Podcast: Eric Jacobus and Edward Kahana from the Stunt People

Our latest podcast featured aznheartthrob from BicoastalBitchin, myself, and Eric Jacobus and Ed Kahana from the Stunt People.  Download the podcast here, or listen to it here:

The podcast is about 55 minutes long and 50.5 mbs.  For the tech-philes among you, I’ve given up on trying to get GarageBand to export large files as mp3s.  Until Steve Jobs gives me a free patch to fix the software, it looks like we’re stuck with the super large files.  I’m too cheap to buy real podcasting software, so I sure as hell am not going to spend money to fix a product that was supposed to work out of the box.

This podcast was divided into three parts:

1. In the first part (0-19:00), azn and I shot the breeze about his recent travel.  We then talked about Contour, which was the Stunt People’s major movie.  We brought up some points about racial stereotyping, and we talked about the creation process.   Eric and Ed then responded.

2. In the second part (19:00-39:08), we focused on Eric and Ed, and we talked about their careers.  We asked Eric about how the Stunt People got started, and we talked to Ed about his martial arts–both Azn and I were highly, highly, highly impressed by Ed Kahana’s martial arts abilities.  I also gave props to Eric for his leadership abilities in assembling the Stunt People.  I know how hard it is to assemble people and get people to work together.  The fact that he’s completing movies is laudable.

3. In the last part (39:09-end), Eric and Ed share news about their upcoming projects.  Ed also talks a bit about what Asian Americans need to do in order to succeed in the show business.

This was a very interesting podcast for me.  We touched on a lot of the important issues for Asian American creative people and activists.  I’ll let you listen and decide what you all think, but just a few notes:

1. Remind me not to do podcasts at 10 am in the morning. Even though I woke up at 5:30 am because of a crying baby, I was still out of it.

2. At around 23 minutes, I said that the famous martial artists from Hong Kong were Jackie, Jet, and Bruce.  As most of you know, Jet is not from Hong Kong.

3. At 25 minutes, Ed mentions racial kinship and how it may affect the audience’s appraisal of a character’s skill set.  Azn had a chance to disagree, but I didn’t have an opportunity to do so–there was just too much to cover.

So let me just say this–I completely disagree with what Ed said about racial kinship as it related to his own martial arts.  He’s underassessing himself.  Were it a racial kinship thing, I would’ve been raving about Andy Leung or Tyler Wang, who are both Chinese like me (although my family is from the South, and I’m probably darker than both of them…but that’s a different issue).  I thought both Andy and Tyler were good, but I agreed with Azn–Ed’s got a certain skill set that seemed to set him apart from everyone else.  As azn mentioned, that roof scene was about as good as I’ve seen at any level.

4. Eric makes some good points throughout the podcast about doing and learning.  I agree with him.  Nobody expects everyone to get everything right the first time, and mistakes are cool, as long as we learn from them (And yes, some people don’t…).   I might argue that progress is impossible without trying and making mistakes.  Even on this blog, I sometimes need corrections.

5. At 29 minutes, I stumbled to ask a difficult question.

6. At 46 minutes, Ed made what I thought were some very good points about Asian Americans getting into film.  I especially liked the fact that he had a communal answer, encouraging people to encourage others.  He also advises people to just do it, which is excellent advice.

7. Jet vs. Jackie vs. Bruce: I agree with what azn says about Jet being the man people like.  Jackie is a clown, both onscreen and off.    Even though he’s probably the world’s greatest movie stuntman, he’s the comic relief.  Part of it is his demeanor, part of it is the stuff that comes out of his mouth.  Jet is the silent, serious one.

Still, I think Jet also lacks the Bruce charisma from the racial angle.  I’ve seen Lethal Weapon with Jet, as well as Romeo Must Die, and I get the feeling that the American movie industry finds it easy to stuff him in a box.  I remember reading something about Jet hating the Hollywood film stereotypes, but there was something about Bruce that transcended film.  It was an in-your-face kind of rebelliousness, something that may have been helped by the fact that he died early (I think the philosophical types can refer to the German Superman–was it Nietzsche?), but something that was nonetheless real.

Anyway, enjoy the podcast.  Sound off below!