Weak-minded spineless TV Networks don’t source the demise of Late-Night TV Talk Show platforms. Well maybe, partly. Fanboy Podcasts might distinguish the virtual end of stars answering scripted questions to promote their movies or projects on Late Night. They’re really less inclined or inspired in generating promotional sound bites, instead of having real conversations with hosts, who are genuinely interested, maybe who are fans.
Academy Awards Host, Emmy Award Winner, and Comedian Conan O’Brien was a guest on the New Heights podcast with Hosts brothers Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce. Travis and Jason were Conan O’Brien Fanboys since they were in middle school.
Jason asked Conan, “Did you ever have an underrated guest?”
Conan said, “There are so many different guests that defy the label.” He recalled his interview with Actor Tom Cruise in London.
Conan said of Tom Cruise, “He was so great comedically and naturally funny. And I have to admit I had put him in a little bit of a box. Well, he’s an action star guy. So, he probably doesn’t. You know, be the funniest person, and he was. He was really great. Played it perfectly, and he had good ideas. And I thought, ‘That’s on me.’ I put him in a box. I thought he’s great at hanging on the wing of a plane and delivering like a great action line, but there’s no way he can. I’m not expecting him to be funny in this way, and he was that and more.”
Conan said, “We all form biases.”
He said, “People with surprise you every time.”
That authentic conversation touched me. Sometimes, I know I put people in a box. I don’t give them the space to be as great as they can be. That’s on me. The older I get, I get that people will always surprise you. Mostly in good ways.
Actor and former Professional Wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson discussed with Jason and Travis about making The Smashing Machine (2025). Jason and Travis were Fanboys of The Rock since he was WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Dwayne said that he listened to his voice inside in making The Smashing Machine. Dwayne Johnson received a Golden Globes Best Actor Nomination for his performance.
The Rock admitted, “It’s good to be scared.”
Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce, who are both future NFL First Ballot Hall of Famers, agreed. In their powerful conversation, The Rock, Jason, and Travis shared their vulnerability, their fears. On my own journey, I get that it’s good to be scared. It’s okay. I let go my fear inside. That’s all on me.
On the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Academy Award Winners Actor Ben Affleck and Actor Matt Damon discussed what they’ve learned over the years in the movie industry. Joe was a big fan of Ben and Matt.
Ben Affleck said, “One of the benefits of getting older and doing this for a long time is you realize that nobody really gives a shit about you as much as you thought. Fuck. Nobody remembers.”
Matt Damon said, “You spend your 20’s and 30’s thinking this is really important, but you realize that no one fucking cares. No one cares. It’s not a big deal.”
Their authentic conversation poignantly resonated with me. In nearly 40 years of Aikido, I get, “Nobody cares that you’re scared.” I let go my fear inside me. I’m the only one, who does.
In 1998, I met Actress Marcia Gay Harden at a bike rental shop in Venice Beach, California. I was spending the Saturday with friends at the beach. Someone said that there was a woman in the bike shop, who was in the movie, Meet Joe Black. Meet Joe Black is my Favorite Movie of All-Time.
I told Marcia Gay Harden, “Meet Joe Black was my favorite movie of the year.”
Marcia graciously said, “Thank you.”
In Meet Joe Black (1998), Marcia played Allison, the daughter of dying CEO Bill Parrish, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Allison planned her Father’s 65th Birthday Party extravaganza.
Bill said, “You really are amazing. But why? Oh why, Allison are you doing this?”
Allison said, “I do it, because I love you.”
She said, “After all, you’ve been a wonderful father.”
Bill admitted, “Well, I haven’t been the father that I’ve been to…”
Allison said, “That you’ve been to Susan (her younger sister).”
Bill said, “I wasn’t going to say that.”
Allison replied, “But that’s okay, because I know that you love me…”
Allison said, “… But you never let either of us want for anything. But more than that Daddy, more than that, I felt loved, and that’s all that matters. So, never mind favorites. You’re allowed to have one. The point is, you’ve been mine.”
I told Marcia Gay Harden, “That scene in the movie where you talk to your Dad, I cried.”
I thought inside, “WTF did I just say!”
Marcia kindly said, “Thank you.”
Marcia and I shared about our great love for movies. Marcia said of Anthony Hopkins, “He always gets it on the first take.” She said of Brad Pitt, who played Joe Black, “He’s the All-American Guy.”
I was the Fanboy of Meet Joe Black and Marcia Gay Harden. My heart was sincere. Marcia got that. Her heart was sincere, too. Our hearts matched. In Japanese, magokoro means sincerity of the heart. That was us. Fanboy is sublime, because it’s about heart.
In 2017, that conversation with Marcia Gay Harden inspired me to write and self-publish my book about my love for movies, Aikido, and my journey to heal my childhood trauma and depression. My book was not the fairytale Bestseller. Still, that path led to writing for the Good Men Project with my Editor Lisa Hickey.
As the Fanboy, I write movie reviews. My Movie Critic Hero is Michael Phillips, who’s a good friend and mentor on the path. I write about loving myself for who I am and forgiving myself for who I’m not. I write for the person out there, who could be suffering in “I’m not good enough.” I let them to know that I’m their Fanboy. I believe in them. That they are greater than they know. That they can look inside themselves, too.
I’m the eternal Fanboy. I let those, who I love and respect, know they are meaningful to me, now, in the present. By design, life is uncertain and finite. All we have is the present, all we have now. I open my heart. My heart is sincere. Magokoro.
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Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash
