Blaze: From the Summer Olympics to American Gladiators

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to Chilling With Ice with me, Lori Fedrick, or most of you know me as Ice from the American Gladiators. Thank you for joining me on this podcast where we're gonna dive in and go behind the scenes on the number one hit iconic show of the nineties. It's time to get up close and personal on what drove us to be gladiators, what challenges we faced, and how we overcame to reach all of our.

[00:00:28] Intro: I know in this first season, inquiring minds wanna know, was their drama fight hookups? Are we all still friends? What did we do in our personal lives? And how are we staying in such good shape years later? Well, stay right here and let's get into chilling with ice.

[00:00:47] Lori: Before we dive into our incredible episode today, I wanna let you know that this is a self-funded podcast and I would love your

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[00:01:32] Lori: Okay, let's dive in.

[00:01:36] Lori: I am very excited about my next guest we have today. she and I actually worked together for, I think it was about two or three years. As a matter of fact, let me have my little card here, because this girl is an athlete. Okay. She started in fa, track and field. When she was 12, she went to the University of Nebraska.

[00:01:56] Lori: She trained for the 92 Summer Olympics. She went into body building, placed fourth in the LA championships in 89, and then she was on the American Gladiators 1990 to 92. I would love to introduce Blaze from the American Gladiators, Shari Pendleton Mitchell.

[00:02:17] Blaze: Yay.

[00:02:19] Lori: Oh my God. Thank you so much for coming on. I absolutely love this.

[00:02:23] Lori: I haven't seen you. I was just telling everybody, do you realize I haven't seen you for like almost 25 to 28 years?

[00:02:29] Lori: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:02:31] Lori: And you still look the same,

[00:02:33] Lori: right? No, I don't.

[00:02:35] Lori: Yes you do. Are you? No, girl. You haven't aged at all. You look beautiful. Oh my God. Your skin is gorgeous.

[00:02:44] Lori: Thank you. How old are we?

[00:02:46] Lori: Do we have to say how old we are? Oh my goodness.

[00:02:50] Blaze: Don't have to do it. We ok. We

[00:02:52] Lori: don't have to. We don't have to tell anybody how old we are,

[00:02:58] Lori: but Oh my God, you look amazing. I'm so happy to have you here. So I actually was doing a little bit of research on you. Just to kind of find some things out

[00:03:08] Blaze: and

[00:03:08] Blaze: what you spoke of. I'm like, oh, did I do all of that?

[00:03:10] Lori: Yes, you did. You did. Way more than that, as a matter of fact. What I wanna ask you is about, first of all, I found out you were born in Iceland.

[00:03:21] Lori: I mean, that's.

[00:03:24] Blaze: Crazy.

[00:03:24] Blaze: I was born. Wow. Was that wi Wikipedia or something?

[00:03:28] Blaze: Yes, that's what it says.

[00:03:30] Blaze: Iceland never been to Iceland. No, no, no,

[00:03:33] Blaze: no way.

[00:03:34] Blaze: Yes way. No, no. I was born in Los Angeles, California, but I was raised in Bakersfield, California.

[00:03:41] Lori: Where did they get that?

[00:03:43] Blaze: No idea. And that's been on that page since 89.

[00:03:49] Blaze: You know, I mean, nine.

[00:03:49] Lori: that's insane.

[00:03:51] Blaze: Yeah. Like what? But I don't read it much. I, at first I thought they said I was from Jamaica as well. Okay. You know? Yeah. So I had to deal with that while my kids were in school, elementary. Cause they thought, oh, your mom's from Jamaica? From Yeah. All the nineties.

[00:04:09] Blaze: I'm like, where are they getting this information from?

[00:04:11] Blaze: Okay.

[00:04:11] Lori: So that's, no. Never spoken to me. That's, that's a misprint. You are not born in Iceland. You were born right here, Los Angeles. And born and raised in Bakersfield.

[00:04:20] Blaze: Yes. Yes. In the country? No.

[00:04:23] Lori: Okay. Well, I do know that you were training for the Summer Olympics, though.

[00:04:28] Lori: Tell me about that.

[00:04:30] Training for the summer olympics

[00:04:30] Blaze: I have, I don't even remember. I, I've been, well, I started track and field when I was, I wanna say, Elementary school around seven or eight. So there was this organization in the community, well just church organization called, west Vernon Jets and they were scouting the neighborhood for talent because it was an upstart, right.

[00:04:49] Blaze: An upstart track team. And so I just happened to be, I don't know, back then we used to run the streets and everything, right. Had friends everywhere. So they saw these kids and they go, oh, would you be interested in running track? So I've been running track ever since I was, I'd say nine years old. So elementary, then middle school, and then onto high school.

[00:05:06] Blaze: So I was running, competitively in high school, you know, like the Arcadia meets. So I dunno if you know anything about track and field, but it's kind of like big here in California. So back in the, when I ran city and state meets and, you know, Arcadian meets, so I did all that and then received a scholarship to the University of Nebraska where I, you know, I ran track and field and I was a, triple jumper and a hurdler.

[00:05:26] Blaze: so I had been training and all my coaches growing up were all Olympic coaches, coaches. Shoot, he passed away. Fred Jones, Ellie Mercury Rez, Bobby kk, which was Jack Joy's, coach. I don't know if you know these people,

[00:05:39] Lori: but Yeah, I know, I know who he is. Yeah,

[00:05:42] Blaze: so all night coaches were really professional growing up, so I was always circled around great coaches.

[00:05:49] Blaze: And so when you say trying out or training for the Olympics, that's all I did. That was my goal in life. Right. And which, like I said, scholarships in Nebraska. Then in 84, that happened in 84. the trials, you know, I was That was your goal to try out right? Right. I ended up, I ended up, straining my hamstring.

[00:06:09] Blaze: Right. Which put me into rehab. Right. But before that, Go back, back up to the University of of Nebraska, they had the number one strength complex in the nation at that time under Boyd Epley. And I was like his protege, right? I designed better listen to me, for the football team, right? I used to be only female in the football team lifting weights cause I was crazy about weights, right?

[00:06:33] Blaze: Had nothing to do with the look, it was just the feel at that time being strong, being competitive, right? So yeah, I was right there. And with boy, definitely you have to understand, lifting weights. And so I almost got my scholarship revoked because I was trying to, not bodybuilding at the time cause I wasn't thinking bodybuilding, just lifting heavy weights, trying to get the power and strength run.

[00:06:53] Blaze: And so, I, okay, so basically that's how. The Olympic dream was not shattered because it was like a blessing in disguise by me, stranding my hamstring. I ended up, trying out for the American Gladiators, but I was doing fitness modeling at Gold's Gym and this and that. Right. And, you know, they had, everybody was there.

[00:07:10] Blaze: You know, the Arnolds,LA Lado passed away back then. It was, Jeff Goldblum of, what's that? What's the movie he called? Dyna. What's the dinosaur movie? Jeff Goldblum The Tall Guy. Oh,

[00:07:20] Lori: you're talking Jurassic Park.

[00:07:21] Blaze: Jurassic Park, yeah. So all these people, you know, frequently and I say Arnold. Yeah.

[00:07:26] Blaze: Frequent gold. You know, so at that time, so I was just milling around, you know, lifting weights, you know, and you have good talent agents coming in. I'm not thinking of any of this. I'm just in there lifting weights. Yeah. You know, that's what I love to do. Joy. And so you get a call saying, oh, this producer wants to meet with you.

[00:07:42] Blaze: You know, are you interested? Well, actually I had an agent, Tony Duffy, who was a official photographer for the Olympics. Right. And so, Word of mouth. You know, I went in to, you know, do the, I auditioned and interview to talk with, I can't recall who he was. Right. But yeah. Yeah, I see the person, but I can't, you know.

[00:08:00] Blaze: Right. Think of, and, you know, for the audition and, then on the set at Universal Studio to try it out, blah, blah, blah. So my Olympic dream that I had trained for from eight to 20, well, how was I when I got the Gladiator 20, I'm just gonna say eight to 20 something still, you know, the gladiators came around.

[00:08:19] Blaze: Right. That's so that dream, it is like a blessing in the sky. Like one door closed me other door open, so everybody go, oh, you're

[00:08:26] Lori: play, whatever. When you were bodybuilding, when you were bodybuilding, did you ever, I mean, when you were competing, first of all, I know the LA championships. Were hard. Oh yeah. I actually never did the LA championships.

[00:08:38] Lori: I never competed in it, but I remember I was, I did a couple small city body building shows. did I do la I might have done LA I know Is LA was Veterans

[00:08:50] Blaze: Auditorium. I don't know what that was, but I remember competing against Zap myself

[00:08:54] Blaze: and I forget who

[00:08:55] Lori: she competed against. Zap.

[00:08:56] Blaze: Oh God, yes. She was all showing up.

[00:08:58] Blaze: Right.

[00:09:00] Lori: That's awesome.

[00:09:01] Lori: So what weight class, what weight class did you compete in?

[00:09:05] Blaze: Gimme the white glasses. Okay. Was it heavy? What, what did they, well,

[00:09:07] Lori: heavy there was like the lightweight middle weight and I think middle weight, if I remember right, went up to something like, oh, I wanna say 1 29, 1 30. And then from one 30 and above was considered heavyweight.

[00:09:21] Blaze: I was always

[00:09:22] Blaze: consistent at 1 45.

[00:09:23] Lori: Okay. So you were, you were in the heavyweight category. Yeah. Yeah. So you were competing against Ray then, cuz she was heavyweight too.

[00:09:30] Blaze: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Re Veterans Auditorium. I think that's where the LA was, if I'm not

[00:09:37] Lori: mistaken. Yeah, the LA competition was hard.

[00:09:40] Blaze: Yeah. Oh yeah.

[00:09:41] Blaze: Yeah. And then I ended up, winning actually at the MIS Natural International. Right. I forget what, yeah, that was a big one. shoot.

[00:09:50] Lori: Did you ever wanna go like nationals and then go pro

[00:09:53] Blaze: I did not. I did not. That's when Tanya came onto the scene. So I was all, I was there, you know, and as they call it, so Tanya Knight, you just go, right, right.

[00:10:02] Lori: Came on the scene right at around that, around that time. So was Tanya Zap myself? But she was doing other things. yeah, I never competed with you guys.

[00:10:12] Blaze: I mean, everybody Oh, you didn't, did you? Where were you? No,

[00:10:15] Lori: but I was, I, I must have been, I must have been a little bit behind you guys. Yes, you were. You were.

[00:10:22] Lori: You know, as far as competing wise, you guys were already like above, like you were ahead of me like a year. Probably a year, year and a half ahead of me before I came onto the body building scene

[00:10:34] Blaze: because at that time we were doing a lot of, muscle and fitness, you know, the fitness thing. That was our cra you know, muscle and Fitness magazine.

[00:10:41] Blaze: I got that. You know, little spread in there. Yeah,

[00:10:44] Lori: it was great. It was great, girl. I went back and I saw some photos of you and somebody made it at an actual YouTube video tribute to your body building days and your body was amazing when you were competing.

[00:11:00] Blaze: All of this stuff. I haven't seen any of this cause I don't do, what do you call it, social media.

[00:11:04] Lori: I know you don't. You're the only glad you that does. No, I was like, I can't find her anywhere.

[00:11:10] Blaze: Nope, nope. No, no, no. So, because, you know, I've been teaching a lot, so I've been doing,

[00:11:14] Lori: we're gonna get into that in a minute. Yeah, we're gonna get into that. But what I, what I do wanna know is how many kids you got right now?

[00:11:22] Lori: I have

[00:11:23] Blaze: two. I have a son who's my youngest, 22. And a daughter who's 20 Yame, I wanna say 25.

[00:11:32] Lori: Are they both super athletic or is it just your

[00:11:34] Blaze: son? Well, both of them were initially my daughter, she was, became a black belt at, she was a set, the youngest black belt, Everett, I wanna say seven. Wow. And she, junior, junior, Olympic, Orlando, Florida.

[00:11:46] Blaze: Back then he had black belt, taek, kwon, and a screen. Oh, she was good. My husband, you know her, it was great around houses and this and that. So she became the black belt. She started running track, didn't like track at all, but I forced her. So she participated in track all the way up until high school.

[00:12:02] Blaze: My son on the other hand, also an athlete, was number one, I wanna say in the nation cuz he won actually the Junior Olympics at the age of nine and 10. He was the fastest kid in the 100 and the 200 meters. Back in Sac were California, so he was known for his speed. Right. And so, but he parlayed that. He also played football and he was all at, I started him at six and yeah.

[00:12:23] Blaze: And so, but he was the quarterback, even though he had the speed to be a running back, no one wanted to be the quarterback back then. So they threw him in the quarterback position. So that's why he's was able to do everything right. So he's at University of, San Diego right now. The Toros or whatever.

[00:12:40] Blaze: Yeah. So my daughter graduated.

[00:12:42] Lori: Go ahead. So when you were, when you were raising your kids, because you and your husband are very athletic when you were raising your kids, it's funny, I heard you say I forced her to do a track and field, but,

[00:12:54] Lori: Well, I was just gonna say it, it's interesting because I see so many kids nowadays that are very athletically gifted, but their parents don't give them any direction and they Exactly.

[00:13:06] Lori: They don't push 'em. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I wish my parents had pushed me into like something because I was so athletically gifted, but I had no direction.

[00:13:17] Blaze: Right, right. Yeah.

[00:13:19] Lori: So you started them young.

[00:13:21] Blaze: Young and customed them in that one direction. So they did well, Yeah. So my son is still, you know, in the fold of things, prepping, hoping, hopefully going to the next level and, you know, the draft and this and that.

[00:13:32] Blaze: But like I said, he had his little run with Netflix, cuz they did document on him when he was in high school. Cause we won the state. He went to St. John Bosco. Right. And he won the state meeting, this and that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so he ends up going to, university of Iowa, Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

[00:13:48] Blaze: Yeah. So we bought property up there in Ankeny. Right. To be close to him. Yeah. But we still foundation was here in Los Angeles. But, and then my daughter, even though, like I said, she graduated at 21 with her masters from USC in English, but she studies abroad. That's what, yeah. Oh man. Yeah. That's studies abroad studying writing.

[00:14:08] Blaze: There's Japan, China. She's been everywhere at TW when she was traveling young.

[00:14:12] Lori: So if your son had, is going through the drafter and everything. So if he had his perfect scenario, where would he wanna be drafted to? Where would he wanna go? I think he

[00:14:21] Blaze: said, why do I wanna, oh, his first pick was, San Francisco 49ers, but I believe he wants to do, second pick would be the, what do you call it, Texas. What are,cowboys? I'm sorry.

[00:14:33] Lori: Oh, the Cowboys. Dallas Cowboys. so when you went to tryout for the gladiators, we're gonna switch gears a little bit here. When you went to tryout for the American Gladiators, did you actually have to go through like the tryouts and do pull-ups and and run and how were your tryouts?

[00:14:52] Trying out for Gladiators

[00:14:52] Blaze: So this is, so, because you under, you have to understand, they had, just released the pilot. So I wasn't on the pilot, I was on when it actually came to, what do you call

[00:15:02] Lori: it? the first season right afterwards. First, yeah.

[00:15:05] Blaze: Yeah. When Kani and, nitro and Lace and Gemini, those were the pilots. Right. And so when it came to the season, the first season, it was myself, Gemini Lace, Nicho, and it was a guy named a character named Titan.

[00:15:21] Blaze: Cause I remember the pictures probably in one of my showrooms and I said, lace. Yeah, yeah. Show. How you said,

[00:15:31] Lori: did I try out actually, well, how were your tryouts? Did they make you, like do physical tryouts like Yeah.

[00:15:36] Blaze: To see? Oh, okay. so initially I had the meeting, at Samuel Goldman's headquarters off of, was it Santa Monica and Beverly Hills or something like that.

[00:15:45] Blaze: Right. They asked me if I was, be interested because they were actually looking for somebody that was athletic. So they knew I ran track and field and I was body building at the same time. So that combination came together. So then they saw me in the gym, blah, blah, blah, and I had a, a trial. So they go, okay, yeah.

[00:16:04] Blaze: So we want you to come to Universal Studios. I know this is where they were trying out the contenders. Right? Because I had already became a gladiator. I was a gladiator on the spot. Okay, we want you, but we want you to, like you said, the pushups and this and that. I didn't do that. What they had me doing was wrestling.

[00:16:19] Blaze: I know I wrestled right. I know I did the Jot a against Wendy, what was that? Wendy Williams was a former Olympian javelin thrower. So I knew who I was going up against. I'm like, this is serious. Cuz they have high quality contenders and I'm, you know, battling. Right. So we get up there, we battle. Right.

[00:16:38] Blaze: She got some good hits. I think I got some good hits as well, but I knew she was tough then and I didn't wanna see her again. You understand? Yeah. Cause I was, that was hard. And so I did that one and then they had me do, like I said, wrestling, but you don't know, I had some girl who's like one 60, I'm one 40 at that time, 1 42, whatever.

[00:16:58] Blaze: And the girl looked like sunny, but it wasn't sunny. It was another girl. And so me and my, you know, aggressive nature and athleticism. Just instincts, you know, I took the gun and threw her over Right. And out. They were sold on me. But you didn't know that. I, I don't wanna say tore my rotator cuff. Oh. Even before the show started.

[00:17:19] Blaze: Wow. Well that's why I was never able to, to do the rings, but I really wanted to do the rings so you guys didn't know I was working on handicap with one arm the entire time.

[00:17:29] Lori: Wait, so

[00:17:29] Lori: never did the rings.

[00:17:30] Blaze: I never did the rings I wanted to so

[00:17:33] Lori: badly. I never knew you didn't do the rings. Never

[00:17:36] Blaze: Nice to see you guys.

[00:17:37] Blaze: Yeah.

[00:17:37] Lori: Yep. Yep. That's in. And because it was your shoulder, you totally Yep.

[00:17:42] Blaze: The shoulder.

[00:17:44] Lori: Yeah. I actually got done interviewing, and I don't wanna give it away, but I'm gonna say it anyway. laser. He has had 12 surgeries on his shoulder. Yeah.

[00:17:58] Blaze: Wow. I can believe that. See? Wow. Because the, you know, the wall, all that, it took its toll, right?

[00:18:07] Blaze: Yeah, it did. And now that you look back on it, yeah. 12.

[00:18:11] Lori: Okay. So what other events didn't you do? Cause I know there was events that I didn't do and it wasn't because I had a handicap or an injuries just cause I didn't wanna do 'em.

[00:18:23] Blaze: So I tell you what I, I love, we love Breakthrough and Conquer, right? Love, breakthrough and Conquer.

[00:18:29] Blaze: Okay, that one. And then the, the Powerball we loved, right? Yeah. We loved,let's see. You remember, Lord, you remember, human cannonball, right? Oh

[00:18:38] Lori: my God. Girl. That was, I, I talk about the human cannonball all the time because I hated it so bad. Did you ever, did you ever have any concern? Cause I remember I, I watched some videos like, you know, of, of conquering and stuff. Were you ever concerned, or did they actually grab your braids? Because there was a few times that I saw you, you were utterly so pissed off because either they grabbed your braids, you like this.

[00:19:08] Lori: Yeah,

[00:19:08] Blaze: probably. Probably. I remember that one clip. Who was the girl, remember? I don't remember. Wait, wait. You were at the breakthrough party? Yes. Yeah. Yes

[00:19:18] Lori: I do. And we both had a confrontation with her

[00:19:20] Blaze: Exactly, because when I was wrestling, yes. She probably tried to pull my braids when we're in the, the wrestling.

[00:19:25] Blaze: Yeah. They bring me down. Yeah, I do remember that.

[00:19:27] Lori: Yeah. So did anybody else ever try to grab 'em and pull 'em? Did you ever have any concern? No.

[00:19:34] Blaze: No, never. I haven't never thought about that. That's funny. Cause you mentioned that, but only in wrestling cuz we were so close. Right. Right. Fighting basically. I know.

[00:19:42] Blaze: And but you know, what did you like, what was the thing you used to shoot? Right? You liked

[00:19:48] Lori: that one? You know what, I liked it. And, and, and here's the thing, it's interesting because everybody brings it up. Everybody's like, oh, my favorite event is, is off. You know? Why is because they think it would be so much fun to take a tennis ball and shoot it at people, obviously.

[00:20:02] Lori: Right. You know, 120 miles an hour. But exactly the reason why we didn't care for, well I liked it, but it was a pain in the ass because the gun never worked. Exactly. Remember how it would stick

[00:20:12] Blaze: Yeah. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. And you'd be think, oh, she's a rotten shot or whatever. Right. You aim well, but it was, it would stick a

[00:20:20] Lori: lot.

[00:20:20] Lori: It'd stick a lot. And that was the whole problem with it. But it's, it's interesting. I mean, it's like human. Campbell was my worst. Hated it. Couldn't stand that. I wouldn't do Sky Track, honestly. Do you remember that one? Were you on the show in Sky Track and they had you upside down?

[00:20:37] Blaze: No, I, the bungee things was the last, event.

[00:20:42] Blaze: I

[00:20:42] Lori: love the bungee thing. I don't know why I did. And

[00:20:45] Blaze: Atlas, you remember Atlas? That was stupid too. The right lobster. What do you call the hamsters? Let's say

[00:20:50] Lori: lobsters, hamsters. I was concerned about an earthquake. What? In my head I was like, what if there's an earthquake? And I actually asked the grips, the guys who were putting the, you know, the cages on and drilling us in.

[00:21:02] Lori: That was kind like, oh my God. But I asked him, I go, what would happen if there was an earthquake? How do we get out of these? He goes, you're safer in one of these. If an earthquake it because, you know, they were steel and you know, they were welded together and I was just like, really?

[00:21:17] Blaze: Yeah. Yeah. This didn't last long enough, did it?

[00:21:21] Blaze: I mean, we're rolling, you know, cause the time constraint and in the filming, the actual taping. Yeah, exactly.

[00:21:27] Lori: So tell me how you met your husband. Ok.

[00:21:29] Meeting her Husband

[00:21:29] Blaze: So the first that season, whoever is in charge of talent went down to Camp Pendleton.

[00:21:36] Blaze: Right. To, recruit, a marine to come down to train the gladiators for hand to hand combat. You know, the whole should be, were we

[00:21:42] Lori: that bad and we needed that.

[00:21:44] Blaze: yeah. Cause you had to be proficient in the joust Yeah. You know, to make it work. Right, right. but how you, how were you on heights? Were you afraid of the, I, we were host.

[00:21:54] Blaze: 17th, it, was it 20

[00:21:55] Lori: feet above? Yeah, it was like about 20 feet. It wasn't that bad.

[00:21:59] Blaze: Yeah, right, right. But the circumference of the circle

[00:22:01] Lori: was very small. Yeah.

[00:22:03] Blaze: Girlfriend liked with the Puget stick in your hand and trying to fight. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Very about falling. But no. So, they sent for him the marines to come down.

[00:22:14] Blaze: Yes. To improve our technique. Right. and he was amazing on the, what's it called, the elimina, was it elimination? Right.

[00:22:22] Lori: The eliminator.

[00:22:23] Blaze: Eliminator. So the, cargo net and he went across it with such agility. I was stunned. I I've never seen that before.

[00:22:31] Blaze: Cuz he was huge. You understand? And the rope, and he just went so fast across him and up the cargo nets, you know, he was doing an example for us right. And showing us how it's seems to be done right. So, but I'm like, oh man, this guy is good. So I think that's what the spark, you know, I'm like, okay, the athleticism.

[00:22:49] Blaze: But we couldn't stand each other the first year. You have to understand, because he was for the contenders, they hired actually, they hired him to. Train the contenders. Not us, not the gladiators. We were good, you understand? Right. We were natural athletes and you know, but the contenders, that's what it was.

[00:23:04] Blaze: So he, the second season he came to, train the glad, the, actual gladiators. But that first season he was there just prepping the contenders. And then he told the contenders our secrets, our weaknesses. You understand? So they could beat us, right? Yeah, yeah. Cause he

[00:23:17] Lori: didn't like us. You were like, this is not fair.

[00:23:20] Blaze: It's not fair. But, yeah, he could not stand the gladiators. He thought we were, I don't know, full of ourselves. You know? Really? You, yeah.

[00:23:29] Lori: So then how you, how'd you wind up on a date with him?

[00:23:32] Blaze: listen, so, so the second season that he came down, I wanted to become more proficient in this douse, right?

[00:23:40] Blaze: Mm-hmm. So, I called down there to base and asked for him. I go, it wouldn't be okay if I came down so you can gimme some lessons. Right. He thought I was asking him on a date. Yeah. What? I just wanted to come down and so I brought my brother down with me. Right. And he go, what'd you bring your brother for?

[00:23:57] Blaze: For protection. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then he thought I was coming down to see him, but I was coming down cause I wanted to learn. So we went out on the beach. So what is it? It's it called Santare,

[00:24:06] Lori: I forget what it's called. Santare. That's right. Santare Beach.

[00:24:09] Blaze: Yeah. And where they do their drills and things like that.

[00:24:13] Lori: The Marines do their, drills, you know, whatever. And so we would train there. Yeah. And that's how, and so we just started dating there, hanging out as friends. Right. And,28 years later, or 30,

[00:24:25] Blaze: whatcha you

[00:24:25] Lori: talking about? 28 years later.

[00:24:28] Blaze: 32. Wow. What

[00:24:30] Lori: years is Lori? Oh my gosh, 2023.

[00:24:35] Blaze: Wow. Yeah. 23 1, 22, 23

[00:24:40] Lori: years.

[00:24:40] Lori: Yeah. Well, he was also on the Knight and Warriors, wasn't he?

[00:24:43] Blaze: The Warriors, which was a spinoff show of the gladiators. See, so he just hooked on my, listen to this. They, they discovered him at Magic Mountain. We had one on a date, you know, whatever. We're at Magic Mountain and a producer and someone else, you know, executive producer, whatever.

[00:24:59] Blaze: They were in line behind us and they were so enthralled with his physique cuz you know, he was naturally, gifted, right? I mean, just built his big boy natural. Yeah. Yeah. Just natural. Yeah. And so just crazy arms. And his color is so totally different from anybody you've ever seen. It's not a real tan.

[00:25:15] Blaze: He's like, golden orange is ridiculous. I, cause he admit all those tourists to say Africa, you know, wherever. And he, he was in Somalia, he was telling me how hot it was there, like 116. It was hot. Hot. Wow. Because he was in the sun. So you know, his complexion, whatever cuz he, I'm telling you, even when you took, what was it called?

[00:25:37] Blaze: Dim or whatever to try. Yeah. I remember that, that he was a totally different color and I know what color my husband was. Wow. That's how funny it was. Yeah. So the producer, they were so enthralled with him. They asked him if he would be interested in doing a show. Like I didn't even, I don't even think he said, I think they said like the gladiators not knowing I was blazed at the time.

[00:25:56] Blaze: Right. We're in line getting ready to get on. I forget what ride it

[00:25:59] Lori: was. I can't believe they just approached him out of the blue. Yeah. We were

[00:26:03] Blaze: in line, they were behind us. They were just having a great, they were just on an outing as well. Right. Wow. In the summer. And they happened to be in front of him, and that's how he got that show.

[00:26:12] Blaze: Yeah.

[00:26:13] Lori: That's a great, that's an actually great story. I mean, that's like the true discovered in la You're at a coffee shop, you're in line at a, you know, magic

[00:26:22] Blaze: mountain. Exactly. Exactly. And yeah. And so from there on, we got a lot of little. Starring roles and films right now. He just did a, a u s a A commercial.

[00:26:32] Blaze: I don't know if you've seen him. You probably didn't know it was him, right? Probably not. Super Bowl. Yeah. So, yeah, he's still in it, even though he just retired. He was in Marines for 30

[00:26:41] Lori: years. Wow, that's awesome.

[00:26:43] Blaze: Retired, two last year, year now. So, yeah. So around here, getting on my nerves. No,

[00:26:49] Lori: I mean, come on.

[00:26:51] Lori: After 32 years, something like, that's gotta happen.

[00:26:53] Lori: So, he's, and this and that. Yep. now when you were doing gladiators, did you, did you feel like the, the women, I'm gonna say women right now, let's leave the men out of it for a minute. Did you feel like the women were super competitive with one another?

[00:27:08] Blaze: The Women Gladiators and the Women Contenders

[00:27:11] Lori: Gladiators?

[00:27:13] Blaze: Only one. You don't

[00:27:16] Lori: And who is that one?

[00:27:19] Blaze: Missy. Missy. I call her Zap. Zap Yeah. That's why I think because I, yeah, she was

[00:27:27] Lori: the only one right Now tell me, tell me why you think Zap was so competitive. Was it competitive, athletic wise, or competitive?

[00:27:33] Lori: Just in general?

[00:27:35] Blaze: I think just the vibe. The vibe was in general. Yeah, in general. Cause I, I used to see her, like I said, the body building show. So she was always, you know, trying to be intimidating doing pushups, you know, you know how you guys are to psych someone out, that type of stuff.

[00:27:52] Lori: Don't put me in that category.

[00:27:54] Lori: I love that. You know how you guys are,

[00:27:56] Blaze: I'm sorry. You know how you're, you know, it's interesting. So, so if that's considered competitive that way.

[00:28:04] Lori: Yeah. Yeah. I, I hear what you're saying because you know, when I went to go try out for the American Gladiators, I, okay, first of all, did you see the American gladiators before you tried out?

[00:28:14] Lori: I did not,

[00:28:15] Blaze: didn't know what it was, my family. Okay. You had no idea. Had no idea. Okay. My family was, they was, they were glued to him. I had, my brother, when I actually told him, I go, you guys, guess what they want me to do? This show called the American Gladiators. And they were like, what? What? Because they had one, the set was just so simplistic.

[00:28:33] Blaze: Remember the, just the trees. Did you see the

[00:28:36] Lori: cardboard cutouts?

[00:28:38] Blaze: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But they loved it. Dance. I'm like, ok, ok. I guess this is something. Yeah. So I, I had never seen it and didn't know

[00:28:44] Lori: anything about it. Now see, I watched it once and I was like, oh my God, this is like stupid show. But it was kind of cool.

[00:28:50] Lori: It was like, okay, I can do this. But I watched it because Ray was on it and I knew who she was. And obviously we watched people who was on television. But when I went down to Gold's Gym in Venice and I approached her because we weren't real friends, we didn't really know each other, I just knew of her.

[00:29:06] Lori: And I actually went up, introduced myself to her and said, Hey, I've seen you on the American Gladiators. How can I get in touch with someone so I could try out for the show? She did not wanna give me any, any information. Information.

[00:29:22] Blaze: I can see that. What? None. Oh, Jim. Cause that's where, that was our hangout, everybody.

[00:29:29] Lori: Well, well I didn't get, I didn't train there because I was from the valley. I was from Pasadena, so I never got to train down at, I only went to Venice like maybe once every three, four months to be, to look around and see the people. Yeah. And you know, things like that. And that's where I saw her.

[00:29:43] Lori: She was like, oh, just watch the end of the show. It'll be there.

[00:29:47] Lori: Shut up.

[00:29:48] Lori: It was never there.

[00:29:50] Lori: I'm serious. She didn't give you any information?

[00:29:52] Lori: None. Absolutely none. Not a phone number. No. No, nothing. She, and, and you're right. So that's, that's that little Aries competitive nature in her,

[00:30:01] Blaze: her.

[00:30:02] Blaze: Yep. That's her. Oh my goodness.

[00:30:04] Lori: Okay. So one of the things we got to do is we got to travel around to 106 cities within what, three, four months? Exactly, exactly. What were your thoughts of the tour?

[00:30:18] Blaze: Girl? It went by so fast though, right?

[00:30:22] Lori: but when we were in it, it felt like it was dragging.

[00:30:24] Blaze: Dragging, yeah.

[00:30:26] Blaze: And I thought I would like the hotel stage, you know, and in and out of a tour bus, right? The, did we eat Well? I'm trying to think. that was my biggest

[00:30:36] Lori: Well, sweet. Remember, they would cook dinner for us and then we'd, we went to the stadium before we did the show. They'd have dinner ready for us and.

[00:30:43] Lori: And that's where they had like the chicken and rice and the vegetables. And then there was a couple venues that remember I, we went to one venue and they had like hot dogs and hamburgers for us. And everybody was like, excuse me, but what's this?

[00:30:57] Blaze: What's sitting

[00:30:59] Lori: with that? I don't even remember. But I remember it happening.

[00:31:04] Lori: And the only thing they

[00:31:05] Blaze: didn't have Lori, was because we like to lift weights. Yeah. You had weights on the road. They, it was harping them to find, what gyms and things like that. It

[00:31:14] Lori: was so hard to find a gym in the cities that we were at. That's the only

[00:31:17] Blaze: thing I didn't like. You understand, you build yourself up to, you know so much and then you can't maintain it because you didn't know where the gym was, you know, whatever.

[00:31:27] Blaze: Right, right. Exactly. Gym, I remember, some guy had us come to his, garage or something. Forget what state that was. It was Jim and I, myself, and I wanna say laser, right. Cause we were so desperate to find some weights.

[00:31:39] Lori: Sitting, somebody invited you into their home and said, here, you can come train in my garage.

[00:31:44] Blaze: That's awesome. Yeah.

[00:31:47] Lori: That is so cool. It, it's, it's, it's hard because remember like we'd get done with the show and we'd have to crawl back up on that bus and travel to the next city. And I mean, I like that

[00:31:59] Blaze: part. I don't remember, but I like it. Right. I remember the, yeah. I like that part. Just traveling on the bus.

[00:32:05] Lori: Right. Remember like in the front of the bus where like, you know, I remember it was like Nitro and Gemini and, you know, whoever else, and they were like all like hooping and hollering. They would either be singing and partying and in, in the back of the bus they had the big screen tv, whoever wanted to like hang out and just watch TV and chill.

[00:32:21] Blaze: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was nervous that, did you get a picture of the bus? Did you ever, did we, how come we didn't video

[00:32:27] Lori: any of this? I did video it. The bus. I did, I videoed. Okay. But here's what was kind of sad is, oh, can you imagine if we had our smartphones back then? I know we could have been photographed.

[00:32:40] Lori: I mean, we could have videotaped and photographed, but I had one of those handheld camcorders. Mm-hmm. And so the Okay. It wasn't the best video. Yes.

[00:32:50] Blaze: So my husband, that's what he used to do when he was at, universal Studios. He would film the back lot. And so they had him film the, you guys, us the Gladiators, doing Practice.

[00:33:00] Blaze: So we have that footage of training we have of you too. You don't, you, you'll, you're gonna be shocked

[00:33:05] Lori: when you see it. That would be fun. So, I mean, the tour wasn't, so, you didn't, the tour was hard for me in certain incidences because of the fact, like you said, training, the food wasn't consistent. I did, I gained some weight on that tour because we weren't able to, you know, to train on a regular basis all the time.

[00:33:25] Lori: Did you find it like difficult or hard? I mean, or was it just the training part? I mean, I remember there were some fights here and there

[00:33:34] Blaze: was there some fights. Listen, you're like, see, I think at, on the trip was I

[00:33:40] Lori: no, I I don't think you were. It's funny because, but are engaged or something.

[00:33:44] Lori: Right? You were kinda quiet into yourself though.

[00:33:47] Blaze: Yeah. Only because I had was supposed to be in love. I, I mean, I was in love.

[00:33:52] Lori: Oh, you were supposed to be. I like that. I was supposed

[00:33:54] Blaze: to be in love, I love back then. Right. So, you know, I didn't want, I was just dating one person, just him. So that's why I probably wasn't involved in everything.

[00:34:02] Blaze: Cause I'm like, oh, I have somebody, you know, I love somebody and whatever. And you guys were having fun. Oh, listening to my, this is what I would do. I would be in the, what do you call it? The bunk? Yes. listening to, the top. The artist at the time was, I think Mariah Carey's songs. Her album was hot.

[00:34:19] Blaze: It just came out cuz Dan said something about he knew her and she had just, did I wanna say Arsenio Hall, I'm not even sure. Right. Go. Cause she was new and up and coming and, So I used to listen to her sound OnTrack and I think Whitney Houston. So that was good. I was listening. Music. You're

[00:34:34] Lori: happy, you're in your little happy I, those little, I mean those little, I don't even wanna call 'em beds.

[00:34:40] Lori: What were they like three feet? Like wide Are are little beds as little bunks? Yeah. If that And then it was like the height of it. That's the only thing is I remember cause I get a little claustrophobic in a little way and I had to like psych myself up not to get claustrophobic when I crawled in to go to sleep.

[00:34:57] Lori: And I saw like, I had this much room, like above my head and I was like, okay,

[00:35:02] Blaze: just relax. I know. Don't remember. Because they would drive us to the hotels, right. And we'd get off and we, cause I was, I was saying to myself, did we actually sleep? Did we shower or what? So yeah.

[00:35:14] Ther Most Memorable Moment on Tour

[00:35:14] Lori: Do you have a most memorable moment on the tour?

[00:35:18] Lori: like, why are we played or something? I do. Cause

[00:35:21] Blaze: it, it is memorable to me because it was at the University of ra. My, it was in Nebraska. Where I went to school. Right. University of Nebraska, I think it was Omaha. That Omaha stadium. Right. Wherever we performed. And I had the best jot ever. So it, it paid off by me going back to San Diego or my, you know, husband was a Marine trained, you know me out to do the, what is it?

[00:35:42] Blaze: The puel sticks. So it's one, and the, the one song that came out because I was Victoria, listen, listen. So I beat the girl the crap. Right. I just beat her down and the crowd scream me. Right. Because I, in front of my hometown, not my hometown, but you know Nebraska Of course. Yeah. Yes. I'm showing off and everything.

[00:36:00] Blaze: And the, the one song one moment in time was just etched in my brain and it meant something. That's what I was saying. Whitney Houston. So that song, are you familiar with it? You know what

[00:36:08] Lori: I'm talking about? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yeah.

[00:36:11] Blaze: So that, and it was like, it was surreal. It was surreal.

[00:36:14] Blaze: Man, I just, it, it was. So that's, you know

[00:36:17] Lori: what's cool is you got to capture that moment and you were in the moment when it happened and you can remember it so vividly in

[00:36:23] Blaze: zone. Yeah. Yeah. But I wish somebody had, videoed it or something, you know? Cause I'm searching. Normally my husband would have videoed it, but I don't know.

[00:36:32] Lori: Who knows? Maybe somebody will listen to the podcast. Somebody will remember. I hope so. And they can contact me and I can get it to you. Thank you. So the question is, is did anybody videotape Blaze at the Omaha re arena in Nebraska? Why she was doing her joed, if you contact us, the contender was

[00:36:54] Blaze: Lori, whoever the contender was, right?

[00:36:56] Blaze: Yeah. I don't remember. Yeah, so that was the

[00:36:59] Lori: one thing I, yeah, see mine was Madison Square Gardens. just because it was Madison Square Gardens,

[00:37:05] Blaze: right? And you see, man, we did so much. Yeah, I do remember. It's coming back

[00:37:10] Lori: to me. I know it, it takes a So how do you feel? Do you ever have you, do you ever go back and just once in a while, like see a show and watch yourself for a moment?

[00:37:20] Blaze: The gladiators?

[00:37:21] Lori: Yeah, the gladiators change. Like when's the last time you turned the television on and, and either watched yourself on YouTube or, you know, Pluto. Pluto has our own channel on Pluto right now.

[00:37:34] Blaze: I didn't know that. See, the only way I would go back, cause remember we had the, were they DVD players? Yeah. Is that what they called?

[00:37:39] Blaze: Yeah. Dvd. Right. So I have those from the

[00:37:43] Lori: shows. Right. So when's the last time you went back and watched yourself on, on the Gladiators? How many years has it been? It's

[00:37:49] Blaze: been a long time. Oh, I never even watched. I never, I didn't even wanna see it. You

[00:37:55] Lori: never wanted to watch

[00:37:56] Blaze: yourself? I didn't. I would say, you know what?

[00:37:59] Blaze: Because now that I'm teaching, it pops up, you know, and the kids are showing. Of course, it's been kinda recent. I'd say, as far as me just sitting down and watching, I don't think I've ever been there. Wow. That was 20 years ago. Yeah.

[00:38:12] Lori: Okay. Okay. So tell me the, tell me the coolest place you actually got to travel when you were doing the American Gladiators, because you know, we got to do personal appearances and we went a lot of places, but what was one of the most coolest, memorable places you actually got to go?

[00:38:28] Lori: When we were doing gladiators?

[00:38:30] Blaze: I

[00:38:30] Blaze: wanna say when, like we went to, okay. New York when I did the Monte Williams show. Right. That was pretty cool. Yeah. When we used to have to do, what do you call 'em? Guest appearances? Yes. Arcenio Hall Show. You did Arsenio. Yeah. It was as a group though. This was with bodybuilders, if I So not the glad.

[00:38:49] Blaze: Ok. It's ok. That back, so Monte Williams show, I wanna say Har Geraldo Rivera, you know those, oh, you did

[00:38:56] Lori: all the, remember those are the old, all the old time talk shows.

[00:39:00] Blaze: Dennis Prager. You don't probably know who that is. He's a talk show, conservative talk show host way back in the day before he became what he is today.

[00:39:09] Blaze: Right, right. so a lot of those things are great. Yeah. Right. Appearances.

[00:39:15] Lori: I think so. Who's the biggest celebrity slash athlete you've ever met? Celebrities or an athlete? Can't say that person.

[00:39:24] Blaze: lemme see. You're

[00:39:25] Lori: like, can't see that one. You got to meet Arnold though.

[00:39:28] Blaze: Yeah, Arnold. I have a picture of Arnold right back there. It was. You wanna see it though? That's on. He was getting ready to do the, he was actually on the set, Mr. Freeze. Right. You doing the movie? What was he Mr.

[00:39:41] Blaze: Freeze about? Was it Batman

[00:39:42] Lori: or something? Oh, I can't even remember which one. I mean, I remember when he was on the back lot, he was getting ready for, I think it was kindergarten cop or something.

[00:39:50] Blaze: Was it kindergarten cop? I swear it was Mr. Freeze. Cause my hu Rodney was in Mr. Freeze. He had Oh no Wonder.

[00:39:55] Blaze: Kindergarten cop though. It been kindergarten cop. Cause it was me and Tanya went into the dressing room and the makeup artist and he took a picture with us there. So I have it, you know, back here in my, showroom. Yeah, just like a frame. But, so Arnold, yeah. Arnold. Who else? well, all the major bodybuilders back then that were at goals.

[00:40:15] Lori: Right. Hey, did you watch, the Netflix documentary Killer Sally? Oh, I did.

[00:40:24] Blaze: Girl. That brought back so many memories. Listen, it did. My husband was, raised Ray, Ray McNeils. Yeah. As well. So he used to come over. Cause we were, when we got married, we moved to Oceanside. We used to train at the gym in Oceanside.

[00:40:39] Blaze: He and Sally trained there as well. Right. Don't even get me started on her, but, yes, he's a former Marine. Right. And I'm like, oh, okay, whatever. And they got married, but yes. And what I thought was, see now if you watch television now, you know the interrogations like the ID channels. If you watch that stuff, you know, you asked for a lawyer first, but she spilled her.

[00:41:03] Blaze: She told

[00:41:04] Lori: everything. Right. She's crazy. I is she truly as crazy as she seemed, or Oh yeah. Since you actually got to meet her. Yes. And Ray. Yes. Yeah. I watched it and brought back so many memories because that's when I was in body building very heavily Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah. And like when Bill Wick showed up, I was just like, oh

[00:41:25] Blaze: God, the wrestling and all that stuff.

[00:41:28] Blaze: Yeah, exactly. Goodness that was there. That was crazy. But that was all true and from her perspective. So it was the greatest thing I hadn't ever seen because it was true. You didn't have anybody cuz she divulged everything, you know what I'm saying?

[00:41:42] Lori: Everything. Yeah,

[00:41:43] Blaze: And you didn't have anybody dubbing old, she said there's no, no, no.

[00:41:46] Blaze: But the only thing, they didn't have raised perspective. Right. I know. Yeah. And him and my, em and, my husband, they used to do, they used to go up to Hollywood to do, what you call theater. Mm-hmm. Acting classes. Mm-hmm. And the person that was in the acting class with them, she has her own talk show right now is Sherry Shepherd.

[00:42:03] Blaze: So back then it was my husband raise Sherry Shepherd. They used to do skits, like, forget the name of, the one skit they did not Raising in the sun. Something I forget. But anyway, yeah. So they were really close. They used to drive up there in the little Nissan pickup truck, him and Ray. And so I just, we had just had a barbecue.

[00:42:22] Blaze: Maybe a couple of, maybe a week or two before this actually happened. No

[00:42:26] Lori: way. Yeah, I bet. So was it kind of shocking to you when you, when you heard it,

[00:42:31] Blaze: it Yes, because the apartment, they only, it was about a quarter of a mile up the way. Okay. Where they stayed, we stayed in the house and they were, you know, at the street Mission, I forget the street, the apartments.

[00:42:42] Blaze: And I drive by, we drive by and now, you know, whenever we're going towards, San Diego and I just look at the apartment, I'm like, wow. You know, cuz they told you blood was everywhere. Yeah. So, oh yeah. I couldn't believe

[00:42:55] Lori: it. I know, that's so sad.

[00:42:57] Blaze: Everything.

[00:42:58] Lori: Yeah. So now when you were doing gladiators, did you, what was your, I mean, did you wanna do television?

[00:43:05] Lori: Did you wanna do movies? Did you wanna do stunts? I mean, what was it that you actually were thinking of when you were doing gladiators? Because doors were starting to open, right? Right. So what, what was in the back of your head were you like, oh, I'd like to do this or that?

[00:43:21] Blaze: No, my crazy thought process, cause I've always been an educator, right?

[00:43:26] Blaze: I'm thinking cuz my dad always wanted me to be a teacher, so I was always,what do you call it? not searching, what's the word I'm looking for? For his academics. Okay. Anyway, I'm like, I wanna go to school, I want my masters, I want my PhD. You know what I mean? That type of thing. So I really wasn't focusing on the opportunities that presented themselves, even though I did a couple of movies like, of UN of Unknown Origin starting Ronnie McDowell,which is, and Melanie some whoevers, star Treks who?

[00:43:55] Blaze: Star Trek's,

[00:43:55] Blaze: character's name.

[00:43:57] Lori: I know who you're talking about.

[00:43:59] Blaze: Who was Captain Kirk? What's his real name? I see him all the time trying to, well, anyway, his daughter, we did,

[00:44:04] Lori: I can see his face too. Shatner, William Shatner.

[00:44:07] Blaze: Chapman. Yeah. Yeah. So like him and his daughter. So I did a couple little movies, b movies, right.

[00:44:12] Blaze: Commercials. it was fun, right? Oh, body shaping in Hawaii, when they flew us to Hawaii, I remember that before. People didn't realize it was called The Step, it's called the Step Ups.

[00:44:25] Lori: Yeah. Step, step, yeah. I remember, I remember the

[00:44:27] Blaze: show. That right? Yeah. It was, that was great. So they sent us at the Turtle Bay in Hawaii.

[00:44:34] Blaze: It was great. I forget the characters. Kendall. I remember one guy. But anyway, that was the introduction of the step ups when you do aerobics. Right, right.

[00:44:43] Lori: Yeah, SHA, you were one of the smart ones. I mean, you actually seriously saw your future and went, okay, I wanna go get my master's, I wanna go teaching to where all of us, we were just kind of like chasing the rainbow, chasing the dream, you know?

[00:45:00] Lori: And like, and, and look, I mean, you've had, but you've had an amazing run. I mean, so what grade, what do you actually teach? What grade?

[00:45:09] Blaze: well, K through 12. So I started off teaching PE early on, but now I just substitute teach right now. Okay. Early on I taught high school physical education. Harvard, Harvard High School in Rialto, California.

[00:45:20] Blaze: Right. And then, When they had that massive layoff back in whatever it was, the 90 twos. I just said, you know what, I'll just, because it gave me the opportunity to raise my children. Yeah. So they went and you had a he helicopter parents. I didn't wanna be that, but I was forced to be that position.

[00:45:36] Blaze: Yeah. I was there 24 7. It was a private school, right? 24 7. I ended up, choreographing all the talent shows from K through eight was K through eight for both of my daughter and my son. I was, what do you call him? The root mom? Mm-hmm. That, coach. Listen, I'm a coach, track and field, right. For my son, like I said, from shoot two to 18, I'm still coaching them now.

[00:45:56] Blaze: Right. And I St. John Bosco. So everywhere he went, I was his track coach. It was like a blessing. I'm like, oh, this is falling into play. But mind you, I didn't plan any of this. It was just happening. See,

[00:46:07] Lori: that's perfect. That's the way it was supposed to happen.

[00:46:09] Blaze: I basically went to school with my kids, raised them.

[00:46:12] Blaze: So what took you outta gladiators? you need to ask Sam your goal on that. Right? Well, what happened? So I do recall. Okay. After, like you said, on tour, right. I always said, it's kind of funny to me cause I don't even really know what happened. But on the tour, I remember, we were getting, we wanted to raise as a group always.

[00:46:33] Blaze: Right? Who was the leader? Dan, whoever. Anne

[00:46:35] Lori: and Gemini. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Always.

[00:46:38] Blaze: Always. So, so they were in negotiations with, what was his name? Fish. What was the guy's name? David Fish Off,

[00:46:45] Lori: say, fish Off was a tour. Okay. Fish Off was tour Guide

[00:46:49] Blaze: was Oh, you said, but that's how it happened.

[00:46:51] Lori: Okay. From

[00:46:52] Blaze: before back to the, when we got back from the tour, my name wasn't on the, what do you call it? The roll Caller. Caller, yeah. On the roster.

[00:47:01] Lori: Yeah.

[00:47:02] Blaze: Right. So I. Go up to, saute myself up to Samuel Gold's headquarters, like I said, off of Santa Monica and Wilshire. I'm go and I see our huge pictures, you know, the gladiators, the pretty one right?

[00:47:13] Blaze: The pitcher with all of us. Yeah. In the, in the foyer lobby. I'm like, oh, so me, I don't know why I was so bo, right? You just don't walk into somebody's office. Hey,

[00:47:23] Lori: hey, do you want something? You do,

[00:47:25] Blaze: I guess, right? I want, ok. Why? You know, I'm letting, I, I go is Sam Go, or Julie Rush or whoever was in charge at that time, right?

[00:47:34] Blaze: Yeah. Yeah. And so I think I was the male room. I don't know why I was on the first call. So I walk in there, you know, like, hi, it was Sammy Gold was standing right there. Do you know he gave me the dirtiest look. He looked at me as a guy. I don't think I've ever met him. Paul, you enter my space. Yeah. Yeah, you probably have.

[00:47:50] Blaze: Cause you don't go office. And I'm looking for. No, no. Mike, is there any reason that you guys didn't call me back or My name's not on the roster. And then I think they escorted me to a room to wait to speak with Julie, somebody, whoever they had in place at that time. Cuz they were setting up. Because you have to understand, we had alters, people think, oh, everybody's glad.

[00:48:13] Blaze: No, because we went on tour, you had alternates that were taking our place, you know, on the show basically, right? I go into the office and they go, yeah, I don't, I dunno if they said we're not renewing your contract. And I go, is there a reason why? But they were, they just said, no, no, don't get no explanation.

[00:48:32] Blaze: That's the whole thing. No way. Escalation. They just said, yeah. Like, then I'm like, wow, is this really happening? See, that's

[00:48:40] Lori: bullshit. I didn't even know that. I don't think anybody knew that.

[00:48:43] Blaze: No, that's, that's what happened.

[00:48:46] Lori: So you didn't do anything. You were performing, didn't do anything. You were popular, everybody loved you came back from tour and all of a sudden you weren't on the roster.

[00:48:56] Lori: Right. Who took your

[00:48:57] Blaze: place? But I'm speaking of tour, you said, who took my place? Yeah. I don't know. So when I saw the next season coming about, what was that, the fifth season maybe? who were the characters then in this? Oh, shoot, guys. I, cause I wasn't there when, Shelly Beatie, is that her name or Sky?

[00:49:18] Blaze: The people you guys mentioned or, right. Let see.

[00:49:21] Lori: Oh, I would've been pissed.

[00:49:23] Blaze: What was the girl's name we had, right?

[00:49:27] Lori: There was, there was Storm Jack as Sky. Right, right, right.

[00:49:33] Blaze: So yeah. I'm like, okay. But yeah. Look right in his

[00:49:38] Lori: face. Walk right into him. Okay, so now I was under the impression you actually went out because you were injured.

[00:49:46] Lori: Maybe that's what they told us. They

[00:49:47] Blaze: probably Exactly. They probably said that in the backwards, because remember my shoulder, but I believe it had healed by then. Right, right. But I still maybe wasn't as aggressive as they wanted me to be.

[00:49:57] Lori: Girl, you were aggressive, you were the, you were more aggressive than most of us.

[00:50:01] Blaze: I had to over, you know? But anyway, so, yeah. But I wanna say it had, I don't know. I don't

[00:50:06] Lori: know. You were dating your husband at that time too, you said, where was he? Were you dating him? You were dating him at the time? I wonder if he was

[00:50:14] Blaze: in New York at the time.

[00:50:15] Lori: Yeah, no, I mean, I'd love to find out why they got, they got rid of you and didn't renew your contract was, it wasn't because you weren't performing, cuz you were aggressive, you were winning, you're beautiful, you were athletic people loved you.

[00:50:33] Lori: Was it? So it was politics.

[00:50:36] Blaze: Politics. But they said it was a contra, something about his show that he had just so the

[00:50:41] Lori: conflict of interest.

[00:50:42] Blaze: Yeah.

[00:50:43] Lori: Yeah. That's bullshit. Yeah. See there, that's all pol. That's all politics. Yeah.

[00:50:50] Blaze: See that's, that's, I was always quiet. I'm like, Ooh, I

[00:50:55] Lori: piss off. You were like, why did I get let go?

[00:50:58] Lori: I would've been furious. Yep.

[00:51:01] Blaze: Hey, you go to the head, you go to the top dog, Sammy, go

[00:51:05] Lori: himself. And then he pushed you off into a room.

[00:51:08] Blaze: Yeah. Yeah, because it was, I went into the mail room, I remember that floor, and they were in there and he was look like, how you going? Is there a reason why my name is not on the, you

[00:51:18] Lori: know, girl, I'm sorry.

[00:51:19] Lori: That's terrible. I had no idea. I don't think anybody really knew. Yeah. I think this is the first time anybody would go, what?

[00:51:26] Blaze: You know, how dare I enter his space? Sort of that's the feeling that I got. I

[00:51:30] Lori: believe it. Yeah, I do believe that

[00:51:32] Blaze: whatever, you know,

[00:51:34] Lori: left, you know, what you had bigger and better things to do.

[00:51:37] Lori: However, at the time I could, I could probably imagine you were absolutely devastated.

[00:51:42] Blaze: I just, I dumbfounded, you know, what the heck? But, so, like I said, my husband's show was getting ready to kick off, so that kind of saved it, you know, a smooth transition into, because they were doing something else.

[00:51:58] Blaze: They wanted me to do something else with that. But, interesting interest. Yeah. It was a conflict of interest. So I left that show and went to the Nice and Warrior and supported my husband. And, there you go. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That was,

[00:52:10] Lori: so let me ask you this. What are you, what are you doing now to take care of yourself and to, and to you are defying the, the aging process.

[00:52:18] Lori: How are you eating? How are you training? How are you staying? As young as you looked when you were blaze. Oh my goodness. What are you doing? So, first

[00:52:27] Blaze: training, that's the key. What is it? I've never stopped training. That's the key. Okay. You have to maintain. Right. But I've had a lot of injuries, girl. I just, tore my, what is this?

[00:52:37] Blaze: your rotator cuff. Rotator cuff. Right. Maybe a year ago. Right. So they did an mri, tore ligaments in my knees. Right. But I still press through. Right. Instead of doing full squat, I'll do partial. There you go. I'm just, that's just me. but I eat whatever I want still. Okay. And I just. Someone just turned me onto, fasting, but the, the new herbs and this and that.

[00:52:58] Blaze: Cause I never really paid attention to that. Yeah. Cause I thought, cause I was so active. Yeah. And I was always, you know, my cardio running stadium steps doing, I was always active so I didn't feel the need to, fast or juice or whatever they, you know, the herbs

[00:53:12] Lori: Well, your metabolism is so fast.

[00:53:13] Blaze: Yes.

[00:53:14] Blaze: Extremely fast. Extremely fast. Yeah. I had a very fast metabolism. But, that's all, that's, listen, that's,

[00:53:22] Lori: I mean, you look fab, you look, you look like you just stepped off the gladiator stage right now. I mean, so you haven't stopped training, you're still eating whatever you want, but I'm sure it's healthy,

[00:53:30] Blaze: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. It's, you know what my favorite, I'm not gonna even to tell you, tell me this little, it's called, I was introduced to it in Iowa. Cause my son went to school in Iowa. Right. Wait, what is it called? So we went, when we took him down, It's called Freddy's Burgers and Custards. Have you heard of it?

[00:53:48] Lori: No,

[00:53:50] Blaze: it's, oh, nothing. It's nothing. But I love this. As soon as this burgers and, ion rings and say, ah, steak. Yeah, that's my favorite thing to do. But it's, they are, they're not here. Well, there's one on the way to Victorville. I found that out when we went towards Vegas, but we hardly ever go that way, so.

[00:54:08] Blaze: Or in San Diego. So we don't have any in the, you know, immediate area. So, yeah. But when I do travel down to San Diego, I stop and I think it's San Marcos at this one. Yeah. That's my favorite meal right now. Isn't that crazy? No, it's awesome. Okay. Go. Lemme shut up. Lemme stop. My, my,

[00:54:26] Lori: my, my biggest weakness is french fries and I've, I, I love 'em.

[00:54:32] Lori: And so I've just gotta, like, I pace myself

[00:54:35] Blaze: french fries. What? Okay. Yeah. We're kind, we're kind not in and out. You make your own.

[00:54:43] Lori: If I had to choose, I would honestly, out of all the french fries, my favorite McDonald's. Seriously, I don't eat 'em all the time, but it is my absolute favorite. I can't say in and out.

[00:54:56] Lori: They're kind of bland. They're

[00:54:57] Blaze: kind of I know, exactly. You're right. You're right.

[00:54:59] Lori: You're right. When's the last time you had an In-N-Out

[00:55:01] Blaze: burger? Well, I don't enjoy them anymore, but maybe a month ago. Right. Have

[00:55:09] Lori: those patties not gotten as thin as they could possibly get? Only thing I hate.

[00:55:14] Blaze: I'm like, why am I eating this bread?

[00:55:16] Blaze: Okay. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:55:18] Lori: It's crazy.

[00:55:20] Blaze: Yeah. I'm like, I'm just wasting. Come on now. Why they talking?

[00:55:25] Lori: I dunno. Cause because everybody's cheapening their stuff and Yeah. It's spining and And they're charging more. And we're getting less.

[00:55:35] Blaze: Exactly. That's the whole scam.

[00:55:38] Lori: Oh my God. I love talking to you today. I can't believe that I haven't seen you in so many years.

[00:55:45] Lori: It's crazy. And I mean, we only had like an hour. It's already been an hour. It's nuts. And I, I feel calls

[00:55:52] Blaze: 45 minutes. You talked, okay. You told me you're gonna gimme 45 minutes.

[00:55:56] Lori: That's it. I, I, I thought maybe I, I mean we just barely touched the surface on so many things. It's just like, awesome. Catching up with you.

[00:56:03] Blaze: Alright, Laurie, one more thing. Yeah. I'll let you know. I do remember, you remember this when we were in New York, what. So it was one of, I, I, I'd say a former friend of mine, right? We were in New York and he wanted to meet you. He took us to the club in the, in the limo, right? He, he was all over here. He was like, get this guy off.

[00:56:25] Blaze: Remember was New York. He took us to some club football jets, play the Jets. We went to Hoff University. Now that's coming back. Do

[00:56:34] Lori: you recall that trip? I remember, and I don't know if this was the same incident, but I remember being in New York, being in a limo, being next to a big, huge football player, and he was all over me, and I was just like, whoa.

[00:56:51] Blaze: Yeah. Yeah. That was hilarious. I thought that was hilarious. Oh

[00:56:56] Lori: my. I was like, I went like this. I went. This dude is so big that like, and I'm strong right now, but if I wanted to get him off me. Yep. This is kinda scary.

[00:57:06] Blaze: That was hilarious.

[00:57:09] Lori: Glad you thought it was hilarious. I was kinda like, okay, what's happening here?

[00:57:17] Lori: All right. But here's the thing. I had so many questions, but yet it's so funny because when we don't talk for so many years, it just like goes like this, but I wanted to know what you were doing now and it's so cool that you're teaching and when are you retiring, when are you done?

[00:57:32] Blaze: Actually, see I just started back, so since my husband's retired, I'm out. Right. I'm teaching. So I have this first time, this is my freedom, so I can't retire. Right. Maybe. And I loved it. That's the thing. Cause I teach math.

[00:57:45] Lori: You didn't, Hey, if you love it, then it's not really work. Right? Exactly. Exactly.

[00:57:49] Blaze: Exactly. I teach, teach mathematics, algebra, you know, tri egg geometry, you name it. Yeah.

[00:57:54] Lori: That is so cool. I absolutely love that. Damn girl. That's so cool. thank you Shari. It's so amazing seeing you. And I'm gonna get, I gotta bring you back on another time because there's so many things we didn't get to talk about.

[00:58:09] Blaze: Okay? Okay. I know. I know. Thank you. Okay.

[00:58:14] Outro YT: Thank you so much for listening to Chilling with Ice, and don't forget to hit that like button. Subscribe and share wherever you listen to your podcast. Remember to follow us on Patreon and YouTube at Chilling With Ice and on Instagram and TikTok. You can follow me@lori.ice dot Patrick. I look forward to chilling with you next time here on Chilling with

[00:58:42] [Mic bleed]