WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: George Faison 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:00.560 What's Love. 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.040 Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:12.960 Let's go Supremo sup Suprema roll call, Sugreema su Supremo. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:15.880 Role called Suprema. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.840 Suprema roll call Suprema. 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:28.360 Because I'm roll call. Yeah, it's time to gym. Yeah, 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:30.320 nasty girls. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.320 Yeah, dance, dance, dance roll. 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:42.040 So Supremo role called Supremo Supremo role call. 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:43.360 My name is Fante. 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:45.440 Yeah, I handle my bez. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:46.200 Yeah. 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:48.040 My favorite horror movie. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:01:01.040 Yeah call Suprema Suprema roll my name is Yeah. 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.960 I love to dance. Yeah, I just need a choreographer. 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:06.679 Yeah, you give me a chance. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:16.080 Supremo roll call, Suprima Supremo roll call. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:26.319 Yeah, I'd like to say yeah, yeah, whoa, yeah Freema. 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:33.040 Some Supremo roll call, Suprema some some Supremo roll call. 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:38.000 It's like em yeah, y'all know, I'm hYP Yeah, George 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:38.440 is here. 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:40.640 Yeah, we talk all night. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:51.440 Supremo Supremo roll call, Supremo Supremo roll call is Faison. 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:56.200 Yeah, and I'm here to say yeah, I got some news. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:14.720 Yeah, Supprima Supremo, Suprema Subpremo. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.480 Roll You get pissed when someone else's. 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:22.720 You. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.200 Basically I thought mine was funny. 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.320 I think you did well every time you guys were 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.200 expecting me to, uh have. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:29.760 A roll call. 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:34.720 Yeah, yeah, be prepared for your radio show. Yes, you know, no, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.560 I think of different freestyles, freestyle. 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.480 Freestyle is and freestyle. Yes, this course loves Supreme And 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.040 we are in person. We aren't live, but we can 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.880 pretend it's live, but we are in person, uh, in 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:51.240 this very tight room. Every episode there's there's a little 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.560 more nuance added to the scenery. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:56.160 Feels like between two ferns. 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.320 If anybody knows that, it definitely has between two ferns 0:02:59.720 --> 0:02:59.919 to it. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:00.600 Right. 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.040 So, yeah, we're in New York City right now. There's 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.639 our logo and I guess a twenty fourteen version of me. 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.000 I don't look like that in the minute. But uh no, 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:17.400 we have teams Supreme unpaid Bill. I forgot what's your 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.760 new name? Brand new Bill? No, No, you're it was 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:22.399 just Bill. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:24.960 You're just a Bill natural Bill. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:25.360 Right. 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.560 Maybe maybe we should take a poll on our social media. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.840 It's a good idea, yeah, because I'll tell you because 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.119 right now your name is not that exciting on Instagram 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:38.520 or I think you want it that way? Do you 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:40.920 want civilian Bill Sherman. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:53.200 I'm not sure, Sherman. Bill, just thank lying. And you 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.960 know who screams show vote this guy absolutely because he's 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:58.840 just my Bill. 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:05.880 Or I thought marvelous. Don't mess with milk, right exactly? 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:07.560 All right, sugar, how's it going? 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:09.240 It's good, man, it's good. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:10.720 I like this couch arrangement. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:12.560 I was. I'm sure. 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.080 I was like, is this four? 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:16.360 We got time? 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.520 We got space, you know, like men can sit together 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:19.600 like this. This is nice. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.919 We all got we can man spreads, we got space. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.279 We're good. How's it going, path? I got my brothers 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:28.120 and sisters with me. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.800 You know, yes, we're family. I got where you're going 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.680 with that. Tiolo, cool man, Welcome to New York. Yeah, man, 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.320 how's it going? What's going on now? Like now that 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:45.800 the documentary is complete, and you know, you guys are musically, uh, 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:47.960 sort of churning them out, or at least I assume 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.239 that you're turning more out. I hope that you're turning 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:51.359 more out, Like. 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.680 What's what's the plans for the summer, for the summer, 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.640 so we actually do Mayler watch. 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.200 The Little Brother Story is out now on YouTube. It 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:01.400 out just working. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.600 More music is coming on the f E side, I'm producing, arranging, 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.120 doing stuff, sessame Street. 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:08.560 You know, I'm working man. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.039 You know I followed the example, yes, diversify. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.400 Yeah, I'm trying to get out of it. So I 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:16.560 ain't going as hard as you going. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:17.200 You know. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.200 It's like a Merre like Stage fifteen cerentification, like he's 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:21.640 been there, done that, and now it is back to 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:22.240 the hood again. 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.320 Yeah, I'm trapped. I'm coming back home. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.920 Yes, yes, Oh, I'm good. 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.320 I'm trying not to just quote the Wiz all day. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.200 I feel like, more than anything, this is the episode 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.320 that for the last and why can I not commit 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:41.760 to how many years we've been acting? 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:42.440 Eight eight. 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:45.200 Granddaddy Podcast. 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.080 Yeah, I feel like for the last eight years, this 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:54.080 is the episode you've been hoping, wishing, praying and dying for. 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:59.160 So I will say that our guest today has helped introduced, 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.400 what I've like to say, the to the post modern generation, 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.839 those that needed visuals to sort of navigate them through records, 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.320 eve the first generation of video watches or whatever, but 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:17.400 or even television show performances. Our guest today helped introduce 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:23.119 a postmodern generation to a level class through movement and choreography. 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.039 Sort of in that tradition of his peers. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:32.080 Be it Charlie Atkins, Jeffrey Holder, Harold Nichols, Michael Peters, 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:33.640 there's Lester Wilson. 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.240 It might be forgetting the name or two. Frankie Manning, 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:37.400 Debbie Allen. 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.560 We can't forget Debbie Allen was in Fatima Robinson even modern, Yes. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:54.240 At all that, Yes, exactly in a sense, I'm doing 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:54.840 your build up. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.560 Yeah, this is some flowers you get, but more than that, 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.120 like our guest is Emmy Award winning choreographer. 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:09.840 Way, Oh, I'm sorry, Tony, but wait for person. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:11.320 Were you nominated? 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.760 Form nominated? But Josephine Bank Okay. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.640 By the way, Lynn and Grace Gracie given their regards 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.920 to you, Lynn Windfield and Grace. 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.800 Was like, uncle, that's a good suggestion because they needed Yes. 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.680 Yes, they're friends of the show and they're they're excited 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:33.840 you're doing this as well. They gave their regards. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.680 But more than that, our guest today, uh I got 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.440 excited of course because of his association with The Whiz, 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.360 which of course is getting a new lease on on 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.240 Broadway with the Amber Ruffin's production of it, and a 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.480 friend of the show Wayne Brady as the Whiz, and 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.600 as Fonte said, yeah, the Whiz was a horror movie. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:57.480 Yeah, man, listen, the Wiz is. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.200 A horror movie, a metaphysical horror movie. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.440 You know. Interesting and even will hold nails rolled back 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:12.520 even now the subway scene, yeah, oh my god. 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.560 But more than that, man, just the idea of theatrics 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.080 in concerts, especially when it comes to the work of Earth, 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:24.400 Wind and Fire. Our guest today helped sort of facilitate 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:30.000 a vision that turned that group from just an eleven 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:37.280 piece soul review into this modern theatrical presentation. And we've 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:39.959 been dying to pick your brain for a long time. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:49.760 And I'm glad you're here. Welcome George Faison two. Yes, yes, 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:52.520 So can you tell me about your You grew up 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.719 in d C. Yeah, your formative years in d C. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:56.839 What was that like? 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.280 Well, DC at that time was a divide It's city. 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.800 There was you know, the racism. I think it still is. Oh, 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.880 it very much is that same thing. But we had 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:15.440 a life. We had the Howard Theater where our universe surrounded. 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.320 And for a lot of cities you have your black theater, 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.800 the Howard Theaty. We had a lot of R and 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:27.120 B starting with Roy Hamilton, and on and on and on, 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:33.960 Gladys Knight, Jewel Box Review, Arn Baker and Edda James, 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.080 you name it. They were. This is not the sophistication 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.280 that you would see at Motown. We were still growing, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.280 but we at least we were out there. We could 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.760 see the people and they brought us another kind of glamour. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.400 And it is the magic of our people that makes 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:55.000 us do that, and that propels you through that. So 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:59.800 if you are growing up without people knowing who you 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:03.360 are are, you get tired of the labels and the 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.920 stereotypes and you get busy with what can I do 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.719 about that? And education and letting them know who you 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.240 are because we love these people, you know, our mama's 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.600 and daddy's biscuits and so forth. And I grew up. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.199 My father was in the awning business, and he put 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.760 up ladders. I don't know, it's a metaphor for something 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.760 in a sense, awnings on on the side of the buildings. 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.959 So so I had I had to learn his business, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:35.600 you know. So I'm you know, I can go up 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.839 two or three stories on a ladder that you push up. Okay, 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.040 So I learned that my father taught me that, but 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.640 it was his business. And thank god I had a father. 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.400 I had a father as long as I lived in 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.240 DC until I left his house. So and you know, 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.839 you have the discipline and all of that, and you 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.280 go to school and you learn things and so forth. 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:05.520 And then we had TV, you know, early TV, probably 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.120 one of the first families to have the TV on 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:10.920 the block. And we saw all of these things and 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:12.240 explain to me. 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.240 So the thing is is that, Okay, So me being 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.439 born in the seventies and especially like the year I 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.240 was born, like most people or historians will say, like 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:28.160 sixty eight is the Mason Dixon line of pre civil 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:33.079 rights and post civil rights period. So I came of 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:37.120 age in which if you even had anything close to 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.880 a passion for the arts, there were institutions. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.200 That you could go to, Like there was a school 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:49.160 in which you can come teach your kids ballet or 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.040 tap dance or acting and that sort of thing. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:51.880 For you. 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.880 Though, if your formative years are in the late fifties 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.840 and early sixties, as far as like preteen and all 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.280 that stuff, what was the environment like, Like was art 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.600 something that we took seriously or survival? 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.800 Get a job, get money, or pursue your death. 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.800 Well what I chose. Nobody at that particular time thought 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.280 that was going to be the way you were going 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.200 to be a doctor, a teacher or something. You're going 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:23.119 to go survival. You have to have a little happiness. 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.079 You have to have a little joy to survive, to 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.679 have something that you're going to be reaching for. So 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.240 you look left or right on your graduation day in 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.480 nineteen sixty four. What you know are You're never going 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.600 to see these people again? And what are you going 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.640 to do that day that you even walk out out 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.280 of the school or down those streets. You walk down 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.480 those streets as somebody else like an adult, what are 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:49.920 you going to do? You're going to go to college? 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.280 Can you afford college? What you know? You got to 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.840 break those barriers too. Well, at fifteen I had started 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:02.800 going to Howard University, not going in school, but in 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.479 their departments that were like developing. There was no dance department, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:13.480 so Mary Rose Allen started the dance department in the gym, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:15.800 you know what I mean? And I would go every 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.720 day at three o'clock or something and change my clothes 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.719 and go down there and meet Caroly and Tate, who 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.160 you don't know about, but she had worked with the 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.599 choreographer Donnie Michale, who I would later meet when I 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:34.240 came to New York. Owen Dodson was the head of 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:39.840 the drama department and he brought James Barmin myself blues 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.520 for mister Charlie at Howard University when he was still 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:48.720 working on that I saw in nineteen sixty four. Yeah, 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.040 they were friends. They were friends. No, but everybody, I mean, ROBERTA. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.120 Flack was there, Donnie Athaway, Tony Morrison. It was in 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:04.760 that bunch rightssance, you know, so who else was there? 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:08.160 I was fifteen fifteen. 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:09.200 Why did you not even know to. 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.679 Go to that particular time when we were trying to 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:17.280 get educated that you went on school trips. So we 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.080 went to Howard University. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:23.320 From Dunbar, not just the fires right because his high 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.320 school that he went to was close to Howard anyway. 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:29.960 Well, Dunbar was the first African American high school in 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.360 right m Street High and everybody went there. Charles Drew 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.720 also was who created the plasma, was a graduate of. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:42.640 Of that. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.200 But right, all of that. 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.120 But you were dancing back then, so you were dancing Oh. 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.640 No, we were know, you were dancing at home. What 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.440 are you talking about? You had forty fives and all 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.240 of that. They played pecina cards, drank and they had 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.920 we had a life, right, Okay, we did have a life. 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.720 They did everything, you know. And also it was the migration. 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.560 I saw people that were living in the alleys in garages, 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.960 you understand what I mean, because they couldn't do They 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.920 didn't have a house, they didn't have anything. And they 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:23.760 took that shelter and moved on all the way across 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.000 the country, you know, they until they found a place 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.480 that they were going to settle in. That the Wilkerson 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:36.480 book Warmth, Right, So I loved that book so much. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:38.520 I started, you know, like when I came to the 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:43.320 last ten pages, I was turning a page because I 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:45.120 did not want it to end. 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.680 Because it's called The Warmth of other Sons. It's about 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:50.000 like the great Migration. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:52.800 And how people, you know, they picked up and they 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.120 and they moved. That's how I guess my father, my mother, 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.720 their families and so forth got to d c. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.040 Carolina, where North Carolina from. 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:06.280 You're in North Carolina d all day and then they 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.120 went on to other other cities. What city in North Carolina? 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:16.400 Well Wallace, Wow, yeah, that's going just headed towards Womanton 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:17.240 from me, I mean Raleigh. 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.400 So it's like going back right and there's a face 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:25.560 on North Carolina. There's all of that, and that's how 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.880 pass you know. So it's like you find yourself in 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.080 an environment when you when you are, when you grow up, 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.640 What am I going to do? Okay, you see the 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.760 white on one side of town and you go back 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.120 to wherever you're going. Everything is full. I mean you're 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.200 not missing anything. I'm not missing anything. But you see, 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.880 you're drawn to art, art, draws, art, It doesn't you know, 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:57.200 it doesn't claim just one person. I mean it's open. 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.720 It's universal, you know, and you can you can go 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.160 and grow through all. And I was just curious, so 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.240 I would wander to the other side of town. I 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.760 would read the papers, auditions and so forth. But Howard 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:15.280 was mecca. But you know, the musicians we had, you know, 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.680 everybody was there. So I didn't miss that. But the 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:25.320 caveat in our growing up to be whoever we're going 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:32.440 to be, we were intersegregated with black people within. Yes, 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:38.280 if you didn't pass the paper bag tests. No, this 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.119 is what Jack and Jills went up the hill, but 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:47.200 this was harder. Oh shit, damn. And you didn't get 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:54.320 get over until James Brown say it loud, okay. 0:17:54.280 --> 0:18:02.840 Wows the seed that was planet for dancing? 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:04.760 Because I'm certain that, no, I didn't. 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.680 I didn't start with dancing. What did you start? I 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:12.040 started with music and art and all of that, pictures 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:16.040 and things. The stars that I really love were Fred 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:20.280 Astaire and Gene Kelly and all of that. Nothing really 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.879 happened till I saw Norma Miller and Frankie Manning in 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.760 Hells of Popping, you know, doing that lind crazy Lindy 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.119 that they were doing, yeah, and so forth. But I 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.320 didn't do I didn't meet all of them until I 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.800 came after I had been in New York and we 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:40.720 were but Mama Lou Parks and all of that dance history. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.680 You know. I was there making up dances, you know, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.080 not even thinking trying to turn in the hall was 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:56.000 like thirty six inches wide, walked down right, And I 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.440 taught myself how to pirouette in the hall so you 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.840 don't hit the what thank you don't hit the walls? 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.320 How straight can you be? So that was, you know, 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.359 and think I was learning like that. And then somebody 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.640 came up and said, oh, there's gonna be an audition. 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:16.480 What is an audition? They say, you have to do 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:21.359 this audition, go sing and dance and act, and you 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:25.359 get into a play. So I said, okay, I'm going. 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:29.280 This guy was a senior and everything, so I trusted 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.600 that and I went through the whole audition and I 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.639 hadn't ever been And so I come bouncing out, we 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.920 got a job. We got a job, you know, like 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:44.680 and so we're gonna start rehearsal and so and so 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.840 I'm telling them all the business. He says, I didn't 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:54.360 get it. Oh wow, sorry, but that was the beginning 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:58.520 and end of that friendship. You know. So you're gonna 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.399 you're gonna go alone, folks. You can take as big 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.000 a crowd as you want. It's just gonna be on you. 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.480 So what was the audition process like the back then? 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:09.280 What was the process? 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.080 Well, they gave us steps and you had to do them. Boone, 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:14.800 you had to go up the scale. If you couldn't sing, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.840 you had sang Happy Birthday. And if you and you 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.359 read a little bit, oh they're not gonna get a 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:21.160 speaking part. 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.159 So so when you go to an audition. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.520 Now, when I watch movies or whatever, and you know art, 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.960 the arts are never accurate when showing it how it 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.840 really is. But for the dancing part of it, when 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.600 I see like when they do five six seven, you're 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.360 going to fuss and nothing and they pick it up instantly. 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.600 They were moving like that. Well no, no, no, but 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.399 they weren't moving like wait, mine, let's get go back. Okay, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.600 they were not moving like that. You add the spice. 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.280 A pot of beret is still a pot of beret 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.520 unless you turn it into something. A pair of wet 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.680 is a pair of unless you can turn it into something. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.280 I was. I didn't have any any training until I 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:11.760 heard some some guys talking about well gleisada and no, 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.080 but that that's movement and you have to learn that language. 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.080 I'm just like, I gotta get that. I didn't even 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.520 know what our best but I got that job. I 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.240 had not heard and so forth. So but I would 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.920 do it. I would do it. You look and you 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.840 do your IQ? Is how good are IQ? 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:31.880 You're a musician that plays my ear? 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:32.360 Yes? 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:37.639 Now is it not respected? But like from those that 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.399 did train at the blah blah blah institute. Are they 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:42.359 looking down on you? 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:43.199 Are they? 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.680 Well, you have to conform to all that, because that's 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.280 that's what it is. It's just like a musician playing 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:52.960 notes and and all of that. And I had played 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.320 the french horn and the trumpet in uh, you know, 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:58.600 while you grow up, and that's what we had in 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.080 school to do. So I was trying that sang in 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.119 the glee club saying, you know, did all of the 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.760 things that I really liked, you know what I mean? 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.080 And do you remember I was hanging awnings with my 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:17.480 father and hanging out the third window, putting them on 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:20.760 the mansions that were out in Silver Spring and Spring 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.640 Valley and all of those other neighborhoods, and ducking down 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.159 in the seat if I was riding through through uh 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:29.920 the neighborhood because. 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:30.080 I didn't know. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.520 I didn't I didn't want anybody to see me with 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:37.359 my father with the lattice, you know, up there, and 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.520 I was doing but it was work, and it was 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:42.120 his work. 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:43.119 What does your mother do? 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:45.560 You mess with us? Okay? Gotcha? 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.080 So and raised us and the middle class family in a. 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.440 Sense, Yes, yes, I think you if you would take 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:57.960 it like that and we had dinner every day together 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:06.560 and free day. So yes, ain't required you just you know, 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:08.800 have it anyway. I got that part. 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:12.600 He was the part the part. 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:17.159 I became the lead dancer for Kiss Me Kate, Wow. 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:20.359 And guess where we did it. We did it at 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:27.359 Howard University, at the newly built Cramptonia that had not that, 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:33.760 you know, and then the new Magical and you know, 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.600 but I don't know in your dreams you have every part. 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:42.320 You know, dreams don't you know, aren't segregated in a sense. 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:45.960 You dance through this, you feel that and so forth. 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:49.600 I mean, it's just real life and then that you 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.879 have to deal with and how you interpret that and 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:56.400 how you take that and uh, how do you survive 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:59.719 that to go on and have a career. I never 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.520 have not done anything but work with my father and 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:08.399 been in the theater. Nothing And who can say that 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:10.040 at that time? 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:16.080 All right, just that his life was the same he 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:17.960 has not all the way through. 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:21.280 I had a you know, I had a theater job, 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:24.200 you know, so I became the first dancer and led this. 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:29.439 I'm like one of two maybe people. No, they had 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:35.320 three black characters. Queenie, Joe and me I was I 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:39.200