You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. This is the United States Champion. My first one. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one long. Introducing Perse from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, the kita!
Cool.
Now the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Question for you out there in listening land: Have you ever considered? writing a book? Or has someone ever said, Hey, you should really write a write a book?
Or I wonder have you ever wondered how many people maybe thought I should write a book, but then never Did and so we missed out on maybe a life story that could have touched somebody's heart or changed somebody's life.
Well, with me today in studio, I have a very fascinating story.
So you're not going to want to go Anywhere today. You're going to want to stay right here. David Kerley, welcome to the Man Up Show. Thank you, sir. Good to be here.
Well, it's great to have you here. And we're going to dive more into 50 Kerley cues to my wonderful life here in just a moment. But, you know, that's. Uh somewhat that that's a little bit of your story though, right? Like like you thought For several years about writing a book, but then you finally, you might say, pulled the trigger, right?
Yes.
Okay. I had had the opportunity to perform a one-person show of one of my favorite movies, It's a Wonderful Life. I got to play all the men and women, the children and adults, and I got to do the best Jimmy Stewart impression I could come up with, you know. But it was really just a leap of faith because it's 75 minutes of material and we didn't have a venue. I was going to be the cast of one, and my best friend was going to be my director.
And but we didn't have a venue or audience promise or anything. We just worked on it.
Well, I want to leave my listeners hanging for just a moment, pause for just a moment and think about What David just said, a one-man show, right? Yes, sir. Of the famous movie, which, by the way, you may or you probably don't know that, that's like my all-time favorite show. It's a wonderful life. In fact, I was traveling with my youngest daughters up to Minnesota one year for Christmas.
Yes, sir. And we stopped in Indianapolis. And across from the hotel was this dinner theater. And A Wonderful Life, It's a Wonderful Life was playing and they had tickets available.
So I took my girls there and we got to see it live on stage, a full cast.
So not just one person, but a full cast. And they were young, and so they weren't really all that familiar with us. And when we got to my mom's house, she actually had a copy of it.
So then we watched the actual movie. And it was unbelievable how well they were able to project on stage the live version of the movie itself.
So I'm absolutely fascinated at the fact that you condensed it down to one person doing an entire movie. It's a Wonderful Life. Right.
Well, I didn't write the play. It's written by Steve Murray, and it's called This Wonderful Life. But it depicts the movie, though, right? Right, yes, sir. I mean, Jimmy Stewart, the whole deal.
George Bailey, right? Yes, sir. And Clarence. We can't forget Clarence. Yes, now we're trying to get his wings.
Clarence is trying to get his wings. Come on, yeah.
So keep going.
So we finally had a venue, and it was just going to be one Thursday night in December in 2021. And the weekend before that, the Lord put on my heart To write a book, to tell these stories. And my first reaction was: I don't know the first thing about writing a book. I just know that feeling, by the way. Yes, sir.
But you've written more than one, though. I have now, but I can think back to that first one, those very same thoughts. My very first one was called Breaking the Chains. It was a handbook to Christian Living not long after I gave my life to Jesus. It's out of print, but it's on my goal list to bring it back into print because it's been out for a while.
But anyway, so I get it. Like, you know, like English was not my strong suit in school, right? Right.
And I didn't want to run away from this Nineveh. I didn't want to do that. You don't want to be a Jonah. Right.
But not in that respect, anyway. But I did want to be obedient. And so I just trusted him to put the right people on my path and go from there.
So that weekend, I was trying to think, well, what can I put in the book? What do I feel him leading me to do?
So I just started jotting down some ideas. And I might jot down. That time I got caught up in a tree house, in the big kids' tree house, and I couldn't get down. You got up, but couldn't get down. Right, and my dad had to rescue me.
But uh um and then jot down uh something some aspect, at least in my mind, of how it related to the movie. A comparison to a scene in the movie, perhaps. And then scripture for as many of those as I could think of. And then so in less than 48 hours, 48 hours, Nikita, I had jotted down eighty eight story ideas. 88.
That's not David. That's somebody else prompting that. The Lord must be leading something here, directing you.
Okay. And so I since condensed some of those ideas down to 50. But. But uh and and went with that. But but that's how that that's h how that came about.
So and and of course I I've I've read the in the entire book. My my goal, like and I was never really an avid reader until I I'd say about 25 years ago. And then I started becoming an avid reader and uh you know and and adopted the the uh the uh uh I guess the saying or you know leaders Are readers, and if you look at some of the most successful people out there in the world, many of them have libraries. Bookshelves filled with books and not just for aesthetics, but that they actually read, right? And maybe even gleaned from or learned something from them.
And so currently my goal is a book a month. There's times I've exceeded that goal, but sometimes I've kind of fallen short of that goal. But when you gave me a signed copy of your book, I'm like, well, now I gotta read it now. Signed it. I mean, I gotta read it.
I'm obligated. I'm obligated. And where I do some of my best reading actually is when I fly. 'Cause like I'm at the airport for an hour or two before I get on the plane. I might be on the plane.
Like recently I went to went to Maui to visit my newest grandchild, little Fletcher.
Well, that's a forever plane flight or two each way. And so I actually finished I finished two and a half books on on that trip alone. And so, you know, one of my trips, or a couple of my trips, is where I Started and finished your book. But let's back up a moment here to the inspiration to do the one-man show. I mean, what inspired that?
Well, um. My wife and I are empty actors. Community. What you want? My wife, Denise.
Denise. That wouldn't happen to be Denise sitting on the couch in our studio today, would it? That is her. That is the Yvonne. Denise, thank you for being here.
Great to have you here.
Okay, so she was your inspiration?
Well, we. we met doing community theater. Uh the play for for that time was uh A Christmas Carol. Another another favorite of mine. Yep, a Christmas Carol.
And uh um uh I was a a philanthropist in And she was One of the bad ladies that wanted to steal all of Scrooge's stuff. You guys were both in the stage play? And that's how we met. That's how you met. We had mutual friends.
She played the villain role? Is that what I just heard her say? Or in wrestling terms, she was a heel? Is that what she was?
Well, a little bit. You were the good guy. And I was the good guy, but we don't meet in the show. Come to a rescue. No, okay.
I'm sorry. I keep interrupting. Keep going with your story. It's so good. Keep going.
So. We were always involved in theater, and but like I said, we had mutual friends and But we had just never been introduced yet. And so, but that was technically the first time we met. And but to go to the show, I'd always loved It's a Wonderful Life Like You Did. And when I found out about it, probably 10 or 12 years before.
Actually, getting to do that, I just found out about Stephen Murray's play, and I wanted to do that someday. I just didn't know how that was really going to happen. And so, finally, at one point, we just started tackling it and. I would learn the 75 minutes material walking in back and forth in my driveway, just going over that, breaking it down into pieces, and then trying to put it all together. But it's more than just learning the parts and the different characters, and of course, how you'd want to Uh Do different postures and mannerisms and and different voices for each of the characters.
So that that was harder too. That took more time. You're listening to the truth network at truth network.com.
Okay. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.koloff.net and donate today.
The Manup Show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gayton as one of our longest-running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gayton is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord.
His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice, performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world-renowned speaker, writer, and author. Go to iAssociates.com for more information. Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, The Man-Up Show, and Man-Up Minutes? Go to Koloff.net and click the donate button.
You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. So alright, so pause. A 75-minute play.
Yes, sir. I'm letting this sink into my brain here. And for our listeners out there, a 75-minute play. A one-man act. I mean, you're one man doing 75.
And how many characters total? Probably 30-something when you think about it. 30-something characters that you're going to kind of portray in the 75 minutes of depicting this movie. It's a wonderful life. It's a pretty big task, but the Lord helped me through it.
How long did.
So, like, how many lines did you have to memorize or roughly? Yeah, roughly. Yeah, the. I don't even remember how many pages in the script, but it's probably about 50 or 70 pages, something like that.
Okay. So, um, but um. And I didn't individually count the lines. It was just trying to learn the transitions and one character to the next.
So if George and Mary were speaking, he might look down slightly at her, and of course she would maybe look up to him. Yeah. And then change the voices. And I really tried to do my best, Jimmy Stewart. And I tried to Get down the Sheldon Leonards voice who played Nick the bartender.
Okay. Kind of the New Yorker dude, right? Kind of a New Yorker actor. Yeah, yeah. But everybody else, I just wanted to try to make different, but not necessarily copying that actor.
Like the cab driver, right? And who's the police officer? Was Bert. No, Bert was the cab driver. I think, right?
Ernie was the cab driver.
Okay, and Bert, the cop. I wonder if that's from Sesame Street there. Burton. I don't know. I'm just curious.
People do make that connection, but I'm not sure if it's.
So 30-plus characters, 75 minutes, one man stand-up. I'm just enamored by this. I went to, I actually saw, a little side note here, I went.
somewhat recently to to a one-man two hour production of C. S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis' life story.
Uh-huh. There was a movie. Out on C.S. Lewis. And then the man who starred or played C.S.
Lewis in the movie did a one-man in Charlotte. Oh. And I mean, I walked away just fly like, and there was no break. Like you just went two hours straight. I'm like How do you even wrap?
I couldn't even wrap my head around. I don't even know how many lines he. And of course, he just kind of crisscrossed back and forth on the stage. And is that kind of what you do? Like, you had different, a couple different little sets set up to.
Well, it was. Like I said, we had the script to go by, but then, as far as Josh, my director, and then also Caleb, who helped us get the venue, and myself, we incorporated trying to make one set be all those places. And so in the last chapter in the book, we turned stuff upside down and on its side and different things. Exactly. Yeah, we one.
One thing that might look at it, it looks like the shell of a desk, but turning up on its side, like you said, it was my bar. Uh at uh at Um for Nick's when you're in Bartersville and then the then the other uh and the uh um martinis. Yeah. And um uh and then uh another thing was a bench from my mother's porch. And that was maybe my favorite piece.
But it might be the bench on George's parents' home. And then later in the play, it might be where little Zuzu is sick in her bed, and dad comes to repair her pedals. Yes, yes. Not to give the whole movie away for those who've never seen it, but if you've never seen it or it's been a long time since you've seen it, you don't have to wait till Christmas to see it. You can go see it any, watch it any time of the year.
Let me ask you this, David. How long, like at what age or how long, when did you first get interested in theater? I was always interested in theater.
Okay. And that was something that I loved that my mother and I shared. I would take her to a place. I believe musicals are her favorite.
Something you could do together. Yeah. And but I didn't know that one day later, one day down in the future, I would meet my wife in the theater. I didn't know that. But So I enjoyed doing that.
What else were you at?
Well, just how long? Like, at what age? Like, when did you first? Become interested. Yeah, also, thank you for helping me remember that.
Also, in college, Bobby Moni, my sweet mate, he was big in theater, and I would help him. Get ready for auditions, learning lyrics. To songs or lines or whatever to prepare. But myself, I was timid and afraid to actually audition. And so it wasn't until after college, I did finally audition.
And it was another friend of mine from Lenorine, and his dad had been big in theater there in the past. And we auditioned for Harvey, another Jimmy Stewart. Uh movie you might remem remember. And uh but neither one of us Got cast, but what I heard was, and this isn't literally what they said, but what I heard was, we feel sorry for you, David. Why don't you do props?
Okay. But that's what we did. Eric and David did props. And I told myself, well, Uh uh if somebody another favorite movie's coming up Um The Wizard of Oz.
Okay. If somebody ever does um uh The Wizard of Oz locally, uh uh I'm going to audition for The Lion. That's my favorite character. And so one day that happened and that was technically my f first uh Play.
Okay. So the movies and inspiration for this one-man stand-up, the one-man production play, but also the information for, or the inspiration, excuse me, for the book, 50 Kerley Cues to My Wonderful Life. And, you know, I just looking at the back cover here, you know, life is filled with ups and downs. Boy, don't all of us know that, right? And it's like a roller coaster of a ride.
But you compare the characters from the famous movie, It's a Wonderful Life, you compare that with your own life experiences, right? The past and what's revealed. I like what you say here: you reveal the hidden laugh or even cry or whatever fleeting emotion you're experiencing through life's journey, right? Yeah. Tell me about that.
And so some of the stories as I w when I jotted those different ideas down, um some of them were funny stories that I enjoyed telling people. And some of them were tragic stories that maybe I didn't tell so much. And then some were stories where. It just showed David's faults and flaws and failures.
So you're pretty vulnerable in the book. Yes, I'm vulnerable. But trying to be transparent. Mm-hmm. And um um this just trusts the Lord to um Um To do what he says and to follow his word.
Yeah. And I mean, I loved how you did kind of compare your own life experience with different scenes in the movie. And you wouldn't know this, but I mean, I opened the book up, and here's an assignment from an online creative writing course that asks you to rewrite a favorite poem. And you choose the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. Here's a little funny side note on that.
About a year ago, I was helping out a friend with where she's in she was coaching this high school group, and I was gonna make like a special appearance for the high school group. And she's like, well, what are you going to talk to him about? I go, I came across this poem I think would be pretty interesting to create some conversation. She goes, what's it called? I told her, she goes, You like you really think they're gonna relate to like these are like inner city Boston, right?
You know, kind of underprivileged, right? Students who I go. I don't know, I just feel in my heart.
So I go through kind of paragraph by paragraph this poem with these kids, and at the end of the end of the whole. Coaching at the very end, when they're asked about well, what were some of your favorite things about the coaching this year and this, that, and the other? A couple, three or four were like, man, that poem that that guy Nikita did or whatever, like, really resonated with me. It really spoke to me, or whatever. And sort of a man-up.
In that poem, too. There is a man-up, you know, and of course, you've you've on that note, you've you've attended man camp and experienced that. In fact, thank you for, oh, I go, he put my name in the book. That's pretty cool. And then later there's talked about the man-up, man, the man camp as well.
And was that camp? I mean, we just got a few minutes left here, but was that. Camp a great experience for you? Oh, yes, sir. Yeah, I see Denise over there like shaking her head.
Yes, it's uh it's what would be like maybe one quick highlight for our listeners out there.
Well, um F f A couple of things. Um my my brothers that were in that class. And uh there's a chapter in the book dedicated to every one of them, and I name them by their first names. And uh um my battle buddy Yellow Fox is listed there at the end, and then a couple of other wrestlers are in there too that were in my class. And but and I don't want to speak to everybody's experience is different.
Right.
And I don't want to speak Just to that. But for me, in our quiet time one particular day, I went to you told me you've got this whole wilderness to go out into and be just you and God. And so I found a bench and I got into my Bible and into the materials that we had for the man camp. And after about an hour, I stood up to take a break and I looked back. back behind me in the bench.
It was like a vision that Bench suspended on stones on both sides. they were like the cross piece of the of Jesus' cross to me. And so immediately I felt like those were the sins of all of us that he was carrying. But then the next breath I thought They're my sins. And um And it was impactful to me.
And this is the quiet time, and I learned a lot. You taught me about tithing and offerings and investments and everything. And some of the materials that we had, that was more training than I'd had. It was new to you. Yes, sir.
Well, that's pretty amazing. I appreciate you. Yeah. Putting that in the book and perhaps it'll you know uh Create some curiosity with other readers. And so, where can people go?
If they want to get a copy of five, excuse me, 50 Kerley Cues to My Wonderful Life, where can they go to get a copy? Yes, sir. The publisher is Zulon Press in Florida. That's X-U-L-O-N, P-R-E-S-S. And it's also available on Amazon, Barnes Noble.
Different vendors, facilities like that. There's a lot of different places they could pick up a copy of it. And I just want to encourage you out there, again, maybe you've had that thought of, I should write a book one day, or somebody said to you, you should write a book about your life story. We have no way of knowing how many books could have been written that could have impacted somebody's life but just never got written. The person just never followed through on it.
And, well, and I appreciate you writing the book. I appreciate you coming into the studio today. Thank you for bringing your lovely bride, Denise, along with you over there. Moral support and the rock, the rock. And so I want to create: if you've never, again, if you've never seen the movie, It's a Wonderful Life.
What would be great is for a copy of David's book, watch the movie. I guess you could do it in reverse too, but I think you'd have fun to watch the movie and then read his book and just see how he was able to connect scenes in the movie with some of his own life experiences. And then perhaps, who knows? It may even inspire you or prompt you to write a book. The last thing I'll say is: you know, a mutual friend of ours, Lex Luger, yes, sir, one time was approached to write a book, and he's like, Like, man, who would want to read my book or my life story?
Or what you would, right? You're just one example. I said to like, oh, Lex, I go, dude, your story can impact who knows how many thousands of people. And if it only impacted one, David Kerley, then Lex, there you go. You know, so he did.
He followed through with it. I kind of put the challenge out there to him. It's called A Wrestling with the Devil. And it's an incredible life story of all he went through, all the life challenges that he went through. And so, 50 Kerley cues to my wonderful life.
Just a play on his last name there. Yes, sir. And which is pretty cool. You're going to want to get a copy of this. It's more than just an entertaining read.
Some of his stories in here are really going to grab hold of your heart there and cause you to pause and think about some of the things you have gone through or will go through. Thank you. for being Thank you, sir. I appreciate you very much. Denise, thank you for coming in the studio there.
It's certainly my pleasure. All right. And to all of you out there in Listening Land, man, you guys are so faithful to Dial in each and every week to the Man Up Show and continue to spread the word. We're over 100 countries now that not only this show is listened to on the podcast platform, but also on the radio network, Truth Radio Network. Go out today and just live a God-filled and have a God-blessed day.
Until next time. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God. and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to kolof.net and donate.
Per day. If you are enjoying the Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up Show now available on television, broadcast, and podcast.
Go to MonestarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings, or better yet. Download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Koloff here. If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle.
Winston-Salem motor cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, be sure to check them out today at WSMCthenumberone.com because you are number one. This is the Truth Network. Yeah.
