Latest / DA CREW Podcast / SEASON 2 EPISODE _117 _ DA CREW PODCAST _HOST TRIVEDA HARRIS

Transcript

SEASON 2 EPISODE _117 _ DA CREW PODCAST _HOST TRIVEDA HARRIS · DA CREW Podcast

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, and welcome to another episode of The Crew Podcast.
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  Speaker 8: No, it was the sweet, sweet sweet, No, it was
• 3:16
  Speaker 8: the sweet, sweet sweet sweet.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: No.
• 3:56
  Speaker 6: Good evening and welcome to Believe in the Journey part.
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: Good evening and welcome to Believe in the Journey podcast,
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: where I'm your host, Trivita Harris. You guys, I have
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: no idea what's going on in some technical difficulties. You
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: know how it always happens whenever you got something positive
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: that you want to share, the devil tries to come
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: in and make things difficult. But it doesn't matter because
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: we're always going to deliver what God has for us
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: to say. Now, with that being said, you know we
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: cannot start the show without going to God first. So,
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together tonight,
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: as you do each and every time we're in front
• 5:05
  Speaker 6: of you.
• 5:06
  Speaker 7: Let the words of my mouth hit.
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: The ears that need to hear and let the words
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: that I say touch people in the way that you
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: see fit in your precious and holy name Jesus, we pray.
• 5:19
  Speaker 6: All Right, you guys, listen, I have a repeat guest,
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: mister Benjamin Kentish, and we're gonna talk about him staying
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: on God's assignment. The last time we talked was back
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: in November, I believe, and we're just gonna catch up
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: with him and see how he's been doing. I know
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: he's been out on summer break and he has just
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: been trying to keep his schedule full with doing each
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: and everything that he always does.
• 5:44
  Speaker 7: But we're gonna catch up with him.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: And talk about life review, which is one thing that
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: he has been doing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: So let's bring up my guests. Benjamin.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Hey, Hi, Trevita, it's so great to see you again.
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: Yes, good to see you.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, a bunch of extra background noise going on.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Are you hearing that?
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's l like a delay, so I'm not sure
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: what's going on.
• 6:18
  Speaker 9: Oh boy, Yeah, we'll figure I wonder if I put
• 6:28
  Speaker 9: my headphones in, if that's gonna prevent that at all,
• 6:32
  Speaker 9: I don't.
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: Know, but let's try something else.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, sounded like that was playing through your machine or something.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: I think so so that I think, yeah, I think
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: we're good.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Now. I appreciate you adjusting that. Listen. I present as
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: high functioning, but I've got all kinds of special sensory
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: things happening, extra noises. It makes me go a little
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: cuckoo bananas. We don't want that.
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: Listen.
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: It is okay, because I think we're all like that
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: in certain instances.
• 7:11
  Speaker 7: So, but how have you been doing?
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: I'm doing really well. Oh and I just I'm totally
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: taking a picture of us on the computer. Is that
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a rocky? He's on photos of
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: social media to post on social media later. That's how
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: we do it, right, And that.
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: I mean, I'm used to you doing that because you
• 7:36
  Speaker 6: did it the last time.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: So lacky guy, probably a different shirt, but nonsense. Six months. Wait,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: so it's the last time we spoke was in November,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: so that's about half a year ago.
• 7:53
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Well, the headline, as you mentioned earlier, I am a
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: school teacher on summer vacation. So are you looking at
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: this face?
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: I see, yes.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I look approximately twenty years younger. Like it's good it's
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: good to be for vacation. So that's sort of the
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: big picture within the time off do some of stuff.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: I'm working on my next play, Okay, I'll mention it's
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: called bird Feeder the Musical. This is more like a
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: family oriented show with all the characters are birds. There's
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: a squirrel who wants to eat at the buffet and
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: he is not made to feel welcome, so that's an issue.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: And there's also a love affair between one bird that's
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: like a neighborhood bird and one that's a migratory bird.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: So they love each other, but then one has to
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: go away, so like, what's gonna happen. I've already got
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: you in a cliffhanger, and I haven't even finished more
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: than two songs, right right, that's a project I'm working on,
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: and I got to tell you, Trevita, you and your
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: listeners may remember that the main project I'm working on
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: is called Life Review, the Hospice Musical. It's a project
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: I love, and I'll tell you about some nice updates.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: It's also a little heavy, like let's be real, it's
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: some challenging subject matter, whereas a whimsical, lighthearted musical that
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: takes place at a bird feeder where you have to
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: suspend disbelief from the very beginning because all the animals
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: are talking and singing. You know, it's a little bit silly,
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: but I'll tell you, even though it feels like playing
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: in a different kind of a sandbox. I am returning
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: to partnering with the composer I worked with on the
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: first project, Michael Miller, hopefully Jason Spiwack as well. So
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: that's exciting for me. In fact, just recently, in terms
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: of that creative stuff, I went to for the sixth
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: year in a row, the Jewish Songwriter Cooperative Retreat. It's
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: this wonderful songwriter's retreat that happens in New England, organized
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: by a friend of mine, tou Horowitz. So I was
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: there six years ago at the very first retreat when
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I met Michael Miller, the one who came my composer friend,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: who co wrote half the stuff for my first show. Ye.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: So he and I continue to go back, along with
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: a bunch of other musicians from the Jewish world through
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: the country, and he and I co wrote one song
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: in person this time and shared it to the people.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: And you know, it's very exciting when you're at a
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: songwriting retreat, if you can write one there and then
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: yeah and sing it for the people, everyone gets very excited.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: So we did that. We pulled up that magic trick
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: and the people liked it. It was a good song too.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: It's called Goodbye Before I Fly, a sort of sad
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: power ballad. You know, at one moment of goodbye before
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: the one migratory bird has to take off on his journey.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: And I'm to say that since I returned from the retreat,
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Michael and I have continued to co write together. We
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: decided we didn't want this musical to take ten years
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: like the last one did, so we're trying to be
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: a little more deliberate as we move forward. So I
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: write fast and he closes pretty quick as long as
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: he's given the encouragement. So we did our first zoom
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: co write. That was a new ever done before Hello Sanette. Yeah,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: and it's I don't know how many musicians are out
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: there listening tonight, but you know it's generally if you're
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: making music with another person, it's generally easier to be
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: in the same room. Yeah, but once you get over
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: the fact that there's a tiny bit of a delay.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: You can totally share musical ideas through doing the gesture
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: through this computer platform. Yeah, I know people have been
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: doing this for years, and the general public, like me
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: and everyone else who landed on video calls during COVID,
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: we're arriving late to this technology. I don't know about utrevida,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: but like I first experienced intensive work through the video
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: so I know it was before COVID. I did one
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: unit of chaplaincy training and I got this is a class.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: It's a graduate level class, but it also has like
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: a lot of feelings work. So you used to like
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: being really present and looking deeply into the white dot,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: and you have to be very disciplined about not you know,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: messing around with your phone, at least not in a
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: way that's obvious. Yeah, because when you're doing you know,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: when you're interviewing and you have that deep moment usually
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: because you're able to like kind of turn off everything
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: else that's happening and really full conversation. To do that
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: like a chaplain or psychologist through a computer screen really
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: requires a certain sort of focus. Yeah. Yeah, I before COVID,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden during COVID, I had
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: to learn how to use this medium to lead worship services.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: I was working as a canter at the time, so
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: I did that, and I did, of course some performing
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: for my play. When you COVID time, now now we're
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: we are all the way in live theater. That's all good.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: You know, sometimes people get COVID, but it's like, not
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: the end of the world. It seems like the audiences
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: are not all the way back to pre COVID levels.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: But you know, I go to a lot of live
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: theater and I'll tell you that the audiences are like
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: medium fall if not selling out. Obviously the big Broadway
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: hits managed to pack them in, but for all of
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: regional theater and community theater, I still think they're adjusting
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: to a new reality.
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think pre cod well after COVID, when COVID
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: was a big thing, we kind of got so used
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: to being home, being in our pajamas, being you know,
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: just the top half presentable so that.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: We could ance. It's the big question of the night.
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: So you have your your top half, you know, presentable
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: bottom half, you're truly saying what's going on and hopefully
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: nobody has to get up in the middle. But my
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: first experience with the virtual was a virtual monologue, and
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: that was different for me to be able to do
• 15:05
  Speaker 6: that because everyone was from a different city, different time zones,
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: and getting everybody together.
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: It was interesting to say the.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: Least, but it was a whole lot of fun and
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: it brought me out of my comfort zone, which is
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: not being in front of people and not talking. And
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: the line that well, when I first got introduced to
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: the character, I played Missiness Motivation and it was crazy because.
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: She didn't have any speaking parts.
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: It was just her, you know, getting up and getting
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: dressed to go to a job interview.
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: There was no speaking at all.
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: And I was like, oh, I could do that, That's
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: absolutely wonderful. And they were like, no, your whole part
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: has to be at least five minutes. And I'm like, okay,
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: but there's no works. What am I supposed to do?
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: So I had to come up with some lines and
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: actually still go through the motions of what this character
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: was doing. So that was a stretch for me because
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: it was never something that I had done.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: Mind you, yes, I was.
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: In course all through elementary, middle school, and high school,
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: but I was always the one that was singing in
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: the background. I think I may have had one or
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: two solos during a concert for a course, but outside
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: of that, it was like, Okay, I'd rather be in
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: the background or do not want to be in the.
• 16:32
  Speaker 7: Forefront, so let me just do that.
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: So it kind of brought me out of my little
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: comfort zone of being in the background to play missus
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: Motivation in the Mask Behind the Mask virtual monologue in
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty.
• 16:48
  Speaker 7: So that was interesting for me.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Covid. Yes, so let me ask you if you weren't
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: it sounds like the way you described that you weren't
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: like a theater person prior to this experience to jump
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: in and do that, uh.
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: To challenge myself to do something different, and to step
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: outside of my comfort zone.
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: That's one thing about me is.
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: That I'm always gonna, you know, try, thank you, to
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: try to challenge myself. But I also have found myself
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: in spaces where like my mentor who helps me and
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: do this show, like she is one of those people
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: who if she sees that you have a talent for something,
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: she's gonna stretch you outside of that comfort zone. So
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: I'm glad that I'm surrounded by people who will challenge me. Also,
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: even in the midst of me challenging myself because I'll
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: shy away from something really quickly be like, mmm, I
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: don't think I'm ready for that, and she's like, oh, no,
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: you're ready, and I need this by this particular day
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: and time.
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: And this is what we're gonna.
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: Do because we have an event that's coming up in
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: October and I'm gonna have to m see part of that.
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: I know. So that's gonna be interesting, to say the
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: least for me, because I'm.
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: Not sure it will be in Charleston, South Carolina. Yeah,
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: it's gonna be down here.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little bit of a I was gonna
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: invite myself to your event, but.
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: We're definitely going to make sure.
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: That it's gonna be online so people can, you know,
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: tune in as well, at least some parts of it,
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: at least so that you know everybody.
• 18:43
  Speaker 10: Who's so you can see me in another space outside
• 18:51
  Speaker 10: of this podcast, which I'm looking forward to doing that
• 18:55
  Speaker 10: and being excited about.
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: That for this summer.
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: How has all of your because I saw where you
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: took that trip.
• 19:05
  Speaker 7: How was the trip to New England because you had
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: a daughter with you?
• 19:12
  Speaker 11: Yeah, so I went on my own, my wife and
• 19:14
  Speaker 11: daughter and dog. They all stayed back home in Maryland.
• 19:17
  Speaker 11: I took a flight with my guitar and hard case
• 19:21
  Speaker 11: out to Boston.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Wonderful. I mean for all of you listening and what
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: or watching. If you're a creative person or an aspiring
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: creative person, if you have a little bit of extra
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: money saved up, you know, retreats are not free, right
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Often depending on you can choose to to pray, to
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: pay a pretty penny if you want. My mother in
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: law by this is relevant, I swear retired author. At
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: the height of her fame, she was rather prominent and
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: was invited to be the featured author at the Spiletto
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Arts Festival as Italy. So fifteen years running, including a
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: couple of years early in my relationship with my wife.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: I sort of caught the tail end of this. But
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: for fifteen years she got flown out to Italy. Oh. Now,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: there's no such thing as a free Italy trip. She
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: was working as the writing instructor from around the world
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: who wanted to like work on their writing in a
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: pretty place. You pay a lot of money to like
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: go to Spiletto, Italy and work with the writer. But
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: she worked with people some of whom were very impressive,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: and some of whom were like very eager. I'll tell
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: you it's a it's a similar range for the retreat
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: that I went to. There's some who are literally professional
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: musicians who have an album or two that they've done
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: the touring thing in the Jewish world primarily. And then
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: there's some who are just you know, regular people and
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: they write some songs year and they sort of take
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: out this creative thing when they do it with their
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: friends in New England. So I would say I'm somewhere
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: in between because I'm still, you know, in terms of
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: how do i make my living, I'm still gainfully employed
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: as a music teacher. That's that's the main way they
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: rent and pay for food.
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: And well, that's definitely a plus.
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: What's on your agenda for your students this year?
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Great question. Let's see, So this is coming up is
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: going to be year three for me at this job.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: So that's nice because at this point I'm pretty well
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: established within the school community and I know the majority
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: of my students. I teach for general music, so all
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: of the kids in first, second, third and fourth grade
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: will know me as their teacher, and the kids in second, third,
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: and fourth grade will know me for two or more years. Yeah,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: but that so that helps knowing the children having a relationship.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: We do a lot of singing, and so every summer
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: I'm always thinking about new songs or new old songs
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: I want to introduce. You know, a lot of this
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: stuff is kind of the I'm gonna call it with
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: without dispara in a semi disparaging way, a hippie dippy
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: kind of say, sweat your arms rappertoire. Not so bad
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: a lot of the stuff. I mean, look, I work
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: at a Quaker school, so songs that emphasize themes of
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: peace and friendship community we like to do as part
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: of our musical culture. So luckily, tons of great songs
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: have been written about being a good friend and being
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: in COMMUNI So like last year I taught stand by Me,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: this year, I'll teach lean on Me, and you know,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: working my way through a lot of great sixties and
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: seventies hits and plenty more. Let's see. I also at
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: the school run the after school musical instruments program, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: that's been growing year by year. So next year or
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: in September, it's not next year, it's coming up in
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: a Yeah, it's coming up soon. We're introducing it's a
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Ka in school. When I started the instruments program, it
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: was just for fourth through eighth graders. In year two
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: I added a little kid's version for second, third, and fourth.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: This year I'm adding Music Explorers for kindergarten, first, and second.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: So now any kid in the school k to eight,
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: if they sign up with their grown up, they can
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: do an after school music experience. So I'm proud of
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: building up that program nicely. And yeah part of that, Trevida.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: That's a real joy for me. As an organizer of
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: the program. I get to hire the music teachers, a
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: lot of whom are music majors, undergrads and graduates from
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: nearby University of Maryland. So I hire those kids, I
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: mean they're in their twenties, and then teach them a
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: little bit kids see you and me, right, Yeah, a
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: little bit about how to teach a music lesson.
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: They look at us as the old old folks now
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: the younger kids.
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: But we're still young at heart and very.
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: In the know in some senses and some we're just
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: way just not even quite there.
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: At least that's what my kids tell me.
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: That I'm you know, kind of lame in certain areas
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: that I know.
• 24:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so I.
• 24:59
  Speaker 9: How old, Trevitah, my oldest just turned twenty eight.
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: Oh my is twenty four, and my youngest is twenty
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: one and he'll be twenty two next month.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: So yeah, you look amazing and you must have started
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: early or both.
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: Well, thank you.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: My kid's thirteen, and so I'm like in the thick
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: of it where some days she's nice and some days
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: not so nice.
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: I know.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Actually, my wife and daughter are at Sleepway Camp that's
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: a big thing in the Jewish community. Okay, works there,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: as they call her camper support, So she's got walkie talkie.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: If a kid's like be fighting with someone, you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: she comes in and okay matter. And by doing that
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: work and being on call essentially for seven days a
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: week for three weeks running, oh, she earns a scholarship
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: for a daughter because some er expects. So yeah, a
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: lot of her earning that. And while I'm at home,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: you know, referencing your earlier joke trying to remember to
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: wear pants every day. Yeah, yeah, whether whether there's video
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: on the call or not, I'm trying to remember pants
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: every day.
• 26:22
  Speaker 7: Something covering the bottom half at least.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: You know, and no one needs to see that, at
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: least not without consent.
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: Now, the next question I have, how does it feel
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: to have the smaller kids want to learn how to
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: play an instrument?
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: Because I know they're very eager.
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: To learn something new because I have grandkids and my
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: granddaughter she is always wanting to learn something all the time,
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: and anything that I.
• 26:56
  Speaker 7: Show her once because she tries to. I told her,
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: and she was probably she is a year old.
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: And I told her when she was about yeah one,
• 27:08
  Speaker 6: and I told her, I said, you're gonna be my
• 27:12
  Speaker 6: secretary for my business. And she has basically understood what
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: I said. So anytime I pull out my laptop or anything,
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: she thinks that it's time to type. So the other night,
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: I had my laptop on the bed, she had her
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: notebook paper and her pen, and she had the laptop open,
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: so she just knew what she was just putting. I
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: was like, she's prepared, Yes, she's ready. So tonight she's
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: been trying to come in here to see what I've
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: had going on because she wants to be part of everything.
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: And I told her, I said, you're gonna make your debut.
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: We're gonna I'm just gonna do one show where it's
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: just her and I because I don't know half the
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: time what she wants to talk about. But she has
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: a very extensive vocabulary to be just a year old.
• 28:06
  Speaker 6: And I think she thinks she knows my job better
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: than I do.
• 28:11
  Speaker 7: Half the time, because she's consistently.
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: No no, no, no, no, no no no.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: So, first of all, your granddaughter sounds like a hoot,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: sounds like you got your hands full, sounds like it's
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: a lot of fun. So I'm jealous for all of that.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: You're asking me about teaching little ones instruments. Yeah, so
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you like a big picture, and then I'll
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: try to offer some news you can use for the
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: listeners and the viewers who have kids at home. A
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: big picture. It's a joy to oversee the program because
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: you know, we are a small enough school that when
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: you launch a little program, it feels like it makes
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: waves in the school. You think about a typical public
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: school where I live in suburban DC, Maryland, a big
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: middle school like my daughter's in public school. Her middle
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: school is like six hundred kids, which is typical for
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: three grades. There's some that are bigger, so two to
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: three hundred children per grade. That's a lot of kids. Now,
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: for better or worse, that's typical. One of the upsides
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: is you get an arts program with a lot more
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: warm bodies, and therefore you can have in one building
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: a true orchestra meaning strings, a concert band, brass and woodmands,
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: and then a chorus sometimes multiple choruses depending. That's the
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: case in my daughter's school, and it's a great music program.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: We're very happy with all that at a small friends
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: school where we are two hundred and fifty children K
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: to eight. Small school that's like most classes her twelve children,
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: fourteen children, sixteen children. Yes, you pay a lot of
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: money for the privilege of a school that that's nice.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: But one of the downsides of a school that's small
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: is putting together programs that require a lot of kids
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: is tricky. So like I have a colleague who runs
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: the frisbee team. That's been tricky for her to launch
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: a team because she doesn't have a lot of players.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: So she really you know, it's slimpick.
• 30:32
  Speaker 7: You got to get the people, okay, exactly.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: You listened over the two years so far and now
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: thinking in the future. The very first you should know
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: that this program I was asked to build up. It
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: was to kind of reconstitute something that had fallen apart
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: during COVID. My predecessor was a retired woman. She hired
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: a lot of other retired band teachers who were great teachers,
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: but they did not want to risk their health to
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: come into school and they did not want to teach
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: on the computer. So all of a sudden, this whole
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: robust band program fell apart and it went from quite
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, at its height, I think it was over
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: one hundred children out of two hundred and fifty kids.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: That's a big, big program. So it was down to
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: the thing. And when they hired me, they said, Ben,
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: basically I needed a little more job. The main job
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: was three quarters and I said I need this one
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: hundred percent full time job. They said, well, can you
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: run a band program. I'm like, okay, sure, you know,
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: because I can, I can do stuff. Yeah, I don't
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: play most of the instruments. However, what I've discovered is
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of the stuff. Our most successful offerings have
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: been keyboard to a lesser extent. Voice, Ukulele's been big,
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: Guitar has been big and then lesson less so banned instruments.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: We've had some saxophone and trumpet, kids, woodwinds.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: But you know it's it's little. It's two and three
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: kids at a time.
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: And now it starts, but it'll grow.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: And like I then earlier next year we're gonna have
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: the little kid class. And I'll tell you the little
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: kid classes that we offered this year, ukulele, voice, drums, piano.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: They all filled up like this, okay to the little kids.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: They sign up their kids, the middle schoolers, they're like, no, mom,
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: it's not.
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's not cold at that point, but it's not
• 32:43
  Speaker 6: cold at that point.
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: Middle school is like.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: I'm gotta have first, yeah, drivita.
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: Yeah, they gotta have a friend that does it first.
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: And it's like if you do it, I'll do it.
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: And now I'm not going to do it, So then
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: now I'm not gonna do it. But it has to
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: be one friend that invites the other friend that invites
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: the next friend. So that's how it works, because that's
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: how my daughter was when she started in the band.
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: She plays the flute, and so when she got ready.
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: To go into middle school, of course it was Mom,
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: I want to play the flute. I want to do this,
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: And I'm like, are you sure you're going to keep
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: up with this? Because you start so many things and
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: then you're like, I'm bored with this, let's try something else.
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: So she did up until high school. Now, when high
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: school came, she yeah, But when high school came, she's like, yeah,
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: I don't want to do this anymore. I was like, well,
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: I still got to get my money's worth out of
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: this flute.
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: So we're gonna play for the orchestra at church.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: So you did that before.
• 33:59
  Speaker 7: Yeah, she did that for about three years.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: Good for her. Well, yeah, I'll say it's fun to
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: get the kids going. And you know, I'm a little
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: bit of a builder, so building up the program doing
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: this year, I added this thing called mini recitals, where
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: we're doing, as the name would imply, a small recital
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: at the end of each quarter. And the kids are
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: cute as can be, you know, second and third graders
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: on piano playing. You know, Mary had a little there,
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: but some aer better, Like we had this one kid
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: who was a real phenom, a former high level competitive
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: piano player. Okay, not on the piano. The kids in
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: the room were like what and they all it was
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: like a fourth grader, shy Chinese kid who was new
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: to the school. So this is like a secret superpower.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: And when he did this, his name is twen. And
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: when we did all the after school kids swarmed him
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: and they're like, oh my god. It was so it
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: was so sweet and this kid is so reserved and
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: kind of quiet about everything. I'll never forget this, Like
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: as a music teacher, it's like a top five memory.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: And what was so lovely. It actually didn't have very
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: much to do with me. Like a lot of my
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: music teacher memories, I'm up front, playing my guitar, waving
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: my hands, conducting. In this case, it was giving this
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: young man a chance to shine what he needed. Unlike
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: the other kids who are doing very simple stuff. He
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: was kind of recovering from a little bit of let's
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: call it, high stakes piano trauma. That was not good
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: for him. These kids were doing the concertos at age six, seven,
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: eight in high stakes competitions. It's punishing. And I had
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: given him a pep talk and I was like, sh went,
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: all you got to do in piano here at FCS,
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: have some fun man, Yeah, stuff, it's a little easier
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: than you used to do. You'll practice, you get a
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: chance to play for your friends. Does that sound okay?
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: And he's like, okay, yeah. Changing from like professional bound
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: piano player piano for joy has been wonderful. I'd love
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: to see he gets a little older, maybe accompanying other
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: kids in school, like duets and trios, that kind of stuff.
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: I see him so, yeah, I definitely see that coming
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: for him, because you know who.
• 36:37
  Speaker 7: I feel like when kids are.
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: Exceptional in certain areas, we as parents.
• 36:44
  Speaker 7: Tend to over.
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: Put them out in a more broader situation than they're
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: prepared for. And then when they are with their peers,
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: they don't want to seem like, you know, they know
• 36:59
  Speaker 6: so much. They're very reserved, and so when their friends
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: get really excited over something that they themselves can't do,
• 37:07
  Speaker 6: it's like, okay, well I can do this, but this
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: is easy for me, and well let me show you how.
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: Most kids will gravitate to their friends and be like, well,
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: let me show you how to do this because it's
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: not so hard, you know, and then they encourage someone else.
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: And I think that's the great part.
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: And I think sometimes we as parents, when our kids
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: are exceptional in some things, we want to just keep
• 37:30
  Speaker 6: pushing them out there and forget that they're kids and
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: they love to just have fun.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, as you mentioned that, I'm thinking about
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: my own daughter. I mentioned in passing. She's thirteen and
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: a very talented and vocalist, and we kind of went
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: through a thing with her where she had been in
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: voice lessons for a while, first as one teacher during
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: COVID it was kind of a not a great man.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: And then she asked to try again with lessons with
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: her her former teacher. So I think it was mostly
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: about wanting to be with this adult she admires right hers.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: So the former chorus teacher, I believe is a fabulous
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: voice teacher and well suited to teach kids lessons. But
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: here's the thing. Our daughter, unbeknownst to us, was like,
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: really she was motivated all about being with the cool teacher. Cool,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: but she was not to work. Like with instruments, maybe
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: it's obvious that you have to pick up the instrument
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: at work and work at it because like you know what,
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: the flu for instance, you literally don't sound. It makes
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: me sound. The parents love it the first few weeks,
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: but you know, voice it's a myth that because everyone
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: can sing that it's easy. Yes, the trick is that
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: starting is easy. It's an Indian skill that humans are
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: born with the ability to sing. It's part of our
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: vocal expression, universal around the world, fantasy cultures and all
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: kinds of cultures. It doesn't matter. We all sing, it's
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: just part of us. But to sing well, to sing
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: in tune, to sing with expression, those are all skills. Yes,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: And what we came up against was I want to
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: say this real gently in case she sees this episode.
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: I don't think she will, but just in case you're watching, Dahlia, Yes,
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: we're a very talented young woman as a singer. But
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: to become more than just a good singer, but to
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: become a very good and a great singer, you got
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: to put in some more work. Yeah, that when you're ready. Yes, yes,
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: you heard from the teacher. Is she was showing up
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: the lessons and she just wanted to to hang out,
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: hang out exactly. She wanted to talk to the teacher
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: and she wasn't doing any practice in between. And we
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: were paying good money, you know, voice lessons ain't cheap.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: We were ready to pull the plug and then one day,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: we got an email from the teacher who basically uninvited
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: her from the studio and we're like, thank you. It
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: was a little embarrassing to get this message. But honestly, Trevita,
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: she she kind of saved us some trouble. Yeah, because
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: we were like, look, told her, you can't be in
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: the studio in anymore because you're messing around too much,
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: you're not working.
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and minute, I think that's a hard lesson that
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: our kids need to learn.
• 40:49
  Speaker 7: Because my boys, when they.
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: Were playing football, like I would always tell them, Okay,
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: you have to do your conditioning, you have to do this.
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: If you don't do this, and then I was grateful
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: for their coaches because their coaches would not let them
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: play if their grades did not were not up to part,
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: they could not have a seed. And if they had
• 41:14
  Speaker 6: a seed, they had to sit the next game out.
• 41:16
  Speaker 6: Didn't matter if they went hard in practice or anything
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: like that. And even when they would do their six
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: weeks progress reports, they had to take them to their
• 41:26
  Speaker 6: coaches as well, not just the parents. They had to
• 41:29
  Speaker 6: take it to their coaches because their coaches is like,
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: I'm not taking your work for it. I need to
• 41:33
  Speaker 6: see it, and so when my boys would have to
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: sit out, they were like, Okay, I want to play.
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: So I got to actually put in the work not
• 41:42
  Speaker 6: only on the field and during practice, I got to
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: do it in school as well. So I think that
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: was one of the things that helped me with my boys,
• 41:53
  Speaker 6: at least, to make sure that they were accountable for
• 41:56
  Speaker 6: what they wanted to do. You're not just gonna just
• 41:58
  Speaker 6: because you're good at it, doesn't you still have to
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: put in the work.
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: To stay that way, because there's.
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: Definitely gonna be somebody better. But you can't complain when
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: that next person is over you because you didn't.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: Do the work right. So, so you said a couple
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: of things there that I think are spot on. First
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: of all, kudos to the coach and every coach out there,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: because say what you will about school sports, it's certainly
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: for a lot of people, especially a lot of our
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: young men, it's like the main carrot keeping them in
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: school and keeping them motivated to work. So hooray for
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: all the coaches keeping our kids focused in that way.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: You know, the thing that that you said about being
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: good is not enough, right, I've been through that for
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: me in my life as a vocalist because there's a
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: ton of singers, and you know, there's slightly fewer talented
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: male singers, but at a high level like that, gender
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: difference falls away. It doesn't matter anymore. But I'll tell
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: you this, like again and again, I'm amazed at the
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: high level of talent and output of musicians and actors
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: around here. I'm talking like community theater. I'm talking community
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: concerts and things that are happening, Like there's just so
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: many wildly talented people around. And always when I'm seeing
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: these shows, whether it's community theater, professional regional theater, I
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: always turned to my wife and we're like, where the
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: heck do all these people come from? And you know,
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: you look at the bios and what it is, a
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: lot of them went to school for this stuff, especially
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: high flyers. But I mean in community theater, this is
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: sort of the sad piece of it. There's some people
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: who went all the way to get the BFA even
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: the MFA, and the still do av theater and they're working,
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: you know, as a bureaucrat by day. God bless bureaucrats
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: as long as we still have them. But yeah, there's
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: a lot of really so I mentioned them, not to
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: bemoan the fact that they're not getting their Broadway role,
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: but just that there's a ton of people with amazing
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: levels of talent who aren't even doing professional so just
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: to be a principal in the local community theater, like
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: I'm technically speaking a professional level vocalist. I have Masters
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: plus for music and I sing quite well. I made
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: it to the callbacks, but I did not get a
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: principal role. When I auditioned at the community theater, I
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: was standing in the background like ensemble man number three
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: and as a talentsperson. In one scene, this is Cinderella,
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: and you know, I had fancy clothes at the ball,
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: so I got to do some that was fun. And
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: then there's another scene a slightly different townsperson. Okay, you
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: knew it was a different day, I guess, but like
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: I just, I was having so much fun and it
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: was totally okay that I didn't get the big part.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: But I also accepted going into it like I might
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: not get the main thing. I was happy to get
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: called back and that felt nice and all that. I
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: mentioned it because I think to my elementary school kids
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: who hear me sing and know that I'm quote a
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: professional singer, and I can do some to that things.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: You know, I love to sing and so forth, Like
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: they can't do that stuff. So they're like they kind
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: of think you can do anything, and if you want
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: to go to the theater down the street, you will
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: be the star. And it's like, actually, that's not how
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: it works, right, I did. She might be the she
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: she keeps getting big roles on stage in middle school,
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: in high school, it's going to be more competitive.
• 46:00
  Speaker 7: Mm hmmm.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: And that's maybe she uh she says, Oh crap, I
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: gotta start gotta start working.
• 46:09
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we're not.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: We're not signs like it's fun to just be part
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: of the scene and stand in the background and sway.
• 46:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, see that was that's okay.
• 46:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I was happy to be in the bag.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: But don't tell me you want to be the superstar
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: up front and then also tell me you don't want
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: to work.
• 46:32
  Speaker 7: At it, right right, I agree with that.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: Speaking of what talent coming up?
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, what do you have coming up? So that we
• 46:46
  Speaker 6: can keep in touch?
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, I'm very proud to say that Life
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: Review got accepted to charm City Fringe. So that's the
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: fringe festival that happens in Baltimore City. That's my nearest
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: big city. Okay, so this will be my second fringe
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: festival appearance. I did Asheville, North Carolina, not far from you. No, no,
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: So a fringe festival is like a kind of a
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: a theater and performing arts festival where weird and wonderful
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: gets a chance to be on stage. It was invented
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: by in Edinburgh, Scotland. There's the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: So basically, wacky theater people were coming up with plays
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: that the government cultural authorities thought were too strange to fund. Okay,
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: I have money to give out to plays, but they're like, no,
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: this is too weird, we won't fund it. And they said,
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: this is sort of like the rise of counterculture late sixties,
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: early seventies. They're like, this isn't fair that you only
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: give money to people who were going to put on
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: Shakespeare again and again and again. Why can't you fund
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: the new stuff and the weird stuff, because that's part
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: of what art is. Too right, if we're too fringe
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: for you to fund, we'll make our own festival. So
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: thus were born originally in Edinburgh, Scotland, and now in
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: cities all over the world. So if you're a theater
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: and music fan, look up Fringe festival near me, or
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: look up your local city and then Fringe. There's probably
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: nearly every big city has one. You might have been
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: living in your city and never even heard of it
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: because you know it's a little under the radar. So yeah,
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: plice to have a new musical like mine. I have
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: a one man version of the show, so I sing
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: eight of my songs with narration in between. That kind
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: of tells the story of the play from beginning to end.
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: So I'll be presenting it, I believe, five or six
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: times at the festival at one of their venues. That's
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: happening in late September early October. I have a few
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: shows coming up, one at my local synagogue, one at
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: my parents synagogue in the Hudson River Valley, and I'm
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: trying to keep making connections people with people. I mentioned
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: that Songwriter Retreat, so a lot of the individuals at
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: the retreat are part of synagogue communities all over, some
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: of whom do cultural events. So there's some possibilities that
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: I may do some additional touring to visit different synagogue
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: communities and then the other thing is, I mean, the
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: big dream for the show, of course, is to stand
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: it up, to use the theater parlance on stage and
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: present it to the public. So I'm going to keep
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: going out there sharing my work however I can. And
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: just to give an example of this, last night, I
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: went to a thing called the Baltimore Playwrights Brew. Did
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: you miss him singing? Not yet, Latanya, but you got
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: in anyway. It was basically I'm always glad, I'm I'm
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: happy to oblige. Basically it was like an open mic,
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: but for playwrights. So people had little sections of new plays,
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: and people did cold reads, meaning they like got the
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: script on their phone and just read it on the microphone.
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: It's cool and people are all like very enthusiastic, cheering
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: each other on. So I did a couple of my
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: songs and then a woman came up to me and
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: she's like, I work at a theater and and like
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: now we expected Instagram information, And I'm following up and
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping that they might feature me in their salon
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: series where they do new works and they do readings.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: So the point of my story is not necessarily that
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: I'm going to definitely be in the Salon series, but
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: rather that I have this little play, this creative thing
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: that I want to share with the world. So I'm
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: gonna keep going out there. I'm gonna go to open mics,
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna go to playwright shares, I'm gonna go to
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: songwriting retreats, I'm gonna ride to festivals and keep sharing
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: this thing because I never know who's gonna be in
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: the audience, exactly the last time I was on your show.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: I don't know who's watching, but I'm sure there's some
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: theater lovers out there, some actors and singers and producers
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: of course. So if you love theater and you want
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: to check out the website, it's life review Musical dot com.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: And I'm also active on Instagram at life Review Musical.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: And I understand you wanted me to sing you a song.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: We got a minute for a song, triviuta, What do
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: you think?
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah, we got a minute or two for a song.
• 51:58
  Speaker 6: But before you start your song on, while you get
• 52:00
  Speaker 6: your guitar and everything, I will say my clothing line
• 52:03
  Speaker 6: and you're gonna take us out. But you guys, you know,
• 52:06
  Speaker 6: I am grateful that Benjamin came back tonight to talk
• 52:10
  Speaker 6: to us. As always, he is a lot of fun.
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: He's hilarious and we gotta have him back, so he'll
• 52:16
  Speaker 6: definitely you'll see him again. But you know, as I always.
• 52:23
  Speaker 7: To stay out, to stay out of guys business.
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: The only thing he needs you to do is be
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: obedient to what he's caught you to do.
• 52:31
  Speaker 7: And Benjamin is gonna take us out with a song.
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: He is not considered good podcast etiquette to do a
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: silly visual gag while the host is engaged in prayer.
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: And I'm chaplain so I should know better. I'm gonna
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: slap my rest a few times. By the way, when
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: it's young key poor, which is like the Jewish day
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: of for guilt and apologies, we do the self flagellation
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: where we beat the breast. So Trevita, I'm I'm beating
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: the breast for a fit during prayer. But it's funny anyway, Okay, cool,
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: it was.
• 53:14
  Speaker 7: It wasn't my prayer.
• 53:16
  Speaker 6: It's just my tagline that I say before we go out,
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: and that.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: Prayer it was like a prayerful intention.
• 53:23
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so you're good, But what song are you gonna say?
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: So I'll do the funny one because we're all laughing.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: So here's the opening number from the show, and I'm
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: gonna rock at acapella because my piano players out back
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: smoking a cigarette, so not to mention the piano is
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: terribly out of tude. So two reasons. So the opening
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: number is called spoiler alert. It's from the Musical Life Review,
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: and it's meant to set the table for our audience,
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: to let them know they're in for a ride. I'm
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: gonna Oh, shoot, I kicked something and I messed up
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: the lighting. Don't do that. There we go, Let there
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: be light. We're back. Okay, I'm gonna stand out. You
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: vocalists out there. You know it's easier to sing and
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: you stand. Can you still hear me? Is the Vike
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: Mike picking me up? Good? Yes, hot pants? There we go.
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: We don't mean to be a bummer, but we've got
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: some awful news. It gets colder after summer, and even
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: winners lose. Robert Frock composed on one fine day in
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: a most poetic way. He wrote, nothing God can stand.
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: That's what he said. And now he's dead because spoiler
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: alert to everybody dies in the end.
• 55:00
  Speaker 12: Sorry to ruin the play. My friend love him or
• 55:04
  Speaker 12: hate him. This cannot end. Everybody dies in the end.
• 55:09
  Speaker 12: We all go when we gotta go. You hear every
• 55:13
  Speaker 12: single person. You know, my dear neighborly ned who.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: You just despise, trustorthy friend, the guy who lies, Holy
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: sister Neverson in her life, your father, your mother, your
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: husband or wife, the hero in the villain of each
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: shall tell the sealer who battle a full for scale
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: spier boot. Everybody dies in the end. Sorry to ruin
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: the play, my friend, love him or hate him, this
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: cannot bed. Everybody dies in the end. It's the truth, Ruth.
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: It's bad, Flad, it ain't pretty, kiddy, but it's real, Camille.
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: It's coming for all of ours, no matter how you feel,
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: no matter your name or country or game, it's the same.
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: It's the same thumb man who's kind and noble and smart,
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: the woman who woke the world with her art, the
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: boy who lived with the baboon art. We all leave
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: the stage when we're done with that part. Oh, the
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: curtain is up. We will do our thing. We hope
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: you don't cry every time we sing. Whether you're married
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: or you got no ring. The lowliest pauper, the loftiest king.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: We all gotta die. We all gotta die. Just sing
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: sing essing, just sing cake line. Everybody dies in the end.
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: Sorry to ruin the play, my friend, love Merhtam.
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: This cannot band.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Everybody, everybody, everybody. Everybody dies in the end. Everybody dies
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: in the end.
• 57:01
  Speaker 6: Love you, thank you, and until next time you guys,
• 57:06
  Speaker 6: we will see you in two weeks.
• 57:11
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 57:18
  Speaker 8: Queen the sweet sweete sweete
• 57:33
  Speaker 5: No