Name: Danny A. Abeckaser Talks New Film “I Love Us” and His Journey From Club Promoter to Hollywood Movies
Uploaded: 2021-09-27T17:00:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Danny A. Abeckaser Talks New Film “I Love Us” and His Journey From Club Promoter to Hollywood Movies' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Danny A. Abeckaser Talks New Film “I Love Us” and His Journey From Club Promoter to Hollywood Movies' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-27. Transcript available.

Danny A. Abeckaser Talks New Film “I Love Us” and His Journey From Club Promoter to Hollywood Movies

Hey, good day to you all. It is Bobby Saget here with Bob Saget's here for you.
And this is an
interesting episode. It's with a friend of mine. And sometimes you have your
friends on, but this
man has made so many movies. He's directed for, he's produced, wow, 20. He's
acted in 40.
And he used to be a club promoter for a long time. It was a big career of his.
And then he
literally decided, I want to do my dream, finally. And he started making
independent films. And he's
been in such movies as The Irishman. He was recently in Lansky with Harvey Keitel.
He is a person who
basically reveres everything Scorsese and De Niro and Pacino. And he is an
interesting guy. He's a
sweetheart of a guy. And he's got a movie that just came out. And it's called I
Love Us. And it's in
theaters right now. And it's also on everywhere. You can watch it. It's on, you
know, Apple, iTunes,
and Amazon and just find it. And it's I Love Us. And I read the script. And I
truly loved it. So Danny
took it, started it, directed it. And this is him talking about it. And we
always have a problem
lighting each other. I'm okay, because I got my setup. But you know, with my
exciting bookshelf
behind me, with a bunch of knickknacks. But Danny, I tried to do this with him.
And he was in Israel at
the time. And it was like two in the morning. And it just they it was a
nightmare trying to be able
to record a podcast with him. So he's back in LA. And I get to talk to him
right now. And I hope you enjoy
you know what to do with this podcast. You know what to do. You rate review,
subscribe, you can
subscribe and listen, you can follow, you can go to the YouTube page youtube.com
slash Bob Saget. I'm on
tour everywhere. So as safely as possible, trying to make people laugh, not
make them help them laugh. And
they're laughing because they want to be there. And I want to be there. And I'm
loving all my new material.
Go to Bob Saget.com find out where I am. So Danny A. I've never known how to
say his last name. He's
going to help me. I still can't say it. I'm one of those people, you could tell
me someone's name,
if I have to learn it, and I'm on camera, I will learn the name phonetically if
necessary. But we call
him Danny A. Because that's who he is. And a lot of people is, in a way, a
Kevin Bacon, you know,
a lot of people, you mentioned Danny A, and they start laughing. They go, I
love Danny A. Oh,
I've known Danny A from this, this or that. Well, he's been making movie after
movie. First, we take
Brooklyn, and tons of movies. He did Club Life originally, the Jackie Ryan
story,
um, uh, mob town. And he's just a, he's a wonderful guy. Here he is. And we're
going to be talking about
his new movie out right now. I love us. Here comes my friend, Danny A.
So Danny, you're back in the US. You were gone a while. You were in Israel, how
long?
Oh, in the last 14, 15 months, I was there, I would say nine, nine months out
of the,
I mean, back and forth. I stayed two months, I come back for three weeks, I
stay a month and a
half, I come back. You're a brave man. So this is during a lot of people's
quarantine and during very
difficult times. Yeah, I, I actually quarantined four times when I was there.
Every time I flew,
I had to stay home for two weeks. Right. And you're not a homebody. If it was,
if it was up to you, you'd be out places, having dinners, being with people. It
wasn't the world we're
in. Yeah, it was, it was, it was tough, but you know, it really helped me with
my relationship because
I got to really spend time with my fiancee, May and, and when there's nothing
else to do and it's
just you and her and just talking and spending. You want me to be with her?
What is just me?
I would love it. Look, I've been wanting to talk to you about this, Bob. I
really would love for you
to go to Israel and spend a little time with her. She's been asking. But I got
Kelly and things are
going good. Yeah. My wife. I love the videos. You guys do the food videos. Oh
God. You know,
that's again, what quarantine will do to a person. Yeah. You started becoming a
chef. I saw that.
Well, I thought it's just ridiculous. She just said, come in here. You're going
to make a fluffy
omelet. And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. Next thing you
know, I'm in a tick
talk every 12 minutes, you know, but I'm in my office and I'm trying to get
work done. And she's
amazing. Kelly's great at this stuff. You know, I know she really is good. And
I love how everything
it keeps growing for her Instagram page and she's doing very well. Yeah. She
really, thank you. Yeah.
She's doing really well and her company is growing or eat travel rock company.
And May is also, uh,
doing really well. She's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. She does. She, uh,
she does pastries,
amazing stuff, but you know, she's very young and this is just her hobby right
now. She loves to do it.
She does a little modeling and she's trying to find her place. Right. As we all
did. Yeah,
of course. At that age. Which brings me to this, uh, question. How old is May?
Am I allowed to ask that?
Yeah, of course. She's 21. I remember that day.
Yeah. I, uh, I actually don't. I, I thought about it. I was like, do I remember
turning 21? And I don't.
Is that because you were getting into places when you were 16?
Uh, no, actually, that's a funny story because, you know, I used to be, you
know, in the nightlife,
but I, I did not go out until I was 21. I went out once when I was 18. My dad
forced me to go to a
club. I hated it. He thought. Why would your dad force you to go to a club?
Because all my brothers
would go out and, and, and be out and about and I would just play basketball
and come home. And then my,
you know, I guess my mom and dad spoke and he was like, well, we gotta,
something's going on with Danny.
I mean, he's not, I'm going to take him to a nightclub and he told me to get
dressed. I wore,
I wore a white Miami vice suit with a green t-shirt underneath. And I folded, I
folded and we went to
this club called the underground and they wouldn't let us in. Me and my friend
and my dad got mad.
He walked up to the bouncer and gave him a hundred dollars and they let us in.
So I'm in this club. Yeah. I'm in this club. I'm by the way, I'm five, seven.
Now it's probably five, one
and, and I'm like this and this music loud and people. And I was like, what? I
didn't like it.
And I left, I think like 20 minutes later. I mean, it's funny because years
later I started working in
nightlife and then I was in that club every day going, yeah, this is great.
Right, right this way.
And all your friends, you've met so many people that are your dear, dear
friends now in that world.
And we know a lot of the same people, but we didn't meet, we didn't become
close until a standup guy.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I kind of met you in passing here and there, but we got
to know each other
from a standup guy. But I didn't know you from the club days when I was, uh,
double your, uh, your,
fiance's age and I was divorced then. So I started to go out like 42 years old,
uh, 43 with my friends.
And then I became friends with, uh, Mike Young, who was a mutual. Single Mike.
Single, not single anymore.
Well, yeah, I know, but single Mike back in the day in the club days was a lot
of fun.
It's hilarious.
And I think he'll still be able to go out. I mean, I think, uh, she's a lovely
girl and I think she'll
want to be part of, cause Mike's not Mike's what I love about Mike is he's when
you see some guys out
in the past 10 years, 20 years, if I, if you could have canceled people at the
door back then you would
have done it cause they were predators, but not Mike, you know, not you.
Mike is the sweetest, Mike is the sweetest guy.
So Danny, you've been, you worked through a lot of this time, getting ready to,
to shoot a movie that
you gave me to read and I read it and I loved it. And it's called, I love us
and it's out right now.
It just came out and, uh, it's, it's just a beautiful story. It's not like
anything you ever did.
I know. I know. I thank you. Thank you for saying that. Uh, yeah. I mean,
people always ask me what my favorite movie is. You know, I have two favorite
movies. I can't pick
two. Both, uh, Forrest Gump and the family man. And what I love about the
family man is just about a
guy who reminded me of myself. Um, you know, single little older, uh,
successful. And he thinks he's
got life by the balls and, um, and just, you know, dates a supermodel and he
gets a glimpse of his life.
What it would have been like if he married his college sweetheart and you know,
the movie. And
yeah. And in fact, Kelly, I saw it when it came out, forgot about it. And then
I watched it with
Kelly cause it's one of her favorite movies. And it really is about priorities
and redemption and
finding out what matters and how important love is.
Yeah. I mean, all those things. And you know, the, the, the, the, the joy that
he had in the home,
the home felt like there was energy in it and the kids and family and the wife,
even though they were
struggling when he went back to his apartment and it was this beautiful, big
loft. He was there by
himself. And he realized that life is what, what I was trying to say in this
movie. I love us is
life. You know, success is not, it's not necessarily what you think it is until
you actually see all
perspective of it. And, and, and being successful doesn't necessarily mean you
have to be rich or make
money. Success can just be, be happy and, and, and be content with what you
have and really enjoy the
people around you. And you can have all the money in the world, but be it by
yourself. And it doesn't
really mean anything. Right. And we both know a lot of people that do have what
people think
is all the money in the world. Often it isn't what people think because they're
hiding it or haven't
paid their taxes. Yeah. I mean, someone who's got, you know, a good thing going
with his business,
but nothing else. I mean, he spent all this time trying to build his business.
And then when he looks
back, I mean, he forgot about life. So this is just, this movie is really about
a guy that has the
opportunity to, you know, see that. And, and where does he make that decision
and that choice of like
what he wants really for himself at that point in his life.
And, and who wrote the script and how did it get to you?
So I came up with the story in my, you know, during COVID, I started thinking
what I wanted
to do and I wanted to do something different. I had all these movies that were
gangster movies
like mob town and the Irish man, and I said, I want to stay away from that. I
want to do something
different. And I thought about this concept and my composer Lionel introduced
me to this writer
and I loved his writing and I spoke to him and I said, look, this is just an
idea. I mean, maybe
we can start, you know, working on it since we have nothing else to do. And
that's where it came
from. His name is Costa. He's based in Canada. He's actually coming on Friday.
The premieres Monday
and I'll get to, they'll get to enjoy it. It's his first movie. He's a great
writer. You read the script.
I couldn't believe, I mean, I, you read a script, but when you read it and you
go, wow, this is
wonderful. It, and it sews up a lot of loose ends, you know, a lot, when you
read a script and you go,
just when you're thinking about something, that's the next thing that's in the
script. Then you go,
wow, he's right where I'm at as an audience, because he's leading the way.
Yeah. Thank you. The pace of the, of the way, and you know, you want to hear
something funny,
Bob? This is the first movie I've been involved in that we actually used every
scene that we shot.
Usually I go and I'm like, I don't need this. I'll move this faster. I can, and
then I take a scene
that was supposed to be at the end. I put it in the beginning because this was
literally the way it was
written exactly. And when I looked at it, you know, the assembly cut, obviously
I