Comedian Bert Kreischer‘s popularity has skyrocketed over the past few years, thanks to podcasting, TikTok and his stand-up offerings, and now he’s starring in his first film, The machineout this weekend.
The film is a spin on a true story that happened to Kreischer when he was in college studying abroad in Russia. He got mixed up with some bad people and ended up robbing a train with Russian mobs. The film was shot in Serbia, where the Balkan country stands for the former Soviet Union.
“I honestly pitched myself to go to Russia to promote the film. And they say, ‘You really don’t watch the news, do you?'” he tells ABC Audio.
Starring in the film meant Kreischer was number one on the call sheet, which was great, but also dangerous.
“I can see how it can go to people’s heads, and you can get nightmare people, because when I came back from Serbia, I was on my way in,” he says. “I’m thinking, ‘I need water.’ And my daughters say, ‘Oh, Mom, I don’t know who we have, but this isn’t Dad.’
Being on the show was “like having your ego stroked every single day,” he says.
“It’s the greatest feeling. I mean, I don’t know what it’s like to be royalty, but I’ll tell you, being the star of a movie has to be really close,” adds Kreischer.
In the end, the 50-year-old tells ABC Audio that he’s really glad this experience came now, rather than when he was younger.
“I wanted to be dead,” he says. “I wouldn’t have met my wife. My wife is the reason I’m an ordinary person, because she’s an ordinary person…. I’m really lucky, I was successful late in life. I wish that for everyone.”
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