- I got a little bit of a confession to make,
uh, there's quite a bit of mail that I have not been able
to get to in the last few weeks.
But I'm going to try and fix that right now.
(grunts)
You see, it's not because I haven't wanted to open the mail,
I love getting mail,
getting mail is like the best thing ever.
Everyone loves getting mail
and if you don't, that's weird to me.
But, I've just like, I haven't had time,
I've been trying to make videos and I've been in New York
and I've got stuff coming up
and there's one in particular that I really want to
open that I'm super excited about that I know is going
to inspire you because it inspires me.
I already know what it is but I kind of want to craft
a little bit of a story around it so that you guys get
the full, the full message, if you will.
I should also mention that the official Xbox One S giveaway
has ended, so congratulations to Mica Winston,
you have already been emailed so check your inbox,
I'll get that shipped out to you as soon as possible.
Congrats and thanks to everybody that participated.
Also on the note of giveaways before we dive into this,
there's still eight more days to win a 5D Mark IV
with C Log and a 24-105 and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I am giving away this camera right here which is this one,
I'm giving away a bag of coffee with the new
Peter McKinnon James coffee hat
Woo!
A deck of cards, some presets and we're also giving away
an aperture light, a 120D, which is insane,
with the light dome
so lots of good stuff.
That link is below if you guys want to participate in that
there's eight more days to get your name in,
there's a few ways to get multiple entries in case you want
to better your chances.
But that is there below, and uh, yeah.
Do what you will.
This is the one I'm talking about.
Yep.
Okay, prepare to be inspired.
I want to talk to, I think, I hope, whatever.
I want to talk to you guys about the contents of this
box because the contents of this box have inspired me
for ten years now.
I learned about the contents of this box in 2007
and since then it has been something that has stuck with me
as a filmmaker, as a photographer, as a story teller,
as an individual ever since then.
You might be thinking to yourself well Pete,
what's in the box man,
you've got to show me what's in the box!
I plan to do that.
I'm going to zoom this out.
You're going to see the mic
but we're all friends here right?
So what do you guys care.
Boom, there it is.
Hey what's up mic.
Boosh, here we go.
Ah, I've been waiting for this for a little while.
A friend of mine sent this to me.
More on him later.
Do, do, do, do, do
Getting mail is a good time to be had.
I hate peanuts though.
These, its 2017, these need to be redesigned.
These need to not exist.
Oh yeah, boom!
There's the note,
(grunts)
open it!
I will, I will, I will, hang on.
Mm.
Love a good old wax seal, okay here we go.
This is a letterpress note from J.J. Abrams.
Let me read it to you now.
Zoom back in for this for a second.
"When I was a child my grandfather Harry Kelvin would
often take me to Tannen's Magic in Midtown Manhattan,
it was the best place in the universe,
every trick held the potential for me to shock
and amaze my family.
It wasn't until many years later that I realized they
were never particularly shocked or amazed.
One object; however, was especially intriguing to me,
a magic mystery box which contained, Tannen's said,
$50 worth of magic for only $15.
When I got home with the box, poised to rip it open
I realized that the very idea of what might be inside it
was more powerful, more valuable and more crazy compelling
than whatever it actually did contain.
Opening the box would somehow diminish it's potential
so I decided to keep it closed.
To this day the box remains unopened."
I love that.
"In honor of my grandfather and anyone else
who has ever appreciated the power of a simple illusion
it is my pleasure to present the first Bad Robot partnership
extraordinary theory11 mystery box playing cards.
The choice to open the box or not is yours. J.J. Abrams."
So this stems from a Ted Talk
that J.J. Abrams gave in 2007.
I saw this Ted Talk ten years ago.
He went on stage and started talking about this mystery box
and how mystery could be more important than knowledge
and how he's used that to basically drive his career.
And specifically he was talking at the time about
the show Lost and how the island was a mystery box
in and of itself.
And I just loved the concept that mystery is more important
than knowledge.
Sometimes we don't need all the answers.
Sometimes that, the mystery itself
is what's more compelling.
And I love that.
And I think applying that to your filmmaking or the stuff
you're making or the stories you're telling,
or the photos you're telling,
I think that can be super powerful and very inspiring.
So I'm going to rip this open,
but before I do I should give you a bit of context.
The guy who sent this to me,
yeah, you know what, I'm not even going to talk,
let's go back to New York City and start there.
I don't know if you can hear all the horns
but take a guess as to where I am, waiting for an Uber.
Speak of the devil, hello?
How are you doing?
(upbeat music)
The light right now in this particular alley is phenomenal.
I'm meeting with a friend of mine that I've known
for ages.
When I came to New York City after I called in sick
at State Farm, and I left my job and I was like,
I'm going to New York tonight,
this guy is one of the first people I met in this industry
who was at the event at the same time.
- [Intercom] Door open.
- Well the first thing I'll tell you
is it smells fantastic in here,
the second thing I'll tell you is it's super trendy in here,
I'm digging the vibe.
I guess I can take these off now.
This is a cool elevator too.
Whoa.
Look at this hallway.
What?
Dude!
- What's up buddy?
- [Peter] It's so good to see you.
How's it going?
Let's hug it out.
- How are you?
- [Peter] Good man.
- [J.B.] How was your flight?
- Uh it was super fast, I didn't realize how fast it was.
First thing's first, that hallway,
- Is really cool.
- Is the best hallway I've ever seen.
How long have you lived here?
- So I've been in this space for about seven days now.
Originally in New York, moved in late June,
that was when Dan White was doing the Tonight Show
with Jimmey Fallon,
- [Peter] Boosh, look at that.
- Woo!
- [Peter] Epic, plug.
- You get a complimentary pillow,
all you've got to do is do the Tonight Show.
- [Peter] Oh yeah, pretty easy to get.
- So I moved in then, but I was in a temporary apartment
because I was moving from Charleston, South Carolina
where I lived before New York but I didn't have a place
yet in New York so I just told the people that were moving
my stuff to head North and I would tell them where
I was going to go, or where I was going to be
when I got there.
And then I didn't know where I was going to be,
so we did Fallon, and then I went to L.A after that
and then I went from L.A to San Diego with Blake Boyd,
that's when we did the little thingy backstage
with John Mayer which was really awesome,
that's a whole nother story.
From L.A to New York again,
still in my temporary apartment,
then Blake and I did that really funny bit
that was on Seth Meyers where he cuts his arms off,
and then I was back in New York and then I was
in Minnesota the week after that and then I was
in Charleston,
South Carolina, at the beach, where I'm from,
and then I moved back to New York and then I got
this apartment last week.
- So seven days (laughs)
(upbeat music)
Hey uh, you think you got enough playing cards here?
- I just have one or two, um,
- [Peter] Just a couple, in case.
- This is actually, guess how many cards there are to wash?
- [Peter] I'm going to say there are 430 decks.
- You're exactly right!
No, that's wrong.
It was, uh, I think 576.
- Okay not like, too far off.
As an ex-magician I guess you could say.
I'm not really an ex, I'm on hiatus
but I should have done better.
For those of you who don't know, this is J.B., he runs
a crazy empire online that sells decks and this kind
of thing and he consults for Hollywood movies and producers
and cool people in that world.
Neil Patrick Harris and J.J. Abrams and just a lot of,
a lot of people.
- Other people.
- There's a lot of people.
- [J.B.] And decks we did with J.J.
This is called the mystery box.
The other mystery box is a real box made of wood but this
is the individual deck.
So it comes sealed.
When you buy it we don't show you or tell you what is inside
of the actual mystery box.
That's the point.
If you haven't seen J.J. Abram's Ted Talk where he talks
- [Peter] Yeah it's awesome, I love it.
- [J.B.] About the mystery box it's really an amazing story.
And these ones we did with Neil Patrick Harris
who is an avid fan of magic.
Lifelong fan of magic.
He grew up in Albuquerque and before he became an actor,
you might have heard of him,
he was a magician and still is
an awesome performer magician.
- Uh, we're going to the roof
because apparently there's a sweet view and...
- [J.B.] Miss the eclipse!
- I'm all about the views.
We missed the eclipse.
I missed it, he was here and he didn't
even bother to watch it, come on!
- It was particularly sunny though, in my office.
(upbeat techno music)
- Now you've got a bit of back history, you know who J.B. is
you know where this package comes from, and why it all,
how it all works and how it's all connected.
In honor of that story and how I wholeheartedly agree with
everything J.J. talks about in that Ted Talk,
I'm not even going to attempt to open this.
I'd love to, but again,
just knowing that I never have is way better than opening
it and knowing what's in there.
So that's it for me today guys,
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I highly, highly, highly recommend you
check out that Ted Talk.
I've linked it below.
It's ten years old so the quality also is ten years old,
but the message, the message is incredibly inspiring
and it's something that's stuck with me
for the longest time.
So I'm going to find a place or this mystery box on this
shelf so that every time I do a tutorial you guys can look
at it and hopefully understand where it comes from
it's origin
and why it inspires me and maybe in turn it'll inspire you.
So hit that like button if you liked this video
subscribe if you weren't already
and guys, I'll see you in the next video.
(upbeat music)