Origins Vol. II

Summary

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Episode: Origins Vol. II

Date: May 14, 2026
Host: John Allen (MrBallen)
Podcast Theme: Showcasing ordinary people who make a single pivotal decision that changes not just their lives, but millions of others across the world. Four true stories—each highlighting fate, perseverance, and unlikely twists.

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Episode Overview

This Origins special brings together four real-life stories of people whose life-changing decisions had ripple effects felt worldwide. MrBallen masterfully delivers each tale in his signature storytelling style—part mystery, part inspiration, and wholly compelling. The stories are:

1. The Debt Game — A Korean writer’s unlikely creation becomes a global phenomenon.
2. Hospital Rhythms — A sickly boy finds hope (and legendary success) through music.
3. Storming the Castle — A young musician’s brazen gamble nearly lands her in jail, but her destiny is bigger than a demo CD.
4. Imposter Syndrome — A struggling actor’s darkest moment leads to one of television’s most iconic performances.

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Story 1: The Debt Game

[02:31–08:59]

Key Points:

• Setting: 2009, Seoul, South Korea. A 38-year-old man, down on his luck, seeks solace in manga at a manga café.
• He faces extreme poverty—living with his mother and grandmother, scraping by, and drowning in debt. He sells his laptop for rent and takes high-interest loans to survive.
• His escapism: a violent, controversial manga series—Battle Royale—which provides both distraction and inspiration.
• Epiphany: To write a script combining the cruelty of debt and the savage competition portrayed in his favorite manga.
  • "Wait a minute, what if I write a story that's inspired by my favorite piece of writing, this manga series?" (04:54)
• He spends hours sketching a new fictional world marrying his poverty-stricken reality to deadly competition.
• Over a decade, his story faces relentless rejection ("It's simply too weird and way too violent.") but he never gives up.
• Turning Point: After 10 years, a major producer finally buys his script. The result:
  • 2021: The show premieres. Squid Game becomes a global sensation and grosses nearly $900 million.
  • The creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, wins an Emmy and gains long-awaited security and respect.

Memorable Quote:

• "Poor people who were willing to fight to the death for money." (08:33)

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Story 2: Hospital Rhythms

[10:51–16:38]

Key Points:

• Setting: England, 1954. 14-year-old "Rich" shuffles into a children’s hospital classroom, battling tuberculosis—a year-plus sentence and prior near-death illnesses.
• He's far behind in school, family cannot afford tutors, and hospital classes are sporadic and uninspiring—except for one day.
• The hospital brings in a music teacher surrounded by instruments.
  • "Rich demanded that he get the drum set. He would not play anything else." (13:08)
• Discovering a passion for rhythm, Rich spends the next 18 months practicing with makeshift drumsticks (knitting needles) on anything he can find.
• Finally healthy at 16, his family cannot afford to send him back to school—he works in a factory, but keeps drumming in his spare time.
• Christmas 1956: His stepfather secretly works extra shifts to buy Rich his first real drum kit.
  • "Rich is like, this is the best gift I've ever been given." (15:46)
• He hones his craft, joins local bands, and soon gets recruited by a popular local act.
• Stage name: Ringo Starr. The band? The Beatles.
• The “ordinary boy” becomes a legendary drummer, all because of a hospital music class.

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Story 3: Storming the Castle

[16:38–23:14]

Key Points:

• Setting: Hollywood Hills, early 2000s. A young singer, Rose (her middle name), is desperate to break into music.
• Her wild plan: sneak into the mansion of one of music’s biggest stars (Prince) and hand-deliver her demo CD.
• She bribes the gardener with her last $5 to get through the gate, makes it to the front door (unlocked), and explores the vast, empty mansion.
• As she rides the elevator to an upper floor, she calls her mom in panic, convinced she’s about to be arrested.
• The elevator opens to reveal Prince himself, playing guitar.
  • "There’s this moment of just stunned silence, like neither of them can really figure out how this even came to be." (20:39)
• She drops her demo on a table, then quickly leaves—caught by security, but not arrested.
• Twist: Despite the bold move, Prince never helps her; she realizes her fate is her own to make.
• The woman is Kesha (stage spelling: Ke$ha)—later multi-platinum superstar with over 100 million records sold.

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Story 4: Imposter Syndrome

[24:17–34:17]

Key Points:

• Setting: Connecticut, 2008. Carlo, a 50-year-old actor, is buried in bankruptcy paperwork and feelings of fraud—successful on paper, but barely surviving, overwhelmed by family obligations.
• Carlo struggles with thoughts of suicide for an insurance payout, only to learn insurance companies make this nearly impossible.
• He considers absurd alternatives (dangerous hobbies, hiring a hitman) but always finds logical holes.
  • "He had this very dark thought...maybe if I were to die, there could be a large insurance payout to my family..." (25:10)
• In a last-ditch effort to support his family, he takes every acting gig he can.
• Life-Changing Role: His agent lands him a script for a minor character on a major TV show—someone "who hides in plain sight."
  • Carlo relates to this character personally—his secret struggles mirror the character’s dual life.
• His nuanced portrayal impresses the show’s creators; the character’s role is expanded and becomes iconic.
  • "Carlo does such a world class job portraying this character who hides in plain sight that the director and all these people ... they're like, oh my goodness, Carlo is incredible." (30:47)
• The role saves his career and family, leading to fame, Emmy nominations, and financial security.
• The actor is Giancarlo Esposito. The show? Breaking Bad. The character? Gus Fring.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Everyone’s going to want this thing. This is like an iconic, unique piece of IP.” (07:09, on Hwang Dong-hyuk’s faith in his story)
• “By this point, Rich had become known by his stage name, Ringo Starr. And that band that recruited him was the Beatles.” (16:18)
• “She just quickly runs, walks a little bit forward into the room and throws her demo CD onto this table ... and after Rose did that, she didn’t say anything. She just turned, headed back to the elevator and began to make her escape.” (21:02)
• “He felt like a total fraud. He had no money and he felt like he didn’t even know how he was gonna dig himself out again.” (24:42, on Giancarlo Esposito’s internal struggle)

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Key Timestamps

• [02:31] — Start of "The Debt Game"
• [08:59] — Reveal: Hwang Dong-hyuk & Squid Game
• [10:51] — Start of "Hospital Rhythms"
• [16:18] — Reveal: Ringo Starr & The Beatles
• [16:38] — Start of "Storming the Castle"
• [21:43] — Reveal: Rose is Ke$ha
• [24:17] — Start of "Imposter Syndrome"
• [33:19] — Reveal: Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring

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Episode Tone and Experience

MrBallen’s delivery is suspenseful and empathetic, blending curiosity with warmth and wonder at the unlikely ways lives are transformed. Each segment builds tension until a dramatic reveal, often leaving the listener in awe at the tenacity of the human spirit.

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Why Listen?

This episode is a masterclass in perseverance, illustrating how even the most desperate moments—debt, illness, obscurity, or failure—can become crucibles that forge history-making creativity, unique opportunity, or legendary careers. MrBallen’s dramatic style means you don’t just hear the facts—you feel the stakes and connect with the individuals behind these global phenomena.

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Transcript

[Mr. Ballin]

Today's podcast will feature four stories that are all about ordinary people who at some point make a critical single decision that not only changes their lives, but also impacts the lives of millions and millions of other people all around the world. The audio from all four of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called the Debt Game, and it's about a man in South Korea who becomes inspired by his favorite manga. The second story you'll hear is called Hospital Rhythms, and it's about a young boy in a hospital who finds solace in music. The third story you'll hear is called Storming the Castle, and it's about a young singer who takes a huge leap of faith. And the fourth and final story you'll hear is called Imposter Syndrome, and it's about an actor who hits rock bottom. But then the unthinkable happens. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do. And we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays. So if that's of interest to you on the next really hot summer day, offer to make the follow button a nice fresh cup of lemonade. But don't tell them you used salt instead of sugar. Okay, let's get into our first story called the Debt Game.

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[Mr. Ballin]

One afternoon in 2009, a 38 year old man was sitting inside of a manga cafe in Seoul South Korea. So a manga cafe is a lot like a normal cafe. You can go inside and buy snacks or drinks and socialize, do whatever. But also in manga cafes like this one, they have these big in store libraries that contain manga. And manga are like comic books. Now, this man did not have a lot of money. And so when he went inside of this cafe, he didn't buy any drinks or food. He just went up to the in store library, grabbed an edition of his favorite manga series, and just sat down and began to read. Now, this man had read this particular series multiple times. He just kept coming back to it because he thought it was like the best manga you could possibly read. Now, a lot of people actually didn't know what to make of this particular series. It was actually kind of controversial because it was so over the top violent like, like well beyond any other series. But to this man, that sort of made it stand out, it made it sort of special, and he loved it. In fact, it was so crazy, this series that every time he read it, it allowed him to sort of leave his life for a second and just totally escape into this wild, violent story. And right now in this man's life, he really needed that escape because his real life was pretty terrible. He had spent practically his whole life studying and working to try to become a professional writer and director. But in Seoul, the entertainment industry was pretty unpredictable. And so this man had successfully landed a couple of jobs here and there, doing some writing and, you know, doing some directing. But they were small gigs and they typically fizzled out at some point. And so over and over again, like right now in this man's life, he found himself back in the same position he always was in, which was unemployed at the moment. This man lived with his mother and his grandmother. But even though all three of them were pooling their resources, they still struggled to just pay for rent. In fact, recently the man had to sell his laptop, the thing he used for all of his writing. It was like how he was gonna eventually crack a career in entertainment for real. He had to sell that just so that they wouldn't get evicted. And if that wasn't bad enough, the man had also begun taking out all these short term loans with high interest rates just to pay for basic needs. Forget rent, like just food and basic necessities he was taking out loans for, but he had no way to pay them back. And so the debt was just piling up nonstop. And so for this man, the stress was like unbearable. And the only way he could find to even begin to cope with it was to escape into his manga books. And even though he knew that didn't solve his problems, he didn't care. It was like, life is so bad, at least briefly, I can read manga and escape. And so that's what he was doing today. And so he took his favorite manga booth, he sat back inside of the booth and just allowed himself to get sucked into the story for the 20th time. You know, he's read this thing multiple times. And so as he was reading this manga book, he suddenly has this epiphany. Now, this man all the time came up with various story ideas that maybe he could write and would be the next big thing for him. But for some reason, it was like, wait a minute, what if I write a story that's sort of, you know, loosely based or at least inspired by my favorite piece of writing, this manga series? Like, wait a minute, I think I have a really good idea that sort of transcends any other idea I've ever had. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized there were other elements of his life that he could sort of attach to the story that's sort of beginning with this concept that came from this manga series. And so before long, he had put the manga book aside, got a pen and some paper, and just began writing down some ideas, general ideas for this new story he was going to try to write. And for hours and hours, he sat in the booth just writing like crazy. And by the time the cafe was closing, he had this amazing outline of a whole world, this whole story he was going to write. And he just knew this was the one. This was the thing that was gonna break him out of poverty and officially make him a successful writer. Several months later, this man had transformed that amazing outline into a fully realized project. And then he went out to try to sell it. And he's thinking, everybody's gonna want this thing. This is like an iconic, unique piece of ip. People are gonna be clamoring to buy this. But what he found very quickly is every buyer he went to hated it. They told him, this is simply too weird and way too violent. Like, this is well beyond what's reasonable. This is not something anybody's going to want. Like, you will not have an audience for this. And the man was sort of crushed because to him, it was so clear, this is an amazing idea. This story is so good. People that have experienced real poverty, who understand the lengths that people will go to to make money when they are desperate, they'll relate to this. Like, there's A huge audience for this. But the buyers, they didn't see it that way. And so for the next 10 years, this guy kept trying to sell this story. I mean, he really genuinely believed in it. And he figured, someone's gonna take a chance on this. They have to. It's too good. But for 10 years, everybody just kept saying, no, it's not good enough. No one wants this. But then, sort of out of left field, 10 years later, a major production studio actually said, you know what? This looks pretty good. We will buy it. This man's story was converted into a TV show, and it premiered in 2021, 12 years after the man originally conceptualized of the story inside of that manga cafe. And when this TV show aired, it was basically a global phenomenon. Overnight, it became the most talked about show anywhere in every corner of the Internet, pretty much immediately. It also made the production company that bought this story $900 million. And the man who actually wrote the story, he also got paid very well, and he won an Emmy. The manga series that this man read that sort of inspired all of this to happen was called Battle Royale. And in this series, these students are forced to fight to the death by a fascist government. And so what this man did is he combined that concept, you know, fighting to the death with something that he himself was dealing with in his own life, which was poverty. And he knew firsthand, you know, the lengths he was willing to go just to make a little bit of money to make ends meet. And he knew other people who were dealing with poverty were also sort of desperate, and they would go to great lengths just to make ends meet. And he said, okay, let's marry those two concepts. Poor people who were fighting to the death for money. The writer's name was Hwang Dong Hyuk, and the name of this TV series was Squid Game.

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[Mr. Ballin]

Oh, no.

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Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

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[Mr. Ballin]

Our next story is called Hospital Rhythms. In September of 1954, a 14 year old boy named Rich shuffled his way down the hallway of a children's hospital in England. He coughed and wheezed as he slowly walked down the hall next to other sick kids as they made their way towards the hospital's classroom. Now, Rich didn't know what kind of lesson he and the other kids were gonna get today, but frankly, he didn't care. Anything was better than just sitting in his hospital room, bored out of his mind. So Rich was in the hospital because he was suffering from tuberculosis, which is an infectious lung disease. And over the past 10 weeks, he'd been bouncing around to different hospitals. And in fact, his condition was still so bad that this hospital had informed his parents that Rich might need to stay in the hospital for another two years. And as awful as this sounded to Rich, this actually was not the first time something like this had happened to him. When he was six years old, his appendix burst and then he contracted an infection that left him in a coma for several weeks. And then when he came out of the coma, he had to recover in hospital for nearly a year. And all this time in hospitals had really impacted Rich's life. In particular, in terms of how far behind he had fallen in school. And because his family was not a well off family, they couldn't afford to hire a tutor to kind of keep Rich up to speed. And so basically, at this point, Rich's education consisted of, you know, whatever random classes these hospitals he was staying in sporadically had. You know, whenever they hired a teacher to come in and teach basket weaving or, you know, shop class, you know, whatever was available, that was his education. So that day, when Rich walked into the hospital classroom, he did not have high expectations about what he would be taught that day. He figured it was just going to be some random class that he would sit through. That at least was keeping him out of his hospital bedroom. But the instant he saw the teacher for the day and saw what was surrounding the teacher, he was really excited because all around the teacher were musical instruments. And Rich, as a kid, had always dreamed of playing the drum. He had seen one day in a windows shop a drum set, and he had wanted it so badly, but his family didn't have the money to pay for it, so he had never had a chance to do it. But now it seemed like Rich was finally gonna get his chance. And so when the teacher began handing out the instruments to the kids, Rich demanded that he get the drum set. He would not play anything else. And the teacher was like, okay. And so he was given the drum. And then that day, the teacher led the class, you know, through a couple of basic songs, and Rich played the drum. And he and everybody else were objectively terrible. Like, the music was awful, but. But by the end of the class, Rich was totally revitalized here. I mean, he hadn't discovered some special new talent for playing the drums, but he had discovered that he had this amazing passion for playing the drum. It was like all he wanted to do now. And he figured that because he was going to be stuck in the hospital for the foreseeable future, he would just spend all of his time on practicing playing the drum. So the following day, Rich went into a closet in the hospital, and he found these long sticks that were normally used for knitting, and they became his drumsticks. And for the next year and a half, Rich basically banged these makeshift drumsticks on anything he could to practice. And then also, every few weeks, when the music teacher came back to the hospital, Rich would go to those classes and he would try to learn as much as he possibly could from the teacher. And that was basically his whole life, was those classes and banging on everything he could. Finally, in 1955, when Rich was 16 years old, he was released from the hospital. He was finally cured from tuberculosis. However, despite having his health back, it isn't like his life suddenly got a whole lot easier. It isn't like, you know, he left the hospital and magically became this amazing drummer, and that was his life. Instead, his family was really struggling financially, and so Rich couldn't go back to school. He basically had to get a job in a factory and work full time just to help support his family. And for Rich, you know, he felt like that was the right thing to do. He didn't resent his family. You know, this is what his life was. And what he did is he found joy, you know, while he was working and grabbing makeshift drumsticks and just banging on stuff any chance he could. And he figured that that would be his life. He would just work and, you know, find joy in drumming whenever he could. But Rich's outlook on life changed dramatically on Christmas of 1956. So a year after he had left the hospital, because on that Christmas, Rich's stepfather had secretly saved up all this extra money by working all these extra shifts and doing whatever he could to finally buy Rich his own drum set. To this point, Rich had not been able to have his own drum set. Everything was makeshift. And so that Christmas, he gets this drum kit, and Rich is like, this is the best gift I've ever been given. And he began practicing even more. And pretty quickly, he began playing with local bands every time he had time off. And before long, he became known as, like, a guy in town who was, like, one of the best drummers. And then shortly after that, right as Rich is kind of hitting his stride, being this kind of local celebrity, this local, very popular band fired their drummer. And so it made perfect sense that they approached Rich and said, hey, will you join our band? And Rich said, let's do it. By this point, Rich had become known by his stage name, Ringo Starr. And that band that recruited him was the Beatles. Our next story is called Storming the Castle. One afternoon in the early 2000s, a young woman named Rose drove up to this huge mansion in the Hollywood Hills in California. She came to a stop outside the fence, and she just sat there for a minute, feeling very nervous, because what she was about to do was highly illegal. So Rose was a musician, but she definitely had not made it yet. However, she was dead, desperately trying to break into the industry. And so her big plan today was she was going to sneak in to this mansion, which was home to arguably one of the most famous People on the planet, a big time musician. And her plan was to give them a copy of her demo cd, because she believed if they would just listen to just one song on there, they would be blown away by her talent and they would help usher her into the industry and her career would take off. Now, obviously, she knew this could go horribly wrong. And, you know, the owner of this home could just as easily call the police and have her thrown in jail. But to her, it felt like the risk was worth it. And so Rose got out of her car, and she looked up this huge driveway that extended up this hill, and it reached this big gate that sort of blocked off the driveway about halfway up. And then the driveway beyond the gate continued up to the mansion. And from where she was standing, there really was nobody out on the property anywhere. It was totally quiet. Just this massive mansion up on a hill. But in front of the gate, on her side of the gate, was clearly the gardener. And, you know, at first she thought maybe, you know, the gardener was gonna be a problem, that of course they would see her if she tried to break into the property. But, you know, Rose was desperate, and she thought the gardener looked friendly enough. And so she decided she would go up and maybe try to convince the gardener to let her go through the gate. And so she took a deep breath, and with her demo CD in hand, Rose began walking up this first stretch of driveway. And as she got closer to the gate, the gardener stopped what they were doing and turned to kind of see what this person was doing. And, you know, Rose was very young and charismatic, and she seemed friendly enough. And she comes walking up the driveway, and she approaches the gardener and pulls out a $5bill and hands it to the gardener and just says, look, I got no money. Like, this is my last $5. Please, will you let me go through? I just wanna drop something off. And so the gardener takes the $5 and just smiles at Rose and says, okay, go ahead. I mean, after all, Rose is like a kid. She seems completely harmless. You know, what's the worst that could happen? And so Rose is kind of blown away that the gardener is actually letting this happen. But she doesn't wait. She just goes right past the gardener, slips through the front gate and starts walking right up towards the mansion. And as Rose is walking up this driveway towards the front door of this gargantuan piece of property, she's looking around at the beautiful landscaping and just how valuable and beautiful everything looked. And she's seeing all these cameras pointing in every direction. And she's just waiting for any, you know, security guards to come running out here and tackle her to the ground. But nothing happened. She walked right up to this huge, beautiful front door, and again, no one's come to meet her. And so she just knocks on the front door, but nobody comes to the door. So she's thinking, you know, what do I do? Like, I've come this far. I really want to hand this demo CD off. And so, almost like, without even thinking, she just reached down and tried the doorknob, thinking, of course it's going to be locked. But no, it was open. And so she turns the doorknob and pushes the door in. And now she's looking into the home of, again, one of the most famous people on the planet, and nobody's stopping her. At this point, Rose didn't even know what to make of the situation she found herself in. I mean, she had been fantasizing about how this was going to go for weeks leading up to this, and it didn't involve it being this easy and straightforward, but here she was. And so, again, without hesitation, she just walked inside this home. And as she's looking around, I mean, everything is beautiful, and everything is clearly so expensive. There's all this amazing artwork and fancy furniture. There's billiard halls, there's wine cellars. I mean, this is a gorgeous property, exactly what you'd expect for the person who lives here. And as she's kind of snooping around the first floor looking for the owner, she's amazed to see that it's like nobody's home. It's just this vacant, unbelievable mansion. Eventually, she walks around and finds there's an elevator. And so she's like, all right, I'll just get in the elevator and go up. So she gets in this beautiful elevator, she shuts the door, she hits the button to go to the next floor. And as the car begins to move, she realizes, like, this is gonna make some noise, like someone's gonna hear me. Like, oh, my gosh, now I'm gonna get caught. And so she starts to freak out. And so she pulls out her big, clunky Nokia cell phone, and she calls her mom. And when her mom picks up, she tells her that, you know what? Almost certainly I'm about to get arrested here. And as her mom is like, what are you doing? What is going on here? The elevator that Rose is in came to a stop, and the door opened up. And as soon as Rose saw what was in front of her, she just lowered the phone. Her mom's still talking into it and just stared. It was like she was totally struck by what she was seeing. Because right in front of her in the room, right outside of this elevator is the person who owns this house, the extremely famous major celebrity who is just sitting there with a guitar, strumming along, just minding his own business. And he turns and looks at Rose and Rose is looking at him. And there's this moment of just stunned silence, like neither of them can really figure out how this even came to be. Now at this point, Rose knew it was her chance. And so even though she's unbelievably starstruck and scared and has no idea what's about to happen, she just quickly runs, walks a little bit forward into the room and throws her demo CD onto this table. That was sort of between the two of them. And this big time musician is just like again, standing there staring at her like, what are you doing here? And after Rose did that, she didn't say anything. She just turned, headed back to the elevator and began to make her escape. But by the time she made it back to the front door, this big time musician's security team did catch up to her and they stopped her. However, they did decide not to call the police. And so Rose was very lucky that she escaped and without a criminal record, which is sort of incredible when you consider the home she actually broke into. This was the home of Prince again, arguably at the time one of the most famous people in the world. I mean, it's bad enough sneaking into anybody's home, but this is like egregious. So the idea that she got right up next to Prince and gave him her demo CD without consequence, pretty incredible. But despite all this, her interaction with Prince really didn't have any bearing on her career. He didn't care at all about her demo cd. He did not, you know, throw her name out to industry contacts and, you know, blow her career up. Basically he said, I won't press charges, now get out of here. That was it. However, Rose did go on to become an incredibly famous musician in her own right. She just did it without the help of Prince. Today, Rose's tracks go multi platinum and she's sold more than 100 million copies of her records. Rose is actually her middle name. You very likely know her by her stage name, which is also her actual first name. And that is ke$.

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[Mr. Ballin]

The next and final story of today's episode is called Imposter Syndrome. One day in 2008, a 50 year old man named Carlo was at his home in Connecticut reviewing all this financial documentation. So Carlo had filed for bankruptcy a few years earlier and it had proven to be very complicated. And there was all this paperwork he was still getting. And you know, his bankruptcy case had not even finalized yet. And so what he thought would be sort of like a quick fix to a huge problem had turned into a really complicated mess. And now he had even more paperwork to sign. I mean, it was totally overwhelming. So Carlo was an actor and in many ways he had had lots of success. He had been on Broadway, he had starred in shows and movies. Like, he was a respected actor with lots of contacts in the industry. But despite that, he hadn't really ever made it. Like he couldn't really consistently land high paying or even consistent work, period. And so despite his reputation as being a very talented actor, it really wasn't translating to financial success. Now, this situation that Carlo was in would not have been that bad if he was single, but he wasn't. He was married with four children to take care of. And on top of that, Carlo also felt this really intense pressure that was sort of maybe felt in the industry in general, in the sort of entertainment industry to keep up with his appearances. You know, as much as he was struggling financially, he felt like he didn't want his peers to know that that might eat into his ability to get big roles. And so he's got all this pressure to take care of his family and all this Pressure to maintain this idea that he's really successful and doing great. But in reality, he just felt like a total fraud. He had no money, and he felt like he didn't even know how he was gonna dig himself out again. And so as Carlo is sitting there staring at this mountain of paperwork, he started to have this very dark thought that had sort of crept into his mind a couple of times over the past few months, you know, as this huge issue just continued to get bigger and bigger. But now this dark idea had become fully realized in his mind. He began to think, you know, maybe if I were to die, there could be a large insurance payout to my family that would solve their financial problems. And it would also sort of, you know, abscond me from looking like the fraud that I really am. Nobody would know I'd be dead. They wouldn't know that I had all these issues. I'd just, you know, be gone, and people would miss me and my family. They'd be financially taken care of. You know, maybe that's a possibility. You know, obviously, Carlo was not trying to end his life because he didn't want to be here anymore. He just felt like he did not have another way out. And so he actually went to his wife and began sort of, you know, nonchalantly asking her questions about their, you know, various insurance plans to see if he had a good life insurance policy that would pay out if he were to go. And eventually, he got his wife to tell him that, yeah, you have a very generous life insurance policy. We are good if, you know, the worst were to happen and something were to happen to you. And at that point, Carlo felt like, that's it. That's the way to fix this problem. I need to die. However, when Carlo actually did begin researching this route, seeing exactly how an insurance payout would work if he were to take his own life, he quickly learned that payouts after a suicide on these life insurance plans are very complicated, and there's all these stipulations involved, because insurance companies don't. Do not want people taking their own life in order to get these payouts. And so Carlo was quickly seeing that if he were to take his life, it would not be like, okay, quick payout to his family. Quite the opposite. And in some cases, you know, his family might not even be entitled to this payout. And so Carlo's thinking, well, okay, I can't take my own life. I need to find another way to have my life come to an end. And so he's thinking, okay, I'll Start picking up really dangerous hobbies, and maybe I can sort of do die by accident. Maybe I'll start hang gliding and fall out of my harness, and that'll be the way I die. And maybe that'll lead to a payout or I'll start doing BASE jumping or all these different things. That might reasonably explain why he suddenly died. But he also was thinking, you know, people would see through that. I'm not the type of guy that picks up really dangerous hobbies. And so that could be kind of suspicious. He's like, okay, well, what else could I do? And he's like, oh, I could hire a hitman. You know, somebody else will kill me. And then, you know, that's not my fault. Somebody else took my life. That'll allow for a payout, right? But, you know, the more he thought about it, the more that, too, seemed highly suspicious. I mean, people don't usually get away with hired hits. And so several months go by, and Carlo is still alive because he's basically discovered that there really isn't a way to intentionally end his life directly or indirectly, without getting caught and sort of jeopardizing the one thing he wants this to do, which is to have this pay out for his family. And so he's just sort of stuck in this situation that he does not feel like he can get out of. Like, he's just completely buried by debt in this general financial crisis he's in. And so Carla was doing really, the only thing he knew he could do, which is just to get out there and audition for as many shows and movies and various acting opportunities as he possibly could to at least, you know, get some amount of money coming in, even though clearly it was still never gonna be enough. But in late 2008, Carlo got an interesting call from his agent, his agent who worked to get him some of these roles. Now, Carlo's agent, who did understand Carlo was in dire straits here, quickly explained to Carlo that, you know, this role didn't really pay much, but, you know, you'd be able to be a part of a very big show. I mean, yeah, your role is sort of minimal, but this is huge. It's a big credit, and, you know, maybe it lends itself to you getting other work. You know, this could be a great opportunity for you. Now, Carlo had heard his agent sort of pitch him on various roles and the opportunity and all that before. And so he was grateful to be, you know, told this is a good opportunity, but he was sort of skeptical. But he received the script, and he began Reading about, you know, what his character would be doing in the show. And he quickly realized that, you know what, this role actually might be more perfect for me than even the producers and directors might realize. So this role was for this particular character on the show who sort of in the show hides in plain sight. Like that's sort of the way they need to be portrayed. They're this huge influential character in one way, but to the eye of the audience, they sort of look like a nobody. They're sort of again, hiding in plain sight. And Carlo, in his own life, very much felt like he was sort of hiding in plain sight to his peers in the industry. He's this acclaimed actor who's getting all these roles and everything's so great. He's. He's a family man with four kids, but privately he's living this hell. He's got all this financial debt. He's considered killing himself for an insurance payout to pay for his life. Like he's living a completely double life here. And so he felt like, I know how to hide in plain sight. It's literally what I do every day. That's my actual life. And so he takes this role and Carlo does such a world class job portraying this character who hides in plain sight that the director and all these people who are working on the show, they're like, oh my goodness, Carlo is incredible. And this character that he's portraying, we gotta find a way to expand this character and make them more meaningful in this show. And so they quickly began, like writing in additional scenes into this big time show for Carlo's character. Again, not cause the character was so good, but because Carlo was so good at portraying that character. And as this character's role grew in the show, the show itself began to succeed even more. Like the audience was like, wow, we love that character. And so the character only grew and grew and became a staple in this show. And it ultimately completely changed Carlo's life. Not only because this would be the opportunity that would make him massively famous and hugely successful, but also because he got paid and he was able to escape the financial hell that he was in through this incredible experience. Carlo would get paid millions and millions of dollars and would be nominated for multiple Emmy awards. Now, you might know Carlo by his full name, which was Giancarlo Esposito. But if that name doesn't ring a bell, you very likely do know him from the life changing role that he portrayed on this show. He was Gus Fring, the chicken shop kingpin from Breaking Bad, A Quick note about our stories they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories is hosted and executive Produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Produced by Jeremy Bone Research and fact checking by Shelly Shue, Samantha Vanhus, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway and Camille Callahan Research and fact checking supervision by Stephen Audio editing and post produced by Whit Locascio, Jordan Stidham and Cole Locascio Production coordination by Samantha Collins Production support by Antonio Minotta and Delaina Corley Artwork by Jessica Claugston Kiner theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See ya. Traditional home security only alerts you after a break in and that's too late. Simplisafe is changing that. Stop. This is Simplisafe. Police are on the way. We don't just alert, we stop crime before it starts.

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