Episode 44: Being Insulted by Celebrities with Adam Rocke

You are in for a treat with this episode. Adam Rocke joins the podcast to chat writing and Hollywood and to remind us just how ridiculous life can be. Hear about his many fascinating moments, from Quentin Tarantino insulting him, to Steven Seagal insulting him, to him insulting Tobey Maguire...hmm, sensing a theme here.

In any case, I asked Adam if he wanted to pen his own bio for this episode, and he tackled it with style and aplomb. You'll learn that's the status quo after listening.

Inspired by Hunter S. Thompson's "gonzo journalism," Adam Rocke's unusual skill set (firearms/weaponry expert, martial arts/tactical/CQB training, international auto racing license) combined with hardcore adrenaline junkie tendencies resulted in countless high octane articles for hip men’s lifestyle publications (Maxim/Stuff Razor/Robb Report/etc.). When editors had a wild story idea that could get a journalist maimed or killed, Adam was the go-to scribe. Somehow he always came back alive and intact—with the story!

These participatory adventures resulted in Adam being shot, stabbed, tazed, stun-gunned, maced, sapped, zapped, brass knuckled, pepper-sprayed, arm-barred, knee-barred, knocked out, choked out, body-slammed, roundhouse-kicked and water-boarded long before "enhanced interrogation" became a household term.

Adam has dived for pirate treasure in the Caribbean, hunted for poachers in Africa, played poker with cartel kingpins in Juarez, scouted for UFOs in the Sonora Desert, raced in the Baja 1000 and the Gumball Rally, swam with great white sharks sans cage, jumped out of a plane sans parachute, and taken part in Sasquatch safaris, Chupacabra expeditions and many other “crypto-quests” around the world.

Adam eventually graduated to writing books. He currently has more than thirty titles in print (fiction and nonfiction, credited and ghosted), all from mainstream publishers.

Adam’s “final literary frontier” is screenwriting, and he's been fortunate to option or sell more than a dozen original screenplays, along with performing numerous work-for-hires, writing or rewriting scripts for both established and up-and-coming producers and filmmakers.

The bulk of today's Podcast concerns Adam's recently published novel, The Death Dealer, which was inspired from a 1998 Maxim article of the same name, where Adam went to Africa with an old acquaintance—a former mercenary with a sketchy past—to hunt poachers.