Episode 1004- Sifu Ric Meyers

In this episode, Jeremy sits down and talk with Sifu Ric Meyers about his journey as a martial artist, philosophy, and his involvement with Kung Fu Panda.

Sifu Ric Meyers - Episode 1004

SUMMARY

In this engaging conversation, Sifu Ric Meyers shares his extensive journey through the world of martial arts, emphasizing the philosophy behind kung fu and its cultural significance. He discusses his role as a kung fu consultant for the animated film Kung Fu Panda, highlighting its impact on the perception of martial arts in America. Ric reflects on the evolution of martial arts styles in the U.S., the influence of iconic figures like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, and the importance of authenticity in martial arts training. The dialogue also touches on personal anecdotes and insights into the martial arts community. In this conversation, Ric shares his profound journey through martial arts, emphasizing the importance of learning, wisdom, and internal energy. He reflects on his experiences with bullying, the essence of kung fu beyond fighting, and the transformative power of love and Tai Chi. The discussion culminates in a philosophical exploration of martial arts as a means of personal growth and self-control.

TAKEAWAYS

• The philosophy of kung fu emphasizes an open mind, heart, and hand.

• Kung Fu Panda is recognized for its accurate representation of martial arts philosophy.

• Ric's style of kung fu focuses on not hurting oneself or others.

• The evolution of martial arts in America has led to a dilution of authentic kung fu.

• Ric's journey in martial arts began with a desire to learn without causing pain.

• The distinction between martial arts and kung fu is significant in understanding their philosophies.

• Ric's experiences with Jackie Chan highlight the importance of friendship in the martial arts community.

• The impact of Bruce Lee on martial arts culture is profound, yet often misunderstood.

• Ric's work in promoting kung fu has contributed to its popularity in Western culture.

• Martial arts in America often focus on sparring.

• Overcoming bullying requires wisdom and strategy.

• Kung fu encompasses more than just physical fighting.

• Internal energy can surpass physical strength.

• Tai Chi teaches grounding and energy flow.

• Personal growth is a continuous journey.

• You can only control your own mind and actions.

• Martial arts philosophy encourages open-mindedness.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to the Conversation
02:57 The Philosophy of Kung Fu
06:05 Kung Fu Panda: A Cultural Phenomenon
09:10 The Evolution of Martial Arts in America
12:13 The Impact of Jackie Chan
15:05 The Journey of a Martial Arts Writer
18:02 The Search for Authentic Kung Fu
21:05 Reflections on Martial Arts Philosophy
32:02 The Journey of Learning in Martial Arts
38:59 Overcoming Bullying Through Wisdom and Strategy
40:56 The Essence of Kung Fu: More Than Just Fighting
44:58 The Power of Love in Martial Arts
51:10 The Transformative Nature of Tai Chi and Internal Energy
57:04 Concluding Thoughts on Martial Arts Philosophy

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Show Transcript

Jeremy Lesniak (00:44.223)

Welcome, it's another episode of Whistlekick, martial arts radio. And today I'm joined by Ric Myers. Ric, thanks for being here. I'm glad you're here. We're gonna have a great time.

Ric (00:50.622)

No.

Ric (01:12.781)

Well, you know, as a dedicated kung fu guy, I always say, wait, wait, we'll bring this back up when we're done.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:23.593)

That's right. That's right. And I'm going to add and you're going to wait just just a moment. We got some intro stuff because this episode is sponsored by Kataaro Kataaro.com Kataaro has been really supportive of what we do. They make the best belts. They make awesome stuff. Right now they're running this promo. They're doing these autism awareness belts, which are phenomenal. And if you use your code WK10, you can save 10 percent on your first order of that or anything else. Those belts qualify for wholesale discounts.

through March and April they're donating half the profits on those belts to the and I'm getting it right the International Society for Autism Research. Thank you to Kotaro for all of their support and For all of you if you want the easiest way to stay in touch with everything we do with this show Sign up for the new email list whistlekickmarshallartsradio.com hit subscribe to the top fill in your email address We we're not gonna harass you. We're not gonna do much stuff But we're gonna email you when episodes come out and you can click the video you can click the audio It's right there in your inbox

You'll never miss an episode. We're also going to do behind the scenes. There's all kinds of great stuff. The team's working hard. You should join. If you don't, I don't know. You're missing out. Rick, thanks for being here.

Ric (02:33.395)

Yes. Thank you for having me. I mean, a dear friend of mine, the late, great, amazing Kreskin, always called me a vampire because he says, only go where you're invited. And I went, that's right. And once you get to know me, you'll understand why that is.

Jeremy Lesniak (02:48.223)

Mmm.

There's some wisdom to that, right? The idea of going where one is invited. Why would one go where one is not invited?

Ric (02:57.758)

Yeah, I'm stuck with me 24-7 for my entire life and my attitude is, if I could say, take a break, Rick, I would. So, yeah, and you'll soon find out why that is.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:06.303)

Hmm

Jeremy Lesniak (03:10.845)

Isn't that what sleep is? Isn't that us kind of taking a break from ourselves? No, it's not. okay.

Ric (03:14.995)

No, it is not. No, it is not. It is the opposite of that. We'll be getting into that once we get more into kung fu, but no, when we sleep, that's one of the greatest times for us to get over ourselves and do what is best. But in order to do that, you have to be aware. My style of kung fu, the style that I teach, was originally called Don't Hurt Me. And when I teach it,

Jeremy Lesniak (03:24.558)

Okay.

Ric (03:44.265)

I call it don't hurt yourself. And the three main rules of don't hurt yourself is open mind, open heart, open hand. And the brain, when you're asleep, so powerful, so powerful. I always tell, and when people, when I tell them these stuff and they go, well, that's not possible, I said, listen, it is possible. how do I know that it's possible? It's because you're still alive. And the reason you're still alive,

is your brain is still making you breathe. You don't control that.

But you're alive. And also you see the way my hands are moving and the way my mouth is moving and how I'm talking. How am I doing that? I have no plug going into the wall. Where am I getting the power to do that? So again, you've already seen one of the reasons where if you don't want to see me, don't invite me. But you invited me, so you're stuck now.

Jeremy Lesniak (04:21.695)

Hello?

Jeremy Lesniak (04:40.767)

Well, you were invited. As long as you don't turn me to something else, we'll stay friends.

Ric (04:49.297)

No, I leave that up to you. Again, you know, I'm wearing this sweatshirt, and you can see the little picture up on the wall. I was the kung fu consultant for the original Kung Fu Panda. And again, yeah, yes, as well as Minions Rise of Gru. And one of the things that Po does is that every true kung fu person understands the only thing...

Jeremy Lesniak (05:00.831)

Oh, were you really? Oh, I didn't know that. That's super cool.

Ric (05:18.446)

you can control as yourself, period. You can try to read, I mean, the Amazing Kreskin in quotes read other people's minds, but actually he was just much better at reading his own mind than anybody else he had ever met. So, but be that as it may. So anyway, yeah.

Jeremy Lesniak (05:32.23)

Mmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (05:36.807)

You know, is such an interesting movie, because it's animated, which means a lot of people instantly dismiss it as legitimate or realistic or of value, etc. Right. It is put over on that side. And yet, a large portion of martial artists that I've got, I talked to a lot of martial artists, many of them have said, Kung Fu Panda is their favorite martial arts movie.

They don't say their favorite animated martial arts movie. They don't make any kind of qualification. And when I drill into that, almost everybody says for the same reasons. It is the best representation of martial arts philosophy in their mind.

Ric (06:21.956)

Well, it's also the best... I make a clear distinction. Once we get into the story of my life with martial arts and kung fu, I always distinguish between martial arts and kung fu. They're different. yeah, Kung Fu Panda is an excellent movie to express martial arts philosophy, but it's also the best American kung fu movie.

Jeremy Lesniak (06:34.906)

Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Ric (06:48.184)

ever made because it is more accurate in terms of the kung fu style. But only Kung Fu Panda 1 and 3. Kung Fu Panda 2 and 4 might as well be called Martial Arts Marsupial because there's no kung fu in it. None.

Jeremy Lesniak (07:07.625)

Did you work on three as well? OK.

Ric (07:09.747)

No, I didn't, but I complained bitterly about due when I wasn't on to. I was only on one.

Jeremy Lesniak (07:14.239)

What changed for three then?

Ric (07:19.268)

Three was that whoever was in charge, what happened was number one was done by two wonderful directors, John Stevenson, who had great knowledge of kung fu, I would say equal to mine, but they brought me on as the kung fu consultant because I was doing the kung fu extravaganza for 30 years, almost 30 years now, at the San Diego Comic Con. And so some of the animators...

Jeremy Lesniak (07:32.031)

Hmm.

Ric (07:48.531)

at DreamWorks saw the Kung Fu extravaganza and they went back to the studio because up until then DreamWorks were only doing Shrek movies and things like that. And everything that DreamWorks did at the time was designed specifically to satirize or sabotage Disney because the head of DreamWorks at that time was fired from Disney.

Jeremy Lesniak (07:52.319)

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (08:12.691)

Okay.

Ric (08:16.855)

and he wanted to be chief of the animation department. So he came over to DreamWorks and all the movies were attacks on Disney. And I could go through every one of them and tell you how, but we don't have to go into that. However, somehow they came up with an idea for an original movie that wasn't an attack, and it was Kung Fu Panda. And as they pointed out to me when I went there, because I came from San Diego Comic-Con that year directly to...

Jeremy Lesniak (08:26.782)

Yeah.

Ric (08:46.118)

LA, and I was scheduled to give them a seminar on kung fu because they figured I knew more about it than they did, which I… and I found that out very quickly because when I sat down with them, I said, so have you already done any research? And they said, yes, we watched Seven Samurai.

And I went, okay, you're making a baseball movie and you're watching football films.

That's, you know, and again, Seventh Samurai is martial arts, it's Japanese martial arts, but it has nothing to do with kung fu. Nothing. Literally nothing. And so I said, I just basically cracked my fingers and sort of went, all right, I thought it was gonna be an hour, it wound up being five hours. And then they...

Jeremy Lesniak (09:42.259)

I can imagine you in that moment saying something like, right, call your family, them you're not gonna be home, we've got work to do.

Ric (09:47.774)

no, well, thankfully I was there early in the morning. I was there at nine o'clock. We went till five. And I had brought all my Kung Fu movies from the Comic-Con and I showed it, lectured, told them the difference between Kung Fu and martial arts. And what was amazing about Kung Fu Panda from an animation standpoint, because I had worked in animation before. I've worked in so many different, I've worked in...

Jeremy Lesniak (09:50.482)

Okay.

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (10:12.334)

okay.

Ric (10:17.344)

I started in comic books, I went to magazines, I went to non-fiction books, then I went to novels, then I went to television, and then in 1973, I had seen all the Bruce Lee movies, but they didn't speak to me, unlike millions of other people who went, oh my God, I've got to do this. I saw that and said, okay, he's hurting other people and he's hurting himself. And by that time in my life, I had enough.

of people hurting me mentally and physically. Was not interested in hurting anyone else, was not interested in getting hurt. So Bruce sort of like, I loved him, I followed him, I studied his teachings, but his movies didn't excite me because it was again, I'm gonna hurt you, and what was great about Bruce, but again, he did it subtly so much many people that I've spoken to didn't pick up on it. He had that wonderful expression when he like hit to kill.

And he makes this face like, ah, he's in terrible pain. And I went, see, there you go. You're telling us that you may be causing pain, but you're also getting pain. And that was not something I wanted. I started 1978 when my dear friend Larry Hama, who created the G.I. Joe world and was in the movie Snake Eyes and created the character Snake Eyes, he worked with me at the comic book company and I...

I was working with Starlog magazine at the time, and I'd just come from a month as a reporter on the set of Superman in England, the Christopher Reeve, Richard Donner Superman. And I went to see the movie Superman, and when I was watching the movie being made at Pinewood Studios, Lex Luthor's Hinchman was played by Peter Boyle, not by Ned Beatty. So I didn't even know about the Ned Beatty character.

And my father worked in the field of mental retardation and I went to see the movie Superman and Ned Beatty's Otis, went, this human being does not exist on this planet. Because I knew all about the mentally handicapped, but Otis was way beyond that. He was not autistic, was not on any spectrum, he was a completely fictional character. And I was expecting Superman to be authentic, because there were.

Ric (12:40.369)

big banners all over Pinewood Studios put up by the director Richard Donner saying, verisimilitude, verisimilitude. He was planning to make an authentic, complete, and utter honest comic book movie. And he did for the most part, except for Otis. So I go to Larry Hama's office at Marvel Comics on Central, not Central Park, Park Avenue South, and I start complaining. And I start saying, you know, they...

They could have made a great movie. And he said, I said, when will anybody ever do a good comic book movie? And Larry said, come with me. This is exactly what happened. We left that moment from his office. We went down to a place called the Bleecker Street Cinema, which was showing a double feature, speaking of samurai movies, a double feature of Lightning Swords of Death and Baby Cart in the Land of Demons, which was the...

of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies. And I was just like, and those were literal comic books because the Lone Wolf series was based on manga, on Japanese manga. And these were astonishing movies. mean, to this day, Baby Cart and the Land of Demons is still my favorite Chambara or samurai movie. And then I was just like, well, I got to see more of these. And thankfully there were film festivals all over the New York City, but

I said, can I take you out to dinner? And Larry said, no, no, no, we're not done. We had just seen two movies. We went from there and was by this time it was evening. We went into Chinatown, New York. And Chinatown at that time, they don't have them there anymore, but at that time they had six movie theaters that only showed double features of Hong Kong films. And each theater showed different ones every single week.

And we went to the Canal Street Cinema, again, does not exist. I could show you where it was, but it doesn't exist anymore. And they were showing the premiere of Drunken Monkey in a Tiger's Eye, which is better known to Americans as Drunken Master. The second huge Jackie Chan, really the first major. I shouldn't put up my, we're on an iPhone, so I put up my film, so balloons appeared. Anyway, that's it.

Jeremy Lesniak (14:54.473)

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (15:05.193)

So good. I think it's warranted. We're celebrating Jackie Chan. Why not? Why not?

Ric (15:08.185)

Yeah, there we go. Yay! Drunken Master. And this was unlike all the other people, even Quentin Tarantino, because I had some dealings with Quentin Tarantino during the making of Kill Bill. Again, no real kung fu in that movie. No real kung fu. It's all martial arts. It's all hurting and being hurt. So in any case, Drunken Monkey in a Tiger's Eye, Drunken Master, unlike virtually everyone else, like I said, including Quentin,

Quentin Tarantino, they grew up on kung fu movies on television, syndicated kung fu movies that were dubbed and that were, you know, and were not wide screen. And the movies in Chinatown were as God made them. In other words, just the way the Hong Kong people saw them, they were wide screen. They weren't full of old, they weren't old prints full of scratches and cuts and jumps and broken film.

They were pristine and beautiful and they had subtitles. They had two subtitles. Since it was Chinatown, New York, they had subtitles in Cantonese and they had subtitles in English because at that time Hong Kong was a British colony. The Chinese hadn't taken over in 1997 yet. This was 1978. And again, I watched Drunken Master and my eyes bulged. I did the whole

Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny thing, my jaw dropped, my tongue rolled out of my mouth, and I went, my effing God. And by that time, I had written a book on fantasy films, on television detectives, on science fiction films, and exploitation films and all, so I had publishers. And literally the next day, I went to my publisher and I said, I wanna do a book on these things. And they went, here's $750.

Go ahead. That's the way it was like back in the 70s. I could sell a book over a lunch, and I often did. So they gave me that. And I also, huh?

Jeremy Lesniak (17:18.109)

What was that book? What was the title of that book? What was the title of that book?

Ric (17:21.686)

It was.

Jeremy Lesniak (17:23.427)

We're going to show one tell. should have known you had the library right there. That was martial arts movies from Bruce Lee to the ninjas.

Ric (17:27.743)

Of

Ric (17:33.14)

And when it came out in trade paperback, they reversed the title because I said, not ninjas. And they said, it's hip. So they forced me to have ninjas on the cover. But I don't mind because I wound up writing my biggest selling series of novels was eight ninja master novels, which sold a quarter of a million copies. And I'm still getting fan mail from it, but it was from a different thing. that was my first. And that was published. This was published in 1985.

Jeremy Lesniak (17:54.441)

That's. Yep.

Ric (18:02.781)

I want to rip my headphones out. then because I have to say, because normally I'm not this, I'm not this egocentric, but because...

Jeremy Lesniak (18:16.659)

This app this whole thing is about you the title of this episode is your name. It's not egocentric it's accurate.

Ric (18:20.539)

Okay. Okay. Well, I hope you spell it. I hope you spell it right. No, no, no, K. On Rick and two E's and Myers. In any case, because of all the work I did, all the promotion I did of Kung Fu movies, starting with the book, but it went on to television, it went on to documentaries, it went all over the world, it went into all my writing, it became popular.

Jeremy Lesniak (18:27.999)

That's up to Andrew.

We'll, fingers crossed.

Ric (18:48.462)

Not just, certainly not just because of me, but because the product was excellent. So once I said, you got to see this stuff, everybody who saw that stuff went, they did the same thing I did with Drunken Master. So after the original, I think 15 years after the first one came out, they asked for a follow-up. It wasn't really a sequel. It's just that there were so many more movies now and people had, and originally this picture over here was Jean-Claude Van Damme.

And I said, Michelle Yeoh, and originally with Jean-Claude Van Tam, and I came into the office and said, no. And they went, why? I said, look at the title. It doesn't say, okay, martial art movies. It doesn't say tolerable martial art movies. They don't say fair, even good martial art movies. It says great martial arts movies.

Jeremy Lesniak (19:20.009)

And who is it now? I can't see it. OK.

Ric (19:47.782)

He got, J.C. got close, but he never made it. From him, Jazz, the problem is that I got to know him, so now I don't have any favorites. Because I've had experiences with him that were kind of like.

Jeremy Lesniak (19:52.255)

What's your favorite film from him?

Jeremy Lesniak (19:59.647)

Mmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:03.948)

What was it prior? Roll your life back to the day before you met him.

Ric (20:07.922)

gosh. What's your favorite? It's probably mine. What's your favorite?

Jeremy Lesniak (20:14.739)

I'll be kickboxer.

Ric (20:16.934)

no, not kickboxing. What was the good? What was the decent one? made he did make a decent huh? Yeah, bloodsport. I'll take bloodsport. I'll take bloodsport. And by the way, after that. And you know, this is a long story short kind of thing. After years, what happened was after 1978 and seeing Jackie Chan, I said, that's what I want to learn.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:22.249)

Bloodsport? Bloodsport? Okay.

Ric (20:42.041)

I don't want to learn to be like Bruce Lee because Bruce Lee hurts others and hurts himself. And I've put my fist through a plate glass window. That hurts. I did not want to repeat that. And what was great about Jackie is that he constantly tried to avoid. And that's what I wanted to do. So I went in search of Kung Fu in America and wanted to learn. Yeah, go ahead.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:42.431)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:51.039)

Yeah. I know.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:03.903)

I want to pause there because I want to make sure the audience hears what you're saying because I think if I'm hearing you correctly, you are pointing something out that as someone who, you know, I'm not certainly not as big of a martial arts film fan as you, but I'm a Jackie Chan fan and I had a similar reaction in the early 90s to the domestic releases, Rumble in the Bronx being the first one.

Ric (21:13.968)

Yeah. Yes.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:34.143)

What might not be your cup of tea might not have been as impactful for you? But in in context for me, I had that same bug-eyed reaction Okay, I Jackie Chan has a soft place in my heart but what what you're saying that I've never considered before if we take a look at the choreography though the the entire heart of almost everything Jackie Chan does is he tries to avoid hurting people and

Ric (21:37.838)

No, it's fine. It's fine.

Ric (21:53.296)

in

Ric (22:01.145)

and himself.

Jeremy Lesniak (22:03.163)

And, but he seemingly prioritizes his own injury or at least discomfort over hurting other people. I'm thinking of some of these scenes, you know, the latter scene being probably his most famous broadly viewed fight scene. And I don't know that I've ever looked at it through that lens. And I just wanted to take a moment for myself and for the audience to reflect on that. Cause that's a big deal. And it sounds like you're,

Ric (22:11.439)

Mm-hmm.

Ric (22:17.091)

Mm-hmm.

Ric (22:28.539)

Of course.

Jeremy Lesniak (22:30.505)

kind of drawing a line in the sand with that and that you're going to go on to make that a big point. So I just wanted to make sure we got there before you move forward.

Ric (22:37.851)

Well, there you go. But it's, of course, much more than that, because again, kung fu, open mind, open hand, open heart. That's three things. Jackie and Bruce, one of the big distinctions, what I was about to get to, is that from 78 on, I searched for kung fu in America. Could not find it. Took judo, took karate, took jiu-jitsu, took taekwondo, took them all.

And then I said, okay, I got to stop doing this. Cause these, all of them were about punchy punchy, close fist, punchy punchy. And they were all about wanting to become everybody, not everybody, but most of the students that I dealt with, they were there to be like Bruce. That's where they were, the majority of them were introduced to Kung Fu via Bruce. However, Bruce was dead already. He had been dead for two months.

before any of these people saw Enter the Dragon, because in America, Enter the Dragon came out first and then was such a big hit that they took all of Bruce's old movies and then they showed those, but he was long gone by then. So what happens was all these people who wanted to do what Bruce did went to their local Taekwondo place because Taekwondo had the majority of schools in America.

but also karate and also, and a certain percentage of teachers wanted to make a living. They did not want to have to close up their school. So when these guys can, can you teach me what Bruce does? Too many teachers went, sure I can. And I remember seeing schools of kung fu and karate, kung fu and judo.

Kung Fu and Taekwondo. And because Bruce was the only one literally in America before he became a big star who taught Guaido, who taught Round Eye, who taught white skin, Kung Fu, and even his wasn't developed far enough at that time, because he was still all about the fist as well, what we still have

Ric (25:04.723)

in America and most of the world at this point is an unholy amalgamation, a monstrous thing that this is why people can't distinguish between the two because in America they're indistinguishable because an inferior form, a far from elevated form of kung fu was folded in to martial arts to please, I mean, one of the best,

Tai Chi teachers I've ever met and I've ever known. One of the great teachers, he's Asian, he's Chinese, but he works in America. And he had to change, dilute his teaching because his students wanted to be, what's the magic word? Badass. They wanted to be badass. They wanted to be like Bruce, but they didn't want to be like Bruce in reality.

Jeremy Lesniak (25:53.407)

sweet.

Ric (26:02.47)

or the way Bruce was before he died, they wanted to be like Bruce in the movies. So Bruce has never changed. I mean, you can see all the stuff that's been coming from his family, and I know all his family, they're lovely people. But Bruce will never grow, will never develop, will never grow. And interestingly enough, the only person who ever followed what Bruce taught and the main core of what Bruce taught

was learn everything you can from every one you can. And the thumb comes up. Learn everything you can. Let me do that again. Learn everything you can from every one you can and every thing you can. Then make it your own.

And guess who did that? No one except one person. This guy. And the reason he's a big star is that's what he did. Cause he worked with Bruce. He was in several movies with Bruce. Bruce broke his neck in Enter the Dragon. And Bruce and I became friends with Jackie when I started, when I was writing the first one.

Jeremy Lesniak (27:04.201)

Jackie. Hmm.

Ric (27:23.824)

I found the company that were putting all the kung fu, the Shaw Brothers kung fu movies on television. I found out they were right across the street from Grand Central Station. I would get off the train, go into their offices, brought them my other books, my science fiction book, my fantasy book, and said, I wanna do one on what you guys, and they almost literally fell to their knees and kissed my ring. And they said, anything you want, anything you want. And I said, I wanna go to a...

Hong Kong and I wanna meet Jackie Chan. And they went, okay. And sure enough, I was in Hong Kong, I was at Golden Harvest Studios, I was at Shaw Brothers Studios, I'm walking the hallways of Golden Harvest and there's Yun Biao, one of Jackie Chan's friends. And they bring me into Jackie Chan's office at Golden Harvest in the late 70s and the early 80s. And as I walk into his office, and I have a picture of me and him in his office.

I think I may have sent it you, I may not have, but we'll see. Yeah, yeah, whatever. And Jackie's having an argument with his producer. And of course they're speaking Chinese. But he sees me and I had a shorter beard, but I still had a beard and I still had the big round Casper, the Casper the friendly ghost head. And he points directly at me and said, you come here. And I just.

Jeremy Lesniak (28:25.608)

I think it's in the images that we're going to put up in the show notes.

Ric (28:51.236)

Yes, sir, Mr. Jackie. And he said, who's the one person who should direct me in an American movie? And I said, you. Because he had already directed himself in the Fearless Hyena and all this, not the Fearless Hyena, but in The Young Master and Project A and Police Story and all this stuff. And then he put his arm, Jackie put his arm around my shoulder, turned me to face his producer.

and said, tell him that.

then they introduced me to Raymond Chow that day, the head of the studio, and I was Jackie's friend. But Jackie always wants to make friends. And also the thing that they liked about me, because this is something I do when I go to any country. Whenever I go to any country, I find out what the natives call Americans behind our backs. And I call myself that. So when I was in Hong Kong, I already knew. So when they asked, when...

I went to Jackie Chan's 32nd birthday party, I went to all sorts of things. And whenever I would meet all these people and they'd ask my name, I'd always answer, Mo Guai Lo. And they would look at me and then start to laugh because Mo Guai Lo means hairy foreign devil.

Ric (30:11.618)

And so they knew immediately, the big roundheaded ghosty guy is okay. So anyway, the point was that after all of that, I found out later because it wasn't until 2001 when I was working at that time with, I was a contributing editor for Inside Kung Fu Magazine. And Taiwan, which was always been under the literal sites,

the gun sites of China, they were trying to get people to write about them. So they went to Inside Kung Fu and every other major Kung Fu magazine and publication in the world and said, send us your best reporter. We will put them up for a week and we will introduce them to Kung Fu. so Inside Kung Fu did that for me. And I went to Taiwan and I found out that

That's what happened for a week, every single day. We wound up beating every Kung Fu teacher in Taiwan during that week. Entire villages would come out for us. But the first place we went were all the big guys in Taipei. And the first one I went to was known as Iron Balls, because he was known, he was able to pull a 747 with his gonads.

But also he was a great, an amazing guy, and he's an amazing painter, and he presented me a painting, which I don't have in this office, but I have out there, of Damo, the creator of the Shaolin Five Animals styles, doing snake style, because this is the Year of the Snake, and I was born in the Year of the Snake. So he did a painting of Damo because I reminded him of Damo because of my beard, because Damo has the big beard. So he gave me this painting, and that's great. But then I met Fong Song Lee.

Jeremy Lesniak (31:56.595)

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (32:02.719)

Hmm.

Ric (32:09.665)

And Fung Song Lee taught me more in 20 minutes than I had learned in the last 24 years because everybody else was selling me their abomination. And even though the first place I went, the Philadelphia Judo Club, was great, I stopped going there because Judo was awesome. But the way martial arts is taught in America is sparring base because again,

Many of the students want to be badass. So it's sparring based. And so what happened, I noticed the teacher at the Philadelphia Judo Club was awesome. The sensei was awesome. The sensei would always be sitting in the back of the room with a big frown on his face until one day we came back from lunch and he had a big smile on his face. And the teacher Art Bourgeau, just an awesome guy, he comes over and says, sensei, what is it?

Jeremy Lesniak (32:41.215)

Mm-hmm.

Ric (33:07.486)

And Sensei looked at them with a big smile and slapped his knee and said, I learned something new today. And I went, I love this guy. This guy is my kind of guy. Because by then I had found out that what made me happy, drinks didn't make me happy, drugs didn't make me happy, all the usual crap, eating too much didn't make me happy. What made me happy, I found out, was learning things. Learning things set off things in my brain that sort of...

Jeremy Lesniak (33:15.87)

Hmm.

Ric (33:35.945)

that I recognized going, because again, it was all about open mind. Quick story that ties into this. We moved to a new town when I was in the fifth grade. And so I went to the junior high school. And the first day, and this was the first, I went from a little town to a bigger town. So at the junior high school, they already had the bullies. And this one...

Jeremy Lesniak (33:50.92)

No.

Ric (34:05.703)

And I was the new kid in class and also I was, you know, Pillsbury Doe's boy, was whatever. And this guy comes, he's standing in the middle of the hall as I'm walking down the hall and he stops dead in front of me and I look at him and he goes, you're fat.

Ric (34:25.426)

And I went, you're stupid. And much to my delight, he started to cry. And I went, wow. And I felt a rush. felt, because I didn't hit him. I didn't get into a fight with him. I just accepted that I was fat. I didn't say duh, but I did, but I thought about it and my brain instantly came back to me with a little piece of paper on a silver platter. And this little piece of paper said, this guy's stupid.

Jeremy Lesniak (34:36.838)

Okay.

Ric (34:55.089)

And so I just basically read him the piece of paper and you're stupid. So, but that's not where it ends, gets better. I go through the day, I say, okay, you know, I sort of whatever. I go to the line to get on the bus to go home and I can see somebody coming at me. And I went, and I can see the look on his face. And I said, okay. know who the, understand that I've, or by this time I was reading five books a week, science fiction and mysteries.

Jeremy Lesniak (35:22.173)

Mm.

Ric (35:22.417)

seeing every television show, seeing every movie, I was massively educating myself. And so I recognize, and also I watch TV and watch movies to escape from my really terrible childhood. I said, and what these, what, you know, all these shows taught me is that my childhood is not the only childhood. There are other ways to get through life than what I was going through. So.

This guy, and also I watch all the Westerns, I watch all the detective shows, and the one thing that always amazed me, because this is not something I think anybody would normally do, and that is on these shows, whenever somebody is going to get into a fight, the cowboys, Roy Rogers, the detectives, Dragun, whatever, guy starting the fight always does this. They cock their fist.

Jeremy Lesniak (35:52.467)

Mm.

Jeremy Lesniak (36:16.147)

Mm-hmm.

Ric (36:17.403)

First they make a fist, then they cock their fist. even, I I thought that was stupid enough. But what happened next, I thought was the dumbest thing I could ever imagine. Then they went to punch the other person. And what did the other person do?

Ric (36:38.777)

What did the other person do?

Jeremy Lesniak (36:42.879)

Maybe put their hands up. Maybe pull their fist. No? OK.

Ric (36:43.259)

They were, no, no, if they put their hands up, okay, I could accept that. But remember, this is television. These are all these guys who are the heroes. No, one of two things happened in the large majority. One, they either block it with their arm and then punch back. Or my favorite thing, to show how tough they were, to show how badass they were, they took the punch.

Jeremy Lesniak (37:08.275)

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (37:11.881)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ric (37:14.822)

I cannot tell you how many times I saw them get hit in the stomach, get hit in the face, Batman, whatever, constantly taking the punch. And I'm like going, are these people insane? And sure enough, this bully who turned out to be the boss of the other bully who came at me on the line, and he stood in front of me and I looked at him and he looked at me, big angry face, and he did it.

He cocked his fist.

Ric (37:49.645)

This actually happened. This was in the fifth grade. This was before I had seen any of those movies, but I had seen a lot of action stuff. But I was thinking logically. Thankfully, I had met Mr. Spock by this time, and I liked Mr. Spock, because, you know, logical. He does this. He comes, the punch is coming in, the punch is coming in, and literally, to my eyes,

And I still to this day just, I believe in magic because of this happened. It slowed down. I'd heard other people talk about this, know, boxers and shit, but I didn't experience it because I didn't believe it. Because whenever I had the violence in the rest of my life, it never slowed down. Here when this guy was throwing a tantrum, he slowed down. And I was watching it in slow motion, the fist was coming at my face. And my brain sort of went.

move. But also, don't be stupid, because people on television shows, move like this.

Ric (38:59.08)

I learned I was only going to move because again, he was going slow. So I was going to move as much as I had to. I wasn't going to try to do this because I learned later what I was doing. I was trying not to extend the situation. I did not want to run away and have him chase me. I was just going to see the fist and then I moved. I just moved as much as I had to. The fist went by me and I remember thinking to myself, okay, what do you do now? And what I did,

Jeremy Lesniak (39:06.975)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (39:20.575)

Hmm.

Ric (39:28.609)

was I reached up and I gripped the wrist just with two fingers. I didn't know what I was doing yet, but apparently my brain did. The thing that made me breathe was saying, got this. And I just kept holding on and he went by me and I just saw him go by me, still holding his wrist. And he just kept going until he had turned all the way around because for some reason, and this was also a lesson that I understood later.

Jeremy Lesniak (39:42.207)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (39:49.662)

Hmm.

Ric (39:58.581)

Those two fingers were more powerful than anything I could have done. Because I didn't know it at the time, I know it now, that I was anchored, I was rooted to the spot. I could move, but there was no way his arm could get out from under my fingers. So he turned all the way around, his arm was twisted up his back with me holding it. And then I sort of went, okay, and I did that.

and his shoulders went up and I'm looking at his back. And when he turned around, he had a look on his face that I used years later when I helped Jeff Lieberman rewrite Just Before Dawn, the horror movie. If you watch that horror movie, you'll see that face at the end of the movie when this girl who is the sister of one of the killers comes running in and sees who the new...

the new hero in town, and she just has this look on her face. And so I was never bothered by bullies ever again. But unbeknownst to me, I had learned my kung fu, the don't hurt me. But it took me years, it wasn't until 2001 when I went to Taiwan and I met all these pure, elevated kung fu teachers, not martial art teachers, not karate teachers, not taekwondo teachers.

not judo teachers, kung fu teachers. Kung fu, I also did a documentary called Films of Fury, the Kung Fu Movie Movie, where I go through the history of kung fu film. And in that movie, I define kung fu as human achievement. You will find out that the Chinese language is such that any one word can be translated many different ways. If you ever see Hero with Jet Li, they...

they defined the Chinese word sword like 19 ways. way, know, Jet Li told me the way he defines kung fu, the word kung fu is concerted effort toward a specific goal. But I decided no, because again, I wanted to combine everything I knew what kung fu was. And kung fu was is not just martial.

Jeremy Lesniak (41:53.502)

Hmm?

Jeremy Lesniak (42:07.155)

Really.

Ric (42:19.346)

Martial arts is, that's what martial arts is, martial arts. But kung fu is martial, healing, internal, external, physical, mental. Again, it's not just open hand, it's also open mind, it's also open heart. And I've seen kung fu people do things that other people might say impossible. And that's why we put the ending.

Jeremy Lesniak (42:24.383)

Mm.

Jeremy Lesniak (42:45.375)

Hmm.

Ric (42:47.25)

I mean, again, your friends who saw Kung Fu Panda, the first Kung Fu Panda, they look at that ending and they go, oh, that's great, but you know, that's not possible. I'm going, I got news for you. It is possible. I mean, I did something similar, but again, since I wasn't in a fight, the highest form of Kung Fu I learned and I agree with is not to fight and is to be smarter.

Jeremy Lesniak (42:58.387)

Hmm.

Ric (43:17.294)

is to be smarter. There's absolutely no reason anyone ever has to fight. Another thing I was taught, if somebody starts a fight, something's wrong with them. If you start a fight, something's wrong with you. it's just, and so whenever I teach, the first, my books, I wanted to write a book on my style of kung fu, but I said no, because the only thing you need to learn my style of kung fu is the best

human physiology book you can find and the best human psychology book you can find. And then you want to start researching nature too, because you want to get it, but in any case. So, know, these were all relevatory things that I had discovered. So the point is, at that point, when I came back, was 2001 that I went to Taiwan and I came back and I wrote this. Because then I realized martial art movies are not the same as kung fu movies or kung fu films.

Jeremy Lesniak (43:51.305)

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (44:08.67)

Hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (44:14.239)

Mm-hmm.

Ric (44:16.304)

because I like alliteration. Martial art movies, M.M., kung fu films, K or F. So I wrote Films of Fury, the Kung Fu Movie book, and then they made Films of Fury, the Kung Fu Movie movie, which I believe is still on Amazon and Tubi, even after 15 years. And again, the distinction is, in this book, I tell you the difference, because kung fu is not just about fighting.

Jeremy Lesniak (44:33.213)

Okay.

Jeremy Lesniak (44:45.087)

So I want to jump in because unfortunately I... Well, thank you. Thank you for that, I can already tell we'll have to have you back on.

Ric (44:46.85)

Yes, because there's no way to stop me unless you do.

Jeremy Lesniak (44:58.793)

So I want to take where we are and I want to drive, you're going to drive to the conclusion but unfortunately there's a time stop for me and I want to make sure that you've got enough time to reach your conclusion because you strike me as someone that could.

Ric (45:16.182)

worry about it. My conclusion is constantly evolving, so I never reach it. So don't worry about

Jeremy Lesniak (45:20.991)

Okay, well then I don't know if this is gonna work, but we'll try anyway. So the heart of what you're talking about, there are a few points and I'll frame them as I'm hearing them and let you run with it and we'll, over the next 10 to 15, we'll fade. I'm hearing about this incredible distinction of essentially

Ric (45:25.444)

Go ahead, give it a shot.

Ric (45:40.814)

He

Jeremy Lesniak (45:50.591)

I'm going to grossly oversimplify it. Martial arts as a nonviolent pursuit in practice.

Ric (45:57.868)

Yeah. Now, that's a wonderful thing to say. However, I have many wonderful friends who, mean, I have two friends who run the biggest Eastern martial art events, martial art event in Atlantic City, Sifu Alan Goldberg, yeah, an urban action showcase in New York, Demetrius Angelo.

Jeremy Lesniak (46:19.519)

Alan was one of the earliest guests on this show.

Ric (46:27.48)

who it's mostly film, but Goldberg's thing is actual, actual martial arts. And I love, I've known Alan for, Alan has always been incredibly nice to me and I've always liked Alan enormously.

Jeremy Lesniak (46:33.727)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (46:40.223)

He's always been very kind to me for sure.

Ric (46:43.65)

But, sorry for me taking your name in vain, Alan, but.

He is not alone in terms of how I see what martial arts has done to him, not just for him, but to him. Because martial arts at its best, I mean, the statement you made would be wonderful if it was true, but I have not seen, I've seen individual moments, bubbles of that kind of teaching. But the majority of the teaching is fist.

muscles, anger. And that has nothing to do with kung fu. Kung fu is internal energy and literal love. It's amazing, I discovered that love truly is the most powerful emotion on earth because when you use love when you're defending yourself or you need or moving a car or helping someone, you will be far more powerful than if you use anger.

Jeremy Lesniak (47:23.231)

Sure.

Ric (47:50.025)

And also, if you use your fist, kiss this goodbye. Because that was another thing I discovered when I was young, watching Roy Rogers and Joe Friday using their fists. I already knew from having put my fist through the play glass window that this is one of the weakest parts of the human body. And I'd also known because of other things that might've happened that this is one of the strongest parts of the human body.

So what does the majority do to prove their badassery? They take this and they hit this. And you are guaranteeing that this is gonna be damage. You might hurt someone else, but you're always going to hurt yourself, always. And my question is, why do you wanna do that? To prove you're a So I look at Alan, who's my age now, and I'm in my 70s.

And he's in his, I believe, either mid or late 60s. And you compare the two of us in terms of our physical abilities. And so many other martial arts teachers, so many other masters. Whenever I go to that event, I love Eric Lee, because he's a kung fu guy. And Eric Lee, one time at that event, I foolishly, because I had a deprived childhood, if anybody gives me anything free, I go crazy.

And so at the Alan Goldberg's thing, he had two tables of desserts and I wanted a piece of every single one of them. But by then, because I had been to Taiwan, I had stopped eating sweets for the most part, but I went crazy because it was all free, it was for me. And Eric saw me across the room and he looked at me and he came over and he looked at me and then he started doing this.

And then he started to smile because he realized that I not only knew what he was doing, but I also was accepting what he was doing because what he was doing was bathing me in healing energy. It felt to me like he was tossing beautiful, cool, healing water on me because up till then I was so sugar-shocked.

Ric (50:11.4)

because I had so much that he could tell that I was getting dizzy. I was literally getting dizzy because I had so much after so long not having it. And he bathed me in healing energy. And what happens with me, because again, I was friends with the Amazing Kreskin, I was friends with Jackie Chan. So many people, even in my Tai Chi classes today, not my Tai Chi classes, the Tai Chi classes I take, all the other students go to the Tai Chi class.

learn astonishing things. And then as soon as it's over, they forget it. They say, all right, that works in class, but now I have to go back to the real world. And so they forget it. The big difference with me, one of the big differences with me is that once the door is opened for me, it stays open. It took me many years to get out of the jail cell that I had created for myself inside myself because of the abuse I suffered.

Jeremy Lesniak (50:46.109)

Hmm.

Ric (51:10.171)

But once I found out that jail cell wasn't locked, the only reason I was in it is that I had been taught that that's what love was, that pain was what love was by the abuse. But then when I realized that didn't have to be that way, and the only reason I'm still in the cage is that I'm allowing myself to be, I just... And it's the same thing when I'm taught things. When I'm taught something amazing.

I sort of go, it's possible. And that means other things are possible too. Oh boy. And I get to the next one. I went for many years to the Tai Chi alchemy in Sedona, Arizona. And one year, this was at the height of my coming back from Taiwan and all, and just being bathed and stuff. I met this other teacher, Rick Barrett, who works out in Staten Island. And he taught me some things.

Jeremy Lesniak (51:46.579)

Good.

Ric (52:09.283)

that he turned me into two superheroes. was Goliath. I couldn't be moved. They had all these people in the class trying to push me over, but he taught me how to root. I couldn't be pushed over until I realized that I couldn't be pushed over. And then I started laughing. Then I could be pushed over. But then during the class, another teacher had paired up everybody in the class. And if you ever do Tai Chi, the Tai Chi's...

the Tai Chi systems almost invariably start with you raising your wrists, not your hands, not your arms, your wrists. And so one person, he paired everybody up, we were all lying next to each other. And one person's job was to raise their wrists. The other person's job was to keep them from raising their wrists. And also prior to this, somebody brought in a bunch of cutlery and they had people sitting there bending the cutlery.

And because I had an open mind at that point, I had a big pile of curlicue cutlery because I was just bending it like crazy. Again, I knew it was possible. It happened, so I knew it was possible. So I didn't tell myself it couldn't happen, so I did it. And here I was trying to raise my risks. And they paired me up with a 250 pound, 25 year old football player.

Jeremy Lesniak (53:19.944)

Hmm.

Ric (53:35.295)

And he was like so many of these martial art guys at these kung fu events, which is in muscles I trust. So he grabbed my wrists and he held on tight. And I said, okay. Then I knew it became a mental thing. It wasn't a physical thing anymore. My muscles were not going to help me because my muscles are limited. But my internal energy, the thing that makes me breathe, the thing that makes me move,

Jeremy Lesniak (53:41.983)

Thank you.

Ric (54:04.578)

All that stuff, I accepted that there's energy in the world and there's energy everywhere that I could call upon. So then I said, all right, now I cannot solve the problem of him holding onto my wrist, but I have to solve the problem of me raising my own. And so I closed my eyes and I went into my favorite place, my little brainy boy. And inside my brain, I imagined, because...

I've written 75 books, science fiction, mysteries, all sorts of stuff. So I have an imagination. And I've been shown all these things. So I imagined that I had little rocket ships under my wrists. And my favorite thing is that God was my puppeteer. So I had an energy wire. And so I had my eyes closed and I tried it. No, I'm using my muscles. No, no, tried it. No, didn't do that.

Jeremy Lesniak (54:50.494)

Hmm.

Ric (55:02.21)

And then for the want of a better term, because I could tell you stories about this in Taiwan too, I became water. Remember what Bruce said? Be water, my friend. I became.

and my wrists raised as if by themselves. And I felt it. And again, as usual, when this sort of stuff happens, I am flooded with all this awesome energy. it's so great. And I raised my wrists and I was just, it's so great. And I opened my eyes. The football player was all the way across the room, on his ass, on the floor.

And I looked at the people on this side and I looked at the people on this side and every single one of them was looking at me like this.

Ric (55:56.606)

And I said, what? And then I realized what, and I went, did anybody get a film? Did anybody get a video? Nobody got a video. But again, from that moment on, I sort of went, that's the difference. What elevated kung fu and what the kung fu that I identify as real, which I only found in Taiwan.

And my teachers now also learned in Taiwan, because again, all the kung fu that I've ever seen anywhere else is corrupted. It's martial fu, it's kung arts or whatever, and it's not spelled properly. So yeah, that's why I figured your audience would not be happy to hear from me, because I'm telling them everything you know is wrong.

Jeremy Lesniak (56:35.455)

Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Lesniak (56:55.049)

So we're gonna punctuate this here and we definitely have to have you back and we'll be able to continue in some of this. But I think you might underestimate our audience because our audience is pretty open-minded and we will see.

Ric (56:55.188)

Hahaha!

Ric (57:04.52)

If the audience allows, yeah.

Ric (57:16.349)

I hope so, but we'll see. We'll see. We'll find out.

Jeremy Lesniak (57:27.083)

One of the things that i think is a hallmark of our show and i can't speak for the honest but i can speak for myself that you have done that i absolutely love because it doesn't happen all the time is you've got me thinking you've got my wheels turning and it is you know we we say this all the time on the show that our job here at martial arts radio is not to tell people what to think or what to do what to believe but to consider and so if we bring you something

And especially if it hits you when you say, and you get defensive about it, that's the stuff you have to unpack the most. That's the stuff you have to consider the most. And if you consider it openly, open mind, open heart, open hand, and you consider it genuinely, and you wind up back at the same conclusion, that's all I ask you to do, but be open. And

Ric (58:10.045)

You

Ric (58:15.613)

But again, you also said something which was a very important point in my kung fu, in my teaching, which is you said I can only speak for myself. And I went, and I was going to interrupt and go, yes, that is absolutely true. The one thing I also teach all the time, the only person whose mind you can read is your own. The only person you can control is yourself. You cannot do it for anyone else.

And having an argument with me is a terrible waste of time because what will always happen is that invariably to defend themselves, the opponent will always call in the infamous you or they or them or I read or this person said. And I always go, whenever they say, well, people say, or I love the phrase on media and in the internet now, which is,

Jeremy Lesniak (58:47.209)

Thank

Jeremy Lesniak (59:01.481)

Mmm.

Ric (59:12.823)

Everybody is loving this. Everybody is saying this and I'm going, name two, name two. And it's like, yeah, I keep on saying the only thing you can control is yourself. And I can't even do that very well, but it's an ongoing lesson on my part. So yes.

Jeremy Lesniak (59:32.349)

Rick, how do people find you online? Where are you?

Ric (59:34.363)

I'm becoming less and less easy to find. But I do a show every month on YouTube called Action Film Autopsy, where I go through every single movie of the month and do the same thing to them that I did to Roy Rogers and Joe Friday. And it's usually on That Fat Samurai Guy's YouTube channel. And fat is P-H-A-T.

And so you can find me there. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. I'm on TikTok. I don't do a lot of contributing, but I'm there. And so that's where you can find me. No, I don't have a website anymore. No, I don't have a website. mean, all I do, I mean, on Facebook, I have a page for everything I've done and I announce everything I've done.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:00:18.675)

Website? Website? You must have a website. You don't have a website, OK.

Ric (01:00:33.197)

But I no longer, I'm trying to think, do I have any, there's still a Films of Fury website, but again, I'm a very minor part of that, because I was only the screenwriter for that. But, but, but if you go to Wikipedia, if you go to IMDb, if you go to Google and you type me in and spell my name correctly, you will find lots and lots and lots of things about me.

Yeah, so, you know, yeah, so that's where you can find me. But if you want to contact me, you know, you can just send me a message on Facebook, because I'm an old man, so that's all I do, Facebook. Although I love TikTok, I just love it. I just don't contribute to it.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:11.209)

Yeah, okay.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:18.623)

Well, I definitely want to have you back. We'll have a chat. Andrew and I will chat. We'll come up with a plan for bring. That is there are gradations of lies, and that may be of the highest order.

Ric (01:01:24.277)

I have nothing more to say. Come on, I got nothing to say.

Ric (01:01:34.745)

I have a lot of stories about Jet, Jackie Chan, martial arts and tuts.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:01:36.547)

I'm sure, yeah. And I want to hear all of them. We may not be able to do all of them at once, but I want to hear them all. I really do. That's not, that is not hyperbole. To the audience, is there an aspect of Rick, what Rick's shared today that you are most interested in continuing on? If so, I want to hear from you, jeremyatwisalkic.com. We might have to have them back on more than once. I don't know. Let's see what happens here.

So make sure you reach out to me and make sure you reach out to Kataro, K-A-T-A-A-R-O.com WK10 is the code. Check out that great autism awareness belt that they're doing and that promo. Thank you to Kataro for continuing to support what we do here at Whistlekick and at Martial Arts Radio. And to the audience, remember, sign up for the newsletter. Whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is going to get you the easiest way. We're email you. I love it.

Listen to more sports radio.com hit subscribe. That's the easiest way to make sure you get every single episode your email and if you're listening to this episode and not watching you are missing out on on a lot, but this has been awesome and Rick I'm passing the ball back to you my friend. How do you want to close this up today?

Ric (01:02:52.046)

man, I should have thought about that. Well, one of my other guys is, also known as Kung Fu Santa. And what Kung Fu Santa always says, be nice.