Guest: Victory Palmisano-Bruckner – Hollywood Producer, Stunt Industry Survivor, and Daughter of a Vietnam Vet/Addict
Who this episode is for:
- Anyone with an alcoholic parent or a complicated grief story
- Daughters who loved their dads even when it hurt
- Folks haunted by the war they never fought in
- Survivors of church trauma, spiritual abuse, and Hollywood bullshit
- Creatives chasing their own IP dream (and still broke)
- Anyone who’s ever loved someone they couldn’t save
- AND anyone not in recovery who thinks “just stop drinking” is solid advice
This one hits the gut and the funny bone in equal measure.
Victory Palmisano-Bruckner stops by the studio for a raw, hilarious, and soul-punching convo with Chris, Jeff, and Jakob. She may be Hollywood through and through—raised on sets, daughter of a legendary stuntman turned director—but she’s also as grounded as a St. Louis brick house and just as scarred.
Her story is soaked in love and loss. Growing up the daughter of a Vietnam vet and lifelong alcoholic who doubled as a real-life action hero, Victory paints a brutal but beautiful picture of what it means to carry the legacy of a man who could survive car crashes, war, and fire—but not himself.
There’s talk of strip club scouting (for a low-budget film, we swear), the trauma of church camp cults, daddy issues, and how alcoholism shape-shifts through generations. She helped her dad detox in her damn living room, only to watch him go back to the bottle. She buried him a year and a half ago. He was in the In Memoriam at the Oscars. Big time.
You’ll laugh. You’ll ugly cry. You might want to call your dad. Or curse his name. Or both.
Also: Chris drops one-liners like “flop a titty out” that are now canon in the Palmisano family. Jeff nerds out on stunt IMDBs. Jakob gets exposed as ChatGPT-ing guests. And Victory, despite growing up in the biz, reveals her realest role ever—daughter of an addict, and survivor of it all.
Episode Timestamps:
- 00:00 – Intro, sponsor shoutouts
- 01:25 – Victory joins the chaos
- 03:00 – Stunt double stories, Hollywood roots
- 08:00 – Her path into podcasting, NBC Universal
- 10:00 – Church trauma & leaving evangelicalism
- 13:00 – Titty jokes, family legends
- 15:00 – Launching Quantum Spin Studios
- 19:00 – Husband’s script: Sopranos meets This Is Us
- 22:00 – Her dad’s legacy: stunt safety & SAG activism
- 28:00 – Oscar’s stunt category & grief spike
- 33:00 – Vietnam trauma, PTSD, and substance abuse
- 38:00 – Alec Baldwin, stunts, and industry danger
- 41:00 – ACA & Al-Anon, strip club scouting horror
- 46:00 – Making cocktails for dad at age 7
- 52:00 – Detoxing dad at home, COVID chaos
- 56:00 – The rare apology before it was too late
- 1:00:00 – Loving someone who doesn’t love themself
- 1:05:00 – Boundaries, therapy, codependency truth
- 1:10:00 – *World of Vesser* and the loneliness cure
- 1:13:00 – Braves talk, Chipper Jones & Daniel nerd-out
- 1:15:00 – Advice for people with addicted parents
- 1:18:00 – Al-Anon’s power to make you feel less alone
- 1:22:00 – After he died: health crashes, then calm
- 1:23:26 – Naming the episode: Dad’s Club
- 1:27:00 – Weekend at Bernie’s stunt reveal
- 1:28:15 – Gino Lucci black car story, NYC-style sendoff
- 1:30:00 – Viola, Serenity Prayer, and future visits
- 1:31:36 – Game name slip: World of Vesser
- 1:31:59 – Closing gratitude, grief, and fanboy love
Resources Mentioned:
- Adult Children of Alcoholics
- Illinois Recovery Center
- Bertarelli Cutlery
Sponsored by:
- Bertarelli Cutlery
- Illinois Recovery Center
Episode Title: Dead Dad’s Club
