Barry Shore:

I can’t think of anybody that inspires more kindness, keep inspiring noble deeds than our wonderful Kevin Sorbo. Here he is, yay Kevin. 

Kevin Sorbo:

Hey, how are you?

Barry Shore:

Tell the world hello to 362,820 people around the world.

Kevin Sorbo:

Maybe it’s 321 now. I don’t know but welcome world, how are you all doing? And that was the longest introduction I’ve ever seen in my life. 

Barry Shore:

And did it move you?

Kevin Sorbo:

It was very good. I like all the positive attitudes. It’s a good thing. In this negative, hateful, divisive world we need more of that. There’s no question about it.

Barry Shore:

And that is why I am honored and humbled that Kevin has decided to join us today. Because he understands that we do have a joy deficit in the world. And he knows that we can create a joy surplus, right?

Kevin Sorbo:

Very true. You can always change your attitude, it’s pretty easy to do but people make it hard for themselves.

Barry Shore:

So let’s go right to Kevin. I’m going to jump right in because I want him to speak not me, and tell everybody that joy stands for journey of you. That’s what joy is, Kevin Sorbo. What a journey you have. I don’t know where you want to begin. You want to begin now, you want to begin with Hercules, Andromeda? If people don’t know Kevin Sorbo you’re not living on the planet. You can google him later. For everything you want to know about him go to the website, my website, barryshore.com. They’ll be stuff there. You choose wherever you want to begin because it’s a beautiful journey and you’re making an impact with your wife, your kids, and everybody you know. Talk to us.

Kevin Sorbo:

Well, I’ll go back to where I started. I grew up in a little town called Mound, Minnesota. It’s about 25 miles west of Minneapolis and the beautiful shores of Lake Minnetonka. Lake Minnetonka is an amazing lake. Summers are just unbelievable. It was voted in the top 10 boating lakes in the country. It’s got hundreds and hundreds of miles of shoreline. There’s got to be at least about 12 different bays I think, it’s all connected by channels. It’s just phenomenal. In my little town, we were on the western shore of Lake Minnetonka and we’re home to Tonka Toys for those people who are old enough to remember Tonka Toys. It was a great little factory in a little town of 7000 people. I probably employed about 2000 people there. But it was a great place to grow up. My dad was a junior high school teacher, 7th and 8th grade Math and Biology. My mom was a nurse but a stay-at-home mom pretty quickly because I’m the fourth of five kids. I was a good student. I was a good jock. I was a football, basketball, baseball, and golf guy. I loved all sports. I was 11 years old and I fell in love with acting. I went to a play at the Guthrie Theater, a very famous theater in Minneapolis where a lot of actors not only start there but a lot of Broadway people come out that way, and a lot of plays start before moving to Broadway. Probably the most successful one is Lion King which win 25 years on Broadway, I think. I was in fifth grade when I saw The Merchant of Venice and it was Shakespeare. Now number one, remember I was in fifth grade and it was Shakespeare so I didn’t know what the heck they were saying. But I was totally blown away by it all. And that laid the seed for me to want to be an actor. 

Barry Shore:

I’m going to put you on pause just for a moment because you already touched some things. Look, I’m of age so Tonka Toys, hello, yes. [Unintelligible 11:02] Minnesota. So, you want to tell us that the phrase “does it play in Peoria” really didn’t matter. It wasn’t Peoria, it was really in Minneapolis or the theater area. That’s where out of town was. That was the thing that happened. And to touch on the Merchant of Venice as the play that sparked you was very interesting also. Because in a town, let’s say of 7000 people, I don’t think you’ve met any Jews. So, here you have a play about another group of people, and even though you didn’t know what they were really saying because only 10 years old but you knew it was something different and it grabbed you. In other words, Shakespeare grabbed you without having to know what the words were. You felt the power of theater running through your veins. That’s amazing. That’s a spark.

Kevin Sorbo:

Oh, no question. The seed was set for me. But you’re wrong. We were a typical Lutheran/Swedish/German town, mostly Lutheran churches, St. John’s Lutheran Church. Shawn Levy was one of my dear friends and he was Jewish. And when I found out that they had seven days, the whole thing during Christmas, you got seven days of presents. I went home and I was like, mom, can we be Jewish? Look they got seven days, they’d celebrate. I knew Shawn forever. Shawn was on the football team with me. He always made the joke that he was an offensive lineman. He said, I never missed the block. But that did lay the groundwork for me. I started screwing around with school plays and stuff but it really wasn’t until I got into college level, a double major in business marketing advertising, and I took a minor in drama and I just loved it. It was there. I started doing a lot of commercials. A lot of people don’t realize Minneapolis is home to a lot of national headquarters such as Best Buy, Target, Dairy Queen, Pillsbury, General Mills, and 3M. So, I did a lot of commercials during my college years that gave me that all-important Screen Actors Guild card. I had that SAG card before I made the big move to Los Angeles. So I had no problem getting a commercial agent in LA. To me, that was like heaven. And I got to tell you it was an interesting thing about LA, I didn’t know a soul. I got my beat-up old rental car, load up what I could, and said goodbye to my mom and dad, I’m making this big move. And I stayed at a friend of a friend’s place. And the very first audition I had was in the first week of living there because they knew I was coming out already and I booked it. And it was shot in Sydney, Australia. So, I’m in LA for less than a week and I’m on a plane to Australia. And I ended up falling in love down there so I stayed for eight months. I did two plays in Sydney, I did seven commercials. I lived on Bondi Beach. That was the beach they used for the 2000 Olympic volleyball games. It was unbelievable to me. I’m one of the few guys I know in Hollywood, because I lived there for a long time that never had to work another job. I had guys selling cars, buddies of mine that were bartending, bouncing, waiters, whatever. I shot over 150 commercials before I got my Hercules gig. So, I worked, very fortunate and incredibly well. I was able to pay all my bills, everything, and not worry about that. And then when I got my break with Hercules, of course, that just took off. I was very blessed not to have to do any other jobs.

Barry Shore:

Let’s unpack a few things here. 

Kevin Sorbo:

I know I covered a lot right there. 

Barry Shore:

Well, it’s fabulous. Remember, we have an international audience. At least 60% of the audience is outside of the United States. So, for people in China, and India, they’re going to be Googling, Tonka, what are they talking about. But it’s great because what Kevin is telling us is he lives and did live the American dream. In other words, to be able to do what it is that you love and make sure that you’ve aligned your values with who you are and be able to do that in a way that helps others and benefits yourself. As he said, he packed up and drove to Los Angeles. Okay, that wasn’t in 1990. That was a different time. It’s a different space. And you didn’t have internet. We’re talking to people who don’t understand the digital natives. No internet. To call long distance was a big thing, calling back home. And he gets to Los Angeles and he has a couple of gigs and right away, well, let’s go to Sydney. In those things, by the way, you couldn’t fly directly from LA to Sydney, you had to stop, right? 

Kevin Sorbo:

No, I flew direct. 

Barry Shore:

What year was that? 

Kevin Sorbo:

Barry Shore:

That’s why. Okay, I’m sorry. Because when I started going to the Orient in 1979 we used to have to fly from Los Angeles to Seattle, and then Seattle over to Hong Kong and then to Bangkok. By 1987, [unintelligible 16:20] you’re right. 

Kevin Sorbo:

It was definitely direct on Qantas Airlines.

Barry Shore:

So this is wonderful. And by the way, when he goes to Bondi Beach those people in Australia jumping up and down. I’ve been to Bondi Beach. I’ve climbed the Sydney Bridge. But in Australia, it’s really cool because of your accent, people love it. In other words, you’re the foreigner with an American accent down in Australia. They say, wow, mate. Let’s do some barbie, and have a lot of fun. Hey, you open your mouth and talk to them in American, right?

Kevin Sorbo:

Oh, yeah. I jumped a little bit there because I thought you wanted to get straight to later. But here’s what happened to me. After college, I was headed to LA but I did the greatest sin of meeting a girl that I fell in love with and she was moving to Dallas, Texas. And I already had two buddies playing football down there at Southern Methodist University, SMU University there in downtown Dallas. It was a hot market right now for commercials so I followed her down and she was a big international model and stuff. And so I followed her down there, I stayed with one of my buddies, Jeff, who was playing football there. I played high school football with him. And I was there about a year and a half. And then my girlfriend at that time was going back to Europe to Italy. She said before you go to LA just come and spend one summer with me in Milan. And I thought why not? These were growing years, entertaining years. So we flew to Italy. And pretty much walking down the street there on my own Gianni Versace saw me and said, who are you? Who are you? And I said, well, I’m an actor from LA. She goes, no, you must be in my shows and do photos for my line, you’re fantastic and all this kind of stuff. And so, I got an agent there and ended up living there for eight months. And then I went to Paris after that for six months, then I went to Munich, Germany for a year and a half, then I went to Zurich for three months, and then Hamburg for three months, then London for three. I ended up spending three years in Europe before finally making the move to LA. I knew that was going to happen anyway. I’m back home for Christmas and then made the move out there then. So, I skipped about a four-and-a-half-year plan there. I actually didn’t get full-time in LA until I got to be almost 28 years old.

Barry Shore:

Which would have been a little bit older for what people want.

Kevin Sorbo:

Yeah. Not for a guy though. At 28 I still looked like I was 22, or 23. I was pretty lucky that way. But they treat women worse than they treat guys. I have no regrets to spend three years in Europe, I had a blast doing it, and it made me grow up. It was just a great learning experience for me. I was 27 when I got there. I was still four months away from turning 28. But I was very fortunate to keep working very well over there. I did a lot of commercials over there. In Munich, I formed my own theater. We put on plays. And then I formed a basketball league as well. We had a 19 Basketball League. Munich was a good market for me. Because even though I’m Norwegian I’m 6’3, and I got blue eyes, I kind of fit into the gene pool there. So I worked a lot in that world. So it was good. And it was a better money market, too, they don’t pay that much in Paris and Italy but Germany paid very well.

Barry Shore:

Now, let’s talk about America, and as you said, they don’t treat women very well, meaning it’s Hollywood. In other words, it’s less about the human and more about either the box office or the ego. Because Hollywood is a unique island unto itself, I think.

Kevin Sorbo:

No question. 

Barry Shore:

By the way, just so people know the data point. Kevin is about to make his 70th movie, he’s wrapping up 70. And we’re talking about commercials, commercials, commercials but movie number 70. He’s active all the time. He doesn’t just make a movie every couple of years. He makes sometimes two or three or four movies in a year. And his life is equally active with him and such. But I just want to delve a little bit into your situation vis-a-vis Hollywood was, I think unique. First of all, as said as a man but also you were not pulled into that vortex called me. Maybe a little bit. 

Kevin Sorbo:

I think the biggest difference is, I think where you grew up and how you grew up, and how my parents were. My dad ruled the family with soft thunder hands, and they promoted hard work in all of us kids, all five of them. My four siblings all took different roads in life. But all of us have always worked hard. And my dad instilled that at a young age in all of us. When I was nine years old I started my own paper route. I got up at 4:30 in the morning, six days a week for seven years. And delivering newspapers in Minnesota is 30 below windshield winters. And I learned the value of hard work and the value of making your own money at a young age. I bought my first car in high school with the money I earned. I bought an old still in pretty good shape Ford Mustang. And that was my baby. That was my car in 11th and 12th grade. 1967 Mustang, was awesome. You remember the bodies of those cars. They were sexy-looking cars. And today, if you kept those things in shape. If I’ve kept that today and not let the Minnesota winters and salt beat it up on the winter roads. Those cars sell for 2, $300,000 today. Back then I think 2500 bucks or something.

Barry Shore:

The point that I want to emphasize that you brought out, and I was hoping you would, is that small-town Minnesota is not just something that is in a novel. This was real. These were families intact and with values that said, we understand that working hard is important. Working smart is important. Being kind, generous, giving, etc. These are not just ideas, these are fundamental to our world. And I think that part of what happens in Hollywood is that there may be some lip service to that but that’s not how people tend to live. Am I correct on that?

Kevin Sorbo:

No question. I grew up with an amazing safety net. I grew up in a town where the teachers taught the subjects they were being paid to teach. They weren’t teaching you how to vote or not to believe in God. They were teaching you math, science and physics, and history, whatever else. In today’s world, we want to change history, which is just crazy to me. We had 5000 people show up at high school football games. Just the support within the community for school, athletics, my teachers, my coaches, and all that stuff certainly had a way of forming who I am today. And my friends, my best friends are people I’ve known since grade school. And we still get together every year. I just had 10 of them down here for the Super Bowl week because every year they want to get out of Minnesota anyway. So, they left Minnesota with 16 below, when they landed here it was 84 degrees. We still get together every year and we have tight bonded relationships with similar upbringings. It’s a whole different thing. You can always smell the desperation in a room filled with Hollywood people. You can smell the anger, the hate, the envy, the jealousy. They might be shaking your hand but they got a knife in their backhand behind their back. It’s a very cutthroat business. I can complain about it forever and people say why are you in it? Because I love the creative process. I got stuck in it early. I’ve been doing my own thing for a long time. I have Sorbo Studios, please go to sorbostudios.com. Because Hollywood basically booted me out about 10 years ago, because being a Christian and being a conservative is apparently like being a double leper to them. So it’s very sad. I don’t hold that kind of anger or harbor that kind of anger toward somebody who has a different religious point of view, or a different political affiliation. I don’t care about that stuff. But we’ve made it a big issue in today’s world, and everybody just wants to fight, fight, fight, and we’re just growing further and further apart right now. And it’s just sad to me to see what’s going on. I’m a live and let live guy, let them believe what they want to believe. I’m happy to have a real discussion. But a lot of times all it does is come down to some yelling match and I’m going, why are we yelling about this? Just talk about it but people just have anger and throw their labels at you. But they can’t ever defend their labels. That’s all they got are labels. It’s weird to me. But Hollywood is a strange beast. There’s no question.

Barry Shore:

Not only did you survive, I don’t like the term, but you thrived. And part of the thriving was, I think you used the right word, creativity. If you remember in my introduction I used the word create, causing, rethinking, enabling all to excel. To be involved in the creative process really is part and parcel I believe, on being a religious person, and will font better return a conservative. Now, whatever your religion is, if you’re religious you have a belief in the creator, and the creator gives us the opportunity to express ourselves in a meaningful way, as a Christian, and as a conservative. As a politically conservative, you put a stand and said, these are values that we value, and we will live them, we want to live by them. So, when you shake the hand it’s not that there’s a knife in the other hand there’s a bouquet of flowers. And they smell good. And they look good. So, let’s talk about what happened with your first big role, the Hercules role, and then just move quickly through. Because I want to talk about where you are today vis-a-vis two awards that I’m giving you. You get the Z Award, which I call the Zuckerberg award for being banned from Facebook. Bravo, Kevin. Okay, you got the Z award, and you also get the LI award. He’s banned from LinkedIn. I’ll call those badges of honor.

Kevin Sorbo:

It’s amazing to me because I was posting the truth. And I was posting other people’s comments saying, hey, these are doctors over here. There are 10,000 of them signing this thing saying masks are kind of useless. What do you guys think? That’s misinformation. I go, these are doctors. I’m not a doctor. Obviously, it ends up being true. They’re pretty useless. They do nothing. The hospitals are filled right now and people have had both shots, booster, and double masks, and they’re still getting COVID. We have been shamed beyond sham. This is a 99.7% chance of recovery if you get Covid. 99.7% chance. But what have they done? They’ve destroyed the world, they’ve destroyed the middle class, and they’ve made the divisiveness and anger even more. It’s crazy. The Zuckerberg thing, I’m still on Twitter and I posted on Twitter recently. Follow me on Twitter. It’s ksorbs. I do very funny, sarcastic, one and two-sentence deals. And I said hey, does anybody have any more conspiracy theories because mine keeps coming true. So it’s like come on, this is crazy what we’re doing right now to the world and still just pushing this agenda that is so weird. There’s something going on here people and we need to wake up to it. I said the sheep are lost. I’m not even worried about the sheep anymore I’m here to wake up the lions. Lions [crosstalk 29:09] opening your mouths and speaking the truth. LinkedIn took me down [inaudible 29:13] funniest things. But I have got a lot of trolls out there that follow me and just follow me to hate me. On Twitter I can say, hey, beautiful day on the golf course today we raised money for the Boys and Girls Club. Screw you, Sorbo, hope you die, hope your family dies. I look at it and I go, they keep those people on. I don’t post anything about I hope people die. I barely read them. My son reads them to me. He goes, here’s another one. This one guy every time he says, you’re a has-been, I’m going well, I’m shooting three or four movies a year. If that’s a has-been I’ll take it. We can’t all have Tom Cruise careers, God bless him, but I’ve had a pretty good career. I think in the history of Hollywood I don’t think many people have worked as much as I have. There is a list in there but I think I’m probably in the top 5% of the history of Hollywood actors that have had the amount of work that I’ve had And not every actor can do an Academy Award-winning movie because they only elect about five or six of those a year. So, I’m okay with that. I still got a career, and I’m still working. So I’m grateful for that,

Barry Shore:

Again, let’s go back to that idea of being creative. Part of your purpose is that you’re there to be creative. You’re not there just to, I want to make a movie so we can make some money. We’re here to be creative.

Kevin Sorbo:

You know what, they’re upset, well, my movies are in the 3 to $4 million range. That’s the catering budget in Pirates of the Caribbean. Those are $300 million movies. But I do movies that have love, laughter, redemption, hope, survival, friendship, and laughter and things that Hollywood [crosstalk 30:40] 

Barry Shore:

Oh my gosh, you mean things like we used to watch. Oh no. 

Kevin Sorbo:

I know. Isn’t that crazy? And that’s the kind of movies that I keep doing. I’ve done 70 movies to date. And are all of them good? No, there are a dozen that absolutely suck but I didn’t know they were going to turn out that way. But there are a lot of good movies in there with good value. And I’m honored to be part of that. And I think a lot of movies out there people haven’t seen because we don’t have the budget to promote them. We rely on word of mouth. I did a movie called God’s Not Dead, $2 million budget, it made $140 million.

Barry Shore:

On that note, we have sponsors that love us, talking about making some money. So, we’re going to take a very brief commercial break. We’ll be back with more Kevin Sorbo because you want to know more about waking up the lions. We’ll be right back after this brief message. Good day beautiful, bountiful, beloved immortal beings and good-looking people. Remember you’re good-looking because you’re always looking for and finding the good. We have found good in abundance, our cup runneth over with good. Two-legged being named Kevin Sorbo. You know him in many different roles but the role he’s talking about right now is the role of being good, kind, generous, giving, messaging, and making a difference. He’s a madman, he makes a difference, along with his wife and his kids. And he lives what he speaks about. This is really the key to life, to make sure that you are in alignment with your thoughts, your words, and your deeds. And to be able to be what I call a cog, a conduit of good, a child of God. So, we’re just talking about movies and promotion and such. And I think most people have no idea that if you have a budget, as you said, $300 million for X, Y, and Z. It costs X to make a movie, let’s call it $100 million, or 150. But you need twice that much for the promotion. A lot of it’s in the marketing. And if you don’t promote….we got a country with 300 plus million people and you got a worldwide market. Breaking through the noise is not simple. So you’re right, you make a movie for a couple of million dollars and if you can hit it you got 140. But a lot of the movies need to be seen, even if it’s what we used to call arthouse movies. When I was growing up it was called arthouse movies, independent, and things like that. But those are the ones that actually touch the soul. 

Kevin Sorbo:

That’s the reason why I wanted to be an actor. I would sit with my mom when I was a kid and watch these old black and white movies with Jimmy Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, and Cary Grant. I love those movies and those are the kind of movies I want to do. I like a good roller coaster ride too like an Avengers movie but it’s 50% visual effects or more. People don’t walk out and go, wow, what great character development. They’ll laugh and it’s great to have an escape. I want to create movies where people can relate to the person on the screen, or they know people like that, they walk out and it makes them think a little bit and talks about it. And those are the movies I’m going to keep making. And so, if that offends people that’s too bad. I’m going to backtrack a little bit because you did ask about Hercules. When I got that series, by the way, it was seven auditions over a two-month period. They auditioned 2800 actors in North America.

Barry Shore:

I want to understand something because what you just told us as a data point is fascinating to people. People sometimes, I would think, they think oh, you go and you do a reading. And they say, okay, yeah, we want you. No, listen to what he’s saying. This is a process, not an event.

Kevin Sorbo:

It was 2800 actors. After I got the role, that’s something they told me at the audition. And over the two months of seven times coming in it got down to the last three guys, myself and two other guys. And when I did the reading at The Universal Studios they had about 50 people in the room. So they got all these cooks in the kitchen who are going to decide if you’re going to have a career or not in that particular genre. And it was only just going to be 5 two-hour movies. So it was a year in New Zealand. And I loved the script. When my agent initially told me about it, I said, I’m a big guy. I was 6’3, 225, and athletic. And I was going yeah, but they’re going to want some steroid guy like they’ve always used. They’re going to want to 280 lbs., no neck. No, no, no, they want a decathlon kind of guy is what they said. And sure enough most of the guys that went up there were some guys I knew that play in the basketball league with me and stuff. So, when I got the role, I went down to New Zealand to film it, Anthony Quinn played Zeus. For those who are too young and don’t know Anthony Quinn please look him up. 6 times Academy Award nomination, 2 wins, Zorba the Greek, Guns of Navarone, The Lawrence of Arabia, so many movies that this guy did, and great stories. We had dinner once a week, every week for a year. But then halfway through the shooting of the third movie Universal Studios called and said, we’re going to make it a series, we love what we see. By season 3 we were the most-watched TV show in the world in 176 countries. This thing had just taken off. By the end of season 7, I was about to sign a contract for seasons 8, 9, and 10 but I got a very interesting phone call from a woman named Majel Roddenberry who is Gene Roddenberry’s widow, and for those who don’t know Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek. She said, Kevin if Gene were still alive he would love it that you were the next Captain he ever created. He wrote a series in 1969 called Andromeda with Captain Dylan hunt. I said, Majel stop. I’ve seen every episode of Star Trek at least 50 times. I am sold. I’m in. I did five years in Andromeda. We were in 156 countries, a big hit. And then I went on to do all the movies I’ve been doing now. So, it’s been an amazing ride. And I you tell me when you want me to tell you the things I’ve got coming up. I have 4 movies coming out this year that I shot last year, and I got 3 lined up this year. And one of them I leave for Israel. I’ll be shooting in May. All of May I’ll be taking off.

Barry Shore:

Now that you brought in the Holy land, come on baby let’s go a little bit deep. First of all, quick question. Are you bringing the whole family to Israel or just you?

Kevin Sorbo:

No, this can be another documentary. I’ve gotten them documentaries late. I’ve done about eight now in the last five years. And I’m starting to be that guy that they want on-screen to interview the scholars but also be the guy that narrates it, and it’s been a fabulous road. I shot a documentary there two and a half years ago with John Lennox. Now, John Lennox is a retired Math professor at Oxford University. He holds 5 doctorates and speaks 6 languages. He’s a world-known apologist. He’s debated all the great atheists in the world, like Dawkins, Singer, Hitchens, and those guys. So it’s called Against the Tide. And it’s proving God in the world of science. So, we shot for three weeks in Oxford, England, and two weeks in Israel, and it was unbelievable. So, I highly recommend Against the Tide.

Barry Shore:

I’d like to correct you on one thing. Fully believable. 

Kevin Sorbo:

This guy is an amazing dude. He’s just such a brilliant, brilliant man. And then I went online, and we posted onto the fan site, the first 50 people to sign up will come on a trip with us to Israel. And it’s not cheap, people got to pay to get there, they got to fly there. But I said, we’re going to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we filled it up right away. So I took a whole family with me. We had two weeks there, it was unbelievable. And I’m going back again in May, and I’m going back in May of 2023. So a year from now, for those out there that want to join us go to sorbostudios.com. We’re doing it again. So save up. We’re going to go a year from this May, May 2023. And we’re going to go again. We have three amazing guides, we’re getting the same guys. Two men and women that are phenomenal, they were born there, raised there, they know the country inside and out, and the history of it, and you guys will be treated to a feast you’ll never believe. It’s phenomenal and I’m looking forward to going again. They just unearthed the oldest temple they’ve ever found in an archeological dig. And so, those guys are bringing me in. I’ve become the narrator guy of documentaries, which is an honor.

Barry Shore:

It’s so wondrous to hear the procession of growth, let’s say from commercials and then into TV and to movies.

Kevin Sorbo:

Barry. I’m a 13-year overnight success. Come on.

Barry Shore:

Exactly. That’s what I was trying to get out. That’s the thing, isn’t it beautiful? Again, creativity. That’s what you’re about. I love that line, the sheep are lost but we need to awaken the lions. It’s really about making sure that every single person hearing this recognizes what I call, are you ready for this Kevin? Learn to love dog poop. Did Barry Shore say dog poop? Yes, because dog poop is a great acronym. You can use this Kevin. Dog poop stands for doing of good power of one person. When you recognize that when you speak in good, you think in good and you act in good you’re creating a tsunami of goodness in the world that cannot be [inaudible 40:06] and the power of one person. We’re listening to and working with one person right now who has shifted the world. Now most people, by the way, Kevin, when they hear the word shift I don’t know why but they dropped that F and stuff happens. You got to keep the F in shift. You can shift your perspective, and you can really make a difference in the world. That’s what he’s doing. He’s a madman, whether it’s in Israel, with his family, his friends, and think about what he said, friends going back decades. Because when you are rooted in truth, rooted in goodness, rooted in values then you become part of what we call the immortal eternal being. And that’s the genius, I think of America. We are the beacon of light to the world. We’re still the best hope for the world. That’s President Reagan’s comment that was Lincoln’s comment. And I think that is what animates me, that there is not just hope for America but there are people, power of one person, poop, reaching out one to another, to another to another to another, linking across the world. There’s nothing that can stop goodness. Not possible. You just told us you’re narrating in Israel. Hello. The story didn’t end thousands of years ago, it’s a continuous story. Am I correct? 

Kevin Sorbo:

No question. And for me, I love this journey I’m on because it’s something I never thought I’d be doing. About 10 years ago I started doing a lot of speaking events, I never thought I’d be doing speaking events. And that really kicked off when I wrote my book called True Strength. And all of a sudden, I’m doing about 15 speaking events. I get invited to about 100 speaking events a year, I just don’t have the time to do it. So, I pick out about a dozen to 15 or so and I do what I can with that. But it’s been an amazing ride, and it’s not over yet. I’m not anywhere near retirement. I love what I do and I’m going to keep doing it. And as I said, I’ve got a number of other projects coming down the road, and I’m just going to keep busy.

Barry Shore:

And let’s be blunt, your wife is a great adjunct to what you do, and your kids as well. Without Sam, there wouldn’t be a real Kevin. I’m saying it.

Kevin Sorbo:

There’s no question. I don’t know how I would have survived without her nagging and her overwhelming optimism. All of it combined together works quite well. And we’re homeschool advocates. My wife does a lot of homeschool speaking, she’s got a number of books out on that. And my kids are rockstars, they’re awesome. And I’m not surprised that my two boys are following in my footsteps. The middle one wants to be an Engineer and he’s bright as my wife is but the other one is more like me in terms of wanting to travel and see things and he’s already been in a couple of movies. He was just in my last one. I just directed this one, the movie is coming out this year. Just this past October, November I directed and acted in the next Left Behind book. For those who don’t know Left behind, they’ve sold 80 million copies. LaHaye and Jenkins wrote these things together and this one’s called Rise of the Antichrist, and that’s coming out in theaters this year. In my other movie Miracle in East Texas is coming out that I directed as well. Finally, coming out with a wonderful movie, True Story Set in 1930 about two conmen played by myself and John Ratzenberger. Lou Gossett Jr. is in it, Tyler Mane’s in it, my wife’s in it, she’s awesome in it. True Story Set in 1930 about two guys that would go through Oklahoma, Texas, wooing widows out of their money on fake oil wells until they strike the largest oil fund in the history of the world in Kilgore, Texas. And then I’ve got the Ronald Reagan movie. Dennis Quaid plays the president, I play his pastor in that one. And then my next documentary that we finished called, I love this title it deals with the Last Supper and the disciples it’s called Eating with the Enemy. You can go to eatingwiththeenemy.com right now and see the trailer for it. It’s a very moving touching trailer and that’s going to be out probably around in the fall as well. And I narrated that one. And the same group of guys I did one with last year that was the most-watched documentary on Amazon called Before the Wrath. Beforethewrath.com is another good place to check that one out.

Barry Shore:

So, I’m going to sprinkle a little pixie dust here and just throw in an idea and that is the daily wire. Thedailywire.com, Ben Shapiro, and his cohorts because they understand that the culture is movies, video, and such. And I would just urge you to consider unless you’re already talking with them, that you collaborate and find some mechanism to speak with each other because this is the path we all want to be on. We want to awaken the lions, we need that. So, if you’re not speaking to them let me know because I can open up that pathway. We need to touch these tens of millions, if not hundreds, billions of people around the planet with the energy of the Sorbo. So before we wrap up this time, I’m so honored that you made the time to do this. I really appreciate it. It’s wonderful. And by the way, we set our time at high noon because that’s an allusion to a great movie also, and that’s what Sorbo is. He’s the sheriff, high noon. How do you like that one, Kevin?

Kevin Sorbo:

Great movie. I’m a big fan of his work as well.

Barry Shore:

Yeah, this is great stuff. So, I have three quick questions for you. Are you ready? 

Kevin Sorbo:

Yep. 

Barry Shore:

Number one, will you come back again?

Kevin Sorbo:

I would love to. I definitely want to come back in the fall when I got some of these movies coming out. Because I think all four of them are going to come out in a row. So I want to get out there and give it a good plug, sure.

Barry Shore:

Okay, will come back again. Number two, are you ready? You have 80 seconds only to answer this question. 

Kevin Sorbo:

All right. 

Barry Shore:

What is your most fervent desire?

Kevin Sorbo:

I think it to be lucky enough and blessed enough to keep doing the type of movies that I’m doing, to find a way to find these things get funded. Because every time we’ve been funded for any of these independent movies, as I said before, 3, $4 million is nothing in the vein of Hollywood. And that’s the budget that I work with. I work with these movies that promote what I said earlier, love, laughter, the togetherness, the reality, and the push to bring people hopefully closer together than further apart. And every time I’ve been funded a movie it’s always been a God thing. Just when you’re about ready to give up. I work seven days a week, I don’t stop working. And I’m always reaching out, I’m meeting people that are interested, then you got to go through all these different avenues to try to get these people to explain to them how it works, how the movie industry works. Some are very knowledgeable, some don’t have any knowledge about it at all. And for me, I want to be able to do that hopefully, without it sounding corny, but to get people more to the center. When I say that, just to get to the place where we can have differences, guys. But the differences we have now are just Grand Canyon, we’ve separated the world right now. I’m hoping we find some way to build a bridge to get those things together.

Barry Shore:

We like bridges. 

Kevin Sorbo:

Bridges are a good thing.

Barry Shore:

I like corny. And speaking of corny, number three is, even without your permission may I give you a hug in front of [crosstalk 47:38]. Let me you what hug stands for, are you ready? 

Kevin Sorbo:

I’m ready.

Barry Shore:

Heartfelt, unlimited giving. 1-2-3 roar.

Kevin Sorbo:

It was a slow-motion hug. You didn’t tell me you were going to put the special effect in.

Barry Shore:

And thank everybody for listening, tuning into The Joy of Living with your humble host Barry Shore and our amazing wonderful guest Kevin Sorbo. And remember the three fundamentals of life, your life has purpose, you live a purpose-driven life you go mad. Mad stands for make a difference. And the third is to unlock the power and the sequence of everyday words and terms like www what a wonderful world. Smile, seeing miracles in life every day or as my eight-year-old niece says seeing miracles in everyday life. And learn to use the idea of creating, causing rethinking enabling all to excel. Yes, Kevin.

Kevin Sorbo:

Miracles happen every day. People expect a miracle to be walking on water. Great things happen every day we just don’t pay attention to them anymore because we have the attention spans of nets. We’re so impatient. We don’t want to work hard to get to the goals we want to get to. I tell people don’t let anyone set their limitations, especially themselves. God never promised an easy life for all of us. Things are always going to go bad, we’re going to get roadblocks in life. How do you react to those roadblocks? You’re going to blame God, you can blame a God you don’t believe in, you blame family, friends, everybody else. Look in the mirror, queue the Michael Jackson song Man in the Mirror. There’s the problem. Look at yourself and try to figure out a way to get past it because stuff happens. Poop happens. So, when it happens find a way to get past it instead of letting it control your life and giving up and just becoming resentful for other people trying harder than you to push and find their dreams. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to get nose, you’re going to get failure. Those are positive things, not negative things because you learn from them.

Barry Shore:

Is this not wondrous? Causing, rethinking, enabling all to excel. Use four-letter words. Love, life, hope, grow, free, gift, swim, pray, play, and tell the world to FU capital N capital N. When was the last time somebody said FU to you and you smiled Kevin? FU capital N capital N. Remember to say thank you three times a day every single day for the rest of your life. It will bring benefit to you, your family, your friends, and all living beings. And the result of all of this is you’ll be happier, healthier, and wealthier. Who doesn’t want that? So, our blessing from Kevin and Barry is go forth, live exuberantly, spread the seeds of joy, happiness, peace, and love. Go mad, go make a difference. Don’t go away, Kevin.