Raise Your Hand if a Billionaire Sued You This Weekend
Wait- just me?
Raise your hand if a literal billionaire sent someone to sue you four minutes before you walked onstage for your off-Broadway debut play this weekend.
Just me? Yeah, I sorta thought so.
Let’s back up a bit. I was on the receiving end of some pretty insane abuse from my former employer. I did all the things you’re supposed to do: I communicated. I spoke to HR. I spoke to Legal. I spoke to my bosses. I kept records. I have witnesses. I was even offered a settlement. Then, instead of those terms being honored, in a very bizarre pseudo U-turn of events, I was offered a new contract with AEW in lieu of pursuing legal action. (For those of you wondering, I said “No, thanks.”). Oddly enough, I was also told the lawyer who offered me the original settlement had no authority to do so (that sounds like serious organizational dysfunction, but who am I to say?)
After all my options to amicably resolve my issues with the company were exhausted, I was forced to defend myself with an attorney. We did what normal people do: we gave my former employer a very fair, discreet, and reasonable heads up by contacting his legal team (to paraphrase: “Hey guys, we’re going to be filing a legal complaint. Here is the complaint, you can even look at it ahead of time.”) Nobody was ambushed. Nobody was caught off-guard. In fact, one might argue that me choosing the unfortunate lawsuit option was telegraphed very clearly by two years of me trying all the other non-lawsuit options. Finally, after that very fair, very professional heads up, we filed.
I work a variety of jobs to make ends meet. I live in the epicenter of the gig economy- Los Angeles County, USA. I do what I have to do to survive. I do personal training, I act, I do stunt work, I double NFL players in commercials, I do pet portraits (ink & watercolor, a great gift for the pet lover in your life), I produce comedy events, and I still do some part-time pro wrestling. I have no shame about any of this. Why would I? A man has to pay the bills, right? I am not wealthy- far from it. I have high rent. I have student loans. I have bills. I work for a living. And I’m also involved in an unpleasant legal situation against a real-life billionaire.
When Andrew Cristi asked me to be in an off-Broadway play he was producing, I was hesitant to accept. I was worried I’d have to miss too much work to do it. Thankfully the play was scheduled in the perfect sweet spot on my calendar: an “off” week for my wrestling gig, a week before my next acting job, and conveniently when some of my personal training clients were out of town. (I hated to view things this way, but, like I said before: I have bills. I work for a living.) This was a once in a lifetime opportunity: I’d be in a major role in a fun show… in New York City! I decided to plan, save, and make it happen. I said yes.
We rehearsed for ten weeks over Zoom (I’m a modern man) and then, the week of the show, I flew in to the city. We had four days to block, do tech, and put this play on its feet. And then, ready or not, we had two live performances that weekend. I found it all very thrilling. This was a fun, diverse, and committed cast, and they were all doing the show for the pure love of it. Nobody was getting paid; everyone is showing up to rehearsals (and the shows themselves) before and after their day (and night) jobs. We all pulled together to put up a show at a small theater in a magical city, to the delight of family, friends, and a collection of dedicated theatre fans in New York City. Being part of this show gave me genuine happiness. This was a group of actors from all walks of life who put on a wonderful show for one weekend at the Hellenic Cultural Center in Astoria, Queens, New York, and we had a blast.
The night of our second, and final, performance, I was approached by a man in the theater lobby just outside the restrooms. He said he was there to serve me legal papers (“Hey, sorry, you’re gettin’ sued”), and apologized for doing it at this inopportune time. He was giving me a legal notice that my former employer was suing me to move our legal dispute to arbitration, i.e., to keep everything private.
Andrew, the writer and director of the play, saw this interaction, became alarmed, and asked what was happening.
I said, “Oh, I’m being sued by a billionaire right now.”
Andrew’s jaw dropped. “WHAT!” I could understand his shock- we were about to go on!
The man then told me he was a wrestling fan, and that his son was a wrestler on his school team, or maybe had an interest in joining (it was hard to keep this all straight, as I had so much going through my head at the time), and he even asked about the play and if he could stay to watch it. To be honest, he was nice enough. I could tell he didn’t want to be doing this to me, four minutes before curtains went up.
I looked at the large stack of paperwork he’d just handed me. I saw the main bullet points: “Tony Khan... All Elite Wrestling... A lawsuit has been filed against you…”
“Did you know this was coming?” the man asked me, quite sincerely.
“Nope.” I told him, honestly.
A friend of mine who had come to the show walked past. “Hey- are you okay?”
“Tony Khan is suing me.” I held up the paperwork and forced a smile. “Enjoy the show!”
Andrew took me backstage and asked if I was okay. I lied and said, “Yep, all good.” The truth is, I was spooked. But I assured him this wouldn’t affect the show. And it didn’t. I put the stack of legal papers into my bag in the dressing room, tiptoed up the circular metal staircase up to the backstage area, and started quietly fist-bumping and high-fiving my castmates and nervously going over my cues.
We had a show to put on. A lot of people bought tickets to see the play, and I wasn’t about to let this sabotage it. I turned a switch in my brain and refused to think about any of it until the show was over.
It was our best performance of the two that weekend. We were ecstatic. I was sad the adventure was coming to an end- I had to fly home the next morning. I wished we had a multi-week run. Or even one more performance. It was magical. I’m a sentimental guy- the whole week felt like Christmas to me.
After we wrapped, I took a moment alone and thought of the lawsuit and the manner in which it was delivered to me. For those of you with the knee-jerk reaction of “That’s how it works, idiot! He doesn’t get to choose when they serve you!” I’ll say this: my former employer, a billionaire, definitely had a choice. He could have very easily sent the notice to my attorney; he has his contact info. (I mean, my attorney’s contact information is printed quite clearly on the paperwork that I was served, so there goes that excuse.) He could have had it sent to my attorney on Monday morning, or any morning, for that matter. So, yeah, my first thought was also, “Well, this wasn’t intentional.” But, it kinda was. The billionaire in question definitely has my attorney’s information, as does his legal team and any independent counsel he’s gotten involved in this. These are aggressive tactics that I believe are designed to intimidate me and to stop me from speaking up about how I was treated.
I thought of the respectful, professional heads up we gave him. I thought of the two years of respectful, professional consideration and patience I gave him, trying to resolve this all without resorting to anybody suing anybody. He could have also done this in a professional, respectful manner. Instead he and his lawyers chose to send someone to Astoria, Queens, NYC, on a Saturday night, to find me in the lobby of small 150-seat theater, in front of family, friends, and theatre goers, mere minutes before I stepped onstage, in a pathetic attempt to humiliate and intimidate me.
So, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but at this point it’s kinda hard to. I tried giving him the benefit of the doubt for the last two years, actually. At some point the one man who single-handedly runs the entire company can’t just claim plausible deniability at every turn, on every issue that seems remotely negative. I mean, do you run your company, or not?
I don’t know what it’s like to be a billionaire; I never will. I don’t know what it’s like to be a high-powered lawyer. But I do know that there are more humane and professional ways to approach this. I do know that I was surrounded by amazing people this past Saturday night- the cast and crew that put on a super fun show, the writer/director who made it all happen, and the packed houses of wonderful people both nights who came to see live theatre, laughed, cheered, and had an amazing time. I’m grateful to have been part of it, despite a weird rich guy and his lawyers’ attempts to sour it. Thank you Andrew for producing original live shows, and thanks for inviting me to be part of one!
Incredibly well written and thought out. Delighted you got to have such a brilliant weekend, this ridiculous intentional incident aside. Keep going pal
Everyone is going to have an opinion on this, and well, I’m no different. However, since opinions are like assholes, I’ll keep mine to myself as to what I think of the lawsuit itself. What I will say is I do believe you’re 1000% right about the timing just for the simple fact that he had to know you were in New York City to do so. So yeah, it was done with the intent to unnerve you and intimidate you.