 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii. My name is Seymour Kazimurski. I want to thank all of you who sent me notes and said, Seymour, where were you? Well, I was away. I was in Nova Scotia, and then I went up to Montreux Blanc, which is north of Montreal. Yours truly was in a waterski competition. Unfortunately, I didn't win. Actually, I didn't even qualify, but I don't care because at over 70, I can still do that kind of stuff. So let's go directly to our guest today. This is one of the most exciting men I have ever met in my life. I'm going to introduce you to George Dabario. George, welcome to Seymour's. How are you, buddy? You said that bar high. I don't know where I'm going from here, but... George, I have to tell you, I met you just a few weeks ago, and we talked about you coming on to the Make Him Smile program. And for my viewers, just in case you don't know, Make Him Smile is a foundation we have which brings musicians and entertainers into the hospitals here in Hawaii. We have 48 musicians and entertainers. We play at nine different hospitals, and we entertain about 9,000 kids a year. And we're always looking for new talent. And George, you came up to me and you said, oh, I play music. And I said, okay. And you also said you have a couple of friends that you feel could entertain the kids too. And I said, who are your friends? So why don't you tell me a little bit about you, and then we'll talk about your friends. Me talk about me. That's... Most of my friends say I do that well, but I'll see you later. Oh, that's enough. No, no, no. Go ahead. I'm in my mid-50s right now. I'm in a period in my life where the full give back is an effect spiritually for me, universally. My background as a creative individual comes from the music industry. I'm a third-generation composer, spent 30 years in post-production writing music, the for film, TV. Big thing for me was music libraries, which I still actually at my age still compose for, which is mind-numbing considering the state in which the music business is in, not the music industry, but the business. I sold my recording studio in Studio City in 2007, committed to moving back home. Here in Hawaii, my mother lives here. I met a lovely lady and married her and she had two beautiful daughters and now I got a whole litter of grandkids. During that period, the real super geek in me took off and I got into coding. We're talking 1999, 2000, 2001, Google Rhythm, Search Engine, Human Behavioral Physics on searching, all kinds of stuff. Because I did have a period of having to not worry necessarily about how am I going to pay to live inside my coconut. I spent a lot of time getting into behavioral patterns on social media, Google and stuff. And I ended up opening up a nice company out here, very small boutique style, built a few hundred websites, strategized a crazy amount of social media campaigns until the last few years where what's happening recently to social media has taken over, I knew it was going to happen. I had laid everything out so that when this time and period came in humanity with social media, I was done. And now it's its own beast and I don't really do too much in it, except now using all of my knowledge for what I'm doing now. But George, this philanthropy that you're into, the idea that you want to give back, you know that fifth, it's in with me very well. And you're a young guy to do that. Most of us who are into philanthropy, foundation work, we're in our at least 10 or 15 years here, senior, and yet you're able to do it and still keep your business going. I understand. And at the same time, I see a tremendous passion that you have. I saw it when we went into the hospital the first time. That's amazing. Just amazing. Well, I think a lot of that also comes from the fact that I've always, my wife has always accused me of not knowing my value and I just give away too much because I just, well, I know how to do it. Let me just do it. Well, you should make money. No, I don't, you know, that whole thing. But the giving nature of me actually comes from my mother, who's a phenomenal woman. And I've learned a lot from her. I learned a lot from my wife, you know, about being pono and everything here in Hawaii. But this whole giving thing, I've always, that's just me as an individual. I just give. I can't help it. Yeah. What do you need? You have a shirt on my back. Yeah. I don't care. I'll go get another one. You know, here's a dollar. Why are you giving the last dollar? I'll just go make another one. He can't or she can't. I'll just make another dollar. It's always been my attitude. So the thing that I'm doing now with the kids that you have actually brought to life by allowing me to come through, make a smile actually is a derivative of working at Kualoa Ranch for the last year and a half. I was a bucket list decision to go work at Kualoa Ranch as a tour guide there. Working with great people, Mr. John Morgan, his brother Dave Morgan, extended family and the supervisors and the gang that are so fun to work with. But at that point is when I realized that dinosaurs and people and the kids because of Kualoa Ranch, what an impact that was. And then having to take a lot of tours with a lot of young kids, I realized I was joking around with ventriloquism, which is something that I've kind of played with. I don't consider myself a pro, I'm far from it. I can get away with it. But at that point. Wait a second, George. I saw you with those kids in the hospital. I saw you with the nurses. I saw you with the doctors. I mean, they all just loved it. You have a career in this that you are just beginning. I mean, I assume I was the first hospital that you played with. No, absolutely. As a Shriners, I think you should be the first. Shriners, yeah. Dana Land, who I'm so grateful for and because of social media she introduced us together and I'm so grateful for that. And then you bringing me into Shriners and then that evolving into other things, I can't say that I know how I'm doing it. It's just coming out of me. If it's, you know, some people say it's a gift, it's this, I don't know, I don't buy into that stuff. I'm just, this is what I do. Well, let's see. There's something sticking out of your pants there. What is that? Can we? Oh yeah, there it is. What is that thing? Okay. All right. Hang on. Stand by. Here we go. So this guy's name is Why It? Yes. Why It? You know that? Well, I don't know how to spell that I'm going to get a shot. Go for it. All right. You remember we practice this, okay? Yeah. Okay. Well, don't you, uh, Why It? Oh God, you scared me. So Why It? How old are you? I'm just an ESL. No, I find ESL. Really? Yeah. And who is your daddy? Kind of weird question. Nobody ever asked me that before. I didn't have to say Abadjibs over here. Abadjibs. Abadjibs. So Abadjibs. Wait a second. I know this guy, Jeebs, Why It? Yeah, he's kind of cool. He's helping me. Is that his stage name for George Del Barrio? Yeah, actually it is. Yeah, that's the ticket. Yeah. Wow. So let me ask you, Why It? You played at Shriners Hospital and that was your first gig at the hospital. What was it like playing for the kids? It's so unreal. It's, I can't even put any real words to it because it's just the Nick and Soha, the and its Niles and Nick's and his Nile and I just want to give them a hug. It was amazing. Actually, we're going to show a little clip of you playing. Are you ready to see yourself on television, Why It? Is that what all these lights are all about? Yeah, okay, let's do it. We're going to get that clip up for you because your buddy Jeebs, who brought you to Shriners, he was there with you. Let's see if we can get that clip of you coming into Shriners Hospital. Look at little man, look at him, that is so cool. Can I come over and talk to you with my friend Terry? Can I come talk to you? Okay. Hi, how are you? What's your name? Is it Leeroy? Wow. Wow, you have such a great smile. What's your favorite color? What color? Oh, he likes green. I love green, I play in the grass. I do. Let me see, what else should we ask him? Why It? That wasn't you? Who was that? No, no, that's my friend Terry. That's your first? Terry is our office. Yeah. Were you happy to see Terry on TV? Oh yeah, so cool. Wasn't that cool? I think we may have a picture of you coming up later on, but I need to ask Jeebs a few questions. May I ask him some? Sure, you sit right here, because look at all these lights. Are you going to behave? Yeah. You better behave, because if you're not going to behave, you know what happens, right? Why it? No. You better be a good boy. Okay. This idea, how long did it take to make this character? There's a really unique story behind it, and it includes Mr. Terry Fader, the very famous ventriloquist that won America's Got Talent, has a great show at the Mirage. I started working with Terry, actually, on an ukulele project that involved one of his puppets called Kani Kana Kapila. And there was a change in some things, so I had to kind of put it on hold, and then I went to Kualoa Ranch. But when I came back and realized what I wanted to do, I decided, well, I'm not nowhere near as fantastic as Terry Fader or Jeff Dunham or any of those guys, but I thought maybe I could just brush up on it. And then I actually ordered these from a very famous puppeteer named Steve Axtel, who makes terries and other people's puppets. And I just went with it. I have to admit that there was a little bit of a weird feeling of like, oh, hold this money I'm spending on these puppets, jeez, this is not cheap. But then as quick as I said it, my mind is as quick as it evaporated because I knew what I wanted to do with it, and that was to go see the kids with it. And then once that came into play, it just iced over the cost of these professional puppets. You know, I have to say, I've seen a lot of entertainers come to our children over the last five years. I can't remember the last count we had, but it's something like 1800 performances over the last few years that we've been doing, making small. I've never, never seen as many nurses, doctors, and kids just totally break up laughing when they see your characters. It's amazing. Well, I have to admit too that Steve is really cool, isn't he? Yeah, Steve who, I mean, look, I mean, I walk in with this already and I already get the blown away reactions and the very, so that's 50, 60% of my job is already done because of the design of Steve Axtel. Now the rest of it is up to me to participate and with each child as an individual kind of an improv on the spot, depending on how they feel or whatever the case is. How does it feel now, George? Now here you are, you've done your first hospital gig. I have you written down now. I think you're going to be doing six or seven in the next couple of months. How does it feel? I can't explain it. My endorphins kick beyond a place that I even recognize in my own universe. I saw that when you were walking down the hall. Yeah, and the thing is is that you're losing your breath. Yeah, I know I'm losing my breath because sometimes it gets a little emotional. But it's just, it's an amazing blessing to me that I do this. I can do this. I have faith and confidence in myself to walk and say, OK, I can do this. I can do this. These kids are so cool and they've got so many things ahead of them that I want to bring them just a few minutes, just a few minutes. And for me, one of the biggest memories I have are just a few minutes of people saying just the right things that got me across harder times later. Well, you know, you're doing something, George, that's absolutely unique. And I've never seen it done before in all of my research. And I can say that from the Make Him Smile Foundation, you're a tremendous addition to us. Now, Wyatt, I have to tell you, we're going to take a little short break if it's OK with you. And then we're going to bring your friend Terry in. OK. Do you mind if he takes your place? Not at all. I've got to make a tinkle. Are you sure it's OK? I'm only five years old. I've got to go back, too. Well, Wyatt, I have to tell you, you are one of the nicest dinosaurs I have ever met. Oh, thank you. Can I give you a quick hug? Yes, you may. Oh, Wyatt. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Wyatt, we are going to be back in a minute. All right. OK. I'm going to tell the audience that they can see you at any of the hospitals. Just look at the Make Him Smile Foundation website. And they can tell where you will be the next time. And if they want to come and see you, they're welcome to come at any time. That's OK. I'm Seymour Kazimerski on Seymour's World at Think Tech Hawaii. We'll be back in a minute. Hey, baby. That's you. I want to know. Will you watch my show? I hope you do. It's on Tuesdays at 1 o'clock. And it's out of the comfort zone. And I'll be your host, R. E. Kelly. See you there. Aloha. I'm Jay Fidel, one of the hosts of Asia in Review, which is broadcast Monday afternoons on thinktechawai.com. We cover, we study, news and politics in and affecting Asia. We work hard to bring you the most interesting subjects and guests who will raise your awareness. Please join us Mondays every week on Asia in Review on thinktechawai.com and also on YouTube and iTunes. Thanks for watching. We'll see you then. Aloha, Shae Shae, and Sajian. When I was growing up, I was among the one in six American kids who struggle with hunger. And hungry mornings make tired days. Grumpy days. That kind of days. But with the power of breakfast, the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more. When we're not hungry for breakfast, we're hungry for more. More ideas. More dreams. More fun. When kids aren't hungry for breakfast, they can be hungry for more. Go to hungarees.org and lend your time or your voice to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood. Hi, welcome back to Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimerski. And you met in the first half of the show, one of our favorite dinosaurs, his name was Wyatt. And I have to tell you, just before we get to talk to George again, I'm doing a commentary right after the show, which is called The Road to Happiness. And I look at you, George, and I have to say, you're a happy guy. You are truly a very happy person. And I wonder how you exude that positive attitude that you have. It is work. But where I dig deep into it is a space that I've created for myself. It's a safe space. I've always been looked at as the guy who never really got into the sandbox, but I'd watched the ant farm. And I just felt very comfortable. I created a very comfortable place for myself to exist. I always look at a sense of humor with everything has to have a sense of humor. That's just who I am. Sometimes it's not that funny. Sometimes it's funny. But I can't do anything else. I can't allow myself to get sucked into the vortex of negativity because the visceral reaction then changes who I am as a human being. It changes everybody as a human being. If right now I'm a dividing rod for this in this moment of my life with Terry Parasoral Office, with Wyatt, with the hospitals and the kids, I'm going full on. And I'm going to take no hostages. Terry, good morning. How are you? Hey, dude, what's up? You've been waiting to come on the show. Yeah, I know. You had my friend Wyatt over there. Yeah, Wyatt came on first. And I have to tell you that your buddy George, or his name is Jeeps, right? Yeah. He seems to take a lot of attention away from you. Let's try to focus the attention on you. How's that? This guy. OK, no problem. All right, so tell us a little bit about what's your name again, Terry? Parasoral Office. Terry, Terry. It's Parasoral Office. The thing with Terry is that Terry is very unique. Can I tell him honestly, you could just stop talking? Yeah, just whatever, no problem. Because I'm a duckbill dinosaur, and I had no lips. You have no lips? Can I see? See. Oh my gosh, there are no lips. You're absolutely right. Is it hard to chew, Terry? No, not when I'm eating the stuff I'm supposed to eat, like twigs and leaves and stuff. And does George find enough of those for you? No, no, he doesn't. No, no, no. Why doesn't he feed you more? You think he can find lots of that stuff? He lets me out to play, and I go and I get my own stuff with my friends, but you know, I just try to just cruise on chill like him, just like, hey, what's up? I go in, I say hi, jokes, and whatever. Do you have six toes? What's going on over here? Yeah, I'm kind of a mess. I got like eight, and there's two underneath here that you really kind of can't see. And so, yeah, he's a very unique cat. He's very laid back, he's very chill. And I use Terry a lot of times when it comes to children sometimes that have problems speaking correctly. And that's because by having a duck bill, he doesn't have lips, which means it's hard for you to pronounce what? N, T's, D's, and stuff like that. So what I do is I work with Terry, I'm sorry, with the kids in pronouncing certain words that also are contributed to kids that might have palate, cleft palate issues. And the pronounced words and stuff like that. So in the future, I'm going to be working with recreational therapists and stuff and creating videos with Terry to work on things with kids that are... Yeah, and I thought about this one second because as a ventriloquist, yeah, you still got a lot of work. He's got to do, yeah, he's got a lot of work. Oh, come on, he's pretty good. He's trying, he's trying. You were at the hospital with him, it was terrific. He's trying, he still has a ways to go. But for me as a ventriloquist, ironically, the very same use of my lips to make those very difficult letters, the M, the B's, the P's, Y's and stuff are the same kind of challenges that kids have with cleft palates and stuff. So I could sew that all together into me working with Terry, working with the kids, having fun, telling stories, talking about other things too, to lift up the kids with courage as they go through trying times in their lives, perhaps getting bullied and stuff like that. So that's my focus. My focus is to empower the kids that I see that we get to see and bring them to a place where I'm building courage with them, through them, so that they can grow and work through whatever challenges they have, not only now, but when they leave the hospitals and they have other challenges that we all even see even in our adult lives. It's funny, a lot of times we focus on bullying, just being a thing of the kids, but it's a word that goes through our... I think there's something else that you don't realize, George, that you are bringing through, and Terry, I mean you, not George, right? It's you that... Thanks, dude. You relax the kids. You absolutely relax them. When I saw you with the kids at Shriners, they broke down the barriers of what it is. Sometimes with a musician, they don't know who it is, but when they see a dragon and they see Terry or they see Wyatt, all of a sudden the big smile comes out and you break down that barrier of what is this, who's this person, because it's an animal. I think you've got a very, very hidden message that we could use as part of our therapy for these kids in the hospital. Yeah, and that's, well, why don't you say it? Well, that's what we kinda wanna do. We wanna work with the kids and we wanna work with the parents and the therapists and all kinds of stuff, so we can have a great time with the kids and help them grow and it even helps us grow too. It is absolutely imperative. And one of those things I'm at all of how we can help the kids in the hospital. In my opinion, we should try to see if you could play even more where we could bring recreational therapy as part of the program with the dinosaurs. It really could work and we're gonna talk about that obviously as we mature with the program with you. Yeah, that's the intention with Terry, Wyatt. I have another one called Dinomite. He's only about eight months old. He's still in his egg and the intentions is to grow a complete movement with what I'm doing that can help support these kids more than just showing up for, I'm so blessed to be able to walk in and then if I have a five minute impact on a kid that's just game changing to me without a doubt. You saw the video that I did of myself when I went in there going, hey, I'm gonna work as shiners and then the second half of the video, I'm like just glowing and blown away but so emotionally taken. Let's look at that video. Do you wanna look at that video? Okay, go ahead, just see if we get that video. Can you bring that up, Robert? I don't know where that is, where is that? By Guam, by Guam. Guam! Near. Near Guam, that's so cool. Well, that wasn't the one that we were talking about but it doesn't matter. No, that was, that's cool though. It shows. It was showing the interaction with the kid. Yeah, that one we were talking about when I was in the parking lot and walking. Yeah, doing my selfie. I didn't see that up there but the idea of seeing the kid interact, you see they can't do that with a musician in reality because it's somebody playing ukulele or guitar, etc. But the interaction of that child, Helene and Matt who are the two recreational therapists, their eyes just went wild when they saw that because that interaction is what they're looking for. They're looking for the kids not just to listen, not just to watch, not just to beat their hands to the music but that interaction is critical and that was important for our audience to see to understand that this is a whole new hidden genre of physical interaction with children in hospital. Yeah, I know that puppeteers, ventriloquists going into hospitals and stuff, it's not necessarily a new thing. It's how we deliver what we deliver as a performer, as an entertainer or what is our core mission with it. I have no illusions of being trying to be super famous ventriloquists like Jeff Dunham, Terry Fader and those guys. That's what they do. They entertain the public and they're geniuses and brilliant at it. My total focus is smiles on these kids but if I have the ability, if I have the power, if I have the training through recreational therapists and the things that I do to also make giving it some kind of a long lasting impact on something I might say or educational that might carry them through the tough parts in their life beyond being a kid. Just really something that's some kind of lesson through a story I might tell about something. Dana wrote a book. I don't know whether you saw the book that she wrote. She mentioned something like that. She's passing it out and anything that you can do to help kids is something that I'm going to get involved with. That just happens to be Michael Leone. I love helping kids in any which way and I'm very much like you that way and that's when I saw you and I said, well, you actually want to make this your life's ambition. Most of our musicians and entertainers have to make a living. And they can play once a month sometimes so some of them can only play once every two or three months. It's just because they have schedules to keep. You on the other hand said to me, I'll play whatever you want. I'll come and I'll introduce my puppets or my dinosaurs any time and I think that is just terrific and I really appreciate you doing that for us. Yeah, I'm very lucky at this time in my life that I can actually afford that time because if there's any one thing that I've been able to manage okay throughout my life without God teaching me some kind of a lesson is the power of time. So I've made my time mine in a way so that I can give it to others and that's why I'm so available to the kids and to anything I want to do right now if I want to sit there and go, okay, listen, I'm going to do a tour through the country and if I get some assistance just for travel or whatever I'm on it, let's do it. Let's just do it. Let's just do it. Did I tell you we're starting another program? It's so funny because you're new to our program and of course Make Him Smile is a pretty established foundation after five years but one of our other guests Reina Rowland from East Oahu Physical Therapy she calls me up while I was in Montreal and she says, Seymour, I have an idea and I said, what's the idea? She said, I think we should provide the hospitals with hospital gowns for the kids. I said, well, they already have hospital gowns. She says, no, let's provide it with superheroes, Wonder Woman, Batman, all these guys. We're now right in the middle of making these kids smile again because when they come into the hospitals you know it's not a good time for them, right? They're going to be staying there for a few days and all that stuff. So here we have a chance to make these kids smile a minute to get into their room and they can pick a gown, a Wonder Woman gown, a Batman, whatever the superhero is of the day. Thanks to guys like you. Oh, I'm just an aggregate. I'm just moving the ball forward and there's thousands of people like myself and yourself out here doing stuff for the kids and I think the one thing that I just want to say about what my mission is about is not necessarily about, I might be repeating myself, just going in for five minutes and putting the smiles on there. I want to play a major part in being used as an educational tool. However, the divine information comes through me whether it's through education or whatever to just keep that motion going. It's not me just going in there saying, hey, I'm doing a puppet show with dinosaurs. No, I'm using this beautiful piece of work that Steve X Tell created for me as a gateway to have a conversation with kids that goes beyond me going, hey, I'm a venture liquid. Hey, I'm doing this. This is what I'm doing for a living now. I don't want to make you laugh. I got to go. I know I'm sorry the doctors are coming in right now because they got to change your IV or something. No, it's going to be much bigger than that. George, there's no better way of saying it than you just did. And again, I thank you for joining our Make Him Smile family. Thank you for joining me on Seymour's World. You're doing an amazing job and I just wish you the best of luck in the future. And to you, Terry, thank you very much for coming. No problem, dude. Thanks for having us out here. Just make sure this guy, George, feeds you enough so that you can grow out of that bag and stand on your own. I'm Seymour Kazimerskiu on Seymour's World. We'll see you next week. Have a wonderful aloha.