Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Waitt, and today we have very
Speaker 1: special guests.
Speaker 2: Act all.
Speaker 3: Johnny ray gill is in the building.
Speaker 2: Up, SUPs up, everybody, How you doing?
Speaker 1: Thanks, good, good good. I am very excited about today's dish.
Speaker 1: I was telling my neighbor like, yo, she was like,
Speaker 1: who are you interviewing?
Speaker 3: I said, we're gonna do true. Well, I don't want
Speaker 3: to say.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say what we're doing. Go ahead,
Speaker 1: you tell us what you're gonna have me eating today.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to be doing whole fish. I know
Speaker 2: that's not the most creative name, but that's what I
Speaker 2: always call it, so whole fish baked. I learned how
Speaker 2: to do this in Ghana. Ghana, Yeah, and Ghana in
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, so you know, connecting, connecting back to the diasporas.
Speaker 2: So that's why this dish is important to me. You
Speaker 2: feel me? So, So yeah, we're gonna get.
Speaker 4: Outside eating my problem.
Speaker 1: Yes, And just for you guys listeners, I got the
Speaker 1: email was whole trout or.
Speaker 2: Whole whole whole seabring. You can do a whole anything
Speaker 2: whatever you like. The reason I like this dish is
Speaker 2: because it's it's easy. It's really about how you season
Speaker 2: it and what you used to season it, and the
Speaker 2: herbs that you used to season it, and then you
Speaker 2: put it in the oven and wash your hands with
Speaker 2: it and then eat it after south.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's extremely affordable. So I did go to
Speaker 1: Costco guys and it was one, two, three four how
Speaker 1: many fishes out?
Speaker 2: One two, three, four, five six, So a.
Speaker 1: Whole family of six k eight for fifteen dollars. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I will say, not only is this dish unique
Speaker 1: in the sense of you know, price and quantity, and
Speaker 1: you know obviously nutrients is approaches. Yeah, but I will say, Johnny,
Speaker 1: you are awarded the most seasonings in one episode. Oh shoot,
Speaker 1: go ahead and name all the seasonings that you have
Speaker 1: for these fish.
Speaker 2: Okay, we got cumin, salt, and pepper. Of course I
Speaker 2: use mince garlic, the watery cond you know, not the
Speaker 2: dry con. You don't want your fish dried, so the
Speaker 2: watery car so you can use the juice. On the inside.
Speaker 2: You have ground cinnamon. That's just something I like to
Speaker 2: use to give it a different kind of flavor on
Speaker 2: the top at the end, you have chili powder, cayenne pepper.
Speaker 2: Depending on how spicy you like your thing, you got
Speaker 2: deal garlic powder. I advise using like avocado oil because
Speaker 2: it has a high smoke point. You don't want your
Speaker 2: j on burning while it's in the while it's in
Speaker 2: the oven. You feel me, There's a lot of different
Speaker 2: oils you can use, so Balbi's research and use what
Speaker 2: you like. As far as herbs that we have here today,
Speaker 2: we're gonna be using rosemary that's gonna go inside.
Speaker 1: And you you they said fresh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fresh rosemary is good. I actually, you know, brought
Speaker 2: some green onion from my garden that we're gonna use
Speaker 2: as a garnish at the end. Yeah, yeah, you know
Speaker 2: about that. Yeah, I do have a garden absolutely in
Speaker 2: the middle of.
Speaker 1: I would like if it was someone I had to
Speaker 1: be trapped on earth with right now, I would be
Speaker 1: fine being trapped with you because your food looks like
Speaker 1: it's gonna taste great.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're gonna be all side, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: We got lemon out here. But as far as the erb,
Speaker 2: you can really do what you want. The thing about
Speaker 2: this whole fish situation is really about tailoring it to
Speaker 2: your specific tastes. That's not one. You can season it
Speaker 2: however you like. If you want your joint, you want
Speaker 2: to crayle fish ball, mean, put some crayo season in
Speaker 2: all those things. If you want it to feel like
Speaker 2: Puerto Rico, do that. If you want it to feel
Speaker 2: like North Dakota, I guess put some potato salad on
Speaker 2: it and bake that. I don't know. So so also
Speaker 2: tur Maeric, I like, yeah, I think that's everything.
Speaker 1: What's someone behind this is kyne pepper. And then you
Speaker 1: have a hot sauce and lowries or even do you
Speaker 1: use lories.
Speaker 2: I don't use the Lowries on here because I want
Speaker 2: the I want these specific, the specific seasons that you
Speaker 2: can use individually, where Lowars is more like something that
Speaker 2: yeah combined already. I use the hot sauce at the end.
Speaker 2: You can use that if you want. You know, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of different kinds of hot sauces.
Speaker 1: Yes there was, by the way, there was a million
Speaker 1: back that we didn't know which one.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, I just I get whatever it's on
Speaker 2: sale to be completely framing. And you know this is
Speaker 2: eating while broke, and so for me, I feel like
Speaker 2: while you're broke. You should, especially in America, where the
Speaker 2: healthcare system is the way it is, you should be
Speaker 2: eating as well as possible. So I wasn't gonna come
Speaker 2: in here with no Captain crunch or no no man,
Speaker 2: ain't saandwich or none of that, because I ain't trying
Speaker 2: to be I ain't trying to have diabetes, to be
Speaker 2: completely frank, And like you said, this is what fifteen
Speaker 2: dollars between fifteen and twenty for all these fish compared
Speaker 2: to the filet that you might get. You're paying for
Speaker 2: the labor of them to cut it up. And now
Speaker 2: you're paying twenty twenty five dollars for just two fil
Speaker 2: as of whatever you're getting when you can just make
Speaker 2: this at home, and one fish is usually good for
Speaker 2: one person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we out saying, okay, let's do this.
Speaker 2: Let's do this, all right. So first thing we're gonna
Speaker 2: do is I'm gonna cut this this woman. Okay, So
Speaker 2: do you cook a lot? It depends on my schedule,
Speaker 2: To be completely frank, I mean I have the thought
Speaker 2: to cook a lot, and then I'll be like, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna order this Chipotle because it's you know right there.
Speaker 2: But I think meal prepping is important, so you can
Speaker 2: try to make sure. Yeah, yeah, but we need a
Speaker 2: lot of limits.
Speaker 1: I have meal prep on Sundays I like to do.
Speaker 1: I have this new thing where I try to do
Speaker 1: all my cooking for the week on one day. And
Speaker 1: it helps for multitude of reasons. One I'm not cleaning dishes,
Speaker 1: but two, when you're constantly on the go, to be
Speaker 1: able to just reach in your fridge and have your
Speaker 1: meals already prepped and know they're nutritious and taste great,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. And it only takes one day, you know,
Speaker 1: which is only like two hours, and then all the
Speaker 1: dishes go in the dish washer, you're done and everything's reset.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Then you got to make sure you eat it
Speaker 2: so it don't go bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for the most part. Now I've learned because of
Speaker 1: economic circumstances, I don't cook more or buy more than
Speaker 1: I can eat in a week.
Speaker 2: You know that's art.
Speaker 1: Yes, Before I used to buy everything and just watch
Speaker 1: it all go bad.
Speaker 2: Get this sticker off your here.
Speaker 1: So where does cross tape?
Speaker 2: Cross tapes in Toronto the most in Toronto. But then
Speaker 2: we do our exteriors and stuff in DC. And I
Speaker 2: know this year they went to some other countries to
Speaker 2: film some special stuff for season two. So we outside.
Speaker 1: Okay, where do you live?
Speaker 2: I live in Koreatown in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Okay.
Speaker 3: How do you like Toronto?
Speaker 2: I love Toronto. It felt like living in a more
Speaker 2: mature America. Yeah, you know, when you go to other
Speaker 2: parts of the world, like it definitely feels like another planet,
Speaker 2: Like when I was in Hong Kong. That's a completely
Speaker 2: different culture, lifestyle, same thing in Ghana or South Africa
Speaker 2: or whatever. But Toronto is still a Western civilization. It's
Speaker 2: just they have infrastructure that we don't have here.
Speaker 3: And you're like, like, what.
Speaker 2: Like being able to take the bus in the train
Speaker 2: and have public transit, healthcare, you know. Yeah, these these
Speaker 2: things that they say will destroy our country are making
Speaker 2: their country thrive very well.
Speaker 1: So health cares for you there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, me, I'm packing.
Speaker 3: So would you move there?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: So why are you still here? Because of because of
Speaker 3: the acting?
Speaker 2: I think for a lot of reasons. You know, I
Speaker 2: built something, my family's here. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of who you have to go through and trying to
Speaker 2: move to another country. So yeah, but that's a work.
Speaker 2: Visa I think that I think that joint expires after
Speaker 2: a certain amount of time. So you know, okay, we
Speaker 2: got this.
Speaker 1: Okay, guys, I'm gonna I'm gonna let y'all know what
Speaker 1: he did.
Speaker 3: He just cuts some lemons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the lemons. Yeah, we slice them to we slice them,
Speaker 2: slice them up. So now we're about to get into
Speaker 2: scoring these fish. Okay, so you want to put some
Speaker 2: that's basically putting slits in the fish so that the
Speaker 2: oil and stuff can get inside the cavity.
Speaker 1: All right, cavity, guys. Yeah, so that the cavity I'm
Speaker 1: guessing is the body of the fish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the inside body cavity.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, Oh, body cavity.
Speaker 1: That makes sense. So he's cutting little slits.
Speaker 2: And normally it's like little rib marks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, our knife may not be that sharp. He's discovering
Speaker 1: what eating while broke knives are made of right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know we are got Yeah, so you
Speaker 2: get it on both sides.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you made this.
Speaker 2: Maybe a few months ago. I got it into I
Speaker 2: kind of got it in my blood and bones. Now.
Speaker 3: So when we go to your house, you have that
Speaker 3: many seasonings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know why I'm so excited about how
Speaker 1: many takes less. Okay, that looks great.
Speaker 2: Number one, All right, not right, bring other little homie
Speaker 2: over here.
Speaker 1: So today he's gonna cook us three fish. That's for me,
Speaker 1: one for him, and one for the afterpis.
Speaker 2: Yeah we outside. Also, y'all when y'all cutting this, don't
Speaker 2: be doing this while you're watching TV or something and
Speaker 2: slice your hand off. Why because it's because it's slippery. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's slippery. So and I'm not you know, you know,
Speaker 2: none of us are the people on the food network.
Speaker 1: So and are you supposed to cut down to like
Speaker 1: the little spinal bone?
Speaker 2: If you don't want to cut too deep, you want
Speaker 2: to cut too deep, you just want to make it,
Speaker 2: make it an opening, so the oil has somewhere to
Speaker 2: go inside, got it?
Speaker 1: That knife is pretty bad?
Speaker 2: Huh, it's all right.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you excited about eating this?
Speaker 2: Very much? So? I didn't eat today?
Speaker 1: Okay, before you came, I had sardines in rice paper.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, that was prior.
Speaker 3: So today's a fishy.
Speaker 2: Fishy day, fish day.
Speaker 3: Okay, guys watching watching him cook?
Speaker 1: So take me back to what were you doing in Ghana.
Speaker 2: Me I was there my ex girlfriend at the time.
Speaker 2: It was her mother's fiftieth birthday, so we were going
Speaker 2: there to celebrate that. Also, we were adult mentors for
Speaker 2: a youth program. I was leaving DC, so we were
Speaker 2: a chaperone and working with the kids as well while
Speaker 2: we were down there. So it was super dope.
Speaker 3: How long were you there for?
Speaker 2: I think like two weeks. We were in Acras, were
Speaker 2: Acros the capital of Ghana, We were in Kumasi City,
Speaker 2: and then we were in Cape Coast to see the
Speaker 2: slave castles. How was that? It's a history lesson and
Speaker 2: it's it's very informative, I think, especially to the Western eye.
Speaker 2: I think we have a very academic idea of what
Speaker 2: slavery was like, what the Middle Passes was like, what
Speaker 2: the slave trade was like. And then when you see
Speaker 2: those slave castles, you see it's a lot more dastardly
Speaker 2: than what you could have ever imagined, especially because a
Speaker 2: lot of those the slave castles were also churches, so
Speaker 2: where they would torture women would be right next to
Speaker 2: where the pastor would sleep.
Speaker 1: So yeah, how did that change your views?
Speaker 2: I don't think it changed my views. At Allah, it
Speaker 2: open drives even more because, like I said, it's one
Speaker 2: thing to talk about talk about bigotry and those kind
Speaker 2: of things in an academic sense, like I got this
Speaker 2: answer right in school. It's a completely different thing to
Speaker 2: see it firsthand, you know what I mean, and to
Speaker 2: see what that's structure, and to be able to touch
Speaker 2: the wall, and to be able to go inside one
Speaker 2: of those dungeons. And like for Saip, we all shower
Speaker 2: every day, but the group we went inside the dungeon
Speaker 2: is so hot and musky that it starts stinking in
Speaker 2: ten minutes. You can see the line to where how
Speaker 2: like feces and blood and all that stuff would raise
Speaker 2: up off the floor. So you get those actual physical
Speaker 2: details that are very often hidden from our history and
Speaker 2: hidden from us, especially as black and brown people, you know,
Speaker 2: in the Western context.
Speaker 1: So wow, So have you been back?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I was just not to Gona specifically, but I
Speaker 2: was just in South Africa, which was a beautiful place
Speaker 2: speaking of really great, great food that you'd never had.
Speaker 2: I had warthog for the first time, ostridge, all kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. Okay, do we score both sides of these? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Make sure? Okay, Boom, I'm sorry. So now Now that
Speaker 2: these joints are scored, now it's time to oil the
Speaker 2: heck out of these bad boys. Okay, you don't want
Speaker 2: no dry fish, So that's when you get this avocado
Speaker 2: oil right here. And if I had a brush, I will,
Speaker 2: you know, do all that. But so I'm just gone
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 1: Now, do you have to do both sides when you
Speaker 1: do that?
Speaker 2: Yes, this is just like lotioning your knees, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. You gotta make sure you don't want
Speaker 2: no ashy parts.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, are you gonna massage it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna do a little messinge and.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna come out oily even though you put
Speaker 1: in that much oil. Nah, I would feel like a
Speaker 1: real chef if I you Right now it looks legit.
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully you know we're gonna see. I've never I've
Speaker 2: never done it with this kind of pressure, but you
Speaker 2: know I like.
Speaker 1: It, and I judge the dish, and I'm very honest.
Speaker 2: Please please judge it. If it's whack, be like, look, man,
Speaker 2: this is whack. He came here and did all this foolishness.
Speaker 1: I'm be like, he used all thirty seven thousand seasonings
Speaker 1: and it still tasted.
Speaker 2: Bland still sucks.
Speaker 1: Okay, that is really oily. Yeah, it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: that oily.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Do you ever eat the head and the eyeballs?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Are you gonna do it today?
Speaker 2: Yeah? This experience that The thing that I like about
Speaker 2: it is it's very community oriented. Normally, again here a
Speaker 2: lot of indigenous peoples in the diaspora, they ate together.
Speaker 2: Whereas eating the filet makes this is my plate where
Speaker 2: when I ate this in Ghana, Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it reminds me of like a crab boil because you
Speaker 2: have to go slow because of the bones and stuff.
Speaker 2: And so now you're in conversation, you're in community. I'm
Speaker 2: taking some of your fish, You're taking this part of
Speaker 2: the fish, and we're all eating this together. And that's
Speaker 2: one of the things I really like about making the dish.
Speaker 3: Oh you guys ate the fish together?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can eat it by yourself. But
Speaker 2: then also, like I said, if you and your partner
Speaker 2: are cooking whole fish, now you're gonna be eating this part,
Speaker 2: eating this part, this that, and the third.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, out sided.
Speaker 2: All right, So now it's time to you season this thing.
Speaker 2: Where do I want to start. I think I'm gonna
Speaker 2: start with, Oh, here's the salt right here. How much
Speaker 2: it's coming out here? Okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I pour salt, I do this. I pour
Speaker 1: it like kind of into my palm and let it
Speaker 1: bounce off. Just in case I pour too much, I
Speaker 1: can save it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm usually very I'm usually very light with salt. I
Speaker 2: like to taste the flavor, the actual flavors instead of
Speaker 2: just you.
Speaker 1: Know, I heard salt like helps bring out the flavor, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Can, Yeah, I think you. But you have to remember
Speaker 2: that a lot of stuff that we have has salt
Speaker 2: already in it. So like, for example, if you go
Speaker 2: get a can of beans, beans has a lot of
Speaker 2: salt and sodium already in it, so you have to
Speaker 2: get it without out the salt so that then you
Speaker 2: can put your desired amount of salt in there. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think I'm just one site. No, that's last.
Speaker 2: That's last.
Speaker 1: Okay, Mmma, were you end up learning how to make it?
Speaker 1: Were you in someone's house watching to make it every day?
Speaker 2: No, I was on the beach, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 2: I was on a beach and they were pulling this
Speaker 2: right out the ocean and going straight to town and so,
Speaker 2: you know, I had heard of whole fish before, but
Speaker 2: it felt like it's very far away. Yeah, I'm at
Speaker 2: a like elegant restaurant situation. So then when they were
Speaker 2: doing it, it was just regular folks eating, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, off the thing.
Speaker 3: So do you go fishing?
Speaker 2: No? No, my dad was supposed to take me when
Speaker 2: we were young, but he never did. So if you're
Speaker 2: seeing this where my fishing tripped out, are you close
Speaker 2: with your dad? Pretty much? So? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 2: think we had a we had a tough relationship growing up.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think people grow, you meet them
Speaker 2: where they are.
Speaker 1: And what made it tough.
Speaker 2: I think sometimes it's hard for generations to combine, especially
Speaker 2: if you don't have the same ideas about you know,
Speaker 2: masculinity and stuff that you that your parents have. So
Speaker 2: so yeah, he was a He was a hard man,
Speaker 2: you know, for for for in many respects. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it just made some of the things, you know, the
Speaker 2: grown up experience a little tough. But I'm one of
Speaker 2: those kinds of casts to where that is what that is.
Speaker 2: But you gotta move on and you gotta put your
Speaker 2: focus on your work. You got to put the focus
Speaker 2: on the people that matter to you, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, and keep it pushing it.
Speaker 1: Did you go through therapy?
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. I think that's I think that's
Speaker 2: necessary to a to a degree. And I only say
Speaker 2: that because sometimes capitalism wants therapy to take the place
Speaker 2: of actually making people's lives better. It's hard to therapize
Speaker 2: somebody that's having issues because they're poor, or because they
Speaker 2: can't you know, because their their friend was shot by
Speaker 2: the police, because they can't afford healthcare, etca. So a
Speaker 2: lot of times capitalism tries to commodify our problems so
Speaker 2: that they don't actually have to fix them.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, when did you start going to therapy?
Speaker 2: I went to therapy after shoot. I went to therapy
Speaker 2: after the pandemic, that like, right after the pandemic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like yeah, like I believe. Yeah, And I was in
Speaker 2: it for two years straight.
Speaker 1: Basically, What made you want to get into.
Speaker 2: It My relationship with my career and then also I
Speaker 2: was coming out of a breakup at the time, so
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, I would be talking about the
Speaker 2: breakup and what's going on with that, and then come
Speaker 2: to find out, you have more things you need to unpack.
Speaker 2: But the thing I will always remember that my therapist said,
Speaker 2: is that you're kind of like a baby bird, right Like,
Speaker 2: you're in this place so that you can learn how
Speaker 2: to fly. You can always come back and fine tune
Speaker 2: or regover some other things, but this is about giving
Speaker 2: you the tools to fly. And she said, be wary
Speaker 2: of people that say you should be in therapy continuously
Speaker 2: over and over and over and over and over again,
Speaker 2: because you're The idea is to go out there and
Speaker 2: put these tools into practice. So I think the thing
Speaker 2: that I got from therapy that didn't have before are
Speaker 2: tools to be able to deal with the highs and
Speaker 2: lows of life, a family, of your career, you know,
Speaker 2: because often say you can't control your emotions, but you
Speaker 2: can control how you react to those emotions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 2: got this kill me right here.
Speaker 1: I never I never hear guys say like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to stereotype, but you never hear guys say like
Speaker 1: they win to therapy, like after a breakup, because you
Speaker 1: always just assume guys handle them.
Speaker 2: That's what we're taught.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they look like they handle them pretty well at
Speaker 1: least I would never think like a boyfriend would be like,
Speaker 1: after breakup, I'm going.
Speaker 2: To go to therapy. Yeah, no, I mean I think.
Speaker 1: Actually I don't think I know anyone that's ever done it.
Speaker 3: It's a male.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah. Like I said, I'm all about elevation,
Speaker 2: and so you know, and also sometimes you're heart is
Speaker 2: hurting and you have to you have to acknowledge that,
Speaker 2: and you have to figure out how you're going to,
Speaker 2: like I said, move forward. And so there were things
Speaker 2: about that relationship that needed to end. But because I
Speaker 2: recognize that there are ways that you can then improve
Speaker 2: yourself moving forward, and not just in a relationship standpoint,
Speaker 2: just as a person. So you know how to show
Speaker 2: up at work, how to show up in really any situation.
Speaker 2: So because all because everything we're doing is relationship based.
Speaker 1: Okay, now you're only seasoning the one side.
Speaker 2: No, I'm about I'm just doing it all at once
Speaker 2: so that then I don't have to keep flipping.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm learning, I'm learning.
Speaker 2: I'm see she was testing me. She was like, oh,
Speaker 2: so you're gonna have a neked inside. Huh, she's gonna
Speaker 2: have one side neked.
Speaker 1: I'm learning it looks really good.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: It almost looks like he has a breading kind of formed.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's how it's supposed to, but
Speaker 1: he has a lot of seasoning on this fish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the things I learned with this.
Speaker 2: It seems it can seem like you're gonna overseason it,
Speaker 2: but every recipe I've ever tried, they're like, you need
Speaker 2: to season the out of this thing so that you
Speaker 2: can make sure you get the flavors and fused inside.
Speaker 1: So so take me to acting. Was were you acting
Speaker 1: before you went to Ghana?
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, Yeah. I've always been an artist. I started
Speaker 2: my I started my Courage, a spoken word poet. Oh
Speaker 2: so yeah, my first I was on stages when I
Speaker 2: was fourteen fifteen years old. I remember seeing Saul Williams
Speaker 2: in the movie Slam and I think it was ninety
Speaker 2: eight at the time. It was at Sundance and they
Speaker 2: did a special screening in Portland. I was in this
Speaker 2: Riights of Passion's program and I was like, yo, I
Speaker 2: want to be able to do that because in the
Speaker 2: movie he's about to get jumped in this prison yard
Speaker 2: and he breaks out into this poem and it's so
Speaker 2: dope that everybody's brain is like, I don't know what
Speaker 2: I just saw, and I was like, I want to
Speaker 2: be able to do that. And so that's what took
Speaker 2: me to college.
Speaker 1: And in college, I got, what do you mean it
Speaker 1: took you to college like you were winning competition?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was winning competitions and stuff. But the
Speaker 2: artis is what took me to school. I knew I
Speaker 2: wanted to be a storyteller. I knew I wanted to
Speaker 2: be a writer and those things, but I didn't start
Speaker 2: acting until I got to Temple. So when I got there,
Speaker 2: I was performing and a teacher saw Temple Temple University
Speaker 2: in Philadelphia. That's why I went. That's where I got
Speaker 2: my graduate degree or my undergrad degree after I went
Speaker 2: to USC for a year and they stole all my
Speaker 2: scholarship money.
Speaker 1: But anyway, who us did?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, these schools they be running. Sometimes they'll
Speaker 2: recruit students and say, hey, we can get you this
Speaker 2: amount of scholarship money. Boom move if you get down here,
Speaker 2: and then when you get down there, they're no longer
Speaker 2: of assistance. So a lot of my independent scholarship money
Speaker 2: that I had when I was going to s see.
Speaker 2: I used it that first semester and couldn't find any
Speaker 2: more funding for the rest of my state, so I
Speaker 2: had to transfer.
Speaker 1: My Gosh, yeah, do you think that was a good decision.
Speaker 2: It was a good decision because I didn't spend thousands
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars. But yeah, so I think it's
Speaker 2: just it sucks.
Speaker 1: Many people are Were you heartbroken over that or like
Speaker 1: you felt like did it hurt?
Speaker 2: I thought it sucked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you get but it's like not an education
Speaker 1: because you get hustled.
Speaker 2: Like and I think a lot of times we talk
Speaker 2: about hustle, like, you know, there's TV shows about hustlers,
Speaker 2: like from From Power to all these kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: but there's no hustlers. There's no TV shows or documentaries
Speaker 2: and things like this about the hustlers that are uber wealthy.
Speaker 2: The schemes that these universities can be running to get
Speaker 2: people's money to raise tuition wats and things like that,
Speaker 2: the schemes of oil companies. Those casts are the real
Speaker 2: people like hustling for real, they're poisoning water, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera. So you know, that's just a part of
Speaker 2: my journey. But I don't. I don't. I like to
Speaker 2: tell the truth about it, you know what I'm.
Speaker 3: Saying about it.
Speaker 1: I don't think enough people talk about it. I don't
Speaker 1: even think people value college degrees the way they once
Speaker 1: were valued.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's a gift and the curse.
Speaker 2: You know, well, you don't. University isn't the only way
Speaker 2: you should be educated. But I also think that that
Speaker 2: is a form of it's a form of trying to
Speaker 2: make trying to devalue intellectualism, this idea that you can
Speaker 2: you can that there's no expertise on things. If I
Speaker 2: need help about astrophysicists, I'm gonna talk to Neil Degrassey Tyson,
Speaker 2: you feel me. If I need help with basketball, i'm'na
Speaker 2: ask Lebron James. I'm not gonna ask the dude doing
Speaker 2: the podcast about basketball, you know what I mean. So, yes,
Speaker 2: I think learning is valuable and it shouldn't cost as much.
Speaker 2: I mean, one thing most people don't know it was
Speaker 2: when Reagan was when Reagan was governor of California. You
Speaker 2: can actually go back and listen to government tastes where
Speaker 2: they're saying we need to the cause public school used
Speaker 2: to be free and most people don't know this, and
Speaker 2: they made it cost so much because too many black
Speaker 2: and brown people and too many women were getting educated.
Speaker 2: And you can actually go listen to the taste where
Speaker 2: they're saying, we can't have this, we can't have an
Speaker 2: educated electorate, we can't do this. So that's when they
Speaker 2: started making everything for profit. And so you know, when
Speaker 2: you when you when you get into these kinds of
Speaker 2: conversations and you find out what's going on, you realize how,
Speaker 2: like I said, insipidest things can be. Wow, we outside,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: Say oh oh season other side?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, we outside, this is my my my
Speaker 2: hasn't got me saying that a pandemic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you've been saying that a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's okay. We all have our tics.
Speaker 1: So what happened at Temple where you ended up wanting
Speaker 1: to get into acting?
Speaker 2: Professor saw me performing some poetry and asked me to
Speaker 2: She said it she thought I should audition Furst August
Speaker 2: Wilson play called Jitney, and that's how it started. It
Speaker 2: was a hobby at first. Then you realize you're pretty
Speaker 2: good at it. You know. I was in film school
Speaker 2: also at the time, and so When it came to
Speaker 2: grad school, I decided to apply to grad programs and
Speaker 2: drama programs, and I was like, whoever gives me the
Speaker 2: most money, that's where I'm going. And I got into
Speaker 2: all the top drama programs and decided to go to
Speaker 2: the UCSD at the Lloyd Playhouse because at the time,
Speaker 2: Yale UCSD and then YU did a showcase together, and
Speaker 2: so for me, I was like, it don't matter which
Speaker 2: one I go to. As long as I get into
Speaker 2: the showcase, I'm I'm gonna be shining. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 2: what happened.
Speaker 1: Nice. All right, I'm gonna let you say the seasonings
Speaker 1: back to back on what you're doing. You started with tumoric.
Speaker 1: Now you're moving over to pepper.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now I'm moving to pepper up some tomb tumbe
Speaker 2: on here, trying to pepper this thing already put the
Speaker 2: salt on this side. But like I said, for me,
Speaker 2: it's just tough having to flip it each time with
Speaker 2: the season. So you do it back to back, and this,
Speaker 2: as you can see, this dish is mostly about the
Speaker 2: preparation of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because once once you're done, you're gonna just because.
Speaker 2: Once you're done it's gonna stick it in there.
Speaker 1: And what's the next season? You got it?
Speaker 2: This is chili powder.
Speaker 1: Yep, you're gonna take over the cooking. You're gonna do
Speaker 1: your cooking thing announcing then.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, boom, this is chili powder. Now I'm going
Speaker 2: to this garlic powder.
Speaker 1: And guys, just so you know, he's like putting a
Speaker 1: lot of seasoning. It's not like he's just doing a
Speaker 1: dash or two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you really got a season this thing. I'm going
Speaker 2: to the cuman now, folks, I really do love cumin.
Speaker 1: Can I try like a dash of it? I just
Speaker 1: want to see what it tastes like?
Speaker 2: Plan Okay, it's like a humans actually one of my
Speaker 2: favorite situations. How are you feeling about that? Now? I'm
Speaker 2: going with something.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe on the on the food. Have you tried it?
Speaker 1: Plain?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think I've ever just put seasons in
Speaker 2: my mouth. No, I don't try it. No, No, I
Speaker 2: don't think I've ever just took pepperon.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like, how I just tried it.
Speaker 3: Trust me, if you tried it that way, you were not. Okay,
Speaker 3: what was the next one?
Speaker 1: By the way, I love deal, guys. I used del
Speaker 1: on anytime I'm cooking any type of fish.
Speaker 2: Okay, now we got the cayenne. I'll do a little
Speaker 2: bit of that for some some KICKI kick.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited about this meal.
Speaker 2: Boom boom boom, And I think that's everything. And so
Speaker 2: now I'm gonna ask some cinnamon.
Speaker 1: Cinnamon is what through me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I like to experiment.
Speaker 3: Put a lot of cinnamon.
Speaker 2: And the best part is you do one side of
Speaker 2: the centiment so that if you want to flop between
Speaker 2: the tastes, you have it on both sides. You don't
Speaker 2: have it on both sides. All right. Now that we've
Speaker 2: done that, Now this is the part people forget. See
Speaker 2: how inside is all naked. You gotta season the inside.
Speaker 3: As well, with all the seasonings.
Speaker 2: As many as you like. So I'm gonna put some
Speaker 2: turmeric up in here, and then you put your fresh
Speaker 2: herb and stuff inside of here.
Speaker 1: I just want to I don't want to get ahead,
Speaker 1: but I'm curious.
Speaker 3: What are the lemons come in you're about to see?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so you're doing turmeric on the inside. You
Speaker 1: don't want them to looking plain and dry. Well, nothing's
Speaker 1: dry on this fish. You can see the fish actually.
Speaker 3: Absorb some of the oil though already.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so I guess now it makes sense why you.
Speaker 3: Bathed it in oil. All I know is.
Speaker 1: If this tastes great, you're anyone that's coming to my
Speaker 1: house for the next week.
Speaker 3: I want the.
Speaker 1: Whole brinzino, only buy the falaise. But I feel like
Speaker 1: if you teach me this.
Speaker 2: It's a rapt whole fish.
Speaker 1: Oh cuman. Wait what was the other one? You put turmeric?
Speaker 1: And oh that's the one cuman is the one I tried?
Speaker 2: Right? Oh?
Speaker 1: Man, is that oven still preheating?
Speaker 2: Oh no, look like it turned off. Can we can
Speaker 2: we get that joint back home?
Speaker 1: See if Katie a love what she said? She said,
Speaker 1: don't get up.
Speaker 3: Salts.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I'm sure my my my father's here today.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure he's waiting for this fish.
Speaker 1: Ain't even the studio, I'll say that, which maybe he's not.
Speaker 1: Is he here?
Speaker 2: I don't know he was.
Speaker 1: Hit the preheat button. I don't hear a cough, so
Speaker 1: maybe he left.
Speaker 2: Usually, Yeah, okay, you got what I want to put
Speaker 2: up in there. I'm gonna go without the pepper because
Speaker 2: I can't you know. Oh yeah, this is this I
Speaker 2: love deal. I'm glad we got you don't like the queuing,
Speaker 2: but you like the deal.
Speaker 1: I think it just adds so much extra to it.
Speaker 1: That deals actually.
Speaker 3: From my house, by the way.
Speaker 2: Okay, well it's got some special love on it, you know. Okay,
Speaker 2: So now that we've done this, we've seasoned it on
Speaker 2: the inside. Now I come with the garlic, with the
Speaker 2: with the with the garlic, the mince garlic, and I
Speaker 2: take this and I put it on the inside.
Speaker 1: Oh, you put a lot.
Speaker 3: He ain't playing.
Speaker 2: Inside the cavit. Boom boom boom.
Speaker 1: I feel like you could cook.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you can do anything you put
Speaker 2: your mind too.
Speaker 1: I think you put it inside the fish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you might because it's meat up in there
Speaker 2: also too. You know that you know a lot of garlic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm a garlic, big garlic fan.
Speaker 1: And I noticed on this dish you don't have no onions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can put onions. You can do tomatoes,
Speaker 2: you can do like I think. The cool thing about
Speaker 2: this dishes you can customize it any way you want.
Speaker 2: It's like, how do you want your fish to taste?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And so what if I wanted to put like butter
Speaker 1: on the inside, put some butter up in their I
Speaker 1: feel like butter makes everything taste.
Speaker 2: Put some butter up in the air. Buttery mug. You know.
Speaker 1: Do you ever go on YouTube and just pull up absolutely?
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the best things you can do.
Speaker 2: So if you're talking about eating while broke, I go
Speaker 2: into the store and whatever's on sale. For example, if
Speaker 2: beats are on sale and you can get five beats,
Speaker 2: all you gotta do is pull up a recipe and
Speaker 2: how do you cook beats? And you can have Beat
Speaker 2: steaks that night, and also you're having something incredibly healthy
Speaker 2: that's good for you. You can eat the beat tops,
Speaker 2: you can eat carrot tops.
Speaker 1: You can you actually shop like that, though, do you really.
Speaker 2: Actually when you realize that they I don't mean to
Speaker 2: keep taking things to this to this place. Yeah, when
Speaker 2: you realize that the grocery stores have a monopoly and
Speaker 2: they can arbitrarily raise the price on things, you have
Speaker 2: to do things to protect yourself. And I feel like,
Speaker 2: especially if we're talking about being broke and no diss
Speaker 2: but the vast majority of we've been having these conversations
Speaker 2: about snap benefits and things like that. Right, in the
Speaker 2: last several weeks, most people, the vast majority of people
Speaker 2: are much are a paycheck away from being on the street. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: And we speak about these things if that's not the case.
Speaker 2: And just because you're an actor, entertainer or whatever, we're
Speaker 2: just as susceptible people think we make a lot more
Speaker 2: money than we're making. And you saw during the strikes
Speaker 2: that took place several years ago, a lot of people
Speaker 2: were about to lose their homes, et cetera. So you
Speaker 2: got to kind of keep these things. You got to
Speaker 2: keep these things in mind. And so for me, especially
Speaker 2: with so many of our heroes and heroes passing away
Speaker 2: before they should pass from pancriotic cancer and all these
Speaker 2: diseases that are in my opinion, preventable to some to
Speaker 2: some degree, we gotta stop eating the processed foods. We
Speaker 2: gotta start trying to you know. And also it's more fun,
Speaker 2: like you can have you know, you can have ramen
Speaker 2: one night and then the next night you having beats
Speaker 2: with carrot tops or you know whatever. So recipes are
Speaker 2: always great. And being able to like not be too
Speaker 2: prideful to not learn some stuff. Yeah, like I'm a
Speaker 2: big I love to learn.
Speaker 1: So I like the way you think about shopping, though
Speaker 1: it's different. I never thought of just like saying, hey,
Speaker 1: oh this is on sale, let me see what dishes
Speaker 1: I can make with this. You love that garlic, He's
Speaker 1: gonna go through the whole thing of garlic for sure.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, you got this whole small little garlic
Speaker 2: up in here.
Speaker 1: So does garlic not like I don't know if I
Speaker 1: eat a lot of gar if some people want they
Speaker 1: eat a lot of garlic, just they just smell like garlic.
Speaker 2: Nah, it's not gonna smell like garlic. It's gonna be it.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You like if you if you eat a lot, it'll
Speaker 1: like pour through your skin. You know you can smell it.
Speaker 2: I don't have that, you know. I mean you're talking
Speaker 2: like it's a sparagus or something. You know when you
Speaker 2: get a spiritush or peace think, but you know it
Speaker 2: is what it is. But yeah, all right, so here
Speaker 2: we go. So now with these with the lemons, the
Speaker 2: lemons go inside.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, I mean this looks like something you take
Speaker 1: a picture of on Instagram.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm not gonna mind. Have I half you know,
Speaker 2: a little food trap.
Speaker 1: You know, you got you know, do girls ever slide
Speaker 1: into your d ms over your dishes?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Really, yeah, you know, but you know, I think
Speaker 2: women are can be a little bit more how do
Speaker 2: you say slick? Slick? Yeah, with my god delious, I
Speaker 2: would love to taste that sometimes, you know, And you're like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, we could be onside.
Speaker 1: If I walk away from this interview saying we could
Speaker 1: be outside, I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna be so hey, you can thank my cousin for that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So take me back. So you pass the showcases.
Speaker 1: I take it you murder them.
Speaker 2: I murdered I did. I did to sketch this Alec
Speaker 2: Baldwins sketch from the CD about Alec. This character he's
Speaker 2: a he's a boss. It's a boss at a at
Speaker 2: a at a company and he goes down into the
Speaker 2: mail room and he takes a test and he realizes
Speaker 2: that he's legally retarded, like legally So it was super funny, uh,
Speaker 2: And so I did that. The contrast a scene from
Speaker 2: the Last Days of Judas is Carriot where Judas is
Speaker 2: on trial for it's a Stephen Atley Georgis play and
Speaker 2: it's a Judas is on trial for the murder of Jesus.
Speaker 2: It's a very brilliant play and there's just really gray
Speaker 2: scene between Judas and the devil at a bar uh.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I played I played Judas, and you nailed
Speaker 2: it absolutely. That's why I'm here talking about.
Speaker 1: So then what happened after that?
Speaker 2: After that you start auditioning.
Speaker 1: And start auditioning for for roles TV shows.
Speaker 3: But I don't understand why does it happen after that?
Speaker 2: Well, because you need a you need an agent, a manager,
Speaker 2: those kinds of things. And so the show okay, also too,
Speaker 2: I put I put limon underneath. Okay, so the the
Speaker 2: under so the bottom gets the lemon flavor as well, y'all.
Speaker 1: Honestly, we could upload this whole video to YouTube.
Speaker 3: Be funny if I uploaded.
Speaker 1: It and it started like getting kazilion views and then
Speaker 1: I'm just making money off your.
Speaker 2: Well, I wouldn't say it's mine, it's you know, it's
Speaker 2: the peoples.
Speaker 1: You feel me, the peoples, It's the people. It looks
Speaker 1: so good though.
Speaker 2: I'm glad we're outside. Did I cut enough of this lemon?
Speaker 2: I hope? So?
Speaker 3: Well you have more?
Speaker 2: Yeah I do. It's just where stuff like that where
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I'm not a profession because I don't
Speaker 2: know how they be cutting with with with you know,
Speaker 2: not dry hands in the whole nine. So okay, we
Speaker 2: got that, and then now we get this rose marry
Speaker 2: off your here.
Speaker 3: I forgot about the rosemary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you thought it was just over here chilling. Now
Speaker 2: you take this put it inside as well. This is this.
Speaker 3: This is gonna be amazing.
Speaker 1: I just know it.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 1: You ever to see a dish on TV and then
Speaker 1: you're like you kind of not start salvating, but you kind.
Speaker 2: Of like see fellas you see sometimes you gotta be
Speaker 2: out here and cook a little something. But she's gonna
Speaker 2: be on the couch, Like, wait a minute, let me
Speaker 2: tell you something.
Speaker 1: A quick way to my heart is cooking easy.
Speaker 3: Hey, y'all, cooking easy.
Speaker 2: Look y'all, I didn't be here twenty minutes already getting
Speaker 2: to the heart.
Speaker 1: We all said, I'm telling you right now, he been
Speaker 1: here at least forty minutes cooking this dish. By the
Speaker 1: way he taking I think it's taking him, Johnny, I
Speaker 1: think it's taking you at least twenty minutes, twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes just to do the prep on this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But like I said, for me, it's it's the
Speaker 2: fun part. You you know what I'm saying. You got
Speaker 2: your TV show on, You're having good conversation.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm telling you right now? You do
Speaker 3: this with a chick, she's slam dunk. This is a
Speaker 3: slam dunk.
Speaker 1: You do the prep in front of her with out
Speaker 1: of doubt. I think there you got it.
Speaker 2: You get somewhere now were about to eat?
Speaker 1: How long we're gonna have this in there?
Speaker 2: For? About twenty minutes?
Speaker 1: That's it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially if you have it on four to fifty cooks.
Speaker 2: You quick?
Speaker 3: Okay? Do you have to flip it?
Speaker 2: Nah?
Speaker 3: Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Oh I know what you're about to do. What's that
Speaker 1: You're gonna cut in half and squeeze it all over
Speaker 1: the fish?
Speaker 2: No? Oh but that was nice though. That was that
Speaker 2: was nice.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do more slices, yeah, just on top?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: So you get an agent and manager off of the showcases.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got it agent and my third audition audition
Speaker 2: for a show called Harry's Law with Kathy Bates. I
Speaker 2: booked it and I had to move to LA I
Speaker 2: was about to go on tour from where I was
Speaker 2: No the showcases? Was it? You have two showcases, one
Speaker 2: in LA, one in New York, And so I was
Speaker 2: in I was in San Diego at the Lohoe Playoffs.
Speaker 2: That's where I got my master's in theater. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: I had to get up to LA and then that's
Speaker 2: when the nomadic journey of being an artist, you know,
Speaker 2: or at least being an actors started.
Speaker 1: What was your family, Dina? Looking like you seem like
Speaker 1: very like your foundation is so solid?
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you? I mean you mean like you mean
Speaker 2: like what I hope to accomplish, or you mean like
Speaker 2: my family growing.
Speaker 1: Up, your family growing up?
Speaker 2: You know, that's where I give a big shout to
Speaker 2: my mom. My mom did everything she could to make
Speaker 2: sure that we were in programs and things like that
Speaker 2: that elevated our minds and you know, put us on
Speaker 2: the right path. You feel me. She went through a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, growing up in the Bay, and I think
Speaker 2: she wanted us to have, you know, the most opportunity possible.
Speaker 2: So I put that, you know, on her, and some
Speaker 2: of those programs that I was in were very impactful,
Speaker 2: you know, for my life and my development.
Speaker 3: So you know, we all say it parent household.
Speaker 2: Or no, no, no. My dad was there, but you know
Speaker 2: my dad, I think it was more so focused on
Speaker 2: being the authoritarian and all that, and so you know,
Speaker 2: my mom was focused on the more nuanced you know,
Speaker 2: like education and and and making sure you're there to
Speaker 2: support you know, people's endeavors and things like that. And
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times, you know, especially in
Speaker 2: older generations, people focus too much on discipline as opposed
Speaker 2: to trying to figure out what their kids like and
Speaker 2: how to rear them up, you know, the right way.
Speaker 1: So I like that, do you have kids?
Speaker 2: Nah? No kids from me? I got plants though.
Speaker 1: He didn't even say a pet, He said a plant.
Speaker 1: I guess with your work schedule, so you get the
Speaker 1: agent and the manager. How are you supporting yourself financially?
Speaker 2: Shoot, just I've been very lucky to have an apartment
Speaker 2: that don't cost a lot. I keep my cost of
Speaker 2: living low. I got the toilet Prius two thousand and
Speaker 2: one outside and never had a new car so that
Speaker 2: I can gathery van do what I want to do.
Speaker 2: So you're very structured with Yeah, so you want to
Speaker 2: make sure like I'd rather go to France, or go
Speaker 2: to Ghana or go to South Africa. Then I don't know,
Speaker 2: keep up with the Joneses. And so again that's thankful
Speaker 2: to my mom. Thankfu to rights a passage and things
Speaker 2: like that to you know, put your mind on the
Speaker 2: right track.
Speaker 3: All rights of passage.
Speaker 2: It was a process that I went through an African
Speaker 2: base to rights a passage program. It was the largest
Speaker 2: rights of pastor program west of the Mississippi when I
Speaker 2: was growing up. And it's a process of going from
Speaker 2: boyhood to manhood. There were seven barameters of manhood. The
Speaker 2: best way I can get you know, civilians to understand
Speaker 2: is like when people cross and become omegas and alphas
Speaker 2: and all that stuff that divine nine. They go through
Speaker 2: a process and they come out to burning sands and
Speaker 2: there in omega and alpha, and that process is based
Speaker 2: off of rights of passage, which is an indigenous and
Speaker 2: you know African ritual of going from boyhood or girlhood
Speaker 2: to womanhood or manhood. Most people know in like movies
Speaker 2: like I Killed the Lion, Now my man? Yeah, Well,
Speaker 2: this was a modern day version of that.
Speaker 3: What do you have to do in there?
Speaker 2: One second?
Speaker 3: So this is this is this is it?
Speaker 2: This? Is it all right? So now can I put
Speaker 2: it in this oven?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay, good?
Speaker 1: After you get your manager and agent. Yeah, what is
Speaker 1: your first role?
Speaker 2: My first role is I play a character named Damian
Speaker 2: Winslow on Harry's Law show. Yeah, Harry's Law with Kathy Bates.
Speaker 2: It was on NBC. It was a fun show. Amana
Speaker 2: is in it, Brittany Snow So, yeah, that's the first time,
Speaker 2: you know, people saw me on TV.
Speaker 1: And how are you supporting yourself leading up to that?
Speaker 2: Money from leftover scholarship loans and and yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: we got paid from the show. I think it was
Speaker 2: what five six thousand episodes something like that, So just
Speaker 2: being judicious with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't get any day jobs or anything during this.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, I've never had I've never really
Speaker 2: had a day job. I never had where I was
Speaker 2: a waiter or anything like that. When I was in school,
Speaker 2: it was about school. I didn't want to It's funny.
Speaker 2: You can even ask my mom this too. She would
Speaker 2: be trying to get me to get a job or
Speaker 2: something like that, and I would say, if I gave
Speaker 2: you fifty five dollars to stand on the corner for
Speaker 2: eight hours, would you do it? No, exactly, So why
Speaker 2: are you working at Ralph's for the same amount of money? Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're there for eight to ten hours after taxes, they're
Speaker 2: gonna yeah.
Speaker 3: At a grocery store.
Speaker 1: Once the check came back.
Speaker 2: I was like, what, Yeah, no way. And that's not
Speaker 2: to say that those jobs that those jobs aren't valuable. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're incredibly valuable, as we saw during the pandemic. It's
Speaker 2: just about what is your specific path, what is it
Speaker 2: that you want to do. And I want to be
Speaker 2: a writer and filmmaker and an actor. So when I
Speaker 2: was in school, I only had one study study, like
Speaker 2: what is it called work study program that I did
Speaker 2: and I was just at a hospital and I like
Speaker 2: that because I got to sort chemicals in medicine and
Speaker 2: that was me learning. But other than that, I haven't
Speaker 2: had really too many side jobs. I could keep it on,
Speaker 2: keep my time for the work I've taught at university
Speaker 2: a few times. You know, that helps supplement, but stuff
Speaker 2: comes up and I think if your if your mindset
Speaker 2: is right, and like I said, you're not trying to
Speaker 2: keep up with the joneses, and you keep your cost
Speaker 2: of living down, it helps out a lot more so.
Speaker 3: You spend majority of your time focused on your purpose.
Speaker 2: That's what I was trying to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and your mom has she moved to from saying hey,
Speaker 1: try a different stream of income.
Speaker 2: Oh no, she don't say that. Yeah. Yeah. And also too,
Speaker 2: to her credit, she was the one that was coming
Speaker 2: to my place. You know, I'm from Portland, so you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of time, all of us are spending our
Speaker 2: time trying to get to LA or New York. So
Speaker 2: when I meet people from around the world, I'll be like, look, man,
Speaker 2: we was all trying to get to the same place.
Speaker 2: So most people don't got the money to be traveling
Speaker 2: from Portland to New York or Portland you know, to LA,
Speaker 2: especially back then. So she was the first person, you know,
Speaker 2: that believed when I was in high school, people wanted
Speaker 2: me to be you know, an antient physiologist, a doctor,
Speaker 2: lawyer because they knew I was, you know, intellectually inclined.
Speaker 2: Thank you. You know that's just because I read books,
Speaker 2: so you know, but that wasn't what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2: And I think as as I'm grateful for her as
Speaker 2: a parent to be like, Okay, this is what he
Speaker 2: wants to do. I'm going to support it and then
Speaker 2: you find out that I'm good at it all? Right?
Speaker 2: Oh we outside?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I see you know how they have a
Speaker 1: curse star.
Speaker 2: Oh really, you're.
Speaker 3: Going to have a to have a we outside, You're going.
Speaker 2: To bede for you?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So your mom played a critical, well pivotal
Speaker 1: role in your where you are today.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: What was some of the hiccups on the way to
Speaker 1: before Cross because Cross ended up being huge?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the strikes. I mean I remember I
Speaker 2: actually was taking screenshots of my bank account and during
Speaker 2: the strikes. Post the pandemic, I mean, the pandemic is
Speaker 2: a hiccup. I mean I had like eight hundred dollars
Speaker 2: in my big account.
Speaker 3: The pandemic was rough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was rough for a lot of people. And
Speaker 2: it's funny people try to start editing that out of
Speaker 2: their experience. You know, I don't hear a lot of
Speaker 2: people talking about the pandemic anymore. I know it was
Speaker 2: very traumatic for a lot of people, but it just
Speaker 2: shows how close all of us are to being the
Speaker 2: unhoused person that we walked past on the street. Here
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. I think there's like seventy five that
Speaker 2: homeless people. It's a lot on how Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: the perception is that that's somebody that didn't do well
Speaker 2: with their finances or they do well. A lot of
Speaker 2: it and a lot of it is healthcare. A lot
Speaker 2: of it is the schemes that landlords can run, people
Speaker 2: not being able to afford housing. Like I said, you're
Speaker 2: you're you're one check from from having that situation happen
Speaker 2: to you. So so yeah, and I think the hardships
Speaker 2: are just it's it's really tough to be an artist.
Speaker 2: It's really tough to be an artist, especially, you know,
Speaker 2: an artist that wants to do substantive work. Like I said,
Speaker 2: we don't get paid nearly as much as people think
Speaker 2: we get paid.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And also to your you're battling that perception because you know,
Speaker 2: most people are showing the red carpets and stuff they're
Speaker 2: not going to show when they lose their health insurance,
Speaker 2: which happened to me, you know, several years ago. Because
Speaker 2: with SAG after, for example, you have to make a
Speaker 2: certain amount of money just to keep it, to keep
Speaker 2: your health insurance. And so the way some things you know, work,
Speaker 2: you might make one hundred thousand one year. Right, with
Speaker 2: that one hundred thousand dollars, it might have to last
Speaker 2: you for four years, right, four years, because it might
Speaker 2: not work, you know what I'm saying. Or you might
Speaker 2: that one hundred thousand is for that year, but then
Speaker 2: if the next year you make twenty two thousand dollars
Speaker 2: a year, Now you don't have health insurance, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But would you qualify for medical?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Medical and those kind of things. But like I'm
Speaker 2: just scar Yeah, but then that gets hairy because then
Speaker 2: it might take into account your total finances. So it's
Speaker 2: really it's really an interesting conundrum. I forget the brother's name,
Speaker 2: but I just I just saw his brother on Instagram.
Speaker 2: It's done a bunch of movies. Was just talking about
Speaker 2: that he lost he got dropped from his agency and
Speaker 2: lost his health care with two kids and things like that,
Speaker 2: and so a lot of times people aren't thinking about
Speaker 2: those things because it's not swaggy to think about that stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And so those are the
Speaker 2: hardships that come, you know, along the way, where you're like,
Speaker 2: all right, how am I gonna have? I gotta eat
Speaker 2: healthy because I can't have nothing happen, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 1: Well, I wonder if that actors, actresses or artists talk
Speaker 1: about it behind the scenes, Like is there like a
Speaker 1: community where you guys are like.
Speaker 3: Man this month, Man I haven't booked something in a while.
Speaker 2: Or yeah, we talk about it. But like I said,
Speaker 2: I don't think. I think amongst all of us, you know,
Speaker 2: just as society in general are, we do not talk
Speaker 2: about finances.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: It's about have a goal chain on, be swagging, be
Speaker 2: doing this, be doing that, and heck, the vast majority
Speaker 2: of people are barely hanging on, you know. So for me,
Speaker 2: navigating those hardships is about keeping it real with yourself,
Speaker 2: making sure that you have you know, a solid foundation financially,
Speaker 2: making sure you ain't buying shit you don't need to
Speaker 2: be buying. And so that's how I've been able to
Speaker 2: survive up up until cross because, like I said, after
Speaker 2: the strikes and which came right after the pandemics, me
Speaker 2: and a lot of people are like, I don't know
Speaker 2: what's about to happen. I don't know how I'm about
Speaker 2: to survive. Also, too, you need community because sometimes you
Speaker 2: need to borrow money from somebody sometimes and that's where
Speaker 2: parents and friends and all that stuff come comes comes
Speaker 2: into play. And so I think the people that have
Speaker 2: helped me, you know, I'm very gracious for them that
Speaker 2: have helped me, you know along the way the I
Speaker 2: word this.
Speaker 1: The way you if you get a check, do you
Speaker 1: I know you travel? Is there like a minimum you
Speaker 1: have to meet within yourself to say, okay, you know
Speaker 1: what this year I'm going on a travel trip or
Speaker 1: is there a minimum spend or budget? How do you
Speaker 1: do that? How do you incorporate that which is great
Speaker 1: into a continual thing that's a part of your.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it depends on what's happening from
Speaker 2: year to year. Some years you'd be like, I can't
Speaker 2: go nowhere. I can't go nowhere I go, I gotta
Speaker 2: sit inside. I did that just semessit you. But then
Speaker 2: when you do travel, it's about how do you travel?
Speaker 2: Like sometimes you can travel with a friend and a
Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars trip is now four thousand dollars because
Speaker 2: you guys are splitting things, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Or five thousand dollars I should say, are you you
Speaker 2: don't have to fly first class?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: For sure you can. You can get there just as
Speaker 2: fast and just as nice in an economy plus you know.
Speaker 2: So I'm not saying don't enjoy yourself, but you just
Speaker 2: have to be cognizant of what's going on. I mean,
Speaker 2: in La going out to dinner, you can spend two
Speaker 2: hundred fifty dollar two hundred fifty dollars easy. If you
Speaker 2: eat out, it's tough.
Speaker 3: But it was talking about that. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you read an artist.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't lay The CEO was saying, like, sales are down,
Speaker 1: but sales are down across because people are just not
Speaker 1: eating out anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that I think that's smart. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think you should. You have to. I think at
Speaker 2: least for me, operating on a twenty year plan or
Speaker 2: a twenty five year plan, I think it is foolishness.
Speaker 2: There is no I have no idea what's going to
Speaker 2: be happening twenty years from now. And so that's why
Speaker 2: I have an apartment, not a house.
Speaker 1: But that's I was going to say, But a house
Speaker 1: is smart.
Speaker 2: Because sure, and again that depends. I think you have
Speaker 2: to have those kind of conversations because again, ask those
Speaker 2: people that couldn't pay their markets during the pandemic, and
Speaker 2: when you're in a financial meeting about what the twenty
Speaker 2: year cost of something is going to be, you don't
Speaker 2: factor in those real life situations where you could be
Speaker 2: laid off from your job. Ups Well laid off twenty
Speaker 2: thousand people after they got their got their deal done.
Speaker 2: You're looking at the layoffs that are happening across the
Speaker 2: board from in multiple sectors. So for me, I for
Speaker 2: me personally, I and again I don't have kids that
Speaker 2: don't have any of those kinds of things. For me,
Speaker 2: it just it was more valuable to be like, I
Speaker 2: want to be able to just pick up and leave
Speaker 2: if I need to. I know I can pay this
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred dollars in rent and cool. Yeah you know.
Speaker 1: But I will say though, I think spending sometimes gets
Speaker 1: tricky and there has to come a point where you
Speaker 1: say why, Like if you're buying a house, I think
Speaker 1: the traditional thing is that you're buying a house that
Speaker 1: you can afford. You know, like a lot of people
Speaker 1: the go to a bank the bangal say oh, you're employed.
Speaker 1: When you're employed, typically you qualify for more home versus entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: But the foolest thing you do is you're employed. It's
Speaker 1: definitely like not a twenty year or twenty five year plan.
Speaker 1: So if you're buying a million dollar home, you're up
Speaker 1: right now when you're down. Yes, But if you can
Speaker 1: find a home that you can afford, like if it's
Speaker 1: comfortable to what you're paying in rent that you're comfortable at,
Speaker 1: then yes, because then you get equity. Yes, then you're
Speaker 1: making money while you sleep.
Speaker 2: It's a nuanced conversation until they come in and want
Speaker 2: to build a freeway through your neighborhood, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So like I just I just always feel
Speaker 2: like for me, it's smart for me. It's smart to
Speaker 2: plan for all the things that can happen to a
Speaker 2: black and brown person in this country. And a lot
Speaker 2: of times we speak as if they won't take something
Speaker 2: of yours through imminent domain or like I said, the pandemic.
Speaker 2: If you went back to twenty to twenty eighteen and
Speaker 2: said there's going to be a worldwide pandemic that shuts
Speaker 2: everything down, people would have said that for two years.
Speaker 2: That would have been crazy. And so imagine the people
Speaker 2: that did have a job at that particular times. And
Speaker 2: we're projecting out ten years and then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden it didn't go that way. So that's I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: don't think about your life in a vacuum. You have
Speaker 2: to think about it in a way that infuses politics
Speaker 2: and racism and sexism and all the things.
Speaker 1: I am taking back though a little bit, because on
Speaker 1: one hand, you're you embody like a lot of faith, right,
Speaker 1: But then there's this other side that seems like it's
Speaker 1: semi embodies, like almost embracement of fear of the unknown.
Speaker 2: It's not fear the unknown, it's what it is.
Speaker 1: It is what controlled a little bit.
Speaker 2: That's what's known. It's just knowing history, you feel me. So.
Speaker 2: So people were surprised by the pandemic because they didn't
Speaker 2: know about the other pandemics that happened in history. People
Speaker 2: are surprised about yeah, I mean there was we could
Speaker 2: talk about ebolin in West Africa, et cetera. People are
Speaker 2: surprised about strikes because they don't know about the strike
Speaker 2: history of the United States. People are surprised about police
Speaker 2: violence because they don't know the history of police violence
Speaker 2: in the United States. I can go on and on
Speaker 2: and on.
Speaker 1: So that your structure comes from knowing your history, knowing
Speaker 1: the history, so it's not fair base. It's more like,
Speaker 1: based on history, I can predict that.
Speaker 2: This might happen to me. So maybe maybe this money
Speaker 2: that I'm getting right now, I need to make sure
Speaker 2: it can last me ten years as opposed to just
Speaker 2: three or four, and just me and the would have
Speaker 2: the financial freedom to do whatever I want. And that's
Speaker 2: not for me to say that you shouldn't get a
Speaker 2: house or something, since we're talking about homes. It's just
Speaker 2: that for me, I don't want to be tied to
Speaker 2: having to pay this. So now if I get so now,
Speaker 2: if I get you know that commercial that I did
Speaker 2: that I thought was gonna give me all this money,
Speaker 2: Now I have to go work, as opposed to now
Speaker 2: I can sit back and I can take my time
Speaker 2: and I don't have to go I don't know work
Speaker 2: at Chipotle.
Speaker 1: A definite firm believer in like keeping your overhead as
Speaker 1: low as possible. When I say I keep that overhead low,
Speaker 1: and I think that that is the true. If you
Speaker 1: work for yourself, you have to yea otherwise you will
Speaker 1: end up filling out some resumes.
Speaker 2: Somewhere yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Okay, How how we got five more minutes.
Speaker 2: That's five more minutes. I'm hoping that this this fish
Speaker 2: is this oven is high enough. But I mean, we're
Speaker 2: gonna see. I had the same thing happen when I
Speaker 2: cooked this for Thanksgiving with my with my mom. Like
Speaker 2: my oven because it's a gas oven gets much hotter
Speaker 2: than her ovens would get. And so I had to
Speaker 2: be like, okay, now we need to do this. Okay,
Speaker 2: now we need to do this. Okay they did. They did.
Speaker 2: It was I was a superstar because at first when
Speaker 2: everybody came in, they did the same thing most people do,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I got the eyes on the tail.
Speaker 2: What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed
Speaker 2: to eat it? And then next thing, you know, people
Speaker 2: tried it and was like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 2: really good. I didn't think he was going to be
Speaker 2: doing this bomb. So hopefully that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Do they ask you to bring the fish every year?
Speaker 2: I mean that that's a that's a tall task. I did.
Speaker 2: I think that's a one year situation. They asked, Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: they've asked about it. But you know, again that was
Speaker 2: just you know, shout out to the women cooking, because
Speaker 2: then I gotta do.
Speaker 3: It, Okay, cool, just making sure.
Speaker 2: She still gets yeah, I got yeah, I gotta do it.
Speaker 1: So she comes to town. She lives in Portland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if she comes to town, she's like, yo, I
Speaker 1: want the.
Speaker 2: Fish, but I gotta get the fish. Mama gets what
Speaker 2: she wants.
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, it's got four minutes. Why are you scared
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be cooked.
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure it's cooked the way
Speaker 2: I wanted to be cooked. And I don't know this oven.
Speaker 2: This oven, this is billy I've never met.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something, Billy, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of faith in Billy. But I will
Speaker 1: say that one time me and Mario cook cakes, okay,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was gonna take longer, and because
Speaker 1: of me, we burnt the cakes.
Speaker 2: So I don't mind a little char now, I don't
Speaker 2: mind a little chart because if the if, the if,
Speaker 2: the if, the tail gets crispy and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. Those are you. Yeah, I actually really liked
Speaker 2: the finn parts, especially when they.
Speaker 1: Get crispy and he's swallow and everything, well.
Speaker 2: It crunches up in your mouth like.
Speaker 1: Look, I'm gonna do it all I'm gonna do it
Speaker 1: all I eat. So when you could do Cross the show,
Speaker 1: what was that experience?
Speaker 2: Like? It was fantastic. One of my favorites of my career.
Speaker 2: Big shout out to Ben Watkins and Altatage and everybody,
Speaker 2: Craig Sebells, everybody who was working on that forgiving me
Speaker 2: the autonomy to create the character that I created. It
Speaker 2: was a great experience with the cast. We're a well
Speaker 2: oiled machine up there, and so hopefully you know everybody
Speaker 2: likes season two as much as they like season one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and your series regular? How was that knowing that?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it's nice, you know.
Speaker 1: Get a consistent, consistent now in a situation like this,
Speaker 1: you're still like weary though, right uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cause like like like, look at what's happening with
Speaker 2: the president. They're there, they're they're kidnapping little girls off
Speaker 2: off elementary school stages. So I guess for me, the
Speaker 2: only thing that I'm trying that I would try to
Speaker 2: get across the people is that what's happening in your
Speaker 2: little in your value. You don't live in a vacuum,
Speaker 2: so imagine all the things that are happening to folks
Speaker 2: can happen to you. And we're taught in this country
Speaker 2: to be individualized, like your voting rights being taken from you,
Speaker 2: being taken from the people in Florida and across the South,
Speaker 2: as if that can't affect you, right, So I'm always
Speaker 2: thinking about that, And a lot of times money doesn't
Speaker 2: shield you from having those experiences. I mean, Tyreek Kill
Speaker 2: got his almost got his arm broken on his way
Speaker 2: to the Miami Dolphins game, and he was in a
Speaker 2: ferrari and he's got millions of dollars and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff, but he wasn't shielded from that experiences.
Speaker 2: He's still a black man in Florida. And I think
Speaker 2: a lot of times people's brains get twisted because they
Speaker 2: think that they've, you know, they've gotten enough money to
Speaker 2: prevent those problems from happening to them. And you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of this stuff has nothing to do with
Speaker 2: how much money you have. It has to do with
Speaker 2: the circumstances that are going on in the country. And
Speaker 2: I think you need to care about those circumstances so
Speaker 2: that they don't happen to you and then also don't
Speaker 2: happen to other people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, Are you still doing spoken word.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish there were more places
Speaker 2: to perform out here in LA. But I'm working on
Speaker 2: ALB you do fo. Nah, I haven't been there. When
Speaker 2: I was thinking about going, and I reached out to
Speaker 2: some folks, and I could be wrong totally. There was
Speaker 2: a lot of slam rules and I'm not a big
Speaker 2: like poetry slam where the poem's got to be three minutes.
Speaker 2: You're in competition with other poets and things like that.
Speaker 2: And for me, I'm not the biggest fan of slamming,
Speaker 2: just because I think some stories need to be longer
Speaker 2: than three minutes, and I don't want to be penalized,
Speaker 2: you know, because something's four fifteen or what have you.
Speaker 2: That's and again I came up doing slam, so I
Speaker 2: understand it's just at this space in my life, I'm
Speaker 2: not you know whatever. But also in that same vein,
Speaker 2: I'm working on the album right now, there'll be some
Speaker 2: poetry on it. So I'm said about that. It's called screenplays.
Speaker 2: It's because a concept piece. That's a concept album.
Speaker 1: I want to eat, Eat, Eat, I never wanted to
Speaker 1: eat so bad on the show. Okay, all right, let's
Speaker 1: talk about this album, Yes, ma'am, come all the way
Speaker 1: back over here.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's a concept piece called Screenplays that you
Speaker 2: can see for it is my filmmaker goes to a
Speaker 2: studio to pitch movie ideas, and all those movie ideas
Speaker 2: are a song. So think of modern day slick Rick.
Speaker 2: They're all storyline records. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: blended hip hop, jazz, spoken word. Each song kind of
Speaker 2: has its own flavoring theme. That's why I say modern
Speaker 2: day slick Rick because for me, yes, yeh, slick Rick
Speaker 2: meets nos. So you know, I'm very excited about that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm very excited about the record. The single that we're
Speaker 2: gonna have coming out, it's called Green Shoot Music. It's
Speaker 2: a tribute to the victims of the Valdi shooting that
Speaker 2: took place in Valdi, Texas in twenty twenty two. I
Speaker 2: wrote a record. There was a young girl in that
Speaker 2: shooting that was so unrecognizable that the only way they
Speaker 2: could recognize the body is from the green shoes that
Speaker 2: she was wearing, the green converse. So I wrote a
Speaker 2: record from the perspective of those green converses. If they
Speaker 2: came to life and are rapping about what took place
Speaker 2: and the reasons why these things continue to keep taking place.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's creative, that's very art artistic.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Are you doing this independently?
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, everything independent. I think that's the beautiful thing
Speaker 2: I will say about, you know, having a functioning career
Speaker 2: is that you can take some of that money and go,
Speaker 2: you know, do other things and not have to be
Speaker 2: worried about this needs to be on the radio, This
Speaker 2: has to fit some kind of metric. Whatever happens with
Speaker 2: the record is whatever happens with the record, And I
Speaker 2: think that's the way that art has to That's how
Speaker 2: you should make art. You never really know what's going
Speaker 2: to hit. You don't know what's going to touch the
Speaker 2: hearts and minds of folks, and so you just need
Speaker 2: to write work, be truthful, be earnest, and then put
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas what you'd like to see
Speaker 1: come from it?
Speaker 2: I just want to touch people. Like at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, I'm forgetting the philosopher's name, but I
Speaker 2: just really feel like we're all water dropless in the ocean.
Speaker 2: We all we all grains of sand on the beach,
Speaker 2: and so it's just about playing your part, and so
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that, you know, after my life expires, you
Speaker 2: on this planet. I've played my part so that the
Speaker 2: future can be more equitable and be more elevated for
Speaker 2: other people. So I don't get into the hero worship.
Speaker 2: I suppose as if during the Silver Rice movement, Martin
Speaker 2: Luther King was the only one doing anything. That's what
Speaker 2: we talk about. But there was Mecca Evers and all
Speaker 2: these people. Think about the hundreds of people that were
Speaker 2: on the Selma Bridge. We might know, we not, we
Speaker 2: might not know those people's names, but they played a
Speaker 2: very significant part of getting us to where we are.
Speaker 2: So I just want to play my part. And so
Speaker 2: some we some of this, some of the music that
Speaker 2: we we need, you know, feeds feeds that, and so
Speaker 2: I'll never forget seeing you know, Matthew McConaughey at the
Speaker 2: White House with those Green conference and it reminded me
Speaker 2: of a Nike ad and so that's where the record
Speaker 2: came from, you know. So so yeah.
Speaker 3: Wow, you're deep. You're very deep.
Speaker 1: What advice would you give to someone trying to pursue
Speaker 1: acting or the entertainment industry? Besides living on a.
Speaker 2: Budget, you live on a budget. Gosh, dang it. I
Speaker 2: would say, determine very ong what kind of artists you
Speaker 2: want to be. And what I mean by that is,
Speaker 2: do you want to do Recei's commercials or do you
Speaker 2: want to do indie projects? Like what do you want
Speaker 2: to say? What's your voice? And then I think by
Speaker 2: defining what that is, it'll help shape which way you
Speaker 2: want to go. And you know you'll be doing top
Speaker 2: Dog Unnerdog on stage versus this other project that is
Speaker 2: purely for capitalistic gain. And I think the faster you define.
Speaker 2: And again that's not judging either one. It's just that
Speaker 2: a lot of times those things are contradictory to each other.
Speaker 1: I mean, the money versus the purpose.
Speaker 2: I guess that's a simple I guess that's a more
Speaker 2: simplistic way to put in. I'm just you know, one
Speaker 2: does I put like this? I might not think you're
Speaker 2: gonna be doing certain kinds of art if you're doing
Speaker 2: other kinds of art. If that makes sense, it's how
Speaker 2: do I say this? Because like it's so easy in
Speaker 2: this culture where people think you're dissing everything, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. So it's like I don't I don't
Speaker 2: see Meryl Streeping Skittles commercials, you know what I'm saying
Speaker 2: Like that, like she has decided to be a certain
Speaker 2: kind of artist, and by making that decision, it makes
Speaker 2: you You're gonna say no to some things. And I
Speaker 2: know that Denzel Washington said that your your career as
Speaker 2: an actor, and I think this is about you as
Speaker 2: an artist as well. It's not about what you do,
Speaker 2: it's about what you say no to, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So there's just certain things that you will
Speaker 2: Once you define who you are, then you know that
Speaker 2: you're not gonna you know, you're gonna say I don't
Speaker 2: think that's I don't think that's for me.
Speaker 1: So in your current state, if says times are rough
Speaker 1: and someone proposed something that you weren't you couldn't see
Speaker 1: yourself doing, but the money was good, you would turn
Speaker 1: it down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, depends on what that is like. Obviously, obviously you
Speaker 2: have to, you know, be realistic. So, you know, if
Speaker 2: you got to do the kool Aid ad because you ain't,
Speaker 2: you know, you you you're struggling a little bit, then cool.
Speaker 2: But if I'm struggling and somebody asked me to do
Speaker 2: a voiceover for the Republican Party, because that's a no,
Speaker 2: that's a negative. I can't do that, Okay, So yeah,
Speaker 2: I like that your firm. It's an absolute negative.
Speaker 1: And then at what point did you discover who you
Speaker 1: were and what your standards were?
Speaker 2: Shoot, I think it's just ever evolving, constantly evolving, and
Speaker 2: I think you're it changed. It's going to change over time.
Speaker 2: So I think I've always known that, I, you know,
Speaker 2: believe in equality and equity and and and making beautiful work.
Speaker 2: And I think I just get that from the ancestors,
Speaker 2: from Nina Simone too, you know, down to Richard Pryor,
Speaker 2: down to I seen rehearsal Ali the other day. You
Speaker 2: know when you see these you know titans in these
Speaker 2: star wars, Like I said, they have a standard and
Speaker 2: I want to continue. You know that standard even as
Speaker 2: an MC from Black Doot to Dail, Electronica to Most
Speaker 2: Death y'all seen now was a big inspiration for me.
Speaker 2: And so you know, I was It's funny. I was
Speaker 2: just on a panel with malcol Jamal Warner. You know,
Speaker 2: God rest is soul, and when I was on that panel,
Speaker 2: I was talking about poetry. There's there's very rarely any
Speaker 2: poems about hoes because it just sounds weird, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. You would never be like, yeah, this
Speaker 2: whole did this this boom boom not because we all
Speaker 2: know that poetry as an art form, it sits in
Speaker 2: almost in a museum like, it has to be about
Speaker 2: things that matter. It's hard to commodify and commercialize poetry
Speaker 2: in the same way that hip hop and rap and
Speaker 2: stuff has been, you know, commercialized. So for me, I
Speaker 2: come from poetry, and you know, nine times out of ten,
Speaker 2: even if you're talking about relationships or any of this
Speaker 2: kind of stuff, it's about getting to the heart of
Speaker 2: the human condition, human understanding, human elevation, and it's not
Speaker 2: solely just a capitalistic you know.
Speaker 1: Well I never thought of it like that. It never
Speaker 1: never even occurred to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you think about a poem, think
Speaker 2: about all the poe that come to mind, and well,
Speaker 2: I think it was what's good brother's name he was
Speaker 2: in training day. I'm forgetting bro, not Denzel, the other brother.
Speaker 2: I'm forgetting his name right now. But when he said,
Speaker 2: people rarely think about poetry until their mother passes away,
Speaker 2: until they have a broken heart, until they're trying to
Speaker 2: figure out how to you know, examine this emotion. And
Speaker 2: that is why poetry has always been here since the
Speaker 2: inception of humanity. You know, I always say I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised if we found out the whales got poetry
Speaker 2: inside the waves, inside the water drop with see feel me.
Speaker 2: Maybe will figure that out in a hundred years or something.
Speaker 2: But it just shows you how important art is. And
Speaker 2: and it's unfortunate that now at this time, that so
Speaker 2: much of the art that we do is not necessarily
Speaker 2: it's it's geared toward simply, you know, making money. And
Speaker 2: I think that's why we have so much of the
Speaker 2: finite topics that that that we can you know, talk about.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I agree, all right, Well, I.
Speaker 2: Think we did not hear some sizzlings. We got too many.
Speaker 2: Don't let us eat, Let us eat.
Speaker 1: I have never waited so.
Speaker 2: Long, so I'm my bad. You know, we.
Speaker 1: Usually have a limit on the show, like if you
Speaker 1: can't cook the dishes under twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I didn't get that. My bad.
Speaker 3: Well, we didn't know.
Speaker 1: We never had a whole fish on the show, so respectfully,
Speaker 1: we've never done this before, but we do know this
Speaker 1: is a gourmet meal. This ain't this ain't no. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess it's a broke dish, but it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like a broke this.
Speaker 2: You know, I think, Yeah, I think that's what you
Speaker 2: gotta do. You know what I'm saying. It's like you
Speaker 2: can you can be you can be fly on a budget.
Speaker 2: It don't even have to be a budget. It's just
Speaker 2: so you can continuously keep being fly. You don't want
Speaker 2: to be fly. And then now I see you you know,
Speaker 2: you know unfly? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like, you know, left, it's ready?
Speaker 1: It is ready?
Speaker 2: You sure? All right? Cool? Let me take this out.
Speaker 1: I hope it's ready.
Speaker 2: Man, she got you got?
Speaker 1: You don't eat this with broccolinia nothing.
Speaker 2: Actually, I wouldn't. I normally, you know, make a salad,
Speaker 2: or you can make a rice dish, some Beeranni, you
Speaker 2: could do whatever you like.
Speaker 1: This would be good with some broccolini.
Speaker 2: Yeah. First of all, high five broccolini. That I actually love.
Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite dishes.
Speaker 1: It's my daughter's.
Speaker 2: It gets really sweet when you when you chart it.
Speaker 2: I love I love it. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: My broccolini. Guys, he wouldn't like it.
Speaker 3: I know why he wouldn't like why I already know.
Speaker 1: Why would just judge you?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 3: Because I use butter.
Speaker 1: I use I use a lot of bumb broccoli. I
Speaker 1: do butter, a little bit of garlic, like the mince
Speaker 1: garlic you have with a lemon zest and the lemon
Speaker 1: zest and the two Okay, and then I and then
Speaker 1: I saw in that with deal on top a little
Speaker 1: bit of minutes.
Speaker 2: All right, I think we good beat us.
Speaker 1: I think the whole crew even behind the scenes. Look,
Speaker 1: my dad is standing I can see you. He's standing
Speaker 1: up like yo.
Speaker 2: Let me get over all right, all right?
Speaker 1: This is Look, it is the most anticipated dish of
Speaker 1: the season.
Speaker 2: So can I put the pan there? Do I got it?
Speaker 2: Where should I? I should put it?
Speaker 1: Probably put it there? Yeah, move all those extra filates.
Speaker 1: I told him he would have to cook all these pilats.
Speaker 1: I think I didn't because we've been here for thirty years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd have been here all day, but we would
Speaker 2: have ate all week.
Speaker 1: Though we would have ate, we would have woof. Look
Speaker 1: I see him standing up there watching everyone's gonna fight
Speaker 1: for this last fish. Because I'll tell you this, I'm
Speaker 1: not sharing my fish.
Speaker 2: Oh look, we got a special.
Speaker 1: We gotta eat. We gotta eat.
Speaker 2: Okay, right here, the pressure is.
Speaker 3: On, yo.
Speaker 1: That looks so legit. We're gonna need a picture that.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll get pictures after that looks that's great.
Speaker 2: And see now the oil and the water become like
Speaker 2: a juice that you can do.
Speaker 1: You have your phone on you.
Speaker 3: We should totally take a picture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, here we go.
Speaker 1: That looks legit.
Speaker 2: I don't have the best phone, but hopefully this. I
Speaker 2: haven't bought a new phone a long while, so hopefully.
Speaker 3: I love that you practice what you preach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you don't need all these phones.
Speaker 1: This was done, guys.
Speaker 2: That's actually a nice little photo.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes, feed us.
Speaker 2: Okay, now, if you really want to get you know,
Speaker 2: schmancy fancy. You know, I've seen other recipes where you
Speaker 2: bake it and then you flash, you flash fright at
Speaker 2: the end, so it gives it a real crispy skin
Speaker 2: and stuff. So there's a lot of different ways to
Speaker 2: prepare this. All right, fingers crossed, fingers cross apple sauce.
Speaker 2: All right, Oh, yes, looking looking look were outside?
Speaker 1: Stop saying we outside?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm nervous.
Speaker 1: You don't look nervous at all. You look like a chef.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, even the fly, even we got we
Speaker 2: got everybody in here trying to get something.
Speaker 1: The fly is in here, like yo, Katie in the back,
Speaker 1: she don't even eat fish, and she says she gonna
Speaker 1: try this. And when she first saw those, she said,
Speaker 1: just so you know, I'm not trying that. When oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, oh sorry, I grabbed.
Speaker 3: I should have done it, like if you want to.
Speaker 1: I don't think we're gonna need seasoning. Okay, Now I
Speaker 1: don't know about the cinnamon. Guys, I can smell the cinnamon.
Speaker 2: I use my hands when I eat this. You feel me,
Speaker 2: But you might want to start with your fork. You
Speaker 2: can take the rosemary out. Man. I feel like all
Speaker 2: of Portland is on the line right now, all of Portland.
Speaker 2: They're gonna be like, bro, don't be embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Us on here, no man, Okay, here we eat.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's cool.
Speaker 1: I never wanted someone to sit sit down. Okay, take
Speaker 1: the lemons off, yeah, okay, take the lemons off.
Speaker 2: Lemons off.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: And if you see how you get tossed, you hit him,
Speaker 2: you get some juice that comes out of there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is it. It's very seasoned.
Speaker 2: It's like hot. Wow, there we go, here's Jay.
Speaker 1: Should it be harsh? And imagine he did so well
Speaker 1: in that kitchen for hours, and I just say, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of human human on him.
Speaker 3: All right, Gee, all right, it's good.
Speaker 1: All right, Gee, it's good. But I feel like, is
Speaker 1: it the cuman or the cinnamon?
Speaker 2: Also, be very careful the bones.
Speaker 3: Look, I'm hungry.
Speaker 1: You made me wait ten years for this food. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: we're wrapping this episode, but we do have to rape
Speaker 1: a dish.
Speaker 2: Make sure you get some of that inside.
Speaker 1: Why is it? Is it different in there? Oh, it's
Speaker 1: got the garlic and all that. Right, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 3: He's trying to make sure his rating goes up. He's like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know. Hold on, I think this.
Speaker 1: Is mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Inside better.
Speaker 1: I think it's a cinnamon.
Speaker 2: I don't like the cinnamon. I'm a big fan of cinnamon.
Speaker 1: Is a cinnamon or the human that you drown?
Speaker 2: The fishing also too, you got to see you got
Speaker 2: this little thing on.
Speaker 3: Okay, but we gotta see you your head before we
Speaker 3: close out. Okay, eat the head.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna rate this dish based on the human and
Speaker 1: the cinnamon.
Speaker 3: Seven.
Speaker 1: You'll take a seven.
Speaker 2: I'll take a seven and the kitchen I never took before.
Speaker 1: All right, look at him and try to take a
Speaker 1: swing back holding I still eat it. I still think
Speaker 1: it's great. Oh you like did you eat the.
Speaker 2: Head and take a little deep buttle meat off the top? Oh?
Speaker 3: I thought you just stick it all in your mouth.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning into
Speaker 1: such a delicious episode. This came out perfect me personally.
Speaker 1: I would go a little lighter on the cuman and
Speaker 1: the cinnamon.
Speaker 3: But other than that, the inside of the fish is phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Still would eat this dish. It's still gonna go home.
Speaker 3: And make the rest of these filets.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in. And where can they keep up
Speaker 1: with everything?
Speaker 2: Johnny at Johnny ray gill on Instagram, Twitter if it
Speaker 2: still exists at Johnny ray Gill and Cross Season two,
Speaker 2: February eleventh, and the album Yeah twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six, Stay tuned, Peace out, y'all.
Speaker 2: Whosh