Sound-off with Sinkoff
Sports meets pop culture and humor! Join your host, Brian Sinkoff, as he brings you the latest trends and insights from the world of sports, mixed with engaging conversations about pop culture, zombies and whatever he wants to "Sound-off" about.
Whether you're a sports fanatic, a real estate enthusiast or just someone looking for a good laugh, "Sound-off with Sinkoff" is fun, informative, and entertaining.
Sound-off with Sinkoff
Episode #8: The Walking Dead's Jeremy Palko
Embark on an enthralling expedition with Jeremy Palko, the dynamic actor from "The Walking Dead," as he recounts the pivotal moments that shaped his acting journey.
From a third-grade play that sparked a flame, to the intense thrill of presenting a head to Negan's base, Jeremy's stories are nothing short of captivating. With anecdotes that include his time as a Disney entertainer and his climb from a background extra to a character with his very own narrative arc, this episode is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes insights.
Completing this multifaceted narrative, we explore Jeremy's artistic side as he delves into his passion for painting, an endeavor that flourished alongside his acting career. The discussion also swings for the fences with Jeremy's lifelong love for baseball, providing listeners with a personal account of his fandom for both the Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners.
From his experiences on "The Walking Dead" to his evolving aspirations in acting and art, this episode is a home run for anyone intrigued by the stories that unite us in the shared human experience of chasing our dreams and celebrating our passions.
We don't know if they have an armory, or where it even is.
Speaker 2:Well, we've got a lot of good guesses. We've done more of less.
Speaker 1:We go in at night while they're sleeping, Guards won't be sleeping. Like I said, I think there's only one way in and there's no way to bust through that door without waking up the rest of them. We don't need to.
Speaker 2:They're going to open it for us. Let us walk right in they want gregory's head right we're gonna give it to them and hello and welcome everybody to sound off with sync off. I am so excited to be joined by Jeremy Palco, who played Andy in the walking dead. Jeremy, welcome to sound off with sink off.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me. That was fun, Memory lane type stuff yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you know, there are so many memorable scenes in the walking dead and you were a part of one of them, and that is the scene where you're holding up this head and you're outside of Rick's base, negan's base, negan's base, negan's base, and you're enticing him saying, hey, we did what you wanted us to do. How does it feel to be part of that scene? We'll get into all the other stuff in a minute, but just talk about that iconic scene.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess at the time you don't realize how you know, I mean the whole time I was there, I was like this is so cool just to be here. But I do remember, kind of like you get your scripts kind of week to week kind of thing and you just hope that you are at the end of every script. And I remember Steven Young had come up to me at a previous episode and he'd actually said to me he goes, man, that's really cool what you get to do next episode. And I was like what? Like what are you talking about? Are you sure? Like I'm the right guy?
Speaker 1:And he let me read a script which I don't know if that was, you know, taboo or not, but I read it and I was like, all right, that's a pretty cool scene. But uh, yeah, when it came out, I was very happy that, you know, there's so many characters in that show. Obviously, and just to get on that show was amazing. But to have that moment of you know kind of you know of screen time was just a really, really cool feeling.
Speaker 2:Jeremy of course, played Andy, had some great scenes in the Walking Dead. He battled Abraham, a big dude. Right, daryl breaks your arm. You have the uh, the riff with rick, uh, ultimately end up sort of siding with them and and going to negan's base and holding up the head, um, and we're going to talk about your untimely death at the beginning of season eight. But first of all, jeremy, tell us how you got started in acting, how did let going to go back, and then we'll talk about Walking Dead and all your other projects and your artworks.
Speaker 2:How did you get involved in acting? Oh, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I thought about that this morning and I was like when did I really get into acting?
Speaker 2:And I had to go all the way back.
Speaker 1:And I remember in third grade I was in a terrible school production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and I just I remember yelling a lot but I had a lot of fun. And so from then on, and like, every Indiana Jones movie as a kid made me want to be in the movie somehow some way, and I just kind of never thought that was possible. Like I didn't know any actors, I didn't hang out with any actors. I mean, my sister was in a theater in high school and college, but that was it. And then I worked, for my dream was to work with Disney and so I actually did an internship with Disney. I wound up working on a cruise ship at a job that I didn't really know what I was going to do and it wound up being a very entertainment-led job of hosting deck parties and dancing like a pirate and that really kind of got the acting bug. I had done some plays in college but it didn't strengthen my love for the theater. It actually kind of terrified me the thought of being in front of people. But again, disney really kind of shaped me as an entertainer and I did some work at Universal Studios for a while. That's when I started to pursue acting.
Speaker 1:I started to be an extra in movies. I was an extra in a movie called Sidney White with Amanda Bynes. I was an extra in Magic Mike. I worked next to Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum, steven Soderbergh and Olivia Munn and I was just.
Speaker 1:I remember I didn't do much, I sat on a beach throwing a football all day, but like watching them work, I mean this became my classroom of just being an extra. I was an extra in probably like 50 or 60 commercials with you know the Orlando community was, you know, still to this day day, a great group of actors and you see them working all the time. But that was a fun education for me and I got lucky enough to start. I got you know what I consider the best agent in the Southeast with Brevard Talent and I've been with Tracy for a good 15 years now and she's wonderful and she gets me, you know, pretty good opportunities and that's you wonderful and she gets me pretty good opportunities and you're lucky enough to get them the auditions. But to book anything is just kind of icing on the cake. So thus far I've been little part, little part, little part and I can't complain. But I chose this profession and this road.
Speaker 2:So yeah, can't complain, but I chose this profession in this road, so, yeah, um, of course. Uh, jeremy had parts in pitch perfect three, the passage unbreakable, live to tell, and macgyver. And then you were in tyler perry's ruthless as well, obviously.
Speaker 1:In addition to walking dead, that was a pretty cool gig, huh that was the coolest gig because it was during COVID and so auditions were few and far between and didn't even know a strike was on the horizon. But I remember getting the audition and a call from Tyler Perry's people and they were like, hey, we want to cast you in like 26 episodes. So in my mind I was thinking I'm going to be shooting for the next you know year or so. Then I found out they shoot extremely fast. So it was kind of like this acting boot camp that you know was it was so much fun, everybody was great.
Speaker 1:But I remember being completely stressed out, getting you know pages upon pages of dialogue. I had probably 100 pages of dialogue and I had like four days to prepare and to me, that's like an actor's nightmare.
Speaker 1:I didn't sleep well, I was. I was literally at the gym every day, only to walk on a treadmill and learn my lines, like I printed out all the pages of kinkos and uh. But I remember, remember like Tyler Perry was just he was so much fun and, like I said, it was during COVID, so we stayed on property, so I got to stay at Tyler Perry studios for four weeks and you know like it was during COVID, so everyone had masks and we were getting tested every like three days and I just remember the food being amazing, people being amazing and yeah, it was, you know, such a great opportunity during a downtime for acting, to just to really just work. It was.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of fun about actors, and I don't think a lot of people realize this when they're watching a movie. But memorizing the lines and then making them feel like you're not acting, how tough is that? To not only memorize your lines and Tyler Perry, that may be an exception because you're crunching it but, like for the Walking Dead, like how much time do you have to learn those lines and how the heck do you do that? I mean, can you ad lib, or it has to be exactly what is said.
Speaker 1:I mean, well, that's that's debatable. Certain people are like stick to the script, certain people are very open. Really depends on your relationship with a the director, be the writer and just if it makes sense for the character. But I would say I mean it's not easy. I'll start there, like memorizing lines has always terrified me, there, like memorizing lines has always terrified me.
Speaker 1:I think most actors will agree to some degree that it's, it's tough but it's, you know sometimes. You know actors are very emotional people to begin with. I think.
Speaker 1:I think it's for me personally, acting becomes, you know, a study of you know people and trying to feel what you know people feel in those moments, um moments.
Speaker 1:But memorizing the lines is kind of it's the first necessary step. But then you make it your own and to anybody who thinks it's really difficult, I kind of say, tell me your favorite joke and then tell me your favorite joke again, and then tell me your favorite joke and you start to build these kind of blocks in your head of like this is the scene, this is the story, this is what makes sense to me and if you can connect those dots with enough practice, for me it's like I listen to it all day. Every day I will speak it into a recorder for like probably 20 minutes and then just let that play all day long and I'll find myself almost like your favorite song. You're just kind of catching moments and then I go back and reread it a hundred times and you know that's within the first 48 hours and if I don't have it kind of off book by then I don't really deserve the part kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Um, but really just time practice, that's it. Like you can't, I mean some people probably have you know photographic, you know memories, and can just people probably have you know photographic, you know memories and can just read, and you know I'm envious, envious of those people, but I do know a lot of great actors out there that that struggle with that idea of you know, memorizing um but yeah, you want to get off book.
Speaker 1:You want to get rid of the script that way. That's when you can start kind of playing and you know I equate it to painting a lot, you know, like it's never going to be what you want it to be. But what you do is you just keep. You know, just keep going and see what comes out of it uh, jeremy palco, we're speaking to.
Speaker 2:It's sound off with sync off. It's sponsored by the sync off realty group full service real estate brokerage in del mar, new York, located just outside Albany, the capital region of New York. Jeremy, your first gig, your first speaking part, was the movie Never Back Down.
Speaker 1:It was yeah, 2008.
Speaker 2:I did my research on it, man yeah nice job. How'd you get that gig? Tell me about that and how that happened. That was fun.
Speaker 1:So like I really had the acting bug hard, Like I was on sets all the time, I was seeing people, all my friends that I was making, they were all working actors. And you know, like I said, I've been an extra but I, you know, hadn't had dialogue in a movie. And so I remember my agent sent me my first agent a wonderful agent just moved on for her when I got bigger parts out there. I do remember going into the audition and it was a football sequence To anyone who's seen it, I played the running back in the first scene. This was such a dream role because I had played football my whole life and I always wanted to play sports in a movie.
Speaker 1:But I remember the audition was hilarious because clearly, the script it just didn't make sense. It was like a quarterback yelling out lines that a linebacker would say, kind of thing. And so I kind of just spoke up. I said hey, listen, am I playing the quarterback or the linebacker? And they said quarterback and I said okay, and they were like what, what's wrong? And I said, oh, you know, just probably wouldn't say this. And they were like, well, what would he say? And I said, you know he would say things like and I start barking at quarterback lines and, next thing, you know, like they're all talking amongst themselves and we ran a couple scenes, um, but they looked baffled because they'd been in there all day and nobody had said a word. Um, right, but they kept me there.
Speaker 1:After a couple more people audition, and then they asked me about football, like real questions, like could I run, could I catch, could I pass? And I said, yes, I can do all that. Um, and then it was like two days later I went out with the stunt team and we started playing football and I was there with, like you know, jymon Honsu was there and you know, amber Heard stopped by and Cam Gigande, but all my fights were with Sean Ferris, sean Ferris, and, yeah, we just rehearsed and rehearsed and I was there with three guys who they told me I was competing with, but at the end of the day they were the stunt guys. No, no, no, you're, you're a guy. We're just we're training you.
Speaker 1:Our scenes yeah because on the day we shot it was just three football scenes and every time we ran it I took real hits from real stunt guys and I remember it being the time of my life. I I had so much fun and like the next five days, like the whole body was just black and blue.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was I remember.
Speaker 1:I remember going to theaters to to watch it too, and my mom watched the whole movie and said where were you? I said Mama, I was in the first scene with the football helmet on.
Speaker 2:That's funny. So you're in that. You're in that movie. You obviously have a sports background. You're from the Seattle Washington area. Right Went to University of Washington. You played sports in college, right.
Speaker 1:Collegiately I played lacrosse. I did a year and a half of a club sport because I wasn't good enough to make the football team. But that's when I actually in high school. I wasn't great but I wasn't terrible. I was planning on playing collegiate football somewhere and then my third game of my senior year blew out my knee, kind of story. Then I went to college thinking I could continue to play sports and I blew out my knee, kind of story. Then I went to college thinking I could continue to play sports and I blew out my other knee.
Speaker 1:That's actually, when I took my first acting class was after my second injury. So, being devastated as I was, I looked back and I was like that was the biggest you know fork in the road kind of moment in my life that let me know. Hey, man, sports are just not. I'm so happy man. I've watched like sports now and I see guys getting leveled and I'm like I would be broken in half right now, so I'm I'm okay with it.
Speaker 2:Um, jeremy, uh, what's for you? What's the best part about acting? What do you love about?
Speaker 1:it, it's just it's. It's the only thing that's ever really kept my interest. You know, like, like when I went to college, they always say like you know, find what you like and go for it. A lot of people don't know what they want. You know, and I remember the first day I went to cinematic studies, I started learning about movies and you know, I've always wanted to be a director, which I've actually just shot, and I wrote, shot my first short film and I've got a lot of cool friends to help me out. So we're in the editing process right now looking for a sound mixer. But yeah, that always had my, my interest and I never thought about being an actor. But you know, I just really enjoy it. I think any actor will tell you that it's just you know, you're a big kid and you get to play.
Speaker 1:You know like I don't ever lose sight of just how fun it could be. I think the more I do it, the more I realize it's more therapeutic for actors than anything. It is quite literally, you know, just expressing yourself and putting yourself in other's shoes, but ultimately it's just I love it so all right.
Speaker 2:So you get the spot in the walking dead and I'm, I'm, uh, showing a shot here. You got that here on your screen, right? Yes, sir, you and you and jesus. Um, jesus, not the biggest shot in the world, awesome actor um, oh, oh, tom he's awesome, yeah. So how did you get this gig? There you are with Rick.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny, andrew Lincoln, I was living in Orlando at the time when it first came around and it was called just the Zombie Show, the Untitled Zombie Show, and I read for the first episode and it was for a young police officer and it's been a while, but I do remember watching that first episode and seeing the guy he's like up against the fence. That would have been with Shane right. I think it was Rick and Morgan.
Speaker 2:Oh, rick, rick, yeah, rick in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's that one cop that he kills on the fence post, and I remember questioning for that and I didn't get it obviously. And the show went on to be a big hit and then everybody in the Southeast knew what the Walking Dead was. Every time actors and I got auditions, I was lucky enough to just continue continuously being seen as all you really want as an actor. So I read for this part and that part and this part and that part, and I had never really watched the show. I saw the first couple episodes and it was just kind of like, nah, I'm not into it. But then season six came around and castings went out and I read for this part and I remember it was like a liquor store kind of hold up scene and like most auditions, you give them two, you know two different takes and I try to give them something as different as possible. And you know, and then you try to forget about it. As an actor, at least I try to. I don't try to, you know, hold on to that idea that I might book it.
Speaker 1:And then one day I was working at a bar and my, my boss knew that I was an actor and he knew I'd read for the show and you know he was a huge fan of the show. So I got the call and I went in his office and said hey, I won't be at work next week. And I told him which I wasn't supposed to tell anybody really. But yeah, I went out my agent was on the phone with and I kind of celebrated for a good moment. But then I got kind of like this wave of terror of like man, now it's time to go, like it's the big league. So I couldn't wait to get the script. I was in Orlando, like I said, I drove to Atlanta and I was there for a few weeks shooting and you know I remember leaving and my character was still alive and well. So I was very hopeful for season seven.
Speaker 2:So so like explain how that works. And here's you uh but it was wild.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I hadn't seen the show and when I got cast it was all available on like netflix. I watched five seasons and like a weekend, I mean, I I literally went from reading the scripts and, just you know, watching the series and then walking onto set, which was, you know, kind of surreal in itself.
Speaker 2:So you get the gig and then how long do they give you the script and say you're coming out to Atlanta, like how did that the genesis of that?
Speaker 1:They usually give you a preliminary script and a shoot schedule of like what days you need to be there, and in my case, they needed my hotels. They provided, which is nice and it was just really a lot of fun. But yeah, you just wait around for the script and then you start memorizing as best you can and yeah, me personally, I have to get there as soon as possible. I'll be the first one on set. You know like I really enjoy being there.
Speaker 2:So so you were, how many you were in how many episodes total four uh five.
Speaker 1:I did uh okay yeah two in season six, two and eight, and then there was one in season six, two in eight, and then there was one in season seven.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you had an untimely death right. What was that in season eight? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember we'd all come back. It was kind of like summer camp. I hate my dogs waking up. It was kind of like summer camp. They were shooting. Episode one, one and episode one was actually the 100th episode of the show and I remember there was it was like the best summer camp ever.
Speaker 1:There was like a hundred of us. Like for a week and a half we all went hiking and we went out to dinners and we were shooting all day. And then we got into like episode two and that's when, like the phone calls started going out of like did you get a call? Did you get a call? Did you get a call? And that was Scott Gimple letting people know that you know, the casualties are about to start happening in the Negan War. And good old Andy was at the top of the chopping block having that conversation with Scott Gimple and he was uh, you know he.
Speaker 1:I, you know, I I love the characters a lot to me, but I understand that, like he has so much to work with and little old Andy is just, you know, whatever, but he, you know, he talked in depth about the character and was, like you know, we brought him in at the savior's compound and we took him out at the savior's compound and we felt that was full circle for him. I really stepped back and nobody wants to die in that show, but man, I was just so grateful.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I got to set and talked to a few of my friends and my friend Jordan he'd gotten the call. But yeah, one by one, just started.
Speaker 2:What was the cast of that show between you know? Uh, andrew lincoln and norman reedus.
Speaker 1:I mean, what an unbelievable cast, huh and you had a chance to really work with those guys up close I was very fortunate and I, you know, people had kind of mentioned this to me and I'm, you know, very grateful to have my character. Every time I got to set, you know, you always look at the call sheet and you know, every once in a while you get a good name in there, and or a top name, I should say, and I was very fortunate. Every one of my scenes had, oh, you know, my day one, I was toe-to-toe with Andrew Lincoln, you know. And I, day two, I was, you know, on top of cutlets choking them out, you know, sitting in the shade with Norman Reedus all day thinking man. I watched Boondock Saints and, yeah, unreal, hold on one second, whoa, I got my dude just bothering me.
Speaker 2:Oh, what kind of puppy is that? He's a beagle. Oh, I have a beagle, shih tzu.
Speaker 1:So I'm in the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very unique mix. I got you buddy. Yeah, what's his name? Oh, this is Jonesy Jonesy.
Speaker 1:Hi Jonesy, Indiana Jonesy.
Speaker 2:Oh, welcome to Sound Off with Sync Off. Jonesy, glad you're joining us. I know it's boring. It's boring to you, I get it. So, yeah, you shared some amazing screen time with these guys. And how were they to you, jeremy, because I love this interview, because it's raw and it's it's real, did you feel at times like I'm pinching myself, like, oh like?
Speaker 1:every every 30 minutes. Um, you know, they kind of scare you, scare you with the, the ndas. You know the non-disclosure, no pictures on set, kind of thing. And you know I remember sitting there on, we were at the Alexandria, one of the porches. I'm sitting there and there's Andrew Lincoln, norman Reedus talking to Greg Nicotero about the day, and I just kind of snuck in a shot and I just remember, like I didn't show it, I didn't post it or anything like that, but like years later I saw that and I was like man, I remember that, like just sitting there just thinking how, how wild this was, because you know, I was, you know I remember being overseas and seeing like posters for walking dead walking down the street and I was like man, that's pretty cool, like I, I was a part of that.
Speaker 2:So yep, and of course, nicotero, a director, makeup special effects guy. I'm a huge george romero fan. Uh, he was a big part of day of the dead, did the makeup for that and he's done a ton of movies. Um, I met him at that where, where I met you at the providence uh the rhode island con. Yeah, uh, he's. He's great and he's got a lot of stories.
Speaker 1:He was probably fun to work with and he directed some of your scenes right or, yeah, some of your episodes, let's say a good half of the episodes I did. Greg was the the director, um michael satrazimus was also there. He was great. But yeah, yeah, those days were really fun. I remember kind of just seeing some of the chaos go down. I remember it was season eight, episode one. We're in a field and there was dozens of actors, extras, cars being moved around, sun going down, there's a little bit of chaos, but I remember watching him work and it was just, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Like I just try to stay out of his way, but they were like literally moving cars and filming at the same time.
Speaker 2:So and for me, like just you know, and one of the things I'll give you some inside baseball, jeremy when I launched this podcast obviously a real estate agent now, but my past is sports, so this is a sports-themed podcast, but I've always been enamored with zombies and pop culture and things of that nature, and I think one of the reasons why, for me, the walking dead was so good is because it was like it wasn't in front of a green screen. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like it was real, it was raw right, I mean, and you saw that, yeah, yeah. So that, like as an actor, when I got two sets like that, that satellite station where I'm holding the head, that is like out in the middle of nowhere, that's a real satellite station we really shot there. There was no cell service for miles, it was, it was out in the middle of nowhere and I loved it because it was just like you literally walked onto set and you were in the apocalypse. So it's, it was dirty, it was sweaty and it was so much fun um, we got to.
Speaker 2:Uh, I want to show you the the head again, because it is just there we go. It is just an iconic scene. Now tell me about this head. You're holding this head. This was nicotero's head.
Speaker 1:This was yeah, in the previous scene we had three lined up on the ground and I remember, uh, one of them was johnny depp's head from pirates of the caribbean and the only reason I knew that and I found that out later was because it was on some kind of cool, you know, tmz type thing. But I do recall this head which I had to hold for about maybe two, two and a half hours, you know, just kind of doing the set. That thing weighed probably 15 pounds and my shoulder, which I've had multiple surgeries on, was hurting that day. But it was, it was so worth it. I didn't, you know, I didn't complain, it was so much fun. But what I loved about this head is a lot of people ask about it. But it was so detailed that, like, if you were like they don't just build it just to hold it, they build it in case they need to smash it.
Speaker 2:So if you were to break that thing open, it would probably look as if, you know, it might have been a real head, who knows, but it was, uh, it was very, very cool to you know, you know, and it's funny because when I tell some people, um, I'm having jeremy palco on and I was like he was in the walking dead, and I go, he's the guy that held the head outside of negan's compound and they're like, oh my god, that scene, dude, such an iconic scene.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that, yeah there are certain cons where people like I can see they're. They're coming up to me because they can't quite tell, they just see yep walking dead guy and you know I'm never offended by. There's a billion characters in this show and um, they come up and they see that shot, or the one with, uh, daryl breaking my arm, and sometimes the the true fans know they're like oh yeah, I remember that scene.
Speaker 2:Jeremy, we're going to get into your art in a minute here. But being on that show and you were, you know, memorable scenes and, as you said, in what sort of the main cast did that open some doors for you being on that show and, and you know, because acting is so competitive, it's so difficult, it's so tough to get gigs I think, yeah, I think anyone on that show kind of ultimately affects them in some sort of positive way.
Speaker 1:I mean a it's on your resume which is always, you know, just great as an actor. But you know the amount of people that I have met or reached out to or across you know, social medias with, yeah, it's this umbrella of just, you know, being part of this family of, uh, you know, not only cast and crew and you know, but the fan base is just it's, it's awesome, it is really awesome. And I know you asked me about the cons and that kind of led to. You know I do travel every once in a while to do walking dead events, but, um, now that I am an artist kind of thing, um, I've been able to cross those kind of paths right now, so it allows me to audition and be an actor as well, as you know, kind of start traveling the con circuit again.
Speaker 2:Kind of start traveling the con circuit again, and here we are hanging out at a con Yep In Providence. A couple of years ago you mentioned how cool are these to go to. Oh man, going to these cons, they're so unreal Kind of.
Speaker 1:The very first con I ever did was in fact the Rhode Island Comic Con and I hadn't been on the Walking Dead yet. I'd been on Vampire Diaries and Bloodline and a friend of a friend kind of thought hey I could you know I'm an agent.
Speaker 1:I would love to see if you know you want to come up to the show and you know it was a very quiet weekend, but I was sitting next to the entire Sons of Anarchy cast, which I was obsessed with still I'm to this day one of the greatest shows. Um, so that opened a you know a door to a world where, for instance, I remember meeting ryan hurst for the first time and I was so starstruck the first time I met him, and fast forward eight years later like I've. I've seen ryan a handful of times, and then he got on the Walking Dead and then we got to Paz and other kind of events.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, it's this weird little world of like I mean I was on a bus with Lou Ferrigno talking about you know lifting weights one day and you know flying home next to Joey Fatone and yeah, it's, it's just fun little world of you know. The idea of celebrity is such a big thing and you know, every time I'm at these things I do get like I met Kiefer Sutherland once. I get a little starstruck, but it's becoming less and less, I found. But it's still such a trip to go to these things.
Speaker 2:All right, so now you also do. Your newest sort of passion project is Art by Palco. You're quite the artist. This is one of your. This is and I messaged you this this is one of your pieces. You did and and I bought it at the Rhode Island con last October and it's prominently no joke, jeremy prominently displayed in the lobby of my office. Yeah, and I get everyone asks me what is that? Where did you get that? So tell me about how you got into painting and I'm going to show you some of the I'm going to show you some of your works, like I really do.
Speaker 1:It's, it's the weirdest thing Like this is what I do pinch myself about. It's like, literally, I recently turned 40 and I had never thought about painting a day in my life, never thought about it, never picked up a paintbrush, never had any inclination to paint. And then COVID hit and everybody was kind of just sitting around twiddling their thumbs and I remember painting just out of sheer boredom one day and I I enjoyed it and I put it on my social media and I swear, if it weren't for the walking dead, like nobody would have noticed, and kind of one at a time people started reaching out to me saying, hi, can I, can I purchase that? I was kind of like, sure, you know, and I introduced, I was introduced to like Venmo and PayPal, and I just kind of started, you know, painting one thing at a time out of you know, just kind of expressing myself and, um, humbly, fast forward, you know four years now.
Speaker 1:Now I've probably painted over 10,000 pieces, ranging in sizes from four by four to much larger ones behind me, but uh, I've. I found myself being very proud that every single piece. I do is one of one.
Speaker 1:You know, there's no prints, there's no duplicates, everything you know it's awesome it's just a hobby that is kind of, you know, taken over my world, obviously. But you know, like I have health insurance now because of painting and, you know, through acting it has definitely taught me more than you know I realized. But yeah, it's become my obsession. I do it like 90 percent of my time. Time I'm either painting or with my dog, so, um, between auditions, which has been wonderful, so jeremy, had you painted before?
Speaker 2:like you know I, you have to have an art. I'm looking at like your r2d2 thing, right, you see on the screen there's. You have to have some artistic talent.
Speaker 1:You said I'm doing this during covid I updated my art too, like you got an older, wow. But I see, uh, I got bored one day and I added a million little things.
Speaker 2:But no, I've never, never painted.
Speaker 1:and um, we were talking before the show and like I have like 17 art shows coming up, um, so I paint and I literally go to shows and people kind of you know kind enough to pick up some pieces and yeah, like it still blows my mind how much I love doing it and how I've never done it before. So, yeah, hobby turned into just a complete obsession.
Speaker 2:And we're going to, I'm going to put on the screen here, your, your website. Give us the website and tell us a little bit about it and how people can purchase items there.
Speaker 1:I do have a webpage, artbypalcocom, and that is just the easy place to go and that has kind of a little bit about me, a little bit about my background, but has a link to my art, to uh. It connects to a square site and I try to update that as as often as possible because I pretty much paint every day and so, like every week, I do my best to have new stuff on there. Um and again, I pride myself in everything being one of one, so I always tell people, you know, if they see anything they like, you know, please know, it's the only one out there. Obviously, my social media, my Instagram, I keep everything up to date, I think if you click on the art link, it'll scroll down.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'm just showing everybody. You see the screen there.
Speaker 1:My good friend Jose made this. I wish I had his website offhand, but man, I believe it's on there.
Speaker 2:So we click on art and I believe that's the link. Yeah, probably go into your stuff. Yeah, I mean so art by Palco, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, click on those. Yeah, Click on any of those.
Speaker 2:Explore my store here we go. Of those explore my store here we go explore my store. I've never actually seen that or read that, but that sounds funny um, so yeah, this is just all of your stuff here, which is awesome. Uh, there's your r2, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, I gotta update the website, unfortunately, but but yeah, so this is.
Speaker 2:This is really cool and anybody can go there and you can. You could check out the, you could check out your, your art, and can somebody request you know, has anyone requested like Walking Dead artwork?
Speaker 1:I'm working on a piece right now that I think I'm going to bring. I'm doing an event at the end of the month, which is in Senoi, where we shot the Walking Dead. I haven't told anyone yet what I'm going to do, but I've had a few requests and commissions and I've come to believe that I'm not really an artist. I say that hesitantly because, like I said, this is a new obsession, but I do love it and people have been very responsive to it, which has been a very humbling and awesome experience. Um, but I did have people say hey, can you like paint my grandfather holding my cat? And I'm like no, I cannot do that, so I've had to be very kind of specific. Oh, I forgot, this is a piece I'm working on right now. Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Kind of an R2 kind of a droid thing. But I kind of tell people I'm like you know, I appreciate the interest, but you know, look at my work and we'll go from there. But I've started to get into commission work but I unfortunately will turn stuff down if it's just not something I think I can make. So I would hate to disappoint somebody truly so art by palcocom.
Speaker 2:You got the website. We're putting it on the bottom of your screen there. Um, all right, we gotta because we're gonna touch a little on sports, because this is sound off with sync off we gotta have a little bit of sports here, or my peeps will get mad at me.
Speaker 1:I was, I was ready.
Speaker 2:Um, are you? Oh no, Are you breaking out some ridiculousness?
Speaker 1:I'll give you the short story. So I was. I was born in LaGrange, georgia, all right. And I? Up until I was about five years old, I moved to Seattle Washington. So I grew up, I was Justice, I was Ron Gant, I was Terry Pendleton, Fred McGriff Glavin and Smoltz Glavin. I have one baseball glove. My entire life I played for 25 years. I still play softball. I have one glove I got when I was 12 years old, tom Glavin, you still have it and still use it.
Speaker 2:It's still in my car.
Speaker 1:It's just always in my car for some reason. So I grew up a diehard Braves fan. I remember my dad getting me my first baseball hat a professionally fit which was Atlanta Braves. So I grew up, from the start, a Braves fan and then I moved to Seattle. When I was five my dad worked for the Wall Street Journal, so we grew up in the Seattle area and then Griffey happened. Oh boy.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Got my old school Griffey, my Mariners, but that's when, as a kid, I started playing baseball like I played like for AAU national teams.
Speaker 1:I was very I wouldn't say great, but I got to be a part of great teams and so you know I traveled a lot for baseball. But growing up in Seattle, you know we were Mariner fans. You know I got to. You know I met Alex Rodriguez and he signed a baseball for me, and Jay Buhner and Ichiro and I met Edgar Martinez. So this is the only sport I am dual fans, because now I live in Atlanta, I literally live two miles from the stadium and I just love baseball. So I'm a diehard Seahawks fan. Falcons are growing on me, but when it comes to baseball, like I love my braves and then I will always be there for my mariners all right.
Speaker 2:So the mariners are playing the braves in the world series, probably wishful thinking, although maybe not I have who are you rooting for?
Speaker 1:that is tough. That is really, really tough and I've hated that question because seattle needs it and I would be so happy. But, like I said, I live next to the stadium for the Braves and so I remember I moved here in 2019, so I was here for the World Series run and that was just so much fun and energetic and the town feeds off of it. But we are a little spoiled man, Like the Braves, like we're always good, Always good.
Speaker 1:But that means nothing in the playoffs now. It really means nothing. You can lose to the Phillies the first round, you know, but yeah, I think I would choose Seattle In the seventh game, bottom of the ninth, like it. Better be historic If it's like a sweep. Boring, you know, but that's not fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I'm an O's fan and we've suffered for a very long time.
Speaker 1:That's so good though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're well. I tell people and I put on Facebook. When the Orioles hired Elias in 2018 from the Astros, him and Sig Meidel are the two sort of brain trust that put that Astros team together. That made their runs and Elias has proved to be unbelievable. I mean, jeremy, you look at our draft picks from when he started to now, he has not missed on any number one.
Speaker 2:You know, first round draft picks which you know in baseball, that you look at the number one, the number one overall picks the last 10 years, like two of them are in the majors, right. I mean it's unbelievable. And what he has done with Gunner and Adley, it's just crazy.
Speaker 1:Baseball drafts always baffled me with the AAA system, so I kind of just as soon as spring ball comes around, I pay any attention really yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fun being an o's fan. It's been a long time coming.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited yeah, you guys, and you're, you guys are, you guys are. Atlanta is really tough. Uh, there's no question. You know, I think it would be awesome, dude. I telling you right now, let's throw this out there If the O's play the Braves in the series, you're getting us tickets and I'm coming down and we're going together. All right, I'm not staying with you, dude, but we're going to go to the game together. Because I said to my wife I said, francine, since I've been an adult, twice in my life has my team been in a championship. In 2002, maryland was in the national championship. I was 31, but I was doing television at the time in Norfolk, virginia. And then, in 2018, my Capitals won the Stanley Cup. But you know, I want to go. It's expensive, but I want to go to one of these games. Well, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:I remember when the World Series was here, we were looking at tickets to go and of course they were first sold out, but then they had the standing room only, and for the World Series, standing room only was $1,200. And not only parking went from $45 to $250. Now I live like I said. I walk to the stadium and back every once in a while because it's a good hike but it's, you know, nothing too bad. But I mean it'd be fun just to go to Truist Park and walk around because everything is so, you know, the atmosphere is just cool.
Speaker 2:All right, before we let you go. You're obviously still pursuing the acting thing. Uh, hopefully we see you in something soon, right?
Speaker 1:we hope, I sure hope so. Like I said, I had some, uh, some good stuff uh in the works, but you know, as an actor you just you can only do so much until someone else has to make that decision. So I'm very hopeful you wait for the phone to ring right pretty much that's why the uh, the artwork is so much, uh, so much fun to do in the meantime well, jeremy played andy in the walking dead.
Speaker 2:Check him out. You can watch the walking dead on on netflix, um, and you can, uh, check out j's art. Art by Palko Jeremy. I want to thank you so much for coming on, man. I know we met a couple of years ago and we've been in touch on Facebook, but I really truly appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:My pleasure, Brian. I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 2:All right, that is Jeremy Palko of the Walking Dead, and an artist as well, so I want to thank everyone for watching and listening to sound off with sync off, until next time. This is Brian sync off, saying have a great day and we'll catch you next time.
