DAY THREE, YEAR THREE: JANUARY 1, 1995 – December 31, 1995
By Michael Sean McHale
“GETTING KOOKIE, SOLVING MYSTERIES, WHAT ARE YOU ‘STALKING’ ABOUT? AND KEEPING UP WITH….?”
Boy oh boy! 1995! Where do I start? And when would it end?
First of all, four phone calls at the Party company changed my life. I received three separate calls within a week asking if we did Mystery Shows for kids. I always replied, “No…no…and no…” After the 3rd one I thought to myself, “WHY don’t we do Mystery shows for kids?” I went home that night and prayed about it and the next day while I was in the shower (GREAT IDEAS ALWAYS HAPPEN IN THE SHOWER!!!) I literally SAW the whole Mystery party…a bumbling detective, a suspicious woman and stolen presents!!!!! When I arrived at the office that morning a mom called and asked “Do you do Mystery Shows for kids?” I happily replied, “As a matter of fact, we DO!” And I told her exactly what I saw in my vision and she booked it on the spot! I am still friends with the mom and little girl (in the photo below). I told the owner we should do more Mystery shows and she wasn’t interested at all. It was probably after the ‘moment’ we had that is described below.
I do need to insert a quick inspiring moment here. When I first arrived in Los Angeles, I flew up to visit a friend in San Francisco. He was a hot Marine fling I had met in Hawaii just a couple of years before. We were just friends but I really wanted to see San Francisco. We were walking on a main street and went into a store and there were beautiful fedoras in the store. I reached out and picked one up and felt ‘electricity’ as I put it on. “I’m going to get this hat.” I smiled. My friend Steve chuckled…”Oh please, you’re NEVER gonna wear that thing!” I looked at him and smugly grunted, “Oh yes I WILL!” That fedora is what began the inspiration for my Mystery Shows and I wore it to my first 10,000 mysteries!!!! ALSO seen in the photo below with my ‘suspicious’ woman, my dear friend Jordan Monks!
So, moving on…the husband of the woman I worked for was producing a five-part film/show series for National Geographic and he knew I was a writer so he asked me for some ideas. I gave him a really fun idea about having a tree that talks to the children as they sit around her/it and shared wisdom with them and gave them advice about the world around them. He LOVED it and wanted to do that and wanted to bring me on to work with him for a year making and producing the five films/shows. I was ECSTATIC!!! THIS is why I came out here to Los Angeles in the first place! To make a difference in children’s programming! It is and has ALWAYS been my #1 goal!
Well, sadly those plans were about to be derailed as I sat working late with his wife/the owner of the Party company. We were putting together flyers for the new year to all of the old clients. We were sitting on the floor of the office and she looked sweetly at me (by the way, she was a very pretty lady with 2 daughters and we had recently celebrated her 40th birthday at that fun Moroccan restaurant I think on Sunset….but I digress AGAIN…). She looked at me sweetly and said “I have a confession to make.” Okay I thought…she continued….She pointed to my headshot that I jokingly put up MONTHS ago that said “EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK” all the time….See I told you it was coming back into the story…She said “I come in here every night and hold your photo close to my chest and say ‘I love you’ to your picture.” OH SHIT!!! “I love you Michael-Shaun and I want you to make love to me!” THERE IT WAS! I stammered, “What about your husband and two little daughters?” She shook her head, “I don’t care about them! I just want us to leave this place and go away and spend the rest of our lives together….”
OMG! WHAT WAS HAPPENING???? She sighed dreamily, “I don’t know if you’re gay or straight or what but I don’t care…I love you!” I stammered again, “I…um…I believe that EVERYONE is bisexual! We must be right? I mean we have our mothers genes and our fathers genes so that MUST be true right?” She looked confused and then continued to shock me…”Have you gotten phone calls at night and no one says anything? Or they hang up?” I nodded. “That was ME!” she went on. GULP! “I have called you hundreds of times to tell you how I feel and have hung up every time…” NOW I’m sweating and getting REEEEEEEALLY uncomfortable. She continued….”I have driven to your apartment and sat outside hoping to catch a glimpse of you many nights…” OH GREAT! ANOTHER STALKER! (I’ve had 9 up to the present btw) ☹ “Won’t you please fuck me?” I graciously declined and begged her to NOT tell her husband about this because we were about to begin filming next month….She PROMISED she wouldn’t say anything….
WEEEEEEEEELL….
The next day I came into work and her husband, looking irritated told me, “Michael, we need to talk.” FUCK! SHIT! MOTHER********! We walked out to the garage storage space, his wife nowhere to be found. He turned to me and said bluntly, “I hear my wife wants you to fuck her!” I swear my head spun into space and back. “Um, well, maybe, but it’s not going to happen. Nothing happened, EVER!” He arrogantly grunted, “Yeah, yeah, I know that.” HEY WAIT A MINUTE! I thought but didn’t speak…he continued, “I think you’re amazing and talented but I just can’t spend the next year sitting next to a man that my wife wants to….” FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!
Sooooo, as you’ve probably guessed, the year long project with National Geographic never happened….For ME! He went ahead and made the films/series AND used ALL of my ideas and I never got any credit or any payment or anything. It really sucked donkey balls but as I planned my next move…ie: LEAVE THE STALKER WOMAN BOSS! I had a plan a BIG plan! And on February 15, 1995 I created my company, MYSTERIES BY MIKE www.mysteriesbymike.com and my friend Mark created my logo that I still use today, 28 years later. And to date I have produced, written and performed in over 30,000 events for over 1 MILLION children and written 500,000 riddles and clues. Like that wacky fun secretary on Moonlighting. SHE was one of my inspirations. So, I believe I won in the end. The woman ended up leaving her husband and is now married to her lesbian wife and they share a child together. I very happy for her. She attempted to steal my Mystery show idea after she destroyed my life but YA CAN’T DUPLICATE MY MAGIC! 😊
At this time as well I was part of a wonderful gay church in North Hollywood called CHRIST CHAPEL OF THE VALLEY! Reverend Jerrell Walls is a phenomenal preacher and has provided a beautiful safe space for LGBTQ Christians 30 years ago and is still there today. My best friend at the time Worthie Paul Meacham was singing in the choir and he brought his fantastic and hysterically funny mother to the service. I sat up front with her and they handed out the communion wafers as Worthie was up there singing his big gay heart out and his mother took the wafer, ate it and then SPIT IT OUT! Saying “This tastes horrible!” I replied, “Well, I guess the body of Christ is an acquired taste.” I nervously whispered as Worthie was AGASHT and I though for sure he was gonna fall off the stage. She was a great woman and I miss her. She treated me like a 3rd son.
So, my Mystery company was booming on the weekends. Sometimes I had 8 to 10 shows between Friday and Sunday. I was the ONLY one who was doing Mystery Shows specifically for kids in town. My friend Eric Sharp was keeping the adults happy with his AMAZING Murder Mystery shows over at www.Sharpo.com He is still doing them and now he has added INSANE mind blowing MAGIC as well. Be sure to check him out! I had him at my birthday in 2021 and people STILL ask me “How the F*** did he do that?”
I was offered a job to be a teacher/camp counselor at an incredible camp in the Palisades called Pali-Camp. It too is still there and offers amazing, extreme sports for the kids too. My job was to drive a 21 seat van from my house to the Camp each day and pick up 21 Campers along the way to Pacific Palisades. I was to be in charge of the “Munchkins” the 4 to 6 year olds once we were at the Camp itself. It was a fantastic summer!
I looked over my pickup list on my first day and the first two names were Robert & Khloe Kardashian. I shrugged and wondered if they were related to the lawyer guy representing OJ. Weeeeeell….when stop #1 happened, there they were with their beautiful Mom Chris Jenner! She was so warm and kind to me. And THIS is why I personally LOVE LOVE LOVE the Kardashians! Robert and Khloe were the 1st pickup and the last drop off every day. After the 2nd day Chris invited me to join them for dinner and go swimming. Thus began “How I spent my summer with the Kardashians!” Yes people! ALL of them were so loving and kind to me and welcomed me with open arms into their family. On occasion I would take Robert and Khloe out for the day on a Saturday to the movies (the El Capitan) and lunch and when I would return the nanny would weep and thank me for giving them a few hours of ‘NORMAL’ time. Most people don’t understand first hand like I do. These kids, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and Robert were CONSTANTLY being hounded by paparazzi everywhere they went. Being asked stupid questions like “Do you think OJ is guilty? What does your mother think?” So I say GOOD FOR THEM! For turning the tables and becoming a successful Dynasty that they are. They LITERALLY went through HELL as children! They deserve all of the success they have today, 28 years later. They were the some of the kindest and loving people I have ever met in my 30 years in Hollywood and I am humbled and grateful that I got to be a part of their lives for the summer of ’95. Khloe used to sit up front and talk with me every day on the way to Camp. One day she told me, “The paparazzi chase me every day and ask me if I think OJ is guilty…” I asked her “What do you tell them?” She responded, “I tell them, my mom thinks he’s guilty, my dad thinks he’s not guilty and my lawyer says I’m not allowed to talk about it.” “Good for you!” I told her. 😊 And I recently chatted with her on a ‘facebook live’ thing she did and she remembered me and wondered why I always hung around after Camp. Now she knew why. Chris and Bruce were so wonderful to me. And they knew that I had HIV/AIDS at the time and they embraced me even closer.
But there’s one more magical thing that happened at Camp that summer…Remember in 1993 that I told my friend Heather from Boston that I only wanted to meet Dee Wallace Stone and Dan Gauthier? Weeeeell…..One of my pickup spots was at the top of Mulholland Drive and low and behold who was there with their 4 year old son Cole? Dan Gauthier and his beautiful wife Lisa Fuller! My jaw dropped!!! I couldn’t believe it! My life was complete. I met the only two celebrities that I wanted to meet. Cole was a part of my Camp group too and he was a little shy at first but I welcomed him and he became my favorite camper (might still be). We had such a great connection that he insisted on coming back for the second session. I think they went in 2 week increments. Dan and Lisa also invited me into their world and their home and I felt like a part of their family too. I even wrote a sitcom for the comedienne Elayne Boosler called ELAYNE’S CHAPEL and I wanted Dan to play the lead opposite the character based off Elayne’s character. But I’ll write about that in 1996. 😊 When it actually happened. I still keep in touch with Dan and Lisa a little. I need to say hi more. They are truly wonderful genuine people that I cherish so much. If you haven’t seen TEEN WITCH yet WATCH IT! That’s where they met and got married soon after.
Three more significant things happened to me in 1995. I wrote my first children’s musical “KOOKIE CLUBHOUSE KINGDOM” (see video from the reboot here). It is an interactive, multicultural, educational, musical mystery comedy for children of ALL ages! I connected with the INSANELY talented singer/songwriter/composer Laurie Grant who wrote all of the music for the show. If you don’t have it already GET her cd ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST! I play it for my kids constantly! I had originally wrote it as a tv show but my friend Michael Foley suggested I put it on stage to see how it would work. I did and it did beautifully! It ran off and on for 4 months beginning in December of that year beginning in the courtyard of the Richard Pryor Theater in Hollywood and then traveling to various parks and stages around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Dan, Lisa and Cole came to the show as did Dee and her daughter Gabby. 🙂
Here is peek at the show when we recently did it at The Fringe Festival in Hollywood
My mother Ellen Sue flew out for the month of December and sadly, that would be the last time I would see her and hold her before she passed away in later years. (I don’t want to give it away yet) ☹ She was so proud of me and sat and watched the show every weekend. God I miss her. ☹ The photo below was the last time we hugged. 🙁
The last big thing that happened was I had my first two auditions. Remember back in 1994 I met the amazing Dee Wallace Stone? Well, now I was ready. I booked the role of the ‘Popcorn boy’ for BEST BUYS Hollywood spot. (see photo below) and then I booked a role for the lead in an industrial for GLAXCO WELLCOME. I had the role of Tony, a gay man who was not allowed to visit his partner in the hospital who was dying from AIDS. They wanted (and legally NEEDED) someone with AIDS to play the role…I HAPPILY auditioned. The producers were astounded when I wept during my audition. (yes, I can cry on cue when needed). I was hired for one day but they liked me so much they kept me for three days and THAT’S how I got my SAG card. Yup…Thank you AIDS for the SAG blessing! 😊 I still have not seen the actual industrial. I have attempted many times to contact the company to no avail. ☹ But it was a life changing experience for me and I impressed myself by booking the very first audition I went out for. 😊 They DID make me wait for 3 months before they confirmed it. The woman producer called me and told me she INSISTED on ME! She fought to have me in the role of Tony. I am so grateful that I had someone looking out for me.
Until next time. I hope you enjoyed my 1995 journey…See you all in 1996. It was a slow year I think. 😊