From your lips to God’s ears. That means it will translate into ticket sales, hopefully. I was raised in an environment with my dad being a professional athlete, my cousin being a professional athlete, my godfather, so what you do doesn’t make you special. So to have attention on you for your job… But it doesn’t really turn me on or make me overly excited.
It’s great because it allows me to build a platform for some of the other things that I’m interested in. I work with a lot of charities, I have mentor organizations, I have a dance company, I work with an organization called Warm 2 Kids… And a company called City Year, a Boston based community service organization for middle-school kids, where they spend a year doing community service. I get to talk about those things and people will listen now, and that’s what excites me more than the accolades. Like I said earlier, everybody gets accolades for what they do, if they do it well. An architect gets an Architectural Digest and I’m sure people at the office are patting him on the back but he doesn’t go out and think he’s overly special because of it. So it always has been humorous to me that entertainers and athletes felt overly special when the cameras weren’t rolling. It is entertainment, it is show business, but at the end of the day, you’re a human being and you’re a family and you’re a loved one and that’s what’s important, human relationships.
What sort of family do you keep around you daily?
My mom moved out here a couple of years ago, and she’s my business partner. Just like Bernie gives all of his money to his wife, I give it all to my mom. I understand finances, I’m a licensed stockbroker, I’ve got my series 6763 and 65 and I focus on trying to a make some and then I focus on things like my five younger sisters. My dad has a huge family, my mom has a big family, so my grandmother is 97 and she lives out here. I keep my grandmother, my cousin, my aunt and my uncle out here, my mom, and my close friends. It’s like a mirror, people that know you keep you grounded, because you come home one day acting crazy and they are like, “Who are you?” [At this point, Brian takes out his cell phone, shows a photo of his grandmother, and plays a recording: “Hey Brian, this is your grandmother calling. I was very happy to see you today, and I wish you all the luck in the world. I love you Brian.”]
What do you do for the holidays. Are they all out here?
No, my sisters all live in Boston. My dad lives in Boston and works for the Celtics still. My mom’s out here, so it’s flying back and forth. I’ve been working, so there’s a give and take with the scheduling and stuff. But I’ve been really blessed to work with people like Michael Chiklis and Bernie and Angela, grounded people. I haven’t worked with any people that had huge egos or anything like that.
Yet…
Yet – hopefully I won’t. I’m sure I will, but my role models and inspirations through the people I’ve been working with have been people I can look up to and learn from.
