Episode 322 - Grandmaster Joe Rebelo

Grandmaster Joe Rebelo is a martial arts practitioner and instructor. He created a tv show called the Martial Arts Today TV.

It's only the narrow-minded individuals who in their xenophobia will only stay in their one style and can't possibly want to go to any other style...

Grandmaster Joe Rebelo - Episode 322

Most of us were brought by our parents to martial arts classes as a kid as an extracurricular activity after school. Grandmaster Joe Rebelo isn't different but he found out about martial arts when his father playfully hit him with a karate chop. Since then, Kenpo Joe, as he is also known for, has trained various styles of martial arts from Chinese to Filipino. He has watched and trained with some of the greats in martial arts that inspired him to continue earning black belts on different styles. Listen to find out more!

Enjoyed this episode? Why not buy the book? Five Faces of Kempo.

Grandmaster Joe Rebelo is a martial arts practitioner and instructor. He created a tv show called the Martial Arts Today TV. It's only the narrow-minded individuals who in their xenophobia will only stay in their one style and can't possibly want to go to any other style.

Show Notes

On this episode, we mentioned Ed Parker, Mas Oyama, Fred Villari, Nick Cerio, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, and Rick Alemany.[gallery type="slideshow" size="full" ids="5660,5659,5658,5657,5656,5655,5654,5653,5652,5651,5650,5649,5648,5647,5646,5645,5636,5635,5634,5633,5632,5631,5630,5629,5628,5627,5626,5625,5624"]

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript here or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hello and welcome to whistlekick martial arts radio episode 322. Today, I’m joined by Grandmaster Joe Rebello also known as kenpo joe. My name is Jeremy Lesniak, I’m the founder of whistlekick, I’m your host for this show and I am excited because it's another great day the world of the martial arts for being a traditional martial artist because there's more and more great stuff out there for you. And I don’t just mean products, we've had products for years but there are more and more people other producing amazing content whether that's on YouTube or on social media or podcast. I just, I love it we got great books and I don't mean we as in whistlekick's making all this, I just mean that the world is producing more and more wonderful martial arts content which makes me excited and proud to be a traditional martial artist, hopefully you feel the same. If you want to follow everything we got going on head on over to whistlekick.com and you can find links to all of our projects of our products and if you want to find the show notes for this or any other episode, head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, you can find photos, videos, plenty of links, pretty much anything you can imagine to give more context, more insight not only to the episodes we do, but to the guests. To the people that really make the show what it is cause it's not me. It's all these wonderful people who agree to share their time with me and by extension with all of you. Thank you to all of them. Let's talk about today's guest, Grandmaster joe Rebello is a fixture at martial arts events throughout the country. I've seen him, if you've been to Sifu Alan Goldberg’s event in new jersey, you've probably seen him there. If you've been to the gathering of eagles the kempo event that was held recently in Texas, you've seen him. He has a television show, a legitimate television show, it actually airs on tv about martial arts and he's bringing that show and a lot of old episodes to YouTube and of course gonna have links to all that in the show notes. But this man, this is funny man, this is an entertaining and made even more compelling by the fact that he loves martial arts on a level that few of us can truly claim. And that made for great conversation, I was thoroughly engaged and entertained and I hope all of you are too. So let's step back and welcome Grandmaster joe Rebello. Grandmaster Rebello, welcome to whistlekickmartialartsradioJoe Rebello:Greetings and felicitations Jeremy, thank you for inviting me to the show.Jeremy Lesniak:Of course, honored to have you on the show. Solicitations, does that mean you're gonna sell me something?Joe Rebello:No, felicitations, not solicitation. Fe like you know feliz navidad and felicity and felicitations.Jeremy Lesniak:No I got you, that makes far more sense.Joe Rebello:Jeremy, you need to get out more what...Jeremy Lesniak:I know. I really do. I am stuck in in this, this small space talking to people, not quite everyday but certainly every week and in doing a lot email as I use to tell people, they say, so what you do and I would say I do a lot of social media in my pajamas, that was my job description for the first couple years as we as we build this thing.Joe Rebello:For me it was, well, what you do for a living? Well I do martial arts and they go yeah, but what you do for a living? I go, I do martial arts.Jeremy Lesniak:It's so interesting. You probably seen the social media, the memes, what I think I do, what my parents think I do, what my friends think I do, you know that the 4-5 panels and the martial arts ones are always so spot on because the variance between what people actually think that we do as martial artist and what we do so dramatically different isn’t it.Joe Rebello:Oh well, it is funny you mention that, there is always a classic phrase, you know you have a presence they'll drop in a stance and waaaah, and I normally say you know you are you onto medication for that? Or you know preparation work wonders for that you really should invest in some. Yeah or I don't want to meet you in a dark alley, well, what you doing in dark alleys or should I even asked to begin with. So I deftly have built up a quite a plethora responses to the classic reactions from individuals who aren't in the martial arts. And you know I am very fortunate, I do what I love I love what I do and I do it for a living. How many people alike can really say that? Not many.Jeremy Lesniak:What do you do? Let me ask the question a little bit differently and then others may, how do you earn money?Joe Rebello:Okay well I run a martial arts studio, I’ve been let’s see, October 3, 2018 will make 50 years in the martial arts and 40 years teaching. And I’ve been, I’ve got black belt instructor certification in Chinese, Okinawan, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and American martial arts. Last time I looked at done over 60 martial arts in my life, I added it up the other day [00:05:43.01] physically done. But that's how I make my living that's what I do for a job I teach martial arts. I also have two television programs, Martial arts today tv and Rebello’s kempo karate which air in new Bedford, mass and five of major cable systems in a million households and we also have extended exclusive episodes on YouTube. Got a real good deal with them regarding that and just educating the masses and the other martial artist to the diversity in martial arts. So that's what I do for a job.Jeremy Lesniak:And how is that changed over the 40 years that you've been teaching?Joe Rebello:Just learning more, learning more, growing more. You know I always have, one of things I say, one martial arts super secret technique is another style's yellow belt material. You know, learning the diversity of arts and a lot of times by learning other arts going back and look at my art, I go, oh that's why we do this and that's why we do that. I look at people in my own art who don't know that because they never studied those arts so therefore they can't cross reference material and I think that's so important and pertinent in today's more modern, eclectic understanding of the martial arts you know I mean. I train with people like David German who was one of the pioneers of MMA in this country, he did MMA before it was cool. Kung Fu magazine called him the eclectic heretic, I hated that phrase, but the was. He was one of the first people combined parker's kempo and grappling and I mean to the point where it's funny, I was watching the UFC's one of the early ones that had a boxer in there, he only had one glove on and people say, why not wear two gloves, its simple the Gracie’s stole the idea from one of David German’s tournaments in California. Which the concept was if the guy wanted, the boxer, wanted to grapple he had a free hand, he could grab his of the wrist to grab the guys gi. If he was wearing two boxing gloves he wasn’t able to do it. And to see that my instructor influenced the UFC and look how that works in relationship to the diversity of the arts and that's the ket, that's what makes it fun.Jeremy Lesniak:Now over the past 40 years have you seen an acceptance of that cross training, of that that diversity? Yeah?Joe Rebello:Definitely by all means. I mean you know, I mean, what is MMA? I mean, in all honesty there is really two types of MMA. It’s the MMA that we see in the UFC, mixed martial arts which in old days, no holds barred when it was a lot more fun. But the other mixed martial arts are people who are mixing styles and people make it sound like something new and radical, that's been done for centuries there is nothing new. You know, it's only the narrow minded individuals who in their xenophobia will only stay in their one the style and can't possibly you know want to go to any other style and I look at them and I go, you know, your founder learned this art and this art and this art to put his art together. You know the one that you want to keep pure? And I said as Ed Parker said, you know when pure knuckles me pure flesh that's about as pure as martial arts ever gets. The whole understanding of the diversity of your knowledge base and you know, what you want to learn? You know how do you want to, what  do you like that takes your system and makes it to your individual style? I always loved after from Mr. Parker as well. Kempo is a system and from the system you create individual styles. Well, it’s not just for kempo, it's for any given martial art if you choose to take that path.Jeremy Lesniak:How do you reconcile that which is an important concept and certainly something that I support and believe in and I would suggest the majority of guest we had on the show feel the same. How do you reconcile that with teaching something? Cause of course you can have a white belt walking day one and say do what seems right, you've gotta give them some structure. So how do you handle that?Joe Rebello:It’s really funny because that's my JKD argument. You know I don’t know for those people and unaware, a lot of people know me in the internet and the martial arts world as kenpo joe. And one of the, my greatest accomplishments was meeting and working and training with Ed Parker and learning American kempo. He redesigned my thought process, he made me even more open-minded to various martial arts. He gave me the carte blanche to say it's okay. And in regard to things like JKD and jeet kune do, there's a whole dissertation he has in one of his books of infinite insight into the kempo, his five volume focus on his system and martial arts in general, and he talks about Bruce Lee about that you know I mean, one doesn't simply become free. The classic phrase in our politically charged the atmosphere is that freedom isn't free you know people lay their lives on the line that we could be free. Everybody from the original patriots in the American revolution on down gave they lives so we could be free. Our freedom of expression, I always cross-reference it to the Tao te Qing, one can only see beauty as beauty only because his ugliness, high and low rest upon each other, long and short contrast one another it seemed that those contrast to be able to appreciate what is freedom. So you know, most of, the truth be told most of Bruce Lee's top students were already black belts. You know outside of a one guy ted, ted Wong I think was the only guy who had no previous martial arts training. The majority of the students were past martial artist in some way, shape, or form and most of his best ones were already black belts. So they could appreciate: "the freedom they were having from their cool establish styles and systems." so you know, to me you gotta start somewhere, you have to have established curriculum and format and knowledge and then once you achieve a particular point you can grow above and beyond that if you so desire and again if you so desire. It's not always, not every, you know there is a great phrase a friend the mine has taught me, a great story. The friend is literally was a rocket scientist a nuclear physicist and he was trying to get him involved in Mr. Parker's system. The guy basically told him, look I think all day long, that's all I do. I think a new radical concept theories and and principles to try to achieve new levels of understanding, just the styles got too much thought process in it. So what he did he brought him to a Shotokan dojo out in California and learned with a very traditional Japanese instructor and he was like I love it, it's mindless. I block, I punch, I kick that's all have to focus on I don't have to think about intricate theories and concepts and principles. All I have this is a block, this is a punch, to strike, all I gotta do is learn another kata and he was content in that format, he was content that way and that's what made him happy. So you know it all the various arts, vary according to various individuals what is freedom and how free can you be within the structure of your given system? How open-minded are you? Mr. Parker used to say, mine's like a parachute works best when it's open. My aikido instructor jack Leonardo had a phrase that went beyond that he said Joseph, it's great to have an open mind but it's even better to have an open heart. And I understood that in a relationship to the level of sincerity and really just wanting to learn and being nice and kind to people. Back to Ed Parker you know make a smile and a handshake, you're best friends and I always like to say some of the deadliest people I’ve ever met on the planet were also some of the nicest.Jeremy Lesniak:Do you think that's an accident or do you think there's synergy there?Joe Rebello:I think synergy in relationship to realizing when you have the ability it takes a human being's life that you appreciate life all the more. I think when you learn as I say the joy is in kempo how to rip, gouge, maim and melee for fun and profit, you know when you when you have those skills again, I like quoting Mr. Parker and other instructors I worked with, Ed Parker used to say I look at a person the way a butcher looks at the side of beef. Filet Mignon, rump roast and he's dissecting them why? Well he worked as a butcher for two years. So, when we as martial artist when we're in that state as the Japanese call of the zanshin, of alertness you know and we're looking in person and you know and we're already reading them before before they even begin to think about throwing that punch or kick. And we know, we know before they knew because they're still in the thought process of thinking about it, we can already see it, I mean you might as well tattoo that on their fore head, why because were aware so. That synergy of understanding, you know the classic phrase you always hear from many martial artist well, the first half of my life I learned how to hurt people now, the second half my life learning how to heal people. So many martial arts Masters learn to become acupuncturists and osteoclasts and doctors and you know the backwoods die with the [00:15:03.23] the asper cream and bengay and whatnot tiger balm and you know so all these different aspects we have, we have to have that and you know, quoting Mr. Miyagi, Pat Morita is Mr. Miyagi, Daniel-san must fight, balance. And if we're gonna balance ourselves as human beings would be yin and yang, if we're gonna balance the violent, vicious brutality allegedly in our art with the passive, calm, tranquil, serene elements of being a thoughtful and benevolent human being. You know, we've got to find that balance, that happy medium as it were. And I said I’m very fortunate that many of these men and women I met had that. And they we're just great people to meet they we're great people to know I was so happy and blessed to know them. I'm just lucky.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah. I think I have an inkling of what that's like. I've been pretty lucky the last two years because of the show, because of getting to speak with folks like you. Now, you when you look back 50 years coming up and that's quite the accomplishment so few people make it even a few years and those that make it you know five or 10 rarely go on to 50 years, I’m not hearing anything in your voice and your words that make me doubt you're going to continue beyond that but let's go the other and let's go back to the beginning. How did you find martial arts?Joe Rebello:Sure. Okay 1968 I was seven years old. My father and I doing father-son horseplay, he hits me with a karate chop drops me. Instead of crying I look up from the ground and go what was that? And he goes that's karate, what’s karate? So he proceeded to explain he was studying with a gentleman by the name Dave Schuster in new Bedford, Massachusetts who ran a dojo [00:16:52.15] Oyama and to those martial arts trivia buffs if you have the first edition of mas Oyama's this is karate and you look in the back of the book, and look for schools you will find Dave Schuster, house of Oyama, new Bedford, Massachusetts that's just northeast united states representative. Long before [00:17:10.13] sensei or anybody else he was one of the main people. Well, at that time it was a men's club so, no women were taking karate and no kids so my dad would teach me little things on the slide here in there that he was learning from his training in Kyokushin and then the next year I got to meet mas oyama, again they would doing a public demonstration at the dojo on Dartmouth St., new Bedford and I went to it and I got see Dave Schuster work with mas oyama. They then later did a demonstration at a military base, I’m eight years old like I remember where it was it might've been fort Devon [00:17:47.07] I don't know all I remember is that they had a demonstration at one point he likes 4 or 5 military police officers there, MPs and he had them hold their nightsticks in both her hands. Now people realize mas oyama is known the martial arts world as a man who killed 52 bulls with his bare hands in his lifespan. A man who basically on his kashuku which was his intensive training would go up in the mountains and punch the side of a tree 500 times what each hand until that bark on that tree dies. So, he's got these guys holding his nightstick and he proceeds to snap them with shuto chops like kindling, now mind you this isn’t somebody iina zen kutsu dachi forward stance locking his elbows out, bracing aboard so you can break it. These are 5 guys who basically doesn't know what he's going to do and he proceeds to snap these things in half. And I am always reminded of the scene with Jim Kelly from Enter The Dragon worry squaring off with the two racists police officers and he snaps one of their nightsticks with a shuto chop, I saw that live. I [00:18:56.14] look superman, so that's how it began. And then my first commercial school I was at St. Anthony's elementary school actually its more of a middle school because it was seventh and eighth grade and I met a gentleman by the name of Eric chevalier and Eric was a student at the Fairhaven, Massachusetts united studios of self-defense. Now Fred Velari and business associates Rudy horn we're both students under nick Cerio. Nick Cerio relocated to Florida for short time and Rudy had the money and the backing and the business savvy, Fred was a good instructor they decide open up a couple martial arts schools and they we're gonna become nick Cerio franchises. Well nick was down in Florida at the time so they opened up school in Waltham and Dedham and when nick Cerio is tired of Florida and came back to new England, it felt we got these two schools will make them nick cerio's franchises he's like why didn’t you tell me this? Why you open up a school for us and tell me after you even open for a while. So they had a big falling out. So Rudy and Fred Velari decided to open up, they had two studios so these two studios were united in a common cause running the same art,  so he opened up united studios of self-defense. And later on got some business acumen from I believe the Tracie’s and other sources and started franchises so that’s one of the first 20 schools he had opened when he decide to go this franchise idea. And I was training with a gentleman by name of Fred e Hosmer who preferred being called Ed Hosmer, which is ironic Ed Hosmer, Ed Parker, it's amazing how I flow in that cosmic streams as it were. But I always say we say he had a blonde hair like Robert Redford he had the tan like George Hamilton, had the physique of Bruce Lee and the flexibility of Jean-Claude van Damme. He was so popular..Jeremy Lesniak:He's got the combo.Joe Rebello:Oh yeah, girls from the local Fairhaven high school would stop by just they could stare at him through the window and watch Ed work out bare chested during summer. It was hilarious. But he was a great martial artist, he was very open-minded he had gotten, he literally had gotten hi blackbelt nine months, he was a merchant seamen got out of, had all this money from the military, they walk onto a dojo this guy tom Jordan said I just wanna train. 7 days, became a dojo rat, in nine months of training straight to his blackbelt and then later on you know, opened up the united studios. And it was great because he was a guy who was on the sly unbeknownst to Fred Velari and the powers that be was sneaking down to go train with Jeff Smith and Bill Superfoot Wallace. You know that was unheard of back then, you go and work in kickboxing and full contact karate but he was an open minded individual and he wanted to learn and he was just genuinely just, again, a genuinely nice person and  unbeknownst to me at that time I didn't know but you know he is little 12-year-old joe, this chubby pigeon toed kid who couldn't run straight and I was grossly pigeon toed, I did when I was a kid I wore the classic Forrest Gump cast and braces and my feet would always point terminally in and actually it was martial arts would straighten my feet, squared my gate to walk normally. But he was a person who you know, would encourage me and I didn't know it at the time but I had a photographic memory and then years later in high school, I would find out I had a genius level IQ. So when you have these martial arts magazines and after I pick up my first one, I was addicted and would buy them all whenever I could get them. I wouldn't just by them, I’d memorize them, verbatim and I will quote stuff, verbatim, that I remembered and learned. Here I am little 12-year-old kid with three different colored slayer markers and I’m taking notes and I’m marking down each one of my techniques so I don't forget them and I remember them. I can go back and look and that's the way it was. You know I’d I trained my blue belt, school closed down. What do I do now? Of course I train in different martial arts, so taekwondo, tangsoodo, I mean what was locally available to me. Enter martial arts Master, jack Leonardo, the man who brought aikido to new Bedford. A man who literally lived that martial arts Master, he was Mr. Miyagi, he was that way it was the way he was as a person. And he sold martial arts books and martial art supplies out of his, [00:23:47.18] his accordion in York barbell store and then he got involved in aikido through iron man magazine and then brought aikido to new Bedford to start training with [00:23:58.03] at the new England aikikai. And he was an inspiration to me and he was the one who inspired me to learn different martial arts but the funny thing was he would tell the story of the rabbits. A hunter goes to chase one rabbits, she's another rabbit, ah he's about to catch it oh here's another rabbit and he ends up with nothing. I went well, I’m thinking to myself and I want a bag full of rabbits. I want more than one. And lo and behold I was introduced to a gentleman through a local newspaper looking for students that wanna learn private lessons and kung Fu. I always want to learn kung Fu. And a gentleman named Chris Lear and other guy [00:24:42.09] and they were teaching this hybrid southern kung Fu system enough Leo's basement and Chris is learned with a gentleman Ron Champlain who some your listeners may remember as Master chi and used to do demonstration of the orient world of self-defense and whatnot. And you know I kinda realize because I was I was addicted to all these martial arts magazines and if we weren’t doing kung Fu if were doing ni han chi. You know this wasn't kung Fu this is some hybrid whatever they were putting together but hey it was in [00:25:14.02] storm and it was someplace to train. Then I went to European health spa and I was working out there and I met this gentleman who is one of the salesman there, john Gabriel and john was a in the military and the air force and he was stationed in Taiwan and he used to work on the radar system to the old b-52 bombers and while he was there he studied tae kwon do, you would think he's in Taiwan he studied kung Fu, but tae kwon do is incredibly popular in Taiwan and his instructor cheng lu was gen. Choi's representative for tae kwon do in Taiwan, Master Lu was also the son of the ambassador Chinese ambassador to Korea. So he lived in Korea and as a Chinese person in Korea is a word they were mandarins they were aristocrats so he was required to learn about Korean culture and also Korean calligraphy. So he went to this guy dal il who was also teaching taekyon, and his fellow calligraphy student was [00:26:26.17] or Master Chae the founder of modern tae kwon do. So after the Japanese occupation they took off and then of course Mao decided to stop the cultural revolution and then being mandarins with money guess what they left with Sun yat-sen and Chang Kai-shek and emigrated to Taiwan. So he was doing that and tae kwon do and he was and they also doing taiquandao which was not only the Taiwanese pronunciation of it, but with cheng lu, it was a combination of that and eight different kung Fu systems he had learned. So on a higher level once you get all the hard style work you went to the soft style material and there were eight Master sets regarding that. So here I am I’m learning with john Gabriel and I am also often sensei Leonardo after a while realized I wanted to learn weaponry so I was doing I can in aiki ken and aikijo with him [00:27:18.20] legacy and the sword and the short staff and then I meet up and I find out that they're teaching kung Fu will kung Fu wu tang no less wu-tang clan at my local university smu southeastern Massachusetts university so I go there and I meet this blonde haired blue-eyed instructor Ed Jada who was a student Master Jason zo so I go in and I’m like site I’m in a literal kung Fu this is fantastic I talked to him he say so do you do other martial arts he goes yeah I do kenpo karate and I do this although we can accept you as a student. Ha? My instructor says you'll poison the kung Fu. I said with all due respect I expect hearing that from an oriental not some blonde haired blue-eyed white guy but he was insisting he wouldn't teach me. So like the old kung Fu movies I learned I learned was you keep going back so I kept going back to classes and wouldn't accept me again too. Three weeks go by and that third week I show up at one class and none of his students are there [00:28:30.08]. So I sat there and say okay here is all your college students who aren't here at the class yet here I am the karate guy who's been asking you for three weeks and showing up every single time and now they are not here but I am because you know what you're absolutely right and he started to teach me so I learned the northern praying mantis, six harmony, seven star and 8 step mantis. I learned tai chi chuan, chen style, woo style and and and yangs while the yangs I learned later on. [00:29:04.14] tracker or the labyrinth system classic system that that received attempts to imitate in a Chinese connection and so I’m learning it from him so I’m studying tae kwon do and tai chuan do and sometimes taking the bus all the way out to [00:29:25.01] and if I missed the last bus I sleep on the mats and I get up first thing in the morning catch the first bus [00:29:30.27] back to new Bedford but I got to go study every Saturday about Japanese swordsmanship and the short staff and how it cross-references its spear in the bow staff. I go train in kung Fu at the smu so all this is going on I’m learning all these are simultaneously I see my old I see the assistant instructor from the old United’s self-defense a guy by the name Jim Gagnon and I was great to see what you been up to I’m teaching out of my basement been there before okay cool can I go well he asked me and say how far did you get I got a blue [00:30:05.16] how come you havenT got the black the school closed you know I mean they had other instructors subsequently and I had worked with a couple of them but I was hooked on the way [00:30:13.26] for the third one yet but so I started training with him and [00:30:24.00] got very disillusioned about the whole thing about the in the hybrid kung Fu system I wasn't teaching but we had become friends and we would compare magazines and books and videos and you know whatever came out at that time and the [00:30:38.16] Jim I do have a high opinion at kenpo until he met Jim. [00:30:49.16] Vietnam veterans they were both in Vietnam around the same time they were even in the same area if I’m not mistaken in Vietnam but they got along famously. So Leo decided to try kenpo so here we are and Jim [00:31:01.24] and a couple other individuals were taking classes and what not and in January 83 I get my black belt in kenpo and my tae kwon do instructor john Gabriel’s says joe get your black belt and this is just for that he goes he's like he says joe until you get that black belt you get more knowledge than any three local black belts I know but until you get that black belt they won't respect you you'll just be some under rank that knows a lot of stuff so in 83 I got my black belt in kenpo and within five years I had black belts in 5 martial arts or instructor certification in kung Fu. My life’s' not boring.Jeremy Lesniak:Yeah life is certainly not boring. Life is certainly not boring. I wanna go back I wanna go back to that that moment when you walk in when you want to learn kung Fu and the gentleman says no you'll poison it. What made you go back?Joe Rebello:Jeremy at that point huh?Jeremy Lesniak:What made you go back? You knew enough martial arts at the time that you you were proud of what you would done and here this gentleman is and is not only telling you that he won't take you as a student he is telling you he won't take you as a student because of the work that you've put in up to that point, why do you wanna train with him?Joe Rebello:Well, mentally at that point you do two things you don't during sex point and laugh you get that one I’m a frustrated stand-up comedian I you know what I didn't take him as his word I looked at him and I looked I saw a little bit of insincerity in that not that he was just kind of blowing me off and and you know what I mean that's as old as time itself. I had read enough martial arts magazines and books to know okay that's the fake blow off line so keep coming back keep showing up they want to see loyalty they want to see sincerity and they want to see you want to know and learn and when you show them that it's real tough for them to say no especially when they've got people who don't feel the same way who don't appreciate it as much who don't enjoy it as much who don't want it is badly so when you get someone who does sooner or later you'll look at him and go you know you really do want this pretty bad don't you I go yup okay come on in and maybe takes a day a week a month a year who knows but you know what if you want it badly enough you move heaven and earth to get it [00:33:36.04] that's the key so you got to want it badly enough and I didn't stop I kept learning you know and thank god for Leo [00:33:48.01] because Leo did one of the best things he ever did was at the time after we get our black belts we thought we were doing Ed Parker's kenpo we were completely mistaken the system is completely different. But we do know so Leo got in touch with this with the head of kenpo which you know who was Ed Parker so he got in touch with Mr. Parker and around that time prof. Nick Cerio Clyde griffin tony [00:34:09.25] were all contacting Mr. Parker about getting him to come back to new England and teach. Now next year and I had been with the IKK and Mr. Parker's system back in 1969 and for whatever reasons they parted ways and then next year I went to go train professor chow Mr. parker's instructor for a while and then went his own path and what not but they they wanted to get back [00:34:31.13] and Leo unbeknownst to what unbeknownst to any of those people you know contacted Mr. Parker you know so it all happened to work out we got in on the ground floor and got to work with Mr. Parker and got to meet him and started taking seminars with him we really wanted to do private lessons with them but at the time the machine in new England wasn't allowing anybody to do that and but I did something that was unheard of that kinda irked some people but I want to open up for us the first Ed Parker franchise in new England and contact Mr. Parker directly and you know truth be told at that time people in new England didn't know the system what was I supposed to do that wasn't my fault I just wanted to learn the system and I irked some people because I want to do that but Mr. Parker you know saw that I wanted to learn saw that I wanted to do it saw I was willing to put money into it unfortunately my backers at the time decided not to do it but Mr. Parker never forgot that and never got me. So here I was the kenpo groupie going to every one of his seminars that I could from 1983 till his death in 1990 as many as I could because I wanted to learn and he knew that and it just got to a point where it's like okay well you know the local sources have stopped meaning we caught up what do we do now okay well I send you this guy or I send did that guy and send and I we would go to these different camps and seminars and go train with these different instructors because we really wanted to learn the system and in 1985 we I opened a commercial school and biggest mistake in my life I opened it with other people so the advice of my backers I should never done it should have been me first [00:36:21.03] but you live and learn but because of that I was without a school for little but it didn't stop me just kept on going keep on I’m doing what I’m doing and being who I was and I kept learning and training and I met another gentleman who all was a Puerto Rican extract not surgically from that was teaching in new Bedford and is teaching at the local YWCA and his name was Carlos Febreze and at the time this was this was the beginning of the ninja craze and he taught ninja too but the original art he learned were Okinawan kenpo and kobujutsu and I saw she had ranking kobudo. I had learned weapons forms but I had nobody to go to to get rank so I go to see him and the classic phrase he says to me like out of star wars so you want to embrace the dark arts no oh good that's how we'd check for the crazies. Right so you wanna learn ninjutsu no okay now I think you're crazy again. I said you got rank in kobudo dude you have a legitimate rank in kobujitsu and Okinawan weaponry. Would you be willing to teach it? Wow you're the first guy who ever asked let me think about it. I'm patient I wait keep going to classes visiting them yeah sounds like a plan okay so I started learning the traditional katas and getting ranks through him. Also I’m learning I’m learning ninjutsu through osmosis I can't help it it's the way my brain works. So I’m watching budo classes and it's like you know watch him do Japanese sword oh okay you do Japanese sword too I have some foundation in that through aikijo aiki chan rather oh cool okay now I’m learning iaijutsu as well as well. It was just the way I worked always learning always learning my second parachute keep it open keep learning. Cross-reference to Ed parker and Bruce lee you must enter your cup of your tea before you could drink mine he goes you know Bruce I got a big appetite and I got a big thirst so you know what I’m gonna do I’m gonna take this full cup had I’ve gotten my knowledge I’m gonna put it up on the mantle and I’m pulling out a second empty cup and I’m gonna fill it with your tea you know what that's going to make me Bruce with a [00:38:46.21] I’m gonna be a be a two-fisted drinker oh I wanted to be a two-fisted drinker I wanted I wanted to learn it was never enough I was in the day there were enough days in week weeks in a month month and years to learn and it was always something new to learn always something different to learn and as I learned I got confirmation of the other arts because they would do certain things and I get answers to things in my other arts that they would never tell me cause they didn't know the other arts did though they provided that answer they provided those insights and like you said it Ed Parker said himself it's a series of infinite insights did I answer your question?Jeremy Lesniak:No but that's okayJoe Rebello:Okay got itJeremy Lesniak:In a sense.Joe Rebello:I didn't get yeah I mean back and simply stand it don't let it get to me I I never let it get to me. I never let people's opinions get to me I don't worry about the haters I don't worry about the people on the internet who carry their testicles in a cyber wheelbarrow. They're not important they're only important if they affect me that doesn't mean I don't respect their opinions cause I do doesn't mean I don't value their opinion because I do but you know something Jeremy I’ve learned over the years that all martial arts are not created equal and anybody who says it really those who know all the martial arts they people always all the same no it's not you know you know some people are stuck in elementary school. Some people only have an 8th grade education other people college college professors would with multiple degrees. Intelligence quotient is is is not always the same so the arts are not always the same there are styles that only have like three empty hand forms and a couple weapon arts. There are others who have hundreds of forms within them. It's not all the same black but we more alike than we are different. So when someone tells me no I always consider it a definite maybe you might say that now but that doesn't mean two weeks down the road you might not feel the same way and I prove that a couple of times in my life with different people I work with you know just keep asking.Jeremy Lesniak:And I agree.Joe Rebello:Whereas they can say is no.Jeremy Lesniak:When someone says no that really hasn't change the situation versus not asking.Joe Rebello:Exactly and guess what your no will be somebody else's yes cause I read situations with certain instructors wouldn't teach. Here's the key, here's the key Jeremy this is a [00:41:27.15] I’m glad I can share with your listeners. You gotta be in on the joke okay I’m always cracking jokes and whatnot. Many times I have worked with various martial arts instructors and who's trained with various Masters and Grandmasters and I’ll go hey you know when your Master does this or this or I member one time I was working with a particular instructor we're talking about professor chow and I said okay you know what professor chow would do is double angle bone breaks and he would break the arm [00:41:57.07] and break it so it shatters so it wouldn't work right kinda like Hawaiian [00:42:02.24] wait wait you know that yeah how do you know that? I because I’ve worked with half-dozen of professor chow's students well if you know that now the floodgates are open now the doors it now the doors burst wide open the floodgates are open and boom now it's okay well if you know that and that's considered a secret in our system and you know the secret then obviously people trusted you so I can trust you here la la la right and it's happened many times and I remember one seminar doing that and another person walked up to me and said Joe yeah [00:42:38.20] if you follow Howie Mandell well Joe yeah why is it what you are going over with that person isn't what we're going over I had the right question asked and it opened the doors and you know as you have these tidbits of information and knowledge regarding the particular person's system. I run a TV show just like you're running this podcast it's always great when you got that that that two or three you know quarters in your pocket or silver dollars in your pocket to put in the slot machine meaning you've got a particular comment or statement and knowing something about them to go you know that? How do you know that? Why do you know that and it opens up a whole line of conversation. It opens up a whole line of insights and knowledge that probably wouldn't have been tapped before if I hadn't had that little silver dollar in my pocket that question or that comment or that piece of factoid or memory from a martial arts magazine from 1978 or or or a book that that published in you know the 60s and that's the key and it opens that door and the floodgates open that's the beauty of it.Jeremy Lesniak:So what next?Joe Rebello:When you reflect on all of these people you've trained with the the 60+ styles you trained in and I’m gonna speculate hundreds of instructors who's been the most influential?Jeremy Lesniak:Well not hundred.Joe Rebello:No but no not hundreds.Jeremy Lesniak:OkayJoe Rebello:I am honest about it you know.Jeremy Lesniak:A bunch?Joe Rebello:[00:44:28.07] have 60 black beltsJeremy Lesniak:Right no noJoe Rebello:[00:44:34.04] yeah exactly I’m not the average person you know Jeremy I’m notJeremy Lesniak:RightJoe Rebello:But you know I mean I got and I said you gotta recently a person in the field he had me do a test on line [00:44:44.13] you know you just have a photographic memory you have a photo identic memory I said okay what's the difference the photographic you just take a picture and you can detail out names in a picture you're photo identic you have different ideas you cross reference and interrelate material that's photo identic you take ideas and you identify them and you cross-reference them but you ask about influential instructors Ed Parker man what a genius what a genius we're in a Bedford Massachusetts at a seminar and we were talking about I had asked him several questions I asked him you know about about the black gi and why we wear a black gi I asked why he didn't like the term Master he was not he was not he was always Mr. Parker and I gave a great analogy on that one he said first of all Joseph the only the only person that is my Master is my lord and savior Jesus Christ he was a Mormon at the church latter day saints and he said in order for there to be Masters there have to be slaves and I never want any of my students to ever be a slave to me. He was insightful and we were talking and I said you know Mr. Parker you're genius he goes I don't know about that joseph I said why Mr. Parker he goes joseph most geniuses are crazy that was Ed parker. Another person David German, David German made me think outside the box. David German I’m looking at the cover from the march 1981 issue of black belt and a big poster of him on the cover with guy Jim carter and he was the eclectic character. He was the guy who did mixed kenpo with white tiger kung Fu in grappling, budo jujitsu from out on the you know before it was cool. So he would do a standing kenpo technique and go into a kung Fu technique and then he would he would choke the guy out and he take him to the ground he follow him to the ground and grappling from the ground and crank him you know force yoga you send them we bend them you know and his thought process was different he thought differently. He thought out of the box before they brought out the boxes now he made me look at my system of the kenpo with Mr. Parker differently. He made me have a whole new appreciation for grappling he made me have a whole new appreciation for groundwork I hated to be on the ground I had no clue. Here is a quarter go by a clue, here's a dime call someone who cares I’m sorry phone calls are $0.50 you can afford a clue and so that was me that's how I felt but he made me change my process in that he made me think and look differently at the way the body worked and way the body was controlled and manipulated and tai transition action Inc. To incorporate the various actions we have at the transitions and that gave me a whole new insight and again somebody else going it's okay to do that. It's all right so many instructors in our world are still so narrowminded xenophobic and stuffed in the blinders in the pigeonholed you know mindset they can't think outside the box they're happy in the box it's nice and warm and they blanket you you know yeah it's like a joke [00:48:01.02] my said yeah your minds in the gutter I said we have all my friends are here and it's nice and warm dark you know it's a matter of of your mindset how how do you perceive motion who influences you. I have so many instructors I turn around and and Jeremy and amend my dojo when I look in a wall and I see a long line of pictures and I look at the people like bob smith from show choi hung kung Fu he's gone. Jack lee in aikido he's gone, [00:48:31.00] in kenpo and kung Fu he's gone you know Mr. Parker hello David German my racist truck to pass frank trail you know prof. Chow [00:48:41.20] another one of my instructors Bill Gregory from [00:48:43.17] lineage and you know I look at all the legacies with each one of them and and there was no one influential person that couldn't be I did too many of these arts I did too many styles. I had too much fun you know and because of that there are so many great stories from it every one of them you know from working with sticks with prof. Persis to working with Frank Trejo on kenpo fusion who is who is he was a fighter he was a fighter I mean I worked with bill at bill Aguiar at one point from the original black dragon fighting [00:49:19.19] the real one how about that and when I got in there I found out that they were doing kenpo. It was basically doing Tracy kenpo and found out that that's where [00:49:29.01] had come from after he left trias he wanted to go train with Ed parker so you know what’s that old phrase from bloom county at Doonesbury we have met the enemy and they are us? Sorry I’m tangent manJeremy Lesniak:Hey that is the is the whole purpose that is the hallmark of the show the tangents the best things are on the edges. I started this show because my favorite part of martial arts training was when the instructors would can you get sidetracked and tell stories because for me that gave me so much more context to what I was learning that's kinda how we got here.Joe Rebello:Well then let me a story house on how I started my tv show's shows.Jeremy Lesniak:Please.Joe Rebello:Simply stated one day I’m at McDonald’s I’m competing I’m in a top 10 new England in crane in the pkl at the time I’m at McDonald’s and [00:50:20.14] Richie Brandon and who knew that years later I would be with all three individuals who were in the blackbelt and inside kung Fu halls of fame who basically all three would be picked up by four kids productions and be featured on Fox TV for wnac Masters. We were just three guys we have four guys competing in soft style division and basically in new England they had a kenpo division at the time. Thank god for tony [00:50:50.27] and don Rodriguez putting one in so I could compete and I was the first person ever perform Mr. Parker's forms and get [00:50:56.06] top 10 new England and when I couldn't do kenpo I was put in soft style but the gift was I could to kung Fu I could do mantis and [00:51:06.04] so we're just hanging and asked talked him about where the next tournament was I said man I wish I had a camera. I wish I had a movie camera or video camera record disc cause what are the chances of being here and being like this and this and this atmosphere being of a talk shop, talk to people about their life and career how they started in the martial arts what made them do the arts that they do then in 1990 Ed Parker died and I was devastated. [00:51:37.07] later the grand Master of the wu-tang group and I am a real member the wu-tang clan folks Taiwan-based but grand Master liu [00:51:44.29] and I was like you know how do I talk to these people if I don't talk to them about their life and their career and whatnot and really you know and have a permanent question which is like what we doing here. If they don't haven something opens the door opens those floodgates and talk to them about their life and careers you know and [00:52:07.18] staff something that more deep and meaningful then on I really wanted to do something so I started the program in 1990 and Jeff Speakman at the time and just on the perfect weapon and he was being brought in to new England and I grabbed the video camera and told him hey I’ve got this tv show martial arts today tv. I didn't tell him he was the first show but I got an interview with him and we shot an action segment and I sat there with a meager video toaster and two vcrs and I put the show together and started from there and again martial arts today is about history is it's it's a program focusing on the history and philosophy styles and celebrities of the martial arts and that's how it all started and now October 3rd it's gonna be 29 years on the air.Jeremy Lesniak:Cool.Joe Rebello:I think we I simply think I want the longest continuous running martial arts television programs in this country I think I’m fairly accurate on that I can't.Jeremy Lesniak:YeahJoe Rebello:I've been looking aroundJeremy Lesniak:I would imagine so. What guest haven't you gotten, who if you could wave a magic wand who would be top on the list?Joe Rebello:Tons Jeremy oh my gosh you know I went to a symposium you know who I haven't interviewed yet? Bill Wallace.Jeremy Lesniak:Really.Joe Rebello:And I was talking yeah I was talking about Bill a couple time I said Bill we gotta do the interview not an interview Bill that's not enough. When I first met Bill here's is when it started. I first met Bill Wallace at Hines auditorium in Boston they were running a big [00:53:52.17] counseling physical fitness event. Jeff cooper the man who basically coined the term aerobics was there and a special guest was Bill Superfoot Wallace. I at the time was teaching the guardian angels in new Bedford one late one night I heard a woman's have this I heard a scream of abject horror and terror thankfully I was still in my gi at home practicing went out in the street with my uniform and my black belt holding a razor-sharp Chinese broadsword [00:54:20.19] this woman I run up to the corner I had just met Shirley and Araujo being gang raped at a big dance bar on double avenue now that made national headlines [00:54:33.11] like Jodie foster made it made into a film known as the accused and but because of that Chris knew I brought the Guardian Angels to new Bedford and he had another guy teaching I was watching the guy and he couldn't make it all the way from Boston to new Bedford teach them [00:54:48.01] hey you're teaching kenpo yeah I am I’m a black belt and we're talking oh man I’m looking for somebody locally are you interested in teaching I was like sure so I ended up being the instructor. One day I’m running and wrestling shoes [00:55:02.04] I hit the blade on my foot running in place and [00:55:04.10] my foot oh man but they have this event coming up and it's Bill stiking Superfoot Wallace. So I walk up I’m on crutches no less Bill I have a very strange request and this is the weird part of my life where I was I wanted to feel what it was like to be hit by some of the deadliest people on the planet. I had had the middleweight middleweight champ Marvin haggler hit me with his left hook obviously getting beat up by Mr. Mr. Parker like me so he hit me a lot which was great, that's how I knew it worked. So I’m on the crutches I’m telling Bill Wallace, Bill do me a favor what hit me in the head with a roundhouse kick [00:55:42.22] I can see it now Bill Wallace hits the handicapped and you know I mean of course ask Bill okay what cheeseburger place you got there [00:55:54.01] was it in McDonalds burger king what was it this morning because I ended you know he's got the most horrible diet in the world but he's gonna outlive us all but yes so you know we got a picture taken together back then and it's an assignment the last time [00:56:10.25] so I’m talking to Terry Dow who's been at my place my two studio by the way and we're gonna shoot one this does time around but it's got to be comprehensive it's gotta be something where I want Bill to go how in the blue hell do you know that you know why do you know why and but it's gonna be you know we have extended episodes on YouTube ladies and gentlemen you can look up martial arts today TV on YouTube and see extended episodes which guess what I can make the episode as darn long as I want it. I've had episodes for an hour and half on john painter [00:56:43.19] Master hour and 21 minutes you know it's as long as we're gonna have it and go over it that's the key but Bill's one of them. Jackie Chan had the opportunity unfortunately it didn't fell through. [00:56:59.01] Steven Seagal that fell through he was living in Massachusetts at the time you know what it's so many many years ago. Wow you know Jet Li okay you know Jet Li and I actually originally in 1980 when he was with the Beijing wushu team. Brendan Lai who used to run Brendan Lai's martial arts supply [00:57:19.20] in Boston and just jet did [00:57:23.21] and matter of fact the photos video file and of martial arts if you find the product that was put out by Sid Campbell and Eric lee called the 1980 Oakland martial arts coliseum demonstration or symposium [00:57:43.24] it was symposium but it has Jet Li doing drunken form as part of the member [00:57:48.23] wushu team so I went to [00:57:50.28] and I walk in to Brendan Lai and he knew me because I was a regular customer and I said can I meet the gentleman  who did the drunken set and went to the young man's picture so he was like why I’ll get a picture oh sure I was in [00:58:09.07] here comes a young Jet Li you just [00:58:15.21] I believe and we got a picture he's kinda looking weird like [00:58:20.19] you know so he explains them in Chinese he really did that I really enjoyed the drunken set and you know I want to [00:58:25.19] a big smile comes up we get a picture so who knew those magical moments you know you know greatness before it was great. I was already great just wasn't on celluloid yet and that's the key so [00:58:45.13] if I answer the question.Jeremy Lesniak:It's all right honestly the moment I asked the question I forget that I’ve asked it my goal is just to keep you talking that's all I do here I just keep you going.Joe Rebello:Like I said well you asked the question where there's so many it's not just like one or two just as so many people and for different reasons and different arts and different abilities and different skill sets.Jeremy Lesniak:Right.Joe Rebello:The saddest part is the people I really want to interview are gone you know someone asked me the other day they said you know what does it take to be a grand Master I looked them in the face and said your instructors die and that blew his mind he didn't expect that to be the answer it wasn't it was not it was one of many but I mean that really is one and then no one gets up in the morning going I think I’ll be a Master in 20 years I’m gonna be a grandma I mean some people have those those those aspirations and visions in their head but I’m not that I’m not wired that way. Al Tracy told me one day Joseph do you know what it takes to be a Master and name off different things from different arts when he goes no no he goes Joseph you'll be a Master when the Masters call you to their table and remember they'll only call you once. Well you know Jeremy I’ve walked out they done it a few times now and and it's because looking I you know okay you get a little blue here okay ladies and gentlemen just be warned you might find this this this this particular comment slightly offensive if for you tough luck but anyway when I look at that stuff and I look at the whole thing and I just blanked on the straight lines I was gonna say [01:00:35.28]oh I’m not waving my belt like my penis saying put another cut stripe on this like a condom that's not what it's about you know and [01:00:45.25] find the same token Jeremy I love everything there's a big line in here all time no egos no egos here then what the hell are we doing here what do you mean well you know we have you know if you're getting the philosophy and psychology you got the super ego you got the id you got the ego you know ego is what makes us do stuff you know if I really if I really had no ego then I just [01:01:11.11] we do some martial arts with that whole kung Fu religious analogy and that's why certain people live in a cot you know instead of having a mansion. It's because were caught up in this whole concept of of art that was basically based on religious monks which I said there guys they live in a temple because people believe in god they were the people wanted to buy their way into heaven or at least obtain heaven so they help these people out to help to foster their religions and their mindsets regarding this we're not monks we we work for a living sometime we do sometimes we don't so how well do you work  are you are you driving the Porsche back to you your mansion or your villa in costa Rica or are you sitting here going well I’m just this side shy of homeless so I guess I will go sleep on the mat. Where are you now you know what what what point are you on that level of success or or or understanding or you know I mean Aaron banks Aaron banks [01:02:16.18] self-defense he died sleeping on a cot in his dojo. Now would you think someone who had that level of success would pass that way but they did so what does that say in regards you know it's not it has nothing to do with martial arts prowess it has to do for his ability to deal with life so I sit there I’m not I’m not big on you know my my phrase my phrase I have you know I have a lot of titles and  when you when you look at my my my bio it reads like like like a bad oriental menu or a good one depending on your point of view and I am I’m on the sensei I’m a Sifu [01:02:57.13] I’m a hanshi [01:03:05.17] hanshi Kyoshi professor Master grand Master and I would say titles to the shields of the week actions of the sword to the strong a good warrior has a sword and a shield so you know it is all about putting it out there I mean if someone calls me grand Master that's nice if they call me Master okay if they call me professor that's cool you know the classic phrase line they will call me late for supper but you know I am really I’m not caught up in that. I'm caught up in learning I’m caught up in teaching I’m caught up in having fun you know we have a motto at my school, if it's not fun you won't do it I’ve been doing this for almost half a century [01:03:46.06] couldn't love it, it was great stuff I can do this for a living too cool you know I’m having a field day [01:03:53.14] and that's the key I just never thought I never thought I’d be to the point where high you know people I respect who I’ve been admired who I believed in and you know appreciated you know know me you know thank god for Alan Goldberg in the action martial arts events, thank god for my tv show because people know me now I mean when Dan Severin or dana  [01:04:17.05] or Cynthia Rothrock hi Joe how are you doing or hey you know and then I mean I was just out and we got to give it a credit who brought the plug on Jesse Bowens event for the who's who in martial arts are 2018 martial arts Masters in [01:04:29.23]. The reason I got into the book cause they had martial arts Masters in [01:04:33.17] I thought it was cool it was different and I really hadn't had a place where I could put my autobiography and talk about my career and have something that stood the test of time and that's what it comes down to your ability to stand the test of time in your life and career so you know I’m there for the event and I’m in the book great cool and just taking a seminar with Dana always a white belt man go back I just want to learn yeah [01:04:57.27] okay new idea and perspective on it cool well confirmation of the fact and then there was Dan Severn talking about his life in Michigan his family and you know and yes [01:05:08.11] get my tickets and Cynthia Rothrock walks up and then goes hi Joe and that's blew my mind you know I’ve known Cynthia for years but I mean for her to initiate that without me going [01:05:18.18] you know no I leave them alone but they get to know me and I’ve [01:05:24.24] episode with Cynthia [01:05:25.12] I do another one but anyway [01:05:28.20] that event and they called my name for the book and I watched Dana Abbott and Dan Severn who are up on the board just thrust their hands in the air and [01:05:37.26] Joe hey I’m like going holy crap I can't buy publicity like that I can't buy moments like that that's the magic moment that's when you know that's when you know that they know and they know you and it's beyond how many strikes around your belt or what color do you wear or in my case how many patches are on my uniform and anybody who knows me I am [01:06:01.10] one day you too will be [01:06:03.24] you know my my my gis are shrines to my instructors in the [01:06:08.07] and I don't mind wearing the glorified martial arts at bowling shirt no biggie yeah you could tell [01:06:16.17] you know this is the fifth time you laughed by the way I’ve been keeping track.Jeremy Lesniak:Only five?Joe Rebello:Yeah I know we can go back and listen to the thing after wards and you keep track like a drinking game every time Jeremy laughs we have a shot thank you just like. I don't drink by the way l don't drink I don't smoke I don't do drugs.Jeremy Lesniak:You don't need to. [01:06:37.29] of fun without.Joe Rebello:Fun it's fun it's wonderful it's and it's it it's great and you know I mean it's funny because you know Jeremy simply stated you know how the internet works most people don't believe you if you've got multiple ranks you have to be like 300 400 years old to be able learn that many [01:06:56.02] or that many styles or you gotta be me I’m the exception to the rule guys I’m not your average person I’m not your average Joe as the old adage goes right I’m me and people believe don't it until like they come to my studio and they go it's like a freaking museum in here joe yeah it is isn't it I should actually I should actually apply for that and it's like hey I’m looking for this I’m looking for this video have you ever seen this instructor I’m looking for this book or I’m looking for this you know manual yeah no problem here it is [01:07:30.09] book I should get the full versions of it what? Or see more of the footage of that guy well you know have you ever seen this? [01:07:37.15] and how'd you get them to? How do you know what to ask him? He was nice I like what he does I remember stuff I guess I’m back to that version of the line from that does the pc line from game of thrones you know I think and I know stuff cause I don't drink I don't do the other thing you mentioned so but anyway but that's the whole thing you got you do what you love you love what you do and you do it for a living and I live the martial arts and anyone who knows me you know it's great because I’m looking at your past and you know I like Nathan porter, Nathan’s known me for years he stays he's been one of my students and taking classes with me you know I’ve listened I was listening to your various ones and if there is anyone I wish that you would had more questions for and knew more about his career Rick Alemany now there's somebody I wanna interview by the way you mentioned that who do I wanna interview who do I Rick Alemany there's a guy there's a guy who's got a career and I got a ton of questions about his career that's going to make great for a great interview.Jeremy Lesniak:An exceptional man and actually this is this is a perfect opportunity so anybody did that caught that interview knows that Grandmaster Alemany was not expected to survive cancer that he had however full recovery.Joe Rebello:And guess what Rick Alemany is a fighterJeremy Lesniak:He's good he beat it yeah yeah yes. [01:09:06.27]Joe Rebello:Nature of man yeah so now now there's plenty of opportunity to to go back to get more questions from him because you know we were try trying to balance you know that the time and you know being respectful at him and and everything it's a great episode.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh yeah.Joe Rebello:If anybody hasn't listened to it.Jeremy Lesniak:Oh yeah it's I enjoyed it immensely that's why I’m mentioning it. Now I have one question I believe you have interviewed him but I’m not sure Eugene Sedeno .Joe Rebello:Do it.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay.Joe Rebello:Do it soon, do it?Jeremy Lesniak:Can you make [01:09:45.15]Joe Rebello:Here is a man who trained with ready, [01:09:52.21] and Ralph Castro.Jeremy Lesniak:Okay for those who are not kenpo folk those you don't really, it's pretty much all of themJoe Rebello:Yeah that's all the biggies.Jeremy Lesniak:From that generation yes.Joe Rebello:All the major players in [01:10:10.10] kenpo. Yeah I mean [01:10:12.27] against Mr. Parker [01:10:15.07] other than but we're saying in that lineage but yeah Eugene Sedeno a great man what a wealth of knowledge, what he is wonderful human being I interviewed him at the gathering of the eagles in Dallas Texas, professor nick chamber then ran that event for the Tracy’s and I had an incredible interview and we're gonna be posting that on YouTube as well we have another one with Al Dacascos coming up that's just it is funny because Al kept saying to me you know do you read my book? No how do you know all these stuff then? He's like [01:10:45.08] read it yet wow and he was really taken aback by that I’m like cool my got my commission accomplished there we go put that marked down there you know.Jeremy Lesniak:Now if people wanna findJoe Rebello:But that's the key?Jeremy Lesniak:If people wanna find your show they wanna find you whether it's social media websites you know etc. Let let it rip let's tell everybody what's going on where they can find you and then we'll start to wind down.Joe Rebello:Well my big line is ah hey I’m kenpo Joe google me baby Bing me later if you can't find me on the net you ain’t looking. You can find me in many ways you can find my Facebook account or my personal one is Joe Rebello which I looked ton of martial arts stuff people would actually look forward to that my daily cuteness my my shock against the darkness of the world for a bunch of cat videos and people [01:11:34.22] jokes and then the kids laughing I’m going hey man smile it takes less muscle to smile than frown. My web my studio is Rebello’s kenpo karate we also have Facebook page for the studio. You can also find us on oh let's see on Instagram you can find us as kenpojoe_rebelo r e b e l o and the l is one not two but one I’m a rebel add an o. I'm too poor to afford to ls well son I believe we are also on twitter I’m not on snap chat yet I used to be on myspace but you can check out YouTube my account is kenpo joe 1 but you just punch in martial arts today tv that presently I believe we have 133 videos on that site right now and we're gonna be adding on more old episodes of the show and I do instructional videos on different arts or I’m just I’ll read a message board and read a particular thing and go now that's wrong or or who told you that's and its' like okay well time do a video you know and and I started doing the videos also as well in the instructional level because I would always get people there's no way he could possibly know all those styles so I would do stuff on that giving style that person claimed I didn't know and at that point other people would say to him to dude he did videos on the system that you claim he doesn't know in detail and in cross-reference into other systems I kinda think he knows the system and I would do that purposely I would do that I would do that because a I wanted to educate that person b I wanted to educate the general public and c it's fun. Yeah it's fun and you know I just have fun what I do but you can also and again email kenpojoe@aol.com and you know it's bad when I have it embroidered on the back on one of my uniforms. I remember one guy going off about that I was like it's the 21st century and you [01:13:31.24] we're on YouTube you know yeah I love you guys who sit there and flip out and going oh yeah my sensei's YouTube and I go are you telling me that 150 years ago or even 50 years ago that if you could show these Masters footage of their masses doing the form that section they forgot because they didn't write it down or whatever and so it is his instructor doing the entire form so now they can make the corrections and do it right or do it the way the instructor taught them or get greater insight and assistance are you telling me they wouldn't eat that up like porridge [01:13:57.21] but I like pizza will you say you know are you kidding me you know you tube's one of the greatest things that's happened to our society and you know why it's the most incredible thing in the world because ladies and gentlemen you can listen to episodes of whistlekick on YouTubeJeremy Lesniak:Everyone one of them hey you know this this has been a ton of fun and I’d like to ask you just kind of one more thing as we as we fade out here into the glory what parting words what nuggets of wisdom would you leave for the listeners today?Joe Rebello:Okay martial arts wise well get your notebook and piece of paper or just listen to it on YouTube and rewind learn technique becomes instinctive reflex through repetition do it till you're sick and tired of it and then do it some more. Do what you love love what you do and if you can do it for a living. Never let anyone say never. Never believe anyone who says never that will never happen or that an attack never occurs or that never never say never because every third blue moon on equinox is gonna happen and then you can be going what happened there well every rule's got an exception learn the rules for me kenpo learn the laws man learn the laws of motion, learn the theories concepts and principles that make your bodywork and yet never let anyone tell you no. Never let never let anyone inspire you to quit. This is a lot of fun enjoy it you know the best thing I have is when students who are training with me quit but keep doing the martial arts that's the best thing in the world I can see as a person because even if they didn't like me even they didn't like the way my perspective whatever they're still doing the arts because they love the arts that's what it's about. So what you love Ed Parker used to call me the kenpo nerd but he [01:16:07.29] as a joke but he said to Joe what I love about you is your passion be passionate about what you do and let that be shown to others by your actions and most important thing is never be afraid to ask a question. There are no dumb questions. There are no stupid questions, nobody's stupid. Well maybe feel stupid well after you didn't ask the question and wish you had and guess what I do that all time I look at instructors picture and they're gone and I can never ask them again.Jeremy Lesniak:It's rare we have someone on the show who's both entertaining and insightful. Someone who can bring the degree of humor that grand Master Rebello does and yet have substance behind it. I checked my notes and our first attempt to bring him on it's actually several years ago it took us a while to make this happen but I’m quite okay with that because it was well worth the wait. Thank you sir I appreciate your time I appreciate all of you listening. If you want head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com for all the links photos bunch of great stuff that we talked about today and of course if you want to share this episode with someone please do or you know head on over to iTunes or stitcher or whatever leave us a review. Those reviews help new people find the show that helps the show grow helps us track new guests and then you get to listen to them so in a way it's kinda selfish for you to do that but please be selfish. If you want to find us on social media we are @whistlekick all over the place and if you want to email me directly best way, jeremy@whistlekick.com I would love to hear from you. That's all I’ve got for today until next time train hard smile and a great day.