Little People Social Club, Bruce Willis Chaos & Vincent Gallo Brawl | Jonathan Bricklin | Ep 266

Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Rhyner, sports talk. Baseball.

Baseball. Baseball. Baseball.

Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay.

Alright. Yeah. Okay.

Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego?

We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. The Texas Rangers win the world series. Alright.

Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't...

What? You said tip. Yeah.

Tip. Okay. With a p.

Keep jamming. Alright. Be that as it may, it is time for another episode of Your Dark Companion.

Hello to one and all out there in the land of the podcast. Podcast. No matter how you may be consuming this, no matter when you may be consuming this, because don't you see?

That is the beauty of the podcast. You could be watching live like maybe a few of you are doing, or if you want to, I don't know, go out and get your freak on, come back, watch it later, you can do that too. It exists out there in some space, a land far, far away from here.

Yes. That we can't even begin to fathom, but it does exist there, and it is there for your consumption anytime you may want it. Today, I'm gonna be visiting with Jonathan Bricklin.

This being episode number what? Two sixty six. Two sixty six.

And we're doing this on the afternoon of the which of The eleventh. The eleventh. Right?

Twelfth. The twelfth. My watch is wrong.

The October 12. October. Yeah.

For some reason, was thinking of April. I'm really screwed up. Hey.

You're trying to make it to a 100, so you you need to start Yeah. Getting getting things tightened up a little over there. I don't think I've told everybody that yet, though.

No. But we can. Well, let's let's do it later.

We got Well, no. We got stuff to do. Yeah.

We do have stuff to do, but we got a guy to talk to here too. We certainly do. That guy is Jonathan Bricklin.

Yeah. Alright. I will...

He has a very impressive press kit with him, and I will describe him the way he describe... Is described here. He is an entrepreneur, a filmmaker, a novelist, a husband Aw.

And father. Aw. He cofounded the chain of ping pong social clubs.

Woah. Is that called spin? Is that the tie...

What they call those social clubs? Yes, sir. Okay.

Because you put spin on the ball. Opened a he opened a western themed pickleball saloon in Texas. He has produced more than a dozen feature films, but there's another undertaking of his that kind of overshadows all the rest of them on the scale of being unusual.

That is the revival of the little people social club. Now this is described as an enigmatic society whose origins are whispered to predate history itself. Woah.

Yeah. Dang. Now that is...

That sure that is one of best. Sure. That's some pretty heady stuff there.

It is pretty heady stuff. We're gonna find out more about it. Jonathan, how are you?

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Where are you where are you joining us from today? I am in a little town on the coast in Texas called Port Aransas Woah. Right by Corpus Christi.

Do know that area? Yes. Quite familiar with that area.

In fact Oh, really? A song in a band I used to play was called Port Aransas. Oh, really?

Nice. Let's go down down to Port Aransas. Now they they think I'm making this up.

I'm really No. I believe you. There is such a song.

See if I can find it on Spotify. I believe it. It's a cool place.

And now it's... I think it's become a lot more popular in, I don't know how many recent years, but it's quite... There was 15,000 kite enthusiasts here over the weekend.

So right up my alley, totally bizarre. Kites. A lot of kites.

Kites? Kites. Isn't the kite Like, that you fly in this kite.

Fly? Like, go fly a kite. Okay.

I'm not kidding. I'm... That was...

It was a kite convention, and there were 15,000 people. I don't know if all of them were the kite people, but it was all on the beach at the same time. And it was quite a scene.

And then at night, they had a lot of these kites that lit up elaborate kites, like, your average regular kite. Damn. Port Aransas has come a long way, I think.

Really have. Like, I remember going there as a kid. Like, my grandpa...

My grandparents had a place down there that, you know, every summer we would go, but it didn't seem like the hippest, coolest town and certainly didn't have a kite festival that I was aware of. Yeah. That's what my wife said exactly.

What she just said. I don't know. So when she tells you to go fly a kite, she really means it.

It was it's a convention for those people. Amazing. That's funny.

Tell us a little bit about the Little People Social Club. What it is, what it was, how you got involved in it, whatever you care to to share with us about it. Thank you.

I am so happy to be able to talk about it, so I greatly appreciate this opportunity. The Little People Social Club, all of what you read, the the lore is total nonsense that I just made up, obviously, I think. But what it really is is it's not open.

We're targeting November of next year, so '27. And it's gonna be a social club designed entirely for little people, which are generally... I'm referring to people with dwarfism.

There's, like, a... I was told over a 100 variations of dwarfism, so I don't wanna say the wrong things. And...

But in general, little people, somewhere in the range of, like, three feet to four and a half feet is is the general little person height. And so the interior design of this entire social club, the bar being the real centerpiece, but then a whole series of parlor games, like if you're at a billiards club. My background, not to digress too far, but I started a ping pong...

Call it a social club, but a ping pong club back in 2009 in New York City. And so it's going on. I think we're seventeen years ish around, and we have nine different locations in different cities around North America.

And so I've learned a few things that I never expected to learn in that business. And I I honestly, it's gonna take a psychiatrist and a lot of time probably to figure out why I'm doing my new project. But the the hope is to take what I've learned and do it better and create a social club that includes not just ping pong, but billiards and shuffleboard and air hockey.

And we're gonna have duck pin bowling because it's smaller. Other games too. And just...

I'm just really excited about creating this sort of wonderland in my mind of smaller proportions. Proportions. Not absurd for, like, comical effect, but appropriately smaller.

So Yeah. And there's also ADA regulations and things like that, so I have to have some balance of things. I'm really excited to do the bathroom and have really small or low urinals.

I think it's gonna be really funny. I mean, all of this sounds really good to me as a five foot four person. Like, I'm kind of in that in between where, you know, average height stuff is a little tough for me, but I'm not quite needing little people stuff.

But I'd be curious to see how I would feel in the little people social club because me and my wife were, talking about this earlier. She's about five one, and so we're both on the shorter side. So like I said, we're in that in between, but I think that I think that we would have a good time at the Definitely.

Definitely. While the parlor... Like, ping pong is already really a low table.

It's two and a half feet tall, and billiards, I don't know how tall it's a little taller. So a tiny bit smaller or lower there, and then the tabletop can be a little smaller, and all the other games appropriately, just a little bit lower. And then the main bar, I wanna have...

For sort of dramatic effect, I wanna have a really big back of bar with alcohol selection, and then the the counter itself be really low, like the right low. Also, I have two little kids. They're both tiny, and they have furniture, some chairs and and stuff that you...

I can sit on, and I'm six feet something. And so... And I'm not flexible at all.

So I think there's the perfect balance that can be made with small furniture that can accommodate ideally, like, a seven footer would be my dream. If I could really have that full range, it would be awesome. Have you thought about, for at least part of the bar, having, like, the airplane bottles lining up I love that idea.

I love that idea. I did think about I did think about that, and I love it. I haven't figured out how Because, yeah, alcohol bottles come in lots of different sizes, little pint bottles and everything.

And so behind the bar, it definitely can't be regular, like like, whatever they are, liters or whatever. I forgot what they are. But, yeah, the airplane bottles are so cute.

It should be it should be, like, a core element of the cocktail experience. I was thinking that the drinks were going to be smaller portions and have, like, basically, depending on your height or maybe probably height. How many...

Like, if you order a martini, maybe you'd get two or three. If you're, like, a taller person or someone like an... Like, a normal average portion size would say be three of these small martinis.

But I haven't figured. There's whole number of little... Like, a pry...

I have a pricing scheme that involves your height. So, like, in some ways, I I hope this place... I want it to be kind of like like, almost a reaction, a satire to some degree of a normal, uptight, maybe pretentious members club.

And in New York City, they have a gazillion members clubs. Some are extraordinarily expensive. Some are just expensive.

They all try and have diversity and, like, you know, different types of people and stuff, but they always have the same type of people because they're expensive and, you know, that's who can afford them. I'm really hoping that the little people... Social Club is a club for any height or person, but that just the the focus and emphasis is initially on little people.

For me, if you like, had a if you have a party and you have a group of eclectic, interesting characters that are all the same type of business or whatever, it makes for a great environment. Having little people in a party is amazing because they're they're they're fun, and it's interesting to just think the absurdity of humanity in way of, you know, Shaquille O'Neal was at the party, the same thing would be really interesting because, you know, it's just so physically unusual. And so having eclectic, great people...

And so that's what I really think that little people do is it's sort of a starting off point for an eclectic, eccentric, or unusual crowd of people. Because the biggest criticism for the project is there's not enough little people to support this as a business. And there isn't really any any market that I've come across that has a, like, a little people density, population density that would be able to support the business.

I mean, I reached out to a number of prominent little people when I was first starting out on this, and a number of them said, you know, like, it's not a very good idea because, you know, there's not enough little people, and then the little people population doesn't have a huge disposable income on top of that. So, you know, you're not gonna make any money. You're gonna go out of business.

But I really think it's a draw to all sizes. And that's sort of the bet I'm making and my my instinct, and I hope it's right. We'll we'll find out.

Well, I do think, you know, Shaq will take money from anyone. So I think you'd still be a willing sponsor participant. You give him enough money, he'll show up pretty much anywhere.

I need to kill as an investor in this place. It never occurred to me. There you go.

Yeah. I was I was actually thinking Danny DeVito is, you know, a hero. I love Danny DeVito more than anything almost.

And I was trying to think, you know, maybe I approach him, but that's too obvious. Shaquille O'Neal is exactly the right angle. Just saying.

That. He's crazy. Money from anyone.

Now all this time, I've been sitting over here thinking and wondering, okay. Is this guy a little person himself? Yeah.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm like...

I'm six foot one. Yeah. You just said you were six feet, and that that kind of Yeah.

We were kinda looking at your pictures beforehand and trying to figure looked like a little person on my pictures. And I talked to some people a few weeks ago, and we had been talking for at least fifteen, twenty minutes. And then they just said, so, you know, what's it like being a little person?

I'm like, man, I'm really misrepresenting here. No, I'm not a little person. And it seems like kind of ridiculous that I would want to have this type of business.

I just do. I knew that to be sensitive to little people and, like, nuances of of the... Of their culture, of anything specific to little people that I have no idea about, I knew I needed to to consult and work with a little person.

So I... Using chat GPT, asked, like, what are the most prominent... Who are the most prominent little people, you know, in...

On the planet, that have any relevance to this kind of end. So I I... A whole bunch of people were listed.

I reached out to most of them. A few were not interested. A few thought it was a terrible idea.

This comedian, actually, a popular comedian, little person comedian, but he's like, yeah. It's not gonna work. Good luck with that.

But then this one woman, this great... I mean, her name alone is maybe one of the greatest names ever. Her name is Fats Timbo, and she's on my website.

Her first name is Fats, last name Timbo. And she's not a jazz musician, although certainly could be. She's a comedian.

She's a content maker, author, and she's just her hilarious and really smart, and she's been keeping me on track. Like, if I have a stupid idea that, you know, occurs to me on this project, she's been unbelievable and and focused because she genuinely... When I approached her, she said yes.

She was like, I mean, pretty much... I mean, not immediately, but very quickly, she said yes. And she said yes because she hates even at her own...

I think she lives in an apartment in London. She's British. And so she she...

She's, you know, inconvenienced even in her own home and everywhere she goes because of height differences and stuff like that that just make it inconvenient. So she was... I mean, she's super stylish, so she likes the idea of a members...

Or a social club on top of everything. So... But the...

Legitimately creating something that's convenient for her is is what she initially was excited about. Let me ask you this. What, in your experience, got you interested in this?

Or maybe it's just something that you pulled out of thin air and I pulled it out of my ass. I honestly, yeah. That's the question.

Honestly, I don't know. I can give you a little context that doesn't answer anything, but it sort of makes a little more sense. When I was in college in in Los Angeles in the nineties, I made a short film that I...

It was called a short story, and I thought that was really clever, and it starred short little people. And it was a whole production... Like, the whole thing.

Like, it was the most... The world's stupidest story. And then I reached out to a cast...

Or a talent agency that represented ton of... Or only little people, and they laughed me out of the... Off the phone.

They literally thought I was kidding, and it was the stupidest thing I had ever seen. And then, coincidentally, I met a casting director in... Shortly after that little episode, and she agreed to help me and reached out to the same talent agency with the same stupid story that I had written, and they set up a a casting session.

I ended up casting three little people, made this short film called a short story, and it was great. And it was it was... There's a whole world of stories.

But I mean, I was 20 years old, and now I'm almost 50. So thirty years ago, I made this, and I hadn't really thought much about little people since. I don't find them, you know, like, just because they're a little person.

So I just think they're cool. And just the humanity that it's so unusual is cool. So that's my whole thing.

I I don't know. And so I guess maybe a psychiatrist or someone, can help me figure it out. Well, I mean, it's it's the kind of thing that, you know, if if a certain type of person started to think about it enough, that's an idea that you could conceivably pull out of thin air.

And and, you know, you... I guess you could act upon it eventually if you were of such means and driven to do so. But but Well I I don't Yeah.

Go ahead. Well, I'm I'm trying to... I'm I'm remembering exactly.

So I opened a a pickleball saloon, which is a western themed pickleball club, but with this Western saloon bar as the centerpiece of this this indoor, all indoor massive place in San Antonio. And the... And we opened May 15 just a number of months ago, four...

Three, four months ago. And the day that we opened, I was just sort of in a funk and trying to figure out what what was next. And I've gone from, you know, strange project to strange project in my life.

And I was just trying to think, like, really, I was, like, the emphasis was on sort of being out of the box, like, anything. I was trying to think, what what what do I wanna do? And this is what this is what occurred to me.

And it doesn't make any sense, like, why I find it so interesting. I I know I never thought I'd be in the ping pong business. That's been, you know, paying my rent for fifteen, twenty years almost.

And so I'd like to take sort of what I learned inadvertently doing that, never having, you know, thought that I would. And so take some of that learned, like, a lot of mistakes and try and now maybe package it all into a new concept. And instead of ping pong, which has been my whole thing, it's now little people.

But the little people and the ping pong were just, you know, just sort of the marketing hook. You know, it's really just about music and alcohol and men and women socializing. Yeah.

So I'm hoping to have the best... You know, the the... Just the best dance floor in New York City.

There's probably a bunch of dance floors that are great, but we're gonna be consistent. It's gonna be a disco floor, and it's gonna be great. So if if I achieve that, I think that will be success for me.

If I have a great and consistent people know, oh, it's a good dance floor at the Little People Social Club, I would think that's really cool. So Oh, it says in your Nothing to do with that. I'm reading your press kit, and it it says that this will be the revival of the Little People Social Club.

Did it exist? Or that insinuates that it existed already. Yeah.

Well, that was my hope. I wanted to insinuate that and give it this old, like, Mason... Masonry club.

Like, what are they? The Masons? Old, like, black magic style members clubs.

All that. I don't know anything about them, but it sounded... Sounds fun and exciting.

I like Makes it sound sound more more mysterious and Yeah. Special. Adventure.

Also, here's... It just sort of ties in, like, the turn of, I guess, the the twentieth century. There was an explorer.

I believe it started in New York, I mean, initially, like, fundraising, and then went to Peru and discovered Machu Picchu. I forget his name at the moment. But I think it was, like, the early nineteen hundreds.

And it was sponsored by, I don't know, a museum or government or club. But, anyway, I love that sense of... You know, it's basically Indiana Jones, but adventure and exploration.

And so I'm trying to infuse that into the Little People Social Club. So along those lines, I'm talking with this great actor guy. He's a little person who...

About climbing Mount Everest and and creating... Or claiming the Guinness World Record for the shortest person to make it to the top of Everest. So, anyway, we're seriously working on that project right now.

We're we're gonna get the money in line, but he's he's gonna do it. And that's gonna be very cool, actually. Well, wow.

I don't know what to say about this except wow. He's he's got a lot going on. Yeah.

There's a there's a lot at play here with you, man. There's a lot of play. That's definitely true.

I'm not climbing Everest. I I I couldn't make it. I wouldn't make it.

You just support other people's efforts to do so. Yeah. I'm gonna...

I'll support them on the telephone from afar. A facilitator. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you know anything about what the social club that existed before was or what it was It wasn't. Made up.

He just created that. Pulled that out of his butt. Okay.

Alright. That's all made up. It's all made up.

Okay. Alright. In your mind, what would it have been like?

Yeah. Well... So, yeah.

I'd like to... I made a I made a little cartoon that didn't work. I I I don't...

I haven't shown anyone but, you know, my wife. It just... And it was a history of little people.

And, like, according to ChatGPT, you know, going back to BC, there's been little people in society and have been thought of or treated a little bit differently throughout history. And so I like to kind of merge some unknown history of little people with, like, the early Masons and other types of... This...

Whatever first black magic type of clubs. So that I just made up my own thing. But I think I'm gonna lean into it harder and come up with some more details and just make it real.

So Yeah. Throw enough stuff out there and chat GBT will pick it up. Google Gemini or whatever will pick it up, and you'll have more and more people like me and Mike that'll help keep the bit going for you.

Yes. That are curious. Well, there is a sick Something like this.

Aspect that I have to the Little People Social Club that I'm hoping infuses that old, old school style, And it's really cool looking ring. But, yeah, it's all made up. But the project is real.

The project is is legitimate. That's the thing, though. Everything's made up until it becomes real.

You know? That's right. That's right.

Need to remember that quote. Everything's made up everything is made up until it becomes real. I'm sending you a note, Becca.

True. But Is is is but that's true. That's...

Like, every every everything physical in the universe that we're aware of is... Was first of thought. Yeah.

Very interesting. It started with that. It didn't just pop up out of thin air.

Somebody somebody contrived it. Somebody thawed it up. God.

I feel like you guys would have a lot of fun smoking pot together or something. We're already, like, halfway there, I feel like. Like, y'all are definitely getting on each other's wavelengths, and it's kinda scaring me.

Well, yeah. I'm I'm... Stolen Van is my favorite band, and so I did learn about Mike and appreciation for Stolen Van.

Yeah. I was gonna say, you can see, the shirt that Mike is wearing right now. What part of Chain Lightning is that?

That's from an iPod about to play Chain Lightning. Well, I mean, okay. I wasn't sure if that part of the song was anything special because it's a little bit in.

No. Hey. Okay.

It's just a random part of the song, I guess. Nice. I don't know.

I've never followed the the dotted cross. You haven't tried to? That's okay.

No. And I've never done that. But...

Yeah. Got the screenshot? Yeah.

Just where I got the screenshot. Fair enough. So have little people been in in contact with you about this, or are they excited about it, or have you gotten any kind of reaction from them yet?

Is the project even far enough along to get reaction from them? Yeah. We...

I I had... I read, like, ChatGPT, which I use for everything. Like, I mean, I I mean, it has, like, a Google resource.

And so I got a short list of maybe, like, 10 people, all little people, all around the world. And I started reaching out to all 10 of them. And I think five did not respond at all.

Oh. And then of the five that did, one is fats, Timbo, who's my partner. And then the other four were...

You know, I I sort of mentioned it. They were just... They didn't think that there was enough little people to support this idea, and so they didn't think it really worked.

Oh, sorry to digress. There's a theme park in China that is all little people. And What?

There was a thing... Have seen you this? I don't know if you...

Have you guys seen that? I was gonna say I'm googling it right now. Oh, okay.

So it's owned by little people? Kingdom of It's... Yeah.

It's like a whole incredible. It's a whole theme park all staffed and run, and and the shows and everything are all little people. And it's owned by a, like, a...

I think a Chinese man, but that's not a little person. He's like me. He's normal or average sized height.

And there was some controversy, I think, about that. Like, is he allowed to own this place? And then the other controversy I read was, like, the little people were being forced, you know, against their will to to be there, and they didn't get paid.

And it was, you know, a slave situation. But that I think from what I also have learned is not true, That they're all happy. It's fine.

Yeah. And so... But that is...

I mean, that's... It's not a social club, but it's, you know, it's it's a crazy ass idea. So Well, I was gonna say, I mean, the...

It was previously known as the World Eco Garden of Butterflies and the Dwarf Empire. I'm not sure if those are separate names or if that's a whole name right there. Like, either way Yeah.

Dwarf Empire is a hell of a a thing to put in your business name. It is. Dwarf and mixing the dwarf is also a contra.

Yeah. It's a it's a whole thing. Yeah.

So I'm looking at the sheet right now, and I'm seeing a billiards table, a ping pong table, foosball, shovel board, air hockey, and so very, very much more scaled down to little people size. And how... What's the process of of that been like for you?

Are you are you even that far along yet? Well, we haven't we haven't started... We haven't made any of them.

I've been designing all of them, and each of those... Working with little people that are particularly good at each of those games. I'm friends with...

Because of my ping pong background, I know two little people that are Paralympic. I don't know if they're champions, but they're competitors in the Paralympics because of being little people. They qualify.

And so anyway... And then I I I sought out the... On chatty p t, the best billiards player that's a little person.

And so trying to get the the best opinions and information to to make sure I scale them appropriately. And so it's one... I think that was...

I mean, the the smaller bar was one of the real hooks for me right in the very beginning, but creating the ping pong and billiards and shuffleboard, air hockey, what else, but foosball. Having those smaller for me is, like, almost the whole reason I'm doing this. It's...

And so I'm... I've... I I know lots of people that make custom tables and ping pong and billiards and stuff.

And so we're... Right now, I'm just trying to figure out which... What...

How much square footage I'm working with. I'm gonna be in New York City on Thursday this week, and I'm looking at a bunch of places and locations for this club. And so far, the the only problem's been just finding enough space.

I really want approximately, like, 10 to 12,000 square feet and would love bigger, ideally. But that's sort of what I'm looking for, but everything I'm finding is smaller than that. And so however big it is, we'll determine if we're able to have two or three billiards tables, two or three ping pong or one, all the different games will kind of be scaled appropriately.

But I'm I'm super... The the the slightly scaled down model for me is so important and and for... I don't know why it's so interesting.

But I really... I'm I'm going for when people first walk in. This place is gonna be a speakeasy, and speakeasies have probably had their their moment, but I still love a secret door.

Everyone loves secret door, secret and whatever. So it's be... It's gonna be a...

At the moment, it's a record shop in the front, but that's subject to change possibly. There's a couple of other concepts I'm thinking about. But a record shop, it's not...

It... It's it's sort of weird, but it's not in that funny or anything, but... And won't make any money selling records.

But it'd be the faux entrance, and then you go through, like, a mirror that opens into a door and then into the main bar of the Little People Social Club. And that moment is what I want people's jaw dropped and just like, holy crap. Like, what is this place?

And, wow, that's that's what I've got for. That's the whole thing. Alright.

This is Jonathan Bricklin. He's trying to get the little people social club together once again, and we'll have more with Jonathan in just a bit. But right now, Jonathan, you can relax for a few seconds if you want because we gotta do a couple things here, and we'll be right back with you.

It is time for the dreaded and feared mid show read. Do I have to do these in order? Or No.

Oh, oh, I got it up there. Yeah. Okay.

Alright. Every Tuesday from 05:30 until seven, join the Sunset Lounge at Scout in the Stadler. Be one of the first five people to give the bartender the password.

The password is football. Football. Football.

Get a free drink or free valet service. Stick around afterward for Ziggy with beer thirty sports o'clock. Half price valet is available for everyone.

Every Tuesday, 05:30 at Scout, it is three wide from Scout where some of us here from the Sunset Lounge talk about football. And, and and, of course, after that, well, it's time for Ziggy down there. So check out Scout.

Let the adventure begin. Also, don't DIY your football party... Football watching party because Dudley Sports Grill is your football watching headquarters.

Get your crew together, get better food by far. Let somebody else serve real drinks from a bigger selection. Get the Dudley's Dallas twenty nine twenty seven North Henderson right off Central Expressway or Dudley's in Rockwall, 2975 Texas Highway 66.

Go to Dudley's, a cool, comfortable place. Shupi and I both go there a lot. We dig it.

We bet you will too for all your football watching needs. Mhmm. They have got you squared away.

They got TVs out the wazoo. Anything you might want to drink or eat or anything like that, and the vibe, the vibe cannot be beat. So check out Dudley's for all your football watching.

What else we got? Is that it? No.

You got one more. Oh, boy. I got one more?

Yeah. We should have it. Yeah.

Oh, wait. No. You Yeah.

He Sorry. He crushed it. Yeah.

We good. Yeah. That's Yeah.

That's that's all I got here. Maybe Alright. Who's fault is that?

You do that or did she be? What happened? I gotta blame this on somebody and one of you.

What? You wander? Yeah.

Always you. Or... Yeah.

Or you. Anyone else. Or you.

Yeah. It's definitely Ashley's fault. Obviously, it is.

Alright. Let's get back to Jonathan Bricklin here and the little people social club that he is about to get up and running. This I'm excited.

Yeah. This this sounds like one of those things that was once a harebrained idea, but you got going on it. And once you got going, you progressed just a little bit here and a little bit there, and the next thing you know, it's too late to turn back.

Gotta see it through. Is that kind of the vibe that's surrounding this for you? You nailed it.

I mean, that describes every business project I've ever done as well. But, this one, a combination of just getting older and having done it before, not this specific recipe. And I don't know what the combination about or the reasons.

But I... For for whatever reasons, I have had as little to no... Ins...

Like, reservations or insecurities about this project, about doing this. Like, I have this... The chain of ping pong clubs and the pickleball project, and I've done a dozen, probably more than that, movies, most of them pretty bad.

And I always am very, very much concerned if people think it's a good idea or if they, you know, they like the idea. How's how's it? You know?

But this one, which is by far the weirdest, I've cared the least. And it's just something I am so strangely compelled to do beyond logic, And I'm so comfortable with it that it's weird and partly why I'm excited about it. It's because it's so weird, and yet I'm so confident that I need to do it.

And it makes no sense. I love that combination. You know, once upon a time, I was involved in something that everybody told me there is no way it will work.

You can't do that here. It will never get off the ground. You're wasting your time.

Besides, nobody knows who you are. It takes somebody that is a well known quantity out there to do this. And I was undeterred.

I kept pushing. One thing led to another and another and another. And before long, it happened.

It's kinda neat when things go like that. I mean, I get the idea that you've had things go like that in your world before. And if you do it once, who says you can't do it again?

Yeah. That's that's... But it it...

Somehow, you always kinda doubt it and are scared. Not always. But, I mean, miracle...

Weirdest miracles happening are just amazing. Being open to them and and then thinking, you know, can... How can another thing, like, crazy like that ever happen again?

My whole life has been a series of those, it feels like, and and always predicated on total randomness and absurdity. I was at my cousin's apartment in Los Angeles when I was 25 year four, 24, 25. And he...

I didn't have a car at the moment and can't live in LA with a car. But anyway, he had picked me up, took me to his apartment, got a phone call from a girl, and all of a sudden he needed to see this girl and he had picked me up, and I had nowhere to go. And it was before Uber.

So he let me borrow his car. So I'm driving down the street, and I see a friend of his at the bus stop. And I rolled down the window, and I'm at a red light.

And I'm like, hey, Brad. He says hi. And I'm like, you want a ride?

I'm not doing anything. And so I pull over. He he puts his bike in the car, I'm giving a ride.

And a long story already a little bit shorter, he works for Bruce Willis, and he's been invited by Bruce to go on the road on his private plane around the world, teaching him how to video edit. So this was back in... I don't know what year it was.

'9... '99, 2000. I actually...

You know what? 2001 happened when I was... I think I was up there.

But... So it was right around two thousand one. And so, anyway, it's a long story, but that was the setup.

And I ended up... He he calls Bruce's brother, his name is David, while I'm in the car with him, having just picked him up at the bus stop. And and he's like, David, I'm with a friend of a friend, and he's a video editor.

And I'd rather he go with Bruce and teach Bruce how to video edit and do everything that I was gonna do because I really don't wanna do it. And why he didn't wanna do it is a whole another story and everything. But, anyway, that's what happened.

And, anyway, I got I told everyone I know that I just got this job to to hang out with Bruce Willis and edit his home videos, and everyone thought I was making this shit up. And then a month goes by, and I was supposed to go with me... Bruce to New York City and to Sun Valley, Idaho and and travel with him to his houses.

And it got delayed and delayed to the point where everyone thought I definitely was making up. And I was like, man, like, I know it's real, but it's just so stupid that it just sounds crazy. And then I totally gave up thinking I just I just was gonna have to deal with having told everybody this.

And then I get the the... My phone rings, and it's Bruce's brother. He's like, meet Bruce at the Van Nuys Airport, which is in LA.

It's sort of a private airport. And here's the tail number of his plane. And so I went, like, in an hour.

And so I went, and then I flew to Sun Valley. And I worked for him for about a little less than a year editing his home videos and, like, his family and everyone. The whole thing was just totally surreal.

And it happened by pure chance. It's great. Golly.

Did you... Did he ever figure out how to edit his own videos and everything? Well, no.

That was the... The job premise was to teach him how to use Final Cut. And actors have tons of downtime in their their trailers when they're making movies, and they're just sitting around.

And so he thought he was gonna learn how to video edit. And funny little detail about Bruce was that he had been collecting, archiving all video appearances on TV and all of his kids' school plays and Halloweens and birthday parties and everything you could possibly imagine all on video. And this was again back in thousand.

So we had... My first assignment was to drive from Los Angeles to Sun Valley, Idaho with my entire car filled with SCSI drives that were five gigabyte drives that NASA used for, like, computer storage that he had. And he had, like, you know, five gigabyte for a toaster size drive.

And so he had, like, 50 of these guys, and I had to drive them all to Sun Valley and then start editing all of his videos and things. It was very bizarre. Those things are huge.

Did you ever teach him how to do it? Did he ever get the hang up? With him, and I I I told him told him that...

I told him that I was watching him interact and he always had his cell phone and PC and he was doing a billion things. Actually, landed in Sun Valley. I flew on his plane with his family and him and we land and there's a whole fleet of cars, SUVs in Sun Valley, Idaho.

And one was for me. And right before I get in this SUV to go to a hotel, he's like, have your phone with you. I'm gonna call you when when I have some free time, and we're gonna we're gonna edit.

You're gonna show me how to edit. And I was like, you don't seem like you have enough time to learn how to video edit. It's pretty time consuming.

And he's like, yeah. Let me make my own decision. So I'm like, okay.

So for two weeks... For literally two weeks, I'm walking around Sun Valley, Idaho with my cell phone in my hand, like, hoping I have perfect cell service. And no phone call for two weeks.

And then one day it rang. I was in the library. I run outside and I answer, and, he's like, I'm picking you up in ten minutes at your hotel.

So I, like, run back to the hotel, and he picked me up. We went back to his house, and it took hours and hours and hours to get his computer set up and everything. And then finally, we're editing him and I at the computer for, like, fifteen minutes, and he's like, don't have time for this.

And so he... He's like, do you wanna do it? And I was like, yeah.

I'll do it. Whatever you want me to do. So I I moved there and did it.

Wow. You got a good story out of it. It is a good story.

It is a really good story. And there's more. There's...

I I bumped into him in New York City years years later, and there was more to the story, but I probably shouldn't get into that now. Mean, we won't stop you. Yeah.

Well, so I worked for him in 2000 in 2001 maybe. 2002, '1, two thousand and one ish. Anyway, so it was in 2000 and...

I moved to New York City in 2003. And I bumped into him, like, five years later or maybe seven or eight years later, and he didn't recognize me at all. And this...

I was with a friend who was six foot three, very, like, strong guy, and, like, he was... He just liked to get in bar fights. He was this, like, big...

He investment was banker guy. But he loved Bruce Willis, and he knew the Bruce Willis story about me. And he had he had heard the whole thing because...

And he loved Bruce. And so Bruce is at this bar in New York City called the Rose Bar in this hotel called the Gramercy Park Hotel. And, anyway, we...

He's standing by the bar, and he's talking to another actor and a woman's there. And we walked by, and we're kinda looking at him because I had worked for him, and and my friend loved him. And as we go by, Bruce decides that my friend had bumped into the girl standing next to him and tells him, you know, why don't you, you know, watch where you're going, jerk?

You know, you just bumped into the lady, and you don't even say anything. Like, it was the whole thing. It was so ridiculous.

The whole thing was... Didn't make any sense. And Bruce doesn't really drink alcohol or didn't.

So I don't... I mean, he was sober, I think. And he was just acting like a complete jerk.

And my friend just, like, and then we went a few feet further after... He apologized. He's like, I'm sorry, dude.

And he looked at the lady. She's like, I don't know what's going on. And we go a few feet past him to the bar, and the friend of mine, Freddie, he says, let's talk about something else.

I don't wanna I don't wanna deal with this right now. He was so crazy. And so we forgot about it.

And for fifteen minutes, we're having a beer. There's a whole bunch of other friends with us at the same bar. And then we we put our drinks down.

We get ready to go past Bruce again and the people... And he says it again. He's like, hey.

Can you be more careful this time, buddy? You know? Like, it was so stupid.

And I just burst out like, who the fuck do you think you are? And we... Then we're nose to nose.

I mean, I'm taller than him, but I'm looking down at him. And I... My friend likes to get in bar fights.

And so he's the only reason I would be in any way, like, you know, like, a hero. And so I'm I'm telling him that he's pathetic that he is acting like this in a bar at his age. I remember saying at his age, which I'm probably younger than him now, he's been like, stop.

Sorry. My kid is telling me to be quiet. But, anyway, I got thrown out of the bar.

I don't think Bruce even knew who he was talking to. The whole thing was so weird. I don't think he ever connected the dots that I was his home video editor who was now getting in a fight with him.

It was hilarious. But I did get ejected out of the place. It was hilarious.

And, anyway, that's the end of the Bruce whole saga. What was that? Man, that's So you've actually been ejected from a place.

Because of Bruce Willis. I think that's the only place I've been kicked out of. The very man he edited videos for.

Friend who likes to get But he was he was the one that took out kicked out. But Yeah. But if he goes, you go too.

Mhmm. Yep. He didn't go.

Fair enough. Oh, boy. You're you're kind of a trip, man.

I wasn't quite ready for all this stuff. He's he's lived a life. Yeah.

I... There's a... One other story kinda is in this genre that is also absurdly stupid and crazy, and I was obsessed with a filmmaker named Vincent Gallo, who is just a real character.

And I'm a big fan of his. He had made a movie at the time called Brown... Not Brown Buddy.

That was terrible. Yeah. Called Buffalo 66 that if you haven't seen, you must see.

It's a great movie. What's her name? Ben Gazzara and Angelica Houston, and then Vincent Galazuna and Christina Ricci.

And, anyway, it's a great movie. He wrote it, directed it, starred in it. He composed the music.

I think he did the costume design, and, like, he was, like, every single... And so I I was like, this guy is amazing. He used to be in a band with Basquiat and...

Back in the eighties. He was like a Calvin Klein model even though he's really unusual looking. And he's he's done everything.

He's done a ton of real estate deals. And so he was this this really eccentric guy. I was a huge fan, and my friend tells me that he sees this guy, Vincent Gallo, at the dog park that he goes to all the time in Los Angeles.

So I'm like, holy crap. You gotta call me next time you're there and you see him, and I wanna meet him. And, anyway, he never calls.

So one day, I'm driving by the park, and I'm like, oh, I should pull over and go there. And I do, and he's there. And so I I I I I had parked, and I walk up to him, and I'm like, I'm really sorry to, you know, harass you, but I'm a huge fan.

And I I just wanted to introduce myself. And he was really nice, and he started talking to me. And we had a number of kind of weird things in common that he mentioned, and then I finally asked him if he needed any video editing work.

I was a video editor. I would do anything for free or whatever. And he's like, well, actually, I'm firing my assistant right now.

Do you wanna be my assistant? I'm like, yes. Absolutely.

And so he hired me as his assistant, and I'm not a assistant person. Like, I cannot get my own, you know, schedule in order or do things that assistants do even though it's not hard. I'm I'm not good at it.

You know, I I was... I wanted to try to be good at it, but I wasn't the wrong guy. But I was...

I I loved the opportunity to do anything. Anyway, I worked for him for a few weeks, and he was the angriest, most just viciously horrible person to other people and to me. And I was like, god.

And so finally, I quit after two weeks. I was like, this is really hard for me to do. But if I continue working for you, think I'll turn into kind of an asshole like you.

And I don't want to be that guy. And so I'm gonna have to respectfully bow out. So I did.

And he was he was very shocked. Anyway, I I reconnected with him at a wedding, like, ten, twelve years later after that, and it was kinda nice. He was nice.

He had chilled out. Didn't he used to be in one of those shows we used to watch Shoopy back in the day? Yeah.

The Halcyon days of HBO and all that? Let's see. I can't think of a TV show that he's done, but he he might have done some TV.

Yeah. Nothing on HBO. Yeah.

Nothing really. No. Man, screw me.

Obviously, I'm thinking of some... Thinking of some of other is really the one. That's the one.

Yeah. It's really good. Man.

Well, Jonathan, you've got quite a scene going, man. In Port Aransas here? Yeah.

Yeah. Port Aransas. The king of kites.

Yeah. You got quite a scene going on with the... With all these endeavors, the little people social club, and Vincent Gallo, and all this other stuff.

Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis. Yeah.

Vincent will be very thrilled if he finds out that I was talking about him. I'll be very curious. On a huge podcast.

Yes. Yeah. But now I'm...

I don't care anymore. I'm old and don't care. So That's the key to everything is just don't care.

Really quick. I did have another idea for your... The social club.

Yeah. You said something about playing records and all that at the entrance and all that. Yeah.

You should make sure that they're 40 fives because they're the smaller... Yeah. The smaller 40 fives?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I know what you're talking about. That's super good idea. We should definitely...

Maybe it's a only 45 store. Yeah. There you go.

As a matter of fact, my friend Shoopee over here is a short guy, and he's a great DJ. Yes. So...

I know how to, like, point and click on a computer screen for songs. I don't know how to do the Wiki wiki. I've I've got a Well, you got a you got a DJ gig anytime.

Oh, hell yeah. And I hope... I want you to come check out this place.

You have to give it your sign of approval. I'm gonna be your your house DJ. Alright.

This is my official resignation from YDC. I'm Yeah. Hold on.

I'm going to become the DJ for the Little People Social Club. That was a little open. Nope.

This this is a venture that I'm ready for. This is the first time we have lost somebody to a guy we had on the podcast. First time somebody's been stolen away from us by one of our one of our one of our interviewees Yes.

One of our guests. For essentially a hypothetical gig right now. Yeah.

No official start date. Well, Jonathan, we wish you all the best at this, man. Yeah.

This is awesome. Yeah. I mean, you...

It's been awesome having you on here, and and a lot of fun talking to you about all this. And we wish you well, my friend. Thank you very much for this.

Thank you guys so much. It's been really fun talking to you and talking about some of these stories I hadn't really thought about in a while. Alright.

Here is Jonathan Bricklin. Check him out. Wherever he might be, check him out.

He could be anywhere. He could be anywhere. Yeah.

It sounds like the fun follows him everywhere, so check him out. He has not led a boring life from what I can tell. Alright.

Now this is what... It for YDC for today. Remember, we would like for you to follow us along on your social media and share us on your social media.

Help us get out there. Don't forget, scout at the Stadler coming up here and what's that? Is that tomorrow?

Yeah. Alright. It's tomorrow.

Scout at the Stadler. Be there for that. Show up for it, and, till then.

Alright. I'm gonna go take your pants off. Your Dark Companion is a Stolen Water Media presentation.