, and I go in there and I give it to a waitress named Diane. Dan, do me favor read this book? Tell me what you think you wrote this? I said. Yeah. She goes, oh my god, Chris, I said, I don't care. You could chew it up, spit it out. I don't care. I want your I want your opinion, you know, truthful opinion. So I come back in the week,

she said, was crying. She comes over to me. I'm so sorry, blah blah blah, said Diane. I didn't want you to cry. I don't want it to be said. She goes, No, Chris, I laughed, I cried, I laughed, I cried. I laughed. I crying. Just I can't believe that you, you firefighters, go through what you did. And I said, yeah, you know, I said, She goes, Chris I loved the book. So I leave there and I go, you know what, Diane's got to say something nice,

because I come in here every day and I get it. I gotta leave her a tip. Still not still not believing it. I'm not believing, you know. So what I started doing is I joined the doll team year back in two thousand and five, started traveling all over and h We're down in Texas and it's big a tang guy Paula Panell. We're flying back from Texas and we got to go to Philly and then for Philly Newburgh and he

goes, ay, Edwards, I heard you wrote a book. And I go, you know what I said to myself, if I'm going to get a true opinion, give it to a brother, because they don't give it in what they said to spit it out you there's no mercy. So I gave it to him. And he's sitting at the airport down in Texas and I'm looking at him. He's reading it. He said, oh shit, POULI reading the book. So next thing he goes, you mind if I read on the plane, go no police. Next thing he reads it on

he's on the plane. I look at poly go shit. He's reading the book. So we land in Philly and get a connect and fight the Newberg and Pollie comes over me with the book and he goes, Chris, listen, I love the book. I love the book. I said, what chapter you get up there? I got up to chapter twenty three, I said, poorly, listen, you're almost done. You only get twenty more chapters ago because no, no, no, I'm gonna wait till your publish it. So I'm saying, no, I just finish. You're going to

take it out? No, no, no no, I'm gonna wait to your finish. It gives me the book back. So we land in Newburgh and Poorlie comes over me and says, listen, I love the book. But I got up to the part about your father and how your father suffered with through cancer, and he said, I didn't want to cry in front of anybody. He goes, I don't want to cry, well, Paulie. He goes, Chris, I'm gonna tell you that book brought me right

back into the firehouse. You might be in the Bronx, you might be in Manhattan, it might be in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, wherever you work he says, it's the same cast of characters. It's the same group of guys. No matter where we go, every firehouse has that guy. And you know that's so. Once I said it, I called the woman up and I said, Linda, let me tell you something. I'll publish it. She was, what changed your mind? I said, it

passed the Pauli test. She goes to the Pauli test. Uncle Polly, I go, yeah, six foot three, two hundred and fifty pounds, A tiny guy who's a fireman and stead he liked. So that was it. That's how it all started. And what happened was I felt funny taking money for it. So what I did throughout the whole time as I went, I did fundraisers and fundraisers and book silence. And what I did is I raised over twenty seven hundred dollars for brothers. Kevin Rooney's wife Kevin was

in forty two, passed away from cats. I raised fifty teen hundred dollars for his wife. Ricky Scott. His wife, April is suffering from a new Garb's disease. She has to go get special medication. I did a fundraiser for her. I did his fundraiser for the Special Olympics and gave them money. And I also did a fundraiser for a local friend of mine down in town that had trying to get a liver transplant. And what eventually ended

up happening it was I raised five hundred dollars for his family. So and now with the sales of the book, the book is because seventeen seventy six. And what I do was the reason why it's seventeen seventy six is because that's how tall the Freedom Tower is. They wanted me to raise They wanted me to ask twenty five dollars for the book, and I said no, I wanted to be substantial. I wanted to be seventeen seventy six. I get five dollars from the book on the sales. And what I do now,

I'm not doing a fundraiser. I'll go into a restaurant and I'll see an old veteran with a hat or a firefight or an old firefighter. What I'll do is nice. I'll buy their dinneral lunch or breakfast, and that's how I get back. It's funny, Chris, I do the same thing because I have an we have to I have an ATM business, right, So when I'm out there filling ATMs, I can't tell you how many people every single day, I say, hey, why don't you give me some

of that money? Is that your money? You know? Why don't you give me some of that money? But there's sometimes and I walk into a place and somebody just starts talking to me, and the sweetest, nicest person, And I wind up and I go to the cashier and I say, hey, give me favorite buy the breakfast for me, please, you know what I mean? And I just walk out. I don't even tell them it's me. I just walk out, exactly, and I feel great.

I do it two times a week when I go out, I find somebody to give money to, and it makes me feel good to the rest place, bro not what I'm in town. But no, I never you. Well, I have to buy a few because I know you got all away, all right? So you write the book, Philly, Where's Philly at? Now? Where Billy picks up the book? And Philly's gonna write a screenplay about the book? So yeah, where are we at with the screenplay? Now? Film? Where are we about the screenplay? Where are we

at? When we made podcast about it right. Uh yeah, So in the early stages, Phil, all right, you're puffin back day coming up for I'm Crucis. So it's around November of twenty seventeen, and uh one of my best friend's moms, missus Condon, she was actually a dispatcher I believe, for nine one one. Oh yeah, and she told me, Uh, Philly, there's this firefighter doing actor mixers at Murray or Murphy's Bar

downtown near the Trade Center. You should go check it out. So I did, and that picture I showed you is where I f I met. I'm positive it was firefighter Mark O'Brien and Colin Quinn. And I brought my screenplay there because I wanted some feedback and I wanted to do God's a good thing. I was just about to jump all over your head, bro, I'm gonna wait till the show's over. Mister Colin Quinn, thank you so much. That was great to meet you again. I guess we'll reconnect.

Gary Ramsey was also my teacher at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Shout out Colin Quinn and rest in peace. Gary Ramsey. All right, so I wrote the screenplay. I'm trying to like, just start shaking hands, just let him know what it is. I'm doing what I planned to do. And I met Mario Polite that night he was there, befriended him. He's a firefighter, I believe, a lieutenant. Well, we've kept in touch and he

knows a little bit about Fireland and what I really wanted to do. Now, at this point, I actually converted the screenplay because it was just it was too it was too short, and the book is too big. So I broke it down into episodics. So I stretched out the whole screenplay. All of it is useful, just not in episode one, two or three, had to take up the entire first season. So I went back to the book and I started seeing other things where I could start filling in all

the gaps I have. The Here i'll show you, I have the entire the entire thing practically done. So yeah, that turned me. Ready, my back's picking it up. The whole thing, it's done. The only thing I gotta do, honestly, is just filling the gaps the entire book, the entire episode, every single episode, a couple of acts accounted for, right, It's not so the show is now working title called Fireland Episode one is now available as a demonstration on a podcast play. And I really

got to give a shout out to Nancy Carbone at Friends of Firefighters. Yeah, like we just like I started meeting all of you around the time I met her almost two years ago, So Nancy is good friends, I think with Kevin Smith, and I listened to him on a Joe Rogan podcast years ago and he was saying something along the line on what Hollywood is kind of trying to do as far as getting scripts some attention, and Kevin Smith mentioned

that they're converting these stories into a podcast presentation first to generate a fan base and get interest. So I thought that was a brilliant idea. So instead of me actually nailing in scripts like I had so much success with my head shot, I just thought, all right, what if I did a theatrical presentation of Fireland as if it weren't like an audiobook and just let people decide whether or not if this is a TV show they want to see. So

that's exactly where we're at. I started the Astoria Filmmakers Club and got all my friends and family from the Astoria Filmmakers Club to perform in the pilot episode, and what we're doing is crowdfunding. And I got that idea because that's what happened with Dallas Jenkins with his TV show called The Chosen, which is out in theaters right now in season four. It's a story about Jesus and

it's a great what a phenomenal TV show. Shout out Dallas Jenkins. But I love the idea that people get to decide what type of shows they want to watch instead of Hollywood decided for them what they're going to watch. So that's the model more or less I'm going for because, like I said, everybody has a story to tell, but sometimes reading becomes a job. We

want to hear the story first. So through the Story Filmmakers Club, what I would like to do is actually have it be an original production and original TV show directly through us. And if people want to actually see this show episode per episode, per episode, per episode, season to season, they donate directly to the charity the charity produces the show. They watch the show for free. Where is that bro They donate to the show by go into

a story of filmmakers dot org. You'll see a donate button and you'll see the campaign for Fireland. You could listen to Fireland the podcast play for free on all streaming platforms I believe, which I do. Now you could do that. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, it's been a We released episode one, Hell'sgate on September eleventh this past year, which takes you through Proby School. Yeah. So yeah, you'll actually get to get an idea of

characters. Characters the introduction on year one, so it's set in nineteen ninety two, and we're going to be following their journey leading all the way up to nine to eleven in just nine short years away. Are you guys talking like all the time about it or no, it's kind of past that point. You mean as far as like me and Chris. Yeah, well, I mean we've spoken about it, prayed about it, and we really wanted

it. Like like we're sharing the podcast and I'm telling people like you guys on what the point of it is and how to get involved because it's going to be an fdmy collaboration story. Like even if anybody has an idea for an episode, I'm probably going to find out during the making of it where we're going to implement like true stories, because that's what the story is really

about. It's not so much about these characters. The main character of Fireland is the fire Department, and that's basically what we're going to be seeing and it's going to be when I listened to it, there's not really one main character as Lieutenant as the Proby's Yeah, and there's not really one character that you zone in. How do people like I see here? Text Fireland to this phone number? What does that do? That brings you directly to our

website. We have a hotline and you'll be able to see You'll actually be able to see the campaign. You'll get a full description on what the story is about, and it'll also take you to a link on how to listen to episode one. So that's text Fireland f I R E L A N D two. The number is six four six sixty eight one two eight one zero. Yep. Now, how do they like? You were just saying, like, if people I listen to it, I forget what you sent it to me. And I listened to it on I don't remember how I

listened to it. Well, it's on Amazon Music, if you tell in Fireland Podcast, Yeah, it's on Amazon, It's on Spreaker. It is on YouTube. It's on Soundstify. I don't know to Spotify, but I know it's on YouTube. All right, I'll think a little bit. What so, this is what I want to ask you do. Yeah, I

could listen to it on spreaker. What you were saying that guys, people will instead of Hollywood dictating what's coming on people with dictate how do how do the people that are listening to this now, how do they like vote for it or promote it? Like? How do they do that? Well?

With that link, you could share the campaign anywhere on social media. You can either make a donation directly or help raise money, and you could become a fundraiser yourself and you could challenge your network to donate up to say, one hundred bucks, and if you spread that onto say Facebook, everybody could chip in five bucks and you'll hit your goal and then that money will go directly to the making of firearms. Put it on a fan page tomorrow.

Oh thanks? So? Uh you know, we're almost eighty thousand people on that bro On the fan page, people see it well, fun like that's actually how I met one actor in particular, was through the fan page. Last summer. I was looking for some help if anybody wanted to, like maybe jump in and be a voice Deputy chief shout out Chuck Adams. I met him on the fan page and now also from New Orleans, and there was a little bit of a there was a little bit of hesitation from the

fan page. They weren't sure if this was spam or legit or not. I think I remember that, Phil, Oh, that was us. That was me and Chuck is like, Yo, it's legit and here we are on the podcast. You pretty wow. So that's what I mean full circle. Like, it's just we'll get back to Chris. What does your dad say about that film? Like, is he pumped about it? Like, what does he think about it? Fireland? Yeah, like I know in his own way, he's very proud. It was Uh, I think it

was. It was. It was a look like it was tough for him. As as for me, for me not becoming a firefighter and being an actor, because it's not Yeah, it's not a likely thing to happen when you act, between getting on the job and becoming an actor or doing anything.

So I kind of go back to what you asked before on why I even started the AFC is because I couldn't get a job, and I wanted to create a community where it's sort of like its own ecosystem, where you're not trying to break into Hollywood. I'm just saying, why don't we just create our own Hollywood? What would it look like? And that's exactly what I built. So, I mean it's huge, right, I mean it's it's it's so tiny and small. But I got a thousand filmmakers on our

Facebook group. Yeah, it's crazy, we're growing. It's not that it's really not that complicated. The ultimately, you want people to watch your movie. You know, that's the ultimate goal, whether it's on streaming or in theaters, that that is the ultimate goal. But before that, you have to write a story, and some people just don't know how to do that.

So through our nonprofit, on Sundays, we have what's called the Writer's Room where if you don't know how to write a story, where you want to learn how to write a story, or you have one, that's a space where we start. And then we always had mixers live and in person every Wednesday night in and around the city and definitely online to just kind of bring people to the table and you got an idea, great, let's talk about it. So by Sunday we would have read something, and most recently

now we actually produce something. And we got a mixer happening on Saint Patrick's Day this year. We're going to be getting together just to kind of say goodbye to the winter and hello to the spring. And now we also have yeah. But so basically now we have like, say, you have all these scripts and you have to shoot a movie. A lot of these people

have already filmed the movies before, but there's nowhere to show them. So I created the Triborough Film Festival, which is New York City's exclusive Battle of the Burroughs, where you got best actor, you got best writer, best director, and we hosted that in the last two years at Kaufmann Astoria Studios at the Zupper Theater. And it was just basically what got me on the radar from I guess the New York State Assembly where they said you're doing a

great job. Here's a citation, And at first I had no idea what they meant. I thought I was getting two tickets and getting in trouble. But no, I guess this was a good thing that I'm doing and it was really validating. Yeah, that's arena she represents. Uh. I think Assemblyman Chang and the let me question. Let's say a new guy who had a great idea for a nineteen seventies war year TV series, how would he go about getting somebody to write that if he had a good uh one page

and he had a good outline for a script. You see how he did? That guy? You know what? You know what? Hold on before he even says anything else. When Jill was talking, I was looking at Koob's and I'm like, there is no way that little beam that canser in that Bro. I knew. I knew it was coming outlined for a show. Bro, Who would I say to I already? Well? Uh me, I'm the president? Oh maybe did he know not only is the hair

club president, but he got cous before I had an idea? Hey, Chris, uh, since this is all happening, right, if you find yourself because you know, Phil was saying that possibly you might want other stuff to fill in some of these things. Do you find yourself wanting to write other stuff? Like? Are you doing that in the book or in your

little pads or anything? Is bubble notebooks? Yeah? As a matter of fact, I started writing another one about a trip on the trip we went on the Daar Team and I started doing the Daar Team I two thousand and five. I started, like I was telling you, I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself, and I got involved with the Daar Team. I went down to Katrina for three and a half weeks with a firefighter, Johnny

Silent, and we spent three and a half weeks thet there. And that trip was like something out of you know, all the prayers that I've ever given in my lifetime during fter nine eleven are like all came in a point at that trip and that I'm working on that right now. And I got probably about probably about five thousand and six thousand words I'm going by and I still got more to do. But that's an overwhelming story of so many different things. And in the book there, you know, it's a lot of

things I wrote. I wrote in a book about things that happened. You know, some people call them weird, some people call them strange. I think it's like a divine intervention. A lot of these things that happened, Like I wrote about a mosaic that was given to me by a woman down in Missouri, Missouri, you know. And then the connection between that and the way it came about that to bring back to my firehouse was like overwhelming. The woman in Missouri ended up going uh. She lived in near Lake

of the Ozark. She travels four miles miles four hours to go upstate in Missouri and drives by a school that has a sign that says art auction in the school on a weekend, this woman walks in and she goes over It is a beautiful mosaic. She goes over there and she puts a bit on it, and she just happened. This woman just happened to be the owner of a excavating company who I who on nine off and I to eleven. She sent me these beautiful Norman Rockwell statues of firefighters. She wanted me to

have her. I never met her before. And then all of a sudden I had to go out and I had a house out there, and I was taking all the stuff out of the house. Just so happens I was out there at this time, and I stopped over there to just thank her for the you know, for these statues, and next thing, you know, she goes me, listen, Chris, Oh my god, I can't believe you here. I said, yeah, Rosie, I came in and

say thank you for you know, the statues and stuff. Next thing you know, she says, I have something for you, but I didn't know how I was going to get it for you. And she goes behind the counter. She takes this white shoot off and there's this four by four by five probably about three by five beautiful mosaic all tile work of an American flag blowing in the breeze. And she says, Chris, I want you to take this, bring it back to your firehouse, and give it to the

guys in the firehouse. So I was like overwhelmed. So we take it, put her on the way like one hundred fift pounds, and put in her back in his pickup of a U all. And now I'm taking it back to the city, back to New York. I'm driving across. So I get on the phone. I called my brother who lives in Missouri. I'm talking to him about the trip, and he goes out of everything work out. I said, great, but I said, you know what, I got to stop by Jerry Riedles house. You know his business, and

his wife gave me his beautiful giant mosaic. I didn't know what the word was. I just said, a beautiful picture of an American flag blowing in a breeze. So he goes, what does it look like? I said, it's made out of like a little pieces of tile. So my brother goes, how big is it? I tell him, and then all of a sudden he says, you know what, hold on, you got to talk to my sister in law. She gets on the phone and she goes, Chris, what does it look like? And I tell her and she

goes, what does the woman look like? She's got red hair. She goes, Chris, a woman came in to our school up in parts of Carnie, Missouri. And she came in and she bid four hundred and fifty five hundred dollars on this mosaic, and she goes. I asked what she was going to do with this mosaic, and she says, I'm buying it for a friend who's in New York City. Fireman. That mosaic she bought,

she auctioned out. That was auctioned out, and she bought it from his from my sister in law and I took that mosaic, drove down. We got him in the back of forty six truck. It's hanging on the wall and around the pictures of the brothers who were killed. And those are some of the stories. And there's other stories like that. This. I like those that's there, you know, And these are things I embraced.

And I think a lot of it had to do with you know, I mean, if if I didn't stuck going to church, man, who knows where I was just gonna say that I went to church, though, bro, you know, I don't know where we were. Hey, Chris, what is that? What is that above your head? That writing? What is that above your head? Behind you? Oh? Oh? Fill or me you Chris? Oh? I got. What happened was how we called one was killed in the Bronx. He was working for two Engines, working

over in seventy five thirty three on eight Well, Michael Riley. And what I did is we went out and we went out to Colorado Springstent and Memorial. They put how his name out of the memorial in Colorado. And when I went out there, I took the names of Kevin Riley, Kevin O'Reilly, I etched the names off of the uh Dave, the other one, the one that's directly over you ahead, which one to one long one,

the big one, oh, directly gotten right here. Yeah, those are the names the faces of all the brothers that were killed on nine to eleven. That's the post. You've seen that one hundred thousand times. Oh, I can't. I can't see from you. No, I could see it. That's kind of I got a bed. I think it's time for a thicker set. I think it's time for If you see this, yeah, if you see the etchings on the wall over here to my I guess yea pencil, you know what I mean. Yeah, I gotta get around.

He's of the etching from the memorial out in Colorado Springs. Like I said, I got Kevin, Kevin O'Reilly, Dave Wise, Paul tag Maya, Vinnie Holler, and Dennis saw Mohica from Rescue one. Chris Blackwell his name is also on that. Got mikeah Rumba. I got Dennis Devlin, Jerry Shrank from from Rescue three at the time. And what I did is I took all of us off. And as a matter of fact, Kevin Riley Kevin O'Reilly who followed George Riley worked in my firehouse as a lieutenant. George

was a great man. He worked in forty truck. George ended up Kevin ended up being working in Kevin's house. He actually worked in. Uh, Kevin actually worked in his house and was detailed to Brooklyn and on nine to eleven Kevin was killed. So what I did is I went out, when I went out to Colorado, I etched it, put it in a frame, and I gave it to George and his wife. And uh, you know, Jerry Schreng was another one that I I wrote Jerry I worked,

you know, I worked in seventy five thirty three. Dennis Devlin. It was another great, great man I work with. You know, he was just seventy five thirty three. And you know, I go through the list and those are the guys that carried with me. Paul Tegmy I actually came into eighty one and forty six, And a crazy story was about about almost a year before Paul came into the firehouse. I was playing in a sawball tournament down in Georgia in over forty and all of a sudden, the guy

I'm playing ball with it. Just we picked him up and the guy goes to me, Oh, you're in New York City five min I said, yeah, I got a good friend of mine getting on a job. I said, really. He goes, what's her name? He goes, oh, paul Tegmy. I said, really, you go help? You know. He goes, but he's kind of old, he's like forty years old. I said wow. I said, oh, do you know where he's gonna work? He goes, No, I don't know where he's gonna work, but he lives up in Hyde Parks. I said, if he lives

in Hyde Park, he probably work in the Bronx. So going back and forth, that was the end of it. I go back to the firehouse and all of a sudden, eight months a year goes by in the fire I say, Chris, we got a new proby coming in. So I go, oh, man, okay, now I'm ready to go sit at the table. You know, you're drooling. I had to wipe the drool

off my face the baptism. The baptism at that table. So you know, next thing, you know, guy walks through the back door and he's limping, and I go, oh shit, I go you to detail. He goes, no, I'm the prob s you're the proby and you're walking like that. He goes, yeah, I go what's your name? He goes, Paul tegmya Paul Techmara came into my firehouse. And a year later, oh this you know what, lou I got all the stories about how things come to a complete circle. The biggest thing is now Eric Taber,

Eric Tegmayer is now in the New York City firefighter Paul's son. What ended up happened? It was I was out and I did a lot of work, did a lot of volunteer work with the tunnels to Tower and they have a nine eleven museum that travels around the country. And I'm out in I'm out in Indiana and we're at the FDIC and uh, you know you have at the very end of the fdi C they do a parade where everybody goes and walks around the stairs. So I'm out there with Steve Wall, Lieutenant

Steve Wall for forty two inches. So we're standing out there and all of a sudden they start to, you know, march up the stairs. And the first person I stopped to see who she's walking for is Paul Tagmeier and I start crying my eyes out. Man, I get emotional. The woman's like, oh my god. I go no, no, you don't understand. I work with Paul, you know. And then and then all of a sudden, a couple of people later stop somebody else and it's Dennis Moheka.

I never worked with Dennis, but on that on that Saturday, the sixth story stairwall, I was in the hole that we got Dennis's body out about three o'clock and the afternoon and I was in the hole taking out his body. The next person, three poor people later, Dennis Mohekas comes by with the picture on and it was overwhelming. So what happens is I go back to the hotel and I'm standing in the hotel and God be my witness.

I'm standing in the hotel and I look up and I raise my hands into this guy up to the ceiling, and I go, Paulie, thank you so much for that beautiful message you just sent me. Thank you so much, And lou God be my witness. My phone starts vibrating and I look at the phone and it's Eric Tagmaia, Paul's son calling me up. And I'm like, I look at it, go wait and maybe I maybe I accidentally dialed him or whatever, you know, And then all of a sudden, I look at the text and he goes, Chris, you know,

I want to you know, I just wanted to tell you. I hope you're doing well. I haven't talked to you in a while, but I just want to tell you. I'm graduating. I'm getting on the job. I'm graduating on Thursday down in Brooklyn, and I want you to be a guest. This kid calls me up. When I got my hands extended in this guy looking at and talking to his father. And what ended up happening is I tell him, listen, You'll never eric, you never believe it. I just went and seen I sent them the I got a picture

of a woman too. I sent them a picture, and he goes, you know, Chris, that's how my father works. That's how my dad works. Where Chris, I get back, I go down to Brooklyn. I go over and I stood there and watched the kid become a New York City firefighter. He comes in the back and I'm standing there and he looks at me with a big smile, and you knew he couldn't hug me.

I wanted to get my hug. But eventually at the end of the day, you know, he went up and brought him up and they interviewed me, asked me if I wanted to be interviewed, and I talked about his father, and I said, you know what, the kid's got the eye and a tiger, he has a he has a guardian angel that's watching over him that I can attest to. And and these just something some of the things that have happened. Well, you know for us, when where does

the kid work? Where is he working? He works in fifty eight fifty eight truck he's got he's working with Joe Joe Prince, they called the Prince Prince. Yeah, he just yeah, it's a great he he went into his house, so he was with him for a few years and and the captain just retired. He's a great, great guy. Prince. Well, we tried to get him on the show, but it's not his style. He's yeah, he's you know what, he's uh, he's very emotional like

we all are. And I think, you know, there's things that we can talk about, and there's things that we break down about and I you know, you know a lot of people don't understand. You know, September eleventh to some people are one day. September eleven to us is every single day. You know, on September eleven, you get email, You get

emails and text message and phone, phone calls and everything. You know, every one of us get it, you know, hope you do well, hope you doing what we do. Then all of a sudden, you know, the next day comes, two, three days, a month, two months later. You know, they kind of like set back in place. But we carry that with us every single day for the past, you know, going on twenty three years, and you know, you look for those great messages, like like Eric Tedmeyer, you know, the great messages that

we get. And I mean, that's kind of like another reason why I sat down and wrote that book, because I want everybody to understand about fate, hoping, never given up. Those are three things that we live with, you know, from the day of the world trades underny attacks, those are three things that we've lived with for twenty three years. You know, I appreciate I appreciate you guys so much for giving Phil and I the opportunity to come on and h and at least you know, tell our stories.

I mean, I really appreciate it that I wanted to ask Phil, Phil, sir, hanging out being around your dad and seeing you think you were able to capture that in a show. You think you're able to capture what talk to even explain? Put it to words? What the love of the job with the Oh My dad retired out of the Rock. He worked for MSU in the last few years of his career. So I spent a lot of time at the Rock. I got to meet these guys, got to listen, got to eat with them, had to do the dishes. I

understood, I understood the game. So to capture that cinematically, it is possible. I recently rewatched Rescue Me just to kind of get an idea on what they did. I've watched everything. I know how to watch a film. I know how to critique a film. I know how to instruct a cinematographer on this is what they did, this is what was wrong, because this is what we have to capture the out of YadA. So I understand

the language of the business. I guess it can be done. You gotta have the uh, you just got to have the right you gotta have the right actors who actually put in the work and actually spend time at the kitchen table or else. It's just going to be disingenuine. It's not going to be authentic. It's going to be a performance, and it's going to be it's there's going to be a disconnect where you're not going to capture the brotherhood

because you haven't walked in the shoes. It's just, you know what's funny you say that, Phil, I never watched Rescue Me. But if I have watched a snippet of it and guys are at the kitchen table, it doesn't seem it seems like, well, if you think about Rescue is if they have every single like every firehouse is a guy who's drunk. Every fire house has a guy who's a gambler. Every firehouse is a guy. This firehouse has everybody in the same guyouse. Like, I'll never say a bad

thing about Rescue Me. I thought it was a great I thought it was actually I think it was the closes. The closes, it still seems a little it's well, like there's like like like there's two different ways to describe why that is it's because you guys listen to the radio, you could hear how a song is being performed. You can listen to the exact same song live at Madison Square Garden and it's a totally different experience. That's the difference.

To capture something cinematically, it's going to be a little bit more challenging. But I think you make up the difference when you watch something in theaters because uh, it's not so much what you're watching that leaves that impression on you, especially when you watch it for the first time. It's everybody who you're with simultaneously together watching that same thing that leaves that oppression on the same

time. So that's that's that's the connection right there. I gotta tell you very much edition out there because I watched I try to watch them of the Fight Apartment shows out there right now, and I'm like, holy shit, these suck man, They're just so they're terrible. You think the missing element is somebody that actually works the spot, like you said, having that bringing

that realism. And even though actors can be good and bring certain things to the table, but if you don't have a guy that's filled those shoes, it's hard to capture it. I mean to the t like for those guys that worked that table, to bring that realism to the screen. Fill out my suggestion to get all fine, and they're the only ones you can bring it to the screen. They can, uh Like, Fireland is based on

true circumstances. It's based on truthful characters where it's almost like these characters are a little bit fictitious, not exactly cliche or stereotypical, but they are exactly what the reflection or the parallel or the mirror image of the firefighter is. And that's what I wrote, That's what I was going for. The podcast made very well articulated audibly, which would be a little bit challenging, especially what just actors. Just give me the basics. It's definitely there, but

it's more than possible to pull off. You hire guys with tickers. I mean like you got a Christian Louis, you got cam. There's so many, there's so much room. I started out as a background actor. I highly recomend got to be right at the top. Let's put up. Let's put up the file and the piece that we got guys, the little uh h, yeah, thirty seconds, whatever you want to good three minutes,

like you want three minutes? Is that what you're good about? Like if you want to do it all the way up until the end of the monologue, that's around the five minutes six minute mark. That's a good taste of the demo. And I guess but the audience listen to that? All right, you guys, ready, here we go. We go for it. The Astoria Filmmakers Club proudly presents Fireland. It was a cold, windy day on Randall's Island. The sky was gray. I couldn't see where the sun

began or the clouds ended. No shadows can be seen from any direction. Probably stood scattered in the center of the academy. They call it the rock. In two parallel lines, they were cheering, whistling, yelling his name. A female cadet, Rita is sprinting between the parallel lines of cadets, closing in on an overweight proby Oscar. We see the Amtrak train in the distance, passing by over the academy gate. Oscar tigs his teammate Jake,

and he sprints towards a smoky building. Rita tags Ben and he sues Jeke. The parallel lined cadets break ranks and close the lane and watch Ben chase Jeeke to the final obstacle course, Let's go ship. Lieutenant Ian, the lead instructor at the rock, is heard in the distance on a loud speaker sixty seconds, followed by a loud roar of cadets urging Ben and Jake to move it. Jake takes a sledge hammer and hits the MTA bus. There a drill surgeon guides him. Ben closes in on Jake and whales the sledge

into the tire in short spurts. Jake hits the tire harder and harder, but causes the hammer to bounce off the tire, losing his momentum. Ben meets Jake at the finish line and they walk quickly to put on full firefighter gear. They both dress at equal pace, wearing boots, gloves, jacket, helmet and irons. They both enter a wooden box tunnel and crawl their

way in the dark. Ben exits the end of the crawl space tunnel holding its teddy Barren hands the drill instructor waiting for Ben return to the start of the tunnel, undress, cross the line, take the bag to your COO. Okay, yes, sir. Jake exits his tunnel with a stuffed animal two an ox walk quickly, do not run. Return to the start of the tunnel undress. Then you can cross the line. Okay, who are sir? Okay? After you cross that line, give the animals to your

CEO. What are you looking at me for? Do it? They strip off their gear and lay the jacket, helmet, gloves, irons, and boots on the table. At the start of the wooden tunnel. Ben is able to put on his sneakers and tie them. Running a moment before Jake ten nine eight seven. Ben, followed by Jake, sprints back towards the cadets at full speed as Lieutenant Ian continues to count down on a loudspeaker from the inside of a fire truck. The cadets reform the lanes, opening the

view of the finish line. At the finish line is a large firehouse bell from the late eighteen sixties. Ben sprints between the lines of Roaring Proby's. With one second to spare, Ben crosses the line meters ahead of Jake. The company goes wild. Lieutenant Ian sounds the rig's horn at the count of zero, Jake rings the bell. One full second after the rig horn blows. Michael runs up to Ben ahead of Bravo company, giving him a high five and slap on his ass. Yeah, good job, Benny. Other

Proby's continue to congratulate Ben. Jake is seen pissed off that he lost. Jake refuses to talk or acknowledge anyone in the company who attempts to console him. Lieutenant Ian gets out of the fire truck and closes the driver's side door behind him. Oh yeah, great job. Have you just lost to a bunch of women? Now hydrate and falling? Come on, We see Ben's face after he's trying to catch his breath. Alex and Rita are among the last to congratulate Ben as they hustle to get water. Awesome, bro,

good job Ben. Yeah. Thanks. The company hustles to the fountain and drinks water, then walks to the horse shaped water fountain with his arms down, still holding the teddy, He looks at it. It was old, burnt mildly round the back. Its facial features, eyes, nose, and mouth were gone, melted away, smoky and graying as if it were barbecued. Ben takes a deep look at the bear. Are you going to keep that? Nope? Then stops staring at it and let's go. Ben takes

a drink from the running fountain. The cold wind fans the water into Ben's lips. He takes one swallows. On the second sip, he rolls it down in his mouth and spits it out. He jogs to the line. Three hundred cadets at attention. Lieutenant Ian is standing waiting for the company to stand at full attention. Ben jogs up to Lieutenant Ian. Sir. Lieutenant Ian takes the bear, already holding the ox in his other hand. Ben

runs into line. Lieutenant Ian looks at the bear as if they've known each other his whole career, and Ian begins to pace across the view of the cadets and addresses them all eyes forward as they listen carefully. So where were you? That is the question? Were you there? Someday the time will come when you look yourself in the mirror, older grayer, and you'll ask yourself, where were you? What did you do? You want to keep going film? Well, I ask yourselves now what that answer might be?

Well, I did my job, anything everything I had to do. Yeah, that's good guy. That they will come and you'll have to any but so so that reminds me of a couple of times when we were in the car I listened to like the Civil War or something like that, right, and it's just exactly like that story. Yeah, yeah, almost like you're reading the book. Yeah right, it's a book on tape. That's why

I listened to them all the time, audio books. That was what I was going for, because I just, honestly, to get your screenplay, to get your script in front of a producer, to give them the time to actually sit and read it. It's the chances of that happening are probably a million to one, or more could be into one. At least with

this, they don't have to work. They can listen to it first, get the get the vibe on what the story is actually about, and if the public actually shows interest and is actually donating to it, then that's it. Like the decision is already halfway made. So where can these guys listen to this again? So let's get guys, let's get some interest in this

guns. Yeah for sure, it's Chris Christi's thing. I don't want to mute him out too much, all right, So we have the you have listened to it on speaker, right Foland on speaker you got speaker, you got YouTube, you got Amazon Music, uh, SoundCloud, that's possible. It's on iTunes. I just didn't really check there. And uh if you type in Fireland podcast play or even if you go to a story of filmmakers dot org or text the link, it's all going to bring you to the

audio presentation. I'll just got to find the link. There we go, text text Fireland for the link to six four six six eighty one to eight one zero. Okay, Chris, Is there any shoutouts that you want to give anybody that you're working for, any anything, any donations or anything that? Uh no, I mean, it's it comes down to the uh.

You know, whoever purchases book five dollars goes to a good cause, to a right now, it's either a veteran, uh most likely an older veteran, you know, even a young guy or if I see a disabled vet. One of the biggest, one of the best ones that we have right now is the speed Incilla Tummas the Tower. That's probably one of the best that they have out there right now. It's on Amazon christ Uh No, it's not on Amazon, but I mean, if you want, they look

for eleven dollars donation a month for everybody. I mean, I was saying, if if every firehouse in New York City could take uh, you know, the meal money, and everybody put a dollar in, you know, by the end of the month, you donate eleven dollars a month profile ass and the money goes basically to help us first responders. It also helps the young guys coming back with totally disabled injuries. I have Frank Silla's cell phone.

Let me give him a call because I went to Proby School with Steven Silla, so I'll try to give him on the show to Uh, that's great. I mean at one point we were trying to do that. Have every firehouse in New York City donate eleven dollars per month, have to do throwing a throwing fifty cents every meal if you've got a double house, you know. Yeah, but that's not I mean, we were doing the wounded war I mean, those guys are doing a lot of stuff even at the

firehouse, right yeah. Yeah, we we had the metal box for the wounded warriors. We you know, we did, come on, it's every every meal you're throwing in money for there's more than enough money throwing to Uh yeah, oh yeah, that was a ton of you know, every dollar donated to the to the Silophone Foundation, ninety five cents goes directly to help now they're trying to help the homeless vets. You know. So it's it

definitely is the greatest one, greatest foundation. No, it is. And you don't what's the legacy like you said, keV, you know it's Steven, so it's his legacy. Yeah, it's a great, great course, you know, like Mack Wolburg. They got to Wolburg. You know, we we we'll get we'll get him money, you know, all right, roofy you know what I'm saying. We'll get the smith knows him. Great story, Chris, great story, Phil, thank you, thank you, everybody in the chest. Get this. Let's get this, mad dude,

because we got some ship firefighter shows out there. Bro. You know, no, it's really no, it's like that's how I'm going to present it. If you want to listen to it first, this is the best way. If you truly want to watch this show, you donate, we'll produce it. Like that's that that's it. Yeah, you walk into a place, you go listen to me. You walk into uh paramount, you say, listen, they're all ship out there. You got a ship. I got a good show here. Everything out there is ship. That That's that's

what I like for the ten million to one. It's really about having it cross your desk at the right time. But honestly, Kevin Smith made a great point like, if you're listening to it first, you're gonna find the right script sooner. Right. What's that? What's that line you used again the early in the show? Oh yeah, read doors? What was that? Yeah? That's see when when you walk through the red when you walk through the red doors, that's considered the b and you're walking into a new

T shirt there roof, I think, and then you hear it. You're walking into a new life and you get baptized at the kitchen table. You get baptized. That you get born when you walk through the doors and you get a baptized berth table. The canal, I'll try to catch bird canal. You gotta down in it. You walk through the birth canal, walk through the red doors. I get to the kitchen table and it's baptized, baptized at the kitchen table, you know what I mean, Yeah, something

like that. Yeah, that's it. Man, you walk through those front red those big red doors. Man, that's A and B one of the greatest lives that we've had that we were able to share. You know, that's the best job in the world. Man definitely uses well. You know, if Phil became a big movie star and he was pulling in like, you know, eighty million dollars of film, maybe we'd say Chris got a

better job. But you know, I'd be producing a lot of movies with that type of Yeah, Bro, that'd be great on Zony checking in listen when it gets made it to a you know, Netflix series or something. You know I mean, I mean, Louis what the hell? Bro with my name is ski Don. If you're looking for a guy, would go If you're looking for like what do they call extra, listen to the podcast.

I mean there's there's you never know. I already did. If you're looking for a guy with a big head, getting Gonzoe, we can just keef you want to be you want to be the body double for the Love Season? Get the body double? A wow wow Wow, fantastic guy. Got no nothing do we have? Uh we haven't d now. Oh that's right, we do before we get let's say, I'm gonna say it again. Uh, what it is? Vinnie Done coming on Ruffy a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks, we're doing a Q and A with Vinnie

Done, the Legend. Send your questions to Coubes podcast dot gmail dot com. If you want your questions answered by I don't have to go to. If you want to answered by the goat Vinny Done, send him into Coobes podcast at gmail dot com. We'll post what day he's coming on first. Oh you know what, do I take back every bad thing I said about you? Good for you? Good for you? March twenty first Sending your questions for Vinnie Done. All right, played a commercial down, So here

we go go. The First Responder Center for Excellence is a not for profit organization dedicated to protecting their lives and livelihoods of first responders. Their education and research initiatives aim to bring greater awareness and understanding the challenges to the health, safety, and well being of firefighters, EMS personnel, and other first responders too. They are an affiliate of the National Falling Firefighter Foundation. Okay,

tonight, I could this be any more? Playing dude as plain as the giant crooked nose on my face? Bro, and what me listen Tonight's old school health and safety tip of the day. I'm going to beat you over the head with it. And the guy sitting to my left over there, see him over there, this guy, he's living. Go get yourself checked out. Early detection, early detection, early detection, get it done. If my brother and my father had done it, they would still be alive

today, right, Roofie, Can I get an amen from that? Roofie went to Rob Brown, he picked up a blockage, and matter of fact, he had two blockages. Right, They put in one stand covered both. And now my buddy's going to be around for another forty years, so I can torment the living ship out of him for another forty years. Bro, Maybe I should have went, We'll be friends for eighty years. I want to thank Billy got a goal for coming on tonight, Bro, me

get what his And I want to thank Chris for coming on. Bro. Dude, Like I said before, you look better today than you did when you were younger. Bro, good for you excellent. Good glad you Chris, glad you found your way. Bro. Yeah, you know what. Hair is overrated? Bro, hair is overrated? About it? All? Right? Back? Who we got on Monday? Rough? Do we have anybody for Monday? I don't remember, give me a second. I just you do not have anybody? We need to know? We need somebody Monday

wide open? WHOA maybe? Bro? Get Phil Senior on there? All right? Well, part two, part B, I'll ask him. Part B, well, we'll push uh Phil's podcast and hopefully uh we get that made into a TV series, probly, I think so, with starring Luis Frano and Kevin Coogler, with Chris Edwards and and Gonzo. Uh, I don't know. I'll be something. I think Gonzo. I think they have a spot open for Fluffer. Oh man, I'm waiting for the remake of Who Loves Your Who Loves Your Baby? Chris, guys in the chat old

enough to know who that is? That's it? You're right right, all right, guys, Phil, thanks for coming on, Bro, Thank you for a lot of conversations. I hope finally goes well. Chris, good luck and everything you oose the job, it comes right out of you. Everywhere. Bro. Once you're a fireman, You're always a fireman. There you are Firelin for the Lake. Yep, yeah, for sure, Chris. Let me ask a quick question. Are you born a fireman or is

it something that's made. I'll tell you what. If you got pop time, you're born. If you don't have pop time you made? All right? All right, there you go. I gotta say, mate, based on everything I've ever read, even though I had, you know, falling all time, it was different. It was different. I was born. I was I walked through the big red dolls. Bro. Bro, you know what I tell you some funny. My wife's gonna kill me, you know. I tell my two young ones by eleven and twelve year old,

I go, you know, you came through mommy's faginal. Now I'm like, I'm like dead man. That was all right. We'll see you on Monday. Rookies. Gotta go. He's gotta relax, he's gotta go do ya. He's gotta do some meditation. We don't want the hot rate to get up too much. For he said he's got a brand new ticket. Man. That's just like I Bro. We'll see you guys on Monday. Phil Christen to lend guns. Let me kid. God love you guys. Thanks so much boys. We'll see one. Everybody all right, guys,

see you the top. Good Night,