City of Dreams: Unveiled

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k u and v studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Good morning dreamers and creators. You're tuned in to the City of Dreams unveiled. Your monthly deep dive into the pulsing heart of Las Vegas is art and entertainment scene.

Unknown Speaker 0:27
I'm your host, Jeff Lowen. Here to peel back the layers of creativity and inspiration that fuel our city's most innovative minds.

Unknown Speaker 0:43
I'm super excited to host Josh Levine, founder of fired up management on today's show. Welcome, Josh. Oh my gosh. Thank you, Jeff, for inviting me to the beautiful UNLV Yeah, it's great. I'm so you, I'm super excited to interview you. Because you are like, a dynamic arts culture or continuous cough. Exactly. enthusiast you work in the field. You let's start with your background. So where are you from originally. So first off, thank you, right, like i Las Vegas is home for me now. And it truly is my community I feel is like a true home to me.

Unknown Speaker 1:21
Born and raised in San Diego, left San Diego with LA to be an actor, which hold other adventure, another adventure.

Unknown Speaker 1:30
And then just I would say I've been to Burning Man like once or twice or three times. So I've been going for a while. And truly

Unknown Speaker 1:37
it's to help artists, like believe in themselves and be that cultural translation bridge to brands to consumers that the artists need. Okay, right. So let's unpack so your west coast, you move to Los Angeles and you just breezed over that you are an actor. So let's first unpack that. So did you go to school for acting? No, because acting was beautiful that there's only a few industries that you can wake up and have the confidence to do? Yes. Which is mostly creative, acting, dancing. Chef, you and I can't walk into CSI night and like cuts are wide open. Right? So I just decided I want to chase my dream. I wanted to go to LA and become an actor. And with my unique look when I see it oh my face for radio. But yeah, for the outside. So if you've never met Josh, he's got this really big, dark curly hair. That kind of is is your brand in one sense, because I know when we talked about your acting like you would get cast in roles because of your luck. I was one of only four guys with afros in 2002. So we were looking at I did CSI New York milk in the middle Gilmore Girls.

Unknown Speaker 2:52
Milk and all types of I did the Bernie man episode and Malcolm in the Middle. Okay, right. So

Unknown Speaker 2:58
I started a management company up there was a partner of mine, plus a production company. So I was really able to get deep into this clients, you know, the management side of what that is finding out what I truly loved, which is, you know, taking care of, you know,

Unknown Speaker 3:14
I guess people but in the industry of like artist, actors, or ruff,

Unknown Speaker 3:19
ruff. Yep. So you are an actor? Are you still an actor? Might you consider that? No, okay, you've retired?

Unknown Speaker 3:26
How long did you do it? 15 years. 15 years. Okay, so 2008? Yeah, the strike came. Okay. And I took off back to San Diego to take care of my grandmother. She was passing. Yep. And just started like falling by, you know, dream of fired up. Okay. So you you're acting, and then talk to me about the management company that you started with your friend? Like, did you know that that was something you wanted to transition to? Or was it more of, like, this is an opportunity, I see that I could excel at, like, what was what was driving you at that point? Well, I didn't really know, at that time. And that was something that just because we don't know, doesn't mean that we shouldn't, you know, like, follow our instinct, right? And follow that universe where it's kind of pushing,

Unknown Speaker 4:08
actually was amazing. It was fun. But at the end of the day, I just didn't. It wasn't what I wanted. Now, the management side that we had, was amazing, because I got to like, make relationships and like, start producing and start doing things like that, that actually are more creative than, you know, standing in front out of Doritos commercial, right? He like He went that way. And were you managing other actors or ad clients, so writers, directors, actors, everything. Okay, so and we had some pretty big names at the time. But she was an eighth a Strike Commander, which was ushering in new media and not streaming. I saw the writing on the walls. Yep. And I didn't want to I want to work with myself. If I were I wanted to do it because like, I love what I do. Ups and downs because there's a lot of ups and downs but if we can enjoy the ups and downs and that's the balance. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
I want to talk more about working for yourself later on down when when we transitioned to Vegas, so you had this company with your friend. And then where was the transition to Las Vegas? So, in 2008, when the strike came, I decided that's when I went back to San Diego to take care of my grandma. And she was passing. Yes. So I sold a half to my partner, and kind of left LA, just to kind of try to go find myself again. Okay, came back after grandma passed. I got into a relationship, and then we moved back to Los Angeles. And la just I didn't like LA. So I was to get to Vegas. I was part of the Tony Shea era. Okay, like wrestling power, my brother? Yeah, like, yes.

Unknown Speaker 5:47
An amazing soul. And he, we connected early, and then he kind of brought me out here to shoot a video for him. And then we started talking art. I mean, then it just goes into their, you know, the classic, you know, brotherhood, right of the people here in Vegas. And I wasn't really a fan of Vegas because the strip, and I've learned the strip is Vegas, and the community as Las Vegas. And I fell in love with it to see like downtown or from a different perspective of what that is. Vegas is truly the one it was amazing place in the world. And I really wouldn't want to live anywhere else about house here.

Unknown Speaker 6:25
So seeing the difference with that is, Vegas is you know, my Oh, okay. Yeah. And that's, that's part of the show is like, Vegas is a hidden gem for people in the entertainment industry in the arts and culture field. Like, I don't think people understand like the plethora of, you know, resources we have here. We, we are a true entertainment capital. We have 40 million visitors that come here. And I love every one of them. Please come and you know, enjoy Las Vegas and all the fun and go downtown and go to the parks and see the strip. It's amazing. You know that we have that? Sorry. With all the casinos too. You know, we're one horse town. But we're growing now we have another horse is sports. Yes. Yep. From entertainment to sports to

Unknown Speaker 7:13
entertainment. Exactly. Yep. And arts and culture is the next big push. I believe in what we're going to see in the expansion of Las Vegas, Metro City. 100% look at what's going on already with area 15 And be our authors, you know, and

Unknown Speaker 7:29
which is that's why so exciting. Because we're so young here, like 100 years ago in New York, there's five boroughs and skyscrapers and some egg. Like we're, we're just starting. Yes, they're just starting up. Okay, so you're living in Los Angeles, you're coming to Vegas. So I was flying here 50 times 50 times a year. So literally, almost every week, I would go to Burbank and like, our flight, I'd get out. I am like, dude, like, Josh. Here's your gin and tonic. And I'm like, come on BB. You know, I do a double. How are we to get through the day. And it was just, we're gonna buy a house in LA. But it just wasn't wasn't right. So I basically came here to like, grow fired up. And so Eric bakes the big cabinet was air 15 found me and was like, Do you want to cure it and be our curator at the Sultan phrase routine for art Island. Okay, so for those viewers who don't know what area 15 Is what give us I know, there might be a few. But what exactly is area 15? Era 15 is an immersive, like broad stroke like mall the future, okay. Like an entertainment complex entertainment complex district is a district of

Unknown Speaker 8:41
multiple experiences that are family friendly, which is crazy here in Las Vegas, that has amazing people back in like Winston Fisher in the Fisher brothers and the whole entire team is such a genuine, like, company and cruise that they that brings the energy because if you don't have fun on the walk, the destination will have the residue of being authentic. Absolutely. Yep. So aligned with that all the way. And they're taking over the other side of the strip, which is like, ooh, the west side of the west side of I 1500. Basically, yeah. Okay, so you're flying back and forth. What What's your roll capacity that they? So I was working with Zappos, we're doing a bunch of our media for all their events and rented them all their art, our cars and things like that. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 9:30
And then then it just grew, you know, and once once I was able to come here, like stay downtown at like, at Tony's place and like, actually see the difference? I fell in love. Yeah, you know, I miss the biggest I'm not here. Yeah, the true 24 hour city. Yes. So you were somewhat of an art curator for them bringing in large pieces of art from artists around the world from local artists. So so really from Burning Man

Unknown Speaker 10:00
On to local artists to, you know, around the world. But it really kind of started at Burning Man, I've just kind of like seeing the change and taking care of the artists that are there. Because I that was counterculture. And now we are the culture. So therefore, like they just need be taken care of, and also brings art into the communities that are sitting in storage is, you know, there's so much art that goes through there. Once that kind of grew, then everything washed up on my beach. Yep. So fired up management is a what kind of company we are a creative consulting and artists management firm. Okay, yeah. So if someone's in the market to buy a piece of large scale art, inflatable, anything, you cover the whole gamut, this reward any type of art, production fabrications, anything weird. Anything, you know, brokered, sold, anything like that. You got to fire it up. But if you do you have to blow fire on fire. skeeball All right. We'll unpack that in another minute.

Unknown Speaker 11:03
Okay, so let's transition to Burning Man. When When was your first time? Burning Man? first show was 9999 Okay, and you were in LA at this time? I was actually in San Diego. What you in high school or?

Unknown Speaker 11:17
I think I was like 24 I was the only one old enough to actually rent the car rented like a Dodge. White Dodge Neon. Okay, heard about Burning Man on E entertainment channel like wild on e and it was just like a little snippet of like, regional Light Festival. And I like fire. So one of my friends. So heard about it Monday, showed my friends Tuesday, rented a car Wednesday, Thursday, that was already on. And it should have Thursday, bought a ticket out the door and changed my life. So literally the door for some reason. I don't believe Burning Man has a door.

Unknown Speaker 11:52
Well, they do.

Unknown Speaker 11:54
But at the gates. You can't buy tickets at the gate and yeah, but $75 It was 20,000 people at the time. Okay, now 80,000 Yeah. Was there something when you attended Burning Man that was like a transitional point of like, this is this is where I feel like I'm at home or, like, did you? Did you relate to the art? Or like what was the draw that instantly? Because you've been there? How many years? 2424 Yeah, so clearly, there's something that keeps bringing you back. What brings you back every year is that every year is different. So it's not like going to Disneyland. It's not like going anywhere. Whatever you see that year is gone. And then next year, like you're gonna do it again. Oh my god, like I man. And it was it is very inclusive. It is very

Unknown Speaker 12:47
you there's nowhere else like in the world that makes it as free as Burning Man.

Unknown Speaker 12:53
As you know, no festivals because not a festival to city etc is one small shell shell on the beach and Burning Man. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's

Unknown Speaker 13:04
I'm very, you know, happy to be part of the growth and help so many artists be able to take their art to the masses, you know, now if I was a I was an artist and I wanted to go to Burning Man, I wanted to bring a you know, a piece of art they're like in they came to you and Josh What do I do? How do I do this? Like I really have this great idea. Are you the person who can mentor them? hold their hand can you say don't do it? What's your fuel point I could write like everyone should experience that kind of on their own. Burning Man is extreme. So it's not you can't go home when you go there. So it's to bring art of course I would love to mentor anyone and give them all the knowledge they need to do that I but I will you know I don't take any art there anything that I purchase or anything like that never goes back? It's I mean besides Murphy myself is you know it's I actually was talking to someone today and they want to get giant LED sculpture out there and I was just like look honestly like that'd be destroyed you have to have the mentality What do you take out there it's gonna get might get destroyed lights you know sound equipment. There's just a lot and then Burning Man is really intense. So you're going to be out there like working really hard which people want to do that. That's what I respect. But I don't

Unknown Speaker 14:31
and I have not been yet It's on my bucket list. You don't need to go because Burning Man is everyone Burning Man is is a is a mindset. Okay, not a place. Okay, so I mean we're living in Burning Man in Vegas like stratosphere. That's the man at the strip. That's Senator camp. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 14:48
And that's always the best thing but of course, like you have to see the Eiffel Tower One time in your life. Yes. Yeah. So were you there last year when it flooded? mazing but one of the best brands ever. Really? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
What was the longest burn? So you got the most for your money. It's like Leap Year burn. Okay, they even burn the man. It's like the following week. Yeah, like I when they burned the man, usually we're home.

Unknown Speaker 15:09
And it was like it was amazing. Because never that's never happened. Yeah, like in that intense, you know, because it's the elements that you're out. Of course you have no idea what's going to happen. Well, it's usually dust and heat. Okay. Never rain that turns into like, mud. They never close the playa. They've never done it. They've never postponed the man. Yeah, so it was it was historic. Yep. So I should get my tickets now and just plan on doing it. Tickets are the good to go. Excellent. Okay, so let's transition back to Vegas.

Unknown Speaker 15:46
You came, you mentioned Tony Shea. Did he have an influence on you? You know, 100% Okay, in what way? Tony was an amazing, amazing, brilliant soul. And he was really good at connecting people. Okay, and I have some luck. I tell you when I met young, it's true. That's how you and I met. So that's the beauty, you know, beauty of what he did. And and, you know, I miss him. I mental health is very serious. Right. And

Unknown Speaker 16:19
it was I'm honored and grateful that we were part of that era, because it really didn't shave what Las Vegas is. Downtown Las Vegas, Fremont Street. Like, there's so many things that, you know, he put his hand on and really helped and most people don't know that from because that's a good man from behind the scenes. Yes. So, and with Zappos downtown. Oh, the impact. Amazing. Yep. You know? Yep.

Unknown Speaker 16:44
And not everything worked. But you're gonna have to like break some eggs for an omelette. Not all paintings come out. Great. Yeah, so you have to keep painting. Yeah. Isn't that art? At the end of the day? Creativity goes to art. Yep, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 16:56
Okay, founding fired up management?

Unknown Speaker 17:00
Did you have a vision of like, how you could influence the Las Vegas community? Or is there like your mission of like, you want to mentor artists grow art like that. So I work with this. I work with the county and I work with the city on multiple projects. And coming to Las Vegas with Eric Chang being a part of that, like sea change is amazing. And that's what I was like, I want to build my company here. And with Tony and

Unknown Speaker 17:31
the community what I learned and founded, it was amazing. And there's so many great artists in Las Vegas, like oh my god, Eric for solo overall, like Charleston? Yes. Color therapy. Ridiculous, right? wish she was nicer. Just don't get me. Eric's

Unknown Speaker 17:48
so many great artists there. And not just like physical painters, but photographers and dancers. And we're the entertainment capital. So that's why I wanted to build my company here. Yep. Where do you look for inspiration in Las Vegas? Like where can you discover new artists? Or is it just, you know, through your network? I love so locally, it's obviously First Friday, First Friday, there's a great, you know, wealth of like artists over there, but locally to have just friends and through multiple

Unknown Speaker 18:22
locations, right, that, you know, we could find it help people, but I'm always, you know, I would love to see some sort of like, public art programs, right that like some sort of like mentoring, where people can come and you know, do something like that which we go. Yep. And I do know, the city is really, you know, they did the second annual art Summit, which was a great opportunity. It was there with you. Yep. And I think like anybody who's interested in supporting the arts, you don't even have to be an artist, but you just want to support it and grow it. Everyone has artists. Yep. Everyone's an artist. It's a perspective. Yeah. Not like any, you know, talent. It's something that it's art because we say it's art. Yes. Yeah, that's, you know, a beautiful thing. What's your couldn't be free? Because if, you know, if art was in a box, you know, it's hard to unpack creativity. Right. Yeah. You mentioned your involvement with the city and county. Yeah. What's that look like? So I've done a project with the city right now. I have two contracts with the county. We're doing the pillars of strength at the county courthouse. Courthouse, which is going to be absolutely amazing. Yep. Rainbow dichro pieces that are gonna cast you know, Rainbow shadows, you know, all through the interior. Yeah. Amazing. Next one is desert breeze. We're doing a giant LED flower for the desert breeze Event Center. Okay, yeah. When will that be installed? Desert breeze it'll be before the end of the year. Okay. Yeah, so relatively soon. They're gonna open desert breeze. 2420 2025. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 19:52
For an artist who lives here and works here and maybe doesn't have the momentum that they're looking for.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
or, or maybe, you know, they run up against brick walls? Like, have you encountered that in your business dealings in Las Vegas? And if so, how have you overcome it? To be creative? You have to kind of have a thick skin to really put yourself out there. Yeah. So there's gonna be hurdles, there's gonna be brick walls. There's gonna I mean, the contract right now, the county has been a year and nine months. Okay. Right. So it's like you have at patience. Not take things personally. Yeah, right. That's a hard thing. You know?

Unknown Speaker 20:35
Figure out what you want to do with your art. Either it's art to do, or it's art, to have a business. Okay, those are two separate things. Because if it's a business, then you can you promote yourself differently. And, and not have so much attachment.

Unknown Speaker 20:52
And when it's personal, in which both are fine, but they have to have expectations. So they're like, why isn't my stuff selling? Well, this is your passion project. So you're not really focused on it. Right? If you're gonna sell red balls all day, what people want, that's a business. Yes. And they're like, Well, I'm an artist. I'm not. Don't tell me what to do. Cool. Your parents basement is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. But it truly is a mentality. Like you have to get into it for one or the other. And both are great. You can do either one. Or you could do both at the same time. It's more about trusting yourself. Yes. Love yourself. And like leaning on our instinct. And it's okay to say though, there's someone's trying to like, here's $3 For it's like, no, you know, that helps everyone else and yourself. Yes. I also think probably correct me if I'm wrong. Your acting background is being told no. So many times. holy. Holy smokes. Yes. I've been told no. So many. Like, it's so brutal. The acting, it's like, what's your name? Mike. It's Josh thrall. Thanks. It's not use your face. Send an x ray. And it looks like you right? Yeah. And I'm like, I drove four hours from Santa Monica to Hollywood for this. Yes. But again, that's going back to Yeah, if you want to succeed in this business, you're going to be told no, but you just have to, you have to get in the trenches to, like, no one's gonna do it for you. So you have to get out there and do it. Like whether that's online, or whether that's doing art shows, pop ups, renegades, just to get yourself in front of certain people. You know, it's just exciting, because you could you know, but it's also how much drive does someone have right now wants to do it? Yep. That's the hardest thing. Do you jump out of the bed in the morning? Because you're so passionate about what you're doing?

Unknown Speaker 22:38
So, Larry, and I wrestle for a little while. Wait, who's Larry? So Larry has my letters by Chief dog officer. Okay. Yeah. Larry and I wrestled the morning, but but, you know, I absolutely. I love what I do. And some days are hard. And some days I get kicked in the teeth and but

Unknown Speaker 22:58
most days are not. And like I every day, every day, I'm just beyond grateful that we get to sit here. Talk about art and like,

Unknown Speaker 23:08
help the community grow not just artists, but putting art in the communities because art does change. People they you know, it's weird. It's not weird. It's just, it's amazing. What art color just that type of stuff in the pelvic like, area does for people. And they don't even know. Yeah, so it's like, it's why I love Las Vegas, because they have a very open mind. municipality wise. Yeah. And I think that's such a key component. Like, it's a community that really supports each other hundreds that we are in multifaceted diamond here in Las Vegas. Yeah, a melting pot. Yeah. Which is amazing. Like,

Unknown Speaker 23:48
it's, it's so great to have. So such a deep culture that we can extract, you know, artists and creativity to put in our, you know, entertainment city, right? Do you feel people are assessable in Las Vegas?

Unknown Speaker 24:05
I mean, I've been trying to get Tom Jones for a while, but it

Unknown Speaker 24:08
depends on who they are. But But creativity, like, like, you just have, like, people are scared to ask, you know, if you're, you know, sandwich maker and I'm hungry. I'm like, sandwich. Yes. And it's okay. Like, you can say no, and it's not a personal slight. But it's great. Like, I'm people should ask, you know, people shouldn't send emails to people they want to ask questions for Yeah, I mean, the celebrities are gonna be harder, just really hard to guess.

Unknown Speaker 24:37
But I truly believe that too, like people are intimidated, or they're, they're scared that they're gonna get the rejection again, but it's really like, what does it hurt to send an email? I mean, it doesn't, you know, more likely you're gonna get a response back. Yeah, because you made that first move. And if you don't move on to the next Yes, but at least you tried. Yeah. And you know, if you paint 10 strokes like one will be good.

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Yes. Is there anybody in town that you'd want to collaborate with? Whether it be an artist or,

Unknown Speaker 25:08
you know, a hotel or business? You know, it's, like, I'm so grateful to work with the county and the city. And, you know, obviously, airfare to me off and stuff.

Unknown Speaker 25:21
I would love to work more with the community. Right and more of the community artist. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 25:28
But like I said, we're just starting here. Yes, nothing happens overnight.

Unknown Speaker 25:34
100% So we got to be patient. Yeah. We're not we're changing lives, not saving lives. Okay. Right. So it's like, we don't have to be so strict balance of life and work. Right. Work. If you do a balance that both are, you know, happy. Yep. If you had any advice for a local artists trying to, you know, get their our art seen or sold, or, you know, what's one piece of advice that so there's a lot of really great galleries around town. Yeah, you know, killing trends and robins work downtown and multiple other smaller like galleries to go in there. Make a friend and really push because with YouTube with Instagram, it's just, you know, you drive that. So it's like, once again, take that risk. Go make a friend. Do some sort of program around the city. You can't do that in LA. You can't do that in Texas. You can't do that in Miami. But you can do that here. Yep. Amazing. Okay, personal side. Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do outside of the business world of art? So my favorite Casino? Yeah, the best ever. I went all the time. Usually, our antique stores. Like major pillars South Main Street, Charleston.

Unknown Speaker 26:54
I love antichi I love MCM swap meets thrift stores, you know, things like that. Yeah. So it's just and then of course, you know, dancing. We also real scream disco for me. So he got all the all the fun places. Yeah. But yeah, it's it's great place to great city to unwind.

Unknown Speaker 27:14
Yep. Amazing. All right, Josh, thank you for sharing your story.

Unknown Speaker 27:21
I know we'll have you as another guest on another episode. And then we're up to work on the fired up shot toe. All right. Give me Give me the lowdown on the chateau. What's secrets. So Stratos? Is my headquarters for fire management. Okay, are down downtown on Fremont Street.

Unknown Speaker 27:39
Can anybody just show up here? Is there an address you'd like to share?

Unknown Speaker 27:44
Notes? You can easily invite only members only club we're doing a fire happy hour, once a month we're going fireside chats. Okay, and things like that. So obviously we you know, we're spread the word when the words ready. Yeah. But it's exciting to have something downtown and keep the historic vibe of downtown and we're told his dream was and what the community's dream was. Yeah. So it's going to be like a networking opportunity. In a really cool space that you have to have the secret code to get into you can play fire skeeball you can like fire birthday cake or El Popo or you can ride a dinosaur. Okay, it sounds like no fun at all. It's not a serious we are very serious. We're professionally weird. Exactly. Fired Up management is professionally weird history. I love that. Thank you again. They've been on the show today.

Unknown Speaker 28:34
Yet, tune in next time for the City of Dreams at 9am on July 28. Remember to keep supporting your local artists. This is Jeff Lund, and see you next time we love Jeff

Transcribed by https://otter.ai