From Far Rockaway to Sales Stardom: Mike Roth's Journey of Resilience and Improv

They say the best tales come from the heart, and mine is no exception. Settle in as I, Mike Roth, trade the interviewer's mic for the hot seat, with Wayne Richard leading the charge. From my humble beginnings in Far Rockaway to the vibrant pulse of Miami, I unravel the threads of my family tapestry, complete with the legacy of my father's leather business. Memories of high school band days and backstage drama antics stitch together the rich fabric that formed the backdrop to my career pivot, from engineering to the dynamic dance of sales.

Strap in for a thrill ride through the highs and lows of my sales saga at Telex. It's a chapter rife with legal battles, vast territories, and the glitzy grind of client schmoozing—a nod to a relative's tenure at the helm of Hewlett Packard. You'll discover how a twist of fate with a Wats box at NYU not only saved our payroll but also served up a masterclass in resilience. Navigating through the early days of my engineering aspirations to the cutthroat sales floor, I share the valuable detours that rerouted my professional destiny.

When the curtain rises on The Villages chapter, laughter and loss dance a delicate duet. Acting and improv taught me life's script is often improvised, a lesson I carry into the sales strategies that once seemed as improbable as a multiplying machine gone rogue. Meanwhile, my podcasting odyssey in Cincinnati spotlights the unscripted symphony of local business leaders' stories, continuing to echo success. So, join me for an episode that harmonizes the unexpected melodies of life, where every note promises to entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to the Open Forum Podcast

00:57 Support the Podcast: How You Can Help

02:38 Meet Wayne Richard: A Backwards Interview

03:05 Mike Roth's Early Life and Family

04:39 Educational Journey and Early Career

07:24 Transition to Business and Sales

12:04 Life at Telex and Beyond

15:08 Reflections on Career Choices

17:42 Arrival at The Villages

17:55 Discovering The Villages

18:29 Magic Tricks and Sales Training

19:50 Journey to The Villages

21:49 Improv and Acting Courses

25:14 The Business of Improv

29:20 AI in Improv

33:10 Podcasting and Reflections

 Become a Supporter: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1974255/support

Villages Vitality Listeners, I've got some good news for you. In season 8 most new episodes will released as both audio & video versions. Videos on Apple Podcasts, Busssprout.com and YouTube. If you're listening via our Buzzsprout feed, you can ask questions via the Fan Mail button or leave me comments as a text or in our new feature, you can send it as a voicemail. If you'd like a response, make sure you leave your name, email address and cell phone number.

Transcript

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From Far Rockaway to Sales Stardom: Mike Roth's Journey of Resilience and Improv

[00:00:08] Nancy: Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages, Florida. In this show, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the Villages. To get perspectives of what is happening here in the Villages Florida, we are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters in episodes.

[00:00:25] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. Listeners, I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project for you. This podcast brings you knowledge, inspiration, and a lot of things that people need to know about the villages and the people living here. Be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week.

 Creating this podcast is a labor of love. Even though it demands more time, I can easily spare. Now, here's where you come in. You can help us keep the podcast alive and thriving. How? By becoming a supporter. The easy way for you to support us is to visit our podcast webpage OpenForumInTheVillagesFlorida.com, and click on the supporter button at the top of the page.

Or the purple supporter box. Even a small donation of three to $10 a month makes a big difference, and you can cancel your subscription at any time. Your support means the world to us. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. I hope everyone enjoys today's show. Thank you. your support means the world to us. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. 

[00:01:44] Nancy: Hope you enjoy today's show. 

[00:01:45] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages Florida

. I'm here today with Wayne Richard. Thanks for joining me, Wayne. Thank you. We're going to do a backwards interview show, where Wayne is going to interview me. 

[00:01:58] Wayne Richards: We're going to turn the tables. what do you say we begin at the very Start. First, the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came. 

[00:02:06] Mike Roth: Fred Flintstone came. 

[00:02:07] Wayne Richards: Then you were born. 

[00:02:09] Mike Roth: In Brooklyn, New York. 

[00:02:10] Wayne Richards: In Brooklyn, New York. 

[00:02:11] Mike Roth: 33rd & 3rd, 

[00:02:12] Wayne Richards: What was it like growing up in Brooklyn? 

[00:02:15] Mike Roth: My earliest memories are probably when I was three or four years old, living in Far Rockaway, New York on a street called Gibson Street. My mom bought me a 

[00:02:26] Wayne Richards: Was that next to vodka? 

[00:02:27] Mike Roth: My birthday was coming up, probably my fourth birthday, and she bought me a hop along Cassidy, black outfit, black shirt, black pants, black boots, black hat. 

[00:02:39] Wayne Richards: Wow. 

[00:02:39] Mike Roth: And a pistol. 

[00:02:40] Wayne Richards: So you were going gangster back then?

[00:02:42] Mike Roth: Cowboy. 

[00:02:43] Wayne Richards: cowboy. Okay. It's Brooklyn. 

[00:02:44] Mike Roth: No, that was Long Island. Brooklyn is on Long Island. And Far Rockaway is part of Queens. Okay. And then we moved to Miami, where I went to kindergarten, and, 

[00:02:56] Wayne Richards: why move to Miami?

[00:02:58] Mike Roth: My parents moved to Miami, so I wasn't with them. 

[00:03:00] Wayne Richards: And what did your parents do? 

[00:03:02] Mike Roth: Oh that's a good question. my dad was a designer of leather goods. Primarily ladies handbags, pocketbooks, and purses. And he worked with his brother. They had a business, Max Roth Incorporated.

[00:03:15] Wayne Richards: Sounds official 

[00:03:16] Mike Roth: Oh yeah, it was in the SoHo district of Manhattan. many times as I was growing up on a Saturday morning, Dad would take me and my brother. 

[00:03:24] Wayne Richards: Okay. Now what about their brothers and sisters? Do you have any?

[00:03:28] Mike Roth: I have one full brother, and a half sister and a half brother. 

[00:03:33] Wayne Richards: And what was it like growing up with them? Did you get along? 

[00:03:36] Mike Roth: we got along. 

[00:03:37] Wayne Richards: There wasn't any tension or knife fights 

[00:03:40] Mike Roth: Oh, no knife fights.

[00:03:41] Wayne Richards: Okay, that's good. 

[00:03:43] Mike Roth: Might have been pillow fights. 

[00:03:44] Wayne Richards: What about your education? 

[00:03:46] Mike Roth: That's a good question. I went to high school in Brooklyn, New York at Samuel J. Tilden. I played in the band from the time I was in junior high school. I played trombone. 

[00:03:56] Wayne Richards: That's a hard instrument to play.

[00:03:58] Mike Roth: Oh yeah, you have to learn the positions. There were seven positions. 

[00:04:01] Wayne Richards: Seven positions? 

[00:04:03] Mike Roth: Otherwise you'd be out of tune, and then you had to tune the thing with the coil at the back, 

[00:04:08] Wayne Richards: had a lot of problems with the piano when I started I was blowing into it. I don't think that's the way it's supposed to work. 

[00:04:14] Mike Roth: Unless it was a player piano 

[00:04:15] Wayne Richards: No, I never had a player piano. I was the only player on the piano. 

[00:04:19] Mike Roth: my grandmother had a player piano. as much as the grandkids tried, we couldn't get it to play.

[00:04:23] Wayne Richards: When did you start to develop your deep tones? 

[00:04:29] Mike Roth: Probably someplace in high school, when given a choice of either taking a speaking part in a play, or running the spotlights and lighting board.

I chose the lighting board and spotlights. Really? Absolutely. I didn't like being on downstage center and talking to the audience. 

[00:04:47] Wayne Richards: Now that's interesting in light of what you do now, 

[00:04:50] Mike Roth: I had stage fright. 

[00:04:51] Wayne Richards: Now, what about radio? Did you ever gravitate towards radio?

[00:04:54] Mike Roth: Yes, when I was in 

[00:04:55] Wayne Richards: happen? 

[00:04:55] Mike Roth: When I was in college, I applied to the City College of New York radio station to be a DJ or announcer. They rejected my application. They said I didn't speak right. I couldn't say the word cigarettes correctly. 

[00:05:09] Wayne Richards: it.

[00:05:09] Mike Roth: I did, but that's after 000 worth of speech training. 

[00:05:12] Wayne Richards: So you learned how to enunciate. 

[00:05:15] Mike Roth: How to enunciate and say words in a neutral American speech pattern. 

[00:05:20] Wayne Richards: So in other words, you don't say things like y'all, 

[00:05:23] Mike Roth: I had the great, gift of being able to mimic speech patterns that I hear enough. So if y'all want to hear southern accent, I can suddenly switch into a southern accent because I spent a lot of time in the south as I was working. There were about four years where I lived on a 

[00:05:41] Wayne Richards: But I've never been to India.

[00:05:43] Mike Roth: Never been to 

[00:05:44] Wayne Richards: Never been to India. 

[00:05:45] Mike Roth: Oh, I 

[00:05:45] Wayne Richards: don't say I can do 

[00:05:46] Mike Roth: that. 

[00:05:47] Wayne Richards: I see all kinds of computers in here, could I fix one of them for you 

[00:05:50] Mike Roth: Sure, I'll find the one that doesn't work, 

[00:05:52] Wayne Richards: Did your theatrical endeavors back then involve improv?

[00:05:57] Mike Roth: I don't think so. I don't know if, in the 60s or 70s, there was much improv going around. Elaine May and Mike Nichols were the people that you listen to on records and LPs, and they were the first improv artists that I'm aware of I ran through a lot of jobs. It was very successful on the Fortune 1000, selling computers and Phone systems 

[00:06:23] Wayne Richards: you got involved with all of that as The electronic computer revolution began.

[00:06:29] Mike Roth: I was an electrical engineering student in city college for two years and after two years decided that electrical engineering wasn't for me and I switched into the business school. I graduated with a management and marketing degree, and then went on to some graduate school at Baruch College.

the only course that I ever dropped in college was a computer course. it was in Fortran programming, and the first thing you had to learn was how to operate an IBM 029 key punch. I go to the first class, and there's this big machine that's punching holes in cards, and you type in strange stuff, and I had no understanding of how it worked.

And so I said, before I fail the course, I'm going to drop it. And that's what I did. Out of college, I worked for Mayor Lindsey for about two years, learned to hate politicians in general. 

[00:07:18] Wayne Richards: was probably a great moment for you. Yes. 

[00:07:20] Mike Roth: As a young man, what drove me crazy about the politicians was every place that I went, because I was working in Lindsey's office and Mayor Costello's office.

Everybody wore stage makeup all the time. 

[00:07:33] Wayne Richards: Including Abbott and Costello. 

[00:07:35] Mike Roth: Who's on first? What's on second, When I was in college, after I got out of college, Working for Lindsay, I wound up with a radio show on, Thursday nights on WNYC.

I would interview Mayor Lindsay and piece de gras of me deciding I got to get out of a job that's related to politics. 

[00:07:55] Wayne Richards: That's delicious if it's prepared right, it's really good. 

[00:07:57] Mike Roth: Okay, I've never had it. It's wonderful. Anyway, so Lindsay and I finishes. this radio show at about 9.

30 on a Thursday night. It's a cold winter night. We walk out of the station, I'm wearing a coat and Lindsey pulls his hat down over his forehead and turns up the collar of his long winter coat. we're walking towards the subway, and I said, Mayor Lindsey, why did you turn up your collar and pull down your hat?

It's not that cold. he says, Mike, I don't want anyone to recognize me. if I looked around in the attic here, I might even have a nine minute tape of one of those shows that I did with Mayor Lindsey. After I left the political job, I went to work for the Burroughs Corporation selling editing machines and calculators door to door in Manhattan.

they had a backup just in case the electricity went out. 

[00:08:46] Wayne Richards: Yeah. So people are desperate in case the power goes out and they need that backup. 

[00:08:50] Mike Roth: They had that crank backup. Yes. every once in a while I would get funny with them and bring A small Chinese abacus along with me and say, in the event that you can't pull the crank, here's a little abacus you can do with your finger. 

[00:09:03] Wayne Richards: that's a desperation, 

[00:09:04] Mike Roth: Sold a lot of machines, so I got promoted into their computer division. Sold small accounting computers what I would call the first desktop computer.

Their series L2000s. it was very successful, but I was working five days a week. Trying to sell and install these computers and another day to learn more I just couldn't finish working at night and going to school at night so I stopped the master's degree then I got offered. A job working for a company called Telex, Telex Computer Products.

[00:09:35] Wayne Richards: while he tries to figure out who he is and what he did in the past, we should take a break and get that spot in. 

[00:09:41] Mike Roth: For Dr. Craig Curtis. 

[00:09:43] Wayne Richards: Absolutely. 

[00:09:44] Mike Roth: Dr. Curtis, what do you think the future looks like for Alzheimer's treatment in America? 

[00:09:49] Dr. Craig Curtis: I think the future looks very good. these blood tests are going to make a significant difference in our ability to detect Alzheimer's disease.

before symptoms. A person who develops memory loss due to Alzheimer's disease, we know that disease actually started approximately two decades prior. amyloid starts building up for approximately 20 years, which then initiates brain cells to die off essentially, which leads to Alzheimer's disease.

we're trying to remove that amyloid prior to that so we can prevent Alzheimer's disease. once somebody already has cognitive changes or memory symptoms, we're trying to figure out if reducing that amyloid really slows the disease. We now have, the world's first medicine on the market that is slowing Alzheimer's disease by removing amyloid from the brain.

And we're looking at newer, more advanced forms of those medications that remove the amyloid. 

with over 20 years of experience studying brain health Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the villages community on how to live a longer healthier life to learn more visit his website Craig Curtis MD comm or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 to attend a free seminar

[00:11:02] Mike Roth: Okay, so 

[00:11:03] Wayne Richards: have you figured out who you are 

[00:11:05] Mike Roth: I am a Genghis Khan. 

[00:11:06] Wayne Richards: Another great Chinese restaurant ladies and gentlemen. 

[00:11:09] Mike Roth: At Telex, I learned that I could work five days a week and make twice as much money than I did at Burroughs I really liked that. I took a territory, which was only Long Island where I lived. It was great. We went to a meeting in California. And that was when IBM and Telex got involved in an antitrust lawsuit.

The president of Telex settled the suit. And all of a sudden, of the 120 salespeople that they had, They were down to 20, and I was one of the 20. And so I had a territory that went from Boston down to Washington, D. C., west to Pittsburgh. And all of a sudden I had beginnings of living on an airplane.

I remember the first day on that job, I go into the VP's office. I had a skin graft on my thumb because a car fell on me. he looks at me and says, Mike, I need to give you three things. he counts out 400 bills. That's cash. It's spending money. Then he gives me an air travel card.

then he gives me a diner's club card. He said Mike, you never eat alone. You don't eat lunch alone. You don't eat dinner alone. Take prospects and clients out to lunch and dinner all the time.

I expect to see a lot of expenses from you. 

[00:12:19] Wayne Richards: What you are suggesting is my brother in law was the North American CEO for Hewlett Packard. He had to entertain people, make them feel good and make them feel comfortable so that deals could be done.

[00:12:36] Mike Roth: People had to feel comfortable with you and the company that you represented. I guess the thing that got me out of Telexcomputer Products was too many 4 a. m. telephone calls. I remember selling Avis when they had the Wizard of Avis, the call that got me out of that business with Telex was at 4 o'clock in the morning from the IT director of Avis saying, hey Mike, Your service engineer is asleep in the computer room on the floor behind the disk drive.

I said I guess I'll be right over. 

[00:13:05] Wayne Richards: getting sleep at four in the morning. 

[00:13:07] Mike Roth: so at four in the morning, I go over and kick Julio in the side, take him into the cafeteria, coffee him up, and get that thing working. one of the guys who trained me at Telex took a job working for a company called Action Telecommunications and they sold something called the Watts Box.

they were competing with AT&T and they found a way to dramatically reduce the cost of the number of watts lines that a company needed. I go in there, I really didn't know very much about it.

I was a computer guy, not a telecommunications guy. And I'm making a prospecting call on NYU, and all of a sudden I get the president of NYU on the phone. He says, yeah, come on down and talk to me about that. We have too many Watts lines here. And I said to my boss, John, I don't know what I'm doing, John.

He said, Why don't you take Jerry along with you? He's an ex telephone company engineer. So I took Jerry along. We went down to NYU and I came back with a million dollar order. All of a sudden I was a miracle man there. I said, what do I do with the check, the down payment?

And my boss says, go out to JFK, put it on an airplane to Tulsa. 'cause we needed to make payroll, . 

[00:14:13] Wayne Richards: Did you enjoy this? 

[00:14:15] Mike Roth: fun. 

[00:14:15] Wayne Richards: It was fun. Was it something that you ever expected to do? Absolutely not. What did you expect to do?

What was your big dream as you were growing up? 

[00:14:24] Mike Roth: I was gonna be a successful engineer. 

[00:14:25] Wayne Richards: An electrical engineer. 

[00:14:26] Mike Roth: I loved working with that stuff. I still have soldering irons in the closet. 

[00:14:30] Wayne Richards: See, I wanted to be a conductor. 

[00:14:31] Mike Roth: Okay.

[00:14:32] Wayne Richards: I can conduct 

[00:14:32] Mike Roth: there in Chicago? 

[00:14:34] Wayne Richards: So that was your private dream? That was a private dream, and why didn't you Go for it. What held you back? I'm fascinated by this subject because so many people think well if I have only done this or I have only done that 

[00:14:48] Mike Roth: I had too many problems going through electrical engineering school.

I think I was too young when I started and they assumed that you could learn calculus and physics at the same time, as well as overloading me with English and social studies. I remember staying up all night trying to read a book by Dos Passos because there was going to be a quiz on it the next day, I passed the quiz, but The physics and calculus lessons took a lot to be desired in those days you had something called mechanical drawing where you had to see things in 3D on a piece of paper.

I found that exceptionally difficult. 

[00:15:31] Wayne Richards: Okay, 

[00:15:31] Mike Roth: so I'm going into the 

[00:15:33] Wayne Richards: I like to wear the glasses when I go into the theater. 

[00:15:35] Mike Roth: Yeah. I'm in the second year of engineering school, and I'm failing my physics course. So I asked a couple of my fraternity brothers to tutor me so I could pass the final exam.

Some of the problems they tutored me on were on the final exam, miraculously. And so I got an A on the final exam. I'm looking at the posting of my, grades in front of the professor's office. the professor walks out and he sees me and says, Mr.

Roth, come inside. And he said, I'm going to make a recommendation to you. I have no idea how you got an A on the final exam because you weren't performing like that the entire quarter. And he says to me, I recommend that you, Find another major, not electrical engineering.

it was very shattering. I did a little bit of counseling over that summer and determined that I should be in, I did occupational testing and they said I should either be a funeral director or something in business. So I went into the business school where I discovered that I could work part time.

To make a few extra shekels and get A's on every course in the business school, my mind worked that way. 

[00:16:42] Wayne Richards: Yeah. 

[00:16:42] Mike Roth: And then I was very successful in sales, at Telex, at action communications. 

[00:16:47] Wayne Richards: Okay, so after all of that success and traveling down a road filled with computers and wires and plugs and lights flashing you eventually reach a place called The Villages.

[00:16:59] Mike Roth: Yes. 

[00:16:59] Wayne Richards: move 

[00:16:59] Mike Roth: I got to The Villages in 2017. 

[00:17:02] Wayne Richards: how did you find out about it and why did you come? 

[00:17:05] Mike Roth: I was in Cincinnati. I was running a successful Sandler training, primarily a sales training company. We did management training, customer service training. I had 30 or 40 years of improv in sales, learning the dance. That was the birth. 

[00:17:19] Wayne Richards: that's the eggshell, 

[00:17:20] Mike Roth: One of the things I learned to do to train people was to break things up into chunks.

The smaller the chunks, the better, because people would remember it. That meant that I would do magic tricks, bring out points, and I became very good at it. So what did you do? 

[00:17:35] Wayne Richards: You pull a sail slip out of your hat 

[00:17:36] Mike Roth: it was just a little entertaining thing, pouring water into a cup holding the cup over a student's head and saying, if I pass the pencil through the cup, what's going to happen?

And they would cringe. 

[00:17:47] Wayne Richards: And 

[00:17:48] Mike Roth: then I would pass the pencil through one side of the cup and I said, you have nothing to worry about because this is a self sealing cup. I pushed it to the second side of the cup and they cringed and said, oh That's gonna be bad.

I said, okay And what's gonna happen when I pull the pencil out of the cup they said it's gonna get wet? I said no self sealing cup not a problem then the water came out and I Took the top of the cup turned it over on the guy's head And no water came out, what I said next, in the sales training, stuck in people's heads.

[00:18:17] Wayne Richards: when did you graduate to the next trick, which was taking a box and having a person lay down on the box, close the box, and then poke them with pencils. 

[00:18:27] Mike Roth: No. 

[00:18:27] Wayne Richards: From each side of the No, 

[00:18:29] Mike Roth: That's an interesting magical trick. when I was back at Action, one of the guys working with me was an amateur magician.

he said, come to my magic show, and I'll need an assistant, I took Kay to the magic show, and I told my buddy, she's going to be the blonde sitting next to me. he picked her out of the audience, brings her up on stage, and he had one of those boxes where you saw someone in half.

she was actually sawed in half on stage and put back together. When you discovered The Villages let me tell you how I discovered the villages. Because I was in Cincinnati 

[00:18:59] Wayne Richards: wait I was going to ask you. 

[00:19:00] Mike Roth: Okay. 

[00:19:01] Wayne Richards: How did you discover the villages?

[00:19:03] Mike Roth: I was a member of the Rotary Club for 20 years in Cincinnati, and a lady that ran a travel agency named Pat, who was a client, retired, sold her business, and moved to the Villages. I thought I'd never see her again. Pat tells me about the Villages and how they had town squares, three town squares, movie theaters.

Happy hour and live bands in each one of the squares all night. Alligators. she made it sound so great, and I said, okay. I don't believe it. I'd never heard of it. I went home, looked it up, and sure enough, there was a place called The Villages. I told my wife about it, and she said, oh, I have a cousin who lives there.

I said, sometime we'll go visit her. the next year Sandler, ran the conference in Orlando. I took my wife, to the conference and that year my wife's mom died.

the second day of the conference, she says, I'm leaving. She left and I left a day later. the next year at the Sandler Conference in Orlando, she says, I want to visit my cousin in the villages. we visited for a few days. They took us on. A gasoline powered golf cart ride from Spanish Springs to the new town square at Brownwood.

It's like an international flight, isn't it? 45 minutes smelling gasoline fuel. 

[00:20:15] Wayne Richards: you get two movies and a meal. 

[00:20:16] Mike Roth: Yeah, that didn't happen. We took the ride and I became convinced that I will never own a gasoline powered golf cart. I did become convinced that there might be something to this village's place.

The next year Christmas, we did a lifestyle trip, a familiarization trip. Did you ride the bus? We never rode the trolley, no. 

[00:20:38] Wayne Richards: Everybody should do that one time. I want to drive one of those. 

[00:20:41] Mike Roth: You have to have a CDL. They're looking for drivers, Wayne. 

[00:20:43] Wayne Richards: I drove a bus in the Navy. 

[00:20:45] Mike Roth: so you have a CDL? 

[00:20:46] Wayne Richards: I used to. 

[00:20:47] Mike Roth: Okay. 

[00:20:48] Wayne Richards: It's expired 

[00:20:49] Mike Roth: Yes, we have a good improv skit, called The Village's Trolley. 

[00:20:52] Wayne Richards: We get into the world of Mike Roth and improvisation, and how did that happen? 

[00:20:58] Mike Roth: David Sandler. Whose picture's on the wall behind you, David kept saying, sales is a Broadway play performed by a psychiatrist. I want you to take acting courses and improv courses.

[00:21:09] Wayne Richards: Okay. 

[00:21:09] Mike Roth: And occasionally he brought people in to our training sessions who were. professional actors or improvers, but I was too busy running the business and training people to take the courses. But when I got here, I joined six acting courses and one improv course.

[00:21:24] Wayne Richards: partridge 

[00:21:25] Mike Roth: in the acting courses, I decided that I, hated it. I hated memorizing lines. at Burroughs, they gave us a script to memorize to sell this J800 multiplying machine.

every time you hit the X key, you never knew what the number was going to come up. When you hit that X key on the J800 made in France with plastic gears, it was never going to hit 8, but we had a quota to sell these things. So I was trying to sell them like everyone else, as an adding machine and a subtracting machine.

In graduate school, I was taking a course in statistics and learned that you needed to have a seed number for random calculations and that actuaries would open up a book. Of random numbers and randomly pick one out. one day, I had one of these heavy French machines under my arm.

I walked into an actuarial's office and said, I want to speak to the head actuary. I've got a random number generator to show him. I put this machine down on his desk and said, this is an adding machine, subtracting machine and a random number generator. He said, I don't believe it. I said, okay, look, you hit one, two, three, and then you hit the.

Random number key, which is an X, and four, five, six, and you hit equal. He did it about ten times, and it never came up to the same number twice. He's laughing, and he says, I'll try it, okay? 

[00:22:47] Wayne Richards: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the perfect example of getting your actuary together.

Once you have your actuary together, life is a lot easier. 

[00:22:56] Mike Roth: Steve is here. I wish he'd get on a different channel. All right, go ahead. a week later, I go back to pick the machine up, because no one really kept the machine as a multiplying machine.

And he says to me, Mike, I want four more of these. So I wrote up an order for five machines, turned in the order, and they paid me my commission a month later, I get a call from the guy that I sold the machines to, and I'm scared shitless. He wants to return them, because I was already paid my commission.

He said, Mike, those machines are working great. They create seed numbers for me, they're saving me a lot of time, I don't have to pick up heavy books. I said, okay. He says, I've just referred you to three of my actuary friends in town. They each want about a dozen machines. So I went out to see these guys and I sold three dozen machines.

I was feeling like a king, turned in the orders, went home. The next day at 8 a. m. I come in and the branch manager is sitting on my desk holding the orders in his hand. He said, Mike, what the heck is this? And I said I sold some of those J800s. He said, Mike, you sold more J800s in one day than the branch did in the last six months.

[00:23:58] Wayne Richards: II 

[00:23:58] Mike Roth: He said, yes, sir. That was my job. And he said, how'd you do it? I said I sold them as random number generators. 

[00:24:05] Wayne Richards: Yeah. 

[00:24:05] Mike Roth: he held my commission back for six months to find out whether the machines would get returned. 

[00:24:09] Wayne Richards: you want a real random number generator Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas does a great job.

Machines are very loose. All right, now, let's get into the business of improv. Which is what most people embrace you for. 

[00:24:22] Mike Roth: Okay, here in the villages. So I joined the Only Improv Club and a fella named Brian was running it. And he was doing primarily improv games and exercises.

it was a small group of maybe 20, 25 people that came every week. I enjoyed it. six months into it, says to me, Mike, I took a job in Boston for 200 grand a year. I'm leaving The Villages closing the Improv Club, unless you take it over.

And I said I was enjoying it. I didn't want to take it over. 

[00:24:51] Wayne Richards: Yeah. 

[00:24:51] Mike Roth: I said, give me a day or two, let me talk to a couple of my acting friends. So I wound up talking to, greg Golden, I said, Greg, can you help me run this improv club? I had no idea what to do.

I've never been an improver as a stage performer. We quickly determined that we had enough talent to, perform some shows with a little more training, we doubled the number of sessions per month from two to four, we had about 140 people on the roster, and only 20 were showing up, that was difficult to manage, we decided to put dues of 10 a year to get rid of anyone who wasn't serious, and it worked.

We went down to a nice manageable 20 or 25 people. We worked towards creating our first show. the first show we did was for the Mercedes Benz Club, a club that I had founded. And I think you were in that one. 

[00:25:39] Wayne Richards: I came here to the villages thinking, now I got a chance to sit back, listen to some great musicians I've never heard before, maybe see some plays, maybe do a couple of plays. Then what happens? I wind up in a band, I wind up doing a play, I wind up doing all these things and it just happens.

this is such a vibrant area filled with talent. I think that's one of the reasons people are interested in improv, they connect it not only because of the hard work and fine work that you do, keeping it together and promoting it and all that, but they also connect it with.

TV shows like whose line is it anyway, 

[00:26:16] Mike Roth: right, and that was some of the inspiration of the conversion of the club we went to a three minute short form improv and that was perfect and that very first show we did for the Mercedes Club I asked you for a single song parody for Slow Drivers, and you came up with a five song melody, which was fantastic.

[00:26:35] Wayne Richards: people ask me about it all the time. It's nice when You can make a mark and people remember you you're certainly making memories for people with this improv show.

if people are interested how can they keep up to date on what's happening with the improv? 

[00:26:49] Mike Roth: Best thing is to send an email to Mike. At thevillagesimprov. com. say you want to be added to our email list. We have about 4, 000 to 5, 000 people on our email list.

And we announce our shows. The other way is to regular basis, go out to the website, thevillagesimprov. com. If you went out there today, you will find that we have a show at the. Joke joint coming up on March 15th, 

[00:27:19] Wayne Richards: which is in Summerfield. 

[00:27:21] Mike Roth: That's an Unrestricted language show. 

[00:27:23] Wayne Richards: It's beautiful. They got restaurants so you make a night of it have dinner And then go see this. 

[00:27:30] Mike Roth: They do serve. The owner is half Cuban half Puerto Rican and they serve a Cuban meal.

Okay. Yeah pulled pork pulled chicken 

[00:27:39] Wayne Richards: and pulled Names out of a hat. 

[00:27:41] Mike Roth: The show's got a cover charge of 20 bucks It's a lot of entertainment for 20 

[00:27:46] Wayne Richards: bucks 

[00:27:46] Mike Roth: two drinks 

[00:27:47] Wayne Richards: Yeah 

[00:27:47] Mike Roth: for two alcoholic drinks with dinner. The unlimited all you can drink ticket is 30 bucks.

it only seats 80 people, and you have to call them directly for a reservation. It's 352 871 8255. 

[00:28:02] Wayne Richards: that brings us to the final question 

[00:28:04] Mike Roth: The final Jeopardy question. 

[00:28:06] Wayne Richards: Would you like to phone a friend?

[00:28:07] Mike Roth: Let's call the audience. 

[00:28:08] Wayne Richards: Knowing that you have spent your life. Climbing the mountains of technology, and finally winding up in the valley of improv. Do you think that artificial intelligence could do a good improv show?

And if so, what would it sound like? 

[00:28:26] Mike Roth: That's an interesting question. If you would have asked me that question two years ago, and you said artificial intelligence, I would have said, no way. I don't use it. 

[00:28:35] Wayne Richards: That would have brought you back to politics, 

[00:28:36] Mike Roth: Right.

And today for this podcast, I use a lot of AI. All of my announcers are AI voices. It's easier to work with them The show transcript is created by AI. The show description is created by AI. The AI creates five. show titles and I pick the one I like best the AI the show and divides into chapters so the listener can jump to a particular point.

the AI the show and turns into a YouTube video. Now I did ask the AI to write an improv show. About six months ago. And what it came back 

[00:29:17] Wayne Richards: I'm going to contact, the authorities. Shouldn't be playing around with that stuff.

[00:29:21] Mike Roth: The improv. gave me. Eight or nine scenes, four of them were, either not accomplishable by our team, or the scope of time that we wanted to do. We wanted to keep the scenes, down to three to four minutes. And we don't do long form here.

If you want to see Long Form, go to the Sarasota Improv Festival, second weekend of July. Fantastic. Five theaters, simultaneously for three nights, for 79. Can't beat it. 

[00:29:49] Wayne Richards: And if you want real Long Form, go see the opera Aida. But bring the sandwich. 

[00:29:54] Mike Roth: I thought that was scripted.

[00:29:55] Wayne Richards: It's five and a half hours long. 

[00:29:57] Mike Roth: I 

[00:29:57] Wayne Richards: don't care if it has a script or not. 

[00:29:59] Mike Roth: you did a Long Form improv with Dean Corbett. the only thing that made that show really great, you as the detective would break at the song. 

[00:30:07] Wayne Richards: The singing detective. 

[00:30:09] Mike Roth: But it floored the audience because no one expected a singing detective.

[00:30:13] Wayne Richards: I didn't expect it 

[00:30:14] Mike Roth: It made the show. 

[00:30:15] Wayne Richards: I get the phone call one day, you are now a singing detective. Fine, we'll work it out. 

[00:30:21] Mike Roth: So We took the scenes that the AI suggested which were doable, and we did add them to the show. We added them to our rehearsals to find out if they played, and some of them played, and some of them didn't.

We probably have. two to three hundred different scenes that we've done over the past four years. For the past two and a half years, we have a playbook on the club member website, where people can go back and learn about those scenes. 

[00:30:46] Wayne Richards: Can see, or you can hear, folks, that we have gone, what the?

Life of Mike Roth, all the way from EIEIO to AI. 

[00:30:57] Mike Roth: Only a musical guy would come up with that. 

[00:30:58] Wayne Richards: And first of all, I want to thank our listeners for listening, and thank you for allowing me to probe into your life 

[00:31:06] Mike Roth: I'm teaching the course in Podcasting 101. 

[00:31:08] Wayne Richards: Okay. 

[00:31:09] Mike Roth: And I've given people a homework assignment. I have something to play back next Wednesday for them. 

[00:31:14] Wayne Richards: That's great. I'm glad to be a part of the Scholastic stuff. I wish that you had been around when I did my podcast back in Chicago. It was an irreverent look at the music industry, and I had friends of mine and these were the heavy hitters in Chicago. These were people that had names and they, and I looked up to them and idolized them and I put them on this show and they don't know what's coming at 'em. And it was so much fun.

And, some of them got it immediately. It took a while for some of them to process what was going on. But I like to have fun. You have a conversation with somebody. I think it should be interesting and conversational. I've learned more about you in the past what has it been? 

[00:31:57] Mike Roth: 30, 40 minutes. 

[00:31:58] Wayne Richards: Is there anything else you'd like to reflect on in your life 

[00:32:01] Mike Roth: I did a podcast in Cincinnati between 2014 and 17. before that I had done radio commercials. I did one or two with the announcer from the radio station, and I said I could do better than he can. 

[00:32:15] Wayne Richards: you 

[00:32:15] Mike Roth: And I would go into the studio and record five spots.

And then I would watch this engineer named Rob who I'm still in touch with. 

[00:32:24] Wayne Richards: to be in that band 

[00:32:25] Mike Roth: Rob? The five spots. They were great. I was advertising on this guy's show, Gordon Liddy. 

[00:32:29] Wayne Richards: Oh, that is Gordon Liddy. I wonder, trying to figure out two things.

Who is that gentleman, and why is the frame crooked? Do you live on a hill or something, or what? 

[00:32:37] Mike Roth: He was criminally insane. But he had a listenership, and my commercials were very successful, but they were expensive. I decided to try this podcast and I interviewed company owners in Cincinnati that I thought had companies that I would like to do business with as a sales training company.

And damn it, if in the first three months it wasn't cash profitable. I stopped doing the radio and instead put some of the radio commercials into the Podcast. 

[00:33:06] Wayne Richards: And 

[00:33:06] Mike Roth: I asked tough questions of owners and managers. that podcast got about 90, 000 listens. It still gets five or ten listens a week.

I can't believe it. I haven't done anything to it since 2017 when I sold my business. 

[00:33:20] Wayne Richards: Well folks, this is your interviewer. Wayne Richards. I'm going to turn back the listenership to Captain Roth, and he will be set sailing for future podcasts right here on the, network 

[00:33:32] Mike Roth: But this is on Buzzsprout, or the Open Forum in The Villages 

[00:33:36] Wayne Richards: Sounds good to me. 

[00:33:37] Mike Roth: Thank you, 

[00:33:37] Wayne Richards: Thank 

[00:33:37] Nancy: Remember our next episode will be released next Friday at 9am. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike at rothvoice dot com.

This is a shout out for supporters Tweek Coleman, Ed Williams, and major supporter Dr. Craig Curtis at K2 in the Villages. We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike at rothvoice dot com. We thank everyone for listening to the show.

The content of the show is copyrighted by Rothvoice 2024, all rights reserved.