Angel (answering phone, it's Mark): "Hey, what's up?"
Mark: "I'm going to go to the NRB Convention February 24-27."
Angel (Gigi had actually told ME about the NRB, National Religious Broadcaster's Convention, last month. I had told Mark. Mark had apparently told his contacts, who were now going, and he had now just informed ME. Brother. lol):
"Which DAY are you going to be there? Gigi said she will be there on the 25th. She usually gets a BnB because she has her dog she takes everywhere with her. I've already looked at the prices for the Gaylord, near Dallas, where it's at. $600. night. I just got FINISHED paying for the Gaylord in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and that was for THREE nights."
There had been a "Dinner with Dreamers" important event, their 10 year Anniversary, in Nashville. In 2017 my actress fellow Christian best friend, Gigi, had taken me as her Plus+1 to my first "Dinner with Dreamers" dinner, in Austin, Texas, where I had been seated next to Mark, a friend of Gigi's. I had met him for the first time.
Each of us, about 12, at the dinner had told our life story. When Mark heard mine he decided we all needed to be best friends. From that night on our adventures as a friendship, due to our love for God, had been non-stop. Scroll down my page or look in my Photo Albums for all the Nashville pictures.
I took my 7 year old granddaughter, Laileigh, to the Nashville "Dinner with Dreamers" recent event. On my website I've written about our many adventures. One of the ones this year was the "Dreamers" first cruise. I have almost a dozen stories about that. Miami, to Jamaica, to Grand Cayman, to Miami.)
Mark: "Get a Motel 6, just get there. You should bring Laileigh. I'm having a stunt workshop in Tyler, Texas. Bring Laileigh AND her friends. I'll pay you a percentage to get people there." (Saturday at 2 pm February 8, 2025; tell me if you want to go, I get a percentage, lol!)
Angel (We've already gone through this a million times since 2017. He knows I don't want to organize his workshops. Mark never hears "No." That's one of the things that has helped him rise to the top, to being in the Hollywood Stuntman Hall of Fame. I really don't respond. I don't want to encourage him.)
"I already looked at the Dallas Gaylord website, last night... oh wait, no. I actually looked at the Austin KALAHARI Resort Hotel's website, here. (I live near Austin.) I noticed they have one of their hotel rooms set up perfectly for a workshop. It has two Murphy beds that are flat against one wall, a kitchen, bath, conference size dining table, and a huge empty space living room. That would be perfect for one of your workshops. I imagine the Gaylord in Dallas (Grapevine) has something similar."
Mark: "You check. Figure out who we can market this to." He starts listing his ideas: schools, Laileigh's Kung Fu friends, her class, her school, colleges... I just let him run with it. I still haven't committed.
Angel: "What we REALLY need to do is to take all the video footage I've taken of you over the years, edit them, and turn them into products you can sell at your stunt workshops." As soon as we had met and he had heard me talk about my books I had written he had started suggesting I write his Biography. Maybe. I had been collecting his stories since then. It felt safer, however, to just start fresh, with what I knew about personally. I had started writing about our adventures, and filming them, one by one by one, instead. So far.
Mark: "Yes, you should do that. I know we have such-and-such footage."
Angel: "I have footage I took of you at the "Island on Lake Travis" when I interviewed you and you taught 4 month old Laileigh to say, "Hallelujah." I filmed it. I filmed you teaching her her first stunt."
Mark: "Everyone at the Nashville Dreamer's event thought Laileigh was my daughter. I kept telling them she's my SPIRITUAL daughter. They said it was because of the way she held my hand and walked with me so confidently."
Angel: "Well, she LOVES you. You've been a part of her life since she was 4 months old. I have that footage. Then, I have the footage interviewing you at my parent's company. I have your workshop in Austin. I have Oklahoma, Dallas, and 3 different years in Albuquerque at your stunt workshops at Comic Con. I have the Gideon Festival in Nashville, Eden Roc in Miami, the Dreamer's Cruise last March, the recent Nashville Dreamer's event, Chapelgate, Spa Castle, Kalahari with you teaching Lai, the Kalahari Spa, Double Cut Steakhouse, Pappadeaux in Dallas, the Dallas Dreamer's dinner, when we went to that Christian Singer's event north of Dallas...I keep thinking..."
Mark: "And when we went to your television studio in Austin. I brought so-and-so and so-and-so (2 fellow stunt friends of his with black belts). Laileigh LOVED them."
Angel: "That's because they were playing stunts with her outside on that princess castle, remember?"
Mark: "They are going to be there, at my Tyler workshop." He might have said that. I think he actually told me to call them and invite them to his Tyler workshop. Mark has an endless stream of thought - organized like stunts he's pulling off.
Angel: "Are you sure they are going to be in Tyler? You said you had one coming up in Bastrop. That's a lot closer to them, they are from San Antonio."
Angel (trying to divert him): "What we REALLY need to do is to actually start utilizing my television studios in Austin, where I'm qualified to use all their equipment as a Producer for my TV series, "Texas Tales from a Lone Star." We're not using that like we COULD be.
Mark: "Yeah, let's do that!" He starts off now in THIS direction, listing who we could interview.
Angel: "Figure out exactly which DAY you plan to be at the NRB Convention. Gigi said she's going on the 25th but I just texted her to see if her plans are the still the same. I'm going whatever day Gigi goes. Are you going for all 4 days?"
Mark: "No." Then he thinks to add, "There's going to be a Dinner with Dreamers" dinner then."
Angel: "Well, I'm going on THAT day then. Tell me when you know which day. I'll go that day. Ok, talk to you later, bye."
Thinking to myself, pondering, later... "Mickey lives in Tyler. ...Mickey does his own stunts. ...Mickey knows LOTS of people. ...Gigi will be there. ...Mickey is great friends with Gigi...
And we're off on our next adventure.
I have lots and lots of stories like this on my website, I have Mickey's behind the scenes stories where I introduced him to Gigi and she introduced him to her film friends. An episode of "Blue Collar Millionaires" resulted from those adventures. The link to it is in my story, along with the stories and pictures. I have lots of stories about conversations Gigi and I have had about God, it's so fun talking to her because we are on similar levels of our journeys with God. I have a ton of stories about Mark, and I focus on his thinking and interaction with God.
God shows up over and over, well, every time, in my stories of Mark. Once, I asked him, "HOW do you DO some of these stunts???" I had just watched his stunt reel, posted here in this story, where he jumps out of a helicopter, at night, with a bungee cord, drops 1000 feet, and lands on concrete in a dark city. I forget which major movie that was. Stallone's "Daybreak," I think. Then there's Mark jumping off a huge dam and falling into the river while the bridge behind him explodes. That's in one of Sylvester Stallone's best selling movies of all time, "The Specialist." Then, there's Mark falling down the cliffs in Stallone's "Cliffhanger." Batman. Spider-Man. Star Trek. Titanic. add 380 more of that same caliber, A-list, all time best of the best of the best of the best. Mark. He had told me, "I just pray. Then I jump."
Mark: "I'm having another stunt workshop in Atlanta soon, at that horse ranch. You should come and bring Laileigh. Rent a car and drive."
Angel: "That's actually a great idea, Laileigh would LOVE the horses (he did a co-stunt workshop with a stunt friend who trains horses). The last time I drove Swan (my beloved van) to Arkansas (to my Bigfoot land, "Angel Creek," see my 108 short-stories about THAT, lol) I told myself, "This is the LAST time I'm driving Swan way up here. From now on, I'm taking a train."
Mark: "You need to buy a NEW car."
Angel: "I LOVE Swan! If I ever break down on the road I have an instant house, right there with me. Mom has a new SUV, I've never driven it, maybe I'll ask."
Copyright 2025 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved
Written January 29, 2025 at 4:59 pm
