One of the best things about having a podcast is not knowing who your next guest will be. Whether it’s an old friend or a complete stranger every week is an adventure. This week’s adventure is with adventure-junkie and actor, Felipe de Lara, most famous from Telemundo‘s El Señor de los Cielos (The Lord of the Skies) In which he played “Bonito” for 17 episodes. And most recently, Hulu’s original Blumhouse production: Into the Dark, episode 10. Culture Shock.

Into the Dark is a horror anthology, twelve feature length episodes, one for every month of the year and each based on the respective month’s major holiday. Pretty creative. Culture Shock features a story of a young woman (Martha Higareda) making a second attempt at crossing the Mexican border into America in hopes of finding a better life but as you probably guessed, gets more than she bargained for.

Felipe is an incredibly energetic guy with tons of talent oozing from every pore and a passion for life itself that vibrates on a level that affects everyone around him. It is impossible to ignore his energy on the screen and it was an absolute win for Coop&Myan getting him on the show. He’s “brainy&footsy” and his overnight success is only five years away.

A huge thanks to Felipe, we definitely hope he visits Unofficial again the next time he has a new project in the works, or if he just wants to hang so we can all be “better people” together.

If you didn’t know that Cooper got a Saab 900S on his 16th birthday or that Myan will never drive a Hyundai Sonata then this episode is tailor-made for you. Confused about the differences between an Acura RLX and ILX? Us too! At least we can all agree that Saabs were better when they were round and Volvos cooler when they were square. ...And not owned by GM and Ford.

Don’t worry, if old Japanese, South Korean or Swedish cars don’t interest you, I’m pretty sure Myan mentions wine and cheese near the end. Don’t miss it!

Coop&Myan love bringing you very little on a regular basis so subscribe to Unofficial and finally start a relationship where it’s ok to only “take-take-take!”

Tune in on Thursday for one of our most dynamic guests ever! Felipe de Lara, most known for playing Benito on El Señor de Los Cielos. A genuinely sweet guy with a passion for performance that could rival anyone in Hollywood. He tells us all about his newest project, Into the Dark, a Hulu original by Blumhouse Productions.

As promised, Ben Gavin is back to talk about his recent month on the set of the film, A Place Called Home, written and directed by Kiel Thorlton.

Ben plays a young man named Levi, who after losing his wife during the birth of their second child, finds himself a single father in trouble with a loan shark and in danger of losing his home.

There are countless hurdles in the career of an actor and even if you get the job there is still a cornucopia of compromise... but every once in a while you get a job with so much beauty and heart, it feels like a gift.

Ben walked into an existing set-universe for his character, Levi, to inhabit. His adventure with the passionate cast and crew and writer/director, Kiel Thorlton, was something he had been working toward for the last decade in Hollywood.

Check out episode 61 of Unofficial with Coop&Myan and see behind the curtain of one struggling actor’s journey and what an artist grinding it out in tinsel town, really goes through.

Is art good? Does anyone care? If that’s not a question every artist asks them self from time to time then they’ve reached a rare place of creative confidence, one that may elude the vast majority.

I could have titled this episode something clever about voicemails or phone calls to previous guests and started off with some joke about “waiting for the beep“ and that would’ve been fine but I think Sydney’s thoughts at the end encapsulated a much more poignant issue to close the show that was bigger than any of those other obvious options. Thanks, Ms. Sainté.

Happy episode 60, from Unofficial.

Love,

Coop&Myan

Do you remember the moves in your best Escape-Kata? Do you still have your Yellow Belt? Is it JuJitsu or Jiu Jitsu??

Mixed Martial Arts aka MMA, is America’s newest mega-sport. The UFC is now endorsed by ESPN and riding high alongside the likes of the top 3, Baseball, Basketball and Football. Although technically still less popular than classic sports like Hockey, Golf and Tennis, It’s safe to say MMA is cooler than most of these sports combined…after all it is one person pitted against another, engaged in a simulated Death-Match inside a cage. Although it’s a sensitive topic to old-school fans of boxing, MMA looks to be leaving the “Sweet Science” behind as the more complex, unpredictable and exciting combat sport. Faster paced, more aggressive and infinitely more dynamic, MMA as the more pure style of fighting and fundamentally connected to our DNA and the human condition, as limited-rules fighting obviously predates every other sport ever invented by mankind. That is a tough formula to contend with and could lend one to believe that MMA could one day be planet Earth’s number one sport.

If you know anything about modern MMA then you’ve most likely heard of the Gracie family, who’s modified version of (Brazilian) Jiu Jitsu aka BJJ has literally taken the world by storm as the premier Martial Art style of real-world self defense and elite level combat-competition. Coop&Myan are always excited about their guests but this week on Unofficial, our new friend, David, really amps it up as he brings his intimate knowledge of the Gracie family and over a decade of BJJ education. As a purple belt, David could wrap most people up like a pretzel, regardless of his imposing, 6’2”, 190 lb. frame, after all that’s what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is all about, using technique despite size, to manipulate and overpower someone trying to do you harm…or of course for competition to see who might be the “better man.” (or woman)

So if you don’t know that in Brazil, the letter “R” sounds like an “H”, what it’s like to be frightened of someone half your size or if you simply want a quick backstory on the origins of the infamous and extremely complex family of the Gracies, then tune in for a corker this week as Unofficial goes Mixed Martial Arts all over your asses and wraps you up in the deadliest triangle you never saw coming...the one on your brain.

Financial corruption, big green eggs, presidential rape? Is there anything the boys in J30 won’t cover?

We’re deep into summertime and it’s only getting hotter...speaking of Ryan Gosling, definitely get on LaLa Land so you can tell Myan what happens. Sam Rockwell, Christian Bale, the cast of The Big Short...are there any roles for women any more??

Coop&Myan are pretty chill this Monday but Thursday we have David, a brown belt in Brazilian jujitsu, studying under the legendary Gracie family for the last decade. Tune in and get a taste of something you can’t get anywhere else. It’s Unofficial and it’s awesome.

Correction: Nick Nolte and Gary Busey are not the same person.

Every week Unofficial finds an unknown artist in Los Angeles and brings them right into your ears. Coop&Myan cross paths with someone interesting, ask them if they want to share themselves with the world and we get a glimpse of someone’s life we would otherwise never know. This week it’s a young man named William Thomas Brunet, a visitor from Lyon, France, here in America making his way as an artist, a songwriter and most often, a professional drummer. Now if you’ve been paying attention you know that Unofficial has a tenuous relationship with practitioners of the Percussive arts but that is only circumstantial and now that we have a dedicated time-keeper on our sofa (and one serenading us for the first half of this very episode) it’s time to stop the jokes and venture down the rabbit hole of what makes this particular percussionist tick…tap and bang.

Will has the spirit of Shaman, the physique of a cyclist and the diet of an angel. He owes his predilection for music in part to his father who himself played Country and Bluegrass music…in France. Undoubtedly a unique environment for a boy who later would find a gift for timing in a genre of hardcore music, among others. His self-professed arrogance as an adolescent may have been the root of his distaste for certain instruments and structured education but there is no doubt that it was also a key to his path toward a more aggressive, personal music style.

Coop&Myan do a fairly decent job of staying on topic this week but diverge just enough to bring you Myan's brief Wikipedia history of Halloween, Will’s take on the cerebral challenges of the German language and Cooper’s silent protest to authority that time he was sent to the principal’s office for his unwavering commitment to the art of Mime. The delightful surprises never stop with Cooper.

Unofficial is just a few months away from a new studio and Coop&Myan are stoked to branch out and spread their wings in a new space, so keep tuning in and telling your friends and we’ll keep pumping out episodes of original content. Coop&Myan, Coop, Coop&Myan!!!

56 - Guilty Pleasures by Myantology

Did you know that John Krasinski told Greg Daniels he hoped they wouldn’t fuck up the American version of The Office? Right before his audition? Yeah, who knows if that’s even true, I heard it on the Internet… And now you’re hearing it on the Internet. The circle of life continues. Nature.

Speaking of the nature of our cyclical world, it’s time for a hypothetical bucket-list question. Which would you choose, eating the worlds best financier cake at Benihana with Dana Carvey? The world’s worst grilled cheese at Swingers with Chris D’Elia, or a mediocre lobster at Mul Yam in Tel Aviv with Meredith? Wow, that’s actually harder than I anticipated.

The Office will never cease to bring us joy so Coop&Myan are committed to honoring the legacy of The Office on Unofficial in perpetuity. That’s right, I pledged to honor an American remake of a British sitcom until the end of our known universe.

Coop&Myan often agree… But sometimes they don’t. Trying your best not to kill babies? Totally agree. Spending your free time at preliminary murder trials? Mmm, disagree. Myan likes guns...Cooper hates the Second Amendment. Is home-protection the same as open-carry? Does rationally preparing to defend your loved-ones with a legally purchased firearm make you a “gun-nut??” Who knows!

I tell you what though, if a woman’s orgasm had a firearm equivalent, it might be an A.R. 15 or some other form of assault rifle. Comparatively, a man’s orgasm is probably something like a Derringer .22 LR. Haha, gun jokes, right guys?! Men might have it easier in this world but the emotional pay-off for a woman’s series of struggles is a level of joy a man will never truly understand. I think. After all I am a man. How much could I possibly understand?

All this and more in episode 54 of Unofficial. Coop&Myan like always are bringing you content you had no idea you were craving and there is literally no end in sight. And tune in on Thursday for Unofficial does The Office Vol.2!! “MICHAEL!!!”