EL REY

[Drunk Monk]

As if he'd even see it. They don't get El Rey in igloos.

DOOM EYES ONLY: bts - we had a ballistic horse head dummy but it melted before we could use it. That's when we learned about the temperature requirements of ballistic dummies. An expensive messy lesson.

---

You know, it's kinda weirding me out that I seem to have more screen time than Marko on this episode. Way too many close-ups spotlight my receding hairline.

[Greg]

Just keep stroking your chin hair....

[Drunk Monk]

You know, that's funny.  There was a lot of standing around while shooting, 'acting' like we were interested.  I was pretty self-conscious about that.  I mean, despite it being a 'reality show', we knew what was going to happen.  We weren't surprised by Danny's announcements in the War Room.  So I had to 'act'.  And at some point, I defaulted to my Kung Fu villain persona because I thought that's what they wanted.  You know what Kung Fu villains do?  They stroke their beards and they go 'ha ha ha' in that forced evil way.  I didn't get off any 'ha ha ha's but I got a lot of beard strokes in.  Later I became even more self conscious about that, but by then, it had become a nervous habit.  It's a lot of work being a reality TV star, lemme tell ya.

[Drunk Monk]

With a nod to the abominable shaved yeti...

http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/arti...ticle=1370

[lady_cranefly]

That Ilya is a cocky bugger, ain't he? Oh, that hair toss! Oh, that sneer!

I want all the weapons, though. All of them.

[cranefly]

Nice of you, DM, to ask Marko, "So, how did that stab work for you?" knowing full well it had been problematic due to the forked blade.  But Marko said it worked just fine.  Then again, he's so damned strong he probably didn't even feel the resistance as it tore raggedly through the back.

And yeah.  The decorative aspects of the weapons is getting downright impressive.


But the cameraman needs to be more aggressive and say, "Wait, we didn't get a good shot of that," or, "we need a different angle" or "we need to adjust the lighting."  Seems just a little too accepting of the bones thrown his/her way.  Greg would demand that the weapons be filmed at their best -- during the forge, during finishing, and during testing.

[Drunk Monk]

That Ilya is a cocky bugger, ain't he? Oh, that hair toss! Oh, that sneer!

You have no idea.  He's toned down for the show.  But yeah, that hair toss was AWESOME.  It got quite a laugh from my whole family at the bungalow screening.  Those were good cuts tho.  Cutting a free hanging tatami with a horizontal cut isn't easy.  In fact, the horizontal cut there is quite difficult.   He overshoots his cuts tho, at least from a Battojitsu perspective.  Cuts aren't supposed to travel that far offline after the swing because frankly, you don't want to take your point too far away from your target, especially if you miss.  But Ilya is trained in European sword, so they don't consider that.  

This episode had the nicest pieces.  BK&S really went all out with these.  The steel patterns on both Tizona and Zulfiqar were stunning.  The cameras barely caught the gorgeous detail of the pattern welding of Zulfiqar, despite me telling them how to set up that shot because we have shot some damascus steel here and it's a bitch - needs a single light source and high contrast.  It's really hard to shoot swords because they are so reflective.  

All of the weapons tests were shot from so many angles - like half a dozen cameras per shot. The number of targets were limited, so there weren't really that many opportunities for retakes. And there were a lot of shots cut obviously, like my mediocre test of Tizona, which was just a lunge at a dumb dummy that had not blood pack like promised.  I thrust at the head several times but all I got was red stuffing.  Not nearly as pimped up as cutting pig carcasses.  

The bottom line when it comes to the camera fest (as noted by Tara) - its a spark fest.

Thanks for watching!

One more episode.  Then El Rey has six months to decide if they want to renew for a second season.

[cranefly]

Wow, the katana is a whole lot more complicated to make than I thought.  And I never realized that the blade is essentially straight until the last quenching step -- if I understand correctly.  Very nice.

A couple questions:

1) The dude preparing the handle made a big deal about the ray skin, how important it is to give the right grip.  But then he proceeded to wrap silk cord over it to the point that the hand can never touch the ray skin.  Am I missing something?  Fantastic looking result, by the way.

2) So Rebel built himself a Yari, which is great.  He's got a Yari there and we see it.  But then when he's doing some demonstration moves, it's with a staff.  And afterwards his dad comments, "Just imagine what that would be like with a sword on the end."  So what happened to his Yari?  Was the demo shot somewhere else, and he didn't have the Yari with him?"

I ask nothing but important questions, by the way (said with a hair toss).

[lady_cranefly]

What hair?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

My question is who picked the weapons to highlight in the shows?

[Drunk Monk]

Still haven't seen the finale.  Tonight hopefully.  I can't answer your questions until then.  And I don't know who chose the weapons.  I was just 'the talent'.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Better than being "the fluffer".

[Drunk Monk]

It was nice to have my talking head bits bookend the series. The showrunner kept saying how much he liked my work and I figured he was just blowing air up my butt, but he chose to showcase me better than I expected. I guess it's good to have an Asian talk about Asian weapons (although I felt out of place with the Mongol ep).

And dayum my voice is husky raspy sexy. Stevie still haunts me.

In answer to cf's questions: 1. Your hand does come in contact with the ray skin that peaks through the silk cord. It's a really good grip surface that provides a lot of purpose. Some later Chinese swords had similar wrappings. 2. No feckin idea. Rebel could handle a yari well enough. I didn't go to Baltimore for them builds so all of that was new to me.

I totally forgot that I filmed the description of the baseball pitching machine. There were so many things we filmed that got cut. It was exhausting and overwhelming.

Needless to say it was an extraordinary experience. Hard work, but I was treated so well and paid handsomely. And of course, I really hope it gets renewed and they keep me on. El Rey has 6 months to decide, according to the contract with Defy. Robert & Rebel seemed to have a good time so I imagine that will play into renewal.

My only disappointment was that my hosting segment for 36 Chambers was never used. That was shot at the very end, and despite my enthusiasm, I was really exhausted and distracted as they were breaking down the set around me, plus I had to make my flight. The director for those segments said to contact him if I'm ever in Hollywood so we might do more. So that door might still be open. Fingers crossed but I already fell so blessed to have been part of this as much as I have. It was a strangely self-actualized moment in my everso weird career.

Thanks for watching!

[Greg]

It seems we lost DM in the face of Rodriguez and his son,  Rebel towards the end. It seemed he was relegated to back of crowd chin hair stroking.  I did like him introducing the baseball cutting segment with such glee, but I was disappointed that DM did not actually attempt to cut the baseball. How many times did they pitch the ball before Marko actually cut one?

It was fun to see DM on the TV. I was disappointed not to see more hair flipping from the blade maker.

[Drunk Monk]

One of my cast mates is confident that there will be a season 2. She (hint, hint) is in tight with ER's president and some of the main players, and she recently did a guest spot for their new show Bushido Battleground (an MMA reality show like TUF) which she believes was predominantly to promote M@A: AOF. She said she was told we were the 2nd highest rated ER show after Lucha Underground - not saying that much because ER has only 4 shows or so, but she thought Rite of Passage was getting the axe.

I hope she's right.