Steve Cuden: On today’s StoryBeat:

Adam Tex Davis: I get a call from my agent. He’s like, Leonard DiCaprio’s manager just read the script. She loves it. She’s giving it to Leo. And then I’m getting a call, like, okay, he’s gonna read it tomorrow. Then I get a call the next day, he started reading it. Then I get a call. He’s 10 pages in and he’s smiling. He’s still reading. He’s 25 pages in. I’m getting, literally live streaming the reading of the script. And they’re like, okay, he finished it. He wants to meet with you.

Announcer: This is StoryBeat with Steve Cuden, a podcast for the creative mind. StoryBeat explores how masters of creativity develop and produce brilliant works that people everywhere love and admire. So join us as we discover how talented creators find success in the worlds of imagination and entertainment. Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.

Steve Cuden: Thanks for joining us on StoryBeat. We’re coming to you from the steel City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My guest today, the screenwriter, producer and podcaster Adam Tex Davis is best known for writing the screenplay of the cult rom com classic Just Friends that stars Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, and Ana Fars. He also wrote the screenplay for the drama Gardr of Eden that stars Lucas Haas and was Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. A graduate of NYU’s TIS School of the Arts, Tex has contributed to over 25 feature film scripts and served as co executive producer and head writer for the, Emmy nominated series Brain Games. Tex is also a co founder of Atomic Entertainment, overseeing projects like the Netflix educational series Brainchild and a growing slate of podcasts that he writes or stars in, such as Slaycation mysteries about true histories, the Oscars, what were they thinking? And who smarted. So for all those reasons and many more, I’m truly honored to welcome the prolific, multi-talented writer, producer and podcaster Adam Tex Davis to StoryBeat today. Tex, welcome to the show.

Adam Tex Davis: Hey, Steve, thank you so much for having me. absolute pleasure.

Steve Cuden: It’s a great privilege, believe me. So you are the very first person I’ve ever met, I think, with the name Tex, even though there are many texts out there. How did you become text in the first place?

Adam Tex Davis: Well, it’s not that how I became Tex. It’s why am I still text? Is the real reason. Because I did a student film at NYU and I played a character named Tex. And, my, friend and, eventual roommate, a guy by the name of Todd Phillips.

Steve Cuden: Oh, really?

Adam Tex Davis: was in the movie and he played a Character named Weasel. So we were Texan Weasel and just screwing around. I had everybody call me Texts on the set, and I was in the movie and I had a jacket that said Text on the back and stuff. And then when I wrote the script, you know, at NYU, you put all your scripts in a box, and then they vote on which scripts get made. And I was like, oh, I have to get my script made. I can’t be like, just going and paying all this money to go to film school and not be able to direct my film. So I was very of. Yeah, I was very happy when my film got voted to be made. And on the COVID I put Adam Tex Davis so that they could even know that I was going to probably play the Text character. And then what happened was after the movie was over and the movie wound up doing well, it won a bunch of festivals. It helped get me a manager, which then got me an agent and stuff. But the thing is, like, some people would still call me Text. But then I also realized, look, if you Google search Adam Davis, right? Or there’s just thousands of Adam Davis come up, of course, Google search Adam Text Davis. I come up. So it became this marketing tool, and everybody’s like, you know, it’s like, have you met Adam Davis? Oh, I’m not sure. u. Text. Oh, yeah, Text. Of course. Yeah, Right. No, Text. So that’s just like. It was just a marketing and just a way to stand out a little bit, which in this business, you know.

Steve Cuden: Does it bother you to be called Tech then?

Adam Tex Davis: Not at all. No.

Steve Cuden: I love it because it’s. People know you to be.

Adam Tex Davis: There are some people that only call me texts. There are some people that staunchly refuse to acknowledge the text. they’re like, you can’t give yourself a nickname. I’m like. But I did. But it’s also like a writing name, you know?

Steve Cuden: And just for those listeners who may not know who Todd Phillips is. Todd Phillips directed the Joker movies. He directed the Hangover movies. He’s been around quite some time. Yes.

Adam Tex Davis: Oh, yeah. well, he’s doing extraordinarily well.

Steve Cuden: Extraordinarily well. So let’s go back in time on your career. Forget about Todd Phillips.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah.

Steve Cuden: How old were you when you first thought to yourself, oh, entertainment, movies, tv. This is fascinating to me.

Adam Tex Davis: Okay, so there were two pivotal things. One was, like, seventh and eighth grade, you know, basically middle school. They made us write. like, it was a creative writing contest for the state. I was living in New Jersey, and New Jersey was having a Statewide writing contest. So seventh grade. They were like, everybody needs, as part of your English course, you need to write an entry to this contest. So I got very excited. Like, everybody else was dreading it, but I was like, this is great. I’m excited to do this. And I wrote a story and it won the contest.

Steve Cuden: Wow.

Adam Tex Davis: So in seventh grade, now cut to eighth grade, the same contest comes rolling around. The teacher even tells me, like, Adam, we know you like to write. You won the contest last year. You are excused. You don’t have to write a story. Everybody else has to. They’re groaning and moaning, and I’m like, screw that. I’m gonna write a story anyway. And I had another story and I wrote the story. I won again. And I’m like, okay, maybe I have an aptitude towards this writing, creative writing and stuff. Cut to. I’m now in high school and I was really into journalism. I was an editor on the school paper and I, you know, was doing stories, sports and other stuff. And I realized, you know, sometimes when the story isn’t that good, you make up a few things. You quote yourself as an unnamed source, juice it up a little bit. It’s a high school newspaper. Who cares, right? It’s your high school newspaper. Well, I get called into, the journalism office one day. It’s like, congratulations, your sports story, that’s like 80% B’s has just won nation wide silver medal. You have to go to Columbia University to receive an honor. And then I was like, oh, boy. So I didn’t have the, you know, I couldn’t tell him that, like I was making stuff up or whatever. I mean, the premise of the story was based on truth, but I made up a lot of stuff and I made it better. And then I realized, okay, look, I have enough journalistic integrity to know that I have no journalistic integrity. Why don’t we, instead of being a journalist, why don’t I do my version of bad journalism, which is take something that’s true, start with the kernel of truth, and then embellish the hell out of it and turn it into movies, turn it into stories, stuff like that. So those were the two pivotal moments. And then, yeah, I used that to get into NYU writing. And then, yeah, most of my movies are based a kernel of truth.

Steve Cuden: So your degree is in writing?

Adam Tex Davis: Technically, it’s film and television. But writing is what got me into college. And that’s what I’ve mostly done after college.

Steve Cuden: And that’s what you’re most known for, is as a writer but you also produce things and occasionally you act in things as well.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, yeah, I produced some things, I’ve directed some things, I’ve acted in things. I just love it. I love it all. Like when I was at film school and this is a piece of advice, like, do everything. Do everything you can. I mean, I, I was humping equipment, I was setting up lights, I learned how to set the dolly, you know, and I’ve worked a lot of jobs, you know, pa, dolly grip. So, yeah, the more, you know, the, I think the better you can, you know, be valuable.

Steve Cuden: I couldn’t agree with you more. I have many different skill sets as well and I don’t use them all the time, but I’ve used many of them over the years. And yeah, it’s really good to know these things. and in fact, the great filmmakers will always talk about the fact that you should know all the different aspects of what’s going on on a, on a set so that you, you can do anybody’s job.

Adam Tex Davis: Right?

Steve Cuden: If you had to.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah.

Steve Cuden: At what point did you think to yourself, you know what? I am good enough at this to make a career out of it?

Adam Tex Davis: You know, it never dawned on me that that was a thing like, it’s like, it’s what I did. So of course I was going to write scripts. And of course, like, eventually something would sell. I mean, I wasn’t sure how the business really worked.

Steve Cuden: You were that self confident?

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, it wasn’t even that I was confident. I just. It seemed like the thing I was good at better than anything else that I did. So it’s like I might as. And you know, and I love movies and I love writing. You know, I didn’t have trouble sitting down and actually doing it. I made a film in school and then in the interim, while the film was going, doing festivals and stuff, I wrote four scripts. And what happened was, and this is a big takeaway was, I had these four scripts that I had written and then finally somebody out in LA saw my student film and they showed it around to a bunch of people.

Steve Cuden: Wow.

Adam Tex Davis: And it was, you know, it was a dark comedy. It really stood out from other films because people either loved it or hated it. I think I entered 40 film festivals. Right. I didn’t get into 30 of them.

Steve Cuden: Sure.

Adam Tex Davis: And I won the other 10.

Steve Cuden: Wow.

Adam Tex Davis: So it was like, I love it or hate it type thing. But, to me that was a better thing. Like the worst thing you could do is like, meh, three stars. No, five stars or one star. That’s the. What you want to do.

Steve Cuden: Well, the festival circuit at the end of the day is really about taste. The taste of the people that are looking at it in the first place. It’s not about the audience in general. It’s usually about some one or two individuals.

Adam Tex Davis: Sure. It’s funny, I got into a festival in, I don’t know if it was Miami, and they sent back the comment cards from the judges and three of them just eviscerated it. They hated it. It was the worst thing they ever saw. And then the other three loved it. Couldn’t praise it enough. So it’s like, okay. So that’s when you know you’re in. You’re in a good zone. Like, you know, people are loving it and champion it. But the point is, I wrote these four scripts and somebody finally saw my film out in la. They sent it around to a bunch of people and I get a call from a manager and he says, hey, I love your film. It’s dark, it’s weird, it’s crazy. There’s nothing I can do with that. But do you have anything else? Are you working on anything? What do you got? And I said, I’ve written four scripts. And he said, send me your best to. And so I send him the two that I thought were the best. And then he was like, these are great. I want to sign you. We’ll work on them. They still need work, but they’re going to be great calling cards. They’re going to be great to go around and get you meetings and stuff and hopefully get people interested in you.

Steve Cuden: And this. Did you say it was a manager or an agent?

Adam Tex Davis: This was a manager.

Steve Cuden: So the manager can actually work with you, theoretically, to work on the material. An agent might be less inclined to do that other than to maybe give you thoughts.

Adam Tex Davis: Well, what happened was, yeah, I went to all these different agents and they were like, what else do you have that we can sell right now? And it’s like, well, I have these samples. They’re like, yeah, I can’t really sell the samples. They’re too small. They’re whatever. They’re good to get you in a room, but I need something to sell. And all the agents were like, they passed on me. But one guy was just like, I like your film, I like your scripts. I want to do one more test with you. He said, pick any TV show and write an episode of a, ah, TV show. And at the time I loved the Simpsons. So I wrote a Simpsons episode. It took me about a week or so and I sent it in and he said, wait, you wrote this in a week? This didn’t exist a week ago. I go, no. And he goes like, okay, I love this, I’m signing you. But we still have to figure out the next thing that we’re go, going to go out with. But at least I know I have something, a diamond in the rough here that I want to work with. And he was the only agent that did that.

Steve Cuden: So now you are clearly very diverse, not just in your overall skill sets, but within the writing world. You are also diverse. You write comedy, drama, educational shows, et cetera, et cetera. And we’ll talk more about that in a moment. But I’m curious, do you worry that you have not been pigeonholed? Is that a good thing or is it that you should be pigeonholed? You know, that’s, this is the age old debate.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, now it’s a great question. I, there is no hole I could be pigeoned into. I don’t, you know, it’s one of those things where, look, I didn’t set out to do it. You know, it’s like I was always good at getting people to laugh. So I was gravitated towards comedy. but I liked, even within the comedy world, like I could write broad comedy and sometimes they’d say, oh, this is good, but it’s too broad. So I would tone it down. I was writing character comedy that was doing dark comedy. Like I like all these different kinds of movies, so why wouldn’t I just write all kinds of different movies?

Steve Cuden: What a great way to think of it.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, you know, right. And it’s like, I love horror movies, I love, drama. So it’s like, yeah, whatever occurs to me, if it’s a good story and it makes sense as a comedy, do it as a comedy. If it makes sense as a drama, do it that way.

Steve Cuden: Were those initial two scripts that you sent to the manager, were they very different?

Adam Tex Davis: Actually, it’s kind of funny. I don’t know why. Like I was living in, you know, I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in New Jersey, went back to M. Back to New York and NYU for school. Never left New York again. My first script was called NYC about, my 20s, you know, being in your 20s in New York. And then my second script was called NJ for New Jersey. You know, it was about growing up in New Jersey and you know, my neighbors, my parents, my friends and stuff like that. So it was like stories, like youth stories and I You know, the joke was I’m gonna work on a Tri State trilogy and you know, just trying to find a Connecticut story or Pennsylvania story or whatever. But the point is, u. They were different though because the NYC script was very gritty, dirty. There’s prostitutes, there’s like the grimy broke ass dudes like trying to get laid and you know, whatever. And then the other one was a little more of a wholesome family. Brothers and parents and neighbors and you know, but had fun stories. One of my favorite stories is the NJ script was a really good compilation of funny little, you know, vignettes and stories and stuff that I tried to tie together as best as I could. But it really wasn’t a great three act structure. It just felt more like episodic. So my agent was like, hey look, why don’t you pitch that as a TV show? And he set up a meeting for me at the wb. And at that point I had sold some stuff, so I had a little bit of a reputation. But the point is, I went into the WB with my script and I thought I was meeting one guy to just talk it through. And instead he bring me into a conference room and there’s nine people and they introduce themselves. And by the time he gets to the last person, I’ve already forgotten everybody’s name. And I’m like, they re, like, so what do you got? And I’m like, I’ll tell you what, let me keep this short. I pull out the script, I go, this is a script. It’s called nj. It’s about my life growing up in New Jersey. It doesn’t really work as a movie, but I think there’s like 20 episodes of a TV show in there. It’s very episodic. If you guys see what I see, give me a call and I throw it on the table and I get up and I leave.

Steve Cuden: Wow. Yeah, that’s bold.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah. My agent calls me, he’s like, oh, someone’s got balls today. And I was like, it’s the end of the day. I had four other meetings. I didn’t know what to say. It just felt right. Guess what? The next day they called and they were like, yeah, we see it, we see it.

Steve Cuden: Wow.

Adam Tex Davis: They hired me to write a pilot and we’re working on it. We picked our favorite story out of it. The only problem was just as I had turned in the pilot script, and this is backaw ways I get a VHS tape. People even remember what that is, if.

Steve Cuden: You know what that is.

Adam Tex Davis: It shows up in the mail, and it’s for this new show called Malcolm in the Middle. And I’m like, what’s this? And I put it in. And almost immediately, one of the jokes in my script is already on the screen. of their thing. Not that they stole it. Sure. It’s just brother, family, the whole thing. And I’m like, oh, my God. I called the guy. I was like, what does this mean? He goes, it’s been nice working with you. So that was the journey of that script. The other one, nothing ever happened with that. But the thing I always say is, like, if my manager said, you know, eventual manager said, what do you got? And I’m. The answer is, oh, I’m working on something, or I’m farting around with some ideas, or. But it ends. The conversation ends the fact that I wrote these scripts and had them available, even though I was writing in a vacuum, I would finish one and just start the next one. You just do that. Because you never know.

Steve Cuden: That may be the key to writers getting work, is having something else in your back pocket. If you go into a meeting and you’ve only got the one thing and they reject it, you’re done. If you have other things, you at least have a shot at it. They know that you’re making efforts.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Cuden: So the New Jersey script sounds a little bit like perhaps on the. Sort of heading toward what you did with Gardner of Eden. A little bit.

Adam Tex Davis: Yes and no. Because what happened with Gardner of Eden was so I had, you know, I sold Just Friends. I mean, look, just taking a step back even further, like, I had written a script again. I used my bad journalism. Right. I had written a script about a kid who gets trapped on spring break with his parents, based on me getting trapped on spring break with my parents.

Steve Cuden: Sure.

Adam Tex Davis: And, you know, I didn’t realize it was spring break. They had a timeshare in Cancun. I was gonna go with my girlfriend and my brother and his girlfriend. Nobody else could go. Nobody could get off work. I went because I was like, why not? I just graduated college. Let me just take a little free vacation, stay at the timeshare with my parents. And when I show up, it’s like, welcome, spring breakers. And I’m like, oh, my God. I’m on spring break with my parents. I’m, 22. And so I bought a notebook, and I was just like, let’s just make shit happen, and let’s just have an adventure and try to get my parents in as much trouble as possible. And Bring my mom to a phone party. It’s in your frogs. And my dad’s in the hot tub smoking weed with the fat boys and writing it all down, Writing it all down. And then I go and I write a script called Sunburned. And we went out with that script and unfortunately it didn’t sell. And it was my first going out to the town with the script. So then I was like, kind of bummed. So then I started writing Just Friends because I was in the friend zone with this girl for two years. And I was like, you know what? I was bummed then. And I have this sort of visceral, Oh, yeah, I remember the last time I was this bummed. So I write that script and just as I’m finishing that, I get a call that MTV has read my spring break script. They can’t do that script, but they have their own idea for a spring break script. I get hired to write that. Then Harvey Weinstein winds up buying the first spring break script. I get a call. It’s like, you’re not going to believe this. Are you sitting down? I’m like, yeah. And they’re like, so Harvey Weinstein was on a plane and he saw people laughing and he said, what is everybody laughing about? And they’re like, the script is very funny. So he took it, snatched it right out of somebody’s hand, starts reading course. And then he’s. They thought he was having a heart attack because he was laughing so hard. He was wheezing.

Steve Cuden: Wow.

Adam Tex Davis: And they were like, oh, my God, is Hardy, you know, gonna die? And then it was like, oh, no, he likes this script. And when the plane lander, he’s like, call this fucking guy. Get him in my office. I want to talk to this guy. So, okay, great. And I meet with him and he is exactly as advertised. And all the bad, you know, warts and all. But I mean, you know, you. I didn’t know the real warts and all, but, you know, he was.

Steve Cuden: Nobody did. Just a few people.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, but he was, you know, he was a monster. Even with me. Like, I’m glad I am not an attractive man, as opposed to a very attractive female. Like, you don’t want to be near that for sure. But the point is, he buys that script and then New Line buys the Just Friends script. Okay. I had, a bunch of stuff going on. So I had sold these scripts and Just Friends was not a hard R rated movie. I think it was PG or PG 13. And then I started getting some rewrite jobs for other PG PG 13 movies. And I felt like I was losing my edge a little bit. So I wrote Gardner of Eden because I wanted to do a hard R, like gritty, dirty movie. Kind of like my NYC movie, you know. So, you know, Gardner Veen set in Jersey, but it’s a gritty, dirty movie. And yeah, fortunately my agent was like, look, I don’t know if studios are gonna get it or producers even, but like actors who have companies that wa want toa do cool movies like they might get it. And he sent it to Leo.

Steve Cuden: Well, I’ve seen both Just Friends and the Gardener of Eden and I think they’re.

Adam Tex Davis: You saw Gard of Eden?

Steve Cuden: I’ve seen Gardener of Eden. Oh, I have indeed.

Adam Tex Davis: It’s hard to see, it’s hard to get ah, hold of.

Steve Cuden: It is available if you look for it.

Adam Tex Davis: Good.

Steve Cuden: And I did. I looked for it. when I knew I was going to be interviewing you, I went out and sought it out. It’s definitely gritty and dark, certainly by comparison to Just Friends, which is light and fluffy. And you did have the incredibly great graces of Ryan Reynolds in Just Friends. And he takes whatever material you gave them and he just elevates it to a whole other level.

Adam Tex Davis: Not only him. Anna, Fars.

Steve Cuden: Exactly.

Adam Tex Davis: Chris Kleline.

Steve Cuden: Exactly.

Adam Tex Davis: Julie Haggerty, Stephen Root. I mean these people are great, great. Amy Smart, she’s the straight person. The problem with Amy Smart was always like she saw everybody else being funny and it was just like trying to. No, no, your job is to be the straight person. They’ll be funnier if you’d play it like, you know, real. But she didn’t want to play it real. So it was always a,

Steve Cuden: She wanted to be the comedian.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah. Who doesn’t want to be fun, you know, out of fair. Makes everybody laugh every day. So. But yeah, Chris Marquette as the brother was great. Like, yeah, I got blessed with a great cast.

Steve Cuden: So tell the listeners who don’t know what Just Friends is. What’s Just Friends? What happens in it.

Adam Tex Davis: Just Friends is about the hell of being in the friend zone. Of course, when you cast Ryan Reynolds, he’s such a good looking guy. What woman is not going to want to be with Ryan Reynolds? So what we did was we started in high school and he’s overweight and he’s the friend of the hot cheerleader and he’s in love with her secretly, but they’re just friends. And then he reveals that he has feelings for her and she says basically like, look, I love you, but like a brother. And the whole school hears it and everybody laughs at him and he’s like, screw this, I’m getting out of here and I’m gonna change my life. And so in the interim years, he becomes Ryan Reynolds. He’s good looking, he’s a womanizer, everything’s going great for him. He works for a record company, but then he has to bring a client to a potential singer, the Anna Faris’ character, to Paris. And their plane gets diverted, they wind up landing in his home in Jersey and he’s too close to his hometown not to go and pay a visit. And then he runs into his old just friends girl. But now he’s Ryan Reynolds. He’s good looking guy, he’s got money, he’s got everything. I should easily be able to woo her. But instead he, he basically regresses into his old self and all his plots and machinations, everything that he uses to womanize the other women, none of it works. And it’s only when he basically becomes in touch with his old self, who is the nice guy, that he begins to make any kind of headway with her.

Steve Cuden: It’s got lots of really hysterically funny stuff in it all the way through. It’s a classic rom com out of what, the 2000s? I would say it’s. When was that made? 2000.

Adam Tex Davis: 2000.

Steve Cuden: 2005. It’s classic from that era. I think we see less of those today. Yes, and I wish there were more of them because they’re kind of, you know, funny and all. They just take your mind off of the world. They’re not a burdensome movie to watch.

Adam Tex Davis: Right. It’s not homework.

Steve Cuden: It’s not homework. Very good way to put it. So how long did it take you to write it? Was that a fast turn?

Adam Tex Davis: Yes and no. You know, it’s like one of those things where I think I started it, it probably took about two years total and there were many different drafts. But the reason why there were a lot of drafts was also the reason why it sold and why it, even though it took five years to get made, why it stayed at the top of the list of things to get made. Because what happened was everybody that read it could relate to being in the friend zone. In fact, people would actually read it and ask, my manager did this and an executive did this and they were like, is this about me? And it’s like, why would I write a movie about you? I don’t even know you’re that well. But the point is the Fact that they felt connected to it that way. I knew a great thing. But it was also a. There’s so many different ways you can do it. Even like, in the early days of, like, after it s sold, some of the people that were bandied about to be in it, there was a version where it was going to maybe be Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. It could be one of their movies. Julia Roberts and Adam Sandler. There was. Jimmy Fallon was in the mix at one point. He had just started at snl. Bradley Cooper’s name came up after he did really well in the Wedding Crashers and was like, oh, the brother from the Wedding Crashers is really good. Maybe he. And it just kept, you know, different names. And every time there was a new name bandied about, it was like, let’s change the script slightly to try to match that.

Steve Cuden: Of course.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah. So there was many rewrites. And then also just like, oh, is it too broad? Is it to this? Is it to that? You know, there was a Harry Vers Sally version that was very romantic. Then there was like. And I was like, look, I really wanted to be a comedy first. And then, you know, yeah, there’s a romance in it, but like, let’s. Let’s have it be funny. And so, yeah, luckilyeah, Roger Cumble, the director, he also wanted to be really funny. So, like, we were very aligned on that. We became allies in that fight.

Steve Cuden: Well, mission accomplished.

Adam Tex Davis: O. I appreciate that.

Steve Cuden: How much work. Once you had Ryan Reynolds locked and you had a green light, how much work did you have to do on the script to make it Ryan Reynolds perfect?

Adam Tex Davis: u. I mean, it’s probably less than you probably have to do now because IR Reydold was not the super.

Steve Cuden: This is pre Deadpool and all the rest of it.

Adam Tex Davis: Yes. But what we did was, it was like we knew. I mean, the director, you know, Roger and I, we had this conversation where it was like, look, Ryan is kind of like a Jim Carrey. Like, he’ll like, we should do bu in a special Ryan take for a lot of the scenes. Like, do the script, do whatever and then do a take. Go nuts, do whatever you want and see what he comes up with. There was also like, you know, we just knew he would be able to turn even things that weren’t that funny on the page. Funny.

Steve Cuden: Exactly.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah. But the real. The real gem also is, is Ana Fars is like, steals every scene and there’s nothing that comes out of her mouth. It isn’t funny. You know, we have this extra character that’s gonna, like, really like every scene. So we, you know, I think we even added scenes so that she’d be in the movie more, you know, that kind of thing.

Steve Cuden: Were you invited to be on the set during production?

Adam Tex Davis: Yes.

Steve Cuden: Which is not all that common then.

Adam Tex Davis: No, but I am three for three on my, movies that got made. I endear myself to the director, and I let them know that I am their ally. especially if it’s a director that doesn’t write. But the point is, it’s like everybody is going to be. That’s the thing you don’t realize, like, everybody’s against the director at all turns. Everybody’s always like, but what about. What about, You sure do we need, you know, and like, everybody. The studio, the executives, the producers, the. The talent. Like, you know, and it’s like, be an ally. Be an ally to the director. The writer is the director’s ally. Like my very first movie, that MTV movie, the director said, hey, is there any chance, you want to. There’s a couple scenes. I think you can make them funnier if you just concentrate on just that scene. Maybe we can elevate the humor. And I was like, sure. And so I attacked that. And then I was like, well, while I’m at it, let’s just do that for the whole script. So then, I get a call the director, like okay, so, yeah, you just made the movie, like, 75% funnier. Can you be on set? I’d love to have you on set with me. And I was like, absolutely. So I’m on set, and the director is like, look, here’s the thing. You have carte blanche. You can do anything you want, come up with anything you want. the only thing I ask is don’t tell the actors anything. Like, just do it through me, the director.

Steve Cuden: Well, that’s the right protocol.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah.

Steve Cuden: And the fact that you’ve been invited on the set, as I said earlier, that that’s somewhat unusual. Writers are frequently not allowed on set.

Adam Tex Davis: Shunned. Shunned and banned.

Steve Cuden: Shunned.

Adam Tex Davis: They invite you for, two days, you get a cameo. And then they were like, get out of here. I know how it usually works, but I was like, no, I’m going to be an invaluable part of this. And if they need anything, I’m here to do it. And, to help.

Steve Cuden: Did you find that that helped to raise your cache in Hollywood, the fact that you were allowed on the set?

Adam Tex Davis: Nah, I don’t think anybody cared.

Steve Cuden: Orew didn’t mean a thing.

Adam Tex Davis: Not really.

Steve Cuden: But it’s just so unusual, right?

Adam Tex Davis: I guess so. You know, to me at the time, it didn’t feel unusual. It felt like, I mean, I will say, like Gardner of Eden was definitely like, oh, the writers here, you know, wasn’t as much of because it was a low budget movie and they were doing their thing. But I’m like, look, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna stand in the way. I’m a director mentality myself. I understand you need to make this your own, but, I’m here if you need anything and you can bounce things off me or, you know, it’s like when you, you shoot a take, like the director wants to look at somebody to get any kind of acknowledgement. Was that good, bad? I don’t know. And he would look at me and I’d be like, you got it, buddy, great. Or I come over and I whisper like, yeah, you know what, that was good. But what if you did it? You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, that’s a good idea, you know, because we’re aligned. We’re aligned. I’m trying to make it as funny and cool as possible too, you know?

Steve Cuden: Absolutely. Well, let’s talk about the Gardener of Eden. Tell the listeners what that’s about, because that’s completely different from just friends.

Adam Tex Davis: Gardr of Eden is about a guy who just can’t seem to get out of his own way. He doesn’t have luck with the ladies. He’s in school. He gets obsessed by things. he can’t get laid, so he meets a prostitute and he kind of gets hooked on bringing prostitutes back to his dorm. And then he gets kicked out of school. He loses his job. At one point, he gets kicked out of his house. He’s lost everything. He’s kind of a loser.

Steve Cuden: He’s not kind of a loser. He’s a loser.

Adam Tex Davis: He’s a loser. He’s a loser. Okay, you’re right. And he decides, ah, fuck it. the next guy I see, I’m go goingna kick the shit out of this guy. I don’t care if I go to jail. Who cares? I blew it. It’s over. So he sees a guy slinking through the shadows. He attacks the guy, beats the crap out of him. The cops show up. He thinks, that’s it, I’m going to jail. It’s over. And it turns out the guy he attacked is a sexual predator who’s been terrorizing the neighborhood his picture has been up, on Bolton boards and stuff. And he’s suddenly a hero. And he decides, that’s my calling. I’m going to be this vigilante hero. And it opens weird doors for him. Like one of the girls who was assaulted by this guy, they start a relationship. His dad, who’s a Vietnam vet who never spoke to him, suddenly takes an interest in him and wants to help him learn how to fight and defend himself. And he starts trying to put himself in dangerous situations to try to be a hero. He’s not very good at it, but it’s not a broad comedy. It’s very grounded. The other thing is like, you know, he has a group of friends from his hometown, and they’re kind of losers too, but because they all work jobs in different things, they all hook each other up. Like, one guy works at the supermarket and gives everybody free food. The other guys that works at the gas station, you get free gas. When he had nothing, he couldn’t contribute to the group. So now suddenly he’s back in the group and stuff. But they think he’s losing his mind. And in a way he kind of is. And eventually he realizes vigilantism is not the way. And he kind of gets a sh. Together and, goes back to school and stuff. But it’s a weird, dark little comedy, I guess, you know, comedy, drama.

Steve Cuden: It’s very dark compared to Just Friends.

Adam Tex Davis: Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Steve Cuden: I mean, Just Friends is lightened and, Gardner of Eden is not.

Adam Tex Davis: Right? Exactly. I will say this. I saw A Fight Club and then I was like, ok, is that what inspired this? Yeah, it inspired me to write it. As opposed to like, it didn’t inspire the story or anything. It just was like, okay, that was a dark, crazy, cool movie. I want to do something like that. I will say this. Gardner Veen is one of the, maybe the only movie that I didn’t really do an outline of. I just started writing it and I was like, let’s just see where this goes.

Steve Cuden: Really? No outline at all?

Adam Tex Davis: No, no. And I was surprising myself and coming up with things as I would go. And I think I wrote it in like two weeks. It was a weird, never been replicated thing. You know, I worked in the bagel store. So the movie opens with him working in a bagel store and this crazy stories and some woman gets hit by a car and this guy steals a piece of her brain. Like it is nuts. There’s nuts of shit. But that’s some of that actually happened. And so I was Just bringing stuff from my life and enhancing it and then just building, building, building. And then like, oh, that’s a cool twist. Oh, yeah, what if this happens? What if that. And I just started playing what if, what if? And suddenly I’m like, yeah, finish the movie.

Steve Cuden: And how long did that take to sell? Then?

Adam Tex Davis: u. You know what? Not that long. Because, I mean, there was an initial. It went out to some producers and the studios and didn’t get much of a response. I got a response as like, wow, that is cool. That is good, soulful writing. We like that. But nobody was making it. And then my agent had the epiphany to send it to actors. And one of the first ones on the list was Leo. And to my surprise, it’s like, oh, I get a call from my agent. He’s like, Leonard DiCaprio’s manager. Just read the script, she loves it. She’s giving it to Leo. And then I’m getting a call like, okay, he’s gonna read it tomorrow. Then I get a call the next day. He started reading it. Then I get a call. He’s 10 pages in and he’s smiling, he’s still reading. He’s 25 pages. I’m getting literally live streaming reading of the script. And meanwhile, the ending has got this cool twist ending and stuff. And I’m like, if he can get to, you know, near the ending, I think. I think I’ve got him. Because, you know, and they’re like, okay, he read it, he finished it, he wants to meet with you and crap. Okay, great. And, a funny story was, I get a call like, okay, he’s at this hotel in midtown Manhattan to summer day. Be at this place at like 2:00 or whatever. I’m a big guy. I wear shorts in the summer. I show up at this hotel and I can see like, it’s basically empty, this cocktail lounge or whatever. He’s sitting there with his back to the door. He’s got, There’s an older guy that I learned is. His dad is with him and his manager is there. And then I go to walk into this cocktail thing and they’re like, sorry, sir, no shorts allowed. And I was like, what? And they’re like, sorry, you can’t come in. And I’m like, listen, asshole, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood is sitting there with my script in his hand. And this is my career. Please do not let, like one foot of fabric stand in the way of my career. And they’re like, all Right, Fine. Run. So I run over to the table, and I have to, like, stick my legs under the, you know, like, what an uncouth moron I was. But, yeah. And then it turned out, yeah, we had a great meeting. And, yeah, his dad loved this. His dad’s, like, quoting parts of the script by page number. Oh, that’seenene on page 45. Money. I don’t know what’s on 45. What is 45? He’s like, oh, that line. But he’s quoting the lines. I’m like, good for you, man. Yeah, and it. It was great. And it did get made pretty quickly. You know, we did have, you know, stops and starts. It was budgeted for much more than they wound up getting, so I had to rewrite the script. That was a painful rewrite. Was, taking money out of the script. Like, literally rewriting a script for no reason other than this costs a lot of money. Let’s. Let’s lose that. Let’s change that, you know, so.

Steve Cuden: Well, it was for practical reasons, absolutely.

Adam Tex Davis: But it’s still a weird. It’s a weird thing.

Steve Cuden: All right, so you’ve sold a bunch of stuff. In a moment, I want to talk to you about podcasting and your. And other elements of your career, but I’m curious what it is you think for up and coming writers, what they need to do to make a sale. What is it that you think about when you’re writing a script or when you’re getting ready to sell it? What do you put into it that you think makes the difference?

Adam Tex Davis: Well, look, some people try to ride the trends. Other people try to be very different. The same. But different is always that phrase you hear, right?

Steve Cuden: That’s the phrase. Yes.

Adam Tex Davis: You know, and it’s like, how do you tell a story that’s kind of a familiar story, but in a very different way? Now, I don’t necessarily think that way. I try to. Again, you know, the best writing I’ve. The things that have been the most successful for me have always come from something in my life. And what I’m good at that maybe better than other people that do it, is, like, I’m really good at recognizing that there’ there’s gold in them hills. Like, so many people don’t realize. Like, my friend, and he grew up with three brothers, and they’re beating the shit out of each other all the time and all these crazy stories. I’m like, but he’s writing a movie about the Mafia, or he’s writing a movie about the President or cops. And I’m like, don’t write about you and your fucking crazy brothers. That is real. And come up with a storyline that involves this group. Like, send them somewhere, have them do something. But that’s your core, and it’s stuff, you know, and so many people don’t do that. So I think people want to tell stories that feel real for the most part. And look, even if it’s a fantasy world, it’s still usually a real story within it. And so I think, yeah, I think recognizing what’s interesting about your life or your experiences or something you’ve heard, whether it’s friends or family, like, there’s always cool stuff going on, you know, Look, I heard a story from my mom about my great grandmother. She was like a swindler. She was a, grifter. And one time she fell down the stairs at her house and she broke her hip and her elbow and stuff. And instead of going to the hospital, she dragged herself to her car. She drove to the supermarket. She spilled some sauce and stuff on the floor and laid it it and said she slipped and fell. And she won a huge settlement.

Steve Cuden: Oh, my.

Adam Tex Davis: And that’s the opening scene of one of my movies because now this guy has bad luck. And it’s like I have bad karma from people doing bad things in my. You know, my relatives have done bad things all throughout, and now I’m the recipient of the bad karma. So I took a story that my mom told one time at a Thanksgiving and turned it into an opening scene.

Steve Cuden: That’s amazing.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, you got to mine the gold. There’s plenty of gold in everybody’s life.

Steve Cuden: That’s true. And if you can, then you have a really great chance of success. I spent a whole career in Hollywood writing cartoons for kids, and it’s very hard to mine your own personal life for Iron Man.

Adam Tex Davis: Right.

Steve Cuden: Or for Batman. You know, you can put bits and pieces in, but the basic underlying story is not likely to be from your personal life.

Adam Tex Davis: Right. But that’s an existing character. So now you’re just trying to find stuff for that character who everybody loves and knows to do.

Steve Cuden: Absolutely.

Adam Tex Davis: And there’s got to be some kind of connection to some kind of human emotion or whatever, you know, and you.

Steve Cuden: Put stuff from your own life in, it’s inevitable. You can’t help yourself. But the difference is, is that what you have written are things that are sort of loosely or very much based on your actual, you know, stories from your life.

Adam Tex Davis: Right.

Steve Cuden: That’s different. That’s a Whole other story. So let’s talk for a moment about Brain Games and Brainchild. You’ve got two shows with brain in them.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah.

Steve Cuden: Tell the listeners what Brain Games is and then tell us what Brainchild is and how they’re different and yet in a way they’re kind of connected.

Adam Tex Davis: Right. Before I jump into that, I did want to say one thing. So like even with just friends, right. Like I was in the friend zone for two years with the girl.

Steve Cuden: Right.

Adam Tex Davis: Obviously this whole other storyline of a guy who starts out heavy and it becomes thin and all that, like that’s all Hollywood stuff, right?

Steve Cuden: Sure.

Adam Tex Davis: But the core, and that was part of the reason why it took so long is finding the Hollywood story that you’re going to wrap around this core of that story.

Steve Cuden: Absolutely.

Adam Tex Davis: So I just wanted to say that before I forgot. Okay. Brain Games. So the funny thing about Brain Games was the writers strike of 2008 was sort of a, ah, tricky point. I had three projects going into the strike, coming out of the strike, all were dead for different reasons. A studio didn’t last, an executive didn’t last, blah, blah, blah. So now I was like, kind of just like, okay, what do I do? And I teamed up with a friend of mine from school, from nyu, who was working more as a showrunner and he was working on a silly reality show and they needed some help or whatever. So he hired me and we had a great time working together. And then he was telling me about like he worked at Natio and they did these three one hour specials called Brain Games. And it was basically showing how your brain can deceive you, why optical illusions work, why magic works, why the dress looks one color and then it also looks another color, although it was pre that. But you know, just different weird things about the way your eyes taken information, your ears, you know, why witnesses are fallible. It was cool stuff that they had done these three one hour specials but the channel knew that they had something good. But they couldn’t figure out how to do a show. They wanted to make a show about it, like a half hour show. So I was hired basically to come and try to figure out how do you turn this into a half hour show. My partner Jerry Colber, who, I run Atomic Entertainment with, the way we describe it is he’s brain and I’m games. So it’s like he’ll come up with like, hey, there’s a thing called this bias or there’s the, you know, whatever, the illusion of choice or the this or that, you know, and I’ll say, okay, so what’s a fun Hollywoody or visual or fun way to exemplify that particular thing? So that became my skill set of figuring out how to make entertaining television out of neuroscience basically. And one of the very first ones was I watched this test on your peripheral vision and there was an X in the middle of the screen and you stare at the X and then on the sides of the screen they would flash numbers or letters. And if you stared at that X, you couldn’t tell what those numbers or letters were. It was impossible to see through your peripheral vision. It’s not meant for that, just meant to show you that there is something there. So I said, well, what if I had like a guy standing with an ex? And then I brought in men and women dressed as cheerleaders. Would you be able to tell the really attractive cheerleaders that should be on your squad from the guys with beards and like, you know, crazy looking dudes? And I called up a guy at the Yale perception lab, a guy named Brian Scholl, and I pitched him this thing and I said, would that work? He goes, not only would it work, but can I run that experiment? So that became like one of our first experiments in an episode on focus and how your peripheral vision will let you down if you rely on it as your main vision. It’s not meant for that. It’s meant to detect whether a tiger is coming at you or a car is coming at you. Not to see details or anything. So Brain Games was. Yeah, it was all about how your brain works or will let you down. And each episode was based on anger, money, you know, all the different ways you perceive these different things. Sometimes it was like shapes or color and we found all these cool things and yeah, it did really well for us. The show, was Emmy nominated. We did 50 something episodes. We did multiple seasons. And yeah, you know, the channel was always like o, you guys are gonna run out of ideas. And we just never did because we, we were good at slicing the pie really thin and keeping it all these different things.

Steve Cuden: So this was Keegan Michael Key was the host, right?

Adam Tex Davis: No, no. So this was before him.

Steve Cuden: Before Keegan Michael Key, yes.

Adam Tex Davis: So we did a show ye. Our host was a guy named Jason Silva and we did yeah, we did five seasons I think, or six seasons depending on how it shakes out. Then they did one more season without us. That was like an they made it from go from a half hour to an hour. We Argued that that’s too long to devote that much time and thinking. And we were right. I think because their ratings weren’t so good. Then they decided to reformat the whole thing. Let’s make it a game show. And they brought in Michael Keegan key and they brought in all these celebrities and stuff. And people were like, this isn’t brain games. This is a different weird thing because a big part of that show is interactive, like playing the game with the viewer. And Michael Keegan Key version, you were just watching people play brain games. So it’s not as fun to watch someone play as to play yourself to participate, huh? Yeah.

Steve Cuden: So is the thinking on a show like that. I would imagine it’s extremely different than trying to construct a story to make a movie out of.

Adam Tex Davis: Yes. But I used to say like, you know, they would be like, okay, we need a script and it, we don’t have a lot of time. And I’m like, dude, I write movies, man. Like, this is easy. This is not that hard. The 22 minute, you know, cable, half, hour, like, whatever. I need four games and I’ll spread them out. I need some connective tissue between them. I’ve got my expert interview. I’ve got my host stand ups and wraps and stuff. Easy, whatever. It’s just fil in, you know, with Mad Libs.

Steve Cuden: Did you wind up having to do a lot of research yourself?

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, I read all kinds of books. I mean there was a what’s his name? Daniel Kahneman’s, Thinking Fast and Slow was like our bible. I said every five pages is a new game, is a new thing to do. We did everything from that book. We got other books and then we talked to experts and it’s like, what do you got? And we talk to magicians. It’s like, what do you got? Like, why does that trick work? Why does this thing work? How does your attention work? Why are you able to feel the thing right out from, on? You know, we had a pickpocket. Paula Robbins is like the premiere pickpocket in the world. But he’s also, you know, great magician. And yeah, he would steal your sunglasses right off your face and then put him on and now he’s talking to you. He wasn’t wearing sunglasses a second ago. Now he’s not only wearing them, but he’s wearing yours. And you don’t even realize that A, he stole yours and that B, you’re not wearing them, like, because your brain isn’t wired to realize that kind of stuff.

Steve Cuden: Which tells you much about eyewitness testimony.

Adam Tex Davis: Oh, yeah, we did, several games on the, the fallibility of witnesses.

Steve Cuden: So then what is Brainchild?

Adam Tex Davis: So what happened was we finish up Brain Games and with most shows, right, like, the ending is never like, okay, shake hands, everybody’s friends. And like, it’s more like, oh, they’re going in, in this direction. A new president came in and he wasn’t. He thought that we were like walking around like, we’re too, too big for our britches and something. It’s like, we should bring in some new blood. And we’re like, fine, fuck you. Bring in some new blood, blah, blah, blah. And you know, it’s like, you know what, let’s just end it here. But the big thing was this. We knew that a ton of kids were watching Brain Games. And not only that, it influenced the way we made the show. Like I was writing an episode called Sex on the Brain. But then when I realized my 8 year old daughter was enjoying watching the sequences that I would show her and stuff, I was like, man, I’m not going to do Sex on the Brain. I’m going to do about attraction and why we’re attracted. And you do an experiment. Everybody picks the same five things. So it’s like, let’s keep it like, you know, kid friendly, family friendly. That was the thing. Natio’s audience, the average age, I think was 67. The average age was 67 for their shows.

Steve Cuden: Really?

Adam Tex Davis: For Brain Games, it was in the mid-30s. So we knew a ton of kids were watching. So we were like, the first thing we thought was, let’s do, a Brain Games type of show for kids. Eight year olds are infinitely curious. Let’s make a show for them. And then our agent calls up and says, you’re not going to believe this, but Pharrell Williams just walked into our offices and said, hey, I watched this show called Brain Games with my son. I’d love to do a show like that for kids. So they were like, we know the Brain Games guys. So they brought us in and we met with Pharrell and he was like, I love your show. I love what you do. You tell me how I can be helpful.

Steve Cuden: That’s a good person to have be helpful.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, it was great. So we wound up, yeah, we sold a show to Netflix. We did the one season. The joke I make is Brainchild was so successful that they canceled it.

Steve Cuden: What does that mean? Right?

Adam Tex Davis: It means they didn’t have to make more because Brainchild sits on Netflix. Here we are, five years, six years later, it’s still in the top 15% of all their programming.

Steve Cuden: That’s crazy.

Adam Tex Davis: The same show that they bought back in 2018 is still paying dividends today. They don’t have to spend another nickel. They just. A new crop of 8 year olds every year finds Brainchild. Finds Brainchild.

Steve Cuden: Well, that’s the beauty part of the animation industry, right? if you’re making animation for kids, if you’re making stuff for toddlers up to 16 or 17 years old, that audience continues to roll over every three or four years and you get a brand new audience. So you can just reintroduce to them the same product and it’s all brand new to them.

Adam Tex Davis: Yep. We do that with, our who Smred podcast. It’s like, we know that the kids that started listening to this four years ago when we started, they’re all aged out and we got a whole new crop of 6, 7, 8 year olds.

Steve Cuden: So was there something in your past that led you to focusing on brain stuff? Was there something that you grew up with?

Adam Tex Davis: No, I hated science. it was my worst subject. My gift is, in this space is I can take something that’s kind of complicated and something that’s not that fun and find a way to make it fun or funny. What’s the joke? You know, how do I apply it to football? How do I apply it to something more fun?

Steve Cuden: And that’s just the way your brain works.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, yeah.

Steve Cuden: You’re wired that way.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, I, if I can’t make it fun for me, then I don’t want to know it, you know, so it’s like, that’s the thing. If I can make this fun, that I would enjoy it, I assume other people will enjoy it. So Brainchild was super fun to do because, doing stuff for kids. But we don’t talk down to the kids. But, you know, we get to do experiments and really just be innovative with the medium. Like, we did a great, an experiment on social media and we had these kids watch a video that we created of a really bad singer. And then we bring kids into a focus group to watch the video, the bad Singer, and we tell them to rate the singer. And we say, don’t worry, she’ll never see this, she’ll never hear this, or whatever. And then they’re really mean or whatever. Then we say, there’s a chance you might meet her. They suddenly changed their ratings to make it not so bad. Sure. I think I did it backwards. I think we Started with, you might meet her, and it wasn’t so bad. And then we say, oh, never mind. You know, she’s never gonna see it. And they went full mean. And then we bring her in and she’s reading her, you know, evaluations, and the kids are just horrible. But it’s like, that’s what happens on social media. You think you can say stuff because you think they’re not. You know, we’snna and parents would write to us all the time, and they would be like, your social media episode was so important. It was such a great lesson to teach the kids, like, don’t be a jerk on social media and stuff. And like I said, every year a new crop finds the show until it’s, like, dated or, you know, whatever. There’s no reason to make more. So our 13 episodes are still just plowing away.

Steve Cuden: It’s like people in cars, they think because you’re in a car, you’re not, like, you’re in line behind somebody at a store. You’re in a car. So you can just say whatever you want to say about them.

Adam Tex Davis: Well, you can honk your horn. Exactly. Nobody stands behind. Someone goes.

Steve Cuden: So let’s talk about podcasting briefly, because we’re running a little bit long, which is just fine. What got you into podcasting? Obviously, we’re doing a podcast right here, but tell us about slayation and who smarted and mysteries of true histories and your Oscar show. The Oscars. What were they thinking with, Bruce Vianche? What got you into doing that podcasting?

Adam Tex Davis: Mainly the pandemic.

Steve Cuden: Sure.

Adam Tex Davis: When we couldn’t shoot, we couldn’t pitch. We couldn’t. Yeah, we couldn’t make any tv. We couldn’t even pitch tv. We couldn’t do anything. So it’s like, the good thing about Brainchild was that we came up with an idea that, like, we created a curriculum that went along with the episodes. So there were 13 episodes. We had a 13 part curriculum. And we said to people, you can get the curriculum for free as long as you send us your email address. So we had like 10,000 to 12,000 email addresses of people who sign up for our Brainchild. Netflix shows curriculum. Okay, now pandemic hits. What do we do? Let’s get microphones. I can write, we can record. Let’s do a kids show that’s, like, you know, 10 to 12 minute long. And we’ll pick topics and we’ll just have fun with it and make it zany. And guess what? With a podcast, you can be in space. You can be under the ocean. Doesn’t matter. You just play a sound effect, and they think you’re there. And let’s do something super fun and super cool, but also educational. And we’ll blast it out to the 10,000 people who had signed up for the curriculum and said, brainchild’s not coming back. But there’s this new thing, podcast called who Smarted? And it’s gonna teach your kids, and they’re gon. They’re gonna enjoy it. It’s great for car rides, bedtime, all the. You know, and it blew up. Who smart? It blew up. And, just every month, more and more and more people finding it saying on Facebook, you got to check this out. You got to check this out. So, okay, great. And then, yeah. Mysteries about True Histories, as our other kids podcast. Mysteries about True Histories. You take the first letter, it spells out math. So it’s a. It’s a hidden math in every episode. So, like, who smart it is more science and history. Math is more like meth, obviously, and some geography and some history. And so we have those two. But we also wanted to do an adult podcast because, let’s be honest, advertising on kids shows is limiting because it’s got toa be family friendly. So how do we get anybody to want to advertise? I know true crime, and I had this idea. Murders and mysterious deaths and disappearances that happen while you’re on vacation. And I called it slation. And so my wife is a huge true crime nut, and she’s got an amazingly great voice. I was like, you’re gonna be the star and Jerry, my partner. The two of you will tell the story, and I will know nothing about it, so I can ask questions and make jokes and be a proxy for the listener, and it’ll be a fun format for the three of us to do a show together.

Steve Cuden: So you’re saying they. You didn’t write it? It was something that just came as you were re live doing it or.

Adam Tex Davis: No, no, no. I mean, basically, I had the idea of murders and mysterious deaths on vacation, and then I said, let’s do a podcast. But my wife and Jerry, they researched the case, and then we go into, yeah, but we do it. We record it live, basically. So they tell the case to me.

Steve Cuden: But you don’t know ahead of time?

Adam Tex Davis: I have no idea.

Steve Cuden: So you’re just actually reacting to what they’re saying to you?

Adam Tex Davis: Yes, yes. Reacting. Making jokes. I mean, so many times I’m listening back to it, and I’m like, oh, I Should have said this. I should have said that. Yeah.

Steve Cuden: Isn’t that true of a thousand conversations you’ve had in your life where you walk away and 20 minutes later, why didn’t I say that exactly?

Adam Tex Davis: Almost everyone. But I have to say, Tom, as a producer, I know the women mostly, but women that are listening to Slation are not here for comedy. They like that we keep it light and have a levity to it. But it’s not a comedy show. It’s not meant to be doing stand up. So a little goes a long way. And it’s different than the other shows that are very serious and stuff. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. These cases are crazy. People think that they can kill their spouse on vacation and make it look like an accident and get away with it. There are morons and, yeah, twists and turns galore. And yeah, crazy cases that, you know, have just scratch in your head and what the fuck is wrong with people? But, yeah, that’s super fun. And then obviously, I love movies and I had this idea about the Oscars and looking back at the Oscars of the past to see what they got right and wrong. But, you know, I can just, like, say, oh, I think this should have won, or that, you know, blah, blah, blah, we got to get somebody who’s got real Oscar cred. And Bruce Valanche.

Steve Cuden: You sure did. With Bruce Valance.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah. Bruce Valanche is a godsend. And he’s a, joke machine. His memory is impeccable. He knows all the movies. And so we call it the Oscars. What were they thinking? And for me, it’s like, who were they thinking? How could they do this? And he is like, no, here’s what they were thinking, and he tells you why. You know, in the one year, the Apartment, Psycho and Spartacus came out, but only the Apartment was nominated for an Oscar. So Psycho and Spartacus left, not even nominated the year they came out. And he’s got a reason for it. I don’t agree with the reason, but he has, you know, but also, you know, what was going on at the time and what with the, you know, so, yeah, we have fun. We look at different years year by year, award by award, and try to see what they got right, wrong. Flubs, snubs, all that fun. And it’it’s. Great.

Steve Cuden: Well, I mean, he’s, you know, 20, what, five plus years he’s been either a writer or around the show in some capacity. And he’s obviously a, A great resource because he’s Right there in the thick of it.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, well, that’s the thing too. Yeah, There’s a lot of cool behind the scenes stories from the night of the actual, awards for the, you know, the 25 plus years that he worked on it. But then, you know, he’s, yeah, he’s seen all the movies. He knows. You know, I mean, I try to see as much as I can, but there’s no way you can catch up on everything.

Steve Cuden: I can only imagine what kind of chaos there is backstage during those shows.

Adam Tex Davis: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, he told a great story about like, Ktherine Bigelow was up against James Cameron for the, you know, the Hurt Locker versus Avatar. And he was like, he was walking past her or something and it was commercial and stuff. And she turns and she goes, bruce, could you hold my purse just in case I win? And he’s like, okay. You know, he’s like, you think that might be bad luck though? Like you’re jinxing yourself. And she’s like, I don’t know. Now I don’t believe in that. And so he’s like, okay. And he went backstage and sure enough, she won. And then she’s like, I’ll take my purse. You know, it’s just like, yeah, some really fun, behind the scenes stories of the making of the show, the hosts, the turmoil. Yeah, he’s great for stories.

Steve Cuden: Well, this has just been an absolutely wonderful hour plus so far with Adam Tex Davis talking about Hollywood, all things storytelling and just really fascinating, fun stuff to hear. We’re going toa wind the show down a little bit right now. And, I’m just wondering, you’ve told us these fantastic stories already, but I’m wondering if you have a story or two that you can share with us that’s from your career that’s either weird, quirky, offbeat, strange, or maybe just plain funny.

Adam Tex Davis: Well, okay, I have a story that I love because it’s both funny and goofy, but also taught me about writing in a way that nothing else had up until then and even since. So it’s the first movie, it was the MTV movie that I had gotten hired to write and basically I had written a spring break movie about a kid on spring break with his parents. MTV brings me into a meeting and they say, hey, we’ve got a guy, he’s a lawyer and he goes on spring break. He’s like in his 40s or whatever, he goes on spring break. And when kids get in trouble, he gets them out of trouble. So we want to do A movie called Spring Break Lawyer. And I was like, oh, okay. I go, well, you guys are mtv, right? So it’s like you don’t want to watch a 40 something year old lawyer. Like what I would do is I would have like a law student who’s kind of a fuck up, but like, you know, he’s just barely getting by. He’s doing a lot of cheating and stuff, but he gets caught, he gets kicked out of school, but he’s already bought his spring break ticket, so screw it, he goes down there, he’s drinking, he’s getting in trouble and something happens and he gets rounded up and suddenly he’s before a judge. But he uses the little bit of legalese that he learned in law school. And he gets out of trouble and the other kid says, oh my God, can you help me? And he gives him some kind of thing to say and it works. And that kid gets out of trouble and now everybody’s coming to him and he starts a cottage business out of a bar. He’s the spring break lawyer. And she goes, okay, so you’re hired, you can write that. And so I write Spring Break Lawyer. And of course, like, it’s the first thing that gets, that gets made. In fact, the first day of the shoot, I think an extra had asked like, where’s extra is holding or whatever. And I was like, oh, I think it’s over there. He’s like, what are you doing on the shoot? And I’m like, oh, I’m the writer. He’s like, the writer. Oh my God. Like, congratulations. I was like, yeah. I mean, you know, I’ve written all these scripts I think are really good, but the one that got made is Spring Break A Lawyer. As I’m saying that, he starts to laugh and I’m like, yeah, you know, all of a sudden hands reach out and grab me and yank me between two park cars. And it’s the director. And he overheard me say that and he goes, how old are you? And I was like, 28. He goes, Listen asshole, I’ve got friends who’ve been in the business for 28 years who haven’t gotten anything made. So friggin appreciate it. And I was like, you are so right. I am so sorry. I gave him a big hug and he walked off. And then I went up to the extra. I was like, anyway, fucking Spring break lawyer, whatever. But I totally, I knew what he was saying and I appreciated that. But the thing I wanted to say that taught me was the director comes to me and goes, hey, I’ve got a cameo idea for you. There’s a scene where the spring break lawyer is starting to get popular, and he gets hired by a kid, who’s in big trouble. And he shows up at the hotel where the kid is staying. And he’s so popular at this point that other, like, frat boys and people recognize him or like, dude, spring ra lawyer, you’re awesome. He goes, how would you like to play one of those frat boys? And I was like, sure. He. Because, in fact, you could be the lead one that runs up to him and says, you’re the spring break lawyer. Awesome. And I was like, oh, cool. So the day is, shoot. I go into the trailer, they make me up. They put the, you know, the wardrobe on me and everything. And then I’m sitting there going, wait, my line is, you’re the spring break lawyer. Awesome. I’m like, that. Ah, sucks. Who wrote this shit? Oh, yeah, it was me. So then I’m like, okay. So then they’re like, okay, let’s do a rehearsal. I run up to him, I go, hey, you’re the spring break lawyer, right? And he goes, yeah. I go, awesome. Sign my ass. And I pretend to pull my pants down. And I bend over in front of him, and everybody just starts laughing. And they’re like, what was that? And I go, that was a rewrite. They go, dude, that’s hilarious. That’s great. Are you gonna do that? I go, yeah. You guys think it’s funny? Yeah. I go, okay. And then the first take, I run up and I do sign my ass, and I pull my pants down, like, to my underwear. And then I take a Sharpie that I had and I go make it to Lowis. And everybody again starts dying laughing. And that scene taught me more about writinguse. It’s like, man, it took being in the movie to realize, like, this sucks. What I wrote, it was throwaway crap. Like, how do you enhance it? How do you make it better? No. Did I just write Hamlet? No, I wrote, sign my ass. But it’s funnier than what was there. What was there wasn’t funny. It was stupid and nothing. So I’m like. I write now, pretend like I’m gonna play this part. Is this something I’d be happy to do? Is this something that would be stand out in any way? So I apply that filter to a lot of things when I’m writing it. Like, you know, you write the base scene, and it’s whatever. But then you go back and like, how do I embellish this? How do I make ring comedy or ring drama or ring fear or whatever, you know, whatever genre you’re writing in, how do you get the most out of what you’re doing?

Steve Cuden: You know, it’s the spice that you added to it. It’s that you’ve taken what was there and elevated it by the detail in it.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, that’s taught me more about writing. I like, you know, the sign my ass rule.

Steve Cuden: The sign my ass rule that’s now going to be legend. The sign my ass rule. All right, so last question for you today.Yeah. You’ve given us tons and tons of advice throughout this whole show, including the story you just told us, which is great advice. But do you have a single solid piece of advice that you like to give to those who are starting out in the business, or maybe they’re in a little bit trying to get to that next level?

Adam Tex Davis: The key, I think, is, especially these days, is versatility. That is the key. Wor. I have been able to sustain a career by a being versatile and being able to pivot and not being afraid to put something down to do something else. Like, you know, I’ve done screenplays, I’ve done tv, I’ve done reality tv, I’ve done Unscripted, which, has a lot of scripting. I’ve written articles, I’ve written, you know, now it’s podcasting. And I’ve written for adults. I’ve written for kids. And just being able to embrace and just say, like, look, the through line to all this is, I’m writing. I’m getting to write and be creative and just don’t worry, like, oh, I used to write screenplays. Now I’m writing, a kid’s podcast no, who cares? You’re writing, you’re writing for a living. And, you know, just being able to pivot to different things, but also training yourself to be as versatile as possible will make you invaluable. I mean, on any given day, I might write a promo for shows. I might have to write ad copy. I might have to write, a podcast for adults. I might have to write jokes to put in. You know, I’m writing an intro for me and Bruce Valanche, so I have to, you know, there’s all kinds of. Every day I write about 10 different things, and they’re all vastly different sometimes. And just being able to know, like, look, good writing is good writing. And if, you know, you learn the craft, be as versatile as you can. Don’t be afraid to pivot.

Steve Cuden: I think that is about as solid and outstanding a piece of advice as you could possibly get, because the business is not set up at all for someone who is just literally stuck in one gear. It can be, but it’s better if you have that versatility you’re talking about, that you can run this way or that, because frequently they’re not looking for what you do, what you think you do, they’re looking for something else.

Adam Tex Davis: Yeah, you don’t want them to not hire you because they only consider you for one thing.

Steve Cuden: You know, we’re going back to the pigeonholed idea. In some ways, good to be pigeonholed, but in other ways it’s very constricting. So I think that that’s extremely wise. Wonderful advice, Adam Text Davis. This has been so much fun for me to listen to your and to talk to you today and I can’t thank you enough for your time, your energy, and certainly for your wisdom.

Adam Tex Davis: My pleasure, my pleasure. Great talking to you.

Steve Cuden: And so we’ve come to the end of today’s StoryBeat. If you like this episode, wont you please take a moment to give us a comment, rating or review on whatever app or platform you’re listening to? Your support helps us bring more great StoryBeat episodes to you. StoryBeat is available on all major podcast apps and platforms, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Tune in, and m many others. Until next time, I’m Steve Cuden and may all your stories be unforgettable.