Speaker 1: Look man, oh I see you? Why why? And look
Speaker 1: over there? How is that culture? Yes, goodness, lost culture.
Speaker 1: You'll notice that my voice is a little shop what's that? Oh? Sorry? Yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead, I said in their Midnight Sarah. But go ahead,
Speaker 1: explain your voice, okay, before we talk about sort of
Speaker 1: the big culture news of the week I have. You'll
Speaker 1: notice that the timbre of my voice is troublesome, and
Speaker 1: I apologize. What is going on? Give nodulespocal nodules? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I think. I think I'm coming back.
Speaker 1: I was sitting in the steam room here in Rekya, Vik, Iceland,
Speaker 1: and I think it helped because sometimes in movies they
Speaker 1: ask you to scream a lot, and then sometimes after
Speaker 1: you scream, they have you run away. Yeah, as fast
Speaker 1: as you can. More on that later, More on that
Speaker 1: in a year after you see this film. But um
Speaker 1: it sometimes it's hard. Sometimes after it's hard. I have
Speaker 1: to tell you, as someone who just um for an
Speaker 1: upcoming project that is yet to be announced, had to
Speaker 1: use his voice a lot. The vocals are an instrument.
Speaker 1: It's actually real culture number seventy. The vocals are instrument.
Speaker 1: Are an instrument, and you have to protect the gift. Now,
Speaker 1: speaking of a gift, someone who truly has a gift.
Speaker 1: You said a queen of a certain queen of pop
Speaker 1: has a new song. Oh my god. Yes, the queen
Speaker 1: of pop as we all know is Hailey Steinfeld Ospit
Speaker 1: Army calabasas Resident Hailey stein And she has a new
Speaker 1: song called I Believe It's Coast with Anderson Pack and
Speaker 1: it's stellar. I came out like a month ago, and
Speaker 1: I kind of like brushed it to the side. I
Speaker 1: was like, ash dure, I'll listen to it later, like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm over here, I'm a I'm a you know,
Speaker 1: love myself girl, like I love that era. I'm a Stanfeld.
Speaker 1: I literally am such a Stanfeld, like capital letters bitch,
Speaker 1: the way I will play capital letters down. It's an
Speaker 1: excellent song. Did you ever catch her song for the
Speaker 1: Bumblebee movie called Back to Life? That It's crazy that
Speaker 1: that did not make the Great Cool West Long Buck.
Speaker 1: I don't think there has been someone with this big
Speaker 1: of an impact on music. I don't think there's been
Speaker 1: such a queen of pop since Rita Aura. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say Ava Max, Well it wait, can we say
Speaker 1: Ava Max has a new song and its samples, Can't
Speaker 1: Fight the Moonlight with Leon Rhymes and let me tell
Speaker 1: you something, Maxinistas are eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in
Speaker 1: the words of Colin Farrell Sex Tape With this one,
Speaker 1: the vocals are giving you everything you could desire from
Speaker 1: one of the girls. The production is top notch and
Speaker 1: the Maxinistas there is a sale at your at your
Speaker 1: favorite store. There really is. There's a sale at your
Speaker 1: favorite store. Oh my god. Where to work that? In?
Speaker 1: Way to work the lost culture? Is this phrase into that?
Speaker 1: I mean the word bop has been used. You know,
Speaker 1: I did not watch the amaze Did you watch them? No?
Speaker 1: Because I find them to be totally irrelevant And then
Speaker 1: then and then and then some All it takes is
Speaker 1: one person. There could be people at the vim as,
Speaker 1: There could be a hundred people in the room at
Speaker 1: the VMAs, and none of them, nine of them make
Speaker 1: them irrelevant. Well, I would say I was gonna say that.
Speaker 1: There seemed to be some effort in trying to make
Speaker 1: them iconic again this year, like a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of the press leading up to it was like
Speaker 1: Nicki Minaj and you know, l O cool J and
Speaker 1: one other person we're co hosting. Yeah, sorry to the
Speaker 1: third person, I forget who it is. But like that
Speaker 1: was like there was a lot of like hype around, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, the vs could be iconic again. Um,
Speaker 1: a lot of recap throwback videos of like what was
Speaker 1: your favorite like iconic VMA moments and the red carpets
Speaker 1: were I think great, this was a good red carpet.
Speaker 1: I would say I would agree for what I've seen
Speaker 1: was good. Also, anytime there is an iconic same sex
Speaker 1: kiss on the v M as like you know it's
Speaker 1: gonna garner headline. Congrats to bad Bunny for wearing our
Speaker 1: culture as a custome. Um. But I would say probably
Speaker 1: the most iconic moment outside of Dove Cameron winning Best
Speaker 1: New Artist had to be when Taylor Swift, in an
Speaker 1: acceptance speech for Video of the Year, which was well
Speaker 1: earned for all too well, turned her damn face to
Speaker 1: the crowd and announced her and then Bowen Yang. We
Speaker 1: were thrust head first into the Midnight's era with a
Speaker 1: Da Vinci code cipher to unlock what do you think
Speaker 1: the clues are? What do you think the clues are giving?
Speaker 1: This is what I'm forecasting for the storm ahead, and
Speaker 1: I want to say something. I have a history of
Speaker 1: being right about this stuff because I actually predicted reputation,
Speaker 1: and I predicted predict you did you? Okay, well, let's
Speaker 1: just back it up. Respect. Why I feel like there's
Speaker 1: disrespect come in my way? There's no disrespect. I just
Speaker 1: want to I just want to make sure that we
Speaker 1: don't give ourselves too much credit, because I think you
Speaker 1: did not predict reputation. You said, I've heard from sources.
Speaker 1: No no, no no no no no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no no no no no no. You mistake
Speaker 1: yourself in the words of Hamilton's because what happened was
Speaker 1: when all of the stuff went down with Kanye and
Speaker 1: Kim and Taylor, I said, I predicted. I'm like, her
Speaker 1: next phase, her next iteration is going to be dark Taylor.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I said, she's going to commit to
Speaker 1: the villain. In the words of Diana Jenkins, you want
Speaker 1: a villain here, I am, You're really I just gotta say,
Speaker 1: Matt isn't top form. He's quoting the right quotes, but
Speaker 1: I just want to say that you're the prediction was
Speaker 1: that one? You were like, well, first it was dark Taylor. Sure,
Speaker 1: and then you were like, I would like her to
Speaker 1: give I think she's gonna give Pat Benatar, which I
Speaker 1: don't think she did. No, but rock sound immage, big
Speaker 1: sound made means sound like a rock okay, And then
Speaker 1: I think, finally you did land on. Sources have told
Speaker 1: me that her next album is moving in a hip
Speaker 1: hop direction, which I did not have sources at the time.
Speaker 1: I wasn't as plugged into the Hollywood machine as I
Speaker 1: am now, as an as you and I are, of
Speaker 1: course on the A list, I wasn't as plugged into
Speaker 1: the Hollywood machine as I am now. I didn't have sources.
Speaker 1: So if I did say sources told me, I was
Speaker 1: simply lying. You and I, Oh my god, Yeah, what
Speaker 1: a what a long way we've come with Taylor. It's
Speaker 1: like it's like us j Lo. Then that's like the
Speaker 1: most wild Oh my wait, we we hold on a second. First,
Speaker 1: we we are getting into that. But when can I
Speaker 1: say one thing can I make a prediction about? And
Speaker 1: then I would like to hear if you think this
Speaker 1: is moving in the right direction. Yeah, the aesthetic and
Speaker 1: the vibes I'm feeling for me, it's giving lost in
Speaker 1: translation and being such great Heights postal service. It's giving
Speaker 1: death Cab vibes. It's giving that feeling of early aughts.
Speaker 1: It's giving maybe even a little something corporate. It's giving
Speaker 1: still continuation of Emo Taylor, but what happened when that
Speaker 1: got a little electronic. It's giving sleepless nights literally in
Speaker 1: the theme. Can we just talk about how the theme
Speaker 1: is genius, just like the like the way that no
Speaker 1: one has like zoned in on something that specific. I'm
Speaker 1: really into it and really, yes, the character will reform
Speaker 1: in this type of music. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1: That's great? I I am in total agreement. I was
Speaker 1: telling you that from the aesthetics from the two promo
Speaker 1: photos we've seen, I was like, we might be getting
Speaker 1: like nineties arts rock, sad boy anthems, sad girls, sad
Speaker 1: today's anthems. Death habit is perfect. I would love if
Speaker 1: she sprinkled in a little bit of Chris per Rabbit
Speaker 1: and there are some dashboard king. It might be none
Speaker 1: of those things, but I'm excited that it's a Fall
Speaker 1: Taylor album because guess what, we kind of had a
Speaker 1: revisitation during Red Taylor's version. I'm saying folklore and evermore
Speaker 1: were summer and winter. We're getting fall. We're getting new
Speaker 1: fall Taylor for the first time in years, in years,
Speaker 1: five years to be exact. Let's not forget the power
Speaker 1: that Taylor has during autumn. Oh my god, there will
Speaker 1: be a single before sept I will say this because Mama,
Speaker 1: I know, wants to be in the Grammy conversation for
Speaker 1: this year. It's giving shake it off vibes where that
Speaker 1: single came and was nominated for a Record of the
Speaker 1: Year and then the album Album of the Year was
Speaker 1: won the next year. Correct, And I feel as though
Speaker 1: we will get a sing goal. I don't know how soon,
Speaker 1: but I think within the month. And that probably is
Speaker 1: necessary because and I know you have thoughts about this,
Speaker 1: the date of October one is quite always a way,
Speaker 1: quite always the way. It is the traditional area of
Speaker 1: release for Taylor pre Lover, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1: This is her tenth album. She she does not We're
Speaker 1: not gonna it's not gonna be until album thirteen do
Speaker 1: we get something this major. You're right, she knows that
Speaker 1: this is going to be big. And I'm telling you
Speaker 1: in agreement. It's the centennial in a way. The concept
Speaker 1: is genius. It's genius. We've all stayed up at the
Speaker 1: strike at the stroke of twelve, going wow, my thoughts
Speaker 1: are the most internal and private at this time. And
Speaker 1: and and this is and it's it's giving range of
Speaker 1: emotion and experience. It can be sad anthems, it can
Speaker 1: be party bops, it can be she can she can
Speaker 1: play what she can play with all her colors, basically
Speaker 1: of the wind. And I really think that also it
Speaker 1: is in the midnight hour, and I think the title
Speaker 1: of up is in the midnight's era, in the midnight's era.
Speaker 1: And it is at this time that we realize, in
Speaker 1: being kept up by these thoughts, what is truly important
Speaker 1: to us, what is preoccupying us. Therefore, there is the immediacy,
Speaker 1: the lyrical immediacy that we are about to get. Do
Speaker 1: you understand, everyone out there listening, do you understand that
Speaker 1: we are about to get likely a tour in the
Speaker 1: summer and in the past four albums, rumor has it,
Speaker 1: it's about the it encapsulates the past four albums. We're
Speaker 1: getting lover more, Lover, lover more. Ever, midnights we are
Speaker 1: getting and I want everyone to really grab onto something
Speaker 1: right now before I say this, it's giving, Spring, Summer, fall, Winter.
Speaker 1: It is giving. Literally, if we are to put together
Speaker 1: a set list of like the five best of all
Speaker 1: those four albums, and let me direct, because I have
Speaker 1: ideas about how to transition from starting Big Summer tour
Speaker 1: right big summer stadium tour. Start with Lover right, open
Speaker 1: with cruel Summer fucking let the girls have the cruel
Speaker 1: summer moment that we never got to open the tour.
Speaker 1: It's go through the highlights of Lover. End with the
Speaker 1: song Lover transition into Folklore, the lights come down, the
Speaker 1: Mason Jars co up, give me five. From Folklore transition
Speaker 1: into Evermore, we see the energy started to get a
Speaker 1: little bit more sexy and witchy. Slap us in the
Speaker 1: head with whatever is happening on a nights on Core
Speaker 1: Greatest Hits, the way we're about to eat. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: m M. Do you feel this way? I feel this way?
Speaker 1: I I really I'm trying to not hang up too
Speaker 1: many expectations because I know that Taylor will not only
Speaker 1: exceed them, but subvert them. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: be wrong. I don't want to be embarrassed when it comes.
Speaker 1: I am smiling big and holding back at last, because
Speaker 1: do you know what I realized the listeners think, the
Speaker 1: readers think right now, they think that Jennifer Lewis is
Speaker 1: just sitting there while we do this, and this is
Speaker 1: our intro, that Jennifer Lewis is just sitting there. That
Speaker 1: the Jennifer Lewis episodes are called in the Midnight's era
Speaker 1: it show biz legend being co opted by Taylor's Swift.
Speaker 1: She would have screamed into this conversation. She would have, Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: do you think Jennifer Lewis would call Taylor Swift a
Speaker 1: quote crazy motherfucker? I think you think Jennifer Lewis, I
Speaker 1: think I think that's the compliment that's the highest. And
Speaker 1: so let's just say Jennifer is not here right now,
Speaker 1: because well do you want to say, I'll say okay.
Speaker 1: So I had hubristically thought that I could record this
Speaker 1: episode because I was not going to one miss the
Speaker 1: episode with Jennifer Lewis or so I intended for the world,
Speaker 1: and too, I did not want to reschedule her too abruptly.
Speaker 1: So I had suggested a slight scheduling change. Um, but
Speaker 1: it was gonna be the day that I was traveling
Speaker 1: and I didn't realize what the dates were until you know,
Speaker 1: it was coming up on the day and thought I
Speaker 1: could record from the lounge. This goes into my I
Speaker 1: don't think so, honey later. Um uh, it's it's the airport.
Speaker 1: Airports aren't a crisis right now, let's just say it,
Speaker 1: but specifically one airport is the most egregiously bad airport
Speaker 1: and we need to stop pretending like it's a fun
Speaker 1: place to go. More on that later. Um And anyway,
Speaker 1: I could not make it. I had to FaceTime Matt
Speaker 1: and A in emotional duress last minute say I think
Speaker 1: you gotta do this alone, but I have faith in you.
Speaker 1: And I was like, and I honestly want to listen
Speaker 1: to a one on one conversation between you and Jennifer
Speaker 1: people as post stars, as scene partners. Yeah, I loved
Speaker 1: my conversation with her, and I missed her so much
Speaker 1: and I'm so lucky to call her my friend. And like,
Speaker 1: I was looking really forward to introducing you to her
Speaker 1: and seeing guys dynamic. But I think you'll really enjoy
Speaker 1: the episode. So that's coming up in just a bit.
Speaker 1: Everybody but Bowen and I wanted to get on because
Speaker 1: I just did. It didn't sit right in my spirit,
Speaker 1: not having you on that episode at all. I said,
Speaker 1: it just didn't sit right in my spirit. I need
Speaker 1: to connect with the Diva doll. And then the way
Speaker 1: that Taylor like sort of introduced the concept of the
Speaker 1: Midnight's Era to the world, I was like, Okay, so
Speaker 1: I'm feeling like God is good and now we needed
Speaker 1: to wait. Yeah, and I'm so glad we did. And
Speaker 1: that's how that God is in the room. And I
Speaker 1: need to say that. Um. Jennifer is promoting her new
Speaker 1: book Walking By Join These Streets, fantastic fantastic book, a
Speaker 1: follow up memoir to her best selling memoir The Mother
Speaker 1: of Black Hollywood. I read through it, loved it so
Speaker 1: many wonderful stories. It's undeniable that it's just coming from
Speaker 1: her truth like she it's it's her voice like throughout
Speaker 1: the whole thing. And Um, there's a fun, beautiful cosmic
Speaker 1: connection to ch Angela, between Angela and her and Angela
Speaker 1: and this podcast because it is also the other the
Speaker 1: only other time that Matt has had to host this
Speaker 1: podcast solo, and I think it's very special and without
Speaker 1: spoiling anything, listen to the end for a treat Okay,
Speaker 1: listen to the end for a treat um. But before
Speaker 1: we get into that, there are just current events really
Speaker 1: are happening as we speak this week because we have
Speaker 1: to discuss this don't worry Darling situation. So for the
Speaker 1: readers who are illiterate on this particular pop culture news item,
Speaker 1: that don't worry Darling press tour. God is not in
Speaker 1: the room on this one. God is not on the
Speaker 1: zoom calls. God is not in the uh, he's not
Speaker 1: on the pr team. I thought this movie looked incredible
Speaker 1: when the trailer came out. I love a you know,
Speaker 1: it feels like it's like some dark sci fi satire.
Speaker 1: I love the cast. I loved Book Smart Mama. The
Speaker 1: way that this press tour is falling apart, no one
Speaker 1: can get along. There are no real heroes and villains.
Speaker 1: Maybe Florence is the only one that kind of comes
Speaker 1: out of this, comes out of this looking the least ridiculed.
Speaker 1: Florence is because because she's removed herself entirely from it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So for everyone that doesn't know, basically, it all started
Speaker 1: when Jason sudeikis served Olivia Wilde with custody papers while
Speaker 1: she was like, you know, speaking at convention for Don't
Speaker 1: Worry Darling, So she sort of had, you know, the
Speaker 1: press and like the the whole like media narrative was
Speaker 1: very much on her side because he did this horrifying
Speaker 1: thing to her and he claims it wasn't on purpose,
Speaker 1: but I don't know about all that. Yeah. So then
Speaker 1: it's like, there's the rumors that Florence doesn't like Olivia
Speaker 1: because Olivia started sleeping with Harry Styles on the set
Speaker 1: of Don't Worry Darling, and Florence is very close with
Speaker 1: Jason Sudeikis because Zach Braffe is a director on Ted Lasso,
Speaker 1: and Florence hasn't posted about the movie, and Harry is
Speaker 1: like not having the easiest time PR wise right now
Speaker 1: because of the queer you know, baiting or what have you,
Speaker 1: and his lack of um intelligence when he speaks on
Speaker 1: that subject. Sorry everybody, but that's what it is. And
Speaker 1: then Olivia does that like big article and I guess
Speaker 1: variety or something she did like a big piece, which
Speaker 1: were you not talking about? How like, oh, like you
Speaker 1: would think that's a good pr choice for her to
Speaker 1: do Variety for her to be um to to do
Speaker 1: something in a trade so that one she can be
Speaker 1: regarded as this director who is really having this wonderful
Speaker 1: project come to light with all this press that she
Speaker 1: has to do damage control over. But then the piece
Speaker 1: kind of I don't know, it's it's like maybe what
Speaker 1: the movie is trying to like portray, which is that
Speaker 1: like things are not what they seem and sometimes the
Speaker 1: aesthetics of something really don't communicate that much at all. Like,
Speaker 1: but I think that's like what I'm taking away from
Speaker 1: all this is that like these people are ultimately actors.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just I just think that, like
Speaker 1: it's like like okay, So basically fast forward to this
Speaker 1: Olivia mentions that she had fired Chila buff from the
Speaker 1: Hairy Styles World because she has a no assholes policy,
Speaker 1: which woo who we love that very novel idea. Um
Speaker 1: as if like you're you can be in control of
Speaker 1: people's personalities in Hollywood. Um. And then uh Shaya comes
Speaker 1: out and sends to Variety directly these receipts, these emails,
Speaker 1: these notes, this video of Olivia driving, which iconically starts
Speaker 1: out with her going sha a shay a, Shaya sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm study from riding my horse and I'm like, girl,
Speaker 1: you've lost us already. I'm already you've lost the thread
Speaker 1: with the I mean like it's so I mean, like, say,
Speaker 1: what a Shaya is a monster and truly despicable, but
Speaker 1: also like, and this is not to compare anybody's behavior,
Speaker 1: but it's like Olivia got caught in a lie after
Speaker 1: she did this whole women are the future, you know,
Speaker 1: peace in variety um where she basically throws Florence unto
Speaker 1: the bus and says Florence has to come to Missflow
Speaker 1: has to come to her senses. It's so weird and
Speaker 1: everyone is so fucking icky. I will think ultimately the
Speaker 1: fatal flaw that she made. And again, I will definitely
Speaker 1: see this movie. And I actually heard the script is
Speaker 1: so so I don't think that this is good for it,
Speaker 1: but I will say I'm still going to see it
Speaker 1: because well, first of all, I love Florence Pew and
Speaker 1: I think she's fabulous, and I was gonna see the
Speaker 1: movie and I will see it still. But this is
Speaker 1: the problem is it's if you're gonna do a big
Speaker 1: piece like that, it's one thing to lie to your
Speaker 1: actors to manage them, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: if you need to say to Hyla Buff, look, I
Speaker 1: really need to want you in the movie. Still I
Speaker 1: get it, Like like Florence is difficult. If you need
Speaker 1: to say that to him, two things, don't put that
Speaker 1: in writing or on video. And two like, understand that
Speaker 1: if you said that to him, and this is someone
Speaker 1: that has nothing to lose at this point, and then
Speaker 1: you try to try out a story that's a lie
Speaker 1: and that and you misrepresent the truth, he might say
Speaker 1: something about it, and he did. So what you've done
Speaker 1: is you've made it public that you were condescending about
Speaker 1: your OSCAR nominated lead actress and diminishing of her. So, ultimately,
Speaker 1: if I'm Florence Pew, I don't want to promote this
Speaker 1: movie either. Why because she values herself as a professional
Speaker 1: and propress his work, and this work environment has become
Speaker 1: unprofessional and toxic. So she's gonna do venice I heard,
Speaker 1: and then do nothing else, which I say that feels
Speaker 1: right to me. This director is she's just not running
Speaker 1: the stuff. Well, no, it's there's some contempt there or whatever.
Speaker 1: Not to sound like I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's really really a bummer. I don't love
Speaker 1: thinking about it. Um. I was talking about it with
Speaker 1: some friends and this is not I'm sorry. I don't
Speaker 1: mean to make this about me, but someone was like,
Speaker 1: you should do that would be an iconic lips think
Speaker 1: if you lips ink to the video like I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: back in the day, bow and yang like one, I
Speaker 1: would have bow and yang one point I would have done.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sweaty from riding my horse. I you
Speaker 1: know I still love. I still love dreams because all
Speaker 1: roads lead back to morning show. I still have dreams,
Speaker 1: stress dreams sometimes that I'm gonna meet Reese weather Spin
Speaker 1: and who's gonna be like, I know you recorded my
Speaker 1: giving her a twin. She'll be like, you did that
Speaker 1: lips that give me getting arrested. Maybe I think maybe
Speaker 1: she's seen it, and maybe she doesn't like it because
Speaker 1: it as a terrible moment in her life. I think
Speaker 1: that everyone should have a sense of humor about the
Speaker 1: things that go wrong. And also, I I will say
Speaker 1: till the day I died, that is when I really
Speaker 1: started stand me too. Because the next day she goes
Speaker 1: on the morning shows. The next day she goes in
Speaker 1: the morning shows and played it perfectly where she was like,
Speaker 1: I was drunk, I was stupid. And then and then
Speaker 1: they were like you said you were pregnant. You pregnant.
Speaker 1: She goes, No, I don't know said that pregnant legend.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, I mean it was immediate accountability,
Speaker 1: which it's not like we see people taking it. And
Speaker 1: also like that, I mean it was a teachable moment.
Speaker 1: It was someone like really leaning on her white privilege.
Speaker 1: I mean that was crazy. Like if that had happened now,
Speaker 1: I think she would have gotten a lot of hell.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean, Like, I think that
Speaker 1: it's an lipting opportunity that you absolutely, as the king
Speaker 1: of liptings at the time, couldn't just pass up. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe I will still do I love it. Maybe I
Speaker 1: get Maybe I get in there. No no, no, maybe
Speaker 1: I get in there. This iconic woman. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: like work with her whatever. I don't know that that's true.
Speaker 1: The thing is like, and here's the thing. It's like
Speaker 1: I'm not saying Olivia Wild And this is the annoying
Speaker 1: part of no, no, no, that's what we're saying. There's
Speaker 1: a lot like piling, like the Twitter pylon is too much,
Speaker 1: as it always is, but you can't have some nuance
Speaker 1: as you look at this situation and go oh man,
Speaker 1: like that is a sign of bad directing where you
Speaker 1: know you're you're you're just being subterfugi about like everybody
Speaker 1: and you're you're lying and you're not making sure your
Speaker 1: actors are like taken care of. Yeah. I will say
Speaker 1: that the email that Shaya made public was so like
Speaker 1: Namas stay. It was so like, hey, I hope you're
Speaker 1: so well. You should see my daughter grow anyway you
Speaker 1: lie or here are the receipts and then to drop
Speaker 1: them off and then literally end up being like, I
Speaker 1: truly hope the best for you. I was like, Mama,
Speaker 1: this is Housewives. It's giving the real Housewives of wherever
Speaker 1: they shot that film Palm Springs. Lisa Arenna could never
Speaker 1: Lisa Wrenna could never, which we briefly talked about jl
Speaker 1: firing Virgos from do you not hear about this? No?
Speaker 1: Tell me all about it? Oh my god. She fired
Speaker 1: Virgos just because she doesn't like virgo energy. So Heather Morris,
Speaker 1: who famously played Britney Espierce, unkly who was famously before
Speaker 1: that backup ancer for so many people Beyonce JL set
Speaker 1: on a podcast interview recently, then JL hates Virgos and
Speaker 1: has fired people on her I think not her staff,
Speaker 1: but definitely her backup dancing or just people on her
Speaker 1: her dancers basically for being virgos, which is that is iconic, iconic,
Speaker 1: the perfect time to mention that we're in Virgo season.
Speaker 1: This is is lining up so perfectly after Renissans comes out,
Speaker 1: after a song called Virgo's Groove is in all of
Speaker 1: our minds. I mean literally, the world's most famous virgo
Speaker 1: is stomping the yard right now, stopping the yard after
Speaker 1: JL is doing a fake plantation wedding where you know,
Speaker 1: she um like, there's just so much going on here,
Speaker 1: and I think it's all fantastic. And this is not
Speaker 1: to say that like I think any less of JLO.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just so crazy how all of this
Speaker 1: is happening. The JLO news of the past two years
Speaker 1: has been sumptuous. Yeah, I mean, she's certainly in an era.
Speaker 1: I mean she's in her she's in her benefit two
Speaker 1: point l era, she's in her post hustlers. I didn't
Speaker 1: get the nomination. So fuck y'all. I did the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: She's in She's in her post apex apex. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what is happening. She is in her chares Ard. But
Speaker 1: your chars Ard is your apex. Now she's back to
Speaker 1: char Mander. And you think she's that char Mander, you
Speaker 1: think she's all, you think she's a again. I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking she's a chars Are. But the chars are like,
Speaker 1: don't don't spit fire the way that he You know
Speaker 1: what she's giving, she's giving cranky Charis remember when the
Speaker 1: Big Bill. Basically the moral lesson of that era of
Speaker 1: Pokemon was that Ash allowed char Million to evolve too early,
Speaker 1: and so remember when Ash had to like sucking asshole
Speaker 1: but literally get rude, cranky, Like literally Charles was giving
Speaker 1: diva behavior like it was giving not doing what was told.
Speaker 1: It was very much giving, barely even coming out of
Speaker 1: the poke ball as if it was a goddamn trailer
Speaker 1: on the Sony lot. And Charis Art says, I won't
Speaker 1: come out of my poke ball, not for no one.
Speaker 1: I said, get the director to come to me. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you have like fucking professionals, you have piggiotos waiting in
Speaker 1: their balls. Florence Pugh's just being like, Hi, um, you're
Speaker 1: making this a toxic environment. You're I'm not doing press
Speaker 1: for you. Wait. Literally, there is no actress that gives
Speaker 1: Piggioto more than Florence Pew And I am so proud
Speaker 1: there you really she really does give Piggioto and Piggioto
Speaker 1: is I. I remember when when I had a pigeon.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, like when my Pokemon Piggioto
Speaker 1: was evolving to Pigot, I was like, I know this
Speaker 1: is something beneficial to me, but like, I don't want
Speaker 1: this girl here. I'd rather have Piggioto, Like that's my
Speaker 1: diva doll. Like that's personally for me, my girl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I understand kids have to grow up, but in
Speaker 1: so many words, I don't think so, honey. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I think I do. I really think
Speaker 1: I do well. Which speaking of that, because you will
Speaker 1: not be able to join me for this next um
Speaker 1: segment of the podcast, because it's my really great interview
Speaker 1: with Jennifer Lewis. You did not get to do and
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey. Would you like to do
Speaker 1: it now because I know something that's on your mind,
Speaker 1: spirit and heart. I would love to then at this
Speaker 1: time I will ready the phone, which is how I
Speaker 1: keep time for I don't think so, honey. This is
Speaker 1: Bowen Yang's early a third of the way into the episode,
Speaker 1: and I don't think so, honey. This really doesn't happen
Speaker 1: very often. But it's happening today tonight wherever you're listening
Speaker 1: to this, and it's time starts now. I don't think so, honey.
Speaker 1: John F. Kennedy International Airport, every damn terminal, everything about
Speaker 1: this fucking place. Why did we ever think for a
Speaker 1: second that it was any better, any measure better than
Speaker 1: LaGuardia was ten years ago. LaGuardia is that girl now,
Speaker 1: make no mistake. LaGuardia is a pleasure to have in
Speaker 1: class now that she's undergone the reserv renovation. But John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy has always been garbage. It's horrible to get to
Speaker 1: no matter how you get the only the big draw
Speaker 1: of it now is to go to the tw A Hotel. Honey.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be in a Stanley Kubrick movie,
Speaker 1: you bitch. I want to fly out of there. And
Speaker 1: why did you make it so difficult for me to
Speaker 1: just find a lounge to go to and have a
Speaker 1: private quiet spot to record my podcast with legend, Hollywood
Speaker 1: legend Jennifer Lewis, my best friend's co star, Jennifer Lewis.
Speaker 1: Terminal seven is the worst, worst, worst, worst part of
Speaker 1: New York City period, the worst people, the worst fucking
Speaker 1: place to be. Oh my god, you had been there
Speaker 1: with me. If you had been there with me that
Speaker 1: day trying to figure out how to get into that
Speaker 1: damn lounge, you would have snapped along with me because
Speaker 1: it's that flop International Lounge, right, it's the flop International Lounge,
Speaker 1: but they make it fucking hell. They you solve ten
Speaker 1: fucking bridge troll riddles to get inside. I went through security.
Speaker 1: Then they said because I had my my my boarding
Speaker 1: past for this international flight print printed from my original
Speaker 1: uh place whatever. I won't get into it, but they
Speaker 1: were like, you need a written letter of permission at
Speaker 1: the British Airways Satellites Lounge, which is fucking trash dealt.
Speaker 1: It will forever be that girl. You can never be
Speaker 1: Delta Lounge, you can never be American Express Centurion Lounge.
Speaker 1: It was disgusting. It's run by all these gate keeping.
Speaker 1: Motherfucker's literal gate keeping is that it's worst at the lounges.
Speaker 1: Shall we say, I'm sorry. I know it's hacked to
Speaker 1: complain about air air travel, but it was it what
Speaker 1: it is, what it is. It's like, you can't it's
Speaker 1: not hack if it's like a universal human experience that,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, everyone hates traveling via air. I don't
Speaker 1: blame Taylor sometimes for flying the job. I'm serious JFK.
Speaker 1: I had to tell Wait Matt literally for Simmon's Baseball.
Speaker 1: I had to tell I had to tell people on
Speaker 1: our team, on our management team. It was like, no
Speaker 1: more flying out of JFK, nomber flying in or I
Speaker 1: was like LaGuardia is LaGuardia as the default from going forward.
Speaker 1: It's it's I'm a JFK girl. No, I think I
Speaker 1: think it's just because I think it's just because I
Speaker 1: can be so autopilot there now, because I fly in
Speaker 1: and out of there so much that I don't have
Speaker 1: to literally at all, even look up from from like
Speaker 1: I can just go, go, go, go, go and go
Speaker 1: exactly what I want to go and get on the
Speaker 1: plane because I don't want any nonsense. But honestly, I
Speaker 1: do have to see what LaGuardia is giving now post renovation,
Speaker 1: because I haven't seen it. It's giving everything that can
Speaker 1: be given and gotten. It's giving clamor, it's giving beautiful
Speaker 1: water features. Matt. I know you fly Delta. The Delta
Speaker 1: terminal JFK is decent. But if you think about if
Speaker 1: your gate is fucking be of any five or whatever,
Speaker 1: the funk if your number is in the double digits,
Speaker 1: the walk is gang. You are walking and you can't
Speaker 1: at a certain point, you can't. You can't do that. No,
Speaker 1: I literally you are actually slaying when you say this,
Speaker 1: because there have been times where I'm like, it's like
Speaker 1: twenty minute walk to get there. It's a it's crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: LaGuardia has it figured out. Fear. There's this new girl
Speaker 1: in town. She's not so new, she just went through
Speaker 1: a makeover. Fiarello. LaGuardia Airport, the school and the airport
Speaker 1: are pumping out hits, planes and talent. LaGuardia is in
Speaker 1: her Terry Hatcher Desperate Housewives era. Absolutely yeah, Guaria is
Speaker 1: Desperate house Era again. It's so hacked. My last two
Speaker 1: out of my last three and thinks to have been
Speaker 1: about airports. But this has been my life recently and
Speaker 1: it's my reality. And take it to court. Okay, take
Speaker 1: it to court. Okay. Before we get into this Jennifer
Speaker 1: Lewis interview, we do want to break some news that
Speaker 1: we said online, but we just want to stay it
Speaker 1: here on the podcast. The the Katies Era is complete.
Speaker 1: That is no longer what you are all called. You
Speaker 1: are the readers again. We celebrate and support everyone who
Speaker 1: really tried to make the Katies Era sing, but we
Speaker 1: have decided to bail on it. And that's okay because
Speaker 1: we never have made any other mistakes doing this podcast,
Speaker 1: so it's okay. This was our first. I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: that was a mistake even No, you're right, and I'm
Speaker 1: sorry to us for saying that. No, sorry to us,
Speaker 1: and I will say kind of in a spicy statement.
Speaker 1: It seemed pretty split, and not even split evenly, but
Speaker 1: there was just a I will say, a vocal minority
Speaker 1: that was like no. And then we announced that Katie's
Speaker 1: was no more. The less vocal majority finally found their voice,
Speaker 1: shall we say, and said wait, I wait, I didn't
Speaker 1: I liked it, but sometimes the vocal minority wins, and
Speaker 1: that is not but let me be clear, let me
Speaker 1: be clear, this is not customer service. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: not customer service. There's a decision that we are making
Speaker 1: because we feel the readers. That's who you are, absolutely
Speaker 1: and this is why you get out there and vote.
Speaker 1: This is why you have to make your voice heard.
Speaker 1: And I'm so serious, I am you have to register
Speaker 1: to vote. Was heard because what was what is coming
Speaker 1: up is the mid terms and from the looks of things,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of work to do well. To
Speaker 1: do well. Enjoyed this conversation with the legend Jennifer Lewis.
Speaker 1: Bye bye. I don't know if you notice, Jennifer Lewis,
Speaker 1: but I'm wearing my robe for you. That's the first
Speaker 1: time I don't have a roller ball. Honestly, I'm not
Speaker 1: used to seeing you not be robed. And sometimes I said,
Speaker 1: I see you in the two robes, which is how
Speaker 1: you know she's at work. Did you read the two
Speaker 1: couple of paragraphs on the rope? Oh you know that.
Speaker 1: I had to get up and walk around with a
Speaker 1: book in my hand wearing that because I was like,
Speaker 1: I know, this is boss. I know this is Jennifer.
Speaker 1: Your as up. I'm wearing two robes. I'll leave a alone.
Speaker 1: Trying to contain the charisma, Well, it's it's uncontainable charisma.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited you're here, and I'm so excited about
Speaker 1: the book Walking in My Joy in the Streets probably
Speaker 1: one of the best titles I've heard. How just stumble
Speaker 1: upon the title. It's just kind of who and what
Speaker 1: I am. It's just what I do, mad I mean,
Speaker 1: you see me on said if I'm the only time
Speaker 1: I'm not like laughing and joking and playing around is
Speaker 1: when I'm really in my lines. You know, I show
Speaker 1: up to do my job, but I can't do my
Speaker 1: job if I'm not in my joy. So um, it
Speaker 1: was just so funny that first day I had that
Speaker 1: big speech, and I remember all of you were sitting
Speaker 1: there like little puppies, panting, Oh the great Jennifer Lewis,
Speaker 1: listen to your little ships. I don't know one fucking
Speaker 1: line of this script. They're not getting a great Jennifer
Speaker 1: Lewis today. Here's the rule. Shut the funk up. So
Speaker 1: I does it right, And y'all were like, damn all right,
Speaker 1: well ship, but it was just so fun. But for
Speaker 1: the reason I have been able to bring Patricia too,
Speaker 1: I love that for you as well as I have.
Speaker 1: And don't think for one minute I don't know that
Speaker 1: my next work it's my best work because I'm able
Speaker 1: to create an environment that is joyful. How can you?
Speaker 1: I mean, there's not uh weak link in the cast.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't have to walk over to an
Speaker 1: executive producer and sixty five years old, having been in
Speaker 1: this business two hundred and ninety three years, and say,
Speaker 1: what is going on over there? And what do you
Speaker 1: expect me to do with that person who is not
Speaker 1: present and who is not here that have hired. I
Speaker 1: have not had to make that speech everybody. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just wouldn't dream of showing up with Jennifer Lewis
Speaker 1: and not bringing my A plus plus game. And you're
Speaker 1: making me better, and you make me so much better
Speaker 1: than I ever thought I could be because of what
Speaker 1: you bring and the stuff that you say to me.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's just just know that that I'm
Speaker 1: feeling every minute of it. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: our relationship in the show, it's so intimate, and you know,
Speaker 1: having had so many assistants and they like Murphy Brown.
Speaker 1: I fire them weekly. Um big, So you don't know
Speaker 1: my middle name? You name, motherfucker, I don't know. You
Speaker 1: were walking into a storm. You know. It's crazy. I
Speaker 1: have been compared to the elements. I don't remember a
Speaker 1: review that I didn't I uh, Tornado her It's New York. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm twenty two years old. What was I supposed to
Speaker 1: do with that? You know? But anyway, I love being
Speaker 1: on the set of I love that for you, and
Speaker 1: I love everybody on the set. That is so rare,
Speaker 1: my friend, that is so rare. And with that loving, supporting,
Speaker 1: professional energy, I am able to move in a tight
Speaker 1: g that I've never really felt before. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: from the center and and you and I mhm, let
Speaker 1: me find the word. Well it is it is energy,
Speaker 1: but it's more than it's the consciousness and the energy. Um,
Speaker 1: those being the only two things that really exists. Let's
Speaker 1: just let's just say right now that I am I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to the next season. I know we're gonna
Speaker 1: get picked up. I know it in my heart. I
Speaker 1: know it because I can feel it. I can feel
Speaker 1: it too. Yeah, I'm trying to see myself somewhere else
Speaker 1: and I can't yet, I know, you know, Okay, so
Speaker 1: we just shared. We just shared a visual moment podcast.
Speaker 1: You know that ship out there. If they don't pick
Speaker 1: us up there out of there, fucking mind. Let agree
Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, they'd be crazy, they'd be crazy. You know.
Speaker 1: I also feel like what I what I really take
Speaker 1: from like our time together on set, is I remember
Speaker 1: and this is just one of many examples. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you a question based on this, which
Speaker 1: is I remember one day it was where we were
Speaker 1: doing the scene where where Patricia gifts Darcy the bag,
Speaker 1: and you were, um, we were walking through the scene
Speaker 1: and you were saying, how u as Jennifer, we're feeling
Speaker 1: emotional about the scene because you know, this was a
Speaker 1: moment of vulnerability for Patricia and it was also a
Speaker 1: moment where she was showing Darcy that he means something
Speaker 1: to her. And as you were preparing the scene, I
Speaker 1: remember you said out loud, but she is not going
Speaker 1: to be emotional like I am about this, because Patricia
Speaker 1: is she's rock solid, she's icy, and she would never
Speaker 1: betray that. And you said to me, you know the
Speaker 1: way you have an effect on the audience is you
Speaker 1: don't cry, they cry, And I've actually I wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you that There's been several times and projects that
Speaker 1: I've done since that where I've employed that and I
Speaker 1: felt it really has been effective, where I actually I
Speaker 1: tried so much to not be indulgent in what I
Speaker 1: was doing and rather actually have the much more human
Speaker 1: emotion of trying to manage myself and letting the camera
Speaker 1: are letting whatever it is pick up on that. And
Speaker 1: I just wanted to tell you that that was I
Speaker 1: think one of the most indelible pieces of acting advice
Speaker 1: I've ever had. And I wanted to ask you if
Speaker 1: you could remember a time where you were on set
Speaker 1: or working with another actor and they told you something
Speaker 1: that immediately made sense and you've remembered probably countless times,
Speaker 1: all countless times. Uh. One of the biggest ones was
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks when I worked with him passed away and
Speaker 1: I was so nervous that first night, uh of shooting.
Speaker 1: I mean, Tom Hanks, for God's said Robert robertson Mecca's
Speaker 1: is directing, and and here I am. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: I remember so well because I was studying the Jackie's
Speaker 1: back script in the trailer that night, and Tom Hanks
Speaker 1: came up behind me, and Jesus, what a moment. He
Speaker 1: thought I was rehearsing. He thought I was studying our
Speaker 1: scene that we were about you. I was studying Jackie's Back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So he looked over my shoulder and saw one of
Speaker 1: the lines from the Jackie's Back script that was eventually
Speaker 1: cut because the scene in Jackie's Back where I'm standing
Speaker 1: at the theater and I've got that mink hat on
Speaker 1: pita is across the street protesting the Mink Act, where
Speaker 1: Jackie Walkington didn't care. Oh, Tom Hanks looks over my
Speaker 1: shoulders and reads the line that Jackie Washington was gonna
Speaker 1: say to the crowd of the protesters for the fur,
Speaker 1: give me back my head, bitch, snatches the hat off,
Speaker 1: and Jackie screen give me back my head, bitch. So
Speaker 1: that was the line at the top of the page
Speaker 1: that Tom Hanks read out loud in my ear in
Speaker 1: makeup and hair, and all I heard. He didn't even say, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Tom Hanks. We hadn't even fucking met. He just
Speaker 1: looks at the crip because I'm not paying attention has
Speaker 1: come to the trailer. I know I'm thinking Tom Hanks,
Speaker 1: guess it's makeup on in his own trailer. But there
Speaker 1: he is reading over my shoulder and this is what
Speaker 1: you hear. Let me try to get him, give me,
Speaker 1: give me back my head, bitch, like, what the fuck?
Speaker 1: It's Tom Hags. But the thing Tom, when we got
Speaker 1: on the set, I was I was really nervous, and
Speaker 1: he looked at after one take of the scene, he
Speaker 1: looked at me and he looked me dead in my
Speaker 1: eye and he said, don't say it if you don't
Speaker 1: mean it, just like just like that, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: don't say it if you don't mean it. Don't say
Speaker 1: it if you don't mean it. H It was so
Speaker 1: powerful because he didn't he didn't um patronized me. He
Speaker 1: didn't make me feel bad, he didn't, you know, he
Speaker 1: didn't put me down. He didn't do any of that.
Speaker 1: He just gave me that one sentenced Because I went
Speaker 1: over to him, I said, I'm a little nervous, you know,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, just don't say it if you
Speaker 1: don't mean it. It was just so simple and and
Speaker 1: so everything. I'll tell you some of the lines. Sharon Stone. Also,
Speaker 1: when I worked with her on the mighty yeah. She
Speaker 1: gave so much off camera I couldn't believe. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was Sharon Stone, and she gave me the tears
Speaker 1: off camera. You mean when you were doing your coverage
Speaker 1: and coverage had been my yes right during her coverage.
Speaker 1: Her coverage was first. So she she did her performance,
Speaker 1: and I, you know, would remember what she did and
Speaker 1: I would give mine, but she gave it all and
Speaker 1: I have always admired and respected her for that. She
Speaker 1: also was very sweet. She came to see one of
Speaker 1: my club acts one time. They're They're set, Sharon Stone
Speaker 1: and Gregory Hines, and be was in the audience that night.
Speaker 1: What I mean, you know, come on, um, I know,
Speaker 1: I've always been the entertainer's entertainer. People they come to
Speaker 1: study me, they come to watch because I mean, you know, look,
Speaker 1: I perfected the cabaret scene, started the house down right,
Speaker 1: you know. The kids and dream girls used to come
Speaker 1: see me after the show. I was the show. After
Speaker 1: the Broadway shows, people would the gypsy broad Broadways gypsies
Speaker 1: would pile into Don't Tell Mama for my monthly show,
Speaker 1: and I just did him. I just kept doing and
Speaker 1: kept doing. And that's where the real groundwork came in.
Speaker 1: That's why I wasn't too intimidated by Molly Shannon and
Speaker 1: Vanessa bel I love that for you because I've done
Speaker 1: my homework too. It was like I was on Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live. Yeah right, and it's it's true. It's true
Speaker 1: that you auditioned for Saturday Night Live too, right, Yes
Speaker 1: I did. I sure did. I had a call back
Speaker 1: with Lauren Michaels. I can't remember what year it was,
Speaker 1: but I was very young. I was in my early
Speaker 1: twenties and I just knew I was gonna get picked.
Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest heartbreaks of my career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I went through something similar. Isn't it funny? Like now
Speaker 1: we get to work with people that have been also
Speaker 1: on the show, and we both also got closer. Though.
Speaker 1: It always comes around. And let me say, to all
Speaker 1: the hits listening, you must I always say I gave
Speaker 1: up many times in my career. I did, but I
Speaker 1: never quit. I didn't quit. It's when your hardest hit
Speaker 1: that you mustn't quit. Got to be in it to
Speaker 1: win it. There's no room for you to sit down.
Speaker 1: I tell motherfucker's I'm so dramatic. I lived my life
Speaker 1: like I got five minutes left. You go, what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do with the next five minutes, Jenny, Okay, you
Speaker 1: say that's dramatic. Oh that's so much you damn straight. See,
Speaker 1: I'm six five, I got thirty summers left. I ain't
Speaker 1: got time to weight. If the fucking nine point two
Speaker 1: hit right now, I would have gone down talking to
Speaker 1: my baby. I don't waste time. I would have gone
Speaker 1: down telling the truth. I try not to even get
Speaker 1: stressed Anymoreglo, bitch, Why when you've been in an earthquake
Speaker 1: and the tornado and the food, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: funk around with nature, the preciousness of life, how precious
Speaker 1: it is, how fragile we are, we are so gradual,
Speaker 1: and it could all be gone in a second. And
Speaker 1: that's why you've got to honor it. You got to
Speaker 1: honor it. Yeah, as you're talking, I'm reminded of the
Speaker 1: chapter in your book about your cousin Ronnie, which moved
Speaker 1: me so much. I mean, this was such a beautiful testament,
Speaker 1: and it's such a beautiful, you know, ode to his
Speaker 1: spirit and to how meaningful he was to you. And
Speaker 1: I do, like, I I know that like it emanates
Speaker 1: off of you, but you are. It's it's almost like
Speaker 1: beyond ally ship. It's like you are an icon to
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ community. But also it's like it feels like
Speaker 1: inherent in you. Like obviously you have a very close
Speaker 1: connection because there's a person in your life that was
Speaker 1: gay that you knew from a very very very young age,
Speaker 1: but also like can you speak to being involved in
Speaker 1: that cabaret scene and also being being around so many
Speaker 1: people like Vibrant your people in the eighties, because but
Speaker 1: it's beyond performance. It feels like it's like a lifeblood.
Speaker 1: Oh no, daring. The performance. The performance on stage was
Speaker 1: you know, probably scripted, and they okay, right, Jennifer Lewis
Speaker 1: will go off the script in five seconds and create
Speaker 1: a whole other world. But when the show came down,
Speaker 1: you see, m Artists are different walk. We walk in
Speaker 1: a different light of life because we know we're responsible.
Speaker 1: We know we're responsible for the next trend, the next energy.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like it's like it's like a tone setting.
Speaker 1: It's a responsibility. You can't fuck with it. You've got
Speaker 1: on an artistry because we are We go before everyone
Speaker 1: and laid the ground here's some art to look at
Speaker 1: while you're climbing your mountain. Here's a song you can
Speaker 1: sing while you're climbing in your mountain, because that's all
Speaker 1: any of us are trying to do, is climb the mountain.
Speaker 1: So the artists are there to say, here's something to
Speaker 1: encourage you. Here's a song you can sing when you
Speaker 1: get to level five. Here's a pair of beautiful shoes
Speaker 1: that will make your feet so good. Whatever you need,
Speaker 1: we're gonna make you a shoe that's gonna cushion your
Speaker 1: foot to get to the next level. What do you need?
Speaker 1: Because we were put here to create it for you,
Speaker 1: to help you, not to change you, not to make you,
Speaker 1: but just help you, feed you as it were feed you.
Speaker 1: Here's a song, bitch. You know you ain't even got
Speaker 1: to know how to sing to sing it, to sing.
Speaker 1: Thank you. The fact that you heard it means it's
Speaker 1: in your soul all the bay there. Do what you
Speaker 1: will with it. But here's the song, bitch. Here's a song. M.
Speaker 1: I have a song I've loved since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: It said, God give me mountains m with fills at
Speaker 1: their knees. You know, I used to think Matt that
Speaker 1: I that I had to pull everybody up. Happy I
Speaker 1: stayed alive. I'm happy I stayed around to grow to
Speaker 1: respect other people and hear what they had to say.
Speaker 1: A k A. Listen to others. Instead of it being me,
Speaker 1: me me, it's now we we we. So I found
Speaker 1: people that I could reach up and trust not to
Speaker 1: let me fall back down. That count and that goes
Speaker 1: back to I love that to you for you. That
Speaker 1: goes back to Vanessa's warm That goes back to Molly's
Speaker 1: wholeness and your intensity and your I watch you know,
Speaker 1: I've been able to watch the show and study it.
Speaker 1: You also have a warmth and not to your looks.
Speaker 1: Don't hurt either, baby boy, just coming from the most
Speaker 1: beautiful woman in the world. That means something. You're so
Speaker 1: precious to Just look at those little things you do,
Speaker 1: even when you slam the the cart that Patricia has
Speaker 1: made you put all over that board, the way you're
Speaker 1: going like this bit, this bitch is in your back. No, honey,
Speaker 1: I have studied all I have this bitch. I love her.
Speaker 1: God damn it, I have to put the same ship
Speaker 1: all over here. Because I heard Patricia say, put them
Speaker 1: all up there so everyone will understand that will be
Speaker 1: no mistakes. And you're like, and I could hear Darcy thinking,
Speaker 1: fuck in your back. It's there, suck. It's such an
Speaker 1: interesting relationship and dynamic to play because there's so many
Speaker 1: layers to it, you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 1: there is that because because there is that, um, I
Speaker 1: find that with him it's like an irritant that he
Speaker 1: has to be obedient to someone, but he also he
Speaker 1: also does need it and he wants to be And
Speaker 1: when you have been with Banaza, when you're getting who's
Speaker 1: taking the care of her, Matt, everything is in that scene.
Speaker 1: Everything that is unspoken. I hear in that scene. But
Speaker 1: I have a fucking word you say. I hear everything
Speaker 1: you're not saying. And that's when you know it's right.
Speaker 1: This means the world to me. No, no, no, you
Speaker 1: literally say I'm nothing. When you say nothing, when you
Speaker 1: say I'm nothing, I'm just a little spec All I
Speaker 1: hear here is all I'm hearing it. You don't I understand.
Speaker 1: I just thought that they the towns and when you
Speaker 1: when you do your hands and you go down like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. No, I'm gonna say my favorite part
Speaker 1: m this is how I know like the second season,
Speaker 1: but I love this for you. It's gonna be so interesting.
Speaker 1: I can't wait because what I have found while looking
Speaker 1: at it and studying it. You and I are music,
Speaker 1: a young man, we're music together. That's some music ship
Speaker 1: going on. We're writing the song in this bitch, and
Speaker 1: I am loving every note. You know. I don't funk around,
Speaker 1: young man. I don't blow smoke. I watch. You're too
Speaker 1: close to me for me not to I gotta be
Speaker 1: able to see straight through you, motherfucker. Get that close
Speaker 1: to me. I see everything. Okay, they can actually be
Speaker 1: a thousand paces the way I still see, but that
Speaker 1: up close. No, when you let me tell you the
Speaker 1: song you I don't even know if you know it.
Speaker 1: But while I'm singing and I'm feeling good, and before
Speaker 1: you push that fucking button, when you go that was it, boy,
Speaker 1: this little boy know a thing that two It was
Speaker 1: the song. It was a song within a song within
Speaker 1: a song, and it was beautiful. I'm I'm I'm overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: and it's such a It's one of the great joys
Speaker 1: of my life to be able to to have this experience.
Speaker 1: And I'm so excited for the future of like the
Speaker 1: song as you're saying, and I will say, I was
Speaker 1: so proud and so excited to be able to be
Speaker 1: there when you got your star on the Hollywood Walk
Speaker 1: and that was so exciting to watch you at that moment.
Speaker 1: That like such a deserved moment. And I have to
Speaker 1: tell you, I didn't get to talk to you much
Speaker 1: that day because there was so much happening. But I
Speaker 1: was shaking because I go over and I look at
Speaker 1: my chair and of course I'm like glowing, and I'm
Speaker 1: with Vanessa and we're so excited and proud of you.
Speaker 1: And then I go over. I look, I they have
Speaker 1: a chair for me, It says Matt Rodgers on my chair,
Speaker 1: and the next chair over said two words, Brandy, Nor
Speaker 1: would Jennifer I have I When I tell you, she
Speaker 1: came and sat next to me, and I'm I'm like
Speaker 1: shaking because I have been a huge Brandy fan from
Speaker 1: a child, and she was and she was amongst dozens
Speaker 1: and dozens and dozens of people that were there, just
Speaker 1: so excited, glowing for you. What did that day feel like?
Speaker 1: Because it's not just any people. These are the most
Speaker 1: talented people. These are the most brilliant lights. I mean,
Speaker 1: meeting all your sisters was incredible, Like, I mean, just
Speaker 1: like what did that feel like? And the caliber of
Speaker 1: people that were there to pay tribute to? I mean,
Speaker 1: Mark Shaman and Debbie Allen did the speeches. Let's go wow,
Speaker 1: baby boy, oh man, mhm to make Jennifer Lewis speeches
Speaker 1: because she's sitting in a moment that is real. It's
Speaker 1: so real. Mm hmm. Come on, you already know. I
Speaker 1: don't have to say it was. Let me try. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Mark Shaman and I have known each other for about
Speaker 1: thirty five years, and you know he wrote Hairsprayed for me.
Speaker 1: He wrote mortemall Mouth for me, but I couldn't do
Speaker 1: it because I was on the contract with Strong Medicine. Wow. Wow,
Speaker 1: So I did get to go. I did get to
Speaker 1: go back to Broadway into it for three months, um,
Speaker 1: which was wonderful. Oh god, what a life. And Debbie
Speaker 1: Allen made my first job in Hollywood. Wow. It was
Speaker 1: a pilot with Diane Carol cab Callaway Journey, Journey, Gary Journey.
Speaker 1: Smollett was four years old playing Debbie Allen and and
Speaker 1: I was playing uh uh, Debbie Allen's cousin, Jesse May
Speaker 1: gave me my first solo and and the great moment
Speaker 1: between Debbie and I was when we did a presentation
Speaker 1: of the pilot. It was called Sunday in Paris, when
Speaker 1: we did a presentation of the pilot for the producers,
Speaker 1: the producers which she was one, She was an executive producer,
Speaker 1: so they were in a meeting. So when they came
Speaker 1: out of that meeting, Debbie Allen slipped me a note
Speaker 1: and she whispered in my ear they walked more of
Speaker 1: Jesse May. Yeah, of course, come on, now they want more.
Speaker 1: That's the next book. They want more. They that they
Speaker 1: want more of Jesse Met, she said, and then she
Speaker 1: went it in my issue. She said, now you listen
Speaker 1: to me and listen good. Yeah. I'm only gonna do
Speaker 1: a couple of seasons of this show and then you
Speaker 1: can have it. But not yet, bitch, baby. She wrote
Speaker 1: a note that said not yet, bitch, that I still have.
Speaker 1: I still have that note. Not yet, bitch. You can
Speaker 1: be you can take over, because she knew I was
Speaker 1: capable of taking it over. I mean, back in those days,
Speaker 1: I wasn't even treated for my bipolar disorder. So honey,
Speaker 1: I was completely out of control. I pushed every motherfucker
Speaker 1: aside to beat to the center. And that was just
Speaker 1: no justice, that was nothing. I was a fource of
Speaker 1: nature job. Debbie Allen was like, goddamn, this girl got talent.
Speaker 1: So ce she saw it, and she you know, all
Speaker 1: of my peers, I mean from Whoopee to Rosie to
Speaker 1: Kathy Griffin and all the people that were in Jackie's back,
Speaker 1: you know, they've been there for me. Bett Mittler, all
Speaker 1: of they've been there for me. I was the little
Speaker 1: the little kid knew on the block, and everybody wanted
Speaker 1: to make me a star. But the bipolar dis order
Speaker 1: um really stopped that whole. It was a wave coming,
Speaker 1: but it was a wave of confusion. I was not aligned.
Speaker 1: I was willing, but I wasn't ready. I wasn't ever
Speaker 1: ready emotionally, spiritually, uh. And I just didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do with myself. Everybody was dying from a eats
Speaker 1: and I just I pretty much just lost my fucking mind.
Speaker 1: And then someone right, and and and you know you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to deal with that much death in your
Speaker 1: early thirties, for God's sake, They babies dropped like flies
Speaker 1: nobody knew what to do. Ronald Reagan wasn't doing ship,
Speaker 1: wasn't saying ship. The government wasn't saying ship. And we
Speaker 1: all we were all lost, but I more than most
Speaker 1: because I was styke. I was not diagnosed yet. So um,
Speaker 1: I'm what can I tell you? Going back to the
Speaker 1: lg g uh B t Q community, you know, like
Speaker 1: the whole chorus like died from dream curls. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was it was the time that you guys could
Speaker 1: not even imagine, and it was a silent war kind
Speaker 1: of like this dumb coat ship. You didn't we thought
Speaker 1: it was in the air. There was a time we
Speaker 1: didn't know if it was in the air. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: had to be incredibly scary. I mean sometimes I just
Speaker 1: I very rarely have these moments because whether it's ignorance
Speaker 1: or whatever, it's just like I I am, you know,
Speaker 1: blessed him to be living in this time and not
Speaker 1: that one. I look around whenever I'm a lot around
Speaker 1: all my gay queer friends and I think, like we're
Speaker 1: very lucky that. I mean, this isn't a present a
Speaker 1: present like immediate threat because just the fear and terror
Speaker 1: just and to understand how vital the community is and
Speaker 1: how enriching it is, and how I'm proud I am
Speaker 1: to be a part of it. Just yeah, just life, honey.
Speaker 1: I live in my joy around the gay children love me.
Speaker 1: I love them and that's that's the way that is.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna fight for them and they've always fought
Speaker 1: for me. And before you even a little a sahebo, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, what do we rock in here? We
Speaker 1: got some? I love that. Let's finish my plate. So
Speaker 1: I got to eat a little something. You know, I
Speaker 1: still take it. By the way you're going, you're emanating
Speaker 1: right now. You seem like you're walking in your joy.
Speaker 1: Then let me tell you what happened yesterday and you
Speaker 1: will know why I'm walking to the enjoy. I want
Speaker 1: to know. The musical director of my new UH animating
Speaker 1: animation feature Spellbound with Nicole, Javier bar Damn and John
Speaker 1: is playing my husband. I'm one of my husbands. My
Speaker 1: e's the other, like minister of the little kingdom. But anyway,
Speaker 1: they came over yesterday, honey, with all the dis knee
Speaker 1: inness of it all. Yeah, the storyboards, well no, no,
Speaker 1: you know Disney does not let out the script. Oh
Speaker 1: they don't. Okay, we only when I've done about Oh,
Speaker 1: I guess this would be my O. I think this
Speaker 1: will be my seventh animation feature. Wo but baby, your
Speaker 1: little girl was singing and Alan making song. Yes, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be incredible, and I sounded so good
Speaker 1: on it. I couldn't believe I hit those notes yesterday.
Speaker 1: I I can't believe it. I mean everyone, I mean
Speaker 1: you know what, you know what else I looked? But
Speaker 1: I love that for you is they gave you that moment,
Speaker 1: and I think it was the fifth episode to sing
Speaker 1: feeling good. When you just mentioned it, just like the
Speaker 1: way you ripped that up, I was like, come on now,
Speaker 1: the moment was absolutely met crushed it. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest with you. The greatest compliment I
Speaker 1: got was from Mark Shaman. And Mark and I don't
Speaker 1: compliment each other because we both know if one of
Speaker 1: us gets if one of us gets one more compliment,
Speaker 1: our heads will fall off. I'll show this right, So
Speaker 1: we usually we were just pretty much putting each other
Speaker 1: down when we talked. You, no funk, do you know
Speaker 1: you when Mark Shaman, you have such incredible enriching friendships.
Speaker 1: Look at you, I mean you're overwhelmed. But yeah, because
Speaker 1: there's so much love there, it's so much history. Yes,
Speaker 1: when Mark Shaman calls and tells you that he has
Speaker 1: never seen a more perfect lips stink, I love it.
Speaker 1: I mean he said it was perfect. How did you?
Speaker 1: I mean when Mark, you know, confused at some of
Speaker 1: my brilliance, I mean that. Yeah, I'll tell you another
Speaker 1: thing Mark Shaman did. We We went on a world
Speaker 1: tool once and we were in Iceland together. Mhm yeah,
Speaker 1: but we were in a three hundred fifty year old
Speaker 1: uh glacier. They had card uh wedding chapel of ice
Speaker 1: inside of this glacier. You call and tell him to
Speaker 1: go there. It's pretty cool. Well, yeah, they'll drive him out.
Speaker 1: Tell him if it's a bit of a drive in
Speaker 1: Iceland to get out to that glacier, but tell him
Speaker 1: to go. It's worth it. They have to give you
Speaker 1: a suit, you don't freeze the death and their knowledge
Speaker 1: a lot of experience. Absolutely, But I got a Mark Shaman. Now,
Speaker 1: I we're walking around in this glacier in Iceland, and
Speaker 1: the guide that was taken us through all this precarious
Speaker 1: ice and snow she turns. At one point, she says, yes,
Speaker 1: now we've entered the temple. The chapel is, does anyone sing? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: the acoustics probably were giving everything. Yes. Actually, if you
Speaker 1: really want to know, truth is actually on you too.
Speaker 1: You can actually see. But here's the piece. Okay, when
Speaker 1: I finished singing amazing grace in that glacier mm hmm.
Speaker 1: You can hear Mark Shaman say these words, and I
Speaker 1: got a church from guy watching all the time. But
Speaker 1: he says, uh, there, how's the amazing grace in speak
Speaker 1: to No? No, no, yeah, but yes, but no, I
Speaker 1: see and he either says I think he said perfect
Speaker 1: or or it was brilliant. I mean it was somewhere
Speaker 1: and it was one word and I'm all spring. He
Speaker 1: doesn't see this here, this interview because it will give
Speaker 1: it too much power. But when he comproments me, when
Speaker 1: Mark Shaman get me a compliment, it fucking goes in. Man.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it was involuntary, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It sounds like he had an experience came so quickly,
Speaker 1: came so from the soul, which everything does. That's son
Speaker 1: of a bitch, feels everything I'm telling you. Mark shaman
Speaker 1: rocks around, and there is there is music constantly in
Speaker 1: his entire moleculous structure. You can barely get through. You
Speaker 1: can barely get through. He'll put his finger up to
Speaker 1: his ear because I'm screaming so loud, trying to get
Speaker 1: through whatever symphony that motherfucker's writing. I'm we're eating now.
Speaker 1: Some chicken bit killed me. But you know the corn
Speaker 1: by riding a symphony. Damn, some people never stopped. I
Speaker 1: have to ask you, Um, we have a question that
Speaker 1: we ask everyone that comes on this podcast, and it
Speaker 1: causes a little bit of a deep dive, So we
Speaker 1: ask everyone, what was the culture that made you? Say?
Speaker 1: Culture was for me? So basically this is a stupid way,
Speaker 1: an ignorant way of asking the question, what was the
Speaker 1: formative pop culture? Whether it was a film, you know, um,
Speaker 1: musical artists, something that made you Jennifer Lewis realized you
Speaker 1: or Jennifer Lewis, what was that formative culture? I actually
Speaker 1: spoke to my new assistant, Cecily, who knows you love
Speaker 1: Cecily already, and she was telling me about this this
Speaker 1: culture thing. I was like, what then is talking about?
Speaker 1: What the something that she said something that you know,
Speaker 1: And I said something like, well, georga'ss jeans, you know
Speaker 1: I was walking around. She's telling that's a good one.
Speaker 1: But as you asked me this question, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you another. Oh yeah, I used to walk down the
Speaker 1: street New York on you got to look, you got
Speaker 1: to look. Yes, And those James were so cheap and nasty.
Speaker 1: She used to always hurt you between my legs. I
Speaker 1: took those motherfuckers off and never wore them again. Y goddamn.
Speaker 1: And I'm walking in the pumps on the asphalt of
Speaker 1: a fathe going. You got the look, you got the look.
Speaker 1: And I changed the song to my feet are hurting,
Speaker 1: my ass is hurting, and so up. I got ups.
Speaker 1: They were not practical. They can't be the culture that
Speaker 1: they were not practically. If as you asked me this question, yes,
Speaker 1: something else went through me. I wanted I've heard. What
Speaker 1: was it that that shook you in your in your
Speaker 1: in your past. Let me tell you a couple of things,
Speaker 1: whether I'm answering your question or not. Let me say
Speaker 1: this out loud, just because it's so present. Good. It
Speaker 1: was streisan Ah, it was Judy Garland, Sinatra Harl Bailey.
Speaker 1: It was those gods, yeah, that snatched my soul out
Speaker 1: of my goddamn rib gauge and said, this is who
Speaker 1: you are. Mrs Lewis, was it the storytelling of what
Speaker 1: they were able to do? What was it do you
Speaker 1: think that made you connect to these like vocal storytellers? Like?
Speaker 1: What was it about them? Because that is the that
Speaker 1: is the the connecting tissue that I find in those
Speaker 1: names that you say. It's the it fact. To my
Speaker 1: it is a chrisma that cannot be bought. It can
Speaker 1: only be polished. You have to be born with it.
Speaker 1: It is game nose game. You have it, man, darling,
Speaker 1: you have you No darling, I don't blow smoke baby.
Speaker 1: You have the fact that you wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: stand next to me if you come on. Yeah you
Speaker 1: wanna quit? You would? I can't that, but that bitch
Speaker 1: I ain't done it. Chuniber lords. I can't, But you didn't.
Speaker 1: You're stepped up? Or should I say you stepped in?
Speaker 1: You know who you are. You're young, but you know
Speaker 1: who you are. We're all unfinished projects. We're all climbing
Speaker 1: that mountain. We're all reaching back to somebody we love
Speaker 1: We're all reaching up to somebody we respect. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It is a chain of love and some of us.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry we were given just a little more. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry we just were I don't know how it works.
Speaker 1: I don't know what God is thinking, or who did
Speaker 1: what or who did I don't know, but I know
Speaker 1: I came in this bitch singing, and I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: out of this bitch sings. Yeah. Oh. You know, my mother,
Speaker 1: when I was very very young, she like raised me
Speaker 1: on the movie Funny Girl. So I think I may
Speaker 1: have been like four or five the first time I
Speaker 1: really watched Barbara deliver those numbers. Specifically, the moment, the
Speaker 1: moment that I can really remember is seeing her sing
Speaker 1: my and at the end of Funny Girl, and just
Speaker 1: the way that she belts out the world for the
Speaker 1: word forever more at the end of that song, and
Speaker 1: it closes the film and she she in silhouette. The
Speaker 1: lights go down in black and she's in silhouette and
Speaker 1: she's just bathed in the glory of what she's just done.
Speaker 1: But what it was, it was all of the emotion
Speaker 1: of that entire two hour, forty minute film put into
Speaker 1: one No it was just like and so when you
Speaker 1: say her name, I'm like, wow, that really is what
Speaker 1: it is. It's just an immediacy and an ability to channel.
Speaker 1: And that was the moment for me too. But my
Speaker 1: moment was right on my parade. Yeah, when that bitch
Speaker 1: went don't and then another don't tell me, and then
Speaker 1: when she got on that motherfucking boat and hit that
Speaker 1: motherfuck So that lasted eight hours. I was I was babysitting.
Speaker 1: You never forget moments like I was babysitting. And when
Speaker 1: she hit that note, yeah, and also holding the center
Speaker 1: of that shot when she when she did that, I
Speaker 1: knew you that I would hit that fucking note and
Speaker 1: hold it that fucking yeah, I have in my youth.
Speaker 1: I'm sure have you sang that song? Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: Don't don't don't don't, don't, don't don't And they didn't
Speaker 1: know the word was bop, but the word was bop.
Speaker 1: All you are. All I have to hear is don't don't,
Speaker 1: don't don't. I mean it's and it was also I
Speaker 1: don't know, there was that just been moments. You know,
Speaker 1: when you when you hear the voice of Nelson Mandela,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're privy to looking Michelle Obama in
Speaker 1: her eyes and seeing her grace through her eyes. This
Speaker 1: was an amazing part of the book. Yeah, everyone has
Speaker 1: to get this book. Yeah, I'm talking moments of life. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm talking about human greatness. And boy is greatness?
Speaker 1: Is Mr lewis greatness? And by the way, take this in.
Speaker 1: There are no shortcuts to it. See when you see
Speaker 1: when you put a word great on a human being,
Speaker 1: they did some ship because they got there telling the truth.
Speaker 1: That's some real ship. You can't lie your way to
Speaker 1: great this motherfucker. You gotta stand in your truth, the
Speaker 1: whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's why the
Speaker 1: con artists in the book got eight years because when
Speaker 1: I read, when I read my victim statement, I brought
Speaker 1: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 1: Didn't need God to help me because it was the
Speaker 1: whole truth. Do you understand? Yes, I've been given the
Speaker 1: strength to say no to injustice that should happened to me.
Speaker 1: I said to myself, if I am in this much
Speaker 1: pain from being conned and scammed, what other people must
Speaker 1: be going through. See, I have the tools to work
Speaker 1: through any fucking thing that comes near me, I'm like,
Speaker 1: morphous and fucking matrix, bring it bit where you had
Speaker 1: come on what you got, because we got. All we
Speaker 1: can do is sit at the table and work through it.
Speaker 1: But when you get to a situation where you can't
Speaker 1: work through it, I'm telling everybody in the world, let
Speaker 1: that ship go. That's the moment where you have to say, okay,
Speaker 1: time to grow up and move the funk on. No
Speaker 1: matter how painful it is. You may change nobody. You
Speaker 1: can't make somebody do something that you want them to
Speaker 1: do how you want them to do it. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: That's not that that doesn't belong to you. What belongs
Speaker 1: to you It is how you feel about what did
Speaker 1: you do with it? Who did help and who did
Speaker 1: you defend? And did you take your responsibility? Because there's
Speaker 1: always a two great fucking street. I don't even know
Speaker 1: how I got off on that, but it sounds no.
Speaker 1: But I want I want everyone to know, for everyone listening,
Speaker 1: that you must read this book because this was This
Speaker 1: was another thing I didn't know actually, is that you
Speaker 1: found yourself in a relationship with someone that became romantic
Speaker 1: and the person was a full scam artist. Who is
Speaker 1: I guess now in prison because he was conning women
Speaker 1: into being in romantic relationships with him and taking all
Speaker 1: their money to fund fraudulent businesses. And this was something
Speaker 1: that I was really shook by because you're so kind
Speaker 1: and so strong. I was like, God, this guy must
Speaker 1: have been a real sicko. And these people are really
Speaker 1: good at what they do, aren't they. You have to
Speaker 1: watch out for some of these people. And I just
Speaker 1: wanted to ask, like, when do you decide so when
Speaker 1: you talk about acting on something like that, because you
Speaker 1: knew you were going to do something about it, because
Speaker 1: pretty immediately you did go to the police, and um,
Speaker 1: it developed from there in terms of getting this guy,
Speaker 1: you know, serving serving justice or what happened? When does it?
Speaker 1: When does it stop becoming I'm in pain and hurting
Speaker 1: about this? And when how soon does it do you
Speaker 1: make the decision to act? Was it immediate or and
Speaker 1: how much grieving process went into the end of that relationship?
Speaker 1: My what to do? Was it immediate? Because I'm an
Speaker 1: out I don't sit around and well before treatment, before
Speaker 1: treating my bipolar disorder, when chaos madness would occur, I
Speaker 1: would become part of the madness and the chaos all out,
Speaker 1: don't know what to do, go crazy, you know, start crying,
Speaker 1: can't stop crying. Things are wrong now, not anymore, darling,
Speaker 1: not after this many years of therapy. Whenever it happens,
Speaker 1: because that phone one thing, you know, if the phone
Speaker 1: is gonna ring, no matter, you can be skipped, towing
Speaker 1: through the tulips or whatever the funk you want to
Speaker 1: do with your life. But that phone is gonna ring,
Speaker 1: and somebody's gonna be dead at some point. M somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna have to have a heart attack. Somebody did this,
Speaker 1: somebody it's coming. You know. That was a movie, The
Speaker 1: Untouchables with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, and Sean Connery
Speaker 1: has been shocked and he's bleeding to death, and Kevin
Speaker 1: Costner has come to him and asked for his assistance. Well,
Speaker 1: now having given him his assistant assistance, he's been shot
Speaker 1: and he's dying and he looks up at Kevin Coston
Speaker 1: as he's bleeding to death, and he asked him, what
Speaker 1: are you prepared to do? M hmm. You're gonna go
Speaker 1: to the train station and kill this motherfucker, or you
Speaker 1: just gonna let me lay on this floor and bleed
Speaker 1: and you do nothing about it. I say a lie
Speaker 1: long enough to tell you where this motherfucker is that
Speaker 1: killed me? Now, what are you prepared to do? So
Speaker 1: that's why I asked myself every fucking day, because something's
Speaker 1: coming every day. What are you prepared to do? Jenny?
Speaker 1: Did your journal? Did your journal about it last night?
Speaker 1: Did you right down last night? Get in the pool?
Speaker 1: See it's just step by step. Yeah, there's no frivolity
Speaker 1: involved in living on on purpose. See the count artists
Speaker 1: got in because I wasn't paying attention. Oh I was
Speaker 1: getting my honorary doctorate degree, getting a lifetime Achievement award,
Speaker 1: and he was just over there and I was like, okay, Babby,
Speaker 1: I'll be back. Yeah, I'm I'll invest in that. Yeah sure,
Speaker 1: and then I'm off on the plane. Well guess what
Speaker 1: that is, Matt. That's called arrogance, it's called omnipotence, it's
Speaker 1: delusions of grandeura, and it's grandiosity. Well. Ms Lewis, maybe
Speaker 1: next time you'll pay attention, Mrs Lewis, maybe there's a
Speaker 1: new lesson to learn. How about you pay attention. You're
Speaker 1: paying attention, Jenny, or you just flailing your arm, like,
Speaker 1: let somebody else take care of it, right this man
Speaker 1: in your house, in your life, in your home, in
Speaker 1: my bed, in between my legs, and thank you, I lie,
Speaker 1: excuse me god, you send me a fucking con artist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let me tell you how immediate it was. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was immediate. I went to the police immediately, I called TMZ.
Speaker 1: I wanted that motherfucker's face all over the world so
Speaker 1: he wouldn't hurt other women. Let me tell you something
Speaker 1: my therapist told me when that happened. And let me
Speaker 1: be very honest, it is one of the worst things
Speaker 1: that have happened to me. But in hindsight, once we
Speaker 1: say oh it's the worst thing that happened to me,
Speaker 1: it was the best thing. I would not have been
Speaker 1: able to write either of these books had that motherfucker
Speaker 1: not come into my life. I would not have been
Speaker 1: able to write The Mother Black Hollywood, because, you see,
Speaker 1: the con artist's story was the worst thing that ever
Speaker 1: happened to me. So if you give the worst story away,
Speaker 1: here you go. Here's the molestation, here's the pregnancies, here's
Speaker 1: the abortions, here's the sex addiction, here's the mental health.
Speaker 1: You gave it away, because why do I always say
Speaker 1: we are as sick as our secret. That's right, I
Speaker 1: did it, motherfucker. Bring it on, Bring it on. You
Speaker 1: can't come for me, come for me. Yeah, I did it,
Speaker 1: but I gave it back to health and that made
Speaker 1: me happy. Yeah, was I embarrassed yours? It has to
Speaker 1: be very vulnerable, stupid. Yeah, I've lived the spectrum. I've
Speaker 1: gone from Florida, reach Port, the rich. I've lived the spectrum. Bitch,
Speaker 1: I'm from the street. Who gonna check me? Boom? Well,
Speaker 1: bit I can't. You got checked. You got con out
Speaker 1: of fifty grand. Now go and mourn if you will,
Speaker 1: and then get the funk up and keep going and
Speaker 1: keep going the truth, Jenny. Yeah it hurt, Yeah, it hurts.
Speaker 1: It hurts like hell. But how about you tug on
Speaker 1: so journalous truth skirt right now and get up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's also important for strong people to show vulnerability and
Speaker 1: to and to also express the ways in which they
Speaker 1: have been knocked down, because I think that is something
Speaker 1: I think also to with the entertainment industry is when
Speaker 1: we step on stage, like obviously, you exude a strength
Speaker 1: and you exude almost like an invincibility, especially when we
Speaker 1: when when we're these types of performers like you are
Speaker 1: and the ones that you've mentioned. But also the vulnerability
Speaker 1: is why we fall in love with them. It's why
Speaker 1: we remember my man, you know what I mean. Duty
Speaker 1: Remember Judy Garland, Judy Garland on the Judy Garland Show.
Speaker 1: I think it was two nights after John F. Kennedy
Speaker 1: had been shot. I was in the second grade and
Speaker 1: Judy Garland came out MHM in her show. And of
Speaker 1: course I learned later that the executive producers did not
Speaker 1: want her to do that because it was political, but yeah,
Speaker 1: Judy was friends with JFK and um. Anyway, she came
Speaker 1: out and she sang battle him in Republic and they
Speaker 1: go to YouTube and see that bitch. You will see
Speaker 1: she forgot a lyric and you you she didn't flu up.
Speaker 1: She went instead of saying, oh be swis my soul
Speaker 1: to answer him, be jubilant my feet. Well God is
Speaker 1: watching on and baby. When she took that first step
Speaker 1: on loori Lori halleluyah. As I was in the second grade,
Speaker 1: math m, tears were running down my face. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know what emotion I was feeling. But this woman,
Speaker 1: this energy, this power, this this unannounced storm that came
Speaker 1: out of nowhere. I'm telling you, baby, I have enjoyed
Speaker 1: being in this business, Matt. I have enjoyed. I am.
Speaker 1: I think if somebody were to ask me what I
Speaker 1: was more grateful for than anything, it would be that
Speaker 1: I got to do what I loved to do in
Speaker 1: my life. I probably would have done it had I
Speaker 1: never got a penny, for gotten a penniful it m hmm.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what else to do but sing a song.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what else to do but kick my
Speaker 1: legs in the air. I didn't know what else to
Speaker 1: do but make people laugh. I always thought it was
Speaker 1: why I was put here, and I'm glad I thought
Speaker 1: that because it kind of worked out. Yes, here's a thing. Ordinarily,
Speaker 1: on something as gorgeous and beautiful as that, I would
Speaker 1: end the episode. But we have to do a segment
Speaker 1: that we always do on this podcast that I hope
Speaker 1: Cecily told you about. It's called I don't think so, honey,
Speaker 1: did you hear about I don't think so, honey? Did
Speaker 1: she tell you? You're telling me back? I don't think
Speaker 1: this is what it is it's a sixty second rant
Speaker 1: about something that is grinding your gears that you need
Speaker 1: to rant about and scream about. I have one. I'll
Speaker 1: do a demo for you, and then I'm gonna time
Speaker 1: you Jennifer Lewis, okay, are you ready? So I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do one, and then you're gonna do one. All right?
Speaker 1: So this is my I don't think so, honey, My
Speaker 1: time starts now. I don't think so, honey. The word
Speaker 1: affidavit's the releasing or whatever. Just put this motherfucker in jail.
Speaker 1: Is he a criminal, then lock him up. I don't
Speaker 1: give a funk about. He was the president and this
Speaker 1: is unprecedented. I don't want to hear the word affidavit
Speaker 1: ever again. Release the whatever. Mama released the cracking, released
Speaker 1: the cracking of the U. S. Government, and put this
Speaker 1: man in fucking prison. What does he have that he
Speaker 1: should have? Just tell us, you know, we deserve to
Speaker 1: know the fucking truth. Put him in fucking jail. I
Speaker 1: have thirty seconds left. Look, if I have to see
Speaker 1: one more drone shot of Mara Lago, Mama, put the
Speaker 1: drone into the hallway, going uncover the cabinets, Just show
Speaker 1: us what is in there? If I see one more
Speaker 1: document with a billion lines blacked out, just tell us
Speaker 1: the truth. How has this motherfucker's been putting us in jail?
Speaker 1: I mean, and in in chaos and in danger. Put
Speaker 1: him in jail, not us, Mama? Is it? I don't
Speaker 1: care if it's UFOs, I don't care if it's fucking whatever.
Speaker 1: Just just tell us what it is. Stop. I don't
Speaker 1: think so, honey, boom, that's my one minute. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pick it right the fun up. This is Jennifer Lillis.
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey. Your time starts now. I
Speaker 1: don't think so, bitch. I don't think that your motherfucking
Speaker 1: as should still be alive when you didn't tell us
Speaker 1: that COVID what it's here, when it wasn't here, your
Speaker 1: motherfucker saying ship on the phone, like oh it's in
Speaker 1: the air, Yeah, that's in the a bitch, everything after
Speaker 1: the motherfucking air too, Because you don't believe in science.
Speaker 1: With your dumb, fat, little mushroom dick ass, you don't
Speaker 1: believe inside you got him. You're a social path. You're
Speaker 1: a fucking social path, and and you're insane, but you know.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest. Let you lafe. I don't hate
Speaker 1: that man. I feel sorry for Trump because I know
Speaker 1: what fucking mental illness looks like. But there's a difference
Speaker 1: between mental illness and being a fucking sociopath. That bitch
Speaker 1: has no feeling. And I'm gonna tell you why they're
Speaker 1: having arrest of this fucking as yet because when he
Speaker 1: got in he's mafia. He went out there and got
Speaker 1: a picture of every Republican senator's mistress and a young
Speaker 1: boy that they fucking around with. Fuck him, he's got
Speaker 1: do it again. Let me get the good turn that finish, finish.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want to say. Trump is mob. You
Speaker 1: gotta understand that ship, that motherfuck monster. When he got
Speaker 1: in office, he went and got pictures of every Republican's mistress,
Speaker 1: whoever got the seeds they were straight or gay or
Speaker 1: whatever whatever you could hold over their heads. As soon
Speaker 1: as he got in he went and got those pictures
Speaker 1: and all of that information and videos. Those Republican senators
Speaker 1: know that he has this. That's why they're not stepping
Speaker 1: forward and they think, okay, well, let me just get
Speaker 1: on the evil train and maybe we'll win this thing
Speaker 1: and keep our country. Well, fuck you, motherfucker. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you it's time for every great fucking empire to fall, bitch.
Speaker 1: And that's what's going because you motherfucker's went around the
Speaker 1: world colonized, raped and pillaged every goddamned society you could
Speaker 1: get your hands on. Then you brought us. Oh that's
Speaker 1: the man. No, you know where that come is? This
Speaker 1: is this Mark Jennifer has run off to go find
Speaker 1: her phone. This is an iconic moment. Is it Mark? No,
Speaker 1: it's mere Lola? Is it? Oh? My god, you gotta
Speaker 1: get him, get him on. You know that. I've done two.
Speaker 1: I've done two interviews solo on this podcast, Jennifer Lewis
Speaker 1: and ch Angela. Those were the two that Bowen couldn't
Speaker 1: join me for. And I'm like, of course the mother
Speaker 1: and daughter hold on, yeah, got him back. Oh, this
Speaker 1: is too good. Spacetime DJ Pierce, the other Oh, here
Speaker 1: we go, and the answers, Honey, lookal's here. I'm all
Speaker 1: with Matt Rogers. Hey girl, Jennifer's lost coat. Theresas remember
Speaker 1: you did the pod? Of course I do, halleluk, and
Speaker 1: I did nothing but praise jenn the whole time. How
Speaker 1: did the video come? Look at your what's them? I
Speaker 1: just take a cut. Oh shut up, I'm outside. That's
Speaker 1: breaking news on the podcast. You're gonna lose your mind.
Speaker 1: This is we are. You've seen all the videos for
Speaker 1: Walking in My Joy? Did me get it? You see
Speaker 1: me wash them in the in the hair and the
Speaker 1: what is it? The dishwasher, Michael and the refrigerator. Well,
Speaker 1: I want to live in your house with y'all. I
Speaker 1: know we have. Well, you're gonna die for this. Just finished.
Speaker 1: DJ film did and did the storyboard. He went up
Speaker 1: in my closet, got the wardrobe. We had so much fun, well,
Speaker 1: some of us did. He lived through it. Let's just
Speaker 1: say he lived through it. We did. We've done a
Speaker 1: mock of Beyonce's formation. Hilarious, yes, equipped with DJ running
Speaker 1: out and getting the police, uh like for on top
Speaker 1: of the car. But when we finished, Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be really good. So that already. No, I'll
Speaker 1: call you back. You tell me a ship. What's up?
Speaker 1: What's happ my ass? I'll tell you what's happening. I'm
Speaker 1: on this God damn it. Some of y'all, y'all ahead,
Speaker 1: I just gotta tell you, Matt, watching you and her
Speaker 1: was so fun and reminiscent of when I working as
Speaker 1: There are so many moments where I was like, for you,
Speaker 1: my this moment you're basically playing d J at the
Speaker 1: beginning of our relationship, for you're my my assistant and DJ,
Speaker 1: believe me, I would not like Patrician or was it
Speaker 1: was nicer one, my baby? I mean, when he thought
Speaker 1: he was coming to the party and co that was
Speaker 1: a heartbreak. Now all we need to do is find
Speaker 1: out that Darcy is actually a drag queen on the
Speaker 1: side and sas Angela, and that will really complete the
Speaker 1: loop season two. Baby, I'm getting in those writers ears.
Speaker 1: But wait a minute, Wait a minute, DJ. The reason
Speaker 1: that so familiar to him because the first year he
Speaker 1: lived here in my basement, dungeon, or however you want
Speaker 1: to address it. I had a Christmas party and all
Speaker 1: the holiday Wood people were there, you know, RuPaul Loretta
Speaker 1: was coming. And when Loretta pulled up, you know I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't get valet, I didn't give about it
Speaker 1: was just a party, your own fucking ballet bed. I
Speaker 1: don't know not about hiring ballet food. So I asked DJ.
Speaker 1: I said, DJ, Loretta Divine just pulled up. Baby, run
Speaker 1: out there and and and get Loretta's car. And he said,
Speaker 1: but I said, baby, don't let Loretta walk. Don't let
Speaker 1: Loretta walk. No, we can't let Loretta walk. What is this?
Speaker 1: There is a song now called Don't let Loretta Walk?
Speaker 1: I know? Is it coming on? They went out there
Speaker 1: and park Loretta's car, and then somebody else pulled up,
Speaker 1: and I said, oh, baby, don't let them walk. Baby,
Speaker 1: d J old you like twenty years old, I was,
Speaker 1: and I remember everyone then just pulled up and started
Speaker 1: handing me their keys. Oh my god. So he tells
Speaker 1: that story when people ask him when was the first
Speaker 1: time he met RuPaul? And RuPaul came to my Christmas?
Speaker 1: So funny. He and when he's he was going on
Speaker 1: the Rue Paul Show. I was like, ru got the show?
Speaker 1: You know about it? I said, that a part for me?
Speaker 1: He said, well, it's drag quays. I said, well you going, baby?
Speaker 1: You going? Baby? Mom? Yeah, mommy? Yeah, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: all right, where are you? What staked? That's too bad.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you ladies, and Mama loves you. Kiss
Speaker 1: by d j H. That's enough for you. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that was the best cameo I've ever had. Yeah. Literally,
Speaker 1: when ch Angela DJ came on this podcast, I was
Speaker 1: a one on one just like this, and I've only
Speaker 1: done two of those that Bowen Couldn't make you and
Speaker 1: Djuny mad bless it. Tell him we love him. I know, Um, Jennifer.
Speaker 1: I have so enjoyed having you here and having this
Speaker 1: conversation with you. I adore you, I look up to you,
Speaker 1: and I i've It's just enriches my life every time
Speaker 1: I'm around you in the same space. So I just
Speaker 1: want to thank you so much for doing this pod.
Speaker 1: Let me give you your listeners a couple of things
Speaker 1: before I go. I always try to leave something and
Speaker 1: somebody can, you know, just kind of maybe walk with
Speaker 1: And this is one of my popular quotes and I
Speaker 1: think everybody has heard it, and I can't say it enough.
Speaker 1: The elevator to success is broken. Take stars. You gotta
Speaker 1: be in it to win it. The moment you want
Speaker 1: to give up, it's right around the corner. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: That's a big one. That's a big one. It's right
Speaker 1: around the corner. You just hold on. It may not
Speaker 1: be exactly what you want, but it'll get you to
Speaker 1: where you're going. It's just the next step, So try
Speaker 1: not to walk around. It's all right to be scared.
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on in the World's right to
Speaker 1: be scared. We're human. But you must be unafraid. Your
Speaker 1: generation has to unite so they don't take all of
Speaker 1: your rights from you. You must unite. You cannot sit
Speaker 1: on your heads. You've lived in freedom and and and
Speaker 1: privilege and and and you did have taken it for
Speaker 1: granted that if you get sick, there's a doctor. If
Speaker 1: you get hungry, there's a cook. If you get well.
Speaker 1: Are you taking care of yourself? Mhm. Last thing I'm
Speaker 1: telling you. We all have one job, just one, and
Speaker 1: that's self care. Take care of yourselves. Life will unfold
Speaker 1: for you. I got everything I want. Why shouldn't you?
Speaker 1: And I do mean everything, Matt Funny does not make
Speaker 1: life easy, makes it easier. M hmm. If you don't
Speaker 1: know who you are, none of it means anything. Take
Speaker 1: care of you. Don't let none get on you. Don't people,
Speaker 1: don't keep people in your life that are toxic. Don't
Speaker 1: do it. Find your joy, pursue happiness and walk in
Speaker 1: Your Joy, that's what. And how about this one? If
Speaker 1: you purchase a book, it should be Walking in My
Speaker 1: Joy in the Streets by Jennifer Lewis. And if you
Speaker 1: haven't read The Mother of Black Hollywood or for Me
Speaker 1: better yet, listen to that audio book because she is
Speaker 1: a performer. Than enrich yourself and be doing all of that.
Speaker 1: Um and of course stream showtimes. I love that. For you,
Speaker 1: I will tell you one thing. Yeah, audible of Walking
Speaker 1: My Joy. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, having read it,
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I can't wait the first person I'm
Speaker 1: saying this too. It's so good. Yeah, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: I don't know what jumped in me that day, boy,
Speaker 1: but wow, so I'm listening. I kind of wasn't even there,
Speaker 1: which whoa. So pick up the audible is and I
Speaker 1: actually sing. I recorded the songs in this one. Can't wait.
Speaker 1: So so thank you, young man. I adore you. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see you on the set more Patricia
Speaker 1: and Darcy in season for that, I hope it's announced.
Speaker 1: I love you, Stoo