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Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Went and today we have very
Speaker 1: very special guests. Berger is in the building and I
Speaker 1: keep having I think I'm so focused on your voiceover
Speaker 1: talents that I'm like starting to funel my words because
Speaker 1: I really want to hear rhyme from Pokemon on the mic.
Speaker 3: Oh please, stuff, now listen. You gotta just think within yourself,
Speaker 3: be yourself, be Judy yourself, baby girl.
Speaker 1: I love this. What can you do? More voiceovers too?
Speaker 1: Since I have you, I'm gonna take you.
Speaker 3: I do this.
Speaker 1: I was like, if a singer is sitting here, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you gonna sing me my one on one concert right now.
Speaker 3: I'm enjoy this, enjoy well. First of all, let me
Speaker 3: tell you something you don't know me. So we got
Speaker 3: a little missus Pancakes. Wow, I'm Ricky Morty. Wow. And
Speaker 3: then there's there's just always my bubby, my Jewish bubby
Speaker 3: from Brooklyn. Will forget about that. Now Ruthy Burger is
Speaker 3: in the building and she's gonna be She's gonna stay,
Speaker 3: so don't start with her. Wow. Ever, there's just so
Speaker 3: many of this beautiful, just so many characters, and there's always
Speaker 3: there's always a cerebro from X Men, which welcome professor.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So, just so you guys know, you
Speaker 1: are the first black female actress in the Pokemon series
Speaker 1: Guys that is coming out on Netflix right now, is
Speaker 1: on Netflix. You can ask them right now.
Speaker 3: She's and I want to say something even more. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm the first female black queer gym leader and trainer.
Speaker 3: Now my character, I'm not going to classify her as queer,
Speaker 3: but I will classify her as the first female black
Speaker 3: trainer and gym leader.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So that that's that's a big deal. And for it
Speaker 3: to happen on Black History Months, I mean, yeah, this
Speaker 3: is incredible. And she dropped on my birthday on February seventh,
Speaker 3: So oh, you're a catch. You down come to you that? OK,
Speaker 3: it's just an honor. It's an honor, and you know,
Speaker 3: you always just want to reach one other sister, one
Speaker 3: little girl that's talking into her hairbrush like I was
Speaker 3: my entire life.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I know we're supposed to get into the dish,
Speaker 1: but I'm really curious. So I'm gonna go ahead, just
Speaker 1: get into a guy early. But this interview is gonna
Speaker 1: be a little backwards, but I'm just curious. So, like,
Speaker 1: you get the roles, how does it work?
Speaker 3: Are you?
Speaker 1: Do you have your own recording studio at home or
Speaker 1: do you have to go into studios?
Speaker 3: Have cur okay? Well, things changed with the pandemic. People
Speaker 3: started having their own studios and recording that way. But
Speaker 3: this was something that I went into the studio and
Speaker 3: I did the audition from home, but then the job
Speaker 3: happened in studio. I do a lot of my auditions
Speaker 3: from home, but I've also been a working voice of
Speaker 3: for actor for thirty six years.
Speaker 1: I think that's amazing. And then you've never did you
Speaker 1: have to ride the bus of the roller coaster from
Speaker 1: hell in the industry because you've had a long career.
Speaker 1: Is it like they just go call Malik on this,
Speaker 1: Malik will handle it?
Speaker 3: Alike, will do it?
Speaker 1: Or do you still have to pay your dues even
Speaker 1: though you have such a long resume.
Speaker 3: My dues are very interesting. We'll say I have always
Speaker 3: paid dues. But my mother, God rest her soul, Myra Berger,
Speaker 3: was a very big commercial agent and on camera commercial agent,
Speaker 3: and before that she was a theater producer. So I'm
Speaker 3: born and raised in this business. I have been working
Speaker 3: since I was three, starting with Russian ballet. I got
Speaker 3: my first acting scholarship at five from the Alphan Theatrical
Speaker 3: Ensemble so I've been working by disciplined. Yes, by seven,
Speaker 3: I was playing the flute with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Speaker 3: and James Galway. I started studying Shakespeare at nine and ten.
Speaker 1: You're making my daughter look very lazy.
Speaker 3: Right, She's not lazy.
Speaker 1: I didn't even get her to brother, let alone audition
Speaker 1: and memorize. Well, lower was your mom? Your mom hasn't
Speaker 1: been strict. I'm just trying to imagine, because I'm telling
Speaker 1: you right now my daughter tap dances all over me.
Speaker 3: Well, well, my kids are also, hopefully they're more wildly
Speaker 3: talented than I'll ever be. I got two lyricists that
Speaker 3: are giving you their drop of knowledge that I'm like,
Speaker 3: they listened, Wow, I listened, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: But to start at three, four or five, seven and
Speaker 1: a half, all these responsibilities, I would imagine your home
Speaker 1: life was very strict or not at all.
Speaker 3: My mom was a bohemian. I lived in a theater.
Speaker 3: That's how it started. My mom was a theater producer.
Speaker 3: My mom and my antiguin they were just like there
Speaker 3: were art people and my mom being you know, this
Speaker 3: cool Jewish check from Brooklyn. Before I came around, she
Speaker 3: was very much into the black theater scene in the
Speaker 3: early sixties, mid sixties here in Hollywood. She my family
Speaker 3: moved here from Brooklyn in the mid sixties. My mom's
Speaker 3: older brother, Shelly Berger, was as one of his I
Speaker 3: guess still was, Well he is. He's the Temptations manager.
Speaker 3: So he was in business with mister Hardy and he
Speaker 3: was one of the vice presidents of Motown Wow. And
Speaker 3: he had already moved to California, and my family decided
Speaker 3: to follow him.
Speaker 1: Oh wow with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah they did. And so my mom found out they
Speaker 3: were moving to California and she was always just drawn too.
Speaker 1: And how old were you when you had to move?
Speaker 3: I wasn't I wasn't here yet.
Speaker 1: Oh you weren't here. Oh so you're not a Brooklyn girl.
Speaker 1: You're a Calli girl. You want to raise for household damn.
Speaker 1: But you got to accident down good? Yeah, that accident
Speaker 1: down good. That was totally believed that.
Speaker 3: Okay, No, I'm not Brooklyn, I am La. I'm West Hollywood.
Speaker 1: That's how you know your voiceover work is platinum status
Speaker 1: because I was like, you do that voice great sang? Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna take me into what you're eating when
Speaker 1: you're broke. What are you gonna have me eating today?
Speaker 3: Okay, so I will tell you the broke situation.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 3: My mother was and is and will always be my life,
Speaker 3: my mentor, my everything because it was just my mom
Speaker 3: and I. When my mom decided to marry my dad,
Speaker 3: who was black and God rest his soul, also, she
Speaker 3: went to my Jewish grandparents and said, the night before
Speaker 3: mel and I are going to get married, and we'd
Speaker 3: very much like you to come to city Hall tomorrow.
Speaker 3: My Jewish grandparents said, we understand what we're going to do.
Speaker 3: Please call us when you're done, and do not have
Speaker 3: any children.
Speaker 1: I believe that as a Jewish and black child, I
Speaker 1: believe that I've been there. Okay, so totally relatable. See,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be best.
Speaker 3: I told you, I told you, I told you so.
Speaker 3: When this happened, she was just owned by my grandparents.
Speaker 3: And even though my uncle could you know he was
Speaker 3: doing what he was doing, and that was cool because
Speaker 3: he's a man, but this was their daughter.
Speaker 1: So wait, your uncle was doing because he was because
Speaker 1: temptations and all that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it still does. God bless them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's not It wasn't a broke thing. It
Speaker 3: was an away thing, and you know, my mom and
Speaker 3: dad did what they did. It worked as much as
Speaker 3: it worked. But by nineteen months it was done. And
Speaker 3: she called my uncle Shelly, and he got us home.
Speaker 3: And there are a lot of issues with my mom
Speaker 3: and my dad, but they made sure to tell me
Speaker 3: you were made out of love, and I was love
Speaker 3: that and that was And I never saw my dad again.
Speaker 3: They got divorced. I never saw him again. So my mother, ever, ever, ever, ever,
Speaker 3: ever again?
Speaker 1: How old were you?
Speaker 3: I was nineteen months most half? I guess, yeah, do
Speaker 3: you even remember that?
Speaker 1: None?
Speaker 3: I have no recollection of any of it.
Speaker 1: But do you have like pictures or something?
Speaker 3: I have a picture. I have a picture. So it's
Speaker 3: very interesting to not know that entire side.
Speaker 1: Oh so you don't know the whole entire side. No, oh,
Speaker 1: we got stuff, We got stuff.
Speaker 3: Relate O. Okay, we really do. So you will now
Speaker 3: tell you about Jewish spaghetti and Jewish hampergos. So this
Speaker 3: is arrested.
Speaker 1: I'm going to backtrack. So were they when they were
Speaker 1: together and she got disowned for the time that she
Speaker 1: got disowned, were you guys struggling? Did she share that?
Speaker 1: Were they struggling together during that period.
Speaker 3: The struggle was my my father was a huge which
Speaker 3: she didn't know. He was a drug addict and a
Speaker 3: huge alcoholic. And it's really funny. She met him at
Speaker 3: Bonnie's Beanery. I'm Santa Monica in Los Angle and he
Speaker 3: walked up to her and he said, hey, you want
Speaker 3: to be my old lady, and she said yes, and
Speaker 3: that's how that happened. Okay, So, yeah, there was some
Speaker 3: problem she didn't know about.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, Okay, that's a that's a lot to handle.
Speaker 3: That's that happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I'm so invasive.
Speaker 3: No please show I'm ready. Okay, there's no shame.
Speaker 1: Okay, tell me this story. My new friend Malik, So
Speaker 1: you know that she.
Speaker 3: Moved to Baldwin Hills, she had her baby and up
Speaker 3: there was a lot of alcoholism and a lot of
Speaker 3: drug abuse in that situation, you know, and she took it.
Speaker 3: She took it because my mom's a G. She's a G.
Speaker 3: And again, she was really into the theater scene. So
Speaker 3: and it was absolutely it was black a blaxploitation time
Speaker 3: when she was hanging with like dope black actors at
Speaker 3: that time. Arnold Williams was one of them. Ron Rich
Speaker 3: was another one of them. She also, come to find
Speaker 3: out later in life, was dear close with her true prior.
Speaker 3: And that's another story because we'll get into she's my
Speaker 3: relationship Raine Pryor, who is my sister. Okay, and that's
Speaker 3: where fried Chicken Unlacus comes in. But that's that's that.
Speaker 3: That's another story which we will talk about too. Good.
Speaker 3: So this recipe that we're going to talk about about
Speaker 3: our George spaghetti and hamburgers. It wasn't that that we
Speaker 3: were broke. We were well. It was we were broke.
Speaker 3: We were broke because we were alone because we didn't
Speaker 3: get that money anymore from my grandparents. They didn't know me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But when we came back and my uncle Shelly did
Speaker 3: come and basically rescue us from a situation. He called
Speaker 3: my grandparents and he said, you better get up here
Speaker 3: and meet your granddaughter. Oh that one got emotional for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah good, I want to see you cry before me. Okay,
Speaker 1: sorry because I cried with the Okay, so.
Speaker 3: Sorry, you go. And I will forever be grateful for
Speaker 3: him to bring me home. I had to bring my
Speaker 3: mom home and to keep us safe and I'll tell
Speaker 3: you when Jack and Ruth Berger saw their grand baby,
Speaker 3: they gave me the most beautiful life and my Jewish
Speaker 3: Jewish education, and they threw me to the arms of
Speaker 3: the rabbi and I am very proud. Drew.
Speaker 1: I love that. So there was that, Yeah, so my
Speaker 1: grandma's So they embraced you. It just.
Speaker 3: Was I was a baby girl.
Speaker 1: Did they ever talk about not trying to be negative?
Speaker 1: But did they ever at some point bring up the
Speaker 1: biracial part of denied it? They denied it.
Speaker 3: I was so light skinned. They just didn't talk about
Speaker 3: it until I talked about.
Speaker 1: It, and then you started getting more vocal with it.
Speaker 3: I got very vocal with it. I'm super vocal with it.
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty nine, I was a big dancer still
Speaker 3: and I went to a club called Water the Bush
Speaker 3: and met Africa Islam and got very indoctrinated into the zulination.
Speaker 3: I actually was the second name Zulu Queen in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: Hip hop and graffiti are a big part of my life,
Speaker 3: and that was it. That was my thing, and I
Speaker 3: was very proud. I still am proud to anybody who's listening,
Speaker 3: and that I talked about it. A lot, and I
Speaker 3: think by the air of young you poor. One year,
Speaker 3: I was going to see the minister Farrakhon speak and
Speaker 3: my mother called my grandfather and she was like, Daddy,
Speaker 3: like she's gonna go and she's gonna hear fharicn. And
Speaker 3: my grandfather said, my you have to let it do
Speaker 3: what she's gonna do, because one day she's going to
Speaker 3: have to pick. And then my cousin Nicole was like, Papa,
Speaker 3: you can't make her pick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's everything. Yeah, but did you feel a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure growing up like you had to pick? So
Speaker 1: because it eventually becomes like this prevailing like thing culturally right,
Speaker 1: because are the blacks really accepting you? And are the Jews? Definitely?
Speaker 1: Are the whites accepting you?
Speaker 3: Well, I went to Hebrew school for a long time,
Speaker 3: so I'll tell you there's a lot of are you adopted?
Speaker 3: Did you convert? And Jewel?
Speaker 1: Well, if your mom is Jeelle.
Speaker 3: That's the thing though in different spaces, and I talked
Speaker 3: to rain about this all the time. You are asked
Speaker 3: if you converted, and we're to the place where no,
Speaker 3: we did not convert, And why are we being asked
Speaker 3: that if our mother's are Jew? Why are you asking
Speaker 3: me this? Now? We've risen above that and there's so
Speaker 3: many more black Jews now, which really leads me to
Speaker 3: the ninth birthday I had at Flipper's roller boogie ballas
Speaker 3: I saw Rain. She was skating there and I was
Speaker 3: nine and I saw this girl that looked like me,
Speaker 3: and I skated right up to her and I said,
Speaker 3: you have to come to my birthday party. And she
Speaker 3: was like, when is it? And I said, it's right now,
Speaker 3: because I never saw another person that resembled me, and
Speaker 3: it wound up being Rain and Rain and I have
Speaker 3: been together ever since, and we didn't know who we were,
Speaker 3: that our parents knew each other. And we forged through
Speaker 3: this together because we thought we were the only two
Speaker 3: black Jews in the world at that point. And we
Speaker 3: have gone through it together. So she's mine. There's the
Speaker 3: other tier, she's the other foot, you know. And we
Speaker 3: did it and we had no idea that our folks
Speaker 3: even knew each other. And that's pretty did and then yeah,
Speaker 3: and so I'm the fast one and she's the one
Speaker 3: that got the straighted.
Speaker 1: You did mention though it was your mom that called
Speaker 1: your dad that was concerned about the you showing up
Speaker 1: to the Fara con.
Speaker 3: No, it was my mom that called my grandfather.
Speaker 1: It was your mom calling your grandfather.
Speaker 3: She was with my dad.
Speaker 1: No, I met your mother calling your grandfather. So she
Speaker 1: was concerned about it too though.
Speaker 3: Because she thought that I would turn my back on
Speaker 3: the Jewish community. And she didn't know. There was never
Speaker 3: a dad.
Speaker 1: There was my papa, I met your I met your grandfather.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I will tell you there never was a dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: My grandfather was the the patriarch, and that was the everything,
Speaker 3: and that's who sent me to Hebrew School. And you know,
Speaker 3: so I went through a lot. So I went through
Speaker 3: a lot there, but my Jewish identity is everything to
Speaker 3: me and sisters, I'll tell you, I've had some some renans.
Speaker 3: I've had some rennans, especially dancing back dancing Russian ballet.
Speaker 3: That was a lot too, you know, And it was
Speaker 3: a lot on camera because you can't be funny and curvy,
Speaker 3: I mean eighty one, eighty two, eighty three, eighty five.
Speaker 3: It was like, you're too funny to be curvy, and
Speaker 3: you're too light to be connected with another family. So
Speaker 3: you either need to get really really fat or lose
Speaker 3: all all of everything to get a job. Wo you know,
Speaker 3: a different world was where we went here in La
Speaker 3: to like it was the stable, like here's your pink
Speaker 3: and green sweatshirt, and here's your special business. And it
Speaker 3: just turned into something that got very sad. It was sad.
Speaker 3: Maybe coming on voiceover artists was a fluke. It was
Speaker 3: an accident. Oh, it was an accident.
Speaker 1: It is so it is almost lunch stiff and we're
Speaker 1: gonna be eating. So what do you was sorry to
Speaker 1: derail you one hundred times about eating.
Speaker 3: We are eating Jewish spaghetti and hamburgers, which was my
Speaker 3: It was my grandma Ruth, My bubby roots was the recipe.
Speaker 3: So this is the recipe that you could do it
Speaker 3: two ways. If you had a little extra money, you
Speaker 3: could make it with salmon croquettes. If you were ball
Speaker 3: and on a budget, you could do it with hamburger.
Speaker 3: We're going to do it with turkey, Yes, tonight, accommodate
Speaker 3: with turkey. We're going to do some accommodations. And the
Speaker 3: reason we call it Jewish spaghetti is there's no olive oil,
Speaker 3: there's no garlic.
Speaker 2: Got it?
Speaker 3: Got it?
Speaker 1: Also, I should remove the garlic powder that is.
Speaker 3: Fine, don't worm about gard but it is basically butter
Speaker 3: instead of oils, onions instead of garlic, and it's a
Speaker 3: it's quick and simple, large can of tomato sauce, tomato paste,
Speaker 3: a lot of love. And what I did motsa meal
Speaker 3: instead of bread crumbs. And what I did as my
Speaker 3: son's got older, was we had to get that creolesis
Speaker 3: and just a little bit to get as of blackness
Speaker 3: that sounds of blackness.
Speaker 1: And then you had the eggs.
Speaker 3: The eggs are going to bind our meat. And then
Speaker 3: it served with our favorite This is like the kool
Speaker 3: aid of of Jewish grape juice last right, which is
Speaker 3: non alcoholic. And so we have that and we'll talk
Speaker 3: about that stuff too. So what do we do? You
Speaker 3: get to do it?
Speaker 1: You down, I'm gonna be the lazy side chip that's like,
Speaker 1: please don't burn down and ooh that's how you make it.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna be eating very good today. So go ahead,
Speaker 1: start cooking. Here we go, let's get I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: all up in your business and find out more she
Speaker 1: up in my business exactly, all right, all right, go ahead,
Speaker 1: start cooking, cooking.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I'm going to start with the.
Speaker 1: Share out the way, so chair it's trying to like
Speaker 1: it's because it's.
Speaker 3: This is not the big d it. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna start with my of my onions just this.
Speaker 1: Oh no it's not on Okay, so that the right one.
Speaker 1: Tell you a joke. I can't do it on the
Speaker 1: spot like that. But while you're heating the oven, well,
Speaker 1: actually you could. Just most of our audience are listeners
Speaker 1: and they're not able to watch the episodes, so you
Speaker 1: could go ahead and start telling us how to make
Speaker 1: the dish.
Speaker 3: Knife.
Speaker 1: She needs a knife. You know. We kept just so
Speaker 1: you guys know, we kept going Malik, I'm missing anything
Speaker 1: and within.
Speaker 3: Ten seconds missing knife. Okay, well then I will tell
Speaker 3: you listeners. Butter in the burger household is basically it's everything.
Speaker 1: That's how you know if someone could cook good by
Speaker 1: the way, if they use butter. I go through just
Speaker 1: so you know about twelve sticks a butter a week.
Speaker 3: I love you for that, really, I love you for that.
Speaker 1: People always ask like, what's so good about it? I'm like, butter,
Speaker 1: real butter, and it's not a.
Speaker 3: Bit of salted. It has to be salted. I don't
Speaker 3: care if you say and don't use unsalted better butter.
Speaker 1: I saw we had Chris Spencer on the show and
Speaker 1: he said something I never heard someone say. He said,
Speaker 1: unsalted butter is just like using macoline, Like what are
Speaker 1: you doing? And I was like, oh my god, that
Speaker 1: was so brilliant.
Speaker 3: That is good and pick up just Chris Spencer. My
Speaker 3: mom was Chris Spencer's agent. So what Chris Spencer. Everyone
Speaker 3: knows spaky. It's laky. What's that? You know? Funny thing
Speaker 3: about butter? People are so scared of it. Please don't
Speaker 3: be scared of but it.
Speaker 1: Butter.
Speaker 3: It's a fine thing. Butter is a fine thing. So
Speaker 3: there's that. So I'll tell you some more. Then I'll
Speaker 3: give you some more of the story. My mom suddenly
Speaker 3: passed away in twenty six, twenty thirteen. My mom found
Speaker 3: out that she contracted hepatitis se from my dad because
Speaker 3: he was an intravenous drug user. And in ninety nine
Speaker 3: I got sober because I had some really bad issues
Speaker 3: with drugs and alcohol and it was something that needed
Speaker 3: to happen. Now, God spared me because I happened to
Speaker 3: believe in God that I don't push it on anybody. Else.
Speaker 3: But that's just who I am. I'm a child of God,
Speaker 3: and that's why I'm still alive because the things I've
Speaker 3: done in my life, you would I'm walking miracle straight up.
Speaker 3: And I got sober, and my deal was because it
Speaker 3: was just me and my mom, who was my agent,
Speaker 3: my manager, my life force.
Speaker 1: I mean, my mom and.
Speaker 3: I got sober. But the outclause was if anything God
Speaker 3: forbid were to happen to her, I was going out.
Speaker 3: I had been married to my kid's dad. I'm also queer.
Speaker 3: He knew that's the deal.
Speaker 1: From one day to dude, just know you told him
Speaker 1: up front.
Speaker 3: Any guy I dated son, if you're watching, I didn't
Speaker 3: know because you do.
Speaker 1: Oh well, so he knew. I gotta get I'm curious.
Speaker 1: Okay someone wait wait, so he knew any signed up?
Speaker 1: And what was the arrangement? Like you could tolerate?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Absolutely, okay, absolutely, that's just how it is.
Speaker 1: And he was cool with it, of course, very because
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not a bad deal too.
Speaker 3: Listen, well, you know I separate my poisons. You don't
Speaker 3: have anything to do with what I do on my day.
Speaker 1: What if he says, though, did it open him up
Speaker 1: to say, well, can I opt for extras.
Speaker 3: To you know what? That was? Even he was a musician,
Speaker 3: so when he was on the road or whatnot, that
Speaker 3: doesn't have anything to do with me. I'm a lot
Speaker 3: of what you do does not anything to do with me.
Speaker 1: Okay, o.
Speaker 3: Business.
Speaker 1: As I get older, I'm starting to get there. I'm
Speaker 1: starting to be like, I'm going to do myself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know who I am.
Speaker 3: So there's that. And what it is is what it is,
Speaker 3: what it is, what it is, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I say that because there was a reason I
Speaker 3: was saying that.
Speaker 1: So wait, wait, if you were if you are queer, sorry,
Speaker 1: but you married a man? What what what was your
Speaker 1: intention to marry him? Were you just in love or something?
Speaker 3: I fell in love. I fell in love. And that
Speaker 3: goes back to the sobriety because I met one of
Speaker 3: my first sponsors was black and Jewish and I'm also
Speaker 3: a singer. So she said, okay, I'm gonna take you
Speaker 3: to this church because they need singers. And I walked
Speaker 3: into this little we went into it. It was like
Speaker 3: an alley in Englewood. It was a garage and so funny,
Speaker 3: and you know, I'm in my Fred Siegel's Best. If
Speaker 3: you don't know Fred Siegel, everybody it was. It was
Speaker 3: terribly expensive clothing still and Lauros and I had just
Speaker 3: turned thirty. It was like two weeks in the thirty
Speaker 3: and I walked in. This brother was warming up his sacks,
Speaker 3: and I was dressed terribly inappropriately to go to church.
Speaker 3: Of course, because you know me, you already know me,
Speaker 3: and I can.
Speaker 1: I'm visiting it.
Speaker 3: I'm fierced. And you know I met I met Damon Renti,
Speaker 3: and he was the original saxophonist of Atlantic Star and
Speaker 3: de Barge and this and that and this and that.
Speaker 3: I'm putting my hand in here right now.
Speaker 1: I was just more concerned that she is not even
Speaker 1: used in the Little Spring.
Speaker 3: You gotta feel it. You gotta feel. You have to
Speaker 3: your onions, you gotta feel your salt. You what's going on?
Speaker 1: Very fancy.
Speaker 3: She's a fancy last, She's a fantasy live.
Speaker 1: I've never in my life cooked and did that whole
Speaker 1: spriggle thing, but I think I'm going to steal that
Speaker 1: sprinkle on.
Speaker 3: You gotta get your sprinkled and teach my daughter how
Speaker 3: to do this, just even if you don't know how
Speaker 3: to cook. Just do it. Do that.
Speaker 1: So you walk into the walk into the.
Speaker 3: Church and and it's on because he's warming up his sacks,
Speaker 3: and like, oh, that's what I'm going to marry. Also
Speaker 3: without having a dad. You know, I knew that this
Speaker 3: was He's fifteen years my senior, and I wanted to
Speaker 3: have children, and I said, oh, this is going to
Speaker 3: be safe. And I needed safety because I had just
Speaker 3: gotten sober and I knew I didn't want to be
Speaker 3: who I was any longer. And that's what happened. And
Speaker 3: we were together for quite some time, and we had
Speaker 3: beautiful boys. Lys lyricsis shout out to seventy, shout out
Speaker 3: to Negro Ku, Kooli Jackson and Julian and we did that.
Speaker 3: We you know, we did this thing. We made a
Speaker 3: beautiful album together and we're still. That's one of my
Speaker 3: best friends. Man, that's that's one of my best friends.
Speaker 1: So you meet him, meet.
Speaker 3: Ministry two thousand.
Speaker 1: Ministry two thousand, and then does Sobriety end up creeping
Speaker 1: in there?
Speaker 3: Nope, stayed Sobriety stayed good. But him and my mom
Speaker 3: were like oil and water.
Speaker 1: Okay, there was that because.
Speaker 3: First of all, my mom was tough from Brooklyn five
Speaker 3: feet tall.
Speaker 1: Wait it was he he's black? Yes, okay, okay, got.
Speaker 3: It, got it. And but we all lived together because
Speaker 3: my mom had just what does it call when you
Speaker 3: leave your job because you retire?
Speaker 1: That's it?
Speaker 3: Okay, And you don't separate me from my mom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just don't package steel.
Speaker 3: We're a package steel. But all in all, oh, pepper,
Speaker 3: pepper gone. All in all, we had two beautiful babies.
Speaker 3: And I say that because in this he did support
Speaker 3: my sobriety so much and I was able to stay sober.
Speaker 3: But when we had started parting our ways, I did
Speaker 3: find out that my mom was very sick, and it
Speaker 3: happened very quickly. My mom had gout and after we separated,
Speaker 3: they had given my mom a medication that woke up
Speaker 3: the pepsi and within three years my mom was gone.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So I didn't have the upbringing as many folks do.
Speaker 3: When you're in my industry. This is what you do
Speaker 3: with your money, this is how my mom handled everything.
Speaker 3: And even in marriage, my mom still handled all of
Speaker 3: my because she was my ancient and a manager, my
Speaker 3: business manager.
Speaker 1: So and were you and your husband at the time
Speaker 1: doing really well?
Speaker 3: Or we were we were fine, but everything was separate.
Speaker 1: Everything was separate.
Speaker 3: So she was most definitely So I didn't know how
Speaker 3: to pay a bill or right. I knew how to
Speaker 3: write a check, but you know, I didn't know how
Speaker 3: to take care of myself. And I had my two boys,
Speaker 3: and you know we lived the life of Riley m Well,
Speaker 3: that's not realistic. I then found out the hard way,
Speaker 3: so like when they turned the lights off at the
Speaker 3: condo that we got, and when I didn't know how
Speaker 3: to go shopping and I didn't know that you needed
Speaker 3: like quarters and stuff when you didn't have a washing machine.
Speaker 3: The night of my mom's memorial, I just said, well, Fitt,
Speaker 3: call the dude, and I was out. You know, within
Speaker 3: minutes of my mom passing, I took, well, you know
Speaker 3: you're going to call someone when you're gonna start using drinking.
Speaker 3: So while my mom was dying, I packed it in
Speaker 3: and gave up fourteen years of sobriety.
Speaker 1: Fourteen years, my goodness, fourteen years. You wasn't lying when
Speaker 1: you said this story was how was that?
Speaker 3: Now was that? And at that time I want to
Speaker 3: say that Jackson and Julian were oh no, oh tomato
Speaker 3: paste tomato paste, So you want to get the tomato
Speaker 3: paste into the butter, into the onions first because you
Speaker 3: want to melt it down. And this is one small
Speaker 3: can of tomato paste. Yeah, I'm gonna put this here.
Speaker 1: Do whatever you want.
Speaker 3: Everything, Thank you. Everything's going together and.
Speaker 1: This story is so good. Every time you step and
Speaker 1: now it's agree.
Speaker 3: It's just all there, we go, there, we go.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you so you had I'm just curious, genuinely,
Speaker 1: like emotionally, how did you feel on the inside when
Speaker 1: you like just said goodbye to fourteen years of sobriety
Speaker 1: because that had to have been a tough pill.
Speaker 3: I felt nothing because I lost my mother and I
Speaker 3: was not prepared and I didn't want to be here
Speaker 3: anymore because I didn't know how to survive without her,
Speaker 3: because we didn't have a plan for that. And I
Speaker 3: was very angry with God and I I didn't know
Speaker 3: what to do with my babies, and I even asked
Speaker 3: him to take them. I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3: And Jack and Julian are eighteen months apart, an aquarius
Speaker 3: and a cancer. They are anointed angelic. They're everything good
Speaker 3: about me. And I did not deserved to be their
Speaker 3: mother as far as I was concerned, Tomato sauce. I
Speaker 3: lost it. I lost it.
Speaker 1: So how long were you in the I lost it mode?
Speaker 3: Three years? Three years, three years.
Speaker 1: You're so strong, it's so powerful right now, it's crazy
Speaker 1: to imagine that three years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did some research for three years, and for
Speaker 3: three years, these young men grew up. These young men.
Speaker 1: Grew How old were they at the time, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 3: They were in third So it started third and fifth
Speaker 3: grade into oh no, no, no, no, it was middle school.
Speaker 3: They were middle school getting ready like Jack. At the
Speaker 3: end of it, Jack was just starting high school. You
Speaker 3: eated his first year ninth grade. I signed him up
Speaker 3: for ninth grade with a big gulplovodka and in my
Speaker 3: hand and in uber.
Speaker 1: Oh, you were in it.
Speaker 3: I was in it. Okay, I was in it. And
Speaker 3: I was, you know, leaving notes with money for pizza
Speaker 3: hut and still going to my auditions, you know, still
Speaker 3: doing my thing, still working.
Speaker 1: At this point, who's managing your money while you're in
Speaker 1: this kind of you're stuck in it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just straight thugging.
Speaker 1: Did your ex take full Well he wasn't. Really, it
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like he was saying, full responsibility of the kids.
Speaker 3: He did everything he could, like he'd see them on
Speaker 3: the weekend. But what my ex did, and I you know,
Speaker 3: God bless him for the rest of every day of
Speaker 3: this life. He made sure that that rent was paid.
Speaker 3: There was always a roof over our head. He was
Speaker 3: doing their laundry, he was picking them up when he could.
Speaker 3: There's food in the house. And that's when when my friends,
Speaker 3: you know, we're gathering, you know, they were gathering. They
Speaker 3: were No one didn't check in on those babies. Those
Speaker 3: babies were never alone. But it was those babies that
Speaker 3: checked in on me. And that's when Jackson and Julian
Speaker 3: grew up and they saved me, and they checked in
Speaker 3: on you. Yes they did.
Speaker 1: Are you comfortable getting into that, Yes i am.
Speaker 3: I'm very very I'm truly blessed that I'm alive to
Speaker 3: tell you the story. And when that happened, it was like,
Speaker 3: what were they gonna do? You know, I don't have
Speaker 3: There weren't many people they could have called. Now the
Speaker 3: sauce as hopefully you see.
Speaker 1: Is it looks good, it looks delicious. I'm hungry.
Speaker 3: There we go, there we go. We're going to move
Speaker 3: over to the Jewish hamburgers.
Speaker 1: Now do you want to put this here?
Speaker 3: Is that? Okay?
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure if we burned down the house, you
Speaker 1: and I were doing it together, doing it together. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't have real insurance. Hare shout
Speaker 1: outs to the mall for not.
Speaker 3: Knowing we're gonna you know what, we're actually gonna do
Speaker 3: tape that we could put the sauce in here. Then okay, okay, great,
Speaker 3: go back to the story. So they check it on me.
Speaker 3: But you know it turned. I went to a place
Speaker 3: where I was this is really you know that, this
Speaker 3: is real, y'all because I was wearing a gown at
Speaker 3: pastout time every night, with a full face of makeup.
Speaker 3: So when they came in and saw me not here
Speaker 3: any longer, at least they'd have a memory of a
Speaker 3: beautiful mom oh my gosh, and they could say and
Speaker 3: not be scared to say, doesn't mommy look beautiful. I
Speaker 3: never wanted them to walk in if I wasn't here
Speaker 3: any longer and be scared. I mean, that's when you've
Speaker 3: really lost it. Yeah. So I had a spiritual awakening,
Speaker 3: and since I had so much time and so much ego.
Speaker 3: I decided that it was time to get clean, and
Speaker 3: I called a friend and I said, I'm going to
Speaker 3: DT or detox alone, because I had too much pride
Speaker 3: to step into a meeting as a newcomer again.
Speaker 1: Okay, oh yeah, because you've kind of you've been okay, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, so you go, you go into detox by yourself.
Speaker 3: Myself, I sweated out a dear friend that I'll always love.
Speaker 3: We don't speak any longer, but she came to the house.
Speaker 3: She made sure that the boys were okay. You know,
Speaker 3: I was in the bends. I got through it, I went,
Speaker 3: I did it, but I was still working as an actor.
Speaker 3: I knew how to get there, do my job, get out.
Speaker 1: Now did other people in the field know that you
Speaker 1: were struggling with this problem?
Speaker 3: Or I asked that really really well one job, not
Speaker 3: so well? Every everybody else? Well, okay, real well, at
Speaker 3: least I thought I did. And I was very skinny,
Speaker 3: and I was a little green, a little of a
Speaker 3: green haze. And you can laugh now, because tragedy pleus
Speaker 3: comedy equals sign if it does. Yeah, but I held
Speaker 3: it together best I could, and thank you so much.
Speaker 3: And I need a little room. I'm gonna go, and
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: They're like watching a movie. When I say you ever
Speaker 1: see a movie and they go to commercial, You're.
Speaker 3: Like, fuck stop commercial all.
Speaker 1: She put the bowl down, guys, let's put the meat
Speaker 1: in there. Fast forward. I want to get to the
Speaker 1: story just like you, guys.
Speaker 3: So we're gonna take two eggs right now, full starters,
Speaker 3: two eggs. And my very best friend said, listen, if
Speaker 3: you don't get clean, I will leave your life. And
Speaker 3: you've got to do it for the boys.
Speaker 1: But this is after you did detox or before.
Speaker 3: Right before she said, if you don't get clean, she
Speaker 3: took me and my best friend is Welsh, as is
Speaker 3: my new husband. She said, if you don't get you
Speaker 3: have a new husband. We'll talk.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. When I saying I like this story.
Speaker 3: I'm like my husband funny enough is trans I'm from Wales,
Speaker 3: so I got, we got. We got to talk.
Speaker 1: When I say, I've never been so curious, we have
Speaker 1: what forty five minutes we're gonna go all the time.
Speaker 1: Katie already knows that I feel bad because we have
Speaker 1: another guest, but we'll figure it out.
Speaker 3: A lot of talk about so anyway, if you don't
Speaker 3: get clean, it's done. I'm out of your life. Matthles,
Speaker 3: So in here right now, two eggs. We're using turkey
Speaker 3: for my sister because she's not gonna eat ground beef.
Speaker 3: And she said, so listen, let's have our last shot
Speaker 3: at Jamison. Get your ass clean, so then clean detox.
Speaker 3: Here comes the matzamal again. This is Jewish breadcrumbs. And
Speaker 3: I had my last shot at Jamison and then I
Speaker 3: went and detoxed because it wasn't just alcohol, it was
Speaker 3: also drugs. My jug of choice is very Rick James.
Speaker 3: And I'll leave it at that. And I'm glad I
Speaker 3: would have asked one hell of a drug and and
Speaker 3: I did it. I went home and I started so in.
Speaker 1: My seasoning, and she put the tonys.
Speaker 3: I believe Tony's just last.
Speaker 1: Tony's last. I'll startry season. I'm paying attention to the
Speaker 1: story gains.
Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm gonna do some onion powder after that.
Speaker 1: Just seasoning all the meat.
Speaker 3: Guys us name to me.
Speaker 1: And she's she's gangster with it because she's not even
Speaker 1: using the little sprinkle tops.
Speaker 3: All that look looks, smell and touch.
Speaker 1: Oh there we got the onion.
Speaker 3: You know what it looks like, you know what it
Speaker 3: looks like it's gonna be. And then this is where
Speaker 3: the garlic comes in at my house. Garlic at my
Speaker 3: house just a tast a little because you know it's
Speaker 3: a gas drop. Now what I did, though, I do hear.
Speaker 3: My father's from New Orleans. We didn't live. We get
Speaker 3: our our little bit, just our little bit.
Speaker 1: Of our Tony's okay.
Speaker 3: And then this is when I put the gloves on
Speaker 3: because I'm on the TV. Okay, you know it's my hand.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So back to the story. So you go,
Speaker 1: you go to.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know the detax. It's in my bed,
Speaker 3: sweating it out. Oh I thought you said you wish,
Speaker 3: So I don't go anywhere. I'm having my sheets changed
Speaker 3: every six hours or so, sweating out GATORID B twelve
Speaker 3: vitamin C.
Speaker 1: And during the whole details, are you like pooping yourself,
Speaker 1: throwing up and all that? You have to go through
Speaker 1: all those motions, like you have to go through everything,
Speaker 1: and then like, is there is there family on site
Speaker 1: to like get you drinks or just stay and are.
Speaker 3: You there's not? There's there's there's main family. There's not family. Family.
Speaker 3: I don't have a lot of family, family, a and
Speaker 3: and that's what it was. Okay, it was what it
Speaker 3: needed to be for me to do it. I don't
Speaker 3: have anya people around, but I have who I need
Speaker 3: to have to get me through because I'm in a
Speaker 3: lot of prayer. I have God, yeah, and a lot
Speaker 3: a little too much pride. But you know, if I
Speaker 3: was going to go, I was going to go. Had
Speaker 3: a couple of conversations with with death. Who to me.
Speaker 3: She never scared me. She was never coming with a
Speaker 3: sickle to take me. I felt when I saw her
Speaker 3: the three times. And I'm just going to tell everyone
Speaker 3: this might sound strange, but she's super hot. She has
Speaker 3: red hair, she looks I she had badass boots on
Speaker 3: and a hell of a belt buckle.
Speaker 1: Milike. I love you, I really think, I genuinely.
Speaker 3: Just love you. I love you too. I knew when
Speaker 3: I saw you so and she you know, she's she
Speaker 3: stood over the bed a couple of times and she
Speaker 3: just checked in just to let me know she was
Speaker 3: there and I didn't have to come. She never put
Speaker 3: her hand out to me and said let's go. She
Speaker 3: stood there and let me know I didn't have to
Speaker 3: come detox is.
Speaker 1: Really bad trip.
Speaker 3: It's a trip.
Speaker 1: So how long do you have to detox for?
Speaker 3: It took me about fourteen solid days.
Speaker 1: Fourteen days of hanging out with the girl. What's you say?
Speaker 1: She was worth?
Speaker 3: Just badass, a badass belt buckle on bad She was like,
Speaker 3: hey you she was good, she was good. Made it
Speaker 3: fourteen days?
Speaker 1: What do you so? Then you start your walk?
Speaker 3: Officially, I didn't start my walk yet. I waited thirty
Speaker 3: I waited thirty. But in this time my best friend
Speaker 3: yet again. Her husband was, I'm just gonna like clean this,
Speaker 3: you know, when I'm not, I'm gonna use the same
Speaker 3: pan and nice and hot. Here comes to oil because
Speaker 3: I'm getting ready to make some little Jewish mebals.
Speaker 1: Guys, we're gonna eat good.
Speaker 3: We don't eat good, and we're going are we hot
Speaker 3: orre we We're still hot? Okay, we're gonna put that
Speaker 3: oil in. And there was a screening for a film
Speaker 3: that he had just produced, a documentary, and their friend,
Speaker 3: who had many, many years of sobriety, was that the screening,
Speaker 3: here's the setup, and I'm in a program and of sobriety.
Speaker 3: And when there's someone there that that has time. They're
Speaker 3: sometimes called your eskimo, and your eskimo is who kind
Speaker 3: of brings you back. Right. So she comes up to me,
Speaker 3: a very dear friend and says, so you got some time? Now,
Speaker 3: how's that? How's that doing? How's that going for you? Thank? Yeah? Here,
Speaker 3: you haven't gone to any other meetings? How's that gonna
Speaker 3: worry you? And I'm like, I'm fine, I'm doing great,
Speaker 3: I'm wonderful, terrific. Well, if you ever want to, you know,
Speaker 3: you can call me. And my prideful ass waited thirty days. Okay,
Speaker 3: so I did not have to walk in New Okay.
Speaker 1: Was walking anew that tough for my ass? Okay?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was because I still wasn't ready to Now
Speaker 3: I would. I would never suggest hello, if you're struggling,
Speaker 3: please just get some help please. And I'm a'm eight
Speaker 3: year staff now.
Speaker 1: Wow, Congress, thank you, Congret, thank you for coming back.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Now we have Rhyme and Pokemon. We had a lot more,
Speaker 1: but you know, we got a lot. We got a
Speaker 1: lot to look forward to it and I got a
Speaker 1: new frame.
Speaker 3: But life, that's man.
Speaker 1: I would to now learn, you know what, when I
Speaker 1: got the recipe for a Jewish spaghetti and Jewish meatballs.
Speaker 1: I was like, Jewish spaghetti, yes, there is jewishballs.
Speaker 3: There we go. So I can't say that that like
Speaker 3: this was like my my jelly, my jelly, you know, sandwich.
Speaker 3: But it means so much because this was what I
Speaker 3: could do. This was pretty much all I could bring
Speaker 3: myself to make because it still smelled like my mam
Speaker 3: was home who and it was something that my baby's loves,
Speaker 3: and it was something I knew how to do. So
Speaker 3: that's what I made.
Speaker 1: We're gonna end It's gonna be my new favorite dish.
Speaker 3: I hope it is.
Speaker 1: So what's the deal with the oil? You have to
Speaker 1: put a lot and then you put a lot.
Speaker 3: Crying meat balls.
Speaker 1: I've never made meatballs in my life.
Speaker 3: Crazy?
Speaker 1: Are they terrible?
Speaker 3: People? Hate? They're terrible people. You're gonna hate them. They're
Speaker 3: gonna hate them.
Speaker 1: Use the tight ones. Everyone likes the tight ones.
Speaker 3: Make little one.
Speaker 1: I always give the big ones.
Speaker 3: Make the little ones because they cook faster. And these
Speaker 3: gloves are really hard and I'm so ready to take
Speaker 3: them off. Sorry, please take them off.
Speaker 1: You could take them off. Just don't touch your hair.
Speaker 1: I want it's gonna be that awkward, like, hey, you got.
Speaker 3: Kill me, they would kill me.
Speaker 1: That is your hair naturally curly? Is it like mine?
Speaker 3: My hair is like yours?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: Cool?
Speaker 1: I was just curious, all right.
Speaker 3: How's my hair not like yours?
Speaker 1: I'lly I always gotta ask.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, just thick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's actually.
Speaker 3: You're real thick. I'm unbelievable. So that's thank you.
Speaker 1: Kimming like, okay, so you're frying these and you're making
Speaker 1: you do you have to take off your rings? Are
Speaker 1: you good?
Speaker 3: I don't take off my ring? Oh god?
Speaker 1: Okay, so okay, so cast me up. Okay. So we
Speaker 1: went through one hell of a journey with you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for all the transparency. Now you're going through the
Speaker 1: detas and everything your career. You're still managing to hold
Speaker 1: up a really good career and you're making this money,
Speaker 1: but your ex is still helping out make it short
Speaker 1: at So is your career like, make it enough to
Speaker 1: pay for everything? What's going on during that whole period?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know how to. I still don't know
Speaker 3: how to handle my money.
Speaker 1: Though, Okay, So, and then is the addiction sucking up
Speaker 1: some of that money too?
Speaker 3: Oh, the addiction. Well, you know, we all do what
Speaker 3: we do to survive and try to use our addiction
Speaker 3: money to just take care of our addiction. So that
Speaker 3: might mean, you know, I don't know, you might start
Speaker 3: your own secondary business to keep that afloat. You might
Speaker 3: I don't know, you might have wait in the car
Speaker 3: or something so you don't have to worry about you.
Speaker 1: You are beyond real.
Speaker 3: We might do some of the You might start a
Speaker 3: pizza delivery service. I mean, I don't know you so
Speaker 3: oh but no, but actor as actor and nightlife is nightlife.
Speaker 3: That's what happens to some folks.
Speaker 1: So when did you end up learning about how to
Speaker 1: take care of the bills and stuff?
Speaker 3: I was with my agency that I loved, and I
Speaker 3: again another guide shot by the grace of God. I
Speaker 3: ran into my agent, Portia Scott, my current agent and
Speaker 3: business partner. Hi Porscha, I love you so very much,
Speaker 3: and I had already booked Missus Pancakes on Rick and Morty,
Speaker 3: and more needed to be going on because again she
Speaker 3: was the only black female character. You know, I've been
Speaker 3: these black female iconic characters and nothing was being done
Speaker 3: with them. And I loved my agency but the animation
Speaker 3: department just didn't do what could have been done because
Speaker 3: I don't think they got it. Portion I had to talk,
Speaker 3: and I decided to leave my agency and I go
Speaker 3: over to Portia. Wow, a black agent, a black female
Speaker 3: agent that had her finger on the pulse. And when
Speaker 3: that happened, life changed, and we've been together ever since.
Speaker 3: I created my own acting technique because even before all
Speaker 3: that happened, I started coaching.
Speaker 1: This stuff is popping, but you sound like a pro
Speaker 1: in a kitchen.
Speaker 3: You're good.
Speaker 1: You're not even flinching. I'm over here praying.
Speaker 3: Girl, Come on now. I created my I started coaching actors.
Speaker 3: I started coaching animation and commercial a while before that
Speaker 3: with the casting director and because my mother always said
Speaker 3: those who can't do teach, and a casting director said,
Speaker 3: you know, we'd like you to start coaching for us.
Speaker 3: And I came home, was over. She's like, not you,
Speaker 3: not you? And I so I started coaching and I
Speaker 3: realized I was a great director. How could I not
Speaker 3: be doing this my whole life? Yeah, And then it
Speaker 3: turned into this weird cult like people just wanted to
Speaker 3: keep working with me. And I told my mother I
Speaker 3: wanted to start a company and call it the Darchy
Speaker 3: Emingite Company because I'm that girl. And she was like, Malik,
Speaker 3: your name is Malik Burger. You're gonna make reels. You're
Speaker 3: gonna call it Burger's Reels. Duh. So I did that
Speaker 3: and I wound up starting something. She's here, she's here,
Speaker 3: she likes you. So so I started Burger's Reels and
Speaker 3: I became the first black female to produce and direct
Speaker 3: animation and commercial demos. And then I created my technique,
Speaker 3: art of the pivot, the art.
Speaker 1: Of the pivot.
Speaker 3: So when I started reading over your stuff today, I
Speaker 3: was like, pivot. Oh, this is it. And because I
Speaker 3: have so much training, and I just took all the
Speaker 3: Meisner and Stanislavsky and Uda Hagen and everything I've studied
Speaker 3: and started teaching beyond of the pivot.
Speaker 1: So now, how how can people sign up to get
Speaker 1: those classes and all that?
Speaker 3: You could go look me up Malik Berger dot com
Speaker 3: or Burger's Reels la dot com or is it yeah,
Speaker 3: okay it is and not do that. That's what I do. Come,
Speaker 3: but you need you know, this is the thing about voiceover.
Speaker 3: It doesn't have ship to do with your voice acting.
Speaker 3: This is acting acting first voice seconds and now so
Speaker 3: people think you need to make funny voices and blah
Speaker 3: blah blah, be an actor.
Speaker 1: That's now. You were so good because you started as
Speaker 1: an actor, So you're really an actress with that's it.
Speaker 3: Oh, you're an actor and voiceover is the truest form
Speaker 3: of acting.
Speaker 1: Why do you say that because you got you don't have.
Speaker 3: A set, you don't have props, you don't have someone
Speaker 3: you're working with. This is this is the Greek chorus.
Speaker 3: They had masks on their face.
Speaker 1: Baby, wow, this is a thing.
Speaker 3: This is this is your mind. So people don't think
Speaker 3: about that, do that? No, these are my glasses and
Speaker 3: not their hair. But yeah, that's very important because you know,
Speaker 3: I hear people all the time they go.
Speaker 1: You know, people think that I had to really good
Speaker 1: for right, and they.
Speaker 3: Was, no, honey, take it an acting class.
Speaker 1: Because you have to be so many different characters.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: So if it if it's just a voice for for
Speaker 1: for you have a good voice, that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3: Why are you opening your mouth? What's your moment before?
Speaker 3: Who are you talking to? Where are you when you're
Speaker 3: talking to them? What are you talking about? What's the
Speaker 3: beginning in the middle of the end.
Speaker 1: I actually think about that sometimes when I'm watching a movie, like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, they had to really get into that,
Speaker 1: like mentally, you had to picture yourself there to really
Speaker 1: pull it off. Right. So when you're recording now, I
Speaker 1: want to get into the business side. So when you're
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna call uh, we're gonna call a cut. Damn, guys,
Speaker 1: can you could just well, I'll help you pause commercial break.
Speaker 1: She needs to wash her hands. So we're mixing the
Speaker 1: spaghetti noodles and the sauce. So take me up to
Speaker 1: right now where you're at in your life career. Right now,
Speaker 1: you have a huge hit. Right now, Pokemon, we know
Speaker 1: successfully you are where you are. I don't think you
Speaker 1: quite answered the question about who ended up teaching you
Speaker 1: about how to manage money. I know your agent ended
Speaker 1: up in the picture, but you didn't tell me.
Speaker 3: Like Portia Scott ended up, you know, waking me up
Speaker 3: and saying, listen, you got too much, you're too good,
Speaker 3: let's get let's get it together. And I opened my
Speaker 3: own business and then I felt, you know it truly
Speaker 3: was my duty to be of service to other actors.
Speaker 3: So I started directing and coaching, and then I realized
Speaker 3: I had a huge gift of making demos and teaching
Speaker 3: the truth. Then I developed the art of the pivot.
Speaker 3: Out of the Pivot is also the sister to Porsche's Method,
Speaker 3: which is method on the mic and the actor's toolkit.
Speaker 3: And we just have a beautiful, beautiful business teaching other
Speaker 3: actors and trying to get Like, if you wanted to
Speaker 3: be a dentist, right and you went to dental school,
Speaker 3: you'd be able to leave and actually start an office.
Speaker 3: In this situation, you can't leave a university and have
Speaker 3: a degree and voiceover. It doesn't exist, and we don't
Speaker 3: think that's right. So we're fighting for that. And then
Speaker 3: I have the most brilliant PR manager with Shannon Shannon
Speaker 3: Barnes Strategic. We love you, We love you, And now
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to spread spread the word. Now this
Speaker 3: is a little small, so what I'm going to do
Speaker 3: is the old trick. I'm going to take this and
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do the old I was almost going to
Speaker 3: do a different recipe for you, which I would have
Speaker 3: had to have done this and get everything over on
Speaker 3: the plate. We're gonna hopefully well do it different when
Speaker 3: we tape this from my house on our phones. But
Speaker 3: now you'll see that doesn't have to be pretty. Okay,
Speaker 3: does not have to be pretty, but at least you're
Speaker 3: seeing that everything is mixed up, and it's that butter
Speaker 3: that's going to stick everything together. I like mine saucy,
Speaker 3: my grandmother. I'm gonna take this other plate my grandmother,
Speaker 3: and it's had. It's fine, don't worry about it, my grandmother,
Speaker 3: and then they liked it. A little dryer may serve you,
Speaker 3: Madame del And this is just thank you. So again,
Speaker 3: this not only has no that's another thing. There's no
Speaker 3: cheese on it, but it's Jewish. It's no, it's not
Speaker 3: I'm not kosher. It's not kosher. It's funny because I
Speaker 3: guess I guess you don't worry. We're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 3: teach you more about your Judaism. But please enjoy, Please enjoy,
Speaker 3: and tell me what it's like with turkey, because that
Speaker 3: sounds really fun to me. So I'm not going to
Speaker 3: say it was what did you What was it like
Speaker 3: when you were broke? What I will say, this meal
Speaker 3: to me signifies what I could do in honor of
Speaker 3: my mother, and in honor of a time when I
Speaker 3: wasn't all myself, and now I can make it with
Speaker 3: a lot more pride. I love that because it's really
Speaker 3: nice to be alive and around.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm very happy and thankful that you alive,
Speaker 1: around and back. Yeah, we're going to try this.
Speaker 3: Do it well.
Speaker 1: She loves me, I like to the people. Is that
Speaker 1: the masa meal, the masa oil?
Speaker 3: So my new best friend of me here, guys, look
Speaker 3: at this.
Speaker 1: Mhm.
Speaker 3: There was the sweet with the salty, right, and then
Speaker 3: if you the.
Speaker 1: Tomato paste makes sense now, right, And then if.
Speaker 3: You can get it all in one bite, then you
Speaker 3: see there's a crunch from the onion. Still oh right,
Speaker 3: but it's not it's not nasty onion. It's still been.
Speaker 1: I really like the onion in it.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I really like the onion. And I was trying to
Speaker 1: give you very little onions. You don't know this, but throughout,
Speaker 1: like I think you had two onions. I cut up
Speaker 1: half an onion, and then you came back it was
Speaker 1: like that's not enough onion.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, ship, what's your thing with onions?
Speaker 1: You have to slice them really thin. That's what I
Speaker 1: think the secret is, you know, when they have the
Speaker 1: big old chunks, you can't do that.
Speaker 3: But did you get a bite with both? Now? Hmm?
Speaker 3: Did you gotta buy it with both? What do you think?
Speaker 3: I love it so Jewish spaghetti and.
Speaker 1: Jewish spaghetti Sambi balls definitely a good one. I would
Speaker 1: maybe add some cheese.
Speaker 3: You totally can.
Speaker 1: I would maybe add some cheese. But I can also
Speaker 1: see that the paste actually helps for all of you
Speaker 1: guys that don't try to opt out for the paste.
Speaker 1: I think the paste helps. Gluid is the paste that's glued.
Speaker 1: I think it's the paste.
Speaker 3: And then there's you know, there's a lot of butter
Speaker 3: in here because I like it and it tastes good,
Speaker 3: and that's why they make it.
Speaker 1: When you cook all your onions at home, you use butter.
Speaker 1: You and I it just butter. Let me tell you something,
Speaker 1: butter me.
Speaker 3: You know all that.
Speaker 1: Sister, we are sisters.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, we didn't in our cutdamn. We have to
Speaker 3: drink the c yes, the pre hugof in shall my love.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for I mean, these two go
Speaker 1: together really well.
Speaker 3: Like Shamalama Lama lamading.
Speaker 1: Real, they really do go together like.
Speaker 3: Shoe Bop Showaddy Waddy Hippie Dippy Dip.
Speaker 1: From now So I got eating because it's a food show.
Speaker 1: It's a food show. People actually get irritated by that.
Speaker 1: But why she's smacking so much the game? It's a
Speaker 1: food show. You don't listen to eating while broke. I
Speaker 1: expect to hear some smacking. Now you are stable, I
Speaker 1: don't imagine what was like a little under I would
Speaker 1: say I'm God at three. So you're definitely like almost
Speaker 1: fifty years in the.
Speaker 3: Game, fifty two fifty two years ago.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I thought, you don't look at it. You
Speaker 1: don't look at it all.
Speaker 3: But it's the scare of dealing nice sleep without Manchester.
Speaker 1: And then you wait, you also remarried. We didn't cover that.
Speaker 3: Yes, I remarried Jay Robertson from Mertha to Bill. Let's
Speaker 3: hear it for whales, yay Wales, and just really quick.
Speaker 3: During the pandemic, it was very easy to start ordering
Speaker 3: things online. So I ordered a trans man from Whales, Yes,
Speaker 3: and he showed up at the doorstep and I was like, great,
Speaker 3: I'll take it.
Speaker 1: So transman is.
Speaker 3: Female to male, female female to male, and I've got
Speaker 3: to tell you Jay if you're watching, which you will be.
Speaker 3: I love you so much, baby, by the love of
Speaker 3: my life. And thank you.
Speaker 1: No, I'm I don't know why.
Speaker 3: I don't know why you're covering your mouth like I
Speaker 3: haven't seen you eat already?
Speaker 1: Girl?
Speaker 3: To what what you.
Speaker 1: And I eating?
Speaker 3: Like you feel better? You're cute? I really cute.
Speaker 1: You should be because so your ex husband and everybody
Speaker 1: gets along great?
Speaker 3: Sure do they should do?
Speaker 1: That was beautiful and I think that's really great for
Speaker 1: your sons.
Speaker 3: It absolutely is.
Speaker 1: Absolutely What advice would you give to someone trying to
Speaker 1: get into this game?
Speaker 3: Biggest advice go into the Voice Over Reese Guide. Can
Speaker 3: I look there? And I really tell you the Voiceover
Speaker 3: Resource Guide. The BORG is something that you can find online.
Speaker 3: You can look under NAVA, which is the National Association
Speaker 3: of Voiceover Artists. Do not fall into a trap where
Speaker 3: someone is going to offer you something where you spend
Speaker 3: money to become a star able. I can teach you
Speaker 3: this in two weeks. No, study your craft and work
Speaker 3: with reputable people, people who are in this industry. This
Speaker 3: is a very easy business to get into and get robbed.
Speaker 3: Please do not do that. Learn to be an actor
Speaker 3: this is a craft and it is not going to
Speaker 3: happen overnight, so please save yourself a heartache. Work with
Speaker 3: real people.
Speaker 1: Yes, and then where can they go to Malik Burger School.
Speaker 3: You can check me out at Burger's Reels b E
Speaker 3: r g e R sreels dot com or go over
Speaker 3: to Malikburger dot com. You could see what else is
Speaker 3: going on with me. Please check me out on Pokemon Horizons.
Speaker 3: I want to say, yeah, season two airing now on Netflix.
Speaker 3: I am the character rhyme and there's a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of lot of stuff coming up too, so hopefully I
Speaker 3: will be seeing you at Como Con soon.
Speaker 1: And do you have socials? Are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm on all kinds.
Speaker 1: It's just Milie Berger, okay, perfect.
Speaker 3: No, just and it's b e r g e R.
Speaker 3: That's where everybody messes up. M E l i q
Speaker 3: U E b E r g e R. I'm also
Speaker 3: this one's best friend, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys, just slide in the d MS. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you how great she is. But thank you, guys,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for feeding me and opening up
Speaker 1: and telling your whole story. And you were write this story.
Speaker 1: I definitely am like in love, love love, love you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, you know, and I can't wait to meet
Speaker 1: the family.
Speaker 3: You're meeting everybody, So to me, I just wanted to
Speaker 3: tell you thank you. I might not have been broke,
Speaker 3: but I was broken, So.
Speaker 1: This was perfect. I think. I think you you really
Speaker 1: understood the concept of the show. And one thing I
Speaker 1: tell people, like, if you were middle class, if you
Speaker 1: were rich, or your family was successful, do not hide
Speaker 1: your story because the road to success, as you see
Speaker 1: with Malik, is never straight. It's a roller coaster. Right,
Speaker 1: Malik went through a lot, she did. She was exposed
Speaker 1: to success. But even talking about financial, money management, or
Speaker 1: dealing with traumas and all that, and you know, hanging
Speaker 1: out with death. You know, even as fine as she
Speaker 1: was fine, you know, she can't us with us, you know.
Speaker 1: So shout outs to you and definitely thank you, and
Speaker 1: we all can say thank you for keeping it one
Speaker 1: hundred percent real.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you Malik.
Speaker 1: Peace out, guys, peace.
Speaker 3: Mel blank And he did all these.
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson unbelievable day dunk. The question is was he
Speaker 1: an inspiration for him?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Oh damn, you should have texted me that one. Why
Speaker 1: do you think he did.
Speaker 3: Over industry. I think that he is the original of
Speaker 3: you can do anything you set your mind to do,
Speaker 3: because who took over is a man named Bob Bergen.
Speaker 3: And Bob Bergen's dream was to be Porky Pig. And
Speaker 3: this was a young Jewish guy from Middle America that
Speaker 3: moved out here when he was fifteen years old, and
Speaker 3: he is now the voice of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs, Bunny.
Speaker 3: And he did it, so talk a little bit about
Speaker 3: mel blank, what it melt blank? A Jewish guy that
Speaker 3: got up and made it, made the voices and made
Speaker 3: room for us to do it. That's what he did.
Speaker 1: He did every Let me just say something right now,
Speaker 1: we gonna keep keep this edit not the educational dead moment,
Speaker 1: but keep my dad askn't a really good question in
Speaker 1: the episode. For more eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: The Black Effects, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite Jos