David Goldberg, shown in his studio at Holsum Lofts, says great chefs in Las Vegas seem to have a big interest in doing TV shows. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

David Goldberg had always found movies fascinating, but when it came time to choose a career, he played it safe.

As an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, Goldberg bypassed his first love and opted instead to study business. A trip to California with his brother during freshman year let him see the movie-industry milieu up close and led Goldberg to switch his major to film studies.

While in school, Goldberg launched his first film and video venture, Celebration Video, through which he videotaped weddings, bar mitzvahs and other special events.

An interest in a change of scenery lured Goldberg to Las Vegas in 1999. His work as a slot floor supervisor at the Tropicana yielded his book, "Stupidity and Slot Machine Players in Las Vegas," a compendium of gambling don'ts.

After five years at the Tropicana, Goldberg returned to filming full time in 2004. Today, he's a production manager at Cheflive, where he tapes and edits cooking programs that have featured culinary luminaries such as Luciano Pellegrino of Valentino at The Venetian, Hubert Keller of Fleur de Lys at Mandalay Bay and Peter Sherlock of Le Cordon Bleu. Goldberg has also produced for the Liberace Museum and Liberace impersonator Wes Winters.

Question: You changed your major from business to film studies. Then you started your own company. How hard was it opening a company without that business education?

Answer: It was definitely trial by fire. I do remember being extremely nervous the first couple of times I had to call a client back. I kept thinking, "What are they going to ask me?" I was trying to sell myself and I wasn't used to doing that. After the first couple of phone calls, I thought, "I have no idea how I got this job." I just sounded so nervous. Through time it became very easy to talk about what I did.

Question: Was it difficult to balance the books or handle basic accounting?

Answer: No. Early on, I made sure I kept track of everything and I got an accountant. I didn't want to have to deal with that end of it.

Question: To what extent would you say people who want to open a company need some sort of business training?

Answer: If you have a service or a product that people want, I think you can pick up business skills along the way without going to business school.

Question: What brought you to Las Vegas?

Answer: After nine years of running my own business, being booked every weekend and knowing two years in advance that I would have to work on a given Saturday, it was time to totally switch gears. Technology was changing at the time from analog to digital, and I just decided to leave it all behind. I actually sold all my video equipment. I thought I might as well see what Las Vegas is all about. I loved to come here on vacation, and if you're going to live somewhere, it might as well be a fun place.

Question: Within a couple of months of moving here, you landed a job as a slot supervisor and wrote a book from the five years you spent working at the Tropicana. Why did you write the book? Was it a venting session or a precautionary tool for gamblers?

Answer: It was a little bit of both. When interesting or different things would happen with customers, my co-workers would tell each other stories and say, "This would make a great book." I always wanted to write, and people always tell you to write what you know. I did a lot of research to see if anyone had written a book from the perspective of a slot attendant, and I didn't see anything out there.

Question: What are some of your favorite stories?

Answer: One woman who had come to the casino a lot came up to me during a slot tournament. I asked her how things were going. She said, "Well, not good. My husband died a couple days ago." I told her I was sorry, and she said, "Well, I cremated him and he's up in the room. I figured he wouldn't mind if I played in the slot tournament anyway."

And there were the basic things that happened over and over again -- people asking what time the casino closes, or standing in the middle of the slot floor and asking where the slot machines are.

Question: Do people who work in the industry learn tricks or get inside knowledge on how to win at gambling?

Answer: In everything I've seen, it's just pure luck when it comes to slot machines.

I was watching one guy who was playing a $5 slot machine, and he was telling me how many times he'd hit the jackpot and how he had a certain way of hitting the button. I'm standing there thinking, "I've got to get away from this guy." And while he was telling me about his strategy, he hit the jackpot. I just could not believe it. I thought maybe he had a magnet on his finger, but it was probably pure dumb luck.

Question: Do people really have a shot at winning on slot machines?

Answer: Yes. When a casino says a machine has a 98 percent payback rate, it's through the course of an entire year. So when you sit down, it may give you what it had taken away from somebody else. You definitely have a shot. But there was one woman who put $6,000 through a $1 machine and she did not hit the jackpot. She could not get over it. She thought there was something wrong with the machine, but it was just bad timing.

Question: Do you gamble?

Answer: I do, but I try to stay away from the slots.

Question: You decided to jump back into film and video while you were working at the Tropicana. Why did you want to rejoin the industry?

Answer: A friend in Pittsburgh was telling me how the technology had changed, and how reasonable getting into digital equipment was from a price standpoint. When I left the business, it was $50,000 to buy a system, but by the time I talked to my friend, it had dropped to $7,000. It just seemed like it was the right time. I knew I never wanted to do weddings again. There's so much pressure when you're doing weddings, because it's the most important event in your clients' lives. So I thought I would try to do more corporate-type work. I left the Tropicana after I got the idea that there was a lot of (video) work out there.

Question: How much growth potential do you think Cheflive has?

Answer: It has a lot of potential. Cooking shows are extremely popular. We have access to all these great chefs who are moving to Las Vegas, and they seem to have a really big interest in doing these shows. We just got picked up by Cox Channel 19, and we're going to have shows running at 2 p.m. Monday through Friday for the next year. Hopefully, that will bring a lot of interest from people who want to come down and see the shows. The hardest part is just getting the word out that we're here. We're also developing shows for networks. We're looking at the Food Network, and we're developing a show for kids that will help them learn to eat right.

Question: What are your future professional goals?

Answer: I still dream of working in movies, and I also have an idea for a sitcom that I want to write.