Speaker 1: I learned to play poker sitting at the bar at
Speaker 1: stand Up New York comedy store. There was a bartender
Speaker 1: and I hate that I can't remember his name because
Speaker 1: he he would, uh you know, play cards with me
Speaker 1: while he was addition drinks or whatever. And he this
Speaker 1: is a mantra that I try to live by. And
Speaker 1: he always he would always tell me he was. He
Speaker 1: was like, Cary, whatever you do, play with your balls.
Speaker 1: You win big, you lose big. Just play with your balls. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Cary Peyton, and uh, I have known
Speaker 1: brand baum Gartner for decades. That's my claim to fame.
Speaker 1: He Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Off the Beat
Speaker 1: on this Tuesday edition. I am your host, Brian baum Gartner.
Speaker 1: Now I go way back with today's guest. In fact,
Speaker 1: I go all the way back to my college days
Speaker 1: at good old s MU. Are you sensing a trend?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have everybody whoever went to s m U
Speaker 1: on the podcast at some point. I guess I was
Speaker 1: lucky enough to go to school with Cary Peyton, who,
Speaker 1: let me say, he has been a talent since day one.
Speaker 1: I have always admired caries work, but since college, oh, man.
Speaker 1: He has done a lot playing Cyborg for the last
Speaker 1: twenty years, roughly twenty years on Teen Titans and many
Speaker 1: other animated DC series. Carry has inspired countless fans, and
Speaker 1: he has changed the voice acting game for good. But
Speaker 1: now he is perhaps best known for his on camera
Speaker 1: role as the charismatic King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead.
Speaker 1: That's right, the original the icon Hank Walking Dead. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to share our conversation as we get into
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty of the business people, including carries jump
Speaker 1: from voice on camera work, and what it was like
Speaker 1: to join a show as huge as The Walking Dead.
Speaker 1: This is a good one, you guys. You have my
Speaker 1: word on that. So here he is my good friend,
Speaker 1: Cary Peyton, Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and
Speaker 1: Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every month, left
Speaker 1: over from the night before. What's up? What's going on?
Speaker 1: How are you my friend? It has been a very
Speaker 1: very long time, dude, I don't I don't know when
Speaker 1: I when was the last time I actually saw you?
Speaker 1: Were you were you walking through the neighborhood because you
Speaker 1: used to live in my in the same neighborhood as
Speaker 1: my brother Guy and I would see you taking walks
Speaker 1: when I when I uh, when I was just hanging
Speaker 1: out with I think the first time I just screamed
Speaker 1: at you, like from the wind from the window as
Speaker 1: I walked by. Yes, exactly, exactly. Well listen, I moved away.
Speaker 1: And you're a very busy man. I mean you basically
Speaker 1: have been have been living in our old home state
Speaker 1: for the last several years. Yeah, two years, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: I used to fly back and forth the lot and
Speaker 1: then the pandemic hit and I just got stuck. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been a crazy yeah, last couple of years, man,
Speaker 1: but it's good. But I literally us got back to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and getting you know, settled and everything that
Speaker 1: the pandemic has done so many things. But I used
Speaker 1: to do random studio like home studio recordings as you do,
Speaker 1: you know, but I would just do them in you know,
Speaker 1: walk in closet and uh and uh. And then over
Speaker 1: the course of the pandemic it was like, well now
Speaker 1: not now, you just slowly build, uh build an actual
Speaker 1: studio in your house. And so so I'm doing this
Speaker 1: for it. I feel like the third time in two years,
Speaker 1: you know. So so yeah, yeah, it's been it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's been crazy. But I'm I finally got this space
Speaker 1: put together. This used to be a bathroom. The fact
Speaker 1: that you are such a professional voiceover actor that you're
Speaker 1: willing to give up a toilet to have to have
Speaker 1: a studio, it's true. Now it helps that I've got
Speaker 1: I've got a few toilets, you know, in the house.
Speaker 1: I got a few more that It was funny because
Speaker 1: I really had to pee one day and I and
Speaker 1: I read it read it here before this this was finished,
Speaker 1: and I read it here and I used the bathroom,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you realize you're giving this up.
Speaker 1: You realize you're given up the you know, because it's
Speaker 1: right next to the garage, you know, it's like it's
Speaker 1: and I was like, you're you're you're giving up the
Speaker 1: convenience of dancing at the door and being able to
Speaker 1: pop right here. But somehow I will make it work.
Speaker 1: You'll make it work. All right, Let's let's go back
Speaker 1: for those of you carry and I. We've known each
Speaker 1: other along too long to mention. If I start doing
Speaker 1: the math, I'm gonna start getting really uncomfortable. Um. We
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that in a minute. You grew up
Speaker 1: in in In Georgia, in my home state as well.
Speaker 1: There in uh in Augusta, No no, I was born
Speaker 1: in Augusta and Guy and then we bounced around a
Speaker 1: little bit. But by the third grade I had moved
Speaker 1: to Athens, Georgia and that's where I stayed until I
Speaker 1: graduated from high school. So it's Athens, Georgia, home of
Speaker 1: the Bulldogs. I uh, we have we have that in common.
Speaker 1: I didn't live there, but was there most weekends as
Speaker 1: a child as well, rooting on that it was an
Speaker 1: awesome town on the weekends. Man, yeah, yeah you could.
Speaker 1: You could get fed just walking walking near the stadium.
Speaker 1: You know, you know everybody's tailgating and and yeah yeah throwing.
Speaker 1: You're hunger, you want to eat. When did you realize
Speaker 1: that you had a passion at least for acting? Man,
Speaker 1: it was it was really early, It was really early on.
Speaker 1: I um, I remember going to see the first thing
Speaker 1: I remembered that that honestly made me want to become
Speaker 1: an actor. I think it was the first grade. There
Speaker 1: might be it might have been something else that that
Speaker 1: I that that I don't remember but the first but
Speaker 1: in the first grade, we went to see a community
Speaker 1: theater production of syra No de bergierac in in Anniston, Alabama.
Speaker 1: My dad was was at Fort McClellan, Alabama. He was
Speaker 1: a captain in the army, and uh, we were stationed
Speaker 1: there for a while and we went to see syran No.
Speaker 1: And I just remember watching this dude and just thinking,
Speaker 1: this is the coolest guy I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: He's the coolest guy I've ever seen in my life,
Speaker 1: you know what, And and that he reminded me of
Speaker 1: the Fox from Robin Hood, you know, the Disney movie,
Speaker 1: which was my favorite growing up probably still is my
Speaker 1: my my favorite. And uh, you know, he's he's literally
Speaker 1: you know, sword fighting, he's he's the wittiest, he's the sharpest,
Speaker 1: he's you know, he's he's got everything. And uh, I
Speaker 1: think it was lost on me that that he was
Speaker 1: kind of so down on himself. When I first watched Sara. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, all I could see is that he was
Speaker 1: the most amazing thing I've ever seen, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to do that, and um, I don't know.
Speaker 1: At some point I went home and found a bunch
Speaker 1: of rocks and washed them and started uh painting them.
Speaker 1: And then I started going door to door to my
Speaker 1: neighbors trying to sell rocks. And one of my neighbors
Speaker 1: called my mom and said, your boys out here selling rocks,
Speaker 1: trying to sell rocks to us, and and my mom said,
Speaker 1: you know at we cup home and uh it said
Speaker 1: why are you selling rocks? And I was like, I
Speaker 1: need capital to start my theater company. And she was
Speaker 1: like what and and uh. I don't know where I
Speaker 1: came up with this, but this is what my mom told.
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember trying to sell the rocks. Um,
Speaker 1: but uh, I was. I was going to start a
Speaker 1: theater company and perform in in the in the backyard
Speaker 1: of our house, you know. And there was just like
Speaker 1: nothing but like Georgia woods out in the out back
Speaker 1: of the house. It up, but that was that was
Speaker 1: it for me. I remember watching uh Syra nota Bergerac
Speaker 1: and being like, that's what I want to do. And
Speaker 1: then there was a TV show called Emergency that was
Speaker 1: about paramedics and uh and it was around the same
Speaker 1: time and uh and I remember thinking I want to
Speaker 1: be a paramedic. And then I saw Syen no, and
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I don't want to be a paramedic.
Speaker 1: I want to be on a TV show about paramedics. Okay, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it was all around the first grade that that
Speaker 1: it that that it first came together, that that this
Speaker 1: was something that I wanted to do. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be Syra. No, that's that's by the way, have you
Speaker 1: played Sera? Now? No? No, no, there's still time. There's
Speaker 1: still time. There's still time. So so you decide that
Speaker 1: you sell rocks and you're trying to make capital, but
Speaker 1: what what are you doing than doing school plays? Is that? Yeah? I? Um?
Speaker 1: I told yeah, yeah, Well I told my mom, like
Speaker 1: the Sears catalogs would come in the in the in
Speaker 1: the middle, and I was like, and I would show
Speaker 1: the models in them, Like, Mom, I can do that.
Speaker 1: They're just standing there with clothes. I can do that,
Speaker 1: you know, call up Sears, you know. And I started
Speaker 1: telling my mom to call people and do something, you know,
Speaker 1: and and so, uh, when we finally got settled in Athens,
Speaker 1: I started doing yeah, community theater. I remember I played
Speaker 1: a frog, you know, and like a tiny little theater show.
Speaker 1: And I think I played um Christmas past in like
Speaker 1: a children's theater production of of Christmas Carol, Christmas Carol,
Speaker 1: and yeah, a little stuff like that. But it was
Speaker 1: just kind of here and there, you know. And then
Speaker 1: what what what happened is I I saw this, uh,
Speaker 1: this contest for Showtime, the Showtime Kid Talent Quest. They
Speaker 1: had like a children's hour and they wanted, you know,
Speaker 1: kids to introduce the movies. And uh, I didn't really
Speaker 1: sing or dance or anything, but I love Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 1: I watched Saturday. I stayed up, you know, every night
Speaker 1: to watch Saturday Night Live. And so I tried to
Speaker 1: do these little skits on this huge video camera. You
Speaker 1: know that it was. It was immense and uh, I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to edit, so I would just press
Speaker 1: record and then my mom would press pause and I
Speaker 1: would change my clothes into the other character and then
Speaker 1: and then unpaused, you know, reading or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: It was the most convoluted thing. But I I made
Speaker 1: this this crazy video and sent it in and uh
Speaker 1: and honestly, I think they were like, you know, they
Speaker 1: had all of these people who were singing and dancing
Speaker 1: and doing stuff, and then it was this you know,
Speaker 1: probably this one kid who was doing weird comedy skits
Speaker 1: pretending to be Rod Serling. It was just so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so probably weird, but some I won that contest and
Speaker 1: they came me to New York. Yeah when I was twelve,
Speaker 1: and the research says fourteen the first annual talent quest.
Speaker 1: But they flew you to New York. This is the
Speaker 1: first time, I must go. Yeah, maybe I was thirteen
Speaker 1: when I when I recorded it, yeah, first time it
Speaker 1: well yeah yeah, first time in New York. The whole
Speaker 1: family went we I recorded it over all of it
Speaker 1: over a few days, and oh that was the thing,
Speaker 1: so so so yeah. I had started getting into this
Speaker 1: idea of um of uh. I loved Eddie Murphy. He
Speaker 1: was my favorite growing up because of Mr Rogers Neighborhood
Speaker 1: and and Gumby and all of that from Saturday Night
Speaker 1: Live and and I would sneak and listen to his
Speaker 1: you know, raunchy comedy shows. Just loved him. Wanted to
Speaker 1: be Eddie Murphy and so um I went to this camp.
Speaker 1: It was like it was like a two week maybe
Speaker 1: three week uh camp up in the mountains of South Carolina,
Speaker 1: Callowe Calorween, North Carolina. They had a talent contest and
Speaker 1: the and um, one of the guys that I befriended
Speaker 1: who had been there a few times, he had done
Speaker 1: a stand up comedy routine and I was joking with
Speaker 1: everybody at the lunch table and he said, Hey, can
Speaker 1: I use that in my comedy routine? And I said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to use it in my comedy. And so
Speaker 1: that that was the first time I got on stage
Speaker 1: to to do stand up comedy, and uh, I ended
Speaker 1: up winning the talent contest at the at the camp.
Speaker 1: And then so at the second annual Showtime Kid Talent Quest,
Speaker 1: they had had the other winners come up and do
Speaker 1: their talent and I had just made a stupid video,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have any talent to, you know. So
Speaker 1: so I started doing stand up comedy like in these malls,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, at like yeah, thirteen or fourteen,
Speaker 1: I was I was say, only fourteen by then. And
Speaker 1: then I started um going to comedy clubs and trying
Speaker 1: to get into comedy clubs. And they were they were like,
Speaker 1: you can't come in here, kid, You're you're you're like
Speaker 1: a baby. But my mom was very isn't it. And
Speaker 1: she found my my who would become my my Jewish grandmother,
Speaker 1: Edith Sims. She was She was a comedy booker who
Speaker 1: worked in Atlanta and New York for some reason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and I went up and bombed the first time.
Speaker 1: And I came back and she said, I can't put
Speaker 1: you back on. And then I did. I did some
Speaker 1: impressions of Oh my God, I did an impression of
Speaker 1: Bill Cosby, and I did an impression of Pat Robertson
Speaker 1: from the Seven. You know, so imagine like a black kid,
Speaker 1: fourteen year old black kid doing doing uh Pat roberts
Speaker 1: and yes exactly, you know, barely open your eyes when
Speaker 1: you talk, and and uh. And so she was like, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: you can do Pat Robertson for everybody. And and that
Speaker 1: night I I killed and she was like, I was
Speaker 1: like her new best friend. I would go up to
Speaker 1: New York for I don't know, a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: for a couple of summers, and do stand up comedy
Speaker 1: at these at these different play in New York City
Speaker 1: and a stand up New York comedy store at the
Speaker 1: Village Gate and uh in the in the Village, a
Speaker 1: couple of divy places. I kind of uh you know,
Speaker 1: is just cultivating that performing thing. And then and then
Speaker 1: comedians started to depress the hell out of me that
Speaker 1: comedians are are are an amazing group because they are
Speaker 1: wonderfully talented. I mean I would sit there for weeks
Speaker 1: and so and and there'd be a new crop of
Speaker 1: comedians that would come through every week, and I would
Speaker 1: sit at the bar and listen to them all and
Speaker 1: just think, Oh my god, they're all so funny, they're
Speaker 1: all so great. You know, I want to, you know,
Speaker 1: learn to be be like these guys. And they would
Speaker 1: come to the bar and talk to me, and some
Speaker 1: of them were positive. Of them were positive, and at
Speaker 1: at we're just mad that they hadn't been discovered yet.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting at the bar, you know, having a
Speaker 1: sprite and they they are drinking hard and being being like, kid,
Speaker 1: are you gonna take me with you when you get
Speaker 1: to be a big shot? And I was like sure,
Speaker 1: and they were like, no, you won't know, you won't
Speaker 1: That's what Chris Rock said, No you won't. You know.
Speaker 1: It was just I was like, I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I think I've got to find something better
Speaker 1: to do it. So I went back home. It started
Speaker 1: doing theater more and uh, I auditioned for an art
Speaker 1: school and that's where my theater bent really started. I
Speaker 1: went to Northside High School School of the Arts for
Speaker 1: a semester because it was, um it was in Atlanta
Speaker 1: and my folks lived in Athens. But I did it
Speaker 1: for a semester and that's where I met our mutual professors,
Speaker 1: Charlie Hilfert and uh and Dale Moffat. Yeah. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: auditioned for them when I was in a junior in
Speaker 1: high school. And then when when it came back around
Speaker 1: for me to find a place to go to go
Speaker 1: to college, Uh, you know, I auditioned for them again.
Speaker 1: But but that's where that relationship started and and I really,
Speaker 1: you know, developed that love of thing. Is so crazy
Speaker 1: though the idea as a fourteen year old you're like
Speaker 1: in the middle of like hardcore stand up culture. I
Speaker 1: mean even just you saying sitting at the bar watching
Speaker 1: these guys and imagining that I mean your experience there.
Speaker 1: I learned to play poker sitting at the bar at
Speaker 1: stand up New York comedy store. There was a bartender
Speaker 1: and I hate that I can't remember his name because
Speaker 1: he he would uh you know, play cards with me
Speaker 1: while he was addishing drinks or whatever. And he this
Speaker 1: is a mantra that I try to live by. And
Speaker 1: he always he would always tell me he was He
Speaker 1: was like, Cary, whatever you do, play with your balls,
Speaker 1: you win big, you lose big. Just play with your balls.
Speaker 1: I I never forget that. And it was like, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're gonna do something that go for it.
Speaker 1: Way with your pauls Oh my god, So you do theater.
Speaker 1: And yes, the two people car I just mentioned, Charlie
Speaker 1: Helford and Dale Moffatt were well. They were the papas
Speaker 1: and the grandpa's and the moms and everything at Smulder Statesman,
Speaker 1: the Elder Statesman, you auditioned to get into SMU and
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, Carry and I ended up at college together.
Speaker 1: Now Carry is significantly older one year. Um. But I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. S MU is it is a conservatory
Speaker 1: training theater program was a conservatory training theater program. It
Speaker 1: still is. So when you make the decision that you're
Speaker 1: going to audition and ultimately go to s m U,
Speaker 1: now things can be derailed, just like with any college
Speaker 1: uh student, But you really are making a commitment. At
Speaker 1: that point, you knew that this was what you wanted
Speaker 1: to do, was that right? Yeah? Yeah, Well here was
Speaker 1: the thing I I told myself, um, the last couple
Speaker 1: of years of high school, you know, because I had
Speaker 1: won this contest and I had done you know, I
Speaker 1: was doing stand up and you know, and I was
Speaker 1: doing these different things and and and so I was
Speaker 1: sort of a big deal, you know in my high school,
Speaker 1: I guess for having you know, kind of stepped outside
Speaker 1: of our community and having done something doing Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I haven't done something, but uh but I knew in
Speaker 1: my head I I didn't want I mean, American Idol
Speaker 1: wasn't a thing yet. But I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: one of those people that because everybody in their little,
Speaker 1: small hometown told them that they that they were the
Speaker 1: most talented thing, that they were deluding themselves. And and
Speaker 1: we're going to you know, go off with big dreams,
Speaker 1: and then you know, Simon Call tells them, you know
Speaker 1: that they that they have no idea what what pitches
Speaker 1: and never will and so and so I told myself,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, you need more than just
Speaker 1: belief in yourself. You need corroboration that you're actually good
Speaker 1: at this. And I was like, I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to audition for the best schools
Speaker 1: in the country for theater, and if I get into
Speaker 1: those schools, then that then that means something because and
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean everything, but it means something because when
Speaker 1: you're auditioning for a school, they're they're gonna take a
Speaker 1: certain amount of kids. When you're auditioning for a role,
Speaker 1: they're taking one. So so so you know, it's like
Speaker 1: it's like, it's like, this is just preliminary. This doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you that you got it, but it means
Speaker 1: you got a chance. And all I needed was a chance.
Speaker 1: And so I auditioned for let's see, I didn't audition
Speaker 1: for like the North Carolina School of the Arts because
Speaker 1: my dad was a doctor and I had to go
Speaker 1: to like an actual university university, Carnegie Mellon I auditioned for,
Speaker 1: and then s m U in Florida State. I think
Speaker 1: that was that was it. And then I and then I,
Speaker 1: uh was like, you know what, if I don't get
Speaker 1: into any of those, then I don't know that that
Speaker 1: means you know what, you can have fun out here
Speaker 1: doing this. But but let's not get crazy. And I
Speaker 1: and my fallback was, you know what, I could always
Speaker 1: teach history because my favorite teachers of history like performed history.
Speaker 1: You know. It was like, you know, I remember one
Speaker 1: of my favorite teachers in high school was Mr Cavalier,
Speaker 1: David Cavalier, and uh, I mean, I don't know how
Speaker 1: many times he was, you know, standing on somebody's desk
Speaker 1: literally captain, my captain, you know what I mean, just
Speaker 1: like you know, you know, preaching to to the class.
Speaker 1: And and I was like, you know, maybe maybe that's
Speaker 1: as big as my my audience is supposed to get,
Speaker 1: you know. But if I get into these places, then
Speaker 1: maybe I got a shot to do more. And I
Speaker 1: got in everywhere that I auditioned. But the cheapest place
Speaker 1: to go was Florida State because of the state school.
Speaker 1: And so I sent my dorm deposit to Florida State.
Speaker 1: And then Charlie Helfort called from SMU and said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, are you coming down from Mustang days to
Speaker 1: check out the school? And U s MU, even in
Speaker 1: those days, was not inexpensive to go to SMU, and
Speaker 1: I had just I didn't even think about going to SMU.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, my folks aren't aren't paying you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, my dad's a doctor, but he's a pediatrician,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. He's taking like you know,
Speaker 1: he's taking ten dollar copays. You know. It's where we're doing,
Speaker 1: all right, we're letting. I living high on the hoggin.
Speaker 1: So I was I was like, I gotta pay for
Speaker 1: this myself. But but little did I know that, um
Speaker 1: some you had quite the endowment. And uh and I
Speaker 1: swear it was like I felt like I was getting
Speaker 1: recruited for a football team, like a college football team.
Speaker 1: Like I got flown in. They showed me, you know,
Speaker 1: the facility, you know. I mean it was like I
Speaker 1: was like, whoa, this is amazing. And then uh and
Speaker 1: then I got there and all the students were like,
Speaker 1: they were like, man, hold out, hold out for a
Speaker 1: full scholarship. They've got the money. You hold out, dude,
Speaker 1: it's you know. And they're all telling me to hold that.
Speaker 1: And I go running back to my mom who's having
Speaker 1: a meeting with Charlie, and she was like, well, if
Speaker 1: you if you wanna, um wanna go here. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to go here. She was like, well, it's
Speaker 1: all set up and I was like, did you hold out?
Speaker 1: She was like, well, they gave me like an eight
Speaker 1: percent and I was like, oh mom, we could have
Speaker 1: got the fall. She felt so guilty for so long
Speaker 1: because she was like, because of course every year, because
Speaker 1: if you get a full scholarship, if the if tuition
Speaker 1: goes up, they still pay the full thing. If you
Speaker 1: get scholars if then no, no, if that goes up,
Speaker 1: it don't go up eighty percent. You just got to start.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so eventually I did pay off my student
Speaker 1: los and everything. But yeah, yeah, that was that was
Speaker 1: my very It's very interesting. I've never heard that story
Speaker 1: from you before, and and I don't know if I've
Speaker 1: publicly told this either, but like you, my dad was
Speaker 1: a doctor, right, so you hear doctor, But my dad
Speaker 1: was a doctor at at Emory University. He so he was,
Speaker 1: you know, a teacher and you know, had made that
Speaker 1: decision for his family and because of certain situations, had
Speaker 1: to pay a lot of money for me to go
Speaker 1: to high school there in Atlanta, and basically said, because
Speaker 1: he's on staff at Emery, I have a free ride
Speaker 1: at Emory. Emory University an amazing school. My sister school. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a room board, like it was like everything. And so
Speaker 1: when it came time, he was like, I really think
Speaker 1: you should go check out Emory's theater department again if
Speaker 1: we went to a show and I'm like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is not this is not and he said, okay, well
Speaker 1: you know here, the offer here is free. So I
Speaker 1: traveled to eSIM had a very similar experience, which was
Speaker 1: just like guys, I'm sold. And and just so you know,
Speaker 1: it would be like you he mentioned football, and I've
Speaker 1: used that analogy all the time. People don't understand like
Speaker 1: you're doing plays, you're doing like you're you're kind of
Speaker 1: like a football player or a basketball player, like you're
Speaker 1: you're constantly working within the theater for this conservatory training program.
Speaker 1: I almost never saw a football game at SMU because
Speaker 1: we were always in rehearsal. We were always in rehearsal.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know I did do that, but but yes,
Speaker 1: I hear a point. No, but your point is right.
Speaker 1: And and it's hard for people to kind of comprehend, like, wait,
Speaker 1: what theater like you're but no, they are. They have
Speaker 1: an incredible endowment and they are incredibly supportive of not
Speaker 1: just theater but all of the arts. The Meadow School
Speaker 1: of the Arts there at s m U is a
Speaker 1: fantastic place. So I've done some of I've done some
Speaker 1: amazing theater shows. Still some of the most incredible, like
Speaker 1: like like pyrotechnic you know, stuff that that that I've
Speaker 1: ever seen done on a stage was at my college.
Speaker 1: They have there's like an oil spring like flowing like
Speaker 1: like right up through the Greer Garson stiff you know,
Speaker 1: thrust stage and s MU just spewing out money to
Speaker 1: be spent on these theater productions. It is incredible the
Speaker 1: the amount of money that that they that they put
Speaker 1: towards this pro Graham and uh, yeah, I imagine it
Speaker 1: is hard to believe. I went back a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago for for actually um a film festival and
Speaker 1: uh and went back to s m U and saw
Speaker 1: a show and and and was just shocked again that
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, they're doing They're doing five performances
Speaker 1: of this and then it's going away. And I was
Speaker 1: just amazed at the at the production value that they
Speaker 1: that they put on at that school. If you get
Speaker 1: a chance to go to SMU for theater, you really
Speaker 1: should go. Yeah. That's the that's the that's the sum
Speaker 1: total of it. I it's like Oregon, like because of
Speaker 1: all the Nike money. Like if you're an athlete, you
Speaker 1: go to Oregon, you see the you know, the workout
Speaker 1: facilities in the locker room and everything that they have
Speaker 1: at their disposal there because of the it's kind of
Speaker 1: like that. I mean I went to USC Florida State,
Speaker 1: you know, a bunch of you know, both public and
Speaker 1: private schools, and then showed up coming from USC in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles through Dallas and you step onto s m
Speaker 1: us campus and you see their like for fully functional
Speaker 1: stages of different varieties, and you're like, well, it's kind
Speaker 1: of a no brainer if they'll take me. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy. Um. I you've mentioned this before. Your dad,
Speaker 1: who I've met a number of times, just amazing, amazing guy.
Speaker 1: Um he was not originally a big fan of your
Speaker 1: acting career until he saw you in a production of
Speaker 1: Hamlet in your twice Is this right? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? I. Um,
Speaker 1: Like I said, my dad's a doctor and you know,
Speaker 1: very practical, very practical sort of fellow. My my my
Speaker 1: mom was always the one who was kind of pushing
Speaker 1: me towards my arts thing. My mom was had biology
Speaker 1: degree and UH ended up having UH an arts degree.
Speaker 1: She was going to be UH a biology UH illustrator,
Speaker 1: and UM ended up getting her masters. And it's a
Speaker 1: it's an amazing story. I have to tell you that
Speaker 1: story as as well about about my mom. She years ago, UH,
Speaker 1: like when as I was being born, UM was about
Speaker 1: to graduate from Mercer University and making Georgia, and UH
Speaker 1: she had her biology degree, but she was pregnant with
Speaker 1: with me. My dad was already in medical school at
Speaker 1: at UH in Augusta, and so they were living apart
Speaker 1: from from each other, and she was gonna give birth
Speaker 1: birth right around the time of graduation. And my mom
Speaker 1: was what you would call, uh, I guess a troublemaker.
Speaker 1: She was. She she was a bit of an activist,
Speaker 1: you know, imagine growing up it, you know, as a
Speaker 1: teenager in the sixties. And her paintings reflected that those
Speaker 1: sorts of things. And the president of the art department,
Speaker 1: the dean of the art department UH called a lot
Speaker 1: of her paintings too controversial to be shown in gallery.
Speaker 1: And in order to graduate, she had to be a
Speaker 1: part of the gallery showing and he wouldn't let her
Speaker 1: become a part of the gallery showing and and so doing. Uh.
Speaker 1: She was not allowed to graduate with her arts major,
Speaker 1: although she did graduate with her biology major. But uh,
Speaker 1: cool story is um, at the age of uh seventy two,
Speaker 1: she finally walked uh and got got her degree. Um.
Speaker 1: She she was as she does, you know, as talkative Peyton's.
Speaker 1: She was sitting at a bench at the Atlanta airport
Speaker 1: waiting to get driven back home, and was sitting with
Speaker 1: a woman who happened to be a professor at Mercer University.
Speaker 1: And she was like, she was like, you know, I
Speaker 1: never got my arts degree. They wouldn't give it to me.
Speaker 1: And that started a conversation and and so that was
Speaker 1: a big wrong that was finally righted. And uh and
Speaker 1: just a few months before my my my dad died.
Speaker 1: But but my mom has always been a fighter and
Speaker 1: and uh and always been a proponent of the arts.
Speaker 1: And and my dad was always, uh, you know, supportive
Speaker 1: of the arts. But he also was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's also a good idea to get a chemistry minor,
Speaker 1: maybe so you can work in a lab. Carry And
Speaker 1: I would I would tell if I said, Dad, you know,
Speaker 1: people like me getting a minor in chemistry and working
Speaker 1: in a lab. That's the way scandals happen. That's the
Speaker 1: way the wrong person goes to jail for a crime
Speaker 1: they didn't commit. I was like, I was like, I
Speaker 1: am not I'm not the one to do that. And
Speaker 1: so he he was as supportive as he could be.
Speaker 1: And by saying that, I mean he just didn't say anything,
Speaker 1: you know, like for a long time, I would just
Speaker 1: not hear anything from him. Uh as far as you know,
Speaker 1: you know, my major of choice was concerned, and uh
Speaker 1: I remember I took business Calculus at SMU just so
Speaker 1: that my dad would feel like I was taking a
Speaker 1: class that sounded like actual college because because you you know,
Speaker 1: the the classes that we took, you know that our
Speaker 1: first major like like like like like it's it's it's
Speaker 1: the tent pole class that you take as a freshman
Speaker 1: at at s MU. You know, with with Dale Moffatt
Speaker 1: is called experiencing. Experiencing. So I'm gonna tell my dad,
Speaker 1: who was a chemistry major who who like literally like
Speaker 1: made like like patents for you know, you know before
Speaker 1: like while he was still in school, before he ended
Speaker 1: up becoming a doctor. You know, he was like, what
Speaker 1: are you taking your class, you're taking experiencing movement for theater,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? These are the things that
Speaker 1: I could tell him. So I took business calculus just
Speaker 1: so that he would it would feel like I was
Speaker 1: actually taking a college course. And um, I'm actually I
Speaker 1: was actually pretty good at business calculus because now I
Speaker 1: gotta be plus in there. I don't understand how I'm
Speaker 1: I'm some sort of savant but um but yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1: My dad was less than encouraging at first. And then
Speaker 1: I did. Uh. I did a production of Hamlet, actually
Speaker 1: not at s MU, but but with a bunch of
Speaker 1: um friends and graduates of of SMU. I played Horatio,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I'm I'm the guy who gets
Speaker 1: down on his knees and and talks to a ghost,
Speaker 1: you know. And and I remember in that in that moment,
Speaker 1: you know, with like tears in my eyes and pleading
Speaker 1: to this non existent ghost in a dark room. And
Speaker 1: my folks, you know who, you know, rarely made it
Speaker 1: all the way from Georgia to to to Texas came
Speaker 1: to see that that production and it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: a little black box theater production, you know, not not
Speaker 1: not not uh not all of the bells and whistles
Speaker 1: that we were talking about before. And uh, I just
Speaker 1: remember my mom coming back afterwards, and she was so excited,
Speaker 1: you know. She was like, Cary, your dad after he
Speaker 1: saw you in that show. And uh and and she
Speaker 1: would never tell me, and she literally shouldn't. And I
Speaker 1: never told you this before, but whenever somebody was asking,
Speaker 1: you know, what's carry doing, he was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't know. He's waiting tables or something and doing some
Speaker 1: theater thing. And uh. And my mom was so good.
Speaker 1: She never told me. I never knew that my dad would,
Speaker 1: you know, disparage me in any way, you know, as
Speaker 1: far as me not being that chemistry major, but uh,
Speaker 1: but he was just you know, didn't understand what I
Speaker 1: was doing. And then and then uh but she said,
Speaker 1: ever since he saw that that our production of Hamlet,
Speaker 1: he would go on and on and on about me
Speaker 1: being an actor and how how I was a great actor,
Speaker 1: and he was he was so excited to see see, uh,
Speaker 1: see what I'm gonna do next, and and uh at
Speaker 1: that point, you know, it's funny because that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff kind of rolls off my back a little bit.
Speaker 1: But uh, like as far as you know, my dad
Speaker 1: being you know, uh, you know, not the most vocal supporter,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's just my dad, and I expect that.
Speaker 1: But knowing that he started changing the way that that
Speaker 1: he spoke to people about me, that was that was
Speaker 1: kind of all the validation I needed, you know, like,
Speaker 1: uh like from then on, it was like, it's time
Speaker 1: to go to l A. It's time to kick this
Speaker 1: thing into gear. And I never had a lack of confidence,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I was pretty cocky already, but
Speaker 1: that that that that one, that's all I needed. I
Speaker 1: knew that I was. Yeah, I told myself when I'm
Speaker 1: when I when I drove to l A, I put
Speaker 1: in uh this um uh CD of John Lennon Wheels
Speaker 1: Go Round and Round. Do you know that song? You know,
Speaker 1: starts off people saying crazy doing what I'm doing, you know.
Speaker 1: And they were always everybody was always like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: a horrible time to go to l A. This is
Speaker 1: not a good time to go to l A. And
Speaker 1: uh and I would tell them and I would just say,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a horrible time. For nineties seven of
Speaker 1: the people who moved to l A, you know, but
Speaker 1: for three it's the right time to go to l A.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm gonna bet on being that three and yeah,
Speaker 1: and that John Lennon and my dad Man is the
Speaker 1: three of us driving to l A. Baby you go,
Speaker 1: you moved to l A. As you said. Yeah. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing people I think don't realize being an actor
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Being an actor period and film and
Speaker 1: television is very difficult. There is one thing that is
Speaker 1: decidedly more difficult, and very quickly after moving to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: you become a voice actor. And now let me say
Speaker 1: this to people. It's hard for people to understand because
Speaker 1: when you're on a television show, you are seen, and
Speaker 1: there's things like exclusivity. You can only do one show
Speaker 1: at a time. People will get tired of seeing your
Speaker 1: face and so they have to they whoever the they is,
Speaker 1: one must focus on in general and individual project at once.
Speaker 1: The thing about voice acting is that it's the most
Speaker 1: difficult thing to get into because casting directors, directors, voice
Speaker 1: directors studios um fall in love with people who are
Speaker 1: reliable and good and every show they do they just
Speaker 1: hire the same people. So it's incredibly difficult to break in.
Speaker 1: Yet you break in very quickly. How how was that
Speaker 1: experience for you and how did you feel like it
Speaker 1: compared to the theater work that that you had been
Speaker 1: mostly focused on before it. I it kind of harkened
Speaker 1: back to the theater stuff because the thing is is
Speaker 1: that coming to l a you have you know it.
Speaker 1: It has so much to do with what you look like.
Speaker 1: You know, even you know on the in the breakdown
Speaker 1: that that you get you know, it's like man female,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, Caucasian, African American, blah blah blah. They're
Speaker 1: all of these stipulations about how you look that go
Speaker 1: into which role that you're going that you're going to take.
Speaker 1: And even for me getting here, you know, I'm five ten,
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy pounds. I'm I'm not a big,
Speaker 1: you know, brawny black dude. And there are so many
Speaker 1: parts where when you're building the team like that tank dude,
Speaker 1: like that be a baracus, Mr T. You know that
Speaker 1: the big intimidating black guy who's on the tent on
Speaker 1: the team is uh, you know, that's just not me,
Speaker 1: you know, and um, there are a lot of um,
Speaker 1: a lot of things that that even being you know,
Speaker 1: young African American. But still I'm not the right type.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm I'm a whole lot more uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Disney Kid than than kind of your your hard,
Speaker 1: intimidated sort of dude. And so, uh it's so I
Speaker 1: couldn't um, you know, break into you know those things.
Speaker 1: There were still plenty of things for me to to
Speaker 1: audition for, but but with voice over, you know, it
Speaker 1: was like the shackles are taken off, and you can
Speaker 1: be anything, not just like a big, brawny dude, but
Speaker 1: I can be monsters, I can be mice, I can
Speaker 1: be anything. And that reminded me of theater. It could
Speaker 1: be anything that the imagination desired. I I played, uh,
Speaker 1: the creature in Frankenstein once, and I played him even
Speaker 1: though I was you know, I was little. I I
Speaker 1: just I just imagined myself as uh as armed, armed
Speaker 1: to the teeth, like like like like I always had,
Speaker 1: you know, some kind of power to be able to
Speaker 1: just snap someone's neck like I had a Sometimes I
Speaker 1: would just think of myself as sitting there with a
Speaker 1: big gun in my hand, and that's what was imitating
Speaker 1: or imitating intimidating to the people around me. And so
Speaker 1: I walked with this swagger and this in vulnerability, and
Speaker 1: it had everything to do with my own imagination and
Speaker 1: I could do anything on stage and uh, and the
Speaker 1: people would go along with it, you know because uh,
Speaker 1: you know, if you gave them uh the reason, then
Speaker 1: they would go along with it. And in in uh
Speaker 1: in voiceover. You know, you're only limited by your your
Speaker 1: vocal maneuverability. So uh, that's what That's what I I think,
Speaker 1: you know, really helped. Is that my my theater experience
Speaker 1: and training you know, gave me you know this, I
Speaker 1: mean the first time I I auditioned, it was so freeing.
Speaker 1: I I slapped the microphone and and slapped it because
Speaker 1: I was I was just so I felt so alive,
Speaker 1: you know that that you could kind of do and
Speaker 1: be anything. But But the funny thing is about uh,
Speaker 1: it's another SMU connection that got me that that first
Speaker 1: audition and that first job, which was Cyborg from Teen Titans.
Speaker 1: I had known longer than you, for a year, longer
Speaker 1: then then I've known you. I had known one of
Speaker 1: my one of my best friends, David Slack, was a
Speaker 1: was a theater major and SMU as well, and he
Speaker 1: moved to l a before I did and started assisting
Speaker 1: and writing on cartoons. He uh, he like Jackie Chan
Speaker 1: Adventures and and Men in Black and he he was
Speaker 1: always telling me, you know what, carry you should get
Speaker 1: into voice over. I don't know how to get into
Speaker 1: voice over. You know, everybody says you should get into it.
Speaker 1: How do you get I asked my my my agents,
Speaker 1: and they were like, oh, you don't even want to try.
Speaker 1: You can't. I mean, they're my agents and they're they
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, it's impossible, you can't. You know, you
Speaker 1: have to get a job before they'll give you a job.
Speaker 1: It's it's crazy, you know, and um. But but I
Speaker 1: would just always kind of ask and um. And then
Speaker 1: finally David called me up and he was like, carry,
Speaker 1: I've never done this before, but I I'm I'm on
Speaker 1: I'm on this show. I'm like, I'm like the main
Speaker 1: writer on this show. And uh, and I think this
Speaker 1: part is perfect for you, and so I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: and get you an audition and uh and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: So I I sent him my my resume and head
Speaker 1: shot as if that mattered at all, you know, in
Speaker 1: voice over your head shot because I've never done it before.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but they called me, but they called
Speaker 1: me and uh and and let me audition, and I
Speaker 1: was just first of all, I I remembered the character
Speaker 1: from my from my own comic books, you know that
Speaker 1: this uh, this cyborg character, because I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: you you look, you look in comic books and you
Speaker 1: look for any kind of of similarity at least I did,
Speaker 1: you know too, and be be like, oh, that's me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be that guy, you know. And for me,
Speaker 1: it was always Spider Man because he was skinny and scared.
Speaker 1: He was skinny and the nerd and and and he
Speaker 1: came alive when he put on a mask, and I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, that's me. That's me. And so Spider
Speaker 1: Man has always been my favorite. But of the teen
Speaker 1: Titans on that cover, the black dude, that's me, you know.
Speaker 1: So I don't play Cyborg in the playground. And I
Speaker 1: went to UH to audition for this. And this cool
Speaker 1: outdoor mall, Sherman Oaks Galleria in in UH in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles is like this open air mall that you walk through,
Speaker 1: but there there's a part of it that that used
Speaker 1: to be the main headquarters of of Warner Brothers Animation Studios,
Speaker 1: and it was like glass and the lobby went up
Speaker 1: like seven floors, you know, it was it looked like
Speaker 1: one of those fancy, you know, high rise you know,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Silicon Valley sort of situations. Yeah. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and uh and it was just kind of like you
Speaker 1: opened the door and you're like whoa. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like like like the Willy Wonka of of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: of animation. And you and and I go in there
Speaker 1: to audition and I look in the lobby and every
Speaker 1: black dude from nineties television is sitting there. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like all the guys from Living Color arkles over here,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you know what I mean, It's
Speaker 1: like Cockroach is sitting over there from The Cosby Show.
Speaker 1: It was like they're all sitting there. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm in the right place, and uh, I probably won't
Speaker 1: get this, but this is really exciting. And I went
Speaker 1: in there and just had a ball just you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, my my face hurt from smiling. After after
Speaker 1: that audition, I just thought it was so much fun.
Speaker 1: And um. The casting director, the legendary casting director Andrea
Speaker 1: Romano asked me what I had done before, and I
Speaker 1: had done a video game in Dallas, Texas once and
Speaker 1: I remember she said never heard of it. And I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, yeah, I probably hadn't and uh, but
Speaker 1: I was. I was just so excited and uh and
Speaker 1: walked out of there, um feeling great. And then a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later, David called me up and he
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I think you might get it.
Speaker 1: It's like down to you and like a couple of people,
Speaker 1: I think you could get it. Man, he was like,
Speaker 1: he was like I was. I would be in the
Speaker 1: halls and um and they'd be talking about like different
Speaker 1: people or whatever, and they were like, yeah, we really
Speaker 1: like this Carry Payton guy and he and and he day.
Speaker 1: It would be like that's my friend, that's my friend.
Speaker 1: He was so excited, bro, and they were like really
Speaker 1: yeah and so uh and so the the story goes
Speaker 1: that Sam Register, who's vice president of animation at at
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, asked for the three best options and to
Speaker 1: leave them unlabeled, just A, B and C and I
Speaker 1: and he's the reason that I that I got the
Speaker 1: job of Cyborg. David Slacken and and Sam Register, he uh,
Speaker 1: he picked me. I don't know who the other two were,
Speaker 1: but life changing. Life changing. Yeah, I didn't. But if
Speaker 1: not for that, I'd still be wondering how to get
Speaker 1: into voice over if not for that. No, I didn't
Speaker 1: realize that was your first audition, first audition, I mean,
Speaker 1: you got You don't understand he does. He's he just
Speaker 1: came from a session. He's works nineteen hours a day
Speaker 1: just recording things. I don't. I still can't figure it out.
Speaker 1: I get one job and I'm over the moon, and
Speaker 1: so this guy is doing it all the time. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that was your first job. So you have been.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do the math, but you probably know
Speaker 1: because by the way, it's it's Teen Titans, It's it's
Speaker 1: Teen Titans Go. It's Lego d C Comics, It's Batman Beleaguered,
Speaker 1: it's justin Lee, Justice League Action. He has voiced Cyborg
Speaker 1: in all of these shows. How many years now have
Speaker 1: you been? I mean it's fair to say the voice
Speaker 1: of Cyborg is this twenty years. It'll be twenty It
Speaker 1: will be officially twenty years, I think in August. In August,
Speaker 1: because well, we we started recording Teen Titans the first
Speaker 1: show in in March or something, and then it came
Speaker 1: out at at Comic Con at San Diego Comic Con.
Speaker 1: I've never been to Comic Con before, and um, and
Speaker 1: we went down there and they and they played it there.
Speaker 1: It was because I either it's it's either nineteen or
Speaker 1: twenty years. I have to check to be sure, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been pretty much two decades. I know,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. What's crazy to me is that there are
Speaker 1: kids who who think about Teen Titans the way that
Speaker 1: we thought about Scooby Doo. You know that that like
Speaker 1: like it was always around. You know that that we've
Speaker 1: been around that long. That uh, that that kids grew
Speaker 1: up and now their kids watched Teen Titans go who
Speaker 1: that That's That's the thing that kind of blows my
Speaker 1: mind that we've been around that long. Unbelievable. Yeah, such
Speaker 1: a such a great story. I did not realize that
Speaker 1: was the first one. I knew David Slack had helped
Speaker 1: you out. But that is that's unbelievable. And I love
Speaker 1: also that that he did that he said label ABC
Speaker 1: and let me just pick the voice because ultimately what
Speaker 1: what their name is doesn't matter. There they're going to
Speaker 1: deliver it or they're not, and and gave you a shot.
Speaker 1: I love that. We have to discuss your your latest triumph,
Speaker 1: The Walking Dead, King Ezekiel. Would you say this is
Speaker 1: your this is this is your crowning on screen moment
Speaker 1: thus far, getting without Walking Dead one of the biggest
Speaker 1: TV franchises ever. Were you a fan of the show
Speaker 1: before joining Yeah, yeah, I was a fan of the show.
Speaker 1: I was, um. I was a frustrated fan of the
Speaker 1: show because the main character Rick. In order to to
Speaker 1: to have a show that that um that stays compelling
Speaker 1: for so many years, you kind of have to have
Speaker 1: a leader who makes poor decisions. Rick makes poor decisions
Speaker 1: all the time. He he saves people that should never
Speaker 1: have been saved. You know, you know, it's like he
Speaker 1: walks into a place that seems idyllic, fine, and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, you know, it's overrun with zombies and
Speaker 1: the walls are falling down. It's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I would I would always scream at the
Speaker 1: TV and just be like, don't listen to him, just
Speaker 1: because he's got that Shares uniform on. Don't listen to him.
Speaker 1: I kid, but I don't Andy Lincoln, who plays him
Speaker 1: is it's one of the finest actors I have ever
Speaker 1: worked with and one of the most incredible people I've
Speaker 1: ever worked with. And uh, it's so, it's so. I
Speaker 1: I have this love in my heart for Andy as
Speaker 1: as Rick. But uh, but but Rick himself would frustrate
Speaker 1: the hell out of me as uh. You know, before
Speaker 1: I became a fan of the I mean before I
Speaker 1: became uh ezekiel on the show. But yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I couldn't stop watching. I always uh, I would get
Speaker 1: up and walk out, and then I would come back
Speaker 1: and turn it on again. It's it's such an amazing show. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I was a big fan. Yeah yeah. Tell me about
Speaker 1: your audition process. How how did that? How did that
Speaker 1: come about? Well, let me tell you, Brian. I want
Speaker 1: to tell you even before the audition process, I came
Speaker 1: to l A. And in my head I was like,
Speaker 1: you come to l A. This is how it works.
Speaker 1: You get into pilot season, you go and you audition
Speaker 1: for pilots, You get a pilot, and then you know
Speaker 1: you you worked at that pilot. It gets on the air,
Speaker 1: it becomes a big hit and and and that's how
Speaker 1: my in my head, that's how my career is going
Speaker 1: to go. I'm going to land a pilot one way
Speaker 1: or another, drama, comedy, doesn't matter. That's that's how you
Speaker 1: do it. And for years, for years coming to to
Speaker 1: l A. I got here when I was like twenty nine,
Speaker 1: so for for almost fifteen years, I I um. In
Speaker 1: those fifteen years, I did nine pilots pilot almost every year, yes,
Speaker 1: almost every year, and I was lucky to get those,
Speaker 1: but I was, but it was also became really frustrating
Speaker 1: because I was I was like, you know, I got
Speaker 1: the There's one show that that I got on that
Speaker 1: that was canceled after one episode on ABC called Emily's
Speaker 1: Reasons Why Not. There was another show that actually was
Speaker 1: on for a season or two, but I got fired
Speaker 1: after the pilot, and uh and so so uh and
Speaker 1: and seven others that that that didn't uh that never
Speaker 1: even made the light light of day. And UH. I
Speaker 1: remember sitting and thinking to myself, maybe a pilot isn't
Speaker 1: what I need, you know, and uh. And I would
Speaker 1: always have these I would always say these things to myself.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, you know, at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year or at some point throughout the year,
Speaker 1: I always say, I need a job that feeds my
Speaker 1: belly and a job that feeds my soul. And sometimes
Speaker 1: those jobs are very different. And so every once in
Speaker 1: a while you get a job that that does both
Speaker 1: at the same time, that it feeds your belly and
Speaker 1: it feeds your soul, and that those are the really
Speaker 1: lucky ones. But um, I would I would kind of
Speaker 1: tell myself, you know that this is the plan moving forward,
Speaker 1: and and uh, and as long as you've got a
Speaker 1: job that feeds your belly and a job that feeds
Speaker 1: your sold, you're gonna be fine. And I had always
Speaker 1: told myself, all right, this is you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go get another pilot. We're gonna go get another pilot.
Speaker 1: And uh, I started telling myself, I don't think I
Speaker 1: need a pilot. I think that's I don't. I think
Speaker 1: that's just been banging my head up against the wall.
Speaker 1: And I told um, my manager who happens to be
Speaker 1: your manager as well, Ted Getkis and Danielle Rivera. But
Speaker 1: you know, you know what I love about about the
Speaker 1: fact that I introduced you guys is that there is
Speaker 1: nothing better than than than people thinking that you're doing
Speaker 1: them a favor when actually you're just you just see
Speaker 1: something that that is going to be magic, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh and uh and I and I've always seen
Speaker 1: magic with with you, Brian, and and as soon as
Speaker 1: I met Ted and Danielle, I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what when you said you you are you
Speaker 1: were looking for somebody to represent you. I was like,
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know this is gonna work.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's it's it's my happiness and my pleasure.
Speaker 1: But yes, I told our manager, uh Ted Gekis daniel Rivera.
Speaker 1: I said, I don't think we need a pilot. We
Speaker 1: need an introduction. We need you know, because I've been
Speaker 1: doing this, doing the this for for over a decade now,
Speaker 1: and I've been very successful in in voiceover and stuff,
Speaker 1: but but nobody knows knows my face. They still don't
Speaker 1: know my face, and I I just need I just
Speaker 1: need an introduction. I need someone to say, and here's car,
Speaker 1: this is this is who you've been looking for. And
Speaker 1: I never forget it. I was like watching all of
Speaker 1: these zombies, you know, walking this parade at San Diego
Speaker 1: Comic Con, and I thought to myself and I was
Speaker 1: actually thinking more about like Star Trek and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and I was like, I need one of
Speaker 1: these comic Con shows, one of these, like one of
Speaker 1: these kind of sci fi so sort of things, because man,
Speaker 1: those fans are I mean, once you got them, they
Speaker 1: love you, you know. And uh, and I just thought,
Speaker 1: I was like, I need an introduction. I don't need
Speaker 1: a pilot. I just need to get on one of
Speaker 1: these comic Con shows and the next pilot season. I
Speaker 1: remember going through an auditioning for a few things and
Speaker 1: not really liking anything except for this one show called
Speaker 1: The Good Place. I read that pilot. I thought it
Speaker 1: was brilliant. I was like, this is it, this is
Speaker 1: the one and and so I went in there. I
Speaker 1: met I met Michael Shore. I did the audition, and
Speaker 1: I made the cameraman laugh, and I was like, it
Speaker 1: didn't get any better than that. You you made the
Speaker 1: cameraman break. If somebody actually breaks in the in the audition,
Speaker 1: that's just sitting back there. You know, you had a
Speaker 1: good audition. And so I walked out of their feelings
Speaker 1: so good. And I never heard from him. I never
Speaker 1: heard from him, and I was I was so bummed.
Speaker 1: I was so bummed because I really thought that I
Speaker 1: had I had knocked it out of the park and
Speaker 1: and uh, and I was I was just kind of
Speaker 1: hanging my head about it and thinking, damn, I really
Speaker 1: wanted that show. Uh. And then a month, maybe a
Speaker 1: month and a half later, came the audition for King Ezekiel.
Speaker 1: And had I gotten a good place, I obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: would not have auditioned, you know, and would not have
Speaker 1: gotten King Ezekiel. And so you know, everything happens for
Speaker 1: a reason. And but but that was that was like
Speaker 1: the first time in like three years that I didn't
Speaker 1: book a pilot. And uh, and I I kind of
Speaker 1: you know, when you're in the middle of trying to
Speaker 1: get a pilot, you kind of forget about that, that
Speaker 1: that whole you know, conversation you have with your manager
Speaker 1: about I don't think I need a pilot, you know,
Speaker 1: let's come along, and yeah, yeah, yeah, oh man, this
Speaker 1: is so weird. I remember I auditioned and was what
Speaker 1: do you call it, testing for another pilot that I
Speaker 1: really didn't want. And I just didn't, you know, because
Speaker 1: I was thinking in my head, I was just like
Speaker 1: I I always extrapolate this out over the years, and
Speaker 1: I was like, is this what you want to do
Speaker 1: over the course of many, many, many years, and I
Speaker 1: didn't know if it was for me, you know. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, I'm I'm not carry
Speaker 1: Peyton that anybody knows except you know, you know, really
Speaker 1: really you know, uh intense cartoon fans, you know. And
Speaker 1: and I was like, he if they want you to test,
Speaker 1: you should go desperate job, you know. And I remember
Speaker 1: feeling so weird testing and not really having my heart
Speaker 1: in it. And then and then the good place coming
Speaker 1: along and I went full bore and just just nothing.
Speaker 1: But then you know, you get what you want and
Speaker 1: I got my introduction. I got I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 1: an introduction with a tiger sitting next to me. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: you couldn't ask for a better introduction. No, did you
Speaker 1: work with the tiger? Did you? There was no tiger.
Speaker 1: That tiger was from the Life of Pie. Remember the
Speaker 1: movie The Life of Pie? Yeah? Yeah. What happened is, well,
Speaker 1: you know that the studio that that built that c
Speaker 1: g I Tiger like went broke because they put everything
Speaker 1: into that. But they also kind of low balled the
Speaker 1: price so that they could get the job in the
Speaker 1: first place. And and so they built this beautiful tiger
Speaker 1: in the in the computer obviously, and then uh, and
Speaker 1: then it went broke and they and they had to
Speaker 1: sell that information for that tiger, and they sold it
Speaker 1: to a m C. And so a m C took
Speaker 1: that life of pie tiger and turned into Shiva. Wow,
Speaker 1: did not know that there's there's some behind the scenes knowledge. Crazy.
Speaker 1: How how long would it take you to get ready there,
Speaker 1: your hair, your wardrobe. By the time we got you know,
Speaker 1: good at it, it was it was maybe forty minutes,
Speaker 1: forty five minutes. Yeah, yeah, when we got good at it.
Speaker 1: Now now it took me an hour and a half
Speaker 1: to work in an office. Yeah, man, we we had
Speaker 1: we had it down. Uh. Vincent Gideon. Uh, it was
Speaker 1: my hair stylist and and wig stylist. And he would
Speaker 1: glue it onto my head every day. Uh. Vincent Gideon.
Speaker 1: He's he's like a legend in in uh in Atlanta, Georgia. Um,
Speaker 1: you know he works on you know, all all the
Speaker 1: big stuff, Marvel stuff. But for the last ten years,
Speaker 1: it's been The Walking Dead and and uh and he
Speaker 1: would he would get that thing on and and then
Speaker 1: Scott Edo, who was the head of the makeup department,
Speaker 1: who would finish up cleaning me up. And and then
Speaker 1: if we had more things to do, it would take
Speaker 1: more time. If I if I had cuts on my
Speaker 1: face or more special effects stuff, which would be uh
Speaker 1: Greg Nickotaro and his team, then uh, then it would
Speaker 1: take a little longer. But by the time we got going,
Speaker 1: we were a finally tuned machine. It was forty five minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how was it for you showing up on again? Such
Speaker 1: a successful show, most watched show, and I don't even
Speaker 1: know they call it basic cable anymore. But with the cast,
Speaker 1: the crew, it's a well oiled machine and you come in.
Speaker 1: How was it for you those those first days or weeks?
Speaker 1: It was? It was interesting because the way The Walking
Speaker 1: Dead works, when they introduced a new character, it's almost
Speaker 1: like they give you the episode. It didn't feel like
Speaker 1: somebody else's show. It felt like my show. And I
Speaker 1: didn't have I didn't have time to worry. I had
Speaker 1: too much work to do, you know, makes sense? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I just you know, I had these big speeches.
Speaker 1: I had, you know, a lot, a lot to do
Speaker 1: and say. And so that first episode they kind of
Speaker 1: whisked me into into Atlanta. I remember I told um,
Speaker 1: I told someone that I was shooting something in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and they said, is it the Walking Dead? And uh,
Speaker 1: it was a big secret. Nobody was supposed to know
Speaker 1: that it was me, because uh, you know, there was
Speaker 1: all the speculation of all of these amazing actors who
Speaker 1: who were supposed to get this job. And I was like, no, man,
Speaker 1: it's just a little on me. And at that point,
Speaker 1: every announcement on the Walking Dead was like a big
Speaker 1: secret that they wanted to wait till Comic Con to
Speaker 1: to to bust out. And so I remember telling him, no,
Speaker 1: it's not the Walking Dead. And after that, I didn't
Speaker 1: tell anybody else that I got that job, because because
Speaker 1: as soon as I mentioned Atlanta, the first thing the
Speaker 1: thing people think of is is walking Dead. And so
Speaker 1: I started telling people that, yeah, I'm in Vancouver. I
Speaker 1: told him. I told everybody I was in Vancouver shooting
Speaker 1: in Vancouver. My parents I didn't tell except yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't tell my mom because my mom. I love her
Speaker 1: to death. She's gotten better, but at the time she
Speaker 1: could not keep a secret to save her life. So no, no,
Speaker 1: tell me, my my my mom, Yeah, but my dad's
Speaker 1: a vault. So I told my dad, and I and
Speaker 1: my dad would always talk about the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: he was the last one to know. So I felt
Speaker 1: good about telling him that, you know, and he was
Speaker 1: the first one to know. And I always had a
Speaker 1: little wink and a smile with him for a few months.
Speaker 1: There was even the time we were on family vacation
Speaker 1: after I got the job, and my mom is sitting
Speaker 1: there in the kitchen making something and she she's not
Speaker 1: She doesn't look at me, and she just says, carry
Speaker 1: I feel like there's something that you're not telling me.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but I feel like
Speaker 1: there's something that you're not telling me. And my dad
Speaker 1: was standing next to her and he just looked at me,
Speaker 1: and I looked at her him and and I said, yeah, yeah, Mom,
Speaker 1: there's something I'm not telling you. But you know, you
Speaker 1: can't keep a secret. And she was like, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: Well tell me when you can. And I both both
Speaker 1: me and my dad just went It was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: that mama's intuition is real, but uh but yeah. So
Speaker 1: for months, for months, I couldn't tell anyone that I
Speaker 1: was doing this. Um, because I shot the first episode
Speaker 1: in May and then I didn't shoot another episode for
Speaker 1: many months. So so I come back to l A,
Speaker 1: you know, and I go on vacation for the summer.
Speaker 1: I do a little this or that, but not until July,
Speaker 1: at the end of July when they do their big
Speaker 1: trailer and they reveal you know, me and the Tiger.
Speaker 1: Nobody has any idea, so so it was very clandestine.
Speaker 1: They would I had this big wig on, so they
Speaker 1: would they would throw a tarp over me or a
Speaker 1: blanket or something like that, even when I was getting
Speaker 1: in and out of the van going to locations. You know.
Speaker 1: It was. It was. It was a very weird feeling
Speaker 1: and situation. But yeah, we we kept a secret it was.
Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, it was, but but yeah, yeah, have
Speaker 1: to answer you a question. It it. I didn't feel nervous.
Speaker 1: I didn't have I didn't feel like I had time
Speaker 1: to feel nervous. And also I felt like I understood
Speaker 1: Ezekiel so well, you know that this kind of theatrical presence,
Speaker 1: this guy who was faking it until he made it,
Speaker 1: and I had done all of that voice over for
Speaker 1: like ten, you know, twelve years, and before that in
Speaker 1: my twenties. I did all of that Shakespeare, all of
Speaker 1: that theater, and it was like those two things came
Speaker 1: together because because in the script it never said that
Speaker 1: he changed his voice. It's it never said that that
Speaker 1: he he said that he his body language changed. But
Speaker 1: to me, the first thing I thought was that his
Speaker 1: voice changed, that he that he spoke with a certain
Speaker 1: you know, in platitudes, but underneath, you know, afterwards, it
Speaker 1: was just you know and uh, And the voice change
Speaker 1: was the difference. The voice changes, what what? What? You know?
Speaker 1: Perk people up? And I think I think that's why
Speaker 1: I got the job. You know. Yeah, all of those years,
Speaker 1: all of that those jobs leading you, training you in
Speaker 1: a way for this, your biggest job. Obviously, The Walking
Speaker 1: Dead means, as you said before, so much to so
Speaker 1: many people. There's the history of the books, the story
Speaker 1: you as King Ezekiel obviously have become a fan favorite.
Speaker 1: What are your some of your favorite storylines? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: they're so bittie man. I I mean, I I obviously
Speaker 1: love Ezekiel's arc and where he's gone, but I really
Speaker 1: lovely Eugene. Eugene was you know, he he is just
Speaker 1: a quirky Liar, who who over the course of many years,
Speaker 1: has become this really incredibly intricate, you know, human being
Speaker 1: on so many levels. And and Josh McDermott, who I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to get to work with a lot
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, has just been amazing, and
Speaker 1: I think his work has has been amazing. There's so
Speaker 1: many Oh my god, I mean, uh, to work with
Speaker 1: Lenny James, who plays Morgan on the show and he
Speaker 1: now is is on Fear the Walking Dead, but but uh,
Speaker 1: you know that to be to be that close to
Speaker 1: these incredible talents, you know, Melissa McBride who's literally so
Speaker 1: so sensitive to her environment, it's uncanny. I remember there
Speaker 1: was a moment that I that they wanted me to
Speaker 1: to be sitting on my throne at this moment where
Speaker 1: I was feeling depressed and uh, and I was like,
Speaker 1: there's no way I can sit on that throne after
Speaker 1: everything that he's gone through. But the script called for it,
Speaker 1: and I was and they were like, well, can you
Speaker 1: get up on stage? And I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't see him walk walking up there. I can't
Speaker 1: see him crawling up there. And uh, Melissa just she
Speaker 1: was like Cary the rug and and there was the
Speaker 1: hair for from from Shiva the tiger. This is after
Speaker 1: the tiger had been killed, and there was uh and
Speaker 1: we we we had this animatronic tiger that we almost
Speaker 1: never used, but we would put it there, you know,
Speaker 1: as a placeholder a lot of times. And uh. But
Speaker 1: but but the hair on the rug where she sat
Speaker 1: was still there. And man, I got so emotional all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, and it was just like it was
Speaker 1: the rug and it made sense. And I crawled over
Speaker 1: to it. And I never got in the in the
Speaker 1: in the chair on the throne. I just sat down
Speaker 1: next to it and set and just and just played
Speaker 1: with the the hair on that rug. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's like hell, any of us ever you know, lost
Speaker 1: you know, beloved pet you know, it's just like it's
Speaker 1: like there it is, you know. But yeah, just so
Speaker 1: many incredible talents. And by that I mean Melissa's like
Speaker 1: like like one of the best acting teachers I've ever had,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh and and I got paid for
Speaker 1: the ass. It's so cool. Yeah, I don't know, just
Speaker 1: thinking about you know, these these moments of clarity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a secret you've just recently
Speaker 1: finished filming the series finale. I you've already talked about
Speaker 1: the secrets. Any any hints about what's coming next or
Speaker 1: do we just need to wait? Fuck you, Brian, you
Speaker 1: know better, You know better, You of all people know better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you won't get you won't get a thing out of me, buddy.
Speaker 1: I've I've I've I sweated too much in that week
Speaker 1: to tell you a damn thing. You're gonna You're gonna
Speaker 1: see it in all of its glory and all of
Speaker 1: its humidity, is exactly Yeah. I have been so good
Speaker 1: about not saying anything. I'm so excited for everybody to
Speaker 1: see what's uh, what's coming up? And and uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's going to be a beautiful you know, it's not
Speaker 1: really an ending, it's it's just uh any any good show,
Speaker 1: you know you've got your imagination goes wild as to
Speaker 1: what comes next, and and there's plenty coming next. Well,
Speaker 1: there's forty seven spinoffs they're talking about for for everybody.
Speaker 1: What about King Ezekiel? I mean, anything is possible. I um,
Speaker 1: you know, in this business, I I hold out hope
Speaker 1: that that's not the last time I put that wig on.
Speaker 1: But you know. Also, you know, nothing is promised, and
Speaker 1: and you you know, you got to move on to
Speaker 1: the next job. We we were both been very lucky
Speaker 1: that that we could, you know, sit on on shows
Speaker 1: that that had a you know, a long, a long life.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, you know, besides those, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, most jobs come and go in this busines
Speaker 1: and you just gotta keep reworking it. And so so
Speaker 1: I'll I'll keep my fingers crossed, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: I look forward to to the next thing that comes out. Whatever.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're you're so good at at evading the question.
Speaker 1: I have one more for you. Any thoughts on a
Speaker 1: rebo a reboot for the Office? Oh yeah, well, it
Speaker 1: absolutely is going to happen. Kevin will be put in charge.
Speaker 1: And I have said this for years, and it is
Speaker 1: not just because I've known you, you know, since the
Speaker 1: beginning of time. I have always thought went as soon
Speaker 1: as Michael left, I thought to myself, I was like,
Speaker 1: the the whole the thing that made that work is
Speaker 1: that is that you put someone in charge who has
Speaker 1: no business being in charge. And Pam and Jim have
Speaker 1: to you know, with duct tape and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and glue try to try to hold this thing together.
Speaker 1: And I was like, what if? What if they just
Speaker 1: took an aptitude test or did an interview? And somehow
Speaker 1: they did it sort of with Robert California where for
Speaker 1: a moment Robert California thought that Kevin might be the
Speaker 1: smartest person in the room, and I was like, oh God,
Speaker 1: please go with that, go with that, make him the
Speaker 1: one in charge. I wanted it so bad because not
Speaker 1: not only that I thought it would be hilarious, but
Speaker 1: but I but I think that that people don't still
Speaker 1: don't realize the incredible talent that is inside of one
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner. I have personally, I have personally seen you
Speaker 1: play so many different and varied characters and and for
Speaker 1: you to play Kevin so well that I feel like
Speaker 1: I feel like if you stepped into one of those
Speaker 1: other characters from you know that you know starts with Kevin,
Speaker 1: people would lose their minds. I have always said this,
Speaker 1: I still I have. I I'm telling you it's going
Speaker 1: to happen at some point. This just sounds like gushing,
Speaker 1: but you can tell that I mean what I say.
Speaker 1: I'm I don't just bullshit. They're pregnant pauses when I
Speaker 1: when I don't believe something, but this, this I believe.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you very much for that. That was
Speaker 1: not expected nor written. But I will send you I will,
Speaker 1: I will send you a check. I do want to
Speaker 1: mention to you, well, first off, congratulate, congratulations. On the
Speaker 1: end of that, I'm very happy for you and to
Speaker 1: see what comes for you next. I also do want
Speaker 1: to mention that this is June, which is Pride month,
Speaker 1: and you have been a big ally of the lb
Speaker 1: G t Q community, and and you have a son, Carter,
Speaker 1: who is who is now in that community. You want
Speaker 1: to tell me a little bit about about his journey
Speaker 1: and your specific connection now to this community. Yeah, yeah, no, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's funny being growing up in Georgia especially
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, in the South, kind of a
Speaker 1: religious upbringing, you know, my feelings about you know, the
Speaker 1: gay community or being gay, you know, l g B
Speaker 1: t Q. Plus it was kind of like something that
Speaker 1: you would see, you know, uh, kind of a cardboard
Speaker 1: character in a show that was you know, meant to
Speaker 1: be a joke and um and beyond that, beyond anything
Speaker 1: beyond that would make you incredibly uncomfortable, you know, because
Speaker 1: it was outside of your your normal sphere. And uh
Speaker 1: and all of that changed when I when I became
Speaker 1: a theater major at UH at S ANDB what even
Speaker 1: even at the North Side School of the Arts, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's just more open, it's just more inclusive and
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, it's it's like, you know, the
Speaker 1: arts is a is a place where where creativity and
Speaker 1: diversity is is um is celebrated and where where people
Speaker 1: who who are feel different can feel nurtured and loved.
Speaker 1: And and so you know, I've I've been on that
Speaker 1: journey of of uh of being an ally to the
Speaker 1: gay and lesbian plus community. But it definitely, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: took it to another level when when my when my
Speaker 1: son when he was eight or nine years old, comes
Speaker 1: back from school and and says that he thinks that
Speaker 1: he's transgender. And it's funny because when he and he
Speaker 1: said that, it all made sense, it all made sense.
Speaker 1: He was he was always a tomboy growing up. He
Speaker 1: was he was his name he was born female and
Speaker 1: and we named him Ruby. But but always a tomboy,
Speaker 1: always wanting to do boy things. Always his best friends
Speaker 1: were boys. You know, he was the only you know,
Speaker 1: quote unquote girl on the on the you know y
Speaker 1: m C a basketball team, you know, not not the
Speaker 1: girls can't. But he wanted to do karate and he
Speaker 1: became a black belt when he was like a seven
Speaker 1: or eight years old. He was just um, you know,
Speaker 1: when he was three or four, he was like no
Speaker 1: more dresses. No more dresses that he was. He was like,
Speaker 1: no more pink you know. His his mom would just
Speaker 1: cover him in pink freely stuff, you know, because that's
Speaker 1: what she, you know, wanted for her daughter. And and
Speaker 1: then um, I remember the last time I got him
Speaker 1: to wear a dress was at a wedding and I
Speaker 1: told him it was because it had boy fish all
Speaker 1: on it and it was and it had cut off sleeves,
Speaker 1: and I told him it was a samurai. It was
Speaker 1: a traditional samurai like um like uniform. And I remember
Speaker 1: halfway through the wedding he walked over to me and
Speaker 1: it was like, Daddy, this is not a samurai uniform.
Speaker 1: Somebody must have told him. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: it's probably the last time that's gonna happen, and so uh.
Speaker 1: But but there were all of these clues that that
Speaker 1: that made it kind of obvious. And and even like
Speaker 1: at the school dances where they were put on these productions,
Speaker 1: and I remember one time the choreographer told she was like,
Speaker 1: all of the boys, you know, uh, you know, uh
Speaker 1: across your arms and all of the girls put your
Speaker 1: hands on your hips and that's how we ended. And
Speaker 1: uh and Carter just you know, walks up and he's like,
Speaker 1: why why do I have to do that? And not
Speaker 1: do that? You know, he was always like self assured
Speaker 1: that way. When it came to this this thing, it
Speaker 1: was like it was like it was like, I'm going
Speaker 1: to do this my way. But when he realized what
Speaker 1: transgender was, he was just telling a story that I
Speaker 1: never knew that that he would go to sleep wishing
Speaker 1: that he was a boy, and he would and he said,
Speaker 1: he said, but that could never happen because only magic
Speaker 1: can do that because I didn't know what transgender was.
Speaker 1: I didn't even understand what transgender was or the community was.
Speaker 1: But when he but when he realized that that that's that,
Speaker 1: that's who he was. The person that I had seen
Speaker 1: be the most at home with themselves and the most
Speaker 1: like no, I'm doing this my way became even more
Speaker 1: like like calm, like like the like if his shoulders
Speaker 1: were up, it was like they dropped just a little
Speaker 1: bit more. There was just the tension if there, if
Speaker 1: there was any tension at all, you know, went away
Speaker 1: even more so. And I and I saw him just
Speaker 1: just blossom in this weird way. Because it's not like
Speaker 1: he got loud. He's not a loud kid. He's not
Speaker 1: like me. He's an introvert. But it was it was
Speaker 1: like a quiet confidence and and and and wholeness about
Speaker 1: him and uh and and I knew that that that
Speaker 1: it was scary for me, even though I had always
Speaker 1: kind of known it. When he said it, I could
Speaker 1: tell that it was a thing that that was that
Speaker 1: was always there. It's still scared the ship out of me,
Speaker 1: you know, because I because you want your kid to
Speaker 1: be treated, you know, with dignity and respect and and
Speaker 1: live happily. And uh and you see so many obstacles
Speaker 1: in the way of of his happiness, you know, And uh,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what I thought. I was very wrong.
Speaker 1: I was very wrong. The truth is is that I
Speaker 1: have never seen a kid more happy. I've never seen
Speaker 1: a kid more at home. And for me, the hard
Speaker 1: The hardest thing is when he decided that he was
Speaker 1: going to change his name and not go by Ruby anymore,
Speaker 1: because I had thought long and hard about Ruby, because
Speaker 1: it was like a cute little girl's name, but it
Speaker 1: was also a badass woman business person, like, like I
Speaker 1: had this idea of her being like this high powered
Speaker 1: executive who walks into the offices and everybody's like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: you know, Ruby's here. Everybody, get it together, Ruby's coming,
Speaker 1: you know. I I had to. I had to take
Speaker 1: that rough draft of his life and change it. And um,
Speaker 1: and then he decided on Carter. You know, my name
Speaker 1: is Cary with a K. My brothers Curling and Curtis
Speaker 1: both with a K. My nephew, Keen is Keen with
Speaker 1: a K. And so he decides Carter with the K
Speaker 1: because he wanted the boys. Yeah, yeah, it's it's. Uh.
Speaker 1: You always think that you're supposed to or or before
Speaker 1: you have kids, you think that it's your job to
Speaker 1: teach them, you know, you know, you maybe get nervous
Speaker 1: about not being able to teach them. And Uh, I
Speaker 1: have found that that I am the student more often
Speaker 1: than not. And if I can just reflect it back
Speaker 1: to them, you know, in a way that's that they
Speaker 1: can hear and understand that, uh, that I'm doing and
Speaker 1: I'm doing all right, and uh, I can't. I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just so grateful, you know, to to
Speaker 1: be in a position to be able to hear and
Speaker 1: to understand, you know, and love through it all. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but he's a he's a great kid. And yeah, and
Speaker 1: I've learned a lot and you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's that's where we are now. It's a
Speaker 1: pretty good listen. I gotta I gotta tell you, Like,
Speaker 1: when I think of Cary Payton, there is an openness
Speaker 1: and a joy and a zest for life. Everyone always
Speaker 1: loves being around you because of the energy that you
Speaker 1: have in virtually every situation. And it's not surprising to
Speaker 1: me that in this you have remained open and positive
Speaker 1: and giving and the fact that you consider it a
Speaker 1: gift that you have been given by your son um
Speaker 1: having you experienced this as a family is it is
Speaker 1: so cool. And I'm I'm so happy for Carter, and
Speaker 1: I'm happy for you and your family, and I wish
Speaker 1: you just all the blessings, all of the blessings, dude,
Speaker 1: because you deserve it. You have worked so hard twenty
Speaker 1: years as Cyborg now bringing you to Ezekiel and to
Speaker 1: a place of of great success. I'm so happy for you,
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate you coming and and talking to
Speaker 1: me today so Openly's absolutely man. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that the hardest part of the job and the easiest
Speaker 1: part of the job is just keeping your head up,
Speaker 1: you know, keeping your head up and uh and uh
Speaker 1: and and pushing forward. You know, they you get you
Speaker 1: get so many you get so many rejections in this
Speaker 1: business that, um, I find that that the ones who
Speaker 1: can just stay in it and smile through it, you know,
Speaker 1: are are winning. You know. That's that's you. That's you
Speaker 1: always and uh and God bless you for it. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, Cary, Thank you, Brian. This is awesome. Cary, Cary, Cary,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. It was so great catching up
Speaker 1: with you. I will never forget our days at s
Speaker 1: m U and the man that you have now become.
Speaker 1: I respect the hell out of you, my friends. So
Speaker 1: God bless you and continued success moving forward as you
Speaker 1: leave the zombies of the Walking Dead, and for all
Speaker 1: you listening make sure to tune in Thursday to go
Speaker 1: Off Off the Beat for our sports edition, and of
Speaker 1: course we're gonna be back here next Tuesday. Once again,
Speaker 1: you're the best listeners, But if you think we're the best,
Speaker 1: then feel free to subscribe, leave a review. You know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. We appreciate that so much. It helps
Speaker 1: us so much to hear from you. So check in
Speaker 1: on to Graham or on Apple Reviews and we will
Speaker 1: see you next week. Off the Beat is hosted an
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Ryan Baumgartner alongside our executive producer Langley.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Speaker 1: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
Speaker 1: our intern is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and
Speaker 1: Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bretton and the
Speaker 1: episode was mixed by seth Olandskipe