You grew up in L.A., right?
Yeah, mostly. On the West side.
I read that you get around by bike?
Yeah. No driving. I know how, but I just prefer not to. Again, it’s a lifestyle choice that I kind of committed to. I might not do it forever but I live very central. I can walk to Target, I can walk to Jamba Juice, I can walk to Baha Fresh. I can walk to the market and then I can bicycle to the beach in 45 minutes. I can bicycle to the clubs.
And you have no problems getting out to clubs?
I have cute girl chauffeurs. I don’t mind being in a car. I’m not like anti-being-in-a-car.
It seems like you’d really like Tel Aviv. Have you shot there?
I’ve had a few people contact me from there and nothing’s ever come to fruition. But actually, it’s a pet project of mine with hopefully some help from their Consulate and Tourism Board… to do a Cobrasnake Birthright trip.
How do you envision it?
Everyone can wear Cobrasnake t-shirts. Maybe I can make a special Jewish-edition. I did a Hanukkah shirt a long time ago with a menorah and a dreidel. I’d say it’d probably be like 2011 or 2012 by the time we figure it out. But I’m close with Dov from American Apparel… we could do some stuff with him. It’d be great to get Heeb involved and have a contest for a reader to be part of the trip. Get some airline sponsor or something. Fill the whole plane with people. So, yeah, I think that would be pretty epic to get back to the roots. And my other Jewish traits are I’m very good with money.
So you know how to save?
Coupons! Coupons! I love coupons. To go to the grocery store and save $50…I save 50 percent usually when I shop at a grocery store. I only buy the things on sale. And when I have a coupon. I like a bargain… And I’m super hairy.
How long have you had the mustache?
My ‘stache has been for a while now. But I’m not super attached to it. I could shave it… it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I have a very unkempt look and even if I shower, I look the same, so…I’m kind of unfortunate in that way. I can’t really look normal if I tried. When I was maybe 20 I was on the show Extreme Makeover doing a mini-makeover. I looked like a Bar Mitzvah boy basically cause they shaved me, shaved my chest hair, gave me a fake tan.
What’s next? What’s next for you? You have your Birthright…
Well that’s the thing, I’ve heard the real Birthright is a little bit gnarly, you have to do all these things, they try to like make you have sex with the people. I wanna do all that but on my own terms. If we could do a little bit of a free-form Birthright…two weeks in Israel or 10 days or something would be amazing. I just opened the store in LA– ‘Cobrasnake Pawn Shop.’ [It’s a] big deal.
Where is that?
It’s in the Hollywood and Highland Mall, which is a good juxtaposition for us because when you see pictures it’s like there’s Guess?, there’s Forever 21, there’s Hot Topic, there’s Louis Vuitton and then there’s The Cobrasnake. So it’s a very different situation but yeah, you know, again with the Jewish roots, I love being a merchant and selling schmattas. So my grandpa came to the opening party and he was like, ‘There’s a line around the block for people to buy old clothes!’
I lose sleep just thinking about new ideas. The whole thing from day one was a risk. I never went to college. I never really had any training. I was in the Boy Scouts, I was an Eagle Scout. I can always brag about that. I think that it’s really cool just to sort of come up with something and then make it happen and I feel like there’s so many people that have great ideas and they lack that execution. I may not have the best ideas, but I try my best to execute them.
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