Ep# 11 – This Is Yu – The Pink Marine – Greg Cope White

I’m Carole Yu

I’m Scott Stewart

And welcome to our podcast – This Is Yu

That first voice you heard was our special guest today – Greg Cope White. More on Greg in a minute.

But first, we wanted to share a snapshot of today March 17 2020 with respect to the Corona Virus, Covid 19.

We’re thinking of this segment as a time capsule of what is going on today from our point of view.

The world is experiencing a pandemic. Everything in our lives right now is fluid and is happening so quickly that by the time I finish this sentence, there are probably 10,000 updates to people lives across the world.

We live in Los Angeles California USA.

One of the big problems in the beginning was getting the correct information. People seemed to readily believe what was floating around on the internet.

Case in point. At the start, the thought was you couldn’t be infected by anyone that wasn’t showing symptoms. That however is not the case.

Another example comes from Geraldo Rivera, who during a Fox news broadcast, said if you could hold your breath for 10 sec you didn’t have the virus. Not correct.

Check out World Health Organization ( WHO )  and the  ( CDC ) Center for Disease Control.

And now for some observations.

Nationwide Coronavirus cases surpass 5,000 with 97 deaths.

The government wants to send every American $1,000

Schools, Restaurants, Bars, Churches, Gyms, Libraries, and retail stores are closed.

Amazon is out of toilet paper and limited supplies of water.

Local food store Trader Joe’s gets shipments and people line up in the morning and then purchase all canned goods, frozen products, paper products, water and meats. Empty until the next day.

Local Target stores have empty shelves of the same products of Trader Joe’s.

We have 30 days worth of toilet paper.

Dara’s school closed and she was home within 24hr from Up State NY.

Carole’s store Williams Sonoma closed today for 2 weeks.

Top US infectious disease doctor Anthony Fauci said at a news conference “it’s possible” the country could see a peak in the number of cases in 45 days, around May 1.

Uber pool service is suspended in Canada and the US.

The US has stopped flights from China, Europe, and Great Britain.

Canada is closing it’s borders.

Social Distancing is a thing, and no it’s not referring to being on your cell phone too much. But being at least 6 feet away from anyone.

Stay safe friends!

Greg Cope White

Author of his best selling memoir The Pink Marine, blogger, television writer, actor, world traveler, and inveterate bon vivant, Greg Cope White is a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, now battling it out online and on television.

He served six years in the Marines, achieving the rank of sergeant. Truly a glutton for punishment, he went on to complete Officer Candidate School over the course of two summers after boot camp—effectively completing basic training three times. 

He has a long history in film and television production. His writing credits include HBO’s Dream On, Norman Lear’s The Powers That Be and 704 Hauser, Fox’s Life With Louie, Comedy Central’s Out There, Sony’s animated series Jumanji, and Disney’s Social Studies.

He co-wrote and co-prodcued the current movie Walk. Ride. Rodeo.  for Netlfix. He co-wrote and co-produced the film Holiday Rush for Netflix.  Greg adapted his The Pink Marine book into a TV series,  developed and produced by  Norman Lear. 

He has a voracious appetite for life and contributes to The Huffington Post and Good Men Project. He’s an on camera host of Unique Sweets on the Cooking Channel.

Greg’s a polo playing, sixth generation Texan now living in Santa Monica. He  enjoys a broad platform from which he uses his unique voice to examine current pop culture trends. Plus he can cook. 

Welcome Greg to the This Is Yu Podcast.

Instagram & Twitter @EatGregEat

Blog EatGregEat.com

Website ThePinkMarine.com

Facebook.com/GregCopeWhite

Amazon search The Pink Marine book.

Call the This Is Yu hotline with your feedback and burning questions 562.291.6037

Homebase is www.ThisIsYu.com

Instagram is @ThisIsYuOfficial

Facebook Vip Group – Facebook and search This Is Yu VIP Community

Thanks for listening guys!

Scott & Carole

Start Ep# 11 – This Is Yu Podcast – The Pink Marine – Greg Cope White – START TRANSCRIPTION HERE:

Greg

I’m surrounded by people that are almost naked. Here I am in a tuxedo.

Scott

I’m Carole Yu,’m Carole Yu, 

Carole

and I’m Scott Stewart.

Scott

and welcome to our podcast..

Carole

This is Yu 

Scott

That first voice you heard was our special guest today, Greg Cope White more on Greg in a minute.

Carole

But first, we wanted to share a snapshot of today March 17th 2020 with respect to the Corona Virus Covid  19

Scott

We’re thinking of this segment as a time capsule of what is going on today. From our point of view,

Carole

the world is experiencing a pandemic. Everything in our lives right now is fluid. And it’s happening so quickly that by the time I finish this sentence, there are probably 10,000 updates to people’s lives across the world.

Scott

We live in Los Angeles, California U. S. A.

Carole

One of the big problems in the beginning was getting the correct information. People seem to readily believe what was floating around on the Internet.

Scott

Case in point. At the start, the thought was you couldn’t be infected by anyone. That wasn’t showing symptoms. That, however, is not the case.

Carole

Another example comes from here. Geraldo Rivera, who during a Fox News broadcast said, if you could hold your breath for 10 seconds, you didn’t have the virus. Not correct. 

Scott

Check out World Health Organization W. H. O. and the C. D. C. Center for Disease Control.

Carole

And now, for some observations,

Scott

Nationwide, Corona virus cases surpassed 5000 with 97 deaths.

Carole

The government wants to send every American $1000.

Scott

Schools, restaurants, bars, churches, gyms libraries and retail stores are closed.

Carole

Amazon is out of toilet paper and have limited supplies of water.

Scott

Local food store Trader Joe’s gets shipments and people line up in the morning and then purchase all canned goods, frozen products, paper products, water and meats empty until the next day.

Carole

Local target stores have empty shelves of the same products of Trader Joe’s.

Scott

 We have 30 days worth of toilet paper.

Carole

Dara’s school closed and she was home within 24 hours from upstate New York.

Scott

Carole’s store Williams Sonoma closed today for two weeks.

Carole

Top US infectious disease doctor Anthony Fauci said at a news conference it’s possible the country could see a peek in the number of cases in 45 days around May 1st.   

Scott

Uber pool service is suspended in Canada and the U. S.

Carole

The U. S. Has stopped flights from China, Europe and Great Britain.

Scott

Canada is closing its borders.

Carole

Social distancing is a thing, and no, it’s not referring to being on your cell phone too much, but being at least six feet away from anyone,

Scott

Stay safe, friends.

Carole

Greg Cope White author of his best selling memoir, The Pink Marine. Blogger, television writer, actor, world traveler and inveterate bon vivant Greg Cope White is a former sergeant in the U. S Marine Corps, now battling it out online and on television.

Scott

He served six years in the Marines, achieving the rank of sergeant truly a glutton for punishment. He went on to complete Officer Candidate school over the course of two summers after boot camp, effectively completing basic training three times.

Carole

He has a long history in film and television production. His writing credits include HBO’s Dream on Norman Leer’s, The Powers That Be and 704 Hauser, Fox’s Life with Louis, Comedy Central’s Out There, Sony’s animated series Jumanji and Disney’s Social Studies.

Scott

He co wrote and co produced the current movie Walk Ride Rodeo for Netflix.

Carole

He  co wrote and co produced the film Holiday Rush for Netflix. Greg adapted his The Pink Marine Book into a television series developed and produced by Norman Lear.

Scott

He has a voracious appetite for life and contributes to the Huffington Post and Good Men Project. He’s an on camera host of Unique Sweets on the Cooking Channel.

Carole

Greg’s a polo playing six generation Texan now living in Santa Monica. He enjoys a broad platform from which he uses his very unique voice to examine current pop culture trends. Plus, he can cook Welcome, Greg to that. This Is Yu podcast. 

Scott

Doing research about you for the show. Well, I’ll give you a little background story here. First, we send your name off to the C I. A. I think it’s 1 800 Got a question asked the CIA. Then they send us a packet back then. Then Russians do all our research on Facebook for us, and those guys are great cause they’re very thorough. They send us a package back, and I think it was Carole who said, Damn, this guy does a lot. Everything from shooting M16’s 500 yards on target to best selling author and screenwriter to hosting cooking shows. First thing I wanted to get into personally, because I’m really fascinated by the whole writer work ethic. And I know you just turn out a lot of material. If you could expand on that. And also to you have this amazing friendship with Norman Lear and just to let people know if they don’t know who Norman Lear is, I think one of the lists that’s going around for all time top TV shows one of his shows, All In The Family, is at number one. He created an amazing quantity of hit shows that were controversial at the time. They might seem now if you look back at them, but at the time they were cutting edge and they were really amazing.

Greg

I spoke to him yesterday. He’s doing great, Awesome. He’s 97. Yeah, he has a deal at Sony. If you I want to see some of those shows. Yeah, of course, there’s a library everywhere. One of the shows that I worked on, the first show I wrote on for him was The Powers That Be, and those are all up on YouTube. It’s a hysterical ensemble comedy. The current today’s audience might relate to. If you have Hulu, you could watch some live rebroadcasts of original scripts. Called Live in front of a studio audience hosted by Norman and Jimmy Kimmel.

Carole

0h my gosh!

Greg

And they cast the original scripts with current movie stars. So…

Scott

That would be great.

Greg

Marisa Tomei plays Edith Bunker. Woody Harrelson plays Archie. Jamie Foxx plays George Jefferson. One to Sykes plays Weezy Jefferson.

Scott

Weezy, right.

Greg

And you’ve got just this incredible cast. So there’s two different times that he did it late last year. There’s an All in the Family on The Jeffersons, and there’s an All in the Family and GoodTimes, Viola Davis. She plays the mom in Good Times, and John Amos comes back. There’s big surprises. The shows were wild. It’s interesting because you brought up the fact that a lot of his shows were controversial. And when you watch these shows, there just is controversial. You couldn’t get these shows on the air today because his shows were talking about really, really tough issues. He had the first transgender character that one of the most serious episodes ever. It was a two parter was. Edith loses her religion, and it’s because her transgender friend was murdered.

Scott

And also to there was a really great there was two really great ones that stood out in my head because All In The Family, to our family was the thing like my dad just lit up. When it came on, we all gathered around the TV and watched it. It was it was an event every week. It was amazing, and a couple of ones that I really remember that stood out was Archie had a gay friend that Archie didn’t know was gay, and that was huge, like everyone was just like, blown away with that. And then the other one was they dealt with racism. And Sammy Davis Jr came on something like, I think Archie had found his wallet or something and Sammy Davis Jr came to his house. They took a picture. And then just at the last second, Sammy Davis Jr reaches over and kisses Archie on the cheek for the photo, and it just and this was wild to see on TV. I’ve never seen this before. It was it was fantastic.

Greg

And we needed to see that, this is a time of women’s equality, just beginning to rise. The racial tensions in the country were not easy, and the’s topics had to be brought up and had to be discussed. And to discuss him in a comedic way is really a great way to get a spoonful of medicine to go down.

Scott

Right. Absolutely. Yeah, because if it didn’t have the comedy aspect, everyone just be because it was like, You know, you ask questions because I was a kid at the time and you would ask questions about that, and I don’t know how well my parents answered it and, you know, we would talk about it at school and stuff like that. It was huge.

Greg

The training that I learned writing on sitcoms writing for Norman and other producers. It was actually, it led me to the style that I wanted to write my book about my time in the Marine Corps. You hinted that I shoot M 16. I may not look like it, but I was a sergeant in the Marine Corps that spent six years, and I wrote a memoir about that. You know, there’s obviously a lot of serious, terrible, tragic times about military service. But because I had a sitcom reading experience, I’ve told a lot of comedy into that. It is funny that I was a Marine, so

Scott

Right, right And then also to just with regards to the work ethic, because I was thinking about this as I sort of exploring your life and I found it. I sort of put it together in the sense of probably all your training as a Marine, because it’s really like moving forward all the time is very much like a writer because, you know, writers suffer from the writer’s block. But if you have that training where you just get up in the morning and keep moving forward, no matter what it’s it’s got a sort of parallel with your writing career and your actual physical writing.

Greg

I owe everything to the Marine Corps. I say that a lot the book is now being developed into a television series for Sony.

Carole

That’s awesome.

Greg

And we talked about that last week in the meeting. Obviously, we’re not meeting this week,  because everybody’s isolated. But even when I wrote the book and I was exhausted and tired, I used my Marine Corps training to be a plug through and get another 1000 or words. And for the day I do crank got a lot of writing. As as many people know in this business, You know, Scott, you really have to have content because 50 of the things that I’m going to write aren’t gonna sell. I just need one thing to sell. I’ve loved them all to sell. I love them all like Children. I do wake up and write. It’s interesting that we’re social distancing right now. Los Angeles has made me social distance from my writing partner because he lives in Hollywood and I’m at the beach. We’ve been working on Skype for a long time, so we right. Luckily, there’s ah, with final draft, the script wear soft writing program. There’s collaborate so we can see what each other is doing on the script. We can see each other and Skype and pitch jokes to each other. So I pushed my writing session today so that we could have this conversation.

Carole

Oh great. Thank you so much.

Greg

All right, We’ll get everything done. You know, you just you just plug ahead. So I’ve probably got I probably write about at least a dozen scripts a year. And and on top of pitches, you know, you remember you write. Maybe somebody wants to see a dozen ideas and all those have to be fully formulated beginning middle end conflict.

Scott

Yeah. You can’t really be standing up in the room going. Uh, let me get back on that.

Greg

Yeah, I just pushed through. And there’s not a day I don’t write.. There was a time in my life when TV writing staffings got smaller. And I didn’t have a job on the show that led to blogging, and I just needed a creative outlet. I looked at my phone to try to decide what I was gonna block about.  And I realized that I like 80 pictures of pie. I started remembering cooking stories and food stories from my childhood. A lot of things about the Marines and I ended up blogging for a few years. And then Huffington Post picked that up and Goodman project, and that it sort of exercised my muscles to switch from the screenwriting into the long form book narrative.

Scott

Right. So it was a natural extension for you.

Greg

It was an extension. You know, I’ve never not written even walking in tow boot camp on the first day. Looking around as crazy and stressful and insane is that environment is my first thought was I’m gonna write about this. I was 18. Didn’t know what that was going to look like.

Scott

I was thinking you were going to say I was walking into boot camp thinking, Where’s the typewriter? 

Greg

Well you know, I was really unprepared. That’s that’s sort of the hook of the book. I didn’t know what I was getting into right when my best friend called and told me that he was joined in the Marine Corps and he was going to Parris Island and he was going to spend the whole summer in boot camp, all I really heard it at that. It was summer camp. I love summer camp.

Carole

Oh, man. Good times. Intense summer camp free

Scott

Summer camp. Yeah. Where do I sign up?

Greg

They just didn’t tell me. You didn’t tell me they were gonna shave my head and only give me green. Clothes to wear.

Scott

Actually, that was one of my questions I had. What was the meal situation like at Parris Island. So do you remember what you guys were eating? Probably nutritious food.

Greg

Every thing about it, food became so important. First off, it takes you a while to wrap your head around The fact that the three meals that you get every day is all you get. There’s no 7 11 to stop and get a Slim Jim. At first I came in not a picky eater, but maybe a privileged eater and so to have slop in front of me because they were feeding 10,000 people every day. Uh, just go through and you get this plop of gruel on your plate dehydrated scrambled egg. You know, they didn’t have time to crack eggs open.  So at first, I kind of picked around and you know, nibbled a little bit, and then I wasn’t feeling well by noon because I hadn’t had enough to eat. So pretty soon I was shoveling all that in getting whatever I could. I was also very afraid that my mom was going to send me a cake or cookies because your parents want to just… I’m sure when your kids go away to camp. You send them a care package and…

Scott

Yeah, I mean, you’re at summer camp.

Greg

And as I watched other kids get boxes of cookies and cakes and they were forced to shove it down their face in front of all of us and they might throw up, I started writing to my family. Do not send anything. Later. I’m into Officer Candidate School at Quantico. It, although the training’s harder, the rules are a little bit better. And I did have food sent in.

Scott

I just wanted to touch on in doing some research here. I really like this quote that you have. It’s ” I don’t know how to be anyone but myself. And being myself hasn’t always been comfortable or even safe.” What exactly is your truth that you speak based on what I just spoke?

Greg

Yeah. I lived in a time when and you did, too. When serving in the military and being gay. Was illegal.  Right? I was a good Marine. I became a sergeant. I went on officer candidate school long as I did my job. Everybody treated me well. I had a great experience. I have friends that were drummed out under don’t ask don’t tell ruined their lives. And it’s tragic that she is not my story. The Marine Corps is actually the best thing that ever happened to me. But I had to keep my sexuality secret the whole time. And I’ve often thought back, thinking wow, if I could have just been my authentic self. Open and honest with everybody, would I have been a little bit better.

Scott

Right. So you still have those thoughts today just reflecting back on it.

Greg

My thought day is that I get to live in a huge metropolis where I can go pretty much anywhere. I want to today and I’m not gonna be threatened or hassled. Haven’t been called gay slur around Los Angeles. I get called it online all the time. You know, it’s easy for Twitter people to lash out.  But I’m on the streets. I feel pretty good. So I I want to use my confidence that I gained from the Marine Corps to always live an authentic life. I’m in a relationship. I he’s amazing. I don’t live in the closet, But most importantly, I don’t live in fear of being myself. One of the reasons that I wanted to write The Pink Marine was because all these teenagers were beginning to commit suicide and we still see it and getting younger and younger because they’re bullied. And then it does get better. And those people that are bullying you, that’s on that. That’s something they’re working up. So know your truth. If we live in our authentic truth and stay honest with ourselves and around those that love you, you will be a stronger, more confident person.

Scott

Right? Right. One of the things that I really like about you is your themes. It seems in all your work is sort of I don’t see the underdog, but it seems like finding your voice and finding the power in yourself and then representing your truth and speaking to the world.

Greg

You know, we all have something to contribute and to give. I’ve watched you guys over the past year transition into new businesses, new lives. And This Is Yu.  You know your strengths. You know your passions. We hope that those produce a living, a sustainable income, a way to get living. That doesn’t always happen. A lot of people come to this town or New York or San Francisco are wherever with big hopes and dreams. And I admit I got lucky. I caught lightning in a thimble getting a job for Norman Lear. Yeah, but I had to back that up with a lot of work. I just was thinking about this the other day. So I was going to work on a Sunday 20 years ago. I was driving into Paramount one day on a Sunday and it was gorgeous. Maybe one o’clock in the afternoon and my top is down pulling on the studio. And I thought, How much longer do I have to work on a Sunday? Yeah. Still working Sundays. That’s a great date of crane counts of material.

Scott

Forever is the answer.

Greg

Yeah, forever. But I do constantly have projects going, and the, uh I’m not really not doing anything for Food Network or Cooking Channel right now, but that blogged led to that. That’s where they found me. They loved the Marine adventure thing that that I did. So the shows that it did for them all were kind of actually, the one that it did for Mark Burnett was more about endurance. That was a competition. But the hosting stuff, you know, that’s easy. Just each and pie

Scott

smile, eat some more pie.

Greg

I’m always available to eat pie.

Scott

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to all the Annes out there listening because both you and I share mothers that have names Anne.

Greg

Ah, very nice. We call mine the Annecyclopedia because she knows a lot, but I This is an important part of the book, and the eventual TV series is her arc. You know, my mom lived in a time talk about being authentic and living your authentic life. She lived a life where you married pretty young and started a family. So she was married at 16 and she didn’t have a child until she was 20 but then she had four in a row. She found herself a 28 looking around thinking, wait, there’s more out there for me. So I have mad respect for her. With four kids she went back to school and got her bachelor’s, her master’s and her doctorate. So she really is the Annecyclopedia.

Carole

Oh my gosh..

Greg

If you need something, answered. Just text my mom. She might have. The answer.

Scott

Annecyclopedia is the name, and it fits. So she’s at an Annecyclopedia dot com. Is that where we send our questions?

Greg

I’m gonna register that domain for him today.

Carole

Yeah, absolutely. What is the one thing you are most proud of, Greg.

Greg

I think the one thing I’m most proud of is the thing that Scott opened with being able to live, just as I want to, on my own terms. Every single day. My life is not some pot of gold. But I am pretty fortunate. I’m working in the business that I want to work in and I get to. Well, we will. Soon I’ll resume travel. I have a fantastic partner of 13 years. Um and I’m surrounded with people that I feel their love constantly.

Carole

Wow. How did you meet your boyfriend?

Greg

We met online, and and it was through writing. Uh, I was single, and I’ve been single for a year. And my friends kept telling me, You know, you can just post an ad online and meet somebody. You can talk to them. And…

Scott

What is this magic that’s happening?

Greg

Yeah. You can talk to them and email them. You don’t just have toe meet this before swipe left, Swipe right. So, uh, just kind of a shut them up. I wrote an ad and it was jokey. It said something like, I like long walks on the beach. If there’s valet parking. And then there’s a restaurant at the end. So it was that ton.  I had a couple of guys write me saying, how dare you make fun of this process. This is our only way to meet. I’m like delete. But then Richard, who is also Canadian, like you, Scott,

Scott

How ’bout that eh?

Greg

He wrote. And he said, He said, You know, I’m not actually looking for a relationship, but I just had to find out who wrote this? And that started and we started e mailing.

Scott

Ah, nice.

Greg

That progressive phone calls and then in person and that’s it.

Carole

But the whole time for you said 13 years you’ve been separated between Montreal and Los Angeles.

Greg

and Florida. So way do a bit of ah, loop. We’re either here. Or in Montreal or in Florida. We were supposed to be in Montreal right now. I’m in California, and then we were headed down to Florida. There are periods like always, where there’s been a month, maybe six weeks, where we are in our respective homes. And we solve that through mediums just like this. I would stop my work day if I was in California. Still do, Uh, by 3 30 unless I have a meeting or on event to go to. And at 3 30 I put on a live Skype cooking show every day for my audience of one. He likes to talk back. So there’s a lot of that’s too much salt.You’re gonna overcook to fish. Ah, lot of tips.

Scott

Sorry. I hit the mute button there.

Greg

Yeah, and he’s sitting back having a cocktail and usually just de- frosting something that I’ve cooked there and left in the freezer. So I stock the freezer. When I’m there, I cook things…

Scott

Oh nice.

Greg

Uh, that are healthy. He’s super conscious about his weight. And so we try to think about that when I’m planning. And he’s very involved in that. He has to let me know if he doesn’t want me to make a dozen chicken pot pies. He always wants the chicken pot pies. I make tamales. Now I guess he thinks I’m a Mexican family of 10 which is the normal tamale party. But for me and Montreal and using my bad French to buy weird peppers to make the salsa. I fly in the masa because I don’t think I can find it there. I fly in the husks, and then I sit there, and it takes about three days just doing all the steps. But I usually try to make, like, 50 60 tamales and they freeze great, as you know, and then add about four o’clock my time, which is seven o’clock his time. He turns his camera on. I have finished cooking my dinner. I sometimes eat early, and, uh then we go over and we hang out. He eats dinner and we  plan on our lives and talk about our day and, uh, maybe watch a movie on Netflix. So every single day, unless I have an event, you know, if I if I need to be somewhere or if or if my writing partner has shifted our scheduled to the afternoon for something, he needed it, then we do that. But I would say that that happens. Six out of seven days and a lot of times even out of seven days.

Carole

So do you think that that’s the secret to having a long distance relationship?

Scott

Being a great chef.

Greg

Yeah, right. I think technology and we’ve definitely take advantage of that is helpful The secret, of course, is just to have that connection and like each other. But I guess you know, there’s a lot of people are I heard a woman in the grocery store just a few days ago who was behind me in line, saying to her friend, I don’t know how long my marriage is gonna last if we’re both gonna work at home.

Scott

I think that was Carole that said that, right? Yeah. Yeah,

Carole

that was me. Hello.

Greg

She said it’s been three hours, and I’m about to kill him. She said something like, I didn’t even understand what his job was. Now I’m hearing all these phone calls. Yeah, I think the secret is just work. Honest hard work.

Scott

Right it’s like a flower. You gotta water it.

Greg

And sometimes not being in the same room or same town works because he has no interest in anything to do with show business. So during awards season, when I’m going out has no interest in any of that. He has he come to the set. Oh, you know, he did come to town specifically to watch me tape a cooking show, and then he got here and it was a closed set.

Carole

Oh, no.

Greg

He did not enjoy that. How did you guys do it?

Carole

Maybe we should do that cause we met online too.

Scott

Carole had the ad. I found it. I’m just trying to get the name of it.

Carole

It was nerve dot coms, right? It was back in, what, 12 years? 13

Scott

The 1800’s when they just invented computers. She had an ad on there, and I think you winked at me.

Carole

It’s one of the It was one of these. It was, ah, website for creative’s.

Greg

I didn’t even know about that one.

Carole

Meaning people who had no money.

Scott

Yeah, it’s out of business now. That’s why women could get on there and they could send a wink for free. And the guys had to pay, like, five bucks or something like that.

Greg

It’s just like dating.

Scott

Yeah, exactly. You’re losing money any way you look at it. We met right away. I think she sent a wink, like on Tuesday. We went out for coffee at Starbucks, just around the corner here and talked for two hours. And then, as she was walking away, she said to me with kind of a snarky attitude, good luck with the acting. And I was like, bitter taste in my mouth.

Greg

Yeah, At  that point where you just, was your conversation and you’re presentation that you were a full time actor seeking work?

Scott

Yeah, probably with a lot of embellishment.

Greg

You patted that resume?

Scott

Yeah. You don’t know all this stuff that I did up in Canada, so I won’t even mention it.

Carole

It worked out.

Greg

Somehow people don’t think that the Canadian work counts. You may know Brigitte Bako, she’s a good friend of mine. She had, uh, G Spot that ran in Canada for several seasons. And it ran here somewhere.

Scott

Always just refer to There was a Canadian band called The Tragically Hip and they were huge in Canada, like the Beatles in Canada. And then they’d come down here and play the House of Blues, and it would just be a bunch of Canadians, you know, drink and Molson Canadian beer and shouting. But it was just the juxposition. I mean, it was probably hard for them.

Greg

But not an easy sell any time you’re trying to meet somebody and even if you were to come in as an investment banker with a trillion dollar portfolio. I’m sure Carole still going to say I have to like this guy.

Scott

Yeah. I had to turn on the charm big time.

Carole

No, you didn’t have to. You’re just charming.  

Scott

Ah, honey…

Greg

Well the conversation lasted two hours. Right? And it probably probably neither one of you had booked at that much time in your calendar for that?

Scott

No. Absolutely. And that was kind of before I think cell phones or we just probably had minimal cell phone, so it wasn’t like we’re on cell phones. Still had a flip phone that? Yeah, Yeah, it was flip phones all the way.

Greg

And by the way, he also I also get a lot from him. He supports me. He’s a great marketer. He helped design the cover of my book. Conceptualize it for the designer. He’s the one that inspired my blog. He’s actually even the one that suggested that I start writing my book. I think he did it so that I would stop telling the stories just to him.

Scott

Yeah. Yeah, I’ve heard that 10 times. And I liked the rewrite on it, yeah.

Greg

He just hold his hands up ( show 2 fingers ), meaning that’s the second time you said that.

Carole

( Laughter )

Scott

I need to start doing that with Carole. Be something like this ( Scott hold up 10 fingers ) and I’m holding my toes up to. We have this thing that if she asks me like, did I tell you this then she didn’t tell me. But when she just tells me a story, she’s told it to me multiple times happens all the time. Last night happened.

Greg

One lesson I learned was I was packing for a trip and I said, the worst thing you can say, I guess. I guess it’s known that I’d like to dress up. I’ve got a lot of clothes. Going through pants, and I said, the worst thing you can say I forgot about these. That instantly leads to you’re not allowed to go shopping for a long time.

Scott

Yeah, you just keep that to yourself.

Greg

Keep that to yourself.

Scott

I have a question here. Have you always had a strong connection to your inner voice? Were there times when you couldn’t hear it? Because to me you have a very strong voice in what you write in the way you present yourself. We’re just talking about clothes. Were there times like growing up where you connected with it. And then there were periods of time where you lost it. And then how did you get that back?

Greg

Humor has always helped him. And I don’t know if that’s something that you’re born with it or you develop out of bizarre circumstances. But you might know from the book that I went to 13 schools and 11 years. I know your daughter switched high school a couple times, and that was all for really good reasons. Really well thought out. Reasons that career path, those big important choices. And applauded those choices. I was moved around me and my brothers for really innocuous reasons. And so I went to 13 schools and 11 years. I was constantly the new kid. And I had  two choices, I could sit in the back and be pitiful and sad and always that new kid. Or I could seek out the people that I wanted to hang out with. So I sought out. Usually I would join the theater group, which, you know.

Scott

Yeah, I me too. Yeah,

Greg

Always are interesting people. And that might lead me to another group. It would definitely raise my visibility on the school cause some schools I was only in for six weeks, I would usually get a part in a play. I always joined the debate team and different speech competition shows. That’s why I started writing my own speeches and things like that. But I that’s just I just chose to be visible.

Scott

And that’s where you seemed like you were building your voice.

Greg

Yeah, you know, I should not have confidence. Somebody that went 13 schools. Somebody said, I’ve got a nerdy swagger. Thanks to the Marine Corps, they do kind of pound that confidence in your head. I still am smothered in self doubt on an hourly basis, but I use my voice and my confidence and my strength that I’ve learned from every lesson and every person that I’ve interacted with to, just like you said at the beginning of the show. Keep moving forward,

Scott

Right. Right.

Greg

Yeah, I just I try not to get down.

Scott

And nerdy swagger is actually really popular now. I mean, with the advent of comic con taken off so big,

Greg

Yeah, you know, it’s it’s funny because, um, sometimes when I’m writing a character and we start to cast, that’s a popular character right now. You know that nerd that gets the girl.  And they don’t have to whip off the glasses anymore. They leave the glasses on and get the girl.

Scott

Yeah, speaking which I really love your glasses.

Greg

Thank you. I love this company. I’ll give him a shout out. They’re right in here in L A . L A Eyeworks.  And they’ve done a phenomenal thing of being in business for 40 years in Los Angeles as an independent eyeglass company. That’s fantastic.

Carole

Okay, well, let’s change the questions here. How did you learn to cook? 

Greg

That’s interesting. You know, Carole, I learned to cook because I was hungry. I mentioned that my mom was going back to school to get your bachelor’s and master’s and doctorate. That meant a lot of times she wasn’t there. And so I was just hungry. By 10 I was baking cookies because I wanted some cookies, and I would because she was busy and working. I would go grocery shopping for the family. I had asked strangers, too, get things off shelves, and it was a huge basket. I could barely shove it around the store. I had a list, and then my mom would finish whatever other errands she was doing, and she would come in and pay and pick me up and drive me home. I was probably just maybe 10 when I was doing it. My older brother can remember making breakfast, but not being able to see the stove he was down here cooking. And  uh, so he doesn’t cook by the way. And then I, uh, lived with an aunt for a year when I was in college and she had gone to the Cordon Blue. So we cooked all the time together, and I would get the chopping jobs. I thought she was just getting free labor from me, which she was. I would do all the scrubbing pots and all that stuff, but also, she was teaching me how to cut an onion and how to make a bechamel . And all these other dishes.   

Scott

I just want to point out to people that are listening to this Greg still has all his fingers.

Greg

Yeah, I went to, you know, uh, when Dara was working at Le Gourmandise, I took a class. Do you remember Christianne Wintrop there,  I took a knife skills class from her.

Carole

Okay,

Scott

So it turned out really well.

Greg

Yeah, my boyfriend’s watching. And on Skype, it probably looked like I was about to lose a digit. And I do need all 10 fingers to write. Although I must say you don’t because I mentor a group of veterans for the writers guild and I was at our workshop a couple of weeks ago, and a strongest script that was presented was from a guy that only had a veteran that has one arm.

Scott

Wow. I mean, there’s a real sense of adapting in your marine world, right?

Greg

Adapt and conquer. Yeah, that’s our speciality. Yeah, and that’s to every situation. And like we’ve talked about it, I think everything kind of glean I use the things and the principles that the Marine Corps pumped into me every single day, including being organized to cook, you know, that’s the most important thing is, is to have a plan.

Carole

What kind of things do you recommend, Greg. For a pantry to set up for a new cook and also in a pandemic world? What do you suggest people set up in their pantry? 

Greg

I try to think like a restaurant does, which is you’re on a budget, and you need to be able to use many of the things in many different ways in a restaurant, the one dish that you see if you’re going in and you order of pasta carbonara. All the ingredients that are used in that dish are used in other dishes, so you have to be practical. So in the pantry, the dry goods, I always have rice, I always  have canned beans and the things that you’re telling us to stock up on right now. I try to make everything from scratch, but I don’t can my own tomatoes. So I buy canned tomatoes and canned beans, but I will make a batch of beans. My mom won the Texas State Fair with her Pinto Beans recipe. She’ll let you know that, and, uh, it’s in the book. So but in the pantry, I like to have got sort of stuff. Pasta, rice, beans. The most important thing for me is fridge door food. Bachelors have known this for a long time. You can scramble a dinner together with stuff out of the jars in your fridge door, so I just have olives and feta and sun dried tomatoes boom you got a sauce and then the chicken stock is really important. Every time I roast a chicken, you know it’s really attempting to just go to Ready Chick or the grocery store and buy a great roasted chicken. But I need that stock. So I roast my own chickens and then always boiled down a stock. And then I poured the stock in the Ice Cube trays and freeze it and then pop it out of the trays and put it in a big Ziploc bag. So I’ve got cubes of chicken stock. Just to add if I need to. I might be sautéing some vegetables that I want to also add, uh, from the fridge door. Soya sauce and a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter. You just stir that into some sautéd  vegetables and serve rice and and boom, you’re you’re in Thailand. And so in that fridge door, currently, I don’t always have this because it’s really high in sodium, but I do have ah jar of chicken bouillon base. And just in case it’s a quick flavor enhancer. I usually don’t keep that on hand, but right now I got it.

Scott

When you’re cooking for your boyfriend and yourself. Is there like a style that you’ve like subscribe to? Do you have a favorite like you mentioned, Thailand is their favorite sort of a cuisine that you like. Did you lean one way?

Greg

We focus on flavor and health, so we try to eat, really clean. I’m happy with a piece of broiled salmon and a really nice cardamon rice and a soup or salad. So but complicated wise, he’s an Iraqi Jew, and so he brings all the Arab flavors so more of the Mediterranean diet. So he’s taught me how to make curries and how to use some of those spices that I don’t know. I’m from Lubbock, Texas. We didn’t grow up making cardamon rice.

Scott

Right. You were just having award winning beans.

Greg

I’m just happy with beans and corn bread, you know I just opened up my Facebook page to offer suggestions. If people find themselves with some weird ingredients, and so far the most popular thing is, question is, what am I going to do with all these beans? So I’m gonna answer that today.

Carole

Back in the old pre pandemic days, did you go and eat out much. And if you did, what kind of foods did you enjoy? And do you ever recreate those meals at home? 

Greg

I love that last question, and I would love to say yes to that. The number one thing I look for, I do eat out the number one thing I look for are things that I don’t know how to make that or can make. So I’m very attracted to sushi. I’m super attracted to really complicated French foods. If I’m eating out in L. A. My two favorite chefs, I have a lot of favors chefs, but my two favorite are is Chef Ludo, the food that he creates, at Petit Trois is incredible and Trois Mec, if you can get in.  But I do love him, and I like the way that he has brought all of his French upbringing and then listened to his California wife. And he’s sort of fused and made a healthy French food, and he still make his Trout Amandine still swims and butter as it should, and then, uh, Gilles Epie, who was at L’Orangerie for a long time, and I love that restaurant. He’s back here now from Paris, and he’s working at The Montage in Beverly Hills. Uh, he’s cranking out some incredible food. More south of France, which I love.

Carole

That’s great. I’m gonna have to go there. I work down the street there now, so, we’re going to have to go.

Greg

 Tell him, his son just graduated from Marine Corps boot camp two weeks ago. He went to Camp Pendleton, so he’s a Hollywood Marine. I went to Camp Lejeune, so…

Carole

Well, tell us about your foray into the Cooking Channel and Unique Sweets and Food Network.

Greg

That was amazing. You know, I’m in the middle of my book, and I I told you, had been blogging. I was writing my book, and within a month of each other I had two strange email inquiries. The 1st 1 was from Mark Burnett, but I did know it was from Mark Burnett’s company. Question was simple. Do you cook what you write about? And I wrote back kind of snarky like you did to uh, Scott there, Carole when you left the date. I said, well, how can I write about it if I didn’t cook it? And this time she answered super clearly, I work for Mark Burnett, we’re doing a new television show. Would you like to be on it? And I said I was in Montreal today, but I could be in L. A tomorrow to audition. And so I cooked my foolproof dinner dish, which, uh, is fish in parchment paper. I don’t know if you’ve ever made that, but it’s great, because you can make all the packet ahead of time. You spend time with your guest, cooked them all together, and you just give him this packet of parchment paper with sautéed leeks on the bottom and then a piece of fish and some thyme and asparagus and mushrooms and salt and pepper and lemon. You seal that up and just bake it in the oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, and then you just throw it on the plate and the person just rips open the paper and eats it. And then when you gotta clean up, you just slide the whole thing in the trash. That and a goat cheese souffle and people think they’re just eating from a chef, but that it’s my prepare, my adapt and conquer to a dinner party. So that was the first e mail from Mark Burnett. And I took that seriously after a while. And then another day, an email popped up from Food Network saying, we think there’s a television show in your blog. Do you have any interest in that? And the reason I said yes to both of those is obviously, they sounded like a lot of fun. But I was writing the book and I was close to the end, and we were just about to start shopping it around. And I thought, yeah, this would be great to have on your book marketing platform if you can also mention that you appear in front of 60 million people a week.  So, uh, I began the conversations with Cooking Channel, and I I thought, are they serious? And sure enough, I did not google the names of the people that I knew were going to be in the meeting. And I think that kind of help because it turns out it was the president of the network. And senior vice president of programming. All these people. And they also brought in a lunch which duh. But I had a lunch right after, so I kind of perfunctorily ate a little sandwich. But I went in there and I just just completely myself. I was, you know, uh, probably a little wild and funny and told a few of my old chestnut stories, and, uh, they were really happy. And they said, Let’s do this. And you know, you don’t have a huge national following, so we’re gonna put you on a couple of shows and see how that goes. And so the first show they put me on was Unique Sweets, and it was a lot of fun because the crew was great. I didn’t have a ton of on camera experience. I’m usually behind the camera. And so I just finished the Mark Burnett cooking competition. Said kind of got my understanding of how that whole thing work. Just a smaller crew, I think. I think, on the Mark Burnett show they had 17 cameras everywhere. Probably what they had on Master Chef Jr. I had been practicing talking and sound bites, you know, I knew that you don’t get a lot of camera time. Yeah, so I understood that concept had a boil what I’m saying now in 2000 words into like five words and then the cast members that I was on hosting Cooking Channel with. They were fantastic, Aarti Sequeira who’s a goddess, Ali Ward, Georgia Hardstark, just also brilliant.

Carole

That just sounds so fun. 

Greg

It is a lot of fun, and I, you know, I stay in touch with them. I’m not doing anything for right now. My schedule is a little hectic. But when I was shooting a movie in New York last April, I made sure I saw all of the guys on the New York crew.

Carole

How fun. So you also worked with Emeril Lagasse, didn’t you?

Greg

Yes, in a couple of different ways. I’ve worked with him and I’ve had a good time with him.  So he’s obviously, uh, right up my alley. You know, I lived in New Orleans when I was a kid, and certainly I was just at Commander’s Palace. I just wasn’t Mardi Gras last week, two weeks ago. That’s how different the world is. Two weeks ago, I was surrounded with a 1,000,000 filthy sweat drunk, people in very close contact, and here we are now quarantined, which I’m happy to social distance, but Emeril worked there.

Scott

Didn’t you have a tuxedo on at that point?

Greg

I did, because I go there to go to the Bacchus ball. Some years I ride in the Bacchus ball and Emeril also rides in that crew. Uh, Emeril worked at that Commander’s Palace. That’s where he was discovered. The great Julia Child went back in the kitchen is like, who made my dinner? Come here, you’re now famous. Mark Twain ate at Commander’s Palace. That’s how long they’ve been in business.

Scott

Yeah, that’s a little while.

Greg

We ride in the same Mardi Gras crew, which is Bacchus. He’s a couple of floats behind me, and he’s on the same float with Tory McPhail. Who’s the current chef at Commander’s Palace. Their food that they serve on their float is crazy. I have often threatened to leave my crew…

Scott

Jump ship.

Greg

And go back to their float, but we’re all in individual costumes. But if I’m not writing, I’m at the ball and you have to be in a tuxedo to go to the ball. That picture you saw, I was on my way to the ball and I just stopped on Bourbon Street because I thought I’m surrounded by people that are almost naked. Here I am in a tuxedo.

Scott

See, I just thought you walked around in general like that.

Greg

Oh, I tried to.

Carole

Tell us about your relationship with Lifetime Channel and Netflix, please.

Greg

So, with Lifetime, I was cast play a news producer. So I did. I acted a part in a movie for Lifetime. And then those same producers. One of those producers is my longtime writing partner. We met working for Norman Lear. We’ve been writing forever. We had just finished shooting two back to back Christmas movies. I just could strongly recommend everything against ever shooting two movies back to back. Just so you know, but we powered through. Thank you, Marine Corps. Those were picked up by Netflix,  And they did well for them. And so that just as you know, in this town or in any other business, when you turn into good project, they say, what else you got? We had this story of Amberley Snyder, who is just a fantastic crazy girl. She unfortunately was paralyzed in a car accident, and she was a rising rodeo star. And over the course of a year, year and 1/2. She not only taught herself to get back on the horse, but she straps her legs down because she can’t walk. And she’s now a professional rodeo, rider.  So the movie’s called Walk. Ride. Rodeo. because those were her goals after the accident, she said, I’m gonna walk. I’m gonna ride. I’m in a rodeo. She may walk one day.

Scott

I just want to point out to you guys. I watched the trailer for it last night, and I gotta say, like I sort of teared up on that. It’s a really emotional story. It’s beautifully shot. The dialogue is amazing. So hats off to you. It’s  very, very strong, so highly recommend you guys watch it there on Netflix.

Greg

Thank you. It’s an inspirational story, for sure. Obviously I walked into a great story, and it was fun imagining that theatrically the other one I have on with them is Holiday Rush. And that was really important to me because when I came up with that story, I really wanted to give an example of a single father keeping his family together. So it’s a single dad of four, under really harsh circumstances, and he sticks by it.

Scott

Well, Greg, we’re just looking at the time here, and we know you’ve got a busy writing schedule, so we just want to wrap this up. I just want to give some shadows to where people can find you. So it’s Greg Cope White. He’s on Instagram and Twitter at Eat Greg Eat. His Blog is Eat Greg Eat dot com. His website is The Pink Marine dot com, which you can get his book there and you can get your book everywhere. Really? Right.

Greg

It’s available everywhere that books are sold.

Scott

I know it’s a big hit on Amazon, but it’s available everywhere.

Greg

I think 70% of book sales are now on Amazon. But if you want to support an independent bookstore at this time, you know you can call your bookstore and they’re arranging curbside pick ups they’ll mail it to you. But yes, on Amazon, I’ve got the audible version. I narrated the book, I had to audition…

Scott

Yeah, I thought that was funny.

Greg

To get that job. 

Scott

I got a couple of callbacks, and then, yeah, we kind of like you for this part?

Greg

Well, my agent said You need to go and read the 1st 3 pages of the book and audition, and I said what? He said, look, if they can get Joseph Gordon Levitt or a big star to read it, it’ll sell more books. And I said, Oh, I get that, but I’ve kind of been dining out on these stories for 20 years. I gotta banter. It was a lot of fun to record. I play all the voices from the drill instructors to my best friend that I went in with his. His mom’s Japanese so I have to  do that voice and and, by the way, for people that don’t know about the book. I think one of the best things that has happened is not only did my childhood best friend know that I was gay when we enlisted in the Marines together, we just kind of forgot it was illegal. We are still to this day, best friends. He became a doctor. He’s here in Southern California, and he’s got three amazing daughters. That’s maybe one of the, you asked that earlier, let me end with that, I think the biggest accomplished in my life are the friendships and the people that I have.

Scott

Well, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. And all the great stories and guys get the book. The Pink Marine. It is an amazing story, inspiring.

Greg

Thank you guys for having me. I love all your questions and I it’s great seeing you.

Carole

Yeah. Good to see you. Thank you so much, Greg.

Greg

I love you both.  

Carole

Thank you.  

Greg

Past my best to Dara.

Carole

Okay, We will remember those sticky lollipop chicken wings that we ate on air at the beginning of Episode 10 of our podcast. We’re recording the final voice over on the video and it will be up really soon on ThisIsYu.com under recipes, you will definitely not want to miss this super cool video and delicioso recipe.

Scott

Call the This is you hotline with your feedback and burning questions. 562.291.6037

Carole

Home base is www.ThisIsYu.com

Scott

Instagram is @ThisIsYuOfficial

Carole

Facebook VIP group, go to Facebook and search. This Is Yu VIP Community.  

Scott

Thanks for joining us.  

Scott

We’ll see you in the next episode. Bye  

Scott

Bye.  

Carole

Bye Bye  

Scott

Bye Bye  

Carole

Bye Bye Bye Bye