It all started with a promise. I will get to that, but let’s start from before the promise.
As a kid, I used to love being the last kid in the neighborhood to go home. Sun had set, the stars were out and I always dreamed there was something bigger in this world calling me. I would “Dig to China” in my sand-box. I would create a zoo of small animals that I found at the pond. I would go on adventures in the woods until I got lost to see what worlds were lurking in the distance. And there was always my Redline BMX.
As I got older my mind shifted, to girls and dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. I played Division One Soccer in College and played 8 years of Minor league professional soccer afterwards. I let go of that dream after I shattered my shin in a preseason pro scrimmage.
I started as an entrepreneur, starting my own business, but never lost my dreamer mentality. I cut off my cast and started to train for an Ironman Triathlon. I finished my first Ironman six months after breaking my shin. I thought I had found my calling. I guess I could say I did, but not in the way I imagined it.
I sold my business in 2008 and decided to try to make triathlon a full-time job, but in again, a dreamer sort of way. I signed on as the President of the Kentucky Health and Fitness Fund, to raise awareness for childhood obesity. I committed to ten events in 2010. Including marathons, Ironmans, century rides, half Ironman races and culminating in Kona for the Ironman World Championships… on a BMX bike. Yes, my dreamer mindset always put a twist on my ideas and actions.
Through this process I realized I did not fit in with Ironman triathletes. The discipline, the arrogance, the isolation, it was just not for me. With my BMX in Kona, people loved it or hated it. The majority hated it, but that pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me and makes me appreciate what I did in 2010 even more. And my dreamer mind started thinking there really needs to be a sports comedy about triathlon like Happy Gilmore did for golf and what Kingpin did for bowling. My daughter and wife and our unborn child were there to cheer me on. We lost our unborn child 18 weeks into pregnancy, but that is not where the promise began.
My daughter Malia Dakota Jusczyk was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma cancer on April 1st, 2010. Our world was shattered. Losing an unborn baby we thought was the hardest thing we would endure, but boy, were we wrong. We moved from Orlando, Florida to Boston for treatment and turned our world upside down.
Going from a care-free world to a 40% chance of survival for two years for my 3-year-old daughter really “fucked me up”. We sat in a hospital bed for 2+ years and she was treated in Orlando, Boston, Hartford, CT and Grand Rapids, MI.
I am sure you are asking, “How the hell is this a comedy?” Well, without humor, I’m not sure we would have come out the other side. We watched as many Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, Rob Schneider and Nick Swardson movies as possible. Yes, nurses, social workers, family and friends would cringe when we watched That’s My Boy and Kingpin, etc., but you know what, she laughed, probably because I was laughing uncontrollably, but she was laughing and we were bonding.
I told Malia about my idea for Tri-Dick. A kid who shits his pants in Junior High and then becomes destined to become a shamed paper-boy for the rest of his life until he’s inspired to challenge his boss and long-time childhood nemesis to the sport of triathlon on his BMX. With the humor of poop and dicks, this way-ahead-of-her-time 5-year-old kept pestering me to make this movie so “Funny Guy” Adam Sandler would be on the big screen. We dreamed together of seeing Sandler playing the main character Schlomo.
I went on to start reading up on how the hell to even write a screenplay and enrolled in the UCLA Screenwriting certificate program. It took me three years, but I did it. It took a lot of “How much longer for your screenplay Daddy?” requests from Malia, but here I am and on my last edit. I am at 122 pages from 160+. I realize a comedy needs to be 90 -110, so I’m getting there.
So, there it is. Malia Dakota Jusczyk, the cancer-crushing, now 10-year-old who I made a promise to. Took me eight years and the courage to come out of my comfort zone, but I think the dreamer has prevailed and we have something special. We might be the only ones, but that is all that really matters.
We feel this story needs to be told, even if it’s a slapstick, over-the-top comedy, it does have a history, a story, a dream and pulse and most importantly, a promise.
I hope you enjoy and thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Glen Jusczyk
