Latest / Yeah Buddy! Podcast / From Pandemic Blues to Comedy Stages: Meet Miss MeMaw Jenkins

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From Pandemic Blues to Comedy Stages: Meet Miss MeMaw Jenkins · Yeah Buddy! Podcast

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  Music.
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  Yes, yes, yes. What's going on? Well, this is your man, Buddy Roming,
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  and we are back at it with another episode of the Yeah Buddy Podcast.
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  You know how we do like every episode.
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  I like to bring one of my friends in the entertainment business,
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  come down, chop it up, see what we got going on.
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  And this episode is like no other, y'all. This episode, we got one of my favorite
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  comedians in the comedy game right now coming all the way from Oakland, California.
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  Y'all make it live and make it live for my good friend miss tarika
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  lachey or aka miss me my
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  jankins in the building hey how y'all
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  doing we finally i'm finally here yeah buddy i'm finally here i'm excited to
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  be here with you today no no thank you thank you thank you i'm glad to have
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  you on have you on the podcast so let's just let's just dive into it because
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  right now like when people like they may not used to be seeing you like this,
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  like on the comedy stage and stuff all like that.
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  Whenever like we see you usually like a character and stuff like this,
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  a Miss Meemaw character let me show people first that way if anybody's confused
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  this is usually what she looks like when you might see her on stage and stuff all like that that's me,
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  that's my alter ego right there so this Miss Meemaw character how did you come
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  up with like come up with her?
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  So I just have to go back. Well, ever since I was a little girl,
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  I've always been infatuated with older women.
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  You know, at church, I used to love the older women that dress up and the hats,
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  you know, that'd be the sharpest ones.
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  And I used to be like, I can't wait to get old.
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  So I've always had an infatuation with them.
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  But as far as the Meemaw character, you know,
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  During the pandemic, I was at home and you know how they kept on saying,
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  wash your hands, wash your hands.
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  And I was, I was getting irritated. Like, why do people have to be reminded to wash their hands?
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  And so my great grandmother, God rest her soul, Dora Holmes,
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  you know, she would just speak her mind.
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  Like sometimes it's like, grandma, you can't say that in front of people, but she didn't care.
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  And then I seen a wig from a production that I was in.
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  It was called Damaged and it was like a gray wig. So I was like,
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  let me just put the gray wig on.
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  Now I put the gray wig on and I just started talking.
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  I know about five people probably was watching at that time because I didn't
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  really have a social media presence.
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  So I was like, I'm just going to do it.
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  And so, and at that time I was going through a depression, you know,
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  being inside the house, not going anywhere. I have been really sad.
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  So I'm like, well, I want to make somebody laugh because I need laughter.
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  Somebody else might need this laugh. So I did a whole thing about washing the
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  hands and I'm tired of hearing it.
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  And I forgot everything that I said, but I posted, I just said, I just posted it.
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  I'm like, everybody else posted stuff. Let me just try to post something.
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  And so I posted it and then people were like, that was funny.
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  And I'm like, Oh, it's people watching.
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  And I would get, and so then another person was like.
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  What me and I think about this? It inboxed me. And I'm like,
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  okay, let me do a video on that.
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  And so one of my friends, Stephanie Nelson, shout out to her. She has steps.
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  She has a dance studio.
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  And so she was like, come to the dance studio.
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  We're going to have a block party. And she was like, and dress up like your character.
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  She was like, people need to see who she is and the world need to know who you are.
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  And I'm like, girl, nobody ain't checking for me like that. She was like,
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  no, you have something. So come.
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  So I went to her block party.
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  It was in Brentwood and I performed, you know, cause I love to dance.
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  And so she was like, sis, she was like, these women want to know who you are.
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  They asked, are you my grandmother?
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  How do I know you? You such a cool old lady
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  can i tell him i was like well just wait
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  till i leave don't do it just wait till i leave so then
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  she ended up saying that and then
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  my other friend called me to host her
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  party and i and she was like but i
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  don't know if i want you as your regular self or i
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  want that character that you do and i'm
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  like for real you serious she was like
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  and her production team said we want the old lady
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  character and so she was like what name do
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  i put and i was like i don't
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  know i haven't thought that far because i didn't think people would
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  really be digging it and so she was
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  like well what i was like well i don't know i said put me ma on there and she
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  was like okay and then jenkins i used to love a living color right you remember
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  the lady be like what you say about miss jenkins are you So that's why it's me, my Jenkins.
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  So that's where the Jenkins part come in. And then.
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  From then on, Jerry reached out to me because I had let him know that I thought
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  about doing comedy, but more of comedy online, not standing in front of people.
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  Because I did not think that I could stand in front of people.
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  He was like, no. I said, no.
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  I said, I'm just naturally funny. I like to tell jokes, but I'm like standing
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  in front of people and telling jokes.
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  It's going to hurt my feelings if they don't laugh. So I'm like, I can't do it.
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  And so I went to one of his shows and
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  he was like do you think you can do it he was like because if you
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  want to he said I'll put you on for
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  next month and he was like I'll pay you as your first
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  paid comedian I was terrified but I said okay and here we are it's going on
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  my fifth year so you say Jerry talk about Jerry Law yeah Jerry Law where'd you
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  say the spot was at I was at And San Leandro at the 40 and up club, I think.
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  No, I was thinking you were at Tom Matisse University. It was Tom Matisse,
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  yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I started, and then I did that. He gave me my seven minutes.
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  That was the longest seven minutes of my life. And then after that,
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  he called me and then asked me if I wanted to do it.
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  He wanted to help develop me as a comedian. So I would do it every fourth Saturday of the month.
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  Yeah. When you did your first seven minutes, did you have your jokes written down?
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  Or were you like, I'm going to just go up there and just talk my shit?
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  No, I actually wrote some stuff down.
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  And even to this day, I write stuff. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to say it
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  like this. I'm going to say it like this. And I'm going to say it like this.
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  It'll never go that way. It'll never go that way. Never.
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  Never. Never.
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  But what they did, they played... music right and i love music love the dance
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  so and i just came out dancing the crowd was like,
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  and i'm like okay so that's why i
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  can because i i love dance i used to be in back in
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  my day back in the day i used to be on the dance team
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  but i love dancing but seeing the crowd reaction to
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  dance so now that's why i know they be like
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  here she go with all that dancing sure is because
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  that helps me you know yeah because like the second you get off stage because
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  i said the first time i did see you was at um it was at tommy t yeah who what
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  show was that was it it was a big sassy big sassy show yeah i think it was all
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  women like it was something like that yeah and like they was like even like
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  pointing out like watch watch her and stuff was that yeah it was
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  and then and then like see like you doing the gigging and all that stuff it definitely like,
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  brings a high level of energy to where like,
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  it's like the sex you like get on stage and
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  start dancing like the audience forgets about everything that
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  like just happened before yeah yeah and they get and that and that's how the
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  and and i always make sure like the hyphen movement i do other but definitely
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  the the hyphen movement and one of the ones that i always come out to keep to
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  speak you know yeah that's what they do you always pay
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  homage to the soil to the soil.
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  And I feel like he underrated like he prepared the way for a lot of stuff and you know I love Keek so.
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  Everywhere I go I take Keek with me that's how
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  I get prepared you know I got some gospel music to
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  prepare for a show but I'm always playing Keek cause you
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  do both you do both you do no you do
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  mostly clean though well all my stuff is clean
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  yeah but you know i sometimes i step on the line
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  but it's all clean you know and that
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  and i chose to do that because one as a
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  christian woman but i work with children every day and just in case they get
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  a hold of it you know but that has definitely opened up doors for me yeah by
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  being clean yeah so i can i can do clean or i can be with the whoever but my
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  stuff stays clean yeah the whole time.
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  The dope thing about like what you say like being clean and like working with
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  kids and stuff like that is like,
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  i feel like it gives like your career like just
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  that more extra years and stuff all like that because like
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  they're like you like they're gonna remember that you do comedy
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  and stuff i like that and like they kids now but one day
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  they're gonna be 18 21 years old and stuff like that and they're
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  gonna go to the club and they go hey that's the lady that yeah stuff
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  like that so now you got all you're building a whole generation of fans right now
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  that you won't even don't even realize that you're you're
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  you're building i have i have some people but you do have you
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  already have a yeah i'm having a
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  follower but when you say little i have some friends
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  that called and said like their little grandkids love
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  me ma i did an open mic night and i.
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  Was performing and i the little girl had to be
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  about eight or nine years old but she was cracking up
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  and i'm like wow you know like the
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  just seeing a nine-year-old being able
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  to entertain her and i mean she was talking back to
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  me in the audience and everything and so i mean
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  like she gave me a hug and every time she sees me she gives.
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  Me a hug and her daddy like she loves you and
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  so that like you said just open
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  up a whole nother so now i'm thinking about doing a children's
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  book a cartoon or something yeah
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  yeah yeah yeah yeah
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  so that
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  definitely made me think like yeah i
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  just did a a women's it was
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  the whole women it was a a conference at church
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  i just did that so it opens up more doors
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  yeah yeah yeah and then
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  you also like say you had background in
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  dance you also did like acting too for this was
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  a theater or i did theater theater i went
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  to freemont high school in oakland and i
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  was part of the theater group there and i
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  used to travel with a group called opera
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  piccola there's a small it means small works but they were a company a theater
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  company they used to go all over the bay area and perform so i did that when
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  i was 16 so i used to travel with
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  them all the time and do stuff but what happened is i wanted to be grown.
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  And at the tender age of 19, I got married.
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  And so I did the wifely thing and I stopped doing acting in theater.
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  And then when we ended, so I was married for 10 years. And when that ended,
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  I met a friend. He was like my neighbor.