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
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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,