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Speaker 1: Calling all my Sweetish to the forefront. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Christophe and this is the Keep It Positive.

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Speaker 2: Sweetish Show.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Keep It Positive, Sweetie Show, the place

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Speaker 1: where we he'll grow and learn together. This week's guest

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Speaker 1: is a multi talented actor, singer, director, and storyteller Brian

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Speaker 1: Jordan Junior. You know him from Tyler Perry Sisters. But

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Speaker 1: today we are diving into the man behind the music,

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Speaker 1: the message and the movement Kip's Family. Without further ado,

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Speaker 1: please welcome my dear friend, my clothes made Brian Jordan Junior.

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Speaker 3: Oh close, maide, my friend. Hello, you're here.

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Speaker 4: Finally, finally, fine, look at us, look at us.

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Speaker 2: All growing up. I've come a long way since twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, a long, long way, long way.

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Speaker 2: People have no idea, but we're gonna get into it.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: But you are from Louisiana, yes, Baton Rouge by way

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Speaker 1: of New Orleans.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people know you from the His show Sisters.

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Speaker 1: They know you as Mari's Web. But I want to

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Speaker 1: know Brian Jordan Junior. I know Brian, but I want

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Speaker 1: the audience to know who you are. Take us back

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Speaker 1: to young Brian. We want to just build this whole conversation.

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Speaker 1: I really want to know where you come from, who

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Speaker 1: you are at your core, and how it shaved who

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Speaker 1: you are today.

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Speaker 3: Wow, young Brian, he was something else.

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Speaker 4: I've always been a kid that had a big opinion

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Speaker 4: and a big dreams, whatever it was, I've wanted to

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Speaker 4: be so many different things. I wanted to be Michael

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Speaker 4: Jackson for like the first six years of my life,

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Speaker 4: and then I wanted to be a football player, and

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Speaker 4: then and then I wanted to be one again and

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Speaker 4: then not, and then I realized that I wasn't going

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Speaker 4: to be professional, but I did play. But I grew

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Speaker 4: up in rural Louisiana, moved to Baton Rouge after the hurricane,

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Speaker 4: and I stayed in Baton Rouge for college. And I

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Speaker 4: grew up in a big family, yeah, four brothers and sisters,

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Speaker 4: single mother, and low socioeconomic But I knew that I

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Speaker 4: wanted to do more. I knew that I wanted to

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Speaker 4: be more, but I just couldn't quite figure out what

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Speaker 4: that more was until I went to college.

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Speaker 3: And then I found the theater. I found the.

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Speaker 4: Theater, and I was able to understand just the dexterity

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Speaker 4: of myself whenever I could play different characters. And I

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Speaker 4: met Debbie Allen my freshman year of college because she

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Speaker 4: was doing residencies in bat and Rouge and I auditioned

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Speaker 4: and she saw something in me because I couldn't dance

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Speaker 4: or I really didn't have any training, but she saw

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Speaker 4: something in me that she knew could be trained.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's important.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, And so shout out to Debbie Allen. I mean,

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Speaker 4: she's she's everybody's goat. I mean, she doesn't get the

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Speaker 4: credit that she deserves, but I'm gonna always give her credit.

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Speaker 4: And she she gave me so many opportunities to train,

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Speaker 4: and she guided me in the right directions to go

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Speaker 4: to drama school in New York and the rest is history.

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Speaker 4: But little Brian still kind of lives in me today.

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Speaker 4: He was funny, and he loved to eat, he loved

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Speaker 4: to cook, and he loved to throw it on, you know,

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Speaker 4: clothes and all the things.

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Speaker 3: So, yeah, I.

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Speaker 1: Love that you talked about moving to Baton Rouge after

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Speaker 1: the hurricane, and you're talking about Hurricane Katrina. That was

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Speaker 1: something that the entire world saw happen, but.

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Speaker 2: We didn't live it. Yes, can you take us back

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Speaker 2: to that time?

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Speaker 1: And was it like what we saw on the news

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Speaker 1: or was it Because I recently watched the documentary on

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Speaker 1: Netflix and it was heartbreaking to like really hear the

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Speaker 1: testimonies of the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

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Speaker 2: Can you talk about your experience?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely?

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Speaker 4: You know, I can't watch the documentaries. I think I

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Speaker 4: watched one way back. It's been twenty years, yeah, and

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Speaker 4: I was in the ninth grade whenever it happened. I

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Speaker 4: often like to speak to the documentaries because I think

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Speaker 4: that it was such a subcultural disaster that the rest

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Speaker 4: of the world can digest it as a thing that

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Speaker 4: seemed so far away. I feel like it put New

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Speaker 4: Orleans and Louisiana because it was, you know, the southern

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Speaker 4: cities of Louisiana, La Fayete, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans

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Speaker 4: were heavily impacted. And then there was another hurricane that

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Speaker 4: came right after it that nobody talks about, Gustave, And so.

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Speaker 3: We went a long time.

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Speaker 4: I mean beyond what you saw, like the Field Superdome

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Speaker 4: and the people swimming to safety and being on the roofs,

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Speaker 4: the larger issue was the lack of support that we

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Speaker 4: had thereafter, and electricity was gone for I think that

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Speaker 4: we went almost two months without lights, and obviously the

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Speaker 4: water was messed up if it was on, and there

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Speaker 4: was food and security, and people were looking for housing

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Speaker 4: and people had to start their lives over they lost

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Speaker 4: everything and starting in new schools. Just think about all

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Speaker 4: the kids who had just started new schools and so

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Speaker 4: it's something that was very difficult.

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Speaker 3: But I think that.

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Speaker 4: That type of disaster, and this may sound morbid, but

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Speaker 4: I always think about those type of disasters happening. I

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Speaker 4: could say that I've lived through about four hurricanes that

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Speaker 4: weren't as bad, but we've lost electricity for a very

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Speaker 4: extended period of time.

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Speaker 3: There's been floods, you know, Louisiana. It's just that type

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Speaker 3: of place.

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Speaker 4: But when you go into like a COVID, that is

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Speaker 4: a disaster where you see the loss of lives and

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Speaker 4: you're able to conflate that with something that you were

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Speaker 4: able to experience as a child. I think that that's

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Speaker 4: what helped me to kind of get through it, because

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Speaker 4: disaster wasn't a stranger to me, I know. And there's

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Speaker 4: always a silver lining on the cloud. And I think

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Speaker 4: that clouds are apropos to a hurricane because it was scary,

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Speaker 4: I mean as a kid, and just there wasn't enough warning.

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Speaker 4: I always say that there wasn't enough warning. And you

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Speaker 4: look up one day and it's one thing, and then

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Speaker 4: the next and it's disaster, and you're like trying to

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Speaker 4: get out and trying to find somewhere to go, and

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Speaker 4: trying to find food and water and shelter and light,

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Speaker 4: and just a lot of families who had afford to

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Speaker 4: just get up and evacuate, you know. But thank god

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Speaker 4: we made it and I didn't lose any family members

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Speaker 4: and Katrina, thank god. But it was a difficult time

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Speaker 4: and it's difficult to watch. I mean there are even times,

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Speaker 4: and I know that you and I share this experience

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Speaker 4: when we were housed in quarantine.

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Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you about that because that was

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Speaker 1: they're basically FEMA trailer.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, they were exactly like them.

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Speaker 2: I remember you making a statement about that.

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Speaker 4: You were like, I couldn't sleep the smell of it.

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Speaker 4: The smell of it just it smelled like a FEMA trailer.

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Speaker 4: It smelled like that type of thing, and just just

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Speaker 4: a reminder and those small reminders. I mean, even when

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Speaker 4: it rains, I don't like to drive into rains and

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Speaker 4: I think that that had something to do with that.

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Speaker 4: And thank God for therapy to work through those things.

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Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, but.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we we just Hurricane Katrina was huge, but I

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Speaker 4: mean living in Baton Rouge Gustav was actually more impactful

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Speaker 4: in the aftermath. And there was a huge flood that

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Speaker 4: happened in two thousand and six, I think, and people

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Speaker 4: lost everything. It's just, you know, it's a constant struggle

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Speaker 4: with the sea level being so low. Yes, and not

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Speaker 4: to talk too much about it, but just the rebuilding.

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Speaker 4: I always like to say this. The rebuilding has been

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Speaker 4: so challenging for the city, for the state still now,

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Speaker 4: I mean twenty years later, it's just not the same economically,

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Speaker 4: it's not the same. And so you know, shout out

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Speaker 4: to Louisiana.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out Louisiana.

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Speaker 1: We went for Essence Festival this year and there's so

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Speaker 1: much culture and so much history there.

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Speaker 2: And the food is.

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Speaker 3: The food, Yes, so good.

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Speaker 1: Your journey took you from LSU to NYU and Tish

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Speaker 1: and then to Debbie Allen's School of dance. How did

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Speaker 1: that journey shape the artist that you are today?

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Speaker 4: I think that when you live in Louisiana, and you

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Speaker 4: stay in Louisiana for undergrad or you stay there for college.

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Speaker 4: When you move somewhere else, it's like living in another country.

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Speaker 4: Louisiana is such a cultural it's such as cultural difference

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Speaker 4: in the rest of the world.

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Speaker 3: But also I think that I went to an all.

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Speaker 4: Black high school, and when I left that all black

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Speaker 4: high school and went to college at a PWI and

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Speaker 4: then to drama school at another PWI in a very

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Speaker 4: white based industry theater, I learned so much about what

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Speaker 4: my place was in the world and what I had

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Speaker 4: to offer the world, and what people felt that I

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Speaker 4: had to offer the world, and all those type of things.

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Speaker 4: And so understanding that there was a world outside of

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Speaker 4: just the segregated Louisiana that I had grown up in

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Speaker 4: was interesting. But then, you know, there was even a

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Speaker 4: thing with like language. You know, I'm from Louisiana and

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Speaker 4: I had an accent and it was trained out of me,

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Speaker 4: and so people always talk about the way that I speak.

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Speaker 4: Now They're just like, I can't tell that you're from Louisiana,

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Speaker 4: And I'm like, but you can do it one time,

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Speaker 4: just one time for your bib. It's just that be

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Speaker 4: quiet Christau No, But you know, just those things. It

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Speaker 4: was assimilation that I learned and just being a black

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Speaker 4: man in a super white space. Coming from Louisiana, where

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Speaker 4: I went to a school that I would selling I

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Speaker 4: was at an all black school, you know, and just

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Speaker 4: to understand that the celebration was over when I went

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Speaker 4: into manhood was so jarring and it changed my mind

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Speaker 4: just about how I wanted to live my life and

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Speaker 4: the things that I wanted to do and the stories

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Speaker 4: that I wanted to tell and the people that I

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Speaker 4: wanted to tell the stories too. And I think that

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Speaker 4: I've been blessed to be able to have the avenues

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Speaker 4: to tell those stories. But that journey was interested, And

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Speaker 4: you know, I spoke a little bit about Debbie Allen,

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Speaker 4: but she's really the reason that I've clung to arts

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Speaker 4: education and that has really helped me to like navigate

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Speaker 4: my path because I didn't.

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Speaker 3: Coming from Louisiana.

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Speaker 4: It was either you an athlete that did well, you

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Speaker 4: work at the plant, and if you was a girl,

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Speaker 4: you was becoming a nurse. And that's just what it was.

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Speaker 4: It's industrial and nobody's going to say how I want

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Speaker 4: to be a TV star, you know, like shut up,

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Speaker 4: you know, but that's what I said, and God saw fit,

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Speaker 4: you know, for it to happen.

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Speaker 3: But it's because I was able.

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Speaker 4: To navigate through LSU and then take whatever money and

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Speaker 4: whatever thing I knew that Miss Allen could help me, know,

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Speaker 4: and go to New York and struggle with that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, got New York in itself is a struggle. And

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Speaker 2: then going to.

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Speaker 4: School and absolutely absolutely and being kicked out of school

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Speaker 4: and having to go back, and I went through all

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Speaker 4: the things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about that. Yes, So I people think

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Speaker 1: it's just a smooth journey. They don't understand the ebbs

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Speaker 1: and flows.

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Speaker 4: Oh, there's so much in this country when it comes

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Speaker 4: to education. First off, the price is astronomical, ridiculous. And

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Speaker 4: so when you decide that you're going to do something

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Speaker 4: and then you can get scholarship money or our fellowship,

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Speaker 4: which is what I had, you have to follow rules.

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Speaker 4: And some of the rules were like you can't audition,

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Speaker 4: but of course I was like, I want to audition

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Speaker 4: for things.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, so you couldn't audition wise they didn't.

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Speaker 4: Want you to audition or work on other things when

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Speaker 4: you were in school. Wow, And so I was doing

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Speaker 4: a fellowship and I lost it and I lost the

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Speaker 4: money and I couldn't pay anymore, and so I had

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Speaker 4: to not do I mean, I couldn't pay for it,

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Speaker 4: so I had to stop going. So I didn't get

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Speaker 4: kicked out, they just kicked out the money. And so yeah,

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Speaker 4: I had to figure it out, and I spent I

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Speaker 4: spent some nights on the train in New York. Wow,

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Speaker 4: just trying to figure it out. I and some of

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Speaker 4: my family probably won't even know this, because I was

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Speaker 4: determined not to go home. I would spend n I

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Speaker 4: mean there's friends that I have in New York that

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Speaker 4: I always have who we would get a dollar slice

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Speaker 4: of pizza and cut it and have I've slept on trains,

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Speaker 4: I've slept on sofas. I've done the things until I

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Speaker 4: just couldn't do it anymore. And thank God that I

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Speaker 4: had sense enough to move to Atlanta after all that,

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Speaker 4: you know, because it helped me to get a foundation

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Speaker 4: and get the credits and just do the things.

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Speaker 3: But New York was hard. New York made a man

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Speaker 3: out of me.

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Speaker 1: I always say that, listen, if you can survive in

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Speaker 1: New York, you can literally make it anywhere. That's like,

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Speaker 1: you carry so much confidence and you're not a monolith,

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Speaker 1: and you boldly walk in every single space that God

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Speaker 1: has created for you. In finding that because you talked

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Speaker 1: about how you weren't celebrated once you left your all

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Speaker 1: black school and finding yourself and finding.

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Speaker 2: That confidence, what has been some of the.

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Speaker 1: Biggest struggles that you faced navigating this industry.

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Speaker 4: I think that the first thing about confidence is it

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Speaker 4: hasn't always been there, even if I pretended that it

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Speaker 4: was there. There was something that I was determined to achieve,

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Speaker 4: and I didn't really know how I was going to

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Speaker 4: achieve it, but I felt like if I at least

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Speaker 4: pretended to believe in myself, yeah, that somebody be Jesus,

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Speaker 4: that somebody would believe it, And so I would pretend

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Speaker 4: a lot. If I can be honest, I didn't really

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Speaker 4: believe that I could have all this until maybe twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 4: and then my life changed right after that. Whenever I decided,

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Speaker 4: whenever I believed for real, Yes, because I think that

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Speaker 4: we spend so much time trying to convince other people

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Speaker 4: that we don't even do the work to make ourselves be,

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Speaker 4: and so belief to me now that I understand what

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Speaker 4: belief is to me, It is.

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Speaker 3: Understanding that whatever you.

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Speaker 4: Desire, you deserve it, no matter what the odds are,

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Speaker 4: no matter what has happened before you or what will

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Speaker 4: happen after you, what you deserve is what you desire.

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Speaker 4: And so then that came the a plum. And so

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Speaker 4: the challenges that I have with the a plum is

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Speaker 4: people just like Brian is over confident. Maybe maybe Brian

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Speaker 4: is arrogant. Maybe Brian because I am someone who and

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Speaker 4: I've grown to be better about it. But I in

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Speaker 4: my youth, I found myself in spaces where I was

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Speaker 4: the youngest person a lot, and I had a lot

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Speaker 4: of opinions, and I had a lot to say, and

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Speaker 4: older people just say, hey, you know, you don't know everything.

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Speaker 4: And I thought I knew a lot, you know, And

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Speaker 4: I've learned that I didn't didn't know. But the challenges

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Speaker 4: were continuing to be confident in the face of our position,

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Speaker 4: in the face of failure, in the face of knows

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Speaker 4: which you know, you know the knows, and when you're black,

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Speaker 4: and trying to tell the stories that may not only

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Speaker 4: speak to black people, or trying to tell the black

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Speaker 4: stories to the people who don't understand blackness, or who

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Speaker 4: don't want to understand blackness. That's challenging, and it's still

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Speaker 4: a challenge. And we'll leave here with it being a

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Speaker 4: challenge because that's just what we've been born into and

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Speaker 4: it's a special challenge, just one that is unique and

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Speaker 4: rich with tradition and.

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Speaker 3: Overcoming. And so what makes us any difference?

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Speaker 1: Right?

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Speaker 2: That's so true. You talked about twenty eighteen was the year.

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Speaker 1: You actually started believing in yourself, and in twenty nineteen

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Speaker 1: you were cast all Right, the number one show hit

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Speaker 1: show for nine seasons Tyler Perry Sisters as Maurice Web.

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Speaker 1: I remember sitting in the back of the room the

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Speaker 1: day that you did your audition and I.

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Speaker 2: Was like that that's Maurice.

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Speaker 1: Yes, no, I knew it. I was like, that's him,

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Speaker 1: and I just saw it. I want you to take

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Speaker 1: us back to that day when you got the audition

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Speaker 1: and you knew you were coming to Tyler Perry Studios

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Speaker 1: for the moment.

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Speaker 3: You woke up, the moment I woke up.

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Speaker 4: I actually was in New Orleans that day because I

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Speaker 4: was filming a film called Christmas Bells, which.

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Speaker 3: Was actually on BT Plus.

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Speaker 4: Now I think they were just filming and trying to

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Speaker 4: sell it then, and I was flown in because I

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Speaker 4: had done a self tape for Sisters to audition for

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Speaker 4: Calvin and for it was Calvin and for Aaron. And

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Speaker 4: then Maurice came to me after those two auditions and

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Speaker 4: they were like, well, Maurice's recurring, and I was like,

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Speaker 4: I want to do the men who are going to

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Speaker 4: have a job like I don't. I don't want to

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Speaker 4: do like God bless Maurice and whatever he got going on.

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Speaker 4: I'm trying to be on the TV, you know. And

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Speaker 4: so I actually got to Atlanta, and I was living

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Speaker 4: in Atlanta at the time, and so I went and

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Speaker 4: got in my car to drive to the audition and

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Speaker 4: the car wouldn't start. I don't know if you remember

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Speaker 4: the car that I was driving whenever we did season one.

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Speaker 2: I remember it's like a shoe storing or something.

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Speaker 3: It was.

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Speaker 4: I would call it Coroling Martin. That was the name

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Speaker 4: of my car, and Coroling Martin was a Toyota Corolla

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Speaker 4: that was actually gifted to me by Brittany Inge.

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Speaker 3: Shout out to Brittany che.

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Speaker 4: I got to call her name. It was gifted to

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Speaker 4: me her and her mom said, how much money you got?

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Speaker 2: Wow?

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Speaker 4: And I said nothing, And they gifted me a car.

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Speaker 4: And that car, you know, it had lived. She had

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Speaker 4: lived her life. Coroling Martin Corolla Martin is non binary,

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Speaker 4: and so Corolling Martin had a shoestring tied to the hood.

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00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:35,080
Speaker 4: It wanted under the hole in the hood to the

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Speaker 4: rest of the car because the hood would just do

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Speaker 4: whatever he wanted to do. And that day it didn't

348
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Speaker 4: want to start, and so I had to get a

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Speaker 4: jump before I came.

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Speaker 3: It was the battery.

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Speaker 4: Got a jump, and then I drove to Tyler Perry

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Speaker 4: Studios and I asked God. I said, hey, God, my guy,

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Speaker 4: I need you to get me there and back and

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Speaker 4: I'm good. And he got me there, and I thought

355
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Speaker 4: I went in there with four It was Maurice's, Gary, Aaron,

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Speaker 4: and Cal and that's what the four characters. A lot

357
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:02,800
Speaker 4: of the guys were called back for a lot of characters.

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Speaker 4: And I was sitting there learning it was about sixty

359
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Speaker 4: pages of stuff, sitting there going through it and seeing

360
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Speaker 4: all these you know, you go to a tele periodition

361
00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,960
Speaker 4: and everybody will swole up in buff and I'm just like, hi, guys,

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Speaker 4: you know, it's me from the theater. And so I

363
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Speaker 4: went into the audition and mister Pierre was in there.

364
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Speaker 4: I didn't know that he would be there. And he's like,

365
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Speaker 4: we have Maurice for him. I'm like, okay, and so

366
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Speaker 4: he's like, can you read this? He gave me a

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Speaker 4: new side that I had never seen before. Can you

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Speaker 4: read this? And I'm like yeah, and I cold read it.

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Speaker 4: And that was it.

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Speaker 3: And I did not think that I got the job.

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Speaker 4: What do you know that when I don't tell this

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Speaker 4: story often enough? But I left out of that room.

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Speaker 4: It was a big theater, y'all, and it was full

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Speaker 4: of people, but you can't really see if you could

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Speaker 4: just see heads in the shadows, and there's his light

376
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Speaker 4: on you. And I remember leaving there. And then right

377
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Speaker 4: after I left, mister p left.

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Speaker 3: You were, like I said, I didn't drove him out

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Speaker 3: of here.

380
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Speaker 4: I thought that I'd ran him up out of there,

381
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Speaker 4: but I guess I learned that he had saw what

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Speaker 4: he needed to see. Yes, And what a blessing that was.

383
00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:13,119
Speaker 4: Because I did book Maurice, which was the recurring character,

384
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Speaker 4: but after my audition it changed and it wasn't recurring anymore.

385
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Speaker 4: And I think that he went from seven episodes to seventeen.

386
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Speaker 4: Come on, and the rest is history. Here we are

387
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Speaker 4: two hundred episodes later, more than two hundred episodes.

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Speaker 3: It's wild, It is wild, and I'm old.

389
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Speaker 2: You are still young.

390
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Speaker 1: Thanks everybody when you go out in the streets.

391
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Speaker 2: Maurice Maurice.

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Speaker 1: But who is the man behind Maurice That people may

393
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Speaker 1: not know because some people cannot differentiate the character who

394
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Speaker 1: Brian George Jr.

395
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Speaker 2: Is Maurice?

396
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Speaker 4: Well, ah, that's good. Yeah, Maurice is such an escape

397
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Speaker 4: from who I am. Yeah, and I think that we

398
00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:56,639
Speaker 4: have so many things in common, you know obviously, like

399
00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:58,639
Speaker 4: humor is something that I and then you know that

400
00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:00,720
Speaker 4: you know how I love to be funny. I love

401
00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 4: to laugh. But Brian is a person who has such

402
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:07,119
Speaker 4: a big heart for people. And I just love to

403
00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:08,880
Speaker 4: take care of people. It's my love language. I love

404
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,600
Speaker 4: to cook for people and do things. I just love it.

405
00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:16,280
Speaker 4: I love big events, I love sports, I love talking crap,

406
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:20,040
Speaker 4: I love spades. I love, you know, to work out,

407
00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,000
Speaker 4: and like the last year, I really fallen in love

408
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,880
Speaker 4: with that, which we know Maurice don't love that. And

409
00:19:28,359 --> 00:19:32,440
Speaker 4: Brian is someone who is who stands on the shoulders

410
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Speaker 4: of a lot of black women who have shown me

411
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Speaker 4: the importance of what a man can be to a

412
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Speaker 4: woman in a friendship and as a brother. And I

413
00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:49,600
Speaker 4: think that Maurice is kind of that too, But I

414
00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,240
Speaker 4: know that, And I'll never stop talking about just how

415
00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:54,960
Speaker 4: black women have helped me to build my career. And

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00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,920
Speaker 4: I mean obviously gave me life, but in the absence

417
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:04,320
Speaker 4: of like a father figure, and it just other people

418
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,199
Speaker 4: around me who could be father figures even in my career,

419
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,080
Speaker 4: like black women have been, you know, a guide in life.

420
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,360
Speaker 4: When I talk about Dabie Allen, I'll continue to say

421
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:14,639
Speaker 4: her name because she just saw it me to slap

422
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 4: me upside my head, you know, And yeah, it cursed

423
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:18,840
Speaker 4: me out enough so that I knew what, you know,

424
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Speaker 4: I understood the values. And so now I'm probably harder

425
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,520
Speaker 4: than she is because it's that old school training that

426
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:26,159
Speaker 4: got me to the point where I am. But Brian

427
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:30,960
Speaker 4: is is a lover of God and a love of people, yeah,

428
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 4: And a love of the art, yes he is. And

429
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:38,040
Speaker 4: a love of fine things and beautiful clothes, fine people,

430
00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:42,760
Speaker 4: and fine food, you know, fine film, yeah, fine, fine,

431
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:43,960
Speaker 4: very fine.

432
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Speaker 1: I love that after being thrust because you've been in

433
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Speaker 1: the industry for a long time, but now you are

434
00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:52,040
Speaker 1: well known. What are some of the ways that you

435
00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 1: had to adjust Because I know people.

436
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:58,640
Speaker 2: We think we're ready, but then it's like, whoa, this

437
00:20:58,720 --> 00:20:59,639
Speaker 2: is a lot, yo.

438
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Speaker 4: No one can ever prepare you for that to be

439
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,520
Speaker 4: in the public guy, And thrust is the correct word,

440
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,600
Speaker 4: because you know, I'm so glad we're having this conversation together.

441
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:11,720
Speaker 3: COVID happened at the.

442
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:17,359
Speaker 4: Beginning of our shows, and we were tucked away during

443
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:20,400
Speaker 4: seasons one and two, and then we were thrown out

444
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,200
Speaker 4: into this open world without a mask and that thing

445
00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 4: went crazy and I dealt with security issues and and

446
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:30,440
Speaker 4: you know, I mean people have come to my home,

447
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,879
Speaker 4: come into my home. I've had to move and find,

448
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,080
Speaker 4: you know, safer places. I have to move throughout the

449
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:37,880
Speaker 4: world in a different way than I would normally move,

450
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,159
Speaker 4: you know, And that is one part of it. But also,

451
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:48,680
Speaker 4: you know, body image has been the biggest.

452
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:49,600
Speaker 2: I wanted to talk to you about that.

453
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:54,439
Speaker 3: The biggest. It's been the biggest challenge. It is the

454
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:55,280
Speaker 3: biggest challenge.

455
00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:59,600
Speaker 4: I have to be honest, because I made a joke

456
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:02,400
Speaker 4: earlier about walking into a room of men that look

457
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 4: a certain type of way in film. They're film and

458
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:10,280
Speaker 4: TV especially, you know, with sisters in the land of

459
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:15,400
Speaker 4: if I can be honest Black television, there is a

460
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:19,159
Speaker 4: conventional standard of beauty that I did not meet, and

461
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:20,160
Speaker 4: I didn't realize it.

462
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 3: It just happened.

463
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,399
Speaker 4: And then it happened even more because I was on

464
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,760
Speaker 4: TV every week, and then it was in person, and

465
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 4: it was people who thought that they would being complementary

466
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,399
Speaker 4: about how I looked on TV and how different I

467
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 4: looked in person or how you know.

468
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 3: And then I started to struggle with.

469
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:44,480
Speaker 4: Feeling like a leading man but not looking like one.

470
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,760
Speaker 3: And it's still a struggle.

471
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 4: And I know that I'm speaking for a lot of

472
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 4: people who may not be able to speak, who may

473
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 4: not be able to speak because weight fluctuates. And I've

474
00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 4: it's never been a thing for me being a big guy,

475
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:01,679
Speaker 4: and I just was a big guy. I just always

476
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,320
Speaker 4: have been a big guy in finding my way to

477
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:11,639
Speaker 4: success and being compared to people every day, seeing public

478
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:14,960
Speaker 4: opinion every day about comparison, and looking at yourself in

479
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 4: every gallery, shoot every photo of shoot every picture, looking

480
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:22,920
Speaker 4: at yourself on camera and what angle's working. I just

481
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,159
Speaker 4: I had to develop a system for myself because I

482
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,760
Speaker 4: knew that I wanted to change. But I think that initially,

483
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 4: probably the first three years of Sisters, my change was

484
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 4: based in what other people looked like. Wow, it was

485
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:38,639
Speaker 4: I was comparing myself to people all the time, and

486
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,719
Speaker 4: people who I loved and admired and I and it

487
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:41,479
Speaker 4: wasn't like I was.

488
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 3: It was a negative thing.

489
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,200
Speaker 4: It was just like I'm standing around the best friends

490
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 4: that I have, my brother's Cheeto and devales and they

491
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 4: look great and they have like abs and I'm literally

492
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,680
Speaker 4: over here just like fighting for my life.

493
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:55,440
Speaker 3: And it was tough.

494
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,880
Speaker 4: It is tough, and so even now as I navigate,

495
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 4: and obviously I've lost some weight since then. Thank you

496
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,920
Speaker 4: so much. It's such a journey, though, Chris. It's it's

497
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:08,640
Speaker 4: it is such a journey, and I think I'm finally

498
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 4: finding my footing, which it requires a lot of discipline.

499
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that discipline, because you're running now, working out,

500
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 1: You've always in the gym?

501
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:18,640
Speaker 2: Was it the food that.

502
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 3: Was absolutely a a.

503
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 4: I love to eat and still today I do, but

504
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 4: I think that I had to figure out what was

505
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 4: more important. And I still love to eat and I

506
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:36,240
Speaker 4: still do eat, but it's in a very different ways.

507
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,919
Speaker 4: It's in a very different way. And I found ways

508
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 4: to enjoy the things that I need and not the

509
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 4: things that I desire. Yes, and I also found cardio

510
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,880
Speaker 4: that I like, and which is running and like looking

511
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 4: at people. And you know, I live in a different

512
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,119
Speaker 4: city now and running it's like the culture of running

513
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:53,679
Speaker 4: is different.

514
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:55,000
Speaker 2: It is in New York.

515
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 4: And so I run, and I've gotten up to about

516
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,160
Speaker 4: six and a half miles a day. What yeah, I'm

517
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,520
Speaker 4: so I just run blocks and you know, I run

518
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 4: and walk. I run and walk. I ain't gonna lie

519
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:12,200
Speaker 4: back and forth, but I am, and I'm getting those

520
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 4: calories down and it helps, and it feels good. And

521
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 4: if I lift heavy, and people not to do a

522
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 4: fitness thing, because you know, anytime somebody lose weight and

523
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 4: they become billy blanks. But I I lift heavy and

524
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 4: it helps because you lose that weight in their skins

525
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:30,719
Speaker 4: start to do something different.

526
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 3: And you know how I feel about skin.

527
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 4: So I lift heavy, and I and I run, and

528
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 4: I and I do I cycle too. I switch it

529
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 4: up because I get bored with things. I'm a creative.

530
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 4: I get bored with things and I just really fast.

531
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 4: I intermitting fast, and I go into the last minute

532
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 4: where I'm starving, and then it makes the meal so

533
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 4: good no matter what it is.

534
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, like, oh main, God, this solidest show.

535
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 2: God tastes like a porterhouse.

536
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,679
Speaker 3: God, it tastes like a fried work chop. I've had

537
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 3: a fried pork chop sandwich.

538
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 2: I haven't had a pork chop since college.

539
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 4: I know we think we better than but we can

540
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 4: get up onder a pork chop sandwich.

541
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 3: Listen, a white bread, Hey.

542
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 2: Listen, little white bread. I'm going now tear up a

543
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 2: fried pork chop.

544
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 4: Lovely though those are those things are lovely, so silly,

545
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 4: I can't eat that anymore.

546
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm proud of you.

547
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you because as your friend, like

548
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,119
Speaker 1: I would see you working out and even it's the

549
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: unspoken dialogue that we have where like, I know this

550
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: is something that you struggle with internalist, and I can

551
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: see you trying to work towards it. So I'm just

552
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 1: so proud of you that you found a way to

553
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 1: work out and do it in a way that you love.

554
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 2: Even when you walked in today like you just.

555
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: Your glow is different, and I can tell us internal

556
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: not just external.

557
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:54,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you gotta figure out.

558
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,639
Speaker 4: I was working out from the wrong place and trying

559
00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 4: to accomplish something based on somebody else. To find your

560
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 4: own body and find the best body that you have,

561
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 4: because you're just We're born with everything that we have

562
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 4: that we need, we really are, and so I just

563
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 4: had to find because it was in here, it was

564
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 4: up under here. It's still a little more up in here,

565
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 4: but you know, it's still I want to just drive

566
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:21,919
Speaker 4: the point home because I don't want to say it

567
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:22,479
Speaker 4: was a struggle.

568
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 3: It is a struggle.

569
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 4: And I'm finding something new every day and working through

570
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:28,479
Speaker 4: something new. And when I say and find something new,

571
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 4: sometimes it's finding something new that I feel I need

572
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 4: to change, that I feel it need to work on.

573
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:34,880
Speaker 4: And now that I've lost the weight, now I need

574
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,800
Speaker 4: to do this. Now this looks different, Now this fits

575
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,919
Speaker 4: different now, you know. And it's a challenge. But I

576
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 4: think that challenges are not something that will stop.

577
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 3: No.

578
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 4: I think that challenges make us stronger so that when

579
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 4: new challenges come, we're able to attack them with more armor.

580
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, I think it comes with evolutions every time

581
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: we evolve. It's something else, and it's so refreshing to

582
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:58,679
Speaker 1: hear a man speak on there because a lot of

583
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 1: times you hear women talk about dysmorphia and how we nitpick.

584
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:04,120
Speaker 1: I just talked about it Saturday at the event, about

585
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: how we just we're our own worst critics and we're

586
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 1: picking at every little thing that people look at us

587
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: and like, oh my god, you look amazing, and then

588
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:13,200
Speaker 1: some people are like, is she pregnant?

589
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:13,879
Speaker 3: You look fat?

590
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,119
Speaker 2: You know, but all though, but we look at me

591
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 2: and we're like, if I could just fix this or

592
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:18,199
Speaker 2: tweak that.

593
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,199
Speaker 1: So just to speak to men who may feel the

594
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: same way, to let them know they're not alone in this.

595
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 1: And also we can be kinder to each other, you know,

596
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: because we're all dealing with something.

597
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 4: I mean, even even hearing somebody's and kinder to each other,

598
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,119
Speaker 4: like not being mean, but also just speaking to everything.

599
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 4: I mean, every time I see you, I'm just like

600
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 4: Jesus now, I really mean that in a godly way.

601
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, Crystal's here. Hey, ain't no use of lying.

602
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 4: We hear you know what I'm saying. But that kindness

603
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 4: to each other, it's just humanity.

604
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:57,440
Speaker 2: We need it.

605
00:28:57,880 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 3: We need it right now in the world.

606
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for sure, we are nine seasons in.

607
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 2: This is unheard of for many shows.

608
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know six five to six seasons is normally thengege.

609
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 2: Accomplishment, Yeah, huge and huge.

610
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: What are some lessons that you learned on Sisters, from

611
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 1: either your castmates or from Tyler during this time, because

612
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 1: I know.

613
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, I'll start with without I'll say, but

614
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 4: I'll start with Tyler because I don't think that Tyler

615
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 4: Perry gets the credit that he deserves for more than

616
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 4: what he gets. I think that people talk about the

617
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 4: amount of capital that he's amassed and all those things,

618
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 4: but nobody is talking about the master class and techniques

619
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 4: that it requires for someone to amass that on their own.

620
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 4: Come on, and I've watched him take those things every

621
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 4: single thing because he doesn't have to do anything.

622
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 3: He has done the things, yes, for thirty years.

623
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I watch him with my own eyes stand

624
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 4: in front of me and take on every single piece

625
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 4: of production and post production and pre production into account.

626
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 4: And he knows how to do everything himself. And I

627
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 4: will say that's probably the biggest lesson that I've gotten

628
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 4: in all of this, because as I move into my

629
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 4: own projects, like with Riley that I've been developing for

630
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 4: eight years. I knew that I could not go into

631
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 4: Riley the way that I wanted to until I can

632
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 4: afford to own it outright.

633
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 3: Yes, And I've watched TP.

634
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 4: Literally be able to not only own it, but own

635
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 4: it like this owns it and you can't tell him

636
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 4: anything about it. You can't tell him anything about the audience,

637
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:46,240
Speaker 4: about the content, about the deals, about the financing, about

638
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 4: the time, about anything, because he understands it.

639
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 3: He created it. He has created a method.

640
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 4: So when I am what people will call a well

641
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 4: studied actor until you hear about the stand of Slavsky

642
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 4: methods and all of the things the Shakespeare and I

643
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 4: am at Pentameter and the August Wilsonian method.

644
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 3: But Tyler Perry has a method.

645
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 4: There is a method that he has developed when it

646
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 4: comes to the development and the execution of television, film

647
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:19,920
Speaker 4: and theater.

648
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 2: Yeah.

649
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 4: I mean, hey, I don't know if there is a

650
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,360
Speaker 4: more famous playwright in the history of the world. Like

651
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 4: people know him for those plays, and people forget that

652
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 4: too because he hasn't done plays in a long time.

653
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 3: But that's how I found Tyler Perry. That's how I mean.

654
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 4: It's the first player I ever saw, you know, on

655
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 4: a VHS at my grandmother's house. Yep, And people forget that,

656
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 4: and I think that that is such an important landmark

657
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 4: in time, and to be aligned with that in such

658
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 4: a historical way, like Sisters, it's just so gratifying because

659
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm a little part of that history.

660
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 4: And from my castmates, you know, my castmates has shown

661
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 4: me so much about enterprise and finance and building wealth

662
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 4: from whatever you have, like you and like Devo, you know,

663
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:11,280
Speaker 4: I've learned so much from you guys, and you guys

664
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 4: have been so giving and open with the advice and

665
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 4: with the help. Because this thing could go away. It

666
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 4: changes fast too. I mean you can go from being

667
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 4: on TV and then there's COVID, and then there's no auditions,

668
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,320
Speaker 4: and then there's nothing, and then there's a strike right

669
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 4: after COVID, you know. And so I feel like I

670
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:33,960
Speaker 4: was able to live through those things because I found

671
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 4: family and my castmates, and I found advice and knowledge

672
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 4: and wisdom and people that I could listen to and

673
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 4: trust that they had my best interests at heart. And

674
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,720
Speaker 4: so those are the two biggest things like that business

675
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 4: acumen and the way that he was able Tyler was

676
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 4: able to develop this conglomerate, and then the family that

677
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 4: I found in you in Devou and Cheeto and kJ

678
00:32:57,440 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 4: and Ebony and everybody.

679
00:32:59,000 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 3: You know.

680
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 4: That helped me to move through the world with an

681
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 4: understanding that I wouldn't have otherwise.

682
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:08,360
Speaker 2: That is so beautiful.

683
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 1: There's a level of we talked about discipline, but also

684
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: a level of humility that comes on taking different characters.

685
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:19,000
Speaker 1: And for me taking on Fatima, I used to judge

686
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: her all the time. Have there ever been moments where

687
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 1: you're reading the script and you catch yourself judging Maurice.

688
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 3: All the time?

689
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 4: Every time Maurice is crazy, he is, he could say

690
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 4: some awful things to people. He makes crazy decisions, and

691
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 4: he's put himself in a lot of different places that

692
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 4: don't make sense. Cyclical things, And that's such the opposite

693
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 4: of me, Like, if I see a cycle, I'm like,

694
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 4: I'm not doing that again, you know. But there is

695
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:54,239
Speaker 4: a thing about playing characters that I enjoy, and it

696
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 4: is literally you can do whatever you want, and if

697
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 4: you don't judge the character, you can play this thing

698
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 4: so outright that it helps somebody who may not make

699
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 4: the same kind of decisions that you made, right, And

700
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,719
Speaker 4: Maurice is someone who before I played him.

701
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 3: I did not know him, So it's easy to judge

702
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:13,880
Speaker 3: somebody else, you know.

703
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 4: But then I'm like, you find after, I mean, after

704
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:22,480
Speaker 4: so much text and so many episodes, you find that

705
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 4: there's a method to everybody's madness and there is a

706
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 4: reason why we all make decisions.

707
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 3: And so I try my best not to judge it,

708
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,040
Speaker 3: but I'll be lying it. I mean, I'm reading scripts.

709
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:39,840
Speaker 4: I'm like mo, mo, please, just doing anything, saying anything,

710
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:42,319
Speaker 4: And I understand a lot of it is comedic, but

711
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,279
Speaker 4: I also understand that there's so many people, and I've

712
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,360
Speaker 4: been able to meet so many people who identify with

713
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,120
Speaker 4: Maurice and they are like him, and I'm like, wow,

714
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:50,839
Speaker 4: thank god you did an audition.

715
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 2: Right, right, because you took my job.

716
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:57,400
Speaker 4: But you know, I just didn't know anybody like that

717
00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 4: like that before, and I was able to build him

718
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,320
Speaker 4: into an amagulamation of so many people that I knew.

719
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,879
Speaker 3: But yeah, you it's difficult to.

720
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 4: Not judge characters in such a crazy world that you

721
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,759
Speaker 4: know sisters is and and but the beauty of it

722
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 4: is that it helps you to live the life of

723
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 4: two people. When we've done this for so long, you're

724
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 4: able to learn from even their mistakes in your own life.

725
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:23,360
Speaker 4: And it's kind of a cheat code.

726
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 2: No, for sure. For sure.

727
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:28,359
Speaker 1: Now I want to talk to you about Riley. He said,

728
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 1: you've been working on this for eight years. When you

729
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: said that, it reminded me of Tyler's jazz Man Blues.

730
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: That was the first gripty road and he had sat

731
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 1: on it for years.

732
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:37,839
Speaker 3: Really, I didn't know that.

733
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:39,280
Speaker 2: Yes, that was the very first.

734
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it was his very first movie that he wrote,

735
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: and it was he brought it back up around twenty fifteen,

736
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:49,799
Speaker 1: put it back down.

737
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:50,839
Speaker 3: Wow, that's why.

738
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 2: So was that similar for you when it came to Riley.

739
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, because, I mean Riley was not something. Riley is

740
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 4: not something that I made any money from. And so

741
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,839
Speaker 4: the biggest thing for me about Riley was I had

742
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 4: to put it down when I had to work. You know,

743
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:07,360
Speaker 4: you have to focus on other things so that you

744
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:09,960
Speaker 4: can eat and live. And so I started Riley in

745
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen. Whenever I looked around, and I was really

746
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:16,360
Speaker 4: really in the Broadway world, in the theater world, and

747
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 4: there were no roles where strong black men led unless

748
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 4: they were playing strong black men who had lived before.

749
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:24,960
Speaker 4: And I was interested in telling a story about a

750
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 4: black community that was proud and a black man at

751
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 4: the center who wasn't trophy, who wasn't a drug dealer

752
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,600
Speaker 4: or a slave or a doop singer. I was very

753
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 4: interested in telling the story of just a young black

754
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 4: man who was going to school like I did, like

755
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,759
Speaker 4: many of us do. And it started off as a

756
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 4: play because I wasn't writing music, which is so crazy

757
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,200
Speaker 4: that I've written all these songs now, but I wasn't

758
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,600
Speaker 4: writing music, and I was did a reading of it,

759
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:54,399
Speaker 4: and it was like missing something. I was like an

760
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 4: HBCU experience is one that is music, Like you have

761
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:00,960
Speaker 4: to have music, you have to I started looking for

762
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 4: writers and I could not find one that I like.

763
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 4: And you know, Crystal, my standards are very high, and

764
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:08,799
Speaker 4: I just I mean, I think I went through four

765
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:10,760
Speaker 4: and five musicians.

766
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 3: I just could not find one that could stick.

767
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:13,799
Speaker 2: What does it sound like?

768
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 3: My close made just like yes.

769
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 4: And so then I said, you know what, I'm gonna

770
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 4: do it myself. Come on, I'm gonna write it myself.

771
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 4: And then I wrote a song and I would call

772
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 4: my friend I'd sing it and they was like, that's good,

773
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 4: and I say, it's all right, I'll write another one.

774
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 4: And then I think that today, I think that for

775
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 4: Riley the Musical, I've written fifty four songs what and

776
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 4: there we've kept thirty two in the musical and they're

777
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:43,719
Speaker 4: nineteen on the album. So yeah, and so I said

778
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 4: on it, I sat on it, and I will walk

779
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 4: away and go back. And the name has changed six times,

780
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,719
Speaker 4: and the stories have changed because it's been eight years,

781
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:52,799
Speaker 4: and so you have to do if it's a trending story,

782
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:55,560
Speaker 4: you can't talk about the trending story from twenty eighteen.

783
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:57,920
Speaker 4: You have to keep moving the data. And so it's

784
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 4: changed so many times. But I'm so happy that I'm

785
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 4: finally getting the chance to bring it to the world,

786
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 4: and it's been so successful. Surprisingly, I'm so surprised that

787
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:07,359
Speaker 4: people like it like this.

788
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 2: Why are you surprised?

789
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 3: I don't know.

790
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 4: You just sit in your room and your Chris crossed

791
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 4: your legs and you write songs and.

792
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 3: Then you know you're just sitting there. Yeah, and you

793
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:16,640
Speaker 3: just never know.

794
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 4: I think that we all have dreams, and who's to

795
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:22,839
Speaker 4: say that people will like them. You know, I think

796
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 4: I'm a hard critic, and so I just assume everybody

797
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,120
Speaker 4: else will be one. Two And I'm just blessed and

798
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:29,919
Speaker 4: honored to be able to share with the world.

799
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:30,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.

800
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,439
Speaker 1: Now, you did not attend an HBCU. So where did

801
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 1: you get the insiration.

802
00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:39,359
Speaker 4: From the people around me? I will say number one,

803
00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 4: but number two. When I was in high school, I

804
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 4: talked about the black private school that I went to.

805
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:47,360
Speaker 4: It was the Southern University Laboratory High School, so it

806
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:49,880
Speaker 4: was on the campus of Southern University and in college,

807
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 4: and the professors would teach us, we would be involved

808
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 4: in all the activities, and it was such an escape

809
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,319
Speaker 4: from what I had experienced in middle school because when

810
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:02,080
Speaker 4: I got there, it was the African American people who

811
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:05,800
Speaker 4: cared so much about the way that this school was presented.

812
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,800
Speaker 4: I said, the pride, and you know, in an HBCU

813
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:13,720
Speaker 4: everything is pulled and high. My name is Brian Jordan Junior,

814
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:15,879
Speaker 4: and I am a senior mas com. You know, it's

815
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,799
Speaker 4: all of that, and I'd never seen it before. And

816
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 4: there was a plum and a confidence about blackness, about

817
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 4: academia and about the customs, traditions and ideas of black colleges.

818
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 4: That was so impressive to me. And I know that

819
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 4: the world doesn't know that. The world doesn't, especially the

820
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 4: modern world, They don't see it. And what I continue

821
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 4: to see is the influences of HBCU life in other things,

822
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,319
Speaker 4: in other things that weren't black. But nobody knows that

823
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:49,280
Speaker 4: these Land Grant and Bell Tower institutions were founded because

824
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 4: sharecropping was deemed unconstitutional, and they gave money to people

825
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 4: to start colleges for agricultural and mechanical studies so that

826
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:02,399
Speaker 4: they can continue to be found. And what has come

827
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 4: from that is Kamala Harris and Stacy Abrams and Debbie

828
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 4: Allen and Tcharaji Henson and wonderful people who have gone

829
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 4: to these huge collegesh Oprah.

830
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 3: Octavia Spencer, Chadwick Boseman. I mean, we can go on

831
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 3: and on, and they have.

832
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:25,279
Speaker 4: Really shown the vivid illustration of blackness, how you can

833
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:27,880
Speaker 4: give us something really really small and we'll turn it

834
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 4: into a whole thing. And so I knew that if

835
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 4: I gotten to this point and no one had told

836
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:35,320
Speaker 4: the story, it didn't matter if I went to HBCU,

837
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:38,839
Speaker 4: it mattered that I went to upperbound programs at HBCUs,

838
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 4: that I went to football camps at HBCUs, that I

839
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 4: went to national youth sports programs at HBCUs that helped

840
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 4: to rear me and foster my gifts.

841
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 3: As a child, and even the communities.

842
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,320
Speaker 4: I mean, if you live in Atlanta, you know what

843
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:54,400
Speaker 4: time it is when it's spelled house home coming if

844
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:56,520
Speaker 4: you're from Tennessee, and even if you didn't, if you

845
00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:59,439
Speaker 4: go to Middle Tennessee University, you know what Tennessee State

846
00:40:59,560 --> 00:40:59,920
Speaker 4: is about.

847
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 3: And you celebrate the homecoming zone much, you know.

848
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 4: And it's just about what the black colleges mean to

849
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:11,960
Speaker 4: Black academia, but also the black communities.

850
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,000
Speaker 3: It raises us all and it pulls us all up.

851
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: I love that you also directed and choreographed The Wiz

852
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:24,280
Speaker 1: at Theater. Yes, what did doing a classic like The Wiz?

853
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 1: How did that help get you ready.

854
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 2: To do Riley?

855
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,839
Speaker 3: Absolutely? It was way more instrumentally than I even thought.

856
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:34,360
Speaker 4: I'm a strategic thinker, and so I knew that directing

857
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 4: The Wiz would help to establish my name in a

858
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 4: theatrical place that would help me to bring because I've

859
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:42,880
Speaker 4: been playing in this Riley to roll out the outfits

860
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,239
Speaker 4: that all the school stuff that y'all have seen. I've

861
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 4: been planning this for like four years. I knew I

862
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 4: just had to have a certain amount of money to

863
00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 4: do it. And when I directed The Wiz, first off,

864
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 4: shout out to Kenny Leon, who is the founder and

865
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:58,400
Speaker 4: creative True Color Theater and has been a mentor of

866
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,920
Speaker 4: mine for a long time. Kenny, you know, and Jemil

867
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 4: jud who's the artistic director there, gave me the opportunity

868
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 4: to direct The Whiz. And what I found in The

869
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:12,960
Speaker 4: Wiz is so many people hadn't seen theater before, or

870
00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:15,520
Speaker 4: they hadn't seen theater since they saw a Medea play,

871
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:18,920
Speaker 4: and they came to the show because they loved Maurice.

872
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 4: And we sold that show out. I think that I

873
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:23,240
Speaker 4: went and did press for the show, and within seventy

874
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,879
Speaker 4: two hours we sold out twenty nine performances of that show.

875
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 3: Wow, quickly oversold. We sold the whole thing out.

876
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 2: That's amazing.

877
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:32,080
Speaker 4: And it was a lot of people who were saying,

878
00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:34,840
Speaker 4: this is my first play, what and I feel like

879
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:38,000
Speaker 4: and I call it the Lemon Pepper Wiz because I

880
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 4: was strategic about making oz like you know, Emerald City

881
00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 4: feel like Atlanta. And so the tin Man was at

882
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 4: Cascade and The Lion was at the Mary Marquis, and

883
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:49,720
Speaker 4: it was just a lot of things that I included.

884
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:51,680
Speaker 4: I mean, qu Parker was the tin Man, you know.

885
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 4: I was strategic about what Atlanta needed to see in

886
00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 4: the Whiz, right, because we have to make theater these

887
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:01,800
Speaker 4: days whenever, you know, digital is so in front of

888
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 4: our face, and everything is so quick to get and

889
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 4: you want people to come and see live things that

890
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 4: you don't have video of, you have to make it

891
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:10,600
Speaker 4: something that people will want to see. And so that

892
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:15,319
Speaker 4: taught me that there is a huge market for black theater. Yes,

893
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:18,239
Speaker 4: if you bring it to the people who it's for,

894
00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:21,319
Speaker 4: which is another Tiler period lesson. I ain't gonna keep

895
00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:23,840
Speaker 4: doing the Tiler Perio lessons, but to serve the people

896
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,040
Speaker 4: the things that they if you're creating it for the people,

897
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:28,759
Speaker 4: serve it to the people, you know. And so I

898
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 4: learned then that there was there's so many stories that

899
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 4: need to be told. And then now we're living in

900
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:34,759
Speaker 4: a time where last year was the biggest season on

901
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 4: Broadway and the history of Broadway, and the largest grossing

902
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,360
Speaker 4: show was led by a black man. Othello, you know,

903
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 4: and so shout out to Denzel Washington, shout out to

904
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:48,680
Speaker 4: the people who are showing that black stories and black

905
00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:53,040
Speaker 4: eyep is important, is marketable, is potent.

906
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:54,560
Speaker 3: And so the Wiz taught me that.

907
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 4: It taught me that there is room for black theater

908
00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 4: even in mainstream because they're trying to make you believe

909
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 4: that it doesn't belong.

910
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 3: But the Wizard was great. It was a great experience.

911
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 2: That's amazing.

912
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:09,239
Speaker 1: How did you balance the creative and the business side

913
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:12,719
Speaker 1: of bringing rally to fruition, because I know that's a lot,

914
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: especially doing it independently.

915
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 4: Well, the balance is you may want a lot more

916
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:20,759
Speaker 4: than what you can afford, and so you have to

917
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:25,360
Speaker 4: you have to make those decisions. And the business of

918
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 4: being on sisters and learning from people around me, learning

919
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 4: from people who had taken their finances and independently place

920
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:39,080
Speaker 4: their money and their own things, you know, it helped

921
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:41,439
Speaker 4: me to understand the balance of things and what could

922
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:43,880
Speaker 4: be more profitable and what is long game and what

923
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:45,440
Speaker 4: you need to pull back on.

924
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:47,040
Speaker 3: Because me, I'm just like, I do it big.

925
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 4: I want all the things, I want all the artists

926
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:51,919
Speaker 4: I want to you know, everything I want sixty five

927
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 4: dancers and a forty seven piece orchestra, and I'm like, hey, brother,

928
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:57,640
Speaker 4: pull it on back, you know.

929
00:44:58,360 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 3: And so I learned a lot of lessons. I did

930
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:00,719
Speaker 3: a lot of.

931
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:06,160
Speaker 4: Scaling back on what I dreamed and putting people in

932
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 4: the right places so that they can reach the right people,

933
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 4: and understanding how to merge social and digital with the

934
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:16,360
Speaker 4: live theater aspect, and just finding the balance because you know,

935
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:19,239
Speaker 4: if it was up to me, it would. I mean,

936
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 4: the social thing I struggle, Crystal is the goat. I

937
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,480
Speaker 4: struggle with the social and the digital stuff. But this

938
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 4: really pulled me out. And I was very intentional about

939
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 4: doing that because I know that's the way to get

940
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 4: to the people. And I wasn't gonna waste my money,

941
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:38,959
Speaker 4: come on, okay, okay on the things.

942
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:39,719
Speaker 3: And so you had to.

943
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:41,840
Speaker 4: I had to figure out what would be long lasting,

944
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 4: what would reach the people, and what would get me

945
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 4: on Keep it positive, sweetie.

946
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:49,000
Speaker 3: So it worked.

947
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 2: You are so silly. I love that.

948
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,279
Speaker 1: It's so funny because I'm going on a live show

949
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:58,920
Speaker 1: tour for keeping Positive, sweetie, And like you, I like

950
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:01,360
Speaker 1: all the things I want.

951
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:07,759
Speaker 2: Led screen pyrol. Everything I want to come from the roof.

952
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:09,600
Speaker 3: That's exactly right. Why not?

953
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,359
Speaker 2: And they're like, Okay, Crystal, if we do this, you're

954
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:13,959
Speaker 2: not gonna make.

955
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:14,560
Speaker 3: Any money, that's right.

956
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 2: Like, so, do you want to leave home with money

957
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 2: or do you I mean leave the show going home

958
00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:20,560
Speaker 2: with some money? Or do you want to put it

959
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:21,239
Speaker 2: all in the show?

960
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,839
Speaker 3: So give me the money, A little bit money, Yeah,

961
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 3: you know, list a little We still have a gowns.

962
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:37,239
Speaker 3: I can't wait. The gowns, nice gowns, kes kex archive, listen, museum, Yeah,

963
00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 3: all the things, the mass that's it.

964
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:44,440
Speaker 2: Please no, but I totally I get it. I get it.

965
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:48,160
Speaker 2: You've called Raleigh a story that's both personal and cultural.

966
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:51,719
Speaker 2: In your own words, what does Riley represent to you?

967
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 4: I think that if I had you say it in

968
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:58,280
Speaker 4: a short amount of words, I think that Riley represents

969
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,520
Speaker 4: what it looks like when black people decide not to

970
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:08,279
Speaker 4: struggle anymore, my lord, what it looks like when black

971
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 4: people decide to not wait on the celebration of others,

972
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:17,600
Speaker 4: and what it looks like when black people decide that

973
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 4: there is wealth and real estate in our own selves.

974
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:23,320
Speaker 3: And that's what Riley is.

975
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,440
Speaker 4: I mean, Riley is a story about a black football

976
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:28,719
Speaker 4: player who went to a white high school, but he

977
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:32,840
Speaker 4: decides to honor his mother's life by going to the

978
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 4: Black college, and he is kind of a fish out

979
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 4: of water, but he gets there and he realizes that

980
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:40,840
Speaker 4: that's where he belongs in There is something that was

981
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:44,120
Speaker 4: just ancestral about it, and it's a celebration of the

982
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 4: Black college. It's not filled with scandal and feel with

983
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:52,000
Speaker 4: the things that are baity to people. It is filled

984
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:55,680
Speaker 4: with why people pile up on Southwest flights to come

985
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,839
Speaker 4: to Atlanta on the weekend to go to a spell

986
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:00,840
Speaker 4: House home coming and just be out up in traffic.

987
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 3: It is the reason.

988
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,840
Speaker 4: It gives you a level of importance that is not

989
00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 4: something that you can buy. We're born into that importance, Yes,

990
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:15,640
Speaker 4: We're born into that ancestral like landmark soil, that is

991
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 4: just who we are. And I feel like there has

992
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:22,760
Speaker 4: not been an adequate adaptation or storytelling of that since.

993
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 4: And this is no shade to anything that has come after.

994
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 4: But I feel like when we look at things that

995
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 4: have inspired me with Riley, it's a different world. It's

996
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,760
Speaker 4: school days, those things that really had that close connection

997
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,839
Speaker 4: to the celebration of these colleges and institutions, and so yeah,

998
00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 4: that's what Riley is. It's a celebration of blackness and

999
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,760
Speaker 4: independence of blackness and what it looks like to learn

1000
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 4: and to be intelligent and to teach.

1001
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:51,400
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, yeah, I love that.

1002
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:54,359
Speaker 1: If there's any advice that you could give to young

1003
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: artists who are trying to just navigate this industry, who

1004
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:03,480
Speaker 1: are trying to, like you, create their own content, what

1005
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:04,960
Speaker 1: is the advice that you would give them.

1006
00:49:07,600 --> 00:49:11,239
Speaker 4: We are all dreamers, and I think that I had

1007
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 4: a crazy dream last night. And I'm gonna get to

1008
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:15,399
Speaker 4: the point with this, but I had a crazy dream

1009
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:17,280
Speaker 4: last night and it just didn't make any sense.

1010
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:19,480
Speaker 3: Most dreams don't make any sense.

1011
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:20,840
Speaker 2: Sometimes you're like, what was that about?

1012
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 3: They don't.

1013
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 4: And even when you wake up and you tell your mom,

1014
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:27,399
Speaker 4: who is a nurse and who's been struggling to take

1015
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,279
Speaker 4: care of four kids her whole life, that I'm going

1016
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 4: to be a movie at a TV star, that dream

1017
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 4: to your mama sounds crazy. It's because it is. It's

1018
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:40,160
Speaker 4: such a small amount of people who can do it.

1019
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,360
Speaker 4: But there are people who can do it. And so

1020
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:46,800
Speaker 4: when you dream crazy, you have these big dreams, you

1021
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:49,239
Speaker 4: have to do the same amount of work that the

1022
00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:51,560
Speaker 4: dream is. So if the dream is insane, doing insane

1023
00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 4: amount of work to dream dreams don't make sense. So

1024
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,960
Speaker 4: you have to do a senseless amount of work. That

1025
00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 4: means waking up and going to the gym if you

1026
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:00,440
Speaker 4: don't want to. That means eating so way if you

1027
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 4: don't want to. That means putting together looks if you

1028
00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:04,560
Speaker 4: can't afford stylist or getting the styllars if you need it.

1029
00:50:04,800 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 4: It means going to every class that you can go to,

1030
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:10,080
Speaker 4: singing every song that you can sing, training and dance,

1031
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:14,600
Speaker 4: training in theater, reading, going to people and helping them,

1032
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:15,640
Speaker 4: getting help with tape.

1033
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:19,080
Speaker 3: It means doing the impossible. These dreams are impossible.

1034
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 4: There's a song that says dream the impossible dream, but

1035
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:27,279
Speaker 4: nobody talks about the impossible work. Boy, nobody talks about

1036
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:29,799
Speaker 4: the impossible work. And so I would encourage people. If

1037
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 4: you want to accomplish the dream, accomplish the work.

1038
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:34,319
Speaker 3: It has to match.

1039
00:50:34,560 --> 00:50:37,439
Speaker 4: Yes, And so you see people who you love on TV,

1040
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:41,160
Speaker 4: like Fatima, and then you also see Fatima on brand campaigns,

1041
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:45,719
Speaker 4: on this podcast, on film on doing everything. She's our

1042
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:48,760
Speaker 4: fashion goal, like she is doing all the things because

1043
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:53,320
Speaker 4: her dream is impossible and she's doing the impossible amount

1044
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:53,520
Speaker 4: of work.

1045
00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:54,400
Speaker 3: So that's what I've encourage.

1046
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:56,760
Speaker 4: But just work, do the work, and if you're tired,

1047
00:50:56,880 --> 00:51:00,600
Speaker 4: go to sleep and wake up and work again. You

1048
00:51:00,680 --> 00:51:04,600
Speaker 4: can't out work, you cannot. Talent can never outwork ethic.

1049
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 4: When you have that work ethic, that's what's going to

1050
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 4: take you through. Yes, work, work, work.

1051
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:12,600
Speaker 2: I love that. Ooh that is so good.

1052
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you all, know if we've ever

1053
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:17,239
Speaker 1: talked about this, but with all the work, how do

1054
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:19,520
Speaker 1: you ground yourself when it gets too heavy?

1055
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 4: I struggle with that, really, yeah, because I think that

1056
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:26,759
Speaker 4: what has happened is, and this is personal. I have

1057
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,279
Speaker 4: for so long been so laser focused on the work

1058
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:33,040
Speaker 4: that a lot of my life is kind of taken

1059
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:36,120
Speaker 4: a vaccine. Like I'm not married, I don't have kids,

1060
00:51:36,239 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 4: I don't you know, and so much of that personal

1061
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:43,080
Speaker 4: stuff I found to be less significant because I was working.

1062
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:45,439
Speaker 4: So I'm in the point now I'm getting a little

1063
00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:49,040
Speaker 4: bit older and it's looking a little lone that you

1064
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:51,319
Speaker 4: stand around in your house and it's like, oh, yeah,

1065
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 4: you're about all right. You know, you can't find nobody

1066
00:51:56,080 --> 00:52:00,759
Speaker 4: sit at the breakfast table, you know, But I I.

1067
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:02,719
Speaker 3: There.

1068
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:06,840
Speaker 4: I found I find ground and like solace and just

1069
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 4: neutrality in other human like friends, and even a phone conversation,

1070
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:15,080
Speaker 4: a facetimeing. You call me every now and then and

1071
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:17,759
Speaker 4: we be on their phone. We go for two hours. Right,

1072
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 4: You're like, oh lord, I gotta go, do you know?

1073
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:20,320
Speaker 3: It's just how it is.

1074
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:23,239
Speaker 4: But that helps to ground me, just talking to other people,

1075
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:26,319
Speaker 4: being with other people. And I feel like a lot

1076
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,759
Speaker 4: of my life is work, even when I'm enjoying it.

1077
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:31,920
Speaker 4: Like I can get grounded in my own things, especially

1078
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:34,960
Speaker 4: if I'm like auditioning for something or learning the script

1079
00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:37,600
Speaker 4: or filming, you know, on something else. It helps me

1080
00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:41,200
Speaker 4: to just go into something I care about that I

1081
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 4: love that I developed like a child like Riley, you know.

1082
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 4: But I find that in family and in food.

1083
00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:49,279
Speaker 3: I like to cook.

1084
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:54,000
Speaker 2: I tell you, he can cook. I I why don't

1085
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:55,279
Speaker 2: you move to New York too far?

1086
00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:57,560
Speaker 3: I know you gotta just you be up there all

1087
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:02,120
Speaker 3: the time. Please for me. She can also cook.

1088
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:04,040
Speaker 2: We can cook.

1089
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:06,600
Speaker 3: We're actually twins.

1090
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:09,279
Speaker 2: No, literally, everything you're sounding like like the.

1091
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:11,960
Speaker 4: Same people were like the same person with both air signs. Anyway,

1092
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,400
Speaker 4: I find that in just and just the right people.

1093
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 4: And I also find it in just understanding when to

1094
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 4: leave things, when to stop talking to certain people, when not,

1095
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:26,520
Speaker 4: when to say no. That's a whole nother podcast episode

1096
00:53:26,719 --> 00:53:31,759
Speaker 4: to say no. But but you you, I have been

1097
00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:35,480
Speaker 4: able to build a nucleus inside of myself that no

1098
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 4: matter what's going on around me, I know where to

1099
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:42,000
Speaker 4: go when I need stillness, when I need peace. And

1100
00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 4: that that has come with therapy, that has come with age,

1101
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 4: and it's also come with just the knowledge of just

1102
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 4: being around people who I've seen do the same things.

1103
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:57,359
Speaker 4: And God, of course you know understanding that the possibility

1104
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:01,759
Speaker 4: is just not to preach but people, there's so much

1105
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:04,680
Speaker 4: to be said about different religions or you know, modern

1106
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:08,040
Speaker 4: day will make you feel like, you know, subscribing to

1107
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:11,680
Speaker 4: any type of organized religion, it's something that is less

1108
00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:15,279
Speaker 4: than smart or less than scientific. But I think that

1109
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:20,279
Speaker 4: in my life, without a doubt, I know that none

1110
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:22,360
Speaker 4: of this would be possible without God. And I know it,

1111
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:24,160
Speaker 4: and so it ain't even up for a discussion for me.

1112
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:27,759
Speaker 4: And so God and the way that I pray and

1113
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 4: the way that I manifest has been just a beautiful,

1114
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:35,479
Speaker 4: beautiful thing because there is proof, Yes, there is proof,

1115
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:37,600
Speaker 4: Like even when you get in a situation where you

1116
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:39,440
Speaker 4: feel like this is the worst thing that could ever

1117
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:41,600
Speaker 4: possibly happen, how many times have you been in that

1118
00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:44,560
Speaker 4: worst thing that it happens and then it gets figured out?

1119
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:46,520
Speaker 4: And so I think that I always say it, say

1120
00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 4: it to myself, but I say it to other people too.

1121
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:52,120
Speaker 4: How many times does God have to show you until

1122
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:53,120
Speaker 4: you're able to say, you know what?

1123
00:54:53,400 --> 00:54:53,840
Speaker 2: You got it?

1124
00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:54,840
Speaker 3: Please?

1125
00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:55,239
Speaker 1: Yes?

1126
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:57,240
Speaker 3: Because we love to try to figure it out ourselves.

1127
00:54:57,360 --> 00:55:00,799
Speaker 2: We do. We can't fit taking a deeper hole.

1128
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:05,200
Speaker 4: I mean, go sit down somewhere really, you know. But yeah,

1129
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:07,319
Speaker 4: I find I find my centering God.

1130
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 3: I find it in art. I find it in food.

1131
00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:10,760
Speaker 3: I find it in fashion.

1132
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 2: You know.

1133
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:13,360
Speaker 3: I love little piece of clothes.

1134
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:15,120
Speaker 2: Listen, I need to start a garment.

1135
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:16,359
Speaker 3: We need to stop.

1136
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:20,880
Speaker 2: I gotta let's put ourselves now. I'm putting myself in it.

1137
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:24,880
Speaker 3: Please maybe A I'm trying to think with us.

1138
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:25,480
Speaker 2: I got coming up?

1139
00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:29,200
Speaker 1: Okay, unless it's like for work, a shopping fast until

1140
00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:30,800
Speaker 1: the holidays, like till.

1141
00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:32,200
Speaker 2: Let's tomorrow, neveryone.

1142
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:36,960
Speaker 4: It is currently the holidays, the holidays, I can do

1143
00:55:37,040 --> 00:55:38,920
Speaker 4: a shopping fast until like.

1144
00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:43,919
Speaker 3: Until the New Year. Okay till the New year sixty days.

1145
00:55:44,040 --> 00:55:46,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, for ourselves that if it's shopping like for Christmas

1146
00:55:46,520 --> 00:55:48,239
Speaker 1: for your family, that doesn't count.

1147
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,759
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put them in it too. Hey, guys, you

1148
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:53,040
Speaker 3: saw it here first time. Got fast.

1149
00:55:53,080 --> 00:55:57,200
Speaker 4: I don't know when this airs, but today is what

1150
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:01,439
Speaker 4: is it October twenty for We're gonna say twenty four

1151
00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:04,520
Speaker 4: just because of the stuff that I have. People before

1152
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:10,120
Speaker 4: supposed stated check this is it, guys, and so I'm

1153
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 4: gonna fa It's Crystal's fault. I'm going to fast. Merry

1154
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:13,839
Speaker 4: Christmas to you all.

1155
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:16,440
Speaker 2: Jesus is the reason for the season.

1156
00:56:16,800 --> 00:56:20,959
Speaker 4: Yes he oh, yes, he yes, oh yes he is, yes,

1157
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:27,279
Speaker 4: all that, all of that, Yeah, cancel Christmas, guys.

1158
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:28,560
Speaker 3: It's about God.

1159
00:56:30,719 --> 00:56:34,800
Speaker 2: Amen. I love you. I love you more, No, seriously,

1160
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you. I have watched you grow.

1161
00:56:39,200 --> 00:56:41,239
Speaker 2: Oh I'm not gonna cry today.

1162
00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:49,600
Speaker 1: I've watched you grow immature over the years, and just

1163
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:51,920
Speaker 1: the artist that you are, the man that you are,

1164
00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:53,120
Speaker 1: the friend that you are.

1165
00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:56,479
Speaker 2: I couldn't ask for a better friend. And I'm just I'm.

1166
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:58,440
Speaker 1: Happy to have you and share my platform with you,

1167
00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:02,320
Speaker 1: just to share you with the world even more because

1168
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:04,480
Speaker 1: I don't think you do this enough to like actually

1169
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:08,000
Speaker 1: let people in. So thank you for allowing me to

1170
00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:10,400
Speaker 1: interview you and just have that conversation so that they

1171
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:14,240
Speaker 1: can know you more, because you are truly an incredible human.

1172
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 2: I just love you.

1173
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:18,200
Speaker 3: Thank you for this comfortable and safe space.

1174
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:21,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, seriously, I love it. So tell the people

1175
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:23,560
Speaker 2: where we can find you. You got merch?

1176
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:24,240
Speaker 4: You are?

1177
00:57:24,280 --> 00:57:25,560
Speaker 2: Are you still on the college tour?

1178
00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:29,680
Speaker 4: I just wrapped the college tool. Okay, thank you, thank you. Yeah,

1179
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:31,240
Speaker 4: I just wrapped the college to it. But there will

1180
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,880
Speaker 4: be merch available at hbcusical dot com. We're also working

1181
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:37,440
Speaker 4: on a collaboration line that I can't speak to now,

1182
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 4: but it's going to be crazy.

1183
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,160
Speaker 3: I can't wait you to show you this. I can't

1184
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:42,160
Speaker 3: wait to show you this stuff.

1185
00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:47,440
Speaker 4: And of course Instagram, Twitter, TikTok at Brian Jordan Junior

1186
00:57:47,480 --> 00:57:51,480
Speaker 4: and also at Riley. The mixtape go stream it everywhere

1187
00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:53,959
Speaker 4: that you stream. It's out there. It did really great

1188
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:57,600
Speaker 4: numbers in the first week, crazy and so I'm so

1189
00:57:57,800 --> 00:57:59,840
Speaker 4: so blessed. Thank you so much, Chris, you are well.

1190
00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:08,000
Speaker 1: That was such an inspiring conversation with Brian and a

1191
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:10,680
Speaker 1: reminder that when you trust your calling. You can create

1192
00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:13,720
Speaker 1: something bigger than yourself. Thank you for tuning in to

1193
00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:16,600
Speaker 1: another episode of the Keep It Positive Sweetie Show. Don't

1194
00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 1: forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this with

1195
00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:22,880
Speaker 1: someone who can use a little positivity. Until next time,

1196
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:24,880
Speaker 1: I will see you guys, and make sure to keep

1197
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:25,360
Speaker 1: it positive.

1198
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 2: Sweety right