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MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT
SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK & MOVIE
CHAPTERS & SCENES
CHILDHOOD: we can show my sad traumatic childhood in 3 minutes via old photos + my voice-over + reenactments.
1999. My spiritual reckoning at age 25 after many years of debaucherous shenanigans. Jamming at home saved my soul that year, so I went on Oprah in 2000 to renounce my old ways. (Read my book for the full story on everything on this entire page.)
SUB-PLOT #1: FAILED MUSICIAN. A recurring theme in my story is decades of failed attempts to play gigs since 1993. I sucked. People cringed, so I felt anxiety & rejection instead of joy. (You can see I'm tense in this photo). So, instead, I kept jamming in private for pure fun for many years, eventually leading to my big epiphanies later on in this movie.
In 2000, I jammed at the ocean 250+ nights for pure spiritual bliss. It's so liberating to rock your soul where no one can hear you or judge you. That year, I studied physics & evolution for my next book, The Force. Jamming meditatively at the ocean is where I processed it all into this theory:
I obsessed on this spiritual mission in 2000-2001, thinking I'd be back on Oprah with this book in 2002. But I was in over my head. I wrote thousands of pages but I couldn't nail it. Years later, I condensed it into this essa at robcorbett.com/the-force-is-real (This documentary won't cover this heavy subject except to say that it derailed my writing career but fueled some musical breakthroughs.)
2001-2002. Jamming for Alzheimer's patients while working on The Force book. I learned that the best way to uplift your soul is to uplift others.
2002-2007. Embarrassing failures as a bad musician moping thru life as a depressed writer who sold just barely enough comedy material to scrape by on twenty grand a year in L.A. I felt like such a broke loser.
Spring 2007. After another 5 years as a struggling writer & failed wannabe musician, this was my last ridiculous comedy: The Tailgate Party Wastoid.
10.31.2007. The bad gig that sparked my epiphany to write a book to inspire people to jam at home purely for FUN instead of pressurizing it by practicing for public gigs. Just Groove!
2008. Researching these books for my own book changed my life forever. THE INFO IN THIS SLIDESHOW CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. We must teach it all in 15 minutes of this documentary via fast-paced animation. Please skim the headlines for an overview.
Inspired by that research, I started "dancing" for fun at home, BUT I COULDN'T DANCE before Groove Shoes changed my life, so I was just jumping back then. But it works for activating natural joy!
10.31.2008. After months of dancing at home once a week, I felt more comfortable dancing in public. At this Halloween concert in New Orleans, the floor got wet and my sneakers could suddenly move smoothly. It led to my epiphany to invent "Sneakers that slide like James Brown's shoes."
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SUBPLOT #2: JAMES BROWN becomes the #1 inspiration in my life, and a major recurring theme in the story ahead.
October 2009. Cesar the Colombian Cobbler and I made the first "James Brown sneakers" by cobbling leather soles to my sneakers.
Winter 2010. My mom broke her foot on Christmas so I stayed in Connecticut for 5 months to take care of her & write my book. For exercise, I grooved in the shoes every night for fun. It transformed me. When I got back to L.A., people were blown away by my newfound footwork & started asking me for shoes.
May 2010. The first videos I made in my first Groove Shoes, which I called "Slydurs" at the time.
SUB-PLOT #3: MY STRUGGLE TO WRITE THE BOOK. I wrote many drafts & designed many covers (like this mock-up), but I kept getting rejected by agents. So then I focused more on the shoes.
August 7th, 2010. I tested my Groove shoes at Long Beach Funk Fest. People loved it & wanted shoes! It inspired me to start my shoe company. This video is from the following year 2011, but the reactions were the same in 2010.
Ridiculous "focus group" video we made to show that Groove Shoes make even the worst dancers better, lol.
My brother was old college friends with Nordstrom's CEO so we met him & their head buyer. But they crushed my hopes by explaining that 99% of sneaker start-ups fail after spending millions in funding. They urged me to try to partner with a major brand.
When we made the first pair of Groove Shoes back in 2009, it was just a funny idea for my Halloween costume: NBA star Birdman Andersen. So in 2011 we filmed this Birdman video for fun.
January 2011. After I met a Nike shoe designer who could get us a big meeting at Nike HQ in Oregon later that year, I started developing the fitness potential of Groove Shoes.
2.18.2011. I unexpectedly rocked my first great gig after 18 years of failed attempts. A dream come true, but I wound up deferring my live music dream for another 5 years to focus on the shoe business.
April 2011. Funny R&D session at USC Sports Science Lab to determine how many calories you can burn in Groove Shoes.
June 2011. We filmed professional videos of Women's Fitness in Groove Shoes, Men's Fitness, and spent the summer building a big presentation for our Nike meeting on 9.13.2011
Recording the music for the men's fitness video.
September 2011. Our Nike meeting went very well. They asked for more authentication of the sports training potential, so I consulted these NFL trainers.
October 2011. Nike owns Converse. A Converse executive loved our shoe concept, so we made this video to fit the Converse brand.
November 2011. While Nike reviewed our project in-depth, I kept rocking my stress out every night at home, as I'd been doing since 1999. Here's a video with my glowing guitar-pick innovation.
November 2011: Strumming out my stress. The 2nd half of this video shows my full looping process if you want to see it.
In 2012, our momentum at Nike stalled out. It was heartbreaking. But in June I got connected to major executives at PUMA, so I laser-focused on PUMA.
June 2012. Showing my shoes to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh outside Zappos HQ in Vegas. Also met with PUMA executives here.
Funny video we made about smooth soles:
My proposal for PUMA Groove launch ads:
November 2012. Glowing with hope after shaking hands with PUMA's President to start doing a deal. But in 2013, the CEO got replaced & my project died. Heart breaking.
In 2013, I obsessed on creating our own brand of shoes: GRV, which stands for Groove Revolution.
Summer 2013. After barely going out for 4 years, I finally found my spot: Funky Sole, inspired by James Brown! I danced my stress out there every Saturday for the next 3 years. It was a rare oasis of joyful energy in L.A.
Funky Sole's JOY sky-rocketed my obsession with James Brown. I made this PDF in hopes of pitching it to his family:
The first video in our first GRV prototypes:
January 2014. My trip to China to make GRV Shoes has a lot of great videos, but this is everyone's favorite!
March 2014. Our launch video for Kickstarter:
April 2014. Great segment on GRV Shoes.
Great press & endorsements for GRV Shoes
Fateful destiny with James Brown's family. Our shoe designer Q (left) was college buddies with James Brown's grandson Jason (center). We became great friends.
I went to Augusta for James Brown's birthday with his family.
Groovin' with kids in Augusta on James Brown's birthday.
James Brown's family brought me to the movie premiere! Surreal destiny, 8 years after my epiphany for sneakers that slide like James Brown's shoes.
Jason Brown had us customize his GRV Shoes for the Apollo Theatre with this badass image of James Brown:
Jason Brown doing his grandfather's moves in GRV Shoes
I couldn't raise the millions in funding needed to scale GRV Shoes, but I got connected to Adidas & Pharrell, so I obsessed on that next...
2015. Fed up with chasing the major brands, I pivoted to a new business model: cobbling our soles onto customers' shoes.
2015. Launch ad for our new business model: Groove Shoe Soles
2015. My mock-up of how I wanted our shop The Groove Lab to be painted. (I also lived here illegally 2012-2016, lol)
Mock-up of Groove Centers, the first concept I'd thought of back in 2008 after I did all that research that everyone should rock for fun.
Ad with my footwork intercut with The Nicholas Brothers.
November 2015. Groove Soles launch party at Funky Sole.
Pro dancer Guapo joined the GRV Team at our launch party, then started filming videos in our shoes.
New Year's Eve 12.31.2015. Guapo in Groove Soles. I was surrounded by new customers groovin' their shoes all night. It filled me with hope, but a rough year was ahead.
January 2016. GRV was out of funding. I was so broke that I got alarmingly skinny, but I kept rocking my stress into joy every night after work.
February 2016. Flat broke & way too skinny. I talk about the struggle on my way to Debbie Allen's new musical. Wait for the clips of Debbie Allen's dancers in our shoes.
Thank God my first $500 gig fell in my lap, with the sax player from BoomBox. This was a confidence builder.
Trying to get out of my loner hermit shell...
I started teaching groove moves on camera: basic sliding, spins, "sun-walking," the Pendulum Groove Method, and more
February 2016. A friend invested 15k for marketing, the final funding GRV ever got. By April, we had a booth at the World of Dance convention. Our shoes were a hit!
At World of Dance, the founder of Electric Styles glow shoes loved our concept, so he gave me a pair, and I made these videos.
Famous EDM shuffler Elena Cruz, sponsored by Electric Styles shoes, loves dancing in Groove Shoe Soles, as do all EDM dancers.
Famous EDM shuffler Gabby David loves Groove Soles. Many Instagram fans of her & Elena Cruz started ordering our soles.
12 year old prodigy Adi Malcolm dancing in Groove Soles, including a footwork style called Memphis Jookin'
By July 2016, I'd finally proven the concept, especially among EDM dancers, hip hop dancers at World of Dance, Memphis Jookin' dancers, and jam-band fans. But funding was gone, I couldn't get more, profit margins were too thin to survive on, and The Groove Lab got sold to a new owner who told me to leave by August 21st so he could move in.
July 2016. Broke, stressed, I started talking on camera more.
After a vigilante killed 5 cops in Dallas, racial tensions were awful. America needed to see some positivity so I posted this video of a cop dancing with black kids. It went viral: 4.4m views.
With thousands of new Facebook followers from that viral video, I started preaching the gospel of groove more. [Documentary producers: I have 2 more hours of talking videos to pull short clips from, including some very raw, candid moments. See the compilation video below this page.]
August 21st, 2016. Rock bottom. My last night in The Groove Lab before I was homeless for 3 months until my lifelong dream of playing live music for a living finally came true.
October 2016. Dancing out my stress in Santa Monica near my friend's apartment where I was house-sitting. This great scene happened. "Groovin' Turns Strangers into Friends."
THE CLIMAX OF MY PERSONAL STORY
A montage of gig highlights since 2017
2019. My patent for gliding sneaker soles finally got approved after 8 long years of everyone telling me it was impossible. Persistence is a huge theme in this movie.
2022. I finally published a great book! Back in 2007, I thought it would take one year, but it took 15 long years of frustration! Ugh! But that's because I kept transforming. Back then, I couldn't even dance or sing or play keys, and I didn't know 80% of what I now teach in this book. But I kept following my heart. This documentary will be an inspiring story of unlocking your joy, and persisting in your dreams.
THE CLIMAX OF THE MACRO STORY
We end with an epic prescriptive vision for the future. The ultimate goal of this movie is to inspire millions of people to start dancing for fun without caring how they look, and inspire millions of people to start jamming on instruments at home purely for fun. In this finale, we'll also show the vast health benefits of musical joy. Please read my book for all the details about everything on this entire page. The world needs a massive increase in joy every day, so let's get the world groovin' for fun, health, and happiness.
ADDENDUM
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Compilation of Candid Talks for Documentary
I don't expect anyone to watch this until we're actually producing the documentary, but fyi here's all the talk videos I ever made, mostly in 2016. There are some very revealing moments where I bare my soul about my problems, my dreams, etc. It's 2 hours, but we will only use the best few minutes of it in the movie.