I think I'm dying here, man. The
haunted mansions and floors, the Creek they lead us to the places
from which we dare not be. Journey through fear in the
realm of the night. In every word they speak, a
haunted night was right. Welcome to the horror show The
Deep Blood podcast. When nightmares come out alive.
Let him take that boat. Tune into the chilling delight
on the airwaves of the night. Let the darkness go.
Oh yeah, it's that time again
for another episode of the Deep Cut Podcast with your host
Rotten Roger DeMarco. And today I'm doing something a
little bit different. I'm bringing in a madman.
But no, not Madman Mars. I'm talking about Madman
motherfucking Pondo. What's?
Up. What is up?
What's up guys? Dude not to mark out super hard
but this, this is a dream come true to be sitting here shooting
the shit with legend. I'm just a shithead.
You'll figure it out if we go along.
Hell no, man. And you, you have a new book
coming out and it's not, it's nothing like your previous book,
right? Not at all, no.
I had a whole bunch of downtime while I was in Japan and my
buddy Christina Harvey, he got her Facebook hacked and she had
to start all the way over. She had to get some pictures and
all her memories back on Facebook.
And I thought to myself how terrible that would be if that
happened to me. Because if you've been through
my Facebook, I've met all types of horror movie characters,
wrestlers, actors, Internet personalities, our musicians,
all types of shit. And I thought to myself, man, if
if I got my shit hacked, what you're going to happen to
anybody, I would really be sad about all the stuff that I was
missing. So I sat down in Japan and I
wrote down stories about meeting all the horror icons that I've
met over the years. So it's full of stories of that
and pictures of me meeting them and all types of good stuff like
that. Dude, I, I love that.
And you know, I mean, you got to preserve those memories as best
as you can. My wife and I, we actually used
to work a horror convention that's kind of local to us.
And we've been toying around with the idea for years because
we started, it was Crypticon in Kansas City and we started going
2013 all the way up until maybe three years ago.
We, we haven't helped with stuff, but we've, we've toyed
around with the idea of creating a coffee table book with all the
pictures of all the people we've met, you know, so I, I love this
idea. So do you have a title for the
new book? Yes, Hondo versus horror icon
and just like the first, just like the first book say of Val
is doing the cover for this book as well.
So you know that's going to look awesome.
Yeah. Hey, don't you have a, you have
a shirt, right. That's you versus a bunch of
horror icons. So that's perfect.
It's it's saved through that and it was called King of the
Psychos and it's me in the middle of Freddy.
Jason led the face of Michael Myers, the four top horror
icons. But I think there's a fifth now.
I think Art the Clown has joined those four, if you ask me, He.
Is he's working his way to icon status real quick, You know what
I mean? If you went to Halloween Horror
Nights this year, man, what a what a haunted house that was.
That was awesome. Hell, yeah.
I, I'm partial to Victor Crowley from Hatchet.
I'm a big hatchet mark. So yeah, I'm a, I'm a hatchet
over an Art the Clown guy. But I, you know, you got to
respect that Art the Clown hustle for sure.
Yeah, there's, I mean, I, I love hatchet, but at Halloween time
there was so many Arthur Clown cosplay dresses, you know, dress
people. So.
Oh yeah, I think, I think Arthur Clown is drawing #5 to tell you
the truth and. I'll tell you, you go into a
spirit Halloween. You don't see any Victor Crowley
stuff. You see a ton.
You see a ton of Arthur Clown stuff.
You can't go to Walmart now without Art the Clown.
So I mean, he's he's surpassed, you know, indie horror to icon
status. So yeah, you're I'm with you on
that. But going back to like the
horror stuff, you know, you've been going to conventions and
stuff for a really long time. But let's rewind to way back
when you were young man Pondo, you know, when you were a little
kid, when did you get introduced to horror?
Who who introduced you? What was it you know?
It was all regular TV. You know, I started out with
Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, you know, the the normal horror
movies I can play on TV. And then of course Godzilla and
all the Kaju started hitting after that.
And then you get into like the horror, the Hammer series with
Vincent Price and Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and then LED
into other B horror movies squirm, you know, things that
they could play at midnight. And then once, once I was going
to the theater there was like at 13, I went to the re release of
The Exorcist in the theater. A lot of movies.
How old are you? How are?
You I will be 42 this June. OK, yeah.
So you remember there was times that we couldn't watch, like
older horror movies, not until VHS started getting real
popular, like Leatherface. I didn't get to watch Leather
Chainsaw Massacre until it came out on the VHS right And made-up
meet a bunch of friends. I don't know if you remember
when VHS since first came out, but they were like $100 a.
Piece. Oh yeah, Yeah, I do.
Though me so me and like 5 friends all got together and
bought the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and and of course it's
stay at my house. I was like the Bart Simpson with
the comic book. Hey, it's mine.
So it's the saves at my house. I.
Was going to say you guys didn't trade like you got it Monday and
Wednesday and they you know what?
I mean no, because basically I worked at 3 video stores
therefore I had access to BCRS at any time I wanted so they
thought it would just be better to stick at my house.
But man, what I regret was I didn't keep any of those, you
know, I mean, when my VHS was to get DVDs and you know, so you.
Know I think we all did that right.
I think, you know, once DVD really sunk its fangs in, we all
were like, you know, on on to the next best thing.
And then now we're kicking ourselves in the ass and having
to rebuy our collections, you know?
Right. Yeah, I'm with you on that, man.
Yeah, and, and VHS people know what they have, so they're like,
you know, now it's back to being expensive.
So it's a pain in the ass if you're in that, in that
nostalgia where you want all your VHS tapes again.
And yeah, it it'll break your bank real fucking quick, dude.
I'm the type of guy I don't care what the quality of the film is.
I just want to watch the film. So I'll watch a VHS, I'll watch
a DVD. When I was young, I used to
watch porn, scrambled, you know, I didn't care.
I just wanted to watch TV, right?
Oh, shit. I love that.
Yeah, we all had to. Like, you know, you, you turn
the dial to a channel you don't quite get, but you can kind of
hear it and maybe make out an elbow and a butt hole.
Yeah. That's it.
Not time enough to Jack, but
time enough to get inside. Yeah. 100% dude.
Jesus. So when you grew up watching
that stuff on TV was did you guys have like a local horror
host? You know, like, because for me,
like around here, we had a like a doctor sanguinary.
Yeah, we didn't have a horror host, but Channel 11 did.
Friday night prides, Saturday night chillers.
This was all late at night when kids were supposed to be asleep.
You know, I got to watch Benny Hill, which would show a tit
every now and then. After after 11 this channel 11
like they played squaring full, you know, I mean you remember
that red headed chick got topless in there or whatever and
then what else? I can't remember the name of
this movie, but there was samurai ghost and Linda.
I can't remember what her name is, but anyway, you know, so I
would stay up, man. Like I didn't have anywhere to
go. I would stay at home on the
weekends. I'm a big Kung Fu fan.
Channel 11 had three feature films and sometimes they were
action films, sometimes they were romance films.
But you know, Lord was a was a top one that they would play
Legend of of Hell House. Not black and not black and
white color, you know, just stuff like that.
But then if you really think about how nostalgic my
experiences was, I saw Halloween in in on HBO when everybody was
going nuts. You know, I went to Friday the
13th Part 2 in the movie theater.
I already told you I went to The Exorcist when I was 13 and all
these parents was coming over saying, hey, you might want to
sit with us, This is going to be scary.
But I'd already read all the magazines about what was going
to happen. I just wanted to see what it
would look like. So my grandma didn't know no
better. So she took me to this film, you
know, and, and yeah, man, like there's, there's not too many
horror movies that people, they, they try to stop me all the
time. Well, have you ever seen this
movie? And I'm like, well, yes, I have.
And then I'll tell them what it's about and they'll be like,
holy shit. You know, I mean working at 3
video stores, not too much got past me.
I was going to say, yeah, working in the video store,
especially if it wasn't like a a big chain, there was a mom and
pop. They're the ones that got the
big boxes, you know, they got the weird stuff that Blockbuster
or Hollywood Video or whatever was like afraid to put on the
shelves. So, you know, like you'd be
thirteen watching I spit on your grave.
Like I'm not supposed to see this.
I don't think you know. Yeah, my very first child was
CNN video right there in my hometown in Flora, IL and it was
like one of the first video stores in that area.
Therefore, it was packed all the time, every weekend.
All the VCRS were rented out. You know, this is before people
can buy or afford a VCR or a VCR tape.
So they would rent them. And it was like super social,
you know, you met people who were in horror and stuff like
that too. As a, as opposed to, yeah, with
just streaming now. But like, when you're in a video
store, you're bumping into people and like, oh, you ever
seen this? And like, you make friends.
That doesn't happen anymore. Work it like working there
people would come in and they would say so how's this movie
and of course all the employees I didn't get in a horror movies
they'd always look at me and then I.
Would fondling, you know. Yeah, exactly.
Oh, that's awesome. So you were, you were always
that was as a teenager, Yeah, like one of your first gigs,
Right. So.
Yeah, that was, I was right out of high school CNN video.
And then I moved on to the Video Shack, and then I moved on to
SNL Video. So all three video stores in my
hometown I worked for. Fuck yeah.
And you were always the resident horror guy.
I love that I can, pretty much. I can.
Relate to that big time dude. So.
Oh that's so awesome. Going back to squirm, you're
talking about that girl getting topless for half a second.
Yeah. I get so distracted by her
sister's big teeth. Her sister's teeth throw me off
so bad. Right.
I want a beautiful what a beautiful movie that is that
they just took a a ball full of rubber, rubber worms and made
something out of it back in the day.
You know, I, I say that, I say basket case.
They took a puppet and made it so vicious.
You know, that things were so different back then.
The Toxic Avenger working at those video stores.
I remember they had a promotion. Buy 1 videotape, get 5 free.
Nice. I always thought, wow, I always
thought, you know, that was to rent, not to buy, right?
Yeah. So I always thought that was
really weird. But then I got to figuring out
they would be. There'd be 6 copies of that on
the shelf. Therefore, people would think,
well, this movie must be the bomb.
And of course, they'd take it home.
Some liked it, some loved it a lot.
Fucking hated it, though. But I mean, I loved it.
I thought it was great, yeah. Well, and the beautiful thing
about the video stores too, is all those those small guys like
Hen and Lauder that did, you know, basket case and stuff like
that or trauma or even full moon, you know, like they were
able to put their movie right next to the big budget movie.
And as long as it had a dope poster, you know, and a couple
of real nice screen grabs with the potential with tits or or
gore on the back. That's it.
You know you were going to take it home and you know most of the
time it won you over because you didn't know any better of to
like how low was the budget on this?
If it was rad, it was rad and that was all there was to it.
But like a casual film goer might watch a puppet master and
go not for me, but like geeks like us or like dude, you know
what I'm. Saying the the main poster that
I would look at all day long in that video store was Mother's
Day with mom sitting in the rocking chair.
I can add leave behind her. And I'm so proud of my boys.
You know, I mean, that's probably my favorite horror
movie, just not because it has been it.
But I think I can add leave such a good job of being psycho
killers, but acting like children.
I thought that that, you know, I thought that movie had
everything. And then, of course, the
Queenie. Yeah, All right.
I I loved all that. Yeah, that's a great trauma
movie. Doesn't get a lot of like, I
mean, it got that remake with Rebecca Du Mornay.
It was a decent remake, but is real watered down compared to
what, you know, what the OG was. But yeah, I mean, trauma is such
a rite of passage for the like, punk rock, you know, film nerds,
they just want to see tits and gore and that's it.
Yeah. It just, it has such an attitude
that you don't get from regular movies, you know?
And yeah, dude, I think, I think we just became best friends.
I think I'm going to build, build bunk beds in the cabin and
you can come on over, you know what I'm saying?
And we'll have a. Give me the address.
Come on over man.
But. That's it.
Holy shit dude we have a lot of parallels.
It's crazy. Like first gig video stores, I
got to dip into wrestling for just a second.
I know, I know the the people listening or watching probably
going to want to know some some back story.
So just tying into horror, right?
Like horror and wrestling kind of walk hand in hand, especially
deathmatch horror. So yeah.
So when you decided to wrestle, was that part of your thing?
Like what if I'm, you know, if I can mix horror movies and
wrestling, if I can bring that like gore attitude and that, you
know, that villain, that horror villain attitude to my
character. There were, there was when I
started wrestling in 89, there was no so saying as death
matches yet, right? And then I mean, of course,
Abdullah, Boozer, Brody, those guys that bled all the time,
there was that, but not death matches.
And I don't are Are you a wrestling fan at all?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. OK, so you you know what tape
trading is? Yeah, yeah.
OK, so that's where I got a hold of a Mr. Danger Masa not a
versus Mr. Pogo compilation tape and fell in love.
I was like, holy shit, man. I wore, I have never done this
on any other videotape, but I wore that videotape out watching
it so much. I had to I had to buy another
one off of Feinstein, which was way shittier quality, but I
wanted it. I got it again and I am proud to
say that the two guys that I was learning to become stupid like I
am today landing in Bob wire glass and thumbtacks.
I was on first name basis of Mr. Pogo and every time I go into
Mr. Dangerous restaurant in Japan, he says all American
danger man. So mission accomplished in life.
Hell yeah, dude, that's super rad.
You know, growing up and and watching those guys and then,
you know, getting to getting to mix it up and, and, and be on a
first name basis with them, you know, and that's right.
So going back to like horror, and I guess it ties into
wrestling too. You know, like, one of the big
things that they always tell you when you're growing up is, you
know, don't meet your heroes because, you know, the illusions
going to be broken and, you know, some are going to be.
Dick. Dicks or whatever, Obviously
it's been overwhelmingly positive for you in both regards
because obviously you're making a book about like good
experiences and that's, that's, that's the take away, right?
Like all the the fun interactions.
I, I had three bad experiences out of all the horror people
that I've met, you can say, or if you talk about all the stars
that I've met, but yeah, it's in the book.
I can tell you about them if you want.
Leave that for the listeners. But I was just, yeah, just as
overwhelmingly positive. You know, it's it's I know
you're a you're a no bullshit kind of guy.
You don't like to talk about negative things.
You don't you don't bring up shit that don't need to be
brought up. And I'm not, you know, so like
the, the positive things in your life and in, in horror, like
it's just, it's, it's so cool that, you know, it's made such
an impact on you that you're writing a book about it.
I, I love it dude, I'm I'm I'm blown away by.
It. Yeah, and I've had plenty of
influences, like even your jersey, the ICP, I mean, that's
horror core, you know, I mean that that leads into horror
movies. Everything leads into a horror
movie. If you're in my world, yeah.
Yeah. Well, and, you know, I mean,
there's so many interesting characters that it, it's, it's,
it's hard not to get captivated, right?
And you can either be, you know, you're a comic book guy or
you're, you're a horror movie guy or whatever.
And, and there's just this whole world and it just goes and goes
and goes forever. And it's, there's always
something new to discover, you know?
Yeah, I don't want to get into the last half of the podcast
yet. So I want to ask you more about
conventions. When did you when did you start
going to conventions? You know it.
So getting those famous Monster magazines and Fangoria
magazines. I lived in a small town in
Flora, IL and you remember you got the magazines too, correct?
Oh yeah. And they would always show those
conventions that was going to have really cool guests.
Like weekends of horror, weekends of horror.
Yeah, yeah. And of course there was always
in LA or, you know, place was way out of my reach.
But then when I got older and I could drive my own car, nothing
stopped me. I was like, holy shit, there's
there's one in, in Cherry Hill, NJ.
I'm there. There's one in Cincinnati, OH,
I'm there. You know, I mean, I just, I, I
was such a fan of so many horror movies, so many stars in the
horror movies that it's like my Disney World, you know, I can't,
I can't drive into them. I, I would be so excited about
who I was getting ready to meet, getting the autograph 8 by 10s.
I would sit in my hotel room looking at them over and over
and over. And then on the way home, I
would be so excited about who I got to me.
And then when I would talk to people and I got to tell them,
hey, I got to meet this guy, this guy, this girl, this girl,
you know, convinces to me. I, I'm so happy.
There's such thing as a horror convention.
Yeah, they, like I said, they took over for us in like 2013.
My wife and I had always kind of talked about going and we had
never went. And then when we finally, you
know, finally made that jump and went to a convention, it was
insane. And, and everyone's so
approachable and you know, you just you, you walk away with so
many interesting interactions and stories and, and, and like I
said, like with the video store, you meet lifelong friends and
the Co host of my show who isn't here for this episode, but I met
him at a horror convention and. There you go.
You know, I mean, like you just these things change your life
and it's, it's so rad, dude. Like, yeah.
And one big thing about horror conventions, I'm a big T-shirt
thing. Like, I love T-shirts and you
can go to horror conventions and find T-shirts of movies that you
never thought there would be AT shirt of.
I had I had basket case T-shirts, socks, Avenger
T-shirts, Shockwave T-shirts, you know, Godzilla T-shirts
before he started getting popular in America.
And yeah, the conventions are awesome.
Yeah, dude. Well, that'll be in the book,
I'm sure. But my wife asked who?
Who is bar none your favorite person that you've met?
I will tell you that when I met Gunner Hanson Leatherface, it
was it was probably my gayest moment I ever had.
I was just sitting there staring at the dude like, I can't
believe I'm meeting this guy, you know, like inside me was
just so excited and and of course he's a very nice person.
So he would have conversations with each person that that
bought his stuff and, and I'd just be like, would you guys get
get the fuck out of my way, you know?
Take away from my time, sucker. That's right.
And then when I got up there, of course he talked to me a long
time and I told him the same story.
I told you how me and four friends saved up money and we
bought the video tape and and Ed Neal was sitting next to him.
Oh, nice, nice. And he heard that as well.
And so he joined in, he stopped his line and he joined in with
me and Gunnar Hansen's conversation.
And for no apparent reason whatsoever, they both said,
well, let's get a picture. And I got a picture with both of
them on each side of me. I which I was pretty impressed
with that. That's so rad.
We missed meeting Gunnar. He had slated he was going to be
at Crypticon and then he he passed away like a month before
and man, we, we took that pretty hard.
There's a weird little movie that he did and I'm sure you've
seen it because but it's called Brutal Massacre and it's like a
yeah, like that movie to me and my Co host and and to my family,
because I also make cheesy shitty independent movies on the
side. Brutal massacre hits all the
notes. You know, everything that will
go wrong, like everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And you know, people quitting, people not showing up, effects
looking like shit. And and I know it like it's done
satirically, but like it's so fucking on the nose that like I
wanted to meet him a for Texas Chainsaw, but I was like, I was
so going to have him sign my copy of brutal massacre.
Because you know, I mean, when you make a movie or, or if
you're in a production, obviously like you know, when
you're filming wrestling, it is a production.
You have to do all your promos and stuff.
It's like making a movie. But David Nottham was perfect,
perfect in that role. He did such a good job as the as
the stressed out, you know, convention guy.
I loved it. I thought that was a great
movie. Yeah, it's so fucking good,
dude. Gone back to the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. So I got booked in Texas one
time and the promoter said OK, what's it going to take to bring
in? I said hotel, plane ticket, and
for my payout you can give me $400.00 a match or you can give
me $200 a match and get me to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
house to eat. He's right.
Well shit, let's see the 200. I want to eat at that place too.
So on that day, I I got to go to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
house. We sat in the Feather Room.
I ate ribs, of course. Yes.
Yes, I got my. That's right.
I got my picture on the steps that Sally ran up and let her
face chase them. And then because I was such a
fan, the place also gave us some directions to the graveyard.
So I went to the graveyard. Yeah.
Previously, no, no, Since then I had been to the gas station.
I spent the night there at in the cabins at the gas station.
Anyone poke you with the broom, you know No, no, but.
I run my own girls promotion and me and like 5 of the girls of
Girl Fight. Each cabin had its own DVD
player. They loaned us Texas Chainsaw
Massacre 1-2 and three, which some of the girls hadn't seen,
but they stayed there because I wanted to stay there.
So we, what we sit there at with the gas station, like maybe, I
don't know, 20 steps away from us and watched Texas Chainsaw
Massacre 1-2 and three. And then the next day, Roy, the
guy who owns the gas station, he took us to the bridge for Texas
Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. Right.
Oh that's so rad, dude. And and you would you would
think that thing is miles long. No, it's like 2 tiers long.
So I don't know what they. Did it's got shooting over and
over again? Yeah.
That's it. Yeah, that's it.
So have you done a bunch of other filming locations that you
visited? Because you, I mean you travel
so much, man. Yeah, man, I did.
I went to same thing. I got booked in in Denver, Co
and I gave them one price or the price to get me to the Shining
Hotel, the Stanley. I've been to the Exorcist Steps,
I've been to the well, We went to the Amityville house, but
they have changed the windows and they they moved.
It too right like they they picked it up and moved it to a
like a different. Spot, I don't know, just when we
got there, it just wasn't right. It wasn't the house without
those windows. And I'm, well, not horror, but
have you? Are you a South Park fan?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Did you?
Did you know Casa Bonita is
real? I have heard this, yeah.
Yeah, I've, I've been to Casa Bonita.
I mean, I've been to are you, do you like the Warriors?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've.
Been to the wonder wheel. Got my picture with the wonder
wheel. I mean, I'm, I'm just a movie
fan, you know? I mean, I love horror movies,
but yeah, I'll go just about anything movie related.
Oh, and the original the original wood chipper from
Fargo. I got my picture with that as
well. That's fucking rad, dude.
Hey, Roger, let me ask him a question.
What? Yeah, man.
Yeah. You can ask Pondo a question.
Go ahead. Pondo, you think you're a funny
guy, right? Well, tell me a joke, huh?
I sure can. So there was this slow kid and
but his dad really loved him and his dad was a police officer so
he would let the slow his slow son wear a badge and walk around
the police station like he was a police officer.
Well he got special treatment. So all the other cops, there was
like 3 other cops in this precinct and they couldn't stand
the slow kid. So the dad went on vacation
without the son and the son was walking around the police
station and they get a call. They get a call from for a
motorcycle accident. Well it was hot that day.
None of them wanted to go out there.
So they asked him, they're like, hey, do you want to go out there
and and take a walkie-talkie with you?
And if you see anything, you call back and you tell us, you
know what you see? And he was all excited.
You know, it's his first thing he gets to do.
So he gets his walkie-talkie and he gets on the three wheeled
bike and he bicycles out there to wear the motorcycle wreck.
And he's out there and he looks down and he gets on the
walkie-talkie. He says, dispatch, dispatch.
And I said, yeah, go ahead. He says, I see a head in the
ditch and they go, oh, watch this, watch this, watch this is
it You see a a head where slow kids confused.
He says, I see a head in the ditch.
Says you see a head where you know they're messing with them.
He says, I said, I saw a head and the DITCH.
They said, OK, well go ahead, go, go up farther.
Tell us what you see. So he goes up a little farther
and he sees something else. He gets on his walkie-talkie.
He says, dispatch, dispatch. I said, yeah, go ahead.
They said. He says, I see an arm in the
ditch. And they said here we go, Here
we go. You see an arm where?
I see an arm in the ditch. He says, you see an arm where He
says, I see an arm in the DITCA. They said, OK, we'll go up a
little bit farther and if you see something we'll come out
there. Goes up a little farther and
there it is in the middle of the road.
He gets on there and he says dispatch, dispatcher said, yeah,
go ahead. He says, I see a penis in the
highway. Now they're not joking around.
They're like, oh, you see a what and the what?
He says I see a penis in the highway.
They said one more time, you see a penis where?
He says damn it, I said I see a penis in the HE in the hij.
He picks it up, he kicks it and he says I see a penis in the
DITCA. Oh Jesus Christ, that is
excellent for the folks who are listening watching, however
they're consuming this that don't know, not only are you a
resident ass kicking machine and a horror movie encyclopedia,
you're also a stand up comedian, which is fucking incredible.
I've only done it 7 times where I'm getting good responses
everywhere I go. And, and here in West Virginia
where I'm at right now, I'm up in the hills.
That's why there's technical difficulties every once in a
while. But they're going to let me have
my own. I'm going to let me headline my
own show. And I hope that turns into
headline in other places. But I did it like a long time
ago. But I I had a snail puppet and I
had a mask where you couldn't see my mouth.
And I was the worst Vancouver Trish she ever saw.
And my puppet's name was Sammy Snail trails.
And I did snail jokes. But now, now I've been I did it
twice, and this will be my third time this Wednesday.
I'm Madman, Pondo and I I don't really tell too many wrestling
stories, but I do have a pretty good stick going.
Hell yeah, man. I mean, doing it 7 times, you
know, you're honing it and you're getting that, you're
getting that material nailed down and you're just going to
keep killing them and ain't nothing to it but to do it, man.
2026 bouncing around kicking people's asses and and making
people laugh, dude. That's what I'm all about, man.
That's rad as fuck, dude. Life is short, chase dreams.
Be a good person, you know what I mean?
If there's something you want to do, do it.
We're going to take a look at Madman Pando's hot takes.
It's not a big sub hot takes, and I don't care if you like my
hot takes 'cause these are my motherfucking hot taste.
Hot taste. OK, Sir.
So for this segment, this is in fact a deep cut podcast and I
would not be doing the name of the podcast justice if I did not
scroll endlessly through all of the information that I could
possibly dig up on you and come up with 10A or B choices.
OK, 10 things that are AB choice and make you choose between A or
B. Now you can either rant and
ramble as to why you make this choice or just say that's my
answer, move on. I'm pretty full of shit so I'll
probably ramble. I'm with it.
So that that's excellent because you know, my goal with doing
these interviews is to let people get to know the person
that I'm talking to. Now there's a lot of surface
level interviews out there where people are like, what's the
scariest thing you've ever seen? Or what's this?
What's that? You know, and I tried it.
You, you are not your profession, you know what I'm
saying? You're, you're a human being.
You, you do things outside of camera view.
And I think that's important for people to get, you know, to
grasp a little bit of how how you live your life.
And again, keeping bullshit out of it and not making you, you
know, there's no, there's no bullshit involved.
It's just all love and all fun things that I've seen one way or
another, you profess your love for.
So some are film, some are wrestling, some are wild cards,
but you will get to choose A or B.
All right, Number one, you are in a city and you got to kill
some time before your next gig, whether that's wrestling,
whether that's comedy, whether that's going to see a movie,
whatever it may be concert. So to kill time you can choose
between zoo or Art Museum. The zoo.
I love animals. I'm I'm not so big on art
museums. I've been to art museums, but
I've been to a lot more zoos. I've been to zoos in Germany and
Japan and America. So I would say zoo.
Yeah, I see. Yeah, You, you frequent a lot of
zoos. Let me ask you Omaha, NE,
because you came with JCW in August or June, I believe.
And have you ever been to the Henry Dorley Zoo in Omaha, NE?
I have not. Bookmarked that, Look it up, it
is one of the best zoos in America and it was right down
the street like 3 minutes from the venue you guys were at.
I guess we, I wish we would have talked before I went and
wrestled with. That's exactly where we would
have went. I'll tell you this, next time if
you guys come to Omaha, we'll go eat some food and we'll go to
the goddamn zoo. Sounds good man, Sounds good.
Hell yeah #2 you got to have a nice refreshing drink.
You're you're parched. Lemon tea or fago ohana punch?
It's got to be that fago ohana punch.
Lemon tea. In Japan it would be.
It would be lemon tea in Japan, but in America Ohana punch.
Hell yeah. Are you, were you a sponsor or
something for the the lemon tea? I know there's like a shirt and
a crazy design of you. Like I love lemon tea.
I just always had one in my hand and says I was like let's make a
T-shirt of it and I'm like, you think that'll sell?
And he's like anything you with your face on they'll sell.
We did. We sold out within like 3 shows.
I love that dude. Yeah, that's so amazing.
All right. Late night Kung Fu marathon,
Jackie Chan or Sam O Hung. I would say Tony JA.
Oh, out. Of those, out of those two,
Jackie Chan, but I'm a big Tony JA fan.
I'll thank you. Yeah, I think his movies, I
don't know, man. There's no way he's not kicking
the shit out of his stunt guys. Oh man, I'll tell you, behind
the scenes my wife is running the ones and twos.
Her hands shot up like a fucking rocket.
She loves Tony John. She's a Tony John Mark for sure.
There's another guy too, the Raid and the Raid 2.
What's that guy? Oh yeah, you had to ask me, but
I'm going to draw a blank on it. But that dude's a beast.
Both of those movies are fucking incredible.
And there's another movie coming out.
It's They will kill you. It's it's the girl from.
I want you to write that down and check out the trailer later.
It's called They Will Kill You. OK.
And. And Deadpool, she was the black
girl that was joining his team. I think she was the only
survivor because she showed up in in Deadpool versus Wolverine.
But it's called they will kill you and that looks like it's
going to be a badass one. Fuck.
Yeah. Did you hear that?
They're remaking the raid redemption, but they're doing it
American style. I don't know about that.
I'm not, yeah, I'm not in. I'm not in on that.
I'll probably watch it but I'm not going to enjoy it as much as
I did the the raid. Yeah, I'm going to butcher that
dudes name. My wifes showing me Aiko.
You, Weiss. You you Weiss.
You probably got that closer and I could.
So yeah, but that's the fella from the raid that my God, when
he's training in the in the jail cell type deal.
Yeah, that's a bad motherfucker right there.
That's it. All right, next question, food.
So you got to choose between burgers or steaks, Sir?
I would say steak because since I've been losing the weight the
burger has a bun. So I was 332 lbs and today I AM
100 and 9796 somewhere around there.
That's what's up. But.
I would say steak. Hell yeah.
Yeah, I see. You know, you frequent a lot of
Japanese steak houses and things of that nature.
But yeah, I'm with you on avoiding the carbs.
You know what I mean? They weigh you down.
I am also down like 110 something pounds.
I got real heavy for a hot minute and I was like, Nah, we
ain't doing this. So yeah, me too.
Yep, switching it up, dude, that's fucking incredible.
That's a that's an awesome accomplishment.
So you're going to be light on your feet wrecking shop dude
doing my. Best doing my best.
That's all we can do, man, Fight gravity every day, right?
That's right. Fuck, yeah.
All right. Next, you got to choose between
the Kings of the Monsters, Godzilla or King Kong.
Ah, Godzilla. All day long, actually, Gigan.
Yeah. All right.
Yeah. And not M2 or M3, but
Mechagodzilla. The the old one, Yeah, dude,
this one, yeah. That's what's up, Yeah.
I've never really been a big King Kong guy either, so I'm
with you on. Godzilla.
I love King Kong, don't get me wrong, But if you're making me
choose, yeah, I I always wanted Godzilla to be King Kong in the
movie. And finally, finally, the
Americans did it, you know. Yeah, yeah, these these newer
flicks, they're not terrible, you know?
Yeah, Godzilla -1 pretty fucking rad.
Like the because we're. One of the best ever.
I was amazed at how good that was.
I watched that in Japan. I've seen it here.
But then when I was in Japan, they was playing it and I went
and watched it there too. All right.
This next question, this is an odd 1 and I'm going to maybe
need you to elaborate a little bit because in my research I
came across a very specific photo, but I'm going to make you
choose between David Blaine or Chris Angel.
David Blaine. Yeah.
Criss Angel. I don't know.
He's, he's like Hollywood famous.
But I like that David Blaine goes to like, the crappiest
parts of town and and does his magic.
Plus, I don't know if you know this or not, but when I was in
England for the video game Don't try this at home, they brought
me M Dog and Josh Prohibition to England and they gave us, they
gave us each our own day. M Dog chose Camden, Camden Park
where the Speed Flea market was. Josh Prohibition chose the
Holocaust Museum. I chose.
I wanted them to take me to the London Bridge where David Blaine
was hanging upside down, hanging underneath the bridge for 44
days without food and water. So I knew what I was going to do
when I got there. When I got there, I told the the
video game crew and I told M dog and Josh, I said I'll be right
back. And they're like, where are you
going? I'm like, trust me, I'll be
right back. So I'm looking around and
there's this burger vendor and it was called Big ASAS Burgers,
Big Ass Burgers. But it's big ass burgers, right?
Yeah. So.
So I'm like, this has to be what I'm looking for.
So I bought the biggest cheeseburger that I could find,
bought the biggest soda that I could find.
This dude's hanging under the bridge for 44 days without food
and water. I wean my way up to the fence.
I got to the to the fence and I said, Harry gave it and he's
looking right at me. And I said, and there's pictures
of it. I got pictures of it just to
prove it. But yeah, I sit there and ate
that big ass burger and drank that soda right in front of him.
He was laughing his ass off. He thought that was hilarious.
Oh that's gold dude. So are you a Big Magic fan?
Like, do you enjoy watching Magic?
Yeah, I mean, if there's a magician, I'll go.
Like I would love to see Penn and Teller.
I saw David Copperfield, and in person, I can't remember his
name, but the he he was kind of balding, but he had curly hair
and a mustache. What's that magician's name?
He was real big back when I was a kid.
But anyway, I saw that dude. Yeah, I I like magicians.
Fuck yeah, we're, we're Big Magic guys too, man.
I love sleight of hand stuff. Anything you can do right in
front of me, you know that. That stuff floors me every time.
And yeah, we watch Fool Us all the time and you know.
Yeah. We're total marks for for
magicians, but this next one, this is.
I guess this is an industry question of pain, I suppose.
So which one sucks more to deal with, barbed wire or thumbtacks?
Neat, neat. What you know, back when I
thumbtacks are easy. Thumbtacks are so simple Bob
wire. Um, it'll, it'll scratch you
sometimes it'll give you a deep scratch, but more or less it's
just scratches. But uh, back when, I don't know
if you remember, I had really long hair, I was always getting
that stuck in barbed wire ropes. So I would say the barbed wire
was the most tedious in my 36 years, but not that it was a bad
thing. It was my hair getting stuck.
Right. Yeah, it's more of a pain in the
ass rather than anything else. Yeah.
All right, well, how about recovery?
You got some time to yourself. You're you're sore.
You're aching. You're going to choose between
hot tub or a sauna. Hot tub every time.
I I love a hot tub. Me and a buddy, we just rented a
hotel at a casino just so we could use the hot tub.
It was, I was renovating it for two years and we was chomping at
the bit and when we found out it was open, we went straight to
the casino. I got in there four times.
I think he got in there three. But yeah, I love a hot tub.
I I am also a massive hot tub nerd.
You should do your magic and convince my wife to let us buy a
hot tub because I've been trying for 16.
Years hot tub. Yeah, it's been a long, long
time on me being like, should we get one?
We should get one. I, I, I think you guys can, you
guys can build your own Evil Dead cabin, but you can't have a
hot tub. What's up with that?
I don't know, I'll, I'll, I'll try and persuade her later when
they when the microphones are off, but there.
We go. All right, this next one, this
is kind of low hanging fruit. This is kind of a Gimme.
But you know, like you brought up earlier there, there are a
handful of horror heavyweights. So I got a feeling you're going
to choose one that I didn't put on the list, but Jason or
Michael Myers. Probably Michael Myers, because
growing up, man, I remember going to school after HBO played
Halloween. And I mean, everybody was just,
Oh my God, I'm so scared. I can't sleep at night, you
know, Jason. Well, I mean, Friday the 13th
didn't even have it, wasn't even Jason.
I don't know if I'm spoiling that for anybody, but that movie
is so old. Surely I'm not spoiling
anything. But he didn't show up until the
very end of the movie, right? So, but Michael Myers, he was
all the way through it. And I don't know if you ever
thought about this, but do you realize in any of the Friday the
13th movies they never say the date?
They do. Jason lives.
I think they say happy Friday the 13th.
That's part six. Yeah, that, but I think that's
about the only one. You're right.
Yeah, they don't ever like, hey, yeah, Friday the 13th.
Only by the time, you know, Alice Cooper was on the
soundtrack and it was like the MTV Jason where they got it, you
know, they're like, ah, Friday like, like a little wink and nod
at the camera type of deal. But yeah, yeah, not in any of
the other ones. Good car.
And but I mean Halloween, you know, I mean, that's the build
up getting to the 31st. So, yeah, out of those two,
Michael? Myers I have an interesting
theory about Halloween. I'm You've probably seen that
movie as many times as me. If not.
More so. Let me ask you this.
Have you ever watched that movie from the perspective of that
Annie was Michael Myers intended target?
No, I never really even looked at it like that.
Dude, it's so crazy, right? When you think about that.
And he's the one that tells him, you know, speed kills.
He he stops the car. Clearly he goes and he kills
everybody across the street. And the only reason he pursues
Lori is because she goes over there and catches him while he's
like hiding the bodies. I don't think he ever would
have. I don't think he ever would have
came across the street had she not gone over there.
And when you think about it in that perspective, it really kind
of like changes the movie a little bit, you know?
Yeah, I never even thought. It's kind of it's kind of weird.
That's just one of the things since, you know, since we watch
these movies over and over again and we cover them and we and you
know, we write all these notes and stuff.
I think the last time we covered it on the podcast that had like
clicked in my head and I was like, that's kind of
interesting. Like if Jamie Lee Curtis would
have just stayed over there with Tommy Doyle and Lindsay Wallace,
like, then the rest of everything wouldn't even matter.
Like it wouldn't even. Happen.
Never even thought about that. Yeah.
So this last question, Pondo, I got to, I got to stick my neck
out a little bit for the Juggalos here.
Plus I feel safe because you're on a screen and you can't hurt
me. So I'm, you know, I'm being
nice, but I want to know. Let's say a bar fight were to
break out between Vampiro and Violin Jay.
Whose back are you going to have in that situation?
Oh man, that's a rough 1. So you know that I am Vampiros
paid assassin now and but violent Jay is also the one
paying the bills. So yeah, I'd probably go with
the pay the bills guy. I'd have to go with Violent Jay
and apologize to Vampiro later. Buy him a cold beer and a steak.
Maybe you know. That's it.
Oh man, yeah, sorry I had to put you on the spot and ask you
that, Sir. No, no, no problem.
All right, what? What do you what do you got for
me? OK, I want to know your three
worst horror movies. Oh, OK.
I know mine, I'm waiting on yours.
Boy, that's I mean, I literally have a video store in my house.
I have so many movies and I've seen everything, but let's just
number one out of the gate just because I will never give it
another shot. I don't think skin of a rink.
That's that's my #1 Skitter Marink.
There we go, dude, that. I made I made Skitter Marink
too. Did you?
It Only it only lasts 14 seconds, but I just filmed
random things in my house with kids whispering.
And then the final shot is Pickle Rick.
You know Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage's face is a pickle
and then it says the end skater Marine 2 or I'll send it to you.
Oh my God, that's perfect. But that.
Is my number one. That is my number one.
That was a piece of shit. I'm telling you, OK, And I'm a
pretty fucking open minded dude. Like, like we were talking about
for a whole hour. You know, we grew up on watching
the the schlockiest of the schlock and finding the good in
them. I just feel like that movie was
that director just blowing himself.
Like, look at how creative. You're not creative, man.
You're filming a corner in a room.
Like boy, that was rough. And I I bought into the hype,
everyone. The trailer is scary.
And so I was sold. I was like, OK, something, well,
ethereal is. Happening.
I'm not going to say the trailer was scary, but it was retro.
You know, they use like old film, like it was 16mm.
And of course, I didn't really pay attention that they were
only filming like toilets and walls and stuff like that.
And there was kids whispering. I mean, it made it look like
there's something interesting going on and there wasn't shit
going on in that movie. No.
So that's that is my number one. I can't believe that that's both
our number ones. I'll give you my other two if
you're if you're trying to think.
Yeah, go for. It all right so my third my
third worst one is Lords of Salem.
OK, yeah, they had me and they're saying, I know there's a
room full of preachers with some ugly little monster.
And these preachers start jacking off dildos.
I'm like, what is this? Right.
So that's that's number three for me #2 is hereditary.
Oh, you didn't like hereditary? OK.
I did not, and I'll tell you why.
OK, so I liked Midsomer because I figured out that a 24 they
like to they like to give you clues up to the finish of their
movies, right? I didn't know that for
Hereditary. OK, I think, I think if you're
going to make a movie, you don't put clues.
You show people a movie. So my list is Lords of Salem 3,
Hereditary 2 and that fucking skin of marine #1.
That's not a bad list man, I can't fault you.
Although I really hereditary was a, a breath of fresh air for me
because I didn't, I, I went into that knowing nothing.
And you know, we're the kind of family like, or at least my, my
wife and I like when, when the kids go away, go to the rooms or
whatever, we'll turn the lights all the way off, turn the
surround sound all the way up. No phones, no bullshit, no
distraction. It's a new movie.
Give it it's hour and a half. And it was, I'll say it's
unnerving. And then when she started, when
she was on the ceiling and was banging her head on the the
trapdoor, my wife lost it. And it was one of those things
where when it got over, we were like, we should turn some lights
on. Yeah, like maybe some, you know,
just just felt it in the chest a little bit.
And but my Co host my Co host absolutely hates all a 24 so.
Yeah, me too. Well, I liked X.
Yeah. I didn't like, I didn't like
Maxine or Pearl. Oh.
Man, OK. But I liked XI, thought X was
great. Maxine has a very shallow feel,
so I was pretty, pretty jacked on that one for sure.
Oh, OK. Yeah, so mainly new movies make
me make my eyes roll like a slot machine.
OK. And since this is fresh, this is
a fresh wound. Strangers Chapter 2 is on my
list. That was real bad.
Oh really? It was real bad.
I, you know, I'm biased on that because I love that main big
dude with the suit coat and the bag head.
I, you know, I'm a big fan of that dude so I'll watch whatever
movie he's in. If you hated Chapter 2, did you
like the Strangers part too? I did, and I'll say this, I get
why a lot of people didn't like it.
OK, yeah, I'm telling you I like it.
OK, Hell yeah, 'cause I'm a really big geek for style over
substance. I, I want, I want neon color, I
want zooms. I, you know, I want crazy camera
work. I want, I want it to be fun.
I mean, I've seen every slasher ever.
And so if you're if you're going to give me guys chasing people
and killing them, make it visually like, you know, fun for
me, give me neon lights, give me cool, like techno beats and that
synth wave. And so like, I like strangers
too, all on its own compared to stranger, the original
strangers. But I love the original
strangers for the the way it feels.
You know what I mean? It, it feels real and it's it's
a stomach punch of a movie. And strangers too, is like, I
want to eat some popcorn and listen to, you know, new wave
music and neon lights and watch a bite in a pool over an axe,
you know? So I got you man.
Yeah, let's see. Yeah, I'm over here scratching
my head on, on a on another one, man.
I mean, if you if you love them all, then you love them all.
But I got my three, my 3:00 that I never have.
Oh. That one that my my Co host hit
me with and I couldn't do it. I tried a clown in a cornfield.
Oh, you know what? I didn't mind it.
I mean, it's one of them Netflix ones at night when you're going
through and you know, they're all pretty shitty at night, but
when you got nothing else to do. I watched it.
It wasn't too bad. I mean, it was just a little.
I get you, I get you. Yeah, it was a little softer
than I, you know, than I was anticipating.
And my my buddy didn't help because he sold it really heavy
to me. He was like, it's got that
perfect October atmosphere, all of this stuff.
I. Don't know about that.
And that's why I was like, why? Because there was cornfields.
I'm like, I live with cornfields.
They didn't feel like October to me, but you know.
I amaze people when I say I'm not a fan of the clowns from
outer space. I'm not a big fan of that.
Oh. OK, Yeah, why not?
Is it too campy for you? I guess, Sir, I guess so.
But I love Campy, don't get me wrong.
But something about that movie, I just really, I don't know why.
Why would they come from outer space looking like clowns and I
don't know. I just, you got to get, you got
to give it up for that ventriloquist scene, though,
with Officer Mooney. That's pretty rad.
I get you, but I don't know. We'll keep selling you on it,
man. I keep keep pushing it on you.
I hear you. Next time I see you, I'll just
slip a copy of the Blu-ray in your bag.
You won't even know that you just every every time we cross
paths, you'll just have another copy of Killer Klowns from Outer
Space. Be like that fucking.
Roger and I'll know that. I'll know exactly where they
came from here. Hell yeah, man, I will do it.
Don't put, don't, don't put it past me.
No problem. Well, I suppose, man, before we
wrap this up, let's let everybody listening, watching,
however they consume this podcast, know where to find you,
where to find your first book, your new book, when it's coming
out. Do you know when it's coming out
or do you are you still just kind of?
I can't believe you haven't asked the most important
question on the podcast. Which is.
Have you not seen 2001 maniacs? So I was, you know, I literally
had notes. I have, I have seen that, but I
was going to bring up you being you being in some indie horror.
I was. I was in that when I was in the
blacksmith in that one. Yeah, that's pretty.
I got my own scene, you know, it only lasts like 5 seconds, but
still. It's my own scene.
Robert England, Yeah, is in the movie.
I'm on the, I'm on the DVD cover.
Oh, I really don't have. I'm not a social media guy
because I'm not that good at it. I have Facebook right on.
You can search. You can search Kevin Kennedy
CANADY, but put Pondo after that and then you'll you'll find me.
I'll have a Frankenstein mass as my profile picture and then my
Instagram is madman Pondo with the last O being a 0 because
somebody out there already had bad man Pondo as their Instagram
name. Can you believe that you're
going? To have to fight them for it.
And then if you're interested in buying the first book or the
second book, you can get either one of them.
Well, you can get the first one now, but later on, you can get
the second one on Amazon.com or you can go to John Cosper at
visit darkpark.com. Visit dartpark.com and if you
get a hold of John Cosper, you can get an autographed copy of
the book. And then if you bring it to a
wrestling show where I have signified my my Crimson mask all
over the United States, I will take ink off my off my forehead
and give you the bloody thumbprint on the first page.
And the reason I do that is I've seen Jurassic Park.
And someday, when I pass away, you'll be able to make your own
little madman Pando. Someday.
I love it, man. Yeah.
Keep the, keep the legacy going, keep you, keep you coming back.
Man of 1000 lives. I I.
Want to tell you this man, just you know, as a, as a fan, when
you guys were in Omaha, if you go back and watch that show, my
son and I are to the left of the entrance ramp.
We're, we're right there in the entrance ramp and when you leave
the ring, you give my son a fist bump.
And this was my son's first wrestling show that he's ever
been to. And he has not stopped.
He was, he's 16. He has not stopped talking about
how rad it was to get a fist bump from you.
And, and, and it, it hooked him. He was like, we're so literally
every Thursday he is there with us watching lunacy.
And I mean, he's rooting for you and not, you know, kayfabe,
whatever. You broke his heart.
When you, you know, which I'm
sure you hear all the time, because you have to be a heel,
you know? JCW broke my heart, so why don't
why should I not break? Theirs right?
No shit. Yeah.
I can't thank you enough for doing this man it.
No big deal, man. That means.
The world and we're all rooting for you, you know what I mean?
So. But on that note, Sir, I suppose
we should probably get going, because after all, there's a lot
of movies out there and somebody's got to watch them, so
why not us, right? That's right.
Exactly. Don't you pull it out and put it
back in and see if that that's what she said.
Thank. You for listening to the Deep
Cut podcast. We sure had a blast trying to
make you all laugh. You gotta set your reminders and
get ready to geek 'cause there's a brand new episode every two
weeks. Now that you're done with the
show, leave a comment on that shit and let us know your movie
Prop pick. Find it on Spotify with tons of
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episode, so rate US and subscribe to the Deep Cut park.
Every two weeks there's a new episode, so rate US and
subscribe to the Deep Cut park. Every two weeks.
Every two weeks, every two weeks, the Deep Cut Park air.