David's Audition for Marvel!!

What's up guys, welcome back to Views, the podcast where we talk about stuff.

I've never high-fived Natalie.

Damn it.

Good job Natalie, good job doing all your stuff and running the ship here.

Oh well, thank you Jason.

You're welcome.

It's sinking. What's up, roll intro music.

Great. What kind of intro is that? That is the most basic But that part is the fucking worst. We used to put thought into these intros.

We used to have little jokes, but I have so much to say, I'd rather just get into the talking. I, I'm done with these. I'm done with short-form comedy.

But we love a little zinger in the beginning.

I know. Okay, maybe we'll re-record it later.

We're not going to.

Yeah, I know we won't. That's probably— it's staying as that.

Used to be, welcome back to the podcast where Jason stinks, or—

yeah, but then all the comments are like, come on, man, give Jason some credit.

Yeah, I mean, the audience loves me. It's true. But yeah, you have been on a real kick I don't read the comments, my man.

Oh, sure, sure.

About other people. I don't read about me.

I don't read comments about myself.

Really?

100%.

How do you know if it's a comment about you?

Because you told me, you told me earlier that people were saying nice things about me. You just said it, but I don't know that. Really?

They're always saying nice stuff about you in the comments.

Yeah, they just feel bad for me. They know I'm dying and yeah, but the way I look, that doesn't change my perception of you.

You like—

that's why you like me. That's why I'm not going to be around much more. What will you do when I die? You'll be upset, right?

Right. Yeah, right. No, no, I will be upset.

Of course.

Will you speak at my funeral, please? Yeah, I mean, and Dave too. And Dave, it's got to be good because I went to a funeral this weekend and fucking people killed it at the funeral.

Oh yeah.

Oh my God, who passed away? Mom. My ex-wife's mom passed away. She was a blast, Marilee. She was an incredible woman.

Wait, is that her up there, Jay?

No, that's Marilee's mom. That's Nana. That's, that's Big Nana.

Oh, so now they're reunited.

Yeah, they're all in the mausoleum together. We went to a mausoleum which is above ground, and I really like it.

Oh, it's an above-ground burial?

Yeah.

That's where you want to go?

Yeah, I want to go above.

Well, you want to be cremated.

I like to be cremated.

Because you're scared you'll wake up Mm-hmm. In a couple years while you're buried alive.

Yeah, don't you fear that?

What if you wake up as a piece of ash? That's such a lame joke. Don't laugh at that. I have a question for you. Okay, this is like, this is, this is like a really common question, but, um, if there's— would you take $10 million?

Yes.

But there's a snail chasing you and he knows your location at all times. And when he gets to you, he kills you and you die a brutal death. But he's a snail.

If he ever gets to you, he will get to you.

He will get to you.

He will find you.

How can a snail get to me, dog? It doesn't move at all.

Yeah, what are you talking about? You just keep moving.

Yeah, exactly. That's the thing. If you keep moving, And you only get $10 million and you only get $10 million. But for the rest of your life, he knows where you are because you're going to need to get a lot of transportation. How much— think about how much moving that is, though. Yeah, right. Like, like you can't live in the same city for too long because let's, let's say you're in Paris. The snail's deadbolting to Paris, even, even if he's in New York. I don't know if he's taking the bus or— sorry, I don't know if he's taking a plane or he can like glide on the water on the ocean. Regardless, if you're in Paris, take the $10 mil.

He'll never fucking catch me. A snail? Get out of here.

Yeah, but you have to spend the rest of your life like moving around frequently.

I ain't worried about no snail.

Okay, let me say it this way, because I don't think you realize how brutal this death is going to be. Both of your kids will die. Both of your kids will die.

You didn't say that.

I know, but I want you to like—

both of my kids will die. You can't just up it like that.

But you get $30 mil.

Oh, you get another 10, huh? Well, now that's different. Now this— now that you're putting my kids into it, no, I can't do that. But yeah, the snail's not gonna ever catch you, dude. A snail can't catch you. Wait, a snail can't catch you? I know, but the snail is over there, man.

Yeah, and that—

okay, I walk that way. I crawl that way.

That's what I'm saying. Like, if you see it, you can still run away from it.

Yes, but think about this. You move to Paris for a year, right?

What am I doing?

Where am I living? Who am I seeing? Now listen, you've just, you've just left.

Am I a part of the social scene there, Jason?

You just left San Francisco.

Oh, I love it.

So the snail started at San Francisco with you.

Yeah.

But now you're in Paris. You're living there for a year.

Cool.

Snail gets there in 8 months, whatever it takes him. Yeah. But now he's in Paris with you.

Yeah.

So now wherever you go, like whatever town, whatever place you go back to, he will always inch closer to your house.

Yeah. I taunt that motherfucker. I go on social media, I'd be like, here I am, bitch. I'm in fucking Dave Buster's. Try and come find me.

I know, but at one point you're gonna be sleeping and the snail's gonna come into your bed. Bullshit. Okay, fuck it. I don't know why I'm arguing.

Oh, when you're asleep, it'll— I'd hire somebody with the money to watch out for the snail. So let's say the snail gets to the bedroom, you're like, yo, wake up, wake up, snail's here. And then we just fucking jump over him because he's a little snail. I ain't scared of a snail. Now if you said A lion. Oh, well, yeah, that's a little different. Yeah, of course. Or Natalie, you know.

If I told you— how about this? If I told you— if I told you we're in Sherman Oaks, right? That's where we live. And there's a lion that's in the same town as you right now. Yeah. And I'll give you $10 million. You have to avoid him for 24 hours. But he knows— he can see through walls. He knows exactly where you are. Yeah. And you can't lock yourself into anywhere. Yeah, and you have to stay in this like town, but you have 24 hours. Would you do it? It's a lion.

Um, does he have Uber? Yeah.

Ah, the lion's not getting the only pool, so he can only Uber pool places. So he does have to stop at another place to pick up other people.

The lion's not getting in any Uber, first of all. Okay, there's no way any guy is gonna like pick up a lion.

They have pet-friendly Ubers.

No, there's no way. I Yeah, I'll take the tip.

If he's dressed as somebody else, what if he's dressing in like a trench coat?

Oh, you mean like a disguise? Yeah, a really good lion disguise. Yeah. No, I take it for sure. The lion's not going anywhere, David. He's getting tranqed at fucking—

at the mall. But it's the worst having Ferris, who is our editor here, laugh at this because he encourages the stupidest conversations.

You know, sometimes Ferris laughs at things and I'm like, oh, it's good. We should keep talking.

Yeah. And then I listen to us talking about a snail and a lion.

Most of the time I look over, he's like this.

I saw, I saw a TikTok the other day. Um, this is actually really good. It's a really good tip, especially for a man who has, who has kids. Um, basically, just buckle in, Jay, because you're, you're about to be tipified. Um, okay, so let's say you had a little 3-year-old kid, right? And you were telling them to— telling— okay, let's say you're the 3-year-old kid. I'm like, come on, let's get in the car. We got to go to the store. What would your kid respond?

Hell yeah, let's go.

No, no, no. What? Most likely the kid, like, if he's playing with toys, they're like, no, I don't want to go. Do you know what I mean?

I mean, well, Jason's kids are very well behaved.

Okay.

I mean, yeah. Okay. Yeah. My kid, they'd be like, hell no, I don't want to go there.

All right, let's just take the other perspective because a lot of kids would not want to go or not want to do something. Yeah, or like, okay, how about this?

My kids really are so weird to you, aren't they? Yeah, they're so foreign. They're just the type of people that you're not— they're not your type of people.

How about this, let me rephrase the question. What if it's like, hey Wyatt, go clean your room, okay? Yeah, what would he say? Okay. No, thank God. All right, but normal kid would be like no.

Yeah, normal kid would be like no. Okay, but Wyatt's so special.

Uh, this girl, this girl was saying that the tip is you have to give the kids an option. Yeah. So, so let's say it's instead of, Wyatt, go clean your room, it's, Wyatt, we gotta go clean your room. You want to pick up your toys first or the roller coasters?

Oh yeah, I've heard that.

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah, yeah, I have heard that.

Like, okay, it's time to go, Wyatt. You want to put your shoes on first or your jacket? And then the kid will go, jacket! And he won't even fucking know what's happening. And he's not fucking 30 minutes away from Ralph's.

Taylor does that to you?

Yes, yes, I've been actually doing it to John.

Yeah, yeah, he's your dad subject.

Yeah, yeah, what are you saying to John? Well, yesterday we pulled in and I was— and, uh, we were, we were coming in. I'm like, John, you want to plug in my charger first or you want to move your car?

It's kind of like if I want to quit, it's like, David, do you want to let me go or should I tell you that I want to leave?

Exactly. Jesus. Yeah, but it's pretty good. I guess it doesn't work on your kids, but—

No, it does. It totally works on your kids. That is what you're supposed to do when they're 3. That's what's so hard for me. Yeah, I was talking about having more kids the other day.

With who? Just yourself?

Well, you know, I'm sure I could find somebody.

No, but who are you talking to?

Find anybody?

Oh, I was talking with Nat about it.

Oh yeah, you'd have kids with Nat, huh?

I'm close with that. Yeah, we talk about a lot of stuff.

Those would be some weird babies.

No, I didn't say with Nat. I was talking about it with—

they'd come out like old and young. Just kidding, that's not how things work. All right, I don't know how babies form. I don't want to be an older baby because that's your side of the family. And Natalie's would be younger baby.

He comes out looking like this, like me, dead in the eyes.

Another thing I realized, I'm actually guilty of this too. Sometimes people will tell me, and I'm guilty of it, and I also hate when people do it. So like sometimes people will tell me a fact, like you'll be like, did you know that Mars is made completely out of marshmallows? And I'll be like, oh yeah, yeah, nice. And then you'll catch me like 3 days later repeating that same fact to somebody else, but with like 10 times more enthusiasm.

Have I seen you do that?

Yeah. No.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He does it all the time.

Yeah. Jason, it's David. Who? I did a podcast with you.

You there, bud? What are you asking? No, you know what he's saying?

Yes. What's he saying? I was just saying I just had the realization that, like, it's just such an interesting epiphany that he's like, this is what he does.

You totally do that. You're such a sponge. And you literally regurgitate everything right away.

Other people do it, but somebody else did it and I got really pissed, but I was like, ah, fuck, I do that all the time.

Yeah, that's what— that's how we feel.

Yeah, fact. And then, and then I was watching his podcast and then he's telling Joe like so excited when he was on his computer, not even paying attention to me when I told him. Um, speaking of Ilya, his fucking protein company like crushed. Yeah, first week out, sold out, which is awesome. But like, it's even going to get more better when people try it because they're actually going to fucking love it and people are going to come back because it is genuinely great protein. But the craziest part is his video. He just posted a YouTube video for the first time on his channel and it had— and it was a brand new channel. Yeah. Zilla Fitness on YouTube. And all of a sudden now it's sitting at 600,000.

600,000 already?

650,000. 650,000 views. Just like completely randomly just fucking blew up. Brand new channel. And the craziest part is the first 500,000 views, which was last night— last night was 500,000 views— had no link in the description. So he was sending this entire— the entire video is basically an ad to buy Zeala, but he had no link.

They didn't have the link in there? No.

Oh man. What they did have is they had zeala.com. Yeah, but no hyperlink. Like, you couldn't click anything, right? It was for the first 500,000 views. And this isn't like a regular YouTube video where like people don't really go to the description. This is like the video. Yeah. To put something in the description because like it's, it's a 25-minute ad for your protein.

If you don't know, it's— Ilya worked out our friend John and he lost when he was 40, 50 pounds. They documented it. The video took 6 months and the whole—

it's a whole transformation about them using Zilla and how much it changed his body. And like nothing, nothing. The Instagram wasn't linked and the website wasn't linked. Disaster. He probably missed out on like probably 50,000 Instagram followers. That could have been really good for his business. Damn. But so yeah, if you're listening to this, I'm going to link it for him in this description. So go, go follow Zeal on Instagram.

Yo, aren't you confused by like musicians and like how they make music?

What do you mean?

Like, I, I went and saw Tyler, the Creator the other night and I took my daughter and I only went for like her, you know, I'm like, I know some songs, I think he's good or whatever. Yeah, and it was like the best show I ever saw. And then, and just to watch like all his songs and everything's like, how does all that get made? Yeah, do you ever wonder about that?

I love the behind the scenes stuff. Like, I love— my favorite is watching the Marvel behind the scenes stuff. Oh yeah, I mean, that shit, like, none of that shit is filmed anywhere but a green screen anymore, it seems like, which is so impressive to me. Like, they, they've literally— like, the new Spider-Man, it looks like they filmed 85% of it in front of a green screen. Like, even when they're on the streets of New York, they're not on the streets of New York. Like, it's a green screen, right? Which is like, so fucking cool. Like, they could do everything from like a huge basement now. Like, that's something. That's the best way to not spoil anything either, because no one's allowed in there.

Do you think you'd be able to pull off acting on a green screen?

Uh, yeah, I think so. You think? I never really—

not me, but like, if I'm like, Do you think it's more difficult to act in front of a green screen as opposed to a set?

I would think so.

I would think so too.

I think it's so hard to be like, okay, and now the spaceships are coming, and here comes Thanos, and Thanos is above you.

Like, you really have to imagine, and he's giving you a right hook.

And I don't think so. I've also never— like, I've also never acted with anybody that was really good. Uh-huh.

So like, you're in my movie, so— no, we didn't have a scene together.

We never acted.

But yeah, we did.

I've definitely never acted, but I feel like if I acted with somebody like Sandra Bullock and like I was acting off her energy, yeah, then I would have— then I would change my mind about this green screen stuff. But for me right now, acting is all just pretending because I've never like acted off anybody that I'd be like, wow, this is great.

Yeah, if you work with Sandra Bullock, you probably get really good like right away, right?

Probably really easy because it's probably like a real conversation.

Yeah, yeah, you probably think you're great. Yeah, yeah, if you do a scene with her.

But I don't know, I, I can't imagine a green screen being that much tougher than like—

I think it is.

But I just— I think like especially with Marvel movies, like there's— they don't know anything. Like what ends up happening in post when you, when you go see in a theater, like that's not— how do you even imagine that?

Just describe it to you and it's scene by scene. It's not like you have to shoot the entire 2-hour movie in one take. I know, like it's like, now you're scared, the ships are landing.

Wow, you're so good.

Like, you know, I mean, it's not Actors know, like, I'm speaking on behalf of actors. I'm not speaking on behalf of David.

Which, which part did you miss out on that you really wanted? What, what part did you miss out on that you did a lot of auditions over the years?

I auditioned for Shang-Chi. Do we talk about that?

Oh, I don't know if we did.

Am I allowed to now? Yeah.

Really?

Yeah, 100%. Oh yeah. This is for Shang-Chi.

What part?

It was the guy on the bus. It was the guy on the bus filming everybody. Yeah. And it was like The thing read for the thing read, it was like an influencer guy. Yeah. So I was like, I know when that happens in a script, they just like send it to an influencer. I know they're never going to actually pick the influencer because I'd be like, goofy, maybe. I don't know. But like, as I was walking out of my audition, McLovin was also walking. Really? He just auditioned for that same part. I was like, why the fuck am I here? This guy's auditioning. Like, he's going to fucking blow me out of the water. Uh, so yeah, then I watched the scene. I actually had it as my background. I have another Marvel background as my phone, but I had another background of the script, um, on my phone background when I auditioned for Shang-Chi.

Oh, you did? So you could look at it?

So I could— yeah, I was manifesting. But it was that much cooler to watch the movie because I like— I knew the lines. Yeah. Oh, oh, speaking, speaking of Marvel, I, um, I looked up I always look up props, like every night before I go to bed, I check, I check Instagram, TikTok, and I look for props that are available to buy from like the Marvel movies because I want the right one. And Captain America's shield, for some reason I missed it, sold in November for— it was like $256,000.

Wow.

Sold in an auction. And it was, it was like the one he would use on screen for a lot of the shots. Really? So the last time Captain America holds the shield in his hand, That shield sold. So I reached out to the guy and I was gonna like offer him like $300,000 for it, um, which I don't know if Natalie would have even let me, but I was gonna offer it to him just to see if like that could have happened. Yeah. Um, and he's like, he doesn't have any plans to sell soon. Really? Yeah. And I was like, of course.

Why did you really pay?

That's what I said. I was like, in no way. I mean, I understand like David has so much nostalgia, but it's not worth $300,000.

Yeah, but like think about like 300— like I've owned a $300,000 car before and like, yeah, this is 10 times more important to me than a nice car. Would you like— I'd rather drive a bicycle around town and have the shield in my house than have a nice car. Like, the shield means so much to me.

Would you put it behind glass or would you take it out and let people touch it?

I'd probably have to put it behind glass. Yeah. What I would do is, you know how the wine cellar, $300,000 wine, and I would just make it like, put it in there, a shield cellar. Wow. No, I mean, I would— I've told Joe, I was like, Joe, if you ever find a shield that has been used in the movies, let me know and surprise me with it and I'll pay for all of it. But surprise me with the fact that you found it. Oh, wow. Um, yeah, I look for that a lot.

Joe writing a $300,000 check to surprise you.

But there are— there— it's crazy. There are a lot of like— you— I can buy a shield, like a, like a real type shield that like Stan Lee signed for like 10 grand because he like— I think they all sign like a bunch of things. I don't know when they do it, but like there's like 100 of those shields that Stan Lee signed.

But you don't want it because you want whole cast signing it. No.

Well, there was one that— which is crazy to me, crazy— Paul Rudd sold one, uh, like a year and a half ago, maybe, or like 2 years ago when Marvel wasn't that big. He was selling it for a hospital charity. So it's a fucking double whammy. First of all, you spend a lot of money on a shield and it's going to a good place. Sure. Paul Rudd was holding it, uh-huh, and it was a shield from the movie, and the whole cast signed it.

All the Avengers.

Yeah, yeah. And, um, you don't even care. You're like, no way. The The whole cast signed it and it sold for like $60,000. That's it. Yeah, the whole fucking—

the whole cast.

Where's that one? Um, I, I don't know, actually. I don't know how to get a hold of the person because I couldn't find the articles with their name on it, but that would be a cool one to find out because that would be the coolest shield to have the entire—

there must be like a Marvel memorabilia dealer.

One more story about my Marvel obsession. Okay, remember when we moved into the house? Yeah, the one thing I ordered that I was like waiting for the house to be completed was my Iron Man. Do you remember? I bought this like full-sized Iron Man sculpture and I bought it from China. Yeah. And they were nice to me and they were like, we never ship to the US. I was like, please, please, please, I'll do anything. This is so cool. And they're like, okay. And I was going to be the only one in the United States that had that sculpture. And then 6 months later, still no sign of it. They told me they'd get here in 2 months.

Nothing.

I haven't seen in 6 months. So I went out and I bought my own life-sized one here in Anaheim. I drove like an hour and that's the one that currently sits here. Right now, a year and 3 months later, it has finally shipped to the United States. No way. I paid $10,000 for it like 2 years ago or a year and a half or a year and 3 months ago. I paid $10,000 for it and it's finally— it's finally gotten to Los Angeles.

It took so long.

I don't know, like the shipments, it got— it got caught at the port, whatever happened. I don't know what you're going to do with it. Well, I don't have it.

Well, it's going to come in a couple of days.

This is the real kicker. Yeah, it got delivered to the wrong address.

The old address?

No, a different address. A random woman, and she signed off on it.

No way.

It's a huge crate. The crate's probably the size of a car. So, and like, who signs up? Like, if a package came to my house and it didn't have my name on it and it was the size of like, you know, a Ford F-150, I wouldn't be signing it off and like taking it into my home. So that, that, that confused me. But I'm gonna go pick it up. We have our address. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Monday or Tuesday to get it. I'm so stoked.

I have her address.

Yeah, I'm really excited.

She know you're coming?

No, no, she does.

We've called her, um, and she's like, then what are you gonna do with it?

Oh wait, did she say like, oh yeah, like I have it?

No, yeah, she hasn't. She says she hasn't opened it. Oh well, but the shield's coming, or the suit's coming.

I'm excited. I can't wait to see it. Oh, can I vlog it?

You don't care about— you don't—

not at all. Yeah, well, you should go be in a Marvel movie. That would be fun. I think we could make that happen.

I don't know. What would it mean, just being about Marvel movie?

I don't know. I just know you love it so much. I just feel bad for you.

Like, even if I could play like a tree.

Even if— even if— yeah, yeah. I mean, I could be in the background.

I've talked about this before, but like, I always like—

maybe create one that could do your own character, your own comic.

No, I could—

I— Blanket Man.

I think about Naptime Boy.

Yeah, yeah.

Happy Dude. Well, I think I've—

have you come to grips with the fact that you probably won't be a superhero? Yeah, it's tough. Do you talk about therapy?

I prefer—

I came to grips with that. I'll never be on Saturday Night Live.

I prefer to do things where I'm acting less in. I don't know.

Yeah, you don't want to—

you don't want to be in front of the one step we have taken forward is I really do like the Discovery thing we're doing because I think that's like where it's almost like acting because like I'm not holding the camera, so it's like Yeah, I'm not like directing it. I'm more in front of the camera, but it's not acting at all still because it is just us. But like, that's as far as I can go, I think. Yeah, I was thinking, I was thinking about to just the Discovery thing as a whole in general.

You know, I'm always thinking, Jay, I know I smell wood burning all the time when I walk in.

No. And, and I think one of the, one of the biggest problems that we encountered, like with the videos just in general, from like every situation we've run into, like whatever the problem was, is that it was— and I've said something like this before, but I think the more I think about it, the more I can understand it— is like we were making, we were making such a big type of production where there were so many eyes on it. Yeah. And like, I didn't realize at the time how many people were watching the videos. Like, I did, but like, now, now when you go back, it's like Some are sitting at like 20, 25, 30 million views, like easy, like a TV show. Like, it's really fucking freaky. But at the time it definitely didn't feel like that, especially because of the way we were filming things and like handling things and doing things. Like it was me, you and my Canon 80D. Yeah. Like no matter what the bit is, whether like whether we were doing like a moped jump or whether we were doing Mrs. Doubtfire in my car or whatever it was, like whether you were doing an impression or whatever it was. Like it was all— it was, it was all such low production for such a— for such a production that influenced so many people, like whether they were watching it or they were a part of it. And I think that's the trouble we were getting into. And I think I didn't put myself— I wasn't good at putting myself in the leader role and the leader shoes when we were filming and making those things. Does that make sense? I don't know. Like I was always just like, Oh, I'm just an 18-year-old chap, like, filming away.

Yeah, you're just out there with your camera.

I didn't assume the responsibility that I should have when it came to filming anything. Like, even if it— even if, like, even if we were filming a bit and Jonah and somebody are doing something on the side that's not bit related, but everyone's there to help me with— do something. Like, I'm, I'm the person in the room that should be, like, making sure everybody's okay no matter what's happening. That's why I love Discovery so much, is because we could still have fun the same way we did before. But now there are those people in the room that are, that are making sure that everyone, you know, everyone is feeling okay.

I don't know. They sent me down that slide in Costa Rica. Yeah, that was kind of fucked up, I thought.

But yeah, no, like, I like that about them. Like, you know, there are like, even as far as like, there are medics and there are HR, whatever, like all those people that, that should be—

sensitivity training.

Yeah. Like when we go to a different country, like, yeah, like there were We went to one country and one of our camera guys was complaining because our lunch wasn't long enough. Oh my God. Yeah. And our camera guy is best friends with our producer. Yeah, it's like literally like me. And he was complaining to him. He's like, our fucking lunches aren't long enough. Like, you make us work too, too much. Yeah. So the next trip, a completely new guy had to fly out just to oversee the relationship between the producer and our cameraman, just to make sure our cameraman is getting fed enough. Like a new HR guy. Flew out just to manage the relationship between these two lifelong best friends. Oh wow. Just to make sure that, like, that, like, because they're best friends, so like it's kind of easy to be like, no lunch right now, we're working, right?

Because he's your best friend. That's you doing me.

Yeah, but like a new, a new HR guy flew out just to be like, just to be like, we have to follow everything by the rules.

Well, weren't we talking about this the other day too? Like, I feel like we all feel like the pandemic kind of like brought social media to a head. Like productions and TV and film all had to be paused, right? But people could still be in their living room making a TikTok or making a vlog or whatever it was. And I feel like that kind of like legitimized social media. Now you have like literally TikTokers are like A-list celebrities, you know?

It's like, it's crazy. Kind of to that point is like when we were filming, like whether we were filming out and about or just like us friends, like my parents would actually call me multiple times and they'd be like, is everyone signing releases? Like everyone should be signing releases. Like they're part of this, like, production that you're doing. I was like, no, no, no, they're not. Like, they're my friends and the people we film with out and about. Like, it's just fun. Like, it's casual. And like, it would fucking freak people out if I had someone around me and was going like, here, sign this. Even my friends, like, I was like, I don't want to treat my friends like they're some kind of a cast. Like, I don't want to— like, I didn't want— I don't want to do that. It would change the vibe for sure. And I think especially back then, that was like double weird. Now it makes a lot more sense because now social media is like is like almost at the same like respect level as like other forms of entertainment. Obviously not like films and like TV shows yet, but like it's getting up there. So like now someone making a YouTube video and having releases and things, it's like so normal because everyone wants to step into that world and everyone understands like the impact it has. And I, and I regret not doing that. I regret not doing— I regret not taking— what I say a lot is, is it was such a backyard production and I regret not treating it like it was, right? Like it was a real production. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also felt like I took pride in it being so guerrilla style, like run-and-gun style. Like I took pride in the fact that like, like, like we would show up to like a celebrity's house and it would be me and Jason or me and Nat, and they were like, this is it? Yeah. And I'd be like, yeah, this is it. I don't know who did you expect to feel like easier.

Yeah.

And it was like easier on everybody. Like Nobody's like— you go on Fallon, you're signing a bunch of things. Every— everything—

every— what makes it very impressive is what it does, right?

And every conversation when you go on any late night show, you have a phone call before. Yeah. And it's like, this is what we're gonna talk about. Like, are you agree— are you agreeing to talk about this? You have like a pre-call. But like when we were doing it, it was just like you showed up and you just did it. It was literally— yeah, we're here. We'd knock on the door and yeah. Yeah. And, and, and going forward, like, like I said, this is a weird conversation that we got into randomly from— I think it's good. Yeah, but, but I haven't—

I like, I like, I like that you're opening up about it.

And that's why I like— that's why I like Discovery is because all those like boxes are checked and it makes me feel a lot more comfortable knowing that everybody else is comfortable.

When Jim comes to you mad about launch, you're like, yo, take it up with corporate, right? You're like, not me, man. Not my, not my spot. I did that. Exactly.

Yeah. What's also crazy too is like sometimes we'll like meet up with, you know, people, whatever, or like, you know, we'll meet up with some sort of influencer, right? And the teams people have now is crazy. Like they have a president, they have a manager, they have an agent. Every single one of those people has an assistant and they have coordinators and like all these things. And it was literally just like, there's 3 people here, you know, like just that mentality is— it's so— it's just so different, you know? And people just take it more seriously, which is great. It's a good thing.

But I think with that, with what Natalie said, is like, that's true now, um, but like, I regret that I didn't put in those measures before. And, and, you know, I didn't have— I didn't have the right guidance or awareness back then to be able to have like a fully 100% safe environment when it came to creating. Um, and I think, I think it just like, it, it got unknowingly bigger, um, than I thought it was actually getting. Um, and I know that's a crazy thing to even say, but like, we've talked about this before, like, I didn't know how big the videos were. Yeah, till after the pandemic. Yeah, man, me too. Um, that's when I realized, that's when I was like, oh, this like actually had an impact on a lot of people.

What made you think that? Like, how did you feel? Was that moment that was like, oh, this is actually like kind of big, kind of crazy, kind of legit?

It was because I felt like we were doing a lot of cool things at the time and like no one would ever write about it. Like, like I was judging, I was basing my success on like what I knew as success to be like the traditional world. Like even, even when we, even when a brand would come to me and offer me X amount of money, I'd always, always go to Natalie. I was like, do they know that they're being like completely ripped off here. Like, how is it worth them spending $150,000 on me? You're right. And Natalie would be like, no, no, trust me, it's worth it. And, and like, I wouldn't understand that. Even with merch, even when deals come to us, like, I'm just like, I don't want to do that. Like, I just don't think anybody cares for that.

Um, right, but you understand the—

no, I understand that now.

Yeah, I did not get 20 million people, and usually 5% of those numbers weren't real to me.

Like, I agree, like YouTube views, just the same way that like, like the traditional world would scoff at it, I would do the same thing. Yeah, like I'd be like, a YouTuber, who cares what the views they get? Because that's not real. Yeah, that's not— you can't respect that. So like, so like especially when like we were never being written about in articles, which was like the traditional way of being like, you're doing something right. Like I didn't understand that it was actually as big as it was. And then when shit went, you know, south, shit hit the fan. And then all these articles came out. I was like, what the fuck?

Yeah, where were they?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so, so people did care.

Yeah.

And then, and then from that, like, you know, like there's just more conversations that happen. I was like, whoa, like this many people viewed the vlogs like this or like, I don't know, I don't know.

And now that you had time to sort of sit and think about all that, like What's the biggest thing you've pulled from it?

The biggest thing that I've pulled from it is how much responsibility I had in everything, even if it wasn't like— I mean, even if it was an indirect thing that happened because I was there, right? That I didn't understand before, and now I get it, that there's a lot more there's a lot more accountability for me to take for things that happened in places, if that makes sense. Like, from like interactions with people while we were filming. Like, I was the guy that, that was the biggest, the leader in the room or whatever, and I should have acted as that in more ways than just one. I should have made sure everybody was okay and like set up a good infrastructure and foundation around myself where everybody was protected when we were filming. I think that's what I've learned. Um, and, and it's so tough because like you kind of have to figure that out on your own. But I also want to be able to like make sure that other creators don't make those mistakes. And it's so easy to make those mistakes because it's like crazy to think that you can go from filming YouTube videos to having more responsibilities than just holding the camera. Um, I think there's ways to educate people on that like as we go. I don't think there's like I don't think there's anything that you could— it's almost like, you know, like when people are like, when people are like, don't text and drive, it doesn't happen to you till it happens to you. Like, almost like, you know, like a creator will never think about this and will never think about how much responsibility he holds until it actually happens. I, I definitely, I definitely like to take like warnings from other people and like, and like I've seen other YouTubers before like really go outrageous till it got to a point where it was like it kind of backfired on them. And I've always looked at that, I've always been like, okay, like noted. But I never understood like how much— like there's so much more underlying things that I'm responsible for that aren't like necessarily in front of the screen, on the screen, not necessarily things I'm posting, but things that are happening behind the scenes, like people's emotions, people's feelings and stuff like that. And that's kind of what I've taken from it now. It's like It's not only what I'm posting, but it's also the energy that I'm creating around me and making sure that everybody there feels like they're participating in a positive way, just as, as I feel I am about it. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. I don't know much English, so it's very tough.

You are from Slovakia.

Yeah, but, um, but yeah, and, and moving forward, like, I, I, you know, I don't want to talk about this all the time, but I, I do want I do want creators to understand that.

It's really interesting.

It is, it is so interesting.

It's really good.

It's like there's this like—

what would you say to somebody that was trying to be David Dobrik right now?

Um, that that's something I didn't know and I still don't know necessarily, but, but that being in the position that I am, there's more to it than just filming videos and putting them together and editing them together and posting them. And there's like this thing you just, you just naturally step into and this thing that you like just have to adopt, and that's becoming a leader in more ways than just producing videos. And that's by making sure people are feeling okay on set or making sure, you know, you have the right safety people there. It's like all of that you are now responsible for. Whether you like it or not. And like, that's what it is about entering the next level of whatever you're doing. I think just when you reach a certain point, especially in the entertainment world, like, you inherit new responsibilities. Like, you're now an example for people, right? Um, and, and I think that's not something you go into this thinking, right? You're not like, I'm gonna be— you, you just go like, I want to make the funniest videos.

Yeah, I'll make people laugh.

Yeah, but I think as you get more successful in it, you have to be a good example, like, no matter what. That's just— it's a part of the job now. You get the promotion, but now you get a new duty with it, you know what I mean? Like, now you're doing this as well. And, and I think, like, I want to have the right thing to say to that person, and I want to have the right thing to say to that kid. And I can say, you know, some of the right things, but I also still don't know 100%. Like, I'm still— I'm still figuring it out, like, every day. Um, and I think that's why I'm so stoked to be finally working with somebody like Discovery where I can like, where I can be being taught the other side of the business. Like, I can be, I can be seeing like how, how an actual production functions, and I can apply that and still have like the authenticity and like the, like the more gritty and like the more like backyard feel to the YouTube videos, but also like have the same things in place to make it a safer environment. Um, wow. And I think with everything I said, it's— it all has to do with me being somewhat in the middle of like this pretty big cultural shift in entertainment, right?

In general.

Yeah. Like it's going from movies and television, big productions to like a lot of people are consuming things that are made by people in their bedrooms now. And those things will escalate and the people in their bedrooms will start recording in studios and then they'll start recording, you know, and I think a lot of those people now in today's world will probably be set up with the right team around them, which I regret that maybe I didn't have. But to those people that are doing it on their own, so fucking kick-ass, hell yeah. But just, you just still have to make sure that you do still have the right people around that make it feel like a production in some way. You can't avoid that. It's irresponsible to avoid that. And that's what I was doing, and I wasn't having— I wasn't having the adults in the room because I felt like it was gonna kill the vibe of the actual fun we were having. But I think you have to find the balance of having the fun and also being responsible. Um, so yeah, that's kind of what I want to say on that.

Well, I was going to say, I feel like a big common theme in like any relationship that anybody has, like whether you're dating somebody or you're friends with somebody, like communication is such a big thing. And I feel like every phase of your life, whether you're like in a middle school relationship or you're in a working relationship, like, communicating is so important. Yeah. And I feel like that is like one of the biggest things we've learned this past year is just like communicating with people, whether it's like David and I like are in a disagreement, just like fucking talk about it, you know? Like, it doesn't matter, you seem to like speak about it, or, you know, whatever, whatever is happening, just—

well, the relationship thing is actually pretty interesting to, to kind of correlate with like building a business. It's like the further you go into a relationship, there's new responsibilities that are put on you whether you like it or not, right? Like, the more you fall in love or the more intimate you get with somebody, like, now you have to start caring for them in more than just like going on dates and having sex. Now, like, you're responsible for their well-being in some way. Like, you're the person that has to be there to take care of them or to be there for them when things are going wrong. And that's kind of the same thing with the business. Like the further it gets and the bigger it gets, like you now are attached to more responsibilities. And I'm talking like, like I've known this my entire life, but this is something I'm like figuring out now is like these, like I'm, I was always like, like, no, that's not what I want to do. Like, I just want to make the videos. Like, I don't want people to sign stuff, but like, that's what comes with it. Like, congrats, Dave, you've made it this far. But now, unfortunately, Yeah, you have to have people sign stuff because it's gotten to that point. I mean, you can't avoid that. So yeah, that's, that's, that's the tricky part that I've kind of been figuring out a little late, but better late than never. And I hope someone listening to this can, can learn something from it. All right, guys, that's all the time we have for this podcast. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you for joining me, Natasha and Jason. It's been— Natalie, it's been really good.

You're calling me Natasha.

That's what I thought too.

I was like, okay, and we'll see you guys soon. My name is Jeff. Bye. Go buy Zilla.