Laser: The Longest-Serving Gladiator

[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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[00:00:56] Lori: the cost of a cup of coffee a month. You can donate to my Patreon page and that would make all the difference in the world.

[00:01:02][Mic bleed]

[00:01:03] Lori: the small donation, you will get back so much in rewards.

[00:01:06] Lori: Like you can watch all of my podcasts on video. I will have exclusive content like behind the scenes footage of private Facebook group where you can interact with me directly and other v i p fans, a monthly q and. Direct shout outs and follows from me to you on your social media and so much more. Find me on Patreon at Chilling with Ice, or click the link in the show notes now.

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

[00:01:36] Lori: My next guest

[00:01:37] Lori: graduated from

[00:01:38] Lori: Montana State University. He was a linebacker. He got drafted to the N nfl. He played for the Chiefs.

[00:01:44] Lori: He

[00:01:44] Lori: played for the Rams.

[00:01:45] Lori: He was the

[00:01:46] Lori: only

[00:01:46] Lori: glad eater that actually was in all eight seasons. There's so much more about this gentleman, but let's just get him in here and talk about him. His name is Jim Star and you know him as Laser on the American Gladiators.

[00:01:59] Laser: hey, hey, How

[00:02:00] Laser: you

[00:02:00] Lori: Laurie?

[00:02:01] Laser: How you doing?

[00:02:02] Laser: Nice ice babe. Bang. What?

[00:02:03] Lori: What's

[00:02:04] Lori: up?

[00:02:05] Lori: All right, so at least I got the Montana State University down.

[00:02:08] Laser: There you go. Yeah. You don't wanna confuse

[00:02:10] Laser: that with

[00:02:10] Laser: University Montana,

[00:02:11] Laser: the Grizz, even though they're,

[00:02:13] Laser: they're a great, uh, university. It's just they're

[00:02:16] Laser: the other side.

[00:02:17] Laser: Right.

[00:02:17] Lori: So, okay. So you did get drafted into the N F L.

[00:02:20] Lori: Tell me about that for a second. Well, let,

[00:02:22] NFL

[00:02:22] Laser: I, I didn't get Dr. Here's the thing, I didn't get drafted. I did get drafted. Uh, from

[00:02:28] Laser: the U

[00:02:28] Laser: S F L, which

[00:02:29] Laser: is the United States Football League. They were the,

[00:02:32] Laser: uh, first year that they came out was the year that I was a senior. Mm-hmm. I was drafted by San Antonio Gunslingers, uh, opted not to go to the U S F L cuz I did

[00:02:43] Laser: think I,

[00:02:44] Laser: my agent and I thought we were, I

[00:02:45] Laser: was gonna get drafted,

[00:02:47] Laser: uh, in the N F L in the late rounds, but I

[00:02:49] Laser: had a terrible

[00:02:50] Laser: senior year.

[00:02:51] Laser: I had,

[00:02:51] Laser: uh, I had missed four games with

[00:02:54] Laser: a serious ankle injury

[00:02:56] Laser: and our

[00:02:56] Laser: team only went one in 10. So, obviously coming from a smaller school, Not doing well. Having an injury really hurt my chances of getting, uh,

[00:03:05] Laser: drafted. But I did go on to the Chiefs,

[00:03:08] Laser: um, and, uh, got cut with them on the fourth preseason game, uh, because of an

[00:03:14] Laser: ankle injury. Um,

[00:03:16] Laser: and then I went up to Canada

[00:03:17] Laser: with, uh, the Canadian

[00:03:18] Laser: Football League with Toronto to organized and I played up there and then

[00:03:22] Laser: I ended my

[00:03:22] Laser: career with the Rams, uh, with a serious injury that ended my football career. And

[00:03:29] Laser: that was end of my career. So, yeah.

[00:03:31] Lori: And what

[00:03:31] Lori: year was

[00:03:31] Lori: that? Do you

[00:03:32] Laser: remember? The Rams was 87.

[00:03:34] Laser: Um,

[00:03:35] Lori: that's when they were in Los Angeles, then

[00:03:37] Laser: they were in Los Angeles. Yeah. And

[00:03:39] Laser: that's where I met Dan

[00:03:40] Laser: Clark Nitro.

[00:03:41] Laser: We

[00:03:41] Laser: were both playing with the Rams and, you know, it was unfortunate, you know, as an athlete, you, that's all you knew. Uh, that's all I knew as an athlete, how to train, what to do each and every day, and when that dream's taken away from you, uh, The world really sets in, in a, in a very dark, dismal place.

[00:03:59] Laser: And it was,

[00:04:00] Laser: uh, tough

[00:04:01] Laser: times for me

[00:04:02] Laser: for about two, three years

[00:04:03] Laser: there, uh, knowing your career ended, uh, and they say,

[00:04:07] Laser: you know,

[00:04:08] Laser: play every down like it's your last down because you never know. And I

[00:04:11] Laser: never thought

[00:04:12] Laser: like that.

[00:04:12] Laser: And it, it was taken

[00:04:13] Laser: away from me, uh, quickly. Uh, and it was a very serious injury. It took me three years to heal up from that.

[00:04:21] Laser: And, uh, right when I did heal up, fortunately I was in the right place at the right time and

[00:04:25] Laser: landed

[00:04:26] Laser: a gig on gladiators.

[00:04:27] Lori: Wow. You just went from, what

[00:04:29] Lori: do they call the, the

[00:04:31] Lori: frying jumped into the frying pan? I mean, as far as injuries are concerned. Right. Okay. So now the last time I spoke with you, you were going for an MRI on your shoulder.

[00:04:40] Lori: Yeah. And do we have the results from

[00:04:42] Laser: that yet? Yeah, I just

[00:04:43] Laser: got,

[00:04:44] Laser: gee, whi so you, you know, my history with, uh, I've been plagued with many injuries. I've, I've

[00:04:50] Laser: had.

[00:04:51] Laser: I lost count. I've had at least 12 shoulder operations, and

[00:04:55] Laser: now I just, I have a, I

[00:04:56] Laser: just got the

[00:04:57] Laser: MRI results. I have a full thickness tear

[00:05:00] Laser: on my left shoulder.

[00:05:01] Laser: And, uh, so I just found out last week and I scheduled, and I did this for the first time I did, uh, p

[00:05:08] Laser: r P injection. Mm-hmm.

[00:05:10] Laser: Uh, it seems to help tremendously. Uh,

[00:05:14] Laser: and I've

[00:05:15] Laser: really delved in my whole background for the 25 years I've been in product development for nutritional dietary supplements for the health club market.

[00:05:23] Laser: I was the VP of product development

[00:05:24] Laser: for 24 hour fitness

[00:05:26] Laser: lifetime. I was the director of product development for them. So my background and

[00:05:31] Laser: I

[00:05:31] Laser: really take interest in nutrition and, and supplementation and, and I, I've always heard

[00:05:38] Laser: of peptides,

[00:05:40] Laser: um, but I've really have dived in the last couple weeks and read everything I could and get my hands on everything.

[00:05:47] Laser: And there's a gentleman by the name of Jay Campbell. Uh, that is just such a prolific,

[00:05:53] Laser: uh,

[00:05:54] Laser: guru when it comes to peptides. And so I, I've actually started some peptides for my shoulder

[00:06:01] Laser: injury.

[00:06:02] Laser: I, I'm doing something called b BBC 1 57 and TB 500. And

[00:06:07] Laser: I'm telling

[00:06:08] Laser: you, Lori,

[00:06:09] Laser: uh, with everything they're saying

[00:06:12] Laser: they do in these partic two particular peptides.

[00:06:15] Laser: Mm-hmm. I mean, it heals, uh, torn ro uh, torn tendons and, and, uh, ligaments and muscle and bone. And, and I gotta tell you, I've been, I've done, I'm on four days now

[00:06:28] Laser: and

[00:06:30] Laser: it's almost like a miracle. Oh my gosh. I mean, when you got a full thickness tear

[00:06:35] Laser: of your

[00:06:35] Laser: rotator cuff, mine's, the subscapularis, uh, One of the major muscle in the, uh, shoulder.

[00:06:42] Laser: I, I'm like, oh my gosh. I mean, it's almost like a miracle. I'm like,

[00:06:46] Lori: thank you.

[00:06:47] Lori: And when you're doing your peptides, are you injecting 'em directly into your shoulder? This one I

[00:06:52] Laser: am. Right. I'm just using a insulin syringe and Right. And, and if you know

[00:06:56] Laser: anything about peptides,

[00:06:57] Laser: they're just branched chain amino acids.

[00:06:59] Laser: And so endogenously inside our body, we make all of these different type of, uh, branch

[00:07:04] Laser: chains. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, it,

[00:07:08] Laser: it, it's truly a game changer. And, uh,

[00:07:11] Lori: I actually did take peptides. I'm a believer.

[00:07:13] Lori: I do, I take 'em, I take a peptide

[00:07:16] Lori: for your skin, and it's supposed to actually help build the collagen from within,

[00:07:22] Lori: not just

[00:07:22] Lori: the topical kind of stuff.

[00:07:24] Lori: Yeah. So I've been doing that to peptide now.

[00:07:27] Lori: Probably

[00:07:28] Lori: for the last month and a half. The only thing is, I mean, just kind

[00:07:31] Lori: educating our audience a little bit is, I mean, it is

[00:07:35] Lori: a little tiny insulin syringe and, and peptides. You

[00:07:38] Lori: can use

[00:07:38] Lori: for

[00:07:38] Lori: everything and anything.

[00:07:40] Lori: I mean, depending on what the situation is, I know that I'm gonna probably start another peptide that

[00:07:45] Lori: actually,

[00:07:46] Lori: uh, activates your own growth

[00:07:49] Lori: hormone and stimulates that to kind of get that moving.

[00:07:52] Lori: Because our growth hormone, as you know,

[00:07:54] Lori: I

[00:07:54] Lori: know about anybody

[00:07:55] Lori: else, but yes,

[00:07:56] Lori: it goes up to when you're 30 and then boom stops and it dies and, and

[00:07:59] Lori: we die. Yeah.

[00:08:02] Lori: So that kind of helps. But the peptides are amazing. Yeah. They're really starting to come

[00:08:07] Laser: out. Yeah. And to your point, right around age 30 for, you know,

[00:08:10] Laser: even testosterone now, you

[00:08:12] Laser: know, each year, year over year, at the age 30, you know, they drop about 2% each year.

[00:08:17] Laser: Mm-hmm. And these peptides really, you know, there, there's certain peptides, there's some for skin, hair, immunity, uh, growth hormone. Mm-hmm. The one, the ones you're probably mentioning, the two that are the most popular for releasing growth hormone is CJC 1295 and Ipamorelin.

[00:08:34] Laser: Right. And those

[00:08:35] Laser: two alone, uh, synergistically work very well.

[00:08:38] Laser: And these, most of 'em

[00:08:39] Laser: are

[00:08:40] Laser: used subq or you can't do intermuscular, but, uh Right. They're, they're, they're really

[00:08:44] Laser: amazing.

[00:08:45] Laser: And it's not, uh,

[00:08:47] Laser: something that's, uh,

[00:08:49] Laser: Uh, that is foreign to the body, so your

[00:08:52] Laser: body's not gonna reject

[00:08:53] Laser: it. Right. It's something that your body's, uh, used

[00:08:56] Laser: to.

[00:08:56] Laser: Mm-hmm. Basically because it's endogenous, uh, they're branch chains and they're found within all of our cells.

[00:09:02] Laser: So yeah, it's, it's pretty, it's, it's pretty remarkable. So that's really

[00:09:06] Lori: cool that you actually discovered

[00:09:07] Lori: those and actually it's starting to help

[00:09:09] Lori: heal your shoulder, or should say it's like, is

[00:09:11] Lori: it taking the pain

[00:09:12] Lori: away a little bit or, oh, in,

[00:09:14] Laser: in both. It's okay. Range of motion, but my, the pain, uh, you

[00:09:19] Laser: know, is just

[00:09:21] Laser: incredible.

[00:09:22] Laser: You've ever had torn rotator cuff and. It,

[00:09:25] Laser: it's, it's literally taken most of

[00:09:27] Laser: the pain away

[00:09:28] Laser: And I, I

[00:09:28] Laser: I am just thrilled. I gotta tell you, I'm, I'm happy for you. I'm happy is all hacked. I feel like. Wow. I'm just, I just hit the

[00:09:34] Laser: mother leg,

[00:09:35] Laser: like woohoo. Sitting on.

[00:09:36] Laser: Yeah.

[00:09:37] Lori: So,

[00:09:38] Lori: um, we're gonna get into what you're doing,

[00:09:40] Lori: um,

[00:09:40] Lori: right

[00:09:41] Lori: now in a minute,

[00:09:42] Lori: cuz I know that you have a whole thing on that.

[00:09:43] Lori: But let's back

[00:09:45] Lori: up a little bit. And

[00:09:46] Lori: you met Nitro when you were in the N F L and

[00:09:49] Lori: I

[00:09:49] Lori: also know that you lived with him for a while, so Yeah. How was it living with

[00:09:54] Lori: Nitro?

[00:09:55] Living with Nitro

[00:09:55] Laser: We,

[00:09:57] Laser: I was living with Nitro. There was never a

[00:09:59] Laser: dull moment.

[00:10:01] Laser: I bet it was, uh, you know,

[00:10:03] Laser: we were young and dumb and

[00:10:05] Laser: geez, we were 20. I think

[00:10:07] Laser: I was,

[00:10:08] Laser: we were both, I think I was 27 when I met Dan.

[00:10:11] Laser: 26, 27. And boy did

[00:10:14] Laser: we have some fun,

[00:10:15] Laser: you know, we both got done plain. I made enough

[00:10:19] Laser: money

[00:10:19] Laser: off my injury to basically, uh, take care of all of

[00:10:22] Laser: us

[00:10:23] Laser: and live in an

[00:10:23] Laser: apartment and.

[00:10:25] Laser: And going out every,

[00:10:27] Lori: you guys were partying

[00:10:28] Lori: and chasing tail, and I bet you guys were just like,

[00:10:32] Laser: yeah, we had a, we had a pretty good darn time.

[00:10:35] Laser: And, uh, no regrets there. We, it, it, it was, uh, you know, I was a country boy from Montana, moving to

[00:10:41] Laser: big city in California, and,

[00:10:44] Laser: and it was just, uh,

[00:10:46] Laser: was

[00:10:46] Laser: pretty darn special. Uh, some really good memories with, uh, Dan.

[00:10:50] Lori: Now, he actually

[00:10:51] Lori: auditioned for the show first.

[00:10:53] Lori: Am I correct or did you guys Yeah. How did, yeah.

[00:10:56] Lori: Did he tell you about it or did it come kind of come about?

[00:10:59] Auditioning for American Gladiators

[00:10:59] Laser: Well, and you can talk to Dan and get his version, my, my version's a little.

[00:11:04] Lori: Dan, Dan has a different version than

[00:11:06] Lori: everyone. That's right.

[00:11:08] Laser: memory recall is much different than Dan's, and here's how I remember it. Okay,

[00:11:13] Laser: here we go. And

[00:11:14] Laser: he may dispute this, but we'll, we'll go

[00:11:16] Laser: with this one.

[00:11:17] Laser: We were still

[00:11:18] Laser: living together.

[00:11:19] Laser: We were still roommates and we were both doing commercial work, um, going out on commercial auditions, and we both had the same agent. My understanding, and I what I

[00:11:30] Laser: recall it is the agent

[00:11:32] Laser: had called Dan to tell him about this new American Gladiator's tryout. He would, the agent was supposed to tell.

[00:11:41] Laser: The agent

[00:11:41] Laser: did tell Dan to tell me, because we both had the

[00:11:44] Laser: same agent. My,

[00:11:45] Laser: I remember this, Dan never told me about the tryout. And so Dan goes to the tryout and he gets casted for the American gladiators. And I was

[00:11:55] Laser: very upset

[00:11:56] Laser: because I

[00:11:58] Laser: asked Anna, I said, Hey, I

[00:12:00] Laser: heard you went out for some trial for this gladiator

[00:12:02] Laser: show.

[00:12:04] Laser: And lo and behold, unfor, well, it was fortunate and unfortunate, uh,

[00:12:09] Laser: they casted

[00:12:10] Laser: everyone for the first,

[00:12:12] Laser: uh, half season.

[00:12:14] Laser: And that was Malibu. And then Malibu, who in

[00:12:18] Laser: my mind,

[00:12:19] Laser: just

[00:12:19] Laser: my opinion, is they, they got rid of Malibu cuz he, he,

[00:12:24] Laser: and I'll keep my mouth shut. I don't

[00:12:25] Lori: No,

[00:12:25] Laser: ahead. Why

[00:12:26] Lori: did they get rid of Malibu?

[00:12:27] Laser: My understanding was

[00:12:29] Laser: he wasn't very physically tough.

[00:12:30] Laser: He wasn't a tough guy, you know, and, uh, great athlete, but he just wasn't mentally and

[00:12:36] Laser: physically

[00:12:36] Laser: tough. Right. And so

[00:12:38] Laser: they stopped

[00:12:39] Laser: the production. They did 13 episodes and then in January they tried, had another tryout. Now,

[00:12:47] Laser: let me back up there, because before,

[00:12:50] Laser: before I

[00:12:51] Laser: tried out,

[00:12:51] Laser: out, I had actually gone

[00:12:53] Laser: through the year testing to

[00:12:54] Laser: be an L A P D

[00:12:56] Laser: officer.

[00:12:56] Laser: Oh.

[00:12:56] Laser: Oh. And I was, uh, selected for the January, 1990 academy to be

[00:13:02] Laser: on the police force.

[00:13:04] Laser: and I was ready to go, uh, go

[00:13:08] Laser: the academy.

[00:13:09] Laser: Um, and that same week, My agent called and said, Hey, they, they're, they want to have you try out for the gladiators. And I did. And I got casted as

[00:13:19] Laser: of the

[00:13:19] Laser: gladiators and I had to make

[00:13:21] Laser: decision, do I

[00:13:22] Laser: wanna do lap D

[00:13:24] Laser: or

[00:13:24] Laser: do I wanna be an athlete?

[00:13:26] Laser: Wow. And I, it took me about four seconds to Yeah, exactly. Come up with decision. It's an, I think I want to be an athlete and it had nothing to do about being on tv. It was all about showing my athletic ability because you know, obviously I got cut in the N F L cuz my injury took me three years to heal up

[00:13:43] Laser: from that,

[00:13:44] Laser: from 87 to 1990.

[00:13:45] Laser: So it just was just a blessing in disguise, uh, uh, that I

[00:13:50] Laser: was in the right place at

[00:13:51] Laser: the right time. And, uh, obviously was on the show for the next seven years.

[00:13:56] Lori: Isn't it amazing how in life, like boom,

[00:14:00] Lori: split second, it's like the sliding doors. Yeah. You know, it's like you choose this, you choose. Can you imagine if you would've chosen actually to go with the

[00:14:07] Lori: lap D

[00:14:08] Lori: how your

[00:14:09] Lori: whole life.

[00:14:10] Lori: Your entire

[00:14:11] Lori: life would've been completely different. Everything would've

[00:14:13] Lori: been different. Yeah. And it just,

[00:14:15] Lori: like you said, four seconds,

[00:14:16] Lori: that split decision.

[00:14:17] Laser: Yeah.

[00:14:18] Laser: You know, let me, you,

[00:14:19] Laser: you, you've hit the nail on the

[00:14:20] Laser: head there, Lori. Let, let me, let me

[00:14:23] Laser: share with you in

[00:14:24] Laser: the audience something that,

[00:14:26] Laser: exactly that.

[00:14:27] Laser: When

[00:14:28] Laser: I

[00:14:28] Laser: was

[00:14:28] Laser: a senior in, in

[00:14:30] Laser: my senior

[00:14:31] Laser: year in, in

[00:14:32] Laser: college,

[00:14:33] Laser: uh,

[00:14:34] Laser: obviously I missed

[00:14:35] Laser: those four games because of an ankle injury. And I went in on the fourth quarter of the fourth

[00:14:43] Laser: game that I had missed

[00:14:45] Laser: and everyone kept saying, Jim, even the coaches said, Jim, just do not go in because you can gray shirt, if you miss four games in the beginning

[00:14:56] Laser: of a season,

[00:14:57] Laser: you can gray shirt and you'll have another year of eligibility and

[00:15:00] Laser: you can play another

[00:15:01] Laser: year and.

[00:15:04] Laser: You know, hindsight's 2020, right? Yeah. And all I cared

[00:15:06] Laser: about was

[00:15:07] Laser: plain. Yeah. Now listen to this story. So I

[00:15:10] Laser: go in, I, I ruin my gray

[00:15:13] Laser: shirt season, we go one in 10. Terrible season,

[00:15:15] Laser: don't get drafted the next

[00:15:18] Laser: year at Montana State

[00:15:19] Laser: University

[00:15:21] Laser: in 1984, those guys all went

[00:15:27] Laser: to the national

[00:15:28] Laser: championship and won the Big Sky Conference League and they won

[00:15:32] Laser: the national championship.

[00:15:33] Laser: And all my roommates were juniors.

[00:15:35] Laser: Mm-hmm. They

[00:15:36] Laser: all got the big rings

[00:15:37] Laser: and all got inducted in the Hall of

[00:15:39] Laser: Fame. And

[00:15:40] Laser: it's just that moment split

[00:15:41] Laser: decision of two

[00:15:43] Laser: different pathways in life that you yeah, your, your b your life could go. And I look at that and say, gosh, just think if I would not have gone in that fourth quarter, I would've been on that national championship team.

[00:15:56] Laser: But then again,

[00:15:57] Laser: I. Would I've ever

[00:15:58] Laser: been on the gladiators? No. Who knows? Would I've ever met my wife today? No.

[00:16:03] Lori: See, so

[00:16:04] Laser: everything, all these, all these different, and the kids that I had, and you know, all these things. So you just never know what is going to transpire through

[00:16:12] Laser: those different decisions. Right.

[00:16:14] Laser: Yeah. And different

[00:16:15] Laser: pap stance circumstances. Right? Oh,

[00:16:17] Lori: 100%. I

[00:16:19] Lori: mean, I

[00:16:19] Lori: believe in

[00:16:20] Lori: I mean, there's a

[00:16:21] Lori: movie out and it's actually called Sliding Doors, and it's,

[00:16:24] Lori: I

[00:16:24] Lori: love that because

[00:16:26] Lori: it's like, boom, all of a sudden

[00:16:27] Lori: something happens. It's just like so crazy, you know? For sure. But that's, that's so cool. I mean, it's so funny too.

[00:16:34] Lori: I can't, I believe, I believe your story as far as him not telling you anything.

[00:16:39] Laser: Well, uh, Dan,

[00:16:40] Laser: Dan says he doesn't recall that at all, but that's, yeah. Right. And it

[00:16:44] Laser: kinda, I,

[00:16:45] Laser: we kind of went downhill

[00:16:47] Laser: after that. I, um,

[00:16:49] Laser: it, it just, there was that content. I don't know what happened. We just, I know, uh, I know

[00:16:53] Laser: became, Bad

[00:16:54] Laser: roommates, and then I ended up moving out

[00:16:57] Laser: and that was

[00:16:57] Laser: it.

[00:16:58] Laser: So, but we're still

[00:16:59] Lori: good friends here. I

[00:16:59] Lori: was just gonna say, but you know, you

[00:17:00] Lori: were on the show together, you traveled together. Yeah. I mean, everything like

[00:17:04] Lori: that, so

[00:17:05] Lori: yeah.

[00:17:05] Laser: Good teammates and yeah. So it was good. So let's get

[00:17:08] Lori: into the gladiators just for a moment

[00:17:09] Lori: here.

[00:17:10] Lori: And

[00:17:10] Lori: then, uh, I wanna talk

[00:17:12] Lori: to you about what's out there right now that you're doing.

[00:17:14] Lori: Yeah. So, all right. So when you were actually

[00:17:17] Lori: on the

[00:17:17] Lori: gladiators, when you go back and watch yourself, what is it that you do? Do you ever go back and watch yourself on the

[00:17:25] Lori: show just

[00:17:25] Lori: once in a while? Like, okay, of course. Tell me what you, when you watch yourself, what are you thinking? What do you see?

[00:17:32] Going back in time

[00:17:32] Laser: Well, you know, it time flies by so quickly, especially as you get older.

[00:17:37] Laser: I'm 61 years

[00:17:38] Laser: old now,

[00:17:39] Laser: and I was 28 when I landed the show,

[00:17:43] Laser: 35, when

[00:17:44] Laser: it finally ended, right? Mm-hmm. I, I was on there for seven years

[00:17:48] Laser: and you know,

[00:17:49] Laser: every once in a while you pull up YouTube or whatever and watch a few.

[00:17:53] Laser: You

[00:17:54] Laser: know, a few shows. And the one thing that gets

[00:17:56] Laser: to me is like,

[00:17:58] Laser: first of all, I didn't realize I was that big and ripped.

[00:18:01] Laser: You know, I'm only 195 pounds. Then when I did the shows, you were

[00:18:05] Laser: big

[00:18:06] Laser: 2 35. And

[00:18:07] Laser: then

[00:18:07] Laser: the last year,

[00:18:08] Laser: I, I was probably the best shape

[00:18:10] Laser: of the seven seasons was my last year. I was about 2 22 shredded 5% body fat. But you know, I, I look at how competitive I was like, just, I wanted to rip your head off and

[00:18:24] Lori: just, oh my god.

[00:18:24] Laser: Yes. You know, and I had that, you know, when the whistle blew and

[00:18:28] Laser: I was like that in football.

[00:18:30] Laser: When, when, when I

[00:18:31] Laser: went out, it was

[00:18:32] Laser: almost, I would watch game

[00:18:34] Laser: film and I could not

[00:18:36] Laser: even, even watching the game film, I'd be

[00:18:38] Laser: like, I did that, that, that's, that was

[00:18:41] Laser: me. I was such in

[00:18:43] Laser: a zone. Yeah. That I almost blank

[00:18:46] Laser: out where you,

[00:18:48] Laser: you black out.

[00:18:49] Lori: That's your

[00:18:50] Lori: competitive nature though.

[00:18:51] Laser: Yeah. And I couldn't recall what I did or how I did that. And, and I, you know, when I watched the show today, I, I, I still, I watch that and

[00:19:00] Laser: think, Hey,

[00:19:01] Laser: I did all that. Well,

[00:19:03] Lori: you know what's funny about you too? Yes. You're, you're going out and ripping people's heads off, but yet the minute it stopped, you'd come back in.

[00:19:09] Lori: You're all smiling and Yeah. High fiving. Yeah.

[00:19:12] Lori: It was just like a whole nother person, you know?

[00:19:15] Lori: Yeah.

[00:19:15] Laser: Shake

[00:19:15] Laser: the, you know, shake the contender's hands and

[00:19:18] Lori: Oh, absolutely. Okay. And after you ripped their

[00:19:20] Laser: head off Yeah, after I ripped their head

[00:19:23] Laser: off. Are you okay? But it's just who I was. You know, I, I, you know, I don't know where that came from.

[00:19:28] Laser: I think

[00:19:29] Laser: I, you know, you're born with a, a part of who you are, right? Mm-hmm. And

[00:19:33] Laser: I think my dad was one hell of an athlete. Uh, he

[00:19:37] Laser: went to

[00:19:37] Laser: Washington State, was a great boxer and football guy, and, you know, he had a temper and, and you

[00:19:43] Laser: know, I just grew up at Montana, being around

[00:19:46] Laser: cuff

[00:19:47] Laser: and working

[00:19:47] Laser: hard and.

[00:19:49] Laser: And, uh, trying to prove yourself all the time. I just think it, you know, it was

[00:19:53] Laser: part of where I grew

[00:19:54] Laser: up, this's just who

[00:19:54] Lori: you are. Yeah. It's who you are. Yeah. Now, was there any drama backstage with the guys because there was with girls,

[00:20:01] Lori: just to let you

[00:20:02] Lori: know. Yeah, I mean, we

[00:20:03] Lori: had our competitive moment again,

[00:20:08] American Gladiators Drama

[00:20:08] Laser: you know, uh, you know, all the guys, we, we were really good teammates.

[00:20:14] Laser: We, you know, there we were still competing to be the best

[00:20:17] Laser: of the best. Yeah.

[00:20:18] Laser: Yeah. And you're still competing with your, you know, your fellow teammates.

[00:20:23] Laser: But I,

[00:20:23] Laser: cannot ever, ever recall even on the show or during the

[00:20:28] Laser: 6-month gladiator tour that

[00:20:30] Laser: we did. We ever had a disagreement

[00:20:33] Lori: that bullshit. I'm gonna call it bullshit on you.

[00:20:36] Lori: No, I'm, I'm, you can't talk disagreements

[00:20:38] Lori: cause you were always like, it's a fucking nitro show. God

[00:20:41] Lori: damnit. Even Steve

[00:20:42] Laser: said that maybe that it was, we did disagree a lot

[00:20:46] Laser: on, uh,

[00:20:48] Laser: maybe not in front of the

[00:20:49] Laser: gladiators, right? Yeah,

[00:20:51] Laser: we certainly bitched about Nitro. We, we certainly did about that. Cause it was the Nitro show, see?

[00:20:58] Lori: Right, exactly.

[00:21:02] Lori: But, oh well. I mean, it's, no, we laugh about it. He laughs about it. I mean, it's all in

[00:21:07] Lori: good

[00:21:07] Lori: fun, but it's, it is, it's like when we are on the show and it, for some reason he was always out in front

[00:21:16] Lori: kind of

[00:21:16] Lori: like, and he

[00:21:17] Lori: made himself out in front. Oh

[00:21:19] Lori: yeah, he did. And, uh, but with the girls,

[00:21:21] Lori: I mean, we

[00:21:22] Lori: all had that A

[00:21:23] Lori: personality

[00:21:24] Lori: and we were all sup we were competitive basically in the

[00:21:27] Lori: um, out

[00:21:29] Lori: of

[00:21:29] Lori: of the show.

[00:21:30] Lori: Yeah, outside of the show, meaning like personal appearances or

[00:21:33] Lori: I'd see, um, Ray on like auditions and she

[00:21:37] Lori: would come sit

[00:21:38] Lori: behind me or side me and try to psych me out. And after I realized she was playing mental games with me, I was like, Uhuh,

[00:21:45] Lori: Uhuh, I can't talk to you

[00:21:46] Lori: right now.

[00:21:46] Lori: now. You know? Yeah.

[00:21:48] Laser: Well you,

[00:21:48] Laser: you, you can recall this, Lori.

[00:21:50] Laser: I mean, when, when we were

[00:21:51] Laser: doing

[00:21:51] Laser: the show, you know, Sam Golden

[00:21:54] Laser: never helped

[00:21:55] Laser: promote us. They never really got us

[00:21:57] Laser: never additional

[00:21:59] Laser: autograph signing, uh, um, uh, what do you call 'em? Autograph signing, uh,

[00:22:04] Laser: uh, parent the person,

[00:22:05] Laser: person appearances,

[00:22:05] Laser: parent,

[00:22:06] Laser: things

[00:22:06] Laser: like that, right? We

[00:22:07] Laser: did it ourselves. We, we either busted our fanny trying to get our own, our own, uh,

[00:22:13] Laser: uh, jobs out there with different companies.

[00:22:17] Laser: and we would, I mean, a lot of us were upset with other

[00:22:19] Laser: gladiators

[00:22:20] Laser: or.

[00:22:21] Laser: You know, we, we would

[00:22:22] Laser: feel like, why did they get to do

[00:22:23] Laser: that and we didn't. Right. Or

[00:22:25] Laser: why were they in that photo shoot and we were

[00:22:27] Laser: left out or, yeah. And

[00:22:29] Laser: there was

[00:22:29] Laser: a lot of competition, I

[00:22:30] Laser: think, amongst guys and gals. I mean, because we, you'd see one gladiator, let's say it was you Ice and maybe it

[00:22:39] Laser: was, uh,

[00:22:40] Laser: nitro.

[00:22:40] Laser: Mm-hmm. And you two were doing a,

[00:22:43] Laser: um, a cover of a

[00:22:44] Laser: magazine, but then

[00:22:46] Laser: myself and Tower and maybe

[00:22:48] Laser: Zap were left out and you'd be kind of, you, your feelings would be

[00:22:52] Laser: heard you and

[00:22:53] Laser: you'd get pissed.

[00:22:54] Lori: Okay. Well, speaking of Witch, why didn't you go

[00:22:55] Lori: to the international

[00:22:56] Lori: show? I don't know. I

[00:22:57] Lori: I do know.

[00:22:58] Lori: There you have it.

[00:22:59] Lori: There's one

[00:22:59] Laser: right there. I, I'm really upset. I have no idea

[00:23:03] Laser: being on the show for

[00:23:04] Laser: seven years longer than any other Gladiator did. More EPIs. I really, I don't know, Lori. I don't, they never asked me to go over there. And that was two years. I think they did that. Yeah, we went

[00:23:14] Lori: two years in a row.

[00:23:14] Laser: Yeah. Never asked

[00:23:16] Lori: See, that

[00:23:17] Lori: blows my mind. I mean that's, that's where I believe that some

[00:23:20] Lori: of the bullshit politics was behind the scenes.

[00:23:23] Lori: Yeah. You know what I mean? It's kind of like

[00:23:25] Lori: how did they

[00:23:25] Lori: choose certain gladiators

[00:23:27] Lori: to do certain things? I mean, if it was po, if it was based on popularity, there's no doubt you would've been

[00:23:32] Lori: right there.

[00:23:34] Lori: I mean, that's why I'm just

[00:23:35] Lori: like, it wasn't

[00:23:36] Lori: because you weren't popular.

[00:23:38] Lori: I mean, were

[00:23:38] Lori: they afraid that you'd ripped

[00:23:40] Lori: the heads off of the international guys?

[00:23:42] Laser: I dunno.

[00:23:43] Laser: That's what's,

[00:23:45] Laser: you know, and you really didn't have a voice, right? You, no, we had no voice. You didn't know who to get on

[00:23:52] Laser: a call with.

[00:23:52] Laser: Just say, Hey, can you just explain this to me?

[00:23:55] Laser: You know,

[00:23:55] Laser: it was before social

[00:23:56] Laser: media

[00:23:56] Laser: really, Laurie,

[00:23:57] Laser: we didn't have really cell phones. Mm-hmm. You had pagers. You just couldn't, we were arch,

[00:24:02] Lori: we were

[00:24:02] Lori: archaic.

[00:24:03] Laser: Yeah. It was pretty

[00:24:05] Laser: archaic. And so

[00:24:06] Laser: we, you,

[00:24:07] Laser: just

[00:24:07] Laser: kind of lived in your world and, and that was it, you

[00:24:10] Lori: know? Yeah, you're right. And when we did go ask questions, they were,

[00:24:14] Lori: they were extremely political about it.

[00:24:16] Lori: Meaning

[00:24:17] Lori: they were

[00:24:18] Lori: like giving

[00:24:18] Lori: you the answer of, well, this is

[00:24:20] Lori: just what

[00:24:21] Lori: I was told to do. Yeah. You know, they, they never had the, the real answer, you know? That's right. Um, and that was kind of sad too, because

[00:24:29] Lori: you're right, we didn't, and

[00:24:30] Lori: then remember Brian came in and he was like, I'm gonna be the voice for the gladiators.

[00:24:35] Lori: And we were

[00:24:35] Lori: yeah,

[00:24:36] Lori: sure you are. Yeah, sure. You,

[00:24:37] Laser: you're, yeah.

[00:24:38] Lori: Yeah. You know, but yeah, it's kind of sad

[00:24:42] Lori: we didn't have any

[00:24:43] Lori: kind of voice like that when it came to, you know, what's going on. I mean, um, As you know, I've been doing some podcasts, a lot of of

[00:24:51] Lori: podcasts

[00:24:51] Lori: with different ones, and

[00:24:52] Lori: there's a

[00:24:52] Lori: lot of stories that I was kind of shocked about hearing, and you know, I was just like, wow.

[00:24:57] Lori: And I'll share those later, but obviously I wanna wait until they come

[00:25:00] Lori: out. But yeah, there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes,

[00:25:03] Lori: not just with me, but with other gladiators.

[00:25:05] Lori: Like

[00:25:05] Lori: for instance. Okay.

[00:25:07] Lori: Let's

[00:25:07] Lori: go with when we actually did hold out. I know

[00:25:12] Lori: that you were upset because

[00:25:14] Lori: you were like, I wasn't invited to

[00:25:16] Lori: hold out

[00:25:16] Lori: for more

[00:25:17] Lori: money for the merchandising.

[00:25:18] Lori: Right. Do you

[00:25:19] Lori: actually think

[00:25:20] Lori: in your mind and in your heart of hearts that if

[00:25:23] Lori: all the gladiators

[00:25:25] Lori: would've stuck together and held out for more

[00:25:28] Lori: money, or I should

[00:25:29] Lori: say even just a little bit of money, uh, the merchandising mm-hmm. We would've gotten it.

[00:25:34] Laser: Yeah. I truly do.

[00:25:35] Laser: Lori, I

[00:25:35] Laser: and I and part of hearts, I mean,

[00:25:37] Laser: I, I,

[00:25:38] Laser: I, I have, I felt this the, since the

[00:25:41] Laser: day it's happened, and I

[00:25:42] Laser: still believe that today that.

[00:25:44] Laser: And

[00:25:45] Laser: little

[00:25:45] Laser: did we know it, it's not like we're some experts in negotiations,

[00:25:49] Laser: right? We're th we're all 30 years old, 25 years old, and I truly believe that. I think if

[00:25:55] Laser: yourself,

[00:25:56] Laser: I think there was Gemini, nitro y, uh,

[00:25:59] Laser: zap, um,

[00:26:01] Laser: and I don't recall

[00:26:02] Laser: who else,

[00:26:03] Laser: uh, maybe there was four of you, but if you would've

[00:26:05] Laser: had a few of us

[00:26:07] Laser: other ones involved, um, to say, listen, I, I, I truly believe that they wouldn't have been able to pull off trying to find alternate gladiators to fill those positions.

[00:26:19] Laser: I, I, I truly believe that if we would've held together, Collectively, we, we, we've could have fared out much better because as we

[00:26:29] Laser: all know, we did,

[00:26:29] Laser: we didn't have merchandising rights. Well, I was just gonna say, I was on

[00:26:32] Laser: American, I was

[00:26:33] Laser: on American Gladiator vitamin line. They never asked me to

[00:26:36] Laser: be on it. They put

[00:26:37] Laser: my picture all over it.

[00:26:38] Laser: Mm-hmm. We were on costumes, bubblegum, we were on, um, lunch

[00:26:42] Lori: tails.

[00:26:43] Lori: They had Nintendo. Nothing.

[00:26:45] Laser: We didn't get, we got zero,

[00:26:47] Lori: zero merchant, zero. So for the audience, what we're talking about is there was a few gladiators that held out for merchandising rights. We just wanted a small piece of it. And

[00:26:57] Lori: like Jim saying

[00:26:58] Lori: is unfortunately there was only like, what, four, maybe four of us at the very

[00:27:03] Lori: end of the day.

[00:27:04] Laser: I think you Nitro, Gemini, and

[00:27:08] Lori: Zap. Right. Okay. So here's,

[00:27:09] Lori: here's

[00:27:10] Lori: the

[00:27:10] Lori: deal, to be honest

[00:27:11] Lori: with you, and I'm not quite sure why or what happened,

[00:27:14] Lori: But

[00:27:15] Lori: of

[00:27:15] Lori: course ni back to Nitro. Nitro. And Jim and I actually were the ones that put it together. Yeah. And I told 'em, I said, we need the entire team. And

[00:27:24] Lori: were like, no, I think we can hang, we we're gonna be good with like the top five.

[00:27:29] Lori: And I could

[00:27:29] Lori: swore that everybody sh everybody should have been involved. Yeah. But

[00:27:33] Lori: But you're right. If the entire team would've stuck together and just said,

[00:27:38] Lori: Hey, this is what we want,

[00:27:39] Lori: they would've, they couldn't have replaced the entire team that year. No. There's no way. And you know, and

[00:27:43] Laser: when you did it, it

[00:27:44] Laser: right.

[00:27:45] Laser: It was, it was coup,

[00:27:46] Laser: think. And you recall better than

[00:27:48] Laser: I do. It was, it was

[00:27:49] Laser: just weeks before, or

[00:27:51] Laser: even

[00:27:51] Laser: a week before we started to film. So, you

[00:27:54] Laser: know, there's

[00:27:54] Laser: a lot at stake. Mm-hmm. They have to line up the crew and the production crew and,

[00:27:58] Laser: the studio. Yeah. I think

[00:28:00] Laser: if we would've held out with all of us.

[00:28:03] Laser: Yeah. You

[00:28:04] Laser: know,

[00:28:04] Laser: and we weren't demanding much. We just wanted a

[00:28:07] Laser: little something. Yeah.

[00:28:08] Lori: Just give us

[00:28:09] Laser: us

[00:28:09] Lori: a little tiny, tiny piece. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:11] Lori: They're like kind of, fuck you. Get away. Yeah, they

[00:28:14] Lori: fired us

[00:28:14] Lori: on

[00:28:15] Laser: if, if this show would've happened today.

[00:28:17] Laser: Those kind of contracts don't exist.

[00:28:19] Laser: They,

[00:28:20] Laser: they, you would get some sort of merchandising rights.

[00:28:22] Laser: Right. Some royalty. Uh, at least, uh, you know, that is set up with merchandising and things like that. But you know what, it is what it is. So I

[00:28:31] Laser: know we

[00:28:32] Laser: can't

[00:28:32] Laser: change the past.

[00:28:33] Laser: Nope. Even though we

[00:28:34] Laser: can complain about it, you

[00:28:35] Laser: know, it, it's, it's what, it's Right. So

[00:28:39] Lori: tell me this, did you have a

[00:28:40] Lori: most embarrassing moment

[00:28:42] Lori: when you were either on the tour or

[00:28:43] Lori: on the show?

[00:28:44] Laser's most embarrasing moment

[00:28:44] Laser: Well, lemme tell you that.

[00:28:45] Laser: well, sort of embarrassingly, okay.

[00:28:47] Laser: Okay. So

[00:28:49] Laser: Steve and I,

[00:28:50] Laser: we went

[00:28:51] Laser: over to Tokyo

[00:28:52] Laser: and we did the,

[00:28:53] Laser: the two gladiators from the US went over to Tokyo because they had their own versions, their own version of gladiators. Not American gladiators, but gladiators. Right. So Steve and I go over to Japan, over to Tokyo and. As sushi's. Not very good there, just so you know. Wow, that's

[00:29:14] Laser: surprising.

[00:29:15] Laser: Very surprising. So we were over there for five days filming every day. The first day we get up, there's not much for us to eat. So Steve and I

[00:29:25] Laser: order breakfast, lunch, and dinner in

[00:29:28] Laser: the morning when we go have breakfast.

[00:29:31] Laser: And

[00:29:31] Laser: so that we have them cook us, uh, the Wagyu and we both have 30 Wagyu a piece, and they're cooking these Wagyu

[00:29:41] Laser: steaks up.

[00:29:42] Laser: Well, we, we don't know anything

[00:29:44] Laser: about yen versus dollars, right? Mm-hmm. We

[00:29:47] Laser: don't know how to convert yen, right? So

[00:29:50] Laser: think of it, we are there for five days. We are eating 60 steaks at a time. 60x5 is

[00:29:55] Laser: 300 steaks Wow. Do you know what

[00:29:57] Laser: that bill came to? I don't

[00:29:59] Laser: wanna know.

[00:30:00] Laser: And we had no

[00:30:01] Laser: idea. Well,

[00:30:02] Laser: we get back

[00:30:02] Laser: to the

[00:30:02] Laser: states.

[00:30:03] Laser: Guess who calls us Brian? Brian says, listen, you took advantage of the Japanese production company. You owe 15, I think it was like $20,000.

[00:30:15] Laser: Oh

[00:30:15] Lori: my, my God. No

[00:30:16] Lori: way.

[00:30:17] Laser: Yeah. And you know, each one of those stakes is like in the us it's like $150 a piece. Oh my God. So they thought we were taking advantage of, so what they did, the gladiators here in the us, they actually, and they fired, I don't even know if you guys know

[00:30:34] Laser: this.

[00:30:35] Laser: They fired Steve and I from the show at, to not to go out on any appearances.

[00:30:41] Laser: We were banned from the show for six months. And it wasn't embarrassing, but it was definitely

[00:30:48] Laser: one of those

[00:30:49] Laser: moments,

[00:30:49] Laser: moments, eyeing moments.

[00:30:49] Lori: Right? Yeah. Wow. No, I knew that.

[00:30:52] Lori: that.

[00:30:52] Lori: I never knew

[00:30:54] Laser: Yeah, we kind

[00:30:55] Laser: kind of kept

[00:30:55] Laser: it secret cuz

[00:30:56] Laser: we were embarrassed,

[00:30:57] Laser: we didn't do it on purpose.

[00:30:58] Laser: We

[00:30:58] Laser: No, you had no idea. Had so

[00:31:01] Laser: that, no idea.

[00:31:02] Laser: That was

[00:31:02] Lori: so, yeah.

[00:31:04] Lori: Unbelievable.

[00:31:05] Lori: So tell me about

[00:31:07] Lori: the

[00:31:10] Lori: coolest celebrity slash athlete that you met while we're in

[00:31:15] Lori: the height of

[00:31:15] Lori: gladiators.

[00:31:16] Coolest things

[00:31:16] Laser: Yeah, probably, uh, one that comes to mind is Kevin Costner. Uh, Kevin Costner. He, she showed up to our studio watching us, I think at least three or four times.

[00:31:27] Laser: Uh, he was filming something and we were at, I

[00:31:31] Laser: were at.

[00:31:31] Laser: were at MGM back then. Mm-hmm.

[00:31:34] Laser: Mm-hmm. Um, Mary Tyler Moore Studios, and

[00:31:38] Laser: He was filming something

[00:31:39] Laser: another

[00:31:39] Laser: studio, but he would come by and I just remember shaking his hand and talking to him. Great guy. And this was in the beginning

[00:31:46] Laser: his career. This was

[00:31:47] Laser: like 19 91, 92, so right.

[00:31:50] Laser: Uh, that was pretty cool.

[00:31:51] Lori: That is very cool.

[00:31:53] Laser: And, and am

[00:31:53] Laser: I not mistaken, you

[00:31:54] Laser: actually was

[00:31:56] Laser: at

[00:31:56] Laser: his wedding,

[00:31:56] Laser: wedding.

[00:31:57] Lori: remember I told you that, and you're like,

[00:32:00] Lori: way.

[00:32:01] Laser: Yeah.

[00:32:01] Laser: Is that true?

[00:32:02] Lori: Yes, that's

[00:32:03] Lori: true.

[00:32:03] Lori: As a matter of fact, it's when, um, I own my tanning salon and his girlfriend at the time was coming into the tanning salon and, uh, super cool.

[00:32:11] Lori: We started playing racquetball together and she'd talk about my boyfriend, my boyfriend, and

[00:32:15] Lori: my boyfriend,

[00:32:15] Lori: And finally one day I

[00:32:16] Lori: just went,

[00:32:17] Lori: who the

[00:32:18] Lori: is your boyfriend?

[00:32:19] Lori: You know? And she goes, oh, Kevin Costner. Like,

[00:32:22] Lori: no big deal.

[00:32:22] Lori: Oh, Kevin

[00:32:23] Lori: I was like,

[00:32:23] Lori: what? You know? And, um, so. Used to go up to the house a little bit, hang out, um, became friends.

[00:32:32] Lori: She invited

[00:32:33] Lori: me to their wedding in Aspen. It was a three day

[00:32:35] Lori: wedding. I mean, it was like, you know, they had, uh, Bonjovi was there. Um, I, there was a list of celebrities obviously, you know, I didn't like hang out with them. That's cool. And that's cool. It was very cool.

[00:32:48] Lori: And

[00:32:48] Lori: Kevin, Kevin is just the coolest guy.

[00:32:51] Lori: I mean, he is just so laid back, just so down to earth, you know. Um, his wife Christine, I mean, she's awesome.

[00:32:58] Lori: And you know, we've lost

[00:32:59] Lori: contact over the years,

[00:33:00] Lori: of course. Um,

[00:33:02] Lori: but yeah, super cool family. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Cool. Yeah. So tell me the next place, like, uh,

[00:33:08] Lori: what's the coolest

[00:33:08] Lori: place you got to go?

[00:33:09] Laser: Coolest place. I mean, during the Gladiator show.

[00:33:12] Lori: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:13] Laser: Um,

[00:33:17] Laser: we went, we

[00:33:17] Laser: well, we did

[00:33:18] Laser: helicopter,

[00:33:19] Laser: we did a, a personal appearance. I, if you were on this winter, we went to Niagara

[00:33:22] Laser: Falls and we did a personal appearance

[00:33:25] Laser: there. And they. And I know Zap was there and we took a, they put us in a he helicopter and we got to fly over right over Niagara Falls and we, we hovered over Niagara Falls.

[00:33:36] Laser: That was, that was pretty like death defined pretty,

[00:33:40] Laser: I I was actually frightened that we were gonna

[00:33:42] Lori: crash. Really? No, I wasn't there. That sounds amazing though. Yeah. That was

[00:33:46] Laser: a cool pull. We had a ton of people that were there. We were right there at Niagara Falls and they took us up in the

[00:33:53] Laser: helicopter. It was pretty,

[00:33:55] Laser: that was a, that was a cool day.

[00:33:56] Laser: I still remember that. That was pretty neat. I

[00:33:59] Lori: can't imagine you being kind

[00:34:01] Lori: of fearful in a helicopter. Yeah.

[00:34:03] Lori: Everything you've done and

[00:34:05] Lori: who you are. I

[00:34:06] Laser: was a little fearful.

[00:34:07] Laser: Yeah. I've done a couple

[00:34:08] Laser: of nutty things,

[00:34:09] Laser: but that was, that, that was, that was actually a little fearful.

[00:34:12] Lori: What I love helicopters.

[00:34:14] Lori: I love 'em.

[00:34:14] Lori: I, every time I go into Hawaii, Maui, I wanna take a

[00:34:17] Lori: helicopter.

[00:34:18] Lori: And the last time I was there, um, I went with um, my girlfriend. I talked her in to going on the helicopter. She took a drama, me, cause she was so freaked out about it and the whole day

[00:34:28] Lori: was wasted because she couldn't function off

[00:34:30] Lori: the Dramamine.

[00:34:32] Lori: But anyway.

[00:34:34] Lori: So now if you were to pick television show, tour, the live show, gimme some of the, like the love hate kind of things, let's start with a television show. Is there like a love hate, like one thing that you would pick out

[00:34:50] Lori: from the television show?

[00:34:51] American Gladiators - Love and Hate Relationship

[00:34:51] Laser: Yeah, I think, well, geez, the,

[00:34:54] Laser: the, the hate would be, you know, doing two, two and sometimes Lori, there were three shows back to back.

[00:35:01] Laser: You know, they, they always did two shows a day. It was, the

[00:35:05] Laser: filming

[00:35:06] Laser: was different. Each year we'd go three days on, one day off, four days on, two days off. And we would do 26 to 29 episodes

[00:35:15] Laser: in the three week season. It,

[00:35:17] Laser: it just really tore you up as a gladiator because if you got hurt or injured the first day of

[00:35:23] Laser: filming, you knew that

[00:35:25] Laser: you weren't gonna get paid for.

[00:35:27] Laser: They didn't pay you for a contract. They paid you per seat, how many shows you were

[00:35:31] Laser: on. Mm-hmm. And if you

[00:35:33] Laser: got injured, you're injured and you, you had to, you

[00:35:37] Laser: had to step up

[00:35:39] Laser: where the contenders, if they advanced on, they wouldn't compete again for another three or four days down the road. did

[00:35:46] Lori: you ever,

[00:35:47] Lori: did you ever get injured

[00:35:49] Lori: to where you had to keep competing and what'd you do to actually, I mean, cuz I got injured with my shoulder

[00:35:55] Lori: I tell the story of.

[00:35:56] Lori: I had to take Vicodin and there was like times that I'd go out and I was swinging on the rings higher

[00:36:01] Lori: than a kite.

[00:36:02] Lori: Oh

[00:36:02] Lori: yeah. You know, because

[00:36:04] Lori: it was, my shoulder

[00:36:05] Lori: was absolutely killing me and it was nerve

[00:36:07] Lori: damage. Yeah. But you know, it just,

[00:36:10] Laser: it's just unfortunate that you, we as athletes, what we put our bodies through, you know, and I still remember all of this being on Vicodin and there

[00:36:19] Laser: was another drug

[00:36:20] Laser: that

[00:36:20] Laser: was very popular

[00:36:21] Laser: at the time, which

[00:36:22] Laser: was a nasal

[00:36:23] Laser: spray, which is, uh,

[00:36:24] Laser: Stadol.

[00:36:25] Laser: Staal.

[00:36:25] Laser: all very highly addictive.

[00:36:27] Laser: that

[00:36:27] Lori: new Bane I heard.

[00:36:28] Laser: Yeah. And it's just, you know, the things that we did just to get through it as an athlete, cuz you knew you waited all year to

[00:36:35] Laser: do this.

[00:36:35] Laser: You had three weeks to film, you trained

[00:36:39] Laser: all

[00:36:39] Laser: year, you look good, you're in shape and you know you're gonna feed yourself and your family on what

[00:36:45] Laser: you're doing for three weeks and do or die.

[00:36:47] Laser: You're, you're gonna

[00:36:48] Laser: do it, man.

[00:36:48] Laser: I mean, I.

[00:36:49] Laser: There were

[00:36:50] Laser: so many year

[00:36:51] Laser: seasons. Every year I'd get hurt or other gladiators

[00:36:54] Laser: would get

[00:36:54] Laser: hurt. And you're, you're still out there competing

[00:36:57] Laser: just because, you

[00:36:58] Laser: know you have to, plus it's in you. I mean, that just

[00:37:00] Laser: the animal part of who we

[00:37:02] Laser: are as athletes. You just, no one's gonna put you down unless you, you're so injured, you can't get

[00:37:07] Laser: out there.

[00:37:07] Laser: Right. I

[00:37:08] Laser: mean, there's

[00:37:08] Laser: a big

[00:37:08] Laser: difference between, between

[00:37:10] Laser: pain

[00:37:10] Laser: and injury. You know, you, you can play with pain, injury is a different subject. So tell me what you loved

[00:37:16] Laser: about it.

[00:37:18] Laser: I just, I love the competition and I love the, uh, the camaraderie with your teammates. Um, I love

[00:37:27] Laser: the competition

[00:37:28] Laser: to prove that

[00:37:29] Laser: that you were damn good at

[00:37:30] Laser: what you did.

[00:37:31] Laser: I didn't really care, Lori. Truth truthfully, I didn't care whether I was on tv.

[00:37:37] Laser: The other things,

[00:37:38] Laser: signing autographs outside of doing the show. Great. Really cool. Yeah. But it's really about competing. Um, I hear you. Cause when you're an athlete and you're competing at the highest level

[00:37:51] Laser: and you can showcase your skillset, man, that's a great feeling.

[00:37:55] Lori: You

[00:37:56] Lori: You told me one time about the Orlando Live, what you did not like

[00:38:00] Lori: about it.

[00:38:01] Lori: Do you remember

[00:38:02] Lori: what you told me?

[00:38:03] Lori: No. Remind me. You told me the one

[00:38:06] Lori: thing

[00:38:06] Lori: you didn't like about the Orlando show.

[00:38:08] Lori: Oh, I do. Okay.

[00:38:08] Lori: I do.

[00:38:09] Laser: do. Yeah. The Orlando Live show, which was, uh,

[00:38:13] Laser: it was popular, pretty cool show. But you're

[00:38:17] Laser: competing

[00:38:18] Laser: against the same

[00:38:19] Laser: athletes

[00:38:20] Laser: night after night, night

[00:38:22] Laser: after night.

[00:38:23] Laser: And let me tell

[00:38:24] Laser: you,

[00:38:24] Laser: if, if I get to know, and

[00:38:27] Laser: as you know, Lori, on

[00:38:29] Laser: our television show, we never fraternize and nor did they want us.

[00:38:33] Laser: us.

[00:38:34] Laser: To fraternize with the contenders because, and last year

[00:38:37] Lori: were sleeping with

[00:38:38] Laser: them.

[00:38:38] Laser: This is me. Oh man. I don't, I can't speak for anybody else,

[00:38:41] Laser: but

[00:38:42] Laser: if I get to know you and you become

[00:38:44] Laser: my buddy

[00:38:46] Laser: and

[00:38:46] Laser: my friend, I'm telling

[00:38:48] Laser: you I'm not, I don't wanna rip your head off.

[00:38:51] Laser: It's just something

[00:38:51] Laser: innately humanistic,

[00:38:54] Laser: uh, part of who we are, that

[00:38:56] Laser: I'm

[00:38:56] Laser: just not gonna be that rough and

[00:38:58] Laser: tumble guy if I

[00:38:59] Laser: get to know you and I think, Hey, you're a

[00:39:00] Laser: a you're a cool

[00:39:01] Laser: dude. Yeah. So that was very difficult to go up against the same individuals night after night. Night after night and it's like, oh my God.

[00:39:11] Laser: Really? Yeah, because, and it was boring. Yeah. You know,

[00:39:15] Laser: and, and

[00:39:16] Laser: I did the show for a while and another injury. I, all I do

[00:39:19] Laser: is get injured. I, I, I, I was

[00:39:22] Laser: out with tank

[00:39:23] Laser: one night. We

[00:39:23] Laser: were all partying and, uh, I had cowboy boots on and he was in a parking lot. He was on the first floor. I drove in in my car and got out and

[00:39:34] Laser: I saw

[00:39:34] Laser: him down on the first level and

[00:39:35] Laser: he goes, just jump over the parking

[00:39:38] Laser: lot.

[00:39:39] Laser: So I jumped over from the second story to the first story and my boot hit

[00:39:44] Laser: the

[00:39:45] Laser: side of the curb

[00:39:46] Laser: and

[00:39:47] Laser: my

[00:39:47] Laser: ankle, I just, it

[00:39:50] Laser: exploded. And I, that was the end of

[00:39:53] Laser: my

[00:39:53] Laser: career.

[00:39:54] Laser: I, I went home

[00:39:55] Laser: to California from Florida, cuz that's where we filmed it. Kissing me, Florida. And that was the end of my career. I, I was, I never returned.

[00:40:03] Laser: That was, I was done. I was, we

[00:40:04] Lori: were, we were done with, we were done with the show. Anyway, after that, I was done.

[00:40:08] Lori: I

[00:40:08] Laser: was,

[00:40:08] Laser: I was so damn over. I

[00:40:09] Lori: was over it. The live show was like the last hoorah, you

[00:40:13] Lori: know? Yeah. That was

[00:40:14] Lori: it. And they're like trying to drain everything out of there, you know? Yeah. Tell me your thoughts about

[00:40:19] Lori: the tour.

[00:40:20] Lori: How much fun did you have? And,

[00:40:21] The Live Show

[00:40:21] Laser: oh

[00:40:21] Laser: oh my

[00:40:22] Laser: God, we were like rock stars, man. That, that was,

[00:40:25] Laser: uh,

[00:40:26] Laser: gosh, I wish we could do it again. That was just such a cool vibe. And what would you

[00:40:31] Lori: do over, what would you re, would you do anything differently if you had to

[00:40:35] Lori: do it all over again?

[00:40:36] Lori: No. Yeah. I,

[00:40:37] Laser: everything

[00:40:38] Laser: was perfect. It was

[00:40:39] Laser: just the, the audience at different, different city.

[00:40:44] Laser: Every night we went to Madison

[00:40:46] Laser: Square Garden, we were in the Superdome.

[00:40:48] Laser: We were in,

[00:40:49] Laser: oh my gosh. It, it, it

[00:40:50] Laser: was,

[00:40:52] Laser: it was, we felt like we

[00:40:54] Laser: were rock

[00:40:54] Laser: stars. All the guys and the girl gladiators. And, uh, uh, I think our,

[00:40:59] Laser: uh,

[00:41:00] Laser: manager was, we were all on the same

[00:41:02] Laser: tour

[00:41:02] Laser: bus.

[00:41:04] Laser: We were

[00:41:04] Laser: packing in 12 to 15,000 fans.

[00:41:07] Laser: Uh,

[00:41:08] Laser: we were just, man, what, what a Wow.

[00:41:11] Laser: Yeah,

[00:41:11] Laser: what a

[00:41:12] Laser: rash.

[00:41:12] Laser: Great stories, man. And stories that we

[00:41:15] Laser: do not want to

[00:41:16] Laser: to dive into Nortel cause uh,

[00:41:19] Laser: we might get

[00:41:20] Laser: ourselves in

[00:41:20] Lori: trouble. You know what's really

[00:41:22] Lori: sad about

[00:41:22] Lori: that too,

[00:41:23] Lori: because it's

[00:41:23] Lori: like, there are

[00:41:24] Lori: so many stories

[00:41:25] Lori: on that tour.

[00:41:26] Lori: Wow. And you're

[00:41:27] Lori: right, I would say 85% of us

[00:41:31] Lori: will take it to the

[00:41:32] Lori: grave, you know, and,

[00:41:34] Laser: and good thing, Lori, it was before cell phones and video cameras.

[00:41:39] Lori: Oh, dude. Can

[00:41:40] Laser: you imagine if we had, if we

[00:41:42] Laser: had that back then I think we would all be, I think in jail, arrested or have 15 different kids around the country. I don't know.

[00:41:49] Laser: 100%.

[00:41:50] Lori: 100%. It

[00:41:51] Laser: was, uh, it was,

[00:41:52] Laser: uh, the things that we even did, like just the guys and the girls on the. On the

[00:41:58] Laser: bus

[00:41:58] Laser: party and after each show and get, it was just crazy, right?

[00:42:02] Laser: Yeah,

[00:42:02] Lori: it was. I think I saw your

[00:42:04] Lori: ass

[00:42:04] Lori: one too many times, Jim. I,

[00:42:06] Lori: It was

[00:42:07] Laser: fun.

[00:42:08] Laser: It was some good,

[00:42:09] Laser: a

[00:42:09] Laser: little stripping of it along the way.

[00:42:11] Lori: What happens with you guys? I tell that story.

[00:42:14] Lori: Am I like laughing?

[00:42:14] Lori: I'm like, the

[00:42:15] Lori: minute the gladiator guys

[00:42:16] Lori: get alcohol in their system, they start doing the strip teas.

[00:42:21] Laser: I know.

[00:42:23] Laser: Well, I,

[00:42:25] Laser: the one, the one person I remember distinctly was Diamond. Ah.

[00:42:30] Laser: Because yeah.

[00:42:31] Laser: You know, she's, uh, pretty heavy chested and

[00:42:36] Laser: it was just,

[00:42:36] Laser: uh, That,

[00:42:39] Lori: that was fun. It was, it was fun. We had

[00:42:41] Lori: a blast. That was

[00:42:42] Lori: an amazing, yeah, it was. That's what I'm, I mean, that's the whole thing about this podcast. It's like we get to tell the stories that, I mean, I know the documentary's coming out, but there's no way they're gonna be able to capture the stories that we actually have

[00:42:59] Lori: about the tour, about the live

[00:43:01] Lori: show, you know, everything like that.

[00:43:03] Lori: It's just, yeah.

[00:43:04] Lori: Unbelievable. We had so

[00:43:05] Lori: many things

[00:43:06] Lori: to, to do.

[00:43:07] Lori: Yeah.

[00:43:08] Lori: So, I

[00:43:09] Lori: mean, it's,

[00:43:10] Lori: do you have any, like, would you do anything differently

[00:43:14] Lori: at

[00:43:14] Lori: all in your life

[00:43:15] Lori: if you

[00:43:16] Lori: you knew how this was all gonna end?

[00:43:18] Laser: Boy, that's a

[00:43:20] Laser: great question, Lori. Um,

[00:43:22] Lori: I had

[00:43:23] Laser: to

[00:43:23] Lori: get one

[00:43:23] Lori: of those into, I do,

[00:43:25] Laser: I do

[00:43:26] Laser: regret. I mean, I,

[00:43:27] Laser: you know, as an

[00:43:28] Laser: athlete, that's what you do.

[00:43:29] Laser: Right. But my, the, um,

[00:43:32] Laser: the

[00:43:33] Laser: of injuries. That I sustained over those years, and I still am going through it. You

[00:43:40] Laser: know, I, it,

[00:43:40] Laser: it's, it's been really difficult. Even though I

[00:43:43] Laser: still go to

[00:43:43] Laser: the gym every day.

[00:43:44] Laser: I still watch what I eat. I'm in the

[00:43:46] Laser: nutrition space, so it's important for me to feel good, look good, live a

[00:43:52] Laser: healthy

[00:43:52] Laser: lifestyle.

[00:43:53] Laser: But,

[00:43:54] Laser: know, I feel like

[00:43:55] Laser: an old man, man. I mean, there's, uh,

[00:43:58] Laser: tough stuff. My

[00:43:59] Laser: back, my shoulders, uh, a lot of things that, you know, I wake up and people look at you and they think, ah, you're a healthy guy, but they don't

[00:44:08] Laser: see when you

[00:44:09] Laser: close the door and you're by yourself and you're with your wife, and. That's all she hears is you bitching and complaining how hurt you are and you can't move and you,

[00:44:18] Laser: takes you

[00:44:18] Laser: 20 minutes

[00:44:19] Laser: to just kind of

[00:44:21] Laser: straighten up your back when you get up in the morning.

[00:44:23] Laser: So,

[00:44:23] Lori: you

[00:44:24] Lori: know, it's No, I hear you on that one.

[00:44:26] Lori: I have to like,

[00:44:26] Laser: it's a

[00:44:27] Laser: it's a tough deal, you know, but

[00:44:29] Laser: I have

[00:44:30] Laser: reach, that's something I

[00:44:31] Laser: I I, I just wish I didn't have all those injuries, you know?

[00:44:34] Laser: I, yeah. I'm pretty beat up right now, so,

[00:44:37] Lori: yeah. When I get outta bed in

[00:44:38] Lori: the

[00:44:38] Lori: I literally have to reach over,

[00:44:40] Lori: pull myself over, roll

[00:44:43] Lori: over.

[00:44:43] Lori: Yeah. And I hear you. It's, it's the injuries and, and that's really what it comes

[00:44:49] Lori: down to is, I mean, we put

[00:44:51] Lori: our bodies

[00:44:51] Lori: through so much. Yeah. And it was like, you know, hitting and tackling and, I mean, it was just unbelievable stuff that You're right.

[00:44:58] Lori: Today we're all dealing you know? Yeah. And

[00:45:01] Lori: all of us are.

[00:45:02] Lori: Yeah.

[00:45:03] Lori: But then again, it's kind of like, you redo it? Would you do it differently? Nah. Yeah,

[00:45:09] Lori: you wouldn't,

[00:45:09] Lori: you're still gonna be the animal out there that's. That's just insane ripping people's heads off. I love it. So tell me what happened after Gladiators

[00:45:18] Lori: was over.

[00:45:19] Lori: I mean, did you, yeah. When it ended, did you kind of go through

[00:45:23] Lori: like a weird

[00:45:24] Lori: period of adjustment identity?

[00:45:27] Lori: I mean, think about it. You've been, you were laser for eight to nine years

[00:45:31] Lori: solid.

[00:45:32] Lori: Yeah. And that's how

[00:45:32] Lori: people looked

[00:45:33] Lori: at you and that's how, you know, they, they addressed you, I'm sure. Just like they do me. I was like, ice, no, it's laser. So I mean, yeah. Did

[00:45:39] Lori: you go through

[00:45:40] Lori: kind of

[00:45:40] Lori: an adjustment into everyday normal

[00:45:43] Lori: life?

[00:45:44] What normal life looks like for Laser

[00:45:44] Laser: Yeah. Good question. Again. Um, yeah. I think in life everybody goes through adjustments, right? You, you have a career and all

[00:45:51] Laser: of a sudden

[00:45:51] Laser: it ends. Uh, you get fired, they let go.

[00:45:53] Laser: They have cutbacks

[00:45:54] Laser: in companies and, and you have to start a new path in life, right? And, and uh, that's what's unique about some individuals.

[00:46:03] Laser: They have that entrepreneurial

[00:46:04] Laser: spirit

[00:46:04] Laser: and that go forward attitude and. Absolutely. I went through that period of who am I, what am I doing? You know, I, I went through

[00:46:12] Laser: it with, uh, football

[00:46:14] Laser: and in my career, and I'm like, what am I gonna do now? Right. Trying to change that pathway, um, and then the glider, and you're thinking, oh

[00:46:22] Laser: my gosh,

[00:46:22] Laser: now what?

[00:46:23] Laser: I'm out of a job. I

[00:46:24] Laser: mean, even though I had a

[00:46:26] Laser: college degree, it's like, really that's what

[00:46:28] Laser: I want to do now

[00:46:29] Laser: after, you know, I was 35 years old, never hold a, held a corporate job. So yeah, it was, it was, it was very frightening. Um, so

[00:46:37] Laser: to answer your question, what I did

[00:46:38] Laser: is,

[00:46:39] Laser: you know, during, during the gladiators, I, I was

[00:46:42] Laser: a personal trainer in the off season, um, did fairly well, did all that.

[00:46:46] Laser: I was a spokesperson for

[00:46:47] Laser: a couple companies, metrics, another multi-level company, multi-level marketing company called Ola. Did really well in there and

[00:46:55] Laser: had a

[00:46:55] Laser: lot

[00:46:55] Laser: of, uh,

[00:46:56] Laser: background in writing articles for nutrition and dietary

[00:46:59] Laser: supplements and. And

[00:47:01] Laser: lo

[00:47:01] Laser: and behold, uh, as I was a,

[00:47:03] Laser: a fitness trainer, I ili trained most of my clients outta

[00:47:07] Laser: my house.

[00:47:08] Laser: A client of mine said, Hey, I, I, I know this guy named, uh, Neil Spruce. And I overheard him talking about his company and he was looking for someone else

[00:47:16] Laser: to hire, running

[00:47:18] Laser: a subdivision called iGen Labs. Uh, you should call

[00:47:22] Laser: him. I said,

[00:47:23] Laser: well, I know Neil.

[00:47:24] Laser: I don't

[00:47:24] Laser: know him personally, but I know

[00:47:25] Laser: who he is. And,

[00:47:27] Laser: uh, so Neil was running nutrition analysis

[00:47:30] Laser: at Gold's

[00:47:30] Laser: Gym, and then he left and he started

[00:47:32] Laser: to come be called

[00:47:32] Laser: Apex Fitness.

[00:47:34] Laser: So he, I said, well, gimme his phone number. Maybe I'll call him. So

[00:47:40] Laser: at the time, I, I, I held onto that

[00:47:42] Laser: phone number for a month and it just ate at me every day. should I call him? Should I call him? And

[00:47:49] Laser: I finally

[00:47:50] Laser: had the nerve. I just said I was kind

[00:47:53] Laser: of

[00:47:53] Laser: getting tired of training. Mm-hmm. Um, And relying on people to show up to pay my bills.

[00:47:59] Laser: Right. And it,

[00:48:00] Laser: was

[00:48:00] Laser: very tough. And so

[00:48:02] Laser: I called him in the

[00:48:04] Laser: evening on a Sunday, told him who I was.

[00:48:06] Laser: He knew I was, he said, Hey,

[00:48:08] Laser: will you fax me fax? Will you fax over your

[00:48:10] Laser: resume?

[00:48:12] Laser: I faxed over my resume. You're like, what resume?

[00:48:15] Laser: Yeah. He called me back later that night

[00:48:18] Laser: says, you're hired. I said, what? He goes, come in Monday morning mean, and our c f o

[00:48:22] Laser: o sign the paperwork.

[00:48:24] Laser: I'll

[00:48:24] Laser: you exactly what

[00:48:25] Laser: you're gonna do. You're perfect for the

[00:48:26] Laser: job. So

[00:48:28] Laser: went in Monday, signed a contract.

[00:48:31] Laser: first

[00:48:31] Laser: corporate lead job,

[00:48:32] Laser: eight hour day.

[00:48:33] Laser: day. I've

[00:48:33] Laser: never worked an eight hour day

[00:48:35] Laser: except

[00:48:35] Laser: construction when

[00:48:36] Laser: I was younger. And what I did is I, I, I started running this company called a subdivision called Ergen Labs.

[00:48:42] Laser: Now,

[00:48:43] Laser: apex Fitness

[00:48:44] Laser: became the private label brand nutrition, private label brand for 24 Hour Fitness, cuz they bought Apex. So I went from running URGO and Labs, turned

[00:48:54] Laser: company

[00:48:55] Laser: over to a multi-million dollar company by doing a one-man roadshow, going out and talking, uh, to all the trainers at 24 hour about

[00:49:02] Laser: the products,

[00:49:03] Laser: doing

[00:49:03] Laser: educational

[00:49:04] Laser: seminars.

[00:49:05] Laser: I went, we went from zero to about 3 million the first year by just doing what I did and became pretty successful within the company. And I ended up just moving up the company ladder and became the VP of product development for Apex, uh, and 24 Hour Fitness for 11 years. And then, uh, apex, uh, dissolved and uh, Neil

[00:49:25] Laser: opened another company

[00:49:26] Laser: called.fit and was with them for a few years and then started my

[00:49:30] Laser: own company, sports Nutrition Consulting Group.

[00:49:33] Laser: Went and did that,

[00:49:34] Laser: uh,

[00:49:35] Laser: developing products for companies.

[00:49:36] Laser: And then, uh, lifetime Fitness,

[00:49:38] Laser: uh, hired me. Um, went with

[00:49:41] Laser: them for

[00:49:41] Laser: a few years and,

[00:49:43] Laser: and then just two years ago it was kind of semi-retired. Um,

[00:49:47] Laser: and. A

[00:49:49] Laser: Very good buddy of mine who's a master trainer in California, Mike Pincus. He had,

[00:49:54] Laser: uh, he and I

[00:49:56] Laser: were very good friends and always went mountain biking.

[00:49:58] Laser: We always reminisced about working together at

[00:50:01] Laser: some

[00:50:01] Laser: point, doing something. You

[00:50:03] Laser: know how guys

[00:50:03] Laser: think and you daydream and,

[00:50:05] Laser: oh yeah.

[00:50:06] Laser: So he

[00:50:06] Laser: had called me about a year and a

[00:50:08] Laser: half ago. He says, listen, I'm

[00:50:09] Laser: under N D A.

[00:50:10] Laser: I can't really discuss what I'm doing, but I want to

[00:50:12] Laser: bring you on board.

[00:50:14] Laser: I don't know

[00:50:14] Laser: in what capacity

[00:50:15] Laser: or what you're gonna

[00:50:16] Laser: do, but

[00:50:18] Laser: I know I'm gonna, I know I'm gonna bring you

[00:50:19] Laser: on board.

[00:50:20] Laser: So, lo and behold, shortly after that, he was able to tell me what he was doing. Um, and I, I was like, I was just blown away because everyone that's in that field of nutrition and supplementation and

[00:50:36] Laser: food ha

[00:50:37] Laser: have all visioned

[00:50:39] Laser: by

[00:50:39] Laser: taking a s a scan of your food with your own phone and having it come back.

[00:50:46] Laser: In seconds telling you exactly what you're gonna, what's on your plate in terms of calories, protein, every nutrition, so all the

[00:50:52] Lori: macros, everything, everything. I mean, that's, that is

[00:50:55] Lori: a game changer

[00:50:56] Lori: because that's a game changer. Remember?

[00:50:57] Lori: I mean,

[00:50:58] Lori: I know that when I

[00:50:58] Lori: was personal training

[00:50:59] Lori: people and it came down to

[00:51:00] Lori: nutrition, it was like, okay, you're supposed to eat this, this, and this.

[00:51:03] Lori: Well,

[00:51:03] Lori: how much am I supposed to eat? Well, you know, it's the rule of thumb.

[00:51:06] Lori: Just

[00:51:06] Lori: if it can

[00:51:07] Lori: fit in

[00:51:07] Lori: the palm of your hand Yeah. Then that's the portion size. Right. So, I mean, we never knew as far as portions, we didn't know what the macro we were all

[00:51:15] Laser: guessing. Yeah. Well, the 24-hour

[00:51:18] Laser: recall,

[00:51:18] Laser: all these

[00:51:19] Laser: dieticians have people, do

[00:51:20] Laser: you do that for a week or two and, and it, it dissolves within

[00:51:24] Laser: matter

[00:51:24] Laser: of, uh, days, if not hours, right.

[00:51:27] Laser: After doing it. So,

[00:51:28] Lori: uh, so now this company, company launched and what's the name of the, what's the name of this app? Yeah. So

[00:51:33] Laser: this is really exciting. So I've been with the company a year and a half. I'm the name of the company's Opsis Health. Mm-hmm. But our application's called Plateful, P

[00:51:41] Laser: A T

[00:51:42] Laser: E F U L.

[00:51:43] Laser: And, uh,

[00:51:45] Laser: playful. Uh, we've been in stealth mode for about four and a half years.

[00:51:49] Laser: What's interesting

[00:51:50] Laser: about this story is the founder is, his name's Kevin

[00:51:54] Laser: Grande. Kevin,

[00:51:55] Laser: uh, is a hardware designer, and he was

[00:51:59] Laser: Steve Jobs lead

[00:52:00] Laser: hardware designer

[00:52:01] Laser: next computer,

[00:52:02] Laser: uh, for about eight years in the late eighties. And he's an electrical engineer by trade.

[00:52:09] Laser: His daughter

[00:52:10] Laser: had Crohn's disease and he knew that his daughter, uh, his daughter's symptoms were coming from

[00:52:18] Laser: food.

[00:52:19] Laser: So what he did, he stripped every nutrient out of her body and slowly introduced

[00:52:24] Laser: and realized that yes, all her symptoms were

[00:52:27] Laser: cause of food

[00:52:29] Laser: causation.

[00:52:30] Laser: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:31] Laser: he

[00:52:31] Laser: thought to himself,

[00:52:32] Laser: listen,

[00:52:33] Laser: if Google Maps can get you 10 feet

[00:52:35] Laser: your

[00:52:35] Laser: destination, why can't we use our own cell phone, scan a plate of food, have it

[00:52:41] Laser: segmented, Give you

[00:52:42] Laser: the volume, which no

[00:52:45] Laser: one has ever mm-hmm.

[00:52:45] Laser: Been able

[00:52:46] Laser: to figure out until now. And that's exactly what Kevin did. So four and a half years later,

[00:52:51] Laser: 43

[00:52:52] Laser: patents, he's had five major breakthroughs, five tech teams, some of the best data AI machine learning people in the entire

[00:53:00] Laser: world.

[00:53:00] Laser: Working on our team, we got,

[00:53:02] Laser: uh, we got six,

[00:53:04] Laser: uh, rds. We

[00:53:05] Laser: got 11,

[00:53:05] Laser: uh, we got 11 PhDs on staff, three MDs.

[00:53:10] Laser: We got 30 people outside of our company worldwide working on this.

[00:53:14] Laser: I'm happy to announce that we just launched

[00:53:17] Laser: and there's two phases to our application. It's PLATEFUL

[00:53:21] Laser: 1.0 and Plateful 2.0.

[00:53:23] Laser: Plateful 1.0 just went in

[00:53:25] Laser: the app

[00:53:25] Laser: stores today under goo Google Play and the app store. And what it is, is you can take your cell phone, And you can scan any barcode in your pantry at the grocery store, convenience store, and on the barcode.

[00:53:40] Laser: And this is

[00:53:41] Laser: instantaneously, it'll happen,

[00:53:44] Laser: it'll

[00:53:44] Laser: give you a score between zero and a hundred.

[00:53:47] Laser: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:47] Laser: 100

[00:53:48] Laser: being the healthiest on a NV score. It's a

[00:53:51] Laser: nutrition value score. And all of this is based on

[00:53:54] Laser: deep science

[00:53:55] Laser: through Tufts University.

[00:53:57] Laser: Um,

[00:53:58] Laser: and, uh, see that's amazing Food compass score. And it'll give you an EV score, which is a

[00:54:03] Laser: eco value score, which

[00:54:05] Laser: based on land degradation, water consumption, and CO2 emissions, uh, climate.

[00:54:10] Laser: Mm-hmm. And people that care about our climate, because food is 30%

[00:54:15] Laser: of, uh, production waste. So

[00:54:17] Laser: people that care about food and, and processing and, and plantation and all of that are gonna care about those two numbers, but it's,

[00:54:26] Laser: it's such a

[00:54:27] Laser: cool thing to be able to scan. Yeah. Any food. And know how healthy your food is from zero to a hundred.

[00:54:35] Laser: And you want those foods at least above a 50. And you will find that when you're scanning your foods, you're gonna be surprised

[00:54:44] Laser: how detailed and

[00:54:48] Laser: probably under underscored the, the foods that you've been eating are

[00:54:53] Laser: under a 50.

[00:54:54] Laser: Oh, I'm sure. The note's in our food today, because the calorie's dead. We all know that.

[00:54:58] Laser: Yeah. But you

[00:54:59] Laser: can download

[00:55:00] Laser: it, uh, you

[00:55:01] Laser: can go to plateful.org, uh, slash download. Um, and you

[00:55:06] Laser: can go right there and people can download the, uh, PLATEFUL 1.0

[00:55:09] Laser: And start scanning all their foods and,

[00:55:12] Laser: uh, go from there. It, it, it's, it's a game changer.

[00:55:15] Laser: And Plateful

[00:55:16] Laser: 2.00 will come out

[00:55:18] Laser: in June,

[00:55:19] Laser: and that's where you're gonna take your phone and scan over a plate of food.

[00:55:22] Laser: . And

[00:55:22] Laser: that'll give

[00:55:23] Laser: you all the 224 nutrition markers in a matter of seconds. And we give you turn by turn directions with, um, with rings, and there's five rings. There's fruit specials, whole grains, calcium, and uh, healthy proteins. And if you close those rings, you've met your variety needs, which is a diet quality value score for the day.

[00:55:43] Laser: You, you're off to the races. That's insane.

[00:55:45] Laser: You are,

[00:55:46] Laser: you now health span and lifespan. You've just increased your health spann by about

[00:55:49] Laser: 11 years. And this is all based on published research. So, so check

[00:55:53] Laser: it out. It's pretty cool.

[00:55:55] Lori: Jim. That's so exciting. I'm so happy for you. Yeah. I mean, it, it sounds like

[00:55:58] Laser: I'm, I'm happy that, that,

[00:56:00] Laser: that

[00:56:01] Laser: we as a company are able to figure this out for the entire world

[00:56:06] Laser: because

[00:56:07] Laser: we, we know calories are dead, right?

[00:56:09] Laser: Mm-hmm. Everybody goes off calories. But if you look since the 1970s, and it's a trend that keeps going up and up. We as a nation keep getting fatter and fatter year over year. But we've had more memberships pulled out of, of health clubs. We've had more wearables, we've had every diet in the

[00:56:28] Laser: world. If they were all working,

[00:56:30] Laser: how

[00:56:30] Laser: come we're getting fatter as a

[00:56:31] Laser: nation?

[00:56:32] Laser: And in

[00:56:32] Laser: 2030,

[00:56:34] Lori: that's a, that's a

[00:56:35] Lori: whole 2050. That's a whole nother podcast. Because the

[00:56:38] Lori: fact that, oh my God. I

[00:56:39] Lori: mean, think about the nutritional, um, the nutritional industry, the

[00:56:44] Lori: fitness industry,

[00:56:45] Lori: cazillion dollar business industry. Yeah. Every year there seems to be a new diet, a new, uh, I mean all, all

[00:56:52] Laser: the time.

[00:56:52] Laser: Because they don't work, Lori. Yeah. I mean, they, they don't work. And you know, when you look at a label on a food label, a food label doesn't give you everything that's in that, in that food,

[00:57:03] Laser: right? Mm-hmm.

[00:57:03] Laser: It doesn't give you all the

[00:57:04] Laser: nutrients

[00:57:05] Laser: that are.

[00:57:07] Laser: Good or

[00:57:07] Laser: bad. Right. So, you know, we finally now

[00:57:10] Laser: have

[00:57:11] Laser: cracked the code on being able to display and correctly give information to the end user.

[00:57:19] Laser: And what's great

[00:57:19] Laser: about this

[00:57:20] Laser: application, it's free to the, that's even better end user

[00:57:23] Laser: forever. They'll never have to pay for a premium

[00:57:26] Laser: version. They'll never, we'll never sell your data. It's free to the end user. Where we monetize it is we have a dashboard, uh, that dieticians,

[00:57:37] Laser: uh,

[00:57:38] Laser: nutritionist coaches, uh, accountable care

[00:57:41] Laser: organizations

[00:57:42] Laser: can then download through you giving them a code and they can look at your manifests and your dashboard and be able to really help you with maybe you have, um,

[00:57:54] Laser: uh, calcium

[00:57:55] Laser: deficiency and bone, bone loss

[00:57:57] Laser: or, uh,

[00:57:58] Laser: hypertensive.

[00:57:59] Laser: And you're, you have high sodium, but you don't know what to do.

[00:58:03] Laser: So

[00:58:03] Laser: So have this dashboard that they would pay $10 per user per month to be able to

[00:58:08] Laser: look at

[00:58:09] Laser: their dashboard, look at their trends, look at their rings, their diet quality value, and be able to assess each individual on

[00:58:17] Laser: individual basis. So it's

[00:58:18] Lori: pretty dark. Cool. That's that's amazing. I mean,

[00:58:20] Lori: yeah, Jim, you look fucking amazing right now anyway. You like, I, I said this before. You are aging like a fine wine.

[00:58:28] Lori: You're getting better

[00:58:30] Lori: with age.

[00:58:30] Laser: I got, I

[00:58:31] Laser: I got

[00:58:31] Laser: eyelids

[00:58:31] Laser: pulling over my eyes. I don't know. I'm getting

[00:58:33] Laser: pretty

[00:58:34] Laser: old. Oh, just go

[00:58:35] Lori: have those surgically

[00:58:35] Lori: removed.

[00:58:36] Lori: Come on.

[00:58:38] Lori: You'll do

[00:58:38] Lori: anything. But I mean, it's like between your training, um, your nutrition obviously, and just, I know from eating right, and, and doing everything. I mean, obviously it's

[00:58:50] Lori: it's like

[00:58:51] Lori: that's your. Anti-aging right there. Yeah. I mean, you're looking fabulous.

[00:58:56] Lori: And so,

[00:58:56] Laser: oh, thanks,

[00:58:56] Laser: Lori.

[00:58:57] Laser: You know, as, as anyone listening to this

[00:59:00] Laser: podcast, Lori,

[00:59:01] Laser: food is everything.

[00:59:03] Laser: 80% of all of our morbidities, comorbidities, all caused by,

[00:59:07] Laser: by bad nutrition. Mm-hmm. We all

[00:59:09] Laser: this. You, you,

[00:59:12] Laser: you'll be amazed

[00:59:13] Laser: what's in your, when you find out what's in your food and you think food's healthy. Mm-hmm. Let me tell you,

[00:59:18] Laser: it's,

[00:59:18] Laser: it's, it's so bad. it, it's, it's sort of scary that the F FDA allows some of these different processes, these different additives.

[00:59:28] Laser: Alter, alter, processed foods that

[00:59:30] Laser: that we

[00:59:30] Laser: eat, package form. We're stuff you can have, if you can go on a, uh, so Opsis Health, we're

[00:59:38] Laser: a data

[00:59:38] Laser: and a behavioral company. Mm-hmm. Right? That's all we are. We're not a, we're not a diet

[00:59:42] Laser: app.

[00:59:43] Laser: not selling you a diet.

[00:59:45] Laser: What you'll realize when you, when you close those

[00:59:48] Laser: five rings that I

[00:59:48] Laser: that I mentioned,

[00:59:49] Laser: the fruits, festivals, whole grains, calcium, and protein, And you, you're eating high quality nutrient dense foods.

[00:59:56] Laser: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:56] Laser: And I'll

[00:59:57] Laser: And I'll give you an example. Our

[00:59:58] Laser: coo, o o

[00:59:59] Laser: 71 years old, he was 180 5 2 months ago without even

[01:00:04] Laser: trying, because he's

[01:00:05] Laser: been scanning all his food, closing his rings, he's down to 1 62.

[01:00:10] Laser: He looks

[01:00:10] Laser: fabulous. Yeah. I mean, and he didn't try to lose weight. That's what happens

[01:00:15] Laser: when you get

[01:00:16] Laser: nutrient dense food that has high fiber.

[01:00:18] Laser: Yeah. You're naturally gonna lose weight and you're not even trying to lose weight. Our f

[01:00:23] Lori: our food process is,

[01:00:24] Lori: it, it's

[01:00:25] Lori: absolutely terrible. It sucks. I've always known that even when I was in body building and, and dieting, they were like, don't eat anything out of a can. That's

[01:00:32] Lori: Nothing that's

[01:00:33] Lori: frozen or packaged.

[01:00:35] Lori: If anything, you want it as natural, as natural, as

[01:00:38] Lori: as

[01:00:38] Lori: as you

[01:00:38] Lori: could possibly be.

[01:00:40] Lori: That's

[01:00:40] Laser: so, and listen, Lori, we all know we,

[01:00:43] Laser: we are humans. Right?

[01:00:44] Laser: Right. So we

[01:00:44] Laser: know that we're gonna have.

[01:00:47] Laser: Our

[01:00:47] Laser: chips, we're gonna have, uh, Pringles, we're gonna have ice cream. Hey, it's fine. Moderation. It's, it's, it's, it's just resetting.

[01:00:57] Laser: It's, Hey, have your chip. Yeah. If you

[01:00:58] Laser: want those chips,

[01:01:00] Laser: great. But still eat the variety of foods to

[01:01:03] Laser: fill those

[01:01:04] Laser: rings. Fill your diet quality value

[01:01:06] Laser: cuz diet, quality value on

[01:01:07] Laser: variety of foods. Yeah.

[01:01:09] Laser: That's where it comes through. And gosh,

[01:01:12] Laser: I wish we would've had this when we were all

[01:01:14] Laser: doing the gladiators. And

[01:01:15] Laser: I, I tell my company that,

[01:01:17] Laser: you know,

[01:01:18] Laser: the way we used to eat and we probably still kind

[01:01:20] Laser: of have

[01:01:21] Laser: that mindset of it's all protein.

[01:01:23] Laser: We can't have fruits. Yeah. We can't have too many vegetables. Uh oh boy. We can't have anything

[01:01:29] Lori: that, uh, it's always, it's all changed calcium. I know, I know.

[01:01:32] Lori: You see

[01:01:33] Lori: what

[01:01:33] Laser: I

[01:01:33] Laser: mean? So it's, it's, it's the wrong setting. And

[01:01:36] Laser: I even talked to

[01:01:37] Laser: Steve Henneberry last week, tower. I said, are you getting many fruits?

[01:01:41] Laser: He goes, no. Fruit.

[01:01:42] Laser: I, boy, you

[01:01:43] Laser: you don't want fruits. I said, why Steve? But what's wrong with fruit? So there's, the

[01:01:47] Laser: mindset is, is uh, too much fruit. Yeah. Cuz

[01:01:51] Laser: of, you know, the sugar level and things like that. You know, tur fruit toast it. Yeah. But as long as you have enough,

[01:01:59] Laser: we need it. Fruit

[01:02:00] Laser: diet, there's nothing wrong with fruit.

[01:02:03] Laser: Right. We need it. That we you need it.

[01:02:05] Laser: I

[01:02:05] Laser: I know, know, we, we

[01:02:07] Laser: know as a society, people are gonna go off the handle. They're going to eat those things. But if you eat

[01:02:12] Laser: generally as a whole food, plant-based

[01:02:13] Laser: diet,

[01:02:15] Laser: you, you're gonna live longer. You're gonna mitigate and reverse chronic disease. Like there's no, no.

[01:02:20] Laser: Tomorrow.

[01:02:21] Lori: So they can find the app

[01:02:23] Lori: And it's called plateful.

[01:02:24] Laser: Yeah, it's playful. Uh, right now it's kind of under the beta version. Okay.

[01:02:29] Laser: Because

[01:02:30] Laser: we want friends and families to use it. Right. Cause we want downloads. Yeah. And then in the next

[01:02:35] Laser: month we're,

[01:02:36] Laser: we're

[01:02:36] Laser: going to,

[01:02:37] Laser: we're do, we've been internally testing

[01:02:39] Laser: it for

[01:02:40] Laser: almost a year now,

[01:02:41] Laser: but we wanna make sure.

[01:02:42] Laser: by the end user using it, that they

[01:02:44] Laser: that they

[01:02:44] Laser: can give us feedback.

[01:02:45] Laser: So

[01:02:46] Laser: The

[01:02:46] Laser: best thing to do

[01:02:47] Laser: just go to

[01:02:47] Laser: plateful.org/download. And then people can find it. Either if you have

[01:02:54] Laser: an iOS, an Apple phone, or a uh,

[01:02:57] Laser: Android phone, you

[01:02:58] Laser: can download it right there.

[01:02:59] Lori: Um, yeah, these will,

[01:03:00] Lori: this'll all be in

[01:03:01] Lori: in the show

[01:03:01] Lori: notes,

[01:03:01] Lori: notes, so if somebody can see it, they can download it. They can get it.

[01:03:04] Lori: Perfect. Thank you.

[01:03:06] Lori: you.

[01:03:06] Lori: Thank you

[01:03:07] Lori: you for telling us all. Gonna gonna have so

[01:03:08] Laser: much

[01:03:08] Laser: fun scanning at the

[01:03:10] Laser: store.

[01:03:10] Lori: I know, right?

[01:03:11] Laser: Scanning, scanning,

[01:03:13] Lori: scanning.

[01:03:13] Lori: it's gonna be fun. I know.

[01:03:15] Lori: Jim, thank you so much. Oh my God. We could talk

[01:03:18] Lori: for another

[01:03:18] Lori: two and three

[01:03:19] Lori: hours just

[01:03:20] Lori: just about nutrition and training and everything because we've gone through so much.

[01:03:23] Lori: But, um, I'm gonna wrap it up

[01:03:25] Lori: today.

[01:03:26] Lori: Thank you. Thank you for coming back.

[01:03:29] Lori: Hey

[01:03:30] Laser: Lori. Thank you. I,

[01:03:31] Laser: you know, one, one things that

[01:03:33] Laser: thing that a lot of people don't know is that we've maintained our friendship for the

[01:03:37] Laser: last. Almost, uh, 40 years,

[01:03:40] Laser: And

[01:03:40] Lori: God long.

[01:03:42] Laser: You're

[01:03:42] Laser: one of my old, you're one

[01:03:43] Laser: of my

[01:03:43] Laser: all time favorites.

[01:03:44] Laser: I

[01:03:45] Laser: you. I think you're, you're fantastic. You're like, fine wine, you, you, you get better with as you age. And that's the truth. Steve

[01:03:53] Laser: Berry and I said last week,

[01:03:54] Laser: you're hot as hell. So,

[01:03:55] Lori: my god.

[01:03:56] Laser: That's true.

[01:03:56] Lori: Thank you.

[01:03:57] Laser: And, uh, you, we love you

[01:03:58] Laser: And I, I

[01:03:59] Laser: really appreciate what you're doing. I think, uh, your podcast is really gonna take off you.

[01:04:04] Laser: You asked some very, you asked

[01:04:06] Laser: asked some really unique questions, and I love

[01:04:08] Laser: it. So,

[01:04:09] Laser: uh, I, I

[01:04:09] Laser: I wish

[01:04:09] Lori: you all the luck for it. Thank you so much. I love it. .

[01:04:12] 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

[01:04:40] [Mic bleed]