- Dude, you got good teeth.
That's a good start, right?
- Yeah, yeah that's a good start.
(flashy rock music)
- First of all, you watched it all.
Did you watch it all?
- I did.
- Okay, so--
- I watched it a two o'clock in the mornin'
when they released it so I could see it before
everybody else did when they got up.
- Oh, I see yeah.
- I wanted to make sure I didn't look like a nomad.
- Well, it's tricky.
I think you do come off pretty good.
You have interesting things to say and you're pretty mellow
compared to a lot of the more colorful characters.
- Yeah, yeah.
There are a few colorful characters in there.
- (laughs) Colorful char,
now you managed a zoo, right?
- I did.
- Okay, so how does, what do you make the schedule,
the time cards or is it, it's gotta be a complicated job.
- It is, I mean it's a 24 hour a day job.
You don't ever get a leave there.
There's always something going on.
So you just have to make sure the staff gets up
in the morning, make sure they show up, make sure they're--
- That's probably half the battle.
- It is the biggest battle, babysittin' is 90% of the job.
- Because it seemed like Joe would bring in people
that were either down in luck
and you know sometimes they seem a little odd
that he'd go, "Hey, here's a couple bucks, come on over."
And then they would, you know he kicks 'em off to you
to like, "Hey, here's your new employee."
- Yeah, yeah exactly.
That was his forte, that's just what he liked doin'.
He always made sure he was the center of attention
so he always got people lesser than him, so.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, colorful cast is an understatement.
- I just realized I've been doing that for a while too.
(laughing)
By the way, what was up with Doc?
Doc is the other guy that was in it, right?
Now he, it said that he had a gas chamber.
That's not a great tourist attraction at a zoo.
What was that?
Is there any truth to that, or no?
- You know, it's just rumored out there
that he has his own incinerator.
It's always been a rumor that when he got done
with playtime cubs, you can't just send 'em anywhere.
And nobody, you know, you gotta have somebody to take 'em.
So the rumor is that he would just euthanize 'em,
and then incinerate 'em so they just disappeared.
- That's horrible, the tiger's first birthday is like,
let's take a walk.
- Yeah, then he'd make a first birthday, yeah.
- I've never been to this part of the zoo.
Oh, when is the time, they lose their cuteness?
- About four months old.
You're done with them at four months old,
'cause you can't play with 'em any bigger than that.
- 'Cause they can hurt you more, right?
- Yeah, I mean they're not gonna kill you,
but you're gonna draw some stitches probably.
- Have you been bit?
Is there a downside to being bitten by a tiger?
- You know, I've actually, I have been bit.
I got bit the same time Joe got bit
and took a helicopter ride.
Through his episodes,
he used to call it a chainsaw accident,
so we named the cat Chainsaw.
- (laughs) Oh, because--
- You know, I have two prosthetic legs.
- Oh, that's right, that's right.
- When it bit me, my leg was cushioned enough
to save my leg.
Joe wasn't so lucky, so.
- Did you have prosthetic legs when you got bit?
- I did.
- Okay, so well that came in handy there.
- Yeah.
- But Joe, are you talkin' about the time
when they said, he said there was somethin' on his shoes?
- No, no this was way before all that.
- God damn there's sardine oil.
I think it was a Karo fuckin' basket.
(laughing)
- Yes, oh, my god.
- He said it was cologne.
Meanwhile, I use sardine oil as a cologne,
so I didn't know what was goin' on.
- Yeah, yeah, that's, don't get around tigers,
you'll be all right.
- I mean, I'm the biggest puss.
Don't worry about me.
I'm not goin' anywhere near.
Was there something in the documentary that they didn't show
that you might have wished they did show?
- You know, we'd actually,
we've been filming this for years.
I know five years for sure.
- So you don't even know really what it's gonna be about
or what's goin' on at certain--
- No, no I mean there is so much that's unheard of,
I mean there's so much missin' from it.
So I think they were just saving a lot for more episodes,
actually what I thinks goin' on.
- Maybe, you know Eric Good, right?
That's the director. - Yes, yeah.
- Yeah, that's very possible,
I mean it's such a huge demand right now.
That's a very possible scenario.
I think he started it out
as something about reptiles and snakes.
- Yeah, that's how it originally started I think
and then he ran into this character named Joe Exotic
and it all just went downhill from there.
- With a tiger and a van or something in a parking lot.
Is that what that was?
- Yeah, he was actually interviewing,
I can't remember who was that in the show.
I can't remember who it was,
but stuff like that happens all the time.
You'd be surprised.
You'd be surprised what's in your neighbor's backyard.
- Ah, yeah for sure.
I know some sketchy people.
I mean even we did "Joe Dirt",
we had extras and we'd have people in it.
You know, I'm from Arizona so I you know.
"Joe Dirt" was based on Arizona guys
with no shirt walkin' around a gas can, on meth
you know, running' around.
We had to PG-13 it up,
but it was sort of those types of guys.
They're all over the place.
- I think you all actually knew Joe Exotic back then
when you all filmed that.
- I mean, it's very, it's very similar I have to say.
- You sport a mullet pretty good.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, listen if I could really grow my hair
like that right now, I would.
I wanna be cool again.
But okay, I got a question about Alan,
this guy who's terrifying.
Did he take your job, is that what he was,
a manager when he brought in?
- He was actually, he was actually Jeff Lowe's
right hand man.
- Oh Jeff Lowe, okay.
- Yeah, he was in Jeff Lowe's pocket.
He came with Jeff Lowe.
He just took orders from Jeff Lowe, nobody else.
So he just kinda did some yard work and stuff like that
whatever he wanted to do.
- Now you still talk to Joe, or not?
- You know, I have not talked to Joe
since he's been incarcerated.
Not because I hate Joe.
I mean, hell I got to love the guy.
You know I was there for 14 years.
I think, at one time I was the only straight guy
on the whole zoo.
(laughing)
You know, we just built a bond and I knew
if I called him while he was incarcerated,
he wouldn't shut his mouth.
And that's what got him in all this trouble
'cause he wouldn't shut his mouth.
And he would spill his guts and everything's recorded.
- Yeah, you know I always thought like,
if he was gonna put this hit up,
someone that says it so many times,
I don't know if you would do it after you say it so much,
or maybe you're just not thinkin' it through.
- He was provoked.
I mean you can see through the whole episode
that he was provoked to do this.
He would have never went this far,
if somebody wouldn't have provoked him.
- I see, I see what you're saying.
Well, Carol, what about the ex-husband?
What are the thoughts on that?
- You now that's the story I've always heard.
But you know she's missing a husband before that too, so.
- Oh.
- She has a really deep past, so there's some things
that haven't come out in the episodes yet.
And she's, what would you call it,
eccentric I guess is what you call her?
- Sure, sure.
- Yeah, yeah.
- We'll downgrade it to eccentric.
- Yeah, yeah there you go.
- She seems like a dreamboat.
- I don't know anybody that hasn't said
they wanted to kill her.
- (laughs) You know, you run a zoo
and I don't know much about anything.
So I asked John this a little bit ago.
He didn't quite know the answer
because I think you would be more knowledgeable.
Is Carol's sanctuary different than a zoo?
Does she get donations or something or a--
- Yeah, I mean she bases a lot of her stuff
on donations and I can't, I don't know how many donations
she got just to try and crucify Joe.
- Yeah.
- I mean, she has Jaguar of Florida,
you know the Jaguar car.
They sponsor her.
She got a big sign in her zoo with that.
(flashy mouth sound)
You know, she may have saved a couple of animals,
but most of 'em she bought and just through the time,
she's just multiplied.
- Yeah, it feels like by episode two,
first one she's after him.
But then you start to see what she's up to and you go,
it's kinda the same situation.
- It is, actually except she doesn't,
she only has about a dozen big cats.
Okay, she doesn't have a whole property like Joe had.
- And she calls it Big Cats.
- She calls it Big Cats, 'cause her bobcats and servals
on up, which is a little bigger than a house cat
so I guess you can call 'em big cats.
- Yeah, you might have snuck a few meerkats in there.
- Yeah, yeah but she did do, the consistence is the same.
She did the same thing Joe did.
- Yeah, 'cause she seems like a slightly hypocritical to me.
I don't know all the ins and outs,
but she's got people that are going,
if you work here for two years you get a green t-shirt.
It was like, oh.
I'd be in the back going,
I don't hear anything about money.
Is it more for colored t-shirts?
Who would play you in a movie?
What do you think?
- You know, I don't think anybody could play me in a movie.
(laughing)
I mean, how they gonna put prosthetic legs on a guy?
- Well, every actor likes the challenge.
That's a big challenge.
- Yeah, it would be.
- Maybe Matt McConaughey.
- You know, when this all started, somebody asked me
and I thought Matthew McConaughey would make a good me.
- Yeah, he's stud, he's got a little accent
and that sounds like, I could buy that.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Things really filling up.
We're getting a real good cast going in. (chuckles)
- I'm, my vote's for you.
I really think you'd sport that mullet really good.
- Oh yeah, with Joe.
I couldn't keep up with those hair cuts.
It was blonde one episode.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- It was bowl cut, I mean--
- It's all about image.
His image came first before everybody.
- Was he selling meth in the gift shop
because it feels like
it was sorta going around the horn there?
- No, you know I can honestly say he never did meth
in front of me, because he knew I was anti-meth.
Travis would smoke weed all the time,
that didn't bother me.
Hell, I got pains and aches, I eat edibles
every now and then just go to sleep at night.
But he never did, I can honestly
he never did meth in front of me.
- I believe it yeah.
I mean listen he seems just high on life
and then he just, that's his whole personality.
- Yeah, yeah.
- But the other characters seem to be crumbling a bit,
but overall that whole lifestyle,
it could feel culty to some people from the outside.
It probably get to lead to drinking and different things
I mean a lot of people say they wouldn't leave, you know.
- I mean your life with the zoo,
you were there all the time.
There probably wasn't three driver's license
on the whole zoo with 20 employees.
I mean that's the kind of people that came, so.
- Did most people live on the zoo
and they didn't leave, right?
- Yes, yes.
- So people just start hookin' up
and everything crazy happens.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Okay, well listen.
You seem like a cool guy.
Nice chattin' with ya' and thanks for takin' the time
and we'll keep watchin'.
Maybe there'll be another round of these.
- All right, definitely.
- Thanks for talkin' to me buddy.
- Thank you.
- Appreciate it.
- All right.
(riveting rock music)