Ed Burns on New York, The Knicks & Becoming “Independent Ed”

You weren't thinking about acting, did you?

That's what I wanted to do.

No, no, no. I would be a writer director. But because I was too intimidated by all the kids in the theater department, who are like the really artsy kids, I just started casting me and my buddies into my little films, and that's kind of how I end up acting.

Alright, welcome everyone, another edition of Mac Daddy, Patrick Mackinac, your host alongside Rich Big Daddy Selgado. We're in Stout, a New York institution, an Irish hub institution. And who better to be joining us than the legend himself, the Irishman, the New Yorker, the producer, the director, the writer. Strong Island. Thank you, dude. Appreciate you being here with us.

Thank you, man. But now we're not truly representing with our glasses of water, though. We might have to change our early.

It's early, still early. We appreciate you being with us. And um, I mean, obviously you want to talk about your career, but I think the first thing we want to talk about is your sports interest, because you've always been a big sports fan, particularly a New York sports fan. How and when did that start?

I mean, uh, this is the year to discuss it. Yes because you know, I played hoop, I was a hoop junkie. My dad uh only played basketball, he didn't play any other sports, so like that was sort of my introduction uh to basketball, was because he was a fanatical Knicks fan and a St. John's fan. And his interesting story about the Johnnies was uh my dad went to St. Ann's High School, which was up on like uh 79th in Lex. Right. But that school, when they moved from the city out to Queens, became Archbishop Malloy. Oh, okay, sure.

A lot of my buddies from uh Douglas, Queens went to the city.

So uh my but when my dad goes to St. Anne's, uh Lou Carne Saka was the high school coach. And he cut my dad from the JV.

Oh man.

And then years later, after Brothers McMullen, like we're at some charity event, I had my dad with me. I don't know, my dad, come on, we gotta go over and say hello to Louie. Uh-huh. And uh my dad says, Hey Louie, you know, it's great to meet you. I just want to let you know, back in 1957, you cut me from the JV team. And Louie, you know, as sharp as he was, uh, he goes, Yeah, and you know what? I've regretted it every day since. Made your dad feel good. So from the old man, that's how I became a hoop fan. And, you know, I can remember my first game at the garden, probably 79, maybe 80. Uh Marvin Webster, um, you know, Michael Ray Richardson was my favorite, Ray Williams, those teams. Then me and my buddies in high school, you know, we take the Long Island Railroad into the garden, buy the cheap blue seats. Of course, the garden was empty then. So by, you know, by the third quarter, you were sitting, you know, basically courtside. Yeah, yeah.

You grease the guy, give him 10 bucks. Yeah, yeah. Well, we didn't have 10 bucks.

We wouldn't usually be getting chased out of there. Chased out of there, right? Skirting around the other side, getting back down.

Well, we had the I had the same experience growing up in Queens, you know, fairly close to where you grew up in Valley Stream, at the same area. We that for us to go be able to go into the garden was a huge deal and get on the train. We were big hockey fans too. Okay. So we're big Ranger fans. But obviously, this year, I mean, how how fun was that on the Knicks ride this year?

I was lucky enough to be at game four, right? So, you know, we we have season tickets, we split with another family. We're about uh ten rows behind the Knicks bench, but it's only two seats.

Okay. Um you gotta divvy them up.

And I have two kids who are also fanatical Knicks fans.

Right.

Um so my wife and I were like, all right, we'll last for the celebrity row seats, okay, um, and then the kids can take the season tickets. So that's what we do. Um but you know, the games were so packed that uh a lot of people uh were up in the boxes, which was great. We were up in the box, a bunch of my friends were there, so it was fantastic. Um but at halftime, I text my daughter and I'm like, hey, is there any way you would want to switch? You sit with mom, and I'll go down and sit with our with our boy. So I was down there watching, you know, that incredible game, the comeback, the shot, OG with the chip.

I mean, it was just the best. Unbelievable. I met him, actually, Lauren and I, who's our producer of this show, actually met OG and a couple of the other Nick players like a week or two after at the World Cup game. We went to see France play Senegal, and we were in um Woody Johnson's suite, which was amazing. But anyway, we got to meet the guys and they introduced the three of them. I think it was Bridges, OG, and I can't remember who the third guy was, but they put him in the front row. They said, we want to introduce you to the crowd, you know, and the whole stadium went absolutely ballistic. It was an amazing moment.

I mean, so the funny thing that you tell the story about going in, my biggest though, I didn't go to a lot of NBA games, but every year, the Big East tournament, and I'm not ashamed to say this, I go to my neighbor, I tell his sister, hey, write me a note, I gotta get out by uh 11 o'clock, I gotta go to the dentist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was on the train, and that was when the big East game started at noon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, there'd be four in a row. Four and a row at the garden. Yeah, and you'd be like, all right, 10 bucks or whatever it was, me and like eight friends, all of us, get on the train and go. Now, the one game that I did always remember Big East time was I went to the Syracuse Yukon eight overtime game. Oh wow. I had been invited to go see Pitt, and then Pitt got upset, so everybody that I was with from Pittsburgh left. So I'm sitting in the garden by myself, and I'm thinking, all right, I'll watch this game, and then I get home at 2:30 in the morning. Unbelievable. It was one of the greatest games I ever saw, you know.

It's funny you mentioned that. One of my favorite garden experiences ever was uh it's probably 84 or 85, the Syracuse-Georgetown final. Pro Washington Syracuse team beating uh Patrick's Georgetown. Um I mean that was like those biggies tournaments, that was like that place was fire, man.

Those places were great. And and the you know, the funniest thing is now I leave and I go to Maryland to play football. Played football in Maryland. So the funniest thing is I'm there when, you know, Maryland basketball, Len Bias was still alive.

My brother went to Maryland those years. Oh, really? Yeah, he graduated in '91, I think. Brian. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, you know Brian Bryan. Right around me.

I got out of 90. So, you know, I always got caught up in the St. John's, Maryland thing. Who was the better player, Walter Barry or Len Bias? Right.

And, you know, and I used to always say Don't forget about Molly, Chris Mulle. Yeah, no, I died too.

And I told I'm I'm still friends with Chris. Yeah. And we would talk, and I'd be like, dude, you know how many arguments I got in over you, like with all the brothers down in Maryland, you know? Yeah. Because they were Lenny B, Lenny B. And don't get me wrong, Lenny B was incredible on another planet. When I took my my recruiting trip there, they were playing like Towson or somebody. And I was like, man, I gotta see this guy playing, even if I don't come to school here. And my host is like, really? Like, he's not gonna play more than five minutes. I don't care if I see him for two. I just want to see it live. And you know, because they're winning and done, you get seats courtside, yeah, yeah, and you get to see him. Up close and personal.

Yeah.

Wow.

But that what you see you said in your your great New York sports moments, the St. John's getting the Final Fours up there. I think it was near number two. Yeah, yeah. Is the Nick win now, now officially number one? I mean, how could it not be? Because you're a big giant fan, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But still, like, you know, and I love the Giants. Um but like I said, who brought us.

My glasses are over there. Come on, man. That's the Giants Ring right there. Yeah, check that out. Not too bad, right? Not too shabby, yeah.

Congrats. That's very cool. I got both ears. Yeah, yeah.

So I have a lot of history there with them. We uh you ever heard of Umberto's Pizzeria in New High Park? Okay, yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. I know him since I'm nine years old. I'm 60. Me and Stray Hannah, like Justin Tuck, put that place on the map. And we took his pizza, it was a Friday tradition. Every Friday, the O-line and D line had to eat it.

Would you go there or did you bring it up?

Yeah, well, I would go myself. Oh, you'd go pick him up. Yeah, I'd go, no, I'd go pick up the stuff. And I would bring it to I bring it to the stadium. I gotcha. So then someone had the crazy idea of Big Daddy, we can't break uh superstition. You gotta bring it to Indianapolis. So I brought the pizza to Indy.

Oh, I love it.

And then they wanted you know, it was we had uh Justin Tuck came after the Super Bowl to New High Park. They had to close the whole damn watchdown. I mean, it was it was a gom show, but all the giant fans were there and a lot of fun.

So we, you know, you you came in here to this bar and you're looking around before we did the interview, and you said, it's gonna be too loud in here, and then we you know you gave you the mic and you put everything. So I said, Well, this is old hat for you. So that's that's my transition into your career. Okay, yeah. And because you're you're known for doing everything yourself, you like. And so my first question is your interest in just making movies, writing, directing, being in movies, where did that come from? And how did that start?

Um, I was, you know, when I it's funny, and it's kind of connected to sports, because like uh when I was a kid, the only thing I was good at in school was writing, right? Um and my dad encouraged me, well, you're good at writing, you should, that's what you should think about doing. So I when I go to school, I'm thinking, well, I'll maybe I'll be a novelist, but the fullback career was sports writing, right? Since I was such a sports director. But as an English major, you could take like film appreciation classes and become a film studies minor. So I was not like a movie buff or a cinophile as a kid. When I'm in school, I start taking these film appreciation classes, and uh I see one of the first class, one of the first movies I see in the class is Billy Wilder's The Apartment.

Okay.

I never looked at like old black and white movies or anything like that. And the professor kept talking about Billy Wilder. He's the writer director. And I had no exposure to that as a kid. So I didn't know exactly what the professor was talking about. So I raised my hand. I'm like, you keep saying the writer-director, what does that exactly mean? And he's like, Well, he wrote the screenplay of the movie you just watched, and he's the guy who makes the determination. Are we gonna shoot it in color or black and white? Are we gonna cast Jilly McLean or some other actors? You know, um, and I was like, Are you gonna do all that? And that's a job? That's a job that somebody does. I never gave it any thought. And then I was like, well, forget writing novels. I'm gonna write movies. Okay. And then after I wrote my first screenplay, I was like, well, I want to direct movies now as well. So I went to Hunter College up on 68th in Lex, uh, because my old man was like a New York City cop, didn't grow up with any money. And I was like, Dad, I want to study film at either NYU or Columbia or USC. He's like, look at your grades, look at my salary, forget that, find the city school. So I go to Hunter, and that's when I start making these short films. Right. And, you know, uh, like I said, because we didn't have any money, you made these little movies with a three-man crew. So when I decided I wanted to try and make a uh uh you know a micro budget or a low budget feature film, which turned out to be the Brothers McMillan, I made that for $25,000 with a three-man crew. And it took like 12 days? We shot 12 days over the course of eight months. Okay, all right, because my my dad, you know, we tried to raise 25 grand. Uh so uh we knew one lawyer who helped us put together a limited partnership of five shares at $5,000 a piece. Wow. We knew one Wall Street guy. That guy gave my dad five grand, my dad gave me five grand, and that's all we raised. Wow. So I was like, well, let's take the 10 grand and shoot as much as we can, and then we'll just raise a little bit as we go. So over the course of eight months, I was able to raise a thousand here, two thousand there, and that's how we went to the.

Exactly, yep. Did you write that while you were in school? Or is this after you graduated from Hunter?

After I graduated, well, I never graduated. You never graduated, okay. Nine credit shy. Okay. Um, but uh I got a job as a production assistant at Entertainment Tonight, right? Uh which was a Columbus Circle at the time. And it was funny, like that experience of it's it's funny, like you guys for this podcast have kind of as big, if not a bigger operation than we had at ET.

Because you have three cameras I can see.

And the technology is we shot with one camera and a three-person crew. So I was like, all right, well, I know that's good enough to broadcast on Entertainment Tonight. I'll do a three-man crew with one camera, right? Um, and I'll make my little sort of you know, personal movie.

Right.

Um and so it was it was from working at ET that I think I wouldn't say gave me the courage, but gave me the uh almost the audacity to be like I could do this, I can do this, right? And that's kind of how I put that movie together. And since then, you know, like I would say, every couple of years, there was something magical about being able to do something with like that small a crew and that kind of intimate an environment, right? Right. Uh so I would say like every 10 years, I kind of get the itch to make a little uh one of those little movies again. And that's kind of what I've been doing now for 30 years.

And what about when you were attempted at times to do like a big studio movie? I know you kind of you know thought about that at one point. Yeah. And you decided, you know what, that's not really the game I want to play consistently.

Um there were definitely times uh over the last 30 years where, you know, I've written a bigger script, a bigger story on a bigger canvas, and have tried to go the studio route for one reason or another, couldn't get those films financed. Which is still something I would like to do. Okay. You know? Um, but there's also been some moments where uh I got offered uh kind of like a gun for hire, like uh you come in and direct someone else's script or a studio, and usually those scripts are like kind of lame romantic comedy.

They're not up to your level of expectation. Rom comedies, as they say.

And I and again, like, um, so I I passed on a few of those, and at a certain point I realized, like, you know what, that it just isn't what I want to do. Like, I I kind of I've now created a little niche for myself, and there's enough of an audience where I know if I make one of these little movies, there's enough people out there who give a shit enough that they'll watch it and I get to make another one. And how do you define she's the one with the that would So she's the one's kind of interesting because that was my second film. Okay. And even though that was a low budget movie in 1995 when we made it. That's a big name's in it. Yeah, you had a big name. But nobody was a big name woman. At the time, right.

I think like Jennifer Anderson was and Amanda Pete, Leslie Man.

Oh wow, I know. They were all in that. Yeah. Um before anybody really was a star. Because even Jennifer, it was just, it was between season one and two of Friends. Of Friends. So she was she was coming up, but she wasn't. She was coming up, but she wasn't Jennifer Addison. Right, right, right.

Interesting. So when you when you look back, I mean now you're you you I think your second book is just about to come out, right? So you you said you just came from doing an audio for the second book, Independent Ed.

Oh, so so that's different. Yes. That's a novel, but that's more of a novel or No, so Independent Ed was a book I wrote 10 years ago, which is kind of like, I guess let's say after 15 or 20 years in making these little movies, uh, my wife, who you know, Christy, was like, you know, because I speak at film festivals and and film schools a lot, talking to students on how you can make a movie with the city.

How to get stuff done, right, right.

Uh so she's like, you know, why don't you put all those stories into a book? Okay. So that was Independent A. Oh, I gotcha, okay. But then, you know, I mentioned earlier when I first went to school thinking I wanted to be a novelist during COVID when we didn't know if we could ever do this again, right? Right. I was like, well, you know, you always wanted to write a novel. Maybe now is the time. So that's when I wrote this novel called The Kid from Marlboro Road. Okay. That came out a couple of years ago, and the new book is part two in the trilogy, and it's a it's a novel, uh, and it's called uh The Marlboro Road Gang in yourself.

Well, it's funny because during COVID is when I started my podcast, which is kind of how we morphed into this over the years. You know, I started doing it from my basement. I started doing my my first podcast, now I do a radio show on Sirius and so on. But this kind of idea stemmed from that when I'm sitting in my basement in Bronxville. Um, you mentioned your wife, I ran into her uh recently. Uh, my wife, when I told her that um I was gonna interview you, you and my wife did a movie together. I said I want to ask you about, but the first thing I want to do is give your props to your wife, from my wife, Melissa, who said, You must ask Ed about what Christy's doing and all that she's doing to help moms, to help women. Because my wife did that for 20 years in SOHO. She had a group called the Bowery Babes, which was a smaller group and it was really before the internet took off, which was like a mother support group for young women that were just becoming mothers, you know, that were professional women, all different backgrounds. But anyway, she's really moved by what Christy's doing. So, why don't you just tell me a little bit about exactly what she does?

Yeah, so when um when our daughter Grace was being born 22 plus years ago, um, Christy had a complication during the birth, uh, and she had a natural birth, like at a birthing center. Right. So there wasn't a doctor there, it was a midwife, and she had um uh uh a complication, sort of uh delivering her placenta. Okay. And she started hemorrhaging and bleeding a lot, so they had to call upstairs to the hospital to get a doctor down, and four, you know, it was a scary half hour.

Of course, big time.

Uh sort of a year later, my wife is doing some, uh, she's on like a charity, uh, she's working with a uh charity organization called CARE.

Okay.

And they're in El Salvador, because my wife's mom uh is from El Salvador. Okay. Uh so they were visiting a birthing center there, and she was explaining to the midwives what happened to her. And they said, well, you know, if you were here, it's like a 99% chance you would have died from that complication.

Wow, wow.

And that kind of opened to her her eyes as she started to do some research, and she eventually made a film that was called No Woman, No Cry, that had to, that looked at, you know, all of the, and it's literally hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths of moms and and babies uh during childbirth. And not just all over the world in sort of impoverished nations, but even here in America, I think we rank either 25 or 35 of you know moms dying giving birth. So yeah, and nobody knows about it. Uh so she started this charity, every mother counts, 16 or 17 years ago, and um, you know, they they've raised, you know, 45, 50 million dollars over the years to uh raise awareness. They've um helped finance you know birthing centers and train midwives in Haiti and uh figure out ways to get you know um motorcycle ambulances to communities or neighborhoods all over the world that don't have access to a birthing center. Um so if anybody's interested, it's everymothercounts.org. They can go there, read about it, watch some of their films, you know, donate a couple of bucks to help out moms all over the world.

Well, it's you know, it's funny because reading about your wife's stuff, I'm part of a women's empowerment group. Oh, okay. And it's called the Share Group. And I'm an ambassador for it, and it's kind of a place where all women get together and they have an ask, you know, and they get together and they talk about issues and stuff like what your wife's doing. So I know there's an interest there to make an introduction to the CEO. And I have some uh just uh some of my close friends that you know, they support the group.

I mean it's like we'll definitely put that together.

Big Patty's like the biggest connector of anyone in New York.

It's amazing. So, but let me ask you, because the only the only movie, well, I think I've been in maybe one other movie, but the only movie where I actually had a little part, you were the star. Now you don't you don't remember that I was there, but you remember my wife, because she was played in the movie alongside you and Angelina Jolie. Called Life or Something Like It. And it was about a woman in sort of morning news getting her big break in Seattle. And anyway, they needed a uh sports caster at one point. The director said to my wife, but my husband's uh he's in the he's in the uh hotel over there. You could use him. Let's bring him in.

Presented by Volition America, which gives 13. Percent of its profits to fold the bar. Sponsored by Fire Department Coffee. Veteran owned and run by firefighters.

My question to you is I mean, you I mean you're saving Private Ryan, which is one of the biggest budget movies. You know, you you've done some of those movies where you're like the lead actor. What's the difference for you, your experience doing those and doing what you obviously love to do, which is making it yourself?

I mean, it's funny, you know, like um I was so lucky that the first movie that I acted in that wasn't one of mine was Saving Private Ryan. Right. So quite honestly, I was kind of spoiled by that experience because, you know, not only do I get to work with Tom Hanks in almost every scene, and as a young guy and a young actor, like for him to be a mentor to you was just incredible. Because, hey, he's Tom Hanks, he's an incredible actor, but he's an incredible guy, you know, and he's like the first guy to show up on set. He knows everybody's name. Uh he always knows his lines. Like he's a he's a leader, you know, and I'm sure you played with guys like this. They don't need to be like barking in the in the locker room, they just lead by example. Yeah. That was Tom, right?

Right, right.

Um, and then for me as a filmmaker, you know, I said to Stephen after the first week, I was like, would it be okay if I could just kind of stand over your shoulder and just kind of watch you. And that was for me, that was like going to graduate film school. Right. So on the job training. On the job training, exactly. Um and then that movie turns into saving private money. Right. Right? Uh change changes my life. Best experience I've ever had, bar anything.

I think I've seen it like a hundred times, you know. Oh yeah. The residuals you're getting, I don't know. Well, I should say Big Daddy, right? I appreciate it, appreciate it.

Um but um, you know, so then uh, because I never really like when I was telling the story about going to Hunter College. Right. You weren't thinking about acting. Not at all.

That's what I wanted to do. Not at all.

I was a I would be a writer-director, but because I was too intimidated by all the kids in the theater department, or like the really artsy kids, I just started casting me and my buddies in my little films, and that's kind of how I end up acting in McMullen and going through all that. Um, but then you know, like the second movie I get to do is a movie called 15 Minutes, and it's me and De Niro. Then I get to do a movie called Competence, and it's Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia and Paul Giamatti and Rachel Weiss.

All-timers, yeah.

I mean all-timers. And then the fourth movie I get to do is Life of Something Like with Angelina Jolie.

She's a star, she was a star. She's a massive star.

So it's like, I came out of the gate, you know, I mean, quite honestly, kind of blessed by getting to work with all these really like great, interesting, super talented people. Um, but you know, my uh, let's say my my movie star cachet or whatever, you know, I was going good, right? And then some of those movies didn't work, and then all of a sudden you're not getting those kind of authors anymore, yeah. And I did some other films which are fun. Yeah. But I think I came to a certain place in my life, and especially after I had my kids, I was like, do I really want to go to Prague for three months to be the fifth banana in some stupid action movie and not be home watching my kids grow up. Yeah.

And also be able to do what you really love to do.

And then I got to kind of refocus on my true passion, which is making these small movies. So that's kind of how it happened. But um, you know, like I said, blessed, and those were all phenomenal experiences. And, you know, I'm sure you played with guys or you had a coach or a season that wasn't great. But from any one of those experiences, right? Like, you learn from even the worst experiences.

You lose every week. Yeah, yeah. You know, and you gotta deal with that, and then you gotta say, And you also learn from those things. Yeah, you learn, and you're like, yeah, but you're also like, I'm still one of the best in the world, but I just got my ass kicked. Um, another show you did, which I don't think ever made it to air, was a TV show called The Fighting Fitzgerald track. Yeah, yeah. That you did when you and your brother wrote that. Yeah. So my wife was in the, was one of the uh characters. Oh, that's right. In the in the in the what do they call it, in the pilot. Yeah. So she has this incredible memory of walking in the day of what you, I guess you call it the table read, the first day, and Brian Denehee was there, who was a legend, right? And he, you know, did everything on uh we're here by Broadway, did a lot of big Broadway, but you know, he was just amazing. Not bar famously, yep. But uh Nut Street Bar, excuse me. Um Death of a Salesforce. Death of a Salesman, yeah. But he he my wife walks in, and he had known her through the theater, and she was mostly a musical theater actress. And he he she she came home from the table read that day, and I said, How'd it go? She said, Brian Denny just looked at me and said, What are you doing here? Like, like in a way, like almost like I was like, Well, I think you meant that as a compliment. I think, but because you're like, you know, why are you out here doing it? But he was kind of cynical. I got the visa. Yeah, what was it, what was he like as a person?

Um, yeah, so I worked with him on that, and that and that show eventually, I think we did 12 episodes and it got canceled.

Yeah, it ended up making it at some point.

I worked with him again in another series that I made, which I I I absolutely love called Public Morals, about cops in New York City in the 60s, and he played the head of like an Irish crime family. Right. So that's really where I got to know him. Um and to your point, like, you know, he was tough, like when you met him. And, you know, that exchange he had with Melissa was very much part of his thing. I think he liked to kind of keep everyone. And keep you on your toes, like, who am I dealing with? Um, but you know, when it came time to do the work, incredibly generous actor, loved to work. So he was a guy. He was a workhorse, yeah. He he showed up and he wanted to always be great. Um, but that story does not surprise me at all. And he can be intimidating.

Yeah, yeah. She was like, oh man, I can she looked, you know, she knew him, she looked up to him, it was wild. Yeah.

So so you know, the one thing, you said you went you went to school, but I want to hear about how you went to school and you were gonna be a basketball player. Murph told me that. Okay, yeah. He was like, yeah, yeah. He goes, get it from him. Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you. I said, okay. And you know, he was he said, you had a love for the game, like no one he ever saw.

Yeah. Um, you know, when I and I think it's funny, uh, because I was just talking to my dad about it recently. Um, I think the reason because I'm playing golf now. Oh, yeah, right?

Oh yeah, your wife told me that.

I'm a golf junkie, right? And like every day I'm trying to do something to get better at the game. And she's like, you're a fucking lunatic. Like, what is going on with you? And I said, look, that same kind of mentality is the same way I kind of, you know, I write every day in the hopes that I'm gonna get to make a movie every year. Right. And that all comes from like, you know, when I'm 13 years old and I decide, you know, I want to make it to the NBA, right? So I never leave my house without a basketball in my hands. And I was like, I was totally okay going up to the schoolyard by myself, working on my handle, trying to finish left, working on my J, you know, doing everything you would do. Um so like, whatever that grinder mentality is, um, I've kind of always had that. So when Merv probably speaks about the passion, that was it. But you know, Merv and I went to school at uh SUNY Oneta together.

He didn't get in there, he goes, let Eddie turn.

Yeah, all right. Um so you know, played, I played three games for Oneanta, and at our third game, we played SUNY Binghamton. This is a small D3 school, and there were like four people in the stands.

Um my tennis career, right? Yeah, it could happen. I mean, tough, yeah, tough to get motivated.

And I realized the dream was over. So uh, and I had a feeling that I wanted to leave that school to go to SUNY uh Albany because they have a better writing program. So after the third game, I called my dad and I was like, look, I think um I think the hoop dream is over. It's time to shift gears and uh find the new passion. So so that was it. But I continued to play until you know, I actually I coached my son's AAU team all the way through his senior year, and um I got to live vicariously through, and he was a better player than me. Um so I got to kind of have a little bit of glory through him.

So Finnegan's Forsome, which is your one of your latest projects. Tell us a little bit about that and what that means to you.

Alright, so Finnegan's Forsome is a is uh a movie about um you know an Irish American family that takes their deceased father, uh, his ashes back to Ireland because he's from Ireland. So after he dies, they take his ashes back to Ireland to be distributed at a few places that are very important to him. Um, you know, the the farm where he grew up, the beach where he proposed to their mother, and his two favorite golf courses. The course where he grew up playing with his father and his grandfather, and a course that he sort of helped design in the story. So this whole idea of distributing the ashes came from, you know, my mom died during COVID and uh she was cremated, but I'm sure you remember back then, like you couldn't have a service. No, yeah, I remember.

Both my parents were cremated, so okay, yeah.

So, you know, we couldn't have a service, so like I so like a year later when we could finally have a service, it was just for our immediate family, but my dad was kind of in no state to kind of figure out the burial. Right. So, given it's the day we're having her mass, I uh I say to my dad, my brother, my sister, I said, look, why don't we do this? I have mom's asses. Why don't we go around to a few important places for her and we'll distribute them? So we went to our house in Valley Street, our apartment where we lived uh in Woodside Queens. My mom was from the South Bronx, so we went up to her apartment. Uh St. Angeles was the Catholic church that my mom was baptized in, and where my parents were married. So that was one of the places we wanted to do it as well. When we go there, uh, you know, we don't ask permission for any of this. So, like we're running onto the lawn of a house we don't go, chucking my mom's ass and so when we get to St. Angeles, we walk in and the priest is uh is uh in the church. So my dad's like, oh shit, all right. He goes, All right, so I'll go talk to the priest. When he turns his back, you take a fistful of the ashes and throw it up on the altar. So I was like, all right, great, let's do it. So we do that, and you know, when we walk into the church, it's kind of sad and it's somber, but as we leave, we're laughing our asses off because you know, my 85-year-old dad just pulled this stunt for the asses. And I knew from that experience, I was like, all right, there's something kind of funny in a way to celebrate somebody's life in this kind of way. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. So I was like, alright, I'm gonna use that at some place. And then when I started to become a golf junkie, I was also like, well, if I'm gonna play this much golf, I gotta figure out a way to maybe get paid to play golf. So I was like, oh, make a golf movie. Yeah, right. So I kind of married those two ideas, and of course, you know, um, you know, my love of Ireland, my you know, my mom's parents were from there. Right. And um when she always talked about uh, you know, her father's house, he had apple trees in the backyard, and after the fact we thought, you know, we should have saved some ashes to take back to that house and put on her father's uh apple trees.

Apple trees, yeah.

So there's a scene in the movie where we do that, and that's kind of the wink to my mom.

Oh wow. Yeah, very cool. That's very cool. Yeah, yeah. Should we give them a couple of things you can't Google about Ed Burns?

Yeah, why not?

It's a little thing we like to do.

It's a little game we play. Lighten it up. Not that we need to lighten it up with you, but yeah. It's kind of funny. We uh so in the mornings, will you take a shower? Do you sing?

I do not sing. I listen to uh uh Frank Isola and Scal on C in this XM on their uh NBA morning show. Yeah, you know, and during COVID, those mornings that were so depressing, they saved me. Yeah. So that's my morning routine.

I get my NBA update. You want to you want to, you know, you talk about podcasts during COVID. I had done one, and it was called Big Daddy and Friends. And at first I was kind of like, ah, I don't want to do this. You know what? I'll I'll book, I'll I'll get you some people to come on. Right? Then the guy's like, then I said to him, I go, you know what? Unless you make me the host, I have no interest. Thinking I'm gonna get out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A couple days later, Big Daddy, you got it. I'm like, Really?

I gotta do this?

Now I gotta do it. Yeah. So I caused a stir because my first guest is Andy Reed. The week of the Super Bowl. I beat Sha I beat all those guys. I just called Andy Duarte. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, I need, oh, Big Daddy, no problem. So I did about 60 of them. And then I wore out. Like, because what happens is I get your cell, I have your cell, I have everybody's cells, and all the TV guys and producers, they want to do all the talking. And I'm like, I can't give out their numbers. So I was doing booking, the show. You gotta do a lot of stuff. After a while, I just you know, I needed Lauren. You know, I needed you. But you know give me your favorite meal.

You had one meal tonight. Go home, you can have whatever you want.

Um, I'd say it's it's it's it would be one of two if I can. Okay, all right. Like um uh a New York strip on the grill is absolutely, you know, medium rare, that's hands down my favorite.

Baked potato, maybe?

Um I kind of like the little red roasted potatoes. Oh, okay. Those are good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's kind of my go-to.

Okay.

Um, and then quite honestly, like John's Pizzeria Omblica. Oh, yeah. Like just a full pie, I can put it down.

Absolutely, that is my go-to. I used to, actually, it's funny, I used to, when I would come back from touring, you know, I was playing on the Pro Tour. The first thing I would always do after being away for four weeks or six weeks is really I give it, give me a New York pie. Yeah, yeah, give me the New York pie. Like no art. But you earned it. Yeah, yeah. I can afford it. He's running around all over the world running up in the course. And we appreciate it. Dude, thank you so much. Really, really great. Great to see you.

Thank you, man.

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I wouldn't know anything about that.