Dan Nitro Clark

Saturday night is alright for Kung Fu Fighting!  You gotta read this review in the Orange County Register. It's the reason we are creative and write books. It's also fantastic because it's my home town paper as well! 

But I do have to admit it's been a Herculean task to actually get a review.  Because of the cutback at paper and the shrinkage of the book section — they just don't do that many reviews anymore — especially on books with a guy in spandex on the cover.  

They think they know the story.  I guess the adage is true, don't judge a book by it's cover.  

This guy from the paper, Peter Larsen, actually read the book, and buzzed me up and took a moment to look inside.  I'm glad he did.  

Media has become cheap and sensationalistic today.  Not this guy.  While everyone else led with Man-Boobs and steroids, he led with man behind the story. That would humbly be me. The article starts…  

Dan Clark stands on the deck of his modern, glass-infused Hollywood Hills home, bruised storm clouds moving fast through the Cahuenga Pass below. His smile is quick and his eyes flash as he tells his story. Yet you sense weariness, too as he describes his life. Or lives.

The story of Dan Clark – you know him as Nitro, one of the ripped bad boy stars of the original "American Gladiators" TV series – is one of many different lives, each a creation of Clark's demons, drive and desire. Clark, it turns out, is the ultimate self-made man, shedding skins like a snake, recreating himself (figuratively and literally) over and over in his 44 years.

He was a preschooler who bawled when his parents split, and then made himself into a boy who would not cry. He was a 10-year-old devastated by guilt and grief after witnessing the accidental electrocution of his older brother, who turned himself into someone who would not – could not – feel.

He was a chubby teen who, in the early 1980s, transformed himself into a football star at Saddleback High School, building his body even bigger after discovering steroids at Santa Ana College.

And, later, he was a washed-up would-be NFL player who created a new persona as Nitro, the bad-ass TV Gladiator who'd gladly knock you on yours, on or off camera.

And now Clark is this: the fading celebrity, who abused himself and everyone around him for years – with drugs and sex and brawls and such – remakes himself once more, writing a memoir to tell (and sell) his story everywhere he can, like a prophet warning others off the self-destructive path he'd followed…

You can read the rest of the OC article here.  

Access Hollywood interview was another story.  40 minute interview chopped to 15 seconds and one question about the side effects of steroids.  And Billy Bush was to cool fro school.  But at least they hooked a brotha up and showed the cover.   Off to dinner at the famous Spago in Beverly Hills.  Been there a few times.  But this is the first time I'm actually going there for dinner!

Please enjoy!

Dan Clark

Btw — if you still haven't gotten a copy of the book I know Amazon has GLADIATOR on sale in the bargain book area for $10 so now is a great time to get it just in time for Xmas!  Just click the link above – ignore the $20 price and go down to the box where it has the "bargain" price!

Technorati Tags: Dan Clark, Nitro, Dan Nitro Clark, American Gladiator, Dan Nitro, Steroids, Access Hollywood, Orange County Register, Saddleback High School, American Gladiators where are they now, American Gladiators, Gladiator book, Gladiator A True Story review,

     Kicked it on the set of EXTRA with my long time bud Mario Lopez Friday.  We met at our first autograph session, a car show, in Ohio when he was 16 and I was uh… 17.  Well, I was just a little older than that.  But never in my wildest imagination did I think 19 years later he’d be hosting his own prime time show and I’d be on it because I’d just written:  GLADIATOR – A True Story of Roids, Rage, Redemption.  It’s amazing how life comes full circle.  I’m proud of Mario beyond belief – he’s doing a great job and still a great guy.   

Also, I did my first TV interview via satellite Thursday for a late night FOX show called "Red Eye" with Greg Gutfield. Satellite is a tricky thing.  I’m surprised most people, even those with a little media experience, just don’t incinerate right there on the sound stage.  Here’s how it’s set up.   I’m sitting on a stage at FOX in Los Angeles with an artillery of lights blasting my retinas — in the midst of them is one camera man.  That’s it.  Just him and I and — oh yeah — a really cute make up girl.   In my ear is a mic where I can hear the show live while it’s being filmed in NY.  It’s a round table comedy – news format, so there’s 4 people talking and jiving about the events of the day.  To me it sounds like I’m talking to a bud on the cell phone in the middle of a crowded airport.   In the face of the camera — the one that is point right at me –the one that I need to look into while doing the interview — is the live video feed of the show.  So basically you look into the camera and respond to the questions of the interviewer.  The only trick is there’s a THREE SECOND DELAY from what you’re hearing in your ear and seeing.  

Does that make sense?  

You are hearing the question 3 seconds before you see him actually ask you the question in the camera.   It’s freakin’ confusing.  Because you have to respond to the question in your ear when he asks it — not when you see him asking you it in the camera.  So, you’re actually answering the question in real time from what you’re hearing (and you can barely hear it because of all the static and poor feed)… while you’re watching him still ask you the question.   Finally , I had them turn the picture off in the camera, so essentially I was looking into a blank camera, pretending I was talking to someone, while answering the questions.   That being said, he was funny, and I think it went pretty damn good, even though all we talked about was steroids, and I didn’t get to go into depth on the book at all.  But I did work up a good sweat with nerves and adrenaline rushing full speed.   

Be Brilliant!

Dan Clark

Technorati Tags: Mario Lopez, American Gladiators, EXTRA, Red Eye, Steroids, Dan Clark, Nitro, Dan nitro Clark,  Greg Gutfield, FOX News, Steroids, Gladiator a True story of roids,

Man, do I have a lot to say about A-Rod.  So much I posted a blog on the HuffingtonPost.com.  

It starts like this…

Alex Rodriguez came clean this week, but there’s still some dirty business going on. It’s a little tough for me to swallow A-Rod saying, “To be quite honest I don’t know exactly what substance I was guilty of using…” The same way he was lying when 15 months ago he told CBS’s Katie Couric that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.

Alex is the highest paid player in baseball. His body is his business. At his level, I’m sure everything he does is microscopically analyzed. His swing, his workouts, his diet — to mold him into most perfect baseball machine ever. As a steroid abuser for 20 years, I can assure you he knew exactly what he was taking. Each and every time I took a steroid, I always knew EXACTLY what I was taking. In reality I became my very own science project. Here’s what I know…  

To read the rest click here…  and it will take you to the post.   Please comment if you like. 

Also Inside Edition ran a piece on me and the book.  I was surprised about how much they cut it and how they cut it.  But again, I guess I’ve been doing this long enough and should never be surprised.  Overall, people tell me it was a good piece and effective of getting the message across.

  Yesterday was a day that was full tilt with publicity and my kick-off book signing at "Book Soup" on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood for my book "Gladiator – A True Story of Roids, Rage and Redemption."  The turn out was off the hook and they sold out of books — which I hear is amazing.  I want to thank everyone for their support and will be posting a video and some pictures of the event!  I supplied plenty of booze and food so even though I didn’t get to hang with everyone as much as I’d like to, it was still a blast.  Thanks everyone for showing up!!! A Men’s Health Article came out today that I rather like.   It starts out:

    When he wasn’t bashing the brains of weekend warriors with a giant Q-tip or laying vicious hits on spandex-wearing guys in Powerball, Dan Clark—“Nitro” of the original American Gladiators—was slamming needles into his glutes. The former San Jose State linebacker and reality TV megastar abused steroids for more than 2 decades to build his formidable frame.

Clark details his steroid use, rise to fame, terrifying bouts of ‘roid rage, and his life after the drugs—including relapses and daily pains—in his frank new book, Gladiator. MensHealth.com got an early look at the manuscript, and the chance to ask Nitro some questions about steroids, their lasting effects, and his workouts today.

Did 20 radio interviews back to back this morning starting at 5 AM.  For the most part I feel great, but I’m going to get a little rest and wait for my segment "INSIDE EDITION" tonight.

 Be well!

Dan "Nitro" Clark

Technorati Tags: Men’s Health, Steroid, Nitro, Dan Clark, Steroids questions, American Gladiators, Gladiator a True Story of, Inside edition, Dan Nitro Clark, San Jose State, memoir, book, Book Soup

I just received my first official review.  And it’s a good one.  I guess that means I’m actually on author now. The Associated Press Review of GLADIATOR by Dan Scheraga gets the dubious honor of being my first.   It begins…

    Amazon.com is the 800 pound guerilla. GRRR!  Hear them roar! I just had a few people email me letting me know they’ve already received their books!  A couple things I find that are absolutely amazing about this.  Firstly, how in the hell does Amazon get their books so early???  WTF!  GLADIATOR isn’t available in stores until Feb 9th.  Secondly, I had a couple people hit my up on my MySpace and Facebook page and told me the devoured the entire book in one night.  That just blows me away!  It’s been such a long journey.  It’s hard to believe that I’ve gone from Nitro and spandex to author.  It’s still really hasn’t settled in.

I’m finding hands down favorite chapter for the guys:  ”Playboy Bunnies, Porn Strippers and Strippers.”  I thought that just as a matter of course… all men kinda went through this phase and experienced this.  I guess not. 

Favorite chapter for the women?  That’s a tough one.  So far astonishingly they seem to LOVE the ENTIRE BOOK (well maybe except for the men’s favorite chapter).  They love the rawness, candidness, the emotionality, and the unflinchingly honest peek behind the veil into a man’s mind and heart.  They love how unabashedly personal the book is.  And, that my friends, pretty much encapsulates the differences between the sexes.  And of course, this is just a generality.  There’s plenty of dude out there (including me) who can roll a tear. 

Above all else — the early readers are telling me that’s it so much more than a book about Gladiators.  It’s a book about a human life that Gladiators and steroids were a part of.  Ugh!  It really feels like I’m selling here.  But I’m not.  I’m just relaying what folks are saying to me.  Hell, after you read, chime in here and let me know what you think.  And once again, here is an excerpt from the book to get you started, so you can see what the hell I’m talking about!

Click here to read an excerpt.

Also (nearly forgot) here’s a little mention in: TIME Magazine.  Click here to see how it actually appeared in the print version.