 Okay, community does matter. I'm Jay Fiedel and with me, I gotta get the names right. Cudmaster, Spaz, Derek, Fulletown. Correct. You gotta read it absolutely correct. And we have something in common because, you know, for 15 years, yeah? Yes. You did OC-16 shows. Correct. Yes. That's really something. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about what you're doing now. Okay. I want to talk about what makes you tick, Derek. Oh, we're going deep, aren't we? Deep, yeah. 28 minutes deep. Yeah, sounds good. Okay, so first, tell us about how you got involved in OC-16. What was that like for 15 years? Well, I heard through GraveMind the industry that OC-16 was going to go on 24 hours. Child 16 was Filipino programming in the day and then at night, they had a few that actually, the broados and friends, Overdrive Live, Tidy TV and AUTAKIND. And it was the same episodes that ran all week, all month. But they were going to go 24 hours and they're looking for positive role models in the community. And I've always been positive from when I was in high school. I did community projects, spoke to kids about different... What high school? I went to Castle. Castle Night, yeah. Just want to get the definition. Yeah, yeah. You know, in Hawaii, it's what's your last name? Where are you from? What school are you graduating from? So I'm from Kaneohe, Born and Raised, K-Town. Went to Kapuna Hala, King Castle. And had a lot of adversaries because I was in special ed. So I got bullied a lot, picked on a lot and not necessarily just for my students, but a lot of people, even teachers and adults, didn't really believe that I was going to make it because I was so rank bunches, Kalohe, you know, Rasko and a slow learner. So... You could fool me about all of that. Well, so I spoke at a lot of schools and OC-16, or Time Warner at the time, got one of this and actually tied it to Donnie, put in a good word, said, hey, you know, Spaz is a great guy. He's the king of OC-16, for sure. Oh, yeah, he is. He actually is. Life long, yeah. He was one of the... Him and Mitzi was a kind of brainchild. They're like the dad and mom of OC-16. So they met with me and told me, hey, why don't you have a show on OC-16? And I was like, okay. Now, I was thinking, my thought was that this was going to be where I come in and I just, hey, pin me up, you know, make me look good and, hey, hey, welcome to the Spaz show. But it wasn't like that. They did give me a budget, but they said, hey, this is your budget for the whole year. And when I did research with different production companies, that budget gave me one episode of the quality I wanted. One episode, I was like, okay, so as the saying goes, you know, you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach him how to fish, he eats for a lifetime, so really fast. I'm a DJ, that's what I do. That's how I got the name Cut Master Spaz on the master of the cut. I'm hyper, so I'm Cut Master Spaz, but really fast, I had to learn about production. So I got into production, learned it, and at that time, they went 24 hours for real and they wanted programming. We're not talking about one episode a month. They're not talking about episode every other week. They're talking about an episode every night. Wow, wow. 28 minutes every night. How much work that is, oh my gosh. People don't realize how much work goes into that, so we would, when I first came up with this and that and the reason everybody asked, why this and that? I'm involved in music, entertainment industry, but I didn't want to call it entertainment Hawaii, I didn't want to call it Spaz's Ventures. I wanted to be about food, lifestyle, the Aloha spirit, giving back, positive activities, people who visit the islands, the hidden places, the hidden gems in Hawaii, places to eat. So it was a, everything, it was like a mixed plate, but there we had a show called Mixed Plate. So I decided to call it This and That because when they asked, oh, what is your show about? This and That. That's perfect, right? So it's everything ending under the sun, but what we did to bring audiences in at the beginning, a lot of people, we stopped this in the last seven years of the show, but we used to do bits, comedy bits, and that's what would take a long time because you have to do different camera angles. Mind you, we're working on one camera. We didn't have multiple cameras. So we would do the same line four times, you know what I mean? And try to mimic exactly how it was and move the camera around. And then edit it into funny. Yes. That's not so easy. Exactly, because you gotta get the timing right. And we would work, I mean, I live, eat, and breathe This and That for a year in 2003 because we wanted to give a show, a quality show every night. So it was a lot of bits, to be honest, most of it was all bits, just crazy bits. After three months, you kind of run material. And we were just getting desperate at one point in the time. So we turned the show to be more community driven. Kind of like your show, just talking to the community. What's going on? Who is the unsung heroes? Who is these coaches that are mentoring these young gentlemen or young ladies and doing that as a volunteer thing? Who is this mom who is honing all these children and being that role model for them? Great stuff. So that's what we, you know, and it fit a line of what I was trying to do. That was weekly. Well, yes, it eventually went weekly. It was daily, then it went weekly because it was just too much on us. And then we were able to do a schedule of six weeks on, six weeks off. So we would play six weeks brand new episodes, and then it would repeat the six episodes what we produced. And it gave us time to produce episodes. And, you know, we could repeat. We didn't know what repeat was in the beginning, the first couple of years of this. Well, there's no repeat, just go nonstop. That was nice of them to set it up. Oh, yes. You know, OC16 Ohana has always been special to me. That's why I think I stayed so long. You know, I stayed so long because of the family, of the people behind the scenes, the camaraderie between the producers, you know, like you just call me out like, hey, you want to be on my show? Sure, you know, that's how it is. That's the Ohana about OC16. So there wasn't no drama. There wasn't no jealousy. It was all, you know, Ohana. Is it on my way today? Yeah, it is. It is then. It was heartbreaking. I actually probably, with the way the industry was going, I should have stopped this in that five years ago. But I loved doing it because I love my this and that media family that helped me put together and the OC16 family. So I wanted to continue. But towards the end of this and that, you know, in the beginning, we had sponsors. The first five years was the rough as any business is. But the, it was rough for us the first five years, but it started picking momentum. We got sponsors at one point in time. We would be making $10,000 a month in sponsorships. Yeah, yes, crazy. I mean, we got Zippies, you know, we got HMSA, we got all kind of different sponsors. How'd you get them? Did they come to you? Did you go to them? They did because a lot of them would just be channel surfing and saw this show and thought it was hilarious. I was fun, the bits are funny. And felt it spoke to the audience that they couldn't reach. And the beautiful thing about OC16, as you know, like this show, you can talk. It's not like a 30 second commercial to get your message across. You can give some a client 28 minutes. You can give them three minutes. You can give them, you know, one minute, 30 seconds. That's the beautiful thing about owning a show versus being in a, you know, slot. Or you just have a commercial spot. So, yeah, so they would run across and they would talk story with me and I would talk story and they would hear my backstory. And... But things changed. Yes. The internet became king with IG, social media, YouTube. And I realized that the generation, millennials, is not watching TV anymore. They're watching YouTube. They're watching IG videos, Facebook videos, things that come across on other people's feet. When? Five years ago? Five years ago. Okay. Five years ago, I started, you know, picking up, reality show was dying down already. The reality show, you know, binge was dying down. But the way people watch, no matter what show it was, was moving more to internet. And so this changed the, what? The economics of it? Economics, correct. Absolutely, because the sponsors that were paying to have me produce these shows, or have been giving me the opportunity, we're like, we're not getting a return on investment. Like, before we used to get people inquiring, after a show at Airwood, our phones would ring, even after hours, we'd get messages. Hey, can you call us back? You know, they could see the return on investment, but then slowly by slowly they say, yeah, people's not seeing us. They're not saying they're seeing us, you know? Or they, if they did, it was like five years ago. Cause I build relationships with my sponsors. I don't, it's not just like to take their money and run their ads. I get to know what their business is about. I get to find out what they're about and what would connect their product with the audience or with the community, with customers. So they would sit me down and say, I'm gonna be honest, like, it's not happening. Like, your show is not bringing in what it used to. Things change in the media. It does. Your show has a beginning and an end. It's never forever. Correct, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, everything is, from what I understand. I wouldn't argue that, yeah. But, you know, so I had to make a decision. And I stuck in there, like I said, five years ago, I should have ended this and that. But I stuck with it because I love the camaraderie of our dissonant media, our production family, the OC16 family. So I stuck in there, but then it came to a point, the ending of 2017, where I was paying for the show. Like, because aside from being a producer, director, on camera talent, I was a DJ. That's basically what I do. I DJed, I've been doing it for years. A lot of people remember it from the 90s, open it for hip hop acts and doing these big concerts. Right before the show. Right before the show. People that, and a lot of people still, oh, I thought, I didn't know you're MC'd. I didn't know you did as producer shows. I didn't know you do consulting. I was like, did you just, thought I was stuck in the 90s? So that, you know, they don't realize that I do weddings and baby parties and corporate functions. They're like, oh, when did you start doing weddings about 20 years ago? Oh, I just taught you DJ concerts. I go, that was in the 90s. Like, I grew up. I'm no longer just cut master's pads. I'm Derek now. But. So, tell us about what happened. So you ended at the end of what, 2018? Yeah, 2018. So 2017, I saw that I was, I was paying it out of my DJ gigs. My DJ events were paying. So it was a net loss. It was a loss. It was a loss all the way around. I mean, it was a $5,000 a month loss. So I sat down with my Ohana, my disnet media crew and I said, hey guys, you gotta look for other jobs that can sustain what you're doing. How many people? Eight. Oh, wow. Yeah, so it went from eight to one, two, maybe three. It was real part time they would come. So they all got other jobs, which broke my heart because it went from us hanging around almost every day, at least like, you know, at least a couple of times a month to not. Yeah, 2018 came and they all had other jobs. I only like one or two and I changed the schedule. I did, you know, just to get through 2018, I did a lot of repeats. You know what I mean? I would do a flashback to what hit back in 2010 or this place we visited before and now they're blowing up and, you know, they're big and huge and stuff like that. Just a lot of not shooting new footage, just utilizing rehashing what we had and explaining, kind of leading to, I didn't tell anybody, leading to like, okay, this is where this and that has been. This is where it is. And guess what? He's out. It's over. It's over. It's done, Paul. Finished, done. How do you feel about that, sir? You know, it was rough, Jay. It was rough because you had to understand, this thing has like a child. Imagine raising a child for 15 years and say, okay, child, bye-bye. It was a lot of mixed emotions. It was rough. It was almost depressing for me because I had a certain, I really not good with change. And having seen my Ohana, there was OC16 Ohana, the scene, the this and that media Ohana, having a drive to make another episode and hitting deadlines and making something new and fresh and finding material and content which you all know about to nothing. To like, oh, guess what? You're retired, but you're not. No pressure, no nothing. No nothing, but with that said, I still gotta make money. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still have my DJ gigs and I still do some consulting for businesses and marketing, but it was just weird. And I was like, okay, I'm a person that lives by drive and passion. What is that? Because what I'm doing is to sustain my life, to basically pay bills and take care. But I'm driving my life. I can't stay stagnant. Stagnant is stinking. I like to move forward and keep it going forward, moving. You move. So there's a transition there after December where you had to get your act reorganized somehow and rely on these other things. So that must have been pretty hard on you for at least a while. And I want to give you one minute to recover, Derek. Thank you. We're gonna have a break for one minute. That's Cutmaster Spaz, Derek. Yeah. Bulatau, Bulatau. Bulatau. And we're gonna come back and talk more about the evolution of disin-dat after disin-dat, life after disin-dat in disin-dat. Sounds good. We'll be right back. Aloha, I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, a host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii non-profit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Aloha, I'm Gwen Harris. I'm the host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii non-profit that depends on the generosity of the supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Okay, the remaking of disin-dat, yeah? Yes. You brought all your talents to the forum. You connected everything back, and you expanded all the various things you've been doing. So give us a list. This is gonna take a while. Give us a list of all the things you've been doing. Okay, so people got to see me. That's the thing of that was so hard to leave disin-dat was over the 15 years, people got to see me fluffy, skinny, energetic, you know, just, it was a, it was, I mean, I was building a family at the same time. So I did a lot of things. One of them was I always had a problem with obesity. So I tried every diet under the sun, every program you could try and it, I didn't have a problem losing the weight. It was keeping it off. I would lose 50, gain back 80, lose 80, gain back 100, lose 100, gain back 130, lose 130, gain back 100. Yeah, and to the point where my doctor said, you know what, like, you need help. And so I got a gastric bypass and I know it flipped a lot of people out cause you've seen this happy, go lucky, fluffy guy. And then with it, you know, this is where we're taking couple of weeks, months off, you know, to, you know, and every time you watch the episode, you see me getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And it's to the point where I started getting emails where people were going, hey. Everything okay? Everything okay? Like, because I'm bald, they thought I look kemia. I was like, no, I'm all right. Or dad, I was doing drugs. Like, you know, I'm Batu, like they're like, oh man, you look chronic, like, because I'm skinny? So, you know, I was fortunate to, and so what I needed to do, cause I didn't tell anybody, it was a journey for myself and I needed a way and I was very blessed at that time as Castle Medical Center. Now they're called Aventus Health, but they gave me opportunity to do that by saying, you know what, hey, tell you a story. So they did a whole campaign for a year with me and they even did a commercial that ran on all the stations. So let's look at some movies you made about this. This is great stuff. Yeah, so this is my castle surgical weight loss showing how big I was. And of course that's me at 347 pounds. Having a gastric bypass. And then, you know, before then I couldn't even tie my shoes. I couldn't run and boom, look at me. 100 pounds later, I can run as my kids. I can run before, you know, I could barely keep up with them. Now they gotta keep up with me. So that was the castle, you know, and that ran for a year and that was a really great experience that Castle was able to give me that experience. But it was many things. Sponsors, when I did sponsors, it wasn't just, hey, give me your money, let me just advertise you. I did a lot of things where they became family and that's the thing I love about OC16 is they allowed us to do segments. So it wasn't just a 30 second like that one right there but we actually had segments, you know, we could get involved with and learn about them and teach our community about a certain person or a business and their food, their service and stuff like that. What about community? You are a statement of community. That's what I always want to give back to my community and that's what this and that was. It should have been community talks or something like that but I just wanted to entertain people but always have a positive message. So at the end of every show I would say, this is fast, keep it positive. I'm out here like last year and that's the last thing I always said at every show, every end of every episode. That's great. You got to make it personal. That means more somehow. Absolutely. Anything you do, you have to in this day and age even on social media, when I would put a picture of something like, like let's say I put a plate of food that I ate at, I just put the picture of the food. It'll get probably like 19 likes but if I'm in a picture, I'm eating, showing me like, whoa, look at this. It gets like a hundred likes because this person is me saying, I love this plate of lunch, this is good. I love this salad, I'm trying to be healthy. You know what I'm saying, you don't, so a lot of people don't take pictures of the exercise equipment. They show them exercising because that is personally showing their journey. Yeah, and it's a reinforcement of you too. Correct. You know, it's a feedback to you so it encourages you to keep on doing that stuff. Correct, correct, correct. So let's look at some more of our photos. We got a lot of photos and little clips here. Yeah, and so. You can tell us what they all mean. Okay, so like I was saying, so this is what we would do. This is a segment we'd give each client. This is Creative Sound, and they're still around in Kaneo'i, and we would go in and I would talk to the audience about, because I'm a DJ, so this was like my candy store. I knew all of this stuff, and I was so excited, and I would say, hey, you know, this is this new driver to drive your turntables or your lights or, you know, I use this for gigs, cases, and I made it personal, I said, I personal where I said how these items would work in my life and how it has helped my life. And the first month it aired, their business went up in 10% in sales. Yeah, people would come in and people started coming in and doing rounds. Some people wouldn't buy, or some people would just call, but they know people were seeing it because they would get a response. People saying, hey, I just saw this spaz on TV and he was talking about these headphones. Tell me about them. And they said it worked really well, and they would get even outer-island calls, because you know, OC16 statewide, so. Well, you had a big following at that point, yeah. So that's what I tried to do, align what I did with my customers. Yeah, I just, I wasn't gonna get, you know, something that didn't fit me. I was gonna get something that aligned, so whether it was food or it was DJ gear or whatever it may be, that's basically what I did is aligned it and made it about myself. So it wasn't a sell, it wasn't, hey, this is what I use, it might help your life. Whereas I see a lot of, you know, because you gotta pay bills, they're like, hey, you know that person doesn't do yoga every morning at six a.m.? You know that person doesn't only drink water or whatever it is, you know, and whatever they're trying to sell and stuff. So I tried to always be real and not take, a lot of times, don't get me wrong, Jay, I actually turned around, I turned away money because people would say, hey, we want you to do this and do this and it didn't align with my lifestyle. That's great, to do what you want to do. Yes, and I said, you know, we're sold out this time but thank you, well, if we come around. And I'm not trying to be like, oh, believe me, I really wanted the money. You're offering me $10,000, but it didn't align with what I was trying to do. It was sending a mixed message, it wasn't right. And so I just didn't want to. But you were still making enough money to. Yeah, yeah, making enough money and don't get me wrong. I mean, you hear $10,000 a month, you know, what we're making, but we also have rent, we have rent, we gotta pay, we gotta keep up on the latest gear, the storage units, I had eight people on staff and that was their only job. They weren't working at some place and then coming, they were dissing what they did. They did this and that. One thing I noticed was very interesting about your life, that's what we're studying here, is the wedding business and the event business. Yes. You know, it strikes me that you would be, you are a great host, an event planner and somebody who would speak at an event and set the tone for the event. Tell me about your life in that area. Thank you very much for that, for noticing that. It's funny you say that because I get people on the street or when they seem at a wedding or an event and they go, I didn't know you did this. I'm like, but exactly because I always try to, when I do weddings or any birthday parties or graduations, I get to know the family. So a lot of times at the end of the event, they would be like, how do you know this family? Are you related? I just met them, they called me on the phone, they emailed me and this is, but I always put myself, how would I like this graduation? How would I want my wedding to be? How would I want this, my child's first birthday party to be? So I give ideas to the mom and dad, I give concepts to the bride and groom and I make it like something about them. And a lot of times entertainers and not take away from them, they make it about them, that's their stage. Hey, look at me, but I don't do that. I make it about whatever, who's the guest of honor, the bride and groom, the child, the person retiring, it's about them. It's not, I'm not a comedian, I'm not somebody up there trying to make jokes and nothing that you said, but I just want people to understand, my job is to make the day smooth and make the entertainment around the guest of honor. Make them comfortable. Make them comfortable, exactly, you know, because I actually tried comedy and I failed because it was out of my zone of who I am. So at these parties, I am myself. So I'm true to who I am when I'm on stage and I'm not rude, I don't crack jokes, I don't crack on people unless they ask for it. But I do, to answer your question, I always throw myself, how would I want it and how would it fit them? I make it about them. I mean, that's the first thing that I do is ask them. Give me three words of how you want your event, what you envision your event to be like, fun, relaxing, romantic, epic, and will it be built from there? You know, I can't help thinking of that TV commercial that's playing on Zippy's, but the bride and groom, they're dressed in their outfits, you see this, it's really wonderful. I mean, it tells you so many messages and she turns to him and she says, she say, are you thinking what I'm thinking? No, it's just everything in a Zippy's counter. I mean, local mocha or something. Right, right, Simon. And he says, yeah, we have to get back now. Right, but that is so, that is so, I mean, I've met with brides that wanted Taco Bell at their wedding and I said, why not? Or I have tacos. Don't make it your mom's wedding, your dad's wedding. Make it your wedding, so that's what we do. And it's funny you say Zippy's because, actually, Zippy's was my first job. My first real job, because my first job was delivering newspaper, but that was part-time, you know, your contractor. My first employee job was Zippy's. And so, they teach you a really good foundation on how to get started in life. Like, I was utility, so I washed dishes, cleaned bathroom and wiped tables and, you know what? And wiped after people leave and stuff. And you might think, oh, yeah, I'm janitor. Maintain, you know, just a maintenance person or nobody. But they made me understand that everything you do, everything you do has purpose. Everything you do is a team player or has a role. Because if you don't wipe the table, people are gonna buy food and go, oh, look, there's birds eating, leftover simon off the table. Let's go. And they're gonna tell friends, oh, don't go back to this pilau, it's dirty. They go to use the bathrooms. It's stink. They're not gonna go back. And it just, it's a effect. But if you take pride in what you do and the job that you do, it shows. And carries on in everything you do. Is that the way, because you have to leave a message for everybody. There's a camera one right in the middle there. You know, I think I know what you're gonna say, but I'd like to hear you say it. What is the message you will leave to people? Here you are, you're, I don't know what you're halfway through, two thirds through your working career. Yeah. How do you feel about that? What are you gonna do? What's your advice? I would have to say, find your passion. You know, find your passion and follow it. Follow your passion, find that passion. I think that's why I lasted so long doing this and that TV. Last so long in the DJ business, you know, 30 years plus I'm still DJing. Cause I love what I do. And they say, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. You know what I mean? It's a job, but you don't work, you love. Look at this. Today I'm hanging out with Jay. That's, you know, fun. That's fun to me, you know? But if you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. So find your passion. And it's never too late to find your passion. Follow your passion and believe in yourself. That's the main thing. People are not gonna believe in you if you don't believe in yourself. Great to know you, great to meet with you. Great to have the show with you. Thank you. Derek Spies Bulletow. Bulletow, yeah. Bulletow, this and that. This and that. 100 years already, another 100 years to go. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. Aloha.