Ep 192 : From Writing to Bartending: A Unique Blend of Passions ft Thomas Mathe

Tom Máthé [00:00:00]:
But I went to an evangelical Christian college. The reason for that is is there it's they're dynamic reasons. But, I was super alienated when I got there. My first day, I meet my roommate, and he had been, like, the guy who led chapel. So he was, like, a praise the praise singer. He showed up in the room, and he was like, hey, you're Tom? And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, you're only here because I forgot to pray.

Raphael Harry [00:00:33]:
What? And

Tom Máthé [00:00:33]:
I yeah. That's what I said. I said, what? And he he was like, yeah. No. I, I was supposed to have a roommate in the fall semester, but I prayed to have a single. And that guy wound up joining the marines.

Raphael Harry [00:00:59]:
Hey, everybody. Rafael Harry here. You're listening to White Label Americans. On this show, we dive into unique and diverse origin stories from immigrants and allies. Join us weekly as we break barriers, connect the past with the present, and peek into the future. Welcome to another episode of white label American. Thank you all for being with us. And thanks for sticking with us from day 1 to year 6 of this podcast.

Raphael Harry [00:01:29]:
I'm your host, Rafael Harry, and it's a pleasure to bring you each episode. If you're new here, welcome. Stay a while and invite a friend and there's room for more listeners. So we'd love to hear from you. So stay tuned for how to get in touch. Your support means the world to us. In this episode, we chat with a fiction writer, craft cocktail bartender, beverage consultant, and educator. We'll dive into his creative journey, balancing family, and nearly 2 decades in the restaurant industry.

Raphael Harry [00:02:05]:
I'm honored to have Thomas Mate with us today. How are you doing, my friend? I'm doing well. How are

Tom Máthé [00:02:10]:
you doing?

Raphael Harry [00:02:11]:
I'm doing great. I'm honored to have you here. So, do you have any new thing going to you today? You stopped cooking? No pun intended.

Tom Máthé [00:02:23]:
Yeah. It's not quite ready to be, kinda brought out, but, yeah, I'm I'm a couple days away from it being potentially able to be brought out. But, yeah, I'm working on some stuff.

Raphael Harry [00:02:35]:
Alright. So if you whenever you're ready to announce, feel free to come back and announce with us. But in the meantime, I know you're a storyteller. You know, I went through your website and I there's a lot of great stuff there. But for those for the audience getting to meet you today, how did you know how to start and end a story? Oh,

Tom Máthé [00:03:03]:
It really it really kind of I don't know. Like, how do, you know, how to start is sort of the question. Getting to kind of find the source of what will draw people in, usually takes starting, prior to that. Usually, like, what what I find is I'll think I have a place where a story starts. Mhmm. And as I continue deeper into the story, more so like looking back on it and editing, you see like, oh, like all this stuff at the beginning to prepare sort of, the reader in your mind, for like what the story is going to be, oftentimes, why oftentimes winds up being like, too much exposition. So the story starts, like, you'll be editing, and you'll be like, oh, actually, I think the story starts, like, on page 6. And it's this, like and when you cut all the stuff out that you think is necessary, you'll find sort of, like, people find their way to that information, and you'll find a way to get that information conveyed through other ways, if you kinda just let it, let the story progress.

Raphael Harry [00:04:26]:
Mhmm. Yeah. Because I have the problem of starting a story and ending a story. And Yeah.

Tom Máthé [00:04:35]:
It's

Raphael Harry [00:04:35]:
like I always start and then I stop, and then I go start something else. And I, which is why I've never completed any of the books that I'm supposed to have written in how many years now. So I always love hearing how someone started their story and brought it to an end.

Tom Máthé [00:04:53]:
You start it where you can. You start it wherever it'll come out, you know, because all you have to do is get it out. And then finding out where it really starts is something that happens in the editorial process, you know, like, in in my experience, and that's just one way of doing it, but yeah. Endings, yeah. Endings are I don't know. Like, I feel like we, as people, kind of, like, have an idea of what constitutes an ending, based on, you know, experiencing stories, and storytelling in our lives. And it just doesn't feel like the end, kinda. Oh.

Tom Máthé [00:05:36]:
Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:05:37]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's that's, that's an excellent point about us having a picture of where what an ending is. Mhmm. And then sometimes life throws the ending at

Tom Máthé [00:05:52]:
us. Mhmm.

Raphael Harry [00:05:53]:
Yeah. From what we had in mind. So, yeah, I think I need to remind myself about that. And for those listening, if you have a different interpretation of what the ending should be in a story that you've been writing or are writing right now, yeah, feel free to let us know and use the feedback option on website. And let's see. So you're a family man and, husband with kids. So how have you managed being a family man with your career? And do you borrow inspiration from time spent with your loved ones when it comes to storytelling?

Tom Máthé [00:06:36]:
I mean, time spent with my family, not wholly. Not it's not I don't necessarily draw inspiration from that. In terms of, like, you know, whether, like, the it's like the finding of the balance of being, a husband and a father and wanting to pursue, creative things, it's really a matter of taking care of family, taking care of being, being a husband, being a father, and finding places to get the the storytelling in, the writing in. I've spent a lot of time most of the novel I'm currently working on was drafted on the notes app of my cell phone, on the subway or on break at work. Mhmm. Sometimes it's if, you know, there's been a cup there've been a couple of instances where I've, like, been awake when no one else is awake in the house, and I'm able to get a little bit done. But I'm usually pretty exhausted at that point, and the stuff that comes out then isn't super, coherent when I look at it later. But,

Raphael Harry [00:08:18]:
but yeah. I know that feel because when I'm exhausted and I try to write stuff down, I start it it just comes out as scribbles.

Tom Máthé [00:08:25]:
Yeah. When I was younger, it felt like when I was, like, I would write a lot late at night, and it felt good. Mhmm. It doesn't anymore.

Raphael Harry [00:08:34]:
That's why we call the watched agenda. Shout out to the MCU podcast, university podcast. Yeah. That's where the worst agenda came out from. But yeah. So sticking with family, we're gonna dive into your origins.

Tom Máthé [00:08:52]:
Okay.

Raphael Harry [00:08:53]:
And before yeah. Okay. I'll ask this question first before I get to the other question I was gonna ask. So do you know the meaning of your name and if there's a story behind how you came to have those names? Do you mind sharing?

Tom Máthé [00:09:08]:
Yeah. I don't mind. Thomas is an you know, my mom gave me the anglicized version of my name, because I was born I'm the first member of my family that was born in the United States. And I think I think she was kind of facing a bit of pressure upon moving here to, to sort of fit in, and to not really, like, cause much of a stir by giving me, like, 2 too foreign sounding a name. So my name in Hungarian is Tamas. Tamas. Yeah. Tamas Mate.

Tom Máthé [00:10:04]:
And I am named after the biblical Thomas, doubting Thomas, which is like, you know, it's it's interesting. I spent a lot of time sort of wondering about that. When I was, this is a little later in my life, but when I was, like, 12 years old, I saw a ghost. And it was the ghost of my great uncle, who had been a Catholic priest in his life. Mhmm. And for a while, I was like, oh, my name is Tomas. And Tomas was the one who stuck his finger in the wound of Jesus to, like, prove like, the miracle of this is, you know he sort of had his doubt, proven by a miracle. You know? And so for me, I was like, oh, I saw, like, the ghost of a priest in my childhood.

Tom Máthé [00:11:01]:
Like, I don't know. There was a part of me that sort of was, like, I am that that part of my name feels, like it's turned into something in my life. But yeah. But what it means, Thomas, is it's a Greek origin, and it means twin. And I'm also a Gemini. So whatever, you know, whatever that means. Maybe I have a lot of different personalities as a result. Interesting.

Tom Máthé [00:11:32]:
I don't know.

Raphael Harry [00:11:33]:
I never associated Thomas or Thomas with twin. I think the story about the doubting Thomas just made a bunch of us assume that to be named Thomas means you are a doubter. Yeah. And, someone who will always be curious and has to, have facts proven beyond measure before they will ever believe stuff. So anytime I know as a kid back in Nigeria, anytime I came across, a Thomas, it was, oh, doubting Thomas. I was the first that came out of the mountain. Yeah. It was all tied to that story from the New Testament.

Raphael Harry [00:12:18]:
Yeah. So yeah. But that was part of the ignorance. But, hey, you know.

Tom Máthé [00:12:22]:
I had a 6th grade teacher who also attended the Catholic church I went to with with my mom, and she would call me doubting Thomas in in class. And Gotcha. Thought that was a little strange. But, but yeah. No. I my mom told me that she didn't pick the name Thomas because it it was because of the biblical name, but she said she just liked the way it sounded. Oh, okay. It wasn't meant to imply that I would be Yeah.

Tom Máthé [00:12:50]:
This skeptical person. But you know?

Raphael Harry [00:12:55]:
Oh, man. Yeah. Because my next question was gonna be if it was, Thomas, Thomas, the anglicized Yeah. Version because yeah. Because I'm familiar with the part of the world that your family came from. So for the audience that's not aware, can you introduce them to the part of the world that your family came from?

Tom Máthé [00:13:14]:
Yeah. My family is, from Hungary. Well okay. So they're from if you go back to, like, my grandparents and beyond on both sides, they're from the, like, area of Romania that is now, well, like, Cluj Napoca. That is, like, one of the cities in that kind of general region. It's like the heart of Transylvania. I used to make a joke when I was a kid that that's why my teeth were so sharp. And, Yeah.

Tom Máthé [00:13:54]:
I also, like, kind of went hard in the opposite direction when, my wife and I named our first child. We named him Bela, which is a super traditional, Hungarian name. Oh. And he it's also the name of Bela Lugosi, who played Dracula. It wasn't an active choice, but it is there. Like, the connect that connection exists even though it was not what we were going for. Hey.

Raphael Harry [00:14:26]:
The threads of connection is like, well, I don't if Count Dracula would say, hey, I'm not you you knew. You we we stay connected. It's part of it. What is the storytelling you that's just manifested? So have you, have you been to, have do you have plans of going to to Hungary, you know, visiting your the parts that your family is from?

Tom Máthé [00:14:56]:
I've been to, the village where my, mother grew up. She went back there and lived there, for a while. I've been to Hungary twice, a couple weeks at a time, both times. But I've never been to Romania specifically, like, where where it goes deeper, where, my grandparents are from. But I've seen, like, the the plot of land, the the tiny shack my mom and her 3 siblings and, parents all lived in.

Raphael Harry [00:15:30]:
And what was that experience like for you?

Tom Máthé [00:15:33]:
It was it was interesting. Like, I always had kind of a vision of it in my head, and it was unfortunate because, like, the actual, like, building that they lived in wasn't there anymore. But I saw the plot of land. You know? Like, I saw the high school that my mother went to. My my uncle, Attila, who is a a chef, an excellent chef, still lives in that village as well.

Raphael Harry [00:16:09]:
Oh.

Tom Máthé [00:16:10]:
And it's, like, it's pretty close to Budapest. It's, like, 33 kilometers east by northeast of the city. Yeah. So you can, like, take a train out there, kind of similar to, like, a, a, Metro North type train or but some of some of the trains I remember taking a a train from Budapest to Goedelu, which is the village where my mom was from. And, like, one time I got on a train, and it was a modern train, and it had, like, an electric this is like, these are the names of the stops, you know?

Raphael Harry [00:16:50]:
Oh.

Tom Máthé [00:16:50]:
Because they're speaking in Hungarian, over the over the, the speaker system. But I wound up going home, or back to my my mother's house kinda late on an old train that didn't have those displays. And I was just like, I really hope that I get off in the right station. But I was lucky because Gotelu has, like, it had an old, I believe, Austro Hungarian Queen's summer house

Raphael Harry [00:17:26]:
Oh.

Tom Máthé [00:17:26]:
In the village. And because of that, there's an like a, historical waiting house at the train station for the queen whenever she had to take the train. She she would wait in this, like, house by by the rails, which, you know, is I don't know. It's like a fascinating

Raphael Harry [00:17:48]:
Said that's a good landmark.

Tom Máthé [00:17:50]:
Yeah. It was there, and I was like, there's the house. Okay. This is us. You know? Like, oh, man.

Raphael Harry [00:17:56]:
It was

Tom Máthé [00:17:56]:
it was scary. But

Raphael Harry [00:17:57]:
Hey. I mean, well, when

Tom Máthé [00:17:59]:
I

Raphael Harry [00:17:59]:
travel, there's places it's good to not not have your landmarks

Tom Máthé [00:18:05]:
that Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:18:05]:
You know, because if you can't read the language, if you can't, understand the language, you need you go to plan a, that's landmarks. You know, that's the plan b of our plan b is, you know, just like, you know, because I grew up, at a time when we didn't have MapQuest, we didn't have the Google Maps. So Yeah. You know, when you ask for directions, somebody will be like, oh, yeah. You know, they can go 5 stops. You see the yellow house. This that's the only yellow house on that street. You can't miss it.

Raphael Harry [00:18:34]:
Yellow house, then you're gonna make a left. Now you're gonna see the biggest mango tree, and the the the the it's the largest. You know, like, oh, okay. Yeah. So you keep going, like, wait. Is this mango that mango tree just, like, walked past 5 mango trees. This one? Nope. It doesn't.

Raphael Harry [00:18:50]:
There he goes, oh, that's a huge mango tree. That's what we're talking about. Okay. So that's the so we won't now I just have some landmarks. I just you know I keep staring it in the head. And sometimes when I talk to my kid, she still hasn't been able to, officially she's getting to the point. She's beginning to read officially, but she's, she's not there yet where she's reading all the signs. So I I I started with the landmarks.

Raphael Harry [00:19:18]:
Like, yeah. You know, when you see this building, you know, you know this building, and when you see this stuff, whatever you call it, you have a name for it because she has names for everything. So what's the name for this? So when you see it, you know where you're going. Wait, man. Oh, so, like, Barclays Center is, Liberty, the Liberty basketball team. Because she's like, yeah, girls playing basketball. Right? Yeah. That's the that's the girls' the girls' basketball team.

Raphael Harry [00:19:44]:
You know, I put I shout defense. Okay. So when you see that, you know, okay. So she she starts asking me. She starts picking hablo. The landmarks slowly but surely, and, you know, little by little, you figure out their stops because Yeah. When I was that age, I remember, there was a day I I can't remember what exactly happened, but I was like one of the last 2 were one of last 2 kids left at my elementary school. And, it was a police school owned by the police.

Raphael Harry [00:20:15]:
So we're right opposite is 1 of our police headquarters, and they had to take us across the street. And they got 2 officers, and one was gonna take the other kid to find the kid's parents. Or they were like, they would take the kid on TV to make a call for the parents to show up. And I was like, well, I know my way home. And they were like, you're in elementary school? Like, are you sure? I was like, yeah. I know my way home. And they're like, okay. They got, the traffic cops who we call yellow fever because of their uniform, which is not technically not yellow.

Raphael Harry [00:20:53]:
It's orange, but the name stuck on them. So the guy put me on his Vespa on the front. So we'll keep going. I don't know the name of the streets, but I keep saying, oh, yeah. You're gonna make a right here. And the guy wanna, he won't believe me. So he'll go ask like one of the vendors or a shop. And they'll be like, yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:21:13]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So, okay. He'll go. So, yeah, he'd make a left here. Okay. Here you go.

Raphael Harry [00:21:23]:
And so the journey that should have taken him like 10 minutes, 15 minutes took like a 30 minutes because he kept stopping to ask people like, is this kid correct? He says, they they don't go confirm what I said. Yeah. And by the time we got to our house, I just jumped off the bike and the Vespa ran into the house. And he was still asking people, like, oh, why I was like, man. Was already in my house taking off my clothes. We're like, wait. Where are you? Oh my god. We're worried.

Raphael Harry [00:21:52]:
I was like, well, I'm hungry, man. I'm gonna go eat. And he came in and said, oh, is this his house? I just want to make sure and all this. And they're like, oh, you know, so thank you for bringing him home and all this. He's like, oh, this this kid knows his way home. I was verifying from everybody and all that. Man, in my mind, I was like, you're the dumbest person I ever seen.

Raphael Harry [00:22:15]:
I woke up. Obviously, we

Raphael Harry [00:22:17]:
could have been home while back.

Raphael Harry [00:22:19]:
We had a stop

Raphael Harry [00:22:20]:
and verify which thinking about it now. Okay. Well, I guess, well, I guess he was kind of cautious or way too cautious, but, okay, I get it now. But, he had never seen a kid at that age who Yeah. Knew their way from whatever distance. But, yeah. It's, yeah. But, I hope he's still alive.

Raphael Harry [00:22:41]:
I I don't know his name, so I I would have loved to give him but my mom remembered one day. I was like, I was like, yeah. I was I was a kid. I was I consider a man foolish. Yeah. I felt what? I was I was like, I can't respect

Raphael Harry [00:22:58]:
you. Yeah. Yeah, really, it's like

Tom Máthé [00:23:00]:
being a kid and not being trusted is like, it sticks with you, obviously, like you remember it because it's like

Raphael Harry [00:23:08]:
Yeah.

Tom Máthé [00:23:08]:
You know?

Raphael Harry [00:23:09]:
Yeah. That's, but, yeah. It's good to know your landmarks and, you know, if you're visiting a place for the first time.

Raphael Harry [00:23:15]:
Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:23:16]:
It does help. So shout out to that queen who built that stuff there. It's it's paid off in the

Tom Máthé [00:23:20]:
long run.

Raphael Harry [00:23:21]:
I mean, maybe the I don't think the citizens enjoyed it back then, but No.

Tom Máthé [00:23:25]:
That, like, ostentatious show was really helpful for me.

Raphael Harry [00:23:34]:
So now that I brought up my childhood experience, gotta ask you a question Yeah. About yours. So Okay. At this moment, what do you consider your favorite childhood memory to be? Wow. Yes. It's a very big one. I'm So we love asking that question.

Tom Máthé [00:23:50]:
I'm, like, not a fan of deciding what my favorite anything is. Like Hey. We're trying to trap you here. No. Yeah. I I love lots of things.

Raphael Harry [00:24:03]:
Well, we'll make it easier for you. You can name 2.

Tom Máthé [00:24:05]:
Okay. I feel like that just makes it harder. My favorite childhood memory, probably, like, the freedom of a bicycle in the summer. Having like a couple of bucks and a bike, like, whether it's like, and I know that's kind of general, but all it feels like there are a lot that fit that category. Like, when I was, like, really young, like, 6, 7, there was, like, a convenience store. I grew up in in New Hampshire, and there's a place called Chutes Corner, which just, you know, just saying it. I'm like, that sounds quaint. Like, very New Hampshire.

Tom Máthé [00:24:56]:
But I would ride my bike there and, like, it didn't take much in terms of, like, quarters to get, like, a real haul of candy Yeah. It is. To, like, share with my friends. And then, like, as I got a little older, it was, like, riding my bike in the summer to, like, the video rental store to, like, rent movies or to go to the movie theater.

Raphael Harry [00:25:19]:
Yeah.

Tom Máthé [00:25:20]:
You know, if I had, like, $4.25, I could catch a a matinee on, like, a Tuesday

Raphael Harry [00:25:26]:
Mhmm.

Tom Máthé [00:25:26]:
And be, like, the only person in a theater and watch, like, some really I saw some really ridiculous movies in the theater when I was a kid just by myself. Like, I remember seeing Eddie, which is that, like, Whoopi Goldberg movie where she, like, becomes the coach of the Knicks. That was like, yeah. I I was like a like a child watching watching that and, like, that movie multiplicity with Michael Keaton. Yeah. I just, like, that summer went went real and real into it. Like, just going to see movies. And that was just really it was really nice because there's the contrast of, like, riding your bike in the heat Mhmm.

Tom Máthé [00:26:07]:
The, like, stifling heat. And then you go into this air conditioned theater, and you're just, like, yeah, watching a movie. And I was yeah. I I loved I loved that.

Raphael Harry [00:26:22]:
Are you still able to go into a theater and watch a movie by yourself?

Tom Máthé [00:26:27]:
Yeah. Yeah. When I first moved to New York City, I did that, because I didn't know anybody. And, you know, I was looking for a job in, like, the bar industry, and I went and saw, Creed Oh, yeah. In the theater. I was I loved I loved that movie. That was a really that was a memorable experience. I saw a couple of other movies, but going to see Creed was the one that stuck out.

Raphael Harry [00:26:55]:
Yeah. I still do that. Well, sometimes I go and I'm surprised there are people there. But, like, they are so creative. They will they will there are people. It was a Thursday night. Because by then, I started going to the theater on Thursday nights. Mhmm.

Raphael Harry [00:27:10]:
So it's like, oh, Thursday night, I can watch movies. Alright. I'm down with that. And then some Thursday night's like, dang it. Everybody's here. You know? Y'all on the same planet like me.

Tom Máthé [00:27:21]:
Yeah. And

Raphael Harry [00:27:22]:
then, some days, you go on Tuesday, and then, oh, nobody. It's just me. Alright. Yeah. We do this. Yeah. So I I can see how you're on storytelling, you know, has started having this relationship because, yeah, you you were creating memories and stories. I can see how stories were seeping in.

Raphael Harry [00:27:42]:
So what was the first story that you recall ever having an impact on you?

Tom Máthé [00:27:52]:
Like like book or like,

Raphael Harry [00:27:55]:
whichever we it doesn't matter the medium. Yeah. It's up to you.

Tom Máthé [00:28:02]:
Well, I watched a lot of TV and movies as a as a kid. My sister is 13 years older than me, and it was me, my mom, and my sister for, like, my early childhood. So, like, it was a lot of a lot of movies. So on to, like, to answer from that perspective, watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure as a child was, like, incredibly formative. The first, like, novel that I read that just, like, took me out and floored me and, like, I I went out and, like, had to read everything else that this author wrote was The Outsiders, which is a novel by S. E. Hinton. Susan Hinton.

Tom Máthé [00:28:56]:
She was I think she was, like, 16 when she wrote it. Oh, wow. And I just was immersed. But that that, book was adapted into, like, this movie by Francis Ford Coppola that had this wild cast. If you, like, look at it now, you're like, it's like Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, I think Matt Dillon was in it, Ralph Macchio, and then, like, see Thomas Howell played Ponyboy.

Raphael Harry [00:29:28]:
Was it also titled the outsiders? The movie?

Tom Máthé [00:29:32]:
The movie? Yeah. Yeah. No. It's it's the movie. Yeah. It's based on based on the book.

Raphael Harry [00:29:37]:
I wonder probably I've seen it, but I just can't recall. Yeah. Because the cast sounds like the cast are same. Because I've seen a lot of Tom Cruise movies.

Tom Máthé [00:29:46]:
Yeah. It was an early one. I think it was like, I think it was like 1984. I I remember watching the movie and kind of like that was the first time I ever was like, oh, like, adapting. Like, watching movies based on books is often disappointing because it's just like and it's like you're you're reading a book and, like, you're the director, you know, like you're reading the words and the the the images playing in your brain.

Raphael Harry [00:30:19]:
Yes.

Tom Máthé [00:30:19]:
You know, and, like, the way that you see it, you get an attachment to it. And that isn't that doesn't even, like, touch the fact that, like, when a director is making a movie, they're switching the medium entirely and, like, condensing it drastically and often making, like, wild changes. But, yeah, that was the first book that really yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:30:45]:
Yeah. I think the first novel that ever, that I recall having an impact on me was, Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Who? Which one? The very beginning. Oh, yeah. Very first, yeah. Because I the book just said the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I was forced to read it because at that point, I think I was like 11 or 12. 11 11 and 13.

Raphael Harry [00:31:19]:
And I was really comic books, but by then I had been banned from comic books for religious reasons. Oh, tough. And, but the family member who gave me the book was like, okay. Now I was really looking at magazines, pictures. I was still dealing with stuff that had pictures in it, and he just threw that book to me and said, you have 2 weeks to read this book, and you're gonna tell me what what went tell me everything that give me a summary of what went down the book. Yeah. So it's like a test was coming. I was like, wow.

Raphael Harry [00:31:51]:
So I looked. I was like, no pictures in this. How am I gonna read this? So began reading it and shellac's in, the the high school equivalent in in in the the boys prep school in the UK. And, I'm like, oh, I don't know about this one. But I kept reading it. I can't drop this book now. Seems okay. I wanna know what happens next.

Raphael Harry [00:32:13]:
Yeah. Who's who's the villain now? Who's the protagonist? And, I know the protagonist, but who's the antagonist? And trying to figure it out and all that. And towards the end, I'm like, oh. Oh, k. And the person who forgot to ask me, I'm the one who volunteered. Okay. Now I finished book. And I've I I know I'm ready to give my summary.

Raphael Harry [00:32:33]:
And I'm like, oh, I actually forgot. And I was like, okay. If you're ready, tell me. And I broke it down. Well, I see. He really read the book. I don't think he even knew what the book was about. Wow.

Raphael Harry [00:32:45]:
Because he's not the type who's interested in that type of now I know the person from what I know the person, now he wasn't really interested in that type of he's more into like actually he loves comic books. Yeah. But, sci fi and, yeah. And romance. Yeah. He's mine. So so yeah. That's how I began reading novels when I read everything.

Raphael Harry [00:33:10]:
Sci fi, romance, westerns. Like, I had an uncle who had all of that. I read everything. But the only terrible thing about me was I never thought to take the names of the authors down.

Raphael Harry [00:33:20]:
Mhmm. I

Raphael Harry [00:33:20]:
would just be reading reading reading. It got to a point. I wasn't even reading my school books. I would just go through novels but yeah. And yeah, for audience, please let me know what your first story that you recall ever having an impact on you was. And I think movies, there's a whole bunch of movies and shows like night rider or something like that. You know but but I think movies even move I think for movies it still supersedes night rider. It's still the first the eighties transformers movie.

Raphael Harry [00:33:58]:
Yeah. Because that movie begins in well, I guess spoilers. Yes. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert for a movie that came out in the eighties. Optimus Prime dies. Beginning. Then nobody told me that, the hero is supposed to die.

Tom Máthé [00:34:15]:
Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:34:15]:
You know, because then you're like, heroes don't die. And

Raphael Harry [00:34:19]:
Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:34:19]:
I was, like, looking around the room, like, what just happened? Yeah. Hello? Like, my am I am I imagining this? How why is he dead? Yeah. What is going on here? Yeah. I was confused. Yeah. And then there was power outage so I couldn't finish the movie. What? And then got to school the next day. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:34:42]:
A bunch of us had the same problem. Oh, no. Apparently, bunch of boys, we're all sad, depressed. This guy died. Yeah. The bad guy won or what? And then only one kid for some reason had seen all the movies. I was like, oh, yeah. It's okay.

Raphael Harry [00:34:58]:
This guy won. But look at him. So he became a legend for a while, but we're still pissed at him because he had watched the whole movie. Yeah. But it was like, oh, I I think that was the first time death had a meaning to me. Like, I felt death because Yeah. It was like a cold shiva came over me. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:35:18]:
And I never had felt something like that before. So that was a big impact, but it would take years for me to acknowledge that of, you know, after a loved one would die later on. But that it has to be that movie because I never seen a movie that made me feel like that Yeah. Before and, you know, you just push it to the corner. Like, ah, nah. But it was a transformers movie, which the current one is, is really good too. The the new one that just came out. Yeah.

Raphael Harry [00:35:51]:
It's close. It's close. Very close to that because it reminded me of

Tom Máthé [00:35:54]:
that one.

Raphael Harry [00:35:54]:
I was like, ah, you almost got me there, but I've been through that experience already. But, yeah, audience, let me know, if you guys have any yeah. What was the first story that, had an impact on you? I would like to know too. So, yeah, share with us. So you, by the time you go to college Mhmm. You picked a medium for storytelling that was different from the story the way you began storytelling. So how did you settle on that medium that you you started using in college?

Tom Máthé [00:36:35]:
Yeah. Like so, like, when I was, like, a real little kid, I made comic books. When I was in middle school, I wrote a novel, and it was terrible. Because it it was just, like, me writing a story where all the stuff that was terrible about middle school wasn't happening. And it's like, oh, this book doesn't have any conflict in it. So it's just a boring read.

Raphael Harry [00:37:03]:
I don't think that makes it terrible, though.

Tom Máthé [00:37:05]:
It's I mean, if if You

Raphael Harry [00:37:07]:
ain't no sense at that age still.

Raphael Harry [00:37:09]:
So

Tom Máthé [00:37:09]:
Yeah. No. I mean, what made it terrible was that I was, like, 12 and, like, trying to write a novel. But no. Like, when I was in college, well, it started in high school. I started, I took, like, a film production classes, that were super, super fun. I had this buddy, Eric, and he he had already started making, like, films for the the local, like, local broadcast channel or whatever. Like, but he was in that class with me, and we made we made this film called the lemonade film.

Tom Máthé [00:37:52]:
This this little, like, short thing called the lemonade diaries about, like, this kid trying to get, to the cafeteria from class and, like, there's a troll involved and some like, a rhyming troll, like, who gets in the way of this kid trying to get lemonade, and the vice principal makes a cameo. And, you know, you know, we, like, had a lot of fun doing that. But, yeah, when I was in college, I, sorry, I transferred schools kind of, in the spring semester. I wound up going to, like, a fairly religious college. Fair it's called Gordon College. It's, it's in the North Shore of Boston, and, I was not an evangelical Christian, but I went to an evangelical Christian college. The reason for that is is it's they're dynamic reasons, but, I was super alienated when I got there.

Raphael Harry [00:39:02]:
I don't know.

Tom Máthé [00:39:04]:
I literally I showed up my first day, and I was in this, like, apartment in in this old dorm building. And I meet my roommate, and he had been, like, the guy who led chapel. So he was, like, a praise the praise singer Oh. Which, like, I always it always struck me as, like, very, like, frustrating to watch, like, a praise singer because it's, like, very showy. It's very, like, look at how much I'm connecting with God right now. Anyway, I I, he he he showed he showed up in the room, and he was like, hey. You're Tom? And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, you're only here because I forgot to pray.

Tom Máthé [00:39:57]:
What? And I yeah. That's what I said. I said, what? And he he was like, yeah. No. I, I was supposed to have a roommate in the fall semester, but I prayed to have a single, and that guy wound up joining the marines.

Raphael Harry [00:40:12]:
Well I was like

Tom Máthé [00:40:15]:
I was like, okay. And he's like, I didn't think to pray for spring semester. Oh. And he's like, that's why you're here.

Raphael Harry [00:40:21]:
Right. And I

Tom Máthé [00:40:21]:
was like, well, that's different from, like, my kind of path that I took, but okay. So, you know, starting from that place, it was kinda hard to make friends, because I was just like, what is this place and where am I? And how do I how do I, like, meet anybody? Every there's, like, suddenly every interaction I had with people felt like it could go terribly south with, like, in in ways that I wouldn't be able to predict because that was, like, such an unpredictable introduction to that place.

Raphael Harry [00:40:58]:
Mhmm.

Tom Máthé [00:40:58]:
So I spent most of my free time in that spring semester. Instead of, like, going out and trying to socialize with people, I, like, wrote a script, in that same room that I wasn't supposed to be in, but because Joe forgot to pray. I was there, and I was there a lot because I was just clicking away. And I connected with my buddy, Eric, who was in my high school film production class, and he was like he was like, you wanna make a movie this summer? And I was like, I've been working on a script. So, like, we just made it. And I was just like, I'm gonna I'm going to show this on campus, and the people who like it will wanna be friends with me. You know, like, I'll I'll find the people who I can connect with by putting myself out there in that way.

Raphael Harry [00:41:49]:
Yeah.

Tom Máthé [00:41:50]:
So that they'll come. And I it'll be it was a lot more work than just like introducing myself to people, but it felt easier for me to do it that way. And it really, I met, people who are the people I consider my best friends today. I met because, well, a few of them wound up being the in this band that that I used their music for the score. Oh. They're a band called Caspian. They're, an instrumental rock band. I used their first EP as the score for the movie, and, you know, they all showed up for the the one time it was ever screened, before my buddy who was the director kinda disappeared with the the hard drive that the movie was on, and I never saw it again.

Raphael Harry [00:42:39]:
What?

Tom Máthé [00:42:39]:
Yeah. But, yeah. I, like, I made the best friends of my life because I did that,