Speaker 1: I'm very excited.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I don't know how to say this
Speaker 2: without sounding like into myself. But I've had some big
Speaker 2: people on this podcast and that I've had other people
Speaker 2: reach out to be on it, and truthfully, what's most
Speaker 2: interesting to myself and listeners is just nonsense. So it's
Speaker 2: rare that I'll say, wait, I want to have that
Speaker 2: person on because it's just somebody that I'm interested in
Speaker 2: speaking to and hearing from. This is sort of like
Speaker 2: my garage band. I kind of do exactly what I
Speaker 2: want and I talk to only who I want to
Speaker 2: talk to.
Speaker 3: That well, other than what a compliment that is, that
Speaker 3: means the most to me because I don't think it's
Speaker 3: you being full of yourself at all. You are the
Speaker 3: bipolar opposite of the story I'm telling now, because you
Speaker 3: succeeded enormously from a platform I honor and respect to
Speaker 3: hell lot of that. The interesting thing is that what
Speaker 3: the story I'm telling now, I didn't do that. I
Speaker 3: did not do that.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I didn't know you were doing something.
Speaker 2: I have a friend who mentioned you to Manic Wait.
Speaker 2: He thought he was pitching you to me, and I'm
Speaker 2: like no, yeah, what happened to her? Because we're going
Speaker 2: to explain to the audience what we're talking about, because
Speaker 2: most of my audience, probably half my audience, has no
Speaker 2: idea who you are, all right, So let's start from
Speaker 2: the sort of beginning from my perspectives. So growing up, like,
Speaker 2: there were certain people that you remember. You remember Suzanne
Speaker 2: Summers in the fitness sort of health diet space. Diet
Speaker 2: was a big word back in the day. Half a
Speaker 2: cantalope tab a cigarette like that, you know, Dexa trim,
Speaker 2: slim fast bars. That was sort of like my life
Speaker 2: of coming up from diet Atkins diet. Later it was
Speaker 2: a South Beach diet. Later later it was the Zone diet,
Speaker 2: the Scarsdale diet. Hot dog on a Tuesday, all fruit
Speaker 2: and meat on a Wednesday, like yeah, boo yon. Like,
Speaker 2: so I remember, because I grew up in an eating
Speaker 2: disorder household, I was always ripping out the magazine thing
Speaker 2: that had all the diets, and so in our vernacular,
Speaker 2: there was a period that was later called stop the insanity. Okay,
Speaker 2: in the same way that you'll hear that's hot now
Speaker 2: or hot mess and not know where that comes from.
Speaker 2: Not remember that that that's hot as Paris Hilton or
Speaker 2: hot mess came from Christian Siriano or you know certain,
Speaker 2: or that I invented the skinny margarita, like a lot
Speaker 2: of people just anecdotally order skinny margarita, thinking it came
Speaker 2: with like Adam and Eve, you know, with the apple.
Speaker 2: I invented that. So stop the insanity, which many people
Speaker 2: may say now came from Susan Powder.
Speaker 4: Absolutely okay.
Speaker 2: So from my purview, there was a woman who was
Speaker 2: tall and lean and thin and ironically slightly insane, like
Speaker 2: unhinged and passionate, and she had almost shaved platinum blonde hair,
Speaker 2: and it was like she was just talking about low fat.
Speaker 2: So I was watching this woman who began the fat
Speaker 2: free movement, which was as prevalent as the calorie deficit
Speaker 2: or the low carb or the kytosis movement or any
Speaker 2: of that or the whatever they call it, like the
Speaker 2: carnivorre diet. There was a woman and this is her,
Speaker 2: this is Susan Powder. She was massive. She was piling
Speaker 2: up potatoes, piling up pasta and saying, you can have
Speaker 2: all of this as long as you have no fat.
Speaker 2: And people were going to restaurants ordering spaghetti and tomato
Speaker 2: sauce as long as it had no oil, no fat,
Speaker 2: and that was a precursor to the low carb act
Speaker 2: in South Beach lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Okay, so enter Susan powder.
Speaker 3: Well, the interesting thing is that that was one component
Speaker 3: to stop the insanity because what I was saying is
Speaker 3: whole foods versus process I was saying low fat, not
Speaker 3: processed low fat food. I was saying whole foods. That's
Speaker 3: what people who read the books, who came to the seminars,
Speaker 3: it did get massive. But the interesting thing about stop
Speaker 3: the insanity was the fact that I had any chance
Speaker 3: in hell. And that's why I understand and respect a
Speaker 3: lot of what you have done, because I'm sure that
Speaker 3: you have heard. Oh my god, she said so much energy.
Speaker 3: She's so aggressive, she saw this, she talks so much,
Speaker 3: she does this. Yet it was the energy that what
Speaker 3: I did was stop the insanity. Was I told the
Speaker 3: story of my ex husband. I flat baloney in the
Speaker 3: air and said, this is a pig's butt.
Speaker 1: It was disruptive before disruptive was a thing.
Speaker 3: Like I said, stuff that had nothing to do, nothing
Speaker 3: to do with it. Being a dietician, never I never
Speaker 3: called myself a fitness guru. The press, which you know,
Speaker 3: is far limited in the nineties compared to even now.
Speaker 3: There was no Internet, so the press said fitness guru.
Speaker 3: I never said that. What I said was from the beginning,
Speaker 3: and I say it now, I'm sixty seven years old.
Speaker 3: I'm just a housewife who figured it out. That's what
Speaker 3: I said. So the big industries that came in later, Bethany,
Speaker 3: and I don't think many people would understand this more
Speaker 3: than you. Never once believed. I had no chance in hell.
Speaker 3: It was a complete fluke.
Speaker 4: Normal Ray.
Speaker 3: It's the movie Norma Ray when Norma Ray, when Sally
Speaker 3: Field steps on the thing and brings the mills to
Speaker 3: a grinding halt. The American women said, I don't care
Speaker 3: what she's saying, like there's something real.
Speaker 4: They it was the way you're saying.
Speaker 1: It's disruptive.
Speaker 2: It was disruptive, it was polarizing, it was shocking. But
Speaker 2: by the same token, in the way that like a
Speaker 2: Hule Cogan is disruptive too, like you barely it's not
Speaker 2: about what he's doing or fighting's just who he is.
Speaker 2: You're just like, wait, what. So it was disruptive, but
Speaker 2: by the same token. You did not have the Internet
Speaker 2: to clarify anything.
Speaker 3: I didn't need to because millions of women came to events,
Speaker 3: bought books. Seven of them bought platinum videos.
Speaker 4: So my message.
Speaker 3: But I didn't have the direct to consumer like I
Speaker 3: have now. But unabashed is the word and hull Cogan,
Speaker 3: I mean whatever a woman being unabashed. In nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 3: single mother, ex stripper, unapologetic, beyond belief. I was a
Speaker 3: stripper in Dallas, Texas, and I started teaching exercise and
Speaker 3: the women gathered and I would talk a million mas
Speaker 3: a minute, a million like I still do now, a
Speaker 3: million maza minute. Stop the insanity started. It started in
Speaker 3: the grocery aisles of Piggly Wiggly, that was the name
Speaker 3: of the grocery store. I heard everyone in Texas two
Speaker 3: babies in a thing a year apart. You have a daughter,
Speaker 3: you have a child. I was single mother, two babies
Speaker 3: a year apart. He walked out when I had a
Speaker 3: six week old and a one year old.
Speaker 2: What is like an evangelist and people were just like
Speaker 2: clung to you.
Speaker 3: I just told the truth of my and storytelling was
Speaker 3: not in the fitness world.
Speaker 4: When I stepped into fitness. I never. I never got
Speaker 4: a degree. I never.
Speaker 3: I made fun of having to be certified because I
Speaker 3: sent in the money when I finally had it, like
Speaker 3: a thousand dollars to be certified, and I said, you
Speaker 3: never met me, you don't know anything about me. I've
Speaker 3: got my certificate. It was unabashed. It was insane. But
Speaker 3: it was me talking to women, not directly.
Speaker 1: By the way.
Speaker 2: But that's that's interesting because well, first of all, that
Speaker 2: was when there was a movie called Perfect with Jamie
Speaker 2: Lee Curtis. Fitness was the most fitness has ever been.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 2: It was the it was the the headband, it was
Speaker 2: the neon leggings.
Speaker 3: Did you see the redoing of the skit that she
Speaker 3: just did it on Saturday Night Live a couple of
Speaker 3: months back.
Speaker 4: It's brilliant.
Speaker 3: Now you have to say, no, no, she did it
Speaker 3: as a And do you know that Jamie Lee is
Speaker 3: the executive producer of the movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: Okay, there's so much we have to talk about. No, No,
Speaker 3: that's why you bring her up.
Speaker 2: I would be because that's my generation and I remember
Speaker 2: all the videos and the Jane fond of this is
Speaker 2: when like fitness started to be like, wait, I could
Speaker 2: be fit at home and do calisthenics and all this
Speaker 2: stuff and diet.
Speaker 4: It was down hundred percent.
Speaker 1: What you're saying.
Speaker 2: Effectively, I always say that people did not buy the
Speaker 2: skinny margarita.
Speaker 1: They bought me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, stop the insanity.
Speaker 3: The infomercial, which was part of what came Simon It's
Speaker 3: us two books, We got all that. They shot that infomercial,
Speaker 3: I said, get women live, audience five camera shoot.
Speaker 4: They didn't believe it was going to be anything.
Speaker 3: Believe me when I tell you the reason it was
Speaker 3: a success was because of conversion rate. People were calling
Speaker 3: up to order the product. They saw the informer and
Speaker 3: they were just like, I want it. Yeah, And they
Speaker 3: hadn't seen that in the industry. Because the infomercial Injucy
Speaker 3: comes up with you if you order in the next
Speaker 3: five minutes, and you get, and you get and you get.
Speaker 2: The most important thing. I've had brands reach out to
Speaker 2: me and say to me that I've moved so much
Speaker 2: product and other people who have millions of followers haven't
Speaker 2: sold a single And that means that I have a
Speaker 2: high engagement and conversion rate and you have that too,
Speaker 2: And for you. You were in the world of QVC, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And if you're bringing in new customers, if people are
Speaker 2: sitting there for a minute, and maybe by other things,
Speaker 2: those ares metrics people think about. So you were like
Speaker 2: an influencer. Before there really were influencers.
Speaker 4: Well, they didn't even exist.
Speaker 3: And the other thing that compounds this is that people
Speaker 3: don't understand because it was so big, because it went
Speaker 3: into a lot of different industry. I mean, I did
Speaker 3: all the work. Nobody wrote my books, nobody did a thing.
Speaker 3: I did the work. That's great, but it was a
Speaker 3: very short amount of time. It was four and a
Speaker 3: half something years. It went from nothing to stratify.
Speaker 1: Everything to nothing. It happens.
Speaker 2: I was just reading somebody talking about this girl who's
Speaker 2: a podcaster who literally I saw only every second of
Speaker 2: the day during the pandemic, and it was only she
Speaker 2: probably had six months, but was astronomical And now we
Speaker 2: don't see her anymore because so, you know, it is
Speaker 2: fool's gold. You had a four year moment. Social media
Speaker 2: now is so insanely relentless. You could be the biggest
Speaker 2: thing in the world for three months and be over
Speaker 2: like it's really insane. Because there's so much volume. When
Speaker 2: you were big, there was really no volume. Like I
Speaker 2: can literally name ten people. I could say Suzanne Summer's,
Speaker 2: Richard Simmons. You this is pre Oprah, Jane Fonda. You know,
Speaker 2: Redisphilben was a big deal back then, but not selling
Speaker 2: anything like I could name the people.
Speaker 1: It was not.
Speaker 2: You know, it was a different time, so you were
Speaker 2: a big deal. How much money did you make?
Speaker 4: Okay, I was a dancer in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1: I opened it making nothing. You had no money?
Speaker 4: No, I made really good money as a stripper. No, no,
Speaker 4: really it was a stripper.
Speaker 2: What we let's slow this down because people have to
Speaker 2: follow as a stripper, you had your babies as a stripper.
Speaker 1: You had your babies after being a stripper?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I had two children a year apart.
Speaker 3: The original book of Stop the Insanity is I was married,
Speaker 3: had two babies a year apart, two ten pound babies,
Speaker 3: woke up a year later, husband gone, and you know
Speaker 3: two hundred and sixty like shop like a lot of
Speaker 3: millions of women nursing babies, running a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I had to change the way I looked and felt
Speaker 3: because I hated it what I was scared about, and
Speaker 3: I was genuinely scared about it is. I looked up
Speaker 3: to twenty four months goes by, you know, to fifty,
Speaker 3: and I remember thinking, you know what's next?
Speaker 4: Three? Three?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: I didn't hold on you weigh two hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 3: Or sixty pounds before and after picture and stop dance ending.
Speaker 3: I didn't have a babysitter, I didn't have any money.
Speaker 3: So here's the answer to your question.
Speaker 2: And you want to be there for your kids? Which
Speaker 2: is the number? It was never my phone.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think of it.
Speaker 4: Well, no, no, that wasn't my primary thing. I was.
Speaker 4: I wanted to get myself back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he walks out, he's got a you know,
Speaker 3: ten year old girlfriend whatever, girlfriend like you don't even know.
Speaker 3: I told the story in the original book about when
Speaker 3: he finally did show up for visitation. You deal with it,
Speaker 3: I know, divorce. Everybody understands. I was hugely fat.
Speaker 4: My kids.
Speaker 3: Finally, it had been two months since I had had
Speaker 3: a weekend off, and I was crouching down trying to
Speaker 3: look at his girlfriend, and I got stuck between the
Speaker 3: chair and the wind.
Speaker 4: I got stuck.
Speaker 1: And it's a story this is fat.
Speaker 4: That's what that launched the I mean I it.
Speaker 2: Was anecdotal, atidotal come up.
Speaker 3: With I'm a fitness expert. I never said that. I said,
Speaker 3: this is how I live. It's still how I lived.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a woman who created Stacy's Pita Chips, and
Speaker 2: the business was about the sandwiches. She had a sandwich cart,
Speaker 2: and the only thing that you couldn't ever run out
Speaker 2: of with a sandwich car because you had a bunch
Speaker 2: of ingredients in the freezing cold in Chicago, was the bread.
Speaker 2: So she never had she never ran out of peda.
Speaker 2: She was at extra peda. So what did she do
Speaker 2: with the extra peda not to waste? Was the maid
Speaker 2: of the peda chips. The pita chips was what popped off.
Speaker 2: But that's not what her business was. That's what she
Speaker 2: sold for two hundred and fifty million dollars. So I'm
Speaker 2: saying your what you're saying is what became The thing
Speaker 2: that they wanted was not the main thing you were
Speaker 2: talking about. It was you just saving your life. And
Speaker 2: everybody ended up clinging on to the weight loss one
Speaker 2: hundred percent.
Speaker 3: But that was the peta chips that immediately was massive corporations.
Speaker 3: I mean it was literally, can you write a book?
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, well I'll write a book whatever.
Speaker 3: I wrote my own.
Speaker 1: What were you making as a stripper a year?
Speaker 4: You know, on a good night eight hundred on a
Speaker 4: de can break on twenty five. I didn't pay it.
Speaker 1: You can make a quarter million dollars a year.
Speaker 4: You could well in Dallas, the biggest clubs ever.
Speaker 2: I mean that's you know, okay, I just want to
Speaker 2: get okay, So what did you personally make in the
Speaker 2: four years on?
Speaker 1: Stop the insanity, just broad strokes? What did you make?
Speaker 1: What did you met?
Speaker 4: Well, they're in lives the story.
Speaker 3: I don't know what I made because I got we
Speaker 3: got a phone call that said, you know, so and
Speaker 3: so wants to invest in you to do two things,
Speaker 3: to build franchise, studios and a clothing line. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do a clothing line and franchise. That's great, get it,
Speaker 3: take full responsibility. But no, it wasn't that deep. And
Speaker 3: then they built another studio, and then all of a
Speaker 3: sudden it blew the hell up. They they did not
Speaker 3: expect it. So when I went into that meeting a
Speaker 3: year and a half in and said, I just want
Speaker 3: to do things. You know, you make your money back.
Speaker 3: That's fine. He put his finger in my face and said,
Speaker 3: I own you for These are the exact words for batim.
Speaker 3: This is in lawsuits.
Speaker 2: So the cautionary tale for the audience, which has happened
Speaker 2: in many cases, and this is why I've been successful,
Speaker 2: is in the beginning, when you're creative and you have
Speaker 2: a good idea or you're succeeding, you're like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and you'll listen to so many different people. And the
Speaker 2: truth is that's when the things that seem like it
Speaker 2: don't matter because you're playing checkers, but you have to
Speaker 2: play chess at the same time. You have to think
Speaker 2: of the little thing, the little kernel that could become
Speaker 2: something massive, because that's really the key to success. And
Speaker 2: you were so successful and then you ended up being
Speaker 2: an uber eats driver. That's quite a swing because you
Speaker 2: were folks. And this happens, by the way, many chefs,
Speaker 2: successful chefs, very successful famous chefs. They are not focused
Speaker 2: on the business because they're focused on the passion and
Speaker 2: the creativity, and they lose their name, they lose their ip,
Speaker 2: they lose their business. Like you could not even have
Speaker 2: your own name.
Speaker 3: I had the owner of this ex owner of the
Speaker 3: season Battle Corporation bought a racehorse in my name that
Speaker 3: AI didn't know existed and was winning races with it,
Speaker 3: and I didn't know that existed. And absolutely what you're saying, Yes,
Speaker 3: but it's I think there's a dimension to that that
Speaker 3: you have to add. The nineties not as an excuse,
Speaker 3: as an absolute reality.
Speaker 1: No people, no one had a brand, No one was
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3: I couldn't go to Time Warner and say I want
Speaker 3: to see the book. Sorry, it didn't work that way, right,
Speaker 3: you know, I got it. I literally was sitting in
Speaker 3: a business meeting. I mean, this has happened to me
Speaker 3: all the time. I knit a lot, and I get
Speaker 3: bored in business meetings. And I was knitting and there
Speaker 3: was a huge meeting and there was an agent in there,
Speaker 3: and everybody was nervous and I was just knitting. And
Speaker 3: this guy came by and you remember that used to
Speaker 3: wear the Madison Avenue white collars, you know, on the
Speaker 3: white cuffs and the stripe ties. And he walked by
Speaker 3: and said, you don't look like a woman who knits.
Speaker 3: And I said, you look like a fucking barber pole
Speaker 3: with a head on it, and he said, Hi, I'm
Speaker 3: the president of blah blah blah, and we got the job, Bethany,
Speaker 3: we got the job. I am who I am, but
Speaker 3: they produced me out of me.
Speaker 1: No, that is very common too.
Speaker 3: TV came along, Multimedia, net Star comes a lot, you know,
Speaker 3: the infomercial came along. Simon it Ch used to in
Speaker 3: time Wonner. I was up I mean, you may as
Speaker 3: well crucify me. I was up against and that is
Speaker 3: not an excuse, but I did not.
Speaker 2: Know that makes sense. And the nineties people were smoking
Speaker 2: cigarettes and drinking alcohol while having babies, like anything really
Speaker 2: went and that could work. And that's why it's so
Speaker 2: ironic that back then there were so many archaic rules
Speaker 2: because in some other ways people were so fast and loose.
Speaker 2: It's like there's a combination of people being more pearl
Speaker 2: clutching but then also being completely rogue. So it was
Speaker 2: an interesting time. It makes perfect sense what you're saying.
Speaker 2: It makes perfect sense. Not until shows like Shark Tank
Speaker 2: did anyone talk forget women, But did anyone talk.
Speaker 1: About brands ip lawyer?
Speaker 2: You just sort of you know, this is why Roger
Speaker 2: Ayles was fondling people that worked at Fox like it
Speaker 2: was a digretch and Carls this is it will go
Speaker 2: a bit beyond fondling. Yeah, exactly. No, it was a
Speaker 2: different time. That's why the cast and couch. It was
Speaker 2: a different time, you know, and you just accepted it.
Speaker 3: And also it is we didn't have any way. I mean,
Speaker 3: I wrote it in my book that I just wrote
Speaker 3: I went before e commerce was e commerce. I said,
Speaker 3: I want to do products that are authentic. I mean
Speaker 3: I loved my audience always everywhere I went all over
Speaker 3: the world, but I couldn't get directly to any of them,
Speaker 3: to any of them.
Speaker 4: This has shanged now.
Speaker 2: There was no direct to consumer and you could be
Speaker 2: yourself right now and you could connect and if there
Speaker 2: was somebody that did something wrong, you could have a
Speaker 2: platform for it, you could talk about. It's a different
Speaker 2: world and this the world of streaming.
Speaker 1: It makes so much sense that you are.
Speaker 2: In a new I think it's a new documentary like
Speaker 2: this with Jamie Lee Curtis. This makes perfect sense, Like
Speaker 2: it's so circular, and it really also shows people that
Speaker 2: like you just never know.
Speaker 1: Ironically, the Fat Lady hasn't some pardon the pun, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: You never know when something's going to come around and
Speaker 2: you're gonna be able to have a voice. And I
Speaker 2: think it's really amazing. And so you're you an Uber
Speaker 2: eats driver. Now, is that how you're supporting yourself? Drove yesterday,
Speaker 2: drove yesterday. Yep, proudly.
Speaker 1: I love Uber It's I've done deals with Uber.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 3: I mean, you have to be old enough to appreciate
Speaker 3: greatly gigwork because it's sixty seven.
Speaker 4: I'm the best waitress on earth.
Speaker 3: Some of their best drivers are people my age who
Speaker 3: take care of the food, who respect having the privacy
Speaker 3: of the job. I've died a million deaths behind the
Speaker 3: wheel of that car. I've been shamed to the point
Speaker 3: where I can't even tell you I've been so grateful
Speaker 3: I've been I could literally do. I want to do
Speaker 3: their corporate training videos to help people my age use
Speaker 3: their equipment and understand how to do it and not
Speaker 3: be frightened of it.
Speaker 2: They're missing a big market. No, And you're also saying
Speaker 2: that like it's not the same thing. But years ago
Speaker 2: you were able to dance to support your kids, and
Speaker 2: now you're saying that Uber eats has like, given you
Speaker 2: the freedom to do this, and you're producing shit and
Speaker 2: write a.
Speaker 3: Book, Well, do you want to hear the moments where
Speaker 3: it's very difficult, something that down which I don't get
Speaker 3: knocked down, believe me. I was delivering one day and
Speaker 3: it was, you know, I pull into this gated neighborhood
Speaker 3: and you know, I'm like, I used to own a
Speaker 3: house like that. You know, sometimes it's just visually shocking
Speaker 3: a lot of times. And I walk up to the
Speaker 3: front door and I rang the doorbell and Louie Anderson
Speaker 3: answered the door. And Louis knew me back in the day,
Speaker 3: and he knew who it was delivering his food.
Speaker 4: And he has said it's the craziest story. No, no, But.
Speaker 3: Here's what's crazy. Is I hand over his life's battle.
Speaker 3: And he would say this, I'm not speaking okay. His
Speaker 3: life's battle was fast food and a lot of it food.
Speaker 3: Food was his life's battle. Sorry, And so he opened
Speaker 3: the door and looked. He knew, Oh my god, I'm
Speaker 3: a position, that's what That's what I'm saying. But he
Speaker 3: what was what used to be your life's battle? Well,
Speaker 3: not even that I might I didn't have a life anymore.
Speaker 3: Beth and like, I'm his delivery driver, and he knew me,
Speaker 3: and I knew him, and I was as respectful in
Speaker 3: handing him, and we looked at each other. But I
Speaker 3: turned around from that three days in tears, three days
Speaker 3: of just like Susan, what like what I mean? So
Speaker 3: it's not just oh, I'm proud I work no matter what.
Speaker 3: This has been a very painful ten years.
Speaker 1: Wow, I believe it. Wow. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 3: There have been many moments where people say I worked
Speaker 3: on the strip. The most hated people on the strip
Speaker 3: are timeshare people.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Timeshare people?
Speaker 3: You know, they hand you stuff, they stop you, they
Speaker 3: try and get you to go on those horrifying tours
Speaker 3: the whole afternoon and you're stuck up in the middle
Speaker 3: of whatever. I worked the strip and only two people
Speaker 3: knew who I used to be. This is a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago. And the Elvis who's there every day
Speaker 3: if you're on the ship, always has a huge beer
Speaker 3: like it's seven in the morning. And it was Elvis
Speaker 3: who recognized me. Now, what should be funny and what
Speaker 3: should try to be was stragic to me. Character was
Speaker 3: drunk as hell. He was drunk as hell, and he said,
Speaker 3: you remind me of that crazy woman.
Speaker 1: You remind me of that?
Speaker 4: Are you that fucking woman? Are you that glipper?
Speaker 3: And I ran through planet Hollywood and I didn't go
Speaker 3: back to work for days, a couple of days, and
Speaker 3: then I would sit alone and think that ship that's
Speaker 3: ironically kind of hysterical, but it wasn't.
Speaker 4: Come on, you're a human being, well as Vegas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're a mother, and you're used to be fancy schmancy,
Speaker 3: and you got all your money and your competent whatever.
Speaker 3: And then eight years later you look up and Elvis
Speaker 3: is screaming at you. You still got kids, You're still
Speaker 3: a mother. It changes that dynamic too, changes every dynamic.
Speaker 1: First of all, can I just say something like.
Speaker 4: You could say anything, this is yours.
Speaker 2: But no, no, you're a guest in my home. Constructive
Speaker 2: criticism when you slow down and tell these stories like
Speaker 2: I feel it, I get it. I can't like I
Speaker 2: really get it because I'm gonna tell you a story.
Speaker 2: And the Louis Anderson thing tracks too, like you're just
Speaker 2: like this is that moment and it's just the two
Speaker 2: of you, so it's not like everyone's seeing it, but
Speaker 2: you are and you're feeling and so is he because
Speaker 2: he had a has been feeling too in his lession. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I'm feeling it for like Joan Rivers, who
Speaker 2: in her documentary said that she felt like her identity
Speaker 2: was about filling up that calendar. Like everybody who was
Speaker 2: somebody Elizabeth Taylor, everybody feels degraded at some point, Like
Speaker 2: that's that's what the show Hacks is about. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: like she's washed up, but she's trying to like get
Speaker 2: it back. Like I believe that I will be Jean
Speaker 2: Smart in Hacks, Like I think that's who I am,
Speaker 2: Like someone who used to be major, has all these
Speaker 2: major possessions and is like gonna still go bargain at
Speaker 2: the antique place and my assistant going in to try
Speaker 2: to get a deal while I'm driving up with the
Speaker 2: Rolls Royce. So we all get it as you get older,
Speaker 2: like you're just like wait, WHOA Like every everybody you know,
Speaker 2: no one gets out without paying the bill. And that's
Speaker 2: why I think it's so remarkable. And I really hope
Speaker 2: this documentary, like really thank you gets this because it's
Speaker 2: so granular. And I had a moment let me just
Speaker 2: tell you my story that that reminded me of. It's
Speaker 2: not exact, and I wasn't like rock Bottom by any stretch.
Speaker 2: I am on I have no idea why the tables
Speaker 2: keep going hot, and the minute they're called, I'll walk out.
Speaker 2: Not to intentionally use a Vegas reference, but now I
Speaker 2: feel lucky and smart, Like I feel like I'm lucky
Speaker 2: and smart because of what's happened to you can happen
Speaker 2: to anybody, and so I feel grateful for all the
Speaker 2: obsessing over the details and for being a little bit tough,
Speaker 2: like people would be like, she's so aggressive, and she's
Speaker 2: so tough. And someone commented in a post of mine
Speaker 2: there was a post about me and it was a
Speaker 2: flashback of the way someone treated me on a show,
Speaker 2: and the people commenting someone said, now I know why
Speaker 2: she can be so aggressive because people have tried to
Speaker 2: demean her so long. After you're a woman, people have
Speaker 2: tried to demean so long and diminish what you've done.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be a little agro, which I am. But
Speaker 2: I was asked to open the stock exchange and ring
Speaker 2: the bell and I said yes, and my team said yes.
Speaker 2: As something you say yes to you.
Speaker 1: Just say yes.
Speaker 2: It sounds iconic, it sounds big and like we should
Speaker 2: be doing it, like the cover of a magazine. But
Speaker 2: I didn't really understand what it was because I have
Speaker 2: so many things going on and sometimes something comes that
Speaker 2: you know is good and yes, the box is checked
Speaker 2: and you're going to do it, but you don't really
Speaker 2: understand on a granular level what it means.
Speaker 1: So I agree to it.
Speaker 2: I get dressed up, I go down there to Times
Speaker 2: Square to do this thing, and I remember like having
Speaker 2: a weird thing. Should my daughter come? But then she
Speaker 2: had practice after and she was like, mom, I have practice.
Speaker 2: She doesn't understand the magnitude of it because I don't
Speaker 2: understand it, and I haven't said you need to come.
Speaker 2: This is important. This is like me coming to your recital.
Speaker 2: And I'm like that nobody needs to come. I didn't
Speaker 2: invite one person. I show up there with a publicist
Speaker 2: and a publicist assistant, and as I get there, it's
Speaker 2: so big and there making such a big deal about it,
Speaker 2: and the studio is so big and we're in Time
Speaker 2: Square and I'm just like wait, and it like seems
Speaker 2: kind of grandiose and massive and I was so like,
Speaker 2: just it was part of my calendar. And as I
Speaker 2: get there, of course it's on a time thing. It's
Speaker 2: when the market closes. I didn't have time to get
Speaker 2: my daughter there. I feel so I'm gonna cry. I
Speaker 2: feel so alone. I feel like such a loser that
Speaker 2: has done so much in my life and is so successful,
Speaker 2: and the world's about to see this. This is a global platform,
Speaker 2: and I didn't even stop down to like think about it,
Speaker 2: to take the time to ask anybody to be there.
Speaker 2: And I feel like I'm at my funeral by myself,
Speaker 2: Like I feel like no one came to my feeld.
Speaker 1: I am so alone.
Speaker 2: I'm hysterically crying. I cry on the internet after I
Speaker 2: was just like wait and it was going too fast,
Speaker 2: and I did it alone, Like I feel, I feel
Speaker 2: like a loser now talking about it.
Speaker 4: It was so I understand. I understand, so anyway, I understand.
Speaker 4: That's what I mean.
Speaker 1: I understand too, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I understand what that moment on someone's stoopid that should
Speaker 2: mean nothing, who cares? That was like your whole life
Speaker 2: and on that Vegas strip of that guy, I really understand.
Speaker 4: And because you're a mother. I'm a mother. I don't care.
Speaker 3: I got a forty two year old and forty one
Speaker 3: year old in a twenty seven year old. I don't
Speaker 3: care how old they are. There's still my children. Then
Speaker 3: you're gonna add you have to add the ripple of
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I like totally failed my family, like
Speaker 3: I like, I like I totally failed.
Speaker 2: You feel like a loser in front of them too,
Speaker 2: even though they don't know what's going on, like you
Speaker 2: still feel like a loser of failure. Part breakingly so,
Speaker 2: the whole thing is degrading, demoralizing, and it can happen
Speaker 2: to anyone at any economic level.
Speaker 3: Things do not always work out. And you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know cliche. It's beyond cliche. How you manage it?
Speaker 3: If they really go sideways, it has nothing to do.
Speaker 3: It's not formulaic. I'm not telling you how to be
Speaker 3: wealthy in the face of poverty. I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 3: I'm not insulting. For God's sake.
Speaker 4: What I'm telling you.
Speaker 3: Is I would have absolutely been dead if I didn't
Speaker 3: have the physiological strength that I've spent years building. I
Speaker 3: was when I was walking upstairs delivering uber eats in
Speaker 3: the middle of the winter. Let's not pretend it's like hell, raining,
Speaker 3: rainy days, trying to find an apartment, just being shocked
Speaker 3: at what's happening. I'm all, I literally say, Susan, you
Speaker 3: got strong legs, let's go. I saw it as exercise
Speaker 3: and movement I encourage. But you know, that's all great
Speaker 3: because I have that ethic. I have a strong work ethic.
Speaker 3: And there's no load to this high. I maintained pride
Speaker 3: in myself even on the days where sobbing, sobbing, sobbing,
Speaker 3: many of them, many, many, many of them. I maintained like,
Speaker 3: it's okay, Susan, It's just get up. And it's very
Speaker 3: interesting to me that you mentioned Joan, because a I
Speaker 3: knew her back in the day.
Speaker 4: I refer to her all the time in the book.
Speaker 3: Because when I had an opportunity, which is again is
Speaker 3: right here, you know, here's the story again, right here,
Speaker 3: out of nowhere, I got a call a year and
Speaker 3: a half ago. I wasn't thinking about anything. I didn't
Speaker 3: even even writing the book. I was just writing down
Speaker 3: the chronology because I didn't think i'd make it.
Speaker 1: You just wanted to get it out.
Speaker 4: I wanted my story told.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but out of nowhere, I got a text from
Speaker 3: someone Susan Powder, question mark. Nobody knows I have three
Speaker 3: children and one friend. I don't nobody. Nobody calls me nobody.
Speaker 2: Are you surprised that I knew exactly who you were?
Speaker 2: I was like, wanted to have you on here?
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I wasn't surprised that you knew who I was, because
Speaker 3: I know that you knew that time. I was fascinated
Speaker 3: as to why, because I know you're smart, and I
Speaker 3: was like, and you know, I know you haven't read
Speaker 3: the book, you haven't seen the movie Eve and whatever,
Speaker 3: so that's why you know you're coming from where most
Speaker 3: people are, which is, what the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 3: I was fascinated because I'm appreciate talking about real things
Speaker 3: and having the chance to just even if it's encapsulated.
Speaker 4: Explain it.
Speaker 1: Got it.
Speaker 3: And also, come on, you know you have a voice
Speaker 3: and you've never you know, you're you're not a sackape.
Speaker 3: I mean, Bethley Franklin wants you on. I'm like thrilled,
Speaker 3: thank you well. I was grateful too, very great, Like
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I'm really glad because I know
Speaker 3: it'll be a good conversation. So anyway, I get a
Speaker 3: text out of nowhere that said Susan Powder question mark,
Speaker 3: which was and I thought it was someone I just
Speaker 3: delivered to who figured out that it was me, and
Speaker 3: I was like who? And I called my friend Marianne
Speaker 3: who's in the movie on the book, called my friend
Speaker 3: mari Anne and I said, what who is this? And
Speaker 3: she called like, you know, hey, you know you're trying
Speaker 3: to get in touch with Susan Powder. And it was
Speaker 3: a very talented filmmaker who said, Hi, my name is
Speaker 3: and he said, I'm interested in meeting with you about
Speaker 3: a documentary. I said, no, Like, I mean, what would
Speaker 3: Joan Rivers do? That's what I said out loud, What
Speaker 3: would Joan do? And what I said is Joan would
Speaker 3: show up if there was work, even in the back
Speaker 3: rooms of Las Vegas, which she played for years when
Speaker 3: Johnny Carson tried to destroy her career, she would show up.
Speaker 3: And she kept showing up until she paid for that
Speaker 3: damn wedding of Melissa's at the Plaza Hotel.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: The biggest joke in our family is what Mom always says,
Speaker 3: is you know ww they think it's what would Jesus do?
Speaker 4: It's what would Joan do?
Speaker 3: I say it, I say it on a daily I
Speaker 3: can go get the picture right now. Yeah, there's no coincidence.
Speaker 3: It's not coincidence. It's not coincidental at all. But when
Speaker 3: that happened, I was just shooting a Vice interview. So
Speaker 3: I watched my first infomercial and I'd never watched it,
Speaker 3: and I thought I'd be ashamed.
Speaker 4: I thought i'd be ashamed. I was so proud of
Speaker 4: what I did on that stage.
Speaker 3: It was the only the last authentic thing they let
Speaker 3: me do was that first infomercial because nobody gave a
Speaker 3: crap because they didn't believe it because I hadn't generated
Speaker 3: a penny yet. It's not just if your talent. It's
Speaker 3: not just if you have a good thing. It's not
Speaker 3: just if you know your market. It's not just if
Speaker 3: you know your brand. It isn't because you make two
Speaker 3: hundred million dollars for someone and it's like.
Speaker 4: No, I just don't need to tell her. No, we'll
Speaker 4: talk to Susan about that later. No, No, you know what, well,
Speaker 4: I heard those things.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's how But that's how Bravo was with
Speaker 2: the ratings. They didn't want anyone to know how well
Speaker 2: the ratings were doing, because then they would have to
Speaker 2: pay people more. And I was the one who would
Speaker 2: badger them and say, I don't understand why if we're.
Speaker 4: Breaking Susanne did that on Three's Companies.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was just saying, you need to send us
Speaker 2: the ratings, and I made them send them every week.
Speaker 1: Every cast member will claim.
Speaker 3: And what I'm saying is the fact that women are
Speaker 3: still saying that is beyond bloody ridiculous. But even now
Speaker 3: you can do that because look at the power you
Speaker 3: can have.
Speaker 1: No, I love this, I love this.
Speaker 2: I love this for them, for you, but like to
Speaker 2: make it, to elevate it and to make it even
Speaker 2: more meaningful because it's great that you're speaking to them
Speaker 2: about with pride. You're amazing. I can't wait for this documentary.
Speaker 2: Good for you for everything the pride. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: So yay.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what happens next. And I
Speaker 2: can't wait to tell my friend I'm glad we had
Speaker 2: you on.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.