Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Yes, I have actually stayed at Airbnbs from time to time. And truth be told, I do really like them. I'm being totally honest right now that I've had great experiences with them. Yeah. I mean, you can have your look at you go get your own place, get your own pool, your own living room. You're not going to walk in an elevator. You're not going to see people when you're walking around in your undergarments. Yeah.

Yes. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, you should go online. What we're saying is you have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and it's just for you, tailored for you. You liked your Airbnb over a hotel. Yes. And I do think I've had relatives stay nearby and sometimes it's very nice for them to do an Airbnb and have a little house and they're not underfoot. The last thing you want is your house guest to say, excuse me, um,

Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's- Because they're naked? Well, it's like the 1800th time you say, on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, hey, I'll go there, I'll get an Airbnb. So you won't regret it? You know, Dane, I rarely say this, but-

Hear me now and believe me later. Why did we say that to Arnold? That's one of the funniest ones. I know. Well, he loves it. That was fun. We get to really talk about Hans and Franz with Arnold. And it is funny and fun to do an Austrian accent to Arnold. Yeah, I could flick you with your little finger and you'd fly across the room and land in your own baby poop. He made me laugh. He was such a warm, fun guy, likes comedy, and

He knew a lot of our stuff. He also recited a lot of his catchphrases. Wasn't that fun to hear him do it? Yes. We talked about Girly Man and how people said when he was governor of California, he would call people Girly Men and we'd talk all about that. And he loved the sketch. He's such a great sport. He's a great storyteller. I heard a lot of stories I'd never heard before about how he got his start in Hollywood.

He's got a book out with a lot of great, very interesting stories. Yeah, be useful. Very positive thinking. Positive thinker, hard worker. And the way he articulates, it's not his accent or anything anymore. It's just he makes things very clean and very simple. You have to get up every morning and be the hero of your life.

You do things that are uncomfortable. You go toward the pain. Go toward the pain and that's where all the good stuff is. With pain, you get stronger. And he is hypnotic really to listen to. The person who makes his bed is 78% more successful in life. I'm like, true. He's like, I just made that up. It sounds good though. First you get up, you put water on the face to wake up the brain. And then splash. Then you put toothpaste on the toothbrush.

And you start to rub it against the teeth to get the freshness. And then you do a hundred sit-ups. I go circular on my teeth. That's just me. But yeah, he was so fun. And then he did the catchphrase are funny. And also he liked that we were both

Not out of shape. Remember that? He asked us, and we're not making the, how do fellas stay so lean? So he's asking us, I go, what? We're actually kind of tiny. But then at that point I thought, well, I'm going to do 10 pushups for Arnold

and have him comment on it. So you'll have to stay tuned to see what happens. That's toward the end. You got to hang in there. Wait for it. Wait for it. Don't, yeah, pull off and finish it because you're going to. Even though when in a normal Instagram, when it says wait for it, I say go die. I'm not waiting for anything. Don't tell me what to do. Right. Because it's like eight seconds or four seconds. Wait for, I'm here. Wait. What am I waiting for? I'm watching it.

All right. Well, here's before I go on that tangent. Here's Arnold. We had a blast with it and go buy his book. It was it's a good book. And we did it live at his incredible office building complex. Arnold has just walked into the building. He goes, you know me. What already? Not only lions get out of their cages. A long time ago.

Don't say anything if you don't have anything positive to say. So it'll be kind of quiet? What is this? He's got wires all over. Let me do your trick. It's a little tiny. How long have you guys been doing this? This, 18 months. 18 months? Is that right? Yeah. And how did you end up together? I met him before SNL.

Believe it or not. In the 80s at the clubs and stuff. - 80s, Jesus. - Well, whatever. And then I moved back down to LA and we started hanging out. And then I had a little podcast I was doing. He came on. Then our manager said, "You gotta do this." - Yeah, yeah. - That was it. - But I think it's a great idea because I think it creates more energy if you have two people. - Yeah, it does. - Kind of back and forth type of thing. - Makes it a lot easier. - It's a lot better, yeah. It makes it go quicker and he's pretty smart. And we both know a lot of the same people.

This guy. It happens. Sorry, Arnold. You're smart, too. Oh, man. Let me tell you. I mean, it's really. I think this is the first one that we are doing with comedians. That's a fun one. Am I right? Yeah. First podcast. Yeah. Because, I mean, you guys made me laugh. Let me tell you. More often than anything. I mean, when I. It's Conan kind of business.

Conan's a comedian. You know, Conan, yeah, I guess. Yeah, I mean, sort of. But I don't see Conan as much as a comedian.

Well, he's not a stand-up, but he's funny. But in general, because I know him more as a host of a very popular kind of talk show. I have done his show several times, but not as a stand-up comedy. I mean, we have all known each other

on a personal level yeah and uh have had a lot of fun together on the personal oh yeah and then you of course you guys came to the white house oh yeah we're doing the hans and france because we had this great american workout

Yes. Which was kind of like a copy of what Kennedy used to do in the White House because all the other presidents really never really capitalized on this idea of president's council on physical fitness and sports. Right. Created under Eisenhower, but then Kennedy made it kind of…

50 mile walk. I did that in school. It was, when I was in sixth grade, it was like 50 pushups, you know, pull-ups. You did all that. It made you stay in shape. You got a medal when you could do certain things. And so what happened is, is that we had now the, the, the, the event, the great American white workout at the South lawn of the white house. Yes. But,

You don't just want to make it a fitness event, right? And make it boring. So we wanted to make it hip. So we asked them, Hans and Franz had to come to the White House and entertain the people and the kids and everybody. And they made everyone laugh and how, and it was just huge. And it got us also because of them, great ratings. Yeah, good.

And so all the press was there. And, you know, there were like the big shots from Saturday Night Live. Yeah. And Hans in France still looking for, you know, Uncle Arnold. And we walked around and just berated everyone. Walked around, exactly. Don't undo your belt, you might cause a flamme-land. Yeah, and then flip everyone through the air to land in their own baby beds.

That was one of the best. That and your buttocks are like marshmallows. You're lucky I don't have a campfire here. So they're threatening to burn someone. Hans and Franz was so funny. It was so great when you did it. You didn't house, right? You just came out. Yeah, I was a guest.

He invited me to come to the show and to be a guest there with Danny DeVito. One time I was there with Danny DeVito. Yes, and Danny was the pit bull. And he came out with twins. Yeah, and he was like, trying to attack the audience who were holding him back. But we didn't know how you were going to react. We started doing it and we heard, Arnold's coming, Arnold's coming. And then they said, Arnold's waiting down the hall. This is an 8-H in New York.

So Kevin and I are a little nervous. We went in and you're in some chair and you lean back and you go, how do I do the accent again, fellas? And then we knew you loved it. Well, no, but to me it was heaven.

because you have to understand that when I first wanted to get into acting, one of the first things they said was, you know, this won't work. No one in America has ever made it that had an accent. No one could be a leading man or anything like this. It's very tough. People want to hear someone talk like John Wayne, like Clint Eastwood, or Al Pacino, this with the guys, you know. So anyway, so then...

I realized that I had to kind of make the accent actually something not to hide it, but to actually make something of it. But then out of nowhere, without me controlling it, they came along and they legitimized it because now there was someone that actually took that subject of accent and had a good time with it. Not to make fun of it, but to actually entertain people with it and to do it overboard. And so all of a sudden, from that point on,

it became much more accepted, the whole thing. It really became much easier for me. - Oh, I didn't even know that. - And it's also comedy and you doing a lot of action, it's good. Now you're involved in comedy. It's just one more thing in the comedy field that people think of you and then it's funny. - And it's also you were in on the joke. You were inside the tent. - Absolutely, no, I loved it. - And we're all having fun. - I always had a good sense of humor and he always was the first one to be able to make fun of myself and of my situation, the body.

You know, coming from Germany, all of this kind of stuff, the German accent. The flappy little puny arms. Exactly, yeah. And the little girly man, which girly man was, to me, was just like...

you know, gym talk, like your little puny arms, you look like a girly man. And then when you became governor, sometimes you would use that to describe the legislatures, right? Yeah. You would use some of it, a bunch of girly men? Exactly. So we would go out and say, you know, we should sign this bill. But, you know, there's the legislators up there in Sacramento, there's such girly men, they're afraid to do the hard work and all this stuff. And they were really offended by the whole thing. So I actually stopped it, you know, because I said, I said,

I want to work with those guys. I didn't mean it in a negative way. I just wanted to actually...

I didn't want to insult them. I actually wanted to just entertain the crowd. Right. I was out in the shopping mall and I was like telling to the people, I said, be with me, you know, they vote for those initiatives that are coming up in November. I said, you know, I have to take it directly to you, the initiatives, because this girly man in Sacramento wouldn't go for it. And they were laughing. Yeah. And I went back to Sacramento. How could you call us girly men? This is not fair, you know, for you to do. I said, I'm sorry. I didn't want to offend.

Yeah, to me, it was just silly. The New York Times called me and tried to get me to explain what it meant. And to me, it was just two guys lifting weights in a gym teasing each other. There was no homophobic undertones at all. No, not at all. But today, you have to be so careful when you say all this stuff. Yeah, if you say baby man, you're a little baby, and then they're like, why is that against babies? Yeah, exactly. Yes, it's a baby man. What I like is we were saying, you as a politician,

are one of the few that does, you were putting humor in and it does make people listen. Yeah, exactly. You did it before Trump. It's not so boring. Yeah, yeah. You had nicknames for foes and stuff. That's right. Yeah. You came out of the box as a breath of fresh air in California like the anti-politician of the world.

telling it like it is. I remember your first debate, I think, was they tax us when we go to the bathroom in the morning. They tax us when we're driving our cars. They tax, you know, and it was such a compelling. When you have a cup of coffee, they tax us. They tax, they tax. Yeah, tax, tax, tax. But that made you stand out. But anyway, so your book, I read it.

It's called, you don't know this, but it's called Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life. Yes. I'm going to read you one chapter. This, by the way, this is true. Chapter one. Oh, you have the book. Oh, fuck yeah, I do.

I got questions. I got books. My brother and I, I've got three older brothers. We have this thing that we used to say for years. All registered girly men. We would always say, what would Arnold do when we're up against any kind of challenge or something negative? I'm not kidding. What would Arnold do? Because I noticed a long, now I'm just because I'm with you, I'm talking with a slight Austrian accent the whole time. But I'm always thinking, what would Arnold do in this situation, which would always be positive?

Always. So I'm not surprised at all you wrote this book. The book is a lot about positivity, pretty much overall. Yeah, it's about how can anybody, no matter who you are and where you are in the world, be more successful. And because there's just certain things that hold us back, and it's simple things sometimes, like the fear of failure or picking –

little goals rather than big goals. And whatever it is, or listening to the naysayers, whatever it may be, as I'm trying to go through this in this book and to just tell people, here are the seven rules. I could put 15 rules in there. But since the publisher said that they should have no more than 260 pages, so we kept it in that kind of framework. But in any case, it's basically...

Just simple rules and tools that will help people become more successful and more free and more able to kind of like go and expand and follow their dreams. And how do you create a dream for yourself? How do you create a vision for yourself? And all that. So that's what I get into the book.

in the book. - I think lately there's sort of a victim card being played too much and it's nice to have refreshing old school, there's a chapter, work your ass off, which is very basic, but it's not what people say out there as much anymore. - Yeah, yeah, but I talk about exactly what I did. When I came over to this country, I was into working. I was not shying away from working, I was always saying, I'm willing to work. Even though I was a Mr. Universe,

several times over and Mr. World. - Seven? - And Mr. Olympia seven times. - Jesus. - Not at that point, in the early '70s I was like five times Mr. Universe, Mr. World, Mr. International, and two times Mr. Olympia. - It's incredible. - So now-- - There was nowhere to go. - Already at the top of your game. - It was kind of like in bodybuilding there was no money.

We didn't make any money. It's like Miss America. Right. So it was like one of those crazy things. So still we had to make a living. So, you know, I started a mail order business to kind of like sell booklets and how to train your biceps and your chest and all of those kind of things. So with 20 steps to do that. That's right. But the thing is still we need to go and let's go out and work.

So my friend Franco Colombo, the bodybuilding champion. - I remember him very well and loved you and him together. - That's right, yeah, yeah. - It was so funny. - So he was a bricklayer, professional masonry worker. Learned it in Italy, in Sardinia, then continued working in Germany. That's where I met him. And so when he came over here and we kind of always trained together, I said to Franco, I said, "Franco, you're a masonry worker, you're a bricklayer. Why don't we start a bricklaying business?" I said, "In America, they love

this European bullshit, I said, you know, so we call it as the Italian masonry expert. And we put a little ad in the LA Times. Well, the next day,

after we put this ad in without beyond our knowledge i mean right expectation oh the earthquake happened it's 1971. yeah this explodes the chimneys fall down the patios the time is everything you have nothing to do with it now we started getting a it's funny nothing to do with it

But anyway, the next thing I know is we get all these phone calls. Can you come out and give me an estimate of how to rebuild my chimney and how to rebuild my fireplace, how to do my patio? I have a huge crack going through the whole patio, and we cannot continue like that. Blah, blah, blah. So Frank and I started going out and doing estimates.

And of course, we were not really experienced in all this stuff. So we just started measuring this stuff. And then we had always arguments about, I was always kind of like the good guy. He was the bad Italian who always charges too much. Good cop, bad cop.

This is outrageous, Frankie. You cannot charge us $7,600 for this stuff. We can do it cheaper than that. No, no, no, no. And then we started in German and in Italian, we started arguing. No one understood what we were saying. And you just imagine, I said to the guy, I wouldn't say to the customer, I said, well, I got him down now, finally.

So we can do it for $5,000. And they said, thank you so much. And they hugged me. And then we did the job. How do you teach street smarts like that? One is the Italian name in the paper and then the collapsing. But then this whole song and dance, I mean, that's just like street smarts. Or what would you call that IQ? Well, but remember that when I was in school,

I was an apprentice in selling. Oh, so you trained. So when I was 15 years old, instead of going to go on to a university career or anything like this, I learned to be a salesperson. And so I was kind of an apprentice for three years and I learned how to sell. So sell, sell, sell. And I have one of the chapters in the book that is in there because I realized of how important selling is. So

the art of selling was in this case was when I go to a customer and he says can you show can you tell me how much it costs to redo this chimney uh it sounds better

If you go with like you do in the store, 50% off. Yes, no matter what. But first they add the 50% and then they give you 50% off. So my idea was, I measured it out and I said to Frank, I said, I think it will cost us by the time we buy the material, which will be $2,000. Our workmanship, it would take us a week to do this, $1,500 each is $3,000.

So that's $5,000. So then Frank said, "Yeah, $5,000, we can do it." So then I would go to the guy and says, "He wants $7,800." And the guy would freak out and say, "Oh my God, I don't know if I can afford this. This is outrageous." I said, "Well, let me work on it." And so I would go to Frank and then all of a sudden we would have this screaming match in the corner.

Big to do. Big show. And all of this stuff. And then the next thing is I go back to the guy and says, I brought him down to $5,000. The guy said, oh, thank God. Thank God. And they will hug me and we get the job. So we gave them a good deal. But I mean, we also kind of sold the idea that he got a special, special deal.

Did you do physical work or just sort of? Yeah, no, I was the guy that was mixing the cement and the sand and the water. So I picked up the...

the mixer at the construction place where you rent construction equipment. And I picked it up with my car and they put it on the back and they just took it to the construction site. You just used blenders to save money? And it just, exactly. Did they notice how pumped up you were?

You guys worked on it? Did they comment on it? Did you comment on the song? On the Speedos? And what did you say? We said we're bodybuilders. We're bodybuilders. And they said, but why do you, we really didn't want to say that we have to work for a living. We just said, look, we have two choices. One of the things is I lost one of the Mr. Universe condos because it didn't have enough of a tan. That's

- So that's why you're out there? - I said, so I said, which was in Florida, which is really true. One of the reasons was I didn't have a tan. The other one was, it was a little bit too chubby. I didn't know I wasn't cut enough. - Too chubby? - Yeah, exactly, yeah. - Like 4% body fat? - This is pre-spray. - So anyway, so I said, you know, I lost my bodybuilding competition because I didn't have enough of a tan. I said, it will never ever happen again. I said, so now, not only am I training every day on Muscle Beach down there in Venice Beach, you know, on the weightlifting platform. I said, but,

"I want to work out here." We rip off the shirt and we work outside because then you get the natural tan all over the place. You get brown. I said, "And then this way, how we can win." So this is why we work a few hours every day in the sun. - Right. You give me a long explanation. - This was one of the raps. I said, "He happens to be a bricklayer, an outstanding bricklayer from Italy. He did all the special masonry work. He even worked in the Vatican." - And the work was good. - Yeah, basically built the Vatican.

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So I don't want to jump ahead here, but then is the biggest selling point you did

And how did you apply this to selling yourself to Hollywood? Yeah, Hollywood. Not wanting to play the second or third lead, but starting at movie star. Yeah, did you not do any small parts? What most people do is small part, small part. Yeah, I did. But my goal was to be a leading man. Yeah. So I remember, for instance, Lucille Ball.

will call me. - Geez. - And I was at Gold's Gym working out and she saw me on the Miff Griffin show. - Arnold. - And she said, she called me. - Arnold, oh, this is Lucy Ball. - Exactly, that's right, yeah. - A little bit of smoking, yeah. - That's right. - I'm there. - And so she says, "I saw you on the Miff Griffin show. "I want you to come in and read for this part, "Joe Sander, which is a masseur,

from Italy. There's an Italian accent, but most people don't know the difference between a German accent and an Italian accent, blah, blah, blah. Come on in and read. And so I would go in there and I would say, oh my God, there's a TV show with Art Carney, Lucio Ball. Art Carney just won the Academy Awards and all that stuff. So this was like really big. So I went in there and she opened up the script and said, read this part.

But I had no idea what that means. So she says, well, I need to come in and my back hurts. How do you know how to massage? And I said, my name is Joe Sandow.

And I am from Italy. I'm a truck driver from Italy. And in Italy, every truck driver also does massages. And she says, oh, wait. You went to my acting class. She says, let's go and take this script away.

Yeah. She says the idea of it is this blah, blah. So she explained to me the idea. And then she asked me some questions. Right. And then I would just say, yeah, yeah. I'm from Italy. I'm a truck driver. And my name is Joe Sando. And of course, in Italy, everyone does massages.

And then she was like laughing. Everyone else was laughing. And then she says, you see, guys, I told you. I told you he will be good. I mean, you know, he's not used to the script idea and the reading idea. But I mean, by the time we shoot this next Friday, he will be perfect. I promise you guys that. And he said, are you here ready to be here every day for rehearsal? And I didn't even know what rehearsal meant. But in any case, but the bottom line, I said, yeah, yeah, whatever you want me to do, I do.

And so I came every day, I worked with her every day. She was very patient and we shot then on Friday and she kept saying, she says, "And you need to project more. You need to project more because we're shooting live." So I had no idea what live meant. - With an audience. - I had no idea what any of that meant. So anyway, we rehearsed and rehearsed and then we shot this scene that I'm ringing the doorbell.

The green light lights up at the door and I open out the door. She opens up the door and she says, you are the masseur? And I say, yeah, I'm the masseur. She says, come on in. And so I go in there and all of a sudden, huge applause. Oh my God. You don't know that there's people. So now I'm standing with my massage table and I'm looking out like this.

staring out. I'm in shock. I'm frozen. First time you've heard of that. So this is not what the scene's supposed to be, to be frozen. Right. To come in there and to be like this Italian flamboyant guy that opens up the massage table, professionally, chug, chug, chug, chug, boom, flips it open and says, lie down. Now you're just frozen. No, no, standing there like this.

you know, totally frozen. And then she says, well, aren't you massaging me? Get the table set up. So she immediately saw what was happening. Oh yeah, totally. And then so I said, oh yeah, yeah, exactly. And the applause continued. So I flipped the table over and of course I only had the tank top on. So I had like the

big gun saying, yeah, and the whole thing, you get applause. It was, it was fantastic. The whole thing, Connie came in in the middle of the scene. The whole thing was like a seven minute scene and it played like a jewel. I remembered all my lines. She said it was fantastic. And then I tell you something from that moment on Lucy ball, as long as she lived,

She always wrote me a letter. Every movie that I did after that. She saw me on Streets of San Francisco to play a guest starring in Roar, which I got after that two years later. She saw Stay Hungry, which then came out with Bob Raiferson. He directed me, Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields. She wrote me a letter. I'm so proud of you. Arnold, you're fantastic.

I knew you had this potential. You're going to be a big star. I mean, what a sweetheart of a woman. As tough as she was. Everyone knows she was one of the toughest women in town. And Art Carney could tell you that because she kind of directed the show, even though she was not the director. And then Gary Morton, who was her husband, could also tell you how tough she was. She ran the whole studio. I did a pilot with Desi Arnaz Jr. called Whacked Out. And we're doing the pilot.

Audience is there and we're really bombing. I mean, it's silent. And all of a sudden I hear a voice from the bleachers going, what's wrong with you people? So Lucille Ball had grabbed the microphone and was yelling at the audience. This is funny. Then the whole audience flipped out, made a big line and it took an hour and a half for everyone to get her autograph.

That's fantastic. For her to take time to do that with you is pretty nice because she could have just said, tough reading, get out next. But to work with you and to be that big of a star and get you going, and that was really probably one of the biggest things, even just confidence-wise. No, but as much as people were negative about the idea of a muscle guy getting in the movies, because what they felt kind of the 60s,

The era of the Hercules movies. Steve Reeves and Rich Park and Mark Forrest and Lou Dagny and Gordon Mitchell and all those guys. They're kind of B movies. They were not significant movies. But for me, big. Because when I was 15 years old and I saw Steve Reeves and Rich Park on the screen, I said, oh my God, can you believe bodybuilders?

then become leading man in movies. It's a long shot, though. So that was my motivation to get into bodybuilding. I said to myself, oh, then I can be an actor. So then I go to Hollywood. There's Muscle Beach and there's Hollywood. So you have your own fantasies as a kid with 15. So that was my fantasy. And that made my fantasy become a reality. And I talk about that in the book, how important it is that we have a vision

and that we have a goal and that we have something to chase no matter how stupid it may sound to other people but just don't listen to the naysayers chase your dreams and that's exactly what i did and that part of the book don't listen that seems like a lot of people like i would get my feelings hurt a lot in the early days before i got in saturday night live if someone if i someone said i wasn't good or whatever what are the mind tricks you played to get around that like they're saying you're terrible you're nothing this isn't gonna make it that's not good and you twist it and

in your mind? You know, I didn't have to really twist much because I just saw my vision very clearly in front of me of me becoming eventually a Mr. Universe for me eventually coming to America and eventually getting into movies. I saw that. And it was so believable that I had such faith in my vision

that there was no one that could talk me out of it. - So they just didn't get it in your head. - Well, I understood that when someone has never done something, like Nelson Mandela always said, "Everything is always impossible until someone does it." And this is exactly, there was no Austrian ever that became Mr. Universe. So when I say I want to be Mr. Universe, of course they laughed.

Because they thought, well, if he says he wants to be a ski champion, that makes sense. But not to be a Mr. Universe or to be a weightlifter, something like this. Weightlifting was kind of dominated by the Russians. Bodybuilding was dominated by the Americans or by the British. So I mean, what is he talking about here? - So you beat the odds once in a big way, and now you're gonna do it in an even bigger way to come all the way to America.

and know the language. Did you know the language at all when you got here? It took you a while? No, I mean, there was a lot of subtle things, like I said, when Lucy Ball said, we're going to go and read, come over for a read. I did not know what that meant. I did not know when she said, we're going to shoot this live, that this means there will be a live audience and we will be live, the filming and not taping and stuff like that. So all of this stuff I did not know, but I learned the language quickly. I went to college.

I remember I went to Santa Monica City College and took English classes and then eventually took business classes and all the stuff that I learned as an apprentice, selling, marketing, publicity, and accounting, mathematics, and all of this stuff, micro and microeconomics. And then eventually got a degree in that, which was also not something that I planned on doing. But I was like going part-time to college for eight years. Wow.

I mean, think about it from 1969 to 1977,

It was like I just wanted to educate myself, and I didn't have a student visa, so I couldn't go full-time to college. So I had to always just take two classes. So sometimes even to cheat a little bit, I took two classes at Santa Monica City College, and then at night I would go with the UCLA and take some extension courses. And then sometimes I would take classes at West Los Angeles College and stuff like that. But eventually I got enough, almost 300 units.

of credits and then they gave me a degree. - You know, it's so easy to quit along the way in this guy. There's so many hard obstacles that people just go, "I can't do that." - Oh, eight years of college. - And take two, forget it. - I have a question. Did you, when you were thinking of your vision, Mr. Olympia, this, and when you envision yourself as a movie star,

Did you envision Conan the Barbarian? Did you ever envision twins and kindergarten cop? - No. - It evolved? - No. - Conan the Barbarian, I mean, using your physicality. - John Wayne, Sean Connery. - What I envisioned was just like, you know, Reg Park and Steve Reeves, they said to me, "Maybe I can somehow use the muscles "and get into movies."

I did not know that there are eras. Yeah. You know, that there was the 60s was the muscle era where they made all these muscle movies and stuff like that. That the 70s would be kind of like the opposite. Yeah. And all of a sudden, Woody Allen and Dustin Hoffman. Peter Frampton. The rock stars. And all those guys. Exactly. Would be the stars. Yeah. And so everyone said to me, Arnold, those guys weigh 100 pounds less than you do. We can't put you in a movie with those guys. Yeah.

It doesn't work. So forget about it. So it was all that kind of thing. But eventually, I think that after they did Stay Hungry, and I played a bodybuilding champion in Stay Hungry in the movie, and I got the Golden Globe Awards for Best Acting Debut.

for that movie. That's cute. So that really helped me. Did you improvise those lines though, some of them? No, no, there was, in Stay Hungry, it was all written. And, Really, you were natural in that. Well, thank you. And then Pumping Iron came out and then, then that was a big hit.

Yeah. And so then all of a sudden people started saying, it was Pumping Iron actually that made Ed Pressman, who just passed away recently, famous producer. Yeah. Who saw me in Pumping Iron and then got the rights of the Conan. After he saw you and then he got the rights. Exactly, for movies. You're inching over to like more mainstream and then you're going to get away from only strongman parts. Like when I moved here, I got a script the first time, I just read it to them. They handed me the script and I just read it back to them and they're like, what are you doing? I'm like,

I don't know, you know, because, you know, they go come read. It was the same thing. I don't know sides, all the lingo I didn't know. And I, it was hard for me to get work and I'm only this strong. So I know it was a little bit of a detriment. Dave, did you find it tells you something about yourself? Like me in the early eighties, I go to audition. I walk in a room and I see baby face guys with weak chins and little arms. Baby man. They all look like me.

I mean, you would walk in reading for something. Would you see a lot of other big guys waiting to read? - No, I never read again. - You never read? - Oh, that was it? - No, no, that was it. - You never auditioned? - No, never. - What? - I knew that this auditioning, this is not my bag. - That's not my bag. - I'm gonna tap out of the auditioning. - But for some reason or the other, from that point on,

It always came to me, like Bob Raiferson came to me and said, I want you to stay hungry, but you have to take acting classes. I get it with this guy, Eric Morris, who was an acting coach. He says he was working with Chuck Nicholson and blah, blah, blah. He says, I want you to take acting lessons. And then you will come in for a reading.

So I was like working with this guy for four months. So you weren't auditioning. Before I go, Bob Ravens did this as a joke in a way. And he has, did someone tape it? And I came in and I did the scenes for him. And, uh,

but it was basically already signed for the movie, right? So it was not really that I was in danger. But so anyway, I did the scenes and he again was very, very complimentary. But this is the sweetness of people in this town that I noticed, kind of how supportive they can be. Like Bob Ravenson immediately says, "Stop it." I said, "What?" He says, "Look at my hair. Look at my hair on my forearm."

I said, "Okay, I see you here in the form." He says, "It's standing up. Do you notice here in my form, when it stands up, it means that I totally bought in the scene. So what you just did, I totally bought in. It was so touching. It was so emotional. It was so well delivered. We don't even have to go any further. This is it. You have the part." - Wow. - And this is how it would be like that. And the same was with Jeff Bridges and with Sally Fields. Then though I was a beginner on this whole thing,

oh man, they were so supportive when we did the scenes. Sally Fields was like extraordinary. And so was Jeff Bridges, so supportive and everything. - Just take extra time. - I had really a good, good experience. And then I think Landsberg when he hired me for the Jane Mansfield story with Lonnie Anderson, where I played Mickey Haggerty, because Lonnie, Jane Mansfield's husband,

was a Hungarian guy. Right. And so he was Mr. Universe.

And so I played that character, basically. And so with an accent, the accent was perfect. Then eventually I got the Conan gig. Yeah. And it was a big international kind of a movie with Universal Studios. How much of that did well? Like 200 million or something? No, no. In those days, there was no 200 million. But I mean, it grossed out, I think, 70 or 80 million dollars. That's huge. Like 300 million. It was like really...

It was big and it was number one at the box office when it opened up. So everyone was really happy and they signed me up for a second one. And that's when I was my first, in the second cone, I made the first million dollars. - And how old were you when you first made that million on the second cone? About 30? - I was probably like 33 or 34.

- What did that mean to you coming from where you came from in Austria to get a million? - Well, my dream was, I said, I want to be like Clint Eastwood because Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Marlon Brando were the only guys that were going over getting over a million dollars a movie in the '70s. So they were like the kings. So I said to myself,

Wouldn't it be cool if I get a million dollars a movie? And I always shot for the stars. It was the big dream. And then eventually it happened. So I felt fantastic. I felt delighted that I made a million dollars and that I'm a millionaire. But I was already a millionaire before then because I was insisting on making my money in real estate. You know, like, for instance, this building that we're sitting in right now, I built it in 1984. Wow.

So in 1984, I bought it. Before Conan? No, it was not before Conan. But it was before we went Terminator and all those things. And where did you get the money to buy the real estate? I was working on construction sites. I was doing exhibitions and all this. And I started saving money. And then there was an apartment building for sale in Santa Monica for $1,000.

$240,000. That's like the day, you know, $10 million. I don't know what. But in any case, it was $240,000. And I needed $37,000 down payment. I had in my bank account 27. So I went to Joe Weider, who was the publisher of the Bodybuilding Magazine. Exactly. And I said, can you go and loan me $10,000 for one year?

And he said, absolutely. And so he would get lonely that the $10,000, I will put the $37,000 down and I bought this building.

this office building. Two years later, someone comes to me and offers me $500,000 for the same building. This is how much real estate went up in the '70s because of the high inflation rate. So I now immediately sold this building, took the profit and traded up to a 12-unit apartment building. Then I sold that two years later and traded up to a 36-unit apartment building. - What's your book on?

- How to become a millionaire in real estate coming up. - So I was like really, very quickly in the 70s, I was already a millionaire.

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and hasta luego so it goes out of your head so now you have rosetta stone david tell them about it well dana you know more than anyone trusted expert for 30 years with millions of users in 25 languages uh i mean my gosh they have spanish french italian german i don't think you can throw them a curveball i think they're gonna know what don't they have the language you want yeah

It immerses you in many ways. There's no English translations. You know what I'm saying? I know no English. You need a Rosetta Stone for English. No English translation, so you really learn to speak and listen and think in that language. That's the whole idea of Rosetta Stone is that it sticks to your head. It sticks to your brain. I learned German out of a book. It just doesn't stick as hard, so this is the way to do it. Just feel tight.

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There's a true accent feature. It gives you feedback on your pronunciation. Yes. And of course, there's desktop app options. There's an audio companion and ability to download lessons offline. Yeah, so that's great. Lifetime access to all 25 language courses Rosetta Stone offers for 50% off. A steal! And I do think that the off-label thing that... I'm ad-libbing now, going off script.

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Without giving away numbers, but I'm always fascinated. How much real estate did you end up buying? Was it all Southern California where you bought property? Did you buy it other places? I always, I always in other places. In Colorado, for instance, we bought a whole square block in Colorado and then eventually there was a high-rise build on it. How much was the square block? The square block's going for it. It was, it was...

It was not that because we bought up pieces at the time. Yeah. And then eventually it was a square block. And then we were able to sell this to someone that wanted to build a high rise. Right. And then we were able to get cut in 10% of the high rise and blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff. So anyway, so I was always felt very comfortable with the real estate business, but at the same time,

The rule is don't have all your irons in the same fire. So I was investing in stocks and in bonds and all kinds of other kind of startup businesses and so on. And so my investments always were very good. I never lost money on any investment as far as that goes. There was a huge, and listen to this, it was really funny because I bought the first money I got.

I saved. I bought land out in the Antelope Valley. Why? Because I read somewhere when I came over to this country that they're going to build a supersonic airport out there. And so I said, oh, I'm going to go without telling anyone. I'm going to sneak out there. I'm going to buy some property. With a knife in your mouth. And so this is what I did. I bought for $5,000. I had only $1,000, so I had to pay off the $5,000. I bought this property out there.

And then, of course, they never built the airport. I thought the United States Air Force is out there. No, the Air Force is out there. I mean, the supersonic airport, they passed a law, an international law that said no supersonic aircraft can fly over land. So they're only over the ocean. So that killed the idea. And so they kept the LA airport here. So my investment went down the tube. So everyone was laughing about it. But here's what I think Joe Wieders said to me. He says, Arnold, don't worry about it.

This will be a good investment for your grandchildren. Keep it. Forget about it. I did. I totally forgot about it and I kept it. Today it's worth $1.5 million.

Just to show you a $5,000 property. So I didn't even lose money on that investment. So this is just to show you that if you really hold on to it, if you're not doing any fire sale. Can we talk more about this for the rest of the podcast? Yeah, exactly. How to invest, Arnold. What would you do right now? What was after...

- The one you just said, oh, Conan. What was the first sort of mainstream? - Conan 2 and then-- - Well, what was-- - 'Cause that was kind of mainstream. - The funny thing was my dreams and my desires grew. And I'm sure it's the same with you. - Well, yeah, 'cause you were dreaming with-- - First you wanted to do stand-up comedy, but then you said, wouldn't it be great if I do a TV show? Wouldn't it be great if I do a movie? So it grows, you know, you get more and more hungry. And so the same thing happened to me. So I said to myself,

Wouldn't it be cool if I could do movies that doesn't rely on muscles? Right. So what happened was Jim Cameron comes along. Yeah. And he says to me, Mike Meadowboy. And they say to me, he says, do you want to do this movie called Terminator? And I said, yeah. I said, that would be great. Can you send me the script? He says, sure. So he sent me the script and he said, it will be this character, Reese.

which is the hero character in the movie. And I said, oh, that would be a really great, great role. And then for some reason or the other, when I met with Jim Cameron and we had lunch, I talked the entire lunch about Terminator. He said, Jim, I said, I know you have not directed much, but I said, here's what is important when you direct this guy, whoever plays the Terminator. He says, well,

the character that we hired for it is O.J. Simpson. He says, but the studio is kind of like negative about him.

because they think that he cannot sell the idea of being a killing machine. He says, OJ is not enough of a killer. He's kind of nice. He looks too soft for that. These are direct quotes. This is true or it does look soft. This is the truth. I mean, this is like unbelievable. He's doing Hertz commercial. And so they said, so this is not really set in stone. The whole thing is, but after listening to you,

Jim Cameron said, "After listening to you talking to me about the Terminator, that he has to be trained to be like a machine,

and he cannot walk like a human being, that he cannot talk like a human being. He says, "You're absolutely correct. You take on it as perfectly as... Why don't you play the Terminator?" And I said, "No, no, no, no, no." I said, "Look, I want to play Reese. I want to be the hero, not the villain. I'm set up in my mind, 'Well, the way I shoot it, Arnold, it will be like a hero and a villain.'"

Hero because he does all these unbelievable things and wipes everyone out. Villain because he's a machine. But you don't have to be responsible personally because you're a machine. You're directed by some higher power. So it's not like you're going around killing things. So I said, oh, let me think about it. And so for a few days I thought about it. And then I said to myself, he's actually right. If he shoots this the right way, this could be really cool. And then I called him back and I said, okay, I'm in.

And so there was the first movie where I wear... Shirt didn't come off. No, never. It was like jacket, leather jacket and the whole thing like that. And from then I got the offer to do after Terminator to do Commando. And after that to do Predator, Running Man. And it went on and on and on. I think I've seen every one of your movies. I was in. I was accepted in.

in Hollywood as the action hero. Yes. And it all came from Conan and from Terminator. So this was my launching pad.

And you, God, you just had such a run at films. You know, Dana, I saw a copy of Terminator when you said, you know, your catchphrases are very short, which is smart. I saw an early copy when you say, come with me if you want to live. Yeah. And it was, come with me if you want to live because I know all the shortcuts in town. We can go down the 710 and we can get in a carpool lane and the monster robot only can

driving the regular because he's one person and i think it was better you tightened it because that seemed like a long way to live yeah you didn't want to give me too wordy too wordy and so the final script come with me if you want to live cut all that out and it was there's a lot of you had a lot of good ones did you know at the time when you do those that these might be

sort of cool little thing to say. - No, no, you don't know. - Austin Levy's the baby. - I mean, we never know what will hit and what people really like. I mean, you wish you can say that and say, "Oh, this was written this way, "oh, I improvised it." It's not, that wouldn't be true.

The reality of it is we had no idea that even I'll Be Back would be a line that would be the most repeated kind of line. Yeah, in history. I was arguing with Jim Cameron endlessly about I Will Be Back. He says, no, I wrote I'll Be Back. I'm going to say I Will Be Back because I don't like the I'll. This L thing sounds a little weird. I said, I Will Be Back. And he says...

Who the fuck wrote the script? Are you the script writer now? Or am I the script writer? I say, you're the script writer. And he says, okay, so we say, I'll be back. And if you want, we can shoot it 10 different ways. If that makes you feel comfortable, he says. But so let's just do that. I'll be back. I will be back. That's bullshit. I was arguing with him about the line. But you know what's funny is it was right. And luckily he was so right. And he made me say it. I will be back sounds almost more robotic than you were.

Yeah, I know. But I mean, so he just loved I'll Be Back, you know? And so we did it 10 times. And when the movie came out, everyone wanted me to repeat that line. And so you don't know. We had no idea this is going to happen. We had no idea that, you know, kind of like...

All the stuff, you know, hasta la vista, baby, in Terminator 2. Right. You know, or get to the chopper. These stupid lines. Get to the chopper. Just because the way I say it. Because I can't, Germans cannot pronounce the R on the end. Right. So obviously it's R, chopper. It's not a tumor. It's not a tumor. It's a tumor. That's a chopper. So when I say it's not a tumor.

when we rehearsed for Kindergarten Cop. And I did the rehearsal with the kids and I said, "It's not a tumor."

All the kids started laughing, even though it was supposed to be an intense scene. Because it just sounded funny. So then Ivan Reitman looked and said, this is funny. Now we got a joke. They're all laughing. He said, say it the same way. Don't change anything. It's fucking funny. So anyway, so those lines became kind of famous because the way I say it, the accent. And so if someone else would have said it, it wouldn't have made anything. It's musical. It's a musicality. I Will Be Back has a different rhythm comedically. I'll be back.

Yeah, exactly. It's so intense. Didn't you do some where you would drop guys off, things for dropping by and you'd drop them off a cliff? Those kinds of lines too. The guy says, he promised to kill me last. You know, Sally. I said, Sally, remember I promised to kill you last? And he says, yeah, yeah. I said, I lied. Yeah.

- Mr. Freeze had a couple too. - And everyone, all the kids that running around, the parents were saying, he says, "You promised me that you're not gonna get an F in school." I lied. - I lied. - That's great. - You have more comedy hits than most comedians, to be honest. - But you know, when we're talking about growing your vision, like the last thing I ever thought about doing was doing comedies.

But then when I was doing a bunch of movies, action movies, I said to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I could do a comedy? Because I felt I had a sense of humor. Yes, I agree that

I didn't understand the American sense of humor as well. So that's why I asked my buddy Milton Berle to teach me about comedy. Milton Berle? Yeah, Milton Berle. So he would write jokes for me. He was friends with Lucille Ball as well. But he would write jokes for me all the time, Milton Berle. So he obviously called me...

fucking Nazi I have to write these fucking jokes for this Nazi. God damn it, you know. He loved hanging out with me and smoking cigars with me. Because of him, I really got into the cigar smoking, actually. But it was like, he was really, really funny. And he would then go and start writing stuff for me when I was doing speeches.

And he would say, he says, you can't go out there in a speech and start with a serious note. He said, you got to go and first make the people like you. So say something funny. Go out there and just say, you know, what you probably wonder, what am I doing here at a medical convention in Vegas? But, you know, Dr. Sorensen came up to me and says, I love you because you're a real good American.

and you believe in free speech, right? And I said, yeah, of course I believe in free speech. Good, because you're going to give one in Vegas on June 14th. So then the people laugh and he says, and then they like you. And now whatever you say, they will like you. So there was Milton Berle's kind of a thing. So he would write little jokes and little lines for me for the beginning to get going with the speeches. Lucio Ball, Milton Berle, you got some good ones. Thank you.

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They're always delicious. I actually named a character in a movie I did called Master of Disguise. The lead character's name is pistachio. That's how much I love pistachios. Yeah. Well, wonderful pistachios have literally come out of their shells. It's the same taste. It's delicious, but...

It's a lot less work. As you know, cracking them open can be a little bit of a job. Less cracking, more snacking is what I say. That's what I say. That's what you say. And I'm going to use that when my wife goes to the store. Wonderful pistachios. No shells. Flavors come in a variety of award-winning flavors, including chili roasted. Honey roasted. Mm-hmm.

Salt, sea salt, vinegar, smoky barbecue. Sea salt and pepper is one I like the most. And I'm going to try this jalapeno lime. They don't have a red, red necky flavor just yet. Yeah. Look at him there. Red, red necky loves pistachios. I like to crack things open and put them in my mouth.

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Yeah, do you remember the movie we almost made? We wrote a script. It was called Hans and Franz, The Goodly Man Dilemma that we were going to do with you. It didn't get made, but it was a funny script. I had that conversation just recently. With Conan? No, with Conan, yes, but we also internally had it because I said there are several scripts

I said they offered me that I didn't do for whatever the reasons were. Timing. They were dismissed or they were never made or I couldn't wait. They couldn't wait for me, so they hired someone else. Like The Rock. Yeah. The movie, The Rock, there was with Sean Connery. Sean Connery, exactly. And what's the actor's name again? Nick Cage.

Nick Cage. Exactly, Nick Cage. And so I was going to do that, but they couldn't wait for me because I was doing another movie first and all that stuff. But the one movie that I always loved...

that I even would to today is the script that we had together where Hans and Franz finally comes to find their uncle and they're now staying in his house. - Yes. - And I remember it was so funny. - Yes. - And I just remember when you guys, you came to me and you said, "I have to go to the bathroom. "Where's the bathroom?" And I said, "You go down the hall,

And where you see the deltoid, you go left. Then you see a calf, you go right. And then you see all these huge sculptures of my body all over the house. And this was the direction that I gave you guys. It was just so stupid and so fucking funny. Oh, yeah. And you had a war room we went into. It was a whole puzzle, like a monopoly.

but studios, Paramount, and you had little, you're pushing pieces around. Stallone is going to do a movie over 20th Century Fox. We countered Paramount with a comedy. All of it was having fun with the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger at that time. - And what you guys did on Saturday Night Live. - Yeah. - So it was the idea was that they took the Saturday Night Live idea

where you were searching for me and running into different kind of situations. But here you were actually, you found me in this movie. And now it goes on from what do we do together? And so it was hilarious, the script. So, I mean, I think it still could be funny.

We read it on Conan's podcast and it had a big reaction. People really liked it. It's from a different era in the sense that it's really big, funny, and silly, which I don't think they make enough of those movies. You can modernize it. Oh, yeah. If you get a ride of the day, if you guys sit down and start reworking it,

what works today and do it for Netflix, let's say. For that audience, I mean, imagine what a smash that would be. - A lot of physical comedy. - They would be laughing from here to eternity. - A lot of visual. - Come out at Christmas time or before Christmas. I mean, it would be fantastic. - I'm around, I'm around. We'll do that in a second. But yeah, it was just a funny script and it was an hilarious part for you. But life is what it is.

Exactly. You know, you just keep moving on to your, the chapter at the end about just giving back, you know, and then you're talking about Milton Berle helping you, Lucille Ball. And now you must find chances or do young movie stars look you up or ask you or give advice? So you're, you're a mentor of how to,

I don't know. Is there anyone more successful? This will sound like I'm kissing your ass, but is there any, been anyone like you in the last 40, 50 years to come to America from another country from extreme poverty and do all these things? And then here you are now, um, still going. You know, I, I don't know. I think that the, one of the people that I always admired a lot that came to America, uh,

with the age of 15, I think, was Henry Kissinger. Yeah, and he's still around. And Henry Kissinger...

had an unbelievable career, academic career and political career. It was just a genius foreign policy kind of a guy. So there's a lot of people, Elon Musk and people like that, that have come to this country. Remember, one of the things, no matter who it is, no matter how many there are, one thing we know for sure, that there's no other country in the world

where we could have done that. No other country. I mean, if I think about, and I'm pretty much aware of the world because I travel a lot and through bodybuilding and movie promotion and when I was governor to do trade missions all over the world and all of that stuff, but there's just no place. And even today,

a time when we have difficulty in America, you know, where the parties don't get along and they can't get much done and all this stuff. Even during that time, when I travel around, I don't see anyone coming up to me and saying, "Oh, Arnold, can you help me get a visa to Jordan?"

Or, "Aaron, can you help me to get a visa to Russia?" Or, "Can you help me to get to South Africa?" Or something like that. No. I mean, it's all about America. "Aaron, please help me. Can you write a letter for the immigration office? You know, I want to get to America. I want to be in America." So this is the number one country still by far. It's the most desirable place for people to come. It's the only place where someone like myself can come and make it.

and make it big and make all his dreams become a reality. And what are we doing right? Because we're pretty self-critical as a nation right now.

about America, but you have a perspective unique to people who were born here, tend to take it for granted. But what are we doing right so that people can come in and have a life like you've had in America? - But people can, and people do today. - Just because the economic freedom? - I think it is the economic freedom. I think it is just that it has its downfalls.

And it has its big advantages. And the advantages are more than our disadvantages. And that's what makes us so great. Yes, we have problems and all that. But I mean, it's still...

Anyone can come still today to America and really become kind of very successful. I see it all the time in a smaller way even. I see people coming from, I see this one guy was coming from Israel to Gold's Gym. He was working out for a while. Then all of a sudden he was like a personal trainer. And the next thing you know, he's driving around, driving up with Austin Martin. And the next day with the Jaguar. And the guy's getting $100 an hour.

who

He works 15 hours a day. 15 hours a day. He's talking about working your ass off, right? What we talked about earlier. This guy believes in working. So he drives these fancy cars. He has nice girls around. He trains people there in the gym. He's doing exactly what he wants to do. He's from Israel. Just came over here a few years ago. And the same is with a French guy that does the same thing. I know this one girl that is from Sweden. She's a personal trainer and she's making a fortune here.

So this is unlike any other place. And so I think this is really the place to be and where people can be successful. And I think America should be proud of that. And you're right. When you are an American, you take it for granted.

When you're American, you sometimes don't appreciate how great this country really is. And the thing that everyone has to do is, and I talk about this in the last chapter, is this country was built by hardworking men and women that have sacrificed. They weren't just looking forward to the glory, but sacrificed. And I think that today's kids

have to study that history because it will make them wake up and say, I cannot be this little girly man. Well put.

Because of social media. I cannot be this guy that is staying in bed. I want to sleep in. Or I want to feel good. Or I want to be treated kind of fairly and nicer and stuff. No, this is a tough world. Get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, 6 o'clock in the morning, and kick some serious ass. Go to work. Whatever you do. The day is 24 hours. You can do it. And this is how we make this country better.

you know, not only great, but keep it the greatest country in the world is by not babying ourselves and not by kind of like taking it easy and trying to sleep in. And I want to feel better and all this kind of stuff, but to kind of do the same thing as they did in the old days.

Work your butt off. It's like Ted Turner always said, early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise. This is where the action is. And I believe in that. But it's important to know that we've got to grind it out. And we cannot just always look for the pleasures. But there's punishment.

There is hardship. There is failure. There is tough times that you go through, but that's all okay. We got to go and have a clear vision, chase that vision, and then there will be struggles and all that stuff. The more struggles we have, the tougher we will get. And the more failures we have, the more we learn and the more successful we can get. I mean, remember what Michael Jordan said, I missed 5,000 shots.

And I lost, you know, 200 and some 80 games. But I became the greatest basketball player because of it. You know, whatever. So it's, don't be afraid of failure is one of the chapters that I have in the book. And so I think it's hard work.

not being afraid of failure, to grind it out, to have a clear vision, not listen to the naysayers, pick big goals. So those are the kind of rules that I talk about in the book because that's what we need to do in order to be successful as a person and as a country. Yeah. And,

And I think that, you know, it's in your book, but that you just have you in the end of the day. And sometimes don't look at social media too much and get tricked out that this person did nothing and is a millionaire. But what I found a few times just being driven around the country to gigs and I have first generation immigrants driving me from Russia, wherever this one Russian guy goes, I tried to open business in Russia. Someone stopped. I tried to hire more employees. They say stop.

I come to America, I start to do same thing. No one say stop. No one told me to stop. Who are you now? Almost every time. I own the business. I just like your comedy. I drive you, Mr. Carvey. So that's the idea is it's nothing. I think the secret sauce of America, if you put the work in consistently and are willing to fail over and over again, there is some great stuff that will happen to you emotionally, mentally, and hopefully you will experience success. It won't stop you. You're absolutely right.

because no one has ever said to me, you can't. They will say, I think this is impossible. Or they say no one has ever done it before. But no one said, I will not allow you to do that. Right. You've already done four movies. It's your turn. Now you go back. Who's going to do it? Exactly. There's no such thing. So I have to always say,

that none of it that I accomplished would have been possible if I wouldn't have been in America. - Wow, well see this here? - Yeah. - See the hairs on my arms.

Actually, mine's here. Yeah. His back there. Those monstrous forearms of yours. Look at this, all pumped up. How do you do it? I do a lot of push-ups. I just push-ups are my main thing if I can't get to the gym. Yeah. But I try to, you know, I keep going. Yeah. You know, I'm just got to stay fit. What's my excuse? I always tell people you occupy a room, but you live here.

So work on this. This is where you're living. You could occupy this, but you can't get away. No matter where you go, there you are. Well, Arnold, this has been fascinating. Total recall line. Total recall? Remember in total recall when I check in on the beginning, they say to me to sell this implant. They say, well, it's always the same wherever you go.

You. You. There you are. But here we told Rico, we're going to help you with that. You can become kind of an agent, secret agent. You can have this wonderful woman. You can do this. You can conquer the blah, blah, blah. So this is the whole thing. The whole line is about that. Do you have a favorite movie? No, because it's like, you know, it's like I love Twins.

with Andy DeVito but at the same time I love Terminator and I love Predator True Lies it's very hard to pick one there's some movies that were fun to make like Kindergarten Cop to work with those 20 kids that was really a lot of fun yeah

But there's other movies that were really hard to make, like "True Lies." We were shooting for six months in this movie, for winter scenes and summer scenes and the snow and the cold, freezing cold. It was just torturous. And then 80 days night shooting and all that stuff.

But it was a fun movie to watch. Just for the fans that are listening, at the end of Predator, you got rigged a log to kill or something. What did you say? What are you or something? I think it takes its helmet off. You're ugly. Is that when you had the mud all over? You're one ugly motherfucker. Yeah. Yeah.

I knew it was a great line. You're just almost to be dead. You're just covered in mud. You got this monster. You're one ugly motherfucker. Come kill me. Kill me. Do it. Do it now. Do it now. And then on the end they say, get to the chopper.

I had no idea that I would be walking around. I would go to the Arnold Classic, to the sports festival. People screaming out, oh, get to the chopper. You know, all my lines, they're screaming. It's just hilarious to watch that. I was at the Arnold Classic with you. We were backstage on the TV monitor where all the contestants out there doing their stuff. And so I just looked at the monitor. I asked you, I said, is there anyone exceptional here? And you just leaned back with...

at it. Yeah, shit.

David, what have you been up to? Oh, thank you. Finally. All right. We're going to take a quick break and come back with David. No, I'm not going to commercial now. No, I was going to say. He's doing a lot. You've got a game show on tomorrow night. Say hi to everyone. There's Maria, who's always a fun ball buster to me. There's Patrick, who's on the boys' spinoff, right? Patrick's doing great. Christopher, your daughters. I see all these people here and there. We did grown-ups, too. Patrick was in. Mm-hmm.

And so, and Christopher works on Tyson's podcast. Yeah. Everyone's doing great. Just hi to the family and thanks for coming down. And it's great to talk to you about this book. But David is very, very busy. What's that? He's very, is that what you were doing? He's doing a lot of standup. Oh yeah. I'm doing standup. I'm doing all the same, you know, all this shit. No, I'm crushing it. I'll send you a couple of links. Yeah.

Those are not hand-me-downs. Yeah, I know. These are right off the rack. Hand-me-downs. Hand-me-downs from Dana. He's like my little brother. Let me ask you something. I know that you're doing this podcast to interview me, but I find it interesting how both of you stay so lean.

Right. Just give me a quick rundown. What makes you stay so lean? Are you disciplined with your eating or your working out? You know what I realized down the line at a certain point? My problem was more eating than working out more. So when I ate less or thought it out more, I would lose weight faster than working out too much. So it was cut out sugar, try to cut out some white flour. And then overall, it is like more of a lifestyle than just

or whatever, you really slowly have to start cutting stuff out when you get older and you can't eat as badly, do as much, this and that. And I sleep probably eight hours. Dana, what about you? I ran track and field in high school, you know, distance running and cross country. You still do? Yeah, you still run. Yeah, I do run and I hike. I do all kinds of things. I love things.

The burn, you know how you say it's better than an orgasm? I love hard cardio. Sorry, that was over something. It's better than pumping up. I remember that. When you get the burn, when you kick into that, it's great. I love to work really, really hard. I go up Griffith Park.

And I go, I redline really. And then I started lifting weights, you know, in my thirties. And then I, you and I have something in common. I had a bypass that the operation wasn't done correctly, but it didn't hurt me when I was 42. So, and now I'm a little older than that, but that also put me on a Mediterranean diet basically. And so my wife and I just got all the junk out of the house.

We keep all the junk out of the house. If it's not right there, I don't have it. And I weigh myself. I'm not neurotic about it, but I just keep track. It's like a report card for me. And I'm not trying to get too thin. I just try to stay around this weight because I feel lighter on my feet. Yeah. It's hard not to. I just think that it is so important that we stay healthy.

even though I'm not lean. - Well, you look great. - But I mean, I'm just telling you that I always, today, I got to this age now where I admire people much more when they're lean than when they're bulked up. Because I think lean is where the action is. Because the body just, no, but the body just is, it lives longer when you're lean. I look at my dogs.

You know, the dogs that usually, the bigger dogs, they wipe out with the age of 12, 13, 14. I have this little dog, you know, Noodle. Little dog like this. He's like 14 and a half years old. Runs around, jumps up on every bench. Yeah. And just still attacks all the other dogs when they're nasty. Chases the teeth, you know. He's full of energy, but it's little. Yeah. So he's going to live for the next, you know, 10 years probably. I'm more like Noodle, I think. It's just amazing. Yeah.

- No, I'm noodle and Dana's like-- - Yes, I'm comparing them. Because it doesn't matter if you're an animal or if you're a human being. Being leaner and being lighter means longevity, means that you're around a long time. - Okay, can I do 10 pushups now and have you analyze just my form? - Just to start, we will both, my form. - Absolutely. - I will too. - You can do it.

Yeah, he's taking the mic with him. Okay, let's see it. David, do you want me to hold it? Do you want me to hold your butt? Here comes Dana. He's doing... Looks a little girly man right now. Shaking. Two, three, four, five, six, seven,

Seven. No pauses. Eight. Nailing it. Nine. Ten. Perfect. Perfect. Get the oxygen. It was fantastic. It was very, very strict. And what was good about it was that your body stayed absolutely flat. Right. You didn't buckle in at the waistline like a lot of people do and stuff like that. You got to keep your glutes on. You just said like a board, straight, totally flat. That's the greatest compliment. Disciplined. Yes. Yeah. So that's what I do.

And I do lat pulls. I do stuff for the back. Yeah. And mobility is all the rage now. I think it's great. Hip mobility. Yeah. All right. Well, good job. Anyway, good to see you guys. Good luck with the book. It's great. Thank you. Thank you for your help with the book and all that stuff. I really appreciate that. The book is great. And we will stay in touch. Of course. Always fun to see you, buddy. We will work together again. That would be great. In something. Let's do something. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes. Available now for free wherever you get your podcasts. No joke, folks. Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.