When his Kia Boys documentary was released, Tommy G was only a month away from having to give up his dream of being a full-time YouTuber. Luckily, that video now has over 6.7 million views, and he has amassed a following of over 700k subscribers. That said, Tommy G was far from an overnight success, he was actively posting YouTube videos for years before catching his big break, and there is a lot more to Tommy G’s story than the documentary that put him on the map.
I initially met Tommy G when he was a door-to-door salesman and knocked on my door back in 2018. He worked in sales while posting YouTube prank videos on the side until he got fired in early 2022. Since the Kia Boys documentary, he has covered more dangerous underground stories from all around the U.S. and Mexico. So, why does Tommy G do what he does? What was his response to the Kia Boys? What’s the most dangerous situation he has ever been in? What’s next? Tune into this episode to find out.
Sponsored by Central Standard Distillery: https://thecentralstandard.com/
Produced by Story Mark Studios: https://milwaukeeuncut.com/
Media partner – OnMilwaukee: https://onmilwaukee.com/
Transcript
Richie Burke:
Today I’ve got the Rising YouTube sensation, Tommy G. Best known as the creator of the Kia Boys documentary with over 6 million views and counting. He’s hunted pythons. He’s documented some of the most dangerous, interesting and craziest places in America and Mexico. He’s also been arrested during a prank video. He’s approaching or maybe over a million followers across social, social channels and growing fast. And he also has an inspirational story. He knocked on my door back in 2018. Yes, when he was doing door to door sales. Tommy G, welcome to Milwaukee Uncut. Thank you for coming down here.
Tommy G:
Thank you for having me.
Richie Burke:
Do you, do you remember coming in in 2018?
Tommy G:
Yeah, I think I was, I was door knocking you and trying to proposition you on payroll, which I was selling at the time. And also maybe some sort of MailChimp email campaign for getting more podcast listeners or some sort of idea. I had cooked up that, whatever I was rolling with that day,
Richie Burke:
That ring that rings a bell. Mm-Hmm. . How did you make the transition? And I, I have a lot of respect for anyone who’s done door-to-door sales. That was essentially how I started this company. And I took a door to door job in college, which was probably the most uncomfortable thing I ever did. But
Tommy G:
That takes cohos, man.
Richie Burke:
It was a great learning experience. I went from like being afraid to talk to strangers to going and knocking on a hundred doors a day, and you kind of have to learn fast. But yeah. Take me through your journey from that point, which I guess was when I last saw you mm-hmm. to where you’re at now.
Tommy G:
Yeah. So I was working a corporate job for a company called Paychex. They work with small businesses in the area and I worked there for five years In total. I got hired by even more of a corporate company where I was pitching ideas to Fortune 500 CEOs. I was supposed to, Johnson Controls was supposed to be a client of mine.
Milwaukee Tool was someone I was supposed to be chasing down, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me. And so, thankfully, one of the best things that ever happened professionally to me is I got fired. And when that happened, I said I had a little bit of real estate, I was focused on YouTube and I said to to Sarah, like, Hey, gimme six months. If I’m not making X and six months, I’ll go get another job, but let me just take this opportunity and run with it.
Richie Burke:
So you get fired, you’ve got six months. How, how did you feel during that
Tommy G:
On one end? It was extremely liberating because I finally got to invest all the time of my day into stuff I actually cared about, was interested in and wanted to do. But on the other end, it was terrifying because I don’t think it took, it took till maybe month five for things to start taking off. So there was, the tunnel was starting to close in and it was like uhoh like, am I gonna make this happen or do I have to go get another job? And I feel like I’ve almost made myself unhirable with some of the things that I’ve produced that I don’t even know what’s gonna happen or, and also now that I’ve tasted freedom to go back into the office setting, it’s like, oh man. Like I think I’m gonna go nuts if I have to do this.
Richie Burke:
Where, where were you at on YouTube when you got fired? Because you’ve been putting content out for a while. You didn’t really blow up mm-hmm. Until the Ki Boys documentary came out. So where, where were you at that point in time? You weren’t at zero, but you
Tommy G:
Were, I think I had 70 or 80,000 subscribers at that point. And I wasn’t making much money off YouTube at that
Richie Burke:
Point. You, you can’t make much money with 70, 80,000 subscribers
Tommy G:
On YouTube. Not with the reach I was getting uhhuh and not in the niche I was in. If you’re in a financial YouTube space where your CPM or, or cost per click is way higher than a prank, that that was the space I was in before a prank space. You just don’t get, advertisers don’t want to advertise on a pranksters channel. But I know guys that are in the same, getting the same views as me, but making five or six times the amount of ad revenue cuz they’re in a niche that’s more audience friendly.
Richie Burke:
That makes sense. And they probably have products on the back end that are higher value that they can monetize with. So if they’re not getting a lot of ad revenue, they can get revenue and correct other ways. So you’re approaching month four and the Kia Boys documentary comes out. Is that what really pushed you over the edge and you’re like, okay, this is actually gonna work?
Tommy G:
That was undoubtedly the pivotable moment. That was, Hey, documentaries are my path boots on the ground, journalism is my path and I gotta run with this as fast as I can.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. How did you go from pranks to documentaries and why did you do that? The documentaries you put out I’m sure are much more intensive from an editing standpoint, the work standpoint than just walking in and pranking some
Tommy G:
People. I mean, I’ve always been interested in endless amounts of people. I think there’s so many different things to be curious about on this earth and I’ve always been envious of people that get to be explorers as their job. So I get to be, oh hey, a guy that goes to the Amazon or I’ve seen a lady reporter that goes to the Columbia and get to see what cocaine is like in in the Jungle and how it comes to the United States.
All those types of maybe vice documentary style ideas was always interesting to me. And to be able to make a living doing that was a kind of the light flicked on. That’s okay. I need to really just start thinking of what are the different subcultures, the different people groups that most people don’t get access to, like Muslims in America and Dearborn, Michigan, or people that live underground Las Vegas. How can I find a way or a contact into these communities and then start to tell their story and, and get entrenched with them? What
Richie Burke:
And what, what was the, what was the first documentary that you did?
Tommy G:
First documentary was first time visiting a strip club , which I have my wife in the, in the room. And she was, I was able to run that idea by her and it was funny cuz I actually showed her the footage from it and she just was laughing at me. She’s like, you had no idea what you were doing in there, man.
Richie Burke:
Well how’d you, how’d you come up with that for your first, first idea and what, what, what strip club did you go to in the area?
Tommy G:
It was like 40th and Fond delac or,
Richie Burke:
That sounds like a great idea. The
Tommy G:
Lounge or something like that. And so I just, I have, I always have lists of ideas that I’m working on. It just so happened that I was able and allowed to go film there and, and document it. And I thought a 28 or 29 year old kid that’s never been to a strip club, I feel like that would be an interesting thing to share with people.
Richie Burke:
I, I agree with that. Do you just, were you just calling different strip clubs and seeing which one would let you bring a camera in there?
Tommy G:
Yeah, I think I was DMing different promoters and see hey saying, Hey man, I want to do this. What do you think? And then I finally found a guy that was like, yeah, you can come to come to my spot.
Richie Burke:
Okay. So you do you do that one, did that take off more so than the prank videos or Not really? And what was next after that?
Tommy G:
I would say things didn’t really take off until the Kia Boy video. Yeah. And then, and then once we started, then we knew what, what the level was that we had to get. Like how intense things could be and what we could capture. Shortly after the boy video we did most Dangerous City in America in St. Louis and that was another one that was like 800,000 views in 24 hours where it was just, things got shot out of a cannon and it was like, okay, so there’s something people really wanna see. They wanna see these kind of sketchy, dangerous situations. They wanna see how someone navigates it and they’re curious too, like how do these people choose this lifestyle and what do they think about different things that are happening?
Richie Burke:
You essentially want to give people access to places and experiences that they don’t have access to and no one else is bringing them.
Tommy G:
A hundred percent. That would be how I would say my brand is
Richie Burke:
Because even the strip club, everyone’s other than you, most guys have been been to a strip club before. Yeah, several times. But the Kia Boys, that was such an intriguing subject too and everyone knew what they were, but there was no behind the scenes content of the Kia Boys. So tell me how that came about.
Tommy G:
It was, it came about from the strip club video. There’s a guy I met in the parking lot there that said, yo bro, you make cool stuff, let’s do another video together. So I sent him a few video ideas. One of ’em was the Kia Boy one, he called me on FaceTime, introduced me to Mr. Ebra on, and I talked to Mr. Ebra on FaceTime. He had his little shy tea on, he was in a stolen car. And I got to talk to him and said, Hey, let’s meet next Tuesday at three. He said, okay, cool. And they were very prompt and professional showing up at the right time, which I was impressed about cause I didn’t expect a Kia boy to keep a good calendar, you know?
Richie Burke:
Yeah. What, what were you hoping to get out of doing that one? You know, I’m guessing you, did you get some backlash from highlighting the Kia Boys?
Tommy G:
I’ve gotten backlash in a couple different spots. I would say, well first what it was I trying to get out of it, I don’t have, there’s in any of these ideas I do, there’s no agenda. I’m going in with that, Hey, by the end of the video I hope that this was said or this message was pushed, or I just let things unfold. And so my, the, my personal backlash, like things that I think I could have done about the, the Kia Boy video was I wish that I didn’t interview minors.
That was a rule I made after the St. Louis video where we also interviewed minors that were just absolutely outta control. And crazy is okay, no more kids cuz they’re, they’re too reckless, too dangerous, too scary. I mean, at least if I’m gonna go to a danger spot, it’s gonna be more of the OG type character. As far as,
Richie Burke:
By minors you mean 17 and under, I’m guessing? Correct. And the two, if I remember correctly, the two kind of main Kia Boys you interviewed were were they under 17? I’m sure,
Tommy G:
Yeah.
Richie Burke:
Yeah, because I remember that you asked how old a lot of the Kia boys were and their answer was like 1211. And that, I don’t know if they were lying or being serious, but that was pretty eye-opening to me.
Tommy G:
Yeah. Can you imagine a 12 year old kid driving around with a stolen car? That’s, that’s absurd to even picture.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. In the footage you got, it looked like it was being driven by a 12 year old who never drove a car. Some other guys were hanging out the windows, so maybe that was true. But anyway, I didn’t mean to cut you off.
Tommy G:
No, I think, well the other piece of backlash I would say was one of the news anchors, I forget which channel it was, but he’s like, man, I I liked the documentary. I liked that you actually spoke to these boys and got the perspective, but I didn’t like that you brought ’em into your own car and showed how it is to steal a car. That was too far. And I would’ve adjusted that.
And the thing is, I’m still, I was still so fresh in the documentary game that all of these, like journalistic ethics and all these little things I wasn’t even aware of. Cause I never was schooled on this. I never went to a a mentor to, to hear how to do a better job. It was just, I can get access to this area. What, what can we find out? And so I think that was a learning lesson as well.
Richie Burke:
What did, what were the main things you learned from that video?
Tommy G:
I would say if you ask people in the community a few common threads. One is people want more accountability. There’s too many people that have had their car stolen, they feel like nothing’s being done about it and they’re very upset about that. And then number two on the Kia voice side is the common refrain is these kids need more programs, more things to do. They’re doing this cuz they’re bored. And cuz everything has been cut, every program has been cut that they have access to.
And so I think and I was just talking to my lawyer yesterday and we were talking about, I had him on my podcast show and one of the things he said that I thought was pretty radical and and wonderful was maybe the solution is to love the Ki Boys. Like, instead of wanting to just punish ’em and throw ’em away for as long as you can, what if we just show these kids a level of love that they maybe have never seen before? But how do you go about doing that? But I thought that was an interesting way to tackle the problem.
Richie Burke:
It is interesting and it’s easy to obviously get mad and they cause a ton of problems by stealing cars in the cities. And I think you said you’re not here to give them a free pass by any means, but a lot of the kids that you’ve interviewed or people you’ve interviewed in many of your videos, it’s like, when did you see violence for the first time? And a lot of these people see someone getting shot or stabbed at 9 11, 9 9, 10 11 is the, the answers. And I just can’t relate to that.
Tommy G:
It’s, it’s, so I think that’s another thing is you have to realize this kid has lived an entirely different life than we are. We even can comprehend, like the odds that this kid has seen really violent domestic abuse from a young age. The, the odds that he’s seen someone die or get shot on his block is a high correlation. And just you, like, you wonder why these kids are kind of nihilistic or it’s like they’re mad at the world. And it’s kind of like once you see what they’ve experienced, it’s kinda like I can kind of see why they get there. So how do we help those kids and also the younger generations, what are, what what can be done to make sure that we course correct? Because obviously we cannot have the Ki Boy video ki boy issue grow more than it already has.
Richie Burke:
What does nihilistic mean?
Tommy G:
Nihilistic, I feel like is somebody that does not care about whether they die or you die. It’s kind of a f it all to the world perspective.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. Which is sad. And that came across in a lot of your interviews with them and it didn’t seem like they were bad kids or mm-hmm. malicious when you were talking to them. They, they cracked some jokes and had some smiles at some points in time, but it didn’t seem like they would have any remorse for anything they were doing. Or even if their friends got killed or something happened to, to them while stealing something. It,
Tommy G:
It was kind of hard to wrap your head around that. Why isn’t it? Yeah,
Richie Burke:
A hundred percent. Hey everyone, it’s your host Richie Burke, and I just wanted to take a minute to thank our sponsor Central Standard and remind you that we are giving away hundreds of dollars in central standard gift cards, event tickets and more. You can simply enter by clicking the link in the show notes.
And if you’re looking for that perfect summer cocktail, central standard has great options through their new ready poor mixers dioxide whiskey and my personal favorite, the Door County Cherry vodka and a lot more. Also the rooftop is open at the craft house downtown. I’m not sure if there’s a better place in the city to enjoy a drink on a nice summer afternoon. Thanks again for tuning in thanks to Central Standard and let’s get back to the show. You’ve done a lot of these crazy videos. What’s been the most dangerous situation that you’ve gotten in?
Tommy G:
I would say getting raided by Mexican police while interviewing a potential drug dealer on the Mexican, on the other side of the Mexican border. And having to like, seeing, seeing police and ski masks and assault rifles tell us to get on the effing ground in Spanish and not knowing if we were about to get the shit kicked out of us, not knowing if they were cartel, if they were, if it was a prank, like I had no idea what to think at first. And so that was the scariest moment so far that we’ve encountered and I hope it doesn’t get any scarier than that.
Richie Burke:
So you’re doing this video, the police just bust in outta nowhere. Yeah. You’re told to get on the floor. They’ve got assault rifles. Yeah. What’s going through your head?
Tommy G:
I’m trying to make sure One, my team is okay. My, one of my guys is right next to me and I feel I can kind of feel him panicking and I’m kind of whispering his ear like, are you okay? And he’s two scared to say anything back to me. And then, you know, just like waiting. It’s, it’s one of those things where time is, is very out of the window. Like, I’m not sure if a minute past or 20 minutes past, but at, at some point I just am trying to lighten the mood. Like when they’re walking past me, I’m like, whoa, like ts grandes.
Like you have big guns. And they, they kind of chuck a little bit and then I tell him soy int the door, I’m a, I’m an interviewer. I’m, I’m interviewing him about his music. I interview American rappers and I, this is my first video in Mexico.
So we were just trying to hear from him, but then they searched the whole house, they find out there’s no drugs in the house and things get a little bit more relaxed. They let us up to our feet, they delete two of the clips that have them on there. We were able to recover one of those and use nextdoor neighbor’s security camera to verify what happened.
But they gave us our, their phone number, they saved it as a, the police officer saved his number as the ghost in my cameraman’s phone. And he said to send a copy of that video before he posted it, which we didn’t because one that guy pointed a gun at my face. I don’t really think I have to get the approval from him on the video two. The only reason I considered sending a copy to him is he invited us back, Hey, if you guys wanna do a day in the life of a Mexican police officer, we’d be happy to have you.
But I feel like the experience was so traumatic that I wasn’t very keen on meeting those fellows again. And that was actually my first taste ever of P T S D. It was very tiny. I’ve had only one experience that reminded me of this. But shortly back when I got home from that experience, I remember the doorbell ringing and just like, my heart just started racing and I was just like, oh, okay. I think I know what’s going on here. But it was just the, I was powerless. I was complete, like anything they wanted to do to me at that moment, they would’ve been able to do.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. But yet you were kind of trying to diffuse the situation. That’s interesting. You could still do that while you’re camera guy. I would, I think I would’ve been completely frozen and panicking too.
Tommy G:
Yeah. I mean, I know, I think that’s, that’s a pretty strong part of my personality is always to diffuse. Like, I haven’t been in a, in a street fight in since I was probably in eighth grade and I never hoped to get into one, like all the little dumb things that we could possibly fight over. Like, oh, I accidentally spilled a guy’s beer when I was dancing and he chucks on the ground and head fakes me. It’s like, like I don’t need to prove anything to this guy. So it’s just like, Hey man, like that’s a $3 beer. Cuz that would happened in Whitewater, Wisconsin. But like these things aren’t that big of a deal. So I have a natural tendency to deescalate and make sure things don’t get outta control. Yeah.
Richie Burke:
When did you do that video?
Tommy G:
Hmm?
Richie Burke:
Is that post Kia Boys? Yeah. So recently. Yeah. And you’re, you’re still fine going into these dangerous places? No, no, no. PTSD or anxiety stopping you from doing, doing
Tommy G:
More? No. I mean, what does make me nervous and these ideas, like we just were in Flint, Michigan and those guys had enough guns to start a militia out there. We were in Phoenix, that was the most recent video I just posted. And they, I saw that plenty of weapons there too. The thing is this, the platform is big enough and well received enough that I’m not worried about any of them in the video, but what I am worried about is did someone shoot a yesterday or beef with someone on Instagram and all of a sudden I’m gonna be part of a drive by that has nothing to do with me.
Like that’s something that I think about cuz some of these places I go like, even if it they’re rolling 20 deep and all have guns, every car that passes by, it’s like, who’s that? Or we’ve had it a few times, even in this Phoenix video, a car drove by and a few guys like, bring out the gun. And it’s just like, it just is a little, or the other thing that scares me in these type of videos is an accidental discharge that someone just being stupid and flexing their gun and then all of a sudden me or my camera guy or Key Keegan just get pieced out because they wanted to look cool with their firearm. What
Richie Burke:
What are your views on guns in the country?
Tommy G:
Definitely a huge Second Amendment fan, but also with great power comes great responsibility. So I think if you have a gun you should really, really know what you’re doing with it. Be very well trained because it’s, it’s more likely, I think it’s four times more likely that a gun in the house kills a child in the house than kills a burglar that you’re defending the house against.
So I think, but it’s like anything, it’s like a, a car, it’s like a hamburger. These can either be things that a hamburger, hamburger can either be something that makes you 600 pounds and you know, deathly obese or you can eat a hamburger and cook one for your girlfriend and have a good time on a weekend. So that’s, I view it the same way for a gun is you can either be a responsible gun owner or you can be a maniac and make things more dangerous.
Richie Burke:
Seems like you’re around a decent amount of maniacs.
Tommy G:
Yeah, I would say so.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. What’s your goal going to all these places that a lot of people would frown upon or be like, why, why are you doing that? Or why are you shedding light on? Yeah. These people,
Tommy G:
I think I have a fascination with exploring the underworld, the outlaws, the people that don’t march to the, the drumbeat of society. And it’s not that I don’t wanna do interviews with more buttoned up people. I’m currently trying to parlay myself into Washington DC to speak with a bunch of state representatives and or senators and Congress people. That’s, it’s, it’s surprisingly hard for me to get into those, those spaces. I gangster him with 15 pistols and a pound of whatever. I can go into his neighborhood in a second. But the more buttoned up ideas, like I have to go through this gatekeeper, then that gatekeeper, then I have to submit a, you know, a retinal scan. It’s just like, it gets a little ridiculous. But I don’t know if I answered your question either.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. Seems like it’s just a thrill, thrill factor.
Tommy G:
Thrill factor. And I wanna hear what motivates people to do some of these things that I cannot imagine being a pimp or being a prostitute or being a Fentanyl dealer. Like what, how do people justify it to themselves? Like you’re selling something that people can overdose and die from and it can tear apart a community.
How do you feel about yourself as a person or, you know I kind of grilled this pimp in a, in the video that’s gonna be coming out cuz he was, and it was interviewing him in the backseat of a car and he was talking about how he’s bossing up his bitches and I’m like, how are you bossing them up if you’re taking a hundred percent of their money that they’re the ones putting their body on the line for? And so, I don’t know. It’s I guess just a discovery. I’ve always just been very curious about the world and how people tick. Are you,
Richie Burke:
Are you hoping to make any change with people through these videos on how they think and how they look at certain groups of people? Or maybe even change some of the people you’re interviewing and their perspectives?
Tommy G:
Hmm. Well I think it is important for people to see what is really going on. Cause we have a lot of issues in this country. And I think speaking directly to the people that contribute to that I think one, it’s good to see the human side of them, but then two, I mean, sometimes you can really find the human side.
Other times you just find a really like the, the the latest video, the Phoenix rappers, they got roasted by a lot of the people that watched the video because it was like, why are you doing all this? Why are you being why are you being outta control? Like, one, one missed opportunity I had was the guy’s dad was there and he had two sons now that were like the, one of the sons had done 11 armed robberies and the other son was even crazier than that.
I don’t know exactly what he did, but he had his zip code tattooed on his cheek and he was 15 years old. And I missed the opportunity to ask the dad like, dude, you’ve raised two kids that have been in and out of the system and done really dangerous things. Like what do you think about that? So I think that’s part of the journalistic chops that I’m trying to keep growing and develop. And that’s why we, after every video when we’re in the car together, like, Hey, what could we have done better? What did you think about this? What, what did we miss? What was on the table? So I think as we get better at this, we won’t leave those kind of things off the table. Mm-Hmm.
Richie Burke:
you’re building a really big following right now. Do you have any advice to other content creators or people who wanna start a successful YouTube channel or TikTok channel?
Tommy G:
Yeah, number one is anyone can do it. But here’s the recipe, it’s find a niche that you love. If you just try and do things because they’re trendy or they’re cool or Kim Kardashian talked about it, you’re gonna lose your passion and you plus people can feel it. They can tell whether you’re interested in something or not. So I don’t care if you wanna be the best air guitar guy or the chess master or make documentaries, find a niche you really care about and then be consistent and always level up your craft. So I would say learn all sides of the production too. If you don’t know how to edit, figure out how to edit.
If you don’t know how to work a camera, figure out that. So you become gifted and now you can build your own teamwork. You know what you’re looking for, you know what you want and you know how to structure things. And then the last thing is is consistency. If, if you really wanna make it on YouTube, you should be at least once a week I think, depending on what category you’re in. And you should be raising the stakes on your ideas. There’s a battle for attention. There’s a million other people that just uploaded today. Why should someone tune into you and what makes your idea worth clicking on? I think that should be really thought about. Are
Richie Burke:
There any magic bullets or hacks that oh, you see a lot of people running ads for? Is it just no, you gotta be consistent. You gotta find that niche and build your own community and just get better.
Tommy G:
I mean I think the people that pitch the magic bullet, it’s a lot of copying other big creators. So if Mr. Beast did this, I’m gonna try and do a variation on that. But I think, do I wanna be the second rate Mr. Beast or do I wanna be the first rate version of myself? So I think again, it’s knowing what you are about and knowing your personality will very much, very much inform what kind of videos you should make.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. you’ve done all these crazy videos over the last year or so and going back to your prank days, what are the main things that you’ve learned and taken away?
Tommy G:
Hmm. One is not to judge people so harshly. People that I thought like, I don’t even know why I’m gonna sit down with this guy. He’s probably such a big piece of shit. And then realizing like, oh, he’s kind of funny. I kind of like him. I get where he is coming from. So to think not treating people so harshly another is that we have a lot of really big issues in this country and I think we keep trying to use I old ideas that aren’t working.
So what I would really hope for is an era of experimentation where we get to really, really try new things and maybe Wisconsin, try something that’s gonna be different than Florida that’s gonna be different from New York. And then we, we let the battle of ideas win. If you treat homelessness like this in Portland, we treat it like this way in Phoenix and then you see the results of those programs, then maybe the winning idea should be spread.
So I think that that would be something that cuz a lot of, one of the questions I ask a lot of my guests and when I ask myself all the time is, if you were mayor, if you were president, what would you do? And, but maybe that’s not even the answer. Maybe. I mean, cuz I don’t think daddy government is ever gonna step in and save the day. It’s gonna be, what can you do? What can I do? What can we in the room do? And then it kind of snowballs from there. Mm-Hmm. .
Richie Burke:
Let’s move on to standard five, five quick questions. Central standard. Number one, you seem absolutely fearless. What is one video that you would never do?
Tommy G:
I’m really scared of heights and sharks. So you
Richie Burke:
Already jumped out of a plane?
Tommy G:
Yeah, well I don’t know if I would do parkour on the edge of a building. That might be where I draw the line. I know I’ve thought about where I draw the line. I would never get into a car with a kibo. How about that? That’s a video idea I would never do. I don’t wanna swim with sharks.
Richie Burke:
Snakes didn’t bother you at all.
Tommy G:
What? Snakes could scare the shit outta me too, but that was a little bit more manageable. I guess one thing that to me would be extremely scary, but I almost, I would feel like I’m, I I have to say yes, is if a high ranking cartel member were to ask me to come interview them, it would be terrifying to do that. But I also think if I’m getting welcomed in, then I would be okay.
But there’s, there’s some of these places you go that are no man’s land, that who knows if you come back. And how do you know I can, how do I know I can trust someone that their organization is killed? Dozens of people this year? Like what? Oh yeah, you seem like a good guy. Like I don’t know how how to figure that out, but that would be something that terrifies me but also intrigues me at the same time. Yeah,
Richie Burke:
Cuz you have zero protection going into any of these places at all. Mm-Hmm. who’s one person dead or alive that you would wanna spend a day with?
Tommy G:
Teddy Roosevelt.
Richie Burke:
Why?
Tommy G:
I just love, I, that’s a guy that I’ve read different versions of his biographies a few times over and I just love the way he lived his life. I think he’s a kind of true renaissance man where he was he’s been a, a writer. He’s been a, the, the police chief, he’s been the president, he’s been a rancher, he’s been a, a soldier. So I think being able to wear the different hats that life lets you try on and doing them all. Well, another thing I really respect about him, and I think we really need today as a leader is someone that tells the truth. And someone that is fearless.
Like I love hearing stories about when he would have guests over to the White House, he would take them into the freezing cold Potomac River on little adventures and make them go and you know, climb trees and do all sorts of wild stuff. So he almost died right after he was president. He took a trip to the Amazon trying to explore a an unmapped part of their, the Amazon and almost died doing that. And so there is so much about a guy like that that I find inspirational. And he also, he was a wonderful father, which another one of my heroes, Benjamin Franklin, that’s his big downfall was he was a, a shitty father. So I think good to observe and learn from.
Richie Burke:
Love it. I think he already answered this question. Most uncomfortable you’ve felt during a video. I’m guessing that was when you were on the floor while you got raided by the Mexican police. But if there was a a second most uncomfortable moment, what would that be? Or scariest moment.
Tommy G:
This isn’t that extreme, but one, one of my biggest pet peeves when people litter and I was with these kids, these New York drill wrappers in their projects, and they got some food from a bodega and every piece of trash from the food they were eating, they were just throwing out on the ground. And I guess it wasn’t that uncomfortable for me, but I called them out. I’m just like, earth Days around the corner and people live here.
Like, what do you think about that? And they’re just like, ah, fuck it. And it just, that’s another part of the nihilistic aspect of some of these kids that just, it’s hard to wrap my head around is like, how do people not care about living in trash? And that’s another thing about Milwaukee that like, I think should be at the top of the list as a clean city for everybody. So how do we do that? There’s a lot of ideas that could come about, but that would be something that really would interest me to figure out. Mm-Hmm.
Richie Burke:
. What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about you?
Tommy G:
I just got off the phone a couple days ago with a a someone that’s on the team of a, a senator in this country and, and she said, you know, when I watched your videos, I expected you to be a certain way when I met you. Like more, I don’t know, boisterous or wild or I think I’m a, like, I’m a pretty reserved guy by nature. We live a pretty reserved life.
We go to bed at nine 30, we have a book we read, and then we wake up at six 30 or so and we walk our dog in the woods. So I’m not, you know, I’m not throwing rages at my house. I’m not going out to the bar. I’ve, as you can tell, I’ve never been to a strip club except for documentary purposes. So I live a pretty, like, as, as wild as my life can look on camera. I live a pretty relaxed and calm life. Like a grandpa off camera.
Richie Burke:
Yeah. one bonus question I’m want to throw and then we’ll get to one more. Milwaukee, you’re taking off pretty big right now. It seems like everything indicates that you want to stay here, at least have a presence here for the very long term. Why is that?
Tommy G:
Hmm. One, I love the city for, for many reasons. It, I love that it’s a big city with a, that it’s still, you can wrap your arms around. It’s 20 minutes from end to end. It’s not like a New York or Chicago where you get lost in the sprawl. I really love that how nature is integrated into lot, lot of part of the city. Like where we live, there’s a river five minutes away and that’s one of our favorite places to go and and visit. So the urban architecture I really like. I like the people, I like the cost of living, I like the investment opportunities. I like the Midwest humble and grind mentality. I like that it’s centrally located, that wherever I fly in the country, it’s, this is kind of a midpoint area. I like how easy our airport is to get through.
You get, I can show up and get through security in 15 minutes. That’s really big. But I certainly have considered moving to the outskirts of Milwaukee. Especially, we’ll see how crazy the summer goes, but I am very worried that things are gonna get outta control and that as we have kids that this is not gonna be a place that I can raise my kids. And I, I really don’t like to even have to say that out loud, but I think it’s undeniable that if you’re becoming a parent, you have to think about that. Mm-Hmm.
Richie Burke:
final question, looking back are what are you most proud of of what you’ve done to date and where, where you’ve gotten to this point?
Tommy G:
What I’m proud of is I’ve always had entrepreneurial dreams and ambitions ever since I was a little kid. And I’m just happy that I have finally found a job that I love, that I’m passionate about, that I will do 14, 15, 16 hour days for that I get to be excited about. I get to always be working on who are my contacts, where am I going next, what am I gonna shoot?
What, how are we gonna do this? So I would say what I’m proudest of so far is, is building a business I love and then building a family that I love. I have a wonderful wife and dog and we’re gonna be having kids very soon and I’m very much excited the aspect of being a father and, and enjoying that journey. And so I have a very I have a peaceful home life and I have a enticing career and that’s not something I’ve always had. So it’s a very big luxury to have those two things.
Richie Burke:
Love it. Tommy Gee, thanks so much for coming on today. It was great seeing you again after like five, six years and congrats on everything.
Tommy G:
I appreciate that signing off and we’ll see you guys whenever the next episode is.
Richie Burke:
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Milwaukee Uncut. If you enjoyed this episode, please do us a huge favor in subscribe to the show and write a review that helps us get more ears on these episodes in these great Milwaukee stories. Also, just a reminder that this podcast is sponsored by Central Standard Distillery in its in partnership with On Milwaukee and produced by Story Mark Studios.