#523: Bruce Almighty

So, boys, this is a long time coming.

People have been asking about it.

It's the tribute pod to Rob Bruce.

Yeah.

Memorial pod.

Memorial pod for Rob Bruce, recorded a couple days, maybe a week after

Rob passed away.

I felt it was something that

I think people would like to hear.

Especially Brian Nichelle's coming raw and honest with how he felt about Robert.

And

I think it's something that should be released.

And I think it was a nice

little

conversation about Robert and how.

Remembrances, good and bad.

Yeah.

Honest.

And

I think you're right.

I think that people expected to hear something after a friend of ours passed away beyond like, yeah, he died.

So this is what would have been.

Yeah, this is what it would have been.

This is what it would have been.

Yeah, well, you know, there's an intro of IBQ, and again, you know, the very emotional Brian Nichelle.

And we hope you enjoy it.

Hello, everybody.

My name is Brian Quinn.

You may know me from the hit show Tell him Steve Dave.

I'm here to introduce this special tribute episode to the man, the myth, the legend, Rob Bruce.

I didn't know Rob as well as the other guys did, but I did know him a little bit.

Got to hang out with him a few times when he he was on Tell Him Steve Dave, and every time that I was on Comic Book Men.

But more than that, like sometimes I would just see him walking the streets of Red Bank and stop to talk to him a little bit.

And I have to say, like, Rob always seemed happy to see me, and I was always happy to see Rob.

And I liked to, you know, just talk to him about the things that I really liked to talk to him about, you know, comics and movies and toys.

He was so big on toys and stuff like that.

And more than once, I would

get a toy or find some little fact about something online and be like, man,

I can't can't wait to see Rob Bruce and talk to him about this and get his opinion on it.

And I would do that, and sure enough, he would deliver me some sort of knowledge and insight that I didn't have before.

I liked him, he was genuinely fun.

Sometimes, I mean, look, nobody's perfect.

Sometimes he laughed a little bit too much in the background during Telling Steve Dave when I was trying to get a very important point across.

But I would say, more often than not, he added to the show than took away, that's for sure.

One time on the podcast, he had told this story about seeing an angel.

And it was my belief that he did not see an angel, that if anybody in their real life had seen an angel,

I don't know how they would care about things such as toys anymore.

I mean, once you've seen an angel and you have evidence that God exists and, you know, that there's an afterlife and everything like that, that maybe things like a creature from the Black Lagoon toy.

wouldn't matter as much.

And so I dismissed him.

I dismissed the whole notion of Rob Bruce having seen an angel one day, quite publicly, I might add.

I think I just said he just wanted to be on the podcast.

But that was early in my relationship with Rob.

Having known him for years after that, I would like to publicly correct myself and say that if there was anybody on this planet we call Earth that would have seen an actual angel and then got up the next day and went to a toy store to get the latest wave of Star Wars toys or, you know, whatever Rob was into the next day, It was absolutely Rob Bruce.

So, I want to retract what I said originally and say, Rob, I now believe that you saw an angel.

And if there's any justice in this universe, you and that angel are up in heaven right now, kicking back, talking about toys.

That's what I choose to believe, and I hope you believe it too.

So, there you go.

An official retraction

years later.

And now I leave you with the boys from Tellum Steve Dave and Comic Book Men

to talk about the man, the myth, the legend,

Rob Bruce.

Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of Tellum Steve Dave, a Tellum Steve Dave tribute to Robert Bruce, the man, the legend.

I'm here with Walt, and I am here with Brian Nichelle of comic bookmen, producer, showrunner, extraordinaire, all the fucking credits.

And we just wanted to talk about Rob a little bit, have some remembrances.

Rob passed away recently.

I'm not sure what the exact date was, right before Christmas, was it?

I think it was after Christmas.

A little bit after Christmas.

And

we would be remiss, as they say, if we weren't to talk about a guy who figured so prominently into our lives for a long time.

He was around, yeah.

He was a fixture in Redbank.

And if you were around Redbank

for the last 30 years, I mean, you've had to come across him, run into him.

He was definitely one of the

guys you would just see seemingly every day.

He was a character.

Well, he lived in town, so he was able to walk around town.

That's why people, like, nobody knows me in my neighborhood because there's not like this little central area where everybody walks around.

Like, I've lived in my place for over three years now.

I still don't know the neighbors' names.

We wave,

but I don't know anybody.

You know, I want to walk down the street.

Nobody would know my name.

So, Rob Bruce

used to have a store in Redbank called Groove Spot, was it?

Yeah, Mama Street.

No, did you used to go to that?

The very first time I ever met Robert was at the Groove Spot.

I don't know the circumstances of why I walked in, but

I just happened to walk in maybe because something in the window drew my eye.

And I remember he was working

and his kids,

Josh and Frankie, who were very young at that point, I mean, super young, were in the store as well.

And I remember got, you know, I had a

feeling of like, and he was, and, you know, and I, and I know that, like, you know, this wasn't always everybody's first

impressions of the man when they met him, but I remember like he was super nice.

And, like, he was like, hey, if you need anything, I got everything.

Let me know.

Right.

And then my impressions of, well, that's a nice little family.

It was a little family-run little store.

But, I mean,

never thinking, though, that I would, you know, work with the guy in a television show a couple years ago.

Decades later, you'd still be involved with the guy.

My first impression of Rob Bruce was that he was a total asshole.

And I'll tell you why.

And this is the only time I've ever been like, what a jerk off.

Because then I grew to like the dude.

But when we first opened the first stash on Broad Street,

it was also

Mama Street.

Sorry, Mama Street, down the street from where the groove spot was.

He came in and he was obnoxious and he was arrogant and he was brash.

And he told me in no uncertain terms that he would be getting 20% off all bags and boards because his previous deal with Steve Dave, who Kevin bought the store from,

that was the deal.

And I was like, I don't know you, guy.

Like, I don't know you.

He was so angry at me.

He stormed out of the store.

And it wasn't for another couple of weeks that he came back in.

And he was like

a little bit more mellow.

And so we started talking.

And then I I didn't mind him.

And all those things I just said about him were the obnoxiousness and the arrogance and all that shit.

That was to the end.

He was always that guy.

But somehow he was still likable.

Yeah.

You know, to most people.

I mean, there's a, I mean,

you know, if people are asking me online and I'm sure are wondering, like, how come no Mike, how come no Ming here today?

Ming, we asked to be involved, but he had an engagement in New Orleans.

And Mike, I just felt like, you know, if this pod's going to be about Rob Brutus, if Mike is here, then it's all about Mike having to explain about the incident where, you know, where he got punched by Robert.

And then it becomes, you know, Mike having to deflect and try to maintain a stance that I didn't hate the guy.

Right.

And, you know, so that's those are the reasons why, yeah.

But like my personal dealings with Robert, there weren't that many where I could look back on that were memorable.

But he was always nice to me.

and

I never really had any kind of like

distaste for the guy as and but a lot of people couldn't say that they were working on comic man a lot of people could could say that you know they generally liked him but also realized that like man he could get under some fucking some people's skin tom mum comes to mind

super fucking smart guy though man like um

i i i i question if he wasn't in the high upper 140s as well in that IQ.

You think he could have been?

We've come across a lot of fucking geniuses.

A lot of self-proclaimed geniuses.

We've never seen any paperwork on any of these guys.

But sometimes they can back it up, but like,

fuck, how did you know that?

Yeah.

And so quickly, like, one of the most impressive, it sounds so fucking stupid, but one of the most impressive things that Rob Bruce busted out of nowhere was we were talking about...

I can't remember what the product was, but it like somehow it got to the camera.

Yes, and somehow it got to the cardboard of it all.

And he knew about cardboard being produced at a certain place at a certain time.

And I'm like,

he's just saying it too fast to make it up.

He must know it.

Like, who the fuck would know this?

And that is, that's like a get him-type behavior, you know.

What about you, Bri?

I mean, I think you

have some real

nice memories of Robert and how helpful he was to you, right?

I do.

I have to say that I loved Rob.

You know, I really

loved him.

He was a part of my life for six years during Comic Book, man.

I saw him every day when we were shooting the show.

I saw him after hours.

Our families would get together, hang out on the beach in Ocean Grove.

They'd come over and we would eat together.

Our kids would play together.

Our wives were very fond of each other because they were both kind of wacky, which was great.

And from the minute I met Rob, I really liked him.

Okay.

It's funny because a lot of the things that made him repellent to some people and many people on my staff at Comic Book Men were very often the same things that made me really, really like him and admire him.

He was

a classic

New Jersey character.

And I've said it before on Tales with you guys.

I love a character, you know, and he was,

I mean, I saw, I don't go online much, but I saw some, you know, postings about his uniqueness and all that.

But he really did have a brilliant mind.

And I think the biggest thing that I could add to this conversation about Rob, away from, you know, my personal feelings about him, which are all positive,

is how valuable he was to the actual show, Comic Book Men.

From the minute I saw the sizzle reel, everybody in the office was saying, Well, if we're going to move forward with this series, we need this guy.

You know, he's the way in.

He has an encyclopedic knowledge of all this stuff.

So

when I got the show,

I knew we had to bring him on as a producer.

And so we had him in the office.

So he served a dual role.

He was on camera, and everyone loved him for that.

And then he was in the office.

And

I admitted then, and I'll admit now, that I didn't know shit about the stuff we were talking about.

You know, you guys know I knew my 70s, you know, TV pop culture and some toys and stuff.

And I, and I flat out said to Rob, I need you.

You know, I know how to make a TV show.

I know how to build out characters and storylines, but I need you to keep this legit.

Right.

So every day we would look at

casting sheets from people who had stuff to buy or sell.

And

Rob would be kind of the gatekeeper.

And I would yell things out to him in the office.

Hey, Rob, does anybody care about blah, blah, blah?

And he would say, No,

stay away from that, you know?

And of course, you guys too, you know, but I wasn't going to bother the talent with my, you know, inane questions day in and day out.

So you're lucky we would have had you fired.

I know.

Step away from your free haircuts and your cappuccinos.

I cannot overstate how valuable he was to me.

And when we started doing, especially like celebrity A stories, when we started getting people in the shop, like, say, Ralph Macchio, I would would say, Rob, what would Ralph Macchio possibly be looking for?

And he's like, well, there are three Karate Kid play sets.

Two of them are pretty easy to get, but one of them is pretty rare because it's got the referee and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, well, find me that.

I'm going to run that by Machio.

And lo and behold, when I finally speak to Machio himself, I tell him about the sets.

And he's like, no kidding.

I've been looking for that third set.

Oh, so Robert was correct, huh?

Robert was absolutely correct.

And I was like, well, we have one.

He's like, get the fuck out of here.

You have this.

I'm like, we have the set.

And I ran the storyline through him.

You'll come in.

You're looking for it.

You heard you guys may have it.

You can get some rare items.

And that's how it played out.

And, you know, that is one where like the Ralph Macchio visit was made so much better because Rob knew what a guy like Macchio might be looking for.

the guy who may have everything.

And turns out he was 100% correct.

And it made it a great day.

And we'll talk more about the Macchio visit when we do tales about that episode.

But, you know, similar with, you know, with Marky Ramon, when Marky Ramon visited,

you know, and it was like the 50s robots and the drum heads, whatever it was.

And for many of these,

I needed Rob with me when I when I was like, okay, I'm going to go talk to, you know, so-and-so, Peter Mayhew, whoever it was.

I need you standing by my side so I don't sound like an idiot.

And when they start bringing things up that I may not know, you can chime in and dazzle them with your, you know, with your knowledge.

So, day to day, uh, Rob was really my right-hand man.

And, you know, Bri's right, I had to talk to many of the staff at times.

You know, my number two, who we've talked about, your personal masseuse, Walt, Eric Duncan,

he and Rob, like we, the three of us, were in the office together, and it was really like the three of us kicking around ideas quite often.

And Rob, and Eric was very

impatient with Rob's idiosyncrasies, which I loved.

Okay.

And so I, a few times, had to pull Eric aside and say, dude, Robert is

20-some-odd years older than you.

You can't talk to him like a child.

You can't scold him like you would a 20-year-old PA.

Like, I get you.

I got Rob and I got my boy Eric Duncan.

And I had to, you know, sort of correct that behavior because I knew Rob had lived a life before Comic Book Men.

For a lot of the staff coming in, I mean, we had like 24-year-old people coming in, and now they're sitting in an office with Robert Bruce.

They're used to sitting in offices with other 25-year-old people, right?

But now they're with Robert fucking Bruce, okay?

Who was a punk rocker, was a Wall Street guy, you know, has been sober for 30 years or whatever after having lived a mad life, you know, before these kids were born, and they didn't know what to do with him.

And

we would do fun games in the office where I'd be like, Rob, give these kids some rock trivia.

And he'd tell them about the Ramones or he'd tell them about the early days of punk in New York and educate them.

I mean, and ultimately, people like, you know, you guys remember Banana Man?

Yeah.

You know,

Keith Haskell.

For those who don't know who Banana Man is,

he was what to the show again?

He was a segment producer, and I had him kind of heading up some of our A stories.

And so I had him partnered up with Rob Bruce.

They were teamed up a lot.

And I spoke to Keith.

A bunch of the staff had been reaching out to me after news of Rob's death came out, texting me, like, holy shit, I can't believe it.

And I went back and forth with Banana Man.

And, you know, we were talking about the trip he took with Rob out to Long Island to Mike Esposito's widow.

You remember that?

Mike Esposito, the artist.

And it was one of the seminal moments in Banana Man's life, driving out to this little house on Long Island to the widow of a famous

inker,

and the stories of Rob going in and sizing it up, and the woman insisting that she make them sandwiches,

and Keith described them as disgusting mayonnaise sandwiches.

But Rob looked at him and said, oh no.

We have to stay.

It would be impolite if we didn't stay for the sandwiches.

And they sat and ate and came back with just hilarious stories, which probably could have been a a sitcom, you know, all by itself with Keith and Rob driving out to Long Island.

But then Keith and Rob got close, and Keith was probably, again, you know, 20, 30 years younger than Rob.

And they ended up, you know, Keith was like, yeah, we would get up at four in the morning and I would go to Collingwood with him and he would show me my girlfriend the ropes and he would get out of the car and puff his chest out.

And, you know, and I too took those early morning trips.

You know what I mean?

Rob's motto of, you know, if the sun's up, you're already late, was so true because he was out scouting for the best stuff.

And so these are kids that were exposed to Rob Bruce

in the course of making our show, whose lives were made better, you know, whose characters were made richer by knowing a guy like Rob.

And,

you know, Rob

is two things.

You know, he was a character, but he also had character.

You know, and I'm sure there's people out there who can say, Rob ripped me off, Rob overcharged, whatever.

I worked with him closely for six years.

And sometimes it's different when you're the boss.

You know, you hear a lot of things.

I was going to say, I think Robert was extremely lucky that you were the boss.

Extremely lucky.

He was more than qualified to do the job, but just alone on the amount of people he would get into arguments with.

It was unreal.

You were his fucking, you were truly like the

guardian angel.

Yeah, because

there was a lot of incidents, and like I said,

you were a very good friend to him and

helped him out along the way to

put out those those fires that erupted once in a while on set.

Not even on set or in the office or whatever.

I mean, the sheer number of arguments he got into with people when we used to play poker.

Like, you know, once a week, the crew would get together, we'd play poker, and there were probably like five different tables.

Not once did I sit at Rob Bruce's table, but almost universally there was shouting.

There was arguing.

There was one time where I really thought that he and Brian O'Halloran were going to fist fight.

I heard about it.

I really thought they were going to fist fight because

I think Rob lost a head and he accused

Brian O'Halloran's girlfriend of feeding O'Halloran signs and signals.

It was so fucking funny.

You know, I would ask him, like, you know, because

after a poker event that went, that was pretty testy, and

everybody was really annoyed at him and pissed off at him.

I remember just me and him talking outside on the bench before we're getting ready to shoot a scene.

And I'd be like, why do you do that?

And he's just like, I'm doing it because I want to win.

He goes,

that's my strategy.

If they're pissed off, I'm going to win that game.

He goes.

And sometimes that actually worked because people would be so furious that he took the big pot home.

And to him, that was his strategy was to get everybody off their game.

Everybody fucking so pissed off.

Dude, people disliked him so much playing poker that there was a weekly bounty for Rob Bruce.

If you took Rob Bruce out, you would get an extra 50 bucks.

Yes, I remember all of that.

I never played in the poker game.

Me neither.

But I would revel in the stories every Wednesday morning about this.

And I thought it was so funny that Rob was able to get under everyone's skin the way he did.

And I believe you, that that was part of his strategy.

And I think that even for people that we know that had a distaste for his personality and the way he was,

maybe in hindsight, they'll look back at those moments and say you know what the world was a more interesting place those games were more interesting because rob was there right uh because he was a character and because i don't think there'll ever be another rob bruce he is a one in a trillion person and and i love a person like that you know and i and i think that there are and this is no disrespect to anybody but i i think that you could divide the world our little world anyway into two kinds of people those that got rob bruce and those that didn't get rob bruce that is 100 accurate And that's it.

Oh, man.

Yeah, you just laid it all right out there so eloquently and perfect.

And I would try to talk to those people who

didn't get him.

And I would be like,

how come this annoys you so much?

Like the big fish story.

He would come in every day and say, I found this little rubber doll for 30 cents.

I just sold it for $3,000.

He'd leave the store, and two people in particular were besides themselves so angry.

And I would be like, he is not telling that story to get under your skin.

He's telling that story for him

in a way.

And that endeared me a little bit to him because I was like,

it's harmless.

Yes.

It's so harmless.

It's harmless.

And the people I tried to explain it to

just never could see he wasn't telling that story to like.

put them in a way, in a position to be like.

It's like, don't take it so fucking personally, bro.

I know.

It was maddening at times and he's not doing it to to be a braggart either no i i i he truly got joy from it and it was an accon it was like a guy on wall street saying holy shit i just did whatever whatever with these stocks and i made myself a cool ten million dollars rob would legitimately go buy something for 25 cents sell it on ebay for 60 bucks and that was equivalent to whatever that you know hedge fund guy made and

wouldn't feel good about that exactly that's what i'm saying it was a legitimate accomplishment i'm not i'm not even so sure that every story was true.

But

I mean, there's no way to know now, but I know where I put my money.

But like, yeah, I just could never get understand the

way it set off people

and just made them so angry.

Where I was just like, can't you see

maybe he just needs to tell that story for himself?

coming into a situation, you know, and I never could get that connect, never could drive it home I was to the people that I was talking to, like, ease up, chill the fuck out.

Yeah, who cares?

If it's true, what do you care?

If it's not true, what do you care?

Right, yeah, either way.

Either way, it's just like, let the guy have it.

Look, I think that

what I hope I'm saying is that I think

in hindsight,

hopefully people come to appreciate what you just said, that for better or for worse, their lives were made more more interesting.

Their experiences were made more interesting.

You know,

I think that Rob is someone who wore his,

is it humanity?

Is it humanness?

He wore his humanness on his sleeve.

You know, we're all fucked up and flawed, but some people keep that in check when they're around people.

You know, I don't think Rob was embarrassed by his quirks or his flaws or what he was.

I think he knew what he was.

He lived a life and he wore it on his sleeve.

And if you didn't get it, you didn't get it.

But if you got it, you know, you loved him.

Yeah.

And, you know,

I will miss him.

Man, I will miss him.

Our relationship stayed strong.

I sent him a text the Monday, you know, before we found out, a picture that I sent you, Walt, of the new poster my son got, a vintage, the invisible melting man.

Incredible, melting man.

Incredible.

1977.

Beautiful vintage poster he got.

And of course, I took a picture of it and I sent it to you, Walt, and I sent it to Rob.

And I'm like, check this out.

And I didn't hear back.

Which

fuck you, Rob, Bruce?

No, I actually, I'm not going to say, oh, I was worried.

I knew something was up.

But it was weird.

I thought, okay, the guy's busy because normally it's right back.

I mean, that's the shit I would do if I'd be at a flea market or an antique shop and I text him at the lunchbox and say, hey, dude, they want 60 for this.

Should I get it?

And it's like, boom, right back.

Okay.

Well, that's a credit to your character, though.

A lot of people who would have come into that position, that job that you had, they see Rob as what can I get from him to help me with my job.

But you stayed in contact with him after the show was canceled.

You legitimately cared about him.

And,

you know, you were truly his friend, though.

I mean,

after Conflict Man was canceled, I have a little bit of guilt

regarding Rob Bruce.

You know, talking about what happened, you know, he got banned from the store because of the thing.

And I didn't talk to Robert

out of some

form of misplaced loyalty.

I

was like,

I just, like, I would see him in town and I didn't stop to talk to him.

And if I saw him down the street, you know, I was like, oh, fuck, I don't want to deal with this.

I just crossed the street because of what happened.

And

it was almost a year after that incident that I did run into him.

And I was talking to him.

And I realized, I was like, dude, why the fuck am I acting like that?

Wait, he's not the asshole.

The other guy's the asshole.

Why, like, why?

Like, he was so nice to me.

The first two seconds, it was in a 7-Eleven.

The first two seconds, he's like, I found this and flipped it for $300.

I mean, immediately.

And it was right back to him.

I was like,

I'm not mad at this guy.

Right.

I'm not mad at this guy.

And thankfully, you know, the last time I saw him was like, I reached out to him and I needed

these two sets of 70s

TV handheld TVs.

I don't know if you remember these.

You asked me for his number so you could ask him about that.

Yeah, and I reached out to him and I was like, hey, do you happen to have these two things?

It was for the opening of Let's All Go Toho the Movies.

I want to shoot this opening where me and Jeff had these handheld TVs.

So I reached out to him.

I was like, and I sent him a picture and he was like, yeah, come on down.

And,

you know, and I have some.

So I went down and I met him there.

And we had a real nice conversation.

We were laughing.

And there was no like,

there was no tension that I had put into my head that there would be because of the incident.

So, there is a little bit of guilt that I like, like I said, out of like misfucking spent, misplaced loyalty.

I didn't talk to the guy for a year.

Now, I don't wouldn't have, I don't know how many times I would have talked to him in that year, but well, it was bad from the stash, so unless you saw him on the street, chances were unlikely you'd talk to him.

Yeah, so there was, like I said, so there was

thankfully, though, there was that, you know, I did see him and did talk to him

that doesn't make me feel as guilty as I do feel because he was nice to me and he didn't like,

he wasn't aware that I was even like had some sort of like

some sort of thing where I was like, well, I really can't talk to the guy.

Like, did I think he was wrong in what he did?

Like, yeah, that's not the way you handle things.

But do I also realize maybe he was pushed to a point that like he knows.

Do you also think it's funny?

Yeah.

You know, that's like, it's,

what are you going to do?

I mean, people.

Here's something that people may not know, you know, about Rob.

Rob was,

it bothered him.

People who harbored ill feelings toward Rob, it kind of bothered him.

All right.

He was pretty sensitive.

And there was one day in particular at the Stash.

I don't know if you guys will remember this, where things blew up with him and Mike.

And it may have been the day that one threw a pencil at the other or something, but it was just like the kind of fight that 10-year-old boys have, right?

And Rob stormed out.

He screamed and he was, you know, kind of ranting and stormed out.

And I went after him on the street and I found him in front of

the chase bank that used to be there across the street or maybe it's still there.

And he was crying.

And I gave him a hug and I hugged him.

I'm like, talk to me, man.

And he, through his tears, was saying, I don't know what he has against me.

I don't know what I ever did to deserve that.

You know, this guy fucking hates me and I don't know why.

I have nothing against him.

I don't know why.

but but but it nobody bothered him and i'm sure mike has his reasons but the point is people just it like some people just don't get along and that's okay and and we saw that and we we had fun with it yeah throughout the show um but it did it did it did bother him and and it and in not an angry um you know uh crazy way but i think it it confused him that level of animosity that that he had to endure kind of on a daily basis.

And I'm not pointing fingers either way.

I had great times with Mike on set and great times with Rob on set.

I never did get the wrestling match in a tub of jello between the two that I wanted to get done.

And I guess we'll have to just, we can only wonder from here on out.

What's this a spot on a memorial episode?

Yeah, sorry.

It is.

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And if I knew Rob Bruce, like I think I knew Rob Bruce, he would be very happy that we were turning a dollar because he was a man who liked to turn a dollar.

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If I were to model all my meundis, it could probably take, it could probably be

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You want to know something interesting that I thought of last night?

And then I and then I looked up the episode.

Sizzle Reel Aside, which featured Rob Bruce heavily, and I'd say was, you know, besides having Kevin Smith and stuff and James Hughes and you guys in it, was one of the things the network liked so much about it.

I watched his, what's it called?

The pilot?

His take at the Sizzle Reel.

I watched it.

I was sitting right there, and I remember seeing the reaction of the guy who was filming it.

I don't know if you remember who filmed it, a young guy?

I don't remember.

But I remember his reaction to, like, because he asked Robert to show him his tattoos because he had the Alfred E.

Newman, right?

Like, like, what was that dude from Kung Fu?

Kane?

Yeah.

I remember, like, he had the tattoo right here, and he had a tattoo right here.

One side on his forearms.

I know you can't see what I'm talking about, anybody listening, but on his forearms, he had an Alfred E.

Newman normal face.

On his left arm, and on his right arm, I believe he had the Alfred E.

Newman skull.

And so he asked him to explain it on camera.

And when he he explained it on camera, the guy filming it fucking did a little dance and was like, he knew that, like, we found something amazing right here.

This guy is going to be

crazy.

Yes.

So that was true.

Okay.

So, sizzle reel aside, which he crushed on.

He was fucking amazing on that sizzle reel.

Okay.

That aside,

Comic Book Man episode one

features Rob Bruce.

Okay, it's the Collingwood, it's the Collingwood episode.

So Rob Bruce is featured heavily in that episode.

And then 95 episodes later,

what we didn't know at the time was going to be our last episode, right?

Pop Goes the Stash, where you guys get your Funko pops.

Oh, I know what you're going to say.

Rob was featured very heavily.

So the conceit of that episode was, okay, and in real life, not on the show, but in real life, we got this deal with Funko where you guys were going to have Funkos made, and Kevin would be out there, and you guys would all go to Washington State to get your Funkos.

But Walt doesn't fly, as everyone knows.

So we had to come up with a story for, you know, have some fun at the Stash while the shenanigans in Washington were going on.

Everett, Everett, Everett, Washington.

And so I said, hey, what if Rob Bruce, remember this?

I said, what if Rob Bruce works at the Stash?

He finally gets a shot.

at wearing the staff t-shirt and he gets to walk work alongside El Negotiateur the great Walter Flanagan.

And Rob was in his glory as I was pitching this out to him.

And

he works at the shop with you.

He does two or three transactions, really nice stuff.

He's wearing the staff shirt and

you put the

trainee funployee pin on him, which was fantastic.

And he does great in the episode.

And I have to tell you that cameras not rolling, Rob was truly honored.

He kept telling me, I can't believe I'm going to get to wear the shirt and do transactions on that side of the counter.

He was truly honored.

And when I told him, Rob, I'm going to want you with the podcast to sit around the table with Kevin and talk about this.

He was beside himself.

He was genuinely touched.

And I mean, welled up talking about that, that we were allowing him to sit around that podcast table with Kevin and you guys.

And I watched it late last night.

And the final sign-off from the final episode of Comic Book Men features Rob giving his name alongside you and Kevin and Mike and Ming.

Well, you're not the only one who recognized that.

I got two emails from listeners of Tellum Steve Dave after Robert had passed and they mentioned how important Comic Book Men was.

One of the emails states that it's what led them to listen to Tellum Steve Dave, but they thought it was so

amazing that the very first episode of Comp Bookman, we introduced Robert and I say to the table, he's a guy I always wanted to get into the stash.

I always wanted to get this guy, but he's kind of lone wolf operative.

You know, he's not a team player, Leo, and not in a bad way, but like, you know, and then in the last episode, that connective tissue,

he does come work for us.

So they felt like it was a planned

narrative that was built.

And we knew that.

yes I planned it and I was yeah I was like and I wrote back I was like that's a wonderful I said no it wasn't planned I said but it is kind of sweet though that

that you recognized that and you know and that that that was something that you know was meaningful to this particular person who we emailed in they thought it was sweet I'm glad that

that that some of the fans caught that you know

because it is in hindsight sometimes you're doing something at the time and you don't know what its significance will be.

We didn't know that was going to be the last episode, and we certainly didn't know Rob was going to die long before his time.

But it was so bittersweet to see that last night and

just, you know, the little behind the scenes about that, I just wanted to share that that was not lost on him at the time.

He couldn't express how meaningful that was to him enough.

Yeah, he really did.

You know, I'm going to get there behind where I'm going to wear the shirt with Walt.

It was a great moment, and it all came flooding back to me when I saw that last episode,

how important the show was to him.

And he was always for the show.

It was never for his ego.

And we would spend many, many nights and days and lunches talking about the items.

And he was always prepared.

Look, was he off base sometimes?

Were his facts and figures wrong sometimes?

Of course.

Look at the volume of items that came in and out of that place during the course of 96 episodes.

You know, I would never nickel and dime his input and and nitpick it that way.

Overall, I will say unequivocally, I could not have pulled off Comic Book Men in the way I did without Robert Bruce's help, both on camera and off-camera.

He was an essential producer, possibly, probably, most likely the most essential producer I had.

Unreplaceable.

You know, he was unreplaceable.

Anybody else, sorry to say, myself included, could have been replaced.

But I will say that.

I know there's other people who will fight me on that, but

I worked the intricacies of that show personally.

And I had specific

boxes

I needed to check for the network and

just for the whole arc of every season.

And he helped me.

He was intimately involved with it.

And he was an indispensable part of that.

And so

I just want that to go on the record.

You know, I know he could brag and talk and people say, oh, he's a producer, whatever.

Yeah, he was.

He was fucking 100% legit a big part of producing that show.

That annoyed certain people, it did, and that's why I'm saying it.

And that's why I'm saying it so

just so emphatically.

Okay, there's no, there's no debate for it.

You know,

when a network gives you four or five million dollars and says, make us 16 episodes,

win or lose, it falls on the shoulders of the showrunner, right?

So, my reputation, my stake, my ability to feed my family was based on

the success or failure of that show while we were doing it.

And those were the stakes for me.

And Robert understood that.

And I would tell him time and time again: I need you to make me look good.

Like, let's pull this off together.

I can't do it without you.

I don't know shit.

I need your help.

And we did it together.

And it can't be argued.

You know, I know what it was like to make that show, you know, in the field and in post.

And even through post, Rob would help me, you know, come up with those graphics and the facts and figures about the, you know, the items that would come up and stuff.

So

that's that, that's for the record, and that's, it's, it's inarguable.

One of my favorite Rob Bruce moments was

how wholeheartedly he bought into when we went out looking for the Jersey Devil.

Oh, yeah.

And he dressed up like the Jersey Devil.

I mean, he looked amazing.

He looked great and he had so much fun doing it.

Like he was what he's one of those guys.

Like you could ask him to do something.

He'll make sure I'll do it.

Yes.

Like you didn't have to fucking beg or cajole or offer him anything else.

It's just like he was a team guy.

We said it before on, you know, on

our Tales podcast that this was the dream job for RB.

And he

reveled in it.

And he understood how special it was that the stars aligned to have this job that he was perfect for.

And he had a place to go and a whole new group of people.

Like I said, he's hanging out with 25-year-olds and he's, you know, and he's just, he's keeping up.

And it was, it was just great.

And we laughed at him, we laughed with him, but that was the perfect job for him at the perfect time.

And I don't know if he was, I listen, I don't know.

He seemed like, how could he ever be happier?

Well, yeah, I mean, like for when the show got canceled, I imagine for him, it was like me and Mike went back to our real jobs.

Kevin Smith wasn't going to be,

would move on to his next project.

You know, Bri.

What was I going to do?

Oh, no.

I thought I was going to be on TV forever.

So, you know, Robert had to go, you know, it's like probably was a bit disappointing to

have that end, you know, and have to go back to like, you know, shuck, like, really

making the rounds.

The hustle and the hustle.

And like, I would tell people, too, people that I would be like, why are you so fucking hard on this guy?

Look at this, man.

His existence is like if he doesn't, he has to find shit

weekly to meet his nut, whatever he has to pay.

That's fucking pressure, man.

Can you imagine?

That never ends.

That fucking pressure.

No.

You've got to go to a flea market and find something to move so you can keep the lights on or you have to put food on the table.

You have to hope that somebody has no idea what they have.

You can get it.

Turn it around and sell it to somebody else who's like, oh my God, I can't believe you have this.

That's a lot of pressure.

It's a time.

Right?

And when you go there and there's just nothing there to like, you know, and then you're like, you got to wait another week to go back.

It's, I don't know.

It was difficult at times to

talk to people and just make them see

him in a different light.

They just didn't want to hear shit.

They just didn't want to hear it.

Rob Bruce, I'll say this.

Every single time I saw him in town, up until like, I saw him probably a week before all this happened.

He did, huh?

I was at the Red Bank Diner, and he came in.

I guess he was a staple at the Red Bank Diner.

He used to go, you know, down by the post office.

Oh, shit.

Okay.

There's a tiny little diner there now.

Is that still open?

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah.

And just like every other time, he would stop and he'd ask about Sage, how she was doing.

How's her school going?

Yeah,

he was very genuine in that way, like where he would ask about, you know, if Mary Beth wasn't there, oh, how's Mary Beth doing?

How's like, and not in a way of people like, oh, okay, you know, really what they want to do is talk about themselves.

He seemed to be genuinely interested in like, especially Sage, how she was doing.

That always

endeared him to me.

That is true, you know, because up until very recently, I would get a random text from him that would say, How's mom?

Because he knew my mom wasn't doing well the last couple of years.

And he knew all about my dad.

My dad was a collector when he's young, so I was always taking pictures.

I probably sent some to you all, too, of all the shit I've been finding in my parents' basement.

And so he knew about my parents, and he knew their health issues.

And that's true, Bri.

You know, he would just randomly sometimes say, How's mom?

Yeah.

And maybe he met her one time down in Ocean Grove.

He had character.

Listen, I mean, the last time I saw Rob Bruce was at Mello's funeral out in Hempstead.

So Mello, for those of you who don't know,

Shimello was our production manager for all the seasons of Comic Book Man, and he was a dear, dear, dear friend to us all.

And when Mello died suddenly,

you know, Rob took several trains trains to get out to Hempstead, Long Island.

And this was like the middle of COVID.

This was, there wasn't a vaccine, you know, so everybody who went was like, okay, you're not supposed to be crowding in small rooms and you're not supposed to be on public transportation.

Rob did all of that to get down to this funeral.

And

that just showed his character.

You know, he was a character and he had character.

And it's the kind of thing that if you just look at Rob's, you know, brashness and the fun people have with tearing him down, you're going to miss that.

But like Brian says, he, he, if you were in his world and he knew that you had love for him and he knew your family, uh, it wasn't bullshit.

You know, he was thinking about that and he saw you and said, How's this one?

How's that one?

And the fact that he came to that funeral in Hempstead in the middle of this pandemic was such a sign of character and made everybody feel so good about it.

And, you know, what more can I say?

You know, that's what says a lot about people.

I wouldn't focus on any of the petty bullshit.

You know what I mean?

And I'm sure those two had their battles when it came to poker as well.

You know what I mean?

Well, he battled with most people.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah, it's weird because I can honestly say

I never ever saw that side of

me dealing with him one-on-one.

Never.

Never had an issue with him.

Never had an argument with him.

He was always just nice to me.

So, I mean, I generally liked the guy.

I really didn't know him that well, though.

I don't really have any, like, where we went out and did things together, like, you know, memories of us doing anything together.

I mean, he was always in town, though.

You know, and he was always around.

Always around, yeah, but I didn't have like any like

you know, anything that we just did, me and him together.

But, you know, like I said, I

was always, you know, he seemed to always be friendly and happy.

He had a smile when he came in to see me.

Talk about he liked basketball, too.

I remember always talking about the Knicks, and I'd be always like, Rob, I don't follow basketball.

We always talk about football.

We have to talk about football or hockey.

Well,

you got to go to his house, though, remember, when we went to his.

I don't think I did that.

You weren't that Silence of the Lambs basement?

No, I think that was you and Ming.

Yeah, it was you and Ming.

Oh, it was just us two?

Yes.

Oh, I could have.

Why would you not be there?

Because it was too small, probably.

I don't remember why, but I think it was just you and Ming.

It was definitely of like dungeon-esque proportions.

It was fucked up looking how much stuff was in this little, like,

this little basement.

Immortalized on the sizzle reel.

Yeah.

Which is, which is, I think, on YouTube, probably illegally, but it's on there.

Yeah, that's another thing.

He was always like.

You would ask, like, well, how are your kids doing?

And there was not a fucking prouder dad out there.

I mean, holy shit.

Like, I don't think I've

cumulatively talked this good about me.

It was just one conversation with Rob Bruce.

So fucking proud of Josh doing the

animation stuff, and Frankie about to graduate high school.

And

you look at these little, I'm like, this fucking Frankie, this little kid was at the birthday party.

Like, in the, like, she's so small.

Time gets away from you.

It really does.

The last text I got from Rob was,

you want to feel old?

Frankie just got into Penn State.

Wow.

He's in Penn State.

Hopefully not for a football program.

Good for him.

Yeah.

Well, Sandusky's gone.

Long gone.

You know what he is?

Sandusky's.

I think he died in jail or is he still.

I think he's dead.

Did he die in jail?

Did someone kill him in jail?

Oh, I don't know about that.

I think you're thinking of Jeffrey Dahmer.

No, no, no.

I don't think you know what we're talking about.

Or Jared.

There was a big scandal at the Penn State football team.

Come on.

Oh, I'm not that.

I know about that.

But I don't remember the guy getting shanked in prison.

Yeah, I don't know.

He was a real old fucking pedophile.

Yeah, and I can't imagine that he would last long in prison if they allowed him to be in general.

Well, they're like, you know, they're like, I like football, but we also don't like pedophilia.

Child rape, but football.

Give a guy a pass.

He's still out there.

Hey, nice pun.

77 years old.

Wow,

he's still in jail.

Still out there playing slip and slide in the showers in prison.

Leading a youth program.

Yes, proud of those boys.

You know, they were friends with my kids all those summers.

And that was, you know, and also, you know, Zapzig's kids and Sage.

I mean, that was, we've talked about on the show before as well, you know, those kids that grew up on the set at Comic Book, men, you know, they'll always have that bond, and they were immune to all the other bullshit.

You know what I mean?

The Zapzig kids and the Bruce kids didn't know they were the Hatfields and McCoy's.

They didn't know they weren't supposed to play together.

They all hung out together.

It was a wonderful time.

And Rob reveled in it.

Yeah, when I read,

I think it was you, Walt, that texted me.

And so I went online and I was looking.

There was one article from a local paper, but there was one from the New York Post.

And

it said something like reality star

Robert Bruce, you know, dead, whatever.

And I was like, God damn, he would love that being called a reality star.

Like, if he were here to see this, he would really love that.

Oh, yes,

but he was

in a world where, like, if you're in a porn, you're a porn star.

If you're if you're in a reality show, you're a reality star.

Right.

Rob Bruce legitimately like earned his uh earned his status, I think, as a reality star.

He did indeed.

You know, if you were a fan of CBM,

Rob was a star.

You know what I mean?

Um,

God, I got to tell you, man, I, it's,

I, I have,

I have unfortunately lost a lot of friends at young ages,

you know, teenagers, 20s, 30s.

Rob was, I didn't even know, but I guess 62.

Yeah, I didn't know how old he was.

Yeah, I didn't either.

And that even feels like, wow, we just lost a young man who had so much more to

do and to give to the world.

So I mean, I'm really trying to avoid eulogizing Rob.

I guess this is some sort of, you know, sort of comedic eulogy we're doing but I don't want to get too heavy about it but you know we're sitting here talking about him and you know fuck man it it's it's a loss and it's it's that thing that he he was such a very specific person

that it's not like you know you lost a buddy you play bowl you went bowling with and now you're gonna find a new guy hey we need another guy for the team you know you you really can't I mean Walt you're just gonna get all of my fucking stupid questions when I'm at flea markets now oh yeah bring them on you know and when I get them I'll instead of, you know, I'll look at

with like, well, he doesn't have Robert now as a two-air.

Thank you.

So I'll take him on and try to.

I won't be as good as Robert, I mean, unless you're sending me comics.

Because Robert knew everything.

Not only comics, he knew toys,

bottle caps,

buttons.

I mean, like, all that shit I would need to look up.

Comics, I kind of have a,

I could kind of look at and give you a good idea what its value is.

But Robert knew everything in terms of the world of collecting.

If there's one thing Rob Bruce did, it was eat green.

The man was a vegan.

I never saw him eating any crap, just all good, fresh stuff.

So he would have appreciated Green Chef.

Well, Green Chef is a CCOF certified meal company.

Don't ask me what CCOF means.

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I eat Green Chef because

we could buy it and they send it to us, and Marybeth likes it.

The pre-portioned stuff is what she likes.

She likes just and who wouldn't.

I mean, come on.

Maybe I'm being a little bit too hard on her.

But she likes the pre-portioned stuff, so she can just dump it in a pot and mix it up.

And next thing you go, you got pesto parmesan chicken.

It saves a lot of time.

And how do Green Chefs offer offerings fit my diet or lifestyle?

I mean, I don't know.

I can't answer that question, honestly.

Green Chef, I'm sorry, my wife cooks.

I don't, so you're gonna have to ask her.

And the recipes, though, are flavorful and easy to follow.

That much I know.

I saw the paper that it came with.

It is very easy to follow.

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your first box ships free and realize that Rob Bruce would have wanted you to do this.

You know what I forgot to show you guys?

I took my flannel off because it was getting a little hot, but I'm wearing a pin, an actual campaign button from the Teddy Roosevelt Fairbanks

campaign from 1905, I think, that Robert gave me as a gift because he knew that I was a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt.

And he was one of the few people who I could sit down with and talk about Roosevelt and politics and history.

And so just out of nowhere, he found it at a flea market one day and

gave me this

valuable or maybe not so valuable campaign

from 1915, but it is valuable.

And I'm wearing it proudly on my shirt today.

You know, earlier, Nichelle was talking about how Robert would quiz people on old rock and that kind of stuff.

When I went into the production office, it was quite the opposite with Nichelle, who would quiz people on Teddy Roosevelt and all this

political shit nobody knows or cares about.

He's like, Did you know another thing about him?

Well, see, if that shit was included on Comic Book Man, I would have had more to offer.

We talked about fucking Steve Austin,

George Peters.

Yeah, that's more of

a pawn stars, I think, type.

Like Teddy Roosevelt, you would have fit in there with

pawn stars.

But with us, yeah, nobody cared about it.

Yeah, yeah, I was definitely more qualified to be on Pawn Stars than Comic Book Men.

What else you got about old Rob Bruce in your notes?

Anything?

What else I got about Rob on the notes?

You know, I didn't, I think we ran through most of the things I wanted to highlight about Rob.

And like I said, I thought for the most part,

what I would have to add is that

he was indeed an invaluable producer on the Comic Book Men

Do you know how many episodes he actually appeared in?

You know, one of the articles I read listed that.

I'm like, who the fuck sat down and counted it?

I mean, you can do it.

It's a lot.

I mean, you know,

he was a part of behind the scenes of every single episode.

I can assure you that.

How many he appeared on, I would say a lot.

You know what I mean?

I mean,

especially the hour episodes,

you know, season one, we used him a lot,

I think.

But,

you know, there's no way you could not, you know, you could watch any season of Comic Book Men and come away knowing who Rob Bruce is and forming an opinion of him somehow.

You know, so he was in a lot of episodes.

Now, I'm sure

you won't say any different, but because this is a tribute to Robert, but I felt that when on camera, me and him had a little bit of chemistry.

I felt that, like, you know,

whereas other people, if you put them in the scene, if like if it was somebody else and not me, like I would always lean towards like, like he would negotiate it with somebody and I'd be like, dude, man, you're the fucking, you're a beast master.

You're like impressive.

Like, you're like a tiger.

Yes.

You remember?

And I believe that was how you

would connect with him.

You would get more out of him rather than like on camera, like, you know, belittling him or trying to like,

or trying to bust his nuts.

I would go the opposite way and be because, you know, because I thought it was funny that I would be that like overpowered by his

the way he handled himself.

Yes, in that transaction, yeah, you know, oh, yeah, you know, he would definitely, I mean, there's a, I can even picture season one where it was just like, you were basically turned on.

Yeah.

You were absolutely turned on, like, oh, geez, I need a cigarette.

Yeah.

Watching him negotiate and tear somebody apart and break them down and destroy what they thought was a million-dollar book, right?

Yeah.

He definitely, he was, there were many times when he was telling somebody their shit was worthless.

He was very flippant about it.

Like this.

Oh, I loved it.

I mean, I fucking loved it.

I really did.

Because, again,

he

wasn't, I don't believe he was putting on a show, and I don't believe he was saying that to these people to try to break them down, but

he was just a reality check for a lot of people, you know, and I think he reveled in it, sure.

He knew he knew more than most people,

but I don't think it was ever malicious, is really what I'm trying to say.

And like you said, a true character because,

like,

I knew him before, you know, the show began.

And his first transaction, he comes in, he's wearing a corduroy jacket with

elbow patches.

And I'm just like, why are you dressed like that?

I mean, he never dressed like that.

You know, he had this idea in his head of

how he should be on TV.

He should dress up for it,

which in a way is a little bit charming.

Indeed.

Yeah.

Well, he was a visiting expert.

And then the corduroy jacket with the patches was sort of balanced by the dreadlock.

You know what I mean?

So it created this very interesting persona.

I mean, shit, man.

Do you remember we used to say that he was like, oh, who's the bus driver from The Simpsons?

Oh, Otto.

Otto.

He was like Otto, because he'd come pulling into the parking lot with the station wagon, with the surfboard hanging out, with fucking metal cranked, you know?

And it was just like, my God, who is this person, you know?

And that's what I mean.

I don't know if you can argue that the world was a more interesting place with Rob Bruce in it.

And it's kind of a cliche.

People say that bullshit all the time when some fucking idiot dies, but this is true, you know.

And when people die,

those who knew them, and even those who didn't, they try to create some kind of mythology around that person, right?

And they try to sort of rewrite that person's history or their relationship with that person.

But I don't think that...

Oh, I've seen that.

You know.

But I don't think we need to do that with Rob.

Like, we don't need to do anything to pump up Rob's

memory or the way we are intending to remember him.

Or our relationships with him.

Right.

Like I said, I didn't really know him that well.

I was friendly with him.

He always had a kind word for me.

I never had an argument with him.

But other than that, I really didn't really know the man all that well.

I didn't know.

But I was on friendly terms with him all the time.

You had, I think, had a much more

connection with him because you worked so closely with him for all those years.

Yeah, we do.

Leaning on him and his knowledge and everything.

Yeah.

Yeah, but we, you know, we, we just, we bonded.

I don't want to, you know, we bonded.

We had things in common, interest in history.

We, we both were sober for, you know, 20 plus years or so.

So, you know, when everyone else was drinking, we weren't drinking.

You weren't drinking either.

Well, you know.

So,

yeah, we just, we just, we got, we got each other.

You know, we got him.

I, I, I really liked him.

You know, I don't want to keep beating that, but,

you know, that, that to me, guys, was, you know,

when you asked me to do this, I thought, you know, a lot of people are saying a lot of stuff.

The one thing I can say is what I've been saying: that he was invaluable to that show.

And what's great for the family,

you know, is that they can always look back.

You can see him in those episodes.

And what you see is what you get.

If you want to know what Rob was like, I don't know what he was like as a husband or a father,

but if you want to know what he was like as a dude you ran into and met and maybe had, you know, had a cup of coffee with,

I feel like that guy is on the show.

And like I said before, the testament to your affection for him is

he lasted in that job where I think he may not have lasted

a less forgiving showrunner.

Oh, believe me,

there were several people

who asked me flat out.

And you know what?

And I can identify with that because, you know,

there's been people

that I've hired that I'm like, you know, that like that make other people rip their hair out.

I think I may know who you're talking about.

No, I'm talking about

our resident genius, though.

He has an ability to make other people rip their hair out.

But I was like, I don't care.

I like the guy.

I feel like

there's nothing he could do that would make me be like he's out of here.

I mean, I guess there is.

There's probably a couple things.

A couple of things.

Certainly not like, you know, certainly not pressing someone else's buttons, though.

Same thing.

You know, you get it.

You put up up with it.

Like, if you're friends and you're truly friends, you overlook it.

And that's the bottom line.

That's what friends do.

Bottom line is: if you met him, you probably will never forget him.

You know what, Walt?

That may be the most profound and true statement that has been uttered at this table.

That is true, and that is the mark of a true character.

You know, that is, look, I ask myself: can you look back and say that your life

had been made better or worse by having Rob Bruce in it?

And I don't know.

I don't even know if people who count him as someone that they don't like could say their life was made worse by knowing him.

It was probably made more interesting.

I mean, unless he swindled you out of millions of dollars or, you know, killed your cat, maybe he made your life worse.

But if you're going to say your life was made worse because some of his personality traits annoyed you and because he was kind of a shit talker and would, you know, would kick up dust here and there.

Did it make your life worse?

Or did it just make your life more interesting and give you more funny tales to tell around a campfire one day?

You know,

I will say without question that knowing Rob Bruce made me a smarter person, a better person, a more

understanding person, and broadened my scope of knowledge about many things.

And

just the sheer fact of knowing him made me feel better about, you know, life and the possibilities of life and loss and redemption.

I got to know a bunch of his story, and his story is a good one.

You know, his story is a story of a human being who is different, who you can't put into a box, who has lived many lives, wore many hats, but definitely, as you say, Walt, left an impression on everybody who came into his world.

And at the end of the day, if we can say that about anybody and ourselves, then I think it was, you know, a life worth living.

We don't know how long we have on this planet, and we don't know how long the people who are in our orbit are going to be with us.

Exactly.

You know, if there's, you know, I'm sure every time you hear about someone passing, though, you wonder, you know, should I go

write some mend some fences?

You can't help but think of yourself.

Yeah, but

should I do differently?

Should I do something differently?

Should I, should I patch up these fucking meaningless wars and shit?

Yeah, I hear you.

You tend to reflect like that.

But I'm glad you're able to find some time.

I know

you've been dealing with your mom being ill, but I knew you had to be here for this one.

This is not in a way to insult Ming, but like

if I knew that you needed to be here more than even Ming because

you truly had some real

affection for the man that like nobody else

could bring.

I liked him, but you genuinely like you said you started out, you said you loved him.

Yeah, and that's and that's true.

No, that's not funny.

No.

It's just funny.

I love you too.

I'll say it right here.

I love you, Brian Johnson.

I love you, Walt Flanagan.

I love you too.

You're a big part of my life.

And let me say it now because who knows?

Why don't you make it hit by a fucking bus when you leave here?

Come on.

strip mall, which is a business.

We don't drink the bus.

No, but in all seriousness now, like, yeah,

because,

I mean, you filled about fucking 45 minutes of this tribute, which is which we needed.

We needed some real, good, real good, positive Rob Bruce content for a tribute.

And I don't know if Bry had it, had 45 minutes in him.

I don't think so.

And that's not to say anything.

Like I said, we just didn't have the relationship that Brian and

such a close working relationship.

Yeah, like I've known the guy, I mean, technically, then since 1997.

Right.

You know, other people, you know, if I'm doing tributes in the future, it all depended upon who it is.

I'm sure I'll be able to offer a little bit more.

Yeah.

Guys, I really am glad I could make it here.

I appreciate you having me in on this.

It's helping me with my own process of letting this this sink in.

This has been great for me to do.

Great for me to see you guys and get some normalcy.

You know, as you said, it's been

a little nutty with my mom's health right now.

So I was able to get a break and come out here.

I did one thing.

I did one little search of the internet before I left the house.

I know how close Rob felt to his roots, his Scottish roots, of being somehow a direct descendant of Robert Bruce.

Which Laura Bruce confirmed for me when I spoke to her the other day.

And

I just wanted to see, man,

what did Robert the Bruce ever say that could be applied to the loss of our Robert the Bruce?

And I found this one thing.

Now, Robert the Bruce is a historical real figure who he fought wars.

He was, I guess, the ruler of Scotland under William Wallace.

He was a brave part.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, so he was in some, he was fighting.

Yeah, he was like the liberator of Scotland.

In a skirt, but like a fucking

man's man who wore a skirt.

Yeah, he was like king of Scotland.

Not like today.

Right.

He was a man's man.

And I found one little quote from him that I thought

our Robert the Bruce would like to hear.

Okay.

And it goes like this:

When, under the sweetness of peace, the minds of the faithful find rest.

Robert the Bruce.

Heavy, right?

right?

That's nice to go out on.

And yeah, I want to, I'm sure, Brian, as well.

I mean, we all appreciate it.

Hope you enjoyed this tribute to Rob Bruce.

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you, Brian.

Yeah.

Thank you, guys.

We're going to miss you, buddy.

Find rest, my friend.

He's up there right now, probably making a deal.

He's taking somebody.

We're lying about it.