#206 - Mark Aycock - Movie Treatment Writer

Unknown Speaker (0:06): Now that was funny.

Unknown Speaker (0:07): Welcome to YouTube and Twitter. Be funny. I try to be funny. Make me laugh. And Twitter.

Unknown Speaker (0:12): It's a Chris and Mike show.

Unknown Speaker (0:15): Ready? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (0:20): To who? I'm gonna do what?

Unknown Speaker (0:29): Uh-huh.

Mike (0:30): I'm gonna be. I'm gonna fight. Welcome to the Chris and Mike Show. I'm Chris. He's Mike.

Mike (1:00): This is, Mark Aicock?

Unknown Speaker (1:03): Mark Aicock.

Mike (1:04): Mark Aicock. Mark Aicock. And this show is being brought to you by Riverside FM, the one and only source for podcasting platforms. Remember, we are live on Twitch, YouTube, and at chrisandmikeshow.com. Just chrisandmikeshow.com.

Mike (1:18): You can go there right now on the little, on the little, you know, Googly machine and you can see us hear everybody smile. You can see all smiling faces it's that easy it's that simple almost a 100 countries right now 400,000 what is it four hundred and ten thousand four twenty now four twenty four twenty small if you got it on YouTube Yeah. And then, and then I don't know how it'd what, 3,800, 4,000 subscribers, something like that.

Chris (1:42): Yeah. Just blew past 4,500 or right at four thousand five hundred. Thank you for everyone that signed up. We appreciate you all for sure.

Mike (1:49): That's awesome. Mark's gonna get us to 5,000 because Mark is a super popular human with an outstanding life resume. And he has amazing hair. He's got more hair than Mike and I combined, which is pretty impressive. Mark, Yes, here you are absolutely.

Mike (2:05): So here you are. We tell everybody we're on an elevator ride going from the first to the 30th floor. So you got 30 floors to tell us who you are, what you're all about, and why you decided to come on this little show that we have here.

Unknown Speaker (2:15): Okay. Well, I don't think it's a little show anymore the way

Unknown Speaker (2:18): you guys are drawing. So,

Mark Aicock (2:20): but I'm blessed that, to be a part of this. And so thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker (2:24): We're blessed to be blessed to you, man.

Mark Aicock (2:27): Yeah. Well, y'all interviewed my, agent, Beverly Brooks.

Unknown Speaker (2:32): Oh, love Beverly Brooks. Oh, Jeez. Love you, Beverly.

Mark Aicock (2:37): And when I watched that interview, was like as it went on, it was like, you could tell she's very nurturing, and you guys were like, she's like a mom. You know? Mhmm. And so sweet and kind, but, she is a she is a become a good friend. And we've we've never met each other face to face Yeah.

Mark Aicock (2:54): Just through our conversations with her son of me as one of her writers. But, boy, I'm telling you, she's she's she's been a blessing in my life.

Chris (3:02): I'll give her a huge When compliment, we got done and she was off the air and Chris and I were talking, he was like, I'm pretty sure I've never talked less on an episode ever. So like the nurturing part?

Unknown Speaker (3:15): Yeah.

Chris (3:15): We both kind of fed into that, man. She was just so fun to listen to because when someone tells you they started a business at 17 years old as a girl in that time period, you know, we're talking in the sixties, right? Fifty six sixties.

Unknown Speaker (3:29): Yeah. Yeah.

Chris (3:30): Yeah. That was huge for a woman to take that bold of a step. She's had And

Mark Aicock (3:36): watching this podcast, which with her helped me learn even more, you know, just how grateful I am to have her as my agent.

Unknown Speaker (3:43): So that's awesome.

Mark Aicock (3:46): That's kind of Yeah. What got me here with you guys.

Unknown Speaker (3:48): Okay. Beverly's super cool, man. So how long have you how long have you been with Beverly? Because I'm gonna text her and and let her know you're on. How long have you been with Yeah.

Mark Aicock (3:57): I think we started talking back in the summer. She was referred to me. Okay. And, I've written a couple of story film treatments and- Nice. And, you know, I needed to get an agent.

Unknown Speaker (4:13): I mean, I've been riding off and on for, you know, three and a half decades, and just nothing Wow. Happened. You know, life happened and

Unknown Speaker (4:20): Sure.

Mark Aicock (4:20): Some other things that we can get talking about here a little bit. But but signed with Beverly, gosh, I guess maybe five to seven months ago. Can't remember she finally mean, she's really a a busy agent, which is great. You know? And But she was so personable on the phone and we probably contacted each other, I contacted her probably through a couple of months and she read War Angels, which is a film treatment I wrote.

Unknown Speaker (4:53): It's a faith based faction western.

Unknown Speaker (4:55): Fell in cover

Unknown Speaker (4:56): of being silent.

Unknown Speaker (4:57): Right on. Right on. And

Mark Aicock (5:03): then she's been on the move with the stories. It's on the move because having somebody like her, she can get it through doors that I can't. Plus, talk about it every other week. She's very accessible, which I like. But she believes in the stories, that's what I needed.

Mark Aicock (5:32): You've got to have an agent who really believes and falls in love with your story. And like I said, I was about ready to walk away from the writing for good, and I really feel like the Lord opened up this door.

Unknown Speaker (5:46): That's awesome. Yeah. Now I didn't tell you Yeah, go ahead, Mark. Sorry.

Chris (5:50): Oh, I'm sorry. That no, that tells me a lot about Beverly too, Mark, because somebody that is that busy for you to be that excited about what she's doing for you tells me so much about who she is as a human being. Already knew that, but it just solidifies. You've been with her, you know, less than a year. We've had people on here who have been with her for years, right?

Chris (6:11): And of course, they wouldn't stay with her if she wasn't great. So that's a given. You to come on here and sing those same praises, being one of her newer clients is so cool,

Mike (6:20): you know? Yeah. Mark is awesome. Beverly says Mark is awesome.

Unknown Speaker (6:25): All right. I'm gonna take that.

Unknown Speaker (6:27): Yes. We

Unknown Speaker (6:28): agree, Beverly. We agree, Beverly. Well, I'm That's

Unknown Speaker (6:31): what you need to call this podcast. Mark is awesome. You know?

Unknown Speaker (6:34): Yeah. Mark is awesome. There you go. It's a Mark is awesome episode.

Unknown Speaker (6:37): I'll do it for you, buddy.

Mike (6:42): That's awesome. What else you got? Well, so what's on what what's Mark doing right now? I'm I'm responding barely, Charlie, you know, because I gotta respond.

Mark Aicock (6:48): Well, well, I mean, if y'all the the story is, I mean, my my background, I was, I got into martial arts when I was 17, and, I was fortunate to come up yeah. I was fortunate to come up in the what they call the golden years of the sport of karate. And the years is pioneer years of something called sport jiu jitsu. And, I had a lot of success with it. I was really blessed and, but it kind of led into, you know, me writing a story the story He Wrote Some Innocence.

Mark Aicock (7:22): I've been working on it. I've written different drafts off and on for years, but the martial arts opened up some doors for me and I actually moved out to LA for a little bit, didn't stay out too long, but I did a little bit of work out there and did some commercial work and stuff back here in Tennessee. So I was interested in the acting part, but I wanted to write my own stories to act in. But then life happens, and my fighting career ended when I was 35 years old. I'm 67 now.

Unknown Speaker (8:03): Okay.

Mark Aicock (8:04): And, I had a head injury during a championship fight and it eventually developed into something called Meniere's disease. I don't know if y'all ever heard of that.

Unknown Speaker (8:15): I've heard of that. Yeah.

Mark Aicock (8:19): A very debilitating illness that you get vertigo and grow I've had vertigo, Mark. I'm familiar. And yeah, Vincent, the history is Vincent van Gogh, the artist.

Unknown Speaker (8:31): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (8:31): He cut off his ear. Mhmm. Well, they believe that the reason he did that is because he had Meniere's disease. It's that kind of Oh.

Chris (8:39): Doesn't Dana White from the UFC have that market?

Mark Aicock (8:41): Yeah. And I remember seeing I some, interviews with him and him talk, but it's just a crazy disease. But mine was caused from a head injury, like I said. And, but, then I got away from everything, away from the running, rehab. I developed my own rehab program.

Chris (9:01): Will you back up one second? Yeah. Did I misunderstand or did you fight professionally for almost twenty years?

Mark Aicock (9:08): Well, as professional as you can, it was a sport. You had to pay your way, and most of the time it's But, but yeah, was a sport karate fighter for several years, during the late seventies.

Unknown Speaker (9:24): That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker (9:24): The eighties and the early nineties. And I was able to win a lot of-

Unknown Speaker (9:34): Tournaments.

Mark Aicock (9:35): Tournaments. And I would do all three events, the fighting, the cotton, the weapons. I wanted to be good at all of it.

Unknown Speaker (9:41): Wow. Cool.

Mark Aicock (9:42): Had success with that. Yeah. And, but, but that's kinda what led to the, to the story Heroes for Innocence. And, but then I was, I won a national title, fighting title in Chicago. It was ALKA Karate Grand National.

Mark Aicock (10:01): Was a big tournament.

Unknown Speaker (10:02): Heard of it. Of

Mark Aicock (10:06): some team affiliates were part of sport jujitsu. And at the time, it was kind of like controlled mixed martial arts. It was really basically karate mixed with judo. And so I started training with some of those guys and everything and made the five man fighting team in 1990, and we won the silver medal at the world championships. Was the first American team to medal in that sport.

Mark Aicock (10:29): Wow.

Chris (10:29): Damn, that's impressive, man. Congratulations.

Mark Aicock (10:31): Yeah, and then after that, that's, you know, I had knee surgery, had shoulder surgery, and so I went out to LA for a while, and then I came back and started fighting again. That's when the head injury happened. Gotcha. But my Rocky story is I did my own rehab and caught us a pretty ranked series of movements. If you guys know about karate.

Unknown Speaker (10:53): I'm familiar, yeah.

Mark Aicock (10:55): And I would do these movements and I would stumble and fall over and I would stumble and fall over. I knew I couldn't fight again. The doctor said, You didn't even need to do anything, but I needed to rebuild my personal training, personal coaching business. So it was against the odds, it really was. And seven months later, I entered one more karate tournament and just did kata and weapons.

Mark Aicock (11:18): And I just did it because I just wanted to go out. Know? I didn't expect them to do anything. Yeah. And I couldn't fight, which is was the that's what I love the most, the fighting.

Mark Aicock (11:30): But but I still enjoyed the the the caught and the weapons, all parts of

Unknown Speaker (11:34): the club.

Unknown Speaker (11:34): And lo and behold, I ended up winning the grand championship.

Unknown Speaker (11:38): It was

Mark Aicock (11:39): a very emotional time and I walked away. That's awesome. Lost the hearing in my right ear. I'm deaf in my right ear now from the Meniere's. I still have repercussions of it, anyway, that's kind of my Rocky story there.

Mark Aicock (11:54): And I can keep going forward. Fast forward, life happens, things happen.

Chris (12:04): And Well, when I interrupted you, you said when your fighting career kinda came to an end, you kind of abandoned everything at that point. Yeah. Abandoned to interrupt you, but go forward from there.

Unknown Speaker (12:13): I'm trying to just make a living.

Unknown Speaker (12:16): Come come back to come back to your left a little bit. You're leaning out

Unknown Speaker (12:18): of There the you go. There we go.

Unknown Speaker (12:21): Sorry. Sorry. Don't mean to be

Mark Aicock (12:22): that guy. Yeah. My startling, but just keep telling me. But anyway, I met my wife, Michelle, twenty twelve. And she's in the health business.

Mark Aicock (12:40): She's a yoga instructor, personal trainer, health coach.

Unknown Speaker (12:44): Nice.

Mark Aicock (12:45): And we met and we got married. As time went on, in 2020, I was diagnosed with leukemia.

Unknown Speaker (12:59): Fuck man.

Unknown Speaker (13:00): Damn, dude.

Unknown Speaker (13:02): And was

Mark Aicock (13:05): really starting to do the bottom even before then getting back to it. And I had this other story. I wrote one scene to the story about, I mean, three and a half decades ago, The War Angels. I wrote one scene. Never did anything with it, but I remembered that scene and that's one thing.

Mark Aicock (13:25): As years went by, I kept thinking about that story. And so I wrote a film treatment. A treatment is like a precursor to a screenplay.

Unknown Speaker (13:37): I've always wondered what that is. A lot of times. Kramer talk about it.

Unknown Speaker (13:40): Yeah, yeah, I heard Kramer talk about too.

Unknown Speaker (13:42): Yeah. A lot of times you know, production companies, you know, a screenplay is around 120 pages. The treatment can be about 10.

Unknown Speaker (13:52): 10? Okay.

Unknown Speaker (13:53): It's a concept or idea. I'm not a screenplay writer. I took a stab at it. Couldn't do it. 10.

Mark Aicock (13:57): But writing a treatment, a short story.

Unknown Speaker (14:01): That's cool. I always wondered what that was.

Mark Aicock (14:02): I've got a lot to learn about the writing process, but I wrote the story and gave it to my wife, Michelle. Mark, this is good, but she loved the other story, He Roast for Innocence, it went through a lot of rewrites. And good friend of mine and Mike, you're into music, right? Or both of you guys?

Unknown Speaker (14:21): We both are. He was the A singer. You

Mark Aicock (14:23): good friend of mine, he's actually working on he's been working on an album for the past few years, Ross Sutherland, really good musician and guitar player and vocalist. He said, Mark, you need to try to get those stories moving. I said, I don't know what to do. And he had a friend of his who was in the film business and he was in the Stockman Hall of Fame and all that his name was Sunny D'Angelo. Well, I sent War Angels to him and he read it and he contacted me and said, I've been out here for four years.

Mark Aicock (15:00): I've read a lot of storylines. This is one of the best storylines I've ever came across.

Unknown Speaker (15:04): That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker (15:05): That is

Unknown Speaker (15:05): awesome. That helped my confidence that I'm

Unknown Speaker (15:07): sure I

Mark Aicock (15:08): was not something. And now he was battling cancer. He was battling for his life, but he moved from Las Vegas back to, near Hollywood to get better treatment and to try to pitch Warren. We were going to go into partnership with him. Then he passed away.

Mark Aicock (15:24): And so that was probably back in 2022, 2023. And so nothing was moving with the stories. I didn't know what to do. And I was back in About a year ago, I saw something on Facebook. I said, The Knoxville International Christian Film Festival.

Unknown Speaker (15:46): They have a film festival here in Knoxville. I didn't know about it. Well, they just started in 2024. And so I saw the director of the festival. He had a cowboy hat in the picture.

Mark Aicock (15:57): And I said, Oh man, he'll love War Angels. How can I get it to him? So I just emailed the logline of the story. And that's the catch. You gotta have a good logline.

Mark Aicock (16:08): And actually a Christian film producer helped me with that logline on more angels.

Unknown Speaker (16:13): Explain a logline to me, Mark.

Unknown Speaker (16:15): What?

Chris (16:16): Explain a log line to me.

Mark Aicock (16:18): Okay. It's a pitch for the story, the whole story that's one sentence long. Wow. War Angels, I should have it memorized but I might mess up, was the exact same. An orphan Native American fights to save his wife and child against an oppressive outlaw gang who killed his parents.

Unknown Speaker (16:39): That's a perfect example.

Unknown Speaker (16:41): Yeah. And I had help with that logline and the Christian producer let me, he was a Christian film producer, he said, Yeah, man, you can use it. You kind of

Mark Aicock (16:49): wrote it, but I just narrowed things down and put it. And so it helped me learn to write the logline to my story that I've been writing for years because I'm still learning the process of how to do this. So I sent the logline to the pen director, Ecno. Well, he goes, he sent me an email back. I'd love to read that.

Mark Aicock (17:14): So it worked. Logline worked. So I sent it to his festival and about a month later, get an email and it's a real nice email, but he's going over some directions with my riding. So now I've learned I've got to hyphenate a lot of things, but I'm kind of a raw writer and my wife actually helps me, Michelle. She's really sharp, helping me instead of using the same adjective over and over, with things like that, helping with proving it.

Mark Aicock (17:49): And the gentleman was real nice and he sent that and I looked at it and I said, You read it? I didn't care about somebody helping me with what I needed to address to make my story a little better. Well, I ended up winning an award with that festival.

Unknown Speaker (18:03): Awesome. Oh, right on.

Mark Aicock (18:05): Yeah. And then I started, I just started entering other festivals. And so the past ten months out of the twelve months, each project has won seven awards.

Unknown Speaker (18:18): Wow.

Mark Aicock (18:18): They were the same once, both stories. They the same honors. And that's what- Beverly loved that too, because that helps her when she's pitching it to these productions.

Unknown Speaker (18:29): Damn right it does.

Unknown Speaker (18:30): Yeah. And so they're a very Christian faith based action sport.

Unknown Speaker (18:36): Oh, excuse my

Unknown Speaker (18:36): language Am I leaning again?

Unknown Speaker (18:39): No. Jesus walking through the fricking desert, man. Forty days, forty nights. He was swearing like a mofo, man. When he had to pick all the dry stuff out of his nose and he had to step on scorpions and shit.

Unknown Speaker (18:50): Cannot tell me. This is coming from somebody who believes that he did not swear. He was in a bad mood by the time he got where he was going after forty days, man.

Unknown Speaker (18:58): I know. I don't believe he ever swore, but I know he turned over some tables and used that. Know? There is such thing as righteous anger.

Chris (19:05): It was the timing, Mark. I said, damn right. And you said something about Christian. I was like, oh, sorry.

Mark Aicock (19:11): If if I wasn't you know? It's been a process. Honestly, after the leukemia diagnosis, start thinking, Man, my days are numbered. Now the leukemia I have is a slow progressing one. And so far I've not had asthma treatment.

Unknown Speaker (19:31): I do some crazy things to keep my immune system up because I was really sick for about two years after I was diagnosed.

Unknown Speaker (19:37): You eat a lot

Unknown Speaker (19:37): of tacos Just doing everything that came around, but the past two years I've not been sick with anything. And, but I'll tell

Unknown Speaker (19:43): you You didn't hear that. You didn't hear that. I asked you if you ate a lot of tacos, Yeah. You kept

Unknown Speaker (19:48): the leukemia at bay. Please tell me that tacos will save me because I eat a lot of tacos.

Mark Aicock (19:52): My immune system, beef working supplements. Yeah. And I think they helped me.

Unknown Speaker (19:57): There you go.

Mark Aicock (19:58): Yes. But anyway, so going back to that, honestly, prayed and talked to the Lord and told him, Look, when I write, I want to honor you because I feel like if I really do that, you will bless the stories and they will bless you. Well, I'm telling you, it's been wild the past twelve months. Never dreamed this would have been happening that I would have had Beverly as my agent that I would have won and placed in some of these festivals. People like Rob Ecknoll of the National Christian Film Festival believes these would be good movies or series.

Mark Aicock (20:40): A lady named Helena Yemen that's with the Christian Film Festival down in Florida. She fell in love with the stories and honored and

Unknown Speaker (20:49): So

Mike (20:49): said back I just want to clarify. These are being pitched at film festival, but there's nothing in print yet. It's all just an idea.

Mark Aicock (20:57): Yeah. Well, it's in print. Beverly has copies. They're copywritten.

Unknown Speaker (21:02): Right. But, but, but the, but they're not Right. Your movie You're pitching these to film festivals, but it's not actually a film yet.

Unknown Speaker (21:11): Mean, Yes. So I don't,

Mike (21:12): understand how that works, man. Because I always thought film festival was you're watching the film and then the crowd reaction determines if it if it goes forward or if it dies.

Chris (21:20): I'm with him. So explain how yeah.

Unknown Speaker (21:22): Like, you're going you're going over our bald heads, Mark.

Unknown Speaker (21:25): Okay. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (21:26): Doesn't make any sense to us.

Unknown Speaker (21:27): It's all new to me. You know? Thank you for asking.

Unknown Speaker (21:29): This is all

Unknown Speaker (21:29): new to me. And, so film festivals, usually a lot of times have writing divisions. So they will do They will do, films, a lot of short films.

Unknown Speaker (21:42): Go to your left.

Unknown Speaker (21:43): Will do screenwriters too.

Unknown Speaker (21:45): Go to your

Unknown Speaker (21:46): left Well,

Unknown Speaker (21:46): I'm considered a screenwriter, even though I'm not, don't write screenplays.

Mark Aicock (21:49): I write film treatments. They're part of the screenwriting process.

Unknown Speaker (21:52): Gotta yell at him.

Unknown Speaker (21:52): Yeah. So, but those, when you, when you send those,

Unknown Speaker (21:59): uh- Treatments.

Unknown Speaker (22:00): Yeah. Treatments. And then you send a poster with it. A friend of mine helped me out. He drew the posters for me.

Unknown Speaker (22:06): Is the poster behind you?

Unknown Speaker (22:08): Yeah. This is. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (22:09): Yeah. Well, if I move, I'll be out of- Well, can move out of the screen so you see the poster and then you Okay. Come back in the

Unknown Speaker (22:15): Let me do this.

Unknown Speaker (22:16): Yeah. Yeah. There you go. There you

Unknown Speaker (22:17): go. So this is my poster for War Angels, the log line I just read you.

Unknown Speaker (22:22): K.

Unknown Speaker (22:23): And this one's Heroes for Innocence.

Unknown Speaker (22:25): K.

Mark Aicock (22:25): And I actually based the character years ago kind of off me. He's a martial arts expert. What? Yes. Yes.

Mark Aicock (22:32): So the logline is a detective and his K-nine rejoined the police force to rescue five missing girls from a global human trafficking operation targeted in the city.

Unknown Speaker (22:41): Nice.

Unknown Speaker (22:42): And again, I wrote the stories. There's okay. I'll get back. You're good. Am I good?

Mark Aicock (22:49): The stories, there's absolutely no profanity, no nudity. And people ask me, what do you write about? And I go about Jesus and fighting, but there's martial arts in it. And it's fun to, yeah, fun to write those scenes with the martial arts. And that's what's happening.

Mark Aicock (23:09): The gentleman that passed away, Sonny DiAngelo. Yeah. He goes, this is a unique story. He was talking about War Angels. He wasn't talking about heroes at the time.

Mark Aicock (23:18): He said, this is unique. It's an epic story and it's not been done. And Beverly saw that too. And, then she read Heroes and fell in love with it. And I was shelving Heroes.

Mark Aicock (23:31): It never went anywhere. I was hoping it would go somewhere and it just never did, and it became burdensome. And I just didn't wanna rewrite it anymore. So we've got a dog named Tenchi. That's a Japanese mini ninja.

Mark Aicock (23:44): I'm surprised she's not come down here yet,

Unknown Speaker (23:47): but, she's been great for me, you know,

Mark Aicock (23:50): with the leukemia and everything. So she's she's awesome. So I was sitting on the couch some months ago and I was just looking at her and I said, I'd already written one draft of He Rose for Innocence with the dog, that the guy had a dog, the character, and the detective. And so rewrote one more treatment. I said, okay.

Mark Aicock (24:14): Because my wife, Michelle, my brother, Rick, and my sister, Amy, my friend Ross, the musician, they said, That is your story. It's been your story for years, it's about you a little bit. Don't abandon it. And I said, Okay. So I was just sitting looking at my dog And I said, okay, here we go.

Mark Aicock (24:36): And I wrote it and I started entering the same festivals. Entered War Angels and it started being honored with the same awards. And I was I was over I mean, I was just overwhelmed.

Unknown Speaker (24:46): I ask you

Chris (24:47): a quick question, Mark, from an artist?

Unknown Speaker (24:50): Yeah.

Chris (24:50): Is that not the most gratifying feeling when you were about to give up and you start something again? Did the same thing with this podcast. I wondered if I still had any kind of creativity. I can't speak for Chris, right? He's an individual, but I was wondering where I was in my life.

Chris (25:06): Same place. You know? Do I still have what it takes to be able to do anything creative? And then when you start winning

Mark Aicock (25:14): stories that I love. I love stories like this. Well, I didn't know what I was gonna do. What was I gonna do? And in my heart, I really feel like it was God because I really didn't wanna address that story anymore.

Mark Aicock (25:30): And then when I rewrote seven pages, that's what the this that treatment's seven pages. I think War Angels is 10. It just came really so much better. And so thank you for your testimony on that.

Unknown Speaker (25:42): That's awesome. I'm just so happy for you hearing that that story. You can hear the excitement in your voice. Well, I think,

Unknown Speaker (25:50): Yeah. Let me ask, let me ask a question, Mark, because I'm a writer. I've been a writer since I was sophomore, junior in high school. Like I wrote all of our songs, I wrote all our lyrics, came out the melodies. I've written three books.

Mike (26:05): I'm, once it's, once it's done, like the book is done in my head when I'm finished with it. Right. I don't, I don't ever think of having to go back and rewrite or re edit it or have a new draft on it. So is it just that? And so the reason I asked those questions, like, sounds like you rewrote your couple of your stories a few times.

Mike (26:25): Were they just not finished in your mind? Is that why you went back to them?

Mark Aicock (26:28): Was I want your, War Angels was kind of like you were saying, it was more, I wrote that one scene years ago and I couldn't get that scene off my mind.

Unknown Speaker (26:38): Right.

Mark Aicock (26:39): I wrote, I probably wrote, it's really one draft, but I added some things to it. Now he wrote, since I wrote it in different cities, different locations, And I don't know, it just never went anywhere. I thought it was gonna go somewhere, but it didn't. And I think that's the part that became a little bit burdensome with me for some reason. Now War Angels is different.

Mark Aicock (27:09): I wrote it and it just

Unknown Speaker (27:11): Just stuck.

Mark Aicock (27:12): Yeah. I readdressed heroes and, and Tinchy, my dog was, was a big part of my inspiration.

Unknown Speaker (27:21): Nice.

Mark Aicock (27:22): That's awesome. Because it made the story a lot more rich, partnering them up. Beverly read that one and fell in love with it. She goes, Mark, you've got two good stories. And I know it's hard enough to just get one good story.

Mark Aicock (27:41): When I talk about being a writer, I tell people, I go, Geez, I want college English, but I love creative writing.

Unknown Speaker (27:52): Yes, me too.

Mark Aicock (27:55): So anyway, but I stuck with it, you think about it. I started writing Heroes for Renaissance back in the late '80s when I was competing, and now I'm 67 and been through all this stuff and film festivals. I really am. I'm humbled and overwhelmed and excited about it.

Mike (28:17): And what you submit to the film festivals is just the 10 page treatment or is it a whole screenplay? It's just a treatment.

Unknown Speaker (28:23): Is a good question. Pain boggling. Do it, dude. It's hard to find ones that take treatments. They're mostly, they mostly take finished

Unknown Speaker (28:31): screening. Okay. Okay.

Mark Aicock (28:33): But there's been a few festivals I said, Hey, listen, you've got a writing script category. It doesn't say screenplayer treatment. I'm a treatment writer.

Unknown Speaker (28:41): Right.

Mark Aicock (28:42): And they said, No, go ahead. We'll take it. So a couple of these film festivals I've had to compete against finished screenplays, And a couple of those I got quarter finalists, but listen, I'll take mean, I was blessed to get that.

Chris (28:58): Okay. Hold on. Now I hate to stop you again, but now I have a question. So you are a treatment writer. You're not a screenplay writer?

Mark Aicock (29:09): No, I've tried to write, it just didn't

Chris (29:12): didn't just learned something with you, Mark. I didn't know there was such a thing as a treatment writer, I don't think Chris did either. I'm fascinated along with him. That's so cool.

Unknown Speaker (29:21): Didn't They know they got such different a names. They call them story treatments, film treatments, or pitched. It's

Unknown Speaker (29:28): because of

Mark Aicock (29:29): pitch. Now, now this is what the gentleman who passed away, cause he'd done some producing and stuff too. And he goes, many years ago, treatments were super popular because people wanted that quick read to see what the story was about. And a lot of time he said the business professionals will take a good treatment writer and put them, they will hire the screenwriter within their company to work with you on, on the screenplay. Know, they will be as so like you'll see at a movie, it'll say story by so and so, but screenplay by somebody else.

Unknown Speaker (30:04): Now I know what that means.

Mark Aicock (30:05): Yeah. A lot of times, that's kind of what that, is. So but what I'm hoping is that I had Sunny D'Angelo, who was in the business, fall in love with the stories. And I let a few friends and my family read them. They fell in love with them.

Mark Aicock (30:24): I'll go, okay. Then Beverly Brock fell in love with them. And a couple of the film festival directors that I've communicated with fell in love with the story and said, you've got something here. So there we go.

Mike (30:38): Cool. That's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah. And so the idea is then to turn to turn your posters that are treatments into movies.

Mark Aicock (30:50): Yes. The poster tell my a friend of mine, actually, he was he's an unbelievable martial arts fighter, and we were best we were close friends. We were on keep keep doing the moves. You're getting better. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (31:03): There you go. But he's just a he's a leader in the world of visionary karate.

Unknown Speaker (31:09): Okay.

Unknown Speaker (31:10): Let me grab some water here.

Unknown Speaker (31:11): Okay. You're fine.

Unknown Speaker (31:12): And that's what I grew up in.

Unknown Speaker (31:15): I get

Chris (31:17): have a question too. Yeah. Ahead. So is that Beverly's job is to shop that to the screenwriters and try and get this turned into a movie?

Unknown Speaker (31:27): Do what now?

Chris (31:28): Is that Beverly's role in this is to shop these treatments Yes. To the screenwriters

Unknown Speaker (31:33): Yes.

Chris (31:33): Or the studios or whatever and try and get it turned And into a

Mark Aicock (31:37): And so what's interesting, we'll see Sometimes I know she's got them sent to a couple of people, we've not heard anything yet, so no news is good news. A lot of these production people, they've got other things that they're already in pre production and things like that, but it's just gonna take that one person. Here, I'm gonna read you something very recently.

Unknown Speaker (32:07): Okay. Okay.

Mark Aicock (32:07): Okay? Yeah. And keep talking about her because she's my partner.

Unknown Speaker (32:12): I'll get

Unknown Speaker (32:13): us. And she's an amazing person. Mean, I've got a lot of, God's put a lot of good people around me. I mean, the other day. Behold, I will do a new thing.

Mark Aicock (32:40): It springs out now. You know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. That's Isaiah 4three 19. In other words, her faith in the stories that something is gonna happen with them.

Unknown Speaker (32:57): Sure. It's kinda like a coach. You need that kind of-

Unknown Speaker (33:03): Yeah, you do.

Mark Aicock (33:04): Absolutely. Your player to encourage you like that. But the thing is it's from the heart. I wanna there was an article I read on Beverly. It's from back in 2024.

Mark Aicock (33:18): I forget what paper, but there's one sentence I'll read you. She goes, I love telling my talent something has come their way.

Unknown Speaker (33:26): Oh, sure.

Unknown Speaker (33:27): I mean, she's excited about helping people.

Unknown Speaker (33:29): Oh, You can tell that

Mark Aicock (33:30): she's Yeah. And so that's why I'm glad she's my agent. Mean, like I said, I'm really blessed. Anyway, I'm glad I have somebody like Michelle who can take it and look at it and go, well, maybe you need to restructure the sentence this way or that way. Then you get film festival directors giving you tips on what to do.

Mark Aicock (33:59): And I went back and made those adjustments and they started getting more rewards. So I've had help from some good folks. And so it's been a blessing. I'm gonna bring up my wife, Michelle, again. So the diagnosis of Meniere's in 2020, and that was in 'ninety six.

Mark Aicock (34:19): Then Michelle and I made up get a leukemia diagnosis.

Unknown Speaker (34:22): Which is

Unknown Speaker (34:22): crazy. Two years ago, it was January. And we live in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Unknown Speaker (34:31): So

Mark Aicock (34:31): we could block off the main road. We're real close to it, but we live on hills and in the woods. So I woke up and it had snowed and I stalled the road back here. I woke up, man, something in my chest. And he goes, what's wrong?

Unknown Speaker (34:49): I said, no. I'm just hurting my chest a little bit. Went and got some water. Said, I'll be okay.

Unknown Speaker (34:53): Right.

Mark Aicock (34:54): So I went back to bed and I got back up and I went and sat in a chair, then it started feeling like a weight was on my chest. And she got up and I'll put it this way. She was extremely insistent that she

Unknown Speaker (35:09): was looking at pulp because I kept saying, Oh,

Mark Aicock (35:11): I'm gonna be fine, just let me sip this water. She called, but by the time she called, I knew I said, I'm having a heart attack.

Unknown Speaker (35:19): Oh wow, The

Mark Aicock (35:22): paramedics, they couldn't get up the hill where we live And so they had to walk up and they said, Mr. Aycock, we're going to have to walk you down. I knew I had to walk.

Mike (35:30): Why couldn't they get up the hill, man? They're paramedics.

Unknown Speaker (35:32): It was ice. It was just complete ice. And again, they were heroes. I mean, they got me down that hill, me in the ambulance, they were hammering me with nitrile glycerin, and I knew, I said, Oh gosh. And I was in the hospital for about four days.

Mark Aicock (35:55): They had to put a stent in. They found an artery on my heart near the aorta, 90% clogged and had another one. Then finally, and I've been dealing with some stressful things and stuff and finally let go, said I can't do this anymore because it's affecting my health. And Michelle saved my life that night, so I've got to tell that story.

Unknown Speaker (36:17): Good job Michelle.

Mark Aicock (36:18): I'm the healthiest sick person you'll ever meet, but I'm thankful I don't have to have a treatment for the leukemia. I'm thankful I'm doing good with my heart. And I still get a little dizzy with the Meniere's disease, I can't hear it out of my right ear, but the stories have really given me something to push towards. And I believe the Lord's getting ready to open up some doors for them. I really do.

Chris (36:46): Cool. That is really cool. Yeah. I would say your attitude has a lot to do with it too. You're very humble.

Chris (36:53): That helps a lot as an artist. You recognize the people around you that help you. I'm very fortunate I have that same kind of support system where, you know, you have to have people that believe in you. Chris has people that believes in him. Every now and then you need to hear, you're doing the right thing or go ahead and take that chance.

Chris (37:10): You know, I'm behind Yeah.

Mike (37:15): Yep. Absolutely. So who would win in a fight? Steven Seagal or you?

Mark Aicock (37:23): Oh gosh. If I say me, he'll watch it and come after me.

Mike (37:28): He does come after you, us know and then we'll film it. We'll have a podcast, Steven Seagal versus Mark Eichok. I

Unknown Speaker (37:35): can tell you this. Mean, I was a fan of this. I've loved his first movie the best above the law.

Unknown Speaker (37:41): Right. Oh, that was a great movie. And then Under Siege was a

Unknown Speaker (37:44): great movie.

Mike (37:46): Well, some of them were, some of got stupid. Yeah. Now, now he's just, he's just, I don't understand how somebody who is follow my thinking here. Okay. Like, like martial arts is all about discipline.

Unknown Speaker (37:58): Yes.

Mike (37:58): Self control and discipline. He is six times the man he was in in above the law. Yes. And I'm talking weight wise. How how do I don't under I can't wrap my head around the discipline that martial arts requires to allow yourself to get that big.

Mike (38:14): And, and granted, mean, dude can still do the moves and shit. He can still, he'd kick my ass in two seconds and I don't deny that. But I just, I don't understand that. I can never, I've never been able to wrap my head around that when you have, when you have such a disciplined sport, yet, yet the discipline doesn't carry over outside of the sport. Does that make sense?

Mark Aicock (38:32): Yes. And then, and you, and you see that a lot. And I think in, in a lot of the sports, but when you, I don't know. I was, I prided myself during my, you know, mean, I can't, haven't been able to fight.

Mike (38:45): Yeah, but you have leukemia and heart and stuff. You have your

Unknown Speaker (38:49): limitations, Here's but you're a cool thing.

Unknown Speaker (38:52): I

Mark Aicock (38:53): still have a handful of people that come, and I teach them private. I don't do any fighting. I teach them some bottom movements. I teach them how to hit the heavy bag. I teach them the fitness part of it.

Mark Aicock (39:06): I've got some really good competitors that come to me to coach up and clean and help them with their training methods. And so I still, I work very part time. Now I would love to be able to be a rider full time, but these people trust me for their golf and fitness and the competitors for improving their competitive skills and so I still have to hold that kind of to me after all these years that I still want my guidance with that. I'm very thankful for that.

Unknown Speaker (39:38): Which is cool. Yeah. Which is awesome. So you didn't answer my question. Who would win?

Unknown Speaker (39:43): Okay. Him. Oh gosh. Uh-oh. Since I was a fan of his and loved especially above the law, I'm gonna have to say It's a draw.

Unknown Speaker (39:54): Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's I just I just you know?

Unknown Speaker (39:57): Actually, would be him.

Unknown Speaker (39:59): But he is listen. Aikido, he's a very good Aikido martial artist. But

Chris (40:04): here's the here's the deal. The discipline in Aikido, and I am no martial arts expert, but I have listened to thousands and thousands of hours of UFC people talk about it, right? So I would consider myself a subject matter expert. You would have kicked his ass in your prime because you are performing an aggressive discipline. Aikido is only a defensive skill.

Unknown Speaker (40:31): I'm gonna try to send you something while we're here talking. So but, yeah, but I've never been one of these. When people have asked me, do you think you could bet? I said, I I

Chris (40:40): I just never know, I've just heard guys, Mark, who are aggressive, big UFC guys who are like, it's fun. They all say the same thing the three of us just said. It is a fun thing to watch. But if you put him in the ring with somebody who knows actual aggressive, fighting, skilled martial arts, they'd kill him because he's a disciplined Aikido master. So that's only a defensive

Mike (41:06): I guess that's now that you think about that, all his movies, he was defensive. He was a defensive martial arts from a fighting standpoint. Was all defensive. Like like, even in underseas, he was defensive to the point, but then he ended up, you know, every now and then there's some punches and stuff, but a lot of it was just him, him redirecting the punches and the throws and the weapons at him.

Chris (41:27): Yeah. All these guys have said, if you put him in a fight with a trained martial artist who knows, you know, the aggressive martial arts, don't know, karate would be one of them, for sure, judo would be another. You put him in there with a judo master, the judo master's gonna wipe the floor with him.

Mike (41:44): Even though he's dead, Chuck would have killed him too. He would kill him. Bruce Lee would kill him. Yes. Mike Eichok would kill him.

Mike (41:50): Yes. That's interesting, man. Never heard about that. No, you're, you're the conversation. You're in the conversation.

Mike (42:00): You don't have a say now.

Unknown Speaker (42:01): Exactly.

Mike (42:02): Because, because see, Mark, Mike explained it. That, and I never knew that because I don't, I don't This

Chris (42:08): is coming from guys who know what they're talking about. Right.

Mike (42:10): Yes. Mike knows what he's talking about.

Unknown Speaker (42:12): They've all said this

Mike (42:13): to people who know what they're talking about. Therefore he, like you said, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a professor on the subject matter, whatever it was. So that's brilliant, Mike Michaels. Subject matter. And Mark, you would beat, you would beat, you would beat Steven Seagal.

Mike (42:24): So just, just cherish that, own it and put that in your bio after, you know, treatment writer slash I can beat Steven Seagal, because I think that's That going to give you some weight, will get you some more traction because if I'm at a film festival and I'm reading the treatment and then by the way, comma, I can beat Steven Seagal. I'm like, wow, let's get this guy in front of us. Just saying. Right? Well, I'm I'm just gonna say, don't You have to agree.

Unknown Speaker (42:54): Jesus wants you to agree, man. You're here. You're here. So you just have to agree now. It's He said, I never knew that.

Unknown Speaker (43:02): I never thought of that. But now that you said that, Mike, looking at all the stuff Seagal does, it's all defensive. It's all redirecting.

Unknown Speaker (43:08): Rogue is

Unknown Speaker (43:09): the first one to

Mike (43:09): seriously He never aggresses. That's crazy. So and now -MICHAEL: so Bruce Lee redirects, but Bruce Lee was also he was kung fu and stuff, and that's Bruce Lee was the first

Chris (43:21): So Rogan credits Bruce Lee as bringing mixed martial arts to the public. Right? He was the first guy to do that.

Mark Aicock (43:28): Well, most martial arts. And when you think about, honestly, Okinawan karate systems, which, I grew up in Isheru karate, which when the reason, just to tell little history here, East Tennessee, the reason, it's such a popular martial arts area is because one of the Marines brought it over from Okinawa, Isheri, Karachi, and it spread like wildfire in The United States. Now they have the Isheri Hall of Fame, which is a big hall of fame. And I was inducted in 2011. I was very grateful for that.

Mark Aicock (44:05): And I was featured in the third book of the Dynamics of Issue Karate. I was one of the demo models. But, yeah, Harold Wong,

Unknown Speaker (44:18): Which brought is why you would beat Steven Seagal in a fight. He just wanted me to

Unknown Speaker (44:22): love do this

Mike (44:23): conference. You have to admit it because it's true, Mark. Just own it, man. You just like, we just learned. I learned this today.

Mike (44:32): I'm today years old when I learned that Seagal's method of martial arts is reactive and defensive. So therefore you are an aggressor in the martial arts world by your own account. You win. You have all three things. You have the two, you have the weapons and the other two things that you talked about.

Mike (44:51): You, you win. Just, just, just dude, I do your life's complete. Like, like you get the you get these things turned into movies. Really when you're red carpet and you're being interviewed as you walk onto your, you know, Oscar because somebody get nominated for an Oscar because Bradley's going to get you some actors to play you And you're walking on the red carpet that day and somebody interviews you, you say, Yes, I'm Mark and I could beat Steven Seagal. Just leave it at that.

Unknown Speaker (45:17): Now I'm afraid of what the title of the show is gonna change to now.

Unknown Speaker (45:20): It's not. It's not Mark. I Steven could Seagal.

Mark Aicock (45:25): But honestly, when you think about traditional martial arts, like karate, like open drum karate, they were all defensive arts.

Unknown Speaker (45:35): Honestly,

Mark Aicock (45:37): being Americanized, you started getting kickboxing going with mixing boxing. It became more aggressive. Of course, may just catapulted and took it to a whole other level. What I love about May, you do have a mix of people with specialties from karate to judo to wrestling to Muay Thai. You know?

Mark Aicock (46:00): And you could see a little bit of those dominant arts in some of the potters. You know?

Chris (46:04): And you're right, Mark. I misspoke. Karate is a defensive art. Yes. Rogan always uses the example if a judo master went in there with him.

Chris (46:13): Yeah. Steven Seagal would be dead. He does say judo specifically.

Mike (46:18): Yeah. Well, backtrack, Mike. He can still beat Steven Seagal, man. Don't try to

Chris (46:21): change the subject. Okay. Just I actually said I was a subject matter expert and I'll get eviscerated

Unknown Speaker (46:28): for a second.

Unknown Speaker (46:31): He's right.

Unknown Speaker (46:32): Got to

Unknown Speaker (46:33): be defensive. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker (46:35): We're just kinda semi smart and dumb at the

Unknown Speaker (46:38): same time.

Mark Aicock (46:39): Intelligence, and he studied over in Japan. He actually won an event over there in the early fifties. And, but when I made the, sport jujitsu team, he became one of my trainers for a year working with me on judo balls and stuff like that. So that was a great time with my

Chris (46:56): dad. Rectified himself. He's a jujitsu guy. He there you go. See?

Chris (47:00): You win again.

Unknown Speaker (47:01): You win again. You win again. I don't care. It's jujitsu. You you win again, Mark.

Unknown Speaker (47:07): Did training kickboxing, karate, and sport jujitsu.

Unknown Speaker (47:09): I got vindicated. You

Mike (47:11): got vindicated. Mike is vindicated, and Mark is still a champion over Steven Segall. You heard he's super aggressive. I'm a more Ornament in this. Almost a 100 countries now have understood that Mark can beat Steven Seagal in a fight.

Mike (47:22): So congratulations. Yeah. I had a trophy, I'd be

Unknown Speaker (47:25): One of six countries.

Unknown Speaker (47:27): Trophy. Trophy. Here's your here's diamond.

Chris (47:31): You know what would be hilarious? If that became the comedy that made him famous.

Unknown Speaker (47:37): But Right.

Unknown Speaker (47:38): Listen. Right now, I just wanna continue to, beat these diseases. So my fight

Unknown Speaker (47:43): for Lena has changed.

Unknown Speaker (47:44): That's what we want for you more than anything too, Mark.

Mike (47:47): But we still want be able to say that you beat Steven Seagal in a fight because that's even cooler, you know? So you have all of them. You have all of them. You beat leukemia. You beat the, I don't know how to say the word that you have, Heromeli's disease, Meineers disease.

Unknown Speaker (48:00): Meineers disease, right? Meineers, yeah. And then the heart thing. And then, yeah, and then Steven Seagal. I mean, what else is there?

Unknown Speaker (48:07): That's tough. You know, you have four greatest battles ever that you're winning, man. That's impressive. That's I mean, you wouldn't be Bruce Lee. We know you won't be Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, so we'll give them those the victories.

Unknown Speaker (48:18): Right?

Unknown Speaker (48:19): Hey. I sent you did you get that video?

Unknown Speaker (48:20): I did. I did. I sent it to I'm not I'm not watching it right now because we're talking to you, I will watch it. Yeah. It's about seventeen seconds long.

Unknown Speaker (48:26): It was at the

Mark Aicock (48:27): nineteen ninety Sport Jujitsu World Championships. That was a five man fighting team.

Unknown Speaker (48:31): Okay.

Unknown Speaker (48:32): I bought a lot of my stuff. That's the only fight I have on video.

Unknown Speaker (48:36): Is that the one where you beat Steven Seagal? Because I'll watch it right now.

Unknown Speaker (48:39): Yeah. With AI now, you can create I

Mike (48:43): don't know how I could do that. I'm not that proficient in

Unknown Speaker (48:46): AI. Which

Unknown Speaker (48:49): one are you?

Unknown Speaker (48:50): I'm in the, I'm the smaller one, shorter one.

Unknown Speaker (48:52): Wow. Yep. That was one of my trademark techniques. Yep. You would so beat Steven Seagal.

Unknown Speaker (49:01): I got Wow. To

Unknown Speaker (49:02): Spocky looking at it.

Mike (49:03): Wow. He's like, it's like Jig. It's Jig. It's watching a fight with Jig, Mike. We had this boxer on Jig Johnson, super low key, couldn't pull words out of him to save his life.

Mike (49:12): He was like Oh my God. He was very he's a very humble, genuine human, like super, super nice guy. But you wouldn't think he was a boxer who would step in the ring and just wait, wait, wait, drop on the ground. Yeah.

Chris (49:25): Just that's the experience I just had watching that too.

Unknown Speaker (49:28): Yeah. Need to go watch. I saw his name. I need to go watch that podcast because

Unknown Speaker (49:32): you would enjoy I love boxers. Would have never guessed that you could knock somebody out cold just like that after talking to for almost an hour. Right. Than you told me that you were yeah.

Mike (49:43): Right. That was taller than you and had a vague resemblance to a younger Steven Seagal.

Unknown Speaker (49:48): But

Mike (49:51): Beverly, Beverly, capitalize on this. Beverly. Beverly.

Unknown Speaker (49:54): Well, I'll get your mind if these stories sell or when they sell and they get they done sell. To

Unknown Speaker (49:59): When they sell.

Unknown Speaker (50:00): You guys will be invited and you will see a lot of good martial arts in them.

Mike (50:03): Cool. Right on. I would love to. That's fantastic. That's a, that's a deal.

Mike (50:08): That is an absolute deal. So we'll have to have you come back on the show when you get some more traction on your stuff. Like if something gets picked up, all means, let's get you back on the show and talk about what's I would love to. Going love everything that Beverly, attaches us with because Beverly is such a super nice human. Everybody that we've talked to that's represented by her is the same.

Mike (50:27): It's kind of like this cool club of people that are just genuine human beings. Absolutely. We have yet to come across anybody that was narcissistic or egomaniacal. Everybody's been like completely genuine, very sincere. All very They're all just like you.

Unknown Speaker (50:41): Yeah.

Chris (50:41): Very cool human being.

Mike (50:42): Yeah. Yeah. So, and that all comes from that's who Beverly represents is just super cool people that are genuine humans, which is nice in a world of chaos. Because let's face it, Hollywood's chaotic, right?

Unknown Speaker (50:54): It's just,

Unknown Speaker (50:55): it's chaotic. Then, and

Unknown Speaker (50:56): knowing That's kind of why you're seeing now all these, you know, other people are filming movies in the South and TV series. They're getting away from that. And I wanted to focus on how can somebody do something that honors God, but still it's okay, think about God's word, the Bible. It's a good verse to evil, and that's what my stories are about.

Unknown Speaker (51:24): I know I would love them because those are all we love those stories.

Mark Aicock (51:28): But like I said, I'm humbled that Beverly and the gentleman who passed away, Sunny, fell in love with the stories. That gave me the confidence that I knew I was onto something, and like you said, that's what you need sometimes, especially when you're ready to give up and just throw in the towel.

Chris (51:51): Yeah. That's the best part of your story, man. And then all of a sudden, started just winning award after award for an idea that you believed. You believed in both the ideas, but I can sympathize with giving up on certain things because you tried it, people didn't buy it, so you moved on to something else. That's really cool that you reinvented that and it became something, but it's even cooler that this idea that was so near and dear to your heart, you just stuck with and it took off just like you thought it would.

Unknown Speaker (52:21): I love that.

Mike (52:23): Yeah, and I don't think it's really given up. Think you just gotta, sometimes you gotta step back let some time go by and revisit because there's stuff, Mike and

Unknown Speaker (52:30): I

Mike (52:30): talk Well, to you, yeah, there's stuff that I want to write and I just, when I start writing something and the muse stops, I stop. I wait until a muse starts.

Mark Aicock (52:39): Well, writing can be very emotional draining. Mean, it can be exciting, but it can be those things too. I'll leave it with this. I'm working on one story, film treatment now, and it was actually, it was gonna be a gift for my wife after I was diagnosed with leukemia. She loves these Christmas movies that are shown on American Christmas and some of the Hallmark movies.

Mark Aicock (53:03): And so I started writing one, and I've got three pages to it. Beverly told me to address it. But it's faith based Christian romance movie, but it's a tearjerker. And so I try to go back to it, and I just kinda block right now because I've gone back and addressed the other two stories. And that's gonna be my next venture.

Unknown Speaker (53:24): Cool.

Unknown Speaker (53:24): No fighting. That's gonna be tough. But write a Christmas romance, and it should be for my wife, Michelle.

Unknown Speaker (53:29): Nice. That's And the end is you beating up the bully, Steven Seagal, that was And picking on your

Unknown Speaker (53:37): it's

Mike (53:37): just why the credits are rolling. So people see the first credits coming up, right? And then they wait till like the tenth word pops up and it goes to the top of the screen over here and then the whole scene pops up while you're just kicking Steven Zagall's butt. That's my wife, Michelle. That's it.

Unknown Speaker (53:52): The writing block just let me.

Mike (53:54): I'd say you're welcome. You're welcome. We're collaborating. It's the creative minds together, man. It's a beautiful thing.

Mike (54:01): So again, thank you so much for your time, Mark. You're awesome. We went ahead. When you get some traction on your stuff, we'll definitely let me know. We'll get you back on about all the things.

Mike (54:11): And again, always wrap up like this if you're feeling, I don't know how you feel suicidal depressed after listening to Mark talk for an hour. Think it was just fantastic. Mean, but if you are, know, go journal, go scream in a pillow, go outside and run and go find to. If if you can't find somebody to talk to, there's a really cool website. Go to sunflowerssober.com.

Mike (54:30): We just had a gentleman on the show, Eric, who champions that. It's a little better resource than texting 988. Just if you don't Well,

Unknown Speaker (54:38): it's the great thing you guys are doing with that.

Mike (54:40): Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you don't want leave a hole in somebody else's heart because you chose not to wake up tomorrow because tomorrow is always a better day with you in it. Absolutely.

Mike (54:49): So remember that. You can also go to the Google or the Apple and Zobie, Z O B I space AI. It's a really cool AI generated therapist that Eric created that can help you change your mindset and get you back on the tracking beyond to, you know, don't have to talk to anybody. No, no, it can be completely, what's the word? Anonymous.

Mike (55:14): There you go. Completely anonymous. So if you don't want to, you know, purge your feelings to a human being, can do it with, to AI, which is completely fine.

Chris (55:22): At least get started doing something so you're here tomorrow.

Mike (55:24): Yes, exactly. Because we want you here tomorrow because again, the world's a better place with you in it. For Mike Michels, I'm Chris Dunham. This is Mark, Mike I, Aycock?

Unknown Speaker (55:33): Mark Aycock. Aycock.

Mike (55:34): Aycock, thank you. The champion over Steven Seagull. For Chris and Mike's show. Nothing but love. We thank you for your time, and we'll see you next time.

Unknown Speaker (55:41): Okay.

Unknown Speaker (55:42): But guys, God bless you.

Mike (55:43): Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere, champion.

Unknown Speaker (55:45): Stay

Mike (55:48): there, Mark. Let's make sure.