RESPECT. Interview: Gerry Corcoran on Managing Mike Stud

Last week I got to talk to Mike Stud about his TV Show “This is Mike Stud” which recently premiered on Esquire Network. This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mike’s tour manager Gerry Corcoran, better known as just Gerry,  to discuss how he got his role on Mike’s team, his friendship with Kevin Love and the craziness that is; a Mike Stud tour.

In episode two of “This Is Mike Stud,” Gerry mentions that he knows every single state’s capital. Just in case you were wondering why I would start an interview off with such a random question..

You can tune in tonight to catch episode three of “This Is Mike Stud” on Esquire Network at 10pm ET. The show is hilarious, introspective and gives great insight into the life of someone who is following their dreams.

RESPECT.: How’s it going?

Good man, how are you?

RESPECT.: I’m good man! So first off, what’s the capital of South Dakota?

* laughs * Well we’re doing South, so Bismarck.. That’s North Dakota.. South Dakota is Pierre

RESPECT.: Alright cool, I’m not even from the states so I don’t know * laughs *

You can’t ask the question if you don’t have the answer, that’s rule number one of the capital game.

RESPECT.: I just did it! * laughs *
* laughs * I gave you the right answer so it’s all good.

RESPECT.: You did, you did. Anyways, I just got done watching episode 2, it was a good time.

That’s a segway * laughs *

RESPECT.: But in the episode you started off by saying that you were pretty hung over that day. Are you hung over this afternoon or what?

Nah I’m not hungover today. They loved making a point that I was hungover, that wasn’t always the case. We got into Atlantic City pretty late last night though. I actually went to Zootopia last night, which I wasn’t proud of, but at the same time it was a fantastic movie!

RESPECT.: You enjoyed it?
Yeah it was incredible! You should watch it actually.

RESPECT.: You also said that you were reading the Dhali Lama book. Did you end up getting through it? And if so, what did you take away from that one?

I did. Well the name of the book is  “From Here to Enlightenment” * laughs * I can’t believe we’re talking about the Dhali Lama here. What did I take away from it? Honestly, it’s kind of basically what we believe in. It almost goes with the “Ya Neva Know” aspect of what we do. It’s really just about helping, and kindness and empowering other people and all of that. So that’s kind of what I took out of it, I could write you a book report if you want * laughs *. Essentially, like what I say in the show, I just saw it on Sunset so I bought the book. But with what I’m doing, I’m just trying to learn about what other great people are doing and trying to incorporate that into my stuff.

RESPECT.: Word. So is this all new to you, or what were you doing before you were Mike’s tour manager and how did it kind of come to be?

So I was working at night life in Boston through college and the whole entire time leading to Mike. And I was doing sales jobs throughout during the day. I had kind of had an opening up in my schedule around the time that I originally went on tour. The story is kind of crazy. It’s pretty long, but essentially Kevin Love came to Boston when he was trying to figure out where he was going, and I took him around. And I had him come into one of the spots that I worked at. And he didn’t want anyone to know he was there. And the owner made it national news that he was at Boston in our bar that night. So I called the owner and flipped out on him. And he fired me. And Mike and I had been friends. We had talked about it before, like going on tour, but there really wasn’t an opening for it. And Mike called me like two days later like, “hey I heard what happened, why don’t you just come on tour with me and book my after parties and we’ll take it from there.” That was almost two years ago at that time. And the rest is history yeah. And Kevin Love and I actually became friends as well, so if that’s not the universe then I don’t know what is.

RESPECT.: Yeah, that’s crazy. So how did you get the gig to show Kevin Love around?

In Boston, you know, it’s a small place, so a buddy of mine that kind of ran all of the night life stuff for the last 15 years. He’s older now, so when guys would come to town he would just sort of feed them my way and just kick em around. So it was a friend of a friend eventually, but you know, that’s the kind of stuff I was doing before. Actually, I met Mike through Tyler Seigin, who now plays for the Dallas Stars, who’s a friend of mine. Who was playing for the Boston Bruins at the time and they were mutual friends, Mike and Tyler, through a buddy of mine. So that’s kind of how the whole thing started.

My whole family is in sports. My uncle is Ryan McDonough, who is the GM of the Pheonix Suns, and my other uncle is Sean McDonough who is the voice for Monday Night Football, and my other uncle is the vice president for the (Arizona) Cardinals. So I have some lineage in sports so that’s kind of the lane that I was always doing anyways. It just kind of all worked out. It’s crazy how it happened but it was a great fit with Mike.

RESPECT.: And you ended up with the baseball playing rapper so does that feel like the universe worked out? * laughs *

It’s funny, I was actually talking to Mike about that the other night. Everyone always asked me why I didn’t work in sports, but I just didn’t really have the passion for it. I played basketball and kind of fell out of love with it towards the end of college, and didn’t really know what I wanted to do. If I wanted to be in sports, and then this happened, and it’s kind of all come full circle, which is beautiful.

RESPECT.: Yeah definitely. That’s awesome though. So is there a difference between an 8 city tour and a 40 city tour in terms of how you mentally prepare for that and what you have to do with your role?

Yeah forsure. When we do a 40 city tour, there is just so much more that goes into it. An extra 32 cities, the routing, the hotels. We have a sprinter van for this one, we had a bus so that’s a lot more responsibility. This one has been a breeze. This one is kind of like a celebration, you know? The show just came out and we’re only doing 8 dates. They’re kind of spread out over a couple weeks so this one, we’ve been talking about, is more so like a bros trip for ten days this summer where we get to go around and play shows and all hang out together. The stress really comes in when we’re going across the country, into Canada and all that stuff. But it’s been smooth sailing man, for real. It’s a good group of guys, and everybody kind of knows what they’re doing at this point. So it’s a well oiled machine.

RESPECT.: Were you ready for the TV thing though, and prepared to be on camera and stuff like that?

I don’t think anyone is really ever ready to be on national television and know what that’s like if it hasn’t happened before. So I think I’d be lying if I said yeah. But at the same time, ever since I started working for Mike, there has always been cameras around. Everyone is kind of comfortable around it. We did the Touring’s Boring thing for a long time. So it was definitely a transition from having his buddy film it knowing that we were good with the content and what we put out. And then having a group of 20 strangers with you on the road filming. But you know, honestly after a few weeks of being on the road and getting to know everybody, it just became really natural on the show. You know, we didn’t really hold back at all. So to answer your question, no I wasn’t ready, but at the same time I started to feel the love from other people and all that stuff about what it’s like to be on camera. It’s kind of crazy actually.

RESPECT.: Oh yeah. Well you guys are living the dream right? But at the same time, what is it like working with your friends? Because I know you guys always talk about it being fun but at the end of the day you know it’s a businness.. Now you have probably found that balance, but did it kind of take a while to come to the point where you found the balance between business and friendship?

Yeah, I mean Mike has kind of, since I’ve been involved, two years, always run it super tight like a business. And he’s kind of been able to separate it. I think the trickle down is where it got a little tricky. Like the other seven guys are living, who have these roles, who aren’t Mike Stud. It’s taken up until probably six months ago for us to all get on the same page. There is a lot of not knowing what’s going to happen and planning and all of that stuff, and up until the TV show and these tours that we’re doing and all of that that made it structured, it was kind of just open and trying to figure it out on our own. So I think everyone has kind of found their role. And it definitely gets blurred sometimes, you know, with the friends and business. But I think at the end of the day we all have the same vision in our head and the same common goal of what we want to accomplish, so nobody really ever compromises that; and if they do they hear about it.

RESPECT.: Yeah I’m sure. Is there a particular crazy story from your latest tour that wasn’t caught on camera that you think would be funny to share?

A crazy story.. Honestly throughout the season, there are 20 crazy stories. Everything that happened was caught on camera. The crazy s**t only happened when the cameras were around. We captured a lot of it. We lost Blue for a bit, you’ll see that in an episode. There is just a lot of stuff. They were with us through most of the tour, you know, there wasn’t much that we could get away with that wasn’t caught on camera, which is great though, that’s kind of the idea of what we wanted to do, which was to make sure that everyone could see it the way it was happening.

RESPECT.: Did you guys ever put wagers on whether or not Blue would make it out alive, and what would the “over-under” be on that?

Well me personally, I knew he would make it out alive, because I would have had blood on my hands * laughs * So I keep a close eye. The one thing about Blue that we’ve always said is, he has a really incredible ability to, even if he doesn’t have a phone or charger, or even if he’s 40 miles away, on this past tour he has always kind of just popped up and when it’s time and we’re ready to go. So I never really worried about it, but now that he’s missed a bus call once, I’ve gotta start keeping a closer eye on him I think.

RESPECT.: Yeah definitely * laughs * Well I’m happy the boys are alive and well. Anything you guys are planning that you want to mention at the end of the interview or you wanna just keep it as “Ya Neva Know?”

* laughs * Just “Ya Neva Know” is perfect. Because you really don’t.

RESPECT.: You really don’t * laughs *

Yeah, you don’t. And not to sound like an idiot because I was talking about the Dhali Lama earlier, but Socrates’ his whole thing is basically “You Never Know.”

RESPECT.: It really is. That’s funny, I took philosophy as my undergrad degree, I just graduated. And the thing I say to people, they’re always like, “what did you learn from Philosophy?” And I always tell them what I learned is that you never know anything, and that’s the only thing you know.

That’s the only thing. Love that bro * laughs *

RESPECT.: I feel like Mike could probably relate to Socrates. I always say that I feel like I could relate to Socrates… I mean other than Socrates being into dudes, he would always flirt with everyone, he always was just talking s**t

Socrates was super out here * laughs *

RESPECT.: Socrates was out here.

Alright bro I appreciate it, thank you for all the support.

RESPECT.: Anytime bro. It was a pleasure and enjoy the rest of everything and I wish you nothing but success.
I appreciate it dude. Alright I’ll talk to you soon.

You can catch Gerry and the rest of Mike’s crew on their crazy life adventures on Esquire Network, and make sure to check out some of their Touring’s Boring series on Youtube.

Follow Gerry on Twitter @MidnightGerry

Suggested Articles:

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