Jason Zenawick [Nicolas Cage Tattoo Interview Special]

You're listening to the Caged in podcast, you bullshit artist. So many of you recently may have sin on my social channels. I reached out. I saw a photo of a man on stage of Nicholas Cage.

And I just knew instantly I had to speak to that man. Not only is he standing beside the man, but he had a tattoo of the man in a film. I imagine he had not even seen this as a man with balls. My friends and that man is sucked in front of me via the wonders of zoom.

And that man is Jason Zeniwick. How are you, Jason? I'm great. How are you, sir?

I'm very well. It's very surreal to be speaking to you. It feels like this is the kind of thing that I've always thought the podcast should be is to not just speak to the people who are involved with Nicholas Cage in like the kind of in front of a behind the camera, but those who are like me, who, who will go to these great labs, whether it is, in my case, dedicating at this point, hundreds of hours. I can't remember the last time I haven't googled or typed the words Nicholas Cage.

I can't remember when that last day was. And yeah, to speak to somebody who was who was taking that kind of, I guess, I'm going to call it drastic. I call it honorable thing of getting getting the man's face tattooed on him. So I don't know.

We'll hold off on why the tattoo will dangle that as a carrot to keep the listeners listening. But I'm famous tattoo. It seems to be making its rounds. How does that feel that it's kind of you've kind of become this into the station?

Yeah, it's weird. We talked before this a little bit and we were mentioning the fact that I don't have social media. So all the photos like from Universal that were taken and posted online, all of that kind of stuff I had to learn and see from my wife's social media. So she's kind of like on the trip, kind of keeping me up with everything.

Look, it was just posted. They posted this here. Someone commented on this. So I was kind of living through her social media.

And it's also kind of strange too, because it's almost a week now since this happened. I mean, it happened last Thursday. So it's almost like a week to the day that we're doing this. And it's been pretty crazy.

People have been making, you know, if you look up some of the reviews on YouTube, and I'll share one of the reviewers that we met there maybe later in the discussion here, but we sat next to a couple of ladies who actually filmed everything. And the Q&A, so I've been popping up on people's videos on YouTube who had filmed the Q&A. I've been popping up on social media. So it's pretty awesome.

And it was kind of like my little slice of 10 seconds of fame, I guess. And then you reached out for this, which was, which was really cool. It's been, it's been an experience alone meeting him and going through all that was one thing, but then it's like still like the afterburn, still experiencing it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess very much. And it's kind of I can only imagine like, I don't know, I guess the closest I've ever ever come to like that kind of feeling is a sweet going semi viral.

And like, I mean, it's like, oh, I just posted this dumb thing. And then like for like a week afterwards, it's like the notifications keep coming in. And like, I can only imagine that kind of amped up to 11, like in your case, where it's like, I did this amazing, I got to do this amazing thing and meet, I guess, like, so I guess I've got asked you, Jason. Oh, how much of a Nick Cage fan are you?

Or is that a silly question to us given you've got to have two of them? Big fan, obviously with the tattoo and everything. We were kind of talking about this, my wife and I, you know, just kind of thinking about what might come up in your podcast here. And we're just thinking about, you know, like, you know, what was the first movie I seen or just, you know, just things of that nature.

And I'm thinking back, I'm like, you know, I, he's always kind of been in the background. And we've just, I mean, he's been making movies longer than I've been alive. I was born in a, I was born in a four. So I mean, he's been starring movies before then.

And it's like, he's always kind of been in the background. And it's like every year, you know, you see so many movies and he's always, he's always been there. It's always been two or three things that we see every year. So yeah, big fan.

Amazing. So what would have been the first Nick was Kater? Like you can remember saying that made an impact on you. I mean, I just remember, you know, when I was little, it was always the parents who had the last say in what movies we call zero rights or whatever from the video store.

I feel like I'm 100 years old saying renting stuff from the video store. But, you know, when I was younger, it was the con errors in the face offs. And then I had mentioned it's, he's kind of like always been there, kind of like in the background. I took a film class one year in college and we watched adaptation.

I remember seeing, yeah, there was an awesome assignment, obviously. I remember having such a night we were at home. The family rented Weatherman and we were all sitting around till this day. We still joke about the camel toe scene.

My wife is very particular about what clothes she buys. Because of that scene, you know, and you just like, you kind of just grow up within there. And so you're seeing those movies, you're getting older and then now I'm, you know, 38 going on 39 and I'm sharing these experiences with my wife. And, you know, we've seen the crews at the show and Spiderverse and now Renfield a couple of weeks early before it came out.

And so I don't remember what the first movie was, but he's kind of like, he's just always been there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's a fun thing for you too. I'm talking about always being there in the background somewhere.

I'm a teacher, I teach eighth grade chemistry and physics. And one of my units in chemistry, we do a whole unit on chemical reaction. And we, one of my lessons, we actually make it visible ink in the class and we get to trade notes and stuff in class. The students write out a message to their spy partners and they trade notes and then they use their resolving agent to show the message.

And so I wanted to find something to kind of get the lesson going and get everybody excited about what we were doing in the lab. And I was looking for some sort of video clip and immediately thought, I've got to show national treasure. They're using the Declaration of Independence, they're revealing that invisible ink with lemon juice and the hair dryer. And so I'm going to my 13th year teaching.

And so literally thousands of kids. That clip from national treasure from a movie that was made before they were even born. And it was just one of those things he's like, just in, you know, he's just part of your movie experience because I didn't even think twice. And it was like, what can I show for this?

I'm like, national treasure. I guess you can answer the question then. Like scientifically, does the lemon juice and the hair dry? Would that reveal the ink or the message on the back of that?

Yeah. So what that does actually is the fibers of the paper by using that. It damages the paper fibers. And well, it actually, it makes them smaller or shorter where the ink is.

And then so when you supply that heat source over it, the shorter fibers burn faster than the rest of the page. And that's what you're looking at that part, actually burning those fibers. You have to be careful because otherwise you could actually burn the whole document. So we do a variation of the chemical reaction.

We actually do an acid base reaction with grape juice and baking soda. But yeah, that's, you know, I mean, there's some science in there and they got it right. So that was pretty cool to see. Amazing.

Amazing. It's glad to see that a Nicholas Cage film is educating the future generations right of this world. Well, yeah. And I always kind of do like a poll like, is anybody heard of national treasure?

And there's always maybe like one or two. And then of course, you know, sometimes there's classes where there's nobody. But like I said, it's been literally at this point, thousands of kids that I've taught, which is kind of scary to think about how time flies or how many kids come to my classroom. But yeah, and they've seen that now and they've been introduced to that.

It's just a cool clip. I mean, who doesn't like that whole aspect of the clues and the revealing and then they get all amped up and then we get to go write our own secrets by messages. So I was for a moment when you were saying, when you started talking about like teaching science, I was like, where is this going? And it's like, is this going to be a rock thing?

But I was like, no, that's totally debunked like that whole kind of compound that they create that basically looks like, I don't know, like, dish or like, yeah, like, uh, fabric soften the tablets or something. I'm almost amazing. Yeah, it's funny. So I've got to ask you a bit quite a question that comes up a lot on this podcast, which is Nick, NIC or NICK?

Well, you've got his name to hold on you, which is it? So I mean, I'm a very literal, literal person and I just see the way he spells his name. And it just to me, it's like you just take that first portion and to me, it's an IC. I mean, I've seen both ways online, but it seems like an IC is what shows up the most.

What would you consider it to be? I was a big NIC believer. I was I was big into that until some point last year or last year, the last year, whenever it was, yeah, I emailed his manager and I'd spelt at NIC. And I got denied the interview, which was absolutely fine.

I was expected nothing less. But the kind of the kicker to the email was I kind of scolded for the fact that it's like, oh, it's NICK. And a friend of mine, I hope it doesn't mind me sharing this. Zach Sonnefeld, a writer is writing a book about NICK.

I think that's out there in the world. Sorry, Zach, if it isn't. But he won't. One for him.

Yeah, he reached out to NICK, his manager as well, to get some kind of clearer clarification on the spelling. And he said like the misconception he thinks may have came from, like you can attest to with the way that he signs his name. It's the kind of the C in the K kind of it's kind of it's kind of it's NIs clear. The latter half is kind of like he kind of goes just real quick with it.

And it's like, he's not like a little wiggle into a C or is that C in a K? Like you can't you can't really tell. I think I think that's where he fixed the misconception comes from. And obviously the fact that he doesn't have the H right in Nicholas.

He's just he's just yeah, they've dropped the H. So a lot of people drop the K. Yeah. And I think I've seen him the promo for Renfield, like when they did the AMA on Reddit, it said like, bring your questions for Nick Cage and Nicole.

And it was both they were both spelled with a K and like they were holding up a piece of paper. So it's like surely if the man's in the room, he's going to he's going to have said, hey, drop that K. I'm like, if he's not in the same. Yeah.

I guess it's maybe part of the mistake, right? Because I guess both ways, but it seems like maybe the right answer is K. Who's the same? Maybe that's maybe it's kind of like a multiverse thing where there is there is another Nick Cage out there when it's just an I.C.

Well, and I think it is that thing. It's yeah, I'm really glad you brought up that kind of mistake thing because speaking to Chris McKay just last night when we're recording. And we were saying about the fact that Nick Cage seems to be like the last of the old school Hollywood stars. And I think the fact that there is this mistake and the fact that we're even having this conversation about how is his name spelt when it shortened.

Yeah, you don't get that about a lot of celebrities. Do you mean it's kind of, I don't know, like, you know what they had for breakfast every day or like, I mean, you know what, you know what the contours of their asshole looks like because it's up on their social media. Whereas like Nicholas Cage is that thing of like, does he own a castle here? Does this happen?

Do you know what I mean? Like, there's only so many things we know that are concrete fact. We know that in New Orleans, he's got a he's got a mausoleum ready for the day he passes. And we know he's got this body of work, but he lives in Vegas.

I mean, there's a few other details we know, but like, he's very elusive. Yeah. Yeah. And well, it all gets back to that social media thing.

And you know, he's not to your point posting every single thing that he does out there. So kind of adds to that mystique. It's like, is it C? Is it K?

Then along with a lot of other things, you know, it kind of adds to that. It makes you, it makes it more interesting, I think, trying to keep up with that and to think about what he's up to. And you know, you were talking, I think it was before we started recording, but you're saying that you couldn't remember a time that you're not typing his name into Google or trying to learn more about him. And I think that makes it more interesting or more exciting when you don't know everything there is, you know, you want to continue to be a fan and continue to learn more and watch more.

And they could just answer that, that cool factor that old, my brother and I call like old school Hollywood, right? Yeah. It's like the Nick Cage or it's the Jack Nicholson. It's that old school Hollywood.

Yeah. Amazing. So I've got to ask you, obviously, why why why people will be listening to this is why why the tattoo? Obviously, this is a film that when I imagine when you would have got it, the film you wouldn't have seen the film.

So why did you get this tattoo, Jason? So if you've seen my tattoos, you would know that a lot of them are just like really kind of off the wall. I don't have I don't think really any quote, quote, normal tattoo. They're all just some really crazy stuff, a lot of deep cut stuff for movies or different things that I enjoy.

And there's just some images. I don't know if I'm going to really even be able to explain this too well, but there's some images that I see that I just it just clicks and they stay with me. And I'm kind of like, that's got to be a tattoo. I got to get this tattoo.

And I think you have tattoos, right? Yeah, I'm covered in kind of like, and like you, a lot of like, it's always that question, right? When people are like, what does that tattoo mean? And I've got tattoos like I've got I've got a tattoo that was a blind tattoo in the fact that like I didn't know what was going on until it was done.

I was blindfolded. And then I've now got a skull with a duck holding a sieve on top of it. That's awesome. And it's like, I think I think you'll relate to this.

We have the same kind of approach with tattoos and not that there's anything wrong with it, but there's like there's the people that have to, you know, they go their whole life and they're like waiting for that perfect tattoo. And it's got to have all this meaning and there's like a clock and on the clock, the hands are the dates when they're going to burn and there's a rose and it's got so many pedals and the pedals represent it. It's like, sometimes a tattoo can just be a fun off the wall tattoo. I got a quick story about an example of like some of the stuff I had.

My wife, when she was in fifth grade, so it's what, like 10 years old, she brought home her yearbook and like a lot of kids, you flip to your photo and you're like, oh, this does not look good. So being a 10 year old, she thought the solution to that would be to erase her face from the yearbook and basically left the white square there. And after she got done erasing her photo, it kind of dawned on her that her mother who paid money for this book would be pretty pissed off that she just erased her photo. So she proceeds to go ahead and draw herself back in curly hair and all, of course, left off the glasses because that's one of the things that she didn't like.

And she, you know, for a 10 year old, not too bad of a job, but you look at this thing and it's it's hideous. You could tell it's gone. It's got a jack-o-lantern nose and these teeth that look like almost Renfield teeth. And I seen that and I was like, holy shit, I have to get this photo tattooed.

It's so ridiculous. It has such a good story. And that's the kind of tattoos I like. Like when you look down at that, someone might ask me like, oh, did your son or daughter draw that?

Like, nope, that's a self-portrait. I just. It's one of those things where like it's there's certain images like that where I'm like, I have to get that. Yeah.

And so it was to answer your question, finally. It was one of the it was like the first photo and you probably know which ones I'm talking about that they released for Renfield. He's got his red suit on. I don't know if he's coming out of like a makeup trailer or whatever.

He's looking at his hands with the rings and I seen that and I was like, that is amazing. I'm going to like add it to my mental list of tattoos to get. And I had no plans of getting it as quickly as I did. I thought, you know, there's 10 other things I'm interested in getting.

I see my tattoo guy, you know, twice a year. His name is Matt Mueller. I'll give him a quick plug. Amazing.

His last name is Mueller M-U-E-L-L-E-R, he owns Seven Day Gallery. It's in Oak Forest, Illinois. And so I see him, I don't know, twice a year, sometimes more. And so I just had an idea to get it later on.

And I was looking online and somehow I came across probably like you, just Googling Nicholas Cage. Came across the lineup for Overlook. And they announced Renfield was going to premiere there and that they would have this, you know, live Q&A afterwards with him and that it would be on my spring break. So I had off the week, usually if there's somewhere I want to go or something I want to do, I have to like panic last minute and try to get, you know, the day off or whatever.

And like everything was lining up, he's going to be there. And I actually have a couple other autographed tattoos. Like I met Stephen King, who's my favorite author. And I had him sign my arm on my forearm and I got that tattooed.

So I had, I have a few autographed tattoos already. And I just thought like, holy shit, would that be amazing to have a Renfield tattoo at the premiere of Renfield with Nicholas Cage and to get him to sign that would be amazing. So this was all like just weeks before we had to leave. So I'm thinking like, can this be done?

I, you know, I immediately went up to see my tattoo guy. I told him the whole goal. He's like, I'll get you in. And you know what tattoos, it's a process.

Once you get them done, then they got to get wrapped up in the bandage that comes after a couple days. And then there's the, the shedding process and it doesn't look good for a while. And I'm like, you know, I could have gone and tried to get the tattoo for, you know, with the autograph, with the signature, I could have tried to get that with no tattoo, but it wouldn't have been nearly as impactful of an experience without the Renfield tattoo there first. So to get in as quickly as I did, like I learned that he was going to be at the overlook, like at the beginning of the month, to get in quickly enough to get the tattoo done, to let it go through the entire healing process, to be ready to go for that event.

It was like, you know, it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And he got me in and it was, it was like perfect timing. Cause I think it looked, it was like done with all the shedding and it was just, it was, I think it looked amazing that night. So that's amazing.

I've got to go back to something you said about the tattoo you've got of your wife's self portrait, just cause I love, I love that story. And it instantly as you were telling that story. All I could think about was, I'm not sure if you ever seen the Mr Bean movie, when Mr Bean, when he was when he was a mother, yeah, yeah, yeah. I immediately thought of that.

And like, I realized in that moment that we are, we are weirdly kindred spirits. Cause that's kind of been on my bucket list of tattoos is to get the tattoo of that he draws of whistle as mother, that face that he draws. Like, and it's like, yeah, I think we're, we're, we're cut from the same cloth in the fact. That's funny.

I agree. We, I grew up with Mr Bean, my brother and I, you know, watch the show. I had the whole set on DVD of aging myself here. But I have that whole, the whole set we seen the movies at the show.

Yeah, he's awesome. And that's exactly that, you know, for the, the listeners, right, who can't see the zoom call that we're doing. That's like a perfect description of this. It's that Whistler's mother painting.

That is, I couldn't have described any better. So when was the exact date you got the tattoo? Obviously it would have been early March, right? Or, yeah.

Let me think here. I'd have to go back for the exact date. I don't let me think. I'm gonna look at my phone here.

It was second. It was a head to have been like that first full week in March. I want to say, I want to say March 8th. In fact, that number sounded good to me.

I'm gonna go with March 8th. Yeah. Cause it wasn't that first little turn of a week at first full week that he had gotten me in. And it's pretty crazy too, because he's, he gets a lot of clientele from like, all over the world that come to see him.

And, you know, if you were just to walk in and ask like, Hey, Matt, can you get me in for something? He'll tell you, you know, like if you were to walk in today, he'll tell you, like, I'm booked till like, you know, January, February, beyond. And for me to be able to walk in, he's like, yeah, I'll get you in. And so it's great to have that in.

But that's when it was. And it was like just enough time for it to go through the whole healing process and just be ready to rock and roll. So that was awesome. What do you think without the tattoo you would have got invited on stage?

That wouldn't have happened, right? Have you just kind of sent some guy screaming in the audience? Yeah. Some weirdo asking him to sign his body part.

No, I don't think so. Like I said, I think could I have gone and like tried to quickly be like, Oh, you know, I'm going to get a tattoo here. But can you sign below here? I mean, maybe he would have signed it.

I'm assuming he would have, because I asked, but because he's a nice guy. But I don't think obviously it would have been nearly as impactful. And I do not think I would have been invited. I said, you know, there was a guy, you know, I don't know if you've seen the video of it happening because I there's a few things kind of floating around out there posted on YouTube of the entire Q&A.

But there was a guy who actually yells out in the crowd, let's see the tattoo. And that's what kind of prompted it. Like, come on up. So I think without it, I would have definitely not gotten on stage.

No, it was there like, I did kind of anticipation and I don't know a fear for the film to be good. Like seeing as you had the tattoo, you just kind of like, well, it's either way, it's an iconic image, right? Nicholas Cage as Dracula. That's it.

Exactly. Yeah, there was it was never about. I mean, the movie, by the way, does not suck. I think it was fantastic.

Great. Yeah. So have you seen it yet? Yeah.

Yeah. So this Tuesday, yeah. Oh, so yeah, so you know, it does not suck. But for me, it was never, never about that.

It was just that image of him as Dracula, where no matter how the movie turned out, I just, it was something about him. I mean, you know, you see all these posts and stuff on like reviews of the movie, and it'll say, you know, it was the role he was born to play. And I completely agree with that. And it's like something when I seen that image was like, this just makes sense to him in Dracula.

It was just perfect. And I'm a big horror fan. So anything spooky or scary is right up my alley. So it just merges two things that I love all into one tattoo.

It didn't even, I didn't even need to see the movie to know that like, this is going to be a tattoo that I want. So well, I think if somebody had, if you had shown me that tattoo, like five, ten years ago, I would have just gone, this is such a great mashup to me and kind of nicking elements of Bella Lugosi and Nicholas Cage and it was being like, back then you would have gone, oh, this is a great way to commemorate vampires kiss. Or just kind of the, even that online meme that Nicholas Cage is a vampire. Have you ever seen that like, there's a photo from the 1800s?

Yeah, that's good. But on his got like a mustache, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's just kind of, it kind of, I don't know, it's a timeless idea. And yeah, I guess it's kind of like the shoulders can can drop now that, like you said, the film doesn't suck. So yeah, how was, how was the trip to overlook? Was it essentially, was this the kind of national treasure style adventure for this moment to try and to try and meet Nicholas Cage?

Or was it? What would you have gone anyway? Or was it just kind of like, we've got to do this? This is like the mad cab idea.

Well, it didn't start off that way, but it actually ended up being just that, like that whole quest and that whole journey to get this one thing. I had mentioned like the Stephen King tattoo and I've got some others. Like I have Tim Curry on my leg tattooed under a Pennywise. And that was another difficult one to get because he had a stroke, as you probably know, sometime back and doesn't sign anything in person.

So that was a journey to get that one. And like for the Stephen King one, I went all the way to a convention. It was more like a festival that they had in Minneapolis. So that was, I'm from Chicago.

So just to kind of give you perspective. And all of these places we either had to fly to or drive to. And so for the overlook, we drove to New Orleans, which is like a 13 going on 14 hour drive, which is a lot of driving. But my wife and I just make a, wherever we go, we just kind of make an adventure out of it.

So I mean, we would we would stop and do some tent camping at K OAs and state parks. You know, we've seen the St. Louis arch. We stopped at Johnny Cash's boyhood home.

We went to, and this is all on the same trip, all on my spring break. So it was a lot a lot over a couple days. We went to Elvis's house, you know, Graceland and seen the meditation garden in his grave. We had barbecue in Memphis.

We walked around New Orleans and seen Bourbon Street and had, you know, lunch there and vignettes and you know, we did everything that we could there and back. We even had time to visit her aunt, which leave, she was about two and a half hours away. So she got a chance to see family like we packed everything that we could. And she's always the one like when we set out to do some of the stuff, she's always the one that is the one that's nervous.

She's like, if you don't get it, you know, you're going to be so disappointed, it's going to ruin the trip. And I always have to tell her like, you know, it's about the experience. Like I just want to be there. I want to see the film.

He's going to be there. We should just count ourselves lucky. And if this happens, great, it's just, you know, it's going to be just a cherry on top. But, you know, it obviously is great that it worked out and, you know, it was, it was a long drive.

It didn't feel like a long drive, especially on the way back because I was on cloud nine. It was it was a quest. And when we got there, like it just started to build and build and build because we were hours early. And so we kind of became friends with some of the people in line and like they knew what we were going for.

And so like they were already talking like what we could possibly do when we get in there. And maybe we all raise our hand and, you know, see if the microphone can make its way over to me. Like we were trying to figure out everything possible to do. And so when it finally happened, it was like, yes, you reach that pinnacle.

But it was, you know, like I said, but the Stephen King thing or other things, you go out there hoping it happens. But if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world. And it was the same thing for this, but it just kept building and building and building. And then when everybody in line was almost involved, it became this quest at some point.

So for those who haven't seen the kind of the longer footage or just in the photo, you mentioned about everyone getting involved in this, which is kind of great. That is kind of fandom for me, right? It's kind of not everyone looking off themselves as like, this person's got this quest. Let's make it happen.

Can you tell us like the details of how it came to be that you ended up on that stage? Like, I want the play by play, Jason. Play by play. So it started we that Thursday, that morning, really early, we went to pick up, it was a 10 a.m.

pick up for we ordered a they called it a VIP pass. And what it was, it was 250 bucks. So it was not cheap. And what that was was a pass that gave you not guaranteed entrance, but like a priority entrance for all the films in the festival.

And so I bought one of those, but, you know, I didn't want to buy another one for my wife because, you know, I'm looking at $500 plus just to get into one event. That's the only event that we wanted to go to was the Renfield premiere. So we went to pick up my, my pass and while we're waiting in line, one of the, the gentleman that was running it actually comes over and introduces himself as the art director. And so I kind of made like a note of that.

Like if he's still around before we leave, let me go talk to this guy, introduce myself, show him the tattoo, show him, you know, like what the goal is. So we got the pass, I go, pull him aside, I go through everything, show him the tattoo, tell him where we came from, like tell him, you know, what I was hoping to do. And he says, oh, that's interesting because I'm actually going to be the one running the Q and A. So here I am in my mind thinking, this is perfect.

Like he sees me, I've got my, my massive talent t-shirt on, you know, it's, it's the one that's got like the colored squares on it with his photo. I'm like, you can't miss this shirt, you know, I'm going to, I told him, like, I'll be front row. I'm going to get them. I'm going to pretty much leave from here.

I'm like, you'll see me. And I just asked them, I'm like, if, if I get there and I'm front row, like, and I raise my hand, can you just call on me? Can you just, can you do me that? You do me that favor.

I just need the opportunity to ask. And I told him, like, I know you can't control what Nick is going to say, but like, I just want that opportunity. And just almost immediately, I could just tell like he was completely turned off by the idea. Oh, he was like, given me all this, well, it's going to be dark in there.

And I don't know if I'm going to see you. And he was like super hesitant. And I was like, really dude, like, I'm not asking you to, I don't even know, just, all you got to do just call on me. Like, I'll be there.

There's no way you're going to miss me. And I even told him, like, I got the sign that, you know, is asking Nick to sign my leg. Like, I'm like, you're not going to miss me. And he, you know, he was going in.

I can't make any guarantees. So I didn't want to argue with the guy. He's running the Q&A. I didn't want to piss him off.

So I just basically left it with like, well, I appreciate your time. It would mean the world if you just called on me. I hope you do. But anyways, good luck with the festival.

I can't wait to see the Q&A in the movie. I'll see you tonight. So we left on OK terms, at least I thought. And so we walked around New Orleans.

We got, you know, lunch and the vignet is everything else that you should do while you're down there. And then that was maybe about 12, 30. And I said, you know what, let's just go to the theater because that's at a separate location. It was like a 10, 15 minute drive.

I think it was. And we pull up and we were like actually second in line at that point. So six plus hours early for the event. And there was somebody already there.

And so we kind of hung out in the car. And then as I seen somebody else get in line, I'm like, I'm just going to go get in line, you know, just to make sure we don't get any further back. So technically we were second in line after this first couple, but we had somebody else line up in the meantime. And so anyways, so we're standing in line and we're meeting all these really nice people, tell them what we're going for and what we wanted to do.

And then hours later, you know, Nick pulls up, he gets out of the limo and they're taking photos of him. They had this little red carpet area. And they let us in. So by this time we knew, I kid you not everybody in that front row we had made friends with.

So we were all the front row and there was only two seats left to my left. And we had met and I'm going to share their names because they gave me the okay. It was Angela and Natalie and they have a review that they do of, you know, films and stuff. They have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube and their station is called Blonde Terrage.

It's V-L-O-N-D-E. And then there were two or so Blonde Terrage reviews. And so they were the ones that sat down next to us and we were chatting with them for a while. They learned our whole quest as well.

And we were just kind of chit-chatting and behind us actually. I don't think I mentioned this to anybody else, but it was Jan from the office. I don't know if she was walking the office at all. She was there.

Yeah, the American version of the office. So she was there too. And the ladies were excited about that because it was one of their favorite shows. And so they were in on it and at that point that completed the role.

We knew everybody there. We were all on the same page. And so I'm sitting there with my sign. It's folded up to not obstruct anybody.

If you, I've got my Sharpie, time's ticking down, seven o'clock hits. The art director came out and kind of introduced everybody. There was a small little walkway where we were seated between us and the stage and just enough for the talent to walk by. And you could just reach out and touch them if you wanted to.

That's how close they were when they had walked by. And so we're waiting for him to kind of go through his whole introduction. And in the meantime, the security guard comes over just to me. Nobody else.

And he kind of leans in and pulls me close and said, do me a favor. Do not ask him to sign anything before the event, during the event or after the event. And so I just kind of sat back and like, OK, whatever to the guy, he walks off. But I mean, I can't prove it, obviously, but that art director had to have said something, had to have pointed me out and probably just said something along the lines.

Like this guy's going to ask him to sign something. Can you just tell him no? So I don't have to look like the bag. I don't know what the deal was, but he had to have tipped them off because I was just sitting there and for him to come up to me and only me and say that was like, OK, whatever.

So he so he introduces everybody. They all file out. They walk right past us. I didn't do anything.

I didn't ask him for an autograph. I didn't even open my sign. And they walk up under these little steps that go up under the stage and they basically come out and say, you know, hopefully everybody enjoys a show kind of thing. We'll see after free a Q&A.

So it comes back down goes right in front of us again, goes out the side door, which was a bit of a bummer because I was going to just ask him the first time I seen him. And we watched the movie and it's fantastic as we talked about. And then the credits are starting to roll. Now my heart's beaten.

It's going fast. I'm like, he's going to get one more chance at this. He's going to have to walk past me again. I'm just going to have to go for it.

So same guy comes out. Our director starts introducing everybody, the side doors open and I could see him kind of waiting back there to come out. And as soon as he steps out, the first little section that he passes is a handicap section and there was a gentleman who opens up a sign and he stops for him. I think he signed like a DVD or something else for him.

And I'm like, OK, this is it. You know, if he can do what I'm doing, I'm going for it. And so he's getting closer to us, closer to us. I start angling my body to block a little bit of the walkway to make sure he sees us and stops.

And in the meantime, out of my peripheral vision, I see the security guard come in and you can see him in the video, make him all the way over to me and start to almost grab for the sign and then Nick sees it and stops and you know, he starts, he goes, Oh, wow, is that real? He goes, that's incredible. And then that was it. I thought that was, I mean, it was like mission accomplished.

Everybody was so excited. The blonde Teraj reviews got it all on camera and that was it. It was like, holy shit, I could sit back. We did it.

Like I thought that was it. I thought that was everything that was going to happen and that would have been more than enough for me, but it wasn't. I was sitting there. We were right in front of him the entire time.

The seats that we picked happened to be directly where they positioned. So he was right above us and it was not dark in the auditorium, unlike the art director said, you could see clear as day. And so I had my leg of my shorts pulled up to make sure that the Sharpie was untouched and the entire time that he was up there, he kept looking down at the tattoo, kept looking down at the tattoo. And so I figured he was really impressed with it.

Somebody had asked a question about like who would win in a fight, ghost writer or a track. And so he kind of gives his answer. And then at the end says something like, you know, every anytime that I answer comic book question, it goes viral and that immediately changes the subject and goes, by the way, there's a man up front here who has the new version of Dracula tattooed on his leg and the details on it are superb. And then from there, luckily someone yells out in the crowd, let's see it.

So one thing led to another. And then the next thing I know, I'm walking past that security guard, past that art director who I do with me and right next to Nick and for him to compliment the tattoo, high praise and to compliment that tattoo and to ask where I got it done. And then I, of course, my mind is looking at totally different place at this point. I'm like floating on cloud nine and I'm glad I did, but I thought last minute, like I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to ask him for a selfie. And so I did piece, you know, on stage in front of a sold out premiere. I'm getting the selfie with Nick Cage and then Universal Studios was over. So they ran over and their photographers are taking photos and they hosted it on the Renfield page, which was amazing.

And I walked down the stairs to go back to my seat and they came over and they took my name and they're taking photos of my leg right in front of that security guard the whole time. And so the last thing I did before I went to my seat is I took a look at him in the face and I said, I know you told me not to ask, but I had to go for it. And he kind of smirked and like a shoulder shrug like, yeah, I don't blame you. So that was it.

And that was that was incredible. And it was that one opportunity because after that, they escorted everybody off. Nick went out the other door and then just left. And that was it.

I know sometimes, you know, after events, I think it was the festival or, you know, I think it like a lifetime achievement award or something recently and he's made and signed, I seen him sign some posters for Mandy and stuff. And I thought in the back of my mind, you know, if the Q&A didn't work out, maybe I can get him to sign something afterwards. But it was that one shot and that was it. That would have been if I didn't go for it at that point, it wouldn't have happened.

That's perfect. I guess I would have called on me. And I was doing everything that they wanted, you know, and their power to stop me. So it was like a one shot.

I love it. I love it. It's such a triumph of Will's story. I love that play by play.

I mean, I guess once you're on stage as well, right, you've kind of you've got carte blanche to just ask that question. If you've kind of been, yeah, if you've been invited up by the man in question, it's kind of like, how did you feel? Did you feel like you must have felt untouchable, right? And the fact that like you always be back into the stage by Nicholas Cage, like, get up it.

It really did. It's like you're in the presence of greatness up there. And you know, all of these other things that I've talked about, like the Stephen King thing, that happened, you know, and I just lived the moment, but this was something totally surreal because unlike those other events, we had so many other people taking photos and videos that I'm now able to just go back and relive all that. Like we're going to watch the Q&A finally tonight.

And I other than like two questions, I couldn't tell you what it was talked about because my mind was just swimming. But it is it was a surreal time and being up there was just like, and I wasn't nervous. It was just it was so strange. It wasn't nervous.

It just felt organic and natural. And I was like, holy shit, I'm doing this. And it was through the security guard, screw this guy who didn't want to call on me. It's like I'm up here and it was awesome.

Like I guess your experience kind of fuels into the mythos of Nicholas Cage, right? These kind of like these stories we hear every so often of like these kind of, I don't know, weird and wonderful things he does. I mean, it's like, and it just adds to it of like, yeah, you can imagine like in a couple of years, like people go, oh, yeah, that time he just invited that guy up with the title on his leg off on stage. Do you mean almost like the same way that we hear these stories of like Bill Murray just turning up to parties or kind of like putting his hands over someone's eyes and saying like, he would believe me like, Cage kind of has that.

He has this like thing of doing stuff like we mentioned, either off Michael or on Mike, like about him turning up to a Nicholas Cage like film festival and kind of doing an Edgar Allan Poe reading. It's like, yeah, I don't know. Draft out. Yeah.

And it just it feeds into it and it makes you, I think, a bigger fan. And it's cool because, you know, as crazy as a fan as you may be of him, he seems to enjoy it just as much as you do. Like he was, I mean, he was an all that tattoo. He like really seemed to enjoy it.

He wanted to know more about it. He wanted to know who did it, where we got it done. So he just even seems to, I mean, he called it a work of art, I think was his exact words, but it's just, I mean, he feeds into that. And I've met, I mean, over the years, a lot of different celebrities and famous authors and musicians and actors and stuff.

And you never know who you're going to be as far as like their personality. Are they going to be dicks or are they going to be cool or are they just going to just kind of like go through the motions? And it was great that, you know, he was just so enthused about it. And it was just kind of like a natural thing, like, come up on stage where, you know, any other actor, you know, may not even sign my life to begin with.

And he took it a step further and it was just, it was awesome. Amazing. It's snowy, really heart and to me. Imagine it was all the listeners of this podcast as well.

Yeah, as we start to like close things off, like I just wanted to get into like, yeah, how has, how has the feelings we've gotten to it slightly with like how it's been since like, and you've said like you're not on social media. So have you been able to like filter out or like any of the negativity that maybe around this? Because imagine there are, like, unfortunately, there will be people who will go, what the fuck is this guy doing? Jim has got a tattoo of a guy of a film that he hasn't even said, but obviously you listen to this conversation, you know, your sensibility, your sense of humor is like, I get it, Jim, like we've kind of said, but like, yeah, how has it been in both ways?

Or have you just been on cloud nine the whole time? About nine the whole time. I refuse to get down. But yeah, I mean, as far as like the negativity aspect of it, I mean, not gone wood so far.

And that probably just goes along with the fandom, I guess, it's been just really supportive. I mean, there was a couple posts I think that you eventually seen that led you to reach out to us or to me specifically, you know, it's all been like really positive things. Like the first one that I seen, the guy was mentioning that Nick called somebody up on stage because of the tattoo on my leg and that they're still good in the world. So it's just funny.

It's funny comments like that. And just it seems like just it goes with that fandom. They're just like accepting of it. And it's just, it's just, it's just cool that they're like that.

And so far I haven't had any negativity and to be honest with you, I can give a shit less of it because I love it. So that's great to hear. And how's it managed to permeate your personal life in that way of like people that you know personally, I'm not sure if you've gone back to work, but of like people kind of in the faculty room kind of been like, I saw something on Twitter. Was that you, Jason?

Have you had any of those kind of interactions? Have you kind of just been shouting it out anyway? A little bit. I kind of keep to myself at work a little bit.

I just I go and I do my job to the best of my ability and then I kind of go home. But there's a there's a couple of people that I work with that I'll share things with now and again. And they they've kind of learned that unless they ask, I'm really not going to share. So they're always telling me because they know like, you know, on break that we're my wife and I are going to go somewhere, we're going to do something.

So they're always like, send pictures, send pictures, send pictures. And so, you know, as I'm getting these videos, the night of everything that happened, I just I opened up a text chain to the two other science teachers. And with no context, I just send them the video of him signing my leg and then be going up in that whole portion of the Q and A. And it was just message after message of, holy shit, where are you at?

What is this? How did this happen? You know, this is unreal and it's been crazy to share that with them. And my wife shares her adventures at work that we with her co-workers to.

And again, it's like a lot of people are kind of like, holy crap, how did this happen? And we're still asking ourselves that. And I told a couple of people at work and they still can't believe it. The one the one that I shared with, again, I'm not going to mention names for these people, but her brother actually was filled in for her for maternity leave.

And so I had worked with him. And as soon as she's seen that video, she's like, she has to brother to come over and watch it. And he was in disbelief and he goes, you know what? I have to give it to Jason.

He knows what he likes and he just goes. So that was that was kind of their response at work. But other than that, it's like, you know, I talked to like three people at work, you know, and I shared it with them just because they asked me to. So they're now now when we were going, we're on another kind of a shorter break.

We had our spring break and we're public school. So they don't really acknowledge any of the religious holidays. But for Easter, we get a couple of days off here. They don't call it Easter break.

But I'm walking out the door and now they're like, are you going anywhere? What are you doing? Send us pictures. Like, I'm recording a podcast this weekend, I think.

And they're like, oh, my God. So they want to, you know, listen to it when everything is done. Amazing. Well, it's been so, yeah, it's been so heartening to hear your story, Jason.

And that, yeah, you haven't you haven't managed to to fill the jaded side of social media, one by staying off it and two that this is kind of captivated people in a kind of positive way. And I'm so glad that I could be a part of this. And kind of I feel like I'm kind of like vicariously on cloud nine, just kind of hearing this. As I said, like national treasure style story of how you kind of had this idea.

And you made it happen. And it's kind of like, as I said, you're a man after my own heart. So second hand cloud nine there. Exactly.

Exactly. It was like the passive smoking of cloud nine. So yeah, as I like to end all of these conversations, especially speaking to fellow Nicholas Cage fans is just got one simple question for you is, what is your favorite Nicholas Cage film? It's changed over the years.

Like we talked about, you know, he's kind of always been there and it's, you know, it changes over the years. I could tell you my wife's con air. So that's hers. And I really I have to say for now, I mean, it might change in the future.

I'm going to go with Renfield. I'm going to go with Renfield. You've got to say that though, right? Well, you know what, experience aside, as I mentioned, I'm a big horror fan.

So it just merges two things that I love. And so I'm going to go with Renfield for now. I think it was the role that he was meant to play. And even though it was a small part of the movie, it didn't seem like he was second fiddle to anybody.

But I'm going to go with Renfield for now. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming and getting caged in with me. Absolutely.

Thank you for having me. And we talked about your close call with almost getting Nick on the show yourself. So I wish you the best of luck with that and keep that because it'll happen. And there we have it guys.

That was Jason Zeniwick, what a lovely fascinating guy. I'm sure you'll agree. I had an absolutely blast chat with Jason. It's kind of like vibrating after that conversation because this is kind of what the podcast should be as much as this kind of speaking to actors and speaking to directors and stuff like that.

It's the fans as well that make this so important. It's almost like the film still exists about the fans right in a weird way. So to be able to speak to Jason, somebody who, yeah, like we say in this conversation, like a man off Moan Heart in many ways, kind of has that same mentality with tattoos kind of has this kind of carefree devil may care attitude. No, I got a lot of time for that.

And it's tenacity as well. Anytime I kind of talk to people about all of the opportunities I try to get with this podcast, one of the words that always gets thrown at me is you're very tenacious, petros. I'm like, well, thank you. Like I guess so, like, yeah, to hear Jason's story of how he kind of had this idea and went for it.

It's like I can relate to that. I'm sure many of us can. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this one. If you did, please do reach out to me on socials as we said, like Jason's not online.

So reach out to me. And if you're a don't move or you found Jason's story interesting, I'm sure he'd love to hear it. So so send them over to me. So that's all the socials at CagedinPod on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Letterbox, and TikTok or drop me an email, which is cagedinpod at gmail.com.

As for next week on the pod, we'll be going to a galaxy far, far away as we look at Star Wars Episode 1, the Phantom Menace. We'll all be joined by not one, but two fantastic guests, the first of which being Larry Reed with his first time on the podcast. He's the host of the Fantastic Your Move Creep podcast and sometimes the Road to No Wear podcast. So yeah, Larry will be joining us to get fully Copa connected up.

And the returning guest for that episode is Russell Bailey from the also fantastic, not just for kids podcast. So yeah, be sure to check out both of those podcasts and come back next week as we will be talking Star Wars Episode 1, the Phantom Menace and the tiny roles that Zephia and Roman Copa are having those films. It's just check the calendar for next week and see why release in this episode. OK, if you haven't already, please be sure to head on over to YouTube and check out YouTube pictures cagedinpod on YouTube.

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