Name: How Arnold Schwarzenegger Lived Out the American Dream
Uploaded: 2026-01-06T16:30:35.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Arnold Schwarzenegger Lived Out the American Dream' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-06. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Arnold Schwarzenegger Lived Out the American Dream' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-06. Transcript available.

How Arnold Schwarzenegger Lived Out the American Dream

Was there a lot of, like, when you were a child in Austria, was there a lot of,
like, individualism, or were things very, like, regimented?
Like, in America, you can be an individual, right?
But some countries, it's a little bit harder to kind of, like, you know, be an
individual and have a voice.
I'm just wondering, what was it like there when you were young?
Did it feel like things were regimented, or it was okay to be rebellious?
What was it like there?
Well, I was rebellious, in a way, because, I mean, think about it, soccer and
track and field, they were kind of like the in-sports.
But when I was exposed to weightlifting and to powerlifting and to bodybuilding,
I fell in love with that.
And also because my heroes, like Reg Park and Steve Reeves, they were doing Hercules
movies, and I just started looking at those movies, right?
And so I said to myself, I want to be like that.
I don't want to be a top soccer player.
I want to be like that.
I want to have some muscles like that, and I want to get into movies like that.
You know, so that all of a sudden became my dream.
So you really wanted to be like this?
Yeah.
So I was fixated.
I was, like, kind of, like, concentrating that I kind of put visually my head
on Reg Park's body.
And I said to myself, there was a picture, a famous picture, where he won the
Mr. Universe contest in London in 1951.
And when I saw that picture, it was like him holding the trophy and flexing his
bicep.
Yeah.
And then I said to myself, can you imagine if this is me?
I'm going to make this me.
And so that's what I was training for.
So my parents thought it was kind of like, what is that all about?
Where did that come from?
And the whole neighborhood was kind of like wondering, what is this guy doing
training every day, two hours, three hours a day?
I came home, and instead of having lunch, I would put my sit-up board up on the
kitchen table, and I would be doing sit-ups.
Yeah.
500 sit-ups during lunch.
So you were addicted to it.
You were addicted.
Totally, totally addicted.
Because I was driven by my vision.
You know, so it was always there.
Yeah.
Even when I was in school, I would sometimes just wander off when the teacher
was teaching out there, writing up something on the blackboard, and I would be
looking at that, and then all of a sudden, he could see that I was just kind of
like staring off.
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, he threw a chalk at my head, and I would bang, and I
looked back again.
He says, Arnold, I'm up here.
I mean, I know you're looking at the beautiful trees out there.
They're more beautiful, maybe, than me, but you've got to listen to what I'm
saying here.
So I noticed I was always kind of drifting off and visualizing my dreams,
always visualizing my dreams, being on that stage in a Mr. Universe contest,
doing maybe Hercules movies, going to America, and all of that.
So it was very different.
So that was not the norm.
Could you speak that?
So I did step out of the norm, because everyone else was talking about, oh, I'm
going to go and get a job with the government.
Because I want to make sure that I correct my pension when I was 65 and all
this.
I had no interest in any of that pension.
I mean, what are we talking about now?
The age of 18, we start talking about pensions?
I mean, it's crazy, right?
Was it scary to tell your parents that, to leave Austria?
Did people do that at the time?
I'm just a little bit curious on what it was like to say, I'm leaving here, and
I'm going to go to America.
Was it even a popular path for people to go?
Well, remember, I started saying this when I was 10.
Ah, I see.
So it had been, your parents knew it was in your head.
Yeah, exactly.
So I saw a documentary, a black and white documentary in a school that showed
always those films with this eight millimeters, whatever, films on the little
screen.
And like I said, television was not the common thing at that time in Austria,
so we didn't grow up with that.
But they showed the film, and they saw a documentary about America.
Now I see the Empire State Building.
I said, wait a minute.
This building is like, you know, 100 times taller than any of the buildings in
Graz, where I grew up, right, in Austria.
And then I saw the Gordon Gate Bridge.
Then I saw the Pacific Coast Highway.
I saw all of this kind of, you know, great, great things.
I saw the six-lane highways.
I saw the big Cadillacs, you know, with the big fins sticking out, you know.
The ladies, too.
So I said to myself, and then we had all these little kind of cars and Muscle
Beach and all of this stuff that did Hollywood.
I said, I got to go to America.
I got to go to America.
I got to go to America.
Austria is not the place.
It was almost kind of like that my gene was over here.
Hmm.
You know, so it kind of, I gravitated towards America.
Not that they hated Austria, but they just wanted to leave and go do something
different.
So my parents always saw me as being different.
So it was not a surprise to them that I wanted to go as soon as I was through
with high school and trade school, that I wanted to go into the military.
So I went into the military because after you go and serve in the military,
then you can get your passport and you can travel.
So you had to go to the military to get your passport in Austria?
That's right, yeah.
Is it still that way?
No, I don't think it's different now.
Everything is different because, you know, everything has changed.
But that's the European way.
Everyone looks for stability, especially in those times where government was
really ruling.
You know, so then that's also, I think, an explanation of why when I came over
here to America in 1968 and I saw Hubert Humphrey and Nixon campaigning.
Hubert Humphrey, who is Hubert Humphrey?
He was the vice president under Johnson.
Okay.
And so he was campaigning to become, well, Johnson was after Kennedy.
Then Hubert Humphrey was his vice president.
So he was running for president.
Oh, yeah.
Looks like he eats gumdrops, that guy.
And so it was really interesting when I listened to the debates and I didn't
understand maybe three quarter of it.
But I had a friend that spoke German and he translated for me.
And when I heard of what Nixon said, it was so opposite of what I grew up with,
which I didn't like.
The government was kind of in charge of everything.
In Austria?
In Austria, yeah, exactly.
And since I was in Germany and in all those countries over there in Europe,
socialism was the system that I grew up in.
So when Nixon spoke, I felt like, wow, get government off your back.
Get the government off your back.
Great.
Wow.
And lowering the taxes.
Strong military.
Strong police force.
Strong, very strong, and a strong economy.
Let the people be free.
Let them shop all around the world.
And blah, blah, blah.
And I said to myself, this is like unbelievable.
And then when Humphrey spoke, it was like I was back in Austria.
You know, so then I said to myself, what are the parties here?
Because they didn't understand really the parties here.
Why?
What was it about Humphreys that made it feel like you were back in Austria?
Well, I said government is the solution.
Oh, I see.
So he was more like the cage.
We all know that the government is not the solution.
I mean, it's like the free enterprise.
The economy and all this.
You've got to let people be free and not be controlled by government.
Government is good, but you have to find kind of the middle ground of all this
stuff.
Yeah, if you rely solely on the government for your life, then you'll just be a
part of the government, basically.
Well, and you become a vegetable.
Yeah.
Because you create the safety net, then you don't have the will to really kind
of make it on your own.
So what the big advantage of coming to America was that there was no safety net.
So I was on my own.
Yeah.
So I had to get really creative.
Okay, how can I go and go to school and educate myself?
How can I go and get more English classes?
How can I go to Santa Monica City College and at the same time work?
And at the same time train five hours a day and do all of those kind of things.
So this is, but it was up to me now to be successful, not up to the government.
Oh, I like that.
So the government was providing the opportunities and orders, the structure,
but that is what I enjoyed.
And so this is why I became kind of like a Nixon Republican.
And people always were kind of like, you know, especially in California, which
is a much more liberal state.
Like how can you be a Republican?
Yeah, so I really enjoyed it.
Nixon, of course, came from California.
Do you remember your first day in America?
Oh, yes.
It was in Miami.
I went to Miami and I was competing there in a competition.
And then after that, I came out to California and I was picked up in California
at the airport by a bodybuilding photographer
by the name of Artie Zeller and Dick Tyler, who wrote for the Muscle Magazines.
They picked me up and took me to an apartment that Joe Wheeler rented for me.
And it was fantastic.
I mean, from then on, I got all the help in the world now because that's when I
really realized the generosity of the American people.
Wow.
I mean, they gave me, I mean, the bodybuilders.
There was Thanksgiving came up after that because I came over here in October.
November was Thanksgiving.
So there was like this whole thing about, you know, giving me pillows and
giving me blankets and giving me dishes and silverware.
Where were you, homeless or something?
But say again...
Why were they giving you all that?
Well, because when you move into an apartment, what do you get?
I mean, it was a furnished apartment.
And you were living in L.A. at that point?
Yeah, yeah.
It was in the valley, over there in the valley.
And then all those bodybuilders came to me and they brought me all this stuff.
It was like unbelievable.
So I could not even believe how generous they were.
And this was a lot of times people that didn't know me at all.
But just because bodybuilding and joining a club, you know, you become kind of
part of that family.
And so they were very, very sweet and kind.
And I would never forget that.
That's actually what made me then think about, well, when I ever make it, I
will give that back.
I will help other people myself, you know.
When you've had such a, like, you've had a very blessed and interesting life,
right?
It's been, you know, and you've had it, so you know.
At what point you're probably, I would say, I think it's fair to say you're
probably in the second half of your life.
At what point do you, like, do kind of, like, goals turn into, like, legacy, if
in your mind at all, if it does?
And I don't mean that to be an uncomfortable question.
I'm just like, does your brain start to adjust where, like, these are my goals?
And then, like, okay, this is a legacy that I want to leave.
Does that make any sense or no?
Well, I think it is always important to think about, you know, the idea of that
we should leave the world a better place than we inherited it.
And so, I, my whole life was always about, okay, how can I make this a better
world of the knowledge that I have?
So, for instance, in fitness, in bodybuilding, I went around the world to
promote the idea of weightlifting and weight training and resistance training.
Oh, yeah.
And made it then popular, right?
Because we had to figure out a way of penetrating through the general public
that thought that bodybuilding is just, you know, flexing your muscles on stage.
But they didn't realize that bodybuilding is something that you just get a
healthy and stronger body for whatever you do.
You maybe need it for tennis.
You maybe need it for your bicycling.
You maybe need it for your whatever sport, you know, like UFC fighters are
working out.
Oh, the first time I heard of fitness was through you.
Yeah.
It was through you.
But, I mean, that was the idea is I wanted to not just lift myself up, but I
wanted to lift the rest of the bodybuilding movement up.
And so, it was always s