Speaker 1: The following episode was recorded before the WGA sag Aftra
Speaker 1: strikes of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: When the war broke out in Ukraine last year, I,
Speaker 2: like most of the world, felt completely overwhelmed and concerned
Speaker 2: for the fact that at this point in our civilization,
Speaker 2: we were so willing to start killing each other again.
Speaker 2: I was concerned about the people of Ukraine certainly, and
Speaker 2: concerned about this terror that Putin was reigning down on
Speaker 2: this country. So my organization six Degrees held a fund
Speaker 2: raising event at a brewery in DC. It was kind
Speaker 2: of an inspirational place because it was a restaurant that
Speaker 2: was owned by Russians and had Ukrainian employees, and they
Speaker 2: felt the need to stand up for their employees and
Speaker 2: for the people of Ukraine. And so we played an
Speaker 2: impromptu show with our band, the Bacon Brothers, and it
Speaker 2: was a great day. So in today's episode, I had
Speaker 2: the chance to sit down with a father and a son.
Speaker 2: Maxim Chimerkovsky is known for his moves on Dancing with
Speaker 2: the Stars, but more than that, he and his dad
Speaker 2: are the founders of an organization that is providing much
Speaker 2: needed aid to those most affected by the war in
Speaker 2: Ukraine and now a year later, their organization is more
Speaker 2: critical than ever. This is why we do what we do.
Speaker 2: So lean in.
Speaker 3: I'm really glad you're here.
Speaker 2: Well, folks, we literally have a star, an actual Dancing
Speaker 2: with the Stars star here today on the podcast. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for being here. Maxim Chermikowsky. Welcome to
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thank you. I can believe you call
Speaker 3: me a star. I will take that. And I hope
Speaker 3: this is recorded.
Speaker 2: So absolutely for I mean, this is the this is
Speaker 2: the amazing thing about you is that it's one thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, the whole idea of that of that show,
Speaker 2: right is that you bring stars on and and that
Speaker 2: you know that. But when you you you took that
Speaker 2: and turns you turns yourself. You're the You're the story there,
Speaker 2: You're the You're the draw. It's it's it's a fantastic accomplishment.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: I think it's a it was unfair to the celebrities
Speaker 4: when the show came out and it became a success,
Speaker 4: it turned into Max this guy being on TV consecutively
Speaker 4: for seventeen seasons where celebrity comes in for one at
Speaker 4: a time, and I feel like it wasn't something that
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: Reaching or striving for.
Speaker 4: I never came to Hollywood with intention of being in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: I came because I was a dancer and there was
Speaker 4: a dance job that I was invited to do. So
Speaker 4: here we are almost what is it, twenty.
Speaker 3: Tee? Almost twenty years later.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. That's amazing, man. But listen, let me tell you.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. You feel bad for the celebrities. But the
Speaker 2: celebrities can handle it is they get. Don't feel the good,
Speaker 2: don't feel too bad. You know, we all have our
Speaker 2: path to take in this business. It's a it's a
Speaker 2: tough business. It's a tough business to be an actor.
Speaker 2: It's got to be a really tough business to be
Speaker 2: a dancer. I mean, tell me what you how did
Speaker 2: you define yourself in I mean, go, let's go back
Speaker 2: to to your childhood and to the first time you
Speaker 2: started to dance. I'm really fascinated in that journey.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's a it's a great story, but it's
Speaker 4: not an individual story. And maybe you'll tell that towards
Speaker 4: the end of our conversation. Is that you know, I'm
Speaker 4: that guy, you know with that type of family. I
Speaker 4: have that type of upbringing. You know, it's not a
Speaker 4: stardom thing. It's not a you know, I can sound
Speaker 4: a little however, you know TV may present me, but.
Speaker 3: You know, we grew up very normal. You know, let's
Speaker 3: call it that.
Speaker 4: I am from Odessa, Ukraine. I was born in nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty and I was born to two very regular Soviet
Speaker 4: Union young parents and they were both nineteen.
Speaker 3: At the time. WoT they didn't know what to do
Speaker 3: with me?
Speaker 4: I guess I keep saying it to my parents, but mom,
Speaker 4: kids deny its. It's like, no, we had a plan,
Speaker 4: but no, they honestly, they just said they followed very
Speaker 4: simple formula. If you limit child's free time, he probably
Speaker 4: will get in less trouble. And so at four years old,
Speaker 4: I was you know, given into the what was called
Speaker 4: School of Aesthetic Education, and it was about growing up
Speaker 4: a nice.
Speaker 3: Boy, you know, a little prince, little princess.
Speaker 4: And as part of it was ballroom dancing. But it
Speaker 4: was at that time the first summer ballroom danced.
Speaker 2: For like banners, like you learn manners, you learn ballroom dancing.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like exactly a little little princess and
Speaker 2: princess and white gloves and that kind of stuff. I
Speaker 2: get it. Were your parents were they artists or dancers themselves?
Speaker 4: No, not at all, absolutely zero. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 4: it's so funny that we're having this conversation, but my
Speaker 4: mom actually had her first dance competition last night.
Speaker 3: So well it's long story too.
Speaker 2: Where can I see that?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, all these years later.
Speaker 4: So so Mike, just a quick version is that, you know,
Speaker 4: shortly after I joined this sort of overall academy, you know,
Speaker 4: and then eventually, at five years old, I went to
Speaker 4: school and you know, I believe now, what I know
Speaker 4: now is that there was you know, boys have always
Speaker 4: been in shortage and short supply, especially in ballroom dancing,
Speaker 4: because girls want to do it, boys want to do
Speaker 4: other things. So, you know, I was picked out of
Speaker 4: a class group of us. Somebody walked in and said
Speaker 4: how about this one, dow one and that one, and
Speaker 4: they literally selected five boys and we were being in
Speaker 4: and our parents were offered, hey, why don't they join actual.
Speaker 3: Ballroom dance school and learn ballroom dancing? Okay?
Speaker 4: And my parents said sure, And the next thing I know,
Speaker 4: I am, you know, twenty years old, I'm in the
Speaker 4: United States. We've immigrated, I am representing US, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm a world finalist, so on and so forth. So
Speaker 4: that journey was crazy. But I never had aspirations of
Speaker 4: being a dancer. I never wanted to be a dancer.
Speaker 4: I still kind of confused why I'm been dancing for
Speaker 4: the last thirty six years. I ended up wanting to
Speaker 4: be finding a small window of passion in chemistry and biology.
Speaker 3: However, when we immigrated.
Speaker 4: To US, and I grew up in Brooklyn, New York
Speaker 4: since the nineties, when it was time to go to university,
Speaker 4: I had a choice to make. So I went to
Speaker 4: university for one year and realize that I have a
Speaker 4: career opportunity right here, you know, in dance, and and
Speaker 4: at that time, I was already, you know, a high
Speaker 4: rank dance professional in the world as well.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's my question is that if you were
Speaker 2: you know, if you're an actor, I guess you're shooting
Speaker 2: for an oscar or something like that. I'm still shooting, right,
Speaker 2: and uh, but if you're a dancer, a ballroom dancer specifically,
Speaker 2: what what is the what's the what's the thing you're
Speaker 2: shooting for? And and and can you I'm sure you
Speaker 2: do great on you know, uh dance with the stars,
Speaker 2: But is there a way to make a living as
Speaker 2: a ballroom dancer.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just.
Speaker 4: Leading me into a perfect sort of path of my life.
Speaker 4: But yeah, that was a reality first of all, where
Speaker 4: I'm a circuit, a ballroom dance circuit. Uh, it's the
Speaker 4: same as tennis or figure skating, if you will, minus
Speaker 4: the Olympics and high pay checks. But I have we
Speaker 4: were saying this a long time when dancing the start
Speaker 4: just started, and all these red carpets and in these
Speaker 4: interviews and who are you where are you from?
Speaker 3: We were laughing.
Speaker 4: I was signing autographs in Germany and Asia, you know,
Speaker 4: Europe and Asia, where it's been popular all all these
Speaker 4: years since we were seventeen, you know, so we you know,
Speaker 4: we have a raking system. I was in seventy two
Speaker 4: countries participating of you know, in the World Ballroom Circuit
Speaker 4: if you will, Federation in the nineties when I immigrated
Speaker 4: with my family in ninety four, and at that time,
Speaker 4: the United States was very slow and small, very very
Speaker 4: small participant in the world ballroom dancing. They had virtually
Speaker 4: no children dancing, so there would be no adults come now,
Speaker 4: and with my wave of immigration, specifically me, I opened
Speaker 4: my first dance studio when I was seventeen, so just
Speaker 4: a few years later, we spent the late nineties building
Speaker 4: the ballroom community here in the United States consisting of us,
Speaker 4: the kids, and the youth coming up. And so it's
Speaker 4: very interesting because when Dancing with the Stars came to
Speaker 4: us again, ballroom was an unknown, sort of underground circuit.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to do the show.
Speaker 4: I was what you said, you know, I was sort
Speaker 4: of like blinds on and I was going for a
Speaker 4: world championship title and at in ninety for the two
Speaker 4: thousand and five, two thousand and six, when you were
Speaker 4: when Dancing with the Stars came to us at that time,
Speaker 4: at the end of my what ended up being at
Speaker 4: the end of my career. At that time, I didn't
Speaker 4: know that was never going to come back. But I
Speaker 4: joined Dancing with the Stars being ranked fourth in US,
Speaker 4: served first in US, and top six in the world
Speaker 4: in professional Latin American dancing.
Speaker 3: And that's it. That's the end of my story. I've
Speaker 3: been everywhere in the world. I competed everywhere.
Speaker 4: I mostly since then, since ninety four, I represented United States.
Speaker 4: I carried the flag. My brother is my student. He's
Speaker 4: six years younger.
Speaker 2: How many how many siblings? How many siblings do you have?
Speaker 3: That's it just.
Speaker 2: Your brother and you brought what's the age difference?
Speaker 3: Six years? He's six years younger.
Speaker 4: He actually also, you know, continued the Schmikovsky tradition of
Speaker 4: Dancing with the Stars after he retired from his competitive career.
Speaker 4: Also between in his mid twenties, he joined Dancing with
Speaker 4: the Stars and he is actually right now currently with
Speaker 4: my wife rehearsing for the finale of ongoing season thirty
Speaker 4: one of Dancing the Stars.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so you're so your wife is your wife
Speaker 2: is a dancer?
Speaker 4: My wife is a dancers. Her name is Peter Murgatroyd.
Speaker 4: She's also someone I met on Broadway and she's been
Speaker 4: Dancing with the Stars professional for the last ten plus years.
Speaker 4: My question is, my brother's wife is also Dancing with
Speaker 4: the Stars professional gym.
Speaker 2: So it's so interesting to me that it's a that
Speaker 2: it's a family tradition, but that but the tradition now
Speaker 2: starts with you. You know. It's interesting because in my family,
Speaker 2: one the generation that I'm in the generation before mine
Speaker 2: had absolutely no actors, no musicians, no artists, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, one generation down my cousins or actors, directors,
Speaker 2: my brother's a musician. Like there's like there's tons of us.
Speaker 2: And then it continued down. But it started like at
Speaker 2: that moment. And I think that's such an interesting thing
Speaker 2: because generally, you know, in the in the world, you
Speaker 2: kind of think of a pretorships being handed down. And
Speaker 2: also a lot of people talk and I think sometimes
Speaker 2: I think this is thrown around a little bit too
Speaker 2: much where they say, well, it's in your blood. You know,
Speaker 2: it's in your blood. It's in your blood. But I
Speaker 2: mean you're a good example of No, it's in the work.
Speaker 2: It's in the work that you put in, not in
Speaker 2: whatever you know you have given you've gotten from your parents.
Speaker 2: It's the it's the parental focus on how hard this
Speaker 2: work is going to be.
Speaker 4: I would think it's a lot of leadership starting with
Speaker 4: your parents, you know, and it's a lot of commitment,
Speaker 4: you know, to the family.
Speaker 3: A lot of people in.
Speaker 4: The last some years, let's not dwell, but you know,
Speaker 4: I think that you know, family went away from being
Speaker 4: super involved with one another to kind of like, you know,
Speaker 4: here's how you should be as a child, Here's how
Speaker 4: I should be as a parent. That's you know, it's
Speaker 4: kind of like these blanketed statements, right. So my parents
Speaker 4: were were not like I don't think they were like
Speaker 4: everyone else. I think they were just very specific because
Speaker 4: they gave it their all.
Speaker 3: And and I want to be that parent.
Speaker 4: Uh And I feel like I wanted to say when
Speaker 4: you were saying about, you know, the generation that becomes
Speaker 4: artists and goes into the and that generation in that direction.
Speaker 4: You know, those things happen in good times, you know.
Speaker 4: And and again reason for this conversation is unfortunately very
Speaker 4: bad situation.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: And and that's the region Ukraine at that time, in
Speaker 4: the mid nineties where my parents who made a decision
Speaker 4: to take my brother and I at that time I
Speaker 4: was fourteen in QS eight to the place where there
Speaker 4: would be enough stability where they can become something else.
Speaker 4: And and and the opportunities have become for me and
Speaker 4: my brother to make a lot of money, to be successful,
Speaker 4: to provide foundation.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: At one point I was the bread winner in the
Speaker 4: entire family. And that was and we were happy about
Speaker 4: that because there was a huge opportunity here, so you know,
Speaker 4: I think that it goes to show that, you know,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 4: I'm always in debt, indebted to my parents no matter what.
Speaker 4: I'm forty two now and my own family, but I
Speaker 4: will always be indebted to my parents. And I always
Speaker 4: say that my accomplishments are mostly my parents, you know,
Speaker 4: doing my son, my kids accomplishment I will take credit for,
Speaker 4: you know, because I'm giving all of mine too, to
Speaker 4: my parents.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you a question I want to get.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to Ukraine and the work that
Speaker 2: you're doing, which is, you know, spectacular. But I have
Speaker 2: two questions. One is you have a son. I was
Speaker 2: going to ask you and what happened? How old is
Speaker 2: your son?
Speaker 4: He's turning six in January six.
Speaker 2: What happens if he says to you, you know what,
Speaker 2: that I really don't want to dance? He already did.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, he already did.
Speaker 3: We started him young, at three years old.
Speaker 4: We gave him into our friends here in Hollywood that
Speaker 4: have a dance studio. Because number one, I will never
Speaker 4: be a coach to my children.
Speaker 3: I am. I've been a coach to kids, will never
Speaker 3: I want to be. I want to be and I
Speaker 3: will never be the parent on the sideline like Yelly.
Speaker 4: I will be the guy in the back watching the
Speaker 4: teacher teaching my kids because I know you know how
Speaker 4: to see that. But between dance and soccer, again, we follow.
Speaker 3: The same formula of my parents dead.
Speaker 4: He's in dance, soccer, karate, some you know, great school
Speaker 4: with tourists coming home.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I want him to be at the time when he's
Speaker 4: the most able to you know, kind of like taking information.
Speaker 4: Give it to him, give him all the information they
Speaker 4: can give. But I did ask him one time and said, hey,
Speaker 4: you know we're driving. I'm like, what do you What
Speaker 4: do you like? He said, Papa really don't like dancing.
Speaker 4: I'm like, let me ask a different question. I'm thinking
Speaker 4: in my head, I'm like, you a great at dance,
Speaker 4: you great a karate rated disc out of everything if
Speaker 4: you could.
Speaker 3: He's inter rob music, pop.
Speaker 4: I don't want to dance like I just don't like dancing.
Speaker 2: Can I just tell you my daughter told me the
Speaker 2: same thing, and now she's doing very very well as
Speaker 2: an actress.
Speaker 4: So and you know what I said, I said, I'm
Speaker 4: just gonna stop asking you at the moment.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, That's great.
Speaker 2: He knows that we really.
Speaker 4: Damnce on Saturdays, and for now I'll take it.
Speaker 2: Good for you. But it sounds like you've got a
Speaker 2: very healthy approach to that those kinds of things, because
Speaker 2: I agree with you. I've never been the kind of
Speaker 2: parent who would sit there and scream at a kid
Speaker 2: because he just struck out, you know, I mean, I
Speaker 2: I just that's just not not my thing. By the way,
Speaker 2: speaking of which, are do you do other things athletically?
Speaker 2: I mean, are you Are you doing any plenty sports.
Speaker 4: Or anything every sport but not obviously on a professional level,
Speaker 4: which I wish I would at this point. Paychecks are different,
Speaker 4: But no, I am. I'm in the gym almost every day.
Speaker 4: Like I'm trying to I'm trying to lead by example. Again,
Speaker 4: at four, a professional dancer, we can still get up
Speaker 4: and do an hour and a half to act, you know,
Speaker 4: live performance. I'm an anomaly, you know, at my age
Speaker 4: forty two years old. You know, I retire from competitive
Speaker 4: ballroom dancing at twenty five.
Speaker 3: So I retired.
Speaker 4: So that goes to show where careers are and how
Speaker 4: we are, you know, how we do this.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to at the very least do that for
Speaker 3: as long as I can.
Speaker 2: So the joints are good, the everything's everything's feeling okay.
Speaker 3: Everything's real.
Speaker 4: I like I said, my chemistry, biology is my passion
Speaker 4: in regenerative addison, in you know things that Lebron James
Speaker 4: and Tom Brady are still on. I'm the guy who's
Speaker 4: going to do that in dance, That's what I believe.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to get to Ukraine, which is your
Speaker 2: home country. Now, you were there when the war broke out?
Speaker 2: Is that correct? This is what I've been told? Correct,
Speaker 2: Take take me through that. I mean, first off, how
Speaker 2: did you just happen to be there? And also I
Speaker 2: just I can't imagine what that must have been like.
Speaker 4: About eleven years ago, I was deep in dancing with
Speaker 4: the star's career and here in US, and and I
Speaker 4: have not been back to Ukraine by that time for
Speaker 4: about thirteen years.
Speaker 3: I just got an.
Speaker 4: Offer for to be the Ukrainian Bachelor. The show was
Speaker 4: coming to your grade, and they kind of like went
Speaker 4: around the globe and they needed probably representative that's both
Speaker 4: bilingual and very sort of like you know, kind of
Speaker 4: that type of figure. I said no so many times
Speaker 4: it was crazy, and they finally said, you know what,
Speaker 4: We're going to fly out and meet with you and
Speaker 4: talk to you in person.
Speaker 3: And that these two ladies came out a producer. The guy.
Speaker 2: They were like, you're the guy. You can't say no.
Speaker 2: We're going to make an offer you can't refuse.
Speaker 3: They told me. They told me different.
Speaker 4: They said, you know, the situation currently in that part
Speaker 4: of the world is that, you know, the the twenty
Speaker 4: five women to one man is pretty relevant, and what
Speaker 4: that gives men is the you know, men are sort
Speaker 4: of like they have the opportunities, rights, whatever you want
Speaker 4: to call it, but they allow themselves certain ways with
Speaker 4: women that women allow because there's no other choice. And
Speaker 4: you know, raise a hand, that's stuff. And so what
Speaker 4: they wanted is they wanted someone who's us but with
Speaker 4: outside perspectives, and they wanted a night in shining Armor
Speaker 4: to come and show these women that there are men
Speaker 4: that aren't like that.
Speaker 3: And at that moment, I was like, I'm your guy.
Speaker 2: No pressure, there's no pressure at all, no pressure at all.
Speaker 4: I wrapped that flag and I was like, I'm in
Speaker 4: show me what my horses. So I was one hundred
Speaker 4: percent committed to an opportunity like that. The first minute
Speaker 4: of our first episode, the first you know, filming, I
Speaker 4: realized it was a horrible mistake. I mean, I made
Speaker 4: a horrible decision. This is not me and this is terrible.
Speaker 4: But I was already committed. So you know, I kept
Speaker 4: my my TV career while I was building stuff here
Speaker 4: in US. I kept my TV career in Ukraine for
Speaker 4: the last ten years plus and in the last but
Speaker 4: then twenty fourteen and onwards, things have changed.
Speaker 3: And I had no idea.
Speaker 4: Why, because I was already over, not already because I
Speaker 4: was here and like the rest of us, we were
Speaker 4: too far away from that beginning conflict to give it
Speaker 4: any bit more attention than.
Speaker 3: The rest of the world did, right, And so.
Speaker 4: Got to I made some arrangements and it was amazing
Speaker 4: because I met some people, and you know, my career
Speaker 4: took off in Ukraine and right before the war began.
Speaker 4: Last year pole season, I was a judge on Dancing
Speaker 4: with the Stars in Ukraine and one Channel, and in
Speaker 4: January February we were filming a TV show called World
Speaker 4: of Dance when I was also a judge.
Speaker 2: So when you're living in Ukraine full time or will
Speaker 2: you go back and forth?
Speaker 4: I live in Malletable full time with my family, so
Speaker 4: you know, this was just post pandemic coming out of it.
Speaker 4: The opportunities were scarce and I had an incredible one,
Speaker 4: so I took it.
Speaker 3: It was very hard because again the distances.
Speaker 4: Are crazy, but.
Speaker 3: But it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 4: And in February I was just waking up to go film.
Speaker 3: I wasn't waking up.
Speaker 4: I would have woken up, but I was walking up
Speaker 4: at five am and my friend who's a TV personality
Speaker 4: in Ukraine as well, who's my friend from a long
Speaker 4: time ago, And it was that call. It's like, hey,
Speaker 4: you don't panic, but get up, just back your bags.
Speaker 4: And then I'm getting loose bumps as I'm saying.
Speaker 3: This, and I'm like, what are you talking About's five am?
Speaker 4: It's like the war has begun, but don't panic like this,
Speaker 4: Like I'm like, wait what and and and the next
Speaker 4: thing I heard there is the sirens And then I
Speaker 4: was like, this was the sheer panic.
Speaker 3: So I spent.
Speaker 2: You know that this was a possibility. Was it was?
Speaker 2: It was? It in on on the top of people's
Speaker 2: minds that this this could this could happen any day.
Speaker 3: Now, absolutely, I mean the it was both. It was both.
Speaker 3: It was an.
Speaker 4: Eerie calm and sensation that the entire country was saying, look,
Speaker 4: we are in this sort of brewing moment for the last.
Speaker 3: Eight years, right, it's been since.
Speaker 4: Twenty fourteen initial onslaught and then when when you know,
Speaker 4: Putin came in and grabbed Crimea and part of.
Speaker 3: The eastern UK, eastern your career, and that was confusing.
Speaker 4: For everybody, you know, and then after that it was
Speaker 4: a long period of back and so it never nobody
Speaker 4: knew when it was going to begin. A lot of
Speaker 4: people knew it was going to happen, but when I
Speaker 4: was coming. As a matter of fact, I was on
Speaker 4: February fourteenth for Valentine's There, I was here, I was
Speaker 4: in the US, and my wife went in tears. She
Speaker 4: was driving me to the airport on February twentieth to
Speaker 4: fly to Ukraine when already all the Russian troops were
Speaker 4: already being accumulated. Wow, and I still but on the
Speaker 4: way to the airport, I'm like, guys, look, I need
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 3: I spoke to my management in Ukraine. I was like,
Speaker 3: are you sure we.
Speaker 4: Had the network executives, you know, second ownership, blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: Cole say, hey, anything go down, You're the first person
Speaker 4: you know to the airport, want to plan you out.
Speaker 4: We all know how that did not happen, so right,
Speaker 4: you know?
Speaker 2: So, so was there like a moment when you realize
Speaker 2: that that the situation was as dire as it was?
Speaker 4: Yeah, as soon as the five o'clock in the morning happened,
Speaker 4: sirens siren, siren, siren, And then you know.
Speaker 2: So did you try to evacuate after that point? And
Speaker 2: what were the what were the options? There were no options.
Speaker 4: I guess there were no options because I packed my
Speaker 4: bags and I was you know, I had communicated with
Speaker 4: my manager, who you know, who has two kids of
Speaker 4: her own, and in that communication, I realized that I'm
Speaker 4: on my own, not just with my management or you know,
Speaker 4: but also executives of the network, also my pa from
Speaker 4: the show. Also, I cannot call these people because these
Speaker 4: people have a war.
Speaker 3: To deal with.
Speaker 4: I have a house, I have a home. I'm not
Speaker 4: from here. I'm an American citizen. I have my ticket out.
Speaker 4: Maybe not now, maybe I got to find it. Maybe
Speaker 4: I got to find a way, but I was okay.
Speaker 4: My family wasn't here. So I realized that regardless of
Speaker 4: what anyone wants to do for me, they should be
Speaker 4: focusing on themselves. So I grab my back back and
Speaker 4: I spent eight days in a different place, adjacent to
Speaker 4: someone more safer. You know, I was safe until I wasn't.
Speaker 4: And that group of people told me you have to go.
Speaker 4: They put me on the train. Because I was an
Speaker 4: American citizen, I was allowed to just get out. But
Speaker 4: I was on a trade that was nine nine percent
Speaker 4: women and children.
Speaker 2: And so it was.
Speaker 4: It was a wild, wild situation. I saw everything in.
Speaker 2: My eyes and where did the train go? Where did
Speaker 2: the train go?
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 4: There was a very hectic moment because I was given.
Speaker 4: I was I was giving into someone's care and said
Speaker 4: and they and they told that man, They're like, hey,
Speaker 4: you have to get him to the to the train
Speaker 4: station and make sure he's on the train. Well, that
Speaker 4: that gentleman did not want to.
Speaker 3: Do it because it was past it would have been
Speaker 3: past curve a curfew time, and he wouldn't be able
Speaker 3: to get home. So I and obviously I speak.
Speaker 4: Both languages, so I'm hearing, but he's talking to his
Speaker 4: you know people, and times he's like, look, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: drop them off on a be out.
Speaker 3: And so there was like you know, pump sweaty kind
Speaker 3: of situation.
Speaker 4: But I got shoved into the train and it was
Speaker 4: at that time was like where do you want to go?
Speaker 3: And I was just trying to go west. So I
Speaker 3: was trying to get to the city Old Leviv. And
Speaker 3: after that works something out. There was an announcement.
Speaker 4: Somebody came in said there's a train to Warsaw and
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm in you know, anywhere, obviously I
Speaker 4: can just go.
Speaker 3: That's how I ended up in Poland.
Speaker 2: Okay, you ended up in Poland. Wow, that is a terrifying,
Speaker 2: terrifying story. And we all know how long this has
Speaker 2: gone on and a terrible tragedy of that war. But
Speaker 2: to be there, your connections, you know, being in America
Speaker 2: and in that situation, did you ever feel like that
Speaker 2: you could possibly be specifically targeted based on being such
Speaker 2: a high profile you know, American Ukrainian Ukrainian American there
Speaker 2: or was it just kind of all out Bendlamen.
Speaker 4: I think that I drew attention when I started posting
Speaker 4: things on my social media right, and I know I
Speaker 4: drew attention because we all see the social media numbers
Speaker 4: that that show to us. I went from like some
Speaker 4: couple of thousand likes to you know, half a million
Speaker 4: people tuning in, literally tuning in.
Speaker 3: I realized that much later.
Speaker 4: I didn't even think of that, but I led it.
Speaker 3: Back in US.
Speaker 4: And on day two, I got an anonymous phone call
Speaker 4: from some gentlemen who I met maybe a decade ago,
Speaker 4: who happened to be as he said, and I get
Speaker 4: I don't I don't even know his name, but somebody
Speaker 4: just called.
Speaker 3: Me is like, hey, we met a wrong time ago.
Speaker 4: I want to tell you that I'm an ex military,
Speaker 4: but I still have my connections, and I just want
Speaker 4: you to be very careful.
Speaker 3: Because you're in a puddence list. Like my friend, I
Speaker 3: don't know what to do with this insuation.
Speaker 4: Wow, I got a lot to process and I just
Speaker 4: want to go back to my family.
Speaker 2: So that's one of those pieces of information that you're like,
Speaker 2: did I really need to know that? You know, because
Speaker 2: like you said it, it's like what what what what
Speaker 2: am I supposed to do with that piece of information?
Speaker 4: Well, that that was My thing is that that happened
Speaker 4: literally as soon as I landed back in US, which was, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, once the beginning of March. Now, and you
Speaker 4: know what I realized is is I had a lot
Speaker 4: of PTSD to deal with.
Speaker 3: Like, you know, I was strong, I'm a strong Brooklyn
Speaker 3: race man.
Speaker 4: You know us, you know, we don't want to talk
Speaker 4: about weaknesses. You know, we don't want to talk about
Speaker 4: you know, some things that going on in here that
Speaker 4: you can't understand and you're reacting to.
Speaker 3: And it took until I asked my wife. I woke
Speaker 3: up and I'm.
Speaker 4: Like, as I'm waking up, I'm like, why am I sad?
Speaker 4: Like nothing happened yet today for me to be sad
Speaker 4: And she's like, because you're depressed.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, what is that? That's some word that
Speaker 4: like someone else, it's not me. I'm like, I'm going
Speaker 4: to go to the gym. I'll push it out and
Speaker 4: we'll be fire. But so now I had a lot
Speaker 4: of that to deal with. The problem is that at
Speaker 4: the same time is when you know, my dad here
Speaker 4: and my parents everybody involved just started doing crazy things
Speaker 4: with our foundation.
Speaker 1: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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Speaker 1: bacon to seven zero seven zero seven zero. Your gift
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Speaker 2: You started this organization based on your experience and your
Speaker 2: ties to Ukraine, called Baronova twenty seven, and we have
Speaker 2: an actual member of your family here to talk about it.
Speaker 2: This is the first time we've ever had a member
Speaker 2: of a family, so we want to welcome Sasha to
Speaker 2: the show. Hey, thanks for joining us. Hey guys, So
Speaker 2: you're in You're in Manhattan.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's actually Jersey City.
Speaker 4: Oh, Jersey City, Okay, hot, So it's across so Lonhattan.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: So tell us tell us what what what is Baronova.
Speaker 4: Twenty seven BARANOA twenty seven. It's first of all, it's
Speaker 4: the name of the street and address Medessa that I
Speaker 4: grew up, was born and grew up.
Speaker 3: Allison val was born and grew up as well.
Speaker 5: And it's uh when when war in New Quine started
Speaker 5: February twenty four, the first the name of the organization immediately.
Speaker 4: Came to our mind like it shouldn't be like I
Speaker 4: know what twenty seven. It's very it's very home for
Speaker 4: Ukrainian and for people from Ukraine the edges. And that's
Speaker 4: how we started. And we wanted to The simple mission
Speaker 4: that we had in our mind was to help. We
Speaker 4: didn't know how by the way I'm started, we had
Speaker 4: no idea, had not foul, but we knew that we
Speaker 4: wanted to help, no matter how, no matter what to send,
Speaker 4: how to send, where are we're gonna get money, how
Speaker 4: we're gonna get money. We just want to help, to
Speaker 4: help with grant and that's it. That was only that
Speaker 4: was only the mission.
Speaker 3: It was only the point.
Speaker 2: You know, that's a I mean, you bring up something
Speaker 2: really interesting, which is, yeah, you wanted to help, but
Speaker 2: you didn't need to help, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: What's the thing that makes you feel that way? Because
Speaker 2: it would be very easy. You're in the States, you've
Speaker 2: lived in the States for a really long time. You're saying,
Speaker 2: if you're secure to make to to look at a
Speaker 2: situation and say I can't just stand by and keep
Speaker 2: living my life. I have to do something. I don't
Speaker 2: know what that something is, but I have to do something.
Speaker 2: What is it that you What do you think is
Speaker 2: it that makes you feel that way?
Speaker 4: The truth to all I need to tell that to
Speaker 4: be honest completely were here twenty eight years. I never
Speaker 4: want to be back to your pay but this twenty
Speaker 4: eight years and never I didn't have that that in
Speaker 4: my answering planetial question.
Speaker 3: I need it. Never being like, oh I have.
Speaker 4: Some depression, i'd have a nostle g I have just
Speaker 4: I'm missing my friends or my CD.
Speaker 3: No. Never, I just consider myself.
Speaker 4: As America, even though it's my sound or they're pathetic.
Speaker 4: But yes, I consider myself with Ukraine and America, and
Speaker 4: I will fight with this country Ukraine, yes my rules,
Speaker 4: it might homeland. But for twenty eight years I never
Speaker 4: wanted to go back to Ukrain. I was paying one
Speaker 4: time with Max when it was popular, undancy the stars.
Speaker 4: I don't know what wanted him to go back himself,
Speaker 4: that's all. That was only the reason I came back
Speaker 4: to Ukraine at one time. But when war started and
Speaker 4: I see Max trapped in Piev and literally with their
Speaker 4: eyes with the tears, and my wife even leave allus
Speaker 4: five days.
Speaker 3: I was my my my heart, my blood, everything was boiling.
Speaker 3: It was a different feelings.
Speaker 4: It's still not my war, telling that to everyone, it's
Speaker 4: not my war, but I feel the pain through Max
Speaker 4: at the beginning, and that was the reason why we
Speaker 4: just put all effort, everything that we could to health Ipranion.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming there still must be some family over there though,
Speaker 2: or or or friends or it's friends.
Speaker 4: Sometimes Nights has more people in the grade right than me,
Speaker 4: but has more friends that I do. I have some
Speaker 4: family member, not direct, not only, but like second cousins.
Speaker 2: So how would you describe the mission of Baronova twenty
Speaker 2: seven and are what are the nuts and bolts of
Speaker 2: how it works for people that.
Speaker 4: Doesn't the mission or particularly disorganization, because again they're the help.
Speaker 4: It's such a wide specter of how we can help
Speaker 4: the Ukrainia right in order for us to not go
Speaker 4: left or ride to cower many many areas we can
Speaker 4: we cannot. We're not billionaires, so now we cannot cover
Speaker 4: a lot. We try to concentrate our effort on two things.
Speaker 4: On actually one thing. First, we started from sending the help,
Speaker 4: sending the goods from first eight military equipment to the
Speaker 4: ready formal. We saw we send close to half million,
Speaker 4: half million pounds of goods from New Jersey fourth week
Speaker 4: to Ukraine.
Speaker 2: And these were donations people people who donated. Is that
Speaker 2: is that just people bring in goods, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: whatever they whatever you could use, they would bring it
Speaker 2: and donated for.
Speaker 4: We sat Amazon, We set Amazon Amazon is say okay,
Speaker 4: Amazon Tribe.
Speaker 3: I was going to say that.
Speaker 4: Immediately there was a huge rush of people trying to help,
Speaker 4: and everybody's asking what do I do?
Speaker 3: Where do I go?
Speaker 4: And that's also why we're like, we'll bring it to us,
Speaker 4: we'll take care of it. And then we ended up
Speaker 4: with one hundred people volunteering every single day coming to
Speaker 4: location that my dad organized and he would organize volunteers.
Speaker 3: To do the job, to pack, to ship to all
Speaker 3: the stuff.
Speaker 4: So you know, uh, and then we imploy implemented like
Speaker 4: what he said, Amazon registry, so we would just put
Speaker 4: lists and keep updating.
Speaker 3: The lists and have people see donate that way.
Speaker 2: I didn't even realize that, I'm sorry to interrupted, I
Speaker 2: don't I didn't even realize that that was a possibility
Speaker 2: on Amazon. So that's that's that's that's super cool, and
Speaker 2: I think it's important for people to know that that
Speaker 2: you can go out too Amazon and find your Baronova
Speaker 2: twenty seven registry almost like a wedding, right like whatever,
Speaker 2: a list of.
Speaker 4: Things and a hundred items. That's two hundred, okay, two
Speaker 4: hundred also two hundred items from a set as it said,
Speaker 4: from a bulletproof bulletproof ass to baby formal.
Speaker 2: Does an Amazon deliver it or do you do? They
Speaker 2: deliver it two years so they delivered directly to no.
Speaker 4: No, no, they delivered to us fourth Week. Beside the
Speaker 4: production at was ware house five heat in the primary estate.
Speaker 4: The landlord of fourth Week the Navy.
Speaker 3: That space was wowre free over end.
Speaker 4: It was for six months, for five months.
Speaker 3: But it was full full production with.
Speaker 4: The smack sat over one hundred volundtiers came as a
Speaker 4: work and we were full production.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 4: We started from that we sent as I said, well
Speaker 4: to have million pounds and goods, and then during this
Speaker 4: time we start to pertain what would be more tangible
Speaker 4: because again hundred thousands of people sent stuff to Ukraine's
Speaker 4: they have everything. They do have beery formal, I'm sure.
Speaker 4: But what they don't have they don't have, especially now
Speaker 4: they don't.
Speaker 3: Have a place to leave, to displace.
Speaker 4: Ukrainian people who are still in Ukraine but unfortunately needed
Speaker 4: to be displaced or relocated from west, from east Jupuprane
Speaker 4: to the west of Ukraine or anywhere else within Ukraine.
Speaker 3: That was our main concern.
Speaker 4: During this time, to help these people, to bring the housing,
Speaker 4: to build a high housing.
Speaker 3: This displaced people. That's why we full the Turkey.
Speaker 4: We found the manufacturing Turkey and we ordered tours ten
Speaker 4: module models houses modules houses wow like yes, like a
Speaker 4: container that being it's a call flat pack.
Speaker 3: We bought them for our own money.
Speaker 4: We collect this money through go fund me.
Speaker 3: That it was another story.
Speaker 4: We started goth fund Me from day one and that's
Speaker 4: how we collected this money.
Speaker 3: We collect clothes to half million dollars.
Speaker 4: Most of this money went to their shipping to build
Speaker 4: goods and the remaining money went to the first village
Speaker 4: we called Baranava twenty seven village ten houses.
Speaker 3: Being built in Ruby region.
Speaker 4: It's in west Ukraine for forty people. I foll there
Speaker 4: secretly in June for the grand opening. Nobody knew, even
Speaker 4: my family, Max didn't know that A fool there. Oh
Speaker 4: we called them from the from the border. I texted
Speaker 4: them and said, guys, I'm sorry, I apologize I did.
Speaker 3: I'll let you know.
Speaker 4: I know that it's bad, but I'm in Ukraine. It
Speaker 4: was a pulse and then it was bombarding. Make how
Speaker 4: there you want? I am just not let them know
Speaker 4: about it.
Speaker 2: But but that's that's amazing. So is that is that
Speaker 2: moving forward? Is that really what you're focused on? Is
Speaker 2: the is the is the housing? I mean it's I mean,
Speaker 2: so I'm guessing I want to make sure that people
Speaker 2: know how they can help out this effort.
Speaker 4: We want to just I want to clarify that. You know,
Speaker 4: when I came out of Ukraine and our foundation was
Speaker 4: already on full full scale production.
Speaker 3: In New Jersey, We've really quickly.
Speaker 4: Realized that this full scale production is going to be
Speaker 4: hard to keep because people are going to be fatigued,
Speaker 4: and which is what we saw.
Speaker 3: We saw eventually that we.
Speaker 4: Were write and people fatigued from donating ten dollars at
Speaker 4: a time or buying this sock or do you know.
Speaker 4: It was hardest and then summer came and sort of
Speaker 4: people relaxed.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 4: But what we were doing is we we saw while
Speaker 4: I was in Poland and I was trying to help
Speaker 4: with logistics, the chain of logistics, you know, I was
Speaker 4: overseeing how our goods are going to be received in
Speaker 4: Poland and how they're going to continue being transferred.
Speaker 3: What we saw.
Speaker 4: We got a request from a orphanage where they collected
Speaker 4: two hundred orphans from east of Ukraine and those bombarded
Speaker 4: cities and they moved them to the western Ukraine. And
Speaker 4: when I got this request by virtue of my friends
Speaker 4: who started to you know, text and this was a
Speaker 4: huge underground network of people reaching out what they need
Speaker 4: and we would then find someone in Ukraine who.
Speaker 3: Can then deliver that.
Speaker 4: Outside of what Baranova was doing, you know, we were
Speaker 4: doing a lot of things too. So we got this
Speaker 4: request and I was in Shamasilla at that time, which
Speaker 4: was near border town, and what they said is that
Speaker 4: there's two hundred children of various ages. There's plus they're
Speaker 4: handlers and they're in that space.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, what is that space?
Speaker 4: That space was like a summer camp that was supposed
Speaker 4: to be up for demolition and I'm like, well, what
Speaker 4: do they have in that space? They have a kitchen.
Speaker 4: I'm like great, but what else? And then they showed
Speaker 4: me pictures. Because what we did with Burnover is we
Speaker 4: you know, I literally just went to supermarket in Poland.
Speaker 3: And I got a U hole truck.
Speaker 4: And I bought like two and a half thousand dollars
Speaker 4: worth of just food supplies, you know, woods, oils and
Speaker 4: all that. So we started supplying it and then we
Speaker 4: got the pictures, and the pictures showed that this is
Speaker 4: not a livable building. There's no like working heat and
Speaker 4: all that stuff. Going into the summer, it was okay,
Speaker 4: but what are they going to do later? So that's
Speaker 4: when we realized that people in Ukraine, now, the ones
Speaker 4: that went to European countries end up being placed in families, right,
Speaker 4: but the people in you cra with no electricity, no heat,
Speaker 4: especially now when we're seeing what was what's happening, the
Speaker 4: infrastructure is being destroyed. Those people need a place to
Speaker 4: live and rebuild and help. And so what we're focused
Speaker 4: on is helping people inside Ukraine stay inside Ukraine, gotcha,
Speaker 4: so that they continue helping Ukraine from within and not
Speaker 4: you know, be refugees somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Gotcha. Wow, I mean it's incredibly impressive. H what what
Speaker 2: you guys have done? And Sasha, you know I I
Speaker 2: I I've heard quite a bit from Max about you
Speaker 2: you and uh and Uh you know his mom and
Speaker 2: and and the way that he was raised. And he
Speaker 2: gives you a lot of props. I don't know if
Speaker 2: he tells you to your face, but he gives you
Speaker 2: a lot of it gives you a lot of props
Speaker 2: for for what's happened with him. How how do you
Speaker 2: feel about him and his his success and what what
Speaker 2: he's accomplished just as as a father. Uh, not not
Speaker 2: only in the in the world of dance, but also
Speaker 2: in in this kind of laying this foundation for having
Speaker 2: having a sense of giving back.
Speaker 3: Uh, I need to yes, what Max said? You said
Speaker 3: that Max told you gave me a lot of props.
Speaker 3: We normally give you props to each.
Speaker 4: Other through other people for the third party.
Speaker 6: It's it's really happened. It's really happened that we say
Speaker 6: to each other face I love you, or that I
Speaker 6: love you, I just enjoyed being with you all that I'm.
Speaker 3: Enjoying being with you.
Speaker 4: I respect you and oh, I'm enjoying being respecting you. Right,
Speaker 4: we're almost all the time, at least for me, and
Speaker 4: I get the critics, and I just criticized myself. But
Speaker 4: for me, I just rather tell some bartender, oh this
Speaker 4: is my son, tell him that I'll love him, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean? And sometimes does from Papa the Strikers. Well,
Speaker 4: but what I can say, I'm very proud of Max.
Speaker 4: I'm very proud of everything that he did before before Ukraine, when.
Speaker 7: He was sixteen seventeen years old, young adult who didn't
Speaker 7: know what he was, but he started to help to
Speaker 7: teach and writing, start dance again to help the family
Speaker 7: to Soviet in the United States back in ninety ninety eight,
Speaker 7: right was ninety ninety seven, and through all these years
Speaker 7: he sacrificed. At that point, he sacrificed his last career
Speaker 7: just to help and that school that I'm not the best.
Speaker 4: I couldn't just replace him. I'm just going to do
Speaker 4: a lot of other stuff, but not to teach advanced.
Speaker 4: It was his beginning and that throughout all these years,
Speaker 4: even being successful advancing with the stars, he always helped
Speaker 4: other people. And I would say hundreds hundreds of people
Speaker 4: right now a.
Speaker 3: Seal in that business.
Speaker 4: There's been people who he drove there and he helped
Speaker 4: them to establish, help them to settle, the help down
Speaker 4: with advices and everything, and still help them. And when
Speaker 4: war started, it was his heart who just kept him here.
Speaker 3: He didn't want. We asked him to.
Speaker 4: Not go to your paint before war because he could
Speaker 4: not easily not go there. And we went him to
Speaker 4: get out from the paint before February twenty four and
Speaker 4: he said, no, guys, everything will be okay. I want
Speaker 4: to finish when I started here. I want to just
Speaker 4: continue to do because alightens people. I respect that meaning
Speaker 4: has a big card. And hopefully this heart will stay
Speaker 4: big and nothing hurt him. That's what I wish him
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful, man, That's that is that is beautiful. And
Speaker 2: you know, I'm glad that we could have this podcast
Speaker 2: so that you could both know that you love each
Speaker 2: other without with without without hearing it from a bartender.
Speaker 2: Just think of me as your bartender.
Speaker 4: You know, I could see I could see us on
Speaker 4: a on a on a doctor Field episode at this point.
Speaker 4: But you know, just tell each other how you feel.
Speaker 4: I I I just want to quickly add like, that's
Speaker 4: that's that's kind of us, that's us in a nutshell,
Speaker 4: and that's the entire family. We you know, we we
Speaker 4: come from such such humble beginnings and such.
Speaker 3: Normal regular way.
Speaker 4: You know, where I'm often confused with with some celebrity
Speaker 4: from Los Angeles. You know, I'm not I'm never going
Speaker 4: to become one. Uh, I'm always that. We don't have
Speaker 4: a problem saying we love you.
Speaker 3: We know we love each other.
Speaker 4: We we have that feeling we you know, we just
Speaker 4: don't act in the way that that that you know,
Speaker 4: we don't finish up on because Okay, I love you dad, Bye.
Speaker 3: We'll say each other when we see each other.
Speaker 4: But you know, this man is everything that that I
Speaker 4: have become is because of him.
Speaker 3: And you know, our mom's.
Speaker 4: Nurturing and his his leadership, and it's always been that way.
Speaker 4: So you know the fact that we my brother and
Speaker 4: I you know, I don't see myself not doing stuff
Speaker 4: with my family. I don't see myself not helping my family.
Speaker 4: But I also I'm very proud of bringing my family
Speaker 4: with me to whatever I'm doing because I know that
Speaker 4: this right here is going to be possible that I'm
Speaker 4: going to be some celebrity face, you know, of some
Speaker 4: kind of horrible situation. And I know that my family
Speaker 4: will not only have my back, but will continue my
Speaker 4: mission too, because because it's real and so you know,
Speaker 4: I love that it's this. I love that I didn't
Speaker 4: have to go to a corporation and and and talk about, hey,
Speaker 4: let's open a foundation. So you know, this is organic,
Speaker 4: as we say nowadays in the business world, this is
Speaker 4: this is something that you know, resonates with people because
Speaker 4: this is organic.
Speaker 3: And as I said.
Speaker 4: Before, we're here for the long haul, you know. We
Speaker 4: We're not here for a couple of months and then
Speaker 4: go on with life. We would love to go on
Speaker 4: with life. I would love for this to be over now.
Speaker 4: But when it's over, I'm going to go back to
Speaker 4: Ukraine anyway. You know, my dad's gonna continue, you know,
Speaker 4: continue building housing.
Speaker 3: Anyway. We're gonna you.
Speaker 4: Know, re re reposition ourselves to whatever we can do
Speaker 4: bigger and a bigger scale. Anyway, I think this is
Speaker 4: this is a lifetime connection and relationship.
Speaker 2: At this point, well, I got to say, you guys
Speaker 2: are it's incredibly impressive to me the work that you're doing. Uh,
Speaker 2: keep it up. You know, it's it's it's it's so important,
Speaker 2: and just uh, I don't I just I really, I'm
Speaker 2: so grateful that both of you, uh came on today
Speaker 2: and it was a fascinating conversation. Maxwe'll give you a
Speaker 2: there's this Absasha. Maybe you don't know this, maybe neither
Speaker 2: one of you do. There's this dumb game called the
Speaker 2: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where there's always a connection
Speaker 2: to me. It's somebody. I didn't make it up, somebody
Speaker 2: else did. But do you actually know Max r r
Speaker 2: six degrees connection?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: Do I know what this is? So? Do I know
Speaker 3: our connection?
Speaker 2: Do you know our connection?
Speaker 3: I didn't know?
Speaker 2: Okay, we're connected by actually only two steps because I
Speaker 2: did a movie called She's having a Baby and Kirsty
Speaker 2: Alley had a small puss and She's having a baby,
Speaker 2: and you dance with Kristy Alley.
Speaker 3: So there's that kirs Sally twice.
Speaker 2: Okay, so maybe that doubles it. I don't all right,
Speaker 2: cut it in half.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's a dumbicide. Uh. And just one more question for you,
Speaker 2: are you going to replace Len oh Man where the stars?
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, you're there the perfect guy.
Speaker 4: Right if if I'm not me and I'm saying it
Speaker 4: about someone from a side, I would say that I
Speaker 4: am the best candidate to replace somebody like that.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we heard it here first, folks.
Speaker 3: I would love to. I would love to.
Speaker 4: I would love my show to stay on air forever. Honestly,
Speaker 4: I think Dancing the Stars has been that thing that
Speaker 4: the entire generation, you know, we we were the only
Speaker 4: show for a long time that you know, three four
Speaker 4: generations can watch together and be interested.
Speaker 3: So I'm I'm a.
Speaker 4: Huge fan of dancing in general. Like I said, our family,
Speaker 4: Pops is the witness. Yesterday, our mom had our first,
Speaker 4: her first competition at the right page of sixty three,
Speaker 4: so awesome. We're now waiting for my dad to join
Speaker 4: and maybe they'll do some couple dancing too.
Speaker 2: But I never know something to look for.
Speaker 4: But the last thing I want to say, thank you
Speaker 4: so much, and I wouldn't be me and this wouldn't
Speaker 4: be our mission. And if I wouldn't direct people and
Speaker 4: say hey, please follow us and find Burnover twenty seven
Speaker 4: on whether it's social media, we are Barnover twenty seven
Speaker 4: dot org in our website. We are five oh one
Speaker 4: c three nonprofit public charity, so you know that we're
Speaker 4: real and legit, and I want to tell people that
Speaker 4: it's very very very cold in Ukraine now because there's
Speaker 4: no headen electricity. So you know we are the vessel.
Speaker 4: You are the you know, the ten fifteen dollars donation.
Speaker 4: That's all I want.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, thank you for doing that. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: b A r A n o Va twenty seven. Check
Speaker 2: it out. There's a lot that you can do and
Speaker 2: you can help the people of Ukraine. And thank you
Speaker 2: both so much for being here. Ship.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys, Thank you to help the house. Thank
Speaker 3: you appreciate it.
Speaker 8: If you do, hey, thanks for listening to another episode
Speaker 8: of six degrees. And if you want to learn more
Speaker 8: about Barronova twenty seven and all the work that Maxim
Speaker 8: and his father are up to, go to their website
Speaker 8: at Bornova twenty seven dot org bron Nova twenty seven
Speaker 8: dot org. Plus you can find all the links in.
Speaker 3: Our show notes and if you like.
Speaker 8: What you're here, make sure you subscribe to the show
Speaker 8: on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: See you next. Time