When Ralph Macchio is at a sporting event and hears Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best” blasting through the speakers, he has a good idea what’s coming next. His face will appear on the video board, and then he will have to do something to pump up the crowd.
“It’s been met with such a roar from fandom,” said the star of the “Cobra Kai” TV series and “The Karate Kid” movies.
Macchio does not hide from these moments. He enjoys them, and he doesn’t seem to enjoy them for selfish reasons. It is mostly because of the bond he is able to create between the fans who care about him and the character he played. This is the subject of his book “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me,” in which Macchio discusses how getting the role to play Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 classic “The Karate Kid” did so much for him and others who found common ground. . with the film and its themes. The book was published last week.
Thanks to everyone who has already pre-ordered WAXING ON! The response was amazing! Early reviews are starting to come in! @kirkusreviews: “Macchio’s sweet, nostalgic memoir is as familiar and instructive as its inspiration.” https://t.co/7tB5fAlFjm pic.twitter.com/SMuluzlV1U
— Ralph Macchio (@ralphmacchio) July 28, 2022
The 60-year-old Macchio — a massive Islanders fan who went to their season opener the night before this interview — took time to talk to The Athletic about his relationship with that team, his relationship with New York sports teams and how “Cobra. Kai, ” streaming show on Netflix, which is a sequel to “The Karate Kid” and just aired Season 5, has found a way to weave sports into its show. Macchio also weighed in on the long-running debate over whether “The Karate Kid” is indeed a sports movie.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length.)
How deep is your relationship with the Islanders? Do you know Jon Ledecky or anyone else around the team?
i do I was just with (Ledecky at the season opener). We don’t meet on Fridays for poker, but they know me, I know them. They know I’m a fan. I support the team. I did something with the opening ceremony … it’s just fun. I love the new arena. It’s really amazing. This is like the real first season. Last season was difficult because it wasn’t over yet, and then (several players caught) COVID-19, and we had a terrible start and never came out of it. But hopefully, brighter news for the future and (they) will get back into the playoffs. That was fun, two seasons ago (when they made the Stanley Cup semifinals). That was a blast.
How did your relationship with the Islanders grow from just being a fan as a kid to being shown on the video board? Did this also happen actively in the 80s and 90s, or is this a more recent phenomenon? How did this develop?
I would say for the 90s, first of all, there weren’t any (video boards), and you never saw video images in the 80s on the scoreboard, at least as far as I can remember. Certainly not at the Nassau Coliseum. We weren’t on the cutting edge of technology at the old barn. So, it was later, and after they could show clips, I’d hear “(You’re) the Best Around,” and I’d know in a second that I’d be up on the scoreboard – and more recently. But even before “Cobra Kai”, it would happen.
In the early 2000s, any time I would be at a game and they would know I was at the game, that camera guy would be kneeling in front, and I knew it was coming. I would always consult with my son, my daughter and my wife; I’d be like, “How’s my hair? How do I look because I’m going up?” Now it’s met with such a roar of fandom with the kids because of “Cobra Kai.” That’s what’s so amazing about that show and what I write in my memoir in my book: The uniqueness is something that’s equal parts nostalgia but contemporary relevance. I can talk about that almost 40-year journey in those shoes and what it was like. That, hopefully, people pick up on. It’s a real conversation about what it was like for me.
Mark yours 📅. 12/23 is @ralphmacchio #bobblehead night.
Get yours 🎫 now @ https://t.co/P4jFH0uTOD #AllForIsles pic.twitter.com/oaJXBB6PEa
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) October 25, 2016
You talk about the journey in the 90s when you are shown on TV. There are people born in the 80s who rejoice. Now you go on the video board, and there are 10-year-olds to 50-year-olds cheering. I was listening to Martin Kove on Rich Eisen’s show, and he was talking about how “Cobra Kai” spans so many ages.
It really does. I get a lot of parents who say, “Thank you for giving me something I can watch with my kids.” You are the hardest person on the planet for your children when they reach a certain age. Now “Cobra Kai” makes everyone cool. They’ll sit and watch “The Karate Kid,” or sometimes, the kids will lean into the original movie franchise. Some know the movie franchise and watch the show, but some, it’s their favorite show. They watch it and their friends are like, “Wait a second, this is where it starts?” That is really very unique. I am writing to that as well. It really is a four-quadrant show as they call it. There are fathers and sons and mothers and daughters, grandparents and children all getting some of that entertainment.
What did you think when you saw Martin Kove (John Kreese of “Cobra Kai” and “The Karate Kid”) celebrating with the Stanley Cup on Instagram? Did you see that?
i have I actually have to mention that too (to him). We didn’t talk about it. I don’t know if he’s been to enough hockey games to have the privilege of celebrating with the Stanley Cup. But, it’s great. Listen, I’m a hockey fan. I have always been a hockey fan with the Islanders and the dynasty team of my childhood with four straight Stanley Cups. I so often meet people who don’t get it. They’re like, “What? Hockey? Why hockey?” Especially from the West Coast, or whatever. At any time it can be brought to the attention of the masses and if John Kreese, aka Martin Kove, gets to do that, I’m glad for it.
I saw a picture of him with Jacob Bertrand (Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz on “Cobra Kai”) and Gianni DeCenzo (Demetri Alexopoulos on “Cobra Kai”) at a Flames game. And immediately, my mind went to, “Are they filming ‘Cobra Kai’ in Calgary now? What’s going on?”
They did Comic-Con in Calgary. These comic conventions have become such a great place to advertise and appear. “Cobra Kai” and “The Karate Kid,” for sure. “Cobra Kai” is right in that wheelhouse. Even though it’s kind of not a superhero, “Star Trek” or “Star Wars”, it has such a fandom. Calgary is supposed to have a big one. When you go into town, they offer you things to do. If you’re going to Chicago, it’s Cubs tickets. If you go to Dallas, it’s a Cowboys game. You’re trying to time it, so I think that’s what they might have done at the time. But I’m the real hockey guy in the “Cobra Kai” show. It’s not even close.
I was going to ask about that and how they weave hockey into “Cobra Kai”. I think it was Season 2 when you and the character Robby Keene (played by Tanner Buchanan) were training in the woods, and you said something like, “I’ve got to get the (Devils) score.”
It makes sense because LaRusso, the character, is from New Jersey, so he would be a Devils fan! And Macchio is from Long Island, so I’m an Islanders fan. The show’s writers enjoy that. One of our writers is a big Philadelphia Flyers fan. In fact, we bet somewhere in the season when the Flyers played the Islanders in the first pandemic playoffs, and the Islanders beat them. The bet was the other person had to wear the other (team) jersey to the first day of shooting on Season 4, and he appeared in the Islanders jersey.
There’s a hockey scene in Season 4 of “Cobra Kai” where LaRusso is faced by four hockey players, and he has to take them all down, and Johnny Lawrence, Billy Zabka’s character, just sets them up for a little strike. -first element, where I learn a lesson from the “Johnny Lawrence School.” We’re at a minor league hockey game, and you have to take out five guys. Really funny scene. I’ve always wanted to bring that to the Islanders game – or any hockey game – and put it on the scoreboard.
It’s about fighting, so I don’t think the NHL wants to promote that part of it. In time, you could make a movie about fighting. Hockey is just a great sport. I mean, the fighting part is not what I find great. The competition and the fluidity, the speed of the game, the execution and athleticism … it’s amazing. We have writers who love it, and myself, so that’s why it’s peppered into the “Cobra Kai” world. Also, there’s a Keith Hernandez bobblehead on my desk at LaRusso Auto.
Before that episode aired, I hadn’t watched it yet, and someone texted me and said, “Look for the head on LaRusso’s desk.”
Jon Hurwitz, one of our “Cobra Kai” writers and creators, is a massive Mets fan, so this was his doing. I threw out the first pitch (at a Mets game) during Season 1 when the show was on YouTube, I think the day after it came out. Zabka was behind the plate, and I was on the mound, and I threw high, out. Luckily, he’s over 6 feet tall, so he caught it and made me not look like a fool. It was a good partnership. So, the first pitch at the Mets game, that was fun.
Have any players slipped into your DMs just to tell you how much they like the show? I know there was the thing with the Capitals that had to be just surreal. What was that like?
That was crazy. They gave the ‘Cobra Kai’ headband to the offensive player of the game, and they gave the Miyagi-Do headband to the defensive player of the game, and they did that the entire 2020-21 season with (coach Peter Laviolette).
Pain doesn’t exist in this dojo. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/xONJnNyZVh
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 15, 2021
It was like they were all ex-Islander coaches. They just cycle through. But yes, exactly. That was cool. I actually made a throw back to the Washington Capitals, their broadcast. They had me, but I still supported my (Islanders) fandom. The Mets did a little crossover a few weeks ago. It was actually a terrible game; they lost to the Cubs. They were swept by the Cubs. Everyone is talking about getting swept by the Braves at the end of the season. But being swept by the Braves, they are an elite team. Being swept by the Cubs, that’s where you lost your (division lead at the) end of your season.
But it was Island Night at Citi Field. Josh Bailey and Adam Pelech and Ross Johnston, a few (other) guys were there. It was fun taking pictures with the Bailey kids and talking a little about the upcoming season while I was at a Mets game. So, I had two of my teams. My Jets are doing well for what the (NFL) predictions were, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s fun, I enjoy sports. I enjoy them with my son, my family. It’s New York. It’s what grounded me.
I was just talking to someone earlier about how I never kind of slipped down the slippery slope of drugs, alcohol and those kinds of problems during the lean years or the times when it gets in your face like that, and how I avoided it. I said, “Because my sports teams are doing well, so I wanted to go back to New York to go to the game.” Maybe that’s what kept me from going down a dark path, that the Islanders were good. The Mets were good. So, I wanted to get home to go to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
You seem to always enjoy being there at sporting events. I’m a reporter, I’ve been in these places where celebrities come in and they think they own the place. You don’t seem to do that. You just walk in and you say, “I’m so thrilled and grateful for this experience.”
Certainly. But on the other side of that, I do benefit when I can be in a series. I was in a set (at the season opener), and at a Mets game, I was invited into the owner’s set. So, I’d be lying to say, “I want to sit in the last row and freeze to death and have beer poured on me.” I did my share of that. I have lived long enough. I’ll take the soft, cushioned seat when I can. But (when) I’m in someone else’s house, I’m a guest and I want to be entertained, have a good time and cheer on the team and see good competition. That’s how I look at it.
When I listened to Kove on Eisen’s show, he said that “The Karate Kid” is not a sports movie. I read your book and I’m like, “I think he might be right,” but it was still listed in The Athletic’s top 100 sports movies. What do you think?
That is an ongoing debate. I do touch on that in the book. John Avildsen (director of “Rocky” and “The Karate Kid”) said “Rocky” is a love story and “The Karate Kid” is a father-and-son story. Are they sports movies? Is “Hoosiers” a sports movie? Yes. Is “Rudy” a sports movie? Yes. “Field of Dreams?” Yes. “The Natural?” Yes. “The Karate Kid?” No? Well, karate isn’t great… well, now it could be different. With “Cobra Kai”, karate is front and center. But karate is not basketball, baseball, hockey or football. I think if “The Karate Kid” was a football player, maybe it would be considered a sports movie. I don’t know. It’s a sport, and martial arts is a sport, I can promise you. It’s probably, I think, it’s mentorship, fatherhood, coming of age before it’s a sports movie. But let the debate continue because that means they are still talking about it. That’s how I look at it.
(Photo courtesy of the New York Islanders)
