Celebrity Jobber with Jeff Zito - Corbin Bernsen

Hey, thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber podcast. I'm Jeff Zito, currently number three on the Apple Podcast Music Interviews chart. So thank you so much for listening. We're streaming everywhere, whether it's Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. And please subscribe, hit that subscribe button. We'd love a five star rating. And if you could leave a review, you can go back in time, check out all of our past guests and episodes simply by going to celebrityjobber.com. You know, try to figure out who these people were a little bit before fame, what they did for a living, if they were always doing what they were famous for, or maybe they were in a completely different field altogether. We'll find out what their big break was, the moment that changed everything for them in their career. And you know, everybody's had a first job, so we'd like to find out what that was. Because when thinking about it, you would think that there's one particular first job in mind, but there's not. It's like a few different jobs. Like if you asked me what my very first job was, I'd say newspaper route. But then do you really consider that a job? I mean, it was because I was making a few bucks every week. It was cash, no paycheck. But as I got a little older, I got into high school, was 15 or 16 years old. I got a job at a dinner theater. And then after that, I worked in the cart barn of an exclusive golf course, cleaning clubs for members. So you know, when you ask somebody what their very first job was, generally they give you a list of a few different ones like I just gave you right there. But we're not talking about me today, thank God. My life's definitely not as interesting, not to mention I'm not a celebrity or famous. But Corbin Bernsson is, you know, I'm from the soap opera, Ryan's Hope or LA Law. Of course, he played the role of Roger Dorn in the movie Major League and the few sequels the Major League franchise had after that with Charlie Sheen and Tom Beringer. I would love to see those guys get back together again. So a few things I didn't know about Corbin Bernsson before I started talking to him. He's in a new movie which is currently in theaters and I believe being released digitally today. It's called The Yeti and we'll talk a little bit about his family, what they did for a living, Corbin's big break, his first job, all that stuff. He played the role of Roger Dorn in the movie Major League. His name is Corbin Bernsson. He's my guest this week on Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five star rating and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you pop. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? We're about to find out. Good morning Corbin, how are you? Are you related to Andy Zito? I don't think so but the older I get the more Zitos kind of seem to be popping up here. The horse trainer not related to the pitcher from the A's not related to so but maybe somewhere down the line. Right. Here's a here's a funny thing. Corbin, I had no idea. I've known you forever. Not personally but Roger Dorn, Ryan's Hope, LA Law never knew your mom was K Chancellor. I watched the young and the restless from the time I was a little kid with my mom. So I had no idea that was your mom. Yeah, she was. God bless her. I miss her. Yeah, she was a wonderful, wonderful lady. There's so many things as funny as you get older and I'm 71 now. There are just times in your life you want, you just want your mother around. You just want a question or two. You just want to share something. I want to share the ups, share the fears. And you lose that. And I've been married to a wonderful woman, Amanda Pays for 37 years. It's not the same though. Just not. Yes. Even though she's a wonderful mother to our kids. Yeah, just times I just want to, especially this wacky world of acting, this profession I've chosen. You know, you just want to, she's the one who urged me to train myself or get trained if I want to be an actor. Don't just do it for the money and the girls and the cars and the flash and all that bling. Do it because train and you'll learn to really love what you do. You love the craft. And yeah, there's so many things that I like to do. I do now that she'll never get to know or see or maybe, I don't know, some way. Any advice you can give people who are at that stage in life that are thinking about their parents every day and losing them because they're, they're getting up. Me, I've got my dad's 90. Any advice that you can give to people who are in that stage? Well, there's an obvious one. And I think a lot of people have this regret. You know, there were times before it all and it went rather quickly when it went. So you kind of can't make up for it. But you know, just, did I call enough? Did I check in enough? Did I, you know, even with my own kids, it's like, you know, and they're pretty good about checking in, but, you know, I know now how much I love it when they call, Hey, dad, just want to say hi. I don't need, I don't need advice. I don't need to even share anything. Just want to say hi and hear your voice. And you know, there's sometimes I think, gosh, did I do that at the end? Be there because you can't imagine what this stage of life is like when you're younger. You can't, when you're, when you're, when your days become less than more. And you know, it's not necessarily fear. It's just, it's the winding down and, and you know, kids don't, you just don't get that. You know, you can't possibly understand it. And it is a time where you want to sort of connect with family. And so I just say, be there for them. Doesn't mean you have to go every day. You know, I've heard people go see their mother or call every day. Just stay in touch and do it with a just checking in on how you doing. Right. You think you're right on. You think you want to share with me, you know, right on. Yeah. That's, that's it's life and it sucks all the way back. I mean, obviously now that I know that your mother was a very famous actress, this has been the norm for you. You started when you were just a kid. You don't know anything else other than this. Do you Corbin? Have you ever had a job outside of show business? Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. Corbin, have you ever had a job outside of show business? Oh, yeah. I mean, I used to frame houses. I was a friend or I was a, yeah, so I put myself through college. I framed, I do know construction very well. My wife and I flip homes, build homes. We were very much into house building. You know, I have other interests, obviously, but I did work as a carpenter. I still do. I mean, I still, I've got, my wife said the other day, because I have a garage full of tools and I've even updated. I've gone from corded tools to wireless to battery operated. And she said, when are you going to get rid of tools? I go, no, I'm a carpenter. Take them and do something when I'm gone, but my tools stay with me. So what was your very first job? You remember, I think it was on stage. Was it on stage? But your very first paying job and your whole life was when you were very young, right? Well now interesting. My really my, you're one of my first, first. I want to know your first job. Yes. When I was a kid, I got this little electric car my mother bought me a little thing, put you had to charge it and you could drive like 20 minutes on it. It was a little electric car, a plug-in little other kids had go-karts, gas go-karts, I guess I had this little kind of electric car. I lived about a half a mile from a bus stop where people changed buses. It was a transfer bus stop. If you had to get off one to go to the next place or all the other places. And I decided in the days of when we did lemonade stands as kids that like, no, I'm going to kit up my little electric car. I'm going to take refreshments to this bus stop. And I used to park myself there. I'd make like a hundred bucks a day. You're kidding me. I made like a hundred bucks. And that's then that's 1965 or so. I'd make sometimes up to a hundred bucks a day by just taking Coca-Cola drinks, young charging. I'd get them for whatever it was in 30 cents or something. Probably charged a buck. And I would, my mother would bring refills to the plate. So much so, the police actually kind of could stop me. And I was just doing too much business. And they were saying, you got to get a business license. And we're not sure you should even be doing this. You're like 11, you know? Wow. I was very entrepreneurial in those days. That was my very first job. And my first acting gig was, I don't know, even it says on IMDB and all that, that was in clam bake with Elvis. I was a baby. I think I was visiting the set or something. Right. Okay. Okay. That's what happened. But one of my first jobs was, my first job really acting that didn't involve my parents because they were in the business or people they knew is I did an episode of police story series that was on. And then I did a police woman, which was kind of part of the same family. That was it. First professional gigs. Yeah. Wow. Tell me, was there a moment that really changed everything for you? Was it a gradual kind of grind until, you know, you got LA law? LA law. That was, you know, overnight. Overnight. Yeah. I mean, practically considering we, I was nothing, I hadn't shot anything. I, we shot the first day, the second day they said, and we were the director, Greg Hobbett, wonderful director came up and just said, keep doing what you're doing. It's great. And the next thing I know I'm nominated for an Emmy and I'm like, really? Me? My squeaky little voice isn't even that good. And Stephen Bocco said, you're going to get nominated. You'll see. And from there, everything kind of just popped. You know, it's a funny business. You know, when you, when you're hot, the streak is good. It just begets other stuff. And when your streak ends, you've got to go back and grind it back out. And by the way, for everybody, save for maybe Tom Cruise, I don't know. You know, Kevin Costner was a massive actor. And then he got on TV and he's trying something else in a film that doesn't quite work. And then he, you know, there's, for everybody, there's ups and downs, literally. But you know, it's, it's, it's working through those down periods, just staying in the game. I mean, if you're a sports person, you know, and you're in a slump, they'll, you know, a lot of people just keep you in the game. They won't take you out. You know, the only way to get out of a slump is stay in the game and get that next hit, you know, right? And Corbin, I mean, we're talking LA laws in the 80s. So any time between college and LA law, you're thinking to yourself, man, I don't know. I don't know. You know, maybe I should try something else. Any, any thoughts? No, no, no. You know, when I, my parents were both in the business, my father was an agent, became a producer, not very successful, a good man, taught me a lot of things. My mother was a soap opera actress, had ideas of a bigger career, but sort of need to support the family and work and she did a soap for almost 40 years, right up to a couple of weeks before she passed. And there was a time I went like, I don't want you know, we'd have cars and nice fancy cars and they'd be repossessed the next week. And you know, we had money, we'd take a nice fancy trip. Then it was like, you know, go get a job doing something because we can't pay for stuff. And I thought, I don't want anything to do with that. So that period you're talking about, I didn't want anything to do with it. I, I didn't want to be in the business. I had friends whose parents were doctors and lawyers. And I, I didn't want anything to do until I actually did a little part. And then I kind of got a piece of it and my mother said, go train. I went to UCLA. I learned the craft, appreciated it. And that point, it didn't really matter the ups and I mean, I still get periods of like, you know, I'm 71 now. It's like, you know, what, what's my, what's my next step? Although it seems to be revealing itself day by day, but, but it doesn't matter because I so love what I do. You know, if I'm acting in a community theater or a big film or an independent film like the Yeti, I'm happy. I'm, I'm the celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. The celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. And Corbin, tell me about the Yeti because this is your, your latest step in this thing. I saw the trailer, which reminded me of like the old werewolf. Is, is the Yeti bigfoot because, you know, there's a, there's a. Yeti. It's a, it's a, it's a, that mythical creature. Yeah. I mean, it's been called bigfoot, the Yeti, the abominable snowman, all that. And that doesn't matter as much as there is a creature out there that summons our fears. And at the same time, the thing I love about this, this film is that it in a way that Rod Serling did with Twilight Zone, it's not so much about seeing the monster being scared, the monster popping out of the dark. It is about the psychological terror and horror that the people go through knowing that something's out there, something's lurking out there. And is there, or they happen to be in its path because of their own, you know, greed and their own screwing around with nature. And, and that to me is the bigger, bigger picture here. And that's why it's, it's not a horror film in that young three teenage girls go into the woods and get slashed up. It's not that kind of a horror film, more of a psychological thriller horror about man and who we are and what do you, you know, the horror that we create in our own lives, which I think we can look all around and see it happening as we speak today. Sometimes, you know, you look at those pictures of Artemis and you see him go like, what are we doing? That little thing down there that I'm looking over at the news there and rockets are blowing up all this stuff and thing like, what are we doing? We're doing. We're doing. It's funny. There hasn't been that much of a connection between these two events. But like, you know, or nobody on any like, or does anybody in any of these countries go, wait a minute, ridiculous, you know. But that's what we do. That's man. That's man. That's us. We are the horror. You know, is this a is this a kind of genre that you appreciate? I do. I really do. Because look, I'll go watch a good, not slasher so much, but horror pictures, you know, stuff popping out of the dark and but I always am more drawn when it has some at least some element of human nature that we're exploring. You know, I mean, even if you want to go to the classic slasher, you kind of movies, it's always the Virgin, the girl that doesn't, you know, that doesn't get killed, the Neve Campbell, you know. And even in that, when it's done properly, it does say something about the person that holds a moral, you know, a moral compass that doesn't get taken out. It's always the bad ones, the bad kids. That's sort of a light version of it, but the darker stuff are fears and the things we uncover for greed. And, you know, the nature that we mess with is far more interesting to me. Yeah, I love anything that has that stuff. Like I said, I was a huge Rod Serling fan. And the Yeti, correct me if I'm wrong. I was in theaters starting on the fourth and now a digital release coming on April 10th. Is that correct? And if you're so lucky tonight, if you're going to head to AMC, Chuck, AMC theaters, it is playing on a big screen. I believe it looks wonderful on a big screen. I bet. I bet. I mean, it reminds me of the old school Wolfman horror kind of. And it's something I haven't seen lately. And Bigfoot Yeti still gets a lot of attention from a lot of people. They still think it's a you believe in it. You think you think it's real? Sure. It's funny, I was looking at it with all this stuff going on. I was looking again at the whole thing comes up. I don't know if we're all these feeds come in about like, did we really land on the moon? Right. Did who shot JFK? There are these unsolved mysteries. Um, I like to think, sure, why not? I don't, I don't need to say it did or it didn't or it exists or it doesn't. You know, I'm the older I get. I'm very happy to live in the unknown. Right. Sure. And I would be remiss if I didn't ask you major league. The celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Zito celebrity jobber. And I would be remiss if I didn't ask you major league. Right. I mean, I mean, just one of my that's one of my OK. I'm big sports fan, brother in law, played pro baseball, my son, college baseball. And I know Roger Dorn made a return as the manager. Is there any talks anyway? You could shut a guy like me up the next stage, the next level. Is there ever talks between some of the guys about maybe maybe? What would that mean? I mean, what would it mean? You know, we're going to be players. All of us would have to be retired. I mean, look, it's the loan. He's figured it out. But there's a way to figure it out. I have an idea. There is a thing that I want to do with Tom and Charlie that's not part of the franchise, but makes you think about it a bit. It's a baseball zombie movie. OK, that's not what I was thinking. But no, of course it's not. That's good, because I like it. I'm with Rod Sterling out there. I have some ideas. I have some designs. I think, you know, I'm 71. There's like a narrow down my people have bucket list where they want to go. I have bucket list of what I still want to make. And I think there's a value to Tom, Charlie and I get back together for something in the genre. Great. But will it be major league? I know that's out of our control. So but the three of us certainly given each of our kind of character qualities, if you will, that were major league that could be transferred to another film. You said bucket list. Can you give me one? Is there one thing that you're like, I just got to do this? I got to work with this guy. You got to make this movie. What is that bucket list thing? I've got several projects. One is a play called Public Executions about the first live televised public executions for. Wow. Profit. My baseball movie, zombie baseball movie is one. And I'm actually working on a series that actually funded the pilot called Woodstockers. I've had two guys who went to Woodstock and never left sort of a dark comedy drama. And you'll be hopefully hearing more about that in the next year. I really thought you were kidding about the zombie baseball movie, but you're not. You said you're dead. Pardon the pun. The Yeti, it's going to be in theater. It's in theaters now being released digitally on April 10th. And it definitely looks like something that I haven't seen in a long time. Any kind of these horror genre type of films. This is this. I mean, Bigfoot is is is hot right now. So the Yeti Corbin Bernstein, it's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you a little bit. And thanks so much for for taking the time. I do appreciate it. We'll review this. The Yeti is real. Great. And I'll leave you with this. Don't give me any of that. Oh, lay bullshit, darn. That's a little outside. You know, I wish I thought about it a little more before I threw the idea about, you know, Tom Beringer, Charlie Sheen and Corbin getting into another major league type of thing and kind of put me on the spot. But, you know, if I would just thought about it a little while longer, maybe you could have like Tom Beringer, he was the catcher in major league. Maybe he's the manager and Charlie Sheen. Wild thing. Ricky Vaughn, he's the pitching coach. And then maybe Roger Dorn, Corbin Bernstein loses all his money in a bad stock deal or something and he's a scout. I have the whole movie right now. I should have friggin thought about it a little bit before I pitched the idea. But there's a real idea from Corbin Bernstein with those guys from major league. And it's some kind of zombie baseball movie. I thought he was just joking around, but he's not. He actually has this idea that he wants to do with Tom Beringer and Charlie Sheen. So I had no idea that Corbin Bernstein's mother played the role of K. Chancellor in the soap opera, the Young and the Restless. That's been something I've watched since I was a little kid. So Corbin Bernstein's mom, her name is Jean Cooper. So she was an actress and a soap opera. And his father, I believe, produced soap operas and was also an agent. But Corbin said something very interesting in there that they weren't very successful. Like at times they would go on fancy trips or have fancy cars and then, you know, a week or two later, the car would be repoed or they'd get back from their nice trip. And then they were broke. It didn't seem like he had a real privileged upbringing, even though his mom was kind of a famous soap opera actress. And I'm not too familiar with the world of acting. But I assume that actors and actresses on soap operas generally don't get paid the same as being on a regular TV series that's famous or movies. So it seemed like he, you know, I don't want to say struggled growing up, but definitely not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He went to UCLA. So, you know, showbiz was in his family. He wanted to do that from an early age. That was it. That's what Corbin wanted to do. But before he was famous and in movies, he mentioned that he framed houses. I thought that was very interesting. He was a carpenter and a framer. And so he was big time in construction and still has some ties to that this day. Him and his wife mentioned flipping houses and stuff like that. And he also mentioned his first job being a paper route. And then also like a lot of people, they talk about lemonade stands. Corbin had some kind of little electric cart when he was younger and he would, you know, fill it up with, you know, cool or full of sodas and go to some bus stop, which was like in the city. It transfer kind of bus stop constantly. People get none and off the bus and he would sell like sodas to these people. And he's talking about 1965 and how sometimes he would make up to like a hundred bucks a day, which I thought was pretty amazing. So the cops finally started busting his balls about getting a business license. So they ended up shutting him down. You know, he talked about his big break actually being LA law. You know, he kind of went from virtually unknown to a big star overnight, changed his life. New movie being released digitally. It's called the Yeti. And if you haven't seen the trailer yet, just kind of looks like an old school werewolf movie. And being released digitally today on Amazon Prime, the Yeti looks like looks like a lot of fun if you're into the horror genre. Well, thank you so much for checking out another episode of the celebrity jobber podcast. Again, number three this week on Apple Podcast Music Interviews chart. Thank you so much. Don't forget we're streaming everywhere. So please hit that subscribe button, whether it's on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeart, wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe. Would love that five star rating. And if you could please leave a review celebrity jobber.com. If you want to go back, check out some of the past guests and episodes, a lot of A-listers, man. And almost 190 episodes into this. So if you're just starting to listen today, you can go back and check out tons and tons of celebs from the past almost four years. And also follow us on YouTube.com slash the at sign celebrity jobber. Instagram celebrity underscore jobber underscore podcast and at celebrity jobber on sub stack. Some bonus content, some video going to be available on sub stack in the very near future. So you're going to want to subscribe to sub stack. Who knows what would have happened to these celebrities if fame wasn't an option. Their big break never happened. Who knows? Maybe Corbin Bernsson would be at a construction site putting a roof on your house. You never know. So thanks again for checking out another episode of the celebrity jobber podcast. And until next week, we'll see you then. I'm Jeff Zito in the race to scale with AI. You need data infrastructure that can match your pace. Ever pure data storage platform brings all your data into one hub. No silos, no scrambling, just instant access to tame your data chaos. And with ever pure storage as a service subscription, your storage and security upgrade automatically with zero downtime. Your infrastructure stays current. 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