The Mechanic

IN THIS EPISODE  I first met today's guest, Nick Wallace, when I was a resident at the Rancho Park Recovery (a sober living facility). Nick was the house manager. and h e and I instantly hit it off. Having grown up in show biz (Nick's dad was and is a prominent TV director/producer), Nick understood the lure. But he also understood twelve step programs on a granular level. More than anything,...

IN THIS EPISODE My buddy Craig Darian might as well go by the name "Mister Hollywood". He has his talented hands in many different places. His Occidental studios have a ton of stages and production facilities here in Los Angeles, his production company – Tricor – has made movies with people like De Niro, Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Bates. He’s also a movie distributor. Like I said, he works various...

THE BLURB: Owning and running restaurants has been my friend Michael Levine's family business going on three generations now. Over the course of my show biz career, I had hundreds of meals at Monty's, the Levine family's restaurant in the Westwood area of Los Angelels with clients and friends. Years of standing, greeting customers - and servicing their craziness with a smile - has made Michael unr...

THE BLURB: Addiction medicine didn’t always exist. The good news: not only does it now exist, but it’s got my friend Dr. Courtney Scott as one of its distinguished leaders. With over a decade of experience, Dr. Scott is the medical director for more than 25 detox, residential and outpatient substance use disorder – SUD – treatment centers across multiple states. His clinical approach seamlessly in...

THE BLURB: My friend Diane is something of a sober role model. She's been sober since June 1980 when a ife of alcohol abuse and transporting drugs suddenly crashed in on Diane. She landed in rehab – her first stint there. But, to her absolute surprise, she experienced something profoundly spiritual that completely changed her world. She discovered a completely new way to live. Sobriety. In this ep...

THE BLURB: Shia Blakeny works at the intersection of mental health, addiction and human development – and what happens when that intersection gets complicated. To that end, Shia has built programs that challenge traditional models of treatment. As CEO of Recover Integrity and cofounder of Antedote Lab, he develops experiential and relational approaches to recovery that are grounded in what Shia ca...

THE BLURB: My friend John Kiriakou might just be the best known spy in the whole world. A former CIA officer, during america's war on terror, John led the counter-terrorism force that captured Abu Zubaydah, the man we thought was the Number 3 at Al Qaeda. When John learned later that we had tortured Abu Zubaydah, he ratted out the CIA's illegal torture program and spent 23 months in federal prison...

THE BLURB: Finding the right drug counselor or sober/therapeutic companion can make a huge difference in whether or not an addict conquers their addiction. My friend Phil Hamburger isn't merely a good substance abuse professional, he's a great one. You'll hear what makes him so special - how he helped Nick - and how his life experience and professional experience have made him the go-to guy when t...

THE BLURB: Addiction Recovery Specialist Lance Wright goes way beyond the normal models of addiction treatment. Lance founded his company Life Over Addiction to help people understand that addiction isn't simply a substance problem. His approach invites addicts to think differently about their addictions with tremendous results. As most addicts can tell you, how they think about themselves and the...

THE BLURB: Dealing with the legal system is always a nightmare. Dealing with it while facing serious drug charges? A nightmare on steroids. Good thing Nick found Vicken sss - truly his legal eagle. In this episode, Nick talks about how he found Vicken and then how Vicken skillfully helped Nick navigate this nightmare, reducing what could have been some serious time in some serious places to a coup...

THE BLURB: We all know that good help can be hard to find. But my long-time friend Jonathan Rosenbloom wasn't just "good help", he was great help and became my assistant at The Agency. We'll talk about the good ol' days of deal-making, high-living (literally and figuratively) and all sorts of Hollywood craziness. Also we'll talk about some of the aftermath of all that craziness and the process of...

THE BLURB: In part two of Nick's chart with good buddy Patrick Warburton, Nick and Patrick talk about amazing back yard concerts (Patrick's have been genuinely amazing!), Eddie Vedder, how golf can safe your life (especially if you're a rock god), and Patrick's passion for and devotion to St. Jude's Cancer Research Hospital in Nashville. So, plenty of sex, drugs - and rock and roll - in this episo...

THE BLURB: In this episode, Nick introduces you to his longtime buddy, actor Patrick Warburton. In part one of their hang, you'll hear how Nick and Patrick began their friendship while Nick was a young agent trying to make an impression. There are wild stories about wild times, but stories about growing and growing up, too. This is an intimate view of a multi-talented performer - and a dynamite hu...

THE BLURB: Nick picks up his "Genesis story" where he left off in episode 1 - with his arrest for dealing drugs. While Nick thought he'd hit bottom, as he'd learn, addicts don't actually have one rock bottom; they have many and he had many more to experience. But, everything Nick had learned in order to navigate Hollywood would serve him well while he was behind bars and dealing with the legal sys...

THE BLURB: In this episode, meet NICK MECHANIC, not your usual mechanic. In fact, Nick was a successful, young turk Hollywood agent who made all kinds of huge movie and TV deals for his actor, writer, director and producer clients. Nick's fast-paced, high stakes life was great! But, at the same time, Nick was making drug deals, too. Eventually, Nick became the target of three different police depa...