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- [00:00]
Jeff Duden
Today we have John D. Domenico on the home front.
- [00:04]
John D. Domenico
Hello everyone. It's me, President Trump. What are you doing? Nothing. Are you on Twitter? No. What are they saying? Nothing. What are they saying about that? They're saying you're not allowed to go on there. Okay, well let me borrow this. This is ridiculous. This is a huge mistake. Huge mistake. Who put you up to the sleepy Joe?
- [00:24]
Jeff Duden
John is an internationally known Trump impersonator with over 20, 24 million views on YouTube and over 6 million TikTok followers. You may have seen John on such television shows as Saturday Night Live, Good morning America, Fox News or the Howard Stern show. He appears regularly as Guy Fieri, Austin Powers and an incredible Dr. Phil. This is a wide ranging conversation. I know you will find this interesting. Please enjoy. Welcome everybody to the home front. So excited today. This is Jeff Duden and I am here with John D. Domenico. Welcome John.
- [01:04]
John D. Domenico
Hey, how are you?
- [01:05]
Jeff Duden
Amazing. Great to see you. You did our corporate event for advanticlean back I think in probably 2016 as Donald Trump, Guy Fieri and other people and I just, it's always good I bounce into you once in a while and it's always good to see you and I'm so excited to have you on the home front today.
- [01:26]
John D. Domenico
Oh, it's, it's, it's great to be here.
- [01:28]
Jeff Duden
In home service sales performance is everything. Meet Rilla voice your virtual ride along. Just like elite athletes thrive on feedback your team can too. Rilla captures every conversation delivering real time insights that drive action. Success isn't left a chance. It's measurable and repeatable. Ready to take your team to new heights. Visit rila.com that's r I l l a.com or click the link below to get your special homefront brands Rilla offer today.
- [01:59]
John D. Domenico
And you know it's really funny because I'm trying, you know we all have 8,000 photos now from every single event and I came across those advantaclean photos from that event. I was like oh my gosh, what do I, I gotta put these somewhere.
- [02:15]
Jeff Duden
Well, just don't put them, don't put them in a. Don't put them in a ransom. I don't know what they are but don't, you know, destroy. Destroy as needed. But yeah, that was a good group. That was a fun group, baby.
- [02:28]
John D. Domenico
That was one of my early got the every bitch man.
- [02:32]
Jeff Duden
Hey, well congratulations on the election. You've got four, four more years of incredible work opportunities probably with, with doing Trump. But yeah.
- [02:43]
John D. Domenico
And just so you know, it's never it's never stopped. You know what I tell people is it's, it's. It's never stopped. It's always, you know, he's such. Going back to 2004, when I started doing him in 2014, when the Apprentice came on. He's just kind of woven into the fabric of this country now.
- [03:03]
Jeff Duden
So. Yeah, when did you.
- [03:06]
John D. Domenico
And go ahead.
- [03:07]
Jeff Duden
No, I was just going to ask. When did, when did you first start doing impersonations?
- [03:12]
John D. Domenico
I was five years old.
- [03:13]
Jeff Duden
Okay.
- [03:14]
John D. Domenico
I grew up in a row. I grew up in a row home neighborhood outside of Philadelphia, and I was just a big ham. But I was watching this Is how old I Am. I was watching the Ed Sullivan show and he used to have impressionist songs, which I always thought were amazing, like right out of the gate. I was a little kid, but John Byner used to do Ed Sullivan. And I was like, Ed Sullivan would just introduce him. And he went, now right here in our show. And I used to think, wait a minute, he's doing his voice. How's that possible? It was kind of like magic to me. And I started doing voices, which was interesting because when I did impressions for my neighbors and they were all sitting outside on their steps, they loved it. It was very affirming for me. They were laughing. But I had a severe speech impediment. So from first grade to eighth grade, I did eight years of speech therapy, working with great speech therapists and great speech pathologists. And because of that, like any training, I thought, well, wait a minute, if I can do this, I can do that. Because they would work on nasal placement and throat placement and pronunciation over pronunciation and tongue placement and all of these things. I started just incorporating into doing more and more impressions, you know, So I would say, I would watch Columbo and think, oh, I. I could probably do that. I can manipulate my voice to do that. So. So that would be, folks, I hate. I'm a little confused. So by. By. Everyone got a kick out of it and I loved it. And I went on to do it and keep doing. Obviously, it's a big part of what I do.
- [05:04]
Jeff Duden
Yeah, that's fascinating that going through intensive speech therapy and understanding the mechanics allows you to take a target or a character and then probably break it down technically to the voice. But then you've got the. Now you have mannerisms that you've got to do. So you've got voice, you've got cadence, you've got mannerisms, and then you've got costume that you need to do. So what's your approach when you. When you find somebody and you're like, I think I could. I could make something of this. What's your approach?
- [05:35]
John D. Domenico
Well, you know, someone like, let's use somebody like Guy Fieri, because he came out. And if you look at all the characters I do, they're all big. I'm a big guy. I'm like, over the top, you know, and all the characters Trump, Austin powers, Guy Fieri, Dr. Phil. They're big, big personalities. So the first thing I look at is obviously, can I impersonate this person? I mean, do the impression. The impersonation is like the second part. Can I physically look like them? And since I primarily work in the corporate world, can I sell this character into a meeting? That's like, the things that are really important to me. And, you know, once those things all work, then I can. Then I can do that. Like, I had. Remember when Jim Cramer got really big mad money? Jim Cramer?
- [06:28]
Jeff Duden
Yes.
- [06:29]
John D. Domenico
I started doing Jim Cramer, you know, and I did a bunch of videos as him and did a bunch of work as him, and he kind of met all that criteria. Trump meets all that criteria. Austin was a little bit of a harder sell in the beginning, because HR departments would sometimes be like, well, he's very sexual. And I'd have to explain. We. You know, we've kind of taking that down. But he's a very groovy character, baby. Yeah.
- [06:55]
Jeff Duden
We had. At our. At our convention, we had a casino night, and you were walking around as Austin Powers, and it was. It was incredible. I mean, people, you're. And what's amazing about your work is the completeness of the transformation and the believability of it.
- [07:15]
John D. Domenico
I'm an extreme impersonator.
- [07:17]
Jeff Duden
Yes.
- [07:18]
John D. Domenico
I go all the way. I will spend the money, I will pay the money for the wigs, the wardrobe, the teeth, whatever. It has to be. I. To me, like you just said, it has to be complete. For me, as the performer and as the provider, the service provider, I want to be the best at what I do.
- [07:39]
Jeff Duden
So when you impersonate people, and then oftentimes I imagine you probably get to meet these people, or at least I know that you've known Donald Trump since the 90s. I believe you.
- [07:49]
John D. Domenico
Yeah. 19. Yeah. Multiple times in the 90s.
- [07:52]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. Where's the fine line between flattery and then people getting offended by your impersonations of them?
- [08:00]
John D. Domenico
I don't think the individuals get offended. You know, with Mike Myers, his characters are creations. And, you know, and I think with. Now, it's interesting A guy Fieri, he does not like impersonators.
- [08:17]
Jeff Duden
Really?
- [08:18]
John D. Domenico
Yeah, he does that. And it's nothing to do with me. It has to do with this guy who looks just like him, who's gotten free meals, who's gotten into baseball games, who's gotten into clubs, and he's kind of lumped like a professional impersonator, me into that. And I've met people from his team and I said, please tell the guy I love the guy. And I don't do that. That's not my stuff. I don't go out after a corporate gig like yours or anywhere else and try to get free drinks or free food. That's. That's never been my thing. So that I always thought was interesting. With Trump, it's always within the context of the character in some way. The only time, you know, we were into the. He was already elected. I'd done about 50 appearances on Fox News. I've been on Fox and Friends, and this is one of my. I remember this very clearly, but Kellyanne Conway was there and she said, can I get a, can I get a selfie with you? He, he really likes you. He thinks you're the nice pro. So. So, you know, and it's not my job to be nice. My job is to be funny. But I myself, if you know me, I'm not a mean person. I don't have an agenda. For me, it's just, I like satire and I like being fun.
- [09:43]
Jeff Duden
So, you know, I'm interested to know a little bit about your creative process. You've done a lot of improv. Have you done stand up?
- [09:53]
John D. Domenico
Yeah, I started, I started doing stand up in 95 and 96 and 97.
- [09:58]
Jeff Duden
And where were you working?
- [10:00]
John D. Domenico
I was working along the east coast. Florida, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New York. I did some jobs in Ohio, Pittsburgh. There's a bananas in Pittsburgh. But, you know, I'm, I'm very much of a business person and I was on the road doing comedy and I'm very, for the most part, I feel like I'm pretty self aware. And I was working with some incredibly funny people. I mean, people who could take a room, people wanted to kill the guy and they could turn that room around. And these are the guys who came up with Tim Allen, David Letterman, Jay Leno. But these guys never, they never crossed that bridge. They never got series, they never got into movies, and they were stuck being road collars. And it was the first. And they worked other jobs too. And it was the very first time I thought, oh, wait a minute, there's a wall you could potentially run into. A wall.
- [11:13]
Jeff Duden
Yeah, yeah. Financial wall, A lifestyle wall. Like, if you don't get out of the clubs, you're not going to make a lot of money.
- [11:22]
John D. Domenico
You're not going to make a lot of money. And I have to tell you, for me, my day boiled down to 30 minutes because I was a middle. I was a feature that, you know, and I remember. And if you went out, you killed, it was heroin. And if you went out and bombed, it was you wanted to kill yourself, you know. And there were a couple of times I got the headline. But the thing was, I was like, I can't have my day down to 30 minutes. It just wasn't. Even if you're doing two shows, it was starting to become very apparent to me that this is not the venue for me. And I. Right around that time is 96. I got my first corporate booking. It was a national sales meeting for Sony, and I got the booking. I wanted to negotiate how to go to New York. That's where the person saw me and said, hey, we really love to hire you for this game show. Element of this meeting, this meeting, he had explained to me what the national sales meeting was. I had no idea at the time. Now it's all I do. And so we nailed everything down. He goes, you're really funny. I think you'd be really good at this. He goes, what would you charge? You'd have to fly to Orlando. We'll put you up at this hotel, we'll do a rehearsal, you do the performance, and you'll leave the next day. And I said, I gave a number. And he goes, this person's negotiating with me. I went, oh, oh, okay, $1,500. He's like, so he brought me up to, like, 3,500 to do this gig. And I remember thinking, I'm in the wrong business.
- [13:04]
Jeff Duden
That's right. Yeah.
- [13:06]
John D. Domenico
And they flew me down first class. First time I ever had been flown first class. Got picked up in a limo. First time with my name on a card. And then we stayed at the Swan at Walt Disney World. And then I did the show, and I met the entire production team. And I thought, oh. I went back to my room that night and I took a legal pad and I wrote every single company I could think of and every city. And I said, my money is in those cities with those companies. And it took about two years to kind of move to the corporate side. And a lot of people didn't really understand what I was doing, but I knew what I was doing. So I eventually found out who the corporate, who the creative directors were for the companies that produced the meetings. And I said, I am your Swiss army knife. I'm totally self contained. I'm a writer, I'm a comedian, I'm a host, I'm an emcee. I have all the wardrobe. I said, my job is to make your job easier. And that's what it's been the last 30 years.
- [14:16]
Jeff Duden
You hear. I don't know if it was David Spade or Jim Brewer, but talking about doing a corporate gig or it was a fundraiser and it was like a cancer benefit. And you know, they had a mother up there whose child had just passed away from cancer and was talking about how great the, you know, the group, the organization was and how helpful they were. And then, and after every. Not a dry eye and everybody's crying, they're like, oh, now we have some comedy. They put him on and they would. And you hear about like, you know, the, the, you know, I don't know if it was Gillis talking about where, you know, he's doing a corporate gig, but like, everybody's eating and he's just kind of in the corner of the room and he's telling jokes, but just everybody's talking and e. And he says it's the worst thing, you know, those types of gigs. But what you do is you run the event. You, yeah, you MC the event. You show up at the, you, you work the room at the, at the dinners, you, you host the awards and different characters. It's a totally. You're not just showing up and telling jokes like you're, you're managing this event as characters in a, in a engaging and hilarious way. I don't, I don't know. I don't know. Is there any, I don't know anybody else that does that?
- [15:32]
John D. Domenico
There's no one else that does this the way I do. And I start working with my clients three months, four months in advance. Yeah, I'm learning about the company culture, the employees, what. What's on their mind. So from that opening reception, where I might be Austin, Paris, but to the next morning at that general session, I know exactly what's going on. I know everyone I'm introducing from the CFO to the CMO to their outside counsel who has to talk about something, then doing their team building event, then during their next event, back for the general session, kind of just there. My whole thing is the way I sell this. I'm the connective tissue of that meeting. And then we Go right up to the awards gala and I host that awards gala. And then you do have the clinking of the place. But by that time they already know me and I already know that.
- [16:25]
Jeff Duden
Right.
- [16:26]
John D. Domenico
So it's a, it's a, it's a different relationship. And one of my best clients and my longest client to date is Mako, you know, the Collision Company. I've done their national sales meeting for 23 years and I am so proud of that because at any time, and they've had regime changes, at any time they could have brought in a new MC host and they've kept me and I've actually stopped doing the characters. I'm hosting the meeting just as myself, which I've done in the last two years from virtually all of my clients. I've decided to drop the mask, be myself, kind of return to my stand up comedy roots and do the meeting that way. That way I can kind of flow between impression much faster and improvise in that, in that moment as opposed to being locked into Dr. Phil, you know.
- [17:21]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. So when you were doing stand up, did you work clean?
- [17:26]
John D. Domenico
Yeah, I was pretty. Yeah, for the most part. I mean, the humor, the comedy itself was clean. But, you know, I would, I was from Ambler, Pennsylvania, blue collar. My dad was a World War II veteran. So there are some F bombs strategically thrown in, but there were plenty of clubs that are like, no cursing. And I was like, that's fine. That, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't a blue comedian by any, by any sense. You know, I'm doing commercial parodies. Observational and biographical humor.
- [17:56]
Jeff Duden
Well, I think, I think clean up until around 2019 meant one thing. And then 20, 20, 21 and 22, there was heightened sensitivity around what could be said and what, you know, what, what you could do. I think it's kind of swung back the other, other way now where I think people are a little bit less afraid and we need, we need comedians to point out ridiculous things like comedy. Comedians are critically important in my, in my opinion, to the fabric of society. To.
- [18:25]
John D. Domenico
Oh, totally. To be the court jester.
- [18:27]
Jeff Duden
Yeah, well, and to be a canary in the coal mine about like pointing out things that are ridiculous and like making, you know, and I think it's, it's important. So you're, I'm interested in this. Personally interested. Your creative process. Do you, do you, do you, are you constantly writing or do you have a catalog? Do you have, do you have 25 or 50 binders over the years? And you can go back and you can curate some information or stuff like that. Of course there's current events that you need to deal with.
- [18:58]
John D. Domenico
My note, you know, I as a comedian and I had a beat myself to do this because there were so many times that I would have an idea because creativity is kind of, it's so capricious. I would have an idea and I go, I should write that down. And I thought, well, it's so funny, I'm not going to forget. And you would forget because whatever it is, you're in your car, you're getting out of your car, you just saw something. So I trained myself, trained myself to write stuff down. And the notes on my iPhone are jammed, jammed of ideas. The only thing I have to do is put a notation in the front of it, like what it's applicable to and then I just call that back up. And that helps me a lot. Also, I have like going back to when I work for you, I have saved every single script from every single job. And that could be franchising, manufacturing technology, whatever it is. And I'm able to, I've got a pretty good memory for every client I work for and I can put that in and pull things together and kind of change it up. And if companies are similar in what they make or even where the meeting is, I made written jokes about the Atlantis in the Bahamas. In the Bahamas. And sometimes I'll go back and pull those jokes, they're already written or I take those and kind of build off of those. So my creative process is find out who the company is, where am I specifically going on. If it was the old way with specific characters, start those kind of scripts individually. The one for Dr. Phil, the, the one for Trump on the closing night, the opening is Austin Powers. And start pulling all that information in and then dividing it up because I don't like to repeat certain names. You know, obviously the CEO and some key people you can bring back up.
- [21:02]
Jeff Duden
Sure.
- [21:02]
John D. Domenico
But I like to try to mention as many people as possible because, you know, you go to a meeting and you have a comedian. I just did a meeting in, I was just in Phoenix and they had a comedian on the opening night. I hosted the meeting and I closed their bid as Trump and the guy. And my heart goes out to him. He bought and I was told that over and over again. And the reason, and you know, the reason was he did his stand up act. For a group of people who see each other once a year. That to me is a golden opportunity to custom write the material to that group. He did his Act, Yeah, it didn't work for this group. So everything, my creative process is I'm a rep or I'm an owner, whatever it is, I am in, I'm in Carlsbad, I'm in Phoenix, I'm in the Bahamas. Wherever I am, I'm at this great luxury event. What's on my mind, what am I thinking about? You know, am I away from my family? You know, a lot of these people, some of these people bring their family. You know, it's a break. They bring the family, but then there's other people. The break is I get to be away from my family. So that, that's, that's my creative approach. I want to write them. I kind of want to invert the process. Comedians, you mentioned a bunch of comedians like, you know, standard, Standard comedians, not standard. I don't mean that way, but they're writing their act. It's their perspective going out. Sebastian Matis Galco. And you're gonna sit there and you're gonna fall over. But if you're bringing in a comedian who maybe isn't a headliner, where their name is that level. For me, I want to make it so. I want to ensure success, I want to ensure the comedy and I want to most importantly, make it memorable for them because it's about them, it's not about me. Yeah. So, you know, and that's, that's why I like.
- [23:12]
Jeff Duden
So that guy, that guy that bombed, how long was the set?
- [23:16]
John D. Domenico
I think his set was probably 35, 40.
- [23:19]
Jeff Duden
Oh my God. Okay. When you have a 30, 35 minute set. But I was going to say, I was going to ask 15, like at what minute?
- [23:26]
John D. Domenico
And I bombed, by the way. I know everybody's bombed.
- [23:29]
Jeff Duden
Everybody's bombed. Yeah, I bombed one talk and, and I, and I know what it was. My method was wrong, my preparation was wrong and I've, I, I'll, it never happened to me again. But, you know, I'm not telling jokes. I'm telling some jokes now. I, I, I, I told, yeah, I got in trouble. I told it. I have a new business now, Homefront Brands. We had our first conference last year. I wrote a joke, I told it, it was probably a little bit over the line, but I'll tell you offline. But it wasn't bad. I liked it. I thought it was good enough to make the State of the Union. But others, not so much. But at what minute? If you're doing a 30 minute set, at what minute do you realize I'm bombing? And I'm, I'm not. I have to finish this. And I'm bombing, like, before my foot hits the stage.
- [24:24]
John D. Domenico
Here's when I bombed. That was doing comedy and regular. It wasn't corporate. I'll tell you what was interesting was it was in the Poconos. I think it was a strict. One of those places. And I. And they. I told a buddy, I go, hey, I'm headlining. They're like, where? So and so's in the Pocono? And he went, room of death. I went, what? That room. That room will kill you. I'm like, thanks. But. But he was right, because there's a great comedy club in Richmond, Virginia. It's called the. The. The Wave or something. But when you stand on the stage as a comedian, the people's ends are at your feet. They're literally at your feet. And I just remember thinking, this is the best comedy club ever. You remember the old comedy clubs in la? You're standing, and they are right there. There is a connection, and there is an obligation to pay attention. You know, it doesn't mean you're going to laugh, but there's a connection, and that's super important. This room in the Poconos, closest person to me, and I'm not kidding, was probably 25ft away.
- [25:37]
Jeff Duden
Not gonna work.
- [25:39]
John D. Domenico
Death. Death. I came on. I had a whole opening bit. It's based on the Peter Gunn song. And I would come on, and I would pose. I would do this whole thing about, you know, being a poser. And it worked, but you had to have the music. Otherwise, it didn't make sense. The music wouldn't play. They slaughtered my name. I. Every single thing went wrong. And that night was. So. I went through, like, 45 minutes worth of material in 20 minutes, because you're not getting laughs. There's nothing sustaining. And I was. And. And I drew. I was living in New York at the time, and I drove from the Poconos back home to New York, literally crying my eyes out, because it's just. It's such an epic failure. But from epic failures come your. Your biggest jumps, your biggest changes, your biggest realignments. And that night, I said, I have to write an act that is bulletproof. It cannot depend on the music. It can't depend on my name being said. It has to stand on its own. And that was the. That was one of the most important parts. And to re. Kind of re. Kick my ass. And remember, you're in character. You're in your comedy Persona before you go on stage, you know, because that audience, it's so strange. You can ask any comedian about this, but audiences form. And speakers and, you know, corporate audiences too, not as much. But a comedy audience does this thing where they don't know each other. They all came in different. There is this group think that happened literally. And the audience judges you within the first seven to 10 seconds. And you can see you do it, you do it yourself when you go to a comedy club, but an audience does it. And you have to be on.
- [27:39]
Jeff Duden
Yeah.
- [27:40]
John D. Domenico
In character, in your Persona from the second you get on. And if you're the goofy comedian, you know, you got to be the goofy guy, you're the smart ass, you got to do this. Yeah.
- [27:50]
Jeff Duden
Whatever your, whatever you think your closer is open with that. It's got to, it's, you know, nothing starts well. Nothing that doesn't start well goes well. But if, but if you start well, like you have a chance. Do you ever hear Jim Brewer talking about Norm MacDonald? I don't know if you've met Norm MacDonald. You might not have passed within the time.
- [28:11]
John D. Domenico
No, but I'm a huge, I'm a huge fan of his. And I'm so sorry, I never met him because I had an opportunity years ago in LA and it just, it didn't come together. And I just thought because he's, you know, he's, he is fairly unique. There isn't. Aren't people who are 100% unique.
- [28:29]
Jeff Duden
So when he would bomb, like, I'm sure you've heard when he would bomb, he would go stand at the front door and shake everybody's hand on the way out.
- [28:40]
John D. Domenico
I didn't know that.
- [28:41]
Jeff Duden
I mean, just like, if he went, well, he'd go back into the green room and start playing cards and he'd be fine. But if he, if he totally bombed, which, the way he works, like, you could bomb, like, if it doesn't, if, if people aren't into what you're doing and then he's too long. I mean, he'll. 10 minutes on a bed or, you know, wearing something out. Like, if it's not going anywhere, then he's, he's. And he's not even to try to recover. Like, he's going to, he's, he's going to wallow and he's going to love the fact that he's bombing. And then he would go and stand at the front door and shake everybody's hand as they were leaving just to make it more uncomfortable for them.
- [29:17]
John D. Domenico
I see that you have Norm over your shoulder. And one of the things. Yeah, one of the things I truly appreciate about him is how many times on SNL he was told, don't, don't do that. And they would be like, please do not do that joke. It won't be on the cards. Don't do it. And he would do it. And he got in trouble so many times that he was just, he was his own person. And I just really appreciate his. You know, a lot of people. The thing is, he had a true sense of humor. People have a sense of smell and sensitivity. Some comedians have a true sense of what is, what is funny. They're not just doing jokes, they're doing something else. And he's one of the, one of those people that was kind of transcendent in that way he was doing. And then, and then sometimes, because I watched his podcast, he would do the worst jokes on earth. But you know what they were, it was his show and he thought they were freaking hilarious. And you have another genius over your shoulder. You've got Dave Chappelle, who is operating on a totally different level.
- [30:31]
Jeff Duden
That, that's storytelling woven together. His act is just, it's, it's stories that, that, you know, a 15 minute story that will tie back to something like, it's, it's brilliant. It's. It's art. It's art.
- [30:46]
John D. Domenico
I've never.
- [30:46]
Jeff Duden
Art.
- [30:47]
John D. Domenico
Yeah, he, he. And when he did those two, I think it was two or three Netflix specials. It was, it was amazing how they were like only a couple of weeks apart, but these were two totally different acts. Totally. It was truly amazing how he's able to do that. It's very impressive. And he is, he is an artist.
- [31:09]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. I like what he does.
- [31:11]
John D. Domenico
Even his, his appearance.
- [31:13]
Jeff Duden
Yeah. Oh, that was, that was brilliant. Yeah. I mean, I like Jeselnik, you know, and he's just one after another after another after another. Chappelle's a whole, you know, that's the storytelling, Norm. You never knew what, what you were going to get. But yeah, so on the wall is Bourdain, Musk, Chappelle, Norm.
- [31:34]
John D. Domenico
Oh, Anthony Bourdain.
- [31:36]
Jeff Duden
And then we've got. I have Serena Williams on there, and then I've got Keanu Reeves. And what I, the reason I chose those people. And I just, I just. Because they're all, they all did it their own way. You know, Chappelle walking away from $50 million because they didn't want to give up the creative process. You know, Norm's being Norm Musk is crazy. I mean, just, you know, let's just solve 5 of the world's biggest problems all at once and build companies around it. And, and Bourdain was again, he took control over his creative process, I mean, and built something really special.
- [32:15]
John D. Domenico
Oh, I just, you know, it was interesting because there's a lot of books here and I had dyslexia for many I still have it, but I kind of overcame it and then became a really voracious reader. But he was making. His first book had just come out and he was on npr. It was on Terry Gross. And I listened to the interview because I always listen to those interviews and I thought, wow, this is really interesting. I used to work in restaurants. This book may be fun to get. I picked up that book and I got so much out of it. It was such a great book. And then I thought he would just disappear. Even chef who wrote a book, you know, it wasn't even a cookbook. And the fact that he became part of our culture, our food culture, our, you know, how to be more discernible about what you eat. And then his personal story, her having been a heroin addict and like rock bottom, I just found it fascinating.
- [33:17]
Jeff Duden
Obviously along the way, sometimes we get lucky and then other times we get some help. What have been some key relationships that you've either lucked into or worked hard to get in front of that have made a difference in your career? In home service sales, consistency and insight are your key to scaling your business. Enter Rilla Voice, your virtual ride along that gives you full visibility into sales conversations that can boost close rates by 40%. Managers are eight times more time efficient while average ticket sales increase by 17%. It's time to harness technology for real results. Ready to see Rila in action, visit rila.com that's r I l l a.com or click the link below to get your special homefront brands offer today.
- [34:05]
John D. Domenico
The very first, that guy that I mentioned who got me on my very first real corporate national sales meeting, his name is Mario Giampaglia and we have remained friends to this day. During Thanksgiving I visited him in New York. He's been kind of a guy. He moved from, from Sony to SAP. He became an independent producer. So that was really, that was incredibly important. There is a, there is someone in the industry. His name is Mark Felix. He works for one of the big, big companies, jewelry design. He does international sales team in the industry. He is considered kind of someone of wisdom and all of us performers and he'll book like major stars, like huge people for like the IBM meeting, as big as you can Imagine, he brings those in. So he deals with top of the line talent, has become friends with him. But when I'm in New York or he's here in Las Vegas, he takes the time and we'll meet up and we'll have dinner and will have coffee or I'll see him at the office in New York. Then these people who are incredibly busy always make time for me, which I am so grateful for, that they're willing to do that. And that means I want to do the same. When someone comes to me, hey, I want to be in corporate world. I want to give them the same time that these people have given me. So all these people have. Have had an impact on me. And probably one of the longest running relationships is Jack Rickenbach. He's the one who produces the Mako meetings. So I literally spoke with him yesterday morning, literally, because he's in Carlsbad doing another meeting for a client that I've been the host for. So all of these things connect. And I love long term. Really. I have friends from like kindergarten, first grade, and I like long term relationships. And the people that when you go to Chicago or I have a show in Dallas or in Orlando that I can meet up and keep this, this network of friends and professional friends, like, happening, that means a lot.
- [36:26]
Jeff Duden
How did Howard Stern help you?
- [36:31]
John D. Domenico
Oh, well, that, that was. That was pretty amazing. So there's a great little backstory on this, which I would like to tell. Do you remember Sara Cooper back in 2016, 2017, she was Lip syncing Trump stuff right now. I've been doing Trump since 2004. It's now 2016. And believe me, what I'm about to say, I have no right to say because I was doing pretty well. I was flying around the world and TV and movies and everything else, but she was really blowing up on social media. And I. These numbers on her videos were, like, annoying to me. Like really. It really lit a fire under my ass. Like, why is she getting these numbers? So I was very busy shooting. You know, I have a White House press room set here, and I was shooting tons of Trump stuff, and I. I was shutting the studio down. I'd done my work for my clients, and I thought about a speech that I heard about somebody. One of the meetings I was at, one of the keynotes was talking about the fact that one of the super bowl teams, when they. All the numbers were done, they lost by five yards. They lost the super bowl by five yards. And this keynote stood on stage and said, can you give yourself Five more yards. Can you give your company five more? Just five more yards. That's it. And that really. That. That stuck with me that day. I was shutting down all the lights. It was the day that Trump had just tested for Covid, and I was shutting my lights down, and I thought, I got to give myself five more yards. So I did a whole bit where Trump said, I just took my. My COVID test. It was extremely negative. It was incredibly negative. It was the most negative COVID test in the history of COVID They said it was so negative. It was.
- [38:35]
Jeff Duden
I remember that.
- [38:36]
John D. Domenico
That's not me for that. That went. I went to bed. I posted that. Went to bed. It went viral. I'm laying in bed, and I can hear my phone. I don't keep my phone next to me. It's in the bathroom. I feel like that's bing, bong, ding, dong, bing. So the phone's just going off, and it's going off early. I mean, like, what the hell is happening? It was like. It was like 5am and I now I get up at that time. But back then, I wasn't. So it's everyone going, howard Stern's talking about you. Howard Stern's talking about Howard says, you're fantastic, Howard. And I'm like, what the fuck? And somebody explained to me what it was. He had gotten the clip, and he was playing it, and I was just. I was blown away. And in that moment, I thought, I've been wanting to get out of the Howard Stern show for years. I mean, you know, my brother used to live in Long island, and I was listening to Howard in the late 80s, and I just was like, what. How do I. How do I do this and how I gotta get on this show? And I'm trying to think of people who are connected to Howard or someone I could talk to. And I went, wait a minute. Don Buckwald represents me because I've done a couple of animated things as Trump. So I never talked. I never spoke with Doc. And for those of you who don't know, Don Buckwald is Howard's agent, but I had a relationship with the VP who actually ran the agency. I done her husband's Christmas gift, which was a Trump video. And I wrote Robin right away, and I said, hey, Robin, can you just please tell Don that. That Howard was raving about me today, and we're both represented by. By him. I said, I'm not expecting anything, but I cannot let this opportunity pass, you know? And two hours later, I get an email from Don Buckwell, and He says, I'm not promising anything, but he said, I will let Howard know. And within two days they called me. Within two weeks, I was on the show. I did a three year run as the exclusive Trump. And to answer your question, I'm sorry, it was a long winded thing, but it's such a great story. I never worked so hard because I thought you listen to Howard Stern and you think they're winging it. They are not winging it. Every minute is thought out. Yeah, every minute. I was assigned a team. I had five people on my team. And from there they would say, we're gonna send you 25 setups. We want five jokes on each setup. I'm like, jesus Christ. Yeah. I was like, that's a lot of work. But all of those, that, that almost up till the end, I would write and write and write. And when you think you don't have another joke left, you're like, they told me five. I'm, I'm going to give them five. So I was always doing that. And then in that process, I would send all that material in. All those writers will put their material in. We'd have like 13 pages of jokes. I would call in, do a zoom meeting with all of them. And I, I wouldn't be appearing for like two weeks, you know, and I would, we would rehearse it and then go through it. And they go, I like the way that sounds. Let's. Okay, let's keep that one. Cut that one. Then they sent me a revised one which is 87 pages. And then Zach went to Howard. He like cut that in half. That came back. And then I would get the final strip after another draft. And then I'd go to bed. Since I'm here on the west coast on Pacific time. I'd be up at 2:30 in the morning. I just guzzle some, some coffee just to wake up. I'd log in at 3am we'd rehearse it again. A lot of times they would have written a number, another script overnight. So I'd have to print that up. And I was always pissed about that because I already marked everything. And, you know, I like to notate my scripts. So then we, we run that script and we, you know, be ready to, ready to go. And then they put me in a green room with some of the other impersonators on the show. One of those was my friends Piat Michael, who. He, he was the voice of George Takei, Captain Kirk, and a bunch of other. So we would warm up, we would just do voices because it's really early in the morning, and I'm like, my voice was really deep. So then they'd say, howard's gonna probably have you on the first 30 minutes or the first 45 minutes. They kind of estimate it. They had a structure for the show because they'd have a big meeting. And I have to say, the very first time I logged on, it was, you know, obviously a zoom meeting, because it was during COVID There were, like, 75 people. I had this idea the show was a much more smaller, intimate thing. It was a. There's a lot of people who bring that show, you know, three days a week to air. There's a lot of comedic brain power. So. So then when the bit starts, you know, there's the knocking on the door, and we start the scripted bit. As soon as I start, I have two. I have two MacBook Airs in front of me. One is the zoom, so I can see Howard reacting, which is hard because he has his head down. And then the other one is my team sending me jokes in real time on top of the script. As I'm reading it, I am having jokes thrown at me. So I. I had to learn how to speak and read at the same exact time, which is something I never thought I'd have to do because they're moving so fast. I don't want to miss a joke. That's really, you know, because I'm doing, you know, Howard. The thing is, when I'm, you know, with women, beautiful, you know, I don't want to miss the joke about Brooke Shields or this thing or nothing, because I got to go backwards. But they're coming in so fast. So that was. That was probably the most interesting thing. And that. I never. You know, I didn't really expect that. But with Howard, it was always, we do the scripted bit first, and if I was rolling, if I was really killing it, then I would be allowed to go on.
- [45:29]
Jeff Duden
And how long were these segments? How long were these segments?
- [45:32]
John D. Domenico
Go ahead. I don't know. They were like. I think the longest one I ever did was like 8:12 minutes. It depends. You know what I mean? But for the most part, they're like, five, six, and if you're rolling, you get a little extra time. And. But one of the things is, this was after. I think it was the. After Trump. It was after Biden had won and Trump hadn't conceded. And he said, but you haven't conceded. And I improvised. Well, I'm not a conceited person. Why would I concede and he just thought that was absolutely hilarious. And he called me out that day. He called me out, like over the three years. He called me out three different times, which I was told by his team, like, he never does that. He never does. So it was a really, it was very, very positive. It was a great run. I learned a lot. I became a better writer. I was always told to kind of pick up the pace. You know, Trump, he'll speak, you know, a little slow because no one's interacting with him usually when he's speaking. So when you're speaking with Howard, they wanted the pace very specific. And that was something that I had to bring up to a different performance level for him. It wasn't like a parody commercial on Conan. This was a interactive kind of thing where you had to kind of meet powered energy to kind of keep it moving. So it was, it was extremely positive. I think it made me a better performer, a better writer, better comedian.
- [47:01]
Jeff Duden
I'm shocked to hear that about the Howard Stern show because you would never think that they put that much energy into a 6 to 12 minute segment and. But then again, he is the self proclaimed king of all media. And, you know, you know, preparation is everything. I mean, if something looks easy and it looks casual, there's usually a lot of work that's going behind it. And that, you know, that's incredible to know.
- [47:27]
John D. Domenico
Yeah, they take, I mean, they take common comedy very seriously. I mean, you know, you have this limited amount of time and they want it to hit every time. And I really appreciated that. I got a lot out of it.
- [47:43]
Jeff Duden
Media has become fractionalized. I've heard you speak, speak about it, and it. For performers like yourself, it creates some fragmentation, maybe harder for new people to break through because people's attention now are bifurcated between TikTok, where you have 6 million followers, by the way, congratulations, crushing. And YouTube. And you've got great, I think over 20 million views on YouTube or some, some. Some crazy statistic like that. Yeah, like 20, 24 million views, which is amazing. You know what the impact of social media as it's changed the media landscape for people that are coming behind you. What kind of challenges are people facing to pick their spots? You got to pick your spot. And then, and then. But, but yet, look, I mean, it's, you know, if you want to be well known for what you do, then you kind of got to be everywhere.
- [48:51]
John D. Domenico
Yeah. You know, I've spoken a couple of times about one of like, I'm developing a keynote and my keynote is on versatility, curiosity and resilience. And right now, more than anything, the it's you're being the dictate is not that people are following it, but someone like me, I have to be far more versatile. I'm very versatile. Versatile to begin with, you've got to be very versatile. Now because I'm a long form comedian, it's as simple as that. That, that's, that is where I live. That's where my strength is. The fact of the matter is, TikTok is not long form by any, by any standard. It's incredibly short. 30,000, 30 seconds to tell a story. So I had to really learn to change and go back to like something that I found funny years and years ago, which was literally silent films. Betty Hill and silent films is TikTok. You know, my audience on TikTok, a lot of them are Vietnamese. All these countries that I think a large part of my audience does not speak English. So I now I can't even do a voice of Trump or myself or Austin Powers. It has to be strictly physical. It has to be incredibly short. So it's learning, you know, you know what your strengths are. Most people know what their strengths are. And you're in that, that place like YouTube, I'm gonna do pretty well. You know, I've been very lucky there. Then you've got reels that are like 60 to 90 seconds. Then you've got TikTok, which you can do TikTok lives. I've done TikTok lives. And then you've got, you know, the shorter thing. You just gotta learn to adjust yourself to be present on all of these things. One of the things I like to do, and I did for a year and a half was I did a Friday press conference as Trump, which ran an hour every Friday unless I was on the road. So but like that gave me an opportunity to improvise. We were taking questions from TikTok from around the world and on YouTube from around the world. So I was getting questions from Greece and Spain and England and, you know, somebody in like South Africa who ended up being on their radio show. So, you know, we are in a time of two things happening at once. We're in a time where we can reach millions of people. This is unheard of. It's truly unheard of. 25, 30 years ago, I could make a video and I could send it to somebody or send it out. But we're in a time when somebody can shoot a video. Today it can go viral. It can be seen by 36 million people. The worst case scenarios like hot tui girl. But the fact of the matter is this went mega viral. Her life literally changed from a 30 second interaction. And we have, there are so, so much opportunity now in, in pretty much everything because of these platforms, because of how, how we can leverage them. We can build our. If you're a speaker, if you're Mel Robbins, if you know, take somebody like Anthony Robbins who was already big, who's now just like global and people like Ed Mylett and people. Speakers weren't that well known. 2520 speakers. What. And now these people have built an entire industry out of it because you can reach people and your message. And one of the things I was reading from Seth Godin is a lot of people are hooked on numbers. I was hooked on numbers for a really long time, but it's really now finding those super fans and finding a core audience that will, that will support, support you in what you do. You know, that makes, that's what I'm, I've become a little more focused on it as opposed to like I need to, I need a 56 million person thing. You know, it's, it's, it's lightning now. It's just absolutely, it's, there's no, there's no way to make a viral video right. In the sense that you try to plan it, you know, it is, it is, do what you do best. Change it for each of the platforms so it still reflects who you are and keeps, you know, keeps the essence of what you're trying to say and just keep doing it and you will build your audience over time. It is incredibly fractionalized, but there is a way to kind of leverage this and make the kind of, not necessarily money but, but make the kind of connections you want with what is collaboration.
- [53:55]
Jeff Duden
Look like in your life. Do you write for other people? Do you have people writing for you? Do you, do you get feedback on your, on your stuff? You know, if you're doing all of this, I can't imagine you're doing all of this yourself on all the different platforms and all of that. But like from a collaboration perspective, as a comedian, as a performer, what does that look like in your life?
- [54:23]
John D. Domenico
For me, I pretty much do everything myself. That's, that's why I work like seven days a week. That's why I'm reading every single book, so I can keep my outbreak going on. But there are some people, you know, Michelle, my, my fiance, my, my wife, essentially she was the one who dragged me on.
- [54:42]
Jeff Duden
Yeah.
- [54:43]
John D. Domenico
On the TikTok. And because I just didn't. I didn't see a place for myself there. It was just too short. But she got me on and she built it. And through that came some great collaborations. And, you know, working with somebody else is always great. You almost forget, you know, you don't do it for a while and you forget how great it is until you do it again. So I'm always trying to find people that were we're similar, that we have a similar. Not of a similar style, that they'll really be a collaboration. And every now and then I'll see somebody and go, oh, my God, I've got to work with this person. I got to figure out a way to contact this person. I've got to work with them. It'll be great. So every now and then those things happen. But, you know, when we had TikTok almost like disappear last week, I did a post and I thank two or three people I did a collaboration with. I said, I messaged Michelle because I was in Phoenix, and I said, who else did I collaborate with? And she sent me a list of 15 people. I was like, oh, my God, that's a lot of people. I forgot I had worked with this person and this person and this person. And not, not that the moments weren't memorable. It's just, you know, when you start doing a lot of these, you're like, holy cow. Because you're banging through quarter of a day or half of the day. So I think, I think collaboration is incredibly important. And I always thought it was very interesting. You listen to a lot of any of the hip hop music. They're all collaborating now because at a certain point you kind of run out of ideas. And having that collaboration kind of re. Infuses, you know, your, you know, your sense of why I started this is the first place. And, you know, my first love growing up was film. And I love movies. I love storytelling. And, you know, you look at something like a movie or a television show or anything, it is a collaboration. You can't do that. There's a lot of people you're dependent on to bring your. Your team. Right now, you're. You're sitting there in that great studio. That light behind you, the photos, the lighting, that is all you did in all your, you know. Yeah. And teams make it happen. And, you know, and in those moments of collaboration and you have it, you might have an intern who says, you know, would be great this. And you're like, wow, I never would have thought of that. So I think Collaboration is so important if you can bring in new people and keep that energy infused in what you're doing.
- [57:19]
Jeff Duden
Real quick, you have. I didn't realize what an international audience you had. Are you leveraging that? Are you gonna be traveling abroad and. And doing some work off of. Off of your. Off of your audience you found on TikTok?
- [57:30]
John D. Domenico
I. Yeah, I did that. I had done that before. I spoke in front of the European Parliament a couple of years ago. I think it was 2019. I made multiple appearances on. I made 12 appearances on the Today show in Australia, and they invited me down, but they don't want to pay for my flight, so we did it remotely. I appeared on this Morning in England. That's their number one morning show. I did seven appearances on that. And then they did invite me over, and I ended up appearing live in their studio, beautiful studio in London. So I've gotten some great opportunities. I've done. And then remotely, I've done tons of stuff. French television, Indian television, Irish television. So those things are great. And then with corporate stuff, I've gotten to work in Germany. I did a merger meeting in Rome, Italy. So I love to travel and I. And I love when I can, you know, do a meeting in Rome and then tack on two days and get to see this incredible city.
- [58:36]
Jeff Duden
So I. John, I've got a few questions for President Trump. Is there a way that he would field these questions for me?
- [58:42]
John D. Domenico
Absolutely. All right, first, take my glasses.
- [58:44]
Jeff Duden
First question.
- [58:45]
John D. Domenico
Should I get a hat? Do I have a hat? Wait.
- [58:52]
Jeff Duden
Is it true that in renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, that you intend to spell the Gulf? G, O, L, F. That's my joke. Is it really?
- [59:02]
John D. Domenico
Yeah, that's my joke. That's in my ass. We are changing the name to the Golf of America. Goth of America. I had it trademarked, so this way it'll be on everyone's shirt. Golf of America.
- [59:17]
Jeff Duden
Okay. I did not hear that you had done that. I wrote that this morning. I apologize. I mean, step on your stuff. All right, all right. How about that?
- [59:26]
John D. Domenico
That's one of the issues with Trump is you'll have an idea which you think is your own, but some other comedians done the same exact thing because we're all kind of.
- [59:35]
Jeff Duden
Let's see what I can land on here, if anything. I don't want to steal your government housing. One, which is brilliant. This is. You recently moved your family back into the White House. Did you ever think you would be forced to live in government housing? I heard you say that, yeah.
- [59:47]
John D. Domenico
That's my government housing. And the last family. It took forever to get out. It was terrible. Terrible. Can you believe I'm back in this dump? I don't even want to be there. It's freezing cold. No one knows what they do. Unbelievable.
- [60:03]
Jeff Duden
What will be the first Trump property on Mars? Casino, hotel or golf course?
- [60:08]
John D. Domenico
Well, I think we're going to do golf because I think a red course would be absolutely fantastic. A little white bow against the. Against the red. The red planet. Elon says it'll be great for golf. I'm very, very excited.
- [60:22]
Jeff Duden
I have to tell you, Mr. President, you did the entire Joe Rogan podcast without using the bathroom. Or did you?
- [60:33]
John D. Domenico
Well, no, listen, I have a tremendous bladder. I probably have the biggest bladder in the history of bladders and a fantastic prostate, my doctors always say. Did you believe this guy's prostate? What an incredible prostate. And a lot of people weren't talking about prostates and bladders until I started talking about prostate and bladders. Everyone's talking about prostate bladders. And I get no. I get no credit. I get no credit.
- [60:58]
Jeff Duden
In feet and inches. How long is your longest hair?
- [61:02]
John D. Domenico
My longest hair is the one that starts way back here, comes over and goes around three times. We call that the Trump Danish. And sometimes I call it the Trump Shelf. It depends on how I'm feeling. Depends on how I feel.
- [61:17]
Jeff Duden
Well, thank you, Mr. President.
- [61:18]
John D. Domenico
You gotta do that. You gotta. The women like hair. The women like it. They don't like those guys who shave their heads. That's sexy. Not sexy. Believe me. Believe. They like the hair. And they're never gonna get me on looks. Am I right? Am I right? You know, a lot of people say I'm the most attractive president in the history of presidents with the best ears. Look at this ear. It's an incredible ear. It dodged a bullet. It dodged a bullet because I have supersonic hearing. I heard it coming. That's where I turn my head.
- [61:47]
Jeff Duden
Thank you, John. I really appreciate it. Last.
- [61:50]
John D. Domenico
Last question.
- [61:52]
Jeff Duden
Last qu. And hey, our. Our. Our next homecoming event. Our second event. We're expecting six to 700 people. We're in Orlando in November. Man, I'd love to find a way to get you to MC that event for us, so hopefully we can.
- [62:04]
John D. Domenico
Oh, big. Yeah. I would love to do that. I would love to do it. I would. You know, we'll do all the impressions. Open with that.
- [62:13]
Jeff Duden
My people will call your people, and we'll. We'll see what we can do.
- [62:17]
John D. Domenico
Yes. Let's make it happen. I like planning Ahead. I like looking at my board and seeing a full year work.
- [62:23]
Jeff Duden
Yeah, 100%. All right, last question for today. If you had one sentence that you could make an impact in somebody else's life based on the life you've lived and what you've learned, what would that be?
- [62:37]
John D. Domenico
It is a moral imperative to reach your full potential. If you have something to overcome, dyslexia, adhd, whatever it is, the information is out there to overcome it. If you're dealing with alcohol, drugs, we live in it. Time in history where it's inexcusable not to deal with it, you can find the information online by a phone call. Go to a meeting. It is your moral imperative to reach your full potential. That is why we are here on this planet. Don't leave anything on the table. When they put you in that box, let them know you did everything you could.
- [63:29]
Jeff Duden
That is beautifully said, sir. And that lands just right. And that will land us at the end of the podcast. John D. Demonico, thank you so much for being on the home front. Appreciate you, sir.
- [63:40]
John D. Domenico
My pleasure.
- [63:40]
Jeff Duden
Yep. And this has been Jeff D. Thank you, Jeff. Yeah, 100%. 100%.
- [63:45]
John D. Domenico
Wait, Jeff Juden. I thought this was the Jeff Dunham Show. Am I on the wrong show? That's why you. Where's. Where are the puppets? Where are the puppets? No puppets.
- [63:55]
Jeff Duden
Thank you, John. This has been Jeff Duden and we have been on the home front. Thanks, everybody for listening. Take care. Thanks again to today's sponsor, Rilla Voice. Are you in the home services industry or leading a sales team? Rilla Voice is your virtual ride along, capturing every conversation and turning insights into actions. Visit rilla.com that's r I l l a.com or click the link below to get your special homefront brands offer today.