Comedian Bert Kreischer takes the lead in ‘The Machine’

Comedian Bert Kreischer’s popularity has skyrocketed the past few years, thanks to podcasting, TikTok and his standup specials, and now he’s starring in his first movie, The Machine, out this weekend.

The film is a spin on a true story that happened to Kreischer when he was in college, studying abroad in Russia. He got mixed up with some bad people and ended up robbing a train with Russian mob. The movie was filmed in Serbia, with the Balkan country standing in for the former Soviet Union.

“I was sincerely pitching me going to Russia to promote the movie. And they’re like,’You really don’t watch the news, do you?'” he tells ABC Audio. 

Starring in the film means Kreischer was number one on the call sheet, which was amazing, but also dangerous.

“I can see how it can go to people’s heads and you can get nightmare humans, because when I came back from Serbia, I was coming in hot,” he shares. “I’m like, ‘I need a water.’ And my daughters are like, ‘Oh, mom, I don’t know who we got, but this isn’t dad.'”

Starring in the show was “like getting your ego stroked every single day,” he says.

“It’s the greatest feeling. I mean, I don’t know what it’s like to be royalty, but I will tell you, being the star of a movie has got to be really close,” Kreischer adds. 

Ultimately, the 50-year-old tells ABC Audio he’s really happy that this experience came now, rather than when he was younger.

“I would be dead,” he shares. “I wouldn’t have met my wife. My wife is the reason I’m a regular human being, because she’s a regular person…. I am really lucky I got success late in life. I wish it for everyone.”